RTHK: Asian flights hit by Russia airspace ban Air France and Finnair have announced that they're suspending all flights between Europe and China, Korea and Japan as they study ways to avoid Russian airspace in expectation that Moscow will ban European flights. European nations and Canada moved on Sunday to shut their airspace to Russian aircraft, an unprecedented step aimed at pressuring President Vladimir Putin to end his incursion into Ukraine. The United States is considering similar action, but has yet to make a final decision, according to US officials. The US government said citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately on commercial flights, citing an increasing number of airlines cancelling flights as countries closed their airspace to Russia. Air France-KLM said it is suspending flights to and from Russia as well as the overflight of Russian airspace until further notice as of Sunday. The closure of European airspace to Russian airlines and vice versa had immediate impacts on global aviation. Air France said it was temporarily suspending flights to and from China, Korea and Japan, while it studied flight plan options to avoid Russian airspace. Finnair said it would cancel flights to Russia, Japan, South Korea and China through March 6 as it avoided Russian airspace, though flights to Singapore, Thailand and India would continue with an added hour of flight time. Air France suspended its Hong Kong-Paris route in December after SAR authorities banned flights from France because of the Covid situation. Finnair cancelled Hong Kong flights until the end of March because of the Covid situation. If US airlines were barred from Russian airspace, it would lengthen some international flights and some would likely be forced to refuel in Anchorage, industry sources told Reuters. The flights that could be impacted include US flights to India, China, Japan and Korea, the sources said. (RTHK/Reuters) This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hong Kong: HK can ride out the storm: CE Chief Executive Carrie Lam Dear fellow citizens, Last week, Hong Kong recorded a total of some 117,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Since the onset of the current wave of the epidemic on December 30 last year, the accumulative total has surged to over 158,000, which is an alarming 12 times more than all confirmed cases recorded in the past two years. As we have seen, this highly transmissible Omicron variant has been ravaging the whole world, leading to an exponential growth in infections. In the face of such an unprecedented and challenging epidemic situation, I am grateful to the people of Hong Kong for staying calm, complying with our various anti-epidemic measures, undergoing compulsory testing in an orderly manner, working from home and going out less. The low people flow in the city over the recent past weekends is testimony to the unity of you all in fighting the epidemic. Hong Kong has been strictly implementing the strategy of preventing the importation of cases and controlling the spread of the virus in the community and endeavouring to contain the virus by a multipronged approach, comprising early identification, early isolation and early treatment of the infected in pursuit of dynamic zero infection. To tackle the fifth wave of the epidemic, my Government has been putting in substantial resources to enhance our capacity on various fronts, yet the rapid deterioration of the epidemic has sadly outgrown our existing capacity. At this critical juncture, as the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, I have submitted a report to the central government appealing for national support and outlining specific requests. The central government is deeply concerned about the epidemic situation of Hong Kong and the well-being of the Hong Kong people. Our requests have been promptly met with a positive response, with all relevant parties in the Mainland mobilised and co-ordinated in addressing the needs of Hong Kong. More and more support measures are being rolled out, including sending to us three batches of experts in epidemiology and critical care medicine, mobile testing vehicles, testing technicians and nucleic acid testing personnel; commissioning Mainland construction teams to construct community isolation and treatment facilities in the Lok Ma Chau Loop area and at eight other locations in Hong Kong; ensuring medical supplies, donating to us anti-epidemic Chinese medicines, and ensuring supplies of fresh food and daily necessities. As always, the central government provides us with strong backing and unwavering support, and with this, the Hong Kong SAR Government will steadfastly act in accordance with the important instruction of President Xi Jinping: we will assume the primary responsibility to stabilise the epidemic situation early and treat this as the overriding mission at present; we will mobilise all available manpower and resources and adopt all necessary measures to safeguard the lives and health of Hong Kong people and the stability of society. Fellow citizens, the coming two to three months are crucial to controlling the epidemic. I announced on February 22 to step up our anti-epidemic efforts in five aspects. First, to ensure early identification and early isolation, the Government is distributing more rapid antigen test kits for wider use in the community so that members of the public could know early whether they or their family members have been infected. We will also conduct more restriction-testing declaration operations targeting higher-risk buildings. Meanwhile, we are refining the details of compulsory universal testing to be launched within March in order to cut virus transmission chains in a thorough, speedy, orderly and effective manner. For those residents who have tested positive, given the huge number of cases, the Government will adopt a triage measure by arranging for patients admission to community isolation facilities or hospitals according to their health conditions, living environment, their household family members and other factors, and will render special assistance to those citizens still at home pending admission to isolation facilities or undergoing home isolation. These include a hotline for health enquiries, designated clinics for consultations by booking and transport services by designated taxis. Meanwhile, the Government is pressing ahead at full steam to provide more community isolation facilities. In addition to the existing isolation facilities at Pennys Bay and Lei Yue Mun Park & Holiday Village, extra community isolation and treatment facilities which will come into operation in phases include those from three converted unoccupied buildings in the public housing estates and two sizeable transitional housing projects, rented commercial hotels as well as those constructed at eight sites and in the Lok Ma Chau Loop area. It is expected that a total of over 70,000 units or beds will be provided. The first such facility in Tsing Yi has been completed in a weeks time for handover on February 28. Second, we must adopt a targeted approach to reduce severe cases and deaths. When compared with other strains, infection with Omicron shows milder symptoms, and hospitals should be reserved for those confirmed cases that are severe or require treatment. To enhance Hong Kongs treatment capability, the central government has assigned a Mainland construction team to build a hospital for contingency use in the Lok Ma Chau Loop area. Third, we have to continue with the strict border control measures such as the place-specific flight suspension in order to prevent imported cases from posing additional pressure on our healthcare system at this crucial juncture. Fourth, tightened social distancing measures have to be in place to significantly reduce people flow and prevent the spread. Fifth, we need to raise the vaccination rate, especially among the elderly and children. Fellow citizens, my Government will continue to mobilise all available manpower and resources and adopt all necessary measures to fight the epidemic, but to win this fight, the support from each and every one of you is the key to success. With your full co-operation, I am sure our efforts will achieve much greater effects, our limited resources will go much further and we will be in one spirit to fight this epidemic. May I once again strongly appeal to you all to observe the following: first, to pay more attention to personal hygiene to reduce the risk of infection. If you have doubt about your health conditions, you should take a rapid test as soon as possible for early identification of infection, if any, to protect your family members; second, to continue to comply with social distancing measures, avoid going out unnecessarily and joining gatherings, and discuss the rest day arrangement with your foreign domestic helpers employed and appeal to them to stay home; third, to observe the requirements of restriction-testing declarations and the soon-to-be-launched compulsory universal testing to undergo testing in a timely manner; fourth, to get the jab as soon as possible and arrange vaccination for your elderly and children family members; and fifth, if you are confirmed and have only mild or no symptoms, you should comply with the health authoritys triage and isolation arrangements so that the valuable ambulance and hospital treatment services can be reserved for those with greater needs. Fellow citizens, Hong Kong is a city we all love. She has encountered innumerable challenges and conquered countless difficulties with immense resilience, while retaining tremendous strengths. We are now faced with a merciless epidemic and critical situation; but with the staunch support of our country, I have no doubt that Hong Kong will be able to ride out the storm again and win this battle, so that our people could resume their normal lives. Chief Executive Carrie Lam delivered this video speech to members of the public on the stabilisation of the fifth wave of the epidemic early on February 28. This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. HARRISBURG Independent investigations of deaths or injuries caused by Pennsylvania State Police would require a change to state law, the agency claims, rebuffing a recommendation by a state panel that would require an outside agency to investigate such cases. The Pennsylvania State Law Enforcement Citizen Advisory Commission called for the change in response to a 2016 incident in which state police shot a man in Beaver County after consulting with the local district attorney about whether the action would be legal. That same district attorney later ruled that the troopers actions were justified based on a state police investigation. State police said a legislative change would be needed to allow for external investigations. The current process ensures every officer involved shooting or other serious police incident involving a member is thoroughly investigated, both criminally and administratively, state police Commissioner Robert Evanchick wrote to the commission. Evanchick said the state police is one of the few agencies in Pennsylvania that is fully accredited to handle use-of-force incidents and helms most investigations when another police department in the state shoots someone. The advisory commission released its first three reports to the public earlier this month, proposing eight changes to policies and practices, most of which the agency agreed to modify or consider. Gov. Tom Wolf created the panel after the murder of George Floyd and authorized it to review incidents involving state-run police agencies after all criminal and civil cases are completed. The recommendations in the commissions reports cover use of force, bias-based policing, and critical incidents where someone is killed or seriously injured. Currently, if a trooper kills or injures someone, the state police assign troopers from another jurisdiction to conduct an investigation. Experts disagree with conclusion Police accountability experts say there is an inherent conflict of interest when a department involved in a shooting determines whether charges should be filed. State Sen. Art Haywood, D-Montgomery, who has long pushed for more police oversight, submitted a bill in January that would require police to hand fatal use-of-force investigations to other agencies. While his bill would formalize this process, he also believes state police could comply with the recommendation now. Im not the lawyer for the PSP and they may have a legal analysis thats consistent with their conclusion, but its not consistent with anything that I know, he said. Haywoods bill would change how police killings are investigated in several ways. It would require police to send criminal investigations of fatal use-of-force incidents to a district attorney instead of taking the cases themselves. After a completed investigation, the district attorney would release a report to the public and the state attorney general, who would review it further and potentially pursue prosecution. State law currently prohibits the attorney general from investigating use-of-force incidents in nearly all cases unless a district attorney requests assistance. Haywood said theres been no word whether his bill will get a hearing in the Senate Law and Justice Committee. Bruce McLanahan, chief of staff for Law and Justice Committee Chair Mike Regan, R-York, did not respond to requests for comment. We are working hard to get the district attorneys to support the legislation, Haywood said. I do think that the support of the district attorneys will go a long way to getting Law and Justice to advance the legislation. Context is stripped away The oversight committees public reports include general findings and proposed recommendations but omit details about the 2016 Beaver County shooting and other cases that led to the recommendations. The lack of context gives the public no perspective on what happened, said David Harris, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who studies police accountability. This is not just odd. Its not just a stylistic choice. The context is completely stripped away, so a person reading this would have no idea why the recommendations were made, whether they were right or wrong, urgent or not, he said. The citizen reading this has no idea where it came from and how to evaluate PSPs response. Jonathan Hendrickson, a spokesman for the Office of State Inspector General, said these narrative details were left out because they are outside of the commissions focus. The Commission is not designed to re-investigate or re-adjudicate an incident, but rather to review completed investigations and make policy and training recommendations to improve future policing practices, he wrote in an email to Spotlight PA. He also said leaving out case-specific details helps avoid accidental disclosure of information protected by state law. Still, many of the details excluded from the public report have been shared in publicly available meeting notes without identifying the citizens or troopers involved. An account of the 2016 Beaver County shooting, for instance, is included in the notes for an Aug. 31 subcommittee meeting. Similarly, an Aug. 13 subcommittee meeting detailed how a trooper struck a juvenile in handcuffs after the juvenile insulted a trooper, a 2018 incident captured in a widely viewed video. In response, the commissions report recommended that the state police amend its policies on use of force and the handling of juveniles, consider changes to its deescalation policies, and continue to add patrol car and body cameras. The department said it would clarify wording in its use-of force policy, update its policy on transporting juveniles and continue working through the state procurement process to purchase cameras. On Aug. 25, a subcommittee reviewed a May 2016 incident in which a man claimed he was arrested because he was Black and driving an Infiniti, what is considered a luxury vehicle. The man claimed police took more than $1,500 from him and threatened to hold him in jail over the weekend without seeing a judge if he mentioned anything about the money or said he was profiled. The man claimed that when police removed his handcuffs, he was warned not to try anything because the last guy whose handcuffs were removed had to be killed, according to the subcommittee meeting notes. When the man filed a complaint with the agency, he claimed troopers told him they wouldnt investigate the incident because he had charges pending against him in court. Based on the case, the commission recommended that the state police mandate full investigations of all bias-related complaints and that the agency make it clear that complaints can be filed once all charges have worked through the court system. In response, the agency said it would update its regulations on bias-based profiling and modify its notification letters to specify that complaints can be refiled once court proceedings are completed. Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with Penn-Live/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/ Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. THE ISSUE: Nearly six months into the school year, the majority of Pennsylvania schools have not opted into a free, on-site COVID-19 testing program provided by the state Health Department, Jamie Martines of Spotlight PA reported earlier this month. The failure of the state and schools to connect on greater use of the program comes despite the fact that Pennsylvania schools have been struggling to manage outbreaks among staff and students caused by the aggressive delta and omicron variants since the start of the school year, Martines noted. Spotlight PA is a nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer; its partners include LNP Media Group. Its disappointingly clear that this free program, designed by the state as a tool to help Pennsylvania schools remain open and protect their students and staff, has fallen short of its mission. Last October, early in the school year, we wrote an editorial urging more schools to take advantage of the program. At that point, Spotlight PAs Martines wrote then, only 60 of the states 500 public school districts were taking part in it. When Martines revisited his coverage for this months article, his more specific reporting indicated that while participation in the program has doubled since the fall, only 750 of the states more than 5,000 charter, private, and public schools enrolled as of Feb 16. Of that total, roughly half are actively testing, with others still in the onboarding process. Still onboarding? In February, after the surge of both COVID-19s delta and omicron variants? As the saying goes, thats closing the barn door after the horses have bolted. We know a clunker when we see one. This well-intended state program didnt do its job. What those charged with caring for the public health and Pennsylvanias schoolchildren must do now is pinpoint why this program failed and, crucially, what can be done to ensure that it succeeds the next time it will be needed. It is incumbent upon the state Department of Health, working with school officials, to determine whether this was a problem of communication, an overly complex testing process, partisan politics, lack of school personnel, or perhaps all of the above. To that end, Martines reporting offered some ideas about where the state Department of Health can focus its review. This one caught our attention: Edward Zelich, the superintendent of rural Charleroi Area School District in western Pennsylvania, told Spotlight PA that his staff was simply stretched too thin. I dont have the heart to say were going to add one more thing now, Zelich said. We can understand that. While this school year has seen most schools maintain near-regular in-person instruction, they are also struggling each week to fill personnel gaps across the board, from teachers and support staff to cafeteria workers and custodians. And school nurses are, frankly, overwhelmed. Zelich said it was impossible for him to ask his districts nurses to take on COVID-19 testing responsibilities. They already deal with COVID-19 contact tracing and quarantine schedules, regular health screenings, immunization records, doctors notes and daily bumps, scrapes and fevers. Their plates are so full, Zelich said. A different complicating factor is that the state Department of Health is trying to encourage schools to take advantage of this free testing in a politically charged atmosphere. The fights over mask-wearing, mask mandates and even in-school instruction versus virtual learning politicized the pandemic from the start much to the dismay of many. That means that even a beneficial health initiative is viewed by some through the lens of it being offered by the Democratic administration of Gov. Tom Wolf. Its a huge problem, and one we must overcome. We agree with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Editorial Board, which wrote about the free COVID-19 testing recently and lamented that partisan politics is a problem affecting our schools that is at least as toxic as a potentially deadly virus. It continued: If both sides could perhaps not bend, but be just a little less rigid, more kids could have access to testing. More families could have the option to utilize it. Thats our hope too, as futile as it may seem at times. We wish more schools would take advantage of the state-offered testing. But the discourse must change. We dont think it helped when state Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter, frustrated at the lack of participation in the program, said this when Spotlight PA asked why more schools arent signing up: I would ask you to go ask the schools why theyre not participating, why theyre not doing their part to protect kids and teachers. That kind of rhetoric wont boost participation or protect more kids. Frustration, partisan politics and staffing issues are among the real challenges that must be solved now, so that the next problem the one we dont see coming yet doesnt knock us out. We owe it to our communities, and most of all to our children, to work together and to be better prepared. Monday, February 28, 2022 Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a mass exodus from the nation. As previously reported on this blog, Poland, West of Ukraine, is bracing for evacuees. Thousands of Ukrainian refugees are fleeing to Moldova, where the government set up tents and vowed to keep its borders open for refugees. Renata Brito for the Associated Press offers interesting insights on the response to Ukrainian refugees. She reports that "[t]hey file into neighboring countries by the hundreds of thousands refugees from Ukraine clutching children in one arm, belongings in the other. And theyre being heartily welcomed, by leaders of countries like Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania. But while the hospitality has been applauded, it has also highlighted stark differences in treatment given to migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa, particularly Syrians who came in 2015. Some of the language from these leaders has been disturbing to them, and deeply hurtful. `These are not the refugees we are used to these people are Europeans,' Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told journalists earlier this week, of the Ukrainians. `These people are intelligent, they are educated people. ... This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists' `In other words,' he added, `there is not a single European country now which is afraid of the current wave of refugees.' Syrian journalist Okba Mohammad says that statement `mixes racism and Islamophobia.' (bold added). KJ https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2022/02/the-world-welcomes-ukrainian-refugees.html The South American nation of Chile has been experiencing a severe drought for the last 13 years. This extreme lack of water has led to fewer flowers and, as a result, fewer honeybees. Poisonous chemicals used to kill insects harmful to crops, called pesticides, also hurt bees. Beekeepers in Chile are concerned. Carlos Peralta and his brother Marco are beekeepers. In the central Chilean town of Colina, Carlos has seen the number of his honeybees decrease sharply. He said he has lost about 300 hives since the start of November 2021. A hive can hold tens of thousands of bees. Losing so many bees left Peralta with a difficult choice. He could keep his remaining 900 hives alive with manufactured nectar, or he could move the hives to a place where there are more flowers. If the bees die, we all die...The bee is life, Carlos said. He was describing the important job that bees have: to pollinate plants in the wild and for food growers. As a major exporter of fruit, successful pollination of fruit trees is important for Chile. So Carlos decided to move his beehives about 1,000 kilometers to the south, to a place called Puerto Montt. However, his brother Marco chose to stay in Colina with his bees rather than join Carlos in the south. Marco said he feared losing bees to pesticides if he moved. A expert on biodiversity for Latin America in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (or FAO) is Andres Gonzalez. He identified four problems that are reducing populations of pollinating insects: the use of pesticides and fertilizers the growing of only one crop in an area droughts caused partly by climate change and poor use of water These problems, in addition to parasites, have hurt bee populations around the world. An FAO study in 2018 found that Chiles imports of pesticides had grown by 460 percent over the previous 20 years. Beekeepers blame this increase for their losses. Chiles honey exports have dropped over the past four to five years. Carlos Peralta said, You enter an orchard with your bees and you dont know if youll come out with living bees or dead ones. His brother Marco has been feeding his bees with sugary water and other nutrients. However, this substitute for nectar leaves the bees unable to produce honey. The bees grow weak (with sugar water), said Mario Flores. He is a beekeeper in the southern town of Temuco. Teresa Sarmiento is president of a beekeepers association in Colina. She compared feeding bees sugar water to giving a sweet to a hungry child. Before the drought, beekeepers would use the substitute food during the winter months. But now they use it almost all year. Gonzalez of the FAO said the substitute food lacks protein the bees need to develop their bodies and nervous systems. It also leaves them at more risk of disease. Im Anna Matteo. Eva Vergara reported this story for the Associated Press from Santiago, Chile. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story drought n. an extreme lack of water in a place pesticide n. a chemical that is used to kill animals or insects that damage plants or crops hive n. a nest for bees nectar n. a sweet liquid produced by plants and used by bees in making honey pollinate v. to give a plant pollen, reproductive material, from another plant of the same kind so that seeds and fruit will be produced parasite n. an animal or plant that lives in or on another animal or plant and gets food or protection from it orchard n. a farm where people grow fruit trees biodiversity n. the existence of many different kinds of plants and animals in an environment Raqqa, the former capital of the Islamic State (IS) and home to about 300,000 people, is now free. Yet many of its people want to leave. Those with property are trying to sell it to save up for the journey to Turkey. Those without money struggle to get by. At least 3,000 people left Raqqa for Turkey in 2021, said the citys civil council co-chair Mohammed Nour. In some ways, the citys recovery from IS rule is clear. Cafes and restaurants are full of people. Kurdish-led forces stand guard on major streets. But poverty is widespread. People line up for basics such as bread. Unemployed young men sit around. Water and electricity are limited. Many live among bombed-out ruins. Local officials say at least 30 percent of the city is destroyed. Poverty and unemployment drive young men into the arms of IS. Kurdish investigators say new IS recruits captured last month had been drawn in by money. At the same time, the Kurdish-led city government received applications from 27,000 job seekers last year, but had no jobs. Milhem Daher, a 35-year-old engineer, is in the process of selling his home, businesses and properties to pay a smuggler to take him and his family of eight to Turkey, a key route for Syrians trying to get to Europe. He plans to leave as soon as he has enough money. Daher survived Raqqas recent violent history, including the beginning of Syrias civil war in 2011, and the 2014 takeover by IS militants who turned the city into a capital. A United States-led coalition dropped thousands of bombs on the city to drive out IS. IS left the city in 2017 and lost its last territory in Syria in 2019. Now Daher is selling off what remains of his failed businesses to start a new life. He needs $10,000. In Raqqa, having money can also be a problem as kidnappings are on the rise. Real estate developer Imam al-Hasan, 37, was taken from his home and held for days by attackers. To secure his release, he paid $400,000, money belonging to him and traders who trusted him with their life savings. He complained to the local authorities, but he said nothing was done. A month after the event, bruises are still visible on his face and legs. Al-Hasan, too, is selling his home and belongings. There is nothing left for me here, he said. Two of Al-Hasans relatives, who left in September and recently arrived in Europe, said that apart from economic issues it was the threat of more violence that pushed them to leave. At any moment the situation could explode, how can I stay there? said Ibrahim, 27. He and Mohammed, 41, spoke under the condition that only their first names be used. They were worried about the security of their wives and children still living in the city. Back in Raqqa, Reem al-Ani, 70, prepares tea for two. Her son is the only one of four children who has remained in Syria. The others are spread across the world. The stairs leading to their apartment are filled with bullet holes, the remains of battles against IS. She has grown used to a silent house. She said about her children, I miss them." Im John Russell. Samya Kullab reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English. __________________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story recruit n. a person who has recently joined a company, organization, etc. application n. a formal and usually written request for something (such as a job, admission to a school, a loan, etc.) smuggler n. to move (someone or something) from one country into another illegally and secretly route n. a way to get from one place to another place A new study found that nearly half of bald eagles tested across the United States show signs of repeated lead exposure. Scientists found harmful levels of lead in the bones of 46 percent of bald eagles in 38 states, from California to Florida. The scientists recently reported their findings in the publication Science. Researchers examined the blood, bones, feathers and liver tissue of 1,210 eagles between 2010 and 2018. Todd Katzner is a wildlife biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Boise, Idaho. He is also a co-writer of the study. He said, This is the first time for any wildlife species that weve been able to evaluate lead exposure and population level consequences at a continental scale. He said it was stunning, or very surprising, that nearly 50 percent of the birds showed signs of lead exposure. Lead is a poisonous substance that affects the nervous system and interferes with the normal function of nerve cells. Even in low amounts, lead can reduce bald eagles ability to fly, hunt and reproduce. In high amounts, lead causes seizures, breathing difficulty and death. Similar rates of lead exposure were found in golden eagles. Scientists say that means the birds likely ate animal meat containing lead from ammunition or fishing equipment. The study estimated that lead exposure reduced the yearly population growth of bald eagles by 4 percent and golden eagles by 1 percent. Bald eagles are one of Americas most celebrated conservation success stories. The birds were removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List in 2007. But scientists say that high lead levels are still a concern. Lead exposure also reduces their ability to face future difficulties, such as climate change or infectious diseases. When we talk about recovery, its not really the end of the story there are still threats to bald eagles, said Krysten Schuler. She is a wildlife disease ecologist at Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine and was not involved in the study. Earlier studies have shown high lead exposure in some areas of the U.S., but not across the country. The blood samples from live eagles in the new study were taken from birds trapped and studied for other reasons. The bone, feather and liver samples came from eagles killed by vehicles, power lines or other causes. Lead isavailable to these birds more than we previously thought, said co-writer Vince Slabe. He is a research wildlife biologist at the nonprofit group Conservation Science Global. He added that a small piece of lead the size of the end of a pin is large enough to cause death in an eagle. The researchers also found higher levels of lead exposure in fall and winter. During these months, eagles eat animal remains left by hunters. These remains often contain many pieces of lead ammunition. Slabe said he hopes the findings provide a chance to talk to hunters about this issue in a clear manner. He added that he hopes more hunters will voluntarily begin using non-lead ammunition such as copper bullets. Im Jonathan Evans. Christina Larson reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story exposure n. the fact or condition of being subject to some effect or influence evaluate v. to judge the value or condition of consequences n. things produced by a cause or following from a condition seizures n. an abnormal state in which a person usually experiences convulsions and may become unconscious Emmilee Risling had been behaving strangely for months. The 33-year-old Native American woman had been seen getting car rides with strangers and walking without clothes through Native areas along Northern Californias mountainous coast. But things got more serious when she was charged with starting a fire in a burial area. Her family hoped the case would force her into mental health treatment. Instead, she was released. Emmilee was last seen walking across a bridge marked End of Road, in a far corner of the Yurok Reservation. No one has seen her since. Her disappearance is one of five examples in the past 18 months where Native American women have gone missing or been killed in the area. Urgent crisis The crisis has led the Yurok Tribe to issue an emergency declaration. It also has brought urgency to efforts that include building Californias first database of such cases. Native women face murder rates almost three times higher than those of white women in America. That information comes from a 2021 report by the National Congress of American Indians. More than 80 percent of Native women, the report found, have experienced violence. In the coastal area where Emmilee was last seen, almost everyone knows someone who has disappeared. In the state of California, the Yurok Tribe and the Indigenous-run group Sovereign Bodies Institute uncovered 18 cases of missing or killed Native American women in the past year. They consider that number far lower than the actual count. An estimated 62 percent of those cases are not listed in state or federal databases for missing persons. Like many cases involving Indigenous women, Emmilees disappearance has gotten no attention from the outside world. Nearly all of the areas Indigenous people have ancestors who were sent to boarding schools as children. The children were forced to abandon their language and culture. The harmful effects of such removals remain among the Yurok. They play out in the form of drug abuse and family violence. 'There were just no services for her' Emmilee was born into a well-known Native family. She had a bright future ahead of her. At age 15, she walked down the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with other tribal members at the opening of the Smithsonians National Museum of the American Indian. The Washington Post newspaper published a front-page picture of her. Emmilee received a financial award to attend the University of Oregon. There, she helped lead a Native students group. During college, she was in an abusive relationship with a Native man. Later, she became pregnant from another man. She returned home to Northern California to have her baby. Over time, her family says, they noticed changes in Emmilee. Her behavior became difficult to understand. Eventually, her son was taken from her care. She got involved with another abusive man and had a daughter who was also taken from her care. Her parents were shocked by her fast decline. They think she developed a mental illness. The only in-patient mental health center close to her home was always too full to admit her. There were just no services for her," said Judy Risling, Emmilees mother. Recent efforts In September, Emmilee was arrested after she was found dancing around a small fire in the Hoopa Valley Reservation cemetery. The Hoopa Valley tribal police chief at the time, Bob Kane, appeared in court to explain her many mental health problems. But the court released her. Soon after, she disappeared. Kane was not surprised. We had predicted that something like this may ... happen in the future, he said. Indigenous tribal police face several issues when a woman is reported missing. A complex mix of federal, state, local and tribal agencies must work together. This often delays investigations. Recent efforts at the state and federal level seek to deal with what activists say have been years of neglecting missing and murdered Indigenous women. In November, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to set up guidelines between the federal government and tribal police that would help investigate and prevent crimes against Native Americans. Emmilees case demonstrates some of the difficulties in the area. She was a citizen of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, but she was reported missing on the neighboring Yurok Tribes reservation. Law enforcement decided there was not enough information to launch a full search and rescue operation in such a mountainous area. Emmilees family is struggling to protect her children from the trauma of their mothers disappearance. Her son has been having bad dreams. He asks to help search for his mother. Emmilees father, Gary Risling, said, Its real difficult when you deal with the grandkids, and the grandkid says, Grandpa, can you take me down the river and can we look for my mama? And then he says, What happens if we cant find her? Im Ashley Thompson. And Im John Russell. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. ____________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story reservation - n. an area of land in the U.S. that is kept separate as a place for Native Americans to live indigenous - n. produced, living, or existing naturally in a particular region or environment decline - n. to become worse in condition or quality trauma - n. a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time neglect - v. to fail to take care of or to give attention to (someone or something) Philosopher Eddy Keming Chen (UC San Diego) comments. UPDATE: Philosopher David Wallace (Pittsburgh) writes: I saw you flagged Eddy Chens recent paper on the blog. A quick observation in case youre interested: the article is engaging and provocative but risks encouraging a regrettably-common confusion, in that it mostly conflates 'the wave-function is representational' with 'the wave-function is real'. Consider: there are c.10,000 students at Pitt, and they take four courses per semester, so the academic results of the undergraduate body each semester are represented by a single point in 40,000-dimensional 'grade space'. Is the grade-space point representational? Does it represent objective mind-independent features of the world? Yes, obviously; indeed, we know what those features are - I'm supposed to be determining some of them now instead of writing this note. Is it real? That depends on your philosophy of math, but at most it's real in the sense that numbers are real. Is there an *object* it represents? No. Do Pitt undergraduates, collectively, live in 40,000-dimensional space? Obviously not. It probably is the majority view in physics that the wave-function is representational, indeed that it represents inter alia the ordinary macroscopic features of the world. But that doesn't entail that the wave-function is real, or that the universe is a wavefunction. You can motivate that as a further move - it's not silly in the way that reifying grade space is silly - but it doesn't in any way follow automatically. It's a very substantive (and in my view incorrect) additional metaphysical move, by no means a consensus view in philosophy of physics and very heterodox in physics proper, even among those who agree that the wave-function is representational. Many physicists of a cosmological bent might assent to 'the wave-function represents all the dynamical properties of the Universe'; few indeed would assent to 'the universe is a wave-function'. Chen himself appreciates the distinction, I'm sure, and the article occasionally acknowledges it ("One dominant interpretation of the wave function is that it in fact represents physical reality some even argue that the universe as a whole is just a quantum wave function") but they're often conflated in the text and even more so in the headings and provocative title, though I appreciate Chen might not have written these himself. 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The 42-year-old man from Kenilworth, Illinois who was driving the snowmobile suffered serious injuries in the crash and was flown by Flight for Life helicopter to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Schmidt said. The crash is believed to have occurred sometime shortly before 12:15 a.m., Schmidt said. The crash remains under investigation by the Dodge County Sheriffs Office and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Schmidt said. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Nadia Weber was struck by the variety of works as she made her way through an exhibit featuring Black artists in the East High School art gallery. It is very beautiful. I love how everything is so different, said Weber, a senior at East. Its just what the coordinators had hoped the exhibit honoring Black History Month would evoke. It was very important for us to communicate the diversity of art that comes from our Black community, junior Kadjata Bah said. Blackness has been portrayed as monolithic ... It has been sucked into a box. She said society has an idea about what being Black looks like and what it should look like. The exhibit is a way for us to break out of that, said Bah, who coordinated the exhibit with junior Gueda Daff. Daff said it has been inspiring for other students to see art created by students who look like them. The exhibit also included a display of school library books that reflected parts of Black art and writing that was not represented in the pieces hung in the gallery. In addition, a wall of the gallery featured poetry by Langston Hughes, other Black art and news clippings and photos about recent history, such as the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The show, in the Ray Edwards Gallery, is called 31 Days, in reference to the time a month devoted to celebrating Black art, history and culture deserves, though Black History Month takes place in February, the shortest month of the year with usually just 28 days, Bah said. The shows closing from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday will feature spoken word and musical performances and refreshments in the gallery. Due to COVID-19 precautions, only students will be allowed to attend. The public, however, will get a chance to see the art when it moves to Communication, a nonprofit space for all forms of artistic expression at 2645 Milwaukee St. The details are still being worked out, but the exhibit is planned for sometime in March, according to Emily Parkman, volunteer curator for Communication. Weber was visiting the gallery with other students in an ethnic studies class taught by Cesar Martinez, who had the students take part in an assignment while they viewed the art. As part of that, they were to reflect and interpret an art piece and consider how the art is adding to the beauty and understanding the Black/African diaspora. I feel like the art actually means something. Its very relatable, said junior Momodou Cisse, who is Black. It reminds me of my life, my family. Junior Arthur Graham is not Black, but Graham still experienced an understanding about the origins of the art. I know a lot of people in this school, Graham said. I understand the consciousness of where the art is coming from. Senior Jenney Xiong said she was drawn to a digital painting of a woman whose head appears to have collages bursting out of the top of it. It was created by Bah, who said it was a portrait of her friend with collages that she created to represent all the things that are in her head. But Xiong saw the collages, which contained words and illustrations, as someone who appeared to have a bunch of news articles coming out of her head. When you are young, you have a lot of thoughts around you, said Xiong, who is Hmong. People of color have to take in so much stuff, like trauma. The 31 Days exhibit was started in 2020 by Pauline Diayen and Treynasha Rolack, who were seniors at the time. Last year, Bah put the exhibit on with some help from Daff, but used photographs of the art in a digital format because of COVID-19. This year, Bah and Daff collected some of the art from work done in art classes, and other pieces were created by students on their own. April Sopkin, an East art teacher who provided guidance to the coordinators, said the exhibit is empowering and also brings an awareness about the possibility of creating art, which encourages Black students to take art classes, where they are currently underrepresented. Its empowering but it is also comforting to be in this space with other Black artists who are also my peers, Bah said. Martinez said he helped secure art for the exhibit and then supported it by bringing his students to view the works. It worked out well given that we are studying the African diaspora and the impact of colonialism in America and Africa, he said. I ask my students to analyze the beauty and evolution of Black art and expression in America and link the connection to the soul of Africa. A class like this is important given that a few weeks ago my students didnt even know who Aretha Franklin or James Brown was and their impact on culture is not that long ago. School Spotlight: Adventures in learning, inside and outside the classroom Each Monday, the Wisconsin State Journal features a story about learning in Wisconsin. Here are School Spotlight stories from the past year. It was very important for us to communicate the diversity of art that comes from our Black community, junior Kadjata Bah said. Blackness has been portrayed as monolithic ... It has been sucked into a box. Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gablemans GOP-ordered review of the 2020 election is set to be made public Tuesday, according to Gablemans team. Gablemans eight-month review of the 2020 election has been marred by a slew of legal challenges to multiple subpoenas issued by the former justice, who previously declared without evidence that the election had been stolen. The review, for which Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has allocated $676,000 in taxpayer money, was originally planned to be completed last fall but failed to meet several deadlines, which Republican leaders attributed to ongoing court battles. Gableman staffer Zak Niemierowicz told The Associated Press that the final report will be provided to Vos and the state Assemblys elections committee on Tuesday. A staffer for Rep. Janel Brandtjen, chairperson of the Assembly committee, said the report is expected to be released to the public. Vos office did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Vos spokesperson Angela Joyce told The Associated Press that Gableman, not Vos, would release the report. The Assemblys GOP-led Committee on Campaigns and Elections is scheduled to hear testimony from Gableman on Tuesday. The committee will also hear from Erick Kaardal, a Republican attorney for the conservative Thomas More Society who has challenged the use of private election grants provided to the states five largest cities to help administer last years election during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of Gablemans review has focused on election grants provided to Wisconsin cities by the Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to help administer the 2020 election. Republicans, including Gableman, have targeted CTCL funds as unfairly increasing turnout in the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha and Racine. Court rulings have found nothing illegal about the more than $10 million in grants CTCL distributed to about 214 municipalities in 39 of Wisconsins 72 counties, including many solidly won by Trump. Nor did CTCL turn down grant requests from any of the Wisconsin municipalities that made them. Legislative action The Republican-controlled Legislature last week sent a package of election bills to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is all but certain to veto most, if not all, of them. The proposals would give the Legislature more control over guidance issued by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, limit which absentee voters could claim indefinitely confined status and allow lawmakers to cut funding for the state Elections Commission when its deemed not to have complied with state election laws. Another bill added late in the Assemblys final session would allow election officials to begin counting absentee ballots on the Monday before an election, but Democratic lawmakers ultimately opposed the measure because it also shortened the window that clerks have to send out absentee ballots for federal races. Republicans have touted the measures as an effort to clean up election processes in the state following a report last year from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau that found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election but made several recommendations for improvements. President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump by close to 21,000 votes in the battleground state. Democratic legislators, Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul have lambasted the Gableman review as a waste of taxpayer dollars and an attempt to undermine faith in state elections. Republican scrutiny of the 2020 election continues to grow as part of a nationwide GOP effort to make changes to election procedures following baseless claims by some Republicans, including Trump, of widespread fraud in the presidential election. Vos had planned to use Gablemans report to craft election-related legislation leading up to the 2022 midterms, but the Assembly held its final session of the year last week. Vos said future bills will be drafted but that obstruction had slowed the election reviews progress. Subpoenas, lawsuits Gableman has previously demanded documents, interviews or both with the mayors of Wisconsins five largest cities, the states top elections official, the chair of the state Elections Commission and members of Evers administration, as well as two companies that make vote-counting systems, Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems. Attorneys for Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software told Gableman in January the organization would not comply with the subpoena, which they called a quintessential fishing expedition. In mid-February, Gableman withdrew his subpoena seeking emails and financial documents from immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera Action. He also called for several officials, including Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Wisconsin Elections Commission chair Ann Jacobs, to be jailed for refusing to sit for the behind-closed-doors interviews for which they have been subpoenaed. In December, Gableman demanded that Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway be jailed. He later rescinded the demand, only to reinstate the demand last week. There are also three pending lawsuits related to liberal watchdog group American Oversights public records requests to Vos and Gableman for documents related to the election review. Vos last week asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up one of the cases. Gableman made a baseless claim at a pro-Donald Trump rally in 2020 that the election in Wisconsin had been stolen by bureaucrats, and he has met with and hired people for his investigation who formerly worked for Trump and espoused conspiracy theories about the election. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Then as now, it began with lies. On Sept. 1, 1939, Adolf Hitlers forces crossed the border into Poland. The German chancellor did so on the pretext that ethnic Germans were being persecuted. German operatives, disguised as Poles, even staged an attack on a German radio station, yelling anti-German threats into the microphone. With that lie, the most devastating war in the history of the world began. It is far too early to know how devastating this latest European war will turn out to be, how many will die, how many will be left homeless and stateless, how the repercussions will play out across the globe. But an ominous resonance is in the lies from which it arose. First, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed he had no intention of invading Ukraine, even as he massed troops on that countrys border. Then he announced Russia would recognize two separatist regions. Finally, shortly before Russian ordnance began to pound the smaller country, he announced a military operation aimed at peacekeeping and denazification. Now, as then, lies. And now, as then, what strikes you is not just the utter brazenness of them, but the threadbare flimsiness of them. Hitler, granted, put some work into his lie, but at the end of the day, was anyone really expected to believe that Poland, which had more horses than tanks, had suddenly decided to attack its heavily armed neighbor? Putins lies are even shoddier. He would have us believe his forces were needed to keep the peace in a nation that was at peace and to evict Nazis from a nation whose democratically elected president is a Jew. These are the kinds of lies you tell when you dont care what anyone thinks. Their very shabbiness is an expression of contempt. And that Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, J.D. Vance, Steve Bannon and other denizens of the American right either lionize this liar Savvy, Trump called him or dismiss the suffering of his victims I dont really care what happens to Ukraine, said Vance is a clear, albeit superfluous indicator of just how broken our own country has become. Like Putin, much of the right bears allegiance not to truth, much less to democracy, but rather to the brutish power of the strongman to do as he pleases, unfettered by such niceties. Thats what they very nearly imposed in 2016. It is what they promise in 2024. And if youre not frightened, youre not paying attention. This moment has been a long time coming. A little more than a quarter century ago, a House speaker named Newt Gingrich declared politics war and an upstart cable network called Fox declared facts optional. It was called a conservative resurgence, but it was actually the foundation stone for the kingdom of lies our country has become. No wonder Trump likes Putin and claims the feeling is mutual. Each recognizes himself in the other. What they recognize, what they have in common, is that transactional disdain for the truth and, more to the point, for anyone naive enough to expect it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her Russian counterpart a red reset button, Russia accepted it, but kept right on being a thugocracy. TV pundits kept assuring us Trump was going to become presidential any second now, but to his last day, he remained a willful child. Now families seek refuge in Ukrainian subways, while Trump cheers their tormentor on. Let no one be surprised. What begins in lies tends to end in carnage. Pitts Jr. writes for the Miami Herald: lpitts@miamiherald.com. In U.S. foreign labor programs, workers place their well-being in the hands of U.S. employers, who are required by law to pay required wages and provide safe living conditions. An Idaho potato farm failed to do that, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. A Department of Labor investigation found Jorgensen Management Inc., a potato farm in southeast Idaho, failed to pay its workers a total of $159,256 in wages and did not reimburse them for transportation costs. Jorgensen Management also threatened to end its workers contracts and send workers back to Mexico if they did not accept the lower wages, the investigation found. The Jorgensen Management workers in Bancroft, Idaho, were part of the H-2A visa program, a seasonal program that allows agricultural employers to bring in foreign workers to temporarily fill jobs when they cant find enough domestic workers. The employers are required by the Department of Labor to pay a set wage and provide workers with transportation and housing. In addition to failing to pay workers their legal wage, the Department of Labor also found Jorgensens housing and safety standards for its employees did not meet mandatory housing safety and health standards. By threatening and shortchanging some of the lowest paid workers in our nation, Jorgensen Management showed a willful disregard for the law, said Carrie Aguilar, the Department of Labor wage and hour district director in Portland. They created a toxic workplace and victimized these vulnerable workers. The outcome of this investigation sends a strong message to other employers that the Wage and Hour Division will not tolerate abuses of the H-2A program and will protect the rights of all people working in the U.S. The Wage and Hour District investigation led the Department of Labor to recover $159,256 in unpaid wages and assess $25,430 in civil money penalties. Jorgensen Management also failed to pay 69 U.S. workers their required rates, according to the department. Scare tactics in H-2A program, former farm worker says The Jorgensen Management H-2A program violations were not surprising, said Irene Ruiz, a bilingual community organizer with the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils and Vision 2C, a farm worker advocacy group in Canyon County. Ruiz was a farm worker in Idaho for 10 years, and the stories of workers being exploited were familiar to her, she said. As a former farm worker, it is disheartening to see workers treated like this, Ruiz said. These are people who put food on our tables and on our grocery store shelves. They worked through the pandemic, nonstop. The United Farm Workers, a national farm worker labor union, has urged President Joe Bidens administration to conduct an investigation into the federal H-2A program because of consistent violations. In this case, there was abuse and tactics to scare farm workers into working for less, Ruiz said. You hear about the scare tactics and intimidation employers use as ways not to pay their workers. The United Farm Workers sent a letter demanding an investigation into the foreign labor program after reports that said workers in Georgia were required to dig onions up with their bare hands and paid 20 cents per bucket; they were allegedly threatened with guns and violence, according to a VICE news report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 0 Angry 3 The Russian invasion of Ukraine this week might drive up the costs of farm fertilizers globally which nearly quadrupled last year in price in the United States and remain high and presents an opportunity for unscrupulous companies to artificially inflate those prices further, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Thats my biggest and deepest concern, Vilsack said Thursday of the invasions immediate effects on U.S. agriculture, and were obviously going to keep an eye on that. Last years fertilizer price spike has been attributed to a confluence of issues, including shortages of natural gas and limited fertilizer stockpiles. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced Thursday that his office will conduct a market study in the next few months to better understand why the prices have soared. Vilsack said his office will watch for potential price gouging as a result of the invasion, which began early Thursday. Russia is a major global supplier of farm fertilizers and is the source of about a third of Europes natural gas. President Joe Biden announced sanctions against Russia on Thursday that target its financial system and would halt technology exports to the country. Its unclear how Russia might retaliate. I sincerely hope that no company out there whether its fertilizer or any other supply that may be impacted by this will take unfair advantage of the circumstances of this situation, making sure that they dont use this situation as an excuse for doing something which isnt necessarily justified by supply and demand, Vilsack said. Russia had already begun to limit its fertilizer exports late last year and recently imposed a two-month export moratorium on ammonium nitrate, a key fertilizer for corn. In November, Iowa farmers faced fertilizer price quotes that were three to six times higher than the previous year. That has led to speculation that farmers will plant fewer acres of corn and reduce the amount of fertilizer they apply to their fields. The planting season is about two months away. Vilsack said supply shortages reinforce the need for us to look at our own capacities domestically, and figure out ways in which we can be perhaps a little bit less reliant on outside forces. He doubted the potential shortages will have an immediate and significant effect on food prices in the United States, but if I were a commissioner or an ag secretary in a European country, I would have a much different feeling about this. Ukraine has fertile soil that is comparable in richness to Iowas and is a major wheat and corn producer in eastern Europe. We in the U.S. are fortunate, Vilsack said. We have tremendous production capacity. Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus including the Idaho Capital Sun supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SHOSHONE A longtime community organizer and agricultural advocate in Lincoln County says she plans to run for the Idaho House of Representatives as a Democrat. Karma Metzler Fitzgerald of Shoshone is seeking to represent Seat B in District 26, which includes Lincoln, Jerome and Blaine counties. Fitzgeralds platform includes access to childcare and early childhood education, transportation, and support for farms and small businesses. Im running because I believe in the power of community, Fitzgerald said Friday in a statement. I believe with the right combination of connection and collaboration you can match people to the resources they need to thrive. Rep. Sally Toone, D-Gooding, who holds Seat B in District 26, endorsed Fitzgerald after announcing that she is not seeking reelection. Gooding County was formerly in District 26. I am very excited for Karma as she runs for the legislature, Toone said. Her work and dedication to our rural communities is a passion that is needed for our great state. She will represent District 26 well and bring a voice for balance and reason. As the daughter of a Buhl farmer and a member of a dairy family for the past 25 years, Fitzgerald is sensitive to farmers issues and is involved in multiple projects to address farmers stress and mental health. Agriculture is part of who I am, she said. Im concerned about the toll consistent droughts and the economy are taking on our farm families and want to make sure our farmers have access to the resources they need. In her free time, she hosts a podcast called The Purple Perspective, which explores community building across the political aisle in Idaho and beyond. The system is set up for two parties, she said. While Id love to have a third party, that is a long process and we need strong leadership now. I am a representative for the people in the purple: that place where the red and the blue meet to get the work done in our communities, Fitzgerald said. It takes collaboration to create programs and resources that benefit our small, rural towns, and it takes people who understand that community comes before politics. She wants to be a voice for the dirt road Democrats, those of us who love the land and the people who work it, she said. Land is so much more than something you build on it is the fabric of our soul. In 2021, Fitzgerald was awarded the Governor Cecil D. Andrus Volunteer of the Year Award in recognition of her years of volunteer service advocating for rural and agricultural communities in south-central Idaho. Most recently, she co-founded the Lincoln County Youth Center, which opened its doors in August, and founded The Ledge Business Incubator, a Lincoln County-based program that encourages entrepreneurship among local children and adults looking to start ag-based businesses. Fitzgerald is the director of Lincoln County Connections, a pilot on-demand public transportation service serving rural Lincoln County residents, and serves as chairperson of both the Lincoln County Transportation Commission and the Lincoln County Youth Commission. She also sits on the Shoshone City and Rural Fire District Commission. To learn more about Fitzgerald and her platform, visit www.karma4idaho.com. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Jeff Clausen knew he had a good working dog on his hands when he brought Skittles, a 3-year-old border collie, to the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale in California. The Melba man had spent the last year training Skittles as a stock dog, meant to help ranchers move cattle. For three days, Clausen and Skittles competed in Red Bluffs stock dog runs, showing how Skittles could drive a herd of cattle into a pen or pick a single animal from the group just by following Clausens whistles and voice commands. Skittles performed pretty well judges ranked her fifth among 17 dogs. Clausen figured hed get about $8,000 to $9,000 for Skittles at the next days auction, where attendees bid on dogs that will become valuable ranch hands. Instead, Skittles started a bidding war that broke the Red Bluff stock dog sale record set by Clausen and another red border collie, Gurdy, in 2018. Since Skittles came in fifth place during the stock dog runs, she was the fifth dog to be auctioned at the Red Bluff sale on Jan. 29. The first four dogs the top-ranked competitors had sold for between $6,000 and $11,000. When Clausen and Skittles entered the auction ring, Clausen said he felt the mood shift. When we walked in there, the aura of the whole place just changed, he told the Idaho Statesman. Everyone started screaming and whooping. Several people began bidding on Skittles, who watched the crowd with interest from Clausens arms. Bidding quickly blew past the days previous high of $11,000. I lost my mind at $23,000, Clausen said. I didnt even know what was going on. Sold! the auctioneer said, slamming his gavel as the crowd cheered and clapped. $45,000. Skittles had shattered the $30,000 record Clausen had set in 2018 with Gurdy, a border collie who had placed first in the stock dog runs. Clausen was shocked. Skittles was a good dog, but she hadnt performed as well as her competitors. Instead, shed won over her new owners, Neal and Andrea Siller, with her bubbly, affectionate personality. In Red Bluff, they want a dog that gets ahead and stops cattle hard. She wasnt that dog, Clausen said. She wasnt the strongest dog in the competition, but she had the strongest personality. Clausen said he thinks his training technique sets his dogs apart. He doesnt consider himself a dog trainer, and its not his full-time job. Each year he trains just one dog, taking the pup to work with him on the feedlot he manages and letting his kids play with the dog. Clausen said some people worry too much socializing will spoil a working dog, but he has found that friendly, personable dogs are what people want. It used to be these cowdogs were tools, Clausen said. Theyre not tools anymore, and I think todays society wants a pet at the same time as they want a partner to work with. Skittles will herd longhorns, hang out with family A partner was exactly what the Sillers were looking for at Red Bluff. The family runs a small Texas longhorn ranching operation in Penn Valley, California. Because they show their cattle, they were looking for a gentler dog that wouldnt bite their cattle and potentially injure them, Andrea Siller said. The Sillers had their eye on Skittles after seeing how carefully she moved cattle during the stock dog runs. When they had a chance to meet her ahead of the auction, they fell in love. She was extremely loving, and you could tell she was going to be a family dog, Andrea Siller said. Siller said after meeting Skittles, she and her husband were nearby talking with friends. When her husband knelt down to pet their friends puppy, Skittles ran over to get Neals attention. He looked up at me and was like, Shes coming home with us, Siller said. When Skittles came up at auction, the Sillers thought theyd get a good price for the fifth-place pup. But other bidders had their eye on her, too. While the eventual $45,000 price tag came with some sticker shock, Siller said Skittles has already proven what a valuable working dog she is and a valuable family member, too. Siller said her family recently purchased 8,000 acres and will need a dog to help move their herd of about 100 cattle. Currently they do all the work with their family and a single full-time ranch hand. We were calling in friends to help (move cattle), Siller said. We anticipate with Skittles working with us that were not going to need to do that anymore. Skittles life wont be all work, though. The Sillers also own a construction business, and when the dog isnt accompanying Neal to work, shes lazing under Andreas desk or playing with the 12 other dogs the family owns. She has fit in absolutely perfectly with our family, Siller said. Shes living the spoiled life now. Idaho man prepares next dog for stock sale Clausen said it may be hard for people to understand why he parts with dogs hes bonded so closely with. But he said he knows the working dogs will have better lives doing what they were bred to do full-time. Clausen joked that Skittles settled in quickly with the Sillers and never looked back, but Andrea Siller said she could tell the dog was missing Clausen. As soon as the auction was over and we took Skittles, it kind of broke my heart because I knew they had to have the most amazing bond, she said. The Sillers plan to invite Clausen out to their ranch to work with Skittles and their other border collie, Ruby, whom they also purchased at the Red Bluff auction. Ruby came in second place in the stock dog runs and sold for $11,000. In the meantime, Clausen is already preparing to train his next dog another red border collie named Ponchita. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 King Abdullah II of Jordan and his wife Queen Rania, were awarded Saturday the 2022 Zayed Award for Human Fraternity at a ceremony at the Founders Memorial in the UAE capital, reports say. The award was presented to the royal couple in appreciation of their efforts to promote human fraternity, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE minister of Foreign affairs and international cooperation, and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Al Safadi were in attendance during the ceremony. The award is a prize, $1 million, awarded by the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, an independent international committee to promote human fraternity values in communities around the world, in line with the Document on Human Fraternity, signed by Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi in 2019. Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayeb according to reports congratulated the king and queen, and said the two were role models for fraternity and coexistence, in a recorded video message played during the ceremony. Pope Francis also praised their commitment to promoting the values of coexistence and dialogue between different religious traditions, in fighting discrimination, and empowering women and the youth. Twenty-seven people have been killed since Friday in four separate attacks attributed to jihadists in northeastern Nigeria, security sources and residents said Sunday. The Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) group, a breakaway branch of Boko Haram that split in 2016, has stepped up attacks in recent weeks despite ongoing military operations in the region. Iswap killed 24 civilians in three villages in Borno State on Saturday night, an anti-jihadist militia leader and a resident said, claiming the civilians were targeted for aiding troops in the face of insurgents. The attackers targeted the villages of Sabongarin Kimba, Mandara-Girau and Ngama on the outskirts of the Sambisa forest, one of the jihadists main hideouts, the sources said. The terrorists killed 24 people in the three villages last night, said anti-jihadist militia leader Mustapha Karimbe. They moved from village to village, choosing their targets and massacring them, Karimbe added, saying nine residents were killed in Sabongarin Kimba, seven in Mandara-Girau and eight in Ngama. He said the soldiers had asked for help from villagers to guard a road where jihadists have a history of ambushes. The attacks were a punishment for the help the villagers gave the soldiers, he said. The army and local officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the attacks. Another militiaman, Umar Ari, gave the same account, saying the insurgents had sent a warning to the villagers, threatening them with serious consequences if they cooperated with the army. The army says it has killed 180 jihadists and arrested 130 suspected terrorists in the northeast since late January. The 12-year conflict in the northeast has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced more than two million. The Congolese State has reached an out-of-court agreement with Israeli businessman Dan Gertler by which it recovers disputed mining and oil assets valued at more than 2 billion dollars, announced the Communication unit of the presidency in Kinshasa. This agreement, signed Thursday at the presidency and whose terms were not specified, puts an end to the legal dispute which opposed the Democratic Republic of Congo to Dan Gertler, the same source added. The sulfurous businessman has been under U.S. sanctions since 2017 for suspected opaque and corrupt mining and oil contracts in the DRC, with Washington accusing him of costing the country $1.36 billion in lost tax revenue in the 2010s. A close friend of former President Joseph Kabila (in power from 2001 to 2019), Dan Gertler acted as an intermediary on the countrys biggest contracts for nearly 20 years. The communication service of the Congolese presidency broadcast images of the signing, in the presence of Dan Gertler, who, according to this source, rejoiced at the happy outcome of this conflict. The DRC was represented by its Minister of Justice, Rose Mutombo, who described the agreement as a great event for the country and also welcomed the end of this conflict (), the implementation of the instruction of President Felix Tshisekedi ratified by the Council of Ministers on February 18. According to the minutes of this council, a memorandum of understanding with the Fleurette group (of Dan Gertler) was then mentioned, which should allow the DRC to recover the oil blocks and mining assets held by the said Group, valued at more than 2 billion dollars. Having recovered its mining and oil assets, the DRC will enhance them and the interests will benefit its population, as Felix Tshisekedi wants, said the presidential communication. This agreement can in no way be an umbrella that protects Dan Gertler in the face of the accusations against him, reacted Saturday on Twitter the anti-corruption collective Congo is not for sale. The investigations opened must continue to repair the losses suffered, he added, also asking that the terms of the agreement be made public. The junta in power in Chad since the death of President Idriss Deby Itno has reshuffled the transitional government, nine months after its appointment, according to a decree read out Friday on state radio by the army spokesman. Thirteen of the 40 ministers and secretaries of state have been reallocated, including those of Petroleum, Economy, Public Security and Education, according to the decree read by General Azem Bermandoa Agouna. Since the announcement of the death of President Deby, killed in fighting against rebels, his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, 37, has concentrated almost all the powers at the head of a Transitional Military Council (TMC) composed of 15 generals. He has promised free and democratic elections within a renewable 18-month period, but has not ruled out an extension of the transition. The government, appointed by the chairman of the CMT, is headed by Albert Pahimi Padacke, Idriss Debys last prime minister, before he abolished the post in 2018. Mahamat Idriss Deby has promised a pre-dialogue with the armed groups to be held from February 27 in Qatar, but there are growing doubts about whether the timetable will be respected. Elements of the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) eliminated four suspected members of the terrorist Al-Shabab group in Lamu County on Saturday, the Ministry of Defense announced. The suspected terrorists were killed when they tried to cross the Kenyan border from Somalia at the Sarira region, the ministry said in a statement, noting that no injuries were recorded during the operation among Kenyan soldiers. Patrols have been reinforced in the area, the statement said, noting that other members of the group escaped to the neighboring country. As part of the Amani Boni operation, KDF troops have intensified patrols in the locality and will continue, together with other security agencies and the support of the residents, to pacify the area with the aim of eradicating Al-Shabab terrorists, the statement added. It's a great place to visit or shop The new street is nice but shops have disappeared I have no reason to go there Vote View Results Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Over the past two years of living with COVID-19, many churches have had to think in new ways. Congregations across the country are experimenting with practices such as virtual worship and Bible study or masking and social distancingeven as others go "back to normal." While scholars have studied the relationship between religion and health for decades, the pandemic has put a spotlight on it. Often, this attention emphasizes examples of churches opposing safety recommendations, such as vaccines or lockdowns, but this misses the complexity and variety of religious responses to public health problems. As a scholar of Christianity in the United States, I believe understanding how churches have navigated health crises in the past can help us better understand our present. Over the past two years, I have worked with an interdisciplinary team of researchers based at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research to understand how churches are confronting the realities of COVID-19. U.S. history, coupled with our survey of congregations, suggests that a commitment to public health has long been a part of ministry, but there is room to make it stronger. A history of protecting health Christian leaders have been advocating for public health in the United States since the Colonial period. Historian Philippa Koch has argued that the religious worldview of American Protestants in the 18th century helped them "accept the new promises and insights of modern medicine." According to Koch, this unwavering faith in God's plan for creation helped spur individuals like the Puritan minister Cotton Mather to promote inoculation for smallpox as a gift from God. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, too, congregations were on the front lines of public health. Churches in North Carolina, for example, sought to make sure their worship space was "well ventilated" to avoid spreading the virus. They also required members to wear "germ proof" gauze masks. Churches in Washington state prohibited public singing and roped off pews to ensure that congregants would be spread out around the sanctuary. Many churches also canceled in-person worship gatherings and turned to the technology of the day: newspapers. In Los Angeles, ministers encouraged their congregants to "go to church in your own home today" with sermons printed in the paper. In Indianapolis, the newspaper printed an order of worship with hymns, Scripture and prayers. The paper also included sermons from local congregations, including Episcopalian, Catholic, Baptist and Jewish. Presbyterian minister Francis Grimke later reflected on his church's decision to close, stating, "If avoiding crowds lessens the danger of being infected, it was wise to take the precaution and not needlessly run in danger and expect God to protect us." Not all churches responded to the health precautions with enthusiasm. Many ministers insisted that communal prayers were necessary to get the country through the sickness. Others blatantly disobeyed public health orders. In Harrison, Ohio, the Rev. George Cocks of Trinity Methodist Church and 16 members of his congregation were arrested and jailed for a staged protest. After being locked up, he preached through the window of his jail cell to approximately 500 individuals who had gathered to hear him. Over the past few decades, more recent church practices that intersect with health include holding blood drives, hosting 12-step programs for addiction, running soup kitchens and providing basic mental health counseling. Churches and COVID-19 The past two years have been difficult on churches. Our team at the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations project surveyed more than 2,000 churches and found that the vast majority83% of those surveyedreported that a member had tested positive for the virus. Thirty-seven percent had a staff member who had tested positive. While our data shows that nearly all churches in the United States have been affected by COVID-19, not all of them have responded to the pandemic in the same way. Political polarization around public health measures has only complicated how congregations have responded to COVID-19. Twenty-eight percent of the 2,074 churches we surveyed invited a medical professional to speak to their membership about the pandemic. Evangelical Christian Francis Collinswho recently stepped down as director of the National Institutes of Health and is now acting science adviser to President Joe Bidenhas modeled how the science of public health can be framed in religious terms, such as loving one's neighbor. Just 8% of churches volunteered to serve as a testing or vaccination location. These churches were more likely to have more than 250 members, have been founded recently, and be racially diverse. Before the pandemic, many clergy had a positive attitude toward vaccinations but did not see them as particularly relevant to their faith communities. There is reason to believe that this is changing. Our survey found the majority of clergy across the country, 62%, have encouraged their congregants to be vaccinated against COVID-19. This varies significantly across different segments of Christianity in the U.S., however. Of clergy surveyed from historically Black denominations, 100% had encouraged their congregations to get vaccinated. Over three-quarters of mainline Protestant congregations and nearly two-thirds of Latino churches had clergy publicly encouraging members to take the vaccine. Half of Roman Catholic and Orthodox clergy advocated for their congregants to take the vaccine, and among white Evangelicals, only 29% of clergy offered similar advice. Among churches with a senior woman clergy leader, 82% encouraged their members to get vaccinated, as compared with 58% of those with senior male leaders. Small churches were also more likely to recommend the vaccine to their congregants. Our project has also conducted a survey on how churches have adapted social outreach programs during COVID-19 and is currently fielding a survey about the pandemic's effect on Christian education. Given the results of our first survey, there is significant room for U.S. congregations to think more deeply about how their work intersects with public health. But before taxing clergy with something else to add to their already overburdened schedules, we believe it's worth encouraging congregational leaders to consider their churches as institutions of public health: places that can promote the physical, spiritual and emotional health of both their members and the local community. Explore further Pastors serve as primary source of mental health care for Black, Latino congregants This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Nicolas Osbert is convinced that when it comes to promoting the concept of handwashing, two years of the COVID-19 pandemic achieved what UNICEF, WHO and development agencies could not in two decades. Osbert should know. He is the chief of the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) program at UNICEF in India and has 20 years of experience with WASH and public health programs in Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific. According to the Joint Monitoring Program for WASH report released by UNICEF and the WHO in July 2021, COVID-19 highlighted the value of good hand hygiene. At the onset of the pandemic, three in 10 people worldwide did not have facilities within their homes to wash their hands using soap and water. Some 818 million children around the world lacked basic handwashing facilities at their schools, placing them at increased risk of COVID-19 and other transmittable diseases, the UNICEF-WHO report said. Of these children more than a third (275 million) were from South Asia. However, the report said that between 2015 and 2020, the global population with safely managed drinking water at home had increased from 70% to 74%; safely managed sanitation services grew from 47% to 54%; and handwashing facilities with soap and water increased from 67% to 71%. In South Asia, by 2020, 80% of Pakistan's population had basic hygiene facilities including handwashing arrangements at home with soap and water. India followed with 68% while Nepal recorded 62% and Bangladesh 58%, according to UNICEF-WHO. The rate of improvement in basic handwashing practices between 2015 and 2020 was highest in Bangladesh at 3.33%. This was followed by Pakistan with 3.15%, Nepal with 1.37% and India with 0.10%. Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh also figure in a list of 13 countries that increased overall hygiene by five percentage points during that period. In 2016, according to a WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) survey, only 44% of schools in Bangladesh had basic services for washing hands with soap and water. The situation in Indonesia, which falls within SEARO region, was worse with just 42% while India had 55%. Even by 2020, close to 60% of schools in Indonesia are still lacking functional handwashing stations equipped with water and soap. India had far better progress for the same year. More than 90% of schools in India already had basic hand wash facilities as compared to only 36.3% in 2013, according to the Unified District Information System for Education of the Ministry of Human Resources Development As COVID-19 spread across India in March 2020, UNICEF launched a program of securing WASH services to at-risk, low-capacity and vulnerable communities in South Asia's biggest country with a population of nearly 1.4 billion people. The program focused on frequent handwashing with soap and wateridentified as a key measure in preventing COVID-19 transmissionthough it could not be pursued in schools as they were closed. "WASH teams closely coordinated with the central Ministry of Jal Shakti, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to promote school WASH programs by supporting their policy and advocacy efforts as well as implementation," said Osbert. "We also worked with development partners, who provided millions of bars of soap and with provincial governments in 15 states to push handwashing." WASH programs also tied in neatly with India's Swacch Bharat Mission launched in October 2014 to secure drinking water for households and provide sustainable sanitation as well as solid and liquid waste management, including plastic waste and sewage. "It helped that the Swacch Bharat Mission-Grameen (a public behavior change initiative) and the Jal Jeevan Mission (to provide every household with a tap), were pet projects of Prime Minister Narendra (Modi) aimed at securing access to safe sanitation and water through empowered communities," Anushree Mishra, a communication and advocacy specialist who was involved with the WASH program, told SciDev.Net. "Simple handwashing with soap and water was found to work better than vaccination in preventing the spread of not only COVID-19 but pathogens responsible for diarrhoeal diseases and respiratory illnesses," says Osbert. "The other benefit with handwashing is that it helps prevent the development of microbial resistance due to reduced use of antibiotics." "Our strategy for the future is to build on the massive public health wave created by the pandemic to work more systematically with government ministries and departments that are concerned with health and education," Osbert said. Explore further New study finds two billion people without proper sanitation at high risk for coronavirus Provided by SciDev.Net Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Soon, people working sedentary jobs will be able to take advantage of the innovation created by Lithuanians and prevent troublesome back paina joint team of Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania researchers and JSC Abili created a prototype of an office chair that activates deep muscles and improves trunk stabilization. Research shows that many people spend almost 80 percent of their working day sitting and at least half of that time in the same body position. The prolonged and invariable sitting posture is associated with lower back pain due to impaired musculoskeletal control. For sedentary workers, it is often suggested to replace their normal work chairs with various unstable surfaces, such as physio balls, balance cushions. While these products activate the deep muscles due to their range of motion, they are not individually tailored to the needs of the user. A team of scientists, Hominiseat, is developing a personalized sitting device controlled with feedback of trunk muscle activity. Scientific experiments in which muscle, brain activities, and body movements of sedentary workers were analyzed confirmed the suitability of the chair in the work environment to prevent musculoskeletal disorders caused by prolonged sitting. Prolonged sitting is harmful to health Ieva Aleknaite-Dambrauskiene, a member of Hominiseat, a physiotherapist, and a researcher at the Biomechatronics Laboratory of the Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Institute of Mechatronics, states that many people who work in sedentary jobs complain about lower back pain. Often these individuals also rest at home while sitting. "Sitting is not inherently bad, but a prolonged being in one position, which varies very little throughout the day, eventually causes back pain. This problem exists not only in Lithuaniastatistics show that about 37 percent of Europeans work in sedentary jobs, and the number is even higher in the United States," says a KTU researcher. Sitting on the usual non-ergonomic chairs, which can be found in most of the offices around the world, can cause serious health problems. "Sitting on a regular office chair impairs cognitive function, which reduces productivity," says the researcher. Employees who experience back pain due to faulty posture find it difficult to concentrate, make decisions, and absorb textual information. According to the KTU researcher, the muscle-stimulating chair developed by Hominiseat does not allow poor posture because the brain center responsible for the balance is constantly activated by nerve impulses. This office chair is exceptional Compared to other ergonomic chairs, the invention will change the user's posture by stimulating the deep muscles of the trunk. The seat of other office chairs on the market can move freely around its axis, the degree of instability is not adjustable, and there is no possibility to change the amplitude of motion. The chair, designed by a joint team of scientists, will have these functions, so the ergonomic seat will be able to adapt to the safe level of instability and cater to the needs of each person. "Although we can already see chairs which work on a similar principle to our seating device, our product is the first of a kind in the world," says Aleknaite-Dambrauskiene. The ergonomic office chair, presented at the virtual exhibition Technorama 2021 organized by KTU, is being developed incorporating the latest technologies. The wireless sensor captures trunk muscle activity, and the seat adjusts the user's posture based on these parameters. According to the Hominiseat team, the data on the user's muscle activity and body asymmetry could be used as fitness equipment, yet this will become apparent after the prototype is produced and tested in real conditions. It is projected that the device could function as both a passive and an active device: the user would be able to adjust the movements of the seat himself, and the invention could move by stimulating the deep muscles of the human trunk. It is no accident that the activation of the lumbar muscles was chosenthe researchers believe that working in a sedentary job has the greatest effect on this group of muscles: the muscles that stabilize the spine undergo atrophy, and the nutrition of the intervertebral discs is disrupted. "When deep trunk muscles perform a stabilizing function, maintains optimal posture, then the forces on the spine and passive structures are not so damaging," emphasizes the physiotherapist. The researcher emphasizes that in the event of a disruption of one deep muscle group, other structures, such as the superficial back muscles, take over the work. Then there is constant tension, followed by back pain and other pathologies. The prototype is being developed If this innovation were made available to the general public, people who work sedentary jobs or spend a large part of the day in a static position would be less likely to experience the negative effects of poor posture. "The benefits for the consumer would be hugea person working in a sedentary job would have less back pain, he would be more active throughout the day, which would lead to higher work productivity and better results," believes Aleknaite-Dambrauskiene. The researcher points out that the seating device could be mass-produced in Lithuania, but the market demand abroad should be even higher. Although there are enough materials and manpower in the country for the extensive implementation of the project, more attention to the employee's health and quality work equipment is paid abroad. The prototype of the ergonomic chair project is already being prepared, so the next step is testing. After winning second place in the Wanted: Life Sciences Innovator competition of the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA), the KTU Hominiseat team has expanded. Currently, specialists from the fields of health, design, electronics, biomechanics, and employees of JSC Abili are working on the ergonomic chair project. "Our team is diverse, as the development of such a product requires various knowledge and experience, and only in this way can we achieve the required results. Each specialist has their tasks which they perform best; constant communication and refinement of ideas allows each team member to focus as much as possible on their specialization and make fewer mistakes," says I. Aleknaite-Dambrauskiene. The research is published in Technology and Health Care. More information: Ieva Aleknaite-Dambrauskiene et al, Cortical activity, kinematics and trunk muscles activity response to pelvis movements during unstable sitting, Technology and Health Care (2021). Ieva Aleknaite-Dambrauskiene et al, Cortical activity, kinematics and trunk muscles activity response to pelvis movements during unstable sitting,(2021). DOI: 10.3233/thc-219007 Credit: CC0 Public Domain ESMO, the leading professional organization for medical oncology, announces a new series of resources designed to guide physicians in areas of oncological practice not covered by guidelines, where current evidence is insufficient to evenly inform clinical decision-making. The ESMO Expert Consensus Statements on the Management of EGFR Mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer published this month in Annals of Oncology constitute an example of the ongoing effort by ESMO to bring together leading specialists in the field to shed light on issues in cancer care that are either controversial or represent burning questions for the practicing oncologists. "The pace of progress in oncology, driven simultaneously by advances in our molecular understanding of cancer and by the unprecedented number of new medicines entering the clinic, inevitably creates gaps in evidence that leave us, as physicians, in doubt about how best to manage certain cases in our practice," said ESMO Director of Education Prof. Florian Lordick, University of Leipzig, Germany. "The ESMO Expert Consensus Statements will meet clinicians in these gaps to offer orientation until more robust data becomes available, in line with ESMO's commitment to providing doctors with continuous education and ensuring access to high-quality care for all cancer patients." Following a modified methodology developed by ESMO in order to guide cancer patient management during the COVID-19 pandemic, the newly published paper presents the results of a consensus-building process on EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) held by ESMO in 2021. The virtual meeting brought together a multidisciplinary panel of 34 international experts on lung cancer to discuss open questions in the management of this tumor subtype, including patient needs and perspectives represented by EGFR-positive patient advocate Jill Feldman. The introduction of EGFR-targeted therapy in the last 15 years has drastically changed the treatment landscape of a disease representing about 15% of non-small cell lung cancers, and there are areas where the optimal approach is still unclear. For example, when it comes to choosing a treatment for patients with concurrent targetable mutations besides EGFR. "We explored this and other issues where the evidence is either limited or conflicting with the aim of producing actionable insights to support oncologists' decision-making in situations that currently cannot be adequately addressed in the evidence-based ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines," said ESMO Chief Medical Officer and paper co-author Prof. George Pentheroudakis explaining the importance of this work. A total of 29 consensus statements were developed covering the role of tissue and biomarker analyses, treatment and follow-up approaches for both early-stage and metastatic disease, as well as the need to initiate specific molecular-driven and molecular-agnostic clinical trials in the future. "Each statement is supported by findings from the panel discussions and accompanied by consensus recommendations with a summary of the evidence supporting them, thus offering a detailed picture for doctors to consider how to translate it to individual patients in their practice," Pentheroudakis added. Noting that efforts are already underway to apply this methodology to further areas of oncological care where uncertainty existsamong them, cancer survivorship care and research, the optimisation of the management of cancer patients treated with radiotherapy concurrently with immunotherapy or targeted agents, and the management of pregnancy-associated breast cancerPentheroudakis concluded that "this document stands as a point of reference for future therapeutic steps in the field of EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer, at a time when new perspectives are continuing to emerge for pathologies with EGFR mutations thanks to the approval of new drugs for specific alterations and the active search for strategies to optimize first-line treatment and better manage resistance. Going forward, ESMO will work consistently to provide the best answers available to other pressing questions that oncology professionalsand patientsneed us to address." More information: A. Passaro et al, ESMO expert consensus statements on the management of EGFR mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Annals of Oncology (2022). Journal information: Annals of Oncology A. Passaro et al, ESMO expert consensus statements on the management of EGFR mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.annonc.2022.02.003 Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study has identified 228 clinical practices in Canada that are used inappropriately, with underuse being more common than overuse. This list includes diagnostic and therapeutic practices such as blood tests and radiography. Published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), the research can help health care professionals, organizations and governments improve patient care and health outcomes. "The dominant finding from our review is that there are large gaps between the care people should receive and the care they do receive," writes lead author Dr. Janet Squires, professor of nursing at the University of Ottawa and a senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital, and coauthors. "We found that, on average, 30.0% of the care received by people in Canada as assessed in the included research papers using the Institute of Medicine's definitions of underuse and overuse, was deemed inappropriate." Researchers included 174 studies that evaluated whether clinical practices in Canada were meeting evidence-based guidelines. Together, these studies included 228 clinical practices and evaluated more than 28.9 million patients between 2007 and 2021. The researchers found inappropriate care in 30% of cases, with a median score of 44% for underuse and a median of 14% for overuse in diagnostics and therapeutics. Certain diagnostics were underused, such as glycated hemoglobin tests, lipid panel blood tests and diabetic eye exams. The most frequently overused diagnostics were the blood test for thyroid-stimulating hormone, chest radiographs and Pap tests. Inappropriate care can lead to harm from the use or lack of use of a therapy or diagnostic procedure, contribute to negative patient experiences, and lead to poor health outcomes and inefficient use of scarce health care resources. "We found that many clinical practices received by people in Canada are inappropriate; whether that practice is diagnostic or therapeutic, it frequently does not meet recommended standards," the authors write. They suggest that provincial and territorial governments, as well as quality improvement organizations, can use these findings to improve health care quality and conduct additional research. Clinicians can reference the list of clinical practices, especially the top 42 most-studied practices, to identify priorities for change. In a related commentary, Dr. Kaveh Shojania, a general internist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, suggests that refocusing priorities on social determinants of health like housing, education, air and water quality, early childhood development and more could have greater impact than narrower system changes. This perspective is especially important, given the massive challenges facing the health system from the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid epidemic and other threats. "Interventions addressing these factors would likely offer larger returns on investment than generating small increases in the uptake of recommended practices that mostly have small absolute impacts on health," writes Dr. Shojania. Explore further Small primary care practices that received training in quality measures to enhance care improved patient outcomes More information: Janet E. Squires et al, Inappropriate use of clinical practices in Canada: a systematic review, Canadian Medical Association Journal (2022). Janet E. Squires et al, Inappropriate use of clinical practices in Canada: a systematic review,(2022). DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.211416 Kaveh G. Shojania, What problems in health care quality should we target as the world burns around us?, Canadian Medical Association Journal (2022). DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.220134 Journal information: Canadian Medical Association Journal An actor wearing a contemporary version of 18th-century lead-based makeup. Credit: Shutterstock Eighteenth-century socialites have been depicted as vain, silly women who were poisoned by their white lead makeup. The Countess of Coventry, Maria Gunninga society hostess reknowned for her beautyis said to have refused to stop wearing foundation containing white lead, even as she lay dying. Why would women of that era knowingly choose to wear makeup that was killing them? Was beauty worth dying for? Or was the makeup not to blame? I am a scientist who has been studying lead poisoning for 30 years, with a particular interest in women's exposure to lead. My research shows that women metabolize lead differently from men, women exposed to lead as children have elevated blood lead levels 20 years later, and women exposed to lead are at risk of hypertension and early menopause. The stories about white lead makeup poisoning did not make sense to me, so two years ago, I decided to start studying these cosmetics. Historical techniques My research group makes white lead makeup from recipes dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. If you look around the makeup counters of a department store, you will see words such as "illuminate," "radiance," "glow" and "luminous." You'll also see products that promise to reduce shine or blur imperfections. These modern products change the way light is reflected from the skin, which is perceived as enhancing beauty. We wanted to know if white lead makeup had some of these properties, so we studied the color and level of light reflected by the makeup using an optical spectrometer. Our most surprising finding has been that white lead makeup can look quite pretty and natural. It does not look like the bright white mask that we have seen depicted on screens and stagesit is generally much more subtle and sophisticated. Dying to be Beautiful: Exploring the look and toxicity of 18th century makeup. We test the makeup on ethically sourced pigskin. The pigs we use have a pale complexion that is very close to the lightest color of human skin, which burns easily and does not tan well. The white lead makeup usually does not change the color of this skin much at all. Titanium oxide is the modern substitute for white lead. When we used titanium oxide in the makeup recipes, the color change was dramatic. There was a shift towards blue, and the makeup appeared startlingly white. Actors wearing makeup formulations made from old white lead recipes with a titanium substitute are wearing the wrong color. Color changes We tested different historical makeup recipes to see how the color would be affected. One recipe made no measurable change to the color, while another changed yellow tones slightly. Adding a yellow tone to pale skin is perceived as more attractive, due to its connection to fruit and vegetable consumption. A third makeup mixture reduced redness in the skin, something that today's color-correcting foundation makeup attempts to correct. All the white lead makeups we tested increased the amount of light the skin reflectedreferred to as its reflectance. Skin becomes less reflective as women age, and more reflective skin is associated with a youthful complexion. Specifically, the makeups increased the diffuse reflectance of the skin. Light reflection occurs in two ways. First, light can reflect, as from a mirror. It comes in at an angle and is reflected at that same angle. We call this specular reflection. Objects with a high specular reflection look glossy or shiny. Second, light can reflect or scatter off rough surfaces in several directions. This is diffuse reflection. Objects with high diffuse reflection look blurred or slightly out-of-focus. The increased diffuse reflectance from the white lead makeup gives the skin a "softer" appearance, blurring blemishesanother effect produced by modern cosmetics. The recipes we re-create in our lab create a soft-focus look that blurs wrinkles and blemishes, or the look of a youthful, dewy complexion. A comparison of bare skin with makeup made with white lead and with titanium dioxide replacing the lead carbonate. Modern recipes that use a titanium replacement look whiter and more opaque than the softer yellow-white of lead makeup. Credit: F.E. McNeill, Author provided The ugly price of beauty However, prettiness does come with an ugly side: the celebration of white skin. While the overall measured color shifts on pale skin are small, spectral changes do make the skin look lighter. These were products that would have enhanced the whiteness of skin. Historians, anthropologists and sociologists have long studied skin whitening and the reasons people may choose to do this. Our science shows how white lead makeup could achieve this in a subtle way, like an earlier version of "no-makeup" makeup. We have also been testing whether some makeup formulations allow lead to be absorbed through the skin. White lead cannot be absorbed easily through skin, it is only toxic if eaten or inhaled. However, if the makeup formulations changed the form of the lead, or softened the outer layer of the skin, some lead could diffuse through. This would make those makeup formulations more poisonous. Our research is showing some evidence of differences in skin absorbance, meaning some recipes were more toxic than others. It is possible that some recipes could have been used with little problem. Other recipes, which made young women deathly ill, were probably so poisonous because the lead was absorbed through the skin. So far, our research suggests that most white lead makeup recipes probably didn't kill 18th century socialites by being absorbed through the skin. But some recipes were more toxic than others. The most toxic mixture we have observed so far is the very simple formulation said to have been used by England's Queen Elizabeth I: a mixture of white lead and vinegar. This mixture passed lead through the skin in much higher quantities than other recipes. This raises the question of whether it is worth revisiting whether some of Elizabeth I's health problems were due to, or exacerbated by, lead poisoning. Explore further #Nomakeup trend fails to discourage use of cosmetics This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Policy-makers should engage more closely with social scientists to understand the socio-economic, cultural and political contexts behind the behaviors we need to change in response to global crises. A region-wide assessment has found that opportunities were missed to involve social scientists in national COVID-19 response strategies in Southern and Southeast Asia. The report, "The Role of Social Sciences in COVID-19 responses in Asia," was a collaboration between the Global Development Network and the Asia Research Centre at Universitas Indonesia, with support from the International Development Research Centre, Canada. "COVID-19 containment measures in Asia have not benefited from understanding the contexts of how the pandemic is spreading," says Inaya Rakhmani, director of Universitas Indonesia's Asia Research Centre. "Individuals have been blamed for not modifying their behaviors without understanding what is behind their reluctance. Social science research plays a critical role in providing insights into human behavior." A team of researchers examined how social science was mobilized in 11 Asian countries as part of national COVID-19 response strategies. They conducted literature reviews and interviews with various stakeholders to determine the extent of involvement of social scientists in decision-making mechanisms, how pandemic-related social science research was funded, and to evaluate current and emerging initiatives led by social scientists in the region. The researchers found that governments often viewed the pandemic as a medical and security issue, overlooking its socio-cultural dimensions. Bureaucratic and sometimes military personnel dominated many national pandemic commissions, with scientist involvement largely restricted to the fields of medicine and macro-economics. Social scientist involvement, on the other hand, was minimal, limited to managing large datasets and statistical information, and was mainly at lower administrative levels. "Opportunities were missed to design effective, context-specific COVID-19 response policies," says Francesco Obino, head of programs at the Global Development Network. "Countries often emulated each other, for example by implementing lockdowns, without giving enough consideration to the impacts on different groups in their societies, such as women, schoolchildren, daily wagers, migrants and people with disabilities. The knowledge and capacities to understand those impacts exist, but were only marginally mobilized by COVID-19 taskforces." "Policymakers in Asia are not recognizing some of the social dimensions of health," adds cultural anthropologist Rosalia Sciortino of Thailand's Mahidol University. "For example, social science research can reveal the socio-economic and cultural contexts that impact compliance to mask-wearing and social distancing measures and perceptions about vaccines. If we understand the contexts, we can design more successful context-specific strategies." Despite the missing connection with policy-makers, Asia's social scientists were able to spark public discussions by communicating their findings through the media. These discussions sometimes impacted government decision-making. Social scientists also partnered with non-governmental organizations to use their research to improve work availability during the pandemic in countries like Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The field also benefited from corporate and international funding despite a comparative lack of national investment in social science research related to the pandemic. "Social scientists must break down the barriers standing in the way of a more integrated involvement in multi-dimensional crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change," says Sciortino. "We need to enhance the visibility of what we do to ensure that social sciences fully contribute to reshaping our common future in a more sustainable and just manner." Explore further Perceptions shaped social behavior during the pandemic More information: Social Sciences and Covid-19: The Southeast Asia Response: Social Sciences and Covid-19: The Southeast Asia Response: www.gdn.int/sites/default/files/u115/Southeast %20Asia%20Compendium.pdf Provided by International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Syringe services programssites where people who use drugs can access sterile syringes and dispose of injection equipmentoften face political backlash. But a new study shows the effectiveness of these programs in both curbing HIV transmission among people who use drugs and preventing future outbreaks. In a rural American setting that had previously experienced one of the largest HIV outbreaks among people who use drugs, a simulation suggested that closing the existing syringe services programs would likely lead to a rebound HIV outbreak, with an almost 60% increase in infections among people who use drugs in five years. Even closing the program temporarily would lead to an increase in cases of HIV, the study showed. "Our work shows that shutting down syringe services programs has immediate and detrimental impacts on people who use drugs and the broader community," said senior author Brandon Marshall, an associate professor of epidemiology at Brown University. "We should be expanding access and increasing sustainable funding to these programs to prevent future outbreaks." The analysis, published in the journal AIDS, presents the first study to the researchers' knowledge to quantitatively examine the impact of syringe services program closure on HIV incidence. Syringe services programs are community-based prevention programs that provide services such as referrals to substance use disorder treatment, access to and disposal of sterile syringes and injection equipment, and vaccination, testing and connections to care for infectious diseases. They're effective in curbing the transmission of HIVas long as they remain in operation, the researchers said. In 2015, Scott County, Indiana, experienced one of the largest outbreaks in the U.S. of HIV among people who use drugs: Out of fewer than 24,000 residents, 181 people were diagnosed with HIV infection, corresponding to an incidence rate over 50 times the national average. In response, the county implemented a syringe services program that had to be renewed every two years. As the two-year deadline approached and the Scott County commissioners voted to end the program, researchers from Brown, in collaboration with scientists from Boston University, Yale University, New York University and Simon Fraser University in Canada, set up a simulation modeling study to estimate the impact of the program closure. The team created a model to simulate HIV risk behaviors and transmission in adults in Scott County who inject drugs as well as those who do not. They projected HIV incidence and prevalence between 2020 and 2025 for four scenarios: persistent program operation (no pause; no closure); permanent closure; delayed closure (after two years); and temporary closure (for 12 months). According to lead study author Xiao Zang, a postdoctoral research associate in epidemiology at Brown, the idea underlying the model was to replicate the epidemic in Scott County, including the number of people participating in the syringe services program and the benefits they received. The researchers worked with the Scott County Department of Health to obtain local data for the program, and also used behavioral data to find estimates of how often people who inject drugs share injections. To make sure the model was accurately replicating reality, Zang said that the team made substantial efforts to calibrate their model against local surveillance data from the Indiana State Department of Health, which reports the number of new HIV diagnoses each year as well as mortality among people with HIV. The analysis found that compared to sustained operation, permanently closing the syringe services program would result in an average increase of 63.5 HIV infections over a five-year period, an increase of 58.4%. Among people who inject drugs, suspending the program permanently would result in an average of 60.2 more infections (an increase of 161%), growing the existing high level of prevalence (48% in 2019 based on model estimates) to even higher at 60.8%. If the program closure was delayed by two years, the researchers estimated 42.4 additional HIV infections (a 38.9% increase) compared with sustaining operation. In the model of temporary closure for one year (April 2020 to March 2021), they estimated an average of 11.6 (35.3%) more infections during 2020-2021. "Our analysis shows that even a short-term service disruption may cause a spike in HIV incidence," Zang said. The implications of the research can be generalized to other rural counties across the U.S., Zang said, especially those identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as vulnerable to rapid HIV transmission. Zang added that this type of simulation can help communities make health policy decisions in the absence of timely data. "This simulation model provides another way of examining and evaluating health policy impact of interventions in the real world," Zang said. "We hope that these results will help decision-makers understand the devastating impact that closing a center will have on the community." Explore further What is harm reduction? More information: Xiao Zang et al, The impact of syringe services program closure on the risk of rebound HIV outbreaks among people who inject drugs, AIDS (2022). Journal information: AIDS Xiao Zang et al, The impact of syringe services program closure on the risk of rebound HIV outbreaks among people who inject drugs,(2022). DOI: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000003199 Credit: CC0 Public Domain When Greg and Sugar Bull were ready to start a family, health challenges necessitated that they work with a gestational surrogate. The woman who carried and gave birth to their twins lived two states away. The pregnancy went well until the surrogate experienced high blood pressure and other symptoms of preeclampsia, which could have harmed her and the babies. Doctors ordered an emergency delivery at 34 weeks' gestation. Both infants had to spend more than a week in the neonatal intensive care unit. It was April 2020, early in the pandemic. Unable to take a plane, the Bulls drove from their home in Huntington Beach, California, to the hospital in Provo, Utah. They had to quarantine in Utah before they could see the children in the hospital. A couple of weeks later, after the babies could eat and breathe on their own, the Bulls took them home to California. Then the bills came. The Patients: Scarlett and Redford Bull, newborn twins covered by a Cigna policy sponsored by Greg Bull's employer. The gestational surrogate had her own insurance, which covered her care. Medical Service: Neonatal intensive care when the babies were born prematurely after emergency induced labor. Scarlett spent 16 days in the NICU; Redford, 10. Total Bill: $117,084. The hospital was out of network for the infants. Cigna paid for some of Scarlett's care, for reasons the Bulls couldn't figure out. The Bulls were left on the hook for about $80,000, for both babies. Their account was ultimately sent to collections. Service Provider: Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah, one of 24 hospitals run by Intermountain Healthcare, a nonprofit with about $8 billion in revenue. What Gives: The Bulls' ordeal points up a loophole in coverage for emergency careeven under the No Surprises Act, which took effect Jan. 1 and outlaws many kinds of surprise medical bills. Patients who need prompt, lifesaving treatment often don't have time to find an in-network hospital. In the past, health plans sometimes have said they would pay for emergency care even if it's out of network. The No Surprises Act now makes this a legal requirement in every state. The provider and insurer are supposed to negotiate a reasonable payment, leaving the patient out of the equation. But what if the insurance company denies that the care is for an emergency? Or the hospital doesn't supply the paperwork to prove it? That's what happened to the Bulls. Cigna said it lacked documentation that the NICU care for the twins qualified as an emergency. So the Bulls began receiving insurance explanations showing huge balances owed to Utah Valley. The family had expected to owe its out-of-network, out-of-pocket maximum of $10,000 for the twins' care. They assumed most of the bills would be paid by Cigna soon. They weren't. "I was, like, there is no way this can be real," said Sugar Bull, an interior designer. "Dear Scarlett Bull," began one of Cigna's letters, addressed to a 6-month-old baby. "We found the service requested is not medically necessary." How could NICU care not qualify? The gestational surrogate was admitted to obstetrics by her doctor without going through the emergency department, which prompted Cigna to initially conclude there was no emergency, said Dylan Kirksey of Resolve Medical Bills, a consultancy that eventually worked with the Bulls to resolve the claims. To establish that there was, Cigna asked for daily progress notes and other medical records on the infants. The Bulls tried to get the hospital to comply. Cigna kept saying it hadn't received the necessary documentation. The Bulls appealed. Sugar spent hours with insurance paperwork and hold music. But almost a year later, about $80,000 in bills remained. Utah Valley sent the accounts to collections, Sugar Bull said. It was the last thing she had time for. "I own a company, and I am super busy, and we had twins," she said. "Every two weeks or so, I would feel a panic and righteous anger about it. And I would keep pushing and calling, and it would take like five hours every time." Though they disputed what they were being charged, the Bulls agreed to pay the hospital $500 a month for five years to settle just one of the babies' bills, in an attempt to keep their good credit. Resolution: With seemingly nowhere else to turn, the family hired Resolve, which beats a path through the claims jungle in return for a portion of the money it saves clients. "It was a lot of prodding" to get Utah Valley to give Cigna the information it needed to pay the hospital, said Kirksey, a senior advocate with Resolve, which was founded in 2019 and has 16 employees. He said he had to give the hospital a detailed list of steps to take and then follow up with multiple calls and emails per week. In the end, most of the errors causing the Bulls' nightmare were on the hospital's side, Kirksey said. But instead of supplying what Cigna needed, Utah Valley went after the Bulls. "The hospital repeatedly failed to provide a detailed list of services and important clinical information, despite our continuous efforts to secure the information," said Cigna spokesperson Meaghan MacDonald. "There were no errors on the hospital's part," said Utah Valley spokesperson Daron Cowley. "Utah Valley Hospital properly billed for services provided to the twins and provided the requested information to Cigna in a timely manner." The hospital didn't bill the Bulls for outstanding balances until nine months after the twins were born and didn't send the accounts to collections until six months after that, "after the family did not return the legally required paperwork to set up a payment plan," he said. Finally, in fall 2021, the bills were settled. The twins were 1 years old. To compensate Resolve for curing the balance, the Bulls paid the company about 10%$8,000. The fee, though substantial and unrelated to medical care, was worth it to avoid the much larger debt, said Greg Bull, who works in finance. "At the end of the day, it was such a relief for it to be a smaller amount," he said. Still, many families could not have afforded it. The Takeaway: About 1 in 5 emergency room visits are at facilities that are out of network for the patient's insurance, research has shown. The No Surprises Act requires insurers to cover non-network emergency treatment with the same patient cost sharing as in-network care. It also prohibits hospitals from billing patients extra. But if the insurer denies that the care was for an emergency or doesn't obtain documentation to prove it, the claim can still be rejected and the patient left on the hook. "That's a coding issue we see a lot," said Kirksey, especially "if the person didn't literally check in through the emergency room." If this happens, insurance experts urge patients to immediately appeal the decision to the insurance company, a process the law requires to be available. Unfortunately, that usually requires more phone calls, paperwork, and waiting. (If the appeal with the insurer fails, patients can then turn to an independent reviewer, like their state insurance board, state attorney general's office, or the No Surprises Help Desk.) "It would be a critical step for the consumer to leverage their appeal rights and get the determination that it was an emergency service from the get-go," said Kevin Lucia, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. Once it's established that the visit was for an emergency, he said, protections from the No Surprises Act clearly apply. The No Surprises Act is a step in the right direction. But it is clear that loopholes and minefields remain. Explore further A surprise no one wants: Big medical bill even with coverage 2022 Kaiser Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A new modelling study suggests that when patients who inject opioids continue an antibiotic treatment for infective endocarditis outside of the hospital, they experience better long-term health outcomes than patients who receive the standard four to six weeks of inpatient, intravenous antibiotic therapy. In addition to reducing infective endocarditis-related deaths and extending life expectancy, this analysis suggests that these outpatient strategies are more cost-effective than the standard approach. The study was published today in JAMA Network Open and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Endocarditis is a life-threatening inflammation of the heart valves. One in 10 hospitalizations for endocarditis is associated with injection drug use, and these numbers continue to rise. Many drugs can be taken via injection, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and opioids like heroin and fentanyl. Inadequate access to sterile injection equipment is common, and dramatically increases risk of infection in people who use drugs. Though more immediately fatal than HIV and hepatitis C virus, which are also spread by injection drug use, endocarditis is not as well-known. Research estimates that if current trends continue, more than 250,000 Americans will die of drug use-associated endocarditis from 2020 to 2030. "Endocarditis is one of the numerous harms associated with injecting drugs," said NIDA Director Nora. D. Volkow, M.D. "Developing effective, patient-centered treatment for this potentially fatal condition is critical. It is also imperative to embrace and implement harm reduction strategies, such as syringe services programs, which we know can help prevent endocarditis in the first place." Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, and Boston Medical Center sought to better understand the effects of different treatment strategies for drug use-associated endocarditis, a serious condition that can lead to death. To properly treat this condition, patients often need weeks of inpatient intravenous antibiotic therapy or, in some cases, heart surgery. This lengthy treatment regimen presents hospitalized patients with physical, mental, financial, and social challenges. Twenty percent of patients admitted with drug use-associated endocarditis leave the hospital before completing treatment. Very few patientsless than 8% are subsequently connected with addiction care services that provide further healthcare and support upon discharge. These factors highlight a pressing need for alternative therapies that shorten hospitalization time or allow patients to complete treatment even after they leave the hospital. Prior studies have demonstrated that intravenous or oral antibiotics that patients can take at home or in community-operated health facilities are as safe and effective as inpatient intravenous antibiotics. However, there are few investigations into these alternative treatment strategies, largely because of stigmatized beliefs about people who use drugs and their potential misuse of treatment catheters, or PICC lines, used to administer intravenous treatments. Led by Joshua Barocas, M.D., associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, researchers investigated the efficacy of outpatient treatment for infective endocarditis. They created a robust model that simulated the natural history of injection opioid use in 5 million individuals. The population for this model had a mean age of 42 and were 70% male, reflecting the age and gender demographics for the U.S. population who inject opioids, informed by previous studies and the U.S. Census. The researchers compared life expectancies, rates of treatment completion, endocarditis and overdose deaths, and average costs across four treatment strategies in these individuals. Two of these treatment strategies offered the standard four to six weeks of inpatient intravenous antibiotics, either with or without inpatient addiction care services. The other two strategies provided three weeks of inpatient intravenous antibiotics and addiction care services followed by either outpatient intravenous or oral antibiotics. Of note, the scientists accounted for socioeconomic challenges such as homelessness by assuming that only half of the hospitalized patients could receive at-home intravenous antibiotics. In individuals hypothesized to contract infective endocarditis according to the model, the researchers found a substantial increase in life expectancy and reduction in deaths caused by endocarditis or overdose for individuals who received outpatient intravenous antibiotics, oral antibiotics, or inpatient addiction care services in addition to standard treatment compared to the standard approach. Of all four strategies, the addition of oral antibiotics and outpatient intravenous antibiotics led to the greatest cure rates (80.3% and 78.8%, respectively, compared to 77.6% for inpatient intravenous antibiotic therapy plus addiction care services and 77.6% for inpatient intravenous antibiotic therapy only). The strategy that included outpatient intravenous antibiotics also cost less than any of the other strategies ($412,150 per person compared to $413,920 for additional oral antibiotics, $416,570 for inpatient intravenous antibiotics, and $416,990 for inpatient intravenous antibiotics and addiction care services). The researchers suggest that these strategies could save the healthcare system more than $6 billion in hospitalizations alone for the yearly estimated 750,000 Americans who inject drugs. The researchers say these results should be tested in randomized clinical trials that do not exclude people who inject drugs from participation. They also emphasize the need for a national surveillance system for injection drug use-related endocarditis, based on existing surveillance strategies for HIV and hepatitis C. Expanding research in this area could strengthen evidence for patient-centered decision making when offering treatment strategies for endocarditis. "Outpatient treatment approaches for endocarditis may not only save lives, but also save money that could then be allocated to evidence-based programs for the opioid crisis," said Dr. Barocas. "These strategies include promoting safer injection and other harm reduction techniques, improving access to medications for opioid use disorder, and funding outpatient support systems. This would allow people who use drugs to not only heal from endocarditis but do so in a way that they can more easily return to work, to life, and to family." Explore further Less antibiotic use in dentistry shows no increase in endocarditis More information: JW Adams, et al. Simulated cost-effectiveness and long-term clinical outcomes associated with strategies for addiction care and antibiotics for infective endocarditis related to drug use. JAMA Network Open. Journal information: JAMA Network Open JW Adams, et al. Simulated cost-effectiveness and long-term clinical outcomes associated with strategies for addiction care and antibiotics for infective endocarditis related to drug use. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.0541 (2022). Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Researchers from King's College London and the British HIV Association (BHIVA), with input from HIV community members of the UK Community Advisory Board (UK-CAB), have launched a tool to support people with HIV and help healthcare professionals understand where to focus their care. POSITIVE Outcomes is a simple tool which can quickly identify what matters to people living with HIV, and so enable care that is centered on the individual. It is the result of a five-year collaboration between researchers from the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King's College London, BHIVA and the UK-CAB. Routine use of the tool will have numerous benefits for both people living with HIV and the healthcare professionals delivering their care. For people living with HIV, the intended benefits include enhanced communication, assessment, empowerment, and decision-making. For clinicians, the tool will improve identification of 'missed' concerns, offer better referral, inform treatment decisions and improve monitoring of change over time. It will also help to inform service design and delivery, justification of spending and improved care provision. Professor Richard Harding, Vice Dean (International) of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care and Director of the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, said that "despite HIV being a manageable, long-term health condition for those who can access modern treatments, people living with HIV continue to experience burdensome physical, psychological, social and spiritual problems. The POSITIVE Outcomes tool has been developed in collaboration with healthcare professionals and people living with HIV to ensure that each individual's needs are identified in the most efficient way, so that their care can address those needs." Despite today's highly effective medical management of HIV, research shows that people living with the condition have worse health-related quality of life than the general population and experience symptoms and concerns that span many areas, including physical, cognitive, psychological, social, welfare and information. BHIVA Chair, Dr. Laura Waters, said that they "are delighted to be launching the POSITIVE Outcomes tool. Testing has demonstrated that it is clear and understandable, and that it measures what matters most to people living with HIV themselves. This means it will help us as clinicians to offer tailored treatment to each patient on an individual basis. We are confident that it will be of great benefit to both people with HIV and healthcare practitioners." Alex Sparrowhawk, Chair of the UK-CAB, said that "a diverse group of members from the UK-CAB contributed to the early stages of the development of the POSITIVE Outcomes tool to identify the outcomes that really matter to us as people living with HIV. We also looked at methodology and language, recognizing that time with clinicians and other medical professionals is limited, making it essential that each individual's needs can be identified quickly and efficiently." The research group completed three phases of study which informed the tool's development. In the first stage, they identified priority outcomes for people living with HIV and explored views on introducing patient-centered outcomes measures (PROMs) into routine care. A PROM is a brief list of the things that matter most to people living with a health condition, which enables the person to score what is bothering them, and thus to quickly inform healthcare professionals where they should focus. This initial stage, published in HIV Medicine, found that study participants strongly supported the idea of a PROM for use in routine care. In the second phase, published in Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, a group comprised of researchers, healthcare professionals and people living with HIV came together to develop a PROM specifically for people living with HIV in the UK and Ireland, spanning the symptoms and concerns highlighted by the first-stage data. The third stage of the study focused on testing the tool to ensure that it measures what it should, and that it does so accurately. 1,392 people across five European countries took part in the final phase, published in HIV Medicine, completing the POSITIVE Outcomes at least twice. Explore further Hospital-based specialist palliative care may slightly improve patient experience More information: Positive outcomes tool: Positive outcomes tool: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action pplement?doi=10.1111 %2Fhiv.13224&file=hiv13224-sup-0001-Supinfo.pdf K Bristowe et al, Towards personcentred care for people living with HIV : what core outcomes matter, and how might we assess them? A crossnational multicentre qualitative study with key stakeholders, HIV Medicine (2019). DOI: 10.1111/hiv.12758 K. Bristowe et al, The development and cognitive testing of the positive outcomes HIV PROM: a brief novel patient-reported outcome measure for adults living with HIV, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes (2020). DOI: 10.1186/s12955-020-01462-5 Richard Harding et al, Positive Outcomes: Validity, reliability and responsiveness of a novel personcentred outcome measure for people with HIV, HIV Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1111/hiv.13224 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Recent studies estimate that 1.8% to 2.7%or approximately 750,000 to 1.1 millionadolescents in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary. Many of these trans youth experience high levels of negative mental health symptoms due to anti-transgender stigma, discrimination and lack of family or peer support. A 2021 study found that as much as 72% of trans youth were depressed, and half had seriously considered suicide. We are an epidemiologist and fourth-year medical student who study ways to make clinical care more inclusive for trans and nonbinary people. We conducted a study in collaboration with the Seattle Children's Hospital Gender Clinic that found that transgender youth on puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone therapy are less likely to report depression and suicidal thoughts. Safe and proven treatments Puberty blockers are medications that delay puberty. By temporarily stopping the body from making the hormones that lead to puberty-related changes, young people and their families are given time to pause and make health decisions. These medications have been used for over 30 years to treat young people with puberty that starts too early, also called precocious puberty. Gender-affirming hormone therapy, like testosterone or estrogen, are medications that allow trans youth to experience a puberty appropriately aligned with their gender. There is no shortage of scientific and clinical societies that have found these medications to be both safe and effective for transgender people. Numerous medical and professional societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Medical Association, endorse access to gender-affirming care specifically for trans youth. Social support, as well as access to gender-affirming care, is known to significantly reduce poor mental health in trans youth. In addition, several recent studies have suggested that early access to puberty blockers and hormones during adolescence can have long-term positive effects that last into adulthood. Despite these benefits, many young people face significant barriers in accessing gender-affirming care. Only 1 in 5 youth who need hormones have been able to access them. To further examine the mental health effects of puberty blockers and hormone therapy, we followed 104 trans and nonbinary youth ages 13 to 20 during their first year of gender-affirming care. After one year, we found that young people who began puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones were 60% less likely to be depressed and 73% less likely to have thoughts about self-harm or suicide compared to youth who hadn't started these medications. In addition, young people who were unable to start these medications within three to six months of their first appointment with a medical provider had a two- to threefold increase in depression and suicidal thoughts. Our findings suggest that delays in prescribing hormones and puberty blockers may worsen mental health symptoms for trans youth. What this means for anti-transgender legislation 2021 and 2022 have been record-breaking years for anti-transgender legislation, including attempts to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth. Banning gender-affirming care will have immediate and long-term negative effects on the well-being of trans youth and their families, both by increasing the stigma and discrimination these young people face and by denying them access to critical life-saving and evidence-based health care. Our study builds on existing scientific evidence and underscores that timely access to gender-affirming care saves trans youth lives. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Hong Kong may impose a China-style hard lockdown that confines people to their homes, authorities signalled Monday, with the city's zero-COVID strategy in tatters and bodies piling up in hospitals. Two years of strict zero-COVID policies kept the coronavirus largely bay but a breakthrough of the highly transmissible Omicron variant exposed how little authorities had done to prepare for a mass outbreak. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam previously ruled out a citywide lockdown and instead has ordered all 7.4 million residents to be tested in March. But in a U-turn, health secretary Sophia Chan confirmed on Monday that it was still an option. Asked by a presenter at Commercial Radio whether a lockdown was still ruled out she replied: "No. We are still discussing." "From a public health perspective, to bring out the best effect of compulsory universal testing, we need to reduce people's movements to some extent," she added. Chan's comments came a day after Li Dachuan, a senior mainland official involved in a joint taskforce with Hong Kong authorities, described a lockdown as "the most ideal and best approach to achieve the best effect of universal tests". The revelation adds fresh uncertainty and anxiety for residents and businesses in a city gripped by the kind of chaos that was more familiar at the start of the pandemic. Hong Kong announced 26,000 new infections and 83 deaths on Sunday alone. Before the current wave, the city had recorded just 12,000 cases from the start of the pandemic. Hospitals have been stretched to breaking point for weeks and on Sunday officials revealed bodies are piling up at hospitals because mortuaries are full. "At this moment, we face a problem of transportation of dead bodies from hospital to public mortuary," Hospital Authority chief manager Lau Ka-hin told reporters. "That's why there are some bodies who were initially planned to be transported to public mortuary, but stayed in hospital." High mortality rate Hong Kong's seven-day average death rate is currently running at around eight per one million people. That compares with five per million for the United States, 1.80 for Britain and 1.36 for Singapore which, like Hong Kong, initially opted for zero-COVID but shifted more recently to a mitigation strategy and reopening to the wider world. On Sunday officials revealed that 91 percent of those who have died in the current wave were not fully vaccinated. The vast majority of the dead are elderly with the virus ripping through care homes in the densely populated city. Despite ample supplies Hong Kong had poor vaccination rates among over-70s before Omicron struck. China is now increasingly calling the shots on Hong Kong's response with the joint taskforce operating out of the neighbouring city of Shenzhen. Mainland crews are working on constructing a series of temporary hospitals and isolation wards for the infected, although the current caseload far outstrips supply. Among those advising the government is Liang Wannian, a senior mainland official that the South China Morning Post reported was arriving in Hong Kong on Monday. Liang was a key architect of the successful two-month long lockdown in Wuhan where the coronavirus first emerged, a strategy China has continued to deploy in other cities as soon as cases are detected. But Wuhan's official toll was just 53,000 cases, a fraction of the caseload in Hong Kong which is also battling a much more infectious variant. Explore further Hong Kong leader says city 'overwhelmed' by Omicron wave 2022 AFP MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Who hasn't had the urge to trace their roots by buying consumer genetic testing kits? But in a new report, researchers warn that you may come across some unexpected, and potentially troubling, information if you discover relatives this way. "If you're going to participate in one of these services, you should be ready to learn something about your family that you werent necessarily expecting to learn," said study author Christi Guerrini, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy in Houston. In their research, Guerrini and her colleagues surveyed more than 23,000 people who used genetic testing services such as AncestryDNA and FamilyTreeDNA and found that 46% said they were motivated by general curiosity, not a specific intention to find a relative. However, 82% of the survey respondents said they learned the identity of at least one genetic relative, and 61% said they found out something new about themselves or their relatives, including potentially unsettling information, such as the revelation they were adopted or donor conceived. The study also showed that 3% of respondents learned that a person they thought was their biological parent was not, while 5% discovered they had previously unknown full or half siblings, according to the study published Feb. 24 in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Still, the vast majority of respondents reported either no impact or positive or neutral outcomes of testing, and most did not regret their decision to participate in testing. Some respondents even said they made positive changes in their lives, such as taking steps to improve their health or embracing new cultural activities. However, a small percentage of respondents said their findings had a harmful effect on their lives and their sense of self. Negative consequences and regrets about doing the testing were more likely among people who found out that a person they believed was their biological parent was not. "The outcome of learning about a relative may depend on a number of factors -- for example, whether newly discovered family members are receptive or whether the discovery leads to estrangement with known family," Guerrini said in a Baylor news release. "Looking ahead, it's really important that mental health and social support resources are available to help individuals cope with their experiences." Study senior author Amy McGuire is director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. "As the popularity of direct-to-consumer testing continues to grow, it's crucial that we understand the experiences of people using these products and provide support as they explore the most basic questions of their existence: who they are, and where they come from," she said in the release. More information For more on direct-to-consumer genetic testing, go to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. SOURCE: Baylor College of Medicine, news release, Feb. 24, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Although Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has deemed it "child abuse," access to "gender-affirming" services cuts the odds of severe depression and maybe even suicide among transgender teens, a new study finds. Investigators came to that conclusion after tracking the mental health of 104 transgender and nonbinary kids, aged 13 to 20. Over a year, roughly two-thirds received puberty blockers, gender-affirming hormone treatment or both; the remainder had no treatment. Those who got treatment experienced a 60% drop in depression risk and a 73% drop in suicidal thoughts, on average, researchers found. "Our study builds on what we have already seen from an already staggering amount of scientific research," explained study lead author Diana Tordoff. "Access to gender-affirming care saves trans youths lives." The finding flies in the face of a push by Abbott to criminalize medical care for transgender teens in Texas. Last week, Abbott sent a new policy position letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, noting that failure to report such treatment could result in criminal penalties. The term gender-affirming treatment "describes care provided by health care professionals who are affirming of transgender peoples gender and are trained to provide competent and inclusive health care services," explained Tordoff, a doctoral candidate in the department of epidemiology at the University of Washington. Alongside hormones and puberty blockers, such care can also include menstrual suppression and/or surgery, she noted. About 150,000 American teens and 1.4 million adults currently identify as transgender, according to data cited by the American Medical Association and GLMA (Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality). The study participants were patients at the Seattle Children's Gender Clinic. About 60% were transgender males (assigned female at birth); about a quarter were transgender female (assigned male at birth); and 10% were binary, or gender-fluid. Nearly two-thirds were white. At the study's launch between 2017 and 2018, close to 60% of the participants said they were struggling with depression. About half reported feeling anxious, and more than four in 10 said they had contemplated harming themselves or taking their own life. Prior to the investigation, only seven had been treated with either puberty blockers or hormones. But by the end of the year-long study period, 66% ended up receiving one or both. The majority of participants completed mental health surveys three months, six months and one year following study enrollment. In teens who did not undergo hormone or puberty blocking treatment, the risks for depression and suicidal thoughts were found to have doubled or even tripled at the three-month and six-month marks, Tordoff and her colleagues reported in the Feb. 25 issue of JAMA Network Open. By contrast, those who had received treatment reaped a significant mental health dividend. While no impact was seen on anxiety levels, kids treated with hormones and/or puberty blockers saw dramatic drops in both depression and suicide risk. "The results of this new study are in line with several past studies that have linked gender-affirming medical care to improved mental health outcomes for transgender youth," noted Dr. Jack Turban. He is chief fellow of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-author of an accompanying editorial. "This study once again reaffirms that efforts to ban gender-affirming care for transgender and gender diverse youth are dangerous and will lead to adverse mental health outcomes," Turban added. Yet such efforts continue apace. Last year, bills to criminalize gender-affirmation care were introduced in 21 states, although such treatment is widely endorsed as safe and effective by the American Medical Association, GLMA and the Endocrine Society, among others. The Endocrine Society condemned Abbott's position, saying "medical evidence, not politics, should inform treatment decisions." "Being forced to experience puberty consistent with the sex recorded at birth is extremely distressing for many transgender and gender-diverse individuals," the society said in a statement last week. "When an individuals gender identity is not respected and they cannot access medical care, it can result in higher psychological problem scores and can raise the persons risk of committing suicide or other acts of self-harm," the statement continued. Tordoff agreed. Efforts like the one in Texas, she said, "will have profound immediate and long-term negative impacts on the well-being of trans youth and their families, both by increasing stigma and discrimination experienced by these youth, and denying them access to critical, lifesaving, evidence-based health care." She also pointed out that insurance denials for gender-affirming care coverage "are still very common," even though "federal and state law prohibits most public and private health plans from transgender-based discrimination." "This creates significant barriers to accessing gender-affirming care, both for trans youth and adults," Tordoff stressed. More information There's more on gender affirmation treatment at UCSF. SOURCES: Diana M. Tordoff, MPH, PhD candidate, department of epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle; Jack Turban, MD, MHS, chief fellow, child and adolescent psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif.; JAMA Network Open, Feb. 25, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Newly diagnosed diabetes in many COVID-19 patients may be a temporary type triggered by COVID, according to a new study. Blood sugar levels returned to normal in about half of the newly diagnosed diabetes patients after they left the hospital, and only 8% required insulin after one year, according to the report published online recently in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications. "We believe that the inflammatory stress caused by COVID-19 may be a leading contributor to 'new-onset' or newly diagnosed diabetes," said lead author Dr. Sara Cromer, an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. "Instead of directly causing diabetes, COVID-19 may push patients with pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes to see a physician for the first time, where their blood sugar disorder can be clinically diagnosed," she added in a hospital news release. "Our study showed these individuals had higher inflammatory markers and more frequently required admission to hospital ICUs than COVID-19 patients with pre-existing diabetes." For the study, Cromer's team looked at 594 COVID-19 patients who had signs of diabetes when they were admitted to MGH at the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Of those, 78 had no previous diabetes diagnosis. Many had less severe blood sugar levels but more severe COVID-19 than those with a previous diabetes diagnosis, the study found. However, blood sugar did revert to normal in about half of these COVID-linked cases. "This suggests to us that newly diagnosed diabetes may be a transitory condition related to the acute stress of COVID-19 infection," Cromer said. Acute insulin resistance appears to be the key mechanism underlying newly diagnosed diabetes in most COVID-19 patients, and if it occurs, it is generally not permanent, she explained. "These patients may only need insulin or other medications for a short time, and it's therefore critical that physicians closely follow them to see if and when their conditions improve," Cromer added. COVID-19 patients who were newly diagnosed with diabetes were more likely to be younger, non-white, and uninsured or on Medicaid than those with previously diagnosed diabetes, the study found. The researchers said that finding suggests that many of the new cases were pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes in people with limited access to health care services. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published similar findings. More information Learn more about diabetes and COVID-19 at the American Diabetes Association. SOURCE: Massachusetts General Hospital, news release, Feb. 24, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Black women who often encountered racism before age 20 have an increased risk of depression, new research shows. Of the 1,600 Black women in Detroit, aged 25 to 35, who took part in the study, nearly two-thirds said they'd been subjected to some form of racism during adolescence, and more than one-third had symptoms of depression. "Looking across the life course from adolescence through the 20s, Black women with persistently high frequency and high stress related to racism had the highest risk for depressive symptoms in adulthood than those with persistently low frequency," said study co-author Anissa Vines. She is assistant professor of epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vines said the findings recently published in the Journal of Urban Health show how damaging racism is to the mental health of young people, and "echo what other researchers have been reporting on the implications of adverse childhood experiences on health in later life." Her team also examined whether the amount of social support that the study participants received in childhood and adulthood affected the link between racism and depression. "Though we hypothesized the social support would buffer the effects of racism, we did not find evidence to support this," Vines said in a university news release. The data used in the study were collected between 2010 and 2012 before more recent events that have brought overt acts of racism to the forefront of national attention in the United States. The researchers also pointed out that the women faced a number of challenges, from Detroit's eroding economy to high poverty rates and low educational attainment. "The health of women living in Detroit cannot be separated from the erosion of their physical, emotional, social, economic and political environments," the study authors explained. Even so, they added, "the importance of early-life racism seen in this single geographic area may be broadly generalizable to young Black women in other geographical settings." The findings further highlight that racism is a public health crisis that requires urgent intervention, because it can cause lasting damage to the well-being of people of color, the study team concluded. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about racism and health. SOURCE: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, news release, Feb. 25, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- First-time moms and new mothers of twins may be among those at greatest risk of postpartum depression symptoms, a large new study suggests. Postpartum depression is a common illness. In the United States alone, about one in eight women report depression symptoms soon after giving birth, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research suggests there is a genetic component to postpartum depression, and the hormonal changes of pregnancy may help trigger a depressive episode in vulnerable women, said Dr. Jennifer Payne, who directs the Reproductive Psychiatry Research Program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, in Charlottesville. But additional factors can sway postpartum depression risk. And in the new study of more than 1 million new moms worldwide, Payne's team identified a few. One is age: Depression was most common among women under 25, and rates dipped thereafter. Among those youngest mothers, 10% reported depression symptoms within three months of giving birth. That compared with 8.5% of 25- to 29-year-olds, and 6% to 7% of older women, the findings showed. Past research, Payne said, yielded mixed conclusions on the relationship between age and postpartum depression. Some had suggested that both the youngest and oldest moms are at increased risk. The new study found something different: In general, relatively older women had a lower prevalence of depression symptoms unless they gave birth to twins. Overall, moms of twin newborns more often reported depression symptoms than those who'd had one baby (about 11%, versus 8%). But age mattered, too: Of mothers aged 40 or older, 15% reported depression symptoms, compared to less than 10% of women in their late 30s who had twins. It's not clear why, Payne said. But one question, she noted, is whether infertility treatment plays a role. In theory, there could be effects from the hormonal medications, Payne said. Plus, trying to become pregnant, perhaps after multiple tries, can take a psychological toll. Payne also pointed to another possibility: Women who have their first baby in their 40s and twins, at that are facing a huge change in their lives, which could contribute to depression. First-time motherhood was, in fact, a risk factor for depression across the whole study group. Within each age category, the researchers found, first-time moms had somewhat higher rates of depression symptoms than other women. The findings published in the March 15 issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders are based on responses from more than 1 million women in 138 countries who took an "after childbirth" survey via smartphone app. Roughly 10% reported suffering depression symptoms since giving birth about 90 days prior to the survey. That doesn't mean all of those women had full-on postpartum depression, according to Payne. Some may have had "baby blues" that did not rise to the level of a clinical diagnosis. The point, Payne said, is that women and providers alike should know that postpartum depression is common, and all new moms should be screened for it. Guidelines say screening can be done by both obstetricians and pediatricians, who typically see moms more often. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends screening moms during babies' routine check-ups over the first six months of life. Knowing that certain women are at particular risk is helpful, according to Wendy Davis, executive director of the advocacy group Postpartum Support International, in Portland, Ore. Davis, who was not involved in the study, said it "sheds new light on specific risk and how to make wise investments in prevention." "One of the best prevention strategies is equipping pregnant and postpartum individuals with support and referral resources, and with the message that there is hope and help," Davis said. "This study helps us identify where and with whom those messages will have the most impact." Payne said getting help for postpartum depression is vital not only for women themselves, but for their babies, too. But no one, she stressed, should see depression as some sort of parental failing. "People often seem to think you just have to 'pull yourself together,'" Payne said. "But this is a real illness." According to Dr. Zsakeba Henderson, senior vice president and deputy medical officer of maternal and child health impact at the March of Dimes, "Postpartum depression is the most common complication for women who have just had a baby The sooner you see your provider about postpartum depression, the better. You can get started on treatment so you can take good care of yourself and your baby. Some treatment options can include counseling, support groups or medicine, such as antidepressants." More information Postpartum Support International has resources for new mothers. SOURCES: Jennifer Payne, MD, director, Reproductive Psychiatry Research Program, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville; Wendy Davis, PhD, executive director, Postpartum Support International, Portland, Ore.; Zsakeba Henderson, MD, senior vice president and maternal and child health impact deputy medical officer, March of Dimes, Atlanta; Journal of Affective Disorders, March 15, 2022 You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. A Big Sky High School student was arrested Friday after allegedly making a credible threat of school violence on social media. The student Parker Abbott, 18 told police he was inspired by the Sandy Hook school shooter. An on-site school resource officer received information about Abbott's threat, which was made on Instagram and had been intercepted by the FBI, according to charging documents filed Monday in Missoula County. Law enforcement initially thought the threat came from the Billings area because of the IP address, but was able to determine that Abbott was the suspect. The resource officer alerted administration about the threats and subsequently made contact with Abbott he granted the officer permission to search his backpack and car without a warrant, court documents said. Two notebooks and a crumpled piece of paper were found, which referenced suicidal thoughts and the recent arrest of four people on the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, in which 12 students and one teacher were murdered. Detectives arrived on the scene to assist. They reviewed the Instagram messages, in which Abbott used the handle "adamsrottenflesh." Another person in the chat asked Abbott if he was inspired by mass shooters, to which Abbott replied, "Yeah, mainly Adam Lanza." Lanza was the shooter in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, in which 26 people were killed, 20 of whom were children. Abbott exhibited an obsession with Lanza, including purchasing the same shoes Lanza owned. Abbott was wearing those the day he was arrested. He also talked in the chat about how he has access to his father's firearm. In a chat on Feb. 22, another user asked Abbott why he related to Lanza Abbott replied because of social anxiety and isolation. He mentioned a hatred for people and talked about wanting to hurt them. In his messages, Abbott allegedly said "I was so close to going on a rampage" ... "I had all of my dad's guns and stuff and I was f----- ready" ... "I haven't been as open about my homicidal thoughts." In another message, Abbott said, "It's like hell yea ill show u a school shooter hahah." There were also photos of him posing with a firearm. When interviewed by detectives, Abbott admitted to naming his Instagram handle after the Sandy Hook shooter. He also admitted to typing the concerning messages on Feb. 22, being inspired by Lanza, buying his shoes and posting photos with a semi-automatic firearm on his Instagram account. He denied planning to kill anyone and said he had never taken the gun outside of his house or pointed it at anyone. Abbott is charged with one felony count of intimidation. He is being held at Providence St. Patrick Hospital for evaluation, and a $250,000 warrant was requested by the Missoula County Attorney's Office "to ensure community safety and provide adequate time to develop a comprehensive release plan that will address the significant mental health issues at play in this case," charging documents said. Missoula County Public Schools and the Missoula Police Department waited three days to say anything about Abbott's arrest. Both issued news releases Monday afternoon. The police news release said there is no threat to public safety and no information to indicate if anyone else was involved. The MCPS release, sent shortly after the police version, reminded students, families and staff that they take all threats of school violence with extreme seriousness. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 4 Sad 10 Angry 5 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A Baltimore County man has pleaded guilty to charges that he bribed an Army research biologist in exchange for projects being awarded to his company, a federal prosecutor said. John R. Conigliaro, 60, of Kingsville pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to bribe a public official, according to U.S. Attorney for Maryland Erek Barron. Advertisement Conigliaro owns a company that provides general construction services, including fixed and portable biochemical laboratories. From 2012 to 2019, he bribed a research biologist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, according to the guilty plea. APG is the nations principal research and development center for non-medical chemical and biological weapons defense. Prosecutors said Conigliaro bribed the biologist with cash loans, payments for renovations to rental properties and other things in exchange for directing the centers projects to his company. According to the guilty plea, Conigliaro paid more than $95,000 in bribes, and the biologist directed more than $1 million in contracts to the company. Advertisement Conigliaro is scheduled for sentencing in May. He faces up to five years in prison. March may arrive like a feral lamb as an atmospheric river of precipitation drenches western Montana, producing avalanche warnings for mountains in the Rattlesnake, Seeley Lake and the Bitterroot Range. Very dangerous avalanche conditions are developing throughout the forecast area, West Central Montana Avalanche Center analyst Jeff Carty wrote in his Monday morning bulletin for the Rattlesnake. The Flathead Avalanche Center had similar warnings for mountains in the Whitefish, Swan and Glacier National Park areas. Heavy snowfall and strong winds are rapidly loading the snowpack," Carty wrote. "Temperature and freezing levels will rise throughout the day with rain possible to 7,000 feet, further destabilizing the snowpack. Widespread avalanches are very likely. The centers danger scale was high for upper and middle elevations, and considerable for lower elevations in all three regions. In the wider picture, National Weather Service forecasters observed a major system moving into the Northern Rocky Mountains on Sunday evening and Monday morning. What started as snow on Monday morning switched to rain across much of western Montana by afternoon as temperatures climbed into the low 40s. That sets up the potential for flash freezing on still-frozen ground Tuesday morning. Commuters should prepare for black ice in shaded areas. Small creek and stream flooding is possible in the system, according to NWS forecasts, along with significant rise in mainstem rivers along the Montana-Idaho border. The rainfall will be fairly steady and intense through Tuesday for north central Idaho up into northwest Montana, the NWS alert stated. Many locations will receive 1 to 3 inches of rain during this event with higher amounts in the mountains. The snowpack should be able to absorb the most of the rain, but minor flooding of small streams and creeks will be possible. Mainstem rivers near the Montana/Idaho border will see a significant rise by mid week. Rain should stay steady with temperatures in the 40s for most of the week around Missoula. However, a possible whiff of arctic air might mix in by Friday, returning snow to the mountain passes and restoring freezing temperatures for the weekend. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Here's some of your COVID-19 news for Feb. 27. Many Americans, including parents of school children, have been clamoring for an end to masking while others remain wary that the pandemic could throw a new curveball. Now, states, cities and school districts are assessing Friday's guidance to determine whether its safe to stop mask-wearing long after others threw out such mandates and many Americans ignored them. Under the new guidance, the CDC says people can stop wearing masks if they live in counties where the coronavirus poses a low or medium threat to hospitals accounting for more than 70% of the U.S. population. Two preprint studies posted Saturday offer further evidence that the coronavirus originated in animals and spread to humans in late 2019 at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China. One of the studies -- neither of which has been peer-reviewed or published in a professional journal -- used spatial analysis to show that the earliest known Covid-19 cases, diagnosed in December 2019, were centered on the market. The researchers also report that environmental samples that tested positive for the virus, SARS-CoV-2, were strongly associated with live-animal vendors. Nearly half of the 500 million free COVID-19 tests the Biden administration recently made available to the public still have not been claimed as virus cases plummet and people feel less urgency to test. Wild demand swings have been a subplot in the pandemic, from vaccines to hand sanitizer, along with tests. On the first day of the White House test giveaway in January, COVIDtests.gov received over 45 million orders. Now officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in for the packages of four free rapid tests per household, delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday revised the emergency use authorization for Evusheld, a monoclonal antibody against Covid-19 for immunocompromised people and those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, to double the initial dose. People who've already received the drug should go back for an additional dose as soon as possible, the agency said. "Based on the most recent information and data available, Evusheld may be less active against certain Omicron subvariants. The dosing regimen was revised because available data indicate that a higher dose of Evusheld may be more likely to prevent infection by the COVID-19 Omicron subvariants BA.1 and BA.1.1 than the originally authorized Evusheld dose," the FDA said in a news release. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that a dramatic drop in coronavirus infections could lead to the lifting of vaccine mandates on restaurants, bars and theaters as soon as March 7. His announcement came shortly after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced her own plans Sunday to lift the states mask mandate on schools, effective Wednesday. Adams said the city would also lift the mask mandate on about 1 million of the citys schoolchildren in the countrys largest school system. What in the world is an NFT? How did a DAO nearly make off with an original copy of the U.S. Constitution? Why is Elon Musk tweeting about dog coins? The crypto industry has exploded over the last couple years, leaving most of us scrambling to wrap our heads around the new innovations not to mention the acronyms. What started with the invention of Bitcoin nearly 15 years ago has morphed into an entirely new ecosystem of products, services, and ways of doing business. Montana leaders have a choice to make: either welcome crypto entrepreneurs or watch the economic activity generated by this fast-growing industry move elsewhere. One of the most exciting aspects of the crypto industry is the variety of investment and jobs it can bring. One example is cryptocurrency miners, who use super-fast computers to solve complex mathematical problems which verify transactions on the decentralized network, or blockchain, and receive lucrative cryptocurrency rewards for doing so. Neighbor states have become a hot spot in recent years for cryptocurrency mining, spurring job creation and significant investment in strengthening state power grids. But in Montana, miners have been met by hostile regulators. Missoula County, for example, effectively ran cryptocurrency miners out of business with their punitive restrictions. And last year officials in Butte denied a massive solar project intended to power a large-scale cryptocurrency mining operation. Two Missoula-based entrepreneurs recently announced a $1.9 billion cryptocurrency mining project just across the border in North Dakota, boasting they will operate with a carbon neutral footprint and create 100 good-paying jobs. One must wonder if Montana missed out on the economic activity from this project due to the states track record of unfriendly crypto regulations. However, the economic potential of crypto extends far beyond cryptocurrency mining. Entrepreneurs are also leveraging blockchain technology to create uber-efficient systems of smart contracts that could upend whole sectors of our economy. Take the Missoula Valley Internet Co-op, which is using blockchain technology to build decentralized internet networks where customers are incentivized to act as relays and facilitate internet traffic to their neighbors. Blockchain-based smart contract programs manage the whole system, automatically routing through the best connections and processing payments. Backers of the model contend that blockchain technology makes providing internet to rural communities faster and cheaper than traditional broadband. Decentralized Finance, or DeFi, advocates say they too can use blockchain technology and smart contracts to create more efficient and accessible systems for traditional financial services like lending, banking, money transfers, investment trading etc. Despite the potential benefits, some states are targeting DeFi by forcing businesses to comply with rigid, old-school financial regulation or face lawsuits. The looming threat of misguided federal and state regulation also poses a major barrier to the growth of businesses built around blockchain-based smart contracts like the Missoula Valley Internet Co-op. Wyoming has led the way in welcoming the crypto industry, updating their laws to allow new business models and attracting millions of dollars in investment to the state as a result. Other states are creating regulatory sandboxes, inviting crypto entrepreneurs to test new products and services in their market under more flexible regulation. As other states compete to attract the growing crypto industry, Montana simply cant afford to fall behind. Montana leaders should understand that unfriendly crypto regulations will simply mean entrepreneurs will move to states that are more welcoming. By affording this budding industry a light regulatory touch with flexibility for new ideas, Montana could become home to the next world-changing innovation. Kendall Cotton is president and CEO of the Frontier Institute, a think tank dedicated to breaking down government barriers so all Montanans can thrive. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 " " Tony Webster /Flickr (CC By 2.0) Your house and its contents have been destroyed by fire. Do you know what you need to have in order to file a homeowners insurance claim? After the storm has cleared or the fire has died down, your sense of relief at surviving may quickly give way to a sense of shock when you gaze at the charred or battered wreckage that used to be your home and all the stuff inside it. If there's any consolation, it's that you have a homeowners insurance policy that will help to make you whole again. But before that can happen, you have to file a homeowners insurance claim. While documenting your personal disaster and the harm that it's caused you may be emotionally painful, it's an essential step in getting on with your life. And the process isn't necessarily that complex or difficult, especially if you've had the foresight to prepare for it in advance with a careful inventory of your home and property. Advertisement How to Prepare for the Worst-case Scenario One of the most important steps in filing a claim is something that you need to do in advance of any disaster to visually document your home and your personal property, so that you can prove to the insurance company what everything is worth. "All you need is a smartphone camera," advises Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a California-based consumer advocacy organization. "Make a video, 10 minutes of narrating about the inside and outside features of your home. Mention things such as 'here's my grandmother's dresser that we inherited.' Then make sure that you store that file in the cloud or email it to a relative." It's a good idea to store your policy information in some similarly safe place online as well. Additionally, it's a good idea to create a written inventory at the same time, according to Robert Buckel, vice president and product manager at Erie Insurance. "Take the time to list of all your personal possessions, along with their estimated value," he says via email. "If there is fine art or jewelry in the home, get those appraised and keep the appraisal somewhere safe, and fireproof. Letting your agent know of any items you collect of high value beforehand will come in handy in case of a loss. Many insurance policies also limit how much coverage applies to fine art, jewelry and other high value items, so your agent can help you make sure they are properly covered." It's important to regularly go over your inventory and make sure that it is up-to-date, according to Angi Orbann, vice president of Property for Personal Insurance at Travelers Insurance, who also suggests that you keep receipts for items, and upload the written inventory into cloud storage as a precaution. Advertisement What to Do After Disaster Strikes Fast-forward to the disaster aftermath. It's important to contact the claims department of your insurance company as soon as possible after a disaster strikes or a loss occurs, according to Tim Bowen, assistant vice president of home operations at MetLife Auto & Home. "When contacting the claims department, be ready to provide your policyholder information as well as policy number, if possible," Bowen says. "If not, your claims associate should be able to locate your policy using your personal information. Once the policy is located, the claims associate will capture what happened, provide emergency assistance if necessary, and walk you through the next steps in the claim process based on the type and scope of the loss reported." Insurance companies are trying to make the claims process easier and quicker. Allstate Insurance, for example, enables policyholders to file a claim online, or else by contacting their agent, according to Jenny Fitzpatrick, product director for Allstate Insurance. Either way, you'll eventually need to document the disaster by sending photos and a description of the damage and when it occurred, she explains via email. Advertisement Temporary Fixes Once you've filed your claim, a repair vendor can make temporary repairs, such as boarding up windows, while your insurer evaluates your filing, prepares an estimate and explains to you what coverages, deductibles and limits may apply. "Allstate can recommend repair vendors if needed, but homeowners may choose their own, too," Fitzpatrick says. Meanwhile, your insurer will evaluate your claim and do an on-site inspection to assess the damage. "Customers should also not get rid of anything until the insurance company inspects the home," explains Buckel. "This will help determine the amount of the loss and how much needs to be replaced. This may also help determine the cause of the loss." If you've paid for replacement-value coverage, Bach notes that it's a two-stage process. Initially, she says, the claims adjuster will only give the actual cash value "what you could have sold it for on Craigslist" and wait until you've actually replaced the items to pay the remainder. That ensures that policyholders actually replace the items, instead of just pocketing the insurance payout. HowStuffWorks may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Now That's Important When you do your photo or video home inventory, be sure not to leave anything out. "Open closet doors, drawers and remember to photograph the garage contents," recommends Janet Ruiz, director for strategic communication at the Insurance Information Institute. " " Why does the hold music manipulate your mood? Will Ireland/Future Publishing via Getty Images If Dante were alive today, the tortured souls in the ninth circle of hell would suffer an eternity of being on hold listening to a brain-scrambling tune interrupted every 20 seconds by a robotic she-devil intoning, "Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and a customer service representative will be with you shortly." No!!!!! As hard as companies make it to get a live human being on the phone, they do actually care about customer service. Angry customers who hang up after 27 minutes on hold are more likely to badmouth the company on Twitter or switch to a competitor. It's called the "economic cost of waiting." Which is why enterprising businessman Alfred Levy knew he was on to something back in 1962 when his factory's phone system accidentally picked up a local radio signal and played music when customers were put on hold. When callers were distracted by the music, Levy noticed, they were less likely to hang up, so he filed a patent for the world's first "music on hold" system. (Next time you're stuck on hold listening to a pan flute cover of Lionel Richie, you can thank Al.) Since then, there's been some eye-opening research into the psychology of waiting and what types of music and messaging make the on hold experience more or less excruciating. Besides hold music, the biggest innovations in waiting science have been the "estimated time" and "place in line" messages, techniques perfected by Disney theme parks, the waiting-est place on Earth. Advertisement The Best Strategy for Putting People on Hold According to a 2007 study comparing different types of on hold messages, the most effective trick for keeping people sane on hold was to tell them where they stood in line. In the experiment, 123 callers were put on hold for two minutes. A third listened to hold music, a third got music interrupted by messages apologizing for the wait, and the last group heard music punctuated by occasional status updates: "You are the 4th caller in line... You are the 3rd caller in line..., etc." Quizzed afterward about their experience, the people who received the status updates were the most satisfied. It wasn't necessarily that they perceived the wait to be shorter than the other groups, but that the sense of progress was comforting. "It is not an issue of time; it is an issue of obstacle," study author Anat Rafaeli told the American Psychological Association. "What makes me happy is when I realize that I am getting closer to removing this obstacle and getting what I wanted." Prior research posited three psychological explanations for the effectiveness of estimated time messages on hold: The resource allocation model: Callers only process that they're wasting time on hold if they consciously notice the passing of each "time unit." If callers believe that a computer is tracking time for them, they turn off their internal clock and perceive that less time has passed. The uncertainty reduction model : The sharing of wait time information reduces the stress of not knowing when, if ever, the darn customer service rep will pick up the line. The cognitive reappraisal model: Basically, if you know that you're going to be on hold for 10 minutes, you're less irritated by being on hold for 10 minutes. Even if you're ticked off at first, you get over it. Advertisement We Aren't the World But what about the hold music itself? Do different types of hold music affect callers differently? A 2014 study asked if pop songs with positive messages could improve the moods of callers waiting on a customer service hotline. It turned out that hearing "pro-social" music like Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" just made frustrated callers even more pissed. Then there's the question of whether popular songs are a better distraction than generic elevator music. Another study found that people subconsciously use background music as a "quasi clock," estimating the length of each song and adding them up to perceive total wait time. Since familiar pop songs are more "accessible to memory," the authors wrote, they're more closely tied to a time interval and wait times are perceived as longer than with unfamiliar songs. All of this research makes you wonder, though, why the on-hold experience delivered by so many companies is still so awful. No one should be subjected to ear-assaulting music like this when they're calling to report an issue with their gas bill. Not when we know so much about the psychology of waiting. For answers, we reached out to Rich Moncure, president of On Hold Marketing, a company that creates custom hold music and messaging for businesses that presumably like their callers. Moncure, also a professional musician, helps clients match their hold music with their caller profile and brand. While he doesn't consult research, per se, Moncure calculates average wait times to determine the right mix of music and messaging. "The goal of our industry is to make hold time seem shorter than it is," says Moncure, adding that variety is the key. "If it's music only, we switch it up every two minutes. If you let that music drone on, whatever the music is, that makes the whole time seem longer." And avoid repetition at all cost. "At a call center, if your average queue time is 10 minutes, then you never want any piece of music to repeat itself," says Moncure. "Because once callers start hearing a loop, their sense that they've been on hold is heightened." Advertisement Why Hold Music Is So Bad You don't need a Ph.D. in "waiting science" for this stuff to make sense, right? So what explains the low-quality, constantly looping music and lame messaging that passes for most on hold experiences? For Moncure, it basically comes down to laziness and one particular technological glitch. For starters, too many companies simply use the default hold music that comes with their phone system. Moncure calls it "canned" music, and while some people inexplicably love it, much of it is irritating and repeats ad infinitum. Like the example below: "That's a big problem in our industry," says Moncure. "Often canned music is on a very short loop and it drives people crazy." But even if a company goes the extra step to curate a reasonably inoffensive modern jazz playlist for their hold music, their phone system technology can still render it unlistenable. Most call centers, for example, rely on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems. These internet-based systems are designed to transmit the human voice across digital networks in discrete little packets of data. That works OK for voice calls but is a poor medium for music. Moncure says that the audio spectrum on VoIP calls is very narrow and concentrated in the mid-range, which explains why high and low tones come through as warbly and distorted. For customers with inexpensive VoIP systems, he has to write what he calls "thin music," single-note melodies within the same octave and a half range. "It's absolutely an artistic decision that we have to make, but there's also a technical element," says Moncure. "We need to make sure from a technical perspective that the hold music will actually fit within that tiny pipe that VoIP often gives us." Now That's Cool If you want to skip the hold experience entirely, try GetHuman. The website lets you look up direct customer service numbers for hundreds of companies and even offers its own call back service. Enter your phone number and GetHuman will call you when it gets a live agent on the line. Historical records in the North Carolina Room at the Burke County Public Library have preserved a unique story passed down orally through the generations on how McElrath Chapel AME Church was founded. An article printed in The News Herald sometime after 1961 and published in the book, History of African Americans in Burke County, records the story retold by Julia Chase Hastings, a relative of the McElrath family. The story notes that the land on which McElrath Chapel sits is situated near what was once the McElrath plantation in Morganton in a place called Silver Creek Valley. The plantation was owned by John J. McElrath. The year 1849 found McElrath in great financial distress. He had gone security for a friend of his, meaning he had loaned him money, but the friend was unable to pay him back. McElrath was approximately $3,000 in debt and had to mortgage his plantation to stay afloat. Then news came that gold had been discovered in California that year. The whole country was excited about the California Gold Rush and getting rich in the gold fields, the story reads. Mr. McElrath, though badly in need of money, felt he was too old to undertake such an adventure. However, such a possibility was frequently discussed in the presence of the slaves, especially Jim, a favored, capable young man whom his master trusted and depended upon at times as an overseer of the other slaves. Jim offered to lead five of McElraths slaves across the country to California so the six of them could work in the gold fields to earn enough money to pay off McElraths debt and save the plantation. Jim offered to assume the responsibilities of overseeing the work of the other five young men and their return to their owner when their job of earning $3,000 was over, the story reads. The plan was for them to work five days a week toward the debt, and keep the wages of every sixth day for themselves. McElrath agreed to the plan and sent them off to California in the spring of 1850. Jim McElrath kept his promise faithfully, and although they were in free territory, he returned to his master and brought with him the other five, and ownership was resumed as before their trip to California, the story reads. The story doesnt specify how long the slaves were in California, but at some point during that time, Jim married a free woman and brought her back with him. Upon returning to Morganton, a grateful John deeded 40 acres of land to Jim, who built a two room cabin there and gained the reputation of being an unusually worthy member of the community among people of both races. The area eventually grew into a community known as Jimtown. The story mentions that John also deeded 10 acres of land for the founding of McElrath Chapel to the churchs trustees. A historical note posted on findagrave.com claims this took place in 1874, and that Jim McElrath was one of the trustees. An article published in the Blue Ridge Blade on April 12, 1879, announces that the church planned to hold a cornerstone-laying ceremony and dedication. A history published by the church in 2005 says that the churchs first Sunday school conference was held in 1887. The property included a campground where many camp meetings took place. The congregation created a cemetery on the property and built McElrath Chapel School, a school for African American children. The church was struck by lightning in the early 1930s, according to the historical record. The congregation laid the cornerstone for a new church building in 1934. Over the course of the 20th century, the congregation grew, and it was eventually determined that a new church building was needed, which was constructed in 1999. The building includes a modern sanctuary, classrooms, office space and a kitchen/dining area, the history reads. The grounds around the new building have been beautifully landscaped to include and incorporate the surrounding grounds and the old church, as well as the church parsonage. The burial grounds were improved and enlarged. The church is located at 2714 Jamestown Road in Morganton, the name of the road perhaps hearkening back to the time when the area was known as Jimtown, preserving the legacy of a slave who became a vital community leader and church founder. Staff writer Tammie Gercken can be reached at tgercken@morganton.com. Airbnb is offering free short-term housing for up to 100,000 Ukrainians who have been displaced by the war with Russia, the company announced Monday. The stays will be funded by donations to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund as well as with help from hosts on the platform. Brian Chesky, Airbnb's cofounder and CEO, called for people to open their homes in Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania as more Ukrainians flee the conflict in their home country. Chesky and two other Airbnb officials sent letters to European leaders of nations bordering Ukraine to offer Airbnb's support with housing refugees, the company said. While the stays are temporary, the company said it "will work closely with governments to best support the specific needs in each country, including by providing longer-term stays." Some Ukrainians who need housing may not currently have access to devices or internet traditionally required to book lodging on the platform. Airbnb said it will work with "nonprofits on the ground, who are responsible for booking and coordinating stays for refugee guests, regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, or how they identify." The rental platform's refugee housing is part of Airbnb.org, an independent nonprofit organization that it launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that works to provide temporary housing for those in crisis. Last week, Airbnb.org announced that it will provide 21,300 Afghan refugees with short-term housing solutions. More than 500,000 Ukrainian refugees have entered surrounding countries over the last four days as the Russian invasion escalates. The European Union is asking member nations to grant temporary asylum to all arriving Ukrainians for up to three years, according to EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson. The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Two men were killed in separate shootings in two days in South and Southwestern Baltimore, police said. A 33-year-old man died in the hospital early Sunday after a reported shooting in Southwest Baltimore, police said. Advertisement Baltimore police said the man was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds when officers arrived in the 200 block of South Monastery Avenue, at the border of Allendale and Saint Josephs neighborhoods at around 1:10 a.m. Sunday. [ Map: Baltimore City homicides ] Medics transported the man to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead. Police have not yet released his identity. Advertisement On Monday, another man was shot to death just after 1:35 p.m. in South Baltimore , marking the citys second homicide in two days. Police said officers found an unidentified male suffering from gunshot wounds in the 2900 block of Cherryland Road in Cherry Hill. He later died at an area hospital. Earlier, police confirmed that almost two weeks after he was reported missing, a young man was found shot to death inside his vehicle near Leakin Park in Northwest Baltimore. Police found the body of Christian Jackson, 23, after responding to a request Sunday evening for assistance towing a vehicle in the 2200 block of Talbot Road. Police said Jackson had suffered an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Jackson was reported missing Feb. 15 across town, in the 1200 block of McElderry Street in the McElderry Park neighborhood of East Baltimore. [ Baltimore Police: Missing man found shot to death; three other people shot Sunday ] Homicide detectives are investigating both shootings. Police ask that anyone with information about the case to contact investigators at (410) 396-2100. People who wish to remain anonymous can use the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line, at (866) 7LOCK-UP or submit an online tip to Metro Crime Stoppers by visiting the MCS Maryland website. On the one hand, the global political world has witnessed the strength of female leadership. Be it New Zealand (Jacinda Ardern), Taiwan (Tsai Ing-Wen), Germany (Angela Merkel), Finland (Sanna Marin), Iceland (Katrin Jakobsdottir), Norway (Erna Solberg), Denmark (Mette Frederiksen) or Bangladesh (Sheikh Hasina). Contemporary history has also presented us with such heads of state; Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel) and Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan). On the corporate front, women are constantly breaking the quintessential glass ceiling and rising up as strong leaders. Yet, the pandemic took a disproportionate toll on working women and intensified the challenges they already face. Research by McKinsey on Corporate America showed how women have been negatively impacted. Womenespecially women of colour were more likely to have been laid off, stalling their careers and jeopardizing their financial security. Working mothers have always worked a double shifta full day of work, followed by hours spent caring for children and doing household labour. When the supports that made this possibleschool and childcare were upended, they were forced to scale back on work, derailing their career trajectories and exacerbating the gender wage gap. This was all the more telling in industries which gave substantial representation to women, but were hard hit: retail, travel, hospitality. #1: Gender equality is one area where businesses are increasingly striving toward and investors are considering. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number 5 describes gender equality as both a fundamental human right, and as the foundation for a prosperous world. Societies that tap into the full potential of their populations are more competitive. The same principles hold in the business world, where women remain underrepresented and underpaid. Discriminatory companies not only deny equity and access, but they also act against their own best interests. Gender diversity can positively affect talent acquisition and retention, customer alignment, and brand strength. Research shows that combining people of different backgrounds results in cognitive diversity, which enhances collective problem-solving. McKinsey and Credit Suisse have each produced research showing that companies serious about gender diversity and inclusion achieve superior financial results. #2: Gender diversity creates positive benefits when society believes in its intrinsic value, and not just as a mere obligation. Professor Letian Zhang of Harvard Business School in his research of 1,069 leading firms across 35 countries and 24 industries, found that gender diversity relates to more productive companies, as measured by market value and revenue, only in contexts where it is viewed as normatively accepted. (In the energy sector in the Middle East, which has historically not been gender-inclusive, firms gender diversity was unrelated to company performance.) Normative acceptance means a widespread cultural belief that gender diversity is important. There were positive effects of diversity in societies with normative acceptance of working women, but not in societies with only regulatory support. Though regulatory support of working women is correlated with normative acceptance, they are not the same. Some countries have strong cultural support, but few legal structures in place. Others have established legal structures, but cultures that are strongly male-dominant. (Japan has a patriarchal work culture but some of the most generous parental and homecare leave policies globally. Such countries do not much benefit as much from gender diversity when compared with firms in places like Western Europe that have more cultural acceptance.) #3: Dan Lefkovitz, strategist for Morningstar's Indexes group, believes that good research on diversity and inclusion must go beyond the numbers. It is insufficient to view it only as the number of women represented at various levels of a workforce. Policies and practices also must play a role. It was found that companies demonstrating a commitment to gender equality have achieved above-market returns with lower risk. You can read about it in this paper Investing Inclusively: Building Shareholder Value Through Gender Diversity. The Montana Fish and Game Commission is currently accepting comment on one provision of the toxic HB 637 inflicted upon Montana resident hunters and anglers during the last legislative session. While that bill includes abundant reasons for dismay, the specific issue here is the authorization to spend up to $1 million to pen raise pheasants and release them for hunters to shoot. To be clear, Im no anti-hunting animal rights activist. I grew up hunting wild gamebirds and have hunted Montana pheasants for over 50 years. However, I consider this proposal ridiculous and offensive, as does every other experienced upland bird hunter I know. Biological studies overwhelmingly show a negligible survival rate among pen-raised birds released into the wild. They lack both the genetics and experience to evade predators. This proposal asks license buyers and taxpayers to fork over a million bucks to feed coyotes. Pheasants have earned their reputation as Americas most popular upland gamebird because of the challenge they offer in the field. Tough and wily, they seldom fall easily even to experienced hunters. None of us who love to hunt them regard these traits as problems. On the contrary, they explain why we spend so much time hiking Montana terrain with our beloved bird dogs and derive such satisfaction from serving a wild pheasant dinner to family and guests. Pen raised birds do not provide that challenge. Shooting them is more akin to shooting barnyard chickens than wild ringnecks. The stated objective of this effort is to address the well-documented decline in young hunter numbers by providing them with opportunity as part of a growing effort referred to as recruitment, retention, reactivation (R3). No doubt these are laudable goals, but is this the best way to pursue them? That effort would logically begin by determining the real reasons why fewer young Montanans are taking to the field. Hint: the problem isnt lack of opportunity to hunt tame pheasants. Its arising because young hunters are running out of places to hunt due to of lack of access to public lands and denial of private land opportunities due to epidemic outfitter leasing and sale of Montana lands to uber-rich out-of-state interests. R3 efforts would be better directed toward solving those problems, which HB 637 only exacerbated. Finally, do we really want to recruit young hunters by teaching them to ignore challenge and take ethical shortcuts? Thats not the way I was taught when I was a kid. I call on Montana hunters, anglers, and outdoors enthusiasts of all kinds to oppose this terrible idea. Don Thomas of Lewistown writes about the outdoors for many national publications. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 MUSCATINE The Norbert F. Beckey Bridge changed its LED lighting to blue and yellow in honor of Ukraine. As Russias assault on Ukraine continues, many buildings and sights that can change the color of their lighting have changed to blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, as a show of support. Some places showing support include the Empire State Building, The London Eye, and the Eiffel Tower. Even Niagra Falls has been lit blue and yellow. After receiving many requests, both on the internet and in person, to follow suit, Muscatine Power and Water (MPW) changed the light scheme over the weekend. This weekend we received some requests to change the color of the lighting to blue and yellow, Erika Cox, director of customer and technology experience, said. "If we have the ability to change the lighting and get requests, we try to acknowledge those requests. During the holiday season, the bridge lights were synchronized to music playing on a local radio station. During that event MUSCO did the work on the light, but usually MPW controls the lighting colors. Cox said there are many reasons people in the community request specific colors, including special events on the riverfront. Cox does not know how long the colors will remain blue and yellow. As of Monday, Ukraine and Russia have begun diplomatic talks in Belarus and the first round reportedly ended with Ukraine asking to join the European Union. Over the weekend Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russias nuclear forces to be put on high alert. The U.S. and Germany have announced sanctions on Russia and said they are providing arms and military supplies to Ukraine. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WAPELLO Following approval of a 28E agreement by the Louisa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and if all goes as planned the Wapello Police Department (WPD) will be merged into the Louisa County Sheriffs Office (LCSO) on April 1. The unanimous decision by the three-member Board of Supervisors followed the approval of the agreement on Feb. 17 by the Wapello City Council. Under the agreement, the city will pay $222,324 in Year 1-Year 4. In Year 4, the cost will also include any additional salary and benefit increases. From Year 5 to Year 10, the annual cost will be the prior years contract cost plus any additional salary and benefit increases. The annual payment will include a $12,000 set-aside that will be used every four years to purchase a new vehicle, county sheriff Brad Turner told the board. Wapello Police Officers Dakoda Aplara and Gunner Hoffer will become county deputy sheriffs, and nearly all the citys law enforcement equipment will be transferred to the county. Other city law enforcement personnel, including its reserve force and a part-time officer, will also transfer to the county, Turner and Louisa County Chief Deputy Brandon Marquardt reported. Current Wapello Police Chief Ed Parker said after the meeting he would fill a current vacant position with the LCSO. Wapello Mayor Shawn Maine told the supervisors the agreement was the best option for the city. We couldnt continue (with our own law enforcement), Maine said, explaining he and Marquardt had been discussing the idea for about the past 12 months. Marquardt indicated the nationwide problem of finding suitable candidates for law enforcement openings was a key factor in the citys decision. Maine agreed and said the situation had finally gotten to the point where it was possible to convince the public the merger was the best option. We didnt come to the decision lightly, Maine assured the board. Supervisor Randy Griffin questioned how the agreement would differ from other 28E law enforcement agreements the county currently has with most of the smaller communities in the county. Turner explained one difference was the agreement with Wapello called for the LCSO to provide 75 hours of contact hours per week. With the exception of Morning Sun, the contracts with Letts, Grandview, Oakville and Fredonia do not have any set number of contact hours. Turner said Morning Sun did contract for 10 hours per week and paid around $25,000 for its law-enforcement coverage, which is more than double what the other smaller communities currently pay. In other action, the supervisors agreed to sign an approval letter for Frantzs #1 Master Matrix and approved a Class C Liquor License for Conesville Event Grounds pending dram. Adam Caudle, county veterans affairs director, provided his monthly update to the board. He said the Flags for the Fallen effort to mark all veterans graves in county cemeteries with flags was continuing. He also reminded the supervisors that the Louisa County Veterans Affairs office was coordinating rides for the DAV van for veterans in Louisa and Muscatine counties. The contact number to coordinate a ride is 319-527-6513. County Engineer Adam Shutt also met with the board and reported a person offered the Road Maintenance Superintendents position had reconsidered and declined the position. Shutt said he would review the situation and report back to the board later on his next steps to fill the vacancy. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 MTN has today unveiled its evolved visual identity, which it said is an extension and visual representation of the Groups refreshed strategy. The companys rebranded logo had already been spotted outside the companys Johannesburg offices, and does away with the familiar white, yellow, and red text on a blue oval. Instead, MTN is written in simple block letters with an oval drawn around the characters all in black, and on a yellow background. The updated rebrand also includes the tagline What are we doing today?, which the company chose not just because its loaded with so much meaning, but also because its so simple. Its an incredibly human way to talk about progress, without having to say, progress, the company added on its official brand refresh website. It inspires with the reality that every day can be a fresh new start, full of potential. The company said it will be asking this question a lot over the coming months, hinting towards a larger marketing campaign based on MTNs new tagline. MTN added that its rebrand highlights its commitment to evolve and explore innovative initiatives that provide value to all its stakeholders. Africa is never still. True progress can only be realised by doing, said Bernice Samuels, MTN Group Executive for Marketing. It is off this insight that we launch our new positioning by challenging, celebrating and providing tools for doers because when individuals, communities and countries progress, so too does Africa. MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita added that the rebrand places a greater focus on the youth of Africa. It is a well-known fact that the youth are central to achieving this [Africas] potential, said Mupita. Whilst we remain focussed on all our customers and stakeholders, our brand evolution demonstrates an enhanced focus on the youth. Amazon has announced that its 10-megawatt solar power plant in the Northern Cape is up and running. The retail and cloud services giant first announced the launch of the solar farm in November and is now promoting it internationally. Amazon said that it expects the facility to generate up to 28,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy per year, equal to over 8,000 average South African homes. The solar plant consists of over 24,000 bifacial solar panels capturing sunlight on both sides covering an area of 20 hectares (200,000 square metres). Its solar panels track the sun throughout the day, absorbing solar energy from the sky and reflected light from the ground. According to Amazon, this design will avoid an estimated 25,000 tons of carbon emissions annually, the equivalent of removing 5,400 cars from the road in South Africa. Amazon said the project also contributes to the regions economic transformation. The solar plant is majority-owned by black women and operated by a fully South African-owned company. Historically, black women have been critically underrepresented in infrastructure, agriculture, and utility ownership, said Meta Mhlarhi, co-founder and executive director at Mahlako a Phahla Investments, an investor in the project. Energy projects that enable black investment are our surest way to a just transition to renewable energy. Amazon reported that the project created 167 jobs in local communities during construction and will sustain permanent jobs during its lifetime to support electrical maintenance, operation, and security. While were building renewable energy capacity in South Africa, we must also develop South African companies and skills, said Dom Wills, CEO of SOLA Group, the South African company responsible for developing and operating the plant. SOLA is committed to transforming South Africa through clean energy, and being able to sell renewables to corporates at large scale makes this one of the most significant power projects in South African History. Amazon said that it became the worlds largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in 2020, reaching 65% renewable energy across its business. The company has a global portfolio of over 270 renewable energy projects, generating more than 12 gigawatts of renewable capacity. Once all these projects are operational, Amazon estimates that more than 13.7 million metric tons of carbon emissions will be avoided each year. The Napa Valley Vintner's 26th annual Premiere trade auction raised just over $2 million on Saturday in St. Helena. Returning to its traditional February date, after COVID-19 disrupted its 2021 schedule, the auction was a hybrid of an in-person event, combined with online streaming, which allowed bidders from around the world to compete for 109 lots of unique wines, created just for Premiere. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register. Included were wines from the 2020 vintage as well as 2019, 2021, and multi-vintage wines. Premiere is the trade organization's fundraiser that supports its educational and promotional activities for Napa Valley wines. It is open only to the trade, who then can sell these one-of-a-kind wines at restaurants and shops. In 2021, Premiere moved to June, because of COVD-19, and raised $2.7 million with the sale of 149 lots. The in-person audience this year at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone was limited to "past successful bidders," according to the Vintners. In November 2021, Napa Valley Vintners announced a three-year partnership with Sotheby's Auction House, which conducted Premiere 2022. Viewed online, it showed rising bids, bouncing back and forth between online and in-person participants. According to the Napa Valley Vintner's post-auction release, "Wines sold at the 2022 Premiere Napa Valley wine auction will make their way to 14 states and six countries." While the Saturday auction was brisk and businesslike as the Sotheby auctioneers moved swiftly through the lots, the week preceding it was full of old-style hospitality, such as Lee and Cristina Hudson's "Chardonnay and Oysters," where guests could sample Hudson Vineyard's Premiere lot. Trillium, 60 bottles of 100% Chardonnay from three favorite sites in their Carneros vineyards, sold for $15,000. On Thursday, Louis Martini Winery hosted a Vintage Perspective Tasting of auction wines from 20012010, and Charles Krug Winery hosted a Grand Premiere Napa Valley Tasting on Friday morning. COVID precautions remained in effect at these large gatherings where guests were asked to take rapid-result COVID tests before entering the wineries. At his Premiere preview, Jean-Charles Boisset gave guests a sneak peek of his new Chateau Buena Vista tasting room, opening in March in Napa. With him were Marc Mondavi and Peter Mondavi, Jr. from Charles Krug Winery, as well as Angelina Mondavi, the daughter of Marc and Janice Mondavi, who made Lot 14, with Brian Maloney from Buena Vista winery, from Napa Valley grapes. Boisset described the lot, titled "Past, Present and Future," as a "reunion" between the two historic wineries. Charles Krug, who established Napa Valley's oldest winery, served as an apprentice winemaker for Agoston Haraszthy, the self-proclaimed Count of Buena Vista, who founded California's first premier winery in Sonoma. Boisset bought and restored Buena Vista, and the Mondavi brothers today own Krug, which their grandfather purchased in 1943. A new "count" was at the door of Chateau Buena Vista on First Street, Napa, to welcome guests. The tasting room, unlike any other in town, has all the trademarks of a Boisset creation, where a love of history and luxury meet. Boisset said it will serve "the four C's: Champagne, Caviar, Chocolates and Cabernet." Lot 14 generated considerable interest at the auction, garnering one of the higher bids, at $40,000 for 120 bottles. According to the Sotheby's website, the top lot was Shafer Vineyards, 60 bottles of 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon made by Elias Fernandez which sold for $75,600, which includes a buyer's premium. Shafer was sold in February to Shinsegae Property, a luxury brand firm based in Seoul, South Korea. From the Sotheby's list, a lot of 120 bottles of 2020 red table wine from Favia/Hourglass sold for $54,000, as did the Heitz lot of 60 bottles of 2019 Cabernet. Silver Oak's Better Together lot of 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon sold for $70,200. During the pandemic, the Napa Valley Vintners have been re-envisioning its fundraising platforms, including Auction Napa Valley, which raised millions that the Vintners returned to the community. Discontinued after 2019, this auction has been folded into the newly created Collective Napa Valley, which will present a year-round schedule of events, taking place in the valley but also welcoming global fans to participate. The first Collective event is coming up in March. Pop the cork on Napa Valley wine! Discover the hidden stories of Napa Valley wine and the people behind it -- plus expert analysis from our columnists and more with our weekly email newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Neunutae and Tony Bell smile after signing their marriage certificate in Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital. Tony was admitted to the hospital after having a seizure and the two didn't want to lose out on the wedding date of a lifetime, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, so the staff worked together to plan a wedding in less than 24 hours. (Shannon Cross/Shannon Cross) Tony and Neunutae Bell had been counting down the days until their wedding. After getting engaged three years ago and waiting for COVID-19 cases to wane, the couple realized this past Thanksgiving that a rare date would be coming up: Feb. 22, 2022. Its a palindrome day, which is a number or word that can be read the same way forward and backward and it was a Tuesday. Such a Twosday wont happen again for 400 years. Advertisement But a few days before the planned courthouse nuptials, Tony found himself in the emergency department at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital. The Baltimore couple was ready to call off the wedding. But once Erynn Bossom, a nurse manager on the neurology and stroke floor found out, she started to put a plan into motion. There are no words really to describe how gracious I am for everybody at the hospital, Tony said. A whole wedding was put together within 24 hours. It blew my mind. Advertisement A few months ago, the couple said, Tony had a stroke, and so when he started to feel off, he went to an urgent care facility that then sent him to St. Agnes. While there, Tony said, he had a seizure and was admitted to the hospital. Tony, 45, and Neunutae, 49, first met 15 years ago when Tony was working as a contractor on projects in her house. Both were married at the time, but after divorces they reconnected and started dating about eight years ago. Neunutae and Tony Bell get married at the end of the neurology and stroke unit at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital. Tony was admitted to the hospital after having a seizure and the two didn't want to lose out on the wedding date of a lifetime, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, so the staff worked together to plan a wedding in less than 24 hours. (Shannon Cross/Shannon Cross) As it seemed more and more likely that the couple wouldnt make it to the courthouse on the special date, the two wondered whether it would be possible to still get married in the hospital. They asked the nurses: Did they think the hospital chaplain would marry them? Bossom, the nurse manager, found out about the couple the morning of the wedding day at a huddle where the nurses share updates about patients. Thats when the sparks started to fly and she jumped into action. Someone tracked down flowers while another person rearranged furniture at the end of the hall so Tony and Neunutae could get married by the window with a view. Bossom bartered with nurses to swap a pre-cut hospital cake with a homemade one they had brought in for a potluck so the newlyweds could partake in the traditional cake cutting. There were gift baskets, special glasses and charms to go with them, music and, of course, tissues. All of a sudden, it was a big event, Bossom said. Everybody pulled together because it was such a great moment in someones life. Recently, Bossom had been feeling run down. With the pandemic nearly two years old, the nurse had done things she never imagined doing in her career and helped too many family members say goodbye to loved ones on FaceTime. Often, she left work feeling as if she could be doing more. Neunutae and Tony Bell, center right, stand with members of the Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital staff who attended and helped plan their impromptu wedding. (Shannon Cross/Shannon Cross) But she said orchestrating the wedding revitalized my spirit. Advertisement Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. > It did something for me, Bossom said. Its been really tough, but I left with a feeling that day that I did enough. Mary Austin, who has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years, said she never had seen anything like the impromptu wedding. Ive read about these things and I have never in my career seen a wedding done up this well. It was almost the real thing, the chief nursing officer said. It made a lot of people happy, and itll be a memory that I have for a long time. Swapping his hospital gown for a sweater, Tony and his bride walked down the hospital aisle together to I Do by Boyz II Men as residents, medical students, physical therapists, lab staff, nurses and other employees lined the hallway. The ceremony didnt last long, the couple said, but it was something they will never forget. We were never trying to do anything big. We just wanted to do something special for us, Neunutae said. And this was certainly special. Tony was released from the hospital shortly after the ceremony and has since been resting at home and is recovering well. He said he is beyond grateful to the hospital staff and Bossom who helped them tie the knot. But hes mostly happy to officially have his best friend by his side for life. Advertisement She found me in a place that was crazy, she picked me up and put me back together and stood by my side, he said. I cant ask for no one better than this woman. According to information published by the Philippines News Agency on February 28, 2022, one of two 97-meter multi-role response vessels (MRRVs) BRP Teresa Magbanua, the Philippine Coast Guards (PCG) biggest acquisitions, arrived at Port Area, Manila. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Multi-Role Response Vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua (Picture source: Phapluat) The MRRV-9701 BRP Teresa Magbanua is a Multi-Role Response Vessel (MRRV) ordered by the Philippine Coast Guard. BRP Teresa Magbanua (MRRV-9701) is the lead ship of the Teresa Magbanua-class patrol vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard. MRRVs play an important role in severe-weather rescue missions and patrolling in offshore and coastal zones. This vessel has an overall length of approximately 96.6 meters, with a maximum speed of 24 knots and a cruising range of up to 4,000 nautical miles. It is equipped with secure communication systems for Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surveillance, a helideck and hangar for helicopter operations, an underwater remotely operated vehicle for subsurface search and survey, high-speed rubber boats, and other essential equipment for maritime domain awareness and maritime law enforcement operations. The Teresa Magbanua-class patrol vessel is a class of patrol vessels being built for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG). The class is based on the Japan Coast Guard's Kunigami-class patrol vessel. The MRRV has a helideck and a hangar that can accommodate the H145T2 helicopter of the PCG. She also has a hyperbaric chamber for those who have diving sickness and a survivor room that can accommodate those who will be rescued. Today, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock chaired a video conference of the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union. G7 Ministers were joined by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. This is noted in a press release issued Sunday on the official website of the German Federal Foreign Office. The press release continues as follows: In the meeting, Ministers expressed their profound condemnation of Russias war of aggression against Ukraine, enabled by Belarus. They expressed their horror at the senseless loss of life and the destruction caused by Russias premeditated and unprovoked attack against a peaceful, democratic and independent country. They called on Russia to immediately stop the ongoing assault against Ukraine, its civilian population and its civilian infrastructre and to immediately withdraw its military forces. Ministers agreed that this blatant violation of the fundamental principles of international peace and security and the breach of peremptory norms of international law must not go unanswered. In response the G7 have brought forward massive and coordinated sanctions, including on Belarus as it facilitates the Russian assault. The G7 will continue to take further steps if Russia does not stop its war of aggression against Ukraine. Ministers underlined that any change of status achieved by the Russian act of aggression will not be recognized. Ministers agreed to coordinate closely to ensure a broad and strong international condemnation of Russias unjustifiable behaviour. Ministers urged all UN member states to take a clear stance vis-a-vis Russias aggression and condemn its actions in the UN, notably the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council. Ministers expressed their solidarity with the Ukrainian people and their sympathy with the victims of this war and their families. They welcomed the opportunity to exchange with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba about the developing situation and possible diplomatic efforts in support of Ukraine and its democratically elected government. Ministers discussed in-depth further strong measures in support of Ukraine and its people, including security and cyber assistance and support to fight disinformation. Ministers acknowledged the urgent needs of the civilian population in Ukraine and coordinated on humanitarian assistance. They committed to increasing humanitarian support, as needs evolve. They recalled the necessity to respect international humanitarian law, grant rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access, protect humanitarian staff as well as internationally displaced persons all over the country. Russia will be held responsible for any damage its military aggression afflicts to Ukraine and its population as well as to internationals and their property. Charles Michel on the likelihood of Moldova's EU membership Elon Musk is invited to UK Parliament for buying Twitter Disobedience march reaches France Square, rally starts US crude oil shipments to Europe hit highest level in April NEWS.am digest: Large-scale protests being held in Armenia to demand PMs resignation Armenia Defense Minister meets with Georgian PM UK bans imposes sanctions on 63 individuals and organizations in Russia EU plan to completely ban Russian crude oil threatens Hungary's energy security EU interested in expanding energy cooperation with Azerbaijan Germany: Gradual EU ban on Russian oil imports could lead to 'supply disruptions' Opposition demonstration reaches government residences Aliyev insists so-called Zangezur corridor 'is already a reality' Slovakia seeks exemption from EU oil embargo for three years Defense Ministers of Armenia and Georgia sign cooperation program for 2022 Romanian President approves entry of Stryker Brigade and US fighter squadron into country Dollar goes up, euro also rises in Armenia EU studying possibility of providing military assistance to Moldova Public demand for Nikol Pashinyan's resignation Opposition supporters move toward Armenian parliament building EU envoys can not agree on Russian oil Armenia Security Council chief briefs Georgia PM on Karabakh conflict settlement process Armenia deputy police chief says law enforcement has right detain MPs Large-scale opposition rally starts in central Yerevan Many teenagers in New Zealand are illiterate AFP: EU proposes to impose sanctions on Patriarch Kirill Arestovich says Israel could supply Ukraine with weapons Azerbaijan used in Karabakh war Parliament speaker threatens Armenian opposition, clergy Armenia opposition MP: Ex-President Serzh Sargsyan will not hold office in new government Beijing closes over 60 subway stations due to COVID-19 outbreak Bayramov, Roquefeuil discuss Azerbaijan-Armenia relations normalization process Armenia FM meets with US National Democratic Institute president Armenia ruling force MP: Opposition will not achieve its goal Armenia 2nd president Robert Kocharyans son blocking road with citizens in Yerevan Oklahoma bans almost all abortions Number of children in Japan falls to record low Karabakh President meets with of Free Homeland-UCA parliamentary faction members Armenian judge waves Artsakh flag at Ironman Triathlon (PHOTOS) There is still lot to do in 'October 27' case, says Armenia Prosecutor General Ambassador Wiktorin to finance minister: EU ready to continue providing assistance to Armenia government Armenia Prosecutor General admits there are difficulties in investigation of 'March 1' criminal case Copper price is stable 3 COVID-19 new cases confirmed in Armenia American Armenian youth hold protest rally outside Armenia embassy in Washington Japan protests against North Korean missile Gold is getting cheaper U.S.-Armenia Strategic Dialogue issues joint statement Newspaper: Armenia Patrol Guard Service head to be summoned to Investigative Committee to give explanation Armenia parliament regular sittings continue Newspaper: Armenia opposition members falling into National Security Service trap by opening links Civil disobedience protests resume in Yerevan Earthquake shakes Armenia-Georgia border zone Microsoft urges to abandon Internet Explorer Mark Milley: Potential for significant international conflict between great powers is increasing EU: Poland fines in rule of law dispute now top $170 million Putin and Lukashenko discuss ongoing situation Greece and Bulgaria say new LNG terminal will help reduce dependence on Russia German vice chancellor calls for rapid construction of LNG terminals Rally of Resistance Movement takes place in France Square Robert Kocharyan takes part in opposition march Mario Draghi calls on EU to abandon requirement of unanimity in making foreign policy decisions Finland and Sweden not yet decided whether to join NATO Croatian president uses veto power to block Finland and Sweden from joining NATO Slovakia will seek exemption from the EU embargo on Russian oil imports NEWS.am digest: Blinken meets Mirzoyan in US, people detained during protests in Yerevan Turkish Foreign Ministry on meeting of special envoys in Vienna Opposition rally in central Yerevan starts with Sirusho's performance Italy to face serious issues in winter if Russian gas supplies are cut off now Johnson announces new military aid to Ukraine in amount of 300 million euros Resistance Movement rally on France Square in Yerevan EU hopes to adopt sixth round of sanctions against Russia at next EU Council meeting Peaceful rallies of disobedience held in Spitak Spain extends OVID-19 entry restrictions Vayk joins demand for Nikol Pashinyan's resignation Putin and Macron discuss Ukraine Citizens demanding Pashinyan's resignation block road from Vayots Dzor to Yerevan Peaceful rallies of disobedience held in Vanadzor demanding PM's resignation Citizens demanding Pashinyan's resignation block Gyumri-Yerevan highway Sirusho: Today I will join our compatriots in France Square Third meeting of Armenia and Turkey special representatives held in Vienna Dollar rises slightly after long decline, euro also goes up in Armenia Civil disobedience actions in regions: Yerevan-Goris highway blocked Azerbaijan settling occupied Armenian Hadrut, Shushi cities of Artsakh New colors and new services: Team Telecom Armenia completes rebranding Armenia legislature speaker receives France-Armenia Friendship Group delegation France senator: We are leaving for Armenia with Senate group Putin signs decree on economic measures against unfriendly countries Armenia legislature speaker: Authorities have repeatedly proposed dialogue to opposition Backpack action of protest being held outside Armenia parliament (PHOTOS) Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD statement does not correspond to reality Armenia defense minister receives Kansas National Guard delegation Armenia Police: Yerevan-Sevan motorway reopened Ned Price: Mirzoyan-Blinken meeting will launch US-Armenia strategic dialogue 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 Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday and Tuesday, to attend the high-level session of the UN Human Rights Council. In addition, an exhibition dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Armenia's membership in the UN will be opened within the framework of the visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. Also, FM Mirzoyan is scheduled to meet with colleagues from some other countries. After November 9, 2020, Armenia found itself in a geopolitically threatening environmentwith a decline in internal resistance, territorial losses, and even the risk of losing its sovereignty. Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party Supreme Body and Armenias National Assembly vice-speaker from the opposition, stated this Monday in his address at the official opening ceremony of the 34th ARF General Assembly. He added as follows, in particular: "But the [Armenian] authorities, which are guilty and accountable in all this, are not only not ready to face these challenges, but servewith their stepsthe interests of Azerbaijan and Turkey. Under false and delusional slogans of opening an era of peace in the region, the authorities of the day () are attempting to lead the country to new losses and new concessions. In that regard, we caution once again that the end result of any process that presupposes vital concessions by Armenia and the Armenians is the collapse of the Armenian statehood; the matters of Armenia's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the existence and security of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] are interrelated; Turkey continues to use the normalization of relations with Armenia to meet its and Azerbaijan's demands. Therefore, the so-called Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process must be stopped." Several villages in Geghamasar community of Gegharkunik Province of Armenia have been deprived of irrigation and drinking water since May 12 of last year, when the Azerbaijani military had advanced in the direction of Sev Lake. The head of Geghamasar enlarged community, Hakob Avetyan, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that this problem exists in six of the 18 villages of this community, some villages have partially, and otherscompletelylost their water resources. The prefect of Geghamasar noted that the residents of the villages that are now deprived from their water resources bring water from the neighboring villagesevery day. "We have repeatedly applied to the provincial hall and the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, but no alternative has been developed yet," Avetyan stressed. According to him, however, the water problem is not the only one faced by the residents of these villages ever since May 12 last year, as many villagers have lost their pastures, too, and many of them had been invested in. "Not all of our residents are adjusting to this situation. There are families in almost all villages who have moved to Yerevan or emigrated to Russia," Hakob Avetyan added. Dr. Allen Whear was an adjunct professor at the University of North Texas from 2010 until his death. (Handout) Allen Whear, a noted Baroque cellist and educator who was the artistic director of Baltimores Pro Musica Rara and chamber recital director of Californias Carmel Bach Festival, died of cancer Feb. 10 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The Manhattan resident was 64. Allen was a fabulous cellist with a great sound and sparkling intonation, wrote Jonathan Palevsky, program director and part-time announcer at WBJC-91.5 FM, in an email. He wasnt just an amazing musician, he was also a music historian, who knew just about all there is to know about early music and beyond. He was a true mensch. Advertisement Paul Allen Whear he never used his first name was born into a musical family. The son of Paul W. Whear, a composer and bassist, who had been chairman of the music department at what is now Doane University in Crete, Nebraska, and his wife, Nancy Robinson Voiers Whear, a violinist and librarian, was born in Canton, Ohio, and due to his fathers work, lived in Ohio before moving to Nebraska with his family. Advertisement Allen started taking cello lessons when he was 6. He was not a prodigy but just very talented, his sister, Cynthia Whear, who lives in Roland Park, said in a telephone interview. He fell in love with the cello and once that clicked, there was no stopping him. He was always so passionate about things that caught his attention and this happened at an early age. Dr. Allen Whear began performing in 1989 with Pro Musica Rara, Baltimores premier early music ensemble. He's pictured here in 2015. (Courtesy of Carmel Bach Festival, Handout photo) He began studying cello in 1963 with Carol Work, who was principal cellist with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra in Lincoln, Nebraska, and five years later, won the Czechoslovakia Festival Contest. After graduating in 1975 from what is now the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan, where he was presented the Young Artist Award, he earned a bachelors degree in music in 1979 from the New England Conservatory of Music, which he followed with a masters degree in music in 1981 from the Julliard School. From 1986 to 1987, he was a fellowship student at the Royal Conservatory of the Netherlands in The Hague, where he studied with Baroque cello professor Anner Bylsma, and in 1992, obtained a doctor of musical arts degree from Rutgers University. His study with Anner Bylsma, his mentor and lifelong friend, was life-changing for him, how he came to embrace Baroque cello as his specialty, his sister wrote in an email. 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) Dr. Whear was assistant professor of cello at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, from 1982 to 1989, when he left to become a lecturer in cello at Rutgers, a position he held for three years. In 1995, he taught cello at the Interlochen Arts Academy, and was chamber music instructor from 1993 to 2002 at the 92nd Street Y School of Music in New York City. From 2010 until his death, Dr. Whear was adjunct professor at the University of North Texas in Denton, where he taughtBaroque cello, bass and viola da gamba. Advertisement In addition to a busy academic life, Dr. Whear performed as a soloist with the Brandenburg Collegium, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Mid-Atlantic Chamber Orchestra and Charleston Symphony. He also performed with Musica Antiqua Koln, the Vienna Boys Choir, Concert Royal Mozartean Players, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Arcadia, and the Maggio Musicale in Florence, Italy, and he toured throughout Japan and Singapore as principal cellist with Opera Atelier. Dr. Whear began performing in 1989 with Pro Musica Rara, Baltimores premier early music ensemble, which had been founded in 1975. In 2003, he succeeded Shirley A. Matthews, a noted harpsichordist and Peabody Conservatory of Music teacher who had been Pro Musica Raras artistic director for 17 years, as artistic director, a position he still held at his death. I dont think it is necessary to make a big distinction between period instrument groups and modern instrument ones, he explained in a Sun article when he became artistic director. The philosophy is the same to present really fun concerts that try to illuminate the music as well as possible. We never use the dreaded A word authenticity. We just try to take a fresh look at the music, to try to come to terms with the timbres, styles and articulations the language of the time. And we try to imagine the sound world of composers. Advertisement I compare it to taking a horse-drawn carriage ride in Central Park. You can take an air-conditioned limousine ride and get not a bump or smell, but, for an aesthetic experience that takes you back to a different time, the carriage ride cant be beat. At Pro Musica Rara, we give up some so-called modern conveniences when we play, but that helps us look at the music afresh. Hopefully that comes across to the audience. We are not just doing it for ourselves, but to share. In a 2015 interview with The Sun, Dr. Whear reflected that early music was very much marginalized. It was a Birkenstock thing. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 61 Ron Galella, the celebrity photographer whose pursuit of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis resulted in a restraining order against him after he stalked her for years, died at age 91 on April 30, 2022, at his home in Montville, N.J., of congestive heart failure. (Carlo Allegri/AP) Sharon Pineo Myer, who played viola for the Baltimore Symphony for 40 years, and is now retired, also performed with Pro Musica for more than three decades, was a close friend of Dr. Whears. When performing, we sat together, and his body language and smile said, Lets play this phrase together. He taught me so much and I became an improved player because he was by my side, Ms. Myer said. And he really pushed Pro Musica Rara far. For Pro Musica Rara, he also wrote scripts for various narrated programs, including Telemanns Don Quixote and Baltimore in Peace and War, and composed a musical setting for Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado, which had been narrated by Mr. Palevsky. Advertisement I loved reading his scripts which always felt I had written them. He could write something for you that felt completely natural, Mr. Palevsky wrote in an email. However, my favorite concert that I did with Allen was his musical setting of Poes The Cask of Amontillado he set to music in such a brilliant way. Dr. Whear, who lived on Manhattans Upper West Side, commuted to Baltimore when working with Pro Musica Rara. His wife of 36 years, Baroque violinist Cynthia Roberts, who teaches at Julliard and the University of North Texas, also performs with the group. [ Renata Helga Ramsburg, a skilled baker who was active in Baltimores German community, dies at 99 ] Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. > In 1994, he was named principal cello for the Carmel Bach Festival, which is held in Carmel, California, a position he held until 2006 when he became principal cello. He also had been recital director, and since 2009, had been program notes author and editor. Whears contributions to the Bach Festival have been a cornerstone of its musical excellence for a quarter of a century, observed The Monterey County Herald at his death. As a member of the organizations artistic leadership team, he brought intelligence and creativity to his chamber programs, which each season impeccably showcased the music and the players. He brought the same insightful distinction to his talks and lectures and to the extensive notes he wrote for the Festival programs, the newspaper reported. Since 2000, he had been associate principal cellist for Torontos Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, which commissioned his composition Short Story and premiered the piece in 2006. Advertisement Dr. Whear also wrote liner notes for Mozart and Beethoven symphonies for Sony and Analetka record labels. Plans for a memorial gathering and concert to be held in a few months are incomplete. He is survived by his wife and sister. China does not approve of the use of sanctions as a means to resolve conflicts, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing, RIA Novosti reported. China does not support the use of sanctions to solve problems, and even more so opposes unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law, the diplomat answered a question about Chinas position on disconnecting Russia from SWIFT. He also demanded that the United States not harm the legitimate rights and interests of China and other parties in resolving the Ukrainian issue. Western countries intend to disconnect some Russian banks from SWIFT in the coming days - the European Union has already agreed this decision, it will enter into force after publication in the Official Journal of the EU. This is one of the measures from the new package of sanctions that the US and its partners are imposing against Moscow. Georgia does not impose sanctions against Russia, since the Georgian population will suffer from this, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said before the government meeting, Novosti-Georgia reported. The Prime Minister noted that he acts on the basis of the national interests of Georgia. Therefore, I want to note once again that these extra emotions will not bring anything, but on the contrary, they harm our national interests, the interests of our people, Garibashvili added. He said that within the framework of all international formats, Georgia expressed support for Ukraine. Georgia supported the decision of the Council of Europe to suspend Russia's membership in the organization, and also supported the resolution of the UN Security Council. The largest opposition party in Georgia, the United National Movement, calls on the country's authorities to partially join the EU sanctions imposed against Russia because of the situation around Ukraine. Additional factors, including political [i.e., the Russian military operations in Ukraine], have not yet affected the flow of vehicles heading to the Upper Lars checkpoint on the Russia-Georgia border. Armenias customs attache in Upper Lars, Aram Tananyan, told about this to Armenian News-NEWS.am Monday. He expressed hope that the above-mentioned events will not have a serious impact on the operations at this checkpoint, as the processes have moved away from the Russian border. Tananyan explained that he does not receive any signals that anything could considerably change at the Upper Lars checkpoint. "A queue comprising 1,500 cars has amassed at the checkpoint. At night, 500 cars were allowed in from Russia, about 400 cars entered15-20% of which are Armenian cars. The checkpoint is working overloaded, but in a normal mode," he added. A test of the combat readiness of the Russian S-300PS anti-aircraft defence (air defence) system with electronic missile launches took place in Tajikistan, the Central Military District said on Monday. "The Russian military base in Tajikistan conducted an air defence combat readiness test. The S-300PS antiaircraft missile system battalion was put on alert," the statement says. According to the plan, during the test, the forces on duty detected high-speed targets of the simulated enemy. "The servicemen carried out capture, escort and electronic launches of anti-aircraft guided missiles at aerial targets simulating advanced air attack means of the simulated enemy from different directions and at different altitudes," the Central Military District noted. In addition, during the exercise the S-300PS systems were recharged with missiles, and the security and defence units practised repulsing an attack by sabotage and reconnaissance groups on combat positions. YEREVAN. Within the framework of the high-level session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia on Monday met with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. The interlocutors commended the dialogue established between Armenia and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. FM Mirzoyan noted that as a country directly affected by enforced displacement, and Armenia has always supported the efforts of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees towards protecting the rights of victims of enforced displacement. The humanitarian issues created in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) after the 44-day war in the fall of 2020 were touched upon. Mirzoyan drew his interlocutor's attention to the need for the creation of conditions for the return, safety, and protection of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh who were forcibly displaced from their residences due to the Azerbaijani military aggression. The Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan particularly stressed the importance of implementing humanitarian missions in Artsakh by international organizations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, considering unacceptable the politicization of this issue and the creation of artificial obstacles by Azerbaijan. Armenians are to blame for the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait city of Azerbaijan 34 years ago. This is how they deny in Azerbaijan, not the fact of the pogroms and massacres of Armenians itselfnor would it be impossible to deny itbut Azerbaijan simply puts the blame on Armenians for this monstrous crime committed against them. This criminal position was repeated by the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan, Leyla Abdullayeva, commenting on the statement by the MFA of Armenia on the anniversary of the pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait. "As long as the Armenian government takes a position not to compromise on the basis of lies, unfortunately, the Armenian people will be deprived of peace and prosperity," Abdullayeva said. Also, she considered the accusations against Azerbaijan "baseless" and "false." Referring to the "official data," the representative of the MFA of Azerbaijan speaks about a mere 32 casualties. To note, however, according to unofficial data, hundreds of Armenians were killed in the aforesaid pogroms. As the "main argument" Abdullayeva presented the "justification" put into circulation by the Azerbaijani side about the complicity of some Armenians in these massacres. "Instead of taking advantage of the new opportunities for establishment of cooperation and peace that have now emerged after the elimination of the occupation factor, baseless and inimical statements show Armenia's real intentions," said the press secretary of the Azerbaijani MFA. According to Abdullayevas logic, in order to achieve peace, Armenia must renounce the memory of Armenian casualties and the punishment of the perpetrators. YEREVAN. Hayk Konjoryan, the head of the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction, on Monday received Stephane Dion, the Special Envoy of Canada to the European Union (EU) and Europe, in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, the NA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. The interlocutors discussed the procedure of the democratic reforms in Armenia, and in this contextthe perspectives of Armenian-Canadian cooperation. The work in parliamentary diplomacy and the cooperation between the two countries on international platforms were highlighted, too. The possibilities of the institutional capacity development of the National Assembly were discussed as well. The current internet restrictions on Russia could have a positive effect on Armenia, information security expert Samvel Martirosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am on Monday. He explained that this is possible if Armenia acts as a mediator in the posting of advertisements on social media. According to him, Armenia will benefit if, for example, Russian commercial companies move to Armenia, or if Armenian companies receive orders from Russia to advertise and carry out operations that are currently impossible in Russia. Martirosyan believes that in case of tightening the restrictions on Russia, problems with communication with the outside world may arise in the country. "Since one of the internet cables to Armenia comes from Russia, we have had problems before, too. For example, the websites blocked in Russia were also being blocked in Armenia by Roskomnadzor [i.e., the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media]. But after applying to the provider, the problem was being resolved. Such cases can become more frequent," said the expert. He noted that Armenia is completely independent of Russian internet traffic and has the necessary respective reserves. "The internet cable is branching out in Georgia. One line goes to Russia, the otherto Europe," Martirosyan added. Beatrice E. Sarlos, a retired Loyola University Maryland education professor who witnessed the destruction of Berlin and the arrival of the Red Army during World War II, died of renal failure Tuesday at Gilchrist Center Towson. She was 93 and had lived in Hampden and on Charles Street. Advertisement She joined the Loyola faculty in 1970 and taught hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students before retiring in 2001, said a Loyola statement. She had a deep knowledge of curriculum and instruction and worked to promote teacher education throughout Maryland. Born in Berlin, Germany, she was the daughter of Oskar Wald, a Humboldt University professor, and his wife, Elinore. Advertisement Because her mother was half Jewish, Beatrice and her family suffered repercussions. Beatrice was not allowed to join the young womens organizations and their food rations were cut during World War II, her son-in-law Frank Edward Ed Goetz said. She recalled meeting physicist Albert Einstein, a Humboldt professor and a friend of her father, when he dined at the familys home. She said he scribbled on her mothers tablecloth and she worked hard to get the ink out. She recalled stealing his shoes when he slipped them off under the table, Mr. Goetz said. She liked to hide there under the folds of the large tablecloth. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 61 Ron Galella, the celebrity photographer whose pursuit of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis resulted in a restraining order against him after he stalked her for years, died at age 91 on April 30, 2022, at his home in Montville, N.J., of congestive heart failure. (Carlo Allegri/AP) She spoke fluent German, French, Polish, Yiddish and English. She was 11 years old when World War II began and was sent to what is now Poland to be schooled and housed with other teens. In her off hours, she worked in a field hospital during the final years of the conflict. Her father served in the Home Army at Berlin. The family did not retreat because they expected U.S. troops to liberate the city. While working in Poland, she witnessed the arrival of a tank division of the Red Army one morning when she awoke early and walked into the town square. Advertisement She told me she heard a loud roar and soon the tanks arrived with the red star painted on them. She froze. She was petrified, her son-in-law said. Ironically the tank commander, though on the Russian side, was an ethnic German, and he gave her family bread and water and a ride to a train station to get back to Berlin. She found her father had been badly wounded by shrapnel and found a handcart to move him to safety. She and her mother used tweezers to remove the shrapnel and patch up his wounds. Life in Berlin in 1945 was not easy for her, said her son-in-law. They lived in a basement and Russians troops took their jewelry and threatened to attack Beatrice. Luckily her grandmother, who spoke Russian, shamed them into moving on. She found herself living in the U.S. Zone of the occupied city. She soon became a translator for Gen. Lucius D. Clay, who ran the successful Berlin Airlift after Russian forces tried to blockade Berlin. She earned a degree at the Free University of Berlin and later moved to Montreal, where she met her future husband, Imre Sardos, a medical researcher. They moved to Baltimore when he took a job in microbiology at Sinai Hospital. She earned a masters degree at Loyola and completed her doctorate at the Johns Hopkins University. Advertisement 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) She was extremely bright. She was very committed to teaching. She was committed to research, and she was committed to excellence, said Lee Richmond, a friend and fellow Loyola professor. She was the model mentor, and many people who later went on and got doctorates were her students. When Loyola merged with Mount Saint Agnes College and started accepting women students, she was really a leader among the women faculty members at Loyola, said Victor Delclosa, retired faculty colleague. She was a real scholar and became the grounding of our curricular instruction program. Dr. Delclos also said: She supported her students and was there for them. She had an outgoing personality, you knew you had met her, and mixed easily with other scholars. Dr. Sarlos amassed a collection of early childrens school books, which she used to analyze 19th century educational practices and prejudices. I can look into the world of the children in these books and see them looking out, she said in a 1993 Sun story about her school readers, scientific readers, geographical readers and silent readers, published in the 1850s and 1860s. Most of the readers were elaborately illustrated in black and white. We are a very visual culture, and the textbooks reflect that, she said. Advertisement She found no African Americans or Native Americans in the textbooks of the 1800s. Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. > There was a shared foundation of values and religion, she said of the books that period. [ William P. Bill Bobac, who sailed for two decades as a deckhand and messman, dies ] She opened her Elm Avenue home for meals, accompanied with German-style desserts, to her students. For a bunch of broke students, she served dinners of care and love, said Heather A. Moore, now a Loyola assistant dean. She was my first education professor and she was a huge personality. I thought, what did I get myself into here is this woman with a domineering style and a high-pitched German accent. She reminded me of Julia Child. Dr. Sarlos published the book Joy Without Convenience: Oral History of Marylands One-Room Schoolhouse Tradition. She played the piano, violin and performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the 1960s. She ice skated and took lengthy swims in the English Channel, as well the Berlin lakes. Advertisement Survivors include her three daughters, Christina Herrforth of Waukesha, Wisconsin, Virginia Goetz of Parkton and Paula Sarlos of Tucson, Arizona; a sister, Maria Wald of Germany; and seven grandchildren. Her husband of nearly 30 years died in 1977. Plans for a memorial service are incomplete. STEPANAKERT. The National Security Service (NSS) of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is working to increase the level of security in Khramort and other communities of the Askeran region, the NSS informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. The events that took place in various parts of the Artsakh-Azerbaijani line of contact in recent days, including in the village of Khramort, have caused some concern among the people of Artsakh. Although Azerbaijans psychological attackby using various methodsis disturbing in itself, both the people and the state bodies of Artsakh shall work hard to improve the real and tangible components of security. In this regard, the Artsakh NSS is taking all measures to protect the lives and health of the population in Khramort and other communities from possible encroachments and to establish a stable and reliable security system in Artsakh. Also, the NSS is negotiating with the Russian peacekeeping forces to rule out the tools of the psychological attack being carried out by Azerbaijan. Japan has imposed sanctions against the Russian Central Bank because of Russia's operation in Ukraine said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Reuters reported. Kishida made the statement after a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday. Earlier, sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia were imposed by the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. Japan will also impose sanctions against the president of Belarus and Belarusian companies and individuals. The Japanese prime minister's office announced today that it was imposing sanctions on Russian banks and President Vladimir Putin, but the statement published on the government website did not say anything about sanctions against the Central Bank. Japan announces the following measures: impose sanctions that include blocking the assets of individuals associated with the Russian government, including President Putin, block the assets of three Russian banks, VEB, Promsvyazbank and Russia, take measures together with Europe and the United States to isolate Russia from the international financial system and the world economy by excluding certain Russian banks from the SWIFT system, the statement said. The Japanese government also banned transactions with Russian sovereign debt in the primary and secondary markets, introduced a ban on exports to Russian defense structures, and banned exports to Russia of dual-use goods and semiconductors. It also suspended the issuance of Japanese visas to anyone affected by the sanctions. During the negotiations in Vienna, more than 98 percent of the draft agreement on the revival of the JCPOA was prepared, the remaining outstanding issues are key topics that will provide economic benefits to Iran, said Iranian Foreign Ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh, Tasnimr reported. According to him, unresolved issues are connected with the lifting of sanctions against Iran, guarantees for Tehran and consideration of political claims regarding Iran's peaceful nuclear activities. If the other parties agree, it will be possible to immediately agree on the settlement of several remaining issues, which are very important, as they will allow Iran to enjoy the economic benefits of the JCPOA, he added. According to Khatibzadeh, the Western parties and the US have not yet made a decision on three issues, noting that the West has been clearly informed about the red lines and Iran's position. He held the US responsible for the current situation, reiterating that Washington's possible return to the JCPOA must be accompanied by the lifting of sanctions in a verifiable manner. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is blocking the accounts of all Russian clients subject to sanctions, Reuters reports. But it will not freeze the accounts of other Russians after Ukraine called for Russian users to be banned from major digital currency platforms. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov said on Sunday that he has asked major crypto exchanges to block digital wallet addresses of Russian users that allow transactions in cryptocurrencies. A Binance spokesperson told Reuters that we are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent user accounts. Cryptocurrency was meant to provide greater financial freedom to people around the world, he added. Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said last month that it wants to expand its operations in Russia and neighboring countries. Russia is the main market for Binance, with over 113,000 members on its Russian-language Telegram channel. Since 2019, Binance has allowed users to deposit and withdraw Russian rubles through the Advcash payment company. Advcash, which is headquartered in Belize, told Reuters that users will be able to continue making instant deposits and withdrawals on Binance through their digital wallets. On our platform, some users may experience restrictions related to sanctions imposed on certain banks, he added. The United States has imposed new sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia, Russian National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance, USA Today reports. The sanctions effectively cut off the Central Bank of Russia from access to assets held in the United States or U.S. dollars. They prohibit foreign financial firms from sending dollars to the Central Bank of Russia, Russian National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance. An administration official said the U.S. wanted to impose sanctions before markets opened Monday after learning over the weekend from allies that the Central Bank of Russia had tried to withdraw assets from institutions around the world since Monday morning. The announcement came after Russia's central bank sharply raised its key lending rate from 9.5 percent to 20 percent in an attempt to shore up the sharply falling ruble. EU leaders may discuss Ukraine's possible membership at an informal summit in March, a senior EU official said, adding that the issue was important for Ukraine in its negotiations with Russia to end the conflict, Reuters reported. "I think one of the reasons that this is important for (Ukrainian) President Zelenskyy is also potentially in some of the discussions with Russia on a way out," the official said referring to talks to end the conflict. But he cautioned no process has been started yet. The chairman of EU leaders Charles Michel and the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will meet French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris on Monday evening for talks. "So I'm sure this will come up in those discussions. And of course we have quite imminently, on the 10th and 11th of March, an informal European Council meeting and I would imagine that the Ukraine topic, which is occupying many leaders' minds, will feature at some point in those discussions," the official said. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa on Monday expressed "full support" for a speedier EU membership procedure for Ukraine, while Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said it was necessary to give a clear signal that Ukraine was welcome, CTK news agency cited him as saying on Monday. RTHK: Talks between Moscow and Kyiv to continue The first round of Ukraine-Russia talks aimed at ending the fighting between Moscow and its smaller neighbour concluded with no immediate agreements. An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said talks with Ukrainian officials lasted nearly five hours. Vladimir Medinsky headed the Russian delegation in Belarus. He said the two sides found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen. Another round of talks was agreed to, Medinsky said. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave few details except to say that the talks, held near the Ukraine-Belarus border, were focused on a possible cease-fire and that a second round could take place in the near future. "The next meeting will take place in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is an agreement to that effect, Medinsky said. (AP) This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. FSK student Takynd Parris reads from "Harlem" by Langston Hughes during the Sixth Annual African American Read-In at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster Monday night, Feb 3, 2020. (Dylan Slagle / Carroll County Times) Students and the general public will have an opportunity tonight to listen to and celebrate diverse voices in African American literature during the seventh annual African African American Read-In at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster. Rodney Morris, president of the NAACP chapter of Carroll County, an event sponsor, said the read-in is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the struggle and triumphs of the African American community. Advertisement It is especially significant during this time when theres so much resistance to books [and] to relay information, Morris said. Organizer Laura Doolan, coordinator of Secondary English Language Arts for Carroll County Public Schools, hopes students are inspired to embrace more diverse literature through the event, being held in celebration of Black History Month. Advertisement I hope their eyes are opened to some new poets, new writers, new worlds of literature so that, ideally, after this they will go and look to find more diverse voices in their literature whether thats going back to their school library or going to their local library or bookstore to pick up some literature and start to expand their repertoire of voices, Doolan said. FSK junior Patrick Rippeon plays saxophone with a jazz quartet during the Sixth Annual African American Read-In at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster Monday night, Feb 3, 2020. (Dylan Slagle / Carroll County Times) About 50 students from Carroll County Public Schools and Silver Oak Academy in Keymar will read poetry, prose, nonfiction and even perform music spanning Colonial times to the present. It begins at 6:30 p.m. with jazz music, followed by readings and performances from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The local event is part of the National African-American Read-In, the nations first and oldest event dedicated to diversity in literature. It was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. The initiative has reached more than 6 million participants around the world, according to a news release. The event is free and open to the public. In case of inclement weather, a March 7 snow date is set. To learn more visit https://carrollcountyartscouncil.org/event/african-american-read-in/. Russian and French presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron discussed the situation around Ukraine, the Kremlin press service reported. "In a lengthy telephone conversation initiated by the French side, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron had a serious and detailed exchange of views on all aspects of the situation around Ukraine," the statement said. Views were expressed on the French side regarding Russia's ongoing special military operation to protect Donbas and the hope for a speedy resolution of the current conflict through dialogue and negotiations with Kyiv. Vladimir Putin noted that such a settlement was only possible if Russia's legitimate security interests were unconditionally taken into account, including the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, resolving the tasks of demilitarization and denationalization of the Ukrainian state and ensuring its neutral status. It was noted that the Russian side was open to negotiations with representatives of Ukraine and hoped that they would lead to the desired results. The Russian president stressed that the Russian Armed Forces were not threatening civilians and were not targeting civilian objects. The threat comes from Ukrainian nationalists, who use civilians as human shields, deliberately place shock weapons systems in residential areas and intensify shelling of towns in Donbas. Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron have agreed to remain in contact. Azerbaijan, in addition to Nagorno-Karabakh, continues its policy of human rights violations, which also affects residents of the border regions of Armenia, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said. His remarks came at the 49th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council. He noted that civilians are harmed by the ongoing provocative actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry informed NEWS.am. "This aggressive policy is accompanied by blatant violations of international humanitarian law. Sixteen months after the ceasefire, there are still 38 Armenian prisoners of war, including civilians, in Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the fate of hundreds of missing persons, including dozens of forcibly disappeared persons, remains unclear," Mirzoyan explained. According to him, the right to self-determination is one of the main goals of the United Nations. The use of force against this right can lead to a range of human rights violations. These include mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing. "This is what we saw on the part of Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 - both during the war and after," the diplomat said. He called on the international community to take responsibility for ensuring unconditional access by UN bodies to the entire territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Mirzoyan noted that holders of UN special procedural mandates have repeatedly raised questions with Azerbaijan. "These include the use of mercenaries during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and the destruction of religious and cultural heritage. Azerbaijan has refused to respond adequately. Baku, in fact, did not respond at all, which is an obvious challenge to the UN human rights mechanism," Mirzoyan said. According to the Minister, we must not forget the plight of those to whom the UN has no access. The people of Nagorno-Karabakh must not be discriminated against on the basis of origin, language, religion, political or other opinion, national origin or any other ground. "We seek a safe, dignified and voluntary return of Armenians to their homes throughout Nagorno-Karabakh," stressed the Armenian representative. The interim measures proposed by the International Court of Justice on 7 December 2021, which oblige Azerbaijan to stop its racist and discriminatory treatment of Armenians, including the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage and acts of vandalism, must be implemented unconditionally. These measures, according to Mirzoyan, are evidence of Azerbaijan's Armenianophobic policies. They include belligerent rhetoric, deprivation of people's livelihoods, constant intimidation of the Armenian population, and a new threat to use force. "Only after addressing these issues will we be able to ensure stability, peace, justice, and the protection of universal human rights in our region," the Foreign Minister said. The talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Gomel lasted about five hours and the sides went over the entire agenda, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who heads the Russian delegation at the talks said. According to him, the parties managed to find points on which common positions can be predicted. He said that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to continue talks and the next meeting would be held in the next few days, RIA Novosti reported. Leonid Slutsky, a member of the delegation and head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, said that the talks with Ukraine had found points on which progress was possible. According to him, the Ukrainian delegation was ready to listen and participate in the most detailed discussion of topical issues, TASS reported. An adviser to the head of the presidential office, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podoliyak, confirmed that the parties agreed on the next round of talks. According to him, the sides have identified a number of priority topics on which certain decisions have been outlined. The negotiators are returning to their capitals to discuss the results of the talks, the UNIAN news agency reported. Turkey will use its powers under the Montreux Convention to prevent an escalation of the crisis, Turkish President Erdogan said this, Anadolu news agency reported. He said Turkey could not abandon its ties with Russia or Ukraine amid the invasion of Ukraine. He added that Ankara would implement the pact on the passage of ships through its straits to prevent escalation. "We are continuing our multifaceted diplomatic initiatives to ensure peace and stability. We consider Russia's attack on Ukraine unacceptable and appreciate the struggle of the Ukrainian administration and people. We have decided to pursue a path that will prevent escalation. Turkey has fulfilled its obligations within institutions and alliances, especially the UN, NATO and the EU," Erdogan said. He said Turkey would not compromise on its commitments to its alliances, including NATO, but neither could it abandon "national interests" in its region. The 1936 Montreux Convention on the Status of the Straits enshrined Turkey's sovereignty over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. Subject to prior notification to the Turkish authorities, the Black Sea powers could pass their warships of any class through the straits in peacetime. For warships of non-Black Sea powers there are significant restrictions on class and tonnage. The text of the convention has paragraphs concerning wartime as well. Depending on whether Turkey is a party to the conflict, it has additional powers to regulate passage through the straits. In some circumstances, Ankara can prohibit a country from using the straits if it considers it would compromise security in the region or pose a threat to itself. Norway will send weapons to Ukraine, becoming the last European country to do so after the Russian invasion, Reuters reported. The decision overturns a Norwegian policy in place since the 1950s of not sending arms to non-NATO countries that are at war or at risk of armed conflict. Norway will donate up to 2,000 M72 anti-tank weapons, the government said in a statement. "Norway has strict policies regarding exports of military equipment, but Ukraine now faces extraordinary circumstances," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said. Norway announced on Sunday that it would withdraw its sovereign wealth fund from Russia and promised to send Ukraine helmets, bullet-proof vests and other equipment. Germany's decision to supply weapons to Ukraine is not a cold war, but a very hot war," the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said in a statement. "In recent days we have witnessed repeated statements by the German side to start supplying combat weapons to Ukraine (in particular, we are talking about 1,000 anti-tank man-portable missiles, 500 Stinger portable anti-aircraft missile systems, permission for a number of third countries to transfer German-made weapons to Kyiv), which runs counter to Berlin's earlier balanced line on this issue. This decision by the German government has been officially confirmed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz... Such an outrageous gesture is justified by Ukraine's fight for its freedom and independence as well as by the 'threat' which our country allegedly poses to European security," she said. "Once again, as many times in history, weapons coming from German soil will be directed against Russian soldiers. Against this background Scholz's assurances about the importance of the process of historical reconciliation between the peoples of Germany and Russia sounded particularly cynical," Zakharova added. With this decision, Germany calls on the ghosts of not a cold, but the very hot war. Too many sad associations are evoked by the prospect of further military pumping of Kyiv by Berlin, which, apparently, does not realize that in the current situation, the weapons supplied on Ukrainian territory can easily become the prey of neo-nazis, terrorists and looters on Ukrainian territory," she said. US President Joe Biden's administration rejected calls for a "no-fly" zone over Ukraine, arguing that this would lead to escalation. Declaring a "no-fly" zone would require enforcement, and that would "essentially mean the US military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on MSNBC Monday morning. "That is definitely escalating and would potentially put us in a place in a military conflict with Russia. That's something the president doesn't want to do," she added, noting the administration has repeatedly said that US troops will not be fighting Russian forces barring a NATO Article 5 situation. The Biden administration wants to soften the rhetoric and escalate after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's deterrence forces to be placed on high alert. Psaki said that the US had its own preparations and its own capabilities and capacities to defend the United States, but the country had not raised its alert level. P.A.C.T. Pfc. Jerome Stanford and Lt. Jacklyn Davis, go through some of the donated items to be crammed into a cruiser Monday morning. Operation Cram the Cruiser - Anne Arundel County Police Departments Eastern District PACT (Police & Community Together) hosted a Cram the Cruiser event this February. The donated items will be given to local nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Examples of NEW items collected are; puzzles, small games, playing cards, coloring books & supplies, books, and personal care items. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Capital Gazette) Story Highlights Lower-income Black adults have higher wellbeing than other low-income groups do Wellbeing advantage for Black Americans dissipates in higher-income households Greater income boosts wellbeing more for Hispanic and White adults WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The wellbeing of lower-income Black Americans is higher than that of lower-income White or Hispanic Americans, but the advantage fades among higher-income racial subgroups. Among those in lower-income households (with annual incomes under $36,000), 46% of Black adults report high satisfaction with their current lives, slightly higher than for White (42%) or Hispanic (40%) adults from the same income group. In contrast, among those earning $120,000 or more, 80% of Black respondents rate their lives highly, compared with 86% of White and 84% of Hispanic adults. As such, Black respondents from the higher-earning households have a 34-percentage-point advantage in their life satisfaction over their counterparts from the lower-income households, a statistically smaller gap than the 44-point difference found among both White and Hispanic respondents. Life Ratings Among U.S. Black, White and Hispanic Adults by Household Income (% 7-10 for Current Life; % 8-10 for Future Life) Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time? On which step do you think you will stand about five years from now? Total <$36k $36k- <$60k $60k- <$90k $90k- <$120k $120k+ Gap* % % % % % % pct. pts. CURRENT LIFE SATISFACTION Black adults 61 46 53 67 68 80 34** White adults 71 42 60 71 77 86 44 Hispanic adults 61 40 51 60 70 84 44 ANTICIPATED LIFE SATISFACTION Black adults 68 55 62 76 76 81 26** White adults 66 44 55 63 72 80 36 Hispanic adults 62 46 52 66 66 81 35 * Gap between top and bottom income groups ** Statistically significantly smaller (p<.05) than for the other two groups Gallup, Aug. 5-29, 2021 Anticipated life satisfaction in five years follows a similar pattern. Among lower-income households, Black adults have greater optimism for the future than do White or Hispanic adults. By contrast, there is no difference in life expectations by racial groups among respondents in households earning $120,000 or more per year. These results are a part of the ongoing research by the Gallup Center on Black Voices that reveals trends and insights on the experiences of Black Americans. The current report is based on web interviews collected Aug. 5-29, 2021, with 13,098 U.S. adults, using the Gallup Panel, a probability-based, non-opt-in panel of about 115,000 adults across all 50 states and the District of Columbia and a specially purchased list from Dynata. Daily Sadness and Worry Lower Among Lower-Income Black Adults In addition to general life ratings, Gallup tracks whether Americans experience significant levels of specific emotions, including stress and worry, in their daily lives. Black Americans in households earning under $36,000 per year are less likely to report they experienced significant worry or sadness the day before than are their White or Hispanic counterparts. While higher-income adults of all racial groups are less likely to report these emotions, the within-race/ethnicity change by income is less pronounced for Black adults than for White or Hispanic adults. Daily worry is particularly notable, with 47% of Black adults in lower-income households reporting worry, compared with 57% of White adults and 66% of Hispanic adults. Among those in households earning $120,000 or more, all three groups have identical estimates of 30%. As such, the reduction along the income gradient among Hispanic respondents (36 points) is more than double that of Black respondents (17 points). Experiences of Daily Sadness and Worry Among U.S. Black, White and Hispanic Adults, by Household Income Did you experience [sadness/worry] a lot of the day yesterday? (% Yes) Total <$36k $36k- <$60k $60k- <$90k $90k- <$120k $120k+ Gap* % % % % % % pct. pts. SADNESS A LOT OF PREVIOUS DAY Black adults 26 38 24 18 26 18 -20** White adults 24 42 27 21 19 18 -24 Hispanic adults 30 47 28 27 29 21 -26 WORRY A LOT OF PREVIOUS DAY Black adults 38 47 45 29 37 30 -17** White adults 36 57 38 35 30 30 -27 Hispanic adults 45 66 44 47 45 30 -36 * Gap between top and bottom income groups ** Statistically significantly smaller (p<.05) than for the other two groups Gallup, Aug. 5-29, 2021 Physical and Career Wellbeing Higher Among Lower-Income Black Adults Gallup assesses people's wellbeing, more broadly, by measuring five dimensions of their experiences that add up to a thriving life: Career wellbeing: You like what you do every day. You like what you do every day. Social wellbeing: You have meaningful friendships in your life. You have meaningful friendships in your life. Financial wellbeing: You manage your money well. You manage your money well. Physical wellbeing: You have energy to get things done. You have energy to get things done. Community wellbeing: You like where you live. The same race/income pattern observed with life satisfaction and emotions is seen for some of the wellbeing elements. Black Americans with lower annual household incomes (less than $36,000 per year) report significantly higher levels of physical ("My physical health is near perfect") and career ("I like what I do every day") wellbeing than do White or Hispanic Americans in the same income band. But these racial differences dissipate among those with incomes in the $60,000 to (under) $90,000 range. Agreement with having nearly perfect health rises greatly among White respondents as income increases, whereby an 11-point deficit relative to Black respondents in lower-income households is exchanged for a six-point advantage among those living in households earning at least $120,000, a 17-point swing. For liking what you do each day, a six-point advantage for Black adults over Hispanic adults in lower-income households is swapped for a seven-point deficit in the higher-income bracket, a 13-point swing. This pattern is also found to a less pronounced degree for the remaining three elements when Black adults are compared with White adults, but not with Hispanic respondents. Physical and Career Wellbeing Higher for Lower-Income U.S. Black Adults; This Fades With Higher Income % 4 or 5 on 5-pt. agreement scale, where 5 is "Strongly agree" Total <$36k $36k- <$60k $60k- <$90k $90k- <$120k $120k+ Gap* % % % % % % pct. pts. HEALTH NEAR PERFECT Black adults 42 38 43 38 47 49 11** White adults 42 27 31 39 43 55 28 Hispanic adults 35 24 33 38 43 40 16 LIKE WHAT I DO Black adults 56 46 54 60 61 70 24** White adults 65 42 59 64 69 77 35 Hispanic adults 58 40 51 61 60 77 37 * Gap between top and bottom income groups ** Statistically significantly smaller (p<.05) than for the other two groups Gallup, Aug. 5-29, 2021 Implications Household income has long been understood to have a positive relationship with various aspects of wellbeing, including life ratings and daily emotional experiences as well as physical health and healthy behaviors. Income relates closely to aspects of life that can greatly influence wellbeing, including issues of basic access such as having health insurance and being able to afford healthcare. And low income has been shown to relate to obesity more strongly than "food deserts." Past research has shown that Black Americans report higher anticipated life satisfaction five years in the future, but that this optimism is more likely to go unmet than is true for White or Hispanic Americans. Other research has revealed that general life ratings of young Black males are far lower than those of young males of a different race or ethnicity, a bigger deficit than for most other age groups. What has been less closely examined, however, is a detailed view of wellbeing across income bands through the lens of race and ethnicity. The wellbeing advantage measured among Black Americans in lower-income households may partly be a result of Joe Biden's election to the U.S. presidency in November 2020. Recent research has shown an improvement in general life ratings among Black, White and Hispanic adults between October 2020 and June 2021, and a particular improvement among Democrats. During this time, the life ratings of Americans in lower-income households also improved substantially, while those in higher-income households were unchanged. As such, the combination of racial identity and lower income may be exhibiting a cumulative effect that was not observed in higher-income Black households at the time of this survey. By December 2021, life ratings among U.S. adults had retreated about four points from their June high, including a three-point drop among Black adults. But the boost among lower-income Americans remained elevated, suggesting that findings from this survey likely remain largely intact. To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter. Learn more about how the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index works. Learn more about how the Gallup Panel works. LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Court of Appeal today upheld last years High Court decision dismissing claims brought by Denmarks Customs and Tax Division (SKAT) against ED&F Man Capital Markets. SKATs appeal of the High Court decision against all other defendants was successful. Rosenblatt acted for ED&F Man Capital Markets. - ends - MCM was founded in 2012, and today operates at the heart of the financial services ecosystem and is a leading provider in global capital markets It has a global presence across the worlds major financial centres It has a diverse range of asset classes resulting in a highly resilient business which offers a one stop shop offering an unrivalled breadth of products and services Further information is available at http://www.edfmancapital.com The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has cracked a human trafficking racket involving Bangladeshis immigrants entering India illegally and going to Mumbai or other cities with the help of forged travel and other official documents, officials said here on Monday. The ATS has arrested four persons, including one from Mumbai, in connection with the human trafficking racket, but the kingpin based in West Bengal is reported to be absconding. With tentacles spread across India and Bangladesh, the racket's modus operandi involved sneaking Bangladeshi nationals on foot through the porous borders and providing them with fake Aadhaar cards in their names from a UIDAI Centre in Bangaon, North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Armed with the forged Aadhaar cards, the illegal entrants reached various cities like Mumbai and with help of local agents, obtained more fraudulent documents like Indian birth certificates, school leaving certificate (SLCs) or even passports. "We have arrested one Indian agent, Santosh Varne of Mumbai, besides three other Bangladeshis, including a 17-year-old girl, and Kajal Shaikh, 28, who managed to get an Indian passport based on the fake documents," said an ATS official. The other two arrested persons, including the minor girl, were in the process of obtaining their Indian passports when the ATS nabbed them. Varne, 52, is a passport agent for the past over 8 years and also arranged forged BMC papers, birth certificates, SLCs, etc for the illegal entrants to help them get an Indian passport. During its swoop on Varne, the ATS recovered 100 blank generic SLCs forms with the name 'Bombay' instead of Mumbai printed on them to avoid detection or confirmation. "The name of the school was stamped on these generic SLCs and the relevant details of the illegal immigrants were filled up, and then used for creating more fake documents," said the official. The ATS probe led them to the 'kingpin of the racket', Sardar Shaikh, alias Monjil Mondal of Sindhrani village in Bangaon, who had brought the arrested trio and other Bangladeshi nationals to India via the borders, and facilitated the fake Aadhaar cards for them. A history-sheeter, Shaikh boasts of a criminal record with Bagdah Police Station under various offences, including cutting the border fencing and runnning a cross-border human trafficking racket. The Maharashtra ATS visited West Bengal to arrest him, but he is absconding and efforts are on to trace and nab him, said the official. --IANS qn/vd ( 414 Words) 2022-02-28-22:08:02 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from Centre on the status of a Pakistani national, languishing in a detention centre for seven years, after Islamabad refuses to accept him as its citizen. A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant noted that the person has served his sentence of 3 years and six months, and after completing the sentence he has been lodged in a detention centre since 2015. It queried Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, representing the Centre, "At the time, when Pakistan has refused to accept him as its citizen, how long can you keep a person inside?" Nataraj submitted that the government is bound by Pakistan's response, as a person convicted under the Foreigners Act has to be kept in a detention centre. The bench asked the Centre's counsel to take instructions, whether 62-year-old Mohammad Qamar can be released for a brief period, to apply for Indian citizenship. Qamar's five children are Indian citizens. Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, represented Qamar's children, who have sought their father's release from the detention centre in the top court. He cited an order of the apex court, where it directed the Centre to release detenues in the detention centres of Assam who had been lodged for more than two years against the backdrop of the pandemic. At this, the bench told Nataraj: "Granting citizenship is your call, we are not going to interfere with that." The bench noted that Qamar is keen to apply for the Indian citizenship and scheduled the matter for further hearing after three weeks. In August 2011, Qamar was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, and held guilty by a court for overstaying his visa and sentenced to three years and six months in jail. After completing the sentence, he was sent to the detention centre at Lampur in Narela here on February 7, 2015 for deportation to Pakistan. However, the Pakistan government refused his deportation. --IANS ss/vd ( 343 Words) 2022-02-28-22:34:01 (IANS) Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], February 28 (ANI/PR Newswire): Woxsen's Placement Drive 2022 for its Flagship MBA Programs recorded 100 per cent Track yet again. With the return of Global Corporations such as IBM, KPMG, DELL, Deloitte, Tech Mahindra, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, Aditya Birla Group, IHS Markit, Divi's Laboratories and College Dunia, over 124 leading corporates across sectors joined this drive. The long-Term associations, on the other hand, confirmed their recruiting goal too and continued to hire students for various positions across numerous domains. This year the drive also witnessed honchos like Adani Enterprises, Korn Ferry, Pfizer, Khimji Ramdas and Hafele India as first-time entrants for recruitment confirming their trust in Woxsen's talent. Highest Package was recorded at INR 16.0 LPA, while the Average Top 20 per cent touched 11.8 LPA, Overall Average Package moved up to 8.6 LPA and Median Package of 8.0 LPA. Woxsen's Placement Drive 2022 observed an increase in the industry's need for candidates showcasing their acumen to leverage the potential of Data towards driving innovation and success in businesses, therefore offering new-age roles such as Data Scientist and Business Analyst. Students at Woxsen were offered variety of other roles like Market Research Analyst, Credit Risk Analyst, Tax Advisory Services, Deal Advisory, Product Management and Management Trainee, to name a few. This also highlights Woxsen's new-age specializations, applied learning approach through state-of-the-art labs, global edge and industry connect. The emphasis on these highlights provides students the right mix to become industry-ready and take on complex responsibilities in a real corporate setting. IT/ITES and EdTech sectors reigned supreme with maximum hiring in this year's placement drive, BFSI and Consulting & Business Strategy saw a significant jump in the roles offered. The academic year 2021-22 was a year of significant accomplishments. Woxsen University debuted in Dalal Street's Best B-Schools (Beyond IIMs) 2022 and retained its All India Rank #16 among The Top Pvt. B-School Category in the BusinessWorld B-School Ranking 2021. Under Times B-Schools Ranking 2022, it scaled up to All India Rank 13 among the Top 150 B-Schools. Know more about our placement: https://woxsen.edu.in/pdf/placementreport_feb_2022.pdf Woxsen University, located in Hyderabad is one of the first private Universities of the state of Telangana. Renowned for its 200 acre state-of-the-art campus and infrastructure, Woxsen University provides new-age, disruptive programs in the fields of business, technology, arts & design, architecture, liberal arts and law. With 60+ Global Partner Universities and strong Industry Connect, Woxsen is reckoned as one of the top universities for academic excellence of international standards, industry exposure and global edge. Rank #14, All India Top 100 B-Schools by Times B-School Ranking 2021, Rank #16, All India Top Pvt. B-School by BusinessWorld Ranking Survey 2021. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1754489/MBA_Placement_2020_2022.jpg This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire) New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (GAPIO), a non-profit organization that aims to bring together 1.4 million physicians of Indian Origin on one platform organized its XII Annual Congress virtually on February 26 and 27. The congress has become an important annual event in the international medical calendar where exchange of knowledge between renowned experts across the globe takes place. The 12th edition of this annual event saw participation of over 5000 participants from USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Middle East, Africa, UAE, India and other countries making it one of the largest events of its kind in the world. During the Award function, eleven distinguished and young clinicians who have made noteworthy contribution to improving healthcare were honoured. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers of India, Government of India was the Chief Guest and Dr Prathap C Reddy, Founder President of GAPIO and Chairman Apollo Hospitals Group was the Guest of Honor. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers of India, Government of India said, "I am happy to be interacting with some of the best clinicians through the XII Conference of Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. Over the years, Indian physicians have been ambassadors of India in the countries where they work. During the peak of COVID-19, our clinicians and researchers have been at the forefront of delivering the best treatment. I would like to applaud talented researchers who developed a 'Made in India' COVID vaccine in a record time period of 9 months. We have administered as many as 2.5 cr doses of the COVID vaccine in a single day. India is comprehensively working to digitise healthcare. We will initiate a teleconsultation platform worldwide so that the patients from across the globe can seek consultations from Indian physicians. We believe India can emerge as the destination of choice for medical travel and we can "heal the world." Through this platform I urge the doctors around the world to join hands together to make the world healthier. After all, we believe in Vasudev Kuthambakkam." Dr Prathap C Reddy, Founder President of GAPIO and Chairman Apollo Hospitals Group said, "The Indian physicians have once again shown their abiding sense of service towards humanity during the pandemic. Their work ensured that the human race was not overwhelmed in the face of a once in a century crisis. The network afforded by GAPIO helped physicians in tapping the expertise of their fellow members to exchange ideas and methodologies that helped health systems and communities. As the digitalization of healthcare continues to expand, innovative medical technologies and cross-systemic learning are set to deliver substantial new value opportunities. In a world where technology is revolutionizing patient care, being innovative is not just desirable but will necessary. GAPIO congress provide a platform to create new ways of thinking and learning." Dr Anupam Sibal, President of GAPIO and Group Medical Director at Apollo Hospitals, Senior Consultant Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist said, "With this congress we aim to bring forth a plethora of new opportunities and avenues, beyond conventional boundaries and redefining the new normal. While the challenge posed by COVID-19 may be receding, existing and emerging health challenges are always at the horizon, each needing a concerted global approach. Through GAPIO and this congress, we would like to evolve new approaches towards these global challenges. This congress will foster new collaborations." Highlighting the Congress' relevance, Dr Nandakumar Jairam, Vice President of GAPIO said, "In a world of dynamic change and heightened uncertainty, working together is more critical than even before. Our idea to create a platform that helps connect physicians of Indian origin to improve the delivery of care is well set and will get stronger in the years ahead." Dr Sudhir Parikh, Secretary General of GAPIO and Chairman and Publisher of Parikh World Wide Media and ITV Gold 24x7 TV Channel in USA, said, "Global health challenges need global solutions and we believe through GAPIO we will evolve productive and concrete ways of ensuring that healthcare becomes more accessible to all citizens." Rana Dasgupta, Organizing Patron GAPIO 2022, CEO-Eastern Region, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, "This forum brings together the global experts based in more than 50 countries to contribute and learn from each other to enhance healthcare delivery in India. We are confident that the Congress will go a long way in strengthening the collaborative spirit of the physicians of Indian origin across the world." Mahesh Kumar Goenka, Organizing Chairperson, GAPIO 2022 and Director, Institute of Gastrosciences & Director, Medical Education, Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals, Kolkata said, "We are delighted to be hosting this congress, which has offered a great learning experience for clinicians as global clinical leaders addressed a range of subjects. In this congress, global experts in several medical and surgical specialties shared the latest research, evidence based protocols and best practices which will help improve clinical care." This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) Surat (Gujarat) [India], February 28 (ANI/PNN): After a fantastic and well-attended Business Event in Mumbai, PingPong Payments organised 'The Leaders' Event, demystifying cross border business for international firms in Surat. The event was a huge success with tremendous response from the business community in the city. It was created with the goal of assisting global sellers and enterprises in their growth. Over 150 business persons attended workshops led by industry leaders such as Amazon Global, Stelcore, DHL, along with PingPong. It was a multi-faceted event that covered all aspects of global selling. PingPong Payments India's country head, Mukesh Kumar Sahu, says that PingPong global payments act as a bridge to connect the Indian exporters with international businesses. PingPong is one of the best payment platforms and a one-stop solution to all the needs of global businesses. The company was launched in New York in the year 2015 and is a unicorn company with a market valuation of over USD 2 billion. With a presence in over 43 countries and regions, the company has an active client base of over 1 million customers worldwide, with the lowest commission rate in the industry. According to Chetna Sharma, the firm's India Marketing lead, PingPong has been recognised as one of CB INSIGHTS' Top 250 Fintech Startups worldwide, as well as one of the top 28 organisations in the Payments Processing Segment. It has been awarded as the BEST PAYMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER IN THE USA FOR 2021 by Global Banking & Finance Review. PingPong Payments makes business easier by providing a variety of services without any hassle. With a simple onboarding process, one can get benefits from the quickest payments received at the lowest rates to assist in optimisation of their global selling business They offer a variety of services to Indian customers, including: Virtual receiving accounts in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, JPY, Dubai, and other countries. You can get paid from anywhere in the world. Local Bank Withdrawal: Funds are immediately sent in INR or USD to your India bank account at meagre rates. Fast and Secure Payments: Safe and simple cross-border payments that are faster than you've ever seen. Not only that, but PingPong Payments hosts events for businesses and shares growth techniques. They are here to assist you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI/TPT): Tangentia, a leading global digital transformation company with a strong presence in Canada, America and India, has come up with a unique hiring strategy, 'Ghar Wapsi' to attract top talent in the big cities by presenting them with a chance to return to their roots for a better quality of life. To keep up with the immense competition in the employment marketplace for the tech industry, companies are doing what it takes to grab and retain the top talent. It is often perceived that bigger cities are home to some of the talented and budding professionals, however smaller cities have their fair share of talent that can make an impact. Hence Tangentia, a leading digital transformation solutions company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with operations in Goa, Kerala and Karnataka, presents lucrative opportunities and a chance to professionals from smaller towns to return to their roots. Calling it Ghar Wapsi (Back to the Roots), Tangentia is working on intangibles like nostalgia - feelings and sentiments - to tap talent from big cities in an attempt at reverse migration and, more importantly, expand its operations in tier 2 and tier 3 cities to locate, identify and tap talent from these areas. Often, talent from smaller towns gets bypassed by the big players. Vijay Thomas, Founder and CEO, Tangentia, says, "We see ourselves as a small-town company, and I think that has helped us to get the right people with the same kind of DNA to join us," he added, "The company traveled to smaller places where talent lived and offered opportunities in the same location to the extent possible." Referrals are considered to be one of the most reliable sources for acquiring fresh talent, said Mamatha Manu, HR Manager, Tangentia. "The number of references that we have got from the employees have increased considerably. Our existing employees, who give us references, as well as the new people who join us (through any source) both get the advantage of this programme. We believe that this initiative will get people to work with us and then also stay with us", she added. Presently, Tangentia is operational in Goa, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, and Karwar and Belgaum in Karnataka. The company is exploring possibilities of an expansion in Kolhapur in Maharashtra soon. Vijay Thomas believes that in smaller towns you have a more stable workforce, and attrition rates are lower. He says, "The talent market in smaller cities and towns is "not as hot" as in bigger cities. When I say talent is hot, I mean people move very easily. People in big cities tend to change jobs more often. We want to give a platform to this pool of talent, bring them into our company and allow them to work from the comfort of their homes, He added. India is a hub of talent and companies worldwide have big workforces here. Vijay provides a global platform with unique offerings to those in India through Tangentia. "Places such as Belgaum, Karwar and Kolhapur have very good engineering colleges as well as MBA schools and a very well educated population in general. These young people now move to Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon or Overseas after completing their education, but my idea is to bring them back home and have this home-grown talent work with us at Tangentia," said Vijay. Tangentia has recently been certified as a Great Place to Work by Great Place to Work Institute (India). The certification and recognition demonstrate Tangentia's excellence in terms of credibility, respect, fairness (trust), and employees' sense of pride in their work. "Being recognized as a 'Great Place to Work-Certified' organization is a fantastic honor and a true testament to the credibility, camaraderie, respect and fairness that Tangentia colleagues have for each other and, most importantly we are incredibly proud of our work and services we are providing to our customers. This is an honor to our journey towards building and sustaining a high-trust and high-performance culture", says Vijay Thomas. Tangentia has built a culture of hard work while having fun and staying very grounded, he added. In other developments, the company is also incentivizing its existing workforce through employee referral programmes, and new joiners are offered a unique signing bonus. www.tangentia.com/careers/ This story is provided by TPT. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/TPT) New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI/NewsVoir): India's Leading Real Estate group, Signature Global Group received national recognition from Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana. Signature Global group received two awards at the conclave for creating remarkable housing projects under state housing policies, one for Affordable Housing and another for DDJAY. Signature Global Group's Founder and Chairman, Pradeep Aggarwal, and its Co-founder and Managing Director, Ravi Aggarwal, received accolades and awards from Haryana's Chief Minister. The two-day event Urban Development conclave organised at Hotel Leela Ambience Gurgaon by Town and country planning Haryana and Haryana Real estate regulatory authority in association with CREDAI and NAREDCO. The award jury was chaired by distinguished panelists and senior officials of DTCP, TCP, HRERA. The first award was given to Rose Building Solution (a subsidiary company of Signature Global Group) for developing Sunrise, the premium floors a remarkable project in Karnal under Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojna policy and another accolade has been bestowed to Signature Builders for developing Solera a best in class project in Gurgaon sector 107 under the state Affordable Housing policy. Through these achievements, Signature Global became more trusted brand for developing remarkable projects across the state. Expressing his happiness on the occasion Pradeep Aggarwal, Chairman and Founder of Signature Global Group said, "We are grateful to State Government, concerned departments and policy makers, organizers and Jury members for recognising our work. We dedicate these awards to our team, customers, channel partners and all those who are directly and indirectly associated with us. We are 21st century real estate company with a global outlook and nurtured with Indian values. We are known as a brand which stands for Reality, Reliability and Responsibility. We make dream homes within reach of people through affordable housing and would consistently put our efforts for providing home to the common man of our country." This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) An Edgewater man, who police said arrived at an airport in bloodstained clothes last fall after killing his elderly mother, died in the countys maximum-security detention center last month, according to court records. An Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge dismissed a pending first-degree murder case against Aiman Ghai Zaharna, 55, in January after the countys Jennifer Road Detention Center staff reported in a court filing that he had died in the jail on Jan. 16, as lawyers were awaiting the results of a competency evaluation to determine if he was mentally fit to stand trial. Advertisement The cause and manner of Zaharnas death in pretrial custody are still being determined, a spokesperson for the states Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said on Thursday. Zaharna was jailed last year after police accused him of repeatedly stabbing his mother, 85-year-old Zakia Et Al Zaharna, who died after she handed police and paramedics the knife she had been stabbed with early in the morning of Oct. 26, 2021, at her home, according to charging papers filed against her son. Advertisement Aiman Zaharna was arrested hours later at a local hospital, where he had been taken after staff at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport noticed him attempting to purchase a plane ticket to Nevada with bloodstained hands and clothes, police wrote in the charging papers. In December, Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Mark W. Crooks ordered health officials to evaluate Aiman Zaharna to see if he was legally competent to stand trial. In January, a psychoanalyst sent a finished report to lawyers who were involved in the case, shortly before the detention center informed the judge of Zaharnas death days before, according to court records. Crooks dismissed the case. Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 28 (ANI/PR/Newswire): Employee Appreciation Day (Mar 4) is just around the corner. It is that time of the year again when employees take center stage. This year, Xoxoday is on a mission to spread awareness and help create a culture of everyday recognition within the organization. To enable the same, Xoxoday has launched a week-long ((February 28 to March 4) celebration: Employee Appreciation Week (#EAW2022). Xoxoday's idea is to help every organization switch from "it is nice to appreciate employees once in a while" to "genuinely celebrating employees all year long." Through this initiative, Xoxoday proposes to help HR, the culture custodians, make a splash on March 4 and beyond - by creating wow-worthy moments during the Employee Appreciation Week (February 28t to March 4) that sets the tone for the rest of the year. To do so, they have created a curated tool kit that includes fresh ideas to celebrate employees, tools for empowering everyone to spread the spirit of gratitude, and enjoyable activities to engage and strengthen work relationships. In order to spread the word about Employee Appreciation Day and to help organizations create a culture of appreciation, Xoxoday is inviting Co-founders, HR, and Culture Champions to join hands and make this Employee Appreciation Week a big success. Manoj Agarwal, Co-founder, Xoxoday, says, "Employees are the biggest assets of any organization. A daily dose of appreciation is a step towards acknowledging their value " Xoxoday is a rapidly growing fintech SaaS firm that propels business growth while focusing on human motivation. Xoxoday offers a suite of three products - Plum, Empuls, and Compass. Xoxoday works with more than 2000 clients, across 10+ countries and over 2.5 million users. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Xoxoday is a 270 member strong team with four global offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Singapore, New Delhi. www.xoxoday.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224198/Xoxoday_Logo.jpg This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire) Dholakia, chairman of one of the world's leading diamond company, Hari Krishna Exports was honored in the presence of more than 1,500 entrepreneurs and industrialists members of the Progress Club at an event organised at Happiness Party Plot located on the Puna Canal Road. Padma Shri Savjibhai Dholakia addressed the Progress Club's Entrepreneurs and Industrialists at the 'Meet The Leader' event, describing his life journey and providing motivational guidance on, how an entrepreneur can contribute to the development of society and country while also developing his industry and business. Padma Shri Dholakia also shared his life motto for achieving success and adding happiness to one's life. "The development of the country is inextricably related to the development of the city, village, taluka, district, and state." This is only conceivable if industrialists like us step forward to provide social and national duty," Dholakia remarked. Dholakia ended his speech by giving a motivational message of 'Jyot Se Jyot Jagate Chalo'. The industrialists and entrepreneurs who attended the event learned the importance of time management, industry development, family connections, personality development, and entrepreneurship. It is worth noting that Progress Club, which began with only eight industrialist members to propagate the concept 'Let's Grow Together,' has grown into a family of 1,500 entrepreneurs from Surat and across the country. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 28 (ANI/PNN): The Indian Institute of Packaging organized the INDIASTAR and PACMACHINE Awards, the National Awards for packaging excellence. The official award distribution ceremony was held on 25 February 2022 at Hotel JW Marriott Sahar, Mumbai. Around 300 members from the Industry & allied sector, Award Winners, Government of India officials, are going to be present for the Award Function. Hon'ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India, Shri Piyush Goyal has consented to be the Chief Guest along with Shri Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Emami Limited as Guest of Honour. Chairman IIP, Shri Vagish Dixit observed that, "It has been a great feeling to note that INDIASTAR & PACMACHINE Awards have continued to promote the art & science of packaging through the challenges of globalization. Even more encouraging, to understand the improvement in the quality packages and criteria of selections as well." Director IIP, Dr Tanweer Alam stated "Packaging, is distinctive from mere Packing, as it plays a visible and a catalytic role in a modern economy with the widespread adoption of branding of products and development of consumer preferences. To the extent that any consumer product packed in a manner that meets the criteria of safety, convenience and attractiveness, gains market share. In an aggregate, packaging as a sectoral activity boosts consumption and economic growth." Assistant Director & Head of International Packaging Centre, IIP, Shekhar Amberkar who is the co-ordinator for this event mentioned that, "This is one of the renowned event in the World. The awards distinction 'INDIASTAR' & 'PACMACHINE' enjoys a high level of recognition worldwide and serves as a brand for the companies, agencies and students with outstanding design skills. The contest received 305 entries, a record of nominations inspite of the worst pandemic situation of COVID-19. The quality of the nominations & selection parameters makes this contest much more trustworthy, valuable and even more competitive as well". The Institute has maintained its unique position as an internationally reputed organisation by responding to the needs of the country, and acting as a single window for India's capabilities in Packaging science and technology. With standing for the last 55 years, IIP instituted the INDIASTAR Awards in the year 1972 to promote and encourage excellence in packaging design, innovation and sustainability once every two years. Over a period, these Awards have become popular and firmly entrenched as the premier event for India's Packaging fraternity. IIP also introduced the PACMACHINE Awards in 1992 to recognize the achievements and promote the efforts of the packaging machinery sector. The main objective has been to celebrate the excellence with innovative concepts in design and development in packaging machinery particularly for import substitution & promotion of exports. The Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) is an autonomous and apex body working under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India for the promotion of packaging standards in the country. The Institute set up in 1966 is dedicated in serving the nation and industry to achieve excellence in packaging through its diversified activities that encompass the entire spectrum of packaging. With its headquarter and the principal laboratories in Mumbai, and other regional offices and laboratories, the activities of the institute are in line with those of the world's premiere packaging Institutes. IIP's activities includes Training & Education, Consultancy & Projects, Laboratory testing, Quality evaluation of packaging material and packages, Export promotion by way of organizing Seminars, Conferences & Exhibitions, Awards, Information & Publication and many more. The institute is closely linked with major international packaging organizations world over. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) As per The Hollywood Reporter, LuPone tested positive before Saturday's Broadway matinee of Company, and now she is expected to be out until March. "She is home resting, and everyone wishes her a speedy recovery. To ensure the safety of everyone at the Jacobs Theatre, increased testing protocols were automatically triggered," the show's producers informed via statement. LuPone also updated her fans about her diagnosis on her Twitter handle. "Hi Dolls. I showed up for Saturday's matinee, tested positive for Covid with 3 tests. Unfortunately, I'll be out of the show for 10 days. I'm so sorry," she tweeted. LuPone is 72-year-old. (ANI) Russia's military operation in Ukraine was one topic that almost everyone addressed during the SAG Awards 2022. Like others, veteran actor Brian Cox also voiced his concern about the ongoing crisis. During his acceptance speech for best ensemble in a drama series, the 'Succession' star expressed his distress at what was happening in Ukraine but beyond that, he urged support for Russian actors who are opposed to the invasion, reported The Hollywood Reporter. "It's particularly awful in terms of (how) it's affecting other people, particularly in our profession. The president of Ukraine was a comic. The thing that's really distressed me is what's happening in Russia, to our fellow actors, and actresses, and performers, and writers and critics. They are told under pain of high treason that they cannot say a word about Ukraine," he said. He added, "And I think that is pretty awful, and I think we should all stand together for those people in Russia who don't like what's going on -- the artists. I think we should join in celebrating them and hoping that they can actually make a shift. Because I believe they can." SAG awards were held at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California on Sunday night. (ANI) Expressing excitement about his new gig, Sonu said, "I am overjoyed to begin the Roadies shoot. It is one reality show I have been following very closely over the years, and I am very excited to add my flavour to it. I am sure it will be a journey like no other." The shooting is currently taking place in South Africa. Sonu has stepped into Rannvijay Singha's shoes, who was synonymous with 'Roadies' for the past 18 years. The new season is expected to go live in March. (ANI) According to Deadline, during the episode, Oliver said, "Putin is a lot of things: he's an autocrat, a tyrant, a warmonger. But also, he's kinda a huge b*tch," His comments were in response to a conversation that took place during a security meeting at the Kremlin last Monday, between Putin and Sergey Naryshkin, Russia's director of foreign intelligence. Putin badgered Naryshkin, to take a formal stand regarding the independence of the Ukraine cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. But Naryshkin was voicing his support of diplomacy with Ukraine one last time before going to war. Oliver commented on the obvious fear Naryshkin must have been feeling while being asked by Putin to take a stand on a subject they seemed to disagree on. As per Deadline, he said, "Unfortunately for that guy, he clearly forgot the best strategy for public speaking in Russia which is: just imagine the entire audience in their underwear, and Vladimir Putin pointing a pistol at your head. It really focuses the mind." Putin commenced Russia's military operation on the sovereign nation, on February 24. A day later, Russia seized control of Chernobyl. (ANI) Amid the bleak news of Russia's military operation on Ukraine last week, a more upbeat nugget of information has emerged regarding one of the key figures involved. Recently chatter had erupted on social media, which was first sparked by a tweet sent by Black List founder Franklin Leonard, that Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the man now seen globally as the face of brave resistance against Russian aggression, had voiced the titular Paddington Bear in Ukrainian version of the hit 2014 animated film. StudioCanal, the producer of 'Paddington', confirmed this news to The Hollywood Reporter, adding that he voiced the bear in Ukranian in both 'Paddington' and its smash hit 2017 sequel 'Paddington 2'. Although the idea of a world leader voicing a marmalade-loving Peruvian bear may seem a wild proposition, given Zelensky's rise to power it's perhaps not so strange. Prior to becoming president, Zelensky was one of the most popular and successful comedians in Ukraine and the star of several films and TV series. In fact, his political career is a case of life imitating art. In the hugely-successful political satire series 'Servant of the People', Zelensky plays a schoolteacher who inadvertently becomes Ukraine's president after a video of him ranting against corruption goes viral. Zelensky's grassroots political party, also called Servant of the People, was launched on the back of the show's success. The beloved entertainer also won Ukraine's version of 'Dancing with the Stars' in 2006. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the 'Paddington' news was met with delight over the weekend, with Hugh Bonneville, who played the bears' foster parent Henry Brown in the films, tweeting his gratitude. (ANI) Helen Mirren, who was honored as the 57th recipient of the SAG Life Achievement Award at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, has shared deets of her upcoming projects. Wearing a blush floral Prada gown and matching headband, Mirren told Variety about her upcoming role as villain Hespera in the superhero film 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods', set to release in 2023. "I had such a good time in 'Shazam,' playing a Roman goddess," Mirren shared. "I am a bit of a baddie, yes. Watch this space." Throughout her career, Mirren has taken on roles that range from three different British queens to her upcoming turn as Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of Israel. She's also a featured player in the 'Fast and Furious' franchise, as the formidable Magdalene Shaw. Asked whether she'll join the film series in for its final chapters 'Fast 10' and '11', Mirren said, "Oh gosh, I hope so. I just wait by the phone to see if they will call me." Mirren noted that she's always trying to mix it up when it comes to her roles in television and film, whether it's a superhero movie or a romantic comedy. "I love the genre work," Mirren explained. "I love working with those incredible artists of stunts and of special effects. ... It's just great to watch them work and to be a part of their work, and I love to mix it up. I love to go from those big-budget extraordinary technical films to a film that's much more about relationships and conversations rather than bangs." Mirren also spoke about receiving the award, which was presented to her by Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett. "It's incredibly meaningful; it completely took me by surprise," Mirren said. "I suppose everyone who gets it says that, but it is true. And, of course, to get it from my fellow actors is amazing, and I have to say specifically my fellow actors in America." As for what's next for the lifetime achievement winner, Mirren has a couple of ideas of how to keep audiences guessing. "I think the next hurdle, I would love to play a cowboy," Mirren said. "Just a cowboy on a horse. I've fallen off a horse so many times. I absolutely can't ride, so that would be a major challenge." (ANI) Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson has dismissed podcast host Joe Rogan's apology for using the N-word several times on episodes of his podcast show. According to Variety, the podcaster was first called out by Grammy Award-winning musician India Arie for his N-word use by posting a video compilation to Instagram last month of Rogan using the racial slur over two dozen times. Rogan apologized for his use of the N-word, but he also called the backlash against him a "political hit job." He further even said that many of the clips Arie shared were "taken out of context of 12 years of conversations on my podcast." Jackson recently spoke to a news outlet and shared his view about Rogan's N-word use and apology, "He is saying nobody understood the context when he said it, but he shouldn't have said it." He added, "It's not the context, dude, it's that he was comfortable doing it. Say you're sorry because you want to keep your money, but you were having fun and you say you did it because it was entertaining." For Jackson, using the N-word in media is only appropriate when it is "an element of what the story is about. A story is context, but just to elicit a laugh? That's wrong." Jackson then turned to his frequent collaborator Quentin Tarantino, who is often criticized for using the N-word repeatedly in his screenplays. Jackson views Tarantino's stories as giving proper context to the use of racial slurs. Tarantino's slavery film 'Django Unchained' included the N-word hundreds of times, but Jackson has long maintained the film's dialogue is authentic to its 1850s setting. "While we were rehearsing 'Django Unchained,' Leo [DiCaprio] said, 'I don't know if I can say [the N-word] this many times,'" Jackson said. He continued, "Me and Quentin said that you have to. Every time someone wants an example of overuse of the N-word, they go to Quentin -- it's unfair. He's just telling the story and the characters do talk like that. When Steve McQueen does it, it's art. He's an artiste. Quentin's just a popcorn filmmaker." As per Variety, Jackson has long defended Tarantino's use of the N-word. The actor said in the Tarantino documentary, 'QT8: The First Eight', that there's "no dishonesty in anything that [Quentin] writes or how people talk, feel, or speak [in his movies]." (ANI) An Annapolis man was ordered to remain in jail Monday after police accused him of shooting at another man outside of an American Legion lodge this weekend. A prosecutor told Anne Arundel County District Judge John P. McKenna that police found bullets in various cars outside the American Legion Cook-Pinkney Post 141 on Forest Drive while investigating the Friday night incident, saying that Keith Lamont Taylor, Jr., 34, was spraying bullets outside when one struck his alleged target, Iarone Leon Sellman Sr., 43, sending him to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Advertisement Police wrote in charging papers that they were dispatched to a shooting complaint at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday, and later identified Taylor as a suspect while watching camera footage from the post, where they said Sellman got into a physical altercation with Taylor and began to run after Taylor brandished a handgun, which he began to fire multiple times. Taylor was arrested Saturday and charged with attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and various firearms offenses. Advertisement At Taylors bail review on Monday, his lawyer, Kathleen Kirchner, told the judge the incident was counter to how everybody knows Mr. Taylor, noting she had received messages over the weekend from Taylors family and co-workers, who she said expressed shock at the allegations. Taylor is employed with the State Highway Administration, his lawyer said, vying for his release to return to work. Hes not a violent person, Jerry Graves, who attended the hearing alongside Taylors other family members, told the judge, saying that Taylor didnt shoot for nothing, somebody did something to him. McKenna ordered for Taylor to remain in jail, calling him an extreme risk to public safety. Who brings a handgun to an American Legion lodge? I dont understand it, McKenna said. On a day when BJP called for a 12 hours bandh alleging widespread violence during the municipal polls in 108 municipalities across West Bengal, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar summoned state election commissioner Sourav Das to give a detailed report. However, the ruling Trinamool Congress accused the BJP of creating disturbance in the state. "There has been widespread violence in the state and everybody is a witness to it. We would like to call for a 12 hour bandh - from 6 a.m. in the morning till 6 p.m. in the evening - on Monday. This is the first day of the week and I know it will cause hindrance to a lot of people but for the future of West Bengal and to save democracy I think people will understand," state BJP President Sukanta Majumdar said. There were reports of violence from several parts of the state including Bhatapara and Kankurgachi in North 24 Parganas, English Bazar in Malda district and Jalpaiguri district. Police have made preventive arrests of 786 people and arrested 51 people for indulging in violence. According to the state election commission, there were more than 1000 complaints and action has been taken on the basis of the complaints. However, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was not convinced with the action taken by the State Election Commission and has asked commissioner Sourav Das to report to him about the details of the election before 10 a.m. on Monday. "Today I have seen how democratic values have been throttled. I am hurt to find that West Bengal has turned out to be a gas chamber of democracy". "People are losing faith in democratic process. I am aghast and cannot believe that the electoral process could be so polluted. It was a war where the entire administration and the police machinery was on side along with the dispensation that is in power and the state election commission headed by the state election commissioner has abdicated its authority. I await his response and I expect that he will heed law and the constitution," the governor said. "This is not the time to look for alibis. This is not time to act smart. This is the time to discharge his constitutional obligations. I expect the state election commissioner to abide by his constitutional obligation so that the purity of the election process is maintained. It is my duty to protect the constitution and I shall do everything to discharge my duties," the governor added. Meanwhile, speaking to media, state DGP Manoj Malviya said, "There have been sporadic incidents but there is no report of any widespread violence. The election has been conducted peacefully and the police and the administration have discharged their duties impartially". "The BJP was nowhere to be found all through the day and now they are calling for a bandh. This is only a ploy to create disturbance and stop the developmental work of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said. When asked about the bandh, the DGP said, "There has been a standard instruction from the Chief Minister that the state government is against bandh and we will not allow this in our state. There will be police all over the state and all kinds of transport, private and government offices will remain open. Anyone who tries to go against the law will be strongly dealt with". The state however recorded a polling percentage of little more than 76 till 5 p.m. East Midnapore recorded the highest polling percentage of 84.1 followed by Birbhum and Murshidabad with 83.2 and 83 per cent respectively. Apart from that Alipurduar Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Nadia South and North Dinajpur and East Burdwan recorded more than 80 per cent of polling till 5 p.m. in the evening. Darjeeling recorded the lowest polling percentage with only 54.1. Early visuals from the polling booths showed long queues as people turned up to exercise their franchise. The voting was held for 2,171 wards of the 108 municipalities and the counting of votes will take place on March 2. --IANS sbg/skp/ ( 686 Words) 2022-02-27-20:32:02 (IANS) In its order, the state government allowed bars, hotels, restaurants and theatres to function with full occupancy. The order also stated that meetings and training can be held offline in government and private sectors if required. Kerala reported 3,581 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. (ANI) He also took a jibe at TRS stating that party workers are indulged in corruption. Speaking to ANI, Reddy said, "CM KCR has forgotten governance. There is a misrule going on in Telangana. TRS party leaders are indulging in corruption and land grabbing and are busy in earning money through land mafia." "Now KCR is talking about National front by getting film actors like Prakash Raj who plays villain characters in reel life. With an ulterior motive and hidden agenda, KCR, Mamata Banerjee and Stalin who runs family rule want to malign the image of PM Modi who is stronger globally," the BJP leader further said. He also said that PM Modi is working for the welfare of poor people with the spirit of Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas. Continuing his attack on KCR, he alleged that the Chief Minister is insulting the constitution which is the world-famous constitution in democratic fabric written by Babasaheb Ambedkar. "The farmers, unemployed youth, weaker sections in Telangana are facing problems and are in distress. That's why, BJP has emerged as a strong party here and is fighting for the people under the leadership of Bandi Sanjay and Kishan Reddy," he added. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday evening held a high-level meeting to review the progress of evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and others were present in the meeting. Modi chaired the meeting immediately after returning from an election campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Sources said that Modi reviewed the evacuation of Indian nationals including students from Ukraine. It is learnt that the Prime Minister was informed that over 1,000 students have returned by various flights including the last one which arrived in the national capital in the evening. Sources said that the Prime Minister was further informed that two more flights will be taking off by Monday morning to bring back Indian nationals. On Thursday, Modi chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security meeting in Delhi wherein he said that the top-most priority of the government is safety and security of the Indian nationals. Earlier on Sunday, foreign secretary Shringla said that till now four flights have come back with Indian students and two are likely to depart on Sunday night or by Monday morning to evacuate more students. "The Government of India has launched 'multi-pronged' Operation Ganga to evacuate our citizens stranded in Ukraine. This evacuation process will be at government cost," Shringla said. Government has advised Indian nationals to move towards westward to reach Uzhhorod in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary and from there they can take a train to reach the Romanian capital Bucharest and from there, they will be airlifted. Earlier, External Affairs minister Jaishankar spoke to his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in Hungary and expressed gratitude for providing support so far in evacuating Indians from the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. Jaishankar also dialled his Moldovan counterpart Nicu Popescu to seek support for facilitating entry of Indian nationals on Ukraine-Moldova border. Poland, Romania and Hungary are allowing Indian students who escape from Ukraine to enter without any visa. --IANS ssb/pgh ( 343 Words) 2022-02-27-23:28:02 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will address participants on the vision of GatiShakti which is an integrated plan to enhance ease of living, ease of doing business, minimize disruptions and expedite completion of works with cost efficiencies and create next-generation infrastructure. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is set to chart out a strategy for enhancing India's logistics efficiency to carry forward the momentum on the PM GatiShakti national master plan with a stakeholder meeting involving high ranking officials from various Ministries, leading academics and industry representatives. The focus areas are the introduction of a new vision of integrated planning and synchronized time-bound implementation and improving integration between the Centre and state while planning large infrastructure projects along with announcements in the Budget 2022 to enhance the availability of capital for such projects. There will be a comprehensive look at the national expressway master plan along with projects like Sagarmala, Parvatmala as well as the multi-modal cargo terminals and ways to build world-class talent for accelerating India's growth through PM GatiShakti. Also on the agenda is an assessment of the progress made so far and the way forward for the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) which is an initiative to introduce digital efficiencies and create a nationwide single window logistics platform for end-to-end visibility and efficient movement of goods. (ANI) Polling for the first phase of Manipur Assembly elections began in 38 constituencies spread across five districts including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi on Monday. The polling began at 7 am and will conclude at 4 pm today. The voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour, between 3 pm to 4 pm. The polling officials and securities for the first phase have reached their respective polling stations. "Security personnel is present in large numbers from Assam and Manipur, smooth polling is expected", said Presiding Officer, Dr Syed Ahmed. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 females, are in the fray for the poll scheduled for today. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is contesting from his traditional home seat, Heingang constituency of Imphal East. Notably, the Chief Minister is seeking the fifth term in Manipur. PWD Minister Thongam Biswajit Singh who had joined the BJP in 2015 is contesting polls from the Thongju Assembly seat, whereas Govindas Konthoujam Singh who recently joined BJP is fighting from the Bishenpur constituency. The BJP formed the government in Manipur in 2017 with the support of the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, this time the BJP decided to go solo and is contesting all 60 seats alone. On the other hand, Congress has formed an alliance of six political parties and named it Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance (MPSA). The coalition partners in MPSA include Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Janata Dal (Secular). In the 2017 Manipur Assembly elections, Congress emerged as the single largest party winning 28 seats followed by the BJP which settled with 21 seats. The National People's Party (NPP) and Naga People's Front (NPF) bagged four seats each while the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) managed to secure only one constituency. BJP bagged 36.28 per cent vote share while Congress received 35.11 per cent of the total vote. Later, BJP stitched a coalition with the NPP, NPF and LJP to form the government under the leadership of Biren Singh. The high-octane poll campaigning in Manipur came to an end on Saturday. Elections for the 60-member Manipur Assembly are taking place in two phases, that is, February 28 and March 5. As many as 38 seats will go to the polls in the first phase while voting in 22 constituencies will take place in the second phase. (ANI) The harbour phase of the biennial multilateral naval exercise Milan 2022 will culminate on Monday, followed by the sea phase from March 1 to March 4. This exercise Milan 22 was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt at Visakhapatnam on Saturday. Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Hari Kumar met with Admiral Ramson Godwin Mwaisaka, Commander of Tanzania Navy on Sunday on the sidelines of MILAN 2022. Taking to Twitter, Spokesperson of the Indian Navy, said, "Adm R Hari Kumar #CNS met Rear Adm Ramson Godwin Mwaisaka Commander Tanzania Navy on the sidelines of MILAN 2022 & held discussions on issues of mutual interest." On Sunday, soon after the meeting of both the Navy officials, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar addressed a press conference and said, "We are happy to conduct 11th edition of MILAN with a city parade of 39 participating countries and 13 warships. This year's theme is Camaraderie-Cohesion-Collaboration. Affiliation of INS Visakhapatnam to be conducted." "The harbour phase will culminate on February 28, followed by a sea phase between March 1-5 during which all ships from friendly foreign countries will participate in different exercises," he added. The eleventh edition of MILAN is being hosted by the Eastern Naval Command at Vishakhapatnam for the first time. The participation from Friendly Foreign Countries includes 13 ships, 39 delegations and one Maritime Patrol Aircraft. This large congregation gives significance and potency to the word 'MILAN' which means "meeting" or "confluence" in Hindi. A Special Day Cover and a movie on the MILAN exercise was released by the Chief Guest to mark the occasion. (ANI) Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "Urging all those voting today in the first phase of the Manipur Assembly elections to turnout in record numbers and cast their vote. I particularly call upon the young and first time voters to exercise their franchise." Polling in as many as 38 constituencies spread across five districts including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi is underway for the first phase of Manipur Assembly elections. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 females, are in the fray for the poll. Voting will continue till 4 pm. The voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour, between 3 pm to 4 pm. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is contesting from his traditional home seat, Heingang constituency of Imphal East. Notably, the Chief Minister is seeking the fifth term in Manipur. The BJP formed the government in Manipur in 2017 with the support of the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, this time the BJP decided to go solo and is contesting all 60 seats alone. (ANI) PM Modi also said that Desai always emphasised probity in public life. Desai was the first leader to head a non-Congress government at the Centre. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "I pay homage to our former PM Morarjibhai Desai. He is widely respected for his monumental contribution to nation-building. He made extensive efforts to make India more prosperous. He always emphasised probity in public life." Born on February 29, 1896, Desai took part in the freedom struggle movement and served as the fourth Prime Minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. He died on April 10, 1995. (ANI) In a tweet today, Sangma wrote, "Communicated list of students from Meghalaya stuck in Ukraine to Foreign Sect GOI. He has assured all the help." Amid Ukraine and Russia crisis, the Indian government has established numerous 24X7 control centres to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), a dedicated Twitter account has been set up 'OpGanga' to assist Operation Ganga. Thousands of Indian nations are being brought back via a bunch of flights from the crisis-hit region in the past few days. (ANI) These students landed from Ukraine in Mumbai and Delhi under Operation Ganga and were brought back to Gujarat in Volvo buses. Last evening, as many as seven students reached Rajkot after they were evacuated from the war-torn country. In Vadodara, 17 students, studying in Ukraine reached the city. Parents and teachers expressed relief and happiness after their wards returned home. (ANI) Originally, the meeting was scheduled for 10 am today. Taking to Twitter, Dhankhar informed that the meeting has been postponed. He further said that it is against the backdrop of "alarmingly disturbing inputs, depicting scenario of violence and lawlessness, with administration in partisan mode, and systemic failure of State Election Commission," in the election process to Municipalities- Constitutional Bodies under Part IX A of the Constitution. "State Election Commissioner Saurab Das has been called upon to be fully updated on developments in the election process on February 27 that prima facie indicates failure of democracy," he said. "State Election Commissioner Saurab Das has also been called upon to indicate why there is failure of constitutional duty by State Election Commission to hold elections to the Howrah Municipality," he added. Voting for 108 municipalities across West Bengal was held on Sunday, during which a clash between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers broke out. The BJP West Bengal vice-president Arjun Singh alleged that two Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were vandalized in ward 9 and there was a similar situation across the state. The party has called a 12-hour statewide bandh for today against alleged rigging and violence in the state's civic polls. (ANI) A fifth flight carrying 249 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine landed in New Delhi on Monday morning. The flight running as part of Operation Ganga had departed from Romania's Bucharest in the early hours today. "Government has helped us a lot. All possible support was provided by the Indian Embassy. The main problem is crossing the border. I hope all Indians are brought back. There are several more Indians still stranded in Ukraine," said a student who arrived in Delhi from Ukraine Amid Ukraine and Russia crisis, the Indian government has established numerous 24X7 control centres to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals through border crossing points with Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Slovak Republic. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), a dedicated Twitter account has been set up 'OpGanga' to assist Operation Ganga. Thousands of Indian nations are being brought back via a bunch of flights from the crisis-hit region in the past few days. (ANI) Kangpokpi at 15.78 per cent and Bishnupur and Imphal West at 14.37 and 14.31 per cent respectively recorded the highest voter turnout so far, while Churachandpur with 4.97 per cent recorded the lowest. A total of 38 Assembly constituencies spread across five districts, Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi are undergoing polling today. Herein, Manipur Deputy Chief Miniter and National People's Party (NPP) candidate from Uripok, Yumnam Joykumar Singh cast his vote in Naoremthong Upper Primary School in Imphal. Manipur PWD Minister Thongam Biswajit Singh and BJP candidate for Thongju Assembly seat took to Twitter to inform that he cast his vote. "I have cast my vote, have you? Participate in the biggest festival of democracy and vote in large numbers to continue the path of development and progressive Manipur!" he said. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 females, are in the fray for the poll. Voting will continue till 4 pm. The voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour, between 3 pm to 4 pm. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is contesting from his traditional home seat, Heingang constituency of Imphal East. Notably, the Chief Minister is seeking the fifth term in Manipur. The BJP formed the government in Manipur in 2017 with the support of the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, this time the BJP decided to go solo and is contesting all 60 seats alone. The second phase of this 60-member Assembly will take place on March 5. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI) Around 3 am, the pump manager, operator and filler were allegedly stabbed to death by unidentified assailants. In the triple murder case, the investigation process has become time-consuming as the CCTV cameras installed at the pump were switched off just before the incident. Deputy Commissioner of Police of East Gurugram, Virendra Vij, told ANI, "Three staff members of a CNG pump were found dead. The incident took place around 3 in the morning. No cash has been found to be missing" "Prima facie it appears that those killed have been stabbed to death as there were injuries on their bodies. The investigation process has become time-consuming as the CCTV cameras installed at the pump were found to be switched off," the police added. Further probe into the matter is underway. (ANI) "Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students," Government sources said. These Ministers will be going as special envoys of India. A second high-level meeting in the last 24 hours over the prevailing situation in Ukraine, especially with the evacuation of Indian citizens, is being chaired by PM Modi. Upon his return from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening, the Prime Minister held a two-hour long meeting with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and a host of senior bureaucrats over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. PM Modi in the meeting once again reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nation's top priority. It was also discussed to further enhance cooperation with neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of the stranded Indians. The union government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". Meanwhile, a fifth flight carrying 249 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine landed in New Delhi today morning. (ANI) Schools and colleges in Shivamogga, which were closed for one week in Shivamogga following the murder of Bajrang Dal activist, reopened on Monday. The Shivamogga district administration on Sunday evening restricted movement of people between 7 pm and 6 am till March 4, said R Selvamani, deputy commissioner, Shivamogga district. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC have been extended till March 4. The Karnataka government had ordered the closure of schools and colleges in the state following the death of Harsha. The state police have arrested eight people in the murder of the Bajrang Dal activist. Niskhal, first-year PU student, DVS Independent Pre-University college, said, "Our learning has been impacted since COVID-19 pandemic. Now also the schools and colleges were closed for a week due to the murder of Harsha. As the schools and colleges are reopening, we are happy that we will be able to attend offline classes." (ANI) India's active COVID caseload, as per the Ministry's press release, is presently at 1,02,601, constituting 0.24 per cent of the country's total positive cases. The weekly positivity rate in India currently stands at 1.17 per cent, while the daily positivity rate is reported to be 1.11 per cent. As many as 16,765 patients have recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours. The cumulative tally of recovered patients, since the beginning of the pandemic, is now at 4,23,07,686. In the last 24 hours, 119 deaths were also reported, taking the COVID death toll 5,13,843. The Ministry further informed that with the administration of nearly 5 lakh (4,90,321) COVID vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 177.50 crore (1,77,50,86,335) as per provisional reports till 7 am today. "This has been achieved through 2,03,49,590 sessions," the release read. The last 24 hours saw a total of 7,23,828 COVID tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 76.74 crore (76,74,81,346) cumulative COVID tests, the Ministry informed. (ANI) The Karnataka government on Monday decided to provide free bus travel to people, who land in the state's airports from war-torn Ukraine, to their destinations. Shivayogi C Kalasad, Managing Director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), said, "Considering the plight of our people returning from Ukraine, especially the student community, it is decided to offer a free travel ride by KSRTC Bus from the nearest airport of disembarkation in Karnataka, to their native places in within the state. "All Nodal officers within Karnataka State Airport and KSRTC concerned DCs to coordinate properly to ensure the same," he said in a statement. (ANI) The minister was arrested by Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case in connection with Dawood Ibrahim. Malik's daughter, Nilofer Khan said that the latter is healthy and will be discharged from the hospital today. He was admitted to the hospital after he complained of stomach ache two days ago. (ANI) Clay Center, KS (67432) Today Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High near 55F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Cloudy with periods of rain. Low around 50F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch. West Bengal police has arrested the BJP MLAs Sankar Ghosh and Anandamoy Barman along with others after the party gave a call for a 12-hour bandh in the state to protest against alleged rigging and attacks during civic body elections. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were arrested while they were marching on the streets of Siliguri in support of the 12-hour bandh. In Murshidabad today, a scuffle broke out between the BJP workers and the police today in view of the 12-hour bandh in West Bengal. Further, in the Balurghat area, West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar slammed Trinamool Congress for hampering the spirit of democracy. Here also, the BJP workers clashed with police personnel during protests against alleged violence in the civic polls. He told ANI today, "Our workers were protesting peacefully, but they are beaten up. The police are playing the role of a cadre for TMC. This is against democracy." Meanwhile, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Saurab Das's meeting with West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday has been postponed to 3.30 pm. Originally, the meeting was scheduled for 10 am today. Taking to Twitter, Dhankhar informed that the meeting has been postponed.He further said that it is against the backdrop of "alarmingly disturbing inputs, depicting scenario of violence and lawlessness, with administration in partisan mode, and systemic failure of State Election Commission," in the election process to Municipalities- Constitutional Bodies under Part IX A of the Constitution. "State Election Commissioner Saurab Das has been called upon to be fully updated on developments in the election process on February 27 that prima facie indicates failure of democracy," he said. "State Election Commissioner Saurab Das has also been called upon to indicate why there is failure of constitutional duty by State Election Commission to hold elections to the Howrah Municipality," he added. Voting for 108 municipalities across West Bengal was held on Sunday, during which a clash between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers broke out. The BJP West Bengal vice-president Arjun Singh alleged that two Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were vandalized in ward 9 and there was a similar situation across the state. The party has called a 12-hour statewide bandh for today against alleged rigging and violence in the state's civic polls. (ANI) Kangpokpi district reported the highest voter turnout of 32.62 per cent followed by Imphal West with 31.60 per cent. Other districts, namely, Bishnupur reported a voter turnout of 29.66 per cent, Imphal East 26.66 per cent and Churachandpur 16.68 per cent. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 women, are in the fray for this phase of the polls. Voting started at 7 am at will continue till 4 pm. The voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour, between 3 pm to 4 pm. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is contesting from his traditional home seat, Heingang constituency of Imphal East. Notably, the Chief Minister is seeking a fifth term. The BJP formed the government in Manipur in 2017 with the support of the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF), and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, this time the BJP has decided to go solo and is contesting all 60 seats. The second phase of this 60-member Assembly will take place on March 5. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI) Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh Harnath Singh Yadav on Monday slammed Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for his comment on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during campaigning, saying that such language is against political dignity. Speaking with ANI, the BJP MP said that the SP chief's language is contrary to the dignity, respect and etiquette of the 23 crore people of Uttar Pradesh. "Uttar Pradesh is the birthplace of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. He should remember it. It is a holy land and it is not proper to use such a language at holy land with such poor type of political terminology," he said while adding that Akhilesh should learn common etiquette of what words to use during campaigning for polls. Further, Harnath Singh Yadav claimed that the SP chief and his party will badly lose the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and that's why his language is going from bad to worse. Recently, during campaigning, the SP chief had taken a jibe at the Chief Minister regarding the bull and his pet dog 'Gullu'. "At this time, the animals left by Baba ji are troubling the farmers a lot, but they do not understand whether Baba ji's favourite animal is bull or Gullu?" he had said. Polling for the fifth phase of the ongoing Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh concluded yesterday. Polling for the remaining two phases will take place on March 3 and March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI) Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi deputed four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. A second high-level meeting in the last 24 hours over the prevailing situation in Ukraine, especially with the evacuation of Indian citizens, was chaired by PM Modi today. Upon his return from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening, the Prime Minister held a two-hour-long meeting with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and a host of senior bureaucrats over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. PM Modi in the meeting once again reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nation's top priority. It was also discussed to further enhance cooperation with neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of the stranded Indians. The union government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". As many as 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in India so far. (ANI) Campaigning for the sixth phase of Uttar Pradesh elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday came down heavily against the family led Opposition parties, accusing them of being obstacles in the development path of the state. "Today India has given over 200 million vaccine doses free of cost to its citizens. This is the strength of a self-reliant and powerful India. But these 'parivaarwaadis (family-led political parties)' do not want to see a strong India. They keep creating obstacles. That's why they have to be defeated once again in this elections," said the Prime Minister while addressing a public meeting today in Maharajganj. The Prime Minister reiterated that the Centre is working hard for the development of the country. He said, "You all must remain watchful of these 'family politicians. The more we are working hard for the development of the districts, the more they have pushed back the development due to their dynastic politics." The Prime Minister highlighted the importance of Kushinagar International Airport and said that it will give a major boost to tourism in Maharajganj. "Maharajganj is an example of the development model. Today a network of roads is being laid till the Nepal border. Main roads are being converted into four lanes and highways. After the unveiling of an international airport in Kushinagar, now the number of tourists will also increase here," he said. He added, "In this budget, a special plan has been made for the development of the last villages adjacent to our borders, and not only we made promises, but also made provisions for funds. We have named it Vibrant Village Programme." Maharajganj will go to the polls in phase six of the elections. Polling will be held in 57 Assembly seats in 10 districts on March 3. The 2022 Assembly elections are being held in Uttar Pradesh from February 10 to March 7 in seven phases to elect 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on March 10, 2022. (ANI) He has also requested the District Collectors to contact family members of students and to keep them informed of arrangements being made. The Prime Minister deputed four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia. Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland. A second high-level meeting in the last 24 hours over the prevailing situation in Ukraine, especially with the evacuation of Indian citizens, was chaired by PM Modi today. Upon his return from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening, the Prime Minister held a two-hour-long meeting with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and a host of senior bureaucrats over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. PM Modi in the meeting once again reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nation's top priority. It was also discussed to further enhance cooperation with neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of the stranded Indians. The union government under the leadership of the Prime Minister has launched operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". As many as 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in India so far. (ANI) Union Minister General VK Singh lauded the "visionary" decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to depute four Union Ministers in neighbouring countries of Ukraine to manage the evacuation process of stranded Indians, and said that the move is to "ensure things are done properly". General Singh has been deputed to manage the evacuation process in Poland of the stranded Indians in Ukraine Speaking to ANI after the second high-level meeting conducted by the Prime Minister in the last 24 hours, General Singh said, "You must understand that the Prime Minister is visionary in his thinking. He is looking at things ahead. He understands very well the number of countries which border Ukraine, the various routes which exist for our people to come." "So accordingly he decided the different areas which people must go to so that we can coordinate things, we can ensure run smoothly, we can give the required confidence to our people who want to come out that look here, the government of India is here at your doorstep to ensure that the things are done properly," he added exuding confidence in achieving success in the task given to them. "I am sure that we will be able to achieve the task given to us," he said. The Union Minister, who has also conducted a rescue operation of nearly 4,000 stranded Indians in Yemen in 2015, said that the "message that PM Modi has given from 2014 onwards is that no Indian who is outside India should feel that he has been left alone when he is in trouble." Talking about the evacuation process that would be carried out once he reaches Poland, General Singh said that the flights will keep coming as more and more people keep coming out. "Once we start getting people out... For example, let's take Poland, once I go there, I will go on the ground, I will see how things are, necessary coordination will be done. It is not that a whole lot can come together. As people keep coming out, the flights will keep coming and take them out," he said. Answering to a query on the reported misbehaviour of Ukrainian personnel with the Indian students at the border, the Minister said that things can go wrong if patience is not observed in a "war zone". "I don't know what exactly has been the incident. I can in general say two things, people who go outside must realise they are not in India. The second thing they must realise is you are in a war zone. You cannot do everything that you did otherwise. There will be restrictions, there will be confusion and you will have agitated border guards on both sides. In these circumstances, if you do not have patience, and do not follow the instructions, things can go wrong," he said. Meanwhile, amid the ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia. Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi deputed four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. A second high-level meeting in the last 24 hours over the prevailing situation in Ukraine, especially with the evacuation of Indian citizens, was chaired by PM Modi today. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". (ANI) Three patients namely Hafsa Sajjad, 16, resident of Tangdhar; Zahoor Ahmed Khan resident of Teetwal along with one other were evacuated from Tangdhar sector, district Kupwara in north Kashmir, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Kashmir Frontier informed. The PRO also said that BSF evacuated the patients at the special request of district administration Kupwara. The PRO further revealed that due to the closure of the only road, which passes through Sadhna Top, the Kupwara administration made a special request. Raja Babu Singh, Inspector General (IG) of BSF Kashmir reiterated, "We are always there to serve the people of Kashmir". The IG also ensured that the well-being of the people is their first and foremost priority. "We are here to win the hearts and minds of the local populace through our benevolent and compassionate deeds," he added. (ANI) Does greater body fat be a risk factor for reducing thinking and memory ability? A recent study showed that greater body fat is a risk factor for reduced cognitive function, such as processing speed in adults. When the researchers took cardiovascular risk factors (such as diabetes or high blood pressure) or vascular brain injury into account, the coalition between body fat and lower cognitive scores remained. This suggested other not yet confirmed pathways that linked excess body fat to reduced cognitive function. The study was published in the journal, 'JAMA Network open'. In the study, 9,166 participants were measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis to assess their total body fat. As well, 6,733 of the participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure abdominal fat packed around the organs known as visceral fat, and the MRI also assessed vascular brain injury -- areas in the brain affected by reduced blood flow to the brain. "Our results suggest that strategies to prevent or reduce having too much body fat may preserve cognitive function," said lead author Sonia Anand, a professor of medicine of McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and a vascular medicine specialist at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). She is also a senior scientist of the Population Health Research Institute of McMaster and HHS. She added that "the effect of increased body fat persisted even after adjusting for its effect on increasing cardiovascular risk factors like diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as vascular brain injury, which should prompt researchers to investigate which other pathways may link excess fat to reduced cognitive function." Co-author Eric Smith, a neurologist, scientist, and associate professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Calgary said that "preserving cognitive function is one of the best ways to prevent dementia in old age. This study suggests that one of the ways that good nutrition and physical activity prevent dementia maybe by maintaining healthy weight and body fat percentage." Smith is head of the brain core lab for the two population cohorts used for this new analysis- the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHHM) and PURE Mind- a sub-study of the large, international Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study. The participants were in the age range of 30 to 75 with an average age of about 58. Just over 56 per cent were women; they all lived in either Canada or Poland. The majority were White European origin, with about 16 per cent other ethnic backgrounds. Individuals with known cardiovascular disease were excluded. (ANI) Poverty is a global issue and post the pandemic, it has become worse. Many people have been reduced to a hand-to-mouth existence. Recent research found that long-term poverty undermined many prerequisites for inclusion and well-being. The research was carried out by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). The results of the study were published in 'Journal of Social and Political Psychology'. The social and psychological impacts of long-term poverty were examined in two studies analysing the follow-up material for 2006 and 2012 from the Everyday Experiences of Poverty writing competition. "Long-lasting difficulties, such as low income, unemployment, uncertainty, addictions, pain and illnesses, can plunge a person into a vicious cycle where the force upholding life weakens. Participation in joint activities decreases and experiences of meaningfulness diminish," said Anna-Maria Isola, Research Manager at THL. Planning for the future is difficult if you have to focus on simply making it through each day and anticipating the worst. In these circumstances you might not recognise positive opportunities available, nor will you strive for things that you find difficult to achieve. The studies found key factors that supported people's ability to lead their own lives, strive for things that are important to them and make decisions that support their well-being. These factors include the manageability and predictability of one's own life and the surrounding world, financial resources, a sense of belonging, equal opportunities for participation and experiencing meaning in life. "When life has economic, social and psychological stability and room for manoeuvre, more positive opportunities will be seen instead of negative risks. A person experiences less feelings of worthlessness when they are able to live life according to their own liking, but also in line with the expectations of others," said Lotta Virrankari, a researcher at THL. As its name suggests, social security provides security that was found to create faith in the future. At its best, Finnish social security was predictable, but social assistance and labour policy statements, in particular, were sometimes seen as erratic. "There is a risk that in fear of losing subsidies people might not have the courage to, for example, participate in volunteer work, which would help them to stay in touch with the community and bring meaning to life. Participation in other joint activities might also gradually decrease, and eventually, uncertainty will undermine one's self-confidence," Isola described. Research Professor Heikki Hiilamo at THL emphasised that the adequacy of social security must be assessed in relation to how well it enables the poorest to participate in the prevailing way of life. "The opportunity to move around the city, participate in cultural events and even go out for dinner sometimes can create meaningful experiences that encourage people to improve their well-being." However, social security and its related services alone cannot provide sufficient experiences of meaningfulness. Open spaces and events, where it is easy to engage with others and where different people can meet and do things together, are also needed. Equal encounters also dismantle attitudes and beliefs that are harmful to the most vulnerable. (ANI) The Aspen Group chairman and CEO Bob Fontana, left, and other executives tour the Aspen Group Oral Care Center, a free dental clinic just for low-income residents in Illinois and located in the West Loop, on Feb. 25, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) Low-income Illinois residents will soon be able to receive free dental care at a new 25,000-square-foot clinic being opened in the Fulton Market district this summer by The Aspen Group, which operates dental and medical clinics across the country and recently moved its headquarters to Chicago. While a number of clinics across the Chicago area offer low-cost and sometimes free dental care to vulnerable people, the new clinic will focus exclusively on dental services and be free to all patients who make no more than 200% of the federal poverty level or are on Medicaid. Advertisement We know that oral care is essential for overall health, said Julie Frantsve-Hawley, executive director of the new TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence. Having a healthy mouth is really essential, and a problem we see is many struggle to access dental care, and because of this they can have potentially dangerous situations that go untreated. What we hope this will do is fill this critical gap for thousands of patients in Illinois. Among Illinois adults who had not visited a dentist in the past year, 64% cited cost as a reason, according to a 2015 survey by the American Dental Associations Health Policy Institute. Advertisement The new clinic, at 1040 W. Randolph St., will include 14 treatment rooms and another two rooms for advanced surgical procedures. The clinic is expected to serve about 2,500 patients a year. Aspen plans to work with community groups and organizations to get the word out to patients who might benefit. Construction work continues at the Aspen Group Oral Care Center, located in Chicago's Fulton Market district, on Feb. 25, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) The clinic will have a full-time staff of licensed dentists and specialists as well as dental technicians and hygienists, said Dr. Sundeep Rawal, a senior vice president at Aspen. The clinic will also be a training ground for licensed dentists from Aspen Dental and ClearChoice Dental Implant practices across the country, who will go to the center to learn advanced dental technologies and procedures. Some Chicago-area dental leaders had expressed concerns, earlier in the planning process for the clinic, about Aspen bringing in dentists from out of state for only short periods of time to treat low-income patients. Our concern was that there would be no accountability, and if a patient was harmed there was no continuity of care because that individual came in, worked on the patient and left, then you basically are leaving somebody in the middle of dental care without any follow-up, said Dave Marsh, director of governmental affairs for the Illinois State Dental Society. Ultimately, the state dental society and other groups reached an agreement with Aspen that Aspen would have to have patients sign consent forms acknowledging they were being treated by out-of-state dentists, and Aspen would have to use licensed Illinois dentists to provide any follow-up care a patient might need, among other things. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law in August spelling out those requirements and others. Bill sponsor Rep. Lakesia Collins, a Chicago Democrat, said the new center will help to fill a massive need in Chicago and the state of Illinois. The new center will join a number of organizations that offer low-cost and free dental care in the Chicago area. The Chicago Dental Society Foundation, for example, has a free dental clinic in Wheaton with three treatment rooms. And many federally qualified health centers, which are centers that receive federal funding, offer dental services alongside other medical services and may charge patients on a sliding scale, based on their abilities to pay. Advertisement UI Healths Mile Square Health Center, which is a federally qualified health center, expects to have 26 dental chairs across numerous sites by the end of this year, said Dr. Sue Etminan, the centers dental director. Many of those sites are in neighborhoods with the greatest needs for services, she said. Our most successful programs at increasing access to care have been meeting patients where theyre at, in their communities, she said. The Aspen Group Chairman and CEO Bob Fontana, center, tours the future home of the Aspen Group Oral Care Center on Feb. 25, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) The new Aspen center will be in Aspens former headquarters in the Fulton Market district, Rawal said. That location was also chosen because its near public transportation and has parking on-site, he said. Aspen moved to a new headquarters at 800 W. Fulton Market in October 2021. The Aspen Group now supports more than 1,100 locations in 45 states through Aspen Dental, ClearChoice, WellNow and ChapterSM. Under Aspens model, dentists own the practices, but the company handles administrative and training services and the practices are branded as Aspen Dental. The company has faced a number of legal challenges over the years. Late last year, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed a lawsuit against Aspen Dental Management alleging it engaged in deceptive advertising and marketing practices, including charging patients for services it advertised as free. Advertisement In 2015, the company paid $450,000 to settle with the New York attorney generals office after an investigation found Aspen was making business decisions that were adversely affecting patient care, including pressuring staff to increase sales of dental services and products. Aspen also reached a $175,000 settlement with the Pennsylvania attorney general in 2010 after it was accused of using confusing or misleading information about discounts, coupons and interest-free financing. Aspen did not admit wrongdoing as part of those settlements. In 2020, dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants and a dental marketing worker filed lawsuits in Cook County Circuit Court against Aspen Dental Management and the owner of an Aspen Dental clinic in Crestwood. The employees and former employees alleged they were secretly videotaped while using the clinics bathroom. They alleged that a dental hygienist placed two hidden cameras in the bathroom and that the clinics owners and supervisors should have known about that persons alleged criminal background before hiring him. While we do not comment on active litigation, several of the cases are nearly a decade old and do not reflect the positive experience that more than 30,000 patients have at the independently-owned Aspen Dental practices across the nation every day, and nor does it reflect the values of (The Aspen Group) which continues to strive to expand access to quality, affordable care for those who need it most, The Aspen Group said in a statement. Raut also claimed to have submitted "proofs" of the indulgence of some officials in extortion and blackmailing. "Game has just begun! Today submitted evidences to @PMOIndia of how Central Agencies r misusing powers selectively against a few. Submitd proofs on how sm officials r indulged in extortion& blackmailing thru 'Vasuli agents'," Raut tweeted. The Shiv Sena leader also informed that he will address a press conference soon to share further details on the matter. "Will address a PC very soon to share more details. Watch this space!," Raut added. (ANI) Levelling allegation against Indian government of not taking effective steps to bring Indians stranded in Ukraine amid ongoing Russian military operations in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being "missing in action." Sharing a video of a student stranded in Ukraine, the Wayanad MP tweeted, "Conditions of Indians stranded in Ukraine are worsening. Yet, GOI is not taking effective steps to bring them home. As usual, PM is MIA (missing in action)." In the video, the student can be seen sharing the name of an official who allegedly works at the Indian embassy. The students alleged that the official kept "rejecting call" even after they shared videos of girls being allegedly beaten at the Romanian border. "They are completely ignoring us," the student said. "Governments of all countries have evacuated their citizens but Indian government is doing nothing for us. They are saying they are evacuating the Indian citizens from border. The border is 800 km from our current location. How are we as a student supposed to reach those borders?" the girl said in the video. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi also shared the same video and criticised the government on its efforts over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. "By not taking the right decision at the right time, more than 15,000 students are still stuck in the battlefield amid huge chaos. Their safe return by taking concrete strategic and diplomatic action is not a favour but our responsibility. Opportunity should not be found in every disaster," the BJP MP tweeted. The union government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". India has evacuated over 8,000 nationals since the initial advisories were issued by the country, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. He also informed that the six evacuation flight have landed in India bringing back around 1400 citizens. On February 24, PM Modi had chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting in New Delhi on the Ukraine crisis. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister called a high-level meeting over the prevailing situation in Ukraine which was attended by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Foreign Secretary of India Harsh V Shringla, other ministers and a host of senior bureaucrats. The Prime Minister chaired another high-level meeting on Ukraine crisis on Monday evening. (ANI) Varanasi which will witness voting in the sixth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on March 7, is a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party, however, the Samajwadi Party is likely to give the ruling party a tough fight on two of the eight seats in the city. Varanasi district comprises of Pindra, Ajagara, Shivpur, Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt, and Sevapuri Assembly seats. Notably, with its development agenda and work done for the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, the BJP has come up as a strong contender in Varanasi. There are a total of 8 seats in Varanasi out of which the BJP holds a strong position on 6 of them. However, this does not seem to be the case with the remaining two seats. One is Varanasi South on which BJP's Culture Minister Neelkanth Tiwari is contesting opposite Samajwadi Party's Kishan Dixit, head priest of Mrityunjay Mahadev. Another is Cantt where the BJP has fielded Saurabh Srivastava opposite SP's Pooja Yadav. According to the people of Varanasi, there is a tough competition between the two parties the above-mentioned two seats. Speaking to ANI, a resident of the city, Babbu said, "The people of all religions will vote for PM Modi and CM Yogi because due to the construction of Vishwanath Corridor, tourism has increased. The roads have become good, the pipeline has been spread. A lot of work has been done here." A shopkeeper in front of the Vishwanath Mandir Rajesh said that there has always been a wave of the BJP in the city, however, due to Kishan Dixit contesting from Varanasi South seat, there might be some impact. "There has always been a wave of the BJP in Varanasi. Only the MLAs of the BJP win the election. This time, on Varanasi South seat and Cantt seat, there is a fierce fight between the BJP and SP because the SP has fielded Kishan Dixit, a priest of Mrityunjay Mahadev. That might have an impact," he said. The business has grown due to the construction of the Vishwanath Mandir Corridor which would surely benefit the BJP. A lot of developmental work has also been done," Rajesh added. Interestingly, one of the main businesses of Banaras is the business of wooden toys which is exported even abroad. Due to the construction of the Corridor, the business has grown, almost doubled. A businessman of toys, Amit said, "The business that has grown due to the construction of the Corridor will surely have a positive impact on the election. A lot of work has been done. Ganga treatment plant has also been made, things have developed pretty fast. Attention has been given to cleanliness." "However, the BJP may face challenges on two seats. But the candidates are good on the 6 seats," he added. In the sixth phase, polling will be held in 57 assembly seats in 10 districts on March 3. The 2022 Assembly elections are being held in Uttar Pradesh from February 10 to March 7 in seven phases to elect 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on March 10, 2022. (ANI) Real Estate Businessman Sushil Ansal has approached the Delhi High Court for modification of its order passed on February 16, 2022. The High Court had directed the trial court to conclude the hearing in four weeks on the appeals of the convicts in tampering with evidence in the case connected with the Uphar fire tragedy. Patiala House court had awarded a seven-year jail sentence to Ansal's brother and other convicts in the matter which they have challenged. Sushil Ansal has moved an application through Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir seeking modification of the final order and judgment passed on February 16, only to the extent of extending the time period granted to the appellate court for disposing of the appeal of the petitioner. This application was listed before the bench of Justice Anu Malhotra on Monday but could not be taken up as she was on leave. Then the application was listed before another bench. The counsel for the applicant submitted that the said order was passed by the bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad, this application should be listed before him. Now the application has been listed for Wednesday before the bench of Justice Anu Malhotra. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala house court had awarded seven years imprisonment to Ansal brothers and other convicts last year. They had challenged the said order and sought suspension of their sentence during the hearing of appeals. The appellate court had refused to suspend the sentence awarded. Ansal brothers had challenged the trial court order not to suspend their sentence during the pendency of appeals. The High court had upheld the order passed by the trial court. The High court further directed to conclude the hearing on appeals in four weeks. (ANI) According to the official release, teams of district administration and district police led by Deputy Commissioner (DC) Aijaz Assad and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rakesh Balwal raided many localities, where drug peddling activities were reported by many vigilant citizens. These raids led to the arrest of many accused and also recovered a large number of narcotics and proceeds of drugs. Srinagar district administration and Srinagar police assure all the citizens of Srinagar that action against narcotics and drugs will continue till this menace is completely eradicated from Srinagar. A dedicated Narcotics-related control room has been started in the DC office with representatives of district administration, police, social welfare, health, and medical department with telephone number 01942483651. The press release also states that the control room will also have social media handles for a better public interface and will be functional from 10 am to 10 pm every day. Srinagar police have already activated a narcotic helpline number 9596770550 which is operational 24x7. (ANI) Amid India's ongoing efforts to bring back the stranded Indians from Ukraine amid crisis through "Operation Ganga", former prime minister HD Devegowda on Monday urged the political fraternity not to politicize the evacuation process and said that doing so will "demoralize those conducting the operation". Taking to Twitter, Devegowda said that scoring points at the hour of crisis will put them in a bad light and suggested the leaders to work together. "I know from experience that these operations can be tough and delicate. Let us not politicize the evacuation process. It will demoralize those conducting the operation. Scoring points at this hour of crisis will make us look bad. Let us work together," he tweeted. Calling the call for evacuation by the stranded Indians "heart-wrenching", the former prime minister said that it is only fair to extend support to the officials working on the ground when there is "uncertainty" on the ground. "I have been watching videos of our young citizens stranded in Ukraine making fervent pleas for evacuation. It is heart-wrenching to see their plight. I can understand their desperation to get back home safely. But when a war is raging in that country and there is so much uncertainty on the ground, and when operational links are broken, it is only fair that we support our officers and embassies to focus on the job at hand," Devegowda said urging the leaders to come together in this time of crisis. Meanwhile, amid the ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia. Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland. Earlier today, as the sixth evacuation flight from Hungary's capital Budapest carrying 240 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine landed at the Delhi airport on Monday, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi welcomed them and said the Indian government is working round the clock to bring back every Indian in this hour of crisis. (ANI) Taking to Twitter Jaishankar said, "Operation Ganga advances to its seventh flight. 182 Indian nationals have started the journey to Mumbai from Bucharest." Meanwhile, at the high-level meeting on Monday evening over the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the entire government machinery is working round the clock to ensure that all Indians there are safe and secure, informed Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. This was the second high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister during the day over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. Government sources on Monday said that the 'Special Envoys' including Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. On February 24, the Prime Minister chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting in New Delhi on the Ukraine crisis. The union government has launched "Operation Ganga" to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India has evacuated over 8,000 nationals since the initial advisories were issued by the country. It was also informed that the six evacuation flight have landed in India bringing back around 1400 citizens. (ANI) India is sending humanitarian aid, including medicines, to war-hit Ukraine at the request of Ukraine's Ambassador to India, Igor Polikha, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday. Briefing mediapersons here, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "India is sending humanitarian aid (to Ukraine." He also said that India has decided to send four Union ministers to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to help evacuate Indian citizens stuck at various border areas. Bagchi said: "Four Union ministers are going to four countries near Ukraine to help in the evacuation of the Indian students who are stuck there." According to the spokesperson, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will travel to Romania and Moldova; Kiren Rijiju will be at the border with Slovakia; Hardeep Singh Puri will be at the Hungary border; while former Army chief General V.K. Singh will be in Poland. They are going as special envoys of Indians to help evacuate those who are stuck on various borders. Under 'Operation Ganga', India is bringing back students who are stuck in the conflict zones as well as in non-conflict zones in Ukraine. The decision to send four ministers to oversee smooth evacuation was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narender Modi. Replying to a query over students being asked to pay exorbitant amounts for evacuation, the spokesperson dismissed it as rumour and said: "No one is paying any money for these evacuation flights. The government is not changing any money to bring them back." He also stated that till now, six evacuation flights have landed in India with almost 1,386 Indian nationals. A flight from Budapest landed earlier on Monday with 240 Indians. It is estimated that when Operation Ganga was launched, around 15,000 Indians were left in Ukraine. After Ukraine closed its airspace, India identified four land evacuation points through Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Talking about military help in evacuation like what happened in Afghanistan, Bagchi said the situation is different in Ukraine as compared to Afghanistan when India had sent military aircraft to evacuate Indians after Afghanistan was taken over by Taliban forces in August last year. "We are evacuating through commercial flights and we are open to using military aircraft if the need arises. Sending military aircraft there involves more countries," he added. --IANS sk/arm ( 399 Words) 2022-02-28-21:28:03 (IANS) Modi thanked Heger for the assistance provided by Slovakia in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine, and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. He asked for Slovakia's continued assistance in the next few days with India undertaking a mission to evacuate other citizens from conflict zones. Modi also informed Heger about the deployment of Union minister Kiren Rijiju as India's special envoy to oversee the evacuation efforts in Slovakia. The Prime Minister also expressed his anguish at the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and reiterated India's consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue. Modi stressed upon the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. --IANS miz/arm ( 157 Words) 2022-02-28-22:58:04 (IANS) Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov on Sunday (local time) had a meeting with Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla where they discussed bilateral and international issues and the ways to ensure the safety of Indian students in Ukraine. "Had a cordial initial meeting with Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla. Discussed topical bilateral and international issues and the ways to ensure safety of Indian students in Ukraine. Expressed our full support to this end," Alipov tweeted. Earlier, sharing the details of Indian Nationals stranded in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday said that India is sending more people to Embassies to facilitate the evacuation process as well as in touch with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Shringla said that India has asked for support from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and he has assured that everything possible will be done for Indian citizens. Replying to a question, of whether India could provide a neutral venue for talks between Ukraine and Russia, Shringla said, "we have been engaged with all parties and EAM is in touch with a very wide range of Interlocutors and we urge for the diplomatic path." (ANI) The final argument in the 4,500-member Oak Park Coronavirus Facebook group earlier this month was more exhausted than fierce. After someone posted an article about long COVID, a lengthy debate ensued with dozens of comments, many of which veered well beyond the content of the article. The tone was often less than polite, and some exchanges fizzled out with a shrug. Advertisement Were not going to convince each other ... so Ill give you this time back rather than spending the time arguing with me, one commenter wrote. Such squabbling is typical in online discourse, but it had grown increasingly common within the group as the pandemic dragged on. The next day, its administrators decided it was time to say goodbye. Advertisement It got a little complicated and dicey and way too opinionated, said public health educator Ayesha Akhtar, who had been with the group since its start in March 2020. I think it goes to show that the group fulfilled its purpose and were ready to close it down. Ayesha Akhtar, seen at the Oak Park Library on Feb. 24, 2022, is an administrator of the popular Oak Park Coronavirus Facebook group, and decided to shut it down earlier this month. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune) It was an abrupt end to a resource once seen as so vital that its founder, tech executive Josh Vanderberg, was named a Villager of the Year by a local newspaper. But in some ways, the groups evolution tracked the course of the pandemic, as broad agreement on how to respond to COVID-19 curdled into discord. When someone is writing in caps, THIS IS OVER, STOP PRETENDING, (they ignore that) thousands of people died in the last week, said Aaron McManus, a tech recruiter who participated in the group. What do you do when you cant agree on reality? How do you have a community conversation about the decisions to make? Vanderberg said he started the group when local data on the virus was still hard to find. He and others posted charts showing the steep rise in positive tests and other worrying metrics, along with news stories, messages of support for health workers and memes encouraging masking and social distancing. The group also helped people find appointments in the early days of the vaccine. Charlie Meyerson, publisher of ChicagoPublicSquare.com and a former Tribune columnist, recalled learning through the group that he could help an eligible relative get a shot when appointments were still scarce. That prompted a drive down to Springfield to get the first vaccine for a member of my family, he said. That was very useful information. The groups administrators approved each post, which avoided the conspiracy mongering abundant elsewhere. And in a politically unified community like Oak Park nearly 90% of its voters went for Joe Biden in 2020 there wasnt much dissent about what needed to be done. Early on there definitely was a bias of wanting people to do more to mitigate this rather than less, Vanderberg said. But that changed when the vaccine came around. That was kind of the breaking point. Advertisement The arguments werent about the vaccines themselves about 80% of Oak Park residents and a similar portion of public school students have gotten their shots but about the level of safety they provided. One camp believed the vaccines gave enough protection for life to return to its pre-pandemic state. The other thought the risk was still too high to do away with mandatory masking and other measures. As in other towns, schools became a flashpoint. When in-person classes returned last year, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 required children to wear masks during recess and eat lunch with a minimum of chatter. The policies are stricter than those of other districts, but spokeswoman Amanda Siegfried said the schools havent received a cascade of complaints. The outdoor masking rule was lifted last week, and contrary to what some parents contend, silent lunch was never the rule, she said. Stephanie Harris was one of the Facebook group members advocating for more relaxed policies, but she said her contributions werent always posted. Other times, she said, fellow commenters falsely labeled her as anti-vaccine or anti-mask. What happened was the noise of the conflict became louder for a lot of people than the useful debate, she said. Certain members of the group became very hostile to any views that were not advocating for extreme, conservative mitigations. Advertisement Conversely, Dr. Robin Kalish, a pediatrician, said she felt compelled to push back on what she regarded as misinformation within the group. (Many) people stated that after vaccines other mitigations were no longer needed, which we saw was clearly not the case with omicron, she said. Vanderberg stepped away from the group last summer, turning it over to fellow administrators when his views on reopening diverged from the more cautious majority opinion. I just got very frustrated, he said. It became evident that theyve kind of been coming along with me because I was originally saying the things that they wanted to hear, but when I followed the data and the science toward more opening up, they werent ready to go along with me. He started another Facebook group a few months ago with a pointed name: Oak Park Back to Normal. It has around 340 members so far and a more activist bent, with numerous posts agitating for District 97 to eliminate its indoor mask mandate. Siegfried said that policy will continue for the time being, but the village of Oak Park will lift its mask and proof of vaccination mandates Monday, thanks to new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that puts Cook County at the lowest risk level. Advertisement Still, the pandemic has had several false dawns, and Akhtar said the original Facebook group, which remains archived online, can always resume if circumstances change. We served a really great purpose to be completely neutral that repository of basic information, she said. Some participants are sorry the group has ended. Meyerson, who sparred with other commenters over the villages short-lived ban on extracurricular school activities in December, said he thought disagreements were hashed out in good faith. Certainly in the thick of the pandemic, about a year ago, it was a very, very useful resource and Im tremendously grateful to the people who founded and moderated it, he said. It was an example in its prime of Facebook at its best. jkeilman@chicagotribune.com Twitter @JohnKeilman The Indian government, in the last few years, has taken many initiatives to provide enough impetus to the tourism sector by launching a cleanliness drive, providing better air connectivity to several places, improving digital connectivity in and around tourism places, building infrastructure and improving overall hospitality sector, said a media report. The Indian economy has become not only the world's 7th largest economy in terms of tourism but also the world's third-largest when it comes to health tourism, Saudi Gazette reported. It further reported that the medical tourism sector has grown by more than 350 per cent since 2014 right before the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of the central government's continued attention in this regard. The revenue from this was Rs. 1.23 lakh crore in 2014 but it climbed to Rs. 2.10 lakh crore in 2019. In early December 2021, Wolter Simon Milio, 69, from Chicago, USA, and John, 80, visited India on an 18-day tourist visa for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown of March 2020. The travellers described tourist spots in India as safe and they praised India's COVID-19 vaccination programme as better than other countries in the world, Saudi Gazette reported. Regarding traveling at this point in life, he said, "Age is no bar to tourism. As long as you are in good shape, you still have a chance to have an adventure." During the COVID era, Wolter and John came to India as part of an initiative by the government of India to provide 5 lakh free visas to promote tourism and they liked the atmosphere so much that they are encouraging other tourists to visit India, Saudi Gazette reported. Be it faith-spiritual-study tourism or health-wellness tourism, cultural tourism or heritage tourism or eco-tourism, youth tourism or tourism-related to business activities, India is becoming the "most attractive tourist destination in the world". In November 2014, the government announced e-Visa for citizens of 44 countries in order to make it easier for foreign tourists to visit India. This facility now serves people of 165 countries, up from 44 in 2018. The e-Visa is now available at 25 airports and five seaports around the country, Saudi Gazette reported. Today, the world is getting attracted to India's yoga, philosophy, spirituality, and culture. Today, India is one of the three major countries in the world when it comes to health tourism. The primary goal of health-wellness tourism is to treat sickness and promote wellness. Ayurveda and traditional medicine are their most important pillars. The expansion of the entire ecosystem associated with Ayurveda is also boosting tourism-related health and wellbeing in the country, Saudi Gazette reported. (ANI) More than 72 hours after the start of the all-out invasion on February 24, Russia has failed to inflict a quick defeat to Ukraine's armed forces or gain a foothold in any of the country's key cities, media reports said. As of February 27, all the biggest cities Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Kherson are still under full Ukrainian control, despite Russia's massive and costly effort to seize or isolate them, Kyiv Independent reported. If Russia aimed to take the Ukrainian capital in a shock and awe operation, it failed, the report said. The situation tends towards hard, dragged-out war rather than a demoralizing blitz run the Kremlin likely counted on, judging from their immediate rush toward Kyiv, the report added. Upon Ukrainian estimates, the Russian forces have employed in combat nearly 50 per cent of its combined Russian-Belarusian military force of over 150,000 troops. After days of fierce fighting, the Russian forces still failed to enter Kyiv via two key axes in the northwest (via the cities of Bucha, Hostomel, and Irpin) and the north via the Obolon district. Multiple attempts to break Ukrainian defences have failed as of early February 27, although the streets of Kyiv have seen fierce clashes with small Russian sabotage groups infiltrating the city. As of early February 27, Russia has also failed to establish control of three key airfields near Kyiv: Hostomel in the northwest, the Kyiv airport in the city, and Vasylkiv in the south, despite extremely fierce efforts to ensure a safe landing ground for its airborne groups, Kyiv Independent reported. Fierce and effective Ukrainian resistance seen elsewhere has seriously slowed the Russian military down, and in many locations engaged exhausting confined warfare. After the first 48 hours of advancement, the Russian military started indicating poor coordination and planning, as well as troublesome fuel supply, the report said. Massive missile strikes and all-out advances decisively failed to demoralise the Ukrainian military in the first hours of the attack or strip it of effective air defence, which has also demonstrated surprisingly high effectiveness since the very start. "Moving and taking small towns and automobile communications remain the occupying power's foremost tactics," the Ukrainian General Staff asserted. "Thanks to massive civilian and military resistance, attempts the take the large cities have failed. The enemy's main goal, which is to block Kyiv, remains unsuccessful." The report said Russia's hostilities feature massive civilian harm, including via massive indiscriminate use of multiple launch missile systems like BM-21 Grad in numerous locations, from Kharkiv Oblast's Okhtyrka to Mariupol, the northern suburbs of which were desolated in Russian missile attacks. In general, multiple pieces of evidence, particularly verifiable pictures and videos posted elsewhere on social media indicate grave destruction and loss of life in affected areas, the report added. --IANS san/d ( 480 Words) 2022-02-27-22:18:03 (IANS) Ukraine will not "capitulate" to Russia, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Sunday ahead of negotiations, RT reported. The two delegations are due to meet at an undisclosed location in Belarus, close to the borders of both countries. "There is nothing bad in talks as such and, if the outcome of these talks will be peace and the end of war, that should be welcomed. But I want to make it very clear: we will not surrender, we will not capitulate, we will not give up a single inch of our territory," Kuleba said in Kyiv. He said that Ukraine agreed to send a delegation to the border "to listen to what Russia wants to say" and to say what Ukraine thinks of "this war and Russia's actions". Russian President Vladimir Putin explained the military offensive against Ukraine by the urgent need to "demilitarise" the country, to protect the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, and to ensure that Russia would not be placed under threat by NATO from Ukrainian territory. Ukraine and the West consider the attack completely "unjustified" and "unlawful". --IANS san/ ( 195 Words) 2022-02-27-22:20:04 (IANS) United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Abdulla Shahid said that he will preside over the 11th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday. Taking to Twitter, Shahid said, following the decision taken in the Security Council, "I will preside over the Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly tomorrow - 28 February 2022 starting 10 am (local time)". "The Secretary-General of the United Nations presents his compliments to the Permanent Representatives to the United Nations and has the honour to inform that the Security Council today requested the convening of an emergency special session of the General Assembly," UNGA President said in a statement. "In accordance with rule 10 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General hereby informs the Permanent Representatives that the eleventh emergency special session will convene at United Nations Headquarters, New York, on Monday, 28 February 2022, at 10 a.m," read the statement. (ANI) A pro-Ukraine rally was held in front of the White House on Sunday (local time), urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to call off his invasion of Ukraine. The protestors also called on US President Joe Biden to take stronger actions against the Russian leader. Due to ongoing tension between Russia and Ukraine, the US travel state government issued a travel advisory for US citizens. "Do not travel to Russia due to ongoing tension along the border with Ukraine, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens, the embassy's limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19 and related entry restrictions, terrorism, harassment by Russian government security officials, and the arbitrary enforcement of local law," US travel state government said in a statement. The statement said that due to Russia's heightened military presence and ongoing military exercises along the border region with Ukraine, US citizens located in or considering travel to the districts of the Russian Federation "immediately bordering Ukraine should be aware that the situation along the border is unpredictable and there is heightened tension". "Given the on-going volatility of the situation, US citizens are strongly advised against traveling by land from Russia to Ukraine through this region. In addition, there is the potential throughout Russia of harassment towards foreigners, including through regulations targeted specifically against foreigners," read the statement. "The U.S. government's ability to provide routine or emergency services to U.S. citizens in Russia is already severely limited, particularly in areas far from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Russian government limitations on U.S. staffing and the suspension of consular services at U.S. consulates, the statement added. (ANI) Minsk [Belarus], February 28 (ANI/Sputnik): A Ukrainian delegation that is expected to hold talks with Russia is headed to Belarus via Poland and the meeting is expected to start on Monday morning, a source close to the organizers of the talks told Sputnik. "The talks will be held on Monday morning due to the fact that, fearing for their lives, the Ukrainian delegation did not take the direct route, through Gomel, but will enter [Belarus] through Poland, at the 'Warsaw Bridge' checkpoint. They are taking a huge detour," the source said on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Kiev had agreed to hold talks with Russia in Belarus. Belta reported that the two delegations will meet in the Gomel region, at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Russian delegation is already prepared for the talks and is waiting for their Ukrainian counterparts to arrive, following a phone call between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters on Sunday that Kiev "will not surrender" and expects the upcoming talks with Russia to result in a Russian troop withdrawal from Ukraine. (ANI/Sputnik) "Today, G7 FMs and I spoke with Ukrainian FM @DmytroKuleba (Dmytro Kuleba) to express our united support for Ukraine. We will hold Russia accountable for its premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified invasion and will continue to provide security, economic, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine," Blinken said in a tweet. The G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the High Representative of the European Union were also present at the meeting. "Together we are supporting the Ukrainian people and imposing severe costs and consequences to hold Russia accountable for its war of choice. We stand with Ukraine and recognize the bravery and heroism of the Ukrainian people," said a US state department readout. The meeting comes after the news on Sunday of Ukraine agreeing to meet a Russian delegation in Belarus. The talks are expected to take place in the Gomel region at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, Belta news agency reported. The Ukrainian delegation that is expected to hold talks with Russia was reported to be headed to Belarus via Poland and the meeting is expected to start on Monday morning (local time) as per Sputnik News Agency. (ANI) "We are holding Russian President Vladimir Putin to account for his egregious unjustified war against Ukraine. From midnight last night, Australian targeted financial sanctions and travel bans came into effect on the Russian President and remaining permanent members of Russia's Security Council: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, and Internal Affairs Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev," Morrison said in a statement. He added that Australia supports the most recent anti-Russia measures, including disconnecting certain Russian banks from Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). "Australia will continue to work with allies and like-minded countries to impose further economic sanctions on Russia, building on the raft of travel bans and asset freezes implemented in recent days against Russia's most influential political and military actors," Morrison said. He reiterated that Australia will work with NATO to provide "lethal" military equipment and other assistance to Kyiv. "As an immediate measure, Australia will contribute USD 3 million to NATO's Trust Fund for Ukraine to support non-lethal military equipment and medical supplies. Details of Australia's contribution of lethal military equipment are being worked through with our partners and will be announced soon," Morrison said. According to his statement, the Australian Government strongly supports the announcements by the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States on further restrictive economic measures against key Russian banks, institutions and individuals. "Together, these measures will impose severe costs on the Russian economy by disconnecting its key banks from the international financial system and disrupting Russian trade and investment flows. They will also paralyse Russia's foreign reserves and prevent Russian officials and elites from accessing key financial systems," the Australian Prime Minister added. (ANI) "All aircraft owned, chartered, operated or otherwise controlled by citizens of the Russian Federation and all operators that have Russian certificates are now prohibited from entering, exiting or flying through the Cyprus airspace," the civil aviation authority said in a statement. The authority also clarified that exceptions will be made for emergency landings, humanitarian flights and search-and-rescue operations. The development comes after several European countries, including Italy, Poland, France among others, closed their respective airspaces for aircraft flying from Russia following the announcement of President Vladimir Putin to launch special military operations in Ukraine on Friday. European Union (EU) foreign ministers agreed on Sunday to close the European airspace to all Russian aircraft. Following these new restrictive measures, Aeroflot (Russian Airlines) said it was suspending flights via all European routes starting February 28. (ANI) The head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission (CEC), Igor Karpenko, said more than 65 per cent of Belarusian citizens have voted in favour of Constitutional amendments during a referendum. "A total of 65.16 per cent of the referendum participants included in the voting lists voted for the adoption of amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, and 10.07 per cent voted against," Karpenko said, as quoted by Russian news agency Sputnik. According to Belarusian law, a decision at a referendum is considered adopted if more than half of the citizens included in the lists of participants voted for it. The Belarusian referendum turnout is estimated at over 78 per cent. The Russian news agency said the decision taken at the referendum will come into force 10 days after the official publication of the results. This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the country's nuclear deterrent forces on a "special" alert on Sunday. Putin announced the move during a meeting with Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, reported RT News. According to media reports, a Ukrainian delegation is expected to hold talks with Russia on Monday morning. Earlier on Sunday, the head of the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv had agreed to hold talks with Russia in Belarus. The two delegations are slated to meet in the Gomel region, at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. (ANI) Brendan Sodikoff doesnt create restaurants; he fashions escapes from reality. Whether its a moody steakhouse that feels like a fever dream of a French bistro (Bavettes Bar & Boeuf) or a grizzled barbecue joint that might as well be a portal to Texas (Green Street Smoked Meats), Sodikoff and his restaurant group, Hogsalt, handle atmosphere better than anyone working in Chicago right now. With its latest project, Armitage Alehouse, the Hogsalt team aims to transport you to a fictional London pub circa 1926. Advertisement But this is no bawdy tavern full of pint-chugging lads. Instead, it feels like where gentlemen from the House of Lords might retire after a long day of doing whatever they do in the House of Lords. Why specifically 1926? Who knows. Sodikoff doesnt like engaging with the media. A phone interview was denied, as was our usual request to send a Tribune photographer, which explains the subpar iPhone photos here. I thought we agreed to an email interview, but then he or someone from his organization mostly ignored my questions. Instead, they gave rote answers to questions I never asked. I still dont know if there is an executive chef. Advertisement Pike fish and chips from Armitage Alehouse ($27). (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune) It obviously doesnt matter, because Armitage Alehouse needs no promotion. Once again, Sodikoff has created a space where people crave to be. Reservations regularly disappear weeks in advance. I was only able to visit by showing up before 5 p.m. and sitting at the bar, where the seats are first come, first served. Walk through the front door, and youre no longer on a sleepy corner of Lincoln Park, but a bustling London corridor. The decor looks like its been around for nearly a hundred years, but meticulously maintained. Polished antiques sit in every nook and cranny, including a towering metal coffee maker that bounces light across the room. Though packed with guests and servers rushing around, the room maintains an intimate, hushed vibe, with the music just loud enough to hear, yet never overbearing. The bar is nothing compared with the dining room, where elegantly framed portraits line the walls. Dim lamps and ornate chandeliers cast a golden glow around the room like youve slipped into a Hollywood period drama. Logs crackle from the fireplace, as diners lounge in large, cushioned chairs. Its splendid. Since becoming one of the Tribunes food critics last year, Ive been trying to center reviews around the food, with everything else (atmosphere, service) orbiting around. But Armitage Alehouse is one of those exceptions thats too stunning to deny. Its lovelier than Au Cheval, cozier than Bavettes, and more polished than Maudes Liquor Bar (which sadly closed in 2020). If youre looking for Chicagos most transporting space, the only competition might be the Cherry Circle Room. If the food were as irresistible as the atmosphere, wed have a new Chicago hit on our hands. But unlike other Hogsalt operations that arrive fully formed, Armitage Alehouses menu feels needlessly full of misfires. The website says Armitage Alehouse serves hearty pub fare and dishes with their roots in India. Anyone who has lived in London knows thats a common combo. But its not entirely true at Armitage. The oddball menu also lists a chopped wedge salad ($19), glazed black cod with a sweet miso glaze ($43) and matzo ball soup ($13). If Winston Churchill, who was chancellor of the exchequer in 1926, made a surprise visit from beyond the grave, hed have a lot of questions. Chicken tikka masala from Armitage Alehouse ($20). (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune) Whats more, the Indian-influenced dishes on the menu are bizarrely disappointing. The spiced lamb samosas ($15) are greasy. The skin on the tandoori-style roasted chicken ($25) arrives blackened to the point of tasting of soot. It doesnt help that the meat rests on a bed of overly chalky dal. The worst offender is chicken tikka masala ($20), which tastes like limp poached chicken tenders in a barely spiced tomato sauce. So much about this version feels so wrong, its hard to even know where to begin, but to be particularly petty, its anachronistic to the 1926 vibe. While the origin story of chicken tikka masala is hotly debated, the dish didnt gain national consciousness in the U.K. until probably the 1970s. Advertisement To confirm that last point, I reached out to Veeraswamy in London, which opened in 1926 and claims to be the oldest Indian restaurant in the country. While the current owners dont have a copy of the original menu, they did provide one for me from 1947, and that dish is nowhere to be found. I also checked with Punjab Restaurant, which opened in London back in 1946 and claims to be the oldest Northern Indian restaurant in the United Kingdom. Its current menu notes the chicken tikka masala follows our 1973 formula. Sticking to the traditional English dishes provides firmer footing, even though I wish the crust on the pike fish and chips ($27) wasnt so heavy. Steak and ale pot pie from Armitage Alehouse ($25). (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune) If you want to ensure success at Armitage Alehouse, order one of the pot pies. The kitchen rotates through six different options, offering a couple each day. Regardless of which one you choose, itll arrive with a flaky crust sporting a massive beef bone protruding from the middle. (This is true even if you order the chicken pot pie.) Though the bone may be little more than an excuse to give people less filling, the dramatic presentation is undeniably impressive, and the bone is filled with loads of unctuous marrow, which you can spread over the pie crust. Theres no faulting how the crackly crust mixes with the ultra-savory fillings, like the oxtail and red wine pie ($25) or the more balanced steak and ale pie ($25). While the pies are easily the best thing on the pricy menu, they clock in at twice the cost of the phenomenal English pies served at Pleasant House Pub (2119 S. Halsted St.). Desserts are oversize and heavy. But if youre in a large enough group, splitting the sticky date cake ($12) topped with brown butter gelato and toffee sauce is a fine choice. Advertisement Sticky date cake from Armitage Alehouse ($12). (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune) The beer list includes a few imports, like Fullers ESB Champion Ale ($8), Harp Lager ($7) and Guinness ($7.50). Like every Hogsalt property, the cocktails are precisely prepared and beautifully presented. Thats true if you go for the sleek Vesper ($14) or the fruitier Aviation ($14). The best might be the simply gorgeous East India G&T ($14), which combines Jin Jiji Darjeeling gin with saffron, flower petals and juniper. Of course, the only reason you can order Indian food with a gin and tonic at a pub is because the British once occupied India. Not that Armitage Alehouse needs to address this, but it might have shown that it at least considered the charged history. And yet, even with all these points, I still cant think of many other rooms Id rather spend an evening in. Its casts a spell over you. Those looking for a flawlessly faithful English pub will find plenty to quibble about, but give in and you can leave behind the reality of, say, Chicago in the grips of a gray winter, and venture into a fictional world. nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com Armitage Alehouse 1000 W. Armitage Ave. 773-270-6402 Advertisement armitagealehouse.com Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > Tribune rating: Three-star atmosphere; one-star food. Open: Sunday to Thursday, 4:30 p.m. to 10:15 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, $13 to $20; entrees $16 to $75 Noise: Conversation friendly Accessibility: Bathrooms on first floor Advertisement Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. Meals are paid for by the Tribune. Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers and supporters on Sunday began a long march from Karachi towards Islamabad, in protest against the Imran Khan government and demonstrate that it had lost the country's trust, local media reported. The march, led by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was held to protest against the "weakened and unjust" Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government and its wrong policies, the Dawn newspaper reported. Calling for a nationwide unified movement of all opposition parties to oust the Imran Khan government, Bilawal raised a 38-point charter of demands in the march in which the participants, including women and children, called for a "final push" against the PTI regime. The long march is the "beginning" of the end of Imran Khan's rule through a "no-trust move" in the parliament, the publication reported quoting Bilawal. "This storm of public anger against Niazi (Imran Khan) and his government is just the beginning of what lies ahead. From now onwards for the next 10 days, people from across the country would send him message of their sentiments and make the countdown," he said, according to the media outlet. Enumerating the wrong policies of the Imran Khan government, Bilawal said that the PTI regime "seeks to divide, polarise and sabotage" and the people need to unite against the "criminal regime and end this reign of misrule and injustice". Referring to the amendments made to media law in Pakistan, the PPP chairman said that the Imran Khan government is a 'fascist regime' that has made every attempt to strangle political sanity in the country before turning to choke the media and freedom of expression through a black law, reported the Pakistani newspaper. "The illegal, incompetent regime foolishly seeks to enslave us, and this regime will be defeated like the fascist regimes of the past and will be consigned to the dustbin of history," he added. The opposition in Pakistan is jettisoning mutual hatred to ouster Imran Khan. PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also announced separate long marches on Islamabad with the former's having started on February 27 and the latter's scheduled for March 23. The opposition parties have also divulged that a no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan government will likely be moved within the first half of March. (ANI) Washington [US], February 28 (ANI/Sputnik): US President Joe Biden will hold a "secure call" with Washington's allies on Monday to discuss the situation in Ukraine and Western response measures, according to the White House schedule. "11:15 AM [16:15 GMT] THE PRESIDENT hosts a secure call with Allies and partners to discuss the latest developments regarding Russia's attack on Ukraine and to coordinate our united response," the White House schedule for Monday, February 28, says. Western nations have increased sanctions pressure on Russia after it launched a military operation in Ukraine following requests for help from the people's republics in Donbas. The Russian Defense Ministry said the operation was targeting the military infrastructure of Ukraine only and that the civilian population was not in danger. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine and that the purpose of its operation is to save the civilian population from genocide and liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), including through the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. A Russian and a Kyiv delegation are expected to hold talks in the Gomel region in Belarus, at the Ukrainian border, on Monday. (ANI/Sputnik) The United States has welcomed Nepal ratifying the USD 500 million grant, provided by the US Government foreign aid agency, which was cleared after a prolonged political tussle. "The decision whether to ratify the USD 500 million-dollar Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Nepal Compact has always rested with the Government of Nepal as a sovereign democratic nation. Today's decision by Nepal's Parliament to follow through on its signed commitment and ratify the compact will mean more jobs for the Nepali people, a reliable supply of electricity, and lower transportation costs," the US embassy in Nepal said in a statement. On Sunday, Nepal's House of Representatives ratified the MCC pact along with an "interpretative declaration". The Nepalese Parliament on Sunday worked till late hours to adopt a 12-point declaration called "interpretative declaration", which includes the government's answers to questions raised by the Opposition parties and also members of the ruling coalition in the House. "Agreement between Government of Nepal and the US aid agency along with the interpretative declaration has been adopted by the House of Representatives with voice vote as per the Constitution of Nepal's clause 279 and Rules of the Parliament 2075, Rule 230, and, thus, the proposal to ratify has been passed," House Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota announced. A meeting of the ruling alliance which commenced earlier on Sunday at Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's residence had adopted the 12 points which clearly states that the parties will not consider MCC a part of US military strategy (IPS). "One of the parties of the compact, Nepal will not be part of United States of America's Indo-Pacific Strategy or any strategic, military or security alliance which has been announced hereby," Janardan Sharma, Finance Minister of Himalayan nation read out the first statement of declaration despite protest from opposition CPN-UML. Likewise, parties have also said that MCC Compact will not be above Nepal's Constitution and laws. Adding, the MCC Compact will be taken only as financial assistance, and the audit should be done by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Nepal. The declaration also said that they would even revert the decision on the basis of political consensus. Prior to that, the ruling parties held internal discussions on the issue.Rift had risen high within the ruling alliance before the adoption of the declaration which nearly had brought alliance formed against the former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to an end. The US Government's MCC signed the pact with the Government of Nepal in September 2017 aimed at maintaining road quality, increasing the availability and reliability of electricity, and facilitating cross-border electricity trade between Nepal and India--helping to spur investments, accelerate economic growth, and reduce poverty. The pact was a subject of protest as a deep-rooted rumour claimed it to be a military pact. (ANI) White House on Sunday (local time) said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's move to place the country's nuclear deterrent forces on a "special" alert shows the pattern of unwarranted escalation and "manufactured threats" from the Kremlin, reported local media. "This is really a pattern that we've seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression -- and the global community and the American people should look at it through that prism," CNN News quoted White House press secretary Jen Psaki during her conversation with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week". Terming Putin's move as a totally unnecessary step, another senior administration official said that Putin was never under threat from Ukraine or NATO. "The only reason his forces face a threat today is that they invaded a sovereign country, and one without nuclear weapons," the media outlet quoted him as saying. This comes as Putin placed Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on a "special" alert on Sunday amid the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine. "Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area... I'm speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of. However, the top officials of the leading NATO countries also make aggressive statements against our country as well," RT News quoted him as saying. Meanwhile, Ukraine has agreed to meet with a Russian delegation in Belarus, and Russians are heading to the place where the talks will be held, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said on Sunday. (ANI) The Security Council voted on Sunday to call for an emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia's military operation in Ukraine, which will be held on Monday. The measure convening the General Assembly session was adopted by a vote of 11 in favour, with Russia voting against, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. The request for the Assembly to urgently convene a meeting comes after Russia vetoed on Friday a US-led draft Security Council resolution on Russia. Since the text acted on Sunday was procedural, none of the five permanent Council members could use their vetoes. The measure needed just nine votes in favour to pass. Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950, following the adoption of resolution 377A(V), widely known as 'Uniting for Peace.' According to UN News, that text gives the Assembly the power to take up matters of international peace and security when the Security Council is unable to act because of the lack of unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members. Following statements by countries in the emergency special session, the General Assembly is expected to vote on a resolution similar to the one taken up Friday by the Security Council, UN News reported. While Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they are considered to carry political weight as they express the will of the wider UN membership. Speaking after the vote, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, of the US, one of the countries that had requested the meeting, said the Security Council had today taken an important step towards holding Russia accountable for its aggression against Ukraine. "By calling for an emergency special session of the General Assembly... (we) have recognized that this is no ordinary moment and that we need to take extraordinary steps to confront this threat to our international system," she said. The Security Council's latest steps to end the Ukraine crisis cap a week of activity at the UN seeking a diplomatic offramp to Russian military action in the country. (ANI) The United Kingdom will provide an additional USD 53 million (40 million) in humanitarian aid to Ukraine amid the Russian military operations in the country, the UK Prime Minister's office announced on Sunday. The funding will help aid agencies respond to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, creating a lifeline for Ukrainians with access to basic necessities and medical supplies such as medicines, syringes, dressings and wound care packs. UK Government humanitarian experts have also been deployed to the region to support those fleeing the violence in Ukraine. On Saturday evening UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke again to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy who updated him on the critical need for humanitarian assistance as people are forced to flee their homes and seek safety. In response to the growing concern of Ukrainians living in the UK, Johnson also confirmed that any person settled in the UK will be able to bring their Ukrainian immediate family members to join them here. According to a statement, the UK also continues to support those Ukrainians who wish to remain close to home through logistical and humanitarian support to Ukraine's neighbours. The UK Prime Minister said: "In the last days the world has witnessed awe-inspiring displays of bravery and heroism from the Ukrainian people in response to those who seek to obliterate their freedom by force." "The UK will not turn our backs in Ukraine's hour of need. We are providing all the economic and military support we can to help those Ukrainians risking everything to protect their country," he added. This latest assistance package brings the total amount of UK Government aid pledged to Ukraine this year to 140 million. Last week the Prime Minister also announced the UK would guarantee up to USD 500 million of loans to Ukraine through Multilateral Development Banks. (ANI) "Killing innocent people is a crime against humanity and whoever does so will be held accountable. Hopefully, this war will end soon," Dzuliashvili told ANI. He further expressed confidence that Ukraine will win in the end and asserted that "Georgia has stood with Ukraine and will always do the same". His remarks came amid Ukraine agreeing to meet a Russian delegation in Belarus. The talks are expected to take place in the Gomel region at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, Belta news agency reported. The Ukrainian delegation that is expected to hold talks with Russia was reported to be headed to Belarus via Poland and the meeting is expected to start on Monday morning (local time) as per Sputnik News Agency. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with the President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili on Sunday about the current situation. Tensions rose dramatically after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics and announced 'special military operations' in the region. Russia has been facing immense criticism and fresh rounds of sanctions, especially from the Western countries, over its recent actions in Ukraine. (ANI) Amid a declining fertility rate, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is adopting and implementing policies that undermine women's most basic rights like bodily autonomy, a media report said on Sunday. The CCP has in recent times, adopted new policies seeking to increase birth rates in order to avert the impact of a rapidly ageing population. The new policy offers a variety of benefits, including a considerable decrease in unlawful pregnancy abortions and a near elimination of unregistered children, while using a system of incentives and penalties, The Hong Kong Post reported. However, CCP is finding it difficult to ascertain 'how much liberty to provide women for the sake of long-term stability,' the report said. A recent law titled 'China's law on the protection of women's rights and interests' gives insights into the ideas of the CCP with respect to women. The law treats women as entities other than men requiring "special considerations and protections" according to China Law Translate (CLT). CLT is a translation project run by Jeremy Daum, Yale Law Tsai Center Fellow. Another law called, 'Family Education Promotion Law' calls for women to play their "special role" in promoting the family values of the Chinese people, to establish what CCP considers a "positive family situation." With Beijing's obsession with numerical objectives, it's easy to see a 180-degree reversal of the anti-natalist techniques used during the decades of the one-child policy, with local Party officials now assessed on their performance in increasing, rather than decreasing birth rates in their jurisdictions. "A decade ago people were horrified by Feng Jianmei's forced abortion. Now authorities say they will prevent (some) abortions. This reversal can appear stunning for those unfamiliar with the control-at-all-cost ethos underpinning Beijing's birth policies," said Mei Fong, a journalist and author of One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment. The health-care alternatives accessible to Chinese individuals have changed due to the implementation of new policies. A Washington Post investigation in December discovered that 12 hospitals in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou were no longer performing vasectomies, much to the dismay of many young couples contacted. "As soon as they want access to your uterus, they start sweet-talking you," one netizen said last year in response to a state media hashtag that read #Eliminate Backward Concepts Like "Men Are Superior To Women" and "Beget Male Heirs To Carry On The Ancestral Lineage". The CCP faces an internal conflict where it seeks to address its demographic problems which it feels is important for long-term stability, while at the same time it wants to maintain a facade of promoting women's rights. However, the facade falls quickly when one looks at the abysmal representation of women in the CCP, the harassment that people like Peng Shuai and Xianzi faced for speaking out against gender-based abuse and regular censoring and shutdown of feminist social media accounts in China. "With the one-child policy, Party officials destroyed China's society with a single ill-conceived demographic crash campaign. This is how they may duplicate the stunt a second time, in reverse. This will have a long-term negative impact on women's rights, gender relations, and China's future," the report concluded. (ANI) As per a press statement from US State Department, the special representative for North Korea Sung Kim held calls with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Funakoshi Takehiroto and South Korea Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk to discuss North Korea's February 26 ballistic missile launch. While condemning the launch, Kim underscored the United States' commitment to close trilateral coordination with its Japanese and South Korean allies and readiness to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy with North Korea. Reiterating US commitment to the defence of Japan and South Korea, he reaffirmed the shared goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Notably, North Korea test-fired an unidentified projectile on Sunday, Sputnik news agency reported citing Japan's coast guard. The projectile fired toward the Sea of Japan and likely a ballistic missile, appears to have fallen outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone, according to Kyodo news agency. (ANI) "The DPRK National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) and the Academy of Defence Science conducted an important test on Sunday under the plan of developing a reconnaissance satellite," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said as quoted by Yonhap on Monday. According to KCNA, the Sunday test helped confirm the accuracy of a photographing system, a transmission system and altitude control devices. "The [South Korean] government will assess the implications of the latest missile launch based on an in-depth analysis of its specifications while paying close attention to North Korea's claim the test was ... aimed at developing a reconnaissance satellite," Lee Jong-joo, a spokesperson for Seoul's unification ministry, told reporters as quoted by Yonhap on Monday. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Sunday that it detected a North Korean missile launch from in and around the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 7:52 a.m. local time (22:52 GMT on Saturday). The unidentified projectile, likely a ballistic missile, was fired toward the Sea of Japan, the JCS said. According to the South Korean military, the missile flew around 300 kilometres (186 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of 620 kilometres. It fell outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone, according to Japanese Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo. (ANI/Sputnik) The Justice Department launched one of the largest and most complex criminal investigations in its history after a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol over a year ago. Now its time for a jury to hear some of the governments evidence about the unparalleled attack on American democracy. The first trial for one of the hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions began this week, with jury selection starting Monday for the case against Guy Wesley Reffitt. The Texas man is charged with bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds, interfering with police officers guarding the building, and threatening his teenage children if they reported him to authorities. Advertisement Violent insurrectionists, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. The first trial for one of the hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions starts this week, with jury selection scheduled to begin on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, for the case against Guy Wesley Reffitt. (John Minchillo/AP) Reffitts trial could be a bellwether for many other Capitol riot cases. A conviction would give prosecutors more leverage in plea talks with rioters facing the most serious charges. An acquittal may lead others to wait for their own day in court. Reffitt truly is the canary in the coal mine, said Gregg Sofer, a former federal prosecutor who served as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas from October 2020 to February 2021. Advertisement Itll really be interesting to see how strong a case the government has and whether or not theyre relying on evidence that, when pushed and tested, stands up. Its going to have a huge impact going forward, added Sofer, now a partner at a law firm. Reffitt is a member of a militia-style group called the Texas Three Percenters, according to prosecutors. The Three Percenters militia movement refers to the myth that only 3% of Americans fought in the Revolutionary War against the British. On Jan. 6, 2021, Reffitt was armed with a handgun in a holster on his waist, carrying zip-tie handcuffs and wearing body armor and a helmet equipped with a video camera when he and others charged at police officers on the west side of the Capitol, according to prosecutors. This action caused the police line guarding the building to retreat closer to the building itself; soon after this, law enforcement was overwhelmed, and rioters flooded the building, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Reffitt retreated only after an officer pepper sprayed him in the face, prosecutors said. Prosecutors believe Reffitt took at least two firearms with him to Washington: an AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol. When FBI agents searched Reffitts home in Wylie, Texas, they found a handgun in a holster on a nightstand in the defendants bedroom. Prosecutors say photos and video of Reffitt during the riot show a handgun holster on his right hip, with what appears to be a silver object inside the holster. On the morning of Jan. 6, Reffitt said he planned to do the recon and then come back for weapons hot and sent messages about meeting at a rendezvous point, according to prosecutors. These messages, along with the weapons that Reffitt carried and the gear he wore, make clear that the defendant did not come to D.C. with the intention to engage in peaceful activity, prosecutors wrote. Advertisement The siege resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer. The Justice Department says more than 235 rioters have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, injuring over 100 officers. Rioters caused over $1 million in damage to the Capitol. The Justice Department says its investigation has generated an unprecedented volume of evidence, with hundreds of thousands of documents and thousands of hours of videos to share with defense attorneys. Shared files total more than nine terabytes of information and would take over 100 days to view, the department says. More than 750 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 200 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors carrying a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment. More than 100 riot defendants have been sentenced. And at least 90 others have trial dates this year. Philadelphia-based defense attorney Justin Danilewitz, who was a federal prosecutor in New Jersey from 2012 to 2017, said a conviction in Reffitts case may lead to a flurry of guilty pleas by other riot defendants. And that can benefit defendants on occasion because its better than the alternative if the alternative is a conviction following a trial, Danilewitz added. An acquittal could inspire other defendants to dig in their heels and either push for a better plea offer from prosecutors or gamble a trial of their own, he said. Advertisement Defense attorney William Welch has said there is no evidence that Reffitt damaged property, used force or physically harmed anybody. In a May 2021 court filing, Welch said none of the videos or photos shows a gun in Reffitts possession at the Capitol. In fact, neither of the police officers interviewed by the government said anything about a firearm, he wrote. Reffitt has been jailed since his arrest in Texas less than a week after the riot. He faces five counts: obstruction of an official proceeding, being unlawfully present on Capitol grounds while armed with a firearm, transporting firearms during a civil disorder, interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, and obstruction of justice. The obstructing justice charge stems from threats that he allegedly made against his son, then 18, and daughter, then 16, after returning home from Washington. Reffett told his children to choose a side or die and said they would be traitors if they reported him to law enforcement, prosecutors said. He predicted future political violence in statements both to his family and to fellow militia members, bragged to fellow militia members about his involvement in the riot, recruited other rioters into the militia, and ordered bear spray and riot shields to his home to prepare for further violence, prosecutors wrote. Messages recovered from Reffitts cellphone indicate he planned to joined an armed insurrection on Jan. 6 and intended to occupy the Capitol, prosecutors said. Advertisement We had thousands of weapons and fired no rounds yet showed numbers. The next time we will not be so cordial, he wrote, according to prosecutors. Presiding over Reffitts trial is U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017. Friedrich already has sentenced nine rioters who pleaded guilty. Freidrich individually questioned 13 prospective jurors before a lunch break on Monday, asking them how closely they have followed news coverage of the Capitol riot. Some said they had formed strong, negative opinions about the events of Jan. 6 but could strive to be fair and impartial. The judge disqualified three members of the jury pool who said they would have difficulty setting aside their opinions or emotions about the riot. One of them, a man who lives near the Capitol, said the riot felt like an attack on my home in some sense. It was a very scary time, he told the judge, Prosecutors expect to call about a dozen witnesses, including three Capitol police officers who interacted with Reffitt and an officer who was in charge of the U.S. Capitol Police command center. Advertisement Jurors will see videos that captured Reffitts confrontation with police. Prosecutors also have audio recordings of Reffitt talking about the riot inside his home after returning home. We made a point. That was a historic day, Refffitt said during one of the recorded conversations, according to prosecutors. And guess what? Im not done yet. I got a lot more to do. Thats the beginning. Reffitts son, daughter and a fellow Texas Three Percenter group member also are listed as government witnesses. The group member traveled with Reffitt to Washington and back to Texas between Jan. 4 and Jan. 8, 2021. During the drive (to Washington), Reffitt talked about dragging those people out of the Capitol by their ankles and installing a new government, prosecutors wrote. A court filing that refers to the other militia member by the initials R.H. says the man will tell jurors he was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Welch has said Reffiitt worked as a rig manager and as a consultant in the petroleum industry before COVID-19 restrictions effectively shut down his business. Notably, the number only constitutes the people who legally go to Iran from these provinces and might be far greater if it includes those crossing the border illegally, Tolo News reported. The Afghans going to Iran cite severe economic problems and unemployment as the reason behind leaving the country. "I don't have a job and it has been several months that we are unemployed, we are going to Iran," the media outlet reported quoting Farhad Sultani, a resident of Herat. A resident of Faryab, Sultan Mir, said there is no work in Afghanistan and they are going to Tehran to find work. In addition to the people travelling legally to Iran, over 3,000 people are smuggled daily through Nimroz province, first to Pakistan and then to Iran. Further, the increasing number of Afghan citizens moving to Iran has also increased the deportation process of Afghan refugees from the country. More than 2000 Afghans from Iran cross at the Islam Qala border area in Herat each day, the Afghan news agency reported, citing officials. "The Islamic Emirate should address the people's problems and their wishes and create an inclusive government. They should provide job opportunities so that the people can be saved from this misery," Lutfullah, a resident of Ghazni said, according to the news agency. The Taliban's swift ascension to power in Afghanistan occurred in mid-August, triggering economic disarray and a dire humanitarian crisis in the country. According to the United Nations, more than 24 million people in Afghanistan require lifesaving assistance. (ANI) A number of US lawmakers have slammed the Biden administration's decision to close the Trump-era China Initiative, which had aimed to combat the national security threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party. The Biden administration made a dangerous mistake in dropping the China Initiative, according to Republican Representative Mike Gallagher. "The Chinese Communist Party is devoted to stealing American innovation and turning it against us in support of its malign ambitions. This relentless campaign, which includes but is not limited to traditional espionage, continues whether or not we choose to counter it," the Wisconsin congressman told the Washington Examiner. "By ending the China Initiative, the Biden administration is sending a terrible signal about the U.S. government's commitment to countering this activity. I will be pressing the administration for answers in the coming weeks about how it plans to replace these critical efforts." This reaction comes after the three-year-old effort, known as the China Initiative, was shut down due to perceptions that it unfairly painted Chinese Americans as disloyal. "By grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric, we helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently," Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said in remarks at George Mason University in Virginia, as quoted by Politico magazine. According to Olsen, the decision amounted to reframing and recalibration -- not an abandonment -- of a muscular law enforcement response to the national security threat posed by China. "Department of Justice (DOJ) will no longer use the framework of the China Initiative to organize or to describe our efforts to counter threats by the PRC government," Olsen told reporters last week. Justice's top national security official said department officials had concluded that the enforcement program singling out China was ill-advised and better reframed as part of a more wide-ranging effort to counter threats posed by Russia, Iran and other countries. Established in November 2018, the Initiative identified a number of goals for the Department, ranging from an increased focus on the investigation and prosecution of trade secret theft and economic espionage, to better-countering threats posed by Chinese foreign investment and supply chain vulnerabilities. (ANI) With the public universities finally reopening in Afghanistan on Saturday, the students face a new challenge in the form of an acute shortage of professors, local media reported. A number of professors among other qualified professionals left the country over the last several months post the Taliban takeover of Kabul. In the last six months, around 270 instructors from Kabul, Herat and Balkh universities have left the country, said Tolo News citing reports. "We are facing a shortage of instructors. Not our faculty but all faculties are facing this problem. The majority of our instructors have gone outside the country. We need experienced instructors," Rabia, a student was quoted as saying. "We have studied just one hour of our five-hour class time. We don't have instructors and we don't know if they have left the country or been dismissed," Mujeeb Rahman, another student said. Earlier this month, the Taliban regime in an official statement urged the professors who had left the country to return to rebuild Afghanistan. The Taliban regime started opening public universities starting February 2, with new norms of gender segregation and different class shifts for male and female students. The universities in colder areas of the country finally opened on February 27. In Kabul University, female students, especially those coming from other provinces have also been struggling to find accommodation in the capital city. "The female students living in the dormitory have been told to study in their own provinces or otherwise not come to the university. The boys have access to a dormitory, but the girls don't," the report quoted Hajar, a female student as saying. The professors who remain say that the Taliban regime needs to ensure their safety in order to encourage those who left the country to return. "The government should provide some guarantees such as personal freedom and protection. We have seen that some university instructors were living in bad conditions. This situation causes some of the university instructors to leave the country," said Mohammad Marhoon, an instructor at Kabul University. (ANI) With Maha Shivaratri on Tuesday, Sadhus have already thronged the sacred temple of Pashupatinath in Nepal's capital Kathmandu. The courtyard of the Ram Mandir in the premises of Pashupatinath temple, a UNESCO world heritage site and pilgrimage destination for Hindu devotees, is brimming with Sadhus as they return after the COVID-19 pandemic. "For six months each year, I stay at Kedarnath, one month at Amarnath, that too for the month of Shrawan, and then I come here to Pashupatinath and Doleshwor Mahadev which is the head of Kedarnath. As people go to Mata Vaishno Devi and until you don't go to Bhairabnath then your pilgrimage won't be complete, we go to Kedarnath and come here to Pashupatinath and Doleshwor Mahadev so that our pilgrimage is complete," a Sadhu from India who came to Pashupatinath temple for Shivaratri told ANI. The world heritage site these days is flooded with Sadhus from India and other parts of the world as Pashupatinath temple is one of the 'Shakti Piths'. More than 7000 saints from Nepal and India are expected to come to the temple area by evening as Maha Shivaratri falls on Tuesday this year. The Maha Shivaratri which falls on 1st March this year will witness an inflow of over a million pilgrims from Nepal as well as India to the temple. With the approaching festival, the Pashupati Area Development Trust has geared up for the preparations and is set to complete it by Monday. "Maha Shivaratri" known as the night of Lord Shiva is observed with great fervour in Nepal as well as in India and other Hindu populous countries. Generally, the day of Maha Shivaratri falls on every 13th night or 14th day of luni-solar month according to the Lunar Calendar. Every temple of Lord Shiva is flocked by pilgrims on the day of Maha Shivaratri. One of the major festivals of Nepal, Maha Shivaratri literally means "Night of the Shiva". It is celebrated on the 14th day of the dark fortnight of the Magha month, as per the Hindu lunar calendar. It is believed that on this day, the stars in the Northern Hemisphere are at the most optimum positions to help raise a person's spiritual energy. It is also believed that the Shiva principle is most active on this day of the year. Maha Shivaratri is celebrated to mark the convergence of Shiva and Shakti. Maha Shivaratri also celebrates the night when Lord Shiva performed the "Tandav", the cosmic dance. Hundreds of thousands of devotees visit Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, one of the holiest shrines of the Hindus. Pashupatinath is considered the guardian and protector of the Kathmandu valley and Nepal. (ANI) The downwards slide of the law and order situation in Pakistan's Karachi was visible as security forces remained a silent spectator to a robbery that stripped over a hundred people of their valuables on a major city road, local media reported. Both the police and the Rangers looked the other way while the robbery, which lasted for more than an hour, took place on the Korangi Causeway in Karachi, The Express Tribune reported. It is unexplainable why law enforcement took a long time to respond to the call for help while an eight-member gang armed with weapons snatched valuables from the motorists by blocking traffic on the causeway, said an opinion piece published in the Pakistani newspaper. However, no action has been taken by the administration in this incident and instead the occurrence is being politicised. Notably, street crime in Karachi has risen to unprecedented levels with over 50,000 such incidents reported in the city during the first eight months of 2021. As many as 13 people have died in Karachi in one and a half months of the current year, that is till mid-February, while 11,000 incidents of street crime have been reported. Amid poor governance, Karachi is facing a lot of issues that include shortages of utilities like water and gas, encroachments, unbearable traffic, unprecedented increase in crimes, the Pakistani newspaper reported. The major cause behind the problem seems to be the lack of conversation between the city's elected representatives and the provincial government setup. The city, that has voted for a mix of parties -- largely for the PTI, is suffering due to the conflict between PTI and the PPP, the ruling provincial government. Meanwhile, the city continues to decline into chaos amid a lack of accountability and the political tussle between different parliamentary parties in Pakistan. (ANI) Brasilia [Brazil], February 28 (ANI/Sputnik): Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that his country will not back a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching a military operation in Ukraine, and maintain a neutral stance. "No sanctions or condemnation of President Putin ... The vote of Brazil is not determined by and is not associated with any power. Our free vote will be cast in this direction ... Our stance with Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franca is a balance. And we cannot interfere. We want peace, but we cannot allow the consequences to affect Brazil," Bolsonaro said during a press conference in Sao Paulo on Sunday evening, as quoted by the G1 news outlet. When asked about maintaining neutrality regarding Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine, the president said that a significant part of Ukraine speaks Russian and that Russians and Ukrainians are fraternal peoples. "Bloodshed of civilians is off the table, nobody is using such tactics, ... talking about a massacre is an exaggeration, it is not in the interests of the Russian leader to arrange a massacre," Bolsonaro added. Last Thursday, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics for help in countering the aggression of Ukrainian forces. Moscow has repeatedly said that it has no plans to occupy the Ukrainian territory. Multiple countries accused Russia of invading the neighboring country and violating its territorial integrity, and pledged to provide Kyiv with additional military assistance to fight the Russian armed forces. (ANI/Sputnik) Myanmar on Monday extended support to the Russian military operations against Ukraine, calling it necessary to preserve the sovereignty of Russia. "First, in my opinion, in the situation with Ukraine, Russia is taking the necessary actions to preserve and strengthen its own sovereignty. Second, Russia, as a great power, ensures the balance of world forces, which allows maintaining world peace," a spokesperson for the Myanmar military Major General Zaw Min Tun was quoted as saying. He expressed hope that Russia will be able to uproot "modern colonialism," pointing out that the US is moving closer to the Russian borders in order to undermine Russia's sovereignty. "...the situation around Ukraine is not a problem of the two countries. The President, the government and the people of Russia were obliged to respond to the emerging geopolitical situation in the world, where Ukraine was only one of the links," Zaw Min Tun said as quoted by Sputnik. The comments come a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin in an address to the nation, recognised the Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics and announced "special military operations" in the region. The Russian actions have faced immense criticism, especially from the Western countries. A number of countries, including the US, the UK, Germany and France, among others have announced fresh rounds of sanctions on Russian individuals and financial institutions. Zaw Min Tun emphasized that the actions of the Russian leadership are aimed at protecting national interests and demonstrating the unity of the Russian people. "President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government and the people there have demonstrated to the world that they have a broader vision of world political problems and that Russia can and must protect its national interests and unity," the spokesperson said. Zaw Min Tun recalled how Western countries had financed opposition forces in Myanmar and said that the current Ukraine crisis was caused by unwillingness on the part of the US to provide Russia with security guarantees. "Today, Ukraine fully follows the policy and ideology of the bloc of Western countries. This situation resulted in Russia rightly putting forward its demands for its own security, but we saw that America did not respond to them and continued to act contrary to the fair solution of problems. We are seeing the consequences of this right now," the spokesperson said. (ANI) With the current account deficit (CAD) touching an all-time high of $2.56 billion in the month of January 2022, Pakistan's overall CAD is expected to cross $20 billion by the end of this fiscal (2021-22), according to experts. Pakistan's former finance minister and economist Hafeez A Pasha said that the CAD was heading towards an all-time high mark of $20 billion or 6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the current fiscal year, The News International reported. Citing the skyrocketing trends in international prices, he pointed out that Pakistan's CAD had already touched the $11.6 billion mark in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. "For God's sake, the political parties must shun their differences because the country is heading towards a serious financial crisis," the report quoted Pasha as saying. He further added that the foreign currency reserves of the country could go below the $7 billion mark as the country had witnessed in 2017-18 when the CAD had touched the $19 billion mark. At the same time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that the country's external debt servicing requirement would be touching $18.5 billion for the current fiscal year against $11.9 billion in the last fiscal year. Khaqan Najeeb, former Director-General Economic Reform Unit (ERU) at the Ministry of Finance, emphasized that CAD remains a key cause of macro instability for a country like Pakistan with scarce foreign exchange. A major reason for the rising CAD has been the declining remittances from the Pakistani diaspora, particularly in the gulf. Remittances declined by $376 million or 15 per cent over the previous month in January 2022. In addition, exports too declined by 17 per cent over the previous month in January 2022. On the other side, strong import growth of 45 per cent over the previous year in January 2022, ensured that CAD reached an all-time high, the report noted. The import bill of Pakistan is likely to rise further with oil prices crossing $100 per barrel and a likely rise in wheat prices amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to address his nation on Monday over the ongoing economic crisis. He is widely expected to announce relief plans to aid the ailing economy. (ANI) The Indian embassy in Kyiv on Monday informed that the weekend curfew was lifted in the capital city of Ukraine and advised students to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts of the country. "Weekend curfew lifted in Kyiv. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts. Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations," the embassy said in a tweet. On Sunday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that the government of India has launched a multi-prong evacuation plan titled 'Operation Ganga' to evacuate Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine. As intense fighting is underway in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv, Shringla held a special briefing on 'Operation Ganga' and said, the government of India has launched a multi-prong evacuation plan titled 'Operation Ganga' to evacuate Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine. The India Government is bearing the cost of evacuation given the emergency situation prevailing. Indian Embassy in Kyiv as well as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi issued a number of advisories prior to the situation developing, requesting Indian citizens to leave Ukraine. Specific border crossing points were identified with each of these countries and the MEA had deployed teams, Russian-speaking officers to go there and assist in the evacuation process. Shringla further said that border crossing to Hungary and Romania are functioning, however, the exit point to Poland has been clogged as lakhs of Ukrainian and foreign nationals are trying to leave the country from that point. Earlier today, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar said that two more flights under Operation Ganga left from Budapest for Delhi, carrying some 500 Indian students. (ANI) "Admiral R Hari Kumar met Rear Admiral Eugenio Dias da Silva Muatuca, Chief of Navy, Mozambique on the sidelines of MILAN 2022 and held discussions on issues of mutual interest," a tweet by Navy spokesperson stated. The harbour phase of the biennial multilateral naval exercise MILAN 2022 will culminate today, followed by the sea phase from March 1 to March 4. The eleventh edition of MILAN is being hosted by the Eastern Naval Command at Vishakhapatnam for the first time. The participation from friendly foreign countries includes 13 ships, 39 delegations and one maritime patrol aircraft. This large congregation gives significance and potency to the word 'MILAN' which means "meeting" or "confluence". Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the event on Sunday, the Navy chief said, "We are happy to conduct 11th edition of MILAN with a city parade of 39 participating countries and 13 warships. This year's theme is Camaraderie-Cohesion-Collaboration." This exercise MILAN 22 was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Defense Ajay Bhatt at Visakhapatnam on Saturday. (ANI) RTHK: EU pours cold water on Ukraine membership call The EU on Monday poured cold water on a plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for "immediate" membership to the bloc for his country as Kyiv battled a Russian invasion. EU officials stressed that the adherence procedure takes years, dampening Ukraine's hopes that suddenly becoming part of the European club could help it better weather the Russian onslaught and speed up military, financial and political support. Several officials walked back a comment by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen that appeared to hold out the prospect of Ukraine being admitted. "They are one of us and we want them in," she told Euronews in an interview on Sunday, after emphasising existing EU-Ukraine cooperation. Zelensky seized upon that on Monday to appeal to the European Union "for the immediate accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure". "Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing. I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible." Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal tweeted that "the time to put it down on paper has come. Ukraine is applying for EU membership under a special procedure." However no such fast-track procedure exists, officials said. Aspirants wanting to join the bloc typically face a long and complex process that often requires major reforms to reach EU standards. They also have to prove that their finances are heading in a direction that will allow them to adopt the euro. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that any bid for membership could take "a lot of years". Von der Leyen's spokesman, Eric Mamer, walked back her comments, telling journalists that the EU chief meant that Ukraine "is a European country and we want them in, meaning Europe in general". "She then also specified that there is a process (for joining the EU). And I think that this is the important point," he added. The European Commission said that, in any case, it can only negotiate with hopeful candidate countries on the basis of a mandate from the EU's 27 member states -- something it has not received for Ukraine. "At the end of the day, this is a debate at the highest political level, for the (European) Council," where the member states take decisions, said a commission spokeswoman, Ana Pisonero. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, told a group of journalists that there were already longstanding disagreements among EU countries on enlarging the bloc. "There are different opinions and sensitivities within the EU on enlargement," he told a group of journalists. He said Kyiv would have to submit an official request to join before member states -- which would have to greenlight membership unanimously -- could come up with a position. According to Zelensky's Telegram channel, the Ukrainian president signed such a request on Monday. The European Union, created by six nations under a different name in 1957, has expanded in four waves over the past three decades. After Britain's exit from the bloc in 2020, it counts 27 member states. There are currently five countries that are candidates to join -- Turkey, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania -- but their bids have been stuck in limbo for years. The last country to join the EU was Croatia, which was admitted in 2013 -- after nearly a decade of negotiations and reforms. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Ukainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to the press in the town of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, on April 4, 2022. (Ronaldo Schemidt/Getty-AFP) KYIV, Ukraine Russian forces shelled Ukraines second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking. The countrys embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions. Advertisement I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hourslong talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery. For the second day in a row, the Kremlin raised the specter of nuclear war, announcing that its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers had all been put on high alert, following President Vladimir Putins orders over the weekend. Advertisement Stepping up his rhetoric, Putin denounced the U.S. and its allies as an empire of lies. Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union a largely symbolic move for now, but one that is unlikely to sit well with Putin, who has long accused the U.S. of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscows orbit. A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first talks held between the two sides since the invasion lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen. He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days. As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 17 miles from the center of the city, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies. A member of the Ukrainian territorial defense directs cars in a traffic jam ahead of a military checkpoint outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. (VADIM GHIRDA/AP) People in Kyiv lined up for groceries after the end of a weekend curfew, standing beneath a building with a gaping hole blown in its side. Messages aimed at the advancing Russian soldiers popped up on billboards, bus stops and electronic traffic signs across the capital. Some used profanity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity. Russian soldier Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean conscience, one read. Video from Kharkiv, Ukraines second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, showed residential areas being shelled, with apartment buildings shaken by repeated, powerful blasts. Flashes of fire and gray plumes of smoke could be seen. Advertisement Footage released by the government from Kharkiv depicted what appeared to be a home with water gushing from a pierced ceiling. What looked like an undetonated projectile was on the floor. Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They warned that casualties could be far higher. They wanted to have a blitzkrieg, but it failed, so they act this way, said 83-year-old Valentin Petrovich, who watched the shelling from his downtown apartment and gave just his first name and his Russian-style middle name out of fear for his safety. The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals. Fighting raged in other towns and cities across the country. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is hanging on, said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy. In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main square against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian national anthem. They described the soldiers as exhausted young conscripts. Advertisement Frightened kids, frightened looks. They want to eat, Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone. He said the soldiers went into a supermarket and grabbed canned meat, vodka and cigarettes. They ate right in the store, he said. It looked like they havent been fed in recent days. Across Ukraine, terrified families huddled overnight in shelters, basements or corridors. I sit and pray for these negotiations to end successfully, so that they reach an agreement to end the slaughter, said Alexandra Mikhailova, weeping as she clutched her cat in a shelter in Mariupol. Around her, parents tried to console children and keep them warm. For many, Russias announcement of a nuclear high alert stirred fears that the West could be drawn into direct conflict with Russia. But a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had yet to see any appreciable change in Russias nuclear posture. As far-reaching Western sanctions on Russian banks and other institutions took hold, the ruble plummeted, and Russias Central Bank scrambled to shore it up, as did Putin, signing a decree restricting foreign currency. Advertisement But that did little to calm Russian fears. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as the sanctions threatened to drive up prices and reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary Russians. In yet another blow to Russias economy, oil giant Shell said it is pulling out of the country because of the invasion. It announced it will withdraw from its joint ventures with state-owned gas company Gazprom and other entities and end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project between Russia and Europe. The economic sanctions, ordered by the U.S. and other allies, were just one contributor to Russias growing status as a pariah country. Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is restricted in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. On Monday, in a major blow to a soccer-mad nation, Russian teams were suspended from all international soccer. In other developments: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he will open an investigation soon into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Advertisement Cyberattacks hit Ukrainian embassies around the world, and Russian media outlets. The United States announced it is expelling 12 members of Russias U.N. mission, accusing them of spying. The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly opened its first emergency session in decades, with Assembly President Abdulla Shahid calling for an immediate cease-fire and a full return to diplomacy and dialogue. The U.N. human rights chief said at least 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded warning that figure is probably a vast undercount and Ukraines president said at least 16 children were among the dead. More than a half-million people have fled the country since the invasion, another U.N. official said, many of them going to Poland, Romania and Hungary. Among the refugees in Hungary was Maria Pavlushko, 24, an information technology project manager from a city west of Kyiv. She said her father stayed behind to fight the Russians. Advertisement I am proud about him, she said, adding that many of her friends were planning to fight too. The negotiators at Mondays talks met at a long table with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag on one side and the Russian tricolor on the other. But while Ukraine sent its defense minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putins adviser on culture an unlikely envoy for ending a war and perhaps a sign of how seriously Moscow took the talks. It wasnt immediately clear what Putin is seeking in the talks, or from the war itself, though Western officials believe he wants to overthrow Ukraines government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscows Cold War-era influence. At this stage, Ukraine is many years away from reaching the standards for achieving EU membership. Any addition to the 27-nation bloc must be approved unanimously by its members, and Ukraines deep-seated corruption could make it hard for the country to win acceptance. Still, in an interview with Euronews on Sunday, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said: We want them in the European Union. Advertisement Isachenkov and Litvinova reported from Moscow. Robert Burns in Washington; Francesca Ebel, Josef Federman and Andrew Drake in Kyiv; Lorne Cook in Brussels; and other AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report. As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to evolve rapidly, Ukrainians rallied in front of the White House in Washington DC, on Sunday to support their native country. Draped in Ukraine's blue and yellow coloured flag and waving the country's national banner, protesters carried signs condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempts to topple the Ukrainian government. Many attendees expressed their love for their Ukrainian homeland. Some argued for more U.S. involvement in the conflict. Some vented their anger and called for harsher penalties against Putin. Other protesters wanted to make sure that the public's awareness of the war didn't fade. Yevgeniy Shaporynskyy a Ukrainian American, also a member of the US Ukrainian Activist group that helped set up the rally, said Sunday's event was the largest protest the organizers had seen since they started holding daily rallies after the Russian invasion. Frustrated about other nations not doing enough for the people of Ukraine, Shaporynskyy said,"This is no time for politics." The organizers at the rally say there are yet a whole bunch of things that need to happen regarding the war in Ukraine: create a no-fly zone for Ukraine, increase military and financial aid to Ukraine, and guarantee security for Ukraine with "internationally recognized borders." Alexander Zakharin who drove to the rally from New York, stood in front of the White House fence holding a placard that said, "I'm Russian and I am against this war." Born and raised in Russia, Zakharin strongly expressed his concern over the escalation and said he by all means opposed to Putin's actions in Ukraine. "I am half Ukrainian, but born and raised in Russia, my girlfriend is from Ukraine and I'm here to support Ukraine and the people of Ukraine," Zakharin told ANI. At least 368,000 people have already fled their homes in Ukraine, according to the UN refugee agency, and more than 4.5 million more could follow if the fighting spreads, Ukrainian authorities have said, with reports of tens of thousands on the move within the country itself. But Ukraine has remained defiant, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged citizens to help defend their country. Early Sunday, the capital city Kyiv remained under Ukrainian control, while fighting had broken out on the streets of Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city. "Each Ukrainian should keep one thing in mind: if you can stop and destroy the occupiers -- do it," Zelensky said in a video message Saturday. "Everyone who can come back to Ukraine -- come back to defend Ukraine." The scene in Lafayette Square Park, just outside the White House fence, was one of solidarity and resistance as many attendees said they were fearful for their relatives and friends in Ukraine but felt a renewed sense of hope as more countries have ramped up support for the country. Another attendee standing with his wife and his toddler in front of the White House echoed the defiant spirit of his fellow Ukrainians. Even though he says many like him are devastated to witness many Ukrainian lives lost, the strong-willed Ukrainian says, "We will never give up, we will keep fighting until this war stops." "We Ukrainian people don't want to give up this fight for our motherland" "The whole point of the march is to feel union and show union, demonstrate that we're strong, we're together, that we're going to be okay," the protestor added. As Ukrainians continue to battle to defend their homeland from the Russian military aggression, all family members in the US can do is hope for the best. For now, families are trying to donate money and supplies, desperately seeking advice from immigration attorneys about how to get family into the U.S., and pleading for world leaders to intervene more forcefully. (ANI) Discussions included the possibility of the evacuation of students via Russia, through the town of Belgorod and the matter of aiding students stuck at the Romania-Poland border was also discussed. Kharkiv is one of the majorly affected cities in the ongoing conflict. Earlier today, Jaishankar said that two more flights under Operation Ganga left from Budapest for Delhi, carrying some 500 Indian students. This comes at a time when the Centre is evacuating Indian citizens from Ukraine under the evacuation plan titled 'Operation Ganga'. On Sunday, in a high-level meeting chaired on the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accorded top priority to the evacuation of Indian students stranded in Ukraine. The Polish Embassy in India informed on Sunday that Poland is allowing entry of all the Indian nationals evacuating conflict-ridden Ukraine in its country without visas. However, a number of students are reported to be facing problems in crossing the border from the Ukrainian side. Amid the ongoing crisis, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv has advised Indian citizens against moving to any of the border checkpoints without prior coordination with government officials at border posts. In an advisory to Indian nationals on Saturday, the embassy stressed that the situation at various border checkpoints is sensitive and it is working continuously with Embassies in the neighbouring countries for coordinated evacuation of our citizens. (ANI) The US Embassy in Ukraine has warned that the security situation throughout the country "continues to be unpredictable, with active fighting inside many cities and other locations". This comes as thousands of Ukrainians and refugees of other nationalities are attempting to flee Ukraine from various border crossings amid the Russian military operations in the country. "The security situation throughout Ukraine continues to be unpredictable, with active fighting inside many cities and other locations, and conditions may deteriorate as military attacks by Russia continue in various parts of the country without any warning," the embassy said. According to the statement, roads may be crowded, exposed to combat operations, and infrastructure like bridges may have been destroyed or damaged by the fighting. "Sheltering in place may remain the best option for some," it said. The US embassy urged its citizens to cross into Hungary, Romania and Slovakia if possible, citing "severely backed up" border crossings into Poland and Moldova. "We understand that most border crossings into Poland and all main crossing points into Moldova are severely backed up and some are experiencing extremely long wait times (well over 30 hours in some cases)," the embassy said. It also cautioned that conditions at each border "can change very quickly and wait times can increase at any time without warning." On Sunday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that nearly 400,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled their homes since Russia's military operation began on Thursday. (ANI) Indians being evacuated from Ukraine have been exempted from mandatory pre-boarding negative RTPCR test and vaccination certificate as well as uploading of documents before departure on Air-Suvidha Portal. In case a traveller is not able to submit a pre-arrival RTPCR test or has not completed their COVID-19 vaccination, they are allowed to submit their samples on arrival with the advice to self-monitor their health for 14 days after arrival in India, the ministry said in a statement. As of 28th February 2022, 1156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in India with none of the passengers kept under isolation. Earlier today, EAM S Jaishankar informed in a tweet that the sixth flight carrying 240 stranded Indian nationals has departed from Hungary's Budapest for Delhi under Operation Ganga. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sending four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine, according to government sources. Further, the Indian embassy in Ukraine today informed that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv. The embassy said that Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations and advised all students to make their way to the railway station for a journey to the western parts. (ANI) The Russian military operations in Ukraine have put the world's limelight on Taiwan. It is on this tenuous front line. Just as President Vladimir Putin can't tolerate Ukrainian sovereignty, the Chinese Communist Party will never accept the separateness of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a core part of China. The American media is already speculating that, in the words of The Atlantic, Russia's action "makes the frightening possibility of China seizing control of the island more real," reported think tank, Policy Research Group (POREG) "President Xi Jinping's nationalist fervour, commitment to the restoration of Chinese power, and more aggressive approach compared with his predecessors when it comes to territorial and maritime disputes, relations with the US and its allies, as well as the international system writ large, have already become a destabilizing force in Asia," said The Atlantic article. "Gaining control over Taiwan, or as the party prefers to call it, 'reunification,' is a primary goal of Chinese foreign policy. In a world order where authoritarian states are more assertive and democratic allies are on the back foot, the chances of war over Taiwan increase," added the article. Xi has already been intimidating the government in Taipei by sending squadrons of jets to harass the island, while Beijing's complete suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong undermines any hope that Taiwan would retain a semblance of its current freedom were it to be incorporated into Communist Party-led China. It is, of course, too premature to give a date for China's so-called advance against Taiwan. The simple explanation is, unlike Putin, Xi is not "amassing an invasion force on the strait separating Taiwan from the Chinese mainland," reported POREG. Unlike Putin, the Chinese in him makes Xi rely more on patience than hurry because he believes Taiwan is inevitably China's and so he can wait for the right time. And if the United States, European Union and NATO do nothing to thwart Putin other than heap sanctions against him, it will send a specific message to authoritarian regimes like Xi's. They would want to test the outer limits of western liberal politics time and again. Significantly, Xi may interpret the western reaction short of military intervention as a sign of growing American weakness. A leader like Xi can fatalistically believe it to be the inevitable American decline and see in it the necessary rise of China. That is problematic, reported POREG. China is already playing the Russian roulette, much to the West's consternation. The Asian giant has in recent weeks been leaning towards Russia as the Ukraine build-up continued. Beijing's reaction was at four levels - Blame the US and NATO for the conflict; Provide tacit diplomatic support to Russia; Urge resolution of conflict through dialogue and Stress principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference Optimists may say China too must have been surprised by Putin's sudden march into Ukraine and, therefore, tried to balance its strategic ties with Russia and its current relations with Europe and the US. China also blames NATO's expansion for the Ukraine crisis and sees Russia committing no wrong and no transgression against all international rules. (ANI) Moscow [Russia], February 28 (ANI/Sputnik): Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland will ask IT giants to suspend the accounts of the authorities of Russia and Belarus, as well as the state-run media, amid Russia's operation in Ukraine, the Lithuanian government said on Monday. "Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte initiated a joint letter of Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania to Big Tech. The four Prime Ministers call for united and pro-active actions of Big Tech companies to restrict the spread of Russian disinformation about Putin's invasion of Ukraine," the government said. The letter asks to "suspend the official accounts of Russian and Belarusian government institutions, state-controlled media as well as personal accounts of these countries' leadership and their close associates, that consistently disseminate disinformation about the situation in Ukraine." (ANI/Sputnik) As per Xinhua News Agency, three people were killed and 25 others were injured when a passenger bus collided with a truck in Pishin district of Balochistan province. The bus was reportedly heading from Lahore towards Quetta. Separately, two people were killed and three others were injured after two overspeeding trucks collided on a highway in Rajanpur district of country's Punjab province, Xinhua News Agency reported. (ANI) The workers and office-bearers of the party held the protest at Shago Chowk in Wara Mamond area and chanted slogans against the ruling Imran Khan government and power supply company, according to The News International. According to the publication, protesters demanded the government to put a halt to the unscheduled electricity load shedding in their area or else they would launch a strong protest movement against the power supply company. Speaking on the occasion, JUIF general secretary Maulana Laiq, Village Council-33 chairman Hussain Ali and others said that residents of the area were faced with great hardships due to the frequent power cuts. They said that there was an acute shortage of water at homes and mosques due to non-availability of electricity for weeks while the power supply company had turned a blind eye to the issue, The News International reported. They threatened that a sit-in would be staged for an indefinite time if the power supply was not restored forthwith. (ANI) Many women continue to be held against their will, living in misery and humiliation with no hope of rescue in Pakistan's Punjab province. According to police data, more than 40,000 women were abducted in Punjab between 2017 and January 2022. That means 8,000 females each year, around 650 each month, go missing, reported Dawn. The staggering numbers of women abducted speak volumes for the low priority accorded to women's well-being in Pakistan. The police claim they have recovered or traced 37,140 of them while the whereabouts of 3,571 remain unknown. However, what appears to be an epidemic of missing women surfaced in the course of Supreme Court proceedings involving the abduction in 2020 of Sobia Batool, an 18-year-old from Sargodha. When the police leaped into action on the court's orders, they recovered from various parts of Punjab no less than 151 kidnapped females belonging to Sargodha alone. Of those, 21 were freed from prostitution dens. The police also tracked down 20 bodies of unidentified women in morgues across the province and engaged forensic science services to identify them. The 10 results thus far obtained show that Sobia Batool is not among them -- but at least some families will finally get closure, reported Dawn. As per a recent Dawn report, law-enforcement apathy is much to blame, especially as victims are often from the lower socio-economic strata. Even if they deign to register an FIR, the police appear reluctant to investigate the abductions and instead tend to dismiss such cases as elopements without even trying to find out whether an elopement is genuine or a pretext for luring a woman into something very sinister. Moreover, human trafficking is a very real problem, and women can be trafficked for sex within the country -- as the Sargodha police's endeavors recently uncovered -- and abroad. There's also corruption: it is well known, for instance, that prostitution dens cannot do business without cops being paid off to look the other way. That said, there is also a dearth of resources and training, including sensitization towards the many forms an 'abduction' can take. Given the scale of the issue, it would make sense to have a department within law enforcement, with a preponderance of female cops, dedicated to pursuing cases of missing women, added Dawn report. (ANI) Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has been accused of hiding crucial information from the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding foreign funding case, according to media reports. The State Bank of Pakistan's documents handed over to the Election Commission of Pakistan in the PTI foreign funding case shows that information about transactions worth more than USD 2 million dollars from 14 different foreign countries and hundreds of millions rupees' local transactions into the party's bank accounts was not provided to the ECP authorities. According to The News International, the documents also show that the Imran Khan's PTI received USD 29,800 donations in 2013 from a business woman and her Pakistani American husband. But their donation was also concealed from the ECP. The SBP documents reveal that millions of dollars transactions from 14 different countries, including Denmark, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Saudi Arabia, Norway and the UAE, were kept secret. Apart from this, the information about hundreds of millions of rupees local transactions was also not provided to ECP authorities, the publication reported. The facts include the concealment of dozens of bank accounts maintained in Pakistan and abroad. From fiscal years 2008-12, the party under the signatures of PTI Chairman Imran Khan only revealed two accounts for each year and for the year 2013 revealed four PTI bank accounts before the ECP. Whereas, the record from the State Bank of Pakistan reveals that the PTI concealed five accounts in 2008, seven in 2009, thirteen in 2010, fourteen in 2011, and fourteen in 2012-13. The information about all PTI international bank accounts were not provided despite repeated orders of the ECP and the scrutiny committee, including six international accounts identified by the petitioner and conceded by the party, as per The News International. The political parties order 2002 prohibits the parties from receiving any donations from foreign nationals. The ECP handed over the scrutiny committee report to the complainant Akbar S Babar on January 4, 2022. However, critical portions of the report were kept secret, particularly all the documents and PTI bank statements acquired through the State Bank of Pakistan, the media outlet said. (ANI) Mask mandates ended in most of Chicago and Illinois Monday, but not in the states largest school district. Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez reminded families in a Sunday letter that universal masking is still required in all of its schools and offices for now. Advertisement Martinez thanked families for their patience. He said the district is reviewing the latest recommendations on masks and working with our labor and public health partners on how to preserve a safe, healthy learning environment for all as we transition into this new phase of the pandemic. Leigh Mabry White, a Chicago Public Schools mother and member of Activate Chicago Parents, holds a sign as she joins other parents and supporters at a news conference outside City Hall supporting masks in schools on Feb. 28, 2022. Mask mandates are ending in most of Chicago and Illinois today but will still be required in CPS schools and offices. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) On Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the end of the mask rule for schools after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to call for indoor masking only in areas with high COVID-19 transmission. The entire Chicago area is currently in the low risk category. Advertisement Scores of Illinois schools had already moved to mask-optional policies after a lawsuit against dozens of districts, including CPS, resulted in a temporary halt to the mandate for children of those who sued. But in CPS, universal masking is stipulated in a hard-fought COVID-19 safety agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union, which came about after union members refused to teach in person during the omicron surge in January, resulting in five days of canceled classes. Last week, the Chicago Board of Education took the further step of passing a resolution to affirm masking and other coronavirus-related rules, though it grants Martinez authority to change those policies in consultation with public health officials and stakeholders. A day after the board meeting, CPS announced it had published inaccurate COVID-19 data on its online public dashboard that painted a rosier pandemic picture. The district said it posted the incorrect number of students in isolation and quarantine between Feb. 18 and Feb. 23 due to a system error. Last Tuesday, for example, the district reported 405 students in isolation because they tested positive for the virus or in quarantine because they encountered an infected person. The district is now saying that on that day there were 1,226 students in isolation or quarantine. CPS has come under fire in recent months for not being consistent with its public data reporting methods. Last week the district once again changed the data it posts on its dashboard, this time to reflect positive cases that were detected from in-school testing, versus cases reported to the district. Case numbers have been falling since mid-January, according to CPS data. Board members last week cited the low vaccination rates at several district schools as a reason to keep the mask mandate in place. According to the district, nearly 53% of CPS students 12 and older are fully vaccinated, while about one in three students ages 5 to 11 have received at least one vaccine dose. More than 91% of CPS staff is fully vaccinated, the district said. Parents in CPS are lining up on both sides of the mask issue. A group in favor of keeping the mask rule rallied outside City Hall Monday morning. Advertisement Jesu Estrada, a Chicago Public Schools mother and Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600 chapter chair, joins other CPS parents and supporters at a news conference supporting masks in schools outside of City Hall in Chicago on Feb. 28, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Our special education students deserve to feel safe in school, not to constantly be pushed aside for the sake of normalcy or for the sake of our comfort, said Leigh Mabry White, a CPS parent of a second grader with autism. We demand Chicago Public Schools add the COVID vaccine to the list of required immunizations for fall 2022 Masks, in combination with vaccination, are our only options to move in the direction that we all want. CPS parent Erykah Nava said its unfair to leave children under 5 years old to fend for themselves because vaccines are not available for that age group. When people tell us to learn to live with COVID, or COVID is like the flu, they are really saying our most vulnerable do not matter, that their lives are expendable for the sake of normalcy, Nava said. Well, we are here to show that we will never stop fighting for each others safety and lives. Other parents are urging the district to drop the mandate in alignment with the latest CDC guidance. Several parents attended last weeks board meeting to call for the district to go mask optional like other districts. Pritzker had already announced that the general statewide mask mandate for most indoor spaces would end Monday, with Chicago following suit. Advertisement tswartz@tribpub.com Moscow [Russia], February 28 (ANI/Sputnik): UNESCO decided to withdraw its envoy Susanna Kari from the Russian region of Irkutsk, thus, aborting an environmental monitoring mission of the Lake Baikal, a World Heritage Site, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on Monday. "The joint monitoring mission of UNESCO and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is canceled. The international expert, who arrived in Irkutsk Region, will leave the region in the coming days. But before leaving, Susanna Kari will nevertheless visit the World Heritage site and discuss the key issues with the Russian delegation. However, these consultations will be held out of mission," the ministry said. The mission on the assessment of negative environmental repercussions for Lake Baikal was scheduled to take place from February 28 to March 5. It was supposed to submit the inspection results to the 45th UNESCO meeting, scheduled for June 2022 in the Russian city of Kazan. It comes as Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. (ANI/Sputnik) India has evacuated over 8000 nationals since the initial advisories were issued by the country, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. "Evacuation efforts on Ukraine situation on the ground continue to be complex and fluid, some of them quite concerning, but we've been able to accelerate our evacuation process. Over 8000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since we issued the initial advisories," the MEA spokesperson said on Monday while addressing the media briefing. He also informed that the six evacuation flight have landed in India bringing back around 1400 citizens. "The six evacuation flights have landed in India bringing back around 1400 (1396) citizens. The four flights were from Bucharest (Romania), while the other two were from Budapest (Hungary), he said. Ministry of External Affairs also informed that the government will send four Union Ministers as four special envoys to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. "Decision to deploy special envoys to the four countries bordering Ukraine. Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia will be going to Romania, Kiren Rijiju to Slovak Republic, Hardeep Puri to Hungary, VK Singh to Poland to coordinate and oversee the evacuation process," Bagchi said further. "Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students," he said. The union government has launched Operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Further, the Indian embassy in Ukraine today informed that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv. The embassy said that Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations and advised all students to make their way to the railway station for a journey to the western parts. (ANI) German Ambassador to Afghanistan, Markus Potzel, said, "Concerned about reports of house searches, intimidation, violence against 'criminals' in & around Kabul. As it turns out, this mostly affected ordinary citizens, including intl NGO workers. This is not a proper way to win the hearts & minds..," reported TOLO News. Earlier European Union also condemned this move by the Taliban. The European Union Ambassador to Afghanistan, Von Brant urged to stop home search operations. In a Twitter message, he said to the Taliban that Afghanistan is being watched by the world besides the Russia-Ukraine crisis. "The intimidations, house searches, arrests, and violence against members of different ethnic groups and women are crimes and must stop immediately," Von Brant tweeted. Despite Putin's war, we are watching you, he added referring to Russian military operations in Ukraine, reported The Khaama Press. This comes as the Taliban have launched comprehensive home search operations in Kabul since last week.The move has been widely criticized in the media and on social media platforms by the citizens, journalists, and civil society members watching Afghanistan from outside. (ANI) Nur Sultan [Kazakhstan], February 28 (ANI/Sputnik): Kazakhstan's General Prosecutor's Office on Monday said it has detained nine law enforcement officers on allegations of unlawful methods of investigation related to the mass riots in January. "As of today, 203 criminal cases of torture and abuse of power have been filed, with the most high-profile of them being investigated by special prosecutors. During the pre-trial procedure, nine employees suspected of using unlawful methods of investigation against detainees were identified and detained," Serik Shalabaev, Head of the Criminal Prosecution Service of the General Prosecutor's Office said, as cited in the statement. Shalabaev went on to say that crime scene investigation teams are conducting a probe into 3,502 criminal cases on acts of terrorism, murders, theft of weapons and mass riots, with 737 individuals being held in pre-trial detention centers on suspicion of committing the crimes, according to the statement. Earlier in January, mass protests swept across Kazakhstan after a twofold increase in gas prices. Despite the government's attempts to quell discontent and promises to bring prices down, protests turned violent and descended into deadly clashes with police in several regions. According to the general prosecutor's office, 4,578 people were injured and 225 people, including 19 security officials, were killed. On January 5, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed the government. He described the situation in Kazakhstan as undermining the country's integrity and asked the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to help in overcoming what he called the "terrorist threat." CSTO peacekeepers were briefly sent to Kazakhstan to normalize the situation. (ANI/Sputnik) Indian Navy Ship (INS) Nireekshak, the Submarine Rescue and Diving Support Vessel (DSV) of the Indian Navy under Southern Naval Command is visiting the port of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka on Monday to undertake the joint India-Sri Lanka (IN-SLN) dive training, informed the Indian Navy on Monday. According to the press release by the Indian Navy, the INS Nireekshak will be on a 9 day trip from February 28 to March 08 to undertake the joint IN-SLN dive training. The ship was accorded a traditional welcome by the Sri Lankan Navy. The Commanding Officer, INS, Commander Mohammed Ikram, himself a deep-sea diver, and Eastern Naval Area, SLN, Rear Admiral Sanjeewa Dias hold cordial discussions on various issues. The official statement stated that the ship would be the dive training platform for joint dives of IN-SLN divers on various wrecks in and around Trincomalee, both in the harbor and at sea. The ship last visited the port in 2019 for similar training/ dives resulting in fruitful mutual gains.Indian Navy also gave in-detailed information about the INS Nireekshak. He said, "The ship is equipped with state-of-the-art diving systems. She is capable of undertaking Saturation dives up to 300m and Submarine rescue up to 150m. She is fitted with a Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) which enables her to maintain a precise position during Submarine Rescue/Diving and Salvage operations." "Prior to her arrival at Trincomalee, the ship participated in the recently conducted Presidential Fleet Review (PFR) at Visakhapatnam under the aegis of Eastern Naval Command. (ANI) Citing rescue sources, Xinhua News Agency reported that the incident occurred on the outskirts of the provincial capital Peshawar where the gunmen sprayed bullets at the people coming for the funeral. The injured people were shifted to a hospital by rescuers and they were in critical condition, the media outlet said. (ANI) Raising concern over the ongoing situation in Ukraine due to the military operation by Russia, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said that escalating violence in Kyiv is resulting in the death of civilians. Asserting "enough is enough", the Secretary-General during the 11th Emergency Special Session on Ukraine said that the soldiers need to move back to barracks and civilians must be protected in Ukraine. "Escalating violence is resulting in civilians' death. Enough is Enough, soldiers need to move back to barracks, civilians must be protected," Guterres said today. Notably, the special UN General Assembly session began with a minute of silence today. Guterres also assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the United Nation will continue to assist Ukraine with humanitarian assistance. "Humanitarian aid is vital, it's not a solution, the only solution is through peace... I have assured Ukraine President that UN will continue to assist, will not abandon them, will provide them with humanitarian assistance," Secretary-General said at UN emergency meeting. On Sunday, the Security Council voted to call for an emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia's military operation in Ukraine. The measure convening the General Assembly session was adopted by a vote of 11 in favor, with Russia voting against, and China, India, and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. The request for the Assembly to urgently convene a meeting comes after Russia vetoed on Friday a US-led draft Security Council resolution on Russia. Since the text acted on Sunday was procedural, none of the five permanent Council members could use their vetoes. The measure needed just nine votes in favor to pass. Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950, following the adoption of resolution 377A(V), widely known as "Uniting for Peace." According to UN News, that text gives the Assembly the power to take up matters of international peace and security when the Security Council is unable to act because of the lack of unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members. The Security Council's latest steps to end the Ukraine crisis cap a week of activity at the UN seeking a diplomatic offramp to Russian military action in the country. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to his Slovakian counterpart Eduard Heger and thanked him for the assistance provided by the Slovak Republic in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. In a phone call, PM Modi requested for Slovak Republic's continued assistance in the next few days as well as India undertook to evacuate other citizens from conflict zones. "Prime Minister thanked Eduard Heger for the assistance provided by Slovak Republic in evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine, and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. He requested for Slovak Republic's continued assistance in the next few days as India undertook to evacuate other citizens from conflict zones," the Prime Minister's office said in a statement. PM Modi also informed Heger about the deployment of Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Law and Justice, as his special envoy to oversee the evacuation efforts of Indian citizens. He expressed his anguish at the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and reiterated India's consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue, the statement said adding further that PM Modi also stressed upon the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca, Prime Minister of Romania where he thanked his counterpart for facilitating the evacuation of Indian citizens through Romania without visas and also expressed his anguish at the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. "The Prime Minister thanked H.E. Mr Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca for the assistance provided by Romania in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine over the past few days. He particularly appreciated Romania's gesture in allowing Indian citizens to enter Romania without visas, and for permitting special evacuation flights from India," said the PMO in its statement. "The Prime Minister also expressed his anguish at the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and reiterated India's consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue. Prime Minister Modi also stressed upon the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations," the statement said. PM Modi also informed Ciuca about the deployment of Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Minister of Civil Aviation as special envoy to Romania to oversee the evacuation efforts of Indian citizens over the next few days in coordination with the local authorities. Notably, tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated when on February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of Ukraine breakaway region following which Western Nations have toughened sanctions against the country. (ANI) Negotiations between delegations of Russia and Ukraine in Gomel Region of Belarus have ended and the second round of talks will be held on the Belarusian-Polish border in a few days. The Head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky said after talks with Ukraine that "the next round of talks will be held on the Belarusian-Polish border," Sputnik reported. The delegations of Russia and Ukraine will reach their capitals for consultations before the second round is held, said Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak. Russia and Ukraine identified some priority topics on which they have outlined certain decisions, adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said after the talks.Zelenskyy's aide said Russia and Ukraine discussed possibly holding the second round of talks as soon as possible. Head of Russian delegation after talks said "we found issues where we can expect to agree." The Russian delegation was headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said the the key "issue of the negotiations is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from the territory of Ukraine," reported Sputnik. Before its milirary action in Ukraine, Russia had on Februray 24 recognized the independence of Ukraine breakaway regions. The Western countries have imposed tough sanctions on Russia.Kyiv had on Sunday agreed to meet with a Russian delegation in Belarus. The Security Council on the same day voted to call for an emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia's military operation in Ukraine. The measure for convening the General Assembly session was adopted by 11 votes in favour, with Russia voting against, and China, India, and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. The request for the UN General Assembly to urgently convene a meeting comes after Russia vetoed on Friday a US-led draft Security Council resolution on Russia. Since the text acted on Sunday was procedural, none of the five permanent Council members could use their vetoes. The measure needed just nine votes in favour to pass. Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950, following the adoption of resolution 377A(V), widely known as "Uniting for Peace." (ANI) Markiian Ryzhuk, 5, attends a rally opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022, outside Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chicago's Ukrainian Village. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Hundreds of people, many of them Ukrainian Americans with relatives still living in the war-torn country, packed the street outside Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sunday in a display of unity and anger over Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine. The crowd in the West Sides Ukrainian Village neighborhood was largely made of families, with men draped in Ukrainian flags and women and teenage girls wearing brightly colored laurels in their hair. They waved handmade signs with messages both profound and profane and images aimed at the Russian leader. Advertisement Police shut off traffic on a number of nearby streets to accommodate the large crowds and an adjacent car caravan on Chicago Avenue. The demonstration was the latest of several displays of Ukrainian unity in Chicago, which boasts the second-largest Ukrainian population in the U.S., since Russian tanks rolled into the country last week. Protesters attend a rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022. outside Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chicago's Ukrainian Village. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) The United Nations has confirmed at least 240 civilian casualties since Russias invasion on Thursday, according to The Associated Press, though officials said they believe the toll may be considerably higher. Advertisement Sundays demonstration provided the opportunity for more than a dozen politicians, community leaders, social allies and academics to show their support for Ukraine and to call on President Joseph Biden and NATO leaders to take more drastic actions to save Ukrainian lives. Speakers covered issues including NATO and European Union membership, a boycott of Russian goods, and instituting a no fly area over Ukraine during the conflict. Liberty, democracy and humanity will beat tyranny and oppression every time, but only if we resist in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, one of several local, state and federal elected officials in attendance, told the crowd. The governor, who led a moment of silence and spoke just before Mayor Lori Lightfoot, received warm applause after noting that his own family emigrated to America from Kyiv. In her brief remarks, the mayor called on all residents to show solidarity with Ukraine and called for a war tribunal to charge Putin with war crimes. Markiian Ryzhuk, 5, attends a rally opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine outside Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chicago's Ukrainian Village on Sunday. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Anna Powers, who carried a large Ukrainian flag from her parents home country, said the past few days had been frightening for her and her family as they pray for the continued safety of her cousins, who remain in western Ukraine. Powers said she couldnt help but see the similarities between Russias actions and those of Adolf Hitler at the dawn of World War II. Its almost a replay of the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Hitler, she said. Here is a tyrannical, awful human being who was just pursuing his egocentric empire building passions, but at what costs? She added: And its scary that the world is watching this and nobody can really stop him. Advertisement Sundays protests in Chicago and around the world came amid reports Ukraine had agreed to engage in talks with Russia, and that Putin had put Russias nuclear forces on high alert. Also on Sunday, Russian troops entered Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, after surprising analysts by making slower-than-expected progress in Ukraine. Parishioners attend a packed Mass at Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church prior to Sunday's rally in Chicago's Ukrainian Village. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Roman Prushelnytskyi, who attended the demonstration with his wife and young daughter, said the invasion caused shock and stress. His parents and his wifes parents still live in Ukraine, as does his sister. We want to support our nation, our families, our army, Prushelnytskyi said. Powers said the invasion has brought forth a flood of emotions for the country that her adult children saw in 2018 for the first time. Powers said one of her children attended protests in California, while another attended rallies and a Mass in support of Ukrainians. Powers said she remains hopeful for a peaceful resolution, despite the early reports of carnage. I think the thing that has given us hope is that Kyiv has not fallen yet. The other major cities have not fallen, that there is resistance (and) the spirit to fight. We hope that all of the measures that the U.S. and its allies have taken ... will have a greater impact as we do more and more to stop this man. Advertisement Im Ukrainian. My family is in Ukraine. My parents came here from Ukraine. Its a country we love, she said, adding that two of her children attended pro-Ukraine rallies in other cities where they live. It comes from the heart. Its in our soul. Its in our DNA, Powers said. We have to do something to make sure that Ukraine survives this. The Associated Press contributed. wlee@chicagotribune.com Twitter @Midnoircowboy As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continued to evolve rapidly, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) called for an immediate ceasefire on the fifth day of tensions between the two countries. Raising concern over the ongoing situation in Ukraine due to the military operation by Russia, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said that escalating violence in Kyiv is resulting in the death of civilians. Asserting that "enough is enough", the Secretary-General during the 11th Emergency Special Session on Ukraine said that the soldiers need to move back to barracks and civilians must be protected in Ukraine. Moreover, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the emergency session of UNGA called Russia's decision of putting the nuclear deterrence forces on "special alert" as a "chilling development." Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, while speaking at an emergency session said that Russia has no plans to occupy Ukraine. "The occupation of Ukraine is not part of our plans. The purpose of this special operation is to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years. For this, it is necessary to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine," Nebenzya said. Meanwhile, at least 11 people were killed and a dozen others were injured in Russian shelling on Ukraine's Kharkiv city, the regional governor said. "The Russian enemy is bombing residential areas," Oleg Sinegubov, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, saying, "As a result of the bombardments that are ongoing, we cannot call on the emergency services. Currently there are 11 dead and dozens wounded", he said. Ambassador of Ukraine to India, Dr Igor Polikha said that the number of Ukrainian refugees has exceeded 4 lakhs as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to evolve rapidly. Polikha during the press conference in New Delhi said," The number of Ukrainian refugees has exceeded 4 lakh. If the war is not stopped, the number can reach up to 7 million. There are very long queues on the border. Lakhs of Ukrainians are standing in queues, trying to cross the border." Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy signed a decree ordering payment of 100,000 hryvnias (Ukrainian currency) per month to soldiers amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, said the Defence Ministry. The decision was made by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in pursuance of the Presidential Decree. Moreover, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on special economic measures against the US and its allies. Putin signed a decree "On the application of special economic measures against the United States and countries that have joined them," Sputnik reported citing Kremlin press service. The US in response to Russia's military operations against Ukraine announced additional measures against Moscow's financial system. "The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has prohibited any US person from conducting any transaction involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation," read a press statement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "In addition, OFAC imposed blocking sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a known slush fund for President Putin and his inner circle, two of its subsidiaries, and CEO Kirill Dmitriev," added the statement. In order to support Ukraine against Russian military operation, Canada will send an additional USD 25 million in military aid to support Kyiv. Canada will be sending an additional USD 25 million in military aid to Ukraine, Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Anita Anand, Minister of National Defence, announced in a joint news release. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Brussels is determined to send additional weapons supplies to Ukraine. Amid the EU airspace ban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday has cancelled his visit to Geneva for the session of the UN Human Rights Council. "Russian FM #Lavrov's visit to #Geneva for the session of the @UN_HRC and the Conference on Disarmament has been cancelled due to an unprecedented ban on his flight in the airspace of a number of EU countries that have imposed anti-Russian sanctions," tweeted Russian Mission in Geneva. Earlier, negotiations between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine to resolve the ongoing conflict between the two countries had begun in the Gomel region of Belarus. High-level delegations from both sides arrived at the venue on the banks of the Pripyat River to attempt a negotiated settlement in the ongoing crisis. According to the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian delegation includes the Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, the head of the parliament faction of the Servant of the People party, and a deputy foreign minister. The Russian delegation is led by former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. "Immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of troops from Ukraine will be the key issues at the talks," the office of the Ukrainian president informed. (ANI) A significant number of looting incidents have been reported across the country since the beginning of Russia's military operation. Zhytomyr's mayor Sergey Sukhomlyn in a Facebook video address mentioned an attempted robbery of a store in one area of the city, RT reported. "I am warning everyone: the police, the National Guard, the territorial defense units - they all received orders not to detain, they can just shoot on the spot. There will be no looting in the city," Sukhomlyn said. The head of Okhtyrka territorial community, Pavel Kuzmenko, issued a similar warning. Saying that looting had spread in the town's "private sector", he called on people to immediately report any suspicious incidents, RT reported. "Looting results in shooting on the spot," Kuzmenko said in his Facebook video. He also underlined that store owners increasing food prices would also be considered looting. "Chechens will come and you will make a profit from them," he said, supposedly referring to the announcement by Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov about thousands of men from Chechnya being prepared to offer assistance to Russia's armed forces in Ukraine, RT reported. Some clips and photos on social media allegedly show the looting suspects being tied to poles in Ukrainian cities for the public to see. Other social media channels post videos which they claim demonstrate store robberies by the "Russian occupiers". In a bid to strengthen their armed forces, Ukrainian authorities, among other measures, decided to release inmates and criminal suspects with military backgrounds. --IANS san/arm ( 284 Words) 2022-02-28-19:42:03 (IANS) The Indian Embassy in Romania has urged the students to do not pay money to anyone for taking them from Romania's border to Bucharest, the country's capital. In a tweet, the embassy said that it has been brought to their notice that some people are charging money to transfer Indian students from the Romanian border to Bucharest. Urging the Indian students to refrain from paying money to anyone, the embassy said that all services provided by them are free, including transport to Bucharest. "Pl. note that all services provided by the Embassy are free, including transport to Bucharest. Please do not pay money to anyone," reads the tweet. Meanwhile, Arindam Bagchi, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson, in a media briefing said that over 8,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since the first advisory was issued by the government. "Six evacuation flights have landed in India bringing back 1,396 students and Indian citizens. These are four flights from Bucharest and two from Budapest," Bagchi said. He also said that over the next 24 hours, three more flights are scheduled to land in India bringing back its citizens. "Two among them will be from Bucharest -- one to Delhi and one to Mumbai -- and the third flight will come from Budapest," he said. Meanwhile, an Air India Express aircraft left India on Monday afternoon from Mumbai. It is scheduled to bring back 182 stranded nationals from Romania's capital Bucharest. --IANS uj/shs ( 254 Words) 2022-02-28-19:46:04 (IANS) Monte-Carlo [Monaco], March 1 (ANI/Sputnik): The city-state of Monaco is imposing economic sanctions against Russia similar to those adopted by the majority of European countries, launching the procedure of asset freezes, Prince's Palace of Monaco said on Monday. "In accordance with its international obligations, the principality immediately adopted and launched a procedure of asset freeze and imposing economic sanctions against Russia, identical to those adopted by most European countries," the palace said in a communique. Over the past weekend, Western countries announced new sanctions against Russia over the military operation that it launched in Ukraine. Among other restrictions, these include flight bans and restrictions on banks and officials. (ANI/Sputnik) A convoy of Belarusian tanks and troop carriers were seen queueing near the Ukrainian border today as officials from Moscow and Kyiv started peace talks, Daily Mail reported. Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky admitted he was not confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage, the report said. He had been reticent to agree to talks in Belarus, a country used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion and which is now poised to join the war, offering instead to meet in Istanbul, Warsaw, or Baku. Ukraine has indicated it will request a ceasefire and full withdrawal of Russian forces but Moscow has remained tight lipped over what the negotiations, held at noon in Gomel in southeastern Belarus, could entail. But columns of Belarusian military vehicles were spotted today heading east from the southwestern corner of the country in what appeared to be preparations to join the invasion of Ukraine, Daily Mail reported. Meanwhile, observers have warned the talks could be a pretext for Moscow to ramp up its attacks on Ukraine if Kyiv's officials refuse Russian demands. Among those present at the talks were the Ukrainian Defence Minister, a lead advisor to the President's office and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. But while Ukraine sent its Defence Minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putin's Adviser on Culture - an unlikely envoy for ending the war and perhaps a sign of how Moscow views the talks, the report said. --IANS san/ ( 277 Words) 2022-02-28-21:48:05 (IANS) "Today, we are announcing as well our intention to ban all import of crude oil from Russia," Trudeau told a news conference on Monday. On February 24, Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics for help from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defense Ministry said the operation was solely targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure and emphasized that the civilian population is not in danger. (ANI/Sputnik) The United States on Monday (local time) appealed to its citizens to leave Russia "immediately" amid the growing tensions between Moscow and Kyiv. "We have advised American citizens to consider departing Russia immediately on commercial options still available," said US State Department spokesperson Ned Price during the press briefing. Highlighting the actions taken against Russia, Price said, "We took further measures against Russia's financial systems; we have sanctioned Putin himself, we're disconnecting key Russian banks from SWIFT, imposed restrictive measures against Russia's central bank and standing up a joint task force." He also said that the US has announced the additional provision of nearly USD 54 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. "Our total security assistance for the past year is more than USD 1 billion in support of Ukraine's frontline defenders...we announce the additional provision of nearly USD 54 million in humanitarian assistance," Price said. He further said that the US has joined the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) at the Council's 49th regular session. On March 1, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will deliver remarks to the assembled Council, he noted. Earlier in a statement, Blinken said that he will deliver remarks to the assembled Council and will use that opportunity to spell out clearly the threat posed by Russia while noting that Ukraine is far from the only part of the world where the Council's attention is needed. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden spoke to Allies and partners to discuss Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine. "I spoke today with Allies and partners to discuss Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine. We are continuing our support for the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and affirmed our readiness to keep imposing severe costs on Russia if they do not de-escalate, Biden tweeted. (ANI) (Recasts and updates throughout with more listing venue detail) By Scott Murdoch and Anshuman Daga SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio Inc plans to carry out secondary listings by introduction in Hong Kong and Singapore as it seeks to grow its business in the region. Stock exchange filings on Monday showed the New York-listed firm had received preliminary approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to trade its shares in the city, while the Singapore Exchange was reviewing an application for a secondary listing on the main bourse of that board. Shanghai-based Nio said the Class A shares are due to start trading on March 10 in Hong Kong under the code 9866 once it receives final approval from the stock exchange. Its primary listing will remain in New York, the company said. Unlike a typical initial public offering (IPO) or secondary listing, companies listing stock by introduction raise no capital and issue no new shares. The mechanism was popular among companies in the past looking to build a brand in Hong Kong and the rest of Greater China. The decision to pursue an listing by introduction was ordered by the company to not dilute or put further pressure on its stock by issuing new shares in Hong Kong and Singapore, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Singapore was chosen as a listing venue because of the company's desire to grow its EV market share in that region, the source added. The source could not be named as the information was not yet public. Nio did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Singapore Exchange spokesperson declined to comment on Nio's listing application. The spokesperson said SGX had nearly 30 secondary listings from companies from diverse sectors and geographies as firms look to broaden their access to a wider range of investors while using the city-state as a launchpad into Southeast Asia. Nio's New York shares have fallen nearly 34% so far this year. Nio had planned to list in Hong Kong last year but faced questions from regulators over its company structure, including a "users trust", Bloomberg reported in September. (Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Anshuman Daga in Singapore; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Jane Wardell) Michael Keaton, Jung Ho-yeon, and Brian Cox accepting awards onstage at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild awards. Rich Fury/Getty Images; Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images The 28th annual Screen Actors Guild awards aired on Sunday. Big winners of the night included "Squid Game," "Ted Lasso," and "Succession." Small moments, like Haley Joel and Emily Osment on the red carpet and Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino channeling Romy and Michele, may have slipped by you. History was made multiple times (from left) Actors Lee Jung-jae and HoYeon Jung accepting SAG Awards for their roles in Netflix's "Squid Game" at the 28th SAG Awards on February 27, 2022. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images "Squid Game" made history at the SAG awards as the first non-English-language and first Korean-language series to take home an award, per Deadline. It won three of its nominations: Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon took home outstanding male and outstanding female performance in a drama series, respectively, and the series won the award for outstanding action performance by a stunt ensemble in a television series. "CODA," the Apple TV+ film, also took home top honors at the ceremony, making history as the first film with a predominately deaf cast to take home the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. Troy Kotsur was also the first deaf actor to take home an individual SAG Award, winning outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for his role in the film. The Los Angeles Times reported that Ariana DeBose of "West Side Story" also made history in two ways, becoming the first openly queer woman and the first Latina performer to win an individual film award at the SAG Awards, when she took home the prize for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role. Michael Keaton dedicated his win to his late nephew, who died from drug addiction Michael Keaton holding his SAG trophy at the 28th SAG Awards on February 27, 2022. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for WarnerMedia After sprinting from the bathroom and rolling onto the stage to accept the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series award, Keaton dedicated his win to his late nephew. Keaton told The Hollywood Reporter in August 2021 that his nephew Michael died from fentanyl and heroin use in his 30s, several years prior. That personal history was part of what drew him to "Dopesick," a series about the opioid crisis in the United States. Story continues "Given the subject matter, this is for my nephew Michael, and my sister Pam," Keaton said during his acceptance speech. "I lost Michael, I lost my nephew Michael to drugs, and it hurts. This one's for my sister, Pam." Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino channeled their iconic characters Romy and Michele Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino presenting onstage during the 28th Annual SAG Awards on February 27, 2022. Rich Fury/Getty Images While presenting the award for outstanding ensemble in a comedy series, Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino recreated their looks from the 1997 hit film "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion." Kudrow appeared on stage in a stunning pink pantsuit, with Sorvino appearing in a blue one. In the original film, their characters wear similar pink and blue shimmering dresses for the titular high school reunion. There was also a "Scandal" reunion Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn presenting onstage during the 28th Annual SAG Awards on February 27, 2022. Rich Fury/Getty Images "Scandal" stars, and former on-screen love interests, Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn reunited on stage to present the award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series, which went to "Succession." During the presentation, Washington and Goldwyn stepped back into their old roles as Olivia Pope, and President Grant, respectively. When Goldwyn asked if he should read the nominees, Washington deployed her character's catchphrase. "No, it's handled," she said. "Sixth Sense" star Haley Joel Osment and his sister, "Hannah Montana" star Emily Osment, attended together Emily Osment and Haley Joel Osment arrive at the 28th SAG Awards on February 27, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for WarnerMedia) Brother-sister pair Haley Joel Osment and Emily Osment appeared together on the 2022 SAG Awards red carpet. They were nominated together for their work on "The Kominsky Method," in the outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series category (the award later went to "Ted Lasso"). Haley, who entered the series after his sister Emily, told Laverne Cox for E! News that he was "happy to be welcomed into the cast," saying that it was a "great group of people to work with." Laverne Cox accidentally mispronounced "Encanto" Lin-Manuel Miranda and Laverne Cox on the SAG Awards red carpet in 2022. E! Red Carpet & Award Shows/YouTube While interviewing Lin-Manuel Miranda for E! News on the SAG Awards red carpet, Laverne Cox accidentally pronounced "Encanto" as "Enchanto." Miranda wrote the music for Disney's newest hit film, which features hits like "We Don't Talk About Bruno" and "Surface Pressure." "Congrats on 'Enchanto,'" Cox said on the red carpet. "Girl, I'm so happy for you. You deserve it. I am just so thankful for this movie. I've watched it twice, and it's brilliant. Congratulations, have fun tonight, you're everything." Later, Cox addressed the mispronunciation on Twitter. "Thank you to everyone who pointed out that I mispronounced 'Encanto' tonight on the red carpet," Cox wrote. Cox had another awkward moment with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Laverne Cox on the SAG Awards red carpet. E! News Cox also brought up Jada Pinkett Smith's extramarital "entanglement" to Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith on the red carpet. Pinkett Smith previously referred to her extramarital relationship with August Alsinsa as an "entanglement" on her show "Red Table Talk." "Thank you for all the years of joy you've brought us, thank you, we can't wait for more 'Red Table Talk' and more entanglements," Cox said to the couple on the red carpet. "No more of those," Pinkett Smith replied, laughing with her husband. "No more entanglements, no more entanglements," Cox said. Billy Crudup and Naomi Watts made their red-carpet debut as a couple Billy Crudup and Naomi Watts attend the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on February 27, 2022. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Billy Crudup and Naomi Watts made their first couple's appearance on the SAG Awards red carpet. Crudup was nominated at the awards ceremony for outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series for his role in "The Morning Show." The couple, who have been linked since 2017, previously played husband and wife on the Netflix series "Gypsy," which premiered in 2017 and has since been canceled. They appeared together on the red carpet in matching all-black outfits. "Succession" star Brian Cox wore a mask that said 'F*ck Off' and '#TeamLogan' Dagmara Dominczyk, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, and Jeremy Strong accept the award for Ensemble in a Drama Series for 'Succession' onstage during the 28th Annual SAG Awards on February 27, 2022. Rich Fury/Getty Images For a brief moment onstage while accepting the award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series, Brian Cox who plays patriarch Logan Roy in the show wore a mask that read "#TeamLogan" on one side and "F*ck Off" on the other. "I don't know if you can read this," Cox said, gesturing to his mask. "Anyway, never mind. Listen oh, shit," the actor said as the mask caught on his glasses. "Fuck off" is Cox's character's de facto catchphrase on "Succession," to the extent that supercuts of him uttering on the show have amassed millions of views on social media. Selena Gomez went shoeless after falling on the red carpet Selena Gomez at the 2022 SAG Awards. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for WarnerMedia When "Only Murders in the Building" star Selena Gomez took to the stage to present the award for outstanding female actress in a supporting role, she did so with bare feet. The actor, who was wearing black pumps, slipped on the red carpet, taking the heels off in the aftermath in a video captured by Variety. As Insider previously reported, the heels broke. Gomez didn't repair them or find a new pair before stepping onstage. "What happened to Selena Gomez's shoes?" journalist Dave Quinn tweeted, along with a video of Gomez holding up her skirt and walking onstage. Read the original article on Insider After receiving reports about gunshots early Monday morning, police announced they are investigating a homicide in Nampa. Dispatchers received a 911 call at 4:24 a.m. reporting that someone had been shot in an apartment in the 3800 block of Garrity Boulevard in Nampa, according to the Nampa Police Department. Another 911 call was received from a second person shortly after, police said. Responding emergency medical service personnel said they found a deceased man upon arrival, according to a news release. The victim was identified as a 39-year-old from Ontario, Oregon. Police said they are withholding his name until next of kin can be notified. We are still interviewing witnesses, trying to identify a suspect or suspects, Carmen Boeger, Nampa Police community engagement coordinator, told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview. The investigation is ongoing and police ask anyone with information about the incident to call 208-468-4401 or email npdcrimetips@cityofnampa.us. People in need come and go during Community Empower Shower at Willow Creek Church on Feb. 18, 2022, in Crystal Lake. Two Fridays a month people in need, including homeless people, can grab a shower, eat a meal, do laundry, get a hair cut and pick out fresh clothes. There are also many community resource organizations to help with housing, utilities and legal matters. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune) The challenge of determining the number of people who are homeless has become even more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates say. Living under bridges, behind buildings or in remote wooded areas, or staying temporarily with friends or family, people who have no permanent home can become nearly invisible. Advertisement People like David Sorenson, a 60-year-old veteran, went uncounted despite being without a home on and off in Chicagos suburbs for a couple of years before getting back on his feet. So when government estimates show that the number of people experiencing homelessness in Illinois dropped 15% in 2021, and fell 16% in Chicago, housing advocates expressed some skepticism about the results. The counts, conducted by volunteers and fed to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, are used to allocate federal funding. Advertisement Brad, a homeless man who lives in Woodstock, waits inside with groceries after attending the Empower Shower at Willow Creek Church on Feb. 18, 2022, in Crystal Lake. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune) Advocates caution the latest numbers are not comparable to before the COVID-19 pandemic and question the accuracy of the national point-in-time estimate, which is based on hit-or-miss tallies that typically occur one night a year. The count from January 2021, the most recent one made public, was different from other years because it allowed for sampling a few areas rather than canvassing entire cities. It was also affected by COVID-19 distancing requirements that restricted many shelters to about half their normal capacity. That meant that many people who normally would have been counted at shelters who make up more than two-thirds of the homeless count scattered to temporary housing or on the street, making them difficult to find. Federal aid and a moratorium on evictions also may have prevented homelessness, advocates said, before those measures expired last summer. In Chicago, the point-in-time count in January 2021 found about 4,500 people. Black people made up 73%, compared with white people at about 13% and Latinos at 12%, though the three groups make up roughly equal parts of the citys population. Even in the years leading up to the pandemic, the point-in-time count in Chicago fell slowly but steadily, from about 6,800 in 2015 to about 5,300 in 2019 a 22% drop. Poverty rates among Black and Hispanic people dropped significantly in that time as well. The most recent decrease suggests that extra funding prompted by COVID-19, such as $43 billion for housing in the American Rescue Plan, had a positive impact, HUD spokeswoman Andrea Roebker said. Locally, Sam Carlson, manager of research and outreach for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, wasnt sure how much the encouraging numbers reflected poor people leaving poverty or leaving the city altogether. Drawing from several sources, including public school counts of homeless students and people who use homeless services, the coalition estimated about 58,000 homeless people in Chicago in its last count in 2019. The challenge finding homeless people was evident recently in McHenry County, where volunteers tried to find people on a night following a snowstorm, when temperatures plunged to the single digits. Checking at train stations, behind stores and in wooded areas, they found just four people on the street, plus 13 temporarily at hotels, and six seeking homeless services, organizer Sam Tenuto said. Advertisement The services were offered at the Empower Shower, held twice a month at Willow Creek Church in Crystal Lake. In addition to offering hot showers, the event provides clothing, a laundry room, a hot lunch, camping gear, drug addiction services, and reentry help for people getting out of prison. Manager Julie Davis called it a great place to have community and be with people who love them. Mike, right, and Sherry, look for clothing at Community Empower Shower at Willow Creek Church on Feb. 18, 2022, in Crystal Lake. Two Fridays a month people in need, including the homeless, can grab a shower, eat a meal, do laundry, get a haircut and pick out fresh clothes. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune) Sorenson came to the shower to do laundry, and shared his story of how he went through a rehab program that he said not only helped him find a home, but with classes on anger management and other coping skills, helped him get back into civilization. Yet even facilities for people who are homeless come and go. While the Old Firehouse Assistant Center for homeless people in Woodstock closed in 2019, and churches stopped housing PADS overnight shelters during the pandemic, the Pioneer Center for Human Services opened a permanent overnight shelter in the city of McHenry. The countys waiting list for government-subsidized homes has been closed for two years. Illustrating the disconnect that sometimes occurs between homeless people and government bureaucracies, one man recently found out he was eligible for an apartment after five years of waiting, but he had lost his phone and missed the 10-day window to claim it. He was hoping to get paperwork to get an extension, but without his own transportation, suddenly had to pay $60 for a car to rush to the necessary agencies. Another significant change during the pandemic has been in programs to use hotel rooms as temporary shelter for at-risk people. Some counties, like McHenry County, had to curtail the program due to its cost. Chicago was scheduled to end its program at Hotel Julian downtown Friday, while transitioning to other hotels, shelters or housing. The Chicago Department of Family and Support Services found that housing people temporarily in hotel rooms led to better health and wellness outcomes, spokesman Joe Dutra said. City officials are trying to focus on getting more people into noncongregate and permanent housing and plan to spend $100 million on the effort. Advertisement Despite the decreases in homeless estimates, advocates warn that the end of the eviction moratorium may mean a coming wave of people on the street. The Lawyers Committee for Better Housing and Loyola University recently estimated as many as 21,000 evictions may come in the first month they are restored more than in a typical year. The moratorium ended last summer, but advocates say it takes a long time to complete the eviction process. Megan Bennett, outreach and community case manager for the McHenry County Housing Authority, said many people lost jobs due to COVID-19 closures. Emergency federal funding helped them keep or find homes, but may be dwindling. Whether the people who are homeless get counted or not, she said, We know theyre out there. rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com While Ukrainian forces fight against the Russian military's invasion, hackers from around the world are causing disruption to Russias digital infrastructure. Hacking groups such as Anonymous and the Cyber Partisans have claimed responsibility for cyberattacks on Russias banks, state broadcaster RT, and a Belarusian rail network reportedly used to move troops from Russia to Ukraine. Peace talks between the two countries are ongoing between the two nations, but it remains unclear how long the bloodshed will last. Currently, these cyber groups have said that they stand with Ukraine against Russias powerful online forces - causing disruption to stop the countrys own attacks against Ukraine and the West. DDoS alone will not bring down a regime, one German Anonymous splinter group said in a blog post, but Putin, who is using hacker squads and troll armies against Western democracies, is getting a sip of his own bitter medicine. The intention is to keep the Russian IT apparatus busy and to provide Putin's hacker troops ... with defensive work so that they cannot do anything in Ukraine or the West . Obtaining information is also an important point and you just don't see a lot of what activists are currently doing. Key points Russian ransomware hackers pledge support to Putin and immediately have secret chats exposed by Ukrainian leaker Russian EV charging stations hacked with Putin is a d***head message Anonymous claims to have hacked Russian space agency Russian EV charging stations hacked with Putin is a d***head message 09:24 , Adam Smith Russian hackers also changed the messages on electric vehicle charging stations to hurl curses at Vladimir Putin. The chargers along the M11 motorway, which runs between Moscow and St Petersburg, were disabled and started to display pro-Ukrainian messages, according to social media users. Glory to Ukraine / Glory to the heroes / Putin is a d***head / Death to the enemy, the message reportedly read. Story continues Anonymous claims to have hacked Russian space agency 09:05 , Adam Smith A group affiliated with Anonymous called NB6 has claimed to have hacked Roscosmos, Russias space agency. #Russia has no more control over their own Spy-Satelites, an Anonymous Twitter account posted. The Independent has not been able to confirm the accuracy of these claims, and the space agencys chief executive has denied that it has been affected. Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday that any claims of a hack are made by fraudsters and pretty swindlers and that all our space control centers operate as usual". The information of these scammers and petty swindlers is not true. All our space activity control centers are operating normally. https://t.co/MY0qzlLqCI (@Rogozin) March 2, 2022 Mr Rogozin has said previously that control of the Russian space industry, orbital group and the Russian International Space Station segment are thoroughly protected and isolated by cyber criminals, but threatened that sanctions placed against Russia could have a damaging affect on the ISS. If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States and Europe? the space chief tweeted on Friday. SpaceX chief Elon Musk, in response to the comment, said his company would step in to assist the station. Nasa has said it would make every effort to continue as before [despite] disagreements between our countries. Reddit quarantines r/Russia Tuesday 1 March 2022 22:00 , Adam Smith Reddit also quarantined its r/Russia subreddit for spreading misinformation, as well as the smaller subreddit r/RussiaPolitics - merely days after it was created in to discuss the politics of the invasion. We are clear in our policies that moderators and users may not attempt to manipulate and interfere with the conversations or communities on our platform, a Reddit spokesperson told Mashable. In line with these policies, we have quarantined r/Russia and r/RussiaPolitics and removed a moderator for acting in bad faith. We have connected directly with the remaining moderators to provide guidance and remind them of our policies. We will continue to monitor the situation and take additional steps as needed. Russian VPN use has increased dramatically Tuesday 1 March 2022 21:00 , Adam Smith In order to get around internet restrictions, Russian users have been downloading VPNs in order to access content from other nations. Data from Atlas VPN claims that installs have risen by 1,90 per cent over the last few days so that users can continue to use services unrestricted. The start of physical attacks in Ukraine on February 24 gave rise to the never-seen-before upsurge in VPN demand. VPN installs reached record heights one day after another, the company states. On February 25, VPN installs rose by 24 per cent above the average. The next day, on February 26, VPN installs originating from Russia sky-rocketed by 1,076 per cent over the norm. Still, this was not the end, as the following day, VPN installs went off the charts, soaring 1,906 per cent higher than the mean. BItcoin overtakes the Russian Ruble Tuesday 1 March 2022 20:00 , Adam Smith The damage that Russias invasion has done to its economy has meant that digital currency bitcoin has overtaken it in value. The cryptocurrency reached above $41,000 on Monday afternoon, according to CoinMarketCaps price index, having traded below $35,000 as recently as Thursday. The Ruble fell by around 25 per cent in that same time period, dropping below $0.01 on Monday to a new record low. In these uncertain times, we have seen an uptick in the utility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of the crypto exchange BitFinex, told The Independent. It goes without saying the defining characteristics of bitcoin allows it to act as a safe haven during turbulent times. TikTok takes action against Russia Tuesday 1 March 2022 19:00 , Adam Smith TikTok has also sanctioned pages or content posted by RT and Sputnik - something that could severely interfere with Russian disinformation. In 2014, Russia flooded the internet with fake accounts pushing disinformation about its takeover of Crimea. Now, trolls and bots stir up anti-Ukrainian sentiment and it is unclear how close they are to the government. It could just be a patriotic Russian fighting the good fight as they see it, or it could easily be something directly affiliated with the state, said Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation researcher and expert on Eastern Europe at the Wilson Center in Washington. Russia has been perfecting these tactics. YouTube bans Russian media Tuesday 1 March 2022 18:00 , Adam Smith As well as hackers, big tech companies have taken action against Russia. Google has banned the YouTube channels of Russia Today and Sputnik in Europe. Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, were blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately, Google said in a tweet. Itll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action. Visitors to the channel saw a message reading: This channel is not available in your country. Similar messages appeared in countries across Europe. Russian hackers cyberattacks on Ukraine could breach Geneva Conventions, Microsoft chief warns Tuesday 1 March 2022 16:20 , Adam Smith Microsofts president Brad Smith has said that Russias cyber attacks raise serious concerns under the Geneva Convention. The attacks have been precisely targeted, with the company especially concerned about targets including the financial sector, agriculture sector, emergency response services, humanitarian aid efforts, and energy sector organizations The Ukrainian government has also been warned about cyber attacks that could steal health, insurance, and transportation data that could personally identify citizens, Mr Smith went on. However, while Microsoft says that the cyber attacks have been offensive and destructive, other experts have claimed they are haphazard. A plausible scenario for more devastating cyber-attacks was that Russia had planned this invasion for a long time, and prepositioned implants across Ukraines critical infrastructure in order to cause mass disruptions coinciding with the military invasion, Dr Maschmeyer told The Guardian. Devastating cyberattacks have not played as large a component as some people thought it might and it definitely has not been seen outside of Ukraine to the extent that people feared, said Michael Daniel, a former White House cybersecurity coordinator, but that the situation could still change. Secret misinformation campaign is trying to trick people into using less secure messaging apps, Signal says Tuesday 1 March 2022 13:34 , Adam Smith A misinformation campaign is trying to trick people into using less secure messaging apps, encrypted chat platform Signal has said. In recent days there have been a run of rumours attempting to suggest that the app has been hacked and compromised and that its security has been weakened, Signal said. But those rumours appear to be part of a messaging campaign aimed at encouraging people to stop using signal and move to less secure platforms, it said. Weve had an uptick in usage in Eastern Europe & rumors are circulating that Signal is hacked & compromised. This is false. Signal is not hacked. We believe these rumors are part of a coordinated misinformation campaign meant to encourage people to use less secure alternatives, the company wrote in a set of tweets. Were seeing these rumors appear in messages forwarded on several different apps. These rumors are often attributed to official government sources and read attacks on Signal platform. This is false and Signal is not under attack. Anonymous posts new message to Vladimir Putin Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:31 , Adam Smith A Twitter account representing the Anonymous hacking group has posted a new video directed at the Russian president. Mr Putin, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine has shown that your regime has no respect for human rights or the self determination of your neighbours, it says. In the past several days a full scale invasion has commenced, civilian neighbourhoods have been bombed and innocent people have been killed. Refugees are fleeing the violence and the population is being forced into conscription by Ukrainian officials. This is an ugly situation all around but you are the instigator. A cyber free-for-all from Russia could still be launched on Ukraine Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:30 , Adam Smith So far, a massive attack on Ukraines digital infrastructure from Russia has not happened yet. Power plants and other critical infrastructure are still operational, despite Russia having a huge resource of hackers and online operatives such as the Internet Research Agency. It has not played as large a component as some people thought it might and it definitely has not been seen outside of Ukraine to the extent that people feared, said Michael Daniel, a former White House cybersecurity coordinator. Of course, that could still change. It is not clear why this has not happened; perhaps Russia believes that the impact is not serious enough, or that they could not do enough damage to Ukraine without collateral or knock-on effects for other nations. Ukraine is currently being supported by a volunteer IT Army in an attempt to help the country launch cyber attacks back at Russia. What is inside the Conti leak? Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:22 , Adam Smith Marcus Hutchins, the British computer expert who helped shut down NHS cyberattack in 2017, has offered some insight into the scale of the Conti leak. This is the kind of stuff that almost never gets seen by anyone outside cybersecurity or law enforcement, he tweeted, highlighting the billions the gang had made and an unnamed journalist [that] offered to help Conti extort companies ... in return for a 5% commission The Conti leaks offer everyone an unprecedented insight into the inner workings of a major cybercrime organization. This is the kind of stuff that almost never gets seen by anyone outside cybersecurity or law enforcement. Here's some highlights: Marcus Hutchins (@MalwareTechBlog) March 1, 2022 An unnamed journalist offered to help Conti extort companies (most likely by threatening to cover the company's breach), in return for a 5% commission.https://t.co/MllVuwkAPd Marcus Hutchins (@MalwareTechBlog) March 1, 2022 Russian ransomware hackers have secret chats exposed by Ukrainian leaker Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:17 , Adam Smith A ransomware cabal that pledged support for Russias invasion of Ukraine has been hacked. If anybody will decide to organize a cyberattack or any war activities against Russia, we are going to use our all possible resources to strike back at the critical infrastructures of an enemy, a blog post by the Conti hackers read. Shortly after, a cache of chat logs belonging to the Conti ransomware gang leaked online by an insider who objected to their support of Vladimir Putin. Fuck the Russian government, the leaker said in their message. Glory to Ukraine! Russian media sites hacked by Anonymous again Tuesday 1 March 2022 09:12 , Adam Smith Russian media site Fontanka, state-owned news agency Tass and daily newspaper Kommersant were all hacked by Anonymous yesterday. A message warning readers of certain death for troops in Ukraine was shared across their platforms. The message on Fontaka read in full: Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death. Putin makes us lie and puts us in danger. We were isolated from the whole world, they stopped buying oil and gas. In a few years we will live like in North Korea. What is it for us? To put Putin in the textbooks? This is not our war, lets stop it! This message will be deleted, and some of us will be fired or even jailed. But we cant take it anymore. Indifferent journalists of Russia. Anonymous tweets message to Russian people Monday 28 February 2022 22:30 , Adam Smith Another high-profile Anonymous account has tweeted a reassuring message to the Russian people, following apparently false claims that they would hack citizens bank accounts if they failed to protest. To the people of Russia: We do not want to fight with you, the account tweeted, in Russian. Understand that Putin has invaded a sovereign nation and the whole world is outraged. We know its risky to stand up to him, but if you dont, then who will? : . , , . , , , ?#OpRussia # #Anonymous # pic.twitter.com/ayV7CfUDs6 Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) February 28, 2022 Anonymous claims responsibility for 1,500 hacks Monday 28 February 2022 21:51 , Adam Smith The hacking group has claimed that it has carried out 1,500 cyber attacks on the Russian and Belarusian governments over the past three days, including attacks on state systems, banks, and broadcasters. However, anonymity is a double-edged sword; it can be a boon to have so many people working for a collective aim, but that collectivism can also make the group unpredictable and many can claim to be working under its philosophy without actually doing so. A Twitter account claiming to represent the group has had to denounce a fake Anonymous video that claimed it would withdraw money from Russian citizens bank accounts if they did not come out in protest of President Putins actions. 2/ Some things to keep in mind: Anonymous acts by attacking governments that behave violently towards the people. Anonymous never attacks the people because we are the people. Please don't fall prey to individuals seeking to tarnish Anonymous's name. Anonymous TV (@YourAnonTV) February 28, 2022 Meta sets up special operations group to deal with Russian misinformation - and Russia fights back Monday 28 February 2022 17:30 , Adam Smith Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has launched a dedicated force to combat fake news on social media. The situation in Ukraine is devastating, the companys president of global affairs and the UKs former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said. Weve established a Special Operations Center, staffed by experts and native speakers, to respond in real time to remove hate speech or content that incites violence or otherwise breaks our rules. The situation in Ukraine is devastating. Our teams at Meta have implemented a number of measures to keep our platforms and our users in the region as safe as we can. This is a fast moving situation and our teams remain on high alert. pic.twitter.com/8wFgx7muKG Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) February 25, 2022 However, in retaliation to the move, Russia limited access to Facebook. Meta said that it would label the accounts of Russian-owned media outlets, but Russian authorities said that the restrictions were censorship and accused Facebook of violating the human rights of its citizens. It is not clear what those restrictions, put out by the countrys communications regulator Roskomnadzor, will actually involve. Ukraines IT Army grows to fight against Russia Monday 28 February 2022 17:00 , Adam Smith Assisting in the rebellion against Russia, hundreds of thousands of people have joined an initative from the Ukrainian government to wage cyber attacks. It suggested that it took down a technology used by Sberbank, one of Russias biggest banks. It has also indicated that it could have been behind attacks on other official websites. The group has gained around 230,000 subscribers in the days since it was launched. Those who join are instructed to help with cyber attacks as well as other online efforts, including sending information to Belarus. Anonymous encourages people to leave online reviews in Russia explaining situation in Ukraine Monday 28 February 2022 16:59 , Adam Smith A Twitter account representing Anonymous has suggested that people leave online reviews for restaurants and other businesses in Russia in order to raise awareness of the situation in Ukraine. Go to Google Maps. Go to Russia. Find a restaurant or business and write a review. When you write the review explain what is happening in Ukraine. Idea via @Konrad03249040 Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) February 28, 2022 Google had also been put under pressure to remove pro-Russia propaganda from YouTube. It has since suspended several Russian media channels from generating revenue on the video service due to the extraordinary nature of the invasion. The channels suspended included the state-funded RT. Russian media outlets have been accused of spreading misinformation in order to justify the countrys actions in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Boris Johnson said an attack on a kindergarten in Ukraine was a false flag operation by Russia which has been designed to discredit the Ukrainians. We fear very much that that is a thing we will see more of over the next few days, he added. Russian media sites replaced with tombstone for war dead in mass cyber attack Monday 28 February 2022 16:15 , Adam Smith Russian media sites, including TASS and Kommersant, were today replaced by a memorial for the war dead in a mass cyber attack. The hackers appeared to associate themselves with Anonymous. The message included the number 5,300, the number of Russian troops that Ukraine claims to have killed. It also includes anti-war messages, suggesting that Vladimir Putin has begun the war to get into the history books. Belarus rail network systems encrypted to stop Russia moving troops to Ukraine Monday 28 February 2022 15:55 , Adam Smith A group called the Cyber Partisans encrypted the data of parts of the Belarusian rail network, blocking trains in the cities of Minsk and Orsha, as well as the town of Osipovichi. The hackers claimed that the attack was to slow down the transfer of troops moving from Belarus to northern Ukraine, saying that they had put the trains in manual control mode which would significantly slow down the movement of trains, but will not create emergency situations. One former Belarus railway worker reportedly said that the systems in Minsk and Orsha had been paralyzed, but the situation remains unclear now. The Belarusian Railway did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent before time of publication. Vladimir Putins yacht renamed FCKPTN Monday 28 February 2022 15:52 , Adam Smith The group has also claimed an attack on the Russian presidents luxury yacht, renaming it FCKPTN by vandalising maritime tracking data. The hackers then renamed its destination to anonymous and anonleaks, before finally settling on hell. They claimed that they wanted to put the yacht in the scope of sanction packages and put a little smile on some faces for a short period in these dark times. Anonymous attacks Russian governments websites, banks, and broadcaster Monday 28 February 2022 15:48 , Adam Smith Among numerous attacks the hacking group Anonymous have made against Russia include claims of taking down state broadcaster RT, posting on Twitter that it took down the propaganda station in response to Kremlins brutal invasion. After the statement by Anonymous, RTs websites became the subject of a massive DDoS attack from nearly 100 million devices, mostly based in the US, RT told The Independent in a statement. Due to the hack there were temporary website access limitations for some users, yet RT promptly resolved these issues. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are performed by overwhelming websites with junk traffic to render them unreachable. Similar attacks were performed on the websites of Ukraines defence, foreign, and interior ministries ahead of Russias invasion. What is happening right now between Russia and Ukraine? Monday 28 February 2022 15:46 , Adam Smith The Independent is constantly reporting on the situation between the two nations - with peace talks currently ongoing between Russia and Ukraine, but with no certainty that the conflict could come to an end. The Ukrainian presidents office said earlier that the goal of the talks was an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky said 16 Ukrainian children have been killed and another 45 have been injured in recent rocket strikes to the Ukranian city of Kharkiv. He added that 4,500 Russian troops have also been killed. Feb. 27BUNKER HILL Officials say an inmate at Miami Correctional Facility was assaulted on Friday and later treated at a hospital. Officials said the incident is under investigation, but didn't release any more details. The initial police callout came through as someone suffering from multiple stab wounds. A helicopter was requested to airlift the inmate. The assault marks the fourth violent incident reported at the prison in the last six months. In December, another inmate was assaulted. The initial police callout was reported as a male with multiple stab wounds. In November, an inmate died from loss of blood after he was found severely injured with multiple stab wounds. A forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Leo Cullen, 43, ruled the cause of death as a homicide. In September, Matthew Koch, 42, was found dead inside his cell. An autopsy revealed he died from multiple sharp-force trauma wounds. On Aug. 8, three staff members were assaulted by inmates and received injuries at the prison. Another assault was reported in March, when video footage showed a corrections officer speaking to offender Levi Greenup, who reached through the broken window of his cell and stabbed the officer with a handmade shank, according to a probable cause affidavit. As a Kentucky state representative for 28 years and a psychotherapist for even longer, I have spent much of my career examining the ways public policy affects mental illness and addiction. Observing the current legislative session unfolding in Frankfort, Im concerned about Kentucky House Bill 313, which would restrict charitable organizations from providing bail assistance and necessary wraparound services to the poor. This ill-conceived legislation does not address the questions of when or if bail should be set. Its not doing anything to ensure that bails are fair or reasonable as the U.S. Constitution requires. Instead, its just looking at who pays the bail. More: Measure to ban charitable bail groups softened; bill advances after emotional testimony Today, if a well-off person is arrested, they can make bail immediately. But the financially struggling person can be incarcerated in our citys troubled, dangerous jail for weeks or months on the same charge while awaiting trial. Thats not because the poor person is necessarily been deemed a threat to the community. They qualified for bail, but they cannot shell out five hundred bucks to spring themselves. According to the American Psychological Association, over 60% of people in jails report mental illness and/or addiction. Awaiting trial, their mental health can deteriorate further, and their family may become even more destitute if the detainee is a breadwinner. Assuming the incarcerated troubled accused are found guilty, they are even less likely to turn their lives around when they are eventually released, having deteriorated behind bars. There are a few ways to address this outdated and unjust system, all of them, acts of kindness. Sometimes a family member or friend can bail a loved one out. Sometimes a group of friends can get together and bail someone out. And sometimes a charitable organization a church or a dedicated nonprofit can do so. In Louisville, one outstanding organization that addresses the issue in an enlightened way is The Bail Project. This is not to be confused with the group that recently posted bail for the accused in the recent assault on mayor candidate Craig Greenberg. The Bail Project is a national organization that has provided bail resources for nearly 4,000 economically fragile people in Louisville with an impressive 90% returning to their court dates. The group offers assistance in ways that a grandparent or friend is unlikely to be prepared for, connecting people to mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, food pantries and other resources to address immediate needs and root causes of aberrant behavior. Story continues Help like this can transform a personal and community tragedy into a positive turning point in the defendants and our citys life. Isnt that what we all want, productive, community-minded, thriving citizens? Opinion: How COVID showed us meaningful bail reform is possible in Kentucky As a psychotherapist, I know that people literally carry the trauma of their past in their bodies. It affects both their mental and physical health. Psychotherapy and appropriate, proven, medications can help heal. Each year, hundreds linger in jail cells, without professional care, awaiting action in the courts precisely because of the past trauma in their lives that has led to dysfunctional behavior. There are times when incarceration is absolutely necessary for the security of the community. But for the majority who are arrested, it is not the ideal solution. If they are mentally ill when they go into jail, they are going to come out even sicker. If they were struggling with substance abuse disorder when they go into jail, they are likely going to come out at higher risk for an overdose, the underlying physical addiction not having been treated. We all, in the end, pay the price for not treating mental illness and addictions. We are better off as a society when we give people a chance to succeed to connect to resources to address mental illness and substance addiction. Today in Louisville The Bail Project is one of the organizations doing this good work. Legislators in Frankfort should not restrict their efforts. Jim Wayne Jim Wayne served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1991 to 2019 from Louisville. He is the author of "The Unfinished Man and is the founder of The Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy at Loyola University in Chicago, formerly at Bellarmine University. Interested in submitting an op-ed or guest column? Read tips here: How to submit a guest opinion column or op-ed to The Courier Journal This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky HB 313 endangers organizations providing bail assistance: Opinion Bill Ackman is the founder of investment company Pershing Square. Brendan McDermid/Reuters Bill Ackman said on Twitter that President Joe Biden should consider military intervention in Ukraine. The investor said he is not advocating for "U.S. boots on the ground today." Last week, Biden said US troops "will not be engaged in the conflict." Bill Ackman called for President Joe Biden to consider sending US troops to defend Ukraine in a post on Twitter Monday. "Is there a point at which we say it is un-American to sit back and watch this transpire?" the billionaire investor said in a series of tweets addressed to Biden. "Do we wait for him to kill millions before we intervene?" Ackman added. Ackman, CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Management Capital, appeared to clarify his statements regarding sending US troops into Ukraine in a later post. He said he is not advocating "U.S. boots on the ground today" and that the US should be doing more in the meantime to shut down all Russian banks and continue to provide Ukrainians with weapons and gear. "We need to set a red line on the use of nuclear weapons to deter their use," Ackman said. "If the unthinkable happens, I see no alternative to our entering the war." On Thursday, Biden said US troops "will not be engaged in the conflict." "Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine but to defend our NATO allies and reassure those allies in the east," Biden said during the press conference where he announced new sanctions against Russia. Over the weekend, the US, EU, UK and Canada said they would cut select Russian banks' out of a key global payments messaging system called SWIFT and also sanction the country's central bank a move that could wreak havoc on Russia's financial system. Story continues Ackman weighed in on the sanctions on Saturday, saying he wouldn't trust Russian banks to stay solvent, following the sanctions. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to threaten the possibility of turning the Ukraine invasion into a broader nuclear conflict when he told top defense and military officials to put nuclear forces in a "special regime of combat duty." Putin blamed the move on statements from member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and from Western nations, which he called "aggressive." Ackman is not the only investor on Wall Street to say that Russia's aggression toward Ukraine could negatively impact the US. Billionaire investor Ray Dalio has been warning for months that foreign powers could challenge America's global leadership. Read the original article on Business Insider A Boise man who allegedly preyed on Christians, using biblical quotes to entice them to invest in Arizona real estate, is accused of operating a Ponzi scheme and scamming investors out of more than $82 million. Bradley R. Heinrichs, 41, was indicted in Arizona on four counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, illegal control of an enterprise, theft and conspiracy, all felonies. He has pleaded not guilty. Out of respect for the legal process, we are not going to comment on the allegations against Mr. Heinrichs, except to say that he denies them, Phoenix lawyer Anne Chapman said by email. There are multiple sides to every story, and Mr. Heinrichs is allowing the legal process to take its course. Heinrichs is listed as manager of Anthology real estate, 421 S. 8th St. in Boise, according to records from the Idaho secretary of states office. If convicted, Heinrichs could face a sentence of 4.5 years to 69 years in prison. The indictment was announced in March 2021 nearly six years after the crimes were alleged to have taken place. A trial date is scheduled to be set April 14. A seven-page indictment from an Arizona court accuses Boise real estate agent Bradley Heinrichs of misleading real estate investors and stealing money from them. A settlement conference between a deputy Arizona attorney general and Chapman was held earlier this month, but a resolution was not reached. A spokesperson for the attorney generals office did not reply to a telephone call and email. A records request submitted to the Idaho attorney generals office did not reveal any investigations into Heinrichs conduct in Idaho. The Arizona attorney generals office, which reviewed more than 75,000 pages of documents, said Heinrichs and a co-defendant, Stephen J. Hatch, operated a racketeering enterprise involving the sale of Arizona real estate between January 2005 and December 2014. The pair promised double-digit returns to more than 110 investors, including many from Idaho, prosecutors said. Business partner spent five years in prison Hatch, now 72, pleaded guilty in 2017 to one felony count of fraud and was sentenced to five years in prison. In exchange for Hatchs guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed not to charge his children, who were paid lavish salaries and were allegedly involved in the scam. Story continues Hatch, who was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution, was released from prison in September and remains under community supervision, according to Arizona Department of Corrections records. In a Ponzi scheme, money from later investors is used to pay off earlier investors to make it appear there are profits. When incoming cash dries up, the scheme falls apart. Heinrichs told investors that his company wanted to give an opportunity to Christian families to invest, how God was using their company to support missions and that they wanted to pass the blessing along to the little guy who normally wouldnt have an opportunity like this, according to a court filing from a group that formed to seek restitution for the victims from Heinrichs and Hatch. The group said Heinrichs falsely told investors that Hatch was worth between $15 million and $20 million and didnt need money. Henrichs told investors Hatch had been in the real estate business for many years and came out of retirement to help other people, mainly his children, learn the business, the group said. The group, the Hatch/Heinrichs Victims Recovery Fund, said Heinrichs promised some investors annual returns as high as 25%. Heinrichs is accused of lying to investors about missing payments. Prosecutors say he regularly sent investors statements showing increasing interest earnings without telling them there was not enough money to make earnings payments. Heinrich and Hatch created more than 30 business entities and managed 17 sets of books to buy 13 properties. Hatch was responsible for locating, acquiring, development and rezoning properties, while Heinrichs was responsible for recruiting investors, a letter from the attorney generals office said. Boise physician among Ponzi scheme victims Dr. Richard Blickenstaff, a Boise dermatologist, initially invested $227,800 with Heinrichs, according to a letter to a judge from the Arizona attorney generals office. He added $100,000 more in June 2014. Blickenstaff, who supplied the Idaho Statesman with documents from the case, lived in the same Idaho subdivision as Heinrichs parents, and they attended the same church. Heinrichs sister was a friend of Blickenstaffs son, so Richard Blickenstaff also knew Heinrichs. Through this relationship, Heinrichs solicited investments, the letter said. He told Blickenstaff that Hatch was a Christian, a man of impeccable character, had a long history of successful real estate ventures and had delivered promised return to investors in all of his previous projects. Five months after Blickenstaff provided Heinrichs with the $100,000, Heinrichs told Blickenstaff that Hatch had misappropriated money from the investments. When Blickenstaff asked him how he could have taken another $100,000 from him knowing there were improprieties and red flags with regard to fraud and mismanagement, he said that is something I am struggling with, the letter said. A second victim from Boise, who lost an undisclosed amount of money, declined to comment when contacted by the Statesman. The allegations are similar to those in Idahos largest Ponzi scheme, in which executives of Diversified Business Services and Investments, known as DBSI, defrauded 8,500 investors out of at least $80 million. CEO Doug Swenson, convicted in 2014 of 44 counts of securities fraud and 34 counts of wire fraud, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Three other executives, including Swensons two sons, were sentenced to three to five years in prison. DBSI operated legitimately for many years before aggressively buying up office buildings and offering investors shares in the buildings. Cash flow problems eventually led the executives to pay investors with money supplied by new investors as profits soured. Meridian businessmen who led fraud scheme that hurt 8,500 investors imprisoned at last How 2 Meridian brothers lost control of their business making popular energy shots By Ron Bousso, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Carolyn Cohn and Saeed Azhar (Reuters) -Energy giants BP and Shell, global bank HSBC and the world's biggest aircraft leasing firm AerCap joined a growing list of companies looking to exit Russia on Monday, as Western sanctions tightened the screws on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The West has moved to punish Russia with a raft of measures, including closing airspace to Russian aircraft, shutting out some Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial network and restricting Moscow's ability to use its $630 billion foreign reserves. Russia's economy was already reeling on Monday. The rouble plunged to a record low, while the central bank doubled its key interest rate to 20%, and kept stock markets and derivative markets closed. Shell on Monday said it would exit all its Russian operations, including the flagship Sakhalin 2 LNG plant in which it holds a 27.5% stake, and which is 50% owned and operated by Russian gas group Gazprom. "We cannot and we will not stand by," Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in a statement announcing the move and calling Russia's attack a "senseless act of military aggression". He added that his company was talking to governments about securing energy supplies to Europe. BP, Russia's biggest foreign investor, announced at the weekend it was abandoning its 20% stake in state-controlled Rosneft at a cost of up to $25 billion, cutting the British firm's oil and gas reserves in half. Equinor, the energy firm majority owned by the Norwegian state, said it would start divesting its joint ventures in Russia. The moves put the spotlight on other Western companies with stakes in Russian oil and gas projects, such as ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies. NO-GO ZONE Large parts of the Russian economy will be a no-go zone for Western banks and financial firms after the decision to cut off some of its banks from SWIFT, a secure messaging system used for trillions of dollars' worth of transactions around the world. Story continues The European arm of Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender, faces failure, the European Central Bank warned on Monday, after a run on its deposits. British bank HSBC said it was starting to wind down relations with a host of Russian banks including the second-largest, VTB, one of those targeted by sanctions, a memo seen by Reuters showed. Even neutral Switzerland said it was adopting European Union sanctions and freezing assets of some Russian individuals and companies. It joined others by imposing sanctions on President Vladimir Putin and other officials. Some Western companies were suspending operations while others were drawing up contingency plans as they reviewed the rapidly changing landscape for business with Russia. Nasdaq Inc and Intercontinental Exchange's NYSE have temporarily halted trading in stocks of Russia-based companies listed on their exchanges, their websites showed. Global auto and truck makers, including U.S. automaker General Motors Co and Germany's Daimler Truck, on Monday took some actions. Volkswagen suspended deliveries of cars to dealers in Russia and Swedish automaker Volvo and GM said they would suspend exports to Russia. "Deliveries are to resume as soon as the effects of the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States have been clarified," a VW spokesperson said. That may not be soon, though, given the complexity of the conflict and sanctions process. "We are likely to be in this environment of a very complicated, multipronged, multifaceted sanctions regime for months if not years," said Marcus Thompson, a London-based partner at Kirkland & Ellis. Singapore-headquartered container shipping company Ocean Network Express on Monday suspended bookings to and from Russia while Maersk said it was considering doing the same. Several companies with exposure to Russia had their shares pummeled on Monday. Nokian Tyres tumbled after withdrawing its 2022 outlook. It said last week it was shifting some production to Finland from Russia. Shares in Societe Generale, which owns Russia's Rosbank, and carmaker Renault, which controls Russian carmaker Avtovaz, also fell. TIT-FOR-TAT Finnair lost a fifth of its value after withdrawing its 2022 outlook amid airspace closures. Russia is barring airlines from 36 countries from its airspace, including European nations and Canada which had earlier shut their airspace to Russian aircraft. U.S. officials said Washington was considering a similar move. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have voluntarily halted overflying Russia for international routes, while United Airlines has rerouted some international flights that had typically flown over Russia. Leasing firms including AerCap Holdings, the world's biggest plane lessor with about 5% of its fleet leased to Russian airlines, and BOC Aviation, said they would terminate hundreds of aircraft leases with Russian airlines because of sanctions. The mechanics of retrieving the planes from Russia are not clear. AerCap's shares dropped more than 12% on Monday. U.S.-based United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp said they were halting deliveries to Russia and Ukraine. Big tech companies are juggling calls for them to shut services in Russia with what they see as a mission to give voice to dissent and protest. Microsoft on Monday said it would remove Russian state-owned media outlet RT's mobile apps from its Windows App store and ban ads on Russian state-sponsored media. Google has barred RT and other Russian channels from receiving money for ads on websites, apps and YouTube videos, similar to a move by Facebook. Investors also are pulling out of Russian companies. Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, will divest its Russian assets, worth about $2.8 billion, while Australia's sovereign wealth fund said it planned to wind down its exposure to Russian-listed companies. (Additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, Foo Yun Chee in Brussels, Jamie Freed in Sydney, Maria Ponnezhath and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru, David Shepardson in Washington and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Writing by Carmel Crimmins, Edmund Blair, Jane Merriman and Peter Henderson; Editing by Grant McCool, Tomasz Janowski and Bernard Orr) A vintage brick three-flat in the West Town neighborhood that was the home of longtime Chicago Outfit leader Joseph Joey the Clown Lombardo for close to seven decades at least, during the times that the gangster wasnt in federal prison sold on Feb. 25 for $600,000. Lombardo, who died in federal prison in 2019 at age 90 after being convicted of murder in the 2007 Family Secrets trial, moved into the West Ohio Street building upon marrying wife Marion Nigro in 1951. Although Joseph and Marion Lombardo divorced in 1991, they continued to live in separate units in the building, according to a 2005 Chicago magazine article, and public records show that Marion Lombardo, who died recently, and her son, Joseph Jr., were the sellers of the three-flat. Advertisement While many other Outfit figures over the years left Chicago for suburban communities like River Forest and Oak Brook, Lombardo, who earned his nickname because of his joking demeanor, stayed in his old neighborhood and often was a visible presence outside his home. He served about 10 years in prison in the 1980s and early 1990s for bribing a U.S. senator and skimming money from Las Vegas casinos, and after his release from prison in 1992, the divorced Lombardo returned to the West Ohio Street three-flat and reportedly resided in the buildings basement unit. In 2005, Lombardo was indicted on a charge of murder in the federal Family Secrets investigation, and he disappeared before federal agents could arrest him, later writing letters to the judge in the trial, James Zagel, proclaiming his innocence and noting that he had been following local media coverage of the trial. Lombardo was taken into custody in January 2006 outside the Elmwood Park home of a friend. Advertisement In 2007 Lombardo was convicted of the 1974 murder of a prosecution witness in an embezzlement case, Daniel Siefert, and he was sentenced to life in prison in early 2009. Lombardo served his sentence in the federal Supermax prison in Colorado. On West Ohio, the Lombardo familys three-flat has two three-bedroom apartments with nine-foot ceilings, along with the one-bedroom basement apartment, which has room to be expanded to two bedrooms. The back part of the basement has a 12-foot ceiling. Outside on the property is a brick, two-car garage with double garage doors. The Lombardo family first listed the three-flat in August for $800,000, and they cut their asking price to $750,000 later that month and then in September to $725,000 and again to $700,000. In October, they reduced their asking price further, to $675,000, followed by another reduction to $665,000 in December. Listing agent Fermin Perez told Elite Street that the three-flat is in a great neighborhood, right across the street from a grammar school. Its in a nice, safe area with a brick, two-car garage. Its a good building, he said. Rentals are hot in that market. The buyers are going to renovate it and rent it out, I believe. Public records do not yet identify the buyer. The three-flat had an $11,382 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year. Goldsborough is a freelance reporter. Advertisement Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news. SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has evacuated the staff of its consular mission in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, the foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday. "The staff of the Odessa consulate... have already left Ukraine and crossed into Moldova," the spokesman told Reuters. Bulgaria is keeping its Kyiv embassy open for the time being as it has yet to evacuate about 140 Bulgarians from there. (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; editing by John Stonestreet) SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria said it is evacuating its embassy staff from the Ukraine capital Kyiv after evacuating the staff from its consular office in Odessa, Foreign Minister Teodora Ganchovska said on Monday. Genchovska said four buses and the cars of the Bulgarian embassy in Kyiv were travelling towards the border with Romania. "A total of 200 people, including citizens of Bulgaria, Ukraine, the United States, North Macedonia and Georgia, as well as all the staff of our diplomatic mission are in the buses and the cars," she said. (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; Editing by Hugh Lawson) The Daily Beast ReutersTroops sent into Ukraine to back up Russian forces say they had no choice but to leave because Russian military was in shambles and they deceived us at every step.Soldiers from the breakaway state of South Ossetiaspeaking to South Ossetian leader Anatoly Bibilov at a meeting publicized by the independent news outlet MediaZonarattled off a list of complaints about faulty equipment, lack of leadership and intel, and brainless tactics.South Ossetia, which relies heavily on military and f On a hot summer day, the water of the Nantahala River is as refreshing as anything you can imagine. There are squeals of delight from people of all ages as they set out on adventures through the forest waterway. It is a bit of magic in the making. This year, the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City, North Carolina is celebrating 50 years of facilitating those family memories. During that time, through its outposts and trips, the center has welcomed nearly 8 million guests. The anniversary will be marked by a wide variety of events all year, including international trips that will be characterized by high adventure and grand locations. For family adventure, those options include Costa Rica, British Columbia, Iceland and more, all for ages 6 and older. Teens and adults have more options, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Closer to home, stayed tuned for Spring Fling at NOC, April 23 24 (admission is free), and a 50th anniversary celebration coming this summer. Learn more at noc.com/events/50th-years-of-adventure-celebration and noc.com/international. This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Celebrate 50 years with Nantahala Outdoor Center Jose Andres, a Spanish American chef, restaurateur and philanthropist, has set up mobile kitchens to provide hot meals for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion. People of the World Like you, I am distraught watching Ukraine under attack, Andres, 52, captioned a video on Twitter Friday. We must come together as a force for good! Andres, who is on the ground in Poland with his not-for-profit organization, World Central Kitchen (WCK), added that hes committing support from the $100 million Jeff Bezos grant he won in 2021 for his humanitarian work. In the clip, Andres described how volunteers and communities are coming together to help Ukrainian refugees. We see that the international Red Cross is putting together shelters, he said. We already see that Polish people are already feeding people as they cross the border. We are seeing people in Ukraine taking care of people and doing the best they can under the circumstances. On Sunday, Andres posted footage of himself bundled up and serving dinner at the Ukrainian border. At that site alone, Andres estimated that WCK had served more than 8,000 meals. Offerings have included soup, hot chicken stew and apple pie. It is below freezing tonight & I am meeting so many refugees, families who are escaping & dont know whats next We will do our best not to let them down, the humanitarian told his more than 1 million Twitter followers. WCK said it provided 4,000 meals in 18 hours to people in Medyka, Poland. At the Rava-Ruska and Shehyni border crossings between Ukraine and Poland, WCK is partnering with Caritas nuns to serve food to refugees. Andres said that he and WCK will enter Ukraine as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, they are partnering with restaurants inside the war-torn country. This is Chef Aleksander Yourz...his team at Yourz Space Bistro cooked 1,000 meals today for residents stuck in Odessa & Ukranians defending the city, Andres tweeted Sunday. Story continues Last week, a freelance journalist in the capital city of Kyiv tweeted photos of empty grocery store shelves. Never have I ever seen anything like that in Kyiv, Tanya Kozyreva wrote. Triggers the worst possible scenario in my head. Famine is something Ukraine had experienced twice already. Andres founded WCK in 2010, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, and has been busy ever since. He was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in 2021, Andres and WCK provided free meals to local residents in New Orleans. That same year, Andres returned to Haiti with WCK feeding people impacted by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Food cannot wait, Andres told TODAY meteorologist Al Roker after Hurricane Ida. People must eat today, not next week, not next month. Andres and his organization also spent time in Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane Maria, delivering food in areas of the U.S. territory where families didn't have access to any fresh food or meals. Andres also stepped in after the U.S. Capitol attack in 2021, delivering food to law enforcement officers and first responders. In addition to working with WCK to feed those most impacted by the pandemic around the world, Andres also turned his New York City and Washington, D.C. restaurants into takeaway kitchens in 2020. While the meals cost $10, diners were encouraged to pay what they could afford. An earlier version of this article was first published on Today.com. Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. (In Feb. 28 story, corrects name of school to Curtin instead of Curtis, paragraph 3) By Roxanne Liu and David Stanway BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China has spent over a year developing Pfizer-type COVID-19 vaccines that may even help it pivot from stringent "zero-COVID" restrictions, but a changed market and the Omicron variant have muddied prospects before efficacy data has even been published. Still, China is unlikely to join the majority of countries in approving foreign-made vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology before making its own, experts said, though a slowing vaccination drive at home and in some other nations and improved supply of approved vaccines have raised questions of viability. "If they (China) use mRNA vaccines, they will produce them themselves rather than take it from outside. It is a matter of national pride and also vaccine diplomacy," said Jaya Dantas, professor of international health at the Curtin School of Population Health in Australia. About 87% of China's 1.4 billion people are fully vaccinated and nearly 40% have received boosters - all non-mRNA shots. Along with a policy of strictly containing every local outbreak, China has prevented any major virus flare-up. However, the efficacy of the vaccination regime against Omicron is unclear. Pre-Omicron human trials showed mRNA shots from U.S.-German duo Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE as well as U.S. biotech Moderna Inc better prevented symptomatic cases than the most-used non-mRNA Chinese shots - though studies indicate the pair need boosters to strengthen Omicron defences. China has not approved the use of those or any other foreign vaccine, instead relying on home-grown vaccines. "For what appears to be political reasons, the Chinese authorities have insisted to date on using domestically developed alternatives, and that has required them to lean that much further on this lockdown and quarantine-heavy approach to zero-COVID," said senior China analyst Michael Hirson at Eurasia Group. Story continues "I think a more open approach to vaccines would provide them more flexibility and in terms of how they go about containment with a less disruptive impact on the economy." The National Health Commission did not respond to Reuters queries about foreign mRNA vaccine approvals. ROCKET SCIENCE Experts said success in its own mRNA technology will not just broaden its domestic COVID-19 vaccine portfolio, it will also open up development for more innovative vaccines. China approved human tests for its mRNA candidates in June, 2020, and there are several at various stages of development. Only ARCoV - co-developed by the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Suzhou Abogen Biosciences Co Ltd and Walvax Biotechnology Co Ltd - has begun Phase III clinical trials, or large-scale testing in which scientists study how well the vaccine reduces the risk of COVID-19 disease and death. A laboratory study found Omicron could significantly weaken the neutralising activity of the two-dose ARCoV, though animal testing showed a booster could induce antibody production. As Omicron threatens to complicate development, a high vaccination rate and expanding booster campaign make for an intensifying Chinese market for COVID-19 shots. Moreover, it is unclear whether authorities will allow further doses for people who have already received one booster shot. "As the domestic market is getting smaller, all Chinese COVID shot makers need to expand their businesses through export," said China Renaissance Securities analyst Zhao Bing. Some Chinese mRNA candidates require less stringent storage temperatures than vaccines of foreign rivals, but they are yet to show significant advantages in manufacturing costs or storage conditions over rival non-mRNA vaccines, Zhao said. Still, going through the process of developing mRNA COVID-19 shots is crucial for China's pharmaceutical industry, regardless of whether a vaccine gains approval, as mRNA-based technology could accelerate development of new medical products to prevent or treat various infectious diseases and cancers, experts said. "The mRNA-based technology platform itself is like a process of launching a rocket," said Nomura analyst Zhang Jialin. "The COVID vaccine is actually a satellite carried by the rocket, and if the engineering system of the rocket is built up, other types of satellites can be (carried) in the future." (Reporting by Roxanne Liu in Beijing and David Stanway in Shanghai; Additional reporting by Bryan Dent Wood in Hong Kong; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Christopher Cushing) A Chicago man was sentenced to 22 years Friday after formally admitting he caused injuries that led to his girlfriends 5-month old daughters death. Efrain Gonzalez, 26, pleaded guilty Oct. 22 to battery resulting in death of a person less than 14 years old, court records show. Advertisement Hammond Police were called Sept. 29, 2019, to St. Catherines Hospital in East Chicago where the battered child was gasping for air, showing signs of child abuse, documents allege. She had bruising and swelling on the left side of her face, ear. Her left eye was completely swollen shut, court records state. A CT scan showed a fractured skull with brain bleeding. Advertisement The child was taken to the University of Chicagos Comer Childrens Hospital where she died Oct. 5, 2019. Her death was classified as a homicide from blunt force trauma. The childs mother told police Gonzalez, her boyfriend of three months, occasionally stayed with her at her Hammond home. He was there just before she laid the baby down for a nap and took a 15-minute shower. When she checked on the girl, she noticed she was breathing weird, almost gasping for air and had swelling over her left ear, records show. Gonzalez said he didnt know what happened, because the TV volume was up. No one else was home at the time, she said. She told him to call 911 and he told her to relax saying they would take the girl to the hospital, according to court documents. Later, in November 2019, Gonzalez again went to police, saying the girls death had been eating him up, according to court documents. The child was crying when he was watching TV, he said. She slipped from his grip when he picked her up and hit her head on the bassinet, he told officers, documents said. It all happened so fast and he was in shock, documents said. He had never hurt a kid in his life and would never think about hurting a kid, he told police. That day, he was drinking and had been doing cocaine, left over from a party the night before, court records allege. Gonzalez was originally charged with murder, three counts of neglect, two counts of aggravated battery and three counts of battery. GENEVA (Reuters) - Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, said on Monday that the U.N. rights chief would be welcome to visit the Xinjiang region in the near future. "We welcome people from all over the world who harbour no bias to come to Xinjiang for exchanges," he said at a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. "China also welcomes the visit by High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to China, including a trip to Xinjiang in the near future." He did not give details. Bachelet has long sought access to investigate alleged abuses against ethnic Uyghurs and her office said last month that conversations for a possible trip were underway. (Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Jon Boyle) China's embassy in Ukraine is asking citizens not to display "identifying symbols." In this photo, two persons watch a Chinese-language news report on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine at an appliance store in Hangzhou, a city near Shanghai, on February 25, 2022. Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images The Chinese embassy in Ukraine asked citizens not to display identifying symbols. Two days prior, the embassy said Chinese citizens should show their national flag when driving. China continues to avoid outwardly condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On Saturday, the Chinese embassy in Ukraine appealed to its citizens in the country to not highlight their identities in public. The recommendation comes two days after the embassy advised Chinese nationals to display their national flag when driving. In a WeChat post on Saturday, the embassy said that there's an uptick in "extreme behavior" in Ukraine that constitutes heightened security risks for Chinese citizens. "Don't highlight your identity or display identifying symbols," the embassy recommended in the post, addressing Chinese nationals. China has sought to walk a fine line in its approach to the invasion, even as Russia, its close ally, comes under increasing pressure from the west. China repeatedly avoided calling Russia's actions an invasion at a press conference on Thursday organized by China's foreign ministry. On a call with Russia's Vladimir Putin on Friday, Chinese president Xi Jinping urged Putin to resolve the situation through negotiations with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. In a statement on Sunday, Zelensky's office said Russian and Ukrainian delegations have agreed to meet for discussions on the Belarusian border. Chinese state-affiliated daily Global Times wrote in a report on Monday that at least one unnamed Chinese businesswoman based in Kyiv was harassed as China continued to pursue its current position on the conflict. On Saturday, she was heckled by locals at a gas station, the report wrote. She was also quoted as saying that Chinese students in Ukraine have had to head to bomb shelters in groups to avoid being harassed on the way. "Some agitated young Ukrainians must be thinking: China is on the side of Russia," the businesswoman was quoted as saying. Read the original article on Insider Feb. 27SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS voted last week to send the proposed $189 million fiscal year tax cap budget to aldermen for approval after administrators walked back more than $1.2 million in recommended raises and new positions. The budget was written using an FY 2023 tax cap of 3.57% an increase in tax revenue of $3,945,391 over the FY '22 school district appropriation of $183,959,257. Add in an increase in other revenues of $1,193,170 and a net increase in expenditures of $5,138,561, and the result is a FY '23 tax cap-compliant budget of $189,097,818. The $5.1 million increase in expenses includes $1.9 million in salaries, a $1.2 million bump in benefits (including a 6.5% rate increase), $1.2 million in added special education costs and a $3.3 million hike in transportation costs. The budget had contained $1.2 million in recommended new positions and salary increases, but during last week's public hearing, interim Superintendent Jenn Gillis hit the pause button on that proposal. "Upon further consideration over the last week, I do believe we need to pause and reflect," Gillis told board members. "I'm not recommending we move these additional positions forward at this time. We will continue to look at the needs within the district, our organization chart and the options we have internal(ly) to refine and shape our efficiencies. We will share more on this work in the coming months." The list of recommendations had included a $20,000 raise for the communications director and the addition of a full-time communications coordinator, a $20,000 raise for the chief information officer, and a $20,000 raise for the transportation director. New positions included a paralegal investigator and administrative assistant in the legal department, an administrative assistant and project manager in human resources, four bilingual liaisons and three English Language Learner (ELL) teachers for the equity and inclusion department. Story continues Jason Bonilla of Ward 5 said he is particularly concerned with the delay on the new positions, fearing it will impact the school district's goals of educational equity for all students. "When I hear words like pause or slow, it does raise a flag for me," Bonilla said. "This delays help to people who really need it." Gillis thanked the school board for their support of the budget. "We appreciate the thoughtful questions and feedback we received tonight," Gillis said. "This work is far from complete, and we will be mindful of this feedback as we move forward in the budget process." Only one person took part in last week's public hearing on the school budget Sue Hannan, president of the Manchester Education Association, the city's teachers union. "You are a new board with new ideas," Hannan said. "And I hope that your new ideas can be brought forth and heard and pondered and tossed around so that we don't end up with the same old, same old. "Right now, none of this is the same old, same old. And so I'm hopeful we can take grand steps to be able to put forth a budget that really works for the school district. The amazing amount of money that's being proposed right now is something we haven't seen for a long time, and it's very much appreciated." Officials call for law Mayor Joyce Craig, Public Works Deputy Director Tim Clougherty, state Rep. Matt Wilhelm and climate advocates took part in a news conference last week at which they encouraged U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen to pass clean energy investment legislation similar to that passed by the House of Representatives in November. Craig highlighted Manchester's new solar array, the largest in New Hampshire, which is expected to offset more than 2,700 metric tons of carbon emissions every year. The event was sponsored by the New Hampshire Union of Concerned Scientists. "In Manchester, we're continuing to invest in clean energy practices, including our recently completed work on our 3.3 megawatt solar array, now the largest in the state," Craig said in a statement. "It's imperative Congress pass a bill that makes bold investments needed to tackle the climate crisis and make it easier for communities to transition to clean energy. I want to thank our federal delegation for their past support on clean energy. "By continuing to support clean energy growth and investments, we'll continue to improve public health and create long-standing economic opportunities for all Granite Staters," Craig said. Input invited on new code The city is presenting 'Code-a-Palooza' on March 7 and 8 at the Palace Theater's Spotlight Room, 95 Hanover St. Code-a-Palooza is a public design studio, where city staff and consultants from Town Planning and Urban Design Collaborative will be working on the new Manchester Land Use Code from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. Roundtable discussions are scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. on both days and from 6 to 7 p.m. on March 7. A closing presentation will be made on March 8 at 6 p.m. "Please join us for any of those scheduled events or just drop by to talk about what is important to you in Manchester's built environment," says an announcement of the event. "We want to know your thoughts on topics like housing, bike lanes, sidewalks, parks, accessory dwelling units, streets, architecture, traffic, or anything else related to zoning and planning." Paul Feely is the City Hall reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Reach him at pfeely@unionleader.com. Sura Sohna could have been incarcerated for another 12 years A college project has turned into a life-altering experience for a 23-year- old jailed Black man who now has a future. Brandon Harris, a Davidson College student, embarked on a research project that told the story of his childhood friend, Sura Sohna. As a result of Harris work, Sohna who could have been in prison another 12 years was released from jail on February 8. Walking out of prison was one of the most beautiful days I ever had, Sohna told ABC News. Its like my mind cant really comprehend everything, but I know its go-time now. Sura Sonha (Courtesy: YouTube screen shot) There would be no go-time without Harris and his project, Telling stories of the ignored and forgotten. Harris and Sohna grew up together in Annapolis, Maryland, but their lives took different turns, according to Davidson College. The friends went to the same middle and high schools, but thats where the similarities end. While in high school, Harris received a scholarship to a prestigious private school. He did so well there that he received a full scholarship offer from Davidson. Sohna, on the other hand, had been getting in trouble since he was 12-years-old. A search of electronic court records shows a litany of cases that goes back years. In 2016, the 17-year-old Sohna was charged as an adult on 25 criminal counts that include burglary and theft. The Washington Post said prosecutors dropped many of those charges, and Sohna was released but continued to commit crimes. Court records show he failed to show at a December 2018 appearance on the burglary charge. Brandon Harris (Courtesy YouTube screen shot) In February 2019, Maryland State Troopers arrested Sohna and another man on motor vehicle theft charges during a traffic stop. Troopers discovered Sohna had several outstanding warrants, including for burglary and theft, according to a state patrol press release. This time, he went to jail. He was sentenced to 15-years in prison in January 2020 on one count of burglary. Story continues Harris told the Washington Post he had seen Sohnas mugshot in local media over the years and wondered about his friend. He reached out to him, first by letter and then with phone calls. Then, Harris approached his professor about doing the semester-long telling stories project, but with a shift. Sura Sohna was released from prison this morning. Sohnas friend, Brandon Harris, was seated in the courtroom when the decision was read aloud. Harris' advocacy, through his independent study project at Davidson, played a key role in the courts decision. https://t.co/KPFM2RQGUV Davidson College (@DavidsonCollege) February 8, 2022 Originally, I planned to research different stories and write an essay every two weeks, Harris said, according to Davidson College, but I quickly realized that in order to do this well, I needed to dive deeper into a single story, instead. He researched Sohnas life and interviewed the victims of his crimes, police, prosecutors, Sohna and his family. Harris presented his findings during a more than two-hour Zoom presentation now on YouTube that includes information on what its like to spend time in jail. He also received permission from the office of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan so Sohna, in jail at the time, could attend the broadcast. In December 2021, Sohnas lawyer asked a judge to reconsider his clients 15-year sentence, and the judge agreed. The judge also let Harris present his findings during a February 8 hearing. Harris, according to the Washington Post, told the judge of Sohnas difficult upbringing marked by poverty and instability. Harris said his research shows Sohna simply made bad choices that arent indicative of who he really is. The judge agreed. Sohna was released the day of the hearing. Were so quick to judge a person based on one action or one decision, Harris said in the Davidson story. I believe everyone is a product of their own experiences, and weve moved away from trying to understand where people are coming from. Sura has great potential in his life; he just needs people who believe in him. The post College students project helps free his childhood friend from prison appeared first on TheGrio. A cache of chat logs belonging to the Conti ransomware group have leaked online thanks to an apparent insider, who claimed to have objected to the group's support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The leak was shared with VX-Underground, a malware research group that collects malware samples and data. The leaked data set has about 400 files containing tens of thousands of internal chat logs of the Conti group in their native Russian. The files hold about a year's worth of messages dating back to January 2021, some six months after the group first formed in mid-2020. Ransomware experts are already poring over the files to learn more about the internal operations of the group. Security researcher Bill Demirkapi translated the files into English. "Glory to Ukraine," the leaker said in their message. Conti ransomware group previously put out a message siding with the Russian government. Today a Conti member has begun leaking data with the message "Fuck the Russian government, Glory to Ukraine!" You can download the leaked Conti data here: https://t.co/BDzHQU5mgw pic.twitter.com/AL7BXnihza vx-underground (@vxunderground) February 27, 2022 Conti is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group, which allows affiliates to rent access to its infrastructure to launch attacks. Experts say Conti is based in Russia and may have ties to Russian intelligence. Earlier this week, Conti said in a blog post first reported by Reuters and also seen by TechCrunch that it had "full support" for the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and vowed to retaliate against critical infrastructure if Russia is hit with cyber or military attacks. In an updated post, the group claimed it is not allied with any government, but reiterated: "We will use our resources in order to strike back if the well being and safety of peaceful citizens will be at stake due to American cyber aggression." Story continues Conti has been blamed for ransomware attacks targeting dozens of businesses, including Fat Face and Shutterfly, as well as critical infrastructure, like emergency dispatch centers and first-responders networks. Last May, Conti knocked out the networks of the Irish healthcare service, forcing a nationwide shutdown of IT systems that led to severe delays across the country and cost the government more than $100 million in recovery costs. According to Ransomware, a crowdsourced ransomware tracking site, Conti has collected more than $30.1 million in ransomware payments to date. "The leak is a significant blow for Conti, not least because their affiliates and other associates will have lost confidence in the operation," said Brett Callow, a ransomware expert and threat analyst at Emsisoft. "Theyll undoubtedly be wondering when the operation was compromised, whether law enforcement was involved and whether there are any breadcrumbs which could lead to them." "Lots of RaaS operations have connections to Ukraine, including those that are based in Russia. It is, therefore, a tactical blunder for an operation to publicly take sides as they risk pissing off individuals who have inside knowledge of their operations," said Callow. The leak of Conti's files is part of a wider effort by hacktivists and security allies, including the formation of Ukraine's "IT army," targeting Russian sites, services and infrastructure in response to the Kremlin's invasion. Dublin police say the man seen here on this video screengrab is believed to be responsible for stealing keys out of a parked car waiting service at a car dealership, then breaking into the home of the vehicle owner's terminally ill mother in Columbus a few days later. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information. Central Ohio Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of a suspect who broke into a vehicle in Dublin that was being repaired and then into the Columbus home of the vehicle's owner. According to Dublin police, a Honda being repaired at a dealership on the 6700 block of Sawmill Road was broken into Jan. 23 while it was parked at the dealership. Items in the trunk that belonged to the owner's terminally ill mother were among the items that were stolen, police said. Car thefts on the rise: Vehicles left running unattended in cold lead to rise in Columbus car thefts In addition, Dublin police said keys to the Columbus home of the vehicle owner's mother were also stolen in the vehicle break-in. An attempt was made to change the locks at the home, Columbus police said, but a few days after the keys were stolen the ill woman's home was the target of a break-in. Property was stolen from the woman's home, police said, including a 2016 Audi A5 that was parked in the garage. Dublin and Columbus police are working together and believe the two thefts are related. Anyone with information is asked to call Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS, use the free P3 Tips mobile application or provide information online at www.stopcrime.org. All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous and a special coding system is used to provide the reward. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Reward offered for info on related car thefts in Dublin and Columbus SYDNEY (AP) It was the silence of the sea that first rattled the teenage snorkeler, followed by a sense of horror as she saw the coral below had been drained of its kaleidoscopic color. This once-vibrant site on Australias Great Barrier Reef a site shed previously likened to a busy capital city had become a ghost town, the victim of yet another mass bleaching event. On that day in 2020, Ava Shearer got out of the water and cried. Today, with the release of a United Nations climate report that paints a dire picture of the Great Barrier Reefs future, the now-17-year-old marine science student and snorkeling guide wonders what will be left of the imperiled ecosystem by the time she finishes her degree at Australias James Cook University. I definitely worry about it, says Shearer, who grew up along the World Heritage-listed natural wonder off Australias northeast coast. I fear there might not be anything for me to study. There is much for the world to fear in Mondays Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which bluntly states that the Great Barrier Reef is in crisis and suffering grave impacts from climate change, with frequent and severe coral bleaching caused by warming ocean temperatures. The worst bleaching event, in 2016, affected over 90% of the reef, and a punishing succession of bleaching incidents has left the northern and middle portion of the reef system in a highly degraded state, the report said. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet so large, in fact, that it is the only living thing on earth visible from space. It stretches over 2,300 kilometres (1,400 miles) and is home to more than 1,500 species of tropical fish, plus dolphins, whales, birds, and even giant, century-old clams. Pre-pandemic, it contributed 6.4 billion Australian dollars (US$4.6 billion) to the economy every year, largely thanks to tourism, and typically supports around 64,000 jobs. Story continues That bleaching will continue along the reef is a virtual certainty, according to the IPCC. Perhaps even more ominously, the report suggests it may simply be too late to stop bleaching entirely. Even if the global community achieves its goal of limiting future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, that still wouldnt be sufficient to prevent more frequent mass bleaching events, though it may reduce their occurrence, the IPCC found. The report predicts that ocean warming and marine heatwaves will cause the loss and degradation of tropical shallow coral reefs, leading to widespread destruction of coral reef ecosystems. The report points to three previous mass bleaching events from 2016 to 2020 that caused significant coral loss, and warns that there has been mass mortality of some coral species. For those who struggle to understand how devastating bleaching is, diver Tony Fontes likens it to a wildfire under the ocean. Fontes, who recently retired after 40 years as a diving instructor on the Great Barrier Reef, remembers diving on reefs that had recently been bleached and swimming through water that had turned milky-white from dead coral tissue. He would emerge covered in slime. You sit on the boat trying to wash it off and you just realize youve just swum across a reef that a couple weeks ago was full of life and vibrant and now a bushfire has gone through it and the coral is dead, and the rest of the marine life will just have to move on or die off, he says. Its a really, really sad, heart-wrenching experience. Yet despite the looming threat in its own back yard, Australia has lagged behind other wealthy countries in its greenhouse gas emissions reduction performance and pledges. Last year, a climate think tank ranked Australia as the worst climate performer among comparable developed countries since nations pledged in the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit global warming. The issue is politically fraught in Australia, which is one of the worlds largest exporters of coal and liquified natural gas, and one of the highest greenhouse gas emitters per capita because of its heavy reliance on coal-fired power. Last month, the government pledged to spend another AU$1 billion over nine years improving the reefs health, but critics argued that the money would do nothing to address rising ocean temperatures, the main threat to coral. The consequences of inaction go beyond the ecological to the economical: If bleaching persists, the IPCC estimates 10,000 jobs and AU$1 billion in revenue would be lost every year from declines in tourism alone. Around a billion people worldwide rely on coral reefs for their everyday living, says Scott Heron, a physics professor and reef science expert at James Cook University. Which is why, he says, a failure to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions could have devastating effects for humanity. Its going to affect real people and real peoples lives, Heron says. Its going to make a massive change to not just people in Australia, but people who subsist on reef services. And so were really putting this into a frame of endangering human life. Beyond the reef, the report warns that climate change will lead to a surge in heat-related deaths in Australia, the extinction of certain animal species, and more wildfires. Koalas are at risk of local extinctions due to increasing drought and rising temperatures, the IPCC said. And rising sea levels and storm surges led to the recent extinction of a rodent species called Bramble Cay melomys, which lived on a remote cay in the northern Great Barrier Reef, the report said. The frequency and severity of dangerous wildfire conditions is already increasing, due in part to climate change, the IPCC said, citing the catastrophic Black Summer fires of late 2019 and early 2020 that killed at least 33 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. Even Australias famed eucalyptus trees, which are naturally resilient to the countrys seasonal fires, may not be able to withstand the ferocity and frequency of the predicted blazes, which could lead to the decimation of forests, the IPCC warned. Were seeing conditions which really werent projected for some decades ... and yet theyre appearing pretty much now, and so to some extent we could well be under-estimating the risks associated with things like fires, says IPCC vice-chair Mark Howden, director of the Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University. Still, despite the grim predictions, Howden urges Australians not to lose hope and to focus instead on solutions, primarily by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also by reducing other reef stressors such as over-fishing. The report also provides extensive lists of climate adaptation strategies, such as improving building standards so that homes stay cooler during potentially deadly heatwaves. Does this report identify whole areas Australians should be concerned about? Absolutely, and it would be hard to understate the comprehensiveness and significance of those impacts, Howden says. Does it also portray a whole series of things that we can take action on which take the sting out of the worst-case scenarios in the future? Absolutely. ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. On February 25, 2022, Ambassador Qin Gang visited Los Angeles International Studies Learning Center and had cordial communication with its faculty and students. Chinese Consul General in Los Angeles Zhang Ping was present at the visit. Ambassador Qin and his delegation were warmly welcomed by the school's Principal Michael Santiago, Superintendent of Local District East of Los Angeles Unified School District Jose Huerta, as well as the schools faculty and students. The Principal briefed Ambassador Qin on the joint visit of then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and then US Vice President Joe Biden to the school in 2012 and the establishment of sister relations with Qingchengshan Middle School of Sichuan Province, which was also jointly visited by then Vice Presidents Xi and Biden. Accompanied by him, Ambassador Qin watched the photos of President Xi's visit and his reply letter to the students on display. Ambassador Qin conveyed President Xis greetings to the schools faculty and students. The Principal expressed his appreciation and best regards to President Xi, and said the school would continue engagements with China to carry forward China-US friendship and live up to the expectations of the two Presidents. Ambassador Qin had lively interactions with the students on mutual perception of Chinese and American youths, sports, how to serve as Chinese ambassador to the US, how China and the US can maintain world peace, etc. He encouraged the students to continue learning the Chinese language, and strengthen exchanges with Chinese youth in various ways, so that the seeds of friendship sown by the two Presidents will blossom and bear fruit, just as President Xi said in his reply letter, injecting youthful vigor to the friendship between China and the US. Located in South Gate, Los Angeles, Los Angeles International Studies Learning Center is a local public middle school specialized in language and cultural education, with the aim of cultivating global citizens. The school provides foreign languages courses, including Chinese, Spanish, French and Japanese. More than 100 students are learning the Chinese language. The school established sister relations with Qingchengshan Middle School of Sichuan Province in 2021. Disabled dancers are making movement more inclusive and accessible. (Photo: Getty Creative stock image) At age 14, Kate Stanforth was training to be a professional ballet dancer when she suddenly became unwell. She was ultimately diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a chronic illness characterized by extreme fatigue and one that makes dancing while standing upright difficult. But Stanforth, now in her mid-20s, hasnt given up her dancing dreams. As the owner of the Kate Stanforth Academy of Dance in her native England and a popular TikTok presence with more than 2.3 million likes, the disabled dancer who also has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a series of inherited disorders affecting the connective tissue, and vasovagal syncope, in which the body responds to certain triggers by fainting has become a leading champion of inclusive dance and compassionate movement. Teaching and dancing from her wheelchair or on the floor, Stanforth specializes in adapting choreography to suit both her needs and those of her audience, which includes people who have struggled to find accessible options and those who have felt discouraged from dancing because of a disability or health concern. From adaptive handstands to Broadway-inspired routines to barre exercises performed lying down so as to avoid the dizziness that can come with changing positions while standing, her videos are focused on finding joy within the body and moving it in whatever way works best for the individual. TikTok has made Stanforths dance lessons even more accessible, enabling her to reach a wider audience without so much as entering a studio. Shes open about her own physicality, telling viewers, My legs shake when I overexert myself while demonstrating a routine to Adeles new single. And along with choreography to the Encanto soundtrack or Billie Eilishs Bad Guy, shes also using her platform to tackle discussions on disability and accessibility within dance and the world at large. One in 5 people have a disability, but when Im scrolling through the [TikTok] For You page I dont see that representation on the platform, Stanforth, who also works as a disability activist and model, tells Yahoo Life. I want to be a positive figure on TikTok representing the disabled community. And, more than anything, I want to show the world my love for dance and help push the dance world into being a more inclusive industry. Story continues Other disabled dancers are also using TikTok to build up a community that is inclusive, safe and adaptable for anyone. In California, model Pansy St. Battie performs burlesque from her wheelchair, while Kaylee Bays, who has EDS, posts about ableism in the industry alongside footage of her moves, writing, Dancing with #ChronicIllness can be frustrating yet healing. British dancer, model, actress and medical ethics researcher Leah Rachel, meanwhile, went viral in December 2020 after sharing a video of herself tap dancing while sitting in a wheelchair. An ambulatory wheelchair user with EDS, she explained in the posts caption that she only began performing after getting her chair a few years ago, noting I dont really know how to dance without it. She tells Yahoo Life that she hopes the rise in inclusive dance content helps offer more representation and reframe how the disabled community is perceived. The way it normalizes disabled bodies and the way it normalizes disabled dancers, I think is very useful in changing perspectives on what disabled people are capable of, she says. Along the way, she, Stanforth and other disabled dancers are making movement more accessible and adaptable not only to those in their community but to anyone needing a reminder that do what you can is more than enough. From tap dancing to burlesque to ballet to club-worthy choreography, inclusive dance is showing that theres room for everyone to find the joy in moving their bodies. Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter. By Luiza Ilie BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The day before Russia invaded Ukraine, Iryna Kyrychenko and her husband went to sleep thinking they would take their two young daughters to visit their grandmother the next day. Instead, they woke up in their house in Kyiv to sounds of missile explosions, hastily packed some clothes, and fled. First they went to friends in a village nearby, then to a city in western Ukraine, then across the Romanian border, leaving Kyrychenkos husband, who at 38 is of conscription age, behind. Three days later, Iryna Kyrychenko, a 37-year-old operations manager at a tech company, and her two daughters, Xenia, 11 and Alisa, 7, reached the Romanian capital Bucharest, miles removed from a life in Kyiv she describes as "very simple, very nice". Nearly 400,000 people had fled into central Europe by Sunday, with queues at border crossings stretching back for kilometres. "When we were driving, some rockets exploded near us," she said about their journey in the room she booked at a budget hotel near Bucharest's main railway station. "It was really dangerous ... the kids right now are scared of airplanes here and if somewhere in the street there is a big noise, they are scared." She said the 500-km (300-mile) drive from the village not far from Kyiv to the city of Chernivtsi in western Ukraine near the northern Romanian border crossing of Siret took them 14 hours as not all petrol stations had fuel. Kyrychenko's husband drove them as close to the border checkpoint as he could, but the long line of vehicles meant she and her daughters went the last 6 km (4 miles) on foot. After a two-hour wait, they crossed into Romania on Friday morning, where they were met by volunteers carrying food, hot drinks and offers of transport and lodging. "The kids were full of food, snacks, some fruit, water, toys also," she said as Xenia played on a tablet near her. The teddy bears volunteers had given them were resting on the windowsill next to the school supplies they brought with them from Kyiv. Story continues Her voice crumbled as she recalled how "the children were crying because they left their father". After resting for a few hours at a volunteer's house, Kyrychenko, who is Russian Ukrainian, pressed on to Bucharest, where she now spends frantic hours on Telegram channels looking at pictures of her devastated home town and news of civilian buildings being hit, including a children's hospital. She is also helping her company colleagues as they too cross borders and make their way to Bucharest and Warsaw. "It's very hard to cross the border now, when we were crossing there were maybe 100-200 people, but right now it's maybe 3,000. It's a crowd, everybody is nervous, no water, they stay all night on the street with the kids, it's cold weather." Kyrychenko's mother, brother, elderly grandparents and mother-in-law are still in Kyiv and unable to leave. She said she will stay in Bucharest for now but could later move to Lisbon where her employer has an office. "We're scared about our husbands, our brothers and other men who stay here," she said. "Life in Kyiv before was very simple, very nice, we can say anything we want, we can do everything we want. Kyiv is very beautiful, very ancient city, I'm scared that they destroy it. We don't know how to go back." (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Additional reporting by Octav Ganea; Editing by Philippa Fletcher) BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is planning to impose new sanctions on Belarus this week for helping the Russian invasion of Ukraine, hitting exports, oligarchs, central bank and cutting Belarusian banks off from SWIFT, a senior EU official said on Monday. "In terms of the economic sanctions package, it's imminent, it'll probably be proposed either today or tomorrow," the official, who asked not to be named, said. "I would expect that in the course of this week we will introduce restrictive measures against the most important economic sectors in Belarus," he said. The official said the aim will be to stop exports of any further Belarusian goods and that will include mineral fuels, tobacco, wood, cement and iron steel. The EU will also remove some of the loopholes that were still there on exports of potash. "We're also doing the export restrictions on dual use goods, and in addition we're now looking at whether we can replicate what we're doing with the Central bank with Russia and on the swift measures with the Belarusian economy," the official said. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski) PARIS (Reuters) - France's foreign ministry said on Monday that it was urgent to conclude the Iran nuclear talks this week. Iran had said earlier on Monday that reviving a 2015 nuclear deal is possible if Western powers take a political decision to resolve three remaining issues, as indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington enter a crucial stage. Diplomats from parties involved in the negotiations have said they have entered a crucial stage, while Tehran rejects any "fabricated deadline" for the talks. The 2015 deal between Iran and world powers limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium to make it harder for it to develop material that could be used for nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta) KENNEBUNK, Maine The RSU 21 School Board will give community members a chance Monday evening to share their thoughts and concerns about mask requirements at local schools but a few of them got a head start, making their opinions known bright and early Monday morning. Several people, including parents, a student and a former school board candidate, bundled up for the 12-degree weather and stood at the entrance of the Middle School of the Kennebunks, waving signs calling for the end of the school district's face mask mandate. What if we shared? Task force in the Kennebunks to explore fire departments splitting costs A few passing motorists, including a school bus driver, honked their horns in support. Former school board candidate James McMann, left, of Kennebunkport, and others wave at passing motorists during a mask-related demonstration in front of the Middle School of the Kennebunks on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. One of the protesters, Ryan McQueen of Arundel, said Maines state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic is over, so the decision of whether to wear a mask at school should be up to parents and their children. He has the right to decide for himself, McQueen said, referring to his son, Devlyn, an eighth-grader at the school. Masks off? Portsmouth schools may change policy. Community views are split. Devlyn McQueen joined his father and others at the demonstration, toting a sign that said Free Our Faces that was cut to resemble the bars of a jail cell. Honestly, its stupid, he said. Having to wear a mask eight hours a day ... its messing with our health. Eighth-grader Devlyn McQueen protests Regional School Unit 21's mask mandate during a demonstration in front of the Middle School of the Kennebunks on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. Former school board candidate James McMann said it is terrible and unfortunate that the district is still dealing with a mask mandate for students. He said students have shown throughout the pandemic that they get COVID-19, get through their illness, and survive. And still, here we are ... still being forced to comply to do something thats just irrelevant, McMann said. 'Risk decreasing': New Hampshire school mask mandates ending McMann said RSU 21 and school boards in general are not taking the decisions and viewpoints of parents into consideration. Theyre just not allowing us to have a seat at the table, he said. They listen, but theyre not moving forward with anything we have to say. Its terrible. Story continues Ryan McQueen took issue with the school board providing community members with only 30 minutes to speak about masks at Monday night's meeting. Theyre giving 30 minutes for the parents, and three minutes each, McQueen said. So only 10 parents can stand up and say whether they think their kids should wear a mask or not? Thats what theyre giving us ... Thats what they think is fair. Don't pick me: The only candidate on ballot in Kennebunk's school board recall hopes she doesn't win The school board meeting will be held in-person at Kennebunk Elementary School and virtually on Zoom, starting at 6 p.m. At the meeting, RSU 21 Superintendent Terri Cooper and Dr. Donald Burgess, the school districts consulting physician, will review the latest guidance for the pandemic from the Maine School Board Association, according to a meeting agenda. This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kennebunk ME parents urge end to RSU 21 school mask mandate TEMPLETON The Narragansett Regional School District is the latest to drop its mask mandate. When state rules regarding masks in public schools expire on Feb. 28, masks and face coverings will become optional in all of districts schools, according to officials. The decision comes after the NRSD School Committee voted unanimously to repeal the mask mandate at its meeting on Feb. 23. The move was made in response to recent guidance changes from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). At this time, all K-12 school-aged children have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and all staff have had the opportunity to receive their booster shot, said Superintendent Christopher Casavant in an Feb. 25 email sent to district families. In addition, the number of COVID-19 positive cases, the rate of infection, and COVID-19 hospitalizations have all dramatically declined in Massachusetts. With this in mind, Narragansett Regional School District will no longer require masks in our schools. Masks will still be mandatory while riding on a school bus or visiting the health office, Casavant noted. In addition, masks would still be strongly recommended for anyone who returns to school after testing positive for COVID-19, and for any student or staff with symptoms of COVID. Any staff or student who choses to continue wearing a mask will by fully supported by the district, Casavant said. According to DESE and DPH guidelines, unvaccinated individuals are still encouraged to wear a mask. Testing for students and staff will continue to made available on a voluntary basis. We will continue to make the health and safety of our students and staff our number one priority and we are excited to be taking one more step towards normalcy for all, Casavant wrote. School officials in Ashburnham-Westminster, Gardner, Winchendon and Monty Tech have all announced that masks will be optional when students return to class following February break. This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Narragansett Regional School District to drop its mask mandate Egypt's glamorous city of Aswan by the Nile River is currently hosting dozens of artists and filmmakers during the 6th Aswan International Women Film Festival (AIWFF), which screens over 50 films from about 40 countries in support of women's causes and rights. The festival's founder and president, screenwriter Mohamed Abdel-Khalek believes that both the cinema industry and women in Egypt have challenges, worries and creativities. "The discrimination against women in the society casts its shadow on the cinema industry," he said, calling for "an Egyptian cinema industry free from discrimination." Held on Feb. 23-28, the 6th AIWFF screens 12 feature films, 24 short films, eight films under a new category called Films with Impact, four films in the Egyptian film competition and five films in the workshop competition. The feature films include As in Heaven (Denmark), Secret Name (France), The New Girl (Argentina), Quareer (Saudi Arabia), Peacock's Paradise (Italy and Germany) and Lingui (Chad, France, Germany and Belgium). The all-female jury for the feature film competition is headed by Romanian actress Cristina Flutur, and includes French actress and director Marilyne Canto, Egyptian actress Basma and others. Basma said that it was her second time to participate in the AIWFF, the first was through a film of hers and this time through her jury membership. She stressed that the festival doesn't only support women's causes but also women's filmmaking. Among the 24 contesting short films are Love Stories on the Move (Romania), Deaf (Spain), Good Thanks, You? (UK), Jeans (Morocco) and The Sea Bride (Bahrain). The Egyptian film competition is joined by four films: Abu Saddam, Full Moon, Cream of the Crop and Back Home. Funded by the European Union delegation to Egypt, the EU offers during AIWFF an award for the best film from EU and Mediterranean countries discussing women's issues. This edition of AIWFF has presented honorary awards to Somali women's rights activist Hibaaq Osman, Egyptian film director Inaam Mohamed Ali, Egyptian actress Sawsan Badr and French actress and filmmaker Marilyne Canto. "I was so touched by being invited to a film festival on women, and I am honored by being member of its jury," Canto told Xinhua, noting it was her first time to be present in a festival advocating women. The activities of AIWFF include symposiums on women and the cinema industry, workshops on filmmaking and art galleries on the role of women. Lebanese actress Katia Kaady said that such a festival "gives women a push toward success not only in arts, but in everything in the society." Hollywoods biggest stars were back together in the room where it happens for the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards and some history was made as the mostly deaf cast of Apple TV+s dramedy about a child of deaf adults, CODA, clinched the top prize. Original Hamilton cast members Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr. and Daveed Diggs set the tone for Sundays ceremony at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., with a light-hearted opening segment celebrating the shows return to a live, in-person format amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Together again, finally, Odom said. We return to a world where all we have to do to hang out like this is get dressed up, show up, get swabbed, sanitized, screened, masked, vaccinated, boosted, rapid tested and PCR-cleared within 48 hours. Now whos ready to party? The Hamilton trio later returned to announce the nights biggest honor, with the heartfelt CODA winning best performance by a cast in a motion picture. Speaking through an ASL interpreter, Marlee Matlin, who played the deaf mom to a teenage hearing girl, spoke on deaf representation in movies. This validates the fact that we, deaf actors, can work just like anybody else. We look forward to more opportunities for deaf actors, Matlin signed, before teaching the audience how to sign I love you. Earlier in the ceremony, CODA star Troy Kotsur became the first deaf actor to win an individual SAG Awards trophy. He was named best supporting actor in a film for his performance as the family patriarch. Sundays 28th Annual SAG Awards was wildly different from last years edition, which was pre-taped and shortened to an hour due to the pandemic. Were following the most up-to-date safety guidelines tonight, and if anyone breaks the rules, our COVID-compliance officers are the guards from Squid Game, Diggs deadpanned during the opening segment, referring to Netflixs hit South Korean drama series. Squid Game, which centers on a deadly competition, was a major winner at Sundays ceremony, taking home three trophies. Lee Jung-Jae won best actor in a drama series, and Jung Ho-Yeon won best actress in the genre. Story continues Will Smith won the first SAG honor of his career when he was named best actor in a movie for his portrayal of Venus and Serena Williams eccentric father in King Richard. Jessica Chastain, who starred as the title televangelist in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, won best actress in a movie. And Ariana DeBose, an original member of the Hamilton ensemble, won the SAG trophy for best supporting actress after dazzling as Anita in the Steven Spielberg-directed West Side Story. Its taken a long time for me to feel comfortable calling myself an actor, DeBose said. My roots come from the dance world and the Broadway stage, and the Anita that we see on the screen took every bit of me. On the TV side of the award show, Ted Lasso won best performance by an ensemble in a comedy series, with star Jason Sudeikis also winning best actor in the genre for his portrayal of an upbeat soccer coach. Succession, about a family fighting for control of their media empire, won best performance by an ensemble in a drama series. As the cast accepted the honor, star Brian Cox earned a standing ovation for a stirring speech about censorship in Russia after the countrys invasion of Ukraine. The thing thats really distressed me is whats happening in Russia, to my fellow actors and actresses and performers, and writers and critics, they are told under pain of high treason that they cannot say a word about Ukraine, Cox said. And I think that is pretty awful. And I think we should all stand together. Michael Keaton won best actor in limited series or movie for his role on Hulus Dopesick, which explored Americas struggle with opioid addiction. The veteran actor was in the restroom when his name was announced, leading to presenter Salma Hayek to look around the room for a good minute before he ran up, rolled on the stage and gave his acceptance speech. He broke down in tears as he remembered his nephew Michael, who died from fentanyl, a prescription opioid, and heroin abuse. Helen Mirren, a five-time SAG Awards winner and 13-time nominee, was honored Sunday as the events lifetime achievement award honoree. Sundays show marked the first in-person SAG Awards since 1997 that didnt take place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. By Sanjeev Miglani and Shilpa Jamkhandikar NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to send four senior ministers to Ukraine's border nations, a government source said on Monday, to help in the rescue of thousands of its citizens who remain trapped more than four days after Russia's invasion of the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met senior officials on Monday to discuss evacuation efforts, amid rising concerns back home about the safety of some 16,000 Indians still in Ukraine, most of them students. Ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju & VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation, according to an Indian government source. Indians make up about a quarter of the 76,000 foreign students studying in Ukraine, mainly on medical courses, according to official estimates. Thousands of African students are also stranded in the country. Late on Sunday night, India's embassy in Poland issued an advisory, saying it had arranged for buses at the Shehyni border in Ukraine, for those stranded there, to cross over into Poland. Opposition leaders and parents of students have urged Modi to take urgent measures to evacuate the remaining students out of Ukraine. "We can't abandon our own people," opposition lawmaker and Modi's main opponent, Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet on Monday, asking that federal government share a detailed evacuation plan. Fears of being caught up in the fighting, long traffic jams and severe weather meant students were reluctant to heed the Indian government's suggestion they make their own arrangements to reach the border with Poland, Romania or Slovakia, Reuters reported on Friday. (Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Raju Gopalakrishnan) Deborah Adeimy, who is running for Congress in Florida, poses with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Courtesy Deborah Adeimy Would-be lawmakers looking to boost their own political fortunes were all over CPAC. Some were angling for Trump's endorsement. Winning the former president's attention could translate into big attention they wouldn't otherwise get. ORLANDO, Florida Deborah Adeimy leaned over in her maroon Dolce and Gabbana dress and glittery American flag heels to meet a reporter typing away on her laptop at eye level. An impromptu show-and-tell session ensued. Adeimy said she was running for Congress to represent former President Donald Trump's Palm Beach, Florida, congressional district. She whipped out her iPhone and pulled up a photo that showed her smiling next to Trump. "After we talked he said, 'I'll be watching you!'" Adeimy said of her meeting with Trump three days earlier at a "Take Back Congress" summit and fundraiser that the former president hosted at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. "And he did this," she added, impersonating the former president and pointing her index finger to the reporter. While big-name speakers dominated the just-concluded Conservative Political Action Conference at the Rosen Shingle Creek hotel, Adeimy is part of a passionate subculture that aspires to elected office and for days will roam the event space's halls and exhibit fair hoping to meet and maybe snag a photo and a few seconds of conversation with a Trumpworld A lister. Even Trump himself. "It's great meeting like-minded people who have the same goals as I running for Congress and winning so we can share best practices and just be mentors to each other or guidance counselors to each other," said Ingrid Centurion, who is running for Congress in South Carolina, to, as she said, "replace RINO Nancy Mace." 'We test people here' Centurion and Adeimy, like many budding politicians who came to CPAC, were using the conference as an opportunity to boost their political prospects. Story continues Conference attendees wore Trump-bedazzled hats, shoes, dresses, and T-shirts. One attendee walking next to Julie Hall, who is running for Congress in Massachusetts, showed a reporter a gingerbread cookie she made in Trump's likeness. Were this a Star Trek convention, they'd probably be the fans dressed in pointy Vulcan ears or Klingon battle gear, pursuing William Shatner or Patrick Stewart for a few words of wisdom. But whether in movies or politics, today's fan can become tomorrow's star. "I have had more congressional candidates introduce themselves to me than I ever have before," said Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union that organizes CPAC. "Pretty much everywhere we walk we are approached by people running," said Rep. Greg Steube, a Republican of Florida. Members of Congress and would-be lawmakers know that winning over hard-core conservatives is crucial, particularly for a primary. The event can help people connect with the right consultants, communications professionals, or social media strategists. GOP Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee told Insider that successfully navigating CPAC is no small feat, for first-timers or established politicians. "We test people here," the two-term lawmaker said. "When you're on that stage, it's your opportunity to win the hearts of people who are in the conservative movement." Earlier on Saturday, Fox Nation held a live event where CPAC headliners stopped in to be interviewed, including JD Vance, the author of "Hillbilly Elegy" who is running for Senate in Ohio. "A lot of these folks can be helpful and hopefully I can be helpful to them," Vance told Insider. "But more than anything it's inspiring to be around a bunch of conservatives who are actually forward-thinking about the future of the country." Calvin Wimbish is running for Congress in Florida. Kimberly Leonard/Insider Candidates seek Trump's support Adeimy hasn't yet secured a Trump endorsement, but the multi-generational Palm Beach native and longtime businesswoman said she was hopeful. She faces a crowded Republican primary field for Florida's 21st District (currently occupied by Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel). GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California said making a splash at CPAC can be a chicken-and-egg type conundrum for those entering political life from out of the blue. "First time candidates' problem is they have to be seen as a candidate. They also have to be seen as somebody who has paid their dues," the 10-term lawmaker told Insider between posing for selfies with CPAC attendees. Schlapp said he thought Republicans felt an eagerness to run ahead of 2022 like never before because "Democrats are so radicalized." "People are saying, 'I'm going to run. I'm worried about where my country is,'" he said. Hall, the candidate running for Congress in deep-blue Massachusetts, said CPAC helped a conservative like herself feel less alone. She said she was inspired by the speakers. "Any of us can do this if we work hard," she said. "I think that's the message you get here." Terry Namkung, a first-time candidate hoping to unseat 15-term Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, said he'd come to CPAC to learn the ropes. "I wanted to network and see the different kinds of conservatives here," the Air Force veteran told Insider. And while well aware that fellow attendees were sizing him up, Namkung said he, too, was evaluating the entire process. The goal, Namkung said, should be "putting folks into Congress that are qualified. Not just those that, you know, are trying to become celebrities." The political process was like a "budding flower" and CPAC networking was one piece, said John Gibbs, who is running in a Republican primary against Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan. "This conference is a beautiful example of Democracy at work because regular people come from all over the country to network and learn how to be part of saving the future," said Gibbs, who'd already scored a coveted Trump endorsement. Gibbs attended CPAC while on a comeback trail of sorts. He worked in the Trump administration under Secretary Ben Carson at Department of Housing and Urban Development, and in 2020, Trump nominated him to lead the Office of Personnel Management. But the appointment stalled in the US Senate amid an uproar over tweets Gibbs posted floating a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta taking part in a Satanic ritual. Other candidates at CPAC were angling for Trump's endorsement, including Calvin Wimbish, who is running for Congress in Florida, and Ron Eller, a physician assistant and businessman who is running for Congress in Mississippi. Ron Eller is a physician assistant and businessman who is running for Congress in Mississippi. Kimberly Leonard/Insider "I just need 30 seconds," Eller told Insider. He most urgently wanted to tell Trump about how he was running for the seat currently occupied by Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat chairing the January 6 Select Committee one that holds Trump responsible for the mob attack on the US Capitol. Eller said he also hoped to score endorsements from other CPAC attendees such Carson and as Mehmet Oz, the TV doctor who is running for Senate in Pennsylvania. Insider was not able to immediately reach Eller following CPAC to determine whether he had any immediate luck. "It would be a game changer," Eller said of the possibility of getting Trump's endorsement. Read the original article on Business Insider International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan delivers a statement at the Special Peace Jurisdiction offices in Bogota, October 27, 2021. Photo by DANIEL MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images An international prosecutor at the Hague announced he's seeking to investigate alleged war crimes. Ukraine has alleged to the ICC that Russia has committed crimes in its territory since 2014. Top rights groups warned that ongoing bombings against Ukrainian citizens may be war crimes. The International Criminal Court's prosecutor announced on Monday that he is seeking approval to investigate Russia for possible "war crimes and crimes against humanity" in Ukraine. "I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine," Karim Khan said in a statement. Khan added: "Given the expansion of the conflict in recent days, it is my intention that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my Office that are committed by any party to the conflict on any part of the territory of Ukraine." Ukraine first accused Russia of committing crimes in its territory to the court in 2014, and the ICC has been investigating the matter since. The ICC declined a previous investigation into Ukraine after Khan's predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, announced in 2020 that she had enough evidence to open a probe. Neither Ukraine nor Russia is a member of the ICC. Earlier on Monday, the US State Department accused Russia of "widespread" human rights abuses in Ukraine after reports of Russian forces firing missiles at civilian areas. "Russia's invasion has damaged and destroyed schools, hospitals, radio stations, and homes, killing and injuring civilians, including children," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement during a UN Human Rights Council meeting. Top human rights groups also warned that ongoing bombings and attacks against Ukrainian citizens might constitute as war crimes which Ukraine has previously lashed out at Russia for as a possibility. Story continues When Russia first launched its attack against Ukraine on Thursday, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations delivered a blistering speech condemning Russia and its ambassador. "There is no purgatory for war criminals," Ukraine's ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said to Russia's ambassador at the end of the meeting. "They go straight to hell." Read the original article on Business Insider The school board overseeing Iowa City schools will meet Tuesday to discuss the district's current mask requirement. The discussion follows relaxed guidance on masking from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal guidance does not include a recommendation for mask use in areas of "medium" community COVID-19 transmission like Johnson County based on local metrics on new cases of the virus, hospital beds being used and hospital admissions. The Iowa City Community School District already announced it would not enforce its masking requirement on Monday or Tuesday, a signal that an end to the mandate may be imminent. The school board will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Educational Services Center on Dodge Street. "We appreciate your continued support and cooperation as we navigate this new guidance. We will provide updated information following the special board meeting on Tuesday," Superintendent Matt Degner told families on Saturday. Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague lifted the city's mask mandate Monday morning, also citing the new CDC guidance. The school district dashboard shows 17 students and five staff are currently positive with the virus, representing a steep drop in cases over recent weeks. More: Should sixth graders be in elementary school? Not anymore, according to Iowa City district The Iowa City school district implemented a mask requirement in September. It was made possible despite a state law from May, banning mask requirements in school settings, by a U.S. District Court judge's response to a lawsuit brought by parents of several students with disabilities. The lawsuit named 10 school districts, including Iowa City, as defendants, along with Gov. Kim Reynolds and Director of the Iowa Department of Education Ann Lebo. The case made its way up the court system, eventually to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The court ruled in late January that requiring masks is a reasonable accommodation schools can make to protect students with disabilities under federal law, and that school boards can put such orders in place. Story continues Degner said at a school board meeting Feb. 8 that the district would leave the mask requirement in place. "Our position has been, under the advice of counsel, to leave the mask requirement in place for the time being until we get further direction from (the) U.S. District Court and opinion or rules and direction from the (Iowa Department of Education) following that. We're in somewhat of a holding pattern there with the mask requirement until that time," Degner said. On Feb. 22, Degner said there will be a "larger conversation" about other coronavirus-related guidance, "and what makes sense to continue with through the spring," at the following school board meeting. He mentioned health and safety guidance concerning volunteers in buildings and room capacities. Several parents spoke in opposition to mask requirements at the same meeting. Rita Bettis Austen, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said in a statement Monday the organization is evaluating how the new CDC guidance "and changing conditions" impact client needs. The changing conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic "underscore the importance of this case" in ensuring schools' authority to adopt mask policies when needed in order to comply with federal disability law, Bettis Austen said. "In a rapidly changing pandemic, conditions at any given time may warrant universal masking throughout a school to protect students with disabilities, with the expectation that at other times, conditions may mean more limited masking or no masking is needed to protect medically vulnerable children," the statement said. Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at ckrejci@press-citizen.com. This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City school board will discuss mask requirement Tuesday night Shen rarely wrote in the latter half of his life, but devoted himself to researching cultural relics at what is now the National Museum of China, especially ancient silk patterns, bronze mirrors and porcelain. His Study of Ancient Chinese Clothing and Ornaments, published in 1981 in Hong Kong, was a great contribution to the history of Chinese materials. It was not until the 1980s that Shen's literary works were rediscovered and his position in modern Chinese literary history reevaluated. Research on his works has boomed since then. Nieh was born in 1925 in Wuhan, Hubei province, and went to Taiwan with her family in 1949 before immigrating to the US to attend the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1964. Apart from her own writings, that have achieved global acclaim, represented by Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China, she was known for co-founding the International Writing Program at the university with her late husband Paul Engle (1908-91). Over 1,500 writers from more than 150 countries and regions have attended the program over the past five decades. ROME Italy on Monday joined a long list of countries promising weaponry to Ukraine as the East European country defends itself against an invasion by Russia. The pledge by Rome took the number of nations in line to deliver military hardware and funding to Kyiv to over a dozen, including the United States and Canada. The Italian cabinet signed off on a measure authorizing the dispatch of Stinger surface-to-air missiles, mortars and Milan, or Panzerfaust, anti-tank weapons. Italian media had claimed Israeli-made Spike missiles would be included in the package but a defense source said that was doubtful since Israel would need to approve their use and would be unlikely to do so. Among other weaponry on the Italian list, which will need to approved by parliament this week, were Browning heavy machine guns, MG-type light machine guns and counter-IED systems. The consignment could be flown to Romania or Poland and delivered over the border to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Germany has broken its long standing rule on not supplying weapons to countries at war with a promise to send 1,000 anti-tank weapons, 500 Stinger missiles, nine howitzers and 14 armored vehicles to Ukraine. Sweden has pledged to send 5,000 anti-tank weapons, while Finland is is dispatching 1,500 rocket launchers and 2,500 assault rifles. Norway is also reversing a policy of not supplying combatant countries by delivering up to 2,000 2,000 M72 anti-tank weapons. Norway has strict policies regarding exports of military equipment, but Ukraine now faces extraordinary circumstances, said prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. The Netherlands will also send 200 Stinger missiles following a specific request to the European Union for the surface-to-air weapon. The EU has in turn established a fund of 450 million euros ($504m) to reimburse member states for weapons they send to Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the move a turning point in the history of European integration, on Monday. Describing Italys decision to send arms, Italian defense minister Lorenzo Guerini said, This is an important response that gives a sign of the concrete solidarity for Ukraine. Whoever wanted to divide us has been disappointed. NATO is stronger, Europe is more united. Joe Rogan has been mocked for sharing a fake CNN report claiming that Steven Seagal has joined Russian special forces stationed near Kyiv. On Monday (28 February), the 54-year-old podcaster posted a forged screenshot of a news report that depicts Seagal wearing the special forces uniform with a gun in his hand. Intelligence agencies around the world have spotted American actor Steven Seagal among Russian special forces positioned around the outskirts of Gostomel airfield near Kyiv captured by Russian airborne troops, the fake news report states. In his own caption of the post, Rogan wrote: If I had to guess the plot of this f***** up movie were living through I would say we are about 14 hours from the arrival of the aliens. Russia invaded Ukraine last week, prompting condemnation and sanctions from global leaders. On social media, Rogan was criticised posting memes during such a severe situation. Tank Sinatra, who has nearly three million followers on Instagram, wrote: This is obviously photoshopped though. I may be a beluga whale but I do make memes for a living so I like to think I can detect a meme with my sonar. (Joe Rogan/ Instagram) Another person commented: Im waiting for the fact check banners on posts like this. Another person added: I had to Google to make sure this wasnt real. This world is bonkers. I am so ashamed of you Joe Rogan, wrote an angry fan. You go on and post about alien invasions and living in movies, but when actual tragedy starts with real people dying you are silent. They added: When a real monster needs to be stopped, you do nothing. Is it because you actually are not so objective and curious, but you are definitely brainwashed for good. Speak up! Condemn atrocities! You have a huge platform. Act like a leader and stop posting irrelevant stuff making it all look like a joke. Its not. Another person wrote: Joe Rogan sharing misinformation while taking 70 episodes of his own show down. The Independent has contacted Rogans representative for comment. Story continues On Sunday (27 February), Vladimir Putin placed Russias nuclear deterrence forces on high alert, citing aggressive statements by Nato leaders and economic sanctions against Moscow. The day after, Belarus announced it will host the first peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations at its border. Follow the latest updates about the Russian invasion of Ukraine here. A Johnson City man faces assault and other charges after police say he attacked another man with a knife and a shard of broken glass. Around 11 a.m. Sunday, police officers responded to an address on Pratt Avenue for a reported domestic disturbance. Arriving officers encountered a man, identified as David Maiella, 31, of Johnson City, attacking another male with a large piece of broken glass, police said. Officers ordered Maiella to drop the glass and were able to take him into custody without further incident, according to police. The male victim sustained multiple non-life-threatening stab and slash wounds during the incident. Officers recovered the shard of glass as well as a knife that was used during the attack, police said. Public safety: Waverly woman charged with murder after allegedly stabbing husband in the head and neck For subscribers: How are our doctors and nurses doing? Hear pandemic stories from inside local hospitals Coronavirus: New York is lifting its school mask mandate this week, Gov. Hochul announces: What we know According to police, the investigation revealed Maiella had menaced a female with a knife prior to attacking the male victim, and that a small child who was present during the incident sustained a minor injury from falling. All involved parties were transported to UHS Wilson Medical Center for treatment. As a result of the investigation, police charged Maiella with first-degree assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, both felonies, along with misdemeanor counts of second-degree menacing and endangering the welfare of a child. Maiella was arraigned on the charges in Centralized Arraignment Court and committed to the Broome County Jail. 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: Binghamton-area stabbing leads to assault charges against man WASHINGTON Jury selection began Monday in the first trial of a defendant accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a process that put on display the strong views many residents of the national's capital have about last year's riot. Inside a federal courthouse with a view of the Capitol dome, only steps from where the riot unfolded, defense attorneys, federal prosecutors and a judge questioned dozens of Washington residents about their feelings about Jan. 6 and the defendants. The first trial to test the justice system's handling of the riot is that of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who was arrested thanks in part to his sons flagging him to the FBI before the attack. Reffitt was indicted on a charge of unlawfully transporting a gun in Washington, D.C., in support of civil disorder, as well as other charges, like obstruction of an official proceeding. The potential jurors called the attack "crazy," "reprehensible" and "atrocious." They said they were viscerally affected by it. They talked about how they knew people who were "freaked out by Jan. 6. Some said they had formed very strong opinions about Jan. 6, some telling the court that they would have difficulty overcoming their views. I think everybody that went in there was already guilty, said a potential juror, who was quickly dismissed. I think everyone should be prosecuted to the max. I thought it was crazy, a young man said. I never seen that before. "The Capitol should not have been invaded, or whatever the word is you want to use," an older man said. Washington is, in local parlance, a small town, and many of its residents are connected to the government and the attack itself. Defendant Guy Reffitt at the Capitol. (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) There was a longtime resident whose daughter works for the Department of Homeland Security. There was a former Capitol page and congressional staffer who talked to his former boss, Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., about the attack. There was a man whose stepmother was former President Donald Trumps ambassador to Canada and the United Nations. There was a public relations professional who worked with journalists who covered the attack and knew people who were inside the Capitol during it. And there were plenty of lawyers. Story continues Many potential jurors talked about their experiences on Jan. 6 or about people they knew who worked at the Capitol or were affected by the attack. One woman, an employee at the Library of Congress, recalled that employees she had assigned to go into work that day were forced to evacuate or shelter in place. The holster found in Guy Reffitt's bedroom, left, and Reffitt appearing to wear the holster on Jan. 6, 2021. (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) It would be difficult for me to be neutral, said a potential juror, who added that the riot felt like an attack on my home, in a sense. The judge struck the juror from the panel out of an abundance of caution.Washington, home to nearly 700,000 people who lack full congressional representation, is overwhelmingly Democratic; more than 92 percent of voters cast their ballots for President Joe Biden. But the potential jurors were not all united politically. An elderly woman said she listened to podcasts by a right-wing conspiracy theorist, who has spread a false-flag narrative suggesting that the attack was an FBI setup. The trial, which is expected to last about a week, will feature testimony from Reffitt's son and police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6. The FBI has arrested more than 740 people in connection with the attack, and more than 200 have pleaded guilty. There are hundreds of more potential cases to go, including hundreds that have been identified by online sleuths. Actress Kirstie Alley took to Twitter this weekend to defend a now-deleted tweet about the Ukraine-Russia conflict that drew backlash from many on social media. In a tweet on Friday, the "Cheers" actress wrote that she was being quiet about Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine because "I don't know what's real or what is fake in this war." She added, "I'll pray instead." Alley deleted the tweet after facing sharp criticism, including from "Dancing with the Stars" alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who has been posting live updates on the situation while in Kyiv. "Dear Kirstie, We haven't spoken in a while, but I clearly remember being right next to you while you were organizing trucks of aid during hurricane Sandy and I remember all that you were saying to me about situations where innocent are suffering. That same energy is needed right now," he wrote in response to Alley's tweet, according to Page Six. He added, "No one needs your prayer if you don't know what's real or fake." Alley tweeted again Friday, defending her previous message. "I'm sorry that I'm not an expert on APPARENTLY EVERYTHING.. like some of you jack wagons," she wrote. "It's ok to admit you don't know things." On Saturday, Alley tweeted a link to a document with organizations worth supporting in Ukraine. Alley has previously deleted her tweets after they drummed up criticism, notably in 2020 when she removed a tweet that dubbed the Academy Awards "OSCAR ORWELL" in relation to its then-new diversity standards. Alley later issued an apology, calling her original Orwell reference "a poor analogy." (Reuters) - Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Hong Kong residents empty supermarkets Hong Kong residents braced for a city-wide lockdown, emptying supermarkets and pharmacies, even as leader Carrie Lam called for calm on Tuesday and appealed for the public not to worry over a compulsory mass COVID-19 testing plan. The Chinese-ruled territory reported 32,597 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday and a record 117 deaths in the past 24 hours. It has seen daily infections surge over 30 times from just over 100 at the start of February. The global financial hub has reported more than 230,000 infections and more than 800 deaths since the pandemic began in 2020. Around 500 deaths have been in the past week, with the majority being unvaccinated residents. Indonesia extends AstraZeneca vaccine shelf life Indonesia has extended the shelf life of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to nine months, as nearly six million doses it received in donations were in danger of expiring, a health ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday. The decision underscores challenges many developing countries face in their slow inoculation campaigns, as vaccines donated by wealthy countries arrive with a relatively short shelf life of just a few months or even weeks. The European drug regulator extended the shelf life of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine to 11 months from 4.5 months, updated product information showed on Monday. Novavax expects to apply for full approval of COVID vaccine in H2 Novavax said on Monday it would pursue full approval of its COVID-19 vaccine in the second half of this year. The company late last month filed for emergency use authorization of the shot in U.S. adults, a much-awaited step following months of struggles with development and manufacturing problems. Novavax also said on Monday an extended analysis of a late-stage study conducted in Britain showed that its vaccine provided long-term protection against the coronavirus. Story continues Arbutus files patent infringement lawsuit against Moderna Arbutus Biopharma on Monday sued Moderna in Delaware federal court, claiming Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine infringes its patents. Arbutus and Genevant Sciences said in the lawsuit that Arbutus' technology for delivering mRNA was responsible for Moderna's ability to get its vaccines out in record time. U.S. tells agencies they can ease federal employee mask rules The White House told federal agencies late on Monday they can drop COVID-19 requirements that employees and visitors wear masks in federal buildings in much of the country, according to a document seen by Reuters. The White House-led Safer Federal Workforce Task Force said in new guidance that the mask requirement could be ended by federal facilities in counties with low or medium COVID-19 community levels, regardless of vaccination status. Counties accounting for 72% of the U.S. population are listed as having low or medium levels. California, Oregon and Washington will stop requiring face coverings in schools after March 11 as the latest COVID-19 surge ebbs, but mask mandates will remain for higher-risk settings such as hospitals and prisons, governors of the three states said on Monday. (Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Tomasz Janowski) A Knoxville woman who defrauded the federal government of more than a half-million dollars in COVID-19 relief funds, and then used the cash to pay for her clothes and travel, was sentenced last week to 57 months in prison. Porsha Tims Bush, 42, pleaded guilty to engaging in more than $540,000 in wire fraud after applying for loans for Enlightenment Family Care LLC, Enlightenment Family Ministries, Motivational Moments with Porsha and PT Financial Solutions. According to the Enlightenment Family Care website, the business provided counseling, anger management, parenting classes and academic tutoring, among other services. Between March and June 2020, Bush fraudulently applied for 10 loans totaling $547,286 through the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs, submitting applications under the names of six businesses. According to court documents, Bush used false supporting records, including Internal Revenue Service documents, and made false statements about the number of people the companies employed, the revenue generated and the wages paid. Bush used the money to buy clothes and electronics; to pay off personal debt; to pay for personal travel; and to fund her daily lifestyle, court records stated. According to court documents, Bush tried again even after entering a guilty plea in August 2021, submitting false Internal Revenue Service forms for COVID-19 relief funds for three companies, none of which was entitled to the requested funds. Bush was sentenced in United States District Court to 57 months in prison. She must pay restitution in the amount of $471,621, along with a fine of $25,000, and will be under supervision for three years after she is released from prison. This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville business owner gets prison time for $550,000 CARES Act fraud SEOUL, South Korea (AP) South Korea will no longer require people to show proof of vaccination or negative tests to enter any indoor space starting Tuesday, removing a key preventive measure during a fast-developing omicron surge that's elevating hospitalizations and deaths. The Health Ministrys announcement on Monday came as the country set another one-day record in COVID-19 deaths with 114, breaking the previous high of 112 set on Saturday. More than 710 COVID-19 patients were in critical or serious conditions, up from 200-300 in mid-February, while nearly half of the countrys intensive care units designated for COVID-19 were occupied. Park Hyang, a senior health ministry official, said rescinding the anti-epidemic pass would free more health workers to help monitor nearly 800,000 virus patients with mild or moderate symptoms who have been asked to isolate at home to save hospital space. About 250,000 people per day in the past week received free rapid antigen tests at public health offices and testing stations. According to the ministry, about half of those came for 24-hour proofs of negative tests. Since December, adults had been required to show their vaccination status through smartphone apps or present a proof of negative tests to enter potentially crowded spaces like restaurants, coffee shops, gyms and karaoke venues. But the policy had already been challenged by local court rulings in cities such as Daegu, where a district judge last week ruled the measures as excessive for people in their 50s and younger. He cited that the government has shifted the focus of its anti-virus campaign toward high-risk groups, including people in their 60s or older and those with preexisting medical conditions. We had considered the need to focus our limited public health resources to testing high-risk groups and managing people who already tested positive. There had also been regional confusion following court rulings, Park said during a briefing. Story continues She said authorities have no plans to reintroduce the anti-epidemic pass unless the pandemic undergoes another major change, such as the emergence of new coronavirus variant. While the anti-epidemic pass has been halted, we ask for people in their 60s or older and unvaccinated people to exercise even more caution than before," Park added, saying omicron would be potentially dangerous to them. Omicron has so far seemed less likely to cause serious illness or death than the delta strain that hit the country hard in December and early January. But hospitalizations and deaths are beginning to rise amid a greater scale of outbreak that is stretching worn-out health and public workers. The country has been forced to reshape its pandemic response in a way that effectively tolerates the virus spread among the broader population while concentrating medical resources to protect priority groups. Officials have rapidly expanded at-home treatments while significantly easing quarantine restrictions. The country has also reshaped its testing policy around rapid antigen test kits, despite concerns over their accuracy and propensity for false-negative results, to save laboratory tests mostly for priority groups. Many South Koreans are wary of the bend-but-not-break approach as the country continues to report some of the worlds highest daily infection numbers, including 139,626 on Monday. There seems to be limited political capacity to strengthen social distancing ahead of the March 9 presidential election, given peoples fatigue and frustration with extended restrictions and the strain on service sector businesses. Despite the growing outbreak, officials earlier this month extended restaurant dining hours by an hour to 10 p.m., although they have so far maintained a six-person limit on private social gatherings. More than 86% of the country's population of more than 51 million are fully vaccinated and around 61% have received booster shots. On Monday, the U.N.s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II, released its latest report assessing the damages of climate change. In a press conference, the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres summarized how climate adaptation saves lives. As climate impacts worsen and they will scaling up investments will be essential for survival.Delay means death. The stark reality is far too little is invested into adapting to climate change. More from WWD The report covers a broad swath of information including the importance of safeguarding biodiversity, which fashion has jumped on the bandwagon to support), planning climate resilient cities and communities, forging inclusive partnerships, strengthening climate policy and funding climate resilient development that varies by region and sector. The report builds upon decades of work and trails an August report decrying the need for net-zero emissions. Another report is anticipated in late March or early April. For the first time ever, the report consecutively outlines the integration of Indigenous leadership as a positive and necessary step toward climate adaptation. Colonialism is also addressed. This is the first time that [colonialism] has been explicitly called out in the summary for policymakers, said Dr. Sherilee Harper, report author and associate professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta in a press conference Sunday. Alongside climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, the report outlines losses and damages to climate change where the most vulnerable populations a marked 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people are already suffering disproportionately. Even if global warming is limited to 1.5-degrees Celsius, as urgently demanded, human life, safety and livelihoods in low-lying coastal areas will be placed at risk from sea level rise and coastal erosion. Story continues For North America, that means the increasing volatility of severe storms and hurricanes. Other barriers include misinformation, politicalization of climate change and the lack of acknowledgement for Indigenous populations. Lack of private sector and citizen engagement were cited among the barriers in Europe and North America. One of many simple examples is that all large cities in the U.S. need heat action plans. Doing so requires change in how federal agencies facilitate coordination, education about the risks of heat and of how to develop early warning systems, engagement with trusted voices for marginalized communities, building overall capacity, among others. That can be more complex than deploying a new technology, said U.S.-based Dr. Kris Ebi, a report author and professor, Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Climate change is taking a toll on human health, too, with the prevalence of vector-borne and water-borne diseases, undernutrition, mental disorders and allergic diseases on the rise in many regions, including Asia. For many regions, the losses are much more tangible. In 2019 alone, 9.6 million people were displaced in South East and East Asia (top garment-producing regions), due to cyclones, floods and typhoons. Small islands present the most urgent need for investment in capacity building and climate adaptation strategies but face the steepest barriers. Entire livelihoods are at stake in the Caribbean Sea and Southern Tropical Pacific, where coral reef systems fuel economies and life. Under the worst-case scenario of a 2-degree Celsius planet and higher 99 percent of corals are lost, per the projections. Meanwhile, steep financing gaps also plague ecosystems in Central and South America home to the Andes, the Amazon Forest (one of the largest biodiversity and carbon repositories) and other regions that are already vulnerable to climatic-related migration and population displacement, severe weather including droughts and the like. While countries in Africa are among the least offenders for rising greenhouse gas emissions, their sectors are also among the most constrained by lack of financing and equitable development. In this case, the report calls for public and private sectors to increase funding by billions of dollars per year. Multilateral funds, stronger project pipeline development and finances focused on grassroots project implementation would help realize transformative adaptation. Speaking to the multifaceted need to prioritize climate change amid todays world issues, report author Dr. Edwin Castellanos, who is based in Guatemala, said: We will always have emergencies at hand that seem to be more urgent than climate change.Governments in developing countries always have to wrestle with immediate lack of resources that need to be taken care of. And that sometimes makes one think, Well should we worry about the future if we have so many problems nowadays? The problem with that thinking is if we dont worry about problems of climate change which are not only the future but are also current then its going to be more difficult and more expensive to address those issues in the future.So yes, even though we have many current needs the pandemic, a lack of resources, poverty we need to start addressing these problems of climate change. Not only mitigation but also adaptation, he said. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. China has maintained its position as the world's largest manufacturing hub for 12 straight years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday. The value-added output of the manufacturing sector in 2021 increased 9.8% year on year to 31.4 trillion yuan (about $4.97 trillion), accounting for 27.4% of the country's GDP, MIIT Minister Xiao Yaqing told a press conference. Specifically, the output of the high-tech manufacturing industry went up 18.2% year on year, while that of equipment manufacturing increased 12.9%, while digitalization and green development of the sector also picked up paces, Xiao said. Meanwhile, China now has more than 4,700 national-level "little giant" firms, or small enterprises that are still in the early stage of development and focus on the new generations of information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, biomedicine and other high-end fields. In terms of 5G development, the country has built a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations by the end of last year, with the number of mobile terminals connected to the network exceeding 520 million, Xiao said. The ministry will further stimulate investment in the manufacturing sector, encourage enterprises to level up their manufacturing technologies and speed up the establishment of 5G services and gigabit fiber-optic networks, said the minister. Police have identified the three people who were shot and killed inside a suburban Lenexa home early Sunday morning as a 20-year-old resident of the home, his 22-year-old girlfriend and the young womans ex-boyfriend. The three killed were John M. Williamson, 20, of Lenexa, Sara M. Beck, 22, of Belton, and Dustin J. Johnson, 37, of Belton. The Lenexa Police Department is investigating the shooting as a murder-suicide. Master Police Officer Danny Chavez, a spokesman for the department, said in an email Monday that detectives suspect Johnson was the shooter, though the investigation is ongoing. Police are still working to determine what led up to the shooting, but Chavez said Beck and Williamson were in a dating relationship. Johnson is believed to be an ex-boyfriend of Becks. Detectives do not currently know whether Johnson and Williamson, the resident of the home, knew one another. Officers were called to the house in the 8400 block of Laurelwood Street around 1:20 a.m. Sunday on a reported shooting. When they arrived, police found three people inside with gunshot wounds. One was declared dead at the scene. The other two died after arriving at an area hospital. Two other adults were inside the house when the shooting unfolded, but police have said they were not involved. The killings shocked neighbors. Several watched from their homes as police canvassed the residence investigating Sunday morning. Nothing like this ever happens out here pretty surprising and shocking, Chad Talbott, a neighbor, told The Star, adding: Its super unfortunate and sad. We feel terrible for anybody that was involved in it. The deaths were the first homicides reported by Lenexa police this year. The last killing was reported in May, when police fatally shot a man they said fired first at authorities. The Johnson County District Attorney later ruled the shooting to be justified. Before that, the last homicide recorded in Lenexa was a double stabbing in 2014, when two men were killed during a burglary. I'm Damien Willis, a lead reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News, and this is The Reporter's Notebook, a free newsletter highlighting some of the week's best stories. This week, we'll talk to our reporters about how they reported their stories in an effort to bring some transparency to our reporting process. This is a way to pull back the curtain and to take you inside the newsroom our conversations, our reporting process and the tips that occasionally led to interesting and important stories. Karen Trujillo is pictured with her family on the day she was inducted as secretary of education for the state of New Mexico in 2019. With her are her husband, Ben, their two daughters, Taralyn and Tavyn, and their son, Timothy. The loss of a leader: One year later Last week, the Las Cruces Sun-News marked the one-year anniversary of the tragic and untimely death of Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Karen Trujillo. Trujillo died Feb. 25, 2021, when she was struck by a vehicle while out walking her dogs in her northern Las Cruces neighborhood. Her death sent shockwaves through the community and across the state. Our education reporter, Miranda Cyr, sat down with the Trujillo family to talk about their loss, and what the intervening year has been like. She also spoke to leaders of the New Mexico chapter of Educators Rising, which Trujillo founded during her time on the faculty of New Mexico State University. Miranda said: Karen Trujillo's passing had a huge impact on the state and the city, so I knew I wanted to put a few pieces together to look at where some people are now that she influenced. I reached out to her husband, Ben, with whom I've been fortunate to have kept in contact for the past year. We decided to include their two daughters, Taralyn and Tavyn, in our interview. Their son, Tim, lives in Santa Fe, so he wasn't able to join us. The interview was very emotional. I thought Ben, Taralyn and Tavyn were really brave to talk so openly about their lives and how hard the past year has been. Aside from the family, I also talked with some people she worked with/mentored. From those I've talked to, Educators Rising was really a dream for Dr. Trujillo. I hadn't had a chance before to do any in-depth reporting on the program, so this seemed like the perfect time to do it. Story continues These pieces are the product of more than a month of work. There's still more to come as far as reporting on Dr. Trujillo's legacy, so keep an eye out. I think she'll be on Las Crucens' minds for years to come. Las Cruces Fire Department firefighters respond to a fire that broke out at Junk and Disorderly in Las Cruces on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. One dead following chaotic afternoon in Las Cruces Last Wednesday afternoon, several breaking news situations all seemed to happen at once. First, we learned about a high-speed police chase on the city's west side, involving a motorcyclist and several law enforcement officers. Around the same time, we heard police were investigating a homicide in a north Las Cruces Mobile Home Park. Shortly thereafter, we began hearing about a commercial business fire on West Amador Avenue in the same general area the police chase was happening. There was some speculation that all three situations were somehow related. (Two of the three were; the fire was not.) Justin Garcia, our public safety and breaking news reporter, said: Wednesday was a tragedy in Las Cruces. It also required a great deal of running around town trying to pinpoint the location of the crime and confirm whether a fire had anything to do with a murder (it did not). To do this, we relied on a combination of off-the-record sourcing, official comments, police radio chatter, and ole fashion gumshoe reporting. In the end, I got lucky when I stumbled across the correct location but sometimes thats how it goes. Anthony and Felicia Sanchez welcomed healthy baby boys Taylor Weston and Jude Cash at MountainView Regional Medical Center the morning of Feb. 22, 2022. Two-fer Twos-day! Last Tuesday was 2-22-2022 and the whole world seemed to be talking about it on social media. But that day will always be special for one Las Cruces couple, who welcomed TWINS on "Twos-day." Taylor Weston Sanchez and Jude Cash Sanchez were born at MountainView Regional Medical Center on the morning of Feb. 22, 2022. The boys were born to Anthony and Felicia Sanchez of Las Cruces via a scheduled cesarean section. Taylor is three minutes older than Jude. Leah Romero, our trending reporter, spoke with the boys' parents. 'Twosday' was particularly special this week in Las Cruces as one couple welcomed twin boys Taylor Weston Sanchez and Jude Cash Sanchez. Feb. 22 was noted by many as a palindrome date. Numerically, the date was all twos. MountainView Regional Medical Center announced on Facebook that a set of twins were born at the Las Cruces hospital that morning. I reached out to the family to talk about the unique birthday of their new additions. Anthony and Felicia Sanchez explained that their boys were born via a scheduled cesarean section, so they knew ahead of time that the babies would have a special birthday. The date is actually so unique that it will not happen again for another 400 years. Las Cruces Mayor Pro Tem Kasandra Gandara attends a city council meeting to discuss the ARPA bid process at Las Cruces City Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. ARPA funding causes headaches Our government watchdog and enterprise reporter Michael McDevitt has been following the rollout of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding distributed by the City of Las Cruces a process that has been fraught with controversy and complications. Related: Michael told us: All sides of this situation have emphasized the importance of getting this funding out to people as soon as possible it is pandemic relief funding at the end of the day, and we are still feeling the economic effects of the ongoing pandemic. How to do that in a way that puts the city at the least amount of risk possible is the point of contention. Though last Tuesdays council meeting on this issue was long and contentious, it concluded with many unknowns. Mainly, a timeline for disbursing the funding and the new process to be used are still up in the air due to councilor disagreement, and that lack of a clear path ahead irked the organizations originally picked for funding. Speak Easy NM, a cannabis-themed shop in Las Cruces, temporarily closed Tuesday, July 27, 2021, following a cease and desist letter sent from New Mexico's Cannabis Control Division. PODCAST: City shutters Speak Easy In episode eight of The Reporter's Notebook "The Speak Easy Affair" Sun-News reporter Michael McDevitt walks us through the city's recent business license revocation of Speak Easy a Las Cruces cannabis-themed retail outlet which first became embroiled in controversy last summer. It's a story full of twists and turns, allegations, suspicions and accusations. At the heart of the arrest and closure is a practice known as gifting. Theres a lot going on here, and Im glad weve got Michael to help sort it all out. You'll also hear from Jason Estrada audio from an exclusive interview he did with the Las Cruces Sun-News. Listen to it here. Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter. This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: The loss of a leader, chaos in Las Cruces and 'Twosday twins' A former police officer in Georgia reported his wifes death as a suicide in February 2020. Two years later, a jury found him guilty of her murder. He now faces a life sentence in prison. Michael Seth Perrault, an ex-officer with the Eatonton Police Department in Putnam County, was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and simple battery, family violence, court documents obtained by McClatchy News show. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on Feb. 25, according to court documents. Perraults defense attorneys, Bethany Lavigno and Justin Kenney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Feb. 28. On Feb. 3, 2020, Amanda Perrault was found dead in her bed, District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale said during the trial, according to the Union Recorder. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner found she suffered a close contact shot to the head and ruled her death as a suicide. According to WGXA, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who witnessed the alleged murder scene, said evidence showed Perrault was clearly lying and it was absolutely obvious that his wife couldnt have pulled the trigger. The trial, which started Feb. 22, revealed a history of substance abuse and domestic violence and abuse, the Union Recorder reported. Perrault was arrested on Jan. 28, 2020, on domestic violence charges. Perraults wife was found dead days after he was released from jail on bond, WGXA reported. Putnam County is about 78 miles southeast of Atlanta. If you are experiencing domestic violence and need someone to talk to, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for support at 1-800-799-7233 or or text START to 88788. Woman accused of killing dad says he abused her, AZ cops say. Here to take his life They wanted his mother to cry, Texas mom says after son dies following student brawl Grandson charged after man comes home to find wife stabbed to death, Texas cops say Boys body found in freezer after sibling gives note to teacher, Nevada cops say Meghan Markle and Prince Harry appeared at the 2022 NAACP Image Awards to accept a special honor. The couple was given the Presidents Award during the 53rd annual award ceremony on Saturday for their distinguished work and achievements in public service, particularly in racial and social justice. Recipients in the past have included LeBron James, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Muhammad Ali, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, among many others. More from WWD While accepting the award, both the duke and the duchess wore creations by Black designers. Markle wore a blue ombre one-shouldered gown with a matching cape by Christopher John Rogers while the prince wore a black tuxedo by Ozwald Boateng. Its inspiring to think about the legacy of the Image Awards, which began shortly after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed into law, Markle said in the couples acceptance speech. Today, we can continue that legacy by reestablishing federal voting protections in our country and fulfilling the work of civil rights giants, like the late John Lewis. We are so deeply humbled to be here in the company of so many illustrious awardees. Before Harry chimed in, he gave a brief message of support for the people of Ukraine amidst their war with Russia. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle accept the Presidents Award at the 2022 NAACP Image Awards. - Credit: BET BET We would like to acknowledge the people of Ukraine, who urgently need our continued support as a global community. I also echo the immense gratitude for tonight, both for this award and this community for welcoming me so warmly, Harry said. I think its safe to say that I come from a very different background from my incredible wife, yet our lives were brought together for a reason. We share a commitment to a life of service, a responsibility to combat injustice and a belief that the most often overlooked are the most important to listen to, he continued. Story continues Through their Archewell Foundation, which they launched in 2020, the couple have supported efforts regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter and tackling racial justice issues. I couldnt be prouder that were doing this work together. We moved to California, my home state, shortly before the murder of George Floyd, Markle said. For Black America, those nine minutes and 29 seconds transcended time, invoking centuries of our unhealed wounds. In the months that followed, as my husband and I spoke with the civil rights community, we committed ourselves and our organization, Archewell, to illuminating those who are advancing racial justice and progress, she said. The 53rd NAACP Image Awards will honor humanitarians, global leaders, and co-founders of Archewell, Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, with the prestigious President's Award. The President's Award is presented in recognition of distinguished public service. pic.twitter.com/pCZcG5p3Tg NAACP Image Awards (@naacpimageaward) February 24, 2022 Prince Harry and Markle have also teamed with the NAACP for a new annual honor, the NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award, which is supported by Archewell Foundation and administered by the NAACP. The award recognizes leaders creating transformational change, particularly at the intersection of technology and social justice, to advance civil and human rights. This inaugural recipient for this award is renowned author and scholar Dr. Safiya Noble, who has developed the study of how digital technologies intersect with culture, race and gender. This marks the couples first major appearance at an awards show together since they relocated to California in 2020. They live in Montecito with their two-year-old son Archie and eight-month-old daughter Lilibet. READ MORE HERE: Meghan Markles Oprah Interview Dress Displayed at Fashion Museum Bath Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Share First Photo of Daughter Lilibet in Family Holiday Card Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Attend Intrepid Museums Salute to Freedom Gala Best of WWD Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico is investigating reports that around 17 people were executed after gunmen barged into a funeral wake over the weekend and dragged mourners away to be killed, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday. A video widely-shared over social media showed a group of people lined up against a wall, most of them holding their hands behind their heads, before apparently being shot by a barrage of bullets fired by surrounding gunmen. Mexican media reported the mourners were killed in the town of San Jose de Gracia, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Morelia, the state capital of Michoacan, where turf battles between rival drug cartels has sent violence soaring. The Michoacan chief prosecutor's office (FGE) late on Sunday said no bodies have been found, but investigators discovered firearms cartridges at the site where the video was suspected to have been filmed as well as "cleaning products" in a bag, saying the "site had recently been washed". Lopez Obrador urged patience for the FGE investigation to unearth the facts behind the events, saying that he hoped "with all of his soul" that the events were not true. "We still don't have information," Lopez Obrador added in his daily morning press conference on Monday morning. The video shared on social media appears to have been filmed by a nearby neighbor through a window with a high vantage point, showing a group of people lined up against a white wall. Several gunmen are seen pointing rifles at the purported mourners until gunfire prompts the person filming to hide for a couple of seconds. When the uninterrupted video returns to show the same spot on the street again, the purported mourners can no longer be seen and there is only smoke and dust rising in the air. In recent years targeting funeral wakes has become part of the internecine violence that has plagued certain parts of Mexico, where cartels battle for control of trafficking routes and territory to extort residents. Story continues Earlier this month nine people were killed in a single day when gunmen in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez killed three people at a wake of a man who died in prison, and then another six at the same man's funeral later in the day. In January last year, gunmen burst into a wake in the central Mexican city of Celaya and shot dead nine people. (Reporting by Raul Cortes; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel) A Miami Township EMT and his wife, who was also an EMT at the same department, were indicted and jailed Monday in a child abuse case, officials said. Amy Rodriguez, 45, is charged with 11 counts of felony child endangering in the alleged abuse of her step-child, court records state. Anthony Dangel, 47, is the biological father of the child and is charged with one count of felony child endangering, officials said. Officials at the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office said he knew about the abuse and failed to protect his child. According to the indictment, the abuse took place between 2018 and 2021. The child is a teenager, officials said. "This abuse included forcing the victim to stand in a corner for days at a time, strapping the child to a bed, refusing to allow the child to use the restroom, and failing to provide adequate clothing, bedding, or blankets," the prosecutor's office reported. Rodriguez is also accused by prosecutors of withholding food and beating the child with belts and spoons. Prosecutors said the child is severely underweight and has post-traumatic stress disorder. Being forced to stand caused damage to the child's legs and feet as well, officials said. This is disgusting and senseless. This is not a parent who lost control and made a mistake, but a woman who purposefully tortured a child for years," Prosecutor Joe Deters said. "There are some people who should simply never be parents. These two should never be permitted around children again." Miami Township officials said Rodriguez has not been employed by the fire department since Dec. 2019. Dangel has been placed on administrative leave without pay, township officials said in a statement Monday. The prosecutor's office said both Dangel and Rodriguez were employed at the Miami Township Fire Department in Hamilton County as emergency medical technicians. According to a department Facebook post from May 2021, "Tony" Dangel was promoted to lieutenant at that time and had been with the department for 13 years. Story continues No lawyers were listed for the couple in court records as of Monday afternoon. The couple will be arraigned Wednesday before Magistrate Thomas Beridon. Prosecutors say, if the couple is convicted, Rodriguez faces up to 88 years in prison and Dangel faces up to three years in prison. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Miami Township firefighter and wife accused of abusing child for years This file undated image courtesy of the Fenster Family released on June 4, 2021 shows U.S. journalist Danny Fenster. Danny Fenster couldn't stop smiling. That's one of the memories the Huntington Woods native shared on "60 Minutes" Sunday night about the day he was freed from a Myanmar prison. Fenster's interview was part of "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl's report on Americans who are unjustly locked up by governments with strained or zero relationships with the United States. There are more than 40 such "wrongful detainees," as they are called, behind bars in nations like Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela. For the segment, Stahl interviewed Fenster, who was released in November 2021 after spending nearly six months in prison, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, whose efforts helped free Fenster, and Roger Carstens, the U.S. State Department's special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Fenster was the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar when he was seized at Yangon International Airport in May 2021 while waiting for a flight home to visit his parents. Eventually, he was accused of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, the Free Press previously reported. Fenster was imprisoned for nearly six months and was one of more than 100 journalists and media officials who were detained after a military coup in the country. More: Huntington Woods journalist Danny Fenster freed from Myanmar jail days after sentencing During the "60 Minutes" segment, he described how he was handcuffed and blindfolded when first taken into custody at the airport. He also talked about the day, so many months later, when he was released. Taken out of his cell and put inside a van without knowing where he was headed, Fenster had been sentenced to 11 years of hard labor a few days earlier. When he got to the airport, Richardson, who had negotiated his release, was there to greet him. US journalist Danny Fenster, left, who was imprisoned in Myanmar, disembarks from an aircraft alongside former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson upon their arrival at Hamad International Airport in Qatar's capital Doha on Nov. 15, 2021. "He said, 'I'm here to take you home.' I just couldn't stop smiling. I was smiling so much. I was so happy," remembered Fenster. Story continues The segment ended with footage of Fenster's reunion with his 95-year-old grandmother, a survivor of the Holocaust. In a clip posted online by "60 Minutes Overtime," Fenster talked in detail about being kept in a concrete cell that was about 9-feet-by-7-feet. He slept on a wooden pallet with a light on all night. Noted Fenster, "This isn't your average bedroom light. This is like when you walk into a 7-Eleven at 2 a.m. ... incredibly bright ... fluorescent light." He said what helped him through the experience were food packets from his wife and, specifically, the notes of love and encouragement she hid inside them. Fenster was able to sneak out notes to her, he told Stahl, by tying them with dental floss to the drawstring of pants he wore to court appearances and handing them off to someone. Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan journalist Danny Fenster talks Myanmar imprisonment Mitt Romney. Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) had some harsh words for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and any other Republicans who attend white nationalist events and support Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the invasion of Ukraine. Greene and Gosar both participated in the America First Political Action Conference Friday in Orlando, with Greene speaking in person and Gosar appearing in taped remarks, CNN reports. The conference was organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes. During an interview Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Romney said there is "no place in either political party for this white nationalism or racism. It's simply wrong ... it's evil as well." As for Greene and Gosar specifically, "I don't know them, but I'm reminded of that old line from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie where one character says, 'Morons, I've got morons on my team,'" Romney said. "And I have to think anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points." Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) tweeted a video on Saturday of Fuentes introducing Greene at the event and calling on the crow to "give a round of applause for Russia." Cheney wrote, "As Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar speak at this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling. All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now." Romney told CNN that Putin has been "an adversary of America at every chance he's had," and hearing Republican say they support him is "unthinkable to me, it's almost treasonous and it just makes me ill to see some of these people do that. But, of course, they do it because if they get shock value and it's good to get more eyeballs and maybe make a little more money for them or their network. It's disgusting." Story continues You may also like The Day After, all over again Live stream of planes landing at Heathrow Airport during storm draws surprisingly big online crowd Watch a Clydesdale recover from injuries in Budweiser's new Super Bowl ad Utah Sen. Mitt Romney has labeled the actions of those who praise Putin as "almost treasonous." Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times via AP, Pool Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said it was "unthinkable" to how anyone who loves freedom can side with Putin. "It's almost treasonous," Romney said. "And it just makes me ill to see some of these people do that." Major conservative figures like Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson previously lauded Putin. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said Sunday that it is "unthinkable" and "almost treasonous" for anyone who loves freedom to also support Russian President Vladimir Putin. During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," the Utah senator was asked about the "pro-Putin sentiment" held by some factions of the Republican Party. "Well, a lot of those people are changing their stripes as they're seeing the response of the world and the political response here in the US," replied Romney. "But how anybody, how anybody in this country, which loves freedom, can side with Vladimir Putin, which is an oppressor, a dictator." "He imprisons his political opponents. He's been an adversary of America at every chance he's had. It's unthinkable to me. It's almost treasonous," he told CNN's Dana Bash. Romney speculated that conservative figures praising Putin were likely doing so to get attention. "And it just makes me ill to see some of these people do that. But of course, they do it because it's shock value and it's going to get them maybe more eyeballs and make a little more money for them and their network," Romney said, without mentioning any network in particular. "It's disgusting. I'm hopeful you're seeing some of those people recognize just how wrong they were," he added. Bash pressed Romney further, asking if the senator included former President Donald Trump as being among those who behaved in a "treasonous" fashion by expressing support for Putin. Romney said in reply: "Well, I said it's nearly treasonous. Standing up for freedom is the right thing to do in America. Anything less than that, in my opinion, is unworthy of American support." Story continues Several conservative figures recently praised Putin even as the Russian invasion of Ukraine loomed. For instance, Trump on Tuesday lauded Putin's justification for invading Ukraine as "savvy" and "genius." On the same day, Fox News host Tucker Carlson echoed Putin on his show when he said that the US should not care about Russia invading Ukraine. He later walked back some of his comments after Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine began. Insider's live blog of the invasion is covering developments as they happen. Read the original article on Business Insider Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam met with the deputy head of the health commission of Guangdong province and mainland epidemiologists Sunday on the fight against COVID-19 in Hong Kong. Lam expressed gratitude to the central authorities and Guangdong province for their support for the anti-COVID efforts in Hong Kong following their inspection of the local anti-epidemic work. She was also grateful for the constructive advice given by the delegation of mainland epidemiological experts, including the "Communicable Disease Public Interface" platform being launched online for patients to report their information. At the meeting, Lam and the participating officials discussed with Zhang Yurun and members of the expert delegation the recent improvements to the HKSAR government's COVID-19 testing-related measures with regard to the risk assessment and optimum use of testing resources. These included wider adoption of rapid antigen tests and persistent "restriction-testing declaration" operations targeting buildings with higher risk. The participants agreed that it is necessary at present to strengthen the multi-tiered approach of providing treatment based on the patient's conditions to reduce severe and death cases so that medical resources could be more effectively allocated to imminent cases. Lam said the mainland's rich experience in combatting COVID-19 helped Hong Kong fully examine its existing anti-epidemic strategies and measures so as to adjust them considering Hong Kong's actual circumstances in pursuit of the goal of "dynamic zero infection." "We will continue to leverage the staunch support of the central authorities to stabilize the epidemic as soon as possible for safeguarding the lives and safety of the public at large," she said. Hong Kong recorded 26,026 new COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths on Sunday, showed official data. Derek Jeter and the Miami Marlins are parting ways. Jeter stepped down as CEO effective immediately on Monday, sending shockwaves through the baseball world as league and union officials negotiate to end the lockout and avert postponing opening day. Jeter, who joined the club in September 2017 as part of an ownership change, announced the sides are "officially ending" their relationship and he will no longer be a shareholder. Jeter wrote in a statement: "Today I am announcing that the Miami Marlins and I are officially ending our relationship and I will no longer serve as CEO nor as a shareholder in the Club. We had a vision five years ago to turn the Marlins franchise around, and as CEO, I have been proud to put my name and reputation on the line to make our plan a reality. Through hard work, trust and accountability, we transformed every aspect of the franchise, reshaping the workforce, and developing a long-term strategic plan for success. "That said, the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead. Now is the right time for me to step aside as a new season begins. "My family and I would like to thank our incredible staff, Marlins fans, Marlins players, and the greater Miami community for welcoming us with open arms and making us feel at home. The organization is stronger today than it was five years ago, and I am thankful and grateful to have been a part of this team." The New York Yankees legend and Hall of Famer held an ownership stake of approximately 4%. His entrance was part of the $1.2 billion purchase from Jeffrey Loria in 2017. Bruce Sherman, Marlins chairman and principal owner, released his own statement that the sides had "agreed to officially end their relationship." Story continues "The Marlins thank Derek for his many contributions and wish him luck in his future endeavors. "We have a deep bench of talent that will oversee both business and baseball decisions while we work to identify a new CEO to lead our franchise. The ownership group is committed to keep investing in the future of the franchise and we are determined to build a team that will return to the postseason and excite Marlins fans and the local community." Marlins general manager Kim Ng is one of those on the deep bench and according to veteran baseball journalist Peter Gammons there's a feeling she could have "significant authority." All the Marlins baseball ops people were hastily called to a Zoom meetng where Bruce Sherman broke the news on Derek Jeter's departure. There's a strong feeling through the organization that Kim Ng has significant authority, building on the respect she has built on every level. Peter Gammons (@pgammo) February 28, 2022 Commissioner Rob Manfred also released a statement thanking Jeter for his "valuable contributions." On behalf of Major League Baseball, I thank Derek for his service to the Marlins, the communities of Miami and the game. Derek is a winner on and off the field. In addition to his valuable contributions as a front office executive, Derek was a highly respected voice on our Diversity and Competition Committees. He helped build a talented front office with the Marlins, including moving the game forward by hiring women in top roles in the Clubs baseball operations and executive leadership, and a foundation that has positioned the Marlins for long-term success. Derek is a pillar of our game and we look forward to his future contributions to Baseball. Jeter was MLB's first and so far only Black chief executive officer. His contract was not set to expire until later in the year, per The Athletic. The Marlins' only winning season during Jeter's tenure was in the shortened 2020 season when the club finished 31-29. They were swept in the NLDS. Players react to Jeter's sudden departure Jeter's departure was abrupt, relayed to Marlins employees in a "hastily called" meeting, and comes as MLB and the players union continue lockout negotiations. Reading between the lines of Jeter's statement, players appeared to question what's happening inside the Marlins organization that would make Jeter want out. The Capitan being The Capitan #RESPECT The integrity of this guy is one of the thing he showed me and stick out with me during the last 4 years, and even when I gonna miss him on my team Derek was a great mentor to me and help me to be a leader. This is what leaders do. pic.twitter.com/mt0CeaNbWx Miguel Rojas (@MRojasOfficial) February 28, 2022 A born winner turned front office who steps down because the organization doesnt want to win. I #re2spect the captain for showing just what is happening in our game pic.twitter.com/TN50dAMwpl GarvSauce (@MitchGarver) February 28, 2022 Competitive integrity has been a point of discussion during negotiations. The Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates were hit with a grievance that they did not spend enough of their revenue-sharing money on payroll during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Players want owners to put more focus on winning games than on penny-pinching to earn larger profits. GENEVA (Reuters) - The head of a U.N. agency said on Monday that more than 500,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries since the start of Russia's invasion last week. Filippo Grandi, head of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, made the remarks on his Twitter feed as the global agency's chief said its teams were stepping up humanitarian efforts amid escalating rights abuses there. (Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Louise Heavens) On Sunday night, television and film stars nominated at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild awards strutted down the red carpet, showing off their glamorous outfits. The red carpet was held at the Santa Monica Barker Hangar. Nominees from the most-talked-about films this award season like "House of Gucci," "Power of the Dog" and "King Richard" attended the ceremony as well as television stars like the cast of Netflix's "Squid Game." Check out all of the must-see looks from the 2022 SAG awards red carpet: Helen Mirren US-ENTERTAINMENT-AWARDS-SAG-ARRIVALS (PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images) Helen Mirren, the lifetime achievement recipient, had all eyes on her in a gorgeous pink Prada gown accented with flowers and a matching headband. 'Squid Game' cast 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) Squid Game stars Lee Jung-jae, HoYeon Jung, Kim Joo-ryeong, Park Hae-soo and Anupam Tripathi walked the red carpet together in dapper ensembles. Karen Pittman US-ENTERTAINMENT-AWARDS-SAG-ARRIVALS (PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images) And Just Like That... actor Karen Pittman brightened up the night with a floor-length mustard color gown. Cynthia Erivo US-ENTERTAINMENT-AWARDS-SAG-ARRIVALS (PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images) British actor Cynthia Erivo all-red Louis Vuitton ensemble turned heads. She paired a fiery red column-style dress with a matching fur coat. Carl Clemons-Hopkins US-ENTERTAINMENT-AWARDS-SAG-ARRIVALS (PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images) Candyman and Hacks actor Carl Clemons-Hopkins arrived in a show-stopping, tiered black dress with a white boutonniere. Vanessa Hudgens 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) Vanessa Hudgens slinky Atilier Versace mint green dress perfectly complimented her sleek, straight bob. Greta Lee 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals (Amy Sussman / WireImage) "The Morning Show" actor Greta Lee combined a yellow cut out turtleneck with a blue wrap skirt. Jenna Lyng Adams 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) Jenna Lyng Adams of "The Kominsky Method" got the mustard memo. Kerry Washington US-ENTERTAINMENT-AWARDS-SAG-ARRIVALS (PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images) Kerry Washington and her yellow Celia Kritharioti gown took over the red carpet. Elle Fanning 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals (Amy Sussman / WireImage) Elle Fanning looked stunning in a Gucci look featuring pants, a vest and oversized, floppy bow tie. Jeremy Strong 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) "Succession" actor Jeremy Strong sported a classic look, completed with a gray bowtie. Jean Smart 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) Jean Smart who starred in both "The Mare of Easttown" and "Hacks" last year wore a regal maroon Christian Siriano gown with a matching clutch fit for royalty. Story continues Saniyya Sidney 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) Rising star Saniyya Sidney from "King Richard" tossed her blue tulle dress in the air while posing for pictures. Jada Pinkett Smith 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) Jada Pinkett Smith attending with her husband Will Smith who was nominated for "King Richard" wore vintage Gareth Pugh. Selena Gomez 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) "Only Murders in the Building" star Selena Gomez hit the red carpet in a $1 million Bulgari necklace boasting more than 200 carats of diamonds. Lady Gaga 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet (Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for WarnerMedia) "House of Gucci" star Lady Gaga wore a sleek, white Armani Prive gown with a folded bust. Cate Blanchett 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals (Amy Sussman / WireImage) "Don't Look Up" star Cate Blanchett in an Armani dress with Pomellato jewels. Jessica Chastain 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals (Amy Sussman / WireImage) "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" star Jessica Chastain sparkled in a glittering, beige Dior suit. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) faced violent threats from at least two men who spewed misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and threatened to hang him at a Las Vegas-area restaurant over the weekend. In a cellphone video obtained and published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a man could be seen briefly putting his arm around Sisolak and asking if he was the governor. "This is amazing," the man said. "I can't tell you what a piece of f---ing shit you are." "Sorry to hear that," Sisolak replied, stepping away. Sisolak and his wife began to walk away. The first man repeatedly asked Sisolak where his security was, while another man began to yell about a far-right conspiracy theory regarding a medicine that does not help treat the coronavirus. "Wait till we find all the money that flowed his way," the second man said. "Yeah, hiding the hydroxychloroquine." At the same time, the first man accused Sisolak of being a part of the New World Order, another far-right conspiracy theory with roots in antisemitism, and of working for China. The two men followed the Sisolaks outside as they left the restaurant. "We should string you up by a lamppost right now," the second man screamed. "You know what they do to traitors? They hang traitors." The Review-Journal reported that the incident appeared to take place at a Mexican restaurant west of the Las Vegas Strip. In a statement Monday, Sisolak's campaign spokesperson denounced the violent rhetoric. "This behavior is unwarranted, racist, and un-Nevadan," Sisolak campaign spokesperson Reeves Oyster said. "Words have consequences - and the GOP field should be horrified that their rhetoric is encouraging violence. Anything less than a denunciation is condoning this behavior and encouraging it to continue." Elected officials at all levels have faced an increase in violent threats in the years since the coronavirus pandemic forced lockdowns and emergency orders shuttered businesses. U.S. Capitol Police have reported exponentially higher threats against members of Congress, and elections officials reported a surge in threats following the 2020 elections. Governors also have faced an increase in violent threats. Several men were arrested after plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said in 2020 that she and her daughters had received threatening calls. That same year, a Kentucky man was arrested after making violent threats against Gov. Andy Beshear (D). Feb. 27The top-ranked Minnesota women's hockey team will play No. 5 Minnesota Duluth in the WCHA Final Faceoff semifinals on Saturday at Ridder Arena. The Bulldogs (24-10-1) beat Minnesota State, 3-2, in overtime Sunday on Elizabeth Giguere's goal 2:30 into the sudden-death period. The Gophers (28-7-1) advanced by sweeping St. Thomas over the weekend and had to wait to see their semifinal opponent. They'll meet the Bulldogs for a 1 p.m. puck drop on Saturday. Second-ranked Ohio State and No. 4 Wisconsin will play in the 4:07 p.m. game. The teams have split their four games season. The winner of the season-ending tournament earns the WCHA's automatic berth in the NCAA tournament and will likely play host to the first round of games. The Gophers won the regular-season WCHA title this season, their first since 2018. State legislative committees in recent weeks have approved bills that would automate criminal record expungement for thousands of Oklahomans and reclassify some felony sentences, an early sign that criminal justice reform efforts continue at the state Capitol, even as the political climate has grown more challenging. In recent years, Oklahoma lawmakers and voters took significant steps toward reducing the states overcrowded prison population through sentencing reforms and mass commutations. Three or four years ago this was kind of the last remaining bipartisan issue, said Brett Tolman, executive director for Right on Crime, a nationwide organization that advocates for conservative criminal justice reforms. In this 2011 photo from the Oklahoma County jail, an inmate sits on the floor in a corridor after being handcuffed to a railing. But Tolman said some conservatives have become leerier toward criminal justice reform efforts as right-leaning media has focused on some rising crime rates and police funding debates have been waged in most major cities. More: Board certifies $10.5 billion for state lawmakers to allocate this year The fact that its an election year for most state lawmakers also has many conservative politicians working hard to avoid a soft on crime accusation. Tolman was in Oklahoma last week to lobby for House Bill 3316, which would automatically seal the old criminal records of certain low-level offenses, a process that currently involves a lot of time and money for an individual. Brett Tolman, executive director for Right on Crime The bill, estimated to help more than 100,000 people, is supported by both the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank, and the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a left-leaning organization. On the national stage there has been a pendulum swing back towards a tough on crime rhetoric, but I dont think that's the reality here in Oklahoma, said Damion Shade, the justice and economic mobility project manager for the Oklahoma Policy Institute. The truth is rural lawmakers, lawmakers from the biggest cities, right and left, they all still have a real interest in this, Shade said. Story continues Damion Shade, the justice and economic mobility project manager for the Oklahoma Policy Institute Some believe state has 'moved too far' In 2016, voters agreed to reduce some non-violent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, including raising the property value of felony theft from $500 to $1,000. Three years later, the state Legislature expanded the new threshold for those already incarcerated, leading to a wave of commutations. But while some see a need to build on the work of a few years ago, other lawmakers believe the movement has gone too far. Down here I don't hear many people say we are incarcerating too many. What I'm hearing is that when people steal your stuff we arent harsh enough, said Rep. Jim Grego, R-Wilburton, who represents Latimer County in southeast Oklahoma. 'Very little venture capital': Oklahoma wants to invest tax dollars into business startups Grego has filed a bill that would toughen punishments for certain levels of methamphetamine possession, a request he said came from local sheriffs and prosecutors. Rep. Jim Grego, R-Wilburton Perhaps they think we have moved too far, Grego said. Not long ago the overwhelming belief among most lawmakers in Oklahoma was that severe penalties and full prisons were the best response to criminal behavior. Candidates for office would compete to see who could be the toughest against criminals. "As governor of Oklahoma, I will not permit the release of one prisoner for the reason of lack of space. Never," said former Gov. Frank Keating in 1994, then a candidate for office speaking with The Oklahoman in a news story that highlighted how the three gubernatorial candidates wanted to get tough on crime. In 2019, Gov. Kevin Stitt drew national attention for releasing hundreds of nonviolent offenders from prison, in what was believed to be the nations largest single-day commutation. Gov. Kevin Stitt This has been a historic year for criminal justice reform in Oklahoma, Stitt said at the end of his first year in office. Policy observers say criminal justice reform efforts seemed to slow down last year, although some minor bills made it through, including one bearing the name of Stitt's wife that requires the Department of Corrections to work proactively with soon-to-be-released inmates on various post-incarceration needs, such as obtaining government documents and finding employment. Taking a tough look at sentencing This year, reform advocates are following several bills, including Senate Bill 1646, which reclassifies some sentencing lengths for lower level and non-violent crimes. The bill was passed out of the Senate judiciary committee earlier this month. Sen. Darrell Weaver, R-Moore, was the lone no vote on the committee. He argued that even some low-level crimes result in a victim who needs to be considered. There is always going to be someone on the other end it may not be a murder or an armed robbery, Weaver said. In arguing for the bill, Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, said reducing prison sentences and moving away from an incarceration-first mentality is not an easy process. Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman It's going to be painful because we are going to see things we don't like. It's going to implicate the way we have been treating people in administering justice in Oklahoma. It is going to take more people at the table looking at it, particularly those who have been on the wrong end of this whole system, particularly women, Boren said. The status quo is broken. Oklahoma's prison population has declined by 20% over the last three years, although the state's incarceration rate remains one of the highest in the nation. Tolman, the executive director for Right on Crime, said convincing some conservative lawmakers that more needs to be done can still be a challenge, noting that even the language of criminal justice reform is looked down upon. More: Oklahoma budget process can be mysterious, even for many lawmakers In an election year, some candidates for office have built campaigns on rhetoric that crime is on the rise, including some that blame recent criminal justice reform efforts. Some types of violent crime have seen a recent spike across the nation, but overall crime rates have been on a downward trend for years. Some of that is just narrative, but it scares people, Tolman said. "Our job is to show them the facts." This story is provided in part through a grant by the Kirkpatrick Foundation. To support work like this, please consider purchasing a digital subscription today at https://cm.oklahoman.com/specialoffer/. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Efforts remain to alter Oklahoma's justice system Many Hong Kong residents living in Luohu are taking part in the district's COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control work, demonstrating their strong sense of responsibility and attachment to Shenzhen and Luohu. The resurgence of the pandemic in Luohu has pulled the nerves of its residents. In a neighborhood of the Yucun community, there reside nearly 400 families from Hong Kong. The Nanhu sub-district office worked together with the Yucun community to set up the first Hong Kong people volunteer team to improve the service for Hong Kong residents living in the neighborhood. The team of more than 20 members, along with eight Hong Kong residents from other parts of Guangdong province, has participated in the neighborhood's epidemic prevention and control work. One of the Hong Kong volunteers surnamed Wang said that as Shenzhen is helping Hong Kong deal with the epidemic, Hong Kong residents living in Shenzhen should also contribute to Shenzhen's struggle against the pandemic. Another Hong Kong volunteer surnamed Zhou, who has lived in Shenzhen for two years with his wife, has worked in a nucleic acid testing booth in the Laowei neighborhood for four days. "I just feel obliged to do something," Zhou said. So after knowing that the neighborhood was recruiting volunteers, he applied for it immediately. "If everyone does their part, the pandemic can end soon, and we can live a normal life." At the nucleic acid sampling site of Xincun community in Cuizhu sub-district, nine Hong Kong volunteers wearing orange vests were offering help. In the Zhangshe village of Qingshuihe sub-district, a Hong Kong volunteer surnamed Liang said, "My participation in volunteer work has made me feel the difficult of being a frontline worker. Nevertheless, I hope I can do my bit to help Shenzhen build a solid defense against the pandemic." Liang said that she would call on more Hong Kong residents to participate in voluntary services and jointly build a solid fortress against the epidemic in Luohu. After a decade, 30 episodes, countless grisly beatings and murders, some exact accents and some dodgy ones, endless Nick Cave, plenty of snazzy tailoring and some of the most severe haircuts on TV, the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders (BBC One) is upon us. Creator Steven Knight has plans for a film, but as far as the small-screen is concerned, this is the finale. Its the end of one the most distinctive, inventive and entertaining dramas in recent British history, as you may have gleaned from the blanket trailers over the past few months. The entrenched BBC cant be expected to soft-pedal a rare thing: an international hit that enjoys genuinely popular appeal as well as critical acclaim. The Peaky aesthetic has become so familiar, at least to anyone who has been to a racecourse in the past few years, that it is easy to forget what a strange and unpromising prospect the series seemed at first. Here was a stylised epic British gangster western, set in under-loved Birmingham in the years after the First World War, with abundant violence, drink, drugs, fags and sex, set to a soundtrack of modern rock music. When they are portrayed on screen, interwar years are usually seen unfolding in stately homes, not the raggedy terraced backstreets of Small Heath, Birmingham. But this idiosyncratic style, held together by Cillian Murphys flawless lead performance as the antihero mob boss Tommy Shelby, is precisely what has made Peaky Blinders such fun. Thanks in part to Netflix, which syndicated it from the BBC and spread it round the world, the series has evolved from a curiosity to a phenomenon. It would be surprising if the last run doesnt earn its victory lap, but the first episode is muted, and by Peaky standards, slow. After a glum cold open in which we learn that Tommy did not die last time and we are reminded of the threat the IRA poses to his ambitions, the action hops forwards four years. Tommy is living on Miquelon, a grey and depressing trading island off the coast of Newfoundland. He is sober: a shocking twist for a character rarely seen without a whiskey in his hand, but probably the right decision for his liver. His cousin, Michael (Finn Cole), has risen up over four series from ingenue to rival leader, and presents the main threat to his business. Michaels wife, Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy, who has become a star courtesy of The Queens Gambit since the last series aired), is connected in New York. The Shelby brothers problem has always been biting off more than it can chew, a restlessness that has brought them riches and notoriety but at the price of teetering endlessly on the verge of disaster, and suffering terrible reversals. The murder and extortion and racketeering has been justified in the name of improving things for the family. The Shelbys do bad things for good reasons, but will it last? It would make a kind of sense if, having seen off rival gangs and Russians and police, the Peaky Blinders were ultimately undone by themselves. For its varied cast Peaky has never been a true ensemble performance, but now the other characters feel like minor moons around the strange and terrifying planet Tommy. It doesnt help that the series other centre of gravity is no longer with us. If Murphy is the father of the cast, Helen McCrory was its mother. As the Shelby brothers aunt Polly, ferocious but haunted by tragedy, she anchored all the machismo in pathos and soul. McCrory died of cancer last April, before the Covid-delayed shoot began. This episode handles her off-screen death as elegantly and respectfully as it can, but its a chasm of an absence. McCrory will be missed terribly. So will Peaky Blinders. A Phoenix police vehicle. Phoenix police identified on Monday the two men and one teen boy who were found dead in a vacant lot near 99th Avenue and the Salt River on Feb. 20. They were identified as Abimael Jimenez Morenos, 16, Isauro Martinez Dominguez, 21, and Herminio Perez Ramirez, 28. When police arrived at the scene, they found the three bodies with signs of trauma. Police did not elaborate on the extent or kind of trauma. The cause of death and if the deaths were related have yet to be determined. Police said the case is being investigated as a homicide. The Consulate of Mexico in Phoenix said in a release Monday the men and the boy were from Oaxaca. Consulate officials are in contact with their families to assist them with returning the bodies to Mexico. They also sent a letter to Phoenix Police demanding an extensive investigation to determine what happened. The press release also stated the Mexican government condemned the acts and trusted in local authorities to seek justice. Reach breaking news reporter Angela Cordoba Perez at Angela.CordobaPerez@Gannett.com or on Twitter @AngelaCordobaP. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix police identify 2 men, 1 teen found dead in vacant lot The word murder was removed from outside the Russian embassy in Washington DC after it was graffitied during an anti-war demonstration. Almost a hundred people turned up to protest in front of the Russian embassy within hours of Moscows war on Kyiv on Thursday, when the word murder was painted in red. An individual allegedly sprayed the word murder in front of the embassy building, with images on social media showing DC police at the scene. Among those who took part in the DC demonstration were Ukrainian-Americans, as well as those calling for Russia to rollback from the country. As NBC News4 Washington and others reported on Thursday, DC police were assisted by members of the US Secret Service. The suspect was arrested for defacing property, and no further details were available. Russian and Ukrainian forces have now been engaged in fighting for five days, with no clear estimates on the number of dead for both sides, who held talks on Monday. Small pockets of protesters have began showing up at the embassy just before 11 am pic.twitter.com/mpIPo0lKox Justin Finch (@Justin_NBC) February 24, 2022 It follows severe financial sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union, Canada and the UK. The measures are designed to hurt Moscow and force an end to the conflict, which was launched without any Ukrainian provocation and to the surprise of many members of the international community. World leaders have been calling on Russian president Vladimir Putin to stop his assault, with threats of further sanctions expected without a cease fire. The UK and its European allies have meanwhile sent lethal and non-lethal weaponry to Ukraine, from where more than 500,000 people have now fled. Andrew Walls, a leader of the Akron-Canton chapter of the Proud Boys in Ohio, was charged after he appeared to be caught on camera shouting racial slurs at a Black woman and then punching her in the face. (Photo: Twitter) A chapter leader in the far-right Proud Boys extremist gang was arrested on Monday and charged with assault in Akron, Ohio, after he was recorded shouting racial epithets at a Black woman and then sucker-punching her in the face. WARNING: This story and the accompanying video below contain graphic violence and racist language. A man police identified as Andrew Walls, 26, was caught on video outside a bar in the early hours of Sunday, stumbling and scuffling with other patrons while spewing a torrent of racial slurs. His victim, 23-year-old Cameron Morgan, was passing by with a friend when she heard Walls and others around him screaming Fucking niggers. She later told her father that she confronted Walls after realizing she was the only Black person around. We were like ... You cant say that. Thats not OK, she told her dad, local teacher and former sportswriter David Lee Morgan Jr., who recorded the conversation and provided a transcript to HuffPost. Video taken by Cameron Morgans friend shows what happened next: Walls squares up, points his finger at Morgan, and repeats the racist slur, adding: Bitch, shut your mouth. He then cocks his right fist and punches her directly in the face, the impact of which releases a blood-curdling pop. Morgan was treated for a concussion. Please! I need to press charges! Im heartbroken and sick to my stomach. pic.twitter.com/42nddAm5gh David Lee Morgan, Jr. (@DavidLeeMorgan) February 27, 2022 Walls kept going after the recording ended, and dragged Morgan into the street by her hair, her father said. She was shaken up, he said, and left the scene without initially calling police. But once the video began to make the rounds on social media Sunday, activists quickly identified the assailant as Walls. They also unearthed a previous story about him in the local Akron Beacon Journal, which identified him as the vice president of the Akron-Canton chapter of the Proud Boys. Story continues According to this article (with photo) Andrew Walls is also the vice-president of the Akron-Canton chapter of the Proud Boys. https://t.co/mv9ZThIxBL Steven Sean Laing (@Venusisaband) February 27, 2022 Though Walls wasnt wearing his Proud Boys uniform a black and yellow Fred Perry polo during the assault, his membership in the gang suggests a predisposition for violence and bigotry. The Proud Boys, designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and a terrorist organization by Canada, have close ties to white supremacist groups and other extremists, and violence is literally written into their rules. (The gangs highest rank, known as the Fourth Degree, is given only to members who commit a significant act of violence for the cause.) Walls chapter didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Reached by phone Sunday, David Morgans voice trembled as he recalled waking up to see a video on his phone of his daughter being assaulted. Soon as we saw it, I was in tears, he said. I just cried, because, I just watched somebody punch my daughter, who wouldnt hurt a fly. Morgan said his daughter went to an urgent care clinic and was treated for a concussion after she saw stars and blacked out. Her face swelled up temporarily, to the point where she couldnt move her jaw. She couldnt really open up her mouth to eat, he said. Walls was taken into custody on Monday, charged with possessing a firearm while intoxicated and assault. The severity of Morgans injuries may lead to his assault charge being upgraded to a felony, the Akron Beacon Journal reports. Akron police are considering an added ethnic intimidation charge and are reportedly in contact with the FBI to determine whether to classify the attack as a hate crime. Additionally, police said Walls attacked another woman at the scene and is expected to face additional charges for that crime. David Morgan said the revelation of Walls Proud Boys affiliation changed everything for him. He said he was aware of the gang and the national tour of political violence theyd been on since their founding in 2016, but he never thought it would hit home until today. This changes a lot for me, in the sense that, I want to get involved now, he said. This happening was time for me to wake the hell up. And I hate that my daughter had to suffer that for me to wake the hell up. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 26, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Democrats are gleefully bashing Republicans with Rick Scott's midterm agenda. Democrats are posting campaign ads and sending fundraising pleas highlighting Scott's tax-hike plan. A Democratic aide described Scott's plan as "a godsend" ahead of the midterms. The Trumpian midterm reelection plan Republican Sen. Rick Scott had hoped would electrify colleagues has instead reenergized Democrats in both chambers, sparking nationwide campaign ads, fundraising appeals, and fresh lines of attack against GOP lawmakers on the ballot this fall. The 11-point strategy, which Scott developed on his own and unveiled February 22, takes conservative-fueled culture wars and MAGA priorities to another level prompting fellow Republicans to characterize it as "polarizing" and "silly." In addition to imposing new taxes on low- and middle-income earners currently exempt from federal collections, Scott declares war on national mask mandates, local school boards, and race relations in general. "Sen. Rick Scott's plan to raise taxes on working families and seniors by more than $100 billion is a godsend to Democrats. Hope he keeps it up," a Senate Democratic leadership aide said of the Florida Republican's freestyle "Rescue America" package. Democrats all over the US have moved quickly to tie the plan to Republican candidates given that Scott leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the main campaign arm for the Senate GOP. Opposition researchers have pounced on the issue particularly because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, hasn't released a policy plan. The plan was Scott's ideas "for how to rescue America," said Chris Hartline Scott's spokesman at the NRSC. "He's not surprised Democrats are attacking it," Hartline said. "Any proposal that touts the virtues of American patriotism, the American family, and capitalism is anathema to everything the Democrat Party stands for." Story continues Within hours of Scott publishing his ideas, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Gary Peters hung the surprise tax-hikes pitch around the necks of Republicans like incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Senate hopefuls Herschel Walker, who is running for office in Georgia, and Blake Masters, who is running in Arizona, in new radio and online ads. "We're making sure voters know the facts about Senate Republicans' agenda: a tax hike on millions of seniors and over half of all Americans," DSCC spokesman David Bergstein wrote in a companion post. "At every opportunity, Republicans are pushing the interests of the ultra-wealthy and big corporations that get rich by spiking costs all while working families pay the price. " CPAC had copies of Sen. Rick Scott's 11-point conservative policy plan. Scott, a Republican of Florida, will speak at CPAC on Saturday. Warren Rojas/Insider 'We must fight back' Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat seeking a fifth term in November, warned supporters that the prospect of Scott's vision coming true "would be the end of the road for so many of our priorities." Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rails against GOP Sen. Rick Scott's "Rescue America" plan in a fundraising email. Warren Rojas/Insider "As the last year has shown, expanding our majority matters 50-50 is not enough," Schumer, who has struggled to move much of President Joe Biden's agenda through the narrowly divided chamber, blasted out in a fundraising email on February 25. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, joined in on February 27, alerting her populist base that a Republican-controlled Senate would "rig the rules even further in favor of the wealthy and well-connected." Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts rails against GOP Sen. Rick Scott's "Rescue America" plan in a fundraising email. Warren Rojas/Insider "So much is at stake ahead of the midterms, and the GOP is willing to do anything to win," Warren wrote in a campaign email. "We must fight back." The Democratic National Committee ran ads in the retirement-heavy community The Villages, Florida, over the weekend as Scott was preparing to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference less than 60 miles away in Orlando. The campaign for Rep. Val Demings, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Florida to unseat Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, released a new ad Monday that slams the "Rubio-Scott tax hike" and urges Floridians to tell Rubio to "take a hike." "Marco Rubio's party boss is planning to hike taxes on Florida's working families, seniors, and veterans with the Rubio-Scott Tax Hike, and Rubio is too cowardly to reject the politicians and special interests that tell him what to do," Christian Slater, Demings' campaign communications director, said in a statement. Rubio hasn't answered questions publicly about whether he supports Scott's plan. His campaign wouldn't share Rubio's stance but panned the ad. "It's pretty rich that Val Demings is feigning interest in lowering Floridians' taxes when just last fall she voted to raise taxes on Floridians and cut taxes for millionaires in blue states like New York and California," said Elizabeth Gregory, Rubio campaign spokeswoman, referring to the Build Back Better Act that included a provision to increase the federal deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT. Gregory noted that Rubio had introduced the provision to double the child tax that was included in the 2017 tax bill former President Donald Trump signed into law. The latest Demings ad is part of a six-figure buy the campaign is doing on digital ads. Demings was on the shortlist to be Biden's running mate, and the Florida seat could become one of the most competitive and expensive races in Senate history. Scott's agenda would lead to thousands of dollars in tax hikes for essential workers, such as meatpacking workers, grocery store cashiers, and home health aides, according to a new analysis conducted by House Ways and Means Committee Democrats that Speaker Nancy Pelosi released on Monday. Pelosi's staff also cites an analysis by the left-leaning Tax Policy Center that found under a plan such as Scott's, more than "80 percent of the tax increase would be paid by households making about $54,000 or less, and 97 percent would be paid by those making less than about $100,000." The analysis found that Scott's agenda could increase federal income taxes by more than $100 billion in 2022. "While Republicans plan to squeeze hard working Americans with higher taxes, Democrats are moving legislation to lower everyday prices and cut taxes for middle class families paid for by making big corporations and the wealthiest pay their fair share," Pelosi's staff wrote. Read the original article on Business Insider The current Ukraine/Russia war recalls events several decades ago when I was part of a contingent organized by Ohio Chief Justice Tom Moyer to study and educate Ukrainian judges on relevant issues in the administration of justice. The chief justice then said, "In my many discussions with Ukrainian judges, one issue always surfaces: the commitment to establish an independent judicial system. The challenge of the Ohio-Ukraine program is to help them reach their goal." With that focus we had several trips there and entertained some of their judges in Ohio and Stark County. John Milligan Here are some of my memories: In 1993, a group of about 10 judges from the Ukraine visited Stark County as a part of a training program between Ukrainian courts and Ohio judges to promote and educate their judges in Western concepts of separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislative and executive branches of government. It was a noble experiment instituted by Moyer and the Ukrainians. We entertained their judges in our courtrooms where actual litigation was going on. Additionally, Judge John McCormac of the Franklin County Court of Appeals and I visited Ukraine and saw firsthand how justice was administered by their courts. At that time, our federal government financed construction of a separate building for the Ukrainian Supreme Court. It was a remarkable undertaking. The courtroom was on the first floor and was ornate. Below the court was a large area equipped with television connections to the courtroom and individual terminals accommodating a number of media. It appeared to be a very functional arrangement for an appellate court. Then we visited the office of the chief judge and consulted through an interpreter. A profound memory is my asking where are his law books. His answer: "We have no library, there is no need for books." This was my first impression in our efforts to encourage a legal system patterned on co-equal separation of powers, the authority and limitations of each. A daunting task. More similar experiences followed. Story continues It is also clear, upon reflection, that the interpreters supplied to me were grounded in Russian influence and used words that were, and are, offensive to Ukrainians. Example: Attorneys identified as "notaries." Another profound impression was how clean the city was and how kind the citizens were. Storekeepers washed and swept the sidewalks of Kiev (now Kyiv) every morning. We visited a trial court in session in the capital city. "Why are there interpreters here?" I asked. Turns out the judge was Russian and refused to listen or speak Ukrainian. The local citizens presented their case through this interpreter who translated their Ukrainian testimony into Russian for the benefit of the judge (who, Im convinced could understand Ukrainian). In a remote part of the country, we were entertained by a local trial judge at lunch. (We had been wisely forewarned not to drink the vodka that came with every meal.) At lunch, I asked the judge: "What are your standards for processing criminal cases?" Surprisingly, she gave me time limitations that were as strict as any in the U.S. After lunch, we visited her court and courtroom with her. A person who was identified to me as a "notary," appeared with an elderly lady clad in dirty nightgown. He shouted at the judge. I quickly learned from the interpreter that he was complaining that this woman had been in jail without any hearing for a year. The judge smiled and dismissed them, never explaining to me why the difference between fact and fiction about the time limitations. (This court was in a building dated 1946; the bathroom had a hole in the floor and a wash basin.) These experiences resonate as we wrestle with our current involvement in the crisis. The citizens of that good country have been indoctrinated for decades in an autocratic system of law that is contrary to Western principles. They want and deserve better but it will continue to be a very difficult undertaking. John R. Milligan is a retired judge who served on the 5th District Ohio Court of Appeals. He lives in North Canton. This article originally appeared on The Repository: Retired Judge John Milligan recalls visit to Ukraine in 1990s Feb. 27Darren Koch thought his younger son would play soccer or baseball in high school. Koch himself was a three-time All-Berks selection in soccer at Fleetwood and an all-county pick once in baseball. He also played basketball for the Tigers. "Basketball was something to do between soccer and baseball season for me," he said. That's not the case with Ryan Koch. A 6-3 junior, he's a basketball standout at Berks Catholic (21-4), which will face Littlestown (19-5) in a District 3 Class 4A semifinal Monday night at 7 at Wolf Gymnasium. Two other Berks Conference teams also will be in district action Monday at 7 p.m. In Class 5A, Exeter (12-13) will play Lower Dauphin (12-12) in a PIAA seeding game at Reiffton. In Class 3A, Tulpehocken (18-6) will take on Lancaster Catholic (8-14) in a state qualifier at New Schaefferstown. Also in Class 1A, High Point (21-5) will play at Mount Calvary Christian (24-2) in the third-place game. Koch averages 14.0 points a game for the Saints and is their most dangerous outside threat. He ranks second in the Berks Conference with 56 3-pointers, displaying a pretty form that was shaped by his father in the driveway at their Bern Township home. "My dad always taught me to keep the ball above my head," Ryan said, "and not get into bad habits shooting below my waist." He and teammates Aidan Sands and Jack Miller will be important pieces for Berks Catholic against Littlestown, which plays a 1-3-1 zone defense and traps out of it. The Saints lead the league with 172 treys. "We always rely on our shots," Koch said. "When the shots fall, it's nice. 3s are the biggest thing for our team. A shooter always loves to see a zone. You find the gaps and you hit the shots." Darren and Nicole Koch allowed their children, Ryan and Daniel, to play only two sports as they grew up. Ryan initially played baseball and soccer, gave up baseball when he was 11 and soccer when he was 13 and then transferred from Schuylkill Valley to Berks Catholic. Story continues For a short while, he was only playing year-round soccer. "Ryan has played every sport there is," said his father, who was the longtime baseball coach at Schuylkill Valley. "He loved baseball and then he was going to be a year-round soccer player. He kept asking me about playing basketball in fourth and fifth grade. "He started playing basketball and about a year later he shot up 7 or 8 inches in a growth spurt. It was a done deal at that point. He was as tall as me (6-1) when he was in eighth grade." It was around that time when Darren gave him shooting tips that Ryan didn't accept at first. "I remember those days," Darren said. "He fought me like crazy. He was mad at me for a year because he wanted to shoot like his friends, from the hip. "He'd come storming in from the driveway yelling to his mom about it. 'He's not letting me do what I want to do.' " Berks Catholic coach Snip Esterly noticed Koch's shooting form the very first time he watched him play. Koch wound up playing on the varsity as a freshman two years ago. "I saw tremendous ability that was ready to emerge," Esterly said. "He had a perfect jump shot. If you want to see a video of the perfect jump shot, you'd take him. It's perfect form. The only thing he needed was strength. Each year he gets stronger and stronger and stronger." Koch showed a glimpse of his potential when he scored 11 points in a 55-47 loss to Eastern York in the district playoffs two years ago. Last year, he was the third-leading scorer with a 9.7 average behind Josiah Jordan and Sands. The three of them played together as freshmen and before that on travel teams. "I've known Ryan for a very long time," Jordan said. "We've always been a dynamic duo, I like to say. I love his shot. That's what he's known for. He can take it to the basket, too. "I love each and every one of my teammates. But seeing a kid I grew up with do what he's doing, it really brings me joy." Koch is an exceptional athlete. He began playing golf two years ago and last fall was Berks Catholic's No. 1 player and an all-division pick. "I've been playing for 20 years and he's been playing for about two," his father said. "And right now we're dead even. It won't be long. In another year he'll be 10 strokes ahead of me." Koch also has a strong shoe game. He wears colorful footwear and has so many pairs, his parents had to build him a separate shelf for them in his bedroom closet. "He has cool sneakers," teammate Tyler Givens said. "He has different kicks for every practice." Ryan Koch's shot, however, remains consistent. He's scored at least 20 points five times this season, including a career-high 27 and six 3s at Wilson last month. Esterly said he believes Koch's game is going to keep improving. "He's getting better defensively," Esterly said. "He has to become a better ballhandler. He has to get stronger so he can protect the ball. When he gets stronger, he's going to be able to finish better. "Whoever taught him to shoot should start a clinic. It's just so natural. Wherever he goes to college is going to get a nice player." A Rock Hill man on probation has been charged with armed robbery after demanding money at a York County convenience store, officials said. Jackson Brown Lockridge, 22, was caught by deputies and Rock Hill police officers after a traffic stop on an Interstate 77 on-ramp after the Friday robbery, which happened at a store on Lesslie Highway southeast of Rock Hill, according to a York County Sheriffs Office incident report. Lockridge put a gun on the counter of a store and demanded $200 from the clerk, according to sheriffs office reports. No shots were fired and no one was hurt, the report stated. Lockridge fled in a pickup truck. A gun deputies said was a .357-caliber pellet gun was found in the truck, deputies said in the reports. A conviction for armed robbery carries up to 20 years in prison, South Carolina law states. Lockridge remains in the York County jail under a $35,000 bond on charges of armed robbery and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, York County jail records show. Lockridge was on probation from a 2021 conviction for forgery, according to South Carolina court records and documents from the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. In that 2021 conviction a two-year prison sentence was suspended upon the service of the probation. Russias invasion of Ukraine has prompted outrage and condemnation across the globe, with many world leaders announcing sanctions in response. While most of the official government sanctions in the UK, US and elsewhere are economic, the war has also prompted a backlash within the arts world. Heres a breakdown of some of the preliminary cultural sanctions announced in response to the violence in Ukraine... In the world of theatre, New York Citys Metropolitan Opera has said that it will cease working with performers and companies that support or are supported by Vladimir Putin. In a statement released on Sunday (27 February), the Met Operas general manager Peter Gelb said that the new policy would be instated until the invasion and killing has been stopped, order has been restored and restitutions have been made. According to the New York Times, the new policy will likely mean that the Mets partnership with Moscows Bolshoi Theatre is coming to an end. The two companies have a five-year agreement involving co-operative productions, with several joint shows for next season already scheduled to play. Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, 68, was dropped by his management company the same day, due to his ties to Putin. Munich-based Marcus Felsner has represented the acclaimed conductor since 2020. In a statement, he said: In light of the criminal war waged by the Russian regime against the democratic and independent nation of Ukraine, and against the European open society as a whole, it has become impossible for us, and clearly unwelcome, to defend the interests of Maestro Gergiev. Last week, Londons Royal Opera House also announced that it was abandoning plans for a Bolshoi residency this summer. Valery Gergiev conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in 2016 (Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for BMW & London Symphony Orchestra) The Russian State Ballet of Siberia has also cancelled a number of planned UK tour dates. Promotion company Raymond Gubbay Limited announced that the tour was being abandoned due to the current shocking circumstances unfolding in Ukraine. Story continues A number of venues around the UK have also announced they are cancelling planned visits from touring Russian companies. The Ukranian Film Academy has called for an international boycott of Russian cinema. In a plea to global film institutions and professionals, the institution called for international festivals to ban Russian films from their line-up and for producers to terminate any dealings with businesses connected to the Russian Federation. Warner Bros, Sony Pictures and Disney are among the studios to pull forthcoming film releases from Russia, with the Pixar animation Turning Red, supervillain thriller Morbius and The Batman all being withdrawn ahead of their planned release dates. Robert Pattinson in The Batman' (AP/Warner Bros) The European Film Academy has given its support to the boycott, announcing on Tuesday 1 March that Russian movies would be excluded from the European Film Awards 2022 in December. The Eurovision Song Contest has announced that Russia will be banned from performing at the 2022 competition. The decision reflects concern that, in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of a Russian entry in this years contest would bring the competition into disrepute, said the European Broadcasting Union in a statement. The decision constituted something of a U-turn, with the ceremonys organisers previously being met with a barrage of criticism for announcing that they had no plans to prevent Russia from taking part, despite being urged by Ukraines public broadcaster. Individual music artists have also boycotted performances in Russia, including Green Day, who announced on Instagram on Sunday that they were cancelling a planned Moscow gig. With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium, they wrote. We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, its much bigger than that. But we also know that rock and roll is forever and we feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future. Refunds available at the point of purchase. Stay safe. Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day (Getty Images) Other music artists including Imagine Dragons, Franz Ferdinand, Louis Tomlinson, AJR and Oxxxymiron have also cancelled their concerts in Russia. Much as we hate to disappoint our Russian fans, and we know they do not support this war, we cannot play against the backdrop of this murderous invasion, Alt-J tweeted. We pray for the people of Ukraine, we call on president Putin to end the war and hope to return to Russia one day under a different regime. We are sad to announce that we will be cancelling our upcoming show in Russia, AJR wrote in a tweet on Friday (25 February). Thank you to our Russian fans who oppose their countrys unprovoked and criminal behavior. Our hearts are with the people of Ukraine. At this point, the best thing you can do is share ACCURATE info. Russian rapper Oxxxymiron added that he cant perform while Russian missiles fall on Ukraine. [I am] postponing six of my major gigs in Moscow and St Petersburg indefinitely, he said in a video. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia threatened Canada on Monday with retaliation if it failed to ensure the safety of its diplomats and complained over what it said were hostile protests outside its embassy in Ottawa and two other consulates. In a statement, Russia's foreign ministry said it had called in Canada's ambassador to Moscow to lodge a formal protest. A Russian tank seen Saturday destroyed on a road in Ukraine's Luhansk region. ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images The initial days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine have included "operational blunders," experts say. Russia hasn't been fighting as well as expected, and Ukraine is putting up a solid resistance. Experts say the Kremlin miscalculated, leading to "dumb" mistakes by the Russian military. Russia's invasion of Ukraine doesn't appear to be going at all as its leaders had planned. Its forces have stumbled from their own apparent failures and fierce Ukrainian resistance, but the outcome may be far from decided. Experts and officials say Moscow may adjust its approach and intensify its attacks, even as international outrage grows. Russia's multipronged advance on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, "still appears to be their main line of effort," a senior US defense official said Monday. The Russian advance has moved only about 5 kilometers or 3 miles in the past day and is now about 25 kilometers from the city center. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been leading the resistance to the Russian assault from Kyiv despite the rising risks to his safety. "Certainly they have been slowed and they have been frustrated by their lack of progress on Kyiv," the official told reporters. "One of the things that could result is a reevaluation of their tactics and the potential for them to be more aggressive and more overt in both the size and scale of their targeting of Kyiv." In addition to halted efforts to take the capital, there continues to be intense fighting around Kharkiv in Ukraine's northeast, and Russian forces are advancing on the southeastern port city of Mariupol. Capturing these cities could allow Russia to "section off" eastern Ukraine and any troops fighting there, "but again," the official said, "they haven't taken Kharkiv, and they haven't taken Mariupol." The airspace over much of Ukraine remains contested, the official said Monday, contradicting some Russian claims that its forces have air superiority. Footage of aerial battles and of aircraft downed by air-defense systems continues to appear online, as do images and videos of destroyed Russian tanks and vehicles. Story continues US intelligence predicted Kyiv could fall in a matter of days, but the city continues to hold out. Ukrainians are putting up a "very stiff and very effective defense" around their capital, the defense official said. "The slowness of the advance, we believe, is certainly due to that resistance, but it is also due to logistical and sustainment issues that the Russians have had," the official added, noting that it's unclear whether those challenges were caused by the Ukrainian forces or the Russians themselves. 'A lot of dumb Russian mistakes' A fragment of a destroyed Russian tank on a road on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images Russia has made a "mess" of its invasion, Michael Kofman, a Russia expert at CNA, said on Twitter, writing that "this operation looks terrible." Some of the ways Russia has conducted its offensive against Ukraine are a mystery, such as its failure to use its aviation assets to swiftly achieve air superiority early in the conflict, but much of what is presently being seen can be attributed to failed assumptions on the part of the Russians, experts said. "What I think you have here is the Russian strategy assumed they would face little resistance from the Ukrainians, they could surround Kyiv in a matter of days and that the Ukrainian military just wouldn't put up much resistance at all," Jeffrey Edmonds, a former CIA military analyst who is now a Russia expert at CNA, told Insider on Monday. Russia appears "to have expected something much easier than what they're up against now," Edmonds added. Russia's planning for the campaign appears to have assumed that there'd be little resistance and that Russian forces could move quickly enough to force a Ukrainian collapse before the international community could mount a robust response, Kofman told War on the Rocks on Sunday. The Russian objective "was to seize small towns and junctions, rush to the capital in the north as fast as they could, and then rush forward down roads, isolate Ukrainian forces, give the sense of encirclement, the sense of rapid defeat so Zelensky would surrender," he said. Edmonds said Russia's misguided assumptions, along with problematic political influences, seemed to have led to "operational blunders" such as conducting air-assault operations without follow-on support, sending military convoys into ambushes, and failing to avoid logistical nightmares. Russian forces have also demonstrated some confusion about the mission and operational planning. A destroyed Russian military vehicle on a roadside near Kharkiv on Saturday. SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images Russia was expected to use a combined-arms approach, using heavy firepower to enable the movement of forces in battalion tactical groups units of several hundred soldiers with armor and artillery experts said. Instead, Russian military commanders took several battalions and "pushed them along the roads to rapidly seize" key points and "make forward progress," Kofman explained. "They're not actually employing battalion tactical groups," he said. "You often see detachments widely separated. Tanks without infantry. Infantry without tanks." Mason Clark, the lead Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told Insider that "the Kremlin simply miscalculated and expected the Ukrainian military to collapse far quicker than it has" and that "they probably didn't think they needed full cohesive units driving in." "It's led to a lot of dumb Russian mistakes," he said, pointing to units getting isolated or launching unsupported attacks against heavily defended positions. It's not just that the Russians have poorly executed the starting phases of this fight. "It's definitely a mix of Russians are carrying out this offensive very badly and the Ukrainian military is seemingly better and has a much higher morale than anyone, most importantly the Russians, anticipated," Clark said. A damaged military vehicle on the outskirts of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images Russia has struggled to hold captured airfields, and its advances on key cities, like Kyiv and Kharkiv, have been repelled by Ukraine's military and by civilians armed with state-issued rifles and homemade weapons. Moscow has not acknowledged these challenges, and it has only recently acknowledged taking any losses in the conflict, which it characterizes as a "special military operation." "Russian servicemen are showing courage and heroism while fulfilling combat tasks in the special military operation," the Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on state television Sunday, adding that "unfortunately, there are killed and injured among our comrades." Edmonds said the invasion of Ukraine wasn't the type of conflict for which Russia typically trained. Russia usually trains to fight a superior force, such as a combined NATO force. "Most Russian units have not made it into this fight," Kofman said. "People don't get that. They don't understand that this is the war, but it's not a war that the Russian military trained to fight." Russia has significant military capabilities that have yet to be brought in, and US officials and experts caution that Moscow may yet change its approach, adding firepower and adopting more brutal tactics. The defense official said Monday that the Russians were "going to adapt, and they're going to try to overcome, and as they do that adaptation it's possible that they could change their plans and how they want to go after Kyiv to be less discriminant." There have been numerous reports of multiple-launch rocket systems and artillery striking civilian areas, though it couldn't be determined whether those strikes were deliberate. "They are causing civilian harm, and they are striking civilian targets," the official said. "Whether it's intentional and directed, we're just not in a position to be able to confirm that." Those damaging attacks and civilian casualties from them are expected to increase as the fighting increases around major Ukrainian cities. Kofman pointed to Russia's deployment of Chechen troops as cause for concern. "That's a set of fighters that have been brought in to engage in the viciousness of urban warfare, and I've seen quite a few of those kind of troops being brought in, particularly in the last couple of days," Kofman said Sunday. Russia's missteps on the battlefield so far come as Russian President Vladimir Putin's reputation is on the line, which may lead to escalation rather than de-escalation in the days ahead. "It is unclear what to expect from him," Edmonds said of Putin, "but I would not expect him to do nothing." Read the original article on Business Insider This blog has now ended. Follow our continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine here. Russia's attack on Ukraine stretched into its sixth day Tuesday, as a massive armored convoy advanced toward the capital, Kyiv, and major cities were hit by more heavy shelling. In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, video captured a deadly explosion at the regional state administration building that left at least 10 people dead, according to Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko. The International Criminal Court said Monday it would open an investigation into whether Russia has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. The decision was announced hours after peace talks in Belarus ended without any clear progress. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored the European Union to accept Ukraine's application to join the bloc in a speech before the European Parliament on Tuesday that was met with a standing ovation. It came amid a swift Western response to Russia's invasion, with countries imposing widening sanctions that hit Russia's economy hard and forced its currency, the ruble, to drop to around 30 percent against the U.S. dollar Monday. Follow our in-depth coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis here. Editors note: This story has been updated with new images and information provided by Maxar Technologies. Satellite images released Monday evening suggest a Russian military convoy heading to Ukraines capital city of Kyiv covers nearly 40 miles of a road, according to Maxar Technologies. Maxar first released images of the convoy Sunday, reporting its location to be about 25 miles northwest of Kyiv, near Ivankiv, Ukraine. Today, a representative said the convoy was photographed near the Antonov airport, or about 17 miles from the center of Kyiv. Images released Monday afternoon suggested the convoy covered nearly 17 miles of roads, containing hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, towed artillery, and logistics support vehicles. Hours later, Maxar released additional images, along with a statement that said the new images show the convoy stretches from near Antonov airport in the south to near Pybirsk, or about 40 miles. Images show some vehicles spaced apart, while there are two or three vehicles across the road in other places. They [Russians] continue to want to move on to capture Kyiv, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby of the convoy earlier Monday. And although we dont know everything about this convoy, it is certainly, in keeping with what we believe to be their intent with, with respect to the capital city. Overview shows building fires and a Russian military convoy traveling north of Ivankiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows Russian military convoy traveling north of Ivankiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows portion of a Russian military convoy and burning homes northwest of Ivankiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows additional portion of a military convoy in southern Ivankiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows Russian military convoy traveling southeast of Ivankiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows the northern end of a convoy containing resupply vehicles southeast of Ivankiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows the southern end of a large military convoy near the eastern edge of Antonov airport, Hostomel, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Closer view shows the southern end of a large military convoy, including armor and towed artillery trucks, near the eastern edge of Antonov airport, Hostomel, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows destroyed vehicles and a damaged bridge in Irpin, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows a damaged bridge in Stoyanka, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows large deployment of ground forces near Zdvyzhivka, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Closer view shows ground forces in a residential area near Zdvyzhivka, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows Russian airborne forces near Zdvyzhivka, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows Ozerne air base near Ozerne, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022 (Planet Labs PBC) Overview shows Ozerne air base near Ozerne, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022 (Planet Labs PBC) Overview shows Vasylkiv air base near Vasylkiv, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Planet Labs PBC) Closer view shows Vasylkiv air base near Vasylkiv, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Planet Labs PBC) Overview shows V.D. Bolkov airfield, south of Mazyr, Belarus, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Closer views shows ground attack helicopters at V.D. Bolkov airfield, south of Mazyr, Belarus, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows ground forces equipment and a military convoy in Khilchika, Belarus, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Overview shows ground forces deployment near Teshkov, Belarus, Feb. 28, 2022 (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies) Additional images released by Maxar show destroyed armored vehicles and a damaged bridge in Ukraine, as well as additional ground forces including ground attach helicopter units in Belarus. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is in its fifth day, but Ukrainians are putting up an effective resistance, currently holding control of all major cities. US pledges $54 million in humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees Planet Labs PBC released images Monday that appear to show a fire at Ukraines Vasylkiv Air Base outside of Kyiv. CBS News and CNN reported an oil depot near the base caught fire. Ukrainian officials told CNN there was heavy fighting in the area Friday night. Story continues Closer view shows Vasylkiv air base near Vasylkiv, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022 (Planet Labs PBC) United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the conflict in Ukraine is leaving to escalating human rights violations. We know the inevitable result of war: civilian casualties; women, children and men forced from their homes; hunger; poverty; and huge economic disruption, Guterres said in opening remarks of the regular session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva today. We must show all people in Ukraine that we stand by them in their time of need. The U.N General Assembly opened an emergency session Monday to address the invasion, with the assembly president calling for an immediate cease-fire. Happy Monday, Sacramento! Here's everything you need to know going on locallytoday. First, today's weather: Partly sunny and pleasant. High: 73 Low: 45. Here are the top stories in Sacramento today: Three former officials of an American Indian tribe that runs a Northern California casino have each been sentenced to more than three years in prison for embezzling nearly $5 million from the tribe. John Crosby, 56, his mother Ines Crosby, 76, and her sister, Leslie Lohse, 67, stole money over five years from the Paskenta Tribe of Nomlaki Indians, which owns the Rolling Hills Casino north of Sacramento, prosecutors said. John Crosby is a former FBI agent in Sacramento who was the tribes economic development director. His mother was the tribes administrator and his aunt was treasurer. (KCRA3) The city of Sacramento Thursday became the first jurisdiction in California to earn the state Prohousing Designation a distinction that will give it added points when competing for affordable housing, transportation and infrastructure dollars. The Prohousing Designation Program, run by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), provides incentives to cities and counties in the form of additional points or other preference in the scoring of competitive housing, community development and infrastructure programs. For more information on HCDs Prohousing Designation Program, please visit the HCD website here. (Sacramento City Express) The Elk Grove City Council on Feb. 23 unanimously approved a $9.5 million purchase agreement for 100 acres of land for the potential relocation and expansion of the Sacramento Zoo in Elk Grove. Ann Grava, a contract real estate manager with the city of Elk Grove, told the council that while this land will be purchased for a new zoo site, the property is also suitable for non-zoo commercial uses in the event that a new zoo is not built there. The efforts to relocate the landlocked, 14-acre zoo from its current site in Sacramentos William Land Park to a larger site began three years ago. Five months ago, the city of Elk Grove and the Sacramento Zoological Society announced their plan to consider a relocation of the Sacramento Zoo to Elk Grove. (egcitizen.com) A fire that started from a non-permitted agricultural burn in Elk Grove is now contained, said the Cosumnes Fire Department. The fire originally started in southeast Elk Grove near Highway 99 and Grant Line Road and spread over three acres. No injuries were reported. (CBS Sacramento) One person is dead after they crashed their car into a tree on Interstate 80 on Sunday morning, according to the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District. Fire officials tweeted that the crash happened near Madison Avenue. The driver's identity or what led to the crash was not released as of publication. (KCRA3) From our sponsor: Story continues Today's Sacramento Daily is brought to you in part by Newrez, a leading nationwide mortgage lender. Make a smart move for your future and refinance with Newrez today. Call 844-979-1707 to connect with a Newrez loan officer. Newrez, LLC (NMLS #3013)f197 Today in Sacramento: Join Game Kastle Sacramento for Paint KNight ! You can bring your own mini and paints to work on OR for $5 you can choose a miniature from the stores paint-n-take selection and gain access to our store paints, brushes and supplies! (5:00 PM) Take a course in Screenwriting Basics at Verge Center for the Arts in Sacramento. (6:00 PM) Try a Storytelling Comedy Class with Johnny Taylor at the Punch Line in Sacramento (7:00 PM) From my notebook: She Shares is thrilled to announce its first in person event with two incredible speakers; California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber , Ph.D., and her daughter, Assemblymember Akilah Weber , M.D. The conversation will be moderated by Cassandra Pye, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Lucas Public Affairs. The event will take place on March 22. (sacramento365.com) The Foothill Wine Festival is back April 2nd! This is the 2nd annual consumer tasting experience held at The Palladio in Folsom . There will be over 50 wineries from Californias Sierra Foothill Wine Region again this year! (Folsom Telegraph) Take a look back at this month in history from Gold Country Media archives; compiled by Howard Stitt 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) Taxes in Retirement Webinar (March 1) Brahma Bar and Grill's Inaugural Five Course Prix-Fixe Wine Dinner 3/2/22 (March 2) Soroptimist Martinis & Merriment (March 19) Add your event Gigs & services: The Most Advanced Forex AI Trading Bot on the Marketing Today (Details) Add your gig or service Loving the Sacramento Daily? Here are all the ways you can get more involved: Send a friend or neighbor this link so they can subscribe Get your local business listed in front of readers Send me a news tip or suggestion at sacramento@patch.com Thanks for following along and staying informed! I'll be in your inbox tomorrow with a new update. Jeri Karges About me: Jeri Karges has been living in and loving the Sacramento region for over 30 years. Her passion is finding new and unique ways to enjoy the city and surrounding areas. On weekends, you can find her pestering her friends to sample the restaurant that doesn't have silverware, or try their hand at throwing an axe. Jeri also enjoys writing about retirement planning at https://rockinretirement.subst... This article originally appeared on the Sacramento Patch You are here: World Flash Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's deterrence forces to be placed on "a special mode of combat duty" in a Sunday meeting with top defense officials. Senior officials of leading NATO members issued "aggressive statements" against Russia, Putin said at a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov. Putin said Western countries are imposing "illegitimate sanctions" against Russia's economy. The decision to put the deterrence forces on combat duty was made as Russia has been conducting "a special military operation" in Ukraine since early Thursday. Russian forces had destroyed 975 Ukrainian military infrastructure objects, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday morning. Russia has blockaded several cities in eastern and southern Ukraine. Michael Keaton almost missed accepting his SAG Award for his performance in Dopesick due to a long line in the mens room. The 70-year-old actor, who won the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series, made award presenter Salma Hayek wait for a couple of minutes before appearing on stage. Are you kidding me? I have stage fright, Hayek joked, as soon as she spotted Keaton jogging through the audience. Come on Michael, come on Michael. In a hurry, Keaton avoided taking the stairs and instead jumped up and rolled over the stage in a makeshift somersault to get up there quickly. Thank you very much, the Spider-Man actor said, after finally accepting the award from Hayek. Sorry, quick trip to the mens room. Its packed, by the way. In his acceptance speech, Keaton lauded Ukraines president and fellow actor Volodymyr Zelensky for fighting the fight. He also spoke about the privilege that allowed him to become an actor. .@MichaelKeaton receives Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series! #sagawards pic.twitter.com/oay0o96iX8 SAG Awards (@SAGawards) February 28, 2022 I am so fortunate. We could spend a week here talking about how fortunate I am, and I know you would all love that, Keaton said. Everyone wants to hear Mike ramble on for a couple of hours. Im so blessed to do what I do, and so fortunate. I have a job where I can be part of a production like Dopesick, that actually can spawn thought, conversation, actual change. Who gets to have that job? How fortunate am I that good can come from something I do just because I wanted to become an actor? he added. Story continues Keaton also spoke about the massive inequity in the world. In Dopesick, when you talk about addiction, the way to heal the problem is to accept that you have a problem. Not our country the entire world, he said. Economically, racially, socially, financially. Theres massive inequity in the world. There just is. Theres fair, and theres unfair. Theres not a lot of room in between. He then gave a moving tribute to his nephew Michael, who died of fentanyl and heroin use in his thirties, by dedicating his award to him. Given the subject matter, this is for my nephew, Michael, and my sister, Pam, he said. I lost my nephew Michael to drugs, and it hurts. To my sister Pam, thanks. A Seattle bakery owner has closed her shop due to the excessive crime happening around the area. In an interview with The Seattle Times published Sunday, Piroshky Piroshky bakery owner Olga Sagan told the newspaper about the recent crime that happened at her store, including an individual being shot and wounded nearby and people abusing drugs at the front of her store. Sagan said she called the police about the incidents and alleged there was no response, according to the Times. Sagan also said she officially closed the store when a man was shot to death around the block from the bakery Sunday afternoon, telling her employees that she will try to find jobs for them at other locations in the city and adding that she will reopen the store when it is safe. Piroshky Piroshky bakery is a store that serves traditional Russian pastries, the newspaper reported. "How many shootings do we need to have to realize this is an active emergency in downtown Seattle?" Sagan told The Seattle Times. "The streets of downtown have been abandoned by government," she said, "and handed over to criminal activity." This comes as the Seattle Police Department (SPD) was investigating the shooting death of the man found around the block from the store, saying he had multiple gunshot wounds. In a statement to The Hill, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's (D) office said that he is currently with local authorities to find a solution to the problem, adding he understands the urgency to make residents feel safe in the city. "The mayor is continuing to advocate for hiring additional SPD officers so that there are adequate staff resources to respond to public safety emergencies, bolster police presence in locations where crime is prevalent, and help reset norms downtown and citywide. Further, he is driving efforts specifically to prevent gun violence, including through community-based programs, regional coordination, and other innovative solutions," Harrell's office said. Story continues "Officers and Seattle Fire Department medics both attempted lifesaving measures but the man was declared deceased at the scene," SPD detective Valerie Carson said. Earlier this month, Sagan invited newly elected City Attorney Ann Davidson (R) to her store, with Davidson pledging to prosecute misdemeanors more often and more quickly, though Sagan has lost hope that will happen, the newspaper noted. "It feels safer, but still, it's always drug use and people shouting at you whichever way you walk," Sagan said. "This is just too dangerous," Sagan added. NIKSIC, Montenegro (Reuters) - About 100 Serb nationalists rallied in front of an Orthodox church in Montenegro on Monday in a rare European display of support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin. "Good luck, Vladimir, you are the guardian of Orthodoxy!" shouted protest leader Veselin Djokovic. "We hope that you will bring Kosovo back into our arms," he continued, referring to the former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Montenegro's politics have been long marked by divisions between those who identify as Montenegrins and pro-Russia Serbs who opposed the tiny Adriatic country's independence from a former state union with Serbia and prefer stronger ties with Serbia and Russia. Protesters waved Russian flags and carried a huge banner reading "Serbs in Montenegro, Russians in Ukraine". They chanted "Russia" and "Donbas" - referring to a Russian-backed breakaway region of Ukraine - as church bells rang in the background in the town of Niksic. They also booed NATO, of which Montenegro became a member in 2017. "We are not for war but you (Russia) have our support to prevent the destruction of Russians because of NATO ambitions," Djokovic said. After a no-confidence vote in the pro-Serb government backed by the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church earlier this month, Montenegro is awaiting a proposal for a new government which has been delayed by political parties' bickering. (This story refiles to change day to Monday from Thursday in first para) (Reporting by Stevo Vasiljevic, writing by Daria Sito-Sucic, editing by Mark Heinrich) Singapore's Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan addresses Parliament on Tuesday, 2 February 2021. (SCREENSHOT: Ministry of Communications and Information/YouTube ) SINGAPORE Singapore will impose export controls on items that can be used directly as weapons in Ukraine, as well as certain financial sanctions on Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, said Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament on Monday (28 February). The city-state will block certain Russian banks and financial transactions connected to Moscow. Specific measures will be announced shortly. In a ministerial statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Dr Balakrishnan noted that Singapore has rarely acted to impose sanctions on other countries in the absence of binding United Nations Security Council decisions or directions. However, given the "unprecedented gravity" of the Russian attack, Singapore intends to impose appropriate sanctions and restriction, in concert with many other like-minded countries. While the country values good relations with Russia and the Russian people, it cannot accept such violations of sovereignty and territorial integrity of another sovereign state. "We cannot accept one country attacking another without justification, arguing that his independence was the result of 'historical errors and crazy decisions'. Such a rationale would go against the internationally recognised legitimacy and territorial integrity of many countries, including Singapore," said Dr Balakrishnan. The minister noted that the sanctions will come "at some cost" for businesses, citizens and Singapore. "However, unless we as a country stand up for principles that are the very foundation for the independence and sovereignty of smaller nations, our own right to exist and prosper as a nation may similarly be called into question one day." Singapore was one of 82 co-sponsors of a Security Council resolution condemning the invasion. The resolution was not passed as Russia, a permanent member of the Council, vetoed it. Nevertheless, Singapore strongly condemned the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last Thursday. Story continues On Friday, Ukraine ambassador to Singapore Kateryna Zelenko told reporters that how long Ukraine can hold out against the invasion will depend on the support of its Western partners and the international community. Ukrainian and Russian officials are scheduled for peace talks at a venue on the Belarusian border with Ukraine. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore At the 2022 Pennsylvania Farm Show, the Pennsylvania State Grange presented an informative program on solar energy generation as it relates to farming. The panel presented thought-provoking insights on whether or not factory-scale production of solar energy can coexist with production farming. More: Solar energy project planned in Girard, another still planned in southern Erie County Enhancing use of alternative energy is a positive goal for this General Assembly to pursue. Solar energy is a prime example of energy generation with less of a climate footprint. However, the Pennsylvania State Grange urges the General Assembly to develop a framework for this mass-produced alternative energy. This is an undated contributed photo of Pattern Energy's Futtsu Solar project, near Tokyo, Japan. The U.S.-based company plans a commercial solar project in northwestern Pennsylvania. We believe that Pennsylvania should not pick winners and losers. Our state is blessed with multiple sources of energy. Increasing energy output from solar energy generation should not put people out of work who have jobs with fossil fuels and natural gas extraction as these industries are huge economic drivers in Pennsylvania and should also be encouraged. Legislators should not pick sides and suggest that there is only one energy solution worth pursuing. If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us nothing else, it certainly reminded us to not put all our eggs in one basket. The food shortages during the last two years stand as a testimony to that! Wayne Campbell Given growing interest by energy companies to harvest solar energy from farms, we urge the General Assembly to be out in front on this issue before the regulatory environment becomes a confusing and a conflicting minefield. The first question is who regulates large-scale solar energy development. Is it the Public Utility Commission? Is it the federal government? Is it local zoning? Should the Department of Agriculture or the Department of Environmental Protection have some say over approvals for these massive solar energy factories? Investors and farmers need clarity because regulatory uncertainty can doom a project. The second question and possibly the most important is how to decide where to put these facilities. Currently it seems that energy companies prefer to develop farmland as this is usually flat or gentle sloping land that makes it more cost-effective. Story continues The problem comes with the threat of the loss of productive farmland from what is in essence a solar energy factory. Pennsylvania is the nations leader in farmland protection and preservation. The Growing Greener Program and Farm Preservation in Pennsylvania has kept farmland safe from commercial or residential development for many years. These success stories must not be compromised by trading food security for energy security. The General Assembly will have to decide how we can have both. The Pennsylvania State Grange suggests having energy companies document why reclaimed mine land or brownfields cannot be used instead of farmland. Secondly, we feel installations should not take farmland out of production unless another type of agriculture (grazing or specialty crops) can still take place. Lastly, solar energy facilities should be installed in areas verified by conservation districts as not adding pollution to our streams. A few other questions we feel also must be addressed are whether farm-generated solar energy can be shared with surrounding communities or be bypassed. Will there be indemnification for removing the solar installation if the energy company becomes insolvent? During our panel discussion at the Farm Show, it was disclosed there are approximately 420 possible solar farm projects being proposed in Pennsylvania right now, which would take roughly 80,000 acres of land to construct. While solar energy has the potential to be an alternative energy generation, it is important to carefully consider how its use of solar facilities can hurt Pennsylvanias agricultural heritage. Wayne Campbell is the president of the Pennsylvania State Grange. The grange was founded in 1873 to advocate for the needs of farmers and rural communities in the commonwealth. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Grange asks: Is solar energy a threat to Pennsylvania farming? By Hyonhee Shin and Cynthia Kim SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea will tighten export controls against Russia by banning shipments of strategic items and join Western countries' moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Monday. "The Korean government condemned Russia's armed invasion of Ukraine and, as a responsible member of the international community, decided to actively participate in the international community's efforts, including economic sanctions, for a peaceful resolution of the situation," the ministry said in a statement. Among the strategic items that could be controlled are supplies of electronics, semiconductors, computers, information and communications, sensors and lasers, navigation and avionics, and marine and aerospace equipment. Shortly after the announcement, Russia's Ambassador to South Korea Andrey Kulik expressed regret, blaming "strong outside pressure" on Seoul from the United States its western partners to join them in applying sanctions. He called Moscow's actions in Ukraine a "special operation" aimed at defending Russia from those western forces trying to use Ukraine "as a tool" to mount military threats. Two leading banks in South Korea confirmed on Monday that while they haven't yet received specific guidelines from SWIFT, or the member-owned cooperative for interbank payment system, they stopped trade financing with at least seven Russian banks. South Korea's Shinhan Bank and one other leading lender said that they stopped issuing letters of credit and other trade financing to PSB, VEB, VTB, Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Sovcombank, and Sberbank. The second Korean bank declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. "Blocking SWIFT will adversely affect trade financing although South Korea's overall imports of natural gas and oil from Russia isn't that huge, at about 5-10%" of the total, said Jeong Min-hyeon, an economist with expertise in Russia and Europe at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Story continues "The difficulties South Korean buyers of Russian commodities and other exporters go through with payment difficulties could lead to supply disruption and price increases." In its statement, the foreign ministry also said the Korean government has decided to promote the additional release of strategic oil reserves for stabilisation of the international energy market, and to further review other measures such as the resale of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. South Korea will boost humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the ministry added, saying its decisions have been officially notified to the U.S. government through diplomatic channels. It also plans to seek exemption from Washington's sanctions against Russia as measures to block Russia's access to high-tech products could affect South Korean exporters including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, local news agency Yonhap reported, citing the trade ministry. The U.S. government said in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last week it will implement export controls designed to cut Russia off from semiconductors and other advanced technology crucial to its weapons development and biotechnology, measures that could hurt chipmakers including Samsung. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Yena Park, Cynthia Kim, Josh Smith and Joyce Lee; Editing by Michael Perry and Kenneth Maxwell) A man remains in the hospital after he was shot Sunday evening by Spartanburg County deputies. The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to a domestic disturbance with a weapon call on Spring Valley Lane, Inman. When deputies arrived, they encountered a male suspect with a gun, according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office. Several deputies fired at the man and struck him, the Sheriff's Office said. Deputies rendered aid until EMS arrived on the scene and transported the man to the hospital, where his current condition is unknown. The Sheriff's Office said it's their protocol on all officer-involved shootings, to secure the scene and contact agents with the State Law Enforcement Division. The case has been turned over to SLED to investigate. This is a developing story. Check back to GoUpstate for updates. This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg County deputies shoot man on Spring Valley Lane in Inman You are here: World Flash The world's biggest plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, gets ready to take off from an airport outside Kiev, Ukraine, April 3, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] Russian forces have destroyed Ukraine's flagman aircraft An-225 Mriya, the world's biggest cargo plane, Ukraine's state defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom said Sunday on Telegram. The aircraft was destroyed in an attack by Russian troops on the Hostomel airport outside Kiev, Ukroboronprom said. The restoration of the plane will cost more than 3 billion U.S. dollars and will take a long time, it said. The An-225 Mriya, designed in the 1980s, is the longest and the heaviest airplane ever built. It was capable of carrying up to 640 tons of cargo. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images The State Department has accused Russia of "widespread" human rights abuses in Ukraine. Secretary Blinken's remarks come as Russian forces reportedly fire missiles at civilian areas. Advocacy groups have warned that bombings against Ukrainian citizens could be considered war crimes. The US State Department has accused Russia of "widespread" human rights abuses in Ukraine as troops reportedly fire missiles at civilian areas. "Russia's invasion has damaged and destroyed schools, hospitals, radio stations, and homes, killing and injuring civilians, including children," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement during a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting. He added: "Since the opening moments of Russia's premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine, reports of human rights abuses have been widespread." Top advocacy groups have warned that ongoing bombings and attacks against Ukrainian citizens could be considered war crimes. Amnesty International said on Sunday that cluster munitions killed several civilians including a child at a preschool on Friday, and said the strike may be considered "a war crime." There's an international treaty banning the use of cluster munitions given their propensity to harm civilians. More than 100 countries have backed the treaty, but Russia and Ukraine are not among them. Human Rights Watch said on Friday a Russian ballistic missile hit near a hospital the day before, killing four civilians and injuring 10. "The escalation of military operations inside Ukraine is leading to escalating human rights violations," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday. "We know the result of war: civilian casualties, people forced to flee, poverty & hunger." Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Monday of killing 16 children and injuring 45 others since the invasion began on Thursday. Story continues His remarks came as dozens of people were reportedly killed in rocket strikes in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. Zelensky on Sunday said Ukraine submitted an application against Russia to the International Court of Justice, filing suit against Moscow in the UN's highest court. "Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression," Zelensky said in a tweet. "We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week." Russian President Vladimir Putin has baselessly accused Ukraine of genocide against Russian speakers to justify Russia's unprovoked invasion. Though Zelensky is Jewish, the Russian president has claimed that he's pursuing the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine. Read the original article on Business Insider The State Department is warning U.S. travelers to avoid Belarus due to its involvement in Russia's attack on Ukraine. The department cites Russia's military buildup within Belarus, its "arbitrary enforcement of laws," the risk of detention and COVID-19 as reasons to stay out of the country. Belarus has been a staging area for Russian troops ahead of the invasion of Ukraine that started Thursday. "Due to Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine from Belarus, 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 department's website reads. "Potential harassment targeted specifically at foreigners is also possible." TRAVEL WARNINGS: US travelers urged to leave Ukraine 'immediately if it is safe to do so' amid Russia invasion A senior U.S. intelligence official said Belarus is expected to send troops into Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops as soon as Monday, according to The Associated Press. The country has offered support for Russia's war effort but has so far not been directly involved in the conflict. A sign showing the entrance to Ukraine is seen at the Ukraine-Belarus border crossing on Feb. 13, 2022, in Vilcha, Ukraine. U.S. citizens in Belarus are asked to depart "immediately." The guidance comes after the State Department suspended operations of the U.S. embassy in Minsk Monday morning and ordered U.S. government employees to leave the country. The department already warned against travel to Ukraine and Russia due to the ongoing conflict in the region. Follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter: @bailey_schulz. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: State Department: 'Do not travel' to Belarus after invasion of Ukraine Entrepreneur Celia Gaze runs The Wellbeing Farm, which is viewed as one of the most carbon-neutral venues in the UK A new sustainability skills programme to help small firms realise their growing climate action ambitions is being launched following the COP26 summit. Small Business Britain and Oxford Brookes Business School have developed the new programme, after their joint research showed a huge appetite among small businesses to reduce carbon emissions, but that key barriers are preventing many from taking action. The research pointed to a high level of sustainability consciousness among entrepreneurs, with 71 per cent saying they want to do more in the next two years to reduce carbon emissions. Yet 41 per cent feel access to finance limits them, while 30% are concerned about the time commitment. The new Small Business Sustainability Basics programme is a free, online, six-week short course delivered in partnership with Oxford Brookes Business School and leading sustainability experts. It aims to increase the awareness of small business owners about sustainability and net zero, as well as providing practical insights to realise green growth opportunities. Hemali Modha & Catrin MacDonnell created Jones and Modha, a natural eau de parfum with sustainability at its core Last year COP26 placed a much-needed spotlight on the vital role small businesses can play in the race to net zero, and its important that the energy generated by this carries momentum, said Michelle Ovens CBE, founder of Small Business Britain. There is huge passion amongst the UKs entrepreneurs to take action against climate change. Many are already taking important steps and placing sustainability at the heart of their businesses, becoming increasingly mission driven on this issue. But their collective impact could be so much greater with more support, encouragement, and guidance. Our new programme is designed to supercharge the sustainability skills of the nations entrepreneurs, and provide a key foundation to build from. The research also showed that the road to net zero is something that small businesses need greater clarity and guidance on. 12% of business owners said they are not aware of the governments net zero targets and 42% dont understand what is required. A further 24% of businesses are not doing anything to lower their carbon emissions, but would like to do more. Story continues Tina Chen, founder of HumaniTea, is committed to ensuring her business has minimal impact on the environment With small firms representing 99 per cent of UK business and half of the UKs business driven emissions, according to the British Business Bank, small businesses can play a major role in helping the UK meet its target of reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050, said Professor Tim Vorley, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Oxford Brookes Business School. There are also major benefits for small businesses too, from strengthening resilience and reducing costs, to engaging new customers. Our research shows that small businesses see the opportunity here but perceive cost and time to be barriers, so its important they are supported on this journey. This free, short course is designed to overcome these challenges, and help entrepreneurs to get started and grow their confidence. The Small Business Sustainability Basics scheme will run from March to May this year, providing guidance across a whole range of sustainability areas from energy use and transport, to supply chain and offsetting. It is open to all small businesses to take part and will feature experts including Ciaran Armstrong, Co-Founder of Sustainable Pathways and Adam Bastock, Founder of Small99. Visit here to register. KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban have been carrying out extensive house searches around the Afghan capital, according to residents, a policy the group's spokesman said was to detect criminal activity but that some Western diplomats said had targeted ordinary citizens. Taliban administration spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the searches were part of a "clearing operation" and that houses were only raided if there was a specific report of possible criminal activity. "The operation is not against just anyone, it is against kidnappers, professional thieves and crime groups," he said at a news conference on Sunday. Authorities seized weapons in the raids, which also led to the arrest of dozens of criminals and six members of the Islamic State militant group, Mujahid said. Reuters spoke to seven residents around Kabul, whose names are not being published for security reasons, who said the searches appeared indiscriminate and were spreading fear. One resident in north-west Kabul said he was expecting the Taliban to visit on Monday, meaning his father had to stay home from work to accompany the female members of the family. "We are not happy...I don't want them to enter our house, I don't want them to see my sisters, I don't want them to search my clothing cabinet and my documents. I don't want them to disturb my mother," he said. Another Kabul resident visited by Taliban officials said they had been disrespectful by not following a tradition of removing footwear when going into a home. "They have entered our house with their shoes, they went everywhere," the person said. The ambassadors for the European Union and Germany also criticized the operation. "Concerned about reports of house searches, intimidation, violence against 'criminals' in and around Kabul," said Markus Potzel, Germany's designate ambassador to Afghanistan, in a Tweet on Monday. "As it turns out, this mostly affected ordinary citizens." Story continues Since the Islamist group took over the country in August, observers have warned of emerging signs of a crack-down on dissent and reprisals against former security force members and activists. Fears for the safety of vocal opponents of the Taliban and prominent women have risen since the Islamist group took over the country with international agencies and governments expressing alarm over the disappearance of several female activists in recent months. The Taliban denies targeted reprisals and says it is investigating reports of violence and disappearances. A spokesman for the Taliban commander for Kabul said that as a "military operation" their police were permitted to wear shoes, that only female police would search women's items and that religious representatives from the area would accompany the police during the search. Mujahid said on Sunday they would investigate any cases of reported 'misbehaviour.' European Union Ambassador Andreas von Brandt said house searches should stop immediately. "Despite Putin's war we are watching you," he said in a tweet, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Reporting by Kabul Newsroom; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; editing by Frank Jack Daniel) A family member shared this photo of the teens whose plane crashed off the coast of North Carolina on 13 February 2022 (Family handout via NBC News) A small plane carrying eight people that crashed into the ocean off North Carolinas Outer Banks earlier this month raised no alarm calls in the moments before it lost contact with air traffic controllers and went down, officials say. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released new details about the 13 February crash in a preliminary report on Friday. All eight people on board were killed as they returned home from an annual duck hunting trip. The adult victims were identified as pilot Ernest Durwood Rawls, 67; his son Jeffrey Worthington Rawls, 28; Stephanie Ann McInnis Fulcher, 42; and her boyfriend Douglas Hunter Parks, 45, who owned the plane. The four other victims were high school students and friends Jonathan Kole McInnis, 15; Noah Lee Styron, 15; Michael Daily Shepard, 15; and Jacob Nolan Taylor, 16. The plane, a single-engine Pilatus PC-12, had taken off from Hyde County Airport at 1.35pm and requested clearance to land at Michael J Smith Field Airport in Beaufort. The pilots last known contact with air traffic control was at around 2pm when he approached Cape Lookout National Seashore and acknowledged that he was flying about 200 feet lower than the necessary altitude of 1,900. The controller tried to reach the pilot again less than three minutes later after the plane made a rapid ascent to 4,700 feet and continued climbing quickly. Within a minute of that call attempt, the plane dropped off the radar at 2.04pm before crashing three miles off shore of Drum Inlet. Throughout the communication with air traffic control, there was no distress calls or a declaration of emergency from the airplane, the report states. It said the plane had been diverted over the ocean after flying near airspace that was restricted due to military activity. When that activity cleared, the pilot was instructed to approach Smith Field but never made it there. The report did not speculate about the cause of the crash, which could take months to determine conclusively. Story continues File picture of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, similar to the one which crashed in South Dakota (Steve Lynes) The pilot, Ernest Rawls, had more than 3,000 hours of flight experience and had received his most recent medical certification last summer. He was accompanied in the cock pit by an individual with a student pilot certificate, the NTSB said, without naming that person or indicating if they were directly involved in the flight. It took several days for US Coast Guard search crews to recover the remains of all eight passengers who lived in and around Cateret County. The planes emergency locator transmitter and flight data recorder were recovered by dive crews and sent to a lab for examination. ZURICH (Reuters) - Thousands took to the streets on Monday in Zurich, Switzerland's biggest city, where the iconic city hall and Grossmuenster church were lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag to express support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion. A spokesman for Zurich police confirmed protests were peaceful and the police estimated the number of participants at about 10,000. Earlier on Monday, Switzerland said it would adopt all the sanctions that the European Union has imposed on Russian people and companies and freeze their assets in a sharp deviation from the country's traditional neutrality. (Reporting by Arnd Wiegmann and Silke Koltrowitz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) Lucy Buffetts Winter Gumbo Recipe Becky Stayner; Styling: Lindsey Lower As accepting as we try to be, there are some non-negotiables that Southerners collectively just won't budge on. Thank you notes, homemade pimiento cheese, and seersucker to name a few. However, when we do disagree, we disagree with a stubbornness that could rival any mean donkey. The most divisive issues might seem silly to some, but to Southerners, it can be an affront to the core. For example, how you pronounce pecan (puh-KAHN or PEE-can?), where Brunswick stew originated (Georgia or Virginia?), orand this is a big onewhether or not you should be putting sugar in cornbread. Depending on where you're from, you wouldn't dare bring up these subjects at the holiday dinner table. Out of all the opinions in the South, there is one that goes back generations and will likely keep going until the end of time: whether or not tomatoes belong in gumbo. For those in Louisiana and Cajun-Creole pockets of other states, it's a common argument. Many believe that you're never, ever, ever supposed to put tomatoes in gumbo. These folks are the most outspoken and probably learned the family recipe from their grandmothers. It's a commandment drilled in since youth: "Be kind, and never put tomatoes in the gumbo." Yet, others don't agree and say that it adds a tasty, savory component. So, who's right? The answer might even surprise lifelong Louisianans. Turns out, your preference for tomatoes in gumbo comes down to whether you learned your skills from a Cajun cook or a Creole cook. (Learn about the difference here.) Cajun gumbo does not include tomatoes in the base, but Creole gumbo (typically shellfish or seafood gumbo) does call for tomatoes. In almost every other way, they are similar. Both start with a roux and might incorporate okra or file powder, but Cajun gumbo usually includes chicken or sausage, while Creole gumbo often uses shellfish. The acidity of tomatoes complements seafood, which might be why tomatoes were initially used in shellfish gumbo but skipped in chicken-and-sausage gumbo. While many Cajun and Creole cooks stick pretty true to these designations, that doesn't mean you won't find many variations of gumbo recipes out there that besmirch these "rules." You might find a Cajun gumbo with shrimp and tomatoeswho's to judge? All we know is that any gumbo is welcome on our table. You can't go wrong with our Shrimp and Okra Gumbo, though. You are here: World Flash An explosion on a gas pipeline occurred in Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported. According to the report citing sources from the Kharkiv Regional Civil-Military Administration, the Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in the city's Danylivka district in the early morning. There is yet no second source confirming Russia's role in the blast. A federal judge ruled on Friday in favor of a parent coalition accusing Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) in a lawsuit of discrimination against Asian American applicants through its revised admission policy. STEM-focused TJHSST, located in Fairfax County, Virginia, is currently ranked as the No. 1 high school and No. 5 among STEM high schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The accusations arose after the representation of Asian-identifying students among the newly admitted freshmen class dropped significantly from 73% to 54% in 2020 when admission policies were revised, reported WTOP. Many concerned parents and students, represented by the Pacific Legal Defense Foundation, felt that the new admission policies were anti-Asian and filed a lawsuit against TJHSST in early January for discrimination. In January, the parent-run coalition Parents Defending Education also shared text message exchanges between two Fairfax County school board members, Abrar Omeish and Stella Pekarsky, explicitly suggesting that the new admission policies were anti-Asian. The revised admission policies removed admission exams and implemented a bonus system which granted students points for experience factors, including previous attendance at schools historically underrepresented at TJ, according to the National Review. Judge Claude Hilton found that TJHSST engaged in illegal discrimination with the intention of racial balancing and that its revised admission policies were infected with talk of racial balancing from its inception, reported WTOP. The school argued that the new policies were meant to be fair for all races and that those who review the applications are unaware of the applicant's race. In response to the ruling, a lawyer representing the school, John Foster, stated that the Fairfax County school board is considering an appeal in defense that the revised admission policies are blind to race, gender and national origin, reported WTOP. The coalition, however, celebrated their victory, with one parent of a former TJHSST student, Suparna Dutta, describing the ruling to National Review as a huge victory. An attorney for the Pacific Legal Defense Foundation, Erin Wilcox, also celebrated the win, saying, This is a monumental win for parents and students here in Fairfax County, but also for equal treatment in education across the country, reported National Review. This case comes in light of the recent lawsuits that were filed against Harvard University by the organization Student for Fair Admissions (SFFA) in regards to accusations that the Ivy League schools race-conscious admission process discriminates against Asian American applicants. In a petition to the court to review the case, SFFA stated that Harvard uses race at every stage of the admissions process and accused the school for discriminating against Asian applicants. African-American and Hispanic students with PSAT scores of 1100 and up are invited to apply to Harvard, but white and Asian-American students must score a 1350. In some parts of the country, Asian-American applicants must score higher than all other racial groups, including whites, to be recruited by Harvard, the SFFA wrote in their petition. Feature Image via Redd Story continues Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Aussie sports presenter files defamation suit against Daily Mail, denies Asian accent mimicry, racial jokes are racist Olympic athletes jam to K-pop groups, from BTS to BLACKPINK Sex Workers to Get Part of $1 Trillion Stimulus Package in Japan Andrew Yang, Daniel Dae Kim Join #AllAmericans to Help Communities Hit Hardest by COVID-19 By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Toymaker Lego has recommended that its staff in Russia not attend protests or get involved in any public discussion about the war in Ukraine, after police detained thousands at anti-war protests across Russia. The advice was given to ensure the safety of its employees, but also highlights the challenge for foreign companies with staff in Russia as tensions between the West and Moscow grow. In an email sent on Monday and seen by Reuters, Lego recommended its 80 employees in Russia "avoid discussing sensitive topics on the Russia-Ukraine and associated subjects in public and in social networks or internet overall." "Do not engage, whether intentionally or unintentionally, into any public protest or even peaceful demonstrations," it said. More than 5,500 people have been detained in Russia at various anti-war protests since the country began an invasion of neighbouring Ukraine on Thursday. The recommendation comes even as political leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, have urged Russian citizens to publicly oppose the war in order to increase pressure on the country's leadership. A Lego spokesman said the email had made clear that these were guidelines only and it was a personal choice whether to follow them. "We deeply care about our colleagues in Russia, which is why we shared recommendations from our security team on ways they could protect their personal safety," the spokesman said. Lego also said that it in partnership with major shareholder Lego Foundation and the Ole Kirk Foundation, a non-profit organisation, would donate 110 million Danish crowns ($16.60 million) to emergency relief efforts in the Ukraine conflict. ($1 = 6.6276 Danish crowns) (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Bill Berkrot) STORY: Toyota will suspend domestic factory operations on Tuesday (March 1), after a supplier of plastic parts and electronic components was hit by a suspected cyber attack. The move will see the car maker lose output of around 13,000 cars. No information was immediately available about who was behind the possible attack or the motive. The incident comes just after Japan joined Western allies in clamping down on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, although it was not clear if the attack was related. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his government would investigate. "The government is looking into the situation so we can't say whether Russia might be involved until we properly investigate." A spokesperson at the supplier, Kojima Industries Corp, said it appeared to have been the victim of some kind of cyber attack. A spokesperson from Toyota described it as a "supplier system failure." The company does not yet know if the halt at its 14 plants in Japan, which account for about a third of its global production, will last more than a day. ANKARA (Reuters) - Senior advisers for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday agreed to intensify efforts for talks between Ukraine and Russia to yield a ceasefire, Turkish media reported. Ceasefire talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials began on the Belarusian border on Monday as Russia faced deepening economic isolation four days after invading Ukraine. In a call, Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's chief adviser, and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed the invasion and other regional issues, the private Demiroren News Agency (DHA) and others cited a statement as saying. "It was agreed to intensity joint efforts for peace talks being held between Ukraine and the Russian Federation to yield results and for a ceasefire to be achieved," the statement said, according to DHA. NATO ally Turkey on Sunday called Russia's invasion a "war", allowing it to implement clauses in a 1936 pact that will limit the passage of some Russian vessels through Turkish straits into the Black Sea, as Western powers rained sanctions on Moscow. Turkey shares a maritime border with both Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea, and has good ties with both. It has offered to host peace talks, while calling for an immediate end to the war. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; editing by Jonathan Oatis) By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States has expelled 12 Russian diplomats at the United Nations over national security concerns, U.S. and Russian diplomats said on Monday. The U.S. mission to the United Nations described the Russian diplomats as "intelligence operatives" who had been "engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security." "This action has been in development for several months," said U.S. mission spokesperson Olivia Dalton. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters the diplomats had been asked to leave by March 7. He said Russia would respond to the move "because it's diplomatic practice." Nebenzia then raised the issue at the start of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, describing the U.S. move as "hostile" and a violation of its commitments as host of the U.N. headquarters in New York. U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Richard Mills responded: "Those diplomats that have been asked to leave the United States were engaged in activities that were not in accordance with their responsibilities and obligations as diplomats." He said they had been asked to leave "so they do not harm the national security of the host country," adding that the decision was taken in full accordance with the U.N. headquarters agreement. The United States and its allies have already slapped sweeping economic sanctions on Moscow for its attack on Ukraine - the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two - and moved to ramp up military and other assistance. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Tim Ahmann, Rosalba O'Brien and Grant McCool) WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner on Monday said he saw no "immediate threat" within Russia to Russian President Vladimir Putin's government. Speaking in a Washington Post online interview, Warner also said he expected Putin to intensify cyberattacks as the Russian leader presses his invasion of Ukraine. Warner noted that there have been small anti-war protests in Russia, intensifying pressure from international sanctions on oligarchs in league with Putin, and some Russian sports and arts figures speaking out against the offensive on Ukraine. "I don't think there's any immediate threat to this regime now," he continued. "But as we've seen -- and I'm not trying to make some comparisons to the activities that took place with long-term authoritarian regimes in the Middle East -- but in the information age this can get out of hand very quickly." Warner said that while he expected Russia to "up its game" with major cyberattacks, he believed the Russian leader had miscalculated because he has held back his most experienced cyber teams and hacking tools. "Once you put a cyber tool out there and it's discovered, it's hard to be reused," Warner said. "Should we expect more? Absolutely. I think he's (Putin) been reserving. He may have to use that A team to ... continue his invasion of Ukraine." (Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Moira Warburton; editing by Jonathan Oatis) By Elias Biryabarema BUGULA, Uganda (Reuters) - At a tumble-down wooden shack in a fishing village on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, 17-year-old Margaret Babirye cuddles her baby at lunch break before dashing back to school - a right she could only have dreamed about before Uganda's reforms. Babirye is one of thousands of girls benefiting from a new Ugandan government policy encouraging girls who have given birth to return to class, part of a broader trend documented by Human Rights Watch where African nations are encouraging young mothers back to school. "I made a mistake giving birth while still young and in school but God has big plans for me, so I decided to return to school," aspiring nurse Babirye told Reuters as she fed biscuits to her daughter, one-year-old Pretty Miracle Laamalu. The government closed schools in March 2020, part of sweeping measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. The new policy was introduced in December 2020, but because schools were shut until January 2022 it has only just taken effect. One of many side-effects of the closures was a spike in teen pregnancies. According to the United Nations Population Fund, Uganda recorded 290,219 teenage pregnancies from January to September 2021. The year's total will substantially surpass the 354,000 teen pregnancies recorded in 2020 and 358,000 in 2019. Babirye, whose mother sells charcoal, said a young fisherman seduced her. "We were not studying, I was idle and I think I was rebellious, I was not listening to my parents. I felt bad after getting pregnant," she said. "I couldn't move around in the neighbourhood because of the shame." NEW POLICY Pregnant at age 15, she was scared she would not be allowed back to school. But the new policy requires schools to readmit girls after they have given birth and parents can report school heads who refuse. Some Ugandan religious leaders oppose the shift, however. Bishop William James Ssebaggala, head of Mukono diocese about 30 kilometres east of Uganda's capital, told Reuters the church had opened schools to promote "knowledge ... morals and also the fear of God". Story continues Ssebaggala said they were opposed to young mothers in class because their relationship with God is broken. "Children learn by seeing, whatever they see is what they learn. If a teacher misbehaves, they think that is the way to go. If such girls come in school ... morality falls out," he said. In a September 2021 report, New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) hailed Uganda as one of five sub-Saharan African countries that has instituted policies since 2019 protecting education rights of pregnant school girls and adolescent mothers. Thirty African countries now have such policies, HRW said, although a few still block young mothers and pregnant girls from education. Tanzania, where the former president banned pregnant girls from school, reversed its policy in November. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema, Editing by Katharine Houreld and Ed Osmond) The U.K. government is proposing a set of reforms, which will give it greater power to seize crypto assets, to tackle money laundering, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The reforms will be set out under a new economic crime bill aimed at addressing the use of digital currencies to hide the origin of potentially nefarious funding, FT reported. Ministers will soon publish a white paper proposing reforms to the Companies House, the U.K.'s registrar where all businesses must submit financial statements and other information. The reforms will insist that applicants registering new companies should provide more details of their identities. These proposals are being brought forward in conjunction with another economic crime bill introducing a register of overseas entities, requiring foreign owners of companies to reveal their identities to prevent criminals from concealing funds behind shell companies. Such legislation has been been in the works for some time but was delayed in favor of other measures that had more mass appeal. Flash Kiev is still under the control of Ukrainian forces as of Sunday morning, the Kyiv City State Administration said in a statement. "The situation in Kiev is calm, the capital is completely controlled by the Ukrainian army and defense. There were several clashes with sabotage groups at night," said Mykola Povoroznyk, first deputy head of the administration. According to Ukraine's government-run Ukrinform news agency, a curfew is implemented until 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Monday, and the movement of private vehicles without special passes is prohibited during the period. President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video address released February 28, 2022. Ukrainian government President Zelensky accused Russia of harming children in its invasion of Ukraine. He said the attacks show "what Russia has become," in a defiant speech. Russia did not respond to the claim. Some media outlets have also reported the deaths of children. President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian forces of killing 16 children and injuring 45 during its invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky made the claim in a defiant speech posted to Telegram Monday, in which he made an unflattering comparison between Russia's attack and the resistance shown by Ukraine. Russian officials have not responded directly to the claim, but have issued blanket denials that they are targeting civilian areas, despite evidence of widespread damage to homes and apartment buildings. "Now we have shown ourselves to the fullest, and it's inspiring for everyone," Zelensky said. "In every conversation with our partners, I hear sincere respect. Ukrainians have shown the world who we are. And Russia has shown what it has become. "Just think about it: During the Russian invasion in just four days 16 Ukrainian children died as a result of the Russian shelling. Sixteen! 45 children were wounded. Every crime, every shelling that the invaders commit against us, unites us and our partners even more." In a press statement later that day, the US State Department said: "Russia's invasion has damaged and destroyed schools, hospitals, radio stations, and homes, killing and injuring civilians, including children." Zelensky's figure of 16 children's deaths, attributed Ukraine's healthcare minister Viktor Liashko, was also circulated on Telegram in the official channel of the Ukrainian parliament on Sunday. It is not possible to verify the claims, and most of the victims have been named. International observers have struggled to confirm independent figures of civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, as The Washington Post reported. Story continues But the UN said it had confirmed 64 deaths and at least 240 wounded people as of Monday, according to the Associated Press. It did not specify whether any were children. Scattered reports are emerging of individual children being killed. A video by Associated Press photographer Mystslav Chernov showed a six-year-old child's death on Sunday in Mariupol, a coastal city where fighting has been intense. The video, which is graphic, was posted to his Instagram page. It showed medics attempting, but failing, to resuscitate the girl. Chernov says she was injured in shelling by Russia forces. One medic working to save the girl was crying. A doctor looked at one point to address the camera directly and said: "Show this to Putin." According to NBC News, a six-year-old boy in Kyiv was killed in a Russian attack on Saturday. The nearby children's cancer hospital he was also struck by artillery fire, but remained standing, the outlet reported. The BBC also reported on the deaths of several other children in the conflict, including seven-year-old Alisa Hlans, one of six people who died when her kindergarten, in the town of Okhtyrka, was hit on Friday. Read the original article on Business Insider Luxury yachts and residences in Port Adriano, a leisure harbor on the south-east coast of the island of Mallorca, Spain. The Lady Anastasia is not pictured. Clara Margais/picture alliance via Getty Images A Ukrainian sailor was arrested on suspicion of sabotaging the yacht of his Russian boss, Ultima Hora reported. The sailor said it was an act of "revenge" for the Ukraine invasion, Ultima Hora reported. The yacht belonged to Alexander Mijeev, the CEO of a Russian weapons company. A Ukrainian sailor accused of trying to sink an $8 million luxury yacht belonging to his Russian boss said he did it as revenge for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and had no regrets, the Ultima Hora newspaper reported on Sunday. The sailor, identified in court documents as 55-year-old D.Taras O., had worked on the yacht as an engineer for 10 years, Ultima Hora reported. After watching a video of a Russian helicopter attack on a civilian building in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv on Saturday, the sailor said he decided to take "revenge" by attempting to sink the yacht, according to court documents cited in Ultima Hora. The boat, named the Lady Anastasia, was anchored in Port Adriano, a super-yacht port in Mallorca, Spain. It belonged to Alexander Mijeev, the CEO of Rosoboronexport, a major Russian military weapons company, Ultima Hora reported. Rosoboronexport's parent company is Rostec, Russia's biggest defense conglomerate founded by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007. It is not clear if Rosoboronexport or Rostec had a role in the recent invasion. Rostec was sanctioned by the UK and US last week. To sink the boat, the sailor said he opened one valve in the engine room and another valve in the crew quarters, Ultima Hora reported, citing court documents. He then told three other crew members, also Ukrainians, to abandon the ship, Ultima Hora reported. The yacht was left with a destroyed engine room, and the sailor later handed himself over to law enforcement, the report said. Upon his arrest, he told Spanish authorities: "The owner of this ship is a criminal who makes his living selling weapons and now they kill Ukrainians." Story continues In a court statement, cited by Ultima Hora, the sailor said he did not regret "anything" and that he "would do it again." He also said he wanted to cause "only material damage, not personal damage," per Ultima Hora. The sailor was given a charge but was released by the judge, Ultima Hora reported. The exact charge is unclear. Monday is the fifth day of Putin's all-out invasion of Ukraine. Insider's live blog of the invasion is covering developments as they happen. Read the original article on Business Insider Representational: A Ukrainian sailor partially sunk his Russian bosss yacht in Spain (Getty/iStock) A Ukrainian sailor in Spains Mallorca has been arrested for partially sinking a yacht worth 7m (5.8m) owned by a Russian tycoon, days after Russia invaded Ukraine. The yacht, named the Lady Anastasia, is a 156-foot-long boat with five cabins and is owned by Alexander Mijeev, a former head of the Russian Helicopter Corporation. In 2016, he took over Rostec, a Russian state-owned weapons supplier. The sailor, who has not been named, allegedly opened the ships valves causing it to partially sink, reported Spains Balearic Island newspaper Ultima Hora on Sunday. He opened one valve in the engine room and a second where the crew lives and allegedly asked three other crew members, also Ukrainians, to abandon the ship. He also turned off the fuel valves and switched off the electricity on the ship. Later when the civil guards came to arrest him, he said: The owner of this ship is a criminal who makes his living selling weapons and now they kill Ukrainians. Since Russia invaded Ukraine last Thursday in a full-scale military operation, the country has been bombarded with explosions and missiles as thousands have been forced to flee their homes to escape the war. In court, the sailor, who has been working for the ship for a decade said he blamed Mr Mijeev for producing weapons used to attack Ukraine. He said he had seen news on television about how a Russian cruise missile hit a block of flats and assumed that the missile had been made by his boss. The map shows the extent of Russias invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Images) The warhead did not explode, but more than five floors were still destroyed, he said in his statement in court. The sailor recalled living in a similar apartment in Kyiv and sought to take revenge on his boss. He said he only meant to cause material harm to Mr Mijeev and it was not personal. The sailor has been charged but released by the judge. BOULDER, CO The University of Colorado's Boulder campus is dropping its mask mandate. In a letter to the community Monday morning, university officials said the CU Boulder campus will become mask-optional at 6 a.m. on Monday, March 7. The letter was signed by Russell Moore and Patrick ORourke, the university's provost and chief operating officer, respectively. Until March 7, masks remain required in all public indoor spaces, classrooms and laboratories, the letter said. Masks will also continue to be required after March 7 at the Wardenburg Health Center. The move comes amid falling COVID-19 cases nationwide and in Colorado. It also comes amid ample accessibility to vaccines, booster shots and treatments. About 90 percent of Coloradans are immune to infection by the omicron variant through either vaccination, previous infection or both, the university said, citing the latest modeling. On Friday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance in which Boulder County was no longer classified as an area where it recommended mask-wearing. Boulder County's two public health orders requiring masks in public indoor spaces and in schools expired Feb. 18. The university said it's moving into a new phase, in which its operations become more akin to how they were before the pandemic. COVID-19 will become an "aspect of life that we must manage on an ongoing basis, rather than the disease managing us," the university said. Officials warned that even as CU goes mask-optional, the campus cannot completely let its guard down. Its booster reporting requirement remains in place, and both testing and vaccines will continue to be provided, as will contact tracing and case investigation protocols. Additionally, KN95 and surgical masks will remain available at five distribution sites, and the university plans to continue its enhanced cleaning and ventilating in buildings. This article originally appeared on the Boulder Patch Flood victims carry their houses by boat in Kurigram, Bangladesh, on July 27, 2019. zakir hossain chowdhury / Barcroft Media via Getty Images Up to 3.6 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate change, a new UN report says. Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius or more could drastically alter our physical health, the places we live, and the survival of animal species. If temperatures rise above 2 degrees of warming, some coastal cities may become uninhabitable. Rising global temperatures bring dire threats, such as floods, heat-related injuries, water scarcity, and hunger, making up to 3.6 billion people nearly half of the world's population highly vulnerable to climate change. That's according to a major report, released Monday, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a UN body that recruits hundreds of scientists from across the globe to summarize years of research on the climate crisis. "We are in an emergency headed for a disaster," Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said at a Monday press conference. "Climate change isn't lurking around the corner ready to pounce," she said, adding, "It's already upon us, raining down blows on billions of people." Human-caused emissions have already led the planet to warm by 1.1 degrees Celsius in the last 170 years. The report drills down on how 1.5 degrees of warming or more could drastically alter our physical health, food and water supply, the availability of safe places to live, and the survival of animal species. A woman cools off with fans and mist during a heat wave at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 15, 2014. William West/AFP/Getty Images Here are some of the report's main takeaways: By 2050, more than 1 billion people in low-lying coastal cities and small islands will be at risk of climate hazards from sea-level rise. Under 1.5 degrees of global warming, children ages 10 and younger as of 2020 could experience a nearly four-fold increase in extreme weather events by 2100. The percentage of people exposed to deadly heat stress (i.e., heat stroke) could increase from 30% today to 76% by the end of the century. Under 2 degrees of global warming, between 800 million and 3 billion people could experience chronic water scarcity due to droughts. That figure could climb to 4 billion people if global temperatures rise 4 degrees. Eight million to 80 million people will suffer from hunger by 2050. Under a high-warming scenario, up to 183 million additional people in low-income countries could become undernourished due to climate change. Under 2 degrees of warming, up to 18% of all land species will be at high risk of going extinct by 2100. Under 4 degrees of warming, half of our plant and animal species could be threatened. Story continues Monday's release is the second portion of the IPCC's sixth assessment. The first portion, released last year, focused on physical changes to the planet. The new report assesses how those changes will impact humans and ecosystems. While some climate outcomes are preventable, others set in stone. Last year's portion of the IPCC report found that glaciers will continue melting and seas will continue to rise for hundreds or thousands of years. "The world we live in today is not going to be the world we live in five years, 10 years, or even 20 years from now," Debra Roberts, the co-chair of the IPCC report, said at the press conference. "We have to be much more vigilant about our actions." How can the world adapt? Anderson Soletti walks through his soy plantation affected by drought, in Espumoso, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on January 10, 2022. Diego Vara/Reuters Governments and industries have taken some measures to adapt to their new climates and prepare for impacts to come. The agricultural sector, for example, is broadly improving irrigation practices to prepare for water scarcity across the globe. And in some regions like West Africa, farmers are planting more drought-tolerant crops. But the IPCC report concludes that these adaptations are not enough to protect ecosystems and humans from the onslaught of extreme weather, rising oceans, and food and water shortages. The report recommends restoring wetlands along flood plains to absorb floodwaters, and planting trees along rivers to create shade and prevent them from drying up. Farmers may also consider diversifying their crops and livestock so they aren't dependent on a single food source. Adding green space to rooftops and walls in cities can help cool temperatures and reduce stormwater runoff. Parks and ponds can help mitigate extreme heat in urban areas. And a diverse array of renewable-energy sources, like wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, can support rural populations in the face of extreme weather. "The tricky thing is that there is no silver bullet. There is no one action that's going to solve everything," David Dodman, a lead author of the report and director of human settlements at the International Institute for Environment and Development, told Insider. Residents wade through flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Beaumont Place, Houston, Texas on August 28, 2017. Jonathan Bachman/Reuters Since every half-degree of global temperature rise carries major consequences, governments and industries can significantly reduce future human suffering and ecosystem collapse by cutting their greenhouse-gas emissions now. But that also means there's little time to waste. "The world is currently underprepared for the coming climate change impacts, particularly beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius," the IPCC authors wrote, adding, "At higher levels of warming, the effectiveness of most land- and water-based adaptation options starts declining, and the extent of residual risks increases, as do the chances of future unintended consequences." Rising temperatures could displace millions of people A woman collects grain at a camp for internally displaced people in Adadle district in the Somali region of Ethiopia on January 22, 2022. Claire Nevill/World Food Programme/Reuters If global temperatures exceed 2 degrees of warming, low-lying coastal cities and certain mountain areas or polar regions may have difficulty supporting human life. Changes in temperature, sea level, and food or water supply are already forcing people to relocate on every continent. For example, more people move from Mexico's rural areas into cities during droughts. Some communities in Alaska are making relocation plans as flooding encroaches on their homes. Droughts are also driving migration in sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South Asia, and South America, according to the report. The IPCC authors expect more Arctic communities, particularly indigenous peoples, to migrate as ice melt interferes with their ability to live and hunt. A member of the Nenets indigenous tribe, Avgusta Ledneva, 60, stands near reindeer grazing in a settlement in northern Russia's Tundra region on February 19, 2012. Anton Golubev/Reuters The report also predicts that hundreds of millions of people will be at risk of climate-related displacement by the second half of the 21st century. Eventually, people may pay a premium to live in climate-safe locations. "There's concern over climate gentrification, where safer locations that formerly were home to lower-income groups in cities become more desirable, because of their perceived safety from climate risks and therefore the regional inhabitants begin to be priced out," Dodman said, adding, "I think that's a legitimate concern for the future." Read the original article on Business Insider U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Sunday the country will send $54 million in humanitarian aid funding to support ordinary Ukrainians displaced by the ongoing Russian invasion, as hundreds of thousands of refugees have reportedly fled the country in the past week. Our partnership with the people of Ukraine is steadfast and enduring, and we are focused on Ukraines urgent humanitarian needs as an important part of our response to Russias premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified attack, Blinken said in a press release Sunday. The State Department will foot about $26 million, while the U.S. Agency for International Development plans to provide another $28 million. Including this latest infusion of aid, American assistance totals nearly $405 million since Russia took the Crimean region from Ukraine in 2014. This latest tranche of humanitarian assistance will flow through independent humanitarian organizations that deliver needs-based assistance with impartiality, humanity, neutrality and independence, Blinken said. Those groups offer resources like food, drinking water, shelter, emergency health care and more. Our funding will also help humanitarian organizations maintain contact between family members who have been separated due to the conflict, hopefully leading to reunification in some cases, he added. In addition to allocating funds for humanitarian assistance, the U.S. has also sent thousands of troops into the region to support its fellow NATO member nations and as part of the recently activated NATO Response Force. Around 7,500 U.S. troops assigned to the Response Force, now on standby for the first time in its history, are headed to locations across Germany. The U.S. also bolstered its forces in neighboring Poland, Romania, Latvia, Estonia and elsewhere in Europe as tensions escalated in the runup to the Feb. 24 invasion. Around 12,000 U.S. troops are on heightened alert in advance of possible combat deployments to protect NATO territory, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told Military Times Friday. Its unclear how American troops may be tasked under the NATO Response Force as Russias invasion of Ukraine evolves. As the son of two Pakistani Muslim immigrants, Wajahat Ali, who was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, grew up speaking Urdu and only knew three phrases in English before he started school: idiot, shut up and Uh oh, SpaghettiO. He later graduated with a bachelors degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley and became a playwright, writer, nonpracticing lawyer and media personality. Ive achieved both the American dream and Ive also lived through some parts of the American nightmare, Ali told NBC Asian America. Image: Ali detailed the duality of being Pakistani and American in his memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How To Become American, which was released last month. The book examines various aspects of his life from his parents emigration from Karachi, Pakistan, to his birth and childhood in Fremont, California; his young adulthood during the post-9/11 era; and his family life, including his young daughters harrowing experience with liver cancer. Ali said theres a perpetual tug of war between xenophobia and acceptance in the U.S. for immigrants and the children of immigrants. Youre us until suddenly youre them, he wrote. Each chapter title provides tongue-in-cheek advice on how to become American, including Be Moderate so America Will (Maybe) Love You (Conditionally) One Day (Inshallah) and Invest in Hope, but Tie Your Camel First. He scattered Urdu words and phrases throughout his writing, such as Amreeka for America and dadi for his paternal grandmother. He also used the direct English translation of the common saying that someone is eating my brain, which means someone is annoying you. He said he rejects the advice he received in the past to make sure his content is digestible for white Americans. So many people, especially non-Desi and white readers, have appreciated the fact that I didnt dumb down the language for them, he said. Story continues To start the book, he reprinted some of the Islamophobic and xenophobic hate mail hes received. He recalled how the 9/11 attacks directly impacted his life, including the 2002 arrest of his parents during the United States Operation Cyberstorm, the largest anti-piracy sweep in the FBIs history. The Justice Department alleged that his parents were a part of a scheme to defraud Microsoft Corp. by obtaining discounted software under false pretenses. They were convicted in 2006 on 30 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering and spent nearly five years in prison, but Ali said his parents, like many Muslims in the U.S. at the time, were unfairly targeted. Its the first time Ali has detailed this part of his past he said he had wanted to protect their privacy but he said its been cathartic to finally share it. It was a big piece of the puzzle that was not shared publicly, he said. Ali, who also wrote the play The Domestic Crusaders, used humor throughout the memoir, even when addressing heavy topics such as the unfair expectations set on minorities. Immigrants, people of color, and women learn early that in order to make it in Amreeka you have to daft punk it through life. You have to do everything harder, better, faster, stronger, and smarter, he wrote in Chapter 1. Humor is an evolutionary tool people need to cope with the pain of living, he said. Its also a useful strategy for starting conversations about difficult subjects. People are more open to entertaining otherwise hostile conversations, so its a fantastic Trojan horse for me to use from time to time to have these types of difficult conversations, he said. Ali said he could have written his memoir years ago but found the inspiration and time to write during the pandemic. During the pandemic, I just felt like this book is a really culturally specific story that Im using to kind of connect the dots about America. I just felt it so much, he said. Toward the end of the book, he recounts when, in 2019, his daughter Nusayba was diagnosed with stage 4 hepatoblastoma, a rare form of cancer found in children, and her lifesaving liver transplant at age 3. She received the transplant after 500 people, mostly strangers, offered to donate a piece of their liver after seeing his plea for a living donor on CNN, where he was formerly a contributor. There were people who volunteered their liver, their money, and their kindness who actively loathed my politics. I know because they told me, Ali wrote. It was important for me to experience this because I was becoming bitter and losing my faith in so many of my fellow Americans. Ali said sometimes honest and ugly conversations are needed to make the U.S. a better place. This book is ultimately an act of hope that is meant to push and expand this countrys narrative and include the rest of us as co-protagonists because I sincerely believe it is the only way we will exist as a multiracial democracy, he said. Flash Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday held a telephone conversation with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, during which they exchanged views on the current situation in Ukraine. Wang said that China pays close attention to the development of the situation in Ukraine, and supports all efforts that are conducive to de-escalating the situation and achieving a political settlement. On the issue of European security, the legitimate concerns of all countries should be taken seriously, he noted, adding that following five consecutive rounds of NATO's eastward expansion, Russia's legitimate security appeal should be solved in a proper way. Noting the Cold War has already ended, the senior Chinese official said it is necessary for NATO to reconsider its position and responsibilities, adding that the Chinese side believes the Cold War mentality based on bloc confrontation should be completely abandoned. China supports NATO, the European Union and Russia to resume dialogue and seek to build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism so as to achieve lasting peace and stability on the European continent, he said. Wang also noted that China does not approve of solving problems by sanctions, and even more strongly opposes unilateral sanctions not based on international law. Practice has already proved that rather than solving problems, sanctions can create new ones, he said, adding that sanctions will not only lead to a "lose-lose" situation or "multiple losses" in economy, but also disturb the process of a political settlement. As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China has always faithfully fulfilled its obligation of safeguarding world peace and stability, Wang noted, adding China believes that if the Security Council is to take action, it should facilitate a political settlement of the current crisis rather than instigate new rivalries and confrontations. In view of this, Wang said, China has prevented the Security Council from citing expressions that involve the authorization of the use of force and sanctions, when discussing draft resolutions on the Ukrainian issue. China will continue to play a constructive role in seeking and realizing peace, Wang said. WASHINGTON Washington's indoor mask mandate is coming to a close nine days earlier than previously anticipated, now ending at midnight on March 11. Gov. Jay Inslee announced the change Monday, saying state health leaders had recently determined it would be safe to lift indoor masking requirements ahead of schedule. Weve continued to monitor data from our state Department of Health, and have determined we are able to adjust the timing of our statewide mask requirement," Inslee said. "While this represents another step forward for Washingtonians, we must still be mindful that many within our communities remain vulnerable. Many businesses and families will continue choosing to wear masks, because weve learned how effective they are at keeping one another safe. As we transition to this next phase, we will continue to move forward together carefully and cautiously. (Office of the Governor) Oregon and California will lift their mask mandates at the same time, the governor's office said. The move comes partially in response to recent changes in CDC guidance, which was loosened Friday so that almost 70 percent of Americans would no longer be required to wear masks indoors. "California continues to adjust our policies based on the latest data and science, applying what weve learned over the past two years to guide our response to the pandemic," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Masks are an effective tool to minimize spread of the virus and future variants, especially when transmission rates are high. We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward." Masks will still be required in certain settings including health care, corrections facilities, and long-term care facilities, Inslee's office said. Federal guidelines mean masks will also still be required on public transit like buses or the Link Light Rail. Story continues The Washington State Department of Health expects to announce new guidance for K-12 schools next week, so that schools can adapt to the changing protocol. Washington, California and Oregon will continue to encourage mask use in indoor settings, particularly among the unvaccinated. Local health jurisdictions will also be free to maintain their own mask mandates, but the most populous counties appear to be following the state's lead. Pierce County's top health official has said his mask order will lift when the state's does. Meanwhile King County had earlier said it was independently evaluating the "appropriate time" to loosen its COVID-19 safety guidelines, but County Executive Dow Constantine confirmed Monday that he would lift its mandate on the 12th, to coincide with the state's guidance. This article originally appeared on the Lakewood-JBLM Patch A Waverly woman has been charged with murder after police say she attacked her husband in their home over the weekend. Village police charged Devan G. Henson, 30, of 507 Fulton St., with second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of her husband, 35-year-old Christopher P. Henson. Police accuse Devan Henson of causing Christopher's death by striking him in the head/face/neck area with a knife. The attack took place between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Saturday, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint did not indicate any possible motive for the attack. Henson was arrested early Sunday morning and processed at Waverly police headquarters on Ithaca Street. Coronavirus: Behind our hospitals' doors, overworked doctors and nurses still struggle with COVID For subscribers: Cash cow or climate killer? Finger Lakes power plant at heart of bitcoin mining debate Real estate: How hot is the real estate market in Elmira? Home prices rose year over year She was arraigned Sunday night in Tioga County Centralized Arraignment Court and committed to the Tioga County Jail without bail. The investigation is continuing and police expect to release more information about the case when it becomes available. The Waverly Police Department was assisted by the New York State Police Major Crimes Unit, the Tioga County District Attorney's Office, Greater Valley EMS and the Waverly-Barton Fire Department. 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 Elmira Star-Gazette: Waverly NY woman charged with murder in stabbing of husband The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new COVID-19 guidelines that will allow many people to take off their masks. Before you do so, though, be aware that the guidelines are more complicated than you might think. The guidelines released Friday are based on the level of disease spread and hospital resources on a county-by-county basis. They also are based on personal risk factors. At the same time, Austin Public Health last week moved Travis County from Stage 5 to Stage 4 of its risk-based guidelines, and it expects us to move to the safer Stage 3 in the coming weeks. Austin finished last week with 183 people hospitalized for COVID-19 but was down to 166 patients Monday, including 54 in intensive care units and 27 on ventilators. The moving seven-day average of new hospital admissions for COVID-19 on Monday was 20. The community transmission rate was 63.3 cases per 100,000 people, and the positivity rate was 7.5%. The seven-day average of new hospitalizations reached a pandemic high of 129 this year on Jan. 19, at the peak of the omicron surge. The transmission rate was above 1,000% on multiple days in January. Local recommendations: Austin just moved back to Stage 4 COVID-19 guidelines. What does that mean? CDC COVID-19 community levels as of Thursday. What are the new CDC guidelines? The CDC has categorized every county into low, medium and high community levels of COVID-19. At cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html, you can plug in your state and county and see what the level is. The levels are also indicated on a map with green being low, yellow medium and orange high. How are the levels determined? The CDC is looking at three things: New COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days. That is also considered the transmission rate. If you have 200 or more new cases per 100,000 people, your county is automatically in the medium or high level. Percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in the past seven days. If you have fewer than 200 cases per 100,000, you can be in the low level if you have fewer than 10 new admissions. You'll be in medium between 10 and 19.9 new admissions and in the high level for 20 or more. If you have 200 or more cases per 100,000 people, you're in the medium range with fewer than 10 admissions and in the high range at 10 or more. Percent of staffed hospital beds taken by people with COVID-19 over the past seven days. With fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people, you can be in the low category with less than 10% of beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, in the medium category between 10% and 14.9%, and in the high category for 15% or more of the beds taken by COVID-19 patients. If you have 200 or more cases per 100,000 people, you'll be in the medium category at less than 10% and in the high category if 10% or more of the beds are taken by COVID-19 patients. Story continues Your level is determined by whatever indicator puts you at the highest level. Understanding risks: Are you at risk for COVID-19 lung disease? Central Texas plays role in key research What level is my county? Travis, Williamson, Bastrop, Burnet and Caldwell counties are all in the green or low level of community spread. Hays County is in the orange or high level of community spread. "As long as we can continue to monitor those three categories of new cases, hospitalizations and available beds, we should be nimble to change as needed," said Dr. Suneet Singh, medical director for Austin-based CareHive Health. If local cases go up again, more people are hospitalized, and we don't have open hospital beds, our county level will change as the situation changes. "It does allow for fluctuation between green, yellow and orange," Singh said. What if I live in a county that's green or at low level? If you are in a green or low-level county, the CDC recommends that you stay up to date with vaccines and get tested if you think you might have COVID-19. You should maintain good ventilation in indoor areas. You should follow recommendations about testing and quarantining if you have been exposed or have symptoms. You do not need to wear a mask, but you might choose to do so. You should talk to your health care provider if you are at high risk for severe illness typically people with lung disease, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, dementia or mental health disorders or people who are smokers, are inactive, are on immune suppressants or corticosteroids, have had an organ or stem cell transplant, are pregnant or have had a recent pregnancy. If you're in one of those categories, have a plan for testing and for access to early-stage treatments such as the new antiviral pills or monoclonal antibodies. What if I live in a county that's yellow or at medium level? In addition to the precautions for the green level, you will want to consider wearing a mask if you are immune-compromised or at high risk for severe disease, or if someone in your household or with whom you are in contact has those risk factors. What if I live in a county that's orange or at high level? In addition to the precautions of the green and yellow levels, you should wear a mask in public regardless of risk factors or vaccination status. People who have high risk factors or are immune-compromised should avoid nonessential indoor activities. People who are in contact with someone who is immune-compromised or at higher risk should wear a mask around that person. Understanding masks: N95, KN95, KF94, surgical: Know the types of masks and why cloth masks are out for omicron What's the difference between CDC and Austin Public Health guidelines? Austin Public Health will meet Tuesday to discuss changing its guidelines. Currently, Austin Public Health is recommending vaccinated people wear masks indoors and outdoors under Stage 4. They can travel, shop or dine indoors while wearing a mask. Unvaccinated people should not gather indoors or outdoors and should do only essential travel or shopping and dine using carryout or delivery. These are very different from the CDC's guidelines for a low-level county, which Travis County is. The CDC guidelines allow for gathering without wearing a mask if you choose and don't distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated status. If the CDC says it's OK not to wear a mask, do I still have to? You must follow the rules in place where you live. It also doesn't change what individual businesses can require. For now, many doctor's offices, clinics and hospitals will continue to require masks. Public transportation such as buses and airplanes still requires a mask. Schools that have a mask mandate in place will continue requiring masks, though the Austin school district is surveying parents and students about its mask mandate. The district's trustees will meet Wednesday to discuss the new CDC guidelines. Is it really OK to take off my mask? This new guidance doesn't say you can't wear a mask, CareHive Health's Singh said. It allows for individual choice, assessing your own health risk factors as well as the virus levels in the community where you live, he said. "If you are otherwise healthy, it should be safe to unmask in a green light population," Singh said. "Remember, it doesn't mean you're not going to get (COVID-19)." Some questions to consider: What are my personal health risk factors? Do I live with someone or am I in contact regularly with someone with high risk factors? If I get sick, do I have access to testing and symptom-reducing medications? If I get sick, do I have the ability to quarantine and to miss work or school? People will still get very sick from COVID-19 and some will die, just as there are people who get very sick from flu and die of it, Singh said. Becoming vaccinated: 'I have a purpose': Manor man who survived COVID-19 becomes vaccine evangelist Environmental services supervisor Patricia Calderon adjusts a resident's mask at Focused Care at Stonebriar. For people with chronic health conditions, the CDC is recommending they continue to wear a mask even if their county is at the green level. Why is the guidance changing? The CDC has constantly adapted its guidance as the COVID-19 situation has changed. Before the delta variant, the CDC said vaccinated people no longer had to wear a mask based on the effectiveness of the vaccines for the alpha variant. That guidance changed once the delta variant increased the number of cases and resources such as hospital beds and medications became scarce again. Masking remained necessary during the surge of the omicron variant because of the lack of resources, including testing kits, hospital beds and medications. Right now, though, cases are decreasing, testing is readily available and so are medications to reduce symptoms. For many people, especially healthy, vaccinated people, the omicron variant of the coronavirus has not been particularly severe. "There are more tools available than ever before," Singh said. Could the guidelines change again? "These guidelines get us closer to a place of normalcy," Singh said, because they allow us to adapt as the situation changes. The CDC's surveillance partners are testing samples of positive tests for genetic markers to look for the next variant. If a new variant comes along that produces more severe illness than omicron, numbers surge again or we run out of resources, the recommendations to mask up would be in place again if we returned to the high (orange) level. Locally, we'll also be looking at what happens to our numbers and our resources as more people take off their masks during spring break and the South by Southwest festivals, which will bring people in and out of Austin. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How to understand the new CDC mask guidelines for COVID-19 Feb. 28MORGANTOWN West Virginia won its second consecutive game to get back to even par on the season and survived a fourth-quarter rally against Oklahoma State on Sunday to pull it off. In her first game back from suffering a concussion, WVU forward Kari Niblack scored 15 points and added five rebounds, as the Mountaineers held off the Cowboys 60-56 inside the Coliseum. BOX SCORE "She is so aggressive. She's always going for the ball and putting her head out there to go for it, " WVU head coach Mike Carey said of Niblack. "She did hit her head again. She came back in, so I'm sure they'll look at it after the game. She just played so hard, so aggressive." WVU (13-13, 6-10 Big 12) held Oklahoma State to just 33 % shooting (20 of 60) and Esmery Martinez added her eighth double-double of the season with 12 points and 14 rebounds. West Virginia led for nearly 29 minutes of the game, but the outcome was in doubt when OSU guard Lauren Fields connected on two free throws with 30 seconds remaining to cut the Mountaineers lead to 57-55. WVU led 46-37 heading into the final quarter. After Oklahoma State (8-17, 3-13) called timeout, WVU forward Jayla Hemingway scored on a driving lay-up for a 59-55 lead with 24 seconds left, and the game became a free-throw shooting contest in the final moments. "We executed down the stretch and were able to get the win, " Carey said. Niblack fouled Lexy Keys, but she only connected on one of two free-throw attempts and then WVU guard JJ Quinerly was fouled with eight seconds left. Quinerly made one of her two free throws for the final score. Fields did get off a last-second 3-point attempt, but the shot fell off the rim. "I thought Esmery played better the second half, " Carey said. "JJ was right there in that one run and gave us some points." WVU had lost five in a row until it went on the road and beat Texas Tech on Wednesday, which was followed up with Sunday's victory against Oklahoma State. Story continues At 6-10 in Big 12 play, WVU seems destined for the No. 7 seed in the Big 12 tournament, which would be a first-round game against the No. 10 seed, which is currently TCU. A first-round win would advance WVU to the quarterfinals against the No. 2 seed, which will be either nationally-ranked Iowa State or Baylor. The Mountaineers still have two games remaining in the regular season, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kansas State before hosting Iowa State on Saturday. Quinerly finished with 12 points and six assists for the Mountaineers, which finished with a 30-20 edge in points in the paint against the Cowboys. Macie James led Oklahoma State with 14 points off the bench. Keys had 13 points. The worlds largest plane, the Antonov AN-225, has been destroyed by Russia, authorities in Ukraine said on Sunday. This was the worlds largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian), Ukraines minister for foreign affairs Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement on Twitter. Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! This was the worlds largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8 Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine after a 24 February announcement by president Vladimir Putin, who called it a special military operation. As the full-scale invasion by Russian troops unfolded, thousands have been forced to flee their homes while Russian missiles have hit Ukraine, including around its capital Kyiv. Ukrainian company Ukroboronprom, which manages the Antonov company, said in a statement that it will ensure aggressor Russia pays for restoring the plane. Russian occupiers destroyed the flagship of Ukrainian aviation the legendary AN-225 Mriya. This happened at the Antonov airfield in Gostomel near Kyiv, where the plane was, the statement said. It will cost over 3bn USD to restore the plane, the restoration shall be time consuming. Ukraine will make every effort to ensure that the aggressor state pays for these works. The biggest plane in the world "Mriya" (The Dream) was destroyed by Russian occupants on an airfield near Kyiv. We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free, and democratic Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Gy6DN8E1VR Ukraine / (@Ukraine) February 27, 2022 Russian troops had on Friday taken control of the airport in Gostomel, which housed the AN-225 just outside Kyiv, reported the Associated Press. Story continues The airport had incurred significant damages, according to satellite images released by US-based company Maxar Technologies. A satellite image by Maxar Technologies shows a damaged hangar at Antonov Airport in Hostomel (Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters) In another statement, Ukroboronprom said: According to the director of Antonov Airlines, one of the engines was dismantled for repairs and the plane wasnt able to take off that day, although the appropriate commands were given. Currently it is impossible to assess the planes condition and the possibility and cost of its restoring due the lack of access to the aircraft as the control over the airport is taken by the Russian occupiers. The Antonov company, however, has not commented on the status of the aircraft and said further details will be released only after an examination by experts. In a tweet, the company said: Currently, until the AN-225 has been inspected by experts, we cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft. Update on the information of #AN225 "Mriya" aircraft: Currently, until the AN-225 has been inspected by experts, we cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft. Stay tuned for further official announcement.#StopRussia #StopRussiaAggression #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/EHyHVFJJXc ANTONOV Company (@AntonovCompany) February 27, 2022 The Ukraine governments claim has not been independently verified. The AN-225, dating back to the Soviet era, has been in service for over 30 years and has been used to airlift humanitarian aid to other countries, reported CNN. It was used to deliver aid after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and had sent relief materials to the Dominican Republic as well. The aircraft has been used to transport medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic as well. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre said the country's massive sovereign wealth fund would exit its Russian investments. Kay Nietfeld/Getty Images Norway says its $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund will exit its Russian investments. The Norges Bank Investment Management is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. Western countries are stepping up their economic isolation of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Norway says its massive sovereign wealth fund the world's largest will dump its Russian investments after Russia invaded Ukraine. "We have decided to freeze the fund's investments and have begun a process of selling out" of Russia, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre told a news conference Sunday, per Reuters. The Norges Bank Investment Management is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, according to the data provider Global SWF. At the end of 2021, it held a portfolio of more than 9,000 stocks worth $1.3 trillion, including 47 Russian companies and government bonds, Reuters reported, citing the Norwegian government. The NBIM had 27 billion Norwegian crowns, or about $3 billion, invested in Russian equities at the end of 2021 equivalent to 0.2% of the fund, it told Insider. "Russia's attack on Ukraine has challenged Europe's security in a way we have not seen since the Second World War," Stre said in a Sunday statement expressing support for Ukraine. "It challenges our norms, our values, and the principles that our democratic society is based on," Stre added, according to a Financial Times translation. The NBIM said it would freeze the fund's investment in Russia, halting any purchase or sale of assets. "Together with the Ministry of Finance, we will prepare a plan to divest from the Russian market," the sovereign wealth fund told Insider. Western countries and companies are intensifying their economic isolation of Russia, including the removal of selected banks from the international SWIFT banking system. The British oil giant BP has said it's dumping its 20% stake in the Russian state-backed oil giant Rosneft. BP's chair, Helge Lund, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the "fundamental change" that put an end to the two energy giants' 30-year business partnership, according to a statement. Story continues Norway's decision came just days after the sovereign wealth fund's chief executive, Nicolai Tangen, talked about the difficulties of selling its Russian holdings, the media outlet Borsen reported. The Russian stock market has plunged, with the MOEX Russia Index down 35% this year. "This is obviously a dilemma, but selling out of a market is not black or white," Tangen told the Danish media outlet, per a Financial Times translation. "The Moscow stock exchange has fallen markedly in recent days, and if we sell our stocks now, Russian oligarchs would be able to buy these on the cheap." NBIM's most valuable stake in an individual Russian company at the end of 2020 was in the state-owned Sberbank, followed by the energy companies Gazprom and Lukoil, according to Reuters, citing Refinitiv Eikon data. Read the original article on Business Insider By Ross Kerber BOSTON (Reuters) - New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on Sunday said he plans to specify Russian assets for city pension boards to "consider for divestment" in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In a statement emailed by a spokesperson, Lander said he will specify the assets after reviews, and said final decisions on asset sales are made by the five boards that oversee city pension assets. The system had roughly $271 million in Russian assets as of Feb. 23, the spokesperson said. "Russia's aggression in Ukraine merits the swift global action" now beginning to cut off Russian President Vladimir Putin and his supporters from the global financial system, Lander said in the statement. "We are watching developments in Ukraine with great concern and following responses by fellow institutional investors closely," he said. The comments follow sharper steps by some European companies and investors to move away from Russia in the wake of Putin's war on Ukraine. Norway's $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, will sell its Russian assets, the Norwegian prime minister said on Sunday. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that it says is not designed to occupy territory. With $275 billion in total assets, the New York City pension system overseen by Lander is one of the largest in the United States, and his comments go the furthest of a major public investment leader to date. But like New York City, most other large systems report to boards that could take time to decide on any action. Officials for the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and for the California State Teachers' Retirement System, did not respond to questions on Sunday afternoon. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees separate pension assets, said on Sunday in a statement sent by a spokesperson that: "We are closely monitoring the situation in Russia and the Ukraine, but our exposure is minimal. We will follow any federal restrictions for investors as we assess how it impacts our investments." (Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Kim Coghill and Kenneth Maxwell) As Russian bombs fell across Ukraine, the contrast between the leaders of the warring nations could not be starker. Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, on Sunday sat stern-faced, his tie pulled tight, at a long table with his defense officials off to the side. He appeared a solitary figure as he raged against the "aggressive actions" of the West and summoned Russias nuclear forces to be put on high alert. In Ukraine, a T-shirt-clad President Volodymyr Zelensky, 44, was on the streets of Kyiv, posting yet another defiant video to social media. I am here," he said on the cellphone recording. "We will not lay down any weapons. We will defend our state because our weapons are our truth. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. (Alexei Nikolsky / Associated Press) It was two different styles, two different generations, and two different visions of Europe. The war for Ukraine may be far from decided, but in the public relations battle, Zelensky is clearly winning. A lawyer-turned-comic who wielded the power of social media to leap from playing Ukraine's president on a popular television series to actually being elected president in 2019, Zelensky speaks to a modern Europe seeking to move beyond the nationalist tendencies that ignited two world wars. Putin, who laments the collapse of the Soviet Union as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the last century and "a genuine tragedy" for his people, glowers, threatens and brandishes his army. A former KGB agent, he embodies the continent's Cold War past, intent on resurrecting a world order that began to crumble back when Nintendo Game Boy was the rage and Zelensky was only 11 years old. There was a sense, as international leaders imposed ever-harsher sanctions on Russia and Putin appeared ever more isolated, that Zelensky's quicksilver charisma and multiplatform savvy had helped give Ukraine a fighting chance against the Kremlin's massive army and disinformation juggernaut. Zelensky was a comedian and actor before he entered politics, parlaying his troupe, Kvartal 95, into a production company. In 2015, he starred in a hit television series called Servant of the People now the name of his political party about a history teacher who became president after a video of him ranting against corrupt politicians went viral. Zelensky announced his campaign for president while the show was still on the air. Story continues Volodymyr Zelensky during his 2019 campaign for president. (AFP/Getty Images) Initially brushed off by Ukraines political elite, he ran an energetic campaign, crowdsourcing questions on social media to ask his opponent during debates, and won with 73% of the vote. In his victory speech, he poked at Putin, whose forces five years earlier had seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, and who has remained in power for decades thanks to Kremlin-controlled elections. To all the citizens of post-Soviet countries: Look at us, Zelensky said. Everything is possible. Zelensky's popularity tumbled a bit after that, with critics knocking his inability to rein in the country's oligarchs and a series of populist decrees that were more show than substance. Then there was his failed attempts at making peace with Putin, a leader accustomed to spy games, media purges and power plays, who saw a West-leaning continent and upstarts like Zelensky as a threats to his dream of resurrecting Russia's glory. A Ukrainian soldier in a front-line position in December in Marinka, Ukraine. (Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images) As a possible conflict with Moscow loomed in recent months, many Ukrainians wondered whether Zelensky had the steel nerves a wartime president needed to keep the country together against the formidable Russian force as many as 190,000 troops and a land, sea and air arsenal assembled like a noose around Ukraine. That feeling was reinforced when Zelensky kept downplaying the increasing likelihood of a Russian invasion even as Western leaders continued to sound the alarm. But in the four days since Russia invaded, Zelensky has shone, said Illia Ponomarenko, a Ukrainian journalist with the Kyiv Independent newspaper. "It's not that I am now an unconditional great fan of his, but he did surprise me, in a perfect way," she said. Before, Ponomarenko would tell people that Zelensky loved the title "president" but not the hard work the office required. But the war, she said, "has finally triggered the best part of him." It's that part of him, many agree, that has appeared every day and often multiple times a day in short videos on the Telegram messaging app. Like many other Ukrainians constantly on edge from the nightly missiles and explosions above the capital, Kyiv, Zelensky emerges onscreen looking red-eyed and unshaven in an army-green T-shirt. We are all here, he said in one video alongside three top advisors in front of his office building to dispel rumors he was fleeing. We are in Kyiv. We are protecting Ukraine. Police officers stand guard at a building bombed by shells in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Genya Savilov / AFP-Getty Images) "We have got a true wartime leader who does just everything right," Ponomarenko said. "It just blows my mind to see him being so encouraging and strong, staying in the city in its worst nightmare no matter what." Putin, on the other hand, has at times evoked the air of a detached and scowling villain in a John le Carre novel. In recent days, he has seemed isolated, a man sitting alone in gilded rooms while his subordinates linger like extras in the wings. An intelligence agent who recruited spies in East Germany during the Cold War, Putin was handpicked out of relative obscurity in 1999 by then-President Boris Yeltsin to become prime minister. At first, Putin, a judo expert who has not been shy about being photographed bare-chested, appeared interested in bringing Russia closer to the West. He aligned with the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and said he believed the Baltic nations should join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization if they wanted. But after a few years, he reversed course. To counter what he sees as NATO's expansion into Russia's sphere of influence, Putin has waged a war with Georgia and annexed Crimea, and appears to be on a messianic mission to avenge what he sees as the great injustice of the Soviet Union's 1991 demise. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Putin has come off as even more focused on righting what he views are those historical wrongs. That was strikingly apparent in his televised address on the eve of the incursion into Ukraine: Speaking with a quiet but barely contained rage, he delivered an almost hourlong exegesis on why Ukraine wasn't even a country. In the days after, he has vowed that any party trying to impede or "create threats for our country and its people must know that the Russian response will be immediate and provoke consequences you have never seen in history. And unlike Zelensky, it's unclear whether the Russian public is behind him. The government has limited what state-run media can say about the conflict, throttled social media and banned broadcasters from using the words "war" and "invasion" (they describe it as the "special military operation"). Police officers detain a protester in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday. (Dmitri Lovetsky / Associated Press) At the same time, broadcasters have maintained a steady stream of coverage of what Putin describes as the genocide facing ethnic Russians living in Ukraine's eastern provinces. But all that hasn't stopped antiwar protests from erupting in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Worse, the decision to invade may have punctured Putin's long-held image of a calculating master strategist. Many Russians are surprised Putin invaded at all, and as global opprobrium singes the country's links to the Western world, they worry the conflict is turning their nation into a pariah and fear Putin is willing to start a nuclear conflict to decide it. Perhaps nowhere was the contrast between the two more vivid than in Zelensky's appeal to the Russian people in the hours before the invasion. He spoke in Russian, his first language growing up in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. "I know that they [the Russian government] wont show my address on Russian TV, but Russian people have to see it. They need to know the truth, and the truth is that it is time to stop now, before it is too late," he said. "And if the Russian leaders dont want to sit with us behind the table for the sake of peace, maybe they will sit behind the table with you." The next day, Putin dispatched his army toward Kyiv. Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Bulos from Kyiv. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is asking for Ukraine to be admitted to the European Union as his country fights off Russian forces amid a full-scale invasion. "Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing," Zelensky said during a video address, according to the New York Times. "I'm sure it's fair," he added. "I'm sure it's possible." Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth day on Monday, and Zelensky's request to join the EU comes as diplomats from Kyiv and the Kremlin have agreed to meet for talks. Dozens of people have been killed during missile attacks and fighting in the streets near Ukraine's major cities in recent days. Hundreds of citizens have fled the war-torn country, while others have joined military resistance efforts and taken up arms against Russian forces. Several EU member nations and allies in the West like the United States have pledged support for Ukraine and condemned Russia's invasion. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country's nuclear defense systems be put on higher alert, citing what he says are threats from the West. Before Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last week, he warned countries that interference with his operations will face "consequences you have never seen." The real budget battle is about to begin, and its all about tax cuts. The House of Delegates and Senate adopted competing budgets on Thursday with few changes but plenty of political sparring over billions in proposed tax cuts that separate the spending plans and the money available for public services. The proposed two-year budgets are $3 billion apart. The Republican-controlled House followed the day one game plan of new Gov. Glenn Youngkin to carry out the promises of his gubernatorial campaign last fall, while the Democratic-run Senate drew a line over how much tax relief its willing to provide, while investing more in public education and other core services. Senate Finance Chair Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, said the Senate budget strikes a balance between the right amount of spending on restored or new services for the citizens of the commonwealth, and tax relief for those same individuals and businesses. The Senate approved the two-year, $166 billion spending plan by a 31-9 vote. Earlier, it voted 36-4 to adopt a revised budget for the current fiscal year, which will end on June 30, after rejecting a proposal by Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, to spend $70 million in state tax funds on a forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election in Virginia, which Democrat Joe Biden won by 10 percentage points over then-President Donald Trump. Six Republican senators backed the amendment, including two aspiring congressional candidates Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, who faces an eight-candidate primary for the 7th District GOP nomination in June, and Sen. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, whos in a three-way primary race in the 2nd District. Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, also supported Chases amendment. The Senate approved only one amendment to the current fiscal year budget, which McDougle proposed to accelerate the repeal of special Department of Labor and Industry regulations stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the House, the current fiscal year budget passed on a vote of 100-0, but that was the end of unanimity, as Democrats lodged almost three dozen objections to the proposed two-year budget, as well as a series of floor amendments. The Republican majority dismissed all of them most of them on 52-48 party-line votes. More than 20 Democrats ultimately supported the budget, which passed on a 74-25 vote. But the Democratic minority used the process to make political points about: the House budgets almost $5.5 billion in proposed tax relief, which excluded a refundable tax credit for low-income families; the best way for the state to help local school divisions repair or replace crumbling buildings, either through a loan-rebate program included in the budget to raise up to $2 billion, or grants to localities; the slashing of more than $102 million in aid to Richmond and two other cities for eliminating polluted overflows despite the governors pressure on them to accelerate the work; and the refusal to make public the results of calls to a tip line that Youngkin established for the public to report on teaching of divisive subjects that the governor has sought to ban in public schools. We have a tip line established with taxpayer funds ... things that we as a legislature ought to know about. Nobody can find out what they say, said Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax. House Appropriations Chairman Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, said publicizing the emails would defeat the purpose of a tip line, which is to ease fear of retribution by making the tips anonymous. Knight said Democrats attempt at shutting down the tip line through the budget could lead to an unprecedented prohibition on the power of the executive branch. But the core of Democratic objections centered on tax cuts specifically the doubling of the standard deduction for income tax filers at a cost of $2.1 billion over the first two years alone, coupled with the budget and finance committees refusal to support making 15% of the Earned Income Tax Credit refundable for working families that dont earn enough to use all of the credit to offset state taxes. Then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, had proposed the refundable credit in the budget he introduced in December and Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, had proposed the measure separately in legislation. The Republican-controlled committees rejected both. We are making a false choice, said Price, who argued that the refundable tax credit is the way to provide significant tax relief to working families. Knight argued that low-income families would benefit from the doubling of the standard deduction and the repeal of the state sales tax on groceries, as well as a proposal to roll back a 5-cent-per-gallon increase in the gas tax for 12 months. In introducing the House budget, he noted that the budget Northam proposed included more than $10 billion in new revenues. Given this unparalleled growth in revenues, we approached this budget intent on spending not just the money we have available, but based our spending choices on what actually is needed, Knight said. The Senate budget excludes the change in the standard deduction and the suspension of the gas tax increase, while partly repealing the 2.5% grocery tax and protecting the 1% that goes directly to local governments. Targeted tax relief for those who need it most is critical, but we must do so in a manner that does not threaten core services for years to come, former House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, said. At this unique moment, we have the ability to do so much more to reinvest in the future, Filler-Corn said. We owe it to Virginians, to our families, and to our children. That is what Virginia parents really want. Next week, the two bodies will appoint a conference committee to begin negotiating the wide differences between the two budgets before the assembly is scheduled to adjourn on March 12. mmartz@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6964 mleonor@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6254 Twitter: @MelLeonor_ Staff writers Patrick Wilson and Andrew Cain contributed to this report. For many years, the city of Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture claimed to be the nation's gyoza capital, boasting the largest outlays in terms of annual household consumption. But then in 2012, Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture eclipsed Utsunomiya, and the title has swung back and forth between the two cities. Then suddenly last year, the two cities were relegated to second and third place, as Miyazaki City in Kyushu found itself at the top. According to data collected in 52 cities compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Miyazaki's citizens in 2021 spent an annual average of 4,184 yen on gyoza, as opposed to 3,728 yen by Hamamatsu residents and 3,129 by Shizuoka. (The data, it should be noted, does not include consumption in restaurants.) "Miyazaki people have long had a deeply rooted culture of carrying food home for consumption," a staff member of the city's tourism office told Shukan Jitsuwa (March 10). "Along with fewer people eating out due to the coronavirus pandemic, take-out specialty stores have become more widespread. It's also customary to present packs of gyoza as summer and year-end gifts. All of these have contributed to our number one ranking." Another factor was the establishment of the Miyazaki Gyoza Council in September 2020. "Council members included gyoza specialty shops, gyoza wholesalers, Chinese restaurants and others," the aforementioned official added. "After its founding the frequency of gyoza purchases accelerated. We also held promotional events and campaigns to attract visitors from outside the prefecture. Our citizens strongly felt the desire for their city to be Number 1." Gyoza are actually quite a tourist drawing card. In 2019, 54% of visitors to Utsunomiya were said to have consumed gyoza locally or carried home gyoza souvenirs, adding to the city's coffers several billions of yen. Toyota Motor will shut down all of its plants in Japan on Tuesday as a major supplier was hit by a suspected cyberattack, Nikkei has learned. The decision came after the supplier was hit by the attack, bringing a parts supply management system to a halt. The automaker is still examining whether it will be able to return to normal operations after Wednesday. The shutdown of all domestic plants on Tuesday will affect production of around 10,000 vehicles, or about 5% of Toyota's monthly output in Japan. The incident may hurt Toyotas efforts to return to full production following factory halts in January and February because of chip shortages and Covid-related disruptions. Toyota, which has remained relatively resilient to supply chain snags through most of the pandemic, has been trying to ramp up production to make up for lost output and meet soaring global demand for cars. The website for Kojima Press, which makes metal, plastic and electronic components, wasnt accessible late on Monday. A one-day stoppage for Toyotas factories in Japan translates into about 10,000-plus units, or 5% of domestic production, according to the Nikkei. Toyota operates 28 assembly lines at 14 plants in Japan. Australian rugby league international Blake Ferguson said on Monday he could hardly stand up after a month in a Japanese prison and would plead guilty to drug charges that derailed his career. Ferguson was arrested over an alleged assault and possession of illegal drugs in Tokyo last month as he prepared to make his rugby union debut with top-flight club NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu. Instead, he was thrown in jail and his contract, reportedly worth Aus$1.5 million (US$1.1 million), was torn up. The 31-year-old is now free but remains in Japan awaiting a court appearance in March. Im going to plead guilty and hopefully they will show some leniency. Its important that I accept responsibility, he told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. I got myself into this mess and theres no one else to blame. Ferguson, who played more than 200 games for a host of Australian clubs and appeared seven times for the national team, said being jailed was lonely and boring, with his phone confiscated and no contact with his family. It was just me and some Japanese guys who couldnt speak English. I read a few books but that was about it. The food was pretty ordinary and I got a really bad back, said the father-of-three. Seriously, the mattress would have been a centimetre thick. I could hardly stand up for a few days. I certainly wouldnt want to go back. ...continue reading Advertisement New Delhi: Amid the ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia. Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi deputed four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. A second high-level meeting in the last 24 hours over the prevailing situation in Ukraine, especially with the evacuation of Indian citizens, was chaired by PM Modi today. Upon his return from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening, the Prime Minister held a two-hour-long meeting with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and a host of senior bureaucrats over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. PM Modi in the meeting once again reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nations top priority. It was also discussed to further enhance cooperation with neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of the stranded Indians. The union government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under Operation Ganga. As many as 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in India so far. Advertisement Kyiv [Ukraine]: Amid ongoing tensions between Moscow and Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday (local time) spoke with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Polish President Andrzej Duda and agreed on further joint steps to counter the aggressor. Talked to UK Prime Minister @BorisJohnson and Poland President @AndrzejDuda about the current security situation. Agreed on further joint steps to counter the aggressor. Anti-war coalition in action!, Zelenskyy tweeted. He also had a phone conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Also had a phone conversation with @vonderleyen. Talked about concrete decisions on strengthening Ukraines defense capabilities, macro-financial assistance and Ukraines membership in the #EU, Zelenskyy wrote in a tweet. Earlier, the Ukrainian President spoke with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda about the countrys current military situation. We keep in touch with loyal friends constantly. I spoke with @GitanasNauseda about the current military situation, international efforts to force the aggressor to peace and Ukraines membership in the #EU. Thank you, Gitanas, for your continued support, Zelenskyy tweeted. In a subsequent tweet, Zelenskyy said that he talked with Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Talked to Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Thanked for the closed sky for Russian planes, support for the decision to disconnect Russia from SWIFT and concrete defense assistance. Portugal provided weapons, individual protection means & other equipment to Ukraine. Together stronger, he tweeted. Moreover, Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez had also spoken with Zelenskyy to show him all the support of Spain in the face of Putins intolerable invasion. I just spoke with the president of Ukraine, @ZelenskyyUa, to show him all the support and solidarity of Spain in the face of Putins intolerable invasion. Today we have sent two planes from the @EjercitoAire with 20 tons of aid, protective equipment and medical supplies, Sanchez tweeted. DES MOINES In a symbolic gesture of support for the Ukrainian people who are under Russian attack, Gov. Kim Reynolds has directed the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division to remove any Russian-produced alcoholic liquor products from its wholesale purchase list. Her order is unlikely to have much impact in Iowa even though Iowans purchased 2,024,662 gallons of vodka through the ABD in 2021. In the top 10 brands by gallons sold, there are five brands of vodka Titos, Hawkeye, McCormick, Smirnoff and Five OClock. However, Russian vodkas account for a very small portion of overall sales, spokesman Tyler Ackerson said Monday. Over the past 12 months, the sale of Russian vodka has totaled about $95,000 out of more than $93 million in vodka sales. Whiskey, led by Black Velvet Canadian Whiskey, is the drink of choice for Iowans based on ABDs gallons sold 2,117,237 in 2021. Sales of whiskey exceeded $168 million, according to ABDs annual report. Very few brands imported to the United States still are produced in Russia. Smirnoff vodka, for example, traces its roots to Moscow, but is distilled in the U.S. Stoli, which basically translates into capital city because it originated in Moscow, is distilled in Latvia as well as Russia and has its headquarters in Luxembourg, a NATO country. ABD has only three Russian vodkas permanently listed Russian Standard Original Vodka, Russian Standard Platinum Vodka and Hammer + Sickle Vodka, Ackerson said. Another three are considered special order on hand listing Russian Standard Imperia Vodka, Zu Bison Grass Vodka and Quadro Vodka. ABD has several Russian vodkas listed as special order. While Russian-made products that will no longer be available for purchase from the state wholesale operation, retailers are not required to cease sales of those products. Some retailers, bars and restaurants already have stopped offering Russian products in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Iowa is one of 17 states that controls the sale of alcoholic liquor at the wholesale level. Under Iowa law, ABD has the authority to determine the brands of alcoholic liquor products available for sale to retailers. Alcoholic liquor is sold by ABD to off-premises retailers, who then sell the products directly to consumers or to on-premises retailers, such as bars and restaurants. In issuing the order, Reynolds joins the governors of Utah, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania in making the symbolic gesture of support for Ukraine. Reynolds also has called for Iowa Sister States to end its relationship with Stavropol Krai, Russia, and provide recommendations for enhancing its sister state relationship with Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. More information on the delisting of Russian products will be available at the ABD website on or before March 1. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Morocco will reserve seats for Mauritanian students on flights scheduled by Royal Air Maroc to evacuate Moroccans living in Ukraine, the Mauritanian Foreign Ministry announced this Monday, February 28. Mauritanian students established in Ukraine will be able to board special flights to be operated by RAM to repatriate Moroccan nationals from March 2. The Mauritanian Foreign Ministry actually indicated on Monday, on its website, that the head of Mauritanian diplomacy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had a phone call with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita. It was agreed, during the call, to reserve seats for Mauritanian students on the flights, organized by the Kingdom, for the transport of its nationals from Ukraine, underlined the Mauritanian Ministry, recalling that this program is limited to flights from neighboring countries of Ukraine due to the current closure of Ukrainian airspace. According to the Mauritanian Foreign Ministry, the Commission monitoring the situation of the Mauritanian community in Ukraine was able to authenticate the total number of these students, their place of residence, and obtained copies of their passports. Royal Air Maroc announced Sunday February 27, to have scheduled flights at exceptional rates from Ukraines neighboring countries, for Moroccans established in this country at war. Initially, three flights will be operated on Wednesday March 2, departing from Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary) and Warsaw (Poland) to Casablanca at a fixed rate of 750 DH, said RAM in a statement. Tickets are available through the companys website, call centers, and RAM agencies in Morocco and abroad. The Moroccan capital city Rabat, designated as the cultural capital of the Islamic world for the year 2022, will host an exhibition and museum dedicated to the Prophets Seerah (behavior & conduct) and Islamic civilization, announced the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO). Preparations for the event, co-organized by the ICESCO, the Islamic World League (IWL) and the Mohammedan League of Scholars, have been launched, said ICESCO, indicating that the exhibition will be held at the pan-Islamic organizations headquarters in Rabat. The announcement comes following a meeting held in Rabat under the chairmanship of the Director General of ICESCO, Salem Bin Mohammed Al Malik, Secretary General of the Mohammedan League of Scholars, Ahmed Abbadi and Nasser Bin Musfir Al Qurashi al Zahrani, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of International Exhibitions and Museums at IWL. Take a look at a list of the best counties to retire in Nebraska using data from Niche. 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. ReportLinker Major players in the military satellites market are The Boeing Company, Israel Aerospace Industries, Northrop Grumman Corporation, ISS-Reshetnev, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Company, Thales Group, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, GE Aviation, Airbus SE, Indian Space Research Organisation, OHB SE, Elbit System Ltd. New York, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Military Satellites Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240582/?utm_source=GNW , AeroVironment and Orbital ATK Inc. The global military satellites market is expected to grow from $52.28 billion in 2021 to $54.83 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $63.116 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 3.6%. The military satellites market consists of sales of military satellites by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that manufacture military satellites. A military satellite is an artificial earth satellite used for military missions such as intelligence gathering, navigation, and military communications. The main satellite types of military satellites are small satellites, medium-to-heavy satellites.The various types of payload include communication payload, navigation payload, imaging payload, others that are used for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), communication, navigation. Satellite Payload refers to the components of a spacecraft that are specifically dedicated to producing mission data and relaying that data back to Earth. North America was the largest region in the military satellites market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The increasing concern about terrorism is expected to fuel the growth of the military satellites market.The growing concern for terrorism has motivated the need for military forces around the world to deploy better military communication systems. Military satellites are an important part of modern military communication networks.In 2019, 63 countries reported at least one death due to terrorism. Terrorism had a $26.4 billion global economic impact in 2019. Therefore, the increasing concern about terrorism drives the growth of the military satellites market. The high cost of the military satellite is expected to hamper the growth of the military satellites market over the forecast period.An artificial satellite that is used for military purposes is a military satellite. Military satellites are costly devices, costly to build, and costly to launch.The military communications satellites combined costs will be more than $95 million for release and launch insurance, $20 million for the in-orbit insurance, $15 million for operating expenses, and $150 million for spacecraft, making a total of $300 million. Therefore, the high cost of military satellites restraints the growth of the military satellite market. The advancement in technology is shaping the military satellite market.Major companies working in the military satellite sector are focused on designing advanced technology solutions for military satellites. For instance, in July 2020, SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer, and space transportation services company launched South Koreas first military communications satellite, called Anasis-II. Anasis-II will play a vital role in preserving peace on the Korean peninsula, and through this technical advance, the Republic of Korea will be able to improve not only its IT capabilities but also its space research and development operations. In May 2021, OneWeb, a USA-based satellite internet company, acquired TrustComm for an undisclosed amount.Through this acquisition. OneWeb intended to provide "a new suite of services with network speeds up to 195Mbps, lower latency, smaller and more compact multi-orbit user terminals, and built-in network management tools" to the US Department of Defense and other government clients. TrustComm, based in the US, is a commercial satellite communications provider. The countries covered in the military satellites 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/p06240582/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Auburn City Schools wanted its students to truly engage with history during Black History Month. Each school day in February, students in the districts 13 schools were introduced to a different famous figure each day, from George Washington Carver to Muhammad Ali. At J.F. Drake Middle School, sixth graders chose an individual to research and then decorated their classroom door in his or her honor. The goal is to create experiences for them to want to learn more and be inspired by what theyre learning, said Sarah Armstrong, principal of J.F. Drake Middle School. This was the second year the school held a Black History door decoration contest. Armstrong said the idea was the result of staff members dscussing how the school could improve Black History Month awareness. She said last year most of the doors were decorated with traditional historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr., but this year the teachers and students decided to select figures specifically from Alabama or current newsmakers like Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. Some teachers coordinated their door design with the subjects they teach. A music teacher honored famous Black musicians while a STEM teacher honored mathematician Katherine Johnson, one of the subjects of the movie Hidden Figures who helped NASA figure out how to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth. Students also decided to choose individuals they were learning about in class. Traci Curry, a science teacher at J.F. Drake, said this year they wanted to make the project more relevant for the students and to choose some famous individuals who are still alive. For her door, she and her students honored Mae Jamison, the first Black woman who went into space. Curry said her students researched information about the astronaut, and one student drew a rocket to go on the door. They hear little snips of things, but once they start doing the research they get a bigger picture of whats going on and what happened, Curry said. They did a really good job with it. J.F. Drake Assistant Principal Jonathan Finch said the door decoration contest is a way for students to engage with learning, be creative and be inspired. I think its just a great way for our students to learn about Black history and all the things that we sometimes dont realize have been done by Black Americans, he said. Germany will target to have all its electricity provided by renewable energy sources by 2035, according to a new draft policy that speeds up the timeline for ending fossil fuel-powered generation before 2040. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, said in a major shift of energy policy this weekend that it would draft a strategy to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, accelerate renewable energy capacity installment, and build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities. After all, the events of recent days and weeks have shown us that responsible, forward-looking energy policy is not just crucial for our economy and our climate. It is also crucial for our security. This means that the faster we make progress with the development of renewable energies, the better, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German Parliament on Sunday. According to a government draft paper obtained by Reuters on Monday, Germany will now aim at 100-percent renewables in electricity generation by 2035, compared to a previous goal of all-renewables well before 2040. The Russian invasion of Ukraine changed Germanys policy, and Europes biggest economy will be looking now to fast-track the reduction of its dependence on Russian gas. Unlike other countries in Europe, however, Germany plans to switch off all its remaining nuclear power generators by the end of 2022. The country has also said it would aim to phase out coal by 2030 eight years ahead of earlier plans. Per the governments draft paper seen by Reuters, Germany will pass a new Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and looks to have wind and solar accounting for 80 percent of power generation by 2030. By that year, Germany is expected to double its onshore wind power capacity to up to 110 gigawatts (GW), offshore wind capacity is seen jumping to 30 GW, and solar energy should surge more than threefold to 200 GW, according to the paper seen by Reuters. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The global oil industry is under siege by climate campaigners who have seized the momentum to dictate the energy transition with misguided talk about halting investment in oil and gas, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said on Monday, as carried by Reuters. Energy affordability, energy security and the need to reduce emissions require a delicate balancing act, comprehensive and sustainable solutions, and with all voices heard, and listened to, Barkindo said virtually during the 2022 edition of Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja. Focusing on only one of these issues, while ignoring the others, can lead to unintended consequences, such as market distortions, OPECs secretary general added. Public discourse around energy, climate and sustainable development has become increasingly noisier and more forceful in recent years, Barkindo noted. The oil and gas industry needs predictable investment and the right enabling environment in addressing global energy needs, according to a readout of his speech published by OPEC. Specifically for Africa, the lack of oil and gas investments because of the green shift would be a tragedy for the continent if Africas vast oil and gas resources were to become stranded. Over the past few months, the world saw first-hand what fossil fuel shortages could be like. 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. Global annual upstream spending needs to increase by as much as 54 percent to $542 billion if the oil market is to avert the next supply shortage shock, Moodys said last year. Upstream oil and gas investment must rise to the pre-pandemic levels of around $525 billion per year through the end of the decade so that the industry can ensure a demand-supply balance, Saudi Arabia-based International Energy Forum (IEF) and IHS Markit said in a report in December. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The OPEC+ cooperation is facing a possible breakdown following Russias military invasion of Ukraine. Russias aggressive military moves towards Ukraine will have a negative impact on the oil market cooperation between OPEC and Russian-led non-OPEC members. The success formula of Riyadh-Moscow-Abu Dhabi is in serious trouble as Western powers will be putting Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and others, under severe pressure to break up their strategic cooperation with Moscow. The growing economic, financial and strategic military cooperation that has been built up the last couple of years between mainstream Arab power players, especially Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and non-OPEC member Egypt, with Moscow is now in jeopardy. Officially, Arab countries are not being asked to protest against Putins Ukraine invasion, but behind closed doors, the topic will be put on the table for sure. Washington, Brussels, London, and Paris will not be willing to have a major block of energy producers continue to work with Putin. The next couple of days could be crucial for OPEC+'s future, especially if Putin is continuing his war with Ukraine. At present, statements coming from the Arab world are very diplomatic, calling for a major de-escalation or diplomatic moves. Looking at the still struggling Western response to Putins invasion of Ukraine, Arab countries still have some room to maneuver. However, if Washington, Brussels, and London are getting their act together, politically and militarily, choices will have to be made. Western governments will be willing to take a long-term strategy towards the MENA region, based on their vast links in energy, investments, and geopolitical assets, but there will be less room to allow Moscow to find support in key-Western allies in the MENA. For the two main OPEC leaders, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, it will be a very tight rope to walk. Part of their strategic control of oil and gas markets during the last few years was based on cooperation with Russia. Moscow's influence in other FSU countries to stick to the production pact has been playing a pivotal role. While the Ukraine crisis is partly a major financial boon for Arab oil and gas producers due to rising crude prices, OPEC strategists now need to assess the ups and downs of continuing this partnership. Already, OPEC+ needs to tackle a number of problems. One major issue is the lack of spare production capacity in general, as some OPEC producers are already unable to keep up with their own quotas. While OPEC+ has stuck to their known monthly production hikes, real output levels are lagging behind, reflecting a 600,000 bpd quota shortfall. In the next few months, this number is expected to increase further. A lack of investment, declining field production, and lagging oil infrastructure are the main causes. Russia, as one of the main OPEC+ powers, is also facing some production issues. Some analysts already have indicated that Russias spare capacity is now below 300,000 bpd. Moscow is currently producing around 10.8 million bpd, but should be producing close to 12 million bpd according to the OPEC+ agreements. If it fails to reach these numbers, Moscow's influence is under pressure in the alliance. Taking the production quota into account, while global crude prices are high, a potential breakup is not going to be very hard. Especially if Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi will be the only ones with extra spare production capacity. Geopolitically, the integrity of OPEC+ is very important. In contrast to the 20th Century or the first part of the 21st Century, there is more at stake lately. Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and also Egypt, have become weary of the lack of commitment of Washington as a military and economic partner. Moscow and Beijing have been filling up the gaps. Arab sovereign wealth funds are increasingly investing in Russia, China and Asia, while Russian investments in ports and industrial zones, such as along the Suez Canal, have a political impact too. At present, no Arab country is willing to make a clear choice between the West and the East. Choosing to back the West in the Ukraine crisis, or supporting economic and military sanctions on Russia and its cohorts, is however a bridge too far. Other Arab and non-Arab members of OPEC+ are also not yet willing to sanction Moscow. Putins strategic moves during the last decade have severely eroded Western influence in the region, and Moscow is now reaping the benefits. At the same time, Arab powers are also still keeping an eye on the Iran JCPOA discussions, and the position that China is taking towards Moscow. For most Arab oil producers, the Dragon-Bear developments are more important, at least on the surface. A breakup of OPEC+ is currently an option without a real risk for the Arabs. A potential energy sanctions regime on Russia isnt completely out of the question. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi will for sure be coordinating any moves with Washington, London or Brussels, but will have a direct line to Beijing too. Chinas stealth moves at present will not influence geopolitical decisions during the coming months, but could also have an impact on the future of OPEC+. Some could argue a weaker OPEC+ is to the advantage of Beijing, as Moscow will be more willing to increase flows to China. Analysts should be not looking the next couple of days at crude oil prices or official statements made by OPEC+ officials. The main focus should be on the body language shown on March 2, when OPEC will be meeting again. The same scenario as at the Third Summit of OPEC Heads of State and Government in Riyadh 2007 could play out. A breakup of the OPEC+ bromance is an underestimated possibility. By Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: There will be alternatives to Russian natural gas supply in the five-year horizon, World Bank President David Malpass told CBS in an interview aired on Sunday. "Markets look forward so they can look at the five-year time horizon and realize that there's a lot of energy available if it's mobilized, there are alternatives to the Russian dominance of the gas market, for example," Malpass said on the on 'Face the Nation' program. "And so whether those changes are made will be important," the World Bank's head said. In the short term, replacing Russian gas is nearly impossible, say analysts and one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas exporters, Qatar. Yet, with the Russian invasion, and even before that, the high dependence of Europe on Russian pipeline gas was a source of concern in Europe, and countries were looking to buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to secure this winter's supply in light of decade-low gas volumes in storage and Russian pipeline deliveries not going above the contractual obligations. "Right in the short run, there is upward pressure, including on LNG liquefied natural gas that the U.S. ships to Europe and Europe will need a lot more, but it's available," the World Bank's Malpass told CBS. Just before Putin launched an attack on Ukraine last week, Qatar said it could divert only 10-15 percent of its LNG cargo contracts to other destinations right now. Replacing Russian gas deliveries to Europe in the short term is "almost impossible," Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said two days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "Most of the LNG are tied to long-term contracts and destinations that are very clear. So, to replace that sum of volume that quickly is almost impossible," the minister noted. While the European Union and the United States are trying to avoid hitting Europe's energy supply and raising American gasoline prices even higher with sanctions, Germany, for example, made a major U-turn in its energy policy on Sunday. Germany will support the construction of two LNG import terminals and is not leaving any energy source not even coal or nuclear off the table as it will now look to cut energy dependence on one supplier. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russia's President Vladimir Putin has put the country's nuclear forces on high alert amid a wave of Western sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The invasion has so far seen the EU, the UK, and the U.S. and Canada close their skies to Russian aircraft and impose a series of harsh sanctions targeting Russia's financial industry, up to and including the cutoff of several Russian banks from the SWIFT system. What's more, the EU has for the first time since its creation decided to send weapons to a country at war, Reuters reported, saying Brussels was going to send some $507 million worth of weaponry to Ukraine. "Not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension - I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well - but also the top officials of leading NATO countries allow themselves to make aggressive statements with regards to our country," Putin said this weekend. "We are afraid that Russia is not going to stop in Ukraine," the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borell said, adding that Putin's latest move was clearly a threat of a nuclear attack. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, recommended "Russia to tone down this dangerous rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons." "This is really a pattern that we've seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression -- and the global community and the American people should look at it through that prism," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told CNN. "At every step of this conflict, Putin has manufactured threats to justify more aggressive actions -- he was never under threat from Ukraine or from NATO, which is a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine," an unnamed White House official told the news outlet. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: LINCOLN The Nebraska Library Commission recently awarded $115,466 in grants for excellence in youth service, including grants to the Papillion Public Library and the Springfield Memorial Library. The grants, awarded to 78 Nebraska libraries, will go towards area needs for educational programs, furniture for childrens and teen spaces, book kits and materials like Lego, STEAM and other activities to encourage creativity in young people. The Papillion Public Library received a $1,500 grant for music and movement class, while the Springfield Memorial Library was awarded $2,000 to update its early childhood area. Youth Grants for Excellence are made available by the Nebraska Library Commission with funding provided from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the federal stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, as administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Nebraska Library Commission has received a one-time award of $2,422,166. A portion of this funding was allocated for the Youth Grants for Excellence. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tasha Nelson's 10-year-old son held back tears when he heard the news. The two were in the car when the announcement came through the radio: Virginia's freshly sworn-in governor had signed an order attempting to ban mask mandates in schools. "My son looked up at me and he had tears in his eyes because he knew what it meant. He said, 'Mom, does that mean I can't go to school anymore?'" Nelson said. "He said, 'Can't we let the governor know about kids like me? I want to go to school too.'" Jack, a fourth grader, has cystic fibrosis, a progressive genetic disease that causes persistent, damaging lung infections, making it harder to breathe over time. Like other immunocompromised, disabled and chronically ill Americans, Jack was taking measures, like masking, to dodge infections before the pandemic too. But with Covid-19 still rampant, it's not as easy. Even though he's vaccinated, the virus poses a serious, potentially deadly, risk to Jack. His 2-year-old brother, who is not yet eligible for the shots, is another concern. Nelson is among a group of parents who sued Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin over that order, claiming it puts students who are immunocompromised or have disabilities at risk and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. CNN has reached out to Youngkin's office for comment on the lawsuit. Roughly two weeks after that lawsuit was filed, the governor signed a bill into law allowing parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates. Nelson is keeping her son at home again because of it. "This whole pandemic, our culture, media (and) government has made it very clear to high-risk and disabled people that we are an acceptable loss," Nelson said. "We're doing everything we can to survive this pandemic too." Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are declining nationwide, but transmission -- how much virus is circulating in a community -- remains high in more than 90% of the United States, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC still recommends everyone to mask indoors in areas of substantial or high transmission. But public health experts are split on whether it's time to lift mitigation measures. Some say dropping protections at a time when Covid-19 numbers are so high is a political move rather than a public health one. Others say the downward trends justify those moves and note Omicron is milder than earlier variants for most healthy people. As local and state leaders nationwide remove mask and vaccination rules, those at high risk for severe disease say doing away with protections now leaves them more vulnerable, especially as they, or family members, return to in-person work or school. And for some, Covid-19 vaccines are not as effective in staving off a severe bout with the virus, prompting the CDC to recommend a fourth shot for immunocompromised people 12 years and older in October. Roughly seven million American adults are immunocompromised, the CDC estimates. While not all have conditions that leave them severely immunocompromised and vulnerable to severe Covid-19, about 61 million adults -- roughly one in four in the US -- have some type of disability, according to the agency. More than three million children had a disability in 2019, according to the US Census Bureau. "Everyone knows someone who had cancer, everyone knows somebody who had a kidney transplant for one reason or another, or someone who's got Alzheimer's or someone who has a heart condition or someone who was born with a rare immunodeficiency," said Sara Willette, who has been in isolation with her husband in Iowa since the state reported its first case of the virus, some 700 days ago. "The more protections that we remove, the less accessible the rest of the world becomes to people who are high-risk," Willette said. Even though Willette is triple vaccinated and preparing for her fourth shot, catching the virus could be deadly. She has Common Variable Immunodeficiency Disorder (CVID), meaning her body does not produce protective antibodies to defend itself against pathogens like bacteria or viruses. The couple considered leaving their home in Ames and moving to southern California, where stricter masking protocols could have helped protect her. But they ruled out the idea after California's governor lifted the indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people this month, citing a drop in infections. Iowa's lawmakers are going even further -- a bill looking to effectively ban vaccine and mask mandates is making its way through the legislature. "We have to make a choice between staying alive and having a life," Willette said. The high-risk people CNN spoke to said as the country eagerly looks to move on from the pandemic, they feel forgotten -- and worse, like they don't matter to the rest of the American public. Some say they feel like they've been left to adapt to a more dangerous reality, while others are now mapping out a permanently isolated lifestyle. Families faced with impossible choices In Wilmington, Massachusetts, Karen Yurek's family is navigating a tough balancing act. Yurek and her husband are both high-risk and on immunosuppressant medications. She has rheumatoid arthritis and he has multiple sclerosis. Both have received four Covid-19 shots and work remotely. Their family was almost entirely isolated until last week, when their 6-year-old son, Billy, returned to school. Billy is vaccinated, and Yurek and her husband felt he could stay safe with the help of a universal masking requirement that was in place. Then, state officials announced they were lifting the mandate at the end of February. Yurek wrote to the Wilmington School Committee, urging them to keep masks mandatory to "protect the members of our community who don't have the luxury of 'normal' anymore." The committee voted Wednesday to lift its mask mandate, posing a difficult dilemma for Yurek's family: pull their child out of in-person class or risk serious illness. "It's really demoralizing," Yurek said. "It just feels like everyone's so focused on getting back to normal that ... they're forgetting about all of the really at-risk people. And if they're not forgetting about them, that they're just saying, 'Well, you're on your own.'" Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's John Berman on Thursday that lifting school mask mandates given the current transmission levels could push cases back up. "We've been to this show before," he said. "Where things came down, you pull back a little, and it bounces back." When asked this month about immunocompromised Americans who feel left behind, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the agency is working to update its mask guidance so it is "relevant for the public, but also for the public who is immunocompromised and disabled," but offered no further details. To help keep more people safe, mask requirements should depend on how much virus is circulating in a community, said Raymund Razonable, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic and vice chair of the division of public health, infectious diseases and occupational medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. Shedding masks at a time the virus is still rampant and the threat of more variants -- including an Omicron subvariant -- loom is a risk, Razonable told CNN. All but one of the remaining states that still had mask mandates in place -- Hawaii -- have announced plans to remove them. Other local leaders have announced the end of vaccine measures too. The country's capital put an end to its indoor business vaccine requirement Tuesday. In the following days, Philadelphia and Boston also announced they were dropping vaccine requirements. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams told employers to end work-from-home policies, saying in a news conference, "We need people back to work." "Unfortunately, for the most part, we're seeing a lot of disregard for the immunocompromised and the disabled community," said April Moreno, a public health expert and founder of the Autoimmune Community Institute, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization. "We're hurting." Kris Giere, a 42-year-old who has Type 1 diabetes and lives in Indiana, a state that ended its mask mandate last April, echoed the same. "I'm tired of having to worry about how many disease vectors I'm in contact with," Giere said. "I'm on edge every day, because I don't get to go back to normal. There is no going back to normal for me." 'We don't have the luxury of pretending the pandemic is over' When the CDC updated its isolation guidelines in December to say people can leave isolation five days after testing positive if their symptoms are gone or getting better, and to wear a well-fitted mask for 10 days, the agency also urged them to "avoid people who are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe disease," for at least 10 days. But it can be hard to know when someone -- a coworker, a friend or a passerby -- is immunocompromised or high-risk, Moreno pointed out. It's why many conditions are known as "invisible illnesses." "No one ... has given me a giant foam hat with an arrow saying 'immunocompromised' on it," said Matthew Cortland, who works on disability and health policy at Data for Progress, a left-leaning think tank. "The lengths we have to go to in order to mitigate, to some extent, the risk that society at large is just offloading onto us is absurd." Cortland permanently works from home. But many friends who are also chronically ill and disabled don't have the same option. That's why public health measures remain critical, Cortland said, including global vaccination campaigns, widespread availability and use of high-quality masks, research into more adaptive personal protective equipment, improvements to indoor air quality, better testing procedures and sufficient treatments. The US has increased its order for one of the key preventive therapies for the immunocompromised, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced last week. But even with that boost, the country will only have enough of that monoclonal antibody treatment for less than a quarter of its immunocompromised population. And while there are other Covid-19 therapeutics that can help people including the severely immunocompromised, they are still also in short supply in many parts of the US and won't be more widely available until spring, the US Food and Drug Administration has said. "There's not enough for the millions of immunocompromised patients," said Razonable. In his hospital, he said there is a "sufficient" supply to cover only "the highest risk group" of people. Two years in, high-risk Americans are feeling traumatized and exhausted from the daily risk assessments and new hurdles that life in a Covid-era America comes with. As Cortland puts it: "No one wants to actually be done with the pandemic more than disabled, chronically ill, and immunocompromised Americans. We just don't have the luxury of pretending the pandemic is over when it isn't. And it clearly is not." The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Two more metro-Omaha school districts are switching to paid student teachers, and others are considering a change as well. The trend could eventually spread statewide as Nebraskas local school leaders look for ways to pull young people into the profession. The Millard and Westside districts plan to start paying student teachers next school year, following in the footsteps of the Omaha Public Schools, which announced its plan in January, according to district spokeswomen. Millard school board member Mike Pate said that two years ago he wouldnt have been in favor of it. The district has to remain competitive in the labor market, Pate said. Everyone else is doing it, he said. Everyone else is giving sign-on bonuses. Even Walmart and McDonalds. On Jan. 12, Superintendent Cheryl Logan announced that OPS student teachers will receive a stipend of $9,000 per semester. The Millard Public Schools and Westside Community Schools plan to pay $4,000 a semester. Pate said Millard doesnt have the resources to go higher. The district typically brings in between 75 and 90 student teachers a year, so the plan will cost about $350,000, district officials said. One thing Ive been losing sleep over, over the last several years, is the fact that our teacher pool is so shallow, and I worry about where were going to find candidates to enter the profession going forward, he said. For young people, student teaching is a gateway to the profession. For districts, its a pipeline to find new hires. Several other metro area school districts, including the Ralston Public Schools, the Bellevue Public Schools and the Papillion La Vista Community Schools, are considering paying student teachers. Officials in the Elkhorn Public Schools are reviewing the idea. The Gretna Public Schools and Springfield Platteview Community Schools have no plans to do it at this time. Bennington Public Schools officials havent decided. The teacher shortage was mounting before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with blame put on everything from low teacher pay and political sniping at public education to rising student behavior issues. The pandemic exacerbated the problem as teachers had to cover for ill and quarantining colleagues. Some teachers have burned out from the additional stress. A survey by the Nebraska Department of Education last fall found the shortage statewide but particularly acute in smaller public and nonpublic school systems. Schools reported 482 positions as unfilled with fully qualified personnel, and 68 left vacant for 2021-22. Of unfilled positions, more than a quarter were in districts or systems with less than 500 students. The metro areas have a shortage, but not like we do in the rural, said Jack Moles, executive director of the Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association. In the rural, we really have issues. The idea of paying student teachers didnt come on the radar screen until the last year or so, Moles said. Superintendents werent sure the law allowed it, but theres nothing in statute that prohibits it, he said. I think the metro (is) probably a step ahead of us right now on that, but its something that people are starting to talk about a little bit, he said. Andrew Dick, superintendent of the Scottsbluff Public Schools, said the trend is a reminder that the teacher shortage is for real, and it is worsening by the year. His district doesnt pay student teachers, and hes not aware of any in Nebraskas Panhandle that do. For a smaller school district, paying student teachers might be money out the window if theres not a teaching position that the student can step into when theyre done. Where in OPS, if youre paying that person to student teach in science, youll likely have some science openings somewhere in your district, he said. He said its possible that young people could consider the Omaha area more attractive than rural areas because of the pay. Trevor Anderson, superintendent of the Kimball Public Schools, said officials in his district havent discussed the idea yet. On average, his district takes in only one student teacher a year, Anderson said. With the teacher shortage, its certainly something well look at in the future, he said. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. People displaced from the condemned Flora apartments in downtown Omaha have roofs over their heads, but most still have no permanent homes a month after the city ordered the building vacated due to life-threatening disrepair. Just one family, a couple with two children in school, has moved into a rental house. At least 15 others remain in temporary emergency shelter in hotel rooms provided by the nonprofit organization Together and donors from the community who stepped up to help. The agency and others are working with the Omaha Housing Authority to try to find housing assistance for several people, including a mother with two children whos working part time while attending community college. Case managers are helping another person, a military veteran, navigate through a federal government supportive housing program for veterans. He was pretty close to housing, probably just waiting on an inspection, Tina Murray, director of crisis engagement for Together, said last week. The people were displaced when City of Omaha housing code inspectors ordered the 12-unit Flora Apartments vacated Jan. 24 due to fire hazards and other dangerous disrepair. Several of the multiple code violations dated back months or even years. The citys chief housing code inspector, Scott Lane, called the rotten conditions at the Flora, 2557 Jones St., the worst he has seen in a multi-family dwelling in his three years on the job. The owner, William Stanek, reportedly is close to selling the Flora. He has not responded to requests for comment since the city vacated the apartments, and declined to comment when approached in person as he coordinated workers boarding up the building. Reached by phone Friday, Stanek hung up as soon as a reporter identified himself. Lane contacted Together days before vacating the apartments to give the agency and the people a chance to start looking for shelter. Together rented storage units and helped the people move some of their personal belongings, although they left a lot behind. For the most part, theyre all doing pretty well, Murray said. Right now, were delivering food to them once a week. We paid for three or four storage units. We paid for 30 days and well probably have to pay for another month. Its just giving everyone time to figure out what the next move is. Case managers from Heartland Family Services are helping as well. Besides having little income to spare after paying their rent at the Flora, and thus being unable to pay first months rent and security deposit for another place, many of the people lack the documents or credit history that most property owners require of tenants. Theres a lack of affordable housing, Murray said. Were waiting for availability in some of these OHA units, finding something that theyll be able to maintain on their own once we step out. ... Generally in some of our other housing programs, (when) we take somebody who is literally homeless, it normally takes 30 to 60 days to get them housed. People can help by making donations to Together. You can go to togetheromaha.org/get-involved/donate.html and write Crisis Engagement25th and Jones in the field titled Message About Your Donation. Donors are making it possible for Together to help the people displaced from their homes. A big boost came from the Greater Omaha Packing Foundation, which gave $20,000. Greater Omaha Packing CEO Henry Davis wanted to help after he saw World-Herald coverage of the deplorable conditions at the apartments as the people were being evacuated, said Mike Drury, president of the company. The apartments are near South Omaha, home to Greater Omaha Packing and many of its workers. It must just be shellshock (for the Flora residents), Drury said. You know, challenges day in and day out and all of a sudden this comes down on top of you. So were just glad theres an organization like Together that can help out. Murray said the donation was a huge, huge help. I dont even know if they realize just how relieving that was to see that come in, she said. Individual donors also pitched in about $20,000 in the first few days after the people were evacuated. Were extremely grateful, Murray said. Rob Toscano, 52, is one of the former Flora residents who is still staying in a hotel. He said he hasnt gotten his damage deposit back from the Flora. Finding a place to live is further complicated because he left his identification behind in the rush to leave his apartment. Toscano said he called 911 and went to the hospital by ambulance last week with what turned out to be pneumonia. He said Together has been very helpful and he appreciates, but he feels frightened and lost. Im all alone and I dont know what to do, Toscano said. I dont know whats going to happen. <&rule> Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. U.S. Sen. Ben Sasses personal Twitter biography turned profane over the weekend in support of Ukrainian resistance to Russian incursion. As of Monday, the Nebraska Republicans biography statement was written in Russian and translated to Russian warship, go f- yourself. A spokesperson said that the change was made Saturday and that its origins are a viral story out of Ukraine. Last week, many U.S. news outlets reported that border guards on Ukraines Snake Island responded with that phrase when a Russian warship approached and asked the guards to surrender or else face bombing. The Washington Post reported that Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda published a copy of the audio recording and confirmed its authenticity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced 13 guards were killed after the exchange, according to initial reports. But CNN and other outlets have since reported that, according to the Ukrainian Navy, the soldiers are still alive. Tatyana Novkov, professor emerita in Russian at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, confirmed to The World-Herald that the phrase in Sasses bio is originally in Russian and that the translation is correct. The free world should know about Ukraines heroes, and while the United States isnt going to put boots on the ground Americans should arm them so that they can keep fighting Russian invaders, Sasse said in an emailed statement Monday. Sasse has been actively weighing in on the Russian invasion of Ukraine in recent days on national TV and via his personal Twitter account. All five members of Nebraskas congressional delegation have condemned Russias actions. Sasse, who is on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has called for stronger sanctions, saying incremental measures have not gone far enough, and has advocated for getting intelligence and weapons to Ukrainians. The U.S. and Europe are still holding back, he said in a statement over the weekend. Cut off all Russian banks immediately, because sanctions do matter, but we need more and faster. While politicians endlessly haggle over rubles and euros, Ukrainian freedom-fighters need life-and-death, real-time intelligence to kill Russian invaders, not more half-ass bureaucratic measures. This report includes material from the Associated Press. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON Pantagraph Media and local businesses have partnered to bring Bourbon Street to town on Tuesday. Weve got so much going on in Downtown Bloomington, and we encourage people to celebrate and support our local businesses, said Dan Adams, president Pantagraph Media. The following bars and restaurants are taking part in festivities on Tuesday: The Bistro, 316 N. Main St., offering "King Cake Martinis." Sharon ShareAlike will be throwing beads from the balcony. Brass Pig Smoke & Alehouse, 602 N. Main St., will be serving New Orleans po boy sandwiches. Fat Jacks, 511 N. Main St., will be serving New Orleans' signature drink, the hurricane. Jazz Upfront, 107. W. Front St., is serving Cajun red beans and rice, gumbo, jambalaya, King Cakes and sourdough bread. They will also have live music. Nightshop, 517 N. Main St, will feature Nightshop Green Tea. Reality Bites, 616 N. Main St., is offering New Orleans favorites jambalaya and hurricanes. Rosies Pub, 106. E. Front St., will offer a muffaletta sandwich for lunch and shrimp and grits for dinner. The Stable Music Hall & Lounge, 236 E. Front St., is featuring the champagne cocktail French 75. A traditional New Orleans "Second Line" band steps off at 5 p.m. James Gaston, owner of Jazz UpFront, said the band will start at the club, where classic New Orleans-style food is being served. Then the band will travel to the seven other participating locations. For those in the hospitality industry, like himself, the event is a chance to help people have fun and enjoy themselves, he said. The Bistro owner Jan Lancaster said: Were thrilled with this event for this year, and we hope this will be an annual event that keeps growing every year." The following downtown shops and boutiques also will be staying open late or offering Mardi Gras specials: Eaton Studio Gallery The Hangar Art Co. Joann Goetzinger Art Studio and Gallery Specs Around Town LaLa Boutique Painted Wraith Red Raccoon Refine 309 Reckless Saint Gigi Bottega Crossroads Fair Trade Goods and Gifts Bobzbay Adams said he's excited about the event and what comes next. From our Saturdays on the Square free summer concert series to an upcoming trivia night, Pantagraph Media is proud to sponsor events encouraging people to experience the diversity, inclusivity and uniqueness of downtown Bloomington," he said. Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter: @connorkwood Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. With winter temperatures hovering around 20 degrees, the team set out at 8 a.m. Saturday onto the frosty grass fields north of Fairview Park to find their clues, or clear plastic forks, spoons and knives. BLOOMINGTON An Alabama man is in McLean County custody on aggravated battery, resisting a peace officer and other traffic charges after his arrest Sunday on Interstate 74. Illinois State Police stopped Jamakio D. Chapell, 28, who was driving a semi-truck without a trailer on I-74 near Normal, after he was reported to be speeding and repeatedly improperly crossing lanes around 3:10 p.m. Sunday, authorities said. During his arrest for driving on a suspended drivers license, Chapell spit on two troopers three times and kicked one of the troopers in the abdomen, back and leg, prosecutors said. A prosecutor said police located an open beer can inside the semi-truck. Chapell is charged with four counts of aggravated battery, which are Class 2 felonies, one count of misdemeanor resisting a peace officer and 11 traffic charges, including driving under the influence of alcohol. Chapell, of Montgomery, Alabama, remains at the McLean County jail in lieu of posting $2,035. An arraignment is scheduled for March 18. Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. NORMAL Civil rights champion U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California, is set to visit Illinois State University for a showing of her biographical documentary. "Barabara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power" details the congresswoman's life as as a single mother in the Bay Area fighting to improve the lives of others. "It's basically about her life and her courage, how she's been a very courageous person in fighting for her beliefs, growing up in the Bay Area as a single mom and becoming an activist after that and moving into politics," her son Craig Lee, of Bloomington, said in a recent interview with The Pantagraph. Barbara Lee's story begins with her career as an activist for human rights, peace and economic and racial justice. The documentary showcases the struggles she had to overcome, as well as her early volunteer work for the Black Panther Party. She was elected to the House in 1998 and is chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. The documentary also details the build up and fallout surrounding her lone vote in opposition to the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks. "When that happened, she did get a lot of push back from her colleagues," said Craig Lee, detailing how his mother had to have a police escort following the vote. "She always said she voted that way because, as a country, we have to think about it. We shouldn't make rash decisions. We should let the dust settle and figure out how to handle it." A viewing of the documentary is 5 p.m. Saturday in the Prairie Room of the Illinois State University Bone Student Center. A question and answers session with Lee will be held after the showing. Masks and proof of COVID-vaccination is required. For tickets, email barbaraleeblono@outlook.com. Im always proud of my mom. Im extremely proud," said Craig Lee, who works at State Farm Insurance. "She has always done the right thing. She believes in her principals, her values. She would rather do whats right than do whats good for her political career. For her, her work is very, very important to her. Contact Sierra Henry at 309-820-3234. Follow her on Twitter: @pg_sierrahenry. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tea is one of the greatest gifts that China has given to the world. The visually stunning six-episode documentary One Cup, A Thousand Stories filmed and produced by BBC Studios tells the stories of the hot drink that has changed the world in surprising ways and seeks to understand what lies behind peoples timeless love of tea. Over the past three years, the film crew traveled to 13 countries and regions across six continents, from high mountains to wild coasts, allowing people to tell their own fascinating tales and present to the audience the important role and far-reaching impact of tea culture in the evolution of Chinese and even global civilizations. Through their lens, the audience will discover what has made tea a key part of human history, and then peer into the future to see how tea is evolving in an ever-changing world. In the first episode For the Love of Tea, the film crew explores the early origins of tea and meets with the Deang people living in the high mountains of Yunnans Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture who believe that tea was a gift from their gods. They have a special sour tea made from naturally fermented tea leaves. The special tea making skill has been passed down for centuries. Tea is a very precious thing, and a heavenly gift to us, said Li Yansuo, a young Deang man who learned the craft of making the sour tea from his mother, hoping to preserve their rich tea culture. There are other touching stories that would move the audience in this episode. For example, in the century-old teahouse in Guanyin Pavilion in Chengdu, southwest Chinas Sichuan Province, local residents drink a cup of jasmine tea every morning while chatting or playing cards. These real-life scenes are heartwarming for viewers. Faraway in Penang, Malaysias cultural melting pot, a bride serves tea at the wedding ceremony to her own parents and in-laws, which means leaving home and being accepted by a new family. The ritual of tea still plays a powerful role in the most important events of many peoples lives. The culture of tea is steeped in tradition, yet tea is constantly evolving. In the second and third episodes The Art of Tea, and Tea for the Soul, the film crew traveled to different parts of the world to decode what lies behind our enduring love of tea. They discover how a Chinese businesswoman attains inner peace as she embraces a unique tea ceremony, and how the English have raised their own form of drinking afternoon tea to a whole new level. The documentary also ventures from the earthly world to a spiritual realm, where a monk Master Yinzong in the small village of Guzhu in the eastern province of Zhejiang has dedicated 16 years of his life to bringing back to life the most revered tea and its preparation skills that can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907). There is also the story of the herder Bolor in Mongolia set in one of the most primeval landscapes on the planet, who welcomes the familys ancestral spirit into this world with a bowl of Mongolian tea. Throughout the centuries, tea has been transported from its birthplace China to almost every corner of the world. In the fourth episode To the Ends of the Earth, an ancient road snaking through the Himalayas the Tea Horse Trail, is pictured. Kesang Tashi, a Tibetan businessman, recalls that when he was a boy of 10, he went along with his parents on a 45-day horse caravan journey from Qamdo to Lhasa. Sixty-five years later, Tashi returned to northern Yunnan to launch a new tea named after the tea brand Nobu Mebar created by his beloved grandfather. It used to be renowned back in the day, and now a legacy that Tashi wants to revive. Tea drinking is a daily ritual for billions of people, but there are a variety of preparation techniques and types. In the fifth episode The Taste of the Tea Trade, the film crew travels to the North Island of New Zealand, where farmers couple the extraordinary tea bushes with the use of specially designed technology to create a truly remarkable flavor of tea. While in the U.S.A., a Chinese woman named Evy Chen is taking on the biggest growth area in the tea business with the ready-to-drink tea bought off the shelf, which has adapted traditional Chinese flavors to the needs of the American market. Modern life in fast-paced cities is threatening old traditions. But some daring tea makers see changes not as a problem, but as an opportunity to take tea into the future. In the final episode Tea Without Limits, the viewers discover that bubble tea, or pearl tea, has turned the tea industry upside down, and is rapidly rising in popularity. It is typically a mix of ice, tea, milk, sugar, and most importantly, tapioca. Lin Hsiu-Hui, chief product officer of Chun Shui Tang Tea in Taipei, loved eating the chewy and tasty tapioca balls when she was a child. Then in 1987, aged 18, Lin got a job serving oolong tea at Chun Shui Tang. Inspired by the idea of iced tea, she added the tapioca balls and mixed them together. Thus, bubble tea was born. Tea culture is rooted in traditions that go back millennia, but it is also innovative, experimental, and limitless. In the 21st century, tea is on a new journey. In this documentary series, audience will discover the power of tea, the power to communicate and love, and the power to express complex ideas through tea culture. If only tea could talk, it would tell a thousand stories. CLINTON From plowing farm fields to crewing B-17 Flying Fortresses, remarkable careers in aviation have gone airborne in DeWitt County. Their stories are being preserved by a passion project headed by volunteers making a new aviation exhibit at the C.H. Moore Homestead DeWitt County Museum. Designer-photographer Denis Hambucken of New Hampshire, his friend John Warner, and Edith Brady-Lunny, WGLT correspondent and former reporter for The Pantagraph, are joining up with museum director Joey Long to ensure the exhibit takes off this June. The Pantagraph got a sneak peek Sunday of what theyve researched and gathered for the exhibit over the past six months. Hambucken said his goal is to make the exhibit as immersive and vivid as possible, and thats been a monumental task. The exhibit really is a month-long celebration of flying, he said. Events for guest speakers and book signings are also in the works. Warner also warned that its a limited-run exhibit, running from May 28 to July 3, and those interested should mark their calendars. After it ends, artifacts that were loaned for display will be returned to their owners. Once its gone, its gone, he said. Hambucken envisioned the exhibit, which will be located in the Carriage Barn at the museum, to entirely transport people with dramatic lighting, large, informative graphics, and highly detailed mannequins dressed in flight gear. Its going to be top notch, he said. Hambucken said: Were hoping to show that a small town like Clinton can put together a world-class exhibit. One DeWitt County figure to be featured includes Donna Gross, who Warner said ferried all kinds of aircraft from the factories to the front in World War II. When she returned to Clinton, he said she left her aviation life behind and worked as a secretary in a law office. There's also "Red" Irwin. Warner said he began flying in 1928, piloting stunts as a barnstormer, and later commercial flights for major airlines. He said Irwin finished his career as the president of Gulf Oil Co.s flying division. He started in an open-cockpit biplane on a clover field, said Warner, and by the end of his career, he was flying four-engine jets all over the face of the Earth. What we really are after is the story, said Hambucken, adding the display will include QR codes directing visitors to video and audio interviews. Warner said these names and faces might be familiar to people living in and around Clinton, but their airtime stories are much less heard. Brady-Lunny said so far, shes recorded more than 30 stories for the exhibit. She said she never gets used to sitting down with people who flew helicopters over Vietnam. To her, the military stories are the most distinctive. Said Brady-Lunny: They do have that element of commitment to their country and they just all had an attitude of support and going to do remarkable things dangerous things that put them in harm's way. She added many stories came from relatives of service members who didnt return to their families. Financial support is also requested. Warner said they are looking for area businesses interested in sponsoring the exhibit. Their mannequins might also make a visit to store-front windows in town in the coming months. Warner is hopeful the display will inspire people with connections to the county to share additional aviation history with them. You can be from this county, but aviation takes you everywhere and touches everything, said Warner. To submit artifacts or tales for the project, or if interested in providing material support to the exhibit, go to www.chmoore.homestead.org or call the museum director at 217-935-6066. Contact Brendan Denison at (309) 820-3238. Follow Brendan Denison on Twitter: @BrendanDenison Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DID YOU KNOW? The general public knows that veterans who pass away are often accorded military funeral rites. Unfortunately, some deceased veterans not only are not accorded military funeral honors, but their remains go unclaimed by family or friends. The veterans organizations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas and a TV station in Shreveport, Louisiana, and active military recently combined forces to honor such veterans whose cremated remains have been unclaimed. Many veteran organizations have Honor Guards and conduct military funeral rites for local veterans. The combined Honor Guard of American Legion Posts 635 in Normal, Post 56 in Bloomington and Ellsworth 1244 combined forces in 2021 to conduct military funeral rites at 110 funerals and 56 events such as the Special Olympics state track meet and posting of the colors for games and other events. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions over the last two years, the combined American Legion Honor Guard also conducted communal military rites for veterans who passed at a time when restrictions prohibited the gathering of more than 10 family members and friends of the veteran. The combined Honor Guard will conduct a Communal Rite for these families if requested. Contact Butch Ekstam at 309-825-2703. EVENTS Central Illinois Leathernecks Detachment 988 will sponsor a three-day bags tournament fundraiser. The tournament will be held March 6, April 3 and May 1 at VFW Post 454 on Lincoln Street in Bloomington. Contact Kevin Keller at 618-554-1540, email Marine@det988.com or go to https://det988.com for more information. Q&A Q: I am a 20-year-old male who did not register for the draft when I turned 18 years old. I thought since no one has been drafted in over 45 years that I did not have a need to register. I am trying to finish college and find out that because I did not register for the draft, that I am ineligible for federal grants, scholarships and other financial assistance. Females are not required to register for the draft. However, they can still apply and receive federal education assistance. Is this fair? A: America ended the draft in 1973 as the Vietnam War wound down. All males in the United States must register for Selective Service (the draft) within 30 days of their 18th birthday. The draft would allow our country to be able to respond to increased needs in the military which might exceed he capabilities of our current active duty, reserves and National Guard units' ability to meet. Females have always been exempted from the draft, because the law permitted them to serve only in non-combat roles. Congress, in a move toward diversity, passed laws that make females eligible for service in all military occupational specialties. There have been several legislative efforts to require Selective Service registration at 18 years old for both males and females but have not been passed. It seems rather short-sighted to consider diversity or fairness in making the military as strong as possible. The military mission is to defend our nation and win wars, not whether one group or another is treated fairly! Jerry Vogler is superintendent of the McLean County Veterans Assistance Commission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WASHINGTON Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger told a conference of conservatives turned off by former President Donald Trump on Sunday he would fight to take back our political system after he leaves the House at the end of this term. He hedged later when asked if that meant he was considering a run for president. Speaking at the end of the two-day Principles First conference at the National Press Club, Kinzinger got several standing ovations, including when he talked about his work with fellow Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming on the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. If we as Republicans would have simply taken responsibility, we could have moved on, we could have determined nothing like that would ever happen again in the United States. And instead, we tried to sweep it under the rug. Well, its not going to be swept under the rug. The truth is out there and its coming, Kinzinger said. Targeted by Trump for his vote for impeachment after the attack and censured, with Cheney, by the Republican National Committee earlier this month for serving on the select committee, Kinzinger decided in October not to run for another term this year. In his speech, Kinzinger praised the bravery of Ukrainians fighting a Russian invasion and contrasted that to grievances that Trumps wing of the party complains about. Like many other speakers at the conference, he noted several times that Trump had praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin as recently as a few days ago. Kinzinger also argued the former president had abused his supporters patriotism by trying to convince them of the lie that the election he lost had been stolen. When you have a leader of the free world that stands in front of America and convinces half the country that the system is broken, that your vote doesnt count, listen, as patriotic Americans, we can understand why some would say that it is time to overthrow the government by force Which is why leaders words matter so much, Kinzinger said. He then said that while he will be out of Congress in a year, Im not going anywhere, and hes excited he will have more time to work with all of you to make sure that we take back our political system because we deserve that. Those generations of Americans deserve it. But theyve been told that theres no hope, theyre told that theres no opportunity, theyve been told that somebody that doesnt think like you was the enemy. Theyve been told by a former president that Vladimir Putin is a good guy. I mean, I have no doubt that people feel confused. This is why leadership is so important at this moment. Asked outside the ballroom if he was hinting at a presidential race, he said the super PAC he leads, Country First, has been building support and he wants to see where that goes. I am excited about continuing the fight for the country. At some point youve got to look and say, Is the House the best place to do it? I think 12 years in the House is a long time for me. But I dont intend to give up on the fight for the country, he said. Asked if he was definitely not running for president, Kinzinger, who turned 44 on Sunday, replied: Im definitely not announcing Im running for president. Trump has strongly hinted he plans to run in 2024, and he and several Republicans who may run if he doesnt, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, spoke in the past few days at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida. The Principles First conference where Kinzinger spoke was set up as a counterpoint to CPAC, and the insurrection and Trumps dominance of the party were recurring themes. Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified at hearings that led to Trumps first impeachment for withholding aid to Ukraine, was a featured speaker and also got standing ovations. So did Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who testified before the Jan. 6 committee, and was given an award for heroism. Former GOP Reps. Barbara Comstock of Virginia and Joe Walsh of Illinois were part of a debate over whether to form a third party on a panel called Should We Stay or Should We Go? Two potential 2024 candidates who have begun to break from Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, were not at CPAC. But one of the Principles First programs included Alyssa Farah Griffin, Pences former press secretary, interviewing Bill Palatucci, a Christie ally and RNC member who voted against the resolution censuring Cheney and Kinzinger. I belong to the Republican National Committee, not the Trump National Committee, Palatucci said to applause. He said some of his fellow committee members privately told him they agreed with his opposition to the resolution, which said Cheney and Kinzinger were helping Democrats carry out a political vendetta against people who engaged in legitimate political discourse. He urged the audience to talk to the committee members form their states and convince them to speak out. They know theyre wrong. They need more courage, Palatucci said. Love 5 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 The Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, addressing Ghanaians on Sunday has indicated that about 220 Ghanaian students in Ukraine will return to the country soon. "I am pleased to inform you that two hundred and twenty (220) of our compatriots have exited Ukraine and should be with us in Ghana soon. We are earnestly facilitating the safe return of a lot more". According to her, over 460 Ghanaian students are already in transit to neighbouring countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. We hope for better days as the Ministry further engages our diplomatic Missions and Honorary Consulates to extend consular assistance to our compatriots. We are earnestly facilitating the safe return of a lot more...These numbers are bound to increase in a few days as we observe a team spirit being displayed by our people, our citizens and our students. They are reaching out to one other, setting up groups, WhatsApp chats, sharing important phone numbers of Consular officers and other personalities who could be of assistance". Read her full text below Since the Russian Federation and Belarus started military operations in Ukraine on the 24th of February, 2022, hundreds of lives have been lost through bombardments. Normal life in Ukraine has also been disrupted for the rest of its citizens, including for those of our compatriots living in Ukraine. The Government of Ghana remains concerned for the safety and security of our people currently in Ukraine. As you will recall, Ghana, in her capacity as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council had supported calls and efforts to dissuade the Russian Federation from using force to address what it said were its security concerns related to NATO expansion. We encouraged dialogue and peaceful resolution of the differences between Russia and other parties. We also warned of the humanitarian consequences of any conflict. With the security and safety of our compatriots in mind, we actively monitored the massing of over 100, 000 Russian and Belorussian troops on the borders of Ukraine. Like the rest of the world, we accepted the word of Russia that they did not intend to attack Ukraine. On 24th February, 2022, we were stunned by news of the bombardment and invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. I would like to state, at the outset, that Ghana will continue to condemn, unreservedly, this unprovoked attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a United Nations Member State and calls on Russia to withdraw and end the war. Russia bears responsibility for the security and safety of our citizens and we call on her leadership to respect humanitarian law. Government is determined to ensure the security and safety of all our citizens in Ukraine. The ongoing military operations have put the lives of our compatriots in danger and we have called on Russia to end the war and withdraw. Members of the Media, Ladies and gentlemen, GHANAS INTERESTS IN UKRAINE Relations between Ghana and Ukraine have been steady and in 2021, the Government of Ghana granted approval to the government of Ukraine to establish a resident diplomatic mission in Ghana in accordance with article 2 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. Economic and trade exports between Ghana and Ukraine have been quite encouraging as major exports from Ghana include manganese, aluminium ore and cocoa powder, whereas major imports to Ghana from Ukraine included hot-rolled iron bars, raw iron bars and cold-rolled iron. Practical steps were underway to further enhance our relations. However, the current crisis is bound to affect, for now, any meaningful strategic outcomes. EFFECTS OF THE CRISIS ON GHANAIAN NATIONALS IN UKRAINE Members of the Media, Ladies and gentlemen, Following the attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine, the latter closed its airspace to civilian flights. The country is considered a high risk to flight safety due to the use of weapon and military equipment. Also, the European Union (EU) aviation safety agency has warned the risk in flying in airspace near to Ukraines border, including Russia. Ghanaian students like all foreigners including our compatriots in Ukraine have, therefore found themselves in a very precarious situation. Consequently, based on the overall objective of government to ensure the safety of our citizens in the ongoing crisis, directives were immediately issued to five of our relevant Diplomatic Missions in Europe as well as our Honorary consulate in Ukraine to immediately commence steps to evacuate our willing compatriots. The deteriorating military situation in Ukraine directly impacts on the safety and security of Ghanaian nationals, including about 1000 students in that country, 27 of these students are on the government of Ghana scholarships (scholarships secretariat), while the rest are predominantly self sponsored students. Let me state categorically that although most of the students went there on their own, government has a responsibility to all of them to ensure their safety and that we will do. Following the closure of Ukrainian airspace, it had become a challenge to airlift our compatriots from Kiev and other parts of the country, thus, leaving the only viable option of evacuation by land to neighboring countries such as Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic. Consequently, my Ministry collaborated with the Ghana Diplomatic Missions in Bern in Switzerland, Prague in the Czech Republic, Ankara, Turkey, and the Vatican, Holy See, Ghanas Honorary Consuls in Ukraine, Hungary, Romania as well as Ghanaian communities and student unions in Poland, Hungary and Romania to facilitate the evacuation of our nationals after being conveyed from Ukraine by road to the closest borders of the European Countries mentioned earlier. May I, however, add that information received indicates that there are still three cities in Ukraine where students cannot be evacuated from due to the high risk situation identified there, as reported by our Honorary consul. These cities are: Kharkov (hotspot on the way), Sumy (hotspot on the way), and Dnipropetrovsk (locked down). Another challenge which our compatriots are faced with is the fear of crossing at borders close to Russia for obvious reasons. We had requested our Diplomatic mission in Moscow to assist with their passage as it will be unreasonable and dangerous to now start looking for another border to access. Unfortunately, there are reports of incursions at the border called Suny which has posed a challenge for about 85 of our compatriots who sought to exit that side of Ukraine into Russia. STEPS TAKEN Ladies and gentlemen, We can confirm that an unknown number of Ghanaian Students are reported to have left Ukraine a week or so ago following Bern Missions advice as the situation was getting dire. The Ghana Mission to Berne issued the statement below, which is also available on the twitter handle of the Ministry: The Government of Ghana has noted with grave concern the security and safety of our nationals including the over 1000 students in Ukraine following the Russian military operations across in that country. We urge our nationals to limit their movements in public places as they obtain adequate essential goods and remain in their homes or move to government places of shelter. Please be assured that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, this diplomatic mission as well as our honorary consul are directly engaged with the relevant authorities in Ukraine to ensure your safety and security. Furthermore, officials of the Ministry held a meeting with the leadership of the Ghana and Ukrainian NUGS to brainstorm on the way forward including plans of evacuation. A list of our students was compiled to facilitate a Government-facilitated evacuation and this information of a possible evacuation was conveyed to the students through our relevant Diplomatic Missions, Honorary Consul and student union leaders, to prepare them for the exercise. Having assessed the situation, the students commenced movement by road to the various borders where officials of Ghanas relevant Diplomatic Missions and Honorary Consuls are on standby to facilitate their passage into countries such as Romania, Poland and Hungary. We need to appreciate the fat that coordinating evacuations in vast country such as Ukraine with students and Ghanaians spread all over the country comes with difficulties especially with restricted movement due to curfews, lockdowns etc. Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration have held productive meetings with diplomats of the Russian and Turkish Embassies in Accra to discuss the pathway to an incident-free evacuation exercise. Both meetings resulted in an agreement to facilitate passage of our compatriots, should the need arise. Other meetings were held with the officials of the Scholarship Secretariat and a Ghanaian security institution all in a bid to promote multi- stakeholder engagement towards a successful evacuation of our compatriots. The Ministry has requested five European countries bordering Ukraine (Moldova, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) to facilitate easy passage into their countries by our compatriots. Fortunately, the Government of Moldova has officially indicated it willingness to facilitate the passage of Foreign Nationals based on a structured exercise. Steps are being taken to secure the contact numbers of parents or guardians of our students to enable the Ministry engage them as we seek to ensure the safety of our compatriots and allay their fears. CONCRETE OUTCOMES The Ministry has despatched officials from our missions to various borders to assist our compatriots when they cross into neighbouring countries. Due to the effective collaboration with the Hungarian authorities, the Government of Ghana has, secured passage through Hungary, on a visa-free basis for Ghanaian students who are in possession of Ghanaian passports. We are told the Hungarian government is also providing coordinated assistance to enable our nationals reach airports in Budapest or Debrecen. The Government of Ghana is grateful to the Hungarian Government. This effective collaboration has also led to the Romanian Government according a warm reception to our compatriots. As is the case in humanitarian exercises, women and children have been given priority. The Government of Ghana is equally grateful to the Government of Romania for its Philanthropic gesture. Indeed, the goodwill displayed by these friendly nations is a testament to the sound bilateral relations that exist between us and goodwill that Ghana enjoys in the comity of nations. We call in other friendly nations to extend similar assistance to our compatriots. So far, official information indicates the following: As at 12:00hrs GMT today (27th February), information gathered was that about over four hundred and sixty (460) students had left Ukraine enroute to Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic. The students will be received by officials of our Diplomatic Missions, honorary consuls and officials of the Ghana students associations. We are pleased to provide the breakdown of those who have exited Ukraine as follows: 24 have arrived in Bucharest Romanian and our officer on the ground is procuring tickets for them to leave tomorrow enroute to Accra. 48 are being processed at the holding area and another 60 going through border formalities. 38 having crossed into Poland are with our officials. We are currently also making arrangements for those who are willing to be assisted to get on flights. 25 persons enroute to Prague from Slovakia were assisted by the Honorary Consul and will be received on entry by the Mission in Prague. 25 just this morning arrived in Hungary and are being sheltered at the Pentecostal church in Budapest. Eighty-Five (85) of our compatriots are being assisted by our Embassy in Moscow to cross the border town of Suny into Russia which as indicated earlier has posed serious difficulties. Ladies and gentlemen, These numbers are bound to increase in a few days as we observe the team spirit being displayed by our compatriots, reaching out to each other, setting up group WhatsApp chats, sharing important phone numbers of consular officers and other personalities who could be of assistance and the cascading effects of the initiatives. A most gratifying and heart-warming message We are safe now, could not have come a better time. We hope for better days as the Ministry further engages our Diplomatic Missions and honorary consulate to extend consular assistance to our compatriots. Government has also put in place the necessary package to facilitate transportation, accommodation, feeding, medical support, etc to ease any burden on our compatriots. Ladies & Gentlemen, With all the collaborative efforts, I am pleased to inform you that two hundred and twenty (220) of our compatriots have exited Ukraine and should be with us in Ghana soon. We are earnestly facilitating the safe return of a lot more. We wish to use this platform to debunk the unsubstantiated reports, such as one alleging that a bus conveying some Ghanaians to the eastern part of Ukraine was shot at. At such delicate times such as this, let us all endeavour to steer clear of sensationalism and unconfirmed reports that only serve to heighten tensions at these times. Our Diplomatic missions in Bern, Ankara, Prague, Moscow, and the Vatican are working around the clock in a coordinated manner to secure the safety at all times of our citizens and their evacuation. As stated earlier, I have ordered the despatch of officers of some of our Diplomatic Missions to meet with our citizens who are being evacuated to facilitate the processes and handle any outstanding challenges. Together we can do this. I would use this medium to express gratitude to Missions and Honorary Consuls working closely with the Ministry to ensure the desired outcomes, I would also thank all those who have offered various forms of assistance such as religious bodies and student groups, all working together with government in an outstanding demonstration of support for a cause which requires our wholehearted commitment and show of unity of purpose. Thank you all for your attention, I shall now take questions and comments. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Dredge Masters Ghana Limited, a subsidary of the Jospong Group of Companies donated items worth thousands of Ghana Cedis to the general Children's ward, Emergency ward and the Daycare center of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for the upkeep of children at the centres. Speaking at a short ceremony, Deputy Managing Director of Dredge Masters, Samuel Borquaye said it was important for the company to spend the day of love with the children at the hospital since these children have become children of Dredge Masters. On this day of love, Dredge Masters again donated toiletries, chocolates and school stationaries to the children admitted at the childrens ward of the Hospital he said. The gesture, set in commemoration of Valentine's Day, forms part of the company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). On the 25th of August, 2021, Dredge Masters handed over a fully renovated children's ward which was done at the cost of GH1,823,200.41 for the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Speaking on behalf of the hospital, Principal Nursing Officer at the hospital, Agnes Ofosu Boateng thanked the company and assured them that their donation will leave an indelible mark in the hearts of the children. 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. Featured Video The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has condemned the Russian Federations invasion of Ukraine. A statement issued by ECOWAS Commission on Sunday, February 27, 2022, called on the fighting nations to end the war in order to avoid more human casualties, particularly among the civilians. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Currently, the two countries are engaged in fierce battle, with many places being bombarded. Below is a copy of the statement The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is following with great concern the military invasion of the Republic of Ukraine by Russia which has led to human casualties, particularly among civilians. ECOWAS strongly condemns this action and calls for both parties to stop the fighting and to use dialogue to solve their differences in the interest of peace in this region. ECOWAS calls on all parties to ensure the safety of the citizens of all its members states living in Ukraine. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The 15 public universities in the country are expected to resume full academic activities from today following the suspension of the industrial action by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG). This is in spite of the referenda being held across the various branches of the association to ratify or reject the decision of the National Executives Committee (NEC) of the association to suspend the strike, which began on January 10 this year. Per the constitution of UTAG, lecturers are supposed to be back in the classrooms once the strike has been suspended. This is whether or not they start the process to vote against the decision or not. The Secretary of UTAG, Dr Asare Asante-Annor, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that the lecturers would be in the lecture halls and theatres today, especially in institutions that had indicated that lectures would resume on the said day. Some universities have still not come up with when they are supposed to resume, and with those ones, we dont have any control. But all those who have issued statements that lectures would resume on Monday, we would be there, he said. Dr Asante-Annor said the association would meet the government on Wednesday and Thursday to continue the negotiations. Those expected to be at the meeting include Vice-Chancellors Ghana, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Ministry of Education. What we said in our communique is that up to March 4, 2022, is the deadline for the temporary suspension of our strike. We have already started negotiations with the government, and we are going to meet again on Wednesday and Thursday. We are hoping that by then we would have something, he said, indicating further that by Friday if we dont have anything on the table then we would start talking about the strike. Referendums Meanwhile, referenda are being held by the various branches of UTAG for the constituents to ratify or reject the decision of the NEC to suspend the associations industrial action. As of yesterday, seven of the 15 branches in the public universities had voted to state their positions. The University of Education, Winneba (UEW), the University of Ghana (UG), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD), the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), and the CK Tedam University for Development Studies voted against the decision to suspend the strike, while the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) upheld it. At UHAS, 85 of the lecturers voted to end the strike, with 39 against it. During a referendum at the UG last Wednesday, 596 lecturers, representing 82.4 per cent, rejected UTAG NECs decision to suspend the strike, while 127, representing 17.6 per cent, accepted the decision. At the KNUST, 654 voted against the suspension of the strike, with 211 voting in favour of it. The UENR election saw 147 rejecting the suspension, with 36 supporting it, while 64 lecturers rejected the suspension at the CK Tedam UDS, with 35 agreeing to it. Majority A simple majority of the 15 branches can either ratify or reject the decision. In the event of the majority voting against the suspension of the strike, an extraordinary meeting of NEC is held after five days to come out with the date for the next strike. KNUST From Kumasi, Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor reports that lectures have resumed at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The local UTAG chairman at KNUST, Prof Otchere Addai Mensah, told the Daily Graphic that it was based on the announcement by NEC to suspend the strike that most of the universities had written to students and faculties for the commencement of lectures. Cape Coast Edith Mensah reports from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) that the Executive Committee of the Academic Board has set today as the start date for the semester's academic activities. The Director of Public Affairs at UCC, Major Kofi Baah-Bentum, told the Daily Graphic that the decision followed an emergency meeting convened last Wednesday in response to the national executives of UTAG calling off the strike last Monday. Suspension Following overwhelming appeals from student groups, the public, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education and eminent leaders, UTAG temporarily suspended its seven-week-old strike. Addressing a press briefing last Tuesday, the President of UTAG, Professor Solomon Nunoo, said the NEC of UTAG, resolved to heed the pleas and suspended the strike till March 4, 2022, to enable it to engage with the government over the poor conditions of service of university teachers. The Labour Division of the Accra High Court will, on March 9, 2022, directed UTAG to resume work and avail itself for negotiation on the basis that the strike was in violation of the law and procedures for embarking on strikes. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video It has emerged that a freelance journalist who was picked up by operatives of the National Security at the Law Court complex was arrested on the orders of the Accra High Court for allegedly taking videos of court proceedings. Sacut Amenga-Etego was arrested last Thursday [February 24, 2022] after he allegedly took videos of court proceedings involving the trial of some five persons alleged to have engaged in illegal gold trade. Record of proceedings of the case on Thursday, February 24, 2022 showed that when the presiding judge, Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, became aware of the issue, she ordered operatives of the National Security, who came to the courtroom with the accused persons, to detain Amengo-Etego. The suspect is ordered to provide the National Security Operatives access to the phone by way of providing the password to the phone. The suspect should be in the custody of the National Security operatives pending the outcome of the investigations till the next adjourned date, the High Court ordered. He is to re-appear on March 14, 2022, the next adjourned date for the case. National Security statement Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Security has issued a press statement, calling on the public to disregard a media publication that Amenga-Etego, was arrested to silence him. It had been reported that Amenga-Etego was arrested because he was following up on an alleged extortion case against some National Security Operatives. But according to the Ministry of National Security, the publication was false and should be disregarded. Contrary to the content publication of the publication, the journalist was arrested based on an order of a High Court for filming and /or videoing the courts proceedings without authority, the statement said. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says the Electoral Commission might declare the Assin North seat vacant if the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin refuses to do so. The Member of Parliament(MP) for Assin North constituency, James Gyakye Quayson is currently facing a legal battle over his nationality which can affect his seat in Parliament. A Cape Coast High Court in July 2021, ruled that Mr Quayson cannot hold himself as MP since he held dual citizenship when he filed to contest the polls. Subsequently, the Supreme Court has ordered a substituted service on James Gyakye Quayson following the fact that all efforts to serve him had proved futile. Reacting to this in an interview on Peace FM morning show 'Kokrokoo', Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu said: "Going forward we'll see if he (Speaker) will declare the seat vacant or not; if he doesn't I think in the court processes, they will find a way to get the information to the Electoral Commission to declare the seat vacant for the necessary proceedings to go on," he said. Watch 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. Featured Video ANKARA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces killed four members of Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, Turkey's Defense Ministry said on Monday. The YPG members were "neutralized" after they opened "harassing fire and attempted to infiltrate" into Turkey's Operation Peace Spring zone in northern Syria, the ministry tweeted. Meanwhile, a Turkish airstrike "neutralized" one member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Operation Claw Tiger region in northern Iraq, the ministry said in the same tweet. Turkish authorities often use the term "neutralized" to imply "terrorists" killed, wounded, or captured in security operations. Turkey carried out a series of offensives in northern Iraq for many years. In June last year, its military launched a new ground offensive dubbed "Operation Claw Tiger" targeting the PKK positions in Sinjar, Qandil, Karacak, Zap, Avasin-Basyan and Hakurk regions. The PKK has been using Iraq's Qandil Mountains as its main base for years. 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. Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the PKK group. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades, claiming more than 40,000 lives. Some sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are refusing to visit their various constituencies outside Accra over Electronic Transaction Levy commonly called E-levy. The MPs fear the E-levy will be tabled in their absence hence their decision to remain in Accra in order to rush to Parliament to vote against the electronic transaction levy whenever it is tabled in the House. Interestingly, this has given room to some members of the party who want to contest 2024 NDC parliamentary primaries to begin campaigning against the sitting MPs in their constituencies. However, the MPs who are in dilemma of fear of losing their seats have raised issues with the party hierarchy over the conduct of their members in their constituencies for necessary action. The NDC, is therefore restraining members who are nursing the ambition to contest the upcoming NDC parliamentary elections to launch a vile campaign against the incumbent. The party has therefore threatened to disqualify any member who embark on such targent, saying that the continuous absence of the MPs is in the interest of the party and the nation. A statement dated Friday February 25, 2022 issued by NDC and signed by Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the party said It has come to the attention of the National Executive Committee of the NDC that some members who intend to contest for the party 2024 parliamentary primaries are going rounds constituencies of sitting MPs instigating hatred and malice against them. Theae individuals amongst other things are alleging that some of our MPs have abandoned the constituencies and prefer to stay in Accra. The party wish to take this opportunity to state clear and unambiguous terms that the works of Members of Parliament involve passing of legislations, oversight responsibilities over the executive and representing the constituents in Parliament. The party wishes to inform its numerous members and various supporters across the country its has become necessary for all our 137 members of Parliament to be present in Parliament at all times to perform certain duties that are extremely important to the nation and their constituencies hence their unavailability to be in their constituencies at regular times as used to be the case. The party has warned that since the time for campaign activities has not yet started thereby anybody who starts campaign will be dealt with. Members are to take note that the opening period for campiagn activities for the partys internal elections are not yet due. Any member who jumps the gun could face sanctions including the possibility of being disqualified from contesting when the time comes. All party members are advised henceforth to desist from this and any other activity that will bring the name of the party into disrepute, the statement said. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video There was drama at the Ashaiman District Court on Monday, when #FixTheCountry Movement convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, who has been charged with treason felony was unceremoniously thrown out of court and whisked away by Police personnel. The magistrate, Eleanor Barnes Botwe, ordered the removal of the embattled youth activist from the room when the latter sought to engage her in a banter. The furore started after the E-Levy "coup" advocate's lawyers challenged the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case. His lawyers had questioned the court's authority saying whether this court has the jurisdiction to determine the personal liberty of my client, for there is no point in bringing the prisoner to a court for his liberty to be decided when that court has no capacity or jurisdiction to determine this. The magistrate had explained to Mr. Barker-Vormawor and his legal team that she had the authority to remand the accused person and that the appropriate place for them to request bail is the High Court. But scarcely had the judge offered her explanation when Mr. Barker-Vormawor interjected saying we have not asked for bail. This is a kangaroo process. The bench has not covered itself in glory. I am not going to glorify a sham. Not even repeated admonishing from the Judge to remain silent went heeded, compeliing the magistrate to ask the Police to forcefully escort the accused from her presence. Background Oliver Barker-Vormawor was charged with a treason felony on February 14, 2022 after being accused of threatening to stage a coup in Ghana. If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army! he posted on Facebook on February 9. He was subsequently arrested on Friday, February 11, 2022 as the Police argued that the post contains 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. His lawyers led by Anthony Akoto Ampaw, on February 14, urged the court to grant him bail. 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. Featured Video A favored afternoon activity for family and friends, Sunday brunch at Four Points by Sheraton Phuket Patong Beach Resort is back on March 6, 2022. Bringing the taste of the worlds weekend brunch scene to Patong beach with live saxophone and cool DJ vibes. Enjoy contemporary and classic cuisine combining the freshest ingredients. From local delicacies to a wonderful selection of your international favorites in a stylish display, enjoy amazing char-grilled meats, freshly caught seafood grilled, seafood on ice. Highlights include the amazing Phuket lobster and Canadian lobster as well as a sushi & sashimi bar. Indulge with a great selection of cold cuts and cheeses, followed by a delicious dessert display and a chocolate fountain. Designed with its rustic, botanical ambience and strikingly modern look, Sears & Co sets the tone with its relaxing vibe with green and dark botanical prints blended well with crafted woodwork, wicker banquettes and marble-topped tables. The front terrace with its lush greenery provides beautiful outdoor seating for patrons to enjoy views of the Andaman Sea and Patong Beach, the perfect location for family and friends reunions in an unpretentious atmosphere. Furthermore, little ones ae invited to meet Loma, our resort mascot and enjoy fun filled afternoon at Little Sea Gypsies Kids Club, a bright and inviting indoor space with toys, games, a PlayStation corner and kitchen role-play area, along with a large outdoor playground so mom and dad can enjoy a well-deserved weekend off. Kids can also make a splash in the childrens pool or cross the road and head to the beach to make sandcastles with their parents and paddle in the crystal clear waters of the Andaman Sea. Brunch starts from THB 2,300 net per person with free-flow drinks. Special offer Buy 4 Pay 3 Promotion is available from March to May. Book your spot now and choose the date later! Besides, Hungry Hub fans and bookers will receive exclusive items, such as a glass of Prosecco, Phuket lobster in your style, flat iron steak with foie gras etc. Check it out! Want to stay over? Make the most of a weekend escape in Phuket with the Sunday Bruncation package. Enjoy a shot break and join the international favorites with Sunday Brunch for two. Rates start from only THB 5,700+++ per room per night. Guest can visit www.searsandcophuket.com or contact the hotel directly at 076 645 999 and fb.phuket@fourpoints.com for more information and table reservation. A composite image of the Western hemisphere of the Earth. Credit: NASA Oxygen is critical for life, but what promoted the first rise in atmospheric oxygen on Earth and precisely when it happened have been challenging scientists for the last 70 years. Most scientific research suggests oxygen rose rapidly about 2.4 billion years ago and then fell just as abruptly over the next 200 million years. This event is called the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE). A new international study led by a team of geologists from the University of Tasmania, in collaboration with scientists from the Carnegie Institute in Washington and the University of Toronto, offers an alternative theory. The researchers propose that the rise of atmospheric oxygen was a very slow process between 2.8 and 1.8 billion years ago related to the collision of continental plates during supercontinent cycles and the evolution of cyanobacteria in our oceans. Atmospheric oxygen rose over a period of a billion years, with a peak close to present-day levels of 21% oxygen around 1.9 billion years ago. Oxygen then declined for a further period, known as the boring billion. The research demonstrated that the evolution of minerals in the Earth's crust correlates with the rise of oxygen due to the presence of new oxidized metal species that only became available because of the rise in oxygen. The new theory uses measurements on the redox chemistry of minerals that form in rocks and on the sea floor through geological time. University of Tasmania geologist Professor Ross Large said the results are based on a wealth of data from a range of minerals and isotopes. The teams at the University of Tasmania, Toronto and Carnegie institute have built massive databases on the chemistry of a wide range of minerals, involving tens of thousands of analyses collected over the last 15 years. "The worldwide trend toward data-driven research is increasing because our technology is rapidly changing, enabling thousands of analyses to be acquired," Professor Large explained. "Much previous research on this topic has depended on limited analyses, supported by computer models to fill in the data and attempt to predict outcomes. This has commonly led to 'straight line' interpretations that have ignored the Earth's up-and-down cycles through geological time." Professor Large says the first rise in oxygen was accompanied by a decline in carbon dioxide and methane, producing ocean and atmosphere conditions more amenable to life. "The old Archean oceans prior to 2.6 billion years ago were enriched in toxic elements such as arsenic and mercury, and very inhospitable to life as we know it," Professor Large said. "Our research shows that with increasing oxygen, the chemistry of the ocean changed, toxic elements declined and elements important to life such as phosphorus, molybdenum and zinc became more available to stimulate evolutionary change." Professor Large said these major changes were brought on by the first development of continental drift related to the supercontinent cycles, which describe the assembly, duration and fragmentation of the largest land masses on Earth. "Mountain building during collision of plates in the first phase of each supercontinent cycle led to erosion of nutrients to the oceans, stimulating life and release of oxygen to the atmosphere," Professor Large explained. "We propose that two phases of mountain building helped drive the rise in oxygen, production of new minerals and evolution of early life. The first occurred around 2.8 billion years ago with the formation of the supercontinent Kenorland, and the second around 2.1 billion years ago, which formed the supercontinent Nuna." The third oxygen cycle started about a billion years ago, and from then on the cycles increased in frequency from about 200 million years apart down to 60 million years apart. Previous research by the team has shown that each oxygen cycle ended with a mass extinction but was rapidly followed by an explosion in evolution. Contrary to some suggestions, Professor Large does not consider we are heading into another mass extinction. He said that past mass extinctions involved carbon dioxide rising to greater than 4000 parts per million (ppm), compared to about 300 ppm today, and oxygen dropping well below 10% and possibly as low as 5%, compared with 21% today. He suggests that based on Earth cycles, the next mass extinction is about 30 million years away. Explore further Supermountains controlled the evolution of life on Earth More information: Ross R. Large et al, Evidence that the GOE was a prolonged event with a peak around 1900 Ma, Geosystems and Geoenvironment (2022). Ross R. Large et al, Evidence that the GOE was a prolonged event with a peak around 1900 Ma,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.geogeo.2022.100036 Credit: CC0 Public Domain PG&E Corp. spent nearly $4.9 billion last year to prevent wildfiresand still wound up responsible for the second-largest fire in California history. This year it plans to raise its wildfire safety budget to almost $6 billion. California's largest utility filed its 2022 "wildfire mitigation plan" with state regulators Friday, offering a blueprint for how it intends to reduce risk at a time of climate change and drought. The budget for 2022 is expected to hit $5.96 billion. Perhaps its most ambitious initiative is an accelerated effort to bury electricity lines underground in the most fire-prone areas of its service territory. Pacific Gas and Electric launched the multi-year project last July, shortly after its equipment ignited the Dixie fire. The Dixie fire burned 963,000 acres and destroyed much of the small Plumas County community of Greenville. The fire began when a tree made contact with a PG&E power pole in the Feather River Canyon. "PG&E has taken a stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop, and our wildfire mitigation plan for 2022 details the work we are doing right now to make that stand a reality," said Chief Executive Patti Poppe in a prepared statement. California's major utilities have to file annual wildfire plans with the Public Utilities Commission and a new agency called the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety. Wildfire damages drove PG&E into bankruptcy in early 2019, and the company remains dogged by wildfire risks nearly two years after it completed the bankruptcy case. Damages from three major fires in the past two yearsKincade in Sonoma County, Zogg in Shasta County and Dixieare expected to total around $2 billion. Plus there's the company's criminal liability. Sonoma prosecutors have been negotiating a possible settlement with PG&E over criminal charges filed in the Kincade fire, which burned in October 2019. Criminal charges are pending in the Zogg fire, which killed four people. Meanwhile, prosecutors in multiple counties, along with the U.S. Justice Department, are investigating the possibility of criminal charges in the Dixie fire. The utility also plans to expand its controversial "enhanced powerline safety settings" program, which began soon after the Dixie fire erupted. The program amps up the settings on PG&E's circuit breakers in hazardous areas during fire season, instantly shutting off power when PG&E's equipment comes into contact with trees, animals or other things that could start a fire. Unlike the company's public safety power outages, which come with 48-hour advance notice, the circuit-breaker blackouts occur without warning. The circuit breakers triggered about 600 blackouts last summer, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers, earning PG&E a rebuke from the Public Utilities Commission. But PG&E says the new system prevented a slew of blazes last year, and argues that if it had been in effect earlier it would have kept the Dixie fire from starting. This year, it will increase the number of affected circuit breakers, although it says it has fine-tuned the system so blackouts wouldn't spread as far and won't last as long. PG&E is also deploying more high-tech equipment this year to detect fire hazards, including 98 high-definition cameras and 100 remote weather stations. It will also continue its "enhanced vegetation management" work to aggressively trim and remove trees that could brush against its equipment. The company said the increased spending has already been factored into PG&E's proposed rate hike, which was filed last June with the Public Utilities Commission. As a result, the 2022 wildfire plan won't increase the amount of money PG&E is proposing to charge customers. In the rate case, the utility would increase residential customers' bills about 5% a year through 2026. Explore further California firm to bury 10,000 miles of power lines to stop wildfires 2022 The Sacramento Bee. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Bruce McDougal watches embers fly over his property as the Bond Fire burns through the Silverado community in Orange County, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2020. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger, File Deadly with extreme weather now, climate change is about to get so much worse. It is likely going to make the world sicker, hungrier, poorer, gloomier and way more dangerous in the next 18 years with an "unavoidable" increase in risks, a new United Nations science report says. And after that watch out. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said Monday that if human-caused global warming isn't limited to just another couple tenths of a degree, an Earth now struck regularly by deadly heat, fires, floods and drought in future decades will degrade in 127 ways, with some being "potentially irreversible." "The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health," says the major report designed to guide world leaders in their efforts to curb climate change. Delaying cuts in heat-trapping carbon emissions and waiting on adapting to warming's impacts, it warns, "will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all." Today's children who may still be alive in the year 2100 are going to experience four times more climate extremes than they do now even with only a few more tenths of a degree of warming over today's heat. But if temperatures increase nearly 2 more degrees Celsius from now (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) they would feel five times the floods, storms, drought and heat waves, according to the collection of scientists at the IPCC. Mohamed Mohamud, a ranger from the Sabuli Wildlife Conservancy, looks at the carcass of a giraffe that died of hunger near Matana Village, Wajir County, Kenya, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File Already at least 3.3 billion people's daily lives "are highly vulnerable to climate change" and 15 times more likely to die from extreme weather, the report says. Large numbers of people are being displaced by worsening weather extremes. And the world's poor are being hit by far the hardest, it says. More people are going to die each year from heat waves, diseases, extreme weather, air pollution and starvation because of global warming, the report says. Just how many people die depends on how much heat-trapping gas from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas gets spewed into the air and how the world adapts to an ever-hotter world, scientists say. "Climate change is killing people," said co-author Helen Adams of King's College London. "Yes, things are bad, but actually the future depends on us, not the climate." Rangers from the Sabuli Wildlife Conservancy supply water from a tanker for wild animals in the conservancy in Wajir County, Kenya, Oct. 26, 2021. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File With every tenth of a degree of warming, many more people die from heat stress, heart and lung problems from heat and air pollution, infectious diseases, illnesses from mosquitoes and starvation, the authors say. The report lists mounting dangers to people, plants, animals, ecosystems and economies, with people at risk in the millions and billions and potential damages in the trillions of dollars. The report highlights people being displaced from homes, places becoming uninhabitable, the number of species dwindling, coral disappearing, ice shrinking and rising and increasingly oxygen-depleted and acidic oceans. Some of these risks can still be prevented or lessened with prompt action. "Today's IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. "With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change." Shayanne Summers holds her dog, Toph, while wrapped in a blanket after several days of staying in a tent at an evacuation center at the Milwaukie-Portland Elks Lodge, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020, in Oak Grove, Ore. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/John Locher, File The panel of more than 200 scientists puts out a series of these massive reports every five to seven years, with this one, the second of the series, devoted to how climate change affects people and the planet. Last August the science panel published a report on the latest climate science and projections for future warming, branded "code red" by the United Nations. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of The Nature Conservancy, who wasn't part of the latest report, calls it the "Your House is on Fire" report. "There's real existential threats," report co-chair Debra Roberts of South Africa told The Associated Press. Since the last version of this impacts panel's report in 2014, "all the risks are coming at us faster than we thought before," said report co-author Maarten van Aalst, a climate scientist for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, mentioning floods, droughts and storms. "More of it will get really bad much sooner than we thought before." Homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021, in Jean Lafitte, La. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File "Every bit of warming matters. The longer you wait... the more you will pay later," said report co-chair Hans-Otto Poertner of Germany told the AP in an interview. Since 2008, weather disasters have forced about 20 million people a year out of their homes as climate change refugees, with the future looking even grimmer in some places, according to the report. By 2050, a billion people will face coastal flooding risk from rising seas, the report says. More people will be forced out of their homes from weather disasters, especially flooding, sea level rise and tropical cyclones. "Some regions that are presently densely populated will become unsafe or uninhabitable," the report says. And it says that small islands face that "overarching significant risk" of no longer being livable. And eventually in some places it will become too hot for people to work outdoor, which will be a problem for raising crops, said report co-author Rachel Bezner Kerr of Cornell University. Houses lay between the Senegal river, top, and the Atlantic Ocean beach that has been affected by erosion in Saint Louis, Senegal, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Leo Correa, File Some of these climate change harms have been warned about for years, even decades, and have become reality, now written in the past and present tenses. Others are still warnings about future woes fast approaching. Monday's 36-page summary, condensed from more than 1,000 pages of analysis, was written by scientists and then edited line-by-line by governments and scientists with that final summary approved by consensus Saturday during a two-week virtual conference that occurred while Russia invaded Ukraine. In the final hours, a Ukrainian delegate made an impassioned plea that the war not overshadow the climate change report, some authors said. "Climate change isn't lurking around the corner waiting to pounce. It's already upon us raining down blows on billions of people," United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen said. A youngster, with an eye drawn on her hand to show she is watching and 1.5 for countries to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, takes part in a Fridays for Future climate protest inside a plenary corridor at the SEC (Scottish Event Campus) venue for the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File Study authors said much of Africa, parts of Central and South America, small islands and South Asia are "hot spots" for the worst harm to people and ecosystems. The report has a new emphasis on the mental health toll climate change has taken, both on people displaced or harmed by extreme weather and on people's anxiety level, especially youths worried about their futures. If the world warms just another nine-tenths of a degree Celsius from now (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the amount of land burned by wildfires globally will increase by 35%, the report says. And the rest of the living world won't be spared either, with the report warning of climate change extinctions. Already two speciesthe mammal Bramble Cays melomys in Australia and Central America's golden toadhave gone extinct because of climate change. Roots are photographed near the old village of Aceredo in northwestern Spain, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File "The risk of extinction in biodiversity hotspots increases by about tenfold as warming rises from 1.5 to 3 degrees Celsius," said Poertner, the German co-chair. With just one more degree Celsius of warming (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), 20% of the world's species will become endangered, representing "severe biodiversity risk," the report says. One of the biggest changes in the report from previous versions emphasizes how crucial a key temperature threshold is scientifically and for people and how exceeding it, even if only a few decades, can cause permanent damage. In the 2015 Paris agreement, the world adopted a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, which was then further cemented when a special IPCC report in 2018 showed massive harms beyond that 1.5 degree mark. This new report found that threshold is even more important, but scientists do note that the world does not fall off a cliff after that mark. Diver Everton Simpson plants staghorn harvested from a coral nursery inside the the White River Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Simpson uses bits of fishing line to tie clusters of staghorn coral onto rocky outcroppings, a temporary binding until the coral's limestone skeleton grows and fixes itself onto the rock. The goal is to jumpstart the natural growth of a coral reef. Credit: AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File Because the world is already 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial time and emissions are still rising, not falling, the vast majority of future scenarios show temperatures are on track to shoot well above 1.5 degrees, hitting the mark in the 2030s. So some officials began to count on going over that threshold and coming back down a decade or so later with still-to-be-proven expensive technology to suck carbon out of the air or by some other means. Monday's report says that if that overshoot happens, "then many human and natural systems will face additional severe risks... some will be irreversible, even if global warming is reduced." Countries need to do more to adapt to warming, with rich countries needing to do a better job giving financial help to poorer nations to adjust to climate change caused mostly by the developing world, the report says. But there are limits to what adapting can accomplish and sometimeslike in the case of sea wallstechnical fixes to lessen harms in one place will make it worse somewhere else, the report says. Yvonne Lacobon hugs a dog beside Tommy Williams at Williams' home damaged by Hurricane Ida, Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021, in Dulac, La. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/John Locher, File Climate activists take part in a demonstration outside the venue of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Scott Heppell, File Jungle stands next to an area that was burnt due to wildfires near Porto Velho, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano, File Fog covers the landscape in a flooded area near the Ebro River in the small village of Alcala de Ebro, Aragon province, northern Spain, Dec. 13, 2021. The United Nations on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, released a new report on climate change. Credit: AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, File "This has to be a whole of society response. Not a single individual, community, city or government can opt out," South African co-chair Roberts said in a Monday press conference. "While action is happening, it's not rapid enough and it's uneven." Amid all the danger signs, experts said they want to shy away from doom. "Fear is not a good advisor and never is," German vice chancellor and minister for climate and economy Robert Habeck told the AP. "Hope is the right one." Hayhoe said what's needed is realism, action and hope. "It's really bad and there's a good chance that it will get worse," Hayhoe said. "But if we do everything we can, that will make a difference. Our actions will make the difference... That's what hope is." Explore further UN report to lay bare harrowing scale of climate impacts 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Thomas Bernauer contributed to the latest IPCC report on adaptation to climate change. He sees nature and good governance as our most important resources for coping with the effects of climate change: Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented the second section of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on the state of climate research. The first section released last August described the physical basis, causes and extent of climate change (see blog post by Sonja Seneviratne); while the second section deals with the consequences of global warming for the environment and humanity. I contributed to the new climate report as one of the lead authors of Working Group II. This report is the result of an impressive process: several hundred scientists assessed thousands of scientific publications on the consequences of climate change and on approaches for adapting to it and summarized the current state of knowledgemainly via video conferencesin this report. Today, the essence of the findings is presented to policymakers and the public. The message is clear: climate change poses a threat to human well-being and the health of our planet. Adaptation is urgently required. And it is possible. I consider the following findings to be particularly important. The consequences of climate change are everywhere Climate change already has impacts worldwideour planet has warmed by a global average of about 1.1C since 1880. The consequences can be found in practically all areas of the environment and life, and are in some cases severe. All geographical areas are affected, from the tropics to the poles, sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs, forests on land and seagrass meadows and algae forests of the oceans, and also sectors such as water and energy, agriculture, human health and nutrition. Even if humanity succeeds in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and limiting the temperature increase to 1.5C, far-reaching risks and damage to environmental systems and people can no longer be avoided in many places. The greatest climate risks are faced by people and the natural environment in regions with the highest temperature increases, and on coasts, along rivers, and in mountain regions. However, this new report does not merely list risks and damage. Rather it focuses on solutions in terms of adaptation to climate change. The adaptation gap is growing It is encouraging that many adaptation activities have recently been initiated, particularly in the areas of flood protection, irrigation and water supply. However, the geographical distribution of these measures is very uneven. In many countries and regions, adaptation processes are already reaching their limits. A north-south divide is becoming increasingly apparent: in poor and poorly governed countries of the Global South, the "adaptation gap," the gap between increasing climate risk and the measures taken by society to limit them, is growing much faster. In the global hotspots, 3.3 billion people are considered to be particularly at risk from climate change. Their vulnerability is heightened by overlapping problems such as poverty, weak, unstable or corrupt governments, lack of trust in authorities, and restricted access to energy, water, sanitation and health services, particularly in informal settlements. In such areas, the number of deaths caused by floods, droughts and storms has been up to 15 times higher than in richer countries over the past decade, reflecting the prevailing climate injustice. Our strongest weapons So how can humanity adapt successfully to climate change? The report provides clear answers to this question: Nature is one of our most important allies. Stronger nature conservation can help enormously in adapting to climate change risks we are unable to prevent. A healthy planet is essential: it provides us with food and water, secures the livelihoods of people and helps to reduce the risk of disasters. Second, I consider climate-resilient development to be particularly important. The term links climate change adaptation and mitigation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alongside infrastructure such as flood protection, resilience also calls for the climate-compatible restructuring of agricultural, food and health systems. And finally, good governance: well-managed governments that function effectively in acute crises will be a central resource. Good governance helps to fight poverty, corruption and social inequalityand is a fundamental prerequisite for overcoming the adaptation gap. Rapid social change is needed As a political scientist, I cannot emphasize often enough that climate adaptation is more than just new infrastructure. It is true that successful adaptation will take money, steel and concretebut technology alone will not fix it. It is a task for society as a whole, in which political and social institutions and the commitment of us all play a central role. For all societies, and for Switzerland in particular, which is at risk to be heavily affected by climate change, time is a hugely important factor. Many adaptation processes require long-term investment and structural change. The longer emissions continue to rise unchecked, the less room for maneuver and the shorter our window of opportunity to limit unavoidable climate risks. Explore further Adaptation key to protect vulnerable from climate change More information: IPCC Climate Change (2022): Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6): Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. IPCC Climate Change (2022): Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6): Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-asses rt-working-group-ii/ Chronosequences of mining restoration where invertebrate samples were collected. Restoration sites shown with the number of years restoration from 1 to 22 years. Reference sites shown below. JF, Jarrah Forest; PB, Pilbara; SCP, Swan Coastal Plain. Credit: DOI: 10.1111/mec.16375 Curtin University researchers have identified a "game-changing" way of protecting native animalsincluding pygmy possums, western bush wallabies and Australian painted-snipe birdsusing sophisticated DNA technology. Two research papers, published in Molecular Ecology and Biodiversity and Conservation, examined animals and insects across multiple locations including Western Australia's Pilbara region, Perth region and the Jarrah Forest to find out where the use of DNA metabarcodinga rapid DNA sequencing toolwould be most effective to monitor restoration. Lead researcher Dr. Mieke van der Heyde, from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said DNA metabarcoding was a game-changer for monitoring the recovery of insects and animals because it could save time, money and resources. "Fauna monitoring is often overlooked in restoration efforts because there is an assumption that as long as there are plants, everything else will come back on its ownand this isn't necessarily true," Dr. van der Heyde said. "The problem is that monitoring fauna is hard, often requiring teams of experts in remote locations for weeks at a time, making it time-consuming and expensive. Tracking down the expertise to identify all the animals can also be difficult." Dr. van der Hyde said DNA metabarcoding has a per sample cost rather than a per specimen cost, so it can be a cost-effective alternative to monitoring fauna recovery in diverse ecosystems but warned that it is not a 'one-size-fits-all' method. "We found DNA metabarcoding can show the recovery of insects and plants in woodlands and forests, but not in the arid Pilbara region; and ground-dwelling insects give a better restoration signal than flying insects because they don't travel as far," Dr. van der Heyde said. "In the arid Pilbara, we could tell the difference between restoration and reference sites using the animals detected from pooled poo samples. The lack of rain makes the droppings last longer and the lack of vegetation makes it much easier to see, especially bird droppings," Dr. van der Heyde said. "Unfortunately, DNA metabarcoding can only identify animals and insects if we have reference DNA for them in our database. To improve this tool, we need to DNA barcode many more animals if we want accurate, species-level identifications from DNA. "This technology can drastically improve conservation and restoration efforts for the many species under threat from loss of habitat and changing climates." The papers are titled "Evaluating restoration trajectories using DNA metabarcoding of ground-dwelling and airborne invertebrates and associated plant communities" and "Scat DNA provides important data for effective monitoring of mammal and bird biodiversity." More information: Mieke Heyde et al, Evaluating restoration trajectories using DNA metabarcoding of grounddwelling and airborne invertebrates and associated plant communities, Molecular Ecology (2022). Mieke Heyde et al, Evaluating restoration trajectories using DNA metabarcoding of grounddwelling and airborne invertebrates and associated plant communities,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/mec.16375 M. van der Heyde et al, Scat DNA provides important data for effective monitoring of mammal and bird biodiversity, Biodiversity and Conservation (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s10531-021-02264-x Journal information: Molecular Ecology This illustration made available by the European Space Agency shows the European-Russian ExoMars rover. On Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, the ESA said the planned launch of a joint mission with Russia to Mars this year is now "very unlikely" due to sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine. Credit: European Space Agency via AP The launch of a joint Europe-Russia mission to Mars this year is now "very unlikely" due to sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine, the European Space Agency said Monday. The agency said after a meeting of officials from its 22 member states that it was assessing the consequences of sanctions for its cooperation with Russia's Roscosmos space agency. "The sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely," for the Europe-Russia ExoMars rover mission, the agency said in a statement. The launch was already postponed from 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak and technical problems. It was due to blast off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan in September using a Russian Proton rocket. Postponing a launch often means waiting for months or years until another window opens when planets are in the right alignment. The goal is to put Europe's first rover on the red planet to help determine whether there has ever been life on Mars. A test rover launched in 2016 crash-landed at Mars, highlighting the difficulty of putting a spacecraft on the planet. On Saturday, Roscosmos said it was pulling its personnel from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Several European satellites have been launched with Russian rockets from there, and more were scheduled over the coming year. French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this month that Europe needs a bolder space policy, arguing that its sovereignty is at stake if it falls behind rival powers in a key field for technology, science and military competitiveness. While Europe has its own rockets to put satellites into orbit, it relies on Russian and American partners to send astronauts into space. NASA's head of space operations said Monday that the agency is operating the International Space Station with Russian support and input, as usual. Flight control teams are still communicating, training, working together, Kathy Lueders said. "Obviously, we understand the global situation, where it is, but as a joint team, these teams are operating together," she said. The U.S. and Russia are the key operators of the space station, which is a partnership of five space agencies. Four Americans, two Russians and a German are currently at the station. "We've operated in these kind of situations before and both sides always operated very professionally," Lueders said. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is scheduled to return to Earth at the end of March with two Russians in a Soyuz capsule, and Lueders said that is still on track. Russia's capsules were the only way to and from the space after NASA's shuttles retired in 2011 and until SpaceX's first crew flight in 2020. Explore further Russian Soyuz rocket launches 34 new UK satellites 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The U.S. fusion community has actively called for an immediate design effort for a cost-effective pilot plant to generate electricity in the 2040s. This effort and related community recommendations are documented in the 2020 report of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee entitled "Powering the Future: Fusion & Plasmas." Now Jon Menard, deputy director for research at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has led a detailed study of the scientific and engineering challenges that such a pilot plant will face. The study also defines performance requirements for a complementary research facility that the community is proposing to close key gaps to a pilot plant. 'Rigor and insight' "Jon has driven forward ideas to bring down the cost and scale of fusion with his usual rigor and insight," said PPPL Director Steve Cowley. "As we accelerate the delivery of fusion this work becomes more and more important." The dedicated research facility would have a sustained high-power density (SHPD) capability to address the challenges of integrating the pilot plant core and the edge exhaust region. This task has been identified by the community and embodied in a proposed new tokamak facility named the "EXhaust and Confinement Integration Tokamak Experiment (EXCITE)." A SHPD-EXCITE device could complement and inform the pilot plant and smooth its operation, said Menard, lead author of a comprehensive analysis in the journal Nuclear Fusion that projects the performance of varied pilot plant designs. "The paper wants to make an apples-to-apples comparison between all options," he said. The analysis focuses on fusion facilities called "tokamaks" ranging from compact cored-apple shaped devices like the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) at PPPL to broader and more widely used doughnut-shaped facilities. The research device would serve as a satellite to test ideas during the pilot plant's construction and operation. "It would be overlapping," Menard said. Vast energy Fusion, which powers the sun and stars, produces vast energy by combining light elements in the form of plasma, the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions. Scientists around the world are seeking to recreate this power for a safe and clean source of energy to produce the world's electricity. The proposed pilot plant will need to address the delivery of heat from the high-density plasma core to the exhaust region at the tokamak's edge. "In a high-power compact pilot plant, this heat would be significant and we want to make sure we understand how to handle it properly," Menard said. PPPL research has produced differing models of the impact of the heat. "No one knows for sure which model is correct and there's as yet no machine to test this on," Menard said. "So the community has proposed that a research facility be built to investigate these key questions." Other topics to be developed in the compact pilot plant include the need to integrate a largely self-driven plasma current with the high-density plasma core. Today's tokamaks use a central magnet called a "solenoid" to produce the current, which creates a magnetic field to bottle up the plasma so that fusion reactions can take place. However, there would be less room for a solenoid in the compact pilot plant the community envisions, producing the need for an internally generated plasma current. The design and construction of the EXCITE facility will not necessarily delay the arrival of the pilot plant so long as both facilities are flexible enough. "These facilities should not be completely serial but should be overlapping and their roles should be well-defined," Menard said. "The smaller tokamak could be used to test ideas faster and more cheaply without dealing with the nuclear environment that the pilot plant would focus on." Studies for ITER Studies underway for ITER, which is being built to demonstrate the feasibility of harvesting fusion power, provide examples of collaborative research relationships, Menard said. "The entire world tokamak program is continuing to do R&D to figure out how best to operate ITER," he said. The international tokamak is scheduled to start operating in 2025 and to move to full power operations in 2035. Menard noted that a particularly relevant example of collaboration is the implementation of the fully metallic "ITER-like wall" in the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in the United Kingdom over a decade ago to learn how to operate ITER with such a wall prior to ITER operation. JET recently achieved a record fusion energy with the ITER-like wall after extensive experimentation and operational development that should ultimately accelerate research on ITER. Meanwhile, the U.S. fusion community seeks to pursue innovative ways to refine the design and key features of the proposed pilot plant that would generate low capital-cost electricity in the 2040sa demanding task that calls for resolving major gaps in the projected fusion facility. "The next step is to confront all the challenges that the pilot plant will face," Menard said. Explore further Speeding the development of fusion power to create unlimited energy on Earth More information: J.E. Menard et al, Fusion pilot plant performance and the role of a sustained high power density tokamak, Nuclear Fusion (2022). J.E. Menard et al, Fusion pilot plant performance and the role of a sustained high power density tokamak,(2022). DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/ac49aa UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Actions taken by the United Nations (UN) should help cool the situation in Ukraine and facilitate diplomatic solutions, and restrain from aggravating tensions, China's permanent representative to the UN said here on Sunday. Zhang Jun made the remarks at the UN Security Council (UNSC) after the council adopted Resolution 2623 on Sunday that calls for an "emergency special session" of the UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the Ukraine crisis. It is the first such a resolution the council has adopted in four decades, according to a Security Council report. "We believe the top priority now is for all parties to exercise necessary restraint to prevent the situation in Ukraine from getting worse," Zhang said. He noted that China supports and encourages all diplomatic efforts conducive to a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis, and welcomes the earliest possible direct dialogue and negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. "China also supports the European side and Russia in conducting equal-footed dialogue on European security issues, and upholding the principle of indivisible security, so as to eventually form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism," he added. "China believes that the Security Council should give priority to regional peace and stability and the universal security of all countries, and play a constructive role in resolving the Ukraine issue," said the ambassador. The draft of the resolution, submitted by Albania and the United States, garnered support from 11 members but received a negative vote from Russia. China, India and the United Arab Emirates all abstained. The vote by the 15-member council was procedural, so Russia could not wield its veto. Newly published research by Rice University environmental engineers suggests flaring of natural gas from oil and gas fields in the United States, primarily in North Dakota and Texas, contributed to dozens of premature deaths in 2019. Satellite observations and computer models can link gas flares to air pollution and health, according to Daniel Cohan of Rice's George R. Brown School of Engineering and his colleagues, who published their findings in the journal Atmosphere. Oil and gas producers flare excess gas when infrastructure to bring it to market is unavailable. While flaring reduces the direct venting of the powerful greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, it also produces black carbon particles, also known as soot or particulate matter. These particles, smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, can impair lung function and cause respiratory disease, heart disease and strokes. The Rice team partnered with researchers from the Clean Air Task Force to produce calculations, based on infrared satellite observations of oil fields where 97% of flaring takes place, showing that the United States emitted nearly 16,000 tons of black carbon in 2019. The researchers used computationally efficient reduced-form models to estimate that 2653 premature deaths were directly attributable to air quality associated with flares. "Our research shows that flaring not only wastes a valuable fuel but is deadly, too," said Cohan, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, who led the study with first-year graduate student Chen Chen. "Particulate matter causes more deaths than all other air pollutants combined, and flares are an important source of it." Flares aren't the only source of particulate matter in the atmosphere. Particles are also produced whenever fossil fuels are burned, including by vehicles, and by wildfires, cooking meat and other sources. The researchers' models accounted for the fact that the heat content of the burning fuel varies widely across oil and gas fields and has a strong impact on black carbon emissions. "For this study, we used 10 different emission factors for flares, and using the reduced-form models made the calculations super-fast," Chen said. "Other studies show a good relationship between full and reduced-form models, so we're confident in our results." Cohan said black carbon emissions also contribute to climate change by absorbing solar radiation in the atmosphere, influencing the formation of clouds and accelerating snow and ice melt, though all of those consequences were beyond the scope of their study. The researchers noted there are cost-effective technological alternatives to flaring, including gas-gathering pipelines, small-scale gas utilization and reinjecting excess back into the ground. While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering regulations to reduce both methane emissions and associated gas flaring, there are currently no federal limits to the widespread practice of flaring, they wrote. "We initially didn't think about publishing a peer-reviewed paper," Chen said. "We were asked by the Clean Air Task Force to estimate these health impacts to support their advocacy to reduce harmful pollution from oil and gas production. But because the clearly shows dozens of deaths per year due to flaring, we thought a paper would provide regulators with new angles to consider in their efforts to minimize the impacts of oil and gas air pollution." Explore further Actual greenhouse gas volumes exceed official reports More information: Chen Chen et al, Black Carbon Emissions and Associated Health Impacts of Gas Flaring in the United States, Atmosphere (2022). Chen Chen et al, Black Carbon Emissions and Associated Health Impacts of Gas Flaring in the United States,(2022). DOI: 10.3390/atmos13030385 Mount Kanchenjunga, the third largest mountain in the world, is shared between Nepal and India. Credit: ICIMOD Glaciers appear in many chapters and sections of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), titled the Working Group II report of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment. Released on 28 February, it offers detailed observations of historical and recent changes, and provides projections of future changes under different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and warming. This report discusses glaciers globally and in specific regions. It presents the linkages of glaciers to many ecosystems and economic and social systems, including adaptation responses and the limits to such responses, and the connection between glacier retreat and conflict. Physical changes and their impacts on people and ecosystems The most sustained discussion of glaciers in the report is found in Cross-Chapter Paper 5, simply titled Mountains. These cross-chapter papers, focused on specific biomes, are a new feature in this working group report, reflecting its close attention to the interactions of ecosystems and the world's climate system, and to the importance of ecosystem-based adaptations in responding to climate risks. The Mountains paper discusses the loss of glacier mass as a climate change impact in mountain areas, which can be attributed to human influence, and notes that recent research has shown that the pace of this retreat is significantly faster than the levels that were stated in an earlier IPCC report on this subject, the 2019 Special Report on Oceans and the Cryosphere. It notes with high confidence that many low elevation and small glaciers around the world will lose more than half their mass even at 1.5C warming. And it shows the important difference between lower and higher rates of greenhouse gas emissions scenarios in coming decades, and between the levels of warming that are associated with them. The projections are sufficiently strong to state with medium confidence that low-emission scenarios would preserve around half the current ice mass in low and mid latitude mountains, while higher levels would bring a loss between two-thirds and over 90%. This cross-chapter paper states with high confidence that these changes have observable, serious consequences for both human and natural systems in a number of different regions of the world. It underscores the influence of these changes on the water cycle in mountains, including the timing and level of stream flow. It notes that both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are affected. Pioneer species can colonize the areas of rock and gravel that were formerly covered with ice, allowing new ecological communities to form, while some fish species are negatively impacted by changing water volume, temperature, chemistry and sediment load. Some human systems are affected as well: the impacts on hydropower are complex, since some regions receive a temporary increase in water supply as glaciers rapidly shrink, only to find a decrease once much of the glacier mass is gonea challenging shift that some regions have already faced, and that nearly all will reach in the present century. Glacier retreat is likely to impact food security in regions in Asia and South America where agricultural communities rely on irrigation, though this report notes that there are relatively few integrative studies that link changing stream flow, water management, irrigation techniques and the interactions of different user groups in particular watersheds. For example, glacier meltwater is an important source of water for irrigation, but hydropower facilities and tourist enterprises also require water, increasing complex management issues that to date have not been adequately researched. The list of impacts is long: this cross-chapter paper notes that there is evidence of mental health issues that stem from anxiety and grief over glacial loss, though this evidence remains limited to date. For others, this loss of glaciers is an opportunity, as "last chance tourism" draws visitors, eager to see glaciers before they disappear, to New Zealand and the Alps. Climate change, glaciers and conflict The cross-chapter Mountains paper offers glacier-related examples which bear on the emerging topic of climate change and conflict. It states that the impacts of climate change on mountain water cycles (reflecting shifts in snow cover as well as glaciers) have contributed to increased tensions or conflicts over water resources, particularly in the areas with pronounced dry seasons. It reports that these conflicts can be found at local and regional scales, as well as national and transboundary scales. It notes sociopolitical conditions which contribute to such tensions; in addition to pronounced dry seasons, these include power inequalities among users of water resources and weak regulatory systems, particularly in transboundary cases. It reports cases of these patterns in several glaciated regions, including Central Asia, South Asia and the Andes; this perspective is consistent with the discussion, in Chapter 7 and elsewhere in the report, of climate change as a "threat multiplier" that exacerbates preexisting social and political tensions. However, the report also notes steps to address these conflicts. Chapter 17, Decision Making Options for Managing Risk, discusses a glacier protection law in Argentina, which served to catalyze action to minimize the incursion of mining and other enterprises into glacier regions, protecting water supplies, at least in the short and medium term. Such discussions of glacier change and conflict is more extensive than the brief mentions in the 2019 Special Report on Oceans and the Cryospherea sign that the global community is recognizing the nature of climate change as one of the contributing factors to political tensions. Adaptation and indigenous knowledge Chapter 12, Central and South America, notes a loss between a third and half of glaciers in the Andeswith their large populations of Indigenous peoplessince the 1980s, and links this change to impacts on ecosystems, water resources, livelihoods and natural hazards such as floods and landslides. Chapter 16, Key Risks Across Sectors and Regions notes that shrinking glaciers place communities in a number of regions at risk for water shortages. In South America and elsewhere, they face some limits to improving water management as an adaptive strategy because governance systems are often characterized by distrust, inflexibility, and unequal power relations. Though these limits are characterized as "soft," or ones that can potentially be overcome, the report notes other "hard" or fixed limits, such as the loss of livelihoods and cultural values that stem from the biophysical process of glacier shrinkage. This chapter also presents mountain glaciers as a unique and threatened system whose restricted geographical range and other distinctive properties lead them to be classified as a "reason for concern."' However, the report also discusses some effective responses to these impacts. Chapter 2, Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosystems and their Services, contains an extensive case study of the effects of climate change on social-ecological systems in the Andean region. Faced with decline in pasture due to glacier retreat and reduced meltwater, Indigenous Quechua and Aymara pastoralists have increased their mobility, drawn on social and economic ties to access new pastures, constructed canals to irrigate new pastures, and shifted to planted fodder. This case shows the importance of addressing glacier retreat through the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into planninglinking to the strong presence of Indigenous knowledge and local knowledge throughout the report. However, diversion of water from mountain regions to large-scale highly capitalized agricultural enterprises in distant coastal areas have further depleted water supplies, while some mining enterprisesweakly regulated in this regionhave polluted streams, adding to the pressures on these communities and reducing their capacity to adapt. The importance of good governance In sum, this report shows the importance of glaciers in many regions, where they form part of ecological, economic and social systems. It traces new findings from natural science that have emerged in the last few years. And it documents, more clearly than earlier reports, the importance of policy and governance, a critical element in responding to impacts. The resourcefulness of Indigenous peoples in the Andes, mentioned in the section above, is a telling example. These communities are keenly aware of glacier changes and have found ways to adapt to themthough they are challenged by the disproportionate influence of powerful interests who have seized their water. This power imbalance within South America is paralleled by other power imbalances between the nations and interest groups who seek to reduce emissions sharply and those who prefer to maintain them. Woven through the report, glaciers illustrate the report's key theme: the stark differences between a world that has lower emissions and more effective policies, and one that has higher emissions, and is less well governed. Explore further New study shows persistence of meltwater biodiversity despite glacier loss This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu. Sherelle Ferguson and Annette Lareau, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor in the Social Sciences. Credit: OMNIA Same-race friendships on college campuses can be sources of support and help build a sense of belonging. However, sociologists Sherelle Ferguson, and Annette Lareau, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor in the Social Sciences, have found that class differences can create tensions within these relationships. In a piece published in Socius, titled "Hostile Ignorance, Class, and Same-Race Friendships: Perspectives of Working-Class College Students," Ferguson and Lareau describe findings from in-depth interviews with working-class, first-generation students at two private universities. These students describe micro-aggressions in interactions with their more affluent peers around everyday concerns like hair, academics, and money. "Being from a lower-class background is still a stigmatized identity on many college campuses," says Ferguson. "Prior literature has discussed the alienation that upwardly mobile students feel while attending elite college campuses, so we weren't too surprised to hear that. However, we were surprised to hear about antagonisms that arose within their close friendships with students of the same race but different class." The experiences of first-generation, working-class students have long interested Lareau, who previously co-authored a study on adults who are upwardly mobile and has observed many first-generation students struggle on campus for various reasons. "I became interested in understanding more deeply how class and race come together for the lived experiences of first-generation students," she explains. After serving as Ferguson's Ph.D. adviser, Lareau was eager to partner with her on this project. They chose in-depth interviews as a valuable research method for participants to share their experiences and perspectives. "We wanted a deeper dive than a survey. We wanted to hear from the students themselvesto hear their voicesabout their experiences in the university setting," says Lareau. The 44 interviews demonstrated that Black, white, and Asian American students are experiencing classist interactions with same-race friends characterized by what the authors term as "hostile ignorance." Ferguson defines hostile ignorance as "interactions when more affluent students ask a question or make a comment to working-class students in a critical or hostile manner (rather than a neutral or positive one) on a matter connected to the students' class position." Ferguson and Lareau's work spotlights that among the many struggles that first-generation college students might face, hostile ignorance from their wealthier, same-race friends can be a particularly painful one. Lareau says, "One of the things that is challenging for first-generation students is that the slights and insults can come from not just strangers or acquaintances, but also people in their inner circleroommates and even close friends. This makes the college experience difficult and exhausting. It is hard, at times, for first-generation students to find respite." The authors hope their study will broaden the conversation on the experiences of first-generation, working-class students and increase the attention on classism in peer culture, particularly among peers of the same race. Explore further Beyond social mobility, college students value giving back to society More information: Sherelle Ferguson et al, Hostile Ignorance, Class, and Same-Race Friendships: Perspectives of Working-Class College Students, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World (2021). Sherelle Ferguson et al, Hostile Ignorance, Class, and Same-Race Friendships: Perspectives of Working-Class College Students,(2021). DOI: 10.1177/23780231211048305 A rescue team help a woman in her home in a flooded area near the Ebro River in Tudela, northern Spain, Dec. 12, 2021. The United Nations has a new report out Monday, Feb. 28, 2022 on how climate change is harming people and the planet. Credit: AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, File A new science report from the United Nations spells out in excruciating detail the pain of climate change to people and the planet with the ideathe hope reallythat if leaders pay attention, some of the worst can be avoided or lessened. One scientist calls it the "Your House is On Fire" report. While these reports often can come across as depressing, to scientists and world leaders, the idea isn't to lower people's spirits. The reports are designed to help the world navigate a dangerous future, back away from some cliffs where harms are irreversible and severe, and mostly to give leaders negotiating deals on how to curb future warming a sense of what can be done and why scientists say something must be done. It's really about hope not doom, said German vice chancellor and minister for economy and climate, Robert Habeck. Canadian climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of The Nature Conservancy and Texas Tech agreed. "Hope can lead to action," Habeck said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If you're afraid of something, then you hide away, you shy away, you run away. If you hope for something, then you can find some motivation, power and energy in yourself. And this is what we need: hope that we can achieve great things that the problems of the moment can be overcome by building up a new renewable world." WHAT IS IT Monday's report is from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a heavy hitter group of hundreds of scientists the UN asks to issue major reports every five to seven years about climate change. The scientists do three main reports. The first, on what's known about the science behind climate change and general projections of future warming, came out last August and got nicknamed "code red" by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. After Monday's report, the second, a third report comes out in several weeks. It will be on options to confront climate change. Monday's report is about the impacts, what climate change has done, is doing and will do to people and the world we live in. Hayhoe said if she were to give this report a nickname like the last one it would be: "Your House Is On Fire." "It is a massive compendium of how climate change is affecting us here, now, in ways that matter to our lives," Hayhoe said in an email. "It shows how we can and must prepare for the impacts we can no longer avoid." A kayaker fishes in Lake Oroville as water levels remain low due to continuing drought conditions in Oroville, Calif., Aug. 22, 2021. The United Nations has a new report out Monday, Feb. 28, 2022 on how climate change is harming people and the planet. Credit: AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File And that means giving bad news about heat waves, floods, wildfires, droughts, sea level rise, disease, extinctions and climate homelessness. "It's important for people to be honest about the amount of impacts we're likely to see," said Stanford University environmental scientist Chris Field, who chaired this report in previous years. HOW IT IS USED "Science itself does not yet trigger actions," United Nations Development Program chief Achim Steiner said. "We then have to respond. And the response to climate change today essentially affects every aspect of our lives." Each year, leaders and diplomats from around the world meet to ratchet up efforts to curb climate change, resulting in several agreements, the last two being the Paris accord of 2015 and a pact in Glasgow last year. The IPCC reports are frequently mentioned in negotiations. Scientists, such as Hayhoe, attend to explain consequences. Up until 2015, the world's goal was to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times. But during the negotiations for the Paris agreement, leaders of small island nations complained that 2 degrees of warming would make some of their islands, their countries, uninhabitable. So the Paris accord adopted a secondary, tighter, goal of 1.5 degrees (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and asked the IPCC to study what the difference would be between the two warming thresholds. A 2018 special report from the IPCC found dramatic differences, including loss of coral reefs, sea ice and some irreversible harms at 2 degrees that might not happen at 1.5 degrees. Making matters more immediate was the fact that the world has warmed 1.1 degrees since pre-industrial times, so this is about warming of just a few tenths of a degree from now. "The fact is that it is the IPCC report of 2018 that refocused our energies from well below 2C to 1.5 degrees specifically... as we did quite visibly and powerfully in Glasgow," United States special climate envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press in an interview. "And even China, Russia, India, other countries that may have some differences about the pace and rate and implementation of some of the climate initiatives, even they accepted that this was the standard now, the 1.5 degrees. So the IPCC has a profound impact." "And I anticipate that this report will, just like the prior ones, have a very significant impact on the climate debate," Kerry said. "I think it's going to be quite dramatic in the picture it paints of how far behind we are." Fire consumes an area next to the Trans-Pantanal highway in the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Sept. 11, 2020. The United Nations has a new report out Monday, Feb. 28, 2022 on how climate change is harming people and the planet. Credit: AP Photo/Andre Penner, File PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE These reports always look at what's already happened in terms of climate change, what is happening now and give projections on what's happening in the future. Those future projections are often key and they have wide ranges, but mostly it's due to the human factor. The reports spell out what happens if the world drastically reduces emissions of heat-trapping gases, what happens if it doesn't and what happens in between. That's a key point in these reports: The future isn't set. It depends on what's done in governments, businesses and homes. Because these reports come out every five to eight years, the next set of reports will likely come out as the world is within a tenth of a degree or two of that 1.5 degree goal. So climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the Breakthrough Institute said he suspects the next version of this report won't be so much about how to prevent 1.5 degrees of warming but "what would be needed to bring global temperatures backdown to 1.5 in the 22nd century." MAKING THE SAUSAGE The report does not do new science. It is all based on previously published peer-reviewed science. Scientists write the report, which then gets reviewed by other scientists, governments and others. There's a giant report with more than 1,000 pages, but the real key is called the Summary for Policy Makers, showing how this is aimed at world leaders. For the past two weeks, scientists and governments have reviewed and written the draft line by line. Most of all of the attention is spent on the summary, which can run into the dozens of pages. But there are 26 chapters or supplements, with some of them concentrating on specific regions, others looking at health, food, cities or risk. 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Mangroves and other nature-based adaptations can help to protect coastlines from intense storms and sea level rise. Credit: Antonio Busiello/WWF The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Monday released the second part of its sixth major assessment report. The assessment reports, which come out every few years, review what we know about climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options to adapt and reduce emissions. The latest release focuses on climate change's impacts on nature and human societies, identifies different vulnerabilities, and assesses the capabilities and limits for natural and human systems to adapt. Columbia Climate School anthropologist Ben Orlove has been working with the IPCC since 2016. He is a lead author on Chapter 17 of the report, entitled "Decision-making options for managing risk." In the interview belowwhich has been edited and condensed for clarityOrlove explains what it was like to contribute to the report, the challenges of naming and quantifying adaptation, and some of the key takeaways from the new release. How does this new release fit into the Sixth Assessment Report? The IPCC has three working groups, and each of those groups releases its report separately. Part one, which came out in August last year, focuses on the physical science basis of climate changewhat do we know about temperature and precipitation changes, based on observations of the past and current state of climate, and projections of its future conditions. Part three, which should come out in March, will focus on mitigation, or reducing emissions. Our group, part two, is the middle child. Its mandate is impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. With "impacts," we've got to figure out what the climate risks mean for food security, for health, for water resources, et cetera, across the different geographic regions of the world. "Adaptation" means what are people doing to respond to those impacts. And "vulnerability" is a great word because it shows that there are social factors that mean that the same impact can hit some populations harder than others. And it also indicates that addressing the hazard or risk requires addressing the vulnerability as well. What's new about this report? One of the things that this report does much more than the earlier assessment reports is that it's trying to conduct an overall assessment of just how much adaptation is taking place in the world. The Paris Agreement in 2015 established what it called a global goal of adaptation. So there's an effort to figure out how much adaptation is taking place and where it is taking place. But that's kind of tricky. If you want to measure global emissions, it's not that hardyou can look at some amount of air and see how much CO 2 there is in there, and you can link that to the climate models, and you're good to go. Broadly, adaptation has to do with reducing risks. But with adaptation, you've got to figure out what the units of adaptation are, and where you're going to find them. You want to have some sense of how you evaluate that, how you decide whether it's effective. And there is the enormous issue of evaluating any step that reduces risks for some but not for allor, as often happens, that reduces risk for some while increasing it for others. This report represents a major advance in the overall assessment of adaptation because it provides systematic coverage. It looks at a country by country scale, seeing what different countries are doing, what level of planning they have, whether they are implementing their plans, and whether they are monitoring and evaluating their plans. And it also draws on other reviews that examine the large body of published studies on adaptation projects; even though these studies cover some areas and topics more than others, they offer a useful lens that helps us track, for example, the recent expansion of adaptation in areas of food security, water resources and poverty reduction, especially in Asia and Africa. The report provides a major review of the feasibility of many adaptation strategies. It points to low-hanging fruitestablished strategies, like forest protection and restoration, improved efficiency of water systems, and resilient power systemswhose feasibility is well-documented, and it indicates the current deficits in support that other strategies, like planned resettlement and relocation, will need to address to become more feasible. It also shows that many adaptation strategies not only reduce the impacts of climate-related risks, but contribute to the transitions of systemsecosystems, energy systems, urban infrastructurethat, taken together, support the full transformation to a higher level of sustainability world-wide. This report also marks a major advance in the study of complex, compound, and cascading risks. IPCC has a long history of separating out risks, looking at drought and heat waves as separate silos, for example, rather than recognizing that they connect. As another example, they historically looked at wildfire, heavy storms and debris flows separately, rather than noting that debris flows are caused by heavy rains on burned hillsides, which in turn might be due to underlying climate factors. So the problems are complex physically and they're complex socially because there are many actors that are involved. Addressing food issues means addressing water issues, for instance. And the complexity of adaptation issues means that there is a complexity of policy and of evaluationdifferent groups might care about different outcomes. What questions does your chapter focus on? We paid a lot of attention to what's called enabling conditions. Some people in some settings are aware of climate change, of the particular impacts in their sector or their region, and they formulate responses; others have difficulty doing that because the conditions to enable that are not always present. Enabling conditions include: a well-organized, coordinated, participatory governance; adequate finance; and having information available in a form that people can use. We also put effort to see what tools and techniques people use for making decisions around adaptation. There's also a lot of attention to monitoring and evaluation. It's not just that you plan to implement an adaptation measure; you want to see, did it work out? And what have you learned to do things better next time? And that ties with strong attention to effectiveness. It's impressive to see the increase in adaptation activity, even as we see the adaptation needs growing faster than the adaptation activities. We know a lot of what needs to be done. We understand the need to get different government agencies working with each other from local to regional to national as they collaborate with community groups and with the private sector. We see the great value of full participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities at all stages of adaptation, drawing on their distinct knowledge systems. We know how that works. We even know certain techniques to bring them together. We understand the importance of finance and how it can promote attentiveness to effectiveness and monitoring and evaluation. And we've learned that science does not immediately beam into people's minds, but that there is a whole process of co-production of useful climate products. So we know all those things and we need the political will to carry those forward in order to enhance adaptation. What are some obstacles to adaptation? Climate change impacts are often most severe in developing countries that aren't responsible for the majority of climate-warming emissions, and who are least equipped financially to deal with that loss and damage. That can limit adaptation. In some cases, we are seeing impacts that are so severe that adaptation is no longer possible. We're also aware of maladaptationthe idea that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. For example, say there's a drought-stricken agricultural area that puts in irrigation. That benefits the fraction of the farmers who are wealthier, who may be shifting to a capital-intensive agriculturea lot of fertilizer and pesticide, and shifting away from food crops to things that are exported or non-food cropsand then you've displaced a lot of the poor families and you're more vulnerable to the next crisis. Or you build a sea wall in a coastal area and people move in, because the area seems safe, until the next flood. You want to do something, but you don't want to rush and then discover months or years later that it was a mistake. Another issue is that we're approaching the limits to adaptation in some sectors. With coral reefs, it's pretty hard. Are we going to lose 90 percent of them with 1.5 degrees of warming, or 99 percent of them with 2 degrees of warming? We care about them for their innate value, for the biodiversity, for the fisheries, for the tourism. And beyond that it's just painful to witness such losses. What was it like to put the chapter together? We're a synthesis chapter, so we kind of distill common elements of other chapters on different regions and sectors such as health, water, and food. We report on their findings, though we also looked for additional literature on our own. We focus on the ones since 2014, which is when the Fifth Assessment Report came out. But even with this short time frame, it is a massive literature review. In our review, we were fortunate to work with several Columbia students in the MA Program in Climate and Society, Isabelle Cojocaru-Durand, Zoe Klobus, Lei Pei, and Alexandra Rinaldi, and with an undergraduate in Sustainable Development, Sabrina Shih; they are listed as contributing authors to the chapter. At the start, we received a set of bullet points with the main points that our chapter should make clear. We went through three drafts. One went through internal review. Another went through expert review. And then we went through a government review and we had to respond to what the governments said, because they're the ones who are voting on the summary for policymakers. Taking all these drafts together, we received 1,586 comments from around the world, and we had to respond to each of them. Sounds like a lot. What made you want to take on all this work? You would think that the two things that bring people to the IPCC are ego and egolessness. The ego for the boasting rights, and the egolessness for the chance to do service to address this global crisis. For sure, there's some of both of that. It's certainly among the most important work that I do. These reports are very widely read and they shape conversations But there's also a third thing, a real sense of community among the IPCC people. It's deeply inspiring to be working on a collegial basis with people from around the world. My ties with my fellow authors were a valuable support during the pandemic, as I heard from people in Cape Town and Mexico City and Seoul and Berlin, and understood the challenges they were facing. What are some optimistic takeaways from the report? One key message is that we're really seeing what a difference nature-based solutions make. We used to think of parks in cities as a nice amenity. There's now significant research showing higher mortality from heat waves reflecting the absence of green infrastructure, and the importance of vegetation in cooling and for human well-being. Nature-based solutions can also help with coastal flooding, where mangroves and seagrass meadows really help protect coasts. We have a valuable and brief window when we must take action. Every degree, every tenth of a degree of warming that we can prevent makes a difference. There's a great deal that we can do, and we've learned a lot about these enabling conditions, so we see the importance of collective action and political will to bring the resources for mitigation and adaptation. Faced with the monumental scale of climate change as a global issue, it's easy to give in to despair, to give in to fear. Of the striking findings of this report, one is the importance of local citizen engagement. Again and again, we see in developed and developing countries, in cities and in rural areas, community groups play an important role in shaping adaptation priorities and in implementing and evaluating adaptation. This report shows that community engagement is really a key element of governance, which is a key enabling factor of adaptation. And so one of the encouraging messages here is how many options for action there are available to people around the world who are concerned. I was gratified to see how many of my fellow authors participate in local climate action, as I do. Every individual can contribute to this immense collective effort. Explore further Adaptation key to protect vulnerable from climate change This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu. Through music children are literally attuned to the sounds of language. Credit: Shutterstock The 2005 National Review of School Music Education found many Australian students missed out on music education, with massive disparities between states. In 2020, our research for the Tony Foundation found the same issues, despite the fact that the Australian Curriculum for Music should guarantee some level of consistency. We now have evidence that we should be concerned about music education not just for the sake of music itself, but also because of its impacts on language learning and literacy. Research about how participating in music affects the braina field known as neuromusical researchhas taught us a lot about how the brain processes language. Significantly, it processes language in the same way as music. If we want to improve literacy, then, we need to ensure the cognitive foundations our students need are in place. In short, we need to view music education as a powerful complementary learning experience, and not a "nice but not essential" part of the curriculum. So what are states doing? We have yet to see this knowledge put into practice across Australia. Before and after the 2005 review, Queensland has had strong music programs in state-funded primary schools since the 1980s. The state has a classroom music program for the whole school (where a teacher is available), and a low-cost instrumental music program for some students. A campaign is under way in Queensland to preserve these programs and make sure every student gets a music lesson every week. The same can't be said for other states. Despite moves to improve music education in some states, there's still inequity. South Australia established a Music Education Strategy and Music Innovation Fund in 2019. Victoria has developed a Quality Music Education Framework to guide best practice. Tasmania, Western Australia and the ACT have music specialist teachers in some government primary schools. In New South Wales, general classroom teachers in government schools are responsible for teaching all of the curriculum, including music. But how much does music really matter? Music can deliver progress on literacy While music education has been found to improve a wide range of cognitive functions, let's look at literacy development as an example. If literacy scores are lower than required or expected, it seems obvious the solution is to spend more time on literacy learning to improve those scores. That's the approach taken over the past five years. Yet we have not seen a significant boost in NAPLAN results. In fact, the dial has moved very little. So the obvious "more time" approach is not yielding higher literacy achievement. Might we then look to research outside the literacy field for the next steps in improving literacy in our schools? The answer is yes. A field traditionally a few steps outside of literacy educationmusic educationhas greatly enhanced understanding of how the brain develops understanding and application of language. Neuromusical research has pinpointed the brain mechanisms and interactions that decode language sounds to understand and develop the syntax of language right through to the comprehension and creation of meaning through language. It has led to the enlightening finding that the human brain processes all language as if it was music. What does this mean for literacy education and the current measure of its effectiveness, NAPLAN? It means we may well be missing a fundamental underpinning of language developmentthe development of the auditory processing network to its highest levels so our students can effectively interpret language sounds. Put simply, if a child cannot hear the language soundthat is, process the sound correctly through their auditory networkthey cannot speak it. And if they cannot speak it, they cannot read it. The costs of inaction are high The research on the potential for music education to improve cognitive development is extensive and compelling. It clearly shows that consistent, high-quality music learning enhances students' general learning. So music learning isn't just for those who want to become musiciansit benefits everyone. The cost of waiting, of not resolving the issues with music education across Australia, is high. This is an issue of equity. If the state a student is schooled in affects their fundamental cognitive development due to the lack of quality music education for every child, then every child is not receiving an equitable and effective education. The longer we wait to address the inequity, the fewer qualified music educators we will have in Australia. In our report, Music Education: A Sound Investment, we identified that we are on a skills cliff of qualified music educators in this country. In addition to the existing widespread teacher shortage, there are now only a few universities offering a specialization in primary music teaching. Urgent action is needed to make sure there are enough music teachers for all schools, so kids don't miss out. When it comes to education, politicians and policymakers ignoring the research evidence is hardly new. But the failure to see the bigger picture of every child's development has lasting impacts. The focus of education should be to provide the cognitive preparation for a full and productive life. And music is an integral part of providing students with the best possible foundation for their education. Explore further How to educate culturally competent music teachers? This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. A specimen of the newly described orchid species Maxillaria anacatalina-portillae in its natural habitat. Credit: Alex Portilla An astounding new species of orchid has been discovered in the cloud rainforest of Northern Ecuador. Scientifically named Maxillaria anacatalina-portillae, the plantunique with its showy, intense yellow flowerswas described by Polish orchidologists in collaboration with an Ecuadorian company operating in orchid research, cultivation and supply. Known from a restricted area in the province of Carchi, the orchid is presumed to be a critically endangered species, as its rare populations already experience the ill-effects of climate change and human activity. The discovery was aided by a local commercial nursery, which was already cultivating these orchids. The study is published in the open-access journal PhytoKeys. During the past few years, scientists from the University of Gdansk (Poland) have been working intensely on the classification and species delimitations within the Neotropical genus Maxillariaone of the biggest in the orchid family. They have investigated materials deposited in most of the world's herbarium collections across Europe and the Americas, and conducted several field trips in South America in the search of the astonishing plants. The first specimens of what was to become known as the new to science Maxillaria anacatalina-portillae were collected by Alex Portilla, photographer and sales manager at Ecuagenera, an Ecuadorian company dedicated to orchid research, cultivation and supply, on 11th November 2003 in Maldonado, Carchi Province (northern Ecuador). There, he photographed the orchid in its natural habitat and then brought it to the greenhouses of his company for cultivation. Later, its offspring was offered at the commercial market under the name of a different species of the same genus: Maxillaria sanderiana 'xanthina' ('xanthina' in Latin means 'yellow' or 'red-yellow'). The newly described orchid species Maxillaria anacatalina-portillae. Credit: Hugo Medina Location of the Carchi province (Ecuador). Credit: Monika M. Lipinska In the meantime, Prof. Dariusz L. Szlachetko and Dr. Monika M. Lipinska would encounter the same intriguing plants with uniquely colored flowers on several different occasions. Suspecting that they may be facing an undescribed taxon, they joined efforts with Dr. Natalia Oledrzynska and Aidar A. Sumbembayev, to conduct additional morphological and phylogenetic analyses, using samples from both commercial and hobby growers, as well as crucial plants purchased from Ecuagenera that were later cultivated in the greenhouses of the University of Gdansk. As their study confirmed that the orchid was indeed a previously unknown species, the scientists honored the original discoverer of the astonishing plant by naming it after his daughter: Ana Catalina Portilla Schroder. More information: Monika M. Lipinska et al, Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae (Orchidaceae, Maxillariinae), a new remarkable species from Ecuador, PhytoKeys (2022). Journal information: PhytoKeys Monika M. Lipinska et al, Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae (Orchidaceae, Maxillariinae), a new remarkable species from Ecuador,(2022). DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.190.77918 We propose a novel approach to fluorescence colour control using optical tweezers. We demonstrate an optical trapping technique using nanotextured Si. By increasing the laser intensity, the local concentration of perylene-labelled polymer chains increased. Accordingly, the excimer fluorescence of perylene increased while the monomer fluorescence decreased, evidenced by a fluorescence colour change from blue to orange. In this way, we succeeded in remote and reversible control of fluorescence colour with variation of blue, green, yellow-green, yellow, and orange colour. Credit: Yasuyuki Tsuboi One big stumbling block in the field of photonics is that of color control. Until now, to control color, i.e. the wavelength of light emission, researchers would have to alter the chemical structure of the emitter or the concentration of the solventall of which require direct contact, greatly limiting their application. "Such conditions make it impossible to change color quickly, use it as a light source in microscopic spaces like a cell, or in closed systems where exchange is not an option," says Yasuyuki Tsuboi and professor of the Department of Chemistry, Osaka City University. With "optical tweezers," a technology he developed in previous research, Prof. Tsuboi led a team of researchers to show it possible to control the luminescence color remotely, using only the effect of light pressure. Their findings were recently published online in the German international journal Angewandte Chemie. For years, Professor Tsuboi and his colleagues have been conducting research on a technology that can capture and manipulate nano- and micrometer-sized materials with a laser. In exploring this "optical tweezers" technology, they found that when a silicon crystal with a special needle-shaped nanostructure, called black silicon, was submerged in a sample solution, the optical field enhancement effect of the nanostructure trapped a perylene-modified polymer, causing a local concentration of the solution to increase and form an aggregate of polymers. "When the concentration of the perylene increases, it forms a dimeric excited complex called an excimer," explains lead author Ryota Takao. These excimers emit fluorescence that changes color depending on the degree of concentration. This is what the research team investigated in prior trapping experiments that did not employ a trapping laser. Here they found that as the laser beam intensity increased, light pressure did as well, which caused the concentration of the polymer aggregate on the black silicon to become denserand vice versa. "We observed the color of the fluorescence emitted by the polymer aggregate change in response to this," explains Prof, Tsuboi, "with low intensities producing blue, and then changing to green, yellow, green yellow, to orange as the intensity increases." As the laser intensity is what is being controlled, the color change is fully reversible and able to be done remotely. While the research is still in its infancy, it relies on excited complexes and excitation energy transfer, which means potential applications in ultraviolet and near-infrared regions, in addition to the visible realm. The research team is currently promoting further research in the direction of encapsulating the perylene-modified polymer solution to be used as a light source in micromachine components and intracellular bioimaging. A couple wades through a waterlogged street on the banks of the overflowing Brisbane River. Tens of thousands of Australians were ordered to flee their homes Monday, as torrential rain sent floodwaters to record levels, leaving residents stranded on the rooftops of their homes. Eight people have died, and the country's weather bureau has warned further severe thunderstorms and intense rainfall will cause "life-threatening flash flooding" across a swathe of the central Pacific coastal region. In the country town of Lismore, resident Danika Hardiman woke Monday morning to find mud-brown floodwaters had reached the balcony of her second-floor apartment. She and her partner managed to climb up to the roof, where they were spotted by passing kayakers, who flagged down a makeshift rescue boat. "We were rescued by two guys in a boat, two locals," Hardiman told AFP, describing the scenes in Lismore as "horrific". "Imagine you're in a boat sailing past people's roofs," she said. "The scary thing is this is just the beginning, there's lots of rain to come." With the town's levees already breached, 43,000 residents were ordered to leave by this morning. Emergency services were overwhelmed by calls for aid, leading some localsincluding Lismore's mayor Steve Kriegto turn to social media for help. "If anyone has a boat and can get to Engine Street, there's a pregnant lady sitting on her roof. HELP Please," he posted on Facebook Monday. Emergency rescue services said they had also deployed a helicopter to pluck other stranded residents from rooftops. More than 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours around Lismore, with the town's Wilson River still rising, according to the weather bureau. Water levels in Lismore have not yet reached their expected peak of 14 metresbut they are already the worst floods the town has experienced. A miraculous rescue Flooding across eastern Australia has now killed eight people, after a man in his 50s died Monday when his car was swept away by floodwaters in the northern state of Queensland. Millions of people have been told to stay home and nearly 1,000 schools in Queensland remain closed because of the floods. A 70-year-old man miraculously survived after his houseboat, swept along by the raging Brisbane River, collided with a ferry terminal and quickly sank. Members of the public were able to rescue the man, with one telling public broadcaster ABC they had linked arms to create a human chain and fish the man from the river unharmed. "I don't know how he survived it, to be honest," onlooker Matthew Toomey said. Rain has battered eastern Australia for the better part of a week as an extreme weather systemthe tail end of a wet summer fuelled by La Ninahas moved south down the country's coast, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Monday that some regions of her tropical state had experienced a year's worth of rainfall in just days. Australia has been on the sharp end of climate change, with droughts, deadly bushfires, bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef and floods becoming more common and more intense as global climate patterns change. Explore further One dead, 10 feared missing in Australia floods 2022 AFP The Stony Brook University radar truck deployed during a storm. The instruments on the back of the truck provide data from the Skyler-2 radar, snow size particle sizes from the Parsivel instrument, as well as pressure, temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed of the storms they sample. Credit: Brian Colle As the snowstorm headed through New York on February 24, one professor at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York spent the hours leading up to it preparing his students to head right into the storm. Brian Colle, atmospheric science professor at Stony Brook University, is part of many operations in NASA's Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS). Whether it's preparing a team to operate radars and mobile trucks, launching weather balloons, or flying in the cockpit of one of two aircraft used in the experiment, Colle's job deals with the fun of coordinating and communicating, and the heart of the mission: science. IMPACTS aims to understand the precipitation mechanisms within snowstorms. The campaign uses two aircraft, ground-based radars, weather balloons, computer simulations, and airborne instruments to help answer questions about how snowstorms form and develop, and how to better predict them. "One of my jobs is serving as the liaison between the teams," said Colle. "We start with a briefing the morning of, then I'm making sure I know the plan of the day. I'm coordinating, sending emails, making sure the radar truck is ready. As the mission goes along, I'm in contact with the teams the whole time, making sure we're collecting data. The job isn't finished until the storm is over." Using mobile radar trucks at key locations to capture data Colle sent teams of students out midday on February 24 to prepare for the overnight storm. One of the teams operates the mobile radar truck that has a Skyler-2 radar on it, which sends out pulse signals every few seconds to collect observations about the atmosphere from lower altitudes, providing high-resolution data from the large geographic regions it samples. "This is the next generation of radars; [helping us] understand rapid storm evolution," said Colle. The truck is also outfitted with a Parsivel instrument, which is a vertically pointed radar that samples the sizes of snowflakes or raindrops, along with a standardized weather instrument package including thermometers, gauges, pressure sensors, and more. Some of the team headed up to the storm hours before it began to find a location with good visibility in all directions. The goal is to have an area where trees and buildings are not blocking the sensing instruments. While collecting data would've begun around 1 a.m., internet issues prevented the team from getting the experiment running, but they have collected a great amount of data from past storms. A group of Stony Brook students getting the weather balloons ready for a past storm on January 28, 2022. The instruments are tied to strings attached to the balloons, including a parachute and GPS system that provides the location of the balloon. Around 8 kilometers (5 miles), the communication drops off and contact is lost with the system. Credit: Brian Colle Launching weather balloons in the depths of the storm Back at Stony Brook University, Colle organized a group of students to launch weather balloons on campus to measure temperature, pressure, and humidity at different altitudes. An instrument package is attached to the balloon and can "communicate" with a computer on the ground, sending data back as the balloon rises in the air. These balloons are launched from a radar truck, which is also equipped with instruments to measure snowflake characteristics. The team started collecting data hours before the two aircraft reached the storms. The P-3 aircraft flies directly into the storm, with instruments aboard to collect data and images from various altitudes. This gives scientists a deeper look at the microphysical properties of the storm, while the ER-2 aircraft flies at roughly 65,000 feet, capturing data with six remote-sensing instruments from above the clouds. The ER-2 arrived at the storm around 4:30 a.m., but the P-3 faced mechanical issues that delayed its launch until the morning of February 25. The full flight experience Though not on the P-3 flight this time around, Colle has had the opportunity to fly in the cockpit of the aircraft a few times the past two months, including the February 17 snowstorm in the Chicago area. This falls under his one of many roles but is one of the reasons he joined this mission early on. Interested in studying snowstorms for years, being in the cockpit of the plane during these storms is a lot of fun for Colle. He's the mission scientist when on the plane, helping interpret the data collected, modify flight tracks, communicate any changes to the pilots, and helping with coordinating the instruments on the plane to make sure everything is functioning and communicating. One of the lessons he's learned is how the pilots navigate the busy airspaces. In populated areas like Chicago or New York, there are a lot of planes taking off, flying, and landing, requiring the pilots to coordinate where the aircraft is headed. It requires a team effort to figure out how to best orient the aircraft. "It's awesome to be a part of the mission. For many years we didn't have these opportunities. In the past, I'd take measurements on the ground, collecting snowfall and looking under a microscope at the crystal shapes and habits. Looking at data in real-time, looking out the window, and then interacting with the pilots and hearing what they have to deal withit's a continuous science experiment and participating in regions we haven't sampled before has been very exciting," said Colle. As IMPACTS winds down its science experiments this winter, Colle and the rest of the team are looking forward to their opportunities next time around. Winter storms aren't always the easiest to sample, and the scientists are constantly learning. But the instances in which challenges and difficulties occur only make Colle more confident that the data collected this year will give them better opportunities for improvement next year. Explore further NASA planes fly into snowstorms to study snowfall Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi, Kenya. The resumed fifth session of the UNEA-5 kicked off in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday.(Xinhua/Dong Jianghui) NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) kicked off in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday, with delegates renewing call for action on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss in order to secure a green and resilient future for humanity. More than 2,000 participants including environment ministers, diplomats, researchers, innovators and grassroots campaigners will be participating in the three-day forum that will take place in a hybrid format to chart a new course for the planet and its inhabitants. Espen Barth Eide, the president of UNEA-5 and Norway's Climate and Environment minister said that faith in multilateralism was crucial to boost action on ecological threats, hasten a pandemic recovery that is green and inclusive. He noted that human actions were fueling global warming, loss of species and plastic litter in waterways, adding that durable solution lied in a shift to less carbon intensive and circular economic activities. Among key highlights of this year's global environment assembly will be adoption of a legally binding pact on ending plastic pollution and discussions on novel ways to regenerate ecosystems and tame the climate crisis. In addition, the forum whose theme is "Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals" will discuss harmful chemicals in the agriculture sector and blue economy. Inger Andersen, the executive director of UN Environment Program (UNEP) stressed that securing a peaceful, sustainable and green future for humanity was possible subject to robust action on plastic pollution, carbon emission and habitat loss. "We have a responsibility to deliver solution to the crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss," said Anderson adding that financing and policy incentives were key to promote green growth. Keriako Tobiko, Kenya's minister for Environment and Forestry said that delegates from 198 countries who will participate in the biennial UN environmental forum should come up with resolutions that aims to bequeath future generations a healthy, green and plastic free planet. According to Tobiko, human activities had escalated plastic pollution, extinction of species and runway greenhouse gas emission, adding that long-term solution hinged on enforcing legislation, public awareness and incentivizing waste recyclers. Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi, Kenya. The resumed fifth session of the UNEA-5 kicked off in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday.(Xinhua/Long Lei) Espen Barth Eide, the president of UNEA-5 and Norway's Climate and Environment minister, speaks at the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 28, 2022. The resumed fifth session of the UNEA-5 kicked off in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday.(Xinhua/Dong Jianghui) Keriako Tobiko, Kenya's minister for Environment and Forestry, speaks at the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 28, 2022. The resumed fifth session of the UNEA-5 kicked off in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday.(Xinhua/Long Lei) Inger Andersen, the executive director of UN Environment Program (UNEP), speaks at the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 28, 2022. The resumed fifth session of the UNEA-5 kicked off in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday.(Xinhua/Dong Jianghui) BioCro. Credit: Justin McGrath and Ed Lochocki/RIPE project A team from the University of Illinois has revamped the popular crop growth simulation software BioCro, making it a more user-friendly and efficient way to predict crop yield. The updated version, BioCro II, allows modelers to use the technology much more easily and includes faster and more accurate algorithms. "In the original BioCro, all the math that the modelers were using was mixed into the programming language, which many people weren't familiar with, so it was easy to make mistakes," said Justin McGrath, a Research Plant Physiologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) at Illinois. "BioCro II separates those so modelers can do less programming and can instead focus on the equations." Separating the equations from the programming language allows researchers to try new simulations more easily. For example, if a project is looking at how a gene can help plants to use light more efficiently, the equations for that specific gene can be added to existing models, rather than having to change the entire model to include the new information. This development also allows for the software to operate well with other models, a large improvement from the original BioCro. In a recent study, published in in silico Plants, McGrath and his team discuss all the improvements they made to the original BioCro software, and why they were necessary to improve modeling capabilities for researchers. "If you've got a gene and you're wondering how much it can improve yield, you have a tiny piece in the context of the whole plant. Modeling lets you take that one change, put it in the plant and compare yield with and without that change," said Edward Lochocki, lead author on the paper and postdoctoral researcher for RIPE. "With the updates we've made in BioCro II, if you have ten gene changes to make, you can look at all of them quickly and gage relative importance before moving the work into the field." This work is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to increase global food production by developing food crops that turn the sun's energy into food more efficiently with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, and U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. "BioCro II represents a complete revamp of the original BioCro, eliminating significant duplication of code, improving the efficiency of code, and eliminating hard-wired parameters," said RIPE Director Stephen Long, Ikenberry Endowed University Chair of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at Illinois' Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. "All these changes make it much easier to use the model for new species and cultivars, as well as link to other models, as indeed recently demonstrated by adapting BioCro II for soybean." With the latest updates, crop modeling with BioCro II is going to give researchers the ability to quickly test ideas and get results to farmers faster. Explore further Photosynthesis model simulates 1020 percent yield increase More information: Edward B Lochocki et al, BioCro II: a Software Package for Modular Crop Growth Simulations, in silico Plants (2022). Edward B Lochocki et al, BioCro II: a Software Package for Modular Crop Growth Simulations,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/insilicoplants/diac003 BioCro II: github.com/ebimodeling/biocro Provided by Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Benjamin Frey, American Studies professor at the University of North Carolina, sits under the native Ilex vomitoria tree on campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Frey, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, led the language research behind a new smartphone interface by Lenovo-owned Motorola. The Cherokee language interface on its newest line of phones, uses the syllable-based written characters first created by the Cherokee Nation's Sequoyah in the early 1800s. Credit: AP Photo/Gerry Broome By itself, being able to read smartphone home screens in Cherokee won't be enough to safeguard the Indigenous language, endangered after a long history of erasure. But it might be a step toward immersing younger tribal citizens in the language spoken by a dwindling number of their elders. That's the hope of Principal Chief Richard Sneed of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who's counting on more inclusive consumer technologyand the involvement of a major tech companyto help out. Sneed and other Cherokee leaders have spent several months consulting with Lenovo-owned Motorola, which last week introduced a Cherokee language interface on its newest line of phones. Now phone users will be able to find apps and toggle settings using the syllable-based written form of the language first created by the Cherokee Nation's Sequoyah in the early 1800s. It will appear on the company's high-end Edge Plus phones when they go on sale in the spring. "It's just one more piece of a very large puzzle of trying to preserve and proliferate the language," said Sneed, who worked with members of his own western North Carolina tribe and other Cherokee leaders who speak a different dialect in Oklahoma that is more widely spoken but also endangered. It's not the first time consumer technology has embraced the language, as Apple, Microsoft and Google already enable people to configure their laptops and phones so that they can type in Cherokee. But the Cherokee language preservationists who worked on the Motorola project said they tried to imbue it with the culturenot just the written symbolsthey are trying to protect. This undated image provided by the Motorola Globalization team shows an example of personalization options in the Moto App in Cherokee. Users are able to personalize fonts, layouts and more. Cherokee leaders have spent several months consulting with Lenovo-owned Motorola, which last week introduced a Cherokee language interface on its newest line of phones. Credit: Motorola Globalization team via AP Take the start button on the Motorola interface, which features a Cherokee word that translates into English as "just start." That's a clever nod to the casual way Cherokee elders might use the phrase, said Benjamin Frey, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It could have said 'let's get started' in many different ways," Frey said. "But it said 'halenagwu'just start. And that's very Cherokee. I can kind of see an elder kind of shrugging and saying, 'Well, I guess let's do it.' ... It reminds me very fondly of how the elders talk, which is pretty exciting." When Motorola thought of incorporating Cherokee into its phones, Frey was one of the people it reached out to. It was looking to incorporate a language that the U.N.'s culture agency, UNESCO, had designated as among the world's most endangered but also one that had an active community of language scholars it could consult. "We work with the people, not about the people," said Juliana Rebelatto, who holds the role of head linguist and globalization manager for Motorola's mobile division. "We didn't want to work on the language without them." Motorola modeled its Cherokee project on a similar Indigenous language revitalization project Rebelatto helped work on in Brazil, where the brandpart of China-based parent company Lenovohas a higher market share than it does in the U.S. The company last year introduced phone interfaces serving the Kaingang community of southern Brazil, and the Nheengatu community of the Amazonian regions of Brazil and neighboring countries. Benjamin Frey, American Studies professor at the University of North Carolina, poses for a portrait on campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Frey, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, led the language research behind a new smartphone interface by Lenovo-owned Motorola. The Cherokee language interface on its newest line of phones, uses the syllable-based written characters first created by the Cherokee Nation's Sequoyah in the early 1800s. Credit: AP Photo/Gerry Broome Several big tech companies have expressed interest in recent years in making their technology work better for endangered Indigenous languages, more to show their good will or advance speech recognition research than to fulfill a business imperative. Microsoft's text translation service recently added Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut, spoken in the Canadian Arctic, and grassroots artificial intelligence researchers are doing similar projects throughout the Americas and beyond. But there's a long way to go before digital voice assistants understand these languages as well as they do Englishand for some languages the time is running out. Frey and Sneed said they recognize that some Cherokee will have concerns about tech companies making a product feature of their work to preserve their languagewhether it's a text-based interface like Motorola's or potential future projects that could record speech to build a voice assistant or real-time translator. "I think it is a danger that companies could take this kind of material and take advantage of it, selling it without sharing the proceeds with community members," Frey said. "Personally, I decided that the potential benefit was worth the risk, and I'm hoping that that will be borne out." Frey didn't grow up speaking Cherokee, largely due to his grandmother's experiences of being punished for speaking the language when she was sent to boarding school. For over 150 years, Indigenous children in the U.S. and Canada were taken from their communities and forced into boarding schools that focused on assimilation. This undated image provided by the Motorola Globalization team shows an example of a Moto App launch screen in Cherokee featuring navigation Tips for the user. Users are able to personalize fonts, layouts and more. Cherokee leaders have spent several months consulting with Lenovo-owned Motorola, which last week introduced a Cherokee language interface on its newest line of phones. Credit: Motorola Globalization team via AP She and others of her generation were beaten for speaking the language, had her mouth washed out with soap and was told that "English was the only way to get ahead in the world," Frey said. She didn't pass it on to Frey's mom. "This was a 13,000-year chain of intergenerational transfer of a language from parents to children that was broken because the federal government decided that English was the only language that was worthwhile," he said. Only about 225 of the roughly 16,000 members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians spoke Cherokee fluently as their first language at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Now I think we're down to 172 or so," said Sneed, the principal chief. "So we've lost quite a few in the last couple of years." The Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation has more speakersan estimated 2,000 - but they are still a fraction of the more than 400,000 people who comprise what is the largest of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. Benjamin Frey, American Studies professor at the University of North Carolina, is seen on campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Frey, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, led the language research behind a new smartphone interface by Lenovo-owned Motorola. The Cherokee language interface on its newest line of phones, uses the syllable-based written characters first created by the Cherokee Nation's Sequoyah in the early 1800s. Credit: AP Photo/Gerry Broome Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in a statement Monday that incorporating the language into technology products is "a win not just for Cherokee Language preservation, but for the perpetuation of all Native languages." Frey hopes the new tool will be a conversation-starter between older Cherokee language speakers and their tech-savvy grandkids. It complements language immersion programs and other homegrown activism that's already happening in North Carolina and Oklahoma. He said it will take more than text-based smartphone interfaces to really make a difference. "If the youth today are watching TikTok videos, we need more TikTok videos in Cherokee," said Frey. "If they're paying attention to YouTube, we need more YouTubers creating content in Cherokee. If they're trading memes online, we need more memes that are written in Cherokee." "We do have to make sure that the language continues to be used and continues to be spoken," said Frey. "Otherwise, it could die out." 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T), enclosed in its payload fairing, is moved into the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 17, 2022. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T) satellite now officially has its ride. GOES-T was transported from Astrotech's Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida, to United Launch Alliance's (ULA) nearby Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41. It was then mated to the top of the Atlas V 541 rocket, which will carry it into space. Liftoff is targeted for March 1, 2022, at 4:38 p.m. The launch is managed by NASA's Launch Services Program based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center, America's multi-user spaceport. After securing GOES-T atop the Atlas V, technicians conducted final validation of the communication paths through the rocket. The spacecraft and launch vehicle were then tested by successfully powering up both into launch mode to ensure they are compatible as a system. GOES-T had been located inside the Astrotech facility since its arrival to Florida on Nov. 10, 2021. Numerous activities were conducted there, including lifting and mating the spacecraft to the payload adapter, and encapsulation, where the two halves of the ULA payload fairings were brought together and installed around the satellite to protect it during launch. The fully assembled launch vehicle will roll to the launch pad on Feb. 28. The third satellite in NOAA's GOES-R series, GOES-T will be delivered into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, separated from the launch vehicle, and then moved up to a higher geostationary orbit and renamed GOES-18. After being checked out, calibrated, and deemed ready for operations, GOES-18 will replace GOES-17 in the GOES-West position, keeping an eye on the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Ocean. The GOES satellite network helps meteorologists observe and predict local weather events that affect public safety, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, fog, hurricanes, flash floods, and other severe weather. Explore further NASA, NOAA to get new weather eyes in the sky with March launch from Cape Canaveral Dr Frederick Fenter, Chief Executive Editor, Frontiers. Credit: Frontiers Scientists from the World Economic Forum's Young Scientists community want to see the social value of scientific research better recognised and acknowledged. Published today by Frontiers Policy Labs, a call has been signed by 52 scholars from some of the world's foremost academic institutions. The signatories say that for science to become rooted in decision-making, a new culture of engagement between policymakers and scientists needs to be established. The initiative, spearheaded by University College London's Professor and WEF Young Scientist Ruth Morgan, urges institutions to do more to support researchers in policy engagement. Professor Morgan says we must change the way this crucial work of researchers is recognised if we are to allow for a more meaningful and impactful dialogue between policymakers and scientists. Professor Ruth Morgan said, "Groundbreaking, pioneering science is step one, but we also need to get that science into the hands of those working in policy who can use it to change the world for the better. There's no quick fix, it takes time to build relationships over months and years. "If we can create opportunities for scientists and policy makers to be in ongoing conversations, we will be able to tackle the big challenges coming our way better. We hope this initiative can be a starting point for a broader conversation amongst global leaders and institutions about how we can make this happen." Professor Morgan says that 100 million hours dedicated to scientific policy engagement could be created each year if institutions were to encourage just 10% of scientists in public service, around 1 million people, with two hours per week to focus on the task. Forming stronger bonds between science and policy In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, all eyes have turned to science and the need for greater emphasis on evidence-led decision-making. The initiative's 52 signatories are World Economic Forum Young Scientists past and present from all over the world who believe that if this happens, a ripple effect could be created and more science in other fields would make its way into the hands of policymakers to inform their decisions. Dr. Frederick Fenter is chief executive editor of Frontiers, the academic publisher behind Policy Labs who published the call. Policy Labs was launched in 2020 to strengthen the connection between robust scientific research and informed policymaking. "Many of the challenges we face as a global societyin relation to human well-being and planetary healthcan only be addressed successfully and sustainably with the help of dedicated, level-headed experts who can translate the implications of research into evidence-based policy. "What the Policy Labs has taught us is that most researchers want to engage with the policy process. And this piece shows that at present, it remains very challenging for them to do so," says Dr. Fenter. "We also welcome recent efforts by the EU to reform research assessment, and we believe the issue highlighted in Professor Morgan's piece should be a central part of that process. The pandemic and our response to it has resoundingly demonstrated that we must act now, in earnest, to strengthen the link between scientific evidence and policy." Rethinking research evaluation The World Economic Forum's Young Scientists say scientists are not often incentivised to devote time to engage in the conversations that build networks and bridges beyond their discipline. As a result, critical scientific research does not always end up in the hands of those that can deploy it for the good of society and opportunities to solve problems may be missed. "Rather than wheeling out scientists in times of crisis, the world could benefit from stronger, more consistent interactions between scientists and policymakers," says Greta Keenan, Young Scientists Community Manager at the World Economic Forum. "As the international organization for public private partnership, we recognize the importance of giving scientists a seat at the table, and supporting rising-star scientists develop the systems leadership skills required to solve global challenges." The paper suggests that if we are to ensure science contributes to society, we must incorporate measures in the assessment of scientific excellence that value and reward science engagement in policy. Assessing excellence based on a system that incorporates and rewards these contributions and the skills involved in providing evidence to policymakingwhether that is in written, oral or visual formatis highly important. Explore further Calls to share genetic data fairly and promote conservation Experiencing Costa Ricas famous wildlife, like this Geoffroys spider monkey, is one of the top drivers of tourism in the country. Credit: Prof. Daniel S. Karp With lush green jungles brimming with wildlife, Costa Rica has become a global tourism hotspotand government leaders would like to keep it that way. They worked with researchers from the Stanford Natural Capital Project to understand how nature supports the country's most visited and valuable tourist destinations. The team found that tourists flock to areas where roads and hotels make it easy to access Costa Rica's famous wildlife, including charismatic mammals like howler monkeys and reptiles like crocodiles. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates the importance of protecting nature to keep tourism revenue flowing. Costa Rica plans to build on the study's results to create a nationwide accounting system to track the benefits that nature provides to its economy. "These findings show just how important wildlife is, especially when paired with infrastructure, for a thriving tourist economy," said Alejandra Echeverri, co-lead author on the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Natural Capital Project. "If Costa Rica wants to keep attracting tourists, it needs to invest in both nature conservation and infrastructure that allows people to enjoy majestic animals like the resplendent quetzal and other iconic wildlife." Satellites and social media The researchers combined data from NASA satellites and social media posts to measure wildlife and understand tourism patterns in the country. When a visitor posted a photo to social media at a picturesque volcano or historic church, the researchers could use the photo's location information to map popular spots. Since Costa Rica is a well-known birdwatching destination, they also used data from eBird, a social birdwatching application where people upload checklists to share the birds they've spotted. While social media collected data on the ground, NASA satellites provided the team with detailed information about how land is currently used across the country, including where roads and hotels already exist. By overlaying the popular social media locations with the NASA imagery and biodiversity data, the researchers were able to pinpoint where a recipe of roads, hotels, water bodies and wildlife creates tourism hotspots. "People often consider wildlife and infrastructure to be at odds with one another, but our approach shows that isn't necessarily true," said Jeffrey Smith, co-lead author on the paper and a Ph.D. student at the Stanford Natural Capital Project at the time of research and now a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University. "This technology allows countries to understand how infrastructure and nature can be interwoven at a much finer scale to support both the economy and biodiversity. For example, instead of assuming an area of land can only be used as a nature preserve or a megaresort, planners can consider options like ecolodges, which are profitable and more wildlife-friendly." Moving from science to decisions The researchers worked with leaders at Costa Rica's Ministry of the Environment and Energy (Ministerio de Ambiente y Energia de Costa Rica) and the country's Central Bank (Banco Central de Costa Rica) to ensure their data answered the right questions and provided them with the information they needed to guide new policies. For example, there are ongoing conversations in the government about the future of Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge, a highly protected natural area. The new research suggests there are sustainable ways to make the park more accessible, with trails or neighboring ecolodges, without compromising the habitat of critical species. The researchers emphasize the importance of considering the trade-offs of different decisions. For Costa Rica, that means recognizing that while tourists bring money to communities, they can also threaten sensitive species. The researchers also note, however, that natural areas without regular tourists face their own challenges, like wildlife poaching, hunting and other illegal activities. The decision where to develop new infrastructure, even small trails and ecolodges, should be done with long-term habitat protection in mind, according to the team. Accounting for nature A key goal for the team was to create a process that would be handed over to the government, so Costa Rica could continue to monitor and map its own biodiversity and tourism patterns. Country leaders plan to create a nationwide accounting system that tracks the value of their abundant natural assets, including the benefits that nature provides to the tourism industry. Each year, the government will be able to view new satellite images that show development and emerging tourism trends to adapt their national plans. They will also report their findings to the United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting as one way to benchmark their progress on achieving the country's sustainable development goals. "We found a win-win in this researchthat tourists are drawn not just to sun and beaches, but actually to places with more wildlife," said Gretchen Daily, co-founder and faculty director at the Stanford Natural Capital Project and senior author on the paper. "While the balance between expanding tourism and protecting the natural assets that attract visitors needs to be handled carefully, especially considering the ruinous effects of overdevelopment, this research demonstrates how tourism can be a major driver toward green development in countries around the world." Explore further Costa Rica to regulate IVF after long row More information: Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica,(2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2107662119 The original Venus from Willendorf. Left: lateral view. Right-top: hemispherical cavities on the right haunch and leg. Right bottom: existing hole enlarged to form the navel. Credit: Kern, A. & Antl-Weiser, W. Venus. Editon-Lammerhuber, 2008 The almost 11-cm-high Venus figurine from Willendorf (Austria) is one of the most important examples of early art in Europe. It is made of a rock called oolite that is not found in or around Willendorf. A research team led by the anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna and the two geologists Alexander Lukeneder and Mathias Harzhauser as well as the prehistorian Walpurga Antl-Weiser from the Natural History Museum Vienna have now found out with the help of high-resolution tomographic images that the material from which the Venus was carved likely comes from northern Italy. This sheds new light on the remarkable mobility of the first modern humans south and north of the Alps. The results currently appear in Scientific Reports. The Venus von Willendorf is not only special in terms of its design, but also in terms of its material. While other Venus figures are usually made of ivory or bone, sometimes also of different stones, oolite was used for the Lower Austrian Venus, which is unique for such cult objects. The figurine found in the Wachau in 1908 and on display in the Natural History Museum in Vienna has so far only been examined from the outside. Now, more than 100 years later, anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna has used a new method to examine its interior: micro-computed tomography. During several passes, the scientists obtained images with a resolution of up to 11.5 micrometersa quality that is otherwise only seen under a microscope. The first insight gained is: "Venus does not look uniform at all on the inside. A special property that could be used to determine its origin," says the anthropologist. Along with the two geologists Alexander Lukeneder and Mathias Harzhauser from the Natural History Museum in Vienna, who had previously worked with oolites, the team procured comparative samples from Austria and Europe and evaluated them. A complex project: Rock samples from France to eastern Ukraine, from Germany to Sicily were obtained, sawn up and examined under a microscope. The team was supported by the state of Lower Austria, which provided funds for the time-consuming analyses. The inside also gives information about the outside The tomographic data from the Venus showed that the sediments were deposited in the rocks in different densities and sizes. In between there were also small remnants of shells and six very dense, larger grains, so-called limonites. The latter explains the previously mysterious hemispherical cavities on the surface of Venus with the same diameter: "The hard limonites probably broke out when the creator of the Venus was carving it," explains Weber. "In the case of the Venus navel, he then apparently made it a virtue out of necessity." Another finding: The Venus oolite is porous because the cores of the millions of globules (ooides) of which it is comprised had dissolved. This is a great explanation for why the resourceful sculptor chose this material 30,000 years ago: It is much easier to work with. The scientists also identified a tiny shell remnant, just 2.5 millimeters long, and dated it to the Jurassic period. This ruled out all other potential deposits of the rock from the much later Miocene geological era, such as those in the nearby Vienna Basin. Pictures derived from micro-computed tomography scans of the Venus. Left: Segmented bivalve (Oxytomidae) that was located on the right side of the Venus head; scan resolution 11.5 m; characteristic features are theumbo and the wings. Middle: Volume rendering of the virtual Venus; six embedded limonite concretions: neck right (orange), neck left (blue), breast left (red), belly left (yellow), hip left (green), leg left (purple); three mollusc fragments: bivalve head right (blue, only 2.5 mm long, see white line from label "Bivalve" for position), shell breast middle (orange), shell leg left (turquoise). Right: Single CT-slice showing the porosity and layering of the oolite; note the relative density of the limonite concretion; scan resolution 53 m. Credit: Gerhard Weber, Universityof Vienna A long way for that period The research team also analyzed the grain sizes of the other samples. Hundreds, sometimes even thousands of grains were marked and measured with image processing programs or even manually. None of the samples within a 200-kilometer radius of Willendorf even remotely matched. The analysis finally showed that the samples from the Venus were statistically indistinguishable from samples from a location in northern Italy near Lake Garda. This is remarkable because it means that the Venus (or at least its material) started a journey from south of the Alps to the Danube north of the Alps. "People in the Gravettianthe tool culture of the timelooked for and inhabited favorable locations. When the climate or the prey situation changed, they moved on, preferably along rivers," explains Gerhard Weber. Such a journey could have taken generations. One of the two possible routes from the south to the north would lead around the Alps and into the Pannonian Plain and was described in simulations by other researchers a few years ago. The other way to get from Lake Garda to the Wachau would be via the Alps. Whether this was possible more than 30,000 years ago is unclear due to the climate deterioration that began at that time. This would be a rather improbable variant if there had already been continuous glaciers at that time. However, the 730 km long path along the Etsch, the Inn and the Danube had always been below 1,000 meters above sea level, with the exception of 35 kilometers at Lake Reschen. Possible, but less likely, connection to eastern Ukraine The statistics clearly point to northern Italy as the origin of the Venus oolite. Nevertheless, there is another interesting place for the origin of the rock. It is in eastern Ukraine, more than 1,600 kilometers linear distance from Willendorf. The samples there do not fit as clearly as those from Italy, but better than all the rest of the sample. An interesting connection here: Venus figures were found in nearby southern Russia, which are somewhat younger, but look very similar to the Venus found in Austria. Genetic results also show that people in Central and Eastern Europe were connected to one another at this time. The exciting story of the Lower Austrian Venus could be continued. Only a few systematic studies have so far dealt with the existence of early humans in this time frame in the Alpine region, and with their mobility. The famous "Otzi," for example, only comes into play much later, namely 5,300 years ago. "We want to use these Venus results and our new Vienna research network Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, in cooperation with anthropology, archaeology and other disciplines, to further clarify early history in the Alpine region," concludes Weber. Explore further Venus will soon appear to sink and disappear right before our eyes More information: Gerhard W. Weber et al, The microstructure and the origin of the Venus from Willendorf, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Gerhard W. Weber et al, The microstructure and the origin of the Venus from Willendorf,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06799-z PLEASANTVILLE A local pastor brought his Black History Month teach-ins to a close by discussing strategies for combating residential segregation and inequality and creating a better future. Mount Zion Baptist Church hosted its fourth and final Black History Month symposium last Wednesday. The event further explored the series overarching theme of applying the lessons of Black history to reduce racial inequality and segregation in modern-day America. It centered on a discussion among Mount Zion senior pastor Willie Francois III and several academics who specialized in topics studying history, law and race. We are excited about concluding this experience with three phenomenal public thinkers, persons who fuel the work of justice through their scholarship, people who allow their classrooms to be places where freedom is practiced, Francois said, alluding to a quote from the late author bell hooks, who died in December. University of Minnesota History Professor William Jones reviewed the history of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which featured the famed I have a Dream speech from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The topic of his last book, Jones examined the economic goals of the march, particularly pointing to the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, a labor union activist. He said Black leadership in unions continues to have an effect on American society today. It was a march that was actually led by African American labor activists, Jones said. Im eager to talk more about that and to think about the ways in which I think that the lessons from that history remain very relevant for the moment that were living in today. Georgetown law professor Sheryll Cashin discussed her new book White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality, which analyzes how residential segregation and other forms of discrimination perpetuate inequality. She said living in high-poverty areas reduces social mobility and solidifies what she described as a socio-racial caste system. At the beginning of the event, Cashin played a prerecorded video about inequality and the need to combat disinvestment in Black neighborhoods. We overinvest in and exclude in affluent white space, and we disinvest and prey upon the people trapped in the hood, Cashin said in the video. Were more segregated now than we were 20 years ago at these polar extremes. Rutgers Law professor David Troutt, founder of the Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity, spoke about redlining, in which loans and other financing are denied to people living in certain neighborhoods, usually those that are predominantly Black. He discussed how discrimination in lending and insurance fixes neighborhoods on a path to intergenerational poverty and disinvestment. Modern research, Troutt said, indicates that areas subject to racial redlining continue to make for lower home values, concentrated poverty and struggling public services. Without lending, without financial institutions supporting a particular area, it would necessarily mean there was disinvestment there, because nobody, no rational investor is going to take on that much risk, Troutt said. When you have done this to an area, you have set a course ... that will very likely last for generations. Wealth builds upon wealth, and the absence of wealth recreates its own absence, Troutt said. Things like redlining are absolutely critical not as some sort of historical relic but really as a way of understanding the present. Troutt said redlining has had a lasting impact in both cities and predominantly Black suburbs. He said a case study done in the Newark metropolitan area indicated low homeownership rates and low housing appreciation in suburbs were eroding wealth and tax bases in New Jersey. Those same suburbs, meanwhile, were in need of new revenue due to an influx of residents being forced out of gentrifying neighborhoods of the city. Jones praised liberal and progressive policies for making neighborhoods more affordable, such as the rent control ordinance and universal basic income pilot that St. Paul, Minnesota, recently adopted. At the end of the event, Francois thanked his guests and reflected on all four weeks of the series. The guest for the first week was Virgil Wood, a 90-year-old civil rights activist who helped organize Virginian demonstrators for the March on Washington. The second-week guest was the Rev. C. Vernon Mason, a civil rights activist and former lawyer who represented Tawana Brawley during her controversial rape case. The third week featured a panel with guests including Century Foundation Fellow Michelle Burris; political strategist James Gee; and Tiffani Torres, a young-adult activist who called attention to education segregation in New York City when she was in high school. This has been four weeks of reflection, four weeks of imagination, Francois said. Weve gotten the opportunity to reflect and also use neural capacity to think about a world that weve never seen before. Contact Chris Doyle cdoyle@pressofac.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. PLEASANTVILLE The penultimate day of Black History Month was honored at a local church with art that brings people face-to-face with Black history. Mount Zion Baptist Church hosted a Black History Month art exhibit Sunday. Titled A Silent Protest: A Study in Charcoal: Movement & Memory, the one-day exhibit featured more than 30 charcoal portraits of civil rights leaders, Black Americans killed by police, as well as other figures in Black history. Mount Zion minister Tyrone Floyd, who is also a local artist and activist, drew the portraits and created the exhibit. Speaking at a ceremony Sunday before his work was officially unveiled, Floyd addressed his exhibits dual nature. He called it both an art show and a rally for justice. What youre about to see is 30 pieces that came from the heart, said Floyd, whose pen name is ChurchDude2020. The exhibit, which opened Sunday afternoon, drew attention from dozens of Mount Zion Baptist parishioners and visitors. People walked around the churchs WinSan Center and looked at each portrait. Floyd chose not to affix name tags for any of the portraits. He handed out a randomly ordered list of the figures drawn and called on people to remember for themselves who each portrait was. The pieces you are about to see, they dont have name tags on them, and that was for a specific reason, Floyd said. Sometimes we forget our history and we forget our past. Floyd, 62, has been drawing since he was a child, but only began honing his skills in 2020 after his retirement from construction work. He said he taught himself how to create his art after watching a series of instructional videos on YouTube about the subject. What I saw on YouTube is what Ive wanted to do since I was 12 years old, Floyd said. Now Ive figured it out. According to a short biography about Floyd given to exhibit attendees, his flair for activism was ignited when his father took him to the 1968 March on Washington for the Poor Peoples Campaign. Although he also paints using acrylics and oils, Floyd chose to use charcoal for the exhibit. He said the medium allowed him more freedom to creatively bring to life the faces of his heroes through Black history. The images he selected as models for his work, Floyd added, were selected to capture figures in unique moments of their lives. Overall, he created the pieces for the exhibit over the course of a year, spending weeks on some. He said he has additional pieces stored at his home. The biography noted his favorite artists included Jacob Lawrence, Claude Monet, Henry Ossawa Tanner and Vincent Van Gogh. The struggles of the latter with mental health helped inspire Floyd, who also suffers from depression. The Atlantic City Public Library, as well as the Atlantic City Boardwalk Art Show and the Shore Mall in Egg Harbor Township, have displayed Floyds work. The African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey, which recently visited Pleasantville Public Schools for Black History Month, put on his first display. Floyd said after the ceremony that he hoped the event would help build a community of Black artists in the surrounding area and inspire the production of more Black art. Theres a community of (Black artists) that is out there, and we dont know that were out there, Floyd said. The ceremony preceding the official unveiling began with an opening prayer and an unabridged rendition of the Black National Anthem, also known as Lift Every Voice and Sing.Several people who have long known Floyd spoke during the ceremony. Steve Young, the president of the South Jersey Chapter of the National Action Network, praised Floyd for his extensive work to promote activism and an appreciation of history. We want you all today to spread that word through art, Young said, referring to the voice of the unheard. Elder Charles Goddard compared the theme of the exhibit to the parable of the good Samaritan as a call to service for others, especially people who are marginalized. Thank God for you, the passion that you have, to share your gifts the way that youre sharing them, Goddard said. Floyd also credited his sisters, Avis Jackson and Florine Floyd-Jackson, for supporting him and helping organize the exhibit. Word of God Ministries pastor Bruce Johnson said he has known Floyd since he was a teenager. He said he was proud to see Floyd use his talents to contribute to important causes. When you actually see it, its amazing, Johnson said. I didnt know he had this talent. Unreal, added Stella Johnson, Bruces wife, who noted that Floyd produced all the pieces in the exhibit within one year. Bruce Johnson was also moved to see a portrait of their late friend Charles Jerkins, who is recently deceased.Dressler Smith, an artist from Pennsauken, Camden County, whose work includes stained-glass-window designs, attended the event. She said she was proud to see Floyd grow as an artist and his use of his artistic talent to preserve history and express his religious beliefs. Floyd, in turn, credited Smith with helping him develop his skills.The exhibit included a charcoal rendering of George Floyd, whose murder by then Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 set off months of nationwide protests against police brutality and unrest. Three other men who were police officers on the scene that day, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, were convicted Thursday in a federal trial for depriving George Floyd of his civil rights specifically his right to medical care. Other renderings on display included Ahmaud Arbury, whose murderers were convicted of federal hate crimes last Tuesday; and Trayvon Martin whose death occurred 10 years ago Saturday. Older historical figures included artists, such as writer James Baldwin and musician Sammy Davis Jr. Featured civil rights activists included Martin Luther King Jr.; Malcom X; and the three freedom riders killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964. There was also a portrait of Jesus Christ wearing the Crown of Thorns.Floyd said that despite the exhibit only being on display for one day, he hopes to have the exhibit against at Mt. Zioni next year but with more Black artists from the area featured. Contact Chris Doyle cdoyle@pressofac.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Bars, restaurants and liquor stores across North America are participating in an international boycott of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and some South Jersey stores are pouring their own time and resources into pro-Ukrainian efforts. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last week, several North American liquor outlets have joined a boycott of Russian vodkas and are embracing Ukrainian alternatives. Bootleggers Liquor Outlet in Northfield wrote a post on its Facebook page announcing the company would not be selling Russian vodka until further notice. Dave LeRoy, who works at Bootleggers, said Sunday it was the owners idea to join the boycott, due to Russias aggressive actions against a sovereign country. He expressed confidence the stores large variety of other vodkas including some from European countries such as Poland, Moldova, France, the Netherlands and Slovakia, as well as the United States meant the boycott would not adversely affect sales. Whether its going to send a message to the Russian leadership or not, I dont know, but it just shows our support for the Ukrainian people and what theyre going through, LeRoy said. LeRoy pointed to the large show of support the Facebook post announcing the change received. As of Monday afternoon, the post has garnered 622 like and love reactions, 392 shares and 119 comments the vast majority in support of the decision. He added an old patron who currently lives in Nebraska called to congratulate the store on its decision. LeRoy emphasized the store did not hold any antipathy toward the Russian people at large and only the nations leadership. The beef is not with the people of Russia, its with the actions of their leadership in Ukraine, LeRoy said. We have Russian customers who we welcome into the store with open arms, its their leadership and their government that right now is not acting too cool. LeRoy added that the store was considering different brands of Ukrainian vodka with which to stock Bootleggers. Although not scheduled to open for the spring and summer seasons until April 14, Harpoons on the Bay, a restaurant in the North Cape May section of Lower Township, is already moving to outfit its bar with Ukrainian vodka. Harpoons posted on its Facebook page Saturday it had placed an order for Khortytsa Ukrainian Vodka a grain vodka produced in the eastern European countrys mountains. Harpoons Managing Partner Brady Schoenrock told The Press on Sunday one of the owners of the restaurant was Ukrainian American and eager to show support for the embattled country. At Harpoons, we are very proud of our Ukrainian heritage, the Harpoons Facebook post said. In support of our brothers and sisters, who are so bravely defending their land, this season we will be featuring Khortytsa Ukrainian Vodka, handmade in the mountains of Ukraine. Please join us in praying for the Ukrainian people, the post added. The cover photo for the Harpoons Facebook page is currently a picture of the Ukrainian flag emblazoned with the phrase We Stand with Ukraine. Schoenrock noted Harpoons already stopped selling Russian vodka several years ago due to low demand. He said the restaurant nevertheless wanted to do something to honor the Ukrainian war effort. Instead of going the route of a boycott of Russian products, we decided to keep it positive, Schoenrock said. Instead, were going to do this little positive thing, and were going to promote a Ukrainian product. He also noted there is a large Ukrainian American community in the Cape May region. The new vodka order, he felt, would show support for both the war effort in Europe and local members of the Ukrainian diaspora. Schoenrock did say he was concerned the war could disrupt the production and shipment of Khortytsa Ukrainian vodka, and so had placed a bulk order. The efforts of South Jersey bars, liquor stores and restaurants to join the shift to Ukrainian vodka are part of a broader, North American effort. I woke up yesterday morning, and I saw that Russia had invaded Ukraine. You wonder what you can do, said Bob Quay, owner of Bobs Bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The U.S. obviously is putting on sanctions. I thought I would put on sanctions as well. So he rid his shelves of the old Soviet brand Stolichnaya and started promoting Ukraines Vektor. We have a sign above it that says: Support Ukraine. Quay announced the move on Facebook, and it blew up. Weve got people coming in whove never been in the bar before. Stoli, owned by the Russian-born tycoon Yuri Shefler, is actually made in Latvia a member country of NATO a Military alliance from which Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to ensure Ukraines exclusion. On its website, Stoli Group says it stands for peace in Europe and in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Some businesses in the South Jersey area were skeptical of efforts to boycott Russian vodkas and switch to Ukrainian brands. Kyle, a man working at the Mad Batters Restaurant & Bar in Cape May and declined to give his last name, said which vodka businesses sell would not change the course of the war or save the lives of the soldiers and civilians caught in its crossfire. (Mad Batters itself has not sold Russian vodka or any other product from Russia for years.) I think its a little silly to think a vodkas going to make any difference, Kyle said. People are losing their lives and children are left without parents. The Southern Spirits liquor store in Indian Land, South Carolina, is doing a booming business in the Ukrainian vodka Kozak after pulling Russian brands off its shelves. Its selling out a lot faster than we thought, said general manager Drew Podrebarac. Its been awesome. The Magic Mountain ski resort in Londonderry, Vermont, posted a video on Twitter showing an employee pouring Stolichnaya down the drain and saying: Sorry, we dont serve Russian products here. Governors entered the fray, too. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine directed the states Commerce Department to cease the purchase and sale of Russian Standard, the only Russian vodka sold in Ohio (under the brand names Green Mark and Russian Standard). New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order requiring state liquor outlets to remove Russian-made and branded alcohol, as did Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has released statements in support of the Ukrainian war effort and the Ukrainian American community in his state. Over the last few days, the Ukrainian people have shown that they will not bow to thugs like Vladimir Putin, Murphy said in a Twitter post Saturday. We stand with @ZelenskyyUa (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy) in supporting a free and independent Ukraine. In Canada, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario on Friday announced that all products produced in Russia will be removed from LCBO channels, including 679 of its stores across the province. It also promised to accept the return of any Russian products and declared that it stands with Ukraine, its people, and the Ukrainian Canadian community here in Ontario. In Grand Rapids, Quay said he may never sell Russian products again. And hes taken another step: Ive ordered a Ukrainian flag, and that will be going up next week. Russia fully invaded Ukraine Thursday, attacking with troops, artillery and air strikes from the countrys the north, east and south. The Thursday invasion is the culmination of eight years of Russian belligerence against its western neighbor, which began with the annexation of Crimea and the Kremlins support for pro-Russian separatist in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The United States and much of the West, as well as other countries from throughout the world, have rebuked Russia, imposing austere economic sanctions on various Russian entities, including the Russian Central Bank. The United States, the collective European Union and Britain, along with several other countries, are sending military aid to Ukraine. Putin responded to these steps Sunday, ordering his forces to increase the readiness of Russian atomic weapons. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Chris Doyle cdoyle@pressofac.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JERUSALEM, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Israel's natural gas and oil revenues hit a record of about 1.23 billion new shekels (380 million U.S. dollars) in 2021, said an annual report issued on Monday by the state's Energy Ministry. This is an increase of about 12.8 percent compared to the previous record of 1.09 billion shekels registered in 2020. The report includes revenue from royalties from natural gas, oil and minerals, as well as fees, which altogether amounted to 1.27 billion shekels in 2021. Israel's natural gas revenue came from the gas produced at Leviathan and Tamar fields in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the report. Thus, a total of 19.5 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas was produced from both fields in 2021, an increase of about 25.1 percent compared to 15.59 BCM in 2020, it added. The ministry said it expects an increase in total royalties and fees in 2022 to a new record of 1.36 billion shekels. Darrel Parker died Sunday, 66 years after his wrongful conviction for killing his wife on a snowy December day in Lincoln. And 52 years after his parole from the State Penitentiary. And 31 years after receiving a pardon. And a decade after getting what hed fought for most of his adult life an apology from the state, and a formal admission of his innocence. "You never give up hope, you never give up hope," Parker, then 80, said during an emotional news conference at the Capitol. I tell people, Now I can die in peace. He was joined that day by then-Attorney General Jon Bruning, who announced the state was paying Parker $500,000 the maximum allowed by law and ending his wrongful conviction and imprisonment lawsuit. "It became crystal-clear that Mr. Parker is innocent," Bruning said. "This was the most important thing I could do as attorney general, to right this wrong." The moment marked a symbolic end to a saga that had started Dec. 14, 1955, inside the Parker's small, city-owned house in Antelope Park. Parker, the citys first forester, returned home for lunch to find his wifes beaten, bound and strangled body. Nancy Parker had developed recipes for Goochs flour and noodles and hosted a cooking show on Channels 10/11. She had been addressing Christmas cards when he left for work that morning. Police picked up and released a well-known con. Then, days after Nancy Parker was buried, they interrogated Parker in a windowless room until he confessed. He recanted the next day, maintaining for the rest of his life hed been psychologically tortured, even drugged, to admit to a crime he didnt commit. The state would ultimately acknowledge that, but not before Parker spent 15 years in prison, argued his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, received parole in 1970 and a pardon in 1991. By then, hed remarried Ele and rebuilt his life in Moline, Illinois, working his way up to supervisor with the parks department, retiring from there, and taking a job with a law firm. He continued to try to clear his name. He hoped DNA testing would help, but he learned much of the evidence including hair and semen samples recovered from the crime scene had disappeared. His case got a boost in 2010, when Lincoln native and Colorado author David Strauss published Barbarous Souls, an investigation of the crime, Parkers conviction and his fight for exoneration. A year later, Lincoln attorneys Herb and Dan Friedman took up his case with a $500,000 lawsuit against the state under its then-recent wrongful conviction and imprisonment law. And a year after that, Nebraskas attorney general offered his apology. Parker accepted it. "It can't possibly make up for all those years," he said, adding: "I'm not bitter. I'm not built that way." Playing a role in clearing Parkers name was Dan Friedmans proudest moment in his legal career the most consequential accomplishment as a lawyer, he said Tuesday. To represent somebody who had been waiting 50 years for public justice and to know we brought the state of Nebraska to its knees and caused a wake-up moment, that was pretty humbling, he said. Friedman stayed in touch with his client, years after the case was over. So did Strauss, the Colorado author. The two became friends, and Strauss would take Parker on trips across the country to Parkers childhood home in northwestern Iowa, to watch the leaves turn in New England, to the Colorado mountains. Parker didnt dwell on the past, but Strauss could sense despite the exoneration and payment his friend remained haunted by the coerced confession that put him in prison for 15 years and cast a shadow over his name. It still bothered him, Im sure, up to the end, Strauss said Tuesday. On one of their trips, the two ended up in Lincoln. Parker asked Strauss to drive him to the penitentiary, where it all began in 1956. When they got there, he didnt recognize it. Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or psalter@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSPeterSalter Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 One man was critically injured late Sunday night in a stabbing in Rock Island. Rock Island officers were called around 9:45 p.m. to the 1400 block of 31st Avenue for a report of an aggravated battery, according to police reports. The victim is a 21-year-old. The wounded man, who was stabbed, was in critical condition as of Monday morning, police said. He was being treated in Iowa City. The attack is believed to be the result of a domestic dispute, police said. Israel Marcos Mejia, 19, Davenport, has been arrested on suspicion of committing the aggravated battery, according to police reports. He was arrested about 9:54 p.m. in the 1400 block of 31st Avenue. Mejia was in the Rock Island County Jail Monday morning, and scheduled to make a first appearance in court Tuesday, according to jail staff. Love 0 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The rollover crash that killed two people in Bettendorf early Saturday occurred about four hours before the wreckage was discovered, police said Monday. The vehicle had been occupied by two people and came to rest in a grove of trees on the east side of Interstate 74, just before the Spruce Hills Drive exit. It would not have been visible in the dark, Bettendorf Police Chief Keith Kimball said. No one reported the crash. Police believe it occurred around 2:30 a.m., Kimball said, but it was not discovered until about 6:30 a.m. An Iowa State trooper on routine patrol spotted the vehicle, a 2017 Audi A3, right around daybreak. The driver and passenger had been ejected from the car, which was destroyed. "It was really in bad shape," the chief said. "It was rolled, and they were ejected. If we got a call, it wouldn't have mattered. They were fatal injuries." The victims had not yet been identified Monday morning but were a 37-year-old woman from Bettendorf and a 28-year-old man from Davenport. Over the weekend, police canvassed the townhouses along Hawthorne Drive, which is just east of the crash site, the chief said. Investigators were questioning residents, and some reported hearing something early Saturday, but no one had information about the crash. At daylight, passing motorists saw first responders recovering the victims and removing the vehicle from the trees. "I was driving to work (Saturday) and passed the scene approximately 7:40 a.m.," said Nathan Bird, of Moline. "First responders were at the scene, police and fire department. I thought it was a traffic stop at first, but when I got closer, I started to get a bad feeling. As soon as I reached the scene and saw the car in the trees I said, 'Oh, my God. Oh no.' "... Im a former first responder and can handle seeing unfortunate things, but this accident is something that will stay with me for a while." Kimball said authorities used a drone to take aerial photographs. Even in the photos that were taken during daylight, he said, it was difficult to see the car in the wooded area along the fence line that separates the interstate from the residential area. "It was upside-down, tucked into the trees and a darker car," the chief said. "The trooper just happened to see it." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 3 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. UPDATE:The Red Cross was assisting four people affected by the incident, Brian Williamsen, a Red Cross spokesman, said Monday afternoon. The Davenport police had no new information to release on the crash as of 11:30 a.m. PREVIOUS STORY: Two residents of a Davenport home were injured late Sunday when a semitractor-trailer crashed into a house on Rockingham Road in Davenport. Four people were transported to the hospital early Monday morning after the crash. At 11:56 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022, Davenport Police, Fire Department and EMS personnel responded to reports of a multi-vehicle crash in the 3000 block of Rockingham, across the street from the Hy-Vee Grocery Store. According to a release from the Davenport Police Department, a Freightliner semitractor-trailer was eastbound on Rockingham when the driver lost control in the 3400 block. The truck struck a westbound Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, continued eastbound and struck a westbound Cadillac XTS, then struck a third car, a westbound Chevrolet Equinox in the 3000 block of Rockingham. The Equinox wound up at the intersection of Rockingham and South Concord Street, where a traffic light was knocked down. The semi then left the roadway, struck a building at 3018 Rockingham Road and came to rest inside a residence at 3010 Rockingham Road. Two females from the 3010 address were injured one was transported to Genesis Medical Center East, Davenport, with minor injuries, while the other was transported to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City with serious injuries, according to the news release. The driver of the Cadillac also self-transported to the hospital with minor injuries. The driver of the semi was treated for minor injuries at Genesis and was later released. The Red Cross assisted the impacted residents. No charges have been filed, but the incident remains under investigation. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. One person was critically injured Sunday in a fire at the former Scott County YMCA, 606 W. 2nd St. in Davenport, Davenport Fire Marshal Jim Morris said in a news release. Frank Klipsch IV, communications director of the YMCA of the Iowa Mississippi Valley, said Sunday that since that building was closed, people have broken into it for various reasons, either for shelter or to steal copper wiring or other things. Klipsch said they were working on getting the building demolished. In the meantime, he said the Ys maintenance crew has had to go to the old building several times to inspect it and secure it after a break-in. The old Scott County Y, built in 1963, was shut down after the opening of the new R. Richard Bittner YMCA in December 2020 at 630 E. 4th St., Davenport. Morris said firefighters were called to the scene at 1:39 p.m. The first truck on the scene reported a person in a window, with moderate smoke coming from the window. The person was rescued by firefighters. Firefighters broke into the building and quickly put out the fire that produced heavy smoke throughout the building. Firefighters searched the building but located no other victims. The injured person was taken to Genesis Medical Center East, Davenport, and then taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City by MedForce Aeromedical Transport. Morris said the person was in critical condition. The fire remains under investigation. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As Russia continued its assault on Ukrainian cities Sunday, Quad-Cities faith organizations prayed for peace and relayed support for Ukrainians and Russian protesters. Sylvia Roba, a Davenport resident who spoke Sunday in the sanctuary of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad-Cities, gets updates almost daily from friends living in western Ukraine or expats on how they and their families are faring. Sylvia and her husband, Bill Roba, made lifelong friends after living in western Ukraine for seven months in 2008. Bill, as a history professor at Scott Community College, was there on a Fulbright scholarship for teaching. Much of Russias assault is on eastern or central Ukrainian cities and Kyiv, the nations capital, and Sylvia said the fighting hasnt yet reached as serious of levels in her friends and their families cities. But, as Russia continues to encroach, Sylvia said, many of them plan to stay in Ukraine. One of my friends sent me this very long, passionate, very Ukrainian sort of thing about how shes not ever capitalizing Putin, Belarus, or Russia, because Ukrainians only capitalize proper nouns they have respect for, Sylvia told the online and in-person audience Sunday evening. Sylvia noted that Ukrainian military and civilian volunteers' efforts to fight for their country have slowed Russian advances, according to national news reports. When I was living there, I would give talks quite often, and at the end of my talk, I would always say so what is it you want people in the United States to know about you? Sylvia said. And the words were different, but the sentiment was always the same: Tell them were proud Ukrainians. Tell them we have things to offer the world, and tell them were not Russians and were not Slavs, differentiate us. So thats a message that I continue to bring, and I think theyre showing the world that they are Ukrainian. Theyre fighting. Rabbi Linda Bertenthal, of Temple Emanuel and Congregation Beth Isreal; Lisa Gaston, of Edwards UCC; Imam Mufti Qasim Siddqui Taskeer, of Muslim Community of the Quad Cities; and Rev. Jay Wolin of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities also prayed and spoke at the mixed in-person/online event Sunday in support of peace and for the people of Ukraine. Organized within the weekend, Bertenthal said the faith leaders wanted to"get people thinking and talking about Ukraine and figuring out what they could do to support Ukraine and also just support the Russian protesters. ... Our prayers go to try to heal the world, but our prayers are really intended to galvanize us to be the ones that go out and help." A list of resources put together by NPR point readers to nonprofits such as UNICEF, Doctors without Borders and a Ukranian nonprofit, Voices of Children, that helps children during the conflict. World Relief, which has an active branch in the Quad-Cities that has resettled thousands of refugees and families, said in a national statement that the United Nations expected as many as 5 million refugees could flee Ukraine in the continuing conflict. World Relief nationally has resettled more than 13,000 refugees from Ukraine in the past 18 years, according to the organization's website, though no one from Ukraine has yet been settled through the local branch. Sylvia read from a text conversation she had with a friend from Ukraine who now lives in Toronto, but who still has family in Drohobych, Ukraine, where Sylvia and Bill lived. The friend said there was a new threat from Belarus, and this time it was closer to her hometown. I said, Im so sorry; I cant imagine how this is for you, Sylvia said, reading from her phone. Were having a rally to support Ukraine this afternoon. She said, Thanks, we are very helpless, unable to help our families in Ukraine. In 2014, the Sylvia gave a talk in that same sanctuary in 2014 about the couples friends and experiences in Ukraine after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. She said she received written letters of support from Quad-Citians that she mailed on to her friends. This time, she said, she made an email ukraine20082022@gmail.com that people can send positive messages and words of support to, and Sylvia said shell get those to her friends in Ukraine. Asked what she wanted people in the U.S., especially in the Quad-Cities, to know about Ukraine, Sylvia said: Theres real people living in Ukraine who have hopes and dreams for their lives. That what I want you think about. So, keep on being visible, Sylvia said. Keep on being vocal. It really does matter to the people of Ukraine. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DES MOINES In a symbolic gesture of support for the Ukrainian people who are under Russian attack, Gov. Kim Reynolds has directed the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division to remove any Russian-produced alcoholic liquor products from its wholesale purchase list. Her order is unlikely to have much impact in Iowa even though Iowans purchased 2,024,662 gallons of vodka through the ABD in 2021. In the top 10 brands by gallons sold, there are five brands of vodka Titos, Hawkeye, McCormick, Smirnoff and Five OClock. However, Russian vodkas account for a very small portion of overall sales, spokesman Tyler Ackerson said Monday. Over the past 12 months, the sale of Russian vodka has totaled about $95,000 out of more than $93 million in vodka sales. Whiskey, led by Black Velvet Canadian Whiskey, is the drink of choice for Iowans based on ABDs gallons sold 2,117,237 in 2021. Sales of whiskey exceeded $168 million, according to ABDs annual report. Very few brands imported to the United States still are produced in Russia. Smirnoff vodka, for example, traces its roots to Moscow, but is distilled in the U.S. Stoli, which basically translates into capital city because it originated in Moscow, is distilled in Latvia as well as Russia and has its headquarters in Luxembourg, a NATO country. ABD has only three Russian vodkas permanently listed Russian Standard Original Vodka, Russian Standard Platinum Vodka and Hammer + Sickle Vodka, Ackerson said. Another three are considered special order on hand listing Russian Standard Imperia Vodka, Zu Bison Grass Vodka and Quadro Vodka. ABD has several Russian vodkas listed as special order. While Russian-made products that will no longer be available for purchase from the state wholesale operation, retailers are not required to cease sales of those products. Some retailers, bars and restaurants already have stopped offering Russian products in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Iowa is one of 17 states that controls the sale of alcoholic liquor at the wholesale level. Under Iowa law, ABD has the authority to determine the brands of alcoholic liquor products available for sale to retailers. Alcoholic liquor is sold by ABD to off-premises retailers, who then sell the products directly to consumers or to on-premises retailers, such as bars and restaurants. In issuing the order, Reynolds joins the governors of Utah, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania in making the symbolic gesture of support for Ukraine. Reynolds also has called for Iowa Sister States to end its relationship with Stavropol Krai, Russia, and provide recommendations for enhancing its sister state relationship with Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. More information on the delisting of Russian products will be available at the ABD website on or before March 1. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Responding to falling rates of severe COVID and to pandemic fatigue all over the country (actually the world), political authorities are declaring COVID an endemic infection (i.e., stable rates at an acceptable level). They are rescinding many or most of the interventions that, along with broad immunization, have "flattened the curve" with reasonable success. This has protected critical societal activities, especially the delivery of health care. Abundant evidence tells us that with increasing vaccination and targeted non-pharmaceutical interventions (especially indoor masking where herd immunity cannot be inferred), we can do most of what we want safely. In Scott County less than 65% of eligible people have received a full primary immunization and less than half have gotten the boosters that have been so effective at preventing bad outcomes with Omicronnot enough for complacence. Public health professionals, including this one, are cautious. Omicron is the current variant, but a gambler would get long odds betting on it to be the last. And the next may be more virulent and better able to evade the high levels of protection from serious illness currently afforded by boosted vaccination and hybrid immunity (infection coupled with vaccination). SARS-CoV-2 is not yet endemic. Remember that Omicron is still causing more than 2,000 daily U.S. deaths among the unvaccinated and those unable to respond optimally to vaccination due to age or underlying illnesses. We have had successive spikes of infection, including the spectacular Omicron wave these past two months. Thankfully, Omicron came in the context of somewhere in the range of 70-80% population immunity from combinations of vaccination and infection. This has kept most Omicron infections and reinfections from making people seriously ill. While it may also be intrinsically less dangerous, Omicrons sheer numbers still maxed out hospital capacity sickening the unvaccinated and those unable to respond to immunization. Evolution of the virus continues, so there is no good reason to expect that spikes are done, nor to be confident we will get as "lucky" with future variants as we did with Omicron. A more virulent strain that evades immunity as effectively as has Omicron may take us back to the "bad old days" with dizzying speed. Effective new antiviral drugs are trickling out but are still in short supply. They are not panaceas as they are challenging to get to infected folks fast enough to be most effective. Knowledge on the need for and timing of additional boosters and reformulated vaccines is advancing, but very preliminary. Beyond the acute effects of COVID, new research suggests that rates of clinical cardiovascular disease may have doubled in the year after even mild natural infection of U.S. veterans. We have not yet come to a good understanding of the burden that symptoms persisting for many months after even mild COVID (so called "long COVID") will impose on our quality of life, productivity and health care systems. Believing that anything but the minimal reasonably achievable level of transmission is acceptable is not responsible. There have been many recent changes in COVID test and case reporting requirements in Iowa and across the country, so the metrics we have used throughout the pandemic are no longer an accurate picture of community burden. The availability of home tests (a good thing) that are not reported to public health and removal of the legal requirement for labs to report negative test results (at least in Iowa) makes case counts and test positive rates unreliable. In response, CDC has developed and is rolling out new surveillance measures. They integrate COVID-infected hospital admissions and the hospital resources used for COVID patients with community rates. They have been validated to estimate trends in cases several weeks into the future, which should allow proactive interventions at the local level to protect the ability to deliver critical services as the pandemic evolves. A community level ranking of low, medium or high is derived and can be tied to recommendations for mitigation strategies at the county level. The focus is on the prevention of severe illness in the most vulnerable populations. At the time of drafting this piece, Scott County has entered "low status" and the health department recommends following the CDC guidance. The new measures and a U.S. county map can be reviewed on the CDC website (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/community-levels.html). An investment in persistent vigilance, i.e., exercising caution into the warm weather when people are less crowded indoors, will make many of us breathe easier (literally). The elderly and those with immune systems injured by diseases or their treatment respond less well to immunization or infection and their combination than do younger and healthier cohorts. So, they need to maintain a high level of caution that includes boosted immunization, rapid testing and treatment and reasonable use of the simple measures we have recommended throughout the pandemic (masking and distancing). Dr. Louis Katz is medical director of the Scott County Health Department and an infectious diseases specialist. The opinions herein are his and may not reflect official positions of the health department. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Health care provided by the IHS Rapid City Service Unit at Sioux San Hospital was transferred Friday to the Oyate Health Center, which is operated by the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board. We welcome this opportunity to participate in the transition from federal to tribal program operations on behalf of IHS beneficiaries in the Rapid City Area, IHS Acting Deputy Director Elizabeth Fowler said in a press release. The Rapid City Service Unit primarily serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. In 2019, IHS and the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board entered into an agreement for the health board to assume the tribes portion of the programs, functions, services and activities under Title I of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. The Oyate Health Center will now provide comprehensive primary care, specialty services, and community-based services in Rapid City. We remain committed to providing access to quality health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives in the Great Plains Area, said IHS Great Plains Area Acting Director Capt. Brent Rohlfs. We will continue to work with the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board to provide a smooth transition for all patients. Patients who require care beyond the capabilities of the Rapid City Service Unit will be referred to outside providers. Patients in need of emergency services will be transferred to Monument Health Rapid City Hospital, which is approximately four miles away. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 3 Sad 0 Angry 0 Anger and violence directed at health care workers is adding great stress on practitioners already enduring the pain and hardship of providing care during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. In South Dakota, they have been called names, threatened at work and home, had items thrown at them, and occasionally even endured physical violence. Ashley Kingdon-Reese of Huron is a nurse who provides at-home care and runs a nursing consultancy. She recently experienced violence while providing care to one of her patients. The patient grew angry after being told to wear a mask at the clinic, she said. She jumped out of bed, pushed me against the wall and bit me in my thigh and I had to do what I could to get her off me, said Kingdon-Reese, who serves as the government relations committee chair for the South Dakota Nurses Association. Part of it was obviously behavioral health, but the other part was she didnt want to wear a mask and she was very big into social media that said, You cant tell me what to do." Dr. Kara Dahl, a physician in the emergency room at the Sanford Aberdeen Medical Center, said that incidents of inappropriate, threatening or violent behavior has been on the rise since the pandemic began. You can almost guarantee that youre going to be name-called or disrespected in some capacity at least once a week, said Dahl, president of the South Dakota Medical Association. The frequency of getting to the magnitude of calling security is rising at such an alarming rate, its no longer just an occasional thing. Many health care practitioners see the rise in anger as an outcome of the political polarization surrounding COVID-19 and the rise of misinformation campaigns by conservative television and radio commentators and on social media. I think its reasonable to say that there are people leaving health care because of this, because for many people there are easier ways to make a living than being verbally or sometimes physically assaulted, said Dr. Jeremy Cauwels, chief physician of Sanford Health in Sioux Falls. Officials and health care providers at Monument Health in Rapid City have been the target of a recent protest campaign by the wife of a man who has been receiving treatment in the COVID-19 ward at the hospital. The woman has criticized the care her husband has received in numerous online videos and postings. She has held signs outside the hospital, posted the name and phone number of the Monument Health patient liaison, and urged people to call and complain on her behalf. The womans social media posts call the coronavirus a bio-weapon launched against Americans, refers to the pandemic as a scamdemic and insists that Monument employees receive financial bonuses for each patient assigned to the COVID ward and for each person who dies of COVID-19 at the hospital. Kingdon-Reese has begun to worry that unless the anger abates, nursing positions and other health care jobs may go unfilled. In that case, she said, health care may become dominated by less experienced or less well-trained workers. Because of this, were losing an industry that everybody needs, she said. Everyone in their life is going to need health care at some point. Survey results published in August 2020 in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that nearly a quarter of all physicians who responded had endured personal attacks on social media. Female physicians were more likely to report online sexual harassment. National Nurses United, a professional association with 175,000 members across the U.S., surveyed 15,000 registered nurses in late 2020 and found that 20% had faced increased workplace violence since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Nearly 80% of nurses reported higher stress levels, about two-thirds reported feeling sad or depressed, and more than half had difficulty sleeping since the pandemic hit. News reports have highlighted the increase in violence and the rising concerns. A hospital group in Missouri provided panic buttons to 400 nurses; a nurse in Colorado had an unknown liquid thrown at her while working at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic; and many hospitals are advising workers not to leave work while wearing scrubs that identify them as health care workers. Monument Health in Rapid City has a Workplace Violence Committee that meets monthly or more frequently to discuss recent incidents but mostly to develop strategies to reduce tension or potential violence, said Nicole Kerkenbush, director of nursing at Monument Health. We look for ways we can prevent these situations from happening at all, she said. But also, how do we make sure people know how to react when they do happen? The hospital group has provided training in de-escalation techniques and on how to react when tension arises. The group holds regular meetings among security officials and employees to develop strategies to identify potential hotspots for tension and to develop ways to protect employees and patients. Additionally, the hospital has erected a series of posters that urge people to Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space. The posters also note that, Your words matter. Your behaviors matter. Our patients and teams matter. Take a slow, deep breath and make sure your energy is in check before entering. Kerkenbush doesnt rule out that misinformation or political views on the pandemic are driving some of the inappropriate behavior. However, she said her belief is that the rise in tense or angry incidents among patients and family members is being driven mostly by the overall stress caused by COVID-19. Its mostly people who are worn out or stressed or angry, as theyre not here in the hospital because theyre having their best day ever, she said. Cauwels said that the politicization and misinformation surrounding COVID-19 have created distrust in the medical community that is unprecedented. With cancer or pneumonia, you dont try to pick your own treatments; instead you defer to the expertise of the expert in the room, he said. My recommendation would be that since you would trust us to make profound medical decisions and do things like transplant your liver, or do surgery on your heart, you can trust us again to make these decisions in the case of COVID or any other illness when you come into the hospital, because its what were trained to do and these are the decisions were trained to make. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 6 Angry 1 HOHHOT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Erenhot, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, has seen a significant rise in China-Europe freight trains so far this year, according to the local railway authorities. Since Jan. 1, the port has handled a total of 503 China-Europe freight trains, up 27.9 percent from the same period last year. The 500th China-Europe freight train this year passed through the port at 1 p.m. Monday, a milestone that took 18 fewer days to accomplish than last year. The number of inbound trains totaled 232, up 33.3 percent, while the number outbound trains reached 271, a rise of 23.6 percent. The port in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region now serves 54 China-Europe freight-train routes, connecting over 60 overseas destinations across more than 10 countries. The Salvation Army has a long-standing presence in Ukraine and neighboring countries. The Salvation Army in Ukraine is distributing food, transportation, baby supplies, hygiene and other essential supplies to families in and around Ukraine. Additionally, the Salvation Army is providing temporary shelter, hot meals and WIFI to displaced individuals who are in neighboring countries including Poland and Moldova. The Salvation Army of the Black Hills encourages anyone who would like to support these efforts to donate to https://salarmy.us/ukrainecrisis. The Salvation Army World Service Office is raising funds to help Salvation Army teams in the region meet the growing needs. Over the weekend, Salvation Army officers, staff and volunteers cared for individuals and families who have been displaced by Russian attacks on Ukraine. Roads were closed, so Salvation Army personnel in Siret, a Romanian city near the Ukraine border, walked about two miles to help those in need. Meanwhile, youths in Moldova packed care kits with hygiene items and other essentials for Ukrainian refugees. The international leader of The Salvation Army, General Brian Peddle, has called for renewed prayer over the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Please pray for peace in this troubled time; pray for the safety of those who are fleeing and for those who are already displaced; pray that there will be adequate hospitality from neighbor countries; pray for faith and courage for every Christian and especially for our officers and soldiers; pray for the de-escalation of the battle so that the threat to life is no longer a reality; and pray that leaders will find a way to dialogue and find a peaceful decision, Peddle said. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 " " Jenni Field /Flickr/(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) King cake is made of rich brioche dough and covered in green, purple and gold sprinkles. America is a land of traditions, both homegrown and borrowed, that mark its beloved holidays with glee, cheer and occasionally mouth-watering desserts. Enter king cake the frosted coffeecake-like sweet roll typically eaten between Jan. 6 and Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. It's a staple of Mardi Gras, as well as the Christian celebration of Epiphany. For those familiar with this festive dessert, it's typically, made of rich brioche dough and a variety of fillings think cinnamon, chocolate and cream cheese. It's always covered in a glaze and gold, green and purple sprinkles. Advertisement Of course, part of the king cake eating experience involves finding a tiny plastic baby buried within the layers of this frosted doughy treat. So why is there a baby baked into the king cake? The origins come from another world and another time. And yes, there are kings involved. Some say king cake is named in honor of the Three Wise Men in the Bible. And in the U.S., king cake is eaten beginning Jan. 6, which happens to be Three Kings Day to celebrate when the three Magi found baby Jesus and gave him gifts. NPR reports that eating a wreath-shaped or oval cake to honor the Three Kings has roots in Old World Spain and France that were transported to America sometime during the mid-19th century. A plastic baby figurine is hidden within the cake, supposedly causing good luck for whoever finds it. (Some try everything to avoid getting the baby because it also means they're responsible for bringing next year's king cake to the party.) But others say the tradition started when a cake was served with a bean (perhaps a fava bean) or ring baked inside to celebrate the kickoff of the king's ball during colonial times in Louisiana. The person whose slice had the bean was crowned king or queen of all the balls until the grand finale on Mardi Gras. It wasn't until the 1950s that a baker named Donald Entringer began putting little plastic (though some say porcelain) babies in the cakes in lieu of fava beans, and the tradition we now know was born (um, no pun intended). So, what's with the crazy coloring on those king cakes? In keeping with the overall positive messaging of the surrounding holidays, king cakes are traditionally colored purple, gold and green the royal colors of Mardi Gras to represent justice, power and faith. There are a number of different recipes on how to make the cake, but most people just buy them from their local bakery or order one online. When it comes time to eating a king cake, it's usually eaten "family style" with everyone peeling off layers like a coffeecake and sharing at once. Though king cakes are available for only a few weeks of the year, the luck bestowed on those who end up with the tiny, plastic baby in their slice is meant to last for the rest of months to come. NOW THAT'S INTERESTING The Cajun community takes the celebratory cake to the next level by filling the center with cream cheese and praline and deep-frying it to golden perfection. Advertisement Originally Published: Jan 28, 2020 A battle over a Congolese statue owned by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has thrust the local museum into the international spotlight. The item in question is a wooden statue of Maximilien Balot that is currently on display in the African art galleries at the VMFA. Balot was an abusive Belgian colonizer who was murdered in an uprising in the Congo in 1931. Later, a sculpture of the European oppressor was carved in wood by a native artist, to contain and control the Belgians spirit, in accordance with the beliefs of the Pende people. The VMFA purchased the Balot sculpture from collector Herbert F. Weiss in March 2015 for $25,000. An art museum in the Congo called the White Cube has accused the VMFA of stonewalling requests for a loan of the Balot sculpture, an object it says belongs to the Congolese people. After 18 months of trying to obtain the Balot statue on loan with no success, the White Cube decided to go a different route. Last month, the White Cube decided to mint digital images of the Balot statue known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs and sell them to raise funds and buy back land in Congo. A group associated with the museum, the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League also known as CATPC describes this as digital restitution. We received a letter from the director of the VMFA stating that the requested loan was regrettably not possible, without any opening as to when it would be possible, said Cedart Tamasala, part of the group. This is when CATPC decided to investigate alternative opportunities to get back the power of the sculpture. To create the NFT, the White Cube took an image of Balot from the VMFAs website without the VMFAs permission. The Virginia Museum of Arts open-access policy specifically applies only to non-commercial use. The image used to create the NFT was lifted directly from VMFAs website without the museums permission and is being used for commercial purposes, Jan Hatchette, a spokesperson for the VMFA, said via email. Its use for financial gain as an NFT violates our open access policy. It is both unacceptable and unprofessional. The controversy between the VMFA and the White Cube has already been written about in The Guardian, a daily British newspaper, and Artnet.com, an art market website. This has become a big issue in the art world over the past several years, said Amy L. Rector, an associate professor of anthropology at VCU. Were seeing this at Western art museums that own art as a result of colonization. Its leading to bigger conversations such as, whose art is it? Who should own it? Who should benefit from it? And who should get to make those decisions? *** The White Cube is a small 1,290-square foot museum built in the town of Lusanga in Congo. Its construction was finished in 2019, with final stages of climate control and security completed in April 2021. It looks exactly like its name: a white, angular cube located in the middle of an abandoned plantation. The White Cube was established by CATPC, a cooperative of plantation workers, along with the help of the Dutch artist Renzo Martens, who helped secure funding for the White Cube building, which was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas firm OMA. The idea behind the White Cube is part of a masterplan conceived to support a new art economic model that includes local Congolese labourers in arts creation and profit sharing, according to the museums website. Martens most recent collaboration with the White Cube is a series of six short documentaries that tell the story of the White Cube, the artists in CATPC and their connection to the Balot sculpture. The documentaries can be viewed on Martens website for the Institute for Human Activities. We built our own museum. Inside, its still empty, Tamasala, one of the artists of CATPC, says in the documentary. Right now, theres one specific sculpture we need. It has to come back. Its the sculpture our ancestors made of Balot. Tamasala said that the White Cube wanted to bring the Balot statue back to the Congo to rekindle our relation with our heritage, and retrieve the powers that are contained in the sculpture. In February 2020, Tamasala and fellow artist Matthieu Kasiama traveled to the VMFA, where they met with Richard Woodward, the founding curator of VMFAs African art collection. In the documentary, Tamasala and Kasiama asked if the statue could be loaned to the White Cube. Watch the video here: That would be a very interesting possibility to explore to be able to share the work back, said Woodward. As a museum that cares for the preservation of these objects we go through certain formalities about an agreement and shipping and display. You know, conditions of security and things like that. The VMFA said Woodward was retired at the time of the interview. According to the VMFA, a formal loan request for the statue from the Institute for Human Activities , where Martens is artistic director, was received on March 19, 2021. At that time, the White Cube building was not yet complete and the VMFA could not commit to lend the sculpture, Hatchette said. CATPC said it requested the sculpture from the VMFA for 18 months, to no avail. The group said thats when it decided to create an NFT of the Balot sculpture. CATPC describes minting the Balot sculpture as an NFT as one of the first global instances of digital restitution. The Balot NFT will put digital ownership of culture back into the hands of the many and helps buy back land once stolen and exhausted In a radical new model of restitution, blockchain-based NFT technology becomes a tool for decolonization. The group plans to put 300 Balot NFTs on the market later this year. The goal is to use the funds to buy back land on the former Unilever plantation where they live and where the White Cube is located. They have already bought back around 100 hectares of land once controlled by Unilever, according to Artnet. Buyers [of the NFT] get a digital rendering of the sculpture, based on photographic reproduction from the VMFAs website, it says on the Institute for Human Activities website. Every purchase helps to ultimately unleash the powers of the sculpture and make it work for the community: sales directly buy back land and [provide] autonomy and food security for plantation workers in one of the most impoverished areas of the world. This gesture is a bit of a renegade, do-it-yourself attitude. If the VMFA wasnt going to loan the statue, CATPC decided to create its own version of the statue via a series of NFTs. Indeed, a handful of museums are entering the blockchain space and minting NFTs as a mode of fundraising and monetizing digital collections, such as The British Museum and the Uffizi Gallery in Italy. According to the IHA website, CATPC intends to use the window of opportunity that is offered by NFT digital ownership to claim lost art and restitute its functions: by using NFTs the powers of these objects can be reclaimed, even if the physical art is held by unwilling museums. Impoverishment on the plantations is rampant: it is now essential that local communities make use of this technology and control the powers of their lost art, rather than the institutions that were built on the exploitation of their labour and culture. We believe it is fair use for us to download the image from the VMFA website, Tamasala said via email. This image is the only way to get access to a sculpture that intellectually and artistically belongs to our community. *** The controversy puts the VMFA in an uncomfortable position in the media spotlight, particularly for a museum that has publicly said that it intends to be one of the top three museums in the world for African American art. The Guardian noted that the controversy highlights tensions between Western art museums displaying artifacts from the colonial era and the countries from where the works were taken. In my opinion, the answer from the VMFA should have been, Of course we will get this statue back to you. Lets work on the best way to do that, VCUs Rector said. But hidden in those discussions is the way that Western art museums maintain this colonial perspective of, Were not going to give it to you until your facility is as secure as we want it to be, or, You havent given us enough information for a loan. To me, thats the responsibility of an art museum. To make sure that those who are tied to this piece of artwork and who find meaning in it can get access to it. The VMFA said that they never received actual loan dates from White Cube, which was still under construction when the museum first contacted the VMFA and could not provide a facilities report that met museum standards. The VMFA added that the NFT had to have been planned for some time, at least as early as November 2021. This shows bad faith on their part since we were in regular email contact for almost two years. The VMFA said it no longer intends to loan the Balot sculpture for exhibition at the White Cube gallery because unfortunately, the minting of the NFT has broken all trust between VMFA and the exhibition organizers, Hatchette said. We are sad ... that the museum qualifies us as unprofessional and that the VMFA director no longer intends to loan the work to CATPC for an exhibition at White Cube, Tamasala said via email. We could turn this around. Is it professional for the director of the VMFA to not even be interested in having a professional conversation about cultural heritage with the source community? Is it professional to not seriously answer a loan request? Tamasala asked. While the Balot sculpture is currently on view at the VMFA in the African art galleries, it will be on loan to the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C., from Aug. 1 of this year until Aug. 1, 2023. The VMFA has been in the middle of similar conflicts before. In 2018, the VMFA returned a painting Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Nicholas of Tolentino and Sebastian, that had been stolen by the Nazis, to its original Jewish owners. Since The Guardian and Artnet articles were published, the VMFA has said that it is conducting more research into the Balot sculpture. We are currently in the process of working with various partners to ensure that this matter is handled appropriately, a spokesperson said. VMFA takes seriously, and responds to, all restitution claims for works in our collection. We have not received a claim from the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the Balot sculpture, a spokesperson for the VMFA said. Tamasala said his groups stance is unchanging. The sculpture was made to resist forced labor. We still need the sculpture, he said. If the VMFA says it no longer intends a loan request, one may question whether the VMFA has the skills and knowledge to conserve this sculpture at all. A Henrico County man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for fatally stabbing a close friend, a disabled Army veteran, inside his Chesterfield County apartment in 2019. More than a decade ago, the same man was charged in a 1991 murder-for-hire case that was never prosecuted. Ahead of his scheduled three-day jury trial, Rodney M. Powell, 49, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from first-degree to the slaying of Clarence H. Click Fowlkes in January 2019. He was found naked and dead by relatives, with a recliner on the top of him. Powell also pleaded guilty to stealing Fowlkes 2016 Kia Soul, which police located two days later outside a Petersburg hotel. Detectives arrested Powell after he left the hotel with a woman. In accordance with a plea agreement, Chesterfield Circuit Judge Steven C. McCallum sentenced Powell to 40 years in prison, with 22 suspended on the murder charge, and 10 years with 10 suspended on the grand theft auto count. In exchange for his guilty pleas, prosecutors dropped a third charge of destroying evidence. Initially he denied having anything to do with Fowlkes murder, but Powell later admitted to police he had scuffled with the victim and things went too far. Fowlkes was fatally stabbed in the chest with chemical burns on his body after being soaked with bleach, according to evidence. Family members who discovered Fowlkes body were further shocked to learn that Powell whom they have known for 25 to 30 years had been one of three defendants charged in the 2007 murder-for-hire killing of two Food Lion employees who were fatally shot in Chesterfield County in 1990. For unknown reasons, the charges were withdrawn while he was serving a federal prison term in Marianna, Fla., for check fraud. According to a summary of evidence provided to the court by Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Shawn Gobble, Chesterfield police received a phone call around 9:20 p.m. on Jan. 14, 2019, from Fowlkes apartment at 702 Chinaberry Drive. Family members reported they found Fowlkes dead and, when officers arrived, they immediately smelled a strong odor of bleach and observed evidence of a struggle. The family told police Fowlkes was last seen alive the day before and made several attempts to reach him the next day, to no avail, which they said was highly unusual. Family and friends then went to Fowlkes apartment and noticed his car was missing; knocks on his door and calls to his cellphone went unanswered. They eventually obtained a spare key to the apartment; discovered him dead inside and called 911. Family members advised police that Powell was the last person known to be staying with Fowlkes. Police began searching for Fowlkes car and located it at a Petersburg hotel, where they set up a surveillance operation. After Powell was arrested during a traffic stop, he initially told detectives that he had been staying with Fowlkes over the weekend, but left because Fowlkes said he was going to have people visiting. Police obtained a sample of Powells DNA which was compared with fingernail clippings of Fowlkes taken during his autopsy. Forensic scientists determined Powells DNA was present on the clippings. In April 2007, Powell was indicted in Richmond on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and felony use of a firearm in the 1991 killing of Matthew Boykins, who was found fatally shot in the San Souci Apartments in South Richmond. Powell was 18 years old when Boykins was slain. Boykins, as it turned out, had been identified years later by police as one of three suspects in the 1990 robbery and execution-style murders of two Food Lion employees, who were found inside a dairy cooler at the store at 6425 Iron Bridge Road. At the time of Powells 2007 indictment, police said they believed he had been hired by William T. Wallace one of the suspects in the Food Lion killings to kill Boykins, his accomplice, because he feared Boykins would betray him to police. Wallace allegedly paid Powell with drugs. Wallace was indicted on capital murder and other charges in the 2007 Food Lion killings and found guilty by a Chesterfield jury in 2008; he was sentenced to life in prison. Wallace was also indicted in Richmond in the death of Boykins and another man. But after Wallace was convicted in Chesterfield, Richmond prosecutors opted not to prosecute him for the city killings, saying it would be impractical since he is already spending the rest of his life behind bars. Richmond prosecutors also withdrew all charges against Powell, who at the time was serving a federal prison sentence in the Boykins slaying. They had the option of reinstating the charges against Powell at some point, but never pursued them. Legislation barring school divisions from implementing student mask mandates goes into effect Tuesday. The bill gives parents the ability to send their children to school with or without masks, although individual policies still differ across school systems. Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the bill on Feb. 16, but gave school divisions until March 1 to transition to the new policy. School divisions have already begun to adjust their mask protocols. Debates on changing the mask policy in Chesterfield started with Youngkins second executive order, mandating schools eliminate their mask mandates, giving parents the authority to decide whether their child wears a mask. Henrico County Public Schools adjusted its student mask practices Feb. 17. A school spokesperson said theyve had no issues while transforming their mask policy thus far. Although mask use varies from school to school, an HCPS spokesperson said that students are treating each other respectfully as they go about day-to-day learning. HCPS continues to require visitors and guests to wear face masks indoors at schools and offices. Henrico County Public Schools remains focused on the health of our 49,000 students and 10,000 employees, HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell said in a statement. Fortunately, our community has reached a milestone where rising vaccination rates and declining numbers of new COVID cases sync with new CDC recommendations and state laws regarding mask use in schools. While we know the pandemic is not over, we are encouraged to be moving forward together safely. Cashwell added,Our goal has always been to maintain safe and respectful classrooms where all students are engaged in their learning without conflict over face masks. Hanover already made masks optional for students in January. They sent a message Sunday noting that employees and visitors are no longer required to wear a mask in school buildings. Also, masks are no longer required on buses or in school vehicles, in accordance with the latest recommendations from the CDC. Richmond Public Schools sent out a message to the community regarding their mask policy, reiterating that their mask-optional policy only applies to students, not adults. All adults staff, partners, and visitors must still abide by our mask mandate, RPS said in a statement. Parents and caregivers are required to alert the school system in advance about changes to a childs mask status. To do so, they must send an email to COVIDrps@rvaschools.net and indicate the students name and school. If a parent or caregiver does not submit a request to the above email, students must continue to wear a mask. House Republicans on Monday killed legislation intended to kick start the legal sale of recreational marijuana in Virginia, arguing that there is not enough time to perfect the complex legislation, while promising to address it next year. Virginia last year became the first state in the South to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, an effort led by Democrats, who then had sweeping power. Lawmakers in 2021 punted the creation of a new legal market to the current session in an effort that appeared to fail on Monday. Republicans, who took control of the House this year, had shown reluctance to move decisively on the issue and did not pass a measure of their own. Senate Bill 391 from Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, would have launched sales by medical providers and hemp processors in September; it was the only viable bill on the topic. Mondays move means that possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and sharing among adults will remain legal in Virginia, but selling the drug outside of the medical context will still be prohibited. Ebbin and other Democratic lawmakers argued that delaying the creation of a legal market will encourage the illicit market to grow beyond the point that it can be reined in down the line. We are basically providing a year for the growth and strengthening of the illicit market, said Del. Dawn Adams, D-Richmond. Before watching his bill die, Ebbin said the question before the committee was whether Virginias cannabis environment would be a regulated, confined marketplace for adults or a foreign-import, crime-subsidization program proliferating in school yards and gas stations. Democratic leaders in the House chided GOP leaders, arguing that failing to launch a regulated market would leave Virginians vulnerable to an unregulated product. House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, said Democrats left Republicans with a great big mess when they legalized marijuana without developing policy to erect the legal market. Last year, Democrats in the House and Senate could not come to an agreement on how to structure the legal market and deferred the work for this year. They faced an unexpected turn of events when the GOP took control of the House in the November elections. We are left having to clean up their mess and we will not make it worse by rushing to fix it, Gilbert said. During Mondays hearing, Del. Jeff Campbell, R-Smyth, questioned whether Ebbins proposal was the correct vehicle for creating a legal market in Virginia, if in fact its what we wish to do. Republicans, including Gov. Glenn Youngkin, made clear they did not intend to roll back marijuana legalization in Virginia during the current legislative session, but it remains unclear what they see as the future for marijuana policy in Virginia. I think this is a bigger issue than we can correct in two weeks time, Campbell said. The imperative is that we continue to study this over the year trying to get this right. Del. Emily Brewer, R-Suffolk, said there are still a lot of cross-wires on this issue. The subcommittee she chairs voted 5-3 along party lines to punt Ebbins bill to 2023. Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter reiterated that the governor does not want to overturn legalization of marijuana but has serious concerns about the original legislation. The House and Senate have been unable to make progress on these issues, Porter said. The Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which supported the bill, called it an incredible disappointment. The only benefit with the failure of this legislation was to the illicit market, said JM Pedini, the executive director of Virginia NORML. Pedini noted that in 2020, Virginia had the fourth-largest illicit market in the nation, encompassing about $1.8 billion in sales, or 3% of the estimated $60 billion national market, according to New Frontier Datas U.S. Cannabis Report. Undoubtedly, that will only grow as we continue to exist in this no mans land between legalization and retail sales. Gracie Burger of the Last Prisoner Project, a criminal justice reform advocacy group, said Ebbins bill would have also addressed concerns around the racially disparate enforcement of marijuana laws. The bill would have downgraded some misdemeanors to civil penalties, ended some marijuana-related mandatory minimum sentences and created a path for resentencing people serving sentences for marijuana-related crimes. Meanwhile, Marijuana Justice, a group that has been advocating for marijuana legalization in Virginia on Monday expressed support for Republicans decision. The group had expressed concerns that the legislation Senate Democrats were considering would allow medical processors an advantage in the new market over social justice licensees businesses founded by people impacted by the prohibition of marijuana and the racially disparate enforcement. They also opposed the creation of new criminal penalties for possession of amounts between an ounce and a pound. We saved Black residents of Virginia from being targeted by new possession crimes in Virginia, said Marijuana Justices Chelsea Higgs Wise said. Resentencing House Republicans on Monday declined to kill a separate bill that would let people serving sentences for marijuana-related crimes to request that those terms be recalibrated. Sens. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, and Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, introduced Senate Bill 745. In a hearing Monday afternoon, a House panel moved the bill forward suggesting room for compromise. Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, who chairs the House courts panel, said the committee was prepared to kill the bill Monday. But, he said, the bill is part of broader politicking between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, and would be discussed further before Friday, when the House courts panel will finish its work. Before moving it forward, the committee substituted Surovells proposed language for resentencing with language that instead called for a government study on the issue. Bell said it was essentially placeholder text. Virginias space program is on track with its next launch from the Eastern Shore to resupply the International Space Station, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has clouded the long-term horizon for rockets that depend on Russian engines and Ukrainian first-stage core assemblies. The Antares rocket launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island on Feb. 19. It was the 17th resupply mission to the ISS under a pair of private contracts with NASA most of them from the state-owned launch pad on the barrier island of the Atlantic Ocean. On Monday, Virginia Space CEO Roosevelt Mercer said he expected the next Antares launch in August to remain on track, on schedule, despite concerns about the future of a space station that relies on cooperation between the United States and Russia, now in a tense standoff over Ukraine. We share the concern about what this is going to mean, said Mercer, a retired U.S. Air Force general. Last year, he became CEO of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which operates the regional spaceport. Virginia has a stake in the outcome because of a $160 million state investment in the spaceport. Its three launch pads serve a number of different customers, including Northrop Grumman the Fairfax County company conducting the space station supply missions under contract with NASA. Northrop Grumman and NASA issued brief, terse statements in response to concerns about the future of the program, after Russian space agency leader Dmitry Rogozin blasted President Joe Biden on Twitter last week for imposing economic sanctions. Biden said the sanctions include reductions in export of U.S. technology to Russia that he said would degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program. Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the [International Space Station]? asked Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos. NASA responded last week with a statement of reassurance about the future of the ISS orbiting the earth with an international crew of astronauts. NASA continues working with all our international partners, including the State Space Corporation Roscosmos, for the ongoing safe operations of the International Space Station, the U.S. space agency said. The new export control measures will continue to allow U.S.-Russia civil space cooperation, NASA added. No changes are planned to the agencys support for ongoing in orbit and ground station operations. Northrop Grumman deferred all questions about U.S. sanctions to NASA but said we have all the hardware needed to fulfill our NASA-contracted missions on Antares. John Logsdon, founder and former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said, Its a very dynamic situation. Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at the university, said the Russians have withdrawn their staff from the European launch site for the space station in South America. Its not just what were going to do, he said. Its what theyre going to do. Concerns about the Antares program focused on the vulnerability of a supply chain that appears directly in the line of war and retaliatory sanctions. A Russian company NPO Energomash makes the RD-181 engines used in the rocket program since 2016, after an Antares rocket using rebuilt Russian engines exploded seconds following launch, causing $20 million in damages to the state-owned pad. Two Ukrainian companies Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash design and build the first-stage booster assemblies that propel the rocket from the launch pad. Specialty space publications have cited unconfirmed reports that the Russian attacks in Dnipro, Ukraine, damaged or destroyed the factory that manufactures the assemblies. Specifically with regards to Wallops, I think the long-term prospects for collaboration are shaky if indeed the Ukrainian factory has been destroyed, Logsdon said. On Monday, Space.com reported attacks had destroyed a massive cargo plane previously used to transport Russian space shuttles. The Antonov An-225, nicknamed The Dream, was parked for repairs in a hangar at an airport outside of Kyiv, the countrys embattled capital. The biggest plane in the world Mriya (The Dream) was destroyed by Russian occupants on an airfield near Kyiv, Ukraine said Sunday on its official Twitter account. We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free, and democratic Ukraine. The Antares program is not the only major customer at Virginias spaceport. Gov. Glenn Youngkin confirmed Monday that Rocket Lab, based in California, will be expanding its presence in the state with the construction of a new launch complex used for the Neutron rocket. The spaceport already includes a launch pad that Rocket Lab will use for its Electron rocket to deliver payloads into Earth orbit. Youngkin said in a statement that the 250,000-square-foot complex will be constructed on a 28-acre site adjacent to the Wallops Island Flight Facility, and that up to 250 engineers, technicians and support staff could be stationed there. The first Electron launch from the spaceport is expected this year, pending NASA certification of the automated flight termination system at the new launch complex, Mercer said. The pending two-year state budget, which then-Gov. Ralph Northam introduced in December, includes $30 million for construction of a second pad Rocket Lab could use for the Neutron rocket if it chooses the Wallops Island site. The proposed House and Senate budgets include an additional $15 million in proposed incentives for the project. Mercer emphasized that the facility would be a multi-user launch pad that other customers could also use. The customer brings their rocket, their payload and we launch it for them, he said. Hanover County Public Schools announced changes to the school systems COVID-19 mask policy on Sunday. In a message to families, Hanover schools said employees and visitors are no longer required to wear a mask in school buildings. Also, masks are no longer required on buses or in school vehicles. Hanover schools said the changes were in response to updated federal and state guidance. On Friday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its recommendations for masking in schools, recommending universal masking only in counties where the virus poses a high risk as measured by strain on hospitals. A new state law that takes effect Tuesday stripped school districts of the power to require face coverings. The update for Hanover schools, however, still encourages mask wearing. While masks are no longer required, we continue to encourage mask wearing in our buildings and on our buses as a health mitigation strategy, particularly when community COVID-19 levels are high. Also, the update noted that COVID quarantine and isolation guidelines remain in place for faculty, staff and students who are sick or test positive for the virus. The message to families concluded with a plea for respect and kindness. Virginias Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority announced Sunday morning that it was removing seven Russian-sourced vodka brands from its shelves. The state-run liquor store system attributed the decision to Gov. Glenn Youngkins call on Saturday for the state to take decisive action in support of Ukraine. Sen. Louise Lucas also tweeted Saturday morning, calling on Youngkin to order the removal of all Russian products from the ABC stores. The vodka brands to be removed include Beluga, Hammer & Sickle, Imperia, Mamont, Organika, Russian Standard and ZYR. The stores will not be removing products such as Stolichnaya and Smirnoff, which are Russian-themed but not produced in Russia. Smirnoff is owned by Diageo, which is based in London, and is manufactured in Illinois. Virginia ABC said in a Facebook post that it would be reviewing its other products to determine whether they have origins in Russia. Leaders in Ohio, Utah and New Hampshire have made similar calls for liquor stores to remove the products, according to a report from CNN. The report said the move is largely symbolic since less than 1% of vodka consumed in the U.S. is produced in Russia. Youngkin has also ordered the states Department of General Services to review state procurement of goods and services involving Russian companies. TEHRAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran said on Monday that a draft of the final agreement in the Vienna talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal has been prepared, waiting for Western countries to made their political decisions on the three main remaining issues. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks in an address to a weekly press conference, adding that the draft was required to be scrutinized carefully, official news agency IRNA reported. On the likeliness of a failure to reach an agreement in Vienna, he said over 98 percent of the deal's draft, written and adjusted jointly, have been prepared, noting that what is remaining are the issues that must be resolved. In phone calls with foreign officials over the past days, "we attempted to clarify for the Western sides Iran's red lines, the logic behind them, the way to resolve the remaining issues and Tehran's positions," he said. "At present, we have arrived at a point where we presume that no ambiguity exists for the United States and the European states about the red lines. We definitely expect the other sides to refrain from prolonging the negotiations any further," Khatibzadeh added. Iran signed the original nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015. However, former President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed Washington's unilateral sanctions on Tehran. Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in 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. The man stood on the Amtrak train platform in Roanoke, wheeled luggage at the ready, and had a smile on his face that placed his expression somewhere between resignation and exasperation. The reason for his attitude wasnt hard to discern. He had brought his bags up the ramp right around 6:20 a.m., just as the passenger train began rolling north toward Washington and New York. The trains languorous pace tantalized him with an opportunity to take a long look at the one he had just missed as it lumbered away into the dark. In Roanoke, once you miss that early morning train, you dont really have any other option for the day, unless you have the ability and the reckless impulse to lead-foot a vehicle to Lynchburg and catch the same train there an impulse that might not leave you, um, wreckless. Depending on their destinations, people in that mans predicament soon could get a second chance to get where they want to go, in the manner they wanted to get there, should events conspire to keep them from boarding the first train of the day. Plans are in the works for a second train to bring travelers to and from Roanoke. As outlined in previous coverage by Roanoke Times reporter Jeff Sturgeon, this second train would arrive at about 1:45 p.m. and leave around 4:30 p.m. It would go as far as Washington, unlike the morning train, which goes all the way to Boston. This new rail option would come about as the result of a partnership between Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and the commonwealth of Virginia. Word has not yet been given as to exactly when this second train would start serving Roanoke, beyond an estimate of this spring. But whenever the service begins, it will be great news. Amtrak travel from Roanoke remains a different experience from the cram-packed train cars that run through the East Coasts urban sprawl. The train isnt crowded, and if you happen to be alert, youll be treated to lovely Virginia countryside as its slowly revealed by the sunrise. You wont be squashed, as happens with airplane travel if you have a waistline wider than five inches. (Yes, thats hyperbole, but not by much.) If you own a laptop or tablet, getting extra work done is easy as the ride is roomy and relatively smooth, and the train offers Wi-Fi. Bringing your own supplies for assembling a sandwich can feel a little like risk-taking as the train car occasionally wobbles along the tracks, but it can be done. This mode of travel has proved compatible with the Roanoke region. Its both old and new passenger rail once was routine in the Star City, but a 38-year hiatus passed before Amtrak service began in 2017. Usage has proven heavier than Amtrak anticipated. In the last fiscal year completed before the pandemic, 55,000 passengers disembarked in Roanoke. Theres even more good news looming. If you live a county or two east or west of the Star City, you eventually are going to have more train-hopping options, as potential places to board in range of the Roanoke Valley are going to triple. In May 2021, then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced a $257.2 million investment in the Western Rail Initiative: designed to expand Amtrak service to the New River Valley, with the funding earmarked for acquisition of right of way, and track and infrastructure improvements. The goal is to have Amtrak trains clickety-clacketing to the Christiansburg area starting in 2025. Officials estimate that once that happens, 80,000 new riders will fill those comfortable train seats. On Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. and again on March 1 at noon, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation is scheduled to present results of a survey conducted to determine where to build a passenger rail station in the New River Valley (meetings are virtual to register to attend, visit: https://transformingrailva.com/events). Of the locations under study, three are in Christiansburg and one is in the Ellett Valley southeast of Blacksburg. Groundwork also is being laid to arrange a third train for the Roanoke platform that will shuttle to the New River Valley station and back. This hopefully will provide a welcome alternative to tractor-trailer heavy Interstate 81 for the many commuters between the two locales. After 2025, the state will start looking into what it will take to extend the service all the way to Bristol, something rail advocates there long have cried out for. On the very first ride when Amtrak service was renewed in Roanoke Halloween morning in 2017 Bristol residents drove up in predawn hours to board the train and raise awareness for their cause. Meanwhile, a push to place an Amtrak station in Bedford also has gathered steam. A study estimated the planned rail stop in the 6,600-population town, including a platform and a station, would cost about $11 million to build, with a projected completion date of 2025. As far as were concerned, the more the merrier. Its better for traffic, better for the environment and better for the peace of mind of travelers. The Petronas-backed e-payment app Setel has rolled out a new delivery feature by the name of Setel Express, which specialises in intra/inter-state deliveries, with 24-hour, next-day delivery intracities. The service is, however, currently operating only within Peninsular Malaysia. According to the Setel Express website, users can seamlessly and conveniently tap into the new service via the Setel app with a minimum payment of RM5 per parcel. From there, they can choose from four types of deliveries: Door to door : From senders doorsteps directly to recipients address : From senders doorsteps directly to recipients address Point to door : From a Setel Express hub to recipients address : From a Setel Express hub to recipients address Point to point : From a Setel Express hub to another Setel Express hub near to recipient (for collection) : From a Setel Express hub to another Setel Express hub near to recipient (for collection) Door to point: From senders doorsteps to a Setel Express hub near to recipient (for collection) Setel Express also clarified that there are currently 12 Petronas petrol stations acting as Setel Express hubs across Klang Valley, Penang, and Johor with more to come by the end of 2022. Additionally, you can check this postcode list to see if your area is included within Setel Express service coverage. Note, however, that this service is made available only to business customers for now; it will be expanded to include individual customers at a later date. In its FAQ, Petronas further shared that Setel Express was previously known as Logistika an earlier venture that it made into the business of B2B (business to business) delivery although it was not integrated as part of the Setel ecosystem. Back then, Logistika also leveraged on the network of Petronas petrol stations to act as hubs (for unsuccessful deliveries), and functioned as a postpaid service. (Source: Setel [1, 2]) 4 1 vote Article Rating SHARE (Image: The Edge Markets) Public Bank has officially launched the DuitNow Online Banking/Wallets services, a new secure online payment solution that will better facilitate real-time payment acceptance among Malaysians and drive the countrys digital economy. This makes it the first bank to introduce the service in Malaysia. In a press release, the bank explained that the DuitNow Online Banking/Wallets service which is operated by Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) will enhance existing payment gateways (for online banking and e-wallets) through simple redirection. This, in turn, will enable e-commerce and m-commerce merchants to accept and receive their payments even more conveniently. Meanwhile, customers of the merchants can expect to experience an even more seamless cart-to-checkout journey all in one place. Providing the latest service in line with customers demand for convenience and security, Public Bank also prioritises environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts by providing greater financial inclusion for the unbanked in addition to enabling online merchants to easily accept payments in real-time through this new, cost-effective, and secure online payment solution, said the managing director and chief executive officer of Public Bank, Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek. To note, Public Bank had actually quietly rolled out the DuitNow Online Banking/Wallet service much earlier in January 2022, but is only officially announcing it today. The group chief executive of PayNet, Peter Schiesser also chimed in to highlight the benefits of this new service for merchants, especially since payments made using internet/mobile banking have witnessed a dramatic upsurge in the last two years. (Image: The Malaysian Reserve) With this [upsurge] in mind, DuitNow Online Banking/Wallets was designed to elevate the user experience through a more seamless checkout process with the option of application-to-application payment redirection, which significantly reduces payment friction and cart abandonment, said Scheisser. The new service is also expected to further expand the DuitNow ecosystem to include other digital wallets as it maintains compatibility with participating financial institutions. Aside from Public Bank, several other parties, too, have already signed up to enable the DuitNow Online Banking/Wallet service. Razer Merchant Services (RMS), for instance, was the first merchant acquirer to enable to full suite of payment channels offered by PayNet back in December 2021 which includes DuitNow Online Banking/Wallet. Shopee, too, appears to have enabled it. (Sources: Public Bank, The Sun Daily) 0 0 votes Article Rating SHARE True it is that beginning a report with a disclaimer serves as a dissatisfying introduction. Yet the nature of this column is that all the information we seek is not immediately available if it exists at all. Thats never stopped us from forging ahead with what we do know. So the dispatch to follow will be a pertinent footnote to a previous report about the development of the Gainsboro Branch of the Roanoke Public Library. Before we start, let it be said this column is dedicated to the late George Kegley, whom I knew my whole life (better said he knew me given I first visited the newsroom as a toddler, maybe an infant). George, his vast knowledge of local history he was always willing to share, contributed to this column as much or more than anybody. Count me among those who will miss him. A gentleman and a scholar, in his case those are anything but trite honorariums. Moving ahead, the warning has already been delivered that there will be no claim to all the answers. Q: An important part of the story of the library was left out. How did the lease between the City of Roanoke and St. Andrews Catholic Church impact Shanks Foundry, a nearby business? Patrick Shank Roanoke A: So begins a complex story of negotiations involving the city, the institutional administration of the Catholic Church, and the privately held foundry that had operated on St. Andrews property since 1895. Rich detail on part of the transaction was provided in the 1989 edition of Margaret Maier Cocheners On the hill: St. Andrews Parish, Roanoke, Virginia: a history of St. Andrews Parish, November 1882-August 1989. Previously, reporting had sourced the branchs institutional history on file there. Detail and context come from Cochener. According to her, the deal for the property at the corner of Patton Avenue and Gainsboro Road was closed by St. Andrews and the city in February 1941. The agreement was beneficial for both the church and the City, she wrote. Heres why. Apparently because of some sort of egregious oversight by city officials, the 5 acres on which the foundry was sited had never been taxed going back most likely as far as the founding of the business. Perhaps there had been some confusion about the tax-free status of church property. Clarity emerged in 1938 when somebody from the city pointed out that because the church had been charging the foundry rent since at least 1897 (evidently the earliest year those records could be found) that the tax exemption no longer applied because the land was not being used for church purposes. In other words, the church owed the city 41 years worth of back taxes. What a nightmare, both for the church that could be hammered with a whopping tax bill in the wake of the catastrophic Great Depression as well as whoever in the city treasurers office would be assigned to work out the math in light of four decades worth of changing tax codes. So according to Cochener, who did not employ the current win-win cliche to explain the situation although that is what it appeared to be, heres how they worked it out. The Bishop agreed to sell the corner to the city for library purposes only; in exchange, the rest of the property would be tax exempt. The deal closed when the city agreed to pony up $1,584.75, the back taxes for years 1938-41. The church had to pay the City for the taxes, so they did not actually receive any money for the land. Heres the part thats murky. According to the librarys institutional history on file there, then branch librarian Virginia Y. Lee negotiated a deal with St. Andrews to acquire a lease for the land for the library. In the process, Lee was required to go all the way up the chain of command to the Vatican and Pope Pius XII. Previously, Lee had secured a deal from her employer the city for $20,000 worth of construction costs if she could find the land to put the library on. She turned to the church. The Bishop in Cocheners account would have been the Bishop of Richmond, under whose jurisdiction St. Andrews is. I doubt they had to go all the way to the pope, said Jim Cosby, a retired Roanoke lawyer who wrote the privately published The History of the Clarence and Eleanora Shank Family. They may have mistaken the bishop for the pope. Or perhaps that particular request went to Richmond then on to the Vatican for which the formality of a rubber stamp on the transaction was necessary. In any event the institutional history said the language in the deal was that the church would donate the land for the library for the next 99 years. The unanswered question is what happened to the foundry? Clarence E. Shank, the great-grandfather of both Patrick Shank the questioner and Cosby, was the founder of the business. Born in 1863 in Maryland, he came to Roanoke as a young adult to find his fortune in the railroad boomtown Magic City. Proximity and common sense tells us the foundry had the Norfolk and Western as a customer. We know for sure another client was the city, which being on an infrastructure-building spree, needed Shank-manufactured manhole covers, Cosby wrote In the family history. One such circular cover is in Highland Park still. Not much is known about the business, its management, customers, and employees, Cosby said. We know it changed hands sometime around 1928. Clarence Shank died the year before, according to family lore, from silicosis. The disease is a hazard of foundry work because of the sandy dust generated by the casting process. According to Roanoke City Directories from 1926-41 the foundry stayed in business at least into 1939. In 1936, the listing changed from Shank Foundry to Shanks Foundry. Either there was no 1940 directory published or it is unavailable. In 1941, Shanks had been lost to history. Of course that is the year the city acquired the property. How the foundrys ownership figured into negotiations, Cochener did not say. Furthermore, we are not even sure who the ownership was at that point. Cosby did not know but added family lore held that unnamed individuals with questionable business skills had run the foundry with a notable lack of major success. They must have been doing something right to operate a business for at least 11 years after the death of the founder. As warned, many questions remain. Sorry. If youve been wondering about something, call Whats on Your Mind? at 777-6476 or send an email to whatsonyourmind@roanoke.com. Dont forget to provide your full name (and its proper spelling if by phone) and hometown. A federal judge has rejected arguments by two former Rocky Mount police officers that their words on social media were wrongly used to link them to the insurrection on Capitol Hill. Thomas T.J. Robertson and Jacob Fracker had maintained that their displeasure over the results of the 2020 presidential election, which they voiced in sharp terms on Facebook, should be protected by the First Amendment. But in a written decision Friday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper denied their motions to dismiss felony charges of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding. If Robertson had expressed his views only through social media, he almost certainly would not be here. But he also allegedly took action entering the Capitol without lawful authority in an alleged attempt to impede the Electoral College vote certification, Cooper wrote. His words remain relevant to his intent and motive for taking those alleged actions. The decision, which was made on a motion first filed by Robertson and later adopted by Fracker, clears the way for a jury trial scheduled to start April 4. More than 725 people have been charged with participating in the riots, and the two are among the first scheduled for jury trials. Jury selection in the first case, which involves a Texas man affiliated with a militia-style group, began Monday. Robertson and Fracker have maintained that they did nothing wrong on Jan. 6, 2021, and that their entering of the Capitol building while it was being stormed by supporters of Donald Trump had no direct bearing on what prosecutors call an attack on democracy. After a selfie photograph posted to Facebook showed the duo posing in front of a statue in the Capitols vaulted Crypt, they were arrested and fired from their jobs with the Rocky Mount Police Department. Their motion to dismiss the felony charge was based on three arguments: That an indictment against them did not specify the official proceeding they allegedly obstructed, that the joint session of Congress held to certify an election won by Joe Biden was not such a proceeding, and that the charge was unconstitutionally vague. It was in the third prong of the defense that Robertson and Fracker invoked their free speech rights. The opinions they expressed on social media were just speech, and no matter how unpopular, they cannot be considered criminal conduct punishable by the government, the motions state. Prosecutors argued, and Cooper agreed, that the defendants were facing charges for what they did not what they said. In one of many Facebook posts about his political views, Robertson wrote that VIOLENCE was the next step in a revolution that began shortly after Trump lost an election that he and many of his supporters believe was stolen from him. Trump urged his supporters to fight like hell in a speech shortly before the uprising. Courts have found no credible evidence of widespread election fraud. Shortly after the insurrection, Fracker wrote that he hadnt been that hyped since his days as a combat veteran in Afghanistan. It was fing amazing, Fracker wrote, according to court records. Flash bangs going off, CS gas, rubber bullets flying by. Felt so good to be back in the s- hahaha. Federal authorities have pushed back on accounts by the two that they peacefully walked into the Capitol and encountered no resistance from police officers before leaving a short time later. Robertson used a large wooden stick to block a formation of Metropolitan Police Department officers attempting to defend the buildings lower west terrace from the advancing mob, prosecutors wrote in court documents earlier this month. Both men were wearing gas masks as the entered the building, the government alleges. In arguing that the felony charge against them was unconstitutionally vague, attorneys for Robertson and Fracker cited the case of John Poindexter, a national security advisor for former President Ronald Reagan who was charged 32 years ago in the Iran-Contra scandal. Poindexter was convicted of lying to Congress and obstructing its investigation of the incident, which involved the covert sale of arms to Iran and the use of the proceeds to aid insurgents fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The convictions were later reversed by an appeals court, which found that Poindexters allegedly corrupt actions were too vague to support a conviction. But the reach of the appellate decision has since been restricted by other cases, Cooper wrote in finding that Robertsons and Frackers reliance on it falls short. Coopers 13-page opinion addresses only one of several charges against the two men, who to date have not challenged the remainder in detail. 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. Since last summer, Robertson has been held without bond after running into trouble with guns that he ordered online, despite a judges order not to have anything to do with firearms while awaiting trial. In allowing the felony charges to stand, Cooper noted that he was not writing on a blank slate. Similar motions have been denied by other judges in the insurrection cases, his decision stated, and this Court finds their opinions persuasive. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tom Kennedy, one of the states 211 operators, told a caller seeking help with an unpaid rent that he liked her name. Did your mother give you that name? he asked. If you have a chance, you ask her because she gave you a beautiful name. Kennedy performed those small acts of verbal kindness earlier this week as he handled another demanding shift as a community resource specialist at the statewide information and referral service 211 Virginia. Dialing 211 is free 24 hours a day just like 911, only operators dispense practical information for managing the day-to-day of life. It has expert advice for finding a day care service, food bank, homeless shelter, job training center, tax preparation, legal help, health care and lots more. People whose lives were upended by the pandemic have turned to 211 in large numbers. The phone line rings 700 to 900 times a day, up from 300 to 400 before the pandemic, according to a representative of the Council of Community Services in Roanoke, which operates 211 Virginia for the Virginia Department of Social Services. The service still receives, as always, routine requests for community services information and familiar pleas for help managing poverty. But 211 operators have also spoken to thousands of people newly struck by pandemic-related economic pain, some in personal distress, who need reliable advice. I try to give them a couple of minutes of peace and hope, said Kennedy, 75, a former broadcast radio professional with two years of 211 experience. Facing income reductions or total income loss attributable to the pandemics fallout, callers want to stop eviction and ward off disconnection of their utilities or to find out what to do after they couldnt. Theres the parent who doesnt know how to make baby formula with the water cut off; the grief-stricken caller grappling with funeral arrangements for a COVID-19 victim; the lonely elderly who seldom go out. Were seeing people that have never called us before, said Margaret Telsch-Williams, director of the 211 Virginia call center. The size of the contact center staff has stayed at about 20 people since usage spiked with the onset of the pandemic two years ago, which leaves operators feeling outnumbered. On Feb. 21 the service was contacted 864 times. We have the same number of staff working twice as hard as theyre handling twice as many calls as they used to, Telsch-Williams said. Daytime callers often end up on hold. Weekdays between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. the average wait is about 20 minutes, but can drag out to 45 minutes. In the early years of the service, which is 16 years old, 211 Virginia frequently answered calls in half a minute. That happens in the middle of the night, but seldom in the day, in these times. Administrators hope to address understaffing by requesting volunteers, while they work for more state funding this summer. Funding for 211 fell from nearly $1.6 million in fiscal year 2020-21 to more than $1.4 million this fiscal year. A proposal before the Virginia General Assembly would boost funding July 1 to more than $2.1 million, said Anne-Marie Green, president of the Council of Community Services. Telsch-Williams said pay starts at $15 an hour, not enough for what theyre doing and how much stress theyre under. The average new employee probably needs six months of training, but the director said theres only time for about six weeks. Then they put on a headset and go to work. Newly hired workers usually know in about a week if the jobs for them. The job requires keyboarding in data and pulling phone numbers, websites and program descriptions from a database with 20,000 resources available through 8,000 agencies and entities. But 211 operators also draw on a range of personal skills, which may include de-escalation for a caller in crisis. You cant do this for the paycheck, you have to do it because you really want to help us, Telsch-Williams said. This is life, this is problems, this is family situations. Emotional depletion is an occupational hazard. Exhausted staff, who may handle 50 calls in a single shift, have taken time off to recharge. But other times staff have worked while experiencing COVID-19. The agency has four openings for community resource specialists. Working from home is an option. At one time, staff had ample time to call clients back and find out if the offered advice helped. When inbound call volume is high, there isnt time. But follow-ups still happen and callers report success. Staff joyfully receive such news they helped somebody move forward in life. Kennedy said he started shortly before the pandemic began, learned on the fly, felt terrified he would give incorrect information and felt overwhelmed at times during the initial period, he said. With two years under his belt, he appeared deft during a recent shift. One caller wished to communicate in an Asian language. Kennedy arranged for an interpreter to join the call in 90 seconds. He processed the request for assistance, which was about an unpaid utility bill, spending a total of 17 minutes on the case. Kennedy said its critical for him to remember that people who dial 211 need something and are hurting without it. His opening lines, such as were going to try to get you some help, set a reassuring tone that the staff tries to strike with every customer. We encourage them to be a human being. Youre not here to be a robot, an old-school phone operator, and every one of our staff is amazing like that, Telsch-Williams said. The 211 Virginia service is looking for volunteers to handle select types of calls during shifts of three or four hours. To apply, go online at: Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. RICHMOND A House of Delegates subcommittee on Thursday gutted a state Senate bill that would have prohibited the use of long-term stays in solitary confinement, disappointing human rights advocates hoping for reform. Instead of banning extended stays in solitary, the legislation now directs the states Department of Corrections to study the use of solitary housing within state and juvenile correctional facilities. To do so, according to the bill, the department would convene a work group, including at least one licensed clinical psychologist, to examine the length of time and the reasons why inmates are kept in solitary. This means there is going to continue to be torture in Virginia prisons for the next year, Kim Bobo, executive director of Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP), told The Virginian-Pilot. At Thursdays subcommittee meeting, Del. Glenn Davis, R-Virginia Beach, said legislators need to address the states overuse of solitary confinement. He acknowledged the practice took a mental toll on prisoners but said more information was needed. We need to make sure that we get this right, Davis said. Del. Candi Mundon King, D-Prince William, accused those who supported gutting the bill of cowardice. We create studies when we dont have the courage and the bravery to do the right thing, to really address the underlying issue, when we dont have the political and personal courage to say This is wrong, she said. Some advocates of the original bill told the subcommittee the study was unnecessary because such reviews about the effects of solitary confinement already exist. We know what the effects of solitary confinement are; they are devastating mental health effects and they leave prisoners unprepared to reenter society when they are released, said Vicki Fishman, director of Virginia government and community relations with the Jewish Community Relations Council. Bobo told The Pilot her organization also has concerns about whether the study will be impartial, given that it would be conducted by the Department of Corrections. However, Bobo said she appreciated that legislators on both sides of the aisle recognized that long-term stays in solitary can have damaging effects on prisoners. We plan to use this time period to really continue working with legislators and the new head of public security to try to move forward with a new humane policy, she said. The original bill, introduced by Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, would have prohibited the use of isolated confinement in state and juvenile correctional facilities for longer than 15 days per each 60-day cycle. It defined isolated confinement as putting an inmate in a cell alone for 20 hours or more per day. The bill would have allowed for a variety of exceptions, including situations where the prisoner volunteered to stay in solitary, or where they were deemed a threat to themselves or others. If the revised bill becomes law, the DOC would be required to submit their studys findings to a House committee by Oct. 1. RICHMOND The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation in late 2020 that barred police from pulling drivers over on a host of vehicle equipment violations and also blocked officers from searching vehicles based on an odor of marijuana. Reformers say the changes were a crucial step toward reducing pretextual policing, or stopping cars for minor reasons to search them or conduct unrelated investigations. Black motorists are more likely to be pulled over on traffic stops than other drivers, statistics show, leading to more encounters with police. But since the new rules took effect, theres been widespread pushback from law enforcement. A bill now being considered by state lawmakers would scrap some of the 2020 changes and bring back police authority to make defective equipment stops. The states police and sheriffs associations contend the law has made Virginias roadways more dangerous. The rules, for example, block police from stopping cars with only one working headlight or brake light, despite the safety hazards. Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright said the rules have likely led to increased crime because they limit police interactions translating into fewer cars stopped, fewer illegal guns found, and fewer occasions to run peoples names through databases to see if theres a warrant for their arrest. Theres people who are involved in criminal activity who know that we no longer possess some of the tools that we used to have in order to help prevent crime, Wright said last month of his citys 2021 spike in homicides. The Republican-led House of Delegates approved the recent legislation on a 52-45 party line vote on Feb. 11. The bill now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it faces a steeper climb. The 15-member Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up the bill Monday. Backers of the bill include the Virginia Attorney Generals Office, the Virginia Sheriffs Association, the Virginia State Police Association, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and the Virginia Association of Commonwealths Attorneys. Opponents include the Virginia chapter of the ACLU, the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a wide array of criminal justice reformers. The legislation would reinstate police authority to stop motorists for the following infractions, among several others: Driving with only one working headlight or brake light. A non-operating third brake light a higher-mounted center light required on all new cars since 1986 under federal law. Loud or non-working muffler systems. Tinted windows; dangling objects from rear view mirrors that obstruct a drivers view; and non-illuminated license plates. Expired vehicle registration and safety inspection stickers unless they are at least three months past due. Any defective and unsafe equipment on a moving vehicle. Though these are still infractions under existing state law, police must have first pulled drivers over for a primary offense, such as speeding or blowing through a traffic signal, to conduct enforcement. Given that all such police stops would be allowed under the legislation, the bill also scraps the provision that anything officers find in a prohibited stop from guns to drugs to a dead body in the back seat cant be used in any future prosecution. The sponsor of this years bill, Del. Ronnie Campbell, R-Rockbridge County, backed off an earlier version that would also have brought back officers authority to search cars if they smelled marijuana coming from them. Reformers have long contended that such searches have been rife with police abuse, and Campbells original proposal to bring them back was seen as a long shot given the states recent move to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. But at a House courts subcommittee meeting in early February, Campbell asserted that basic public safety on Virginia roadways calls for bringing back the old law allowing vehicle equipment stops. I think its very important that we bring these back as primary offenses for law enforcement, said Campbell, a former Virginia state trooper. They tell me for the last year and a half that their hands have been pretty much tied. Wayne Huggins, executive director of the Virginia State Police Association, agreed, saying police dont enjoy people pulling people over, but that our job is to protect the public by enforcing safety rules. While on first glance equipment violations might seem minor, anybody who has served in the capacities we have served in have seen the horrors that defective equipment on motor vehicles can cause, he said. Some see the issue very differently. Brad Haywood is the chief public defender for Arlington and Falls Church and the founder of Justice Forward Virginia a group of reformers, public defenders and defense lawyers that spearheaded the 2020 change. He called the existing law landmark racial justice legislation that should remain in place. This was specifically intended to narrow racial disparities in traffic stops and to save the lives of Black and brown Virginians, Haywood said. Its already working in that regard. Over the years, he said, Black motorists have been almost twice as likely to be pulled over as white motorists. To believe that thats anything other than racism at work would be to believe that Black people are simply worse drivers than white people which is absolutely outrageous, Haywood said. Breanne Armbrust, the executive director of the Neighborhood Resource Center of Greater Fulton, a nonprofit in the Richmond area, said many people stopped by police are people attempting to get to and from work or running simple errands for their household. Sometimes, she said, they dont have computer access and cant get to the DMV to update their registration, and might not be able to afford making the fix to their car. While its unclear whether the change in law can be tied to a change in local crime rates, one Fairfax County man said it has led to a decline in public safety and the quality of life in his community. Robert Mercincavage, a 69-year-old moderate Democrat in Great Falls, said he and his wife are often woken up at night because of loud cars on Georgetown Pike about 100 yards from his home in the early morning hours. Im like What the heck, he said. Its ludicrous that at 2 oclock in the morning, these people are running around in these cars, like Honda Civics and stuff, that are customized to make excessively loud noise. Mercincavage, a retiree from the IT and communications industries, said he recorded the road sound at over 130 decibels in his kitchen. But he said when he asked local police to help, a high-ranking officer said unfortunately our hands are tied because of the 2020 law. Mercincavage said most citizens expect that basic safety rules such as a car needs to have two headlights are being enforced. A missing headlight, he said, makes it much harder to judge a car coming the other way. Hes been telling everyone he can including federal highway safety agencies about the dangers of not enforcing such rules. So many people are being harmed by this, he said. This is basic health and safety. The legislation is one of 26 bills to be considered Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. That committee is composed of nine Democrats and six Republicans, meaning two Democrats would have to cross party lines for the bill to advance. At the House subcommittee hearing in early February, Campbell read a list of notorious killers including Ted Bundy and Timothy McVeigh who were caught when police pulled over their cars on traffic or vehicle equipment violations. Ted Bundy he was a slippery little fella who escaped twice, Campbell said. And all three times he was arrested, it was for things like driving without brake lights. When you stop the car for a tag-light or a tail-light, you never really know who youre stopping or what youre going to get. But Haywood said that he, too, has a list of people who died in police custody after first being pulled over on traffic stops. He mentioned Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose and others. These are all people who if Virginias historic laws limiting pretextual policing were in effect nationwide would be alive today, he said. Two Bedford fire service workers were recipients of the 2021 Governors Fire Service Awards, announced recently by the office of Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Town of Bedford Fire Department Chief Brad Creasy is one of two Virginia Fire Chief of the Year recipients. Russell Stevens of the Town of Bedford Fire Department was distinguished as one of two Virginia Firefighter of the Year recipients. Begun in 2002, the annual Governors Fire Service Awards are a way to honor excellence in Virginias fire services, according to the news release last week. Award recipients are peer-nominated. For Creasy, the award came as a surprise. I had no clue that the men and women here were going to submit my name for this very, very nice award, he said. [Im] very honored, and very humbled by it. I dont think Im deserving of it. Creasy joined the Bedford fire department in 1996, and for the past 14 years he has served as the departments fire chief. Creasy holds that continuing professional development and education are important for fire service workers, and during his time in the Town of Bedford Fire Department, a volunteer-run entity, he has helped provide training opportunities, and increased the department budget, in part to fund continuing education and training. He did not credit himself alone for a successful career. Ive just been very successful because of the people that we have here, the fire officers and the firefighters, Creasy said. The governors office news release stated, Leadership for Chief Creasy comes naturally, and his drive and determination are contagious to those around him. Stevens career in fire service started in 1974 and he has not slowed down since. According to the release and Creasy, he also has a passion for continuing education that betters fire service workers. Stevens has used his long experience by serving as a Bedford County fire training officer, and was one of the original Deputy Hazardous Material Coordinators, a role he still fills, according to the news release. Like Creasy, he has been a mentor to many. His actions and dedication to the fire service are examples of a man that truly reflects the mantra of service above self, the news release stated. Stevens could not be reached for comment, but Creasy, who has nominated Stevens for this award for the past few years, praised his colleague. Russells been a staple of this department for over 45 years, and has been quite the example to every person coming in in the last 30 or 40 years. Hes very, very deserving of that award, Creasy said. He has represented this department well. Hes represented the community well throughout the state as he goes and teaches... Theres very few people in the fire service that have put the amount of time and sacrifice that he has, especially over a 40-year career. GFA World's 60-Second Radio Feature Inspires Crisis-Weary Generation 60 SECONDS OF HOPE: K.P. Yohannan, founder of GFA World (www.gfa.org), has launched a brand new radio series, GFA Minute (www.GFAMinute.org), to encourage crisis-weary believers and inspire a generation searching for hope and purpose. K.P. Yohannan, author of Christian classic Revolution in World Missions, hosts new GFA Minute radio series NEWS PROVIDED BY GFA World (www.gfa.org) Feb. 28, 2022 WILLS POINT, Texas, Feb. 28, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- A new series of rapid-fire radio broadcasts aims to inspire a generation searching for hope and purpose as the pandemic drags on and America faces crises on several fronts. Nearly 40 years after his landmark book Revolution in World Missions shook the evangelical world, K.P. Yohannan -- founder of GFA World (www.gfa.org) -- hosts the brand new radio series, GFA Minute (www.GFAMinute.org). "People are desperate for encouragement right now and want to know their lives really matter," Yohannan said. "We're all looking for hope and purpose." He aims to encourage America's crisis-weary believers and challenge the "digital generation" to "live every minute in the light of eternity." "The pandemic, steep price increases in the stores, and deep divisions in our country have left many in America demoralized and disheartened," said Yohannan, who has seen his Texas-based mission organization grow into one of the largest in the world, serving millions of the poorest families in Asia, and now Africa as well. GFA Minute challenges listeners to share their faith passionately and practically with a world in chaos. "Today, 2.7 billion people are heading toward eternity without Christ. The One who came to seek and save the lost is now looking for us to pray, fast, send missionaries, and go serve the poor," said Yohannan. 60 Seconds of Hope Yohannan's 60-second radio broadcasts call listeners to avoid materialism and instead live a Christlike lifestyle of compassion, simplicity, and humility. "GFA World has always been about equipping people to impact their world with Christ's love," said Yohannan. OM International founder George Verwer described Yohannan as a leader with "a pure heart (and) great passion." GFA World's national missionaries minister in 12,000 parishes or local churches across Asia. The organization is also expanding into Africa. Visit www.GFAMinute.org to listen to the broadcasts and download free media files. GFA World (www.gfa.org) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national missionaries bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World's latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news/ SOURCE GFA World CONTACT: Gregg Wooding, 972-567-7660, gwooding@inchristcommunications.com Aroldo Lazaro Saenz (3rd L), United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)'s new chief, salutes a UN flag during a ceremony to officially transfer authority of the UNIFIL in Naqoura, Lebanon, on Feb. 28, 2022. Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)'s new chief, vowed on Monday to ensure the sustained cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, and to foster the respect of the Blue Line by both parties. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua) BEIRUT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)'s new chief, vowed on Monday to ensure the sustained cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, and to foster the respect of the Blue Line by both parties. In a statement released by UNIFIL, Saenz said he "will resort to the liaison and coordination arrangements, including the tripartite mechanisms," which have been held regularly between Lebanon, Israel, and the United Nations since the end of the 2006 war in south Lebanon as essential conflict management and confidence-building mechanism. The Spanish commander made the remarks during a ceremony held at the UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqoura to officially transfer authority from outgoing UNIFIL chief Stefano Del Col of Italy to him. Saenz added that continuing the current pace of coordinated activities between UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces will help maintain the stability along the Blue Line. The Blue Line is a demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel as well as Lebanon and the Golan Heights published by the United Nations in 2000 for the purposes of determining whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon. The line, stretching for 120 km along Lebanon's southern frontier, is a key to peace in the region. Before handing over command, Del Col applauded the cooperation of the parties for working with him, saying that "moving forward and leaving the past behind is of paramount importance for both countries. Peace is possible, but courage, commitment and progress are necessary to proceed in this direction." Aroldo Lazaro Saenz (2nd L), United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)'s new chief, receives a UN flag from outgoing UNIFIL chief Stefano Del Col during a ceremony to officially transfer authority of the UNIFIL in Naqoura, Lebanon, on Feb. 28, 2022. Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)'s new chief, vowed on Monday to ensure the sustained cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, and to foster the respect of the Blue Line by both parties. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua) Peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) attend a ceremony to officially transfer authority of the UNIFIL in Naqoura, Lebanon, on Feb. 28, 2022. Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)'s new chief, vowed on Monday to ensure the sustained cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, and to foster the respect of the Blue Line by both parties. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua) " " With the advent of DNA testing, first used in forensics in the early 1990s, more historical and criminal mysteries are now ripe for solving and exhumations are becoming more common. Scott MacBride/Getty Images For most people, zombies excluded, being laid to rest brings with it the guarantee of eternal slumber. But for some of history's major players, being buried was more like a nap. That's because they weren't laid to rest for eternity. They were dug up after being buried, and sometimes more than once. A lot of times it was due to DNA. With the advent of DNA testing, first used in forensics in the early 1990s, more historical and criminal mysteries are now ripe for solving. Exhuming a corpse can help provide answers to those mysteries, from murders to issues of paternity. "By 1995, DNA testing alone had scientific acceptance in court as having the ability to identify a single person," explains Dr. Monte Miller, director of Forensic DNA Experts, who has more than 20 years of specialized DNA laboratory experiences and has been involved in thousands of criminal and civil court cases. DNA testing can determine "everything about you," he says. And when it comes to digging up bodies, DNA offers plenty of information, as long as there is still viable material. "DNA degrades over time if subjected to heat, moisture, chemicals, outdoor environment and sunlight," Miller says. But without these elements, (as in when someone is buried) DNA can be stable for years even centuries. Take these five famous people who were buried, then exhumed, and then buried again, and then exhumed again, in some cases to test their DNA. Advertisement 1. Christopher Columbus " " Christopher Columbus. ecliff6/Getty Images After four transatlantic journeys, the explorer who gets credited with first connecting the two hemispheres died in Spain in 1506 and was buried in Valladolid, Spain. Three years later, Columbus was dug up and moved about 375 miles (600 kilometers) to his family's mausoleum in Seville. However, he had apparently wanted to be buried in the "New World," which at the time of his death did not have a church worthy of his status. Finally, in 1542, his daughter-in-law Maria de Rojas y Toledo had him exhumed once again and moved to the island of Hispaniola where the Dominican Republic and Haiti are today. When France took control of Hispaniola in 1795, Columbus' remains were moved again to the Santa Maria de la Sede Cathedral in Seville where his tomb can be visited today. But in 1877, a box of remains marked "Cristobal Colon" were found in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Colon is Columbus's Spanish name). Were these the remains in the Dominican Republic really Christopher Columbus? It depends whom you ask. While multiple cities claim they have his remains, recent DNA tests that compared the Seville remains with DNA taken from his brother's corpse have proven those as authentic. The test results notwithstanding, the Dominican Republic continues to allege that they have Columbus, although DNA testing of the remains housed in the Santo Domingo Columbus Lighthouse mausoleum and museum have yet to be performed. Advertisement 2. Russian Royal Family If you've seen the 1971 Academy Award-winning film "Nicholas and Alexandra" about Russia's final monarch, you probably remember the climax when the czar and his family were taken into the cellar where they were killed by firing squad. After three centuries of Romanov rule, the February Revolution in 1917 led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the seizure of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks that October. The royal family was held in the city of Yekaterinburg until July 1918 when they were all executed. Or were they? Rumors that Princess Anastasia had survived spawned a 1997 animated film, which has now been adapted into a Broadway musical. There was also a 1956 film starring Ingrid Bergman as an Anastasia pretender. Through the years, many women have claimed to be the death-defying princess. " " The Russia royal family (l to r): Olga, Maria, Nicholas II, Alexandra Fyodorovna, Anastasia, Alexei and Tatiana, in 1913. Wikimedia Commons Mystery surrounding the Russian royals began immediately following the execution. When the family was killed, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin only confirmed the death of Nicholas II, and the location of the bodies was kept secret during the time of the Soviet Union. A mass grave in Yekarterinburg was dug up in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed, but it only contained the czar, czarina and three daughters. One daughter and the only son, Alexei, were missing. DNA testing based on living relatives and a bloody shirt proved that the five bodies were Romanovs. In 1998, they were laid to rest in St. Petersburg. A second Yekarterinburg grave was found in 2007, and DNA showed the remains to be those of Alexei and Princess Maria, which meant that Anastasia was included among the original five found in 1991. By 2011, Russian authorities decided that the remains were definitely those of the Romanov family, and in a move to get the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize them, Nicholas II and Alexandra were exhumed, along with the last czar's father and grandfather. According to Smithsonian, the findings were conclusive. Mystery solved; sorry Anastasia fans. Advertisement 3. Lee Harvey Oswald Different questions about Russian identity led to the exhumation of a notorious American nearly 20 years after his burial. Around 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly aimed a rifle at President John F. Kennedy who was traveling in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, killing him with shots to the neck and head. In less than an hour and a half, authorities had arrested 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had lived in the Soviet Union and brought a Soviet wife back with him. Based on Oswald's time behind the Iron Curtain, his statement that he was "just a patsy," and all kinds of other claims about photograph altering and marital woes, wild theories quickly surfaced. In "History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time" Brad Meltzer writes, "It's amazing just how manyconspiracy theories surround the assassination." While being transferred to the county jail just a couple of days later, Oswald was shot by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby. The Warren Commission launched an investigation into Kennedy's death, and to this day, many believe that Oswald did not act alone. " " Lee Harvey Oswald's booking photo, Nov. 22, 1963. Wikimedia Commons ( CC 1.0 But getting back to exhumations, one of the many conspiracy theories led to Oswald being dug up in 1981. This theory claimed that when Oswald returned to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1962, he had been replaced by a Russian spy bent on completing his mission to assassinate the American president. According to Scott Patrick Johnson in "The Faces of Lee Harvey Oswald: The Evolution of an Alleged Assassin", as early as 1960, government officials had been concerned that a Russian imposter could be using Oswald's birth certificate. Johnson explains that the idea may seem farfetched today, but considering the history of Cold War intelligence operations, "the imposter scenario seems plausible." Discrepancies in Oswald's autopsy, like a missing mastoidectomy scar and misplaced arm scars, and lots of other questions about his identity finally led to Oswald's body being exhumed from its resting place at Rose Hill cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1981. After examining the body and comparing it with dental records from Oswald's time in the Marine Corps, forensic pathologists agreed that the Rose Hill corpse was indeed that of the alleged assassin. Did that suffice for conspiracy theorists? Of course not. Some still argue that the body of the imposter was switched with the real Oswald sometime between 1963 and 1981. DNA testing could settle the matter, but another exhumation has not been planned. Advertisement 4. Dr. Sam Sheppard The assassination of Kennedy and the true identity of his killer remains the stuff of conspiracy theories for some and digging up a body to prove guilt or innocence does not always offer a simple answer either. Although DNA expert Miller has not seen a rise in exhumations for old criminal trials yet, he says this could be coming. "With the new law enforcement activity involving cold cases and ancestry DNA sites, this is likely to increase greatly in the near future." " " The crypt of Sam and Marilyn Sheppard in Knollwood Cemetery, Mayfield Heights, Ohio. Wikimedia Commons ( CC BY-SA 2.0 In the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard, which inspired "The Fugitive" television series and film, it has already become a reality. In 1954, Sheppard's wife Marilyn was murdered in their home. DNA tests revealed her husband's innocence nearly five decades later, but that did not change the past or everyone's mind. The pregnant Marilyn was beaten to death following an evening of entertaining at the house. Sam claimed he had struggled with a "bushy-haired" man who knocked him out. Following a much-publicized trial and the implausibility of Sam's assailant story, the doctor was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 1966, during a second trial due to the "prejudicial publicity" of the first, Sam was acquitted but not proven innocent. He died in 1970, and his son Sam Reese Sheppard later filed a wrongful-imprisonment suit against the state of Ohio. DNA testing in 1997 revealed that there was blood at the scene that didn't come from Marilyn. Sam's body was exhumed, and his blood was excluded as well, according to The New York Times. The tests showed that it could be a match for Richard Eberling, a man who had cleaned the Sheppard's windows two days before Marilyn's death and who by that time was in prison for a 1984 murder. In 1999, Marilyn's body was also exhumed for medical testing. Despite the DNA evidence and the possibility of Eberling as the killer, Sam Reese lost his case against the state of Ohio, and an appeal determined that any financial claim against the state had died with Sam. " " Salvador Dali with his pet ocelot, Babou. Wikimedia Commons Advertisement 5. Are You My Dali? Despite the benefits of genetic testing for criminal trials and proving the authenticity of remains of really important people, when it comes to the words "DNA test," something more Jerry Springeresque often comes to mind. And that was exactly the reason for the exhumation of surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who died in 1989. In the 2017 exhumation-for-paternity case, fortune teller Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, who had long claimed to be the daughter of the painter, sought to prove her lineage. Her evidence? A tryst between her mother and Dali in 1955 and family lore. Martinez also asserted she looked just like the artist minus his most recognizable feature, his mustache. She had already undergone inconclusive tests based on DNA from Dali's death mask and material from one of his friends. In addition to bragging rights, a positive DNA result would have given Martinez a significant share in Dali's estate. Samples of hair, nail and bone from Dali's exhumed body showed that he was not the father. The samples have been returned to his body, which was reinterred at the Figueres Theatre-Museum in Catalonia. The Guardian reported that embalmer Narcis Bardalet, who assisted with the exhumation, assured the continued survival of Dali's famed mustache. Now That's Interesting Explorer Meriwether Lewis died under suspicious circumstances in a cabin in Tennessee in 1809. It has long been debated whether he was murdered or, as he was known to suffer from depression and alcoholism, took his own life. Since his grave is located on National Park Service land, descendants have petitioned the Interior Department for permission to exhume his body but have thus far been denied. " " Two prototype Starship spaceships sit at the private SpaceX Starbase located in Boca Chica, Texas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Brownsville, Texas, on the U.S. Gulf Coast. SpaceX Humans have long looked up at a night sky and yearned to explore it. Today, we are living through a time when the science-fiction dreams of previous generations are coming to reality, and one very large rocket is likely going to lead the way. We're talking about SpaceX's Starship. This massive spaceship may very well be the latest and most public of Elon Musk's many entrepreneurial endeavors, but it has the potential to quite literally open up a gateway to the stars and put humans on Mars. But what exactly is Starship? And why does it keep exploding? Will it ever reach Mars? Some of these questions undoubtedly keep Musk awake at night, and perhaps they intrigue you too. Starship is a fascinating project, and learning more about it is an enlightening and invigorating prospect as we sit at the precipice of Starship's first orbital flight. Advertisement The Basics of Starship If you've seen the headlines about Starship, you might be a bit confused about what it is and how big it will be. "Starship generally refers to the whole system [the "Starship" spacecraft and re-usable "Super Heavy" first stage], although some will refer to just the upper stage as Starship," says Dr. Abhi Tripathi, director of mission operations at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Tripathi also previously worked at both SpaceX and NASA's Johnson Space Center. No matter how you define it, Starship is big. The upper stage spacecraft stands 164 feet (50 meters) tall, and can carry 100 to 150 tons (90 to 136 metric tons) of cargo. It alone can generate 3.2 million pounds of thrust, and that's nothing compared to the first stage booster. Called "Super Heavy," harkening back to the Falcon Heavy, this part of the Starship configuration stands 230 feet (69 meters) tall and can generate 17 million pounds of thrust. It's clear that Starship needs a lot of power if it's going to carry everything we need for the next stage of human space exploration. " " The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (seen here together with Starship on top) stand about 394 feet (120 meters) when fully assembled. That's taller than the Saturn V rocket that was used to launch astronauts to the moon. SpaceX Advertisement The Goals of Starship Speaking of space exploration, you might wonder why Earth needs a rocket and spaceship combo with that much power. Starship has three goals, according to Tripathi: its near-term goal of placing a lot of Starlink satellites cheaply in orbit fulfilling its Human Landing System (HLS) contract with NASA to return to the moon establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars These are lofty ambitions for a privately owned company, as even decades of funding for NASA have not brought similar goals to reality. But according to SpaceX, Starship will be able to: deliver both cargo and people to and from the International Space Station be used to develop bases to support future space exploration transport large amounts of cargo to the moon for research and human spaceflight development carry people on long-duration, interplanetary flights to build cities on Mars But "[t]he ultimate goal of the Starship program is to create a rapidly and fully re-usable heavy-lift class launch vehicle," Tripathi says. "Elon Musk has stated that, in his opinion, this is the key innovation needed for making life multiplanetary. Everything else SpaceX does is a means to this end." And that word "rapid" is key when talking about the true objectives of the Starship project. "Lots of launches in quick succession are needed," Tripathi explains. "The "rapid" part is important because the launch cadence required to put sufficient tonnage in space to take advantage of every Mars launch window (two years apart) significantly exceeds what current (and most planned) technology can do." " " The ultimate goal of SpaceX and Starship is to send humans to Mars, as seen here in this futuristic rendering. SpaceX Advertisement Starship vs. NASA's Space Launch System For years now, NASA has been simultaneously building its own version of Starship and Super Heavy, called the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS actually predates Starship in development, though it's likely Musk has had an idea like this for quite a while. "In terms of comparison to NASA, one part of the agency has been directed by Congress to make a large (heavy-lift), extremely expensive and single-use rocket called SLS," Tripathi says. "Other parts of the agency are trying hard to spur innovation through commercial competition, and by helping to bring to market many of the innovations needed for future human exploration." This divergent set of objectives has created some inefficiency that has left NASA behind in this particular "space race," though some within NASA might say it's for the better that private companies like SpaceX are innovating and developing more quickly. In light of announcements about the future of the International Space Station operating until 2030, it's clear that NASA is looking to the private sector to take over in continuing American excellence in space exploration and SpaceX is well positioned to lead that endeavor. "From my perspective, SpaceX has a 13-year experience advantage, and that experience builds on itself in a multiplicative way," says Tripathi. "They are trying very hard things after having mastered the easier things that some other companies are just now learning and demonstrating." " " NASA's SLS predates SpaceX's Starship. It's skyscraper-sized SLS rocket and Orion stack stand about 380 feet (115.8 meters) tall, just shy of Starship's 394 foot height. NASA Advertisement Starship Tests to Date SpaceX may be ahead in the space race, but not all Starship launch tests have gone smoothly. Most prototypes to date have exploded, some before ever getting off the ground. Others have had fiery crash landings, while one had a successful liftoff and landing only to explode minutes after settling on the launch pad. But finally May 5, 2021, Starship had a successful flight test where a prototype powered through its ascent by the three Raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence before Starship reached its highest altitude, about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) above Earth. Then Starship reoriented itself for reentry and a controlled descent before it touched down safely. What Starship hasn't been able to test is its first orbital launch. The plan is to launch Starship into orbit from Starbase in Texas. The booster stage will separate approximately 170 seconds into flight and then perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) from shore. Starship will continue flying and achieve orbit, and then perform a targeted landing about 62 miles (100 kilometers) off the Northwest coast of Kauai, Hawaii. SpaceX is waiting on final environment review from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before the orbital test launch can take place. It was originally scheduled for Feb. 28, 2022, and has been pushed back twice. Now the target date for review is March 28, 2022. " " Starship has had several failed tries and spectacular crashes during its test flights over the last months. SpaceX Advertisement Starship, Engage In the long term, Starship is just the next level of rocketry in our species' attempts to explore beyond our home planet. "If SpaceX is able to complete development and certification of Starship, it opens up all new pathways for both uncrewed science and commercial missions, as well as human exploration," Tripathi says. And this should be exciting for many people on Earth, even if they never reach space. "The mass and volume available is a step above anything else available since Apollo, and for purportedly far cheaper. Scientists, explorers and entrepreneurs would have an entirely new tool at their disposal," Tripathi says. Now That's Interesting While most people are paying attention to the rapid production and occasional explosions at SpaceX's Boca Chica production facility, it's that production process that's actually revolutionary about Starship: "That is actually where the key innovations are happening," says Tripathi. "To test, incorporate design changes, and then quickly produce a reliable heavy-lift launch vehicle is going to be the most important part of the program." FLORENCE, S.C. Florence County changed in spring 1986. Lake City residents were in lockdown mode when a series of sexual assaults created a panic in town. The area lacked a rape-crisis center, which meant zero resources for rape survivors or training for first responders. Change started that summer. In July, individuals from many agencies, survivors and their families from three counties gathered in Florence to form the Pee Dee Coalition. Participants in the first meeting decided three critical issues sexual assault, family violence and child abuse needed to be addressed. The emphasis would be on prevention as well as victim services. They also decided the Pee Dee Coalition would serve multiple counties. Trinity Baptist Church provided a work area and phone. Later, the Florence Police Department, Florence Sheriffs Office and 12th Circuit solicitor provided workspace. Its initial priorities were basic crisis intervention through a 24-hour hotline, responding to area hospitals to support victims, community education and awareness and training for professionals. Soon, funding, including a grant from the United Way of Florence County, had the Pee Dee Coalition up and running. The first employee was hired on Oct. 1, 1986. The initial class of volunteer victim advocates completed training in winter 1987, and 24-hour response for eight hospitals in three counties began on April 1 through a crisis hotline and on-site victim support. Ellen Hamilton has been one of the driving forces behind the Pee Dee Coalition since its organization. Hamilton is the organizations executive director and helped guide its growth since its creation in 1986. Francis Marion University and the Morning News recognized Hamiltons work with a Marion Medallion Award during an award ceremony Friday at the Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center lobby. Hamiltons resourcefulness, innovation skills and passion to help victims and educate communities has helped the Pee Dee Coalition Board of Directors expand its service area from three counties to eight and to add services like an emergency safe shelter for battered women in 1989. In 1994, the Elizabeth Pettigrew Durant Childrens center opened to provide a centralized, child-friendly setting for investigative agencies, medical and therapy professionals to help children and families. Along the way, the coalition started prevention education through parenting classes, self-defense classes, alternatives to violence education, child-abuse prevention education and a transitional shelter. When the seeds for the Pee Dee Coalition were being sown, Hamilton was working at a crisis center in Sumter. A father of her friend, the Rev. William P. Diggs of Trinity Baptist Church, contacted Hamilton to see if she would attend the organizational meetings. I said yes. I will see what I can do, Hamilton said in an interview earlier this month. The Pee Dee in 1986 was fairly resource challenged with respect to the rural community. Hamilton contacted the medical alliance, the Junior League of Florence County and others to start the organizational meetings. Law enforcement, hospitals, prosecutors, victims and family from three counties attended the first meeting. They wanted a combined organization. In other words, not just sexual assault, but child abuse and domestic violence. So thats what we did, Hamilton said. Some people cared a lot about prevention, and other people said we need to have shelters. I said lets start with crisis intervention. The coalition started basic crisis intervention on April 1, 1987, by responding to hospitals in three counties and opening the 24-hour crisis hotline. Trained volunteers were called to hospitals to assist victims of sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence. The volunteers also were trained to assist law enforcement with evidence collection, she said. The Pee Dee Coalition didnt have an office. Office space was provided by Trinity Baptist Church, Florence Police Department, Florence County Sheriffs Office and the 12th Circuit solicitors office. Everybody was very helpful and supportive, she said. In 1987, the Sexual Assault and Family Violence Center opened at 145 N. Irby St. in Florence. The center relocated to 220 S. Irby St. in Florence in 1991. Hamilton started writing grant proposals. She visited every municipality in every county. She told the officials and community leaders the Pee Dee Coalition would be a regional organization. The coalition realized almost immediately it would not be appropriate for victims and law enforcement agencies in other counties to come to Florence for services, Hamilton said. In 1990, the Darlington County satellite crisis center was established in Hartsville. The Marion County satellite crisis center was established in 1991. The Dillon County satellite crisis center came on board in 1992. A year later, a satellite crisis center opened in Williamsburg County. The Pee Dee Coalition staffed a part-time satellite crisis center in Lake City in 2000. A satellite crisis center opened in Chesterfield County in 2016. In 2017, the organization secured space for satellite crisis centers in Darlington and Timmonsville. In 2018, it secured space in Lake City to accommodate a growing staff. While satellite crisis centers were being opened, the Durant Childrens Center opened in Florence in 1995. A Durant Childrens Center opened in Hartsville to serve the Fourth Circuit in 2009. One opened in Sumter in 2020 to serve the Third Circuit. In the past 35 years, the Pee Dee Coalition has launched numerous education and intervention programs, Hamilton said. Sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse arent going away, and have a big economic impact on South Carolina. A 2020 study on the economic impact of domestic violence conducted by the Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage shows the cost of domestic violence in the state was nearly $358.4 million in economic losses. These costs include loss of life, worker productivity, physical and mental health counseling, loss of property, police and court costs, incarceration costs and the costs associated with domestic violence programs, shelters and centers. The report was released in October 2021. In 2020, there were 82,379 victims of domestic violence. South Carolina ranked in the top 10 states for rate of murders of females. It showed 42 percent of South Carolina females will experience domestic violence during their lifetime. Florence County had a 2020 population of 138,293. There were 2,213 domestic violence victims in the county. The total cost of domestic violence was $9.385 million annually. Its vital to increase community awareness of the impact of sexual abuse, child abuse and domestic violence on the Pee Dee Region, Hamilton said. Continuing to discuss domestic violence, sexual abuse and child abuse and the use of education and prevention programs can change the unwritten beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors about whats considered acceptable by a society. Hamilton compared it to wearing seat belts. Seat belt use was not federally mandated until 1968. As recently as the 1980s, only 10 percent of Americans actually wore seat belts. Today, the use of seat belts is about 90 percent, according to AAA.com. It become the social norm. How can you get to the point when you see that somebody has had too much to drink, you dont take advantage of that situation. If someone sees that going on, the bystander will say, No, thats not going to happen. I think that is happening a little bit more, Hamilton said. Imam Alioune Badara Ndao nest pas concerne par la reouverture du proces en appel dans laquelle il avait ete acquitte. Cest ce qua informe son avocat Me Moussa Sarr, au tribunal ce lundi, apres le renvoi du proces jusquau 30 mai. Selon lavocat, la reouverture du proces ne concerne que ses neuf (9) coaccuses, qui avaient ete condamnes le 19 juillet 2018. Ces derniers avaient fait appel de leur condamnation et le parquet a forme un appel incident contre eux. Lacquittement de lImam Alioune Badara Ndao prononce en 2018 est devenu definitif et irrevocable, indique Me Moussa Sarr. LImam ne risque rien, mais sil est convoque dans cette procedure, il doit repondre. Regardez : SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 28 February 2022 - Reopening of borders, expanded Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) and relaxed measures have unlocked pent-up demand and propelled Singaporeans to resume travel. In light of this travel interest, leading Southeast Asian neobank, YouTrip, is giving users more savings when they book their next flight with Singapore Airlines. Happening from now till 21 March, with every $500 spent, customers can earn the following: S$20 cashback credited to their YouTrip wallet, and S$30 Changi Gift Card to spend in stores A S$2,000 VTL flight ticket would essentially give travellers 4x the rewards - a maximum of S$200 payout per customer. (T&Cs here) To be eligible, YouTrip users need to book a round trip or return flight from Singapore to an eligible VTL destination between 22 February and 21 March 2022 (both dates included) through the Singapore Airlines website, Singapore Airlines Mobile App, or via Singapore Airlines Appointed Travel Agents and pay with their YouTrip Mastercard. Only specific VTL destinations are eligible for this promotion. "The resumption of VTLs is fantastic news for Singaporeans who had to put a temporary pause on their travel plans. In fact, this strong demand for travel was already observed during the holiday season last year, with airline bookings spiking 700% year-on-year, and we're optimistic that this behaviour will only rise with the border reopening," said Kelvin Lam, Regional General Manager of YouTrip. "As the go-to multi-currency wallet, we are always looking to enhance our users' payment experience. This new travel campaign is our way of helping them accumulate valuable savings as they embark on their overseas adventures," he added. More details of this travel campaign can be found here: https://www.you.co/sg/blog/singapore-airlines-youtrip/ About YouTrip YouTrip is a Southeast Asian neobank offering the region's first and leading multi-currency wallet. As a regional financial technology startup, it is dedicated to creating the best mobile financial services by simplifying foreign currency payments and offering the best exchange rates. YouTrip was launched in Singapore in 2018 and subsequently in Thailand in partnership with Kasikornbank in 2019. To date, it has received over 1.5 million downloads and processed close to 20 million transactions. The company is a Major Payment Institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and was awarded one of Top FinTech Leaders in both 2020 and 2021 by the Singapore FinTech Association. For more information, please visit Story continues www.you.co #YouTrip Residents take shelter in the basement of an apartment building, after Russia launched a massive military operation in Kyiv, Ukraine on 26 February 2022. (PHOTO: Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters) SINGAPORE The Singapore government will contribute US$100,000 to help affected communities in Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Monday (28 February). The financial contribution will be facilitated via the Singapore Red Cross, which is working through the Ukrainian Red Cross Society and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. These funds will go towards the provision of relief supplies such as hygiene kits, family kits and household kits for the vulnerable who are displaced by the conflict, MFA said. The statement comes after several ministers spoke about the conflict on the same day. Singapore will impose export controls on items that can be used directly as weapons in Ukraine, as well as certain financial sanctions on Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, said Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in a Ministerial Statement in Parliament. Also speaking in Parliament, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong said during the debate on Budget 2022 that the downside economic risks faced by Singapore have increased significantly due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterated Singapores position in a Facebook post, saying that the country strongly condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore will impose "appropriate sanctions and restrictions" on Russia, its foreign minister said on Monday, including banking and financial measures and export controls on items that could be used as weapons against the people of Ukraine. The tiny city-state, an Asian financial centre and key international shipping hub, complies with United Nations Security Council resolutions but rarely issues sanctions of its own against countries. "Singapore intends to act in concert with many other like-minded countries to impose appropriate sanctions and restrictions against Russia," Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told parliament, describing Russia's invasion as unacceptable and a gross violation of international norms. He said the sanctions were due to the "unprecedented gravity" of the situation and Russia's veto last week of a draft Security Council resolution. "In particular, we will impose export controls on items that can be used directly as weapons in Ukraine to inflict harm or to subjugate the Ukrainians," he said. "We will also block certain Russian banks and financial transactions connected to Russia," he added. Balakrishnan said specific measures were being worked out and would be announced shortly. Singapore's move is the first among its regional neighbours and comes independent of the Association of 10-member Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which it is a member. The bloc on Saturday called for a de-escalation of the conflict and for dialogue and respect of international law and U.N. commitments. (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Martin Petty) On June 1, Webster University welcomes a new addition that will ultimately benefit both students and employers within a key business sector. The College of Science and Health resides in Browning Hall, a cutting-edge interdisciplinary science building equipped with state-of-the-art technology, to expand high-quality science and health program opportunities within the university. We continue to do what Webster has historically done so well for more than a century meet the unmet needs of the community, said Webster University President Julian Schuster. In this instance, it will be through boosting the number of graduates in the region with strong backgrounds in health and science fields. The College of Science and Health serves as an umbrella for undergraduate and graduate programs in biological sciences, biology, chemistry, nursing, psychological science and psychology, in addition to graduate programs focusing on biomedical sciences, environmental management, gerontology, human services, counseling and other related fields of study. Webster faculty have found innovative ways to enrich learning experiences for biology students in courses that could be done in the classroom with much less impact. Spring break may include trips to truly unique study locations. For instance, while in the Galapagos Islands, biology students and professor Stephanie Schroeder explore the islands through the lens of speciation and biodiversity, as a component of their Evolution Lab course. There they study various ecosystems and collect observational data to be used in their final course projects. Programs like this are designed to enrich the curriculum by giving students a learning experience outside the classroom and allow them to understand the world around them. In addition to an enriched learning experience, this gives biology students a more global perspective and builds on their understanding of diversity of biology and cultures. Highly respected within the St. Louis area, Webster Universitys health sciences programs have garnered many accolades thanks to accreditations and collaborations with major healthcare organizations. The nursing program partners with BJC HealthCare, SSM Health and Mercy Hospital, and the Webster Groves Counseling program has achieved Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accreditation, opening up numerous options for graduates who want to work in counseling-related fields across the United States. The Doctor of Nursing Anesthesia Practice program routinely generates a student wait list thanks to its dynamic instructors, and virtually every healthcare facility in the region that employs nurse anesthetists counts a Webster graduate among its staff. The biology and psychology programs at Webster are two of the most popular majors and enable students to work closely with instructors on a variety of research projects. Webster faculty integrate research and teaching in innovative ways, said vice president for academic affairs Nancy Hellerud. In addition to bringing their research experiences into classrooms and labs, faculty members employ student researchers to assist on projects and sponsor students as they embark upon their own research. Students apply for student research funding and present at conferences, including our own Research Across Disciplines conference. They graduate ready to take the next step in their careers or education path. Research from Webster University health and science faculty members has garnered national attention in the past several years. Associate professor Ryan Liberati was awarded two grants from the Schultz Foundation for Advancing Counseling, and associate professor Nicole Miller-Struttmann is part of a multi-agency effort to study ways to maximize pollination in urban environments. Dr. Linda Woolf recently received the prestigious Charles L. Brewer Award for Distinguished Teaching of Psychology, and Drs. Michael Hulsizer and Heather Mitchell have won awards from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division Two). Websters programs and faculty benefit from grants awarded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Hearst Foundation and other entities. Webster University chancellor Elizabeth J. Stroble looks forward to seeing what the new college will be able to accomplish in the future. In the past decade, faculty and students in Websters health and sciences programs have significantly increased their capacity for impactful teaching, scholarship and community engagement, she said. Expanded facilities, competitive federal grants, valued accreditations, alumni career success and purposeful partnerships are all in evidence as a result. For more information, visit webster.edu/gowebster. This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 TEHRAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Monday that the talks in Vienna on the restoration of a 2015 nuclear deal have not come to an end, adding that the United States has yet to make tough political decisions. Amir Abdollahian made the remarks in Monday's meeting with members of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. According to the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee's official report, as part of its supervisory role, the committee held a meeting with the foreign minister to assess the progress of the talks between Iran and the remaining parties to the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in the Austrian capital. The meeting was also aimed at following up on the Iranian negotiating team's efforts to achieve the targets set by the Parliament with a law it passed in December 2020 to counter U.S. sanctions and safeguard Iranians' interests. During the meeting, the report added, Amir Abdollahian laid out the efforts by the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi and the Iranian negotiating team to reach an agreement in Vienna. Iran signed 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 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. Target announced Monday that it is raising its starting wage for workers in some positions to up to $24. The Minneapolis-based retailer said the increase will apply to hourly workers at its discount stores, supply chain facilities and headquarters. Target in 2020 set its minimum wage at $15. That will remain in place, but Target said some workers will qualify for higher starting pay based on the nature of their job and the prevailing competitive wages in their local market. Target, which employs more than 350,000 workers and has over 1,900 US stores, said the hike in some starting wages is part of its plan to spend an additional $300 million on its workforce. That investment also includes expanding access to healthcare benefits for hourly workers, beginning in April. Under the plan, Target's hourly employees who work a minimum average of 25 hours a week will be eligible to enroll in a company medical plan. That's down from the previous requirement of 30 hours per week. The retailer is also shortening the waiting period for eligible hourly team members to enroll in a Target medical plan. Depending on their position, employees will be able to get comprehensive health care benefits three to nine months sooner. Employees will also get faster access to 401(k) plans. The changes come as more retailers and restaurant chains have moved to a $15 an hour minimum rate. Amazon raised its starting wage to $15 in 2018, while Best Buy bumped up its minimum to $15 in 2020. Walmart, the largest US retailer, said in September that its workers who handle the front end of the store, food and general merchandise units will get at least a dollar an hour increase to $12. The pay raise would cover 565,000 Walmart workers. Target's move comes amid an ongoing worker shortage in the retail industry, partly triggered by the pandemic, as companies across the board struggle to retain and hire more workers. "Alongside the health risks, uncertainty and stress of working during a pandemic, many service-sector workers continue to contend with chronically unpredictable and unstable work schedules," according to a recent report from the Shift Project, a joint venture by Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco. --CNNBusiness' Nathaniel Meyersohn contributed to this story *** The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WALTHILL, Neb. -- Construction of a new church in Walthill can move forward now that a lengthy legal battle between church and village leaders has ended. A federal judge has signed a consent decree to finalize a negotiated settlement that will put to rest Light of the World Gospel Ministries' contentions that the Walthill village board violated the church's First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly by passing zoning laws designed to discriminate against the church and denying its building permit applications for construction of a new worship center on Main Street. Light of the World also had argued the village board's denial of building, demolition and special use permits for removal of four vacant buildings to clear space for the new worship center treated the church unequally compared with nonreligious entities. "The church is thrilled with the resolution and now being able to minister more effectively," said Roger Byron, an attorney at First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based legal organization that represented Light of the World in the lawsuit. Under terms of the agreement, the village's insurer has paid a $500,000 settlement to be divided among law firms that worked on the case, and the village board has approved the necessary permits clearing the way for construction of the church. The church agreed to include two businesses in its new building. Current plans call for a cafe and bookstore. The church also agreed that if it builds a new structure on two lots adjacent to the planned worship center in the future, that building also must include one or two businesses or a community youth center. "It's really a win-win for everyone, the village thinks. The church gets its church, and the village gets businesses within its commercial district," said Matt Munderloh, the village's attorney. As part of the agreement, reached after months of mediation and negotiations, the village admits no wrongdoing. Byron said he expects the church to move forward with demolition and construction in the near future. Light of the World, which describes itself on its website as a diverse and multicultural nondenominational Christian congregation, has been located at 214 Main St. in Walthill since 2007. As the congregation continued to grow, the building became too small and, church leaders said, dangerous because of the partial collapse of an adjacent building. The church first applied for a building permit in 2013 after buying four vacant buildings across the street with the intention of demolishing them and building a new worship center. The church filed suit in federal court in Omaha in July 2018, saying that the village had inconsistently enforced its zoning laws to prevent construction of the church within the commercial district. The church argued that during the same time, the village board approved construction of nonreligious places of assembly, including a library and an education center, in the same zoning district. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the village in February 2020 for violating a federal law intended to protect religious institutions from burdensome or discriminatory land use regulations. The Justice Department on Friday announced it had settled the lawsuit. Among the settlement terms, village officials must obtain training on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA. "RLUIPA protects the right of every religious community to worship free from unlawful burdens. We will not tolerate the unlawful use of zoning or land use restrictions to infringe on that right," Jan Sharp, U.S. Attorney for the Nebraska District, said in a news release. The building next to the church was demolished in 2019 and is now the site of a dialysis center operated by the Carl T. Curtis Health Education Center in Macy, Nebraska. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SIOUX CITY -- A Melvin, Iowa, man was sentenced Thursday to four years in federal prison on child porn charges. Johnny E. Gutierrez, 21, pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to two counts of possession of child pornography. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Gutierrez possessed images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct from February 2016 though November 2019 and distributed those images to other people. During their investigation, officers recovered 51 images and 26 videos of child pornography from his computer hard drive and 38 images from his cellphone. Gutierrez was ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution and will be on supervised release for five years after completing his prison sentence. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Council approved a resolution Monday to accept a Florida-based cold storage company's proposal to construct a 500,000-square foot cold storage facility in Sioux City's Southbridge Business Park. Cold-Link Logistics intends to build the facility in phases on a 40-acre parcel abutting 225th Street. The first phase will contain roughly 130,000 square feet of cold storage space along with offices, truck docks, parking and other amenities. Future phases of the project will bring the total size of the facility to approximately 500,000 square feet, according to city documents. Construction is expected to begin in March 2022 with a projected opening date in early 2023. There was no discussion before the council voted unanimously in favor of the resolution, which also directs the city manager to negotiate a development agreement and minimum assessment agreement with Cold-Link. Under the current terms of the proposed agreement, Cold-Link would purchase 37.04 acres of the City's 27 Flags industrial for $833,400. Cold-Link would also commit to investing $50 million to construct the first phase of the facility, and enter into a minimum assessment agreement of $25 million beginning Jan. 1, 2024, which would continue for a period of 10 years. The city assessor's preliminary estimate of value for the project is approximately $34 million, according to the documents. The city, in turn, would sell roughly 40 acres of the 27 Flags industrial site to Cold-Link for $22,500 per acre, a $7,500 per acre discount. The city would provide 75% property tax rebates on the new incremental taxes created by the value added to the property for a period of seven years. Total tax rebate assistance is estimated at $5.3 million. The city would also construct Alicia Avenue along the eastern side of the Cold-Link development and a rail spur from the city-owned lead track north to serve the facility. The road is estimated to cost approximately $1.5 million and the rail spur more than $1.3 million. The city would likely receive approximately 80% reimbursement through the IDOT RISE program for the road and 50% of the costs of the rail spur through the Rail Revolving Loan and Grant Program, according to the documents. The city would also spend an estimated $900,000 to construct utilities to serve the site, as well as a much larger portion of 27 Flags. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Council is expected to vote Monday on a resolution to accept a Florida-based cold storage company's proposal to construct a 500,000-square foot cold storage facility in Sioux City's Southbridge Business Park. Cold-Link Logistics intends to build the facility in phases on a 40-acre parcel abutting 225th Street. The first phase will contain roughly 130,000 square feet of cold storage space along with offices, truck docks, parking and other amenities. Future phases of the project will bring the total size of the facility to approximately 500,000 square feet, according to city documents. Construction is expected to begin in March 2022 with a projected opening date in early 2023. If approved, the resolution will also direct the city manager to negotiate a development agreement and minimum assessment agreement with Cold-Link. Under the current terms of the proposed agreement, Cold-Link would purchase 37.04 acres of the City's 27 Flags industrial for $833,400. Cold-Link would also commit to investing $50 million to construct the first phase of the facility, and enter into a minimum assessment agreement of $25 million beginning Jan. 1, 2024, which would continue for a period of 10 years. The city assessor's preliminary estimate of value for the project is approximately $34 million, according to the documents. The city, in turn, would sell roughly 40 acres of the 27 Flags industrial site to Cold-Link for $22,500 per acre, a $7,500 per acre discount. The city would provide 75% property tax rebates on the new incremental taxes created by the value added to the property for a period of seven years. Total tax rebate assistance is estimated at $5.3 million. The city would also construct Alicia Avenue along the eastern side of the Cold-Link development and a rail spur from the city-owned lead track north to serve the facility. The road is estimated to cost approximately $1.5 million and the rail spur more than $1.3 million. The city would likely receive approximately 80% reimbursement through the IDOT RISE program for the road and 50% of the costs of the rail spur through the Rail Revolving Loan and Grant Program, according to the documents. The city would also spend an estimated $900,000 to construct utilities to serve the site, as well as a much larger portion of 27 Flags. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Airbnb is offering free short-term housing for up to 100,000 Ukrainians who have been displaced by the war with Russia, the company announced Monday. The stays will be funded by donations to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund as well as with help from hosts on the platform. Brian Chesky, Airbnb's cofounder and CEO, called for people to open their homes in Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania as more Ukrainians flee the conflict in their home country. Chesky and two other Airbnb officials sent letters to European leaders of nations bordering Ukraine to offer Airbnb's support with housing refugees, the company said. While the stays are temporary, the company said it "will work closely with governments to best support the specific needs in each country, including by providing longer-term stays." Some Ukrainians who need housing may not currently have access to devices or internet traditionally required to book lodging on the platform. Airbnb said it will work with "nonprofits on the ground, who are responsible for booking and coordinating stays for refugee guests, regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, or how they identify." The rental platform's refugee housing is part of Airbnb.org, an independent nonprofit organization that it launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that works to provide temporary housing for those in crisis. Last week, Airbnb.org announced that it will provide 21,300 Afghan refugees with short-term housing solutions. More than 500,000 Ukrainian refugees have entered surrounding countries over the last four days as the Russian invasion escalates. The European Union is asking member nations to grant temporary asylum to all arriving Ukrainians for up to three years, according to EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson. The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday expressed the hope that the adjustment of Yemen sanctions is conducive to a return to the right track of political negotiation. Since the beginning of this year, the situation in Yemen has kept deteriorating. Conflicts and confrontations intensified and hostilities saw an upward spiral. China is deeply concerned about this, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. China condemns all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, calls for an immediate stop to the cross-border attacks on and security threats to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and supports the two countries in their efforts to defend their national security, he told the Security Council after the adoption of a new resolution that imposes an arms embargo on the Houthi militia in Yemen. Using the opportunity of sanctions renewal, and given the new developments in the situation, the Security Council just updated relevant restrictive measures and the mandate of the Panel of Experts that assists the Sanctions Committee, he noted. China's position on the issue of sanctions has always been consistent. China will keep a close eye on the impacts of the restrictive measures, he said. "We hope that this resolution is conducive to facilitating all parties to the conflicts to renounce the military option and actively support the mediation efforts of the (UN) special envoy, so as to return to the right track of political negotiation as soon as possible." China supports Special Envoy Hans Grundberg in continuing his work proactively and keeping engagement with all parties to promote the Yemeni peace process. At the same time, the United Nations and other agencies should continue humanitarian assistance across Yemen, said Zhang. The Panel of Experts should conduct its work strictly in accordance with its mandate given by the Security Council, uphold objectivity and impartiality, and provide information that is accurate and neutral, he said. DES MOINES In a symbolic gesture of support for the Ukrainian people who are under Russian attack, Gov. Kim Reynolds has directed the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division to remove any Russian-produced alcoholic liquor products from its wholesale purchase list. Her order is unlikely to have much impact in Iowa even though Iowans purchased 2,024,662 gallons of vodka through the ABD in 2021. In the top 10 brands by gallons sold, there are five brands of vodka Titos, Hawkeye, McCormick, Smirnoff and Five OClock. Russian vodkas account for a very small portion of overall sales, spokesman Tyler Ackerson said Monday. Over the past 12 months, the sale of Russian vodka has totaled about $95,000 out of more than $93 million in vodka sales. Whiskey, led by Black Velvet Canadian Whiskey, is the drink of choice for Iowans based on ABDs gallons sold 2,117,237 in 2021. Sales of whiskey exceeded $168 million, according to ABDs annual report. Very few brands imported to the United States still are produced in Russia. Smirnoff vodka, for example, traces its roots to Moscow, but is distilled in the U.S. Stoli, which basically translates into capital city because it originated in Moscow, is distilled in Latvia as well as Russia and has its headquarters in Luxembourg, a NATO country. ABD has only three Russian vodkas permanently listed Russian Standard Original Vodka, Russian Standard Platinum Vodka and Hammer + Sickle Vodka, Ackerson said. Another three are considered special order on hand listing Russian Standard Imperia Vodka, Zu Bison Grass Vodka and Quadro Vodka. ABD has several Russian vodkas listed as special order. While Russian-made products that will no longer be available for purchase from the state wholesale operation, retailers are not required to cease sales of those products. Some retailers, bars and restaurants already have stopped offering Russian products in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Iowa is one of 17 states that controls the sale of alcoholic liquor at the wholesale level. Under Iowa law, ABD has the authority to determine the brands of alcoholic liquor products available for sale to retailers. Alcoholic liquor is sold by ABD to off-premises retailers, who then sell the products directly to consumers or to on-premises retailers, such as bars and restaurants. In issuing the order, Reynolds joins the governors of Utah, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania in making the symbolic gesture of support for Ukraine. Reynolds also has called for Iowa Sister States to end its relationship with Stavropol Krai, Russia, and provide recommendations for enhancing its sister state relationship with Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. More information on the delisting of Russian products will be available at the ABD website on or before March 1. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 After four days of fighting, the Russian military is bogged down in Ukraine. In part this is due to the valiant resistance of Ukraines army and civilian defense forces. But its also due to the fact that the Russian army just isnt very good. News reports, tweets, videos, and emails from the battlefields show Russias armored vehicles abandoned for lack of fuel, its soldiers foraging for food, its transport planes shot out of the sky, its various military elementstanks, infantry, aircraftunable to coordinate their aims. Advertisement Michael Kofman, a military analyst at CNA, an Arlington, Virginiabased think tank, who has been following the battle closely, tweeted late Sunday afternoon, Its taken me a while to figure out what [the Russian military is] trying to do, because it looks so ridiculous and incompetent. B.A. Friedman, a military historian and tactician, went further: This isnt a good army executing a bad plan. It isnt a good army executing outdated or out-of-context tactics. Its a bad army! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. None of this should be overstated. Four days of fighting might seem an eternity when viewed through the prism of round-the-clock cable news, but, in retrospect, a month from now, it will seem like the blink of an eye. Even the best armies take a while to get going. That said, Russias invasion of Ukraine has been particularly sluggish and flawed. Advertisement Advertisement In one sense, this was predictable. Over the past decade, the Russian armed forces have greatly improved, especially in the numbers of troops and quality of weapons. However, some of their age-old weaknesses havent been fixed at all. The Russian army has always been bad at setting up and sustaining supply lines. Gen. Omar Bradley once said about different types of military officers, Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.* In that sense, Russians are amateurs. This is well known. It is why Ukrainian soldiers explicitly attacked the Russian supply lines. Its why so many tanks and other vehicles have been spotted stuck on the side of a road. This weakness might not matter so much if an army makes rapid progress at the start of its offensive. Its troops could plunder the places they conquer for fuel, food, and other supplies. But the Russian army isnt cut out for lightning strikes. Troops are trained in rote set pieces, with no time devoted to improvising if things dont go as planned. One reason for this is that junior officers are not allowed to take initiative. This is deliberate; its part of the top-down command system dating back to Soviet times, if not earlier. In politics and in warfare, the small elite on top doesnt want subordinates to get too creativeif they did, they might take over. Advertisement Advertisement And so, as the Russian invaders met resistance, they didnt quite know what to do. Military operations designed to take place sequentiallyStep 1, then 2, then 3, etc.fell apart, catastrophically. If Step 2 hit a big obstacle, the by-the-book soldiers moved on to Step 3 anyway. Therefore, large troop-transport planes tried to land, even though the airport hadnt been completely secured and Ukrainian air defense systems hadnt been destroyed. As a result, two Il-76 transport planes, each carrying 100 airborne troops, were shot down. Advertisement Advertisement Similarly, tanks arent supposed to roll through hostile territory all alone. They need to be escorted by infantry troops alongside or by combat planes from above, to avoid getting ambushed. Yet, in this invasion, Russian tanks are rolling all on their own or providing protection for reconnaissance scouts, but getting no protection for themselves. So, as might be expected, lots of Russian tanks are getting ambushed. Advertisement Advertisement Nor have the Russians established air superiority, even though their air force far outnumbers Ukraines. As a result, Ukrainian drones have been picking off Russian convoys with impunity. There is a larger factor here: The Russian army is composed, by and large, of one-year conscripts, who are poorly trained (even within the confines of Russian military training), badly treated, and uninspired by ideology or any other motivating spirit. Hence the stories of captured Russian troops who had no idea why they were in Ukraine. At least a few didnt even know that they were in Ukrainethey thought they were still doing exercises in Belarus. Others have reportedly been found knocking on village doors for food or, in one case, asking a local police station for fuel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All this aside, it is still possibleeven likelythat, if the fighting goes on much longer, the Russians will overtake the Ukrainians, capture Kyiv, and possibly oust the current government. Theyve sent in only about two-thirds of the troops and weapons that had been poised on the Ukrainian border. Convoys of tanks are rolling inhowever slowlyfrom the north, west, and south. They are joined, or are about to be joined, by Belarusian troops and Chechen special forces. As the resistance mounts and as the Russians offensive is thwarted, Putin and his generals can be expected to turn up the heat, shellingand, recently, bombingcities, destroying whatever they can destroy, for destructions sake. This is what the Russian military has done elsewhere, notably in Chechnya, when its officers feel frustrated. At some point, superior firepower will win out, at least in the short run. But this doesnt mean they will win in the long run. The resistance will continue, especially now that practically every nation in NATO is supplying Ukraine with weapons. Putins invasion has rallied Ukrainian nationalism, stiffened the Wests spine, and sent his own economy into a tailspin. Chaotic destructiveness can only go so far. It is not a winning technique for the long run against organized defenses. And the more Putin resorts to chaotic destructiveness, the more organized the defenses become. When I asked Fred Kaplan, who writes Slates War Stories column, whether hed anticipated the kind of open warfare weve been seeing in Ukraine, he had an admission to make: I have to confess I was surprised. Kaplan actually came on this show, back in December, and made a prediction that an invasion was not really what Putin wanted in Ukraine. He was wrong about that. For Kaplan, that is still stunning. But now that this invasion has happened, Kaplan has been thinking about the history here. The moments that, in retrospect, seem predictive in some way. Hes found a lot of them. Advertisement Whats happening right now, versions of it have happened beforein Crimea, in Georgia, and before all of that in Czechoslovakia, in 1968. On an episode of What Next this weekend, I spoke with Kaplan about what history can tell us about whats going on now in Ukraine. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mary Harris: Lets start with Czechoslovakia in 1968. Back then, Czech leaders were making noises that sounded a lot like Ukraine does today. The country was opening up to democratic change. Fred Kaplan: The head of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubcek, declared that he was pursuing a policy of socialism with a human face. The first thing he did was make sure the press could be free. Advertisement And he reached out to Western Europe for support. Well, Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the Soviet Union at the time, decided this cannot stand. He moved in not 150,000 troops, but 250,000 troops to occupy Czechoslovakia. At the time, he had a lot of help. The Czech military was very much on Moscows side in this. Now, you have an independent Ukrainian army, and a people that has been independent from Moscows orbit for 30 years. So youre saying that Putins ripping a page from an old Soviet playbook, but the circumstances have completely changed. Thats right. Think about how this story ended: Decades later, Czech leaders joined NATO and then the European Union. But breaking free from Moscows grip took decades, which means Ukraine could be just beginning to fight, right? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Combat is just one phase of a conflict like this. Its quite likely that in this first phase of combat, Russians will win, but then what? Youve said we can trace the modern day Russian plot to take back its sphere of influence as starting sometime around 2008. Back then, a few more Eastern bloc countries were being admitted to NATO. And at a conference in Bucharest, U.S. President George W. Bush suggested that Ukraine and Georgia be allowed to join next. These comments received instant pushback. Advertisement Advertisement Everybody said this is a terrible idea. First, these countries do not qualify right now to get into NATO. Second, this is going to be needlessly provocative of Russia because even back in the 1990s, when NATO was first expanding, just about everybody, even the real ardent enthusiasts for doing this into the Czech Republic and Poland, Romania, the Baltics, and so forththey all stopped short of Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Because its right on the border with Russia. Its right on the border. And its so much a part of Russian interests and Russian culture. The ties are enormous. So when Bush said this, everybody objected. But then when the official statement came out from the conference, it said, Ukraine and Georgia will become members. It didnt say when, but it said they will become members, and it was four months later that Putin did in Georgia kind of what hes doing now with the two aspiring breakaway republics in Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement For people who dont remember, explain what happened in Georgia in 2008? Georgia became an independent republic, as did Ukraine, in 1991. But there were these two provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were heavily Russian in population. A separatist movement took hold, which was very strongly aided by Moscow, and they claimed, Oh, were under attack from the Georgians, and so we have to fight back. And Russian troops moved in. Advertisement How did the world react to this? You know, other things were going on. Iraq, for example. So, not a whole lot. And it was very small. Some people like John McCain raised a big fuss, but it didnt seem to be worthy of a big fuss, quite honestly. Russias swift invasion of those two areas in Georgia was just the beginning. Six years later, after protesters in Kyiv ousted their Moscow-backed president and replaced him with a leader who had aspirations of joining the EU, the Russians struck back by occupying the separatist region of Crimea. And the reaction by the Obama administration at the time was muted. Advertisement Heres the thing: In 2014, when they annexed Crimea and took out a slice of Eastern Ukraine in fraternal assistance to the pro-Russian separatists there, there was a big meeting within NATO on what to do. And President Obama decided to focus on economic sanctions, not military sanctions. He didnt even do what was done later, which was to send anti-tank missiles, anti-air missiles. He did send things like night vision gear and radar and blankets and equipment and helmets. Advertisement Advertisement What was the reasoning there? Well, his reason was: Look, Ukraine is a lot more important to Russia than it is to us. Any military move we make is going to be matched and far exceeded by Russia. And therefore, Im not going to get into a big arms race, which were going to lose. Even now, even as Russia is mounting this massive invasion of Ukraine, Biden is very clear and careful to note that we are not going to be sending U.S. or NATO troops into Ukraine. We dont want to get into a war with Russia over Ukraine, which we have decided, using similar logic to Obama, is really not worth the devastation that such a war might very easily escalate to. Advertisement But looking back at what happened in Georgia and what happened in Ukraine in 2014I know hindsight is 20/20but its impossible not to see a picture of Putin testing the limits of the Western world. Well, you had to wait until he had the means to test the limits. Until quite recently, Russian economy was still very weak. Its still quite weak. I think Putin and many Russians would be very disturbed by seeing Ukraine go all the way over into the West. He viewed the enlargement of NATO with alarm, and there were even legitimate security reasons for his viewing it that way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You think he legitimately had something to fear from more and more arms being put at the border? Advertisement Bushs Bucharest statement that Ukraine will become a part of NATO, I think, was a big mistake. I think there was some way of just owning up to the fact that Ukraine is not going to become a part of NATO and making some other kind of security arrangements for the country. Now, do I think that this is all our fault? No, I think a deal could have been struck with any number of other people who have been the leader of Russia in the last several decades to show him, Look, this isnt going to happen. Biden offered a lot of arrangements. He said publicly that Ukraine is not going to become part of NATO anytime soon, but we cant just bar them from doing this. And by the way, we can open this up to we could open up military exercises to transparency. And do you really think that these two missile defense launchers that we have in Romania can fire offensive missiles? Well, come over and inspect them so you can see they cant. Lets have a conference to talk about. Advertisement Advertisement He offered a lot of things that a lot of Russian leaders would have taken as a possible way out of the crisis and a way to rack up some wins. But not Putin. I think what happened is that Putin, who has always been obsessed with not only the loss of empire but also his destiny as the man who can to some extent restore that empirethat plus possibly the isolation that hes been in since COVID, the stories that hes surrounded himself with a handful of advisers who are even more obsessed and paranoid on this score than he is. Advertisement You can just look at the pictures of Vladimir Putin in the last few days. He refuses to be closer than 20 feet to anyone, even his closest allies. Advertisement Yeah, apparently that table was specially built for this occasion. The table where Macron was at one end and he was at the other. Thats right. So there are a lot of things going into this. The other thing is back during the Cuban missile crisis or any time in the Soviet Union, there was a Politburo. Khrushchev did some crazy things; the Politburo kicked him out. They denounced Khrushchev for his harebrained schemes. There is no Politburo anymore. Advertisement Advertisement Its all Putin. He has advisers, but they dont know what hes about to do. Two days before he formally recognized the separatists-controlled two provinces of Ukraine as an independent republic, Russias ambassador to the U.N. said, Let me make this clear: We regard the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk as part of Ukraine. He said that, and two days later, Putin said, No, theyre not. Theyre an independent republic. I would be very surprised if you found anybodyor very many peopleon the record, not months, but years ago who said, Yeah, Russia is going to launch a massive invasion and take over all of Ukraine. Thats a very big, big deal. Now that theyve done it, I think they will find that in the long run, it will be a huge mistake. Something one of my producers pointed out is that the conflict in Georgia that we talked about back in 2008, it was only a few days long. Yeah, six days. But Georgias very small. Ukraine is a big country. So we should prepare for more than that? Its a very different kind of thing. And it is an all-out invasion. He has either launched missile attacks on or sent troops to towns and military installations in all parts of the country noweast, south, north, and a little bit west. And theyre moving toward one another. Its a pincer movement to cut everything off and to divide resistance. Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts Get more news from Mary Harris every weekday. The belief that Vladimir Putin was bluffing, that he would never give the order for the nearly 200,000-man army he had spent months amassing on the borders of Ukraine to invade, persisted as late as 5:45 a.m. Moscow time the day of the attack, when, grimacing in a red tie, Russias ruler of almost 23 years announced in a prerecorded statement what he called a special military operation. This was not just a shock on American political Twitter. It was a shock to many of the leading experts and policymakers in the United States, Europe, and even Ukraine. The head of German intelligence was so caught off guard that he was still in Kyiv and had to be evacuated. Advertisement But nowhere did the shock feel more profound than among foreign policy analysts in Russia, where overwhelming consensus, until that very moment, had been that Putin would never launch such a war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Even someone as experienced as Sir John Sawers, former head of the British intelligence agency MI6the role code-named M in the James Bond universetold me just a week before the invasion began: The idea that Putin was actually going to invade the whole of Ukraine, topple the Kyiv government, and occupy the whole country, for years to comeI never thought that that was a realistic prospect.* Among even the leaders who had spent weeks warning a major offensive was imminent, a tone of surprise was not too hard to detect in their statements. I cannot believe this is being done in your name, said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, trying to address, for a moment, the Russian people, or that you really want the pariah status it will bring to the Putin regime. Advertisement Advertisement However, that phrasethe Putin regimewhich has been stuck to all discussions of Russian politics now for almost 20 years, in some ways itself helps explain why so many people who believed they understood the country turned out to be so wrong about the Ukraine conflict. It has become clear that what exists inside the Kremlin is no longer a regime at alla system of government where multiple figures can affect and feed into decision-making, from security chiefs to billionairesas many believed. Advertisement Instead, it has transformed into what political scientists call a personalist dictatorship, where the whims of one man, and one man only, determine policy, a fact that has terrifying implications for Russia and the world. Advertisement Americans tend to see the world in much the same way as President Joe Biden frames it in his speeches, divided neatly between democracies and autocracies. But the reality is that authoritarian states exist on a political spectrum depending on how much power is exercised by a single individualand where states land on this spectrum has a big impact on matters of war and peace. At one end, you have civilian-run regimes, like Hu Jintaos China or Leonid Brezhnevs Soviet Union, where political power is checked and shared within a ruling party. At the other, you have personalist dictatorships like that of, say, Saddam Hussein, where rivals are purged, loyalists are rewarded, cults of personality flourish, and all authority runs through the glorious leader. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The political science literature suggests that personalist dictatorships are more erratic and dangerous to the outside world than other sorts of autocracies. Researchers have found they are more likely to start wars, for instance (institutionalized civilian-run regimes are about as apt to use force as democracies), and also tend to perform worse militarily (not surprising, since their leaders are often surrounded by yes men). But while civilian-run regimes might be less apt to launch destructive, harebrained conflicts in the short term, in the long term they can still be ticking time bombs. Advertisement Advertisement Thats because as they age, their intricate power structures often devolve and allow dictators to consolidate personal control. In a forthcoming paper, Andrew Leber and Matthew Reichert of Harvard University and Christopher Carothers of the University of Pennsylvania theorize that this tends to happen when theres no influential old guard of political elites who can stop them. All of which pretty much sums up what has happened in Russia over the last two decades. Advertisement While the worlds news readers may long have thought of Vladimir Putin as a dictator, most Russia analysts and policymakers saw the Kremlin differently. And for most of Putins nearly 23-year journey in power, they were right to do so. What existed was a complicated regime beyond one man where lots of people exerted influence and could check Putins impulses. Putin began his rule as Boris Yeltsins chosen successor in 1999. Then, he was a kind of semi-democratic populist strongmancloser to Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan than the Putin of today. He turned toward full-on authoritarianism with the rigged 2004 Russian elections. But his government still looked to the U.S. Embassy like a regime in which billionaires and security chiefs influenced grand strategy when he installed Dmitry Medvedev as puppet president from 2008 to 2012 and toyed with retirement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mass protests against the government may have changed Putins thinking, and he began to tighten his grip on power after returning to the presidency in 2012. As Leber and his co-authors note, by then, nobody in Russia was in a position to challenge him. But, even as late as 2014, when Putin decided to annex Crimea, the move was taken after a night of intense discussion with his inner circle in the Kremlinafter commissioning secret polls on public opinion. There was still some semblance of a regime, albeit one in which Putin tightly controlled its reins. This brings us to today. A key reason that many wise foreign policy hands thought Russia was bluffing about an invasion was that they assumed Putin wasnt making his decisions alone. This assumption informed much of Western strategy. Experts believed that threatening Russian oligarchs with sanctions, for instance, would encourage Putins inner circle to push back against war. Offering accommodationfor example, changes to the Ukrainian Constitution, autonomy for the Donbas region under the Minsk Agreement, or a 20-year moratorium on NATO expansionwould satisfy the regimes rational actors, the thinking went, even if Putin himself had grander visions of territorial conquest. Threats of economic sanctions were supposed to raise the oligarchs concerns about public backlash. The prospect of high casualties, of what was already certain to be a very unpopular war, convinced many that a regime concerned somewhat with public opinion would undertake it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The world is now realizing that the Putin regime is really just Vladimir Putin. But the world is now realizing that the Putin regime is really just Vladimir Putin. And he is apparently no longer worried about what war will mean for Russias rich, much less its masses. This was made brutally clear to all in the astonishing session of the Russian security council a week ago. In the echoing and ornate hall of St. Catherine in the Kremlin, a former imperial throne room where the annexation of Crimea was announced in 2014, Putin gathered his most senior lieutenants to consult them on whether to recognize the independence of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics. Advertisement Advertisement Not only did many of them look visibly uncomfortable, but the head of Russian foreign intelligence, Sergey Naryshkin, looked actually scaredto the point where he forgot whether he was being asked whether or not to welcome the republics into Russia itself or merely if they should be recognized as independent. Advertisement The same shift was more subtly visible in St. Catherines Hall after the fighting began. Putin summoned the countrys leading businessmen to what the Western press described as an oligarchs meeting. However, as astutely noted by the Financial Times Moscow bureau chief, Max Seddon, few of those present were what we actually think of as oligarchs: billionaires of independent wealth, power, and influence, the type who dominated Russia back in the 1990s. Advertisement Instead, those at the oligarchs meeting were by and large state company directors with an intelligence background or Putin cronies elevated to great wealthmen who owe their positions to Putin, not the other way around; men who act as placeholders and frontmen for him in the commanding heights of the economy. The best way to understand their political position is through a joke common in Moscow: They are not oligarchs; they just work as oligarchs. Advertisement At this point, analysis of what Russia might do next largely consists of guessing the state of Putins mind. (As the New York Times Tom Friedman put it, The only place to be for understanding this war is inside Russian President Vladimir Putins head.) The press is chock-full of speculation about his sanity; now that hes ordered Russias nuclear forces on high alert, weve all been forced to contemplate the possibility that this conflict could somehow spiral into atomic death and destruction. Certainly, its unclear who could stop Putin from irrational action. Advertisement But how did so many miss that Putin and his rule had changed? Part of the answer is that Putin has been in power so long that much analysis simply got frozen in the past. Impressions about a Russia dominated by oligarchs froze into legend and did not keep up with their effective liquidation as a class. (It didnt help that Westerns know plenty of Russian billionaires from the Davos circuit, but dont know the security officials whove increasingly embraced the sort of religious nationalism that seems to have gripped Putin.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pandemic also made it difficult for outsiders to notice Putins apparent descent into paranoid isolation; he has apparently cloistered himself for the past few years through ultra-strict personal lockdowns and social distancing measures that may have affected his judgment. The absurdly long tables Putin has sat at for meetings have become a symbol of his remoteness (and a pretty good meme). French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly found him a completely different person in early February from the man he last met in 2019. And finally, Western Russia analysis failed because it depends on Russian analysis of its own society, and that failed even more catastrophically. There, an expert class inured by decades of propaganda underestimated the effect that the systematic dismantling of Russian journalism has had on its ability to know what goes on inside the Kremlin. This, mixed with denial: It was simply too terrifying to contemplate the fact Russians were living under dictatorship where all the guardrails had fallen off. Though Americans may think of Russia as a society used to tyrants, this is subtly missing the point. The post-Stalin Soviet Union was a collectively ruled, civilian-led authoritarian regime, not one-man rule. Stalin died when Putin was less than 5 months old, meaning the ability to spot the warning signs of personalist dictatorship are almost as distant to Russians as Hitler is to the Germans. Advertisement Advertisement What can we expect next in this new phase of Putinism? Unfortunately, the political science literature makes grim reading for Russians. As studies would predict, the invasion of Ukraine is going quite poorly. But only 12.5 percent of personalist leaders lost power within two years after losing a war, according to a 2009 data set. Research by Desha Girod, Megan Stewart, and Meir Walters at Georgetown suggests that oil-rich autocrats are better positioned to repress dissent at home while resisting international pressure. Research also comprehensively shows that leaders like Putin tend to be removed only by death or a coup. The more intense the personalization of a government, the harder it is to execute a coupbut it is harder still to imagine a peaceful transition of power in Russia. There is a ray of hope, however. Of the worlds wealthier authoritarian states, Russia is arguably the only one to briefly have had something of a democracy and a free society in its modern history (the debate depends on whether you still count Turkey as a democracy). All the othersthe Gulf petro-monarchies, China, Singapore, Kazakhstanhave never experienced a break in authoritarian rule. That may make some of Russias elites and regular citizens more likely to push back rather than accept a deeper descent into autocracy. Putins war is already imposing a new repressive order on society while sanctions are isolating it from the world economy. In both cases, this means taking Russians backward, toward something more like the USSR than the last few yearsa considerably more difficult task than other personalist dictators have attempted. Much as the invasion of Ukraine is proving harder than Putin seems to have expected, so too might pulling off that degree of oppression. Like previous generations of anti-abortion activists in the immediate postRoe v. Wade world, people seeking to end the death penalty have no prospect of winning in the Supreme Court. And much like those activists, the movement to abolish the death penalty has had to adapt its strategy. As Sarah Kliff observed at Vox, the pro-life movement experimented with different ways of accomplishing this goal, whether targeting abortion providers, their clinics, or the procedures a woman has to go through before terminating a pregnancy. Advertisement And in state after state, the anti-abortion movement succeeded. Today, death penalty abolitionists are trying to do something similar. Just as the pro-life movement has, unfortunately for women across the country, been successful in slowing or stopping them from exercising their legal rights and obtaining abortions, the gradualist, incremental strategy of death penalty abolitionists shows great promise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Rather than mounting a frontal assault on capital punishment, in many states and localities, antideath penalty activists are trying to ensure that even when the death penalty is legal, it will be hard, costly, or impossible to use. One part of the strategy involves making it hard for states to get drugs for lethal injection. Another is to mount vigorous, extended court battles to save or delay the execution of particular capital defendants. Advertisement Advertisement Another key, and novel, part of the effort is convincing prosecutorsseemingly unlikely alliesnot to bring capital cases. Last week, the movement succeeded in doing just that. On Feb. 17, 56 prosecutors from across the country issued a joint statement saying that our countrys system of capital punishment is broken. It is time to work together toward systemic changes that will bring about the elimination of the death penalty nationwide. This statement marks a watershed moment in the struggle to end the death penalty in the United States. Prosecutors play a key, but sometimes underappreciated, role throughout Americas criminal justice system. They have virtually unlimited discretion to decide whether to initiate or proceed with any criminal case. ThenAttorney General Robert Jackson got it right when in 1940 he said that the prosecutor has more power over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America, and that his discretion is tremendous. Advertisement Advertisement What is true in other parts of the justice system is also true in capital cases. Prosecutors make the critical choice of whether or not to charge an offender with an offense that carries the possibility of a death sentence. And despite the grave implications of this decision, as Jonathan DeMay wrote in Fordham Urban Law Journal years ago, the United States Supreme Court has never required that any procedures or guidelines be promulgated to control the process employed by prosecutors to reach this decision. Advertisement Advertisement According to the educational group Capital Punishment in Context, the financial resources available in a jurisdiction, the views of constituents and the local political climate, and the prosecutors own views can affect the likelihood a defendant will face the death sentence. Advertisement Advertisement So great is this prosecutorial power that some opponents of capital punishment argue that whether someone is sentenced to death has become more a function of the prosecutor on their case than the severity of their crime. Even when they use this power in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner or engage in egregious misconduct, they are rarely disciplined by either the bar or the courts. A 2016 report by Harvard Law Schools Fair Punishment Project found that just five prosecutorsJoe Freeman Britt of Robeson County, North Carolina; Robert Macy of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; Donald Myers of the 11th Judicial District of South Carolina; Lynne Abraham of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Johnny Holmes of Harris County, Texaswere responsible for more than 440 death sentences, the equivalent of 15 percent of the entire U.S. death row population today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After each of those prosecutors left office, the number of death sentences in the jurisdictions they served declined significantly. Last weeks joint statement was signed by prosecutors from metropolitan and rural counties in 26 states, 11 of which currently have the death penalty. The statement acknowledged that those who signed it hold varied opinions surrounding the death penalty and hail from jurisdictions with different starting points on the propriety of this sentence. Yet they joined forces in endorsing a wide range of abolitionist arguments. We have a capital punishment system, their statement noted, that costs taxpayers over $1 million per death sentence, runs counter to our constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and guarantees of due process and equal protection, fails as an effective deterrent, and does not reduce crime. Advertisement Advertisement The prosecutors also acknowledged the disparities inherent in capital punishment cases, noting: The death penalty still targets not the worst of the worst, but rather the unluckiest of the unluckiest: people who endured sexual abuse and other unspeakable trauma as children; people with long histories of severe mental illness or traumatic brain injuries people who committed crimes during a psychotic break they cant even remember; people who, because of incomplete cognitive development or other intellectual disability, have never been able to fully function as adults; people with trial lawyers so derelict in their duties and obligations that they never bothered to uncover long histories of illness and trauma. This, tragically, is the profile of death row in America. The 56 prosecutors pledged not to seek the death penalty against individuals with cognitive impairments or otherwise diminished culpability. They also said they would work toward the elimination of our nations failed death penalty system, once and for all. Advertisement Other prosecutors have gone further, and announced that they will no longer bring capital prosecutions under any circumstances. In September, Utah prosecutor David Leavitt made headlines when he said his office would no longer seek the death penalty in any case. He explained that innocent people have been executed and that the penalty of death has been carried out inconsistently and discriminatorily. What we have also learned is that the death penalty does not promote community safety. It is not an effective deterrent. It simply demonstrates our societal preference for retribution over public safety. Fifty years ago this year, the United States Supreme Court brought a temporary halt to the death penalty when it ruled that it could not be squared with the Constitutions prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and guarantee of equal treatment under the law. That decision represented the culmination of a campaign to put litigation at the center of abolitionist strategy and the hope for a sweeping, top-down end to capital punishment. But the decision did not hold. Today the strategy to end capital punishment is much less focused on the Supreme Court. Rather, and much like what the movement to stop abortion did until just recently, it aims one step, one jurisdiction, at a time to bring the machinery of death to a halt. Enlisting prosecutors to join in this work is one mark of its success. DOHA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Countries no longer trust the United States "to help, protect, or defend them," after U.S. humiliation in Afghanistan and its defeat in Iraq, Marwan Bishara, a senior political analyst at Al Jazeera, said on Sunday. As the self-appointed "world policeman," Washington stands accused or at least is seen to interfere in the internal affairs of other states under different pretexts, Bishara said. The expert added that the United States has also been denounced for "double standards" when it comes to aggression, occupation and international law violations. This story was originally published by Grist and has been republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Scientists have long warned that time is of the essence to stop emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Now, in a new international report released on Monday, theyve argued the clock is also ticking on efforts to adapt to the devastating consequences of climate change. Rising seas, scorching wildfires, and devastating droughts already jeopardize billions of people worldwide. These, and other climate impacts, are expected to get much worse over the coming decades. Advertisement Any further delay in global action, the report says, will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. The new report is the second of three parts of the latest global assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, a body of leading climate experts from around the world. The first report, which the United Nations secretary-general called a code red for humanity, was released last summer and addressed the physical science of climate change, warning that global warming was widespread, rapid, and intensifying. This weeks report highlights climate impacts and ways to adapt to them. The third part, slated for publication in April, will focus on ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the first report in the series conjured up a harrowing vision of a world on the brink of climate catastrophe, this weeks analysis brings that world into sharper detail. Region by region, the document describes widespread, pervasive impacts to ecosystems, people, settlements, and infrastructure. In many areas, rising temperatures have already caused greater and more extensive damage to the natural world than suggested by previous assessments. Half of the species assessed by the IPCC have been forced to migrate toward the poles or to higher elevations, the report says, while melting glaciers and thawing permafrost are likely causing irreversible changes to the land and seas. Meanwhile, climate change is amplifying human conflicts and causing widespread damage to peoples physical and mental health. Animal and human diseases are cropping up in new areas, the report says, while more extreme wildfires and other disasters are causing increased respiratory distress, trauma, and the erosion of livelihoods and cultures. These impacts are not evenly distributed throughout the world, and are strongly concentrated among the poorest vulnerable populations, according to the report. Advertisement Advertisement There is still time to protect people and ecosystems from some of the worst impacts of climate change, the report says, but time is slipping away. The authors urge world leaders to prepare for worsening conditions by, among other things, conserving at least one-third of the worlds natural habitats. Forest conservation and management can limit climbing risks from disease and wildfires, while restoring spongelike wetlands and rivers can keep flooding in check. Preserving biodiverse forests and soggy peatlands has the added benefit of keeping some of the worlds biggest carbon sinks intact. Advertisement Changes to physical infrastructure, like building levees to safeguard against rising sea levels, can also help protect the up to 3.6 billion people who live in areas highly vulnerable to climate change, the report says. Other options include planned relocation, aligned with sociocultural values and development priorities, and underpinned by inclusive community engagement processes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although adaptation efforts like these have become more commonplace since the IPCCs last assessment report, the authors observe that most countries efforts are still small in scale and focused on the near term. Countries need to up the ambition of their plans, and fast: With every fraction of a degree the planet warms, it becomes more difficult to implement new adaptation strategies. At 1.5 degrees Celsius, up to 14 percent of species on land face likely extinction. At 2 degrees Celsius, snowmelt availability for irrigation and drinking water will decline by 20 percent, and flood damages could double, threatening the 1 billion people residing in low-lying cities and settlements. The authors recognize even the most ambitious adaptations wont prevent all impacts; at this point, adaptation is simply about reducing as much damage as possible. Advertisement The report also stresses the need for approaches that mitigate climate changes disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable communities. Between 2010 and 2020, human mortality from floods, droughts, and storms was 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions than in areas that are better insulated from climate change. Social protection programs like cash transfers and public works programs, the report says, can help mitigate such yawning inequalities while also delivering valuable cobenefits, like boosting gender equality and alleviating poverty. And incorporating Indigenous and community knowledge into policymaking can mitigate climate risks while addressing historical and ongoing patterns of oppression. Advertisement Advertisement Putting vulnerable groups and countries at the heart of the decision-making process on how we respond to climate change can make societies more resilient, Edwin Castellanos, director of the Sustainable Economic Observatory at the University of the Valley of Guatemala and a lead author of the report, told reporters on Sunday. Advertisement Environmental advocates welcomed the reports focus on social justice while also highlighting the reports implications for the controversial topic of loss and damage, which describes the idea that the countries most responsible for climate change should help pay for its devastating impacts to the developing world. According to Preety Bhandari, senior adviser in global and climate finance for the World Resources Institute, the IPCCs focus on the Global South puts loss and damage squarely on the table for negotiators and politicians to address. Bhandari and others hailed the report as an urgent call for world leaders to center justice at the next U.N. climate conference, which will take place in November in Egypt. That conference, known as COP27, will provide key insights into how wealthy countries can support developing countries in their efforts to adapt to a warming world and transition away from fossil fuels. We are hoping for a more positive outcome, Bhandari said, in terms of recognition of the needs of the vulnerable countries, and finding a solution to support them. On Feb. 1, someone known as Bayneko distributed an unsolicited COVID-themed NFT via airdrop on the blockchain platform Tezos. Airdropping crypto is a bit like Apples Bluetooth Airdrop function, but crypto airdrops dont rely on proximity and cannot be refused. People who buy into crypto and NFTs have come to expect that they will receive bonus content via airdop. Its more like flyers, junk mail, and coupons than snapshots transferred to your phone by a friend. Bayneko claims to have distributed 10 variants of the SARS-CoV-2 NFT in what is the largest JPEG drop in the history of blockchains, reaching almost 100,000 wallets. Advertisement Like most people, we are exhausted with crypto and NFT discourse. We have yet to see an NFT artwork that didnt look like a gas station display for novelty sunglasses, but somehow greasier? We are also historians of computing who have spent much of the past decade writing about the relationship between biological viruses, epidemics, and our everyday engagements with technology. For us, the COVID NFT isnt an innovation but rather another case of the deeply familiar, and troubling, practice of coupling digital networks and biological viruses. But by looking closer at this coupling, we can also see the uneven exposure, harm, and susceptibility to abuse that comes along with network technology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both Bayneko and many of the people who received the COVID NFT consider it a creative provocation, even an artwork. Others are irritated, put off by the coercive virality of this project and the spammy, potentially abusive practice it relies on. But in the days following the airdrop, Bayneko doubled down, suggesting that those with the COVID NFT might aim to collect all of the different variants to increase your viral load. And on Feb. 7, Bayneko rewarded those who had collected and held all ten variants with a second airdropped NFT jpeg called FEVERDREAM. Advertisement Advertisement In one of the more jarring, if regrettably emblematic, comparisons of our time, Bayneko writes, The blockchain is more resilient than the human body and allows recipients to cure themselves by burning the disease or infect others by transferring the token. Indeed, holders of the NFT would seem to be left with the option of ignoring it, deleting (burning) it, or giving it to (infecting) others. The equivalence between the blockchain and COVID might be unpleasant, but in terms of the history of computing these metaphors are well established. The first computer viruses began to spread in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, as personal computing was gaining traction and more people were networking their hardware. This also happened to be the peak of the AIDS crisis in the United States and Western Europe, a coincidence that did not go unnoticed by that generations Baynekos. Many of the earliest computer viruses were modeled on or specifically referenced HIV and AIDS. One computer virus in 1990 took over a users system, announcing above a giant ASCII image of the word AIDS that the user had (sic) PHUCKED themselves over and ended by saying, remember, there is NO cure for AIDS. Another virus, CyberAIDS, dating from the mid-1980s, was one of the earliest to affect Apple users. And in 1989, while debating computer virus legislation, US Representative Wally Hager referred to an attack on ARPANET (the predecessor to our internet) as the AIDS of the computer world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some malware invoked AIDS at a surface level, as a metaphor about networks and vulnerability, but one took this further, targeting communities of people working to end the AIDS crisis. One of the first recognized cases of ransomware was the AIDS information diskette. It was created by a primatologist with a PhD from Harvard, Joseph Popp, reportedly because he was angry the World Health Organization had turned him down for a job. Popp mailed thousands of unsolicited floppy disks labelled AIDS Informationan Introductory Diskette Version 2.0 to AIDS service organizations, HIV health researchers, subscribers to PC Business World, and workers at the U.S. National Institutes for Health. Anyone who installed the diskette and ran its program, AIDS.EXE, was asked a series of questions about their lifestyle and sex life, before getting cynical advice: buy condoms today when you leave your office or danger: reduce the number of your sex partners now! We can only imagine that the people who thought that the disk was legitimate, many of whom worked in AIDS research or service, were confused by the results. Little did they know that by running AIDS.EXE, they had installed a program that would later seize their hard drive and demand a ransom be sent to PC Cyborg Corp in Panama City. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the anti-virus community moved to respond, they were also taken aback that the disk wasnt just about AIDS, but to their eyes, worked on a users C drive the way HIV worked on a persons body. As Paul Mungo and Bryan Clough write in their contemporary account of hackers and phreaks, Approaching Zero, cybersecurity expert Jim Bates wrote an antidote program called AIDSOUT and was struck by the apparent similarities between the biological and computer viruses: Both slowly, insidiously, infected the victims immune systems; both were patient; both were ultimately fatal to their hosts. Just as Bayneko compares the resilience of the blockchain to that of human beings, these experts were seeing HIV and computer attacks reflected and refracted in each other. Advertisement Advertisement Comparisons between AIDS and COVID have been made far too often, and too readily over the last two years. They obscure the fundamental differences between these pandemics, but they are also unsurprising. We have limited, indeed crude, concepts for understanding what it means to be connectedby data, wires, air, blood, and fluids. We are desperate to give meaning to this time, to find a precedent, a metaphor, or an analogy that would give us some sense of control over our surroundings. But looked at more broadly, viral analogies can clarify the toxic dynamics that sometimes surround NFTs. Structurally, airdropping creates a vulnerability in whats often praised as a robust system. In a recent post about Abuse and harassment on the blockchain, software developer Molly White made a prescient observation: there is nothing stopping someone from airdropping NFTs with abusive contentdoxing, revenge porn, child sexual abuse imagery, threats, etc.into someones wallet. Advertisement And while crypto itself may not put us at risk of biological infection, it is instrumental in the growing number of ransomware attacks on hospitals. The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem, computer security researcher Nicholas Weaver argues, stating that the anonymity and lack of oversight of crypto markets, make cryptocurrency especially useful for ransom payment. Last year, Duke Law Schools Lee Reiners argued we should ban cryptocurrency if only to fight back against the rise of ransomware attacks. What started with the AIDS Information Diskette has wound its way to crypto, though not because of any actual connection between viruses. A virus is not, like an NFT, a commodity. But there is something that the airdrop COVID NFT shares with COVID in how it exposes our shared vulnerability. When someone sneezes on a bus, we are now immediately aware of the air around us and the dangers it may carry. Likewise, unwilling receipt of the COVID NFT via seemingly playful airdrop can be a prompt toward new modes of critique and refusal. The COVID NFT highlights the brittleness of the wider crypto communityand its susceptibility to the same forms of abuse and mistreatment that pervade social media and demand actual care and trust in our networks. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. This article is part of the Free Speech Project , a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the ways technology is influencing how we think about speech. As I watch the videos and images pouring out of Ukraine, I am reminded of a conversation I had once with a colleague while I worked at YouTube. My job entailed writing the platforms policies for political extremism and graphic violence, and during high-profile conflicts in war zones, terrorist attacks, and other sensitive moments, I had to help decide what content would stay up and what would not. After one particularly tense day involving state violence on separatist fighters, I turned, exhausted, to a colleague and asked, What would we have done if YouTube existed at the start of the Iraq war? We paused, considering the gravity of the question, and then turned back to the mountain of work in front of us. I knew it was only a matter of time before a full-scale ground conflict would erupt and be recorded from start to finish for us all to consume. (Of course, since its founding two years after the war began, YouTube has had countless videos documenting the American-induced tragedy in Iraq.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, every second of Russias invasion of Ukraine has been documented by Ukrainian citizens (not to mention those in diaspora). Social media platforms have become tools of this war, evidenced not only by the thousands of posts, videos, tweets, and images uploaded but also by Facebooks decision to ban Russian state media from running advertisements and monetizing their content, out of concern about spreading propaganda. YouTube also announced similar restrictions and went further by announcing it would block access to Russian state media operator RT in Ukraine (based on a request from the Ukrainian government) and would evaluate what new sanctions and export controls [on Russia] might mean for YouTube. Employees at YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms, and the army of content moderators buttressing their Trust & Safety work, have unwittingly become historians and archivists of this conflict. YouTubes policies on graphic violence can dictate, for example, whether a video of a Ukrainian civilians murder by Russian forces stays up or is removed. The video platform also said it has already removed hundreds of thousands of channels for violating its community guidelines on coordinated deceptive practicesbut what if in the sea of genuine violations, critical evidence of a war crime is removed unintentionally? With the sheer volume of content, do social media platforms truly have the capacity to review appeals accurately and thoroughly? Do they even have sufficient numbers of Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking content moderators? Are companies relying on automated detection of potential graphic violent content uploaded from Ukraineand if so, are these tools deployed to remove content automatically or only to send material for human review? Removal of certain types of content may come from genuine violations of, say, a platforms violence or coordinated inauthentic behavior policies, government pressure, or company error. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These questions, tensions, and concerns, while amplified during this recent outbreak of war, are not new. During times of war and occupation, companies actions have demonstrated that errors have grave consequences. YouTube and others, while responding to company emergencies related to the proliferation of violent, extremist content on their platforms, erased thousands of pieces of evidence of human rights violations in Syria. Facebook has faced claims of censorship and erasing documentation related to Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories. And after rightful public outcry, companies quickly correct course, touting their oft-repeated apologies and reminders to us all that they sometimes make mistakes. Whether this war ends in a week, a year, or 10, what do we do with this content? And what do we do with the content that is already circulating from other conflict zones and sites of tragedy on social media? The answer is that we need something new, for both the war in Ukraine and other conflicts to come: an independent database and institution dedicated to preserving this type of content and centering the lived experience and expertise of the people living through this violence. Advertisement This approach does not mean to suggest that user-generated videos and photos from sites of violence have no place on social media. The content, as it lives on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere, serves an important role living on these platforms: a battle for public opinion is unfolding in real time, and the platforms sheer numbers of users and the product features designed to facilitate communication, interaction, and dissemination are powerful tools to educate and engage with viewers. Complicating this reality is the fact that companies have their own pressures and policies that may prevent the full extent of uploaded material to remain on their platforms. Advertisement Advertisement At the same time, we find ourselves in a precarious, highly dependent dance with the tech titans: a policy change, an enforcement modification, a poorly trained moderator, an imprecise detection algorithm, an inadequate appeals mechanism can all lead to the erasure of material. Even without these hiccups, depending on the type of footage, companies may not be able to justify leaving up certain pieces of materialfor example, an ultra-graphic piece of contentno matter the newsworthiness that accompanies the horrific scene of violence. Even content that does not violate community guidelines is not spared, either. A users decision to delete their account brings with it the removal of all their videos, comments, and posts. Factors outside of the platform can also complicate our ability to consume, share, and document this material: government requests for removalor even more heavy-handed acts such as blocking access to social mediawill surely be at play. (Russias extensive censorship apparatus aimed at social media networks has already been previously documented.) Russias mass media regulator Roskomnadzor could, for example, begin filing requests for Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to block content locally in Russia or argue that the content should be removed globally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The other role this content has is in its evidentiary value, a fact open-source intelligence experts know far too well. While content removal has deleterious effects in the short term for Ukrainians fighting to obtain information and for the international community struggling to comprehend the escalating violence, there are also grave questions of any potential erasures impact on future accountability efforts. Each video, tweet, or post from Ukraine is not only a broadcast to the world, but also evidence when the international community is ready, hopefully, to make sense of the illegality that is unfolding before us all. In other words, theres a battle for evidence as well. Independent databases are not new in the world of social media. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a private nonprofit, has long operated its CyberTipline, which collects images and URLs of child sexual abuse material and other heinous material from technology companies. (Companies are legally required to provide content to NCMEC.) NCMEC then facilitates referrals to law enforcement agencies for further investigation. In 2017, the largest social media platforms launched the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, an industry initiative that maintains a database of removed terrorist material that companies contribute to and also use to find similar uploads on their own platforms that may have escaped detection. The GIFCT database also runs a content incident protocol to deal with breaking events and livestreamed violence after the horrific Christchurch, New Zealand, terrorist attack in which a white supremacist took the lives of more than 50 Muslims during weekly prayers. The GIFCT eventually became an independent 501(c)(3) organization with its own staff not only to oversee the database but also to facilitate knowledge sharing between tech platforms and research in the space. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other efforts in this space include the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria, established in December 2016 following a resolution from the United Nations General Assembly. The IIIMs core responsibility is to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses while also preparing materials to aid in future criminal proceedings. The IIIM collaborates with a number of stakeholders, including nearly 30 Syrian nongovernmental organizations, to obtain information that may be in these stakeholders possession. The IIIM, similar to the GIFCT database, is not open for public viewing or access. Advertisement Advertisement Though the IIIM has helped usher in novel governance approaches to the collection of potential evidence, the body is not without its problems. The IIIM has struggled to secure adequate funding in the past. It is also unclear the extent to which Syrian nationalswho may have the best knowledge of the material the IIIM seeks to catalogcan participate as IIIM staff. While the IIIM cooperates with many Syrian civil society organizations, this centralized data aggregation method may, as Beth Van Schaack notes in her book Imagining Justice for Syria, threaten smaller documentation efforts whose holdings are akin to their intellectual property. Finally, the IIIM approach is slow and perhaps not quite easily scalable to be able to begin critical work immediately. After all, the IIIM was created through the U.N. apparatus, is subject to the constraints that are common to bureaucratic bodies, and is tasked to focus on one conflict (Syria) during a specified time range. Advertisement Advertisement The Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law has described the IIIM approach as a hybrid model, where NGOs, social media companies, and others provide content to a mechanism. The GIFCT structure is more akin to what the center refers to as a voluntary partnership model, where content is voluntarily shared with an external repository. The NCMEC approach is unique because of the legal compulsion model that requires entities to share material with the organization and provides statutory protection to NCMEC to store this content indefinitely. With the range of database and archive initiatives already explored, it may seem that there is already something in place to handle collecting the evidence millions of Ukrainians are uploading onto social media in real time. The truth is, there isnt. A legal compulsion model would be too slow for a conflict, whereas a pernicious problem like child sexual abuse material, which does not emerge in specific periods of time, is well-suited for platforms to be legally required to provide this material. Additionally, any legal compulsion method would open politically fraught questions through which lawmakers balance geopolitical interests in deciding which conflicts are ones they care enough about to mandate platform cooperation. Companies themselves should not be encouraged to create their own databases on their platforms, because it would take the real concern of platform power to frighteningly new heights, where their decisions can now not only influence evidence gathering but also the entire viability behind prosecuting suspected criminals for serious international crimes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Human Rights Watch has proposed a mechanism to preserve publicly posted content that is potential evidence of serious crimes that could be established through collaboration with an independent organization that would be responsible for storing the material and sharing it with relevant actors. What is missing in these discussionsreal or theoreticalon evidentiary databases and violation archival is the question of the people who experience a particular conflict, and how they can be better engaged in the documentation, verification, and categorization efforts. In other words, people have as important of a role to play, but we overlook this fact in our reliance on institutional force to do this work for affected communities, often too little, too late. Right now with Ukraine, and in other situations of bloodshed, we tend to reduce actors into archetypes: the attacker and the attacked, the perpetrator and the victim. While these labels are not inaccurate, our collective reliance on them obstructs our ability to think of victims in multidimensional ways. The Ukrainian citizen-users experiencing the invasion, those surviving or at minimum trying to, can contribute to vital documentation efforts. While civil society groups play important roles in coordinating testimonial evidence, the fact is these often take place after conflict has unfolded. Additionally, with millions of citizens armed with smartphones and recording footage, we could finally start seeing victims of serious crimes as people with agency as well. Advertisement What we need is a Unified Public Trust for evidence of human rights content for the people experiencing these crimes and by these same voices as well, a trust that is available for all situations of conflict in the world, known and yet to come. For example, the UPT can issue an alert notifying Ukrainian users that they can begin uploading material to their trust. Ukrainian citizens could then upload content directly to the UPT, where Ukrainian-speaking volunteers can be trained on critical steps in data verification and open-source intelligence to ensure that the material being preserved is authentic and accurate. The UPT can then give access to those most affected: families who had loved ones killed in the unfolding violence, researchers and investigators, academics, and beyond. This decentralized approach harnesses the power of the real experts, the real historians: the people living through the tragedy. The UPT can also work with existing archival efforts from NGOs (like the Syrian archive) and the United Nations directly. And this all can be funded through a variety of sources: individual donations, government grants, and contributions from social media platforms as well. Advertisement Advertisement This model does not suggest replacing social media platforms with the UPT. After all, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter serve particular needs in times of crisis, most importantly to disseminate knowledge and influence others rapidly. The UPT is not intended to serve this roleits mandate is to appreciate the fickle nature of content moderation, changing policies, and inconsistent enforcement and center peoples lived experiences as a catalyst for accountability. Weve seen inspiring scenes of Ukrainians defending themselves against Russian aggression, whether through taking to the streets, protecting their cities, or disseminating calls for aid through social media. The UPT is a chance to give Ukrainians, and countless others living under siege around the world, the opportunity to make history for themselves, and all of us. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The largest universities in Slovakia, impact of the pandemic on language schools and dual education are among the highlights of the latest Business Focus. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way people learn foreign languages. (Source: Courtesy of The Bridge ) Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled In January 2022, The Slovak Spectator published its Business Focus on education. Here is an overview of stories from the focus issue: University reform does not go far enough, employers warn Draft legislation aimed at overhauling the university system in Slovakia will do little to solve long-standing problems with higher education failing to produce graduates fit for the needs of the countrys labour market, employers have warned. For years, businesses have complained that many students graduate from universities without the skills to meet the needs of the labour market. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement University reform does not go far enough, employers warn Read more Slovak universities are losing students The halls and classrooms of Slovak universities are now emptier than they were 10 years ago. The coronavirus is not to blame in this case. Universities are losing students and the data they provided for the Largest in Business ranking of The Slovak Spectator shows that today, tens of thousands fewer students are studying at Slovak universities than a decade ago. Slovak universities are losing students Read more Survey: Most schools in Slovakia fail to properly prepare their students for working life I don't think my schools helped me much to prepare for a working life, said Silvia Kovacova, who graduated from a graphic design programme in 2020. If I wasnt searching for opportunities myself, it would be hard to find a job in my field of study. The opinion that schools do not do much to help their graduates find a job is shared by 41 percent of the public university student respondents of the Quarter to Quality Education survey, carried out by the Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (SAAHE) between late April and late May 2021. Survey: Most schools in Slovakia fail to properly prepare their students for working life Read more Dual education helps companies achieve top marks Dual education is nothing new in Slovakia. Tomas Bata, a Czech entrepreneur and founder of the Bata shoe company, pursued this form of education in former Czechoslovakia. However, the communist regime later scrapped this type of scheme, so when companies joined the education process to help schools improve the labour force by helping students obtain the necessary qualifications and expertise, they had to start from scratch. Dual education helps companies achieve top marks Read more Pandemic brings down barriers but also prices in language teaching Pushed out of their comfort zone by the pandemic, language schools have sought new forms of operation and interaction with their students. A solely online education, once considered unimaginable, has brought many advantages. For one, language schools saw their market broaden beyond previous location-based limits. They are also no longer limited by the number of classrooms. At the same time, online teaching has put more pressure on schools to lower their prices for language courses, even though they have yet to catch up with their pre-pandemic revenues. Pandemic brings down barriers but also prices in language teaching Read more International schools welcome both expats and Slovaks Who can study at international private schools, what conditions do applicants need to meet, and what is the typical graduate profile of these schools? The Slovak Spectator put together some answers to questions related to international schools. Related article Slovakia is rising to the challenge of being a good neighbour and a reliable partner, but there is a long road ahead. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Today, we are summing up Slovakias response to the war in Ukraine. Follow the updates on this page. Find the PDF of the February issue of The Slovak Spectator below. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Most of Slovakia did not expect to wake up on Thursday morning to the terrible realisation that Vladimir Putin had started an all-out war just across its eastern border. Despite that, the country has proved it is prepared to play its part as a good neighbour and as a member of the international community. These are the three main points that should be highlighted about Slovakias response so far: A good neighbour With numerous reports hinting at the possibility of a war in Ukraine, Slovakias authorities were aware and communicating to the public that the main effect that their country would need to bear was the arrival of people, in their thousands or tens of thousands, fleeing from the war. Slovakia and its central-European partners within the Visegrad Group had acquired a negative image for their attitudes towards refugees since the 2015 crisis. This time around, their conduct has been exemplary: regardless of their political affiliation, Slovak government ministers have been telling people to show solidarity and humanity to Ukrainians fleeing the war. Meanwhile, Slovakias public has shown that it does not need to be told what to do: civic initiatives have mushroomed around the country as part of a massive surge of solidarity. Of course, the difference between the response in 2015 and the one we see today shows that there is a tendency towards rather selective solidarity one that people in Slovakia need to talk about. But for now it is a time to act rather than to talk. The Slovak government has changed the law to facilitate the asylum process, has proposed financial aid to compensate those who offer help, and has promised to take care of as many refugees as may come. The authorities report that, so far, more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children, have crossed Slovakias border with Ukraine. Journalists on the ground report that there are enormous queues on the Ukrainian side, waiting to cross by car or on foot. Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad (OLaNO), speaking on the TA3 TV news channel on Sunday, said that if hundreds of thousands will come, we will take care of hundred of thousands, because this is not a question of comfort any more, it is a question of humanity. The Slovak Spectator has gathered information about crossing the border from Ukraine to Slovakia, which can be found here. The website ua.gov.sk provides more detailed information in Ukrainian about what awaits people directly at the border, and after their transition to Slovakia. The Slovak government also launched the pomocpreukrajinu.sk website with information about all available accommodation options. Another resource launched by several NGOs is ukraineslovakia.sk. All of these are available in Ukrainian. Related article Related article War in Ukraine. Is Slovakia safe? (Q&A) Read more A reliable partner The country has not decided on expelling Russian diplomats. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Slovakia closed its airspace to all planes from the Russian Federation on Monday. Following the Council Decision, the landing in, taking off from, or overflying though Slovakias airspace are banned for all aircraft owned, leased, operated or otherwise controlled by Russian citizens, and all holders of the air operators certificate issued by the Russian Federations authorities, Transport Minister Andrej Dolezal (Sme Rodina) wrote on Facebook. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The ban does not concern humanitarian flights, rescue flights and one-way flights of leased aircraft returning to Slovakia and holding permission from respective Slovak bodies. Also planes requiring emergency landing in Slovakia are an exempted. In response, Russia has banned aircraft coming from 36 countries, including Slovakia, from entering its airspace. No decision on Russian diplomats Meanwhile, the country has not decided on whether it will expel Russian diplomats. Slovak government offers Bratislava for peace talks Read more Now it's mostly about strong signals, PM Eduard Heger (OLaNO) said during a talk show broadcast by the private Radio Expres, as quoted by the SITA newswire, referring to the decision to cancel Russia's access to the SWIFT system and the closure of airspace. He assumes Russian President Vladimir Putin is surprised by how united Europe has become to help Ukraine. He reiterated his support for Ukraine joining the EU, but stressed that there has to be a new type of pathway toward EU membership created for the country. He stated so also in a recent interview with Politico. Ukraine is devastated by war, Heger explained, as quoted by SITA. After the war is over, it will be necessary to restore the country, so we have to prepare a new way for it to become the EU member. We cant look at whether Kyiv met some economic criteria. President Zuzana Caputova has supported Ukraines EU membership as well, stressing that Ukraine is Europe and that it should be in the EU. https://sputniknews.com/20220228/anarchy-in-the-ukraine-zelensky-frees-convicts-with-military-experience-1093446109.html Anarchy in the Ukraine: Zelensky Frees Convicts With Military Experience Anarchy in the Ukraine: Zelensky Frees Convicts With Military Experience The long-running crisis in Ukraine which began after a Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 escalated dramatically late last week after Russia launched a... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T11:08+0000 2022-02-28T11:08+0000 2022-02-28T11:09+0000 ukraine prisoners volodymyr zelensky situation in ukraine /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093444644_0:144:3127:1903_1920x0_80_0_0_6439b77b0e73baf1b4b3789eb7e08898.jpg Ukraine will free convicts with combat experience from the countrys prisons and send them to the hottest parts of the front to fight Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced.The key now is defence. When I ran for president, I said that each of us is a president. Because we are all responsible for our state. And now its turned out that each of us is a warrior. A warrior in his own place. And I am confident that each of us will win, he added.Zelenskys decision comes following the move by authorities in Kiev on Friday to hand out over 18,000 assault rifles to residents, no questions asked, no identification required.The measure was immediately followed by widespread reports of looting and marauding, attacks on civilians, and gunfights in the streets of the capital between heavily armed gang members, nationalist battalions and the Ukrainian military, with the city quickly degenerating into lawlessness.Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Ilya Kiva slammed authorities over the decision to hand out the firearms, suggesting it essentially amounted to a license for murder and saying that fighters from the so-called territorial defence forces had already killed dozens of civilians.Russia began a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday which President Vladimir Putin said was aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying the country following requests for assistance from the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics, which asked Russia to help them halt escalating attacks by Ukrainian forces. Russia recognized the Donbass republics as independent states last Monday following the complete breakdown of the Minsk Agreements amid hundreds of attacks across the line of contact on a daily basis, with prompted Donetsk and Lugansk authorities to start the evacuation of their civilian populations and a mass mobilization. https://sputniknews.com/20220228/ukrainian-mp-calls-zelensky-criminal-for-not-entering-negotiations-in-face-of-russian-spec-op-1093434041.html ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov ukraine, prisoners, volodymyr zelensky https://sputniknews.com/20220228/belligerent-rhetoric--ss-style-regalia-who-are-right-sector-and-neo-nazi-azov-1093451807.html Belligerent Rhetoric & SS-Style Regalia: Who Are Right Sector and Neo-Nazi Azov? Belligerent Rhetoric & SS-Style Regalia: Who Are Right Sector and Neo-Nazi Azov? Russia has been conducting its special operation to protect the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) to a chorus of Western mainstream media... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T15:12+0000 2022-02-28T15:12+0000 2022-02-28T15:12+0000 russia ukraine azov battalion right sector /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/102106/55/1021065529_0:79:2544:1510_1920x0_80_0_0_f0418c998af6e08011cccbc278db8314.jpg The Azov Regiment, an openly neo-Nazi unit operating within Ukraines National Guard that adopts Swastika-style runic insignia, along with the Right Sector*, a hardline nationalist paramilitary union notorious for its atrocities, are accused of being complicit in crimes committed in Donbass, Eastern Ukraine, according to a recent statement by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.In total, the ICR is hoping to bring to court over 400 criminal cases pertaining to the events in Donbass, where the eight years of conflict have witnessed over 2,600 civilians killed, and some 5,500 more injured.Ukraines Neo-NazisSince the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, political organisations associated with neo-Nazis infiltrated Ukrainian mainstream politics as the Ukrainian government sent troops to try to crush the Donbass uprisings by force.As Ukraine waged war against breakaway forces in the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics, the Neo-Nazi Groups in Ukraine gained notoriety for their belligerent rhetoric towards the population of the countrys east, as well as for eagerly participating in the civil war.Azov BattalionThe Azov Batallion was originally a volunteer militia formed in May 2014 shortly after the coup in Kiev.The unit's first commander was right-wing nationalist Andriy Biletsky, who led the paramilitary national socialist group called Patriot of Ukraine and was the founder of a neo-Nazi group, the Social-National Assembly (SNA) in 2008.In 2010, Biletsky, a former parliamentarian, apparently said that Ukraine was meant to "lead the white races of the world in a final crusade against Semite-led Untermenschen (subhumans)"by reports in a spate of Western mainstream outlets.Azov readily entered the fray as nationalists and neo-Nazis began illegally seizing power across Ukraine, clashing with opposing forces of the so-called "anti-Maidan" movement.Events in Odessa on 2 May 2014 became one of the definitive moments of that period, as street fighting between neo-Nazis and anti-Maidan protesters prompted the latter to barricade themselves in a local trade unions house.With backing from the new Ukrainian authorities, the encircled building was set ablaze with petrol bombs. Almost 50 people were killed, either burned alive or while jumping to their deaths from windows to escape the flames. Some 250 other protesters were injured in the horrific events.Azov took part in subsequent hostilities in Donbass and was incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine in November 2014, although its members continued to wear neo-Nazi and SS-like symbols and regalia and openly express neo-Nazi views.Their logo echoes the Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. Representatives of the Azov Battalion, however, have claimed their symbol is an abbreviation for the slogan "National Idea" in Ukrainian.Ukrainian authorities did not bother to conceal the fact that in 2014, Azov comprised neo-Nazi-leaning volunteers from countries such as Sweden, Italy, Russia, France, Belarus, Canada, and Slovenia.Despite the adoption of the 2015 Minsk Accords that were aimed at ending the civil war by reintegrating the Donbass into Ukraine in exchange for constitutionally-guaranteed autonomy, Kiev refused to implement a peace deal. Azov members took an active part in Donbass hostilities.In 2016, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) accused the Azov Battalion, officially upgraded to a regiment in January 2015, of committing war crimes such as mass looting, unlawful detention, and torture. Currently, the Azov "Special Operations Detachment" is engaged in the Ukrainian armys counter-reconnaissance and special weapons operations.The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against a number of fighters from Azov units for crimes such as kidnapping, torture, use of prohibited means, and methods of warfare.Right SectorAnother infamous group is the Right Sector*, originally set up as an alliance between Ukraines nationalist groups in November 2013. It subsequently announced that they had formed a special Donbass battalion for its paramilitary operations in the breakaway region.The group-turned-political party says it wants to help build a nationalist Ukrainian state and stage a nationalist revolution in the county.Concentrated amid the tents, barricades, and self-defence units of Maidan nationalists, the masked, petrol bomb-wielding Right Sector members have become a highly effective provocative driving force instigating blood-filled clashes between riot police and protesters. Ex-Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh described himself as a follower of the notorious Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. The group has vehemently advocated a forceful settlement of the Donbass crisis, rejecting a negotiated approach. It took a similar stance regarding Crimea, which became part of Russia in a referendum held in March 2014 in which nearly 96 percent of Crimeans voted to rejoin the country. Moscow has repeatedly stated that the decision made by the Crimean people was conducted in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter.*The Right Sector is an extremist group outlawed in Russia https://sputniknews.com/20210411/why-kievs-preparation-for-war-in-eastern-ukraine-cannot-but-worry-russia-1082593069.html https://sputniknews.com/20220224/russias-spec-op-why-kiev--its-western-backers-had-failed-to-implement-minsk-accords-for-8-years-1093345653.html ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko russia, ukraine, azov battalion, right sector https://sputniknews.com/20220228/bribes-fraud--embezzlement-leaked-doc-alleges-ericsson-paid-105-million-to-daesh-in-iraq-1093436336.html Bribes, Fraud & Embezzlement: Leaked Doc Alleges Ericsson Paid $10.5 Million to Daesh in Iraq Bribes, Fraud & Embezzlement: Leaked Doc Alleges Ericsson Paid $10.5 Million to Daesh in Iraq Revelations of vast management failures at Ericsson are contained in a 2019 internal report, obtained by the International Consortium of International... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T05:56+0000 2022-02-28T05:56+0000 2022-02-28T06:32+0000 ericsson daesh iraq /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/103189/93/1031899324_0:294:3221:2106_1920x0_80_0_0_782c0a88863c5b1e3885eb2cb7aa73f7.jpg Leaked confidential documents show how Swedish Telecoms giant Ericsson allegedly resorted to bribes to Daesh*, while imperilling its workers, in order to continue selling its services after the militants seized control of large parts of Iraq.The document, obtained by the International Consortium of International Journalists [ICIJ] and shared with media outlets such as BBC News Arabic, The Washington Post and others, dates to an internal investigation carried out in 2019 into the companys corrupt activities in 10 countries across four continents, with its findings also highlighting dubious operations in Iraq between 2011 and 2019.To avoid prosecution over violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Ericsson paid almost a billion-dollar penalty in 2019 after pleading guilty to making corrupt payments through slush funds between 2000 and 2016. The deferred prosecution agreement with the US government and the admissions related to five countries: Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait.However, freshly-leaked documents point to alleged wrongdoing in a further 10 countries throughout the last decade, such as slush funds in Lebanon, bribes allegedly paid in Bahrain and Angola, corrupt practices during awarding of a contract in South Africa, fraudulent acquisition of a company in the US. More evidence of misconduct was purportedly discovered in Brazil, Azerbaijan, Libya and Morocco.There has not yet been any comment from Ericsson regarding potential wrongdoing in these other countries.Uncontrolled Iraq Slush FundWhile there is no mention of Iraq in Ericssons 2019 deferred prosecution agreement, according to the leaked documents another corruption scandal involving the company had purportedly placed its workers lives at dire risk. The internal probe was ostensibly triggered by a smaller inquiry focused on dubious travel and expense claims submitted by an Ericsson senior manager in Iraq.The Stockholm-headquartered telecom giants business in Iraq had generated an estimated $1.9 billion in revenue, according to the report, based on interviews with dozens of current or former Ericsson employees and a review of 22.5 million emails and other documents.The internally-commissioned probe had documented a range of misconduct perpetrated by Ericsson employees and third parties in Iraq over nearly a decade, involving bribes and kickbacks, fraud and embezzlement, and use of smuggling routes to dodge official Iraqi customs authorities.Suspicious payments were chronicled in the findings, with auditors unable to determine who pocketed almost $10.5 million, as fake purchase orders had been reported to when setting up an uncontrolled slush fund.The US coalition-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 had been justified by arguments that the Saddam Hussein government possessed an active weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme. The latter fact was subsequently proven false, as no stockpiles of WMDs or an active WMD programme were ever found in Iraq.Ericsson had hoped to capitalise on the rebuilding effort that followed the 2003 invasion and occupation, including the lucrative mobile phone business, providing cell towers, software and other systems to cellphone companies that in 2007 acquired licenses from the US-backed Iraqi government. In its work, Ericsson used regional managers who enlisted local firms paid in large cash sums, according to the report.Between 2013 and 2018, Ericsson paid a consulting firm, Al-Awsat Telecommunications Services, founded by a member of a wealthy family in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq about $90 million, according to the report, with huge portions of the money ostensibly used as bribes.Even after Daesh took control of Mosul in 2014, with the militants wielding control over about 40% of Iraq, according to the investigators, Ericsson received offers from firms prepared to transport their infrastructure through Iraq, thus jeopardising their contractors in the pursuit of profits.According to emails cited in the documents, this persistence resulted in the kidnapping of [contractors] while doing fieldwork for Ericsson. The investigators stated that despite the kidnapping, the company persisted with business in the volatile area.The telecom firm selected a contractor that cost more than other firms, as it guaranteed swifter deliveries, something that the report referred to as a speed way service in contrast to the legal way. The document stated that the higher cost has likely been used for bribery and payments to local [militants] along transportation routes. Dubious payments were allegedly made to customs officials to dodge border taxes. Furthermore, investigators determined that the Ericsson infrastructure had been delivered to areas held by Daesh militias, leading them to suggest that the company may have engaged in bribery or illegitimate payments.Emails viewed by the probe indicated illegal bypassing of customs and passing through IS-controlled areas in connection to transportation in Iraq.It was, however, emphasised that there was no evidence that Ericsson employees were directly involved in any payments to Daesh.This comes as two weeks ago, Ericsson, alerted to the fact media organisations had been leaked the internal reports, released a public statement on its website, admitting to serious breaches of compliance rules in Iraq between 2011 and 2019, thus partially admitting to the investigators findings.Ericsson said the investigating team had identified payments to intermediaries and the use of alternate transport routes in connection with circumventing Iraqi customs, at a time when terrorist organisations, including Islamic State, controlled some transport routes.It added that investigators could not determine the ultimate recipients of these payments.The statement also acknowledged that Ericsson employees had engaged in widespread misconduct in Iraq and committed serious violations of its regulations, and it had released the statement because it was committed to transparency.*Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/"Islamic State") is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and other states. https://sputniknews.com/20220217/ericsson-shares-take-giant-plunge-after-suspicions-of-daesh-bribe-1093100260.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko ericsson, daesh, iraq Tawanda Zimhindo (L), founder of Zimgro Language Consultancy and Chinese lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe Confucius Institute, interacts with a student in a class in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara) by Tafara Mugwara HARARE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- For 18-year-old Nyasha Silver Kusedyo, a Chinese language learner, to master the language, dedication is not just enough, a certain level of "craziness" is also needed. "When my teacher found out that I was struggling in learning Chinese, she actually advised that to learn Chinese, to understand Chinese, you actually have to be a bit crazy, to understand the tones, the culture, whatever, you have to change your thinking," he told Xinhua. Kusedyo, an intermediate Chinese language learner at Zimgro Language Consultancy in Harare, is one of many young Zimbabweans chasing their dreams by learning Chinese. But for many students, the learning process can be daunting. Unlike local Zimbabwean languages which use the phonetic Latin alphabet, Chinese is composed of pictograms and semi-phonetic ideograms. Prosper Marindiko, another Chinese language learner at Zimgro, believes that motivation is an important factor in determining one's success in the long and often tedious process of learning a second language as an adult. "Sometimes it gets so frustrating trying to learn the language because you think I have mastered this word, then when you meet a Chinese (person) out there you try to say the word, they totally don't understand you," he said. Kusedyo, who recently finished high school, said his dream of becoming an entrepreneur keeps him soldering on. "I am learning Chinese so that I can actually gain a competitive advantage in the entrepreneurship pool, basically in any kind of business, mainly bridging China and Zimbabwe," he said. Della Makina, a Translation and Interpretation graduate, also believes that learning Chinese is a pathway towards achieving her dreams. "By learning Chinese, I dream that one day I will be one of the UN interpreters because Chinese is one of the UN languages, so I want to be one of the interpreters from Zimbabwe," she said. Tawanda Zimhindo, founder of Zimgro Language Consultancy and Chinese lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe Confucius Institute, is helping Chinese language learners achieve their dreams. "I have a great passion for teaching the Chinese language. I always assist my students out of my personal will, and when I do it, I do it out of my heart, and I feel it's my obligation as a teacher to assist them," he said. Last year Zimhindo was recognized as one of the best 20 Chinese language teachers worldwide by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC), a non-profit educational institution for international Chinese language education affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education. As a passionate teacher, Zimhindo knows best how to motivate his students. "The trick is on making the classes interesting. As a teacher, you have to understand your students. You have to know them well. Above all, you have to create a relationship with the students. It has to be a family," he remarked. Zimhindo said learning Chinese has become popular among youngsters in Zimbabwe as they seek to be more competitive in the job market. Chinese investments have seen a large number of Chinese nationals moving to the country, thereby increasing interaction between Zimbabweans and the Chinese. "The reason why I am learning Chinese is because at work we interact a lot with the Chinese, and usually we have some misunderstandings just because of the language barrier," said Mandiriko. In Zimbabwe, China has become a competitive study destination, surpassing some traditional English-speaking destinations. Given China's status as a manufacturing giant, the Asian country is also the most preferred destination for traders and business people. "Initially what motivated me to learn Chinese was the good economic relationship between Zimbabwe and China," said Rebokile Setoboli, an Economics graduate from the University of Zimbabwe. Due to the lack of people who can speak both Chinese and local languages, there is a huge demand for those with Chinese language skills. Chinese translators with a good command of the language can earn more than 500 U.S. dollars a month, a huge amount considering that public servants such as teachers are currently earning less than 250 dollars a month. Setoboli, who is now a Chinese teacher at Zimgro, said knowing Chinese opens doors to vast job opportunities. "Studying Chinese has a lot of opportunities here in Zimbabwe. And for me one of the opportunities it has given me is that I am teaching Chinese right now," she said. While learning Chinese is arguably a formidable task, technology and the internet is making it less difficult to learn the language, even for those with no opportunities to interact with native speakers of the language. Students attend a Chinese language class in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara) Students attend a Chinese language class in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara) https://sputniknews.com/20220228/chechen-leader-mocks-eu-with-mirror-sanctions-including-one-acknowledging-there-is-no-english-tea-1093433356.html Chechen Leader Mocks EU With Mirror Sanctions, Including One Acknowledging There Is 'No English Tea' Chechen Leader Mocks EU With Mirror Sanctions, Including One Acknowledging There Is 'No English Tea' This week, due to the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Western nations have imposed sanctions on its banking and defense sectors, as... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T01:49+0000 2022-02-28T01:49+0000 2022-02-28T01:49+0000 situation in ukraine russia ramzan kadyrov chechen republic sanctions ukraine ukraine crisis viral /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093433505_0:0:1280:721_1920x0_80_0_0_d5420ad537459d643fd9b4b3bd6f3fb2.jpg Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia's Chechen Republic, warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell against threatening Russia with sanctions or they will face harsh response measures.Kadyrov, who took to Telegram on Sunday, stated that the region is ready to take revenge and impose tit-for-tat sanctions if the EU leaders won't go back on their statements.The Chechen leader noted that nonetheless, the time "has come for tough revenge," and retaliatory measures must be equal in strength. If Johnson, Truss, von der Leyen and Borrell do not retract their statements, Kadyrov reserved the right to impose the following sanctions against them:In order to completely intimidate European politicians, the head of the Russian region gave them a rather short time period to comply with his demands, just until February 31.The politician underscored that such "harsh" measures will set an example for other states as well.In response to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, after Donbas requested help amid Kiev's aggression, Western countries imposed a new batch of anti-Russian sanctions, the first of which appeared back in 2014. Several major Russian banks, including Sberbank and VTB, fell under the new restrictions. In addition, Germany stopped the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and the UK closed its airspace for Aeroflot, the country's biggest airline.On Friday, both the Russian president himself and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were personally sanctioned. Their assets in Europe and the UK were frozen, but they were not banned from entering the EU. The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the personal sanctions against them by saying that neither Putin nor Lavrov had any assets in the UK and outside of Russia at all. chechen republic ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Kirill Kurevlev Kirill Kurevlev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Kirill Kurevlev russia, ramzan kadyrov, chechen republic, sanctions, ukraine, ukraine crisis, viral https://sputniknews.com/20220228/how-china-russian-partnership-could-counter-balance-negative-effects-of-western-sanctions-1093457066.html How China-Russian Partnership Could Counter-Balance Negative Effects of Western Sanctions How China-Russian Partnership Could Counter-Balance Negative Effects of Western Sanctions China opposed the West's unilateral sanctions against Russia and barred the SWIFT ban, saying that it has no basis in international law. The FT admitted that... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T17:28+0000 2022-02-28T17:28+0000 2022-02-28T17:27+0000 world europe opinion china asia & pacific russia us ukraine donbass swift /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105521/45/1055214547_0:192:2959:1856_1920x0_80_0_0_60340441477aa3714b4645fb856ad64a.jpg "China-Russia ties are strengthening constantly during the last 10 years and more in every sector already. So these events in the turmoil with Ukraine that actually is the turmoil between Russia and the US-NATO system will surely accelerate the further cooperation between China and Russia," says Fabio Massimo Parenti, associate professor of international political economy and global studies at China Foreign Affairs University and the Italian International Institute Lorenzo deMedici.China's General Administration of Customs on 23 February confirmed that it would scrap import restrictions on wheat from Russia. Previously, Reuters reported on 4 February that Beijing had lifted the import bans on Russian wheat and barley as part of a broader series of new bilateral deals. The package also included Russia's long-term oil and gas supplies to the People's Republic worth $117.5 billion, according to the media outlet."I think that European countries and also other food exporters, not only food services and goods exports towards China, will be affected, but currently not so much," Parenti remarks.He places special emphasis on the Russo-Chinese energy deal, stressing that Russia's oil and gas are crucial for China's growing demand. The People's Republic is projected to consume up to 526 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2030 and approximately 620 bcm by 2040.Meanwhile, Russian commodities and raw materials are likely to be redirected to China if the demand from the rest of the world drops significantly against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions, according to economic experts quoted by CNN. The FT notes that Beijing has a record of providing economic support to Moscow during Russia's standoffs with the West which has stepped up sanctions against Moscow since Crimea's reunification with the nation in 2014.Global Economy is Changing in Favour of Developing CountriesThe global economy has already changed radically and in material terms in favour of the emerging countries, while the US and its allies were striving to contain this rise by cutting the economic linkages, above all between the European Union and other Eurasian partners, according to the professor.Washington's assertive actions facilitated the rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing. Beijing understands that the US' attempts to separate Russia from Europe is "the precondition to work better in Asia-Pacific against China, provoking Taiwan, provoking Hong Kong, provoking the South China Sea issues and so on," according to the professor."China knows that supporting Russia is an existential need for itself as well, not only for friendship with Russia, but above all for its own existential threat: that they are living equally in confronting NATO's forces, driven exclusively prevalently by the United States and its own domination project," says Parenti.Hence, Beijing's well-articulated position against the latest package of sanctions slapped by the EU, the UK, the US and Canada on Russia, according to him. Last week, Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters in Beijing that "since 2011, the US has imposed more than 100 sanctions on Russia," but these restrictions had done nothing to dispel tensions in Europe. Hua denounced Washington as the culprit in the Ukraine crisis, who is "heightening tensions, creating panic and even hyping up the possibility of warfare."Counter-Hegemonic Bloc"We have to see the real and actual application of these announced sanctions, such as holding Russia outside of the SWIFT system," says Parenti, adding that China and Russia have created their own cross-border payment system using alternative currencies since 2014 and 2015.According to the professor, the two countries have also been maintaining joint economic projects for years which are likely to soften or counter-balance the negative consequences of the Western sanctions.At the same time, Moscow and Beijing have common interests in various parts of the world, including Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, the academic notes. Parenti singles out Iran that struck a 25-year cooperation agreement with China on 27 March 2021. "The trilateral relationship between Russia and China and Iran" translated into a "counter-hegemonic bloc, even though it was not the intention of these three powers," according to him."At the end of the day, Europe will suffer, will be one of the main parties suffering in this battle, because of the lack of independence, because of that subordination to United States interests that do not match anymore with the interests of Europe," says the academic. "Obviously, repercussions will spread around the world and also Russia and China will have their own problems. But the networks were built in the last 20 years."Parenti does not rule out that Russo-Chinese efforts to ensure security in the new multi-polar world would translate into a military alliance. Increasing pressure from NATO is prompting the countries to bolster their defences and review their security strategies. china ukraine donbass Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ekaterina Blinova Ekaterina Blinova News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ekaterina Blinova world, europe, opinion, china, asia & pacific, russia, us, ukraine, donbass, swift, sanctions, nato, nato expansion https://sputniknews.com/20220228/israel-is-getting-pricier-and-tweeps-blame-government-for-sitting-idle-1093437662.html Israel is Getting Pricier and Tweeps Blame Government for Sitting Idle Israel is Getting Pricier and Tweeps Blame Government for Sitting Idle Recent months have seen a spike in the price of basic food products, electricity bills and fuel in Israel. Although the country has put forward a plan that... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T08:04+0000 2022-02-28T08:04+0000 2022-02-28T08:04+0000 israel /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/102988/77/1029887714_0:97:1024:673_1920x0_80_0_0_86dfe8ec77921c0206da035e0d0b362e.jpg Israelis have gotten used to the high cost of living. The price of basic food items has always exceeded comparable prices registered in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The real estate market has become one of the most expensive in the world.However, now these prices are expected to grow even more. The cost of fuel -- that already stands at slightly more than $2 per litre -- is set to rise again. So will bills for electricity, car insurance and food.Israeli politicians have been trying to manage the damage, citing the findings published by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics.According to their numbers, in 2021, Israel's GDP rose by 8.1 percent, exceeding that of the US as well as some European and Asian countries.Government's Fault?However, ordinary Israelis were not impressed and many have taken to social media platforms to vent their anger at the government and its decisions."16 percent growth ... this is a joke .. are you really buying the story?? What exactly has grown ... the country has become poor. The cost of living is rampant and the Moldovan [Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman - ed.] comes to simply destroy the country..." wrote one tweep.Others chimed in: "Since this crazy government took over, there has been a stark rise in prices in all walks of life, in addition to cruel tax impositions. The question is where is the left wing that had been complaining about the high price of cottage cheese during the era of Netanyahu and now they are keeping silent?""The cruelty of high costs of living have exploded just like this volcano. This left wing government is a champion in ruining...".Not Just All TalkThe vibrant discussions on social media networks are not just all talk. In the past weeks, thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the governments policies. Many have also established groups on Facebook discussing the measures that could be taken against the monopolies that control the country.Israel's government understands the repercussions of such an outcry. In 2011, economic protests over the high cost of living shook the country and threatened its stability. Politicians fear history might repeat itself.The current coalition doesn't need this headache, especially as most of the public seems to be dissatisfied with its actions.When it came to power last June it vowed to improve the lives of ordinary Israelis, tackle unemployment, the high food prices and the bloated costs of the real estate. Eight months down the line not much has been actually done.It is not that they were not trying. Three weeks ago, Bennett announced his economic plan to cope with the crisis. According to that initiative, working parents would see a reduction of taxes. Quotas on basic products, vehicle spare parts and construction material would be reduced. And families in towns of low socio-economic level have received substantial subsidies for day care.Journalists, economists and conservative politicians in Israel have already slammed that plan. They called it a disgrace and argued it didn't tackle the core problems that contributed to the high costs of living. Monopolies, they said, have remained untouched, average salaries have not been elevated. Territories in the periphery were not unfrozen for residential construction.Ordinary Israelis have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the plan, stirring discussions on social media platforms. And as long as that disapproval lingers, chances are that the issue will continue to present a major headache for the government. Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Elizabeth Blade Elizabeth Blade News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Elizabeth Blade israel https://sputniknews.com/20220228/k-dramas-to-watch-this-march-1093446541.html K-dramas to Watch This March K-dramas to Watch This March Many exciting TV series are set to air this Spring expect drama, comedy, and action. It's about to kick off! 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T10:27+0000 2022-02-28T10:27+0000 2022-02-28T14:27+0000 south korea tv series k-dramas society /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093446422_176:0:1257:608_1920x0_80_0_0_fecad095ba3292558dacd4f8ab3dccc7.jpg This Spring promises to bear fruit for TV fans, with stars including Ahn Bo-hyun, Jin Ki-joo, Lee Soo-hyuk, and Hwang In-yeop set to make a return. Keep an eye out for these two shows:Showtime Begins! The upcoming romantic comedy series starring Park Hae-jin, Jin Ki-joo, and Jung Joon-ho tells the story of professional magician Cha Cha-Woong (Park Hae-jin), who has a secret: he can see ghosts and communicate with them. After he becomes involved with female police officer Go Seul-Hae (Jin Ki-joo), they try to solve cases together with the help of ghosts, and as you may have guessed, the duo's feelings for each other develop. Why HerSouth Korean TV series about lawyers are particularly popular. Oh Soo-Jae stars in a new one as Seo Hyun-Jin, a lawyer at TK Law Firm which is considered the best in South Korea. She is self-righteous but very professional, despite this, she gets demoted due to unfortunate circumstances and ends up working on a low-level case with an old school professor. She then meets Gong Chan (Hwang In-Yeop).... who falls in love with her. south korea Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Martha Yiling https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1a/1081573806_0:0:404:404_100x100_80_0_0_4dc70f9169ad4580a8dff86e9af042ca.jpg Martha Yiling https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1a/1081573806_0:0:404:404_100x100_80_0_0_4dc70f9169ad4580a8dff86e9af042ca.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Martha Yiling https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1a/1081573806_0:0:404:404_100x100_80_0_0_4dc70f9169ad4580a8dff86e9af042ca.jpg south korea, tv series, k-dramas, society UN Spokesman Confirms US Decides to Expel Russian Staff Member United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric confirmed on Tuesday that the United States has decided to expel a Russian employee working at the UN Secretariat in New York. I can confirm that the US mission to the United Nations informed the Secretariat on 28 February ... of its decision to take action under Section 13 (b) of the UN-US Headquarters Agreement with respect to a staff member in the Secretariat, Dujarric said when asked to confirm reports of the expulsion of a Russian staffer. We regret that we find ourselves in this situation but are engaging with the host country [US], he added. Dujarric declined to disclose the name and a position of the affected employee in deference to the privacy of the individual and the sensitivity of the matter. https://sputniknews.com/20220228/myanmar-supports-russian-actions-with-respect-to-ukraine-1093435534.html Myanmar Supports Russian Actions in Ukraine Myanmar Supports Russian Actions in Ukraine MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Myanmar supports Russian actions with respect to Ukraine, including Moscows special military operation, and maintains that Russia has the... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T04:46+0000 2022-02-28T04:46+0000 2022-02-28T04:50+0000 russia dpr lpr ukraine /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/15/1093251330_0:156:3087:1892_1920x0_80_0_0_f5f5e29228b3bfd8ffad18c2449f4b43.jpg "First, in my opinion, in the situation with Ukraine, Russia is taking the necessary actions to preserve and strengthen its own sovereignty. Second, Russia, as a great power, ensures the balance of world forces, which allows maintaining world peace," Zaw Min Tun said.He expressed hope that Russia will be able to unroot "modern colonialism", pointing out that the US is moving closer to the Russian borders in order to undermine Russias sovereignty.He emphasised that the actions of the Russian leadership are aimed at protecting national interests and demonstrate the unity of the Russian people.Zaw Min Tun recalled how Western countries had financed opposition forces in Myanmar and said that the current Ukraine crisis was caused by US unwillingness to provide Russia with security guarantees.On Thursday, Russia began a special operation to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics for help in countering the aggression of Ukrainian forces. Moscow has repeatedly said that it has no plans to occupy the Ukrainian territory. However, despite this fact, many foreign countries accused Russia of invading the neighbouring country and violating its territorial integrity, and pledged to provide Kiev with additional military assistance to fight the Russian armed forces. ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 russia, dpr, lpr, ukraine https://sputniknews.com/20220228/mystery-projectile-launched-by-north-korea-turns-out-to-have-been-test-of-spy-satellite-equipment-1093460786.html Mystery Projectile Launched by North Korea Turns Out to Have Been Test of Spy Satellite Equipment Mystery Projectile Launched by North Korea Turns Out to Have Been Test of Spy Satellite Equipment Washington condemned what it categorized as a North Korean ballistic missile launch Sunday, saying it would consult with its allies and partners, and calling... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T19:06+0000 2022-02-28T19:06+0000 2022-02-28T19:22+0000 north korea satellite /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093460929_0:21:401:246_1920x0_80_0_0_7db97102ed1296d27edcc15e031e146e.jpg The unidentified projectile launched by North Korea on Sunday toward the Sea of Japan was a test related to the development of spy satellite equipment, the Korean Central News Agency has indicated.The DPRK National Aerospace Development Administration and the Academy of Defence Science conducted an important test on Sunday under the plan of developing a reconnaissance satellite, the North Korean state media outlet reported.The agency released two images taken during the test from high above the planet of the Korean peninsula.The rocket reached a maximum altitude of about 620 km, flying 300 km and falling outside Japans exclusive economic zone, according to the South Korean military.US Indo-Pacific Command slammed North Korea over the test and promised to consult with regional allies. Japan, France and Britain also condemned the test, with Washington and its allies promising to raise the issue at a Security Council meeting on Monday.Sundays launch was the eighth North Korean rocket or missile test of the year. On 30 January, Pyongyang launched a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile modified with a camera in its frontal nose cone.North Korea last successfully deployed a satellite into orbit in 2016. The craft, known as the Kwangmyongsong-4, or KMS-4, was the continuation of a satellite programme being worked on by the country since the 1980s.The Asian nation is one of just a handful small-to-medium-sized powers which have made great strides in creating domestic space and rocketry programmes notwithstanding geographic and resource limitations. In 2020, Irans Noor military satellite surprised observers after snapping high-resolution images of the US military air base in Qatar, just months after the Pentagon dismissed it as a mere tumbling webcam in space that would be unlikely to provide Tehran with any usable intelligence.North Korea also has one of the most advanced ballistic missile programmes in the world, including the capability to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles theoretical capable of striking any point in the United States, and hypersonic glide vehicles. https://sputniknews.com/20220227/us-condemns-pyongyangs-latest-missile-launch-us-indo-pacific-command-says-1093411722.html https://sputniknews.com/20220111/north-korea-launched-hypersonic-missile-during-tuesday-launch-attended-by-kim-jong-un-1092188343.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov north korea, satellite https://sputniknews.com/20220228/no-ban-on-wearing-hijabs-in-india-says-federal-minister-amid-karnataka-controversy-1093439210.html No Ban on Wearing Hijabs in India, Says Federal Minister Amid Karnataka Controversy No Ban on Wearing Hijabs in India, Says Federal Minister Amid Karnataka Controversy In the past few weeks, many politicians in India, including some from the federally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been publicly commenting on what... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T15:43+0000 2022-02-28T15:43+0000 2022-02-28T15:43+0000 india india hijab hijab karnataka karnataka state muslim bharatiya janata party (bjp) /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/14/1093200619_0:85:3341:1964_1920x0_80_0_0_91b59a4528c7d864509c636f5dc1deb2.jpg A federal Muslim minister in the Narendra Modi-led Indian government has stated that there is no ban on wearing the hijab in the country. BJP politician Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was speaking on Sunday when he sought to clarify the government's position on the raging controversy. The comment came after the row erupted in the southern Indian state of Karnataka on wearing "religious clothes," including the hijab, in educational institutions by students of Muslim and Hindu faiths. "The matter is in the court... There is no ban on wearing Hijab anywhere in India. It is clear...Of course, some institutions have their discipline, dress code and uniform. When we talk of the rights of the Constitution, we have to talk (understand importance) of Constitutional duties also," the ministers said in Hindi.However, Naqvi avoided cross-questions by the reporters on the matter.Earlier this month, BJP parliamentarian Pragya Singh Thakur warned Muslim women against wearing hijabs in public, saying "it won't be tolerated." Former Jammu and Kashmir state chief Omar Abdullah recently alleged that hatred for Muslims has been "normalised" in the country which "no longer celebrates its diversity."Karnataka is witnessing protests after a few Muslim girls were banned from entering their classrooms for wearing the Islamic headscarf in the Udupi District.Since last month, there have been protests across the state after Muslim students were not allowed to attend classes because they were wearing hijabs. Meanwhile, other educational institutes in the state also banned the hijab on campus.The matter is now being heard in the Karnataka High Court. india karnataka karnataka state Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg india, india, hijab, hijab, karnataka, karnataka state, muslim, bharatiya janata party (bjp) https://sputniknews.com/20220228/over-65-of-belarusian-citizens-vote-in-favor-of-constitutional-amendments-1093433920.html Over 65% of Belarusian Citizens Vote in Favor of Constitutional Amendments Over 65% of Belarusian Citizens Vote in Favor of Constitutional Amendments MINSK (Sputnik) - More than 65 percent of Belarusian citizens have voted in favor of constitutional amendments during a referendum held on Sunday, the head of... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T02:04+0000 2022-02-28T02:04+0000 2022-02-28T02:07+0000 belarus alexander lukashenko constitution referendum presidency /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093433894_0:0:2985:1679_1920x0_80_0_0_03e3851543e154ba40ce86224e883346.jpg "65.16% of the referendum participants included in the voting lists voted for the adoption of amendments and additions to the constitution of the Republic of Belarus. 10.07% voted against," Karpenko said.According to Belarusian law, a decision at a referendum is considered adopted if more than half of the citizens included in the lists of participants in the referendum voted for it.The Belarusian referendum turnout is estimated at over 78%. The decision taken at the referendum will come into force 10 days after the official publication of the results.Earlier, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a Belarusian opposition leader in exile, labeled the referendum on constitutional reforms "illegal," claiming that it will have no effect on the country.The draft of the amended constitution of Belarus, in particular, suggests that the same person can be president for no more than two terms. In accordance with the proposed amendments, a section on the All Belarusian People's Assembly will appear in the constitution, which will become the highest representative democratic body in Belarus, and thus will approve the foundations of domestic and foreign policy, military doctrine, and the concept of the country's national security. The draft provides that the president can be removed from office by the All Belarusian People's Assembly in the event of a systematic or gross violation of the constitution or the commission of treason or other serious crime. belarus Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 belarus, alexander lukashenko, constitution, referendum, presidency KHARTOUM, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Monday called for reaching understandings between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia to start a smooth and effective negotiation on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). "Sudan is the most in need for consensus among the three countries, and has been negatively affected by the prolonged negotiation without reaching a binding legal agreement on the filling and operation of the GERD," Sudan's acting Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Daw Al-Bait Abdul-Rahman said in a meeting with Egyptian Ambassador to Sudan Hossam Eissa. The meeting was part of the two countries' efforts to push the negotiation issue on the Ethiopian Nile dam, Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported. "The remaining clauses of difference among Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia require political will from all parties," the minister said. The Egyptian ambassador delivered a message to the Sudanese minister from his Egyptian counterpart, voicing Egypt's full readiness for cooperation and coordination in all fields, according to SUNA. The meeting discussed Ethiopia's decision to generate electricity from the GERD, and reviewed activation of cooperation mechanisms between Sudan and Egypt to achieve the common goals of the two countries and the Nile Basin countries. Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have been negotiating under the African Union over technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD. Sudan proposed a mediation quartet of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the African Union regarding the GERD issue, while Ethiopia rejected the proposal. Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the project, while Egypt and Sudan, both downstream Nile Basin countries that rely on the river for its fresh water, are concerned that the dam might affect their water resources. https://sputniknews.com/20220228/pentagon-wants-to-set-up-military-backchannels-with-russia-amid-ukraine-crisis-report-1093460150.html Pentagon Wants to Set Up Military Backchannels With Russia Amid Ukraine Crisis: Report Pentagon Wants to Set Up Military Backchannels With Russia Amid Ukraine Crisis: Report Tensions between Russia and NATO reached a new post-Cold War high point last week after Moscow kicked off a military operation to demilitarize Ukraine, a... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T18:41+0000 2022-02-28T18:41+0000 2022-02-28T18:41+0000 ukraine russia united states /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093453353_0:53:1280:773_1920x0_80_0_0_d06009d6011dd525d6b0f5b0f9905805.jpg The Pentagon is reportedly seeking to establish backchannels of communications with Moscow amid the crisis in Ukraine.And we have not received any response from them in terms of whether they agree, whether they are willing to set something up, the official said.The Russian and US militaries already have experience in country-to-country deconfliction contacts, with an emergency hotline established in 2015 to avoid incidents between the two countries over Syrian airspace.New military-to-military contacts over Ukraine would be to allow Russia and the US to tell one another were about to do this, stay the heck out of the way, the official said.The communications links are seen as vital amid Western commitments to continue pumping hundreds of millions of dollars in additional military aid, and possibly foreign fighters or mercenaries, into Ukraine.The lines of contact could be established between Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and US Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, and at lower levels on down the line, with any sort of battlefield-level mechanism to prevent the violation of red lines expected to fall under the jurisdiction of NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe Gen. Tod Wolters, officials say.That sentiment seems to stand at odds with realities on the ground. On Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry pointed to the presence of strategic US RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ9A Reaper drones loitering in the Black Sea in an area where 16 Ukrainian gunboats attacked Russian warships during the evacuation of 82 Ukrainian Boarder Guard servicemen who surrendered to Russian forces on Zmiinyi Island. MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov said there was a strong likelihood that these US unmanned aerial vehicles directed the Ukrainian gunboats to attack the Russian ships.Russia began a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday, coming to the assistance of its Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republic allies after weeks of intensifying Ukrainian mortar, artillery, sniper and sabotage attacks on militia positions and cities.The United States and its allies responded by slapping Russian officials, banks, businessmen and several economic sectors with new sanctions, and promising to send nearly a billion dollars in additional arms assistance to Kiev on top of the $2.5 billion+ already delivered since 2014. Washington and NATO have so far promised to stay out of the conflict directly. However, Ukraine moved Sunday to establish an international legion for foreigners wishing to come to the country to fight the Russians. Western countries have also promised to provide Kiev with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. Observers fear some of this money could be spent by Kiev to hire mercenaries.On Saturday Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that Kievs allies were actively pushing the country to keep fighting Russia, and said that each additional day that the conflict continues threatens to turn the country into a foreign-backed meat grinder. https://sputniknews.com/20220226/us-drones-were-in-the-air-during-attack-on-russian-ships-mod-says-1093398634.html https://sputniknews.com/20220227/live-updates-talks-between-russian--ukraine-wont-start-anytime-soon-source-says-1093429625.html ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov ukraine, russia, united states https://sputniknews.com/20220228/rep-higgins-baffles-everybody-online-with-even-dictionary-not-sure-what-his-woke-sky-tweet-means-1093434650.html Rep. Higgins Baffles Everybody Online, With Even Dictionary Not Sure What His 'Woke Sky' Tweet Means Rep. Higgins Baffles Everybody Online, With Even Dictionary Not Sure What His 'Woke Sky' Tweet Means It appears that Higgins was referring to the current international tension around the situation in Ukraine, and, as it seemed to some of the observers... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T03:38+0000 2022-02-28T03:38+0000 2022-02-28T03:38+0000 us cold war republicans woke /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093434853_0:0:2691:1515_1920x0_80_0_0_64b811d858823809775b6ca89e623a81.jpg On Sunday, House Republican Clay Higgins of Louisiana sent out a perplexing Tweet that left many netizens scratching their heads, attempting to figure out what it meant. In the tweet, Higgins railed against "millennial leftists" in a rather confusing manner. Higgins' strange post on social media baffled many people, including even Dictionary.com."Can someone translate?" asked journalist Andrew Feinberg."Old man yells at rainbow dot gif," said another netizen."I'm semi-fluent in both MAGA and woke and I can't make sense of this," one user confessed, while another explained that the post was written "in the ancient language of wtf."Higgins was previously chastised for an odd selfie video he took inside Auschwitz, a WW2-era Nazi death camp. Higgins shared a shabbily produced selfie-video from his visit to the camp, which is now housed on-site at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland. The representative brought viewers through some of the camp's most awful locations in over five minutes of footage, and at certain moments even made comments while surrounded by Zyklon B canisters and within a gas chamber.The museum administration led the way with the criticism by saying, "Everyone has the right to personal reflections. However, inside a former gas chamber, there should be mournful silence. Its not a stage." Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Kirill Kurevlev Kirill Kurevlev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Kirill Kurevlev us, cold war, republicans, woke https://sputniknews.com/20220228/romania-to-block-sputnik-and-stop-broadcasting-of-rt-by-days-end-1093441946.html Romania to Block Sputnik and Stop Broadcasting of RT by Day's End Romania to Block Sputnik and Stop Broadcasting of RT by Day's End Romania is the latest country to take measures to crack down on Russian foreign-language media over the crisis in Ukraine. On Sunday, European Commission... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T09:10+0000 2022-02-28T09:10+0000 2022-02-28T10:10+0000 romania /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/103812/73/1038127301_0:160:3077:1890_1920x0_80_0_0_9ff57e1c76d8404c48cd748a89ae98b8.jpg Romania will block access to Sputnik and cut off broadcasts of RT by the end of the day Monday, the country's cabinet of ministers has announced.Sputnik appeared in a list of sites to be shut down, while RT will be banned from broadcast by local operators.Sputnik Moldova-Romania is one of over two dozen sister agencies of Sputnik International, and is the latest Russian foreign language news outlet to face censorship in recent days.Earlier Monday, Sputnik Polska became unavailable to users in Poland. Over the weekend, multiple Sputniks, including Sputnik International, Sputnik German SNA, Sputnik Ceska Republika and Sputnik Polska reported large-scale DDoS attacks.Sputnik Moldova received notification from Moldovan authorities Saturday that the news agency's website would bet shuttered effective immediately and its radio broadcasts blocked by 7 March. The decision prompted the outlet to create new website addresses.In addition to censorship from state entities, Russian media have been targeted by the Anonymous hacker group, which declared a "cyberwar" on the Russian government over the crisis in Ukraine.On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to "ban in the EU the Kremlin's media machine.""The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war and to sow division in our union," she said.Also Sunday, Google banned the download of the app for RT's Russian channel in Ukraine at Kiev's request. Meanwhile, Facebook has vowed to crack down on a Ukraine-related "misinformation" campaign. Google-owned YouTube has launched its own censorship campaign, targeting Sputnik, RBC, TV Zvezda and others.The targeting of Russian foreign language media by Western governments is nothing new. Before the dramatic events of this week, Sputnik and other agencies were subjected to other, often less conspicuous attacks and forms of censorship - such as shadow bans on social media and in search engine results, as well as targeted shutdowns and hacking attack attempts. The outward facing media of other countries, including Iran, China and Venezuela, have experienced similar hurdles.The censorship is part of a broad package of measures taken by the US, the EU and their allies against Russia over its ongoing military operation in Ukraine, with other measures including tough new banking and personal sanctions, and the shutdown of airspace to Russian commercial aircraft. Moscow began what President Putin dubbed a "special military operation" in Ukraine on Thursday aimed at "demilitarising and denazifying" the country after a request for assistance from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics - which have faced weeks of intensified artillery and mortar attacks by Ukrainian forces. https://sputniknews.com/20220226/sputnik-international-sputnik-czech-republic-face-mass-ddos-attacks-1093400122.html romania Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov romania https://sputniknews.com/20220228/russia-didnt-start-hostilities-is-ending-them-after-8-years-of-war-against-donbass-civilians-mod-1093449218.html Russia Didn't Start Hostilities, Is Ending Them After 8 Years of War Against Donbass Civilians: MoD Russia Didn't Start Hostilities, Is Ending Them After 8 Years of War Against Donbass Civilians: MoD The Russian military and its Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republic allies began an operation in Ukraine on Thursday amid unceasing attacks by the Ukrainian... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T12:48+0000 2022-02-28T12:48+0000 2022-02-28T17:26+0000 ukraine donbass igor konashenkov conflict /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/102326/19/1023261974_0:161:3071:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_c402006916ff554ba6999d9a6f611c03.jpg Russia didn't start the years-old conflict in Ukraine, but is seeking to bring it to a conclusion, Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov has said.Commenting on the situation at the front, the officer reported that Donetsk People's Republic forces were completing the encirclement of the city of Mariupol, while Lugansk People's Republic forces have advanced 23 km with fire support assistance from Russia, taking control of the settlements of Novaya Astrakhan and Borovenki.Situated in southeastern Ukraine on the north coast of the Sea of Azov, Mariupol served as a major Ukrainian military and volunteer battalion outpost during the war in the Donbass. Today, the city is feared to contain a major concentration of forces from the Azov Regiment - an openly neo-Nazi volunteer unit of the Ukrainian National Guard. The city is also home to more than 400,000 civilians, and the Russian military has expressed concerns about their fate, citing indiscriminate Azov artillery attacks using Grad launchers against areas which their forces have fallen back from.Konashenkov clarified during Monday's briefing that Russian conscripts are not involved in the military operation in Ukraine, and that only officers and contract servicemen from the ranks of private to sergeant are taking part.He said further that "all settlements which have come under the control of the Russian military are continuing life as normal," with critical infrastructure and transport operational, and most city and town administrations, after consultations with the Russian command, agreeing to joint law enforcement in their jurisdictions to maintain order. On Sunday, the MoD issued footage of a joint effort by Russian and Ukrainian forces to ensure security around the mothballed Chernobyl nuclear plant north of Kiev.The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which remains operational, has also been taken by Russian forces without incident. North of Crimea, the canal providing the peninsula with freshwater has been unblocked, with water supplies to the region finally restored after years of being blockaded by nationalist forces.The Russian military admitted Sunday that it had suffered dead and wounded during the course of the operation in Ukraine, but has not provided details, except to say that casualties on the Russian side have been substantially below those of Ukrainian army and nationalist battalion units.The MoD has also reported on instances of mass surrender by Ukrainian forces, with the Russian side guaranteeing their safety and promising to allow them to return home to their families.Eight Years of WarThe situation in Ukraine today is the culmination of a security crisis which began in February 2014, when the country's government was overthrown in a Western-backed coup d'etat and replaced by pro-EU and pro-NATO forces seeking to break off political, economic and cultural ties with Russia which had been forged over centuries. The coup prompted authorities in Crimea to organize a referendum on the peninsula's status, with a majority of residents voting to break off from the new Ukraine and rejoin Russia. The installation of the new regime in Kiev also sparked large-scale protests in the country's east and south, with dozens of activists and high profile political figures intimidated, jailed, murdered or quietly disappeared over their opposition to the government and desire to maintain close links with Russia.Nowhere was opposition stronger than the Donbass, a major industrial and coal-mining region whose electorate consistently supported pro-Russian political forces, and violently opposed efforts to drag Ukraine westward. In the spring of 2014, when Kiev sent troops to try to crush a fledgling independence movement, local residents, ex-military and volunteers organized into militias, sparking a civil conflict which would continue for nearly eight years. In 2015, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France met in the Belarusian capital to hammer out the Minsk Agreements - a ceasefire and peace deal aimed at putting an end to the conflict in the Donbass by reintegrating the region back into Ukraine in exchange for constitutionally-guaranteed autonomy. In the 7+ years that followed, successive Ukrainian governments have failed to make the necessary reforms, notwithstanding political pressure from both Russia and their European allies to do so.Last Monday, amid a Ukrainian military buildup near Donbass and reports of hundreds of violations of the Minsk ceasefire, Russia took the unprecedented step of recognising the Donbass breakaways as independent states. Days later, on the night of 23 February, pointing to continued Ukrainian attacks, the new nations asked Moscow for assistance. On the morning of 24 February, Moscow launched what President Putin said was a "special military operation" aimed at "demilitarizing and denazifying" the country. https://sputniknews.com/20220228/ukrainian-forces-have-mined-most-of-mariupol-holding-residents-hostage-dpr-says-1093439347.html https://sputniknews.com/20220227/live-updates-talks-between-russian--ukraine-wont-start-anytime-soon-source-says-1093429625.html ukraine donbass Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov ukraine, donbass, igor konashenkov, conflict https://sputniknews.com/20220228/russia-envoy-to-un-addresses-fake-information-in-social-media-about-russias-spec-op-in-ukraine-1093430905.html Russia Envoy to UN Addresses Fake Information in Social Media About Russia's Spec Op in Ukraine Russia Envoy to UN Addresses Fake Information in Social Media About Russia's Spec Op in Ukraine The Russian military says that Kiev has been using its own people as human shields and spreading fake videos with the clear aim of later accusing Russia of... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T00:03+0000 2022-02-28T00:03+0000 2022-02-28T08:12+0000 un envoy fake news un ukraine russia social media special operation vassily nebenzia situation in ukraine /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1b/1093430527_0:161:3071:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_221f8580b34c79e0edc4dfb7e4823f14.jpg Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, on Sunday, spoke about the tremendous spread of disinformation and "fake news" regarding Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, including claims of "bombardment" of civilian facilities."Besides," he added, "in social media one can easily find tutorials that teach how to shoot fakes that should defile our special operation. All in all, there are 1.2 million such fakes in Ukrainian social media."The envoy also reiterated evidence of Kiev using civilians as human shields, which is a violation of international humanitarian law that has been so far ignored by Western politicians and received no coverage in foreign media, despite being witnessed by ordinary Ukrainians, in tactics similar to "that of [Daesh*] terrorists". He added that "all responsibility for possible consequences rests with the Maidan regime."According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Ukrainian army has been placing artillery in residential areas, a technique it acquired from the US military & intelligence, in order to trigger return fire on innocent people: These methods are actively used by terrorists supervised by the CIA in the Middle East and other countries."What's more, the Russian MoD said on Sunday that the Ukrainian forces used phosphorus munition outside Kiev this kind of weapons is prohibited by the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons as inhumane.No Words of Sympathy for People of DonbasRussia's envoy also slammed the hypocrisy of Western governments. According to him, he crisis unfolding now did not start with the Russian operation, but 8 years ago, as the residents of Donbas have been exposed to continual aggression from Kiev, and "today you found no words of sympathy for the people of Donbas."To date, Kiev has repeatedly violated the Minsk accords by shelling Donbas with weapons prohibited by those agreements, which also envisaged granting special status to Donbas after holding elections there (no steps in this direction have been initiated by Kiev).Russia announced the beginning of a special military operation in Ukraine on Thursday morning, with the goal of defending the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics from what President Putin has called a "genocide" of the Russian-speaking population, targeted by Kiev since the right-wing nationalist government seized power in a coup-d'etat. The latter was hailed by Western powers as an "installation of democracy." The Russian Foreign Ministry said the operation aims at bringing the puppet regime in Kiev to justice for the crimes it has committed.*A terrorist group banned in Russia and many other states ukraine russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Asya Geydarova https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/0b/1088970360_0:0:1003:1003_100x100_80_0_0_14c2d6564e4700bfb043d8338b3ba245.jpg Asya Geydarova https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/0b/1088970360_0:0:1003:1003_100x100_80_0_0_14c2d6564e4700bfb043d8338b3ba245.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Asya Geydarova https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/0b/1088970360_0:0:1003:1003_100x100_80_0_0_14c2d6564e4700bfb043d8338b3ba245.jpg un envoy, fake news, un, ukraine, russia, social media, special operation, vassily nebenzia https://sputniknews.com/20220228/russian-air-forces-dominate-airspace-over-ukraine-mod-says-1093442214.html Russian Air Forces Dominate Airspace Over Ukraine, MoD Says Russian Air Forces Dominate Airspace Over Ukraine, MoD Says MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian warplanes dominate the airspace over the entire territory of Ukraine, Russian defence ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T09:40+0000 2022-02-28T09:40+0000 2022-02-28T09:44+0000 situation in ukraine russia ukraine /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093442050_0:321:3071:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_7e154ac57fb15cb3ff754a4fb2a5ca2a.jpg "The Russian aviation has gained dominance in the airspace over the entire territory of Ukraine," Konashenkov told reporters.Over the past day, the Russian military destroyed eight Buk M-1 combat vehicles, S-300 and Buk M-1 air defence systems, three radio positions with P-14 stations, four combat aircraft on the ground and one in air, the official said, adding that they have also hit 1,114 military infrastructure facilities of Ukraine since the beginning of the operation.The Russian military completely took control of the territory around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Russian defence ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Monday.Troops of the Lugansk People's Republic, in turn, established control over the settlements of Khvorostyanka, Sukhanivka and Artema, he added.On 24 February, Russia launched a special operation to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics (DPR and LPR) for help in countering the aggression of Ukrainian forces. The Russian Defene Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and that the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow has repeatedly stated it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.Prior to that, Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed decrees recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics.Russias decision to recognise the DPR and LPR comes after a significant deterioration of the situation along the line of contact, as Ukrainian forces intensified the shelling of Donbass. russia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 russia, ukraine https://sputniknews.com/20220228/sag-awards-2022-popular-korean-show-squid-game-actors-lee-jung-jae-jung-ho-yeon-win-top-honours-1093435851.html SAG Awards 2022: Popular Korean Show 'Squid Game' Actors Lee Jung Jae, Jung Ho Yeon Win Top Honours SAG Awards 2022: Popular Korean Show 'Squid Game' Actors Lee Jung Jae, Jung Ho Yeon Win Top Honours The popular Korean survival thriller 'Squid Game' is touted as one of the most-watched non-English language shows on Netflix, starring Lee Jung-Jae, Jung... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T09:56+0000 2022-02-28T09:56+0000 2022-02-28T09:56+0000 society squid game screen actors guild-american federation of television and radio artists (sag-aftra) award award ceremony k-dramas k-wave netflix netflix /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093443492_0:129:3072:1857_1920x0_80_0_0_6ae0dcf0a5825d68357ed079912f82be.jpg 'Squid Game', a Korean drama, set a new benchmark after its actress Jung Ho Yeon and actor Lee Jung Jae were bestowed the top honours at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) 2022 held on Sunday at the Barker Hangar hall in Santa Monica, California.While Jung, 27, bagged the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, her co-star Lee too took home the trophy of 'Best Actor' for 'Squid Game'. These awards marked Lee and Jung's first-ever SAG Award nominations and wins.Awestruck by the announcement of her name for the award, Jung got emotional while receiving the award and delivering her speech. "First and foremost thank you so much. I've sat many a times watching you on the big screen, dreaming of one day becoming an actor. I just want to say thank you so much for making me dream and opening the door for me," Jung said.Lee too was appreciated with a thundering applause by the audience as he received the award for the best actor in the drama series.He beat fellow nominees such as 'Succession' stars Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong and also 'The Morning Show' Billy Crudup to bag the major award.He said, "Oh my! Thank you so much. This is truly huge that has happened to me. I did write something but I don't think I will get to reading it. Thank you so so much SAG Awards. And thank you to the global audience for all the love for 'Squid Game' and thank you 'Squid Game' team." Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sangeeta Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1b/1080292803_0:121:960:1081_100x100_80_0_0_7490b319dab9611e309056b177265184.jpg Sangeeta Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1b/1080292803_0:121:960:1081_100x100_80_0_0_7490b319dab9611e309056b177265184.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sangeeta Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1b/1080292803_0:121:960:1081_100x100_80_0_0_7490b319dab9611e309056b177265184.jpg society, squid game, screen actors guild-american federation of television and radio artists (sag-aftra), award, award ceremony, k-dramas, k-wave, netflix, netflix https://sputniknews.com/20220228/sweden-finland-inching-closer-toward-nato-amid-russias-ukraine-op-poll-shows-1093436040.html Sweden, Finland Inching Closer Toward NATO Amid Russia's Ukraine Op, Poll Shows Sweden, Finland Inching Closer Toward NATO Amid Russia's Ukraine Op, Poll Shows Both Finland and Sweden have maintained a lively collaboration with the North Atlantic alliance through joint drills and overseas operations while retaining... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T06:08+0000 2022-02-28T06:08+0000 2022-02-28T06:08+0000 situation in ukraine news nato finland sweden scandinavia ukraine russia /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/103893/65/1038936594_0:0:3001:1688_1920x0_80_0_0_957df87ddab1aa195f005f6ea3af01d5.jpg Following the start of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, which the West portrays as an invasion, more Swedes are in favour of joining NATO than against it for the first time on record in the historically non-aligned country.In a fresh February survey by pollster Novus, 41 percent of Swedes appeared to be in favour of NATO membership. 35 percent said they were against and 24 percent were undecided. The proportion of those in favour has increased, whereas the share of those sitting on the fence has decreased in comparison with the recent poll. By contrast, the share of those against joining NATO remained unchanged.According to Sjostrom, the same trend was witnessed amid the unsuccessful hunt for a Russian submarine in the Stockholm archipelago in 2014, where the Swedish navy heavily mobilised amid a media panic. A subsequent investigation turned out that the submarine appeared to be a faulty weather buoy.In neighbouring Finland, meanwhile, a citizens' initiative demanding a referendum on a Finnish application to join NATO has passed the 50,000 signatures required for consideration by parliament, national broadcaster Yle reported.The signatures were gathered in a matter of several days. Its authors had mentioned a tenser security situation in the Baltic Sea as a reason for Finland to permanently commit to security guarantees with its partners and suggested that NATO accession would significantly enhance Finland's ability to defend itself from external threats.However, it is possible that the current parliament might run out of time to discuss the initiative before elections due in 2023, as over 20 similar initiatives are in currently pending consideration. Should this happen, a new initiative may be required to force a debate.Despite their formal non-alignment for historic reasons, both Finland and Sweden have been drawing nearer NATO in recent years, a process facilitated by joint drills and training activities, military acquisitions from the Washington and its partners, and participation in overseas missions. Inside both countries, there is a strong political sentiment in favour of joining NATO manifest among high-ranking members of the military and several parties.Sweden also announced a historic decision to help Ukraine with munitions, for the first time sending arms to a conflict zone since the Winter War of 1939 to support neighbouring Finland against the Soviet Union, despite previously voicing scepticism. Finland, meanwhile, is set to grant a permit for Estonia to export artillery to Ukraine; Estonia had acquired the military equipment from its former partner.On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to an appeal from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, which Russia had formally recognised earlier that week.Moscow has emphasised that it has no plans to conquer or occupy Ukraine and that the operation's goal is to protect civilians from genocide and defend the DPR and LPR from Kiev's aggression, as well as demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukriane.The Russian Defence Ministry stressed that the military does not threaten Ukrainian cities or civilians, with Ukrainian military infrastructure being the main target to be disabled with high-precision weapons. finland sweden scandinavia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Igor Kuznetsov Igor Kuznetsov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Igor Kuznetsov news, nato, finland, sweden, scandinavia, ukraine, russia https://sputniknews.com/20220228/ukrainian-mp-calls-zelensky-criminal-for-not-entering-negotiations-in-face-of-russian-spec-op-1093434041.html Ukrainian MP Calls Zelensky Criminal For Not Entering Negotiations in Face of Russian Spec Op Ukrainian MP Calls Zelensky Criminal For Not Entering Negotiations in Face of Russian Spec Op On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin paused the special military operation in Ukraine after Kiev suggested negotiations, but no agreement could be made... 28.02.2022, Sputnik International 2022-02-28T02:53+0000 2022-02-28T02:53+0000 2022-02-28T02:53+0000 europe verkhovna rada mp ukraine crisis situation in ukraine /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107708/18/1077081848_0:0:3070:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_a5c161f64a406979d272853e545f05bc.jpg Member of the Verkhovna Rada Ilya Kiva says that the Ukrainian government has missed opportunities to negotiate with Russia, calling the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a criminal for introducing martial law and inciting hate.In his video address, posted in Telegram on Sunday, Kiva said, Zelensky is a criminal. He also knew about the start of the military operation in advance, but did not use the opportunity for negotiations. On the contrary, he introduced martial law, pushing people to certain death, he said. The lawmaker criticized the current government for doing everything to make the evacuation of Kievans impossible. He insisted that that thousand of guns distributed to Ukrainians purportedly without any control and background checks was a mistake.It was practically a license for murder, he said, referring to numerous reports and videos alleging that many civilians in Kiev have already suffered from what has been described as banditry and that the shootout heard in the Ukrainian capital was reportedly caused by clashes between locals.On 27 February, Zelensky's office signaled readiness to hold talks to discuss Ukraine's neutral status. President Putin, in response, offered to meet in Belarus, but the location was unacceptable to the Ukrainian side.Later, the proposal was accepted and, according to Ukrainian presidents press secretary Sergei Nikiforov, consultations on the time and place of the talks are going on at these hours. On the same day, Putins Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian delegation arrived in Gomel, Belarus, awaiting the talks.Meanwhile, Zelensky said in his latest address that he "does not really believe" in the success of the negotiations in Gomel, saying he agreed to hold talks so that not a single citizen of his country had any doubts that he, as president, tried to prevent war when there was a chance, albeit small.On 25 February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted while speaking to officials from Donbas, LPR Foreign Minister Vladislav Deinego and DPR First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Peresada, that he doubts Ukraine really wants to discuss its neutrality, as Zelensky did not agree to negotiate earlier with Russia when the latter put forward proposals for ensuring security in the region and refused to comply with the Minsk Accords.On 24 February, President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine, responding to an appeal from leaders of the Donbas republics for help against Kiev's aggression. He stressed that the Russian military does not seek to occupy Ukrainian territory, but demilitarization and denazification. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, only military infrastructure will be targeted by the Russian military and not cities and the civilian population. https://sputniknews.com/20220225/west-defends-ukrainian-regime-turning-blind-eye-to-its-war-crimes-lavrov-says-1093361118.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Alexandra Kashirina Alexandra Kashirina News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Alexandra Kashirina europe, verkhovna rada, mp, ukraine crisis The shop at Banner County Schools was filled with excitement and curiosity Friday afternoon. The entire school was invited to the FFA chapters petting zoo, their final activity celebrating Nebraska FFA Week. The FFA organization encompasses agricultural education and experience. The Banner County FFA chapter did exactly that with a hands-on learning opportunity for other students in their school. The shop was filled with a horse, chicken, goats, calf, rabbit, cat, dog, guinea pig, hedgehog, puppies and a corn sheller. Bill Gifford, Banner County Schools ag teacher and FFA advisor, said the chapter is in its 12th year and probably half of the high school students are members this year. Not being able to attend contests in-person the last two years lead to a slight drop off in upperclass members interest in the organization. However, since that has changed this year and contests are once again in-person, he said there has been a renewed interest. The chapter has already attended two FFA contests and has been working hard to prepare for their next competition coming up next week. Everything we have done this week has been student lead and planned with me just there for advice once in a while, Gifford said. Yesterdays elementary education lesson went well. Im pretty proud of them this week. The chapter members organized educational activities that included a soil conservation presentation, a safety demonstration after they drove tractors to school, an ag lesson to elementary students and a petting zoo. Due to the extreme cold temperatures early in the week, some of their activities had to be postponed or canceled. The excitement at the petting zoo was infectious while many of the elementary students were eager to ask questions and pet the animals. Adam Knaub, an FFA member for 2 years, was holding another members chicken while he continually answered a wide range of questions. A pair of elementary school boys even talked him into teaching them how to properly pick up and hold the willing chicken. I really like agriculture and I like learning about it, Knaub said. Andie West contributed a family of Nigerian dwarf fainting goats to the petting zoo. The twin babies were a popular attraction to the younger elementary students. I love learning about agriculture and teaching younger generations about agriculture, West said. The FFA students joined the chapter for a variety of reasons including ag backgrounds or it was something their friends were doing. Marie Hein joined because her dad and sister were both FFA members. She enjoys participating on the veterinary science, land/range judging and livestock judging teams. Being a part of FFA is fun in general but its also a really great learning experience, Hein said. There is really something for everyone in FFA. I get to do things with animals which is what I really enjoy. Nicole Heldt is a reporter with the Star-Herald, covering agriculture. She can be reached at 308-632-9044 or by email at nheldt@starherald.com. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. by Gretinah Machingura HARARE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Chamber of Chinese Enterprises in Zimbabwe has been lauded for coming up with a nine-point document spelling out how Chinese businesses in the southern African country should conduct their business affairs. The statement, the first of its kind, contains rules and guidelines on how Chinese companies should conduct themselves to promote win-win cooperation between the two countries. The statement that was issued last Tuesday by the Chamber, a grouping of 80 Chinese companies operating in Zimbabwe, came after a barrage of biased attacks on Chinese companies and their investments in Zimbabwe by some Western-sponsored media outlets over the past few months. In a published article Monday, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said the statement by the Chamber was important for its pragmatism, candor, good spirit and a deep sense of responsibility. It was an important document that will be referenced for a long time to come, the article said. "A number of pointers make this an important and seminal document." "First of all, in outlining nine major points, the statement touched virtually all aspects of Chinese and foreign investment in Zimbabwe from how companies should conduct business from obtaining relevant paperwork to how they should interact with communities and the media," said the article. "A candid sense of responsibility weaves through the statement, noting how Chinese companies have to comply with local laws and regulations as well as traditions and sensitivities." The newspaper article acknowledged the lack of enforcement of laws and monitoring of Chinese projects by the Zimbabwean officials, resulting in pitfalls such as conflict with local communities. The stance taken by the Chamber, however, demonstrates its utmost sensitivity and systems thinking when it comes to investing in Zimbabwe, the article said. "Chinese operations in Zimbabwe could just have turned the corner. The companies -- through the Chamber -- have come of age." "It is commendable that Chinese companies are set to apply and be guided by the highest standards and some universally acceptable approaches to business. The Chamber has taken a stand against bad practices and work cultures. This is raising the bar very high not just for the Chinese companies but also other investors." Chinese investors, local communities and Zimbabwean people are all winners in the new paradigm, but the Zimbabwean side must play its part and ensure a conducive investment climate, the article said. Such issues like bureaucratic inefficiencies, corruption and rent-seeking practices by some local actors as well as lack of regulatory clarity on a number of areas militate against foreign investment in Zimbabwe, the article warned. "There is clearly no doubt that the Chinese business community want, and have begun to fix things, which is also a great indicator that they are in Zimbabwe to stay." In early 2022 India placed an order for $419 million worth of Russian Konkurs-M ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) to be built under license by an Indian firm. Nearly all the components are Indian. Since 2008 India has spent $545 million on imported ATGMs of more recent vintage than the Russian missile. Konkurs-M was introduced in 1991, as an upgrade to the original Konkurs that appeared in 1970 and is similar to the American TOW wire-guided missile. Konkurs was much less effective than TOW, which has been regularly updated over the years. Konkurs-M is supposed to replace older French Milan ATGMs built in India until the Indian developed Nag ATGM can overcome its many problems. The Indian Army preferred the Spike MR ATGM over Milan or Nag and at one point India agreed and approved a large order. In June 2019 it was deja vu all over again as India announced it was again canceling an order for Israeli Spike MR ATGMs. Instead, India was going with the locally made Nag ATGM. The army leadership and the troops who use ATGMs preferred the Spike while Indian politicians and procurement bureaucrats preferred the locally made Nag. The Spike deal had been canceled before but was revived in January 2019. Then in April, the Indian Army used its new emergency purchase authority to order 240 Israeli Spike ATGMs and twelve launchers for delivery as soon as possible. The recent cancellation of the larger Spike contract did not change the emergency order for Spike, which is meant to provide effective ATGMs to deal with the growing crisis with Pakistan over Kashmir. The army emergency purchase will get the Spike launchers and missiles direct from the Israeli firm while the larger contract had the Spike systems being built in India and provide local jobs. For DRDO (the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization) and many Indian politicians that was not enough, and they insisted that new ATGMS weapons must be developed and built by Indians. The army has long sought the Spike missiles but the usual procurement process failed. Back in late 2017 political pressure caused India to cancel a $500 million dollar deal worked out in 2016 for an Israel firm to set up a factory and team with an Indian firm to produce Spike ATGMs. After lots of quiet protests from army leaders that was reversed in January only to be reversed once more in June. India may eventually get all the Spike ATGMs the army wants but will first have to wait for the Indian ATGM to reach the troops, fail in comparison with the emergency Spike missiles army had and become such an embarrassment that the army could get the Spike systems it always wanted. This sort of thing has happened before, is happening again but the troops and the army leadership dont have the political clout to get what they need. Instead, they often get what DRDO and Indian politicians need. Nag did fail and instead of going for Spike MR, India preferred to rely on a Russia manufacturing license for the less effective Konkurs-M ATGM. The army has been warning for over a decade that without a new ATGM India would be at a serious disadvantage in a war with Pakistan or China. Spike MR was an obvious choice. But the procurement bureaucracy and DRDO said it could develop and build a comparable ATGM in four years. Based on past DRDO performance that would be a miracle. No one in the military believed the DRDO but this was not about what DRDO could do but about the incompetence, corruption and political clout that has characterized DRDO for decades. DRDO may not be of much use for the military but for Indian politicians, it is a vital part of getting elected and staying in power. DRDO provides jobs and cash for that. Despite the Spike/Nag fiasco, Israel remains a major military supplier for India. Since 2000 Israel provided India help to deal with Islamic terrorists that Pakistan began using aggressively against India in the 1990s. India noted that Israel was a major supplier of military equipment worldwide and was especially good when it came to border security and dealing with Islamic terrorism. The alliance between Israel and India has grown stronger since 2001 and now India is quite open about it. There are more and more signs of shifts in long-established alliances involving Israel. To justify their ATGM claims, DRDO cited its recent success in developing the Nag missile. Citing Nag was a bad joke to anyone familiar with that project. The Nag, like most DRDO efforts, was supposed to enter service several times over the last decade but there was always another problem to fix. In development since the 1990s, the first successful Nag test, which just involved the rocket motor, was announced in 2001 and more successful tests of other components, but never a complete system were announced periodically since then. This is how DRDO operates when it comes to weapons development, especially guided missiles. Nag had several more successful tests in 2017 but was still not quite ready to enter production. Yet the government cited the Nag as proof that DRDO could produce an ATGM comparable to Spike in less than five years. To make matters more complicated the original Nag missile was not a lightweight system for infantry but much heavier missile, like the American Hellfire which is used by aircraft. DRDO insisted it would be a simple matter to magically shrink Nag to produce Nag Lite. That was unlikely and the soldiers this missile was being created for needed more than a miracle if they had to wait for Nag Lite. In 2019 DRDO claimed that the Spike ATGM had encountered problems operating in the desert heat. Spike has been around for decades and was originally designed mainly for use defending Israel, whose southern border is desert. Israeli troops have never complained of heat problems and when there are such problems the Israeli media quickly gets hold of it and keeps any problems in the headlines until they are fixed. For Israel, this is a matter of life and death. But India does not face the same immediate military threat. DRDO and Indian politicians know they can get away with poorly performing Indian made weapons for a long time before the complaints of India troops become too obvious to ignore. Indian army generals have a long tradition of not playing politics. This is in sharp contrast to the Pakistani military. Indian politicians, generals and voters prefer the Indian way, where the elected officials are supreme. On the downside, that means DRDO often gets its way even though that means the Indian troops are armed and equipped with inferior equipment. The original Nag ("Cobra") ATGM is a 42.3 kg (93 pound) missile. Nag has an 8.2 kg (18 pound) warhead and is "fire and forget". That means the operator gets the target in the crosshairs and fires and the missile remembers where the target is. DRDO says this feature will work eventually. The Nag moves at 230 meters a second for up to 6,000 meters, or 8,000 if air-launched. Nag is a top attack missile that detonates its tandem (to defeat reactive armor) warhead when above the vehicle and thus easily penetrates the thinner top armor. The main problem with Nag is that, so far, it will not consistently perform as advertised. Konkurs-M is a 17 kg (37 pound) missile that weighs 25.5 kg (55 pounds) in its launch container with the fire control system. Konkurs-M has a 2.7 kg (six pound) warhead and is wire-guided. That means the operator gets the target in the crosshairs and fires and can guide the missile to a target up to 4,000 meters distant at an average speed of 200 meters a second. The warhead is a major improvement over the original Konkurs version. Nag attempts to duplicate the American Hellfire, which was introduced in the early 1980s and has since been successfully copied by China, Russia, Turkey, Israel and Iran. All these missiles are laser-guided but some have had fire and forget capability added. The Israelis are very good at that sort of thing while DRDO is not. The weight and size of the original Nag required that DRDO develop a man-portable version. This became known as the MPATGM (Nag Lite) and this version of the missile is supposed to weigh 14.5 kg with a range of 2,500 meters. There are two problems with the Nag. The first is that the original, heavy Nag, is theoretically ready for service but none are in use by the troops yet. Like many DRDO projects that successfully complete development and testing, Nag is still not ready for use by the military and it is unclear when it will be. The lighter MPATGM is even less ready for the troops and Indian army leaders know from experience that the usual unexpected delays could keep MPATGM from actual use for many years. Not so with the Israeli Spike MR. Entering service in the late 1990s, a Spike MR missile, with the container it is stored and fired from, weighs 14 kg (30.8 pounds), while the CLU (with thermal sight and battery) weighs 12.8 kg (28.3 pounds). Spike MR has a range of 2,500 meters and is "fire and forget." Meanwhile, Indian troops are stuck with a 50-year-old French ATGM design. Since the 1970s some 30,000 Milans have been produced in India, under license from European firm MBDA. India has also produced nearly 3,000 launchers. India believes that against Pakistan, the enemy that is most likely to use a lot of armored vehicles against India, Milan can still get the job done. But more modern ATGMs get the job done better and at the loss of fewer Indian infantrymen. The army was not happy with all the delays in selecting a new ATGM. Then there is China, which has more modern tanks and is actively developing new armored vehicles. Against China, Milan had outlived its usefulness and China is the principal weapons supplier to Pakistan. The basic Milan is a 1.2 meter long, 125mm diameter, 7.1 kg (16 pound) missile. It has a minimum range of 400 meters and maximum range of 2,000 meters. At max range the missile takes about 13 seconds to reach its target. The missile is guided to the target by the operator via a thin wire. The launcher weighs 21 kg (46 pounds). The missile can penetrate about a meter of armor, making it effective against all but the most modern tanks (M-1, Challenger, Leopard II). That means Milan will still destroy all the tanks Pakistan currently has aimed at India. Konkurs-M is closer to the Milan in capabilities and technology than the Spike, Javelin or the theoretical Nag. The Indians pay about $30,000 per Milan missile and have had good success with them in combat. Spike MRs cost more than twice as much but are much more effective. Since the 1970s, over 350,000 Milan missiles and 30,000 launchers have been built worldwide. However, the more modern ATGMs are wireless and require much less effort on the part of the operator. The main problems with the Milan are the time in flight and the need for operator guidance. Since ATGMs first saw action three decades ago, operators quickly discovered that in the time it took (up to 15 seconds) for the missile to reach its target, enemy troops would often shower them with machine-gun fire and force the ATGM operator to miss the target. The most recent ATGM designs sought to deal with that by implementing fire and forget. India has been building the French designed Milans since the 1980s but there had long been calls to replace it with a more modern design. There was also growing pressure to use Indian designed weapons. In the 1990s India decided to develop their own ATGM. Despite a two-decade effort to develop an effective ATGM to replace Milan, DRDO came up empty. The Milan design was updated several times since it first appeared in 1972 but there are several other more recent designs that are more effective and army leaders wanted one of these. Even France is replacing Milan but it may be a while before India is able to do that. Arms pouring in Ukraine, Russia broadens its offensive by IANS | New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) As Russia-Ukraine war enters into another crucial day on Monday, the US, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members and other European Union countries rushed in to supply weapons to Ukraine. Seeing this, Russia broadened its offensive on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had sought weapons and ammunition from the US and other countries in the fight against Russia. When the US had asked Zelensky to leave the country, he said, "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." In a video posted two days ago, Zelensky said he is still in Kiev. "I am here. We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country, because our weapon is truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will defend all of this." "That is it. That's all I wanted to tell you. Glory to Ukraine," he added. Zelensky's calls for arms and ammunition were immediately taken up by US, NATO members and other European countries. The US A senior senior defense official said the US continues to supply security assistance to Ukraine. President Joe Biden authorized an additional $350 million of military assistance from Defense Department inventories including anti-armor, small arms, various munitions, body armor and related equipment -- to support Ukraine's frontline defenders, who are facing down Russia's unprovoked attack, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby had said. That brings the total US security assistance approved for Ukraine to $1 billion over the past year. It's the third time Biden has expedited emergency security assistance for Ukraine's defense in recent months using his presidential authority, Kirby said. "We, along with our allies and partners, are standing together to continue to expedite security assistance to Ukraine and are employing all available security cooperation tools in support of the Ukrainian people as they defend themselves against this aggression," Kirby said. "Our commitment and deliveries continue as a sign of our unwavering support for Ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity," he added. NATO NATO allies sent thousands of anti-tank weapons, hundreds of air-defence missiles and thousands of small arms and ammunition stocks. The allies are also providing millions of euros worth of financial assistance and humanitarian aid, including medical supplies to help Ukrainian forces. Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States have already sent or are approving significant deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine. Ukraine has already received critical weapons, including Javelin missiles and anti-aircraft missiles, from NATO Allies, as well as millions of euros of financial assistance. Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States are offering humanitarian aid or opening their borders to Ukrainian refugees. Croatia, Poland and Romania are already welcoming Ukrainian refugees. Italy is also providing immediate financial assistance to the Ukrainian government, and Turkey has deepened its defence ties with Ukraine and delivered humanitarian aid. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: "I welcome that Allies are stepping up to support Ukraine, with additional military equipment, financial assistance and humanitarian aid. Self-defence is a right enshrined in the UN Charter, and Allies are helping Ukraine uphold that right. This sends a clear message of NATO's full support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity." Australia Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday said he intends to increase its military aid to Ukraine by offering weapons. "I've just spoken to the defense minister and we'll be seeking to provide whatever support we can for lethal aid through our NATO partners, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom," Morrison said. He also said that they will be working through those channels because that's the most effective way to do it. "They are already providing support in these areas and we will be assisting them with what they are doing," Morrison said. Germany Germany reversed a historic policy of never sending weapons to conflict zones. It stated that the Russian-Ukraine crisis was an epochal moment that imperiled the entire post-World War II order across Europe. The German will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine. The government has also authorized the Netherlands to send Ukraine 400 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and told Estonia to ship over nine howitzers. "The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It threatens our entire post-war order. In this situation, it is our duty to do our utmost to support Ukraine in defending itself against Vladimir Putin's invading army. Germany stands closely by Ukraine's side," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. France Responding to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's telephone call from Kiev saying his country needs more arms to defend against Russian military operations, French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to deliver additional defense equipment to the Ukrainian authorities as well as fuel support. France will send defensive military equipment to Ukraine. They are still considering sending offensive arms. More countries chipping in The Netherlands said it will send 200 Stinger anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine. Belgium announced it would supply Ukraine with 2,000 machine guns and 3,800 tonnes of fuel. War intensified Seeing the anti-war coalition is taking form and supplying weapons to Ukraine, Russia has intensified attacks at various locations. Zelensky took to Twitter to state that partners were sending weapons to help Kiev fight Russian troops. "Weapons and equipment from our partners are on the way to Ukraine," he wrote on Twitter. "The anti-war coalition is working!" Soon after that, the Russians have broadened their offensive in Ukraine from all directions. The property owner and developer put jobs, restaurants, services and an estimated $5.5 million in year-one taxes on the table first. Then, speaker after speaker put the environment, health, and history beside them. All were talking about a truck stop and travel center proposed for land near Exit 39. A crowd that exceeded the capacity of the board of supervisors meeting room turned out Thursday night for a public hearing on the project. While the land that adjoins 416 Chestnut Ridge Road in Marion and is just off Interstate 81s Exit 39 is zoned for commercial development, a truck stop is not a permitted use and would require the county to issue a special use permit. A preliminary drawing of the truck stop shows it including a truck wash, restrooms and a truck repair center, a travel center, and four possible out parcels. Speaking on behalf of his familys company, Soni Holdings LLC, Arpit Soni told the board of supervisors and planning commission, which were jointly conducting the hearing, that theyre not new to the area and reopened the Adwolfe Food Mart in recent years. Now, he said, theyd like to develop a truck stop with restaurants on the out parcels. He said that Wendys and Subway have confirmed that they would locate there, and they have talked with Taco Bell, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Cracker Barrel among others. Soni said theyd like to survey Smyth County residents to see what eateries they would prefer. He also noted that the project would create jobs, and he presented the officials with a study that indicated that in its first year of operation the truck stop would generate $5.5 million in local, state and other taxes. George Palmer, who owns the land, said this is the right time for the project, adding that local residents are tired of traveling to Washington County or Wythe County for their needs. Tom Roberts, a civil engineer and vice president of H2R Engineering, told officials that the project meets Virginia Department of Transportation guidelines, can handle stormwater, and can access public water and sewer services. Roberts, who is working for the developers, acknowledged the presence of wetlands and streams and said action would be needed to mitigate any impact on them. Environmental Impact The projects potential effects on those wetlands as well as the nearby Holston River, endangered species and air quality worried multiple speakers. Several speakers noted that the site contains more than five acres of land that is designated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife as national wetlands. Rebecca Wilkinson-Smith, of Chilhowie, also pointed to the protected varieties of mussels in the river and that their threat of extinction could grow with a greater risk of diesel or other chemical spills. Just a few miles away, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) staff works year-round to keep threatened species of mussels alive and to even help them repopulate and thrive in the regions rivers. This area of the Appalachians is recognized as one of the countrys biodiversity hot spots for freshwater mussels and other species. Yet, mussels are considered to be the most imperiled species. Their survival is interwoven with that of other life, including humans. Mussels filter bacteria, algae, sediment and other small particles from the river. In essence, they clean the water. Julie Reimer noted that the Holston is the primary water source for a number of communities. Mark Hash, who said he lives only 100 yards from the proposed truck stop site, said hes primarily concerned about the toxicity of the fumes and the possible presence of carcinogens. Living Next Door A number of the propertys neighbors simply said they didnt want to live near a truck stop. Kendall Johnson cited the fumes, the noise, the lights, and the additional traffic, which he said he would experience from his home. He invited officials to come and sit on his back porch. Would you want this in your backyard? Put yourselves in our shoes, in our homes, Johnson said. Kenneth Harris concurred, saying the neighborhood as it is now is excellent with no problems. A widow who lives right across the road from the site expressed similar concerns. Paul Grinstead asked officials to imagine 24 hours of non-stop noise. Noting that he has served in local government, Grinstead acknowledged that county leaders have a hard decision to make. He urged them to consider all the potential impacts. Traffic Not least among concerns was the increase in traffic and the intersections capacity for it. Several suggested the intersection was not designed for such heavy traffic and that when tractor-trailers use it now their drivers often experience difficulty navigating the sharp turns and cross both lanes of travel. June Harris asked officials to visit the site at some of the busiest times and just watch the traffic. Preserving a landmark During the hearing, great passion and affection were expressed for the late Lucy Herndon Crockett and her home that still stands on the property proposed for the truck stop. Lauren Rhea, of Chilhowie, said the pre-Civil War home continues to serve as a testament to Crockett. As well, the house is significant to American history, she said. Crockett distinguished herself as a writer and artist. She also served as a Red Cross worker in the Pacific during World War II. She travelled as a speech writer and secretary for the chairman of the American Red Cross. These experiences provided the inspiration for her best-known novel, The Magnificent Bastards. Paramount made the book into an Academy Award-nominated movie titled The Proud and the Profane in 1956. Crockett wrote nine books and illustrated 10. The illustrations from her award-winning first book hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Crockett operated the 22-room Seven Mile Ford brick home, also known as the Preston House, on U.S. 11 as The Wilderness Road Trading Post. The house was placed on National Register of Historic Places in 1969. It was built in 1842 by John Montgomery Preston on land his wife, Maria Thornton Carter Preston, inherited from her father, General Francis Preston. The property had come into the possession of this branch of the Preston family through the marriage of General Preston to Sarah Buchanan Campbell, the daughter of General William Campbell, Revolutionary War soldier and hero of the Battle of Kings Mountain. General Campbell had inherited the property from his father, Charles Campbell. John Clark, who serves as Chilhowies town manager but who said he was speaking as a private citizen, also noted the lands Civil War ties. He noted that Union General George Stoneman is said to have led troops there in 1864. In Smyth County History and Traditions, Goodridge Wilson wrote, Stoneman came through Southwest Virginia on his famous raid. His troops took possession of the premises. They hacked beef on the mahogany tables, stabled their horses in the halls and first floor rooms, and generally messed up the place. Lori Rouse, who taught area school students about Crockett when she was featured in an exhibit at the William King Museum of Art, said she realized that she and Crockett shared many common features, most especially a deep love for where we live. In 1984, Crockett wrote a letter to the editor of this newspaper. In it, she explained that she was offering this historic dwelling, my home, to the United Methodist Holston Conference organization, this mansion to be used exclusively and always as a religious retreat. If that didnt work out, Crockett wrote, Otherwise, when I go, this house goes. Inevitably, upon my death, this magnificent landmark will be destroyed. The wreckers and bulldozers and land developers would move in: lake filled, and factories go up. A pity. A pre-Civil War edifice, the house features backyard structures both picturesque and rare: sturdy traditional smokehouse, and almost never encountered anymoredainty springhouse, where women worked. The whole forms a delightfully antique unit, which all should hate to see destroyed. Crockett continued, Please share with me my fervent wish that this shall not happen. Clark asked officials that should they approve the permit that they stipulate that the house be preserved. Decisions After the hearing concluded Thursday night, the planning commission deliberated its recommendation to the board of supervisors. Commissioner Joel Pugh said he initially considered the truck stop in a positive light, bringing development and revenue to the county. However, he also said that he heard loud and clear the people in opposition. He expressed concerns about the environmental impacts and said a plan is needed for the house. While Pugh said hed like to see the land developed commercially, he would vote against recommending the permit. He made a motion to recommend that the supervisors deny the permit. That motion was seconded by Tony Dean, who noted the project could have adverse effects on other properties in the area. Dean said the commission didnt have enough information to act otherwise. The commission voted to recommend that the county deny the special use permit. Supervisor Phil Stevenson was the only member of that board to comment on the hearing. He noted that other agencies oversee the environmental issues. Stevenson said the land is zoned for commercial use and lies along I-81. Its going to grow, he said. He also noted that earlier in the evening, the supervisors had talked about financing a new radio system for law enforcement and first-responders, which one study estimated to cost $22 million. Thats not adding in the county assuming a bigger role in EMS and those associated costs, Stevenson said. As bad as I hate growth, he said, youve got to be open-minded about revenue coming in. The supervisors will likely consider the permit request and the commissions recommendation at their Thursday, March 10, meeting. They can accept the recommendation or reject it and grant the permit. They could also put stipulations on the permit. WARREN, Ore. A sea lion found in a yard of a Warren, Ore., home was caught by Oregon officials Thursday and returned to the water. Oregon State Police said they were called to a Warren home in the 33000 block of Slavens Road around 11 a.m. Thursday to remove a sea lion lying on a flatbed trailer in a residential yard. Police say the sea lion tackled a trooper to the ground before entering a cage. The sea lion was released into the Columbia River, unharmed, say police, with the help of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. Fish & Wildlife said there are three types of sea lions in the state: Steller, California and Northern elephant. Sea lions can weigh hundreds to thousands of pounds, and can be 6 to 12 feet long, depending on the species. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration said sea lions can walk land by rotating their back flippers. But the sea lion in Warren still was far from home. Slavens Road is about 1 mile from Scappoose Bay and 2 miles from the Columbia River. Both bodies of water are on the other side of the Columbia River Highway. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah (R) receives documents from Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob during the opening of the parliament session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Feb. 28, 2022. Malaysia's first parliament session of the year convened on Monday as the country seeks to recover from the effects of COVID-19 while coping with an Omicron fueled pandemic surge. (Malaysia's Department of Information/Handout via Xinhua) KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's first parliament session of the year convened on Monday as the country seeks to recover from the effects of COVID-19 while coping with an Omicron fueled pandemic surge. The session will run from Feb. 28 to March 24 following an opening by Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah in which he called on all members of parliament (MPs) to cooperate in ensuring the country's recovery. "For 2022, let us continue to strengthen our strategies and resilience to face the challenges posed by COVID-19," he said. "The nation's economic recovery needs to be accelerated so that our nation will not be left behind. Ease the people's affairs to help them rebuild their lives with a sense of security, peace, and wellbeing for the sake of our beloved country," he added. The country is seeing a surge in new COVID-19 infections, with 32,070 cases being reported last Thursday, the highest since the pandemic began in 2020. The daily cases remained over 20,000 as of Monday. Malaysia is also eyeing the reopening of its international borders, with Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin saying last week that the date and plan to do so has been finalized and will be announced by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob soon. Malaysia has already implemented a vaccinated travel lane (VTL) with Singapore and is in talks with Brunei and Thailand for similar schemes. Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah (C) delivers a speech to members of the parliament during the opening of the parliament session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Feb. 28, 2022. Malaysia's first parliament session of the year convened on Monday as the country seeks to recover from the effects of COVID-19 while coping with an Omicron fueled pandemic surge. (Malaysia's Department of Information/Handout via Xinhua) Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Firearm Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies Friday arrested Jesse Lee Angelo Kintz, 27, of Longview, on suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying/exhibiting/drawing a dangerous weapon. Possession of a stolen vehicle Longview police Sunday arrested Shanice Annalyn Miles, 21, of Longview, on suspicion of possession of a stolen vehicle. Assault Woodland police Sunday arrested Brian Michael ODonnell, 32, of Woodland, on suspicion of second-degree assault. Attempt to elude Washington State Patrol troopers Sunday arrested Kristy Lena Williams, 36, of Longview, on suspicion of attempt to elude. Theft Longview police Sunday arrested Marie Ann Berry, 42, of Rainier, on suspicion of second-degree theft and retail theft with circumstances. Fugitive Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies Sunday arrested Kevin Michael Burnham, 32, of unknown residence, on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice. Assault, theft Longview police Sunday arrested Ryan Christopher Fancher, 40, of unknown residence, on suspicion of second-degree assault and retail theft with special circumstances. Fugitive Kelso police Sunday arrested Sophie E. Forsberg Crotty, 20, of Chehalis, on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice. Theft Longview police Sunday arrested Kyle Davie Graham, 43, of Vancouver, on suspicion of second-degree theft and retail theft with circumstances. Harassment Longview police Sunday arrested Damon K. Herbert, 19, of Kelso, on suspicion of felony harassment. Drugs Longview police Monday arrested Steven Ray Johnson Jr., 41, of Longview, on suspicion of a felony drug offense. Burglaries 100 block of Church Street, Kelso. Friday. Burglary to residence. 2400 block of Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, Castle Rock. Sunday. Sometime in the last two weeks several chainsaws, two handguns, an RC car and other items taken from a trailer and shed on the property. Stolen vehicles 1200 block of First Avenue, Kelso. Saturday. White 1996 Honda Accord. Washington CAC5035. Front passenger door is slightly darker than the rest of the vehicle. 1200 block of Minor Road, Kelso. Sunday. White 2003 Dodge 1500. Unknown license plate. Video shows a subject in a hoody taking the vehicle. Thefts 1100 block of 18th Avenue, Longview. Friday. Someone took wallet from vehicle. 4100 block of Ocean Beach Highway, Longview. Saturday. Wallet stolen sometime on Tuesday. 1600 block of Cowlitz Way, Kelso. Saturday. Boat keys stolen. 100 block of Minor Road, Kelso. Saturday. Known suspect took wallet and passport. 1400 block of Dike Access Road, Woodland. Saturday. Cellphone stolen. 900 block of Pacific Avenue, Kelso. Sunday. Catalytic converter cut off vehicle about four or five nights ago. 3700 block of Ocean Beach Highway, Sunday. Employee admitted to stealing $200. 1100 block of Washington Way, Longview. Sunday. Phone taken last night. 300 block of Triangle Center, Longview. Sunday. Medications taken. Vandalism/malicious mischief 1100 block of Pacific Avenue, Kelso. Saturday. Vehicle passengers shooting an air soft gun at people. 1400 block of Pacific Avenue, Kelso. Saturday. Window broken by a man who tried to open it, said he was looking for another apartment. 500 block of Kelso Avenue, Kelso. Sunday. Vehicle damaged in attempted catalytic converter theft. Vehicle prowls 800 block of Huntington Avenue, Castle Rock. Friday. Vehicle window smashed open. 2400 block of Allen Street, Kelso. Friday. Several tools taken from work truck. 2400 block of Allen Street, Kelso. Friday. Occurred overnight. 500 block of Kelso Drive, Kelso. Saturday. Someone broke vehicle windows and stole items. 3100 block of Ocean Beach Highway, Longview. Sunday. Vehicle broken into when getting fuel. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 5 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. After last weeks frost and snow, an atmospheric river moving through the region increased temperatures and prompted a flood watch. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch through 6 p.m. Tuesday for portions of northwest Oregon and southwest Washington, including Cowlitz County. Total rainfall of about 2 to 5 inches across the region and excessive runoff may cause rivers, creeks and streams to flood, as well as other low-lying, flood-prone areas, according to the statement. Around 11:30 a.m., the Cowlitz County Public Works department reported water over the roadway on Powell and Bond roads in Castle Rock. In Wahkiakum County, the Grays River near Rosburg hit minor flood stage Monday morning and was on track to reach major flood stage Monday afternoon. The Cowlitz River is on track to crest below flood stage at both Kelso and Castle Rock, according to the National Weather Service. Lewis County is under a flood warning, and the Chehalis River may crest at minor flood stage at Centralia on Tuesday afternoon. The Cowlitz River is forecast to hit major flood stage at Randle early Tuesday. Residents of areas prone to flooding should monitor forecasts and prepare for flooding, according to the Weather Service. Travelers should not try to drive through standing water, the Washington State Department of Transportation cautioned. Monday recorded wind gusts of up to 25 miles per hour, and Tuesday will be breezy, with winds at 6 to 10 mph. Rain is forecast to continue Tuesday and Wednesday, with new precipitation between a tenth and a quarter of an inch possible each day. The Weather Service calls for highs around 55 degrees both days, with the low temperature dropping from about 48 degrees Tuesday night to 42 degrees Wednesday night. The chance of rain begins to taper off Wednesday night, with the forecast calling for mostly cloudy conditions with a 50% chance of rain. The Weather Service predicts a 40% chance of rain Thursday. The forecast calls for lower temperatures, with a high around 49 degrees Thursday through the weekend. Overnight temperatures are set to drop to 36 degrees by Saturday night. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Microsoft Windows 11 successor? Already? The tech giant will start working on the development from March 2022. Microsoft Windows 11 was rolled out just a few years ago and surprisingly Microsoft is already gearing up to bring its successor with new design elements and features! The tech giant will kickstart development on Windows 12 from March, sources are suggesting. Since it's very early theres no indication about the features or new design elements that will come with Windows 12. Going by the reports from Germany, Microsoft is likely to launch new versions of the operating system with flashy features and a tweaked design to push people to upgrade. German website Deskmodder.de has reported that this is the same release pattern seen from all previous iterations of the software before Windows 10. Although sources have not been revealed, the information, it is believed, has come from Microsoft itself. Importantly, Windows 12 will be a very different operating system. It is likely to drop part of the old foundation of Windows which exists in all versions of the operating system, including Windows 11. The reports also claim that Windows 12 will require a Microsoft Account for Home and Pro users, the Microsoft Pluton security chip, and there are parts and bits of Windows 10X that will supposedly be used. Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here. Also read: Additionally, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are also likely to play a greater role than they do now. Hence, it is being speculated that the company will be going to take security a lot more seriously this time around. Meanwhile, Windows 11 was announced back in June 2021 (launched for everyone in October, 2021), while Windows 10 debuted in July 2015. Windows 11 offers a sleek new design with an almost unrecognizable Start Menu that discontinued the Live Tiles. It also has a universal search feature that looks through applications, files and messages stored on the operating system. Microsoft Teams users can even send and reply to texts directly from the taskbar. And, crucially, it even allows users to access Android apps. The launch came a day after North Korea made its first response to the Ukraine war in the form of an article by a government analyst that expressed support for Russia and slammed the United States. North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the sea on Sunday, its neighbors said, in a resumption of weapons tests that came as the United States and its allies are focused on Russias invasion of Ukraine. The North Korean launch was the eighth of its kind this year and the first since Jan. 30. Some experts have said North Korea is trying to perfect its weapons technology and pressure the United States into offering concessions like sanctions relief amid long-stalled disarmament talks. They say North Korea also might view the U.S. preoccupation with the Ukraine conflict as a chance to accelerate testing activity without any serious response from Washington. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said the North Korean missile flew about 300 kilometers (190 miles) at a maximum altitude of about 600 kilometers (370 miles) before landing off North Koreas eastern coast and outside Japans Exclusive Economic Zone. No damage to vessels or aircraft has been reported, he said. Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here. Also read: If North Korea deliberately carried out the missile launch while the international community is distracted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, such an act is absolutely unforgivable, he told reporters. Whatever the motives are, North Koreas repeated missile launches are absolutely inexcusable and we cannot overlook considerable missile and nuclear advancement. South Korean officials said they also detected the launch from the Norths capital area and expressed deep concerns and grave regret over it. During an emergency national security council meeting, top South Korean officials said the timing of the launch, amid Russias invasion of Ukraine, is not desirable at all for peace and stability in the world and on the Korean Peninsula, the presidential Blue House said. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said later Sunday it condemned the launch and called on North Korea to refrain from further destabilizing acts. A command statement said the U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan remains ironclad, though Sundays launch didn't pose an immediate threat to U.S. territory and that of its allies. The launch came a day after North Korea made its first response to the Ukraine war in the form of an article by a government analyst that expressed support for Russia and slammed the United States. The basic cause of the Ukraine incident lies in the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the United States, which has ignored Russias legitimate calls for security guarantees and only sought a global hegemony and military dominance while clinging to its sanctions campaigns, Ri Ji Song, a researcher at a North Korean state-run institute on international politics, said in a post published on the website of the Foreign Ministry. Ri accused Washington of arrogance and double standards because it describes its rivals defense measures as provocations or injustices. The former Soviet Union was North Koreas biggest aid provider before its disintegration in the early 1990s. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing to restore his countrys ties with North Korea in what is seen as a bid to regain its traditional domains of influence and secure more allies to better deal with the United States. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the Biden administration needs to show that it maintains a strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific region, including by responding sternly to Pyongyangs provocations. North Korea is not going to do anyone the favor of staying quiet while the world deals with Russias aggression against Ukraine, Easley said. Pyongyang has an ambitious schedule of military modernization. The Kim regimes strength and legitimacy have become tied to testing ever-better missiles. North Korea last month conducted seven rounds of missile tests, a record number of monthly weapons tests since leader Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011. North Korea halted testing activity after the start of the Winter Olympics in China, its last major ally and economic pipeline, earlier this month. Some experts had predicted North Korea would resume weapons launches and possibly test bigger weapons after the Olympics. Kim sent a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping after the Olympics calling for further consolidating bilateral ties into the invincible one in the face of what he called the undisguised hostile policy and military threat of the U.S. and its satellite forces. Xi replied to Kim last week, saying China is ready to strengthen bilateral ties, according to North Koreas state media. U.S.-led diplomacy aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear program in return for economic and political rewards collapsed in early 2019 when then President Donald Trump rejected Kims calls for extensive sanctions relief in exchange for limited denuclearization steps during their second summit in Vietnam. U.S. officials have since repeatedly called for the resumption of talks without preconditions, but Pyongyang has said it wont return to the negotiating table unless Washington ends its hostility toward North Korea. Security experts have issued a warning about a Samsung Galaxy bug on millions of phones, reveals a report. From Samsung Galaxy S8 to Samsung Galaxy S21 phones, nearly 100 million devices are at risk from a severe security vulnerability that can lead to loss of money via use of Google Pay and Samsung Pay. The issue has been found by researchers from Tel Aviv University, Israel. Security experts have demonstrated two real-world attacks that could be carried out taking advantage of these issues, reported Express. Matthew Green, the associate professor of computer science at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, has shared the info through a tweet. He wrote, "Ugh god. Serious flaws in the way Samsung phones encrypt key material in TrustZone and its embarrassingly bad. They used a single key and allowed IV re-use." Paul Ducklin, principal research scientist at Sophos, has told ThreatPost that Samsung coders had committed a "cardinal cryptographic sin". In the test, researchers found that stealing sensitive information from Samsung devices which are supposedly protected at hardware-level itself. Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here. Also read: The security glitch not only allows cybercriminals to steal cryptographic keys stored on the device but they also allow attackers to bypass security standards such as FIDO2 authentication to gain access to passwords. Mike Parkin, from Vulcan Cyber, called the cryptography complex and stated that the number of people who can do proper analysis are limited. "A properly designed and implemented encryption scheme relies on the keys and remains secure even if an attacker knows the math and how it was coded, as long as they dont have the key," says Parkin. Read the Tweet by Matthew Green below Ugh god. Serious flaws in the way Samsung phones encrypt key material in TrustZone and its embarrassingly bad. They used a single key and allowed IV re-use. https://t.co/XteB3kc8cH pic.twitter.com/4wxA6XBuN2 Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) February 22, 2022 Meanwhile, Samsung responded to the academics disclosure and said, "Samsung takes the security of Galaxy devices seriously. We are constantly looking for ways to enhance the security of our products and welcome any input from research communities. They have shared that the reported issue has already been acknowledged and addressed through security updates since August 2021. The company recommends its users to keep their devices updated with the latest software so that they can stay protected from any kind of vulnerability. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, smartphone and telecoms companies show off their latest products and reveal their strategic visions. One of the technology industry's biggest annual get-togethers kicked off in the Spanish city of Barcelona on Monday, under the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Mobile World Congress, where smartphone and telecoms companies show off their latest products and reveal their strategic visions, is expected to welcome more than 40,000 guests over its four-day run. Organisers were hoping to return to a full-scale event after two years of disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but they were forced to remove Russia's dedicated pavilion following the invasion. Opening the event, Mats Granryd of industry body GSMA said his organisation "strongly condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine", drawing applause from the packed auditorium. Some Russian companies, however, were still participating in the event. "We're here as an independent company," said Elizaveta Shulyndina at the stall of Kaspersky, a cybersecurity firm founded in Moscow but with its holding company in the UK. One of the few Ukrainian companies slated to display at the event told AFP they would not be attending. "We are staying in Ukraine and fighting for our country," said Daria Fedko of WeAR Studio. The invasion has sparked wider jitters, with the industry assessing likely shortages of key raw materials caused by the conflict, as well as sanctions slapped on Russia by the United States, Europe and individual countries. Pandemic woes The MWC was cancelled at the last minute in 2020 as the pandemic spread from China to Europe, and last year's edition was drastically scaled down. The pandemic continues to cast its shadow with big names like Sony, Asus and Lenovo pulling out or participating "virtually". But organisers are bullish, promising 95 percent of speakers would be in Barcelona. Smartphone behemoth Samsung, as well as Nokia, Ericsson, Google, Huawei and Verizon were all hosting major stalls. Focuses of this year's event include the rise of 5G, the opportunities offered by the Internet of Things (IoT), the metaverse and the impact of tech on the environment. Thousands joined queues early in the morning to get into the event, but attendances are still much smaller than pre-pandemic, when the gathering welcomed more than 100,000 people. Global 'turmoil' The show will, however, provide Chinese phone makers such as Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo with a "coming out party", according to Ben Wood of CCS Insight. "It's the first time they will be able to flex their muscles at a big Western trade show," he told AFP, pointing out that they have all become much bigger during the pandemic. They are filling a void left by Huawei, which has been hobbled by sanctions imposed by the US in 2019 over accusations its wireless systems could allow spying by Chinese state entities. The entire industry will now need to reckon with sanctions over the Ukraine invasion, with the US already announcing restrictions on technology exports to Russia. And both Ukraine and Russia supply raw materials such as neon and palladium used to manufacture smartphone components. Analysts point out that the conflict could lead to shortages of many other products and rising prices, which could in turn hit demand for phones. Vodafone boss Nick Read told the audience the Ukraine war added to "the world's political, economic, social and environmental turmoil". "We are all going to have to dig very deep to help overcome these challenges. As an industry it is our obligation to do our part," he said. The smartphone market grew by 5.7 percent last year, with 1.35 billion devices sold worldwide, according to analyst firm IDC. Samsung sold the most phones followed by Apple and Oppo. 2022 AFP Toyota said it would halt domestic plants for a day after a reported cyberattack on a supplier. Japanese automaker Toyota said Monday it was halting operations at all its domestic plants for a day after a reported cyberattack on a parts supplier. "Due to a system failure at a supplier in Japan, we have decided to suspend the operation of 28 lines at all 14 domestic plants on March 1 (for both 1st and 2nd shift)," the world's top-selling automaker said in a statement. Toyota confirmed the supplier involved was Kojima Industries, which manufactures plastic parts, but declined to comment on a report by the Nikkei newspaper that the disruption was caused by a cyberattack. The newspaper cited a source close to the firm as confirming a cyberattack and saying an assessment of the damage done was being undertaken. The Toyota spokeswoman told AFP that the stoppage, which for now will last a day, with the situation to be assessed again Tuesday, would affect production of 13,000 vehicles. The suspected attack comes with nations that have imposed sanctions on Russia over its Ukraine invasion on high alert over possible retaliatory cyberattacks. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, asked about whether the attack could be linked to Japan's sanctions on Moscow, said the "government is also trying to ascertain the situation on this point". "It's hard to answer without thoroughly checking," he added. Toyota has already been forced to adjust production goals because of pandemic-related supply chain issues and the global chip crisis. But the auto giant was able to retain its crown as the world's top-selling carmaker in 2021 and earlier this month posted a forecast-beating quarterly net profit despite the tough production environment. It did however slightly lower its production projection for the year to 8.5 million units from nine million, having already slashed the goal from an earlier 9.3 million in November. When Covid-19 first triggered a global drought of semiconductorsan essential component of modern carsToyota appeared better placed than its rivals to weather the crunch, having strengthened ties with its domestic suppliers after Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami. But with the crisis showing no signs of ending, the automaker has found itself unable to escape the effects. "Currently, customers have to wait for a very long time to receive our products," Toyota acknowledged earlier in February. Explore further Toyota yearly production target hit by chip shortage 2022 AFP remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. SYDNEY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Conservationists in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) have managed to restore the populations of three native species in a protected enclosure in the state's far-west desert. The "Wild Deserts" project, led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) saw bilbies, crest-tailed mulgara and Shark Bay bandicoots re-introduced to a 2,000-hectare, predator-free enclosure in Sturt National Park in NSW's northwest corner over 2020 and 2021. Coordinator of the project, Dr Reece Pedler, said the animals' populations have continued to grow after being locally extinct in the area for generations "Our crest-tailed mulgara populations have rocketed up to between 160 and 240 individuals," said Pedler on Sunday. "We originally only started with 19, translocated from wild populations in South Australia in August 2020." The crest-tailed mulgara is a small marsupial found exclusively in the Australian desert. They were listed as a vulnerable species in the year 2000 and have been locally extinct in the Sturt National Park region for more than 100 years. All three of the animals have seen their populations dwindle and vanish in parts of Australia as they have been killed by introduced predators such as wild cats and foxes. The fenced off area at Sturt National Park serves as a "training zone" in the wild, where the vulnerable animals are able to gradually adapt to their former habitat. The rewilding's success has exceeded conservationists' expectations as all three of the animals have begun to breed naturally and exhibit natural population growth. "These results are so important for the long-term goal of restoring this magnificent desert ecosystem back to something like it once was," said UNSW professor and Wild Deserts project director Richard Kingsford. "It's wonderful to see these animals back in their original home, prospering and restoring this desert ecosystem to some of its past magnificence," The project has been one of NSW's most ambitious conservation projects in recent years. It saw collaboration from conservation groups, zoos, and the NSW government. NSW environment minister James Griffin said in a statement that the government has plans to establish a further four predator-free conservation sites, bringing the states total protected area to over 65,000 hectares. The next goal for the Wild Deserts team is to re-introduce the golden bandicoot into the enclosure in 2022. ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) A Michigan woman soon will celebrate a milestone birthday. How old? Look at her decorative upper arm. Gloria Weberg has "NY NY 1922" tattooed on her left arm, the year and place of her birth. Weberg is turning 100 on March 2, not a typical age to visit a tattoo artist. But that's what she has done every 10 years since turning 80, The Herald-Palladium reported. Her birth year and New York is under a goddess representing Mother Earth added at age 80 and among seven stars representing her children, which she added at age 90. Weberg and her late husband raised their family in the Chicago area. She got a college degree at age 55 from Chicago State University and worked as a social worker. They moved to St. Joseph 30 years ago. "My secret is being active," Weberg said of her longevity. "To be aware of what's going on in the world in every way, from what my children were doing, their education, how important that was to me." She performs aerobics while watching TV news and regularly enjoys a glass of red wine. A tattoo at 110? "Probably something like, 'Are you still here?' or 'I'm still here,'" Weberg said. A regional court in the German city of Munich has ordered a website operator to pay 100 in damages for transferring a user's personal data i.e., IP address to Google via the search giant's Fonts library without the individual's consent. The unauthorized disclosure of the plaintiff's IP address by the unnamed website to Google constitutes a contravention of the user's privacy rights, the court said, adding the website operator could theoretically combine the gathered information with other third-party data to identify the "persons behind the IP address." The violation amounts to the "plaintiff's loss of control over a personal data to Google," the ruling issued by Landgericht Munchen's third civil chamber in Munich read. Google Fonts is a font embedding service library from Google, allowing developers to add fonts to their Android apps and websites simply by referencing a stylesheet. As of January 2022, Google Fonts is a repository for 1,358 font families and is used by over 50.1 million websites. Under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data points such as IP addresses, advertising IDs, and cookies are counted as personal identifiable information (PII), making it mandatory for businesses to seek users' explicit permission before processing such information. In addition, the court noted that "Google Fonts can also be used by the defendant without a connection to a Google server is established and the IP address of the website user is transmitted to Google," effectively requiring websites to host the fonts locally. Aside from ordering the website to stop disclosing the IP address by embedding the font library, the court also urged the company running the website to share with the affected party information about the kind of personal data that it stores and is being processed. The decision comes weeks after the Austrian Data Protection Authority (DSB) ruled that the use of Google Analytics by a health-focused website called NetDoktor violates the GDPR regulation by exporting visitors' data to Google servers in the U.S., thereby opening the door for potential surveillance by the U.S. intelligence services. An Iranian geopolitical nexus threat actor has been uncovered deploying two new targeted malware that come with "simple" backdoor functionalities as part of an intrusion against an unnamed Middle East government entity in November 2021. Cybersecurity company Mandiant attributed the attack to an uncategorized cluster it's tracking under the moniker UNC3313, which it assesses with "moderate confidence" as associated with the MuddyWater state-sponsored group. "UNC3313 conducts surveillance and collects strategic information to support Iranian interests and decision-making," researchers Ryan Tomcik, Emiel Haeghebaert, and Tufail Ahmed said. "Targeting patterns and related lures demonstrate a strong focus on targets with a geopolitical nexus." In mid-January 2022, U.S. intelligence agencies characterized MuddyWater (aka Static Kitten, Seedworm, TEMP.Zagros, or Mercury) as a subordinate element of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) that has been active since at least 2018 and is known to use a wide range of tools and techniques in its operations. The attacks are said to have been orchestrated via spear-phishing messages to gain initial access, followed by taking advantage of publicly available offensive security tools and remote access software for lateral movement and maintaining access to the environment. The phishing emails were crafted with a job promotion lure and deceived multiple victims to click a URL to download a RAR archive file hosted on OneHub, which paved the way for the installation of ScreenConnect, a legitimate remote access software, for gaining a foothold. "UNC3313 moved rapidly to establish remote access by using ScreenConnect to infiltrate systems within an hour of initial compromise," the researchers noted, adding the security incident was quickly contained and remediated. Subsequent phases of the attack involved escalating privileges, carrying out internal reconnaissance on the targeted network, and running obfuscated PowerShell commands to download additional tools and payloads on remote systems. Also observed was a previously undocumented backdoor called STARWHALE, a Windows Script File (.WSF) that executes commands received commands from a hardcoded command-and-control (C2) server via HTTP. Another implant delivered during the course of the attack is GRAMDOOR, so named owing to its use of the Telegram API for its network communications with the attacker-controlled server in a bid to evade detection, once again highlighting the use of communication tools for facilitating exfiltration of data. The findings also coincide with a new joint advisory from cybersecurity agencies from the U.K. and the U.S., accusing the MuddyWater group of espionage attacks targeting the defense, local government, oil and natural gas and telecommunications sectors across the globe. Grand Island and Hall County Regional Planner Chad Nabity is taking on a new role. Starting in January, he will serve as chair for the American Planning Association Divisions Councils executive committee. The divisions council is one of three major components of the APA. He will also serve as the divisions representative to the APA Board of Directors. As chair, he also has a seat on the APA board of directors, overseeing the whole organization. APA advocates for good planning across the United States, explained Nabity. We have a legislative arm that follows legislation and policy, especially at the national level. With all of the infrastructure bills that have been going on, weve been very active in promoting planning as part of those efforts. Nabity, the city and countys regional planner since 1999, has been affiliated with the planning organization for more than 20 years. Ive been involved with APA leadership since basically 2002, he said. It goes back to 1998, as a member of the Nebraska chapter of the executive board. I think it was 2004 I became chair of the Nebraska chapter, which puts you on to participating at the national level. Since then, Nabity has held a number of positions with APA: chair of the chapter, chapter presidents council, division chair for small town and rural planning, and member of divisions council executive committee. The divisions council is part of one of three arms of the American Planning Association. APA is made up of chapters that are geographically-based, usually states, and divisions. The divisions council is made up of 22 divisions, Nabity explained. With divisions we like to refer to ourselves as the nouns: the people, places and things, he said. There are divisions for Blacks in planning, women in planning, Hispanics and Latinos in planning. And there are places: small towns and rural areas, counties, big cities. And then things: transportation planning, hazard mitigation, and environmental and natural resources planning. A 23rd council was added this weekend, Nabity said, for indigenous and tribal peoples. Grand Island has benefited from Nabitys association with the APA. Participation with the national organization has benefited the city and the county in people that Ive met and connections Ive been able to make with people all across the United States and draw on ideas, and bringing those to our area, he said. Another benefit: to maintain his certification as a city planner, Nabity needs to get continuing education units on a two-year rotating basis. Many of these are available from the national conferences and events he attends via APA. My involvement with the national organization has helped to subsidize the cost of attending those, he said. Its had a direct impact on my budget, in that travel and lodging expenses have been covered for those conferences that otherwise I would not have been able to attend and had to come up with some other way to get my continuing education, or the department would have to pay the full cost of that training. This weekend, Nabity attended his first meeting as an APA board meeting, visiting Phoenix over Saturday and Sunday and returning today. The role is an exciting one, Nabity said, and he is honored by his election. I was very pleased that the other division leaders were willing to support and endorse my bid to become chair, he said. Its a very small group from within APA that gets to vote for this position, but its also a group that because I was on the executive committee as vice chair, they were used to working with me. Nabity has a sincere joy for planning, and an appreciation of its importance in a community. Its easier to get where youre going if youre planning, he said. While Grand Island is currently experiencing great growth, the city has had its share of boom and bust periods alike over the last 20 years, noted Nabity. I think things are likely to slow down in the near future, and we know whats happening with building materials and the overall cost of building, he said. I think those things are going to create a slow-down in new construction, more than likely. Although, if we keep getting additional jobs in the area, well still need housing, so theres going to be maybe some conflict between those two things as we move forward. Still, the growth and development over the 20-year period has been exciting, Nabity said. Next, the comprehensive plan for Hall County and City of Grand Island will be taken up in the next few months, for the first time in 20 years. That really is looking at that community vision, he said. What do you want to become? What do you want to do? How do you want to grow? When you know how you want to grow and what you want to look like, you can start piecing together how to get there. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WASHINGTON U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced this past week the USDA is making available up to $215 million in grants and other support to expand meat and poultry processing options, strengthen the food supply chain and create jobs and economic opportunities in rural areas. This funding opportunity is one of many actions USDA is taking to expand processing capacity and increase competition in meat and poultry processing to make agricultural markets more accessible, fair, competitive and resilient for American farmers and ranchers. For too long, ranchers and processors have seen the value and the opportunities they work so hard to create move away from the rural communities where they live and operate, Vilsack said. Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is committed to making investments to support economic systems where the wealth created in rural areas stays in rural areas. The funding were announcing today ultimately will help us give farmers and ranchers a fair shake and strengthen supply chains while developing options to deliver food produced closer to home for families. USDA Rural Development will make $150 million available in grants to fund startup and expansion activities in the meat and poultry processing sector. USDAs National Institute of Food and Agriculture will provide another $40 million for workforce development and training, and the Agricultural Marketing Service will provide $25 million to offer technical assistance to grant applicants and others seeking resources related to meat and poultry processing. Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program USDA Rural Development is making $150 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding available through the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program. USDA is offering grants of up to $25 million each to expand processing capacity through a variety of activities, including but not limited to construction, expansion of existing facilities and acquisition of equipment. USDA encourages applications that benefit smaller farms and ranches, new and beginning farmers and ranchers, tribes and tribal producers, socially disadvantaged producers, military veteran producers, and underserved communities. USDA will host two informational webinars to provide information on MPPEP. The first, at 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, will provide an overview of the program. The second, at 1 p.m. Monday, March 7 , will cover application requirements. Registration information for the webinars is available on the MPPEP website. For additional information, applicants and other interested parties are encouraged to visit the MPPEP website: www.rd.usda.gov/mppep. Questions may be submitted through the website or sent to MPPEP@usda.gov. All application materials can be found at www.rd.usda.gov/mppep or at www.grants.gov. Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on April 11, through www.grants.gov. Meat and Poultry Processing Workforce Development USDAs National Institute of Food and Agriculture will invest an additional $40 million through existing workforce development programs to provide a pipeline of well-trained workers to meet the demand for both current processors and increased independent processing capacity. The primary investment will be through competitive grants to support workforce training at community, junior and technical colleges with programs specifically for meat and poultry processing. A Request for Applications will be published in April. Additional investments will leverage existing regional USDA education and Extension networks and establish new, or supplement select existing, Centers of Excellence at minority-serving institutions focused on meat and poultry research, education and training. Each of these investments is designed to deliver needed support more quickly. Additional investments, either through the same or new programs and partnerships, are expected later this year. To sign up for notifications of these and other NIFA funding opportunities, visit the NIFA website. USDA expects to continue working with the Department of Labor to support and encourage the development of good jobs in the agricultural sector, including jobs in meat and poultry processing. Meat and Poultry Processing Technical Assistance USDA also is helping to ensure that entities proposing independent meat and poultry processing projects through the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program have full service technical assistance support from application through post-award. USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service will provide approximately $25 million in American Rescue Plan funding to establish partnerships with organizations that will provide technical assistance to MPPEP applicants, recent recipients and future applicants of the Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant program, and to entities who require general guidance and resources on meat and poultry processing. Of the $25 million, AMS will utilize $10 million to implement the first phase of support by establishing an initial technical assistance network and lead coordinator. More information about the technical assistance is available at the Meat and Poultry Supply Chain website. YORK The local COVID-19 case rate has dramatically dropped and the number of new cases in the Four Corners Health District is in a declining trajectory. I was looking forward to bringing good news for a change, so this is good to say, Four Corners Health Director Laura McDougall said during this past weeks community sector briefing. We are down to only 35 new cases, in the last seven days, in the entire district. Just a month or so ago, the 7-day case rate got as high as 888. We are now at the bottom of the valley, McDougall said. During the last surge, our high day was 219 cases in one day. So we are in a much better place and we hope that will stay for a while. Yes, the cases are declining here as well as in the state and all over the nation, said York General Health Care Services CEO Jim Ulrich. In Nebraska, we went from 3,600 cases in a week to 1,800. Regarding statewide hospitalizations for COVID, there were 496 on Feb. 15 and this morning there were 356. At York General, we have had a downturn of COVID patients in our emergency room and we have no COVID patients, in house, today. Last week, we gave 15 infusions. We are not having much COVID activity and it is great to see this, Ulrich continued. We only have two employees out with COVID right now. The Hearthstone and Willow Brook are both all green zones. York County Development Corporation Director Lisa Hurley said local school officials were reporting very, very low case counts and Tyler Hinton from York College said they had zero COVID cases on campus at this time. Meanwhile, we are still giving vaccinations and boosters, McDougall said. With such low rates of transmission right now, this is a safer time to get them. We cut back on our vaccination hours because we just werent seeing the crowds, so we are doing those from noon until 4 p.m., on Fridays, at the Four Corners offices. It was also noted that Four Corners has received a number of take-home COVID tests which are available to the public for free. They also come with a free option to receive a documented lab result, if desired. In York County, the free tests are available at the Four Corners office, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. The office is located at 2101 North Lincoln Avenue. If a documented lab result is needed, before opening the test kit, a person can go online to Nebraska.eMed.com. There a Certified eMed Guide will watch and help the person take the test. If this is done, the test will be considered verified and can be used for official purposes. If the person chooses not to use the virtual option, the test results are for personal use only. If someone has symptoms and needs a test kit, call 402-362-2621 and staff will meet them in the Four Corners Health Department parking lot with a test(s). People can receive up to six test kits at a time. And testing remains available at Four Corners each Monday and Thursday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Those who want a test to be administered there are asked to pre-register through the following link: https://fourcorners.ne.gov/programs-services-2/coronavirus-covid-19-information/ YORK The driver of a semi who was involved in a multiple-vehicle accident in December, on Interstate 80 in York County, has been formally charged with possessing cocaine and methamphetamine the night of the accident. Chad Chrivia, 32, of Lapeer, Michigan, has been charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, both Class 4 felonies that carry a possible maximum sentence of one year in prison upon conviction. According to court documents, on Dec. 5, at 9:55 p.m., the York County Sheriffs Department was dispatched to a multiple-vehicle accident near the York exit. When they arrived, they saw a semi overturned on its side. After speaking with all parties involved, we determined that the semi driver Chad Chrivia was at fault, the investigating deputy says in the affidavit filed with the court. He had no injuries but said he did not remember anything that happened. The deputy said a background check of Chrivia revealed he has a drug use history in Michigan. Canine Nitro alerted to the presence of narcotics in the semis cab. He admitted to having cocaine. A box containing cocaine was found during a search, as was methamphetamine. Both substances, found inside the cab, were positively identified as the suspected substances. A methamphetamine pipe was also located in an eyeglass case that was on his person. The case has been bound over to District Court. Sure is a tough time in the world. I feel for the many innocent citizens of Ukraine, those who would prefer just to be left alone to live their lives. I feel for the many innocent citizens of Russia, who have no control over the actions of their government or their leaderthey have no more more ability to stop their country's "neighbor abuse" than you or I have to stop any of the cockamamie things our own governments do. Imagine yourself, if you will, as one of the 1,800 Russians newly imprisoned merely for protesting. Your life probably isn't so bad by comparison. I feel for today's teenagers, growing up with COVID-19, isolation from their peers, and the jumbled babbling fracas of the internet. But also, this latestthe abrupt resurgence of an articulated nuclear threat by someone with the power to carry it outis reawakening long-slumbering fears in the generation just ahead of mine, whose childhoods were clouded, long ago, by the brooding threat of nuclear Armageddon in the early days of the Cold War. They used to have to do drills at school which had them getting under their desks to take cover from a nuclear attack, a gesture even five-year-olds could recognize as pathetic and futile, even if they didn't know those words. Some people of that generation find those old fears being unearthed again by the prospect of a deranged leader waving his weapons around. As a small boy I used to listen for the "booms" of the supersonic fighter jets high overheadstaring at the sky, hoping to see one. They were invisible. I've posted this before, but it seems like it might offer a modest balm this Monday: the reverently joyful 50th-anniversary performance of "The Weight" by Playing for Change, performed by Robbie Robertson, Ringo Starr, and more than 20 musicians across five continents. This took a year and a half to record and edit, everyone working together. Dictator-types This is just my opinion, but humanity, I feel, just has to get past its voluntary subjugation to the psychodramas of semi-demented single individuals. We regularly put our societies, often almost willingly it seems, into the hands of dictator-types with disordered personalities. It's always broadly the same, whether it's Alexander the so-called Great (I'd call him the Great Destroyer), Napoleon, Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam, or Putinwe sure wish the list were that short. They're like a drug for us somehow. It might be the biggest recurrent problem of the human race throughout history. But we can understand it now, from a mental health perspective. Collectively we'll have to learn to act on what we know, to find some way to free ourselves someday from the inevitable Caesars, the inevitable Putins. Those assassins in the Curia of Pompey had something right, after all, on that ancient Ides of March. Although it's less well known that every one of them was eventually hunted or hounded to death, and they were on the losing side. The Republic they were trying to rescue by their shocking act was lost*. May I just say I love Ringo's drumming, always have. Never a showoff, always in the pocket. He's not a great drummer, he's a great musician who happens to be a drummer. As someone once said, "most drummers play the drums. Ringo plays the song." Enjoy the music, pray for peace. Mike *One of my unpedigreed theories, of which you know I have many, is that all modern Westerners should be schooled in the fall of the Roman Republic. Nothing in history offers greater relevance for our times and our own societies. Book o' the Week Ara Guler's Istanbul, one of the more amazing books in my collection. I'm also amazed it's still in print. Not only does it culminate a longtime habit and a vast body of work for the Turkish photographer of Armenian descent, one of the few world-famous photographers from Turkeya labor of lovebut it's a unique and wonderful example of bookmaking. If you don't buy this, at least see one sometime. This book link is a portal to Amazon. Today at B&H Photo Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.) Featured Comments from: David Miller: "Thank you Mike. I can't explain why that video from Playing for Change released the flow of tears that has been building up in me since the invasion of Ukraine began, but I'm grateful." John Camp: "I was part of the under-the-desk generation. As the saying went, 'Get under your desk, put your head between your legs, and kiss your ass goodbye.'" Kye Wood: "My brother Mike. I hear you. I really do. But we're all hardwired to find the best mate we can. To compete. To show potential mates that we can provide for them, better than others can. Thus, finite resources get shifted disproportionately, to those who compete the most successfully. Wealth inequality and all that flows from it is a consequence of our core programming. Ya can't patch the symptoms with laws and dreams. Our core unconscious programming is the problem. All we can do is be kind and be generous. Inequality is an uncrackable nut." Mike replies: We'll always have Athens. David Cope: "I often wonder, but cant work out how, as a society, we afford one individual so much power. The power is not really with them, its given to them by others who cannot say 'no.' Fear of punishment from ones peers for saying no is carried out, usually, by subordinates who, themselves, are not willing to say no. Its easy to see why a chain of command is, psychologically, the instrument of the hierarchy, be it military, criminal or civil society. Are we genetically disposed to live in hierarchy or can we evolve into true egalitarian, flat structures where no one individual can dominate." Albert Smith: "Love that song and this compilation video is so well done. I was in the military for 22 years; it doesn't define me, it's just what I chose to do. Every day from the '70s until the early '90s, we trained to take on the Russian bear. I was in SAC when we brought our bombers off of alert and, in a gesture of goodwill, Russia flew two Bear Bombers to our base and we flew two B-52s to Moscow. Everyone exhaled and could relax a bit. We were done with the cold war without the worst-case scenario happening. "Now because of one guy that can't accept history we are in jeopardy of one mistake leading to some horrible consequences. "My hat is off to the Ukrainians. Nothing motivates like things happening in your own backyard, and they are putting up a valiant effort to repel this unwarranted assault. I wish them well and hope for a quick resolution." Charlie Ewers: "Cicero wasn't even a conspirator, just a Senator who loved the Republic and was willing to speak up when he felt it was being threatened by the autocrats. They cut off not only his head, but also his hands, which he had apparently used extensively to gesture while speaking in the Senate. In my mind a true hero, someone whom we might well need to emulate in our own time, the way things have been going lately." Mike replies: And Fulvia, the wife of Antony, who was presented with the severed head of Cicero (which would have been pronounced "KICK-eh-roe" in his time) stuck pins in the tongue, to repay him for his sharp words. Now that's vengefulness, lest you think your neighbor is being vengeful by ignoring your request to borrow his snowblower because you were slow to return it last time. Patrick J Wahl (partial comment): "What book would you suggest about the Roman Republic?" Mike replies: That's hard to answer. Maybe Rome: An Empire's Story, by Greg Woolf, to start? On the grounds that it's a complete overview from soup to nuts, a sort of basic primer of the outlines of everything. Roman history, I suspect, is one of those subjects in which scholars write books from the perspective of their own theories as a way to communicate and contend with one another. And it's such a vast and sprawling subject that a lay reader can dip in here and there and come away with a partial picture that feels more complete than maybe it is. And finally, I don't know how little old me would know. I read Roman history for maybe eight monthsit didn't feel like a whole year, whatever it wasand took in only a smattering of books. Personally I would not recommend Mary Beard, who comes in for a lot of praise but doesn't give me what I'm looking for. Her book SPQR struck me as commentaries on history rather than a history. She seems to be writing for people who are already well versed. One thing I will say is that reading about Rome is damned entertaining. Lurid, vivid, larger than life. Julius Caesar was the fulcrum point of Roman history, the hinge. Before even Greg Woolf's book, read the short Wikipedia article "Crossing the Rubicon." It's only a few hundred words, but you'll catch the whiff of all the drama implicit in it. Rod S.: "I wondered whether I was alone in having my 'long-slumbering fears' resurface from childhood. I'm 65 and vividly remember the fear and chill that I, as a six-year-old, felt as my family listened during a car journey to a series of radio news broadcasts during the developing Cuban Missile Crisis. A nuclear World War Three was imminent. And here now, all these years later, we have cause to fear it all coming at us again." Mani Sitaraman: "This was wonderful, Mike, though the theme song by The Band playing in our heads the last few days was probably 'The Shape I'm In'! Nice to see Lukas Nelson in that collaborative songI like him. "And a word offered in protest. It is 2022, and it is high time we retired the canard, originally likely proffered as a humorous aside, that Ringo Starr isn't a great drummer. He isas any fresh listen to the Beatles albums and the perspective of time reveals to us. In my YouTube viewing of late, it is heartening to hear musicians of the younger generation wonder why we 'olds' would say that about Ringo. He just isn't a showy drummer, the type who hogs passages with long drum solos, but surely that's immaterial?" Mike replies: I agree totally. The gag was, "Maybe Ringo wasn't the best drummer in the world. All right, maybe he wasn't the best drummer in the Beatles." Attributing it to John Lennon is what makes the joke a canard, "a false or unfounded report or story, especially, a fabricated report." The words were written by Geoffrey Perkins and broadcast on the Radio 4 sketch comedy "Radio Active" on October 6th, 1981, followed either by audience laughter or canned laughter. Lennon had no part in it it. But, of course, you can't correct the internet. Paul C: "On the Ringo fronttheres a short, fun TikTok video that was making the rounds last fall from a drummer illustrating what made Ringo so special. Twitter link to it." Jeff Hughes: "What would you recommend to this modern Westerner who would like to learn more about the fall of the Roman Republic? Thank you for that musical inspiration." Mike replies: See my reply to Patrick above, but my favorite of the ones I read is The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome by Michael Parenti. But this would not be an appropriate recommendation for everyone, because Parenti is a red-blooded leftist and unapologetically examines his subject in that light. I loved itwho wouldn't want to know that girl-children in ancient Rome were often given the same name and distinguished by descriptives? For example, the two daughters of Octavius were Octavia the Elder and Octavia the Younger. You'll know exactly where the author stands by the end of Chapter 1, which launches with an ice-cold, rock-hard appraisal of the class biases of Gibbon. :-) WELLINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand officially opened its borders on Monday, lifting the COVID-19 border restrictions after two years. Monday's border reopening was the first stage of New Zealand's five-step reconnecting plan, which allowed fully vaccinated Kiwis and other current eligible travellers from Australia to enter the country without the need for managed isolation. According to Auckland International Airport, four Air New Zealand flights and one Qantas flight arrived from Australia's Melbourne, Sydney and Perth on Monday, with more than 900 passengers arriving. More than 300 flights will be available between New Zealand and major Australian cities in March alone, said an Auckland airport spokesperson. The airport's arrival terminal was full of tears and hugs. Families who have not seen each other for over two years reunited on Monday. John Davis, a New Zealander returning from Australia, told local media that all he wants to do was to spend time with his family, including his granddaughter who was three years older than last time he saw her. Under New Zealand's requirements, all passengers are required to have a negative pre-departure test, and undertake two rapid antigen tests on arrival and at day 5/6. Meanwhile, the government is removing the self-isolation requirements for vaccinated travelers to New Zealand and Kiwis returning from the rest of the world from Thursday. "That means all Kiwis coming home and tourists entering the country will be able to step off the plane and immediately connect with family and friends and enjoy all New Zealand has to offer," said COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. Travelers will still be required to be tested. If anyone returns a positive result, they will be required to report it and isolate for the same period of 10 days as a community case, Hipkins said. 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. When William and Keesha Lo began the Southern Illinois Eats Facebook group in 2019, they had no inkling it would grow to a whopping 45,723 members by year three. Their idea was a simple one, born from a strong dedication to their industry and their home. The Los love eating in local restaurants when they travel, which led to the first thought of starting a travel blog focused on food. After a few Carbondale restaurants shut down in early 2019, that focus shifted to their home region. Someone needed to do something, Will said. And that someone was going to be us, Keesha quickly chimed in. That something was creating a space that would level the playing field for small locally owned restaurants in Southern Illinois. While chain restaurants have marketing support from national brands, locally owned operations often struggle with time or resources or both to promote their restaurants. Will and Keesha chose Facebook because of its dominance in social media. It serves as a way to provide a social media presence with vast reach to restaurants. The first restaurant the Los featured in the group was the Iron Whisk in Cobden, but they didnt get there until after seeing several posts from others in the group. That is how the group works through organic posts. Group members visit locally owned restaurants, snap a photo, and post it to the group on Facebook with a tag indicating and linking to the restaurants own Facebook page. Then others catch on and hopefully visit the restaurant. And, it works. The Iron Whisk, Gabby & Grannies Kitchen in White Ash, and Gresas Cafe in DeSoto are among restaurants Will stated have benefited greatly from being a part of Southern Illinois Eats. They are seemingly hidden gems able to reach a much larger audience because of the Facebook group. The relationships Will has built with our regional restaurants has given him an opportunity to mentor many restaurant operators, and he loves it. This passion led to the creation of a second Facebook group specifically for locally owned restaurants. The SI Eats Restaurant Network is for both owners and managers. The group allows them to network, share resources and information, and even share equipment when available. It is a prime example of the industry taking care of its own. A third Facebook group, Southern Illinois Hospitality Professionals, came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism industry as a whole has taken an inarguable hard hit since the onset of the pandemic, and employment has waxed and waned mostly waned throughout. About 77% of restaurant operators surveyed in November 2021 indicated their restaurants did not have enough employees to support existing customer demand, according to the National Restaurant Association. Southern Illinois restaurant operators continue to suffer from labor shortages which are likely to continue into the foreseeable future. The Southern Illinois Hospitality Professionals group connects hospitality businesses with potential employees, like a social media job placement center. Businesses post their open positions, many of which are shared across Facebook, and experienced workers post their resumes. The business and worker are able to connect quickly to solve a problem. As for the future of the Southern Illinois Eats melange of Facebook groups, there are plans. Will and Keesha want to grow the professional groups and add more value. Professional development opportunities like workshops are on their list. Industry relevant articles, videos, podcasts and other information will be making an appearance as well. When talking with Will and Keesha, it is obvious their love for this region and the hospitality industry is both genuine and immense. Their energy is infectious and the amount of ideas that flow freely from them seems never ending. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CHICAGO Illinois is expected to receive $760 million as part of a settlement with pharmaceutical distributors sued for their role in the opioid crisis, the state attorney general announced Friday. Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office said the state's share of a $26 billion opioid settlement agreement is the result of three years of talks. The majority of the state's award will be used for programs around the state aimed at prevention and recovery from opioid addiction. Raoul's office said nearly all Illinois counties have signed onto the agreement, along with 104 municipalities. Individual payments for those local governments will be determined by a state panel, which will consider population, overdose deaths, opioid usage rates and the amount of opioids shipped to a region. "I am committed to ensuring the money we secured through the settlement is distributed equitably to fund critical recovery and treatment programs in the counties and municipalities with the most urgent need," Raoul said in a statement. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CHICAGO Just shy of the second anniversary of his proclamation declaring the coronavirus a statewide disaster, Gov. J.B. Pritzker will try again to turn the page on COVID-19 restrictions Monday when he lifts his much-contested mask mandate for most indoor public places. Masks still will be mandatory on public transportation and in places such as hospitals and day care centers, and businesses still can require them as they see fit. But the end of mandatory masking in most settings represents a big step in getting back to normal, even though it comes as the highly unpredictable virus remains in wide circulation. The current landscape somewhat resembles the optimistic weeks before last summers pandemic lull, with cases, hospitalizations and deaths all declining. In some ways, it offers even more hope, with more people vaccinated and boosted and a higher level of natural immunity among those infected in recent surges. At the same time, there remain plenty of causes for concern: The youngest children still arent able to get vaccinated, an even more contagious subvariant of the virus is circulating in Illinois, and overstretched hospitals are caring for far more COVID-19 patients than they were when Pritzker briefly lifted the mask rule in June. In lifting the mask mandate, Pritzker pointed to plummeting hospitalizations but declined to specify the target that triggered the change. Caught between a pandemic-weary public and federal health officials who until Friday were still recommending masking, the governors office ditched the detailed, data-driven rubrics for easing restrictions that were a hallmark of Pritzkers earlier approach. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided a backstop for the decision Friday by adjusting federal mask guidelines to focus less on COVID-19 cases and more on hospitalizations and health care capacity. The CDC eased previous recommendations that called for indoor masking across most of the country, mirroring recent moves by Pritzker and other Democratic governors but going further than Illinois by including schools in its new guidelines. After the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court order that blocked his school mask rule and the CDC came out with its new guidance, Pritzker said he would no longer require face coverings in schools beginning Monday. Most districts across Illinois had already gone mask optional or announced plans to do so next week. Pritzker left the door open to requiring masks in schools and other settings once again if Illinois is overcome by yet another surge. But doing so would be a test of his political will in an election year and a test of the publics willingness to comply in numbers large enough to slow the spread of the coronavirus as the pandemic enters its third year. With views on mask wearing firmly entrenched, largely along familiar regional and partisan lines, Pritzker has little to lose by lifting the mandate, said Chris Mooney, a University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor. The one thing that I would say for sure most clearly characterizes this move is safety political safety, Mooney said. Hes not out in front, but hes not behind. Hes kind of going with the pack with the other governors. And hes going in the direction everybody wants. Everybody wants masks off. While never declaring victory over the virus, Pritzker waited for the hopeful time last summer when the pandemic appeared to be waning to launch his reelection bid, showcasing his handling of the crisis and touting that he followed the science in his efforts to protect the public. But the state quickly lost ground to the virulent delta variant. By late August, Pritzker had reissued a mask mandate, and it remained in place as a late-summer wave ebbed, only to be followed this fall and winter by the states largest surge to date, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. In the intervening months, Pritzker deflected questions about the specific bench mark that would signal the end of the mask mandate while also trumpeting Illinois relative success in weathering the latest surges compared with its neighbors, none of which mandated masks. While no longer publicly tying decisions on restrictions to specific data points, administration officials have continued to monitor cases, hospitalizations, vaccination rates and other statistics as they have throughout the pandemic, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in an interview Friday, adjusting those evaluations as theyve learned more about the virus and dealt with successive waves of variants. Your best-picked metrics are still subject to the unpredictable forces that have come with each massive wave and variant, she said. In the third year of the pandemic, the focus is on preventing the most severe cases and preserving hospital capacity. There is opportunity to just see even the smallest increases and try to dig into that and see, like: What is this stemming from? Which area is this mostly affecting? Ezike said. That will allow time for health officials to take the appropriate steps, she said. The lengthy list of state efforts to fight the pandemic began on March 9, 2020, when Pritzker declared a statewide emergency, two days before the World Health Organization labeled the novel coronavirus a global pandemic. At the time, there had been 11 confirmed cases and no deaths attributed to the virus in Illinois. Within 12 days, the governor banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people, closed schools, shut down restaurants and bars, and finally closed all nonessential businesses and enacted other restrictions through a statewide stay-at-home order that would remain in effect, with minor modifications, for more than two months. Pritzkers most enduring effort to contain the virus the requirement that people 2 and older wear face coverings in public didnt take effect until May 1, 2020, by which time the state had recorded more than 59,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,457 deaths. The first wave of coronavirus hospitalizations had peaked three days earlier, with 5,037 patients filling hospital beds statewide. That number dropped to 3,337 by the time Pritzker lifted his statewide stay-at-home order on May 29 and continued falling before leveling out below 2,000 patients per day through the summer and early fall. Hospitalizations spiked again during the brutal fall surge of 2020 as Pritzker slowly rolled back his reopening across the state based on rising cases, positivity rates and other factors. The number reached a new high of 6,175 COVID-19 patients on Nov. 20, 2020. By June 11, 2021, when vaccines were readily available and Pritzker had lifted nearly all his coronavirus restrictions, including the mask mandate, there were only 684 COVID-19 patients in hospitals. But the reprieve was short-lived, with the arrival of the delta variant and then omicron leading to successive surges. The number of COVID-19 patients in Illinois hospitals reached an all-time high of 7,380 on Jan. 12 of this year before beginning a precipitous decline. When Pritzker announced Feb. 9 that he planned to lift the mandate at the end of the month, there 2,380 COVID-19 patients in the states hospitals, and the decline has continued, with 1,143 hospitalized as of Thursday night, the most recent figure available. Since the mask mandate was reinstated in August, Illinois has been a Midwestern outlier, the lone state in the center of the country to require face coverings in public. Over the past several months, Pritzker has repeatedly touted both his mask rule and the relative strength of the states vaccination effort to support his claim that Illinois has outperformed its neighbors in battling the pandemic. Illinois has done better than almost every state in the Midwest, Pritzker said Feb. 9 during an appearance in Champaign. In fact, were better than all of the states around us at keeping people healthy and safe, and certainly out of the hospital, during this last omicron wave, in part because people wear their masks. From the time Illinois reimposed its masking mandate Aug. 30 to the most recent figures released last week, Illinois hospitalization rate was among the lowest in group that included the five neighboring states, with roughly 883 of every 100,000 residents admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 during that time, according to a Tribune analysis of federal data. That was lower than rates for Indiana (1,053), Missouri (1,126) and Kentucky (1,458), and roughly the same as Wisconsins, but not as low as Iowas (723). During the same time, Illinois had the lowest death rate among that group of states. Illinois saw roughly 79 deaths per 100,000 residents attributed to COVID-19, slightly lower than Wisconsin (80) and Missouri (83), and lower still compared with Iowa (88), Kentucky (110) and Indiana (122). The Pritzker administration cites the mask mandate as the reason Illinois has seen less serious illness and death, but it can be difficult to tease out cause and effect. While academic studies have continued to find benefits of masking, including lowered rates of infection and serious illness, they dont necessarily explain why some states without mandates had rates near or better than Illinois. Researchers have previously said there can be a host of other factors that also affect why and where infections spread. In one of those factors the level of vaccination Illinois is also a leader, with nearly three-fourths of residents receiving at least one shot, and nearly a third receiving a booster, the latter considered the most effective way to limit the chance of an infection causing serious illness. Masks have become a serious political flashpoint, but to some extent the focus on that one safety measure has obscured the importance of other factors that could play even more important roles in slowing the spread of virus, said Sarah Cobey, a University of Chicago researcher whose lab helped the state model the potential spread of the virus early in the pandemic. I am sure that masking has saved lives, and removing mask mandates will lead to hospitalizations and deaths, but it seems almost a distraction compared to more substantive measures, Cobey wrote in an email. Lack of good support for isolation and sick leave, poor access to testing, low vaccination coverage in many populations, weak to absent ventilation standards, indoor dining, and unclear messaging probably each contribute more to transmission than most cloth and surgical masking. Likewise, Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine, said he doesnt necessarily object to the mask mandate being lifted, but he would rather see public policy focus on pushing more people to get vaccinated and protecting those who already are. Pritzker stopped short of ever requiring people statewide to show proof of vaccination to dine in restaurants or workout at gyms, and Chicago and Cook County are dropping their vaccine card rules on Monday along with the city and county mask mandates. I want to be in a room and I want to know that everybody there is vaccinated, Murphy said. I dont want to mix with unvaccinated people because thats going to increase my risk of getting infected. As mask rules are eased in Illinois and across the country, there are two possible scenarios that could play out, Murphy said. One is the path weve been down before: Cases begin to surge again, perhaps driven by a new variant, as we saw last summer with delta, or by the BA.2 subvariant, known as stealth omicron, that is already in Illinois, Murphy said. That would test the willingness of Pritzker to tighten restrictions again and the publics readiness to listen. If we have to put those mitigations back, we have to be ready to do it and do it quickly, Murphy said. The longer you wait, this thing can really just take over again, like it did with omicron. The other possibility is that this winters onslaught was the states last major surge, with the virus becoming manageable through booster shots and better treatments, among other measures. We have a full toolbox now, Murphy said. Either way, Illinois is left with a battered health care system that has shed workers while at the same time seeing higher patient loads, even from people not suffering from COVID-19. Those factors have led to fewer available beds. After the brutal fall 2020 surge, Illinois hospitals bounced back with roughly 10,000 open beds administrators said could be staffed if need be. Last month, that number had fallen below 6,000, before since recovering to about 8,000. While that may seem like a lot, its only one open bed for every 1,600 Illinois residents, and its not uniformly spread across the state. That means upticks of patients in certain places can quickly fill up a hospitals open beds and jam its emergency room, which is what happened across the state during the last surge. The inherent hope in Pritzkers decision to lift the mask mandate is that, now more than ever, the virus cant do as much damage to residents and the health care system as before. If thats the case, UICs Mooney said, the heated rhetoric over mask mandates and other coronavirus protocols will have plenty of time to cool down before voters head to the polls in November. While Pritzker will never win over staunchly anti-mask and anti-vaccine voters, Mooney said, the thing is he doesnt have to have them. He just has to kind of blunt their anger a little bit. Thats all he needs to do. BELLEVILLE The Illinois State Police warned motorists of potential traffic flow issues as "The People's Convoy" passes through Illinois on Tuesday, potentially causing traffic delays and traffic safety issues. The People's Convoy is an anti-COVID-mandate protest group of truckers traveling from California to Washington, D.C. Along the way, they're stopping in cities to hold rallies. Specifically, the group is demanding that the declaration of national emergency concerning COVID-19 be lifted immediately and "our cherished constitution reign supreme," according to the website. On Feb. 18, President Joe Biden announced that the national emergency declared March 13, 2020, must continue in effect beyond March 1, 2022. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that under new guidelines, 70% of Americans can stop wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding crowded indoor spaces. Counties have been instructed to consider three measures to assess local risk: COVID-related hospital admissions over the previous week, the percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients, and new COVID cases per 100,000 people over the previous week. According to the route map on the People's Convoy website, the group is not planning on stopping in any Illinois cities, though they note the route is subject to change. They're set to spend the night in Sullivan, Missouri, on Monday before driving to Indianapolis on Tuesday. The most direct route between the two cities would take the convoy through St. Louis and the metro-east along I-44 East, I-55 North and I-70 East. "Though the Illinois State Police respects the rights of citizens to express their opinions in a lawful manner, there is great concern with any event that is designed to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic," said Illinois State Police Division of Patrol Colonel Margaret McGreal in a press release, which does not specifically name the People's Convoy. " ... Those who choose to participate in events that intentionally endanger the public and violate Illinois law will be subject to the enforcement of applicable laws and could potentially be held liable for traffic crashes occurring as a result of their actions," McGreal said. A similar group, called the "Freedom Convoy," began protesting Canadian mitigations, such as vaccine requirements and travel restrictions, in Ottawa, Canada, in late January. By mid-February, the group was so large and disruptive to major border highways that both the Ottawa government and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared national emergencies. The protesters were cleared out in late February. The People's Convoy started in California on Wednesday and is scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 5. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CHICAGO They first dated 50 years ago. But it was only late last year that Steve Watts got up the nerve to pop the question to Jeanne Gustavson. She thought she misheard. So she made him repeat it. "Well, of course, I'll marry you!" she told him. Now, the couple who met so long ago while students at Loyola University Chicago but saw their love thwarted decades ago by a mother's hatred are planning their wedding, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Watts, an amputee who has had two strokes, had been living in a south suburban nursing home, thinking he'd been forgotten by the outside world. Then, last June, he heard from Gustavson. She had tracked down her first love after 42 years apart. Eventually, she brought him back to her home outside Portland, Oregon. They might have married long ago, when Gustavson fell in love with the tall "hunk" who was president of the Loyola German club. At first, theirs was a secret love because Gustavson is white and Watts is Black, and Gustavson's mother thought Black people should come into their house only to clean or make repairs. But Gustavson couldn't keep the secret. She told her mother, who she says went "ballistic." They tried to make things work. But the demands of college life and then of trying to navigate their way in the world led to their breakup after seven years. Each married someone else, both marriages ending in divorce. She moved to Oregon, where she worked as a nurse and took care of her mother until her death in 2012. She retired three years ago. Then, she decided to track down her first love, her "true love." After Gustavson found him last year and Watts told her, "I'll follow you anywhere," they've tried to pick up where they left off. But love is different for two people well into their retirement years. Watts can't get out of bed and needs physical therapy every day. He relies on Gustavson and a hired caregiver for almost everything, including bathing. "Our favorite time is napping together," she says. At the foot of Watts' bed, a painted sign reads: "I love you more than all the stars." He tells her one more thing is different for him now: "I love you more intensely." Gustavson says what they have now is "more precious. We know this is it. This is forever for us. There is nothing else beyond this." Neighbors say Gustavson used to keep mostly to herself. But now many help with meals and other chores. And they say she has come out of her shell and "giggles" constantly. Snippets of Watts' life have come out over time. His failed marriage. His time in Germany as a German and English teacher. A spell as a paratrooper in the French Foreign Legion. And a spiral into depression after his sister died that led to homelessness in Chicago and his eventually ending up in a nursing home for 18 years. But that's the past. Their future involves a wedding some time in October, Gustavson says. Tina Mattern, a neighbor, says that when they told her the news, "They were both grinning like little kids. I said, 'How are you going to fit 200 people in this room?' " They hope to be able to ease Watts out of bed into a chair on the ground floor. It would be a tight squeeze in his bedroom. "It's unfortunate or sad that this it's happening now and didn't happen 40 years ago," says Tony Mathis, Gustavson's brother. "But better late than never. They definitely love each other. It's great. I support it 100%." Gustavson says she finally has forgiven her mother. And she hopes that somehow she'll be watching. "I feel she'd be OK with it now," she says, "that she finally understands." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 This subscription will allow existing subscribers of The World to access all of our online content, including the E-Editions area. NOTE: To claim your access to the site, you will need to enter the Last Name and First Name that is tied to your subscription in this format: SMITH, JOHN If you need help with exactly how your specific name needs be entered, please email us at admin@countrymedia.net or call us at 1-541 266 6047. BEIRUT The Ukrainian Ambassador to Lebanon Ihor Ostash Monday praised the Lebanese government and its people for standing behind Ukraine as the country is being invaded by Russia. Heres what we know: From all my heart, I thank the Lebanese government and its people for standing behind us, Ostash said in a press conference. We are receiving many support messages on our social media pages from Lebanese people showing their support to us in our war, he added. On Sunday Russias Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Rodakov said that the official Lebanese position, which condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will not greatly affect bilateral relations between the two countries. He added however that the Foreign Ministry's stance "does not take into account the friendly bilateral relations between the two countries. On Thursday, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry condemned the invasion of Ukraine and called on Russia to stop its military operations immediately, withdraw its forces and resort to dialogue and negotiations as the ideal way to resolve the ongoing conflict. The position immediately came under fire on the local scene and several parties have already distanced themselves from it. If Gov. Mark Gordon wants to sue another state over policies that harm the Wyoming coal industry, he has $1.2 million at his fingertips. That money isnt going anywhere. But neither are the constraints attached to it. House Bill 141 wouldve stripped limitations from money appropriated to the governors office, explicitly for the defense of coal, by a law passed last year. According to Randall Luthi, Gordons energy policy adviser, the governor supported expanding his options. Last years law authorized Gordon to initiate lawsuits against other states impairing Wyomings ability to export its coal or operate its coal plants. House Bill 141 wouldve also permitted him to sue the federal government, to join and defend against existing lawsuits and to challenge any actions resulting in the decreased use of Wyoming coal or the closure of coal-fired electric generation facilities that use Wyoming coal. Lawmakers may scrap restrictions on untouched coal defense money Last year, the Wyoming Legislature gave the governors office $1.2 million to fight for coal in court. It hasn't gone as planned. Like its predecessor, House Bill 141 was meant to send a message. Shawn Taylor, executive director of the Wyoming Rural Electric Association, told the Minerals Committee that this years message was directed at a much broader audience than the version passed a year ago: It was aimed at anybody that wants to try and come in and tell us, tell the state of Wyoming, what to do with our coal resources. The bill was introduced in the House by a margin of 54-6 and approved, following some debate, in an 8-1 vote by the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee. It was not read before the Committee of the Whole by Friday, the deadline for the first reading of bills in their house of origin, and died alongside several other bills not considered in time. Two of three fossil fuel preservation bills move on to second week of budget session The 2022 budget session brought a new suite of bills defending the state's resource-reliant economy. One was withdrawn. Two others achieved the two-thirds majority needed for introduction and head to committee for review next week. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Vietnam extends expiry dates of Abdala Covid-19 vaccine The Ministry of Health has just decided to extend the expiry dates of the Abdala Covid-19 vaccine to nine months. Vietnam extends expiry dates of Abdala Covid-19 vaccine The ministry announced on February 28 that the decision to extend the expiry dates of the Abdala Covid-19 vaccine from six months to nine months was made based on studies by local agencies. This is the second Covid-19 vaccine to have expiry dates extended by the ministry after the Pfizer vaccine which also had its expiry date extended by three months to nine months. The ministry claims that this extension won't affect the quality and effectiveness of the vaccines. The Abdala Covid-19 vaccine was approved by the ministry for urgent use in Vietnam on October 8, 2021. The vaccine is being used for people aged between 19-65 who receive three doses with intervals of 14 days between each dose. Earlier the Ministry of Health urged the completion of using the Abdala vaccine against Covid-19 in February. The ministry recently sent a dispatch to authorities of 11 provinces on accelerating the use of the Cuban-made vaccine. According to the ministry, five million doses of the vaccine were allocated to localities in October and November last year. However, as of January 28, 541,400 doses remained in localities. ZAGREB, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Croatia is easing COVID-19 restrictions as both infection rate and related deaths are falling, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Monday. Starting from March 1, COVID-19 certificates will no longer be required to enter government buildings or public institutions in Croatia, Bozinovic said, adding that the number of people at social gatherings indoors and outdoors will be increased from 25 and 50 to 50 and 100 respectively. Moreover, teachers and students are no longer required to wear masks during lessons, but masks are still required on public transportation, Bozinovic said. In the past 24 hours, Croatia registered 198 new COVID-19 cases and 39 related deaths. Since Feb. 25, 2020, when the first COVID-19 case was spotted in Croatia, a total of 1,054,794 people have been infected, and among them, 15,069 people died. SMALL business owners in three Caribbean countries will get the opportunity to showcase how their enterprises are transforming their communities, and themselves, due to support from the social enterprise, Nudge Caribbean. The opportunity comes tomorrow, at an event called Nudge Now, which is being organised by Nudge Caribbean, which was founded by Anya Ayoung-Chee, design strategist and social entrepreneur, and Julie Avey, Massy Groups senior vice president of People and Culture. The Point is to Change the World, a collection of writings by Guyanese political activist Andaiye, was in the spotlight on Thursday, the first day of the 2022 Bocas Lit Fest, which kicked off with a series of virtual events. Thursdays conversation centred on Andaiyes writings and legacy. Journalist Sunity Maharaj said while Andaiye left a legacy through her work, she also used her platform to be open and honest about every aspect of her life, including her battle with cancer. Police are expected to be called in to investigate what crimes were committed at childrens homes. Caring Ministries 820 W. Calle Sur, Tucson AZ 85705 520-882-2642 Caring Ministries has served families in Tucson and the surrounding area for 40+ years. Alongside their network of partners, they provide food, clothing and other resources while sharing the love of Christ. Its their vision that everyone in Southern Arizona has the opportunity to be loved and live healthy lives. Arizona Baptist Childrens Services & Family Ministries 1779 N. Alvernon Way, Tucson AZ 85712 800-678-0648 Arizona Baptist Childrens Services & Family Ministries mission is to provide hope and care to hurting children and families through Christ-centered ministries. They focus on providing practical help to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs. ABCS serves the full spectrum of Arizona families, from unborn babies to senior adults. Angel Heart Pajama Project 1505 W. St. Marys Road, PO Box 229, Tucson, AZ 85745 520-870-2829 Since 2013, Angel Heart has provided close to 35,000 foster and homeless children (about 70% of the seating capacity of the University of Arizonas stadium) living in Southern Arizona with a new pair pajamas and new books to call their very own. Angel Heart believes children have a right to wear new pajamas, own a new book, feel loved, and have a goodnights sleep. Tax Credit (code: 20910). The Star wantS to help nonprofits help our community We want to hear from organizations whose donations qualify for the Qualifying Charitable Organizations or Qualifying Foster Care Charitable Organizations Arizona Tax Credit. We are asking those organizations to share their information through a form at tucson.com/taxcredit In the body, give a 50-word description of the organization and what it does, and then in the same field, in addition to the 50 words, list the organizations name, address, website and phone number for publication. In the topic field, please click on tax credit. The Star will publish some of these each Tuesday on the Giving page. Questions? Email jeubank@tucson.com Johanna Eubank is a digital producer for the Arizona Daily Star and tucson.com. She has been with the Star in various capacities since 1991. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. FRANKFURT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Several European countries, the United States and Canada issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they will remove some Russian banks from SWIFT, the payment system used for most international financial transactions. The expulsion, which some people believe will deal a heavy blow to the Russian economy by crippling Russian banks' ability to settle international transactions, could be bad for Europe, as it will at the same time bring energy supply shocks to the European Union (EU). That is probably why a few European countries like Germany and Italy were hesitant about endorsing it at first. SWIFT EXPULSION SWIFT is a Belgium-headquartered global provider of secure financial messaging services. It was formed in 1973 by 239 banks from 15 countries to solve the problem of cross-border payments communication. More than 11,000 financial institutions are now using SWIFT for their financial transactions, including around 300 from Russia. According to the joint statement released Saturday, in concert with the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and Canada, the United States is supporting the expulsion of "selected Russian banks" from SWIFT "within the coming days," so as to "further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies." "It will stop them (the Russian banks) from operating worldwide and effectively block Russian exports and imports," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Sunday. Many media reports have predicted that such an expulsion, if endorsed for all major Russian banks, is likely to wreak havoc on Russia's financial system and economy by triggering bank runs and greatly undermining Russia's exports, and have therefore touted the expulsion as a "nuclear option." However, some experts said the move did not necessarily mean that Russian banks will be rendered incapable of conducting international transactions, as they can still finalize the process with other banks through other systems, or even by fax or Email given that SWIFT is only a messaging system. The expulsion will only make the whole process slower and costlier, they said. In fact, Russia has started to developed its own financial transfer system -- the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) -- since 2014, as an alternative to SWIFT, a move in anticipation of possible expulsions from the West. At the end of 2020, there were 23 foreign banks connected to the SPFS from Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Switzerland. As of May 2021, the SPFS had been handling around 20 percent of Russia's domestic payments. SUPPLY SHOCKS Citing analysts, some media reports said there was in the beginning reluctance among several leaders from EU countries to take the step of expulsion due to their countries' heavy reliance on Russian energy exports. For example, the Financial Times reported Thursday that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz believed such a move "should not be included in an EU sanctions package." British online newspaper The Independent reported on Saturday that Germany, France and Italy opposed a request from Britain to shut Russia out of SWIFT. "The German finance minister, Christian Lindner, admitted Berlin refused to go further because of 'a high risk that Germany will no longer be supplied with gas or raw materials,'" it said. According to Russia's central bank, the country's exports totaled 489.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, more than 50 percent of which were energy products. Over 40 percent of the EU's natural gas comes from Russia. Germany, the largest economy in the EU, gets 55 percent of its gas imports from Russia. Besides, Russia is a main supplier of crude oil and solid fossil fuels to the EU. Nikolai Zhuravlev, deputy speaker of the Federation Council of Russia, told Russia's TASS news agency in January that European countries will not be able to receive gas, oil and metals from Russia in case Russia is disconnected from SWIFT. Many experts believed if EU countries are weaned off Russian energy supplies, they will face a huge challenge to find backup suppliers. "Europe's economy, which is far more closely tied to Russia's than the U.S. economy, could suffer if Russia was restricted or prohibited from using SWIFT, including if banks are blocked from access," NBC News reported on Sunday. Javier Duran, a University of Arizona professor who studies the culture and history of the U.S.-Mexico border region, wants to change mainstream Americas perception of the border. For better or worse, the border has become a political tool, Duran said, noting some politicians focus on violent crime and calls for militarization of the area. That kind of framing is pervasive in Arizona. On Thursday, the Arizona Senate approved $700 million to build a border wall. Earlier in the week, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has pledged to act boldly and aggressively to bring an end to our border crisis if elected, likened activity on Arizonas southern border to Russias invasion of Ukraine. And earlier this month, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running for U.S. Senate, said that the southern border is being flooded by cartels and gangs, trafficking people and drugs, so he was declaring war on the southern border invasion. But those narratives are one-dimensional and often misaligned with reality, said Duran, who pointed to Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaways recent report that crime rates there are lower than the state averages. Dignify these communities We need to be able to rethink and reimagine what happens in border spaces and also elevate the stories that remain underground, said Duran, who heads the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry at the UA, an interdisciplinary research institute. The other component is to dignify these communities because many times the portrayal is really negative not only in terms of crime, but also that the people who live there are somehow immoral. In reality, the border communities he knows, such as Nogales and Douglas, are far more nuanced than those portrayals. They are made up of people who are going about their daily lives just as they have for generations. Since 2018, Duran has worked toward capturing the cultural patchwork of Arizona-Sonora border communities through a project called Fronteridades: Nurturing Collaborative Intersections in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. So far, it has used $800,000 in grant money from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to produce about 60 artistic and cultural projects in partnership with local people and organizations. Now, Fronteridades will be able to do even more. This month, the Mellon foundation awarded Duran and his team at the Confluencenter another $1.5 million to continue and expand its borderlands research, education and storytelling initiatives. One of the main goals of the project is to broaden understanding and inclusivity in the portrayals of the border by centering the stories and representations of activity around borderlands residents and communities, he said. Melissa Brown-Dominguez and Mel Dominguez, who own Galeria Mitotera in South Tucson, are among the many community partners Duran is working with to accomplish that goal. The couples gallery has hosted numerous community events featuring the work of Indigenous and Latinx artists, which is how they connected with Duran a few years ago. Murals, which Mel Dominguez called our version of storytelling, are one of the mediums they work with the most. And with additional money from this new grant, theyll be able to expand their reach. What makes this super exciting to be involved with this grant is bringing up artists from Nogales, Dominguez said. With all thats going on with COVID, and people going outside again now, art and culture are a form of communication. Were super excited to not only find and meet these artists from Nogales, but also bring them into the environment here on native land. Human rights work through the arts Documenting the culture and contributions of the Indigenous people whose ancestors have lived along what is now known as the Arizona-Sonora border for centuries is one of the Fronteridades projects focal points. Ofelia Zepeda is a professor of linguistics at the UA and author of the only pedagogical textbook on the Tohono Oodham language. Shes also a collaborator with the Oodham Arts Exchange, which is one of Fronteridades community partners. The arts exchange, which has already produced photographic essays, poetry and research on people in the region, will use this new funding to support residencies for Indigenous artists working in a variety of mediums such as pottery, painting and weaving. The type of artist were looking for is someone who can address the humanistic aspects of the region, not necessarily the political aspects, Zepeda said. The main point that always gets drowned out is that this region that the border happens to cross is home to not only people, but also wildlife and plant life that has also been disturbed. Oftentimes those beings dont have voices, so I would like to think this project helps to give a voice and talk about the impact it has had on the environment and the people who live in that environment. Theatrical performances representing the complex experiences of migrants and asylum-seekers are another medium the grant will support. Teatro Dignidad is a local theater company and new partner of the Fronteridades project. It will use some of the grant money to create a monument to migrants who have lost their lives as well as to produce three plays, which will be performed in both English and Spanish. The whole purpose is to educate audiences about the issues on the border, but also reframing the narrative where we uplift the voices of migrants. We want to tell those stories from a human rights perspective and in a way that honors our border communities, Alba Jaramillo, founder of Teatro Dignidad, said. Theater, and all of the arts, have the power to open hearts and minds. Its a different form of advocacy, but thats our approach doing human rights work through the arts. Kathryn Palmer covers higher education for the Arizona Daily Star. Contact her via e-mail at kpalmer@tucson.com or her new phone number, 520-496-9010. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The University of Arizona was awarded a $5 million federal grant to support more students especially those who are Hispanic or from low-income households studying science, technology, engineering and math. The five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education is aimed to aid students to more easily transfer to the UA from other institutions, and help students experience a sense of belonging in their STEM programs, officials said. The project also is to increase the number of undergraduate research opportunities, train faculty, staff and student mentors on improving inclusivity in their interactions with students and increase graduation rates of Hispanics in STEM majors. Kimberly Sierra-Cajas, director of undergraduate research and inquiry in the Office of Societal Impacts, is the principal investigator and project director for the grant. She said the way UA students currently move through their academics is a one-size-fits-all model that doesnt always take into account the cultural norms that are predominant in the Latinx culture, such as a strong sense of community and family responsibility. Latinx is a gender-neutral term for people from Spanish-speaking cultures or of Latin American descent. Inherent in this grant is our responsibility to address barriers students experience throughout our institutional structures and environment that lead to disparities in STEM graduation rates, Sierra-Cajas said. Data shows fewer than half of Hispanic UA students who start in STEM majors complete their programs within six years, she said. And only a third of Latino students with STEM majors who receive Pell Grants federal grants for students with financial need graduate with a STEM degree in six years. About 42% of Latino transfer students graduate within three years of transferring. The grant will address on how to advise and navigate the complex system to take into consideration that many students have to hold down jobs while in school and have considerable responsibilities for families that tax their time and resources, said Sierra-Cajas. Typically, only one plan is proposed by each STEM department, assuming that will fit the reality of all students. This disconnect contributes to a disparity in successful completion of STEM courses, she said. Not taking into account the lived realities of Latinx and low-income students can lead to students struggling academically and feeling like they do not belong as soon as they begin to struggle in courses. As a result, students often drop out of the STEM pipeline, if not the university, said Sierra-Cajas. She said transfer students have said they need specific guidance on balancing general education and STEM gateway courses to avoid stacked STEM schedules in their first semester at the university. Many students transfer and take three to four STEM classes at one time, while having to work 20-40 hours, Sierra-Cajas said. Hispanic students need to feel welcomed and feel a sense of belonging in STEM departments at universities, and this helps when students are connecting with STEM faculty, professionals, and peers, especially through academic, and co-curricular activities, Sierra-Cajas explained. The project also aims to find research for Hispanic students in areas that they are interested in and topics relevant to the needs of their communities, connecting them to those research opportunities. The grant will also allow more faculty members to participate in the universitys Culturally Responsive Curriculum Development Institute, a weeklong summer program that supports participants in implementing more inclusive teaching and learning practices in their courses. The institute helps faculty members to redesign their courses incorporating aspects of students cultural backgrounds into the course curriculum. The institute now welcomes 20 participants a year and is open to faculty applicants across the university. Participants who complete the program receive a $1,000 stipend. The institute will be able to enroll an additional 10 faculty members who teach introductory STEM courses in math, computer science, physics, chemistry and biology, said Judy Marquez Kiyama, co-principal investigator on the grant, who leads the institute as associate vice provost for faculty development. The institute will teach faculty to develop course content that reflects students cultural backgrounds and histories, said Kiyama, who is also a professor in the College of Education. Similar training will also be developed for advisers and other student support staff who mentor and engage with students, she said. In the first training last year, 22 courses across the university were redesigned and over 2,000 students were impacted. Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at cduarte@tucson.com or on Twitter: @cduartestar Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tucson City Council members voted to form committees to oversee the use of Proposition 411 funds, which are expected to total about $740 million for street repair and safety upgrades if passed by voters on May 17. The money will be generated through a half-cent sales tax, and 80% of the funds will go to road fixes which will be monitored by the Independent Oversight and Accountability Commission while 20% will fund street safety upgrades that will be overseen by the Complete Streets Coordinating Council. The commission will be made up of 11 independent community members who will monitor the progress of the citys road repair program, something officials have said will allow Tucson to fix all of its residential streets in the next decade or so. Private Tucsonans will also comprise the council. Along with city staff from different departments, they will be tasked with planning the safety upgrades, which could include things like traffic light improvements, in addition to monitoring the funds. Both groups are meant to serve as watchdogs to ensure sales tax dollars arent misused by officials, and that the money is divided correctly between safety upgrades and street repair over the next decade. Through the adoption of the truth and taxation policy we are reaffirming to the voters of the city of Tucson our commitment to transparency in the spending of taxpayer dollars, Mayor Regina Romero said. (The committees) will ensure that these funds are spent efficiently, consistent with Prop. 411 ballot language. The committee ordinance, which was unanimously passed by council members on Wednesday, does contain one loophole: the city council can vote to change the percentage of money dedicated to each Prop. 411 category if any unforeseen circumstances arise. Officials would have to hold a public hearing after both oversight committees gave their input on any proposed changes, but the caveat gives council members the ultimate say as to whether the 80%-20% split will be adjusted in the future. Still, the loophole doesnt allow officials to use the money for anything other than road fixes or street safety without further voter approval. The city council will appoint members for both oversight committees, though many could be carried over from existing groups tasked with overseeing earlier measures like Proposition 101, which was passed by voters in 2017. Prop. 411 is largely an extension of the soon-to-expire Prop. 101 sales tax initiative, but the new ballot measure doesnt include funding for public safety resources a category that received the bulk of funding under the 2017 initiative. The oversight ordinance seeks to address that issue as well. It guarantees that not less than $18 million will be devoted to police, fire and the 911 call center annually through other funding sources because of their exclusion from Prop. 411. City officials also said at least $15 million of funding outside of Prop. 411 will be devoted to collector streets roads that carry traffic from neighborhoods onto major corridors which werent included in the Prop. 411 ballot measure. We are reaffirming our commitment to invest in our public safety departments both police, fire and 911 communications as well as continuing to invest in collector streets that connect neighborhoods and are a very important piece of connecting all modes of transportation, Romero said. Were being as clear and transparent as possible and committing to the things that we talked about as we put Prop. 411 on the ballot. The oversight committee details and separate funding guarantees wont be included in the Prop. 411 ballot language at the polls, but if the measure passes the city will be legally required to follow through with those commitments. City officials have said similar oversight committees have been very effective for earlier sales tax initiatives and are confident they will continue to be this time around. Numerous public safety officials have also come out in support of Prop. 411. Were getting it right and were going to continue to get it right, Councilman Paul Cunningham said. Everybodys road is getting paved in a decade. When have we ever thought we were going to be able to say that? Reporter Sam Kmack covers local government. Contact him at skmack@tucson.com. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ISTANBUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Russian passenger plane landed in Istanbul on Monday after being denied entry into Greek airspace, local media reported. The plane took off from Russia's capital Moscow and was flying through Turkish territory to Verona, Italy, the Sozcu daily reported. Greece, however, refused to allow the plane to use its airspace because of the European Union's sanctions against Russia following the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to Sozcu. After hovering in the air near the Turkey-Greece border, the aircraft landed in Istanbul's main international airport at about 9 p.m. local time (1800 GMT). The plane is scheduled to take off with its passengers and return to Moscow shortly after refuelling, according to media reports. PHOENIX A judge tossed out a bid by the head of the Arizona Republican Party to void the election results that awarded the states 11 electoral votes to Democrat Joe Biden. The two days of testimony produced in the case brought by GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward produced no evidence of fraud or misconduct in how the vote was conducted in Maricopa County, said Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner in his Friday ruling. Warner acknowledged that there were some human errors made when ballots that could not be read by machines due to marks or other problems were duplicated by hand. But he said that a random sample of those duplicated ballots showed an accuracy rate of 99.45%. Warner said there was no evidence that the error rate, even if extrapolated to all the 27,869 duplicated ballots, would change the fact that Biden beat President Trump. The judge also threw out charges that there were illegal votes based on claims that the signatures on the envelopes containing early ballots were not properly compared with those already on file. He pointed out that a forensic document examiner hired by Wards attorney reviewed 100 of those envelopes. And at best, Warner said, that examiner found six signatures to be inconclusive, meaning she could not testify that they were a match to the signature on file. But the judge said this witness found no signs of forgery. Finally, Warner said, there was no evidence that the vote count was erroneous. So he issued an order confirming the Arizona election, which Biden won with a 10,457-vote edge over Trump. Federal court case remains to be heard Fridays ruling, however, is not the last word. Ward, in anticipation of the case going against her, already had announced she plans to seek review by the Arizona Supreme Court. And a separate lawsuit is playing out in federal court, which includes some of the same claims made here along with allegations of fraud and conspiracy. That case, set for a hearing Tuesday, also seeks to void the results of the presidential contest. It includes allegations that the Dominion Software voting equipment used by Maricopa County is unreliable and was programmed to register more votes for Biden than he actually got. Legislative leaders call for audit but not to change election results Along the same lines, Senate President Karen Fann and House Speaker Rusty Bowers on Friday called for an independent audit of the software and equipment used by Maricopa County in the just-completed election. There have been questions, Fann said. But she told Capitol Media Services it is not their intent to use whatever is found to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election. In fact, she said nothing in the Republican legislative leaders request for the inquiry alleges there are any irregularities in the way the election was conducted. At the very least, the confidence in our electoral system has been shaken because of a lot of claims and allegations, Fann said. So our No. 1 goal is to restore the confidence of our voters. Bowers specifically rejected calls by the Trump legal team that the Legislature come into session to void the election results, which were formally certified on Monday. The rule of law forbids us to do that, he said. In fact, Bowers pointed out, it was the Republican-controlled Legislature that enacted a law three years ago specifically requiring the states electors to cast their votes for the candidates who received the most votes in the official statewide canvass. He said that was done because Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote nationwide in 2016 and some lawmakers feared that electors would refuse to cast the states 11 electoral votes for Trump, who won Arizonas race that year. As a conservative Republican, I dont like the results of the presidential election, Bowers said in a prepared statement. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election. The Center for Poets and Writers at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa hosted an intensive, hands-on two-day film set etiquette or Film Setiquette workshop in February. The two-day workshop was sold out. Workshop participants shadowed and assisted working professionals in various departments, including a cinematographer, hair and makeup artist, sound mixer, production designer, gaffer and assistant director. The experience explored how a professional film set is run and offered students a grasp of best practices that could allow them to find work as a production assistant or as an apprentice. Especially with filmmaking, its all about hands-on instruction and learning with the tools and technology thats in front of you, said Zach Litwack, filmmaker in residence at OSU-Tulsa and workshop instructor. Theres only so much you can learn from watching a video on YouTube or from reading a book. Hands-on learning In addition to Litwack, seven other experienced film professionals Elizabeth Bey, Dylan Brodie, Sean Egan, Charles Elmore, Stephen Hanan, Josh Morris and Ryan Weaver taught participants the ins and outs of each department found on a typical film set. Collectively, these teaching artists have worked on multiple Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning projects. This workshop is part of OSU-Tulsas growing efforts to build educational opportunities and support Oklahomas rapidly expanding film industry. State-of-the-art, hands-on learning at OSU-Tulsa contributes to creating an experienced workforce in Tulsa to support film productions in the state, as well as gives students the necessary skills to start their own film projects. Every day I see more proof of this industry continuing to grow, and everything were doing at OSU-Tulsa is designed to help folks get involved in the growth if theyre interested, Litwack said. Future film workshops More film education workshops will also be available in the Center for Poets and Writers upcoming workshop series, including the Powerful Movie Moments workshop starting in April and the Motion Picture Storytelling workshop starting in May. Interested in future film workshops? Sign up for OSU-Tulsa's email list to be notified about upcoming film workshops at bit.ly/OSUTFilmUpdates . This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com. Ready to dip your toes back into travel but feeling overwhelmed by all the different airline rewards programs? Confused about how to make the most of points and miles especially in the waning months of a global pandemic? Not to worry: You dont need to be a seasoned traveler to start racking up points and cashing them in for free flights, upgrades and other perks. Whether your job sends you on a cross-country flight every other week or you only hop on a plane for the occasional family vacation, theres a frequent flier program for you. Below, youll find the best airline rewards programs for every type of traveler. Looking forward to that next trip? Make sure you have Travel Insurance. When you're away from home, it's good to feel protected. That's where Travel Insurance comes in. Click on your state now for more information. The Best Airline Rewards Programs Best Overall: American Airlines AAdvantage Pros Earn and spend points with dozens of partner hotels, including 500 miles for each Hyatt stay and 2 miles per dollar with Marriott Bonvoy Massive coverage area Easy-to-use rewards map Starting this year, the program is simplifying its points structure Cons Some cheaper rewards flights have limited availability Points expire after 18 months of inactivity (policy paused through March 2022), but can be reactivated for a fee Highlight: Members can use points to purchase an Admirals Club membership and get access to more than 100 airport lounges across the globe and elite members get cheaper membership rates. The American Airlines AAdvantage program is our top pick for the average traveler. With hub cities in Dallas, Charlotte, Chicago, Miami, New York and more, youre likely to find options with American wherever youd like to fly. You can start redeeming benefits at just 7,500 points thats about $1,500 spent with American Airlines for regular customers. Citi AAdvantage card holders earn exclusive benefits and rack up points faster. Runner up: Delta Skymiles Pros No blackout dates Miles don't expire Highly rated customer service Cons Can't earn miles or points toward elite status on basic economy fares Doesn't publish an awards chart, and rates for points flights vary widely Highlight: Earn points with unique partners including Lyft, Airbnb and Instacart Runner up: United Mileage Plus Pros Earn and spend points with more than 35 partner airlines including Singapore Airlines and Air Canada Claims to have the most rewards destinations of any U.S. global airline Miles don't expire Doesn't add fuel surcharges to awards travel Cons Doesn't publish an awards chart Highlight: Members get discounts on the Clear service to save time at the airport Delta Skymiles and United Mileage Plus are also great choices for conventional travelers. Each of these programs share many of the same perks as Americans AAdvantage program, like free checked baggage for members with higher tiers of status. Both serve major hub cities across all regions of the United States. The points earning structure is similar at both airlines, and both allow customers to book flights with a combination of cash and points (though United has an edge when it comes to partner airlines and awards destinations). And as is the case with nearly every airline rewards program, airline credit card holders get exclusive perks and earn points much faster than general members. While all three of the top three loyalty programs have lots of benefits, American Airlines AAdvantage has the edge thanks to its easy-to-use points structure and extensive network of partners. Best for spring breakers: JetBlue TrueBlue Pros Points don't expire No blackout dates Partnership with American Airlines expands East Coast flight options for JetBlue customers Can pool points with other people Cons Smaller footprint than other airlines Highlight: Members get 300 extra points for bringing a pet along for the ride With plenty of flights from all over the U.S. to warm-weather destinations like Orlando, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, JetBlues TrueBlue program is ideal for vacationers. And because the program lets you pool your points with up to six other people, its a great choice for larger groups traveling together. JetBlues partnership with IGH Hotels and Resorts (which includes the Kimpton, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Crowne Plaza brands) means you can keep earning points once you arrive at your beach getaway. Youll earn top-tier Mosaic status after 15,000 points, which can be accrued relatively quickly (in some cases by spending less than $2,500 with the airline in a year). JetBlue credit card holders earn more points per dollar and get bonus points for opening their accounts. Best for Long Haul Travelers: Alaska Air Mileage Plan Pros Calculates points based on distance traveled, not dollars spent Easy-to-use online route map for awards travel Cons Direct routes are more limited, especially on the East Coast Points can expire after two years of inactivity Highlight: Club 49, a program within Mileage Plan specifically for people who live in Alaska, offers two free checked bags on every flight to or from Alaska as well as two 30% discounts per year on flights to, from or within the state. For transcontinental travelers or those traveling up and down the West Coast frequently, Alaska Airs Mileage Plan is a great choice. Alaska calculates rewards points based on miles flown, not dollars spent, which the airline says nets members 30% more miles on average than they would on other airlines. Alaska has 24 partner airlines including American Airlines, Emirates and British Airways, and while you may earn fewer points on those partner routes depending on what type of fare you purchase, you can still rack up points on non-West Coast flights. Best for Couples: Southwest Rapid Rewards Pros Partnerships with Marriott and Hyatt Hotels No blackout dates Free in-flight wifi for top membership tier Points don't expire Cons Limited international destinations Can't combine cash and points to book flights Highlight: The programs best perk is the ability to earn a companion pass that lets you bring someone with you when you fly for free. Southwest is famous for its low fares, making it popular among younger, budget-minded travelers. The airline has no assigned seating, which makes it easier for travelers to sit in their preferred seats without paying extra fees on their reservation. It has fewer fees than its competitors and also offers two free checked bags on every flight. The Rapid Rewards program only allows you to earn points on flights with Southwest (or on purchases with the airlines retail partners), and youll reach A-List status after taking 25 flights in a year or earning 35,000 points. A-List status unlocks priority boarding, priority check-in and security line access and same-day standby benefits. One of the best perks of the Rapid Rewards program as a whole is the Companion Pass, which can be earned after taking 100 flights or earning 125,000 points in a year. The pass allows you to bring a guest with you every time you fly for free (though youll both have to pay the taxes and fees on the ticket). Best for Families: Frontier Miles Pros Low fares Certain membership tiers have family points pooling and free family seating Straightforward point system: earn one point per mile flown Cons Charges fees for amenities that are free on other major carriers Can't use points on other airlines Points expire after six months of inactivity, but can be reinstated for a fee Highlight: One child under 15 can fly free with a Discount Den membership of just $60 per year an expense that pays for itself after just one flight. Budget airline Frontier, based in Denver, is a great choice for families flying within the United States. Members earn one point for every mile flown, and reaching the first tier of elite status requires just 20,000 points. That tier of status gets you a free carry-on bag, priority boarding and the ability to pool points within your family. Frontier also offers a special program called Discount Den, which gets you access to discounted fares and lets one child under age 15 fly for free on certain qualifying flights. The Discount Den membership is half price once you reach the second tier of membership status and its free at the top tier. If you need to be protected while away on a trip, Travel Insurance has you covered. Travel is full of unexpected events. Stay safe with a Travel Insurance policy. Click below to find out more today. Best Airline Rewards Program Guide What are airline rewards programs? Airline rewards programs are specialty frequent flier programs offered by every major airline. They are generally free to join, and allow you to earn points or miles on purchased airfare that you can then exchange for a bunch of different perks. Generally, the programs have multiple tiers of membership that offer better rewards as you accumulate more points. How do airline rewards programs work? Airline rewards programs allow you to earn rewards based on how much you spend or how far you fly with a certain airline or group of airlines. Usually, these reward programs track your progress through points. Once youve accumulated enough points by spending money on flights and other eligible expenses, you can redeem them for perks and rewards with the airline or its partners. Those perks might include free flights, free upgrades to first or business class, free checked bags and access to exclusive airport lounges just to name a few. Many programs also let you redeem points through partnerships with hotels, rental car agencies, cruise lines, retailers and more. Each airline structures its rewards program a little differently, which is why its so important to do some research before deciding which one makes the most sense for you. Best airline rewards programs FAQs Are airline rewards programs worth it? Even if you don't travel frequently, airline rewards programs offer serious benefits. They are generally free, and accumulating points now can lead to some great perks and savings down the road. Of course, the right program for you depends on a lot of factors. Our best pick for the average traveler is American Airlines AAdvantage, but the program that's right for you might vary depending on where you travel, how often you travel and who you travel with. Is it worth it to stick to one airline? You'll earn rewards faster if you stick to one major rewards program, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're stuck flying with the same airline forever. The biggest U.S. airlines (United, Delta and American) are all part of airline alliances that include an extensive network of partner airlines, many of which are international. Generally, points and benefits transfer between airlines in the same alliance. Budget airlines like Frontier, Spirit and Allegiant are not members of any airline alliances, meaning that rewards points earned through their programs can only be used on one airline. It's always a good idea to keep your options open to make sure you get the best deal. Who has the best airline rewards program? Our top pick is the American AAdvantage program, but again, the best rewards program for you might be different. You should consider which airlines fly out of your local airport and which serve your most frequented destinations. Consider whether you travel alone or with family and friends most of the time, and if any membership perks--like free checked bags or lounge access--are especially important to you. Who has the best airline rewards programs for international travel? The best airline rewards program for international travel will depend on your preferences and the destinations you most frequently visit. If you're looking for the frequent flier program with the most international options, United's MileagePlus rewards program lets you transfer points to other airlines in the Star Alliance, a network of airlines that, together, serve thousands of destinations in 195 countries. How we evaluated the best airline rewards programs To determine the best rewards programs for different types of travelers, Money evaluated the exclusive features, destinations served, network partners (including hotels and other airlines) and ease of earning and spending points for ten popular airline rewards programs. We used this information to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each program, highlighting the features that differentiate the winners while keeping in mind that there isnt a one-size-fits-all program that works for every traveler. We only considered rewards programs from airlines based in the United States. Most airlines offer branded credit cards to accompany their rewards programs. Weve chosen to focus on the program itself, not the perks of the credit card, in our analysis. That said, these cards can offer significant benefits and savings and can help you earn points at a faster rate. Learn more about the best travel credit cards here. If you need to be protected while away on a trip, Travel Insurance has you covered. Travel is full of unexpected events. Stay safe with a Travel Insurance policy. Click below to find out more today. Summary of Moneys best airline program reviews Best overall: American Airlines AAdvantage Best for spring breakers: JetBlue TrueBlue Best for long haul travelers: Alaska Air Mileage Plan Best for couples: Southwest Rapid Rewards Best for Families: Frontier Miles Copyright 2021 Ad Practitioners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. This article originally appeared on Money.com and may contain affiliate links for which Money receives compensation. Opinions expressed in this article are the author's alone, not those of a third-party entity, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed. Offers may be subject to change without notice. For more information, read Moneys full disclaimer. Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Marquee names Alan Cumming and Oliver Stone will bring Tinseltown shine to the Palm Beach Book Festival on March 12. They will join a packed-into-one-day slate with two more authors at what will be the eighth annual edition, once again staged at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. My theme this year is Hollywood and History, explains Lois Cahall, the festivals founder and creative director. I asked Oliver at his house last July. I absolutely adored his book, Chasing the Light. I couldnt believe it didnt get the attention it deserved because it came out right before the pandemic. And Cumming is a repeat performance. The actor perhaps best known for TVs The Good Wife and Broadways Cabaret was one of the guests at the inaugural event. That was at the Norton Museum [of Art in West Palm Beach], she recalls. The lines were ... around the block. The Book Festival was born and I couldnt bail on it. So with Cumming and Stone (screenwriter of Midnight Express, Scarface and director of Platoon, Wall Street), Cahall has the Hollywood part of her theme covered. For the history, shes recruited Princeton professor Imani Perry to talk about her work South to America, which is highly touted by OprahDaily.com, as well as Garrett Graff, the writer of Watergate: A New History. Im blessed with a golden Rolodex. I know book people, adds Cahall, an author herself with two international bestsellers. Each writer will have an onstage discussion with a moderator. There will be book signings after each session and books will be for sale both before and after each session. Here is the schedule. 10 a.m. Imani Perry with moderator Leigh Haber, the editor of Oprahs Book Club 11:15 a.m. Alan Cumming with moderator Joseph Papa, publicist and author 12:15 p.m. Lunch (optional with ham, turkey and veggie sandwiches available for preorder) 1:15 p.m. Garrett Graff with moderator Mark Thompson, former CEO of the New York Times and the BBC. 2:30 p.m. Oliver Stone with moderator Allan Loeb, a screenwriter who co-wrote Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps with Stone. Behind the scenes The day the festival ends, the next day I start planning the next one, Cahall says. She also adds that there are people supporting the festival that she doesnt want to let down. James Patterson and I became very close, she says, speaking of the writer/philanthropist behind the Alex Cross and Womens Murder Club series. He taught me the importance of literacy in children. So we would raise money from the adult festival and have a childrens festival. I think it was 2018, or sometime around there, we had our first childrens festival. 150 kids showed up. And then the next year we had 4,000 children. You cant imagine what its like to have these children run up to and give you a hug and tell you why they loved the books. The festival is sponsored by the Batmasian Family Foundation and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. Marta Batmasian works from her heart. I cant even drag her to a dinner party. She just wants to see literacy recognized in the community and see this partnership really work with FAU. And I really learned a lot from the FAU [dean of the College of Arts and Letters] Michael Horswell, whom I adore. Without them, nothing matters. If you go info The Palm Beach Book Festival will be at the University Theatre at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. Tickets are $25 for each author presentation; $20 for groups of 10 or more; 10 for faculty and free for students with registration. There is a lunch option for an additional $15. To order, call 561-297-6124 or go to FAUevents.com. Tom Gilbert Chief Photographer I joined the Tulsa World in 1988 after graduating from the University of Central Oklahoma. I lived in Saudi Arabia before graduating from Broken Arrow High School. I'm married to Karen Gilbert and have three grown children. Phone: 918-581-8349 Follow Tom Gilbert 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 Renaissance Brewing Co.'s founder and brewmaster Glenn Hall tells us about a very limited quantity of specialty beer for this week's What the Ale's Beer of the Week. Death Breath is a pepper-infused beer that will only be available at their taproom at 1147 S Lewis Ave. The base beer is their Renaissance Gold (5.5% ABV), then Hall adds Carolina reaper and ghost peppers and lets it heat up for a few weeks. "This is a play on our Dragon Breath which we have year-round in our taproom, and it will soon be in cans by midyear. With that beer, we put serranos on our Renaissance Gold. With this beer, we change the peppers up and we put a whole Carolina reaper and a whole ghost pepper in it. So we're pretty excited to see how hot it is. It's a super small batch. We only make five gallons a year," said Hall. Gold is one of their flagship beers that they have made since 2015. It is a German-style golden ale with all German ingredients and hallertauer hops. Renaissance Brewing has overcome many hurdles in its journey of becoming a neighborhood brewery. The location at 12th and Lewis was near Hall's home and zoning was an issue. The area also had abandoned buildings that people were living in. "When we first started, there were a lot of shady characters that were hanging around here. We had homeless people living in the buildings that we tore down. But now we've gotten lucky. The area just exploded around us. Everybody knows the Mother Road Market, and we're just south of them. The Gadget Co. moved over, Charcuteray opened up, which is a meat and cheese place. Willamina is a women's clothing shop and the Roots co-working space is going to open up in the next few months," he said. Hall wanted a neighborhood brewery, so he bought the land in 2011 and started the process of getting the zoning changed. Hall was the first Oklahoma brewery in modern times to build from the ground up. "We always had the vision of having a brewery here. It was the first time a brewery had tried to locate in Tulsa, outside the normal zoning areas. We spent all of 2014 rezoning the property so that we would be able to do the brewery, a taproom as well as two Airbnb apartments up top, which we're working on now. We have a residential, commercial and industrial on this one site. That was unique at the time. And we were the first brewery to build from the ground up in Oklahoma," Hall said. Once zoning cleared the build-out began. The taproom opened to the public in January of 2017. Prior to that Hall did some gypsy brewing at Dead Armadillo. Gypsy brewing is where you brew your brand of beer at another brewery. Oklahoma breweries help each other out. It allows you to get your beers in the market without the overhead of owning your own brewery. The brewery has an event space that can be rented out. It also has a commercial kitchen that should be open in the next few weeks. They will have items such as paninis on the menu. "We'll have a full commercial kitchen on-site to be able to cater dinners in or to have our own beer dinners on site and things like that. We're really looking forward to adding that food component to the brewery. This past fall we opened our sidewalk cafe patio. So now when the weather is nice, we can sit outside and enjoy beers, right on Lewis Avenue. In the spring timeframe, we will be receiving our new canning line, which will allow us to put more of our beers into cans. One example of that is our Dragon's Breath, which is our most requested beer to get in the can. We'll be adding a new format of 12-ounce cans for retail. We'll probably still keep 16 oz around for a while because we like them. They're our favorite format. And also a lot of our customers like them," said Hall. Renaissance Brewing is open five days a week, closed Monday and Tuesday. They open at 4 P.M. through the week and then noon on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. Past Beers of the Week: Tom Gilbert 918-581-8349 tom.gilbert@tulsaworld.com Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. An Oklahoma appellate court has rejected the appeal of a Tulsa man who was convicted of the shooting death of an 80-year-old man during an attempted home burglary in 2018. Ricky Davison, 24, had challenged his conviction and sentences in part on the basis of ineffective counsel and a ban on the presentation of mitigating evidence in noncapital trials. A Tulsa County District Court jury found Davison guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary Oct. 25, 2019, in the fatal shooting of James Rosenlieb. But the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Monday that Davisons attorney representation did not prejudice him in any way. We find that Counsels conduct fell within objective standards of reasonableness, the appellate courts opinion states. Rather, the court blamed Davisons actions for his situation. The problem for appellant was that he insisted on testifying in his own defense against his attorneys advice, the opinion says. Appellants testimony was unsubstantiated and his credibility was thoroughly discredited by the States cross examination and rebuttal witnesses. Davison testified at his trial, without any supporting evidence, that his father shot Rosenlieb while he waited outside the residence. The jury convicted Davison shortly after his attorney, Brian Martin, adopted a defense strategy with his clients permission near the end of the trial that included conceding his clients guilt in the hope he would have a chance at parole. Davison was later sentenced to life without parole on the murder count, plus 20 years on a first-degree burglary count. The appellate court noted several instances in its 16-page opinion where Davisons attorney acted properly during the trial. Police responded to Rosenliebs southeast Tulsa home early June 11, 2018, after receiving a 911 call from his wife of nearly 60 years. Police discovered Rosenliebs lifeless body in the home after breaking down the front door. He had been shot multiple times. His wife, hysterical and crying, was uninjured in the home. Prosecutors said police were led to Davison, in part, after they discovered a business card from a tree-trimming business at Rosenliebs home. The business owner told police that Davison had worked for him through a temporary employment service and had trimmed trees for Rosenlieb in May 2018. Davison maintained his innocence when questioned by police. However, a detective testified that police discovered a link to a YouTube video on Davisons phone. The video, attributed to an account named Ricc Davi, mentioned Tulsas 18th homicide of the year and included in its title an obscenity-based acronym. Rosenliebs killing was Tulsas 18th homicide of 2018. Trial testimony also indicated that police discovered a series of text messages on Davisons phone that mentioned Rosenliebs death. The court also rejected Davisons assertion that Oklahomas ban on presenting mitigating and aggravating evidence during a noncapital case was illegal. In rejecting Davisons appeal, the court noted that mitigating evidence many times appears throughout trial without a separate sentencing proceeding, as is the case in capital cases. The appellate court also denied a request by Davison to declare a search by police of his cellphone as illegal, saying it wouldnt have affected the verdict or sentence had the search been declared illegal. There was overwhelming evidence of guilt and appellant told a wild, unbelievable story in his defense, the court said in its opinion. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BRUSSELS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalates and intensifies, Ukrainians are fleeing in increasing numbers to neighboring countries. Governments across Europe are opening up humanitarian channels to facilitate an orderly evacuation of refugees and their settlement. REFUGEES FLOOD ACROSS BORDERS The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Monday that more than half a million people have already fled Ukraine to Poland, Romania, Hungary and other neighboring countries. Poland currently appears to be the destination of choice for most of them. The Polish Border Guard reported over 115,000 arrivals since Feb. 24. Romanian government spokesman Dan Carbunaru said on Sunday that since last Thursday, more than 47,000 Ukrainian citizens had entered Romania. Of them, 22,785 left for Schengen countries shortly after entry. There were also 102 applications for refugee status. The Romanian government department has said that Ukrainian citizens entering Romania would be exempted from COVID-19 quarantine. By Saturday midnight, more than 62,000 Ukrainian refugees had entered Hungary, the country's police said. Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that his country will play a role in mitigating the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine. NEW POLICIES FOR HELP Poland has set up a hotline and eight reception centers along its border with Ukraine. "A hot meal, a drink, basic medical assistance and a place to rest" are provided there, according to the government. Raed Arafat, head of the Department of Emergency Situations of Romania's Ministry of Internal Affairs, said on Sunday that his country can accept 400,000 refugees, but the number of asylum seekers remains low for now. Hungary will also open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian and third-country citizens. "We are going to let them enter without a visa and take them to the nearest international airport," Szijjarto said. Last Thursday, Hungary's government adopted a decree according to which refugees from Ukraine would receive temporary protection. Slovakia will support people who shelter refugees from Ukraine with financial aid to help accommodate the thousands fleeing their country, Finance Minister Igor Matovic said on Saturday. Slovak households and institutions will receive 200 euros (225 U.S. dollars) a month for an adult and 100 euros (112 dollars) a month for a child they accommodate. He also said that the country will provide temporary refugee status with a work permit, health insurance and entitlement to benefits in material need. Croatia will receive as many Ukrainian refugees as needed, said Damir Trut, director of the Civil Protection Directorate at the country's Interior Ministry, on Sunday. He said that to date 63 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in Croatia, adding that his country had already prepared about 2,000 beds for them, but more will be added if needed. Austria, which has traditionally been reluctant to accept refugees, said that Ukrainian citizens will now be allowed to stay in Austria for 180 days without a visa. REGIONAL AND GLOBAL COORDINATION The member states of the European Union (EU) are already hosting over 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Sunday, adding that the 27-member bloc should "prepare for millions." The United Nations said that more than 160,000 people have reportedly been internally displaced in Ukraine. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed Amin Awad of Sudan as assistant secretary general to serve as UN crisis coordinator for Ukraine. Martin Griffiths, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said on Friday that his organization planned to raise more than one billion U.S. dollars in the next three months for humanitarian relief in Ukraine. In the U.S., the administration of President Joe Biden is also facing calls to take in Ukrainian refugees. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the president was "certainly prepared" to do so, but Washington believes that many refugees would want to go to European countries. She did not answer when asked by reporters whether the U.S. administration would offer Ukrainian students, workers and others currently staying in the U.S. temporary residency protection to ensure that they would not be deported when their visas expire. It was one in, one out on Monday as the field of contenders for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Jim Inhofe early next year continued to take shape. Out was Mayor G.T. Bynum, who said he is not running for Inhofes seat or any other office in 2022. In was state Sen. Nathan Dahm, who said he is shifting his campaign from a challenge to incumbent Sen. James Lankford to the special election for the vacant seat. That special election will be held concurrently to this years regular election calendar, meaning primaries on June 28, runoffs in August and general election in November. I will not be a candidate for anything in 2022, Bynum said Monday morning on KRMG news radio. We got so much to do in the time that I have got left as mayor, and I have got young kids that I want to participate in them growing up and being great people when they leave and go away to college. So, no, I will not be running for anything this year. I am going to be focused on the job that folks already gave me. Bynum, 44, was elected mayor in 2016. He won a second four-year term in 2020 and has said he would not run for mayor again. Before becoming mayor, he served eight years on the City Council. Bynum did not rule out a future run for public office but made it clear that he has no idea what the future will hold after he leaves the mayors office in 2024. I have said that I would serve two terms as mayor and not run again because I feel strongly that you need to have a sense of urgency in the job and not think that you are going to be in it forever, Bynum said. And that is definitely the case for me having term-limited myself to two terms. And after that, you just never know. Bynum added: The thing that I value most in the heroes that I have had in my life is their commitment to service and selflessness. And I am always going to want to try to find ways to serve Tulsa, and whether that is in elected office or out of it, I have no idea. I dont even know what I am going to be doing three years from now. Dahm, who began his U.S. Senate campaign in September, said he believed all along that he would be competing for an open seat. As my wife and I were praying about the next steps, where God would take us to serve the people of Oklahoma, we felt that we were going to be on the ballot in 2022, Dahm said in a video posted to his campaign website. As we prayed further, we felt we would be running for United States Senate, Dahm continued. As we continued to pray, we felt it would be in a special election. Dahm said thats why he has been hesitant to directly attack Lankford the strategy of fellow challenger Jackson Lahmeyer and has instead focused on his own record. No one has the record I do, Dahm said in a telephone interview. Im running for the U.S. Senate. Im not running against anyone. A lifelong Republican, Bynum is the grandson of former Tulsa Mayor Robert LaFortune, who served from 1970 to 1978. His cousin Bill LaFortune was mayor from 2002 to 2006. Before entering local politics, Bynum lived in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a staffer for Republican U.S. Sens. Don Nickels, from 2000 to 2005, and Tom Coburn, from 2005 to 2006. Dahms first political race was an unsuccessful entry in the 2008 1st Congressional District Republican primary. He was elected to the state Senate in 2012 and has twice won reelection by wide margins. As a state senator, Dahm has a reputation as something of a maverick often at odds with Republican leadership. Dahm said he pictures himself in the mold of former President Donald Trump, Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. A Hern for U.S. Senate Facebook page went live Monday, but a spokeswoman for 1st District Congressman Kevin Hern, who is thought likely to get into the race, said it is not connected to him. Featured video: Tulsa World Newsroom: The story behind Sen. Jim Inhofe with political reporter Randy Krehbiel Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Kevin Canfield Staff Writer I cover local government in Tulsa from the mayor to city council. Phone: 918-581-8313 Follow Kevin Canfield 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 BIG CABIN Hundreds of people crammed into a Will Rogers Turnpike truck stop to show their support as a convoy of truckers stopped overnight in Oklahoma on their way to Washington, D.C. Law enforcement estimated about 300 trucks participated in the convoy, which stretched 10 miles and exited at the Big Cabin turnpike gate around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Truckers and supporters in the convoy were blasting their horns while supporters cheered. Hundreds of vehicles were parked along both sides of U.S. 69 near the Big Cabin Truck Plaza entrance, welcoming truckers to Craig County. Supporters started gathering around the base of a 50-foot-tall American Indian statue at the truck stop entrance around 1:30 p.m. By mid-afternoon, the number of people packed into the truck stop couldnt be counted. Social media reports indicate that more than 1,000 supporters crowded the turnpike exit area. Many supporters were holding American and Canadian flags, as well as signs supporting the Peoples Convoy and the Second Amendment. Signs also showed support for former President Donald Trump and opposition to President Joe Biden. The Peoples Convoy left Adelanto Stadium in California on Wednesday. The 11-day route travels through nine states before hitting the Washington, D.C., area March 5. The convoy departed Big Cabin around 8 a.m. Monday. A rally was held Monday afternoon in St. Robert, Missouri. Afterward, the convoy was to travel to Cuba, Missouri, where its participants were to spend Monday night, according to the convoys website. The U.S. convoy is the equivalent to Canadas Freedom Convoy, both intended to be peaceful protests in opposition to vaccine mandates and restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Quinn Laston of Tulsa waited more than three hours for the convoy to arrive in Big Cabin. Holding American flags and his 4-year-old son, Laston said he just wanted my son to learn about freedom and liberty. Overpasses from Tulsa to Vinita were packed Sunday afternoon. On Monday morning supporters gathered at overpasses from Vinita to the Missouri state line, showing their support with flags and signs. Truckers reciprocated by blasting their horns, waving and smiling as they drove under each overpass. It was the most amazing show of support, said Renee Diver of Grove. Diver, her husband and their three daughters were traveling from the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show on Sunday afternoon when they met the convoy in Oklahoma City. Although the family was about 45 minutes behind the convoy, every single overpass was still filled with supporters waving flags, she said. The crowds were big in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City areas, Diver said. She choked back emotion as she described the supporters, not just on overpasses and along the highways: Some were out in fields. It was such a patriotic moment, she said. Sarah Chamberlain and Dodie Carr, both of Vinita, organized dinner for the truckers. We have received donations from Oklahoma City, California and New Jersey, Chamberlain said. Craig County ranchers donated beef, and one 86-year-old woman was making homemade cookies and bread for members of the convoy. Vinita churches provided worship services and offered their buildings for people to shower. The group says its grassroots effort has raised more than $1.5 million. The convoy is made up of truckers, moms, students, nurses, doctors, investors, county workers, teachers, cowboys, loggers, engineers, sanitation workers, professors, cashiers, flight attendants, pilots, sales reps, physical therapists, according to the groups website. Its mission statement affirms love for our freedoms and the Constitution. "This convoy aims to bring back our freedoms, our civil liberties, and bring an end to all unconstitutional mandates," the statement reads in part. "This is about our rights, as well as the freedom of future generations. Its not about political parties, but more so about a government that has forgotten its place and has no regard for our founding fathers instructions, the Constitution. Featured video: 'People's Convoy' heads to Washington Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Even some of the most ardent supporters of Covid-19 precautions are ditching mask mandates as health officials release new guidelines and hospitalizations plummet. Across the country, more governors are letting go of mask rules -- including in states that have long held on to school mask mandates. California, Oregon and Washington state will shift from mask requirements to mask recommendations in schools starting at 11:59 p.m. March 11, according to a statement from the governors Monday. California is also dropping its requirement for unvaccinated people to wear masks in most indoor settings starting Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said. But masks will still be strongly recommended for everyone in most indoor settings. And face masks will still be required for everyone in high transmission settings such as public transit, emergency shelters, health care settings, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and long-term care facilities in California, the statement said. Illinois lifted its mask mandate for restaurants, bars, gyms and stores on Monday. And Chicago ended its proof-of-vaccination requirement. But that doesn't mean everyone should get rid of their masks. For example, masks are still required on most public transportation nationwide. "I would still recommend that if you are in indoor spaces, especially those that are crowded, that you put on a mask," said Dr. Rachel Rubin of the Cook County Department of Health. In Massachusetts, a statewide mask mandate for K-12 schools ends Monday. A similar mandate in Connecticut also ends Monday, and local school districts will be able to decide whether to require masks. Starting Tuesday, Washington, DC will no longer require masks indoors. But Mayor Muriel Bowser said individual businesses still have the option of requiring masks or mandating vaccinations. And New York state will no longer require students to wear masks in schools starting Wednesday. But Gov. Kathy Hochul said counties and cities with higher transmission rates can still require masks in schools, and students can still wear masks if their families choose. The news followed steep declines in statewide Covid-19 hospitalizations and new guidance Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating healthy Americans in many counties don't need to wear masks indoors anymore. "If we see no unforeseen spikes and our numbers continue to show a low level of risk, New York City will remove the indoor mask mandate for public school children, effective next Monday, March 7," Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement Sunday. The mayor said he also plans to lift the city's proof-of-vaccination requirement for indoor venues starting March 7, barring an unexpected spike in Covid-19 numbers this week. "But even as some jurisdictions lift masking requirements, we must grapple with the fact that millions of people in the U.S. are immunocompromised, more susceptible to severe COVID outcomes, or still too young to be eligible for the vaccine," said Dr. Gerald Harmon, president of the American Medical Association. "In light of those facts, I personally will continue to wear a mask in most indoor public settings, and I urge all Americans to consider doing the same, especially in places like pharmacies, grocery stores, on public transportation -- locations all of us, regardless of vaccination status or risk factors, must visit regularly." What the new CDC guidelines say The CDC released new metrics Friday to help determine whether Americans should wear face masks indoors. Previously, indoor masking was recommended for those living in areas with "high" or "substantial" transmission of Covid-19 cases. That meant most Americans lived in counties where indoor masking was recommended. But the new guidance includes two new metrics: hospital admissions and hospital capacity. As of Friday, most Americans lived in areas where healthy adults didn't have to wear masks anymore. Of the 10 most populous counties, Los Angeles County and San Diego County were the only two where indoor masking is still recommended for everyone. Six states had no residents living in a county where the CDC still recommends universal indoor masking: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. But several states had more than 75% of residents living in a county considered to have a "high" community level: Kentucky, West Virginia, Maine and Montana. Transportation mandate is still up in the air The Transportation Security Administration's mask mandate for airports, commercial airplanes, public buses and passenger trains is set to expire March 18. It's not clear what will happen after that. Masks are not required on school buses, the CDC said Friday. But school systems "may choose to require that people wear masks on buses or vans." While mask mandates disappear in more states, that doesn't mean Americans can ditch masks entirely, the president of the American Medical Association said. "Although masks may no longer be required indoors in many parts of the U.S., we know that wearing a well-fitted mask is an effective way to protect ourselves and our communities, including the most vulnerable, from COVID-19 particularly in indoor settings when physical distancing is not possible," Harmon said. The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. CNN's Virginia Langmaid, Deidre McPhillips, Elizabeth Cohen and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report. Omicron is fading away, and so are Americans' worries about COVID-19. As coronavirus pandemic case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths continue to plummet, fewer people now than in January say they are concerned that they will be infected after the rise and fall of the wildly contagious virus variant, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 24% say they are extremely or very worried about themselves or a family member contracting COVID-19, down from 36% in both December and January, when omicron caused a massive spike in infections and taxed public health systems. Another 34% say they are somewhat worried. Read on for more info: Even some of the most ardent supporters of Covid-19 precautions are ditching mask mandates as health officials release new guidelines and hospitalizations plummet. Across the country, more governors are letting go of mask rules -- including in states that have long held on to school mask mandates. But, the Transportation Security Administration's mask mandate for airports, commercial airplanes, public buses and passenger trains is set to expire March 18. It's not clear what will happen after that. Read more here: In good times or bad, American presidents come to Congress with a diagnosis that hardly differs over the decades. In their State of the Union speeches, they declare the state of our union is strong" or words very much like it. President Joe Bidens fellow Americans, though, have other ideas about the state theyre in and little hope his State of the Union address Tuesday night can turn anything around. Read on: *** PLUS, MORE COVID-19 NEWS: A year from now, if all goes to plan, Oklahomans will no longer go to a tag agent or the Department of Public Service for a drivers license or a car tag. Theyll go to something called Service Oklahoma. To be clear, tag agents are not going away, and neither are the states approximately 250 tag agencies. They are not being taken over by the state and unique to Oklahoma will continue as private businesses. But they will be subject to more state oversight and more state support, lawmakers say, and eventually will provide more than car tags and registrations and drivers licenses. The goal is to create a network of locations able to provide all sorts of official documents, perhaps including death and birth certificates, all under the banner of Service Oklahoma, a new state government entity created by legislation now advancing in the Oklahoma House and Senate. We have a lot of services that could be offered besides drivers license and title and tags, said state Rep. Dell Kerbs, R-Shawnee, and author of House Bill 3419, one of the two reorganization bills. We need one location for that, not five, six, seven different agencies. HB 3419 and Senate Bill 1605, by Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, are basically the same bill on more or less parallel tracks, although only one of them will carry the final version of the Service Oklahoma legislation to the governors office. The plan is to move the functions of the Oklahoma Tax Commission and the Department of Public Services that currently handle vehicle licensing and drivers licenses to a single division within the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. The reorganization involves more than 300 state employees, all of whom will be offered positions within Service Oklahoma. As mentioned, tag agents will remain independent contractors, although their formal title will change from motor vehicle agent to licensed operator. Initially, at least, licensed operators will do about the same things they do now. The situation will be much the same with driving tests. Those will be given from the existing locations, except as a part of Service Oklahoma instead of DPS. Provided the legislation is passed and signed into law this session, the current DPS functions will move to Service Oklahoma on Nov. 1 and the Tax Commission piece on Jan. 1, 2023. Kerbs said the goal is to create a single back-office operation for the licensed operators that is more efficient for all concerned. Theres more structure for the tag agents the licensed operators and more support on the back side, he said. The reorganization includes an oversight board and an operators advisory board, both of which would be involved in setting service standards. The proposed arrangement is, to some extent, a response to an effort a few years ago to reduce the number of tag agents or eliminate them altogether in favor of on-line services and state employees. "A study was done, and it showed that our tag agents were 85% more efficient delivering services than the state was," Kerbs said. "They're not going anywhere. It really is a good public-private partnership. We can run the back-of-house, but we want them to be our front-line staff." Featured Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Citizens of our great country have long abhorred authoritarianism. While we can disagree on how entangled to become in the affairs of other countries, we have never wavered on the unifying principle that we stand for democracy. So many countrymen died in World War II for the democratic order, now which has kept the peace in Europe for 70 years. A foundational purpose of NATO was as a check against Russias authoritarian expansion through conquering democratic neighbors. Russian President Vladmir Putin has just invaded a democratic country, unilaterally decreeing that a portion of Ukraine is independent, rolling in his tanks battalions as peacekeepers. This outrage is antithetical to our security and our principles. The strongest collective condemnation from Americans should be a given. Yet a former president of the United States, Donald Trump, just spoke admiring words about Putins invasion: This is genius. Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine as independent. I said, How smart is that? And hes gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. Thats strongest peace force We could use that on our southern border. Trump is a disgrace to us, our Constitution, and those who have served our and died for country. There is no room for equivocation about this man. We, along with the editorial page of the Tulsa World, must issue the strongest declaration that Trump is unfit and un-American. It is time for all Americans to renounce Donald J. Trump, once and for all. Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to tulsaworld.com/opinion/submitletter. Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The tragic Ukrainian crisis exposes not only Russian aggression, but also our own failure to engender a strategically necessary energy policy. As we see Germany rejecting Russia's natural gas from its newly constructed pipeline, we cannot offer to adequately replace that fuel source ourselves because our current Washington government has chosen to restrict drilling and scuttle badly needed natural gas pipelines. Reuters reports that recent natural gas pipeline projects "held up by regulators and legal battles include Williams Cos. Inc.'s Northeast Supply Enhancement from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and New York...." Even as Oklahoma's own Boone Pickens invested in wind energy, he recognized that natural gas was a bridge fuel, and much less polluting to our air than oil or coal. Rather than wait for wind and solar to catch up to our energy needs, the Biden administration has done more than just scuttle the oil transporting Keystone XL pipeline, with its admittedly air polluting consequences. It has curtailed natural gas development and its transporting pipelines, which can provide both for our own energy needs and, in the form of liquification, alternative supplies to Germany and other friendly European countries. For the foreseeable future natural gas remains a critical fuel source and we should do everything we can to encourage continued development by drilling and pipeline construction. Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to tulsaworld.com/opinion/submitletter. Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Vietnam may welcome fewer Russian tourists in the coming time due to the devaluation of the Russian ruble and economic sanctions against Russia, which were triggered by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine military confrontation, according to Vietnamese travel agencies. Nguyen Duc Tan, general director of Anex Vietnam Trade and Tourism Company, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday that the Russian market has seen little change given the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which began last week. Russian people still go to work and have a demand for vacations as usual, Tan continued. Anex Vietnam is making preparations for the arrival of about 320 Russian visitors in south-central Khanh Hoa Province on March 3 and 6, he added. Although the Russia-Ukraine military confrontation has devalued the Russian ruble, Asian countries, including Vietnam, will remain a good choice for Russian tourists, especially when European and American countries apply more embargoes on Russia, Tan elaborated. Low-cost services, good relations with Russia, and relaxed policies are among the reasons for Russian tourists to visit Vietnam, he said. Foreign visitors to Vietnam are required to purchase a tour lasting for only three days before they are allowed to explore the country freely, if they test negative for COVID-19 at the end of the tour, Tan explained. Hoang Thi Phong Thu, chairwoman of Pegas Misr Vietnam Travel Company, stated that her firm has not brought back Russian tourists and is waiting for guidance when Vietnam officially welcomes back international visitors, presumably from March 15 forward. About 1,000 agents of the company in Russia are still advertising Vietnam as a promising and attractive destination, Thu continued. We hope that more Russian tourists will be able to return to Vietnam in late March or early April, when Vietnam is officially open to international visitors and when the Russia-Ukraine situation improves. However, challenges are still ahead, according to Tan, the Anex Vietnam general director. Russia's attack on Ukraine has resulted in the devaluation of the Russian ruble, which leads to the loss of potential customers in the mid-range and low-end segments. Many will also postpone their travel plans due concerns over economic difficulties. When the U.S. and European nations remove Russia from SWIFT, a system created to provide a standardized and secure way of sending international payments, it will certainly be hard for Russian tourists to pay for their vacations. They will have to make their payments in cash, which is much more inconvenient, Tan explained. About 30 percent of Anex Vietnams Russian customers have canceled their tours, he continued, adding that the number of flights arranged by the firm has also decreased from eight to five per month. According to Tran Minh Duc, chairman of the Khanh Hoa Travel Association, most Russian tourists travel to Vietnam on charter flights. The travel plans of Russian people who live far from the crisis zone may not be affected during this period, Duc continued. However, tourism businesses in Vietnam should also pay attention to such other markets as Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., he added. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Budget carrier Vietjet and Sovico Group of Vietnam and Singapores Changi Airports International (CAI) have signed a strategic partnership agreement worth US$1.5 billion to develop the provision of aviation services at airports in Vietnam and in the region. The signing ceremony was conducted last Friday by the representatives of Sovico Group, Vietjet and CAI, the international arm of Changi Airport Group, Vietnamese airline said in a press release issued on the same day. The event was witnessed by Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who was on a state visit to Singapore, and high-ranking dignitaries of Vietnam and Singapore, as well as business representatives of the two countries. This strategic partnership agreement marked the first time that a private corporation and a private airline in Vietnam had collaborated with an international airport group in Singapore to develop aviation services and facilities. Accordingly, the parties will cooperate in the research and development of projects at airports in Vietnam, which include green, sustainable, and smart infrastructure projects. We believe that our expertise and geographical experience in managing airports around the world will add value to Vietjet and related partners in raising development and management standards to optimize airport-related operations, hence promoting economic development, boosting connectivity in Vietnam and in the region, said Eugene Gan, chief executive officer of CAI. The CEO affirmed that CAIs approaches always prioritize sustainability with close attention to the global ecosystem and surrounding catchment. Vietjet's vice-chairman Nguyen Thanh Hung stated that his firm seeks to contribute to the development and improvement of aviation service standards in Vietnam and in the region through the partnership with an industry expert such as Changi Airports International. The partnership further expresses our commitment to economic development goals, especially in aviation and sustainable development, Hung said. He emphasized that the strategic partnership agreement is crucial in the context that both Vietnam and Singapore are gradually opening up in a post-pandemic environment, creating more motivation for Vietjet to further expand its flight network in Vietnam and international markets. CAI, with years of airport management and development knowledge, is performing a broad range of cooperation to play a part in enhancing standards of airports globally. Accompanying Vietjet, Sovico Group has always been a pioneer in aviation development in Vietnam and in the region by strengthening international collaborations that develop aviation facilities, bringing benefits to the industry in Vietnam as well as residents and travelers domestically and internationally, the press release says. Vietjet has resumed its entire domestic flight network and operated a series of international flights from and to Vietnam, while looking to expand operations across continents in the near future. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Students from the first to sixth grades in the 18 suburban districts and towns of Hanoi will return to online learning from Monday as part of local efforts to curb COVID-19 transmission. The Hanoi Peoples Committee made the decision on Sunday following the proposal of the municipal Department of Education and Training. The move was prompted by a surge in the number of new infections in the community, including in educational establishments, given that students of the aforementioned grades are yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The municipal Peoples Committee also assigned the district-level administrations to base their decision on the COVID-19 situation in their localities, proposals by local educational establishments, and opinions from students parents to flexibly switch between in-person and online learning so as to ensure safety for both students and teachers. Earlier, students from the first to sixth grades in the 18 suburban districts and towns of Hanoi resumed in-person learning on February 10. Meanwhile, schools remain shut for those in urban districts. As of Saturday, 283 communes, wards, and towns in Hanoi had been classified as areas at low risk of COVID-19 transmission; 222 at medium risk; and 74 at high risk. The city of eight million people has documented over 259,300 infections, with the daily record soaring to over 11,500 patients from some 6,800 cases in the past seven days, since the fourth virus wave broke out in Vietnam on April 27, 2021. More than six million adults in the Vietnamese capital have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while over 6.2 million of them have been jabbed twice, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Britain's GSK said on Monday it had halted enrolment and vaccination in three trials of its experimental vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in pregnant women, the latest setback in developing a vaccine for the microbe. GSK said on Feb. 18 that it had paused a late-stage trial, dubbed "GRACE," as well as two other studies, based on safety recommendations from an independent committee but did not give further details on what had prompted the recommendations. RSV is a leading cause of pneumonia in toddlers and the elderly, but vaccine development has been plagued by setbacks for decades. However, many drugmakers are now working to bring a candidate to the market over the next few years. GSK, the world's biggest vaccine maker by sales, reiterated on Monday that the halts did not affect another trial of its RSV vaccine candidate for adults aged 60 and over, adding that analysis of the safety data from the maternal trials is ongoing. RSV vaccines are seen as an opportunity for GSK to deliver on pledges to boost its drug development success rate, where it has long lagged industry peers. GSK's shot for pregnant women was aimed at conferring immunity to protect unborn children. Its vaccine for the elderly, another major vulnerable population, has been regarded by analysts as a potential big RSV market, with trial results expected in the first half this year. Authorities have managed to find the bodies of the remaining two victims from a tourist boat that capsized last weekend off Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam. Bui Tan Hai, deputy chief of police in Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province, confirmed on Monday afternoon that search and rescue units had discovered the body of three-year-old N.M.Q., the last victim in the accident. The corpse was located at the stone breakwater along the coast north of the site of the shipwreck, Hai added. On Sunday night, competent authorities retrieved the body of three-year-old N.M.A. inside the boat. Officers believed that strong waves had pushed the young girl into the technical box behind the wheel of the boat as it was sinking. Officers search the boat in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, February 27, 2022 in this photo supplied by a local resident. The boat was carrying 36 tourists and three crew members from Cham Islands back to Cua Dai Ward at around 2:00 pm on Saturday when it overturned at sea. Twenty-two people, including the three crew members, were rescued, while the remaining 17 passengers were confirmed dead as of Monday. Most of the tourists came from Hanoi and southern Binh Duong Province, according to Phan Viet Cuong, secretary of the Quang Nam Party Committee. Nguyen Van Son, chairman of the Hoi An Peoples Committee, confirmed that all people on the boat were wearing life jackets. However, many of the victims were trapped inside the cabin and could not get out after strong waves sank the vessel, Son added. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Read what is in the news today: Society -- From February 24 to 27, kindergartens, elementary schools, and middle schools in Ho Chi Minh City fielded suggestions from parents on the vaccination against COVID-19 for children from five to 11 years old, with preliminary approval ratings ranging from 35 to 98 percent in some districts. -- Huong Tran Kieu Dung, executive vice-chair of Vietnamese conglomerate FLC Group JSC, which owns Bamboo Airways, said on Sunday that the airline had prepared plans to repatriate Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine under the direction of the government. -- Police in north-central Quang Binh Province have mobilized more than 100 officers to search for a young man suspected of using a machete to kill his father before fleeing into a forest. -- Japans NHK public television reported on Sunday that a 35-year-old Vietnamese man was stabbed to death by another 20-year-old Vietnamese suspect at Japan Railways Asahikawa Station in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido Prefecture. -- Local authorities have found the body of one more victim from a tourist boat that capsized on Saturday off Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, raising the death toll to 16. Rescuers are still searching for one remaining missing passenger. -- Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Chu Ngoc Anh on Sunday warned the capital city would see the peak of the current COVID-19 surge in the middle of March, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Education -- Students from the first to sixth grades in the 18 suburban districts and towns of Hanoi will return to online learning from Monday as part of local efforts to curb COVID-19 transmission. Sports -- The Vietnam Football Federation organized a public celebration in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday night to honor the Vietnamese U23 team for winning the 2022 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) U23 Championship. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Health officials in Hanoi have warned of rising COVID-19 infections in the Vietnamese capital city over the next weeks, which may also lead to an increase in hospitalizations and pressure on the healthcare system. Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Chu Ngoc Anh chaired a teleconference with grassroots-level authorities on Sunday to discuss pandemic prevention and control plans. Hanoi recorded an average daily jump of 9,226 from February 23 to 26, a sharp rise compared to only 5,128 cases several days earlier, deputy director of the citys Department of Health Nguyen Dinh Hung said at the meeting. The number of new patients will continue to climb in the coming weeks, Hung continued. Although the pandemic is still under control in the city, the surge in infections will result in rising hospitalizations, which puts more pressure on the local healthcare system, the official elaborated. Municipal and local authorities, as well as the political system, should exert more efforts to assist in the treatment of seriously-ill COVID-19 patients, especially children, according to Tran Thi Nhi Ha, director of the Hanoi health department. The number of severely-ill patients accounts for about five percent of the citys tally, Ha added. The health official called on local authorities to continue raising residents awareness of pandemic response measures. Chairman Anh believed that the city will face more difficulties and challenges in pandemic prevention and control in the coming time. Competent authorities have been expediting the genome sequencing process to look for the Omicron strain, which was designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern in November 2021. Although the final result has not been concluded, it appears that both the Delta and Omicron variants have been circulating in Hanoi, which explains the rapid spread of the virus, the chairman remarked. Hanoi has documented nearly 260,000 local infections since the fourth virus wave hit Vietnam in late April 2021. Nearly 6.1 million out of eight million people in the capital city have received their first vaccine dose, while more than 6.2 million have been jabbed twice, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! More than 100 police officers have been mobilized to hunt for a man who allegedly murdered his father over a conflict before running into a forest in Quang Binh Province, Vietnam last weekend. Nguyen Van Thuc, chairman of the Peoples Committee in Son Thuy Ward, Le Thuy District, confirmed on Sunday that local authorities were searching for Nguyen Van M., 33, the prime suspect in the murder of his father. Preliminary information showed that M. and his 67-year-old father, Nguyen Xuan D., had an argument at around 8:00 pm on Saturday. Their verbal confrontation eventually led to violence. M. ended up attacking his father with a machete. The victim later succumbed to the serious wound, while M. fled to a nearby forest. After being notified of the case, the local police unit mobilized over 100 officers to search for the suspect. M. still remained at large as of Sunday night. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Space News space history and artifacts articles Messages space history discussion forums Sightings worldwide astronaut appearances Resources selected space history documents advertisements Soviet shuttle carrier aircraft destroyed in Russian attack on Ukraine February 27, 2022 Russia's invasion of Ukraine has destroyed a "large" part of its own space history, with reports now confirming the fate of an enormous aircraft that was originally built to transport Soviet space shuttles. Once the world's largest flying machine by both wingspan and weight, the Antonov An-225 "Mriya" ("Dream") was parked in an open air hangar undergoing repairs at Hostomel (or Gostomel) airport, located to the northwest of Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv, when Russia launched its attack against the country on Thursday (Feb. 24). Four days later, the news came that the one-of-a-kind aircraft was no more. "The biggest plane in the world, "Mriya" (The Dream), was destroyed by Russian occupants on an airfield near Kyiv," the official Twitter account for the country of Ukraine reported on Sunday. The Antonov Company, which since 2001 has operated the AN-225 as a heavy-lift cargo freighter, also took to Twitter to say it could not confirm the aircraft's status. "Currently, until the AN-225 has been inspected by experts, we cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft," the company wrote. The news followed a string of unconfirmed reports that the Mriya had come under fire by Russian helicopters in an attack against the airport on Friday. The chief pilot for Antonov Airlines, the air transportation division of the Antonov Company, confirmed the attack but said that the aircraft was still intact in a post he made on Facebook that same day. "Hostomel airport now under Russian airborn [sic] forces," wrote Dmitry Antonov. "From the positive, Mriya is whole." Later, Radio Liberty circulated on social media a photo, possibly taken by a drone, showing a fire rising from a hangar that appeared to match the known location of the AN-225. Aircraft enthusiasts shared marked up versions of the image, labeling what could be the Mriya's engines protruding out from the hangar. Ukroboronprom, the state-owned defense corporation under which the Antonov Company operates, declared the AN-225 lost in a statement posted to its website on Sunday afternoon. "Russia has targeted Mriya as a symbol of the capabilities of Ukrainian aviation," the statement read. "The occupiers destroyed the plane, but they will not be able to destroy our common dream. She will definitely be reborn." "It is estimated that this will take more than $3 billion and more than five years. Our task is to ensure that these costs are covered by the Russian Federation, which caused intentional damage to Ukrainian aviation and the air cargo sector," the corporation's officials said. The history of the AN-225, with its 290-foot-long (88.4 m) wingspan, dates back to 1985, when it was built to replace and augment smaller aircraft for the purpose of delivering Energia rocket boosters and Buran-class space shuttle orbiters to their launch site. Similar in use but much larger than the modified Boeing 747 jetliners that served as NASA's two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the AN-225 carried the winged spacecraft piggyback. Of the two AN-225 aircraft to begin construction, only one was completed before the Soviet Union fell in 1991. The Buran program was cancelled two years later, having only launched a single uncrewed test flight in 1988. After sitting in storage for several years, the AN-225 was restored to flight as a heavy-lift cargo plane. In addition to flying payloads once considered too massive to transport by air, the AN-225 was also used to deliver emergency supplies to disaster relief areas. The aircraft was most recently used to fly medical supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The destruction of the AN-225 comes almost two decades after the only Buran to fly into space was also destroyed, the result of a hangar collapse in May 2002. The invasion into Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed on it as a result have also affected Russia's current activities in space, with Roscosmos deciding to pull its support for Soyuz launches from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana and dropping U.S. participation in the country's long-delayed Venera-D mission to study Venus. Russia's ongoing participation in the International Space Station has also been called into question, though both Roscosmos and NASA officials have said that the partnership on board the orbiting complex and at ground support stations is without change. The AN-225 Antonov "Mriya" ("Dream") aircraft was originally built to transport Soviet-era Buran space shuttles. (Antonov) The AN-225 Antonov "Mriya" ("Dream") aircraft was converted to a commercial cargo freighter in 2001. (Antonov) Purported image showing a fire rising from the AN-225's hangar at Hostomel airport in Ukraine after a Russian attack. (Radio Liberty) The Antonov AN-225 "Mriya" transports the Soviet-era Buran space shuttle orbiter piggyback, as the aircraft was originally designed to do. (Antonov) 2022 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved. Japans NHK public television reported on Sunday that a 35-year-old Vietnamese man was stabbed to death by another 20-year-old Vietnamese suspect at Japan Railways Asahikawa Station in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido Prefecture. A commuter reported to the police at around 4:40 pm on Sunday (local time) that someone had been stabbed with a knife at the premises of the Asahikawa train station. The victim was Vietnamese, 35 years old, and living in Asahikawa City, according to police officers. The man was taken to the hospital but later died. Police looked for a suspect who fled the scene based on footage from a security camera. The suspect is a Vietnamese man in his 20s, also living in Asahikawa and knowing the victim. The weapon has yet to be found. At around 8:00 pm on the same day, policemen arrested the suspect and brought him to the police headquarters for investigation. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! While Nine has been dropping Jaws from screens, and ABC even deleted a reference to sharks from Mad as Hell, Paramount+ is proceeding with a shark movie next week. The Requin stars Alicia Silverstone and James Tupper, set in Vietnam but shot in the US (horizon tank shots are very obvious). Theres terror in paradise when Jaelyn (Alicia Silverstone) and Kyle (James Tupper) arrive at a remote seaside villa in Vietnam for a romantic getaway. A torrential storm descends, reducing the villa to little more than a raft and sweeping the young couple out to sea. Suddenly, another danger appears: a school of great white sharks. With her injured husband watching helplessly, Jaelyn must battle the deadly predators alone in this tense thriller that rides an unrelenting wave of fear. Tuesday March 8 on Paramount+. SBS has made some changes to its programming, no doubt in response to international news. Nazi Megastructures: Russian War has been pulled from scheduling for three episodes. Saturday and Sunday episodes were replaced with 9/11: Control the Skies and Swamp Ghost episodes, while an upcoming episode this Saturday will now be The Tuskagee Airmen: Legacy Of Courage at 5:35pm. Meanwhile on SBS VICELAND on Wednesday is VICE News Tonight: Ukraine Special at 9pm. VICE were there as Russia began its full-scale attack on Ukraine. In this special, correspondents in Kyiv, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., breakdown how we got to this moment talking to soldiers at the front, families running for safety, and the remaining Russian opposition. Thursdays episode of Gaycation which was to showcase Ukraine is now headed to Washington DC for United We Stand, a repeat at 2pm. Last Friday SBS confirmed it would suspend NTV Moscow and Russia Today news bulletins after community feedback from the Australian Russian-speaking community. Russia Today bulletins are being replaced by Deutsche Welle English News. Amended. If More Than This is any indication, then Australian drama is in good hands with the next generation of storytellers. The series by the Australian Childrens Television Foundation is not only edgy, progressive and well-executed, its all written by teens for teens. Wow. Olivia Deeble (Little Lunch, Home & Away, Secret Society of Second-Born Royals) has co-created the series with Luka Gracie (Spin Out) and both have principal roles in the young ensemble. Whats unmistakeable here is the voice of authenticity. These kids are not sitting around and waiting for adults to tell their story, they are doing it for themselves. Like Skins did in the UK, More Than This immerses raw and confronting themes, including relationships, body image, sexuality, drugs, self-harm, masturbation, before a high school backdrop. There are five very diverse 17 year olds in this story, all fighting to belong and finding their voice. While the first episode introduces the group, subsequent episodes zero in on specific characters. All five are seconded to an English class with benevolent tutor Mr. E (Bert La Bonte). Charlotte (Olivia Deeble) is dealing with the fallout of her boyfriend Leon (Ellmir Asipi) having cheated on her with a classmate, Legs (Celine Ajobong). But as well as staying on top of her studies, she has to juggle her part-time job in a local cafe. Non-binary student Jamie (Luka Gracie) steps in at home when mum (Eve Morey) is run off her feet in a nursing job. While Jamie constantly looks after their little brother, finding a place to fit in at school does not come easily. But LGBTQI+ student Zali (Selena Brincat) welcomes them into a queer clique led by scene-stealing Benson (Oisin OLeary). Zali also has study challenges, especially with a demanding father, a girlfriend with growing jealousies, and a dark, private way of dealing with her anxiety. Then there is Alex (Kamil Ellis), repeating Year 12 and buying weed from uni drop-out Samuel (Josh Heuston). His mother is so focussed on her yoga and meditation that Alex is in his own spiral. But Mr. E sees flashes of himself in the teen and finds ways to earn his trust. The importance of learning from mistakes, unconditional love, being true to self are strong themes. There is defiance, rebelliousness, restlessness, isolation and energy all rippling underneath these half hour episodes. An opening scene of a hospital waiting room also suggests we are set for a crisis where someone has reached breaking point. Make no mistake, this is the edgiest show ACTF has ever made. Visually guided by director John Sheedy, writer Olivia Deeble has crafted a strong and distinct young posse who are instantly likeable. It would be unfair to single any out of these talented young principals, who all under-play their roles, wear their hearts on their sleeve and strive for honesty. The series is also produced by sisters Kate and Charmaine Gorman, who are clearly shepherding the work of Deeble (daughter of Kate) and Luka Gracie. More power to them. One area for improvement should this proceed to a second season would be to make the school scenes more populated. Clearly filmed in a pandemic, these look too spartan, and could benefit from some atmosphere FX. While shows like Euphoria and I May Destroy You are grabbing young viewers in a world where television is supposedly dying, More Than This is a breath of fresh of air. It deserves every success. More Than This screens Friday on Paramount+. Jo Lee Ferguson wishes she kept her maiden name - Hammer - because it was perfect for a reporter. Shes a local girl who loves writing about her hometown. She and LNJ Managing Editor Randy Ferguson have two children and a crazy husky. Follow Jo Lee Ferguson 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 Tyler, TX (75702) Today More clouds than sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. France is transferring 33 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Gerald Darmanin said. "Our duty is to help those who are fleeing the war. That is why France, thanks to the actions of the French Foreign Ministry and the French Interior Ministry, sends, in particular, 33 tonnes of materials to Ukraine and more than 30 tonnes to Moldova: tents, medicines, blankets," the official said on Twitter. By Allison Brace 22 The Dayton section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers honored Tam Nguyen with the 2021 Ravi PallerIa Memorial Award for Young Professionals for his technology-related contributions to artificial intelligence research. Nguyen, a University of Dayton assistant professor of computer science, was one of eight professionals to receive awards from IEEE Dayton for 2021. His research topics include computer vision, applied machine learning and multimedia content analysis. The PallerIa Memorial award is given annually to young professionals contributing to technology in engineering, business, management, marketing or law, within 15 years of their first graduate degree. Awardees receive a plaque and a monetary award from a fund donated by the family and friends of the late Ravi Pallerla and the Dayton IEEE section. It is a great honor to be the recipient of this award from IEEE Dayton, Nguyen said. This award means a lot to me because it has encouraged me to work harder and to achieve more in the near future. The Dayton section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is part of an international professional organization of electrical, electronic and computer engineers. It organizes technical, educational and scientific meetings and provides professional benefits to its members while contributing towards progress in the field. Nguyen was nominated for the award by engineering professor Vijayan Asari, Ohio Research Scholars Endowed Chair in Wide Area Surveillance and director of the Universitys Vision Lab. Dr. Tam Nguyen is an outstanding faculty member with great perspectives in teaching, research and mentoring, Asari said. He has an amazing capability to inspire his students to think in the right path and succeed in accomplishing the course objectives. Dr. Nguyen is very active in publishing his research outcomes with his students and collaborating colleagues in high impact factor journals and conference proceedings. In 2020, the National Science Foundation awarded Nguyen $248,338 to use artificial intelligence to monitor motor vehicle traffic in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and develop a simulation to help urban planners address traffic and infrastructure problems in the city of more than 8.9 million people. Nguyen and his research team are using data from Ho Chi Minh Citys network of 10,000 traffic cameras for real-time analysis of traffic flow, congestion and accidents. The process known as visual crowd-AI sensing will provide city planners with actual data for simulating infrastructure changes, such as adding a new bridge or changing the direction of a traffic lane, to determine their potential impacts. Last year, Lam Research Corporation awarded Nguyen and doctoral graduate Pengfei Guo $25,000 for fundamental research on artificial intelligence for silicon crystal growth. The research team, which also includes masters degree students Vatsa Patel and Shashi Adhikari, is using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the Czochralski dislocation-free single crystal growth process for Lam subsidiary Silfex. Headquartered in Eaton, Ohio, about 26 miles west of Dayton, Silfex is the worlds largest custom silicon growing facility. In addition to his research, Nguyen is an active member of the campus community. He has organized events for computer science students, including the Universitys Hackathon event. Nguyen frequently collaborates with faculty from the School of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. A member of IEEE since 2008, Nguyen has evolved within the organization through collegiate, professional and senior roles. Nguyen is the fifth recipient of the Pallerla Memorial Award since its inception in 2017. He received the award virtually in May 2021 during the annual IEEE Dayton Section Women in Engineering and Young Professionals Lecture and Awards Ceremony. Feng Ye, assistant professor in the School of Engineerings Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded the 2020 IPallerla Memorial Award. I hope I can work with students to conduct cutting-edge research in the field of computer science, to make computers smarter to better serve our life, Nguyen said. For more information, visit the Department of Computer Science website. ReportLinker Major companies in the aerospace support and auxiliary equipment market include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Reutech Radar Systems and Rockwell Collins. The global aerospace support and auxiliary equipment market is expected to grow from $28. New York, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Aerospace Support and Auxiliary Equipment Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240592/?utm_source=GNW 33 billion in 2021 to $30.29 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.9%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $38.16 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 5.9%. The aerospace support and auxiliary equipment market consist of sales of support and auxiliary equipment by entities (organizations, sole traders, or partnerships) that produce support and auxiliary equipment including commercial radars, air traffic control towers, satellites, and other auxiliary equipment. The market includes maintenance services provided by aerospace support and auxiliary equipment manufacturers during the equipments warranty period. The main types of aerospace support and auxiliary equipment are commercial radars and satellites.A commercial radar is a detection system used to detect the presence, direction, distance, and speed of the aircraft. The various forms of ownership include private, public and involve several platforms such as airborne, land, naval, space. Asia Pacific was the largest region in the aerospace support and auxiliary equipment market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. Rapid advances in wireless technology and miniaturization (which refers to designing smaller components for equipment) are expected to drive innovation in the defense market, thus driving the market during the forecast period.Furthermore, technologies such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics are being used during the manufacturing process, resulting in higher productivity, lower operating costs, and higher margins. Lower operating costs lead to higher margins, this allows companies to expand production and increase product portfolio, thus driving the growth of the aerospace support and auxiliary equipment market. Multi-Function Radio Frequency System (MFRFS) is increasingly being used for operational radar frequency ranges towards applications for broadband.The MFRFS is an electronically scanned radar system that can detect and track threats at a wider range. The wider frequency range enhances the survivability for combat missions in case of no visibility in both horizontal and vertical directions (zero-zero visibility condition).It also provides additional electronic warfare functionalities and gives the pilots the ability to land safely in adverse conditions. Raytheon and NCS are manufacturing radars with MFRFS technology. The countries covered in aerospace support and auxiliary equipment market report are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA, Venezuela and Vietnam. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240592/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 ReportLinker Report Scope: The scope of this investigation includes the major inorganic fertilizers that are currently being used for production of various crops, vegetables, fruits and various other agriculture products. New York, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium Fertilizers: Global Markets" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240565/?utm_source=GNW The study scope includes the major fertilizers that are being utilized for the agriculture production. Each fertilizer is analyzed based on its historic market in terms of volume to determine its market status, impact on future market segments and forecasted growth from 2021 through 2026. The analyst examines each market and its applications in crop, market projections and market volume share. This report mainly deals with the types of fertilizers and covers the total market for nitrogen fertilizer, phosphate fertilizers, and potash fertilizers.Influencing factors, including fertilizer production and efficiencies, fertilizer demand and supply, research on various fertilizers and industry structure, are also discussed. The analyst examines fertilizer companies and industry alliances, production, crop type and market-driving forces. Report Includes: - 358 data tables - An in-depth overview of the global market for fertilizers - Analyses of the global market trends, with historic data from 2020, estimates for 2021-2025, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2026 - Evaluation and forecast the overall fertilizers market size in value and volumetric terms, forecasted growth rate, and corresponding market share analysis by fertilizer type, crop type, raw material, and geographic region - In-depth information (facts and figures) concerning market drivers, market deterrents and other forces affecting the current and future market outlook - Country-specific data and market value analysis for the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Western Europe, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, Belarus, Iran, South Africa, Turkey, and other rest of the world countries - Identification of the trends, gaps and opportunities in the market, estimating current and future demand of fertilizers in various global markets - Review of the list of companies which are best positioned to meet this demand because of their proprietary technologies, strategic alliances or other advantages - Insight into recent industry structure, current competitive scenario, R&D activities, and regulatory and legislative issues currently focused on food and fertilizers industry ecosystem - Profile descriptions of the leading global players including Agrium, BASF, Cf Industries, The Mosaic Company, Safco Products Co., and Uralkaliy PAO (Uralkali PJSC) Summary: Mineral fertilizers and organic fertilizers are two types of fertilizers.Mineral fertilizers include mostly nitrogen (N), phosphate, and potash, and are also known as chemical fertilizers since they are manufactured by the chemical fertilizer industry. Although there are natural fertilizer resources, practically all N fertilizers are produced from nitrogen gas (N2) via the Haber-Bosch process. Phosphate fertilizers, on the other hand, are obtained from the acid attack of natural rocks, whilst potash fertilizers are refined from deposits of soluble potassium salts (e.g., potash ores and brines) Most organic fertilizers are derived from animal manures, either from the feces and urine of cattle animals or from the feces of poultry, either alone or in combination with bedding material (e.g., farmyard manure, chicken litter). Plant residues, municipal effluents and biosolids, and organic byproducts are some of the other sources. For thousands of years, organic manures and leguminous N fixation were the primary sources of nutrients for farmers, considerably contributing to agricultural productivity and soil quality. With the discovery of the Haber-Bosch process at the turn of the century, a fast-rising human population, and major improvements in agricultural science such as the Green Revolution, the usage of mineral fertilizers increased enormously. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240565/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Is Trident an effective deterrent, or a waste of public finances? VLADIMIR Putin has organised the Russian economy as such that financial sanctions wont hurt it. He has alliances with large neighbours where his country can export its goods. He has, with those countries, put in place a trading and banking system that means he doesnt have to deal in dollars and sterling. But above all, at a time when Europe is already struggling with its economy after Covid-19, and the current price shock for energy, he can simply turn off the gas supply and export to his neighbours. What do we have? Well, we have a nuclear arsenal that we cannot use because if we do, we will destroy the planet and everything on it that would be called shooting ourselves in the foot. Oh, and we have monthly debt repayments that would wipe out the debts of many economies around the world. Perhaps now our governmental masters will finally come to the conclusion that many of us reached decades ago nuclear weapons are a futile waste of resources. Anyone who points to 75 years of world peace is delusional Putin is proving the point that he can invade a country in spite of a nuclear threat. Finally, this is not about Nato membership, its about power, and Russias ability to flex its muscles. In 2014 he invaded the Donbas region and annexed Crimea and in the interim Ukraine still is not a member of Nato. Francis Deigman, Erskine. * UKRAINE voted 90 per cent in 1991 in favour of independence and, using its new-found democracy unilaterally disarmed. This was one-third of the former USSR's nuclear arms arsenal. There were 130 intercontinental ballistic missiles with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with 10 warheads each and 33 heavy bombers; 1,700 warheads were removed from Ukrainian soil. Had they retained them does anyone really believe Vladimir Putin would be invading right now? Peter Wright, West Kilbride. PUTIN SHOULD BE A TARGET I BELIEVE the excellent Jim Sillars (Letters, February 26) has read Vladimir Putin quite wrong. Story continues Russian fears about Nato are manufactured. The Russian people know nothing of those fears. Putin has become the froth on a tidal wave of his own lies. Manufactured crisis is not new among dictators gearing up for a war of aggression. Read 1939 and Poland's borders. The Russian people are not interested in imperial glory. Despite thousands of arrests they are protesting at fratricidal war. They are interested in freedom, peace and family. Putin is the commander in chief in a war which he started. He is therefore a legitimate target in the conduct of war, and whoever slays him shall render Russia and the world a service. Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland. GIVE PEACE A CHANCE IN the present fog of war, photographic evidence has emerged of tanks close to the Chernobyl protective sarcophagus. This project, completed a few years ago, is the result of international co-operation and engineering brilliance, resulting in an enclosing structure which seals the damaged reactor, and allows its safe decommission over a number of years. It is easy to destroy structures, especially in the heat of war; it is a much longer process to tidy up and make them safe, whether residential buildings or power stations. Serhii Plokhy has written about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, linking it directly to the downfall of the USSR: the news blackout, the lies, and the lack of advice on how to protect nearby residents, other than by mass evacuation. Once a nuclear station suffers irreparable damage, there's no reset possible. Chernobyl Children's Lifeline is a charity which helps Ukrainian and Belarussian children who grew up near the reactor. Years after the incident, children were still being born with heart defects ("Chernobyl heart") which can be remedied by heart surgery. As with the sarcophagus, international co-operation has helped. Any fool can start a war: it will take patience, statesmanship and a leavening of empathy on both sides to unravel the present mess. Vladimir Putin comes across as a sad and lonely man; it can be of little comfort to him that his war is (by his definition of Ukraine's status) a civil war. He need only look to America, where Donald Trump and others have raised the spectre of their Civil War of long ago. All we are saying is give peace a chance. Graeme Orr, Neilston. * I STILL remember as a young man in 1956 having tears in my eyes while listening to the desperate appeals of the Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy, later executed, as thousands died when Russian tanks rolled in to brutally suppress the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. Nothing changes and 66 years later we have another Russian dictator doing the same thing. The tears have returned. Alan D Stephen, Glasgow. ANOTHER ESCAPE FOR JOHNSON WE have a Prime Minister who has been interrogated by the police under caution (albeit in writing) for violating rules, regulations and even laws designed to limit the spread of Covid-19 that he himself had spelled out to the British public. These, it seems (so his defence now would assert), he didnt really fully understand. Just as the outcome of those investigations are about to be made public Vladimir Putin helpfully authorises a Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Suddenly all talk of the possible removal of the man (something only his own party can do) disappears. "How can we replace a leader in such circumstances?" his acolytes now chime in unison. No surprise there, that was an argument which had been publicly trailed by some of his more subservient ministers a week or more ago. Could there have ever been a Prime Minister who would have been hoping for the invasion of another country (with all the death and misery that will entail) to save his own skin? And then there was the dirty Russian money (his phrase) that was accepted from Russian allegedly pro-Putin oligarchssuch funding of British political parties is, of course, explicitly forbidden by law. But we have also been mistaken about that too. All those Russian oligarchs have, inevitably perhaps, managed to "obtain" (or buy?) British citizenship. That dual citizenship makes it all okay, evidently. So Boris Johnson will survive for another day however, how many of us will doubt that he will inevitably err again? But just what kind of crisis will he need to execute his escape the next time? Ian Graham, Erskine. PAYING PRICE OF BREXIT FOLLY WELL said, Paddy Crerar on the real effects the Brexit obsession is having on the Scottish tourist economy in general and the hospitality trade in particular ("Hotelier says xenophobic Brexit has created impossible situation", The Herald, February 23). Even more damning was Ian McConnells expose on the previous page of Jacob Rees-Mogg's peddling the extreme benefits of the Brexit folly ("Oblivious Rees-Mogg is living in Brexit fantasy land", The Herald, February 23). Clearly the latest Minister for Brexit really does live in Fantasy Land. On February 9 I wrote to my MP, Alister Jack, pointing out the damage Brexit was doing to our business two small, long-established shops in our region specialising in quality designer knitwear mainly from producers in Scotland and Ireland. We run with a small staff and my daughter deals with the office side of the business. Our experience of the hassle and unpredictable costs of deliveries from Ireland in particular are time-consuming and frustrating, not to mention the unreliability of sending online sales to Europe. Nor are we a big enough business to justify additional manpower to deal with the excessive paperwork and uncertainty of procedures that were once straightforward and sensible. Small individual businesses like ours are the bedrock of Scottish tourism, and it is an insult to our intelligence to keep telling us this situation has extreme benefits. In my letter, my concluding request to Mr Jack, as my MP, was to please consider these comments when we are being fed so much nonsense about the benefits of Brexit. I am still waiting for a response. Anne Shackleton, Kirkcudbright. PROBLEM WITH OUR LIST MSPs DO we have a problem with proportional representation as practised here in Scotland? In a democracy individuals have the opportunity to influence the laws that govern them by discussing their views with their elected MSPs. My constituency MSP is visible and easy to contact. I have recently tried to engage with four of my six list MSPs via email. So far two emails to each have met with zero response. Are they just going to vote along party lines on everything? What if there is no party line on an issue? How will they acquire knowledge of what the majority of the people in their region think? Its my understanding that list MSPs take a full MSP salary. Their votes carry equal weight in parliament yet they remain almost invisible to the general public. Can this be improved? Mrs R Slack, Glasgow. Read more: West will have to allay Russia's fears Accused Susie Zhao Killer Gets Hearing; Trial Pushed Back to September February 28 2022 Connor Richards Warning: The following article contains graphic details involving murder and sexual assault. The man accused of killing professional poker player Susie Zhao had a pretrial hearing last week and received a new trial date. Jeffery Bernard Morris, 61, faces two counts of felony murder in Michigans Oakland County Circuit Court for the alleged killing of Zhao, whose badly burned and mutilated body was discovered in a state recreation area in July 2020. As PokerNews reported last month, Morris trial was initially slated to begin in 2021 but underwent a series of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in counsel and a clerical error as the case was bound over to the Circuit Court. Morris, wearing an orange jumpsuit and with a cloth mask pulled over his chin, appeared at a pretrial hearing via Zoom on Thursday, Feb. 17, during which Oakland County Circuit Judge Martha Anderson scheduled a new trial date for Sept. 26. Before the new date was set, the trial had been scheduled to start on June 16, according to court documents. The Oakland Press reported that the later date had been requested by defense attorney Michael McCarthy, who replaced Pamela Johnson as Morris counsel in December 2021. My predecessor had the case for well over a year, said McCarthy, who in his request for a later date also noted that Morris had raised investigative issues that apparently werent raised before. Zhao, who grew up in Michigan after immigrating from China as a young child, was a regular in the Los Angeles poker scene and made appearances on the Bicycle Casinos Live at the Bike cash game stream. The 33-year-old accumulated $222,671 in live tournament earnings, including a 90th-place finish in the 2015 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $73,805. Susie Zhao Oakland prosecutors allege that Morris, a convicted sex offender with a violent criminal history, met Zhao at Sherwood Motel in Michigan in July 2020, where she was sexually assaulted, bound and lit on fire before she died. Zhao had recently moved back to Michigan after living in LA. Morris was charged with first-degree premeditated murder in September 2020, while a second murder charge was later added as details emerged in the case. He remains in custody in Oakland County Jail. PokerNews will continue to monitor the Zhao murder trial as the case moves forward. The Mystery Bounty format continued its run as a breakout hit among poker players, and on Sunday the knockout drum drew most of the attention all afternoon. Player breaks were especially busy, with runners lined up to take their draw while tournament directors stepped up their efforts to get as many bounties in as the break time would allow. Wynn Poker staff worked overtime to ensure a smooth bounty process, and they delivered once again with an exciting day full of big moments. Some of the mystery bounties contained a bonus draw, with $500 and the opportunity to reach back in for more. The highlight of the day came when Hung Tran spiked his redraw for the $100,000 top prize. The big numbers drew loud reactions from the slow-peeling players, followed by an announcement of the prize from Tournament Director Ray Pulford, and then a mixture of cheers and groans from the rest of the field. The other big bounties included five $50,000 prizes and eight $25,000 prizes, once of which was claimed by winner Eddy Konarske, who drew a total of nine envelopes from the drum during his dominating run on his way to a total payday of $260,072. The $1.5 million guaranteed Wynn Millions Mystery Bounty, a $1,600 buy-in tournament that ran from February 24-27, attracted 2,103 entrants over a trio of starting flights, creating a $1,997,850 prize pool in the process. On Sunday's Day 2, 228 players returned to the Las Vegas Strip casino to finish things off, and Konarske was the last person standing following a heads-up chop with Rambo Halpern, taking home $222,000 for his efforts. On top of the traditional prize pool, the tournament had a separate mystery bounty in play. After each elimination, the player with the winning hand would pull an envelope with the potential to win up to $100,000 for the bounty. There were three envelopes with the maximum bounty, along with four at $50,000. The minimum amount the players could receive was $500. All three of the $100k envelopes were snatched up long before the final table. Had one or more been in play, it's likely the final table action would have moved quickly as the players would have had some extra equity in play chasing that six-figure bounty. 2022 Wynn Millions Mystery Bounty Final Table Results Place Player Prize 1 Eddy Konarske $222,000* 2 Rambo Halpern $200,000* 3 Laszlo Nagy $119,863 4 Aaron Massey $90,901 5 Z Stein $67,327 6 Josh Light $52,223 7 Dennis Wilke $41,017 8 David Yokoyama $32,862 9 Harrison Ashdown $27,468 *Denotes a heads-up deal The Final Nine The final table began just before midnight after Eric Ward was eliminated in 10th place ($25,119). Early at the final table, Harrison Ashdown lost a race against Laszlo Nagy and was eliminated in ninth place ($27,468). David Yokoyama was the next out the door in eighth place ($32,862). Dennis Wilke, who had been the big stack for quite some time, ran into a rough patch and then lost a crucial race against Eddy Konarske to bust in seventh place ($41,017). Josh Light lost a race against Rambo Halpern to bust in sixth place ($52,223). On the ensuing hand, Z Stein finally put his small stack in the pot preflop and lost a race against Konarske. Stein took fifth place for $67,327. And then came the hand of the tournament. With Nagy down to less than half a big blind, he not only won an all-in to stay alive, but earned a $30,000 pay jump when Aaron Massey moved all-in with and was called by the biggest stack, Konarske, who had . The board ran out king-high and also a 4, which sent Massey home in fourth place ($90,901) instead of becoming the chip leader. Aaron Massey in the Wynn Mystery Bounty. Nagy busted the following hand but earned $119,863 for third place. Konarske and Halpern then began discussions on a chop, although Konarske held a 3:1 chip advantage. After some discussions, they agreed that Halpern would receive $200,000 and Konarske would get $222,000, putting an end to the exciting tournament. The Wynn Millions series continues this week, including the highly anticipated $10,000 buy-in Main Event, which guarantees at least $10 million in the pot. Last summer, the Wynn hosted that very same event and Andrew Moreno took it down for $1,460,106, beating out 1,328 entrants in the largest non-WSOP Main Event $10k in Las Vegas poker history. Click here for all of PokerNews' coverage of the 2022 Wynn Millions! Spring break camps Registration is underway for spring break camps at the Bledsoe-Miller, Dewey and South Waco community centers. Camps will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. March 7-11 for kids ages 5-13 at a rate of $70 per child. To sign up, call Bledsoe-Miller at 254-750-8684, Dewey at 254-750-8677 or South Waco at 254-750-8650. Mobile food pantry times Central Texas Food Bank mobile food pantry distribution locations this week: Wednesday: VA clinic, 4800 Memorial Drive, 10-11 a.m.; Word of Life Family Worship Center, 193 LCR 412, Groesbeck, 10-11 a.m. Friday: First United Methodist Church, 701 E. Texas Ave., Mart, 10-11 a.m.; Kosse Community Center, 200 W. Adams St., Kosse, 10-11 a.m. For more information, call 512-684-2509. COVID-19 vaccinations The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District is hosting free COVID-19 vaccination clinics Monday. All vaccines will be available. Parents or a consenting adult must accompany their minor children to receive the vaccine. Walk-ins are welcome. Monday schedule: Goodwill Industries, 1700 S. New Road, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Lake Air Montessori Magnet School, 4601 Cobbs Drive, 4 to 7 p.m. Hewitt blood drive Baylor Scott & White Hewitt Clinic is hosting a blood drive from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday at 1001 Hewitt Drive in the parking lot on the Carter BloodCare bus. For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact Angela Hykel at 254-202-7844. Waco Rotary Club Noted Waco-based economist Ray Perryman will speak about the local, state, national and world economies at the Waco Rotary Club meeting at noon Tuesday at the Baylor Club. The meeting is free, but reservations are required at wacorotary@gmail.com. Submit printed or typed items to Briefly, P.O. Box 2588, Waco, 76702-2588; or email goingson@wacotrib.com. KEARNEY The person who coined the phrase you can never go home again never spoke with Tom Roeder. Roeder and his wife, Marta, spent most of their married life as vagabonds, chasing down job opportunities. Marta was a teacher and Tom was an accountant, and both said the times were rare when one or both of them werent commuting. Most of the time Marta answered the call for teaching opportunities, but Tom also had career opportunities that came with daily doses of windshield time. All of that commuting and moving they lived in 10 different towns came to a screeching halt about one year ago. Toms mother had passed away and he and Marta had an opportunity to live in Kearney, in the 2700 block of Avenue I in east Kearney in Toms boyhood home. The house was built in 1955 and was a modest 950 square feet. Before Marta and Tom moved in, they spoke with architect Keith Eschliman and decided that Toms boyhood home would become their forever home, but first it needed some upgrades. After Eschliman came up with a roomier, more functional floor plan, the Roeders handed the project to John McCarter of Husker Tech Construction in Overton. Everything is low maintenance, which is what we wanted, Marta said. The Roeders invested in more space, the exterior is sheathed in long-life quality siding, and theres a driveway as wide as an aircraft carrier for easy take-offs and landings. After trips to the market, Tom and Marta can easily unload their vehicle from the shelter of their double garage. Indoors, new kitchen appliances make food preparation more pleasurable. Theres plenty of storage space in beautiful sage-colored Shaker cabinets. A generous center island topped in quartz gives Marta and Tom plenty of space for food preparation. After living in many different places in south-central Nebraska, the Roeders could employ a lot of decorating and floor plan ideas they picked up along the way, Their trail began with a spell in Kearney. In chronological order, the couple then moved to Grand Island, Fullerton, Gretna, Fullerton, Grand Island, Central City, Clarks, Aurora and Fullerton. They moved into their enlarged and remodeled Kearney home in November. Were gypsies, Tom said about living in so many communities. He said for the final move, we wanted to be in a larger town with health care. Were excited to be back. Marta was an art instructor, so she looked forward to decorating their home. She chose simplicity for the look and functionality for the materials. The palette is earthy, with gray being the dominant color. The sage kitchen cabinets are a pleasing complementary color, while white elements turn up the contrasting brightness. Marta and Tom treated themselves to a luxurious master bath. For him, theres a roomy walk-in shower. Marta enjoys a daily soak in a sit-down tub. Visitors might not discover the well-planned look of the interior immediately, but a few minutes of casually observing things unveils a lot of subtle details. Husker Tech produced a quality build that shines through with perfect drywall and handsomely installed wood flooring. Windows are high quality, with retracting shades sandwiched between twin panes of glass. Its just a snap to darken a room or to brighten it, and Marta said theyll never have to purchase curtains. I love the details the cupboards and the quartz countertops and its easy to clean. A few details are still are on the checklist for interior decorating. One element stands in a place of honor: a china cabinet that Toms father, Dale Roeder, built for Marta. Dale enjoyed many hours tinkering in a detached garage/workshop that is heated and has plumbing. Marta and Tom currently are storing a few possessions in the workshop. They said one of the items on their to-do list is installing a lawn sprinkler system and sodding the front and back yards. Asked if they overlooked any details or would do anything differently, the Roeders said they feel proud and satisfied with their home. I like the openness and simplicity, Tom said. We are so very happy with this house, Marta added. And the best part is I wont have to spend the rest of my life commuting. Major John R. Young describes maximum range mission tactics in Ray Merriams book Fighter Tactics in the Southwest Pacific Area. The mission Young describes involved a long-range fighter sweep to clear a target area ahead of a B-24 Liberator bomber force. The target was 835 statute miles from their base at Morotai, Netherlands East Indies. This necessitated hanging three external drop tanks on the units P-47s: two wing-mounted 165 gallon tanks and a 75 gallon centerline tank. The Thunderbolts on this extreme range mission drew fuel from the large wing tanks until they were emptied or combat necessitated dropping them. Interestingly, to return home from a long range mission like this, the pilots would not drop their centerline 75 gallon tank during combat. This was a highly unusual practice because, in almost all other cases during WWII, aircraft punched their drop tanks immediately when combat was imminent. Dropping tanks had several desirable outcomes; it improved flight performance and maneuverability, and also greatly reduced vulnerability to fire or explosion should these tanks take hits from enemy munitions. In fact, if a drop tank failed to detach during such circumnstances, the pilot was usually ordered to return to base rather than engage in combat with the tank still attached. However, on a maximum-range mission, it would prove impossible to return to base without using the remaining fuel in the P-47s centerline tank, so the risk was deemed worth taking. It is also likely that opposition to such protocol at this late stage in the war was far less fierce than it had been when Japans cadre of fighter pilots comprised a force of experienced veterans. By late 1944, many of Japans remaining fighter pilots were very green, and therefore less of a threat. While it isnt clear from Major Youngs account as to precisely which P-47 variant he was flying at the time, it was most likely a D-25, with slightly increased internal fuel capacity in comparison to the D-23 version. In the same book, Captain Leroy Grosshuesch of the 39th Fighter Squadron describes another mission. He specifically mentions the P-47D-16, D-21, and D-23s as having their range stretched to a 750 mile radius of action, with about 15 minutes available for combat in the target area. The comparison between the superior maneuverability and inferior armament and pilot protection of the Japanese fighters along with the P-47s superior armament, its ability to dive, to survive significant damage, to protect the pilot, and the achieve high speed in level flight dictated the tactics in the arena. Grosshuesch explained that once the enemy was sighted, he always tried to position himself and his formation above and behind the target aircraft. The P-47s would then make a diving pass on the enemy, firing as they went. Capt. Grosshuesch told his men to maintain speeds up to 200 miles an hour at all times in combat and to never chop the throttle. One good burst will finish him anyway. My advice is if you dont get him on your first pass, pull off to the side and climb at 200 mph. After you have altitude, come back and do it again. Grosshuesch also mentioned that he would never refuse a head-on pass, because the P-47s superior firepower of eight .50 caliber guns would take care of that. Dear Amy: Two weeks ago, my husband, who was not being careful enough, came down with COVID-19. I duly reported this to the person who is in charge of a weekly outdoor gathering I attend with some other people. I said that we were taking serious precautions to ensure that I didnt catch the disease, and that I had tested negative for the past five days. I wasnt surprised that my offer to skip the meeting that week was accepted. I was distressed, however, to discover that the organizer had still included me in the group text announcing the event. (Our gathering is dependent on weather and other factors and hadnt occurred for some weeks.) It was painful to see all the outcries of joy from the other members that we would be meeting. Despite the measures I took to remove myself from the group text, I continued to receive messages. This week I was again included in the group text, then privately contacted to query my testing status. I reported that I had tested negative eight times, but was asked to verify negative results for both me and my husband. I said that our doctors office had told my husband not to waste a test because he would probably show being positive for some weeks, even though he was no longer contagious per CDC advisories. I understand that people are worried about COVID, but is it wrong to expect some common courtesy? If someone is not really invited to an event, isnt it cruel to include that person in a group text? Lonely Dear Lonely: I assume your main question is about the utility of excluding someone from an outdoor event who consistently tests negative for COVID for many days leading up to the event. To me it seems overly cautious to keep someone who doesnt have COVID away from an outdoor activity but these are the rules laid down by the organizer, and you are conscientiously adhering to these guidelines. You are displaying common courtesy by being honest. In terms of this group texting issue yes, it hurts that you cant join the activity, but you are part of the group and it is appropriate to include you in notifications, even if you cant be there. Furthermore, I suspect that if you werent included in notifications, you might feel even more hurt and excluded. This is a temporary but tough thing for you to experience, and after two pandemic years of facing other tough things, it might hurt a little more than it should. Dear Amy: My dad has built incredible things, including a garage and an addition on his home. He has remodeled neighbors homes and made some remarkable, high-quality projects. This is his hobby. He has never charged anyone for helping them; they get the supplies, and he shows up to help. He has freely given his time and talents for neighbors and friends. I recently talked to him about a built-in wall project for my own home. A few weeks later he called me to say he had some free time and could help me with the built-ins. After some planning, he mentioned how much less he is charging me than another contractor would, and how he didnt need me to give him the money for supplies upfront, because hed include it on my invoice. Is it presumptuous of me to think my dad would help me build something if I cover the costs for all of the materials? I thought my dad would want to give his time helping his daughter. I never ask him for anything and was stoked when he called and said he had time to help, but our last conversation left me deflated. Frustrated Daughter Dear Frustrated: Your father wasnt specific regarding charging you for his time and talent. And it seems that he is advancing you the cost of the material. Please, ask him to be specific, and then talk about it, using a neutral tone and adopting a non-defensive attitude. If you decide to go ahead with the project, go with him to select materials, and assist him in the building. Dear Amy: Your sweet and helpful response to Frustrated on how to understand and relate to fellow fourth-graders brought tears to my eyes. I have a quirky and somewhat awkward son who could have written that question. Im going to share your answer with him tonight. Grateful Mom Dear Grateful: I thought Frustrated was very brave and cool to describe this. You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WATERLOO A Minnesota man tossed a pistol from his vehicle during a Sunday morning chase that ended in a crash on a highway overpass. The Iowa State Patrol arrested Michael Deon Adair, 18, of Saint Paul, on charges of eluding, carrying weapons and possession of a controlled substance. He was also ticketed for speeding and a window tint violation. The chase started shortly before 9:30 a.m. when a state trooper attempted to stop Adails Dodge Challenger for speeding on Interstate 380/U.S. Highway 218 near mile marker 64. The Dodge accelerated to speeds of up to 150 mph in a 65 mph zone and began weaving in and out of traffic, passing other vehicles on the shoulder, according to court records. The fleeing vehicle ran a red light at Mitchell Avenue, colliding with another motorist. The driver allegedly tossed a .45-caliber Glock handgun from the window and continued on down the highway, records state. The Dodge struck a second vehicle on the overpass above downtown Waterloo, causing an injury to the other motorists arm, records state. The crash tore a wheel from the Dodge, which the crashed into a barrier. Adail was detained, and police found marijuana and THC edibles in the vehicle. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 3 Sad 0 Angry 2 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Editors note: IowaWatch in a year-long investigation found that although each state is required to identify the bottom-scoring 5% of Title I schools every three years, it doesnt mean these schools are failing, as some Iowa policymakers label them. Iowas 34 schools are on a comprehensive list. IowaWatch is featuring some of them. Middle school has always been a time of change, but in 2021 the ability to adapt and persevere not just through adolescence, but through a global pandemic, showed just how determined kids can be. In todays age at the middle school level we truly have to be adaptive, said Sheena Canady, principal at George Washington Carver Academy in Waterloo. Our kids have changed dramatically from when I experienced school. Our families are changing, our communities are changing. Whenever theres change, theres an opportunity for new learning for everybody. George Washington Carver Academy is Iowas first STEM middle school, named after the famous agricultural scientist and inventor. Sixth through eighth grades are taught there. The academy was listed as comprehensive, but has met its comprehensive status within two years. The schools overall score is 47.03; the state average is 54.94. Bottom 5% Iowas 34 comprehensive schools are the Title I schools that score in the bottom 5% in the state based on students performance on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress test, and/or for high schools, have a graduation rate below 67.1%. In Iowa, 42.4% of all students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches. At Carver Academy, that number is 88.1%. The school also has a higher percentage of English-language learners (8.2%), students with disabilities (21.6%), and minorities (81.3%) than state averages. I believe that all students can learn at a high level. I do believe there are some barriers to access for some of our kiddos, and thats based on a lot of things, Canady said. Some of those things, like the socio-economics of a community, are out of educators control. But others, like teacher quality, professional development opportunities and leadership, are in their control. And those are the things staff at the school are focused on, she said. After the schools comprehensive designation, the first priority was to continue building a solid environment for students to learn. Second was focusing on making sure universal instruction was high quality. Finally, staff looked at all the supplemental needs students have, making sure those were being met. Sense of urgency After the school was listed as comprehensive, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted those needs even more. The pandemic has placed a sense of urgency on educating the whole child, and meeting kids where they are, and wearing the many hats of being an educator. Its no longer just walking into a classroom and being able to teach the curriculum and do nothing else; theres a special emphasis being placed on authentic relationships and understanding what our kids truly need holistically, and not that that wasnt a thing prior, its just that the need is more obvious, Canady said. Social-emotional learning for students and for staff has come to the forefront, she said. The pandemic just placed us in a position of stress and need for nurturing and support and understanding, so weve done a bit of work with social-emotional learning for the adults as well. Because in order to educate well, you have to take care of yourself, Canady said. With a comprehensive status comes special funding to make changes. Not that Im opposed to having the money, but Im a firm believer that quality education can happen with a certain amount of resources, she said. Not all financial And not all resources are simply financial. Beyond quality staff and curriculum, Im thinking about quality relationships, Im thinking about quality family involvement and community involvement in the schools. The money thing is temporary. Our learning that results from having this additional money needs to be permanent. General funding is also an important issue, and its concerning when lawmakers propose things like vouchers that would funnel taxpayer dollars to private schools and away from public schools, she said. Charter school legislation passed last year in Iowa, but Senate File 159, which would have created the Student First Scholarship Program, did not. It has been brought back in the 2022 legislative session. I know that this is going to be a conversation that we have to address as a district moving forward to ensure we continue providing that quality education to all students, not just certain types of students, Canady said. Any time you talk money in public education and the loss of funding and resources, it becomes a concerning or a contentious place for me as a building leader, because in order to run a school, again, you have to have staffing, you have to have resources. Failing stigma Schools listed as comprehensive being thrust into political debates is difficult, not just for staff, but for middle schoolers who are more in tune with current events than younger children might be. Nobody wants to be a part of the title failing, she said. In a building like Carver we have additional hurdles to overcome, we have additional work on most days to do to put our students in a position of success and our community in a position of success. Our kids hear that too, right? I go to a failing school. What does that mean or suggest to them as individuals? I think we have an obligation as a community of adults to celebrate the things our kids are doing well. Schools like George Washington Carver have to balance challenging students academically with also giving kids opportunities to take pride in their individual talents and achievements. I work, personally, every day, to convince our kids that they are great individuals and they have a lot to offer this world, and we all learn at different rates, and we all have baggage and barriers. Our job is to help them overcome those barriers and arrive at a point of great success, Canady said. If I could replace the word failing with something, I would say not yet there, because I think that creates a sense of opportunity for growth and its also realistic. Not a single one of our students in this building is failing, and our building as a whole is not failing. Leah McBride Mensching is a freelance reporter for IowaWatch. She has worked as a reporter, editor, photographer and media researcher over the past 15 years, both as an independent journalist and as an editorial manager for WAN-IFRA, the global organization of the worlds press. She earned a bachelors degree in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University and a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Thanks to the high prices they command, avocados are sometimes referred to as 'green gold.' Jose Castanares/AFP via Getty Images To the relief of avocado lovers from coast to coast, the recent drama between the United States and Mexico was fleeting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned imports of the fleshy fruit from Mexico on Feb. 11, 2022, after an employee of its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, who was working in Mexico, received threats after refusing to certify a mislabeled shipment of avocados. With only a two- to three-week supply stored in American warehouses, any extended disruption to the avocado pipeline would have been quickly felt. Eight days later, the ban was lifted, and cooks could resume smashing avocados into guacamole, blending them into smoothies and smearing them onto bread without trepidation. Yet to me, this disruption however brief reveals just how reliant the U.S. has become on its neighbor for a product that has seen its demand soar. When I was working on my book Avocado: A Global History, I was struck by the extent to which this lucrative trade has evolved over the past 25 years, making it an attractive business possibility for both legitimate and criminal enterprises. Mexicos cash crop Avocados from Mexico have been fueling Americas taste for the fruit since 1997, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a 1914 import ban, which originally was implemented due to fears over pests like seed weevils infesting U.S. crops. At the time, Southern California produced about 90% of the avocados eaten by Americans. Since then, per capita avocado consumption in the U.S. has ballooned from 2 pounds in 2001 to nearly 8 pounds in 2018. This increase in the popularity of avocados, coupled with the limitations of domestic sources, has allowed Mexican avocados to dominate the American market. Today, Mexico specifically, the Mexican state of Michoacan, which is the only state certified to sell the fruit to the U.S. supplies about 80% of the 60 million pounds of avocados eaten north of the border each week. Avocados are sometimes referred to as green gold because of the price they command in international commodity markets. Exports of avocados from Mexico were valued at nearly US$3 billion in 2021, ahead of both tequila and beer, two other popular Mexican exports. The average price of an avocado is up 10% from a year ago; during the brief ban, the price of a carton of the fruit catapulted to nearly $60, up from around $30 a year ago. Currently, less than 1% of avocados eaten in the U.S. come from places other than Mexico and the U.S. Countries like Peru and Colombia also produce the fruit. Cartels want their piece of the pie In Mexico, the high profit margins of the avocado trade attracted the interest of crime cartels, and those operating in Michoacan began to infiltrate the avocado business more than 20 years ago. As various cartels have vied for control of the avocado industry, violence and extortion have escalated in the region. In the beginning, cartels were content to extort farmers, packers and exporters in essence, taxing them for the ability to do business without interference from the cartels. Members of a self-defense group guard an avocado plantation from drug cartels in the state of Michoacan, Mexico. Enrique Castro/AFP via Getty Images But a bloody turf war has intensified in recent years. In 2019, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel killed nine people in Uruapan, Michoacans hub of avocado distribution, hanging their corpses from a prominent overpass in the city. They dumped seven more bodies on the side of a road, leaving a banner at the scene that taunted a rival gang, the Viagras. There are even reports of cartels using drones to drop bombs as part of their efforts to control the economy of the region. Threats directed at inspectors have happened before. While no individual cartel has been directly tied to a specific threat, U.S. officials seem to think the threats are linked to increased cartel participation in the avocado trade. In 2019, a team of USDA inspectors working in Ziracuaretiro, a city just west of Urupan, were robbed and threatened with violence. Later that year, the USDA wrote a memo stating it would suspend inspection activities if threats of physical violence and intimidation against inspectors continued. After the most recent threat, the USDA referenced this memo when announcing the temporary import ban. The Hass holds all the cards Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador dismissed the notion that the suspension was due to cartels associated with the avocado trade. Instead, he blamed unspecified political interests in the U.S. and pressure from other countries who want a share of the lucrative American avocado market. One of the reasons the U.S. began allowing Mexican avocados to be imported over the objection of domestic growers was NAFTA. The U.S. wanted the ability to send corn and other agricultural goods to Mexico under the rules of the 1994 free trade agreement. But the Mexican government demanded some sort of agricultural export quid pro quo to help balance trade between the two countries, and avocados were ripe for the job. The recent brief disruption underscores the risks of being so heavily reliant on a product that comes from one region in one country thats rife with violence and corruption. Yet it isnt easy to simply open up an avocado spigot from another country. Americans really prefer just one variety of avocado: the Hass, which is the type imported from Mexico. While the U.S. allows Hass avocado imports from Peru and Colombia, wholesalers prefer not to sell them because theyre thought to be lower quality. Hass is the dominant variety grown in California, too, but American growers cant grow nearly enough to meet the demand. Greenskin avocados, which are grown in Florida and the Caribbean, along with many other countries, arent nearly as popular with consumers due to textural differences and the fact that they dont change color to indicate when they are ripe. Greenskin avocados could ease U.S. dependence on Mexican avocados, but until they gain acceptance by avocado eaters, they wont help wean Americans off the Hass avocados grown in Michoacan. Avocados might be a source of political tension, but their unicorn status as a creamy, delicious food thats considered healthy makes most people willing to put politics aside and pass the guacamole. ___ Jeffrey Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. ___ Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Some contend in attempting to understand Russian conduct we confront over Ukraine that the country has a national case of paranoia. I respectfully suggest it is not paranoia, but a collective feeling reflecting a persecution complex. Russia is a country that has seen three foreign invasions, but it is not just military adventures that foster this outlook on life. For most of the population, life under the czars was miserable. You can see this in the writings of the authors of the 19th century, like Anton Chekhovs short stories and the Ivan Turgenev novel Fathers and Children. Place on top of this heritage the brutality of Stalins reign and the modern experience of living with a chaotic and non-functioning economic system, and national pessimism naturally arises. For example, when the Soviet Union collapsed our 41st President George H.W. Bush had Congress pass the Freedom Support Act. Because I had previously introduced similar legislation, I served as the whip in the House of Representatives. It provided food and technical assistance to not only Russia but also the newly independent states. This aid was needed because of the very unstable conditions in a superpower with nuclear weapons. Later, former Vice President Walter Mondale and former President Richard Nixon created a private voluntary organization called the Fund for Democracy and Development. It provided $400 million in aid to the former Soviet Union, one-half to create a small business revolving loan fund and one half in Food for Peace butter. Half the butter was stolen before it could be distributed, and half the money disappeared as well. The money was later found in a bank in Australia. This corruption carried over into the new independent countries. Eduard Shevardnadze, second president of the Republic of Georgia, asked me, and I agreed, to serve as the first president of Shevardnadze Foundation of the USA. My counterpart was the former mayor of Tbilisi. Our goal was to find both private and public funding for Georgia as it made the transition to a market economy, and we had some success. I went to his apartment and had dinner with his family. Upon leaving, we stood in the parking lot and talked. Some days later the former mayor left his house, went to about where we stood and six gunmen carrying automatic rifles shot him dead. His honor was not only the former mayor, but he was also head of the Georgian mafia. What does it say about a people that would steal food from their own starving people? Back then, in Russia, you had to have a passport proving you lived in Moscow to purchase goods at the grocery store. Even though most of the food products in the store an Iowa farmer would not feed to their hogs. In the restaurant in Tbilisi, the center table was covered with cold cuts, rolls, and butter. The various meats were spoiled, the bread hard and the butter rancid. Yet the guests were putting it all on their plates. Russians experience as individuals, because of its history, has morphed into their foreign policy. Rules of international affairs have no standing. The Kremlin seeks only gain in negotiations. The best agreements are ones in which Moscows needs are met and their opponents forgotten. Honesty is not a commodity they carry with them; they will maintain the most extreme positions until the very end. Arms control talks like SALT I, SALT II and START only came about because they could not afford to continue the arms race. Finally, to understand them, best look to what Suzanne Massie, the noted historian, related in her epic work Land of the Firebird. She wrote about the fable of a Russian weaver who could make the finest embroidery but would not leave her village to weave for others. When she turned down an evil sorcerer, he turned her into a bird of brilliant colors. She tried to fly away. He turned himself into a falcon and crushed her in his talons. The feathers fell to the ground. The glowing rainbow feathers can still be seen today, but only if you look for beauty. The modern leaders of Russia cannot find the feathers because they cannot see beauty. History denies them that gift. Dave Nagle is a Waterloo attorney and former U.S. congressman. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Jury service is one of the most important civic duties you can perform. Soon you can serve as a juror to determine whether Iowas voter suppression law, signed March 8, 2021, by Gov. Kim Reynolds, which was brought into law not by the request of Iowa citizens but at the pleading of right-wing think tanks, Fortune 500 companies and industry trade groups, is fair and balanced. Lets start with 11 facts: 1. In 2021, 25 states expanded voting access while Iowas GOP imposed massive voting restrictions. 2. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Iowas 2021-enacted voting bill undertakes a full-fledged assault on voting. 3. Heritage Action, Heritage Action for America and Heritage Foundation who wrote many Trump administration policies along with American Legislative Exchange Council, submitted model voter suppression legislation for Iowas GOP to adopt (Mother Jones, May 18, 2021). 4. Since 2015, over 225 of the Fortune 500 companies plus numerous industry trade groups who support voter suppression laws gave a combined $86 million to state legislators for GOP re-election coffers (Public Citizen). 5. During the 2020 election, only 16 incidents of voter fraud within 159 million ballots cast (0.00001%) occurred (Washington Post, May 4, 2021). 6. During a 14-year time period, there have only been 31 credible allegations of voter I.D. impersonations out of approximately 1 billion ballots cast; 0.0000031% (Brennan Center for Justice). 7. On Feb. 14, 15 Iowa-based not-for-profit and nonpartisan organizations presented 5,718 signatures of Iowa voters from 333 different Iowa zip codes requesting Iowas GOP-controlled Capitol change portions of two sections (SF413 and SF568) of the newly invoked voting law. Not one Republican legislator, GOP staff member or Gov. Reynolds attended the public event to listen to the concerns of their constituents. 8. Iowas new law shortens the time period to vote by 31%, invites political party interference for future elections, makes elections more difficult to administer, reduces the availability of polling places and citizens could face criminal charges for returning ballots on behalf of disabled voters (Brennan Center for Justice). 9. Mark Stringer, executive director of Iowas ACLU, notes 1 million of the 1.7 million Iowans (~59%) who voted in the 2020 election did so by absentee ballot. Despite a clean and secure election, the Legislature and governor enacted a law to limit absentee balloting, which defies reason. Stringer contends legislators should support, protect and defend voters, not limit voting opportunities (Feb. 14). 10. More than 600 duly-registered voters did not vote in the 2021 election due to Iowas new jump-through-the-unnecessary-hoops absentee ballot restrictions (survey of county auditors). 11. Terese Grant, president, League of Women Voters of Iowa, received an e-mail from a fellow Iowan. The lady was hospitalized before the November 2021 election, inquired of the courthouse what Saturday she could vote, was told citizens werent allowed to do that and it was too late to send her a mail-in ballot. For the first time in 42 years, she did not vote. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: What say ye? Are Iowas GOP elected officials guilty of unnecessary voter suppression? Do you think Republican officeholders truly care to even listen to Iowans concerns about the anti-voting legislation? Are our GOP civil servants negligent or ignoring the facts about voting fraud and voter ID impersonations? My verdict: Iowas Republican legislators and governor are guilty of purposeful voter suppression. Their lemming, kowtowing legislative behavior to think tanks, corporate and industry trade groups over Iowans who they were elected to represent is appalling, inexcusable and void of any Iowa Nice attribute. Tuesday, Nov. 8, cant come soon enough for voters to elect Iowa legislators and a governor who value expanded voting access versus voter suppression. Steve Corbin is an emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and former Denver Board of Education member. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect those of the University of Northern Iowa. Since 2015 the U.S. has directly participated in the war in Yemen without authorization from Congress. This is a violation of Article I of our Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973 which grants Congress the power to declare war and authorize U.S. military involvement A year ago, President Biden announced he would withdraw U.S. support from the Saudi-led coalitions offensive operation in Yemen. However, last year the administration provided Saudi with over $1 billion in weaponry and continues to provide logistical support essential to their bombings. Hundreds of indiscriminate airstrikes have taken place killing civilians and damaging civilian infrastructures. Restricted access to food, fuel and medicine has resulted in over 16 million Yemenis living on the edge of starvation and over 2 million children suffering from acute malnutrition leading to slow and painful deaths. The only way to end our complicity in this war is for Congress to act and reassert its authority over when and where our country goes to war. I urge Rep. Ashley Hinson to support the introduction and passage of a Yemen War Powers Resolution. Mary Reinking, Oelwein Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The vaccines On Jan. 24, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson held a roundtable with world renowned medical experts on COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and safety. Data was reviewed from the Department of Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) provided by three military whistleblowers: Dr. Samuel Sigoloff, Dr. Peter Chambers, and Dr. Theresa Long. The data showed a significant increase in registered diagnoses on DMED for miscarriages, cancer, and many other medical conditions in 2021 compared to a five-year average from 2016-2020. In Johnsons Feb. 1 letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, there were 15 other medical conditions cited, the first 10 as follows: hypertension (+2,181% increase), nervous system diseases (+1,048%), malignant neoplasms of esophagus (+894%), multiple sclerosis (+680%), malignant neoplasms of digestive organs (+624%), Guillain-Barre syndrome (+551%), breast cancer (+487%), demyelinating (+487%), malignant neoplasms of thyroid and other endocrine glands (+474%), and female infertility (+472%). The military and online fact-checkers now claim the DMED data was wrong during the years 2016-2020. But how could errors get fixed for 2021 that werent revealed until 2022? Why the coverup? Perhaps because COVID vaccine mandates are not about health. Jeffery Fischels, Cedar Falls Speed cameras The Trumpublicans failed to get speed cameras banned in years passed, so now they have a clever plan to regulate/neuter them to make them ineffective so they cannot ticket anyone unless they are 20 mph over the speed limit. They think they are such good Christians because they force women to carry pregnancies/burdens that came from rape or incest. Theyll never know or see such women they dump their tyrannical, oppressive laws on, and they dont have to carry such burdens in their own bellies. Anyone should tell these phony pro-lifers the victims of speed and careless driving are just as dead as aborted fetuses. But they want to get rid of enforcement cameras and sensible speed limits because they might get zapped themselves, and they get their election funding from big money/big trucking/big business, and because time, profits and schedule are more important than the lives that get snuffed out from more speed. The only narrow-minded thing they know is their tyrannical control over womens wombs. Theyre the worst hypocrites I know. Google search for intelligent speed adaptation, a system where the vehicles computer is linked to GPS and cannot exceed the speed limit on any roads. The speed limit could even be reduced during adverse weather and road conditions. A much better system than cameras. Radar detectors would be of no use to drivers. Police would be free to enforce other laws, but I know these phony pro-lifers would blow their fuses at such a proposed pro-life system. They ballyhoo about intrusion of freedom. Freedom to them means the right to run over other lives. Herman Lenz, Sumner Simple song Just listened to a song performed by Anne Murray called A Little Good News Today. It was performed in 2003. Nearly 20 years later our problems in this world appear to be the same only the names have changed. When will we figure this out? John Knudsen, Denver Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Trumpublicans failed to get speed cameras banned in years passed, so now they have a clever plan to regulate/neuter them to make them ineffective so they cannot ticket anyone unless they are 20 mph over the speed limit. They think they are such good Christians because they force women to carry pregnancies/burdens that came from rape or incest. They'll never know or see such women they dump their tyrannical, oppressive laws on, and they don't have to carry such burdens in their own bellies. Anyone should tell these phony pro-lifers the victims of speed and careless driving are just as dead as aborted fetuses. But they want to get rid of enforcement cameras and sensible speed limits because they might get zapped themselves, and they get their election funding from big money/big trucking/big business, and because time, profits and schedule are more important than the lives that get snuffed out from more speed. The only narrow-minded thing they know is their tyrannical control over women's wombs. They're the worst hypocrites I know. Google search for "intelligent speed adaptation," a system where the vehicle's computer is linked to GPS and cannot exceed the speed limit on any roads. The speed limit could even be reduced during adverse weather and road conditions. A much better system than cameras. Radar detectors would be of no use to drivers. Police would be free to enforce other laws, but I know these phony pro-lifers would blow their fuses at such a proposed pro-life system. They ballyhoo about intrusion of freedom. Freedom to them means the right to run over other lives. Herman Lenz, Sumner Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Weather Alert ...MORE WINDY DAYS ON THE WAY, WITH COLDER TEMPERATURES AND RAIN/SNOW SHOWERS FOR MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND... --Thursday and Friday-- * A pair of systems brushing through the region will bring gusty winds both days, with Friday looking to have the strongest peak winds. Anticipate wind gusts of 35-45 mph Thursday, and 35-55 mph Friday, locally stronger in wind prone locations. Winds will bring travel difficulties both in the air and on the ground. Travel restrictions for high profile vehicles are possible. Check with CalTrans/NDOT for the current road information. * Area of blowing dust are possible both afternoons downwind of the Carson Sink, possibly affecting portions of I-80, US 50, and Highway 95. In addition, backcountry and ski recreation could be impacted along with choppy conditions on area lakes. * A few light showers with minimal liquid totals are possible in far northern Nevada and northeast California. --Mother's Day Weekend into Early Next Week-- * It will remain breezy throughout the weekend, with a secondary max in wind speeds on Sunday due to a strong cold front. This front will usher in a much colder air mass and high temperatures on Mother's Day will be 15-20 degrees below normal. * There will be rain and snow showers with the front, but again, liquid amounts will be minimal. There are solid chances for snow levels to fall to all valley floors by Sunday evening, which may catch many off guard, though it is hard to get snow to stick to roadways in lower elevation valleys this late in the spring. * Well below normal temperatures and chances for light showers will continue into Monday and Tuesday next week. While still some uncertainty due to winds and cloud cover, it's possible we could have frost and freeze concerns Sunday and Monday nights. First Concentrate Shipment Departs Fremantle Perth, Feb 28, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Wiluna Mining Corporation Limited ( ASX:WMC ) ( FRA:NZ3 ) ( OTCMKTS:WMXCF ) is pleased to announce that its first shipment of gold in concentrate has departed the Port of Fremantle bound for offtake partner Polymetal International plc (Top 10 gold producer, LSE listed; GBP5 billion market capitalisation).Wiluna's logistics contractor, Qube Bulk delivered the concentrate from Wiluna's mine via road and rail to their facility at the port of Fremantle where it was loaded onto the ship which left on Sunday 27 February.WMC can further confirm that the first seven shipments are in the process of being locked in with the second shipment of 20 containers loaded and on its way to Fremantle with an estimated early March departure date. The third shipment, which will likely be 50 containers, is also confirmed and will be shipped to off-take partner Trafigura. It is due to depart Fremantle in mid-March. This will be the first shipment to Trafigura who, like Polymetal International plc, signed an offtake contract for the first three years of production in a contract announced to the ASX in March 2020.To date, 2,690 wet tonnes of gold in concentrate, which is the equivalent to ~5,650/oz of gold, has been produced with the ramp-up to full steady-state commercial in progress.WMC is also pleased to report that the Wiltails tailings retreatment facility that is expected to produce ~15kozpa is 30% complete and expected to be commissioned in Q2 CY'22. This will make a material difference to Stage 1 production at Wiluna from the date of commissioning.Milan Jerkovic, Wiluna Mining's Executive Chair commented:"The departure of our first shipment is a great milestone for WMC. The concentrator is performing well and concentrate production is ramping up. Along with Wiltails, which is due to be commissioned in Q2 CY'22, we hope to be producing at steady-state commercial production of an annualised 100kozpa + by Q3 CY'22"About Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMC) (OTCMKTS:WMXCF) is a Perth based, ASX listed gold mining company that controls over 1,600 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton in the Northern Goldfields of WA. The Yilgarn Craton has a historic and current gold endowment of over 380 million ounces, making it one of most prolific gold regions in the world. The Company owns 100% of the Wiluna Gold Operation which has a defined resource of 8.04M oz at 1.67 g/t au. In May 2019, a new highly skilled management team took control of the Company with a clear plan to leverage the Wiluna Gold Operation's multi-million-ounce potential. 2021 Financial Statements Melbourne, Feb 28, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ( FRA:TA8 ) and its subsidiaries (the Group) are pleased to present their full year 2021 financial statements and Appendix 4E.During the period the Group incurred a loss of circa $2.5 million, due to increased legal and advisory costs during the period (up $1.7 million to $3.8 million) as a result of costs due to the demerger and the ongoing costs related to both the ASX and ASIC legal cases, combined with a lower profit from discontinued operations.The loss for the year from continuing operations was $5.6 million, whilst separately discontinued operations, which includes the results of ISX Financial EU Plc and its subsidiaries, made a profit of $3.1 million for the ten and a half months to the demerger date.Business UpdateWith the demerger completed in 2021, the Company continues to focus on its ongoing legal action against the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).As previously announced, the Company holds principal membership licenses from several major card schemes. The Group is in the early stages of rebuilding its Australian strategy and will now look as to how it can monetise these licenses for future growth.ASIC and ASX Federal Court CasesShareholders may receive updates regarding the Federal Court timetable by accessing the court orders and subscribing to notifications from the Court at:using reference numbers VID773/2020 and VID1315/2019.*To view the report, please visit:About iSignthis Ltd iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions. By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard. iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia. ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others. Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service. loading......... Malibu, CA, Mar 1, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Desert Mountain Energy Corp. ( CVE:DME ) ( OTCMKTS:DMEHF ) is pleased to announce that it has defined three edges of a Hydrogen field with wells #4 (11-1), #5 (1-1), #6 (10-1). The Company has set and cemented surface and intermediate strings of casing and is in the process of finishing up drilling in the McCauley field. Based on information garnered from drilling operations thus far, the Company is planning on setting and cementing additional production casing to total depth. The well will be drilled to a total depth of approximately 4,000' into the top of the granite formation."Our excellent geologic and drilling team is meeting and hitting our objectives in this well. The company is now six for six in drilling wells in Arizona. We had originally seen multiple hydrogen bearing zones in wells #4 and #5. In well #4 we were not able to sample the hydrogen other than with the mass spectrometer. In well #5 & #6 we were able to see the full spectrum of all known elements and were able to decern that in three hydrogen bearing zones," says Robert Rohlfing, CEO of DME. "The thickest is approximately 32' thick of extremely high quality without the presence of sulfur or other elements which would create detrimental issues with future production. Well #4 established the SE corner of the field, well #5 established the eastern edge of the field and well #6 established the SW corner of the field. Our internal geographic modelling has thus far, been within 2' plus or minus on all helium and hydrogen bearing zones. Therefore, the Company feels that its current private and state leaseholds encompass all of the water-free production areas within the inferred nine to ten square miles of this field for both helium and hydrogen." Water free production of helium and hydrogen is a key component of long-term operation costs.In this segment of The Ellis Martin Report, we speak with Robert Rohlfing, the CEO of Desert Mountain Energy to discuss the implications of a pure hydrogen find.To view the Interview, please visit:About Desert Mountain Energy Corp. Desert Mountain Energy Corp. is a publicly traded exploration and resource company focused on the discovery and development of rare earth gas fields in the US. The Company is primarily looking for elements deemed critical to the green energy and high technology industries. PHOENIX More marijuana sales mean more funding for community colleges throughout Arizona. The states 10 community college districts got a windfall of over $31 million from big spending on recreational marijuana in the first year of sales in 2021. The Proposition 207 voter initiative that legalized recreational marijuana created an excise tax of 16% and required the state distribute about one-third of that money to community colleges, with the rest mostly to public safety departments and transportation, health and criminal justice programs. Colleges can use the funds for workforce development, STEM and certain other education programs, the Arizona Republic reported. The funding boost to colleges is significant its less publicized, but about equal in size to Gov. Doug Duceys proposal to put $30 million in federal funds toward six new workforce accelerators at community colleges across the state. Community college officials said they plan to use the marijuana tax money in a range of ways, including to expand public safety programming, add new career training initiatives and help fund construction projects. Colleges got varying amounts from the sales tax revenue in June and December based on their enrollment, according to distribution reports from the state treasurer. Cochise College, which received over $2 million last year, is using the funds to significantly expand programming at its first responders academy. It wouldnt be done at the level that were now able to do because of those dollars coming in, Cochise College President J.D. Rottweiler said. It really allows us to springboard this initiative and move it quicker at a time when our frontline workers are greatly needed. Maricopa Community Colleges, the states largest system, got more than $17 million from the marijuana tax fund last year, which it plans to use for workforce programs and potentially use $5 million for bridge funding to help cover expenses related to workforce or STEM due to budget shortfalls. The money comes at a time when some community colleges continue to struggle with a slow rebound from the pandemic, with Maricopa for example seeing decreased enrollment and financial challenges. Heres approximately what colleges received and how they plan to spend it: Maricopa Community Colleges: $17.2M Maricopa has put $7.6 million toward operational costs for its skills centers at GateWay Community College, which provide training in trades and technical areas. The centers offer short-term certificate programs specific to careers in fields like health care, technology, trades and beauty and wellness, according to the district. Officials may also put $5 million toward bridging gaps in operational spending, according to a proposed budget presented to the governing board last month. Thats not enough to cover the $51 million general fund shortfall the district is projecting without any budget interventions next year, so cuts and tuition hikes may be coming in the years ahead. The Proposition 207 bridge funding would only be used to cover allowable workforce or science, technology, engineering and math-related expenses in the general fund, according to spokesperson Matt Hasson. The district is still deciding which workforce-related projects the remaining about $4.6 million will fund. Pima Community College: $3.9M Pima Community College, the next largest system in the state, spent some of the Proposition 207 funds on capital projects to expand and remodel health professions spaces and science labs, per spokesperson Libby Howell. Cochise College: $2.1M Funds are going toward the first responders academy for police, fire and emergency medicine, including to finish the academy facility and pay for expanded faculty and staff. The college may also use the money to grow its wildland fire, condensed training and continuing education programs for public safety agencies, Rottweiler said. Arizona Western College: $1.7M The Yuma-based college plans to use funds toward the $35 million in revenue bonds it was issued to update facilities, including for programs in e-gaming, cybersecurity and allied health, according to spokesperson Mandy Heil. Arizona Western College also is using some of the money for a living-learning facility to replace an old residence hall. Arizona Western College covers Yuma and La Paz counties. Yavapai College: $1.4M The Proposition 207 money will help expand services at the colleges Regional Economic Development Center, spokesperson Tyler Rumsey said. The center helps promote economic development, workforce growth and regional collaboration. Central Arizona College: $1.3M Central Arizona College in Pinal County is putting the money toward public safety program initiatives like improving the driving track and shooting range, police equipment, ammunition and other supplies, according to CFO Chris Wodka. They will spend the remaining money on STEM and workforce development programs. Mohave Community College: $1.1M Mohave Community College will use some of the funds to help pay for construction of an advanced manufacturing training center at the Kingman Airport Industrial Park. The college may also use the money to expand career and technical education and STEM programs based on northwestern Arizona workforce needs, per spokesperson James Jarman. Eastern Arizona College: $1M The Thatcher-based college will use the marijuana sales tax money to help build a skills center for multiple workforce development programs targeted at providing skills and credentials for in-demand careers in the local area, per spokesperson Kris McBride. Coconino Community College: $930K Coconino is using the funds to expand career and technical education offerings, including starting some new programs. Funds have helped support additional faculty and grow programs in emergency medical services, fire science, early childhood education and marine maintenance, per Executive Vice President Jami Van Ess. Northland Pioneer College: $900K The community college with campuses in Navajo County may use the funds to expand welding and early childhood education programs, according to college President Chato Hazelbaker. And by fall 2023, the college plans to launch a new workforce program with the sales tax money, he said. Provisional districts: $228K and $112K The Gila and Santa Cruz county provisional community college districts also got smaller portions of the state funds. Those colleges contract with other counties colleges for programs Gila with Graham Countys Eastern Arizona College, and Santa Cruz with Pima Countys Pima Community College. PHOENIX Traffic cameras across Arizona watch you each day on your commute, capturing accidents and backups on state freeways., but its the Arizona Department of Transportation that decides whether you can see those camera feeds or they go black. Its basically common sense, said ADOT spokesperson Doug Nick. We do not want to show things that might be disturbing or violent on this system, simply because there are thousands of people, some of who may be children or people who simply should not want to see that. On May 25, 2020, 28-year-old Dion Johnson was shot and killed along Loop 101 during a confrontation with a state trooper. Theres no bodycam video of the shooting, but Arizonas Family was the only television station to record a traffic feed from ADOT showing the aftermath. About two months later, ADOT created a traffic camera feed procedure. Arizonas Family asked Nick if the Johnson incident changed how the state Department of Public Safety and ADOT look at cutting feeds. No, said Nick. However, there was no written traffic camera feed procedure before that shooting. We codified that procedure because it was basically like common sense procedure before that, that had not been written down, said Nick. which is common practice at this agency, that when you see a procedure that may have been done rather informally, lets make it standard work. Many people dont think its common sense, including those with The Black Lives Matter movement. They dont want transparency because they dont want accountability, said Mimi Arrayaa, co-director at BLM PHX Metro. She believes its no coincidence at all that a state policy was created so quickly after the Johnson shooting. They got a lot of heat for that video, and they switched up their tactics, said Arrayaa. Nick said the purpose of the cameras is to show the public whats happening on Arizona freeways in real-time. ADOT controls each of the cameras from its Traffic Operations Center, and they can move the cameras, zoom in, and even shut off those feeds. Also inside the TOC is a DPS trooper. The DPS troopers are there simply to keep an eye on whats going on, on the freeways, so if they need to deploy some resources for law enforcement, they can do that, said Nick. Troopers have been stationed inside the TOC since 2014. They can ask to turn off the feed, but ADOT said it makes the final call. Anyone, including Arizonas Family, can pull up live traffic feeds around Arizona and record the images. When ADOT cuts the feed, news stations and the public are literally in the dark, unable to see whats going on and unable to record the images for later, but those inside the TOC, including the DPS trooper on duty there, still can. According to the procedure put into writing in July 2020, ADOT can cut video feeds when law enforcement controls the camera position for reasons other than traffic conditions. It also says feeds can be cut when live images of law enforcement activities could hamper operations or officer safety. Since ADOT created the procedure, camera feeds have been cut hundreds of times, on occasions ranging from freeway pursuits to crashes and high-risk stops. When ADOT pulls the plug, its not just one camera but on the entire system. Hundreds of feeds go black all across the state. Arizonas Family asked Nick if he finds it troubling the feeds were cut at least 87 times in 2020 and more than 500 times in 2021. No, because, again, 99.3% of the time, those cameras are on, said Nick. Arizonas Family asked ADOT for records dating back to 2019, showing when feeds were cut. The logs ADOT sent to us only start documenting cuts in May 2020. While Nick said ADOT cuts feed to protect the public from seeing disturbing and violent scenes, attorney Benjamin Taylor believes the community deserves to see critical moments happening on our freeways. Why are they being turned off when this is evidence to show whether that person did right or wrong, and this helps a judge and jury make critical decisions in the court of law, said Taylor. According to ADOTs records, the agency turned off the feed several times in 2020 so DPS could use freeway cameras to monitor protesters. In July of 2020, logs reveal DPS and an ADOT supervisor very closely monitored demonstrators on the Mill Avenue bridge in Tempe, zooming in on people even though there isnt a direct path to Loop 202. I think it is deeply troubling given the history of this country of inappropriate and unnecessary police surveillance of peaceful civil rights protesters that this would be continuing now, said K.M. Bell, Smart Justice Campaign strategist at ACLU of Arizona. The intention of these cameras are to look at traffic accidents and freeway accidents, said Taylor. However, it looks like law enforcement uses these cameras to spy and try to control what protesters were doing. If somebody is going to get on a freeway or something like that, or theres going to be an issue of violence, potential violence, again, regardless of the genesis of the protest, we are simply not going to take the opportunity to see that or show that to the general public, said Nick. Logs show ADOT officers cut feeds 15 times in just the first four days of this year. The reasons vary. Logs show feeds have been cut in the past because of wrong-way drivers, high-risk traffic stops, vehicle fires, or even pedestrians walking on the freeway. When the cameras go dark, theres no way to record and no way to go back and review what happened. Nick said there are no current plans to change the procedure. The assumption that DPS is doing something wrong in those situations when, in fact, while the biggest concern may be what is somebody else doing? said Nick. If this is a high-risk stop, we dont want to show any violence no matter who perpetrates it. PHOENIX A body found in the Verde River is believed to be a suspect in the shooting of an officer, said police in central Arizona. The body has not yet been formally identified but personal items show the man may be Valentin Rodriguez, 39, said the Yavapai County Sheriffs Office and Yavapai-Apache Nation Police Department in a Friday statement. Rodriguez has been a suspect in the Feb. 9 shooting of Yavapai-Apache police Sgt. Preston Brogdon. A bullet went through Brogdons vest and belt, punctured his small intestine and shattered his pelvis and hip, Bailey Brogdon told reporters in Camp Verde last week. She said she expected her husband to make a full recovery. Brogdon was shot after officers responded to reported gunfire on the Yavapai-Apache Nation in the Verde Valley area. The suspect got out of a vehicle and fled while shooting at officers, tribal officials said in a statement. An arrest warrant was issued for Rodriguez and a federal criminal complaint charged him with assaulting two tribal officers and discharging a firearm in a violent crime. On Friday around 4 p.m., a father and son were fishing when they spotted the body, authorities said. The cause of death is not yet known. We are all going to die. Thats one of lifes few certainties. Whats not certain is where we go after we shuffle off this mortal coil. Heaven? Hell? Haunting? Into the soil, into an urn or into the wind? North Valley residents and business owners recently discovered, some serendipitously, that our earthly remains could wind up in their neighborhood should Bernalillo County approve a proposed crematorium there. Over their dead bodies, they say. Its horrible, said Paul Searcy, whose Searcy Woodworking shop is located across the street from the proposed site at 116 Mountain Park Place off Second and Alameda NW. We have businesses that will suffer if they put that thing here, and the people who will suffer most are families and children. The site is in what is classified as a light industrial zone, but its surrounded by residential neighborhoods, including the 50-unit North Court Mobile Home Park, which abuts the southern side of the property. Another 50-unit mobile home park is directly west of Mountain Park Place, and the 179-mobile home Village Park sits to the north. Balloon Fiesta Park is less than half a mile to the east. The Bernalillo County Planning Commission is expected to decide whether to grant a special use permit to the operator of the proposed crematorium during its Zoom meeting Wednesday. This is a desperately needed service especially at this time for low-income families as well as the whole community, Michael Monach, the would-be operator, wrote in a letter recently submitted to some nearby business owners and neighbors. The funeral business is in a state of emergency leaving all families with very little choice for your loved ones transition. Monach, who did not return my call, states in the letter that he has been in the funeral business for 12 years and that the equipment he plans to purchase is far safer and better than older crematories, that smoke and emissions are nominal and monitored and that his employees will be certified. I am trying to change what you see now into a state-of-the-art facility, he wrote. But neighbors remain unconvinced. They say they are concerned that a crematorium will emit toxins and human ash into their neighborhoods. They worry about possible carcinogenic pollution and not enough oversight and regulation of the equipment and emissions. They are concerned about the gruesome sight of billowing black smoke from burning bodies belching into the air. And then theres the smell. Some neighbors say they fear the crematorium will produce an odor even worse than that produced by the animal crematorium already located a few doors down from the proposed site. Its like burning flesh, only more intense, said Matt Guthrie, whose SuperiAire Technologies is across the street from the animal crematorium. Its not a very pleasant smell. Guthrie said the odor is worse in the summer when he runs the swamp coolers in the warehouse, drawing in the smell to the point that he has to send his employees home. Its horrendous, he said. Sending workers home doesnt help those who live next door in North Court. Thats about 28 to 31 feet from the back wall to the mobile homes, Guthrie said. Those are families with kids there. Mobile home residents were not officially notified about the proposed crematorium because they are not property owners, said Pat Hauser, a member of the nearby Maria Diers Neighborhood Association who also did not receive formal notice. This affects at least a thousand families and it could affect thousands of people attending the Balloon Fiesta, he said. It feels like they were trying to sneak this through. But Bernalillo County Planning and Development Services Department Director Lucas Tafoya said notice was carried out as required. That includes sending letters to property owners within 200 feet, a large orange sign placed at the property, neighborhood association notification and a legal ad in the Journal. In his undated letter, Monach said he did not do enough to alert the public: Looking back I should have taken it upon myself to try and talk to or reach out to all my neighbors. Monach said in the letter that he submitted his application for a special use permit in November. The application was supposed to be heard by the county planning commission on Jan. 5, weeks before most residents learned about the proposed crematorium. But as the hearing unfolded that day on Zoom, a ransomware attack infected the Bernalillo County computer systems, shutting down the meeting before Monachs request could be heard. Neighbors then spread the word, researching crematorium concerns, organizing a petition drive, reaching out to folks like me and holding a community meeting. The more I speak to people, the more they share how unfair they are being treated, neighbor Mary Duneman said. Also voicing concern is the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. It appears that if the proposed crematory is authorized to operate on Mountain Park Place it will adversely affect the operation of the Balloon Fiesta, executive director Paul Smith wrote in a letter to Planning Commission Chairman Joe Chavez. Although crematory operations are not subject to Environmental Protection Agency standards another concern voiced by the community Tafoya said the City of Albuquerque Air Quality Control Board will regulate the cremation emission standards. The Cremation Association of North America says more people are choosing cremation than ever before because of rising costs of traditional casket funerals and cemetery plots, rising numbers of deaths from COVID-19 and an aging society. According to its most recent report, 64.5% of people who died in New Mexico in 2020 were cremated. The association estimates that the number will rise to 73.2% by 2030. Death is a part of life, certainly, but until more questions about this crematorium are answered, residents near Mountain Park Place say they dont want this aspect of death so close to their lives. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. ORLANDO, Fla. Leading Republicans spent much of three days avoiding Donald Trumps chief grievances or ignoring him altogether as they unified behind a midterm message designed to win back the voters the polarizing former president alienated while in office. But by the end of the four-day Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump had reminded those who want to move on that he remains the most powerful voice in Republican politics. In his keynote address Saturday night, Trump indicated he planned to run for president a third time in 2024. He falsely blamed his 2020 election loss on widespread voter fraud, for which there is no evidence. And on Sunday, he was the overwhelming winner of a presidential preference straw poll of conference attendees. We did it twice, and well do it again, Trump said of running in 2024. Even so, he has teased about a 2024 campaign before and his vow this time was not necessarily ironclad. As invading Russian troops battled with Ukrainian forces, Trump also described Russian President Vladimir Putin as smart. Of course hes smart, Trump said in his remarks Saturday, doubling down on praise of the Russian leader that many other Republicans have avoided after the invasion. But the real problem is our leaders are dumb. Dumb. So dumb. While Trump expressed support for the Ukrainian people and called the countrys president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a brave man, he also noted his ties with other leading autocrats. He specifically pointed to his friendly relationships with Xi Jinping of China and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Up until Trumps appearance, lies about election fraud, the focus of last years conference, had been an afterthought among the top speakers. No one parroted Trumps approving rhetoric toward Putin. And some leading Republicans didnt even mention Trumps name. Instead, those most likely to seek the GOPs 2024 presidential nomination not named Trump united behind an agenda that includes more parental control of schools, opposition to pandemic-related mandates and a fierce rejection of woke culture. The message from more than a half-dozen elected officials, delivered to thousands of mostly white activists at an event that usually celebrates far-right rhetoric, does not mean the party has turned its back on Trumpism. Far from it. The former president was a frequent topic among some of the conferences lower-profile speakers. T-shirts proclaiming Trump won were being sold in the hallways. And in the straw poll of 2,574 conference attendees, Trump earned 59%, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 28%. No one else had more than 2%. WASHINGTON Russian President Vladimir Putins implied threat to turn the Ukraine war into a broader nuclear conflict presents President Joe Biden with choices rarely contemplated in the atomic age, including whether to raise the alert level of U.S. nuclear forces. This turn of events is all the more remarkable for the fact that less than a year ago, Putin and Biden issued a statement at their Geneva summit that seemed more in keeping with the idea that the threat of nuclear war was a Cold War relic. Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, they agreed. Putin on Sunday told his top defense and military officials to put nuclear forces in a special regime of combat duty, but it was not immediately clear how that might have changed the status of Russian nuclear forces, if at all. Russia, like the United States, keeps its land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, on a high state of readiness at all times, and it is believed that Russian submarine-based nuclear missiles, like Americas, are similarly postured. Putin indicated he was responding to economic sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western nations in recent days for his invasion of Ukraine, as well as aggressive statements regarding our country, which he did not further explain. The Biden administration was assessing Putins move, which it said unnecessarily escalates an already dangerous conflict. In fact, Putins words amount to the kind of threat rarely heard even during the Cold War period, when vastly larger nuclear arsenals of the United States and the former Soviet Union threatened the world with nuclear Armageddon. HOW DOES THIS CHANGE THE RISK OF NUCLEAR WAR? U.S. officials, while disturbed by Putins words, indicated they did not know what he intends. But it is so rare for an American or Russian leader to issue an implied nuclear threat, particularly in the current context of the war in Ukraine, that the risk of it going nuclear cannot be dismissed. In Russia, like in the United States, the president has sole authority to order a nuclear strike. The United States and Russia have the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world, by far. They include weapons that can be delivered by aircraft, submarine and land-based ballistic missiles. The only time in history that nuclear weapons have been used in combat was when the United States twice bombed Japan in August 1945, and at that point the U.S. had a global monopoly on nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union successfully tested its first bomb in 1949. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said Putins order to put his nuclear forces on higher alert was regrettable but not a complete surprise given his previous implied threats against any nation that tried to stop him in Ukraine. Inserting nuclear weapons into the Ukraine war equation at this point is extremely dangerous, and the United States, President Biden, and NATO must act with extreme restraint and not respond in kind, Kimball said. This is a very dangerous moment in this crisis, and we need to urge our leaders to walk back from the nuclear brink. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON ALERT? According to U.S. nuclear doctrine, the weapons alert level is central to their role in deterring an attack. The idea is that being prepared to respond on short notice makes an enemy less likely to attack in the first place and risk retaliation that would do incalculable damage. A counterargument is that having ICBMs, which the Pentagon calls the most responsive portion of its nuclear arsenal, on high alert during a crisis compresses a presidents decision-making room and leaves open the possibility of ordering them launched in response to a false alarm. The 400 deployed U.S. ICBMs are armed at all times. Some arms control experts have argued for taking ICBMs off high alert by separating the missiles from their nuclear warheads. But in a crisis, perhaps like the one implied by Putins alert order Sunday, a decision to re-arm the missiles would be taken as an escalatory move that could make the crisis even worse. During the Cold War, U.S. and Russian weapons were not only more numerous but also in a higher state of readiness. President George H.W. Bush in 1991 took the historic step of ordering U.S. nuclear-capable strategic bombers off alert as part of a broader move to reverse the nuclear arms race. The bombers have remained off alert ever since. HOW HAS THE UNITED STATES RESPONDED TO PUTIN SO FAR? There is no evidence that the Biden administration has reciprocated in any sense to Putins announcement that he was ordering his nuclear forces in a special regime of combat duty perhaps in part because it was unclear what that means in practical terms. Nor was there word from Washington of evidence that Putin had taken worrying steps such as loading nuclear weapons on all or a portion of Russias nuclear-capable air fleet or sending additional ballistic missile submarines to sea. In addition to his strategic nuclear force, Putin has at least a couple thousand so-called nonstrategic nuclear weapons, such as shorter-range ballistic and cruise missiles. They are called nonstrategic because they cannot reach U.S. territory. But that is little comfort for the countries in Europe that are within range of those weapons. The United States has about 200 nonstrategic weapons in Europe; they are bombs that would be delivered by Europe-based aircraft. For years, some U.S. officials have worried that Putin, if faced with the prospect of losing a war in Europe, might resort to the use of nonstrategic nuclear weapons, thinking it would quickly bring the conflict to an end on his terms. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal A woman alleges in a lawsuit that a man who raped her in 2010 avoided prosecution for nearly a decade while evidence required to prosecute him remained untested by Albuquerque police. During that time, her attacker has raped other women, according to a lawsuit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court. Victor Gonzales, 44, was arrested in 2020 on charges of kidnapping and two counts of criminal sexual penetration in the Dec. 3, 2010, attack. He is scheduled for trial in June. In her lawsuit against the city of Albuquerque, the unidentified woman alleges that a rape kit she provided in 2010 was among thousands that remained untested for years by the Albuquerque Police Department. The kit was not tested until April 2018, eight years after the attack, the suit alleges. It provided DNA evidence that linked Gonzales to the attack, it said. Gonzales attorneys, Raymond Maestas and Sean Beherec, said the womans account of the attack has changed since 2010. In this lawsuit, we see big differences in the accusers story from what she reported to police initially, and the jury needs to hear this change in story, the attorneys said in a written statement. The woman told police she was abducted, bound and raped at knifepoint in Northwest Albuquerque. Her attorney, Laura Schauer Ives, said the victim plans to testify at Gonzales trial. Its traumatic for her to relive this 12 years later, Schauer Ives said in a phone interview. But she feels fortunate that the case will come to trial. Of the thousands of women whose rape kits sat untested, she is at least among the handful of women who have a hope of seeing justice. In 2016, New Mexico had more than 5,000 untested rape kits the nations highest per capita backlog, the suit alleges. APD alone had about 4,000 untested kits dating to the 1980s, it said. The suit alleges APD had a policy and practice of treating violent rapes against women as lower-priority cases than other violent crimes resulting in discrimination against women and girls. The suit seeks unspecified damages. APD spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins noted that Mayor Tim Keller signed an executive order in January 2018 ordering APD to create a plan for clearing the backlog of untested rape kits. Today, every kit submitted for testing has been returned to the crime lab and the police department and prosecutors, Atkins said in a written statement. Gonzales has been accused of multiple sexual attacks. In 2012, Gonzales was indicted after allegedly kidnapping, torturing and raping a woman for two days before she escaped. Those charges were dismissed due to problems with video evidence in the case. In 2013, Gonzales was indicted on multiple felony charges stemming from five attacks from 2010 to 2012. He pleaded no contest in 2014 to two counts of attempt to commit criminal sexual penetration, false imprisonment and battery and was sentenced to two years in prison. At the time of sentencing, Gonzales received two years credit for time served in jail awaiting trial and was released. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich joined a bipartisan group of senators on legislation that would require federal agencies to quickly develop plans for their employees to return to their workstations. The Return Employees To Understaffed Worksites to Reopen Now Act, or RETURN Act, would direct federal agencies to quickly develop plans to resume in-person work. Many federal employees have been working remotely since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Heinrich said in a news release the result has been case backlogs and delays at some agencies. Federal agencies provide critical services that can serve as a lifeline for many New Mexicans, especially our seniors and veterans, Heinrich said in a statement. Almost every industry has had to make changes because of the pandemic to ensure their services remain intact a federal agency is no exception. Heinrich joined Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona in introducing the legislation. Providing services online and creating flexibility for remote work are important to modernizing our government, but cannot take the place of providing essential services in person, Heinrich said. Thats especially true for so many New Mexicans who lack access to broadband. Im proud to introduce the bipartisan RETURN Act that requires concrete plans for return to in-person operation at federal agencies, and guarantees New Mexicans can get the support they need. Heinrich said in a news release that extended absences of federal employees have led to a sharp rise in backlogged cases within the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Internal Revenue Service has warned people should expect delays in processing 2021 tax returns and Social Security Administration offices are still closed to the public. The six-page bill: Directs federal agencies to submit to Congress and publish on their website a plan for the agency to resume in-person operations within 30 days of the bill being enacted. Allows employees who can complete their tasks remotely to continue to do so. Creates guidelines for remote workers who handle sensitive or private information. Requires agencies to create performance metrics to remote workers. Calls for agencies to create plans to work remote when there is an increase in COVID transmission. Requires agencies to report on the use of their physical work space and recommends ending leases for underused spaces. I SEE EXPIRED TAGS: Jon Lee emails that perennial question, back in the news after a state lawmaker was pulled over on Valentines Day and admitted to the officer her vehicle registration had lapsed. Jon says sitting at a stop light I look at the vehicle in front of me (and) I often see expired license plate stickers/tags. Sometimes it is several years expired. So does anyone get ticketed for that? Rebecca Atkins of the Albuquerque Police Department explains officers do cite drivers for expired tags, however it is not often the main reason a driver is pulled over. Officers often pull drivers over for other traffic violations and when they spot an expired tag they will cite them. That was the case when state Rep. Georgene Louis, D-Albuquerque, was pulled over in Santa Fe for suspected DWI. And a check with Metropolitan Courts statistician reveals that in Bernalillo County, with almost 680,000 residents, 3,050 expired tag tickets were written in 2018 and 3,587 in 2019 leading up to the pandemic. That dropped to 577 in 2020 and 136 in 2021. The citations are for violating 66-3-19, the renewal of registration statute, which says it is unlawful to operate or transport or cause to be transported upon any highways in this state any vehicle subject to registration under the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code without having paid the registration fee or without having secured and constantly displayed the registration plate required by the Motor Vehicle Code. In 2018 74 of those tickets resulted in convictions, 66 did in 2019, three in 2020 and one in 2021. Cases are still pending for those years 92 from 2018, 142 from 2019, 37 from 2020 and 32 from 2021 for reasons including having a warrant issued. But the majority of expired tag tickets were dismissed for various procedural reasons, including as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors not showing up and prosecutors giving a warning. A total of 1,997 cases were dismissed in 2018 (65%), 2,354 in 2019 (65%), 396 in 2020 (68%) and 71 in 2021 (52%). In addition to those dismissals, a good portion were also dismissed because the driver showed proof of registration or went and registered the vehicle before their court date 862 in 2018, 1,001 in 2019, 136 in 2020 and 26 in 2021. The balance of cases were sent to diversion programs or district court, or resulted in a deferred sentence, meaning the defendant satisfied the courts requirements. As for the convictions, the fine for expired tags per the statute is the greater of $10 or, if the vehicle is operated or transported 31 or more days after the expiration of the registration, an amount equal to 75% of the registration fee. Registration fees in New Mexico range from $27 to $62, meaning the largest possible fine is $46.50. SPEAKING OF REGISTRATIONS: There are options for registering vehicles and doing other MVD business, including making an appointment at a state Motor Vehicle Division office, using online services on the divisions home page, paying a little extra at a contract office or using a self-serve kiosk. And MVD is adding a new kiosk, this time on Albuquerques West Side. Located in the Cottonwood branch of the Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union at 3740 Ellison, the kiosk is available during lobby hours, 8:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. 2 p.m. Saturday. Charlie Moore of the state Taxation and Revenue Department, parent to the Motor Vehicle Division, explains it joins the kiosks in the Albertsons at Montgomery and San Mateo and the Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union at Juan Tabo and Comanche. (The kiosk that was in the Albertsons at Juan Tabo and Candelaria is the one moving to the West Side.) Customers can use the kiosks to renew vehicle registrations (you get your registration card and sticker then and there), update driver information and pay traffic citations payable to MVD. The kiosks are a partnership of MVD, Intellectual Technology Inc. and host businesses at no cost to the state. Customers pay with a credit card. While there is a $3.95 fee plus a 2.3% credit card convenience fee, MVD offers a 5% discount off a base registration cost at the kiosks. Editorial page editor DVal Westphal tackles commuter issues for the metro area on Mondays. Reach her at 823-3858; dwestphal@abqjournal.com; or 7777 Jefferson NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109. What's on Feb 28-Mar 6/2022 (Daily updated) MUSIC & PERFORMANCE HCMC-Concert: Color of the Spring Mar 5, 08 pm The Opera House, 07 Cong Truong Lam Son, District 1 From the organizer: Performed by HBSO Opera Department, HBSO Symphony Orchestra and soloists: Soprano Pham Khanh Ngoc, Pham Duyen Huyen, baritone Dao Mac, Vo Nguyen Thanh Tam, tenor Pham Trang, Phan Huu Trung Kiet, soprano Nguyen Thu Huong, Admissions: 750.000 650.000 550.000 400.000 VND Booking & Delivery: 02838237295, 0989874517 (Ms. Huong), 0903604539 (Ms.Ngoc) Creaative Dance METTLER Scholarship 2 semesters: 06 Feb 29 May, 2022 Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MHFpEVogLITdLWGNK-NodsP0RgKca0jqiAoqtEpWUQM/viewform?edit_requested=true From the organizer: Mettler-based Creative Dance Scholarship program provides an introduction to the underlying principles and teaching methods used in Mettler-based Creative Dance. The scholarship is provided by Mettler Studio Inc., USA & Vietnam Dance/Movement Therapy for professional and personal development. Hanoi-Classic Greek play performed by Vietnamese contemporary dancers Until March 19, Vietnam National Opera & Ballet Contemporary dance Antigone is a part of Antigone project which is funded by Goethe Institute in Hanoi. Under the project, Vietnamese artists in Hanoi and HCM City are invited to perform Antigone. ____________________________________________________ EXHIBITION Danang- Vietnam Urban Arts exhibition Until March 17 Introducing eight large paintings by Vietnamese street artists. The paintings feature UN sustainable development goals (SGDs), reflecting the artists belief on a better world. The event aims to honour Vietnamese street art, which occurred in Vietnam 20 years ago, he said. Hanoi-Exhibition: Vibrant Opening: Feb 28, 05 pm Exhibition: Until Mar 19, 09 am 12 pm & 01:30 pm 05 pm VICAS Art Studio A Building, VICAS, 32 Hao Nam Street From the organizer: In the middle of the last century, the great French artist Jean Dubuffet discovered, collected and promoted a particular art movement in which works are created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses without the interference of any worries about social competition, acclaim or advancement HCMC-Waiting for the End of Wind Tues Sat 01 Mar 23 Apr 2022, 11 am 06 pm 195/14 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street From the organizer: San Art is pleased to introduce Waiting for the end of wind, a solo exhibition by Nguyen Thai Tuan. In 2008, Nguyen Thai Tuan had his first solo exhibition in which he shared his observations on the human condition through the series Black Paintings. Almost immediately, his paintings appeared in a variety of cultural forums, discussions on painting, and interdisciplinary socio-political commentaries. [] Ten years ago, Tuan collaborated with San Art for the second time, and later went on to exhibit overseas with the series Heritage in which he explored the role of the hero and the executioner in history; the works continued to feature a series of unnamed characters set against a dreary backdrop, in old colonial chambers, and under a sky where things fall apart. ** Hanoi-Exhibition: Plastic Tale of River 15 Feb 15 Mar 2022 Goethe Institut Hanoi 56-58-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street From the organizer: The Institute of Strategy, Policy on Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in close cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature in Viet Nam (WWF Viet Nam), National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP), the Goethe-Institute and other partners organize the Exhibition Plastic Tale of River at the Goethe-Institute, 56-58-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Ha Noi. The Exhibition presents artworks by Photographers Truong Dai Duong and Nguyen Viet Hung and displays video clips, short films incorporating messages on plastic waste reduction. The Exhibition is expected to encourage the audience to have an overview of the current status of plastic waste in Viet Nam, thereby inspire them to take actions for a better environment. During the exhibition, the Goethe Institute will coordinate with the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment to develop a virtual exhibition model on the Gathertown application to reach more interested audience as well as support to organize a series of side events that contribute to identifying practical solutions regarding policy, technical and communication aspects to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic bags and products. Hanoi-Exhibition: Hanoi Urban Sketches 2021 Until Feb 28, 08 am 05 pm (weekdays), 08 am 09 pm (weekends) Centre for Art & Culture at 22 Hang Buom 22 Hang Buom Street From Unleashing Creativity Week: The exhibition Sketches of Hanoi Old Quarter 2021, taking place within the Unleashing Creativity week 2021, will offer new perspectives on the ancient streets that are so familiar for many of us. Brought to you by Urban Sketchers Ha Noi, the artworks in this exhibition were created by professional and non-professional artists living in Hanoi, coming from all walks of life and of all ages. Hanoi-Calligraphy Exhibition: Phieu Dieu Until Feb 28, 08 am 05 pm (weekdays), 08 am 09 pm (weekends) Centre for Art & Culture at 22 Hang Buom 22 Hang Buom Street From Unleashing Creativity Week: The 40 artworks presented at Phieu Dieu contributes to the celebration of the nations cultural values, especially those of Hanoi the capital with a rich history. Nom poetry, Buddhist scriptures, traditional sayings, proverbs, idioms, are translated from the Nom script from the past to the present. Hanoi-Exhibition reproduces traditional Lunar New Year Festival January 14-March 15 National Archives Centre No.1 An exhibition featuring more than 100 unique and rare documents and images, that highlight the traditional Lunar New Year or Tet Festival, imbued with national cultural identities. The exhibits will be arranged in three themes: Spring Market, Celebration of New Spring and Traveling in Spring. Hanoi- Exhibition on typical Vietnamese women throughout history Until May 30, 2022 Hoa Lo Prison Relic An exhibition displaying the images of typical Vietnamese women throughout history. Hanoi- Exhibition spotlights tigers in Vietnams ancient art Until August 31, Vietnam National Museum of History, Featuring more than 30 exhibits, documents and images featuring tigers throughout over 2,000 years of the country's art history, showing that the image of tigers was widely portrayed in Vietnams ancient pottery, carving and folk paintings, among others. ________________________________________________________________________________ CINEMA Hanoi-Money, Money! A Film by Tran Vu & Nguyen Huu Luyen Mar 12, 04:30 pm & 07 pm LEspace, 24 Trang Tien Street From the organizer: Money, Money!, drama film, 1989, 93 A comedy film presenting common concerns within Vietnamese society post-Renovation: the contradiction between knowledge and materialism, between ideals and reality, between essence and appearance, or between the personal and the collective. These struggles unfold in the society, in families and in each individual. The laughters from the past are charmingly evocative of stories of modern day, as seen through cinemas unique filters. Tien Oi! Is amongst a wave of Northern-made Vietnamese comedy films of the late 1980s, its production commissioned with commercial potential in mind. Alongside contribution from co-director Nguyen Huu Luyen, the film also bears various trademarks of Tran Vu a Tran Vu vastly different from what he was normally known for. * With subtitles in English Online Film Screening: Kinofest 2022 18 Feb 31 Mar 2022 Goethe-On-Demand From Goethe Institut: Kinofest is our annual festival for current German cinema. Screenings take place online, accessible to audiences in eight countries in Southeast Asia. We are presenting twelve selected films, mostly current newcomers from different genres, in a first joint production of eight Goethe-Instituts from Southeast Asia. The event takes place from February 18 to March 31, 2022. We are celebrating not only the films but also how they are screened: all films are available online in the entire region and subtitled in four national languages (Indonesian, Thai, Burmese, and Vietnamese) plus English. NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico For the investigators, the human foot burned, but with some fabric still attached was the tipoff: Until recently, this squat, ruined house was a place where bodies were ripped apart and incinerated, where the remains of some of Mexicos missing multitudes were obliterated. How many disappeared in this cartel extermination site on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo, miles from the U.S. border? After six months of work, forensic technicians still dont dare offer an estimate. In a single room, the compacted, burnt human remains and debris were nearly 2 feet deep. Uncounted bone fragments were spread across 75,000 square feet of desert scrubland. Twisted wires, apparently used to tie the victims, lie scattered amid the scrub. Each day, technicians place what they find bones, buttons, earrings, scraps of clothing in paper bags labeled with their contents: Zone E, Point 53, Quadrant I. Bone fragments exposed to fire. They are sent off to the forensic lab in the state capital Ciudad Victoria, where boxes of paper bags wait their turn along with others. They will wait a long time; there are not enough resources and too many fragments, too many missing, too many dead. At the Nuevo Laredo site to which The Associated Press was given access this month the insufficiency of investigations into Mexicos nearly 100,000 disappearances is painfully evident. There are 52,000 unidentified people in morgues and cemeteries, not counting places like this one, where the charred remains are measured only by weight. And people continue to disappear. And more remains are found. We take care of one case and 10 more arrive, said Oswaldo Salinas, head of the Tamaulipas state attorney generals identification team. Meanwhile there is no progress in bringing the guilty to justice. According to recent data from Mexicos federal auditor, of more than 1,600 investigations into disappearances by authorities or cartels opened by the attorney generals office, none made it to the courts in 2020. Still, the work goes on at Nuevo Laredo. If nothing else, there is the hope of helping even one family find closure, though that can take years. Thats why a forensic technician smiled amid the devastation on a recent day: She had found an unburnt tooth, a treasure that might offer DNA to make an identification possible. ___ When Jorge Macias, head of the Tamaulipas state search commission, and his team first came to the Nuevo Laredo site, they had to clear brush and pick up human remains over the final 100 yards just to reach the house without destroying evidence. They found a barrel tossed in a trough, shovels and an axe with traces of blood on it. Gunfire echoed in the distance. Nearly six months later, there are still more than 30,000 square feet of property to inspect and catalog. The house has been cleared, but four blackened spaces used for cremation remain. In what was the bathroom, it took the technicians three weeks to carefully excavate the compacted mass of human remains, concrete and melted tires, said Salinas, who leads work at the site. Grease streaks the walls. Macias found the Nuevo Laredo house last August when he was looking for more than 70 people who had disappeared in the first half of the year along a stretch of highway connecting Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo, the busiest trade crossing with the United States. The area was known as kilometer 26, a point on the highway and the invisible entrance to the kingdom of the Northeast cartel, a splinter of the Zetas. There are small shops with food and coffee. Men sell stolen gasoline and drugs. Strangers are filmed with cell phones. The power poles lining the highway farther north have been blasted with large-caliber weapons. Most who disappeared here were truck drivers, cabbies, but also at least one family and various U.S. citizens. About a dozen have been found alive. Last July, Karla Quintana, head of the National Search Commission, said the disappearances appeared to be related to a dispute between the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which was trying to enter the area, and the Northeast cartel, which wanted to keep them out. Its not clear if the victims were smugglers of drugs or people, if some were abducted mistakenly or if the goal was simply to generate terror. The phenomenon of Mexicos disappearances exploded in 2006 when the government declared war on the drug cartels. For years, the government looked the other way as violence increased and families of the missing were forced to become detectives. It wasnt until 2018 the end of the last administration that a law passed, laying the legal foundations for the government to establish the National Search Commission. There followed local commissions in every state; protocols that separated searches from investigations, and a temporary and independent body of national and international technical experts supported by the U.N. to help clear the backlog of unidentified remains. The official total of the missing stands at 98,356. Even without the civil wars or military dictatorships that afflicted other Latin American countries, Mexicos disappeared are exceeded in the region only by war-torn Colombia. Unlike other countries, Mexicos challenge still has no end: authorities and families search for people who disappeared in the 1960s and those who went missing today. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors government was the first to recognize the extent of the problem, to talk of extermination sites and to mount effective searches. But he also promised in 2019 that authorities would have all the resources they needed. The national commission, which was supposed to have 352 employees this year, still has just 89. And Macias state commission has 22 positions budgeted, but has only filled a dozen slots. There the issue isnt money; the difficulty is finding applicants who pass background checks. ___ Disappearances are considered the perfect crime because without a body, theres no crime. And the cartels are expert at ensuring that there is no body. If a criminal group has total control of an area they do what we call kitchens, because they feel comfortable burning bodies openly, Macias said. In areas that are not theirs and where the other side could easily see the smoke, they dig graves. In 2009, at the other end of the border, a member of the Tijuana cartel confessed to having cooked some 300 victims in caustic lye. Eight years later, a report from a public university investigation center showed that what officially had been a jail in the border city of Piedras Negras, was actually a Zetas command center and crematorium. Perhaps the largest such site was yet another border setting near the mouth of the Rio Grande called the dungeon, in territory controlled by the Gulf cartel. The memory still stirs Macias. The first time he went he saw pelvis, skulls, femurs, everything just lying there and I said to myself, It cant be.' Authorities have recovered more than 1,100 pounds of bones at the site so far. According to the Tamaulipas state forensic service, some 15 extermination sites have been found. There are also burial sites: In 2010, graves containing 191 bodies were found along one of the main migratory routes through Tamaulipas to the border. In 2014, 43 students disappeared in the southern state of Guerrero. Only three have been identified from pieces of burnt bones. Most of the extermination sites have been found by family members who follow up leads themselves with or without the support and protection of authorities. Such search groups exist in nearly every state. For the families, the discoveries inspire both hope and pain. It brings together a lot of emotions, said a woman who has been searching for her husband since 2014 and two brothers who disappeared later. Like thousands of relatives across Mexico, she has made the search for her loved ones her life. It makes you happy to find (a site), but at the moment you see things the way they are, you nosedive. The woman, who requested anonymity because of safety concerns, was present for the discovery of two sites last year. When she entered the Nuevo Laredo location with Macias, she could only cry. A few months earlier, she had found the site in central Tamaulipas where she believes her loved ones are. That day, accompanied by the state search commission and escorted by the National Guard, they entered the brush in search of a drug camp. Im not well psychologically after that, she said as she showed photos of the deep graves where burnt remains were buried, some wrapped in barbed wire. They recovered around a thousand teeth, she said. ___ On a recent day in Nuevo Laredo, gloved hands sifted through the dirt, separating out bits of bone: a piece of a jaw, a skull fragment, a vertebra. The work is hard. The forensic technicians clear brush and then dig. Some days the temperature hovers around freezing, others its above 100 degrees. They wear head-to-toe white protective suits and are constantly guarded. Security is a concern, and so authorities have separated the search function from the investigations the cartels appear less concerned with those just looking for bones, though anything they find could eventually become evidence in a prosecution. Each day before dusk, they are escorted to a safe house and dont leave except to return the next day to the site. When cartel violence exploded in Tamaulipas in 2010, the capitals morgue had space for six bodies. In a single massacre that year, a cartel killed 72 migrants. In those days, the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights denounced serious negligence in Tamaulipass forensic work. Pedro Sosa, director of the states forensic services, said that their way of working changed radically in 2018 with the establishment of the identification team. But its not enough. A single forensic anthropologist in the whole state is not compatible with all of this work. It can take four months for the Nuevo Laredo remains to be cleaned, processed and arrive to the genetic lab. It can take longer if something urgent emerges like in January of last year, when nearly 20 people mostly migrants were incinerated in an attack near the border. Even if they manage to extract DNA, identification isnt assured because the profile will only automatically be crossed with a state database. A federal genetic database still doesnt exist. It could be years before even non-genetic information is added to one of the national databases. In 2020, the federal auditor said that that system had only 7,600 registered disappeared and 6,500 registered dead. Though the federal law calls for a system in which various databases can interact, that doesnt exist, said Marlene Herbig, of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Each state or federal database of fingerprints or genetic profiles is like an island, despite calls for bridges to connect them. No one can estimate how much money is needed or how many years it could take to see significant results in Mexicos efforts to locate and identify the disappeared. Herbig offered a clue: A similar effort mounted on the island of Cyprus took 10 years to identify 200 disappeared in the conflict between Greece and Turkey during the latter half of the last century. And there are many thousands more missing in Mexico than there were in Cyprus. This issue is a monster, Macias said. __ AP writer Alfredo Pena in Ciudad Victoria contributed to this report. WASHINGTON The Justice Department launched one of the largest and most complex criminal investigations in its history after a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol over a year ago. Now its time for a jury to hear some of the governments evidence about the unparalleled attack on American democracy. The first trial for one of the hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions begins this week, with jury selection starting Monday in the case against Guy Wesley Reffitt. The Texas man is charged with bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds, interfering with police officers guarding the building, and threatening his teenage children if they reported him to authorities. Jurors could hear attorneys opening statements as soon as Tuesday. Reffitts trial may be a bellwether for many other Capitol riot cases. A conviction would give prosecutors more leverage in plea talks with rioters facing the most serious charges. An acquittal may lead others to wait for their own day in court. Reffitt truly is the canary in the coal mine, said Gregg Sofer, a former federal prosecutor who served as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas from October 2020 to February 2021. Itll really be interesting to see how strong a case the government has and whether or not theyre relying on evidence that, when pushed and tested, stands up. Its going to have a huge impact going forward, added Sofer, now a partner at the law firm Husch Blackwell. Reffitt is a member of a militia-style group called the Texas Three Percenters, according to prosecutors. The Three Percenters militia movement refers to the myth that only 3% of Americans fought in the Revolutionary War against the British. On Jan. 6, 2021, Reffitt was armed with a handgun in a holster on his waist, carrying zip-tie handcuffs and wearing body armor and a helmet equipped with a video camera when he and others charged at police officers on the west side of the Capitol, according to prosecutors. This action caused the police line guarding the building to retreat closer to the building itself; soon after this, law enforcement was overwhelmed, and rioters flooded the building, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Reffitt retreated only after an officer pepper sprayed him in the face, prosecutors said. Prosecutors believe Reffitt took at least two firearms with him to Washington: an AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol. When FBI agents searched Reffitts home in Wylie, Texas, they found a handgun in a holster on a nightstand in the defendants bedroom. Prosecutors say photos and video of Reffitt during the riot show a handgun holster on his right hip, with what appears to be a silver object inside the holster. On the morning of Jan. 6, Reffitt said he planned to do the recon and then come back for weapons hot and sent messages about meeting at a rendezvous point, according to prosecutors. These messages, along with the weapons that Reffitt carried and the gear he wore, make clear that the defendant did not come to D.C. with the intention to engage in peaceful activity, prosecutors wrote. The siege resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer. The Justice Department says more than 235 rioters have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, injuring over 100 officers. Rioters caused over $1 million in damage to the Capitol. The Justice Department says its investigation has generated an unprecedented volume of evidence, with hundreds of thousands of documents and thousands of hours of videos to share with defense attorneys. Shared files total more than nine terabytes of information and would take over 100 days to view, the department says. More than 750 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 200 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors carrying a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment. More than 100 riot defendants have been sentenced. And at least 90 others have trial dates this year. Philadelphia-based defense attorney Justin Danilewitz, who was a federal prosecutor in New Jersey from 2012 to 2017, said a conviction in Reffitts case may lead to a flurry of guilty pleas by other riot defendants. And that can benefit defendants on occasion because its better than the alternative if the alternative is a conviction following a trial, Danilewitz added. An acquittal could inspire other defendants to dig in their heels and either push for a better plea offer from prosecutors or gamble a trial of their own, he said. Defense attorney William Welch has said there is no evidence that Reffitt damaged property, used force or physically harmed anybody. In a May 2021 court filing, Welch said none of the videos or photos shows a gun in Reffitts possession at the Capitol. In fact, neither of the police officers interviewed by the government said anything about a firearm, he wrote. Reffitt has been jailed since his arrest in Texas less than a week after the riot. He faces five counts: obstruction of an official proceeding, being unlawfully present on Capitol grounds while armed with a firearm, transporting firearms during a civil disorder, interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, and obstruction of justice. The obstructing justice charge stems from threats that he allegedly made against his son, then 18, and daughter, then 16, after returning home from Washington. Reffett told his children to choose a side or die and said they would be traitors if they reported him to law enforcement, prosecutors said. He predicted future political violence in statements both to his family and to fellow militia members, bragged to fellow militia members about his involvement in the riot, recruited other rioters into the militia, and ordered bear spray and riot shields to his home to prepare for further violence, prosecutors wrote. Messages recovered from Reffitts cellphone indicate he planned to joined an armed insurrection on Jan. 6 and intended to occupy the Capitol, prosecutors said. We had thousands of weapons and fired no rounds yet showed numbers. The next time we will not be so cordial, he wrote, according to prosecutors. Presiding over Reffitts trial is U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017. Friedrich already has sentenced nine rioters who pleaded guilty. Freidrich individually questioned more than 30 prospective jurors on Monday, asking them how closely they have followed news coverage of the Capitol riot. Some said they had formed strong, negative opinions about the events of Jan. 6 but could strive to be fair and impartial. The judge disqualified several members of the jury pool who said they would have difficulty setting aside their opinions or emotions about the riot. One of them, a man who lives near the Capitol, said the riot felt like an attack on my home in some sense. It was a very scary time, he told the judge, Jury selection is scheduled to resume Tuesday. The judge said she hopes to empanel a jury to hear opening statements later in the day. Prosecutors expect to call about a dozen witnesses, including three Capitol police officers who interacted with Reffitt and an officer who was in charge of the U.S. Capitol Police command center. Jurors will see videos that captured Reffitts confrontation with police. Prosecutors also have audio recordings of Reffitt talking about the riot inside his home after returning home. We made a point. That was a historic day, Refffitt said during one of the recorded conversations, according to prosecutors. And guess what? Im not done yet. I got a lot more to do. Thats the beginning. Reffitts son, daughter and a fellow Texas Three Percenter group member also are listed as government witnesses. The group member traveled with Reffitt to Washington and back to Texas between Jan. 4 and Jan. 8, 2021. During the drive (to Washington), Reffitt talked about dragging those people out of the Capitol by their ankles and installing a new government, prosecutors wrote. A court filing that refers to the other militia member by the initials R.H. says the man will tell jurors he was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Welch has said Reffiitt worked as a rig manager and as a consultant in the petroleum industry before COVID-19 restrictions effectively shut down his business. BRUSSELS Within days, Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved what remained out of the grasp of the European Union for many decades to jointly buy and send weapons to a war zone and restored something that was broken for years trans-Atlantic unity. For years, Putin could sit back and relish in unseemly scenes of Western disunity ranging from the Britains Brexit move out of the EU in 2016, Hungarys long-standing antipathy towards its EU headquarters and, equally, the rift created by former President Donald Trump that has far from fully healed under Joe Biden. For Putin, the timing seemed perfect for his invasion of Ukraine since it had the potential of opening the cracks of division even further, with a war on the continent forcing everyone far outside their diplomatic comfort zone. And just as Vladimir Putin thought that he would destroy European unity, exactly the opposite thing has happened, European Council President Charles Michel said in an interview with a small group of reporters on Monday. Cooperation is solid as a rock, he said. This is demanded by the circumstances of history. Demanded by circumstances that none of us could have imagined, Michel added. Washington could not agree more. President Putin has been one of the greatest unifiers of NATO in modern history, so I guess that is one thing we can thank him for, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Richard Haass, president of the New York-based think tank Council on Foreign Relations, said it was stunning how European politics have been transformed in recent days. Putin has done what no one in the West could do, which is revive the concept of the West, Haass said. On Monday, Biden was leading another videoconference with EU, Britain and other Western leaders to solidify a common package of sanctions that are unprecedented in scope and unity. Over the weekend, Brussels and Washington announced financial sanctions within minutes of each other, all targeting the central bank and cutting Russia out of much of the SWIFT international financial transaction system. The Europeans also closed their airspace to Russian planes, and they all agreed on a list of Russian oligarchs to hit. Seeing the West gel together instead of break apart, Putin on Monday went to the old lingo that the West loved to use itself in the Cold War days of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. Centering his wrath on Washington, he described Western allies as U.S. satellites which humbly fawn on it, kowtow to it, copy its conduct and joyfully accept the rules it offers to follow. So its fair to say that the entire Western bloc formed by the U.S. to its liking represents an empire of lies, Putin said. Western powers will take such unity as a compliment these days, and it was unheard of before Putin started massing troops on Ukraines border. Especially, the stance within the 27-nation EU is a sea change that was achieved within a few ebbs and flows. This is a watershed moment, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the wake of Sundays decision for the EU to finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack. This is the same European Union based on a post-World War II peace project that would only turn swords into plowshares to recreate a welfare continent of unprecedented riches. It was that same European Union that received the Nobel Peace Prize 10 years ago for what it could achieve without the use of weapons. It was also the same bloc that for years has vaunted the value of what it calls soft power diplomacy, aid, cultural exchanges instead of the raw power that comes through the barrel of a gun. All this change in barely a week. Now, Michel says: There is no space for weakness and we need to show a firmness. Nowhere has the change been more pronounced than in Germany, the EUs leading economic power but also a country that has been reluctant to invest heavily in military power, in large part because of its militaristic past which resulted in the horror of World War II. Germany has faced persistent criticism over recent years for failing to meet a NATO target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense. On Sunday, though, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany would commit 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to a special fund for its armed forces and raise defense spending above 2% from now on, year for year. Scholz also has done an about-face on Germanys refusal to export weapons to conflict zones, pledging to send anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. If our world is different, then our policy must be different as well, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said. The policy U-turn was executed by a government led by center-left Social Democrats sometimes criticized as being soft on Russia and a Green party that has a pacifist heritage That world changed as well for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban often seen as the EUs version of an autocrat leader much like Putin is. For years, he has been railing against the EU as meddlesome, was friends with Putin and was seen as someone who could break the bloc from within. Especially since EU sanctions against Russia require unanimity among all 27, the moment beckoned. Still Hungary, fell in line as much as the others when it came to sanctions within days. I spoke immediately with Viktor Orban when we faced this new situation and I can tell you, it was less difficult than expected to have the support of Hungary, Michel said. It might still be early days in the war though and tougher moments might lie ahead with even bigger decisions to make, especially since Putin and his circle have had time for many years to prepare for any eventuality. They do have the ability to keep going for some time despite the pain, said Amanda Paul of the European Policy Center think tank. So it means that the West will need to be very committed and very determined to keep pushing and pushing. ___ Geir Moulson in Berlin, Chris Megerian and Zeke Miller in Washington and Lorne Cook and Mark Carlson in Brussels, contributed to this report. Seeking to tighten the financial squeeze on Russia over its war against Ukraine, governors and lawmakers in numerous U.S. states were taking actions Monday to pull state investments from Russian companies while encouraging private entities to do the same. The effect of sanctions by U.S. states often pales in comparison to national ones, but state officials said they wanted to show solidarity with Ukraine and do what they could to build upon the penalties imposed on Russia by the U.S. government and other Western nations. Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican, got a bipartisan standing ovation Monday when he told representatives he would seek to have the states retirement funds quickly divested from any Russian assets. I dont know about yall, but I dont want one penny of Georgians money going to subsidize Vladimir Putin, Ralston said. While our role in international affairs is limited, we make clear we stand with those who want to live in peace. Some actions have been largely symbolic. The capitols in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Tennessee and the governors mansion in South Carolina were lit with the blue and yellow colors of Ukraines flag. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, issued a joint statement condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine as co-chairs of the presidentially appointed Council of Governors. Oklahomas Republican-controlled Senate passed a resolution affirming the historical ties between the state and the people of Ukraine and supporting their fight against what it described as an illegal and violent Russian invasion. Other state actions have potential teeth. On Monday, the Indiana House passed legislation that would block Russian-controlled businesses and nonprofits from acquiring property in Indiana for one year. It now goes to the Senate. Indiana will not be a safe haven for ill-gotten Russian funds, nor for its oligarchs trying to find financial shelter in the wake of Putins unconscionable invasion of Ukraine, Democratic state Rep. Ryan Dvorak said while proposing the amendment last week. Pennsylvania lawmakers said Monday they will file legislation requiring state pension funds to pull investments connected to the Russian government and its critical supporters. The state Treasury Department also has begun divesting its minimal holdings in Russian-based companies. In a memo to fellow senators, Democratic state Sen. Sharif Street said Pennsylvania must wield our economic power to ensure that Russia faces grave consequences for their flagrant violations of international law and human cooperation. Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican seeking co-sponsors for the legislation, said state lawmakers have a moral obligation to ensure that our public fund investments are not inadvertently supporting those who are engaging in an unprovoked invasion of their democratically elected neighbors. Arkansas lawmakers have filed proposals authorizing banks in the state to freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs and to require a boycott of Russian-made goods. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared Tuesday through Thursday special days of prayer for Ukraine. A bipartisan group of California lawmakers said Monday they also will introduce legislation to divest public money from Russian state entities. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding her state from doing business with Russia. She ordered state agencies to divest money and assets from companies or institutions aiding Russia in its war against Ukraine. The Democratic governor also said New York would welcome Ukrainian refugees, noting that New York already is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the U.S. On Monday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, ordered state offices under his control to terminate government contracts that benefit Russian businesses. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, also has banned state agencies from doing business with Russian state-owned firms and their subcontractors. Colorados $61 billion state pension fund is pulling $8 million from a Russian state-owned bank identified in federal sanctions. Governors or other state officials in Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia and Washington also have ordered a review of whether any state money is going to Russian companies or investments supporting the Russian government. A North Dakota investment board was due to meet later this week to discuss its investments in Russia. If our state can put one brick in the wall around Putin, it will be a good thing, and we intend to do all that we can in this regard, said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat. Two prominent Republican governors, Floridas Ron DeSantis and South Dakotas Kristi Noem, who are widely seen as angling for a White House bid, mostly took aim at President Joe Biden rather than issuing executive orders targeting Russia. They criticized his energy policies and said that had made it difficult to slap sanctions on Russias exports of oil and gas. Other governors are seeking to sever good-will relationships between their home states and those in Russia. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan announced Monday that hes dissolving Marylands decades-old sister-state relationship with Russias Leningrad region after the invasion of Ukraine. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, asked the cities of Norfolk and Roanoke to end their sister city partnerships with Russian cities. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, called for an end to its sister state relationship with Stavrapol Krai, Russia, and a strengthening of its sister state relationship with Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. Several states have expressed a willingness to provide housing to Ukranian refugees. The Washington state House and Senate each have added amendments to their budget proposals setting aside $19 million to provide services and temporary housing to refugees who come from Ukraine. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, posted on Twitter over the weekend that he has asked restaurants and retailers to voluntarily remove all Russian products from their shelves. Officials in Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia all states that control the sale of alcohol have directed Russian-sourced alcohol to be removed from store shelves. Utah stands in solidarity with Ukraine and will not support Russian enterprises, no matter how small the exchange, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. ___ Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press state government reporters from around the U.S. contributed to this report. Netflix TV That night also sees 'Ted Lasso' winning Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series with star Jason Sudeikis winning best actor in comedy series. Feb 28, 2022 AceShowbiz - The 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are currently underway at Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California. The Sunday, February 27 event is celebrating the year's best in both the TV and film industry with "Squid Game" being the early winner in the TV department. The hit Netflix series was named to be the winner for Best Stunt Ensemble, which was the first TV award to be handed out for the night. The Korean show beat fellow nominees including "Cobra Kai", "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", "Loki" "Mare of Easttown". That night also saw "Ted Lasso" winning Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series. The award wasn't the only one for the comedy show as star Jason Sudeikis won Outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series. Also among early winners at the award-giving event was Jean Smart from "Hacks" who nabbed the award for Outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series. In the movie department, Ariana DeBose and Troy Kotsur were among the early winners. Ariana was presented with the award of Outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role for her outstanding performance in "West Side Story". She successfully edged out Caitriona Balfe ("Belfast"), Cate Blanchett ("Nightmare Alley"), Kirsten Dunst ("The Power of the Dog") and Ruth Negga ("Passing"). Meanwhile, Troy took home the award for Outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for his performance on "Coda". He took down fellow nominees which included Ben Affleck ("The Tender Bar"), Bradley Cooper ("Licorice Pizza"), Jared Leto ("House of Gucci") and Kodi Smit-McPhee ("The Power of the Dog"). Paramount Pictures Movie Director James Mangold tweets it's 'the first day after the storm..,' while producer Frank Marshall announces, 'That's a wrap!!!' along with a picture of 'Indy' hat. Feb 28, 2022 AceShowbiz - It's a wrap for "Indiana Jones 5". After years of false starts and multiple delays, the production on the untitled fifth installment of the action-adventure film series has finally finished. The film's director James Mangold and producer Frank Marshall took to Twitter on Sunday, February 27 to celebrate it. Mangold used a still from 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to signify the next phase, which is post-production. "And so begins the first day after the storm..," he cheekily captioned the snap. James Mangold tweeted to mark the end of 'Indiana Jones 5' production. Marshall, meanwhile, posted a picture of a blue cap with the protagonist's signature nickname "Indy", which could be the title of the film. "That's a wrap!!! #indianajones," he simply declared. The completion of the production arrives just a little over a week after Marshall tweeted that filming was "in the home stretch," along with an exterior photo of Pinewood Studios, where the movie was filmed. Ever since "Indiana Jones 5" kicked off production in the summer of 2021, it faced several setbacks. Just weeks after the filming started, Harrison Ford sustained a shoulder injury while rehearsing for a fight scene. His injury forced the closure of the production for three months. In November, a crew member died during the filming of the movie in Morocco. Camera operator Nic Cupac was found dead in his hotel room in the city of Fes in November 2021. "Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Nic Cupac, an incredibly talented colleague and member of the film community who will be greatly missed," a production rep told the New York Post. His cause of death was not disclosed, but the rep added that Cupac's "sudden passing was not production related." Earlier this month, another crew member suffered a heart attack during filming of the final scenes. According to a source, the man suddenly collapsed, prompting a panic situation. Ford, who was standing nearby, reportedly yelled, "Get me a medic quick." The filming aside, the movie stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas and many others. The movie is now scheduled to be released on June 30, 2023. NBC/Will Heath TV Meanwhile, the hit NBC comedy show pays tribute to Ukraine by introducing Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York who performs 'Prayer for Ukraine' in the cold open. Feb 28, 2022 AceShowbiz - "Saturday Night Live" returned on February 26 after taking a hiatus for nearly a month. In the new episode, the hit comedy show tackled Russia-Ukraine conflict after Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this month. The cast members paid tribute to Ukraine in its cold open. Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong introduced the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York who later performed "Prayer for Ukraine", a patriotic hymn and something of a spiritual anthem for Ukraine. Following the emotional performance, a table full of tea candles which spelled out "Kyiv" was seen. It also featured bushels of sunflowers, the Ukrainian national flower. Later in Weekend Update, hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che discussed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "This week, Russia began their invasion of Ukraine. President Putin launched the attack with support from allies like Belarus and Tucker Carlson," Jost said, referring to the Fox News host dismissing the conflict as a "border dispute." He also poked fun at NBC, saying, "Many analysts were surprised Putin went through with the invasion, even though it was obviously going to be a colossal mistake. But they couldn't back down after all that buildup. Kind of like how NBC still had to go through with airing the Winter Olympics." He went on to say, "Experts on Russian politics were saying economic sanctions from the West won't deter Putin because his money is in non-traditional assets that are difficult to trace. Ugh, so on top of everything else that is awful about Putin, he's also into crypto." Che added, "After the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian stock market fell by 30 percent, to negative 90 percent." He admitted that "this is a tough subject to make jokes about." He continued, "I mean, in my lifetime, I've seen footage of attacks like this on other countries, but never a white one I am very impressed by all these Ukrainian citizens signing up to defend their country, even the famous ones. Imagine that here: If you ever read on the news that Michael Che has joined an American war, we have just lost that war." The two then noted that Russia managed to capture the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in northern Ukraine. "Said Ukrainians, 'Oh no, don't take that,' " Jost joked. "Capturing Chernobyl is like landing an audition for Harvey Weinstein now." Instagram Celebrity During his alleged physical altercation with his now-ex-girlfriend, the male model reportedly grabbed her face and neck before throwing a chair at her and urinating on her. Feb 28, 2022 AceShowbiz - Shanna Moakler has been granted an emergency protective order against Matthew Rondeau. Us Weekly reported that the order was issued after the male model got arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of their physical altercation. In documents obtained by the outlet, a police officer detailed the alleged fight between the former couple. "[Rondeau] grabbed victim by the hair, [swinging] her by hair on the ground," the officer said, before noting that Rondeau later "grabbed [Moakler's] face and neck, threw chair at victim and urinated on [her], leaving visible injuries." Officers on the scene also stated in the report that firearms were seized. The order is valid for seven days until March 3 morning. It means Rondeau is prohibited to "harass, attack, strike, threaten, [or] assault" the former Miss USA by that time. The 29-year-old is also ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from her and move out of her house immediately. Rondeau was taken into police custody on Thursday. The domestic violence arrest came after he had an argument at Moakler's property due to her alleged infidelity. Rondeau himself publicly shamed his ex on Instagram. "So, it's over, K? Oh lord is f**king right, so record me now because this is done," he fumed. "I'm done. I'm never talking to this f**king specimen of a f**king human again. The truth is I found out that she was talking to other f**king people the whole entire time in our relationship." "She's a f**king w***e, I don't give a f**k, you can quote me on it. It's f**king done," Rondeau further raged. "You are never gonna f**king see me with this f**king c**t again, I don't give a f**k." Rondeau also claimed that his then-girlfriend isn't over her ex-husband Travis Barker yet. "We have a laptop that we f**king share together. My name pops up in the f**king laptop; this f**king a**hole is talking to her exes," he alleged. "She ain't over f**king Travis, she ain't over anything." Instagram Celebrity In a new clip, the 'Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' star reveals that she's 'deada** 100 percent serious' about wanting to have the aspiring lawyer in 'the Shah squad legal team.' Feb 28, 2022 AceShowbiz - Jen Shah was "100 percent serious" when she said that she wanted to bring Kim Kardashian to her legal team amid her wire fraud and money laundering scandal. In a clip from "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City After Show", the TV star discussed the matter. "Listen, Kim Kardashian is not officially part of the Shah squad legal team yet," Jen says in the Sunday, February 27 clip which was obtained by PEOPLE. "People thought I was joking around when I was like, 'Do we need to add Kim Kardashian to our legal team?' I was deada** 100 percent serious." Gushing over Kim, who is not yet an official lawyer, Jen went on to say, "She has been able to be an advocate and affect change for people who have been wrongly accused of crimes." She added, "They're innocent and then she has been able to help be part of the movement to, you know, go fight for them at the White House or with [the] government to get them released." The clip also saw Jen insisting that she's been "wrongly accused." She divulged, "I don't take this lightly... It's my life and more importantly, it's my family's life. I care about them more than anything. I don't want my kids or my husband or my mom or my family affected by this and so I have to fight and I have to have faith in the justice system." She also noted how her case served as an "eye-opening" for her when it comes to the importance of education about the justice system. "I'm representing not only my family but I'm representing everybody out there that has ever been wrongly accused or wrongly convicted of a crime that they didn't do, and if I have the means to fight, I'm going to fight," she revealed. "I'm going to fight because what is happening is not right and this has not only happened to me." Back in March, Jen and her assistant Stuart Smith were arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing. They were also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. They pleaded not guilty in April, but Smith changed his plea to guilty later in November. As for Jen, she has maintained her innocence. Instagram Celebrity The 24-year-old beauty queen, who represented Ukraine in the Miss Grandy International beauty contest in 2015, warns the Russian soldiers, 'Everyone who crosses the Ukrainian border with the intent to invade will be killed!' Feb 28, 2022 AceShowbiz - Anastasiia Lenna is trading her shash for a gun. The beauty queen, who represented Ukraine in the Miss Grandy International beauty contest in 2015, is joining the Ukrainian military amid Russia's invasion of her country. The former Miss Grand Ukraine has answered the call to defend her home as Russia has launched attacks to take over her country. On Tuesday, February 22, the 24-year-old posted on her Instagram page photos of her in full combat gear with a weapon strapped onto her shoulder. She captioned the images with "standwithukraine" and "#handsoffukraine." Anastasiia has also warned the Russian soldiers who are invading her country as she posted on Saturday, "Everyone who crosses the Ukrainian border with the intent to invade will be killed!" along with a photo of armed soldiers blocking a roadway. In her Story, she shared a video of her practicing target shooting. "Training. The invaders will die on our land! All world see this!" she wrote over the clip. In another post, she joked, "Our [Ukraine's] army is fighting in such a way that NATO should apply for entry into Ukraine." She additionally shared a photo to her 75,000 followers showing soldiers walking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom she praised as a "a true and strong leader." Ever since Russia launched a "special military operation" in eastern Ukraine, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are ordered to stay to defend their country while tens of thousands of women, children and elders flee to safety. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko have announced talks will take place between Russia and Ukraine as Russia has failed to take any major Ukrainian cities and suffered thousands of casualties amid fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces. Ukraine will send a delegation to meet with Russian officials along the Ukraine-Belarus border in the area of the Pripyat River, the president's office announced. Facebook Celebrity Meanwhile, Beyonce Knowles' charitable foundation, BeyGood, also reacts to the alleged racism against Black people who tried to cross the Ukraine-Poland border. Feb 28, 2022 AceShowbiz - Young Thug is among celebrities to offer his helping hands amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Upon learning of reports about border discrimination towards African students, the "Bubbly" rapper announced that he'll try to help them escape the country. Making use of Instagram Stories on Sunday, February 27, the emcee declared, "If some of my rap brothers are in I'm willing to help Africans get out of Ukraine however I can sense [sic] they not letting us pass." He added, "Who ever holds the info for these movements please contact me ASAP I'm ready." Thug has since received support from some fellow rappers. One in particular was YSL artist Strick, who shared the former's original post and penned, "This needs to be Shared more! I'm with your slime! Proud of you brother. Always been a true leader! PURE. King Spida to the rescue!" Also reacting to the alleged racism was Beyonce Knowles' charitable foundation, BeyGood. "We are saddened by the news of African and other international students being denied at the border as they attempt to leave Ukraine," it wrote on Twitter. "We are hopeful that the various embassies could swiftly rectify the situation to help those in need of support." This arrived after some African students claimed that authorities have blocked Black people from crossing to Poland due to a "Ukrainians' first" policy. "Some people have gone to get buses, but they're not allowing Black people basically onto the buses. They're prioritizing Ukrainians. That's what they say," a student named Korrine Sky told Insider. Another African student claimed on Twitter that authorities were "threatening to shoot" them. "We are currently at the Ukraine -Poland border. Their Police and Army refused to let Africans cross they only allow Ukrainian. Some have slept here for 2 days under this scorching cold weather, while many have gone back to Lviv," the individual penned alongside a video from the scene. Parcos, a leading luxury beauty retailer, has launched the Parcos Beauty Influencer Awards 2022 to honour influencers who, via their innovative content, get up close and personal with customers and have a significant impact on their beauty, luxury, and lifestyle habits. Parcos has always worked closely with Indian influencers to foster international collaborations, and as part of the Baccarose alliance, it now features brands like the Shiseido Group, L'Oreal, Puig, Coty, InterParfums, and many more. Parcos foresight will help to develop talent, give a platform to Indias growing community of beauty and lifestyle influencers, and expose them to worldwide brands within the Parcos family. In conversation with Adgully,, sheds more light on the Parcos Beauty Influencer Awards 2022, the evolution of influencer marketing in India, increasingly engaging with influencers and creating the right connect between the brands and consumers and more. How have brands worked their way up via influencer marketing? The Indian influencer marketing industry is estimated to reach a value of Rs 900 crore by the end of 2021, according to GroupM INCAs India Influencer Marketing Report. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% till 2025 to reach a size of Rs 2,200 crore. As per the report, personal care (25%), F&B (20%), fashion and jewelry (15%) and mobile and electronics 10% are the top four categories that contribute to 70% volume of influencer marketing. Besides, celebrities account for 27% of influencer marketing spends, while influencers account for 73%, which clearly shows the strength of influencers today. Nearly two-thirds of the Indian population follows an influencer, especially during the pandemic, which has accelerated the adoption of influencer marketing by brands, thus making it an integral part of their marketing strategy and an important part of media. With the influx of social and digital media in consumer lives, engagement in product-led conversions, discovering the benefits and authenticity, usability has made marketers more conscious about various modes of promotion. With targeted marketing, we have arrived at a point in this digital world, where marketing or an influencing of a purchase decision has become a way of life. With the proliferation of social media, and the democratisation of online publishing, the role of word-of-mouth has rapidly expanded into a new tool for marketers- something that has the structure of publishing and traditional advertising (and sometimes the cost), but can have much more impact in swaying opinions or converting into purchase. What influencers do, as third-party endorsers, is showcase actual usage and thus, make it more believable than an advertisement whether print or digital or TV. It allows the brand to connect with the influencer attributes that matches the brand truth or promise and thus, helps the communication marry the two for a better outcome than mere traditional marketing. Basis the influencers follower pattern, deploying their distinctive approach to the communication converts to product usage, performance advocacy and driving positive word of mouth. The returns in influencer marketing investment are almost double the investment with better quality acquisition, thus leading to its manifold popularity. Brands have worked their way up to legitimise every expense by reaching out to the correct target audience, from celebrity endorsements to micro-influencers across various channels especially redefining luxury, beauty, and personal grooming category. Influencer marketing was earlier limited to television, radio, and newspaper commercials, with little regard for the end consumer, but the trend today has shifted dramatically towards achieving the same with minimal cost and maximum reach. The legal modalities have also been pre-determined, thus making it a plausible way to deliver results and also fine tune it through brand advertisement and promotion. How was 2021 as a year of growth for the influencer marketing industry? During the second and third waves of the pandemic, brands had no other option but to utilise Virtual Selling platforms, wherein influencer marketing featured in this marketing mix more than before. Therefore, we have seen brands heavily investing in influencer marketing campaigns to capture a huge market by exploring new and better creative boundaries with over-the-top, glamorous, humorous, and top-of-mind kind of campaigns. Not only did brands increase awareness and visibility of their products through such campaigns, but they also created the possibility of developing new key relationships, that is, between the Brand, the Customer, and the Influencers. This meant harmonious and trustworthy bonds leading to honest selling and recommendations. Newer updates and opportunities kept the buzz and momentum of online marketing alive. Some key factors which helped are: Short format content: With visually rich image content, short and long-form video content that includes reels, live sessions, and stories, the followers experienced similar content and product promotion, time and again by the influencer, which leads the audience to believe that the products and services have genuine reviews, which in turn translates into creating a demand for the products that influencers are using. This helped brands to capture a market through what we term as virtual word-of-mouth publicity as an outcome of trust. Micro-influencers: Nano and Micro-influencers have been key drivers of influencer marketing campaigns, creating an impact for brands who want to involve them for most of their campaigns. Although these influencers have a lower follower base, many brands are now looking out for engagement and relatability, which is easy to receive from these kinds of influencers. Additionally, they dont charge as much, thus making it a win-win for both! Guidelines: After influencer marketing gained huge momentum, the government took notice of it and new guidelines were issued for the smooth running of the sector, thereby providing transparency within the ecosystem. ASCI introduced guidelines that ensure that the influencer-produced content is transparent and authentic. This further helped the influencers gain the trust of the followers and be in their eyes as they have also realised that this marketplace is here to stay and if they need to survive as well, it is only right that they speak their hearts out, be consistent with what they are recommending and stick to it. The year 2022 will only witness further growth in the influencer marketing industry with massive technological upgrades, which will revamp the way we consume content on social media platforms, thus making marketing more consumer-centric. As per Influencer Marketing Report of 2021, there has been a 54% increase from influencers in Tier 2 and 3 cities and beauty, fashion and lifestyle continue to rule the roost. Another thing which came up is that influencers prefer long-term relationships over short-term projects. This is a win-win for both parties as long-term collaboration with specific influencers establishes brand credibility and go a long way in building trust and thus usability. What factors should one look at when choosing the right influencers? Overall reach of the influencer within the category, the Instagram engagement, video views and reach across social channels. Also, the content connects with the brand style and product type. There are different types of influencers basis category specialisation. Each influencer has a follower base and basis the quantum they are bucketed into nano, micro, and macro celebrity. The content type trust and ability to drive audiences with their meaningful advocacy is the true measure of an influencer. Affiliate marketing also engages and involves influencers to help their audience set to make purchases with promo offers. Style tonality and approach to make content appear seamless and organic are the distinct markers of a good influencer. How is the Parcos Beauty Influencers Award different from other award ceremonies? Keeping in mind the larger brand goals and customer connects, Parcos has announced Parcos Beauty Influencer Awards 2022 where the winners of the event will be inducted into the Hall of Fame and be associated with Parcos for a year-long partnership. This association will include masterclasses, workshops, and mentorship programs. They will also receive media coverage, which would include a campaign where winners will feature in a leading magazine. It chooses to recognise 23 winners from across influencer categories, whether popular or upcoming, and more in the world of beauty and lifestyle. How does Parcos plan to leverage the winners in the coming year? Whats in it for the winners? Parcos wants to leverage these extended brand partners to spread more effective messaging to targeted consumers. The connect and engagement can be measured well. We wanted to create a pyramid of influencers which would be relevant and effective for our category and what best way to do it by inviting talent in the industry to associate with us. Basis performance and a rigorous screening with stringent criteria, we are adjudging the best in class winners. The aim is to establish the right partner program with consistent product launches, reviews, sampling trials, annual contractual agreement, and product goodies besides the international trip for the top performers. Meanwhile, commenting on what these kinds of events bring to the table,said, Influencer marketing is growing very rapidly in India and I see that trend continuing over the next few years. I hope awards platforms such as these will recognise the genuine influencers and separate them from the fraud ones. Anblick Media, a 360-degree marketing agency has bagged the media release mandate for Chandigarh University, which is a leading Indian Institution accredited with the prestigious A+ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The account was won following a multi-agency pitch and will be handled out of the agencys Noida and Chandigarh offices. As a part of this mandate, the agency aims to amplify the overall presence comprising communication and PR for the client. The scope of work includes the universitys advertisement strategy, public relations, and management to position the institution as a leading and fastestgrowing university. Anblick Media will help CU in building awareness, brand communication, developing creative video content, promoting their brand presence, and restating the brands position as a category forerunner. It will help in structuring brand advocacy through both organic and digital public relations along with new integration ideas. 2020 - 2021 were the years of substantial challenges with the traditional dispersal channels taking an extensive hit due to Covid restrictions, Harnath Ghosh, Head Branding Chandigarh University said. Chandigarh University has always taken pride in being a first mover and is focusing on positioning itself at the forefront of global education, leveraging its strong growing presence. This fulcrum will help us in increasing our brand recall amongst our target group and allow us to take the center stage in the education landscape. As we partner with Anblick Media, we intend to kick off this mandate with a strong focus on media, public relations, and brand building, he added further on the association. We are thrilled with this new partnership to come on board as the media releasing agency for Chandigarh University. At Anblick Media, we believe in the power of presentation compelled brand building and are committed to ensuring CUs online and offline growth, Varun Kumar Goswami, Managing Director Anblick Media added. The release of Run comes hot on the heels of the release of Here For You (Beckys collaboration with Wilkinson written specifically for his album), and her winning Best Dance Act at BRIT Awards 2022 earlier this month. The fan-voted Award (which saw a long-awaited return of the Dance category, after a 16-year hiatus) was presented to an ecstatic Becky by her past collaborators David Guetta (who has hailed her as one of the very rare queens of dance of music) and Pete Tong. Run is Beckys first collaboration with Swedish EDM group Galantis. Run is written by Becky Hill, MNEK and written/produced by Galantis and was teased by Becky on TikTok on 18th February. Im so excited to release Run with Galantis. says Becky. I wrote it with my best friend MNEK who Ive been writing with for 10 years and the magic I felt when we first wrote my single Losing back in 2012, I still feel to this day when writing with him. I feel like every single I release has the potential to better the last one and this is no different, especially with Galantis featuring on the record too. With their catalogue of hits with the likes of Little Mix and Years & Years Im very proud to be a part of another huge collaboration with them. This next phase of my artistry is an extension of me fully coming out as a popstar, but this time with a BRIT Award in hand! The accompanying music video for Run is directed by Michael Holyk and was shot in Cape Town, South Africa. Packed with stunning landscape shots, vibrant textures and contrasting moods, its sees Becky escape the run-of-the-mill day-to-day, to enjoy a romance in sunnier climes. Beckys collaborators on Run, Galantis, have enjoyed wide acclaim after the release of their debut album Pharmacy which topped the Billboard Dance album chart, garnered numerous platinum and gold RIAA certifications and two Grammy Nominations. The much-in-demand duo have collaborated with everyone from Dolly Parton, (on their third album Church), and Little Mix and David Guetta (on their 2021 summer smash "Heartbreak Anthem" which debuted at #1 on the Worldwide iTunes charts and spent 13 weeks in the Top 10 of the UK's Official Chart top ten), to Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry and Britney Spears. The first of a string of releases due from Becky this year, brand new single Run is set to further cement her reputation as the Queen of Dance music after an incredible 2021. The third most streamed British female solo artist on Spotify last year (behind Dua Lipa and Adele), with the fifth most streamed song by a British female (with Remember), the release of Beckys Top 10 debut album Only Honest On The Weekend, saw her score five Official Chart Top 40 singles and bring her BPI certification total to 9 x platinum, 4 x gold and 1 x silver. In addition to releasing more music, Becky has a packed live schedule planned for 2022. Having proven herself a festival line-up must-have in 2021 (with stand-out sets at Reading & Leeds and a headline slot at Camp Bestival to name but a few), and selling over 50,000 tickets for her sold-out nationwide headline Only Honest On The Weekend Tour, Becky has already announced shell be performing at Creamfields South, NASS Festival, Neighbourhood Weekender and Camp Bestival. With an irrefutable aptitude for writing chart-smashing pop songs and a reputation as a pioneer in the electronic music scene, Becky Hill is one of Britains most in-demand musical exports. She has over 180 songs registered with ASCAP - no mean feat considering only 17% of PRS for Music's registered songwriters are female - and an impressive string of hits to her name. Having written and performed on fourteen singles which charted in the Top 40 of the UK Official Singles Chart (including four top 10 singles and one number 1), Becky has now amassed over 3.2 billion total global streams and over 17 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Dell Technologies and Voot, the subscription video on demand and OTT streaming service owned by Viacom 18 are coming together to launch Dell XPS Youniverse Creators. The show will focus on creators, who excel in various art forms, coming together in a Creative Residency to collaborate and create masterpieces using the Dell XPS. The aim of the series is to propel the youth to introspect about what inspires them by capturing a creator's journey of diving deep into their creations and themselves. The show will revolve around 10 artists from different worlds who come together to create five masterpieces. The format of the show is such that in each episode two creators will collaborate and merge their creative templates to co-create a masterpiece. The participants will work on their creation using the Dell XPS laptop, which is any creators dream laptop. Chanpreet Arora; Head - AVOD (Voot), Viacom18 Digital Ventures said, At Voot we strive to ink partnerships with brands that share our vision. Dell XPS Youniverse Creators is a category disruptive format that aims to inspire the creative industry at large. The concept to propel young minds to get inspired by creators and their journey sets the show apart from others, creating a one-of-its-kind experience for our users. We are excited about this collaboration with Dell and look forward to bringing more such creative content to Voot. Mayuri Saikia, Marketing Director (Consumer), Dell Technologies said, Dell has a great lineup of XPS laptops which are future facing and especially designed for the young creators. Light but mighty, these sleek machines made from premium material, have a 4-sided InfinityEdge Display with 100% Adobe RGB color gamut for an immersive screen experience, higher battery life and powered by the latest 11th Gen Intel core processors which propel creation. She further added, This Youniverse campaign with Voot is a 5-episodic ode to the creators, shows how Dell XPS has been a clear partner when the ideas are taking shape. Its a deep dive into their youniverse or process of creating before the eureka of a big creation. Reaching the young, creative, aspiring minds who are inspired by a mix of content was important to us. Which is why we always have a strong social leg. Our products are clear enablers in this journey and celebrate their process. The series will feature creators from a plethora of backgrounds - art, photography, music, filmmaking and dance to name a few. Pair 1: Award winning chef Amninder Sahu and documentary photographer Hashim Badani Pair 2: Graffiti Artist Hanif Kureshi and spatial artist Asim Waqif Pair 3: Stylist and content creator Kayaan Contractor and spoken word poet Priya Malik Pair 4: Theatrical pianist Sahil Vasudeva and animator Sidhant Gandhi Pair 5: Actor & movement practitioner Faria Abdullah and visual artist Vimal Chandran Dell XPS Youniverse Creators will be hosted by musician and actor Monica Dogra. Filter Coffee Co., a leading integrated Digital Marketing Agency is pleased to announce its acquisition of the Digital Marketing & Creative mandate for Waffle Mill. The said will now be responsible for crafting and managing the brands communication across digital and social media. Waffle mill is Indias leading packaged waffle brand with an ever-expanding range of waffles from around the world. Selling innovative products like Waffle Chips, Dutch Stroopwafels and more, Waffle Mill is building exciting new categories and is rapidly growing its presence across the country. Waffle Mills products are available in over 1200 stores in 20 cities and the brand is flourishing online - selling through their D2C channelwafflemill.com as well as on Amazon, BigBasket and Swiggy Instamart. Since its inception, Filter Coffee Co. has effectively collaborated with many prestigious brands in lifestyle, beauty, hospitality, FMCG and corporate space. They will now be piloting Waffle Mills digital strategy, social media, e-commerce, creative communication and influencer marketing; thus, focusing to disseminate the richness of their waffles being offered across the Indian markets. The brand will veritably strengthen the core expertise of various digital channels. We are extremely excited to start our association with Filter Coffee Co.! From our very first meeting, we felt that the teams vision for our brand was totally aligned with our own. Their creative strategies and 360-degree approach are exactly what our brand needs to move to the next level and were looking forward to what we know will be a fruitful partnership and a great growth ride for all of us at Waffle Mill. - Sahil Engineer, Founder On winning the mandate, Ms. Anuja Deora, Founder, Filter Coffee Co., stated that Filter Coffee Co. is elated to be working with Waffle Mill that operates across diverse verticals to pave the way for relevant, compelling and tailored made concepts to bond with its target audience. We foresee our role in nurturing the momentum and augmentation of the brand portfolio to build greater appeal for the brand via our disruptive content, e-commerce and influencer strategy. We look forward to a great association ahead. Hungama Artist Aloud, a platform that supports and promotes independent artists and their creations, releases Hemant Punjabi latest song Mon BB . The song is one of its kind collaboration between Indian and African music. The beats are perfect for the youth, and Hemants voice, presentation and expressions add a unique feel to the whole experience. Vano Babys rap is another plus. The romantic track in Hindi, Punjabi and French is a narrative about two men falling for the same girl, but then there is an interesting twist at the end that you cannot miss. For the uninitiated, Hemant's family hails from Pune, Maharashtra. He was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and presently resides in Benin, West Africa. Starting his musical journey started early, Hemant, in college, explored various forms of music and tried his hand in composing, writing and singing songs. Since then, he has been honing his skills. With the intention of creating a song that strings together the music, culture and styles of India and Africa, Hemant came up with Mon BB that has this beautiful rap by Vano Baby. And, what can bring out the essence better than a love song? Hemant Punjabi sounds excited talking about his saingle, Mon BB is very close to my heart. It feels wonderful to be able to create a track that can resonate with not just to my African fans but also the people of India. I always wanted to work on a track that would bring Indian and African music together, and Mon BB was born out of that thought process. I hope the song will be played in various functions, clubs, pubs, and all over social media. Its a privilege to be a part of the video alongside someone like Vano Baby. I can't wait to find out what the listeners have to say about the track. I am hoping for the best. Elaborating on extending support to independent music and artists, Soumini Sridhara Paul, Senior Vice President, Hungama Artist Aloud, adds, We at Hungama Artist Aloud are focused towards creating a space for independent artists and their music to thrive. The idea is to promote indie talents globally. While Hemant Punjabi is a global star, we also wanted to take the opportunity to help them reach out to a diverse audience. Mon BB is a peppy yet soothing love song that beautifully blends Indian and African rhythm and beats. The catchy Hindi lyrics and the picturisation will be an instant hit among music lovers. With Mon BB we are foraying beyond boundaries to collaborate with newer artists and music styles. Moscow was partially limiting access to Meta Platforms Inc's Facebook, accusing it of "censoring" Russian media, announcing the measure a day after Russia invaded Ukraine and the latest in a series of steps against US social media giants, according to media reports. Moscow has also increased pressure on domestic media, threatening to block reports that contain what it describes as "false information" regarding its military operation in Ukraine. The state communications regulator said Facebook had ignored its demands to lift restrictions on four Russian media outlets on its platform - RIA news agency, the Defence Ministry's Zvezda TV, and websites gazeta.ru and lenta.ru. "Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services."Meta's head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, posted on Twitter. US Senator Mark Warner said in a letter to the chief executives of Facebook, YouTube and others that the companies have a duty to ensure their social media platforms are not misused by Russia and Russia-linked entities. Each company has "a clear responsibility to ensure that your products are not used to facilitate human rights abuses, undermine humanitarian and emergency service responses, or advance harmful disinformation," Warner said. Alphabet Inc's Google said it has removed hundreds of YouTube channels and thousands of videos over the last few days for violating its policies. Twitter Inc said users in Russia and Ukraine would no longer see ads - an attempt to avoid distracting from public safety messages - and that they would not get recommended tweets from accounts they do not follow in a bid to limit the spread of abusive content. Dear Michael: We want to do our estate planning, but we have had a meeting with the local attorney and all of it has just sat there for the pa Herbicide applications or seed treatments arent intended to add yield to a crop. Rather, they are designed to mitigate the impacts weeds will have on the overall bushel count at harvest. University of Illinois weed specialist Aaron Hager said its important to make that distinction as producers look at their decisions in 2022. The only thing we do controlling weeds is yield preservation, Hager said. Whether its herbicide or tillage, we are removing plants we call them weeds, but they are plants we dont want there. They take up the resources a crop needs to express its maximum yield potential. Entering the 2022 growing season, herbicide supply and price have been heavily discussed, with shortages expected this season. Hager said the availability of glyphosate in particular is a significant concern for many producers. When he looked up pricing at one of his local stores in Illinois in January, glyphosate herbicides had more than doubled in price, with limits on how much each customer could purchase. Those price increases may drive some producers to look for other options in 2022 or consider skipping a pass entirely. Hager said to be cautious when making any of those decisions. When you look at your spreadsheet, you have a column for expenditures and revenue, Hager said. They are linked. You can reduce that expenditure column, and thats your call, but if you reduce it too much, you can inadvertently reduce the revenue column at the same time. Going into 2022, Enlist field specialist with Corteva Agriscience Steve Snyder said waterhemp, Palmer amaranth and ragweed will likely continue being an issue for Midwest farmers, noting its hard to predict if there will be any outliers or new weed species. Based on the latest climate prediction data, a potentially drier spring is expected for the upcoming growing season. Without rain, early season herbicide applications wont trigger, leaving more weed potential in the field. If planting into soil that is retaining some moisture, that gives a little more leeway on applications, Snyder said. Most soybean pre herbicides need to be applied within three days after planting, Snyder said. If you miss that window, you are looking at only post applications. There are different strategies using a custom applicator or taking a break from planting to spray a bit but the days of planting all your soybeans and applying are over. If moisture looks to be a concern, tillage is another option available to farmers. Burying weed seeds in the ground can be effective as a management tool, but there are weeds that it may not affect. Hager said ragweed and cockleburs are a few of the weeds that can germinate from several inches deep. If your primary target is something like waterhemp or Palmer, those dont normally germinate much deeper than a half inch in the soil, Hager said. Knowing a field is the key for any management practice, however, as each field has its own clock. Snyder said there isnt a specific number of days that weeds need to be managed before yield potential is lost. The standard of late has been around four weeks or 28 days. However, she suggests keep an eye on what weather may be affecting the soil and what kind of establishment the weeds are showing to make the final decision. You are always going to get better results spraying smaller weeds, Snyder said. A lot of our herbicides are for 6-inch weeds. A lot of growers have had success with 28 or 35 days after planting. You want to be timely and if you need to make an additional pass, dont delay it. There are some supply challenges on post herbicides this year, and that makes the value of a pre more important this year. Midwest Messenger Weekly Update Get the latest agriculture news delivered to your inbox from the Midwest Messenger. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. 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... With each generation becoming further removed from production agriculture, now more than ever it is crucial that young children learn about where their food comes from. With so much to learn and so many exciting things happening in the agriculture industry, Montana Ag in the Classroom was started in 2019 to help bring ag awareness into classrooms across the state. Montana Ag in the Classroom is a public/private foundation that works to provide educators accurate materials that represent the agriculture in Montana, explained Lindsay Orem, Montana Ag in the Classroom program manager. Any and all educators have access to the Montana Ag in the Classroom curriculum. Grade- and age-appropriate learning materials are available to K-12 public school, private school, and home school teachers. Materials range from a list of ag-accurate books to lesson plans for hands-on activities. The overall goal of the program, Orem says, is to teach Montana kids about where their food comes from and to help them gain an understanding and appreciation for the agriculture industry as a whole. We have endless resources available, and if we dont have it, I will find someone to help me create it, she added. With a background in special education, Orem and her family currently manage Ox Bow Ranch, where they raise registered Black Angus seedstock. Her background, combined with her current lifestyle, makes Orem perfectly qualified to sit at the helm of the Montana Ag in the Classroom program. As a mother of school-aged children herself, she also brings to the job a passion for in-school agriculture education and the values it can teach children. This is absolutely my dream job, Orem stated. Bringing further awareness to the program is one of Orems goals for 2022. Montana Ag in the Classroom has so much to offer students and educators, she articulated, but none of it can be made possible without monetary support. As it is the middle of tax season, Orem emphasized that Montana Ag in the Classrooms general operating budget is funded through voluntary tax donations. Line 18C on the short form and 69C on the long form are the voluntary tax donation lines on everyones taxes. An individual or a business can check that line and the money is donated directly to our program, she explained. In addition to tax donations, individuals and businesses can also become program members with their dues payments applied directly towards supporting Montana Ag in the Classroom. Right now, Orem is orchestrating a membership drive with the goal of gaining 50 new contributor memberships in 2022, which entails a donation between $100 and $999. If you become a member, you get some Montana Ag in the Classroom swag and you get a sign that says you supported the program, Orem said. Another way to support Montana Ag in the Classroom is by sponsoring a classroom as a part of the Montana Ag Book Buddies program. For $175, your money would help provide an ag-accurate book once a month to any K-5 class of your choice. Along with the book, teachers are given coordinating lesson plans and activities. This is Montana Ag in the Classrooms most noted outreach program and Orem explained that the impact is huge. Teachers all over the state already participate and the more classrooms that are sponsored means more children will be learning about the multi-faceted agriculture industry. It is very important that kids have some connection to agriculture because we are losing it, she stated humbly. Orem is beyond excited to keep growing Montana Ag in the Classroom. As the program continues to gain moment, she looks forward to enhancing Montana agriculture literacy. For more information about Montana Ag in the Classroom or to acquire any of its curriculum, please e-mail Lindsay Orem at montanaaitc@gmail.com. The Prairie Star Weekly Update Get the latest agriculture news delivered to your inbox from The Prairie Star. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As I write this, the first shells are exploding in Ukraine in what promises to be the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945. The most frustrating part is that this was all preventable. This was not an unseen, spontaneous natural disaster. The lessons of history are there for us to learn from, but the West has willfully ignored them. A long chain of appeasement that runs across administrations and countries has emboldened Putin and resurrected his dream of a revived Soviet Union. It's important to understand the nature of Russia. For all intents and purposes, Russia is a dictatorship. Putin himself was a former KGB thug. He has the vast power of the government, economy, and media. Its "elections" are mere political theater. In 2011, massive crowds in Russia protested his rigged "re-election." The leading pro-democracy activist, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned by the Kremlin and now sits in jail. The Kremlin has killed former party members and dozens of journalists. The Russian government repeatedly sponsors cyber-attacks and has attempted to interfere with elections of Western countries. It supports dictators around the world, including in Iran, Syria, and Venezuela. In 2018, Russian mercenaries directly attacked U.S. forces in Syria. Now the world watches in horror as Putin's army launches an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. Putin has begun all this for a couple of intertwined reasons: nationalism and power. He's said the collapse of the Soviet Union was "a major geopolitical disaster of the century." It is nationalism in the most primitive, tribal, Nazi-like form the elevation of some mystical "motherland" above all rights of individuals, including Russians. Putin feels betrayed that the Ukrainians are increasingly sympathetic to the West, economically and spiritually. He wants to punish them and simultaneously send a message to his people. Freedom-loving people are a threat to his power. He sees former Soviet states like Poland, Romania, Lithuania, and others join the E.U. and become prosperous. Therefore, he tries to sow discontent in Western countries in any way he can. He can be seen then as the stable alternative and reassert Russia's sphere of influence. Because America is still seen as a symbol of freedom to people around the world, we are naturally his enemy. So what have been the Wests' relations with Russia? Any discussion of this topic cannot leave out energy. Europe's pursuit of green energy has left it vulnerable to Russia. Forty percent of Europe's natural gas is supplied from Russia. This is a result of a combination of banning fracking in many countries, restricting imports of LNG (liquefied natural gas) combined with America restricting LNG exports, and the shutting down of nuclear and coal plants. Europe's dependence means it's feeding the bear that threatens it. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. Shortly after, President Obama announced a "reset" policy with Russia. This was consistent with President Bush, who found Putin "straightforward and trustworthy." In 2014, Putin punished Ukraine for ousting its pro-Russian puppet president by annexing Crimea. The West responded with tepid sanctions. President Trump equated Putin's killings of journalists and dissidents with the actions of the United States not once, but twice. "There are a lot of killers," Trump told Bill O'Reilly in a 2017 interview. "You think our country's so innocent?" In 2015, he said, "I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know." He continued to describe Putin as a leader and someone whom he respects. No, the United States isn't perfect. But the lack of moral clarity when equating a country that has representational government, freedom of speech, real elections, a mostly free economy, and a separation of church and state with the monstrosity of a dictator like Putin emboldens the Kremlin and does real damage. Putting Putin on an equal footing affects the way we think of our relations with him. If someone were your moral equal, why would you hesitate to become largely dependent on him for natural gas? To Trump's credit, he did in fact warn Europe that this was not a good idea. But the point is that the lack of moral clarity dilutes our thinking. It would be like going into business with a known con man you are only fooling yourself. It also gives the Kremlin the green light to accelerate thuggish tactics because it sends the message that we do not care. Trump's quote is indicative of the waffling Western leaders have shown toward Putin. So what's wrong with the precedents set by all these administrations? The common denominator is that they negate the nature of Russia. The West views these events the invasion of Georgia here, attacking American troops there as episodic. Westerners haven't connected the dots. In relation to other nations, the first question one should ask is, what type of country is this? Is it mostly free or controlled? Does it respect individual rights? How can its past inform us? What are its ambitions? Any honest assessment of Russia would have concluded that it was not a country to be trusted, much less become dependent upon for natural gas, as Europe has. Instead, we project our sense of life onto Russia and assume that the Russians think like us. Consider the context of Obama's "reset" policy. Stable, good-willed countries don't invade other countries for no reason. This should have been a huge clue for Obama that Putin and the Russian government are not like other foreign nations. Treating them as if they only sanctioned their behavior. I am not saying we should have gone to war with Russia. I am saying there is plenty the West could have done to deter Russian aggression outside military action: sanctions with teeth, diversifying energy, and morally condemning the hell out of their aggression, for starters. This last point is important. The power of the bully pulpit cannot be overstated. One of the best traits Ronald Reagan had was that he called a spade a spade. The "evil empire" is what he called the Soviet Union. After the Berlin wall fell, freedom fighters in the eastern bloc said his rhetoric had given them courage and hope. There is something motivating to knowing that the United States is on your side. Today's leaders have lost that power of rhetoric. There is no animating love of freedom running through their veins. There are no spokesmen for the American story. The Russians and the Chinese fear it. They fear it because of the ideas it represents. At some level, they know freedom beats authoritarianism every time. They don't want that to be broadcast to the world. That's the kind of spirit that needs to be revived in America and in the West if we want to avoid the mistakes of the past. Image via Pexels. Many of our impressions of foreign countries are based on how the media portrays them, whether describing them as paradise or dangerous s***holes. Unless we happen to know someone personally who lives in or travels to these countries, our opinions are based on what we read in the newspapers, on the internet, or see on television. Iraq is one of these countries, described as The worlds most dangerous place by the HowStuffWorks website. The Australian government is even more emphatic, Do not travel to Iraq, including the Kurdistan region of Iraq, due to the volatile security situation and very high risk of violence, armed conflict, kidnapping and terrorist attack. I am writing this from Erbil, in the center of Kurdistan, after a day of exploring the city, feeling quite safe. I saw no violence or explosions and was not kidnapped. The U.S. State Department provides similar warnings: Do not travel to Iraq due to terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, COVID-19, and Mission Iraqs limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens. They take it even further, predicting death for the poor saps who dare visit Iraq: Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney. Discuss a plan with loved ones regarding care/custody of children, pets, property, belongings, non-liquid assets (collections, artwork, etc.), funeral wishes, etc. Share important documents, login information, and points of contact with loved ones so that they can manage your affairs if you are unable to return as planned to the United States. Aside from COVID warnings and recommendations to get your affairs in order, the U.S. government tells Americans to stay far away: U.S. citizens in Iraq are at high risk for violence and kidnapping. Terrorist and insurgent groups regularly attack both Iraqi security forces and civilians. Anti-U.S. sectarian militias threaten U.S. citizens and Western companies throughout Iraq. Attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) occur in many areas of the country, including Baghdad. I recently had the opportunity to visit Iraq at the urging of and with the accompaniment of my son who works in the airline industry. He is a seasoned traveler and wanted his dad to join him on an adventure trip to country number 145 on his country list, which was Iraq. I selectively told friends and family where I was headed with the almost universal reaction that I was crazy, that I would die, be blown up, or otherwise fulfill the prophecies of the U.S. State Department. Reality could not have been more different. Photo of the author in front of the Martyr Monument in Baghdad Beginning in Baghdad, then heading south to Nasiriyah and Basrah, returning north to Najaf and Karbala, finally further north to Hatra, Mosul, and Erbil, we used a personally recommended guide with car and driver to make the most efficient use of our limited time and desire to see as much as possible. We never felt unsafe, although common sense rules the day of not seeking out the worst parts of town and maintaining situational awareness, practices one would apply in Chicago or New York City. Everyone we met was friendly and welcoming, living their lives with big smiles, appreciative of the peace that has eluded Iraq for decades. Countless times we were easily identified as A-mahr-e-kaan and asked to pose for photos with strangers asking where in America we were from and what we thought of Iraq. We turned down endless invitations for tea, locally called chai, although it was simply tea with sugar served in a small glass. Iraq is often called the cradle of civilization with numerous historic sites dating back to when years were followed by B.C. Mosques were plentiful and beautiful, and the food was delicious. Life was vibrant, in constant motion, and most people seemed happy as they bustled along. There were certainly reminders of the decades of war including concrete blast barriers and frequent checkpoints. My passport must have been checked and photographed at least a half dozen times each day. So much for staying off the grid with dozens of photos of my passport on some Iraqi bureaucratic hard drive. Russian activity in Ukraine during the week was met with a yawn by a country that has seen more than its share of war and violence. Now for some specific observations: Religion in Iraq is not simply a Sunday get-out-of-the-house social activity. Islam calls for prayer five times a day, the faithful called to the mosque by a broadcast call to prayer. President Obamas comments notwithstanding, the call to prayer is eerily enchanting. Muslims visit their mosque multiple times per day for prayer and take it seriously, not listening to syrupy sermons but instead on the ground, heads bowed in prayer. The young and old attend mosque, not just folks my age who seem to predominate at American houses of worship. From millennials to Gen Z, the mosques are filled with young men, fortunately for almost all, the tenets of Islam, similar in many ways to those of Christianity and Judaism, are practiced for the good. But imagine the base of support in Muslim countries when religion is used by zealots for evil purposes. We have lived through the consequences of such religious extremism. In America, there would likely not be the base of support for Jihad under the flag of Christianity given more attractive church alternatives like Sunday brunch or Netflix. Fortunately, the desire to live ones life in peace is the prevailing attitude in Iraq. As for safety, the checkpoints are daunting, with military and police toughs, most with Saddam mustaches, asking for passports. But such security also made me feel safe as troublemakers are hopefully being weeded out. An airline terminal is one of the safer spots due to all the security, acknowledging that a balance needs to be struck between liberty and security based on conditions and threats, but that is another discussion. Saddam Hussein has few fans, most calling him stupid and happy that he is now pushing up daisies. He ruled with an iron fist but in Mussolini fashion kept the trains running on time. But say a negative word about him back when he was in power, and some snitch will make sure you end up in one of his torture chambers or prisons. He is blamed for Iraqs woes, once a prosperous country, now poor by world standards after what locals describe as stupid wars. America has similar problems by the way, with only one president in my lifetime not dragging America into an often unnecessary war. Saddam attacked Iran, then Kuwait, then taunted the U.S. over claims of having WMDs, all leading to him hanging at the end of a rope, leaving his country a mess. They say here that it wasnt about oil or religion, but just his arrogance, his ego dragging his country down. Interestingly photos of Iranian Commander Qasem Soleimani adorn the Iraqi countryside as if he were a modern-day Mother Teresa. How ironic that an Iranian thug is celebrated in Iraq. But then again, many half-witted Americans revere Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In northern Iraq, particularly Mosul and Hatra, are the remnants of ISIS and four years of carnage, destroying large swaths of real estate but in Mussolini style, making the trains run on time by fixing what the Iraqi bureaucracy was unable or unwilling to repair in terms of roads and infrastructure. Beware thugs bearing gifts and promises to make life better as the price tag may be astronomical. Finally, the security warnings require perspective. Foreign countries, particularly large cities, can be dangerous. Just ask residents of Chicago or Baltimore. While I was in the danger zone of Iraq, I heard of no murder or mayhem, but glancing at the news I noticed according to CNN, during my time in Iraq, At least 6 NYC subway stabbings reported since the mayor unveiled new safety plan Friday. Where are the worlds real danger zones? A travel quote I saw on Facebook summed up my trip, Travel makes you realize that no matter how much you know, theres always more to learn. And take what you hear from the media and popular culture with healthy skepticism, as many of us learned from COVID news. Being able to travel is a gift, particularly when the destination is off the beaten path. A Caribbean cruise or a Mexican all-inclusive resort is fun and relaxing, but its also not the real world, some places requiring chutzpah to undertake a visit. Carpe diem. Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. On Twitter as @retinaldoctor. My son Chris shares his adventures on Instagram here and I have my own far less followed Instagram page here. At his CPAC speech on Saturday, former President Donald Trump could not have been clearer in his denunciation of Vladimir Putin. "The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling, said Trump. it's an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur. Yet the fact that Trump called Putin smart and savvy is, for the New York Times, prima facie evidence of his affection for Mother Russia. Indeed, the Times had the nerve to run a delusional op-ed on Sunday headlined, How the American Right Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Russia. Earth to the New York Times: No one on the right is pulling for Putin. The Times is pushing this Russia-love narrative both to salvage some political gain from Bidens catastrophic foreign policy and to cover for its own historic indifference to the Ukrainian people. The truth is that British and American conservatives have long cared about Ukraine. Most still do. The international left, the New York Times, in particular, cared more about the success of Josef Stalins lethal policies than it did the millions of Ukrainians those policies killed. The New York Times Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, admitted to being pleased as punch when Stalin announced his Five-Year Plan in the fall of 1928. Stalin, as Duranty observed in his well-titled book, I Write as I Please, was the worlds greatest living statesman. A pioneer in the art of fake news, Duranty saw signs of greatness in Stalins plan to socialize, virtually overnight, a hundred million of the stubbornest and most ignorant peasants in the world. Most of these ignorant peasants were small Ukrainian farmers or kulaks as they soon came to be known. Duranty was impressed that Stalin could turn these independent souls into cogs in a vast collective despite a creaky transportation system, a dwindling food supply, and a psychotic drive to maintain existing production levels. When all these factors are considered, wrote Duranty, it is a little short of a miracle that the plan was carried through. With the opening of the Soviet archives, scholars now know how Stalin did carry his plan through, During the years of the plan, 1928-1933, as many as five million Ukrainians and three million others died to show just how well communism worked. The story that Duranty missed -- or, more accurately, concealed -- is no longer a matter of speculation. It is a matter of fact. And the fact is that no single western journalist has so profoundly misreported a story as Walter Duranty of the New York Times, no mean feat given the Times Russia coverage of the last five years. The Black Book of Communism notes, Recent research in the newly accessible archives has confirmed that the forced collectivization of the countryside was in effect a war declared by the Soviet state on a nation of smallholders. As even recent history suggests, Ukrainians dont roll over easily. In March 1930 alone, there were more than 6500 mass demonstrations centering on Ukraine and expanding outwards. In all of 1930, some 2.5 million peasants participated in the 14,000 revolts or riots that engulfed the countryside. During a six-week period including March 1930, the Ukrainian GPU, the justice arm of the Soviet state, sentenced more than 20,000 people to death through its courts for resisting collectivization. Many others were executed without judicial niceties. Somehow, this all seems to have escaped the attention of Duranty. Much worse would escape him in the years ahead. In 1930, the GPU got serious about deporting the kulaks and other socially dangerous elements like priests, nuns, shopkeepers, and rural artisans. By the end of 1930, 700,000 people had been shipped to the nether regions of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1931, that number had swollen to 1.8 million. Many, perhaps most, died en route. By stripping the countryside of its more productive citizens and reducing the rest to near starvation, Stalin had set the stage for the horror show that was to follow. He and his cohorts began by shaking down those left on the land for a bigger slice of the action. In 1932, for instance, the government's take was to be 32 percent higher than the year before. By that year, the peasantry was faced with a grim choice: resist the collectivization or starve to death. They resisted. Stalin sent in his shock troops. They had come to enforce the infamous 1932 ear law, so dubbed because an individual could and would be arrested for withholding any socialist property right down to an ear of corn. To defeat an enemy as numerous and determined as the kulak, Stalin had only one recourse. Notes the Black Book, He would have to be starved out. Harassed and starving, with no hope for the future, millions fled these rich agricultural lands for the cities. At this point, Stalin got serious. In December 1932, in order to liquidate social parasitism, he mandated the equivalent of passports for all internal migration. One wonders whether Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his cues from Comrade Stalin. In January 1933, Molotov and Stalin instructed local authorities and the GPU to stop the peasants from leaving their farms by all means necessary. These means included mass execution. In February 1933 alone, the secret police reported that it had stopped more than 219,000 desperate peasants in their tracks. The net result of what Duranty calls Stalins curt vigor in pursuing the plan and establishing order was the seemingly bountiful harvest of 1933. Duranty describes it as the greatest Russia had ever known. In fact, the Soviet Union did manage to ship eighteen million hundredweight of grain abroad in 1933, a fitting conclusion, as Duranty would have it, to a heroic chapter in the life of Humanity. The famine is mostly bunk, Duranty wrote to a friend in June 1933. He used his and the Times authority to feed the story to a progressive establishment that had already developed a taste for fake news. The Pulitzer Committee awarded him its top prize for news correspondence in 1932. In 1933, his disinformation persuaded newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt to recognize the Soviet Union. The surprising 2019 film Mr. Jones does an excellent job showcasing both the Ukrainian horror and Joness social life. Not surprisingly, Duranty was a Satanist and a world-class pervert. From the perspective of the contemporary media, he was simply a man ahead of his time. For more information, see Jack Cashills Hoodwinked: How Intellectual Hucksters Have Hijacked American Culture or see www.cashill.com Image: Public Domain "Gender identity" is an imaginary construct. Biological sex is biological sex, and gender is a term for languages that have different grammar for masculine, feminine, and neuter words. A few people are genetically intersex, and a sadly growing number of people are brainwashed. It's gotten so bad that even Fairbanks, Alaska has embraced the transgender myth. Parents hosting a party at a public pool discovered a male high school student hanging out with little girls in the women's locker room and the pool management refused to remove him. The story is not complicated: Johanna Ray invited children to Hamme Pool during open swim time for a kids' birthday party. While Ray's daughter, her friends, and their mothers were undressing, a male teenager walked into the women's locker room. The swimming pool supervisor refused to act to remove the teenager from the women's locker room. Instead, the supervisor suggested that the women and girls relocate to a small lobby bathroom that lacked even a shower. When Ray, instead, asked the young man to use the gender-neutral bathroom, the young man said, "I'm not bothering you. Go to hell, lady," flipped her off, and walked out. Ray said later that the teenager is a high school student who routinely uses the girls' bathroom. Ray explained to Joel Davidson, who wrote up the story about this interaction, "I have no wish to single anyone out for being different, or to bring emotional trauma to anyone" and emphasized that "she has nothing against the transgender person." However, she explained that her daughters were quite "traumatized and confused," because they come from a home that stresses modesty. Ray is too forgiving of the young man, for reasons I'll explain below. However, she does understand the crux of the matter: "This is wrong," she said. "This is not a family-friendly environment, and not how I want my tax dollars to be spent. In any other situation this would be a sexual offense." Ray's contemplating suing because what happened violates both Alaska law and the swimming pool's posted rules. Alaska State Statute 11.61.123 makes it a crime for someone to view another person's naked body when that person (or a guardian) reasonably believes that his body is private. In addition, the pool requires all children above 5 to go to a sex-appropriate bathroom. The management in charge of the pool, which is public, sees things differently. Lanien Livingston, an information officer, stated, "Our policy is not to discriminate against the use of borough facilities based on gender identity." Once again: There is no such thing as "gender identity." There is biological sex, and there are confused, sick, or opportunistic people. At most, a male teenager who claims to be a woman is lying to everyone, possibly including himself. He has no idea what it means to be a woman because he's male. All he knows is that, when he sees women, he is envious of their physical attributes and wishes they were his. That does not make him a woman. The last few paragraphs in Davidson's thorough report make it clear that the swimming pool is not the only place in which Fairbanks's government has bought in to gender madness. Fairbanks doesn't "discriminate" against "gender identity" when it comes to employees. The Fairbanks Borough School District does not discriminate, allowing students to use facilities for their appropriate "identity," and, in 2019, the City of Fairbanks approved by a 2-1 ratio a law forcing every business, every non-profit, and other facilities to accommodate all things transgender despite deeply held personal beliefs. The mayor showed good sense in vetoing the law, saying it was a matter for voters, not politicians. I'd always assumed that Alaska is a ruggedly individualistic state, resistant to leftist madness. Of course, Alaska keeps sending Lisa Murkowski to the Senate, which says a lot. Moreover, a quick check showed that Fairbanks voted overwhelmingly for Biden so they get men staring at naked girls in public locker rooms. Additionally, the whole western half of the state is Democrat. Bottom line: If giving a girl testosterone makes her manly, wouldn't giving an effeminate, confused boy testosterone also make him manly? The same is true for estrogen: it would make a confused girl more womanly. Instead, we pretend these delusions are real, encouraging mutilating surgery and dangerous hormones, and turning society upside-down to accommodate this mess. How many people will need to be mutilated, poisoned, or (inevitably) assaulted before we say no? Here's a start for returning to normal: we should never refer to people as "transgender." That phrase alone reveals the lie. If you can be born a man but you're really and truly a woman, you're not "transgender"; you're just a woman. Tacking on "transgender" reveals the con. Image: This man is not a woman. Photo from freepik. The past several days have shown Putin to be a dangerous self-serving narcissist who puts his personal glory above the well-being of his own country, and to the extent that he is willing to risk Russia's existence by brandishing nuclear weapons. Russia's generals, therefore, need to step in immediately and take away his nuclear keys, the same way one would take car keys from a drunk driver. This would not be the first time that a Russian has saved the world from nuclear war. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, a Soviet submarine, the B-59, lost contact with the USSR, and its captain believed that a nuclear war might have already started. He wanted to use a nuclear torpedo, and the ship's political officer agreed. This would have been enough to use the weapon except for the fact that Vasili Aleksandrovich Arkhipov's position as second in command required his authorization as well. This may have been the inspiration for Crimson Tide, starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov's decision in 1983 not to trust what computers were telling him about a purported American first strike (with only five missiles) also may well have averted an unprecedented disaster. All that Putin has done by even mentioning nuclear weapons is to cause a dangerous escalation in which a miscalculation by either side could start what is known as "the war that nobody wants." The First World War was a precedent in which Austria believed it could punish Serbia, and perhaps rightfully so, for its role in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Russia, as then ruled by Tsar Nicholas II, could not afford to be humiliated in yet another Balkan crisis as it had been previously, so it threatened to enter the war on Serbia's side. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sufficiently bad judgment to issue Austria a "blank check" in terms of German military support against Russia, which was allied with France and the United Kingdom. France would not commit to neutrality should war break out, so Germany launched a pre-emptive strike on France, according to the Schlieffen Plan. This required an invasion of Belgium, whose neutrality had been guaranteed by the United Kingdom. The outcome left four empires (Germany, Russia, Austria, and Turkey) in ruins along with tens of millions of dead. Image: National Archives. They say that to a hammer, everything is a nail. By analogy, to a race-hustler like Nikole Hannah-Jones, everything is about race. She proved that yet again when she claimed media coverage of events in Ukraine reflects pro-White racial bias. The fact that Russia is a nuclear nation with an unstable leader, which unfortunately makes the fight of preeminent importance to the world, eluded her, as did other important aspects of geography, history, and politics. I'm sure I don't need to introduce any of you to Hannah-Jones's masterpiece, the ahistorical, dishonest 1619 Project, which, unfortunately, is being introduced into school curricula across America. If you'd like to see a comprehensive attack on the project's myriad errors, I recommend Wolf Howling's analysis. The bottom line is that Hannah-Jones's raison d'etre is to put a racial spin on everything to support her contention that America is an inherently and incurably racist nation. Hannah-Jones's latest "cry racism" moment addresses the fact that the world's media are so concerned about events in Ukraine. She's offended that they don't show the same concern about Africa or other places in which non-White people attack each other: And honestly, these admissions of shock that this is happening in a European country are ahistorical and also serve to justify the lack of sympathy for other invasions, other occupations and other refugee crisis involving peoples not considered white. Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) February 27, 2022 Hannah-Jones emphasizes her point with links to a few stories expressing shock that's specifically centered on the "Europeanness" of the war: 'Now the unthinkable has happened to them, and this is not a developing, third world nation, this is Europe.' pic.twitter.com/BFYvql7iie black lives matter (@jrc1921) February 27, 2022 Its very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killedpic.twitter.com/mKVtEY4IBC Petty Is Praxis (@rtyson82) February 26, 2022 Of course, she misses the significance of the fact that the reporters who are shocked about a war on European soil are...European and British. The panicked focus on Ukraine has less to do with race and much more to do with arms, geography, history, and politics. Image: Nikole Hannah-Jones by Associacao Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo. CC BY 2.0. Arms: Wars in Africa do not involve nuclear powers. They are, therefore, inevitably going to be viewed as less consequential regional skirmishes. Should Putin really drop a nuclear bomb, we've entered World War III/End of the World territory. That's not a racial matter; that's a reality matter. (I'm assuming that neither Putin nor his generals are so far gone as to do that, but Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on standby, so it must be considered.) Geography: The Western media will inevitably be more concerned with matters in the West. This isn't about racism; it's about tribalism. Russia sits on the farthest Eastern fringe of those nations that identify as European and that are part of organizations such as the European Union and NATO. Putin has already attacked Ukraine, and he's threatened to attack Finland and Sweden. Media figures in England and elsewhere in Europe are going to view that as a direct threat to themselves, unlike something happening in Liberia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. History: World War II ended only 73 years ago. That war began when a megalomaniacal dictator in Europe conducted a blitzkrieg against neighboring countries in the name of "Lebensraum" (room for his nation to live). By war's end, an estimated 7085 million people had died. Moreover, this war began a mere 21 years after World War I had ended, leaving around 40 million dead people on the European continent. Additionally, that war was a perfect vector for the Spanish Influenza, which killed another 5075 million people around the world. Given those histories, you can see why people in Europe, Britain, and America (which got dragged into both those wars) would be nervous when they see another megalomaniacal dictator conduct a blitzkrieg against neighboring countries in the name of security or Lebensraum. This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with our lizard brain sense of when to panic. And here's some more history: Hannah-Jones, who was born in 1976, has no excuse for not remembering the international response to the horrific Rwanda massacre in 1994. It happened so quickly that there was little to be done to stop it, but the world cared deeply. However, she might be excused for not remembering the world's huge response to the devastating famine in Ethiopia [in 1983-1984], for she was only 7 or 8 years old then. Hannah-Jones also seems to have forgotten fevered media coverage about ISIS's depredations across swaths of the Middle East or Bashar al-Assad's war against his own people in Syria. Politics: The NATO treaty obligates the member nations to respond if Russia is threatening one of them. When Putin was outside Ukraine, the treaty wasn't triggered. Once he crossed into Ukraine, putting himself on the border of Poland and Hungary, and threatened Finland and Sweden, the treaty was triggered. A mutual defense pact means that all those NATO nations (including the U.S.) may be obligated to go to war. That's newsworthy. Nikole Hannah-Jones is a hammer, who can only pound away mindlessly on a single subject: racism. Every time she opens her mouth or types on her keyboard, we are reminded that she does not deserve the respect and reach that leftists have given her. During Thursday's speech announcing ever greater sanctions on Russia, Joe Biden claimed, "The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine, without provocation, without justification, without necessity." This was a Western chauvinist point of view that does not take into account Russia's security concerns and historic grievances since the Soviet Union's defeat in the Cold War. There is another reading of history one from a Russian chauvinist point of view that Western governments and media turn a blind eye to, and that has inevitably led to the current conflict and the specter of a much wider one. Putin recounted an event during his extensive pre-invasion speech on February 21. In 2000, when he first became president of Russia, he had proposed to thenU.S. president Bill Clinton that Russia join NATO and be integrated into Europe. Russia was an economic basket case after decades of ruinous communist rule and its military a shell of its former greatness. It was an opportunity for America to seize on its Cold War victory, similar to how we had capitalized on our victories over Germany and Japan after World War II. We can speculate as to why this opportunity was squandered, but I suspect that Europe's leaders feared competing economically with a newly liberated Russia and that America's defense industry was reluctant to lose a geostrategic foe that had justified decades of huge military budgets. What is not in question is that the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, and France had, in 1991, promised Russia that NATO would not encroach on Russia if Russia withdrew its troops from Eastern Europe. That promise was broken just eight years later, when Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were granted NATO membership. Five years after that, seven more countries in Eastern Europe were allowed to join and four more since then, including that military powerhouse, North Macedonia. In 1999, NATO engaged in an air war against Serbia, a Slavic nation, like Russia, that had been part of the USSR under Yugoslavia. This was widely seen as a grand gesture by then-president Bill Clinton and secretary of state Madeleine Albright to show how NATO was even willing to bomb Christians in order to protect Muslims. Today, many of the same Democrats and neocons you see decrying the violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity were vocal cheerleaders for the partition of Kosovo, over bitter Serbian and Russian objections. The ethnically Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army then proceeded to ethnically cleanse Serbian Christians from their ancestral homeland, while NATO stood idly by. The roots of this current conflict go back, most recently, to 2014, when Barack Obama's State Department sponsored a coup that toppled a duly elected Russia-friendly government in Kyiv and installed one that opposed Russia. Obama funded that so-called color revolution to the tune of $6 billion, and the notoriously corrupt nation became a feeding frenzy for the families and cronies of U.S. politicians, including the Biden family. Joe Biden was in charge of Ukraine policy at the time, and his crack-addled son was dispatched as the Biden family bag man. Later that same year, assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, who had managed the coup in Ukraine, testified before a congressional committee that Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, had also spent $20 billion on a similar effort at regime change inside Russia itself. So Vladimir Putin might be forgiven for believing that the Western powers, in their refusal to forswear NATO expansion into Ukraine the historic approach for invasions don't have Russia's best interest at heart. The bitter harvest of this history is the current invasion of Ukraine and an emerging second Cold War in which the U.S. and Europe may hold far fewer advantages than the first one. On the eve of this winter's "Genocide" Olympics in Beijing, Putin and China's Xi Jinping signed an alliance pledging to cooperate economically and militarily, stating that in this new global era, "Friendship between their states has no limits." In China, Russia now has an ally with an unlimited appetite for its fossil fuel and agricultural products. In Russia, China now has a growing market for its cheap labor manufacturing output. Alone, each nation has more degreed engineers than the U.S. and will be positioned to share advanced military, space, and industrial technology much of it stolen from the U.S. This relationship will be largely beyond the reach of the Western sanctions Biden announced. As in the previous Cold War, we can expect satellite client states to be deployed to destabilize, threaten, and terrorize the Western nations and our allies. Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and others will bleed our military, resources, and attention. By pushing Russia into the arms of an ascendant communist China, the West, and the so-called "adults" who are back in charge, have made a geostrategic blunder of historic proportions. The truly tragic part is, it did not have to be this way. Jim Daws is a recovering talk radio host at jim@jimdaws.com. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Recently, the New York Times reported that, in the past three months, senior Biden administration officials conducted over six meetings with the leading figures in the Chinese government. During these meetings, U.S. officials presented intelligence showing Russia's troop buildup around Ukraine and purportedly "beseeched the Chinese to tell Russia not to invade." The same report states that Chinese officials who were part of the meeting people such as China's foreign minister and ambassador to America vehemently rejected claims that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent. Why in the world would they do that when they know that these nations have a shared interest in weakening America? In December, U.S. officials received intelligence that China had shared with Russia information the U.S. had given China, explaining that America was attempting to cause a rift between Russia and China. China even pledged not to hinder any Russian plans and subsequent actions in Ukraine. It's been said that Chinese president Xi Jinping asked Putin not to initiate any military action during the Winter Olympics in China and that Putin agreed. That report is believable because the Olympics ended on February 20, and Putin began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the morning of February 25. Following Russia's entry into Ukraine, Hua Chunying, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, at a news conference in Beijing said that the U.S. was "the culprit of current tensions surrounding Ukraine." "On the Ukraine issue, lately the U.S. has been sending weapons to Ukraine, heightening tensions, creating panic and even hyping up the possibility of warfare," she said. "If someone keeps pouring oil on the flame while accusing others of not doing their best to put out the fire, such kind of behavior is clearly irresponsible and immoral." She added: "When the U.S. drove five waves of NATO expansion eastward all the way to Russia's doorstep and deployed advanced offensive strategic weapons in breach of its assurances to Russia, did it ever think about the consequences of pushing a big country to the wall?" She has refused to call Russia's assault an "invasion" when pressed by foreign journalists. Hua's tirade is consistent with the joint statement that China and Russia issued on February 4, when President Xi and President Putin met at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. They announced their countries' partnership had "no limits." They also "intended to stand together against American-led democratic nations." Significantly, China agreed with Russia to condemn any NATO expansion. According to Chinese state media, after Russia attacked Ukraine, Putin told Xi during a telephone call that the U.S. and NATO had ignored Russia's "legitimate security concerns" and had repeatedly breached promises to Russia. Xi, in turn, reiterated China's public position that it was important to respect the "reasonable security concerns of all countries," while respecting their sovereignty. Putin, in turn, said he was willing "to have high-level negotiations with Ukraine." Looking at these facts, one cannot help feeling baffled at the doings of the Biden administration. Image: Putin and Xi Jinping. YouTube screen grab. It is common knowledge that Russia is China's slightly junior partner and both nations have strong diplomatic, economic, and even military ties. Experts have claimed that the ties between China and Russia appear stronger than since the Cold War. Both nations, through their leaders, see themselves as ideological and economic challengers against Western hegemony in the form of the United States and its European and Asian allies. China and Russia recently signed a huge energy pact that would enable Russia to survive despite potential sanctions from the U.S. and NATO. It's helpful to remember that, in 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea, China helped Russia survive sanctions. It's common knowledge as well that one bond between the two leaders is that Putin's attitude toward Ukraine is identical to Xi's attitude toward Taiwan. They refuse to accept the sovereignty and independent identities of their respective neighboring nations. In addition to its known alliance with Russia, there's also China's terrible human rights record. The U.S. State Department's website says the Chinese communist party "is waging a targeted campaign against Uyghur women, men, and children, and members of other Turkic Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang." Additionally, "human rights abuses include coercive population control methods, forced labor, arbitrary detention in internment camps, torture, physical and sexual abuse, mass surveillance, family separation, and repression of cultural and religious expression" are rampant in China. Strangely, the Biden administration seldom condemns these issues. Knowing of China's alliance with Russia and its poor record on human rights and freedom, you'd think China would be an unreliable and trustworthy ally. Why then would Biden officials, with their vast diplomatic experience, even entertain the idea of sharing intelligence about Russia's invasion plans with China and not expect the Chinese to relay it to the Russians? Biden's bizarre intelligence choices regarding China should be seen in concert with other key choices he made. When he was inaugurated, he immediately shut down the Keystone Pipeline. A little more than a year later, he lifted sanctions on Nord Stream 2. Both these acts made the E.U. more dependent on Russia for energy, enriching Russia and emboldening it to take military action against Ukraine. Further, when Biden announced sanctions, Biden made it clear that none of the sanctions would affect Russia's energy production. He also said the U.S. was not going to engage in any military action with Russia. While this is a good principle, why did he state it that explicitly? At times, remarks such as "all options are on the table," while avoiding explicit statements about counteractions, can serve as a powerful deterrent. Given the Biden administration's strange allegiance with China and acts strengthening Biden's economy, one must ask: are Biden officials ignorant, incompetent, or compromised? The answer is probably "all of the above." (Image source from: Ndtv.com) Russia raises Nuclear Alert against Ukraine:- After a terrifying situation in Ukraine, the country said it lost lot of civilians. Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the nuclear alert against Ukraine last night after Ukraine announced that it is ready for talks. Several countries like USA and its G7 partners decided to cut down Russia from the international financial system. Ukraine agreed for unconditional talks with Moscow after Russia staged war to overrun Kyiv and Kharkhiv. Vladimir Putin's aggressive move revealed that Russia is not much bothered about the impact. The war reached new heights after Russia's nuclear forces were kept on high alert. The United Nations is all set to hold two crucial meetings today to discuss about the situation. Ukraine claimed that 3500 Russian troops lost their lives after the war started and 200 Russian soldiers ave been captured and jailed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 352 civilians passed away in Ukraine that also included 14 children. 1684 people including 116 children have been injured after the war started. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his talk with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told that the next 24 hours is very crucial for Ukraine. Boris Johnson said UK and its allies are ready to support the country at their best. Thousands of people from Ukraine crossed the borders to escape war and stay safe. Canada, France and Germany pledged military aid to Ukraine. North Andover, MA (01845) Today Periods of rain. Expect mist and reduced visibilities at times. High 53F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Expect mist and reduced visibilities at times. Low 47F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. Samsung and its unionized workers have been at odds lately. The workers are demanding higher pay and better working conditions. Recent reports suggest the unions could go on strike if their demands were not met. It appears the Korean behemoth has averted the crisis. According to a new report coming from South Korea, Samsung has agreed to talk out a solution with its unionized workers. The unions had last week requested the company for a meeting with its top executives. They were open to having a dialogue with any of Samsungs co-CEOs, or even Vice Chairman and heir to Samsung Group Lee Jae-yong. If not agreed to, the workers threatened to go on strike for which they have already won the legal right. Samsung has now expectedly agreed to hold a discussion with the unions. We received an official reply from the management to our request for a dialogue with the companys chief executives, four Samsung workers unions said in a joint statement, The Korea Times reports. We are delighted that the management has changed its stance. Advertisement Its unclear though who will represent Samsung in this meeting, which could take place next month. It surely wont be Lee Jae-yong though, industry officials suggest. Instead, it could be co-Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee or President Kyung Kye-hyun, who will reportedly take up a new role at the company as a co-CEO during its forthcoming general meeting of shareholders. The representatives for the workers could also have some new names. The Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union, which is the largest among the four Samsung workers unions, is reportedly in the process of electing new leaders through an online vote. Samsungs unionized workers have already rejected an offer from the company Samsung is one of the biggest conglomerates globally. It makes billions of dollars every year. And like any other company, the company passes on the benefit to its workers too. But the workers arent happy with what they are getting. The Korean behemoth last year offered a 7.5-12 percent performance-based raise in pay but its unionized workers rejected the offer. Advertisement According to reports, they are demanding a guaranteed ten million won (approx. $8,400) increase in each employees annual salary. Additionally, they want the performance-based bonuses paid out to workers to be equivalent to 25 percent of Samsungs operating profit every year. The company is now ready to talk out a solution. However, while Samsung has agreed to talk, the company is reportedly still reluctant to accept the workers demand. Hopefully, it will be able to negotiate a deal. The company surely wouldnt want its workers to go on strike, which would be a first in its 53-year history. The Korean firm already has a lot of internal issues to look into. The entire world is closely monitoring the events in Ukraine. Googles latest transparency report shows how events in the eastern European country have led to a surge or decline in the usage of Google products, including Docs and Maps. As per a Google employee (via 9to5Google), Maps usage was three times higher as of last week. Since February 23, worldwide traffic has been significantly higher than the daily average. Meanwhile, usage of Google Groups rose 10x last week. But usage of productivity-oriented services like Google Sheets and Docs were three times lower than usual as life came to a standstill in most parts of Ukraine. Services like YouTube, Search, and Gmail didnt experience any drastic fluctuations in usage. Advertisement Google has restricted the functionality of the Maps app in Ukraine These findings can be explored from the Google Transparency Report website. The company uses a combination of metrics to gather and analyze the data. Google gathers the data on disruption history from government sources, news outlets, or ISPs. Google explains the process in the following way: The charts give a representation of the ratio of that regions request rate to the worldwide request rate. For each time period and product, we divide the traffic for each geographic region by total worldwide traffic, resulting in a number between 0 and 1. Then we multiply all numbers by a constant, which normalizes but does not change the shape of the graphs. Advertisement A lot has changed since the publication of Googles transparency report. As of last night, Google removed some Maps tools, including live traffic information, in Ukraine. The company said it took this decision to safeguard locals in the region, clarifying that it consulted with Ukrainian authorities before suspending some Maps functionality. However, live traffic info continues to be available to drivers accessing turn-by-turn navigation in Ukraine. Another Alphabet product, YouTube, also announced steps in response to Russias decision to invade Ukraine. The video platform said it is pausing a number of channels ability to monetize on YouTube. Meta said on Saturday that it is prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. New Haven Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday a weeklong trade trip to Israel put Connecticut back on the radar screen as it competes with other Northeastern states recruiting technology firms looking to tap vast U.S. markets. The governor, the first Connecticut chief executive to visit Israel since Gov. John Rowland 25 years ago, led a delegation last week promoting Connecticut as a haven for venture capital and startup businesses. Advertisement [ Gov. Lamont headed to Israel to attract business for Connecticut ] Getting to know these folks, look them in the eye, they know a little bit more about you, they tell a little bit the story about Connecticut, he said. I think were back on the radar screen. Its now New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Three firms ready to invest in Connecticut and other parts of the U.S. are H2Pro, a sustainable hydrogen fuel company; Aleph Farms, a cultured meat startup; and Future Meat Technologies, or Future Meat, a biotechnology firm that produces cultured meat from chicken cells, said Economic Development Commissioner David Lehman. Advertisement Future Meat and Aleph Farms are considering setting up labs in Connecticut and could each hire 50 to 75 employees initially later this year, Lamont and Lehman said. Israel, described as a tech hub, by Matthew McCooe, chief executive officer of Connecticut Innovations, the states venture capital firm, was chosen for the trade trip because of its advanced technology in the financial, medical equipment and aviation and defense industries. In this file photo, from left. Mike Cantor of Connecticut Innovations, interim UConn President Radenka Maric and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont talk at the UConn Hartford campus on Feb. 15, 2022 after it was announced Lamont would join Maric and state business leaders for a week-long economic development initiative in Israel. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com This sort of flywheel of having repeated interactions is incredibly important for who we are, for what the state aims to become and it sort of gives them a picture of why they should come to Connecticut. They can go anywhere, he said at a news conference at CIs offices in New Haven. CI will invest between $45 million and $50 million this year in more than 100 investment opportunities of which a very small percentage are Israeli companies, McCooe said. News @3 Daily Catch up on the days top headlines sent directly to your inbox weekdays at 3 p.m > Lamont and his economic development team and several Connecticut businesses met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, other officials and business executives. Lehman said Connecticuts representatives focused on financial technology, biotech, food and agriculture and aerospace and defense. Lamont and others traveling with him met with 15 or 20 other companies, Lehman said. Others who joined were representatives of defense and aviation giant Raytheon Technologies Corp.; Hartford HealthCare; Digital Currency Group, a Stamford investment firm in bitcoin and blockchain technology; the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut; and University of Connecticut. State officials chose Israel four or five years ago as a potential venture capital partner, McCooe said. Connecticut is competing with other Northeast states for Israeli startups looking to extend their reach into the sprawling and lucrative Eastern Seaboard. Lamont said Israelis he met were particularly interested in locating their businesses near JFK International Airport in New York. Advertisement They didnt realize Kennedy is as close to Stamford as it is to the west side of Manhattan, he said. State officials also pitched Connecticuts Jewish life, Lehman said. The state has a Jewish population of more than 115,000, or 3.3% of the population, and 15 Jewish day schools, he said. Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com. PLEASE NOTE: ALL ONLINE PURCHASES ARE AUTOMATIC RENEWALS UNLESS YOU EMAIL JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM OR CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE @ 256-235-9253.... Purchase an online subscription to our website for $7.99 a month with automatic renewal. Each online subscription gives you full access to all of our newspaper websites and mobile applications. To cancel you may contact Customer Service @ 256-235-9253 or email JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM *NEW SUBSCRIBERS ONLY join with a NEW ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION is just $59.99 for the first year. Existing customers do not qualify for the specials! AMEX is not accepted through this site. After the first year, well automatically renew your subscription to continue your access at the regular price of $69.99 per year. Please note *Your Subscription will Automatically Renew unless you contact Customer Service To Cancel* (ANSA) - ROME, FEB 28 - Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio visited Algiers on Monday as part of the effort to boost alternative energy sources and reduce Italy's reliance on Russian gas after Moscow decided to invade Ukraine. "Italy is engaged in increasing gas supplies from various international partners," Di Maio said. "Of these, Algeria, which has always been a reliable supplier, has a fundamental role. "The aim is to protect Italian families and businesses from this atrocious war". Di Maio visited Algiers with Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of Italian energy giant Eni. The minister added that Italy was ready to push for the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow to be stiffened further. "We will continue to support the Ukraine government economically and militarily with out G7 partners," he said. "Within the EU sphere, we are committed to supporting effective and incisive sanctions against the Russian government and we are ready to do more, in agreement with our European and Atlantic partners. "Italy is by the side of the Ukraine people. For all of us, the people of Ukraine are a European resistance (movement)". (ANSA). (ANSA) - ROME, FEB 28 - Ukraine's pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai has thanked the Italy Pavilion and others that showed support for the nation after Russian's invasion last week. "Our deepest appreciation goes to all of the pavilions and countries at Expo 2020 that support Ukraine in these difficult times #prayfroukraine", Ukraine's pavilion said in a post on Instagram. The post featured a photo of the Italy pavilion lit up in the colours of the Ukraine flag with the message 'Italy with Ukraine'. The pavilions of the United States, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia were also among those to express solidarity with Ukraine. (ANSA). (ANSAmed) - MADRID - The Mobile World Congress (MWC) started on Monday in Barcelona, one of the most important events in mobile telecommunications at the world level. Much uncertainty hangs over the event, which most attend in person, due to the conflict in Ukraine. The organisers prohibited Russia from setting up a pavilion and between 40,000 and 60,000 visitors are expected. Taking part in the event on Monday morning were Spain's King Felipe VI, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and Catalonia regional president Pere Aragones. The MWC 2022 will end on March 3. ROME - "I have just arrived in Algiers to meet with my counterpart and other high-ranking Algerian officials. We will discuss strengthening of bilateral cooperation, especially to deal with European energy security needs in light of the conflict in Ukraine," Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Twitter. Di Maio arrived in Algeria on Monday at the head of a delegation that includes ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi and a representative of the Ecological Transition Ministry. "Italy is involved in increasing gas supplies from various international partners. Among them is Algeria, which has always been a reliable supplier. It has a fundamental role. The aim is to protect Italian businesses and families from this war," the minister said, who is in Algiers with the ENI CEO to "make additional supplies operative". TUNIS - Over 10,000 Arab students including many Moroccans and Egyptians, as well as Iraqis and Syrians fleeing conflict zones, have found themselves amid the conflict in Ukraine and the general confusion of their governments about what to do about it. A group of families concerned about their children gathered Friday in Rabat in front of the foreign ministry. The Moroccans and Egyptians are the largest groups of Arab students in Ukraine, where they go to study medicine and engineering. Usually at least 12,000 Moroccans live in Ukraine, 8,000 of whom students. Three thousand returned recently, according to the Moroccan foreign ministry, after special flights were made available to them. Rania Oukarfi, a 23-year-old dental student in Zaporizhia in the southern part of the country left for Moldova immediately after the Russian offensive in Ukraine began on Thursday. Reached by phone by AFP, she reported seeing "traumatic scenes" and "peaceful places disfigured overnight". According to her, "the embassy doesn't help, we try to call, no answer". Nassima Aqtid, 20 and a student of pharmacy, is stuck in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, where heavy fighting is underway. She said that she had wanted to leave the city but that it has become impossible since the closest border is to Russia. For the 700 to 750 Lebanese students stuck in Ukraine, compared with around 1,300 prior to the beginning of the Russian offensive, the situation is more critical. "I left Lebanon due to the economic collapse," said Samir, 25, who had arrived only a month and a half ago in Kharkiv in the eastern part of the country. "There are no directives from the authorities," he lamented. He would like to reach Poland but "it is risky" because he would have to cross all Ukraine. In Beirut, the authorities say they are preparing for the evacuation of Lebanese nationals in Ukraine and refugees in Poland and Romania via air "at a later date". Meanwhile, they are advising to remain "in safe places". Ali Mohammad, a 25-year-old engineering student, has been repeatedly trying to call his embassy in the western city of Chernivtsi without success. "We left Iraq to change our way of living, to flee war. We came to Ukraine and it is the same thing," he told AFP via telephone. According to a government official, there are 5,500 Iraqi nationals in Ukraine including 450 students. Not all Egyptian students are in the same condition. Saad Abou Saada, 25 and a student of pharmacy in the eastern city of Kharkiv, tried to take a train on Saturday. "The embassy did not do anything. I do not know where to go," he said, noting that he had become stuck with four other Egyptians in the university dorms hosting other foreign students. The embassy of Egypt - a country with 6,000 of its citizens in Ukraine, over half of them students - said on Facebook that it is coordinating the evacuation of its citizens in Romania and Poland. Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya also said that they are preparing the exit of their citizens in nearby countries. Morocco has urged its citizens to go to access points along the border with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland. Tunisia, which does not have an embassy in Ukraine, will send planes to Poland and Romania to repatriate those of its 1,700 citizens in the country - 80% of them students - that want to leave. "We will begin the operations as soon as we have completed the list of Tunisians wanting to return," said foreign ministry official Mohammed Trabelsi. Tunisia has contacted the UN and the International Red Cross to help them evacuate via land. Libya has planned gathering points in Ukraine and evacuations in Slovakia for a diaspora of an estimated almost 3,000 people, according to its embassy in Ukraine. Algeria, which has a thousand students in Ukraine and is linked to Russia by military agreements, has not told its citizens to leave the country but has urged them to use extreme caution and leave their homes only in case of an emergency. Italian FM vows in Algiers to up gas supplies to partners Di Maio in Algeria to strengthen energy cooperation (ANSAmed) - ROME, FEB 28 - "I have just arrived in Algiers to meet with my counterpart and other high-ranking Algerian officials. We will discuss strengthening of bilateral cooperation, especially to deal with European energy security needs in light of the conflict in Ukraine," Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Twitter. Di Maio arrived in Algeria on Monday at the head of a delegation that includes ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi and a representative of the Ecological Transition Ministry. "Italy is involved in increasing gas supplies from various international partners. Among them is Algeria, which has always been a reliable supplier. It has a fundamental role. The aim is to protect Italian businesses and families from this war," the minister said, who is in Algiers with the ENI CEO to "make additional supplies operative".(ANSAmed). ROME - Italian Premier Mario Draghi's cabinet on Monday approved a decree regarding a package of aid, including military aid, for Ukraine after Russia invaded the country last week. The decree also concerns the diversification of Italian energy sources and refers to possible gas rationing, while stressing that this is not necessary at the moment. Italy currently imports around 40% of its gas from Russia. The decree referred to supporting the Ukrainian people via the transfer of "military vehicles, materials and equipment". It said the number of places at refugee centres could be increased by up to 16,000 to help cope with arrivals from Ukraine. Among other things, the government has created 500,000.euro fund to support Ukrainian students, researchers and teachers to enable them to carry out their activities in Italy. The decrees includes measures to deal with the "unexpected risk level" regarding the national gas system. It authorised "measures to increase the supply and/or reduce the demand for gas foreseen in emergency cases", stressing that, at the moment, this was not the situation Italy faced. ROME - The Community of Castelmezzano, in Italy's southern region of Basilicata, has become ever more known as a model for sustainability to aspire to, according to the report "Mountain Tourism: towards a more sustainable path". The report was published recently by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and its World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The 120-page publication gives examples from around the world - from the US to Nepal to Australia - of public institutions and private companies working in the sector that have been able to highlight the opportunities of mountains for society. Among the cases discussed is that of the small village of Castelmezzano at the foot of the Dolomiti Lucane mountain range in the region of Basilicata in southern Italy. As the report notes: "The village is located in the protected area of the Gallipoli Cognato Regional Park at 750 m above sea level." It is cited as a good example among those chosen in Italy and the only one in southern Italy, as the others are the Associazione Naturavalp di Valpelline in Valle d'Aosta and the Osservatorio Turismo Sostenibile in the Alto Adige. The report notes that: "The biggest draw to the area is the Volo dell'Angelo (the Angel Flight): an innovative, low-impact experiential tourism attraction whereby participants 'fly' on a zip line from Castelmezzano to the village of Pietrapertosa and back again. The attraction has contributed to the economic and cultural growth of the local population and has also been a driving force for other minor attractions, such as the Via Ferrata (fixed rope routes for climbers), Il Percorso delle Sette Pietre (the Path of the Seven Stones) and Il Ponte Nepalese (the Nepalese Bridge). "The role of the public is a driving force for the economy. Our territory, with the beauty of the natural landscape and its historic heritage expressed the best of itself, recovering that shared, cohesive, and community identity that is necessary to start and improve an experience with tourism," said mayor Nicola Valluzzi, noting that there are over 40 hotels, restaurants, cafes, and other commercial enterprises. He also pointed out the importance of the town as an example for 2022, as it has been named by the UN as the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development. "The active hiring of young people, requalification of institutional actors and business owners, and a willingness by locals to engage with tourists were all important factors that resulted in a shared, cohesive and communal identity that enhanced the tourism experience," the report states, and the "experience of Castelmezzano is a replicable, successful community-based brand of tourism, with the management of the tourist services by the local residents." The chapter on Castelmezzano includes two night photos of the borgo by the photographer Paolo Santarsiero. New Haven, Ct. - 07/30/2021 - the first day of New Haven's city-wide mask mandate for indoor spaces, Samantha Yisehak, of West Haven, said she prefers wearing a mask outdoors. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant) Connecticuts statewide school masking mandate expired Monday, leaving decisions about whether to continue requiring face masks up to local school districts. Three weeks ago, Gov. Ned Lamont recommended that the state lift its mask mandate on Feb. 28 and let local school and public health officials make their own decisions. At the time, Lamont said that high vaccination rates among Connecticut residents underpinned the policy shift. Advertisement The General Assembly later approved giving the state departments of public health and education the authority to reinstate a school mask mandate through June 30, though the departments have opted to leave the decision to local districts. The easing of Connecticuts school masking policy reflects a new era for a fraught issue that has divided families and districts throughout the pandemic. Advertisement Heres what you need to know about the new policy: Which schools will require masks? Some of Connecticuts largest school systems, including Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Stamford, have announced that they will continue requiring masks in schools. [ Wave of Connecticut schools ready to drop mask mandate ] Other districts including West Hartford, Glastonbury, Newington and Farmington have said that they will let staff and students decide for themselves whether or not to mask, starting Tuesday. [ Experts point to health inequality as Connecticut mask mandates fall along geographic lines ] A slew of other districts, including in Bloomfield and Norwich, are waiting a little longer to determine whether to drop the mandate. Lamont said Monday that about 85% of school districts across the state elected to drop mandatory face mask wearing as of Monday. How has DPH advised schools on the decision? The Department of Public Health recommends that before making changes to school masking strategies, school officials should work with local health officials, staff, students and parents to consider the unique complexities of school environments, including local COVID-19 transmission levels, risk tolerance and vaccination status within the school community. For students and staff who opt to keep wearing masks, DPH has advised districts to help families manage expectations and offer support to those who might experience stress, fear, or anxiety being in school situations where masks are not being worn. The department has also urged districts to develop contingency plans in the event of a COVID-19 surge or local outbreak. Where else will masks be required? In addition to schools that opt to retain mask mandates, masking will still be required in a number of different settings across the state, according to DPH. Advertisement Masking will still be required in licensed healthcare facilities including hospitals, outpatient clinics and doctors offices, nursing homes and assisted living institutions, clinical laboratories and congregate living setting such as residential care homes and group homes. Masks will also continue to be required in shelters for those experiencing homelessness. NEW BRITAIN 12/31/21 Gov. Ned Lamont announced the arrival of 426,000 home COVID-19 tests at the state commodities warehouse in New Britain Friday for distribution to cities and towns. Photo by Cloe Poisson/Special to the Courant (Cloe Poisson / Special to the Courant) How does this compare to CDC guidance? On Friday, the CDC announced a major policy shift, unveiling a series of recommendations indicating that the majority of Americans could stop wearing masks. Breaking News As it happens Get the latest updates on Coronavirus and other breaking news events happening across Connecticut > Under the new guidelines, masking is only recommended in schools within counties that are at high risk for COVID-19 transmission. Since last summer, the CDC had previously recommended universal masking in schools, regardless of local transmission levels. Under the CDC guidance, people in seven of Connecticuts eight counties are no longer recommended to wear masks in public, indoors settings. In the final county, Middlesex, people at high risk for COVID-19 are advised to consult a doctor on whether they should wear a mask. How are COVID-19 metrics in Connecticut right now? COVID-19 metrics have continued to decline in Connecticut over the past week, although at a slower rate than earlier this month. As of Friday, Connecticuts weekly COVID-19 test positivity rate stood at 3.16%, the lowest it has been since Nov. 21. The state had 235 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 as of Friday, the lowest the metric has been since mid-November. Advertisement Currently under guidance announced Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only one Connecticut county, Middlesex, is recording a high level of COVID-19 transmission. As of Monday, all other counties are recording substantial levels of transmission, at which the CDC no longer recommends wearing masks in public, indoor spaces. As of Monday, 93.9% of all Connecticut residents and 95% of those 5 and older had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while 77.8% of all residents and 81.9% of those 5 and older were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Additionally, about 53.4% of fully vaccinated Connecticut residents 18 or older have received a booster dose. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Eliza Fawcett can be reached at elfawcett@courant.com. Matt Reeves big screen blockbuster, The Batman, is one of this years most-anticipated releases. With an all-star cast, including Robert Pattinson as Batman, how does the new film shape up? The Plot Ten years after the conclusion of Christopher Nolans Oscar-winning Dark Knight trilogy, writer-director Matt Reeves and co-writer Peter Craig revive the tormented DC Comics character with aplomb. They engineer a dark, brooding serial killer thriller that sows the seeds of a new trilogy, including a tantalising first glimpse of Dublin-born actor Barry Keoghan as one of the cowled crusaders eye-catching adversaries. The main character Every generation has its big screen incarnation of Bruce Wayne. In 1966, Adam West donned gloriously camp attire in a Kapow!-tastic extension of a popular TV series. In the late 1980s, Tim Burton introduced Michael Keaton as Batman and the rictus grin of Jack Nicholsons Joker in a marvellously menacing take on comic book mythology that earned the first newly-minted 12 certificate from British censors. Director Joel Schumacher tarnished the legacy with the garish double whammy of Batman Returns and Batman & Robin before Nolan resuscitated the franchise with the bombastic Batman Begins. Reeves confidently takes up the mantle, delving into the tortured psyche of a self-destructive and almost uncontrollably violent Bruce Wayne, who exorcises personal demons with brute force on rain-lashed streets of Gotham. The cast Robert Pattinson strips away charm from his reclusive billionaire, exposing deep fissures in a nihilistic soul, suffocated by a squalid metropolis that is, by his grim assessment, eating itself. The three-hour running time is excessive but permits other characters to breathe rancid air, including Zoe Kravitzs spirited embodiment of Catwoman Got a thing about strays, she purrs alluringly and Paul Danos wickedly unhinged Riddler, who goads police with ciphers like the Zodiac Killer. Wayne (Pattinson) is determined to honour the legacy of his murdered father, at the expense of his personal wellbeing and sanity. Robert Pattinson as Batman in Matt Reeves upcoming film The Batman (Warner Bros) He prowls city streets as masked vigilante Batman in open defiance of the rule of law upheld by police lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and fellow officers, often returning to his hi-tech lair bloodied and bruised. If I cant have an effect, I dont care what happens to me, Bruce growls at butler Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis). Colin Farrell is unrecognisable as The Penguin (Warner Bros) The prodigal son hopes to undermine the criminal empire of unctuous kingpin Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and his associates, including nightclub owner Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell). A serial killer dubbed Riddler (Dano) targets high-profile city residents, beginning with a forceful intervention in the fiercely contested mayoral race between incumbent Don Mitchell Jr (Rupert Penry-Jones) and idealistic ingenue Bella Real (Jayme Lawson). Bruce is drawn into a deadly game of brinkmanship with Riddler, aided by enigmatic burglar Selena Kyle aka Catwoman, who slinks seductively in the grey area between law and disorder. Action satisfaction? The Batman opens with a soaring refrain of Ave Maria as a nocturnal predator stalks unsuspecting prey, establishing a tone of grim foreboding that pervades every frame, including murky cinematography that blurs edges of the screen, focusing our attention of the eye of a storm. Action sequences are slickly choreographed to discordant ebbs and flows of composer Michael Giacchinos score, including scenes shot in Glasgow. (Left to right) Andy Serkis, Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano and Jeffrey Wright attending the special screening of The Batman at BFI Imax Waterloo (Ian West/PA) Pattinson and Kravitz spark palpable sexual chemistry despite the relentless downpours, while Farrell is virtually unrecognisable beneath cutting-edge prosthetics as a criminal underling with grand ambitions. Hes perfectly poised for bigger and battier things in an intended second chapter that promises much and hopefully lops 30 minutes off the running time. RATING: 8/10 Cast members of the film Coda praised the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) for validating deaf culture and actors, as the film scooped the top prize at the 28th annual ceremony. The film, featuring an ensemble cast of deaf actors, won SAGs equivalent of best film, outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. We're smiling from ear to ear CODA receives the Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture! #sagawards pic.twitter.com/bjy8LlVQiy SAG Awards (@SAGawards) February 28, 2022 Coda tells the story of Ruby, the child of deaf adults (Coda), and stars Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant, as well as English actress Emilia Jones. In an emotional acceptance speech given in American Sign Language (ASL) Matlin joked that she did not need the microphone and thanked Codas and their interpreters all over the world. Im stunned we want to thanks Apple TV+, for trusting us for believing in us and our movie, she said. The film, featuring an ensemble cast of deaf actors, won SAGs equivalent of best film, outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Addressing the films writer and director, Sian Heder, she continued: Thank you for including deaf culture, we love you. We deaf actors have come a long way. This validates the fact that we deaf actors can work just like anyone else. We look forward to more opportunities for deaf actors. Massive congrats to the cast of CODA #sagawards pic.twitter.com/zAOakHRK1T SAG Awards (@SAGawards) February 28, 2022 Matlin, who has for children who are Codas, finished by teaching audience members the ASL for I love you. Kotsur also won the first prize of the evening for male actor in a supporting role and in his own speech, also given in ASL, he thanked Apple TV+ for their authentic casting of the film. Boris Johnson has announced that immediate family members will be able to join Ukrainians settled in the UK as they flee the Russian invasion. The move comes after the Government faced intense criticism over failing to relax the visa requirements for Ukrainian nationals earlier this week. In a statement on Sunday, Downing Street said the measure will benefit many thousands of people who at this moment are making desperate choices about their future. The UK will send 40m more in aid to provide vital medical supplies and assistance to Ukraine, widening economic and military support to bolster the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. pic.twitter.com/9QziIeokdf UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) February 27, 2022 Number 10 also announced that a further 40m of humanitarian aid will be sent to Ukraine to help aid agencies provide necessities and medical supplies in Ukraine and Government humanitarian experts will be deployed to the region to support refugees fleeing the violence. The Prime Minister said: In the last days the world has witnessed awe-inspiring displays of bravery and heroism from the Ukrainian people in response to those who seek to obliterate their freedom by force. The UK will not turn our backs in Ukraines hour of need. We are providing all the economic and military support we can to help those Ukrainians risking everything to protect their country. The announcement followed a call between Mr Johnson and Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier on Sunday, in which the Ukrainian President said the need for humanitarian assistance was critical. Mr Johnson also met Ukrainian community leaders at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Mayfair, London, in the evening where he was asked if the UK was going to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to move here. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) lights a candle during a visit to the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Holy Family of London (PA/Jamie Lorriman) He said: We want to be as generous as we possibly can, and certainly we want people who have relatives in Ukraine to be able to bring them over as fast as possible. We want to make sure that we have routes for people fleeing disaster, war, persecution in Ukraine to come here and were setting aside more to help with the humanitarian crisis in the countries bordering Ukraine, putting another 40 million for medical supplies and immediate help. We will be very generous to the Ukrainians, he later added. Pressed on what he means by very generous and asked how many people would be accepted, Mr Johnson said: Well, we will have a system that lets people come when theyre in fear of persecution when they need to for family reunion or other purposes. Labour welcomed the move but added that it should have happened days ago and called to see the details of the policy as soon as possible. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: This is a welcome first step forward and should have happened days ago as too many desperate family members have been struggling and delays have been deeply damaging. We hope this announcement includes wider family as well as just the closest relatives and it is vital that we see those details as soon as possible. Now, the Government should also work with European countries on a wider sanctuary arrangement so the UK can also do its bit alongside others to help Ukraine. The Government is fast-tracking plans to tackle dirty money and expose foreign oligarchs who launder their wealth through the UKs property market in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Following the package of sanctions announced by Boris Johnson last week, ministers will table the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill previously expected later in the session in Parliament on Tuesday. The legislation will establish a new register of overseas entities requiring foreign owners of property in the UK to declare their true identity, in a move intended to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive webs of shell companies. Those that fail to comply will have restrictions placed on selling the property, while those who are found to have broken the rules will face up to five years in prison. The legislation will apply retrospectively to property bought by overseas owners up to 20 years ago in England and Wales and since December 2014 in Scotland. We have taken decisive action tonight with our international partners to shut Russia out of the global financial system, including the important first step of ejecting Russian banks from SWIFT. We will keep working together to ensure Putin pays the price for his aggression. Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 26, 2022 The Bill will also strengthen and expand the system of unexplained wealth orders (UWO), which enable law enforcement agencies to seize assets without having to prove they were obtained through criminal activity. Law enforcement will be given more time to review material provided in response to a UWO and will be protected from incurring substantial legal costs if they bring a reasonable case that is ultimately unsuccessful. At the same time the Treasury is strengthening its enforcement of the economic sanctions regime by introducing a strict civil liability test for imposing fines rather than having to show firms had knowledge or a reasonable cause to suspect sanctions were being breached. Ministers say this will make it easier for the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) to impose significant fines, while organisations which are found to have breached sanctions but do not receive a fine may be named publicly for the first time. Separately, a new kleptocracy cell based in the National Crime Agency, announced last week by the Prime Minister in the Commons, will begin immediately to investigate sanctions evasion. Mr Johnson said: There is no place for dirty money in the UK. We are going faster and harder to tear back the facade that those supporting Putins campaign of destruction have been hiding behind for so long. Those backing Putin have been put on notice: there will be nowhere to hide your ill-gotten gains. In a further move, the Government is also publishing a detailed white paper ahead of a second Economic Crime Bill, to be published in the coming months, setting out for reform of Companies House. Under the proposals, anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a company in the UK will need to verify their identity with Companies House. Officials will be given the power to challenge the information that appears dubious, and will be empowered to inform security agencies of potential wrongdoing. It will also contain measures intended to prevent company agent from overseas creating companies in the UK on behalf of foreign criminals or secretive oligarchs. The managers of an NHS employee who died from Covid-19 were scrambling to put policies in place to ensure the safety of staff at a very reactive time and did not believe workers were put at risk, an inquest has heard. Mark Woolcock, 59, of Stratford, died on April 20 2020 at east Londons Newham University Hospital where he had worked in patient transport services for more than 17 years, moving discharged patients to their homes or care homes. The inquest at Barking Town Hall, which is examining the systems installed at the hospital to try and keep staff safe, previously heard that Mr Woolcock felt unsafe at work and was worried about being exposed to the virus without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). In a message revealed to the hearing on Monday, dating from March 2020, Mr Woolcock wrote to a colleague that the hospital was all corona and that he was scared s***less. Abida Khan, who was one of two general managers working within the patient transport service at the time, told the inquest that she was trying to protect their teams. I was aware that staff were quite anxious, she said. We were doing everything we could in the background to try and get systems and processes in place. They were waiting desperately for pan-London guidance for patient transport drivers, which was not issued until March 27, she said. Ms Khan, who works for the Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said that at those early stages of the pandemic, non-emergency patient transport (NEPTS) workers such as Mr Woolcock were not required to carry anyone with Covid symptoms. According to our processes, Im 100% clear that we werent knowingly asking them to move Covid patients, she said. (PA Graphics) Patients that were due to be transported to hospital were screened via a call the day before, when they were asked whether they had a cough or fever, she said. Ahead of transporting people from hospital, NEPTS drivers were expected to confirm with nurses on the ward that they did not have symptoms. Any Covid-suspected patients were instead transported by the London Ambulance Service or a third-party private provider, Ms Khan said, adding that NEPTS staff only started to drive them in April once they had been trained to do so. Pressed by Adam Wagner, counsel to Mr Woolcocks family, on why the policy that NEPTS staff did not transport coronavirus patients had not been put in writing, she acknowledged that in hindsight that would have been better. Ms Khan said: With any policy its not something you can just rush through. We were trying to keep everyone informed as quickly and as best we could. It was a very reactive time and a lot of communications were being done verbally. With regards to PPE, she said the drivers were equipped with gloves and aprons, but not with face masks, which was in line with national guidelines. She said: Our crews were concerned but at no point did we think there was a risk to them. Ms Khan, who is now communication and engagement lead within NEPTS, said she did not know how Mr Woolcock was infected. She said: It was a time where it wouldnt be easy for anyone to say how someone contracted Covid. That sentiment was echoed by another witness, Deborah Whittle, a patient safety and quality adviser. She said it was very difficult to establish with absolute certainty how Mr Woolcock caught the virus, but that it was likely that the source of his Covid came through his work. The job required him to be physically close to patients, lifting them and accompanying them in the back of the vehicle. Ms Whittle identified a patient Mr Woolcock transported who did not have any Covid symptoms, but tested positive several days later. Mr Woolcock worked his last shift overnight on March 23, developing coronavirus symptoms within days that progressively worsened. By April 3 he was struggling to breathe and was admitted to hospital. His daughter, Tania Woolcock, told the inquest last week that her father was unhappy about collecting patients from hospital wards, where infected patients were not clearly segregated. Ted Purcell, a national officer at the Community trade union, also argued drivers were being put in danger by being exposed to the virus on wards without enough PPE. The hearing was adjourned to Tuesday at 10am. Russian media sites appeared to have been hacked in a cyber attack by Anonymous, with a message warning readers of certain death for troops in Ukraine. The home page for Fontanka, a news outlet based in St Petersburg, was replaced with text reading Putin makes us lie and urging citizens to stop this madness. The apparent attack also temporarily brought down other sites including state-owned news agency Tass and daily newspaper Kommersant. Fontanka and Tass were running normally again shortly after midday while Kommersant appeared to remain offline. The message on Fontaka read in full: Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death. Putin makes us lie and puts us in danger. We were isolated from the whole world, they stopped buying oil and gas. In a few years we will live like in North Korea. What is it for us? To put Putin in the textbooks? This is not our war, lets stop it! This message will be deleted, and some of us will be fired or even jailed. But we cant take it anymore. Indifferent journalists of Russia. (PA Graphics) It bore the mark of Anonymous, the activist collective known for cyber attacks against some governments and corporations. It came after a post on the groups Twitter page declared cyber war against the Russian government following its invasion of Ukraine. Other posts on Saturday evening announced the collective had taken down the Russian government website and hacked Russian state TV to broadcast the reality of what is happening in Ukraine. Stealing the SAGs spotlight! HoYeon Jung, Ariana DeBose and more stars made their mark on the 2022 awards show. The Squid Game star, 27, and the West Side Story star, 31, both won their first SAG Awards during the Sunday, February 27, ceremony after receiving their first nominations. Jung was awarded the trophy for Outstanding Performance By a Female Actor in a Drama Series, while the North Carolina native earned her award for Outstanding Performance By a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. First and foremost, thank you so much, the South Korea native said in her acceptance speech. I have sat many a time watching you on the big screen, dreaming of one day becoming an actor. I just want to say thank you so much. The Koreas Next Top Model alum teared up as she concluded, Thank you for mak[ing] me dream and open[ing] the door for me. And I love my Squid Game crew. DeBose, for her part, gushed, Its taken a long time for me to feel comfortable calling myself an actor. My roots come from the dance world and the Broadway stage. The Anita that we see on the screen took every bit of me, but she took 10 years to make and Im extremely proud of her and of our film. And I really do believe that when you recognize one of us you recognize all of us in a way. I have watched so many of you for a very long time. You inspire me and you continue to do so, and I am just thrilled to be among you. Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock CODAs Troy Kotsur also won a SAG Award after his first nomination, taking home the trophy for Outstanding Male Actor in a Supporting Role. The Arizona native, 53, made history with his win as the first deaf male actor to win a Screen Actors Guild Award. Im so proud to be a member [of SAG]. Ive been a member since 2001, and so now I finally feel like Im part of the family, the actor signed as ASL as he accepted the honor, his interpreter translating for the audience. I know you all are artists, and I know you all know what its like to be a starving actor. Back then I used to sleep in my car, I slept in my dressing room backstage, I couch-surfed and all of that. You feel me, right? So, thank you so much. Chris Pizzello/AP/Shutterstock The Flash Before the Bang star thanked his wife, Deanne Bray, adding, She is still here with me today. Shes been with me through all these years of struggle. Thank you so much for being my backbone and thank you for supporting me. I love you. Thank you to my wife for reminding me to check my fly before walking on the red carpet. Keep scrolling to see more memorable SAG Award moments, from the epic Scandal and Romy and Michele reunions to Helen Mirrens Life Achievement Award speech. Media mogul Lord Evgeny Lebedev has appealed to Vladimir Putin to stop the invasion of Ukraine, through the Evening Standard newspaper. Lord Lebedev, who owns the newspaper alongside The Independent, used the publications front page on Monday to write an open letter to the Russian leader. The Russian-born crossbench peer, who is a long-term friend of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said: I plead with you to use todays negotiations to bring this terrible conflict in Ukraine to an end. President Putin, please stop this war. https://t.co/9mLgBY2jWo Evgeny Lebedev (@mrevgenylebedev) February 28, 2022 In a statement published alongside a photograph of a paramedic performing CPR on a girl injured by shelling, Lord Lebedev said: On this page are the final minutes of a six-year-old child fatally injured by shells that struck her Mariupol apartment block on Sunday. She is still wearing her pink jacket as medics fight to save her. But it is too late. Other children, and other families, are suffering similar fates across Ukraine. As a Russian citizen I plead with you to stop Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers and sisters. As a British citizen I ask you to save Europe from war. As a Russian patriot I plead that you prevent any more young Russian soldiers from dying needlessly. As a citizen of the world I ask you to save the world from annihilation. He added that he hoped negotiations at the Ukraine-Belarus border provide a moment of hope and urged Mr Putin to end the war. Orthodox Slavs killing their brethren on a scale not witnessed for centuries. An unimaginable tragedy for people of Ukraine and Russia. pic.twitter.com/Q1koQE8gOC Evgeny Lebedev (@mrevgenylebedev) February 25, 2022 On Friday, the day after Russia launched its invasion into Ukraine, Lord Lebedev, who is the son of former KGB operative Alexander Lebedev, described the attack as an unimaginable tragedy. Orthodox Slavs killing their brethren on a scale not witnessed for centuries. An unimaginable tragedy for people of Ukraine and Russia, he tweeted. Other recent front pages of the newspaper have featured images of Ukrainians with bloodied faces and others devastated by the destruction of their homes. U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson faces a potentially razor-thin vote in the Senate where shell soon be grilled by Republicans who hold a nearly equal balance of power. Jackson, 51, needs the yes votes of a simple majority to be confirmed in the chamber, now split 50-50, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote. While shes expected to receive the votes needed to be confirmed for the high court, Republican senators are certain to zero in on Jacksons past decisions that impact corporate interests. In two cases involving labor unions Jackson's rulings protected their latitude to engage in collective bargaining, though one of the decisions was overruled. In several cases addressing employment discrimination, the judge invalidated workers' claims that their employers fired them due to disabilities. In a ruling that temporarily stopped the fast-track deportation of certain undocumented immigrants, Jackson was also overruled. Heres how Jackson ruled in prominent business cases. Labor & Employment In her very first written opinion for the District of Columbias federal court of appeals, where Jackson has served as a judge since June 2021, she ruled in favor of a group of public sector union workers. The workers challenged a Trump-era rule change that gave more latitude to federal agencies to alter working conditions absent collective bargaining. In her opinion, Jackson prohibited the Federal Labor Relations Authority from arbitrarily abandoning the 35 years of precedent backing up that even purportedly insignificant changes are subject to union negotiations. Fed'n of Labor & Cong. of Indus. Organizations v. Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks after President Joe Biden announced Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court in the Cross Hall of the White House, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris listens at right. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) In a similar case during Jacksons tenure as a D.C. district court judge, she ruled against three Trump executive orders and in favor of public sector unions in a case where unions argued that the presidents executive orders unlawfully weakened their right to negotiate. The D.C. Circuit Court later reversed Jackson, saying the court had no jurisdiction to decide the dispute. As a district court judge, Jackson sided against certain plaintiffs who alleged employment discrimination. In one case, Jackson held that discriminatory comments made by a supervisor towards a 56-year-old worker saying he was getting older and that he should take earned sick days in lieu of bringing a cane to work did not mean that a three-member panel decision to decline his promotion to a higher-grade position was also discriminatory. Though the supervisor served on the deciding panel, Jackson said the worker presented no evidence that the supervisor's comments influenced the other two panel members. Jackson ruled against a chemist for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a 2015 case before the D.C. district court, granting the FDAs motion to dismiss her complaint alleging the agency failed to accommodate her diagnosed bipolar disorder and wrongfully terminated her because of her condition. In granting the motion, Jackson wrote that the chemist failed to disclose her diagnosis to the FDA in a timely way and that questions remained about whether she could have performed the essential functions of her job if reassigned as requested. In a 2019 case brought by a female special agent candidate for the U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Jackson denied both the plaintiffs and the State Departments motions asking for a ruling in their favor without a trial on the issue. The plaintiff alleged the agency discriminated against her when it terminated her for failing a requirement to run a 1.5-mile training run. The plaintiff, who suffered from asthma, said the agencys failure to accommodate her disability violated federal anti-discrimination laws. Jackson ruled that although the plaintiff offered no evidence to show she could have performed the essential functions of her position with accommodation, the lower court had not addressed whether an alternative role existed within the State Department that she could have performed. WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 25: Ketanji Brown Jackson, circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, makes brief remarks after U.S. President Joe Biden introduced her (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Jackson denied a settlement tied to a proposed class certification for 5,000 Black Lockheed Martin workers alleging that the company conducted discriminatory employment reviews. In a 2016 opinion, Jackson explained that it was entirely implausible" to infer that the plaintiff group suffered a common injury from Lockheed Martins practice and therefore should not be subjected to have their injuries redressed through a single remedy. Professional fees In a case involving attorney fees, Jackson decided against a plaintiff who argued that $218,033 in fees were justified. The plaintiff lost a jury trial in the case alleging sex discrimination and retaliation against the United States Capitol Police. Although the jury found that sex was a motivating factor in the governments decision to fire her, Jackson ruled the fees were unjustified. Immigration In a 2019 case, the D.C. Circuit overruled Jackson after temporarily blocking then-President Donald Trump from carrying out a policy to more quickly deport people illegally within the U.S. The immigrant plaintiffs argued that a DHS change to designate undocumented non-citizens who had been in the country up to two years as eligible for "expedited removal violated the Administrative Procedure Act. That law requires changes to federal policy to be made reasonably. Some Republican senators have publicly criticized Biden's nomination of Jackson, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who was one of three Republican lawmakers to confirm her to the D.C. Court of Appeals, along with Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Graham wrote in a tweet after news reports suggesting Jackson's likely nomination that the choice means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again. He added: The Harvard-Yale train to the Supreme Court continues to run unabated." Tweet from Sen. Lindsey Graham Feb. 25, 2022 Jackson follows an established line of nominees and justices who graduated from Harvard Law School, including Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Stephen Breyer, who Jackson will replace if she's confirmed, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Neil Gorsuch, and retired Justices David Souter and Anthony Kennedy. Former Supreme Court nominee and now U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland also graduated from Harvard Law School. Murkowski left room to reverse her prior confirmation of Jackson saying, "previously voting to confirm an individual to a lower court does not signal how I will vote for a Supreme Court justice." Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed. Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit. Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news For tutorials and information on investing and trading stocks, check out Cashay In this photo from Apr. 3, 1977, a workman checks for cracks in the Wrigley Building's terra cotta facade and looks over the iconic clock's giant hands. (Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune) Daylight saving time, a change in the standard time designed to conserve energy and make better use of daylight, officially begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 13, 2022. That means at 2 a.m., clocks should spring ahead in other words, they should be set forward one hour. [ Daylight saving time's turbulent start ] Daylight saving time officially ends again at 2 a.m., Nov. 6, 2022 and thats when clocks will fall back an hour. Daylight saving time is in effect for 238 days or about 65% of the year. Heres some history on the significance of the time change: The United States wasnt the first country to observe daylight saving time. Benjamin Franklin is credited with first proposing the idea in 1784. In an essay called An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light, Franklin said the change would save a considerable number of candles. Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, turned its clocks ahead an hour in 1908, but Germany was the first country to implement it during World War I on April 30, 1916 according to timeanddate.com. A statue of Benjamin Franklin, founder of the University of Pennsylvania, on the school's campus in Philadelphia. (Mike Mergen / BLOOMBERG NEWS) (Kori Rumore/Chicago Tribune) Daylight saving time is now federal law, but it had a turbulent, confusing start. Until 1883, a Chicagoan asked to tell what time it was could give more than one answer and still be correct. There was local time, determined by the position of the sun at high noon at a centrally located spot in town, usually City Hall. There was also railroad time, which put Columbus, Ohio, six minutes faster than Cincinnati and 19 minutes faster than Chicago. Scattered across the country were 100 different local time zones, and the railroads had some 53 zones of their own. To do away with the inevitable confusion, the railroads took the matter into their own hands, holding a General Time Convention in the fall of 1883 at the Grand Pacific Hotel at LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard. (Today, a plaque at the location which is just north of the Chicago Board of Trade Building notes its significance). A plaque on the southern face of the Central Standard Building, 231 S. LaSalle St., commemorates the General Time Convention. During a gathering at the site in 1883, the United States was officially divided into four time zones. (Kori Rumore/Chicago Tribune) Its purpose: to develop a better and more uniform system of railroad scheduling. The Standard Time System based on the mean solar time at the central meridian of each time zone was formally inaugurated on Nov. 18, 1883, a day that came to be known as the Day of Two Noons. (Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1883) Daylight saving time, also known as fast time back in the day, had its first run in the U.S. when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law in 1918 to support World War I efforts. It didnt last. The law was repealed seven months later. had its first run in the U.S. when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law in 1918 to support World War I efforts. It didnt last. The law was repealed seven months later. Robert Garland , a Pittsburgh industrialist, is considered the father of daylight saving time in the U.S. He learned of the concept in the United Kingdom. , a Pittsburgh industrialist, is considered the father of daylight saving time in the U.S. He learned of the concept in the United Kingdom. With no federal law on the books, cities across the nation including Chicago adopted their own ordinances. These decisions were often over the objections of farming interests in the state legislatures. Votes by the general public and Chicago City Council decided the city would observe daylight saving time from the last Sunday of April to the last Sunday of September beginning in 1921. Some suburbs also adopted that plan. (Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1936) (Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1936) That time Chicago clocks spun ahead an hour and intended to keep them there for a year. On March 1, 1936, Chicago shifted its clocks ahead, but not just for a few months. The city council decided Chicago would be on Eastern Standard Time for the entire year. That days front-page story in the Tribune touted the new ordinances many benefits: Today that extra hour of daylight in the afternoon will mean chiefly that you and your family will have that much more time to be out-of-doors. Tomorrow it will mean, in addition to the extra hour outside, if you so desire, that you will leave work while there is plenty of light and fewer hazards in the evening traffic rush. Your children will have an extra hour for play when they have left their school classrooms. You will use less light during the evening hours, turning the lights on an hour later. According to Spring forward: The annual madness of Daylight Saving Time by Michael Downing, this change led to only more confusion. The railroads, Chicago Stock Exchange and the Board of Trade went against the city ordinance. The city asked voters in November 1936 what to do, and they wanted a return to central time. The clocks changed back to Central Standard Time on Nov. 15, 1936. That was the end of year-round Eastern Standard Time in Illinois. President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched year-round daylight saving time in the U.S. in 1942. It wasnt until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 , however, that it was decided the U.S. would observe daylight saving time from the last Sunday of April to last Sunday of October. (States could exempt themselves from this rule.) , however, that it was decided the U.S. would observe daylight saving time from the last Sunday of April to last Sunday of October. (States could exempt themselves from this rule.) Congress extended the daylight saving time period to 10 months in 1974 and eight months in 1975, in hopes of saving energy after the 1973 oil embargo. after the 1973 oil embargo. Further changes to the federal law were made in the 1970s and 1980s. to the federal law were made in the 1970s and 1980s. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed into law on Aug. 8, 2005, states that daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Parts of Canada have adopted the same change. Daylight saving time once saved the life of a Chicago gangster sentenced to die by hanging for an extra hour, anyway. Downings Spring forward: The annual madness of Daylight Saving Time says the Chicago City Council passed a daylight saving ordinance in June 1920. That fall, after the citys clocks had been turned back to Central Standard Time, poolroom proprietor and gang leader Salvatore Sam Cardinella was convicted of murdering saloonkeeper Andrew Bowman. (Chicago Tribune, Nov. 29, 193) Cardinella, who went by the nickname Il Diavolo (The Devil), was not at the scene of Bowmans slaying but was convicted of murder under a state law that found the instigator of the crime equally guilty as the killer. His gang reportedly was involved in at least 20 murders, 100 holdups and 150 burglaries. Il Diavolo was scheduled to die by hanging on April 15, 1921. After several unsuccessful ploys by his henchmen to save his life including one that would be attempted post-hanging Cardinella was down to one last try. The New York Times reported that Cardinella convinced jail officials to spare his life for one additional hour because of daylight saving time. He reportedly said: ... I was sentenced before the time was changed. This rearrangement deprives me of an hour of life. That wont mean anything after Im dead, but will mean a lot Friday morning. The Governor can change his mind in that time. The New York Times, April 14, 1921 The jailers complied, and Cardinellas execution was bumped back to 10 a.m. Reportedly unable to stand at the gallows, he was hanged while seated in a chair at 10:26 a.m. on April 15. Birthdays for some 20,000 Chicagoans were wrong, thanks to daylight saving time. A Sept. 12, 1937, Tribune story reported that some children born in Chicago since 1920 were celebrating the wrong birthday. Why? They were born between midnight and 1 a.m. while Chicago observed daylight saving time for five months of the year. Springfield, however, remained on Central Standard Time. State law provided that its records should be kept in a uniform matter throughout the state, so corporation counsel Barnet Hodes ruled that Springfield time should prevail because thats where the states health department office was located. Not all countries begin daylight saving time on the same date. Territories and states might also differ on the date and time when daylight saving time ends. [ National Institute of Standards and Technology: The official U.S. time ] Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas and the U.S. Virgin Islands dont recognize daylight saving time. In the last four years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states have enacted legislation or passed resolutions to #LocktheClock, or keep daylight saving time year-round: Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi and Montana (2021). Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio (resolution), South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming (2020). Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington (2019). Florida (2018; California voters also authorized such a change that year, but legislative action is pending). Ultimately, however, its not the states decision. Congressional approval is required to make this change permanent, but it has not yet happened. Its a good time to make a few updates around your home. Elgin firefighter Nicholas Walker installs a smoke detector in an Elgin home on Oct. 23, 2019. (Rafael Guerrero / The Courier-News) If you think daylight saving time is a hot topic in the U.S., then check out Russia. Russia which covers 11 time zones has changed its stance on daylight saving time several times since January 2011. President Vladimir Putin returned the country to year-round standard time in October 2014. Russia adopted permanent winter time in 2014 after three years of permanent summer hours, changing the number of time zones in the country from nine to 11. (MICHAEL ECKELS/AFP/Getty Images) Sources: timeanddate.com, Associated Press, Library of Congress, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Institute of Standards and Technology Prominent economist and Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff offered a biting take on how the world will remember Russian president Vladimir Putin. "Putin is a pariah. I have many Ukrainian friends and Russian friends who are utterly distraught. They look at being cut off from the world for a long time," the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund said on Yahoo Finance Live. "He is going to be looked at as a mass murder. People are going to be looking at again genocide charges. They are suddenly trading in North Korea. He has painted himself into this corner. It's a very dark place for where we are. I am not sure how we get to an end of it until Putin and his cronies go." The West cranked up pressure on Russia over the weekend, penalizing the country for Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Western allies moved to block "selected" Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system. The decision essentially denies Russia access to financial markets globally and opens its economy up to a potentially severe decline. TOPSHOT - People queue outside a branch of Russian state-owned bank Sberbank to withdraw their savings and close their accounts in Prague on February 25, 2022, before Sberbank will close all its branches in the Czech Republic later in the day. - US President Biden was the first to announce sanctions, hours after Russian President Putin declared a "military operation" into Ukraine. The first tranche will hit four Russian banks -- including the country's two largest, Sberbank and VTB Bank -- cut off more than half of Russia's technology imports, and target several of the country's oligarchs. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP) (Photo by MICHAL CIZEK/AFP via Getty Images) Large multinational corporations are responding, too. BP (BP) said it would divest its 19.75% stake in Russian energy producer Rosneft, incurring a $25 billion charge to do so. Intel and AMD are reportedly halting chip shipments to Russia. "Intel (INTC) complies with all applicable export regulations and sanctions in the countries in which it operates, including the new sanctions issued by OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control within the US Department of the Treasury) and the regulations issued by BIS (the Bureau of Industry and Security within the US Commerce Department)," an Intel spokesperson told Yahoo Finance on the reports. AMD (AMD) had no comment when contacted by Yahoo Finance. JPMorgan estimated Monday the Russian economy will plunge into a deep recession as it becomes further isolated from the rest of the world. Stock markets around the world flirted with heavy selling pressure. "The real concern is just the uncertainty that this is bringing," Rogoff added, pointing to the potential for new instability in the Russia/West relationship for the first time post Cold War. Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit Boris Johnson has said Britain will do all it can to get more arms to the beleaguered Ukrainian military as Russian forces continue to threaten Kyiv. The Prime Minister spoke again on Sunday evening to President Volodymyr Zelensky who told him the next 24 hours would a crucial period for his country. A Ukrainian delegation is due to meet the Russians without precondition on Monday on the border with Belarus, although Mr Zelensky has indicated he sees little prospect of any meaningful dialogue. In the meantime, Russian and Ukrainian forces have again been engaged in heavy fighting ahead of the widely expected assault on the capital. Earlier, Mr Johnson dismissed a dramatic announcement by Vladimir Putin that he was putting Russias nuclear forces on heightened alert as a distraction from the failure of his troops to breakthrough in Ukraine. President Putin sent shock waves through Western capitals with his instruction on Sunday to his top military leaders to put the strategic nuclear deterrent on a special regime of combat duty. The US said it was completely unacceptable while a senior US defence official was quoted as warning the Russian leader had made any miscalculation much, much more dangerous. It came on a day in which much of the world appeared to turn its back on Russia in revulsion at the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. At the same time the expected Russian assault on Kyiv again failed to materialise, while in the countrys second city, Kharkiv, the authorities claimed to have successfully driven out invading Russian troops. Troops engaged in street fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine on Sunday, February 27 (Marienko Andrew/AP) Mr Putins increasing diplomatic isolation is expected to underline a rare emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday at 10am (3pm GMT) to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. It will be only the 11th time such a session has been held and is expected to last at least all day. Mr Johnson said Mr Putins nuclear order appeared to be an attempt to divert from the fact that his efforts to re-make the post-Cold War order in Europe were failing. Whats actually happening is that they (the Ukrainians) are fighting back perhaps with more effect, with more resistance, than the Kremlin had bargained for, he said during a visit to the Ukrainian Catholic Church in London. This is a disastrous misbegotten venture by President Putin. In other developments: The UK Government is fast-tracking plans to tackle dirty money and expose foreign oligarchs who launder their wealth through the UKs property market in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Talked to Prime Minister @BorisJohnson and President @AndrzejDuda about the current security situation. Agreed on further joint steps to counter the aggressor. Anti-war coalition in action! (@ZelenskyyUa) February 27, 2022 The European Union said it would supply arms to Ukraine while imposing a fresh round of sanctions banning Russian aircraft from the EU airspace and barring the Kremlin-backed media, RT and Sputnik. BP announced it is selling its 10 billion stake in oil producer Rosneft, which it co-owns with the Kremlin, after pressure from the Government. The Football Association said England would not play Russia for the foreseeable future while FIFA said all Russias matches must be played in neutral countries without supporters. Announcing his decision to raise the alert level of Russias nuclear forces, Mr Putin cited aggressive statements by Western powers and the punitive economic sanctions piling up on his country. Over the weekend the G7 nations agreed to impose sanctions on Russias central bank while excluding a number of Russian lenders from the crucial Swift system of global payments. We have taken decisive action tonight with our international partners to shut Russia out of the global financial system, including the important first step of ejecting Russian banks from SWIFT. We will keep working together to ensure Putin pays the price for his aggression. Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 26, 2022 Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said UK officials were drawing up a hit list of oligarchs close to the Kremlin to be targeted with asset freezes and travel bans over the coming weeks. In his call with Mr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said the UK would not only continue to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine but would assist other countries in doing so as well. It follows a donors conference on Friday where Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain would deal with the logistics of getting equipment into a war zone. President Zelensky said he believed the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine, and the Prime Minister said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine, a No 10 spokesman said. ORLANDO, Fla. Donald Trump still rules the Republican Party, but at least some Republicans are beginning to imagine what a future might look like without him. In conversation after conversation with attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida this week, hardcore conservatives who still worship the former president began to signal something new: They may not want him to run again in 2024. Absolutely not! said one CPAC attendee from New Jersey, roaming Orlandos Rosen Shingle Creek hotel with a $500 silver bedazzled pistol-shaped purse. The woman didnt want to share her name for fear of being on record against Trump, even though she voted for him and still thinks hes great. I just dont think its gonna work for the country. Its going to be a fiasco. The same bullshit we dealt with for years, she said. Ever since he confronted his 2020 loss with cries of a rigged election, Trump has teased the possibility of a comeback, and many of his supporters at CPAC said they believe hes going to follow through. Trump spoke to a rapturous crowd at CPAC on Saturday and baited them into thinking he would challenge President Joe Biden again in two years. We did it twice and well do it again, he said, alluding to the falsehood that he beat Biden in 2020. Trump won the conventions 2024 straw poll with 59% support in a hypothetical matchup against 18 other Republicans. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the clear non-Trump favorite with 28%, up 7 points from last years poll, indicating that support for him is growing. Trumps support also jumped by 4 points. But even the Trumpiest of Trump fans are beginning to have reservations about just how practical a Trump comeback would be. They emphasized the same points when it came to 2024: that Trump did great things for the country but its time to move on and that Trump could squander whatever gains the GOP makes in the midterm elections by being too polarizing and driving Democrats to the polls. These sentiments came from nearly two dozen activists, many in MAGA or anti-Biden gear, and almost every one cited DeSantis, who they love for refusing to follow pandemic best practices, as at least a top three choice for president. I do not recommend Trump running because it will send every liberal to the polls and it will destroy everything from top to bottom, said Peter Lee, a 52-year-old from Orlando who runs a local tea party chapter. Apparently, half the nation voted against Trump. So if Trump runs, it sends half the nation back to the polls to vote against him. Lets not do that. In general, though, the nations preeminent conservative gathering was all about Trump. Drawing candidates, conservative celebrities, activists, journalists and political operatives, the convention was an explosion of blingy Trump-themed everything. Shirts, hats, dresses, purses, shoes, flags. Looking for every single Trump tweet in four leather-bound volumes? They had that. What about a MAGA hammock for $1,500? You came to the right and maybe only place for that. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is riding national momentum in the Republican Party. (John Raoux/AP) Though he keeps teasing another run, Trump hasnt made his plans clear and, until he does, it essentially freezes the field for the rest of Republicans. These people ought to be crisscrossing the country, talking at Lincoln Day dinners, and campaigning, etcetera, said Saul Anuzis, a longtime Republican strategist. And theyre not doing that because of Trumps indecision about whether or not hes going to run. Anuzis said its not necessarily dislike for Trump thats motivating the conservative base to look beyond him for their next presidential nominee. I think people just want to see us move on, he said. They realize that Trump was a lightening rod and that if runs hell win the nomination. GOP speakers were given anywhere from five to 20 minutes to address the convention, and most used their speeches to stoke the culture war. Trump was a passing mention in remarks from Florida Sen. Rick Scott and North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he hoped Trump would run again, while Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel declared Trump the winner of the 2020 election. DeSantis didnt mention him at all. The emerging dynamic with the Florida governor is getting under Trumps skin. At CPAC, a Republican who worked on Trumps campaign snickered at the suggestion of DeSantis overtaking Trump, bringing up how DeSantis resigned from Congress in 2018 under the cloud of an ethics investigation before becoming Floridas governor. And though Trump has privately fumed at DeSantis challenging him, some of his biggest fans are starting to welcome the idea. I think hes the lesser of two evils, said Deborah Jarvis, a 55-year-old electronics tester from Ocala, Florida, referring to DeSantis. Not that [Trumps] evil! I love him to death, she continued. But ... Dressed in matching Lets Go Brandon T-shirt and sneakers (the phrase has become shorthand for a pejorative against President Joe Biden), Jarvis said Republicans may not have to fight so hard with someone else in office. I love Trump. Ive been to Trump rallies. I was just in Texas [for a rally] a few weeks ago. But right now our focus should be 2022, she said. John Madison, a 30-year-old delivery truck driver from Pittsburgh said he wants someone like Trump but more polished and experienced even though the thing that Republicans liked about Trump, that he was an outsider and new to politics, cant be said for him anymore. I want someone whos conservative like Trump, whos brash like Trump, but whos got a little bit more political experience, who can bring in all conservatives, all moderates, and not be as divisive, Madison said. Im 100% conservative, 100% Republican. But Ive talked to a lot of people they couldnt get behind Trump, but they could get behind DeSantis. Another woman attending CPAC with her teenage daughter said DeSantis is essentially a more likable version of Trump. DeSantis basically has the same policies as Trump, but he just says it in a different way that the media wont attack. He almost steps in it sometimes, but thats just his personality, she said. I just think DeSantis is the guy right now, you know? said David Thomas Roberts, who traveled from Houston to sell books at CPACs expo hall. Id be surprised if you hear differently all weekend. Floridians may have been overly represented at CPAC, potentially giving DeSantis an advantage in the straw poll. Local Republicans who didnt want to see DeSantis run for president said they didnt want to lose him as governor. They mentioned that his wife, Casey DeSantis, has recently battled breast cancer, making it an awkward time to run for president. David Duffey, a 57-year-old who runs a side gig making MAGA merch and said he attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the deadly U.S. Capitol riot, wore a flag draped as a cape emblazoned with DESANTISLAND. He said he wants Trump right now for 2024, and maybe DeSantis in the future. I mean, Ron is such a great governor, Duffey said. Hes 42 years old ... weve got other people. Christopher Mathias contributed reporting. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released on Monday morning, finds that millions of people and animals have already suffered from the impacts of climate change and that the number will reach into the billions by midcentury unless the world rapidly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and keeps global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this, said United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres in a statement. The IPCC is the U.N. body that assesses climate science. Todays IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership. With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change. Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people, beyond natural climate variability, the summary for policymakers of the new 18-chapter Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report unequivocally states. Widespread, pervasive impacts to ecosystems, people, settlements, and infrastructure have resulted from observed increases in the frequency and intensity of climate and weather extremes, including hot extremes on land and in the ocean, heavy precipitation events, drought and fire weather, it adds. The report finds that many of these effects are at the worst end of past projections. One of the most striking conclusions in our report is that were seeing adverse impacts being much more widespread and being much more negative than expected in prior reports, or than expected at the current 1.09 degrees [Celsius of warming] that we have, said Camille Parmesan, a coordinating lead author of the report and professor of geology at the University of Texas at Austin, in a Sunday press conference organized by Climate Nexus, a climate communications group. Some of the things were seeing that were not expected at 1.09[C] include diseases emerging in new areas, the first extinctions of species due to climate change, mass mortality events in trees [and] mammals. There are estimates of billions of people at risk for dengue fever late in the century, as the mosquito that carries it increases its geographical range and the length of its season, said Kristie Ebi, a co-author of the report and a professor of global health at the University of Washington. She added that if climate change continues at its current pace, there are hundreds of millions of people at risk of malnutrition due to reduced crop yields. Residents in Nakuru County, Kenya, wade through floodwaters in November 2020 after torrential rains brought the levels at Lake Naivasha to record highs. (Monicah Mwangi/Reuters) As a result, it is now a certainty that life for millions of people has been or will soon be changed dramatically. The only question is how. The takeaway message is that we've waited too long to act, report co-author Ed Carr, a geographer and anthropologist who teaches at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., told Yahoo News. At this point, incremental actions aren't going to get us to a climate-resilient future. We're talking about transformational changes to the way we live. We're not talking about transforming or not transforming the choice now is between the changes we choose and transformations that are forced upon us by a changing environment. We don't get to just say we're not going to do it. It's coming upon us one way or another. For example, Carr said, coastal communities are getting flooded, and they are likely if we don't take climate action to be completely inundated. In that situation, many coastal areas will become uninhabitable and force mass migration. Alternatively, the report states, humans can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to keep sea levels from rising beyond a manageable amount. But that will require other kinds of transformational change, Carr noted, such as switching to renewable energy sources. To address the risk of malnutrition and increase the absorption of carbon dioxide, people could cut back on eating meat, he said, so that land currently used for growing animal feed can be converted to plants that more efficiently feed humans, or can be returned to a natural state. Carrs thoughts were echoed in a statement by President Bidens climate envoy, John Kerry. "The question at this point is not whether we can altogether avoid the crisis it is whether we can avoid the worst consequences, Kerry said. Denial and delay are not strategies, they are a recipe for disaster. A forest on the island of Evia, Greece, damaged by wildfires in September 2021. (Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters) Overarchingly, not only are the effects worse than the average of previous estimates, there are two other major developments in the IPCCs current assessment cycle, according to the authors. One is that scientists are increasingly certain that specific extreme weather events and other devastating effects such as mass tree deaths caused by invasive insect species are caused by climate change and are not within the bounds of natural variability. And the other is that many of these effects are weakening the Earths ability to absorb greenhouse gas emissions and are therefore potentially launching feedback loops that will make a return to normal conditions impossible if the world overshoots its goal of limiting warming to 1.5C. Increasingly since [the Fifth Assessment Report], these observed impacts have been attributed to human-induced climate change particularly through increased frequency and severity of extreme events, states the new report. These include increased heat related human mortality, warm-water coral bleaching and mortality, and increased drought related tree mortality. One example cited by the authors is the Pacific heat dome, which subjected the Northwestern United States and British Columbia, Canada, to a week of temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit last June, causing hundreds of deaths. That was virtually impossible without climate change, Ebi noted. Much of the report focuses on how the world has adapted, or failed to adapt, to rising temperatures thus far. For instance, natural features that absorb carbon and heavy rains, such as wetlands and tropical forests, need to be replenished, yet they are still being destroyed. We're not taking steps that are going to make the world more sustainable over time they're going to make us more vulnerable, said Carr. We continue to promote agriculture at the cost of forests, especially tropical forests. If we're going to farm in place of forests, you're going to exacerbate climate challenges. So far, global average temperatures have risen 1.09C, and according to the IPCC report from last year, there is a great likelihood that the world will warm more than 1.5C if aggressive action to cut emissions isnt taken immediately. The hope then would be that the world would decrease emissions and increase measures to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, such as reforestation and actually sucking carbon from the air and storing it underground, to return to below 1.5C of warming. However, if forests are devastated by pests such as the pine bark beetle, which are moving up from warmer climates and lower latitudes, that will interfere with carbon sequestration because dead trees emit carbon dioxide instead of absorbing it. The same is true for many other growing effects of climate change such as more widespread wildfires. Were starting to see processes moving into place with this 1.09[C] such as increased forest insect pest outbreaks, tree deaths due to drought, increased wildfires, thawing of permafrost and drying of peatlands that are actually starting to weaken the ability of the biosphere to act as a sink for greenhouse gases that humans are emitting, said Parmesan. The report noted that tree mortality has increased by 20 percent because of climate change in tropical, temperate and boreal ecosystems, and the biome shifts have made it so that the microclimate on a mountain is now equivalent to what it used to be 300 meters (984 feet) downslope. This kind of shift, the report emphasizes, has major economic consequences. Take the ski industry in the Northeastern United States, Carr said. If we stay on the trajectory we're currently on, the ski season will be at least 15 percent shorter. I grew up in southern New Hampshire. There's a big chunk of New Hampshire's economy that is based on winter tourism. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 11, 2021. (Yves Herman/Reuters) Relative to previous IPCC reports, this one puts a greater emphasis on the disproportionate impact of climate change felt by disadvantaged groups, such as lower-income people, communities of color and Indigenous communities. This is the first time in the report that every single chapter covers Indigenous context, and in most if not all chapters, these sections were written by Indigenous people themselves, Sherilee Harper, a co-author who teaches public health at the University of Alberta in Canada, said at the press conference. Exceeding 1.5[C] means we will experience severe levels of loss and damage, some of which will be irreversible, said Adelle Thomas, a co-author who serves as a researcher at Climate Analytics, a Berlin-based think tank, at the press conference. That's particularly relevant for low-income, Indigenous and marginalized communities around the world, including my home country of the Bahamas. Coastal and low-lying areas are at risk of becoming uninhabitable, but how many depends a lot on how much warming occurs. Therefore, Thomas concluded, we need to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the risks of climate change and also address losses and damages already being experienced. And we have a very limited amount of time left to do this. The latest report focuses on climate change impacts, risks and adaptation for people and other living things. The first working group report, released last year, focused on the physical science of climate change. The third and final working group report, which will be released in early April, will look at how mankind can mitigate climate change. Wladimir Klitschko, a former professional boxer and brother to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, called on countries in free Europe to donate to Ukraine as Russian forces continued to close in on the capital city. Ukrainians have been battling to defend major cities that have been attacked by Kremlin-led forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24. The fighting has caused more than 500,000 people to flee their homes, while millions are seeking refuge in bunkers underground. Wladimir Klitschko took to social media on Monday to make an urgent appeal to European countries to help him defend his country. Speaking in German, he said: Dear friends in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, all other countries in free Europe: The citizens of Kyiv have had another hellish night. Four million people in my city have not slept. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, left, and his brother, former Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, at a volunteer-recruitment center in Kyiv on Feb. 2. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images) Wladimir Klitschko said the people in Kyiv were going through hell and that we need your help now. He asked for donations to the National Bank of Ukraine so that the war does not come knocking on your doors. This is not the first appeal from the former heavyweight boxer. On Saturday, he called on the world to act now and take decisive action to end the war. There is no time to wait, because thats going to lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, he said in the video appeal. You need to act now to stop Russian aggression with anything you can have now. In an hour, or by tomorrow, it is going to be too late. Western nations have stepped up their aid to Ukraine in recent days. Over the weekend, Germany broke with long-standing policy and announced it would send weapons to the beleaguered nation. The United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands and other NATO member states are also sending weapons. And the European Union hopes to deliver fighter jets to the country. Ukrainians endured a heavy night of combat on Sunday, with dozens of deaths recorded in the second-largest city, Kharkiv. According to Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko, hundreds of people were wounded and dozens were killed after the city was massively fired upon" by rockets. The strikes came on the same day that peace talks began among officials from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Where are Russian forces attacking Ukraine? Check out this explainer from Yahoo Immersive to find out. Banners displaying the NATO logo are placed at the entrance of new NATO headquarters during the move to the new building HELSINKI (Reuters) - For the first time, more than half of Finns are in favour of their country joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), according to a poll commissioned by public broadcasting company Yle. Out of 1,382 adults, 53% said Finland should join the defence alliance, 28% said no and 19% were indecisive, the poll data showed. The panel was weighed based on age, domicile and gender to represent the 5.5 million people nation, leaving an error margin of 2.5 percentage points, said the company that did the poll. The poll was commenced on February 23, a day before Russia invaded Ukraine, Yle added. The results show a swift change in attitudes, as two years ago just 20% were in favour in a poll commissioned by the largest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, but that figure had less than two weeks ago risen to 43%. (Reporting by Essi Lehto; Editing by Mark Porter) As the world follows news about Russia's invasion of Ukraine this week, a group of international scientists warn the world can't lose sight of another major threat: climate change. Climate change affects nearly every aspect of life on Earth, a new report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found. Additionally, some communities and ecosystems are being hit so hard, they may not be able to adapt, according to the report. "Today's IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership. With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks during a press conference Monday morning. "The scientific evidence is unequivocal. Climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will [mean] the brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future," the panel's co-chair, Debra Roberts said Monday. The report also states: "Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all." "Starting today, every action, every choice, and every decision matters. Because each of them can take us away from or towards a climate resilient sustainable world," it added. PHOTO: In this photograph taken on July 20, 2021, a volunteer with a chainsaw stands in front of uprooted trees in Kreuzberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, after devastating floods hit the region. (Christof Stache/AFP via Getty Images) The report released Monday is part of a series of reports from the IPCC, a group of climate science experts who advise governments on climate-related matters such as the Paris Agreement. MORE: 'Unequivocal' that human influence has warmed the planet, UN climate panel finds All parties to the Paris Agreement are scheduled to meet in Egypt in November to discuss how they will meet goals to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how to fulfill commitments to provide financial support for countries already experiencing devastating impacts of climate change. "This report really contains information that is a little bit like the parent yelling up the stairs, 'You're going to miss the bus.' So, this report is really telling us just how urgent it is," Sarah Cooley, director of climate science at Ocean Conservancy and coordinating lead author of the report's chapter on oceans, told ABC News. "But it's also full of information about how many good options we have available right now that are already being attempted but need to be institutionalized and broadened so that we can make the most of the opportunities that remain in front of us, rather than continuing to hit snooze on climate and really leaving options out of the mix in the future," she added. Worsening impacts The U.N. panel warns of climate change's severe and worsening effects on human health and safety as well as damage to plants and animals that is pushing ecosystems beyond their natural ability to recover. The world has a more than 50% chance of exceeding 1.5 degree Celsius of additional warming -- the benchmark set under the Paris Agreement to prevent worsening climate change impact, the report found. PHOTO: A view shows burnt parts of a forest on the island of Evia, Greece, September 23, 2021. (Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters) Any additional warming beyond that level, according to the report, will increase the risk of severe and potentially irreversible impact on humans and the environment. "Depending on the magnitude and duration of overshoot, some impacts will cause release of additional greenhouse gasses, and some will be irreversible, even if global warming is reduced," the report says. MORE: Year in climate: Extreme weather events prove climate change is already here As global warming increases, the report says it can limit water availability, strain food production systems, and increase health problems and premature deaths from exposure to heat waves or diseases. The report also highlights the mental health impact of climate change, saying that climate change is placing a toll on people's mental health through the stress of being evacuated during events such as wildfires or natural disasters but also the indirect stress and anxiety associated with being exposed to lots of images and information about climate change. Average global temperatures have already increased an average of 1.1 degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial times -- and more in some areas. The report highlights that some parts of the world are more vulnerable than others, saying 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in areas considered "highly vulnerable" to climate change. A closing window to adapt While the report warns about the urgent risks of allowing warming to continue, it also discusses the parallel track of how to adapt to the impact of climate change that are already here and quickly becoming more severe. In some cases, the limits of adaptation have been reached and there is no known solution, such as coral reefs that are unable to recover from warming ocean temperatures. PHOTO: Streets and buildings are flooded from water coming over the seawall in Brant Rock during a nor'easter in Marshfield, Massachusetts, on Jan. 29, 2022. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images) But limits to human adaptation are less tangible, and, in many cases, the report found they can be overcome through financial assistance or government intervention. "I would say the majority of the situations that we see around the world where we do know that there are solutions that would work. We just haven't tried to implement them yet," Rebecca Carter, acting director of the climate resilience program at the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. Carter said the report focuses on how solutions that restore natural ecosystems can be a more effective way to adapt to climate change than engineered solutions such as building sea walls, though in some places those may still be necessary. The report's authors said the world can still limit some of the impact of climate change from becoming more dangerous if countries dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and governments take steps such as protecting vast swaths of natural areas on land and in the oceans. "The scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet,"IPCC Working Group II co-chair Hans-Otto Portner said in a statement. "Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future," he said. People, planet 'getting clobbered by climate change,' UN official says of new report originally appeared on abcnews.go.com On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held two meetings with advisers and Cabinet members that yielded more extraordinary images of the lengths he has gone to in recent weeks to socially distance himself from others. With the ruble tumbling 30 percent on Monday as nations around the world unified to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Putin met at the Kremlin with economic advisers, all of whom were gathered at one end of a long table while Putin sat alone at the other. Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a meeting on economic issues in Moscow on Monday. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) A second socially distant meeting on Monday included Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. Again, Putin is seen at the head of the table, separated from his guests by several yards. Putin with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, second from left, and Valery Gerasimov, head of the general staff of the armed forces, in Moscow on Sunday. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Putin's invasion of Ukraine has, by most accounts, not gone according to plan. Rallied by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's military and civilian defense forces have mounted an unexpectedly robust defense of cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv, galvanizing world opinion against Putin and Russia in the process. Putin toasts with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after talks in the Kremlin on Feb. 22. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) During a Feb. 22 meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, pool photographers captured the two leaders toasting one another from across the room. Putin and Aliyev during a news conference at the Kremlin on Feb. 22. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Putin's meeting with Aliyev came one day before the Russian leader gave the order for his troops to begin their offensive in Ukraine. Russia has been one of Azerbaijan's main suppliers of military hardware, and at the Feb. 22 meeting, Putin and Aliyev signed a declaration that Azerbaijan's leader said "brings our relations to the level of an alliance" in that it strengthened the ties between the two nations. Putin and Aliyev during their meeting in the Kremlin on Feb. 22. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) But with world sentiment mounting against Putin over the Russian invasion, Aliyev seemed to have second thoughts. On Saturday, Zelensky said in a video message that Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had offered to help broker peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Putin chairs a security council meeting at the Kremlin on Feb. 21, days before the invasion of Ukraine. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) In an extraordinary meeting with his security council on Feb. 21, Putin again kept his distance from those he was speaking to, sitting several yards away in a columned hall in the Kremlin. Asking the security council members to offer their views on his plan to officially recognize the independence of two Ukrainian separatist regions, Putin berated Sergey Naryshkin, the head of the Russian spy service, over what he perceived as insufficient answers. "To what degree is he now just acting all by himself? Because I actually can't imagine for an instant that his decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine was supported by a majority of his own top officials," Catherine Belton, a Reuters journalist and former Moscow-based correspondent for the Financial Times, told the Yahoo News "Skullduggery" podcast. "And you could see that on their faces when he held that security council meeting on Monday. You could see the fear in their eyes and that, really, they didn't want to be there. They all looked deeply uncomfortable." Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during talks in the Kremlin on Feb. 15. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Days before Putin declared the two separatist regions independent and announced he was sending in the Russian army to act as peacekeepers, he met at a comically large table opposite German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Scholz would announce harsh sanctions on Putin's government, cancel the certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and approve new arms shipments to Ukraine. Putin meets at a distance with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Feb. 14. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) One of the members of Putin's Cabinet to find himself targeted by NATO and U.S. sanctions was Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met in the Kremlin across a very long table from Putin on Feb. 14. Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron on Feb. 7. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File) When French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Moscow on Feb. 7 for a meeting with Putin at the Kremlin, Russian officials demanded that Macron allow them to administer a COVID-19 test before he saw the Russian leader. Macron, who had been tested before arriving, refused. French diplomatic sources told Reuters that it was believed that Putin would try to obtain Macron's DNA through the PCR test. "We knew very well that meant no handshake and that long table. But we could not accept that they get their hands on the president's DNA," one source told Reuters. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that because of that refusal, the two men were seated at opposite ends of a very long table. "In some situations, Putin meets with his guests sitting very close by one another; they shake hands," Peskov told reporters. "With others, negotiations are held at a table, at a distance of approximately 6 meters. This is due to the fact that some leaders follow their own rules and they do not interact with the host side in sharing tests. We treat this with understanding, this is a normal global practice, but in this case, there is a protocol of additional measures to protect the health of our president and our guests as well. A larger distance is applied." Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban toast after talks in the Kremlin on Feb. 1. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) A close Putin ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was also obliged to keep his distance from the Russian leader during a Feb. 1 visit to the Kremlin. Like many states that border Ukraine, Hungary is poised to see an influx of refugees fleeing the conflict. While Orban's government has sought to stay neutral since Russia invaded Ukraine, its foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said Monday that Hungary would not allow weapons to be supplied to Ukraine through its territory. Where are Russian forces attacking Ukraine? Check out this explainer from Yahoo Immersive to find out. The General Assemblys budget-writing panel is pushing back against Gov. Ned Lamont to assume greater control over contracting policies. The Appropriations Committee has raised legislation that potentially would shield the states contracting watchdog board from job freezes, emergency budget cuts and other budget-management techniques at the governors disposal. Advertisement The panels Senate chairwoman announced the group also is developing clarifying language to ensure all policies tied to the states massive school construction program are set only by the legislature. The Lamont administration has been on the defensive over the past month following reports that the FBI is investigating school construction work and other projects overseen by the governors former deputy budget director, Kosta Diamantis. Advertisement The legislature decides what school construction [grants] cover, said Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chairwoman of the budget-writing committee. Diamantis frustrated municipal leaders last August when he informed Coventry officials that the state wouldnt help to pay to upgrade aging ventilators in its middle and high schools an expensive proposition, made more pressing by the continued presence of the coronavirus. Connecticut reimburses communities for between 10% and 71% of new construction and wide-scale renovation projects designed to last 20 years or longer, depending largely upon a communitys wealth. But if a district wants to perform a smaller project such as replacing or upgrading a heating/ventilation system exclusive of a major facility renovation the entire cost is borne locally. Some legislators have questioned whether this is backed by statute or was simply an administrative decision. Osten and the other Appropriations Committee co-chairwoman, state Rep. Toni E. Walker, D-New Haven, said the goal going forward is to ensure such policy parameters are set by the legislature. In this file photo, Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven speaks during a Special Session at the State Capitol. (Lauren Schneiderman / Hartford Courant) I think there are more districts that wanted to do HVAC [upgrades] and were told not to, Walker said, adding she believes most lawmakers from both parties want the state to help pay to fix this problem. Lamont proposed in early February dedicating $90 million in the next fiscal year to help towns pay for air quality upgrades in schools. Advertisement A second component to the bill being developed by the Appropriations Committee would clarify once and for all that the school construction would remain in the Department of Administrative Services and not in the governors budget office. In this AP file photo, Connecticut Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management Melissa McCaw discusses points in Gov. Ned Lamont's budget plan at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill) (Jessica Hill/AP) Several legislators from both parties raised concerns in the spring of 2019 when Lamonts then-budget director, Melissa McCaw, unilaterally transferred Diamantis and other staff tied to school construction from DAS into the Office of Policy and Management, despite an existing statute assigning the unit to DAS. McCaw resigned Friday to take a post as East Hartford finance director. Administrative officials said the matter would be clarified in the 2020 General Assembly session, but that was cut short in early March when the coronavirus struck Connecticut. And no legislation, retroactively blessing or reversing the move, was adopted in 2021. The Lamont administration moved the school construction program back to DAS last fall, shortly after Diamantis resigned. We have no intention of moving the [school construction] office again, Chris McClure, spokesman for the governors budget agency, said Friday. Advertisement And in a complementary move, the Appropriations Committee has raised a bill designed to insulate the State Contracting Standards Board from normal oversight by the governors office. Osten said the insulation could take one of several forms. Lawmakers are researching whether the contracting watchdog, created by the legislature in 2007 but never properly funded, could be moved from the Executive Branch to the Legislative Branch and still maintain its authority to review and potentially suspend procurement and bidding practices of Executive Branch agencies. Osten said legislative attorneys have raised concerns that empowering a Legislative agency to oversee Executive Branch departments could run afoul of the state Constitution. But if that is the case, there are other options to safeguard the contracting board. The legislature already exempts other watchdog agencies in the Executive Branch such as the Freedom of Information Commission and the Office of State Ethics from certain budgetary restrictions that the governor can impose on other departments. Hartford, Ct. - 11/18/2021 - Connecticut Sen. Cathy Osten during a 2021 at the state Capitol. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant) Osten said the bill could bar the administration, for example, from imposing any hiring freeze on contracting board staff or imposing emergency midyear budget cuts. Advertisement The contracting board and Lamont have bumped heads since the latter took office in 2019. The board which has only one paid staffer has been probing contracts involving the development of the State Pier in New London to help support a major offshore wind-to-energy project. New London, Ct. - 05/03/2021 - The New London State Pier. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com (Mark Mirko/Mark Mirko) It particularly is concerned with more than $520,000 in success fees paid in 2018 to Seabury Capital Group to help with search for a pier operator. This happened three months after Henry Juan III of Greenwich, who was a managing director with Seabury, resigned from the port authoritys governing board. The two-year budget that legislators and Lamont adopted last June technically included just under $700,000 per year for the contracting standards board the same level the board was supposed to have when it was launched 14 years ago. That included $450,000 in each year to fund five additional positions. But shortly after that was passed, legislative leaders, at the request of the Lamont administration, included a provision in a subsequent budget policy bill that barred the board from spending $450,000 of its annual allotment. Lamont still doesnt want to fund more positions for the contracting office. He has said he doesnt believe the board is necessary and performs functions already provided by other state agencies. Instead, he recommended this February that lawmakers add three new staffers to another watchdog agency, the Auditors of Public Accounts Office, and allow the contracting board to refer matters to that unit. Advertisement We look forward to working with the General Assembly over the course of the session on this issue, McClure said, adding that there seems to be some confusion regarding our proposal. Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. > Appropriations Committee leaders want full funding restored to the contracting board. There has got to be more than one watchdog agency out there, Walker said, adding that the contracting board needs to look at all of the no-bid contracts going out of state agencies. Thats the kind of transparency everybody should be striving for. House Republicans called this week for an investigation of all administration contracting practices. Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said that while the appropriations panel measures may have merit, they arent enough. FILE - Connecticut House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, speaks during opening session at the State Capitol, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Hartford, Conn.. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File) (Jessica Hill/AP) The issue isnt about one state pier project or a handful of school renovations, Candelora said. Advertisement Only a detailed investigation, he added, can assess not only how public agencies purchase private services and goods but also the inter-departmental memorandums of understanding they sign, such as one that shifted a school construction program handling hundreds of millions of dollars annually without legislative permission. Why did they happen? Candelora said. How did they happen? The issue isnt just school construction. Actor Marlee Matlin celebrates with "CODA" filmmaker Sian Heder after the movie won the SAG Award for film ensemble. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin put nuclear forces on alert. But, to quote the inimitable Martin Short near the start of tonight's Screen Actors Guild Awards, "Let's get on with doing God's work and give another actor an award." The awards season is back! The exclamation point comes courtesy of the telecast's announcer, looking to gin up a little excitement for a ceremony that returned Sunday to being an in-person event a year after its winners Zoomed in with prerecorded acceptance speeches. Did the evening earn its exclamation point? If you watched "Squid Game" on Netflix through splayed fingers, the answer is: Yes! The blockbuster South Korean survival drama won honors for actors Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Ho-yeon. "Squid Game" also won for stunt ensemble. Is it too late to nominate it for best picture? I'm asking because one of the primary reasons to watch the SAG Awards is that they're a reliable precursor to the Oscars. In two of the last four years, all of the individual actor film winners repeated at the Academy Awards. Might that happen again when the next Oscars are presented on March 27? Let's take a closer look. FILM ENSEMBLE Winner: "CODA" The cast of "CODA" at the SAG Awards. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) The past: The winner of this award went on to take the best picture Oscar 12 of 26 years, making it easily the SAG Awards least-trustworthy Oscar precursor. (The ensemble prize wasnt awarded in 1994, the SAG Awards first year.) Will history repeat itself? Let this beautiful film have its moment. And maybe ask the question: Have we been going with the wrong feel-good crowd-pleaser the last few months? With its leading 12 Oscar nominations, Jane Campion's revisionist western "The Power of the Dog" has been the de facto best picture front-runner. But there has been plenty of whispering among academy members that it's a movie more admired than adored. And the SAG Awards results would seem to bear that out. The movie was snubbed for ensemble, and none of its three nominated actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee won. "The Power of the Dog" likely remains the movie to beat. Consider that last year's Oscar best picture winner, "Nomadland," didn't earn a SAG ensemble nomination either, largely because its cast was populated mostly by nonprofessional actors. The absence of "The Power of the Dog" might have had to do with the small size of its cast, though that didn't stop voters from handing the award to "CODA," a small, six-member ensemble. "CODA," available on Apple TV+, prevailed over both "Belfast" and "King Richard," heartfelt dramas that have long felt like populist threats to "The Power of the Dog." And they still might be. But maybe "CODA," Sian Heders sublime coming-of-age story of a child of Deaf adults, is the prime challenger. It's not a genre that usually wins best picture ... but then a non-English language movie had never won the best picture Oscar until "Parasite" prevailed two years ago. And do you remember where "Parasite" picked up much of its momentum? When it won the film ensemble prize at the SAG Awards. LEAD ACTRESS Winner: Jessica Chastain, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" Jessica Chastain accepts her SAG Award for "The Eyes of Tammy Faye." (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) The past: SAG and the academy have matched 19 of 27 years. Viola Davis won for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" in 2021, but "Nomadland's" Frances McDormand won her third Oscar at the Academy Awards. Will history repeat itself? Probably not, if only because the lead actress race is so wide-open this year. Anyone could win. (Well, not Lady Gaga. She wasn't nominated.) But I'd say Chastain has as strong a chance maybe stronger as her fellow Oscar nominees: Nicole Kidman ("Being the Ricardos"), Olivia Colman ("The Lost Daughter"), Kristen Stewart ("Spencer") and Penelope Cruz ("Parallel Mothers"). Chastain checks all the boxes. She has a transformative role. She sings! She brandishes a folksy Minnesota accent! And, most significantly, she makes us sort of like or at least understand and recognize televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. She digs deeper than offering just an impression or caricature. Also: If degree of difficulty is measured by time spent in the makeup chair (as it often is at the Oscars), Chastain will win. LEAD ACTOR Winner: Will Smith, "King Richard" Will Smith accepts a SAG Award for "King Richard." (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) The past: This category has been the most reliable indicator of Oscar victory, with SAG and the academy matching 21 of 27 times. There are exceptions, though, such as last year when Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar for "The Father," prevailing over SAG winner Chadwick Boseman ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"). Will history repeat itself? Yes. We didn't have the Golden Globes this year, so the SAG Awards offered the first chance for contenders to trot out their acceptance speeches. And Smith delivered: humble, funny, powerful, emotional, charismatic. And brief! SUPPORTING ACTRESS Winner: Ariana DeBose, "West Side Story" "West Side Story" star Ariana DeBose in the General Photo Room at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards. (Allen Schaben/Los Angeles Times) The past: The SAG award winner has gone on to take the Oscar 19 of 26 times, including last year when Yuh-Jung Youn won for "Minari." (Kate Winslet won this category in 2009 for The Reader but was nominated for and won the Oscar for lead actress for that performance.) Will history repeat itself? DeBose has been a lock in this category since audiences first glimpsed her dazzling turn as Anita in Steven Spielberg's updated "West Side Story." Rita Moreno won an Oscar for the part in the 1961 film version, and stepping into her shoes had to be intimidating particularly with Moreno herself in the cast and on board as a producer. DeBose redefined the role, though, delivering a magnetic performance full of power and feeling. Of all the night's SAG winners, she's the surest bet at the Oscars. SUPPORTING ACTOR Winner: Troy Kotsur, "CODA" "CODA" actor Troy Kotsur won the SAG supporting actor award. (Allen Schaben/Los Angeles Times) The past: The SAG winner has gone on to win the Oscar 18 times in 27 years, including Daniel Kaluuya's victory for "Judas and the Black Messiah" last year. Will history repeat itself? It's starting to feel that way, isn't it? Smit-McPhee has an astonishing character arc in "The Power of the Dog," beginning the film as a frail, seemingly doomed young man and emerging as [REDACTED]. But voters often respond more to a moving personal narrative, and Kotsur, the second Deaf actor to earn an Oscar nomination for playing a Deaf character, has perhaps the year's best backstory. (After years of struggle, which he detailed in his moving acceptance speech, Kotsur became the first Deaf person to win an individual SAG Award.) Plus, as "CODA's" loving dad, he has a role that goes straight to the heart. That combination could be hard to beat. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The man accused of murdering a Kentucky lawyer and daughter of a former state representative during a home invasion at her fathers house was arrested Monday. Shannon Gilday, 23, was taken into custody around 4:30 a.m. when he was found by a Madison County Sheriffs Office deputy while walking along a road, according to the Kentucky State Police. Last Tuesday, Gilday allegedly burst into the Richmond home of former state representative Wesley Morgan and fatally shot his daughter, 32-year-old Jordan Morgan, in her bed around 4 a.m. Gilday, dressed in camo or tactical style pants and jacket and a face mask, then traded gunfire with Wesley Morgan before fleeing, according to police. Wesley Morgan sustained non-life threatening injuries. Shannon Gilday Shannon Gilday On Facebook, Gildays mother painted a terrifying picture of a young man who has not been of sound mind the last couple of weeks, distraught with the certainty a nuclear war is imminent. He spoke of building a bunker and the CIA following him, Katie Gilday wrote. I tried to get him psychiatric help but to no avail. A Zillow listing for Morgans home highlights a 26 underground with 39 solid concrete ceiling and 15 walls with wings and labels it the most secure home on the market in this country. The shelter includes three air filtrations and two escape tunnels and is built to withstand a Seismic 12 earthquake, according to the listing. Gilday has been charged with murder, burglary, criminal mischief, assault and two counts of attempted murder. WASHINGTON (AP) The State Department has closed the U.S. Embassy in Belarus and is allowing non-essential staff at the U.S. Embassy in Russia to leave the country due to the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the suspension of operations at the Minsk embassy and the authorized departure from Moscow in a statement on Monday. We took these steps due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine, he said. Priti Patel ruled out a visa waiver for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict with Russia because of fears that Moscows troops and extremists could seek to come to the UK. The Home Secretary, who has come under intense political pressure from MPs across the Commons to do more to allow Ukrainian refugees to reach the UK, insisted she was taking action to open safe routes. She told MPs she was following the strongest security advice as she rejected the call to scrap the need for visas. Over the weekend I have seen members of this House calling for full visa waivers for all Ukrainians, Ms Patel said. Security and biometric checks are a fundamental part of our visa approval process worldwide and will continue, as they did for the evacuation of people from Afghanistan. That is vital to keep British citizens safe and to ensure that we are helping those in genuine need, particularly as Russian troops are now infiltrating Ukraine and merging into Ukrainian forces. Intelligence reports also state the presence of extremist groups and organisations who threaten the region but also our domestic homeland. We know all too well what Putins Russia is willing to do, even on our soil, as we saw through the Salisbury attack. The Home Secretary said the first phase of the bespoke humanitarian route being created for Ukrainians to enter the UK would allow around 100,000 people to come to seek sanctuary. The Government has already announced measures allowing people who are settled in the UK to be able to bring their Ukrainian immediate family members to join them. Where family members of British nationals do not meet the usual eligibility criteria, but pass security checks, UK visas and immigration will give them the permission to enter the UK outside the rules for 12 months and is prioritising all applications, Ms Patel said. Giving British nationals and any person settled in the UK the ability to bring over their immediate Ukrainian family members. The Home Secretary also set out plans to tighten the Nationality and Borders Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. The moves could make it harder for Russians to obtain visas to enter the UK. The legislation allows Ms Patel to suspend visas entirely, impose a 190 surcharge on applications to come to the UK or increase visa processing times. Currently that power is limited to countries that refuse to co-operate with the return of their nationals but Ms Patel said the powers would be extended to cover countries that have taken significant steps which threaten international peace and security. Ms Patels comments in the Commons came after senior Tory MPs urged Boris Johnson to do more to take in Ukrainians. Former Cabinet ministers Sir Robert Buckland, Jeremy Hunt, Damian Green and Matt Hancock were among the MPs to put their names to the letter calling for a flexible and pragmatic approach to allow Ukrainians to seek temporary refuge in the UK. This is totally chaotic. Those who are urgently seeking sanctuary or to rejoin relatives, and their family & friends who are worried for them, need clear answers. They deserve better than this https://t.co/8qKZZ4hrxY Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) February 28, 2022 The 38 Tory MPs said: It is clear that this is not another migration crisis; this is a crisis of war. This should not be business as usual, we need sincere and immediate support for the Ukrainian people. The United Kingdom cannot flag or fail, our message must be clear: Ukrainian victims of war seeking refuge are welcome. Opposition figures criticised Ms Patels chaotic response to the crisis. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: The Home Secretary has just said she is announcing a bespoke humanitarian route but its extremely unclear from what shes said what the details actually are or who it will apply to. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: Ukrainians are fleeing for their lives. They deserve far better than just more spin and confusion from our Government. The Home Secretary should come back to Parliament urgently to announce a full refugee scheme to resettle Ukrainians in the UK. The Northern Ireland Protocol has cast a long shadow over political arrangements at Stormont, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said. Sir Jeffrey told a plenary meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (Bipa) that the Stormont Executive would only be restored when issues surrounding the protocol were resolved. However, Sinn Fein MP John Finucane told the meeting that the protocol was a result of the DUP championing of the hardest possible Brexit. The protocol prevented a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit, but is deeply unpopular with unionists because it introduced new trade barriers in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. While the EU has given concessions on its operation, notably to ease the flow of medicines, these have not satisfied many who oppose it. The Northern Ireland Protocol has led to checks on goods entering NI from GB at ports (PA) Northern Irelands powersharing Executive collapsed earlier this month when the DUPs Paul Givan resigned as first minister in protest at the protocol. His party leader told the Bipa meeting: Those who claim that the Northern Ireland Protocol is designed to protect the Good Friday Agreement and the political institutions that were created by it surely must now recognise that the three sets of relationships covered by the agreement have been damaged since the protocol was implemented. The continued imposition of the protocol upon Northern Ireland has cast its long shadow over our political arrangements at Stormont, as well as on a north-south and east-west basis and the everyday lives of our people. The genuine objections to it cannot be wished away, nor simply ignored. Sir Jeffrey added: Only by recognising the fundamental flaws of the protocol can lasting replacement arrangements, which command the necessary support be put in place. As the leader of Northern Irelands largest party, I must stress that the problems of the protocol are not confined to unionists, but affect the everyday lives and livelihoods of everyone in Northern Ireland. The long shadow of the Irish Sea border must be removed from our politics. It is holding us back. Sinn Fein MLA John ODowd asked the DUP leader if his party would return to the Executive if it was no longer the largest party following Stormont elections on May 5. Sir Jeffrey said: I will gladly go back into an Executive if I get respect and I get action on the issues that matter to me. I am a democrat, I will respect the outcome of elections, but what I am not prepared to do is bury my head in the sand, pretend these problems arent there. When this is sorted out and when we have agreement, you will get a restored Executive. Sinn Fein MP John Finucane said the DUP had championed the hardest possible Brexit (Brian Lawless/PA) Mr Finucane told the meeting: The DUP boycott of the Executive and the North South Ministerial Council amounts to an assault on the Good Friday Agreement itself. It is destabilising for politics and for society and it is a direct result of the political fallout between the Tories and the DUP. Both championed the hardest possible Brexit yet take no responsibility for its consequences. The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly meets twice a year to provide a forum for parliamentarians across the UK, Ireland and the Crown dependencies to discuss issues of mutual interest. 'We have to stand up:' US govs impose sanctions on Russia Some U.S. governors are taking matters into their own hands and imposing their own economic sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Sunday asked the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to remove Russian-sourced products from stores in the commonwealth. He said the board has already identified Russian-sourced products currently being sold at Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores and urged for sales to cease as quickly as possible, WPXI-TV reported. The board later responded that all Russian-made products will be removed from the stores' shelves as a show of solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine. According to KDVR-TV, Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Thursday directed his states Office of Information Technology and the Department of Personnel and Administration to look through current state contracts to see if there are any Russian state-owned companies currently doing business with Colorado. Any found will be terminated. On Saturday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, of Virginia, ordered the Department of General Services to review all contracts to determine whether any state tax dollars were being spent on goods and services from primarily Russian companies, WRIC-TV reported. Youngkin requested that the Norfolk Sister City Association, a non-profit citizen diplomacy organization, immediately end its relationship with Kaliningrad, Russia. The Virginia Retirement System Board of Trustees and university endowment funds were also called to divest any and all holdings of the Russian ruble and any and all securities of Russian companies. I think we have to stand up and take every ounce of economic sanctions we havent used, and we need the international community to come up with this and its a big moment for the international community to stand up and say we wont allow this, said Youngkin at an event earlier this week in Hampton. KXAN-TV reported that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked members of the Texas Restaurant Association, Texas Package Stores Association and Texas retailers to voluntarily remove all Russian products from their shelves. Elsewhere around the country, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine directed the states Commerce Department to cease the purchase and sale of Russian Standard, the only Russian vodka sold in Ohio (under the brand names Green Mark and Russian Standard). New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order requiring state liquor outlets to remove Russian-made and branded alcohol, as did Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. Liz Truss will tell the United Nations Human Rights Council that Russia must be isolated on the international stage in punishment for murdering Ukrainians indiscriminately. The Foreign Secretary is due to address a meeting of the council in Geneva on Tuesday following the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Foreign Office said. In a speech to the council, the Cabinet minister is expected to say Russian President Vladimir Putin has blood on his hands and that he has violated international law by sending troops into Ukraine. The comments are due to be made only 24 hours after Moscow suggested it had put the Russian nuclear deterrent on high alert in response to unspecified comments made by Ms Truss. While in Switzerland, the Foreign Secretary is also due to meet with a number of her counterparts and the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi. Ms Truss is expected to tell the UN council: The consequences of Vladimir Putins unjustified aggression are horrific. Russian troops are laying siege to once peaceful cities. Tanks are tearing through towns while missiles barrage homes and hospitals. Putin is murdering Ukrainians indiscriminately. There is blood on his hands, not just of innocent Ukrainians but the men he sent to die. Putin is violating international law, including the UN charter. He is violating human rights on an industrial scale and the world will not stand for it. There are no shades of grey to this conflict. It is about right and wrong. This is Vladimir Putins unprovoked war against a sovereign nation. There can be no apologising or excusing it. I urge nations to condemn Russias appalling actions, and to isolate it on the international stage. Cars are stopped at a roadblock set by civil defensemen at a road leading to central Kyiv (Emilio Morenatti/AP) The Foreign Secretary will discuss the Ukrainian conflict with foreign ministers including Canadas Melanie Joly, Czech Republics Jan Lipavsky, Danish minister Jeppe Kofod and Polands Zbigniew Rau during her trip. As well as meeting Mr Grandi, Ms Truss will also hold talks with Martin Griffiths, under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs & UN emergency relief co-ordinator. The Prime Minister will also pursue diplomatic efforts on Tuesday, with Boris Johnson due to visit Poland and Estonia. Downing Street said Mr Johnson was looking to use his trip to first hand find out what more we can be doing and how we can be working closely together with both countries. He will also speak with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg while in eastern Europe. Even in death, Hartford gangster Robert The Cook Gentile remains at the center of one of the worlds great art mysteries, the robbery more than a quarter century ago of $500 million in paintings and other works from Bostons Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. [ Coverage of the Gardner Museum Art Heist and Robert Gentile from the Courant archives ] Gentile died in September, insisting to the very end that he had nothing to do with the Gardner heist in spite of evidence to the contrary. Now, detectives outside of Boston are finding new clues in a long unsolved underworld murder that puts Gentile in the company of a group of mobsters long suspected of involvement in the Gardner crime just months after it happened and decades earlier than originally thought. Advertisement Federal and local law enforcement authorities search the Manchester home of Robert Gentile in 2012. (Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant) The murder victim, a career criminal named Jimmy Marks, was ambushed and gunned down outside his apartment in suburban Lynn in February 1991. Eleven months earlier, as St. Patricks Day celebrations wound down in Boston, two thieves disguised themselves as police and bluffed their way into the Gardner, an Italianate palazzo in the citys Fenway section. They bound the guards, battered and slashed some of the worlds most recognizable art from walls and frames, and disappeared.. The thieves took 13 pieces, including The Concert by Vermeer and two Rembrandts, one of them his only known seascape, Storm on the Sea of Galilee. The art was uninsured under the terms of the bequest that created the museum, and empty frames now hang where the art was displayed. Nothing has been recovered, in spite of a the museums offer of a $10 million reward. Advertisement In the days before his death, Marks boasted about obtaining and hiding some of the stolen art, according to Gardner Museum Security Director Anthony Amore, whose investigation has helped tie the Marks shooting to the heist. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 21 FILE - In this May 10, 2012, file photo, law enforcement agents search the yard at the home of reputed Connecticut mobster Robert Gentile in Manchester, Conn. The chief investigator for a Boston museum still working to recover $500 million worth of art stolen in 1990 said Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, that he was hoping for new leads to emerge in the case following the recent death of Gentile. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File) (Jessica Hill/AP) Amore, who has been investigating the theft with the FBI for years, said Markss talk may have been empty bluster, but it confirms what Amore and the FBI have long suspected about the identities of the mobsters who allegedly ended up with the art. And it puts Gentile and one of his mob partners, Robert Guarente, solidly within the group. Gentile and Guarente, who died in 2004, became partners after meeting at a used car auction outside Hartford in the 1970s. Gentile first became a person of interest in the Gardner investigation in 2010, when Amore and FBI agent Geoff Kelly visited Guarentes widow, Elene, at her home in the woods north of Portland, Maine. In a stunning disclosure, Elene Guarente told the investigators that her husband had two of the stolen Gardner paintings and, not long before he died, gave them to Gentile. FBI agents search the Manchester home of reputed mobster Robert Gentile. Authorities suspected Gentile had information about the irreplaceable art that vanished in a sensational theft from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com (Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant) Sometime later, Amore said Elene Guarente made another stunning disclosure: Her husband admitted killing Marks. Elene Guarente said Marks had been a regular visitor to her Maine home until her husband followed him back to Boston one day and shot him. Elene Guarente has since died. A day or two after the Marks hit, detectives investigating the killing stumbled across Guarente, Gentile and two Gentile strong arm men from Connecticut in a diner in nearby Saugus, Mass. The detectives were looking for someone else, but grew suspicious when the Gentile group became nervous and tried to bolt, investigators familiar with the incident said. It has never been determined what Gentile and his group were doing near the location of the Marks shooting, so soon afterward. And the investigators would not identify the two Connecticut men with Gentile and Guarente. But James Lawton, a retired FBI agent who worked the Gardner case for years, said Gentile often traveled to Boston with associates he used as muscle. Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. > The investigators said they know of no evidence tying Gentile to the Marks shooting. While there is nothing to confirm Markss claims before his death about access to the stolen art, there is little doubt that he associated with people who did, according to investigators. Advertisement Marks was acquainted with the late Leonard DiMuzio, one of the thieves the FBI believes got into the museum dressed in police uniforms. The investigators said Marks had been arrested in the past with Richard Megna, DiMuzios cousin. Megna was a frequent visitor to an automotive business in Dorchester that investigators believe was a hangout for the men who planned the robbery, Lawton said. Guarente was also a regular at the automotive business Gentile, who died Sept. 17 at 85 in Hartford Hospital where he was treated for a possible stroke, may have been the last person alive with knowledge of what happened to the $500 million in missing art. He had a criminal record dating from the Eisenhower administration and acknowledged associating with mobsters, like Guarente, thought by the FBI to have had possession of some of the art. But Gentile angrily denied ever possessing two of the pieces or having any other involvement with the heist. Lies, Gentile once said. Its all lies. Investigators tried continuously for a decade to get Gentile to talk about the case. He refused to cooperate, even when assured he wouldnt be charged. He said in interviews that he didnt trust the FBI and he turned up his nose at millions of dollars in reward money, saying he didnt believe he would ever get it if he did talk. Over the last decade, he kept silent as agents arrested and imprisoned him repeatedly in the futile efforts to persuade him to open up. [ FBI Digs In Yard Of Mobster Robert Gentile's Manchester Home ] Over the same period, FBI agents all but disassembled Gentiles modest, ranch home in Manchester during repeated searches. They found, cash, drugs, what a judge called a virtual armory of guns, and police uniforms, phony police credentials and a list of the stolen Gardner art with estimated black market values but no art. The Irish premier has cast doubt on the idea that Ukraine may be able to join the EU with immediate effect. The Ukrainian president has indicated that he would like his country to join the European Union as soon as possible. But, speaking in Dublin, Micheal Martin said: I dont know whether it can be done immediately. But I certainly would be a proponent and supporter of accelerating it and making it very clear that they can become members of the European Union. (PA Graphics) Ive always favoured the acceleration of the European perspective for countries in our neighbourhood. The Taoiseach also said the Irish decision to fund items such as PPE, medical equipment and supplies for Ukraine, as part of a wider EU package, does not undermine Irelands longstanding military neutrality. The EU announced on Sunday an unprecedented set of measures to support Ukrainians, confirming it will close its air space to Russian airlines, fund supplies of weapons to Ukraine and ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets in response to Russias invasion. Ireland will constructively abstain from the planned delivery of arms to Ukraine. Our contribution to the non-lethal strand of that peace facility does not undermine our military neutrality, Mr Martin told reporters in Dublin. We are not politically neutral, and have never been politically neutral in the sense that we uphold democratic values and democratic principles. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that he would support an acceleration in Ukraines bid to join the EU (Niall Carson/PA) Mr Martin was speaking after a brief ceremony at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, where the portrait of the first female president of the organisation, Professor Mary Horgan, was unveiled. He welcomed initial talks between Ukraine and Russia, saying: I think dialogue is the only way to resolve this issue. And I would call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the violence. The humanitarian toll is mounting. Theres too much loss of life already, too many people have been injured. Civilians are under siege in their cities. He also condemned the decision of the Russian president to put his countrys nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. I think its extremely reckless and irresponsible of Vladimir Putin to threaten that. Its not so long ago since all major nuclear powers committed to the non-utilisation of nuclear weapons. It would have catastrophic repercussions for the world if such a decision was taken. Mr Martin was pressed on why Ireland had not yet decided to expel the Russian ambassador. Around 40 TDs, senators and MEPs from his own party, Fianna Fail, have called for Yury Filatov to be ejected from the country over the Russian invasion. Protesters have also called for his expulsion. Protesters outside the Russian embassy call on ambassador Yury Filatov to leave the country (Dominic McGrath/PA) Mr Martin said it is vital that whatever decision is taken, the EU acts in concert. Unity of purpose across Europe is key here, because Europe working with the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and others collectively is the most powerful response to the Russian Federation that can happen, he said. Individual states doing things individually does not have the same impact and doesnt pack the same punch, to be blunt. He reiterated that retaining a channel of communication to Moscow may be useful in the weeks ahead. We dont quite know for certain how this crisis will unfold. So keeping channels open gives us an extra capacity to help citizens, Irish citizens, who could be in difficult or family members of Ukrainian Irish citizens now who live in Ireland. And so its extremely important that we retain that capacity. Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said that while Ireland is not planning to expel the Russian ambassador, it may expel some diplomats in the days to come. He said that he understood public and political anger directed at Russia and Mr Filatov, adding: I can totally understand the anger and the sentiment behind that. Simon Coveney (David Young/PA) My job as a foreign minister is to try to think ahead here. We are going to have Irish citizens, hundreds of them, living and working in Russia. We do have today. We have many Irish citizens still in Ukraine too. I need to make sure that we have lines of communication open so that I can help those people and do my job. And even if you fundamentally disagree with somebody, as we do with Russia right now, and youre trying to hold them to account, as we are trying at the moment, you still have to keep lines of communication open, in my view. Does that mean that we wont be expelling some Russian diplomats or some operatives that are in Ireland who may not be diplomats in the next few days? No, it doesnt. We may well do that. But I dont think its wise for us to expel the Russian ambassador and have no Russian presence in Ireland to allow us to have a direct line of communication with Moscow for humanitarian reasons primarily, but also to ensure that we can let them know what the Irish view is very directly in terms of Russian actions. Mr Coveney said no country in the EU has expelled their Russian ambassador. The expulsion of diplomats or Russian staff in embassies is quite a significant thing to do. It sends a very strong signal and Russia will respond in kind. I think its likely that something will happen in that space, but we do need to be targeted. We need to bear in mind the interests of Irish citizens, both in Russia and across Ukraine. Mr Coveney said Ireland will send around nine million euro of non-lethal equipment to Ukraine as part of the EU fund. Our money will be used for non-lethal weapons things like helmets, protection vests, medical kits, fuel, Mr Coveney told RTE radio. I think the European Union is right to intervene and support the Ukrainian military who are under enormous pressure at the moment. I think if the European Union cant take a stand, well, then I think we have to question the moral substance of the European Union. Mr Martin was also pressed on Mr Coveneys use of the word operatives and was asked whether there were Russian spies in Dublin. Mr Martin declined to comment specifically. However, he said: I think were all realists in the world. Across the diplomatic world, there are there are people below the ambassadorial level with various functions. But he said that definitive knowledge of any particular activity of any particular individual is not necessarily possible. Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Monday, Feb. 28. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Tuesday, March 1, as Russia's invasion continues. *** More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the head of the region wrote on Telegram. Dmytro Zhyvytskyy posted photographs of the charred shell of a four-story building and rescuers searching rubble. In a later Facebook post, he said many Russian soldiers and some local residents also were killed during the fighting on Sunday. The report could not immediately be confirmed. Earlier Monday, Russian forces shelled Ukraines second-largest city, rocking a residential neighborhood as they closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy that included hundreds of tanks and other military vehicles. The fighting continued as talks aimed at stopping the war yielded only an agreement to keep talking. The countrys embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions. I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hours-long talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery. As Russian forces marched forward and met stiff resistance from Ukrainian soldiers, countries tightened the vise around Moscow's economy Monday, announcing new sanctions on its central bank and individuals. Even Switzerland is breaking its neutral stance to join the EU in its actions. TRACK THE INVASION: Satellite images, surveillance footage, social media posts show the latest on the war in Ukraine FACT CHECK: What's true and what's false about the Russian invasion of Ukraine RUSSIA'S RICHEST TARGETED:Biden hits yacht-riding elites with sanctions. Will it help? Russian infantry GAZ Tigr vehicles destroyed as a result of fighting in Kharkiv, seen on Feb. 28, 2022. Mastercard blocks financial institutions over sanctions on Russia Mastercard announced Monday it was blocking "multiple financial institutions from the Mastercard payment network" as a result of sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The U.S.-based financial services company said in a statement it will continue to work with regulators to stay in compliance and is actively monitoring and preparing to respond to cyberattacks. The U.S. and EU have sanctioned top Kremin officials and Russian elites as well as taken steps to remove Russian banks from the SWIFT network, which allows for payments between financial institutions. The financial corporation also said it would donate $2 million in humanitarian relief. Celina Tebor United States expels Russian diplomats from U.N. headquarters The United States is expelling 12 Russian diplomats stationed at the United Nation's headquarters in New York. for engaging in espionage activities that undermine U.S. national security. Olivia Dalton, a spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN, said the U.S. action has been in the works for several months. She did not elaborate on the accusations that the Russians were spying on the U.S. but referred to the 12 individuals as intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States. Deirdre Shesgreen Australia commits $50 million in support for Ukraine Australia will provide Ukraine with $50 million in missiles, ammunition and other military hardware to fight Russian invaders. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday elaborated on his countrys plans after revealing a day earlier that his government would provide Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with lethal military equipment. Morrison promised only non-lethal military equipment last week. President Zelenskyy said: Dont give me a ride, give me ammunition, and thats exactly what the Australian government has agreed to do, Morrison said. Australia had committed $50 million to provide both lethal and non-lethal defensive support for Ukraine through NATO, he said. The overwhelming majority of that ... will be in the lethal category, Morrison said. Associated Press Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. halt release of films in Russia The Walt Disney Co., Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. are joining the list of businesses retaliating against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Disney is pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming Turning Red from Pixar, in response to the attack, the company said in a statement Monday. We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation, the statement said. The company said it is working with non-governmental organizations to provide aid and other humanitarian assistance to refugees. WarnerMedia is putting the release of The Batman on hold in Russia. The film starring Robert Pattinson had been set to open in Russia on Thursday. We will continue to monitor the situation as it evolves, Warner Bros. said in a statement. We hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to this tragedy. Sony Pictures is also pausing planned theatrical releases in Russia, including the upcoming release of Morbius, which is due out in early April. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been impacted and hope this crisis will be resolved quickly," a Sony Pictures spokesperson told USA TODAY in a statement. Michael Collins, Charles Ventura Ukraine official: 5 million rubles and full amnesty for Russian soldiers who stop fighting Ukraine is offering Russian soldiers cash to stop fighting in a Kremlin-ordered invasion of the country. We offer Russian soldiers a choice: to die in an unjust war or a full amnesty and 5 million rubles in compensation. If they lay down their arms and surrender voluntarily, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a statement posted to the departments Twitter account. The offer of 5 million rubles is worth less than $50,000 dollars as the currency has cratered amid global sanctions levied against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Rick Rouan Durbin requests Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians in U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters that he plans to send a bipartisan letter to President Biden this evening asking for Temporary Protected Status for all Ukrainians currently in the U.S. There are 29,500 Ukrainians in the United States now on visas," said Durbin, the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate. "They include tourists and students and people working here." He said some have expired visas and are now expected to return to Ukraine, which is unacceptable under these current circumstances. Temporary Protected Status would allow them to stay in the U.S. temporarily without fear of deportation. That is something we could and should do immediately, he said. Dylan Wells and Rebecca Morin Ukraine ambassador compares Russia to Nazi Germany Ukraines ambassador to the United States said Monday Russian forces that invaded her country are acting like the Nazis during World War II and killing innocent civilians. Russian troops have shot into residential areas, orphanages, schools and kindergartens, Ambassador Oksana Markarova told reporters after a meeting with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill. FROM SOCCER TO VODKA: The sanctions, bans and boycotts placed on Russia It is horrible, she said. They have to pay the price. They have to be isolated. They have to understand that its not OK in the 21st century to start a war and kill people in a neighboring sovereign country. Russia is trying to inflict devastation on Ukraine, Markarova said, but Ukrainians continue to fight back and will not surrender. We are defending our home, she said. We do not have any other option. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the Congress members who met with Markarova, praised the Ukrainians and said there was universal support among lawmakers at the meeting to offer assistance. Were exploring all the ways that we can help them, he told reporters after the meeting. Michael Collins U.S. not ruling out closing airspace to Russian planes The U.S. has not ruled out the possibility of banning Russian flights from its airspace in retaliation for Moscows invasion of Ukraine, the White House said Monday. There are obviously a range of options that remain on the table, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. So it's not off the table. Canada and the 27-nation European Union have closed their airspace to Russian planes. Russia has responded by closing its airspace to airlines from 36 countries. On Monday, Russia announced that it has closed its airspace to carriers from 36 nations, including European countries and Canada, responding in kind to their move to close their respective airspaces to all Russian aircraft. The move, announced Monday by the state aviation agency, follows a decision by the EU and Canada over the weekend to close their skies to the Russian planes in response to Moscows invasion of Ukraine. It added that planes from those countries could only enter Russias airspace with special permission. Michael Collins U.S. has no plans to update nuclear threat level The U.S. sees no reason to update its nuclear threat level despite Russian President Vladimir Putins decision to put his nuclear forces on high alert, the White House said Monday. The U.S. is assessing Putins directive, but at this time, we see no reason to change our own alert levels, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. Neither the U.S. nor NATO has any desire for conflict with Russia, Psaki said, and we think provocative rhetoric like this regarding nuclear weapons is dangerous, adds to the risk of miscalculation, should be avoided and will not indulge in it. - Michael Collins Poll: Majority of Americans fear Russia could deploy nuclear weapons Most Americans are wary that Russia could use nuclear weapons if the United States and its NATO allies step in to stop the Kremlins invasion of Ukraine, a new poll found. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted mostly before Russian President Vladimir Putin put his countrys nuclear forces on high alert found that more than six in 10 Americans are worried Russia could deploy nuclear weapons. President Joe Biden says they shouldn't. Asked Monday by a reporter as he attended a Black History Month celebration at the White House whether Americans "should be worried about nuclear war," Biden answered with a simple 'no'." Still, there is growing support among Americans for U.S. military involvement. The share of respondents who support President Joe Bidens decision to send U.S. troops to shore up NATOs eastern flank increased from 54% in a Feb. 16 poll to 70% in the most recent survey. About 70 percent of respondents said American troops should get involved if Russia moves beyond Ukraine and into a NATO country, a prospect that nearly two-thirds believe Putin has in his sights. The poll surveyed 1,364 U.S. adults between Feb. 25-27. -- Rick Rouan Shell to cut ties with Russian natural gas company Shell will exit a joint-venture with the Russian-owned natural gas company Gazprom a day after BP said it was cutting ties with a Russian state-owned oil company amid the Kremlins ongoing invasion of Ukraine. We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a prepared statement. The company said it had about $3 billion in assets tied up in Russian ventures at the end of 2021. That includes interests in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and other joint ventures. Rick Rouan Twitter to flag tweets sharing Russian state media content Twitter will begin flagging content shared on its platform from Russian state media as it tries to stem the tide of disinformation flowing from the Kremlin. The social media platform announced its plan on Monday. Twitter already labeled the accounts of state media outlets, but now it will flag tweets from any account sharing that content, the companys head of site integrity Yoel Roth said. Roth said about 45,000 tweets a day are sharing links to Russian state-affiliated media outlets. Rick Rouan Macron: France will bring resolution to UN security council French President Emmanuel Macron said he will bring a resolution to the United Nations Security Council after reinforcing to the Kremlin the need to protect civilians in the invasion of Ukraine. Macron tweeted on Monday that he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to adopt a ceasefire and to stop attacks against civilians, residences and infrastructure. He asked Putin to respect humanitarian law, according to a translation of his tweet, and said France would bring the resolution to the UN. The UN general assembly is scheduled to meet in an emergency special session on Monday. Ukraines ambassador to the United States previously accused Russia of committing war crimes in the attack, including the use of heavy missiles and artillery to hit hospitals and kindergartens as well as infrastructure. Rick Rouan Zelenskyy asks European Union to grant Ukraine immediate membership Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy has formally made his appeal for membership into the European Union. Zelenskyy signed an application to grant Ukraine membership in the EU on Monday after urging the union publicly to expedite the process under a special procedure. The request came after the European Union announced new actions against Russia, including plans to close its airspace to Russian airlines, bankroll weapons for Ukraine and ban pro-Kremlin media outlets. -- Rick Rouan Residents of Sievierodonetsk, Lugansk Oblast, wait hidden in their basement during heavy shelling by Russian forces and Russia-backed separatists on Feb. 28, 2022. Residents of Sievierodonetsk, Lugansk Oblast, look out from the basement where they hid during heavy shelling by Russian forces and Russia-backed separatists on Feb. 28, 2022. FACT CHECK ROUNDUP: What's true and what's false about the Russian invasion of Ukraine Ruble-to-bitcoin trades surge after sanctions crater Russian currency Holders of Russian currency are turning to bitcoin as the ruble cratered in the aftermath of global sanctions that have cut off Russia from western financial institutions. Coindesk, a cryptocurrency news organization, reported a spike on Monday in trading volume between the Russian ruble and bitcoin. Trading volumes have hit a nine-month high, according to Coindesk. The increase came after the U.S., European allies and other countries around the globe imposed financial sanctions that have crippled Russias economy in response to Moscows invasion of Ukraine. The value of the ruble compared with the U.S. dollar has plunged since the announcement of those sanctions. -- Rick Rouan A baby sleeps while people trying to flee Ukraine wait for trains inside Lviv railway station, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Lviv, west Ukraine. Kremlin: Sanctions 'problematic,' worsened economy At the outset of a brewing financial crisis, the Kremlin conceded Monday that Western sanctions were affecting the economy but remained confident effects could be dampened. "The economic reality has considerably changed," Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlins spokesperson, said during a press call with reporters, according to Reuters and CNN. "These are heavy sanctions, they are problematic, but Russia has the potential to offset the harm." The U.S. and EU have sanctioned top Kremin officials and Russian elites as well as taken steps to remove Russian banks from the SWIFT network, which allows for payments between financial institutions. The West also took steps to stop the Kremlin from accessing its $640 billion in foreign reserves which Russian banks could use to buoy the isolated economy. "Russia has been making plans for quite a long time for possible sanctions, including the most severe ones. There are response plans, they were developed and are being implemented as problems appear, Peskov said. He added that sanctions on Russian elites and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself were pointless. Matthew Brown EU Foreign Affairs chief: 'Sanctions have a cost' Days after the United States and European Union levied stringent sanctions on the Russian elite and financial system, the EUs foreign affairs chief reiterated that sanctions will have a negative effect on the global economy. Its a price that the West must be ready to pay, he stressed. This is not a free lunch. Sanctions will backlash. Sanctions have a cost, Josep Borrell, vice president of the European Commission, said Monday. Borrell said it is important to explain to public opinion the costs of sanctions on the global economy. LEARN MORE: Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine We have to be ready to pay this price now because if not, we will have to pay a much bigger price in the future, Borrell continued. He noted there would be turbulence in global energy markets that would especially impact Europe in the short term, which the EU and U.S. are working to mitigate. While the U.S. is more insulated from the economic pain of isolating Russia than Europe, President Joe Biden has also cautioned Americans that the sanctions will have ripple effects for the U.S. economy that will be felt in the stock market and energy prices Matthew Brown IOC calls for exclusion of athletes from Russia, Belarus In a sweeping move to isolate and condemn Russia after invading Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee urged sports bodies on Monday to exclude the countrys athletes and officials from international events. The IOC said it was needed to "protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants." The decision opened the way for FIFA, the governing body of soccer, to exclude Russia from a World Cup qualifying playoff match on March 24. Poland has refused to play the scheduled game against Russia. The Olympic bodys call also applied to athletes and official from Belarus, which has abetted Russias invasion. Associated Press PUTIN'S MIND: 'Erratic?' 'Delusional?' Lawmakers question Putin's stability as he puts nuclear forces on alert Swiss adopt EU sanctions The Swiss government on Monday took the extraordinary step of joining in the EU's sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Switzerland's Federal Council decided to adopt the financial sanctions, whiich include freezing the assets of individuals and companies, as well as levying sanctions upon Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Swiss government is also joining the EU in closing its airspace to all flights from Russia and to aircraft with Russian markings. The Federal Council is suspending visas for Russian nationals, excluding diplomatic passports, and is blocking entry for "a number of individuals who have a connection to Switzerland and are close to the Russian president." Katie Wadington United States imposes sanctions on Russia's Central Bank The U.S. on Monday imposed new sanctions on Russia targeting the country's Central Bank, dealing a major blow to Moscow's economy, which holds more than $630 billion in foreign currency reserves. The sanctions effectively cut off Russia's Central Bank from accessing assets either held in the U.S. or in U.S. dollars, severely restricting any effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to blunt the effects of previous sanctions that have sent the country's economy into a free fall. The new restrictions, in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, also target Russia's National Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance. The measures prohibit foreign financial firms with U.S. dollars from sending it to Russia's Central Bank, National Wealth Fund or finance ministry, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the announcement. The official said the U.S. wanted to put the penalties in place before markets opened Monday after learning from allies over the weekend that the Russian Central Bank was attempting to move assets beginning Monday morning from institutions around the world. Courtney Subramanian WHAT IS SWIFT?: How would a removal from SWIFT affect Russia? Zelenskyy creates 'international legion,' enlists foreign fighters President Volodomyr Zelenskyy announced the creation of an international legion to enlist non-Ukrainians who want to support the war effort against Russia. We already have thousands requests from foreigners, who want to join the resistance to the (Russian) occupiers and protect the world security from Putin regime, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Monday. While no other country has sent its own troops to Ukraine, the U.S., European Union and NATO have all ramped up the delivery of weapons to the eastern European country amid the Russian invasion. Anyone interested in joining the new unit should reach out to the Ukrainian embassies in their home countries, the statement said. The Ukrainian government has also called on the support of its civilians to assist in defending the country from Russian invasion by directly resisting and confusing invading forces. Matthew Brown U.S. closes embassy in Belarus The State Department has shut down the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, Belarus, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday morning. Non-emergency personnel and family members at the embassy in Moscow have also been authorized to leave. Blinken said the steps were taken "due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine." Belarus has served as a staging area for Russian troops for weeks ahead of the invasion that started on Thursday. Katie Wadington Pope Francis offers to help solve Ukraine crisis The Vatican is offering to help in any negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vaticans No. 2 official, told several Italian newspapers in an interview published on Monday that the Holy See is offering its willingness to facilitate dialogue with Russia." On Friday, Pope Francis took the extraordinary step of visiting the Russian Embassy to the Holy See to meet with the Russian ambassador. The pontiff urged an end to fighting and a return to negotiations, Parolin said. While Orthodox Christians are predominant among the faithful in Ukraine, the Catholic Church has a discreet presence in that country through believers who follow the Eastern Rite of Catholicism. Associated Press UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson: 'Putin must fail' British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed that Western allies would impose the harshest economic sanctions possible against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his "abhorrent campaign against Ukraine." The European Union has announced unprecedented new actions against Russia, outlining plans to close its airspace to Russian airlines, fund a weapons purchase to assist Ukraine and ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, while the Associated Press reported the United States approved the delivery of anti-aircraft Stinger missiles to Ukraine. Western powers in support of Ukraine could soon be joined by Switzerland, an oftentimes neutral country that on Monday is set to review potential sanctions and asset freezes against Russia, said President Ignazio Cassis via Reuters. Cassis said it was very probable the country would follow suit, the outlet reported. "Putin must fail," the British prime minister wrote on Twitter. Caren Bohan and Associated Press Contributing: The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukrainian soldiers killed after Russian artillery hits base: Recap A small crowd of Ukrainians gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in Dublin on Monday, calling on the global superpower to wield its influence against Russia. Demonstrators, who have taken to the streets of the Irish capital in the days since since Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, called on China to choose the side of good. The Chinese embassy, on the Ailesbury Road in leafy south Dublin, is only a short walk from the Russian Embassy residence, the scene of a large demonstration on Sunday. In recent years, China has grown increasingly close to Moscow. Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Beijing earlier this month, and China has refused to either condemn or endorse Russias actions, despite its insistence on upholding national sovereignty above all. People protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA) Gardai were on patrol outside the embassy as the protest took place. Vlad Dziuba, who is from Ukraine, has been working in Ireland for two years. We decided to go to Chinese Embassy, because right now China doesnt really have any statement about Russia neither support, neither deny. And Russia is really looking to China to support its trade, he said. He said that as the western world imposed punitive sanctions on Russia, it was important to get China on side. If China wont help, this work might not bring results, he said. We are staying here to push China to have some statement against Russia and show their support for Ukraine and, ironically, democracy. Sergey Koloskov, who attended the protest, is from Donetsk, one of the two breakaway republics recognised by Russia. He carried a sign made by his 12-year-old daughter. I am the example of a Russia-speaking Ukrainian citizen, which Putin is allegedly protecting, he said. My own family is relatively fine. But when I hear stories of my friends, they are not fine. Many of them are in big trouble. He said that his daughter is becoming aware of what is going on in her parents country. She hears her mum talking to university friend, who is stuck in an apartment right in the middle of the worst fighting in Kyiv. Like a World War Two tank battle. It has been very stressful, so far. Meanwhile, dozens of people gathered outside the Russian Embassy in south Dublin on Monday. It is the latest protest to take place outside the embassy against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One group of protesters, which was led by People Before Profit, held posters and placards calling on Mr Putin to end his war while others called for the end of Nato. A separate group of demonstrators, which included Ukrainians and Irish protesters, were dressed in yellow and blue and waved the Ukrainian flag. Around a dozen gardai were also present at the protest, the fourth to take place in recent days. A Russian double-eagle crest beside the gate of the embassy, which was defaced with red paint, had been removed from the wall. In its place was red hand prints and red paint doused across the entrance wall. Nearby, around 50 supporters of Ukraine held a candlelight vigil outside the Ukrainian Embassy. The group were surrounded by candles placed outside the gates of the embassy, with people leaving messages and cards of sympathy. Among the group were Independent senator Gerard Craughwell, Labour TD Ivana Bacik, Sinn Fein TD Chris Andrews and the Polish Ambassador to Ireland, Anna Sochanska, who was draped in a Polish flag. Ukraines ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko also joined the vigil and thanked those who have supported her country. Fighting back tears, Ms Gerasko said she watched scenes of homes and properties destroyed by Russian missiles. People are spending every night in basements, in subway stations, she added. I called my parents and they are in a basement. I pray for all Ukrainians. We are a strong nation and I believe in our future and that our country will survive and our people will survive. She thanked the support of Irish people and called on the public to write to their local TDs and appeal for further sanctions to be implemented against Russia. She also appealed for people to donate medicine, and to donated supplies, including clothes, to charities. Feature Your News Online $25.00 / for 30 days Highlight your business' news for just $25! We'll feature your content on our News From Local Business section & our Marketplace front page to give it maximum exposure for the next 30 days. STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Investigative Committee of Artsakh launched proceedings over the criminal case on the February 5 Azerbaijani shooting at three Armenian workers at a stone processing plant. The Artsakh authorities said in a statement that the shooting was attempted murder and the Azerbaijani servicemens motive was "ethnic, racial or religious hatred or religious fanaticism." All three workers of the stone processing plant escaped unharmed from the shooting. The investigation is ongoing. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The delegation of Ukraine arrived in the Belarusian Gomel region for negotiations with Russia, RIA Novosti reported. It was reported that the Ukrainian delegation arrived by two helicopters. The Ukrainian Presidential Office said that the delegation includes the Defense Minister, the head of the Servant of the People faction, the deputy foreign minister, the advisor to the head of the Office of the President, a Member of Parliament, and the first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Tehran welcomes negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and hopes that the dialogue will help resolve the crisis in the region, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference, reports TASS. This is good news. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are precisely what we have called for from the very first day, he said. The political dialogue is a means of achieving a stable solution of the problems that have existed in the region for decades. Khatibzadeh added that the ceasefire agenda must be advanced at the negotiations in earnest. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Russian military are guarding and controlling the territory of the Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant, official representative of the Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Monday, TASS reported. Russian servicemen are guarding and controlling the area around the Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant, Konashenkov noted. According to Russian Defense Ministrys representative, the workers of the power plant continue servicing facilities, they also control the level of radiation. The level of radiation is normal, he stated. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Experts say the Azerbaijani actions against Armenians, including the pogroms in the Azerbaijani SSR, must be designated as genocide. On February 28, at the initiative of MP Taguhi Tovmasyan, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs, a conference-discussion took place with participation of academics on the occasion of the day of commemorating the memory of the victims of the pogroms in the Azerbaijani SSR and the protection of the rights of the forcefully displaced Armenian population. 34 years ago during these days, the peaceful Armenian population was being subjected to mass violence, murder, torture, maiming, immolation by armed Azerbaijani gangs. Why were they killing Armenians? Simply for being Armenian, they were killing Armenians because Armenians wanted to live freely and with dignity in their homeland. It is actually difficult to imagine how much hate and Armenophobia the Azeri authorities instilled among Azerbaijanis, how much they aggravated calls for violence against Armenians that hundreds of Azerbaijanis of Sumgait committed such inhumane and cruel actions, Tovmasyan said, describing the atrocities how armed Azerbaijani gangs, divided into groups, would attack Armenians by using a previously obtained list of their addresses, killing Armenians in their homes and in some cases dragging them outside and publicly humiliating them. Tovmasyan stressed that these continuous and consistent actions of Azerbaijan constitute a state-sanctioned genocidal policy, based on which Azerbaijan launched the explicit aggression and large-scale war against Nagorno Karabakh in 1991, which continued decades later. 30 years ago Azerbaijan sowed so much Armenophobia in its society that we witnessed inhumane atrocities during the 2020 war which Azerbaijan launched against Artsakh. Azerbaijan was committing more crimes against humanity and was killing the peaceful population, targeting kindergartens, schools and hospitals. And today, we are calling upon the international community, our international partners, that these criminal actions, crimes against humanity committed by Azerbaijan must receive an adequate response, assessment and treatment, Tovmasyan said. Dr. Ashot Melkonyan, the Director of the History Institute at the National Academy of Sciences, noted the importance of reminding the international community about this tragedy from time to time. The political assessment that has been given so far hasnt recorded genocide as a final term, I think it is one of our mistakes. I believe that our parliament must definitely address this and give a clear terming, that this is the full chain of the same genocidal policy which begins on February 6 in 1905 when the massacres of Armenians began in Baku, I am referring to the Armenian-Tatar fighting he said. Melkonyan said the Azeri actions must be condemned and designated as genocide. Airlines ready to take Vietnamese citizens from Ukraine home Airlines in Vietnam are now ready for the possible evacuation of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine amid the increasing conflict in the country. A representative from national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines said that the airline had made all necessary preparations for bringing Vietnamese citizens from Ukraine home. This will be carried out right after receiving the go-ahead from the government. Airlines in Vietnam are now ready for the possible evacuation of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine The most difficult part is there is no air route connecting Ukraine, so Vietnam Airlines is considering a transit at the border area of Ukraine. However, this must be agreed upon by concerned agencies. Bamboo Airways have also announced that the firm has been willing to help in the repatriation of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine if necessary. Huong Tran Kieu Dung, vice chairwoman of Bamboo Airway, said that the carrier was waiting for specific instructions from the government and the management agencies for this. On Saturday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed an official dispatch on the protection of Vietnamese citizens and legal entities in Ukraine. In the dispatch, the foreign ministry was required to ensure security and safety and evacuate citizens and members of representative missions if necessary, while providing support for them in terms of accommodation, food and other necessities. Anyone needing support can contact hotlines for the Vietnamese Embassy in Ukraine ( 380 (63) 8638999); the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia (79916821617); or the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry ( 84 965411118, 84 981848484; Email baohocongdan@gmail.com). Around 7,000 Vietnamese currently live in Ukraine, mainly in Kharkiv, Odesa and Kyiv. Metro-North commuters pass the time reading, sleeping, streaming videos or working a crossword puzzle. Ted Aldrich, a Westport resident and international banker, spent eight years writing a book about two military planners who helped win World War II. Each day on his 75-minute ride between Fairfield County and Grand Central Terminal, he brought a dog-eared book or two for his research and his laptop. He avoided the center seat that offers little elbow room and got to work on his book about two key advisers to President Franklin Roosevelt. Advertisement [ With cell service spotty on Metro-North, Connecticut looks to find a solution. Not everyone is on board. ] I had a full-time job, Aldrich said. The only time to write was on the train. The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration That Won World War II, published by Stackpole Books, is due out in mid-April. Advertisement So many people give credit to the men on the fronts, Aldrich said, citing generals such as Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton and Curtis LeMay. Dwight Eisenhower helped lead the western Allies to victory in World War II. (Moore / Getty Images) These guys, he said, referring to Marshall and Stimson, trained the men, organized the men, built the barracks, came up with the strategy. They were running the war for Roosevelt, he said. Aldrich, who said hes been reading history since the second grade, found additional time to write the more than 500-page book as service on the New Haven line slowed over the years. Before COVID-19 ended his commute that began in the late 1980s, Aldrich said he had an additional 15 minutes from slower rail service. Switches that freeze in the winter give riders an extra hour, he said. Gov. Ned Lamont has blamed Connecticuts aging infrastructure for slowing travel and economic growth. He proposed last year leveraging federal money to spend $8 billion to $10 billion to cut travel time between New Haven and Manhattan by 25 minutes by 2035. Aldrich, 60, worked for a Japanese bank and traveled to Asia, providing more time to write on long flights and in airports. But the married father of three sons said he limited his writing and researching to his commute. He said he had a book worked out in his mind and began researching in 2011. He completed it by the end of 2018. During his Cold War phase, Aldrich read about Henry Stimson, a fixture of the political establishment relied upon by Republican and Democratic presidents who appointed him secretary of war and secretary of state during much of the first half of the 20th century. Aldrich admired George Marshall, an Army chief of staff, secretary of defense, secretary of state and architect of the Marshall Plan that revived Europe after World War II. Learning of the partnership between the two men, he decided, This is the book. Advertisement Secretary of State George C. Marshall was the architect of the Marshall Plan that revived Europe after World War II. (US Army's Center of Military History // Wikimedia Commons) He bought a microfilm of 10,000 pages of Stimsons diary of his government work from 1906 to 1945 nearly half accounted for his service during World War II and stored it on a flash drive. That was the critical thing. Without that I couldnt have done the book, he said. He also relied on papers of Marshall at Lexington, Virginia, and a four-volume biography of Marshall by historian Forrest Carlisle Pogue Jr. And his personal library of 700 books that he read as a Metro-North commuter for more than 30 years included many that are related to his research for his book on Stimson and Marshall. Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. > Tom Scheinfeldt, a University of Connecticut historian, said popular histories are almost always drawing on studies by academics while university-based historians rely on archival materials and data not mined before. Aldrich and his agent were rejected by several publishers unimpressed by his background. Who the hell are you? was a typical question, said Aldrich, who studied economics. Youre not a historian. Youre not a writer. Youre not well-known. James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association, said professional historians come to their work from many directions. Adhering to standards of research and analysis makes you a historian, he said. Its not like being an MD, Grossman said. Theres no license to practice history. Advertisement Aldrich said although it was his first book, he was optimistic it would be published. In the beginning I thought it was the greatest book ever written, he said. I kind of kept that going. Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com. YEREVAN, 28 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. On February 28, the High-level Segment of the 49th session of the Human Rights Council was held in Geneva, chaired by the Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Council, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva Andranik Hovhannisyan, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia. During the session, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan delivered remarks, in which he particularly noted; "Distinguished colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a particular pleasure for me to greet you, Mr. Vice-President, as you chair this session of the Council. I would also like to congratulate all members of the Bureau under the able leadership of Federico Villegas, the President of the Council. The Human Rights Council is one of the key achievements of multilateral diplomacy as it provides an indispensable platform for sustaining and promoting dialogue on human rights irrespective of various international and regional crises. This Council has been envisaged to stand for all and everyone in all times. It is the inherent dignity of human beings that we have at stake here. With so many existing and evolving crises all over the world, the human rights of people in the situation of conflicts should be of particular focus of the Human Rights Council and its special procedures. It is with these vision and objectives that Armenia has entered the third year of its fully-fledged membership of the Council. I believe that we have been able to prove ourselves as a trustworthy and reliable partner in reacting to and addressing the outlying thematic issues and critical country situations. We are determined to continue our contribution in a most constructive and positive manner. In this context I am glad to announce that Armenia intends to table anew the draft resolution on the Prevention of genocide at this session of the Council. That is a subject that Armenia has been championing for many years. Our team in Geneva is going to organize a transparent process of consultations with all interested States and other stakeholders. After the difficulties and political crisis after the 44-day war launched by Azerbaijan snap-parliamentary elections were held, where people of Armenia reconfirmed their commitments and devotion to the values of democracy and human rights. The international observers of the snap parliamentary elections assessed that they passed in compliance with the human rights commitments and democratic standards. Most recently in this years Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit Armenia was ranked as a leader of the region based on such findings as electoral process and pluralism, functioning of the government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. Mr. Vice-President, This year marks the 30th anniversary of Armenias membership to the United Nations. I hereby reiterate my nations unwavering commitment to multilateralism with the United Nations at its core, and our full adherence to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. It was no coincidence that the opening line of the United Nations Charter referred to We the peoples as the source of its legitimacy. People and their rights must be placed at the forefront and center of everything done by the United Nations as a whole. The right to self-determination has been one of the main purposes of the United Nations and use of force against this right can trigger an entire chain of human rights violations including mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing. This is something we observe during and after the war initiated by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. The UN and its bodies have been bestowed with a universal mandate to enjoy unconditional, unimpeded, unhindered access to the people in need, wherever they are and in all circumstances. We call upon the international community to assume responsibility for ensuring unconditional access to the whole territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The UN Special Procedure Mandate Holders issued several communications to Azerbaijan raising questions with regard to the use of mercenaries, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, destruction of religious and cultural heritage in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan declined to give a proper response and in fact failed to answer to the last communications at all, in a sheer defiance to the UN Human rights machinery. The impunity leads to new violations. Apart from Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan continues its policy of human rights abuses now on the borderline areas of the Republic of Armenia, wherein the civilian population suffers from constant provocative actions of armed forces of Azerbaijan. This aggressive policy is accompanied by the overt violations of international humanitarian law. After 16 months of ceasefire in place Azerbaijan continues to hold 38 Armenian prisoners of war, including civilians, while the fate of hundreds of missing persons and dozen cases of enforced disappearances remain unclarified. Mr. Vice-President, The plight of people to whom the UN does not have access should not be forgotten. The people of Nagorno-Karabakh should not be discriminated because of their origin, language, religion, political or other opinion, national origin or other status. We strive to achieve the safe, dignified and voluntary return of the Armenians to their ancestral homes in all parts of Nagorno-Karabakh The provisional measures put forward by the International Court of Justice on December 7, 2021 which instructs Azerbaijan to cease racist and discriminatory policies against Armenians including destruction and vandalism of the Armenian cultural heritage should be unconditionally implemented. These measures come to prove the Anti-Armenian policies of Azerbaijan including its bellicose rhetoric, depriving the people of their means of subsistence, constantly terrorizing Armenian population and threatening with new use of force. Only by urgently addressing these issues will we be able to ensure stability, peace, justice and protection of universal human rights in our region. I thank you." Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Barring a few reports of EVM glitches and some stray cases of poll violence, the phase went off largely peaceful New Delhi: The fifth phase of the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday saw a voter turnout of 53.93 per cent till 5 pm, with the highest voting being in Chitrakoot (59.50%) and Ayodhya (58.01%). In this phase, 61 Assembly seats went to the polls spread across 12 districts -- Chitrakoot, Bahraich, Ayodhya, Amethi, Sultanpur, Rae Bareli, Kaushambi, Pragraj, Shrawasti, Gonda, Baranki and Pratapgarh. There were 693 candidates in the fray, of which 90 were women. Barring a few reports of EVM glitches and some stray cases of poll violence, the phase went off largely peaceful. The State Election Commission said a total 0.35 per cent control units and 1.83 per cent Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) were replaced of the total deployed in the phase following complaints in their functioning. During the mock polls, 0.59 per cent balloting units, 0.72 per cent control units and 1.27 per cent VVPAT units were replaced before the voting started. In Pratapgarhs Kunda Assembly seat, SP candidate Gulshan Yadavs convoy was allegedly attacked, after which the candidates of all parties were stopped from touring booths. There was some issue at a polling station in Pratapgarh. A team of police and polling officers has reached the site. Necessary action is being taken, additional chief electoral officer B.D. Ram Tiwari said in Lucknow. Besides, there was a low intensity bomb blast in Prayagraj, during which a man died while two others were injured, leading to panic and chaos in the area. The police is investigating if this had any connection with the ongoing polls. In nearby Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple as he campaigned for the BJP. He said it will be a privilege to serve the people of Varanasi till his last day, which was an indirect response to a comment by Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav that people come to Varanasi in their final days. In Kashi, there used to be bomb blasts on the ghats. The terrorists were fearless because the Samajwadi Party was with them. The government was openly withdrawing the cases from the terrorists. We have seen how much people have stooped low in Indian politics, but when in Kashi prayers for my death were done, I felt elated. This meant that till my death neither I will leave Kashi nor its people will leave me, Mr Modi said at a rally in Varanasi. Addressing a rally in Nautanwa, Union home minister Amit Shah said: Earlier, government land was snatched by bahubalis. Dalits, the underprivileged everyone was deprived. These parivarwadis in their tenure committed atrocities against the poor The BJP got the peoples land free from the land mafias In the last five years, there was a decline of 70 per cent in dacoities, 29 per cent in murders, 69 per cent in loot, 35 per cent in kidnappings and 52 per cent in rapes in Uttar Pradesh under the Yogi Adityanath government. Responding to the political barbs, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the people of UP have made up their mind to pack off Babaji back to his math, while referring to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is mahant of the Gorakhnath Math and five-time MP from Gorakhpur, where Mr Yadav was campaigning on Sunday for SP candidate Vinay Shankar Tiwari. In Deoria, he said: Babaji did not give you a laptop as he doesnt know how to operate it. He doesnt even know how to run a smartphone. How can a chief minister who does not know how to run a laptop and does not understand the importance of computers and smartphones run the state? He added the BJP has been unable to digest the crossover by its leaders to the SP. They are perturbed. They cant seem to remember the day when Swami Prasad Maurya joined us. I was waiting since 2011. Had he joined us after leaving the BSP, we need not have seen bad days for five years. Had he joined us in 2017, UP would have been forward today, the SP chief in Fazilnagar, while referring to Swami Prasad Maurya. Those arriving have been exempted from pre-boarding RT-PCR test, providing Covid vaccination certificates New Delhi: Indians being evacuated from Ukraine have been exempted from pre-boarding RT-PCR test, providing Covid vaccination certificates and uploading those on the Air Suvidha portal, the Health Ministry said on Monday. It said the International Travel Guidelines have been revised and some exemptions allowed on humanitarian grounds for those arriving from Ukraine. According to the government, as of February 28, five flights carrying 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in the country and none of them has been kept in isolation so far. Of the five flights, one arrived in Mumbai and the rest in Delhi. The Health Ministry said Indians not fulfilling either of the mandatory requirements -- pre-boarding negative RT-PCR test report or fully vaccinated certificate -- as laid down in the 'Guidelines for International Arrivals' have been exempted from uploading these documents on Air-Suvidha Portal before departure to India. Individuals who have completed their COVID-19 vaccination, irrespective of the country of departure/inoculation, have been allowed to leave the arrival airport in India with the advice to self-monitor their health for the next 14 days, it said. If a traveller is not able to submit a pre-arrival RT-PCR test or who has not completed their COVID-19 vaccination, they have been allowed to submit their samples on arrival with the advice to self-monitor their health for 14 days after arrival. If tested COVID positive, they shall be clinically managed according to laid down protocol, the ministry said. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, "The Health Ministry revises international travel advisory for Indians being evacuated from Ukraine: Mandatory pre-boarding negative RTPCR test & vaccination certificate exempted; Uploading documents before departure on Air-Suvidha Portal exempted." The health ministry said that large diasporas of Indian nationals, mainly students, have found themselves embroiled in the political turmoil being faced by Ukraine. "Direct evacuation of these stranded Indians through flights could not be carried out because of the Notice to Airmen or Notice to Air Missions issued in Ukraine." "Accordingly, Indian missions in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have been making arrangements to get Indian nationals from Ukraine and fly them out of their respective countries under Operation Ganga Flights," the ministry said. The Union Health Ministry in close collaboration with the Ministries of External Affairs, Civil Aviation and Home Affairs is lending all support possible in evacuating Indians from Ukraine, the statement said. The mistake was made not in 2021-22 but way back in 1991, when the Soviet Union broke up Indias Defence Services Staff College, in the picturesque hill town of Wellington, has as its credo the Sanskrit phrase Yuddham Pragya, which can be translated as To War with Wisdom. The credo comes to mind as one examines the situation in Central and Eastern Europe where Russian President Vladmir Putin has sent the Russian Army in pursuit of war to punish Ukraine and to ensure that it does not step out of line with Russian interests. To go to war isnt the easiest of decisions. It means destruction and casualties, collateral and bad blood, in order to attain laid down objectives. Mr Putin must surely have weighed all this to decide in favour of war to achieve his intent; his perceived wisdom could probably justify all that. The option of war thus needs some analysis. I admit I went wrong in assessing President Putin would not go to war and believing he would achieve everything he intended to by threatening to go to war; the classic strategy of brinkmanship. The West thought the same, too, but perceived that it could wriggle out of the situation it had created and continue to pursue its objective to see Russia pushed back. The mistake was made not in 2021-22 but way back in 1991, when the Soviet Union broke up. The United States and Nato forgot some lessons of history. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was but 70 years old. It was through it, and the utter lack of understanding of the human psyche, that the victorious Allies pushed vanquished Germany into a resurgence of extreme nationalism that ultimately led to the rise of Nazism. The victors must not exploit victory but manage it. That is the supreme wisdom which comes from an understanding of the term conflict termination. Its not as if everyone goes home taking the spoils of victory, but rather it must be ensured that victory does not sow the seeds of another war. When Nato began seeking its eastwards march by absorbing some of the former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact nations, it was sowing those very seeds. No doubt Nato claimed that it was catering to the possibility of Russias return in a stronger avatar. That is exactly what has happened but more as a response to what Nato was seeking than anything else. President Putin probably realised that it was now or never; opportunities do not always come sailing. Brinkmanship was an experiment to see if Nato would bite. US Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has said President Biden could end this by simply acknowledging Russias legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine becoming a member of Nato. Ms Gabbard was right, but probably didnt take into consideration a simple factor. This was the fact that after his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden would think many times before doing something that showed the US as weak, accepting a Russian perception. With low approval ratings, no US President could afford to do this. The US never provided the leadership Nato deserved when its identified interests were hit, although how far is the Nato push on Ukraine a legitimate core interest is still debatable. The US and Nato fell back on economic sanctions, which Russia has weathered effectively over the last eight years. Even if the sanctions are to be intense and personal, Russia is banking on the immediacy of its action and subsequent return to diplomacy. Mr Putin, therefore, exploited the post-Afghanistan window of weakness which seems to have afflicted the US and Nato. He probably also knew all along that brinkmanship would not work as it actually enabled Nato to look strong while resisting Russian aggressiveness. With war, Nato, the US and Europe as a whole are being seen to be hollow and dithering. Mr Putin also probably sensed that a military victory at this stage of the post-Covid pandemic drafting of the new world order would fetch Russia a much greater dividend and a position higher in the pecking order than being a mere supplicant of China. How far does President Putin intend to go? Remember, war is not just a unidimensional entity to decide victors and losers. It has hundreds of shades of grey within the spectrum, and its results can be perceived in a hundred different ways, too. Given the asymmetry, Russia can simply smother Ukraine; that is if it were to choose old-world Soviet ways. The Soviets did it to the Chinese PLA in May 1969 at Damansky island on the Ussuri River. However, in 2022, calibration of coercion and intimidation is a far better tactic. Mr Putin is already advising the Ukraine Army to seize power so that negotiations can be simpler; it is not easy perceiving that but a defeated and surrendered Army may initially be much more pliant. However, from all indicators, calibration is not being judiciously applied. Although information warfare is being played out to bring the horrors of war to the public eye in Ukraine and much of the world, there is reality, too, in the number of casualties. Ukraines President Vladmir Zelensky has made this a life-and-death issue, advising people to fight back. Even Mr Putin would not want an Iraq-type fightback, which could mire the Russian Army in a morass in Europe and prevent any resolution that he is seeking. For him, the political aim is simply regime change; to a more Russia-friendly one; one which will keep Ukraine outside Natos ambit. His military aim seems to be the suppression of Ukraines military forces and a paralysis of the public mind with huge doses of information warfare, conveying the impossibility of resistance against Russia. Yet, in doing so, Mr Putin also knows that there are limits of international acceptance. A shock and awe campaign, of the kind America waged in the Second Gulf War, may not be taken kindly today, two decades later. He is attempting a limited shaping of the battlefield through the use of cyber warfare, missiles and rocket artillery targeting command and control centres and airfields. There are images of residential blocks destroyed and civilian casualties, which wont do much good but could be an early strategy of psychological warfare. Ground incursions were made from different directions but do not seem to have been involved in major contact battles. This could change overnight if the Ukrainians push back militarily. Mr Putin should hope that they should not because an interminable asymmetric war in the heart of Europe 25 years after Bosnia got resolved isnt something anyone is looking to. Wars, too, have to be fought with wisdom. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said it would demand an immediate cease-fire Kyiv: Outgunned but determined Ukrainian troops slowed Russia's advance and held onto the capital and other key cities - at least for now. In the face of stiff resistance and devastating sanctions, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces put on high alert, threatening to elevate the war to a terrifying new level. Explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the invasion began last week appeared to subside around Kyiv overnight, as Ukrainian and Russian delegations prepared to meet Monday on Ukraine's border with Belarus. It's unclear what, if anything, those talks would yield. Terrified Ukrainian families huddled in shelters, basements or corridors, waiting to find out. Exact death tolls are unclear, but Ukraine's president says at least 16 children have been killed and another 45 wounded, among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other casualties. Millions have fled homes or the country all together. Russia's Central Bank scrambled to shore up the tanking ruble Monday and the US and European countries upped weapons shipments to Ukraine. While they hope to curb Putin's aggression after he unleashed Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, the measures also risked pushing an increasingly cornered Putin closer to the edge. I sit and pray for these negotiations to end successfully, so that they reach an agreement to end the slaughter, and so there is no more war," said Alexandra Mikhailova, weeping as she clutched her cat in a makeshift shelter in the strategic southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Around her, parents sought to console children and keep them warm. The relative lull in warfare Monday morning in Ukraine was unlikely to last. Neighbouring Belarus could send troops to help Russia as soon as Monday, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of current US intelligence assessments. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly. US officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts. The British Defence Ministry said Monday that the bulk of Putin's forces are about 30 km (20 miles) north of Kyiv, their advance having been slowed by Ukrainian forces. Western nations ramped up the pressure with a freeze on Russia's hard currency reserves, threatening to bring Russia's economy to its knees. Russians withdrew savings and sought to shed rubles for dollars and euros, while Russian businesses scrambled to protect their finances. In addition to sanctions, the US and Germany announced they will send Stinger missiles to Ukraine among other military supplies. The European Union - founded to ensure peace on the continent after World War II - is supplying lethal aid for the first time, including fighter jets. EU defence ministers were to meet Monday to discuss how to get the pledged weaponry into Ukraine. Germany's defence minister said without elaborating that her country has channels and possibilities to do that, and a trainload of Czech equipment arrived Sunday. Blocking off those shipments will clearly be a key Russian priority. It remains to be seen how much the weaponry will help Ukraine fend off Russia's vastly greater arsenal. The increasingly erratic Putin made a clear link between ever-tightening sanctions and his decision Sunday to raise Russia's nuclear posture. He also pointed at aggressive statements by NATO as a reason for his move, a reference to his long-running stance that the US-led alliance is an existential threat to Russia. US and British officials played down Putin's nuclear threat, and its practical meaning was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarine-based nuclear forces that are prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not. A tiny sliver of hope emerged as a Ukrainian delegation arrived on the border with Belarus for talks with Russian officials Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said it would demand an immediate cease-fire. While Ukraine sent its defense minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation is led by Putin's adviser on culture - an unlikely envoy for ending the war and a sign of how Moscow views the talks. It wasn't immediately clear what Putin is seeking in the talks or from the war itself. Western officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow's Cold War-era influence. His comments Sunday raised fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake. In New York, the 193-member UN General Assembly scheduled an emergency session Monday on Russia's invasion. With the Ukrainian capital besieged, the Russian military offered to allow residents to leave Kyiv via a safe corridor, raising fears a further onslaught is coming. The mayor of the city of 3 million had earlier expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. Battles also broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from Russian forces. Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Sea of Azov, is hanging on, said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. The Russian military claimed Monday it had taken full control of Ukraine's airspace after showering its air bases and air defense batteries with air and missile strikes. But a similar claim on the first day of the invasion turned out to be untrue, and US officials said Sunday that Moscow has failed to fully control Ukrainian skies. In Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling. During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, looked directly into the Associated Press video camera capturing the scene. Show this to Putin," he said angrily. The eyes of this child, and crying doctors." Their resuscitation efforts failed, and the girl lay dead on a gurney, covered by her blood-splattered jacket. Nearly 900 km (560 miles) away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv. I wish I had never lived to see this, said Bystritska, an 87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 150 km (90 miles) from Kyiv. Among Western sanctions is a freeze on Russia's hard currency reserves, which Putin had built up in recent years to increase the country's economic independence. The unprecedented move could have devastating consequences for the country's financial system. The US, European Union and Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which facilitates moving money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide. by Giorgio Bernardelli So far, the Israeli leader has kept a low profile in the crisis, trying to preserve ties with Ukraine whilst keeping his Russia connection, especially to counter Iran. Now however, Israel will have to take sides at the UN General Assembly and domestic public opinion is pressing for a condemnation of Russia. Meanwhile, 2,500 Ukrainian Jews have already applied for immigration to Israel under the Law of Return. Milan (AsiaNews) Israeli Prime Minister Neftali Bennett has told members of his cabinet to keep a low profile in the name of the countrys interests whilst offering himself as mediator to Russian President Vladimir Putin, an offer rejected so far. But with each passing day following the invasion of Ukraine, it is getting harder and harder for the Israeli leader to keep up this position. On the one hand, Jews of Ukrainian origin living in Israel are demanding a strong stance against Moscow, whilst its strongest ally, the United States, is calling on Israel to show solidarity. On the other, Israel has nurtured a close relationship with Vladimir Putin in view of Russias wider role in the Middle Est over the past decade. From an Israeli point of view, ties with Moscow matter since Russia controls Syrias airspace, which Israeli planes have violated in order to carry out raids against pro-Iranian targets. For this reason, Israel has tried so far to keep a balance between the two sides with different responses, ranging from Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who condemned the Russian invasion, to the more tight-lipped Bennett. But now that the issue is before the UN General Assembly, Israel will have to make an explicit choice, and decide whether to vote in favour of the resolution condemning Russia or abstain. Within the country among public opinion, pressure is mounting for a condemnation of Russia. Ukraine is a country that has many ties to Israel and in many areas, from the thousands of Ukrainian engineers working in the Israeli hi-tech sector to wheat imports from Ukraine. Even Breslov Hasidim (Ultra-Orthodox Jews), one of Israels most important Haredi groups, have their roots in Uman, not far from Kyiv, where thousands go on pilgrimage every year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has recently tried to leverage these ties by asking for military supplies and putting Ukraine's official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on the table in exchange. Bennett has so far rejected the request. There is also an entirely Jewish aspect to the story, since Ukraine is home to one of the largest communities in the diaspora. According to the Jewish Agency, the body that oversees the immigration of Jews from all over the world to Israel, about 2,500 Ukrainian Jews have already applied for immediate immigration to Israel since the start of the Russian invasion. Officially, approximately 43,000 Jews live in Ukraine, but according to the rules of the Law of Return, which guarantees the right to immigration to Israel for anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, about 200,000 Ukrainians could potentially demand Israeli citizenship. The Jewish Agency is preparing to receive at least 10,000 in the coming days. In Israeli public opinion, their fate today overlaps with the memory of past persecutions. Ukraine is the country of Babi Yar, the site of the terrible tragedy that saw the Nazis exterminated about 200,000 people, mostly Jews, between 1941 and 1943. At present, Jews from Odessa are heading to Moldova, precisely towards Chisinau which at the beginning of the 20th century saw one of the worst pogroms in history. Since then, the old wounds have never healed and still weigh on Jewish consciousness as images of the last Shabbat celebrated in Kyivs underground shelters are shared on social media. In a press release, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, said it deplores the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which will inevitably lead to dire consequences. At the same time, it slams the two sides for the propagandist discourse accompanying the current hostilities and the irresponsible statements and completely inaccurate comparisons with Nazi ideology. by Dario Salvi AsiaNews meets the mayor of Turkey's economic and commercial capital on the sidelines of the "Mediterranean Frontier of Peace" event. He calls the Russian invasion of Ukraine a "shame" and hopes for a "solution" through "dialogue". The focus is on young people and the weaker sections of the population. Religions are a resource, the State must be secular. Florence (AsiaNews) - The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a "shame" that has brought war back to the heart of Europe, for which a "solution" must be found through "discussion and dialogue," moreover the concept of "citizenship" as an element that unites the inhabitants of a territory regardless of their professed religion, erasing the term "minority" in a reality in which its members can benefit from "equal rights and duties". These are the key concerns for the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, shared in an interview with AsiaNews, on the sidelines of the "Mediterranean Frontier of Peace" conference held in Florence from 23 to 27 February. A charismatic leader and high profile member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), he defeated the government candidate and former Prime Minister Binali Yldrm in the 2019 elections, taking control of what is considered the country's economic and commercial capital. Analysts and experts consider him to be one of the most authoritative challengers in the 2023 presidential elections, and one of the few who could overturn the decades-long leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Akp. Below the full interview: Mayor Imamoglu, let's start with current events: what repercussions might the Russian invasion of Ukraine have on the Mediterranean and the Middle East? This century does not deserve a war, which that I consider unacceptable, we should discuss everything we can do to solve this issue. Nations should come together and find a solution, through discussion and dialogue. We condemn this attack and hope that [the dispute] can be resolved as quickly as possible, to bring peace to the area. In this century of pandemic [from Covid-19] and economic crisis, now we also have a war in the heart of Europe... it is a shame! You mentioned the pandemic. What is the situation in Istanbul after two years of Covid and a nationwide economic crisis? The world is facing an economic crisis, but Turkey is one of the nations that is experiencing this crisis most profoundly. Our city is one of the most exposed because of its large population, which includes two million refugees out of a total of 16 million people, but if we add the working population around it, we reach almost 20 million. When we took over the government of Istanbul three years ago, the budget reserved for social policies was around 3-4%, today we have raised it to 15-20% for the well-being of our citizens, especially children, young people and mothers. We have set ourselves the goal of creating a bridge of solidarity between our wealthy citizens and our poorer citizens, so that one can assist the other. Turkey has for years promoted a policy of welcoming refugees, especially Syrians. The crisis has forced radical changes... Our country has successfully promoted a policy of welcoming refugees, even though some mistakes were made over time, and now we have a large refugee component here. With the war in Syria we have seen the failure of the international community, which has failed to resolve the crisis. I hope that the war between Russia and Ukraine will not turn out to be another failure in this sense, but that it can be resolved as soon as possible to avert the risk of another huge wave of refugees and immigration. In Turkey we have more than five million Syrians alone, then there are the others [from Afghanistan, Iraq, etc]: the real solution is to guarantee them a safe return to their homeland and be able to live in peace in their homeland. A recent study shows deep dissatisfaction among young people in Turkey, who are increasingly eager to emigrate. What policies have you thought of to stem the exodus? Istanbul faces the same challenges as other big cities around the world right now: urbanisation, climate change, quality of life, combating poverty. For us the challenge is even greater because it is a young metropolis, almost 50% of the population under 30, and we have to give them hope, make them believe that they can achieve their goals and their dreams can come true. However, they are compounded by problems that affect the entire nation such as education, finding a job, which is why the most educated young people or those with the most opportunities are looking abroad for a solution. The only way to reverse this trend is to make profound changes to national policies so that Turkey - like Istanbul - remains a land of opportunity. Next year we will celebrate the centenary [of the republic and presidential elections will be held, ed] and I believe that there will be profound transformations, young people will be able to rediscover dreams can come true in their homeland. One year ago, Pope Francis made a historic visit to Iraq. What can you tell us about inter-religious dialogue and relations between Christians and Muslims? I see the union of these parts as a richness, a colours that enriches the city, and Istanbul is perhaps the most beautiful centre of this union on a global level. When we took over the government of the metropolis, we tried from the beginning to ensure the widest possible confrontation and dialogue between different religions, and we did the same in the municipal administration, choosing people of different faiths (as well as age and gender), so that from within they could guarantee that funerals and weddings would take place in accordance with the religion practised. The aim is to unite and discuss each other's needs and requirements; we also promote meetings to address the most important issues and find - as far as possible - solutions to problems. For everyone it is a kind of spiritual journey and, regardless of their faith, it is an opportunity to mature. At the same time, as mayor I support the value of the secular nature of the State and institutions and religious freedom. I hope that Istanbul will increasingly be a city where all believers can live happily and in peace. Another point is not to use the term 'minority', because we are all 'citizens' and members of a community with equal rights and duties. This applies to the city I administer and to the country: this is my wish for the future! by Melani Manel Perera Because of war, Ukrainian holiday makers cannot leave the island nation. Today the Sri Lankan government will discuss the possibility of providing financial assistance and extending visas. In recent days, protests broke out in front of the Russian embassy. Colombo (AsiaNews) The Sri Lankan government will consider providing financial assistance and extending visas for thousands of Ukrainian tourists stranded during their vacations by the war that broke out in their country. Sri Lankas Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said that he will make such a proposal at todays cabinet meeting. The Foreign Ministry and the Department of Immigration and Emigration are already holding talks on the matter," Ranatunga noted. According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, some 4,000 Ukrainian tourists and 11,500 Russian tourists are in the country. Some staged protests yesterday on the beaches in Galle and Mirissa in the countrys Southern Province. "We came to Sri Lanka for a vacation. Now we are helpless," one woman told the media. "I don't understand why the world is silent. This can happen not only to us but to everyone if the world does not act quickly, she added. We are having sleepless nights, said a tearful young woman, worried about her mother and sister, stranded by Russian bombing in two different parts of Ukraine. A friend explained that they had come to Sri Lanka for a short vacation, but now hade no idea when they would be able to go home. It would be great if the Sri Lankans could help us survive until we leave, as our money is running out, she added. After Putin's attack, Ukrainians in Sri Lanka demonstrated in front of the Russian embassy in Colombo, urging Russian citizens "not to be silent". The European Union delegation in Sri Lanka, in agreement with the embassies of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania, condemned the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian armed forces. "Russia's recent actions with regard to Ukraine have been a blatant breach of the UN Charter and the Minsk Agreements, they said in a statement. The UN Charter prohibits 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, it went on to say. "This poses a serious threat to the rules-based international order, which we have together vowed to stand up for around the world, including the Indo-Pacific region. As students in all but a handful of Connecticut districts headed into their first day of optional mask wearing in schools, experts say the issue brings into focus health disparities in the state and how COVID-19 has affected people of color. Though vocal and well-organized protests have lent a political flavor to the issue of masks in schools, local decisions regarding whether to extend mandates beyond Feb. 28 have largely fallen along geographic lines, not political ones. Advertisement While Connecticuts largest cities, including Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury, Danbury and Stamford, will continue masking, most suburban and rural communities, regardless of political leaning, have announced they will drop their mask requirement now that the statewide mandate has expired. Advertisement Frances Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said the differences in approach should be a call to action to reexamine COVID-19s disparate impact on at-risk communities, which in Connecticut are most often concentrated in cities. In the cities, keeping the masks on is the right thing to do. But why do they have to do it? Rabinowitz said. Why is it that the vaccination rate is so low, and the prevalence and hospitalizations are much higher? Vaccination rates among young children lag behind other age groups nationwide, but theres been a marked difference in rates between Connecticut communities. West Hartford Public Schools, among those districts doing away with mandates come March, cited changes in Department of Public Health guidance, declining case numbers and the districts success with vaccinations. In a letter to West Hartford parents last week, Superintendent Tom Moore said the districts vaccination rates are within the top five of any community in the state, far outperforming state and national averages for school-aged children. Sixty-four percent of West Hartford students age 5-11 have received at least one dose, compared to just 19% of Hartford students from the same cohort. And more than 98% of West Hartford students age 12-17 have received at least one dose, compared to 45% of students 12 and up in Hartford schools. While masks are set to come off in neighboring districts, Hartford Public Schools announced last week it would keep its mask requirement in place through March, and revisit it on April 1. Advertisement Dr. Juan Salazar, physician-in-chief at Connecticut Childrens, said it makes sense to extend the mandate in Hartford schools given low vaccination rates in the younger population, still-high transmission rates, high positivity rates. As of Feb. 22, 46% of 5- to 11-year-olds statewide have received their first dose, the state said Thursday. In Connecticuts large cities, rates in this age range lag behind. Of the cities that have chosen to continue masking, Rabinowitz said, theyre making the appropriate decision based on the data. But its a symptom of the inequity that has existed forever, and certainly is manifest in the pandemic, she said. I believe that it warrants a very deep review to figure out why this is occurring. We need to talk to people in the cities to determine why it is happening the way it is. Health experts havent landed on a single explanation, but Ayesha Clarke, deputy director of Health Equity Solutions and former Hartford Public Schools board chair, said it not just about hesitancy so much as its about access. We have to ... make sure we are providing space of access to those families that support their own schedules, Clarke said. Advertisement Hartford city and school officials have worked to cut down the barriers to vaccine access that existed when the vaccines were first distributed, and in March 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont launched an equity target to address an emerging gap between white residents and residents of color a major concern last spring. Discrepancies in vaccination rates are just one example of the disparate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color and other at-risk groups stretching back to the beginning of the pandemic, when Connecticut residents of color were testing positive for, and dying from, the disease at disproportionate rates. Disparities in access to health care, as well as mistrust in health departments and the government built upon historical incidents of malpractice, have further compounded the pandemics impact. We know that in our urban communities, statistically, there are more health issues, Clarke said, more issues with affordability, and with preventive health. All those complications we know are in our urban communities, and COVID-19 hits the most vulnerable people at a higher rate. And when surging COVID-19 cases prompt school closures and delays, its urban students who are most impacted, Clarke added. Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. > Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, superintendent of Hartford Public Schools, noted last week that many Hartford students live in multigenerational households and face the risk of passing the virus on to older, more-vulnerable relatives. Advertisement While requirements are dropping along geographic lines, infectious disease specialists have noted that the coronavirus doesnt recognize borders. Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist at Hartford HealthCare, said that the differences in masking from town to town make sense from a political perspective, but not a scientific one. From a pure science perspective, we should be de-masking all at the same time, he said. Wu said he doesnt think its time yet to lift mask mandates but that the time might come soon, possibly in a week or two. Courant staff reporter Alex Putterman contributed to this report. Seamus McAvoy may be reached at smcavoy@courant.com. Two flights a week operated by Qatar Airways continued to take Afghan citizens abroad. Taking advantage of the war in Ukraine, the Taliban suspendes the operation and conducts searches and detentions in various districts of Kabul and other cities. The Koranic students say they are doing so for security reasons, but those who had worked with NATO or the previous government fear for their lives. Kabul (AsiaNews) - Tens of thousands of Afghans who were still waiting to be evacuated from the country will no longer be able to leave, the Taliban spokesman and Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Zabihullah Mujahid announced yesterday, saying that no evacuation operation will be authorised until the conditions of Afghan refugees in refugee camps abroad improve. At the same time, Taliban forces are conducting house-to-house searches in the capital and other cities, assuring that they would only target criminals and terrorists. In reality, it is likely that the former Koranic students who returned to power in August want to take advantage of European and American involvement in a confrontation with Russia to further suppress internal opposition. The purpose of the ban on travelling abroad is to avoid difficulties for Afghan citizens in a foreign country, the Islamic Emirate spokesman explained. Mujahid said he was well aware of the situation of Afghans stranded in Abu Dhabi, where hundreds had protested in recent weeks, asking to be resettled in the United States. Not only have the evacuations managed by Qatar Airways with two weekly flights been suspended (it is not known for how long), but also foreign travel in general. Women have been forbidden to travel abroad without a male companion: 'It is the order of Islamic shari'a,' Mujahid said. Thousands of people try every day to escape overland by crossing the border into Iran. A letter signed by the head of the General Directorate of Border Police of the Ministry of the Interior instructed the police stations at Kabul airport and along the borders to prevent anyone who has collaborated with the US or NATO from leaving the country. Meanwhile, the Taliban have conducted capture and detention operations "in non-Pashtun neighbourhoods", AsiaNews sources explained. "They went to the west where the Hazaras live and to the north where the Tajiks reside". The Taliban said they had arrested six Islamic State members, nine kidnappers and 53 "professional thieves", making it appear that they had conducted the searches for the security of the capital and the country. "We want to assure the residents of Kabul that these operations are not against ordinary people," the deputy minister said. "Residents of the city should have confidence that the search is proceeding carefully." But it is hard to believe: once again the operation, which began on Friday, has put those with links to the previous government or who had worked with international forces before the Taliban takeover on high alert. Patrols on the streets, checkpoints at strategic intersections, and an all-female team was deployed to search women. The intimidations, house searches, arrests and violence against members of different ethnic groups and women are crimes and must stop immediately, tweeted Andreas von Brandt, the European Unions ambassador to Afghanistan. Despite Putins war we are watching you, he added, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has dominated news cycles for the past few days. Focus on securing Europe from Putin, replied Muhammad Jalal, a Taliban official with a prolific social media presence. Afghans know what they are doing. by Sumon Corraya Every month 400 Bangladeshi women and minors are victims of trafficking every month. Some 40 million children are vulnerable in the country. Talitha Kums local branch held a webinar to take action, provide protection, and raise awareness. Dhaka (AsiaNews) Talitha Kum Bangladesh, the local branch of a global network of women religious against trafficking, held a webinar last Saturday to raise awareness among religious, youth and Church leaders in Bangladesh on the subject of child trafficking. Members of the Talitha Kum network from the Vatican, Europe and other Asian countries took part in the event. Out of a population of 170 million in Bangladesh, more than 40 million of its 66 million children are vulnerable, said Tony Michael Gomes, director of Communications, Advocacy and External Engagement for World Vision Bangladesh. UNICEF reports state that approximately 400 women and children in Bangladesh are victims of trafficking every month, he explained. Another study notes that some 300,000 Bangladeshi children and women aged 12 to 30 have been trafficked to India in the past decade alone. Early marriage has made the situation worse, especially because of the long lockdown. Unfortunately, this is a traditional cultural practice, and many parents see marriage as a means of protecting their daughters from economic burden and sexual and physical violence. The actions that the Church can undertake to raise awareness, starting with parents, is of great importance. The work of Talitha Kum Bangladesh is part of this. The network of Catholic nuns is raising awareness in parishes, schools and dispensaries, explained Father Liton H. Gomes, secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace in Bangladesh. For him, Religious leaders in Bangladesh and India must adopt a concrete action plan to serve these victims and prevent trafficking. To this end, Talitha Kum is committed to the UN 2030 development agenda. Its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include gender equality (goal number 5), especially the elimination of child and forced marriages. by Vladimir Rozanskij In many Ukrainian churches of the Moscow Patriarchate, the name of Patriarch Kirill was not mentioned during Sunday liturgies. The Moscow Orthodox hierarchy allegedly did not approve of the invasion. From the conflict a possible push for the reunion of all the Churches of Ukraine. Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Russian war against Ukraine is putting a severe strain on the Orthodox Christian faith, to which both peoples in the conflict belong. In many Ukrainian Orthodox Churches belonging to the patriarchate of Moscow, the name of Patriarch Kirill was not recalled during Sunday liturgies, causing many faithful to turn away from the Russian Church. The Metropolitan of the autocephalous Church Epifanyj (Dumenko) appealed to Kirill to intercede with President Putin to stop the war. The Patriarch of Moscow, in turn, issued an appeal for "the Lord to protect Russian land", specifying that he was referring to "Kievan Rus', from which Russia, Ukraine and Belarus originated". The website Meduza.ru has gathered the testimony of several priests divided on the military operations, but united in their ecclesial belonging. Proto-priest Nikolai Bandurin is parish priest in the church in the village of Andreevo-Melentevo in the Rostov region, bordering the Donbass, 30 kilometres from the most disputed border. In his opinion, "it was time for some order in Ukraine, President Putin is right... God is with us, and He loves everyone, we must pray and hope that everything will go well". Protoierej Aleksej Uminskij, on the other hand, is the parish priest of the Holy Trinity Church in Moscow's Khokhly ("Ukrainians'") district, and says he cannot support his country's military actions. "I pray for peace, I pray that all this ends as soon as possible, and that as few people as possible suffer from it". Fr. Aleksej quotes the words of Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) and the Russian Metropolitan of Kiev Onufryj (Berezovskij), who called the Russian invasion a "fratricidal war... our hierarchy has not approved this military action at all, it is a tragedy without justification or explanation". Uminsky notes with regret that 'there is a strong division among the people with respect to the war, it is a war among us, even among those who come to church and take communion at the one chalice'. The Orthodox Church in Russia is very disoriented, while in Ukraine the people are rallying around their pastors in the face of aggression. Protoierej Aleksej Pelevin, who directs the charitable sector of the eparchy of Kaluga, in southern Russia, recalls the words of the Gospel: "There is no greater love than to give one's life for one's friends". He maintains that each Russian soldier fulfils this commandment, and the Church "has always blessed those who put themselves at the service of the defence of their homeland: we pray for all our soldiers, as the liturgical litanies also prescribe, in Ukraine as in Syria and throughout the world". Fr Aleksej tries to welcome refugees from Donbass, as Patriarch Kirill has recommended. Fr. Aleksandr Satomsky, on the other hand, looks after the Church of the Epiphany in Yaroslavl, central Russia, and does not intend to expound his thoughts on the ongoing war, "because it could divide people, and division is the work of the devil, but I know that for God there are no useless people, and Jesus went up on the cross for everyone, without looking at who is right and who is wrong.... we pray that the light of reason triumphs!". The Metropolitan of Belgorod, Ioann (Popov), who leads his Church in a region bordering Ukraine, says that "when there is a war, priests should only pray for peace. We do not understand what happens, and in these cases we must pray that God enlightens our minds, that love wins and peace is restored... there will never be love as long as we continue to destroy one another". The Metropolitan recalled that the Orthodox liturgy prays for "the multiplication of love" and quoted St Nicholas of Serbia, who said that "when love decreases in people, they feel the need to restore justice, but often they no longer know what it is". An important Russian theologian and historian is the protoierej Georgij Mitrofanov, according to whom "priests today must help people not to lose their faith journey, regardless of whether they are in a war or peace zone, because in these circumstances it is easy to lose the Christian meaning of life". Even those who are engaged in war, like the soldiers, Fr. Georgij recalls, "must not forget to be Christians, trying not to shed the blood of the enemy, not to become instruments of diabolical hatred". All wars are fratricidal, because all men are brothers: "The Cossacks who returned from the war were forbidden to set foot in church for a year, because they were covered in shame". Archbishop Evstratij (Zorja) represents the autocephalous Ukrainian Church, and accuses Putin of "Jesuit thinking", which in the Russian world is synonymous with hypocrisy: because there are groups of exalted nationalists in Ukraine, then the whole country must be subjected to the "superior force", but Ukrainians are good people of faith, they do not want to participate in the restoration of "the empire of evil" and "never before have they needed the Church, they seek consolation and spiritual support, even just a word of hope, to be able to believe in the victory of truth". Evstratij's hope is that in this task all the Churches of Ukraine can finally be united, driven by mercy towards the suffering people. by John Ai Chinese propaganda manipulates opinions on the invasion of Ukraine. Official media quote Russian media, while opinions on the web against the war are censored. Beijing authorities want to avoid criticism from the international community and possible retaliation against Chinese citizens in Ukraine. Rome (AsiaNews) - As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine intensifies, Chinese authorities are growing more cautious in their propaganda and lowering their profile to avoid a backlash to their image. Beijing abstained in the UN Security Council vote against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the meantime, the Chinese authorities have remained silent on Russia's aggression, while refraining from expressing support for Moscow. In a phone call with Vladimir Putin, President Xi Jinping said that "China determines its position on the Ukrainian issue according to its own interests". The Chinese ambassador to Kiev, Fan Xianrong, announced that he would remain in his post. Fan suggested that Chinese citizens in Ukraine should understand the feelings of Ukrainians and not make provocations. The diplomat reiterated that China "respects Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and the integrity of its territory, in the hope that the country will maintain "peace and stability". China's official media reported Russian propaganda but also asked Chinese internet users to tone down "speeches praising" the invasion. Moscow propaganda picks up on reports on conditions in Ukraine from the government-run Russia Today and blames the Ukrainian authorities for causing the conflict on their pro-Western policies. The authorities in China also censor information unfavourable to Russia and anti-war sentiment unleashed by Moscow. The Chinese translation of an open letter by 2,000 Russian scientists and journalists against the war was removed on the Chinese social network WeChat. The government also censored a statement against the Russian invasion published by five Chinese professors. The position of the Chinese state media is that Russia's military action aims to prevent the eastward enlargement of NATO. According to them, the Russian attacks only target Ukrainian military facilities and infrastructure, not the civilian population. They tell - falsely - that the Russian advance is proceeding fast and smoothly, avoiding using words like 'invasion' and 'war'. Most online comments are in favour of the Russian army and Putin. Chinese netizens also warn that Taiwan will be abandoned by the US and the West like Ukraine, and that China can easily destroy Taipei's defensive infrastructure in a matter of hours. There are also outrageous statements suggesting that Ukrainian women be brought to China to be married to Chinese men: posts that have added fuel to anti-Chinese sentiment in Ukraine. After Ukrainians in China turned such information over to their country, Chinese students in Ukraine say they faced hostility from the local population. To save the lives of Chinese in Ukraine, one of them posted a video urging web users in China to stop posting mocking comments. The state-run Xinhua news agency reminded Chinese internet users to behave appropriately and post rational comments. In these days of crisis, Chinese authorities are also trying to promote patriotism, especially the idea that the government can protect Chinese people abroad and bring them back home at critical times. In the patriotic-themed Chinese film "Wolf Warrior II", which was the 2017 blockbuster, protagonist Wu Jing() rescues Chinese citizens by crossing a war zone in Africa. The evacuation, done while flying the national flag, takes place after the warring parties stop to let the Chinese convoy through. However, the Chinese diplomatic mission in Ukraine failed to replicate the exploits of the film. On 25 February, the embassy in Kiev reminded Chinese citizens and companies to be cautious for their safety. In case of long car journeys, it suggested displaying a national flag. At first, Chinese media said that national flags were the "amulet" of the Chinese people" and that they were sold out in Kiev. Many compatriots who could not buy one sewed it by hand. On 26 February, the embassy suddenly changed its position, asking Chinese citizens not to reveal their identity or show any signs of identification. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. The Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, the states largest secondary school system, is poised to break away from the state Department of Education and become an independent state agency. The transition, effective July 1 pending final sign-off by the state legislature, comes amid several other initiatives to bolster opportunities and access to education and training programs for potential workers in manufacturing or other trade industries. Advertisement Officials say the move will grant the technical system, a district with just under 12,000 students across 20 schools, greater control over its finances and curriculum, while enabling the state Department of Education to focus exclusively on K-12 learning. CSDE has goals that are very different than that of an individual school district such as CTECS, reads a report prepared by CTECS officials. The different missions result in an internal competition for resources and advocacy, distracting both entities from their true purpose. Separating will enable both CTECS and CSDE to be singularly focused on their missions. Advertisement This gives the space to the district to do all of those things they want to do, without coming through us as the middleman ... additional space for CTECS to grow into this new economy here in the state, in this new century, said Eric Scoville, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education. What does this mean for current and future students? Dr. Ellen Solek, interim superintendent of CTECS since October 2021, said one of the most important elements of the transition comes in the creation of an executive director. The executive director, who would be appointed by the governor, would serve as the primary liaison between CTECS and the legislature, allowing the superintendent to focus more on school programming. The executive director would also be responsible for developing connections with Connecticuts business and industry leaders, ideally bolstering the pipeline from classrooms to the workplace. Solek said she expects to see a quantum leap in trade and shop curriculum. With strong communication between school and business leaders, students can get a better sense of what they need to know and be able to do while studying their trade. That will be a very significant and impactful change, constant updates to our curriculum in those areas, because we want to be sure that were meeting the needs of business and industry in Connecticut in a way that our kids can hit the ground running, Solek said. Ashley Zane, government affairs associate at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association said she expects the move to enable technical schools to deliver more student-centric curriculum. Zane said theres been a huge shift lately from workforce development programs focusing strictly on post-secondary education, to starting at earlier ages. Advertisement Now, I think this is really going to help develop the workforce pipeline starting at the high school levels, and also help those technical schools recruit and look for talented students, Zane said. Meanwhile, Solek said technical schools are growing in popularity. CTECS has received 5,000 new applicants so far this year, she said, up from 1,000 new applicants at the same time last year. I think were getting the word out effectively, and this would help along those lines, Solek said. Why is the shift happening? The technical systems transition out of the state Department of Education was put in motion by legislation signed into law in 2017, designed to streamline operations and give the system more control over its budget. In a report on the transition, officials wrote that the change would also address a potential conflict of interest, arguing that the education department should not be responsible for compliance oversight of its own schools. Under the new structure, fiscal oversight will be conducted by the systems superintendent and the executive director. The executive director will report periodically to the legislature. Advertisement The new agency will have its own $170 million budget and about 1,500 personnel for fiscal year 2023, according to Gov. Ned Lamonts budget proposal. In future years, the technical system will have a line-by-line budget similar to that of the education department, instead of representing a single line item within the CSDE budget that leaves CTECS vulnerable to deep cuts, officials said. The legislature approved the transition in 2017, which by statute will be finalized by July 1. This session, CTECS is asking lawmakers to fund additional administrative positions. Fiscal oversight and accountability for the technical school system emerged as topics of discussion during a 2017 scandal that led to the resignation of Nivea L. Torres as the systems superintendent. At the time, state officials were investigating Torres approval of more than $4.5 million to a public relations firm. In November 2018, the state Department of Education entered a memorandum of understanding that included procedures set out by the State Contracting Standards Board. Items included purchasing training for education department officials, and quarterly reports through June 2020 from education officials to the standards board on new, renewed and extended contracts. Advertisement The education department also conducted its own audit activities and brought in an outside audit firm to identify any additional recoverable funds. Solek was not part of CTECS at the time, and could not say whether the technical systems separation from the state Department of Education was related. But, any time a large organization like CTECS has the opportunity to become more accountable ... thats a good thing, Solek said. What else is happening with technical and manufacturing education? Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. > With Connecticut looking to fill thousands of open manufacturing jobs, Hartford and Goodwin University in January announced a partnership to open two manufacturing training centers in the capital city by the fall. Zane said there has been more alignment between businesses and the curriculum in recent years, with partnerships and involvement from Office of Workforce Strategies leading to classroom-based training that better prepares students for work in the industry. State lawmakers are considering legislation that would require the state Department of Education, the technical school system and the Office of Workforce Strategies to create a student work release policy in every district, Zane said. Advertisement Zane said many technical schools and some K-12 public schools already have work release policies, but they arent always utilized or well-known among students. The district requirement would enable students to get supervised, work-based training within manufacturing or other trades before going on to a certificate program or post-secondary education. We see a lot of it happening in Europe, where theres a work-based learning component to their education, Zane said. So that would add some increased competitiveness, and really put our Connecticut students ahead. Seamus McAvoy may be reached at smcavoy@courant.com. And then, it was the optional 426 Hemi developing 425 horsepower, obviously as the unit that pretty much everybody was drooling after.The GTX that you can see in our photo gallery rolled off the assembly lines with a 440 under the hood, and while the same engine is still there supposed to put the wheels in motion, we have no clue if its running or not.The reason is as simple as it could be, and you dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. This is a project car in all regards, and according to eBay seller rwi.us.qjl3jzvdy7 , its been sitting for more than 25 years. In other words, not only the car is no longer in mint condition, but the engine could also be locked up.Of course, its hard to figure out if the V8 can still be saved or not, so if youre truly interested in buying this Plymouth GTX, youd better head over to Norfolk, Virginia, to check it out in person.The photos are worth a thousand words (and thank God this is the case, as the seller hasnt provided too many specifics anyway), so its not difficult to understand this GTX will require plenty of metalwork.What we dont know, however, is how original this Plymouth continues to be and whether any big parts are missing or not. This is something that makes quite a big difference, and for many people out there, it could be the deal-breaker making them walk away.The bidding is currently underway as we speak, but on the other hand, the asking price seems to be quite a shortcoming. At the time of writing, the car has received just one bid, so the price is currently at $5,000. The conglomerate is preparing for the hotels grand opening on March 1. But the company has invited some TikTok or YouTube stars to get the first-hand experience and write honest reviews about what to expect from the resort/theme park.Marketed as a full Star Wars experience , it encourages guests to come dressed as their favorite characters. Meanwhile, the official website invites them to come live your own epic Star Wars story. During the experience, you get to take part in special missions or enjoy an excursion to the planet Batuu, also known as the Star Wars land within Disney Worlds Hollywood Studios.The hotel, called Halcyon, is supposed to resemble a luxury cruise ship in space and, for authenticity, it has no windows. The standard rooms have a queen bed, bunk beds, and a pullout bed, with their own bathroom, seemingly good enough for five people. Despite its price, the hotel doesnt include the typical lush amenities like a pool or spa. Some of the reviews have claimed the space might become too small for a family of four.Almost seven years in the making, the entrance resembles a bunker, and you get to step inside a launch pod, (commonly known as elevator, for humans), to take you to your destination in a galaxy far, far away. After the journey with the Halcyon Starcruiser, you arrive at The Atrium, which is the heart of the Halcyon starcruiser and the meeting place for the crew and passengers.Aboard, you get to wield a Lightsaber, operate the ships navigation and defense systems, or take a thrilling interactive mission at Star Wars: Galaxys Edge (Disneys themed land at Hollywood Studios).The first few reviews have compared the experience to that of HBOs Westworld, but less murderous, and with less involvement in the story. You get to be a part of the story in different adventures, but youre not the captain at the helm of the ship.The spaceship "ride" starts at $4,800 for two people, $5,300 for three, and costs nearly $6,000 for four people, for two nights. And it sounds like the ultimate experience for a Star Wars fan. If you can afford it, that is. Acura spokesperson Chris Naughton told Motor1 that 2022 is the final year for the ILX, an outcome that everyone anticipated because two compact sedans based on the Civic are one too many. The Integra was developed from day one to deliver on the original lineage that began back in 1986.Currently priced from $27,300 excluding destination charge, the ILX wont be missed given that its based upon the ninth-generation Civic. The only powertrain available is a 2.4-liter NA engine driving the front wheels through a dual-clutch transmission with eight forward ratios. No fewer than four trims are offered right now: ILX, Premium, A-Spec Premium, and the A-Spec Technology that starts from a princely $33,200 sans destination.Even the base specification features LED headlights, daytime running lights, and taillights, along with a power moonroof with tilt and slide functions, heated front seats, and AcuraWatch driver-assist technologies.At the other end of the spectrum, customers are presented with standard navigation, AcuraLink connected services, an ELS Studio premium audio system, GPS-linked climate control, and Shark Gray-painted wheels.Rated at 201 horsepower and 180 pound-feet (244 Nm) of torque, the free-breathing four in the ILX will be replaced by a 1.5-liter turbo-four in the Integra. This engine is closely related to that in the Civic Si , which cranks out 200 horsepower on the nose and 192 pound-feet (260 Nm) of torque.Recently listed by a Wisconsin-based retailer with optional all-wheel drive , the Integra is believed to feature only front-wheel drive. Acura will open the order books next month, and the starting price is estimated at $30,000. This was the worlds largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8 Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022 The Antonov AN-225, a strategic airlift cargo aircraft that held several world records, was built in the 1980s and was still in service, being used to airlift medical supplies in a variety of emergency situations and for appearances at air shows.It was undergoing repairs at the Hostomel airfield, when the Russians seized control, according to Ukrainian state defense company Ukroboronprom , which also operates Antonov Company. Because one of the engines had been removed, the aircraft could not lift-off, although the appropriate commands were given.Footage and photos circulated on social media show the hangar with the Mriya plane on fire, CNN reports. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has confirmed the news on social media, with Ukroboronprom saying that the iconic aircraft will be rebuilt at a later date, with all the expenses covered by Russia: an estimated $3 billion, spread over a five-year restoration project. Needless to say, that last statement is wishful thinking, for the time being at least.The Mriya, which means dream in Ukrainian, was an impressive piece of engineering. Only one such aircraft was ever built, though plans for a second once existed, and this further contributed to its icon status. Mriya took its first flight in 1988 and it remained, to its last day, the heaviest and largest aircraft ever built, while also holding the record for the heaviest single-item payload airlifted (418,830 lbs / 189,980 kg) and heaviest total payload airlifted (559,580 lbs / 253,820 kg).With a maximum payload of 705 tons (640 tonnes), it was powered by six turbofan engines, and in recent months, was used to transport medical aid to areas heavily affected by the ongoing international health crisis. Though Antonov Company has said confirmation on the condition of Mriya is pending on-site inspection, aviation enthusiasts worldwide are mourning the loss of a true legend. The aforementioned sum converts to $46,940 at current exchange rates, which is a helluva pile of hard-earned money. Although it doesnt feature a premium badge, the Mazda MX-5 Miata starts at 24,755 ($33,220) and its more rewarding in the twisties due to its lower curb weight. Whats more, the Japanese roadster comes with a manual while the BMW is auto only.Adding insult to injury, the Bavarian automaker offers a 2.0-liter turbo diesel in the guise of the 220d. The most appropriate specification is the M240i xDrive, which combines a torquey six-cylinder turbo with all-wheel drive for the princely price of 45,795 ($61,470) before optional extras.Compared to 184 and 190 horsepower for the four-cylinder lumps, the straight-six option develops 374 ponies and 500 Nm (369 pound-feet). With launch control turned on and in ideal conditions, the M240i xDrive scoots to 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in 4.3 seconds. Pretty good for a non-M car, but on the other hand, a stick shift with rear-wheel drive wouldve been a much better combo for the top-of-the-line specification.Produced in Mexico instead of Germany, the 2 Series Coupe measures 4,537 millimeters from nose to tail. Slightly lower and wider than its predecessor, the G42 offers 390 liters (13.7 cubic feet) of trunk capacity.Inspired by the 02 Series, the 2 Series Coupes exterior design has been criticized time and again by the marques fans. Not even Frank Stephenson, who penned the original X5, can explain the 2ers unusual stylistic traits.The Moroccan-born American designer attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed where BMW displayed the G42. He noted: The stand where I walked by to see this car was the loneliest place Ive ever seen in such a context. No viewers looking at the car, nobody stopping and looking at the car from afar, it was on its own . It was the most lonely sight that Ive ever seen. kW MPV The automaker has announced that it can be had from 30,265 (equal to $40,564) on-the-road. This makes it their third most affordable model after the platform-related 1 Series hatchback and 2 Series Gran Coupe, which start at 26,450 ($35,450) and 27,930 ($37,434), respectively.Choosing the 220i Active Tourer base model means having to live with a 1.5-liter three-pot, assisted by an electric motor. The combined output and torque are rated at 170 ps (168 hp / 125) and 280 Nm (207 lb-ft), for a 0 to 100 kph (0-62 mph) in 8.1 seconds, and a 220 kph (137 mph) top speed.Other powertrains available for theare the 2.0-liter turbo-four in the 223i, priced at 32,715 ($43,848), and the 2.0-liter diesel in the 218d, available from 31,820 ($42,648). The gasoline offering has 218 ps (215 hp / 160 kW) and 360 Nm (266 lb-ft), being 1.1 seconds quicker to 100 kph (62 mph) than the base model, and maxing out at 241 kph (150 mph). With the oil burner, which develops 150 ps (148 hp / 110 kW) and 360 Nm (266 lb-ft), the sprint takes 8.8 seconds, and top speed is 220 kph (137 mph). Two plug-in hybrids will join the lineup this summer.BMWs 2022 2 Series Active Tourer can be ordered in the Sport, Luxury, and M Sport trim levels. The entry-level has LED headlights, 17-inch wheels, Shadowline exterior trim, Sport seats with anthracite cloth upholstery, Parking Assistance with reversing camera, and Park Distance Control. The Luxury brings different 17-inch alloys, aluminum exterior trim, Vernasca leather upholstery, and heated front seats. Finally, the M Sport features the distinctive package on the outside, comes with 18-inch wheels, adaptive suspension, adaptive LED headlamps, electric folding side mirrors, Alcantara/Sensatec upholstery, wireless charging pad, and several other gizmos. EV ICE Unfortunately, Russias aggression against Ukraine made that incredibly evident. We had politicians saying that the invasion was a pretext for Vladimir Putin to drive attention away from climate change. They also said he could only put the world on the brink of widespread war because Europe needs Russian fossil fuels . Some others said that electric cars would have prevented the whole war because they would cut that dependency. That shows virtue signaling is not the only problem we face: stupidity also reached alarming levels among people that should have more than two functioning neurons.That does not mean that electric cars are not necessary. For anyone willing to have the freedom to drive anywhere they want, they are essential. Without EVs, driving enthusiasts will be empty-handed when combustion engines kick the bucket. As I wrote a while ago, some automakers are still trying to keep them alive by burning hydrogen , which is a terrible idea. Burning does not seem to be an option anymore, either for cars or for power generation.Deutsche Welle shows that in its documentary. Aliro Bolados, the president of the regional medical council in Antofagasta, Chile, released a study alerting about the high concentration of heavy metals in the air of that city due to copper mining in Chiquicamata, 235 kilometers (146 miles) away. According to Bolados, this mining activity makes lung cancer cases be the leading cause of death in the north of Chile.Copper is one of the primary raw materials needed for electric cars and batteries. To extract it from the Chuquicamata mine, a coal power plant had to be built in Tocopilla, 147 km (91 mi) away. The pollution it emits is also blamed for cancer. Fernando Andres Lillo Jerez, a 17-year-old city resident, died from lung cancer ten years ago. The documentary presents his case as an example of the dangers mining activity associated with burning coal can bring.The documentary escapes the temptation of highlighting cobalt extraction in Congo as the main human rights emergency involving batteries. We already know how damaging that is. Most battery manufacturers either say they need little cobalt or make sure to warn that the metal they buy comes from certified companies that prevent child labor and other human rights violations. Instead, it talks about graphite extraction in China, for example.Deutsche Welle shows how Chinese workers in ramshackle factories have to deal with graphite powder in the north of the country. By breathing that air, they could develop silicosis. This type of pulmonary fibrosis emerges from inhaling that powder, eventually leading the sick person not to be able to breathe anymore. In other words, it slowly kills them by suffocation.The miners are far from being the only people affected by graphite extraction. Residues from its mining are disposed of on open-air deposits, which harm farmers with the bad luck to live nearby. One of them said that avoiding handcuffs and prison time demanded him to remain quiet. Deutsche Welle was wise enough not to name this man nor where he lives. If you think it through, even showing his face was very risky.Rare earth elements also cause an environmental disaster in Baotou, inner Mongolia. Illegal disposal of wastewater filled with toxins, radioactive material such as thorium, and heavy metals is now polluting groundwater there. When this wastewater evaporates, it leaves behind dust that winds carry to cities and the populations lungs. Around Baotou, former villagers who lost their lands to pollution are classified by Deutsche Welle as the first green tech refugees.China and its police state could not contain that because the state owns the companies that make this mess. They pretend to comply with environmental regulations when inspections occur, getting back to illegally disposing of wastewater and other pollutants as soon as they end. That allows them to offer lower prices and help make motors and batteries cheaper.Whenever we celebrate that cells are getting more affordable, the explanation may lie here. On top of that, not even these battered factories and precarious working conditions are making prices decrease, as I told our readers in a recent article. Supply is not meeting demand, and prices will go up with the electric car frenzy unless we have more mines, more ramshackle plants for raw materials, and all the consequences mentioned here.Make no mistake: these materials are not used only in electric vehicles and their batteries. They are also on wind turbines, solar cells, and other components that produce the so-called green energy. To make matters worse, some of these clean energy solutions only generate electricity when certain conditions are met: sunny days for solar panels , winds for wind turbines, and so forth.Energy is more needed at night when people are back home. That makes batteries or other systems to store energy an essential part of the equation. Just installing wind turbines around without an economically feasible way to save that energy for when it is really needed is a waste of resources.With all that on the table, it is clear that only driving an electric car will not save the planet. That is especially true if thisfollows the same business modelvehicles have adopted for more than one hundred years. For our choices to really make a difference, we need a shift not only in what makes cars move: the way we do business also has to change. Riversimple has been trying to present a new solution to deal with cars and even raw materials that points to a more sustainable direction. It still works with the idea of profit and rewarding better solutions more than those that do not do that well. To the dismay of people who think capitalism is evil, it is still the best economic system available. What needs to be fixed are the terrible side effects it produces.Ironically, Riversimple ends the idea of owning a car or even the lithium and other raw materials in a battery. It turns everything into service and eliminates programmed obsolescence for good. Even if that does not work as planned, at least it tackles the central issue our way of life has created: it saves resources. There are not enough of them for humanity to keep living as it does. World Overshoot Day shows mankind takes everything for granted: oil, copper, graphite, cobalt, lithium, water, clean air, health. We are running out of all these things earlier each year while thinking we have infinite credit. Eventually, the bill will come. It has come to thousands of people already. Driving an electric car does not exempt you from following a model that no longer works. It may just save you from reckoning that the problem is still there. Presently, the Marine Corps (USMC), the U.S. Air Force ( USAF ), and the Navy all have their own variants of the plane, tweaked to serve their distinct needs. No matter the version though, the airplane is so new that some of these branches are still in the process of getting it.The Marine Wing Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VMFA-314), for instance, is the first Marine squadron to make the switch from the F/A-18A/C to the F-35C, getting the first one back in 2020. Now, two years later, the unit is moving to integrate the airplane into the Carrier Air Wing.As proof of how such an integration could change the way battles are fought, VMFA-314 deployed last week the F-35C to support the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, its Carrier Strike Group, but also the Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces, during an exercise held in Okinawa and titled Jungle Warfare Exercise 22.The effort involves 7,500 U.S. Marines and the above naval forces, but also MV-22B Ospreys, CH-53E Super Stallions , F/A-18s, F-35Bs, F/A-18s and EA-18Gs. All are meant to rehearse rapid deployments and joint warfighting concepts in response to a crisis threatening the security of islands and waterways.The role of the F-35C during the exercise is to conduct simulated offensive and defensive air support, as well as air to ground support training missions alongside the ground units involved. And it all happens in an area the American military describes as being a hilly double-canopy jungle. AWD EV In the UK, youll have to pay upwards of 34,990 (excluding subsidies) for the entry-level Ocean Sport, which offers a range of 275 miles (442 km). Meanwhile, the flagship spec Ocean Extreme variant can travel for 390 miles (627 km) on a single charge, thanks to its dual-motorsetup, featuring three driving modes and a host of innovative safety functions.Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the ideal place to showcase the Fisker Ocean, as our vehicle is full of advanced technology, including over-the-air offerings that we will take to a new level, said company CEO Henrik Fisker.With the Fisker Ocean's combination of performance, value and sustainability, I believe we have a unique electric vehicle with industry-first features, such as California Mode, a 17.1-inch rotating screen and the longest range in our segment.Europe is critical to the companys success as we work towards building the most sustainable vehicle and starting production in November, he added.As of today, 47 Fisker Ocean prototypes are under construction, with the CEO himself having reviewed their development just last week. The-maker is developing a comprehensive European strategy, which includes establishing an office in Munich, but also building a brand experience center in Germany, with other European countries to follow.Last year, Fisker created its Magic Works division in England, a branch that will develop special edition variants of the companys vehicles, alongside other various projects.If you fancy yourself a potential Ocean buyer, you should know the EV comes with an industry-leading basic warranty of six years / 100,000 km (62,000 miles), a powertrain warranty of 10 years / 160,000 km, and a battery warranty of 10 years / 160,000 km (99,400 miles). Information shared by Tagesspiegel shows that Brandenburgs officials met last Tuesday to discuss the final approval for Giga Berlin. According to the news, the Task Force Tesla meeting was brief, lasting only 20 minutes. It ended with a clear message that Brandenburg authorities will move to issue the final approval for Teslas Germany-based gigafactory.Not only that, but the German authorities started to prepare for the grand opening event scheduled for March 22. This includes police preparations to ensure safety for all people attending the event, especially as Tesla grounds have been the target of environmentalists protests before. Tagesspiegel does not rule out the opening ceremony being pushed back one day, to March 23.Just like before, in Shanghai , the opening ceremony of Giga Berlin is expected to be marked with the handover of the first production Model Y crossovers to customers. According to the same source, a total of 30 Tesla customers will receive their vehicles during the ceremony in Gruenheide.Tesla received preliminary approval to build 2,000 cars at Giga Berlin in Gruenheide and, according to witnesses, it might have already built half that. Drone footage around the factory revealed cars piling up in the parking lots while waiting for the final approval to be issued. As you know, the German authorities allowed Tesla to build the cars but prohibited selling them for profit.Tesla Giga Berlins saga was marred with drama and delays, being already one year behind schedule. In the latest twist, environmentalists sued the Brandenburg authorities in a push to delay or even derail the plant project. The legal battle raised the matter of scarce water supply in the region . We dont know what would happen if the judges rule in favor of the protesters, but we guess that Tesla Gigafactory 4 drama is drawing to an end. Pastor Noah Hepler shares his story about coming out to his wife of six years as a gay man during his talk about Christianity and queerness at the UNL Lutheran Center on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, in Lincoln, Nebraska. SUV MPV We really should not even count it as a potential spiritual successor. Dodge will build a little Hornet that is going to be anbased on the newly introduced 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale as a follow-up to a mini-concept car from the mid-2000s.Meanwhile, the legacy of the 1950-1957 Hudson Hornet deserves much better. After all, the car was not just ahead of its time both in terms of styling and technology, or a NASCAR legend. It also morphed into something with pop culture legacy, both in real and animated form.Speaking of virtual creations, Czech Republic-based CGI expert Rostislav Prokop, better known as rostislav_prokop on social media, is finally back in full with more American muscle car ideas. So, after previously tickling our digital palate with a 1969 Dodge Charger HellDog , he is back with yet another vintage Stellantis creation.This time around he follows back the lineage to the 1950s when the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company were just merging to form AMC (American Motor Corporation). During that time, Hudson started delivering the full-size Hornet in America. The rest is history, of course, but that does not mean he cannot trample with it.So, a virtual Hodson Hornet restomod now has additional connections. Dubbed Mr. Green Hornet, it is obviously giving a quick shout-out to all the masked crime-fighters out there. Alas, that is not all, since the hashtags, along with the exposed engine internals, clearly show that something is supercharged V8 amiss.As in sporting enough oomph to support the slammed and streamlined virtual build case from the matching-green shop tools with additional SRT Hellcat or Demon V8 madness... Eager to find out more about it, we reached out to the North American company, which confirmed the action through the voice of Eric Mayne, Media Relations Manager.[We] can confirm a temporary stop-sale, but it is for a limited number of vehicles. Further, we have a remedy and it is being deployed as I write this with customers in the field getting top priority, Mr. Mayne said.It is still unknown when the Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee L will be fixed exactly, and how many of them have been struck by this problem, with Eric Mayne telling us that the affected vehicles account for a brief production window. Moreover, those who are interested in the aforementioned models might be able to get one that doesnt experience the issue, as most vehicles on dealer lots are unaffected.In the meantime, Stellantis, Jeeps parent company, has also stepped forward, stating the following: We have identified a solution and are expediting delivery of the appropriate parts to our dealer network. This issue affects a limited number of vehicles and does not require a safety recall. We are contacting customers to advise them that free service is available.As a reminder, owners of certain new Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee L have been experiencing issues with their key fobs, which do not communicate with their rides. According to the JeepGarage online forum, the key fobs have stopped working after the vehicles have been unlocked. On top of that, those who have tried to unlock them using the physical key have reported that the SUVs started behaving as if they were being stolen. Morrison refers to the auto show that runs from April 15th to the 24th, the first NYIAS in three years. The 2021 and 2020 editions were both canceled over the pandemic thats currently overshadowed by the Ukrainian crisis. The Detroit Bureau correctly told Morrison that W and GW fuel economy isnt great. Given that were dealing with full-size utility vehicles based on the Ram 1500 and powered by the 5.7- and 6.4-liter HEMI, the cited publication does have a point. Up to 18 miles per gallon (make that 13 liters per 100 kilometers) combined for the Wagoneer 5.7 RWD is pretty bad. The Grand Wagoneer 6.4 RWD is estimated at 15 miles per gallon (15.7 l/100 km).Were going to talk about that in New York, said Morrison, to which The Detroit Bureau implied the imminent arrival of a plug-in hybrid. Cant talk about the electrification of the Grand Wagoneer, but all Jeep vehicles will be electrified by 2025, so its obviously in the plan, added Morrison.Reading between the lines, he also implies a more frugal engine. Whats more, Jeep's head recently implied in an interview with Autoblog that a six-cylinder turbo will premiere at the New York International Auto Show.The powerplant in question is the GME T6, also known as the Tornado.Stellantis, the cross-border merger that brought together Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Groupe PSA, has already confirmed (by mistake) the displacement at 3.0 liters. Produced in Mexico since November 2021 at the facility that currently makes the HEMI engine family, the straight-six lump has also been confirmed (by mistake) in high- and standard-output forms.An Excel document published by Centro Ricerche Fiat lists five applications: Ram 1500, Jeep Wrangler, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, and Wagoneer. Last but certainly not least, ESS technology and twin turbos round off the details we currently know about the GME T6 "Tornado" powerplant. In 1955, six blokes found themselves in a pickle. Five of them finished college, and another was in his last year of study before graduation. They were faced with a strong need for travel and exploration. These guys wanted to do something that would follow them throughout their lives as a vivid memory before embarking on their professional life. Their desire would eventually find a way to become a reality.On the other side of the aisle was Land Rover, which at that time was known simply as the Rover Company. The entity was hoping to find a proper way for promoting their Series I, a vehicle that drew inspiration from the Willys Jeep used in World War II. They looked kind of similar, but the British engineers and product managers made sure this car would fit the needs of the people in search of transportation on almost any type of surface thats not water or lava. It kept the simple, rugged recipe but added a couple of important features that transformed the vehicle into a versatile car.The Series I Land Rover used a fully box-welded frame and had treated aluminum alloy bodies. This idea came as a way of avoiding the steel shortage. It proved itself a genius one, since even today, we see cars from over 70 years ago that still look like its their first day out of the factory gates.The British carmaker came with the idea to do something similar to Adrian Cowells Trans-Africa Expedition, which took place only a year before. With that in mind, they found the Cambridge graduates and had a serious talk with them. Cowell being the experienced one, helped Land Rover make the right decisions when it came to setting up the route for what was going to be The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition. He was appointed business manager, and together with Antony Barrington Brown, Patrick Murphy, Henry Nott, Tim Slessor, and the only Oxford student still in school, Nigel Newberry began to put everything together.They received two 1955 Series I vehicles and had to travel with them all the way to Singapore. They were flown into France and from there had to travel over 18,000 miles (29,000 km) through Monaco, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. The trip was a success. They proved that the Land Rover can travel through all kinds of terrains and face every weather possible. It took them six months and six days, but they made a memory for themselves and showed the world an important aspect about the British automaker: its cars can take you almost everywhere.It was the First Overland.One car was destroyed at the journeys end and was abandoned in Singapore, but it was recovered with the help of a passionate Land Rover and Tim Slessor's fan. It was used as motivation to make the trip again!But before rushing to the present, you have to know that after the Overland event was made public, Land Rover enjoyed every bit of what it brought back as a business. So, naturally, they decided to do it again. This time, they went to South America.Unfortunately, these kinds of trips didnt eventually turn into an annual event. After all, its hard to find people that are keen on traveling for six months and are also able to fully respect a contract.But the story still echoes in todays world. Two years ago, in 2019, the First Overland was reenacted as the Last Overland. The teams followed the same route and reached Singapore after what can only be considered as the adventure of a lifetime.Tim Slessor, now 87 years old, lived to see it done all over again and said with almost teary eyes that he remembers what they felt then: Nobody had done it before. () We wanted to give it a go. In todays world, it is impossible to do it.Land Rover is no stranger to these kinds of impressive and unusual stunts. Just four years ago, we saw the Range Rover Sport doing the Dragon Challenge . Given todays economic outlook, the British carmaker has kept its borderline insane initiatives on the quiet side. They are still involved in adventures like the Overland, but these contemporary ones are not that inspiring. The company is focusing more on what clients want, and people today want to relax and keep their adventures as private as possible.Finally, we should feel obligated to remind ourselves from time to time about the First Overland. It was a strange moment in which youngsters decided it was their time to shine. Land Rover believed in them, seized the opportunity, and managed to create a story that could be passed from generation to generation. EV SUV Lucid Motors confirmed on Monday evening that its eyeing its first plant outside the U.S. in Saudi Arabia, where it has already met with relevant agencies and signed important documents that bolster its new strategy. The discussions are now turning into reality.According to the press statement, you can find down below, Lucid Motors has met with the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia and other key players in the industry. The plan is to build a factory thats capable of producing high-end EVs for international customers.The CEO and CTO of the company said this move feels natural to him, as Lucid is a catalyst for change and it wants to adjust perspectives ontransportation. Moreover, he points out Saudi Arabia is one of the worlds biggest producers of oil a country that might like the shift from fossil fuels to EVs.The decision to open the first plant in Saudi Arabia comes as the country announced it wants to diversify its economic footprint, and it will help entities gain a presence.With this announcement, the carmaker has also confirmed anis in the making. Project Gravity will soon have a commercial name, if it all goes to plan. Saudi Arabia might prove to be the best testbed for this, as Lucid is looking to gather as much information as possible before releasing a product that can make or break the company.Interestingly enough, Lucid says it will work around the clock to bring its cars to the Arabian Peninsula. For this to work, its planning on delivering pre-manufactured kits from the U.S., which will be assembled and given a final touch in the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). The entire plant will follow after this first step has been made.The Arizona-based automaker hopes this new initiative will bring at least $3.4 billion of value over 15 years.Lucid was founded in 2007 under the name Atieva and originally focused on building electric vehicle batteries and powertrains for other vehicle manufacturers. The company rebranded to Lucid Motors in October 2016 and officially announced its intent to develop an all-electric, high-performance luxury vehicle. Now Lucid has a small portfolio comprised of just one car: the Air. But they're not stopping here. The American EV manufacturer has plans on conquering the same niche Mercedes-Benz and BMW want to impress. That's not Lucid's only targets, as some reviewers have called the Air a "Tesla nightmare."Given today's global climate, it's interesting to follow Lucid's journey. ICE The UK managing director Jeremy Thomson told the British magazine that Mazda wants to be a Japanese premium. Curiously, Thomson acknowledges that Lexus became premium but that it is just one-third of Mazdas size. In other words, that could give the brand he manages room to grow.Before Mazda can get there, it will have to define its own terms for Japanese premium. It would not be what Lexus already does. After all, Toyotas luxury division started its career with a vehicle that was even aesthetically similar to a Mercedes-Benz the LS 400 but evolved to cars with more personality and the same reputation for reliability and refinement. Mazda does really well in the former and is trying to improve the latter.By selling more premium vehicles, the Japanese carmaker can escape the need to increase sales volumes. In the past, that led it to rebadge Ford vehicles. Currently, it is doing so with the Toyota Yaris , sold in Europe as the Mazda 2. If the strategy works, it may ditch such products and do well with what it really has to offer.Now that Mazda defined it will pursue more premium markets, its next challenge will be finding a way to embrace low or zero-emission vehicles without going bankrupt investing in electric cars. Its first attempt to do that did not work as planned: the MX-30 ended up being anvehicle with a rather small battery pack. Mazdas excuse was that it would be too heavy with a larger one. It forgot to mention that it would also be way more expensive.Mazdas attempts to go upmarket have already started to show, but new vehicles such as the CX-60 in Europe and CX-50 in the U.S. may give us a better idea of what the Japanese carmaker wants to be in the future. Hopefully, it will come up with a unique definition for Japanese premium soon enough not to waste time and resources in the process. SUV If you dont know Car Wizard yet, then youre in for a treat. This man gained a solid reputation for being a crazy good mechanic. His shop is always busy because hes transparent, friendly, and honest. Up until today, there are really no big complaints about his way of doing business. The fact that he works with Hoovies Garage to help mend his insane buys is also a good sign of proper stress management.Now he ventured into another unexpected realm: buying and holding a Maserati Levante for a year. Dubbed a bit unfairly by many reviewers as a pricier Alfa Romeo Stelvio with a different design, this 2018 model surely looks like a car youd love to take on your daily trips. Its an eyeful, especially in this white body with black accents.With his wife's support and agreement, the Wizard starts checking the Levante GranSport. He points out an interesting fact first: people look in awe at the car when they see it on the streets, but after someone gets one, they suddenly change their mind about that person. This bias is one of the weirdest ones. Keep in mind this doesn't apply to everybody. It's just general knowledge, a fact experienced by most Maserati owners in the U.S. The mechanic even says that this type of behavior forced him to quit a group of car aficionados. They were simply mocking out of spite some local owners of the Italian brand.Car Wizard says he and his wife bought the 2018 Maserati Levante with more than 15,000 miles on the odometer, and now it has reached almost 40,000. During this time, he had to replace only a set of tires and the brake pads up front. Also, no warning lights have appeared during this one-year ownership. Its impressive how well this Italianhas proved itself to be. Theres more to the story, of course. You can watch it for yourself and see the full conclusion.For now, if you dont have time, just keep in mind that a contemporary Maserati might just be a good car as any. kWh We had already heard about Germany but not about all the other markets. Checking some maps, it makes a lot of sense that NIO has chosen these ones as the next to get not only the ES8 and the ET7 but also NIO Power Swap 2.0 stations.Sweden is the country with the most extended border extension with Norway. It is only natural that people in Norway travel to Sweden and vice versa. That makes establishing new battery swapping stations in the neighboring country a very sensible move.Denmark has land connections both with Sweden and with Germany, which will certainly be NIOs biggest market in Europe. Although Danish customers are not notably recognized for their love for electric cars, being between two crucial markets for NIO makes it deserve battery swapping stations. German drivers willing to go to Norway or Norwegian clients craving to drive south will thank for places along the way where they can swap their depleted battery pack for one that is fully charged.The Netherlands is right beside Germany . We could almost bet that NIO will expand to Belgium, France, UK, Spain, and Portugal from 2023 on, with 20 more countries to follow them until 2025. NIO will probably already have its 150battery pack with semi-solid-state batteries by that time.Apart from expanding the places where it will sell its cars, NIO will also offer other vehicles. The companys portfolio currently has five products: ES8, ET7, ES6, EC6, and ET5. There are rumors that it will also have a high-volume subbrand. Like NIO, it will probably stay in China for a few years before reaching other markets. Sales of the more expensive cars will help fund that expansion when it has more chances of success. Just like the representatives of the auction house have noted, the vehicle will only be original once. As we noted in the first paragraph, this 911E, a rare model in itself, comes in a right-hand drive configuration. Moreover, it has the Sportomatic transmission, which means it is a two-pedal car with a transmission that is rare today.Its mileage sits at 52,283 miles (84,141 km) from new, and it is corroborated by the MOT history. There are also several stamps in its service history from its first years of operation, which show it was used most during its time with the first owner.Despite almost 60,000 miles (ca. 96,561 km), the vehicle still has its date-stamped Fuchs wheels, its original Bilstein jack, full tool kit, and the book pack it got when it left the factory. The latter package includes the Sportomatic supplement, which is something that not many vehicles still have years after they were sold.The exterior color is called Light Ivory, and its interior is Black/Pepita Leatherette, just like factory documentation in the form of a 1968 Porsche Kardex order docket, as well as the Porsche Certificate of Authenticity note. The transmission is original, and this is a numbers-matching car, and its owners have even kept the original Motorola radio.We have noticed that the advertisement notes that the vehicle had left the factory with two headrests, both for the left and right seats. However, as you can see in the photo gallery, just the driver's seat has its headrest fitted. That is just a minor flaw, but the part may be available with the vehicle when sold.Fortunately, that element does not affect the value of the car, which is estimated to be somewhere between GBP 80,000 (ca. $107,067) and GBP 100,000 (ca. $133,834). The auction is set to take place on March 5th, 2022, starting at 2:00 PM GMT.Its first owner was Lady Pamela Oppenheimer, who was a member of the De Beers family, which is renowned for mining and selling diamonds. The acquisition was made in London at the AFN Porsche stand at the Earls Court Motor Show back in October 1968. Ownership was retained until 2005.The MY 1969 Porsche 911E is what the company describes as a B-Series model, which involves certain improvements over its predecessors, such as an extended wheelbase. There is also a magnesium engine case, and smaller batteries were spread in a dual configuration to improve weight distribution, as well as standard Bosch mechanical fuel injection (only for some models, 911E included).The Type 905/13 Sportomatic transmission was offered as an optional extra on the 911 starting with 1967, and it was a clutch-less manual unit. To change gears, the driver has to gently pull the gear lever, which activated a micro-switch that opened a pneumatic valve that operated the clutch. The latter was engaged again when the leaver was released.Unlike other manual transmission vehicles, the Sportomatic models came with a torque converter instead of a flywheel, which allowed stopping without stalling or the need to manually engage neutral.The torque converter also operates as a torque multiplier, and that meant that the vehicle could pull away from standing still in any of its gears. Instead of the usual gear indications, Sportomatic cars have L, D, D3, and D4, as you can see on its cap. There is also a park mode, marked P, as well as reverse, which is marked R. To drive off, Porsche recommended starting in D, while the L was reserved for slopes or low-grip situations. SUV Not long now (March 8th, 2022) and Renault will have a very fresh compact crossoverlineup. It will be composed of the Austral and Arkana siblings, instead of keeping the current Kadjar moniker alive. Both models will start with an A, probably to signify Renaults new beginnings. But it will not be hard to make out one from the other.Renaults Austral will be a Megane E-Tech Electric-inspired regular crossover SUV. Meanwhile, their Arkana coupe-SUV acts out as the rebellious member of the family. And it'd better looks the part. At least virtually. So, case in point.The Russia-based virtual artist Nikita Chuicko, better known as kelsonik on social media, has decided to give France's Renault a little bit of Americas murdered-out love. Complete with an all-black atmosphere for this virtual Arkana design. And packing the CGI experts signature Shadow Line , lowered suspension, and new aftermarket wheels treatment. Along with beefier brakes, perhaps.Frankly, too bad the pixel master has decided to leave us with just a single POV . The classic front three-quarters stance feels a bit misleading if our own two cents might be allowed on the matter. This is because the hunkered-down stance makes the Arkana seem like a souped-up traditional sedan rather than a compact coupe-SUV crossover.But who knows, maybe it is for the better, especially when dressed up completely in black. The attire screams Americana custom murdered-out. So, let us just imagine that somebody also did a hypothetical swap and under the hood now lies a supercharged V8... That is severely pushing the wishful thinking limits, right? Oh, well, we had to try! Skyfire Consulting is a drone solution provider based in Atlanta, which focuses more on providing UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) solutions for public safety, infrastructure, and last-mile delivery for medical supplies.The SF2 is American-made and, according to the manufacturer, was purpose-built for public safety and critical sectors in extreme environments. It has a payload-agnostic design, which means it can adapt to various applications, depending on the missions it is used for.With an aerospace-grade aluminum and carbon fiber construction, the 22 mid-sized multirotor aircraft has a maximum payload capacity of 14 lb. (6.3 kg) and an ideal payload of 7 lb. (3.1 kg). The empty weight of the drone is 10 lb. (4.5 kg). Thanks to its versatility in terms of payload , the SF2 lets users choose between various sensor and HD camera options (FLIR Duo Pro R, Wiris Pro, Sony mapping cameras, and more).Skyfire says its SF2 drone can reach top speeds of over 55 mph (88 kph) and can stay in the air for more than 45 minutes, thanks to its 22,000 mAh LiPo battery. Its charging time is 60 minutes. With the aircraft also comes an integrated remote controller that has a transmission range of 6 miles (9.6 km) as well as an onboard Pixhawk Cube Orange autopilot.As for the uses of the SF2, its versatility makes it suitable for a variety of applications: in the fire service, for mapping missions, scene reconstruction, tactical missions, and more.W.S. Darley Co. has been chosen as Skyfires reseller of the SF2, as the company has a rich network of customers and trusted relationships within the public safety, military, and Department of Defense, which makes it easy for agencies to purchase the drone, as explained by Skyfire Consulting . Theres yet no mention of the aircrafts price. The Ukrainian sailor, Chief engineer D. Taras O., 55, is now accused of partially sinking the luxury yacht . He opened one valve in the engine room and a second where the crew lived, shut down electricity, and closed the fuel valves so it wouldn't explode. He reportedly told his Ukrainian colleagues to jump ship, Spanish newspaper Ultima Hora reports . The incident happened in Adriano, Mallorca, Spain. Soon after the incident, the sailor turned himself in, took full responsibility, and was arrested.The partially submerged vessel was rescued by other two crew members, who are reportedly also Ukrainians.D. Taras O. was eventually released on bail. Before attempting to sink it, he had been working on the yacht for ten years. He shares he has no regret or remorse for what he did.The owner of the superyacht is Russian businessman Alexander Mikheev, former CEO of defense contractor JSC Russian Helicopters and current CEO of Rosoboronexport. Like many other wealthy individuals, he likes to spend time sailing on turquoise waters on a very expensive yacht.The yacht in question is called Lady Anastasia, and it was built in 2001. It can pride itself on a 156-ft (47.73 m) length, a 28-ft (8.5 m) beam, and a 7.2-ft (2.2 m) draft. It is the creation of Sensation Yachts and features an aluminum hull and GRP superstructure, with a gross tonnage of 476 tones.The four-decked superyacht is powered by two CAT engines which provide 2,650 horsepower each, to a total of 5,300 horsepower, propelling it to speeds up to 23 knots (26.4 mph / 42.5 kph) and a cruising speed of 12.5 knots (14.3 mph/ 23 kph). It comes with an estimated range of 3,900 nautical miles (4488 mi/ 7223 km).Lady Anastasia has enough room for ten guests in five cabins and nine crew members. Its price is estimated at around $7.8 million. Governments and automakers have been offering people a wide range of incentives to convince them to buy electric vehicles through complimentary charging or tax credits. Toyota has opted for the former, offering free charging to buyers of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X through the EVgo network. They follow the example of Volkswagen Group car brands, which have been offering two or three years of free charging through Electrify America. The Japanese automaker announced that customers who purchase or lease a 2023 Toyota bZ4X are entitled to one year of free charging at all EVgo-owned and operated public charging stations in the United States. The 2023 bZ4X buyers can use the Toyota app to find an EVgo DC fast charging location. The entire EVgo network has 800 sites scattered across 68 metropolitan areas in 35 states. EVgo is the only public charging network whose power source comes entirely from 100% renewable energy. Toyota lures buyers with unlimited charging session Toyota's one-year offer of free charging might be shorter than those given by other rival automakers, but it does not mention any restrictions to its charge session time, making this particular incentive an appealing one for interested EV buyers. BMW and Kia, for example, only provide 30-minute charging sessions as part of the automakers' two-year deals. Subaru, which like Toyota, also recently announced a partnership with EVgo, did not announce if buyers of their first electric vehicle, Solterra, will receive complimentary charging sessions. Subaru and Toyota have not released specifications on how quickly the Solterra and bZ4X can charge, but based on the "80% in under one-hour claims" the Japanese carmakers made, charging these electric vehicles will be slower compared to rival EVs from Kia, Hyundai, and Ford. Christopher Yang, vice president of EV Charging Solutions for Toyota Motor North America, was delighted with the company's partnership with EVgo, saying that collaborating with the nation's largest public fast-charging network will help provide bZ4X owners with access to a fast, reliable charge where and when they need it with their electric vehicles. Also Read: UK Car Production Continues to Struggle as January 2022 Numbers Hit 13-Year Low Toyota and EVgo delighted with new partnership As per CNET, Yang sees a bright EV future for Toyota, saying that the arrival of their all-electric bZ4X marks an important step in their commitment towards electrifying 70 percent of their fleet by 2030. Yang added that they want their bZ4X customers to enjoy a high-quality ownership experience as worry-free and seamless as possible. EVgo Chief Commercial Officer Jonathan Levy returned the compliments with his statement, saying the company is thrilled to collaborate with Toyota on bringing convenient and accessible fast charging to new EV drivers with the bZ4X. Levy pointed out that EVgo's track record of leadership in clean transportation and Toyota's scale in the auto industry will help make it easier for even more drivers to go electric. Related Articles: Tesla Plans Expansion of Shanghai Factory: Aims to More Than Double Production Capacity in China Ford Issues Recall for 330,784 Mustangs Due to Faulty Backup Camera, 2015-2017 Models Affected Massive congratulations, The Unconventional Gallery by makemepulse, and Ruinart x David Shrigley for winning Site of the Month January 2022, thanks to everyone who voted, the winner of the Pro Plan can be found at the end of the article. For the presentation of their collaboration with artist David Shrigley, Ruinart, France's oldest champagne house, is embracing the post pandemic world with 'The Unconventional Gallery'; an experience which helps fuse the virtual and the real of the art world that sits alongside the in-person fair making art accessible for all. Virtual Gallery The experience was created to be as true to being at an art fair as possible. The virtual walk through leads us through photo-real open spaces, with vast bright white wall space and concrete style floor. With pieces of art on the wall, we can even see the natural light shining through the ceiling windows. Art Direction We did a branding exercise for this experience. Taking a leaf from David Shrigleys world, we wanted to preserve the hand-crafted look and feel, and a natural atmosphere. Whilst keeping to Ruinarts brand identity, the colour of champagne, mostly white and some beige, we used Shrigleys very own artisanal typography in bold black. The transitions, layouts and icons looked as though they were created with a pencil or a brush on a piece of paper, to appear fresh and playful. UI Design Board You get to zoom in for a closer look at each artwork when you click on them. As with real life pieces in a gallery, they are accompanied by a label about the work. This is presented alongside a curated selection of key pieces exhibited at the Ruinart lounge touring globally, providing an opportunity to participate in the full experience. Page Navigation Discover David Shrigley's work in a virtual space beyond the boundaries of an art gallery. David Shrigley X Ruinart This unconventional gallery acts as a scenography designed by the artist: playful, surprising and participative. A gallery that pays homage to the artist's statement by giving life to the infinitely small, making the invisible visible. A gallery whose host is an earthworm. Playful and meaningful: "Worms are important. They help create the soil that is vital for all life. We take the soil for granted and we take worms for granted but we should remember how vital they are. In terms of saving the planet you could say quite unequivocally that worms work harder than us... I don't think there are any rules to making art; there are just opportunities. Technology is another opportunity to make something different; to see things differently and hopefully to learn something. I'm happy to have the opportunity." Mobile journey Technologies The challenge was to utilise the latest technologies and be as faithful as possible to the experience of a physical visit, making it incredibly enjoyable for the viewer. By leveraging real-time interactive 3D in the web browser (WebGL) an avant-garde technology borrowed from the world of video games, Ruinart innovates once again by making art accessible to all. This unique carte blanche allows for a tangible bridge between art and technology. Behind The Scene - 3D Architecture of the gallery Art Fairs exhibition all around the world The unconventional gallery has been on display in the Ruinart Salon at every International Art Fairs all around the world, but it was not until Frieze London from October 14-17 that the full collection was on display. Alongside collections in other locations, the digital experience remains an additional means of discovering the entire collection through touch screens. Booth at Frieze London I dont think there are rules for making art. There are only opportunities. Digital experiences are another opportunity to do something different, see things differently and, I hope, learn something new. - DAVID SHRIGLEY Company Info makemepulse is a global interactive production studio that partners with global brands striving to make authentic connections. We turn aesthetics into experiences. We bring standout immersive experiences to everyone, everywhere. Thanks to everyone who voted and tweeted, the winner of the free years Pro Plan in our Design Directory is @sergeyioffe_, please send us a MD to collect your prize! Airbnb announced on Monday that it will offer free, short-term housing to up 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. The big picture: More than 500,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in neighboring countries since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, according to the UN refugee agency, which expects the number to rise. "Displacement in Ukraine is also growing but the military situation makes it difficult to estimate numbers and provide aid," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. State of play: Airbnb.org, an independent nonprofit organization focused on providing temporary housing for people during crises, will work directly with other nonprofits to identify those who need short-term stay. The lodgings will be funded by Airbnb, donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund and Airbnb.org hosts. People interested in offering their homes do not need to be official Airbnb hosts. Airbnb said that CEO Brian Chesky, Airbnb chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharzyk and nonprofit Airbnb.org chairman Joe Gebbia sent letters to the leaders Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania supporting their decision to welcome refugees. What they're saying: "While Airbnb.org is committing to facilitate short-term housing for up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine, it will work closely with governments to best support the specific needs in each country, including by providing longer-term stays," the company said. "We know that Hosts and guests on Airbnb around the world will be eager to stand up and assist this massive effort to help those fleeing Ukraine." Go deeper: The latest on the Russian invasion of Ukraine Delta Air Lines is joining the "buy now, pay later" craze, a new wrinkle in a wave of airline marketing schemes designed to lock in customer loyalty ahead of what experts say could be the busiest travel season ever. Why it matters: Loyalty programs are huge moneymakers for airlines, and this year's pent-up travel demand gives them a rare opportunity, when habits are up for grabs, to boost their brands' "stickiness" and diversify their revenue. What's happening: Delta's new "buy now, pay later" option lets customers create a fixed monthly payment plan, with no interest, if they book their flight using Delta's co-branded American Express credit card. The payment option follows Alaska Airlines' newly announced subscription service, which lets customers pay as little as $49 a month for six flights a year to certain West Coast destinations. Both are examples of how airlines are looking to boost their alternative sources of revenue while tightening their grip on consumers' wallets. How it works: Airlines make money by selling frequent-flyer points to banks, which then award them to credit card holders as rewards for purchases such as at hotels and restaurants or for groceries. Airlines are paid 1 to 1.5 cents per mile by the banks, plus a bonus when new customers sign up for their branded credit card. Banks collect the annual fees but take most of their cut in the form of "swipe fees" when customers use the cards for purchases. The more consumers spend, the more miles they earn for free vacations, upgrades and other perks, incentivizing them to use the airline's credit card. Today's loyalty programs extend far beyond flying. Delta SkyMiles members, for example, now can get a free Instacart Express trial for up to 12 months and earn miles with every grocery delivery. Aeroplan, Air Canada's loyalty program, lets members earn points on Uber Eats and Uber Rides through a free six-month trial of Uber Pass. American Airlines now even determines customers' frequent-flyer status by how much they spend on everyday activities, not just how often they fly. "The airlines realized theres a lot more opportunity to make money from these programs than just engendering loyalty," David Slotnick, senior aviation business reporter at The Points Guy, tells Axios. The big picture: Loyalty programs especially branded credit cards have become increasingly lucrative to airlines. Delta has said its long-term deal with American Express is expected to bring in as much as $7 billion in revenue annually by 2023. Some analysts argue that frequent-flyer programs are the most profitable part of the airline business, but that's difficult to confirm since few airlines break out details on their programs. One exception to that rule is United Airlines, which valued its MileagePlus loyalty program at nearly $22 billion in 2020 when it pledged the program as collateral on a debt deal to help weather the pandemic. MileagePlus had earnings of nearly $2 billion on sales of $5.3 billion in 2019, United said as part of its pitch to bond investors at the time. Now United is exploring a potential sale of a minority stake in the program, according to Bloomberg. Editor's note: This story originally published on Feb. 28. In November 2021, Jonathan Swan pressed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on "Axios on HBO" about why Ukraine hasn't received NATO membership: "Putin must know that the way to stop a country joining NATO is to invade it." Why it matters: NATO promised Ukraine in 2008 that it would eventually become a member of the alliance, but offered no specific timeline. As Russia built up a massive military presence on Ukraine's borders, it demanded guarantees that Ukraine would never join NATO and invaded after the Western allies refused. Clip transcript: Jonathan Swan: I was in Kyiv earlier this year to interview President Zelensky. They badly want to join NATO. If Russia invades Ukraine again, what would NATO do about it? Jens Stoltenberg: So I met recently and just last week President Zelensky, and I once again expressed NATOs support to Ukraine, our support to Ukraines territorial integrity, sovereignty, and the fact that NATO Swan: You know that drives him crazy when you say that? Stoltenberg: I know that he wants something more, and I respect that he appreciates the support he gets from NATO, from NATO allies. But he also has been very clear also in our meeting that he wants something more. He wants full membership. Swan: He wants real, meaningful protection against Russia. They were promised NATO membership back in 2008. Nothings happened. They got invaded. Their territory was seized. Its still captured by Russia. Stoltenberg: Its wrong to say that nothing has happened Swan: On the membership front. Stoltenberg: Yeah. They have not become members. But, first of all we have strengthened our partnership. We are working much more closely with them. Swan: But you wont defend them obviously. Stoltenberg: Ukraine is not part of NATO. Swan: I know. No, I understand that Stoltenberg: Meaning Ukraine is not covered by our collective defense clause Article 5. To be a NATO member, you need to meet the NATO standards. We helped with modernizing, fighting corruption. But 30 allies have to agree, and we dont have consensus agreement in NATO now on inviting Ukraine into becoming a full member. Swan: I can think of current NATO members whose governments are deeply corrupt, undemocratic. Isnt this just really about, you know people dont want to fight with Putin, they dont want to provoke him? And its a dangerous lesson because Putin must know that the way to stop a country joining NATO is to invade it. Stoltenberg: Well, Putin and Russia has protested against every enlargement of NATO. Russia and Putin expressed a lot of criticism against North Macedonia and Montenegro joining NATO, and they have joined NATO recently, over the last couple of years. Swan: And those armies are more proficient than Ukraines? Stoltenberg: Well, we have the right to make our own assessments on whether a NATO country an applicant country, an aspirant country meet the NATO standards. Swan: Promoting democratic values is a cornerstone of NATO. How does NATO define democracy? Stoltenberg: The rule of law, individual liberty, free elections. Swan: Is Turkey still a democratic government? Stoltenberg: They have elections. The opposition was able to win an election in Istanbul recently. But I think also its fair to say that you know, I know that several allies have expressed concerns about Turkey. Swan: Erdogan is interfering in the judiciary, locking up his enemies, jailing journalists, re-running elections. Stoltenberg: When allies have strongly different opinions about these issues we meet, for instance, in this room and use the political, diplomatic leverage they have to raise these issues. New Mexico's main transparency group is urging U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and his staff to release more information about his health following a stroke two weeks ago. Why it matters: Lujan is notoriously private, but a lack of health updates is making some New Mexico Democrats nervous about the future of his seat in a 50-50 Senate. Driving the news: The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government said in a statement Tuesday that state residents have been "left confused and concerned" about the lack of information from the senators office. "While all of us respect the familys wishes for privacy during this stressful time, a balance must be struck between that privacy and the publics right to know." "Sen. Lujans absence from the Senate is an issue of great public importance, particularly with a U.S. Supreme Court appointment on the horizon." The group said Lujans staff and his treating physician should give daily briefings about his progress. The intrigue: Last week, Lujan's chief of staff Carlos Sanchez released a statement saying the senator checked himself into a Santa Fe, New Mexico, hospital the week before. Doctors determined he had a stroke in the back of his brain. He underwent brain surgery to ease the swelling. "At this time, he and his family would appreciate their privacy, and ask for your continued prayers and well wishes, Sanchez said. His office has given few updates since. His spokeswoman, Katherine Schneider, did not return an email or phone call from Axios on Wednesday. Between the lines: Steven Mintz, an ethics professor emeritus at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, told Axios the public has a right to know what Lujan's condition is on a timely basis, given important upcoming votes. Lujan also has an obligation to be honest with the public about his ability to do his job, and doctors should give public updates, Mintz said. "Whether it's two months, four months, six months, there's no guarantee he'll be 100% capacity in terms of how sharp he will be, his ability to be involved in discussions, for example, on Supreme Court nominees." Yes, but: Updates should not come from physicians, but his office, David Beyda, chair of the department of bioethics and medical humanism at the University of Arizona, told Axios. "There's a difference between doing what is right and what is best. Doing what is right could be assumed that everything should be coming out of his office. ... They should be giving updates." "However, you still have a person, a human being, who is entitled to dignity, who is entitled to respect, who is entitled to privacy in doing what's best." Background: Lujan, 49, a rising star in the Democratic Party, was elected to the Senate in 2020, becoming New Mexico's first Hispanic U.S. senator in 40 years. Data: UNHCR; Map: Jared Whalen and Will Chase/Axios More than 2.8 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion, according to UN refugee agency data on Monday. By the numbers: The majority over 1.7 million have fled to Poland, while more than 255,000 have crossed into Hungary. Over 204,800 have arrived in Slovakia, more than 84,000 in Romania and 106,000 in Moldova. More than 131,300 have arrived in Russia and over 304,100 have fled to various other countries, the UN said. Go deeper: The latest on the Russia-Ukraine crisis Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details throughout. Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, plans to speak to senators at the Capitol on Monday evening, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The visit comes as Russia's invasion grinds into its fifth day, and as lawmakers return from recess. They will begin hammering out the details of a potential multi-billion dollar aid package to Ukraine. The White House has asked Congress for $6.4 billion in supplemental funding to respond to the invasion, including $2.9 billion in direct humanitarian, economic and security assistance to the region. The details: Markarova is being hosted by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), co-chairs of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting. More than a dozen senators from both parties are expected to attend the 6pm ET meeting, the source said. Portman's office confirmed the plans to Axios. What they're saying: Drew Nirenberg, a spokesperson for Portman, told Axios the senators and Markarova will engage in a "wide-ranging discussion." Topics will include "the situation on the ground" and "additional action Congress and the administration can take in the coming days to help the Ukrainian people as they continue to fight for their freedom," he said. What's next: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Monday morning she "will have to see what the need is," in terms of aid to Ukraine, before committing to a number. "Whatever it is, we will support it," she added. "We'll see what the president sends down." Asked whether a vote could happen this week, Pelosi said: "Can't vote on it until we have a number. We'll see what the president has to say tomorrow night," during his State of the Union address. Editors note: Updates with comment from Portman spokesperson. Data: UN; Map: Axios Visuals Eighty-seven countries either voted for or co-sponsored a draft UN Security Council resolution deploring Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Friday, though Russia used its veto to block it. Driving the news: Eleven Security Council members backed the resolution with only Russia voting against and China abstaining rather than backing Russia. Ahead of the vote, the U.S. and Albania led an effort to get as many countries to sign the resolution as possible to underscore Russia's international isolation. India and the United Arab Emirates also abstained, while Brazil, another "swing vote," joined the U.S.-led condemnation. The signatories to the resolution include nearly all of Europe, several countries in Latin America, and U.S. allies Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The other side: Countries including Cuba, Iran and Venezuela have claimed the U.S. and NATO are responsible for the current crisis, but virtually no world leaders have endorsed Russia's invasion. Go deeper: Zelensky tells EU leaders, "This might be the last time you see me alive" More airlines have canceled flights in and out of Russia and American citizens in the country should consider leaving "immediately," the U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned in a security alert Sunday. The big picture: The State Department on Monday said it authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency employees and family members at the U.S. embassy of Moscow. The department also suspended operations at the U.S. embassy in Minsk, Belarus. The Level 4 travel advisory recommends not traveling to Russia due to "ongoing tension along the border with Ukraine, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens [and] the embassys limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia," among other reasons. Go deeper: Get the latest with the Ukraine-Russia dashboard The State Department said Monday it closed the U.S. Embassy in Belarus because of "security and safety issues stemming" from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Why it matters: U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence officials have reportedly warned that they believe Belarus will soon officially join Russia's invasion efforts after serving as a launchpad for Russian troops and military equipment for the last several days. The State Department is also allowing non-emergency employees and family members at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to voluntarily leave the country. What they're saying: "The Department of State continually adjusts its posture at embassies and consulates throughout the world in line with its mission, the local security environment, and the health situation," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. "We ultimately have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens, and that includes our U.S. government personnel and their dependents serving around the world." The big picture: The U.S. suspending embassy operations in Minsk, Belarus, comes a day after the country passed a constitutional referendum that revoked its non-nuclear status, meaning Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko could ask Russia to transfer nuclear weapons to Belarus, according to Reuters. Belarus arrested hundreds of anti-war protesters Sunday demonstrating against the referendum and Belarus' support of Russia's invading forces. The State Department said it would not recognize the "sham referendum," saying it "further entrenches Belarus in the darkness of the past." The U.S. and its allies have repeatedly sanctioned Lukashenko's regime for its ongoing crackdown against the country's pro-democracy movement. Go deeper: The latest on the Russian invasion of Ukraine U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield protested to her Israeli counterpart over Israel's refusal to join 87 countries in backing a U.S.-led resolution to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the UN Security Council on Friday, Israeli officials tell Axios. Why it matters: Israel has attempted to maintain good relations with both Russia and Ukraine during the crisis, and has even offered to serve as a mediator. But that fence-sitting has resulted in criticism from both sides and now from the U.S. The Israeli Prime Ministers Office and Foreign Ministry had been claiming for weeks that the Biden administration understood Israel's need to calibrate its reaction to the Russian invasion in order to maintain its security coordination with Russia in Syria. But Israel dragged its feet as the U.S. was gathering co-sponsors for the resolution and did not provide a clear answer before the meeting began. After the vote, which Russia vetoed, Thomas-Greenfield passed a message to the Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan stressing the Biden administrations disappointment. Driving the news: 11 Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution, three (China, the United Arab Emirates and India) abstained, and Russia was the lone "no" vote. An Israeli foreign ministry official said the decision not to accept the U.S. request to co-sponsor the resolution was due to the fact that Israel is not a member of the UN Security Council and it was clear Russia would veto. Most close U.S. allies and partners did back the resolution, however. Data: United Nations; Map: Axios Visuals Behind the scenes: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told Israel's Security Cabinet on Sunday that the U.S. contained the Israeli refusal to join the resolution. We speak to the Biden administration in a wide range of channels on various aspects of the Ukrainian issue and the bottom line is that our partners are well aware of our considerations," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told Axios. The U.S. mission to the UN declined to comment. Whats next: The UN General Assembly is expected to convene as early as Monday to vote on a resolution condemning Russia. Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid told the Cabinet on Sunday that Israel will vote in favor. Contributing columnist Jose Gaspar is a news anchor/reporter for Telemundo Bakersfield and KGET. Email him at elcompa29@gmail.com. The views expressed here are his own. Rankings reflect sales for the week ended Saturday, Feb. 19, which were reported on a confidential basis by vendors offering a wide range of general interest titles. Picture Book rankings include hardcover sales only. Series rankings include all print and e-book sales. Every week, thousands of diverse selling locations report their actual sales on hundreds of thousands of individual titles. The panel of reporting retailers is comprehensive and reflects sales in stores of all sizes and demographics across the United States. An asterisk (*) indicates that a books sales were barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A (b) indicates that some bookstores reported receiving bulk orders. Advertisement The New York Times Best Sellers are compiled and archived by The Best-Seller Lists Desk of The New York Times News Department, and are separate from the Culture, Advertising and Business sides of The New York Times Co. More information on rankings and methodology: www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology. ___ Advertisement PICTURE 1. THE 1619 PROJECT: BORN ON THE WATER, by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson. Illustrated by Nikkolas Smith. (Kokila) A young Black girl traces her ancestry for a school assignment. (Ages 7 to 10) 2. LITTLE BLUE TRUCKS VALENTINE, by Alice Schertle. Illustrated by Jill McElmurry. (Clarion) Little Blue Truck delivers Valentines Day cards to all his farm animal friends. (Ages 4 and up) 3. LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR, by Eric Carle. (Grosset & Dunlap) A ravenous insect returns with its appetite intact. (Ages 3 to 5) 4. THE ABCS OF BLACK HISTORY, by Rio Cortez. Illustrated by Lauren Semmer. (Workman) An informative ode to Black history. (Ages 5 and up) 5. CHANGE SINGS, by Amanda Gorman. Illustrated by Loren Long. (Viking) A childrens anthem for change. (Ages 4 to 8) 6. STACEYS EXTRAORDINARY WORDS, by Stacey Abrams. Illustrated by Kitt Thomas. (Balzer and Bray) Stacey is entered into a spelling bee by her teacher. (Ages 4 to 8) 7. EYES THAT SPEAK TO THE STARS, by Joanna Ho. Illustrated by Dung Ho. (HarperCollins) A young Asian American boy discovers himself, his roots and his potential. (Ages 4 to 8) 8. THE WONDERFUL THINGS YOU WILL BE, by Emily Winfield Martin. (Random House) A celebration of future possibilities. (Ages 3 to 7) Advertisement 9. IN MY HEART, by Jo Witek. Illustrated by Christine Roussey. (Abrams Appleseed) An exploration of feelings. (Ages 2 to 4) 10. DRAGONS LOVE TACOS, by Adam Rubin. Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. (Dial) What to serve your dragon-guests. (Ages 3 to 5) ___ MIDDLE GRADE HARDCOVER 1. WONDER, by R.J. Palacio. (Knopf) A boy with a facial deformity starts school. (Ages 8 to 12) 2. THE LAST CUENTISTA, by Donna Barba Higuera. (Levine Querido) Petra is one of the last people who have memories of the planet Earth. (Ages 10 to 14) 3. LITTLE LEGENDS: EXCEPTIONAL MEN IN BLACK HISTORY, by Vashti Harrison with Kwesi Johnson. (Little, Brown) Biographies of trailblazing Black men. (Ages 8 to 12) Advertisement 4. DAUGHTER OF THE DEEP, by Rick Riordan. (Disney-Hyperion) Ana Dakkar faces the weekend trials at the Harding-Pencroft Academy. (Ages 9 to 12) 5. LITTLE LEADERS, by Vashti Harrison. (Little, Brown) The biographies of 40 African American women who made a difference. (Ages 8 to 12) 6. WILLODEEN, by Katherine Applegate. (Feiwel & Friends) Willodeen investigates the disappearance of hummingbears from Perchance. (Ages 8 to 12) 7. REFUGEE, by Alan Gratz. (Scholastic) Three children in three different conflicts look for safe haven. (Ages 9 to 12) 8. OUT OF MY HEART, by Sharon M. Draper. (Atheneum) In this sequel to Out of My Mind, Melody goes to summer camp. (Ages 10 and up) 9. STUNTBOY, IN THE MEANTIME, by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Raul the Third. (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy) As a coping mechanism for his frets, a young boy creates a superhero alter ego. (Ages 7 to 12) Advertisement 10. PAX, JOURNEY HOME, by Sara Pennypacker. Illustrated by Jon Klassen. (Balzer and Bray) A boy and his pet fox reunite after a year of separation. (Ages 8 to 12) ___ YOUNG ADULT HARDCOVER 1. ONE OF US IS LYING, by Karen M. McManus. (Delacorte) For five students, a detour into detention ends in murder. (Ages 14 and up) 2. ANATOMY, by Dana Schwartz. (Wednesday) Hazel and Jack work together to solve a mystery in 19th-century Edinburgh. (Ages 13 to 18) 3. AINT BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT, by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Jason Griffin. (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy) An emotional look into the life of a Black family living through 2020. (Ages 12 to 18) 4. YOUVE REACHED SAM, by Dustin Thao. (Wednesday) After the death of her boyfriend, Sam, Julie can still reach him via cellphone. (Ages 12 to 18) Advertisement 5. THE HATE U GIVE, by Angie Thomas. (Balzer and Bray) A 16-year-old girl sees a police officer kill her friend. (Ages 14 and up) 6. THIS WOVEN KINGDOM, by Tahereh Mafi. (HarperCollins) A tale inspired by the Persian epic poem the Shahnameh. (Ages 13 and up) 7. THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS, by Chloe Gong. (Margaret K. McElderry) A re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai. (Ages 14 to 18) 8. I MUST BETRAY YOU, by Ruta Sepetys. (Philomel) In 1989, Cristian Florescu is an informant for the secret police in communist Romania. (Ages 12 to 17) 9. IRON WIDOW, by Xiran Jay Zhao. (Penguin Teen) Zetian becomes a Chrysalises pilot to battle the Hunduns but has an ulterior motive. (Ages 14 to 17) 10. YOULL BE THE DEATH OF ME, by Karen M. McManus. (Delacorte) Three friends skip school together and become involved in a murder. (Ages 14 to 17) Advertisement ___ SERIES 1. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney. (Amulet) The travails and challenges of adolescence. (Ages 9 to 12) 2. CRAVE, by Tracy Wolff. (Entangled Teen) Grace attends Katmere Academy among supernatural beings. (Ages 14 to 18) 3. HARRY POTTER, by J.K. Rowling. (Scholastic) A wizard hones his conjuring skills in the service of fighting evil. (Ages 10 and up) Daywatch Weekdays Start your morning with today's local news > 4. A GOOD GIRLS GUIDE TO MURDER, by Holly Jackson. (Delacorte) Pippa Fitz-Amobi solves murderous crimes. (Ages 14 and up) 5. PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS, by Rick Riordan. (Disney-Hyperion) A boy battles mythological monsters. (Ages 9 to 12) Advertisement 6. WINGS OF FIRE, by Tui T. Sutherland. (Scholastic) Only the five dragonets of destiny can unite the seven warring dragon tribes. (Ages 9 to 12) 7. THE TWILIGHT SAGA, by Stephenie Meyer. (Little, Brown) Vampires and werewolves and their intrigues in high school. (Ages 12 and up) 8. FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDYS: FAZBEAR FRIGHTS, by Scott Cawthon. (Scholastic) Short stories from the twisted, sinister world of Five Nights at Freddys. (Ages 12 to 18) 9. WHO WAS/IS ...?, by Jim Gigliotti and others; various illustrators. (Penguin Workshop) Biographies unlock legendary lives. (Ages 8 to 11) 10. THRONE OF GLASS, by Sarah J. Maas. (Bloomsbury) Celaena must battle evil forces threatening her realm. (Ages 14 and up) Question No. 1: What sets you apart from the other candidates? Question No. 2: The border has been highlighted a significant issue in this race, yet none of the counties that you would represent reside on the border. Where do you think you could have impact on that issue and what benefit does that bring your constituents? Question No. 3: Gov. Greg Abbott has spearheaded much of the governments COVID-19 response and has declined to call a special session specifically to allow the legislature to address the pandemic. Was he right to use that power himself? How would you have preferred to have seen that handled? Question No. 4: Public education in Texas is another issue that has been highlighted as important in this race. What changes do you think need to be made to the state system and why? Question No. 5: Due to redistricting, this district includes counties it has not previously. Will this change your approach to representation and if so, how? Ernest Bailes (I)* Age: 39 Occupation: Business owner Highest level of education: Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from Texas A&M University Volunteer Work or other Elected Office (up to 3): Texas House Representative for District 18; Endorsed by Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan; and Endorsed by Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND. Answer No. 1: I would say experience. It takes a long time to get to where you can be effective doing your job in Austin. Having served three terms, it helps a lot with relationships. We dont have enough representatives to pass any one thing. So, it takes the relationships with the other members in order to help reach consensus so we can get the votes to help our district. Answer No. 2: By being a state representative, its a huge impact to give the additional resources and funding that our DPS needs to help support our border patrol agents. It has a huge impact here locally with our public schools, with our healthcare and also growth and development. Weve got a lot of new growth in Lumberton. Weve had an explosive growth in Liberty County, which Ive had for the last six years. An area that was predominantly low-lying timberland now has an additional 35,000 residents. So, its really important that we make sure that the growth is positive and that the people that are here are effectively contributing to the process. Answer No. 3: We have 150 elected representatives from different parts of the state, and I do think we should be an active part of that conversation and that process. Gov. Abbott was put in a very difficult situation with how the pandemic came about and how he had to handle that I dont know that I couldve done it any better. He was using executive emergency powers that were granted back in the 70s. His job is to look at it from the state level and my job is to look at it from a representative local level and our voice needs to be heard in that process. Answer No. 4: The main burden of funding for public education comes from having more property taxes. That should actually be state contribution, not local contribution. Our Commissioner of Education has put a lot of emphasis on charter schools. Charter schools are actually funded 100% by state contribution, statewide average and maximum adjustments. If that is the direction that our chairman of education says we need to go, and we can fund that wholly by state contribution, we need to find a way to fund the rest of public education the same way. Also, the monies that we allocate to schools should have fewer strings. Answer No. 5: Ive always been a very hands-on representative. Ive been very involved with our chambers, with all of our local businesses and have been very accessible. Anytime theres a question, I just want somebody to feel comfortable and confident in calling to ask. Ill do all I can to be able to help. Hardin County generally is a pretty rural area a lot like the rest of the district that Ill get to represent. We have some fast-growing areas like Lumberton, but its no different than the new parts of Montgomery County that I picked up with Splendora and New Caney. We have to make sure that our rural infrastructure can handle and sustain the growth. Janis Holt The Enterprise contacted Janis Holt but received no response. Information taken from campaign website. Occupation: Self-employed Border security: While we acknowledge and appreciate the importance of how immigrants have enriched America, we must do everything we can to preserve and protect America and Texas sovereignty and freedom, including: finishing the Texas border wall which was begun during the Trump Administration, and welcoming immigrants who enter our country through legal avenues while prosecuting those individuals who choose to breach our borders illegally. Public education: Critical Race Theory (CRT) divides the students of Texas and pits them against each other based solely on the color of their skin and not upon the character of the individual student. This dangerous ideology must not be allowed to happen in Texas schools. Texas should be promoting patriotism in our schools. Americas flaws should be discussed against the backdrop of American Exceptionalism and the continual evolution of the greatest nation on Earth. Stephen Missick Age: 49 Occupation: Pastor; Military Chaplain, National Guard Highest level of education: Doctorate of Ministry from Houston Graduate School of Theology Volunteer Work or other Elected Office (up to 3): N/A Answer No. 1: I have military service. I dont believe any of the other candidates Im running against have military service. I think its important that I served for 28 years and two combat deployments and put my life on the line for my country. I dont come from a rich, elite background. Im just an average person thats concerned about average problems that people are facing. We see it, and I think the government needs to address these problems. Answer No. 2: I was on the military mission for three years. When the president declared a national mission on the border, I served there as a chaplain. So, I know the border very well. You can say the border is far away, but its impacting us all the time. The other candidates dont know the border the way I do. If you want something done about the border, Im your man. Answer No. 3: This is a democratic republic. So, Id rather see things handled through the legislation, thats what its for. Were here to do a job and we need to do it. Gov. Abbott has done some good things, but I think some of the COVID restrictions my father died with COVID and I was very sick with it so I know its serious but a lot of the restrictions were Draconian. Yes, its an emergency, but still, I think that were here to be consulted. Answer No. 4: I support education choice, I think competition is good for the public schools. I dont want to abandon the public schools. Ive worked in education as a substitute teacher, and Ive taught at schools where there wasnt a challenging environment for academically-minded students. I think they should be given a voucher where they can go to a charter school where their environment is more conducive to learning because certain schools dont have that. Plus, Im concerned about CRT. I think theres too much political indoctrination going on in public schools and also the university system. Answer No. 5: When I decided to run, the district map I saw was Huntsville, Cleveland, Shepherd and Liberty. After I registered, I lost Huntsville, and they added I guess Hardin County and I was like, Thats different, I wasnt expecting that. But I have friends in Dayton and I have another military friend of my father in Kountze. So, I do have some connection to that area. If I do win, I represent the entire district and Ill serve all those people. Leaders need to know how to adapt and overcome. Ronnie Bubba Tullos The Enterprise contacted Ronnie Tullos, but received no response. Occupation: Superintendent; police officer From his Facebook page: I believe that changes need to be made. We need to get some people out of office, scripted politicians. We need to put people like us, who know the decisions that need to be made. I was never spoon-fed, I worked for everything I got. I believe in self-protection. Theres a few changes Id like to make when I get into office. Every election, how come were still having the same problem? Its because scripted politicians dont care. Im running to make a difference. Im running for two things: my home, which is the state of Texas, and my family, which is the people of Texas. Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. *(I) incumbent Compiled by Olivia Malick Its not easy to mount a serious campaign for governor in a big state like Texas. It requires a sizable staff, media advertising and an airplane to fly around in, and of course all of that costs money. A lot of money. So it shouldnt be that surprising that two Republicans and one Democrat seeking this post have raised more than $10 million so far. But if you think those multi-million-dollar campaign funds were built by $10 or $20 donations here and there, you would be mistaken. Most of that money comes from big-time donors who drop hundreds of thousands of dollars or even more than a million on their preferred candidate. In the race for governor so far, incumbent Greg Abbott leads the pack by raising an astounding $84.2 million, with $49.8 million of that still unspent. Next is Democrat Beto ORourke, who has raised $13.3 million and has about half of it still available. Rounding out the top-dollar club is former Republican state Sen. Don Huffines, who has raised $10 million and has $650,460 remaining. A fourth Republican, former party chairman Allen West, has raised $3.3 million and has $104,117 left over. Abbott leads the group in seven-figure donations. He has received more than $2 million from oil mogul S. Javaid Anwar of Midland; $1.4 million from Kenny Troutt of Dallas, a retired telecom executive and thoroughbred horse farm owner; and $1 million from Michael and Mary Porter, California transplants who have bought up property in Gillespie County in the Texas Hill Country. Huffines has apparently secured the largest donations, such as $2.2 million from his twin brother Phillip. He also received $3.2 million form the Defend Texas Liberty a political action committee, which is mostly funded by Tim and Terri Dunn of Midland. Its been this way for years in Texas politics, and as this process becomes entrenched, the divide between a top elected official and average voters grows wider just as the gap shrinks for those who write the big checks. All of the candidates still court small donations, as they should. The smaller checks can add up, and a candidate is tempted to get all he or she can raise. ORourkes campaign noted that his average contribution was $43. But when a big donor calls the Governors Mansion next year to talk to the winner of this race, he or she wont be put on hold. Theyll likely be connected with the governor immediately. The chances of this happening to an average citizen or even a smaller-size donor? Practically none. The issues that are important to them and millions of other ordinary Texans have a harder time breaking through. But there is one remaining forum where every Texan is equal, from the most humble to the wealthiest. Its the voting booth, and it is there that elections are won or lost. On Election Day this Tuesday, make sure to vote in the governors race and every other contest if you havent done so already. It is your chance to have the greatest possible impact on a candidate outside of the donation game, and you should use it every time. File Photo: Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander has called on the Norfolk Sister City Association to end its relationship with Kaliningrad, Russia. (Kristen Zeis / The Virginian-Pilot) Mayor Kenny Alexander called for the Norfolk Sister City Association to rally behind Ukraine and end its relationship with Kaliningrad, Russia. Freedom and self-determination are ingrained in Norfolks spirit, and we stand in support of a free and independent Ukraine, Alexander wrote in a Sunday afternoon Facebook post. Advertisement Norfolk is proud to join many throughout the world who are rallying behind Ukraine, while calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin for his senseless, inhumane, and tyrannical acts of violent aggression against a sovereign and democratic nation. Alexanders statement follows Saturdays urging from Gov. Glenn Youngkin for Virginia to take decisive action in support of Ukraine after Russia launched a large-scale invasion Thursday. Advertisement One of Youngkins requests was for Norfolk and Roanoke to end their sister city relationships. The mayor and governor have made a notable request considering current circumstances with Russia and Ukraine, Marguerite Inscoe, president of Norfolk Sister City Association, said in an email. Discussion is underway with the executive board. The organization did not have any further comment Sunday afternoon. Roanoke Valley Sister Cities, Inc., told Youngkin it did not plan to sever ties with Pskov its Russian sister city according to local NBC affiliate WSLS. Daywatch Weekdays Start your morning with today's local news > This is not the time to tell our friends in Pskov that we want to sever our ties with them, Mary Jo Fassie, president of the organization said in a letter to the governor. While we may not agree with the politics in Russia, or in the countries of any of our Sister Cities for that matter, we do not get involved with politics nor take a political stand on any issue. Norfolk and Roanoke entered into relationships with the Russian municipalities in 1992. Kaliningrad was Norfolks fifth of 10 sister cities. Since beginning the relationship, the cities have been involved in multiple programs, including exchange programs for teachers, university professors, physicians and medical practitioners. Advertisement The Sister Cities program started in 1956 as a way to foster global relationships through cultural, educational, information and trade exchanges. Norfolk has nine other sister cities from various countries including Japan, Germany, India and Ghana. Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com Rohingya leaders in Bangladesh expressed optimism on Monday about getting justice for alleged crimes against humanity committed in Myanmars Rakhine state, after the International Criminal Courts chief prosecutor wrapped up his first visit to refugee camps. Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said The Hague-based ICC had authorized an investigation in November 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed efforts to visit Bangladesh to gather evidence at Rohingya camps in Coxs Bazar, a southeastern district along the border with Myanmar. At that time, the pre-trial chamber concluded that it was reasonable to believe that since at least 9 October 2016, members of the Tatmadaw [the Myanmar military], jointly with other security forces and with some participation of local civilians, may have committed coercive acts against the Rohingya people that constitute crimes against humanity, according to a 55-page court document. We have to work together to achieve justice and show that international law is not an abstract idea, it is not something for the law book and for students, for academics or even judges just speak to, Karim Khan said during a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka on Sunday at the end of his weeklong trip to Bangladesh. It will not be easy, there will not be justice tomorrow, justice is hard earned, he said. But I believe it can be achieved and certainly I cannot give promises, but I do not want my successor to be giving a similar speech. Karim Khan called the Rohingya a key priority and noted that he had increased resources tied to the investigation. His visit to the country included meetings with the law minister and other officials, Rohingya refugees other stakeholders. Md. Ilias, an adviser to the Arakan Rohingya National Union, called the prosecutors statement a positive development. We believe the investigation will expose how cruel genocide and crimes against humanity were perpetrated against the Rohingya people by the Myanmar military, he told BenarNews on Monday. We have handed over to the ICC prosecutor all sorts of documents relating to the persecution and genocide of the Rohingya. This is highly likely that the verdict of the case will certainly go in favor of the Rohingya if the international community stands by us, Ilias said. Karim Khans visit to Bangladesh unfolded as the International Court of Justice, a sister court to the ICC that is also based in The Hague, held hearings to determine whether it has jurisdiction to judge if atrocities committed by Myanmars military against Rohingya constituted a genocide. The case stems from a lawsuit brought by Gambia, a Muslim-majority nation in West Africa, against Myanmar before the ICJ. Gambia is accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention through the alleged expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from Rakhine state to Bangladesh amid a brutal crackdown in 2017. Khan, the ICC prosecutor, visited Coxs Bazar on Saturday and spoke with about 10 Rohingya at one of the refugee camps, according to attendee Khing Maung. Actually, this is his first meeting with the Rohingya. He told us that the ICC prosecution team has been working to ensure that the Rohingya people get justice, he told BenarNews, adding that the prosecutor promised to return. ICC chief prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan speaks to reporters in Dhaka, Feb. 27, 2022. [BenarNews] Another Rohingya expressed hope for a positive verdict and a better life for himself and other refugees. If the ICC verdict goes in favor of the Rohingya, the Myanmar military would come under pressure. Then there could be an opportunity for the Rohingya to return to our homeland in Myanmar, Md. Salim Ullah told BenarNews. In that case, the international community must stand by us. Evidence is needed For his part, Karim Khan said he and his team had work to do before trying any cases. We are doing criminal investigations. One thing is certain: evidence is needed to build cases, he said. We have to prove allegations beyond reasonable doubt in the courtroom this is why we need hard evidence that we have checked, that we have verified, that we have confidence in because in due course the defense will have the right to challenge it, he said. And I need to be confident in the evidence, and in the end the truth we believe in will prevail and the judge will make the right decision based on that. Meanwhile, a former Bangladeshi foreign secretary expressed doubt that a positive verdict for the Rohingya would open Myanmar for repatriation. I think the ICC could convict some five to 10 officials of the Myanmar military for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. But the main problem would arise in executing the verdict, Md. Touhid Hossain told BenarNews on Monday. Myanmar military officials usually do not go outside the country. So convictions of some officials are unlikely to force them to accept the Rohingya, Hossain said. Repatriation is a political decision for Myanmar. People remove debris at the site of a military-base building that, according to Ukrainian ground forces, was destroyed by an air strike, in Okhtyrka town in Ukraines Sumy region, Feb. 28, 2022. Singapore broke from ASEANs line Monday by saying it would impose sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, after the Southeast Asian bloc, in a statement, neither condemned Moscow nor called the strike on its neighbor an invasion. Singapore said it would suspend exports of items that could be used as weapons in Ukraine, and that it would block some banking and financial transactions connected to Russia. Analysts called the city-states move unprecedented. We are witnessing an unprovoked military invasion of a sovereign state as we speak . Russias invasion of Ukraine is a clear and gross violation of the international norms and a completely unacceptable precedent, Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told parliament on Monday. [W]e will impose export controls on items that can be used directly as weapons in Ukraine to inflict harm or to subjugate the Ukrainians. We will also block certain Russian banks and financial transactions connected to Russia. The specific measures are being worked out and will be announced shortly, he added. Singapore and next-door neighbor Indonesia were the only Southeast Asian countries to condemn Russias Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, although the Philippines issued its own strongly worded statement on Monday. Manila expresses explicit condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a statement, adding that the country had voted yes on a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion. By contrast, a collective statement issued by the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was wishy-washy, according to analysts. First, ASEAN did not mention Russia in the statement at all. Second, the statement by ASEAN did not state that what was happening in Ukraine was an invasion. And third, ASEAN asked all parties to exercise restraint, in a situation where one country was defending itself from an invasion by a giant neighbor with superior military might. In their statement, the ASEAN foreign ministers also put the burden of upholding the principles of mutual respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and equal rights of all nations on all parties rather than just the invading nation. ASEANs bland statement did not surprise Southeast Asia analyst Derek J. Grossman. ASEAN predictably cant bring itself to criticize Russia for invading Ukraine, the senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp., a U.S. think-tank, said on Twitter. Thanks for nothing, ASEAN. Southeast Asia expert and academic Zachary Abuza commended Singapore for its stand. Once again Singapore is way out front of ASEAN: defending international law, imposing a swath of banking sanctions, a ban on export of dual use tech, travel restrictions, despite the short-term economic costs, Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, said on Twitter. Rare leadership from Southeast Asia. ASEANs statement also contrasted sharply with vocal protests against the Russian invasion that took place in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and other capitals of members of the regional bloc. A Filipino activist lights candles during a rally in Quezon City, near Manila, to protest against Russias invasion of Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022. [Basilio Sepe] ASEAN meeting in Washington Separately, the United States announced Monday that it would host ASEAN leaders at a special meeting in Washington on March 28-29, the Associated Press reported. It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner and to strengthen an empowered and unified ASEAN to address the challenges of our time, AP quoted White House press secretary Jen Psaki as saying in a statement. The meeting comes as Washington is pushing to make the Indo-Pacific region a top foreign policy priority amid Beijings increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea. Six Asian governments including four ASEAN countries have territorial claims or maritime boundaries in the waterway that overlap with the sweeping claims of China. While Indonesia does not regard itself as party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesias exclusive economic zone. Lately, stability in Southeast Asia has been threatened with alleged incursions by Chinese vessels in the exclusive economic zones of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia in the South China Sea. Russias military strike on Ukraine has raised fears of similar actions by Beijing in areas it calls its territory. [T]his is something that creates a very dangerous legal precedent, especially for an assertive country like China that has repeatedly pushed for its own interpretations of international law, most clearly in the South China Sea, National War Colleges Abuza wrote in a column for BenarNews last week. Nearly three dozen people, a majority of them Ukrainian, protest Russias invasion of their country outside the Russian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Feb.28, 2022. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews] Evacuations Meanwhile, Southeast Asian countries were working overtime to evacuate their nationals from Ukraine, either to neighboring countries, or to bring them back home. On Feb. 26, two days after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed a directive sent to all government agencies and provincial heads asking them coordinate in providing assistance to the 7,000 Vietnamese who reside in Ukraine, mainly in Kharkiv, Odessa and Kyiv, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA), the parent company of BenarNews. Additionally, on Monday, Vietnams Civil Aviation Authority asked local airlines to work out plans by March 2 to bringing citizens home, RFA reported. The sizeable Vietnamese community in Ukraine dates back to the 1980s, when Moscow signed an agreement with Hanoi to allow talented students to study or work in the country. In Manila, the Philippines foreign affairs department said there were about 350 Filipinos living and working in Ukraine. On Monday, the department said that about 40 of them had been evacuated safely to areas in Poland, Hungary and Moldova. Six of them have already arrived in the Philippines. Meanwhile, independent reports confirmed by the Philippine foreign department said that two vessels with Filipino crew members were hit by a bomb and shelling in the Black Sea. A Marshall Islands-flagged and Turkish-owned commercial cargo ship, the Yasa Jupiter, was hit by a bomb off the coast of Ukraines port city of Odessa on Feb. 24. Eleven Filipinos were among the crew members. The Filipinos were not hurt in the incident and have already been in touch with their families back home, the department said, citing information gathered by Filipino diplomats. Another vessel with 21 Filipino seafarers, the Japanese-owned, Panamanian-flagged grain bulk carrier M/V Nomura Queen was hit by a missile strike in the Black Sea off Odessa and bore damage to its stern, the department said. One Filipino crew member fell upon impact and sustained a non-life threatening injury while the rest of the Filipino crew are safe, it added. The vessel was expected in Istanbul for repairs, and the foreign department said it was already in touch with its owner to monitor the condition of the crew. Elsewhere, nine Malaysians and two of their dependents have been safely evacuated from Kyiv and were expected to reach Malaysia on Tuesday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Monday. Indonesia has evacuated 31 of its citizens from Ukraine to Poland and Romania. The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Teuku Faizasyah, confirmed the news shared by the ministry via Twitter that 25 Indonesian citizens in Odessa, Ukraine had been taken to Bucharest on Sunday, while six Indonesians living in Lviv were evacuated to Poland on Monday. The ministry said that there were 153 Indonesian nationals in Ukraine, most of whom lived in Kyiv and worked in the manufacturing and service sectors. There are more than 250 Thais working Ukraine, said the Thai embassy in Warsaw, which has jurisdiction over the former Soviet republic. The embassy said that 99 Thais arrived in Warsaw and Bucharest on Sunday. But officials were most worries about the 14 Thais stranded in Kyiv a city near the border with Russia. Our top concern is Thai people stranded in Kharkiv, next to the Russian border. Due to the situation, we cannot take them out, Chettaphan Maksamphan, the Thai ambassador to Poland, said on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday. The situation in Kharkiv is really bad. We told those Thais to stay put, he wrote. Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok, Ronna Nirmala in Jakarta, Suganya Lingan in Kuala Lumpur, Basilio Sepe and Jojo Rinoza in Manila, and Radio Free Asias Vietnamese Service contributed to this report. After imposing one of the worlds longest lockdowns, the Philippines government on Monday announced the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in Metro Manila and dozens of other sites to the lowest level, starting Tuesday and lasting for at least two weeks. Establishments and public transportation services can operate at full capacity under Alert Level 1, but in-person classes for primary schools are subject to the presidents prior approval, the governments COVID-19 task force said. Tomorrow, March 1, 2022, is the start of the implementation of Alert Level 1 in Metro Manila and 38 other places in the Philippines, Karlo Nograles, the acting spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte, told reporters. To places under Alert Level 1, the government thanks you for your cooperation and for following minimum public health standards, and for working together to increase vaccinations so we can get past this pandemic, he said. We are seeing the same levels of cooperation in other areas and observing the same patterns of progress. Alert Level 1 means there is a low risk of infection and that at least 70 percent of the target population has been fully vaccinated, Nograles said. The change is to be in place until at least March 15. While restrictions are being relaxed, Filipinos will be required to wear masks at all times except for when eating, drinking and doing outdoor exercises while observing social distancing, the government said. In addition, adults are required to present proof of full vaccination before participating in mass gatherings or entering indoor establishments such as gyms, cinemas, conferences and election-related venues, officials said. More importantly, people, regardless of age and medical condition, can travel to areas outside their home regions. The move follows the countrys reopening its borders to foreign tourists in mid-February after nearly two years. Tourists must show proof of vaccination but do not need to be quarantined upon arrival. Self-regulate Despite the easing of restrictions, the Department of Health reminded people that the pandemic was not over, as the government agency urged Filipinos to self-regulate. We have not yet reached the endemic state. We are now at a level where we are still transitioning to our desired new normal, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday. Vergeire warned that the government could reimpose stricter regulations should there be a new surge of COVID-19 infections. Complacency in terms of vaccination, thats what we are looking at right now, she said, noting that many people including those in the capital region have apparently failed to get booster shots. During this time that Omicron is here and this is backed by science and evidence we need an additional dose or booster so that we are given appropriate or adequate protection against this variant, she said, referring to the highly infectious strain of the coronavirus disease. The health department recorded 951 new COVID-19 cases and 50 deaths on Monday, a steep decline from the all-time one-day high of 39,004 infections recorded on Jan. 15. The Southeast Asian nation has recorded more than 3.6 million infections and more than 56,000 deaths since the pandemic began here in early 2020. Updated at 5:40 p.m. EST on 2022-02-28 China launched military training on Hainan Island, its most southerly province, a day after the U.S. 7th Fleet announced that one of its destroyers transited the Taiwan Strait. The Hainan Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning saying military training would take place from Sunday through Tuesday close to the sea and that entering the area within a six-mile radius was prohibited. A navigation warning is a public advisory notice to mariners about changes to navigational aids and current marine activities or hazards including fishing zones and military exercises. The warning did not specify the type of military training but the provided coordinates indicated the location is near Chinas Wenchang Rocket Launch Site. On Saturday, the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet said in a statement that its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson was conducting a routine Taiwan Strait transit. The statement said the transit was conducted through international waters in accordance with international law and through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state. Before this and most recently, the USS Dewey made a similar transit on Jan. 22, and the USS Chaffe did so on Dec. 15, 2021. But those two ships did not turn on their automatic identification system (AIS), whereas the USS Ralph Johnson did, effectively advertising its mission. The 7th Fleet said the USS Ralph Johnsons transit demonstrates the United States commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. Taiwans security The move was criticized by China. The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command spokesman, Sr. Col. Shi Yi, was quoted by Chinese state media as saying that such an action is provocative and aims to embolden Taiwan separatist forces. Shi also called the U.S. action hypocritical and futile and said the PLA tracked and monitored the destroyers movements. A MH-60R helicopter is seen during flight operations aboard the USS Ralph Johnson Feb.14, 2022. [U.S. Navy] China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and vows to take it back, by force if necessary. While its not unusual for the U.S. Navy to sail through the Taiwan Strait, Saturdays mission took place against a tense international backdrop, as fighting intensifies in Ukraine after an invasion by Russian forces. There has been speculation that China could exploit a situation in which Washington was preoccupied by Ukraine by taking action against Taiwan or in the South China Sea. Beijing has rejected that suggestion, but the Ukraine conflict has at the very least highlighted the diplomatic gulf between Washington and Beijing, as China avoids direct criticism of Russias conduct. The hawkish Chinese tabloid Global Times said while the ongoing Ukraine-Russia tussle is intensifying, the U.S. military is attempting to demonstrate its capabilities to stir up trouble in both Europe and Asia. The same newspaper in an editorial last week warned Taiwan that the Ukrainian crisis proved that Washington is not reliable and there is only one option for the islands future to achieve reunification with the mainland. The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense on Monday said in response to the development of the Ukrainian-Russian military conflict, Taiwans army continues to maintain a high degree of vigilance and closely monitors the military dynamics around the Taiwan Strait to ensure national security. One lesson that China can learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Alexander Vuving, a professor with the Hawaii-based Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, is that a unilateral decision to take over a smaller country wont be acceptable in modern times. I think China is not yet ready to launch an invasion of Taiwan, Vuving said, adding: But China will intensify its testing action to test the capabilities and resolve of its opponents across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea. Meanwhile on Monday, the United States announced that it would host leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a special meeting in Washington on March 28-29, the Associated Press reported. Apart from China and Taiwan, four ASEAN countries have territorial claims or maritime boundaries in the waterway that overlap with the sweeping claims of China. It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner and to strengthen an empowered and unified ASEAN to address the challenges of our time, AP quoted White House press secretary Jen Psaki as saying in a statement. A supporter hugs pro-democracy activist and human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa after authorities released him on bail from the Bangkok Remand Prison, Feb. 28, 2022. A generation of young Thais will carry on fighting for human rights, liberty and equality, a prominent pro-democracy activist vowed Monday night as he walked free from a jail where he spent more than 200 days on royal defamation charges. The South Bangkok Criminal Court had agreed to release Arnon Nampa on bail until May 28 under strict conditions after he posted a bond of 300,000 baht (U.S. $9,100), his lawyers said in a statement. I was in prison, had time to think and reviewed many things about the fight. Today, the fight for rights, liberties, equality has become the mission of the new generation, Arnon, a 37-year-old human rights lawyer, said after he emerged from the Bangkok Remand Prison. His mother, Malai Nampa, was among the throng of hundreds of supporters who turned out to meet Arnon outside the prison gates. Today, I am very happy. I was longing for this day, for us to meet again. I have prepared his favorite food for him, Malai told reporters. During his time in jail, her son said he shed 7 kilos (15 pounds) and kept up an exercise regimen. Inside, I exercised every day. I looked at Prayuths face and jumped rope every day Arnon said, referring to Prayuth Chan-o-cha, Thailands prime minister and the former army chief who led a military coup in 2014. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), a legal aid group representing Arnon, claimed he had never been seen as a flight risk and that other defendants facing similar charges had been released. The defendant was detained for more than six months without any evidence to prove his guilt, TLHR said. The Bangkok South Court placed strict conditions on Arnons bail including requiring him to abstain from all activities that can be deemed detrimental to the monarchy or cause obstruction to court proceedings, according to his lawyers. Arnon also is not allowed to attend any political activities or post messages on social media asking people to join. I will strictly respect the courts conditions, Arnon told reporters after being released. At the same time, Arnon said he would not turn his back on those seeking changes in the government. If the people have anything for me to do, to speak, I will do my duty, he said. Since July 2020, a largely youth-led movement has been protesting for Thailands constitution to be rewritten, the monarchy to be reformed and for Prayuth to step down. At its peak, rallies drew thousands of demonstrators. Arnon was one of the first pro-democracy leaders to criticize the monarchy publicly when he spoke out while dressed as a wizard during a Harry Potter-themed protest in August 2020. He faces trial on 24 charges including sedition and Lese-Majeste, a law that makes it illegal to defame, insult or threaten the monarchy. It carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison for each conviction. Arnon had been released in June 2021 after being detained for 113 days but was taken into custody again two months later. As long as the country is not democratic, prisons will be home for activists, Arnon said. Seeds we harvested two years ago; they are waiting to bloom. There is nothing that can destroy this, the new generation. Other leaders still jailed Arnon is the fifth pro-democracy activist to get temporary freedom from prison since December. On Monday, TLHR said at least five other activists remained in pre-trial detention. However, none of them face Lese-Majeste charges. Earlier this month, the lawyers group said it had documented 3,448 charges brought against 1,767 people linked to the protests between July 18, 2020, and the end of last month. At least 169 people, including 13 juveniles, face Lese-Majeste, while 116 face sedition charges. Bencharat Sae Chua, a lecturer at Mahidol University in Bangkok, said the Thai political establishment sees the youth-led pro-democracy movement as a threat because the protests addressed grievances against the monarchy explicitly and publicly. She also said the temporary release of the protest leaders comes at a time when there have been no large organized rallies in recent months. We dont know what would happen if these people would break out of those conditions and get into large-scale protests again, she told BenarNews last week. Virginias Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday killed a bill that would have restored state and local law enforcement authority to pull cars over on a host of vehicle safety and equipment violations. (Chris Carlson/AP) Virginias Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday killed a bill that would have restored state and local law enforcement authority to pull cars over on a host of vehicle safety and equipment violations. Though the measure passed the Republican-led House of Delegates two weeks ago, the Democrat-controlled Senate committee passed the bill by indefinitely on a 9-6 party line vote. All committee Democrats voted to kill the bill, while all Republicans wanted to advance it. Advertisement A law passed in 2020 barred Virginia police officers and sheriffs deputies from stopping motorists for about 15 equipment violations and safety violations from having tinted windows and loud exhaust systems to having only one working brake light or only one headlight at night or in the rain. At Mondays hearing, the sponsor of this years measure, Del. Ronnie Campbell, R-Rockbridge County, urged senators to give the authority back to the police. Advertisement Campbell, a former Virginia state trooper, said he responded to many accidents over the years in which a car without working brake lights or taillights was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer. The truck driver ... doesnt realize theyre running slower or that they have stopped for some reason, Campbell said. And he literally runs over the top of them. [ Police in Virginia were barred in 2020 from stopping cars for a range of violations. Now lawmakers look to undo those changes. ] A coalition of law enforcement associations had backed an effort to reinstate officers ability to stop vehicles for some of those violations, saying Virginia roadways have become more dangerous. Some also asserted that law enforcement has lost a key mechanism to encounter fugitives, get guns off the street and reduce crime. Wayne Huggins, executive director of the Virginia State Police Association, urged lawmakers to please take highway safety serious and pass the bill. Though theres a large public outcry about crime, he said, traffic safety is important, too. The manner of death leaves little comfort to the survivors, he said. The 2020 law bars police and deputies from stopping cars with only one working brake light out of three that are required. Police also cant pull over cars with registration or vehicle safety inspection stickers that are less than three months past their expiration dates. Nor can they stop cars for having defective and unsafe equipment or having objects dangling from their rear view mirrors. Officers also cant stop pedestrians who are blocking the orderly passage of vehicles or who step into a road where they cant be seen. Though police can still write tickets for such offenses, officers must have first stopped cars for other reasons such as a moving violation. If they dont abide by the rule, nothing in the stop can be used in any future prosecutions. The legislation voted down Monday would have reinstated police authority to stop motorists for those infractions. Advertisement Criminal justice system reformers pushed the 2020 measure to cut back on what they contend is the targeting of Black drivers and particular neighborhoods for such stops. Over the years, these reformers say, Black drivers are pulled over at a rate thats nearly twice the rate of white drivers. Reformers have long contended that such stops and searches are often pretextual, with police using the stops as excuses to do other investigations, including running warrant checks and looking for weapons. In 2020, the bill stripping police of the authority to make such vehicle equipment stops was combined with a measure that precludes police from searching cars on the assertion that they smelled marijuana coming from the car. As it originally passed the General Assembly, the 2020 would have barred police from pulling drivers over even if both headlights were out not just one. After a Daily Press reporter asked the bills sponsor, Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, about that, he first incorrectly said there was nothing about headlights in his legislation. He then asked Gov. Ralph Northam to amend the already-passed bill to say police could still stop cars if both headlights were out, and Northam agreed. Campbell said many officers feel their hands are tied, despite U.S. Supreme Court rules on traffic stops and 3-inch-thick Virginia State Police manual on how they should be conducted. Most of them have pretty much pulled back, he said of officers. Advertisement Campbell said a local sheriff recently told him his deputies think they know who is stealing catalytic converters from parked cars, but need a way to pull him over in order to check. The lawmaker then read off a list of notorious mass murderers such as Timothy McVeigh and Ted Bundy that were caught on routine traffic or vehicle infractions. That is the importance of allowing police officers to have things they can stop vehicles for, Campbell said. But Brad Haywood, a Northern Virginia public defender and founder of Justice Forward Virginia, a criminal justice reform organization that spearheaded the 2020 legislation, said if there were legitimate public safety concerns, the other side would have put it forth. Daywatch Weekdays Start your morning with today's local news > We would have real life data or anecdotes about traffic accidents or something, Haywood said. Instead were hearing that this is a serial killer prevention law. The real impact of pretextual policing is that Black people are pulled over nearly twice as often as white people, he told lawmakers. And thats what this bill was meant to address. And its doing a good job of that. Haywood also listed a few more names to be considered, such as Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose and others. Those are all people who would be alive today if Virginias historic laws limiting pretextual policing were in place nationwide, he said. Advertisement On the other hand, Robert Mercincavage, an IT and communications industry retiree from Great Falls and a self-described moderate Democrat, wrote to all 15 committee members over the weekend urging them to pass the bill. While we understand racial profiling concerns, he wrote, the current law is very damaging to millions of decent law abiding Virginia residents and visitors to the state regardless of any race, color and creed. Basic long-standing safety and health standards should not be disregarded and trashed! he added. Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. The town home to the Berkshire Mall continues to press in court for safety improvements at the shuttered complex, a place struggling to get a required firefighting system up and running, as its owner tries to recoup his investment. Tree removal on Bullock's Ledge in Williamstown, partially completed here, opened the way for indigenous plants. The Virginia Beach courthouse, as seen in an undated photo. (Lee Belote/Freelance / The Virginian-Pilot) A local member of the international MS-13 criminal gang was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison for ordering the murder of a Chesapeake man whom he was believed was in a rival gang. Melvin Molina-Ramos was sentenced by Virginia Beach Circuit Judge James C. Lewis, who presided over the 25-year-old mans jury trial in November. The maximum he could have received was 65 years. Advertisement Handout mug shot of Melvin Molina Ramos from the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office, Feb. 28, 2022. (Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office/Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office) Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Tabitha Anderson argued the callousness and senselessness of the crime called for a lengthy sentence. This was an organized execution on behalf of MS-13, Anderson told the judge. The motto of MS-13 is kill, rape, control, and their goal is to be the biggest, baddest, and most violent gang in the world. When those are your goals and motto there has got to be a price to pay. Advertisement The victim, 19-year-old Jairo Sanchez Guardado, was known to associate with members of a rival gang but there was no evidence he was a member, said Macie Allen, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Commonwealths Attorneys Office. He was killed in July 2018 in a wooded area near the shoreline of Lake Smith in Virginia Beach. Two kayakers found his body in a sitting position with his head slumped over and called police. He had been shot once in the back of the head. Prosecutors said Molina-Ramos ordered the hit, which was carried out by other MS-13 gang members. Three other co-defendants who participated in the shooting death have trials pending. Prosecutors said Molina-Ramos threatened to kill them if they didnt carry out the murder, or spoke of it. The jury convicted Molina-Ramos of solicitation of murder, conspiracy, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, and being an accessory after the fact at the end of a three-day trial. Some of Molina-Ramos fellow gang members were among the witnesses who testified against him. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Also known as Mara Salvatrucha, MS-13 is believed to have been founded as a street gang in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by immigrants fleeing a civil war in El Salvador. The gang recruits young immigrant teenagers from Central America, though many gang members were born in the U.S. In addition to the testimony of his co-defendants, prosecutors used cell phone data and video surveillance to tie Molina-Ramos to the crime. Molina Ramos came to the United States with his family in 2013 from El Salvador to escape the gangs there, according to his attorney, Diane Toscano. He attended Granby High School but dropped out after his girlfriend got pregnant, she said. The couple now has two children. He was working long hours for a local drywall company to help support his family here and in El Salvador, Toscano said, and had not been in any criminal trouble before this case. Advertisement Speaking through a translator before his sentence was issued, Molina-Ramos said he wanted Guardados family to excuse me for what happened. He also asked the judge to give him a sentence that would not keep him away from his family for too long. Im a human being. Im a person, he said. I made a mistake. Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin's office has produced new descriptions of the new House and Senate district that are in place for the 2022 elections. The new House map increased the number of districts where minorities make up the majority of the population from 20 to 33, including two new districts in Worcester and new incumbent-free districts in Lawrence, Chelsea, Framingham and Brockton. Ryker Audiss (Belle Fourche baseball): Audiss, a senior outfielder, was a force at the plate and a major contributor to the Broncs wins over Lead-Deadwood, St. Thomas More, and Chamberlain/Kimball/Lyman. His cumulative Stats for the week: three games, nine hits in 11 at bats, two doubles, nine RBIs, seven runs scored, two stolen bases. 0.818 batting average, 0.833 on base percentage, and a 1.000 slugging percentage. Garrett Winkler (Newell boys track and field): Last week Winkler competed at the Northern Hills Invite in Belle Fourche and finished second in the 3,200-meter run, and had a 16 second improvement from his previous best. He also anchored the boys Medley Relay to a sixth place finish. Vote View Results In the New Testament, events at the Feast of Pentecost mark a new era in the church. However, to fully understand what happened to the disciples that day in the upper room, we need to consider what the Feast of Pentecost involved and what Jesus told his disciples to wait for. What is the Feast of Pentecost? The Feast of Pentecost is the Greek phrase for a Jewish feast day, also known as the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22) or Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16). Pentecost is a Greek term that means fiftieth, and the Feast of Pentecost took place 50 days after Passover. The Lord instituted this celebration when He renewed His covenant with the people as He spoke to Moses in Exodus 34:22-23. In Numbers 28:26, the feast is called the Day of First Fruits. The day was to consist of: A holy convocation wherein people would not do ordinary work An offering of new grain A burnt offering of two bulls, one ram, seven one-year-old male lambs, their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil (three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two tenths for one ram, and a tenth for each lamb), and one male goat (all blemish-free), along with their drink offering. The celebration usually took place in May or early June, 50 days after Passover. What Were the Apostles Waiting for in the Upper Room? Before His ascension, Jesus commanded the apostles not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the Promise of the Father (Acts 1:4). He told them they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5), not many days later. But the apostles then asked the Lord when He would restore the kingdom to Israel, still believing that Christ would shortly establish His earthly kingdom. They knew the prophecies about the Holy Spirit from Ezekiel 36:27-38 and Joel 2:28-32. They thought the kingdom would soon be physical, as did the prevailing Jewish religious leaders. The difference between the disciples and the religious leaders was the disciples believed Jesus was the Messiah: presumably, the kingdom was coming soon. Jesus corrected their thinking when He said: It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Jesus re-directed their thoughts from the kingdoms coming on earth to a direct filling of the Spirit in believers, starting with them. After Jesus explained this to them, He ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9-11). They then returned to Jerusalem and went back to the Upper Room, where they were staying (Acts 1:12). So, the 11 apostles (and others) were in the upper room because they were awaiting the promised Holy Spirit. Who Was in the Upper Room? Acts 1:13 records that the 11 apostles, Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew (also called Nathanael), Matthew, James, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James were in the upper room, where they were staying. They were in the room with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers (Acts 1:14). It was probably the same upper room where Jesus shared the last supper (Mark 14:15) with His disciples before being arrested, tried, and crucified. Luke wrote they were of one accord in prayer and supplication (Acts 1:14) as they awaited the promised Holy Spirit. What Biblical Events Happened During the Feast of Pentecost? The Jews who had pilgrimaged to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost were offering their firstfruits to the Lord. Meanwhile, Jesus followers were in the upper room. While they waited, the apostles established something: they needed a new member to replace Judas Iscariot. So, they prayed and selected Matthias by lot to take Judas place (Acts 1:15-26). Then, 50 days after the Passover, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the Upper Room. The description of His coming is stunning: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:2-4) On this, the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came as the firstfruits of the believers inheritance (2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:11,14). Why Did People Think the Disciples Were Drunk? Acts 2:5 records devout Jews pilgrimaged Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Weeks. A multitude of them came together when they heard the rushing mighty wind of the Holy Spirits arrival. They gathered, saw the disciples speaking, and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language (Acts 2:6). The people stood in amazement, and they marveled at what was occurring and said, Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? (Acts 2:7-8). The audience included Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, Rome (Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism), and Cretans and Arabs. All told, Acts lists people from 15 different nations watching the disciples, and they each heard them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:8-11). Needless to say, they were perplexed. Others mocking said, They are full of new wine (Acts 2:13). New wine was a drink that could have easily made a person drunk, and therefore behave oddly. Peter stood and preached his Day of Pentecost sermon to the people. He started by refuting the claim they were filled with new wine. He said, For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day (9:00 a.m.). He added the words of the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32), which most in attendance would recognize. He added a descriptive and beautiful apologetic about the Lord Jesus, and in Acts 2:32-33 said, This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. He continued in verse 36 with the denouement the Jews were not expecting, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Messiah). The people had supposed the Messiah would usher in a kingdom that removed the oppressive Roman yoke. Peter showed how those expectations were off the mark. The Messiah had come, and the kingdom had arrived in a different way. Peter told the assembled crowd how they might receive the Holy Spirit, and about three thousand souls were added to them (Acts 2:41). Only God could orchestrate such an event from an accusation of drunkenness to the salvation of about three thousand. When Do Christians Celebrate the Feast of Pentecost? Christians celebrate the Feast of Pentecost on the Sunday 50 days after Resurrection Sunday. The celebration is to honor the day the Holy Spirit was poured out on all believers. Different denominations celebrate the Feast of Pentecost in various ways. Some congregations make a scene of fire using rose petals or fiery-red confetti to represent the tongues of fire as described in Acts 2:3. Other groups blow trumpets to symbolize the rushing mighty wind from heaven. Others preach the gospel in other languages. Some people stress wearing white and being baptized on this special day. This years (2022) Feast of Pentecost will be celebrated on June 5. However one commemorates the Feast of Pentecost, its a day of remembrance for what God the Father has done through His Son and His Holy Spirit. Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/Baiterek Media Lisa Loraine Baker is the award-winning author of Someplace to Be Somebody (End Game Press, February 2022). Lisa writes fiction and nonfiction and is currently co-writing a Christian living book with her husband, and a suspense novel. Lisa is a member of Word Weavers, Intl (as a critique partner and mentor), AWSA, ACFW, Serious Writer Group, and BRRC. Lisa and her husband, Stephen, inhabit their home as the Newlyweds of Minerva with crazy cat, Lewis. LAPWAI - In a video conference on Saturday afternoon, police said that a suspect, who is accused of placing threatening phone calls to schools in Lapwai, was in custody in Jamaica. Following threats made on social media a day earlier, on Tuesday Feb. 22, schools in Lapwai received phone calls from a person threatening violence. That's when Nez Perce Tribal Police investigators began to try and find a way to communicate with the person that made the threats, said Captain Leotis McCormack of the Nez Perce Tribal Police. During the investigation, Lapwai schools were closed Wednesday through Friday. As information began to come in from the FBI, investigators began to believe the suspect was not local. McCormack said police sought out contacts with international law enforcement agencies, including police in Kingston, Jamaica, where it was believed the calls were originating from. Police would eventually make contact with the suspect, and obtain details from the suspect that would eventually lead to his apprehension by Jamaican authorities. McCormack said the FBI, Idaho State Police, and the Nez Perce County Sheriff's Office all provided assistance during the investigation. Classes are scheduled to resume in Lapwai on Monday. House Bill 5294, Expand ban on offering faux-government services: Passed 38 to 0 To expand a state consumer protection act provision that restricts third parties from offering online services that are similar to ones performed by a governmental agency, by requiring they conspicuously indicate that the operation is not a government entity, and disclose the prices and terms. 33 Sen. Rick Outman R - Six Lakes Y 35 Sen. Curt VanderWall R - Ludington Y Senate Bill 445, Waive some unemployment job search requirements during epidemic: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate To revise during the coronavirus epidemic an unemployment benefits requirement that a recipient be "available" for either part-time or full-time work. Under current law the requirement is to be available for full-time work. 33 Sen. Rick Outman R - Six Lakes Y 35 Sen. Curt VanderWall R - Ludington Y House Bill 5637, Expand right to try experimental drugs to coronavirus: Passed 56 to 48 in the House To extend to COVID-19 treatments a 2014 "Right to Try state law that lets terminal patients use and drug companies provide non-FDA approved treatments, subject to a broad array of restrictions, conditions and requirements. 97 Rep. Jason Wentworth R - Clare Y 100 Rep. Scott VanSingel R - Grant Y 102 Rep. Michele Hoitenga R - Manton Y House Bill 4173, Eliminate cap on crime information rewards: Passed 102 to 0 in the House To eliminate the $2,000 cap in a law authorizing counties to offer rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a criminal, or the capture of an escaped convict. Under the bill there would be no limit on how large a reward a county could pay. 97 Rep. Jason Wentworth R - Clare Y 100 Rep. Scott VanSingel R - Grant Y 102 Rep. Michele Hoitenga R - Manton Y House Bill 4693, Revise landlord referral restriction: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate To revise a law that bans landlords from offering, and tenants accepting, more than half a months free rent in return for a tenant referral. The bill would allow up to a months free rent for this. 33 Sen. Rick Outman R - Six Lakes Y 35 Sen. Curt VanderWall R - Ludington Y House Bill 5686, Require legislature get notice of changes to school "seat time" rules: Passed 54 to 50 in the House To require that prior to their adoption any changes made by state officials to a pupil accounting and auditing manual must be sent to the chairpersons of the state House and Senate education policy committees. This document is used to set standards for the number of school days and hours provided by public school districts for purposes of determining whether a district meets the qualifications to get state school aid money. As introduced the bill would have required legislative approval for these changes, which have played a role in school districts' decisions to close classrooms during the COVID epidemic. 97 Rep. Jason Wentworth R - Clare Y 100 Rep. Scott VanSingel R - Grant Y 102 Rep. Michele Hoitenga R - Manton Y House Bill 5527, Raise spending cap on job training subsidy program for select employers: Passed 82 to 22 in the House To increase from $50 million to $100 million the debt cap in a 2008 law that authorized state job training subsidies for particular employers, provided through community colleges. The scheme diverts income tax collected from the new employees to repay the local college for the training. Crucial week for President Biden. He delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday at 9 pm eastern. The House chamber, where the speech is delivered, will not be a happy place and Mr. Biden has to know that. ABC News released a poll yesterday saying just 37 percent of Americans approve of Biden's job performance - 54 percent don't believe the President's mental state is clear. Those are devastating numbers from a liberal news agency. And then there's the despicable Putin who is now mentioning nukes. This is a totally reprehensible and dangerous person. Joe Biden is in charge of crushing him and many Americans, including me, are concerned he's not up to it. BillOReilly.com will provide smart, honest analysis of Biden's big week. Millions of people all over the world come to us when times get tough. Like now. Spread the word. See you beginning at six this evening for the No Spin News. Sign up to watch the No Spin News every weeknight beginning at 6:00 pm Eastern.] Under the Early and Pilot Implementation Policy in Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone CANbridge Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that CAN108 (maralixibat), a treatment for Alagille syndrome (ALGS), has been approved under the Early and Pilot Implementation Policy in Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, which will allow it to be imported and used as an urgently needed drug in the region. Maralixibat was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2021 for the treatment of cholestatic pruritus in patients aged one year and older with ALGS. There are no approved drugs for the disease in China, where there is a large unmet need for treatment. The Early and Pilot Implementation Policy of Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone enables Chinese patients to access therapeutics that are available in other parts of the world, thereby improving the quality of life of patients, especially children. CANbridge has the exclusive license to develop and commercialize CAN108 in Greater China for three rare liver disease indications: Alagille syndrome (ALGS), progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) and biliary atresia (BA). The National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has accepted a New Drug Application (NDA) for CAN108 for Alagille syndrome in China under priority review. Being able to offer this promising investigational treatment to Chinese patients soon after its US approval, is a realization of our core commitment to deliver complete patient solutions and part of why we founded the company, said James Xue, Ph.D., CANbridge Founder, Chairman and CEO. As the world takes note of another Rare Disease Day, we are pleased to be able to offer this specific kind of support to rare disease patients in China. Indonesia to welcome international travellers quarantine-free in Bali from March 14 The Indonesian government will conduct a trial on receiving international travelers without quarantine in the countrys resort island of Bali beginning March 14 under certain conditions, a senior minister said on Sunday. Indonesia to welcome international travellers quarantine-free in Bali from March 14 The trial may be launched before March 14 if the government sees positive development in the next one week for the continued downward trend in the COVID-19 cases in Bali, Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan told a virtual press conference. Foreign visitors have to show proofs of hotel booking payments for at least four days if they want to enter Bali, while Indonesians who arrive in the holiday island from abroad are required to show proofs of domicile in the Goddess island, said Panjaitan, who is also coordinator of the public mobility restrictions (PPKM) policy for Java and Bali. The international travelers who want to enter Bali should have been fully vaccinated or received booster jabs of the COVID-19 vaccine, besides conducting entry PCR tests and waiting at hotels for negative test results, he said. If the tests show negative results, the international travelers are allowed to do other activities under health protocols, the Indonesian official said, adding that they should also carry out PCR tests again on the third day at their hotels. In addition, the requirement to have a guarantor sponsor for tourist e-visa requests will be revoked because it is considered burdensome for foreign tourists, he said. He pointed out that Bali was chosen as the pilot project location because the rate of two-dose vaccination in the province is higher than in other provinces. If the trial in Bali is successful, the government will expand the non-quarantine policy across Indonesia on April 1, or sooner. Hampton Sheriff Karen Bowden is photographed outside of the Hampton Community Corrections Center in 2021. (Kaitlin McKeown/Virginia Media) Eligible soldiers transitioning to employment after military service will now be guaranteed a job interview with the Hampton Sheriffs Office. Sheriff Karen Bowden and U. S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Erik Peterson signed an agreement last week to make the sheriffs office part of the Partnership for Youth Success Program, which guarantees job interviews but not employment to soldiers. The program matches service members with job opportunities that correspond with the role they had while serving. Advertisement Hampton is the latest agency from Hampton Roads to join the program, which also partners with the Newport News Sheriffs Office and Virginia Beach Police Department. The program started in 2000 as an enlistment incentive and later expanded to include Army Reserves soldiers. Advertisement The program also partners with companies such as 84 Lumber, Walgreens, Amazon and Dominion Energy. Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com Since the formal start of vaccine cooperation in April 2021, Sinovac has provided 16.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Ecuador , which represents 51% of all doses administered in the country Sinovac Biotech, based in China, has signed a letter of agreement with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health in Quito on industrial unit for the manufacture of vaccines against COVID-19 and other diseases. This is the first letter of agreement signed by Sinovac with the governmental authority of a country other than China , signaling a new stage in the company's global reach. The Minister of Health of Ecuador , Dr. Ximena Garzon Villalba and Sinovac's Senior Director of International Busiess Tang Zijian signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations. The vaccine factory will facilitate the transfer of relevant technologies between Ecuador and China and will improve the knowledge and skills of doctors in Ecuador . The company plans to open 500 new franchisees thus creating a network of more than 1000 franchisees in the current year 2022 Kolkata-based TABLT Pharmacy has raised $1.5 million in pre-series A round. Tablt pharmacy deals in medicines, OTCs, and other healthcare products. Sunil Singhvi, Vice Chairman, JITO says, Presently serving four states, Tablt aspires to be in 10+ states in the next two years. We at JITO Angel Network, believe that Tablt will capture a major share in the coming years. We have backed Tablt since their inception and have confidence that Tablt will be a market leader in the Bharat market. The company plans to open 500 new franchisees thus creating a network of more than 1000 franchisees in the current year 2022. Funds will be deployed to build teams across Tech, Product & Marketing functions. Besides, it has plans to open Fulfilment Centres in Bhubaneswar, Patna and Siliguri. Allowing to learn through the clinical application of knowledge rather than rote learning Hyderabad-based Medvarsity and Clove Dental have partnered to launch a Fellowship course in Endodontics. This six months fellowship programme includes a three-month contact programme with New Delhi-based Clove Dental across all major Indian cities. Clove Dental will provide Medvarsity students with the right infrastructure across the country as well as highly experienced and trained faculty in this discipline to provide the right kind of training to young dentists. The programme allows BDS graduates to learn through the clinical application of knowledge rather than rote learning, allowing students to understand and recall concepts better in a clinical setting. The programme further provides a framework for optimal diagnosis, treatment planning, and management of all endodontic lesions. Requested the health ministry to initiate urgent measures with immediate effect Rare Disease India Foundation (RDIF) a national patient advocacy group, has appealed to the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya highlighting the current gaps in providing life-saving treatment to the patients, who have been diagnosed with rare, genetic conditions for which the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved treatment is available in India for many years now. Even after seven months of the crowdfunding platform, a meagre amount of Rs 1,15,866 has been raised so far, as a result of which not a single patient has been put on treatment. RDIF has requested the health ministry to initiate the following measures with immediate effect: Extend the Umbrella Scheme of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) to all Group 3(a) patients with treatable conditions. Currently, the scheme only provides a one-time grant of Rs 20 lakh to Group 1 patients. There are several instances where MoHFW had in the past made exceptions to Group 3(a) patients, extending support under RAN. A major part of the annual budgetary allocation of Rs 25 crore under the Umbrella Scheme of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) for 2021-22 has remained unspent, like in most previous years. To allow utilisation of this years allocation to provide immediate treatment support to at least the Group 3(a) patients, diagnosed with Gaucher disease, Pompe disease, Fabry disease, MPS I & MPS II. A National Programme on Rare Diseases with a budgetary allocation of at least Rs 150 crore be set up by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare immediately to provide life-saving therapy of all those patients with treatable Group 3(a) disorders like Lysosomal Storage Disorders, for which DCGI approved treatment is available, can be provided, thereby reducing any further loss of life. Like in the case of the PM Cares model, encourage and build support from PSUs, Indias corporate to support this cause of rare diseases Krsnaa to provide diagnostics/ lab services to all the government health institutions/ hospitals of Himachal Pradesh Pune-based Krsnaa Diagnostics has announced its agreement with the Government of Himachal Pradesh. The tenure of the contract awarded will be up to five years and will be implemented in all government health institutions in the entire state of Himachal Pradesh. As per the contract, Krsnaa Diagnostics will be installing, operating and maintaining routine and advanced laboratory testing facilities at selected public health institutions. These include government medical colleges of the state, district/ general hospitals owned by the state government and community health centres (CHCs). In February this year, Krsnaa Diagnostics was awarded the contract to develop, operate and maintain radiology imaging diagnostic centres in government multi-speciality hospitals in Chandigarh on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis. The African Union (AU) has noted the clear impact of infrastructure deficits on African competitiveness, recognising this as "a continental problem that requires a continental solution". Regional integration through infrastructure programmes is expected to overcome constraints imposed by scale and location, and improve the competitiveness of African producers, connecting consumers and enhancing intra- and inter-regional trade. Teddy Daka, co-CEO, Zutari Effective PPPs Attracting global funding African leaders have consistently expressed their desire to support Africas economic development through a common market for goods and services. A 2016 report by McKinsey projects that Africas manufacturing output could expand to nearly $1tn by 2025 if Africas manufacturers upscaled to meet domestic consumer and business demands. This will require inter-sectoral collaboration between business and governments to address obstacles to production and exporting of goods.Recognising these and other market opportunities, aspirations for Africas development have begun to translate into policy-making: The African Free Trade Agreement underscores regional policy efforts towards this goal; the AUs Programme for Infrastructure Development (PIDA) is an outcome of a coordinated policy effort to unlock competitive opportunities; and, in South Africa, the recent adoption of the District Development Model shows a localised shift, mirroring intra-regional policy trends.While much research, advocacy and institutional work is ongoing towards reshaping African policies to support effective integration, this goal relies on the effective implementation of public-private-partnerships (PPPs) as a mechanism. The PPPs which undertake infrastructure projects unconsciously mediate a social contract between governments and citizens against which to monitor performance.Our ability to leverage innovative regional development hinges on the translation of infrastructure development practices across the entire development process. It is clear that infrastructure delivery and the quality of leadership, governance and public-private cooperation required for its development both exist as grand challenges in their own right and underpin the interventions necessary for many others.As Africa joins the global effort to attract funding from large global institutional investment vehicles, its ambitions are being matched through more integrated policymaking, redesigned finance instruments and project execution practices and project information systems that support performance monitoring.For visions of shared prosperity, regional integration and intra-continental strengthening to translate from policy through to development practices (across the value chain), and service delivery performance, calls for embodying a developmental identity and embedding an innovative mindset at multiple levels throughout the sector and across the infrastructure delivery value chain.We are pushed to be resourceful, intelligent and wise; we are required to be adaptive, to develop our talents, our capacity; and we certainly need to cultivate the motivation and commitment to see through this multi-generational task. The Wholesale and Retail Sector Education and Training Authority (W&RSeta) and the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) have renewed their existing relationship by signing a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at enabling both parties to enhance their skills planning through collaborative research, shared experiences and skills development activities of mutual interest. Muvatera Ndjoze-Siririka, acting CEO of NTA with Tom Mkhwanazi, CEO of W&RSETA, at the signing of the MoU in Johannesburg on 24 February. Source: Supplied Plugging a gap Implementation plan W&RSeta has been facilitating education and skills development in South Africas third-largest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) the Wholesale and Retail Sector for more than 20 years.Namibias NTA was established in 2008 with a view to regulating and facilitating the sustainable delivery of quality Vocational Education and Training (VET) to the benefit of stakeholders.W&RSeta CEO, Tom Mkhwanazi, says the partnership between the two countries was born out of a cross-border quality assurance issue that arose in 2019. Retailer trainers, who were traveling to Namibia to conduct training, encountered challenges due to the lack of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreement between the countries around quality assurance and certification.We realised South Africa and Namibia could benefit from a collaborative relationship in all areas of skills development. This is especially the case because Namibia mirrors our skills development legislation and post-schooling training interventions closely, making it a logical fit for both countries, he adds.The relationship has matured over the past three years, notwithstanding delays as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The signing of the agreement will formalise the process and provide opportunities for the two bodies and retailers in both countries to collaborate moving forward. The sector in both countries, like all other sectors, was impacted by the global Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in job losses, but also opportunities to expand through technological advancements, particularly in e-commerce.The two training bodies met in Johannesburg last week for the signing of the MoU.During the course of their time in South Africa, the delegation from the NTA visited some of the W&RSeta's flagship projects and initiatives, such as the W&RSeta Sekhukhune Skills Development Centre in Limpopo, the Indlela Trade Testing Centre in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and Training in Olifantsfontein, Gauteng, and other institutions of learning including the False Bay TVET college and Northlink TVET College.Members of the NTA also engaged with key stakeholders from some of Africas biggest retailers on skills development matters such as employer partnerships with Woolworths and the recognition of prior learning models with the Shoprite Group.Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) holds the key to technological progress,rapid industrialisation, wealth creation and poverty reduction, says acting COO of the NTA, Tobias Nambala.Therefore, investing in TVET is capitalising in national socio-economic development. Effective governance models for TVET involve relevant local stakeholders and business associations and in particular, close partnership between TVET institutions and the world of work through public-private partnerships (PPP).Hence, it cannot be overemphasised that this partnership is important for the development of a high-quality TVET through mutual engagement and support, because it will foster regular communication, sharing of ideas on best practices as well as enabling the provision of technical and financial support between the NTA and the W&RSETA, Nambala concludes.The signing of the MOU was also an opportunity for both parties to agree on an implementation plan to be drafted in the next few months and rolled out over the next five years.Some of the key areas of the partnership include collaborative research; education and training projects; sharing expertise, specifically technical expertise; collaboration around curricular design and materials assessment and other quality assurance practices; exploring opportunities in the digital space in terms of e-learning; sharing IP and other capital resources; and sharing experiences.Another potential area for collaboration exists around the sharing of employer space. This relates to integrated learning in the workplace, with the idea of forming a worker exchange programme.Mkhwanazi says the signing of the MOU marks a new and exciting phase in the relationship between W&RSeta and NTA. Our respective retail sectors are similar and I believe both parties can benefit from a collaborative approach to conduct joint projects and enhance skills transference and training programme implementation in the sector. This March, OFM is coming to meet our loyal listeners. Our team will travel all over our beautiful region to explore the gems of the Free State, Northern Cape, North West and Vaal. From 3-26 March 2022, OFM will broadcast live from selected towns on selected days to give our listeners a chance to win with the launch of the #OFMFanWall competition! As part of our mission to turn 2022 into #Twenty20You, OFM wants our listeners to be part of our special road trip album! Not only are we creating a digital memory of our cherished listeners to publish online, we plan to place this giant montage on the highways crisscrossing Central South Africa and let your friendly faces welcome visitors to OFM airspace.To be part of our giant memory wall, fans need to visit any OFM outside broadcast from 3 March to 26 June 2022, have the OFM team snap your pic in the designated area, and let them capture your details to be entered into the grand prize draw for R20,000 cash on OFMs birthday 1 July 2022.Plus, to start the celebrations early, OFM will be awarding spot prizes of R1,000 per every All O- ver Central SA outside broadcast! The first 100 visitors at each of our All O-ver Central SA outside broadcasts will also receive an exclusive wristband.This campaign also ties in tocompetition, we recently launched with Hinterland and Hinterland Fuels. Our presenters are eager to hit the road and explore the beautiful places and meet the lovely faces of Central South Africa. Its a wonderful way of bringing the voices on air, closer to the ears on the ground, says OFM content manager, Elzette Boucher-Kruger.For more information, contact az.oc.mfo@gnitekram There's no denying that the right messages, resonating through memorable devices and stories, are a vital part of marketing. Here's how category leader Vodacom took this to heart, leaning into messaging during the pandemic with a wide range of welcome adverts and campaigns centred on humour, connection, and resilience... Abey Mokgwatsane, outgoing managing executive: brand and comms, Vodacom The brand must originally have been created in South Africa and be owned by an enterprise listed on JSE or a credible stock exchange. For private brands originated in South Africa, their complete financial statements must be available in the public domain. In a year that saw mixed brand equity results for the category of telecom providers, doing it all from home certainly brought an increased demand for their services, but the continued lockdown also constrained consumers budgets and kept them from accessing physical stores. Thats why in addition to moving up the Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Brands of 2021 ranking to #2 overall with a brand value of $2.57bn, Vodacom currently leads as South Africas top brand for exposure, one of the four fundamental areas of brand building that drive consumer demand in the digital-first era.Its reliable network, innovative products and services are advertised in a way that reflects South African culture, telling real stories of personable characters who have combined their indomitable human spirit with tech to achieve their ambitions.Abey Mokgwatsane, outgoing managing executive: brand and comms, Vodacom, explains how this fits in with their current strategy: Brands are a heuristic for customers in a cluttered world. Brand building is about creating an easy-to-understand reference to the solutions customers seek this is where a brand is critical to the success of any business. Vodacom has done this through consistent communication that amplifies innovative products, embedded in purpose, that offer great value for money.Delving deeper, Mokgwatsane reveals that the Vodacom brand is now at the forefront of creating a digital society. The business has evolved from providing mobile connectivity to individuals, to connecting homes, businesses, and society. Weaving in their brand purpose, Vodacom now builds and implements innovative solutions that leverage that connectivity layer.As a purpose-led technology company that uses its resources to connect Africans to a better future, their ambition to improve 100m more lives and halve their environmental impact on the African continent manifests in initiatives such as e-School, where over 1.2m children have free access to the entire public-school library on the Vodacom network, and funding of the Gender Based Violence Call Centre in partnership with the Department of Social Development to fight the scourge of GBV.The brands technological innovation also creates value for customers through products such as Just4You, the first customised special deals platform offering the best value for money deals for each customer, and Vodabucks, the largest loyalty programme in South Africa that rewards customers just being on the network.Innovations to simplify customer experiences include Tobi, South Africas largest chatbot, saving customers time by circumventing the call centre or the Detailed Data Usage App, where customers can easily track data utilisation at any time, giving them peace of mind. VodaPay, South Africas largest super app, with over 1,5 million registered users, is an online megastore for customers and merchants to buy anything from data for any network to TVs.But the best brands are created in the minds of consumers through great communications that define them and condition the customers experience of the product or service, so how well you communicate that value determines how much consumers resonate with what your brand stands for.Notching up both creativity and effectiveness of your communications helps build up a store of positive brand associations. Our global CrossMedia database explores the key levers of paid media that drive greater brand exposure, with creative quality being the single largest driver of increased brand awareness, followed by reach.You also need to understand how the content will be consumed and adapt it to the right media to increase its impact, as campaigns that are integrated and customised to a channel perform 10% better than campaigns that have integrated ideas but are not customised. Done well, your content will gain attention, reach the right audience, and create lasting memories of your brand. Looking at Vodacoms success in this regard, brands therefore need to question whether they are investing enough time and budget to ensure they are creating the most compelling content.This holds true no matter the size of your marketing budget. Natalie Botha, Director of Creative Development, Middle East & Africa, Kantar, clarifies, Investing in impactful creative allows any brand to punch above its weight and cut through the clutter to connect with your audience, whatever the medium.Mokgwatsane concludes: The best brand building not only amplifies products and services but also drives the business it represents to continue to build products that meet customer and societal needs, such that the brand expresses only what is true and authentic nothing less will suffice in the connected world we live in, where customers and stakeholders expect brands to build a sustainable future. The acceleration of technology has in a sense accelerated societys willingness to embrace the future Vodacom has been preparing for. Learn more from South Africas most valuable brands, with a focus on how to build strong brands and engineer for growth in 2022 and beyond. Also reflect on SAs most valuable brands from 2018 to date and what the top brands have been up to in the last year. Download our comprehensive guide to brand equity and growth.Kantar BrandZ is the global currency when assessing brand value, quantifying the contribution of brands to business financial performance. Kantars annual global and local brand valuation rankings combine rigorously analysed financial data, with extensive brand equity research. Since 1998, BrandZ has shared brand-building insights with business leaders based on interviews with 4 million consumers, for 18,000 brands in 51 markets, including opinions from 31,335 South African consumers on 660 brands in 47 categories.The ability of any brand to power business growth relies on how it is perceived by customers. Grounded in consumer opinion, Kantar BrandZ analysis enables businesses to identify their brands strength in the market and provides clear strategic guidance on how to boost value for the long-term. The eligibility criteria are: King and Queen County Public Schools have offered five COVID-19 vaccination clinics since August 2021 for students between the ages of 5-17. More than 100 students are now fully vaccinated thanks to our school nurses and the King and Queen Health Department, reducing the spread of the virus in school and minimizing the impact of quarantining. Vaccinations and booster shots were also offered on Jan. 27 during the family wellness night event that also included physical fitness challenges for all ages, mindfulness activities and healthy meal preparation classes. Kim Carlton, Public Health Nurse Supervisor for the King and Queen Health Department, assists a King and Queen Elementary school student. Courtesy of Dr. Carol B. Carter More than 100 students at King and Queen County Public Schools have been vaccinated against COVID-19, thanks to the work of school nurses who organized a series of clinics. Schools Superintendent Carol Carter gave an insight into the challenges the division has faced in a recent press release. Advertisement King and Queen County Public Schools are dedicated to supporting every opportunity to keep our staff and students safe and in school, she wrote. The 2021-2022 school year has certainly presented its share of challenges and tested our flexibility. We owe a great deal of our successful in-person learning to the combined efforts of our school nurses. Advertisement Carter said King and Queen schools has offered five COVID-19 vaccination clinics for students between the ages of 5 and 17 since August. Over 100 students are now fully vaccinated thanks to our school nurses and the King and Queen Health Department, reducing the spread of the virus in school and minimizing the impact of quarantining, Carter wrote. King and Queen County Public Schools have offered five COVID-19 vaccination clinics since August 2021 for students between the ages of 5-17. Vaccinations and booster shots were also offered on Jan. 27 during the family wellness night event that also included physical fitness challenges for all ages, mindfulness activities and healthy meal preparation classes. A student at Lawson-Marriott Elementary School was one of many who received a vaccination. Courtesy of Dr. Carol B. Carter King and Queen County Public Schools offered vaccinations and booster shots during the Jan. 27 Family Wellness Night along with physical fitness challenges, mindfulness activities, and healthy meal preparation classes. The Virginia Health Department along with the Virginia Department of Education have partnered with our school nurses to launch a COVID-19 screening testing program for the 2021-2022 school year, Carter said. The Virginia School Screening Testing for Assurance (ViSSTA) program provides testing vendors, and supplies for COVID-19 testing. The test kits are intended for diagnostic testing on K-12 students, teachers, and staff who either have symptoms of COVID-19 or who have been identified as close contacts of a positive case. Carter said the test kits may be administered at school or provided to students, teachers, or staff for use at home. The school nurses joined forces again with VHD and VDOE in February to implement a test to stay strategy in the school division. Test to stay allows close contacts of individuals with COVID-19 to remain in the classroom instead of quarantining at home. Advertisement Test kits are provided free of charge and come with online virtual support. The safety of our students and staff remains our top priority, Carter wrote, King and Queens school nurses go above and beyond each and every day to keep our community informed, protected, and healthy. They are our front-line workers during a time when a visit to the school clinic involves so much more than a band-aid. King and Queen County Schools also honored its school board members at its February meeting to mark School Board Appreciation Month. At its January meeting, the board nominated Celestine Gaines to remain as chair and Howard Hill to serve as Vice-Chair. David Macaulay, Davidmacaulayva@gmail.com As part of its consolidation process to reshape the company, Media24 is selling the bulk of its media operations in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) to Capital Newspapers (CN) for an undisclosed amount. Contributing to independent journalism Annlounced on Monday the transaction includesand theThis transaction is part of the consolidation process we embarked on three years ago to reshape Media24 in a landscape that is increasingly digital, says Ishmet Davidson, CEO of Media24.Media24 acquired a 50% share in the then Natal Witness Printing and Publishing company in 2000 and bought the remaining shares in 2010.It has been a great privilege to have had, the oldest continuously published newspaper in South Africa, in our portfolio, says Davidson.We are very proud of the teams continued commitment to fearlessly holding the powers that be to account and contributing to independent journalism in the region over the past 175 years. Likewise the four community newspapers, that are deeply rooted in and trusted by the communities they serve.The transaction is expected to be concluded and the business transferred to CN by 1 July 2022, including the vast majority of staff members currently employed within the operations.Davidson wished them and the titles only the best for the future in their new home. Thank you also to our loyal readers and advertisers for their support it was an honour to be part of our readers lives and to promote local business for more than two decades. Rashmika Mandanna, who has become a household name after the super success of Pushpa: The Rise, aims to be known as a pan-India actress. The actress has been active both in the Hindi and in the South industries and has been living out of suitcases for a while. She was in Hyderabad recently for a narration, and to promote her upcoming film, Adavallu Meeku Joharlu. Talking of Pushpa, she says that the film validates the fact that people welcome engaging stories irrespective of the language. Like in her earlier films Geetha Govindam, Chalo, etc., the trailer of her next film, Adavallu Meeku Joharlu, directed by Kishore Tirumala, shows Rashmika bullying her co-star. I think I am born to bully my co-stars on screen, she laughs. But is Rashmika a bully in real life? No way! I dont bully people at all. But somehow I get such characters, maybe because of my eyes. Perhaps they give such an impression, she quips. She says one of the reasons she signed the film was that the narration made her laugh. Rashmika finds it refreshing to see so many women like Radikaa, Khushbu and Urvashi on the sets. She says working with such great actors taught her how to conduct herself on the sets and how to treat others on the team. The actress has two big ticket Hindi flicks Mission Majnu and Good Bye, starring Amitabh Bachchan. Hindi is like any industry to me. I look forward to doing impactful roles and giving my best. Language has never been a barrier because I always enjoyed doing roles in various languages, she says, adding that travelling and working in multiple industries gave her the opportunity to speak in various local languages. I talk in Telugu when I am in Hyderabad; next day I speak in Kannada, and when I go to Mumbai I speak Hindi. But all this is happening because I have an efficient local support staff, the actress says, adding being organised is the key. Rashmika is also hoping to dub her lines for her Hindi films. Earlier, it was very difficult for south actors to get into Hindi films. Have the times changed? I feel when you do the right film and feel right about yourself thats when things work, asserts Rashmika. She believes that her films in the south gave her great visibility in Hindi. People call me Srivalli (from Pushpa) or Geetha (from Geetha Govindam), etc. So the audiences remember my characters, which means they are watching all our content, she says. But has foraying into Hindi cinema, changed the way she looks at scripts? Is she looking for more scripts that have pan-India appeal? Even if its not a pan-India subject, people from all over India will watch you because of the digital content that people are consuming, she maintains. Interestingly, the actress has been doing films in various languages from a very early stage of her career. I dont want to be categorised in any industry like North or the South. I want to be an actor with a pan-India appeal, she says. Meanwhile, the actress, who says she likes travelling, has rented a new house in Hyderabad, as she felt her old house didnt have the space she needs. Rashmika feels that women's stories were always there, but women are getting good exposure now. Because of the exposure and reach, I think writers and filmmakers are more confident about bringing out women-oriented stories and write authentic roles. Its an amazing feeling when your content reaches out to a wider audience, the actress says. And what does she have to say when people call her National Crush? She says its a validation of her hard work, and peoples love and affection. As an actor I sleep and wake up to films; I have been working in multiple industries and have been running from pillar to post for my shooting. So when people own me and say such nice things, it gives me a lot of inner strength and energy, she asserts. According to students pursuing studies in Ukraine, their seniors and medical professionals, cost advantage is one of the main reasons for many students who failed to get a medical seat in the government institutions in India to choose universities in Ukraine. (Representational Image/PTI) VISAKHAPATNAM: Indian Embassies in Ukraine and neighbouring Romania and Poland are evacuating thousands of Indian students who have been stranded in Ukraine since February 24 after the full-scale invasion by neighbouring Russia for the past few days. According to the latest data available with the ministry of external affairs (MES), nearly 18,000 Indian students are studying in various universities in Ukraine. Around 17 per cent of students are pursuing medicine. According to students pursuing studies in Ukraine, their seniors and medical professionals, cost advantage is one of the main reasons for many students who failed to get a medical seat in the government institutions in India to choose universities in Ukraine. A 1996-2002 batch alumnus of Zaporozhye State Medical University, Ukraine, Dr K. Ram Kumar, who is currently running a hospital in the city, said the students who did not get a seat or could not afford to study in India generally preferred to go to Ukraine. Approximately Rs 30 lakh is the maximum expenditure on medical education while it is around Rs 1 crore in India. Practical classes are more in Ukraine and only six to 10 students are in a class, Dr Ram Kumar said. An Indian student of Lviv National Medical University, Vishnu, who is currently on the way to India through Poland-Ukraine border, said, Studying in Ukraine is easy for us to enter into Western Europe for higher studies in countries like Germany. Andhra Pradesh chapter president for Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr N. Subhramanyam said obviously a student preferred other best alternatives with affordable cost for studies if failed to get a seat in India. Yes, countries like Ukraine, China, Poland and Uzbekistan etc are the most-preferred choices of Indians for medical education. These students must be qualified in the entry exams like NEET. When we shared yesterday that all interested observers should be very wary of the information from media sources around Ukraine, there was a reason for that. Question everything. Take nothing at face value. If you have never experienced the propaganda push surrounding war, the totality of the inbound bullsh*t can be destabilizing, overwhelming and unnerving. Its one of the reasons why CTH doesnt share immediate information. Everyone has an agenda. Everything we are seeing in U.S. media surrounding U.S. interests in Ukraine is a massive propaganda operation with the headquarters in the U.S. State Department and U.S. intelligence community. The sense of sympathy you are feeling is part of an intentionally manipulative operation from within this DC matrix. The images, pictures, videos, speeches, soundbites and the cinematography broadcast by U.S. corporate media are all purposefully intended to create a very specific outlook within the American people toward the issues in Ukraine. The leftist United Nations, and the leftist U.S State Dept, will work together on this just like they have done in the prior examples (Ukraine 1.0, Libya, Egypt, etc.). It is very easy to become a victim of psychological warfare intended to manipulate our opinions. The neocons, war promoting agents working on behalf of the UniParty and the collective globalist interests, are all united in their effort. Unfortunately, almost everything being transmitted from corporate news into our psyche is part of a battle for your mind. The goal is to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is why people who are familiar with these types of tactics often tap-out when the drumbeats get loudest. The White House, which means the total globalist effort, tipped their hand earlier last week when they defined strategic power and their outlook toward winning the battle for the mind. Everything is about writing a script, creating a narrative, building a better story, where the globalists are the heroes. In essence, the strategic power battle is for your mind Ultimately, the goal of our sanctions is to make this a strategic failure for Russia; and lets define a little bit of what that means. Strategic success in the 21st century is not about a physical land grab of territory; thats what Putin has done. In this century, strategic power is increasingly measured and exercised by economic strength, by technological sophistication and your story who you are, what your values are; can you attract ideas and talent and goodwill? And on each of those measures, this will be a failure for Russia. Everything in modern warfare is storytelling. Question all of it. The stories of the 13 guards on an island telling the Russian naval ship to fuck off yeah, it was a lie (turns out they surrendered). The Ghost of Kyiv pilot, the lady with the sunflower seeds etc., now all recognized as lies and propaganda. And do not expect it to stop, because it wont. Thus, the nature of warfare for your mind. In the early hours of Thursday morning, in what will perhaps finally result in the COVID-19 mainstream media narrative being permanently banished from the headlines, almost nine years of Western provocations via its Eastern European proxy state Ukraine would culminate in Russia launching a military intervention into its Western neighbour with attempts to peacefully resolve the situation peacefully by Moscow over the past several months ultimately proving fruitless due to Kiev failing to implement its side of the Minsk Agreements, which would see a federalisation solution in which the breakaway pro-Russian Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, located in the predominantly ethnic Russian Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, being given a degree of autonomy whilst still remaining under the rule of Kiev - both Republics being given formal recognition by Moscow on Monday instead, in response to the breakdown in negotiations. With Russian President Vladimir Putin outlining in his speech commencing the military operation that a decisive factor in launching the intervention was a failure by NATO to honour a previous agreement that it would not expand eastwards following the end of the Cold War, and that the intention of the operation is to destroy Ukrainian military infrastructure that would ultimately be used by the alliance against Russia should Kiev become a member, one can only hope that the current situation doesnt escalate further into a long-term conflict in which ordinary Ukrainian citizens will suffer, or indeed a catastrophic global conflict involving the use of nuclear weapons should NATO decide to intervene directly with Ukraine having come under the influence of the US-NATO hegemony following the 2014 Euromaidan, a CIA and MI6 orchestrated regime-change operation launched in response to then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovychs November 2013 decision to suspend a trade deal with Brussels in order to pursue closer political and economic ties with Russia. The immediate Western reaction following Thursdays intervention however, was to predictably shift all blame onto Moscow and pay almost little to no attention to the almost nine years of provocations which had preceded it such as Western support for the notoriously anti-Russian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard, established post-Maidan and which played a key role in Kievs war on Donetsk and Luhansk following their secession in April 2014, a month after the historically Russian peninsula of Crimea voted to reunify with Moscow. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also accused Moscow of unleashing war in Europe, seemingly forgetting his own warmongering in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and also Britains not too distant history of unleashing war on its nearest European neighbour - Ireland. In 1974, the occupied north of Ireland had been in a five-year long grip of escalating violence the civil rights movement, established in 1967 to seek equal rights for the norths Irish Nationalist community, had been met with violence every time they took to the streets, being beaten and teargassed by a predominantly British Unionist police force, violence which would eventually culminate in Bloody Sunday, the massacre of 14 civil rights demonstrators by the British Army in Derry in January 1972 London having deployed its forces to the north in 1969, using the pretence of being a neutral peacekeeper between two warring sides as a means to counter the influence of the IRA, re-organised the same year in response to the ongoing violence, and whose membership would grow exponentially following the massacre. Indeed, such was the violence inflicted on the Nationalist community of the north of Ireland by Britain and its proxies, that the southern 26-county Irish state would soon begin to dissent from its traditionally pro-British stance. In 1969, during the initial outbreak of violence, then-Taoiseach Jack threatened to send troops to the north in order to protect Irish Nationalists, in 1970 government ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney would be dismissed from their posts following a collapsed trial where they were alleged to have planned to import arms for use by the IRA, and in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, Irish police stood by as protesters burned down the British Embassy in Dublin. Britain, fearing that Dublin would go on to become an official state sponsor of the IRA, decided that a message had to be sent. On the 17th of May 1974, a Friday afternoon, three no-warning car bombs detonated during rush hour traffic in Dublin, killing twenty-seven people, ninety minutes later, another no-warning bomb would explode in the border county of Monaghan, killing seven. 300 people would suffer injuries as a result of the bombings also, with the Irish Free State returning to its traditionally pro-British stance regarding British occupation of the north in the aftermath. These coordinated attacks, resulting in the largest loss of life in a single day during the most recent phase of conflict related to the occupation of Ireland, were carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a Loyalist terrorist organisation operating under the command of the clandestine Special Reconnaissance Unit (SRU) of the British army the use of proxy terrorist groups by Downing Street later being used as tactic by Downing Street against both Libya and Syria in 2011, having been perfected by Britains unleashing of war in Europe in 1974. The globalists' attempt to deplatform the entire nation of Russia is running into a bit of trouble. "We cannot block the reserves of the Russian Central Bank in Moscow. Or In China," said Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, over the weekend. "In the last year Russia has been placing their reserves in places where we can't block them. Russia has been preparing for sanctions financially." EU Head of Foreign Affairs @JosepBorrellF: We cannot block the reserves of the Russian Central Bank in Moscow. Or In China. In the last year Russia has been placing their reserves in places where we cant block them. Russia has been preparing for sanctions financially" Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch) February 27, 2022 Borrell also said EU countries intend to supply fighter jets to the Ukraine along with $560 million in "lethal aid." Even though poll after poll showed Americans have no desire to get involved with the war, the regime in Washington has rolled out potentially WW3-inducing sanctions on Putin himself and members of his inner circle. Together with the EU they also banned multiple Russian banks from SWIFT. They're also working to aggressively seize the assets of Russian oligarchs, which is what Anne Applebaum has been pushing for. Continuing our lock step, historic coordination, the Leaders decided disconnect key sanctioned Russian banks from SWIFT, target the Russian central bank, and launch a joint task force to hunt down assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs. The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 26, 2022 This coming week, we will launch a multilateral Transatlantic task force to identify, hunt down, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs their yachts, their mansions, and any other ill-gotten gains that we can find and freeze under the law. The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 26, 2022 These are outright acts of war. Russia has retaliated by banning the selling of Russian securities owned by foreigners. Russia, in retaliation to recent sanctions has prohibited the selling of Russian securities owned by foreign funds and foreigners. They own up to 80% of shares. Ouch. https://t.co/BIPV9rKtGO Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) February 28, 2022 never seen weaponization of money on this scale beforeyou only get to play the card once. china will make it a priority to need no USD before going for Taiwan. its a turning point in monetary history: the end of USD hegemony & the acceleration towards a bipolar monetary order Dylan Grice (@dylangrice) February 27, 2022 From TASS, "Russia may nationalize property of US, EU citizens in response to sanctions - Medvedev": Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev speculated that Russia may nationalize property of people registered in the US, the EU and other unfriendly jurisdictions amid new anti-Russian sanctions. He noted that Russia is being threatened with arrests of assets of Russian citizens and companies abroad - "just like that, without any sanctions," "in a carpet fashion," "out of spite." According to the politician, "this must be responded to in a quite symmetric manner." "With arrest of assets of foreigners and foreign companies in Russia based on country principle. And maybe, with nationalization of property of people registered in unfriendly jurisdictions. Like the EU, EU member states and a number of singing-along states of the Anglo-Saxon world that will take part in this," he said on his VK page Saturday. "Thankfully, we have vast experience and we have a law on this issue. A harsh one," Medvedev added ironically. "So the most interesting stuff only begins..." Our ruling elite -- who have refused to admit that any wrongdoing on their part led to the election of Donald Trump and instead have just doubled down again and again on all their "woke" lunacy -- are now following the exact same pattern with the world's second strongest nuclear superpower. Rather than admit their endless aggression towards Russia was a colossal mistake, they're just doubling down and pushing for WW3. BREAKING: Belarus says constitutional referendum passes, revoking its non-nuclear status and paving the way for Russian nuclear weapons in the country BNO News (@BNONews) February 27, 2022 Our occupiers won't lift a finger to do anything for the American people but they're willing to risk nuclear war over the Ukraine. Russian state TV: Our submarines alone can launch more than 500 nuclear warheads, which guarantees the destruction of the US and NATO for good measure. The principle is: why do we need the world if Russia wont be in it? https://t.co/hvYkhz9DpE max seddon (@maxseddon) February 27, 2022 From RT, "Belarus Lukashenko warns of WWIII": Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has warned the West against imposing tough sanctions on Moscow, saying that such measures could push Russia into a "third world war." "Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector. Gas, oil, SWIFT. It's worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a third world war," Lukashenko said on Sunday, as quoted by local media. He added that a nuclear conflict could be the final outcome. Russia's military attack against Ukraine, ordered by President Vladimir Putin on February 24, has been condemned by Western nations and has prompted a new wave of tough sanctions against Moscow. "We have experience. We discussed this theme with Putin more than once. We'll survive. It is impossible to starve us to death," he said. Retaliatory measures being developed by Moscow and Minsk will be "very tangible," but it is important to think them over "very carefully," Lukashenko said, not to self-harm. The Belarusian leader has also said if the West moved to put nuclear weapons in bordering countries, he would ask Putin to "return" Russia's own nuclear weapons to Belarus. The global economy is deeply interconnected and these sanctions could not just crash Russia's economy but the global economy as a whole. China has banned phosphate/urea exports until June 2022. Russia banned exports of nitrogen fertilizer until June 2022. Looks like Potash will go offline for the #2 and #3 producer via sanctions. This has never happened in a globalized world dependent on modern agriculture. pic.twitter.com/wJbXrC9OvH Battle Beagle (@HarmlessYardDog) February 22, 2022 Think food prices are high now? We import $700 million of fertilizer from Russia every year. Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 23, 2022 Our occupiers are truly psychotic. Follow InformationLiberation on Twitter, Facebook, Gab, Minds, Parler and Telegram. The biggest story of the century is not Russia invading Ukraine; rather, it is the no-so-silent destruction of peoples health and lives taking place right under our noses. The worst is strokes, which have increased 68,000 percent after taking the mRNA shot as compared to all other vaccines before it. And then there are the ones who have died These are the casualties of Technocracys war on humanity. TN Editor The Epoch Times published an explosive report today stating that they have received emails that allegedly show that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been quietly studying neurological problems that have appeared in people after they took a COVID-19 vaccine. Two U.S. agencies have been quietly studying neurological problems that have appeared in people who have had COVID-19 vaccines, The Epoch Times has found. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been conducting separate research projects into post-vaccination neurological issues, which have manifested with symptoms like facial paralysis and brain fog and have been linked in some cases with the vaccines, according to emails reviewed by The Epoch Times. One attempt to gain understanding of a problem that experts around the world are struggling to understand is being carried out by Dr. Janet Woodcock, who was acting commissioner of the FDA until Feb. 17. Woodcock, now the FDAs principal deputy director, has been personally evaluating neurologic side effects from the COVID-19 vaccines since at least Sept. 13, 2021, according to the emails, many of which have not been reported on previously. FDA epidemiologists are also gathering data to look into the issues, according to messages from Dr. Peter Marks, another top FDA official. A team at the NIHs National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), meanwhile, started seeing patients reporting vaccine injuries for a study in early 2021 after receiving complaints shortly after the vaccines were made available. A portion of the patients was examined in person at the Bethesda, Maryland, facility. None of the reviews or studies appear to have been announced, and health officials have said little about them publicly, despite a growing recognition among experts that at least some issues are likely linked to the vaccines. (Full article here. Copy here with no paywall.) An examination of the FDA and CDCs Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) confirms that deaths and injuries due to neurological issues following COVID-19 injections have skyrocketed, when compared to the same adverse events reported following all FDA-approved vaccines for the previous 30 years. And while none of the U.S. Health Agencies have published or made public their research on these post-vaccine neurological injuries, many medical journals have. The COVID-19 experimental vaccines, which were given emergency use authorization illegally, should have been immediately pulled from the market at least a year ago. Will these criminals in the pharmaceutical industry who pay billions of dollars to get their products approved by the FDA ever face justice for the mass murder they have caused? Almost 3000% Increase in Neurological Injuries Following COVID-19 Vaccines According to the Cleveland Clinic, neuropathy is: damage or dysfunction of one or more nerves that typically results in numbness, tingling, muscle weakness and pain in the affected area. Neuropathies frequently start in your hands and feet, but other parts of your body can be affected too. Neuropathy, often called peripheral neuropathy, indicates a problem within the peripheral nervous system. Your peripheral nervous system is the network of nerves outside your brain and spinal cord. Your brain and spinal cord make up your central nervous system. Think of the two systems working together this way: Your central nervous system is the central station. It is the control center, the hub from which all trains come and go. Your peripheral nervous system are the tracks that connect to the central station. The tracks (the network of nerves) allow the trains (information signals) to travel to and from the central station (your brain and spinal cord). Neuropathy results when nerve cells, called neurons, are damaged or destroyed. This disrupts the way the neurons communicate with each other and with the brain. Neuropathy can affect one nerve (mononeuropathy) or nerve type, a combination of nerves in a limited area (multifocal neuropathy) or many peripheral nerves throughout the body (polyneuropathy). (Source.) To determine the number of neurological injuries and deaths occurring after COVID-19 vaccines, and then compare them to the previous 30 years historical data following all other FDA approved vaccines, we need to perform several searches in VAERS. So I began by searching for all symptoms in VAERS that contained neuro following COVID-19 shots, and it returned 9,799 cases as of the latest data dump into VAERS this past Friday, which goes through February 11, 2022. As you can see from the table above, in 14 months since the emergency use authorization of the COVID-19 vaccines, out of the 9,799 reported cases, there have been 150 deaths, 1,521 permanent disabilities, 2,463 ER visits, and 3,359 hospitalizations. (Source.) By way of comparison, for the previous 30+ years starting in 1990 when VAERS was established, using the exact same search for every symptom containing neuro, we get a result of 8,492 cases for ALL FDA-approved vaccines for the past 30+ years combined. (Source.) The yearly averages then look like this: 8399 cases of neurological injuries per year following COVID-19 vaccines of neurological injuries per year following COVID-19 vaccines 283 cases of neurological injuries per year following all FDA-approved vaccines combined Thats a 2,867% increase of neurological injuries following COVID-19 vaccines as compared to all other vaccines approved by the FDA. Over 3000% Increase in Cases of Palsy Following COVID-19 Vaccines There are, of course, other symptoms that are considered neurological conditions that do not contain the word neuro in the name of the disease. Bells Palsy, facial paralysis, is one that has been reported frequently following COVID-19 vaccines and is considered a neurological injury. So I searched VAERS for all cases of any kind of palsy following COVID-19 vaccines, and it returned a result of 6,717 cases. As you can see from the table above, in 14 months since the emergency use authorization of the COVID-19 vaccines, out of the 6,717 reported cases, there have been 21 deaths, 645 permanent disabilities, 2,188 ER visits, and 779 hospitalizations. (Source.) By way of comparison, for the previous 30+ years starting in 1990 when VAERS was established, using the exact same search for every symptom containing palsy, we get a result of 4,973 cases for ALL FDA-approved vaccines for the past 30+ years combined. (Source.) The yearly averages then look like this: 5757 cases of palsy per year following COVID-19 vaccines 166 cases of palsy per year following all FDA-approved vaccines combined Thats a 3,368% increase in cases of palsy following COVID-19 vaccines as compared to all other vaccines approved by the FDA. Read full story here As the Western world still obsesses with how Russia's expulsion from SWIFT will impact the Russian economy, commodity prices and the global funding markets, a quick note on how forward looking markets are reacting. While we wait for US cash markets to open (as futures reverse a modest bounce and trade at session lows), China's micromanaged "market" is already up and running in what so far appears a boring session where the SHCOMP is flat, but where shares tied to Chinas Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System (CIPS) are surging after Saturday's decision by Western nations to exclude some Russian lenders from the SWIFT messaging system. Why? Because of what Bloomberg notes is growing speculation that China's CIPS could become an alternative for those banks. What is CIPS? It is a payment system which offers clearing and settlement services for its participants in cross-border yuan trades. Indeed, it is a Chinese version of SWIFT, and one which most Russian banks will likely soon be forced to adopt. As a result, stocks such as Orient Group, and HyUnion Holding jump by the 10% daily limit.. ... while Infosec Technologies and Forms Syntron Information surge by the 20% daily limit. And since China will quickly brush off any threats of sanctions if it were to accept Russia banks into its orbit, it is now clear that instead of driving a wedge between Russia and the country that is true the biggest US challenger on the global scene, China, the West has succeeded into bringing the two powers even closer together while putting the fate of the world's reserve currency in jeopardy, as Dylan Grice explained earlier... ON THE HIGHWAY, OklahomaThe largest truck convoy in the United States has grown in size since departing California and is attracting thousands of supporters as it makes its way to the East Coast. The Peoples Convoy started with around 150 vehicles and has grown to over 250 as it made its way through Texas and Oklahoma over the weekend. More vehicles have joined for stretches of time. That, along with the length of the convoy, makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly how many participants it has. It varies. Lets just say there are like 50 truckers that know the convoy is coming through and might have been going through this area. Theyll stop at an exit and theyll wait for the convoy to come by, and then theyll join it. They might join it for 200 miles or 100 miles, and then they keep going wherever they were going because they were heading in the same direction as us, Maureen Steele, one of the convoys organizers, told The Epoch Times. And then there are cars that join and some of them go for 30 miles, some go for 100, some for 200, and then they drop off. Collin Walters joined the convoy for about 25 miles. This is a movement that everybody should be supporting. This is a national event; this is making history, Walters told The Epoch Times. Its pretty exciting, he added. Kathy Walters, his aunt, said she opposes COVID-19 vaccine mandates like the ones the federal government imposed. She sees them as violating Americans free will. Convoy organizers say they are against vaccine mandates, the federal governments continuation of a national emergency declaration over COVID-19, and other actions from President Joe Bidens administration. Organizers have been sending drones up periodically to capture estimates of vehicles traveling with the group, which has drawn thousands of people to roadsides as the convoy passes by. Chuck Frantz showed up to display his support for the convoy in Weatherford, Oklahoma. This is getting peoples attention, Frantz told The Epoch Times on a highway overpass. He described the mandates, some of which have been struck down by courts, as unconstitutional. A spokesman for the Amarillo, Texas Police Department, which worked to make sure the convoys passage was smooth, told The Epoch Times that there were no issues. KTUL-TV reported that several vehicles in the convoy were involved in a crash about 15 miles west of Big Cabin, Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which didnt respond to requests for comment, told the broadcaster that the cause of the crash is under investigation. The convoy stopped in Big Bend, Oklahoma on Sunday night and was prepared to travel to Missouri on Feb. 28. It is on track to arrive in Washington, where authorities are reinstalling fencing around the Capitol, on March 5. Ukraine has officially applied to be part of the bloc (Picture: @PresidentofUkr) President Volodymyr Zelensky has applied for Ukraine to join the European Union in what has been hailed as a historic moment. The leader has been calling for fast-tracked entry into the EU to help his nation fight off Russian forces by strengthening its ties with the West. An image posted on social media shows him signing an official application at a desk with indoor barricades behind him. A Tweet from the official account of the presidents office said: President @ZelenskyyUa has signed application for the membership of #Ukraine in the European Union. This is a historic moment. Mr Zelensky revealed earlier on Monday that he had asked the EU for immediate accession via a new special procedure. Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing, he said on his Telegram channel, as fighting across the country intensified. Im sure its fair. Im sure its possible. He confirmed he had spoken to EU chiefs about the prospect of joining, tweeting last night: Had a phone conversation with @vonderleyen. Talked about concrete decisions on strengthening Ukraines defense capabilities, macro-financial assistance and Ukraines membership in the EU. It came on the back of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying on Sunday that the bloc wants Ukraine to join. They are one of us and we want them in, she said. But despite backing Ukraine for EU membership, she gave no indication it would be the rapid accession demanded by its politicians. It is not yet clear what a special procedure would look like in practice and whether European leaders would agree to a fast-track option. The decision to add new countries to the EU lies with established member countries, which dont always agree with the Commissions views. European Council President Charles Michel said on Monday that there were different opinions among member countries to discuss the matter. Ukraine is a close ally of the EU and borders many member countries, including Poland and Slovakia. In 2017 it signed an Association Agreement with the bloc, in which the two sides agreed to align their economies in areas such as workers rights, and deepen political ties. Ukraine is also part of the blocs Eastern Partnership and European Neighborhood Policy. Brussels has been heavily supporting the nation after it came under attack from Russian forces five days ago. The bloc has supplied Ukraine with weapons, banned Russian-backed media in member states and banned Russian planes from flying its airspace. It has also announced a host of sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian economy, alongside the UK, US and Canada. HYDERABAD: Several Indian students including Telugus, who crossed the Ukraine-Romanian border amidst tight security checks, were forced to abandon their luggage at the border before boarding flights back to India. Meanwhile, security forces in Romania refused to allow students to stay in Ukraine following amicable discussions taking place between Ukraine and Russia. Telugu students, who arrived on Monday from Ukraine, said they had a tough time crossing the border at Romania and their luggage was abandoned as they were unable to bring them along with them to their native places. Priya, a resident of Warangal, who arrived from the Romanian border of Ukraine explained her ordeal that the security forces did not allow them to carry luggage even though the consultancy staff arranged transportation. "There were a lot of communication problems between the university management, students, Embassy and consultancy officials. Embassy and university officials provided transportation from Ukraine to reach the border. However, we had to walk at least 30 kilometres to reach the Romanian border. After we walked 10 hours (30 kilometres) to reach the Romanian border, the security forces deployed at the border checkpoint detained us asking to show permission letters. Even as the consultancy officials arranged buses and other vehicles at the border to pick up students, the security forces denied entry," Priya said. The consultancy officials played a key role in collecting details of students of respective universities in Ukraine and made arrangements with the assistance of Embassy officials. "When we reached the Romanian border, we were shocked to see a crowd of Indian students including Telugu speaking students. The security forces allowed only Nigerian and neighbouring country students. The security forces asked us why we were leaving Ukraine without any permission from the government," said Supriya, a resident of Hyderabad. With thousands being evacuated from Ukraine following the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukraine government gave relaxation in the day curfew stating that citizens including foreign students not to leave the country and they would bring back normalcy in Kyiv, capital city of Ukraine and other places. More than 8,000 students from India reached the Romanian border and are waiting to cross the border to get flights. "What we noticed was that there was no proper representative from the Indian Embassy or Indian government at the border to monitor the situation to make students cross the border smoothly," students said. Unlimited website access 24/7 Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more! With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. In residence: Writer Grace Talusan and poet Chen Chen Photo/Mike Lovett Writer Grace Talusan and poet Chen Chen, respectively the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence and the Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis, are able to divide their time between teaching courses and working on their personal writing projects. As a result, their art is thriving. While the two have won numerous awards as writers, the Chicago nonprofit United States Artists honored both Chen and Talusan as 2022 fellows for their remarkable artistic vision and their commitment to community both within their specific regions and discipline at large with an unrestricted grant of $50,000 each. Only six honorees are selected after being nominated by a diverse, rotating group of artists and arts professionals. From the national selection of talented writers, these two are bringing pride to the Brandeis writing community. I am doing my best writing here, said Talusan. Its been an incredible experience for me. For Talusan and Chen, writing has been a lifelong pursuit of passion and self discovery. As a child, Chen struggled to come to terms with his identity as an Asian American and queer person. He found comfort in expressing his feelings and navigating his identity through writing. I have always loved telling stories, said Chen. I needed an outlet for the things I was going through. Poetry became a way for me to express personal things I wasnt ready to share. Chen eventually came to terms with his sexuality, but still grappled with his identity. I wasnt sure how to label myself, said Chen. I was born in China and my parents referred to themselves as Chinese, but I spent most of my life in America. It wasnt until college that I embraced that I am an Asian American. As a professor, he loves sharing Asian American stories with his students. It means so much to me that were seeing more Asian American writers and Im able to share their work with my students, said Chen. Its an honor and a privilege.When Chen isnt teaching, he can be found developing new poetry. His debut book, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. His next book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, will be published in the fall of 2022. Talusan also always had a love for writing, but traveled on many different paths before pursuing writing and arriving at Brandeis. Even as a toddler, she had a sense for her passion. My father took a picture of me pretending to write before I even knew how to read, said Talusan. Growing up, she spent her high school summers attending writing camps at the University of Virginia and Harvard University, but never thought of pursuing writing as a career. Writing is something I just enjoyed doing, said Talusan. The arts didnt seem like a feasible thing for me to do professionally. Talusan found herself on the opposite path in college, pursuing a career in the medical field. It wasnt until a memorable experience during an internship at hospital that she realized it wasnt a match. I fainted watching a medical procedure, said Talusan. She realized she had to follow her passion for writing. After teaching writing at Tufts University for many years, Talusan accepted a position at Brandeis which has been the perfect balance of teaching and writing. Since starting her residency, Talusan has felt able to take more risks and experiment with her creative practice and writing projects, which have paid off. This year alone she is the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Award in Prose, the Brother Thomas Fellowship, and a United States Artists award.This prestigious award gives me hope that I can write the books that Ive always dreamed of putting into the world, said Talusan regarding The National Endowment for the Arts Award in Prose award. Talusan also takes great pride in teaching her courses at Brandeis. As a Filipinx immigrant, she shares Chen Chens pride in bringing Asian American voices into her courses. She finds that for many of her students, this is their first time seeing themselves represented in the college texts. I have Asian American students who go through 12 years of education without ever reading authors who share identities with them, said Talusan. Also, my class is often their first experience with a professor who is a woman of color or Filipinx American. Both Chen and Talusan focus on inspiring Brandeis students to share their voices through their writing. I'm often surprised by students in other majors and minors who come into the class and get so much out of it, said Chen. We often dont pause and take the time to reflect on our own lives. My poetry class gives students that space. While both writers are busy producing their own award-winning works, theyre motivating the next generation of writers to share their own stories. When I write, I imagine my nieces and nephews and my students as readers,said Talusan. I hope my writing adds a diverse voice in the classroom and inspires others to write their stories. Canada has become the latest country to ban Russian aircraft from entering its airspace, as Canadians prepare to hold rallies in cities across the country to protest Moscows military invasion of Ukraine. Advertisement Advertise With Us Canada has become the latest country to ban Russian aircraft from entering its airspace, as Canadians prepare to hold rallies in cities across the country to protest Moscows military invasion of Ukraine. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced the flight ban on Sunday morning, saying the move was being taken in retaliation for Russian President Vladimir Putins decision to attack neighbouring Ukraine. All of Canada is united in its outrage of President Putins aggression against Ukraine, Alghabra said in a statement. In response, we have closed Canadian airspace to Russian-owned or operated aircraft. The government of Canada condemns Russias aggressive actions and we will continue to take action to stand with Ukraine. The announcement followed similar moves by most European countries, led by Britain, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, as the western world has sought to punish Russia for launching Europes largest conflict since the Second World War. In a tit-for-tat response, Russia has previously banned commercial flights from those countries that have closed their airspace. While Russias flagship carrier Aeroflot does not fly direct to Canada, it does operate multiple flights per day through Canadian airspace en route to the U.S. and beyond. Experts have said closing Canadian airspace would negatively impact those routes. The closure of Canadian airspace to Russian aircraft is only the latest in a growing list of sanctions and retaliatory measures launched against Russia since Putin first ordered troops into Ukraine early last week. The government has so far levelled sanctions against the Russian president along with dozens of other senior political and business leaders, as well as a number of Russian banks and defence firms. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced in a joint statement with U.S. President Joe Biden and several European leaders late Saturday that Canada and its allies were planning to kick some Russian banks out of the international financial system. Japan announced on Sunday that it would follow suit. Meanwhile, Canada will send another $25 million worth of defensive equipment to Ukraine in an effort to help the country defend against Russias invasion. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Defence Minister Anita Anand made the announcement at a press conference on Sunday afternoon. Joly says the equipment includes helmets, body armour, gas masks and night-vision gear. She says it will be routed through Poland to get there as quickly as possible. Anand says Canada will offer up cybersecurity experts who can help Ukraine defend its networks against cyber attacks that are increasingly forming part of modern-day warfare. She says the Canadian Armed Forces will also send extra airlift help, with the first aircraft to depart for Europe on Monday. The intent is for it to be used by NATO and in support of the delivery of this aid, she said. Anand added that a combat mission to Ukraine is not currently on the table. The Canadian Press New Delhi: The fifth phase of the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday saw a voter turnout of 53.93 per cent till 5 pm, with the highest voting being in Chitrakoot (59.50%) and Ayodhya (58.01%). In this phase, 61 Assembly seats went to the polls spread across 12 districts -- Chitrakoot, Bahraich, Ayodhya, Amethi, Sultanpur, Rae Bareli, Kaushambi, Pragraj, Shrawasti, Gonda, Baranki and Pratapgarh. There were 693 candidates in the fray, of which 90 were women. Barring a few reports of EVM glitches and some stray cases of poll violence, the phase went off largely peaceful. The State Election Commission said a total 0.35 per cent control units and 1.83 per cent Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) were replaced of the total deployed in the phase following complaints in their functioning. During the mock polls, 0.59 per cent balloting units, 0.72 per cent control units and 1.27 per cent VVPAT units were replaced before the voting started. In Pratapgarhs Kunda Assembly seat, SP candidate Gulshan Yadavs convoy was allegedly attacked, after which the candidates of all parties were stopped from touring booths. There was some issue at a polling station in Pratapgarh. A team of police and polling officers has reached the site. Necessary action is being taken, additional chief electoral officer B.D. Ram Tiwari said in Lucknow. Besides, there was a low intensity bomb blast in Prayagraj, during which a man died while two others were injured, leading to panic and chaos in the area. The police is investigating if this had any connection with the ongoing polls. In nearby Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple as he campaigned for the BJP. He said it will be a privilege to serve the people of Varanasi till his last day, which was an indirect response to a comment by Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav that people come to Varanasi in their final days. In Kashi, there used to be bomb blasts on the ghats. The terrorists were fearless because the Samajwadi Party was with them. The government was openly withdrawing the cases from the terrorists. We have seen how much people have stooped low in Indian politics, but when in Kashi prayers for my death were done, I felt elated. This meant that till my death neither I will leave Kashi nor its people will leave me, Mr Modi said at a rally in Varanasi. Addressing a rally in Nautanwa, Union home minister Amit Shah said: Earlier, government land was snatched by bahubalis. Dalits, the underprivileged everyone was deprived. These parivarwadis in their tenure committed atrocities against the poor The BJP got the peoples land free from the land mafias In the last five years, there was a decline of 70 per cent in dacoities, 29 per cent in murders, 69 per cent in loot, 35 per cent in kidnappings and 52 per cent in rapes in Uttar Pradesh under the Yogi Adityanath government. Responding to the political barbs, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the people of UP have made up their mind to pack off Babaji back to his math, while referring to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is mahant of the Gorakhnath Math and five-time MP from Gorakhpur, where Mr Yadav was campaigning on Sunday for SP candidate Vinay Shankar Tiwari. In Deoria, he said: Babaji did not give you a laptop as he doesnt know how to operate it. He doesnt even know how to run a smartphone. How can a chief minister who does not know how to run a laptop and does not understand the importance of computers and smartphones run the state? He added the BJP has been unable to digest the crossover by its leaders to the SP. They are perturbed. They cant seem to remember the day when Swami Prasad Maurya joined us. I was waiting since 2011. Had he joined us after leaving the BSP, we need not have seen bad days for five years. Had he joined us in 2017, UP would have been forward today, the SP chief in Fazilnagar, while referring to Swami Prasad Maurya. A rally is set to take place in Dauphin this week in support of Ukraine, as the country battles for its independence against invading Russian forces. Advertisement Advertise With Us SUBMITTED A Stand with Ukraine rally was held in Dauphin earlier this month. A rally is set to take place in Dauphin this week in support of Ukraine, as the country battles for its independence against invading Russian forces. The Stand with Ukraine Rally will take place Wednesday in front of Dauphin City Hall at 6 p.m. Participants are encouraged to make signs and come out to show support for the country under attack. Alia Marcinkow, who lives just outside Dauphin, said it has been a horrifying experience watching Russia forces advance in Ukraine. It has left her feeling numb with disbelief. "The first day, it was like utter and complete shock," Marcinkow said. "Tears just kept flying." The Canadian Press reported Friday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would sanction Russias Vladimir Putin and other top Kremlin figures, holding them responsible for the "brutal, needless attack" on Ukraine. Trudeau added Canada would support the removal of Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). The incremental pressure by Canada, the United States and its European allies came in the face of a desperate and dramatic plea by Ukrainian lawmakers to come to their countrys aid as their army and civilian defence forces were attempting to stave off the massive land, air and sea invasion by Russia, reported The Canadian Press. Forces are advancing on the capital of Kyiv, after invading the country on Thursday in a three-pronged attack that included ground forces, aerial bombardment and a maritime assault from the Sea of Azov in the fiercest fighting the European continent has witnessed since the Second World War. Ukrainian lawmakers exhorted Canada and its allies on Friday to impose a no-fly zone against Russian airstrikes and be prepared to fight on the ground to defend their common freedom. SUBMITTED Alia Marcinkows family is shown in happier times. Canada has about 3,400 troops on standby ready to deploy if needed, in addition to 460 additional troops pledged to NATO operations in Europe earlier this week. While Marcinkow was born in Canada, she said, she has a soulful connection to Ukraine. "Our hearts belong to this country. Our souls belong to this country, and we do have family in this country, too," Marcinkow said. "Were Ukrainian Canadians. The Ukrainian identity is so strong." The Ukrainian Canadian Congress Manitoba held a Stand with Ukraine rally in Dauphin in early February. "We just came together, sang the Ukrainian anthem and just spoke with each other. I think it has brought people together and I think it has brought non-Ukrainians together," Marcinkow said. It has been amazing to see the community outreach taking place during the war. Friends and neighbours are checking in, trying to stay informed and offering support in any way they can during the invasion. Ukrainian troops and civilians have been armed and will not stop fighting, she said, but she remains anxious about what will happen if the world does not rise up in support of the country. "Ukraine has been a battleground for centuries it the gateway to Europe, the gateway to Russia," Marcinkow said. "The resources in Ukraine are rich, the natural resources are rich Its always been a battleground." Marcinko visited Ukraine four years ago. It was interesting because she has been visiting the country for many years. Her last trip was different, though, because it was after the Russian annexation of Crimea and the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in February 2014. "It was a place that was finally coming into its own culture and its own nation after being oppressed for so many years," Marcinkow said. "The people felt free to be who they were. To be Ukrainian it was beautiful and hopeful." It has been inspiring to see how Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is rallying Ukrainians to defend the country, she said. "I saw a thing today online that said the Americans urged Zelensky to leave and he said, I dont need a ride, I need ammo," Marcinkow said. "I think people are finally believing how resilient Ukrainians are. Weve been doing this for centuries." The future seems bleak right now for not only Ukraine, but the world. Marcinkow hopes NATO puts in a no-fly zone around Ukraine because this is where the country is most lacking in defence. Independence and freedom are values that run through the veins of the country, said Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Manitoba member Yevgeniya Tatarenko. Ukrainians are ready to fight to their very last breaths in their defence. In the first days of the invasion, Ukrainians were focused on how to help family and friends and ensure their safety. As the war has escalated, these tensions have only increased. The attacks were unexpected and have caused massive damage in the country, Tatarenko said, especially for innocent civilians. Tatarenkos native city, Zaporizhzhia, was attacked Friday night. The photos her friends and family have sent show the devastating damage. The airstrikes and bombing have been horrifying, and many Ukrainian Canadians have been staying up late into the night to stay informed on the different dangers in the country. "Im so proud of every single Ukrainian in Ukraine. The bravery and the level of bravery are just incredible," Tatarenko said. "It impresses me so much that everyone they decided to hold guns, hold weapons just to fight for their country." Ukrainian Andriy Chutrov moved to Dauphin in 2016 after first immigrating to Winnipeg in 2009. There is a strong Ukrainian community in Dauphin, he said, that takes great pride in its heritage and traditions. "They have kept the spirit of their country very well around here," Chutrov said. They are now gathering together in mourning and trepidation over the future of their country after the Russian invasion. Chutrov is living life by the minute right now, hoping his friends and family in the country are alive and safe. "First of all, you feel fog and denial, but then you quickly realize that the news that is pouring in from trusted sources," he said. Chutrov and his wife both have families in Ukraine, including their parents and siblings in their hometown of Kryvyi Rih. Since the conflict started, they now talk a few times each day. Chutrov anxiously looks for the green dot beside peoples names on social media because it means they are alive and online. He has been inspired by volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60 who are not already in ready Ukrainian Forces or territorial defence forces who are taking up arms to protect their country. "Ukraine is having a big problem with Russian troops since 2014, and that is over eight years. Serving in Ukraine is not voluntary people have been going to training and to defend their own sovereign territories," Chutrov said. Those who cannot fight are moving to the west, but many are refusing to leave their homes. "We didnt do anything wrong. We just want to protect what is ours," Chutrov said. The Ukrainians want nothing but to defend their nation and freedoms, he said. Chutrov said Ukraine is a democratic country with a democratically elected president and the freedom of speech and choice something that does not happen in Russia. "Nobody ever thought that after almost 80 years of peace in the heart of Europe, we would have such conflict," Chutrov said. "In my opinion, its not just about Ukraine anymore. Its about world peace." He worries Russia will move to a new target if the world does not rise in support of Ukraine and as a show of force against Putin. "Our patriots of Ukraine that are defending our land are saying right now to for our unexpected and unwanted guests welcome to hell," Chutrov said. ckemp@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp OTTAWA As a girl in Nunavik in the 1950s, Mary Simon and her friends chattered cheerfully on their way to elementary school, just like other children. But, unlike most other kids, they grew silent as they reached the schoolyard. Advertisement Advertise With Us OTTAWA As a girl in Nunavik in the 1950s, Mary Simon and her friends chattered cheerfully on their way to elementary school, just like other children. But, unlike most other kids, they grew silent as they reached the schoolyard. Inuit languages were banned at Kuujjuaq federal day school in northern Quebec ,and Simon recalls being punished many times for speaking Inuktitut rather than English in the classroom. From grade one to grade six we were not allowed to speak our language on school property or in the classroom or in school at all, she said in an interview. More than six decades later, as Governor General of Canada, Simon delivered the throne speech not just in the countrys official languages, English and French, but in Inuktitut, a groundbreaking moment in Canadian history. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed her to the role last year and she moved into Rideau Hall, the grand official residence in Ottawa. As the Queens representative in Canada, she plays not only a key ceremonial role, but serves as an apolitical figurehead for the country. The 95-year-old Queen recently tested positive for COVID-19 and Simon said Canadians all wish her well. I know that all Canadians join me in wishing Her Majesty good health and a swift recovery from her recent illness, she said. Simon also contracted COVID-19 earlier this month, which she said she only had for a week with mild symptoms, thanks to having been vaccinated. I am fully vaccinated and encourage everyone to get vaccinated. I think getting vaccinated is the best way to fight COVID so we can return to a more normal life, she said. Though she rises above party politics, the politics of vaccinations came to her front door this month after the so-called Freedom Convoy rolled into Ottawa and stayed. One of the protests organizing groups called Canada Unity published a memorandum of understanding calling for the Senate and Governor General to overrule all levels of government and revoke COVID-19 restrictions. Her office was also inundated with emails from people trying to register a no-confidence vote in the government with her, after mistakenly believing that her office had the power to unilaterally dissolve Parliament. Rideau Hall was forced to post a message on Twitter to counter the misinformation on social media encouraging Canadians to cast a non-confidence vote. The statement pointed out that no such registry or process exists. Simon said she did not get involved in the politics of the protests, or meet any of the protesters, although she was kept closely informed of the tumultuous events on her doorstep. The Governor General said Canada has been changed by this major event. She said she is very saddened by some of the events that have taken place especially some of the things that happened at the National War Memorial, in an apparent reference to a video showing someone dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She said Canadians are frustrated and upset because we have had to live a very different life for over two years. Although the protest started out about vaccinations, it became much bigger than that, she said. The protesters were not a homogeneous mass, she said, but included many groupings, including people opposed to vaccines and other people that want to overthrow the government. Overthrowing the government in this way is not something Canada does, she declared. Her focus now is on healing fault lines and divisions that have emerged in Canada, which includes speaking to the broad range of people involved in the protests. During her career, including as lead negotiator for the creation of the Arctic Council, Simon developed a reputation as a bridge-builder between people with sharply opposing views. Though she says she is personally in favour of following the science and getting vaccinated, she stops short of judging the protesters. I dont feel anyone is wrong particularly, but there is a very strong difference of opinion about what is going on, the former diplomat remarked. She said the country need to take a look at bringing Canadians together to discuss how we can work and come together as a nation and look forward. I am a bridge between Canadians from different experiences, she said. Encouraging different points of view has been central to my work, not just here at Rideau Hall but throughout my lifes work, she said. She said the fact that Canadians have a diversity of experience and opinions makes the country stronger when we are respectful of each other. But respect is something we really have to work on in the next months and probably years, she believes. Recently, the Governor General surprised members of the public by phoning them directly with a kindness call, a CBC Ottawa initiative she liked so much she decided to continue herself. With the calls she hopes to inspire Canadians to ajuinnata, an Inuktitut concept that means a promise, a vow to never give up. I think kindness should be a way of life. I think it is really important even when you disagree with somebody you should always be kind, she said. The Governor General is optimistic that fractures that have emerged in Canadian society in recent weeks can be healed. For all those at loggerheads, she offers some advice, honed from decades of diplomacy. You dont have to be obnoxious about a disagreement, she said. If you walk away from it, you can wait until a later date to have another discussion and maybe that one will be more fruitful. An essential part of building a more inclusive society, she said, is allowing people to speak in their mother tongue and fostering respect for them. Simon, the first Indigenous Governor General, recalled a time when, because Inuit names were considered difficult to pronounce, Inuit people were also assigned a number. That was how to identify Inuit across the Arctic, she said. Only now are Canadians learning about deliberate attempts to erase Indigenous languages at residential schools, she said. They are also learning the truth about these children who were torn from their homes and thrust into very unfamiliar worlds where threats of violence were used to erase their identity. She said Canadians everywhere share in the heartbreak and sorrow of the First Nations following the discoveries of unmarked graves of children attending residential schools. It seems like the country has woken up to a reality that may have not been known by Canadians, she said. Ensuring Indigenous people today do not have to revert to French or English to access basic services in their communities is really important, she said. Simon is fluently bilingual in Inuktitut and English but has had to learn French so she can deliver addresses as Governor General in both official languages, and speak to francophone Canadians in their native tongue. To do this, the 74-year-old grandmother has been taking French lessons, where she practises reading and conversation and studies the structure of the language every week. I have a tutor and I take lessons three times a week for about an hour and a half, she said. My tutor says Im doing well. The Canadian Press KYIV, Ukraine In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russias invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called aggressive statements by leading NATO powers. Advertisement Advertise With Us KYIV, Ukraine In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russias invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called aggressive statements by leading NATO powers. The directive to put Russias nuclear weapons in an increased state of readiness for launch raised fears that the crisis could boil over into nuclear warfare, whether by design or mistake. Putins step is potentially putting in play forces that, if theres a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous, said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Amid the mounting tensions, Ukraine announced that a delegation would meet with Russian officials for talks. But the Kremlins ultimate aims in Ukraine and what steps might be enough to satisfy Moscow remained unclear. The fast-moving developments came as Russian troops drew closer to Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million, street fighting broke out in Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the countrys south came under pressure from attackers. Ukrainian defenders put up stiff resistance that appeared to slow the invasion. I wish I had never lived to see this, said Faina Bystritska, 87, a Jewish survivor of the Second World War. She said sirens blare almost constantly in her hometown, Chernihiv, which is about about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Kyiv and under attack. Residents have been told not to switch on any lights so we dont draw their attention. She has been living in a hallway, away from windows, the better to protect herself. The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this constant thundering noise, she said. Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and fund the purchase of weapons for Ukraine. For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, she said. Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only statements by NATO members who have rushed to reinforce the military alliances members in Eastern Europe but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself. Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin told his defense minister and the chief of the militarys General Staff to put nuclear forces in a special regime of combat duty. Western countries arent only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country, Putin said in televised comments. U.S. defense officials would not disclose their current nuclear alert level except to say that the military is prepared all times to defend its homeland and allies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC that Putin is resorting to a pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, which is to manufacture threats that dont exist in order to justify further aggression. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN, in reaction to Russias nuclear alert: This is dangerous rhetoric. This is a behavior which is irresponsible. The practical meaning of Putins order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarine-based nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not. If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the United States might feel compelled to respond in kind, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. That would mark a worrisome escalation, he said. Around the same time as Putins nuclear move, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys office announced that the two sides would meet at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border. The statement did not give a precise time for the meeting. Earlier Sunday, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. The past night was tough more shelling, more bombing of residential areas and civilian infrastructure, Zelenskyy said. Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and Russian troops roaming the city in small groups. One showed Ukrainian troops firing at the Russians and damaged Russian vehicles abandoned nearby. The images underscored the determined resistance from Ukrainian forces. Ukrainians have volunteered en masse to defend their country, taking guns distributed by authorities and preparing firebombs. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight for the country, authorities said. Pentagon officials said that Russian troops are being slowed by Ukrainian resistance, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, and that Ukraines air defense systems, while weakened, are still operating. But a senior U.S. defense official said that will probably change: We are in day four. The Russians will learn and adapt. Putin hasnt disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraines government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscows Cold War-era influence. The fighting in southern Ukraine appeared aimed at seizing control of the countrys coastline. Cutting Ukraines access to its sea ports would deal a major blow to the countrys economy. Ukrainian military deputy commander Lt. Gen. Yevhen Moisiuk sounded a defiant note in a message aimed at Russian troops. Unload your weapons, raise your hands so that our servicemen and civilians can understand that you have heard us. This is your ticket home, Moisiuk said in a Facebook video. The number of casualties from Europes largest land conflict since World War II remained unclear amid the fog of war. Ukraines health minister reported Saturday that 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others wounded. It was unclear whether those figures included both military and civilian casualties. Russia has not released casualty figures. Ukraines UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, tweeted Saturday that Ukraine appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to facilitate repatriation of thousands of bodies of Russian soldiers. An accompanying chart claimed 3,500 Russian troops have been killed. The UN refugee agency said Sunday that about 368,000 Ukrainians have arrived in neighboring countries since the invasion started Thursday. Over the weekend, the U.S. pledged an additional $350 million in military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons, body armour and small arms. Germany said it would send missiles and anti-tank weapons. The U.S., European Union and Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which moves money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide. They also moved to slap restrictions on Russias central bank. Putin sent troops into Ukraine after building up a force of almost 200,000 troops along the countrys borders. He claims the West has failed to take seriously Russias security concerns about NATO, the Western military alliance that Ukraine aspires to join. But he has also expressed scorn about Ukraines right to exist as an independent state. Russia claims its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighborhoods have been hit. The Associated Press WINNIPEG Thousands of people stood with Ukraine on the grounds of Manitobas legislature Saturday, waving the countrys blue-and-yellow flag as the province officially did the same. Advertisement Advertise With Us WINNIPEG Thousands of people stood with Ukraine on the grounds of Manitobas legislature Saturday, waving the countrys blue-and-yellow flag as the province officially did the same. Manitoba has raised the Ukrainian flag in front of the legislative building in a show of support against Russias attacks, and Premier Heather Stefanson told the crowd Manitoba will take in Ukrainians via the provincial nominee program. Ive informed the federal government that we will do our part to take in Ukrainian refugees, Stefanson said, to loud cheers from the crowd. The rally against Russian President Vladimir Putins illegal invasion of Ukraine was one of several happening across Canada through the Canadian Ukrainian Congress, and in Winnipeg, the war hits horrifically close to home. It feels like I left a part of my heart at home, and that heart is really hurting today, said Halyna Shtoyko, one of the rallys organizers. She moved from Ukraine to Winnipeg as a teenager in 2000. But there are people here that havent been born in Ukraine, and theyre hurting just as much, in a different way. I think were all in a lot of pain and we all want to do whatever we can. Many in the crowd, draped in flags and hoisting anti-war placards, proudly proclaimed their heritage, from first-generation to fourth-generation Ukrainian. They chanted Glory to Ukraine, and Glory to the heroes a nationalist call-and-response that has taken on new significance since Russia invaded the sovereign country on Feb. 24. Its emotional, watching whats unfolding on TV. I can hardly sit there [watching] without crying, said Gail Oleksuk, whose Ukrainian grandfather, Fred Andrunski, arrived in Winnipeg at 17 years old with 10 cents in his pocket. Thats why shes here with her family, wearing a sign that urges the Ukrainian people to never give up. Connected through Ukrainian dance, Samantha Luczenczyn (first-generation Ukrainian), Bryana Nicolas (fourth generation) and Stefan Kinasevych (third generation) said it meant a lot to them to gather in support of Ukraine a freedom they dont take for granted. When I get up on a dancing stage and hear the music, I can feel my grandparents on my shoulders, Nicolas said. And when this news came in, it just hits your very core, because its attacking everything that we are. Kinasevych said if not for a spinal injury, he would want to go back to Ukraine to fight. I would stand for my country. Even though I was born in Canada, this is my language, this is my culture, said Kinasevych, whose first language is Ukrainian. I hold my culture dear. And not just on a personal level, on a global level. When have we seen an unhinged dictator start working his way into Europe overnight, threatening war? Politicians from all parties and all levels of government attended the rally, including Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman and Liberal MP Dan Vandal. They pledged their support for Ukraine in front of a crowd that prayed for peace and called for action. Many held signs calling for Canada to do whatever it can, including closing airspace to Russia and supplying Ukraine with humanitarian and financial aid. The world needs to look at that war and say, the cost of human life is so great that no sanction is too strict, Shtoyko said. What everybody can do today and it has to be now because people are dying what everybody can do is address our politicians. Say that it is important to us. Because these are our values that are being trampled on. Winnipeg Free Press Robbie Williams will debut a mash-up of his music and Ludwig van Beethovens. The former Take That member is looking forward to showcasing his latest creation - a track that merges his 1997 smash hit Angels and the classical composers Unfinished 10th Symphony - at the Mobile Congress on Monday (28.02.22) in Barcelona. The 48-year-old pop star told The Daily Star: Im looking forward to the preview of this interesting version at Mobile World Congress. Robbie has included a modern twist - the classical music being performed by Artifical Intelligence - due to his love of the advancements in science now enabling art. He said: For me, its fascinating how much technology is now enabling art. Deutsche Telekom - the company behind the AI - is particularly pleased to be collaborating with the Let Me Entertain You hitmaker. Claudia Nemat from Deutsche Telekom said: Were particularly pleased to be working with Robbie Williams on one of the best songs in pop history to explore the possibilities of AI creativity. Robbie - who is married to Ayda Field, , 42, with whom has four kids, Theodora, nine, Charlton, seven, Colette, three, and Beau, two - has been on a roll creatively recently as on Friday (25.02.22), his dance track Sway with the group Lufthaus- a collaboration with his long-time producers Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis - dropped on YouTube and other streaming services. And more music is expected from the trio. The group said: "This project has been keeping us busy in the studio throughout the pandemic, so were delighted to now be releasing the first single. Weve purposely kept Lufthaus unrevealed, so were looking forward to releasing more music and revealing more material over the coming months. Robbie also shared that he a wealth of material on his computer that wont see the light of day for years. He said:Sometimes I have songs that sit on my computer for five years, like Candy, for example, I had that for three years. There is stuff thats on my computer now that I wrote two years ago that probably wont see the light of day for another two years. Shell said on Monday it would exit all its Russian operations, including a joint venture at a major liquefied natural gas plant, following Russias invasion of Ukraine. The decision came a day after rival BP abandoned its stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft in a move that could cost more than $US25 billion ($35 billion). Shell has joined rival BP in exiting its investments in Russia. Credit:Bloomberg Shell will quit the flagship Sakhalin 2 LNG plant in which it holds a 27.5 per cent stake, and which is 50 per cent owned and operated by Russian gas giant Gazprom. The company also plans to end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, which it helped finance as a part of a consortium of companies. The extreme weather dumping heavy rain and causing severe flooding in Queensland and northern NSW is heading south in an ominous warning for the Mid North Coast, Sydney and the South Coast. Authorities are warning the weather system is tracking south and advising communities further afield to prepare while they have time. Rescue workers on swollen waters amid Lismores flood. Credit:Elise Derwin We expect these weather conditions to move further south over the course of the week, particularly towards the back end of the week, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a flood watch on Monday afternoon for the Mid North Coast, the Central Coast, Greater Sydney, the Illawarra and the South Coast. There are several major flood warnings for rivers in the state's north, and minor to moderate flood warnings on the Mid North Coast. When Iraqi refugee Steven Asman arrived in Australia and at Cabramatta High School he didnt speak a word of English. Three years later, the 17-year-old is completing his HSC and is part of the schools leadership team. Cabramatta High School captains Jennifer Luu, Dawson Phan, and school ambassador Steven Asman, with principal Lachlan Erskine. Credit:Nick Moir He credits the positive learning environment and diversity at his high school for helping make his achievements possible. The transition was really hard, but the teachers were so supportive, they helped me adapt and feel a sense of belonging at Cabramatta High School, he said. The students were so friendly. The state government is chasing up more than $75 million in unpaid hotel quarantine fees from past international arrivals, as health experts question why the program is still running. There were just 61 people in hotel quarantine in NSW on Monday compared to about 5500 on most days in mid-2021. Passengers being transported to hotel quarantine in September 2020, when thousands were in the program on any given day. Credit:Wolter Peeters With an average of 7000 new local coronavirus cases recorded each day last week, epidemiologists said hotel quarantine, a requirement limited to just unvaccinated international arrivals since November, was making no difference to the states virus burden. A total of five people have tested positive to COVID-19 in hotel quarantine in the past fortnight. An emergency warning has been issued for the Logan and Albert rivers, which are now expected to peak above 2017 levels by half a metre. Major flooding and rising river levels similar to those experienced during cyclones Debbie and Oswald were forecast to hit the Gold Coast and Logan areas, as thousands of homes remained without power. A landslide has occurred on the Springbrook-Gold Coast Road. The Bureau of Meteorology earlier warned that both a moist air mass and low-pressure trough in the region was feeding moisture, making slow-moving thunderstorms in the area a heavy rain threat. Heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding was forecast, with areas including Springbrook, Mount Tamborine and Numinbah Valley at risk. Senior leaders like Sellur Raju participated in the protest held in Madurai. (Photo: ANI) Coimbatore: AIADMK cadre on Monday staged protest across the state against the arrest of former Tamil Nadu minister D Jayakumar following the local body elections, which was held on February 19. The police had arrested Jayakumar for allegedly assaulting and disrobing a man during the local body elections. The AIADMK had alleged that the man had indulged in fake voting at a polling booth. Later, based on the complaint from the man, the police arrested Jayakumar on February 21. Today, the AIADMK cadre held the protest across the state, demanding the release of Jayakumar. Senior leaders like Sellur Raju participated in the protest held in Madurai. Dr McCallum was not involved in the University of Melbourne research but said it suggested the flooding on the east coast in 2021 was the result of an atmospheric river system. One of these systems was established on the east coast of Australia, pumping water vapour over the shore, then that moist air hits the Great Dividing Range, the moist air goes up, rain falls and we see what happens after that, he said. Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Diana Eadie on Monday said many areas had seen almost a years worth of rain in a few days. One example of this is Mount Glorious, where weve seen 1.5 metres of rain reported over this week, she said. The average rainfall for that location is 1600 millimetres, and weve seen similar conditions across all of south-east Queensland, a number of locations have recorded in excess of 700 millimetres in periods of 24 hours. Similar but different to 2011 The January 2011 Brisbane floods resulted in the Brisbane River peaking at 4.46 metres at the CBD gauge, causing widespread riverine flooding. A water feature springs forth at Howard Smith Wharves. Credit:Sean Parnell, Brisbane Times The lead-up to the 2011 event had been an unseasonably wet winter and spring period in 2010 due to La Nina conditions, followed by a sudden intense downpour in the western catchment of the Brisbane River. That led to flash flooding in Toowoomba and eventually to the Bremer and Brisbane rivers hitting major flood peaks as the water flowed downstream. Professor Bofu Yu, a hydrologist from Griffith Universitys school of engineering and built environment, said the rain event of the past few days was different because it dumped water directly on all the catchments at once. A house is inundated by floodwater on February 27 in Goodna, west of Brisbane. Credit:Getty Images That meant many local creeks and waterways swelled, causing localised flooding in areas that were unaffected in 2011. The duration of three-to-four days [rain] and the system moving very slowly make it a very different situation to 2011, he said. Loading Also, while the overall totals are huge, the rainfall itself did not exceed 50 millimetres in a 30-minute period in most areas it was a constant flow over a number of days that rapidly built to a huge total. That has meant a lot of localised creek flooding across the region. Professor Yu said because of that the duration of the flooding was likely to be longer than in 2011. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85 metres on Monday, just under the 2011 flood peak, however the bureau confirmed it would keep hitting moderate flood peaks of about three metres into the middle of the week. Operators defend Wivenhoes performance in crisis The operators of Wivenhoe Dam, the major dam servicing south-east Queensland, have defended how it has been operated during the recent rain event from criticism they might have exacerbated the flood. The amount of water in the catchment is astounding, with the dam hitting a little over 180 per cent of its capacity early on Monday morning as inflows peaked. In comparison, in November the dam was at 39.3 per cent and authorities were moving to impose water restrictions. As recently as last Thursday the dam was at 58.5 per cent capacity after weeks of regular rain, and on Friday it was at 80.6 per cent. Michael Foster from Seqwater said the dam had held back about 2.2 million megalitres of water from the Brisbane river catchment. That is the dam acting as it is supposed to, he said. The flooding unfortunately were experiencing in Brisbane certainly would have been worse without the dam. A commission of inquiry into the 2011 floods of Brisbane found that mismanagement of outflows from Wivenhoe contributed to subsequent flooding downstream. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the opposite was true in this case, and that the dam had prevented much greater flooding. What happened here is that everyone expected conditions to ease, but they didnt, and this rain bomb stayed over the entire south-east [Queensland] and it had a big impact on the catchments and the streams, the Premier said. That is unpredictable, not even the bureau saw that coming. Mr Foster said they were planning to release water from the dam in controlled bursts over the next seven days, in a way that would not exacerbate the flood peaks, but he admitted water would continue to inundate homes for longer than it otherwise would. He said that was necessary because they needed to get the flood storage compartments of the dam empty in a controlled way, in case there were any other major flows into the dam in the next week. The bureau predicted severe thunderstorms from Wednesday which would probably cause flash flooding in parts of sodden south-east Queensland, but meteorologists were not expecting a repeat of the sustained weather event. Disaster not unexpected The Melbourne University research concluded airborne rivers were more common than first thought, and were not just confined to the north-west of Australia but instead are the cause of many events seen on the east coast in recent years. Dr McCallum said with that in mind, the recent sustained drenching becomes less of a freak occurrence and more of a plausible result of recent climatic conditions. These things do occur, its whether or not we recognise that theyre occurring, he said. Although still early days, Dr McCallum said the disaster should serve as another reminder that extreme weather events needed to be taken into account when planning how a city such as Brisbane expanded. Loading Ukraines call for international volunteers to join its armed forces has triggered debate in Canberra about whether Australians will breach domestic laws if they sign up for a foreign conflict. A spokesman for Foreign Minister Marise Payne suggested it would be legal for people to travel to Ukraine to fight alongside the countrys troops. The Foreign Incursions Act prohibits going overseas to fight unless it is for a properly constituted national armed forces, the spokesman said. But Ms Payne urged Australians to follow official travel advice and not to go to Ukraine a less supportive stance than that of some other Western governments. Asked over the weekend whether she backed people travelling from Britain to fight in Ukraine, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: Absolutely, if people want to support that struggle, I would support them in doing that. The issue has divided the Ukrainian community in Australia, with many leaders urging people not to put their lives at risk by joining the front lines, while others are more open to the idea. Stefan Romaniw, chairman of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, said: We cant tell people what to do, its a personal choice. People are pretty hyped up and asking how they can help. Some people may well decide they want to go over there and fight. Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations chairman Stefan Romaniw speaks at a recent rally. Credit:Jeffrey Chan Dan Wolody, president of the Ukrainian Council of NSW, said: I wont be surprised if one or two people are so patriotic theyd be ready to go and fight, but we are certainly not encouraging anyone to go. Its a rash thought that a lot of people get at a time like this, but I think you would end up doing more harm than good unless you are military-trained. There would be very few cases where it would actually be helpful. Andrew Mencinsky, a spokesman for the council, added: It would be foolhardy in the extreme to fly to Ukraine and think that with a day or twos training you could go up against a trained Russian soldier. He said the council was focused on working with the federal government to increase sanctions on Russia and deliver weapons and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. Melbourne woman Liana Slipetsky, who has been organising protests against Russias invasion, said she felt an obligation to help rebuild Ukraine and honour her parents, who fled the country more than 70 years ago. Liana Slipetsky says she is desperate to help Ukraine. Credit:Simon Schluter She says she feels a sense of hopelessness and is desperate to help. She plans to travel to help with humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. Loading Im looking at the materialistic things that have crowded up my life and its all meaningless. Real estate, business, my car it means nothing. And while I was born here, I feel and always felt Ukrainian. That is my identity, my nationality, and it has occurred to me that my life without an independent Ukraine is meaningless, the 54-year-old said. Of course Ukrainians are scared, worried and frightened. But on the back of that, theyre also determined. Weve got Ukrainian grandmothers coming out into the streets confronting soldiers. There was a sign on the bus stop that said, Bitches, f--- off out of my village and Ukraine, Baba [Grandma] Nadia. While some Ukrainian Australians are preparing to travel to Ukraine, others are raising money for essential items such as first-aid kits, or simply sending messages of support so their besieged family and friends know they are not alone. In Geelong, youth worker Jeremy Pryslak wants to go to Ukraine as soon as the fighting stops, to help with the relief effort. Id go now if I could if it was safe and legal for me to go, he said. Mr Pryslak said many young people in his community with Ukrainian heritage would also want to travel to the country, not to join the war but to help the people recover. Weve got doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers. Weve got all sorts of skills. He said he had barely slept in the past week, with his phone constantly receiving messages from friends and family in Ukraine and around the world. He feels a strong emotional attachment to Ukraine, where his grandparents were born, and follows every possible update from the invasion, despite their often ghastly nature. His mother, Luba Pryslak, has been in regular contact with friends and relatives in Ukraine, sharing pictures of protests in Australia against the Russian invasion. They can feel the love from the rest of the world, she said. They have been feeling abandoned. Nadia Tkaczuk, who also lives in Geelong, began raising money to support Ukrainians after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. She has continued the fundraising effort during this invasion, with money paying for first-aid kits and other supplies. Loading Several members of her husbands family fled Ukraine for Turkey and are hoping to travel to Australia until the fighting subsides. But one cousin, a surgeon, has remained in Ukraine to fight the invading Russian forces. Many of our family and friends are finding shelter for their wives and children in villages and towns. Then theyre going out and fighting, she said. Ms Tkaczuk said Mr Putins false pretext that he was invading Ukraine to denazify the country was particularly offensive. Its horrifying to us Ukrainians who are peace-loving and proud, she said. It hurts us to hear that. It also has the lowest tree canopy in the Perth and Peel region with the newer coastal suburbs of Alkimos, Eglinton and Butler taking the title of the lowest tree canopy and vegetation cover in the city. A City of Wanneroo spokeswoman said native vegetation planted in recently developed subdivisions would take time to mature, and low-lying coastal heath provided little canopy cover. Like many councils it had developed an urban forest strategy to boost its canopy and protect existing trees. The strategy will measure the extent of the Citys urban canopy and vegetation cover and identify areas with higher temperatures (heat islands) with the aim of protecting and increasing tree and vegetation cover across the City through a range of initiatives, the spokeswoman said. At just 10 per cent tree canopy cover, the cities of Belmont and Canning are next on the list. City of Canning mayor Patrick Hall said the councils urban forest strategy aimed to more than double tree canopy cover in public open space to 40 per cent over the next 20 years by planting 110 hectares of trees. Parkwood, Cannington, Bentley and St James have below-average canopy cover, ranging between 7 and 7.5 per cent, while parts of Leeming have just 5 per cent canopy cover. Perths searing summer On the last day of summer Bureau of Meteorology figures showed Perths average maximum temperature was 33.2 degrees well above the previous record of 32.3 set in 2012/13. Perth sweated through a record of 13 days above 40 degrees, six of which were consecutive. Swanbourne recorded 43.7 degrees on Boxing Day last year, the highest December temperature ever recorded for the coastal suburb. Record temperatures were recorded in Dwellingup, Bunbury, Busselton and Mandurah. Many sites including Perth Airport, Pearce RAAF, Jandakot and Bickley had their highest mean maximum temperatures for January since 2010. The industrial suburbs of Canning Vale and Welshpool have 4.7 per cent and 3.6 per cent canopy cover. The City is prioritising tree planting in suburbs which have been identified through thermal image mapping as having low tree canopy cover and high land surface temperatures, Mr Hall said. In the City of Belmont, boosting tree canopy is difficult, with Perth Airport taking up one-third of its land. From quarter-acre blocks to 200 square metres: urban infill in Perth The state governments 2018 Perth and Peel @ 3.5 million framework set a 47 per cent urban infill and 53 per cent new housing target by 2050. Even councils largely devoid of trees arent excluded from meeting the targets. Cannings urban infill target is 11,440 additional dwellings by 2031 and the City of Belmont is 26,860. Wanneroo has been set a target of 27,920 dwellings and 106,900 residents by 2050. There is concern that the push to create new lots within established residential areas is fuelling a reduction in plot sizes that leaves little space for a tree. A state government spokesman said various departments had invested significantly in initiatives to support suburban greening measures to reduce the urban heat island effect and address the impacts of climate change. Loading He said recent updates to the residential design codes now required trees to be planted for all new developments, including apartments, and there are incentives for apartments to retain significant existing trees and provide adequate deep soil areas to ensure viable growth of new trees. Just a decade ago residential infill development was about 32 per cent; in 2020 it was 44 per cent. Where Perth is turning from grey to green Professor Newman said urban infill didnt have to mean concrete jungles and the answer to offsetting rising heat in the suburbs was simple green our suburbs and weatherproof our homes. But it needed a more coordinated approach on a local, state and national level that was relevant for lower socio-economic suburbs who are at greater risk of becoming heat islands. Professor Newman warned some outer suburbs of Perth would be difficult to sell in coming decades because of their location, design and lack of tree canopy that meant they needed more energy to run. A sea of black roofs can be seen from the sky extending along the freeway. Credit:Peter Newman If you travel to the end of freeway north and south you will find suburbs being rolled out with big houses, big air-conditioners and I think they are not even appropriate for now let alone in 20 years time, he said. Professor Newman said the current review of the National Construction Code for the first time in 13 hadnt gone far enough. It made no reference to following Sydneys footsteps and banning the construction of homes with dark-coloured roofs, or other measures such as painting roads white to lower ambient temperatures in the suburbs. You simply need to specify net-zero homes, he said. Weve had no leadership in this area from government for far too long. Theres a belief that the problem in Perth is that we are building too densely and chopping down too many trees. It is true, but that is mostly happening in middle suburbs like Innaloo, or Carlisle. East Village in Fremantle. Credit:Development WA But theres still plenty of room to plant trees. Singapore does it by draping it over the buildings and in streets in the tiniest amount of soil. Professor Newman pointed to the East Village development in Fremantle as an example of energy-efficient residential infill development. This Development WA project requires each of the tiny blocks for sale (200 square metres for each of 36 townhouses and two apartment blocks with 100 units) to have a little area which has deep soil in it and that is for a tree, he said. And its a requirement for every block. Effects on human health Extreme heatwaves in Australia have caused more deaths than any other natural disaster in the past 200 years, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Royal Australian College of GPs president Karen Price said rising temperatures due to climate change was a key public health issue. An analysis of Australian coronial records relating to heatwave deaths between 2000 and 2018 found there were 473 deaths reported that were explicitly heat-related, of which 354 occurred during heatwave conditions, Dr Price said. More vulnerable people, such as older people, people with disabilities, and those with pre-existing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, are particularly at risk. Loading The trouble is people may not be aware of the risk, and dont prepare for hot days. As Perth councils struggle to plant trees, Professor Newman urged them to think big. Perth should not be visible from the sky because we have a complete canopy of trees, he said. Australias start-up and venture capital scene had a banner year in 2021, with more than $10 billion invested in local firms but the number of companies with female founders that received funds remains stuck below 20 per cent. A report compiled by Folklore Ventures, a fund, and Cut Through Venture, a newsletter that tracks the industry, recorded 682 deals in 12 months at a value more than three times the $3.1 billion of investments noted in 2020. Tanisha Banaszczyk, a principal at Folklore Ventures. The figures, compiled from public announcements, private data sets and questions to investors, do not include additional deals that their makers disclosed in general terms but refused to detail. It shows a start-up ecosystem flourishing in a year of cheap money but also an increasingly large group of funds, investors and founders spurring its value upwards as Australias technology sector becomes an increasingly mature part of the economy. Singapore: The spiralling human, military and economic costs of Russias invasion of Ukraine will force Beijing to reassess its plans for Taiwan, as Moscow counts the cost of a bloody war. Russia has been effectively shut off from the international banking system in the past 24 hours, Germany has transformed its defence policy to contain Vladimir Putins aggression, and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has called for the end of strategic ambiguity over Taiwan and for Japan to host US nuclear weapons. Taiwanese people protest against Russias military invasion of Ukraine on February 25 in Taipei. Credit:Getty The escalations have followed a brutal but stuttering campaign by Russia, which had amassed almost 200,000 troops on the border with Ukraine but has so far failed to capture and hold any major cities because of fierce Ukrainian resistance. Xi [Jinping] must be horrified at Putins Ukraine setbacks so far, says Derek Grossman, a senior defence analyst at the RAND Corporation, a think tank that provides research to the US armed forces. I think what theyve seen so far is that the best-laid plans go to waste. Commonwealth Bank has helped H.R.L. Morrison & Co. arrange a NZ$180 million sustainability loan for a public-private partnership (PPP) that manages five schools in New Zealand. The transaction, where CBA acted as sole sustainability coordinator and co-lender, is the first sustainability loan for school facilities in NZ. Using sustainability loan labels means the projects meet criteria around delivering improved environmental and social outcomes. Established in 2017 with the Ministry of Education in New Zealand, the NZ Schools III PPP aims to design, finance, construct, and maintain, for 25 years following construction, three primary schools and two high schools across Auckland, Hamilton, and Christchurch. The NZ Schools III PPP refinanced its initial loan, which reached maturity, with the sustainability loan. The NZ Schools III PPPs sustainability loan was accredited on project-specific factors including building energy efficiency, waste management, green building standards, water management, and social features such as high-quality, inclusive learning environments for students, access to local residents for community use, and dedicated satellite classrooms for students with disabilities. Third-party opinion and verification was provided by specialist certification body, DNV. We see the independent accreditation of this sustainability loan as an important benchmark for future social infrastructure projects, said Jon Collinge, sustainability director at Morrison & Co. Our thanks to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for their help in designing this loan, and enabling us to keep delivering better outcomes for our schools portfolio. Sustainable public infrastructure, like these five schools in New Zealand, helps drive better outcomes for both the environment and the communities they serve, and spotlights the importance of sustainability for future generations, said Charles Davis, managing director of sustainable finance at Commonwealth Bank. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Ashneer Grover, the embattled founder of fintech unicorn BharatPe, has resigned as the managing director and a director on the companys board, according to a source close to the development. Business Standard has reviewed his letter of resignation. This comes amid a tussle in the company where Grover has found himself on the opposite side of the Board, key investors in the company and his co-founders. I write this with a heavy heart as today I am being forced to bid adieu to a company of which I am a founder. I say with my head held high that today this company stands as a leader in the fintech world. Since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately, Ive been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me and my family by a few individuals who are ready not only to harm me and my reputation but also harm the reputation of the company, which ostensibly they are trying to protect, Grover has written in his resignation letter. From being celebrated as the face of Indian entrepreneurship and an inspiration to the Indian youth to build their own businesses, I am now wasting myself fighting a long, lonely battle against my own investors and management. Unfortunately, in this battle, the management has lost of what is actually at stake BharatPe, he added. Business Standard has written to the company seeking a confirmation and will update this article as soon as a response is received. Meanwhile, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has refused to grant emergency relief to Grover from a governance review being conducted by the company, according to sources. Earlier this month, he had filed an arbitration plea earlier this month to stop a probe into alleged financial mismanagement in the company. The MD, who went on leave last month till March-end, is also said to be seeking indemnity against future action by the company through the plea. The company and Grover are also reportedly in talks to settle the matter by buying out the latters stake in the unicorn. Grovers stake of 9.5 per cent in the company was worth Rs 1,915 crore based on the last funding round in August, when was valued at $2.8 billion. While I maintain that you will not find a single act of impropriety against me, I will not be participating in your charade. Since you clearly believe you can run this Company better without me I am leaving you with this challenge, he said in his resignation letter. Build incrementally even half of the value I created so far I am leaving you with three times the funds Ive utilised till date... I will continue as the single largest individual shareholder of the company, he added. New Delhi: Indians being evacuated from Ukraine have been exempted from pre-boarding RT-PCR test, providing Covid vaccination certificates and uploading those on the Air Suvidha portal, the Health Ministry said on Monday. It said the International Travel Guidelines have been revised and some exemptions allowed on humanitarian grounds for those arriving from Ukraine. According to the government, as of February 28, five flights carrying 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in the country and none of them has been kept in isolation so far. Of the five flights, one arrived in Mumbai and the rest in Delhi. The Health Ministry said Indians not fulfilling either of the mandatory requirements -- pre-boarding negative RT-PCR test report or fully vaccinated certificate -- as laid down in the 'Guidelines for International Arrivals' have been exempted from uploading these documents on Air-Suvidha Portal before departure to India. Individuals who have completed their COVID-19 vaccination, irrespective of the country of departure/inoculation, have been allowed to leave the arrival airport in India with the advice to self-monitor their health for the next 14 days, it said. If a traveller is not able to submit a pre-arrival RT-PCR test or who has not completed their COVID-19 vaccination, they have been allowed to submit their samples on arrival with the advice to self-monitor their health for 14 days after arrival. If tested COVID positive, they shall be clinically managed according to laid down protocol, the ministry said. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, "The Health Ministry revises international travel advisory for Indians being evacuated from Ukraine: Mandatory pre-boarding negative RTPCR test & vaccination certificate exempted; Uploading documents before departure on Air-Suvidha Portal exempted." The health ministry said that large diasporas of Indian nationals, mainly students, have found themselves embroiled in the political turmoil being faced by Ukraine. "Direct evacuation of these stranded Indians through flights could not be carried out because of the Notice to Airmen or Notice to Air Missions issued in Ukraine." "Accordingly, Indian missions in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have been making arrangements to get Indian nationals from Ukraine and fly them out of their respective countries under Operation Ganga Flights," the ministry said. The Union Health Ministry in close collaboration with the Ministries of External Affairs, Civil Aviation and Home Affairs is lending all support possible in evacuating Indians from Ukraine, the statement said. The Burman family promoters of announced an open offer on Monday for a 26 per cent holding in the countrys largest dry cell battery maker, Eveready Industries India, a year and a half after it became the largest shareholder in the Brij Mohan Khaitan family-controlled company. In a statement, Mohit Burman, vice-chairman Dabur India, said, We have been monitoring the situation of the company and felt that now is an appropriate time to step in. The company needs direction and the brand has immense potential. We feel we will be able to add value and take this business to the next level." The open offer was priced at Rs 320 per share for acquisition of 26 per cent of the expanded voting share capital aggregating to a total consideration of up to Rs 605 crore. The Eveready stock closed at Rs 376.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday. In a letter to the board of Eveready, the Burman Group informed that it intends to acquire control and requested appropriate representation on the board through appointing three directors, each of whom would be a non-executive director. Sources indicated that it would want to appoint a chairman post the open offer. In the letter to the board, the Burman Group also said that it had placed an order with its stock broker, J M Financial Services on February 28 to purchase approximately 5.26 per cent holding in Eveready, triggering the open offer. It is not clear what role the Khaitans will play post the open offer. Amritanshu Khaitan declined to comment. At present, the company is steered by Amritanshu Khaitan as the managing director whose tenure comes to an end in May 2022. Business Standard reported in December that Khaitan was likely to relinquish the drivers seat in Eveready. Apart from Amritanshu, the Khaitan family is represented by Aditya Khaitan as the chairman in a non-executive capacity, on the board of Eveready. However, as of December 2021, the Khaitans holding in the company stood at 4.84 per cent. The Burman Groups holding is at approximately 19.84 per cent. Steps to professionalise Eveready have been in the works since Burmans picked up shares and made a pitch for professional management. The first step was taken last August when a joint managing director was appointed. Suvomoy Saha, a non-executive director, took charge as a joint managing director with effect from August 10, 2021, to enhance leadership in seeking re-orientation of processes in the post-pandemic world and for new growth avenues. More recently, the company roped in consultancy firm, Bain & Company to evolve and execute a comprehensive business strategy. The Burman Group in its letter to board said that it firmly believed in the business prospects of Eveready and were supportive of its growth going forward. On board representation, it was confident that the directors would significantly contribute towards several strategic initiatives of Eveready. Such representation on the board will also augment shareholder value creation and assist the senior management of Eveready to gain market share and enhance growth prospects of the business, the letter further mentioned. Industrial AI startup ExactSpace Technologies on Monday announced that it has raised $1.4 million (Rs 10 cr) in seed funding led by Thermax Limited. The funds will be used by ExactSpace to strengthen its suite of industrial solutions and expand its operations to North America. The startups proprietary AI platform Pulse combines algorithms which learn about machine behaviour with expert knowledge of the industry it is deployed in to help operators make accurate or Exact decisions. Deployed at over 60 plants globally, ExactSpace is well positioned to play an integral role in this $100 billion market opportunity. Ashish Bhandari, MD & CEO, Thermax, said, Our investment in ExactSpace is a step to augment our digital capabilities. The expertise of ExactSpace in AI and IoT solutions for the energy segment will enable Thermax to deliver superior customer support and increase our share of service offerings. ExactSpace Technologies was founded in 2018 with the focus of accelerating the ongoing energy transition using deep-domain AI solutions that help decarbonize industrial plants and eliminate unplanned failures. At ExactSpace, our goal was to build technology to enable the shift to a low-carbon economy. Weve seen that precision use and analysis of data in industries help move the needle in this direction and weve been able to achieve these outcomes in the thermal power, oil & gas and industrial sectors, said Rahul Raghunathan, CEO of ExactSpace. He further added, With Thermax, we not only share a common vision of a sustainable future but see an ideal opportunity to create widespread impact with thousands of its customers spread across 90+ countries. This partnership goes beyond the capital. ExactSpace solutions have recently been deployed at some of the largest Industrial groups. They were selected to be a part of digital track of the Shell E4 startup program in 2021. With support from Shell, ExactSpace is exploring collaborations that could help contribute to the Industrial decarbonisation and Indias Net zero targets. It is also currently deploying its platform with the Indian Navy, supported by Forge Accelerator as part of Ministry of Defenses innovation program iDEX. Indias top refiner (IOC) will no longer accept cargoes of Russian crude oil and Kazakh CPC Blend on a free-on-board (FOB) basis due to insurance risk, according to a tender notice and a source familiar with the matter. The letter was sent on Monday to traders who submit cargo offers into IOCs regular crude oil buy tenders. It was in December 2021, during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India, that IOC renewed its contract with Rosneft to buy up to 2 million tonnes (MT) of crude oil in 2022 from the Russian major through the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. With operations in the Black Sea getting affected after several ships getting hit, insurers were hesitant to give cover to shipping majors in the region and were also charging an additional war premium of 2-3 per cent too. However, the reports did not specify whether the company will be considering the import of Russian crude on a cost, insurance and freight (CIF) basis. IOC bought 2 million barrels of Russian Urals for the first time in two years earlier this month. A source at another state refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp, said his firm mostly buys Urals on a delivered basis, whereby freight and insurance are included, unlike in FOB. The source added that traders were not offering Russian barrels. and Kazakhstan are small suppliers to India. In December, the two countries accounted for 64,000 barrels per day (bpd) out of 4.7 million bpd. Based on the FOB mechanism, it is the buyer who charts a vessel and lifts the crude from a terminal in the producing country and also pays for the cost of shipping the crude. On the other hand, the CIF model is the one that India used for its crude transactions with Iran since sanctions started. In this model, the seller incurs the costs and pays the freight, including insurance charges. IOC first entered into a deal with Rosneft in February 2020, as a strategy to diversify its crude basket, which was heavily dependent on the Middle East. India at present is importing crude from at least 25 countries. The 2020 deal was also to import around 2 MT of crude through Novorossiysk. Based on the deal, though the company could have purchased around 1.7 MT of crude oil in 2021, it bought only a single parcel as the cost of importing crude from was not viable for India, compared to that of its main source, West Asia. IOC is a shareholder in several Rosneft production projects like Vankorneft and Taas-Yuryah. It was also in talks with Russian petrochemicals company SIBUR for setting up a dual-feed cracker along with downstream units at IOCs Paradip refinery in Odisha. Mahindra Logistics, a third-party logistic solutions provider said it has acquired a majority stake in ZipZap Logistics, a last-mile service provider that operates under its brand Whizzard. Mahindra will acquire 60 per cent in the Hyderabad-based firm for Rs 71.73 crore through primary and secondary purchases in two phases. It would also buy out the reminder of the stake at a later stage and make it a fully-owned subsidiary. MLL will complete the acquisition before November 30 2023. The acquisition will help MLL make deeper inroads into smaller towns and cities where Whizzard has a strong presence. It will help the company tap into the multiple formats for last-mile delivery like quick commerce that are coming up in a big way, Rampraveen Swaminathan, MD and CEO . The last mile is very important for us from a growth perspective. Overall, from the industry perspective, Last-mile accounts for only 15 per cent of the kilometres but contributes 40 per cent of the cost for a company. Whizzard is an important capability play. It would help us to augment our reach, he told Business Standard. With changing customer requirements and demand for quick delivery gaining pace and increased digitisation, the last mile delivery has been growing at a very rapid pace. While much of the growth has come from e-commerce, green shoots are also seen outside. Several new formats of last mile delivery solutions are also evolving. We are acquiring 60 per cent of the company through primary and secondary purchases. It would be acquired in two stages for a consideration of Rs 71.73 crore. We will consider buying the remaining equity as well to make it a fully owned subsidiary. Traditionally, MLL has been very strong in the metro areas tier one cities and towns. With this, we will be able to reach the last mile. From the tech perspective, Whizzard has developed capabilities that would allow us to serve the market better, explained Ankur Singhai, head of e-commerce vertical, MLL. The number of MLLs distribution and delivery centres will go up to over 200 with the deal. Whizzard on the other hand will benefit from significant investments MLL has made in the sustainable last mile delivery by deploying EV for last miles, he added. The recent acquisition is in line with the Mahindra Group strategy to acquire for capabilities and not necessarily for scale, said Swaminathan, citing an instance of the freight forwarding company which was a Rs 100 crore company when it was acquired but it has now grown four times. Whizzard will be a service line for MLL, will retain its brand and continue to be run by the existing promoters and benefit from the Mahindra ecosystem. Hyderabad based Whizzard operates an intra-city distribution network for digital commerce and last mile delivery. Whizzard currently enables seamless handling of 60 million packages per year, across diverse segments. Led by the founding team of Ankit Madhania and Arun Rao, Whizzard has grown 10x in the last three years and serves customers with its full stack digital capabilities and micro-distribution centres catering to 3,000-plus pin codes. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) passed an order allowing to convene meetings of its shareholders and creditors to seek their approval for the scheme it signed in 2020 that allows to sell its retail, logistics, and warehousing businesses to Reliance Retail for about Rs 25,000 crore. In September 2021, the tribunal (NCLT) had allowed creditors and shareholders to hold meetings over the deal. Following which Amazon filed a petition objecting to such a meeting of creditors and shareholders of . This petition has been dismissed by . Amazon has been opposing Future Groups deal with RIL since October 2020. In 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. The schedule of the meetings of shareholders and creditors will be intimated in due course of time, Future Retail said in a stock exchange filing. This order comes at a time when Future Retail has shut most of its Big Bazaar stores since February 25 (Friday) and its website is also down as it missed lease payments to . RIL will open most of the 200 Future Retail stores as Reliance stores in the next week and it is in the process of taking stock, re-branding, and transferring 30,000 Future Retail and Future Lifestyle employees on to the rolls of Reliance SMSL, its manpower and staffing firm. On February 15, the Supreme Court granted Future Retail the option to seek from the Delhi High Courts permission to continue proceedings at the on its deal with . This decision is crucial given the fact that shareholders will get an opportunity to take a call on the proposed scheme, said Ashish K Singh, managing partner, Capstone Legal. Generali JV However, a Mumbai civil court has restrained Future Enterprises stake sale in Future Generali India Insurance Companys stake sale till the next date of hearing and the case is adjourned till March 10. On January 27, Future Enterprises agreed to sell a 25 per cent stake in its general insurance joint venture to its Dutch partner for Rs 1,252.96 crore in cash, and an additional consideration linked to the date of the closing of the transaction. The case was filed by IDBI Trusteeship Services against Future Enterprises, and the order said, This order is passed as this is of the opinion that unless this order is passed the object of granting injunction would be difficult by delay, the order said. The Delhi High Court is hearing four cases in the legal battle between Future Group and e-commerce major Amazon. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) is also hearing the US firms case challenging the Competition Commission of Indias (CCI) order cancelling its 2019 deal. DaMENSCH, a premium mens brand, has raised $16.4 million (Rs 122.5 crores) in a series B fundraise led by A91 Partners. Existing investors Saama Capital, Matrix Partners and Whiteboard Capital also participated in the round. The brand would use funds to make investments in technology and to strengthen and diversify the product portfolio Our products are addressing a big white space in the wardrobe of the modern man. We have clocked Rs 100 crore ARR (annual recurring revenue) in 2021 making us the fastest D2C (direct to consumer) apparel brand to reach this milestone, on the back of our strong consumer proposition, said Anurag Saboo, co-founder DaMENSCH. We are targeting 3x growth in the coming financial year through meaningful product-market and channel expansion. Currently, the portfolio has more than 200 stock-keeping units (SKUs) listed across more than 15 categories and has made more than 10 million shipments to over 10,000 pin codes across the country. Gaurav Pushkar, co-founder - DaMENSCH, said innovation is core to the company. We started this journey by creating unique products like bamboo vests and deodorizing underwear, said Pushkar. From the 500-day warranty on our Constant Loungewear collection to Mozzarella stretch chino shorts, we continue to leverage fabric engineering to redefine menswear. In 2022, we will deepen our presence in the innerwear, loungewear, sleepwear, and everyday-wear categories. Prasun Agarwal, partner at A91 Partners, said DaMENSCH has become the go-to brand for affluent men who are looking for new age, digital first clothing brands that can combine comfort and style and gives them a chance to upgrade their products and brands. With a meaningful (40 per cent) set of consumers shopping multiple (2-3) times a year, DaMENSCH has managed to grow on the back of loyalty from existing customers and continuous addition of new customer segments," said Agarwal. Ash Lilani, managing partner, Saama Capital, said the brands combination of product quality and customer experience makes it one of the most exciting D2C plays in India. Gaurav (Pushkar) and Anurag (Saboo) have put together a top-quality team and are poised to scale significantly over the next few years, said Lilani. Another investor Anshu Prasher, general partner, Whiteboard Capital, said the venture capital firm has been highly impressed by the strong product innovation and customer-centric business DNA of DaMENSCH. We are excited to partner with A91 as we continue on this journey of efficient and unit economics driven growth, said Prasher. Sudipto Sannigrahi, principal, Matrix India, said DaMENSCH has achieved tremendous growth over the last 12 months and is poised to be the leading mass-premium brand for the mens apparel category in India. Anurag and Gauravs customer-obsessed approach and the superior quality of the product truly sets them apart, and we are thrilled to be doubling down on our investment. The Russian attack on Ukraine began four days ago. India started issuing advisories in mid-February, asking Indians to consider leaving Ukraine after tensions increased between Moscow and Kyiv. The MEA said India is also sending humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. The government has already decided to send four Union ministers as the prime minister's envoys to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova to oversee the evacuation of Indians from Ukraine through its border crossings with these countries. At a media briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Union minister Hardeep Puri will go to Hungary, Jyotiraditya Scindia will oversee the evacuation process in Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju will travel to Slovakia and Gen. (retd) V K Singh is leaving for Poland. "The special envoys will go to these countries to basically coordinate and oversee the evacuation process there on the ground," he said. Bagchi said the "situation on the ground in terms of evacuation continues to be complex and fluid. Nevertheless, we have been able to accelerate our evaluation process clearly over the last 24 hours". Three more flights are scheduled to evacuate Indian nationals from Ukraine in the next 24 hours amid the ongoing situation in the country, said spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. "Over the next 24 hours, three more flights are scheduled --two from Bucharest (Romania), which will land in Mumbai and Delhi and one flight from Budapest (Hungary) which will land in Delhi," the MEA spokesperson said on Monday during a media briefing. Assuring the Indian students and their family members, Bagchi said that New Delhi will add more flights as needed to bring back its nationals while urging them not to get worried. "Do not get worried. Once you (stranded citizens) cross the Ukrainian border, we will make sure to bring you back. The main focus is to ensure that Indians are able to cross over from Ukraine and neighbouring countries that I mentioned," he said. Meanwhile, today opened a new route in the Western part of Ukraine through Moldova to evacuate its citizens. Speaking at a special briefing on Operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine, Arindam Bagchi said, "I am happy to announce that we have also been able to open a new route through Moldova. An MEA team reached Moldova today morning as Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla mentioned yesterday. That team is now in place. They will assist in the evacuation operations of Indians through Romania as Moldova is land-locked." He also informed that the government is sending four Union Ministers as four special envoys to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. "Decision to deploy special envoys to the four countries bordering Ukraine. Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia will be going to Romania, Kiren Rijiju to Slovak Republic, Hardeep Puri to Hungary, VK Singh to Poland to coordinate and oversee the evacuation process," Bagchi said further. "Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students," he said. The union government has launched Operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Further, the Indian embassy in Ukraine today informed that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv. The embassy said that Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations and advised all students to make their way to the railway station for a journey to the western parts. (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.) Air India's two evacuation flights came from Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to Delhi on Monday with 489 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine after the Russian military offensive, officials said. Other private carriers such as SpiceJet, IndiGo and Express have also sent their planes to the two cities for evacuation of Indians as the Ukraine airspace is closed began the evacuation of its citizens from Romania and Hungary - western neighbours of Ukraine - on Saturday and the Tata Group-owned has brought back 1,396 Indian nationals in six evacuation flights till now. On Monday, the fifth flight landed in Delhi from Bucharest with 249 Indian nationals while the sixth flight arrived from Budapest here with 240 Indian nationals, the officials said Around 14,000 Indians, mainly college students, are currently stranded in Ukraine. SpiceJet said it will use its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for this special flight that will depart from Delhi on Monday evening. The aircraft will fly to Budapest from Delhi and the return flight will operate via Kutaisi, Georgia, it mentioned. SpiceJet said it is planning to operate more evacuation flights and is in discussion with the authorities concerned. Tata Group-owned Air India Express said it will operate a Bucharest-Mumbai flight on Friday night with 182 stranded passengers. The flight will have a stopover in Kuwait for refuelling. It will land in Mumbai at 9:30 AM tomorrow (Tuesday)," it added. IndiGo said it is operating two evacuation flights using A321 aircraft to bring back Indian citizens safely, following the crisis in Ukraine. Both the flights will land in Delhi on Tuesday, it noted. "These flights are being operated from Delhi to Bucharest, Romania and to Budapest, Hungary via Istanbul, today, as part of the Indian government's Operation Ganga mission," it mentioned. India's largest airline said it is closely liaising with the government to offer its support for more such evacuations flights. The Indian Embassy in Ukraine stated on Monday that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv and all students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts of the country. "Ukraine Railways putting special trains for evacuations. We sincerely request all Indian nationals/students to remain calm, peaceful and united," it mentioned. A large crowd can be expected at the railway stations, therefore, it is advised that all Indian students remain patient, composed and not to exhibit aggressive behaviour while at the railway stations, it noted. "We expect delays in trains' schedule, even cancellation at times and long queues," it mentioned. Indian students are requested to carry their passport, sufficient cash, ready-to-eat meals, easy accessible winter clothing and only essential items, to ensure easy mobility, it stated. Be mindful of your belongings at all times, it advised. "Ukrainians - both civilians and authorities - have been remarkably supportive in facilitating evacuation efforts of Indian citizens, especially considering these critical and dangerous times. You are all requested to respect this sentiment," it noted. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government on Monday decided to send four Union ministers to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation process of Indians, including students, still stuck in the war-torn country. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and will be going as "special envoys" of India, government sources said. Scindia will take care of evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova while Rijiju will go to Slovakia. The sources said that Puri will go to Hungary while Singh will be in Poland to manage the evacuation. The decision to send these ministers came a day after Modi asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority. Monday meeting was also attended by several ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla among other senior officials. Modi had chaired a meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday too. It was decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students, sources had said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Minister R Ashoka (C) welcomes Indian nationals, evacuated from crisis-hit Ukraine, upon their arrival at the airport in Bengaluru. (Photo: PTI) Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday decided to provide free bus travel to people, who land in the state's airports from war-torn Ukraine, to their destinations. Shivayogi C Kalasad, Managing Director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), said, "Considering the plight of our people returning from Ukraine, especially the student community, it is decided to offer a free travel ride by KSRTC Bus from the nearest airport of disembarkation in Karnataka, to their native places in within the state. "All Nodal officers within Karnataka State Airport and KSRTC concerned DCs to coordinate properly to ensure the same," he said in a statement. Four new judges, including a woman, administered the oath of office as judges of the on Monday, taking its strength to 34. Delhi HC Chief Justice D N Patel administered the oath of office to Neena Bansal Krishna, Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Anoop Kumar Mendiratta and Sudhir Kumar Jain as Judges of the . The new appointments take the number of judges in the court to 34 against a sanctioned strength of 60. The Ministry of Law and Justice on Friday notified the appointment of four new judges to the High Courts of Delhi. Notification in this regard stated, "President is pleased to appoint Smt. Neena Bansal Krishna, Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Anoop Kumar Mendiratta and Sudhir Kumar Jain, to be Judges of the Delhi High Court, in that order of seniority, with effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices." Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta was deputed as the Law Secretary of India. Before posting on central deputation as Union Law Secretary, he was serving as the District and sessions judge of the North-East Delhi District Court. Also in his earlier deputation, he had served as Principal Secretary Law Department with the Government of Delhi. After the notification, Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju also congratulated Law Secretary on his elevation and tweeted, "Our Law Secretary Anoop Kumar Mendiratta has been appointed as Judge of . He has been a judicial officer of high integrity and sound knowledge in law. I thank him for his valuable services. I wish him success in his new role as a Judge to deliver Justice." Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma was serving as the District and sessions judge of the New Delhi District Court. Sharma earlier also served as Registrar General of Delhi High Court from May 1, 2017, to January 6, 2020. Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain was currently serving as the District and sessions judge of the Rouse Avenue Court. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna was serving as the Principal District and Sessions Judge at Saket (South East) District Court. The Supreme Court Collegium recently in its meeting held on February 1, 2022, had approved the proposal for elevation of six judicial officers as Judges in the Delhi High Court, out of the Centre has approved the names of Four judges to be elevated as for Delhi High Court. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre over abrogation of that revoked the special status for in 2019, Congress leader on Monday said it was a move that has not happened ever before in the country which has left "bureaucrats from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat" rule the now union territory. Gandhi's comments came in response to National Conference leader speaking on the subject at the release of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's autobiography here, where he rued the division of the erstwhile state into a UT. "Omar spoke wonderfully today....we have to understand that for the first time since independence a state of the Indian union had its powers taken away. It has never happened before that the rights of people have been snatched from them. Today the people of don't rule themselves. Bureaucrats from UP and Gujarat rule . And that is the extreme they have done" to the UT, he said at the event also attended by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and RJD leader and Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav. Further, referring to enhancing BSF's powers, he said that in Punjab "hundreds of kms of land was unilaterally taken away and given to BSF, without any question, discussion and they do the same to Tamil Nadu." "We always speak about unity from diversity...our vision is unity from diversity, their vision is unity through conformity," he said attacking the BJP. He further charged that the judiciary, the Election Commission and media are "systematically" attacked one by one "but the BJP should not be under any illusions." "We are going to fight them, we are going to defeat them," he asserted. Gandhi also trained his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, charging him with trying "to impose some other idea on the people of Tamil Nadu." Abdullah, former CM of Jammu and Kashmir, ruing the abrogation of Article 370, said the people of Jammu and Kashmir, his father and himself "underwent a period of adversity we could seldom imagine." "I don't think anyone of us thought what we could see on Aug 5, 2019. That is when we woke up to who our real friends were. Because, a lot of people who we thought were friends were silent. All the people we thought would speak up at the unjust way people of Jammu and Kashmir were treated said nothing. A lot of people we had great close personal relations with were not only just silent but were complicit and supportive of what happened on August 5, 2019," he said about the issue. He thanked Stalin and his party for extending support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir on the issue. Earlier, Gandhi released DMK president and Chief Minister Stalin's autobiography, titled 'Ungalil Oruvan,' (One Among You) here. The first copy of the book was received by senior DMK leader and state Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan. (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.) Air India Express, the low-cost international budget arm of Air India, has said it is operating a flight to Bucharest in Romania to fly back the Indian evacuees from war-torn . flight, IX-1201, which departed from the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 1.50 pm on Monday, is expected to arrive here with 182 Indian nationals the next day, the airline said in a statement. The flight is expected to reach Romanian capital Bucharest at 6:15 pm (local time), and depart from there for India at 7.15 pm (local time). The flight will have a stopover at Kuwait for refuelling, before arriving at Mumbai airport on Tuesday. Meanwhile, an official advisory stated that Air India Express' evacuation flight from Bucharest is expected to arrive in Mumbai at 6.20 am on Tuesday. It also said that Union Minister for MSME, Narayan Rane will receive the second batch of home-bound Indians on its arrival at the airport here. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A sessions court in Mumbai on Monday denied bail to an accused in the Bulli Bai app case. The Bulli Bai app had made public the details of several in a bid to malign them, allowing users to participate in their 'auction'. This was the second attempt of the accused Vishal Jha to seek bail, with his earlier plea being rejected by a magistrate court. On Monday, additional sessions judge S J Gharat denied him bail, though a detailed order has not been made available as yet. Jha was held by Mumbai police's cyber wing in January. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A new loop corridor, spanning about 3 km, has been proposed in the heart of the national capital to cater to people who will be visiting the new government buildings coming up as part of the Central Vista redevelopment project, officials said on Monday. The new circular line will have four stations and it will be built separately from the existing corridors -- Yellow Line and Violet Line -- passing through the area, they said. The existing Central Secretariat station is an interchange facility between the Yellow Line and Violet Line. The foundation stone of the was laid in December 2020. The infrastructural revamp envisages a new triangular Parliament building and a common Central Secretariat. The Central Vista redevelopment project also seeks to upgrade the boulevard running from Vijay Chowk to India Gate with more amenities. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) on Monday "signed a memorandum of understanding, as per which shall provide technical assistance as well as execute finishing and services works for the construction of a metro loop corridor" to connect the existing metro network with the new central secretariat buildings, which shall come up as part of the Central Vista redevelopment project, the Delhi Metro stated. A metro loop corridor, connecting "four common Central Secretariat stations" with the existing Central Secretariat metro station is being proposed to cater to the office-goers who shall travel to these offices using the metro. Planning is being done expecting a peak hour demand of 20,000 passengers per hour during the morning and evening peak hours. The entire corridor shall be underground, it said in a statement. As per the MoU, the shall prepare the detailed project report apart from finalising the horizontal and vertical alignment of the tracks and tunnels along with sizing of facilities like platforms, support services and maintenance facilities. shall also appoint a detailed design consultant for the project, officials said. While CPWD will carry out the basic civil structure construction work, DMRC shall execute all other finishing and services works including design and construction of control systems, signal systems, track work, rolling stock, electrical and maintenance works etc., the statement said. Presently, DMRC is operating a metro network of about 391 km with 286 metro stations. As part of its fourth phase of expansion, DMRC is engaged in the construction of 65 km of new lines across three different corridors. The MoU was signed at Metro Bhawan between DMRC's director, business development, Pramit Kumar Garg and P S Chauhan, additional director general, CPWD in the presence of DMRC's managing director, Mangu Singh and other senior officials. The Central Vista redevelopment project, which was announced in September 2019, envisages a new triangular Parliament building, with a seating capacity for 900 to 1,200 MPs, that is targeted to be constructed by August, 2022, when the country will be celebrating its 75th Independence Day. The common Central Secretariat is likely to be built by 2024. (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.) Foreign Secretary briefed a parliamentary panel on Monday on the situation in Ukraine amid a Russian military offensive and India's efforts to evacuate its citizens through land check-posts with five neighbouring countries, sources said. Shringla informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that Russian-speaking officers had been sent to the border check-posts and Indian embassies in Ukraine's five neighbouring countries -- Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova -- to boost evacuation efforts. The parliamentary panel chaired by BJP leader P P Chaudhary met on Monday to deliberate on the ministry's Demand for Grants for the financial year 2022-23. On its members' request, Shringla gave a detailed briefing on the current situation in Ukraine and, in particular, the evacuation of Indian nationals, sources said. The committee members were briefed about the details of the Operation Ganga launched by the government to repatriate Indian nationals from Ukraine. It was informed that the evacuation was being conducted through identified land check-posts with five countries neighbouring Ukraine -- Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova -- a parliamentarian present in the meeting said. Shringla told the committee that so far around 1,200 students had returned in five flights. Several thousand others had crossed the Ukrainian border or were in the process of doing so, sources said. The committee was also briefed on the measures being taken by the government to work with the International Committee of the Red Cross in ensuring the safety of Indian nationals in Ukraine, they said. Some panel members also enquired about India's position on the conflict at the international level and were informed that at the UN Security Council, India had asked for immediate cessation of violence and hostilities. India had also called for a return to diplomacy and dialogue and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, the sources 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.) Indians being evacuated from Ukraine have been exempted from pre-boarding RT-PCR test, providing Covid vaccination certificates and uploading those on the Air Suvidha portal, the Health Ministry said on Monday. It said the International Travel Guidelines have been revised and some exemptions allowed on humanitarian grounds for those arriving from Ukraine. According to the government, as of February 28, five flights carrying 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in the country and none of them has been kept in isolation so far. Of the five flights, one arrived in Mumbai and the rest in Delhi. The Health Ministry said Indians not fulfilling either of the mandatory requirements -- pre-boarding negative RT-PCR test report or fully vaccinated certificate -- as laid down in the 'Guidelines for International Arrivals' have been exempted from uploading these documents on Air-Suvidha Portal before departure to . Individuals who have completed their COVID-19 vaccination, irrespective of the country of departure/inoculation, have been allowed to leave the arrival airport in with the advice to self-monitor their health for the next 14 days, it said. If a traveller is not able to submit a pre-arrival RT-PCR test or who has not completed their COVID-19 vaccination, they have been allowed to submit their samples on arrival with the advice to self-monitor their health for 14 days after arrival. If tested COVID positive, they shall be clinically managed according to laid down protocol, the ministry said. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, "The Health Ministry revises international travel advisory for Indians being evacuated from Ukraine: Mandatory pre-boarding negative RTPCR test & vaccination certificate exempted; Uploading documents before departure on Air-Suvidha Portal exempted." The health ministry said that large diasporas of Indian nationals, mainly students, have found themselves embroiled in the political turmoil being faced by Ukraine. "Direct evacuation of these stranded Indians through flights could not be carried out because of the Notice to Airmen or Notice to Air Missions issued in Ukraine." "Accordingly, Indian missions in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have been making arrangements to get Indian nationals from Ukraine and fly them out of their respective countries under Operation Ganga Flights," the ministry said. The Union Health Ministry in close collaboration with the Ministries of External Affairs, Civil Aviation and Home Affairs is lending all support possible in evacuating Indians from Ukraine, the statement said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Monday said it managed to accelerate efforts to evacuate its nationals from Ukraine though the ground situation remained "complex and fluid", and noted that around 8,000 Indians left that country since the first advisory was issued earlier this month before the conflict began. External Affairs Ministery Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing that 1,396 Indians were brought back home in six flights in the last few days as part of the evacuation mission. The Indian embassy in Kyiv had started issuing travel advisories requesting Indians to consider leaving that country after tensions between Ukraine and Russia began to increase. Russia had launched the attack on the eastern European country four days back. A large number of Indians left the country following the advisories. The MEA spokesperson also said India is sending humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. Bagchi said the government has decided to send four union ministers as the prime minister's envoys to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova to oversee the evacuation of Indian nationals through Ukrainian land border crossings with these countries. He said Union Minister Hardeep Puri will go to Hungary, Jyotiraditya Scindia will oversee the evacuation process in Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju will travel to Slovakia and Gen (retd) V K Singh is leaving for Poland. "The special envoys will be travelling to these countries to basically coordinate and oversee the evacuation process on the ground," Bagchi said, adding they may also go close the places where the evacuation is happening if the situation permits. "That will depend on the specific circumstances. I think you will see them operating there coordinating evacuation efforts and getting in touch with the local authorities as well as other partners which are helping in this process" he said. Bagchi said the "situation on the ground in terms of evacuation continues to be "complex and fluid" but India has managed to accelerate the evacuation process in the last 24 hours. "You have seen media reports. Some of them are concerning. Nevertheless, we have been able to accelerate our evacuation process clearly over the last 24 hours," he said. The MEA spokesperson also urged the Indian students not to panic. "I do not think the students should panic. They should try to go to the western parts of Ukraine while contacting our control rooms and sharing their locations so that we can get them registered for their exit," he said. "Our estimate is that over 8,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since we issued the initial advisories. It's not since the conflict began, but since we issued the initial advisories," he emphasised. Bagchi said India's focus has been on evacuating its nationals through the land border crossings, noting that there has been some improvement in the movement of people into Poland through the situation on the Polish border is still difficult. He said there has been progress in the evacuation of people along the border in Romania and that exiting through the Hungarian transit point is also picking up momentum. The spokesperson said India has managed to open a new route through Moldova and an MEA team has already reached that country this morning to assist the evacuation of Indians from Moldova to Romania. "This new route should help Indians in Southern Ukraine..We are looking at how we can move them to Moldova and then to Romania," he said. Bagchi said India is encouraging its citizens to move to western Ukraine and that the MEA's understanding is that some students in the cities in eastern Ukraine are boarding trains to the western side. "We want to emphasise that people should not reach the border directly. If they do they will face a long waiting time to cross as you have seen on the Polish border. You have seen it on the Romanian border too. "Please do reach in the western part of the country, but please seek shelter in nearby towns," he said. Bagchi said flights are not a constraint. "We will add more flights as needed. We are continually augmenting the number of MEA teams in border crossing points. We are also augmenting a number of officials in the nearby countries," he said. India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland. India also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine. It is using the land routes to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine has closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the Russian attack. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday welcomed 27 students hailing from the state who reached in a bus from Delhi where they had landed after evacuation from by a special flight. In the last two days, around 100 students studying in war-torn have reached their home state from Mumbai and Delhi. The 27 students who reached capital city hail from different parts of . The state government is making arrangements to send them along with their parents to their respective destinations, the government said in a statement. "Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday morning welcomed the youths with flowers and asked about their well-being. The students had reached the circuit house from Delhi by the Volvo bus around Sunday midnight," the Chief Minister's Office said. Patel interacted with the students and assured their parents of all possible help from the government. Gujarat Education Minister Jitu Vaghani and other senior government officials were also present to welcome the students, who thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for facilitating their evacuation and CM Patel for arranging for their return to the state, the CMO said. The state government has been making arrangements of buses to bring the students from Mumbai and Delhi. A special bus was sent to Delhi and a task force from the state education department was deputed to receive the students after they arrived there. The students reached the circuit house in Gujarat's capital Gandhinagar around Sunday midnight. The government arranged for the accomodation and food for the students and their parents who reached the state capital to receive them. A large number of Indians, mostly students, are stranded in following Russia's attack on the country. India has begun evacuating them and over 900 people have been brought back since Saturday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Monday deferred hearing for one week on a plea filed by Dhyandev Wankhede, father of NCB's former Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, which sought contempt action against minister Nawab Malik, while noting that the latter is already behind bars. Dhyandev Wankhede had claimed in his contempt plea filed earlier this year that despite an undertaking given to court in December 2021, to refrain from making defamatory public comments and social media posts against the Wankhedes, Malik continued doing so. A division bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and M N Jadhav had then issued a show cause notice to Malik. When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the bench noted that Malik is already in jail following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. "He (Malik) is anyways behind bars. If we punish him today (for contempt of court) and sentence him, then would it make any sense?" Justice Kathawalla said. Malik's lawyer Feroze Bharucha sought the court to first hear them before passing any order. Senior counsel Birendra Saraf, appearing for Dhyandev Wankhede, said the court could adjourn hearing on the plea. The bench then sought to know the date till which Malik has been remanded in the ED's case. Bharucha informed the HC that the minister is in the ED's custody till March 3. The court then adjourned the hearing on the contempt plea till March 7. Dhyandev Wankhede, in a rejoinder affidavit filed on Monday, said the minister was deliberately, willfully and continously breaching the undertaking given by him to the court that he would not make any further statements against the Wankhedes. Malik had last week filed an affidavit in response to the plea denying all allegations of having been in contempt of the court. In his affidavit, Malik submitted that while giving such an undertaking, his lawyers had told the court that it would not constrain him from making public statements against the conduct of central government officers that were in breach of their official duties. The minister had said the comments and TV interviews mentioned by Dhnyandev Wankhede in the contempt plea came within the purview of the above concession and therefore, were "not in breach of his undertaking". (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian nationals, evacuated from war-torn Ukraine, upon their arrival at the IGI Airport in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Stepping up its efforts to evacuate Indian students stranded in war-hit Ukraine, the Centre on Monday decided that Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and V K Singh will travel to its neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students, government sources said. These ministers will be going there as "special envoys" of India, they said. While V K Singh will coordinate the evacuation efforts in Poland, Kiren Rijiju will be in Slovakia and Hardeep Singh Puri in Hungary. Jyotiraditya Scindia will look after evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, also attended the meeting. Modi had chaired a meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday too and had asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority. It was also decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students, sources had said. From heat passing the limits of human survivability, food and water scarcity, higher sea levels to severe economic damage, will be seriously harmed if emissions are not cut, the Intergovernmental Panel on (IPCC) warned in its latest report released on Monday. The second instalment of the Intergovernmental Panel on (IPCC) Working Group II report on ' 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability' said that globally, heat and humidity will create conditions beyond human tolerance if emissions are not rapidly eliminated and that is among the places that will experience these intolerable conditions. The report cautioned that climate-related risks to agriculture and food systems in Asia will progressively escalate with the changing climate, with differentiated impacts across the region. In India, rice production can decrease from 10 to 30 per cent whereas maize production can decrease from 25 to 70 per cent assuming a range of temperature increase from 1 degree Celsius to 4 degree Celsius, it said. Referring to wet-bulb temperatures, a measure that combines heat and humidity, the report warned that if emissions continue to rise, wet-bulb temperatures will approach or exceed the unsurvivable limit of 35 degrees C over much of India, with the majority of the country reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 31 degrees C or more. A wet-bulb temperature of 31 degrees C is extremely dangerous for humans, while a value of 35 degrees C is unsurvivable for more than about six hours, even for fit and healthy adults resting in the shade. Currently, wet-bulb temperatures in rarely exceed 31 degree C, with most of the country experiencing maximum wet-bulb temperatures of 25-30 degree C," said the . The report said that both climatic and non-climatic drivers such as socio-economic changes have created water stress conditions in both water supply and demand in all sub-regions of Asia. By mid-21st Century, the international transboundary river basins of Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges and inter-state Sabarmati-river basin in India could face severe water scarcity challenges with climate change acting as a stress multiplier. Due to global warming Asian countries could experience an increase of drought conditions (5-20 per cent) by the end of this century, it said. According to the report, temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall variables are significantly and positively associated with increased dengue cases or transmission rates globally, including in India. It said that increased exposure to carcinogenic toxins via multiple pathways is also a concern. Aflatoxin (carcinogen) exposure, for example, is expected to increase in Europe, India, Africa and North America. Other carcinogenic toxins originate from cyanobacteria blooms which are projected to increase in frequency and distribution with climate change, the report said. In India, projected scenarios for the 2030s indicate changes in the spatial distribution of malaria, with new foci and potential outbreaks in the Himalayan region, southern and eastern states, and an overall increase in months suitable for transmission overall, with some other areas experiencing a reduction in transmission months, the report said. Warning about the sea level rise, the report said that India is one of the most vulnerable countries globally in terms of the population that will be affected by sea-level rise. By the middle of the century, around 35 million people in India could face annual coastal flooding, with 45-50 million at risk by the end of the century if emissions are high, with far fewer at risk if emissions are lower, it said. According to the report, high levels of warming could cause a global GDP decline of 10-23 per cent by the end of the century, compared to a world without warming. Several major economies could see even larger economic declines because of climate change, with a study cited in the report estimating GDP losses by the end of the century of up to 42 per cent in China and 92 per cent in India, if emissions are high. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The country's largest carrier will operate flights to Budapest and Bucharest to bring back Indians who are stranded in Ukraine, according to an airline official. For now, the airline has decided to operate one flight each to Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania). The flights will be operated through Istanbul. Earlier, the carrier was scheduled to operate two flights to Budapest. The official on Sunday said the schedule has been revised and now one flight will leave for Budapest from Istanbul on Monday and return to Delhi on Tuesday. Another flight will leave from Istanbul to Bucharest on Monday and return to Delhi on Tuesday, as per the official. The reason for the revision in schedule could not be immediately ascertained. Amid the intensifying conflict between and Russia, the Indian government is bringing back its citizens stranded in . (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Road Transport and Highways Minister who laid foundation for five national highway projects here said he has set a goal of transforming the surface transport landscape on lines with the United States of America. The five projects are: Belagavi-Sankeshwar bypass, Sankeshwar bypass up to Maharashtra border, Chorla-Jamboki-Belagavi, Vijayapura-Muragundi (NH 548B) and Siddapura-Vijayapura(NH 561A) "I have set a target of developing the road network on par with America by 2024. All kinds of developmental activities depend on road connectivity. Hence, the government has decided to strengthen the road network in the country," Gadkari said while laying foundation for 238 km long five highways worth Rs 3,972 crore. Stating that these highway corridor projects will spur economic growth and interstate economic activities, Gadkari said express corridor will be built in many places in the country which will benefit the economic growth and reduce fuel cost. He further said that impetus will also given for green vehicles to reduce pollution in the country. Speaking about Karnataka, the Union Minister said under the Bharat Mala-2 project, many regions of will be included. Gadkari asked Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who was present on the dais, to speed up acquisition of land to take up new projects. He said the new road projects will be completed in scheduled time provided the state government provides land. The minister also told the gathering that express highways will be developed between Bengaluru and Chennai, which will help cover the distance in just two hours. In the same manner, a project to connect Surat in Gujarat to Chennai is being taken up with setting up a logistic park, he said. Information technology hub between Bengaluru to Tamil Nadu can be established along the highways, which will provide employment and increase economy of the country, the minister explained. He also said that impetus will be given to reduce the travel length between Pune to Bengaluru by 100 km. Water conservation along the highway under the Jalshankti programme is also part of the project, Gadakari said. Advising the government to resolve water-related disputes soon, Gadkari recalled that as a water resources minister earlier he had resolved 12 disputes out of 20 projects. It was unfortunate that the dispute on Almatti could not be resolved, he noted. Replying to a demand of waiver of toll on agriculture products on highways he said the issue will be looked into. Speaking on the occasion, Bommai said Jal Shakti (Hydro Power) project to produce electricity from water flowing along the National Highways would be implemented along the National Highway from Kittur to Belagavi that reaches up to the Maharashtra border. It would be implemented all over the state in the coming days, Bommai said. The project envisages to tap the rain water along the National Highways by channelising the water and building small water bodies to generate power, the Chief Minister explained. Stating that a new dimension for development would be added by implementing Jal Shakti project along all the highways in the state, the Chief Minister requested Gadkari for speedy completion of Ring Road in Belagavi and other cities of the state. Bommai assured Gadkari that the State government would provide GST exemption for development of highways, ring roads and acquisition of lands for the projects. Bommai hailed Gadkari for drawing a novel project linking the pilgrim centres of Maharashtra including Pandharpur and Shirdi with pilgrim centres of Karnataka like Badami and Pattadakal. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister on Sunday once again raised the demand to accord the "classical" language status to . Speaking virtually at an event to mark the Bhasha Gaurav Din, Thackeray said the glory of needs to be celebrated throughout the year. "We are descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and it is up to us to decide how we carry forward his legacy. Mother tongue is the best gift from one's mother and it is necessary to make it glorious. Conservation of the Marathi language is our responsibility. We have to speak the language and take pride in it," he said. Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai recently met Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy with the demand to accord the classical language status to Marathi. The government had dispatched 6,000 postcards, in addition to 1.2 lakh postcards sent earlier, to President Ram Nath Kovind for this demand. In 2020, the legislature had passed a unanimous resolution recommending to the Centre to accord the classical language status to Marathi. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a statesman-like gesture, West Bengal's Chief Minister on Monday offered unconditional support to Prime Minister during the Ukraine crisis, even as she asked him to consider calling an all party meeting to take a united stand on the issue. The chief minister better known for her feisty battles against the BJP, in her letter to the Prime Minister also iterated that the country stands united on rescuing students in distress, "irrespective of party or politics." She also underlined that India, as the largest democracy must take the lead to offer a peaceful solution. "I would request you to accept my unconditional support during the ongoing international crisis and to consider whether you will like to have an all-party meeting now for consolidating our resolve to come out of the crisis with our head held high," the letter said. Banerjee also said that "In times of grave international crisis, we keep aside our domestic disagreements to stand united as a nation. We do this to make sure that our dignity as a nation is unchallenged and unviolated. We do this to ensure that the principles on which we conduct our foreign affairs continue to be stable in the global arena". She said that this compact was particularly with regard to the "evacuation of stranded Indians in Ukraine and specifically in giving a quick helping hand to our students there in distress ... irrespective of party or politics". However, the chief minister also said concerns had been expressed on "our general stand on the war, though." "Since Independence, India has been known for her commitment to international peace and non-aggression and rejection of trans-border invasion and interference. I am sure that in steering our diplomatic affairs during the current crisis, you will lead us on the basis of those abiding principles," she added. Later, while addressing the inauguration of the 45th International Kolkata Book Fair, Banerjee said India has a long-established tradition of opposing aggression and added "we are in favour of world peace". However the local BJP leadership did not seem too pleased with her reaching out to New Delhi with an olive branch and said she need not worry about the international crisis as the Indian government is already active on the diplomatic front. "We want to assure Mamata 'didi' (elder sister), that the government is regularly coordinating with the heads of Russia and Ukraine as well as other world powers to resolve the standoff and safe evacuation of Indians stranded there. She need not worry," BJP Secretary Anupam Hazra told PTI. "Didi should rather focus in preventing Bengal turning into another Ukraine so far as violent attacks on her political opponents and slaughter of democracy is concerned. One cannot talk about peace when her workers act oppositely," Hazra said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday activated a dedicated handle, "OpGanga Helpline" (@opganga), to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from war-torn . The mission to evacuate the stranded Indians from has been named as "Operation Ganga". India has already set up round-the-clock "control centres" in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from through border-crossing points with these countries. The helpline numbers of the control room in Poland are: +48225400000, +48795850877 and +48792712511. Those requiring help can also write an email to controlroominwarsaw@gmail.com, according to the . The helpline numbers of the control room in Romania are: +40732124309, +40771632567, +40745161631 and +40741528123. The email address for contacting the control room in Romania is controlroombucharest@gmail.com. The said Indians can contact the control room in Hungary on phone numbers +36 308517373, +36 13257742 and +36 13257743. It also has a WhatsApp number: +36 308517373 for assistance. The helpline numbers of the control room in Slovakia are +421 252631377, +421 252962916 and +421 951697560. The email address is hoc.bratislava@ .gov.in. (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.) Metro services with full passenger capacity resumed on Monday as authorities lifted all curbs following improvement in the Covid situation in the city. The Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had on Friday decided to withdraw all Covid restrictions from Monday, reduce the fine for not wearing masks from Rs 2,000 to Rs 500 and resume physical classes in schools from April 1. " Metro services have resumed today without any restrictions on passenger occupancy after a long time," the said in a statement. " expresses its thanks and gratitude to its passengers for following the protocols during the pandemic. Indeed, without your cooperation, we could not have operated the metro despite the constraints posed by the pandemic," it said. In a tweet, the urban transporter said that in the days ahead, the shall continue to try its best to provide a safe and comfortable journey. "However, let us remember that Covid is not over yet. In order to ensure a safe journey, let us follow all necessary protocols such as wearing of masks, adequate social distancing and frequent hand sanitisation," it tweeted. The said it shall also continue to maintain the highest level of hygiene and cleanliness for passengers. Trains and stations are being frequently sanitised and all guidelines shall be stringently followed, it added. The DMRC network' currently spans 392 km with 286 stations, including the NoidaGreater Noida Metro Corridor and the Rapid Metro in Gurgaon. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the ongoing evacuations of Indians stranded in war torn . The sources in the government said that it was decided that the Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and General V.K. Singh will be travelling to the neighbouring countries of to coordinate the evacuation mission and help the Indians including students. The Ministers will go to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania to oversee the evacuation process via these countries. Modi on Sunday evening also reviewed the progress of the evacuations of Indians from these neighbouring countries. The government sources on Monday also said that over 1,137 Indian students have been airlifted so far and more and more flights are planned to evacuate the Indians, especially students from these countries bordering . Meanwhile the Indian embassies in Warsaw, Bucharest, and Budapest have made arrangements for stay in these countries for the students once they enter from Ukraine border. Buses have been lined up to ferry them to the designated places in these countries. The government officials also said that three Air India flights have been scheduled from Budapest to New Delhi and Mumbai on Monday. --IANS ams/skp/ (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister greeted India's scientific community on Monday on the occasion of National Day. In a post on Twitter, Modi said, "National Day greetings to all and enthusiasts. Let us reaffirm our commitment towards fulfilling our collective scientific responsibility and leveraging the power of science for human progress." National Science Day greetings to all and science enthusiasts. Let us reaffirm our commitment towards fulfilling our collective scientific responsibility and leveraging the power of science for human progress. Here is what I had said during #MannKiBaat yesterday. pic.twitter.com/gEM2yFUSJI (@narendramodi) February 28, 2022 The Centre also announced a series of webinars to facilitate the implementation of science and technology-related announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget announced at the start of February. National Science Day is celebrated annually on February 28 based on a theme. This year's theme is "Integrated Approach in science and technology for Sustainable Future". Why do we celebrate National Science Day? National Science Day is celebrated to commemorate the discovery of the Raman Effect by Nobel laureate and Physicist CV Raman on this day in 1928. When was the first National Science Day celebrated? In 1986, the National Council for Science & Technology asked the Government of India to designate February 28 as National Science Day. Since 1987, the event has been celebrated all over the country in schools, colleges, universities and other academic, scientific, technical, medical and research institutions. How does India celebrate National Science Day? The celebration includes public speeches, radio, TV, science movies, science exhibitions, research demonstration, debates, and many more activities. Who was CV Raman? Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman was a physicist from Tamil Nadu. His work in the field of light scattering earned him Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. This phenomenon was named the Raman effect. In 1954, he was honoured with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. Themes for National Science Day since 1999 1999: Our Changing Earth 2000: Recreating Interest in Basic Science 2001: Information Technology for Science Education 2002: Wealth From Waste 2003: 25 years of IVF and 50 years of DNA 2004: Encouraging Scientific Awareness in Community 2005: Celebrating Physics 2006: Nurture Nature for our future 2007: More Crop Per Drop 2008: Understanding the Planet Earth 2009: Expanding Horizons of Science 2010: Science & Technology for Sustainable Development 2011: Chemistry in Daily Life 2012: Clean Energy Options and Nuclear Safety 2013: Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security 2014: Fostering Scientific Temper 2015: Science for Nation Building 2016: Scientific Issues for Development of the Nation 2017: Science and Technology for Specially Abled Persons 2018: Science and Technology for a sustainable future 2019: Science for People, and People for Science 2020: Women in Science 2021: Future of STI- Impacts on Education, Skills, and Work 2022: Integrated Approach in science and technology for Sustainable Future Here are some notable posts on National Science Day from Twitter : Science behind the wireless technology. Greetings to all on #NationalScienceDay. pic.twitter.com/yv725YKZUW Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) February 28, 2022 My tribute to physicist & Nobel Laureate Dr CV Raman Ji on the day of his great discovery celebrated as #NationalScienceDay & homage to the scientists who have brought glory to the nation through their perseverance & firm commitment towards furthering scientific advancements. pic.twitter.com/tJPG7TfeaL Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) February 28, 2022 Hong Kong: Principal official removal announced The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today announced that the State Council has decided to remove Caspar Tsui from the post of Secretary for Home Affairs. The State Council made the decision on February 24 in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Basic Law on the recommendation of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Russia-Ukraine conflict affects Vietnam tour plans The Russian currency (RUB) has begun to depreciate over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, resulting in a string of cancellations by Russian tourists wishing to visit Vietnam and greatly impacting the plans of local travel agencies. First 300 Russian tourists arrive in Khanh Hoa province on December 26, 2021. Bui Quoc Dai, deputy director of Anex Vietnam Travel and Trading Company Limited, told zingnews.vn that his firm is waiting for updated news on the tensions that have been growing between Russia and Ukraine over the past days. Russia and other Eastern European countries have represented major markets for Vietnamese travel agencies for many years, and the eruption of armed conflicts between Russia and Ukraine has directly influenced whether or not the business is able to welcome international tourists in the near future, Dai noted. Currently, the Russian ruble is down roughly 3.5% to RUB84.1 per US dollar, the lowest level since 2016, that has caused Russian citizens wishing to travel to immediately feel the pinch. Indeed, the depreciation of the Russian currency has prompted Russian holidaymakers to pay increasing travel expenses when going abroad, resulting in some cancellations of tours to Vietnam, he stressed. Pegas Misr Vietnam Travel Company Limited said it has developed plans to bring foreign tourists to Vietnam after the government decided to reopen all borders to international tourism as of March 13. However, the growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine is casting a shadow over its plans, and Pegas Misr didn't know when it would be able to bring international tourists to Vietnam. Similarly, some travel companies admitted that the ongoing tensions have impacted their plans to welcome not only Russian tourists, but also international tourists from other markets. Surveys indicate that tourists in some markets remained hesitant to book tours at this time, with many only considering taking a vacation when the conflict ends. Behind the Chinese and Korean markets, the Russian market in particular and the Eastern Europe in general are among the main markets which supply tourists to Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Phan Thiet, and Da Nang. Most notably, 2019 saw Khanh Hoa province welcome 463,000 Russian visitors, accounting for more than 70% of total Russian visitors to Vietnam. When the country piloted a scheme to receive tourists with vaccine passports from mid-November, 2021, Khanh Hoa welcomed roughly 5,000 Russia tourists, making up 80% of total foreign visitors to the locality. The man died after suffering from chest pain on Monday. (Photo: PTI/Representational) Thiruvananthapuram: A 40-year-old man, who was taken into custody by the police near here for allegedly harassing a woman, died after suffering from chest pain on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Suresh Kumar, a resident of Nelliyode, Judgikunnu near here, police said. Kumar and four others were taken into custody by the Thiruvallam police under the Thiruvananthapuram city police limit on the basis of a harassment complaint filed by a woman. Later, the accused were taken to the police station. One of the accused, Suresh, complained of chest pain in the morning and he was shifted to a hospital where he was declared brought dead. Meanwhile, several locals reached the police station after news broke that Kumar was allegedly subjected to torture in the custody. They have demanded registration of an FIR against the erring police officers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday evening held a high-level meeting to review the progress of evacuation of Indian nationals from . External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and others were present in the meeting. Modi chaired the meeting immediately after returning from an election campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Sources said that Modi reviewed the evacuation of Indian nationals including students from . It is learnt that the Prime Minister was informed that over 1,000 students have returned by various flights including the last one which arrived in the capital in the evening. Sources said that the Prime Minister was further informed that two more flights will be taking off by Monday morning to bring back Indian nationals. On Thursday, Modi chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security meeting in Delhi wherein he said that the top-most priority of the government is safety and security of the Indian nationals. Earlier on Sunday, foreign secretary Shringla said that till now four flights have come back with Indian students and two are likely to depart on Sunday night or by Monday morning to evacuate more students. "The Government of India has launched 'multi-pronged' Operation Ganga to evacuate our citizens stranded in . This evacuation process will be at government cost," Shringla said. Government has advised Indian nationals to move towards westward to reach Uzhhorod in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary and from there they can take a train to reach the Romanian capital Bucharest and from there, they will be airlifted. Earlier, External Affairs minister Jaishankar spoke to his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in Hungary and expressed gratitude for providing support so far in evacuating Indians from the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. Jaishankar also dialled his Moldovan counterpart Nicu Popescu to seek support for facilitating entry of Indian nationals on Ukraine-Moldova border. Poland, Romania and Hungary are allowing Indian students who escape from Ukraine to enter without any visa. --IANS ssb/pgh (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a high-level meeting chaired on the crisis, Prime Minister accorded top priority to the evacuation of Indian students stranded in Ukraine, informed government sources on Sunday. According to government sources, PM Modi also assured that further cooperation with neighbouring countries of to expedite evacuation will be enhanced. "PM Narendra Modi's high-level meeting on Ukraine-Russia conflict lasted over two hours in which PM ensured safety and evacuation of Indian students as the top priority. Further cooperation with neighbouring countries of to expedite evacuation will be enhanced," sources stated. This comes at a time when the Government of India is evacuating Indian citizens from Ukraine under the evacuation plan titled 'Operation Ganga'. Earlier on Saturday, PM Modi spoke with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and expressed India's willingness to contribute in any way towards peace efforts in the wake of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. President Zelenskyy briefed the Prime Minister in detail about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine due to Russia's military operations. The Prime Minister called for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to dialogue. PM Modi expressed his deep anguish about the loss of life and property due to the ongoing conflict. "He reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to dialogue and expressed India's willingness to contribute in any way towards peace efforts," a PMO release said. PM Modi's call with the Ukraine President came two days after his telephonic conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He had appealed for an immediate cessation of violence and had called for concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogue in his talks with Putin. The Prime Minister had also reiterated his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia and the NATO group can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue. President Putin had briefed the Prime Minister about the recent developments regarding Ukraine. Notably, Russia on Friday (local time) vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine, while India, China, and UAE abstained from voting. The vote was 11 in favour, one against, and three abstentions. India has abstained from the vote but New Delhi has called for immediate de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine and advocated for a diplomatic solution. Russia had on Monday recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhanussisk - as independent entities following which the situation escalated. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Monday launched a helpline for people of the state who are stranded in crisis-hit Ukraine. state president Satish Poonia formally launched the helpline. According to the party, a team of will try to provide all possible help and support through the helpline. Students and migrants stranded in Ukraine can call up the helpline number 8929208080 for assistance, it said. Poonia said the Narendra Modi government at the Centre was making all efforts to bring back people of the country from Ukraine through Operation Ganga, which is yielding positive results. Information collected from the helpline will be coordinated with the BJP's central team for further action, 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.) A seventh evacuation flight carrying 182 Indians from the Romanian capital Bucharest left for India on Monday, External Affairs Minister said. Following the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, India is facilitating the evacuation of its citizens stranded in the east European country through its land border crossings with Romania, Hungary and Poland. "#OperationGanga advances to its seventh flight. 182 Indian nationals have started the journey to Mumbai from Bucharest," Jaishankar said in a tweet. India has named its evacuation mission "Operation Ganga". The first evacuation flight carrying 219 Indians from Bucharest landed in Mumbai on Saturday evening. So far, 1,396 Indian nationals have been brought back from in six evacuation flights. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) will operate a special flight to Hungarian capital Budapest on Friday to evacuate Indians who have been stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive. on Saturday began evacuation of its citizens from Romania and Hungary countries sharing land borders with Ukraine as the Ukrainian airspace has been closed since February 24 when the military offensive began. Tata Group-owned Air has evacuated a total of 1,156 Indian nationals in five evacuation flights till now. Its sixth flight with 240 Indian nationals will land in Delhi on Monday evening. Around 14,000 Indians, mainly college students, are currently stranded in Ukraine. said it will use its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for this special flight that will depart from Delhi on Monday evening. The aircraft will fly to Budapest from Delhi and the return fight will operate via Kutaisi, Georgia, it mentioned. said it is planning to operate more evacuation flights and is in discussion with authorities concerned. (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 Tamil Nadu government on Monday expressed concern over the "alarming frequency" of harassment faced by from the state at the hands of the Sri Lankan navy by way of arrests and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to secure the release of the fishers. Chief Minister flagged separate instances of arrest of a total of 30 fishermen, including those from neighbouring Puducherry and told Modi "the continued incarceration of the fishermen and their boats has created a deep sense of despondency among the fishermen community." "It is highly disheartening to note that our fishermen are facing harassment at the hands of the Sri Lankan Navy at an alarming frequency. It continues despite several letters having been sent from Government of Tamil Nadu highlighting the escalation of such instances of harassment and arrest of our fishermen. The repeated attempts by the Sri Lankan Navy to infringe on historic fishing rights of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Palk Bay has to be permanently ended through concerted efforts by the Government of India," he told the PM in a letter. "I urge your personal intervention in this matter and request you to direct the Ministry of External Affairs to take up the matter with Sri Lankan authorities so as to secure the immediate release of the fishermen and their fishing boats," 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.) Air India's two evacuation flights came from Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to Delhi on Monday with 489 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine after the Russian military offensive, officials said. Other private carriers such as SpiceJet, IndiGo and Express have also sent their planes to the two cities for evacuation of Indians as the Ukraine airspace is closed. India began the evacuation of its citizens from Romania and Hungary - western neighbours of Ukraine - on Saturday and the Tata Group-owned has brought back 1,396 Indian nationals in six evacuation flights till now. On Monday, the fifth flight landed in Delhi from Bucharest with 249 Indian nationals, while the sixth flight arrived from Budapest here with 240 Indian nationals, officials said. Around 14,000 Indians, mainly college students, are currently stranded in Ukraine. SpiceJet said it will use its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for this special flight that will depart from Delhi Monday evening. "The aircraft will fly to Budapest from Delhi and the return flight will operate via Kutaisi, Georgia," it mentioned. SpiceJet said it is planning to operate more evacuation flights and is in discussion with the authorities concerned. Tata Group-owned Air India Express said it will operate a Bucharest-Mumbai flight Monday night with 182 stranded passengers. "The flight will have a stopover in Kuwait for refuelling. It will land in Mumbai at 9:30 AM tomorrow (Tuesday)," it added. IndiGo said it is operating two evacuation flights using A321 aircraft to bring back the Indian citizens safely following the crisis in Ukraine. Both the flights will land in Delhi on Tuesday, it noted. "These flights are being operated from Delhi to Bucharest, Romania and to Budapest, Hungary via Istanbul, today, as part of the Indian government's Operation Ganga mission," it mentioned. India's largest airline said it is closely liaising with the government to offer its support for more such evacuations flights. Later during the day, IndiGo said it will send four more planes on Tuesday to evacuate stranded Indian citizens. "Two flights each will be operated from Delhi to Budapest, Hungary and to Rzeszow, Poland via Istanbul, respectively. These aircraft will depart Delhi on March 1," it noted. The Indian Embassy in Ukraine stated on Monday that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv and all students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts of the country. "Ukraine Railways putting special trains for evacuations. We sincerely request all Indian nationals/students to remain calm, peaceful and united," it mentioned. A large crowd can be expected at the railway stations, therefore, it is advised that all Indian students remain patient, composed and not exhibit aggressive behaviour while at the railway stations, it noted. "We expect delays in trains' schedule, even cancellation at times and long queues," it mentioned. Indian students are requested to carry their passport, sufficient cash, ready-to-eat meals, easy accessible winter clothing and only essential items, to ensure easy mobility, it stated. Be mindful of your belongings at all times, it advised. "Ukrainians - both civilians and authorities - have been remarkably supportive in facilitating evacuation efforts of Indian citizens, especially considering these critical and dangerous times. You are all requested to respect this sentiment," it noted. (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 sixth flight carrying 240 stranded Indian nationals has departed from Hungary's Budapest for Delhi under Operation Ganga, informed External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday. "Sixth Operation Ganga flight from Budapest has taken off with 240 Indian nationals for Delhi. Evacuation efforts continue to get stronger," read Jaishankar's tweet. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sending four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine, according to government sources. "Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students," Government sources said. The union government has launched Operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Further, the Indian embassy in Ukraine today informed that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv. The embassy said that Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations and advised all students to make their way to the railway station for a journey to the western parts. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Monday decided to send four senior ministers as the prime minister's special envoy to Ukraine's bordering nations to oversee the evacuation of Indians and announced relief supplies to the war-torn country to help it deal with the humanitarian situation on its frontiers. Chairing a high-level meeting, his second on Monday to review the efforts to back the Indians from Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will help people from neighbouring as well as developing countries who are stranded in . "The prime minister said that the entire government machinery is working round the clock to ensure that all Indian nationals there are safe and secure," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. It said that Modi pointed out that the visit of four senior ministers as his special envoys to various nations will "energise the evacuation efforts" and that it is reflective of the priority the government attaches to it. At a media briefing, the MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Union Minister Hardeep Puri will go to Hungary, Jyotiraditya Scindia will oversee the evacuation process in Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju will travel to Slovakia and Gen (retd) V K Singh is leaving for Poland. "The prime minister noted that the first consignment of relief supplies to to deal with the humanitarian situation on Ukraine's borders would be despatched tomorrow," the MEA said. "Guided by India's motto of the world being one family, the prime minister also stated that India will help people from neighbouring countries and developing countries who are stranded in and may seek assistance," it said. The decisions came as India ramped up efforts to take out more citizens from the conflict zones notwithstanding the "complex and fluid" ground situation. Bagchi, at the briefing, said around 8,000 Indians left Ukraine since the first advisory was issued earlier this month and a total of 1,396 Indians were brought back home in six flights after the evacuation mission was launched. Two of these Air India flights from Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest landed in Delhi on Monday with 489 Indian nationals. Other private carriers such as SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India Express have also sent their planes to the two cities for evacuation of Indians as the Ukraine airspace is closed for civilian aircraft. MEA officials told a parliamentary panel that 13 other flights are planned in the next 2-3 days and subsequently nine flights a day, according to sources. Bagchi said India managed to accelerate the evacuation process in the last 24 hours as a new border crossing has been opened through Moldova for taking the Indians to Romania and there was an improvement in the movement of people through the Polish transit point. Bagchi said India is encouraging its citizens, particularly students, to move towards Western Ukraine and emphasised that they should not reach the border directly. Depleting food stocks and long queues for water are adding to the trauma of stranded Indian students some of whom have complained of being roughed up by security personnel on Ukraine borders and spending freezing nights out in the open. I want my son in front of my eyes as soon as possible," said Kamini Sharma, who is praying for the safe return of Vibhor Sharma (22), a resident of Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Vibhor is pursuing a medical course at the Ternopil Medical University. Payal Panwar, a final year medical student who returned to her Kotdwar home in Uttarakhand, said the stranded students need help of the Indian government and the Indian embassy people more while they are still inside Ukraine rather than when they have moved out of the war-torn country. "While you are inside Ukraine it is really difficult with food supplies running out and no cash in ATMs" said Payal, who studies in Ivano-Frankivsk city in western Ukraine. Amid mounting concerns over the safety of Indians in Ukraine, the country's envoy Igor Polikha said that his government is helping the stranded Indians and extending assistance in their evacuation notwithstanding the "very difficult" ground situation. Specifically asked about the safety of Indians, he said that assurance can only be given by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also said that Ukraine was looking for humanitarian assistance from India. Polikha also rubbished the suggestion that Ukrainian authorities were discriminating against Indian citizens after India abstained from a UN Security Council resolution deploring the Russian military attack on the country. Bagchi said the "situation on the ground in terms of evacuation continues to be "complex and fluid" but India has managed to accelerate the evacuation process. "You have seen media reports. Some of them are concerning. Nevertheless, we have been able to accelerate our evacuation process clearly over the last 24 hours," he said. The MEA spokesperson also urged the Indian students not to panic. "I do not think the students should panic. They should try to go to the western parts of Ukraine while contacting our control rooms and sharing their locations so that we can get them registered for their exit," he said. Separately, the Indian embassy in Ukraine advised all Indian students stranded in Kyiv to reach the railway station in the Ukrainian capital for their onward journey to the western parts of the war-torn country. However, an Indian student who managed to reach the Kyiv train station said Ukrainian guards were not allowing students to board trains and were also beating up people. It's getting difficult for us to stay here, Ansh Pandita told PTI as scores of Indian students, including women, sat huddled at the teeming Vokzal railway station in Kyiv, holding a large tricolour aloft so they could be recognised in the crowd and no one from the group gets lost. With a large number of Indians stuck at the Polish border point along with several thousand others of different nationalities, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his counterpart from Poland Zbigniew Rau "Discussed the Ukraine developments with @RauZbigniew of Poland. Appreciate Poland's facilitation of the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine. His words of support in that regard are very welcome," he tweeted. Bagchi said India's focus has been on evacuating its nationals through the land border crossings, noting that there has been some improvement in the movement of people into Poland though the situation on its border is still difficult. He said there has been progress in the evacuation of people along the border in Romania and that exiting through the Hungarian transit point is also picking up momentum. Bagchi said flights are not a constraint. "We will add more flights as needed. We are continually augmenting the number of MEA teams in border crossing points. We are also augmenting a number of officials in the nearby countries," he said. India is using the land routes to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine has closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the Russian attack. (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.) Seven more students returned to Indore from war-torn on Monday, taking the total number of returnees to 24, officials said. They added that, so far, kin of 180 students have contacted the state government's helpline for help in evacuation. An official identified the seven students who returned as Shrejal Gupta, Vedika Keshari, Rishikesh Singh Narwariya, Shashwat Jain, Brigedier Singh, Shivam Shrivastava and Shreya Sharma. "The mobility of Indians from the western parts of is a bit easy given that these places are not under intense Russian assault. Those stranded in west are close to the borders with Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. But those in eastern Ukraine, like Kyiv etc, are facing problems from the intense fighting," the official said. He said the state government was in contact with the Ministry of External Affairs to ensure well-being of students from MP. (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.) American tech giant Apple is planning to hold its first media event of the year on Tuesday, March 8. (Photo: AFP/File) Washington: American tech giant Apple is planning to hold its first media event of the year on Tuesday, March 8, where the company is expected to launch at least one new Mac. As per Mac Rumours, Apple is planning another round of new Macs for release around May or June. At the March 8 event, Apple is also rumoured to announce a third-generation iPhone SE and a fifth-generation iPad Air, with key features of both devices expected to include an A15 chip and 5G support. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Monday advised all Indian students stranded in Kyiv to reach the railway station in the Ukrainian capital for their onward journey to the western parts of the war-torn country. It said the weekend curfew in Kyiv has been lifted and they can go to the railway station to get out of the city. "Weekend curfew lifted in Kyiv. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts.Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations," the embassy tweeted. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, meanwhile, said the sixth flight under India's evacuation mission 'Operation Ganga' left for Delhi from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals. "Sixth #OperationGanga flight from Budapest. To Delhi with 240 Indian nationals," he tweeted. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday said the main concern for is ensuring the safety of its nationals stuck in areas witnessing intense fighting including in Kyiv that has around 2,000 Indians. has already evacuated over 2,000 of its citizens from Ukraine and more than 1,000 of them have been brought back home on chartered flights from Hungary and Romania. The areas in the east of Ukraine including Kharkiv and Sumy are the conflict zones and has been focusing on taking out its citizens from these areas to the country's western region for their subsequent evacuation through border crossings to Hungary, Romania, Poland and Slovakia. "The Ministry of External Affairs, under the direct supervision of the External Affairs Minister, and the overall guidance of the prime minister is doing everything possible to make sure that the safety, security and the interests of our citizens in Ukraine are given the highest priority," Shringla said. India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland. India also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine. India is using the land routes to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine has closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the Russian attack. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister on Monday said that PM GatiShakti, the governments digital portal aimed at breaking departmental silos, has a huge role in improving efficiency and reducing the cost of logistics Planning, Implementation and Monitoring will get a new direction from PM Gati-Shakti. This will also bring down the time and cost overrun of the projects, the prime minister said in a post-budget webinar, Even today, cost is considered to be 13-14% of Indias Gross Domestic Product, which is higher than other countries, Modi said. The governments Unified Logistic Interface Platform (ULIP) is integrating 24 government departments and six ministries to create a single-window logistic platform, leading to reduced costs, he added. In October, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had said that Gati-Shakti and other government initiatives can help bring down the cost of to 8% of the countrys GDP. Modi also called on state governments to make the Gati-Shakti platform the base for their projects and economic zones. Among states, Gujarat is reportedly already on board. Business Standard had previously reported that GatiShakti, or national master plan portal, is currently in a testing phase and a full-fledged launch is likely by March. The prime minister said that the portal will significantly help Indian exports, and make Indian MSMEs competitive in the global market. Under the Gati-Shakti plan, a division in every department has been envisaged, along with the formation of an empowered group of secretaries for logistics efficiency. Calling on the industry to use the portal, Modi said that more than 400 data layers are available on the platform now, with information on existing and proposed infrastructure, along with data on forest land and available industrial estate, which will help private players get various clearances at the Detailed Project Report (DPR) stage. This will also be helpful in reducing your compliance burden, he said. In her budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that GatiShakti will be one of the four priorities of the government in 2022-23. Centre has allocated Rs. 7.5 trillion for capital expenditure in the next financial year, as against Rs. 5.54 trillion in 2021-22. As part of the governments plan to boost infrastructure, the allocation of ministry of road transport and highways has been increased by 68% to Rs. 1.99 trillion, while that of the railways ministry has been increased by 27.5% to Rs. 1.40 trillion. Launched in October, GatiShakti aims to bring the data and processes of state governments and key ministries under a single platform. and on Monday renewed their bilateral swap arrangements to the extent of $75 billion, a Reserve Bank of (RBI) statement said. The Bank of Japan, acting as an agent for the Minister of Finance Japan, and the signed the amendment and restatement agreement of the bilateral swap agreement (BSA), the statement read. and believe that the BSA, which aims to strengthen and complement other financial safety nets, will further deepen financial cooperation between the two countries and contribute to regional and global financial stability, the statement said. Essentially, BSA is a two-way arrangement where both authorities can swap their local currencies in exchange for dollars. This means, India can acquire dollars from in exchange for rupees. And, conversely, Japan can also seek dollars from India in exchange for yen The BSA was negotiated between India and Japan during the Indian prime ministers visit to Japan in 2018. Consequently, the swap arrangement was signed to the tune of $75 billion in October 2020, to bring greater stability to foreign exchange. India's government is worried about the impact on its exports due to the crisis, Finance Minister said on Monday. Sitharaman asked for industry feedback on any difficulties in payments due to the conflict. She said areas of concern include pharmaceutical exports and imports of fertiliser from the region. (Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Kim Coghill) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Finance Minister on Monday said the government is worried about the impact of war between Russia and Ukraine on India's exim trade. Interacting with the industrialists and businessmen here, she said that the Centre is closing monitoring the situation as it is worried about the impact of the war on Indian exports and imports. Sitharaman said she would be in a position to comment only after a complete assessment of the situation is made by different ministries. She also said the government is aware that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine may have an impact on imports of edible oil and other items. At the post budget conclave, she said the Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been taking various measures to empower women since 2014. "We wanted to free women from the hardships of kitchen, hence we launched free LPG scheme, we wanted to ease their burden of bringing water from far-away places, hence we launched Jal Jeevan scheme with assured supply, we wanted to protect their dignity and improve their health, hence we launched toilets at all houses scheme," she said. Sitharaman said last year's budget was aimed at coming out of the impact of the pandemic. "There were Covid cases then and vaccination had just started. We didn't know the second wave was coming. But still, we had necessary announcements in last year's budget," she said. According to her, the government is focusing on the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal, when India celebrates its 100th year of independence. --IANS vj/vd (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is more worried about the impact caused by the standoff between Ukraine and Russia, particularly on its exports, Finance Minister said on Monday. Interacting with industry captains at an event here, Sitharaman said the Centre was seized of the matter and discussions were on between Ministries for a "complete assessment" on the issue. "On the larger issue of the situation prevailing in Ukraine and about India's position in the UN Security Council and so on. It is widely open and I went through the press releases and press commentaries which the External Affairs Ministry is making," she said. Voicing concern over the country's imports and exports from Russia and the war-torn nation, she said, "As regards to what is going to have a bearing on our immediate imports and equally on our exports to Ukraine, we are rightly worried about what comes from there, but I am more worried, about what is going to happen to our exporters who are doing very well, particularly to the sector..," To a query on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Sitharaman said, "We are already looking at an emergent situation but I will have to have a complete assessment done through the various concerned Ministries and then only be in a position to comment on it." She however assured that the government was fairly seized of the matter in its granular form, as it is going to have an impact on the essentials like edible oil coming from Ukraine and so on. India is currently engaged in bringing back the students stranded in Ukraine following the stand off and as on Monday the sixth flight under India's evacuation mission 'Operation Ganga' left for New Delhi from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals. (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 PM Gati Shakti will transform India's infrastructure and logistics so that it can compete with the leading economies of the world, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Sigh Puri said here on Monday. Addressing the North East Zonal conference for PM Gati Shakti, the Union Minister said that the transformation can be achieved through integrating major projects of petroleum, railways, highways and other utilities through master plans. "There will be synergy between multimodal transportation, logistics and supply chain...a unified vision for accelerated and efficient execution of projects", the minister said. Prime Minister has pointed out that the logistic costs can be as high as 13 to 14 per cent but this can be brought down to six to seven per cent which will help Indian manufacturers to match with export hubs like China and Taiwan, he said. The PM Gati Shakti is a remarkable initiative which is trying to achieve a paradigm shift and design of future infrastructural development with connectivity being looked at in a multimodal setting through the programme, he added. Puri said that he was happy that his ministry was the coordinating agency for this meeting which was aimed to integrate infrastructural planning and development along with availability of cleaner affordable fuel. "Our future lies in the need to increase production and exploration of both crude and gas and this is the greatest service we can do to our economy, which was regrettably neglected in the past", the minister said. It is the intention of the government to increase exploration of both crude and gas from 25,000 square km to 50,000 sq km and the production will increase significantly during the next four years, he added. "We are a growing economy with a growth rate of 9.2 per cent but our per capita consumption of energy is only one-third of the global average and we have to reduce our dependence on imports which can be done only by increased production and exploration", the Union Minister said. The state governments are also collaborating to take the PM Gati Shakti forward and this will transform India's infrastructure and logistics to compete with the world's leading economies, Puri said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already announced in the budget that an amount of Rs 20,000 crore would be released during the 2022-23 fiscal for PM Gati Shakti while capital expenditure will also go up from Rs five lakh crore to seven lakh crore. "The state governments will also receive an amount and so they should also plan projects that can be implemented over the next five years. The plans will, however, be integrated and the resources will be pooled", he added. Assam Chief Minister said the state government was already on board the programme and had set up an empowered committee with the Chief Secretary as its Chairman while the secretaries of the different departments were its members. The state government has also set up a Network Planning Group, comprising of senior officers from different departments, dealing with planning and networking for infrastructure development projects while a technical support unit has also been set up to develop the master plan. The chief minister said that a capacity building and training programme has been initiated for officials to ensure that initiatives under PM Gati Shakti are translated into tangible actions. Sarma also urged the Union Minister to allocate some shares of Oil India Limited (OIL) to the state government which will lead people to realise that the oil company was theirs and help in its smooth functioning. Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli said that the North East is a pioneer in the oil and gas sector and the PM Gati Shakti will lead to both employment opportunities and development. The master plan will help in removing the existing bottlenecks, strengthen the policies and make the states more aware and connect them with the programme, Teli added. Prime Minister had addressed a post budget webinar on vision of PM Gati Shakti-National Master Plan for Multi Modal connectivity earlier on Monday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Finance Minister on Monday expressed concern over the future of exporters owing to the Ukraine crisis as this is set to jack up international freight rates and crude prices further. She also asked the Indian industry engaged in the war-torn region to come up with suggestions to tide over the crisis. I am more worried about whats going to happen to our exporters, who are doing very well, she said while addressing the industry in a post-Budget interaction in Chennai on Monday. She also expressed worry about essentials like sunflower and fertilisers for which the country is dependent on the region. There is likely to be a huge spike in the commodities and fertiliser market. Russia was the largest exporter of urea, NPKs, ammonia, UAN and ammonium nitrate last year. Russia accounts for around 34 per cent of global wheat exports. In oilseeds, Russia and Ukraine contribute 80 per cent of the global sunflower exports and 19 per cent of worlds corn supplies. For India, the edible oil industry is worried and is expected to see a spike in prices as Ukraine and Russia account for 90 per cent of Indias sunflower oil. ALSO READ: Threat to global peace a challenge for economic revival: FM Sitharaman As regards to what is going on, it will have a bearing on our immediate imports, and equally, exports to Ukraine. We are rightly worried about what comes from there, she added, responding to a question by Mallika Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of Tractors and Farm Equipment. The finance minister also raised concerns over the impact on the farm sector as it also forms a considerable share of exports to Russia and Ukraine. Indias bilateral trade with Russia was $11.9 billion in 2021 $3.3 billion exports and $8.6 billion imports. Indian imports include crude oil, petroleum products, fertilisers, gold and coal. On the other hand, Indias trade with Ukraine last year stood at $3.1 billion exports at $510 million and imports at $2.6 billion. The FM also said that the ministry is looking into the exports for which payments have already been made. For all these issues, I would have a comprehensive look. I will have to get a complete assessment done through the concerned ministries, Sitharaman added. On the other hand, the shipping sector is also expecting freight and charter rates to go up. According to industry estimates, charter rates may even go up by 40 per cent for a 4,200 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) from $70,000 a day now to even $100,000. She assured the industry that the government is taking stock of all the aspects of the crisis. Rupee-rouble deal with likely to be fortified after SWIFT freeze The central government is planning to strengthen the rupee-rouble trade arrangement with after the European Union, the US, and other Western partners decided to cut off several Russian banks from the global Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment system. SWIFT is a secure messaging system that facilitates rapid cross-border payments and is the principal mechanism for financing international trade. Read more NPS to include assured returns; new products likely to come in August Amid a debate on the pension systems, old and new, the sector regulator is likely to allow minimum assured-return products around August. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has appointed E&Y Actuarial Services LLP to design the scheme under the New Pension Scheme (NPS). Read more FDI in IPO-bound LIC likely to open up fresh scope for disinvestment Allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) of up to 20 per cent in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) may open up divestment opportunities in other bodies corporate in the government such as National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Airports Authority of India (AAI), which are not registered as companies. The Union Cabinet on Saturday amended the FDI policy ahead of the big-ticket LIC IPO scheduled for March as the current policy only allowed FDI in Indian companies and not bodies corporate. Read more Freight rates may see more hike in India amid Russia- crisis The invasion of Russian forces into has triggered panic among Indian exporters, coming as it does after over a year of high freight rates and container shortages. Freight rates to several ports in India had jumped eight to tenfold last year and are already on a rise in the last one week. Read more Review of RERA rules likely to save home buyers from errant builders If homebuyers are forced to do even more extensive due diligence for an under-construction project than earlier, one reason is that states have diluted the 2016 Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act or RERA, allowing developers to flout the rules. With each state having diluted the rules differently, the task has become even more complex for home buyers. This is why the Supreme Court recently asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to undertake a detailed scrutiny of RERA rules in every state. Read more An armored vehicle rolls outside Mykolaivka, Donetsk region, the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants, in eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (AP) Kyiv: In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert in response to what he called "aggressive statements" by leading NATO powers. Sunday's directive to put Russia's nuclear weapons in an increased state of readiness for launch raised fears that the crisis could boil over into nuclear warfare, whether by design or mistake. Putin's step is "potentially putting in play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous," said a senior U.S. defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Amid the mounting tensions, Ukraine announced that a delegation from the country had agreed to meet with Russian officials for talks. But the Kremlin's ultimate aims in Ukraine and what steps might be enough to satisfy Moscow remained unclear. The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv, battles broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from Russian forces. With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt civilians could be evacuated. Across the country, Ukrainian defenders were putting up stiff resistance that appeared to slow Russia's advance. "I wish I had never lived to see this," said Faina Bystritska, 87, a Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in her embattled hometown, Chernihiv, about about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Kyiv. Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights "so we don't draw their attention," said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from windows, the better to protect herself. "The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this constant thundering noise," she said. Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and fund the purchase of weapons for Ukraine. "For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, she said. Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only statements by NATO members who have rushed to reinforce the military alliance's members in Eastern Europe but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself. Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin told his defence minister and the chief of the military's General Staff to put nuclear forces in a "special regime of combat duty." "Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country," Putin said in televised comments. U.S. defence officials would not disclose their current nuclear alert level except to say that the military is prepared all times to defend its homeland and allies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC that Putin is resorting to a pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, "which is to manufacture threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression." The practical meaning of Putin's order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarine-based nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not. If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the United States might feel compelled to respond in kind, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. That would mark a worrisome escalation, he said. Around the same time as Putin's nuclear move, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office announced that the two sides would meet at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border. The statement did not give a precise time for the meeting. Earlier on Sunday, Kyiv was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur. Terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Supplies of food and medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city, amid warnings of Russian saboteurs disguised as Ukrainian police or journalists. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. "Right now, the most important question is to defend our country," Klitschko said. Pentagon officials said that Russian troops are being slowed by Ukrainian resistance, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, and that Ukraine's air defence systems, while weakened, are still operating. But a senior U.S. defence official said that will probably change: "We are in day four. The Russians will learn and adapt." Putin hasn't disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow's Cold War-era influence. The fighting in southern Ukraine appeared aimed at seizing control of the country's coastline. Cutting Ukraine's access to its sea ports would deal a major blow to the country's economy. The number of casualties from Europe's largest land conflict since World War II remained unclear amid the fog of war. Ukraine's health minister reported Saturday that 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others wounded. It was unclear whether those figures included both military and civilian casualties. Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov gave no figures on Russia's dead and wounded on Sunday but said his country's losses were "many times" lower than Ukraine's. The U.N. refugee agency said on Sunday that about 3,68,000 Ukrainians have arrived in neighbouring countries since the invasion started on Thursday. Over the weekend, the U.S. pledged an additional USD 350 million in military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons, body armour and small arms. Germany said it would send missiles and anti-tank weapons. The U.S., European Union and Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which moves money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide. They also moved to slap restrictions on Russia's central bank. Putin sent troops into Ukraine after building up a force of almost 2,00,000 troops along the country's borders. He claims the West has failed to take seriously Russia's security concerns about NATO, the Western military alliance that Ukraine aspires to join. But he has also expressed scorn about Ukraine's right to exist as an independent state. Russia claims its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighbourhoods have been hit. Three aspirants, who cleared the 2021 prelims exam but could not appear in all papers of the main exam held last month after testing positive for COVID-19, have approached the seeking an extra attempt to appear in the exams. The petitioners have sought a direction to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to extend them an additional attempt to appear in the exam or in the alternate make some arrangement to appear in rest of the papers, which they could not give, before the publication of result. While two of the three petitioners had to leave the main exam, held from January 7 to 16, in-between after appearing in some initial papers, the third aspirant could not appear in any of the papers due to COVID. The plea came up for hearing on Monday before a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar. The bench asked senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who was appearing for the petitioners, to serve the copy of the petition to the standing counsel for the concerned respondents. Give advance copy. Let the other side come and respond, the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on March 7. Sankaranarayanan told the bench that the mains examination was held in the second week of January and out of the three petitioners, two of them had appeared in some papers before they were tested positive for COVID. He said the petitioners could have suppressed and lied, but they did not. The petitioners, in their plea filed through advocate Shashank Singh, have said that they were tested positive for COVID-19 in the RTPCR test reports dated January 13, 14 and January 6. The plea said the petitioners could not give the mains examination after testing positive for COVID-19 and owing to the restrictions imposed under the strict quarantine guidelines of the government. Also, there was absence of any kind of policy of UPSC which could provide arrangements for such petitioners who were COVID positive during the span of mains examination or before it, it said. The petitioners are approaching this court under Article 32 and seeking a direction to the Respondent/ UPSC to extend them an additional (extra) attempt to appear in the examination or in alternate, make some arrangement to appear in the rest of papers which the petitioners could not give before the publication of result of civil service mains examination 2021, the plea said. It claimed that absence of policy and no arrangement to accommodate COVID-19 positive petitioners to appear in the civil service mains examination 2021 have violated their rights, including that of under Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution of India. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid reports of poll disruption in Keithelmanbi in Imphal West district, Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agarwal on Monday said that the state Election Commission is examining whether or not to continue the polls as an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) machine has been found to have been broken. Speaking with ANI, Agarwal said, "An incident of poll disruption has been reported in Keithelmanbi. This has led to a delay in the polling process. The EVM machine has been broken, and we're examining whether to continue polls here today or go for a repoll." Reportedly, clashes had broken out between Congress and the BJP supporters in Keithelmanbi after the Opposition party raised allegations of booth capturing. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 females, are in the fray for the poll. Voting will continue till 4 pm. The voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour, between 3 pm to 4 pm. Chief Minister N Biren Singh is contesting from his traditional home seat, Heingang constituency of Imphal East. Notably, the Chief Minister is seeking the fifth term in . Notably, this time the BJP decided to go solo and is contesting all 60 seats. On the other hand, Congress has formed an alliance of six political parties and named it Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance (MPSA). The coalition partners in MPSA include Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Janata Dal (Secular). The second phase of this 60-member Assembly will take place on March 5. 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.) Less than half an hour after voting commenced in Manipur, Governor La Ganesan and Chief Minister exercised their franchise in their respective constituencies. The governor, after casting his vote at a polling booth in T G Higher Secondary School in Sagolband assembly constituency in Imphal West district, appealed to all eligible voters in to exercise their franchise. "There is democracy in our country and the sign of democracy is election. The poll officers have made good arrangements," he said. Ganesan has been enrolled as a voter in Sagolband seat. He was handed over the EPIC card by the CEO earlier this month. He was earlier enrolled as a voter in Thiyagaraya Nagar assembly constituency in Chennai. The chief minister and his wife cast their votes in a model polling station in Heingang constituency in Imphal East district. "I request all voters to exercise their franchise, and maintain peace," he said. Polling in 38 constituencies in the 60-member assembly began at 7 AM amid tight security and strict adherence to COVID-19 norms. (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.) Congress general secretary Vadra on Monday said with her party fighting at 400 Uttar Pradesh assembly seats after many years, she expects encouraging result for it. She expressed the hope while talking to reporters here after holding a roadshow in Bansdih town of the district. She said she hoped her party will get "encouraging results" in these elections. "The Congress has performed well in five phases of the elections so far. We are contesting elections on 400 seats after many years. Our candidates are fighting well. They are fighting strongly at many seats," she said responding to a question. Asked about her party's likely support to any other party to form the government, she said it would be considered after the results are announced. Meanwhile, a large crowd of people, especially girls and youths, gathered by the roadside and the rooftops of the roadside buildings to get a glimpse of during her roadshow. The people showered flowers on her from rooftops as she acknowledged them by throwing back garlands at them. Puneet Pathak is the Congress candidate from Bansdih. Puneet's grandfather, Bachha Pathak, a former vice president of the state congress, had been an MLA from Bansdih for seven terms between 1967 and 1996 and was also a minister in the UP government. (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.) Independent legislator, Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.k.a. Raja Bhaiyya has said that should clear his wrong notions as the is neither winning nor forming the government in Uttar Pradesh. Targeting the SP chief, Raja Bhaiyya said that everyone should contest elections in a democratic way. "Akhilesh is saying that SP will form the government after March 10. He should clear his doubts, neither is he forming a government, nor I will let them form one," he said. Raja Bhaiyya, who is known as king maker in UP politics, was talking to reporters on Monday, a day after he was blamed for an attack on the SP candidate from Kunda, Gulshan Yadav. "Akhilesh is telling people to put latches (kundi) in the Kunda election. Kunda will always remain Kunda. No one on the earth can put a latch on Kunda," he said. --IANS amita/dpb (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.) Violence marred the first phase of to 38 constituencies on Monday even as 67.53 per cent of around 12.09 lakh voters exercised their franchise till 3 PM, election officials said. Naorem Ibochouba, a state police personnel deployed for poll duty in Tipaimukh assembly constituency in Churachandpur district, died in a "suspected case of accidental firing" from his service rifle, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajesh Agarwal said. Kangpokpi district recorded the highest voters' turnout at 76.74 per cent. Imphal West district, which has the highest number of constituencies, registered 70.21 per cent polling, while Imphal East reported 65.81 per cent voting. Officials said that the first phase voters' turnout could surpass the 2017 assembly election's polling percentage of 86 per cent, which was the highest recorded in the state to date. Voting began at 7 AM in 1,721 polling stations in five districts amid tight security and strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 women, are in the fray, they said. Governor La Ganesan and Chief Minister were among the early voters in their respective constituencies of Sagolband and Heingang. They urged people to exercise their franchise and maintain peace even as incidents of poll violence were reported from various parts of the state. At least one person was injured in a clash between two political parties in Churachandpur district. An EVM was damaged, and it was later replaced. Alleged Congress workers vandalised a BJP polling booth in Kakwa area in Langthabal constituency in Imphal West district, while a vehicle of an NPP candidate was damaged by supporters of a rival group in Keirao assembly seat, although nobody was injured in the incident. Security forces resorted to firing blank rounds to control the crowd at New Keithelmanbi polling station in Kangpokpi district. The situation arose after Congress accused BJP of attempting to capture the booth. Normalcy was restored and voting resumed after it was disrupted for a few minutes. Nobody was injured in the incident, officials said. Police registered a case after an enraged mob engaged in "election offence and damages with common intention by using firearms" in Phunal Maring village in Imphal East district. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that a youth went to exercise his franchise in Churachandpur district, only to find that his vote has already been cast. "Dennis Lallienzuol, a young resident of Churachandpur, went to the polling booth today to exercise his democratic right, only to find that his vote had already been cast! This not an isolated incident of malpractice," he tweeted. As many as 6,884 polling personnel have been deployed in the polls. Central forces along with state security forces are conducting patrolling and area domination to boost confidence among the voters, the officials said. Voters initially waited patiently for their turn in chalk-marked circles by maintaining social distancing. However, as the sun rose over their heads, many sought shelter in the shade, while waiting for their turn to cast their votes. In some polling booths, including the one at Soibam Leikai in Imphal East district, first-time voters were felicitated by election officials. Victor Th, a 20-year-old first-time voter, said, "I hope my vote will make a difference in choosing an able representative of my Keishamthong constituency, one who can focus on development and address social issues." Prominent candidates in the fray in the first phase of the elections include the chief minister, Assembly Speaker Y Khemchand Singh, Deputy Chief Minister and NPP candidate Yumnam Joykumar and Congress president N Lokesh Singh. Of the 38 seats, 10 constituencies are in Imphal East, 13 in Imphal West, six each in Bishnupur and Churachandpur, and three in Kangpokpi district. Nine seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and one for Scheduled Castes. All-women personnel are conducting voting in 381 polling stations. PWD personnel are manning a polling station in Saikot assembly seat in Churachandpur. The BJP has fielded candidates in all the 38 seats, followed by Congress with 35 contestants, NPP with 27, JD (U) with 28, Shiv Sena with seven, RPI (Athawale) with six, LJP (Ram Vilas) with three, and Kuki National Assembly and Kuki People's Alliance with two each. Eighteen Independents are also in the fray. Congress had on Sunday night expelled its candidate in Wangoi constituency, Salam Joy Singh, from the primary membership of the party on disciplinary grounds. The BJP had formed the government in in 2017 with the support of the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF), and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, the saffron party is contesting all the seats alone this time. The Congress has formed an alliance with CPI, CPI(M), Forward Bloc, RSP and Janata Dal (Secular). The grand old party had emerged as the single largest party winning 28 of the 60 seats in the 2017 state polls. The voting for the remaining 22 seats in the 60-member House will take place in the second phase on March 5 while the counting of votes will be held on March 10. All polling stations were sanitised and circles marked outside polling booths to enable voters to maintain social distancing while standing in a queue. Polling will end at 4 PM and COVID-19 patients can vote between 3 PM and 4 PM. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister on Monday said the budget presented by her on February 1 was a continuity of the previous budget last year which was more exhaustive in laying out the formulation, principle and then provide stability for revival from COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing various industry leaders and representatives from trade bodies at an event here, she said the Union government in the budget has also taken up futuristic steps by looking at adapting technology with various sectors, like agriculture and spread digital programmes into medicine, education among under the 'India@100' initiative. "We wanted a sense of continuity from the previous budget which was lot more exhaustive in the sense of laying out a formulation, principles and so on. Then provide stability for the revival (of the economy) from the pandemic and above all give a predictability for the tax regime and these were the guiding principles (for presenting the latest budget)," she said. The Minister also said a meeting would be organised in coordination with the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Railway ministry to discuss about the transport of cement from southern regions to northern parts of the country. Her comments come in the backdrop of a query raised by noted industrialist N Srinivasan, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of India Cements Ltd, on the occasion. Srinivasan, in his query to Sitharaman, pointed out that 40 per cent of India's limestone was available in southern parts of the country and unless the cement moves north, there would be a problem of shortage in the northern region. "The cement industry will be blamed for cartelisation but what can we do as cement cannot be stored. If I store more than a certain amount of cement, we will be asked to close by the Ministry of Environment," he said. Responding to it, Sitharaman said: "We will organise a meeting with the Surface Transport Ministry (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) and Rail Ministry. What is necessary, you can send us a note prior to the meeting." To another query posed by G R Anantha Padmanabhan, Managing Director, GRT Jewellery India Pvt Ltd, Sitharaman said relaxation on the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) as sought by him, was an 'attractive' option and offers 'good potential' (to boost tourism). "In terms of CRZ, our request is to be more practical like other countries. You can consider little relaxation on CRZ," Padmanabhan said To this, the Minister said, "I do not know if I can respond immediately. There is good potential (to tap tourism)". Replying to another observation made by Apollo Hospitals Managing Director Sunita Reddy, Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said the whole idea of the government was to have broader tax, less tax cuts and each product should be sold based on its strength and not based on tax arbitrage provided by the government. Reddy in her observation to the Finance Minister said the ministry may consider increase of the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) scheme to Rs 50,000 from the current Rs 30,000 to help increase in access to healthcare facilities. She also sought the Centre's help in extending support to healthcare providers through means such as 'interest subsidies', which was done during COVID-19 and infrastructure spending increased to 50 per cent of project cost as compared to the earlier 30 per cent. Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth intervened and said the focus of the government was on promoting healthcare infrastructure in Tier-II and Tier-III cities where large corporates do not go quite often. "There is a scheme for higher viability gap funding which offers one-time support for hospitals to be set up in Tier-II and III cities...," he said. In response to comments made by Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Founder and Chancellor G Viswanathan, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said spending six per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was the joint responsibility of both the Centre and states. "India has the lowest tax-to-GDP ratio in the world. We cannot compare tax-to-GDP ratio of countries like the United States which is at 40 per cent," Somanathan said. Viswanathan, in his query, had said for the last 50-60 years several commissions had suggested that 6 per cent of GDP should be allotted on education and India had not crossed 3.5 per cent till date. Finance Minister Sitharaman said the government was willing to increase spending on education and added that there should be mobilisation of resources. "We want to increase spending in education, but we should also think about the resource limitation, we need to mobilise resources, tax space has to widen," she said. Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said this may not be true of VIT but the government was aware of some no-profit-no-loss institutions which were actually 'huge profit' institutions and the profits were taken through various means. "In spite of all that we are closing our eyes and allowing tax exemptions on such institutions. I think there is also a need for people to say that there should be more curbs on the way you spend money so that actually there is no profit-no loss," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) is set to renounce its non-nuclear and neutral status, allowing to place nuclear weapons on its territory, following a referendum held on Sunday. The head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission (CEC), Igor Karpenko, said more than 65 per cent of Belarusian citizens have voted in favour of Constitutional amendments during a referendum. "A total of 65.16 per cent of the referendum participants included in the voting lists voted for the adoption of amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, and 10.07 per cent voted against," Karpenko said, as quoted by Russian news agency Sputnik. According to Belarusian law, a decision at a referendum is considered adopted if more than half of the citizens included in the lists of participants voted for it. The Belarusian referendum turnout is estimated at over 78 per cent. The Russian news agency said the decision taken at the referendum will come into force 10 days after the official publication of the results. This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the country's nuclear deterrent forces on a "special" alert on Sunday. Putin announced the move during a meeting with Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, reported RT News. According to media reports, a Ukrainian delegation is expected to hold talks with on Monday morning. Earlier on Sunday, the head of the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv had agreed to hold talks with in . The two delegations are slated to meet in the Gomel region, at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A senior US intelligence official says is expected to send troops into as soon as Monday to fight alongside Russian forces that invaded last week. has been providing support for Russia's war effort, but so far has not taken a direct part in the conflict. The American official has direct knowledge of current US intelligence assessments and says the decision by Belarus' leader on whether to bring further into the war depends on talks between Russia and happening in the coming days. The official spoke anonymously to discuss the sensitive information. Russian forces have encountered strong resistance from Ukraine defenders, and US officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of State on Monday held a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of G7 countries and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba over the ongoing crisis in . "Today, G7 FMs and I spoke with Ukrainian FM @DmytroKuleba (Dmytro Kuleba) to express our united support for . We will hold accountable for its premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified invasion and will continue to provide security, economic, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine," Blinken said in a tweet. The G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the High Representative of the European Union were also present at the meeting. "Together we are supporting the Ukrainian people and imposing severe costs and consequences to hold accountable for its war of choice. We stand with and recognize the bravery and heroism of the Ukrainian people," said a US state department readout. The meeting comes after the news on Sunday of Ukraine agreeing to meet a Russian delegation in Belarus. The talks are expected to take place in the Gomel region at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, Belta news agency reported. The Ukrainian delegation that is expected to hold talks with was reported to be headed to Belarus via Poland and the meeting is expected to start on Monday morning (local time) as per Sputnik News Agency. (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.) British Prime Minister has announced that Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion can come to the if they already have members of their immediate family settled in the country. As part of a new GBP 40 million humanitarian package for the supply of basic necessities and medical supplies such as medicines, syringes, dressings and wound care pack, Johnson confirmed that any person settled in the will be able to bring their Ukrainian immediate family members to join them here. Downing Street said this would benefit many thousands of people who at this moment are making desperate choices about their future. "The will not turn our backs in Ukraine's hour of need. We are providing all the economic and military support we can to help those Ukrainians risking everything to protect their country, Johnson said. "In the last days the world has witnessed awe-inspiring displays of bravery and heroism from the Ukrainian people in response to those who seek to obliterate their freedom by force, he said. More details of the new Ukrainian visa policy is set to be announced in Parliament this week. "We want to be as generous as we possibly can, and certainly we want people who have relatives in Ukraine to be able to bring them over as fast as possible. We want to make sure that we have routes for people fleeing disaster, war, persecution in Ukraine to come here," Johnson told reporters. UK government humanitarian experts have also deployed to the region to support those fleeing the violence in Ukraine. Downing Street said the weekend assistance package brings the total amount of UK government aid pledged to Ukraine this year to GBP 140 million. Last week, Prime Minister Johnson also announced the UK would guarantee up to USD 500 million of loans to Ukraine through Multilateral Development Banks and the UK said it continues to supply defensive military equipment to the Ukrainian military to bolster their resistance against invading Russian forces. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: Putin's regime has undertaken an illegal and violent assault against the people of Ukraine. The UK will provide GBP 40 million in aid to help our Ukrainian friends, more funding to tackle what is becoming a humanitarian crisis. We stand with Ukraine, shoulder to shoulder, in its hour of need. During a visit to the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London on Sunday evening, Johnson delivered a similar message of support saying that the UK would fulfil its neighbourly duty to Ukraine. He also made a clear distinction that it was the Russian leadership led by President Vladimir Putin who was responsible for the crisis and not the Russian people. Never in all my study, my memory of politics and affairs have I seen so clear a distinction between right and wrong, between good and evil, between light and dark. And that is the real reason why Ukraine is our neighbour today, Johnson said in his address to the congregation. I want to stress that there is no hostility in my part towards the Russian people. None whatever. Quite the reverse. My heart aches for the Russian parents who are already losing their children in this vicious and appalling war, just as it aches for the civilians and the people of Ukraine. But when it comes to the Russian leadership that chose this path of violence, and I stress chose, this path of violence and aggression, there can be no possible excuse, he added. He said the people of Ukraine were facing "the darkest times in modern memory" and described Russia's invasion as a "barbaric and unprovoked attack". In his latest phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, Johnson promised further military aid for Ukrainian forces. President Zelenskyy said he believed the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine, and the Prime Minister said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine. The leaders agreed to continue to stay in close contact and the Prime Minister reiterated the UK's staunch support for Ukraine's sovereignty, Downing Street said in a readout of the call. Meanwhile, there have been several demonstrations held in support of Ukraine in different parts of the UK, including vigils and protests in London and also in Scotland and Wales. (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.) Roman Abramovich is involved in the attempts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Chelsea owner's spokesperson claimed on Monday. The Russian billionaire handed "stewardship" of Chelsea to the club foundation's trustees on Saturday amid the ongoing crisis between Russian and Ukraine, in a move aimed to protect the Stamford Bridge club. However, it has now emerged that Abramovich is attempting to help bring about an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "I can confirm that Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution and that he has been trying to help ever since. Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement. Thank you," Abramovich's spokesperson was quoted as saying by Skysports. Ukrainian film director and producer Alexander Rodnyansky also confirmed that Abramovich is involved due to his connections with both the Russian and Ukrainian Jewish communities. "I can confirm that the Ukrainian side has been trying to find someone in Russia willing to help them in finding a peaceful resolution," said Rodnyansky. "They are connected to Roman Abramovich through the Jewish community and reached out to him for help. On Sunday, the Blues owner handed "stewardship" of Chelsea to the club foundation's trustees. However, in Abramovich's statement, there was no mention or condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich had said his decision was in the best interest of the club. "During my nearly 20-year ownership of Chelsea FC, I have always viewed my role as a custodian of the Club, whose job it is ensuring that we are as successful as we can be today, as well as build for the future, while also playing a positive role in our communities," said Abramovich in an official statement on Sunday. "I have always taken decisions with the Club's best interest at heart. I remain committed to these values. That is why I am today giving trustees of Chelsea's charitable Foundation the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC. I believe that currently, they are in the best position to look after the interests of the Club, players, staff, and fans." --IANS inj/bsk (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.) Global charged higher on Monday with strong gains in oil, grains, edible oils and metals after put its nuclear deterrent on high alert and Western nations imposed tough new sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine. Brent crude oil jumped by around 4% to back above $100 a barrel, palladium vaulted 4% and Chicago wheat gained close to 5% as buyers tried to price in how to do without supplies from if sanctions disrupt trade. Aluminium scaled an all-time high of $3,525 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange, while Malaysian palm oil gained nearly 6% as the ripple effects of Russia's potential severance from global commodity took hold. "The range of near-term price outcomes for commodities has become extreme, given the concern of further military escalation, energy sanctions or potential for a cease-fire." Goldman said in a note to clients on Sunday. The rouble plunged nearly 30% to a record low after Western nations imposed new sanctions on Russia, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT global payments system. Putin raised the stakes on Sunday, ordering Russia's "deterrence forces" - which wield nuclear weapons - onto high alert, citing statements by NATO leaders and the range of economic sanctions imposed on by the West. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation". Brent climbed above $100 a barrel as the nuclear alert and bank payment constraints heightened fears that oil shipments from the world's second-largest producer could be disrupted. Russia accounts for about 10% of global oil supply. Tracking higher oil prices, Japanese rubber futures rose. Natural rubber often takes direction from energy prices as its rival product synthetic rubber is derived from crude oil. In the agricultural markets, Chicago wheat posted its biggest one-day gain in a decade on worries over supplies from the world's top exporter of the bread-making ingredient Russia. Corn gained 4%, while soybeans rose 2.6%. Russia and Ukraine account for around 29% of global wheat exports, 19% of the world's corn supply, and 80% of world sunflower oil exports. Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a seventh session in eight, boosted by a rally in crude and soyoil prices and fears of cuts to sunoil flows from the Black Sea. The metals also got a lift, with palladium jumping as sanctions on Russia raised supply concerns for the auto-catalyst, for which Russia accounts for roughly 40% of global output. Fears of supply disruptions also sent LME aluminium prices to an all-time-high and lifted nickel. Russia produces about 6% of the world's aluminium and accounts for about 7% of global nickel mine supply. London Metal Exchange aluminium hit a record high of $3,525 a tonne and nickel was up 1% to $24,615 a tonne, after rising by 3% in the session. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Crypto exchange Binance is blocking the accounts of any Russian clients targeted by sanctions, it told Reuters on Monday, but will not freeze the accounts of others after Ukraine called for a block on Russian users at major digital currency platforms. "We're blocking accounts of those on the sanctions list (if they have Binance accounts) and ensuring that all sanctions are met in full," a spokesperson for the company said on Monday, declining to give further details. The United States, Britain, Europe and Canada announced new sanctions on on Saturday, including blocking certain lenders' access to the SWIFT payment system, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Sunday he had requested major crypto exchanges to block the digital wallet addresses of Russian users, which allow transactions in crypto coins. Fedorov, who is also minister of digital transformation, had on Saturday offered a "generous reward" for information on digital wallets held by Russian and Belarusian politicians. "It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users," he wrote. A separate Binance representative told Reuters: "We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users' accounts. Crypto was meant to provide greater financial freedom for people across the globe." Binance, the world's largest exchange, said last month it wanted to expand in and neighbouring states. is a major market for Binance, with over 113,000 members of its Russian-language Telegram channel. Since 2019, Binance has allowed users to deposit and withdraw Russian roubles via payments company Advcash. Advcash, which is headquartered in Belize, told Reuters that users would be able to continue to make instant deposits and withdrawals on Binance via its digital wallets. "On our platform, some users may experience limitations arising from sanctions imposed on specific banks," it added. "Making sure our services are transparent, fully regulated and provided in accordance with all applicable laws is and has always been our top priority." (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A key feature of the communitys response to Russias aggression against has been the adoption of sanctions. But what exactly are sanctions and how do they operate in practice? And most importantly, are they likely to have any meaningful impact? What are sanctions? Sanctions are coercive measures that can be applied to diplomatic, economic and cultural relations between states. Commonly non-military in nature, they are imposed by one state against another (unilateral sanctions) or by an organisation, such as the United Nations (collective sanctions). Historically, measures have ranged from comprehensive sanctions to more targeted measures prohibiting trade in particular items, such as arms, timber, or diamonds. Some sanctions have circumscribed particular activities understood to benefit a target, such as diplomatic, sporting, and cultural relations, as well as travel. They have also targeted particular individuals and groups who pose a threat to peace and security, including political elites, rebel groups, or terrorist organisations. How do economic sanctions operate in practice? Economic sanctions are multidimensional. They tend to include travel bans and financial sanctions. Financial sanctions consist of targeted asset freezes and restrictions on a wide variety of financial markets and services. Where the financial sanction is an asset freeze, it is generally prohibited to deal with the frozen funds held by a designated person or entity. Funds are defined to include financial assets of every kind: cash, cheques, money orders, credit, debts, stocks and shares, interest, dividends or other income from or generated by assets. The designation of targeted individuals and entities can occur on the basis of a national listing procedure (for the US see here, for the UK here, for Australia here). Or, this designation may happen as a result of a sanctions regime adopted by an organisation, which is then implemented by its members (for current UN sanctions regimes see here, for the EU here). This twin-track approach is generally reflected in the sanctions practice of states which maintain consolidated lists. Separate consolidated lists are kept for those individuals and entities listed on the basis of unilateral sanctions and those listed as a consequence of collective sanctions. Some international best practice exists regarding sanctions implementation, such as guidance by the G7 Financial Action Task Force. But compliance will always depend on individual countries and the particular features of domestic companies. Financial institutions, such as banks, will have in place automated procedures to filter incoming transactions before entering, and outgoing transactions before leaving their internal systems. Are economic sanctions effective? They can be. The impact on listed individuals and entities can be severe, as illustrated by the internationally litigated cases of Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council of the European Union or Nada v Switzerland (both cases in the context of financial counter-terrorism sanctions). However, the general effectiveness of economic sanctions is uncertain, not least because it is empirically difficult to measure it. According to Dursun Peksen, a sanctions expert at the University of Memphis, economic sanctions result in meaningful behavioural change in the targeted country about 40% of the time. Yet, as a recent study by the US government demonstrates, establishing clear causality is impossible. For example, a sanctioned country or individual may decide to change their behaviour for many reasons. Some of these changes may be unrelated to the sanctions. What sanctions are now applied against The international community has imposed a mix of economic and diplomatic sanctions, with countries acting both unilaterally and collectively. The US and the UK have introduced unilateral sanctions targeting Russias two largest banks, Sberbank and VTB Bank. They have also frozen the assets and restricted travel of key Russian oligarchs. Canada and Australia have followed suit. Germany has indicated it is abandoning the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to the country. Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Estonia have closed their airspace for Russian airlines. As for collective sanctions, the UN Security Council will remain unable to impose any sanctions due to the veto power holds as a permanent member. Indeed, has already used this veto power to block a resolution condemning the invasion of . The EU, on the other hand, has quickly introduced asset freezes and travel bans preventing listed individuals from entering or transiting through EU territory. EU sanctions now apply to 555 Russian individuals and 52 entities, including 351 members of the Russian State Duma who have backed the aggression against . The EU has since moved to adopt further sanction packages, which include targeting President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov directly. Together with the US and the UK, the EU has also agreed to remove select Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system, the financial messaging infrastructure that links the worlds banks. The Council of Europe in Strasbourg has also applied unprecedented diplomatic sanctions. It has suspended Russia from its rights of representation in the Committee of Ministers and in the Parliamentary Assembly. Are the sanctions likely to have any meaningful impact? Too early to say, but probably not in the short term. The unilateral and collective sanctions that have been applied are comprehensive. They have also been adopted swiftly. Some of the measures, such as targeting Putin and Lavrov personally, are unprecedented. On the other hand, significant gaps remain and pose a considerable risk of fragmentation. The example of Switzerland is a case in point. The Swiss government has voiced support for complementing EU sanctions. Yet, it has so far shied away from applying targeted asset freezes of those individuals listed by the EU, the US and other countries. As a New York Times analysis details, there is also growing concern Russian companies may evade sanctions by turning to cryptocurrency tools, including the so-called digital ruble and ransomware. Christopher Michaelsen, Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. banned airlines from 36 countries from its airspace in retaliation to a similar move from European states, ratcheting up the confrontation with nations that have rushed to punish Moscow for invading . A Ukrainian delegation led by the defence minister began talks with Russian officials on the border with Belarus, while in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed doubt the negotiations can yield progress toward halting the violence and repeated a request for his country to be fast tracked into the European Union. Meanwhile, Russias currency and bonds plunged and authorities scrambled to erect economic defences against a battery of sanctions launched by the US, the EU, Japan and other countries against Moscow and sent Russian markets into a tailspin. Kharkiv authorities cite dead, wounded in shelling Authorities in Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, said heavy shelling in residential areas killed and wounded civilians, according to the Ukrainska Pravda website. It is a war, a real war, Kharkivs mayor, Ihor Terekhov, told Pravda. Clashes took place in multiple locations in the northeastern part of the city, near the Russian border, after Kremlin-led military units entered Kharkiv on Sunday, Pravda said. Televised footage shared widely on social media showed a barrage of strikes on a residential neighbourhood. Fighting also continued in the suburbs of Kyiv, the capital, as well as the northern city of Chernihiv. Expect more sanctions: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the UK cabinet to expect further sanctions on shortly, his spokesman, Max Blain, told reporters in London. The premier is still pushing for to be fully excluded from the SWIFT system of payments, Blain said. Johnson will speak to the Polish president and Group of Seven leaders later Monday, before heading to Poland and Estonia. You can expect us to have further sanctions on individuals and businesses in the coming days and weeks, Blain said. We do think that Russia should be cut out not just economically, but culturally as well. Blain said the UK estimates that about 100,000 Ukrainians will be eligible to enter the country under plans unveiled by Johnson on Sunday to let in close family members of people already settled in the country. US bans transactions The US on Monday banned people and companies from doing business with the Bank of Russia, the Russian National Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance. The Treasury Department said the actions effectively immobilise any Russian central bank assets held in the US or by US nationals. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the measures will target the funds Putin and his inner circle depend on to enable his invasion of . Japan to restrict trading with Russian central bank Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his administration will restrict trading with the Russian central bank, the Kyodo news service reported. Kishida said he had spoken with Zelenskiy and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko would also be subject to Japanese sanctions. Singapore joins sanctions Singapores government will impose unilateral sanctions against Russia, a move which a former diplomat said was the first time in decades that the city-state was penalising a foreign nation without United Nations Security Council backing. Singapore plans to impose export controls on items that can be used as weapons to inflict harm or to subjugate the Ukrainians, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said. Singapores biggest banks are also restricting trade financing for Russian raw materials. Minutes silence at UNGA meeting The United Nations opened a rare emergency special session of the General Assembly. Russia is due to find out just how isolated it is on the world stage during the meeting, only the 11th time in the UN's history that such a session has been held. Assembly president Abdulla Shahid led all of the UN's 193 members in the moment of meditation before calling for an immediate ceasefire. A new science report from the will spell out in excruciating detail the pain of to people and the planet with the idea the hope really that if leaders pay attention, some of the worst can be avoided or lessened. One scientist calls it the Your House is On Fire report. While these reports often can come across as depressing, to scientists and world leaders, the idea isn't to lower people's spirits. The reports are designed to help the world navigate a dangerous future, back away from some cliffs where harms are irreversible and severe, and mostly to give leaders negotiating deals on how to curb future warming a sense of what can be done and why scientists say something must be done. It's really about hope not doom, said German vice chancellor and minister for economy and climate, Robert Habeck. American climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of The Nature Conservancy and Texas Tech agreed. Hope can lead to action, Habeck said in an interview with The Associated Press. If you're afraid of something, then you hide away, you shy away, you run away. If you hope for something, then you can find some motivation, power and energy in yourself. And this is what we need: hope that we can achieve great things that the problems of the moment can be overcome by building up a new renewable world. WHAT IS IT Monday's report is from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a heavy hitter group of hundreds of scientists the UN asks to issue major reports every five to seven years about . The scientists do three main reports. The first, on what's known about the science behind and general projections of future warming, came out last August and got nicknamed code red by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. After Monday's report, the second, a third report comes out in several weeks. It will be on options to confront climate change. Monday's report is about the impacts, what climate change has done, is doing and will do to people and the world we live in. Hayhoe said if she were to give this report a nickname like the last one it would be: Your House Is On Fire. It is a massive compendium of how climate change is affecting us here, now, in ways that matter to our lives, Hayhoe said in an email. It shows how we can and must prepare for the impacts we can no longer avoid. And that means giving bad news about heat waves, floods, wildfires, droughts, sea level rise, disease, extinctions and climate homelessness. It's important for people to be honest about the amount of impacts we're likely to see, said Stanford University environmental scientist Chris Field, who chaired this report in previous years. HOW IT IS USED Science itself does not yet trigger actions, Development Program chief Achim Steiner said. We then have to respond. And the response to climate change today essentially affects every aspect of our lives. Each year, leaders and diplomats from around the world meet to ratchet up efforts to curb climate change, resulting in several agreements, the last two being the Paris accord of 2015 and a pact in Glasgow last year. The IPCC reports are frequently mentioned in negotiations. Scientists, such as Hayhoe, attend to explain consequences. Up until 2015, the world's goal was to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times. But during the negotiations for the Paris agreement, leaders of small island nations complained that 2 degrees of warming would make some of their islands, their countries, uninhabitable. So the Paris accord adopted a secondary, tighter, goal of 1.5 degrees (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and asked the IPCC to study what the difference would be between the two warming thresholds. A 2018 special report from the IPCC found dramatic differences, including loss of coral reefs, sea ice and some irreversible harms at 2 degrees that might not happen at 1.5 degrees. Making matters more immediate was the fact that the world has warmed 1.1 degrees since pre-industrial times, so this is about warming of just a few tenths of a degree from now. The fact is that it is the of 2018 that refocused our energies from well below 2C to 1.5 degrees specifically... as we did quite visibly and powerfully in Glasgow, United States special climate envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press in an interview. And even China, Russia, India, other countries that may have some differences about the pace and rate and implementation of some of the climate initiatives, even they accepted that this was the standard now, the 1.5 degrees. So the IPCC has a profound impact. And I anticipate that this report will, just like the prior ones, have a very significant impact on the climate debate, Kerry said. I think it's going to be quite dramatic in the picture it paints of how far behind we are. PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE These reports always look at what's already happened in terms of climate change, what is happening now and give projections on what's happening in the future. Those future projections are often key and they have wide ranges, but mostly it's due to the human factor. The reports spell out what happens if the world drastically reduces emissions of heat-trapping gases, what happens if it doesn't and what happens in between. That's a key point in these reports: The future isn't set. It depends on what's done in governments, businesses and homes. Because these reports come out every five to eight years, the next set of reports will likely come out as the world is within a tenth of a degree or two of that 1.5 degree goal. So climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the Breakthrough Institute said he suspects the next version of this report won't be so much about how to prevent 1.5 degrees of warming but what would be needed to bring global temperatures backdown to 1.5 in the 22nd century. MAKING THE SAUSAGE The report does not do new science. It is all based on previously published peer-reviewed science. Scientists write the report, which then gets reviewed by other scientists, governments and . There's a giant report with more than 1,000 pages, but the real key is called the Summary for Policy Makers, showing how this is aimed at world leaders. For the past two weeks, scientists and governments review and rewrite the draft line by line. The summary has to be approved by consensus and some language gets watered down. It is a slow process that in this case has already passed its Friday deadline. Most of all of the attention is spent on the summary, which can run into the dozens of pages. But there are 26 chapters or supplements, with some of them concentrating on specific regions, looking at health, food, cities or risk. (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.) Mobil likely will face new pressure to severe ties with Russia's largest oil producer, said analysts, after rival BP agreed to unload a Rosneft stake. Russia's attack on has unleashed broad economic and political rebukes and corporate withdrawals by banks, technology and other firms unprecedented in their extent. BP on Sunday said it would take a $25 billion writedown to abandon its Rosneft holdings. holds a 30% stake, alongside Rosneft, Japan's SODECO and India's ONGC Videsh, in Sakhalin Island oil and gas fields in Russia's Far East. The group with as operator has exported more than 1 billion barrels of oil and 1.03 billion cubic feet of natural gas since production began in 2005. "Supermajor E&Ps and major service providers with exposure to will now be facing tremendous pressure to pull investments from Russia," said Rystad Energy analyst Artem Abramov. "I will not be surprised if we see big announcements similar to (the) BP-Rosneft one in the next few days, but it will be difficult to speculate on how exactly things will play out," he said. An Exxon spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. The U.S. oil major previously ended two Russian joint ventures after sanctions were imposed following Russia's 2014 military operations in eastern . Exxon took a $200 million hit to earnings from the exit. Sakhalin represents one of the largest single direct investments in Russia, according to Exxon, with its three oil and gas fields. The partners have been advancing development of a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the island. Such plants typically cost several billion dollars to construct. Exxon last year employed more than 1,000 people across with offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Yuzhno-Sakhalinst, according to its website. (Reporting by Gary McWilliams; editing by Grant McCool) (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.) Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o... By Gary McWilliams HOUSTON (Reuters) - likely will face new pressure to severe ties with Russia's largest oil producer, said analysts, after rival agreed to unload a Rosneft stake. Russia's attack on Ukraine has unleashed broad economic and political rebukes and corporate withdrawals by banks, technology and other firms unprecedented in their extent. on Sunday said it would take a $25 billion writedown to abandon its Rosneft holdings. Exxon holds a 30% stake, alongside Rosneft, Japan's SODECO and India's ONGC Videsh, in Sakhalin Island oil and gas fields in Russia's Far East. The group with Exxon as operator has exported more than 1 billion barrels of oil and 1.03 billion cubic feet of natural gas since production began in 2005. "Supermajor E&Ps and major service providers with exposure to will now be facing tremendous pressure to pull investments from Russia," said Rystad Energy analyst Artem Abramov. "I will not be surprised if we see big announcements similar to (the) BP-Rosneft one in the next few days, but it will be difficult to speculate on how exactly things will play out," he said. An Exxon spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. The U.S. oil major previously ended two Russian joint ventures after sanctions were imposed following Russia's 2014 military operations in eastern Ukraine. Exxon took a $200 million hit to earnings from the exit. Sakhalin represents one of the largest single direct investments in Russia, according to Exxon, with its three oil and gas fields. The partners have been advancing development of a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the island. Such plants typically cost several billion dollars to construct. Exxon last year employed more than 1,000 people across with offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Yuzhno-Sakhalinst, according to its website. (Reporting by Gary McWilliams; editing by Grant McCool) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the growing tensions between Moscow and Kyiv, Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, on Sunday (local time), held a meeting with Foreign Ministers and discussed new "painful sanctions" to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin's war. "Meeting with @ foreign ministers. Partners stand ready to provide with more practical means to defend ourselves. Defensive weapons, military equipment, and financial support for are underway. We also discussed new painful sanctions to stop Putin's war," Kuleba wrote in a tweet. Kuleba also insisted on a full embargo for Russian oil and gas and said buying them now means "paying for the murder of Ukrainian men, women and children". "We insist on a full embargo for Russian oil and gas. Buying them now means paying for the murder of Ukrainian men, women and children. I welcome the first decisive steps by a number of European states in this regard and urge others to proceed resolutely and without delay," Kuleba tweeted. He also said that what is happening now in is a "real people's war". "What is happening now in Ukraine is a real people's war. We will not fall. We will not stop or get tired. We are determined to fight back fiercely as long as it is needed to defend our land and our people," Kuleba tweeted. Meanwhile, Kyiv has agreed to meet with a Russian delegation in Belarus as the Western powers have imposed additional sanctions on Moscow as the military operations by Putin entered the fourth day. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Germany's stunning decision to send anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to abandoning its long-held refusal to export weapons to conflict zones is nothing less than a historic break with its post- foreign policy. "A new reality," Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it in an uncharacteristically rousing speech on Sunday to a special session of parliament. The typically low-key Chancellor Scholz said Russia's invasion of required a dramatically different response from than in the past. "With his invasion of on Thursday, President Putin created a new reality," Scholz told the Bundestag, his speech repeatedly greeted by applause, particularly his condemnations of the Russian leader. "This reality demands a clear answer. We've given one." Scholz said is sending anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. He also said the country is committing 100 billion euros (USD 113 billion) to a special fund for its armed forces and will raise its defence spending above 2 per cent of GDP, a measure on which it had long lagged. Germany's about-face served as a potent example of just how fundamentally Russia's war in Ukraine is reshaping Europe's post- security policy. Germany's foreign policy has long been characterised by a strong aversion to the use of military force, an approach German politicians explain as rooted in its history of military aggression against its neighbours during the 20th century. While a strong U.S. ally and NATO member, post-war has attempted to maintain good ties with Moscow, a policy also driven by business interests and Germany's energy needs. "Many of the things that Olaf Scholz said would have been unthinkable even months ago," said Marcel Dirsus, a nonresident fellow at the University of Kiel's Institute for Security Policy. "It's become very clear that Russia has simply gone too far, and as a result, Germany is now waking up." Still, until this weekend, the German government had balked at sending weapons to Ukraine, even as it faced growing criticism for its hesitation. But then, a series of announcements starting Saturday evening rocked traditional notions of German policy. It began with word from the government that it would allow the shipment of 400 German-made anti-tank weapons from the Netherlands to Ukraine, something it had thus far refused to do. Shortly afterwards, the chancellor's office went further and said it would send its own weapons, including 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 "Stinger" surface-to-air missiles, directly to Ukraine. It also committed to targeted bans on Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial system, which German leaders had expressed reluctance to do. On Sunday, the breaks with the past continued, with Scholz committing to greater defence spending. The developments were all the more notable considering they followed another historic decision last week, when Germany took steps to halt the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia. Germany's reluctance to send German-made weapons to Ukraine had earned the country criticism from NATO allies in recent weeks. Although Germany is one of the world's top weapons exporters it exported arms worth 9.35 billion euros in 2021 it has long had a policy of not sending lethal weapons to conflict zones. Until Saturday, German leaders had refused to send anything other than 5,000 helmets to aid Ukraine. Scholz's Sunday announcement about defence spending will, at least for the time being, put to rest the oft-repeated criticism that Germany is not adequately contributing to its own and NATO's defence. The country was a favourite target of former U.S. President Donald Trump for its failure to spend 2 per cent of its GDP on defence, a target for NATO members. According to NATO figures, Berlin spent around 1.53 per cent of GDP in 2021, or almost USD 65 billion. Its budget has grown annually for several years. In balking at new spending, Berlin always insisted that Germany was investing enough to fulfil any NATO military requirements. Officials also noted that by spending that kind of money, Berlin's defence budget would surpass that of Russia, and possibly make its own European neighbours nervous. NATO countries slashed their military budgets in the 1990s after the Cold War, but they were spurred back into action when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014. That year, the allies pledged to halt the cuts and move toward spending 2 per cent of GDP by 2024. German officials backed up their policy U-turn by calling it a necessary adjustment to a new normal. "We cannot leave Ukraine defenceless against the aggressor who is bringing death and devastation to this country," Annalena Baerbock, Germany's foreign minister, said on Sunday. "If our world is different, then our politics must be different as well." The decisions were met with praise by many of the Ukrainian leaders and European allies that had been most critical of Germany in recent weeks. "Keep it up, Chancellor @OlafScholz!" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted on Saturday night after the news of weapons shipments. (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.) Tech giant Google has temporarily disabled its Maps' live traffic data in Ukraine to protect users as the country faces Russian invasion, media reports said on Monday. It is not known when exactly Google disabled the Maps live traffic data and what prompted the move, VICE World News reported. It's also not clear whether Google has ever disabled these features during previous conflicts or wars. "Google said only that it had taken the action for the safety of local Ukrainian communities following consultations with sources including regional authorities," the report said. However, the move seems to come after reports claimed that people around the world were using the service to track the movements of troops and civilians during the Russian invasion. The data works by incorporating location and speed information from smartphones with the app, then using it to show in real-time how dense traffic conditions are in certain places, or how busy those areas are overall. Google's announcement came just a day after the Ukrainian government called on "all road organisations, territorial communities, (and) local authorities to immediately start dismantling road signs nearby". "Dismantling road signs on all roads of the country. Priority #1 - indicators, names of settlements. Collected signs are handed over to local authorities and roadmen," Ukravtodor, the government agency responsible for Ukraine's national road system, wrote in a Facebook post. "The enemy has a pathetic connection, they don't orientate the area. Let's help them go straight to hell." Experts had previously flagged the potential for Google's data to be exploited by invading Russian forces, who could theoretically use the Maps traffic function to monitor Ukrainian troops and notice when they're on the move, the report said. Several social media platforms have blocked Russian media after President Vladimir Putin launched an attack into Ukraine last week. Last weekend, Meta (formerly Facebook) had prohibited Russian state media from running ads or monetising on its platform anywhere in the world. The company has also blocked access to several Russian state-controlled accounts in Ukraine. Google-owned YouTube has also announced it is temporarily halting the ability of a number of Russian channels, including state-sponsored RT, to monetise their content on the platform. Earlier, Russia also blocked Twitter to stifle the flow of information as its invasion of Ukraine escalates. --IANS rvt/vd (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 Massachusetts Institute of Technology is severing ties with a research university it helped establish more than a decade ago in Russia, citing the country's unacceptable military actions in invading . The Cambridge university said it notified the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow on Friday that it was exercising its right to terminate the MIT Skoltech Program. Federal law enforcement officials and foreign policy experts have long voiced concerns about the potential for espionage and technology theft arising from MIT's partnership with the school, which has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin's government, GBH News reported. This step is a rejection of the actions of the Russian government in Ukraine, MIT said in a statement posted on the program website. We take it with deep regret because of our great respect for the Russian people and our profound appreciation for the contributions of the many extraordinary Russian colleagues we have worked with. The university said it is working with MIT researchers leading Skoltech projects to make sure students can complete their research and academic work. About 21 faculty members and 38 students and postdoctoral researchers at MIT are impacted by the change, though none are currently at the school in Moscow, The Boston Globe reported. The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology said in a statement to the newspaper it has nine ongoing projects with MIT and remains in close contact with our colleagues at MIT. MIT partnered with the nonprofit Skolkovo Foundation in 2011 to establish the research university as part of a Russian government effort to create a science and technology hub akin to California's Silicon Valley or Massachusetts' Kendall Square. As part of the agreement, MIT helped recruit students and faculty, hosted Skoltech students at MIT, and allowed MIT instructors to teach and pursue research at the Russian school, the Globe reported. We affirm our steadfast belief in our colleagues at Skoltech," MIT said in its statement. They are fellow scholars who have devoted themselves to an ethos of openness and who have contributed their own expertise and knowledge to build a unique and pioneering academic center in . (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.) Ousted leader pleaded not guilty on Monday to a corruption charge that alleged she had accepted USD 600,000 and seven gold bars from a former political ally, a legal official said. The case is one of 10 in which she is being prosecuted under the anti-corruption law. She is accused of receiving the money and gold bars in 2017-18 from Phyo Min Thein, the former chief minister of Yangon, the country's biggest city. He was also a senior member of her National League for Democracy party. Suu Kyi has been detained since the army toppled her elected government in February last year, and has not been seen or allowed to speak in public since then. All of her court hearings have been closed to the media and public. Her lawyers, before they were served with gag orders late last year, said she rejected all the corruption allegations against her as absurd. Suu Kyi has also faced a series of other criminal charges since her arrest. She has already been sentenced to six years' imprisonment after being convicted of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions and sedition. Her supporters and human rights groups say the cases against her are an attempt to discredit her and keep her from returning to and participating in a new election the army has promised by 2023. Her party won a landslide victory in the 2020 general election. The army said it seized power because there was massive voting fraud, an allegation that independent poll watchers do not support. A court in the capital, Naypyitaw, is hearing the 10 corruption cases against Suu Kyi. The maximum penalty for each offense is 15 years in prison and a fine. The nine other corruption cases include several related to the purchase and rental of a helicopter. She is also charged with diverting money meant as charitable donations to build a residence, and with misusing her position to obtain rental properties at lower-than-market prices for a foundation named after her mother. The state Anti-Corruption Commission has declared that several of the actions deprived the state of revenue it would otherwise have earned. An 11th corruption charge, alleging that she accepted another bribe, has not yet gone to trial. In Monday's hearing, the judge ruled that the trial should proceed after earlier hearing the prosecution's case, as is customary in trials, and Suu Kyi then pleaded not guilty. She then requested that four prosecution witnesses, including Phyo Min Thein, be recalled for re-examination. The legal official familiar with the hearing said Suu Kyi appeared to be in good health. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to release information. Suu Kyi is also being tried in the same court on a charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, and on a charge alleging election fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of three years. (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.) Nepal's House of Representatives on Sunday has ratified 500 million US Dollar grant assistance-Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) pact along with "interpretative declaration". Parliamentary meeting of Sunday which ran till late hours adopted a 12 point declaration called "interpretative declaration" which includes the government's answers on questions raised in the . "Voice of house members who are in support has been heard out loud thus proving the majority. Agreement between Government of and US aid agency MillenniumChallenge Corporation- Millennium Challenge Compact, as well as interpretative declaration, has been adopted by the House of Representatives as per the Constitution of Nepal's clause 279 and Rules of the 2075, rule 230, a proposal to ratify it has thus been passed," House Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota announced. A meeting of the ruling alliance which commenced earlier in the day at Prime Minister Residence had adopted the 12 points which clearly states that the parties will not consider MCC a part of US military strategy (IPS). "One of the parties of the compact, will not be part of United States of America's Indo-Pacific Strategy or any strategic, military or security alliance which has been announced hereby," Janardan Sharma, Finance Minister of Himalayan Nation read out the first statement of declaration despite protest from opposition CPN-UML. Likewise, parties have also said that MCC Compact will not be above Nepal's constitution and laws. Adding, the MCC Compact will be taken only as financial assistance, and the audit should be done by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of . The declaration also said that they would even revert the decision on the basis ofpolitical consensus. Prior to that, the ruling parties were in internal discussions on theissue. Rift had risen high within the ruling alliance before the adoption of the declaration which nearly had brought alliance formed against the former Prime Minister to an end. The US Government's MCC signed a USD 500 million compact with the Government of Nepal in September 2017 aimed at maintaining road quality, increasing the availability and reliability of electricity, and facilitating cross-border electricity trade between Nepal and India--helping to spur investments, accelerate economic growth, and reduce poverty. This will help support Nepal to better deliver critical services to its people, ease themovement of goods around the country, and open new opportunities for privateinvestment--all to create sustainable development for the people of Nepal. According to MCC, strengthening the reliability of key infrastructure will put the country's on a firmer growth trajectory, advance stability, support regional security and reduce poverty. An additional USD 130 million contributions from the Government of Nepal in support of the compact--the largest up-front partner country contribution in MCC's history--will enable even greater impact and benefits for the Nepali people. The protest had continued in Nepali capital against the US grant compact as protestors fueled by disinformation continued to picket areas near federal which always resulted in stone pelting, firing of tear gas and baton charge by Nepal Police. It had become a subject of protest as deep-rooted rumour claiming it to be a military pact remained high. Though US Mission in Kathmandu had made attempt to clarify the issue, a misguided group of people continued to throng area near parliament on the day when the parliament meeting was called on for. (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.) Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order forbidding her state from doing business with Russia, including cancelling its investments there. The governor also said will welcome Ukrainian refugees in response to Russia's invasion, noting at a press conference in Albany on Sunday that her state is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the U.S. "We have said we'll open up our hearts, our homes, our resources to the people of the Ukraine, to say, We stand with you," Hochul said. Federal estimates show that around 1,40,000 of the more than 1 million people in the U.S. who report Ukrainian ancestry live in . "If you need a place to stay, you want to come over here, we will help you become integrated into our community," she said, "as we have been open so to so many other refugees in the past, including those from Afghanistan most recently." Hochul didn't immediately get into specifics regarding her state's economic sanctions against Moscow including how much the state has invested in Russian entities but pointed out that New York's economy is larger than that of . The governor's executive order means the state "will not permit its own investment activity, whether directly or indirectly, to aid as it commits these human rights violations and atrocities." filed a case at the United Nations' highest court accusing of planning genocide. "We strongly condemn the action of Putin and Russia for this unprovoked attack which is now leading to atrocities against innocent human beings, and that is not tolerable," Hochul said. New York's sanctions follow those issued by President Joe Biden last week targeting Russia's financial system. Biden said the U.S. will block assets of large Russian banks, impose export controls aimed at the nation's high-tech needs and sanction its business oligarchs. It was not immediately known how much money the sanctions could represent, but Hochul said she wants state agencies to review contracts and assets to be sure that taxpayer money isn't being used to indirectly fund Russia's invasion of the . Hochul ordered state agencies to divest money and assets from investments in companies or institutions determined to be a "Russian or supporting entity." And she forbid the state from doing business with such entities. The executive order defined a supporting entity as any institution or company that is aiding Russia in its war against the . (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) is starting a process to remove Russian assets from its $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, in a rare case of politics steering investments for the countrys savings. The government decided to freeze Russian holdings in the fund in response to the countrys invasion of Ukraine and plans to divest them in due course, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told reporters in Oslo on Sunday. Norges Bank Investment Management held about 25 billion kroner ($2.8 billion) at the end of the year, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said. The Oslo-based fund is the worlds biggest owner of publicly traded companies with a portfolio of about 9,000 stocks. The government made its decision despite Chief Executive Officer Nicolai Tangen on Friday describing such a move as a wrapped gift to the oligarchs who would buy the shares. Until now, has been careful to avoid being seen as using the fund as a political tool. Previous attempts to impose political goals on the institution have been met with criticism that its overarching goal must be the highest possible return over time. Norways decision comes after Russian slumped last week and follows U.S. plans with its European allies to ban transactions with the central bank in Moscow and cut off various Russian lenders from the critical SWIFT financial messaging system. In addition, BP Plc moved to dump its shares in oil giant Rosneft PJSC and could be forced to make $25 billion writedown. The fund is now freezing its account holdings in Russia, which means that it will neither buy nor sell, Line Aaltvedt, a spokeswoman for the fund, said by phone. It will then make a plan to sell out of in collaboration with the ministry, she said. No timeline for the exit was given. Created in the 1990s to invest Norways oil and gas revenue abroad, the fund has followed strict ethical guidelines since 2004, including bans on certain weapons, tobacco and most exposure to coal. Its biggest equity holdings in at the end of 2020, the last time it disclosed its full portfolio, were in Sberbank of PJSC, Gazprom PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, according to the Norges Bank Investment Management website. It will publish its 2021 holdings on Thursday. We want to give a very clear and unequivocal response that the type of abuse we have seen in recent times can not be accepted and it is therefore natural for to withdraw its investments from the Russian market, Vedum said on Sunday. Norway also announced that it will enforce sanctions in cooperation with the European Union and will close its airspace to Russian flights. It will also increase humanitarian support related to the crisis to as much as 2 billion kroner. The world has enough energy suppliers to provide an alternative to in the market within the next five years, World Bank President said on Sunday. " look forward, so they can look at the five-year time horizon and realize that there is a lot of energy available if it's mobilized. There are alternatives to the Russian dominance of the market, for example," Malpass said in an interview with the CBS. However, he noted that in the short term, global energy have faced upward pressure due to the situation in Ukraine. Malpass also said that Iran has the potential to support the oil market if there is progress on the Iranian nuclear deal. (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.) Get 25% off of the regular $65 annual All Access rate. With this subscription you will get: Digital access to ElPasoInc.com and archives (value $45) Print subscription home or business delivered (value $65) Book of Lists (annual rate only, value $50) El Paso Inc. Magazine (value $20) El Paso Kids Inc. Special sections - OR - Get 15% off of the regular $45 annual Digital-only rate. With this subscription you will get: Complete digital access to ElPasoInc.com. More than 3,000 Afghan people go to every day due to unemployment, local media reported citing officials in Herat and Nimroz provinces of . Notably, the number only constitutes the people who legally go to from these provinces and might be far greater if it includes those crossing the border illegally, Tolo News reported. The Afghans going to cite severe economic problems and as the reason behind leaving the country. "I don't have a job and it has been several months that we are unemployed, we are going to Iran," the media outlet reported quoting Farhad Sultani, a resident of Herat. A resident of Faryab, Sultan Mir, said there is no work in and they are going to Tehran to find work. In addition to the people travelling legally to Iran, over 3,000 people are smuggled daily through Nimroz province, first to Pakistan and then to Iran. Further, the increasing number of Afghan citizens moving to Iran has also increased the deportation process of Afghan refugees from the country. More than 2000 Afghans from Iran cross at the Islam Qala border area in Herat each day, the Afghan news agency reported, citing officials. "The Islamic Emirate should address the people's problems and their wishes and create an inclusive government. They should provide job opportunities so that the people can be saved from this misery," Lutfullah, a resident of Ghazni said, according to the news agency. The Taliban's swift ascension to power in occurred in mid-August, triggering economic disarray and a dire humanitarian crisis in the country. According to the United Nations, more than 24 million people in Afghanistan require lifesaving assistance. (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.) Hundreds of people protested on Sunday in Paris and in the Riviera city of Nice against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Ukrainian flags and those of other eastern European nations hoisted high. Some Russians opposed to the war were in the Paris crowd. It was the second day of directed at Russian President around France, among a string of weekend rallies across Europe. On the famed Promenade des Anglais in Nice, a hub for Ukrainians, hundreds of people chanted slogans against the war Putin is waging and urged NATO nations to protect them from Russian bombs. Protesters carried Ukrainian, Moldovan, Georgian and Chechen flags and banners denouncing Putin. (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.) Russian President is manufacturing threats that do not exist in order to justify further aggression in Ukraine, Secretary Jen Psaki alleged on Sunday, vowing that the US will stand up for it and may slap energy sanctions on Moscow. The US and its allies have imposed tough sanctions on to cripple its economy for invading . Psaki said those sanctions were on par with Iran, cutting them off from a banking system with the global community. "We have now also sanctioned 80 per cent of their banks and their financial sector. This makes it very difficult for President Putin and the Russian government not only to do business, but also to help fund a greater expansion of their military and innovation in their country. So, we have taken severe steps already. But, of course, there's more we can always consider doing, Psaki said. Responding to a question, she said the energy sanctions against were also on the table. This is really a pattern that we've seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression. And the global community and the American people should look at it through that prism. We've seen him do this time and time again, Psaki told ABC News in an interview. At no point has been under threat from NATO. This is all a pattern from President Putin. We are going to stand up for it. We have the ability to defend ourselves, but we also need to call out what we're seeing here from President Putin, she said. Psaki said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was standing up courageously against the invasion of Putin and the Russian leadership. When President Biden spoke with him, the last conversation he had with him, President Zelenskyy asked for additional security assistance. That's exactly what we delivered. And we will remain in close contact with him. But President Biden is maintaining a line of communication with him, as we all are, she said. In another interview on a Sunday talk show, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, alleged that Putin was reckless, evil and dangerous. "There are two reasons why he could be doing this, one, because this war is not going well and he's being painted into a corner and he wants to be stronger to try to negotiate a way out, he said. "The second one is, he's unstable, that he literally tried to have a nuclear weapon option going forward. At this moment in time, no country in the world should stand with Putin. Everyone should unite around the basis of what he just claimed to take in just the last hours, McCarthy said. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in another television interview, observed that Putin has descended into something that she personally has not seen before. I don't know where he is in that dark world, but I will say this: we have to make sure that he really understands that the cost would be extraordinary to try to cross an Article 5 line, an attack upon one is an attack upon all. And so, the Baltic States are indeed protected under that guarantee by the United States of America, she said. If he meets the kind of resistance that he is meeting in Ukraine, if he can't get an easy win, if it looks like he's not going to achieve his objectives, there is a chance that he pulls up. But I want to make sure that he does. I want to make sure that he doesn't decide that Kaliningrad, which is a Russian territory that is cut off by the Baltic States, is his next way to connect Kaliningrad back to Russia. That would involve the territory of the Baltic States, Rice said. So, what we're doing in reinforcing NATO forces in the Baltics and in Poland, NATO's eastern flank, if you will, this is a way to make sure that he knows the cost would be very high, said the former Secretary of State. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) will provide lethal military equipment to to help the Ukrainians resist the Russian invasion. The Australian government's announcement on Monday gave no details on what material it may be sending. The move follows an offer on Friday of non-lethal military equipment, medical supplies and a USD 3 million contribution to a NATO trust fund for support of the besieged country. has imposed sanctions on more than 350 Russian individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, since Thursday. has also targeted with sanctions 13 individuals and entities in Belarus, including that country's defence minister, Viktor Khrenin. Belarus is supporting in its war with . (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the EU airspace ban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday has cancelled his visit to Geneva for the session of the UN Human Rights Council. "Russian FM #Lavrov's visit to #Geneva for the session of the @UN_HRC and the Conference on Disarmament has been cancelled due to an unprecedented ban on his flight in the airspace of a number of EU countries that have imposed anti-Russian sanctions," tweeted Russian Mission in Geneva. The EU confirmed its decision to shut down its airspace to on Sunday. The ban is part of the measures in response to the Russian military operation in Ukraine. "Our airspace will be closed to every Russian plane. And that includes the private jets of oligarchs too," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. (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 Russian Armed Forces have hit 1,114 Ukrainian military infrastructure objects, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Monday. According to him, Russia's Air Force also gained air supremacy over the entire territory of on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported. However, the news is yet to be confirmed from the Ukrainian side. --IANS int/sks/bg (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) has decided to join sanctions and ban the export of strategic materials to Russia amid the situation around Ukraine, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. "As a form of sanctions against Russia, our government has prohibited the export of strategic materials to Russia, strengthening the export verification procedure," the ministry said in a statement. The statement went on to say that the relevant South Korean departments will consider possible restrictions on non-strategic materials and extension of sanctions against Russia, including 57 items that are subject to the US sanctions, such as computers, sensors, aviation, and space industries and others. Western nations have rolled out a sanctions campaign against Russia after it launched a military operation in Ukraine last Thursday, following requests for help from the people's republics in Donbas. The Russian Defense Ministry said the operation was targeting the military infrastructure of Ukraine only and that the civilian population was not in danger. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine and that the purpose of its operation is demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Delegations from Russia and Kyiv are expected to hold talks in the Gomel region in Belarus, at the Ukrainian border, in the coming hours. (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 UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, alongside the Bank of England on Monday announced the UK government's plans to impose further economic sanctions in response to the invasion of Ukraine by by targeting the country's Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR). The move, which the UK Treasury department said is in concert with the US and the (EU), is aimed at preventing the CBR from deploying its foreign reserves in ways that undermine the impact of sanctions imposed by the west, and to "undercut" its ability to engage in foreign exchange transactions to support the Russian currency Rouble. Under the plans, British people and businesses will be banned from making transactions with the Russian central bank, its finance ministry and its wealth fund. These measures demonstrate our determination to apply severe economic sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sunak said. We are announcing this action in rapid coordination with our US and European allies to move in lock step once more with our partners, to demonstrate our steadfast resolve in imposing the highest costs on and to cut her off from the financial system so long as this conflict persists, the Indian-origin finance minister said. The UK government said it will immediately take all necessary steps to bring into effect restrictions to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the CBR, the Russian National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. The Bank of England continues to take any and all actions needed to support the government's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, said. We welcome the steps taken today by the UK government, in coordination with EU and US authorities, as an important and powerful demonstration of the UK's commitment to the rule of law, he said. The Treasury said the UK government intends to make further related designations this week, working alongside international partners. Restrictions will also be imposed against Russian financial institutions. It will cover measures to prevent Russian companies from issuing transferable securities and money market instruments in the UK, in addition to the prohibition of the Russian state raising sovereign debt in the UK already announced. It will also grant power to prevent designated banks from accessing Pound Sterling and clearing payments through the UK. Banks subject to this measure will be unable to process any payments through the UK or have access to UK financial markets. Sunak's announcement also covers a set of measures to strengthen trade restrictions against Russia, including a prohibition against the export of a range of high-end and critical technical equipment and components in sectors including electronics, telecommunications, and aerospace. There will also be an extension of financial and trade measures applying to Crimea to the DNR and LNR regions. The UK government has said its sanctions are designed to "devastate" Russia's economy and target Russian President Vladimir Putin directly and his inner circle, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and several billionaire oligarchs known to be close to them. (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.) BP Plc moved to dump its shares in oil giant Rosneft PJSC, taking a financial hit of as much as $25 billion by joining the campaign to isolate Russias economy. The surprise move from the British company is the latest sign of how far Western powers are willing to go to punish President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of . BP has been in for three decades and just weeks ago was staunchly defending its presence there. But it was coming under growing pressure from the U.K. government over the alliance with Rosneft. Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney was summoned by U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to explain the companys Russian links last week. Kwarteng welcomed BPs move on Sunday. This military action represents a fundamental change, BP Chairman Helge Lund said in a statement. It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue. BP didnt say whether it was planning to sell its roughly 20% stake in Rosneft, or simply walk away. Any potential buyer would have to navigate a tightening web of economic sanctions that would make any transaction extremely difficult. In a memo to employees, Looney said there would be financial consequences from the move that would show up in its next quarterly results. A spokesperson said there could be a writedown of as much as $25 billion. The London-based company did confirm that it would no longer account for its share of oil and gas reserves, production and profit from its stake in Rosneft. Looney will also resign with immediate effect from the Russian companys board, as will his predecessor Bob Dudley. BP will also exit its other business in Russia, which include three joint ventures with a carrying value on its books of about $1.4 billion. Financial Shock The move -- and the associated financial costs -- will come as a surprise to investors on Monday. BP shares have risen 15% this year, bolstered by rising oil prices even as Russian forces were massing on Ukraines border. In early February, Looney was still arguing that BP could avoid politics in Russia, which was a large member of the energy system. The shock of Putins large military incursion into made that position untenable. BP has a longer history in than many of its peers. It was one of the first Western oil majors to establish a presence in after the collapse of the Soviet Union. John Browne, the chief executive officer at the time, bought a stake in Sidanco in the 1990s, which eventually morphed into TNK-BP, a joint venture with a group of billionaires. That gave BP direct operational control of Russian oil fields, with large numbers of expat staff in the country. It was highly profitable, but also fraught with tension between the oligarchs and their Western partners. A bitter battle for control in 2012 ultimately resulted in BP exchanging its stake in TNK-BP for $17 billion in cash and a large chunk of Rosneft shares. BPs stake in the Kremlin-controlled oil producer had a lot of symbolism, marking the continuation of three decades of operating in the country, but in many practical ways the alliance was shallower than it appears. While BP reported its share of Rosneft production, reserves and profit for accounting purposes, it didnt have direct stakes in any of Rosnefts fields nor physical access to the hydrocarbons they produced. The London-based company did receive regular dividends from Rosneft, which last year amounted to $640 million, compared with BPs total operational cash flow of $23.6 billion. Rosneft said the move destroys the successful 30-year cooperation of the two . The decision was made under unprecedented pressure from politically engaged forces, it said in a statement on its website. BP had the largest interest in Russian oil and gas, but its Big Oil peers also hold important stakes in the country. TotalEnergies SEs operations in Russia represent around $1.5 billion of its total cash flow, or around 5%. It has a stake in gas producer Novatek as well as a large interest in the Yamal LNG project. Shell Plc has a large holding in the Gazprom PJSC-led LNG project Sakhalin Energy, while Chevron Corp. and Exxon Corp. have a presence in lubricants. An Austria-based subsidiary of Russia's state-owned Sberbank has been ruled likely to fail after depositors fled due to the impact of Russia's invasion of . The said early Monday that the bank had 13.6 billion euros in assets at the end of last year, but has experienced "significant deposit outflows" due to "geopolitical tensions." The ECB said Vienna-headquartered Sberbank Europe AG "is likely to be unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due." The bank is a fully owned subsidiary of Russia's Sberbank, whose majority shareholder is the Russian government. Europe's bank resolution board separately said it has imposed a payments ban on money owed by the bank and a limit on how much depositors can withdraw. The board will decide on further steps, which could include restructuring, selling or liquidating the bank. Sberbank Europe operates 185 branches and has more than 3,933 employees. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British bank is beginning to wind down relations with a host of Russian banks including the second-largest, VTB, according to a memo seen by Reuters, as financial institutions start to implement restrictions on . The United States, Britain, Europe and Canada announced new sanctions on on Saturday - including blocking certain lenders' access to the SWIFT payment system - following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The advisory notice from HSBC, one of the world's largest banks, tells staff how they should apply the new global sanctions on . Headed "action required" and dated Feb 27, it highlights the fact that the UK Office of Financial Sanctions had authorised "the wind down of certain transactions involving VTB Bank and certain UK subsidiaries". declined to comment. has little direct exposure in Russia, with its Chief Financial Officer telling reporters last Tuesday it has around 200 employees and annual revenues of $15 million there, a fraction of its global income of $50 billion. As the world's leading trade finance bank and Europe's second-largest lender, however, HSBC remains a vital cog in the global banking machine and being cut off from its services is a blow for Russia. The internal notice also sets out other sanctions imposed in recent days by Britain, the European Union and the United States and lists other Russian subject to the sanctions, including development bank VEB. In an indication of the far-reaching nature of the restrictions, HSBC points out that under U.S. sanctions, an entity that is 50% owned or more, directly or indirectly, by one or more blocked persons is itself also considered blocked, whether or not it is on the sanctions list. EU sanctions apply a similar rule, HSBC said. Britain said on Monday it was taking further measures against Russia in concert with the U.S. and the EU, including banning any British entities from undertaking transactions with the Russian central bank, finance ministry and wealth fund. The London Stock Exchange on Friday said it had suspended VTB unit VTB Capital's membership. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Oil prices jumped more than $7 in early trade on Monday after Russian President Vladimir Putin put the country's nuclear deterrent on high alert in the face of Western nations and Japan stepping up sanctions against Russian banks. The nuclear alert and bank payment constraints heightened fears that oil supplies from the world's second-largest producer could be disrupted as digs in following its invasion of neighbouring . Brent crude futures were up $5.46 or 5.6%, at $103.39 at 2331 GMT, after hitting a high of $105.07 a barrel shortly after trade opened. Last week the benchmark contract hit a more than seven-year high of $105.79 after the invasion began. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up $5.64, or 6.2%, at $97.23 a barrel, after hitting a high of $99.10 shortly after opening. WTI hit a high of $100.54 last week. Putin raised the stakes on Sunday, ordering Russia's "deterrence forces" - which wield nuclear weapons - onto high alert, citing aggressive statements by NATO leadrs and the range of economic sanctions imposed on by the West. "President Putin's decision to put Russian nuclear forces on high alert is a clear and worrying escalation that can only be supportive for oil prices. I reckon we could be in for some price fireworks in the morning," Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM told Reuters. (Reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Alex Lawler in London; Editing by Stephen Coates) (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.) Six students studying in returned to Rajkot after landing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport- Mumbai on Sunday evening. The six of them are students at a University in Chernivtsi, which is 40 km from the Romania border, which is to the west of the war-torn country. According to students, they had to travel for more than seven hours to reach the airport in Romania, from where they were brought to Mumbai in Air India special flights. Rajkot District Collector Arun Mahesh Babu welcomed these students. Speaking to reporters, Babu said, "We have a list of 45 students, who are stranded there. We are in frequent touch with them. We will be able to bring them back." "We were safe in our university. But we were evacuated from the country because the government there wanted to accommodate their citizens affected due to war," a student said. Happy Bhalani, a Ukraine-returnee, recalled her horrifying five days which she spent in the country. She said, "When we heard explosion for the first time on February 23, we all were scared. It was a horrifying experience. The university arranged bus transport to Romania border and from there the officials took us to the airport in the same bus. After a drive of seven hours, we embarked on to an Air India flight to Mumbai. (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 Russian government on Monday accused UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and others in the west of making unacceptable remarks which led to the Kremlin's announcement that it was putting its nuclear forces on high alert. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Truss' reference to possible "clashes" between NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military alliance and Moscow over Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the reason behind its move. Statements were made by various representatives at various levels on possible altercations or even collisions and clashes between NATO and Russia, Peskov told a news briefing, as reported by the Interfax news agency. We believe that such statements are absolutely unacceptable. I would not call the authors of these statements by name, although it was the British foreign minister, he said. It is unclear which specific comments the Kremlin is referring to, with Downing Street and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) reiterating the need for de-escalation. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused western countries of taking unfriendly measures by imposing illegitimate sanctions and making aggressive statements in relation to . "For this reason I order the minister of defence and the chief of general staff to put deterrent forces on special combat duty," he said. The West has attempted to downplay these remarks, with UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace terming it a distraction from what's going wrong in Ukraine and a reminder to the world that possessed a nuclear deterrent. We don't see or recognise in the sort of phrase or the status he described as anything that is a change to what they have currently as their nuclear posture, Wallace told the BBC. "This is predominantly about Putin putting it on the table just to remind people, remind the world, that he has a deterrent," he said. "President Putin will know that anything involving a nuclear weapon has an equal or greater response from the West. It [the UK's nuclear deterrent] does keep us safe and that's why I would say to parents up and down this country we will not do anything to escalate in that area. We will not do anything to feed any miscalculation. We take it very, very seriously," he added. The minister also claimed that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was not going to plan, with "significant casualties" and protests against it in . Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the next 24 hours will be "crucial" in the ongoing Russian attack on the country. Meanwhile, the UK is preparing to fast-track further restrictive sanctions on the Russian super-rich by bringing forward the tabling of a proposed Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill in the House of Commons from later this year to this week. It is aimed at tackling the flow of "dirty money" and stopping the laundering of unexplained wealth in the UK property market. The new law will apply retrospectively to property bought by overseas owners up to 20 years ago in England and Wales, and since December 2014 in Scotland. "There is no place for dirty money in the UK. We are going faster and harder to tear back the faade that those supporting Putin's campaign of destruction have been hiding behind for so long, said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Those backing Putin have been put on notice: there will be nowhere to hide your ill-gotten gains, he said. The new legislation will create a register of overseas entities requiring offshore owners of property in the UK to declare their true identity to ensure criminals are not able to misuse shell companies for the purpose. Unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) will also be expanded, with UK law enforcement being given more time to review material provided in response to the order, and being protected from incurring substantial legal costs if they bring a reasonable case that is unsuccessful. UWOs allow UK officials to seize assets without having to prove they were obtained through criminal activity. Separately, a new kleptocracy cell based in the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), announced last week by Boris Johnson in the Commons, will begin to investigate sanctions evasion right away. (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.) says it pulling out of as President Vladimir Putin's invasion of costs the country's all-important energy industry foreign investment and expertise. announced its intention Monday to exit its joint ventures with Gazprom and related entities, including its 27.5 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-II liquefied natural gas facility, its 50 per cent stake in the Salym Petroleum Development and the Gydan energy venture. also intends to end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security, said Shell's chief executive officer, Ben van Beurden. (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.) Russia's military offensive is a violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, President of the UN General Assembly Abdulla Shahid said on Monday as he called for an immediate ceasefire and full return to diplomacy and dialogue. Shahid, presiding over a rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN body on Ukraine, voiced grave concern about the fast-deteriorating situation and ongoing military action in . "The military offensive by the Russian Federation is a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of and is inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations. Today, I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire; for all parties to exercise maximum restraint; and for a full return to diplomacy and dialogue, Shahid, President of the 76th session of the UNGA, said. As Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko hosted the first face-to-face talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegation since Russia's special military operation in eastern Ukraine, Shahid said this rare window of opportunity has opened up for dialogue. Let's use this opportunity to meaningfully and rapidly de-escalate the situation. A day after the 15-nation UN Security Council voted to refer the Russia- crisis to an emergency session of the General Assembly, the most representative body of the United Nations convened the rare emergency session on Russia's military operation against Ukraine, only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950. With the adoption of the UNSC resolution on Sunday, it was for the first time in 40 years that the Council decided to call for an emergency special session in the General Assembly. Shahid said the convening of the 11th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly, rooted in the Charter and mandated in resolution entitled Uniting for peace', is a new opportunity to ensure that the leadership of the United Nations is up to the expectation of the people we serve on matters related to peace and security. He called for diplomacy and dialogue to prevail and the violence to stop, emphasising that the ongoing military offensive is inconsistent with the United Nations Charter, which is based on the principle of sovereign equality and outlines a world where Member States settle their disputes by peaceful means, without the threat or use of force. Underlining that there are no winners in war, but countless lives are torn apart, Shahid stressed that security and access for humanitarian efforts must be guaranteed. The Security Council Friday evening failed to adopt a resolution that would have deplored Russia's aggression against Ukraine after Moscow used its veto. India, China and the UAE abstained, used its veto and 11 Council members voted in favour. India abstained again, along with China and UAE, when the Council voted on Sunday on the procedural resolution to refer the Ukraine crisis to an emergency session of the General Assembly. voted against and 11 Council members in favour. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield had said on Friday after the failed UNSC vote that "we will be taking this matter to the General Assembly, where the Russian veto does not apply and the nations of the world will continue to hold accountable. While a UNSC resolution would have been legally binding and the UN General Assembly resolutions are not, a vote in the 193-member UN body is symbolic of world opinion on the crisis. Shahid said the General Assembly with its 193 Member States represents the collective conscience of humanity. The strength of this Assembly is rooted in its moral authority. Let's demonstrate that moral courage and use today's debate not to whip up war rhetoric, but to give peace a chance, he added. Guns are better off when knotted. Let peace prevail, he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The State Department has closed the U.S. Embassy in and is allowing non-essential staff at the U.S. Embassy in Russia to leave the country due to the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the suspension of operations at the Minsk embassy and the authorized departure from Moscow in a statement on Monday. We took these steps due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine, he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The next 24 hours will be crucial for Ukraine's fight with Russia, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday during a phone conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from Britain and other allies reached Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported citing the National News Agency of Ukraine (Ukrinform). Meanwhile, the regional government said that the city Berdyansk in southern Ukraine had been seized by Russian troops on Monday morning. The Ukrainian army on Monday informed that the situation in Kiev was still under its control. According to the latest development, a Ukrainian delegation arrived at the place for talks with the Russian side in the Gomel region in Belarus on Monday, Sputnik reported. --IANS int/sks (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.) Russia's Permanent Representative to the (UN) Vasily Nebenzya on Sunday (local time) said that the has failed to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security. "Russian Federation voted against the draft resolution; the failed to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security," Nebenzya said at the meeting on Ukraine. He also highlighted that two days ago, vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine. "We did not see even a hint at an attempt to reach a constructive solution at the council & yet 2 days ago, we blocked a draft specifically for the reason that it was both, one-sided & unbalanced. We have not seen a new initiative since then," Nebenzya said. "The Russian Army does not threaten civilians in Ukraine, they're not shelling civilian infrastructure. A threat to civilians is now posed by Ukrainian nationalists who have effectively seized hostages to use as human shields," he added. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Ambassador to UN Sergiy Kyslytsya said that as per the Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko, at least 16 children were killed since February 24. He continued saying that as per Ukrainian Education Ministry, more than 3,50,000 school children have no access to education. "Enemy losses as of February 27 have amounted to nearly 4,300 and over 200 taken as prisoners of war; denies. Ukraine had opened a hotline for relatives of Russian soldiers who can't be contacted; over 100 calls from Russian mothers were received during the 1st hr," he said. "It is extremely alarming that the Russian President has resorted today to open nuclear blackmail. The world must take this threat very seriously," Kyslytsya said. He also condemned the involvement of Belarus in the armed aggression against Ukraine. "Since the beginning of the Russian aggression this country has provided its territory for the Russian offensive," Kyslytsya said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shares in companies surged on Monday, following reports that India's top retailer Reliance Industries would take over at least 200 stores after the debt-laden group failed to make lease payments for them. Shares of Future Supply Chain Solutions, Future Retail, Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Consumer and Future Enterprises rose between 7% and 16%. Reliance's move follows failed efforts since 2020 to close a $3.4 billion deal to buy the retail assets of Future, whose partner Amazon.com Inc has blocked the transaction citing violation of contracts. Future denies any wrongdoing. "Any resolution will be beneficial for Future shareholders now whether through the courts or alternate strategies to close the deal," said Samir Bahl, chief executive officer, Anand Rathi Advisors, Mumbai. " don't necessarily take sides, rather focus on value creation for shareholders and any move that helps the business is going to benefit shareholders and drive up demand for stock." Though Future has more than 1,700 outlets, all the 200 stores that Reliance will rebrand as its own will be the group's flagship supermarket chain 'Big Bazaar', which was started about two decades ago by Kishore Biyani, helping him earn the moniker of "father of modern retail" in India. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries had transferred leases of some stores to its name and sublet them to Future, but is now taking over. Reliance has offered store staff jobs on existing terms. In blocking the Future-Reliance deal, Amazon has long argued that Future violated the terms of a 2019 deal in which the U.S. retail giant invested $200 million in the company. Amazon's position has been backed so far by a Singapore arbitrator and Indian courts. Separately, Future Enterprises on Saturday said that had extended the timeline to close the deal to September 30, 2022 from March 31, 2022. (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.) Benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex recovered after a weak opening, as the 30-share barometer plunged more than 1,025 points to the day's low of 54,833.50, before staging a recovery to close 388.76 pts or 0.70 per cent higher at 56,247.28, marking its second session of gains. On similar lines, the broader National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty climbed 135.50 points or 0.81 points to settle at 16,793.90. The Indian indices mirrored a rebound in Asian equities, even as the crisis continued to roil western . emerged as the lead gainer among Sensex scrips, jumping by 6.61 per cent, followed by Power Grid, Reliance Industries, Titan, NTPC, L&T, Asian Paints and ICICI Bank. On the other hand, Dr Reddy's, M&M, Axis Bank, HDFC twins and Kotak Bank were among the major laggards, shedding up to 2.81 per cent. "Despite opening on a negative tone, domestic indices staged a strong recovery lifted by metal stocks and positive Asian . Metal stocks rallied on hopes that curtailing Russian exports would help Indian steelmakers to capture the export market share. Domestic investors are keenly awaiting the release of the Q3 GDP data later today...," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. Sector-wise, BSE metal index soared 5.47 per cent, followed by energy, basic materials, oil and gas and power. However, bankex, capital goods and finance closed lower. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shares of metal companies rallied up to 6 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Monday's trade, in an otherwise subdued market, with the index surging over 3 per cent as sanctions against Russia raised possibility of supply disruptions. This, in effect, will push up prices. At 11:51 am, index was the top gainer among sectoral indices and was up 3.5 per cent as compared to 0.11 per cent decline in the Nifty 50 index. Jindal Steel and Power, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries and JSW Steel gained between 4 per cent and 5 per cent, while Steel Authority of India, National Aluminium Company, Vedanta and Hindustan Copper were up in the range of 2 per cent to 3 per cent. Individually, shares of Hindalco Industries hit a new high of Rs 563.75, soaring 6 per cent on the NSE in the intra-day trade.The stoxk surpassed its previous high of Rs 553.85 touched on February 11, 2022. London aluminium futures hit record high on Monday after Western countries ratcheted up sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT global payments system, raising fears of supply disruptions, agency Reuters reported. Russia produces about 6 per cent of the world's aluminium and accounts for about 7 per cent of global nickel mine supplies. It is also a major producer of gas used to generate electricity, a key component of aluminium production. Base metals have been on a roll for much of 2021, and 2022 got further impetus from Chinese Power led shutdowns and changing monetary policies globally. The latest triggers comes from Ukraine Russian geo political tensions which has led to sharp volatility in most asset classes. Before this Russia-Ukraine crisis escalated, select metals were already seeing very strong fundamentals and there are possibilities of United States and its European allies to announce fresh sanctions against Russia. "Sanctions on aluminium maker Rusal in 2018 drove the metal's price up 35 per cent in days. Used in stainless steel and batteries for electric vehicles, nickel is up an over 20 per cent this year having risen 25 per cent in 2021. Lower inventories in metals along with strong consistent demand has been already supporting the backdrop, and with the latest trigger, it looks like the metal has got some more feet to rally," said Navneet Damani, senior Vice President - Commodity & Currency Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services. The key benchmark indices are likely to start trade on a flat note as Russia-Ukraine conflicts weigh on the investor sentiment. As of 07:55 AM, the SGX Nifty futures quoted at 16,663, as against the spot Nifty 50 close of 16,658 on Frrday. Meanwhile, here are the top for trade on Monday. Future Retail: The company has shut most of its Big Bazaar stores since February 25 and its website is also down as it missed lease payments to . The latter will open most of the 200 stores as Reliance stores in the next week and it is in the process of taking stock, re-branding, and transferring 30,000 and Future Lifestyle employees on to the rolls of its manpower and staffing firm Reliance SMSL, according to a source. READ MORE Vedanta: The companys aluminium business would focus on backward integration in the next fiscal and would bring into production two of its mines in Odisha to provide raw material security for its plants, according to a PTI report. Meanwhile, CRISIL Ratings recently upgraded the rating on Vedantas long-term bank facilities and debt instruments from AA- to AA on stronger-than-expected operating profitability driven by elevated commodity prices during FY22. Union Bank of India: The PSU bank plans to raise up to Rs 1,500 crore in capital through tier-I bonds and another Rs 1,100 crore via Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) via medium-term bonds in the coming week. Kalyan Jewellers: The company is planning to enter the franchise model in the first half of the next financial year to accelerate expansion mainly in the non-southern India market, stated a PTI report. Aurobindo, Sun Pharma: The two drug makers are recalling different products in the US market due to deviation from standard manufacturing norms. According to the latest enforcement report issued by the USFDA, the US-based arm of is recalling 1,15,776 bottles of Moxifloxacin Ophthalmic Solution, an antibiotic used in the treatment of bacterial infections. READ MORE Bharti Airtel: The telecom major has decided to acquire an additional 4.7 per cent stake in Indus Towers from Vodafone Group. The two companies signed an agreement on the condition that Vodafone will use the proceeds to invest in Vodafone Idea (Vi) and the latter will clear its pending dues with Indus Towers. Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC): The company informed BSE, that it raised Rs 900 crore by issuing bonds on a private placement basis and the proceeds from the issue will be used for further lending and other business purposes. Adani Power: The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of billionaire Gautam Adanis power unit, saying state-run distribution companies in Rajasthan have to pay Rs 3,048 crore and additional interest to compensate for higher fuel costs. Rain Industries: The company posted a net loss of Rs 72.31 crore in Q3FY21 as against a net profit of Rs 321.99 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income, however, surged 34 per cent YoY to Rs 4,080.68 crore. The domestic equity benchmarks further pared losses in mid-morning trade. The Nifty marched towards the 16,550 mark. Auto shares declined. The continued escalation of the Russia Ukraine conflict and its consequent global economic fallout weighed on investor sentiment. At 11:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 246.33 points or 0.44% to 55,612.19. The Nifty 50 index lost 65.10 points or 0.39% to 16,593.30. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 0.17% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.08%. The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1595 shares rose and 1628 shares fell. A total of 169 shares were unchanged. Economy: The Government has permitted up to 20% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under automatic route in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) with an aim to facilitate disinvestment of the country's largest insurer. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had mooted the proposal to allow FDI in LIC, after taking views from the Ministry of Finance. The much-awaited initial public offering, IPO of LIC is expected to hit the market in March and LIC's employees and policyholders would get a discount over the floor price. Buzzing Index: The Nifty Auto index fell 1.09% to 10,776.45. The index had advanced 2.69% to close at 10,895.30 on Friday. Eicher Motors (down 2.59%), TVS Motor Company (down 2.21%), Maruti Suzuki (down 1.58%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.43%), Tata Motors (down 1.25%), Bharat Forge (down 1.25%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 0.90%) declined while Ashok Leyland (up 0.34%) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.22%) advanced. Stocks in Spotlight: Aurionpro Solutions fell 2.65% to Rs 282.50. Singapore-based SC Soft, an Aurionpro subsidiary, announced an order win to design, develop & supply on-board validators supporting the up-gradation to EMV open-loop ticketing for the 200 pilot buses in Costa Rica. The order is valued at $225,000 which covers the supply of equipment and implementation by the end of Q2-2022, followed by the maintenance & support post-warranty. Zen Technologies shed 0.25% to Rs 195.85. The company said that it secured an export order for the supply of training equipment worth approximately Rs 13.5 crore. SJVN rose 1.60% to Rs 28.60. The company announced that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India has granted in-principle approval for development of 400MW solar park at Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh. Global Markets: Asian stocks were trading higher on Monday. Investors continued to monitor the Russia-Ukraine crisis and related sanctions. Taiwan markets are closed for a holiday on Monday. Russia continued its advance into Ukraine over the weekend, with reports of fighting on the streets and forces encircling Kyiv. President Vladimir Putin on Sunday put his country's deterrence forces, which reportedly include nuclear capabilities, on high alert in response to international backlash to Russia's invasion. The U.S. and its allies announced new sanctions and measures to hit Russia, such as removing selected Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT. Many countries have also said they will close their airspace to Russian aircraft. On the diplomatic front, representatives from the Ukraine and Russian governments have agreed to meet at the Ukraine-Belarus border with no preconditions, as per reports. Belarus, which shares a border with both Ukraine and Russia, has close ties with Moscow. US stocks climbed Friday as investors continued to assess the financial risks stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On the data front, the Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, surged 2.1% last month after falling 0.8% in December. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Biocon Biologics (BBL), a subsidiary of Biocon, has entered into a definitive agreement with its partner Viatris Inc. Accordingly, BBL will acquire Viatris' biosimilars business to create a unique fully integrated global biosimilars enterprise. Viatris will receive cash consideration of $2 billion on closing of the transaction and up to $335 million as additional payments expected to be paid in 2024. Additionally, upon closing of the transaction, BBL will issue $1 billion of Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) to Viatris, equivalent to an equity stake of at least 12.9% in the company, on a fully diluted basis. The transaction is expected to close in 2H-2022, subject to satisfaction of closing conditions (including certain regulatory approvals). The companies will also enter into a transition services agreement, pursuant to which Viatris will provide certain transition services, including commercialization services, for an expected two-year period. Viatris also will pay $50 million to BBL to fund certain capital expenditures. The cash payment of $2 billion will be funded by $800 million raised through equity infusion in BBL and the remainder to be funded by debt, additional equity or a combination thereof. BBL has received expressions of interest from financial institutions for debt financing and equity commitments from existing shareholders. BBL will have a comprehensive portfolio comprising its current range of commercialized insulins, oncology and immunology biosimilars as well as several other biosimilar assets currently under development. BBL also has access to the vaccines portfolio through its previously announced partnership with Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS). Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw will continue as the executive chairperson of BBL. Viatris will designate Rajiv Malik, president of Viatris, to serve on the BBL board. Post closure of the deal, BBL will realize the full revenue and associated profits from its partnered products, a step-up from its existing arrangement with Viatris. The deal will expand BBL's EBITDA base and strengthen overall financials, enabling investments for sustained long- term growth. The deal will lead to operational efficiencies across the complete value chain and build agile capabilities in development, manufacturing, regulatory, supply chain and commercialization in developed and emerging markets. BBL currently has a portfolio of 20 biosimilars. The acquisition of biosimilars assets of Viatris significantly strengthens BBL's position in providing affordable access to patients through its portfolio in diabetes, oncology, immunology and other non-communicable diseases. It also prepares BBL for greater success with the commercialization of its future pipeline. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson, Biocon Biologics, said: "This acquisition is transformational and will create a unique fully integrated, world leading biosimilars enterprise. Our long-standing global partnership with Viatris has enabled us to achieve many firsts, setting new benchmarks for the global biosimilars industry. This strategic combination brings together the complementary capabilities and strengths of both partners and prepares us for the next decade of value creation for all our stakeholders." "The deal will enable BBL to attain a robust commercial engine in the developed markets of U.S. & Europe and will fast-track our journey of building a strong global brand. It will also make us future-ready for the next wave of products. This development takes our partnership with Viatris to the next level to realize our shared purpose of impacting global health by providing affordable access to high quality essential and life -saving Biosimilar drugs," she added. BBL is a fully integrated global biosimilars organization. It is leveraging cutting-edge science, innovative tech platforms and advanced research & development capabilities to lower costs of biologics therapies while improving healthcare outcomes. It has a strong research pipeline of biosimilar molecules across diabetes, oncology, immunology and other non-communicable diseases. Five molecules from Biocon Biologics' portfolio have been taken from lab to market in developed markets like U.S., EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and key emerging markets. Biocon is a global biopharmaceuticals company committed to enhance affordable access to complex therapies for chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer and autoimmune. Biocon's consolidated net profit jumped 17.68% to Rs 219.60 crore on a 17.05% surge in revenue from operations to Rs 2,174.20 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. Shares of Biocon were down 2.98% at Rs 382.40 on the BSE. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bank of Japan, acting as agent for the Minister of Finance of Japan, and the Reserve Bank of India signed the Amendment and Restatement Agreement of the BSA. The BSA is a two-way arrangement where both authorities can swap their local currencies in exchange for the US Dollar. The size of the BSA remains unchanged, that is, up to 75 billion US Dollars. Japan and India renewed the Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) effective today (Feb. 28, 2022), RBI stated. Japan and India believe that the BSA, which aims to strengthen and complement other financial safety nets, will further deepen financial cooperation between the two countries and contribute to regional and global financial stability. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japan share market finished session slight higher on Monday, 28 February 2022, as investors continued hunting on recently beaten down shares on tracking the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday and on hopes that planned talks between Ukraine and Russia later in the day may prevent the conflict from becoming drawn out. However, market gains were limited amid heightened Russia-Ukraine tensions as Western nation's unveiled harsher sanctions on Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrent on high alert, citing aggressive statements by leading NATO countries. Japan joined Sunday the United States and the European Union in blocking some Russian banks from accessing the international payment system SWIFT. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced 50.32 points, or 0.19%, to 26,526.82. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange added 10.69 points, or 0.57%, to 1,886.93. Total 30 of 33 TSE issues advanced, with top performing sectors were Marine Transportation (up 3.6%), Nonferrous Metals (up 2.8%), Iron & Steel (up 2.8%), Mining (up 2.5%), and Electric Power & Gas (up 2.2%), while bottom performing issues included Wholesale Trade (down 0.8%) and Electric Appliances (down 0.2%). Shares of energy-related issues drew buying on expectations that crude oil prices would continue to rise. Oil explorer Inpex climbed 2.65 to 1,185 yen, Idemitsu Kosan edged up 0.85 to 3,080 yen, and Cosmo Energy Holdings gained 2.65 to 2,596 yen. ECONOMIC NEWS: Japan Industrial Production Dives 1.3% On Month In January- Japan industrial output fell a seasonally adjusted 1.35 on month in January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Monday, following the 1.05 drop in December. On a yearly basis, industrial production sank 0.95 following the 2.75 increase in the previous month. Upon the release of the data, the METI maintained its assessment of industrial production, saying that it is showing signs of upward movement. Industries that contributed to the decline included motor vehicles, iron and steel and chemicals. These were offset by increases among electronic parts and production machinery. Shipments were down 1.85 on month and 1.25 on year, while inventories fell 1.85 on month and climbed 4.15 on year. The inventory ratio was down 1.35 on month and up 4.15 on year. Japan Retail Sales Rise Up 1.6% On Year In January- Japan retail sales was up 1.65 on year in January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Monday, up from the downwardly revised 1.25 gain in the previous month (originally 1.45). On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, retail sales tumbled 1.95, following the downwardly revised 1.25 decline in December. CURRENCY NEWS: The U. S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 97.189, up from 96.615. The Japanese yen traded at 115.52, strengthening slightly from 115.56. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The key equity indices tumbled in early trade amid across the board selling in index pivotals. All the sectoral indices on the NSE were currently in the red. Financials, banks, autos and realty shares declined the most. At 09:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 852.94 points or 1.53% to 55,005.58. The Nifty 50 index lost 246.30 points or 1.48% to 16,412.10. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.39% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.65%. The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 653 shares rose and 2061 shares fell. A total of 140 shares were unchanged. Stocks in Spotlight: Bharti Airtel fell 2.39% to Rs 672. The telecom major on Friday said it has entered into an agreement with Vodafone Group Plc. to buy 4.7% equity in Indus Towers. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Hindalco Industries added 0.68% to Rs 537.45. The company has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement ('SPA') with Terrabel Empreedimentos Ltda , a Brazilian firm to divest entire equity shareholding in Hindalco Do Brazil Industria Comercia de Alumina LTDA (HDB) - Wholly owned step down subsidiary of Hindalco Industries. IRCON International rose 0.25% to Rs 40.20. The company has been appointed as a 'project implementation agency' for a road project in Myanmar by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India. Meanwhile, Government has permitted up to 20% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under automatic route in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) with an aim to facilitate disinvestment of the country's largest insurer. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had mooted the proposal to allow FDI in LIC, after taking views from the Ministry of Finance. The much-awaited initial public offering, IPO of LIC is expected to hit the market in March and LIC's employees and policyholders would get a discount over the floor price. Global Markets: Asian stocks are trading mixed on Monday as investors monitor the Russia-Ukraine crisis and related sanctions. Taiwan markets are closed for a holiday on Monday. Russia continued its advance into Ukraine over the weekend, with reports of fighting on the streets and forces encircling Kyiv. President Vladimir Putin on Sunday put his country's deterrence forces, which reportedly include nuclear capabilities, on high alert in response to international backlash to Russia's invasion. The U.S. and its allies announced new sanctions and measures to hit Russia, such as removing selected Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT. Many countries have also said they will close their airspace to Russian aircraft. On the diplomatic front, representatives from the Ukraine and Russian governments have agreed to meet at the Ukraine-Belarus border with no preconditions, as per reports. Belarus, which shares a border with both Ukraine and Russia, has close ties with Moscow. US stocks climbed Friday as investors continued to assess the financial risks stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On the data front, the Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, surged 2.1% last month after falling 0.8% in December. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Political strategist Prashant Kishor's meeting with Chief Minister here has assumed political significance ahead of next year's Assembly elections in the state, even as the supremo is making efforts to stitch up an anti-BJP bloc comprising various regional leaders including Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav Thackeray. Kishor, who is credited with successfully handling the campaigns of several political parties in assembly elections in different states, including the DMK and TMC in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal last year, has met Rao, during the last couple of days, sources said on Monday. Though Kishor has been in touch with TRS, no arrangement between him and the Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has been crystalised yet and talks were still on, they claimed. There has been no official word on Kishor's meeting with Rao, also known as KCR. Rao and Kishor are understood to have discussed the ongoing efforts to bring together non-BJP parties, the present round of and other political developments. are scheduled to be held in in December next year. Rumours have been doing the rounds over Kishor working for for some time now. During his stay in Telangana, Kishor has visited the TRS government's flagship Kaleswaram project, the sources said. Curiously, popular actor Prakash Raj was also present during Kishor's visit to the project. Photographs taken on the occasion have appeared in the media, sparking off speculation that the multi-lingual actor might be given a significant role by TRS. Prakash Raj's presence came as a surprise during Rao's recent visit to Mumbai when the latter met his Maharashtra counterpart Thackeray and NCP Chief Sharad Pawar. Since then, speculation has been rife in political circles that TRS would nominate Raj to the Rajya Sabha to effectively pitch its views at the national level. Prakash Raj, a popular actor especially in Indian films, is known for his strong anti-BJP views. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as an Independent in Bengaluru and more recently the election to Movie Artists Association (MAA) of the Telugu film industry. Amid buzz about forging a third front, Rao held separate meetings with Thackeray and Pawar about a week ago. He had earlier met Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin in December 2021. He has also proposed to meet his West Bengal counterpart and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee. At a recent public meeting in Siddipet district, Rao had said he is moving in the direction of influencing national and that he would use all his abilities to set the things right in the country, "even by shedding the last drop of blood". (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.) Taiwanese smartphone maker on Monday launched in India the Asuz 8z. The smartphone boasts compact design, top-notch specifications, and premium features. Powered by Snapdragon 888 system-on-chip, the smartphone will be available in 8GB RAM and 128GB on-board storage configuration. Priced at Rs 42,999, the smartphone will be available on home-grown e-commerce platform Flipkart from March 7. 8z: Specifications The 8z boasts 5.9-inch fullHD+ AMOLED screen (Samsung E4) of 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. The screen supports HDR10+ and is rated to hit peak brightness of 1100 nits. The smartphone has Gorilla Glass Victus protection on the front and back. It is IP68 rated for protection against water and dust damages. It is 8.9mm thin and weighs 169g. Powered by Snapdragon 888 SoC, the Asus 8Z packs a 4,000 mAh battery and ships with 30W fast-charger. It supports several global navigation satellite system, including Indias NavIC. The phone boots Android 11-based ZenUI 8 operating system. Imaging is covered by a 64-megapixel (Sony IMX686) primary sensor on the back, paired with a 12MP (Sony IMX 363) ultra-wide-angle sensor. On the front, the phone has a 12MP (Sony IMX663) sensor. The primary sensor on the rear side of the smartphone is backed by optical image stabilisation. It is capable of recording 8K resolution videos with electronic image stabilisation at 24 frame-per-second. The ultra-wide-angle sensor supports autofocus and doubles up as macro lens for close-up shots (up to 4cm). It is capable of recording up to 4K resolution videos at 60fps. Connectivity includes USB-C port for charging and data transfers, Wi-Fi 6 with 2x2 MIMO antennas, and Bluetooth 5.2 with support for wide range of audio codecs such as LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive + AAC. Meta (formerly Facebook) has blocked access to several Russian state-controlled accounts in . The social network said it is also reviewing other governments' requests to restrict access to these accounts in their countries. Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Meta, said in a tweet thread early on Monday that the company has been in contact with the Government of . "At their request, we have also restricted access to several accounts in Ukraine, including those belonging to some Russian state media organisations," Clegg posted. "We are also reviewing other government requests to restrict Russian state controlled media," he added. The Ukrainians have also suggested that Meta remove access to and Instagram in . "However, people in are using FB and IG to protest and organise against the war and as a source of independent information," he informed. "The Russian government is already throttling our platform to prevent these activities. We believe turning off our services would silence important expression at a crucial time," he noted. Hit by partial restrictions, Meta (formerly Facebook) on last weekend prohibited Russian state media from running ads or monetising on its platform anywhere in the world. Meta has established a special operations centre staffed by experts from across the company, including native Russian and Ukrainian speakers, who are monitoring the platform around the clock, allowing the company to respond to issues in real time. "We've added several safety features in Ukraine, including the ability for people to lock their profile, removing the ability to view and search friends lists, and additional tools on Messenger," the company informed. Meta said it is also providing more transparency around state-controlled media outlets, prohibiting ads from Russian state media and demonetising their accounts. Google-owned YouTube has also announced it is temporarily halting the ability of a number of Russian channels, including state-sponsored RT, to monetise their content on the platform. Earlier, also blocked Twitter to stifle the flow of information as its invasion of escalates. --IANS na/dpb (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 28 (ANI/NewsVoir): (https://bellaward.com/) Aegis Graham Bell Awards (AGBA) is an initiative of Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecommunication and powered by mUni Campus, a leading edtech company to recognize the talent of those who have potential to grow as technology leaders; start-up founders; innovators; entrepreneurs; and intra entrepreneurs who are transforming the lives of millions of Indians by their work. The 12th AGBA is supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India; Skill India' NIC (National Informatics Centre, office under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology). At the event, Hon'ble Minister Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Education, Government of India; Hon'ble Minister Dr. Ram Lal Markanda, Technical Education and IT Minister, Government of Himachal Pradesh and Shri RP Singh, National Spokesperson BJP, felicitated the winners and finalists as well as recognized 9 talented students from all over India under the initiative AGBA National Talent Hunt, who are provided with a 100% scholarship to study higher education in Data Science; in Applied AI, Machine Learning & Deep Learning and in Cyber Security from (https://www.aegis.edu.in/) Aegis School of Data Science & Cyber Security and Telecommunication. Hon'ble Minister Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Ministry of Education and Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, said, "I congratulate all the winners and finalists of the 12th Aegis Graham Bell Awards as well as the organizers for creating such a platform to promote the innovators. I would like to encourage the innovators to continue their good work which will boost and motivate the young talent to grow as leaders of the future India." Hon'ble Minister Dr Ram Lal Markanda, Technical Education and IT Minister, Government of Himachal Pradesh commented, "I would like to congratulate the team of Aegis Graham Bell Awards and the Jury panel from different domains and countries for recognizing the innovators and also congratulated AGBA for its initiative AGBA National Talent Hunt through which they are providing 100% scholarship for courses at Aegis School of Data Science to students from India. I would like to congratulate the winners, finalists and young entrepreneurs who are looking and striving to change the world with their innovations and efforts and achieve the goal to bring India at the forefront." "I am glad and honored to be present at the 12 edition of Aegis Graham Bell Awards. Since 12 years, the AGBA team, the Jury panel along with other Ministry partners has been encouraging new and young talents and innovations and we wish to continue the good work for India," said Sardar R.P Singh, National Spokesperson, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Cmde. Dr. Jadumani Jena, Chief Advisor, mUni Campus mentioned, "Our partnership with Aegis Graham Bell Awards was not only to recognize industry innovations but to uplift the young talents to become tech leaders in Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security through AGBA National Talent Hunt. We congratulate the winners of 12th Aegis Graham Bell Awards for their contribution in the growth of India." The winners and finalists of the 11th AGBA: Winners: Innovation in Analytics: Decimal Point Analytics | Innovation in Transport Tech: LoadShare Networks | Innovation in Cloud: VCNS Global | Innovation in Cyber Security: L & T Technology Services | Innovation in AR/VR: HCL Technologies | Innovation in Retail: Entropik Tech | Innovation in Supply Chain: Vodafone Idea Limited | Innovation in AgriTech: Agribid | Innovation in Low Cost Tech: Xyma Analytics | Innovation in Education: StockGro | Innovation in Managed Services: Cacti Global | Innovation in Consumer Tech: Instoried | Preventive measures for COVID-19: C-DOT | Innovative business model: Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Service Private Limited | Innovative lockdown management: C-DOT | Innovation IoT: Cyient Ltd. | Innovation in Data Science: Intelligence Node | Innovation in Enterprise Solution: Zimyo | Innovation in Mobile App for Consumer: Trell | Innovation in Digital Transformation: Uptime AI | Innovation in Digital Transformation for Telecom: Lightstorm telecom | Innovation in Healthtech: Makers Hive Innovations | Innovation in Digital Transformation for Banking: Zensar | Innovation in Blockchain: HCL Technologies and Param Networks | Innovation in Banking and Finance: Rupifi Technology | Innovation to Combat COVID-19 with AI: ESDS | Innovation in Diagnostics: Agatsa | Innovation in Automation: Jio Platforms | Innovation in Digital Workplace: HCL Technologies | Innovation in AI: Agara | Innovation in Life Science: AIRA Matrix | Innovation in Manufacturing: Accenture | Innovation in Tech for Social Good: C-DOT and SignaAble Communication | Innovation in 5G: Niral Networks | Innovation in Telecom Solution: Airtel Business | Innovation in Telecom Infra: Sterlite Power. Finalists: Innovation in Analytics: IKS Health and Niramai | Innovation in Transport Tech: Accenture and DDoT | Innovation in Cloud: Infosys and Wipro | Innovation in Cyber Security: KPMG | Innovation in AR/VR: Accenture and Cognilements | Innovation in Retail: Comviva and HCL Technologies | Innovation in Supply Chain: Capgemini Technology Services India Limited and EdgeVerve | Innovation in AgriTech: Faarms and PyFarm | Innovation in Low Cost Tech: HCL Technologies and SAP | Innovation in Education: Knorish and Leverage Edu | Innovation in Managed Services: Botnomics UK Limited and GAVS Technologies | Innovation in Consumer Tech: Dhiyo.ai | Preventive measures for COVID19: Capgemini Technology Services India Limited and HCL Technologies | Innovative business model: Bobble AI and VMware | Innovative lockdown management: Mindtree and Microsoft & Aditya Birla Capital | Innovation IoT: Probus Smart Things Private Limited and Tata Communication | Innovation in Data Science: HCL Technologies and Subex | Innovation in Enterprise Solution: Arishti CyberTech and VMWare | Innovation in Mobile App for Consumer: MPL and IamHere | Innovation in Digital Transformation: Mindtree and Microsoft | Innovation in Digital Transformation for Telecom: Nokia Solutions & Networks Pvt Ltd. and Vodafone Idea | Innovation in Healthtech: Innominds and Siemens Healthineers | Innovation in Digital Transformation for Banking: Axis Bank, Fincare Small Finance Bank and Pennant Technologies | Innovation in Blockchain: Vlinder Labs | Innovation in Banking and Finance: m1xchange and CrediWatch | Innovation to Combat COVID-19 with AI: Nihilent and L & T Smart World | Innovation in Diagnostics: mFine and Siemens Healthineers | Innovation in Automation: SAP and Quale Infotech | Innovation in Digital Workplace: Airtel Business and Indus Tower | Innovation in AI: Nihilent and Entropik Tech | Innovation in Life Science: CyGenica and Tech Mahindra | Innovation in Manufacturing: LivNSense Technologies and Novartis Healthcare | Innovation in Tech for Social Good: Tech Mahindra | Innovation in 5G: Jio Platforms and Saankhya Labs | Innovation in Telecom Solution: Parallel Wireless and Jio Platforms | Innovation in Telecom Infra: HPE and Nokia. For the AGBA National Talent Hunt, we have four companies sponsoring the students with scholarship, Cyient, Decimal Point Analytics, vCreaTek Consulting Services and (https://municampus.com/) mUni Campus jointly with Aegis School to peruse higher education in Data Science; in Applied AI, Machine Learning & Deep Learning and in Cyber Security. The nine students who are provided with a 100% scholarship: Mentoring Company: Decimal Point Analytics Awarded Students: Ambuj Mishra, Asiya Pathan Mentoring Company: Cyient Ltd. Awarded Student: Janvi Karla Mentoring Company: vCreaTek Consulting Services Awarded Students: Simran Koul, Sakib Arkate Mentoring Company: mUni Campus Awarded Students: Salwa Tisekar, Hishore H, Pooja Malpani, Karthi M Bhupesh Daheria, CEO of Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecommunication and Founder of AGBA said, "I would like to thank the Jury to put in efforts to identify and short list the winners and finalists transparently without any biases. Thanking our Ministry partners who supported us in the journey. Congratulation to all the winners and even to the finalists who have done great innovations." He also congratulated the 9 talented students who were selected through AGBA National Talent Hunt and who have got a 100% scholarship for courses in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecommunication was founded in the year 2002 with support from Bharti Airtel to develop cross functional technology leaders. In 2015, Aegis and IBM collaborated to launch, India's first Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Data Science, Business Analytics and Big Data and later in 2017 PGP in Cyber Security. Currently, these programs are certified and delivered by Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecommunication. Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecommunication, key innovators and veterans of the industries realized that it is important to recognize the Indian innovators and their innovations that are changing the lives of millions. In the year 2010, Aegis Graham Bell Awards was initiated to promote innovators and innovations in Information & Communication Technology (ICT), education and exponential technologies and as a tribute to the father of telephony, Alexander Graham Bell. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI/Target Media): Education, especially in the technical field, continues to become expensive because of which underprivileged students cannot acquire quality learning. Because of this, a large number of students are not able to achieve what they can in their careers, although they have tremendous talent. What students need is affordable IT education, but it should be high in quality. It was this need of the students that prompted Vicky Gawande to start Arc Technologies and Institutions in Nagpur. When asked about what motivated him to establish Arc Technologies and Institutions in 2015, Vicky Gawande says, "I observed that technical training was very expensive at that time in Nagpur. I also saw that majority of students were moving to Hyderabad for the training. So I decided to start a technical training institute that will provide high quality IT education at the most affordable fees anywhere in Maharashtra." Since it was found, Arc Technologies and Institutions has not just provided high quality, affordable IT education, but also helped an enormous number of students succeed and grow in their careers by securing jobs in top IT firms. Vicky Gawande has now been honored with the prestigious "Entrepreneur of the Year" award by the Honorable Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan in Malabar Hill, Mumbai. The award was bestowed to Vicky Gawande for his outstanding and remarkable contribution to the IT and education sector. He has delivered high-quality technical training and exceptional mentorship to his students since he founded Arc Technologies and Institutions. It is a matter of pride for any city when people belonging to it gain fame in the field that they have chosen. What Vicky has achieved at such a young age is a matter of pride for Nagpur as well as his father Tirthrup Pandhari Gawande, a retired businessman, and mother Nanda Tirthrup Gawande. Vicky started (http://www.arctechs.in) Arc Technologies and Institutions with an initial investment of Rs. 4000 only. He then brought in expert instructors and developers to assist him in the growth of Arc Technologies and Institutions, which is focused on providing the best of IT education to the Indian youth. In fact, Vicky's vision is to provide the highest quality technical training and placements to aspiring students at the most affordable fees. His mission is to make Arc Technologies and Institutions the largest technical training institute in India. An educator has the responsibility of not only teaching students but also assisting them in their academic and professional growth. Vicky Gawande is such a person, as students have achieved not only top-level education through Arc Technologies and Institutions but also significant success in their careers. The institute has so far helped over 500 of its students get jobs in top MNCs like Accenture, Cognizant, TCS, HCL, and even Google. These students look up to Vicky Gawande as their mentor and are grateful to him for his excellent guidance. Since 2015, Nagpur-based Arc Technologies and Institutions has been offering affordable and professional training to students as well as working professionals. At Arc Technologies, you can get trained in the domain of your choice from a wide range of customized training programs. These easy-to-adapt training programs have been tailored to meet the requirements of the most in-demand jobs in the IT sector. Undoubtedly, Arc Technologies and Institutions is one of the best technical training institutes in Maharashtra. Vicky Gawande is an expert in Professional Forex Trading, Training, Mentorship, and Business Management. The achievements of the 30-year-old at such a young age show Vicky Gawande's undivided attention and commitment to his goal of providing high-quality IT education that every student can afford. He has now become a true role model and inspiration for many people and hence truly deserves the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award, which he received at Governor's House Raj Bhavan in Malabar Hill, Mumbai, on February 24, 2022. This story is provided by Target Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Target Media) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI/NewsVoir): Best Agrolife Limited (BAL), a leading agrochemical company in India, on Friday announced that it has received one more patent for herbicidal composition of haloxyfop, imazethapyr, and chlorimuron, likely to emerge as an effective one-shot solution to protect soyabean crops from the attack of narrow-leaved weeds, broadleaved weeds, and sedges. "India ranks fourth in the world with 11.4 mn hectare area under soybean, which accounts for 9.12% of the world. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Telangana are the major Soyabean producing states in India. The company is planning to launch this in-house developed ternary herbicide in all these Indian states by early 2023 with the brand name 'Shot Down'. With this patent in hand, Best Agrolife Ltd. will now have a competitive advantage over the contemporary agrochemical players in India as this product is going to be of high importance not only in India, but in other soybean-producing countries as well. Therefore, the company is also moving ahead with the procedures of filing the PCT application to globalize the proprietary brand Shot Down in many other major soyabean producing countries like Brazil," said Vimal Alawadhi, Managing Director, Best Agrolife Ltd. "It is important to note that if left untreated, weeds compete with crops by resources like water, light, and nutrients leading to an 80% loss in production, reducing grain quality, and hindering harvest operations. Till now there is not even a single herbicide available in the country which could control sedges, and broad-leaved and narrow-leaved weeds together in soybean, and farmers have no other choice than to use 3 different sprays or go for intensive manual weeding. Shot Down, on the other hand, has proved its potential of emerging as a one-shot single spray solution after going through multiple field trials in the last season crops in various states. Other than controlling all the weeds together and reducing the number of sprays to one, Shot Down will also help the farmers in saving their hard-earned money," Vimal Alawadhi added further. It is important to note that BAL has recently started production at its subsidiary unit Seedlings India Pvt. Ltd., a fully automated unit, which will be dedicated only to specialized, high-end, innovative, and proprietary products like Ronfen which is also a first-of-its-kind three-way insecticidal combination to control and eliminate all sucking pests together in prominent crops like cotton, chilly, and vegetables in line with the same concept. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 28 (ANI/PRNewswire): Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), an eye condition causing vision loss and blindness, affects nearly 16.9% of patients with diabetes, 3.6% of whom are most likely to lose their vision because of sight-threatening DR (STDR), stated India's first National Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy Survey in 2019. Hence, stressing the need for screening for ocular diseases in patients with diabetes is as critical as screening for diabetes. In 2019, (https://www.remidio.com/) Remidio began working with the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Government of Kerala on project Nayanamritham, the brainchild of Dr Sobha Sivaprasad, Professor and Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK, who worked under the aegis of the ORNATE India, a project funded by Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to implement the program. The partnership between the DHS, Government of Kerala, the ORNATE India, and Remidio created a (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/6/e040577) care pathway from DR screening to treatment in Kerala, spanning primary, secondary, and tertiary touchpoints. Remidio's Fundus on Phone, the world's first non-mydriatic smartphone-based portable fundus camera, powered the DR screening at the 16 Family Health Centres (FHCs) across Thiruvananthapuram district. Remidio imparted extensive training to the FHC healthcare workers to capture retinal images, many of whom did not have prior experience. The FHCs then transferred the retinal images to a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO), a tertiary ophthalmic centre in Thiruvananthapuram. The retinal specialists at RIO graded the images into the four categories of DR staging using teleophthalmology. To document the program's impact, a detailed analysis was conducted to ascertain the number of patients with diabetes screened, duration of diabetes, behavioural risk factors, the number of patients detected with DR, and the number of patients referred to a specialist. A (https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/24/5903/htm) December 2021 paper published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, found the prevalence of DR to be 17.4% (age - and gender-adjusted prevalence) among the 4,527 patients with diabetes screened in Kerala. If DR is left unchecked, it may often be, then the condition may lead to vision loss, including blindness. Another alarming observation was that nearly 99% of the patients detected with DR were unaware of the fact that they had DR. This finding stresses the urgent need for improving public awareness towards DR and associated vision loss. "The Nayanamritham program has shown great promise in bringing affordable DR screening to the grassroots. Such FHC driven chronic eye disease screening models can significantly impact preventable blindness in India," said Dr. Sobha Sivaprasad. At Kerala, the sub-population that is more at risk of DR are patients with diabetes aged between 40-70 years. With most of the population being in the working-age group, visual impairment risk is likely to impact the individual and their family and society significantly. With a current prevalence of diabetes at 20%, Kerala has the highest prevalence amongst all the states of India. If DR were to be left unchecked, the impact on the economy would be tragic. "Kerala expanded the focus of its robust NCD program to include health conditions that impact the quality of life severely. DR is one such condition that causes vision loss, but it is preventable through screening programs. Moreover, when medical technology is increasingly bringing healthcare closer to the patient. We should focus on bringing the technology to improve the quality of life of our citizens," said Dr Bipin K Gopal, Assistant Director, Directorate of Health Services, Thiruvananthapuram. The Government of Kerala is actively working to curb the effects of DR and has expanded the program to 172 FHCs across the state based on the initial impact of the pilot screening program. With ~30% of India dependent on public health paired with the rising levels of diabetes, a need has arisen to implement preventative care strategies designed to spread awareness, detect, and treat diabetic retinopathy as many lives may depend on it. "Programs like Nayanamritham help empower patients with diabetes, especially in rural areas, by making it convenient to get an annual eye screening within the comfort of an accessible FHC. The success of this pilot program, wherein 1 in 3 patients with Diabetes were detected to have Retinopathy, and moved to the care pathway, paves the way for other states to implement similar cost-effective and accessible models for screening chronic eye diseases like DR," said Dr.Anand Sivaraman, Founder & CEO of Remidio. Remidio is an innovative ISO 13485 certified medical device company that seeks to impact preventable blindness by creating accessible technologies that are smart and simple to use. Remidio's CE marked and FDA 510k registered retinal imaging devices have helped screen and impact more than 7.5 million patients in 15 countries globally, because of increased access provided by the ease of use and affordability of Remidio's patented optics on the smartphone platform. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, they not only set in motion a war but also an economic upheaval across Asia. Most Asian countries are now bracing for a tough and uncertain time ahead. We take a peek into the likely troubles that this war might cause to these nations, including India. Troubles for Asian economies are aplenty. Add to that the burden of higher energy prices for importers like India. skyrocketed last week after sanctions were imposed on Russia. Brent crude surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014, while Aluminium prices touched lifetime highs. Gold prices also rose to a 13-month high as investors rushed to safe-haven bets. Will this rally continue this week? Or will equities be back in flavour? After the war, economic upheaval and the market dynamics in their wake, let us now move on to a company which has been seeing a stable growth for long. In an interview with Business Standards Surajeet Das Gupta, chairman and managing director of Bajaj Finserv, Sanjiv Bajaj, tells about how he plans to take his financial service business digital. Last week, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated, India launched an evacuation exercise to bring home its citizens stuck in the conflict zone. An Air India plane, under the Mission, evacuated about 240 Indians before the Ukrainian airspace was shut for air traffic. Find out more about Mission in this episode of the podcast. ALSO READ: Russia Ukraine war Live Updates Last week, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated, India launched an evacuation exercise to bring home its citizens stuck in the conflict zone. An Air India plane, under the Mission, evacuated about 240 Indians before the Ukrainian airspace was shut for air traffic. Find out more about Mission in this episode of the podcast. Watch video On February 18th, Air India announced that it would operate three flights between India and Ukraine on 22nd, 24th and 26th under the Mission to help Indian citizens fly back home. The second special Air India flight turned back mid-air in the morning hours of February 24 after Ukraine closed its airspace due to Russian invasion. While the government is devising alternate plans to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine, let us take a look at the Mission. Immediately after the outbreak of Coronavirus in 2020, Indias aviation regulator, The Directorate General of (DGCA), had suspended all commercial international flights in March of that year. This restriction has been extended till February 28, 2022. Most of the other countries had also suspended the flights to check the disease. However, a large number of requests were received from Indian nationals abroad for repatriation. In response, the government had commenced operation under the Mission on May 7, 2020 to facilitate return of stranded Indian nationals abroad in a phased manner. The Vande Bharat Mission is considered one of the largest civilian repatriation exercises by any country in recent history. Although Air India exclusively operated the flights, the mission was soon extended to private carriers from the fourth phase. During the pandemic, the mission also facilitated travel of passengers between India and various parts of the world. The operations under Vande Bharat Mission were commercial operations by the airlines and air fares were paid by passengers. The Centre has not provided any subsidy or grant for the mission. 84 flights were operated in the first phase that lasted 11 days till May 17, 2020. The mission is currently in its 16th phase. As on 31st October 2021, more than 2.17 lakh flights have been operated under Vande Bharat Mission and over 1.83 crore passengers have been facilitated. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Russia, Ukraine to meet at Ukrainian-Belarusian border as fighting continues Xinhua) 08:09, February 28, 2022 * Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict came a ray of hope as Russia and Ukraine agreed to meet at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after his previous refusal, said Ukraine would meet with Russia "without prior conditions" at the border. * As Russian troops were advancing, residents took to underground metro stations together with their pets to stay safe amid the airstrikes. * As the military conflict entered a fourth day, the international community continued to call for a peaceful solution. MOSCOW/KIEV, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict came a ray of hope as Russia and Ukraine agreed to meet at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. The agreement came after a seesaw struggle between the two sides. The Kremlin earlier announced that a Russian delegation has arrived in Belarus for negotiations with Ukraine, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Russia's offer to hold talks in Belarus, saying the country is not an option. Zelensky, after his previous refusal, said Ukraine would meet with Russia "without prior conditions" at the border. The agreement to hold the talks was reached during a phone call between Zelensky and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2022 shows smoke rising in the sky in Kiev, Ukraine. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo) Earlier Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's deterrence forces to be placed on "a special mode of combat duty" in a meeting with top defense officials, accusing Western countries of imposing "illegitimate sanctions" against Russia's economy. HORRIFIED RESIDENTS Another disturbing night fell on Kiev on Saturday, as heavy, black smoke, apparently some distance from the Motherland Monument, billowed. As Russian troops were advancing, most residents took to underground metro stations together with their pets to stay safe amid the airstrikes. Vera, a 30-year-old resident who only gave her first name, told Xinhua that her family had hardly slept for three days. "How can one sleep when explosions and sirens are constantly heard?" She asked. Vera's house has an underground parking lot. Whenever there was an air raid alert, she and her family would rush over for shelter. "It's especially difficult for a child. Almost every time my daughter cries," she said. Since the Ukrainian government decreed a state of emergency on Feb. 24, a series of crossfires, explosions and shellings have rocked the capital city. On Friday, a residential building at Lobanovsky Street was hit by a missile and set ablaze, according to a Telegram video posted by Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko. A journalist passes a damaged building in Donetsk, Feb. 26, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua) Living in a nine-story building in Kiev, 43-year-old plumber Bogdan said that occupants of the block are using a long-deserted basement as a bomb shelter. "We took it (rubbish) out with the whole house for several hours in a row, then we put electricity in the basement. Now we spend the night there with the children," said Bogdan, a father of two sons. At first, Bogdan was able to convince his kids that "it's almost a hike -- we sleep on mats and in sleeping bags." "But yesterday the trick didn't work -- my elder son cried for half the night because he was afraid that a rocket would hit the house," Bogdan said. "I don't think my children deserve this." "From time to time, we think of leaving the city," said Vera, "but we do not know where to run." FIGHTING CONTINUES Earlier Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a delegation including representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and other government agencies has arrived in Belarus. Meanwhile, all units were ordered to mount an offensive in accordance with the operation plan, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said during a briefing. Troops from Lugansk have advanced up to 46 km and captured the settlements of Schastia and Muratovo, while troops from Donetsk have advanced another 10 km from the frontline, reported the ministry Saturday. According to Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko, 198 Ukrainians were killed in Russia's military operation. The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 975 Ukrainian military infrastructure objects since the fighting began, Konashenkov said Sunday. Western countries have taken a military operation in Ukraine off the table while responding with economic sanctions. Peskov noted that the sanctions have little impact on Russia's top leadership. On Saturday, the White House said in a joint statement that in concert with the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and Canada, the United States is supporting the expulsion of "selected Russian banks" from SWIFT, the payment system used for most international financial transactions, "within the coming days," to "further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies." Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that the current sanctions against Russia could be a reason to review relations with states that have imposed them, noting that Russia may respond symmetrically to measures taken against Russian citizens and companies abroad, namely by seizing funds of foreigners and foreign companies in Russia. Additionally, Russian aviation authorities said there would be a "mirror response" to those countries choosing to ban flights for Russian aircraft. Moscow vowed to close its airspace in retaliation. Photo taken on Feb. 25, 2022 shows diesel and gasoline prices displayed on a screen at a gas station in Frankfurt, Germany. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua) The shock waves of the conflicts have battered the world's major markets, bringing stocks down to new lows. Due to fears of supply disruptions, crude oil and natural gas prices jumped to multi-year highs. CALLS FOR PEACEFUL SOLUTION As the military conflict entered a fourth day, the international community continued to call for a peaceful solution. During a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is ready for negotiations with "all constructive forces" to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the situation "is not irreversible," appealing to all parties concerned for protecting civilians and upholding international humanitarian and human rights law. United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the press at the UN headquarters in New York, Feb. 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that the Chinese side supports and encourages all diplomatic efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis during his phone talks with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell as well as Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic counselor to French President Emmanuel Macron. During his meeting with Putin in Moscow on Thursday, visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said that conflict was not in anyone's interest, underlining Pakistan's belief that disputes should be settled through dialogue and diplomacy, according to a statement released by Khan's office. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said on Thursday that "everything must now be done to avoid further escalation and to protect lives." (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) A Ukrainian soldier inspects a damaged military vehicle after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The city authorities said that Ukrainian forces engaged in fighting with Russian troops that entered the country's second-largest city on Sunday. (AP Photo/Marienko Andrew) In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressees the nation in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Russian troops launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine on Thursday, as Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to "consequences you have never seen." (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP) CARTERET COUNTY Mike Norman, who owns a 35-foot boat and sells shrimp at Normans Shrimp in Salter Path, mostly in the summer, said the part Glen, NH (03838) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High 51F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Rain early. Decreasing clouds overnight. Low 44F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ATLANTA Former President Jimmy Carter issued the following statement Monday: Rosalynn and I are saddened by the passing of our dear friend Dick Blum. Dick dedicated much of his life and personal resources to improving the lives of the less fortunate around the world. The Carter Center has been blessed to be one of the recipients of his goodwill and generosity. We send our love to Dianne and their family, and we will keep them in our prayers during this difficult time. President Carters sentiments were echoed by the leadership of The Carter Center. Dicks contributions as a member of The Carter Centers Board of Trustees for 21 years have been integral to our successes and so important to me personally, added board Chair Jason Carter. I will certainly miss his innovative ideas, guidance, and friendship. Paige Alexander, chief executive officer, added: While our time together was limited, it is no secret that much of the strength of the organization I am fortunate enough to lead comes from Dick Blums good work, support, and wise guidance, which the entire philanthropic sector has benefitted from over the years. ### Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope. A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Here is the full statement, translated from Russian: Were convinced that war brings nothing but death, pain and destruction. And nothing can justify it. The animation community of Ukrainian and Russian animation filmmakers is united and inseparable; we have been working together, watching each others films for many years. The art of animation is also an art that helps people to feel human. Not to kill, not to destroy. To unite. And today our children, our brothers are sent to kill those with whom they recently played in the same yard and watched the same cartoons, without distinguishing whether they are Russian or Ukrainian ones. Animation and art in general have always been imbued with anti-war spirit. We believe that the current military actions are directed not just at our Ukrainian friends and colleagues, but against all people, humanity and an as a whole. We are against war. We want the words about the brotherly people not to turn in a bloody nightmare. There is no justification for bombing and killing! Photo: The Canadian Press Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly Canada will send another $25 million worth of defensive equipment to Ukraine in an effort to help the country defend against Russia's invasion. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Defence Minister Anita Anand made the announcement at a press conference on Sunday afternoon. Joly says the equipment includes helmets, body armour, gas masks and night-vision gear. She says it will be routed through Poland to get there as quickly as possible. Anand says Canada will offer up cybersecurity experts who can help Ukraine "defend its networks against cyber attacks that are increasingly forming part of modern-day warfare." She says the Canadian Armed Forces will also send extra airlift help, with the first aircraft to depart for Europe on Monday. "The intent is for it to be used by NATO and in support of the delivery of this aid," she said. Anand says a combat mission in Ukraine isn't on the table at the moment, but Canada is eager to help defend its ally against Russian military aggression in other ways. Their announcements came hours after Transport Minister Omar Alghabra banned Russian from entering Canada's airspace. Meanwhile, rallies have been held across Canada this weekend in support of the Ukrainian people. Hundreds of people have gathered outside B.C.'s Legislature in Victoria Sunday, while another rally will be held outside Kelowna City Hall at 2 p.m. Downtown Torontos Yonge-Dundas Square teemed with a massive throng of people supporting Ukraine. The crowd spilled onto the surrounding roads, with many people carrying signs of support for Ukraine or condemnations of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: The Canadian Press Governor General Mary Simon As a girl in Nunavik in the 1950s, Mary Simon and her friends chattered cheerfully on their way to elementary school, just like other children. But, unlike most other kids, they grew silent as they reached the schoolyard. Inuit languages were banned at Kuujjuaq federal day school in northern Quebec and Simon recalls being punished many times for speaking Inuktitut rather than English in the classroom. From grade one to grade six we were not allowed to speak our language on school property or in the classroom or in school at all, she said in an interview. More than six decades later, as Governor General of Canada, Simon delivered the throne speech not just in the country's official languages, English and French, but in Inuktitut, a groundbreaking moment in Canadian history. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed her to the role last year and she moved into Rideau Hall, the grand official residence in Ottawa. As the Queens representative in Canada, she plays not only a key ceremonial role, but serves as an apolitical figurehead for the country. The 95-year-old Queen recently tested positive for COVID-19 and Simon said Canadians all wish her well. Simon also contracted COVID-19 earlier this month, which she said she only had for a week with mild symptoms, thanks to having been vaccinated. I am fully vaccinated and encourage everyone to get vaccinated. I think getting vaccinated is the best way to fight COVID so we can return to a more normal life, she said. Though she rises above party politics, the politics of vaccinations came to her front door this month after the so-called Freedom Convoy rolled into Ottawa and stayed. One of the protests organizing groups called Canada Unity published a memorandum of understanding calling for the Senate and Governor General to overrule all levels of government and revoke COVID-19 restrictions. Her office was also inundated with emails from people trying to register a no-confidence vote in the government with her, after mistakenly believing that her office had the power to unilaterally dissolve Parliament. Rideau Hall was forced to post a message on Twitter to counter the misinformation on social media encouraging Canadians to cast a non-confidence vote. The statement pointed out that no such registry or process exists. Simon said she did not get involved in the politics of the protests, or meet any of the protesters, although she was kept closely informed of the tumultuous events on her doorstep. The Governor General said Canada has been changed by this major event. She said she is very saddened by some of the events that have taken place especially some of the things that happened at the National War Memorial, in an apparent reference to a video showing someone dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She said Canadians are frustrated and upset because we have had to live a very different life for over two years. Although the protest started out about vaccinations, it became much bigger than that," she said. The protesters were not a homogeneous mass, she said, but included many groupings, including people opposed to vaccines and other people that want to overthrow the government. Overthrowing the government in this way is not something Canada does, she declared. Her focus now is on healing fault lines and divisions that have emerged in Canada, which includes speaking to the broad range of people involved in the protests. During her career, including as lead negotiator for the creation of the Arctic Council, Simon developed a reputation as a bridge-builder between people with sharply opposing views. Though she says she is personally in favour of following the science and getting vaccinated, she stops short of judging the protesters. I dont feel is anyone is wrong particularly, but there is a very strong difference of opinion about what is going on, the former diplomat remarked. She said the country need to take a look at bringing Canadians together to discuss how we can work and come together as a nation and look forward. I am a bridge between Canadians from different experiences, she said. Encouraging different points of view has been central to my work, not just here at Rideau Hall but throughout my lifes work, she said. She said the fact that Canadians have a diversity of experience and opinions makes the country stronger "when we are respectful of each other. But respect is something we really have to work on in the next months and probably years," she believes. Recently the Governor General surprised members of the public by phoning them directly with a kindness call, a CBC Ottawa initiative she liked so much she decided to continue herself. With the calls she hopes to inspire Canadians to ajuinnata, an Inuktitut concept that means a promise, a vow to never give up. I think kindness should be a way of life. I think it is really important even when you disagree with somebody you should always be kind, she said. The Governor General is optimistic that fractures that have emerged in Canadian society in recent weeks can be healed. For all those at loggerheads, she offers some advice, honed from decades of diplomacy. You dont have to be obnoxious about a disagreement," she said. "If you walk away from it, you can wait until a later date to have another discussion and maybe that one will be more fruitful. An essential part of building a more inclusive society, she said, is allowing people to speak in their mother tongue and "fostering respect" for them. Simon, the first Indigenous Governor General, recalled a time when, because Inuit names were considered difficult to pronounce, Inuit people were also assigned a number. That was how to identify Inuit across the Arctic, she said. Only now are Canadians learning about deliberate attempts to erase Indigenous languages at residential schools, she said. They are also learning the truth about these children who were torn from their homes and thrust into very unfamiliar worlds where threats of violence were used to erase their identity. She said Canadians everywhere share in the heartbreak and sorrow of the First Nations following the discoveries of unmarked graves of children attending residential schools. It seems like the country has woken up to a reality that may have not been known by Canadians, she said. Ensuring Indigenous people today do not have to revert to French or English to access basic services in their communities is really important, she said. Simon is fluently bilingual in Inuktitut and English but has had to learn French so she can deliver addresses as Governor General in both official languages, and speak to francophone Canadians in their native tongue. To do this, the 74-year-old grandmother has been taking French lessons, where she practises reading and conversation and studies the structure of the language every week. I have a tutor and I take lessons three times a week for about an hour and a half," she said. "My tutor says Im doing well. Photo: The Canadian Press Ukrainian troops slowed Russias advance on key cities, at least for now, while a Ukrainian delegation arrived at the border with Belarus on Monday for talks with Russian officials, though prospects looked uncertain at best. Kyivs outgunned but determined troops slowed Russias advance and held onto the capital and other key cities at least for the time being. Explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the invasion began last week appeared to subside around Kyiv overnight. Long lines formed outside supermarkets Monday as residents were allowed out of bomb shelters and homes for the first time since a curfew imposed Saturday Exact death tolls are unclear, but Ukraines president says at least 16 children have been killed and another 45 wounded, among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other casualties. Millions have fled homes or the country. U.S. officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts. The British Defense Ministry said Monday that the bulk of Putins forces are about 30 kilometres north of Kyiv, their advance having been slowed by Ukrainian forces. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says her office has confirmed that 102 civilians, including seven children, have been killed, and 304 others injured in violence in Ukraine since Thursday. She cautioned that the tally was likely a vast undercount. ANY CHANCE FOR DIPLOMACY? Thats hard to tell. Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday on Ukraines border with Belarus but it was unclear what, if anything, those talks would yield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys office said Kyivs delegation would demand an immediate cease-fire. While Ukraine sent its defense minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation is led by Putins adviser on culture an unlikely envoy for ending the war and a sign of how Moscow views the talks. It wasnt immediately clear what Putin is seeking in the talks or from the war itself. Western officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraines government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscows Cold War-era influence. His comments Sunday raised fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake. The U.N.s two major bodies the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council are holding separate meetings Monday. The Security Council gave a green light Sunday for the first emergency session of the General Assembly in decades. It will give all U.N. members an opportunity to speak about the war Monday and vote on a resolution later in the week. RUSSIAS NUCLEAR DETERRENT The Russian military said its nuclear deterrent forces have been put on high alert in line with Putins order. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that command posts of all components of Russias nuclear forces have been beefed up with additional personnel. The Defense Ministry said that the high alert status applies to all components of Russian nuclear forces the Strategic Missile Forces that oversee land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Northern and Pacific Fleets that have submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles; and long-range aviation, which has a fleet of nuclear-capable strategic bombers. Putin ordered Russias nuclear forces to be put on high alert Sunday, citing Western sanctions and aggressive statements by NATO powers. HOW MANY HAVE FLED? The head of the United Nations refugee agency said that more than 500,000 people had fled Ukraine for neighboring countries since Russias invasion started on Thursday. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, gave the updated figure in a tweet. A day earlier, he had said that 368,000 people had crossed into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and other countries. Shabia Mantoo, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said the latest and still growing count had 281,000 in Poland, more than 84,500 in Hungary, about 36,400 in Moldova, over 32,500 in Romania and about 30,000 in Slovakia. The rest were scattered in unidentified other countries, she said. WHAT IS THE EUROPEAN UNION DOING? European Union defense ministers were to meet Monday to discuss how to get weaponry they have pledged into Ukraine. Germanys defense minister said without elaborating that her country has channels and possibilities to do that, and a trainload of Czech equipment arrived Sunday. Blocking off those shipments will clearly be a key Russian priority. That action comes on top of a raft of Western economic sanctions in which the EU has been a leading player, and the 27-nation bloc has agreed to close its airspace to Russian airlines. ECONOMIC FALLOUT The Russian currency plunged about 30% against the U.S. dollar on Monday after Western nations moved to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and to restrict Russias use of its massive foreign currency reserves. The ruble later recovered ground after swift action by Russias central bank. The Moscow stock exchange was closed all day. The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday announced new sanctions targeting the Russian central bank and state investment funds. It said the move effectively immobilizes any assets of the central bank in the United States or held by Americans. People wary that sanctions would deal a crippling blow to the economy have been flocking to banks and ATMs for days, with reports on social media of long lines and machines running out. Economists and analysts said that a sharp devaluation of the ruble would mean a drop in the standard of living for the average Russian. Russians are still reliant on a multitude of imported goods and the prices for those items are likely to skyrocket. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the new sanctions as heavy, but argued Monday that Russia has the necessary potential to compensate the damage. Speaking at a meeting with top officials that focused on Western sanctions, Putin himself denounced the U.S. and its allies as an empire of lies. He described Western allies as U.S. satellites which humbly fawn on it, kowtow to it, copy its conduct and joyfully accept the rules it offers to follow. CONSEQUENCES FOR TRAVEL Russia has closed its airspace to carriers from 36 nations, including European countries and Canada, responding in kind to their moves. The decision, announced by the state aviation agency, follows a decision by the European Union and Canada to close their skies to Russian planes. The agency said that planes from those countries could only enter Russian airspace with special permission. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs planned visit to Geneva was canceled because of the airspace restrictions. Lavrov had been expected to attend high-level meetings at the Human Rights Council and the Conference on Disarmament, followed by a planned news conference. Switzerland is all but surrounded by EU countries, but is not a member itself. Photo: Micah McKerlich Global warming is already costing Canada billions, from wildfires in the West to reduced seafood harvests in the East, says a new report from the world's top climate change research body. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released a new summary report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Intended to guide political decision-makers, it holds grim warnings for Canada. "The costs of climate change impacts have been rising in Canada since 1983, from an average of about $0.4 billion to $1.9 billion annually," says a briefing document prepared from the report. The report, which is the result of two years of work from 330 scientists around the world, covers the globe. But it does look at what rising levels of greenhouse gases mean for Canada. "Wildfires are a top threat to Canada," the briefing says, drawing from research conducted by agencies such as Natural Resources Canada. It quotes a 2016 report that concludes annual fire suppression costs could reach $1 billion annually. The federal government has already reported that cost has been reached in six of the last 10 years. By 2080, the report predicts cumulative forestry losses from fire, pests and other climate-change factors could add up to $459 billion. Atlantic Canada will also suffer, experiencing above-average sea level rise. The report points out one Mi'kmaq community is already looking into relocation options. Fisheries will also suffer. Climate change has already nearly wiped out kelp beds off the Nova Scotia coast, an important habitat for fish. Ocean acidification caused by carbon dioxide will harm squid, cod and halibut. If emissions remain high, snow crab landings could decline up to 16 per cent and shellfish and lobster by up to 54 per cent. The Canadian heartland is at risk of drying out, says the report. While farmers could enjoy a longer growing season and warmer temperatures, those benefits are likely to be outweighed. "By the 2050s parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories will experience water scarcity in the growing season," the briefing document says. Climate change will also damage the North, says the report. Melting permafrost and ice thaw will damage infrastructure and transportation networks, as has already happened with the rail line to Churchill, Man. Nor will Canada be immune to what's happening in the rest of the world. Extreme weather worsened by climate change will disrupt international supply chains, markets, finance, and trade, reducing the availability of goods in Canada and increasing their price and damaging markets for Canadian exports. "While Canada will be impacted by the effects of climatic changes within its border, it will also be deeply affected by the consequences of changes that happen elsewhere," the document says. Photo: The Canadian Press When a gunman impersonating a police officer started killing people in Portapique, N.S., on April 18, 2020, four children huddled in a home where they relayed key information about the killer and his replica police car as the tragedy unfolded around them. Portions of a transcript of that disturbing 911 call were released today by an independent commission of inquiry investigating the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history, which claimed 22 lives over a 13-hour span. The phone conversation is recounted in a 90-page document that focuses on the first hour of the killer's rampage. It offers clear evidence that authorities were told about the shooter's identity and his vehicle before he used a back road to evade a police blockade. The document also provides grim, detailed descriptions of how 13 people were gunned down that night, including Gabriel Wortman's first victims: Greg and Jamie Blair, the parents of two young boys. Based on statements from residents and the gunman's common-law spouse, the commission has concluded that some time before 10 p.m., the perpetrator assaulted his spouse and set fire to his home and the building where he kept his mock police vehicle facts previously confirmed by the RCMP through the gradual release of search warrant applications. Then, at around 10 p.m., the killer approached the Blair home, where he killed Greg Blair on the front deck. Jamie Blair immediately called 911, telling the operator her husband had been shot. She also said there was an RCMP cruiser in her driveway. "It's decked and labelled RCMP ... but it's not a police officer," she told the operator. "The man is coming back up the deck with a big gun." At that point, the woman hustled her two boys ages 11 and 9 into the back bedroom, where the brothers hid on the floor behind a bed. Blair identified the killer as "Gabriel" to the 911 operator and she whispered into the phone that he was trying to get into the house. In a statement to police, the 11-year-old boy identified as AD said Wortman shot the family's cat and dog before firing multiple shots through the bedroom door, killing his mother. "The two children remained hidden and do not believe that they were seen by the perpetrator," the commission document says. About 10 minutes later, the boys fled the home when they realized the killer had set fire to the house before leaving. They sprinted next door to the home of Lisa McCully, who had been fatally shot minutes earlier by the gunman as she walked to the edge of her property to find out what was going on. The boys did not see her as they made their way to their neighbour's house. Inside, the two Blair boys were met by McCully's children, identified as 12-year-old AB and 10-year-old AC. Blair's 11-year-old son called 911 at 10:16 p.m., telling the operator about his parents' death and the fact that the killer had driven away in a police car, carrying a "massive gun." "Just like ... a police car," he said, adding that the mother of the McCully children had left the house earlier and had not returned. At 10:21, the boy confirmed he could hear gunshots going off every thirty seconds. "The children referenced the perpetrator by his first name," the document says. "They (correctly) advised that he 'works in Halifax as a denture person' .... The children indicated that the perpetrator would blend in with the cops 'because he has a cop car.'" They also confirmed that the car, correctly identified as a Ford, had emergency lights and proper decals. At 10:39 p.m., the children reported seeing the replica cruiser on the move. "One of the children exclaimed, 'It's Gabriel!" the report says. As more shots rang out, the children were told to move to the basement, where they stayed until 12:20 a.m., when the Mounties decided it was safe for them to leave. The RCMP checked on the children three times before the house was evacuated, but some critics have suggested they should have been rescued earlier, given the fact that other residents had been removed for their safety. A separate report on the role of first responders will be released Tuesday. As for the other victims, the report released Monday says all except one were fatally shot in their homes between 10:04 p.m. and 10:45 p.m., though the sequence of events is not always clear. The killer also set fire to several homes. The report says it appears the last person killed in Portapique was Corrie Ellison, who was in the community that night with his brother to visit their father. It says Ellison had set off on foot to investigate the fire burning at Wortman's sprawling garage and was shot dead while he took photographs with his cellphone. The time of his last photo, a blurry image that shows nothing, was 10:40 p.m. Minutes later, Wortmans escape was spotted by Patricia Zimmerman as she stood outside her home on Portapique Crescent, looking at the eerie glow in the sky created by her neighbours burning houses. She would later tell police that at 10:45 p.m. she noticed a set of headlights travelling "like a bat out of hell" along a rough, private road that ran along the side of a blueberry field east of the rural enclave, toward Highway 2. Zimmerman said she and her sister thought the driver was probably a volunteer firefighter, which is why they didn't alert police. Another resident, Harlan Rushton, told commission investigators that it was around midnight when he told police at the scene that the killer could have used a back road to escape. Harlan said he told police: You know, theres another way out of there, right? According to Harlan, the officer replied, Yeah, we know. Just get out of here. Just go. The commission's report concludes with a summary of the horrific events in Portapique and a blurry photo from a surveillance camera showing the killer's car speeding past a gas station in nearby Great Village, N.S., at 10:51 p.m. Police say he later parked in an industrial park in Debert, N.S., where he spent the night. The next day, he fatally shot nine more people both acquaintances and strangers as he led police on a chase that spanned more than 100 kilometres. Wortman was shot dead later that morning by an RCMP officer who spotted him trying to refuel a stolen vehicle at a gas station north of Halifax. Photo: CTV News Saskatchewan has become the first province in Canada to lift all COVID-19 restrictions as it moves to treat the virus like a common respiratory illness. The Saskatchewan Party government on Monday removed its two remaining pandemic health orders, which included mandatory masking in indoor public places and a requirement to self-isolate for five days if positive for the infection. The province scrapped its vaccine passports on Feb. 14. Dr. Saqib Shahab, chief medical health officer, told The Canadian Press residents should be optimistic, but added that people who have not had a vaccine booster shot should get one. "Booster shots are extremely protective against hospitalizations," Shahab said. "The best thing we can do for ourselves, and reduce pressure in the health-care system, is to get boosted." About half of Saskatchewan adults have received a booster. Dr. Alexander Wong, an infectious disease specialist in Regina, said people who had two doses of vaccine as of five months ago, but didn't get boosted, have no functional protection against the Omicron variant. But if people continue to wear masks in public places, and get boosted, "the likelihood of having a bad outcome from COVID or even getting COVID in the first place is truly minimal," Wong said. "You can just go about living day to day without having to worry about what everyone else is doing around you." The virus remains in communities throughout the province despite the Omicron wave peaking one to two weeks ago, said Shahab. He estimated that about 20 per cent of the population was exposed in the last wave about one out of every four households. Another 30 to 50 per cent of the population could be exposed over the next few weeks and months, he said. "We're not going back to 2019. It's just never going to happen, because COVID is not going to go away," Wong said. "That's not fearmongering ... that's just the reality of where we're at, so trying to find ways that we can all live together and do things in ways that are safe and responsible remains the most critically important." The latest data from the Ministry of Health shows COVID-19 hospitalizations have started to decline after peaking the week before last. As of last Wednesday, there were 372 people in hospital with the infection, including 27 in intensive care. "It will take four to six weeks to have hospitalizations come down to a really low level," Shahab said. Saskatchewan's test positivity rate is 14 per cent, but Shahab said there is a chance of a resurgence in cases now that restrictions have been lifted. He emphasized that will depend on the rate of booster shots and the presence of the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, which is more transmissible but may not be more severe. Results from PCR tests done in labs indicate about five to seven per cent of people have been positive for the subvariant, he said, but added it's not a big concern at this time. Shahab is encouraging people to stick to what they have learned and to be considerate of those who are at high risk. The province prefers to protect people through vaccinations and treatment with antiviral drugs instead of broad public health measures that affect mental health and the economy, he said. "At least for the short term, (we're) not relying so much on mandatory measures, but more on getting boosted, staying home if ill, self-testing if you have concerns or are gathering with those who are at high risk. "Those things are going to be more important for the next few weeks and months." Photo: Way2Grow About 80 health-care professionals from across the country are challenging Health Canada's decision to reject their applications to use restricted psychedelic drugs as part of training in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. The professionals including doctors, psychologists, clinical counsellors, social workers and nurses sent affidavits to Health Canada on Monday after the federal agency issued a letter of intent to reject their requests. They sought exemptions last year to use controlled substances in their practices under a section of the Canadian Drugs and Substances Act that allows for exceptions. "For the last two years, we haven't been able to train enough health-care practitioners to keep up with the demand of patients in need of psychedelic-assisted therapy," said Spencer Hawkswell, CEO of TheraPsil, an advocacy group that operates the training program the health-care practitioners are enrolled in. "We need emergency access. After a year of waiting, they're being told no, and that's unacceptable, because so many of them have patients, some of (whom) have died waiting for support. They could have been helped." Psychedelic-assisted therapy involves ingesting consciousness-altering substances including psilocybin, ketamine, LSD or MDMA (the active ingredient in ecstasy) in a clinical setting as part of more traditional psychotherapy. Hawkswell said hundreds of Canadians inquire about it every year because they are in palliative care, have become treatment resistant or are struggling with end-of-life distress. Others ask for the substances to treat their anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or other illnesses. "There are only three practitioners on TheraPsils roster ... that are authorized to act as primary therapists and have undergone experiential training," says the affidavit filed by TheraPsil's lawyer Nicholas Pope. "Trained practitioners are clustered in only a few areas of Canada making them practically inaccessible to patients outside the local vicinity." In the document, Dr. Valorie Masuda of Victoria, B.C., who has received experimental training through a clinical trial, says "she has no additional capacity to take on any more patients, and she does not know of anyone else to whom she could refer a patient for assessment, support and treatment." Hawkswell said many Canadians are going underground to receive the therapy "and that's going to continue if we don't train therapists." Hawkswell and Yassie Pirani, a Vancouver-based registered clinical counsellor, say it is necessary for experts who support patients during their psychotherapy to experience the therapy itself. "The experiential component is absolutely essential," said Pirani, who is also one of the dozens noted in the affidavits submitted to Health Canada. "It's believed that by experiencing this non-ordinary state of consciousness first-hand, therapists ... are going to be better able to intervene and, more importantly, know when not to intervene, and help patients integrate their psilocybin experience." Pirani, who helps treat anxiety and depression, said the efficacy of psilocybin is "really exciting." There are medications doctors currently prescribe, for example, that can lead to irreversible sexual dysfunction, but "psilocybin has a lot less risk and this is known in the research." Health Canada recently amended its laws to allow physicians to request restricted psychedelic drugs for patients as part of their psychotherapy. TheraPsil's lawyer, Pope, said the requests take time and require "many hours from multiple health-care practitioners who are knowledgeable and properly trained to assess, support, and treat a patient." But there are not enough to meet the demand. Health Canada suggests in its letter that professionals requesting exemptions for training should enrol in a clinical trial already approved in which they could access psilocybin, or Therapsil can create its own clinical trial. Health-care practitioners already knew about the clinical trial before their request for exemption, Hawskwell said. "They have said that this clinical trial will not work either because of cost, because of location, because of the timing. Clinical trials cost potentially millions of dollars. "We've got dying patients right now." Health Canada has granted about 80 exemptions for varying reasons, including for people with cancer, PTSD, chronic pain and one patient with an opioid disorder. In 2020, TheraPsil represented 17 health-care practitioners who successfully challenged Health Canada's intent to reject their application. Hawkswell and lawyer Pope said they are ready to make a charter application if Health Canada does not retract its rejection. "You can't have patients' life, liberty and security infringed upon, and there's little to no evidence the exemption would cause harm to public safety," Pope said. Photo: The Canadian Press Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly greets Ukrainian soldiers in Jan. 2022. UPDATE 2:30 p.m. In addition to supplying Ukraine with anti-tank weapons systems, Canada is banning all imports of crude oil from Russia. The move is mostly symbolic, as Canada does not import much oil from Russia. Statistics Canada says the country imported just C$289 million worth of energy products including refined fuels from Russia in 2021. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Monday that Canada has not received a shipment of Russian crude oil since 2019. It was not immediately clear if the ban would include refined energy products. Trudeau called for the end to the war, saying its costs would only grow grow steeper and that those responsible will be held accountable. ORIGINAL 1 p.m. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is headed to the Poland-Ukraine border on Tuesday to make sure that Canada's latest supply of military aid flows into the war-ravaged country. Her visit comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Canada was sending anti-tank weapons and upgraded ammunition to Ukraine, which amounted to a significant upgrade in lethal military aid. "Of course, this is in addition to our three previous shipments of lethal and non-lethal equipment," Trudeau said. He added Canada has bolstered its presence in the region so it can fast-track immigration applications for Ukrainians who want to come to Canada. Joly said she will also be meeting with her Polish counterparts in Warsaw to discuss the refugee crisis spawned by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "My role in this is to make sure that this aid gets in the arms of Ukrainian soldiers that are fighting for their life and fighting for their motherland," Joly told reporters from Geneva on Monday. Joly earlier told a United Nations panel that Russia lied to the world in the run-up to its invasion of Ukraine. "Russia is the only one to blame for this crisis. It chose to resort to lies and violence and fabricate all the pieces of a crisis to try and undermine the rule of law and violate the rights of people," Joly told the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. "Worse, they're trying to justify their war by spreading a false rhetoric and attempting to manipulate the principles of human rights to support their illegal and illegitimate violence." Joly was in Geneva after Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for talks earlier in the day in an attempt to defuse the biggest land conflict on the continent since the Second World War. Outmatched Ukrainian forces were holding off the onslaught of a land, air and sea attack by Russia as President Vladimir Putin raised the stakes further by placing his country's nuclear forces on alert. Asked on a media video conference what she thought about the threat, Joly said it was "madness." Bob Rae, the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, offered a harsher assessment in an interview from New York. "We can't be buffaloed or bullied by that kind of a tactic," Rae said. "He knows if he has any practical bone in his body, he knows what the consequences will be for him and for his government and for his people." Rae spoke after denouncing the invasion in a speech before the UN General Assembly, telling Russia it had a responsibility to play by the international rules that it helped write when it helped create the UN after the Second World War. "We're not asking any nation state, any member state to do us a favour. We're asking them to follow the rules and to follow the law," Rae said, waving a well-worn blue booklet of the UN's founding charter. "It means that there are no second-class states in this organization." In the interview, Rae said he wanted use his speech to call Russia out as "bully" and an "abuser," and he also derided the lies that he said Putin and his supporters were now telling the world, including Putin's justification that he is saving Ukraine from the clutches of Nazis. "This attempt to smear all Ukrainians and the Ukrainian government or anyone who's proud of being Ukrainian to smear everyone as a Nazi is a terrible lie. It's a horrendous lie," said Rae. Asked what he thought of the myriad or pre-invasion assurances by Putin and his diplomats that they had no intention of attacking Ukraine, Rae said: "This government under President Putin is profoundly cynical, and a government that's drowning in lies and propaganda. "You know, you can take the boy out of the KGB, but you can't take the KGB out of the boy." Joly also condemned the arrests of Russian citizens who have protested the war in demonstrations across their country. "We call on Russia to respect the human rights not only of Ukrainians, but also of its own citizens, who by thousands have taken to the streets in protest of this unjust war." Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Monday an immediate ban on all Canadian financial institutions from conducting transactions with the Russian central bank. In addition to that prohibition, Canada is imposing an asset freeze and a dealings prohibition on Russian sovereign wealth funds. "Canada and its allies continue to take concerted action to ensure that Russia's invasion of Ukraine will be a strategic failure. This has never been done before at this scale today we are taking a historic step by directly censuring Russia's central bank," Freeland said in a written statement. Photo: Courtesy Calgary police Family members have identified Calgary chef Christophe Herblin as the victim of a homicide. Jurors in the trial for two men charged with killing a popular Calgary chef have heard that he was lured into a parking lot where he was fatally stabbed. Anthony Dodgson and Tommie Holloway have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Christophe Herblin's death. Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail told court on the first day of the trial that Herblin had responded to a call of a break-in at his soon-to-be opened cafe on March 14, 2020. The cafe was beside a cannabis shop that had been robbed before. Police found nobody inside, but Herblin stayed in the parking lot and eventually went in. MacPhail said when the two accused came back, Holloway smashed out the windows of Herblin's cafe to lure him into the parking lot and Dodgson attacked him and stabbed him nine times. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Tuesday, March 1, 2022 Mardi Gras is strongly associated with wild bacchanalia and debauchery, but the original intent of the holiday and how it's kept by the faithful is much different. Fat Tuesday, as it is known in English, is a long-standing tradition of the Catholic Church and it marks the last day of ordinary time before the start of Lent, a time of fasting and repentance. While the parties in Europe, South America, and parts of the United States have gained the most attention in popular culture, they seriously misrepresent and outright eclipse the Catholic intent of the holiday. According to historians, the celebration of Mardi Gras has its roots in the pagan Roman celebration of Lupercalia. This was a February holiday and it honored the Roman god of fertility. It involved feasting, drinking, and carnal behavior. However, with the rise of the Church in ancient Rome, Christian teaching and morals took root, but there always remained a strong need to blend ancient Roman traditional practices with the growing Christian faith. The blending of tradition with new religious beliefs was a common practice in the ancient world and it helped people to transition away from paganism. In fact, there are a number of ancient Roman traditions that persevere in the Roman Catholic Church to this day, where they continue to guide the faithful. As Catholic Christianity spread throughout Europe during the first millennium, different cultures celebrated the last day before Lent in their own ways, adapting the practices to suit their cultures. In France, the holiday became particularly popular as people feasted on foods that would be given up during the forty days of Lent. Meats, eggs, and milk were finished off in one day, giving the holiday its French title of 'Mardi Gras' which means Fat Tuesday. As Europeans crossed the Atlantic to colonize the Americas, they brought their religious practices with them. From the onset, holidays such as Mardi Gras were celebrated in the colonies with as much enthusiasm as they were celebrated in Europe. As the colonies swelled with European immigrants, the celebrations went from the simple to the elaborate. In New Orleans, masked balls and public celebrations quickly became common. In fact, the celebrations became so popular that virtually every citizen of the city joined in even if they were not Catholic. However, in the late 18th century, the Spanish took control of New Orleans and having a more militant and serious perspective on the faith, they imposed significant restrictions on the holiday revelry. Among them, they banned masked balls. However, by 1823, this ban was lifted and parades returned by 1837. At this point, the celebration began to lose its identity as an exclusively Catholic tradition and became more secularized over the centuries. In Louisiana, Mardi Gras in an official state holiday. In other parts of the world, the holiday became a season unto itself each branded with unique cultural practices. For example, Venice, Italy is famous for the masked balls that take place on Mardi Gras and the days before. The Venetian tradition dates back to the 13th century and the city remains a popular Mardi Gras destination today. Still, the original intent of Mardi Gras has always been to indulge, within the context of Catholic morality and reason, the last day before the start of the Lenten season. Here, it is appropriate to mention that while Lent is a season of self-sacrifice and repentance, it is not meant to be a period of self-punishment or extreme hardship. Operator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are on listen only mode during the Q&A session. If youd like to ask a question, you may press star one on your phone. Todays call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now Id like, turn the call over to Mr. Benjamin Hayes. Sir, may begin. Benjamin Haynes: Thank you, Ted. And thank you all for joining us for todays COVID 19 update. Were joined by CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Greta Massetti from the COVID 19 Incident Management Team, both will provide opening remarks before taking your questions. I would now like to turn the call over to Dr. Walensky. Dr. Walensky: Thank you, Benjamin and thank you all for joining us today. Today, CDC is updating its framework to monitor the level of COVID 19 and communities. Were in a stronger place today as a nation with more tools to protect ourselves in our communities from COVID 19, like vaccination, boosters, broader access to testing, availability of high quality masks, accessibility to new treatments, and improved ventilation. Over 200 million people have received a primary vaccine series and nearly 100 million have been boosted and millions more have had prior disease. With widespread population immunity, the overall risk of severe disease is now generally lower. Now, as the virus continues to circulate in our communities, we must focus our metrics beyond just cases in the community and direct our efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing COVID 19 from overwhelming our hospitals and our healthcare systems. This new framework moves beyond just looking at cases and test positivity to evaluate factors that reflect the severity of disease, including hospitalizations and hospital capacity, and helps to determine whether the level of COVID 19 and severe disease are low, medium, or high in a community. Dr. Walensky: The COVID 19 community level we are releasing today will inform CDC recommendations on prevention measures like masking and CDCs recommendations for layer prevention measures, and will depend on the COVID 19 level in the community. This updated approach focuses on directing our prevention efforts towards protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing hospitals and healthcare systems from being overwhelmed. To find your community level, we are updating the CDCs website to reflect this framework. So people will be able to go to www.cdc.gov or call 1-800-CDC-INFO to find your community level and what prevention strategies are recommended, including where or when to mask. Please remember that there are people who remain at higher risk for COVID 19 and who may need additional protection. Those who are immunocompromised or have underlying health conditions, those who have disabilities, or those who live with people who are at risk. Those people might choose to take extra precautions regardless of what level their community is in. So with that, Im going to turn things over now to Dr. Greta Massetti, who will walk us through this framework and the science behind it. Thank you. Dr. Massetti: Thank you, Dr. Walensky. The updated metrics in this framework provide a current picture of COVID 19 disease in a community. They also include strong predictors of the potential for strain on the healthcare system. A communitys COVID 19 level is determined by a combination of three pieces of information: new hospitalizations for COVID 19, current hospital beds occupied by COVID 19 patients or hospital capacity, and new COVID 19 cases. These metrics will tell us if the level is low, medium, or high. Let me walk you through what we are recommending at each level. Regardless of level, we continue to recommend that people stay up to date on vaccines and get tested if theyre sick. Dr. Massetti: At the low level, there is limited impact on the healthcare system and low amounts of severe disease in the community. People should stay up to date with their vaccines and get tested if theyre sick. At the medium level, more people are experiencing severe disease in the community and theyre starting to see more impact on the health healthcare system. At this level, CDC recommends that people who are high risk, such as someone who is immunocompromised, should talk to their healthcare provider about taking additional precautions and may choose to wear a mask. As communities enter into the high level, there is high amount of people experiencing severe disease and high potential for healthcare systems strains. At the high level, CDC recommends that everyone wear a mask indoors, in public, including in schools. Communities can use these metrics, along with their own local metrics, such as wastewater surveillance, emergency department visits, and workforce capacity, to update and further inform their local policies and ensure equity and prevention efforts. And these categories help individuals assess what impacts COVID 19 is having on their community so that they can decide if they need to take extra precautions, including masking based on their location, their health status, and their risk tolerance. Dr. Massetti: We should all keep in mind that some people may choose to wear a mask at any time based on personal preference. And importantly, people who wear high quality masks are well protected, even if others around you are not masking. And there are some situations where people should always wear a mask. For example, if they have symptoms, if they tested positive for COVID 19, or if they have been exposed to someone with COVID 19. Today, were also updating our recommendations for schools. Since July, 2021, CDC recommended universal masking in schools, no matter what level of impact COVID 19 was having on the community. With this update, CDC will now only recommend universal school masking in communities at the high level. Importantly, COVID 19 community levels and public health prevention strategies can be dialed up when our communities are experiencing more severe disease and dialed down when things are more stable. So what do these updated metrics mean for where we are as a country, as of today, more than half of counties representing about 70% of Americans are in areas with low or medium COVID 19 community levels. This is an increase from about one third of counties at low or medium community levels last week and we continue to see indicators improve in many communities. Thank you. And I will now hand it back to Dr. Walensky. Dr. Walensky: Thank you, Dr. Massetti, before we take your questions, I would like to leave you with a few final thoughts. None of us know what the future may hold for us and for this virus and we need to be prepared and we need to be ready for whatever comes next. We wanna give people a break from things like mask wearing when our levels are low and then have the ability to reach for them again, should things get worse in the future. We at CDC will continue to follow the science and epidemiology to make public health recommendations and guidance based on the data. Our new framework was rigorously evaluated both with current data and retrospectively during the Alpha, Delta and Omicron waves and these new metrics have demonstrated predictive capacity for weeks into the future. We will continue to evaluate how well they perform in our communities. This new framework will best way for us to judge what level of preventive measures may be needed in our communities. If or when new variants emerge or the virus surges, we have more ways to control the virus and protect ourselves and our communities than ever before. Thank you. Ill now turn it back over to you, Benjamin. Benjamin Haynes: Thank you, Dr. Walensky and thank you, Dr. Massetti. Ted, we are ready to take questions. Operator: The phone lines are now open for questions. If you would like to ask a question over the phone, please press star one and record your name. We also ask that you just limit yourself to one follow up question. If you would like to remove your question, please press star two. One moment please. And the first question accused from Dr. Jon LaPook with CBS news, your line is not open. Dr. Jon LaPook: Hi, thank you. Thanks for this update and weve heard that, you know, the best mask is the one people will wear, but lets assume somebodys incentivized to wear the best mask they can and theyre gonna try to get it well fitted. Can you be more granular about which mask provide the best protection is an N 95, KN-95, KF-94. surgical cloth. What should people who want to protect themselves the most, which of the masks they should be using? Thanks. Dr. Walensky: Maybe Ill start with that. Thank you, Dr. LaPook. Of course weve said in our prior masking guide that infiltration are key in those, the N-90- Dr. Massetti: It sounds like we might have lost Dr. Walensky. I think what she was noting was that we often have emphasized that fit and filtration are really critical and there are a variety of ways to achieve that. One way is to use a respirator, um, like an N-95 or a KN 95. They provide good fit and filtration for people, and they provide high protection to the wearer. There are other options as well, including using a surgical mask or a surgical mask layered with a cloth mask. And also we have on our website resources to show people how to knot and tuck the ear loops on mask to improve fit and filtration as well. Dr. Jon LaPook: Right, no, of course, we all, thanks. We all see people with wearing just sort of a plain cloth and maybe its underneath the nose, but I was just wondering if you wanted to emphasize whats the best case scenario for people since, since it just says, wear a mask. Dr. Massetti: So CDC recommends that that people should wear the mask that has the best protection and filtration for them and that they will wear consistently. Dr. Jon LaPook: Thanks. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Ron Lin with the Los Angeles Times, your line is now open. Ron Lin: Hey, I was wondering, can you go into how you came up with the details of the metrics for those three levels and what the science is based off of them in terms of numbers. And where would a place like LA county, which has tied its local mask mandate to CDCs old mask recommendations? Where would they lie? Would they no longer be required to no longer be recommended to wear masks? Thanks. Dr. Walensky: Im back. So maybe Ill get started and pass it over to you, Dr. Massetti, thanks for filling in there. So, one of the things that was really important is we have more and more people and more and more immunity in the population. We wanted to make sure that we were focusing on severe disease because we do want to prevent severe disease. We want to prevent hospitalizations. We want to prevent our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. So our metrics were really with that in mind, what are severe, how much severe disease is happening, and then to use those metrics to understand, can we find levels where we can predict outcomes in the future where we might be able to act on them now to avert those outcomes in the future. Bad outcomes, like ICU stays, high levels of death. So maybe Ill pass it over now back. So Dr. Massetti to give you more granular detail. Dr. Massetti: Great. Thanks so much, Dr. Walensky. So as Dr. Walensky noted, we were really focused on measures of healthcare strain and severe disease. And so we conducted an extensive review of all data systems that are reported to CDC and often available on our website on COVID data tracker. We reviewed all data sources and really assess them against several criteria, including do they measure severe disease or healthcare strain? How well do they provide data that is available at the local level where it can really inform local decisions? And do we have national coverage for all counties in the United States? And are they reported frequently enough to be able to inform timely decisions? And based on that thorough review, we refined the list and came up with these indicators, including new hospital admissions and hospital beds utilized and complimented them with case incidents to really create a package of metrics to be able to understand happening at the local level. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Drew Armstrong with Bloomberg News, your line is now open. Drew Armstrong: Hi, Drew Armstrong from Bloomberg news. Im wondering, thinking ahead, are there other COVID metrics or measures that CDC has using or collecting that should be overhauled or refined as we move into whatever this next phase of the pandemic is? And, if so, what are some potential examples of that? Dr. Walensky: So we have, we certainly look at comprehensive data and we get a whole stream of data, some that are different by jurisdiction. So for example, we just last week posted our wastewater data, and we anticipate that our wastewater data, while we have 400 sites posted, and that represents about 53 million Americans, that is still focal. And we really want are working to expand that. So we intend to double that over the next month or so. Syndromic surveillance would be another way that we could expand some of these metrics again. As Dr. Massetti said, its really important as we come up with national metrics that we have coverage from every county, not every county is reporting syndromic surveillance, although were working to scale that up as well. So we have on our eye on many different metrics, which is why we hope that these metrics that were releasing today will be very helpful for policy makers, but we also hope that local jurisdictions will take into account all the information thats available to them. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Helen Branswell with STAT. Your line is now open. Helen Branswell: Hi, thank you very much for taking my question. I know, I think this is gonna be an irritating question, but when you talk about, you know, the metrics about, you know, the percentage of people in hospital beds who are, there because of COVID, is that for COVID or with, I mean, will the with COVID people also be part of those calculations? Dr. Walenksy: Helen, thats a great question. We have spent a lot of time thinking about this. And let me tell you sort of where we landed and why. First, we are considering anybody in a hospital bed with COVID, regardless of the reason for admission and that the reason that we landed there is multifold. First many jurisdictions cant differentiate. So that was important for us to recognize and realize. Second, whether or not a patient is admitted with COVID or for COVID, they increase the hospital capacity and theyre resource intensive. They require an isolation bed. They require PPE. They probably require a higher staff ratio. And so they are more resource intensive and they do take a COVID bed potentially from someone else. Interestingly, as well, as we have less and less COVID in certain communities, the amount of people who are coming into the hospital with COVID will necessarily decrease. Dr. Walensky: We will not have as many people walking around asymptomatically because there will just be less disease out there. So increasingly as we have less disease in the community, we anticipate that more of the people who are coming into the hospital are going to be coming in because of COVID. And then finally, as we have even less disease in the community, we anticipate that not every hospital is going to screen every patient for COVID as they walk in the door, especially if we have less and less disease in the community. And when that happens, we wont actually be able to differentiate. In fact, people who are coming in, who are tested will necessarily be coming in for COVID. So for all of those reasons, comprehensively, we decided to say with anybody coming in with a COVID diagnosis. Helen Branswell: Thank you. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Cheyenne Haslett with ABC News, your line is now open. Cheyenne Haslett: Hi, thank you for taking my question. Dr. Walensky can you explain the decision to include schools in the loosening of the mask recommendations? And as a follow up, on public transportation, do you expect that recommendation for masks to expire on March 18th or be extended? Dr. Walensky: Um, so maybe Ill take the first, the second question first and then pass the school question to Dr. Massetti. The COVID 19 community levels are intended for communities, theyre not intended for our travel quarters, as you note, those expire in the middle of March, and we will be revisiting that in the weeks ahead. And then maybe Dr. Massetti, do you want to take the school question? Dr. Massetti: Yes. Thank you, Dr. Walensky. So, weve been reviewing the data on COVID illness in children for two years of a pandemic. And we have seen that although children can get infected and can get sick with COVID, theyre more likely to have asymptomatic or mild infections. So fortunately we know that when schools implement layered prevention strategies, that they can prevent SARS COV-2 two transmission or transmission of the virus that causes COVID 19 in schools. And we know that also because children are relatively at lower risk from severe illness that schools can be safe places for children. And so for that reason, were recommending that schools use the same guidance that we are recommending in general community settings, which is that we are recommending people wear a mask in high levels of COVID 19. But that, the medium level that the recommendation is primarily based on whether somebody wants to talk to their healthcare provider about whether theyre high risk. Cheyenne Haslett: Thank you. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please, Ted. Operator: Next question is from Allison Aubrey with NPR. Your allow is now open. Allison Aubrey: Hi, thanks for taking my question. Im wondering if the updated page where youre sort of saying the map of this is low, medium or high community, is this being updated with new data all of the time? So its always up to date? And will this be updated sort of in perpetuity? We know that COVID is not being eradicated. Theres talk of, we could see outbreaks at any point in the future. Just talk about sort of those, how actively this is maintained and for how long. Dr. Walensky: Thank you, Allison. We intend to keep this updated. Of course, not every county reports every metric every day. So we intend to keep this updated on a weekly cadence. And we intend to do so for the foreseeable future. Of course, this virus has dealt us many a curve balls but for the foreseeable future is what were looking at right now. Allison Aubrey: Okay. Thank you. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from John Woolfolk with San Jose Mercury News. Your line is now open. John Woolfolk: Hi. So, the new metrics that you all are talking about sound like theyre based mostly on the strain on the health bureaucracy and not, I mean, our readers are mostly interested in your guidance for what it means for them to avoid getting COVID and spreading it. And based on the metrics and the rules that were in place as of this morning, before announcement, that would mean like pretty much all of California where we are, you should wear a mask if you dont want COVID recommendation. And it sounds like I havent seen what your new metric says for our area, but it sounds like its now saying, well, thats not operative anymore. Go ahead and take the mask off. Is that are people safe going in and around in public indoors without masks in places where your metrics now say its a high transmission situation? Dr. Walensky: Thank you, John. So first and foremost, Id like to go back to what Dr. Massetti said, which is anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time, if they feel safer wearing a mask. So we are absolutely endorsing if you feel more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so. And we should encourage people to have that liberty to be able to do so. The intent of these community guidance is to look at really severe disease people who are coming into the hospital. We know that theres going to be transmission of COVID 19 out there. And what we wanna do is make sure that our hospitals are okay and that people are not coming in with severe disease, but of course, is important to note that the volume of severe disease in the hospital is likely representative of the volume of disease in general in the community. So they are very much linked. Certainly its also linked to vaccination rate as well, but certainly if people are interested in wearing a mask to feel safer, they certainly can, and anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community, and then make that personal decision. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Meg Tirrel with CNBC, your line is now open. Meg Tirrel: Well, thank you. Im just wondering how dependably counties are reporting all of these metrics, particularly with case numbers. Is there enough testing going on for that to be a reliable metric and you know, the same question for the hospitalizations reporting? Dr. Walensky: Dr. Massetti? Do you want to take that one? Dr. Massetti: Sure. Yeah. So to the question about the hospitalization metrics. So those are actually reported by healthcare facilities. There are 6,000 hospitals in the United States that are required to report those data every day Monday through Friday. And usually theres better than 95% coverage on any given day. So hospitals are very consistently compliant with reporting those data. We do have very high completion of those data. So were quite confident that those data are continuing to flow in and reflect whats happening in those hospital. The case data are also largely reported from public health laboratories and have really reflected that the the nucleic acid amplification test results. They do not reflect in many places do not reflect at home tests, which are not reported, but those are the laboratory test results are continuing to be reported fairly consistently. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Catherine Roberts with consumer reports. Your line is now open. Catherine Roberts: Thanks for taking my question. Im wondering, um, to what extent, if at all, um, does this new metric account for people who may have been seriously, um, disabled or sort of long term sick due to like long COVID, but whove never actually been hospitalized with acute COVID, is that factored into this at all? Dr. Walensky: Um, its a good question. We, you know, were not looking historically about at prior hospitalizations. What were looking at is, um, hospitalizations now and hospital capacity. Now. Catherine Roberts: Is there any way to sort of account for those folks who know the folks who may have gotten a, some kind of disability from COVID, but who arent, you know, taking up capacity? Is that, is that in the, in the works basically? Dr. Walensky: Um, so CDC has many different cohort studies to examine long COVID. We know that this is critically important. The NIH two is examining long COVID, and we are doing this through collaborations with states on survey data, long-term, prospective cohort data, um, and, and, uh, um, hospitalization and, and, uh, data from hospitals as well. So we are looking into this for sure. And, and we know much work in what many studies need to be done for long COVID specifically, but in terms of hospital capacity today to forecast what would happen six weeks from now, um, in our, in our COVID 19 community levels, the, that is not accounted for. Catherine Roberts: Okay. Thank you. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Dave McKinley with w G R Z Buffalo, New York. Your line is not open. Dave Mckinley: Yeah. Hi there. I hope you can hear me. Um, you have these, uh, uh, metrics where you would establish whether community was high, uh, medium, uh, subs or high, substantial, moderate low, and there were specific numbers attached had, have those numbers changed in term in determining high or, or substantial or moderate, or are those numbers, you know, where it was fewer than 100, as opposed to fewer than 50, are, are those changing at all? And, and the second part of my question has to do with air airplanes and stuff like the in buses. I, I, you may have addressed that, uh, and I may have missed it. Dr. Walensky: Yeah. So first of all, just take the easy one, which is this addresses communities, but not our travel corridors. So nothing will change in our travel corridors. With regards to where we were in our prior community transmission, those were different metrics. They were based on only cases and percent positivity that led us to those, blue, yellow, orange, red. And so cases will still be a part of it, but we need to recognize that, you know, cases were counting cases differently now than we did, you know, over a year ago when we established those prior metrics. So now our case thresholds is going to be over 200 per hundred thousand, rather than the 100 per hundred thousand Dave Mckinley: Thats high. Dr. Walensky: Again, its not, yeah, its not just, well, its not just cases. It is cases of well as hospitalizations as well as hospital burden. So its the, its the, intersection of all of those that leads you to a green, yellow, or orange color in these new metrics. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Erin Garcia with science news. Your line is open. Erin Garcia: Hi. Um, thanks for taking my question. I was kind of curious how the method that were using that you guys are switching to for COVID -19 compares to how were surveilling for influenza, for instance, did you pull on any of the expertise from how we look at flu or is this completely separate? Dr. Walensky: Dr. Masetti, do you wanna take that? Dr. Massetti: Sure. Thank you, Dr. Walensky, and thank you for the question. So we talked to a lot of experts in flu surveillance and flu measurement. We have a lot of, wonderful experts both within the, within CDC and outside CDC to really understand kind of what is the future of surveillance for COVID- 19 and what can we learn from and apply from the, um, from the flu model? The metrics that we specifically are relying on here for these COVID- 19 community levels, dont , reflect data that were stood up in summer of 2020, specifically for pandemic response data collection and through the unified hospital data system. So this is really a phenomenal data source that allows us to on a daily basis assess how many new hospitalizations that have been, in, in hospitals for people with confirmed COVID- 19 and the percent hospital capacity, and hospital beds been used by people with COVID- 19. And so that is, thats not a data, that that includes flus, that has not a, a data surveillance system that, that has been used for flu, but were really interested in expanding and, and also collecting, seeing how this model can also apply to other respiratory illnesses in the future. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Julie Steenhuysen with Reuters. Your line is now open. Julie Steenhuysen: Thanks for taking my call. So Im interested in knowing, like how does the CDC arrive at the conclusion that hospitalization and capacity were the key issues that, you know, we need to focus on now and preventing transmission is less important and, wont this be challenging, to get compliance if theres another variant that comes along, that is more virulent than the one we have now. Dr. Walensky: Certainly maybe Ill start with the first, the second question first, and just say, we recognize that we need to be, flexible and to be able to say, we need to be able to relax our, our, layer prevention measures when things are looking up when we have fewer cases in fewer hospitalizations, and then we need to be able to dial them up again, when we might have, should we have a new variant or a new surge? And I think that thats a really important message that were trying to get across here. What we do know about the current moment, um, with we saw certainly a severity a decreased severity associated with, we had many, many more cases than we had hospitalizations, as we saw than we saw with alpha or Delta. And in that backdrop, we also had much more population immunity by vaccination boosting and, and prior infection. And so many, many of our infections did not result in severe disease. It did not result in, increased hospital capacity. And it was in that context that we made this pivot. Julie Steenhuysen: Thank you. Operator: Next question is from Meg winger with the Denver post. Your line is open. Meg Wingerter: Hello. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask about, so it sounds like for the hospital capacity, youre specifically looking at people hospitalized, um, with COVID. Um, but what were having in Colorado right now is very low, pretty low at any rate COVID hospitalizations, but are beds are still 90% full any given day. Is there any way you want communities to factor in that overall level of capacity where even a, a smaller surge could be a bigger problem because theres not much left. Thank you. Dr. Walensky: Maggie. You actually hit the nail exactly on the head. So not only are we looking at hospital admissions but also hospital capacity, those who are admitted with COVID-19, what fraction of their bed. So if youre at 90% in Colorado that, ou know, we would be taking that exact, uh, parameter into account. Speaker 19: Next Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Michael Imani with K O M U. Your line is now, Micheal Imani: Hi, how are you? This might be for both of you, but I actually wanted to hear from Dr. Walensky as well. But this is in relation to the new metrics or the new, excuse me, the new, holistic view of risk from coronavirus, to the community. And I was wondering how you guys are making that change. I know you kind of detailed it in your opening, but I was wondering if you can get into specifics with regards to that. Dr. Walensky: So thank you. So we are looking at, fraction of hospitalizations that are COVID, were looking at number of admissions for a hundred thousand, that are COVID. And then were also looking at cases. And so all three of those together, we have thresholds that weve measured. Then Dr. Massetti has a, has discussed, and we created those thresholds based on their ability to be predictive of, ICU safe hospitalizations and deaths in three to six weeks in the future, so that we could take action. So, all of that work together leads us into three different colors, green, yellow, and orange. Those colors will reflect low, medium, and high community levels, and then those levels get matched to our recommendations and our guidance. Micheal Imani: Thank you, doctor. I appreciate it. Dr. Walensky: Dr. Massetti, anything, anything to add there? Dr. Massetti: No, I think thats a, that covers it really well. Thank you, Dr. Walensky. Operator: Thank you. Thank you. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Tom Howell with the Washington times, your line is not open. Tom Howell: Hey, thanks for doing the call. Can you give the immediate geographic impact of the guidance? Um, what percentage of counties are in the low category? What percentage are in medium and what percentage are in high? Thank you. Dr. Walensky: Dr.Massetti, you have those numbers. Dr. Masetti: I do, just right in front of me. So, these are as of, the latest data. 23% of counties are at low, 39.6% of counties are at medium, and 37.3% of counties are at high levels. Tom Howell: So all about 37.3 is high, your recommendation is that everyone wear masks in indoor public settings in those places? Is that correct? Dr. Massetti: Yes, thats correct. Benjamin Haynes: Next question, please. Operator: Next question is from Adriana Rodriguez with USA Today. Your lines now open. Adriana Rodriguez: Hi, thank you so much for taking my question. I was wondering why, vaccination rates werent included in these metrics or in this equation to calculate, community COVID risk, and if maybe that will be included in the metrics sometime in the future. Dr. Walensky: So, you know, what were really focused on is risk of severe disease and risk of, being admitted into the hospital risk of your hospitals, becoming full, truly vaccination rates do sort of fall on the causal pathway if you will, for risk of severe disease. So if someone is unvaccinated and has underlying health conditions, they certainly are at high risk of severe disease. And so, it, it is part of the equation. Its not sort of among the things that thats listed, but, certainly it is reflected in who will come into the hospital with severe disease. And, and of course we would always recommend that if youre unvaccinated, you and youre eligible for vaccination, you should get vaccinated. And if youre eligible for boosting, you should get boosted to remain up to date. And that of course would decrease is your risk of hospitalization. In fact, our most recent data have demonstrated that if you are boosted youre 97 times less likely to die of COVID than if youre unvaccinated. Adriana Rodriguez: So if, if a person is in one county and the hospitalization rates are the same as another person in another county, but vaccination rates are vastly different, mask guidance would be the same? Dr. Walensky: They would. Adriana Rodriguez: Thank you. Benjamin Haynes: Ted. We have time for two more questions. Operator: Okay. The next question is from Stephanie Innes with Arizona Republic, your line is open. Stephanie Innes: Uh, yes. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to know if this framework takes into account people who work in high-risk jobs like grocery stores and restaurants, should they be considering if its green, they dont need to wear a mask and should businesses think that way as well? Dr. Walensky: So certainly all of those all of our recommendations, are translated into policy at the local and jurisdictional level. And we would say any, any, local, business certainly has the, ability to make, recommendations based on or policy based on where they are, whether they have, they may have more information based on wastewater or high risk communities or, or equity for many different, for many different reasons. But, our guidance would say that if you are in a green community, that ,that community in general would not need to be wearing a mask. Certainly of course, anybody can wear a mask at any time if they choose to protect themselves that way. Stephanie Innes: Thank you. Benjamin Haynes: And the last question, please? Operator: Yes. The last question is from Dan Petro with the Chicago Tribune, your line is now open. Dan Petro: Can you address, the timing of this decision and perhaps the public perception that, CDC is being pulled along here by the, the governors in, in many states who didnt wait for these new recommendations before making changes to what was being done at the state level? Dr. Walensky: Yes, absolutely. First I will say that we at the CDC, and I think youve heard me talk publicly about this, have been thinking about, shifting our metrics to hospitalizations for some time. Now weve been talking about this for some time. Certainly we know that many governors made announcements several weeks ago, but many of those announcements actually were phased in. And in fact, didnt acutely say they were gonna take masks off, but they were going to take masks off at the end of February or in early March or in the middle of March. So ,I would say our guidance actually probably very much intersects exactly where many of those phase approaches are going to be in that many of those governors, when theyre, when their, policies are at play, will coincide with exactly what we are recommending. Benjamin Haynes: Thank you, Dr. Walensky, and thank you Dr. Massetti. And thank you all for joining us today. If you have further questions, please contact the media office at 4 0 4 6 3 9 3 2 8 6 or email media@cdc.gov. Thank you. Operator: This concludes todays call. Thank you for your participation. May disconnect at this time. Advances in kiln monitoring ICR Newsroom By Published 28 February 2022 To keep cement production viable in a climate-conscious culture, continuous monitoring of the kiln is undertaken by temperature scanning systems that often work in parallel with linescanners. Such monitoring systems and intuitive software can help gather meaningful data to prevent unplanned downtime and improve productivity. By Fluke Process Instruments, Germany. When we think about construction materials, concrete is at the top of the list. It is cheap to produce, widely available and has excellent mechanical properties. There is, however, an issue with concrete: the key constituent is cement. As we become more aware of our impact on the environment and carbon emissions, particularly from industrial processes, cement production stands out as a large contributor, with some reports suggesting that it accounts for between 5-8 per cent of non-natural CO2 production worldwide. The chemical reaction for limestone calcination, CaCO3(s) CaO(s) + CO2(g), highlights the issue. We could seek alternative materials to support the construction industry. Steel is one option. However, the production processes here are more energy intensive than cement and have a high carbon footprint. Wood is also a popular construction material, but this is less well suited to large construction projects, hard to transport when not available locally and annual usage is well above replanting levels. Research projects looking at 3D printing and other novel solutions are yielding some interesting results. However, unless or until a viable alternative is established and proven, concrete and, therefore, cement are here to stay. To continue reading this story and get access to all News, Articles and Video sections of the CemNet.com website, please Register for a subscription to International Cement Review or Login CRH prepares Ukraine business contingency plans ICR Newsroom By 28 February 2022 Ireland-based CRH has prepared contingency plans to address the fallout of Russias invasion into Ukraine. The company is closely monitoring the situation in the country as it has the largest Ukrainian exposure of any Irish business. CRH entered Ukraine in 1999 through the acquisition of PJSC Podilsky Cement. In the 2011-2013 period, the company expanded its presence through the acquisition of JSC Mykolaiv Cement in Mykolaiv and Cement LLC in Odessa. In late 2021 CRH rebranded its Ukrainian operations to Cemark, which employs around 800 people and accounts for less than one per cent of group sales. Published under Before last weeks debate I wrote of how important this debate would be. I stated that we have three good candidates and my opinion hasnt changed on that. We in Hamilton County are fortunate to have such fine people running for county mayor to serve "we the people. I watched the debate again last evening just to make sure I was certain of who the best candidate is and my mind is even more set on it being Weston Wamp. He presents himself as the one who is more than ready to lead our county forward. While they all covered the important subjects and all seem to agree on what is important, Mr. Wamp is the one with the moxie to see each project through to fruition. Very few people have his skill sets, his vision, know-how to solve the problem, take on the task and then get the job done. I had expected this would be the case because of Weston Wamps track record. The fact he serves on the Tennessee Board of Regents means he has a head start on getting us where we want to be on education. For some time now he has been writing about his plans in a precise way that we can all understand and support. Again, we are blessed to have all three candidates in this race but Im placing my bet on the one I think can keep winning after the votes are counted and the seat is filled and I believe that to be Weston Wamp. J. Pat Williams * * * Let me be very clear, as the political folks say to redundancy level, you have been a womper for a very long time, and support is expected. No shockers there, and no disrespect intended. You are involved in the process, as good citizens are. Let me be very clear here, How did Weston win a debate saying nothing different than the other two candidates? Perhaps in Wamp drama there was a win. Interrupting Commission Chairwoman Smedley to childishly interject, That is my project. That was indeed memorable. Correction, let me be clear here Sabrena girl, that was my project, all mine, mine I say. Chairwoman Smedley was elected to be in the thick of economic projects, and any project with any tax dollars is not owned by a single person, rather it is the peoples project. Lots of nonsense that industry and public education is Westons project. Unlike Weston, Sabrena was elected to be involved. If yall get a chance to see Sabrenas new commercial, it is her finest speech, after all there were no daddys coattails to ride on. I got up and cheered. What 25-year-old could raise $900,000 to run for Congress? Absolutely none. What lawyer six years of experience, three jobs in six years, with only 10 or so trials, could raise $130,000 to run for DA. Absolutely none. Especially nice, was the young Wamp lawyer becoming General Counsel for Sheriff Hammond with no other attorneys considered or interviewed. How special is that? Interesting enough, the same Wamps calling down nepotism, owe everything available to them from hand me down accrued political power. Not much different than nepotism. Both Wamp coattail riders are unqualified, but it is up to the voters. One job hops, and the other is a paid political consultant. Lots of Daddy coattail riding there. If Hamilton County voters want the two highest offices in Hamilton County run from Daddys coattails, and by one family, so be it. I will not support the Wamp family sovereignty over county government. In the meantime, Sabrena Smedleys commercial is an out of the park on truth and parent coattails. Love you Hamilton County. If yall decide to go Wamp-a-thon on Daddy Zachs coattails, so be it. We have survived worse political outcomes, well maybe not. April Eidson * * * April, your long time disdain for the Wamp family is bizarre and misguided. But you are entitled to your opinion. However, youre not entitled to your own set of facts. Fact - Coty Wamp is running for district attorney. The job of DA is a state position, not a county position. Thats why the state has authority to deal with the numerous ethical lapses of the current DA Neal Pinkston. Weston Wamp is running for county mayor, a position within county general government. Since nepotism is your concern, surely you must be concerned that Matt Hullander is running for the top job in county general government - seeking to join his father Bill Hullander , the longtime trustee in the same hallway of the courthouse A 33-year-old man was shot and killed at Chatty's Bar on Milne Street early Sunday morning, and police said they have arrested the shooter. The victim was Walter Williams. Shannon Kelsey, 30, was charged with criminal homicide, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a dangerous weapon during the commission of a felony and felony reckless endangerment. At approximately 1:25 a.m., Chattanooga Police responded to the 2300 block of Milne Street on a report of a person shot. They found the bar in disarray with multiple broken bottles. As Kelsey was being pulled away by security, he produced a gun and fired at Williams. Police said video showed Kelsey and Williams in a fight.As Kelsey was being pulled away by security, he produced a gun and fired at Williams. Kelsey was not suppose to be carrying a gun due to a prior felony conviction. Upon arrival, officers located a man suffering from apparent gunshot wounds and secured the scene. While initial responding officers rendered life saving aid to the victim, other officers were able to locate and detain a suspect. The victim was transported to a local hospital by Hamilton County EMS with life-threatening injuries. He later succumbed to his injuries. Investigators with the Violent Crimes Unit learned that the suspect and victim had been involved in an altercation when the suspect produced a firearm and fired at the victim. Kelsey was charged after the interview. Kelsey was taken to the Silverdale Detention Center. Chattanooga Police ask anyone with information regarding this incident to call the Homicide Tip Line at 423-643-5100 or submit a tip via the CPD Mobile App. You can remain anonymous. Police received a second request for help on Locust Lane at 10:22 p.m. A woman had texted dispatch saying she needed an officer out there, but did not respond when police tried to contact her. When police arrived, they separated the woman and a man. The man said they had gotten into another argument over the woman texting another guy. The woman was wanting the man to leave. The man agreed to leave in the morning prior to the woman going to work. Police asked the two of them if they could act like adults and make it til the morning without arguing and calling police again. Both of them agreed. * * * While on patrol, an officer observed a vehicle in the parking lot of the industrial complex at 1853 Polk St. The officer knew the business to be closed for the weekend and no other personal vehicles were in the lot. The vehicle was unoccupied, but had extensive amounts of personal property inside and appeared as being lived in. The vehicle owner search came back as a man out of Dayton, Ohio, and was not stolen. No one was located on scene. * * * A man told police he was at the intersection of St. Elmo Avenue and West 40th Street when a black Honda Fit (FL tag) hit the bike rack that was attached to his truck. He said the vehicle fled the scene with substantial damage to the front of the vehicle. The Kuat bike rack was damaged, but the vehicle did not appear to have any damage. The man requested a miscellaneous report be made instead of a crash report. * * * A man told police he was at Fuji's restaurant, 2207 Overnite Dr., from 8:20-9:20 p.m., and he came out to find his vehicle had been broken into. He had several items of value stolen. No suspect information is known. Charges are pending suspect identification. * * * An officer initiated a park and walk underneath the Walnut Street Bridge to check for homeless encampments setting up and starting fires. When he got underneath the bridge, he noticed a tent set up next to a burn pit that was not there the previous night. The tent was blue and beige in color with a blue tarp set up over it. The officer attempted two separate times to locate the owner of the tent to notify them that they were trespassing underneath the bridge and needed to relocate, but was unable to do so either time. The officer left a note attached to the tent notifying the owner that they needed to relocate to another location, and will attempt to make contact with this owner later this week. * * * A man called police and said his vehicle had broken down at Addison Road and Loftis Street. He said his vehicle, a Jeep Wrangler, broke down on Addison Road and began to roll downhill. The vehicle was towed by Reliable Towing to their address at 2700 Bliss Ave. The man and the driver of the tow truck were both given a copy of the tow sheet. * * * A suspicious vehicle was reported on Workman Road. Police spoke with a man and observed that outside of his temporary home, an uncle Larry's fish trailer, there were multiple bicycles chained to the side of the trailer. Police checked the bicycles against records of stolen bicycles in the past. None of these bicycles appeared to be stolen. When speaking with the man further, police were told that the reason for him having so many bikes was a result of him doing repairs for other members in the homeless community. * * * Police were notified by an anonymous caller of a suspicious vehicle on Meadowbrook Trail parked in a cul-de-sac for approximately five hours. Police conducted registration on the vehicle and it was confirmed as stolen via NCIC out of Catoosa County. The vehicle was towed by Denton's Wrecker, releasable to the registered owner. * * * Police found a vehicle that was left on bricks at 260 Interstate 75 SB, and it had an unattended sticker that had been placed on it earlier. The vehicle was towed by Mostellers and police were unable to make contact with the owner. * * * A woman on Peachtree Street told police she was letting her 2012 Honda Accord warm up and someone stole her vehicle. It was entered into NCIC. * * * Police were flagged down at the Community Kitchen, 727 East 11th St., by a man who said that his bicycle was stolen while chained up in front of the Community Kitchen. He said that he had just purchased the bike for $450. Police checked "tent city" and were unable to locate the bicycle. * * * A husband and wife on King Arthur Road told police they received a call from a woman who said she was a representative for another woman who plans on counter-suing the husband. The woman then said she was a prominent figure in the community and head of the contractors' association and her cousin is a judge. She then told the husband that he should settle out of court or things are not going to go well for him. The wife said the conversation was a little hostile and the woman was using intimidation factors, and she was acting as a mediator for the other woman and was not a legal counsel or representative. Both the husband and wife said they are wanting to add the phone conversation to this report. Mary Jo Breeding Hitchcock passed away on February 26, 2022 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Jo was born in Cookeville, Tn., in 1928. She was one of 7 children raised on a 60-acre farm that her father Hop Lee Breeding said had the richest ground in two counties. Hop and his wife Rosa Bullock Breeding worked hard and all the children grew up learning how to grow crops and cattle and pigs and manage the land. Jo is the last one living of her siblings: Hilda, Edith, Ed, Willese, Gordon and Jimmie Pauline. They enjoyed being together, eating, laughing and sharing stories of times present and past. The family attended Mt. Hermon Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Cookeville, then when Jo and Armon moved to Chattanooga, first they were part of Whosoever Will Cumberland Presbyterian Church. After they moved across town, Jo and all the family joined Red Bank Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1959. Jo graduated from Central High School in Cookeville, Tn., in 1946 and married Armon Hitchcock that summer. They moved to Washington, D.C. where Armon had a job working with Mapping Services for the government. For a short time, they lived in Detroit, as did many people from the south, to work in the automotive factory. They enjoyed their time there but soon returned to Cookeville to be close to all their family. Armon and Jo had three children: Theresa (Tom) Martin, Phil (Lynn) Hitchcock and Jimmy (Jane) Hitchcock. The family moved to Chattanooga when Theresa was 3 so that Armon could work at TVA again in Mapping Services. Almost every holiday was spent going back to Cookeville to be with family to celebrate. When Jo, Armon, Theresa, Phil and Jimmy arrived back home to Chattanooga from Cookeville often as the car stopped in the driveway Jo would say I see the moon and the moon sees me. God bless the moon and God bless me! Another favorite was To market, to market, to buy a fat pig/ hog. Home again, home again, jiggity jig/jiggity jog! Faith, hope and charity was her constant doodle written on the edge of every piece of paper she touched. There was evidence of love all around. Jo enjoyed being a full time homemaker and was a wonderful cook. She could sew almost anything and enjoyed quilting and making a home to enjoy. She loved her family with a love that was fierce and enjoyed most of all sharing a meal with all her loved ones. The Christmas gift swaps were an event full of laughter remembered by all the family. Grandchildren and great grands were her delight and she loved holding the little babies and getting hugs from the children as they grew up. Jo had seven grandchildren: Stephen, Brian, Matthew Martin; Rick Swafford and Jonathan Hitchcock; and Andrew and Katie Jo Hitchcock. 14 great-grandchildren: Sawyer, Ripley Marie, and Mary Lorelei Martin; George and Margaret Martin, Emma Flanigan, Katie Beth and Emilee Swafford and Mason and River Hitchcock and Christian, Mia, Landyn and Zoey Hitchcock. She considered each one an amazing delight and enjoyed every minute with them. They love her greatly. She showed her love in every way she knew how. Her 3 children and their spouses, seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews and their children who were always on her mind and in her prayers survive Jo. Visitation will be held on Wednesday, March 2, from 5-7 p.m. at Lane Funeral Home on Ashland Terrace. Funeral services will be in Chattanooga at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 3, in the Coulter Chapel of Lane Funeral Home. Graveside services will follow at Crestlawn Cemetery 800 W. Jackson Street in Cookeville, Tn., beginning at 1 p.m. CST. Arrangements are entrusted to Lane Funeral Home, 601 Ashland Terrace, Chattanooga, Tn. 37415, www.lanefh.com, 423 877-3524. The annual Cousin Jake Tullock Memorial Bluegrass Festival returns for its 27th year to the Gem Theater, 700 Tennessee Ave. in Etowah Friday and Saturday. Doors open at 7 p.m. on Friday for the John Studdard Memorial Gospel Concert. This concert includes performances by bands Just Us and Alan Bibey & Grasstowne. Doors will open at noon on Saturday for the Cousin Jake Tullock Bluegrass Festival. Saturdays bands include Just Us, Clearview, Valley Grass Express, Blue Ridge Grass, and The Monroe Troubadours. And dont forget to check out the bluegrass jammers across the street at the historic L&N Depot from noon until 4 p.m. Bring your instrument and join them, or just pull up a chair and enjoy. The Cousin Jake Memorial Bluegrass Festival, established in 1994, is an annual event that celebrates bluegrass music and honors the late Jake Tullock, a native of Etowah. Tullock began his professional music career on the old Cas Walker and Mid-day Merry Go Round radio shows in Knoxville. He eventually joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs as a bass player and comic, performing with them for 20 years as Cousin Jake. After his retirement from Flatt & Scruggs, Tullock returned home to Etowah where he continued to perform until his death. Tickets are available for purchase at the EAC office, or at the venue door. Both days/combo ticket is $25. Friday only tickets are $12 and Saturday only are $18. Children 12 and under ticket prices are Friday for $5 and Saturday for $10. Concessions will be available. Door prizes and raffles are happening both days. Call the Etowah Arts Commission office at 263-7608 for details or visit https://www.facebook.com/EtowahArts. Emporia, KS (66801) Today Periods of rain. Rain becoming heavy at times this afternoon. High near 55F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain early...then remaining cloudy with thundershowers developing overnight. Low 53F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Curtis Coulter has just completed a book called "That Is the Way I Heard It - Folklore, Stories, and Tall Tales from Sale Creek, Tennessee" which will be coming out in about a month. The price of this 150 page book is $18.75. It contains 12 color photographs. The book can be pre-ordered now from coulterpublications.com and delivery is anticipated in approximately four weeks. When it arrives from the printing company, it will be available at the following businesses. Floyd Hardware - Soddy Daisy Good Old Days Museum - Soddy Daisy Daniel Farm Supply - Sale Creek Small Town Antique Mall - Sale Creek Torbett's Automotive - Sale Creek Sale Creek Post Office The Gathering Place - Dayton Mr. Coulter said, "This Is the Way I Heard It is a defense for telling some of the most outlandish stories ever heard, but they all took place right here in Sale Creek. All of these stories started as the unvarnished truth. Still, as I noted in the preface of this book and many of the stories themselves, by the time they got dragged kicking and screaming through sitting parlors, oak tree gathering places for a bunch of older men, a blacksmith shop, a tavern, and the front porch of a country store, they got enlarged to the point that no one knows anymore what the actual original truth of the matter was." The best-selling duo of all time, Brooks & Dunn are returning to arenas, announcing their Reboot 2022 Tour Monday. Kicking off in Evansville, In. on May 5, the nationwide tour will see the duo hit some cities and venues for the first time in over a decade, and some in over 20 years, including Knoxville on May 14. Brooks & Dunn has curated a stacked lineup across the run with openers including Gabby Barrett, Jordan Davis, Riley Green, Walker Hayes, Jon Pardi and more. Tickets go on sale March 4 at 10 a.m. local time at brooks-dunn.com and livenation.com. Live Nation is the tour promoter. "Last year we fired up the buses and 'let it roll again, shared Kix Brooks. Thanks for reminding us how you guys can shake every stage we walk on toit feels good to be back with ya! Bring it! Well meet you there! "It is our full intent to step onto the stage each night and throw down like the wildest honky tonk youve never been toyet, added Ronnie Dunn. "Dont be concerned about the mess left afterwards, yall just enjoy yourselves and well worry about that later." REBOOT 2022 TOUR Official Dates: 5/5/22 Evansville, IN - w/ Jon Pardi, Tyler Booth 5/6/22 Grand Rapids, MI - w/ Jon Pardi, Tyler Booth 5/12/22 Brandon, MS - w/ Walker Hayes, Morgan Wade 5/13/22 Huntsville, AL - w/ Walker Hayes, Morgan Wade 5/14/22 Knoxville, TN - w/ Walker Hayes, Morgan Wade 5/20/22 Wichita, KS - w/ Jordan Davis, Jackson Dean 5/21/22 Tulsa, OK - w/ Riley Green, Jackson Dean 5/22/22 Springfield, MO - w/ Jordan Davis, Jackson Dean 6/3/22 Estero, FL - w/ Gabby Barrett, King Calaway 6/4/22 Jacksonville, FL - w/ Gabby Barrett, King Calaway 6/9/22 Lafayette, LA - w/ Jordan Davis, Dillon Carmichael 6/10/22 Bossier City, LA - w/ Jordan Davis, Dillon Carmichael 6/11/22 San Antonio, TX - w/ Jordan Davis, Dillon Carmichael 6/16/22 Savannah, GA - w/ Jordan Davis, Tyler Braden 6/17/22 Greenville, SC - w/ Jordan Davis, Tyler Braden 6/18/22 Nashville, TN - w/ TBD, Tyler Braden* 6/23/22 Charleston, WV - w/ TBD, Tenille Townes 6/24/22 Toledo, OH - w/ TBD, Tenille Townes 6/25/22 Detroit, MI - w/ TBD, Tenille Townes *On Sale date is March 18 Review for Brooks & Dunn: With 20 No. 1 hits stretching back to 1991, two Grammy awards, dozens of ACM and CMA honors and a discography counting more album sales than any duo in history regardless of genre Brooks & Dunns influence on todays country has never been in question. Hits like Boot Scootin Boogie, My Maria and Believe have propelled the duo to more than 30 million albums sold, with the New York Times heralding "together they helped drive the power-country era of the early-to-mid 1990s and continued to benefit from the sea change in the genre they helped initiate right through their most recent albums. Their original Merle Haggard meets The Rolling Stones vibe made them progressive stars in their own right. The duos recently released collaboration project Reboot debuted at No. One on Billboards Top Country Albums. The impressive feat marks the first time the duo has topped the album charts since 2009 while simultaneously earning the duo their 10th Billboard 200 Top 10 album, the most of any country duo or group in the charts history. In 2019 the duo was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in the Modern Era Artist category. In 2021 Brooks & Dunn undertook their first nationwide tour in 10 years with their anticipated The Reboot 2021 Tour, as well as wrapped their hugely successful and the longest-running country residency in Las Vegas, Reba, Brooks & Dunn: Together in Vegas. For more information, visit www.brooks-dunn.com. A Trion man was convicted for the July 2019 statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl. With dozens of potential jurors waiting outside the courtroom in Chattooga County Superior Court, Tommy Lee Prince, 36, entered a last-minute guilty plea just prior to jury selection. While we were completely ready for trial, the defendant took accountability for his actions and pled guilty, said Chris Arnt, Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney. This enabled us to resolve the case without forcing the victim to testify, and we were still able to secure a lengthy prison sentence for this sex offender. On Monday, Feb. 21, Judge Brian House sentenced Prince to a total of 20 years, with the first 10 years to be served in prison. Prince will be required to register annually as a sex offender following his release from prison. The case was prosecuted by Chief Assistant District Attorney Kevin Baugh. District Attorney Arnt thanked the Trion Police Department and the Childrens Advocacy Center for their excellent work on the case. The allegations came to light in late July of 2019 after the victims cousin discovered inappropriate text messages between the victim and Prince, who had been dating the victims aunt at the time of the incident. The case was investigated by Dexter Blackmon with the Trion Police Department. Blackmon immediately scheduled the victim for a forensic interview at the Childrens Advocacy Center, during which the victim disclosed that she and Prince had sexual intercourse. Blackmon obtained a search warrant for the victims cell phone, which yielded numerous inappropriate text messages between the victim and Prince as well as an internet search history that corroborated the victims disclosure. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations Division of Forensic Sciences analyzed the clothing the victim was wearing on the date of the sexual assault and confirmed through DNA analysis that Princes bodily fluids were present. During an interview following his arrest, Prince claimed he had been drinking heavily on the evening in question and attempted to place blame on the victim for flirting with him. Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise President & CEO Martina Guilfoil is the featured guest for the latest release of the Moving Business Forward Podcast from PodTopics. Founded in 1986, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) is a nonprofit organization focused on helping families navigate the home-buying process and become successful, lifelong homeowners. Ms. Guilfoil joined CNE as the organizations chief executive in 2013, and a portion of the Moving Business Forward interview focuses on the changes she has seen in the Chattanooga housing market over the past nine years. In addition to discussing challenges on the horizon, the podcast interview also looks back at the work that CNE has done to assist more than 13,000 clients, which include families, individuals and small businesses, in securing loans, purchasing homes and keeping homes. PodTopics Executive Producer Greg Thompson conducted the Moving Business Forward interview with Ms. Guilfoil onsite at the offices of CNE. The podcast is now available from PodTopics through the following link: https://www.podtopics.com/page/movingbusinessforward. Upcoming episodes of Moving Business Forward will feature interviews with the executive leadership of the Chattanooga Food Bank, the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and Chattanooga Whiskey. Chattanooga-area companies and organizations interested in sharing their stories through Moving Business Forward can contact PodTopics via email, info@missingwordsolutions.com. Hilary Banks and Wills friend Jazz met during season 1 episode 4 of the dramatic reboot, Bel-Air. Some fans are confident they already see the chemistry between the two and think a Hilary and Jazz love story might finally be in the cards. DJ Jazzy Jeff as Jazz and Karyn Parsons as Hilary Banks in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air | Alice S. Hall/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images Jazz had a one-sided crush on Hilary in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air During the popular 90s sitcom, Will (Will Smith) and Jazz (DJ Jazzy Jeff) are first introduced in season 1 episode 2s Bang the Drum, Ashley. At the time, Jazz was the youngest Banks supposed drum teacher and got thrown out of the house by Uncle Phil (James Avery) for the first time. We might actually finally get Hilary and Jazz!!!! #BelAir pic.twitter.com/7WnY8botNN Jake from state farm knows I exist (@SeniTelly) February 17, 2022 RELATED: Bel-Air Cast and Characters: A Complete Rundown The strict patriarch and the goofy club DJ often butt heads, leading to a long-running joke that included Uncle Phil, and other Banks family members, tossing Jazz out of the house. He was also remembered for his massive crush on the eldest, Hilary (Karyn Parsons-Rockwell), although she never felt the same way. The two eventually went on a date, where hes seen without his signature sunglasses for one of the only times in the series, but its later revealed that Hilary was blackmailed into going out with Jazz. Fans think Jazz and Hilary might date in the dramatic reboot, Bel-Air The dramatic retelling of the sitcom Peacocks Bel-Air reimagines both Hilary (Coco Jones) and Jazz (Jordan L. Jones) as more business-oriented. For example, the oldest Banks is a social media influencer in the food industry, and shes constantly making moves in hopes of making a name for herself outside of her parents. Additionally, Jazz is an entrepreneur who meets Will when he transports the teenager to the Banks Los Angeles mansion in his taxi. While Hilary and Ashley walk into local stores where they hoped to hang endorsement posters for Uncle Phil, who is running for district attorney, they ran into Wills friend. The two introduced themselves to each other for the first time and seemingly instantly hit it off, which many viewers noticed. After finding out that Jazz lacked a social media account, Hilary immediately got him started, resulting in an influx of followers. Following the episode, several fans took to Twitter to express their happiness they would finally receive a Hilary and Jazz love story. Many admitted they already began shipping the two, and others noted they hoped viewers would watch a relationship develop between them at some point in the series. DJ Jazzy Jeff previously called Bel-Air his favorite show The record producer starred in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alongside real-life music partner Will Smith as the main characters best friend for all six seasons of the 90s sitcom. Although his role has dramatically changed in the drama series and DJ Jazzy Jeff reportedly had no input in Bel-Air, the Philadelphia native, he still enjoys the show. They really got me shipping Jazz and Hilary. They are CUTE together. #BelAir pic.twitter.com/69cqhYbmDj Rebecca Theodore-Vachon (@FilmFatale_NYC) February 20, 2022 Speaking to Hip Hop DX, the two-time Grammy winner claimed it might be my favorite show ever as he explained he sits on Bel-Air: The Official Podcast as a host. The actor continued to praise the mind-blowing series, if someone was to take The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 90s and move it to 20 to 22 and put a dramatic spin on it, I dont think they could have done a better job. Smith was involved with the reboot as he worked with filmmaker Morgan Cooper to turn the concept into a show. Bel-Air airs Thursdays on Peacock. RELATED: Bel-Air Season 1 Tracklist: All the Songs Featured in Episode 5, PA to LA On March 10, March 12, and March 13, BTS will put on Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul concerts. The concerts will have an in-person audience. ARMY unable to attend the concerts in person will be able to stream Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul online and also watch a concert in movie theaters around the world. Here is how BTS fans can buy tickets to watch the livestreams of Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul. This article explains how BTS fans can buy tickets for the online livestreams of Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul. For information on how to buy tickets to watch Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul in movie theaters, click here. BTS | Big Hit Music Two of BTS Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul concerts will have a livestream Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul will be BTS first in-person concerts in South Korea since Love Yourself: Speak Yourself [The Final] in 2019. Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul will be held on March 10, March 12, and March 13 at Seoul Olympic Stadium. As long as guidelines for the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic permit, all three concerts will have fans attending in person. Two of the concert dates will have an online livestream for fans to tune into, and one Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul concert will be broadcast in movie theaters. According to a press release, The online live stream is available on March 10 and 13. The concert on March 12 will be broadcasted in cinemas worldwide through Live Viewing event. RELATED: BTS Make a Brief Appearance in Janet Jacksons Documentary How Did the Artists Meet? How fanclub members can buy tickets to watch the livestreams of Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul For the online viewing of Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul, tickets are available on Weverse Shop. There are multiple types of tickets that fans can buy. Fans with the BTS GLOBAL OFFICIAL FANCLUB ARMY MEMBERSHIP have different ticketing options than fans without the fanclub membership. ARMY can also choose whether they want to buy tickets for the concert dates separately or buy a two-day pass for the livestreams on March 10 and March 13. For fans with the fanclub membership, a 4K Single-view + HD Multi-view ticket costs $55.40. With this ticket, fanclub members will be able to watch either the March 10 or March 13 concert with a 4K view of the concerts main screen and HD Multi-views screens. Members of the BTS GLOBAL OFFICIAL FANCLUB ARMY MEMBERSHIP can also buy an HD Multi-view ticket for either concert livestream for $46.10. This ticket will give fanclub members the ability to watch the March 10 or March 13 concert with HD Multi-view screens. The last ticketing option available to fanclub members is an HD Multi-view 2 Day Pass. With this ticket, fanclub members will have an HD Multi-view of both the March 10 and the March 13 concerts for $83.70. RELATED: BTS: Suga and Jungkook Release Stay Alive for 7FATES: CHAKHO Soundtrack How BTS fans without the fanclub membership can buy tickets for the concert livestreams For BTS fans who do not have the BTS GLOBAL OFFICIAL FANCLUB ARMY MEMBERSHIP, there are still multiple types of tickets available on Weverse Shop. An HD Single-view ticket for the concert on March 10 or March 13 costs fans $46.10. This ticket option gives BTS fans an HD view of either concert livestreams main screen. Fans without the BTS GLOBAL OFFICIAL FANCLUB ARMY MEMBERSHIP can also buy an HD Single-view 2 Day Pass for $83.70. With this ticket, fans can have an HD view of both concerts main screens. Tickets for the March 10 concert will be available until 7:59 p.m. KST on March 10, and tickets for the March 13 concert livestream will be on sale until 6:59 p.m. KST on March 13. The 2 Day Pass tickets for Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul will be available until 7:59 p.m. KST on March 10. RELATED: BTS Recently Performed Sold-Out Concerts at the Same Stadium the 2022 Super Bowl Was Held Tiger King star Carole Baskin is back in the news. The animal rights activist who rose to fame on the Netflix series has announced the release of a new documentary called The Conservation Game. The film delves into the secret world of the big cat trade, a cause important to Baskin. Read on to learn more about the documentary and where to watch it. Carole Baskin and Howard Baskin I Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Carole Baskins The Conservation Game is free to watch Baskins crusade of ending big cat abuse continues with The Conservation Game. Teaming with film director Michael Webber, the documentary exposes celebrity conservationists and their role in the big cat trade. Baskin shared her enthusiasm for the film and its impact in a press release. For the first time, these self-proclaimed conservationists will be exposed for who they really are. By using my platform to bring The Conservation Game to the American public, we have the potential to create much-needed change that could save thousands of innocent cubs from a life of exploitation. RELATED: Joe vs. Carole: Peacock Drops Trailer for New Tiger King Series With Kate McKinnon as Carole Baskin The film is already receiving critical acclaim and won the Social Justice Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The Conservation Game is currently streaming for free on Baskins Big Cat Rescue YouTube channel. She gained notoriety on Tiger King Baskin became a household name thanks to Tiger Kings release in March 2020. The Netflix documentary follows the feud between Baskin and Oklahoma zookeeper Joe Exotic. Their feud became so heated that Joe was arrested in 2018 for hiring two men to kill Baskin. Currently, hes serving a 22-year prison sentence. Aside from her feud with Joe, the show also delved into the mysterious disappearance of Baskins second husband, Don Lewis. Lewis went missing in August 1997, and various theories have emerged about his disappearance. One of the biggest theories is that Baskin killed Lewis and fed him to her tigers, a claim shes denied. Baskin has been critical about her portrayal in the Netflix series. She says that the directors lied to her about the purpose of the documentary. In a November 221 interview with The Sun, Baskin talked about the negative effects of Tiger King. The lies that were magnified in the series and proliferated in the media frenzy resulted in death threats and an unimaginable onslaught from abuse to me, my family, co rescuers, and Big Cat Rescue. Carole Baskin sued Netflix over Tiger King 2 After the negativity of the first season of Tiger King, Baskin didnt want anything else to do with the series. However, that didnt stop Netflix from using footage of Baskin for Season 2. Netflixs use of her image led Baskin to file a lawsuit against the streaming service in November 2021. However, a month later, she dropped the case. RELATED: Carole Baskin Still Fears for Her Life Even With Tiger King Joe Exotic in Prison Baskin is moving on from the fallout of Tiger King, although its hard for the activist. While Baskin remains in fear of Joe, her love of rescuing big cats grows stronger. Fans can see Baskins hard work and dedication to the cats in The Conservation Game. Euphoria season 2 introduced Chloe Cherrys Faye, a blue-eyed blonde with big pink lips and a love of short shorts. Thanks to series creator Sam Levinson, the HBO drama marks Cherrys television debut. The 24-year-old says that when she arrived on set for her first acting gig, there was one specific co-star she bonded with the most. Chloe Cherry | Eddy Chen/HBO Sam Levinson found the Euphoria star in the adult film industry Before landing the role on Euphoria, Cherry was a star in the adult film industry. According to Variety, Levinson found out about Cherry thanks to a porn parody video she starred in where she portrayed Hunter Schafers character Jules. Cherry who hails from Americas Amish capital Lancaster, Pennsylvania says that she was first drawn to the adult industry because of the freedom and expression that it gave her after feeling so repressed for a long time. Chloe Cherry was a fan of the HBO series before she landed the role of Faye Cherry revealed that when Levinson reached out to her, she was immediately excited to be part of a show she loved. She was also happy for the opportunity to act in more traditional TV roles. She says she doesnt usually become that obsessed with a show. But Euphoria was different. I was already following every single cast member [on social media] and as we were shooting, I would notice that I already knew peoples names on the set even if they had really tiny parts because I had already been so into the show, Cherry explained. I thought it was so amazing everything about it. Going on set has been the ultimate experience of a lifetime. Chloe Cherry bonded the most with one specific Euphoria star During her time on set in season 2, Cherry says that there was one co-star in particular that she became closest to Angus Cloud (Fezco). And, she says there was a good reason why. He is truly a really nice guy and hes funny! she explained. He was the easiest for me to connect with because I love people who are hilarious and super chill, and he is. He was easy to work with, too. We had a lot of scenes together. I also enjoyed getting to know Tyler [Chase] and Javon [Walton]. She can totally relate to Faye Cherry describes her character as someone she can totally relate to. She says shes a very sweet girl that likes to hang out and have fun. Faye also likes her friends, and to do nice things for people. Cherry admits that Faye wasnt necessarily raised in the best of circumstances and she didnt have the happiest experiences. And this is why she has a tough exterior that might make her seem scary sometimes. I think shes kind to a fault. She has a good sense of style and shes trying to find good people in her life and shes trying to find what would make her feel good, but its difficult because shes an addict and shes not fully herself right now. Weve all been through hard times, and I think we can all relate to a desire to improve our situation, Cherry explained. Euphoria Chloe Cherry star would love to do comedy and horror If she gets the chance to do more traditional TV roles, Cherry believes she would do well in both comedy and horror. She says she tried to bring that to Faye because the character is sort of comedic relief and also kind of scary. She explained that she likes invoking those mixed feelings in the viewer. This show really did create a fantasy land and this whole universe for us to play with and Im just so happy to be able to exist in something like this, and look like a colorful, dreamy little fairy while doing it, Cherry added. In addition to acting, Cherry recently branched out into the world of modeling. She just walked the runway at New York Fashion Week. Euphoria seasons 1 and 2 are now playing on HBO Max. RELATED: Euphoria: Tom Holland Is Not the Only Person Who Thinks He Deserves a Cameo But the Spider-Man Star Doesnt Want to Come Alone Christopher Wallace, better known as Notorious B.I.G. grew up in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY during the 1980s. In 1982, the influential rapper was 12 years old. Crack cocaine was the drug of choice in New York City and beyond. Notorious BIG, 1995 | Larry Busacca/Getty Images It was cheap to manufacture and the market of people who wanted the powerful, inexpensive high was huge. Many small-time drug dealers hustled to make fast cash. Though his mother worked two jobs to send him to a private high school, Biggie decided to earn his own money and turned to dealing. B.I.G. kept dealing even after his first record deal By 1993, after a decade of dealing, he was no longer selling crack on Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn. He was part of a major interstate operation with a location in North Carolina. He also had a newborn daughter to support. He traveled between Brooklyn and Raleigh managing his business. Music was a side interest. It wasnt earning him much money. After his rise to fame, he told a television interviewer that he made upwards of $7,000 per week from dealing. Compare that to the paltry amount he earned for his first single, Party and Bullshit and music wasnt paying the bills. On top of that, the advance for his first major record deal with music executive Sean Diddy Combs, was delayed. B.I.G. continued working in Raleigh and Brooklyn, doing what he knew how to do to support himself. Diddy contacted B.I.G. and told him he had to choose between dealing and music. He couldnt do both. Notorious B.I.G.s music captured the end of an era BROOKLYN STAND UP We doing it big for The Notorious B.I.G. on 8.19.21 BRIC celebrate Brooklyn! Come show love and rock with me, @budweiserusa and your favorite artist. Make sure you RSVP at https://t.co/pRNKojEguf (21+ Only). #BudXBiggie #BudweiserUSA pic.twitter.com/78PVHqMUU2 Lil' Kim (@LilKim) August 17, 2021 The album with the delayed advance was Ready to Die. Pitchfork reviewed the album in 2014 in honor of its 20th anniversary. The article pointed out that even B.I.G. knew the damage that small-time crack dealing caused in the city he grew up in. Tracks like Things Done Changed recall simple childhood pleasures like cookouts and block parties. That innocence takes a turn with the rise of crack and battling drug dealers. B.I.G. helped usher in that change and other tracks like Everyday Struggle and Suicidal Thoughts show that he struggled with guilt and mixed feelings over his days selling drugs. During the mid-90s, B.I.G. and other talented rappers and artists collaborated as part of the Junior MAFIA (Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes). Song lyrics were autobiographical and told the stories of what it was like selling drugs in big cities. It described the intensity of relationships between men and women. The music was about power and prestige and money. And it crossed genres. Biography reports that in 1995, B.I.G. was the biggest-selling solo male artist on the Billboard charts not only in hip hop, but in pop and R&B, too. B.I.G. collaborated with Michael Jackson and R. Kelly. Early in his career, he had met Tupac Shakur during a visit to Los Angeles. Shortly after that, an East Coast vs. West Coast battle took over the music industry. B.I.G. lived by the sword and died by the sword Tupac Shakur was B.I.G.s West Coast rival. After Shakur was shot at a recording studio in NYC and survived his injuries, the war of egos between the two intensified. Many believed that B.I.G. admitted being responsible in some lyrics from his song Long Kiss Goodnight. But that was not the first attack on Shakur. No one knows for sure who fatally gunned down Shakur on September 7, 1996. B.I.G. was gunned down in Las Vegas on March 9, 1997. Like Shakur, no one was ever charged with his murder. His posthumous album titled Life After Death seemed to be a prophetic album. RELATED: Who Had a Higher Net Worth at the Time of Their Death Tupac Shakur or Notorious B.I.G.? Joy Behar is one of the panelists on The View who is tasked to give her take on all the latest Hot Topics on the pop culture and political world. The ABC daytime talk show hosts were talking about the Ukraine invasion by Russia when Behar made a comment that some fans found a little tone-deaf. Now the comedian is facing criticism over what she said about a vacation trip to Italy. Joy Behar | ABC/Lou Rocco Behar is usually on point when it comes to expressing her comments on sensitive topics. As the last OG of The View, Behar has experience talking about issues that are difficult but she seemingly missed the mark recently. On the episode that aired on Feb. 24, the panel was talking about Russias attack on Ukraine and Behar expressed her concern over her trip to Italy. Well, Im scared of whats going to happen in Western Europe, too, she said on the ABC talk show. You know, you plan a trip, you want to go there. [I wanted] to go to Italy for four years. I havent been able to make it because of the pandemic and now this. Its like, whats going on there, too? RELATED: The View: Ana Navarro Shares Lighter Moment From Whoopi Goldbergs Return After Suspension The View fans react to Joy Behars comments These comments didnt go over well with some viewers on The Views official YouTube channel who expressed their opinions on what Behar said. When Joy said she might not be able to go on vacation. My heart absolutely broke. Oh, The Humanity!! a fan replied. My thoughts and prayers go to Joy in this incredibly difficult time. I cant imagine the pain she is grappling with thinking about the idea of rescheduling a vacay, a viewer wrote sarcastically. Joy, theres bigger problems than you not being able to vacation in Italy. You know, like, people being orphaned and dying? a YouTube user expressed. Absolutely heartbreaking to see what is happening. There needs to be a go fund me for Joys Italian vacation, another fan commented using sarcasm. Peoples homes are being invaded, and Joy is complaining that she hasnt been able to make it to Italy? Really?? another viewer added. Did this Joy lady really say she was worried she wouldnt be able to go on vacation to Europe?! Really?? another YouTube user posted. The View set without the co-hosts | ABC/Jenny Anderson RELATED: The View: Whoopi Goldberg Is Reportedly Threatening to Quit Following Suspension Whoopi Goldberg talks about controversy Behar is in the middle of backlash and a couple weeks before it was The Views moderator Whoopi Goldberg who got in trouble. The EGOT legend made insensitive remarks about the Holocaust that ended up getting her a two-week suspension. When Goldberg returned to the show, she addressed viewers once again. Ive got to tell you, theres something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this because we are The View and this is what we do, Goldberg said on the episode that aired Feb. 14. And sometimes we dont do it as delicately as we could But its five minutes to get in important information about topics. And thats what we try to do every day. And I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away. The View airs weekday mornings at 11 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. PT/CT on ABC. RELATED: The View Co-Host Ana Navarro Shares Relatable Anecdote About Growing Flowers and Fans Give Her Tips Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., speaks as U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Joseph Votel appears before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 5, 2019, in Washington. Inhofe plans to announce he that he will retire from Congress before his six-year term is up, triggering a special election this year in Oklahoma to pick his replacement, according to a person who with direct knowledge of the senator's plans. On Sunday, Ukrainian evangelicals in New York City gathered in their churches and wept, vented, and sang, feeling the existential threat to their loved ones and their homeland alongside people around the world. As President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces on high alert, the Ukrainian Americans called their praise songs weapons of war. Outside the churches on a blue-skied morning, fellow New Yorkers continued protests against the Russian invasion, with some worshipers joining after their services. New York City has the largest Ukrainian population in the United States, a community of about 150,000, historically concentrated in the East Village of Manhattan and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. Thousands had come to the United States as religious refugees, most of them Baptist or Pentecostal, under a special asylum for those fleeing Soviet religious persecution. In the East Village, some of those refugees attend Cornerstone First Ukrainian Assembly of God, where elderly women in traditional headscarves worship alongside young people in sweatshirts. The Pentecostal congregation now includes Russians, Nigerians, and Belarusians, with services in a mix of Ukrainian, Russian, and English. Many at Cornerstone have family in Ukraine and fear their fate as the war continues day by day. On Sunday, one woman with white hair wept softly through the whole service. What can we do but stay in prayer and cry to God? said elder Peter Pristash, who lived much of his life in Ukraine and is now a US citizen. As the nuclear threat escalated tensions, people in the service were in disbelief about how quickly the situation had spiraled. Our minds fail to understand: How is this possible in this day and age? said Pristash before the congregation. God allowed this to happen, and we do not know why. But we know God is sovereign, and he is on his throne. There are people who think if they kill someone it will accomplish a goal. Cornerstones worship team that day included a Ukrainian jazz saxophonist, Andrey Chmut, who was touring in the United States and recording an album with American jazz pianist Bob James when the war broke out. Now he cant get back to Ukraine, and his wife and young daughter are stuck there. His flight was supposed to leave Monday, but with all commercial flights to Ukraine grounded due to the war, he came to the Sunday service with his saxophone. Our hope is in the Lord, the one who holds things together, Chmut said to the church after sharing his situation and thanking them for prayer. No matter how things fall apart, the Lord created this world, and he holds things in his hands. People murmured amens and let out sniffles. Two of Chmuts musician friends in Russia who spoke publicly against the invasion are now in prison, he said after the service. Ukrainian culture and the arts were flourishing the last few years, but now its in jeopardy. I dont want to live under Putins regime. He played through tears. He was trying to figure out if he could get to Poland, despite not having a visa, and somehow meet his wife and daughter there. All he could think about was a nuclear attack. His wife and daughter dont know even how tonight is going to be, he said. Even if a nuclear attack happens, Chmut told the church in Ukrainian, the hope we have is we go home. And we will be together with Jesus, the one we know will help us. One of the members translated his words to the congregation in English. During the service, people quietly scrolled through news articles on their phones. Paul Oliferchik, one of Cornerstones pastors, acknowledged that many in the congregation might wish they could be in Ukraine since they dont know how to help from the US. Be the nonanxious presence of Christ that transcends human conflict, he urged them. Maybe all you have to offer to God is prayer in tears It is important to create time to lament before God. Pristash, the elder, said he was too old to serve in the army, but he had imagined what he would do if he could. Today our weapons are here, he prayed. We can call upon God and pray to him. He quoted Ephesians 6:12 that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. With a church of people with different backgrounds, Oliferchik said after the service that the pastors have been praying against conflict in the church on this topic. He said they have been unified so far that none of us wants this. Oliferchik was born in Moscow and his parents are from Belarus, though he grew up in the United States. His grandfather was imprisoned for his Pentecostal faith in the Soviet Union. He said his parents were regularly mocked for their faith. Throughout the service, Oliferchik hopped up to translate in Ukrainian or Russian. He and his wife both have relatives in Ukraine. This is pure evil from Putins regime, he said. Thinking about his grandfather and the persecution of evangelicals in Russia, he said, We dont want history to repeat. Communities of Slavic evangelicals grew in the 1990s around US churches, with the largest population of evangelical refugees settling in Sacramento, California, according to historian Catherine Wanner in Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism. The 1989 Lautenberg Amendment, which gave special asylum to those fleeing Soviet religious persecution, continues to this day. Cornerstone has served an oasis for immigrants, said Pristash, and he hopes it will be a landing place for anyone who is fleeing Ukraine and comes to the United States. His church was not alone in its laments on Sunday. A Korean congregation with ties to the church showed up in solidarity and filled the back quarter of the pews. As the church sang How Great Is Our God in Ukrainian, the Korean church members sang along in English with hands lifted. The pastor thanked them for coming, and said afterward how glad the Cornerstone congregation was to have other Christians to sit with those who were suffering. [ This article is also available in espanol. ] [] As Russian troops met stiffer resistance than expected from Ukrainian soldiers and citizens in Kyiv and other cities, pastors in both nations adapted Sunday worship services appropriately. The whole church prayed on their knees for our president, our country, and for peace, said Vadym Kulynchenko of his church in Kamyanka, 145 miles south of the capital. After the service, we did a first-aid training. Rather than a sermon, time was given to share testimonies from harrowing days of air raids. Many psalms were offered, and Kulynchenkos message centered on Proverbs 29:25. Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. Both disruption and ordinary life were on display at Calvary Chapel of Svitlovodsk. Andrey and Nadya, displaced from Kyiv by the Russian missile barrage on Thursday, exchanged wedding vows amid great celebration. Scheduled to be married this weekend in the capital, the couple was instead sent fleeing to Nadyas home church 185 miles southeast along the Dnieper Riverwith a request for an impromptu wedding. In the middle of a war? That doesnt make sense! said Benjamin Morrison, with irony. But during war is when it makes the most sense. What better reminder that even war cannot stamp out love. And what better way to say that we serve a higher King than to rejoice in the midst of chaos? They were married on Saturday, as planned. On Sunday, the congregation of about 80 peoplejust beginning to swell with newcomers seeking refugeregathered to hear a sermon on David and Goliath. Yes, David still had to fight. Yes, it was still hard and scarybut God was his confidence, concluded Morrison, an American missionary veteran of 20 years and married to a Ukrainian. May he be ours as well, and may he cut off the head of the enemy. Ukraine claimed today that 3,500 Russian soldiers have been killed so far. Russia has not released an official casualty figure. Regarding its own losses, Ukraines Health Ministry counted more than 350 civilians dead and almost 1,700 wounded as of Sunday night. The reported tally combines civilian and military casualties, but broke out 14 child deaths and 116 wounded. Taras Dyatlik, regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Overseas Council, did the math. If correct, in three days of fighting 40 Russian soldiers died every hour; one soldier every minute and a half. These are mostly 19- to 25-year-old children, he lamented. The depth of our human brokenness can only be healed by the Holy Spirit. Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), pleaded for the dead with Patriarch Kirill, Moscow-based head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). If you cannot raise your voice against aggression, he stated, at least take the bodies of Russian soldiers whose lives have become the price for [your and your presidents] ideas of the Russian world. Prior to the war, President Vladimir Putin asserted that Ukraine was simply an extension of Russia, with no historic independent existence. Epiphanius said that the Ukrainian government was seeking to coordinate with the International Committee of the Red Cross to repatriate the dead bodies, yet receiving no response. Kirill tread carefully, given his flock on both sides of the border. In 2019, the Istanbul-based ecumenical patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I, recognized the national independence of the breakaway OCU, while many parishes in Ukraine rejected this and chose to remain under the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) which is part of the ROC, as has been historic precedent. (Exact figures for OCU- and UOC-affiliated churches in Ukraine are difficult to determine.) Expressing his belief that the warring sides will overcome their divisions and disagreements, Kirill called on the entire fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church to offer a special, fervent prayer for the speedy restoration of peace. As a foundation, he cited the common centuries-old history of the two peoples. Epiphanius, however, closed his message to the patriarch by noting the Orthodox church calendar marks this Sunday for remembrance of the Last Judgment. Putin ordered his nuclear forces to a higher level of alertness. Western allies of non-NATO Ukraine increased their sanctions against leading Russian banks and politiciansincluding Putin. While they stopped short of the financial nuclear option of cutting Russia off entirely from the international SWIFT system for banking transfers, many approved the sending of additional defensive aid to Kyiv. Meanwhile, 10 regional Protestant seminariesincluding Kyiv Theological Seminary and Evangelical Reformed Seminary of Ukraineput out a joint statement on Facebook that drew more than 650 shares. We are called to speak the truth and expose deceit, they stated. We strongly condemn the open and unjustified aggression aimed at destroying the statehood and independence of Ukraine, based on blatant lies from Putin which are clearly contrary to Gods revelation. They noted: We confess the real and unlimited power of God over all countries and continents (Ps. 24:1), as well as over all kings and rulers (Prov. 21:1); therefore, nothing in all creation can interfere with the fulfillment of the good and perfect will of God. We, together with the first Christians, affirm Jesus is Lord, and not Caesar. We express solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We share the pain of those who have already lost their loved ones. We pray that all of the aggressors plans would be thwarted and put to shame. We call on all people of good will around the world to resist the lies and hatred of the aggressor. We call on everyone to petition for a cessation of hostilities and to exert every possible influence on the Russian Federation in order to stop the unmotivated aggression toward Ukraine. Five seminaries are based in Ukraine. Two, granted anonymity, are based in Russia. Bolder still were a number of pastors within Russia. Victor Sudakov, senior pastor at New Life Church in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in Russia, changed his Facebook profile photo on Thursday to incorporate a small Ukrainian flag. On Saturday, he changed his cover photo to display the flag and the tryzub, the gold trident from Ukraines official coat of arms. The action by the Pentecostal pastor, part of the Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith (ROSKhVE), drew hundreds of comments. Brother I always thought and said that you were a brave man, stated one. There is no price tag for what you are doing now! On Sunday, Sudakov linked to a Change.org petition intended for Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine. More than 960,000 people had signed it as of Sunday evening. On Friday, ROSKhVE released an official statement quoting the Book of Acts in reference to Gods appointed places for people to live. Regardless of the causes, war is a terrible evil, the group stated. God has called us to love [and] the primary values should not be the specific outlines of borders, but human souls. Praying for peace to be restored as quickly as possible, the evangelical union called for fasting until the divine resolution of the fratricidal conflict. Like Kirill, ROSKhVE cited as a foundation the centuries-old history of unity between Russian and Ukrainian evangelicals. Many of the latters missionaries, it stated, now serve as pastors and bishops of churches. They are hopeful this will speed an early reconciliation. I am so sorry that my country attacked its neighbor, stated Constantin Lysakov, a pastor at Moscow Bible Church. No matter how we call this event, no matter how we justify it, there is no shifting blame when you are repenting. And we all should repent over what took place. There is only one source of comfort in all of this for me, he wrote on Facebook. Christ is on the throne, God the Father holds everything in His hands, the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of those who trust in Him and nothing can overcome His might. God does the greatest works of redemption when everything seems hopeless. I pray for the peace. At the outbreak of war, Yevgeny Bakhmutsky spoke similarly. My soul is grieved, my heart is torn with horror and shame, and my mind is shocked by human insanity, said the pastor of Russian Bible Church in Moscow. We are not politicians, we are children of God. We are not called to remake the geopolitical map of the world to please this or that ruler. Let the world see that the children of God love and accept one another, not because of language [or] nationality but because they have been accepted by Christ. A scriptural text often cited in Russian evangelical churches the Sunday after the warfare erupted was Psalm 2:1. Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? Other churches focused on solidarity and prayer. Across Russia on Sunday, the approximately 700 churches within the 26 Protestant unions that compose the All-Russia Commonwealth of Evangelical Christians jointly declared a time of prayer and fasting for peace, said Pavel Kolesnikov, former ARCEC chairman and Eurasia regional director for the Lausanne Movement. This is our action, he told CT. Their prayer agenda included five emphases: 1) For peace between the fraternal peoples of Russia and Ukraine 2) For the authorities and rulers to have the fear of God, strength, and will for peacemaking 3) For the safety of the people of Ukraine, as well as Christians living in Ukraine in places of armed conflict 4) For the Church, that God may preserve it from divisions and conflicts amid the aggravated situation 5) Understanding how every association of churches can respond to the needs of people affected by warfare At his own church, Zelenograd Baptist Church in Moscow, Kolesnikov asked attendees at the morning service to join handsevery man, woman, and childto pray for peace and wisdom for the governments of both countries. His church has also been collecting supplies, as many Russian churches are, to aid Ukrainian refugees in neighboring nations. It is not our war, he said. We love our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. Joining in the fast on Sunday, the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) called on believers to be peacemakers. Bless restless nations and send peace, repentance. We are asking for your mercy upon all, said Sergey Zolotarevskiy, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Moscow, without mentioning the conflict directly. Oleg Alekseev, pastor of Source of Living Water, the oldest Baptist church in Voronezh in central Russia, used Psalm 2 as the main text for his message. The real victories do not happen there, nor does well-being originate there, he said, referring to the battlefield. It originates [in the church], when we faithfully [pray for] kings, rulers, and all peoples. Ruslan Nadyuk, pastor of Word for the Soul Baptist Church in Moscow, said the appropriate Christian response is one of incessant silent prayer that the conflict be resolved peacefully and according to Gods will. He cited the testimony of James 5:16. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Conditioned during decades of persecution under the tsars and communists, many Russian believers have decided that protesting is useless at best and dangerous at worst. Among the effects was a deepening of their prayer life, said Andrey Shirin, a Russia-born seminary professor in Virginia who surveyed sermons and Facebook comments by Russian pastors on behalf of CT. When upheavals begin, Russian evangelicals do not say much about themparticularly when they are political in nature, said Shirin. However, Russian evangelicals pray a lot. In fact, they believe this response is the most potent one. As Bakhmutsky, the Moscow pastor, stated on Facebook, Do not rush to judge others through the prism of your culture, situation, and conscience. Do not think of prayer as something insignificant or useless. For most of us, thats all we have left. But some pastors were more direct in their comments. Yuri Sipko, former head of the largest Baptist denomination in Russia, said that first and foremost, Christians should respond with prayer. Jesus response, however, would respond to the events in Ukraine with the words of John 15:13. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down ones life for ones friends. For Ukrainians, he said, this should be their wartime guiding principle. Andrey Direenko expressed his dismay. Pain, tears, horrors of bloodshed tear our hearts apart, said the Pentecostal bishop from Yaroslavl in central Russia. It seems like a nightmare, but it is horrible reality. And in the middle of it, ministries responded. I ask all families with orphans, as well as families raising children with disabilities and who want to move to safer areas, to write under this post, stated Nicolai Kuleba, the evangelical ombudsman for children in Ukraine. Leave comments, provide a number and we will contact you. Many churches within Ukraine are providing shelter. But so are those abroad. We are but a small church, thus our capacity to help is limited, perhaps up to a few dozen families or so, said Peter Szabo, who pastors a Presbyterian church in Budapest. But our greatest hope is not what we can or will do but what our King, the Lord Jesus Christ can and will do. Preaching from Acts 13, he reminded that the Christian life is never the series of failures, but that the golden thread of Gods grace gives the believer a sure hope for the future. In desperate need of such perspective, about 78,000 refugees have fled to Hungary, he said. The UN reported a westward migration totaling 386,000, including Poland, Slovakia, and other bordering nations. Thousands of Ukrainians have crossed into Moldova. At Kishinev Bible Church, a Russian-speaking nondenominational congregation in the countrys capital, several refugee families visited services for the first time Sunday morning. The church and its partners, ministries whose offices are now turned into hostels, have shuttled refugees and supplies since the war broke out. Evghenii Eugene Solugubenco choked up as he preached on a topic he had slated months ago: Gods faithfulness. Those words mean little to us when were going to lunch in the afternoon after church. But when youre a refugee they mean more. I prayed for God to hug these people and let them know he loves them because hes faithful, said Solugubenco, who opened with Lamentations 3:23-24. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. People are usually pretty reserved in this part of the world, he said. They dont come up to the pastor after the service. But today they did. And some Ukrainians are seeing the divine. Soldiers and officers are telling me they are witnessing miracles from above, said Oleksiy Khyzhnyak, a Pentecostal pastor in Bucha, 27 miles northwest of Kyiv, which witnessed Sundays most severe fighting. It is not our achievement, they said. Khyzhnyak told Yuri Kulakevych, foreign affairs director of the Ukrainian Pentecostal Church in Kyiv, that rockets reportedly fell without explosion and Russian tanks ran out of fuel. Soldiers, lost in unfamiliar locations, are asking villagers for directionsand even bread. A Netherlands-sponsored bread mission in Brovary, 15 miles east of Kyiv, is struggling to provide enough. Already supplying neighbors and those displaced from the east, they hope to scale up to include hospitals and the Ukrainian military. But under pressure from the conflict, their own pool of labor is shrinking, headed west. We want to start baking 24/7 from Monday, it stated, but at the moment we dont have enough bakers. Morrison can relate. His church, Calvary Chapel, just purchased 1.5 tons of flour. But as many pastors expressed to CT, the situation is draining. Constant air raid sirens give little peace. The immense needs allow little rest. This morning I woke up feeling like a truck had run over me, he said. But though we are all feeling exhausted, we press forwardbelieving that Christ has put us here for this moment. Additional reporting by Kate Shellnutt. Correction: Metropolitan Epiphanius is head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), not the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). [ This article is also available in espanol, Portugues, Francais, , , , and . ] Boris Johnson says Ukrainians fleeing warzone can join family in UK As tensions remain high with Russias invading troops and tanks driving deeper into Ukraine, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that Ukrainians fleeing the invasion will be welcomed into the country if they have family in Britain. The U.K. will not turn our backs in Ukraines hour of need, Johnson said in a statement, announcing that visa restrictions are being eased for Ukrainians who have immediate family in Britain, Reuters reported. The prime minister also said at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Mayfair, London, Sunday night that the U.K. would be very generous toward Ukrainian refugees, The Telegraph reported. Speaking to a group of Ukrainians at the Cathedral of the Holy Family, Johnson promised a system that would allow people to enter the country due to fear of persecution, to reunite with family or other purposes. Family members eligible to apply for these visas are a spouse or civil partner, an unmarried partner of at least two years, children younger than 18, a parent if their child is younger than 18, and adult relatives who are carers, according to the BBC. In response, Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, criticized the announcement as woefully inadequate, according to The Guardian. Johnson also announced that the U.K. would send over $53 million (40 million) in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including medical supplies to support those fleeing the invasion. We are providing all the economic and military support we can to help those Ukrainians risking everything to protect their country, he was quoted as saying. European Union ministers on Sunday night went ahead of the U.K., promising to accept Ukrainian refugees for up to three years, without asking them to apply for asylum, the BBC added. Meanwhile, Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday on Ukraines border with Belarus, although its not known if the talks yielded any positive result, The Associated Press reported, adding that explosions and gunfire did appear to have subsided around Kyiv. In Kyiv on Monday, residents were allowed to come out of bomb shelters and homes to buy groceries for the first time since a curfew was imposed Saturday, the newswire said. Also in the Kyiv region, Russian forces burned down the Ivankiv Museum of Local History, which housed valuable artwork by the Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko, the Kyiv Independent reported Monday. While the actual civilian death toll remains unclear, Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least 16 children were among the dead. Ukraines health minister had announced Saturday that at least 198 civilians, including three children, had been killed by Russian soldiers. While millions of residents in Ukraine have left their homes since the invasion began last Thursday, more than 500,000 people have fled the country, a U.N. official was quoted as saying Monday. Experts have warned that a prolonged war could displace millions of Ukrainians, leading to a large-scale humanitarian crisis. Also on Monday, Zelensky called on the EU to enable Ukraine to join the political and economic union, according to the media outlet. We are asking the European Union to immediately accede Ukraine by special procedure, he said in a video address. Putin has ordered Russia's nuclear deterrent forces to be on high alert in response to financial sanctions imposed on Russian banks by European nations following the invasion. In a meeting with his top officials on Sunday, Putin ordered his defense minister and the chief of the military's general staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a "special regime of combat duty" in response to what he claimed were "aggressive statements" by NATO members and financial sanctions that block some Russian banks from the Swift global payments system, according to The Telegraph. This came as Ukrainian forces continued to fiercely resist invading Russian troops on the fourth day of fighting. Ukraines U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya tweeted Saturday that he had appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to facilitate repatriation of thousands of bodies of Russian soldiers killed during its invasion of Ukraine, with an accompanying chart claiming 3,500 Russian troops had been killed, The AP reported. The number has since grown to 5,300, according to Kyiv Independent. These numbers have not been verified, however. As the war rages, U.S.-based Christian groups, including Slavic Gospel Association, Samaritan's Purse and World Help, are supporting churches in Ukraine to provide aid. President Joe Biden on Friday night signed an order authorizing the U.S. to send up to $600 million to Ukraine up to $350 million in military aid and $250 million for overall assistance. Earlier on Friday, Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, used its veto power to block a resolution condemning its invasion. The vote at the U.N.s headquarters in New York City was 11 in favor, one against, and three abstentions, including China and India. 'Determined to fulfill Christ's mission': Museum of the Bible event honors Frederick Douglass' legacy WASHINGTON Notable African American civil rights activist Frederick Douglass did not see people as black or white, but rather made in the image of God, according to a professional historical impersonator who has devoted his life to bringing the legacies of famed civil rights activists back to life. Jeremiah Dew of South Carolina, known for his One Voice: A Black History Narrative performances, gave a presentation at the Museum of the Bible last Thursday as a part of the six-part Black History Month series titled The Bibles Impact on the Abolition Movement. In a presentation titled Meet and Greet Frederick Douglass, Dew impersonated Douglass, spoke about his legacy and how the famed abolitionist might view the current racial climate in America. Douglass life showed that he was doing his part to look beyond the surface. This is 1880. This is not 1980. So I think that deep down, Frederick Douglass didnt see himself as a black person. He saw everyone as people, not black or white, but made in the image of God, Dew said. Douglass would have seen equality as a must for all people. He lived in an era where separate but equal became the law the year he died. Dew, who earned a college degree in mass communication in 2007 and started his organization One Voice Show that same year, has entertained over 3 million people with his impersonation of black historical figures. He said that he read Douglass first autobiography over a decade ago, which changed his perspective on slavery forever. Reading Douglass first of three autobiographies, Dew said, opened his eyes to the details surrounding the traumas that blacks faced through slavery. It motivated him to pursue performance and theater to bring black historical figures like Douglass back to life in a theatrical way. I was always pretty good at falling asleep on the textbook in junior high, so reading the autobiography helped me. And now years later as I impersonate figures like Frederick Douglass, its impactful for listeners to help them understand in new ways the emotions behind the printed work of Frederick Douglass first autobiography, Dew told The Christian Post following his performance. Dew hopes that the audience would understand more about how Douglass handled racism, division and discrimination through his viewpoint that all people should be equal. It wasnt that Douglass was trying to lower people down to a certain level. Douglass saw everyone as created by God, and he believed that everyone should have equal opportunity to the American ideal life. And that wasnt happening, so he had to speak about it, he said. Douglass was the first black man to show up to the womens suffrage events. He was a feminist. He wrote on womens suffrage. He was born enslaved, and he moved beyond. It wasnt just a black thing for him. Douglass was born into slavery around 1818 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. However, he was fortunate enough to escape slavery and went on to become a licensed preacher with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and national leader of the abolitionist movement. He was well-known for his anti-slavery speeches and writings and his support for the womens sufferage movement. Dew said that he believed that if Douglass were alive today, he wouldnt agree with the current state of the global Church when it comes to the social division that often occurs among Christians on Sunday mornings. Douglass was mixed race. His second wife was white. He would have fit in well in this day and age. But, back then, he didnt fit in, said Dew. Dew said that Douglass would have probably approved of multiethnic church environments based on his marital status to a white woman. Based on the way Douglass lived in his second marriage, I think Douglass would have been comfortable with diverse churches. His family was of mixed-race and his associations were of mixed-race within his Christian ministry, Dew said. Himself married to a white woman and the father of three mixed-race children, Dew said that skin color is not something he strives to focus on in his household. In my home, the kids are kind of like me and kind of like her. Something more needs to happen, other than just looking at each other based on color. The culture of our home has nothing to do with color, Dew said of his family. Dew said that Douglass not only agreed with diversity in the church setting, but Douglass also believed in the teachings of Jesus. Douglass was a big fan of Jesus. But, Douglass was not a fan of the people who claimed Christianity at that time in America, Dew said. Jesus in the New Testament had a passion for compassion through saving people who were sick and lost. Douglass wanted to save the sheep that was lost. He wanted to get his family out of slavery. Like, let [my] people go. Douglass was determined to fulfill the mission of Christ, he added. Jesus did many things, and He not only tried to save people from a spiritual demise; but also from a practical sense in the community, in the same way that Douglas wanted to help others. Dew believes Douglass would have possibly agreed with Martin Luther King Jr.s statement calling for church integration, calling the 11 a.m. hour on Sunday mornings one of the most segregated hours in Christian America. He said Douglass would also have noticed that issues with racial barriers within the Church are deep down spiritual matters, which call for all Christians to have more connection to God and more community with brothers and sisters in Christ of all races. Douglass would not say much different than MLK, because if Douglass were here today, he would have seen people calling themselves Christians and not behaving in the spirit of the Scripture, Dew said. Aside from Douglass legacy leaving something for Christians to ponder, Dew said that Douglass life could teach Americans how to approach history and historical figures. People often think that all these historic figures are lumped into big groups. People will often say: everyone white back then was racist or everyone who was black was against XYZ, and its not a healthy way to look at things, Dew explained. We need to realize that people arent all coming from the same places [and] not everyone agreed on the same things back then and now. ... I believe my impersonation performance [today] was helpful to viewers because it wasnt a debate. But it gave the audience a chance to just watch and listen and learn that way. Event host Yolanda Henry told CP that the Museum of the Bible plans on holding more impersonation performances for Juneteenth (June 19), which became a federal holiday last year. In order to have people be engaged, they have to understand the culture and how the Bible impacted these black historical figures, Henry said. I think we are excited with how todays impersonation event went. Each week our audiences have grown. We had a great number today. And we are very pleased with the outcome. And we hope to continue to build and expand in the years to come. Throughout February, the museum held discussions honoring the contributions of the Slave Bible, Harriet Tubman, King, Harpers Weekly and others. 'God answered our prayers': Jill Duggar, Derick Dillard expecting baby after miscarriage Duggar sister Jill Dillard of "19 Kids and Counting" fame revealed she and her husband, Derrick, are expecting another baby after her recent miscarriage. Weve been keeping a little secret! the couple said in a blog post shared Sunday. The Dillards suffered a devastating loss last fall due to the miscarriage of their baby they named River Bliss. We have prayed that, if it was Gods will, He would bless us with another baby," they said. We are excited to announce that God has answered our prayers and we are expecting our rainbow baby due July 2022! We are so thankful for a healthy baby and pregnancy so far and we look forward to finding out the gender soon! Rainbow baby is a term used for a baby born after a miscarriage or stillbirth. Dillard was a main figure in her familys popular TLC series, 19 Kids and Counting, which followed her Christian parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, and their ultra-conservative household. After seven years on air, she starred in the spinoff series, "Counting On," along with her sisters. She decided to quit the show in 2017. The couple, who married in 2014, have two sons, Israel David and Samuel Scott. They first revealed in 2021 that Dillard had suffered a miscarriage. We recently found out we were expecting our third baby, the Duggar sister captioned an Instagram video at the time. We were thrilled! However, a few days later we started miscarrying. We love and miss you, River Bliss! The Arkansas native disclosed that the name of their unborn child was intentional. One meaning for River is tranquil, and here in Arkansas, rivers are often a serene, beautiful escape in nature, they explained in the blog post at the time. We also like how the River talked about in the Bible (Rev. 22:1-5) represents Gods life-giving presence. The river of life (Holy Spirit), flows from the throne of God, and with the tree of life is for the healing of the nations. They added, Our baby doesnt get to live here with us on earth, but is forever with the source of the river of life, in the presence of the Lord! The Dillard family's announcement comes as the eldest Duggar sibling, Josh Duggar, is facing up to 20 years in prison for allegedly having over 200 images of child porn on his devices of children ranging from about 18 months of age to 12 years of age. After Josh Duggar was found guilty of receiving and possessing child pornography in December, the Dillards shared a lengthy statement on their family website. Joshs actions have rippled far beyond the epicenter of the offense itself, they said. Children have scars, but his family is also suffering the fallout of his actions. Our hearts are sensitive to the pains Joshs wife, Anna, and their seven children have already endured and will continue to process in the future. This trial has felt more like a funeral than anything else. Joshs family has a long road ahead. We stand with them, we are praying for them, and we will seek to support them however we can during this dark time. Pastor Greg Locke says hes being threatened with death, hexes and sex toys for exposing witches Pastor Greg Locke, who exposed the presence of suspected witches at his church in recent weeks, says hes being threatened with death, hexes, sex toys and glitter bombs for preaching about deliverance from evil. Locke, the leader of the Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee, has been preaching about deliverance at his church for the last two months. On Sunday, he referred to his latest series as the most dangerous message hes ever preached. The most dangerous message Ive ever preached is the message of deliverance in the name of Jesus Christ. Its caused more anger; its caused more pushback, its caused more threats, more evil, it stirred up more problems, he said. Its done more to hurt people in our church meaning that friends and family have forsaken them. In a video message to his more than 2 million followers on Facebook Friday, Locke called the opposition to his deliverance message unbelievable. Its really been unbelievable. I havent even checked the mail yet today, but you can ask anybody on our staff or people that volunteer here with us in deliverance ministry at the office. It is non-stop, he explained. We get hundreds and hundreds, many times thousands, of phone calls every week. The voicemail will only hold 40 voicemails at a time. We can be on the phone and the voicemails will fill up about every two hours, and so many of them are like non-callback numbers, private numbers, people calling us and fussing, he continued. Locke revealed one man recently "promised to come to the tent and slice my throat and to kill me," while others have sent sex toys and glitter bombs in the mail. "Everybody is mad about the thing I said about calling out witches," he said. "They are real. They know theyre real. Theyre not hiding the fact that theyre real. Its just that the Church is too unbiblical and ignorant to recognize witchcraft, sorcery and spells and curses when they see them. We literally got a box the other day that said it was from my mom that was full of all kind of crystals and hexes and vexes and curses. Locke added that the Church of Satan sends him postcards every day, and some detractors have been trying to get him banned from his favorite Dunkin' Donuts coffee shop. The Tennessee pastors ongoing crusade to promote deliverance in American churches began generating national headlines after he said a demon told him the names of six witches in his congregation during a deliverance session at his church. He insisted that while many of his critics have been trying to make him look crazy for pushing his deliverance message, he is confident that the Bible supports it. During his sermon on Sunday, Locke said he's been reading the book of Psalms in the Bible to encourage himself. How many times in the 150 chapters of the book of Psalms, David or one of the Old Testament writers . wrote about the subject of deliverance? You ought to do a Blue Letter Bible study sometime of how many times the word 'deliver' and 'deliverance' [are] even used in the book of Psalms. Its uncanny, he said. Locke said he began to notice many of the headings to the Psalms include the word "deliverance." "As I read through the Psalms, Im amazed ... at how much deliverance is mentioned in the Bible and more shocked at how little preachers have said anything about it for decades, he added. Its almost like its been hidden under a rock for so many years. Then all of a sudden, we start peeling things back and making the invisible Kingdom visible, and the devil gets so stirred up when we bring national, global attention he would assume stay a secret. Trump wins CPAC 2024 presidential straw poll; DeSantis places a distant 2nd place Former President Donald Trump won the Conservative Political Action Conferences presidential straw poll over the weekend, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis placing a distant second. Attendees of one of the largest annual conservative political conferences, this year held in Orlando, Florida, were asked to participate in the straw poll through an official CPAC app on their mobile devices. The polling was conducted by the Alexandria, Virginia-based firm McLaughlin & Associates. Out of a survey of 2,574 CPAC attendees released Sunday, 59% said they would vote for Trump in their 2024 state Republican primary if held in the present day. DeSantis placed second with 28% of respondents, while former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo placed a distant third with 2% of the vote. Several notable conservative figures received 1% support in the straw poll, including former Vice President Mike Pence, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The survey also asked respondents to select which candidate they would support if Trump were not an option for the 2024 Republican primary. DeSantis received 61% support, while both Pompeo and Donald Trump Jr. finished with 6% support. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Cruz and Noem each received 3% support. In another question, respondents were asked if Trump ran for president again in 2024 if they would support or oppose him for the Republican nomination. The straw poll found that 85% of respondents would support Trump if he ran again as president, while 11% said they would oppose him, and 4% were unsure. Any questions? tweeted Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich, touting the straw poll results. President Trump continues to grow the conservative MAGA movement, which includes growing his political dominance. Brittany Bernstein of The National Review cautioned that the CPAC straw poll has not been a reliable indicator of future presidential prospects in the past. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah won the straw poll in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012, while [U.S. Senator Rand Paul] won the poll in 2014, 2015, and 2016, wrote Bernstein. At last Julys CPAC conference held in Dallas, Texas, Trump won the straw poll with 70% of the vote, followed by DeSantis with 21%. Again, several others got 1% or less. Both Trump and DeSantis spoke at CPAC this year in Orlando, with Trump all but overtly announcing that he was running for president in 2024. During his remarks, Trump spoke of conservatives sleeping giant, who he believed would help propel Republicans to victory later this year and in the 2024 presidential election. When we win, we will defeat this corrupt political establishment, we will save our Republic, and we will restore constitutional government of, by, and for the people, he said. The Washington swamp knows we are coming to break their grip on power forever. That is why they are so desperate to stop us. They will go to any lengths. In his CPAC speech, DeSantis claimed that Democrats want to marginalize the conservative half of the country so they will be powerless to resist their ideological aims. The woke is the new religion of the Left, and this is what they have in mind, stated DeSantis. Thats why they want CRT [critical race theory] because they want to divide the country. Thats why they remove statues of Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt, take George Washingtons name off schools. They want to delegitimize our founding institutions, and they want to replace that with their left-wing ideology as the foundational principles of our modern-day society. Secret teacher portals reveal pronoun surveys, Black Lives Matter curriculum The school district of Loudoun County, Virginia, may have made the headlines for aggressively pushing far-Left content onto students, including pornography and critical race theory, but other districts throughout the country are no better off. At the Santa Barbara Unified School District in California, teachers are given a plethora of politically radical resources that they are expected to implement in the classroom, which are now coming to light. Christy Lozano, a teacher at the Santa Barbara Unified School District, has revealed that teachers are expected to access a password-protected portal for teaching culturally responsive material. She has exposed the content with Laura Ingraham, and she recently provided me with the materials as well. The materials are laid out in numerous webpages, each encompassing a different progressive cause. Some of the category headings include Black Lives Matter, Bilingual/Multilingual Advocacy Month, and LGBTQIA+ Month. When I started to dig into the materials, it quickly became apparent that they were not simply educational tools. Lets begin with the Black Lives Matter materials. The page contains links to various BLM-related resources, segregated by age group. Under the preschool-to-second grade heading, there is a link to Black Lives Matter at School, an activist group dedicated to spreading the teachings and activism of BLM throughout the K-12 school system. Its page includes recommendations on how to organize students to fight against systemic racism, including a link to a PowerPoint encouraging students to demand restorative justice from their district. Systemic racism is the idea that racism is the normal state of affairs in American society, meaning that the ordinary American is racist. Restorative justice is the idea that the U.S. justice system is responsible for rehabilitating and emotionally caring for criminals. Make no mistake: The U.S. justice system, which is necessarily and obviously punitive, should not be remotely associated with the activities of a day care. It also links to the 13 Guiding Principles of BLM, one of which includes disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure. But the most shocking information was contained under the LGBTQIA+ page. The linked articles and discussion guides cannot be considered anything less than grooming, which is the emotional manipulation of children to make them more susceptible to sexual exploitation by adults. Under a Elementary Lessons and Resources heading, the page links to several videos and written guides meant to be used in preschool-second grade classrooms. It includes a video and accompanying guide for the book, Sparkle Boy, a story about a young boy who enjoys crossdressing. The guide claims Teachers can challenge traditional gender bias via the story and calls on teachers to help students explore gender identity. It also links to a video and guide for When Aidan Became a Brother, a book about a young girl who transitions to a boy. The guide notes that teachers must be very careful to help students use proper terms and pronouns to refer to trans-identified people. One of the questions readers' are prompted to answer is: How might your understanding of being yourself have changed after reading When Aidan Became a Brother? Preschool-aged children are highly impressionable, and using books like Sparkle Boy and When Aidan Became a Brother are bound to create an unhealthy focus on ones own sexuality at an extremely vulnerable age. It is quite conceivable that a 5-year-old girl, upon reading one of these books, suddenly decides she is trans based upon a classroom experience. Conditioning children by presenting these ideas as objective truth begins the dangerous path of grooming them for future gender activism and self-doubt about their identity. The programming continues for older children as well. At the high-school level, the resources include a TED Talk playlist about coming out, a biased gender term list put out by a Leftist advocacy group, and a documentary exploring the struggle for queer rights. It also links to Gender Spectrum Groups, confidential online communities for students to explore their gender identity and sexuality. Every single link on the teacher portal takes the reader to a queer ideology-affirming resource that promotes the queering of society. The grooming nature of these materials is compounded by a pronoun survey disseminated in the district. One teacher required their students to fill out a Google form sharing their pronouns, with some of the options including they/them/theirs, he/they and other. Later there was a yes/no question asking whether the teacher could use the students preferred pronouns when contacting home, insinuating that the teacher would be complicit in hiding any changes in the students gender identity from the students parents. In fact, one question goes on to state, If you would like me to use different name and pronouns when calling home or talking to other teachers please state this name and pronouns. The final yes/no question was, Would you like to follow up with me (in a private conversation) about your pronouns? To be clear: There is not a single situation in which it is remotely appropriate for a teacher to have a private conversation with a high school student about their gender identity and sexuality. Taken in conjunction with prior questions that encourage deceiving ones parents and adopting progressive ideas of gender, it would require numerous logical backflips to rationalize this classroom situation as anything short of grooming psychologically unstable minors. There are two problems at the core of all these materials. First, they are unilaterally slanted in favor of progressive politics. While educational environments should certainly encourage students to consider controversial ideas, they must be balanced by opposing viewpoints as well. Within the Santa Barbara Unified School Districts teacher portal, there is not a single resource that affirms biological reality or traditional views of gender, or questions whether the BLM movement is anything but a pure struggle for moral advancement. Secondly, there is no community transparency or accountability. Had these materials not been leaked by a teacher working in the school, neither I nor the public at large would have any idea of how deeply ingrained these ideas are in the district. Parents have the right to know that their children are being exposed to radical propaganda at school and to respond accordingly if they disagree with the contents of a class. With these materials coming to light, parents must demand their districts tell them the truth: Are they brainwashing our children? Are they hiding our childrens struggles with identity? Are they forming our children into progressive activists right beneath our noses? Unless parents demand transparency, school districts will continue to shape the minds and very identities of our most vulnerable population. Originally published at The Daily Signal. How should Christians 'live and love' in the 'last days'? Pastor Skip Heitzig answers Pastor Skip Heitzig of Albuquerque, New Mexicos Calvary Church recently shared tips for how Christians should live, love, pray and serve in the last days before Jesus imminent return. In a Feb. 14 sermon titled How to live (and love) in the last days, the 66-year-old pastor said that Christians should follow three elements to help them stand strong and be effective in the world during the last days. The three elements, based on 1 Peter 4:7-11, are pray diligently, love deeply and serve wisely. Notice that prayer is first on the list. You can always do more than pray after youve prayed. But, you can never do more than pray until youve prayed, Heitzig preached. Prayer is the key that unlocks the door of all the other blessings of God, he added. Heitzig, who has served in ministry for nearly four decades, said he has noticed when he preaches on the subject of prayer that audiences seem nervous and quieter than usual because many people struggle with prayer. The pastor reassured the audience that they are not alone if they struggle with prayer. He cited statistics revealing that just 16% of pastors are very satisfied with their personal prayer lives. Dont feel too bad, he said. Pastors arent a whole lot better. Im not saying this to make you feel guilty. ... I think we can figure out ways to inject our daily lives with a little more prayer. Christians need to pray harder as Jesus return approaches, according to Heitzig. I dont know if you know this or not, but every day we live, our days become fewer, he said. So, as the days take their toll, as life casts its long shadow, as life [becomes] harder, it is prayer that will sustain you. The Food for The Soul author said that engaging in one-on-one prayer wasnt always the norm in his own life. However, he noted that discovering authentic prayer was life-changing. I grew up in a church where prayers were all memorized and said without a whole lot of thought or meaning. And suddenly, Im around Christians who are talking to God like Hes standing in front of them, and it was so awesome to me, Heitzig recounted. Eventually, the pastor began going on three-day camping trips to fast and have conversations with God. It was pretty exhilarating and exciting, he described. But then, I also noticed, Id come back and that fervor would sort of wear off. And I would kind of get back to cold, professional, infrequent, contained forms of prayer. I discovered that I was much like the church of Ephesus, to whom Jesus said, You have left your first Love. In addition to prayer, Heitzig said Christians will be better equipped in the last days if they love others. He cited 1 Peter 4:8, which reads, Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. The icing on the cake, the cherry on the whipped cream is love because love is supreme, Heitzig said. Christians should display two forms of love. The first type of love covers, and the second type of love recovers or restores. Love like youre trying to win the love Olympics. Love people like youre trying to get the gold medal in love, Heitzig said, adding that the love Christians should show shouldnt expose those who have wronged them. You can expose it ... and share their dirty laundry with everybody [and] just slander them. Or if youre a mature Christian, you want to discreetly cover that up, not because its a cover-up, but youre trying to restore that person, Heitzig said. So, you dont want to kick them while theyre down. ... Love covers a multitude of sins. Heitzig added that love is what makes an invisible God visible to an unbelieving world. Nobody can see God. Love makes an invisible God tangible to an unbelieving world, he said. Finally, Christians should serve. The pastor explained that a spiritual gift is a God-given capacity to serve others so that they may be edified and God may be glorified. Every believer has a gift. My guess is you have a bunch of spiritual gifts. You have a cluster that compliments one another, and it is our responsibility to discover those gifts and to use them, he said. Heitzig said that believers can be gifted in similar ways, but every Christians spiritual gifts are different in some ways. Spiritual gifts are like snowflakes or fingerprints, he contended. Theyre unique to you. When you do whatever thing God has called you to do, it is so important because it is so uniquely an expression of Gods grace that cant come through anybody else. By our unwillingness to get involved you are robbing God of a certain portion of His glory that He would get if you did get involved and serve others. Echoes from the past: The haunting legacy of Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" By Charlotte B. Cerminaro web posted February 28, 2022 It's been said that a "peace at all costs is no peace at all." Thomas Jefferson received credit for a similar statement of profound simplicity: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Such aphorisms are as true now as they were two hundred years ago; no better evidence of their veracity can be found than the geopolitical maneuvering that preceded WWII, and the human tragedies that were multiplied by the naive and deliberate ignorance of several key leaders of their time. In 1938, Adolph Hitler's boundless and already-proven military aggression presented an existential threat for Europe and much of the world. England's Prime Minister at that time, Neville Chamberlain was determined to mollify and appease this violent, genocidal tyrant. Instead of a full-scale German invasion of Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain agreed to portions of its annexe. In exchange, Hitler supposedly agreed to cease hostilities against Poland. Returning to England, Neville Chamberlain gave his promise of an agreed peace and closed his remarks with, "Go home and get a nice quiet sleep." So often lately we have heard this word, "peace", thrown around as if it were a human virtue and a guaranteed right to everyone who will "just cooperate" with everyone else. It didn't work for England in WWII. Repeated promises to Israel of "Land for Peace" has not worked, not even for a short while. The abrupt and careless withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and subsequent abandonment of our citizens and allies was not a sign of peace or good will. Instead it was a symptom of strategic failure, bad intelligence, poor communication and a complete lack of vigilance. Needless human tragedy, international embarrassment aside, it was a long-awaited sign for dictators and anarchists worldwideall those who would profit from our weak leadership and the attending lapse of powerleaving a vacuum for less-than-benevolent opportunists. For over two decades Vladimir Putin's plan for Russia, and the entire former Soviet bloc, has been no secret. The only mystery was in his tactics, but even this began to clarify after so many of Putin's political opponents were either jailed, poisoned, or both. The most baffling element in all of this is how so many people could be so surprised and outraged by recent events in the Ukraine. Putin has repeatedly displayed military aggression and other characteristics of a totalitarian leader. He has twice invaded and seized portions of Georgia, as well as annexing portions of Belarus and Ukraine, and in 2014 Putin's forces invaded and seized Crimea. The Russian leader's behavior was somewhat subdued during Trump's presidency but this could never be interpreted as a sudden change of mind or plans. Throughout much of its short history, the newly-independent Ukranian democracy has been preparing for, and requesting membership in, the NATO and EU coalitions. Successive Ukrainian presidents have overseen the revision and ratification of their constitution in order to gain membership in NATO, but political foot-dragging in the UN has continued for nearly 20 years even as this current crisis first loomed in April 2021. President Biden's reason for refusing military aid to Ukraine is that they don't have full NATO membership. Pure hypocrisy shows itself againAfghanistan and Iraq were never NATO members, nor was this ever a contingency of US military aid. Front page news of NATO forces being deployed for the first time in history is, like nearly everything now, just a pile of theatrics. Troops are being sent to the borders of surrounding countries that are NATO members, leaving the Ukrainian people and forces to their fate. During his conference with EU leaders Friday, Ukrainian president Zelensky said this might be the last time he speaks with them. The Russian army has a "hit list"; certain leaders and other civilians are under direct threat and many hundreds are already dead. Allowing the city of Kiev to fall into Russian hands is a crime against humanityit was foreseen and could've been prevented. An empty suit in the White House is no deterrent to a tyrant like Putin, just as a groveling politician like Neville Chamberlain had no business holding the fate of England (or Czechoslovakia) in his hands. Many lives have been lost already so that "Sleepy Joe" could take his quiet afternoon nap. Vladimir Putin has been watching and waiting, and he waited for this moment to make his move. He knows Biden won't give the order to grab a weapon and stand that post; he also knows Biden will continue making decisions (shutting down the Keystone pipeline) that hurt Americans and help Russia. If Putin's forces aren't repelled at Kiev, where will the next line be drawn and who will hold that line? Can NATO troops withstand the Russian army and Putin's threat of nuclear force? It was in England's darkest hours that Chamberlain finally stepped down, and Winston Churchill stepped up to fulfill his wartime duties as Prime Minister. He is perhaps the most well-known of all the Allied leaders--a man who refused to concede or negotiate with tyrants; he was willing to do what was right, despite overwhelming odds and it is leaders like Winston Churchill who do not rest until every last human being is safe and accounted for. He knew the only way to defend peace was to sacrifice the comforts of complacency. Perhaps these qualities are uncommon, but they are a necessity. It is only through great adversity that a person's true character is born and the best of them were born for such times as these. Charlotte B. Cerminaro is a Juilliard-trained classical musician who, in addition to being a studio and orchestral musician, enjoys writing and has a degree in Molecular Biology. 2022 Home Gordon College Dismisses Claim Faculty Senate Resigned to Show Solidarity With LGBT Activist Professor Gordon College has criticized reports implying that its entire faculty senate resigned as a show of solidarity with an LGBT activist professor who was denied a promotion, and its president has claimed that all faculty decisions made during his tenure have been in accordance with the school's guidelines. Following the resignation of its entire faculty senate earlier this month, Gordon College has released a fact sheet regarding the recent promotion decisions made by the school's President, D. Michael Lindsay, and Provost, Janel Curry. As reported last week, all seven members of the faculty senate at the small evangelical institution in Wenham, Massachusetts, issued a joint resignation letter at an April 5 faculty meeting that reportedly cited "divergent views" with the school's provost and president about the process of making faculty promotion decisions. Although the senators did not cite any specific case or staff member for their resignation from their senatorships, there was some speculation in the media that the senate's resignation was a result of assistant sociology professor Margaret DeWeese-Boyd being denied a promotion to full professor even though the senate unanimously approved the assistant professor's promotion. DeWeese-Boyd was a vocal LGBT advocate and even held events to call for the "safety and inclusion" of LGBT students and staff at Gordon College. DeWeese-Boyd has since filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination claiming that she was discriminated against because of her work with the LGBT community. Considering the media attention the college received after the faculty senate's resignation and the controversy surrounding the administration's failure to approve DeWeese-Boyd's promotion, the college's media relations department released a fact page on the situation in an attempt to "help put the matter in perspective" and "answer some of the questions that have arisen." The college explained that the senate's resignation came after its members had finished most of their essential duties for the school year and noted that "three of the seven" were already scheduled to conclude their three-year terms this spring. "It was not expected, though they did first inform Provost Curry a few hours prior to the meeting, and it's an unusual step for senior faculty members to take," the fact sheet reads. "In their verbal statement to faculty colleagues, the chairperson affirmed the authority and decision-making role of the administration but said she felt the senators could not reconcile divergent views with the provost and president on the process and how final decisions are made, and could no longer be effective in their roles," the statement added. The school also disputed reports that suggested the senators' resignations were a result of a "specific decision," "faculty member" or any of the "broader college policies." "It's very important to understand the senate's statement did not reference any specific decision or faculty member, or anything about broader college policies, as some of the media stories (particularly The Boston Globe) have implied," the fact sheet states. "We believe the decision was a consequence of frustration with a communication breakdown between the senate and senior administrators, and difference of opinion on the outcome of recent promotion decisions, which are based on standards concerning teaching, scholarship and service," the statement explains. "The letter read by the chair of the senate at the faculty meeting specifically reflected their frustration with the process of communication with the provost in this year's reviews, and it's clear they felt frustrated enough to decide a new group should serve in the fall." The senators made clear that their resignation letters would be their only public comment on the matter. Lindsay sent a message to all faculty after the April 5 meeting stating that the resignations were a result of a "misunderstanding by some members of the faculty senate from a conversation with the him earlier this spring," the fact sheet states. Additionally, Lindsay affirmed in the message that "100 percent of the faculty evaluations made or approved throughout his time at Gordon have been based on assessments in accordance with the standards in the Administrative/Faculty Handbook." "Both the president and the provost take these divergent views seriously. An ongoing process is already underway where both administration and faculty will focus on bridging the differences, finding ways to work together that are satisfactory for both," the fact sheet explains. "Much like any family that might have a disagreement, we strive to work together to resolve differences with grace, knowing that our greater mission at Gordon in which each one of us here shares an important role that we feel privileged to fill on behalf of our students is to honor Christ and serve the Lord." Judge denies Christian college 'ministerial exception' to ex professors discrimination lawsuit A judge has barred Gordon College from using a ministerial exception defense in a lawsuit brought by a former professor who claims she was denied a promotion over her opposition to the evangelical institution's policies on sexuality. Judge Jeffrey T. Karp of the Massachusetts Superior Court ruled last week that Gordon College cant avail itself of a legal doctrine that exempts religious institutions from employment discrimination laws. The college, which was founded in 1889, was sued by former associate professor Margaret DeWeese-Boyd in 2017. Deweese-Boyd began working as an assistant professor with Gordons Social Work Department in the fall of 1999 and was later promoted to associate professor. She claims that Gordon College Provost Janel Curry and President D. Michael Lindsay denied her promotion to full professorship in February 2017 even though the promotion was recommended by the faculty senate. She claims the denial came because of her advocacy against school policies related to LGBT individuals and extramarital sex. In her lawsuit, the former professor argues that the school committed associational and gender discrimination in violation of the states Civil Rights Act in addition to breaching the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. DeWeese-Boyd claimed that Lindsay and Curry aided and abetted interference with her civil rights. The college filed a motion seeking a summary judgment from the court to determine whether the ministerial exception clause as affirmed by the Supreme Court in its Hosanna-Taborruling from 2012 barred Deweese-Boyd from suing on the basis of employment discrimination. The ministerial exception is an affirmative defense grounded in the First Amendment that prevents the government from interfering with employment relationships between religious institutions and their ministerial employees. The parties appeared before the court in November 2019 for a hearing on the motion and the college argued that Deweese-Boyd was responsible for integrating faith-based beliefs into her teachings as a professor and qualified as a ministerial employee. But DeWeese-Boyd, who received a masters degree from Covenant Theological Seminary and has served as a missionary in the Philippines, denied the claim that the ministerial exception applied to her position of employment since she has never worked as a minister. Karp agreed. DeWeese-Boyd argues she was not a ministerial employee because her title did not suggest any ministerial or religious role, she did not hold herself out as a minister, and she did not perform any religious functions of a minister, Karp wrote. The Court concludes the strict application urged by DeWeese-Boyd is misplaced and inconsistent with how the ministerial exception has been applied before and after Hosanna-Tabor. Nevertheless, as discussed below, the Court finds that, when applying the proper framework, DeWeese-Boyd is not a minister for purposes of the exception. According to the Gordon College handbook, faculty members are expected to be fully prepared in all facets of their tasks as Christian teachers and advisors as well as engage students in their respective disciplines from the perspectives of the Christian faith and to teach with accuracy and integrity. Although Gordon College does not require faculty members to have a seminary degree, the college requires employees to sign a document stating that they will support the goals and objectives of Gordon College as a distinctively Christian Institution of higher learning and abide by Gordon college statement of faith and conduct. As part of its Statement of Life and Conduct, Gordon College requires faculty members to [r]ecognize the Bible to be the Word of God and hence fully authoritative in matters of faith and conduct and [h]ave a sincere desire for that commitment to mature both in insight and behavior. The statement requires faculty members to refrain from words and actions which are expressly forbidden in Scripture. President Lindsay testified that all Gordon employees must be committed to the evangelical mission of the institution, and that journeys of faith are evaluated . . . when employees are hired and through the performance review process, the judge wrote in his ruling. He testified further that, when he interviews faculty applicants, he emphasizes the importance of taking seriously signing the Statement of Faith and the Statement of Life and Conduct and being able to embrace the Christian mission and purpose of the institution. DeWeese-Boyd not only publicly spoke out about her opposition to Gordon Colleges policies related to LGBT students and staff, she also organized meetings and events to call for the safety and inclusion of LGBT students. According to the ruling, Curry maintained that DeWeese-Boyd was denied the application for full professorship because her scholarly productivity did not reach acceptable levels for a Gordon faculty member. Curry also questioned DeWeese-Boyds professionalism and follow through on institutional projects about which she may not feel passionate was lacking. Karp ruled that although the Supreme Court ruled in Hosannah-Tabor that churches and religious institutions have the right to select their own ministers, the court identified four considerations relevant to determining if ministerial exceptions apply. Those four exceptions are: the employees formal title, the substance reflected in that title, the employees use of that title, and the important religious functions [the employee] performed. In sum, although DeWeese-Boyd had a seminary degree when hired, she did not have a religious title at Gordon, Karp stated. [S]he did not represent herself as a minister, she did not play an integral (or any) role in religious services, she did not convey Christian doctrine to the Gordon community, she did not lead her students in prayer, and she did not perform any religious functions. As the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly observed, Superior Court Judge Salim R. Tabit in 2018 ordered the case to be bifurcated to allow for the ministerial exception issue to be settled individually. With Karp ruling against the ministerial exception claim, the case will proceed to determine the merits of DeWeese-Boyds lawsuit. The U.S. Supreme Court was slated to hear two cases brought against California Catholic schools sued for terminating religion teachers. Advocates believed those cases could determine how far ministerial exceptions go when it comes to protecting religious institutions from employment discrimination lawsuits. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, hearings have been postponed. Emmy-winning actor Kelsey Grammer to portray Pastor Chuck Smith in Jesus Revolution film Actor Kelsey Grammer, known for his role in the popular sitcom Fraiser, is headed to the pulpit for his new role in Jesus Revolution, an upcoming film inspired by the true story of the national spiritual awakening that swept Southern California in the early 1970s. Along with Grammer, a five-time Emmy winner, the film stars The Chosens Jonathan Roumie, Joel Courtney (Super 8), Kimberly Williams-Paisley (According to Jim), Anna Grace Barlow and Nicholas Cirillo. Others listed in the cast include Ally Ioannides, Julia Campbell, Nic Bishop and Jolie Jenkins. In the 1970s, young Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) sets out to redefine truth through all means of liberation, and instead, meets Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a charismatic hippie street preacher, Reads the film synopsis. Laurie and Frisbee, along with Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), open the doors of Smiths languishing church to an unexpected revival by way of rock and roll, newfound love, and a twist of faith leading to aJesus Revolution that changed the world. In a statement to The Christian Post, Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship based in Riverside who has held evangelistic crusade events at stadiums across the country for over 30 years, expressed his excitement over the film. This film is not primarily about Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee, Cathe Laurie, or me. Its about how Jesus moved and sent a spiritual awakening in our lives that is still being felt today, Laurie said. I am honored to have such a talented, venerated cast and crew tell this story that is so near to my heart and changed my life and our country for eternity. The Jesus Movement was the last great American spiritual awakening. Some historians have said it was the greatest revival of all time. Now, Im praying for another in our time. Grammer will portray Pastor Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Lauries mentor. The minister famously opened his church to all seekers and was instrumental in launching one of the largest spiritual revivals in the United States. Jesus has been a profound influence in my life. I am proud to be a part of this film, Grammar shared in a statement with CP. Jesus Revolution is a Kingdom Story film in collaboration with Lionsgate. It will be directed by filmmakers Jon Erwin (I Can Only Imagine, American Underdog) and Brent McCorkle and produced by Kevin Downes. The film was written by Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn. In a past statement, the Erwin Brothers said the films content is timely today. This is a fascinating true story about how young people gravitated toward a spiritual movement that erupted during a time that our country was being torn apart and couldnt be more divided, the Erwin Brothers said. Its themes are just as timely and topical today as they were in the late 60s. Jon Erwin added that though the movie is set in a very specific time and place, the theme of finding a deeper meaning to life, in the midst of a fractured and broken world, is timeless. In his iconic performances, Kelsey has a proven ability to connect with audiences in a real, vulnerable way, which will make him a tremendous presence in this film, he added. Filming for Jesus Revolution begins in March 2022 in Mobile, Ala., and then Los Angeles in April. Mass. high court to decide if evangelical college discriminated against pro-LGBT professor The highest court in Massachusetts heard oral arguments on Monday regarding whether an evangelical Christian higher education institution can lawfully refuse to promote a former professor who held pro-LGBT views. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments virtually over a lawsuit filed against Gordon College by former associate professor Margaret DeWeese-Boyd. At issue is whether Gordon, founded in 1889, could lawfully deny a promotion to DeWeese-Boyd by citing the ministerial exception, a legal principle that allows religious bodies to choose their own ministerial staff with exemption from employment discrimination law. Eric Baxter, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty who is representing the school, argued in his opening remarks that the exception applied to the employment of DeWeese-Boyd since she was expected to undertake certain religious obligations. The Court need look no further than her own actions, said Baxter. She admits that Gordon expected her to participate actively in the spiritual formation of its students and to help them apply biblical principles to their vocations. When she applied at Gordon, she touted her seminary training and mission work as of particular benefit to students and promised to provide a distinctly Christian education. Baxter added that DeWeese-Boyd consistently described her work as integrally Christian, as furthering the Kingdom of God, and as participation in the ministry of Christian reconciliation. Hillary Schwab, an attorney representing DeWeese-Boyd, argued that the U.S. Supreme Court precedent on ministerial exception was that what matters is what an employee does. And what did Professor DeWeese-Boyd do? Schwab asked. She was a social work professor. She taught social work topics. She researched and wrote on social work. Her interests included community development, poverty, social issues, grassroots movements. Schwab pointed out that these were all secular social work topics that did not fit the standard of vital religious duties laid out in the 2020 Supreme Court decisionOur Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru. In that decision, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that two California Catholic schools can classify their religion teachers as ministers and not be held to the standards of state antidiscrimination laws. According to Schwab, the secular nature of DeWeese-Boyds employment was evident in the fact that she never led sermons and she never led chapel services or religious teaching. Schwab also argued that Gordon was not a religious school, per se, since the college provides a liberal arts education and does not solely focus on spiritual instruction. The school [does] not incorporate evangelical teachings; it incorporates an evangelical perspective within the framework of academic freedom, she continued. The professors at Gordon College are expected to be experts in their field and the field for Professor DeWeese-Boyd was social work. They are not expected to be experts in any sort of religious duties. Schwab disputed the claim that the former professor emphasized her seminary background when first applying for her position at Gordon, saying that was not part of her promotional package when she applied for the promotion. In 2017, DeWeese-Boyd filed a complaint against Gordon after being denied a promotion despite the professor getting the recommendation of the faculty senate. DeWeese-Boyd claimed that she was discriminated against due to her advocacy on behalf of the LGBT community against school policies that adhered to traditional biblical sexual ethics. Specifically, she argued that Gordon's leadership committed associational and gender discrimination, breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and aided and abetted interference with her civil rights. For their part, Gordon College argued for the ministerial exception and also claimed that Deweese-Boyd lacked sufficient scholarly accomplishments. It was because she had not performed any scholarship, she had not published anything since 2008, and she was cited as not adequate performing within providing internal institutional service, noted Baxter during the Monday arguments. In April, Judge Jeffrey T. Karp of the Massachusetts Superior Court ruled in favor of DeWeese-Boyd. The judge argued that she was not a ministerial employee and so the exception did not apply. The College is not a church. The College's faculty and staff do not function as ministers. The faculty members are not intermediaries between a church and its congregation, wrote Karp. That faculty members are expected to serve as exemplars of practicing Christians does not serve to make the terms and conditions of their employment matters of church administration and thus purely of ecclesiastical concern. In 2017, the entire seven-member faculty senate at Gordon College resigned in the wake of DeWeese-Boyd being denied the promotion. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston submitted an amicus brief in the case, warning that the lower court's decision in favor of the professor conflicted with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. "The Archdiocese submits this brief in support of neither party because it does not take a position on other issues addressed in the parties briefing," lawyers for the Archdiocese wrote, according to the Gloucester Daily Times. "But with respect to the application of the ministerial exception to teachers in religious schools, the trial courts decision adopts a framework that is in conflict with the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent. The Archdioceses interest in clarifying the proper framework reflects the centrality of education and educators in the Catholic faith." Supreme Court rejects Christian colleges bid to halt pro-LGBT professor's discrimination lawsuit The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from a Christian college in Massachusetts that tried to use a ministerial exception to end a lawsuit by a former professor whom lower courts ruled could sue for alleged discrimination. In an orders list released Monday, the Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari from Gordon College to hear the appeal centered on allowing the school to use the ministerial exception to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former associate professor Margaret DeWeese-Boyd. Gordon College was sued by DeWeese-Boyd in 2017 over its refusal to promote her, reportedly over her public support of the LGBT movement. As part of its defense, Gordon invoked the ministerial exception, a legal principle that prevents governments from imposing anti-discrimination laws on religious institutions and their ministerial employees. Justice Samuel Alito authored a statement included in the orders list respecting the decision to deny the appeal. Alito was joined by Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Alito said he accepted the denial of the petition in part because the case will continue through the litigation process, noting that the preliminary posture of the litigation would complicate our review. Nevertheless, Alito expressed concern over the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling against the colleges use of the ministerial exception in DeWeese-Boyds case, writing that he believed the state courts understanding of religious education is troubling. In particular, Alito is concerned with the courts argument that DeWeese-Boyd, in her role as a professor, did not provide sufficiently religious education that would allow for the ministerial exception to apply. That conclusion reflects a troubling and narrow view of religious education. What many faiths conceive of as religious education includes much more than instruction in explicitly religious doctrine or theology, stated Alito. I have doubts about the state courts understanding of religious education and, accordingly, its application of the ministerial exception. In her lawsuit, DeWeese-Boyd, who taught social work, accused the school of refusing to promote her because of her advocacy against school policies related to LGBT individuals and extramarital sex. Her lawsuit argued that Gordon committed associational and gender discrimination in violation of the states Civil Rights Act, as well as breaching the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. An attorney representing DeWeese-Boyd argued in earlier hearings that her client taught all secular social work topics and didn't fit the standard of vital religious duties laid out in the 2020 Supreme Court decision in another ministerial exception case Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru. While Gordon attempted to dismiss the suit by invoking ministerial exception, Judge Jeffrey T. Karp of the Massachusetts Superior Court ruled against that argument in April 2020. In March 2021, the Massachusetts Superior Judicial Court upheld the lower court ruling, with Chief Justice Scott L. Kafker writing that the cause would be remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. In sum, we conclude that DeWeese-Boyd was expected and required to be a Christian teacher and scholar, but not a minister. Therefore, the ministerial exception cannot apply as a defense to her claims against Gordon, wrote Kafker last year. Ukraine President Zelensky thanks Pope Francis for praying for peace amid Putins invasion Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is thankful to Pope Francis for a phone call in which the leader of the Catholic Church told him he is praying for peace as Russian troops continue to attack the former Soviet nation. Four days of fighting has led to hundreds of civilian deaths and displaced thousands of Ukrainians. President Zelensky wrote on Twitter Saturday that he thanked Pope Francis @Pontifex for praying for peace in Ukraine and a ceasefire. The Ukrainian people feel the spiritual support of His Holiness, The Catholic Telegraph reported. The Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See said Francis spoke to Zelensky on the phone on Saturday. The Holy Father expressed his deepest sorrow for the tragic events taking place in our country, the embassy wrote on Twitter. Ukraines health minister announced Saturday that at least 198 civilians, including three children, had been killed by Russian forces. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes the real figures are considerably higher as officials assessing the situation have yet to confirm other reports. More than 120,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russias invasion of Ukraine, the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. In a departure from diplomatic protocol, the pontiff on Friday paid a surprise visit to the Russian embassy to the Vatican to express his concern over Russias invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni was quoted as saying that Francis spent more than a half-hour at the embassy. He went to express his concern over the war. The Russian ambassador was quoted as saying that the pope called for the protection of children, the protection of the sick and suffering, and the protection of people. As missile attacks and gunfights between invading Russian troops and Ukrainian soldiers and civilians carry on in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, local churches are helping people take shelter in their buildings. Fr. Vyacheslav S.A.C., a pallottine priest, has posted videos on social media of his church providing shelter to families in an underground bunker surrounded by wooden furniture and minimal personal belongings, according to Reuters. Vyacheslav said the church has space to provide temporary shelter for up to 50 people, and 27 children are among those taking refuge. Meanwhile, Russia said Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett offered to mediate to end the fighting in Ukraine. The Kremlin said Bennett spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone telling him that Israel was ready to help, The Associated Press reported, adding that it was not known whether the Russian leader had accepted the offer. CPAC panelists warn South Korea 'in danger' of falling under 'communist' rule A North Korean defector argues that the democratic country of South Korea is in danger of becoming a communist state due to the possibility of a pro-China and pro-North Korea candidate winning the upcoming presidential election. The 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists, held its first full day of programming Thursday. For the second year in a row, the conference took place in Orlando, Florida, instead of National Harbor, Maryland, where it had taken place in previous years. The first full day of the conference occurred as Russia invaded Ukraine Thursday. One of the first panels at this year's conference was titled I Escaped Communist North Korea." However, it began with a brief discussion from national security experts KT McFarland and Gordon Chang on Russia before North Korean defector Lee Hyun-Seung was introduced. Lee, who now goes by the name Arthur, works for KCPAC, the Korean equivalent of CPAC. He didnt mince words about the direction he thinks South Korea is headed, although its been an American ally for many years. In a conversation on the main stage with CPAC Executive Director Dan Schneider, Lee lamented that the President of South Korea [Moon Jae-in] is a socialist and the candidate to replace the current socialist is a communist [Lee-Jae Myung]. During the talk, Schneider reported that that communist has closer ties to the Chinese Communist Party and to North Korea than to the U.S. The South Korean presidential election, scheduled to take place on March 9, is a faceoff between the Democratic Party of Korea candidate Lee-Jae Myung and People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-Yeol. Lee Hyun-Seung elaborated on the situation, warning that Lee-Jae Myung is fascinated by the socialism and the communism. He contended that they want to make South Korea a socialist country. So, they want to rig the election so that they can get the absolute power in the Congress and then [manipulate] the National Election Commission to rig [the] election, he claimed. The defector concluded that South Korea is really in danger because of politicians who want to establish one-party control. Schneider agreed, suggesting that South Korea could become the next Venezuela. Lee Hyun-Seung stated that although President Moon and Lee-Jae Myung were human rights lawyers, they never talk about North Korean human rights and never talk about Hong Kong. He suggested that their silence on the human rights violations in North Korea and Hong Kong is because they are pro-North Korea but also pro-China. He expressed hope that the American people can fight together to preserve our freedom on the Korean Peninsula. At CPAC, Lee Hyun-Seung touched on his experience living in North Korea, which has operated as a brutal dictatorship run by the Kim dynasty for several decades. I lived in North Korea for about 30 years, he said. In North Korea, you are not allowed to gather in one place to express your opinion. Everybody should be controlled by the regime and everything is controlled by the one man, he added. Lee Hyun-Seung suggested that a conference like CPAC would not be possible in North Korea unless it was approved by the Kim regime. He was asked by Schneider what would happen to him if he told a neighbor that he disliked what the Kim regime was doing. Lee Hyun-Seung said his family would have endured three-generation punishment. In a three-generation punishment, grandparents, parents and their children will be punished severely. According to Lee Hyun-Seung, your grandfather will be executed, your father will be killed by the regime and your children will be sent to political prison camps. In the camp, when the young babies were born in the camp, they have to live in the camp for their entire life unless the regime [releases] them, he explained. After describing the political climate of North Korea, the defector touched on why his family escaped the country. Seven years ago, my entire family made the toughest decision [of] our entire lives, he recalled, describing the decision as a choice to escape for freedom or live as [a] slave. Lee Hyun-Seung expressed gratitude that his family decided to leave the country and leave everything behind for freedom. He said freedom is more valuable than life and the reason why he decided to escape. So many people do not stop escaping, he said. Pastor survives after he's stabbed 7 times in 'devastating' random attack outside home Members of Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana, California, are thanking God for their pastor being alive after he was stabbed seven times in a random attack outside his home that left him with significant injuries, including two punctured lungs. Kelita Hull-Gardner, executive director of operations for the church, explained in a statement posted on the churchs Facebook page that her pastor, the Rev. Ivan S. Pitts, was attacked at about 8 a.m. Thursday outside his home in Long Beach by a man he did not know. The doctors are claiming him to be very lucky, but we know luck has nothing to do with his survival, Gardner said in her statement. Pastor Ivan Pitts was randomly approached by a man in his driveway. The man commenced to stab the pastor 7 times; in his left eye, back and shoulder/neck. Both lungs were punctured, bones in his eye socket and shoulder were broken, she explained. Gardner further explained to ABC7 in an interview that the pastors attacker, who is now in police custody, approached the pastor and asked him if he could ask a question and when he acknowledged him, he stabbed him seven times. Twice in the eye, four times in the back and once in the neck, shoulder area. Pastor Pitts, who is a married father of four, went on to get surgery to repair three cuts to his left eyelid and a tendon. He was recovering in great spirits, according to a Sunday update from the church in which he declared I am so fortunate. Pastor Ralph Williamson of Christ Our Redeemer AME Church in Irvine told ABC 7 that he and Pitts are members of a coalition of pastors who were set to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday. The attack, he said, has devastated the community. "We received a long text message stating what had happened, that Pastor Pitts has been attacked in his own driveway following his return home and he was stabbed several times. It devastated us," said Williamson. Gardner told ABC 7 that her pastor ran to a nearby construction site to get help after he was attacked, and workers got a picture of the man's license plate. The suspects car was later found by Huntington Beach police and he was arrested. Authorities intend to charge the suspect with attempted murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and felony vandalism. Williamson explained that he has been communicating with the pastor frequently via text. He noted that despite the attack, the pastor is "going to be alright." Gardner said the pastors family is supporting him in the hospital and urged the church community to limit calls and texts to the family. If you desire, the family has asked that cards and flowers be sent to the church, Gardner said. Theyve requested to please give them space to process and heal by avoiding calls and texts at this time. A lesson from our black brothers and sisters: Grief doesnt have the last word, hope does Two years ago, as I sought to process George Floyds death and the nations reactions to it, I reflected with several friends about the grief we were all feeling. What do we do with it? We mused into the night. This Black History Month as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, and national division we are still asking ourselves the same question. The answer is: We do with it what our ancestors did before us. We feel and experience this deep sadness and we keep fighting the good fight of faith and freedom. In these months, I have not taken for granted one crucial fact of my grief: it is countered with hope because of my Christian faith. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ and a member of His Church. Although the griefs of injustice, loss, and hardship can threaten to overwhelm us, we will never be overtaken. When pain piles on, we meet it with the promises of God and the coming assurance of true redemption. In these heartbreaking days of loss and division, we have much to learn from our black brothers and sisters, who have understood for generations what it means to take our pain to God and to find hope and healing in Him. There are, I think, two key lessons we need to learn now. We need to learn to lament, and we need to hold onto hope with all we have. Learn to lament I believe all Christians should understand and practice lament. For a believer, lamenting involves grieving and crying out to God both individually and corporately. But it doesnt end there in despair. It carries us to hope-filled expectations that God will heal us and that we can be part of His healing work. Lament never stops at our tears; instead, it is the steppingstone toward righting what is wrong and being peacemakers and bridge-builders where our world is most in need. We have black brothers and sisters in our churches who have experienced a long history of injustice and who exemplify holding onto hope in God who makes all things new. One of the greatest expressions of grief and faith coalescing is in Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech, which he gave on Aug. 28, 1963. The night before he was to give his historic message, he left his aides with this: I am now going upstairs to my room to counsel with my Lord. Dr. King wasnt just a doctor; he was first and foremost a pastor. His life and impact were formed in the crucible of the suffering, yet his Christian worldview allowed for hope to grow. What made it into his 17-minute speech that day was a brilliant display of lament building a bridge to healing. Listen to his conclusive response that August afternoon: Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream ... I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. For this message calling people to hope even in the midst of turmoil King quoted directly from the Bible, citing Isaiah 40:45: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. His vision, his dream, came from the promise of the Word of God. And we can share that same promise as we grieve with hope today. Cling to hope No one wants to experience the pain of grief. But the Bible shows us that there is a time for lament and that time may come more frequently than we think. In fact, 60 of the 150 Psalms are songs of lament. And, of course, the Bible has an entire book filled with poetic laments: Lamentations. However, many of us have lived in contexts that have made true lament heartfelt cries for healing tertiary. Weve gotten by without going into or sometimes even looking at the most painful places. But what many of our black brothers and sisters have taught me is that in trying to avoid pain, we miss out on the deeper and fuller life of faith. Their suffering has required them to press into lament, and as a result, God has been near to them in both sorrow and in joy that is not defined by circumstance. When Jesus, beaten and bruised, was nailed to that cross, all hope seemed lost. The world was shaken and dark. But three days later, Hope stepped out of that tomb. Thats how we know that Christians can experience and acknowledge pain; Jesus did too. And thats how Christians can lead the way through sorrow; Jesus is the Hope that guides us. When we make room for lament and embrace the hope that faith gives us, we can accelerate the healing that we so need in our brokenness. Do you feel burdened and weighed down by the injustice and division and suffering around you? Embrace it. Take time to grieve. Acknowledge the pain. Engage in corporate lament. And, in the same way that countless believers have done before you, use that lament to lean into hope hope that pushes you to act in a way that just might change the world. I am grateful for the legacy of faith handed down to us, and I pray God gives us the strength to faithfully carry it on. Many black brothers and sisters have left us a roadmap; follow it. Im a 12-year-old former public school student. Heres why I hate critical race theory. My life will forever be impacted by a black boy and two white boys. These boys are the reason why I have grown to hate critical race theory (CRT), which has become a hot topic in my school district. Last semester, as a sixth-grader at a public school, my history teacher told me, along with other students, that because my skin is white, I am privileged and considered an oppressor. It made me feel sad because my friends and I are not mean or oppressors. The only way any of us are privileged is because we get to live in America and work hard for what we want in life, regardless of the color of our skin. I learned the value of education early through my aunt, a public school teacher. My aunt served children in South Dallas at the Reach for Hope Homework Center. She knew that children, given the right support and education, could create brighter futures for themselves. I loved going to volunteer there with my mom and grandmother. One of my favorite memories at the Homework Center was during the Christmas season when I was 5 years old. I had a blast watching everyone open their presents. But my buddy, who was a few years older than me, noticed I didnt have any presents to open, so he gave me one of his. He didnt consider my skin color I was white and he was black. He just saw that I was without and wanted me to feel like I belonged. Now, my buddy is in his senior year of high school and is doing really well, thanks to all his hard work. He and many other kids from the Homework Center will be among the first in their families to attend college because someone cared enough to support them academically. It breaks my heart to think someone could be teaching children and teenagers they are oppressed or victims because of the color of their skin. My buddy taught me that no matter our background or circumstances, we can all work hard and become overcomers. A few years later, the lesson my Homework Center buddy taught me became even more real and even more important. Our family became a foster family and we welcomed children of all races and backgrounds into our home. Through foster care, we met and adopted my two little brothers. Quickly, our family learned my brothers came from a very troubled background, as do many children in the foster care system. It was so sad to see how far behind my brothers were academically. However, our amazing community rallied behind our entire family. Teachers provided tutoring. The police and fire departments invited my brothers to their stations to let them see that our public servants are not to be feared and that they are here to help. I always knew our town was great, but it became real watching the outpouring of selfless love for my brothers. You see, my brothers, who are white, were just as disadvantaged as my buddy at the Homework Center. And, with help, they were just as able to overcome their challenges. Recently, our town has been accused of being systematically racist. This is the same town that generously donated to the Homework Center and supported our family after adopting my brothers. I have spent countless hours educating myself about CRT and have pledged to fight this attempt to indoctrinate my friends the best that I can. During that history lesson last semester, I spoke up and told my teacher I disagreed. I have also spoken at a school board meeting and have attended political meet-and-greets. Critical race theory can cause long-term issues for society as there is no end goal other than to divide people. My parents and I chose to switch from public school to homeschool earlier this year so I can focus on studying what truly matters, not political ideology. But I am hopeful because I have watched our community lock arms to keep this harmful ideology from infiltrating our schools. I have listened to my mom and her friends as they advocate for all students at school board meetings. It has been a long, hard fight in our town for students, but we are making amazing progress. I am thankful for people like my aunt and my brothers teachers, who empower children and teenagers instead of teaching them to believe all that CRT implies. I am thankful for the opportunity to truly learn the value of my education and the importance of always seeing character over color. Most of all, I am thankful for that one black boy who is now a man, my buddy from the Homework Center, and those two white boys, my brothers. My life will forever be impacted by them. They taught me that we can all overcome any obstacle because we are Americans. Warning from Canada: Financial freedom under attack By Stefan Gleason web posted February 28, 2022 As the world nervously watches Russias invasion of Ukraine, a different headline-grabbing standoff may be even more consequential for investors. Canadas trucker-led Freedom Convoy has been protesting draconian government mandates and restrictions. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government has decided to get even more draconian. Trudeau invoked emergency powers to target the finances of the truckers and their backers. In an unprecedented move sidestepping normal due process guarantees, Trudeau ordered banks, insurance companies, and even cryptocurrency exchanges to close the accounts of anyone deemed to be involved in the Freedom Convoy. Similar trucker-led protests began last week in Washington, D.C. ahead of President Joe Bidens March 1st State of the Union address. In response, the administration has ordered security fencing to be installed around the Capitol building. Will Canadian-style assaults on financial freedom soon follow? Silver guru David Morgan believes so. In a video posted recently, he said, What Canada is doing is really a precursor for what the global elite is planning to do planet-wide. Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum has openly bragged that Trudeaus government is filled with supporters of the globalist bodys Great Reset agenda. Moreover, Bidens Build Back Better agenda also comes straight out of the playbook of the World Economic Forum. One of their major objectives is to move toward a global digital currency regime that will make it easier for governments to tax, confiscate, and redistribute wealth. Driving out physical cash from the economy will also enable banks to amass more control over financial transactions and possibly put customers at greater risk of being shut out of the economy (or forced into it). David Morgan warns that the next financial crisis will bring bank bail-ins whereby some assets of depositors are claimed by banks to prevent cascading failures. Given the growing risks to wealth holders, sound asset protection strategies are a must. Accounts held at banks and other financial institutions are vulnerable to being restricted or cancelled for any number of arbitrary reasons. Even cryptocurrency wallets can be seized by governments, with Canada showing the way. Interestingly, though, the Trudeau regime hasnt tried to seize physical precious metals from enemies of the state. Its just not practical for a government to try to find out who owns gold and silver coins and where they might be kept. Its far more efficient to seize assets that are held digitally or in financial institutions. Gold and silver bullion should never be held via an account at a bank or brokerage firm. Bank safe-deposit boxes are also poor options for storing precious metals (many banks expressly prohibit gold or cash contents). In order for a precious metals holding to fully protect against political and financial threats, it should be physically segregated from the financial system. That means your bullion should be stored in a secure hiding place at home or through a private vault service. Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange , the company recently named "Best Overall Online Precious Metals Dealer" by Investopedia . A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC and in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, TheStreet, and Seeking Alpha. Home Dozens killed as Russia launches attacks on Ukraine; Biden slams Putin's 'premeditated war' Attacks by Russian forces in several key cities in Ukraine have reportedly killed dozens of Ukrainian military personnel, the largest attack by one European country against another since World War II. Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that at least 40 Ukrainian soldiers were killed Thursday and told ABC News that dozens of others were wounded. Meanwhile, Ukraine's military command said its forces killed around 50 Russian troops. Explosions and missile strikes were reported in the capital Kyiv, the Black Sea port city of Odesa, as well as the eastern cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol. At least 18 people were reportedly killed in an airstrike on a military base near Odesa, the Odesa regional administration said in a statement shared by AFP. The statement added that officials are still digging through the rubble. A Ukrainian military plane was reportedly shot down with 14 people on board south of Kyiv. AFP reports that at least five people died, but the Ukrainian emergency service is still determining exactly how many were killed. A Ukrainian government spokesperson told CBS News that "cruise and ballistic missile strikes" targeted military control centers in Kyiv. Russian helicopters also reportedly attacked a military airport near Kyiv. Ukraines military claims that in addition to killing 50 Russian occupiers in Kharkiv, it also destroyed four tanks and six Russian aircraft in the Luhansk region, according to Reuters. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering, Biden said in a written statement. Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable. The attacks drew condemnation from other European countries, including the United Kingdom and France. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted that the attacks marked Europes darkest hour since the Second World War." In a video uploaded to Telegram, President Zelenskiy declared that the people of Ukraine want peace. However, he vowed that Ukraine would defend itself if someone attempts to take away our land, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children. In a statement, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations called the attacks "unprovoked" and argued that the "truth and the international community are on the Ukrainian side." The council represents 15 churches, religious organizations and one interchurch organization spanning Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and evangelical traditions. The interdenominational body seeks the "spiritual revival of Ukraine." "We believe that good will prevail with God's help," the statement reads. "We support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and all our defenders, we bless them in their defense of Ukraine from the aggressor, and offer our prayers for them." On Wednesday, the council issued a plea for Putin to "stop the growing fire of war," adding that "the Ukrainian people do not seek war." The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee called for peace in a statement Thursday, stressing that "the peoples of Ukraine and Russia are of the same family." "Their mothers and grandmothers are of one common spiritual ancestry," the statement reads. "Do the mothers and grandmothers of Russia truly desire their sons and daughters to spill the blood of their spiritual brothers and sisters? This is a war without cause and the imperialistic aspirations of one man can never justify this destructive fratricide." In the early hours of Thursday morning, Putin announced the start of a special military operation in Ukraine that he said would demilitarize the neighboring country. He claimed that the attacks were part of the de-Nazification of Ukraine." Ukrainian President Zelensky, who is Jewish, responded to the claim on Twitter. Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years, he tweeted. As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history. [Russia] has embarked on a path of evil, but [Ukraine] is defending itself & won't give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks. Earlier this week, Putin recognized the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine with sizable pro-Russian populations Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin has also claimed a so-called genocide of ethnic Russians in Ukraines eastern Donbas region, which has been echoed by Russian officials and state media. However, the international community has rejected such a claim since Russian-backed separatists have clashed with security forces for years since Russia annexed the southern Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Reuters notes that separatists in Ukraine had asked Moscow for assistance in repelling aggression on Wednesday. Earlier this week, as intelligence showed that an attack on Ukraine was imminent, U.S. President Joe Biden announced sanctions designed to cut off Russias Western financing. He vowed to enact stricter sanctions far beyond those imposed in 2014 if Russia escalated the conflict. Biden is scheduled to give an address Thursday afternoon. Jacy Lewis/191 News James Avery Artisan Jewelry, a family-owned jewelry retailer based in Texas, opened its new store in Midland at the Commons at Northpark at the end of February. The new address is 2900 W. Loop 250 N., Suite 105 -- a relocation from Midland Park Mall, according to a press release. "Our associates are excited to greet customers in the new bigger, brighter Midland store today, James Avery CEO John McCullough said in a press release. This new location improves our guests shopping experience with easier parking and access from 250. Plus, the extra space will let customers enjoy a bigger selection of our timeless jewelry." United Airlines UAL is set to resume San Francisco-Melbourne, Australia flights from May 7, as per reports. The service has remained suspended for long due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions. Throughout the pandemic, United Airlines had maintained its passenger service to Australia. UAL offers the maximum number of flights to Australia among all U.S. carriers, the company had said earlier. United Airlines is currently offering direct flights to Sydney, Australia from San Francisco, CA and Los Angeles. Apart from resuming the San Francisco-Melbourne service, the carrier plans to resume other services to Australia, including flights from Houston, TX, this year. Last December, United Airlines announced a new partnership with Virgin Australia Group, offering customers wider connectivity between the United States and Australia. Subject to government approval, the partnership is expected to begin later this year. The deal will offer United Airlines eligible premier MileagePlus members and Virgin Australias Velocity members priority check-in, boarding, baggage delivery, additional baggage check allowance and security clearance. It will also provide customers lounge access. Zacks Rank & Key Picks United Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks within the broader Transportation sector are as follows: ArcBest Corporation ARCB flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company has a stellar earnings surprise history, having outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average beat being 31.4%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Shares of ArcBest have surged more than 43% in a year. J.B. Hunt Transport Services JBHT carries a Zacks Rank #1. The companys earnings have surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 10.2%. Shares of J.B. Hunt have gained more than 31% in a year. 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 United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL): Free Stock Analysis Report J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT): Free Stock Analysis Report ArcBest Corporation (ARCB): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Oil soared as energy and commodity markets were thrown into a state of disarray after Western nations unleashed more sanctions to isolate Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Futures in London jumped more than 7 percent before pulling back a bit to trade near $102 a barrel. Supply was already struggling to meet the demand recovery from the reopening of economies, and any disruptions to flows from Russia -- the worlds No. 3 producer -- could sharply exacerbate the tightness. China and other buyers have paused purchases of the nations flagship Urals grade. Western nations agreed over the weekend to exclude some Russian banks from the SWIFT bank messaging system and targeted the central banks foreign reserves. BP Plc also moved to dump its shares in oil giant Rosneft PJSC, taking a financial hit of as much as $25 billion. Brent for April settlement, which expires Monday, advanced 4.2 percent to $102.06 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange at 10:15 a.m. Singapore time. West Texas Intermediate for April rose 5 percent to $96.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Russias invasion of Ukraine has roiled markets from energy to metals and grains, heaping more inflationary pressure on a global economy already hit with surging costs. At least two of Chinas largest state-owned banks are restricting financing for purchases of Russian commodities, underscoring the limits of Beijings pledge to maintain economic ties with one of its most important strategic partners in the face of Western sanctions. Against this volatile and fast-moving backdrop, OPEC+ faces a trickier task than usual when it meets on Wednesday to discuss its supply policy for April. Despite the invasion, the cartel will probably stick to its plan of gradually increasing oil production, according to delegates. The group will also have to take into account the halt of some Iraqi output. Removing some Russian banks from SWIFT could result in a disruption of oil supplies as buyers and sellers try to figure out how to navigate the new rules, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, said in a note. Russia pumped 11.3 million barrels of oil a day in January, according to data from the International Energy Agency. The International Energy Agency pledged last week to help ensure global energy security, while India said it would support initiatives to release emergency oil reserves to help calm prices. The surge that were seeing today was guaranteed, given the considerable deterioration of the Ukraine situation over the weekend, said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights. Markets should brace for plenty of aftershocks. Demand destruction is the only thing that can stop oil shooting higher after the U.S. and European allies unleashed additional curbs on Russia, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The bank raised its one-month forecast for Brent crude to $115 a barrel, from $95, with significant upside risks on further escalation or longer disruption. The surprise move by BP is the latest sign of how far the West is willing to go to punish President Vladimir Putin for the invasion. The oil major has been in Russia for three decades and was staunchly defending its presence there just weeks ago. Norways Equinor ASA also said it will stop new investments into its Russian business and start the process of exiting joint ventures. Societe Generale SA and Credit Suisse Group AG stopped financing commodities trading from Russia, according to people familiar with the matter. The two banks, key financiers to commodity trading houses, are no longer providing the money needed to move raw materials such as metals and oil from Russia. The U.K. would support Group of Seven nations setting limits on the amount of Russian oil and gas its members could import over time, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News on Sunday. Russias military is funded by revenues from oil and gas, so we want to cut its dependency on them, Truss said. This article, Elon Musk Warns of Russian Attacks on Donated Starlink Internet Hubs in Ukraine, originally appeared on CNET.com. SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service is active in Ukraine and more terminals are being sent as invading Russian troops disrupt internet access, according to CEO Elon Musk. At the same time, Musk urged people in Ukraine using the Starlink systems to be cautious because the "probability of being targeted is high." On Thursday, he cautioned people to turn on the devices only when needed and to place antenna as far away from people as possible. Musk added that light camouflage could be placed over antenna to help avoid visual detection. Satellite signals can reportedly be used to geolocate and target people. Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022 Musk's donations were in response to a plea last week from a senior Ukrainian government official to provide Starlink stations to the country. "While you try to colonize Mars -- Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space -- Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand," tweeted Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation. @elonmusk, while you try to colonize Mars Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand. Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022 A batch of Starlink stations arrived in Ukraine in a truck Monday, according to a tweet by Fedorov, who expressed his appreciation to Musk. Starlink is the company's growing network of private, orbital satellites that aims to provide internet connections to anyone on the planet. The prototype satellites were launched into orbit in 2018 and the company has since deployed nearly 2,000 Starlink satellites into orbit across dozens of successful launches. The satellite-based service provides an alternative to land-based systems that can often be difficult to deploy in remote areas or are otherwise vulnerable to interruption by natural disaster or, in this case, war. Late Friday, Musk cited free speech concerns in tweeting that Starlink wouldn't block Russian news sources. MONTGOMERY While the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops may seem a world away to most Americans, for Anya Arseienko, a 16-year-old Montgomery ISD exchange student, the conflict is on the doorstep of her familys home. Arseienko is from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, where her family lives, though now they have fled the capital city for the border with Poland to get to safety. Her mother, father, younger sister, grandmother, and 98-year-old great-grandmother are stuck in a village near the border. They cannot travel by car and traveling by foot is difficult with hergreat-grandmother. On HoustonChronicle.com: Live updates: Turkey moves to restrict entrance to Black Sea But the family is not without help. Arseienkos host family on Saturday started a fundraising campaign on GiveSendGo.com with the goal of raising $10,000 to help Anyas family get to safety. The fundraiser far surpassed its goal in less than a day and as of Monday afternoon had raised close to $19,000. Arseienko has been living with the Boniface family since December and is currently a junior at Lake Creek High School. Nicole Boniface, the host mother, said she is already like a member of the family. Anya is doing about as good as any 16-year-old girl in this situation could be doing, its very hard for her, Boniface said. But she is a very resilient girl. She has a very big support system around her. The goal now is to get the family to the American embassy in Poland and go from there. The Boniface family is prepared to try and bring the Arseienkos to Texas, or help set them up wherever they can go. Right now, because Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 must stay and fight, Anyas father cannot leave with the rest of his family. On HoustonChronicle.com: Houstons Be Someone graffiti bridge has a new message in response to Russia-Ukraine invasion This is a whole new level of expertise that were not familiar with, as far as specifics of what we need to do next, Boniface said of trying to help the family flee. If there is anybody with specifics of contacting the U.S. embassy, or what the next steps would be to get them here, that would be great. Since the fundraiser Help Anyas Family in Ukraine on GiveSendGo.com has already far surpassed its goal, Boniface said they have contacted the website about adjusting the goal to be larger, but encourage people to continue donating. Honestly we cant quantify how much money theyre going to need and we know its much more than $10,000 so I would just encourage anybody to not look at that and think that weve met our goal, Boniface said. On Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbott expressed support for Ukraine in a tweet, stating that he has asked the Texas Restaurant Association, Texas Package Stores Association and all Texas retailers to remove Russian products from their shelves. The governor has not made any public comments regarding Ukrainian refugees. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com Its for your own good By Robert T. Smith web posted February 28, 2022 There seems to be a central theme of social conflict in our country. We appear to be equally disposed to be in one of two general groups, those who favor more of a default to the group exercise of power over the individual, versus those who favor more of a default trust in their own and fellow citizens decisions to determine their life trajectories. As examples, this dichotomy is clearly on display in commentaries or letters to the editor in local newspapers, on the television news, and on the internet. We see it in many issues of the day, from mandating the Corona virus lockdown and other related mask and vaccine considerations, determining how and what students are taught in the public schools, recognizing the means of personal self-defense, ad infinitum. Agency refers to the thoughts and actions taken by people that express their individual power. Agency is the power people have to think for themselves and act in ways that shape their life experiences. To rob a person of their agency is the epitome of dehumanization. Taken to extremes are slavery, or the past and present tyrants who controlled their countries populations through fear of imprisonment or death, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, the Cuban or Chinese Communists of today. An individuals agency might take the form of applying themselves and doing well in school, or in its antithesis cutting classes, and dropping out; becoming addicted to drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, or in the antithesis choosing to moderate or not partake; having children and becoming a single parent, or in the anthesis starting a nuclear family; conducting your life responsibly and morally, or antithetically acting foolishly and immorally. The results of exercising individual agency obviously have a clear effect on the individual. At times, aspects of an individuals agency are removed. The military exercises some controls on the individual soldiers agency. Homeowners associations remove some agency for members landscaping or outside decorations. Laws are passed and enforced to prevent harm to others, the agency of the lawless is inhibited to benefit society. These controls provide individual and organizational benefits that are entered into typically voluntarily, some agency is surrendered to maintain continuity or effectiveness of the group. The order laid out in the Christian sacred text provides a social order that relies on conforming individual agency in some fashion and situations, not as a lower class or less worthy person but in a cooperative fashion: children submit to their parents, wives submit to their husbands, believers submit to the church and to the governing authorities. Agency is not required to be submitted to an abusive parent or spouse, an apostate church, or a government acting in violation of the tenets of the sacred text. Conforming to the social order in these instances is the outline of the foundation of social harmony described in the divinely inspired text. According to some in our country, the results of individuals exercising their individual agency may not lead to an equal outcome, so it is up to them to exercise their control over all individuals in society in an attempt to realize their expected equal outcome. This is arguably an impossible task considering individual abilities and life decisions. The constant refrain is for the government to do more, the government to step in, the government to invest, the government to control, ad infinitum. Surrender your individual agency to the collective, after all, its for your own good. The root of our social conflict is where the correct line between group control and individual agency should be drawn, in essence, what is the proper role of government? The essence of our own country was and for now still is limitation on the governing authority and an emphasis on individual rights and responsibilities, a collection of citizens each individually exercising their own agency over their lives. Arguably, the genius of America was the right to be left alone. Perhaps C.S. Lewis provided the best explanation for personal agency over the power of the collective when he wrote... Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist who spends his days enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness with his family. He confesses to cling to his liberty, guns and religion, with antipathy toward the arrogant ruling elites throughout the country. Home UN Security Council adopts resolution requesting UNGA emergency session on Ukraine Xinhua) 08:11, February 28, 2022 Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2022 shows smoke rising in the sky in Kiev, Ukraine. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo) UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday adopted Resolution 2623 that calls for an "emergency special session" of the UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the Ukraine crisis. It is the first such a resolution that the council has adopted in four decades, according to the Security Council Report. The UNSC on Friday failed to adopt a draft resolution on Ukraine. (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) Tariffs: Are they too populist or is there a conservative case for them? By Rachel Alexander web posted February 28, 2022 President Donald Trump took a lot of heat from mainstream, business and free market Republicans for implementing tariffs against China and other countries. The common criticism was that it was a populist, anti-free market move. They pointed to it as evidence that he is a populist, not a conservative (I recently addressed the differences between populists and conservatives, showing the accusation to be a red herring). The MSM jumped on it even more, declaring as if they are the authority that Trump was going against Republicans. Was he? Look at history. The Founding Fathers imposed tariffs. The first significant piece of legislation was a tariff, The Tariff Act of 1789, sponsored by James Madison and signed by George Washington. It was implemented because the U.S. was amassing debt and being flooded by imports. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution provides, "Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises." Thomas Jefferson initially opposed tariffs, but admitted in a letter to Benjamin Austin in 1816 that he was reconsidering his position on tariffs due to changing circumstances. Before becoming president, Abraham Lincoln said in 1847, Give us a protective tariff and we will have the greatest nation on earth. High tariffs continued throughout much of U.S. history. The conservative argument against tariffs primarily relies on defending free trade. However, when China can make products far cheaper due to horrendous working conditions for employees, thats no longer an even playing field for free trade. Trump also implemented them on China in retaliation for its theft of U.S. intellectual property, which also gave it an unfair advantage. Of course, Trump also imposed tariffs on goods coming from other countries, including the European Union, Canada and Mexico. Other countries arent as free market as the U.S., and many subsidize their industries, so were still not competing on a fair playing field. Much of the criticism of tariffs stems from those countries responding by implementing tariffs of their own. A lot of the opposition to Trumps tariffs in Congress came from Republicans no one would characterize as very conservative, like Paul Ryan, Orrin Hatch and John Thune. Conservative business friendly organizations oppose them. For every steelworker job that might be saved because of a tariff, our country will lose even more American jobs in auto plants, construction, and so many other industries, David McIntosh, the president of the conservative advocacy group Club for Growth, said in a statement. Tariffs will also harm the pro-growth effects of the tax cuts, stall the economy, incite a trade war, and help hand the election to the Democrats. What it comes down to is Trump has a different approach for dealing with difficult countries than recent presidents he is less accommodating. It hearkens back to the Ronald Reagan era of peace through strength. The reason Trump began the tariffs is because of weak trade deals negotiated by previous presidents after Reagan. Its difficult to get a fair assessment of the effectiveness of Trumps tariffs since so many economists lean to the left and just want to bash Trump. About 70% of economists are Democrats, and supported Hillary Clinton over Trump for president in 2016. However, the late great economist Milton Friedman, one of the foremost free market economists who is revered by conservatives, opposed them, believing free trade will lead to international peace. Despite this, the conservative organization Grassfire reported that 96% of its team supported Trumps Mexico tariffs. Even an MSM poll found that almost 80% of Republicans supported Trumps China tariffs. Many conservatives support moving to a national sales tax and eliminating the income tax. There was a lot of support for the Fair Tax as it was known several years ago. Tariffs are somewhat similar to that, but place the bulk of the tax on foreigners. The appeal of tariffs is they raise money without raising taxes for citizens. Tellingly, most of the 2018 tariffs on China have been left in place by the Biden administration. The unions love them. So the left and its comrades in the MSM have become suddenly quiet about them, unwilling to criticize their own. The Biden administration admits its because China is still refusing to buy more American goods. Joe Biden just said last month that hes not ready to remove them, and the MSM ignored it instead of breathlessly writing articles digging up members of his own party slamming him and cherry picked polls. Id like to be able to be in a position where I can say theyre meeting the commitments, or more of their commitments, and be able to lift some of it, Biden said . But were not there yet. The reality is tariffs are far more complicated than how the MSM portrays them. People on the right can genuinely differ over them. Several Trump-endorsed congressional candidates signed a letter along with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy urging the Biden administration to immediately expand tariff exclusions on billions of dollars of Chinese goods. Politicians on the left are all over the board on tariffs. So if you disapprove of Trumps tariffs, its dishonest to bash Trump over them while giving Biden a free pass. Its difficult to determine how well the tariffs have worked, since there is so much bias against Trump. But maybe now that Biden is championing them, watch the news change to how successful they are. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative . She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications. Home The following school, church and library events and opportunities are taking place in the greater New Milford area: New Milford Library holds adult programs in March On March 10 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., there will be a Pollinator Pathways Program at The Marsh Parish House and on Zoom. Registration is required and limited for in-person participation. Masks are requested by presenter for in-person attendance. Meet Louise from the Northeast Pollinator Pathway Project. Louise will discuss the Project, and what one can plant this spring to help pollinators. For more information about Pollinator Pathways visit pollinator-pathway.org/. On March 17 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., there will be a coloring program for adults at The Marsh Parish House. Registration is required. Color some seasonal pictures. Pictures and coloring materials will be available. On March 24 from 6:30 to 8 p.m., author Sydney Sherman Explores Reincarnation on Zoom - Registration is required. Weird dreams? Strange memories? Fascinated with a period of time in history? Maybe its deja vu or maybe you have lived before. Sherman will give a presentation with time for questions. On March 31 from 7 to 8 p.m., Corey Alstons Gullah Geechee Heritage Sweetgrass Baskets can be made on Zoom. Registration is required. Alston is a fifth generation Sweetgrass basket weaver. Sweetgrass basket weaving has been a major part of the Gullah Geechee Culture, dating back to days of enslavement. This coastal art form has been recognized as South Carolina State Handcraft. Those interested in any of the programs may send an email to dmartens@biblio.org or call 860-355-1191, ext. 203 to register. Gaylordsville Historical Society offering scholarship in honor of Vietnam vet The Gaylordsville Historical Society is offering a $500 scholarship in the memory of Alan S. Farnham. Lt. Farnham, who attended the one-room schoolhouse in Gaylordsville, and died in combat in Vietnam, a release said. The applicant must be a graduating senior in good standing who lives within the Gaylordsville Fire District, including home - schooled students. The scholarship is based on academic standing, letters of recommendation, community service, and an essay. The one-room Gaylord School was in continuous operation from 1740 to 1967 and the Gaylordsville Historical Society maintains a museum in the schoolhouse. Applications are available at Guidance Departments at New Milford High School, Henry Abbott Technical High School, Nonnewaug High School and at the Gaylordsville Post Office. Completed applications are to be mailed to Scholarship Committee, Gaylordsville Historical Society, PO Box 25, Gaylordsville, CT 06755. Applications must be postmarked by May 1. 2022-2023 New Milford Public Schools kindergarten registration information New Milford Public Schools invites parents of 2022-2023 incoming kindergarteners to begin the registration process for next school year. Any child who will be 5 years old on or before Dec. 31 is eligible for enrollment in Kindergarten. Begin the registration process by going to the district website at newmilfordps.org. Under the Parent, tab click student registration to begin the process. The entire process can be done electronically this year and registration documents not able to be filled out online can be scanned and emailed to the school. For those families that need hard copies of the registration documents, please call or stop by the school your child would attend to pick those up. For those families who cannot complete the registration online, we will be holding an in-person registration March 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. Bring all of your completed documents to the school your child would attend to finalize registration. Translators will be available for those families that need them. While registration will continue to be open and you can register at any time, doing so early helps the schools plan effectively for next school year. Students who are registered for kindergarten are also invited to join us for our mini-kindergarten experience that we hold in the spring. Once you are registered, we will have your contact information and your childs school will reach out with dates, times and specific information regarding the mini-kindergarten experience once the plan for that event is confirmed. The contact information for the two elementary schools are as follows: Hill and Plain Elementary School 60 Old Town Park Road New MIlford, CT 06776 860-354-5430 hps_office@newmilfordps.org Northville Elementary School 22 Hipp Road New Milford, CT 06776 860-355-3713 nes_office@newmilfordps.org Roxbury Scholarship Foundation offers college scholarship The Roxbury Scholarship Foundation application for the 2022-2023 school year has been posted to roxburyscholarshipfoundation.org . Its open to residents of Roxbury who will be continuing their education in an undergraduate or graduate program at an accredited two- or four-year college, university, or state-approved school for trade instruction or special occupational training. Applications must be submitted by April 11. Kent: United Nations Association of Connecticut gives scholarships The United Nations Association of Connecticut has announced that at least three scholarships will be available to Connecticut graduating high school seniors this year. Joseph Baxer, president of the Connecticut Chapter, emphasized the scholarship goals are to encourage and support students with a demonstrated interest in promoting peace through work in international relations and diplomatic service, and to cultivate an understanding of, and support for, the work of the United Nations in the United States, a release said. Application information is available from the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation (northwestcf.org and the Connecticut Community Foundation (concf.org). Baxer indicated that speakers are available for presentation on the UN and other topics of international concern for civic groups, libraries and high schools. For further information, email unaofct@gmail.com. New Milford library tax items available for pick up New Milford Public Library announces that the following tax items are available for pick up during library hours: Federal 1040 and 1040-SR form, instruction booklets for Federal 1040 and 1040-SR and limited quantities of CT-1040 form. For more information, call 860-355-1191. Treason and patriotism in Canada and the current-day world updated to 2022 (Part One) By Mark Wegierski web posted February 28, 2022 It may be noticed that, as the processes of late modernity increasingly envelop the planet, many traditional ideas, notions, and concepts, are undergoing radical revision. Certainly, the ideas of treason and patriotism have been subject to enormous shifts since the beginning of the twentieth century. Ideas of treason and patriotism are important to the Canadian situation for a variety of reasons. Much of traditional English-Canadian identity is bound up with the profession of loyalty to the Sovereign or Monarch. A person who fails to profess loyalty to the Sovereign or Monarch is, in the traditional conception, being disloyal to Canada. At the same time, there have been a number of times in current-day Canada when Quebecois nationalists have been accused of treason. One should examine these accusations in the light of current thinking about what constitutes treason, in Canada as well as elsewhere. Ideas of treason and patriotism seem to be most pronounced in societies which could be called traditional. The manifest showing of disloyalty to a country or nation, or its chief symbols, has often met with severe censure or punishment. At the same time, making common cause with one's nation's enemies, typically in the forms of espionage, sabotage, or extremely vocal agitation, was often considered "high treason," punishable by death or long and harsh prison terms. Looking at the history of the second half of the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first, it is hard not to conclude that, for Western societies at least, "treason is not what it used to be." The questions of loyalty as between Church and State have always been particularly difficult. According to English historian Edward Gibbon, much of the persecutions of Christians under the Roman Empire stemmed from the latter's intransigence to make even the slightest recognition of loyalty to the Emperor (i.e., burning some incense before a statuette of the Emperor) which was interpreted by Christians not as a civic or patriotic ritual, but one of idolatrous recognition of the divinity of the Emperor rather than that of Christ. Christians would face the most severe tortures and death, rather than submit to this ritual. Much later, English Catholics and French Protestants were almost invariably suspected of treason against their respective countries, and subject to the severest persecutions. The Huguenots of France after such calamities as the St. Bartholomews Night Massacre -- were almost entirely expelled in the end becoming part of Protestant societies. The brief Catholic ascendancy of Queen Mary in England was continually characterized by Protestant English historians as a period of bloody persecution. Arguably, it was her Protestant successor Queen Elizabeth who carried out far more extensive persecutions of Roman Catholics. The so-called Test Acts introduced at a later period called for every person in the realm to receive communion in the Church of England two or three times a year, or be stripped of all civil and political rights. At that time, it was well-known that very few sincere and devoted Roman Catholics would consent to do that -- so these were an odious vehicle for deliberate, mass disenfranchisement. One of the best indications of the ingrained anti-Catholicism of the English or British state were its habitual, derogatory references to "Popery", or "the Romish church" (with its "Jesuit spies" and "Spanish Inquisition"), seen as "enemy number one." Nevertheless, Roman Catholicism in England managed to attract a long and illustrious lineage of intellectual apologists, such as Sir Thomas More, many of whom faced martyrdom. The anti-Catholicism of the English or British state was largely transferred to America. In virtually any era of America's history, one could point to periodic outbreaks of severe anti-Catholicism. Indeed, Roman Catholics have been under almost constant suspicion -- whether from Protestant or secularist critics -- of being "un-American." At the same time, it must be pointed out that probably one of the largest desertions from the U.S. army occurred during the Mexican-American War, where the Mexicans were able to raise the so-called San Patricio battalion from Irish Catholic U.S. deserters and prisoners of war. The U.S. army unsurprisingly immediately hanged upon capture any identified member of this formation. One of the most savage, modern armed conflicts between Church and State was the uprising of the so-called Cristeros in late-1920s Mexico against a ferociously enforced secularization. There is a recent major movie depicting this conflict For Greater Glory. To be continued. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. Home Ukrainian border guards who insulted Russian forces this week in a recorded exchange that went viral may not have been killed, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, contradicting an earlier claim by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said in a statement posted to its Facebook page that the guards may be alive, after Russian media reported that they were taken as prisoners from their base on Snake Island in the Black Sea to Sevastopol, a port city that Russia controls on the Crimean Peninsula. Zelensky cited the guards' story Thursday while highlighting Ukrainian resistance to a Russian invasion, saying that 13 guards had "died heroically." He said he would recognize each with the title Hero of Ukraine. "May the memory of those who gave their lives for Ukraine live forever," Zelensky said. The guards' actions drew international attention after an audio recording of their encounter with the Russians was published on the website of the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda. A Ukrainian official confirmed its authenticity to The Washington Post on Thursday. In the clip, a Russian voice warns the border guards that they will be attacked if they do not give up. "I am a Russian warship," a voice from the invaders says. "I ask you to lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise, you will be bombed." The Ukrainians responded boldly before they were attacked. "Russian warship," came the reply, "go f--- yourself." Ukrainian officials said in the Facebook post Saturday that the border guards were attacked by both Russian aircraft and weapons from the ship, and that Ukrainian officials lost communication with the guards after infrastructure was destroyed. It now appears it was assumed the guards were killed. Ukrainian officials on Saturday said they were working to determine what happened to the guards and praised them for digging in. It was not clear how many guards were on the island when the attack began or if any were killed. The border guards' message for the Russians spread rapidly, with many comparing it to famous rallying cries from earlier wars. Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan, an Australian military officer, compared it to "NUTS!" a response that then-U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe sent to Nazi forces who sought an American surrender during the Battle of Bastogne in World War II. "Today, none of us will ever forgot what these servants of their nation did there," Ryan tweeted. The Kyiv Post reported Saturday that the message for the Russian ship appeared on a digital road sign hanging over a Ukrainian highway. - - - The Washington Post's Paul Sonne contributed to this report. A Russian missile crash in Kyiv struck an apartment in the suburbs as Putin's forces launched a missile barrage to soften the capital. The missile impact heavily damaged the residential building when it struck. Footage of the assault was captured, showing the ferocity of the assault reflected how the Russian army overwhelmed the Ukrainians in the storm of the invasion. Russia Rained Missiles in Kyiv Vladimir Putin's command to assault the Ukrainian capital was continued as the attacks happened on Saturday. Artillery and missile launches rained on the capital for hours, so intense that the locals were huddled in subways while soldiers counter-attacked, reported the Express UK. One of the images was a missile that entered one side of a high-rise residential in the city center that went through to the other side, exploding. The local news agency reported the damaged building is in Lobanovsky Avenue, in Kyiv's Solon'Yans'Kyi district, cited India Today. One of the affected residents said his family got out of the building affected by the attack, but his son and wife's legs were broken. Immediately the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ukraine claimed there was a comparison to the 9/11 attack as they shared a picture of the building and included the burning of One Trade Centre. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video to deny any report that he left the capital and abandoned his post despite his defiance of Russia. In the video, he said the Ukrainians would defend their country. An invasion came after western warnings that threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion to stop the Ukrainian army from attacking two pro-Russian provinces. The Russian missile crash was one of these attacks. Read Also: Ukraine Provinces Experience Power, Internet Blackouts After Germany Announces Sanctions on Russia The entry of troops from the north, east, and south ends of the country might upset the current world order of the US on top. Putin said the vestiges of Nazism were a threat to a smaller neighbor, and the danger had to be stamped out, noted Times of Israel. He accused Kyiv of conducting a systematic elimination against Eastern Ukrainians who wanted to secede to Russia. In typical western fashion, the Ukrainian leaders and the West called it unfounded and lacked basis. At one time, the Kremlin accused the West of hypocrisy when it referenced Libya and Iraq. The United States' attempt to use the UN as a rubber stamp was defeated when Russia vetoed the Security Council resolution deploring its invasion. China would stay itself that other countries said Russia was alone. Two countries, the United Arab Emirates and India, did not participate, while the 11 members left had voted for the resolution. US Sends Humanitarian Aid The White House requested$ 6.4 billion in security and humanitarian aid. Sources say that President Joe Biden told the US State Department to give $350 million as military assistance, cited Reuters. The Ukrainian officials outgunned and undermanned asked citizens of Kyiv to fight Russian soldiers coming forward. According to the Russian Defense ministry, air and seaborne cruise missiles were pounding military installations in the night strike in Ukraine. A UN aid official said that many civilians were in shelters to avoid danger, the Kyiv claimed 1,000 Russian troops were killed. The exact number wasn't available, but the Russian missile crash was used to further the claim of attacks in the civilian areas. More areas like military installations have been hit by more missiles, including the dreaded Kalibr cruise missiles pounding targets with speeds of Mach 3. Related Article: Vladimir Putin Issues Chilling Warning That the EU, US Is Next After Kyiv Was Left Defenseless, Begging for Assistance @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Russian TikTok video has it all: a cat, puppies and a pulsing background beat. It's cute, watchable and hardly seems the stuff of state propaganda. In 2014, Russia flooded the internet with fake accounts pushing disinformation about its takeover of Crimea. Eight years later, experts say Russia is mounting a far more sophisticated effort as it invades Ukraine. Armies of trolls and bots stir up anti-Ukrainian sentiment. State-controlled media outlets look to divide Western audiences. Clever TikTok videos serve up Russian nationalism with a side of humor. The effort amounts to an emerging part of Russia's war arsenal with the shaping of opinion through orchestrated disinformation fighting alongside actual troops and weapons. In the cat video, a husky puppy identified by a digitally inserted U.S. flag swipes at the tail of a tabby identified by a Russian flag. The cat responds with a ferocious jab that sends the hapless dog scurrying. The clip, which has been viewed 775,000 times in two weeks, is the work of an account named Funrussianprezident that boasts 310,000 followers. Almost all of its videos feature pro-Russian content. It could just be a patriotic Russian fighting the good fight as they see it, or it could easily be something directly affiliated with the state, said Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation researcher and expert on Eastern Europe at the Wilson Center in Washington. Russia has been perfecting these tactics. Now they are putting them in play. Analysts at several different research organizations contacted by The Associated Press said they are seeing a sharp increase in online activity by groups affiliated with the Russian state. That's in keeping with Russia's strategy of using social media and state-run outlets to galvanize domestic support while seeking to destabilize the Western alliance. Across the internet, there's been a rapid uptick in suspicious accounts spreading anti-Ukrainian content, according to a report from Cyabra, an Israeli tech company that works to detect disinformation. Cyabra's analysts tracked thousands of Facebook and Twitter accounts that had recently posted about Ukraine. They saw a sudden and dramatic increase in anti-Ukrainian content in the days immediately before the invasion. On Valentine's Day, for instance, the number of anti-Ukrainian posts created by the sample of Twitter accounts jumped by 11,000% when compared with just days earlier. Analysts believe a significant portion of the accounts are inauthentic and controlled by groups linked to the Russian government. When you see an 11,000% increase, you know something is going on, said Cyabra CEO Dan Brahmy. No one can know who is doing this behind the scenes. We can only guess. The work has been underway for some time. Researchers at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab analyzed 3,000 articles by 10 state-owned Russian news outlets and noticed a big increase in unfounded claims that Ukraine was poised to strike separatist groups. Overall, Russian media claims of Ukrainian aggression surged by 50% in January, according to the research. This is the way they go to war; it's a central part of Russian doctrine, said Jim Ludes, a former U.S. defense analyst who now directs the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University. Ludes said Russian disinformation campaigns are intended to galvanize Russian support while confusing and dividing the countrys opponents. Russia tailors its propaganda message for specific audiences. For Russians and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, the message is that Russia is trying to defend its own people against Western-fueled aggression and persecution in Ukraine. Similar tactics have been used, including by Nazi Germany when it invaded Czechoslovakia under the guise of protecting ethnic Germans living there, Ludes noted. Its not good guys who use this tactic, Ludes said. Its the language of conquest, not the language of democracy. Russia is also using disinformation to confound and demoralize its opponents. For instance, the Kremlin said it resumed fighting Saturday after pausing for possible talks with Ukraine. But AP journalists in various areas of Ukraine witnessed that the Russian offensive never stopped. The chaotic information environment surrounding the invasion led to confusing and sometimes contradictory accounts. On Friday Ukrainian officials reported that all troops stationed on the strategic Snake Island had been killed after defiantly refusing Russian demands to surrender. Russian state TV later showed what it claimed was footage of the soldiers alive in custody. The AP was unable to immediately verify either claim. Meanwhile, the U.S. has information indicating Russia is publicizing false reports about widespread surrenders of Ukrainian troops and claims that Moscow plans to threaten killing family members of Ukrainian soldiers if they do not surrender, according to State Department spokesman Ned Price. Russia has also employed cyberattacks in its invasion of Ukraine, and while they pose a serious threat, online propaganda can leave even more lasting damage if it succeeds, according to retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Nagata, a former director of strategic operational planning at the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. What is far more dangerous is Russias ability to influence what populations everywhere believe, Nagata said. To get them to believe things that are useful for Russian strategic interests... If youre able to change what an entire population believes, you may not have to attack anything. In the West, Russia seeks to sow division and reduce the chances of a unified international response. It does this in part through a stable of state-controlled media outlets such as Sputnik and RT, which publish in English, Spanish and several other languages. The invasion is off, read one headline in RT last week, just days before Russian troops moved into eastern Ukraine. Tucker Carlson Slams Biden for Focusing on Putin, Ukraine Instead of US Domestic Problems, reads another in Sputnik News, reflecting a common Russian practice: cite government critics in the U.S. (like Fox News host Carlson) to suggest America's leaders are out of touch. The European Union signaled its concerns about RT on Wednesday when it included RT's editor-in-chief on a list of sanctions imposed on Russian officials. The EU called RT's leader, Margarita Simonyan a central figure of the government propaganda. On Friday, Facebook announced that it would prohibit RT from running ads on its site and said it would expand its use of labels to identify state-run media. Ludes said hes been pleased to see the U.S and its allies forcefully push back on Russian disinformation and even seek to preempt it by publicly disclosing Russias plans. The Biden administration has demonstrated some creativity in using intelligence to respond, he said. We havent seen that from the West since the cold war days. ___ Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Matthew Lee and Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report. What does "America first" mean? This tagline generally associated with former president Donald Trump seems self-obvious, which is the heart of its utility. "America first" means putting America first, which ... sure. But how? In what context? In 2016, Trump spoke often of the loss of American manufacturing jobs, helping him overperform expectations in the Upper Midwest where those job losses were most acutely felt. But it was clear that, even then, this specific manifestation of the concept was only a small part of its appeal. Trump's campaign gained traction not for his (often overstated) economic arguments but for his rhetoric about the purported dangers America faced, like criminal immigrants crossing into the United States and terrorist infiltrators. Those sentiments were more important in building support for his candidacy than economic hardship. And they reflect the once-quiet subtext of "America first": America for Americans and not for the hordes seeking entry. But it goes further. Focus America on Nebraska and not New York, that hub of global cosmopolitanism. "America first" is a statement about tradition, about the America Trump wanted to make great. It's about leveraging American power primarily to protect where power has traditionally been held in America. It's about rejecting a sense of America as a participant in a dynamic, diverse world and about responding to America's own increased diversity. It's a statement about protecting Americans - the Americans who feel as through their power has eroded. Over the weekend, a group using the name America First held a conference in Florida. Led by a notorious white nationalist named Nick Fuentes, the group explored the explicitly racist and toxic applications of the phrase. No one did so with more eagerness than Fuentes. "Tonight I say: We are going to rule this country," he told the cheering audience, largely made up of young White men. After pronouncing that "the United States government has become the evil empire in the world," he pledged that he and they would "build and raise up a parallel economy" to avoid the constraints otherwise placed on overt racists. Fuentes, who was at the far-right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, repurposed one of its nationalist catchphrases as he railed against his group's enemies: "To every RINO, every lying journalist, every carjacker, gangbanger, illegal immigrant, every OnlyFans whore, every mobbed-up politician and pundit on the payroll of some Middle Eastern country, to the people that have looted our wealth, addicted our youth to drugs, thrown open our borders to invaders from all over the world, to the corrupt that have sold out our country and our people: We are coming for you. ... You think you can replace us? You're wrong. We will replace you." This is not subtle, certainly, but Fuentes at another point was more explicit. "Our secret sauce here? It's these young White men," he said. The audience cheered. "That's what we call the secret ingredient. America and the world has forgotten about them, but not us." Seventy years ago, those young White men would have been broadly assured of social, political and economic power, thanks in part to the structure of the economy, yes, but thanks also to the ways in which society was structured to their advantage. It still largely is, but often not as tangibly or rewarding as it once was - thanks, they assume, to immigrants and globalists and Jewish people and so on. So, turn back the clock. Put "America first" once again. Then Fuentes made a revealing transition. "You know, they say about America, they say, 'Diversity is our strength,' you know," he said. "And I look at China and I look at Russia -" He stopped himself for a moment. It's pretty clear where he was going: China and Russia are powerful despite broad racial and cultural homogeneity; ergo, that's the best path forward. This is certainly more than debatable in many different ways, but the point is that Fuentes got sidetracked. "Can we get a round of applause for Russia?" He got one. He also got chants of "Putin! Putin!" from the audience, referring, of course, to the Russian president who last week launched an unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Fuentes has been explicit in praising the invasion. On Telegram, he called the invasion "the coolest thing to happen since 1/6" - referring to the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which he called "awesome" during his speech, as he had weeks after it occurred last year. Beyond the strongman shtick that motivates enthusiasm for Vladimir Putin and for movements like Fuentes's, this is revealing. Putin's motivations for invading are complex and rooted in a variety of historic, social and economic causes. But a central motivation is his concern about Ukraine being pulled away from Russia's orbit and into Europe's. He's been actively combating that shift for decades, worrying about the expansion of liberal democracy in a country with such close ties to the one that he runs as an autocrat. His is a literal war against democracy and it's one that Fuentes and others cheer. Last year, I interviewed historian Thomas Zimmer, who focuses on the history of democracy. He articulated a broad struggle of the sort that President Joe Biden has often evoked, pitting democracy against authoritarianism (precisely the way in which Biden framed Russia's invasion last week). But Zimmer went further: The current political moment in the United States isn't simply about democracy against autocracy, as played out at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but inextricably about pluralistic democracy, a democracy in which a diverse set of interests compete fairly and earnestly for power through free elections. The increase of political power among Black and Hispanic and Asian and female and gay Americans doesn't mean that White American men don't still represent a plurality, but it means that the power that group has enjoyed is now power that is more often challenged. Hence the scale of the fight, hence the focus on "protecting" elections - and hence the way in which the global far-right has taken an interest in what's happening here. "I think the U.S. becomes the most advanced, most acute test case of whether or not it is even possible to erect a stable, multiracial, pluralistic democracy, or whether the country will remain a White Christian nation defined by White Christians," Zimmer said. "I think it's become a sort of a test case of world historic importance." That framing fits neatly with Fuentes's position: He cheers Russia as homogenous and then as aggressors against a young democracy. The two intertwine. Consider other right-wing voices that have praised or defended Putin in recent days. There's Trump himself, of course, who has repeatedly described Putin as "smart," including in his lengthy tirade at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday. What else did Trump advocate during that speech? Well, he once again disparaged those coming to the country, saying that "our country is being poisoned from within." Or consider Tucker Carlson, who for days before the invasion defended Putin's purported motivations. At one point, last week, he wondered aloud on his Fox News program why Democrats "want you to hate Putin." "Has Putin shipped every middle class job in your town to Russia?" he asked, capturing that first, concrete sense of "America first." And then, two sentences later: "Is he teaching your kids to embrace racial discrimination?" A bit later still, he informed viewers who they "should be mad at," including the people "who are calling you a racist" and those who are "allowing your country to become polluted and overrun." Carlson in the past has embraced the racist idea that the left is intentionally spurring immigration to dilute the power of White Americans. He has also praised the increasingly autocratic leader of Hungary for taking a hard line on immigration in service of nationalism. Putin's defenders in his fight against democracy are those who are disparaging America's diversity, over and over again. Last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was one of a small group of right-wing legislators who floated the idea of a political action committee adopting "America First" as its name. Included in its proposed platform were specific articulations of the need to defend the country's "uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions." It argued for infrastructure that "reflects the architectural, engineering and aesthetic value that befits the progeny of European architecture." In short order, those considering signing on were pressured to step away. While Greene had been identified as a participant by multiple colleagues, her team insisted she hadn't "approved or agreed to" the document that circulated. On Friday, Greene undercut the idea that she stood apart from the rhetoric included in the platform: She was the surprise guest speaker at Fuentes's conference. Condemnation came quickly, including from her own party, and she later claimed to have been unfamiliar with Fuentes's past comments and his organization. But, of course, she has her own demonstrated track record of amplifying conspiracy theories and far-right rhetoric. During his speech at CPAC, Trump praised Greene. Fuentes responded on Telegram. "After a day of vicious attacks against Marjorie Taylor Greene for speaking at AFPAC last night, Donald Trump gives her a shoutout and endorsement from the main stage at CPAC," he wrote. He speculated that perhaps Trump would attend his group's America First conference next year or the year after. Given where the group stands in the struggle between pluralistic democracy and autocracy, it's not hard to see that happening. Everything is bigger in Texas, as the saying goes, and that includes the show of support for Ukraine as its conflict with Russia rages on. From rallies to buildings illuminated with the countrys flag colors, the Lone Star State is standing in solidarity with the Eastern European nation as it faces invasion from its Russian neighbors. Over the weekend, Houston's 'Be Someone' bridge was repainted with a message supporting Ukraine. A growing number of Texas leaders have also chimed in with showings of solidarity for the Ukrainian people. On Saturday Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick tweeted an image of a Ukrainian police officer he claims trained with the Houston Police Department. The officer in the tweet sported a Dont Mess With Texas patch on his uniform. Dont mess with Texas. This Ukrainian police officer trained with the Houston Police Department last year and sent this photo, with permission to share, showing the patch he proudly wears in his fight for his country," Patrick said in the post. "We in Texas stand with the brave men and women of Ukraine as they fight for their freedom. Since Saturday, the photo has garnered thousands of interactions on Facebook and has been widely shared on other social media platforms. The Houston Police Department was unable to confirm the name of the officer in the photo. Patrick's office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of this writing. Former Houston police chief Art Acevedo shared the photo of the officer on Twitter, saying We are proud to train @Ukraine police officers @houstonpolice and @Austin_Police. The men and women in their delegations have always been of high integrity, intelligent, committed and very appreciative of our partnership. While several Texas leaders have voiced support for Ukraine as news of the invasion hit the U.S., Gov. Greg Abbott took things a step further. On Saturday, the Republican leader lobbied the Texas Restaurant Association, Texas Package Stores Association, and all state retailers to voluntarily remove all Russian products from their shelves. Other states, including Utah, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Hampshire, have also taken steps to ban Russian-made products to protest the country with their own economic sanctions. Texas stands with Ukraine, Abbott said in a tweet. The next day, Abbott praised Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a leader and said Ukraine is in need of weapons and energy independence. Texans across the state have taken to the streets to denounce the invasion. On Friday, the Dallas skyline lit up with shining blue and yellow lights, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Since Thursday, demonstrators have gathered outside of the Russian Consulate in Houston calling for an end to the attack and urging further involvement from the U.S. in defense of Ukraine. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner issued a statement condemning Russias attack: The City of Houston condemns the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and stands with the people of Ukraine against the on-going violence. Our global system is built on the principle of sovereignty of nation states - a principle violated by Russia that has damaged our entire concept of international peace. Turner continued, saying city buildings will be lit with the colors yellow and blue. In Houston, we stand for freedom; for democracy; and for the safety and security of all residents, Turner said. We join with cities and countries around the world calling for an immediate end to the violence to protect human rights, and for the return of peace in Europe. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo joined residents Saturday to rally support of Ukraine. When news of the invasion hit the U.S., Hidalgo said it's important to stand up for freedom and democratic principles, here or abroad. I joined hundreds of Harris County residents today standing with the people of Ukraine and for democracy, freedom, and human rights, Hidalgo tweeted Saturday. There are so many stories of bravery in the families of those I met today. I recently revisited a couple bottles of sub-$25 bottles, lovingly filling glasses, tumblers, and coffee cups with dive bar standards like Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, and my personal favorite old man whiskey, Evan Williams. After spending a week (or maybe it was two months?) reviewing each bottle with an open mind, positive attitude, and salivating mouth, here is my official ranking of each: Rest assure, bottom shelf is a social construct. Best bourbon for drinking neat And the award goes to Old Forester 86 Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky; a sweet and approachable sippin whiskey about as pleasant and approachable as it gets. I dig Old Foresters smooth caramel body and not-too-sweet vanilla sweetness; its a flavor that scratches that itch for sugar without overwhelming the tongue or drowning out the bourbon flavor. I suggest drinking this strait Kentucky bourbon whiskey neat or even throwing in a couple whiskey stones to keep things on the chillier side. Old Forester 86 Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky drizly.com $28.68 Shop Now Best bourbon on the rocks If youre looking for an affordable bourbon that jumps out of the bottle into your mouth like a bat outta hell that I guess flew into your mouth, look no further than our good ol pal Wild Turkey. In the same vein of diluting coffee concentrate like Grady's to bring out the flavor, I think Wild Turkey goes through a hell of a transformation when you add a splash of water or seltzer to it. Unlike the brands more expensive bottles 101 Rye or Rare Breed, Wild Turkeys signature bourbon thrives on that little jolt of H20 to help those underlying citrus-y caramel not bloom. I know some lunatics who cut cans of Dr. Ugly with Wild Turkey Bourbon, and all I can say is: keep an open mind, dont @ me. Wild Turkey Bourbon Wild Turkey drizly.com $21.99 Shop Now Best bourbon for cocktails and mixed drinks Rightfully earning its spot as Americas top-selling bourbon between the 1930s and 1950s, Four Roses Bourbon is a bottom-shelf/well whiskey standard that is beloved for its mild taste, approachable flavor, and surprisingly complex flavor. Adaptability is the strong suit of this classic Kentucky bourbon, turning any cocktail made with Four Roses into a Four Roses cocktail. Want a drink thatll put some pep in your step? (Or is it step in your pep? Anyway) Four Roses recently posted the recipe to the Judges Choice from their 16th annual Rose Julep Cocktail Competition. Concocted by Bill Whitlow from Kentuckys own Richs Proper Food and Drink, the Storm Clouds over the Downs uses both Torres Spanish Brandy and Bananas foster syrup as a truly adventurous take on the classic Mint Julep. 2 oz Four Roses Single Barrel 1/2 oz China-China liqueur 1/2 oz Torres Spanish Brandy 2 Dashes Chocolate bitters 3 Drops Orange blossom water 2 Spoons Smoked maple syrup 1/2 oz Bananas foster syrup 7 Large Mint leaves Stir and strain into mason jar then smoke with apple wood smoke. Pour over crushed ice in julep glass. Garnish with mint leaf and powdered sugar/allspice blend Four Roses Bourbon Four Roses drizly.com Shop Now Best bourbon for shots And right-outta-the-bottle award goes to Jim Beam. Honestly, Beam is a whiskey you can enjoy every which way on the rocks, mixed with Coke, or chased with a tall boy of beer, but its rightful place belongs in a shot glass preferably with your friends nearby. Its sweet, strong, and oh-so-smooth, which is makes it perfect to slam responsibly. Get all that crazy stuff out of the way in your twenties, because even one shot is a freaking production once you crack 35. Jim Beam is a great bourbon for a shot because its the only bourbon some of us aging millennials can stomach. Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey Jim Beam drizly.com $23.99 Shop Now Most versatile bourbon Evan Williams is a brand Ive always held close to my heart. It was the first whiskey I ever bought as a post-21 adult and a bottle I find myself going back to again whenever I want something I know I can depend on. I think Evan Williams is a bit of misunderstood entity like Holden Caulfield or Shrek. Its gruff (that is, harsh) demeanor can be a bit of an acquired taste, but once you get past that medicinal quality, Evan reveals a spicy almost toasted nut flavor that makes you want to melt into a puddle. If youre looking for a two-ingredient cocktail thatll take transport you to the Amalfi Coastl, try a shot or two of Evan with Casamara Clubs Italian amaro leisure sodas. Florida, US (34429) Today Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. The European Union proposed further measures on Sunday to support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia, including bans on Russian planes and state-owned media. "In another unprecedented step, we will outlaw the Kremlin's propaganda machine in the EU," European Commission President Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen said, citing Russia Today and Sputnik. Switzerland Likely To Follow EU, Freeze Russian Assets FedEx and UPS declared that shipments to Russia would be suspended, further isolating Russia's economy from the rest of the world. After initially rejecting the suggestion, Ukraine agreed to meet with Russian officials in Belarus, and Russia's nuclear deterrent forces have been placed on high alert, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to a US defense official, fighting continued across Ukraine early Sunday, with the Russian assault looking to be stalled by stiffer-than-expected resistance. Fighting erupted in the area surrounding Kyiv, with explosions and air-raid sirens audible, while Ukrainian officials seized control of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, from Russian soldiers. On Sunday, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis stated that neutral Switzerland would "very likely" follow the European Union (EU) in banning Russia and freezing Russian assets in the Alpine country on Monday. Cassis, speaking on Swiss public television in French, said the seven-member Federal Council would convene on Monday to discuss recommendations from the finance and economy departments, NBC News reported. After Moscow's bloody military intervention in Ukraine, the Swiss executive branch refrained from adopting unilateral penalties against Russian interests. Instead, the Federal Council chose to follow the European Union's lead and declare that Russian persons and enterprises subject to EU sanctions will not be able to avoid them in Switzerland, which is not one of the EU's 27 member states. Financial "intermediaries" in Switzerland have been barred from forming new business agreements with 363 Russians and four Russian firms, according to the Swiss government. Any existing firm must be disclosed to the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs. Additional steps are being considered. While the measures are minor in comparison to previous Western sanctions targeted at punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, they could have an impact. According to a study published by the Swiss Embassy in Moscow, the rich Alpine nation has been the largest receiver of transactions by Russian private people, ahead of the United Kingdom, Spain, Luxembourg, and the United States, as per Independent. Read Also: US Gas Price Hike Prediction: Expert Warns Gas Increase to $4 Per Gallon Amid Russia-Ukraine Crisis Switzerland Urges Neutrality into Swiss Law Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin, the head of the federal economic affairs department, stated that while Switzerland was bound by UN sanctions, it could choose whether or not to follow EU sanctions based on criteria such as foreign policy and legal aspects, such as legislation that enshrined "neutrality" in Swiss law. Swiss officials are effectively expanding limitations imposed following Russia's takeover of Crimea in 2014, in which they also attempted to ensure that EU sanctions were not circumvented in Switzerland, to hundreds more people and businesses - but they're going even further. Even while Switzerland is neither implementing its own penalties nor directly enforcing the EU measures, the ministers tried to reaffirm that the country, whose banks have long drawn Russian cash, is taking a severe stance against the Russian aristocracy. While he understands that people are angry and want the government to do more, Parmelin told reporters that the Swiss policy of neutrality and diplomacy has been in place for decades and is "recognized and understood" in the EU, according to The Straits Times. Switzerland has begun to evacuate its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, but intends to preserve a skeleton staff of six or seven personnel, according to Swiss President Ignazio Cassis. Related Article: Europe Warns Vladimir Putin, Russia of "Financial Nuclear Weapon": What Is It? @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access New York City Mayor Eric Adams teased on Twitter about the planned end to the region's vaccine mandate that will affect indoor businesses, dining, and events in the next coming days. The official made an announcement on Sunday that his administration was in talks to end the city's vaccine mandate requirements on Monday, Mar. 7, as long as coronavirus cases continued to decrease. He is the most recent public official to make similar decisions in cities such as Seattle and Boston in the past few weeks. Vaccine Mandate Additionally, schools will have their indoor mask mandate lifted on the same day so long as there are no unexpected coronavirus cases spikes, said Adams. In his announcement, the mayor said New York City's infections continue to trend downward every day. Adams noted that the potential removal of the vaccine mandate will allow businesses the time to adapt and give authorities the chance to make the best public health decision for the people of the region. The mandate was first announced in August and required any person who wanted to dine or attend an indoor event to be vaccinated, as per NBC News. Furthermore, New York City's COVID indicators will also be removed along with the vaccine mandate and the mayor's team reviewed them before they officially announced the end of the vaccine mandate. But with the official announcement, the city's vaccine requirement will still be in place for people who are working. Adams did not mention any details regarding the removal of the mandate that requires all private-sector workers to be vaccinated in New York City. Read Also: Scientists Engineer Synthetic Coronavirus To Study SARS-CoV-2 Innate Mechanisms Better To Devise Countermeasures According to NBC New York, Mayor Adams put the mandate in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the city and is now being pulled back in a crucial moment in the pandemic. Mar. 1, 2020 marks the day, two years ago, when New York City recorded its first case of the coronavirus. Masks in School Gov. Kathy Hochul was the one who announced the planned removal of the mask mandate in schools that would take effect on Wednesday. Her remarks followed guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that said most residents can stop wearing masks, including students, in school. Hochul said that the CDC's guidance was the reason authorities were feeling very confident about lifting the mask mandates. She said that New York counties and cities can continue to keep their own mandates and parents still had the option of sending their kids to school wearing masks. The state of New York has roughly 2.7 million children in school that the mandate applies to, including children two years and older who are in childcare facilities. The governor said that Adams consulted her before her announcement. In their discussion, Adams said that a decision for city schools would not come until Friday after students in the region return from a week-long vacation. Hochul added that she will continue to stick with experts and health data as her guide in making decisions for public health guidance, The Guardian reported. Related Article: Dr. Mehmet Oz Says Dr. Anthony Fauci Misleads Americans, Decries COVID-19 Mandates After Chief Adviser Expresses Concern on Taking Off Masks @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Concurs de selectare a unei companii/agentii pentru elaborarea unui site web pentru activitatea Centrului National de Transfuzie a Singelui As soldiers and civilians in Ukraine continue to resist an invasion by Russian troops, a very different kind of war is being fought on a separate front: the internet. Within hours of Russian troops attacking cities and government facilities in Ukraine, hackersincluding some who claimed to be affiliated with the underground group known as Anonymouswent after a number of Russian government sites and systems. While some of these cyber-attacks appeared to be designed just to cause annoyance, others were aimed at shutting down the Russian governments operational abilities, or revealing what military intelligence officials in Russia might know. The battle has also seen attempts by Russia to hack information networks, by using propaganda and misinformation on social and traditional media. Some of the cyber-hacking attempts were invited by the Ukrainian government itself. Starting Thursday morning, posts started to appear on a variety of hacker forums, asking for volunteers to protect critical infrastructure and conduct cyber missions against Russia, according to a report from Reuters. The posts call on the Ukrainian cybercommunity to get involved in the cyber defense of our country, and invite hackers to apply via Google docs. Yegor Aushev, co-founder of a cybersecurity company in Kyiv, told Reuters he was asked by a senior Defense Ministry official to write the posts. Groups of pro-Ukraine hackers have also come together to launch a variety of attacks on Russian infrastructure and command systems, Politico reported. And a group known as the Belarusian Cyber Partisans, hacktivists based in Belarus who are opposed to Russias invasion, , said they have created a tactical organization to help Ukraines military fight against Russia. The group claimed in January, ahead of Russias recent invasions, that it had encrypted parts of the computer systems used by the state railway in Belarus, in an attempt to slow down the movement of Russian troops by rail. Ukrainian officials hope that hackers and cybersecurity experts might protect the countrys critical infrastructure from Russian hackersa concern that is more than theoretical. In 2015, a cyberattack crippled Ukraines power plants and left 225,000 Ukrainians without electricity; many believe hackers affiliated with the Russian government caused the outage. In 2017, the night before Ukrainian Constitution Day, a ransomware attack that came to be known as NotPetya caused an estimated $10 billion in damages globally, and, according to analysts, was concentrated in Ukraine. The consensus among a number of countries, including the US and UK, is that Russia was behind NotPetya, which leveraged a kind of attack that the US National Security Agency in the US has used in the past. (The attack methods were leaked in 2017.) Last week, a piece of malicious softwareone that infects computers and then wipes them of datawas found on a number of critical systems in Ukraine, including those of several government agencies and a financial institution.Suspicion has fallen on Russia as the source of the cyber-attack. In terms of attacks and defensive measures in social media, Russias state censor announced late last week that it would start curtailing access to Facebook because the social network limited the reach of Russian media outlets, according to Kevin Rothrock, an editor with the independent Russian media outlet Meduza, which is based in Latvia. Over the weekend, YouTube announced that Russia Today, the state media outlet, would no longer be allowed to monetize its content on the video-sharing network, and that Russian media outlets will not be allowed to advertise on other Google services, such as Gmail. Sign up for CJR 's daily email There are also social-media accounts filling a different role that is commonplace during wartime: profiteers. Taylor Lorenz wrote for Input magazine about a wave of Instagram accounts that have been posting misinformation about the conflict in Ukrainenot because they are working for Russia or Ukraine, or even care about the specifics of the conflict, but because they want to go viral, in order to generate as much advertising revenue as they can. What Im trying to do is get as many followers as possible by using my platform and skills, the administrator for @livefromukraine and @POVwarfare told Lorenz. Heres more on the Russia/Ukraine conflict: Intelligence : The Harvard Gazette spoke with Lauren Zabierek, a former Air Force intelligence officer and current director of the Cyber Project at Harvards Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, about Russias cyberwarfare capabilities , and what a cyberattack against the US might look like. We dont have any indications of immediate attack, she said, but we do know that Russians have at least conducted reconnaissance activities against our critical infrastructure for years and may have implanted some sort of tools to impact these services in response to US or allied foreign policy action. Free tools : Runa Sandvik, a security analyst who has worked with journalists at the New York Times and Freedom of the Press Foundation, offered on Twitter to give any journalists in Ukraine free virtual private network accounts so they could access the internet anonymously. And FlokiNET, a hosting service based in Finland that says it provides a safe place for activists and whistleblowers, offered its tools to journalists as well. Debunking : Renee DiResta, technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, said on Twitter that the proliferation of video content purportedly coming out of conflict zones is a challenge for debunkers, but nearly impossible for ordinary audiences. Reverse image search doesnt perform well [and] its essentially impossible to do from an app like TikTok. Jared Holt and Sam Thielman put together an edition of their newsletter with links to reputable sources for information on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including Bellingcat and Jane Lytvynenko of Harvards Shorenstein Center. Other notable stories: Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg. The fire on the cargo ship Felicity Ace, which had burned for more than a week, is likely extinguished and the vessel is now being towed, according to the operator MOL Ship Management. The ship had been transporting thousands of Volkswagen vehicles, including Porsches, Audis and Lamborghins. The cause of the fire is still unknown. There is no oil leakage from the vessel, and the stability of the vessel remains stable. The smoke leaving the vessel has currently stopped and is not visible, said the statement from MOL Ship Management (Singapore), a unit of Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. Two large tugs from Gibraltar began dousing the flames on Feb. 22. The fire first broke out on the Panama-flagged vessel on Feb. 16, when it had been sailing in the Atlantic some 90 nautical miles southwest of the Azores, on passage from Germany to the U.S., said MOL, which has set up a website to provide information about the accident. All 22 crew members were safely evacuated to the Azores. While the fire was still burning on Feb. 24, the fire apparently had been put out on Feb. 25, and a salvage team, flown in by helicopter, was able to board the vessel, which is now being towed by a large salvage craft, called the Bear, to a safe area off the Azores, the company said. In addition, it is also being escorted by two tugs, the ALP Guard and the Dian Kingdom as well as a large salvage craft, the V.B. Hispanic, which has additional firefighting capability. The total dollar value of goods on the Felicity Ace has been estimated to be $438 million and, of that amount, an estimated $401 million was for cars and goods vehicles, with Volkswagens exposure running at least $155 million, according to analysis by Russell Group, a London-based risk solutions consultancy that specializes in supply chain and connected risks. These figures showed once again the precariousness of global supply chains. The incident comes at a bad time for global carmakers who are in the middle of a supply chain crisis sourcing semiconductors, resulting in new delays for new cars. An event like this will not do a great deal in instilling trust with consumers, said Suki Basi, managing director of Russell Group, in a statement issued on Feb. 21. Photograph: In this undated photo provided by the Portuguese Navy, smoke billows from the burning Felicity Ace car transport ship as seen from the Portuguese Navy NPR Setubal ship, southeast of the mid-Atlantic Portuguese Azores Islands. Photo credit: Portuguese Navy via AP. CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors finalized nationwide settlements over their role in the opioid addiction crisis Friday, an announcement that clears the way for $26 billion to flow to nearly every state and local government in the U.S. Taken together, the settlements are the largest to date among the many opioid-related cases that have been playing out across the country. Theyre expected to provide a significant boost to efforts aimed at reversing the crisis in places that have been devastated by it, including many parts of rural America. Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson announced the settlement plan last year, but the deal was contingent on getting participation from a critical mass of state and local governments. Friday was the deadline for the companies to announce whether they felt enough governments had committed to participate in the settlement and relinquish the right to sue. The four companies notified lawyers for the governments in the case that their thresholds were met, meaning money could start flowing to communities by April. Were never going to have enough money to immediately cure this problem, said Joe Rice, one of the lead lawyers who represented local governments in the litigation that led to the settlement. What were trying to do is give a lot of small communities a chance to try to change some of their problems. While none of the settlement money will go directly to victims of opioid addiction or their survivors, the vast majority of it is required to be used to deal with the epidemic. The need for the funding runs deep. Kathleen Noonan, CEO of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, said a portion of the settlement money should be used to provide housing to people with addictions who are homeless. We have clients who have a hard time staying clean to make it in a shelter, she said. We would like to stabilize them so we can help them recover. Dan Keashen, a spokesman for Camden County government, said officials are thinking about using settlement money for a public education campaign to warn about the dangers of fentanyl. They also want to send more drug counselors into the streets, put additional social workers in municipal courts and pay for anti-addiction medications in the county jail. Officials across the country are considering pumping the money into similar priorities. California Gov. Gavin Newsoms proposed budget calls for using $50 million of the states expected $86 million share this year for youth opioid education and to train treatment providers, improve data collection and distribute naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses. In Floridas Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale, the number of beds in a county-run detoxification facility could be expanded from 50 to 70 or 75, said Danielle Wang French, a lawyer for the county. Its not enough, but its a good start, she said of the settlement. With fatal overdoses continuing to rage across the U.S., largely because of the spread of fentanyl and other illicitly produced synthetic opioids, public health experts are urging governments to use the money to ensure access to drug treatment for people with addictions. They also emphasize the need to fund programs that are proven to work, collect data on their efforts and launch prevention efforts aimed at young people, all while focusing on racial equity. It shouldnt be: ready, set spend, said Joshua Sharfstein, a former secretary of the Maryland Department of Health who is now a vice dean of public health at Johns Hopkins University. It should be: think, strategize, spend. In a separate deal that also is included in the $26 billion, the four companies reached a $590 million settlement with the nations federally recognized Native American tribes. About $2 billion is being set aside for fees and expenses for the lawyers who have spent years working on the case. New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson has nine years to pay its $5 billion share. The distributors Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen; Columbus, Ohio-based Cardinal Health; and Irving, Texas-based McKesson agreed to pay their combined $21 billion over 18 years. To reach the maximum amounts, states have to get local governments to sign on. The settlements go beyond money. J&J, which has stopped selling prescription opioids, agrees not to resume. The distributors agree to send data to a clearinghouse intended to help flag when prescription drugs are diverted to the black market. The companies are not admitting wrongdoing and are continuing to defend themselves against claims that they helped cause the opioid crisis that were brought by entities that are not involved in the settlements. In a joint statement, the distributors called the implementation of the settlement a key milestone toward achieving broad resolution of governmental opioid claims and delivering meaningful relief to communities across the United States. The requirement that most of the money be used to address the opioid crisis contrasts with a series of public health settlements in the 1990s with tobacco companies. In those cases, states used big chunks of the settlement money to fill budget gaps and fund other priorities. The amount sent to each state under the opioid settlement depends on a formula that takes into account the severity of the crisis and the population. County and local governments also get shares of the money. A handful of states Alabama, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Washington and West Virginia _ have not joined all or part of the settlement, mostly because they have their own deals or are preparing for trial. In Camden, Lisa Davey, a recovery specialist for Maryville Addiction treatment Center, was at a needle exchange this week handing out naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses, and asking people if they wanted to start treatment. Davey said she wants to see detoxification and treatment programs receive more funding to keep people in them for longer. As it is, she said, users can detox and be back out on the streets in search of drugs within days. They need more time to work their recovery, she said. A man picking up clean needles who asked to be identified only as Anthony P. said he was 46 and had struggled with addiction since he was a teenager. He said hed like to see an effort to cut off fentanyl and related synthetic opioids that are driving overdose death rates from the drug supply. Fentanyls got to go, he said. Martha Chavis, president and CEO of Camden Area Health Education Center, which runs the needle exchange, said one need is offering services like hers in more places. Now, users from far-flung suburbs travel into Camden to get clean needles and kits to test their drugs for fentanyl. The settlement with J&J and the three distributors marks a major step toward resolving the vast constellation of lawsuits in the U.S. over liability for an epidemic that has been linked to the deaths of more than 500,000 Americans over the past two decades. Other companies, including business consultant McKinsey and drugmakers Endo, Mallinckrodt and Teva, have reached national settlements or a series of local ones. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and a group of states are in mediation through U.S. Bankruptcy Court to try to reach a nationwide settlement. The crisis has deepened during the coronavirus pandemic, with U.S. opioid-related deaths reaching a high of more than 76,000 in the 12 months that ended in April 2021, largely because of the spread of fentanyl and other lab-made drugs. A recent report from a commission by The Lancet medical journal projected that 1.2 million Americans could die of opioid overdose between 2020 and 2029 without policy changes. John F. Kelly, a professor of psychiatry in addiction medicine at Harvard Medical School, said he wants to see money from the settlements go not just for treatment, recovery and support efforts but also to build systems designed to prevent this sort of epidemic from happening again. Some kind of national board or organization could be set up to prevent this kind of lack of oversight from happening again where industry is allowed to create a public health hazard, he said. About the photo: Shown are used syringes collected at a needle exchange run by Camden Area Health Education Center in Camden, N.J., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Four companies involved in the opioid industry are finalizing settlements over the addiction crisis in the U.S. in deals that could total $26 billion over 18 years. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. SEATTLE (AP) Washington lawmakers are making a last-ditch attempt to block intoxicating, synthetically derived cannabis products, including gummy candies and vape oil, from being sold at gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops after earlier bills failed. These are being sold right now, without any regulation, without any oversight, said Democratic Sen. Karen Keiser. Its a public health danger and a threat, and it needs to be removed. With about two weeks left in the legislative session, Keiser and Republican Mark Schoesler introduced a measure Friday to ban the products both within Washingtons legal marijuana industry and outside it. The products have proliferated nationally due to a perceived loophole in the 2018 federal Farm Bill, which authorized hemp growing. An alternative bipartisan bill one that would ban synthetic cannabinoids outside of Washingtons regulated Initiative 502 marijuana market, but convene a scientific panel to recommend ways to authorize them in the future was introduced earlier in the week in the House. In the past year and a half, producers across the country have taken CBD, a non-intoxicating compound extracted from hemp, and chemically converted it using acids and solvents into impairing delta-8, delta-9 or other types of THC, which is then used in vape oil, gummy candies and other products. Some of those products have been sold in Washingtons licensed marijuana stores, while others have been sold in smoke shops, gas stations or convenience stores including to minors. Washingtons Liquor and Cannabis Board last year barred synthetically derived THC from products in the Initiative 502 system, fearing that having to compete with the cheap ingredient produced from hemp grown out of state would push many of the states licensed, regulated marijuana growers out of business. Chairman David Postman said he wants the Legislature to make clear that the board also has the authority to block stores outside the regulated system from selling intoxicating, synthetically derived cannabinoids. It is our best, and perhaps only, chance this year to get the laws necessary to regulate the burgeoning world of novel and minor cannabinoids, Postman said in an email Friday. THC is marijuanas most prominent high-inducing component. While marijuana and hemp are the same plant cannabis federal law makes a distinction between marijuana, which is grown for high-THC content, and hemp, defined by its low content and traditionally used for food, clothing and industrial applications. Because marijuana is defined by its content of delta-9 THC, the most common type, proponents of the synthetic cannabis have argued that its OK to use CBD extracted from hemp to make other types of THC, such as delta-8 a molecule that occurs naturally but in minimal amounts in cannabis, is closely related to delta-9, and also produces a high. At least 17 states have banned synthetic cannabinoids in the past year, and even hemp industry groups have called on Congress to clarify the law. In Washington, the fight has pitted the Liquor and Cannabis Board against the Washington CannaBusiness Association, an industry group that represents a small but politically muscled segment of the licensed cannabis industry. Both sides want to stop the sale of intoxicating delta-8 or other synthetic cannabinoids at gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops. But there is strong disagreement about whether synthetically derived THC belongs in the regulated adult-use or medical marijuana system. The industry group is also concerned the LCB-supported legislation would give the agency authority over impairing cannabinoids without adequately defining what is meant by that creating uncertainty for regulated businesses. The debate has roiled Washingtons cannabis industry since last spring, when outdoor growers who produce marijuana for the extract market realized they were being undercut. In hearing after hearing, they demanded the Liquor and Cannabis Board make clear that synthetic THC from hemp which can be grow in vast fields with little regulation and is much cheaper to produce was not allowed. The board eventually did so, seizing more than 1,600 pounds (726 kilograms) of products made by a prominent CannaBusiness Association member, Unicorn Brands, a licensed cannabis processor in Raymond. Unicorn had been importing CBD from Oregon hemp farmers, converting it to delta-9 THC, and adding that THC to its vape oil and gummies. Unicorns owner, Peter Saladino, is a founder of the CannaBusiness Association. Hes also a director of a company called Cleen Tech, which makes the technology that Unicorn was using to convert CBD to THC. Late last year, Cleen Tech, which had little prior history of campaign donations, made $17,500 in political contributions, including to legislators on committees that handle cannabis issues, according to public disclosure records. Unicorn, which had done nearly $6.9 million in sales in the 12 months before its product was seized, has appealed, noting that the board halted its business before issuing its rule barring synthetically derived THC. The CannaBusiness Association said its members are concerned that the boards approach would prevent them from competing in a national marijuana marketplace, should Congress legalize the drug. The board shouldnt be stifling innovation or picking winners and losers in the market, said Vicki Christophersen, the CannaBusiness Associations lobbyist. And, she said, the boards enforcement efforts remain haphazard and unfair to licensees despite prior efforts by the Legislature to address that. There is a real need for this agency to evolve, to tackle stereotypes and biases against the industry, she said. Its too bad that theres tension between our association and the agency, but we have an obligation to represent our members when theyre concerned. The association proposed another bill this year to modernize the board by adding two members, increasing the boards perspective, and installing four lawmakers as nonvoting members. That bill, which Postman viewed as retribution, failed. He stressed that the board in recent years has been giving out fewer violation notices, and conducting more educational visits to cannabis licensees to help them be in compliance with state rules. Jim Mullen owns a chain of a chain of retail cannabis stores in southwest Washington. He resigned as president of the CannaBusiness Associations board over its stance on synthetic THC, though he remains a member. We have a lot of farms that are treading water, Mullen said. Bringing this hemp delta-9 in is an unfair advantage over the I-502 producer-processors. About the photo: An array of products advertised as containing synthetically derived delta-8 THC is offered for sale at a smoke shop in north Seattle on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. Washington lawmakers are making a last-ditch attempt to block intoxicating, synthetically derived cannabis products, including gummy candies and vape oil, from being sold at gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops after earlier bills failed. (AP Photo/Gene Johnson) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A recent letter delivered to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by 200 former senior U.N. officials included a bleak warning regarding the consequences should diplomacy fail to end Russias aggression against Ukraine. Such an outcome would mean that the U.N. becoming increasingly irrelevant and, eventually, succumbing to the fate of its predecessor, the League of Nations, with the human losses and material destruction that went with it, the letter declared. Sen. Rick Scott denounced Joe Biden for causing US energy dependence that was gained in the Trump years, but Joe Biden cut it short. The administration is resorting to begging other countries to increase production, which is not happening. Disenfranchising US energy producers allow dependence on Russian oil and create a world crisis worse than Afghanistan Wrong Energy Policies Have Jeopardized the US Republican Senator from Florida Rick Scott aimed at the White House and scoured President Joe Biden for anti-American policies that favor Russia. He spoke to Newsmax and unloaded a barrage of criticisms calling Biden clueless and not pro-America in his questionable energy. In a harsh critique that mocked the doubtable decision-making of the gaffe-ridden democrat. Questioning why did he drive the country to be energy-dependent, not independent. Opened up why was the Keystone XL pipeline closed and made it hard for energy companies to do business. Furthermore, why did Biden cause two debacles in Afghanistan and Ukraine; when former President Trump started zero wars. Stated all these facts at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), interviewed by Eric Boiling of Newsmax, the president has crisis one after the other. Scott said Biden has been wrong, from the border to dependence on foreign oil suppliers. He is incompetent to do anything against Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping cited Now Trending. All these problems are caused by leftist policies and weak leadership resulting in US energy dependence, remarked Sen. Scott. Read Also: Donald Trump Says Putin Invaded Ukraine Now Considering Joe Biden's Weakness His weakness encouraged Putin that Kyiv might not be the last. An ill-advised White House has destabilized the energy market in the EU, Russia produces oil and natural gas as a top supplier. Price per barrel is now $105 from 2014 when Crimea was invaded when Joe Biden was vice-president of Barack Obama. Biden Too Weak To Impose Sanctions Scott and the GOP lawmakers blamed the president for undoing sanctions on the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, connecting Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea, per BBC. Pleas to jumpstart the Keystone XL pipeline were ignored. Biden played into Russia's hands by allowing the Nord Stream 2 to continue. The threat of sanctions is too late, if nothing is done, then expect bad things, and it's on the president. After the surprise occupation and assistance of Donbas and Lugansk by Russian forces, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended the NS2. Like Germany and other European Union members dependent on a greater part of their natural gas supply, they are amid an energy crunch that has driven energy prices through the roof. Furthermore, several members have made gas deals despite the Ukraine standoff; some need the gas supply, or they will have problems. US, Allies Dependent on Moscow for Oil Supplies Closing the pipeline could not come at a worse time when Nord Stream 2 would supply energy to the block. Joe Biden tried to convince Chancellor Scholz, but it's only now something was done. Sanctions on the Russian/German pipeline are in effect, but the US is also pinch. Sen. Scott said that US energy dependence is due to scrapping Trump's policies and weakness on the White House to declare sanctions, and Russia is said to be able to circumvent them. Related Article: Polls Lay Blame on Joe Biden's Weakness Emboldening Vladimir Putin To Invade Ukraine Despite Warnings of Strong Sanctions @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The American Jewish Committee announced on Monday that U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) will succeed David Harris as the organizations CEO. I have worked closely with AJC throughout my tenure in Congress and I am deeply honored to have been chosen to serve as the organizations next CEO, Deutch said in a statement. For 116 years, AJC has worked to protect global Jewry, strengthen Israels place in the community of nations, and advance democratic values around the world. I couldnt be more excited to passionately lead AJC at this critical moment in history and feel immensely privileged to have the opportunity to build on the historic efforts and impact of David Harris, past and present AJC leaders, and the entire team at the organization, who are among the most dedicated professionals in the Jewish world. Deutch, 55, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has represented South Florida since 2010, also announced his retirement from Congress on Twitter, saying that for seven terms in Congress, Ive worked hard and tried to find common ground on the issues impacting our community and our nation, and Ive been proud to work every day with and for the people of South Florida. The AJC is one of the largest and oldest Jewish organizations. Founded in 1906, it has 24 offices across the U.S. and 13 overseas. The retirement of its longtime CEO, Harris, comes amid challenges of growing antisemitism, waning bipartisan support for Israel and a nuclear Iran. Deutch was one of several global lawmakers who launched the global inter-parliamentary task force in 2010 and is also the co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism. According to AJC, Deutch was unanimously selected by AJCs 28-member Executive Council, the organizations most senior lay body, following an extensive national search for a successor Harris, who has led the organization since 1990. Harris will remain AJC CEO until Deutch assumes the role, after which point Harris will stay on as a consultant for one year to assist in a seamless transition, the organization said. Ive had the pleasure of knowing and collaborating with Congressman Ted Deutch for years, Harris said in a statement. Apart from being a mensch, he has demonstrated time and again his enduring commitment to the U.S.-Israel relationship, the well-being of Jewish communities around the world, the fight against rising antisemitism from a multiplicity of sources, the danger of a nuclear Iran, the protection of democratic values and human dignity, the enhancement of interfaith and interethnic relations, and the importance of bipartisanship all of which are core priorities of AJC. The post Rep. Ted Deutch to become next head of the American Jewish Committee appeared first on JNS.org. Hundreds of members of the community flooded St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma Feb. 27 for a prayer service and rally in support of Ukraine. With the pews full, people stood filling the aisles, the back of the cathedral and out the front doors to pray and hear speeches by elected officials and community leaders. Alongside members of the Polish, Lithuanian and Estonian communities, among others who showed their support for Ukraine, the Jewish community was represented by leaders from the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Federation of Clevelands community relations committee, and numerous synagogues and individuals. The cathedral was standing room only and every member of our community was represented there, Lee C. Shapiro, regional director of American Jewish Committees Cleveland regional office, told the Cleveland Jewish News Feb. 28. There were elected officials, there were people from all different religions and communities. I was particularly proud of our community. Shapiro, who lives in Beachwood and is a member of Bnai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike, was one of the community leaders who spoke at the rally. The service and rally was sponsored by the United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio and its president, Marta Kelleher, introduced each speaker, including Ingrida Bublys, honorary consul general of Lithuania; Mayor Tim Degeeter of Parma; U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo; and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati. There was a sense of comfort in being together and standing together, recognizing the devastation and anguish and being able to be together, to stand together, to pray together, and to support one another, Shapiro said. Strong bonds of friendship. AJC Cleveland has had a longstanding relationship with the Cleveland Ukrainian community going back decades. The two communities have stayed in touch throughout the crisis and Kelleher reached out to Shapiro to ask her to make some remarks at the rally, Shapiro said. The rally began with a prayer service inside St. Vladimir before the community leaders and elected officials spoke and then gathered outside the front of the cathedral while children sang the Ukrainian national anthem and people held signs and Ukrainian flags in support. Here you are in an Orthodox Ukrainian Cathedral, and they were praying for the Jewish president of Ukraine, Shapiro said. It was beautiful. Ukraine is home to at least 200,000 Jews living across the nation so there is often overlap within the two communities, which has led to the strong relationship between AJC and the Ukrainian community. Many Jewish individuals have roots in Ukraine so its personal to many folks, Jill Zimon, board president of AJC Cleveland, told the CJN Feb. 28. I think theres just a natural alliance and empathy that goes along with whats happening. So thats a big part, the fact that we already had relationships and then this empathy of understanding. The Jewish Federation of Cleveland and various synagogues in Northeast Ohio sent out a notice about the rally to their communities, urging them to come out in support. Were seeing a lot of Jewish people who are here to support the Ukrainian community, Gregg Levine, chair of the Federations community relations committee, told the CJN. Its an opportunity for us to pray with the community, to stand with the community, and to show our solidarity with the Ukrainian community. Levine, who lives in Pepper Pike and is a member of The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood and Bnai Jeshurun and The Shul in Pepper Pike, and is also a member of the Cleveland Jewish Publication Company board of directors, said the Federation has set up an emergency fund to support Ukrainian Jews in need of temporary housing, food and communication assistance. The Jewish Federation of Cleveland has set up a fund where people in the Jewish community can donate to the Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund to ensure that Jewish people in Ukraine can get as much care and support as they possibly can need, Levine said. Ukraines historic Jewish community is the fourth largest in Europe and goes back 1,000 years, Rabbi Stephen Weiss of Bnai Jeshurun told the CJN. The history of Ukraine is obviously very complicated for Jews many periods of very difficult persecution going back to the 16th century, and of course including during the Holocaust, he said. But the reality is that the country of Ukraine today has really undertaken to seek to make amends and to change. Ukraine has passed a law against antisemitic acts, elected Jewish President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had a Jewish prime minister and Israel is one of its largest trading partners, he said. I hope that members of the Jewish community will really reach into their pockets and support all the relief efforts to help both the Jewish communities in Ukraine and the broader Ukrainian population, Weiss said. And will continue to raise their voices, calling on this country to do everything they can to support the Ukrainian people. And most of all, I pray that God should watch over the Ukrainian people, watch over their president, for whom we are all worried right now, and should grant them restoration, independence and peace. The United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio is an umbrella organization that coordinates about 25 to 30 Ukrainian organizations and communities. It sponsored the prayer service and rally in Parma. The support has been great for the last four days, Kelleher, who lives in Brecksville, told the CJN. There have been events that have been going on daily, multiple events. So I think that the turnout was very nice considering there were other events even today as well. Parma is home to the largest Ukrainian community in Ohio with more than 4,000 Ukrainians, many living in an area known as Ukrainian Village. More than one-third of the 43,000 Ukrainians that live in Ohio call Northeast Ohio home, according to the Census Bureaus 2019 American Community Survey. This was a short notice. Were delighted with the support that we are getting, Dr. George Jaskiw, vice president of the United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio and a South Euclid resident, told the CJN. Were together united and I think people realized this is more than just about one country this is about the world. And so, were very, very grateful to everybody who came and joined us here today. For Roza Grinberg, living in Cleveland makes her feel scared for her Ukrainian-Jewish counterparts overseas as Russia continues its full-scale invasion operation into Ukraine. What began as a conflict resurgence in early February turned into an outright war when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Feb. 23 his intention to launch a special military operation into the former Soviet-occupied neighboring country. The Ukrainian State Emergency Service reported that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed, but that could not be independently verified, according to the Associated Press March 2. Russia reported its military casualties for the first time since the invasion began last week, saying nearly 500 of its troops had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine insisted Russias losses were far higher but did not immediately disclose its own, AP reported. Grinberg moved to the United States and settled in Cleveland in 1984 with her family, including her two children. She grew up in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The second-largest city in the Donetsk Oblast region, Mariupol has a population of 431,859 people. Soon after, Grinberg started working at Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland in 1996 and recently celebrated her 25th year with the organization. Its such a terrible, sad situation, she told the Cleveland Jewish News. I am so pissed off about this. Its so painful for me to hear what is going on. I have a lot of friends back home. A lot of people in Ukraine have already passed away from this conflict in the past, and now the situation is even more unstable. My people are not ready for war. I dont understand why (Russia) is doing this. Its so bad. Grinberg said shes been informed about the conflict and rising tensions since she moved to the United States, but with the invasion, she found out on social media and through her friends that still live in Ukraine. I talked with my friend from Ukraine and I saw it online, she said. Its affecting so many people. My coworkers and I have been so upset about this situation. They came into work asking me to explain to them what is going on and it is just so difficult. I dont have the words. Its a very bad situation. Russian forces also captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine on Feb. 24, with Ukrainian officials reporting higher radiation levels from the defunct power plant on Feb. 25. According to a Reuters report, officials said increased military activity was causing radioactive dust to rise in the air. With that in mind, Grinberg said its a totally different world in comparison to past conflicts as well as how tensions were when she lived in Ukraine. In Ukraine, I had a good education and I was a doctor, she said. I worked in a hospital similar to the Cleveland Clinic. I had two kids, and when my son was starting to go to college, we made the decision to leave. But this, it feels very different. I am just so upset about it. Of her life in Cleveland, Grinberg said she doesnt regret her move and has been so happy in America. But as of late, her happiness has been strained with thoughts of her home country. My family got to work, and Ive been so thankful for my work at JFSA, she said. But now, Im just living every second of every day worried about Ukraine. (Ukraine) was independent and has been for a long time and now (Russia) wants it. Its not right. It feels like it was in Nazi Germany. For me, it is the same. The local Jewish community as well as the city of Cleveland has also shown support for the Ukrainian cause, sending a statement out on Feb. 24 signed by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, Global Cleveland President Joe Cimperman and Jewish Federation of Cleveland President Erika Rudin-Luria. With the invasion of Russian Federation military forces into Ukraine, The City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Global Cleveland, and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland reaffirm our commitment to democracy and peace, as well as extend our prayers to the communities impacted by this violence, the statement read. We strongly condemn this attack that will result in the loss of innocent lives and is a direct threat to the freedom of so many. As thousands of individuals are displaced from their homes and livelihoods in the face of war and violence, we want to remind the world that the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, Ohio are here to embrace them with open arms. Noting that Cleveland is no stranger to welcoming newcomers, whether thats a refugee, asylum-seeker or immigrant fleeing persecution and war, the community is ready to do so again, the statement continued. Cleveland is home to a beautiful, vibrant community made up of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians, and we will continue to be a safe, unifying place for those seeking peace and prosperity, it said. In the face of this threat to freedom, we stand shoulder to shoulder with those throughout the world who are advocating for peace and human rights. Additionally, University Heights has been flying a Ukrainian flag outside city hall. Grinberg said she hopes other communities both locally and across the world follow suit in showing support for Ukrainians. I am so supportive of Ukraine and my family and friends that are still there, she said. Everyone should support (it). The Ukrainian community here is so upset. We need everyone to come together and support Ukraine. Were scared about what is going on. In war, you have no idea whats going to happen. Nobody wants a war. Everyone would like a good life living in peace for their families, children, grandchildren and friends. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukraine has agreed to meet with Russian representatives for peace talks before immediately admitting that such negotiations will be fruitless. Ukraine's defiant president openly questioned the possibilities of succeeding just hours after the announcement. The scheduled meetings set for Monday, according to Ukraine's US ambassador, occurred after Zelenskyy said he had an optimistic conversation with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, one of the Kremlin's primary allies and one of the countries from which Russian forces poured in on Thursday. Peace Talks To Start Between Russia, Ukraine "All planes, helicopters, and missiles stationed on Belarusian soil would remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks, and return," Lukashenko stated, according to Zelenskyy. The negotiations will take place at a border checkpoint between Aleksandrovka and Vilcha, according to Belarusian official media. Putin's group has already arrived in Belarus, according to Putin. Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, said Zelenskyy would "certainly not" be present, New York Post reported. As Putin's invasion enters its fourth day, diplomats from Kyiv and Moscow are expected to meet without preconditions near the Prypyat River on the Belarusian border. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "has assumed responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters, and missiles stationed on Belarusian soil remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks, and return," according to President Zelenskyy's office. The negotiations were arranged after a chat between Zelenskyy and Lukashenko, according to Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, after it was suspected that Belarus was preparing forces to join Moscow's invasion. Diplomats will meet "without preliminary agreement" on what the negotiations' outcome could be, he said. Zelenskyy had earlier refused to negotiate in Belarus, but according to Kuleba, Belarus' president assured him that "no such step" would be made as long as the scheduled meetings proceeded. The Russian tyrant is claimed to be "enraged" that he hasn't been able to control Ukraine and has slammed NATO for its "unfriendly measures," which he claims forced him into the dangerous nuclear gamble. Putin has now ordered the world's greatest stockpile of nuclear warheads to be prepared for launch. This increases the terrible risk that the crisis and a blunder will lead to nuclear war. Putin stated that NATO leaders' hostile rhetoric and economic penalties against Moscow compelled his hand in a speech on national television, as per The Sun. Read Also: Why Should Russia's Ukraine Invasion Concern All Nations? Could It Be The Start of World War III? Russia Appears Shifting To Siege Warfare in Ukraine Putin's new nuclear threat seems to be directed at the West, which has become increasingly united in support of Ukraine. He urged his defense minister and senior military commander to put Russia's nuclear forces on notice in brief remarks broadcast on state television, describing the measure as a response to the West's "aggressive" activities. The nuclear alarm was characterized by the White House through press secretary Jen Psaki, as yet another example of Putin fabricating a threat and using it to justify confrontation. According to a Pentagon official who briefed reporters, top Pentagon leaders are confident in the United States' capacity to protect itself and its allies. The move to place Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, according to the official, was unnecessary; Putin had increased the risk of a miscalculation. Russian forces, slowed by Ukrainian opposition and their logistical limitations, have already begun using harsher tactics, such as rocket assaults near Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv, according to a Pentagon official. Many more civilians could be killed as a result of these techniques. Russian troops are adopting a siege mindset, which raises the possibility of civilian casualties and infrastructure damage. Russian forces were also on the move from the north, pushing their way towards Kyiv. Russia appears to be attempting to cut off the main Ukrainian military forces in the center of Ukraine, which have been defending the former line of contact with the Donetsk and Luhansk enclaves, to prevent them from moving toward Kyiv and receiving supplies sent by Western allies via Poland. According to recordings and images studied by The New York Times, Russian troops also pushed closer to the core of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, at least for a period. Ukrainian forces were seen firing rockets towards Russian troops, as well as some Russian military vehicles being burned and others being plundered by Ukrainian forces. Related Article: China: Joe Biden, USA to Blame for 'Fanning Up Flames' Leading to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Clifford Chance advises on the financing of Lots in the Kenya Annuity Road Programme International law firm Clifford Chance alongside Kenyan counsel Bowmans Coulson Harney advised the commercial bank lenders on the financing of road Lots 15 and 18 of the Kenya Annuity Road Programme. The Annuity Programme is an initiative of the Kenyan Government which is directed at the delivery of critical upgrades to 10,000km of roads, which will support local commerce, tourism and agriculture. Individual procurements under the Annuity Programme are allotted and financed as separate Lots. Lots 15 and 18 are the first Lots to be financed on a truly limited-recourse basis and duplicating that approach going forward is critical to ensuring that the balance sheet capacity of participants does not limit development, and for the ambitions of the Annuity Programme more broadly to be realised. This transaction builds on Clifford Chance's market-leading expertise in transport infrastructure. Clifford Chance was recently ranked No. 1 for global infrastructure finance by volume by the IJ Global league tables for 2021. The firm was also named Global Law Firm of the Year for three years running by Infrastructure Investor. Bowmans is recognized as a pace setter in infrastructure project development and finance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its highly regarded team is notably involved in significant pioneering infrastructure and renewable energy projects, with further proficiency in the upstream and midstream oil and gas sector. Most recently, Bowmans won the 2022 Chambers Africa Award for Law Firm of the Year in Kenya. The firms practice also won Energy and Natural Resources team of the Year at the 2021 Africa Legal Awards. Praveen Jagadish, senior associate, comments that "closing this transaction is the culmination of more than five years of efforts by the sponsor group, led by Mota-Engil, the lenders, led by Standard Bank and Stanbic Kenya, and the Kenyan Government, through the PPP Directorate and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority. We were delighted to play our part, alongside our local partners Bowmans. With several other road projects approaching financial close in Kenya and the Kampala Jinja Expressway project returning to the private market in neighbouring Uganda, we expect a busy period ahead for infrastructure in East Africa." The cross-practice Clifford Chance team was led by senior associates Praveen Jagadish and Prakruthi Gowda, supported by partners Jeremy Connick and Michael Pearson. Specialist construction input was provided by David Metzger (partner) and Simon Smith (senior associate), whilst the team also included Dolly Aheto-Tsegah and Dominic Behar (both associates). The Bowmans team was led by Aleem Tharani (Head of Projects, Energy & Infrastructure (Kenya)), with support from senior associates Edwin Baru and Candice Kola, and associate Sidharth Shah. Specialist construction input was provided by Stephanie McDonald (Senior Consultant, Project Finance) and Lea-ne Kapnoudhis (associate). 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. If you have not already registered (created a username and password) then click on the link below to register. If you have already registered (you already have a username and password), please click on the Get Started below. Your account number is located in the upper left hand corner on your address label on the Enterprise you receive in the mail or on the renewal form you received. The last name must read exactly as it is printed on your label. Enter the account number WITHOUT the leading zeros on the label. Penn State President Eric Barron released a statement to the university Monday regarding Russia's recent "full-scale invasion" on Ukraine and reached out to international students. "Our hearts are with all who are directly in harms way as a result of this direct attack on Ukrainian sovereignty, in clear violation of international law," Barron said. "The implications are deeply troubling: these include the humanitarian toll that already is being felt in Ukraine and around the world; and the potential long-term, global impacts." In the statement, Barron said students should engage in conversations with other students, faculty and mentors. He said the university has been in touch with "affected members of our campus community and will continue to offer them our support." According to the Associated Press, the Russian military launched an attack on Ukraine on Thursday. "As a community, we must continue to offer compassion and support for one another, including all of our faculty, staff and students who are impacted," Barron said. "Our hearts are heavy as we continue to watch the events unfold, and we remain hopeful for the return of peace to that region and the world." Barron said resources are available for those affected, including Penn State Counseling and Psychological Services, Penn State Crisis Line (877-229-6400) and the Crisis Text Line (text LIONS to 741741) which are available 24/7, international and scholar advising, and Penn State's Employee Assistance Program. MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE During the last week before spring break, students can attend a variety of in-person and virtual events at Penn State and in the State College community. Monday, Feb. 28 6 p.m. Penn States College of Information Sciences and Technology will host IST Alumni Identity Talks Women in Tech in collaboration with Women in IST. The event will feature IST alumni from underrepresented backgrounds to discuss challenges theyve faced in their career journeys. The event is free, and those interested can RSVP here. Tuesday, March 1 4 p.m. Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and member of the Council on Foreign Relations Robert Kagen will visit Penn State and speak about what he says is the U.S.s greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, as well as what to expect in the 2022 midterm elections. Those interested can attend the event which is sponsored by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Penn State Law and the School of International Affairs at the Katz Building or via livestream. Registration is available here. 5 p.m. 3 Dots Downtown will host its weekly, free Tuesday Defrost, with music, community, art and culture of Centre County. 7 p.m. The world-famous Harlem Globetrotters are returning to Penn States Bryce Jordan Center for its Spread Game tour. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and tickets can be purchased here. 7:30 p.m. Through Penn States College of Arts and Architecture, artists from Small Island Big Song will teach a dance class on two pieces from separate traditions. The first piece will feature Sega music and dance from the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius, and the second will feature a warrior chant and dance from the Pacific Ocean nation of Taiwan. The class is free and those interested can register for the livestream here. Wednesday, March 2 6 p.m. Robin Wall Kimmerer, scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, will speak for a Stuckeman School at Penn State Bracken Lecture as part of its Lecture and Exhibit Series. She will discuss the relationship between three metaphors for types of knowledge in relation to the landscape. The event is free and will be held virtually. Registration is encouraged here. Thursday, March 3 7:30 p.m. The national tour of the Broadway musical Waitress is coming to Penn States Eisenhower Auditorium. The show follows Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams for a way out of her old town and rough marriage, and tickets can be purchased here. Friday, March 4 5 p.m. Winter Jam, Chirstian musics biggest multi-artist tour, is coming to the BJC, featuring headlines Skillet and Tauren Wells, as well as KB, Colton Dixon, I Am They, NewSong, Shane Pruitt, Abbey Robertson and Bayside Worship. No tickets are required for the event. 8 p.m. American comedian, author, actor, interviewer and commentator Paula Poundstone, known for her HBO special Cats, Cops and Stuff, will perform at The State Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here. Saturday, March 5 2 p.m 3 Dots Downtown will host a Global Poetry Workshop, which is sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature at Penn State. The one-hour event is free. Even as a senior, I still get homesick. I thought because Ive been away from home for some time now Id be able to wait until breaks to see my family, but I always end up begging them to come down to visit. This particular time, they were eager to see me and decided to surprise me it wasnt much of a surprise because my mom was persistent on knowing what I was doing over the weekend, so I knew something was up. But, Im happy they decided to come because it gave me the little bit of motivation I needed to finish strong before spring break. Heres what we did and what you can do if your friends or family pay a visit to State College. Try new restaurants My family and I love to try new things when it comes to food were not really picky, but in fact, were open-minded. I haven't gone to a lot of new restaurants since Ive been in State College, so I took advantage of this time. If youve never tried The Field Burger & Tap you have to. One of my roommates recommended this spot, and I can say that its one of the best burger places Ive gone to in a while. Not to mention their cookies and cream milkshake so delicious. We also tried Plaza Mexican Bar & Grill, which was just OK to me. Im not saying I wouldnt go back, but Id try something different I kept it simple and just got nachos with ground beef, but my parents seemed to enjoy their food and drinks, though. Go to the movies I never knew there was a movie theater nearby because if I did, I wouldve gone a lot more often with friends but my family and I went to UEC College 9. The theater was pretty empty, maybe because it was late Sunday night and most people were getting ready for school and work the next day. My niece and I went to see Sing 2'' while my parents and older brother went to see Blacklight I would go back to see the animated musical several times if I could because it was that good. This was a great way to end the weekend. Visit Nittany Mall Ive gone to Nittany Mall once or twice prior to my family coming down to go get hair products at Nu Beauty, but Ive never fully explored it. If youre anything like my mom, you like to shop and drag people along for the ride dont get me wrong, I enjoy it because it gets me out the house. The mall doesnt have a lot to offer, but there are a few stores where you can find something and wont be disappointed. Bath & Body Works features plenty of new perfumes, candles and lotions thatll have you smelling good for hours. Theres also a Claires, Spencers, Journeys and more its not the best, but its worth the visit. Go for a swim You might be wondering who in their right minds is going to the pool in the middle of the winter, but let me explain. My parents booked a room at the Ramada Hotel, which has an indoor pool. Amyah, my niece, wouldnt stop begging us to go, so we decided to take her we all had a lot of fun and met new people, as well. The hotel was packed because it was THON Weekend, so I assumed people came from all over to participate but if your family is looking for a place to stay, Id recommend it. The rooms were extremely nice, breakfast was provided and let's not forget the indoor pool. As you can see I had a blast. If you ever get bored here in the State College area, invite family or friends with you and explore new things even if its as simple as walking around the mall. Its the little things in life that make it so enjoyable. An ex-FBI agent has chimed in on Brian Laundrie's postmortem findings, claiming that evidence suggests he may have received assistance in committing suicide. Brian died after a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to an autopsy. Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told Radar that the report surprised her because it stated that Laundrie shot himself in the head on the left side. She found this portion to be inconvenient because it "doesn't fit with a right-handed person committing suicide with their off-hand." Ex-FBI Agent Believes a Third Party Is Involved in Brian Laundrie's Death According to the study, she feels there are a variety of explanations for this, ranging from the possibility that Laundrie was ambidextrous to the potential that he was assisted in his suicide by a third party. Gabby Petito's next of kin filing a legal complaint against Brian's family and estate would be the best chance for the public to view any evidence of the case, she said. Last year, Brian and Gabby took a cross-country road trip, but Gabby Petito never returned. Their case made headlines around the world. She was last seen in Utah on August 24, 2021, and her body was discovered on September 19 in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. Strangulation was determined to be the cause of her death. In October, Brian Laundrie's body was discovered near the Carlton Reserve. According to reports, the FBI discovered a notepad near his body that had a written confession that Brian Laundrie had murdered Gabby Petito, according to The Sun. On September 1, Laundrie returned to Florida without Petito. On September 15, he was named a person of interest in her disappearance, but he vanished two days later. On September 19, Petito was discovered strangled to death at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. She had been dead for three to four weeks before her body was discovered, according to authorities. Laundrie, 23, may have been ambidextrous, or someone might have assisted him in killing himself, according to Coffindaffer. Coffindaffer specialized in gangs, narcotics, organized crime, Title-III electronic monitoring, and counterintelligence investigations during her time at the FBI. She went on to say that, if Petito's family sues Laundrie's family and estate, the public will have the best chance of viewing any evidence from the case. Laundrie's autopsy found that after shooting himself in the head, the fugitive's body was "scavenged" and eaten by wild animals before being recovered in a Florida swamp after a six-week manhunt. Read Also: Miss Alabama Zoe Sozo Bethel Dies After Suffering Horror Injuries in a Strange Accident Bothersome Details of Brian Laundrie's Death Emerged When authorities ultimately tracked down Gabby Petito's killer, practically all that was left were visible skeletal human remains spread on top of the dirt ground in plain sight. Laundrie's body had been subjected to somewhat significant carnivore activity, as demonstrated by many gouging and bite marks on his body, according to the 47-page dossier. Aside from the notebook, many other items were discovered in a "drybag" alongside Laundrie's remains, which were discovered near his parents' North Port home, including a wooden box containing the journal and several photographs. The skeletal remains and personal possessions were both visible and dispersed on the dirt ground, according to the report. One of the photos was of Laundrie. It's unclear what the other photographs revealed. As police feverishly looked for Laundrie as the principal "person of interest" in the disappearance of Petito, the investigation verified that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Authorities retrieved a pair of green shorts, shoes, a ring, a rucksack, and a revolver from what was left of the savaged remains, which was partly hidden by thick grass, according to the bombshell document. Authorities also discovered animal skeleton remains near Laundrie's body at a nearby secondary' site, indicating that the self-professed killer had been hunting before his death. When they were pulled over by police for a domestic incident on August 12 - about two weeks before Petito was killed - they discovered an incomplete, handwritten note at the secondary site, but did not elaborate on its contents, as well as a 'MOAB Coffee Roasters' hat belonging to Laundrie, which advertised the same Utah coffee shop, Daily Mail reported. Related Article: 'Girl in the Shed: The Kidnapping of Abby Hernandez': How the Survivor Convinced Captor To Free Her? @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Colorado state legislature took a united stand against Russias invasion of Ukraine on Monday, unanimously passing a resolution expressing support for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, hitting cities and military bases with airstrikes in what Ukraine's government called a full-scale war. On Sunday, Ukraines Interior Ministry said 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, including 14 children, and another 1,684 people have been wounded. We, the members of the Colorado General Assembly, proudly stand alongside Ukraine, its people and its leaders during this horrific and unnecessary war, and vow to support Ukraine and hold Russia fully accountable for its catastrophic decision to invade, read the General Assembly's resolution. The House of Representatives unanimously passed the joint resolution Monday after it received Senate approval on Friday. The bipartisan resolution was sponsored by Republicans Rep. Patrick Neville of Castle Rock and Sen. Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs, and by Democrats Rep. David Ortiz of Littleton and Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver. Vladimir Putins unprovoked and violent attack on the Ukrainian people threatens peace and security throughout Europe and must stop immediately, said Ortiz, who served in Afghanistan. We must do everything we can, even though we be yet humble and simple state legislators, to support the people of Ukraine and to urge our federal delegation and this administration to do everything we can to support the Ukrainian people. In addition to supporting Ukraine, the resolution urges Russia to end its attack and declares the Colorado legislatures endorsement of economic sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia by President Joe Biden. On Thursday, Biden said the U.S. will block Russian bank assets, impose technology-focused export controls and sanction the nations business oligarchs. I fear that this is the first of several resolutions saying, 'Do not go and occupy sovereign nations,' said Rep. Hugh McKean, R-Loveland. We must stand. We must be heard. And heres little old Colorado one of 50 little countries that banned together as the United States of America standing up to say this isnt right. Coloradans across the state have gathered in front of the Colorado capitol building multiple times this past week to protest Russias actions. The building, along with the nearby Denver City and County Building, has been lit in blue and yellow lights nightly to show solidarity with Ukraine. The resolution comes as, last week, Gov. Jared Polis announced Colorado will impose its own sanctions against Russia and wrote to the federal government and to the Ukrainian Embassy and Consulate, saying Colorado is ready to welcome Ukrainian refugees. Colorado stands on the side of freedom and we proudly support a democratic and independent Ukraine, Polis said. War, violence, and chaos threaten the very foundations of the global economy and our national security. Colorado will not turn its head. We will take affirmative actions to support Ukrainians and hold Russia accountable. Copies of the resolution will be sent to the leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, as well as to all of Colorados congressional members. 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. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 319-283-2144 or email circ@oelweindailyregister.com. Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 61F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Mostly cloudy with some showers after midnight. Low 47F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Tomorrow Showers early becoming a steady light rain later in the day. High 56F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. 02/28/2022 Photo (c) Anton Petrus - Getty Images COVID-19 tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.) Total U.S. confirmed cases: 78,940,748 (78,933,931) Total U.S. deaths: 948,438 (948,035) Total global cases: 435,623,857 (434,675,681) Total global deaths: 5,950,866 (5,946,539) Omicron infection protects against subvariant, study finds A new study shows that people who have been infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are protected, at least temporarily, from infection by its subvariant, known as BA.2. The analysis projects that the protection level is as high as 95%. The reverse also appears to be true. The research team analyzed data from around 100,000 people who had been infected with the BA.2 subvariant and determined that it provided around 85% protection against the Omicron variant (BQA.1) 35 to 40 days later. The Omicron variant, which began showing up in the U.S. in November, has been primarily responsible for the most recent wave of the coronavirus. But now scientists believe the subvariant, BA.2, is rising to dominance. Health care workers see few pay raises Doctors, nurses, and other health care workers have been on the front lines of managing the COVID-19 pandemic for nearly two years. But a joint study has found that, despite their hard work, they havent seen much in the way of pay raises. The analysis -- from Indiana University, the nonprofit Rand Corp., and the University of Michigan -- monitored workforce changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the average wages for U.S. health care workers rose less than wages in other industries during 2020 and the first six months of 2021. "While there has been extensive media coverage of the considerable employment declines in the health care sector, evidence from complete national employment and wages was scarce," said Kosali Simon, one of the study's co-authors. "These findings provide a data-driven picture of employment levels by various health care settings and can help guide decision-making not only around the current health care shortage but also during a future crisis." Cases are falling but remain high in children A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association shows that children continue to be infected with COVID-19 at a fairly high rate as cases generally decline across the U.S. Reported COVID-19 cases among children spiked dramatically in 2022 during the Omicron variant surge, with over 4.6 million child cases being reported since the beginning of January. However, the researchers say pediatric cases are starting to trend lower. For the week ending February 17th, nearly 175,000 additional child COVID-19 cases were reported, down substantially from the peak level of 1,150,000 reported the week ending January 20th. The researchers reported that child cases this week remained very high, slightly less than the peak level of the Delta surge in 2021. Around 15% of all childhood cases during the pandemic have been diagnosed in just the last four weeks. Around the nation 02/28/2022 Photo (c) Shana Novak - Getty Images Consumers have been up in arms over problems theyve had with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for years, but companies like Cignas ExpressScripts, CVS Caremark, and UnitedHealths OptumRx have continued to grow by leaps and bounds. However, aid for consumers may soon be on the way. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will attempt to block UnitedHealth Groups acquisition of Change Healthcare, a company that provides payment and revenue cycle management to connect payers, providers, and patients in the health care ecosystem. Consumers have the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), in part, to thank for that effort by the DOJ. Last September, the organization publicly called for DOJ officials to block the merger, saying it would produce an unfair competitive advantage for a company that is already one of the kings of the PBM hill. NCPA kept the heat on regulators, repeatedly raising concerns with the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the proposed acquisition and the broader vertical consolidation that is happening in the industry. The group alleged that UnitedHealth Groups access to Change Healthcare's eRx system would be devastating to patients and independent pharmacies. In arguing its case, the NCPA had plenty of ammunition that consumers arent happy with the current PBM-driven prescription world. Survey respondents spoke loudly about their dissatisfaction with health insurance plans and their PBMs. Namely, the participants took umbrage with how PBMs and insurance companies get to decide which pharmacies patients must use and whether they must use more expensive medicines when there is a less expensive alternative available. Getting more regulators on board Getting the DOJ to add some muscle to its efforts is a major plus for the NCPA, but there is far more for agencies like the DOJ and FTC, Congress, and state policymakers to act on in order to rein in PBMs and create a fairer, more competitive health care marketplace for consumers, said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey. Before the DOJ announced its intent to block the UnitedHealth/Change Healthcare deal, the FTC had actually voted against fielding a study of PBMs and their business practices. But the agency apparently had a change of heart and has now decided that it might be a wise move to ask the public how it feels about the impact of PBMs after all. Requests for Information like the one the FTC has launched regarding PBMs can make a huge impact, and the agency is asking patients, employers, pharmacies, and any other entity that deals with prescriptions to comment on any issues or concerns they believe are relevant to the PBM situation. Interested parties have until April 25, 2022, to submit their comments on the FTC's website. Michigan further regulates PBMs While things are brewing in D.C., Michigan regulators have decided they're going to do something about PBMs too. On Wednesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan bills designed to lower prescription drug costs by regulating PBMs that oversee coverage for employers, insurers, and others. Part of the laws took effect immediately, and the rest will go into effect beginning in 2024. Without question, Michigan's new PBM bill is one of the most significant wins for consumers in years because it deals directly with several back end practices that are known to generate billions in revenue for insurers but do nothing to lower costs for patients and plan payers, Monique M. Whitney, executive director of Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency, told ConsumerAffairs. Whitney says she hopes that Witmers support will help the pro-consumer movement pick up steam across the rest of the U.S. Besides important transparency requirements in the PBM licensing and regulation, Michigan patients will have protections generally not found elsewhere in the U.S., including the right to fair and impartial information about drug pricing and coverage (and access to lower cost alternative drugs) and exclusive authority over their own prescription transfers," she said. Michigan might not be alone for long. Community pharmacists in Kentucky are leaning hard on its legislators to pass a bill designed to prohibit insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other administrators of pharmacy benefits from imposing certain requirements on health plan insureds. [This bill] would address the mail order mandates and ensure Kentuckians have safe, reliable access to the brick-and-mortar community pharmacy they choose, wrote Cathy Hanna, president of the Kentucky Pharmacists Association. This protects a critical link in Kentuckys healthcare chain, particularly in rural communities where pharmacists are often the most direct and trusted provider contact for many individuals and families. 02/28/2022 Photo (c) Marina113 - Getty Images A suspected cyberattack hit one of Toyotas suppliers of electronic components and plastic parts at one of its plants in Japan, wiping out 13,000 cars' worth of output. The automaker said it is suspending all Japanese operations until the company has an opportunity to investigate the situation and restore factory operations to normal. CNBC reports that its unknown who was responsible for the attack or what their reason was, but NikkeiAsia reports that malware was involved. Russia has been implicated due to Japan joining Western allies and blocking Russian banks access to the SWIFT international payment network in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. Fumio Kishida, Japans Prime Minister, said the government would launch a probe into the incident to determine whether Russia was involved or not. It is difficult to say whether this has anything to do with Russia before making thorough checks, he told reporters. As for Toyotas official stance on the matter, a spokesperson for the company described it as a supplier system failure. The effect on production All told, 28 lines at 14 Toyota plants plus some plants operated by Toyotas affiliates Hino Motors and Daihatsu were shut down because of the incident. Toyota has not said exactly how long the shutdown will last, but the spokesperson said it will last for more than a day. Toyota has experienced cyberattacks in the past in Japan and Australia. This time around, though, the company also has to contend with supply chain issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Those conditions were made worse when protesters prevented trucks from passing through U.S-Canadian borders to deliver parts to North American Toyota factories. Former Attorney General William P. Barr released a new memoir where he criticized former United States President Donald Trump and called out his "self-indulgence and lack of self-control." Barr said that the Republican businessman's traits cost him the 2020 presidential elections against Democrat Joe Biden. He added that Trump's action and the absurd lengths that he took eventually led to the Capitol Hill riot. Barr's New Memoir In his memoir titled, "One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General," Barr urged his fellow Republicans to choose someone else as the GOP's presidential nominee for the 2024 elections. He called the prospect of another Trump presidential run "dismaying" due to the former president's lack of temperament and persuasive powers. Barr's new book accounts for his time as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush and under Trump. His memoir defends his actions under the latter's administration that resulted in harsh criticism of a Justice Department that set aside its independence to bend to pressure from the White House, as per the New York Times. In the memoir, Barr said that the United States needed leaders who were not only capable of fighting and "punching," but also persuading and attracting others. The former official argued that the president of the U.S. should be someone who can frame and advocate for an uplifting vision of what it meant to share in American citizenship. Read Also: Donald Trump Says Putin Invaded Ukraine Now Considering Joe Biden's Weakness Barr, who was a former Trump loyalist, comments on the Republican businessman as he continues to hold considerable influence over the style and direction of the GOP. The former president still serves as the standard-bearer more than a year after leaving office. According to CNN, in December 2020, Barr resigned from his position after he said that the Justice Department was not able to find evidence of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 elections. Despite the split from the former president seemingly being amicable, Barr has joined a growing number of former administration officials who have criticized Trump. Unfit to Lead Furthermore, Barr's new memoir claims that Trump could have beaten Biden in the 2020 elections if he exercised a "modicum of self-restraint, moderating even a little of his pettiness." He has since called on other Republicans to consider "an impressive array of younger candidates." While the former attorney general did not reveal the names of any potential nominee, he said they shared Trump's agenda but lacked his "erratic personal behavior." Barr's new book is expected to be on sale on Mar. 8 as Trump continues to tease a potential run for the 2024 elections. On Saturday, Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Florida where he repeated his claims that Biden was not legitimately elected in the 2020 election. Speaking in front of a raucous crowd in Orlando, the Republican businessman said that under his administration, Russia respected the United States similar to other countries. He then argued that Moscow now sees Biden as the president of the country and considers him "weak." Trump added that if he was in charge, the situation in Ukraine would never have happened, the New York Post reported. Related Article: Donald Trump: Ex-POTUS Slams Joe Biden, World Leaders Amid Russia-Ukraine Crisis, Teases 2024 Presidential Run @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. 80% Website myturbodiesel.com uses latest and advanced technologies. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 162553 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 53129 bytes (51.88 kb uncompressed) and 13668 bytes (13.35 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2022-04-01, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. Corsicana, TX (75110) Today Mainly cloudy. A few peeks of sunshine possible. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Connecticut has surpassed 10,000 deaths associated with the virus, according to the latest state figures. On Tuesday, Connecticuts public COVID-19 metrics showed that 10,076 people have died with the virus. The governors office does not release daily death totals and will provide the latest tally in its weekly report on Thursday. It was not just a bad case of the flu, which you heard some talking about a couple years ago. We were hit, we were hit particularly hard two years ago. We had more fatalities per capita, along with New Jersey and New York, than anybody else in the country. Two years later, our fatalities continue to go down as a percentage, Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday. Were now making real progress in terms of infections, in terms of hospitalizations, in terms of fatalities, so weve made progress compared to our peers, but thats false comfort. Those are 10,000 of our neighbors who are no longer with us. The grim milestone comes amid a jump in deaths, the last of the three major metrics to rise during the recent wave spurred by the omicron variant. Since last Thursday, state figures show there have been an additional 168 deaths. The fatalities have been accelerating with state data showing it took 240 days to go from 8,000 to 9,000 deaths, but only 48 days to then reach 10,000. It continues to be bad, because by and large, most of them are preventable whether it be through vaccines, through boosters, through masking, said Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare. According to the state Department of Public Health, someone who is unvaccinated is about 13 times more likely to die of COVID-19 compared with someone who is fully vaccinated. While infections from the omicron variant have been mild for some, it remains dangerous and played a role in the recent jump in the death rate, experts said. Delta (variant) certainly contributed to it. People by and large should by no means think that omicron is not serious, at all, Wu said. Given how pervasive the omicron variant is in Connecticut, Wu said it has come to epitomize COVID-19. By sheer numbers, (omicron) is causing death. COVID by sheer numbers is causing death, Wu said. Since the peak of this recent wave, the positivity rate of new COVID-19 tests has dropped from a high of 24.55 percent on Jan.7 to a low of 7.33 percent on Monday. Hospitalizations, which neared pandemic highs, dropped nearly 1,000 patients from a high of 1,939 on Jan. 12. On Wednesday, the state reported a positivity rate of 7.43 percent with 1,786 new COVID-19 cases found in 24,024 tests. Hospitalizations dropped by a net of 60 patients for a total of 935. Wu said he expects the rate in the rise of deaths to decrease similar to other metrics. The seven-day average of new deaths was near what was seen during the peak last winter. The rising death toll comes as researchers are tracking BA.2, a cousin to omicron that has not been given a Greek alphabet letter designation by the World Health Organization. The first Connecticut cases of the variant, which shares the same lineage as omicron, were identified last week. Researchers and public health experts are concerned the new variant could slow the decline in cases or extend the tail end of the surge caused by omicron, which in Connecticut saw hospital admissions for the virus spike to levels not seen since the first wave of the virus in 2020. One measure researchers at the Yale School of Public Health are using to track the virus is determining how many positive tests show an "S-gene dropout," a characteristic found in omicron. Unlike omicron, both the subvariant BA.2 and the earlier delta variant do not have the S-gene dropout. That makes it possible for researchers to gauge what percentage of positive tests may be the omicron subvariant, rather than omicron. Nathan Grubaugh, a researcher who heads the Yale School of Public Health's efforts to track and identify variants of the coronavirus in the state, said Wednesday the most recent S-gene dropout data from tests taken on Tuesday showed omicron likely comprises about 91 percent of the samples. What's unclear is whether the remaining 9 percent are BA.2, or delta, which shares the same characteristic. "Still no distinct signs of a BA.2 invasion," Grubaugh said in a tweet, adding that more data to differentiate between delta and BA.2 would be available Thursday. Here is how Geoffrey Hammerson describes the states bobcat population in his 2004 book Connecticut Wildlife as sparsely distributed in the vicinity of thickets and patch woods in less-developed regions of the state, especially in the Northwest Highlands. Here is how we could describe them today: Everywhere. Theyre still in the Northwest Highlands. Bethany Sheffer, naturalist and volunteer coordinator at the Sharon Audubon Center, said photographer Jonathan Doster has gotten good shots of bobcats in a meadow at the center near its bluebird boxes. And once, driving to Torrington, she said, she spotted one, backed up and watched. I saw it stationary, just standing there, Sheffer said. Theyre farther south. Ken Elkins, community conservation manager for Audubon Connecticut, said that in his 13 years working at the Bent of the River Nature Center in Southbury, weve had multiple sightings. Often, he said, people see them at the edge of the centers woods. Once, he said, he saw one on the side of a meadow, not far from the Bents visitor center. After fresh snow, well see their tracks, he said. But increasingly, bobcats are making those tracks through suburban backyards and downtown back alleys. Weve had them in Hartford, in Bridgeport, said Jason Hawley, wildlife biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. And their population is growing. A few years ago, we would have said there were 800 to 1,000 bobcats in the state, Hawley said. Today, Id say double that. If you see a bobcat, DEEP would like to know. It has a reporting site at ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Learn-Abount-Wildlife/Bobcats-in-Connecticut. Its a remarkable comeback for the states only wild cat and its top predator. We have ourselves to thank. Weve created perfect bobcat habitat in the state, Hawley said. The DEEP is now finishing a three-year project to study the states bobcats. In its first two years. Hawley said, the state caught about 100 bobcats, fitted them with radio collars, and released them. What the research found, Hawley said, is that Connecticut bobcats favor the suburbs and the cities, where the pickings are good. In the suburbs, there are bird feeders that attract squirrels, both gray and red. There are rabbits. There are also patches of woods to escape into, stone walls and decks to perch on to watch the world. Hawley said that while it pains him to say it, thickets of non-native, invasive shrubs like multi-flora rose and barberry provide perfect cover for bobcats. They can hide in those tangles on the edge of yards, waiting to pounce when prey come within range. In both suburbs and cities, there are mice and rats to eat. There are also raccoons and opossums for the taking. In the suburbs, another comeback species wild turkeys make a good bobcat meal And bobcats are now thinning out the states too-abundant white-tailed deer herd. A bobcat can take down a deer, especially the males, Hawley said. They are also reducing the herd by preying on newborn fawns. These fawns are hard-wired to sit still, their spotted coats providing camouflage. They have no scent, Hawley said, so other predators may pass them by. But bobcats, which hunt by sight, spot and nail the fawns. In Litchfield County, bobcats are the animal most responsible for deer mortality, Hawley said. Bobcats are sizeable. Males can weigh 18 to 35 pounds, females, 15 to 30 pounds. Theyre faintly spotted, with fur thats browner in summer, more gray in winter. They have tufted ears and a short tail that looks, well, bobbed. Theyre generally solitary. Theyre also polygamous they mate with multiple partners. Females do all the child-rearing, while the male bobcats tomcat around. They were once a species that nearly disappeared from the state. In the 19th century, when the state was almost completely deforested for agriculture, there were no woods for bobcats to shelter in. Until 1971, the state also paid a bounty to hunters who shot bobcats, believing they were a menace to livestock and game species. But in 1972, the state reversed course, and classified bobcats as protected fur-bearing mammals, eliminating any bobcat hunting. Theyve returned. Hawley said in the 1970s, wildlife biologists believed bobcats were strictly forest creatures, a wild animal that preferred a wooded domain. The DEEPs study shows theyve become suburbanized. Theyre Connecticut residents. We tracked their territory, Hawley said. If they had any forest, they avoided it like the plague. Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com 99 cent introductory offer Includes everything we offer online for 24-7 news. This option allows you to read unlimited stories at ctnewsonline.com, and access our e-Edition (digital replicate of the daily newspaper). $7.99 per month after the introductory offer. This service comes with a complimentary CT Select Card allowing for local discounts. Rates are subject to change. ANSONIA A local service station owner who has sued the police department alleging unfair treatment in the past is once again taking the city to court. This time, Frank Heusser Jr. claims in a new lawsuit that Ansonia police brass threatened to arrest him if he didnt reduce bills for certain individuals they had personal relationships with. He also alleges that the citys public works department wont pick up his trash, but is doing so for a rival business. The claims come from a lawsuit Heusser filed last month at Superior Court in Milford naming the city of Ansonia, several police officers, and two public works employees as defendants. I dont have any comments on this matter yet because it is very early in the process, Heussers lawyer, Rob Serafinowicz said in an email. Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini said the city denies the allegations and would be filing a response to Heussers lawsuit in court. Heusser, who donated $500 to Mayor David Cassettis reelection campaign last year, is the owner of Franks LLC, an automotive repair and towing business on Wakelee Avenue. Its not the first time he has alleged wrongdoing by the city and police. His lawsuit references prior legal action he took against the city, which claimed his business had been removed from the departments list of tow truck operators to remove vehicles from accident scenes in retaliation for his father raising concerns during public meetings. A police commission member at the time said Heusser should not be on the tow list because of a combative attitude. That litigation was settled, the lawsuit says, with a provision that all parties would act in a professional, respectful and civilized manner towards each other. The lawsuit claims former Police Chief Kevin Hale respected the terms of the settlement, but that his two successors have not. Former police chief Andrew Cota is named as a defendant in the suit, which also names the departments current chief, Wayne Williams, and Lt. Patrick Lynch, the departments spokesman. Heusser claims Williams and Lynch conspired to threaten plaintiff with arrest and other civil penalties if the plaintiff did not reduce his bills for service for certain individuals they had personal relationships with. Lynch declined to comment on Heussers lawsuit because it is pending litigation. The five-count lawsuit alleges breach of contract, detrimental reliance, tortious interference, equal protection violations, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. It seeks more than $15,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to attorneys fees and costs. Vladimir Putin gave a soft warning directed at NATO for inviting Finland and Sweden to bolster its ranks as the alliance is accused of surrounding Russia. They were the same demands on Ukraine that were not complied with; the Kremlin complained the eastward movement of the western alliance was not welcome. Next is the placement of weapons in several EU countries, but the West was not straightforward despite the openness to diplomacy. NATO Invites Scandinavian Countries One of the reasons the West would ask Finland and Sweden to join NATO is their strategic location, and Moscow is wary the alliance is trying to encircle Russia. Scandinavian countries have not been admitted as military alliance members, as they value neutrality, reported the Express UK. The Kremlin is not lowering its guard as NATO and US will try anything to get the upper hand. Despite the diplomacy, the West has acted in bad faith. The western military alliance has them as part of the Partnership for Peace program. Invasion of Ukraine opened the idea that these neutral countries with no dispute with Moscow should be invited to be members of NATO, cited Daily Star Post. In an attempt to change the minds of these countries, Swedish and Finnish prime ministers were asked if they wanted to sit in an emergency summit where the topic would focus on the war in Ukraine. Immediately the Kremlin sent a statement to the western military organization about its rather insidious intention. The Russian foreign affairs spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, made these critical remarks accusing NATO of a motive for such invitations. Vladimir Putin has sued for concessions and peace, but it was rejected. Read Also: Vladimir Putin Has Hypersonic Missiles Storage To Use If the Provocative Western Alliance Does Not Thwart Full Blown Conflict She said that members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, including the Fins and the Swedes, stated that one country's security should not jeopardize the safety of others. If the two neutral Scandinavian nations are part of the military organization, it has political and military purposes. They will stop being neutral and be involved in another's conflict, and NATO would be playing unfairly for extra numbers. Immediately, the Western alliance officials called it false about the two countries joining. Finland To Consider NATO Membership NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg alleged that discussions were to beef up the defenses of member states, but the Russian reaction is for deterrence after provocative actions by the West. As Ukrainian defend without military assistance, there are talks underway. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin thinks little of NATO membership. In fact, last January, she said joining is not a priority for her country. But, the invasion of Ukraine could sway the neutral Finns to consider joining the military alliance. Speaking to a national broadcaster Yle last week, Marin said if their neutrality is affected, it shall consider applying for NATO membership, noted the Eurasian Times. US President Joe Biden has been criticized for alleged weak leadership; chimed in how the Kyiv invasion is changing minds for possible new members. A social media influencer, Brian Tyler Cohen, says NATO is more unified, alluding to Sweden and Finland's mulling. He says Putin is causing a different effect. On the weekend, Russian units continued their assault and are close to 30 km of Kyiv, the capital. But, reports from the Ukrainians say they have caused casualties. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his goal is to free Donbas and Lugansk from the Ukraine government, but NATO wants to rope Finland and Sweden to its cause even at the cost of their neutrality. Related Article: Poland Blasts Brussels for High Energy Prices Due to the Energy Crisis Which Causes Dissension Amongst EU Members @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media BRIDGEPORT A man was treated for a gunshot wound to the face Friday night after a shooting in the city, according to police. The citys 911 dispatch center was alerted to a shooting victim that turned up at an area hospital around 9:30 p.m. Friday. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A Caroline House Benefit Concert is going to take place March 10 at the Fairfield Theatre Company, at 70 Sanford St. The fundraising goal for the event is $50,000. General admission tickets are $35 with doors opening at 7 p.m. and VIP tickets are $85 with doors opening at 6 p.m. The show will start at 8 p.m. VIP includes an open bar, beer, wine and appetizers. Purchase tickets, become a sponsor, or donate to the cause at thecarolinehouse.org/events/chbenefitconcert. The Caroline House is a language school in Bridgeport that has been empowering under-served women and children on the East Side since November 2005. Fairfield University program ranked The Fairfield University online graduate education program ranked among the top 30 percent of the Best Online Graduate Education Programs by the U.S. News & World Report magazine. The school rose 74 spots in the 2022 U.S. News Best Online Graduate Education Program Rankings, to a 102nd place tie in the Best Online Masters in Education Programs category out of 337 schools. The methodology used for the ranking is broken into categories for engagement, expert opinion, faculty credentials and training, services and technologies, and student excellence. Resident shares photo of a snow squall Fairfield resident Matt Podolsky recently emailed a photo of one of the two snow squalls to Hearst Connecticut Media on Saturday, Feb. 19, at 8:45 p.m. Trinity Spiritual Center welcoming French speaker The Trinity Spiritual Center in Southport is hosting Raphael Liogier, a French sociologist, author, speaker, practitioner and philosopher. Mark Grayson, the centers director, will speak with Liogier in an in-person and livestreamed discussion The SpirChallenges of Modernity, at 3 p.m. on March 6. Liogier is the author of The Anguish of the Void. The book asserts that the rising violence around the globe that many people see as a product of religious fundamentalism, or political polarization, is symptomatic of a larger problem. The event will be open to all people with advance registration and costs $25. Register at tsc_raphael_liogier.eventbrite.com. The Trinity Spiritual Center is located at 651 Pequot Ave. in Southport. Call 203-255-0454 with any questions. Sacred Heart University Community Theatre to host book author The Sacred Heart University Community Theatre and the Fairfield Public Library are partnering to host a One Book One Town, event with author TJ Klune. It will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the theater, located at 1420 Post Road. The event is free. Registration is required. Visit fairfieldpubliclibrary.org/OBOT/ for details. Klune is the author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, this years One Book One Town selection. The award-winning book is the story about caseworker, Linus Baker, who is sent to the isolated Marsyas Island Orphanage to report about its charges children who have been blessed and cursed by their magical powers. Fairfield University hosts movie screening, Q&A Jason Berry, a journalist and filmmaker, will introduce his movie, City of a Million Dreams, and host a question- and-answer session after the screening at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The in-person event will take place in the Fairfield University Barone Campus Center Dogwood Room, at 1073 N. Benson Road in Fairfield. The event is free and open to the public, and will be livestreamed for virtual attendance. Register at fairfield.edu/undergraduate/academics/centers/center-for-catholic-studies/. The movie is a documentary that illustrates how the citys jazz funerals, and Sunday second line parades absorb the pain of death, and the legacy of racism, and soars to a joyful, and transcendent rebirth. Young professionals organization celebrates birthday The members of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce Fairfield Emerging Leaders Organization recently celebrated its seventh birthday, which also raised money for scholarships. The annual event is an opportunity to meet new people, and network with many local, and emerging leaders. The organizations mission is to provide a platform for young professionals to engage in business sponsored activities, and connect individuals, who will enhance professional skills, while promoting social, and civic opportunities for the enrichment of the community at large. The organization has awarded $19,000 in scholarships since 2015. People, who are interested in learning more, can call 203-255-1011. Fire school to offer CPR/AED certification classes A number of community classes are going to take place at the Fairfield Regional Fire School, located at 205 Richard White Way. Anyone with questions regarding any of the courses can call 203-254-4708, or email frfs@fairfieldct.org. The CPR/AED - First Aid Certification, will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 13. It costs $100 per student. The Heartsaver Layperson CPR/AED Certification will be 7 to 10 p.m. on April 21, for $50 per student. SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas - It's candidate night in Hopkins County and the regional civic center is filled with Republicans sizing up candidates ahead of Tuesday's primary election. On the stage, George P. Bush is arguing why Texans should make him the state's next attorney general rather than the scandal-plagued Republican incumbent, Ken Paxton. Bush carries the name of a family once revered in the state, but these days that is a heavy burden in Texas. His issue agenda owes less to his allegiance to his family than to former president Donald Trump. Bush tells the audience he has twice traveled the length of the Texas border and vows to "finish the Trump wall." He speaks about "massive voter fraud." He promises to go after human traffickers and drug cartels and to take on district attorneys in the big cities, who he says are not on the side of law enforcement. He decries "the wholesale indoctrination of our children when it comes to critical race theory" in public schools. Bush has supporters in the audience, but here in conservative East Texas, skepticism of anyone named Bush is apparent. Such is the challenge he faces as he tries to advance his political career in the era of Trump. As people file out of the civic center after more than three hours of presentations by an array of candidates, a woman who did not want to give her name offered a biting critique of the Bush family. "I thought they were Republicans," she said with a tone of sarcasm. When Bush first declared his candidacy for a statewide office in 2013, the announcement was greeted in Texas as the arrival of a new-generation politician who could extend the influence of a family that had helped shape the Republican Party for decades. The younger Bush - grandson of one president, nephew of another and son of a two-term Florida governor long seen as a potential third President Bush - had grown up in a family for which public service seemed to come naturally. Politics was the family business, and George P. Bush appeared ideally suited to carry on the dynasty. But Bush, now 45, has turned out to be anything but a pure knockoff of the Bushes of old. Instead, he has adapted to the new politics of the Republican Party. Rather than embracing the "kinder and gentler" approach of George H.W. Bush or the "compassionate conservatism" of George W. Bush or the "fix-it" policy agenda of his father, Jeb Bush, George P. Bush has embraced the harder-edged conservatism of Trump and Trump himself. Low-key as a campaigner and soft-spoken in more intimate settings, Bush calls his family heritage a blessing, but with a caveat. "I love all of my family members, and they inspired me to serve causes greater than self," he said during an interview in between campaign appearances last week. "You know, I think my family's picture in American politics is secure. But Texans know me as my own man, and my own family encouraged me to be my own man." In this campaign, he said, he is "addressing the current problems that face Texans right now, right here and right now, because, you know, the more that we talk about the past, I think we get burdened by the litigation and the wounds of the past." The arc of Bush's political career embodies the story of what has happened to conservative politics in the Lone Star State since George W. Bush left the White House, as well as the trade-offs that ambitious politicians with establishment pedigrees confront as they try to navigate through the tumultuous Trump era. Today, Bush's political future - and with it, that of the Bush dynasty - is uncertain. Bush enjoys some of the benefits of his family name, relatively high name identification and access to money, for example. But today in Texas, being a Bush carries as many or more liabilities. After two terms as Texas land commissioner, Bush is fighting to prevent Paxton, who is leading in the polls, from winning the nomination for attorney general outright with at least 50 percent of the vote in Tuesday's primary. At the same time, he is doing all he can to ensure that, if there is a runoff in May, he will be the other candidate. The family brand was built in Texas, where Yankee patrician George H.W. Bush moved from the East Coast to West Texas as a young man, made his money in the oil patch and then was elected to Congress from Houston in the late 1960s. But for the past decade or so, the Bush brand has been in decline. A defeat for George P. Bush in the attorney general's race would put an exclamation point on that erosion. Analysts differ on whether Bush can ultimately prevail over Paxton if there is a runoff, though more doubt his prospects. No matter the outcome, the younger Bush has already rewritten the family script. A new surname dominates politics in the Texas Republican Party - Trump - and Bush is gambling that by embracing the politics of the Trump GOP, he can survive and indeed thrive. Eric Mahroum, a former Trump administration official who introduced George P. Bush at a campaign event in Garland last week, remembers vividly the day Bush enlisted in Trump's political army. Jeb Bush had just dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential race, having started as the nominal front-runner, only to be crushed by Trump's relentless and at times humiliating attacks. Mahroum, who was part of Trump's Texas campaign at the time, said the younger Bush showed up at a meeting of the State Republican Executive Committee and surprised everyone with his sudden conversion. Mahroum described what happened that day: "He says, 'You know what? I'm asking everybody to get together, get behind candidate Trump as our nominee,' and I remember looking around the room. People . . . were a little surprised because it was like, 'Whoa!' As hard as candidate Trump came after Jeb Bush and the rest of his family, his uncle, he put that aside and people were really impressed." For all the victories by others in his family and for all he witnessed and absorbed growing up, Bush today describes Trump as "a unique force in politics" whose influence continues almost unabated. "As somebody who ran two years before [Trump] came on the political scene," Bush said, "I can say that . . . he electrified Republicans to a degree that I had never seen before in my life." When Bush announced his campaign for attorney general last year, his opening video paid tribute to the former president. "Under the leadership of President Trump, our country was strong and vibrant again," he said in the video. At another point, he said, "Like President Trump, I will not sit idly by while our freedoms are under attack, because Texas must lead the way in fighting this radical agenda." He did not mention anyone in his own family. Opinions among Texas Republicans differ as to whether Bush believed he could win an endorsement from Trump or was mostly hoping to prevent Paxton from getting the former president's support. Whichever it might have been, his efforts fell short. To the surprise of few, Trump gave his full support to Paxton, who in late 2020 filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the presidential election results in four swing states. The Supreme Court dismissed the Paxton filing, saying Texas did not have standing to bring the suit. But the legal move drew support from Republicans around the country and endeared Paxton to Trump loyalists in the party's base. Trump's support has helped make Paxton the front-runner in the race, even though he has been under indictment for securities fraud since 2015 and is facing an FBI investigation triggered by allegations from members of his senior staff. Those aides accused Paxton of abusing the powers of his office by helping an Austin real estate developer who was also a campaign contributor and who had hired a woman with whom Paxton was having an affair. In all, eight members of Paxton's senior staff left - five were fired and three resigned - and four of those fired have since filed a whistleblower suit against him. Last week, the four issued a statement that said, in part, "The most basic qualifications of an attorney general are respect for truth and respect for the law." "Ken Paxton has neither." Paxton has denied all allegations, but some GOP strategists fear federal indictments could come after the primaries, which they say would threaten Paxton's prospects in November's general election. Bush said if he makes the runoff against Paxton, he will once again seek Trump's endorsement by trying to persuade the former president to rescind his support for Paxton. "When we get in the runoff, I will send a message to - and we maintain a line of communication with the Trump team - that this is his chance to get out of the race or support me in this race," he said, "because if you really care about his policies, you got to nominate somebody that's actually going to beat the Democrat." Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, said Bush would face long odds of defeating Paxton in a runoff, noting that, in polls, 2 in 5 Republican primary voters say they would never vote for Bush because of his last name. "It's guilt by association with his uncle, his father and his grandfather, who today are seen as far too centrist for the party," he said. Another view, however, holds that the dynamic could go against Paxton, who could face a barrage of television ads focused on his legal problems, something he has avoided during the first round of the primary. But a low-turnout runoff would still be better for Paxton. Two other candidates are also challenging Paxton in the primary: Rep. Louie Gohmert, who decided to seek the office out of disappointment with Paxton's embattled tenure and what he saw as legal grandstanding; and Eva Guzman, a former justice on the Texas Supreme Court, who said in an interview that she was also "fed up with Paxton's lack of integrity, lack of respect and lack of results." Current polling has shown Paxton running first, but it is not clear whether he will be able to get over the 50 percent threshold needed to win the nomination outright on Tuesday. Bush appears to be in second, ahead of Guzman, with Gohmert generally running fourth. Gohmert is a hard-right conservative and Trump backer who has represented East Texas in Congress since 2005. His issues are border security and voting integrity. On Jan. 6, 2021, he voted to object to the certification of the electoral counts in Arizona and Pennsylvania, both states Joe Biden won in the presidential election. He has struggled to make his voice heard, but any votes he gets will come out of Paxton's coalition, which is why the attorney general has attacked him in a TV ad. Guzman has attracted conservative-establishment money, led by the Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Several newspapers in the state have endorsed her as well. She sees Bush blocking her path to a runoff and has attacked him as ill-prepared to be the state's top lawyer. "He's not qualified to keep Texas red," she said just before a forum with Bush and Gohmert in Sulphur Springs last week. "He's not qualified to take the fight to the Biden administration." That night, Bush fired back at her for what he said was a "slanderous, libelous" campaign. In an interview before the candidate forum, Gohmert spoke about what he sees as the deterioration of the Bush brand among conservatives, noting in particular George W. Bush's support for the bailout of Wall Street financial firms as the economy was heading into a deep recession in 2008. He also pointed to the long-running war between the Bushes and Trump. "Seeing the revered George H.W. Bush and George W. not really embracing the Republican candidates, not just Trump but appearing - whether they did or not - to support Democrats over the years," he said. "I think that has done a little bit to sour some folks." Even before he was first elected, Bush had signaled that he was looking to the future of Texas conservatism, rather than the past, when he described Sen. Ted Cruz, a politician far more conservative than either Bush's grandfather, father or uncle, as the future of the party. Weeks before the 2014 election, Bush was asked at a Texas Tribune conference whether, given what he had said about Cruz, he planned to support the senator's expected 2016 presidential candidacy. Bush demurred, saying he intended to stay out of presidential politics. But it was a follow-up question that truly rattled him and stunned the audience: Well, asked Evan Smith, chief executive of the Texas Tribune, would he support his father in 2016 if he were to run for president? Bush ducked, despite repeated and increasingly incredulous follow-up questioning by Smith. "I think folks know that I love him," Bush said of his father, adding: "My focus has to be on this agency [the Texas General Land Office]. If I'm entrusted by the voters of Texas to be land commissioner, that's going to occupy my time." Smith responded by saying, "You know the headline tomorrow's going to be, 'George P. Bush: Too busy to endorse his dad.'" Bush laughed awkwardly. "You caught me on that one," he said. Bush concedes now that it was a truly awkward moment. When Jeb Bush joined the race, his son fell in line and worked on his behalf. "I was proud to help my dad when he ran," he said. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out." Yet still, he was taken by the force of Trump's candidacy. He said the choice between Hillary Clinton and Trump persuaded him that it was vital that Trump win. Others in the Bush family have not been so accommodating, often expressing their disdain for Trump and in some cases choosing not to vote for him. But family ties remain strong. George W. Bush recently contributed $100,000 to his nephew's campaign, and Jeb Bush has given his son $25,000. In Texas, there are no limits on contributions for nonfederal races. For those who have been critical of Bush for being so willing to embrace Trump when so many of his relatives were not, it's useful to recall that those older Bushes were practical politicians willing to do whatever was necessary to win. As president, George W. Bush pushed hard for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. But George P. Bush isn't terribly interested in pursuing that idea. Rather, his campaign ads promote a get-tough approach to border security designed to appeal to Trump loyalists. He similarly talks tough about crime and illegal trafficking and allies himself firmly with the law enforcement community. He supports the restrictive Texas abortion law, though he fears it might not pass constitutional muster with the Supreme Court. He is more optimistic that the high court will uphold Mississippi's abortion law and hopes the court's conservative majority will overturn Roe v. Wade. On education issues, he sides with parents who feel their views are being ignored by local school boards. He said he wants schools to offer "both sides" of issues and not just one. Asked what the other side of, say, the story of slavery might be, he said he favors "a more fact-based approach to historic curriculum." He called slavery "odious" and "destructive" but said the teaching of racial history is not a "reason for resenting people of different colors and different backgrounds" or that substitutes teachers' opinions for historical facts. Notably, Bush breaks with Trump on the 2020 election and says he believes President Biden was legitimately elected. Yet he still feels compelled by the forces animating his party. In the interview, Bush said voting fraud "is an important issue" that would be a focus of his time as attorney general. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WESTPORT Carlos Pia left a comfortable career in finance at a New York private equity firm to fulfill his dream of owning his own restaurant. The Barcelona native spent 12 years in Ireland before moving to Miami. He then relocated to Greenwich where his decision to leave cooperate America was further backed by the lack of authentic Spanish cuisine. His dream recently became a reality when he held his grand opening for De Tapas, what he calls Westports first Spanish gastrobar, located at 180 Post Rd. E. If I told you that some tears were falling, you wouldnt believe it. It was emotional, Pia said. It was great. Pia said the restaurant came together step by step. He said he didnt just paint the walls a different color, he took over a former bakery and had to change and renovate almost everything. One of the decorations include a massive mural which goes throughout the restaurant. Pia said the mural on the Spanish tiles makes customers feel like they are walking into Spain. It was a fantastic day and a day I will never forget, Pia said. I still have that feeling when customers walk in and they come in and their eyes look around and they say, Oh wow, its really nice. I feel very welcomed by the community, he added. The word is spreading and people are coming in wanting to try us. Pias road to his own tapas restaurant actually started by word of mouth. His first job in the restaurant business was as host at a New York restaurant. He eventually moved on to manage Jose Andres Mercado Little Spain in Hudson Yards. Once COVID came and restaurants begin to shut down, Pia begin catering birthdays, anniversaries and other parties. His business started to spread and more and more people begin to hear about his tapas and paella. As things began to start opening back up, Pia toured several locations and eventually found a spot in Westport. Westport has this reputation of having good restaurants and being a foodie community, Pia said. I got the feeling that people appreciate food here more than other locations. Pia said it wasnt just the location being near downtown or the reputation of restaurants in Westport, but he also fell in love with the layout of the building. I fell in love with the location, he said. One of the reasons why I wanted to open a restaurants was because it was hard for me to find a really good Spanish restaurant and when I say Spanish I mean from Spain, Pia added. I know sometimes in the U.S. the word Spanish sometimes gets associated with South America, but its a different cuisines from South America compared to Spain. Pia said while traveling for business to Ireland, Miami and Greenwich, he was missing his hometown food and while he did enjoy the South American cuisine during his stint in Miami, he wanted to do something in the restaurant business to share his culture. The whole design of the restaurant is to make you feel like youre in Spain. Thats what push me to open this restaurant, he said. We have classic classic tapas, but we also have modern tapas that mirror what Spain is. De Tapas is open Tuesday through Sunday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. serenity.bishop@hearstmediact.com Even through the fog of war, the Ukrainian peoples fight against Russian invaders has been awe-inspiring. Its hard to pick a most moving moment, but heres mine: Over the weekend, a viral video showed a Henichesk woman offering sunflower seeds (the national flower of Ukraine) to Russian soldiers, so that when they are killed in Ukraine, the seeds will be fertilized by their rotting bodies. Thats the kind of curse you can support, a matter-of-fact invitation to hell that is just the right amount of eloquent. Its hard not to be a little shame-faced about what has occupied public discourse in the Nutmeg State. By comparison, skirmishes in Connecticut are petty and sad. A guy punches another guy over changing a high school mascot in Glastonbury. The police are called to a Coventry board of education meeting because overexuberant parents dont want their children to wear masks in a global pandemic. (The board eventually decided to make masks optional unless the town reaches a certain number of COVID cases.) A handful of students and parents travel to the State Capitol to whine that they dont like masks either, because they cant see their colleagues faces and that interrupts their socialization. I mean, honestly. If the world isnt laughing at us, it should be. While Ukrainian grandmothers are confronting Russian soldiers and everyday Ukrainians are trying to stop tanks by standing in front of them, the anti-science brigade of Connecticut is celebrating the states relaxing of some pandemic mandates. Happy First Week with No State Mask Mandate in Schools and Child Care Centers, Connecticut. If its all the same to you and even if it isnt Ill go ahead and mask up when I go out because I dont know the burdens of that guy at the next cash register. But do keep belaboring the point and reminding the rest of us about freedom. To guard their own freedom, Ukrainian citizens not just soldiers have made and are throwing Molotov cocktails at their invaders. Theyre sleeping in metro stations when they arent out defending their homeland. They go home to get more clothes, then the sirens sound and they go back to the stations. Their money is running out. They cant use credit cards, and provisions are running low. Meanwhile, a truck convoy whose members were inspired by truckers who shut down Ottawa, Canada, over vaccine mandates is rolling toward D.C. to protest well, Im not entirely sure. If mask mandates have been mostly lifted around the country, I supposed theyre protesting out of a sense of nostalgia, or to give their lives meaning. This isnt a grassroots movement. The convoy enjoys strong ties with and the deep pockets of radical right-wing groups, and shame on them. Perhaps we can all draw a lesson from Ukraine, where a man blew himself up trying to stop Russian convoys from crossing a bridge. In Connecticut, the Party of Trump has taken to social media to whine about gas prices. What one news outlet called rampant geopolitical uncertainty has a way of affecting prices and supply chains which, by the way, arent helped by truckers who block roads because theyre irritated. After fighting in the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell wrote, One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. Ukrainian men between ages 18 and 60 have been conscripted to fight. Some Ukrainian soldiers on an island in the Black Sea were told by someone on a Russian military ship radio to surrender. Instead, the soldiers told the Russian warship to go (fill in the blanks). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said later those Ukrainian soldiers were killed though recent reports hold out hope they survived. God, let that be true. President Zelensky, who has earned the respect of the everyone in the world except Putin, has stayed to fight. If you needed the reminder, the Ukrainian president was on the other end of that phone call made by the former president, who really, really wanted to find some dirt on President Joe Biden and his family. I would like you to do us a favor, the former president said, and so opened the door to his first impeachment trial. Pvt. Bone Spurs? Meet Capt. Ukraine. On Sunday, Dee Snider, front man for the band Twisted Sister, took to Twitter to explain why he endorsed the Ukrainian peoples use of his 1984 song, Were Not Going to Take It, when he wouldnt let the anti-maskers use it. Snider wrote, Well, one use is for a righteous battle against oppression while the other was an infantile feet stomping against an inconvenience. If we cant agree about the appropriate response to a global pandemic, weve strangely (and mostly) been able to pull together for Ukraine. There have been multiple gatherings around the state to show support for Ukraine, including one last Saturday in Hartford. The Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford began taking donations. Donors crashed the website of an heirloom seed company in Missouri that offered to share all weekend proceeds with Ukraine relief groups. Package stores throughout the country started pulling Russian vodka off their shelves. A pandemic should have pulled us together. Instead, we went for each others throats. Perhaps this one thing we can do. We can stand together against tyranny. And for the elected officials who dont? We see you and well remember. Susan Campbell is the author of Frog Hollow: Stories from an American Neighborhood, Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker and Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism and the American Girl. She is Distinguished Lecturer at the University of New Haven, where she teaches journalism. EU to ban Russian flights over Europe over Ukraine crisis Xinhua) 08:23, February 28, 2022 BRUSSELS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Sunday that the EU would shut its airspace to Russian airlines in response to its "special military operation" in Ukraine since early Thursday. "We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians," Von der Leyen said in a statement on Sunday, "We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft." "These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU," she said, adding that the ban would "apply to any plane owned, chartered or otherwise controlled by a Russian legal or natural person." "So let me be very clear. Our airspace will be closed to every Russian plane - and that includes the private jets of oligarchs," she stressed. Earlier on Sunday, France also said it would shut down its airspace to Russian airlines and Russian registered aircraft, French national airline Air France announced on its website to suspend flights to and from Russia, effective from Sunday until further notice. The airline also stated that flights between France and China, South Korean and Japan would also be temporarily suspended in order to study flight plan options enabling to avoid Russian airspace. It has prolonged the suspension of flights to Ukraine's capital Kiev until further notice, "following the shutdown of Ukrainian airspace." (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) Banks in the United States are preparing for counter cyberattacks from Russia after Moscow faced new sanctions over its continued aggression into Ukraine's territory, said cyber experts and executives. Potential new sanctions involve excluding Russian banks from Swift and the Russian central bank from international operations, moves that have, up until now, been seen as last resort measures. Shutting Moscow from Swift, the international payment system, threatens to create substantial collateral damage for companies and financial institutions. New Sanctions Against Russia U.S. officials managed to force Switch to ditch Iranian banks in 2018, but even that was with a far smaller economy, a move that many European governments opposed. Germany in particular is sensitive because it continues to rely on Russia for two-thirds of its gas supply. Furthermore, Germany feels that it has already "taken one for the team" when officials announced the suspension of the certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was built to transport gas from Russia to Germany. Many officials from the US, Europe, and the UK seem to have agreed on a way to minimize collateral damage by excluding the banks least involved in energy transactions, as per BBC. The situation on the global stage comes as Western governments, for weeks, warned that the tensions could spark massive cyberattacks from Russia. Many believe Moscow will retaliate after receiving sanctions from other countries over its invasion of Ukraine. Read Also: Russia-Ukraine War: Switzerland President Warns High Probability of Freezing Russian Swiss Accounts Senior fixed income portfolio manager at the Swarthmore Group in New York, Steven Schweitzer, said that Russia would most definitely counterattack in the cheapest way, which is through cyberattacks. Global banks, which are the target of cyberattacks even during times of peace, have opted to increase network monitoring, drilling for cyberattack scenarios, searching their networks for threats, and lining up extra staff in the event of an emergency. According to Reuters, the list of attacks that these agencies are preparing for include ransomware and malware attacks; denial-of-service attacks, and data wiping and theft. Some said that these cybercrimes could be conducted individually or simultaneously. Anonymous Hacker Group The situation comes after Anonymous, the infamous hacker collective, declared cyberwar against Russia over its actions on Ukraine. The cyber group has claimed credit for the recent hacking of the Russian Ministry of Defense database. Many believe Anonymous to be responsible for a number of hacking of state TV channels in Russia to only show pro-Ukraine content. In a Twitter post linked to Anonymous, @YourAnonOne, the group said that they were officially in a "cyberwar" against the Russian government. In the days following the announcement, the group has claimed responsibility for a number of DDoS attacks that left several websites unreachable by bombarding them with traffic. The hacker group's nature as an informal collective has made it difficult to attribute the cyberattacks to Anonymous definitively. A consultant at U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant, Jamie Collier, said that because targeted entities would be reluctant to publish related technical data, it was severely difficult to directly tie the recent cyberattacks to Anonymous, The Guardian reported. Related Article: Volodymyr Zelensky Agrees to Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks Without Preconditions Despite Vladimir Putin's Deadly Threat @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. Dutch Brothers co-founder Travis Boersmas controversial proposal for a horse racing operation has been blocked by the Oregon Department of Justice. On Oct. 4, 2021, Boersma submitted a proposal to the Oregon Racing Commission in which he requested permission to reopen a racing track in Grants Pass and introduce The Flying Lark, where visitors could use gambling terminals. Boersma said he intended to revive the horse racing industry, but many have said he planned to do so in a way that would steal from and violate the sovereignty of local tribes. The Oregon Department of Justice ruled Boersmas plans to implement gambling machines as unconstitutional on Feb. 11, and on Feb. 14 the Oregon Racing Commission took its first step toward blocking his proposal from moving forward, prompting him to terminate his vision for The Flying Lark. After Boersma made his agenda public, Native tribal leaders quickly mobilized and called on government officials to reject the initiative. They said that non-tribal entities operating a gambling facility is illegal, based on Oregon laws that give Indigenous tribes an exclusive claim to gambling facilities, which provide funding for public services on reservations. Members of the University of Oregons Native American Student Union supplemented these efforts and called for the community to boycott the Dutch Bros. coffee stands that widely populate Eugene. Why would Travis Boersma as a businessman, and as a non-Indigenous, non-Native man attempt this plot that would impact the legal rights, the state ordained rights of countless tribal members? Ashley Younger, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and former president of the NASU, said. Exploiting someones culture for money thats so just tasteless and awful, and I just think that integrity is worth so much more than the possibility of monetary reimbursement. Related: "Opinion: Dutch Bros. founder robs income from Native tribes" The morning before the Oregon Department of Justices ruling, Younger organized a protest in opposition to Boersmas operation near the Dutch Bros. stand on Franklin Boulevard, culminating in a group of about 12 people. There, protestors etched their frustrations on the sidewalk using chalk. Younger said her motivations to host the protest stemmed from her desire to foster an important discussion and opportunity for learning. I think that it would be really, really lovely if we lived in a world where we could have a conversation with someone and say, This is really unethical or this is very harmful, or damaging, or just not a good action or a good thing to do. Could you please stop? And then have them stop, she said. I think that would be really wonderful. UO student Ryan Oppenheimer said he attended the demonstration to become more knowledgeable about issues related to Native American culture, just as Younger hoped. I came to watch and learn, he said. I haven't really been much of a protest person in the past. I've been more like a silent activist just because I just haven't really pushed myself to speak up about many things, so Im doing this to get out of my shell and also because I want to become more educated about indigenous issues. Now that Boersma no longer intends to invest his time or money into The Flying Lark, Younger hopes others will reciprocate the action taken against his operation in the future to make up for the injustice experienced by Indigenous people. I'm glad that it didn't go through, and I'm grateful that, at least legally, people recognized, and the state of Oregon recognized and acknowledged, that it's not OK and really did work to keep the sovereignty and also the respect of the tribes and the tribes rights, she said. But it's so much deeper because it's not just about the treaty, and it's not about money It's about years and years and years and years of repeated harm. UO Associate Professor of Native American Literatures and Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies Kirby Brown said these events encapsulate why Native studies should be a core component of general education. That just illustrates, to me, the need for Native Studies at all levels of the curriculum so that when questions like this arise, people will have an educational and intellectual foundation to understand not just the history, but also what needs to happen in a contemporary moment, he said. Native studies is not just for Native people; Native studies is for everyone. So when you have judges or entrepreneurs or lawyers or nonprofit directors who are in rooms, making decisions about land, about economies, about relationships, about resource management, you want those folks in those rooms to be educated. Younger echoed the intrinsic need for learning and education. She said she cannot imagine herself supporting Dutch Bros. until Boersma proves to have grown from his attempts to interfere with the revenue of local tribes. I never want the worst for people, she said. I always wish people the best, and I want to believe that most people have integrity and are good at heart. If he makes an effort moving forward to try to do something really, really wonderful and really helpful toward the tribes that he was really going to exploit, then perhaps, at that time, I'll consider supporting. President Joe Biden's connection with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was openly criticized by two Republicans on the House Foreign Relations Committee, who accused him of "abandoning the capital" by conducting business from his Delaware home while in Ukraine for a family burial. Biden left the White House on Friday for Wilmington, Delaware, where he was due to attend "a family member's memorial ceremony," according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Lawmakers Slam POTUS' Weekend Getaway in Delaware The White House did not immediately confirm the identity of the person whose memorial service the president was scheduled to attend, but the mother of his late son Beau Biden's widow passed away on February 20, according to an obituary in the Wilmington News-Journal. On the sidelines of the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, The Independent approached Tennessee Republican Mark Green, a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, to ask him about the US response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to order an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. When one of his Republican colleagues on the foreign relations committee, California Representative Darrell Issa, approached, Green, a US Army veteran who retired with the rank of Major and has represented the Volunteer State's seventh congressional district since 2019, he began reciting what has become a common GOP argument about how unspecified "weakness" on the part of President Biden was in part to blame for Vladimir Putin's actions. Meanwhile, as Russian troops struggle for Ukraine's capital, Sean Hannity called on President Biden to return to the White House on Friday after leaving for Delaware this weekend. Shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expects Russians will storm Kyiv, Hannity chastised President Biden for "fleeing the White House." According to Hannity, the president will not stand up to his own party's climate change alarmists and boost American oil and gas development and drilling. He went on to say that they are "all the things [they] could do to relieve the pressure on our NATO friends and Western European partners," Fox News reported. Read Also: Polls Lay Blame on Joe Biden's Weakness Emboldening Vladimir Putin To Invade Ukraine Despite Warnings of Strong Sanctions Joe, Jill Biden Exit White House on Friday As Europe faces its most serious battle since World War II, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were photographed leaving the White House on Friday evening to join their Marine One helicopter. Even though both President Biden, 79, and First Lady Biden, 70, are vaccinated and boosted, and the CDC has signaled that the time to lift practically all regulations has come, President Biden and First Lady Biden wore their regular face masks. Biden has access to technology that allows him to work from his opulent house in Rehoboth Beach, where he will keep up with the latest developments in Ukraine. However, detractors will certainly question whether Biden should stay in the White House to help project the strength and authority that comes with his position at a time when many people in the United States and around the world are concerned about their safety. Former President Trump also spent weekends at his Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster clubs, but Biden prefers to spend his weekends in his Delaware home. The US has imposed a slew of punishing financial restrictions on Russia in an attempt to prevent Vladimir Putin from pursuing his invasion of Ukraine. But the Russian president, whose personal fortune is estimated to be worth $200 billion by Forbes, has not been deterred thus far. Ukraine has received significant military weapons from the United States, and President Volodymyr Zelensky's forces appear to have delayed the Russian invasion thus far. However, Kremlin troops entered Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday morning, and it is feared that Putin will take control of Kyiv later that day. The Pentagon's efforts to keep the war from escalating were polished but ultimately ineffective. In an attempt to frighten Putin, US intelligence about Russian army movements before the invasion was disseminated significantly more freely than usual. America also warned Russia about the consequences it would suffer if it invaded, but Putin, who is obsessed with his image, decided to go through anyway, as per Daily Mail. Related Article: Joe Biden Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is the 46th President of the United States? @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Today Partly cloudy. High 77F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow Scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 84F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. The Daily Independents Pet of the Week is Benny. A 6-month-old Cavapoo, Benny loves cheese, going bye-bye and, most importantly, his humans. According to owner Amy Frasure, Benny is a great dog and we just love that hes in our life! Benny is one of hundreds of entries into the newspapers Facebook contest for Pet of the Week and/or Paws Applause. What is happening in Europe today is the most critical military situation that I have seen in my lifetime. Make no mistake: Vladimir Putin's placement of Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent forces on alert is tantamount to threatening the use of nuclear weapons. We must hope that these threats do not materialise, not least because Russia maintains the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world. But could Putin's threat be a strategic bluff? After all, despite his massive military capability, Russian progress in Ukraine's cities has been far slower than he would have liked. Russia's battle plan appears to be a three-pronged assault, striking south from Belarus towards Kyiv, west from the Donbas area and north from Crimea, all assisted by diversionary strikes throughout the country. So, if that is the plan, why have Russian forces not made speedier progress towards achieving their operational objectives? It is quite clear that Russia has invested heavily in its land warfighting capability in recent years and although the West has assisted Ukraine with weapons and training, there is, at least in theory, something of a mismatch in overall land warfare capability between the two protagonists. But below the nuclear threshold, winning the war is not just about troop and tank numbers. In military doctrine, it is held that there are three components of effective fighting power the physical, the conceptual and the moral. The physical component is about the sheer size of a force and with what it is equipped, while the conceptual component is about the skill that goes into the planning of a scheme of manoeuvre, but the third component the moral component may be the eventual battle winner. Vladimir Putin pictured during a visit to the construction site of the National Space Agency on the premises of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre in Moscow on Sunday Napoleon Bonaparte, who knew a thing or two about fighting the Russians, famously opined that 'the moral is to the physical as three is to one'. In that statement, he was prioritising the will of individual soldiers to fight and win over the mathematics of the numbers and the cleverness of the plans. It would seem, so far, that what we are seeing on the battlefield in Ukraine is that the will to win by the Ukrainian forces, aided by their reservists and volunteers, may well be appreciably greater than that of the Russian conscripts who are opposing them. Moreover, in this era of fake news, propaganda and bare-faced lies, one wonders just what the Russian conscripts were told about the operation on which they have embarked. We know that Russian units were conducting major live-firing exercises on their side of the Ukrainian borders for several weeks before the real invasion was launched. But what were their soldiers told before they launched their assaults across the border? Did they know who they were going to fight and why? Were they expecting to advance as liberators or as peacekeepers? Were they expecting Ukrainian forces to welcome them as Slavic brothers or were they expecting their advances to be resisted? On the evidence of the first few days, young Russian conscripts who are dying in large numbers seem woefully unaware of their circumstances. Verified reports are coming to hand of Russian soldiers abandoning their tanks and running for safety in nearby woods, others of tanks running out of fuel and even one report of Ukrainians offering to tow their tanks back to Russia. Even if this latter report is apocryphal, it suggests a dialogue on the battlefield between Russian soldiers and Russian-speaking Ukrainian soldiers. The confusion in the minds of young conscripts must be totally bewildering and utterly demotivating. Moreover, there is a well-documented report of one Russian soldier exclaiming: 'We don't know who to shoot they all look like us!' All this points to an invading army that is unsure of itself, asking questions and lacking focus. And in contrast, of course, the Ukrainian forces know exactly what they are fighting for the freedom of their country and their chosen way of life, and they are fighting with determined commitment. Equally worrying for Putin, bunkered down in the Kremlin, must be reports of popular demonstrations against the war in towns and cities across Russia. 'Not in my name' is an immensely powerful slogan and points the finger of war guilt directly at Putin himself and away from the Russian people. That 3,000 people have been arrested for demonstrating against the war indicates the strength of opposition on the home front. More repression and more arrests are inevitable. Furthermore, reports are now coming in of immigration lawyers in the United States becoming inundated with requests from Russian men and their families asking if the US will grant them political protection amid fears of conscription. Predictions about the outcome of this tragic episode in European history are themselves a hostage to fortune. However, on the evidence presented to date, the morale of the Ukrainian forces and their commitment to the justice of their cause are placing them as the heroes of the hour. Whether their heroism will ultimately triumph or be brutally crushed, only time will tell. But the nuclear shadow remains. If faced with humiliating defeat, one shudders to think what Putin may do. Parents know about the paradox of power, now being demonstrated mercilessly by Vladimir Putin. I am thinking of the fact that a truculent toddler, while notionally far weaker than a grown-up, will typically win in the battle of 'eat your vegetables'. The reason is the toddler is bending every fibre of his being to the matter in hand: it is all he cares about. Russian president Vladimir Putin physically resembles a malevolent toddler Whereas the grown-ups have many greater concerns, which they want to get on with. Besides, they don't really care that much about whether the vegetables are eaten or not. And who cares most, wins. Now consider Vladimir Putin, who physically resembles a malevolent toddler and whose military might is a small fraction of Nato's, his economic resources pitiably smaller than the West's. But Putin is completely obsessed with forcing Ukraine back into Russia's political control, because he regards its desire to become aligned with Europe and Nato as a mortal threat to Russia's future and, indeed, his own. Whereas American and European leaders are not invested with anything like the same passion in the matter of Ukraine. If they really believed that Ukraine's own view of its future relationship with the West was worth fighting for, then they would not have put into suspended animation the process of that country's accession to Nato membership. Hollow It is precisely because European leaders (and, indeed, American ones) did not want to offer a military guarantee of Ukraine's borders that this matter had been put into the political deep-freeze. Ben Wallace was captured on microphone telling his audience: 'Putin has gone full tontoThe Scots Guards kicked the backside of Tsar Nicholas I in 1853 in Crimea we can always do it again.' The Defence Secretary then said of any British involvement the following day: 'To do a no-fly zone, I would have to put British fighter jets directly against Russian fighter jets' Or as William Klein of the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies explained last week: 'The basic truth is that Vladimir Putin was prepared to go to war to advance his interests in Ukraine, whereas the Western countries, including the United States, did not have an interest in going to war with Russia over Ukraine. That's a basic imbalance.' So it was odd vainglorious, even when last week in a meeting at London District, the capital's HQ for British Army units, the Defence Secretary was captured on microphone telling his audience: 'Putin has gone full tontoThe Scots Guards kicked the backside of Tsar Nicholas I in 1853 in Crimea we can always do it again.' Fighting talk by Ben Wallace, himself a former officer in the Scots Guards. But entirely hollow, as he has not the slightest intention of putting British soldiers into Ukraine (though we are supplying what he calls 'lethal aid' to the Ukrainian Army in the form of anti-tank weaponry). Residents preparing Molotov cocktails in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, following Russia's invasion And the next day, when pressed on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme by a Ukrainian MP called Lesia Vasylenko 'We are at war, and what we need now is the closure of the airspace above Ukraine' the Defence Secretary comprehensively ruled out any such British involvement. 'To do a no-fly zone,' Mr Wallace responded, 'I would have to put British fighter jets directly against Russian fighter jets. 'Nato would have to effectively declare war on Russia, because that's what you would do.' It's a perfectly good point: but, Secretary of State, don't then invoke the UK's allegedly glorious role in the Crimean War (which, by the way, led to the loss of the lives of 25,000 British soldiers). Now, however, we are in the nuclear age. And last week, in a televised address, Putin made it clear he would use the ultimate weapon if the West were to attack Russian forces directly in Ukraine, saying: 'Whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to consequences you have never seen in history.' Ukrainian residents pictured preparing Molotov cocktails in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine And yesterday, he announced that he had made the order to 'transfer the deterrence forces of the Russian Army to a special mode of combat duty'. Wallace's observation that Putin has gone 'full tonto' mad, in other words only increases the force of the Russian President's implicit threat to use his nuclear arsenal. But it makes me wonder what Russia's own military think of that. Putin's Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, is the man he trusts most (in so far as he trusts anyone) and was the least unhappy-looking of the participants in that bizarre televised meeting of the Russian President asking his security council to voice their support for a military campaign he had already authorised. Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov issued an extraordinary attack on Putin's plans to invade Ukraine Abandon However, I cannot be the only person who surmised from the extraordinarily accurate British and American published leaks of the nature of Putin's plans to invade the whole of Ukraine, that there were senior figures in the Russian military who had passed on the details in order somehow to stop them happening. At that time, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov (retired) generally known as a hard-liner and who supported the Kremlin's claim that the Kyiv government had committed 'genocide' against Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine issued an extraordinary attack on Putin's plans to invade the country. Entitled 'Appeal of the All-Russian Officers' Assembly to the President and Congress of the Russian Federation', it declared: 'Weofficers of Russia, demand [you] abandon the criminal policy of provoking a war in which the Russian Federation will find itself alone against the combined forces of the West.' Ukrainian soldiers handle equipment from a damaged military vehicle after fighting in Kharkiv Servicemen of pro-Russian militia standing guard outside the Oschad bank branch in Stanytsia Luhanska in the Luhansk region, Ukraine It added: 'The use of military force against Ukraine will forever make Russians and Ukrainians mortal enemiesOn the battlefield, if this happens, Russian troops will face not only Ukrainian military personnel, among whom there will be many Russians, but also military personnel and equipment from many Nato countries, and the member states of the alliance will be obliged to declare war on Russia.' In fact, as the British Defence Secretary has confirmed, Nato will not be declaring war on Russia. Tens of thousands of people attend a pro-Ukraine protest rally in Berlin yesterday But Colonel-General Ivashov's other concern about the consequences for Russian forces on the ground, as they encounter fierce resistance from their fellow Slavs, mostly Russian-speaking, has already been vindicated. And while the Ukrainian release of film of the questioning of captured Russian soldiers is probably in breach of the Geneva Convention, it does reveal just how young and confused these conscripts are. The leading military analyst, Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, wrote last week: 'If, as Putin has consistently claimed, Ukraine is a non-state, an artificial creation, with a government that is illegitimate and controlled by Nazis, then it would not be surprising if he also supposed that ordinary Ukrainians would not fight hard for such an entity. They might even, as the Russian ambassador to the UN suggested, greet the incoming forces as liberators.' One is seen being asked by his captors: 'What do you want to tell your parents?' And he responds, wretchedly: 'Mama, Papa, I didn't want to go. They made me.' Horrifying Putin believes his own lies (the most dangerous thing for a leader surrounded by fearful sycophants) and, having declared that the Kyiv government are 'Nazis who have committed genocide', he probably imagined that his troops would be largely welcomed. Or as the leading military analyst, Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, wrote last week: 'If, as Putin has consistently claimed, Ukraine is a non-state, an artificial creation, with a government that is illegitimate and controlled by Nazis, then it would not be surprising if he also supposed that ordinary Ukrainians would not fight hard for such an entity. 'They might even, as the Russian ambassador to the UN suggested, greet the incoming forces as liberators.' This amounts to an extension of the 'who cares, wins' argument. Specifically: while the invading Russian conscripts will, on meeting unexpected resistance, begin to lose their morale and therefore their desire to fight with complete determination, Ukrainians defending their homeland and their right to live within an independent free nation have the motivation to perform acts of extraordinary courage. As we have seen. And there's only one President Putin (however powerful); the Ukrainians number 44 million, spread across a vast country. Russia's President Vladimir Putin (right front) is seen during a meeting with members of the Russian security council in the Kremlin on February 24 Still, the prospects of an underground war of resistance lasting many years (if Russia succeeds in its aim of installing a puppet, compliant regime in Kyiv) are truly horrifying in terms of suffering and loss of life. A much more desirable end to this would be Putin, in short order, meeting an unfortunate accident in the Kremlin. It is surely what he fears, as evidenced by the physical distance he now puts between himself and any of his colleagues. And no nation would be more blessed by his extinction than Russia herself. As joint Tory Party chairman, the impeccably well-connected businessman Ben Elliot is one of Boris Johnson's most trusted allies. Seen but never heard, Elliot, the nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall, works behind the scenes schmoozing with wealthy Tory donors. But his personal cash-making capacity will be hampered by the Government's crackdown on Russian oligarchs. Elliot is the founder of Quintessentially, an exclusive lifestyle company which provides luxury concierge services including restaurant recommendations and access to high society events. The firm, which has a 1 million government contract, has many super-rich Russian members in the UK, and its Moscow office employs no fewer than 50 lifestyle managers who pledge a 'bespoke luxury lifestyle at our clients' fingertips'. Tory Party chairman Ben Elliot's firm Quintessentially has many super-rich Russian members in the UK, and its Moscow office employs no fewer than 50 lifestyle managers who pledge a 'bespoke luxury lifestyle at our clients' fingertips' The company's Moscow chief Kirill Levadny says: 'Russia is vast and rich, where even the richest have concierge needs. 'It's not enough to have money; one has to have proper contacts to maximise use of that money. At Quintessentially, we know and can connect you to the right people.' Perhaps not for much longer. Matt Hancock, who quit as Health Secretary after he broke social distancing rules with his married lover, was trying to catch the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle's eye during the Living With Covid debate. Turning to Hancock, the Speaker majestically intoned: 'The man for the rules Matt Hancock.' Cue laughter on both sides of the chamber Comics get serious Screenwriter David Baddiel is part of the growing fan club of embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a former comedy actor. 'I have to say that if anyone is looking for a role model for a Jewish comedian able to get serious when necessary, look no further than Volodymyr Zelensky,' he says. It was mercifully only a brief appearance on the BBC's Weakest Link celebrity edition for pompous former Commons Speaker John Bercow. He was voted off after failing to name an extinct animal in a picture section. He said dinosaur, when it was a mammoth. When he left, he said: 'It was an abject humiliation and I feel deeply ashamed.' Pity he didn't feel ashamed when an inquiry upheld 21 complaints of bullying against him. Sophie Howe, the Welsh Labour government's 'Future Generations Commissioner', has called for a trial of a four-day working week in the public sector, which has higher rates of absence than average. Howe thinks it will be popular with staff. Of course it will. But not with the rest of us. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as he updates MPs on the situation in Ukraine Put-down of the week: The increasingly impressive Defence Secretary Ben Wallace swatted away Green MP Caroline Lucas in the debate on Ukraine. 'Time and again, President Putin has ignored international law, ignored human rights, invaded countries, and murdered British people on these streets,' he said. 'All she can do is stand up and tell us we are in the wrong. Perhaps she should go to Moscow and tell it to them.' Lord Palmerston, who became PM during the Crimean War, said: 'The policy ... of the Russian government has always been to push forward its encroachments as fast and as far as the apathy of other governments would allow it to go, but always to stop when met with determined resistance... and then wait for another opportunity.' Little has changed. Andrea's on her best behaviour In a pub in Padstow, Cornwall, last month, former Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, pictured, was overheard opining on her leadership credentials. Former Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, pictured, was overheard opining on her leadership credentials Remarking that she's 'one of only three dames in the parliamentary party', she said she had been advised to sit tight and 'behave herself' while the PM's problems pile up. Leadsom, a Brexiteer who withdrew from the final round of the 2016 leadership contest, publishes her memoirs Snakes And Ladders in May, days after crucial local elections which Boris's leadership depends upon. Will the book be the manifesto for her second leadership bid? Oh, how they sniggered. When famed physical comic Volodymyr Zelensky was elected President of Ukraine in 2019 with over 70 per cent of the vote on an anti-corruption mandate versus his pro-Russia opponent, the mainstream media treated his elevation as, well, a bit of a joke. 'Ukrainians are waking up this morning and discovering that the last few months were not a dream. They really have elected a man who currently stars in a TV series as the president as the country's next real president,' the BBC sneered in the hours after his historic election, having previously described him as 'clueless'. Commentators were even harsher. The famous Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko wrote: 'I hear an offscreen laugh of scriptwriters who have conjured all this plot for stupid Ukrainians.' No one is laughing at Zelensky now. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the nation on TV in Kyiv last Friday The Ukrainian president has proven he's nothing like our craven modern politicians who don't give a damn about the folk they represent; so much so that he's prepared to die alongside his fellow Ukrainians to defend the capital Kyiv against the near certain upcoming onslaught from Vladimir Putin. When the 44-year-old received an offer of evacuation from US authorities this weekend, with Russian troops continuing to encircle Kyiv, he delivered a line straight from a Hollywood action movie: 'We need ammo, not a ride.' Who believes that would be the response from a snivelling Macron, pampered Trudeau or braindead Biden in the same circumstances? It certainly wasn't the response by Afghanistan's former president Ashraf Ghani who jumped on a US helicopter full of cash out of Kabul last year before it was even officially confirmed the Taliban were nearby. No wonder Boris Johnson remarked after a recent phone call with Zelensky: 'Jesus, that guy is brave.' Because be in no doubt that the lives of Zelensky, his screenwriter wife Olena Zelenska and two children, daughter Aleksandra, 17, and son Kiril, nine, are now unquestionably on the line. Volodymyr Zelenskiy is pictured in March 2019 at a comedy show in Brovary (left) and after the first exit poll in the presidential election in Kyiv two days later (right) They're Putin's 'number one targets', with a death order being given to 400 brutal Russian mercenaries already operating in the city, who have express orders from the Kremlin to assassinate Zelensky, according to The Times today. In a twist no scriptwriter could have predicted, Zelensky once a comic star in Russia, the country now out to kill him has become the world's heroic leading man. It's Zelensky's career in showbiz he also won the local version of Strictly Come Dancing and is the Ukrainian voice of Paddington that has helped Ukraine win the propaganda effort hands down. His powerful oratory via official channels and social media has already changed the course of this conflict. Indeed, some of his speeches over the past week have been so powerful that TV translators have had to stop talking because they can't contain their emotions. Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in the Kremlin in Moscow last Monday There was his savage taunt to Putin: 'When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs.' Or his address to the Munich Security Conference on February 19, where he helped the world wake up to the coming horrors by saying: 'When a bomb crater appears in a school playground, children have a question: 'Has the world forgotten the mistakes of the 20th Century?' Indifference makes you an accomplice.' And when the Russian disinformation campaign suggested Zelensky had fled the capital, he simply took his mobile phone to the streets and made a selfie video to reassure his people he wasn't going anywhere. 'We're all here. Our military is here. Citizens in society are here. We're all here defending our independence, our country and it will stay this way,' he insisted. Then there's the video call with EU leaders reluctant to enter the conflict soon after the Russian invasion, where he warned them: 'This might be the last time you see me alive.' These are all the sorts of powerful lines that could have been uttered by his character Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko in the TV series Servant of the People, which ended in 2019, where his character, a teacher, became the president after a rant he made about corruption went viral after being posted on the internet by his students. A Ukrainian soldier stands at Maidan Nezalezhnost (Independence Square) in Kyiv today As politicians around the world, from Sleepy Joe Biden to Mr Blackface Authoritarian Justin Trudeau, become more of a joke AFTER they take office, Zelensky has morphed from comedian to statesman over the course of just a few weeks. Compare Zelensky's rhetoric with that of Britain's MI6 chief Richard Moore. Moore has spent the crisis talking about gay rights for some unknown reason, unfathomably tweeting: 'With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights.' WTAF? No wonder Putin and China's Jinping continue to treat us with such disdain. But in hardman Zelensky dressed in his green military fatigues, showing off a body once toned on Dancing With The Stars Putin has encountered a far tougher opponent. His authenticity and ability to speak directly to Russians in their language has convinced many to support his cause, helping lead to large illegal anti-war protests on the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg. A car which was destroyed by recent shelling in the outskirts of Kyiv is pictured today Zelensky's personal story has also helped repudiate Putin's propaganda campaign that the first illegal invasion of a sovereign country by a superpower in 80 years is all down to ridding Ukraine of Nazis. He is from a Jewish family and his grandfather Semyon Ivanovych was the only one of his four brothers to survive the Holocaust, with the others all killed by Nazis. As an incredulous Zelensky has pointed out: 'How can I be a Nazi? Explain it to my grandfather, who went through the entire war in the infantry of the Soviet army and died a colonel in an independent Ukraine.' Zelensky most famous before the war for starring in that infamous phone call with Donald Trump that resulted in the US president's political impeachment in the house had been down in the polls before Putin decided to go to war with Ukraine, having been unable to stamp out the country's rampant corruption as promised. His close relationship with the billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi raised eyebrows and critics believe he surrounded himself with too many pro-Russian, anti-Western advisers who may have wrongly convinced him that war could be averted, despite intelligence from the UK and US to the contrary. But none of that matters now. Leaders are judged by history on their actions in wartime. And Zelensky's approach has been highly effective, garnering tougher sanctions, more military supplies and piling the pressure on the West to man the hell up and stop appeasing Putin. His history-making news clips posted directly to social media have seen his followers soar, with over three million on Twitter and 12 million on Instagram. Volodymyr Zelensky gives a speech as he takes the oath of office during his inauguration ceremony at the parliament in Kyiv on May 20, 2019 Like Donald Trump before him, he has the authenticity so lacking in our modern-day politicians, who seem to have become paranoid, scripted robots. Biden couldn't even get through a press conference on the conflict without breaking into inappropriate smirks, for God's sake. Zelensky is rightly now a global hero, but whether he survives the war is impossible to predict, given Putin who runs a well-oiled international killing machine wants him dead. Perhaps what's most heart-warming is that Zelensky never needed to enter politics; he had national superstardom, millions in the bank, luxury villas and a highly successful career in Russia, until he donated money to help support the Ukrainian army in 2014. Zelensky once said: 'You don't need experience to be president. You just need to be a decent human being.' And it's that innate decency which is why he'd rather die alongside his citizens in Kyiv than cut and run on a US helicopter. I pray that this inspirational figure can lead Ukraine out of this quagmire the world will be a better place for it. Prince Andrew, who turned 62 on Saturday, is reported to be dealing with the public humiliation of the 12 million ($16 Million) sex case settlement, according to a source. His old military friend claims that the Duke of York is "broken" after his reputation was left in ruins following the multi-million-pound out-of-court settlement with his accuser Virginia Giuffre. The Queen chose to deprive her son of his remaining military affiliations and patronages before the issue was concluded, and she forced him to stop using the title of His Royal Highness in any official capacity. To cheer him up, Prince Andrew was allowed to preserve his title of Vice-Admiral. Prince Andrew Broken After Legal Settlement The Vice-Admiral rank is Prince Andrew's only armed forces honorary title, and it is equivalent to an Army Lieutenant General, according to the source, which is the same as an honorary degree for service in the Royal Navy during the Falklands War. When they knew Andrew, the source stated he wasn't a horrible person, but he did have some entitlement issues. Roberts and Prince Andrew settled out of court earlier this month, but it's unclear whether the Queen, who is reported to favor Prince Andrew, is helping him pay the bill, which includes a 2 million ($2.6 million) donation to Ms. Roberts' organization that supports victims of sexual assault and trafficking. Despite promising to fight Roberts' charges in the civil action launched in New York and constantly claiming his innocence, Prince Andrew agreed to pay the substantial fee to settle the matter before it went to a jury, according to Daily Mail. The Duke of York is supposed to be in such a bad mood that he has been granted the title of Vice Admiral to cheer him up. During the uproar over allegations that he had sex with a trafficked girl in London - which he categorically rejects - Prince Andrew was deprived of his other titles, as per Mirror. Read Also: Bill Gates Reveals 1 Way to Prevent Next Pandemic After COVID-19: Be Like Australia MPs Can't Probe Prince Andrew's Sex Abuse Settlement Spending MPs have been prevented from investigating if public funds were used to pay off Prince Andrew's sex allegation. They are unable to discuss royalty in the Commons due to bizarre ancient rules. However, one MP is now requesting that a minister appears before the House to declare that no money from the public's Sovereign Grant was used to recompense Virginia Giuffre, 38. Andy McDonald, a Labor MP, has written to Minister Steve Barclay, requesting confirmation that no taxpayer funds were utilized. Prince Andrew's Honorary Freedom of York, which he has held since 1987, will be removed, according to Lib Dem councilors. He is also being pressured to relinquish his Duke of York. In light of the out-of-court settlement agreed with Virginia Giuffre, Labor MP Rachael Maskell, who represents York Central, thinks Prince Andrew must disassociate himself from the city, The Sun reported. Related Article: Prince Harry Seems Unhappy at LA Super Bowl Appearance With Princess Eugenie, Body Language Experts Says @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Some scams today are extremely sophisticated. But these exchanges prove that's certainly not the case for all of them. People from around the world have shared how they exposed hapless would-be con artists in hilarious fashion over text, including one man who tricked the sender into thinking he had applied for a gambling site. The best examples were shared in a Bored Panda gallery, including someone who was left in hysterics when 'Kelly Rowland' got in touch on Instagram and said she needed money for a 'plain ticket' so Destiny's Child could fly to a gig. Another was contacted by a fraudster posing as Lady Gaga. Here, FEMAIL reveals some of the most amusing examples... A-list contacts: Bored Panda has rounded up a selection of messages sent by the world's worst scammers, including one who claimed to be both Kelly Rowland and Beyonce Calling their bluff! An individual, who lives in the US, challenged a scam artist who was trying to blackmail them without any evidence of the photos they claimed to have Block and delete! Another person, from America, tried to convince a scammer that they had committed murder to scare them into stopping messages Two can play at that game: A scammer who tried to trick a British mobile phone user into clicking a link was left begging not to be charged after the situation was reversed Fan fiction! One person was amused by a scammer claiming to be multi-millionaire Lady Gaga in need of US dollars to continue making music Be careful what you ask for... Another individual terrified a scammer into leaving them alone by claiming that their parents had committed a murder A taste of your own medicine: A person in the US turned the tables on a scammer who sent them a suspicious link to get their personal information 'You under the rest...' One scam artist failed to con an individual in the UK with their poor spelling and grammar, while demanding an iTunes gift card Quick thinking! A man, who lives in England, was able to catch a scammer in their lie after tracking their IP address ASDA's lingerie collaboration with a plus-size model has sparked a debate among shoppers after some accuse the retailer of dressing her in pieces that are too small. Model Olivia Campbell, from London, who has been featured by ASDA numerous times on its feed, was photographed wearing two separate lingerie sets, in green and pink. But the snaps shared by ASDA on its George Instagram feed garnered criticism - with commentators saying the model was made to wear ill-fitting garments that looked uncomfortable. However, many commentators pointed out that the underwear fits Olivia as it should, and the confusion highlights the need for more visible models with bigger bodies in advertising and media. ASDA faced some backlash over its advertising campaign featuring photos of plus size model Olivia Campbell, with some accusing the retailer of dressing her in ill-fitting clothing However, many bigger bodied people stepped into the discussion to say that the underwear does fit, and looks comfortable Commentators said they thought promoting a positive body image was a good move by ASDA - but claimed the model's clothing appears ill-fitting One said: 'I'm all for promoting a positive body image, but this doesn't even fit her!' Another added: 'It would be helpful if they were properly fitting items. I'm all for curvy models and she's gorgeous, but those pieces do not fit her properly.' And a third wrote: 'Oh dear god no, those pants are awful, why can't you show proper pants that , the must be so uncomfortable.. if you want to show plus size models please get them clothes that fit.' However, others insisted that what's needed is more visibility of plus-size bodies in advertising, with one saying: 'The knickers fit... this is just what our fat bodies look like when we wear high leg knickers the same way everyone else does on social media. Lots of people felt Olivia looked great in the pictures, but highlighted how uncomfortable they thought the underwear looked 'This comment section is *exactly* why we need to normalise fat bodies by increasing representation everywhere.' Another Instagram user added: 'Where are people looking? I'm so confused! She's plus size, knickers sit differently, they're not too small at all. This is how I wear mine and they are incredibly comfortable. I'm sure if the set didn't fit she would have said something.' And one commentator simply said: 'She looks beautiful the negative comments are really not needed. If you can't say anything nice then don't say anything. Be Kind.' Numerous people disagreed with comments saying the clothing didn't fit Olivia, with some pointing out that underwear can sit differently on bigger bodies Olivia, who has 200,000 Instagram followers and describes herself as a 'baddie with a belly', regularly posts images of herself in fashionable outfits. She says it's her 'mission' to help people 'fall in love' with themselves, and is regularly praised by her following for her style and confidence. Posting the images on her own Instagram, in an advertising post, Olivia praised the lingerie line. She wrote: 'I am feeling fabulous today! @GeorgeatAsda have released three empower poses. And I was the lucky babe that got to try on all their lovely lingerie and show you my favourite, which is the Flamingo pose. Now I feel like the ultimate boss babe.' Speaking about the images, a spokesperson for ASDA said: 'The new George lingerie campaign highlights a positive message around both diversity and inclusion. 'We strongly believe that people from all walks of life should be represented equally and do not tolerate abusive comments directed towards any group of people including those featured on our social media channels.' A man has been branded an 'absolute a*****e' after he upgraded his economy ticket to business class for a 12-hour flight - but left his wife in their original cabin. The anonymous man, 25, who lives in Japan, explained on Reddit that he and his wife, 24, were going to the US for a month for a holiday and originally booked to sit together. However he had the option of using air miles to upgrade his ticket to business class and took the opportunity. He seemed surprised that his wife was 'upset' by his decision and took to the online forum to ask if he was 'being an a*****e'. A man has been branded an 'absolute a*****e' after he upgraded his economy ticket to business class for a 12-hour flight - but left his wife in their original cabin. Stock image The anonymous man, 25, who lives in Japan, explained on Reddit that he and his wife, 24, were going to the US for a month for a holiday and originally booked to sit together He continued: 'I told her that and she got upset because she thinks I chose business class over her and that's rude apparently. I said to her that she's just jealous (in a teasing joking way) and she got upset and told me to ask the airline to see if I can switch my seat back to economy. 'I said hell no because I'm not going to miss my opportunity to sit in business class (which looks amazing btw, look up ANA the room). In my eyes, it's just a 12 hour flight and it doesn't matter if I sit next to my wife or not. 'If it's really bad though I still have a week before my flight to maybe get it changed. AITA [am I the a*****e]?' The post was flooded with 2,200 comments responding to the original post, with the Reddit community in uproar and disbelief that the man couldn't see how selfish it was to prioritise himself with the business class upgrade. Reddit users did not like his excuses and were quick to slam him for his selfish behaviour One person wrote: 'YTA [you're the a*****e]. You literally ditched your wife and then mocked her. You are absolutely the a*****e here and she is completely right to be upset. Another said: 'I would be extraordinarily upset. 'I'll go enjoy my flight from this amazing seat, good luck back there cramped with strangers, lol! I'll let you know how my drinks and full lounging chair are!' 'For a TWELVE HOUR cross continental flight. What an AH [a*****e]. YTA [you're the a*****e] and you'd better do some groveling here, or be prepared to pay for this down the line, because I guarantee you will.' Another user was confused, as many were, as to why the 25-year-old husband would want to sit with strangers as opposed to his wife: 'Why wouldn't you want to cuddle, talk, and be with your wife too? Aren't one of the perks of marriage never having to be alone on a plane again lol.' Many Reddit users couldn't believe that the man couldn't see how selfish it was to prioritise himself with the business class upgrade Another Reddit user put herself in the situation to demonstrate how she and her husband would have dealt with it: 'If this happened with my hubby & I, he would have immediately paid to upgrade my seat. Then been like 'babe we got 2 upgrades for the price of 1!' 'OP [original poster] - I can't believe you think you are right here. You even were bragging about the benefits you were getting in this post. I mean, if it's only 12 hours, as you say, then what's the big deal about the benefits? 'Or why couldn't you just use the upgrade for her seat? You know you're being a hypocrite in your argument to your wife, you just don't care because you're selfishly making the decision about what's best for you.' One said he would always prioritise his wife: 'If there's only one upgrade my Mrs would be offered it first. Then she would knock it back bc she would prefer to be with me than comfortable alone. 'Which is sort of what marrying someone is meant to mean, don't you think? I wouldn't cash in miles until there was enough to either. You don't know how to be married at all.' One husband said that by taking the seat for himself, he automatically tells his wife that he prioritises himself over his wife, sending her a clear message: 'YTA [you're the a**hole]. Business class comes with more space, better service, and a quieter atmosphere. 'You're sending a message to your wife that you deserve all that but she doesn't. Why didn't you upgrade both seats so you could both have the better experience?' Another added onto the selfish string of comments: 'YTA [you're the a**hole]. Either upgrade both seats or neither, upgrading just yours comes across as very selfish. ''Just' a 12 hour flight isn't a sentence I hear that often, I've done 12 hour flights several times and they suck even when you have company you love. That flight is going to be even more awful for your wife if she's stuck next to a stranger. 'Whether you understand why or not your wife has made it clear how she feels and YTA if you ignore that.' The original poster later updated and explained he had seen the error of his ways. He posted: 'Edit: yeah I'm the AH [a**hole], I'm buying her the upgrade to sit next to me in business I offered to switch seats but she really wanted to sit next to me I guess. 'Edit 2: since so many are asking, they were my miles and I couldn't use them to upgrade her seat.' Carla Bruni has hailed her husband Nicolas Sarkozy 'gentle, kind and sexy' as she opened up about their 14-year marriage. The former French First Lady, 54, is married to Sarkozy, who served as France's president from 2007 to 2012 and is currently under house arrest in Paris for allegedly knowingly exceeding his spending limits during his 2012 presidential bid. The mother-of-two says that while her husband has a 'super alpha' attitude and likes to be in control of the situation, the pair rarely argue because they're both 'intense people' who keep things 'very positive'. In an interview with The Sunday Times, she said: 'He is super alpha, directing everything, taking control of everything'. Carla Bruni has hailed her husband Nicolas Sarkozy 'gentle, kind and sexy' as she opened up about their 14-year marriage. Pictured, the couple at an event in Doha in March 2019 Former French First Lady Carla Bruni, pictured in 2019, said she and Nicolas hardly ever argue 'That's why he became the president because he has this temperament. 'But he doesn't need a country, he does it anyway. He's also the gentlest and kindest man in the world. And he's so sexy.' In the 1980s, the Italian-born beauty was a hot commodity in the fashion world and walked for LaCroix and Chloe, among others, before beginning a career in music. Carla met Nicolas, who has three other children from previous relationships, at a dinner party in 2007 and instantly hit it off. Following a whirlwind relationship the couple married three months later, and share a daughter Giulia, ten, while Carla has a son, Aurelien Enthoven, 21, from a previous relationship. Sarkozy was handed a 12-month sentence by a judge after being found guilty of illegal campaign financing in the 2012 election. Carla met Nicolas, who has three other children from previous relationships, at a dinner party in 2007 and instantly hit it off. The couple are pictured in 2009 The judge at Paris's Correctional Court said the 66-year-old, who held office from 2007 to 2012, could serve his term from home - where he will have to wear an ankle bracelet. Prosecutors had been asking for at least six months of actual jail time for Sarkozy, along with a six-month suspended sentence. His legal team have filed an appeal, which effectively suspends the sentence until their case is heard. The most recent sentence comes six months after Sarkozy was handed another one-year jail term with two years suspended for trying to bribe a judge. At the time, Bruni called the verdict 'senseless harassment' while vowing to fight on so 'truth will see the light'. Sarkozy's legal team have also lodged an appeal in that case, meaning he remains a free man for the time being. His legal woes are set to continue, however, with more corruption cases pending including allegations that he received millions in laundered money from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. A Woolworths customer has urged the supermarket giant to 'recheck its milk supply' after claiming he purchased a three litre carton that had already expired two weeks prior. The father-of-two from NSW shared a photo of the expired Dairy Farmers Full Cream Milk along with the receipt. On the carton the 'use by' date read February 8, but the shopper claims he purchased the milk on the 22nd, as issued on the receipt. A father-of-two from New South Wales claims he a 3L carton of milk from Woolworths that had already expired two weeks prior 'Heads up, you might want to get your staff at the Wetherill Park store to recheck their milk supply,' he wrote on the official Woolworths Facebook page. 'Just bought it an hour ago. Please keep in mind today's the 22nd. 'I tried to reach out to the store multiple times with no success. Phone kept ringing out.' The dad was criticised online by one person who questioned why he didn't check the date in store beforehand. But he quickly hit back and wrote: 'Well when you are juggling little kids and the shopping, you try and do your best. 'The issue I have is it shouldn't be my job to ensure [Woolworths] staff are doing their job! 'Would you go and check the use by date on your MacDonald's meal?' A Woolworths spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia all milk stock at the store in question is now in date. 'We take food safety and quality very seriously and are disappointed to see the customer's report,' the spokesperson said. 'We've followed this up with our Wetherill Park store team who checked all current stock of milk. 'Every product is within its use-by date. 'We're looking into this instance further and are working through a resolution with the customer involved.' Every week Woolworths supermarkets serve more than 20 million customers. Advertisement These Hollywood A-listers certainly made a style statement at the SAG Awards on Sunday - but for all the wrong reasons. While some of the film and TV industry's brightest stars put their best fashion foot forward as they turned out for the award ceremony at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica - others completely missed the mark in seriously questionable outfits. Killing Eve's Sandra Oh, 50, opted for a silver eye-catching Caroline Herrera gown and walked the red carpet in the metallic plunging number, embellished with several layers. Meanwhile British actress Naomi Watts and US tennis player Venus Williams both stepped out in dramatically cut-out ensembles that showcased their svelte frames. Men on the red carpet were just as guilty of crimes against fashion, with House of Gucci's Jared Leto and Hamilton alum Daveed Diggs turning heads for the wrong reasons. These Hollywood A-listers certainly made a style statement at the SAG Awards on Sunday - but for all the wrong reasons. Pictured, left to right: Naomi Watts, Sandra Oh and Venus Williams Risk taker: Jared Leto wore a light blue silk suit with a matching vest over a beige blouse as well as semi-sheer gloves and a burgundy velvet bow Glamour puss: Naomi Watts, 53, opted for a black Fendi floor-length dress with cut-out detail at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday What the frock: Sandra Oh's sparkly, silver gown didn't appear to hit the fashion mark. The sleeveless gown bared plenty of skin thanks to the barely-there bodice. The skirt then fell from the waist in voluminous tiers and pooled around her feet as she posed for photos Adventurous: Venus Williams sported a futuristic, one-shoulder gown, which left her red leg exposed, with a silver corset top Some of Hollywood's biggest names completely missed the mark with their outfits - including Shari Belafonte, who had a disastrous fashion faux pas in a bright pink shirt and pants combo, metallic sneakers, and a long scarf, which she draped over her shoulder. She also donned a big, silver, lion brooch in the center of the outfit. But The Midnight Hour star was by no means the only celebrity whose look flopped at this year's awards, as there were a slew of style fails. From ridiculously-large bows to barely-there gowns, there wasn't a shortage of sartorial nightmares on the SAG red carpet. Jada Pinkett Smith topped the worst-dressed list in a long, navy blue gown with a turtleneck and black sleeves. The actress, who shaved off her hair last summer, paired the look with an extravagant diamond necklace. Jada Pinkett Smith made the worst-dressed list at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, which took place at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California Cynthia Erivo - who was nominated for her role as Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha - wore a red, leather Louis Vuitton gown, which might have worked had she not paired it with an over-the-top fur coat Commanding attention: Cynthia's figure-hugging garment featured a sweetheart neckline. The film star added to outfit with a pair of diamond earrings A little off: Caitriona Balfe looked spectacular in a long sleeve, bright red gown with thigh-high slit - however it appears it could've fit slightly better Maggie Gyllenhaal, who made her directorial debut with The Lost Daughter last year, wore a strapless black gown with a beaded bodice Glamour: Juno Temple showed off her sense of style in a shimmering gold gown with questionable structured shoulders While chatting with Laverne Cox on the red carpet, she said the dress was something she had 'bought a while ago.' 'It's vintage. It's something I bought a while ago,' she said. 'I had it in the closet and I was like, ya know what, I think girl is ready for the SAG Awards.' The Goodwin Games' Melissa Tang donned a weirdly-patterned, rainbow lace dress - which was not successful, especially due to the feathers which lined the top and bottom. Cynthia Erivo - who was nominated for her role as Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha - on the other hand, wore a red, leather Louis Vuitton gown, which might have worked had she not paired it with an over-the-top fur coat. Oh no: Melissa Tang donned a weirdly-patterned, rainbow, lace dress which was not a favorite - especially due to the red feathers which lined the top and bottom. She paired the look with studded heals and a gold clutch Actress Jean Smart's maroon number had enormous and awkward ruffles surrounding the entire neck line, pictured left, while Emmy Raver-Lampman's black gown was another fashion fail due to the enormous ruffles, centre, and Mira Sorvino was spotted at the event sporting a blue, unbuttoned pants suit which showed a rhinestone bra peaking through, right No thanks: Jackie Hoffman also made a questionable style choice in a leopard print, orange gown with comfy black shoes Sunnyside alum Poppy Liu wore a ruffled black dress with white feathers poking out all over, left, and Piper Perabo's white, strapless dress contained a bizarre piece of fabric awkwardly hanging from the front, centre, while South Korean actress Kim Joo-ryoung, who is known for her role in the Squid Games, also topped the worst-dressed list in a eye-popping pink, white, and blue gown, right South Korean singer Jihae arrived in a gold, patterned dress which contained one giant ruffled sleeve Sunnyside alum Poppy Liu wore a ruffled black dress with white feathers poking out all over, and it was not a favorite; while Sandra Oh's frocked dress was also unpopular. Actress, singer, and comedian Jackie Hoffman also made a questionable style choice in a leopard print, orange gown. She paired the outfit with a frumpy black purse and casual shoes, which appeared to be more fitting for a trip to the beach. Venus Williams bared it all in a Dolce & Gabbana white and silver gown, which had a thigh-high slit that went so high, it almost showed off her derriere. She paired the look with Stuart Weitzman heels. Suits galore: Hamilton alum Daveed Diggs was all smiles as he posed on the red carpet in his patterned suit, but the paisley look didn't hit the mark, left, while Yellowstone actress Jennifer Landon's floral pants suit was a little too bright, right Canadian actress Amanda Brugel was seen in a white, oversized dress which fit quite awkwardly on her frame, left, and Victoria Tate's pink gown looked like it needed a good ironing, centre, while Amy Ryan had on a sheer, black dress - which contained sequins throughout and two bright orange leafs on each shoulder, right Ariana DeBose's dress contained a very large and awkward piece of fabric on the side, which made the whole look slightly unflattering Coyote Ugly star Piper Perabo's white, strapless dress contained a bizarre piece of fabric, which awkwardly hung from the front. South Korean actress Kim Joo-ryoung, who is known for her role in the Squid Games, also topped the worst-dressed list in a jarring pink, white, and blue gown. Her choice in color ensured that all eyes would be on her. Jennifer Landon's eye-popping floral pants suit was also a little too bright, while Canadian actress Amanda Brugel was seen in a white, oversized dress which fit quite awkwardly on her frame. Ariana DeBose's bright pink Valentino dress contained a very large and awkward piece of fabric on the side, which made the whole look slightly unflattering. The actress' role as Anita in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story garnered her a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. Amy Ryan had on a sheer, black dress - which contained sequined patterns throughout and two bright orange designs on each shoulder. Advertisement A unique mansion which was once an average suburban home has been transformed into an opulent cave-like palace that looks as if it is decked out with floor-to-ceiling marble. The house, dubbed 'Ruin X', is located in the southern Gold Coast suburb of Burleigh Heads, minutes from pristine beaches, and features a fully smooth rendered interior and exterior, very on-trend curves and a light earthy palette. It has been called one of the hottest houses in Australia right now after it became the most viewed listing on realestate.com.au this week and drew in hundreds of likes and comments on social media. After: A one-of-kind home, dubbed 'Ruin X', is located in the southern Gold Coast suburb of Burleigh Heads, minutes from pristine beaches, and features a fully smooth rendered interior and exterior, very on-trend curves and a light earthy palette Before: Owners and renovators, Matt Jamieson and Emma Sweeny, from Project X have made the original home completely unrecognisable from the work of art is it now A cave-like entry way with an arched glass door leads to the show-stopping kitchen, living and dining area inside The property was once an average suburban home and has been transformed into an opulent cave-like palace that looks as if it is decked out with floor-to-ceiling marble Owners and renovators Matt Jamieson and Emma Sweeny from Project X have made the original home completely unrecognisable from the work of art is it now. A cave-like entry way with an arched glass door leads to the show-stopping kitchen, living and dining area inside. The spectacular kitchen has four-metre high ceilings, Italian marble benchtops and luxe brushed cooper fittings adding to the grandeur of the home and the statement crystal chandelier in the formal lounge room that oozes Hollywood glamour. The spectacular kitchen has four-metre high ceilings, Italian marble benchtops and luxe brushed cooper fittings adding to the grandeur of the home The statement crystal chandelier in the formal lounge room that oozes Hollywood glamour Making stone look cosy is the stunning lounge room with warm bespoke lighting and Mediterranean-influenced quirky shaped recesses to display trinkets The dining area opens out onto the incredible backyard with checkered pavers and grass, a sparkling rounded pool with its own rendered diving board and a covered arched alfresco area with a built-in bar Making stone look cosy is the stunning lounge room with warm bespoke lighting and Mediterranean-influenced quirky shaped recesses to display trinkets. The dining area opens out onto the incredible backyard with checkered pavers and grass, a sparkling rounded pool with its own rendered diving board and a covered arched alfresco area with a built-in bar. Back inside the house, the palatial master bedroom has high angled ceilings and a statement built-in bedframe with a curved head in keeping with the home's aesthetic. Back inside the house, the palatial master bedroom has high angled ceilings and a statement built-in bedframe with a curved head in keeping with the home's aesthetic It also has its own access to the outside bar and seating, arched doorways leading to a walk-in wardrobe that is every fashion-lover's dream with built-in shelving and a luxurious ensuite featuring golden sinks, taps and mirrors a huge free standing bathtub and open shower The four-bedroom, two-bathroom property is on the market and set to go under the hammer on March 13 It also has its own access to the outside bar and seating, arched doorways leading to a walk-in wardrobe that is every fashion-lover's dream with built-in shelving and a luxurious ensuite featuring golden sinks, taps and mirrors a huge free standing bathtub and open shower. There are also three more bedroom with bronzed glass built-in robes and a second lavish bathroom with a high end fit-out. Images of the house on social media have been drawing in hundreds of impressed comments from users who love the 'seriously stunning' style and are likening it to The Flintstones. There are also three more bedroom with bronzed glass built-in robes and a second lavish bathroom with a high end fit-out Images of the house on social media have been drawing in hundreds of impressed comments from users who love the 'seriously stunning' style and are likening it to The Flintstones Social media is abuzz after images of the one-of-a-kind home were posted on Instagram by real estate agents and the home's renovators 'Looks like something from Greece - wow. Amazing' one person said. 'Such a cool and unique look. Love the big palm trees!' commented another. 'Wow. What an amazing home. Reminds me of the flintstone era. I love it! This is what you call a home!,' wrote a third. The four-bedroom, two-bathroom property is on the market and set to go under the hammer on March 13. To view the listing, click here. Advertisement Fran Drescher, 64, showed off her stunning figure on the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet in a stylish, tight, black gown alongside her ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson. The actress was glowing in the floor-length, figure-hugging dress, as she attended the 28th annual SAG Awards on Sunday, February 27 at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California. She donned an embroidered Reem Acra number for the star-studded event, which also saw the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, and more. Fran Drescher, 64, showed off her stunning figure on the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet in a stylish, tight, black gown The actress was glowing in the floor-length, figure-hugging dress, as she attended the 28th annual SAG Awards on Sunday, February 27 at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California She donned an embroidered Reem Acra number for the star-studded event, which also saw the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, and more The dress contained long sleeves which draped down to the floor, as well as a ruffled strip across the top, which was covered in sparkly gems. She completed the look with gold earrings and a small, black purse. Her long tresses were pulled back in a stylish up-do, and as for her makeup, she rocked a smokey black eye and a shiny nude lip. She was all smiles as she graced the red carpet in the elegant look. In a video shared to her Instagram account, The Nanny star gave fans an inside look at how she prepared for the awards show, and according to Fran, it took three hours for her team to complete her hair and makeup. The dress contained long sleeves which draped down to the floor, as well as a ruffled strip across the top, which was covered in sparkly gems. She completed the look with gold earrings and a small, black purse Her long tresses were pulled back in a stylish up-do, and as for her makeup, she rocked a smokey black eye and a shiny nude lip. She is pictured with actress Cynthia Erivo on the red carpet Fran became the President of the SAG-AFTRA in September of last year. In an interview with People, the 64-year-old said she was 'honored' to be at the event, and to 'celebrate all this wonderful talent' She was accompanied by her ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, 64, whom she split from 1999. He donned a black suit, and gold tie for the show In a video shared to her Instagram account, The Nanny star gave fans an inside look at how she prepared for the awards show, and according to Fran, it took her three hours to complete her hair and makeup She was accompanied by her ex-husband, Peter, 64, whom she split from 1999. He donned a black suit, and gold tie for the show. Fran and Peter were high school sweethearts and married when they were 21 years old. Despite them divorcing more than 20 years ago, Fran and Peter (who came out as gay afterwards) have remained close - with her calling him her 'best friend' in 2018. Fran became the President of the SAG-AFTRA in September of last year. While chatting to People on the red carpet, the 64-year-old couldn't contain her excitement for the awards show. 'Everyone is saying, "Madam President" and, "I voted for you," and, "I'm so happy that you're our president,"' she gushed. 'I'm honored to be here and to celebrate all this wonderful talent. It's a great evening. There are incredible stars that are coming tonight and incredible movies and ensemble casts and it's just going to be wonderful stargazing. 'It goes fast, it's two hours, you're in, you're out. It's jam-packed from beginning to end.' 'They put me all together and it only took three hours,' she said in the clip, as her makeup artist could be seen putting on the final touches.' Iconic Australian confectionery brand Life Savers has delighted shoppers by releasing a range of new flavours and chocolate treats. Customers across the country can take a trip down memory lane with the selection of seven different products embracing the nostalgic flavours - including Life Savers STIX Sherbert Fizz, Life Savers Fruit Tingles and Life Savers Gummy Rings Duo. There's also green apple and raspberry flavoured tubes, jelly beans, gummy fruit pastilles and chocolate balls. The new Life Savers packets cost between $4 and $5 with all options are now available in Coles, Woolworths and IGA. Customers around Australia can take a trip down memory lane as confectionery brand Life Savers has released a range of new flavours and chocolate treats (pictured) The new Life Savers packets cost between $4 and $5 with all options are now available in Coles, Woolworths and IGA The Life Savers Gummy Rings Duo and Life Savers Jelly Beans will likely be popular among customers, offering the classic five flavours of raspberry, pineapple, orange, watermelon, and blackcurrant in different forms. For the first time, shoppers can also get their hands on Life Savers Fruit Tingles Chocolate Balls and Chocolate Blocks combined with Darrell Lea Milk Chocolate. Aimee Cutajar, Senior Marketing Manager at Life Savers said: 'There's nothing like a Life Saver to take you back to childhood.' 'We know Life Savers serve a very special place in the hearts of generations of Aussies, and we hope that as we kick off a new century, children and adults alike now get to enjoy a twist on the original as much as we enjoyed creating it.' The Life Savers Gummy Rings Duo (pictured) and Life Savers 5 Flavours Jelly Beans will likely be popular among customers Today, Life Savers is made in Australia with more than 11 million packs of this lovable lolly produced and sold each year Life Savers was originally created by Clarence Crane in 1912 in the USA, but thousands of Aussies fell in love with the sweet candy too. The first Life Savers factory was established in Australia in 1921 on Parramatta Road in Sydney and over the years a multitude of new flavours were introduced. Today, Life Savers is made in Australia with more than 11 million packs of this lovable lolly produced and sold each year. A mum with 44L breasts that give her back pain so severe she 'can't even do the school run' has revealed that she is being forced to fundraise 8,000 for private surgery after being rejected for a reduction of the NHS. Jacqui Fowler, 34, from Luton, Bedfordshire, says she is in agony every day due to debilitating back pain. At 5 foot tall, she currently weights 15st 11lbs giving her a BMI of 46. To qualify for surgery on the NHS you have to have a BMI of under 26, but Jacqui claims its impossible to lose weight due to fibromyalgia and sciatica make exercise too difficult. Her partner, who she has asked to to be named, has to do the school run for her eight-year-old daughter so that Jacqui can conserve her energy to get through the day. 'All I want is to move around more freely without horrible pain,' she explained. 'I also want to blend into the crowd in the street instead of always being leered at and stared at by men'. A mum with 44L breasts that give her back pain so severe she 'can't even do the school run' has revealed that she is being forced to fundraise 8,000 for private surgery after being rejected for a reduction of the NHS Jacqui Fowler, 34, from Luton, Bedfordshire, says she is in agony every day due to debilitating back pain 'I've always had back problems and I've been diagnosed with sciatica due to my big bust,' Jacqui said. 'I also suffer from fibromyalgia. 'Mild exercise like walking would be helpful but at the moment I'm just trying to survive every day in so much pain. 'In the past, I have tried vigorous exercise to lose weight but I find it difficult to run or jump as my breasts bounce up and down. 'I can't find bras that support me enough.' Jacqui started wearing at E cup when she was just 13 years old, which would often make her the target of cruel bullies. At 5 foot tall, she currently weights 15st 11lbs giving her a BMI of 46. To qualify for surgery on the NHS you have to have a BMI of under 26, but Jacqui claims its impossible to lose weight due to fibromyalgia and sciatica make exercise too difficult. Her 44L breasts are pictured Her partner, who she has asked to to be named, has to do the school run for her eight-year-old daughter so that Jacqui can conserve her energy to get through the day. She said: 'I had a horrible time of it at school with bullies taunting me about my chest and the boys would try to grab me and dare each other to touch my breasts. Can you get breast reduction surgery on the NHS? Size of a woman's breasts, their weight, their age, whether they smoke, will be considered before surgery is offered Breast reduction surgery is done to reduce the size and weight of a woman's breasts, and involves removing fat, tissue and skin from the chest. Genes, hormones and body shape and size may determine how large a woman's breasts are usually they are in proportion to the rest of the body but some women's may be exceptionally large. Whether the NHS will offer the operation may depend on where someone lives and why they want the operation. The NHS will not usually do a breast reduction for cosmetic reasons. However, it may be considered if a women is experiencing effects like backache, neck or shoulder pain, rashes or skin infections beneath the breasts, or psychological distress. The NHS may also consider the size of a woman's breasts, their weight, their age, whether they smoke, and whether other solutions have been tried. And local funding availability also plays a role different NHS boards around the country have different criteria so women living in some areas may be more able to get the surgery than those in others. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement 'I felt very isolated at school and that has carried over into adulthood. I am at home a lot because I'm so self-conscious.' Jacqui's boobs now weigh a stone each and her bras cost 80 or more. She said: 'It is painful and expensive having breasts this large. 'I have been back and forth to the doctors for years and I've been sent away with pain killers and I've even had hydrotherapy. 'Ultimately though the cause of the pain needs to be addressed and that's my bust. 'The doctors have applied for funding about four or five times now, but each time it was rejected. 'The first time, they said it was because they didn't have proof of what other methods of treatment I've tried for the pain, such as physiotherapy and back braces. 'Second time, we tried with all the information they asked for but they rejected it, as they didn't have any evidence to prove that it was causing rashes and pain. 'They then rejected it because my BMI was too high and had to be stable at 27 for a year. 'I feel so upset they just seem to be giving excuse after excuse. 'I've had an operation to remove my gallbladder, so I know it's not because they think it's dangerous. 'I can't exercise because of my breasts and I'm depressed. I also feel that because I'm overweight, I'm being discriminated against.' In a bid to have the operation privately, Jacqui is now trying to raise 8,000 to get breast reduction surgery. She added: 'I've tried asking my family for help and approaching charities with no luck. 'I've also looked into private loans but I can't afford the repayments. 'If I wear summer dresses or strappy tops I see men nudging each other to look. 'I don't want this attention, I just want to live a normal comfortable life.' Russia has increased readiness with nuclear deterrence forces after the Ukraine incursion with the Western alliance using provocative measures like sanctions. No actual clash with NATO forces has happened, but man-held arms were sent to arm any Ukrainian willing to fight Russian troops. While no combatants are forced to fight while NATO sits back, these people give their lives as urged by the west and their leader. Western Leaders Threat Against Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered nuclear forces ready if NATO decided to join Ukrainians in the fight finally, reported the Express UK. He met with the defense ministry and chief of general staff, criticizing the sanctions directed at Moscow. The four days of the special operation will free Donbas and Lugansk from Kyiv. Western media reported a body count of 4,300 Russians and 210 Ukrainian civilians, but an actual count is not verified yet. During the meeting broadcasted with the Russian leader in conference with his generals, a decision was made to arm the nukes for a deterrent against the allies, with the highest alarm. Putin declared that Western leaders are making moves against Russia, airing threats against the country. He orders nuclear forces on a special duty regime in detailing atomic deterrence forces. Read Also: Ukraine Provinces Experience Power, Internet Blackouts After Germany Announces Sanctions on Russia TASS news agency reported in the official statement that top officials of NATO countries threatened Russia, making aggressive messages against the country. The Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff are authorized to introduce a Special Combat Duty regime. According to Pavel Podvig, who serves as director for the Russian Nuclear Forces Project and Senior Researcher at UNIDIR, Putin's statement means business, and he is not fooling around. He said that the Kremlin has no other option considering the threat that Russia is facing. Podvig added that any nukes that Russia will use are unacceptable from the US and NATO. Many say that nuclear weapons were out of the question because they might get serious. Nukes as Putin's Last Card Swedish radio journalist Loukas Christodoulou mocked Putin, saying that Putin tried cruise missiles but failed, then he used paratroopers, and special forces weren't effective. The Chechens sent by the Kremlin also were nothing. So now Putin is using nukes because it's his last card to use. Last Thursday, when the rollout to free Donbas and Lugansk started, Vladimir Putin told the west to keep out. If they would even dare to intervene, the consequences they would face are dreadful, cited LBC. Adding that Moscow is ready for any possibility, all the decisions have been made already. This time he meant business and suggested the allies listen now. Furthermore, the Russian leader added that Ukraine and its people should not be afraid as they are not the target. The protection of Russia itself and the people who made Ukraine hostage are using it to hit back against Moscow and its people. Nuclear deterrence forces have been put on standby by Russian President Vladimir Putin before the west can move its nuclear forces in defending Russian interest after getting allegedly strung around by western leaders. Related Article: Vladimir Putin Issues Chilling Warning That the EU, US Is Next After Kyiv Was Left Defenseless, Begging for Assistance @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Peaky Blinders returned for its sixth and final season last night and did not disappoint, with critics and viewers coming together to praise the 'explosive' premiere. It answered key questions from season five and paid tribute to the late Helen McCrory, who played matriarch aunt Polly, in stunning fashion. Yet it also introduced fresh intrigue, particularly towards the end of the episode. In the final minutes, Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) received a phone call from wife Lizzie (Natasha O'Keeffe) who informed him that their daughter Ruby had a fever and was hallucinating. In the final minutes, Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), pictured, received a phone call from wife Lizzie (Natasha O'Keeffe) who informed him that their daughter Ruby had a fever and was hallucinating In the throes of the hallucinations, Ruby reported seeing 'a man with green eyes' and repeated the Romany phrase: 'Tickna mora o'beng'. Pictured, Ruby and Tommy in season five The revelation sent a shockwave of fear through Tommy, who vowed to return home to England from the US on the next boat. He also called for traditional Gypsy protections to be given to his daughter, and urged Lizzie (pictured) to take the precautions seriously In the throes of the hallucinations, Ruby reported seeing 'a man with green eyes' and repeated the Romany phrase: 'Tickna mora o'beng'. The revelation sent a shockwave of fear through Tommy, who vowed to return home to England from the US on the next boat. He also called for traditional Gypsy protections to be given to his daughter, and urged Lizzie to take the precautions seriously. The moment sparked questions from viewers, with one tweeting: 'Ok, someone enlighten me on what those Romany words Ruby said in her sleep mean!??? Google is not helping me #PeakyBlinders.' Another wrote: 'Can anyone speak Romany and knows what that meant? #PeakyBlinders.' Even TV presenter Paddy McGuinness couldn't resist and asked his Twitter followers: 'Loved tonight's Peaky Blinders! Can't wait for Arthur to get his mojo back but I've got a bad feeling about Tommy. The moment sparked questions from viewers who wanted answers about what it means 'Michael will be the one that survives and Gina is going to be a formidable foe. Roll on next week! PS anyone know what the Romany translation was? #PeakyBlinders.' Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight said: 'It's difficult to translate from the Romani, but it means 'devil'. It means a bit more than that, but yeah. So it's not good. It's not a good thing.' Meanwhile another woman wrote on Twitter: 'I've not watched it yet but I am Romany gypsy and know a few words of Romani language. 'Depending on where regionally you come from it would roughly translate to either the heart of the devil or the girl of the devil (devil girl), hope this helps!' The episode ended with Tommy leaving Michael Gray (Finn Cole) locked up in a Boston prison to return to the UK where he plans to meet Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her powerful gangster relative 'Uncle Jack'. One woman on Twitter answered the question and hinted it might be a bad omen Peaky Blinders airs on Sunday at 9pm on BBC One. A Blinding farewell: Peaky gang doff their caps to lost star Helen McCrory, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS as he watches the the opening of the hit show's finale season Peaky Blinders, Series 6, Ep. 1 BBC1, last night Rating: A man walks into a bar in the roughest, toughest town in the world and orders a glass of water. This sounds like the set-up for a joke but it's the beginning of the end for Peaky Blinders (BBC1). Writer Steven Knight's incomparably stylish, surreally gory gangster drama returned for its final series without even pausing for the opening credits or their ominous theme tune, Nick Cave's thunderous Red Right Hand. A fragmented blur of images from the previous season strobed across the screen, as though central character Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was watching his life flash before his eyes. The sound of his dying first wife's last laboured breaths echoed deafeningly in his ears and, ankle-deep in mud like the battlefields of Flanders where Tommy lost his sanity, he screamed and raised a revolver to his brains. That's where we left him last time, in 2019. This time, he pulled the trigger. The gun was empty his brother Arthur (Paul Anderson), who loves him, took the bullets. His second wife Lizzie, who despises him, stormed through the mud in her satin pyjamas to throw the bullets at his head and call him a coward. For any viewer coming newly to the show, this blizzard of heavily stylised images might have seemed incomprehensible. Don't worry. Everyone feels like that when they first encounter Peaky Blinders. When the drama debuted on BBC2 in 2013, it appeared to be an incongruous mix of heavy rock soundtrack, historical fantasy, comic book villains and balletic violence in slow motion, with a double handful of the supernatural. Writer Steven Knight's incomparably stylish, surreally gory gangster drama returned for its final series without even pausing for the opening credits or their ominous theme tune, Nick Cave's thunderous Red Right Hand It is still all those things but, after half a dozen episodes, the clashing elements combine in a hypnotic collage like one of those eye-watering kaleidoscopic paintings that coalesce into a three-dimensional portrait, if you gaze at them long enough. Telly snobs will tell you they've been hooked from the start but the truth is that the first two series drew small audiences. It was not until the show aired on Netflix that it found its fanbase. Today it is so popular that, after this concluding season, a movie is planned. Tragically, that will go ahead without the central figure of Helen McCrory as Aunt Polly. The 52-year-old mother-of-two who was married to actor Damian Lewis died last year following a secret battle with cancer. Her absence might have prompted the decision to dispense with music and titles. Instead, we watched Tommy slit open a body bag, sent by IRA mobsters who murdered Polly for reasons unexplained. Tommy's grief seemed unfeigned. He knelt and sobbed over her. Murphy has said: 'Helen was my closest colleague on Peaky, and one of the finest actors I've ever worked opposite. Any material, any scene she made it special. She could do power and vulnerability, one after the other.' In a long funeral sequence, Polly's wooden caravan was torched with her body and all her possessions inside, in tribute to the family's gypsy roots. At the end of the hour, a caption dedicated the episode to McCrory's memory. Once again, there was no music this time, only birdsong. With Polly dead and Arthur a hopeless opium addict, all the emphasis now falls on Tommy. Previously, he was not only a whisky smuggler and an arms dealer but a rising MP. Telly snobs will tell you they've been hooked from the start but the truth is that the first two series drew small audiences. It was not until the show aired on Netflix that it found its fanbase His political career appears to have been abandoned but his feud with cousin Michael (Finn Cole), Polly's son, has not. Tommy arranged for Michael to be jailed on drugs charges and then made a start on the slow seduction of his wife, the doll-like American moll Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy). She's straight from the pages of a story by the chroniclers of the Jazz Age, John O'Hara or Damon Runyon. Tommy himself is more Gary Cooper in a cowboy role written by a miserable French philosopher. When he stalked into that Canadian bar and announced his name, 'Je m'appelle Thomas Shelby,' this might have been High Noon reimagined by Jean-Paul Sartre. A brief discussion on the meaning of life followed with the locals, a bunch of depressive existentialists. 'Since I foreswore alcohol, I've become a calmer and more peaceful person,' Tommy explained, before drawing a knife and a gun. In the ensuing melee, a man's face was slashed and a pigeon shot dead. Everyone was trying to make teetotaller Tommy rescind his pledge. Gina sniggered as she waved a balloon glass of brandy under his nose. A Boston thug filled a tumbler with battery acid hooch and ordered him to down it. Tommy refused. 'I now realise that whisky is just fuel for the loud engines inside your head,' he said, before quoting William Blake. For now, he's on the horse-drawn wagon. How long before he tumbles off is anyone's guess. But when he does, there'll be all hell to pay. 'A perfect tribute': Peaky Blinders fans praise show's handling of Helen McCrory's death as critics praise season six opening for getting off to a 'screaming start' By Sean O'Grady for MailOnline Peaky Blinders was back with a bang on Sunday night as the hit BBC period drama returned for its sixth and final season. Critics and viewers alike responded positively to the show's return, with the episode dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who played Polly Gray, following her death from breast cancer last year. Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was still alive and kicking, having not shot himself in the field viewers last saw him in at the end of series five. Return: Peaky Blinders was back with a bang on Sunday night as the hit BBC period drama returned for its sixth and final season The episode also saw the burial of Polly Gray along with an on-screen tribute to Helen reading: 'Dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory OBE 'Polly Gray'. Viewers reacted positively to the tribute with one fan writing: 'The passing of Polly Gray couldn't have been scripted any better, a perfect tribute to the great Helen McCrory. 'It takes an incredible cast to have the courage to act out those scenes and they did her proud. Brilliant first episode.' Another viewer said: 'Today and everyday we remember Helen McCrory, Peaky Blinders isn't the same without aunt pol'. Tribute: Critics and viewers alike responded positively to the show's return, with the episode dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who played Polly Gray, following her death from breast cancer last year Star: Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was still alive and kicking, having not shot himself in the field viewers last saw him in at the end of series five Reviews: The Telegraph 's Benji Wilson gave the episode five stars and proclaimed it a 'masterclass in style and substance' One fan added: 'Aunt Polly's burial hit different. What a scene,' while another said: 'Beautiful scene to remember the late Helen McCrory'. The Telegraph's Benji Wilson gave the episode five stars and proclaimed it a 'masterclass in style and substance'. He wrote: 'Rest assured that the final series is a worthy testament to this outstanding actress, and the character she created.' In a separate four-star review for the episode, the publication said the final series of the show will 'go out with a bang'. Reaction: Viewers reacted positively to the tribute with one fan writing: 'The passing of Polly Gray couldn't have been scripted any better, a perfect tribute to the great Helen McCrory The Herald gave the episode four out of five stars and said the series could be the show's best yet. They wrote: 'While it has stumbled occasionally (those curiously- accented Billy Boys for example) Peaky Blinders has built an army of devoted followers. If this firing on all cylinders opener is a guide, this could be the best series yet. The Evening Standard gave the episode three stars and said the new series was off to a 'screaming start' while adding viewers hoping for 'wind-down viewing' should look elsewhere. Reception: The Evening Standard gave the episode three stars and said the new series was off to a 'screaming start' (James Frecheville as Jack Nelson) They wrote: 'If the last nine years and 30 episodes have taught us anything, its that beginning a new season of Peaky Blinders is like starting a mystery needlepoint project - nothing really makes sense yet and there are a whole lot of loose ends.' Elsewhere, The Guardian awarded the episode four out of five stars, writing: 'Our Zelig-like hero has always enjoyed having his fingers in too many pies. Indeed, after failing to kill himself at the end of series five, the clothes horse from nowhere is back where we want him to be: in all kinds of trouble.' Advertisement She once opposed his plans to become president but Ukraine's First Lady has proved to be her husband Volodymyr Zelensky's most steadfast supporter and remains by his side after he refused to leave the country in the face of the Russian invasion. Olena Zelenska, 44, has risked her life by going into hiding with her husband, their daughter, 17, and son, nine, choosing to stand with their countrymen rather than flee. 'I will not have panic and tears,' the mother-of-two wrote on Instagram in the hours after the first attacks last week. 'I will be calm and confident. My children are looking at me. I will be next to them. And next to my husband. And with you.' It marks yet another remarkable turn in the life of the country's reluctant First Lady. While Zelensky, 44, has long courted publicity as an actor and comedian, Olena spent decades out of the spotlight. She trained as an architect at university - where she met Zelensky, then a budding comedian and law student - before becoming a writer for the comedy troupe that made him famous. When her husband first told her of his plans to leave his career to run for president, she said publicly that she was 'aggressively opposed' to the 'project'. And yet, when the time came for him to campaign, Olena dutifully appeared by his side for photo ops and campaign speeches. Now, less than three years after Zelensky's landside victory, the mother-of-two has fully embraced her role as a First Lady on the global stage. She accompanies her husband on his engagements and is forging her own career as a First Lady of action, using her influence and position to champion causes including childhood nutrition and gender equality. The Vogue cover star has also won plaudits for her wardrobe and decision to fly the flag for Ukrainian fashion. Constant support: Olena Zelenska with husband Volodymyr Zelensky and their children, Oleksandra and Kyrylo Fashionable First Lady: Olena (in 2021; 2019) has been praised for her sleek wardrobe that champions Ukrainian designers On the world stage: Prince William and Kate welcome Volodymyr Zelensky and Olena to Buckingham Palace in 2020 Cover girl: Olena appeared on the cover of Vogue Ukraine months after her husband became president and used the platform to introduce her plans to campaign for better school meals. Legislation has since been introduced By his side: Olena was initially reluctant for her husband to enter politics but has risen to the role of Ukraine's First Lady Despite her high profile, little is known about Olena's start in life. She was born in May 1978 to her mother Olha Kyiashko, in Kryvyi Rih, a Russian-speaking region that was then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Volodymyr was born in the same year and the same town but, despite attending the same school and having mutual friends, did not meet his future wife until they were both students at Kryvyi Rih National University. Academically gifted, Olena had won a place to study architecture at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, while Volodymyr studied law. Reports suggest Olena, who is attractive with high cheekbones and glamorous blonde locks, was dating another man when she was first introduced to Volodymyr in 1995. Despite being just 17, Volodymyr already had his sights set on a future career as a comedian. Comedy careers: After meeting at university, Olena decided to support her husband's pursuit of a career in comedy and became a writer for his troupe and production company. His most famous role was as a teacher-turned-politician on hit TV series Servant of the People. Pictured, Zelensky (left) with his fellow cast members in the show On the rise: Olena with her husband at his campaign headquarters during the second round of the election in April 2019 Political underdogs: Olena stepped into the spotlight to appear alongside her husband during his presidential campaign Voting: Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska at the polling station during the parliamentary election Early engagements: The couple at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, weeks after the election and with the Pope in February 2020 He was part of a local comedy troupe that took part in national competitions and found early acclaim. By 1997, at the age of 19, Volodymyr and his peers had won a national title. That same year he established a new team, Kvartal 95, which performed across Ukraine. Olena was brought on as a writer. At the same time, romance was blossoming between Volodymyr and Olena and in 2003, after eight years of dating, the couple wed. Volodymyr's comedy career went from strength to strength but Olena stayed largely out of the spotlight, shying away from the red carpet and media appearances. She gave birth to their daughter, Oleksandra, in July 2004, and their son, Kyrylo, in January 2013. Zelensky's most famous role is hit Ukrainian TV series Servant of the People, a political satire that debuted in 2015 and went on for three seasons. Perfectly poised: Olena and Zelensky (left) with President Macron of France and his wife Brigitte in April 2021 Style icon: Olena, who is known for her polished separates and sleek dresses, flies the flag for Ukrainian designers Speaking out: Olena delivers a speech at an environmental conference in Kyiv in February 2020 It tells the tale of a history school teacher's 'tirade against government corruption', which goes viral, with Zelensky's character Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko soon finding himself sitting the president's seat. In a true case of life imitating art, in 2018, Zelensky announced his candidacy for the president and won overwhelming support for his anti-establishment ticket. The First Lady's message of defiance: How Olena Zelenska has remained steadfast in the face of war In the hours after the Russian invasion, Olena took to Instagram to show her support for her people - and reiterate her family's commitment to remaining in Ukraine despite the threat to their lives. 'My dear people! Ukrainians! I'm looking at you all today. Everyone I see on TV, on the streets, on the Internet. I see your posts and videos. And you know what? You are incredible! 'I am proud to live with you in the same country! It is said that many people are a crowd. This is not about us. Because many Ukrainians are not crowds. This is an army! 'And today I will not have panic and tears. I will be calm and confident. My children are looking at me. I will be next to them. And next to my husband. And with you. Love you! I love Ukraine.' Advertisement The decision thrust publicity-shy Olena into the public eye. 'Frankly speaking, I aggressively opposed the start of this project,' she told a local television station. 'Because this is a very difficult move; it's not even a project, it's another direction in life.' She explained her husband initially consulted with members of his inner circle to 'protect' her from the details of his political life before committing to the decision. Like his character, Zelensky ran on an anti-corruption campaign and trounced the pro-Russia incumbent by taking 73 percent of votes. Poroshenko lost to the television star across all regions of the country, including in the west where he traditionally enjoyed strong support. It was an extraordinary outcome to a campaign that started as a joke but struck a chord with voters frustrated by poverty, corruption and a five-year war. At his campaign HQ, as the exit polls came out, Zelensky said: 'I will never let you down. While I am not formally president yet, as a citizen of Ukraine I can tell all post-Soviet countries: 'Look at us! Everything is possible!' Olena rose to the challenge and threw herself into her new role as First Lady. She announced her first initiative in a Vogue Ukraine cover shoot just two months after her husband came to power: an overhaul of school meals. The mother-of-two was successful in introducing legislation to improve the nutritional quality and variety of food, noting proper nutrition was key for a child's development, health and overall wellbeing. Other projects have included introducing Ukrainian audio guides in leading museums around the world to improve the profile of the language and campaigning for greater accessibility for disabled citizens. Another cornerstone of Olena's work has been women's rights. She initiated Ukraine's accession to the G7 international initiative on gender equality, the Biarritz Partnership, and has promoted the Ukrainian Women's Congress, a platform that works towards equal rights. Now Olena is once again rising to the challenge and has remained a steadfast support of her husband in the face of Putin's aggressions. Despite being personally at risk, the couple have chosen to remain in Kyiv. Sharing a photo of the Ukrainian flag on Instagram on Friday, she wrote: 'My dear people! Ukrainians! I'm looking at you all today. Everyone I see on TV, on the streets, on the Internet. I see your posts and videos. And you know what? You are incredible! Meeting world leaders: The Ukrainian President and First Lady with President Erdogan of Turkey in February 2022 Taking a stand: Olena, speaking in December and June 2021, uses her platform to champion causes close to her heart 'I am proud to live with you in the same country! It is said that many people are a crowd. This is not about us. Because many Ukrainians are not crowds. This is an army! 'And today I will not have panic and tears. I will be calm and confident. My children are looking at me. I will be next to them. And next to my husband. And with you. Love you! I love Ukraine!' Yesterday she shared a photo of a baby born in a Kyiv bomb shelter, along with the rousing message: 'This was to take place in completely different conditions, under peaceful skies. It is what children should see. 'But the main thing is that despite the war, there were doctors and caring people on our streets next to her. She will be protected and defended. Family: The President and First Lady with their daughter, 11, and son, eight, in a delightful family photo shared on Instagram 'Because you are incredible, dear compatriots! In those two days, you all became an army. In the subway, bomb shelters, with children and pets (because you don't leave younger brothers either) - you do your job, you have time to take care of others, to help each other. 'Get together on social media to protect homes and help lonely neighbors. Offer your home to those who need shelter. You prepare food for the terrorists and sign up for it yourself. Donate blood for soldiers and victims. Report the movement of enemy vehicles. 'And, of course, you are helping the Armed Forces, which are fighting on all fronts. For days, you can spend "eSupport" money to help the army (this can be done in the "Action" application). We are the army, the army is us. 'And children born in bomb shelters will live in a peaceful country that has defended itself.' UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putins invasion Carole Middleton has urged shoppers to 'celebrate consciously' as her partyware company unveiled new eco-friendly children's ranges designed by the businesswoman. Party Pieces, the company founded and run by the Duchess of Cambridge's mother, 67, today launched two sustainably-sourced kids' ranges with prices ranging from 4 to 14. The King and Queen of the Sea ranges will join six existing ranges in the Party Pieces Collection - the company's first range fully-designed in-house by a team led by Carole. With a portion of profits going to a marine charity, the ocean-themed collection includes 8 shark-shaped paper hats and 6 mermaid party bags with fact cards about sea life. Both ranges have been made using FSC certified materials and are 100 per cent recyclable or reusable. A portion of sales from the two ranges will be donated to Big Blue Ocean Cleanup - a global charity doing vital work to safeguard the world's oceans. Carole Middleton urged shoppers to 'celebrate consciously' as her partyware company unveiled new eco-friendly children's ranges designed by the businesswoman The King and Queen of the Sea ranges will join six existing ranges within the Party Pieces Collection - which was led by Carol, 67, and was the company's first ever fully designed range 'I am excited to be supporting the incredible work that Big Blue Ocean Cleanup does to protect our oceans', said Carole. 'At Party Pieces we want to make it easier for people to celebrate consciously - our new sustainably-sourced ranges help to protect the planet without compromising on the magic of parties. 'I hope children love the playful sea creatures in my new ranges and are inspired to host under the water-themed birthday parties.' The collections also feature eye-catching streamers and garlands, ocean-themed tableware and shark-head treat stands that can be reused after the party as hanging wall decorations. With a portion of profits going to a marine charity, the ocean-themed collection includes 8 shark-shaped paper hats and matching paper plates for 5 The King and Queen of the Sea ranges include 6 mermaid party bags with fact cards about sea life Rory Sinclair, Big Blue Ocean Cleanup CEO added: 'This is a really exciting partnership for us, and we're thrilled Party Pieces is helping to fund our conservation work. King and Queen of the Sea parties are a great way to inspire the next generation to look after ocean life!' The Party Pieces Collection also includes the Dino Explorer, Ecosaurus, Unicorn & Fairy Princess, Shooting Star, Assorted Metallic Birthday, and Nutcracker Christmas ranges. Carole founded the business in 1987, the year Kate's brother James was born, after she and husband Michael returned to Britain from Jordan, where they had worked for British Airways. The range includes 4 paper party cups decorated with sharks or mermaids and a 5 shark-head treat stand that can be reused after the party as hanging wall decorations and The collections also feature eye-catching streamers and garlands including a 14 shark-themed decoration The new children's range features tableware including 5 paper napkins decorated with mermaids and 8 shell party plates The eco-friendly children's range features a mermaid-themed paper table runner costing 5 It grew quickly and in 1989 she began trading from a warehouse in Hungerford, Berkshire. Within three years, it was so successful she took over dilapidated barns and sheds at Childs Court Farm in Yattendon, Berkshire, where the firm remains, employing 40 people and sending out 4,000 orders a week. Elsewhere on the site, Party Pieces is selling 4.99 'Best of British Cupcake Sets' to celebrate the Monarch's 70-year reign, featuring the phrase on cake-toppers. While the site doesn't mention the Queen directly, the partyware company boasts that each set would make 'a perfect addition for the Platinum Jubilee'. Its website reads: 'Get ready for the Platinum Jubilee and celebrate all things British with our range of red, blue and white party supplies! 'Our Great Britain party supplies are ideal for any patriotic occasion. From Union Jack bunting to balloons and tableware, our Great Britain party decorations will add the perfect touch.' A black woman with vitiligo has revealed the cruel taunts she receives online - including from her own community who accuse her of 'bleaching' her skin. Iomikoe Johnson, 42, from Texas, now adores her 'unique' look, however this wasn't always the case - with the grandmother feeling suicidal when first being diagnosed with the skin condition, aged 25. And despite now thriving - with modelling opportunities being offered to the mother-of-four - Iomikoe revealed that she is still 'fixated on like she's an animal' by strangers and branded a 'Dalmatian or cow' by online trolls. Keeping positive, the entrepreneur, whose body is 70 per cent covered with pigment-free patches, insisted: 'People with this condition are the most unique people on the face of this earth. There's no one else who looks like us.' Iomikoe Johnson, 42, from Texas, now adores her 'unique' skin (pictured right), however this wasn't always the case - with the grandmother feeling suicidal when first being diagnosed with the skin condition, aged 25 (pictured left, before being diagnosed) And despite now thriving - with modelling opportunities being offered to the mother-of-four - Iomikoe (pictured) revealed that she is still 'fixated on like she's an animal' by strangers, and branded a 'Dalmatian or cow' by online trolls She said: 'Over the years, I have learnt to love and embrace my skin. But at the start, it made me feel depressed and suicidal as I had lived as a black lady for 25 years and then suddenly my skin colour began to change. 'According to my dermatologist 70 per cent of my body is white. There are white parts I can't reveal because that would be inappropriate. 'I have accepted that one day, my skin will be fully white and that is OK. It is other people who have a problem with it.' Iomikoe first noticed two white pea sized spots on her body aged 25 and feared it may be cancer. She was then diagnosed with vitiligo, and told there was no cure. The mother recalled how she has faced discrimination from people who believe she is 'bleaching' her skin. Keeping positive, the entrepreneur (pictured), whose body is 70 per cent covered with pigment-free patches, insisted: 'People with this condition are the most unique people on the face of this earth. There's no one else who looks like us.' Iomikoe (pictured) first noticed two white pea sized spots on her body aged 25 and feared it may be cancer. She was then diagnosed with vitiligo, and told there was no cure The mother (pictured) recalled how she has faced discrimination from people who believe she is 'bleaching' her skin She said: 'At the start, I was scared about changing colour. I have been a dark skin lady my whole life and then suddenly my skin became white. It was scary. 'There is nothing wrong with being white but that isn't who I am. Every day, I am accused online of bleaching my skin and called names such as cow or Dalmatian. 'Those comments don't hurt me anymore, they used to. The black community haven't really accepted me as they think I am bleaching my skin. 'It hurts so bad when a comment comes from someone from my community - as a black person, they should know how it feels to be discriminated against. But it isn't just negative backlash, the grandmother (pictured) receives positive feedback too and has even landed modelling opportunities The mother-of-four pictured in her early twenties before her skin condition diagnosis, aged 25 'All races can suffer from vitiligo and it can happen at any point in your life but not just black people have vitiligo. It seems people fixate on me like I am an animal.' But it isn't just negative backlash, the grandmother receives positive feedback too and has even landed modelling opportunities. She added: 'My skin condition has slowed down tremendously since I first got it. But it has to run its complete course so eventually I will be white. There isn't any medication to make it stop. 'People with this condition are the most unique people on the face of this earth. There's no one else who looks like us.' A mother-of-four has revealed how she trawls through dumpsters outside shops, supermarkets and other businesses to find 'perfectly good' items that have been thrown away. Megan Godinez, 30, of Dallas, Texas, spends four to five hours a week searching through trash and finds unopened food, new cosmetics and children's clothes which she either keeps for herself, or donates to charity, sometimes selling some to support her family. She estimates that in three years of 'dumpster diving', she has found $13,000 worth of items, including six treadmills that were worth more than $4,700. The amazing finds mean that stay-at-home mother Megan and her husband Andrew, 33, an architect, have saved hundreds when it comes to gifts and every day essentials. She said: 'It started out as a hobby at first after I watched a video of something similar on YouTube. I was intrigued to go and see if any of the big stores near where I lived had anything interesting in their bins. Mother-of-four Megan Godinez, 30, revealed she's found $13,000 worth of brand new items while dumpster diving in Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her family, pictured, several hours a week for the last three years A truck load of goods! Toys, hygiene products, plates and costumes for children are also among the mother-of-four's impressive haul Megan said she's found discarded toiletries and beauty products in perfect condition through her dumpster diving 'From there, I started rummaging through the bins of retail stores, bakeries, and clothes stores. I make sure to avoid restaurants and places like doctors' offices. 'I've found loads of stuff over the past three years, 75 per cent of which I donate and the other 25 per cent I keep for myself and family. 'I always take what I need, and never take too much. I try and leave enough items for the next picker to come along and have. 'The bins are always so full of useful things, that I tend to leave every dive with a full car boot.' Her favorite finds include a Smeg Coffee Machine worth $266, Shark vacuum cleaners worth $379, a Wii U worth $299 and an Xbox One worth $479, which she gifted to her son, Donovan, 11, who loves gaming. She continued: 'I'm genuinely so shocked by how much waste big corporations have, from little things like shampoo with broken caps, to brand new consoles that have a squished box. Discounted makeup products that were thrown away after being reduced to clear that Megan found The stay-at-home mother has found everything from makeup, shampoo, and food to coffee machines, clothing and even six treadmills worth more than $4,795 in total, pictured A fully functional workbench that Megan found. She explained that she and her husband have saved thousands in gifts for their loved ones in recent years The mother-of-four has found a brand new portable pizza oven. She spends up to four hours dumpster diving per week Pictured: Megan and a friend photographed during one of their dumpster-diving expeditions in Dallas Megan, who wants to encourage others to give dumpster diving a go and documents her finds on TikTok, has also found plenty of kids' toys 'A local pet store was selling soft toys for $5 and would donate money from each sale to a local shelter. 'A few weeks later, I went dumpster diving behind the store and the bins were full of the soft toys they were selling. 'It was awful, I literally filled the back of the truck with them and donated them to the shelter they were using the toys to donate too.' Megan's hauls have also seen her come away with bags filled to brim of seasonal decorations, children's toys, party favors and brand-new Hugo Boss leather sneakers worth $190. The mother-of-four has earned a strong following thanks to her dumpster diving. She's also found a lot of products from Bath Body Works, right Toys and other items collected by Megan over the years. She's found more than $13,000 over the years Phone accessories, watches, mugs, peanut butter snacks and light bulbs Megan found during one of her dives Tools and gloves and a range of DIY items that Megan found. They have come very handy for her and her husband Makeup-up and skincare products from leaving brands such as L'Occitane, Murad and Mario Badescue Favourite finds: Items Megan's found in the trash Shark Vacmop wifi robot vacuum: $380 Ninja foodi 10 in1 pro air fry oven: $250.5 Horizon T202 Treadmill: $799 Garmin forerunner 645 music watch: $351 Xebec triscreen: $459.6 Hugo Boss leather sneakers: $190.27 Nordic Track cycle: $1,502 Advertisement Megan documents her dives on TikTok and YouTube (@megantheddmvp) and has received a mixed reaction both online and from family and friends. She said: 'My family were very on the fence about it at first, but they have slowly come around and have been supportive since learning about the waste that big corporations create for no reason. 'My husband is sometimes a bit grossed out when I bring home perfectly good wrapped up snacks like crisps and biscuits, so he does need some encouragement to eat them sometimes. 'People on social media just seem to be shocked at how much stuff gets thrown away, and I do get a lot of people asking me what shops it is that I dive at or have interest in doing it themselves. 'Companies just throwing items out because there's a dent in the box or a crack in a bottle is a huge problem, all of these perfectly good items are just going to waste. 'I'm hoping that by documenting my finds, it will lead to some change, or maybe more people will be able to rescue perfectly fine binned appliances and goods.' Brand new cages and animal items which Megan found and donated to a shelter, left and a Smeg coffee machine worth $266, right A British woman believed to be one of the first victims of the Tinder Swindler has claimed he was a 'flop in bed' and that she 'had to teach him the ropes'. Shimon Yehuda Hayut, 31, has become notorious after a Netflix documentary exposed how he ruthlessly conned women he had met on Tinder out of an estimated 7.4 million by posing as the son of a billionaire diamond mogul. One of his first victims was British mum Samantha Hales, 36, who claims that the conman 'must have really improved his game in the last ten years to get money out of these girls'. Speaking to the Sun, Samantha, from Derby, says that Shimon, who is now based in Tel Aviv, told her he was a Mossad spy and pilot when they met on Plenty of Fish in 2012. A British woman believed to be one of the first victims of the Tinder Swindler (pictured) has claimed he was a 'flop in bed' and that she 'had to teach him the ropes'. One of his first victims was British mum Samantha Hales, 36, who claims that the conman 'must have really improved his game in the last ten years to get money out of these girls'. She added that he was 'shady' and had 'obviously fake' identity cards, meaning he wasn't able to con her out of money. 'He couldn't pull any strokes in the bedroom. He was a total flop. I had to show him the ropes. 'Even though he had this beautiful charm about him, he was extremely cold when it came to sex. He had no idea what he was doing.' She added that his bedroom antics reminded her of the infamous scene from teen sitcom The Inbetweeners' Will (Simon Bird) 'when he thinks he's having sex with Charlotte (Emily Atack) and he's just lying on top jabbing her.' But despite his lack of sexual prowess, Samantha said Shimon was romantic at first and put her up in a five-star hotel in Valencia before spinning a story that he was part of Mossad and Interpol. When she questioned his story, Shimon then told her her was 'on the run' and then turned nasty, telling Samantha's friends he'd stolen money from them. Shimon Yehuda Hayut has become notorious after a Netflix documentary exposed how he ruthlessly conned women he had met on Tinder out of an estimated 7.4 million by posing as the son of a billionaire diamond mogul. Despite being arrest in Finland and Israel for fraud, he is currently living in a luxury 14-storey tower block in Tel Aviv Conman Hayut (above) would pretend to be Simon Leviev, chief executive of LLD Diamonds and the son of Israeli-Russian billionaire Lev Leviev, a man Forbes once called the 'King of Diamonds' Hayut was eventually arrested and imprisoned in December 2019 at Tel Aviv Magistrates Court but released the following May, after serving five months of his 15-month sentence 'It was threatening. He said I was nothing, if I see you again I'll come for you,' she added. Despite being arrest in Finland and Israel for fraud, he is currently living in a luxury 14-storey tower block in Tel Aviv. Hayut would pretend to be Simon Leviev, chief executive of LLD Diamonds and the son of Israeli-Russian billionaire Lev Leviev, a man Forbes once called the 'King of Diamonds'. The international conman would dazzle his victims with his apparently luxurious lifestyle of private jets, designer clothes and five-star hotels before tricking them into giving him eye-watering sums. In a twisted Ponzi scheme, he would use the cash he stole from them to lure in his next target, lavishing them too with trips abroad, and with hundreds of red roses and tables in VIP clubs. In 2018, one of Hayut's targets, London-based Norwegian web designer Cecilie Fjellhoy (pictured with him), travelled to Amsterdam with more than 20,000 in cash to give him, thinking she was saving her boyfriend's life Hayut (pictured), 31, from Israel, found notoriety after a 114-minute Netflix documentary exposed how he ruthlessly conned women he had met on Tinder out of an estimated 7.4 million by posing as the son of a billionaire diamond mogul He left his victims with suicidal feelings, crippling bank debts and the agony and humiliation of discovering their relationship with him was a sham. Hayut has denied all their allegations against him, claiming he is 'not a fraud and not a fake' but instead a 'legitimate businessman' who made his fortune by investing in Bitcoin. In an interview on the US TV programme Inside Edition, he insisted last week: 'I'm not this monster. I was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder.' In the interview, he kissed his model girlfriend Kate Konlin , for the cameras as she accused his victims of creating a 'fake story'. The twice-jailed criminal lives with his blonde Ukrainian-Israeli girlfriend. Her Instagram is filled with pictures of her posing in skimpy attire on their modern balcony, or with an enormous teddy bear and hundreds of balloons in their lounge, or showing off her Louboutin heels in the slick lobby of their apartment building. The brand new building boasts 6million five-bedroom penthouses with private rooftop swimming pools. Even the more modest three-bedrooms flats, with floor-to-ceiling windows and modern balconies, cost 1.2million. Home to a raft of well-heeled residents including foreign diplomats and other residents draped in designer wares it is one of Tel Aviv's most sought-after developments. It is also the base from which Hayut has been cashing in on his cruel crimes. The vast windows, always with their blinds drawn, have served as a backdrop to all his interviews, videos and business meetings. Above, Hayut's girlfriend, model Kate Konlin. Her Instagram is filled with pictures of her posing in skimpy attire on their modern balcony, or with an enormous teddy bear and hundreds of balloons in their lounge, or showing off her Louboutin heels in the slick lobby of their apartment building While his victims are still fighting to clear the debts they took out to fund his vicious scams, he has continued to grasp at opportunities to profit from their misery. After the Netflix documentary's release, he signed with Los Angeles agent Gina Rodriguez, who represents a raft of fame-hungry clients through her agency Gitoni. It has been claimed that Hayut wants to 'break into Hollywood', start his own dating show and host a podcast. Even though he claims he wants to clear his name, when the Mail approached him with the chance to do so through an interview, he demanded 7,000 ($10,000) 'compensation'. When we insisted that we did not think a fee was appropriate, a Gitoni employee suggested the money would be paid to the management firm rather than to the conman himself. He added: 'Simon has never been convicted of crimes involving the women in the documentary. He also has never been arrested or investigated by police over the accusations.' Konlin has since signed with the same company. Hayut's other money-making schemes include charging his 'fans' 148 a time for personalised greetings messages. He signed up to the platform Cameo, which boasts other celebrity signings including Nigel Farage and John Bercow. Punters can ask the criminal to record any greeting or message from wishing their loved one a happy birthday to telling them to give him a wad of cash. The mother of a baby with Down's syndrome claims she was 'pressured' into terminating her pregnancy after being told her daughter was 'not going to live'. Hetty Blakey, from Lincolnshire, says she was left feeling suicidal after staff at Lincoln County hospital 'handed her an abortion leaflet' before even confirming her daughter's condition. After seeking a second opinion privately, Hetty was told her daughter had Down's syndrome - however doctors felt no need to terminate the pregnancy for medical reasons. After moving house her care was transferred to Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital - where she was told they would be unable to safely deliver her baby because her pregnancy was too high risk. With her only other option a two-hour ambulance to a hospital in Leeds, Hetty spent 15,000 on accomodation close to St Thomas' in London, where she safely delivered baby Poppy on November 2, 2021. But Hetty feels let down by her after care at Grimsby hospital, claiming her daughter was given the wrong immunisation and was unable to see a cardiologist despite being at risk of immediate heart failure. Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital confirmed it is investigating a formal complaint while Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust says it is liaising with Poppy's family. Hetty Blakey, from Lincolnshire, whose daughter Poppy has Down's Syndrome says she was left feeling suicidal after staff at Lincoln County hospital 'handed her an abortion leaflet' after her 12 week scan Hetty, who previously lived in Lincoln, had her initial 12 week scan at Lincoln County Hospital. 'From the scan, we were given a leaflet on abortion and told that it didn't look good and that with the amount of nuchal translucency fluid, there was a chance that the baby had something very severe', she explained. 'They handed me a scan picture and lulled me into this really depressed place of, "This baby's not going to live". That was before any diagnosis was made. It was just purely off of a scan. 'All babies have this fluid at the back of their neck, and in a baby that doesn't have any chromosome abnormalities, the measurement would usually be between one and two millimetres. Hetty safely gave birth to baby Poppy, pictured at home, on November 2, 2021 after seeking specialist care at St Thomas' Hospital in London Hetty's pregnancy was considered to be too high risk to give birth at Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales so she gave birth to Poppy (pictured in hospital shortly after birth) in London instead 'But a baby that has a chromosome abnormality, their measurement would normally be above three. So because the thickness was so high - in our case it was 6.7mm - that was enough for us to be handed an abortion leaflet.' The couple then sought private healthcare at the Harley Street Hospital in London, and Hetty underwent CVS [chorionic villus sampling] - a procedure which detects foetal abnormalities. How nuchal translucency can point to chromosome abnormalities in child The purpose of the 12-week scan is to check how many weeks pregnant you are, check the baby's development and to check the baby is growing in the right place. It can also be used to detect some health conditions, such as spina bifida. If you have agreed to have screening for Down's syndrome, the test involves a blood test and measuring the fluid at the back of the baby's neck (nuchal translucency) with an ultrasound scan. This collection of fluid normally measures less than 3.5mm between 11 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. Babies with chromosome abnormalities have a higher level of nuchal translucency. Source: NHS Advertisement It was there that she was told her unborn baby had Down's Syndrome. She continued: '[The baby] looked perfectly healthy and they didn't feel there was a reason to medically terminate the baby at all.' Hetty said that in the first week after hearing the news, she felt like her baby was 'gone'. 'I had feelings of embarrassment, shame, and I thought that I was going to be laughed at. Me and my partner were really upset, but it must've taken about seven days for us to snap out of it and get things organised, and just fall in love with the pregnancy again.' Hetty said that she would have made the decision to terminate the pregnancy had she followed the advice given at Lincoln Hospital and not sought a second opinion. She continued: 'I would've aborted Poppy based on the information I was given at Lincoln Hospital. They made it feel like it was the most fair thing to do. 'It was not a case of, 'She might have something wrong with her, but it could be OK', there was no happiness to it. It was just very much a case of, prepare yourself. 'I felt really hurt and disregarded. I drove on a bypass absolutely hysterical, alone, because my partner was in London that day. But I was incredibly suicidal. 'After that day, they never contacted me again. I was not even called to see if I was OK,' she claimed. 'Poppy was nearly not here as a result of their advice.' After the diagnosis the couple decided to move to Kirmington, on the outskirts of Grimsby, and their care was transferred to the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital. At the North East Lincolnshire hospital Hetty was diagnosed with polyhydramnios, a rare condition in which there is an excessive amount of amniotic fluid. Doctors also detected a heart defect in her baby - something which occurs in around half of all Down's Syndrome babies - along with duodenal atresia, a condition in which the stomach is not attached to the bowel. 'At this point, we were classed as a very high-risk pregnancy and Grimsby could no longer deliver Poppy,' Hetty said. Poppy and her partner are pictured holding up a picture of baby Poppy during the mother's pregnancy Hetty, pictured while pregnant with Poppy after getting advice privately, said she would have made the decision to terminate the pregnancy had she not sought a second opinion The couple were referred to two different hospitals: Leeds Children's Hospital for Poppy's heart defect, and Sheffield Children's Hospital for Poppy's duodenal atresia. They were also sent to Scunthorpe General Hospital for foetal medicine. At 30 weeks pregnant, Hetty had to choose between giving birth at Grimsby hospital and being taken in an ambulance two-and-a-half hours away to Leeds, or move elsewhere for the remainder of her pregnancy. 'An ambulance ran the risk of, if anything happened with Poppy, she wouldn't have the specialist care right there, and there wouldn't be anyone who could work on her heart immediately. So we had to basically up and move.' Hetty looked online and found a hospital in London which specialises in unborn babies with Down's Syndrome. She said: 'I was told at 30 weeks that the baby could come at any time, and I was told that I needed to move to London and needed to move there quick.' The couple were told they had to be within walking distance of the hospital, and say they were forced to spend 15,000 on hotels that were close by because the care Hetty and Poppy needed was 'not available' in Lincolnshire. They eventually found an apartment across the road from St Thomas' Hospital, where Harriet had to lay in bed for five weeks as a result of her polyhydramnios until Poppy was born. Poppy was born via emergency C-section (Hetty is pictured with her partner shortly after birth), and Harriet said that had she not been at a hospital with specialist care available, she does not believe her daughter would've survived Returning home to Grimsby after Poppy underwent two surgeries (Poppy is pictured in hospital after birth) the family had been told that St Thomas' Hospital in London would now be sharing the responsibility of Poppy's care with the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital Poppy was born via emergency C-section, and Harriet said that had she not been at a hospital with specialist care available, she does not believe her daughter would've survived. Returning home to Grimsby after Poppy underwent two surgeries, the family had been told that St Thomas' Hospital in London would now be sharing the responsibility of Poppy's care with the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital. Hetty says the care Poppy has received at Grimsby Hospital has left her feeling neglected. She said: 'We asked Grimsby hospital if they could scan Poppy's heart as she had an open duct which could have led to immediate heart failure. We were told that the consultant couldn't see us.' Hetty also claimed Poppy was also incorrectly given the rotavirus immunisation at Grimsby hospital after having surgery on her bowels, causing her to bleed from her rectum. 'Any baby that's had operations on their intestines or bowels should not have something called the rotavirus immunisation. That causes sickness and diarrhoea. Poppy shouldn't have had it, and Grimsby hospital administered it. 'Two days later, I was at Sheffield A&E with Poppy because she was bleeding from her behind. Everything we'd just gone through was potentially undone by Grimsby hospital. Hetty says the care Poppy has received at Grimsby Hospital has left her feeling neglected. Poppy is pictured at home with her mum Hetty. Poppy, pictured at home with her mum Hetty, is now awaiting open heart surgery due to her heart defect 'For a mum who's just got her baby out of the intensive care unit, it was incredibly frightening. I feel a huge amount of neglect and I feel harassed and bullied by Grimsby hospital. 'I've had letters through the post telling me that I haven't engaged in their services because I've said to them that at the moment, as Poppy has a heart defect, the hip and ear tests they want to do aren't important. 'She's seen by the top cardiologist in London and yet Grimsby hospital feel that they have to put their ten pence in all the time. I'm getting letters telling me how to care for my child when I've been left to do this all by myself.' Poppy is now awaiting open heart surgery. Melanie Sharp, Deputy Chief Nurse at Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital said: 'We are fully aware of these concerns and currently we are investigating as a formal complaint. We'll respond directly to the family once the investigation has concluded.' A spokesperson for the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: 'Unfortunately we are unable to comment on individual cases, however, we have been contacted by the patient's family and have been liaising with them directly.' Trigger Point viewers have branded last night's finale 'predictable', 'rushed' and ' very disappointing'. Fans of the ITV drama took to Twitter to claim that the person behind the bomb attacks throughout the series, whose identify was revealed during the ending, has been 'obvious' from the start. It comes after the six-part crime thriller was renewed for a second series. Vicky McClure will reprise her role as bomb disposal operative 'Expo', Lana Washington, for the Metropolitan Police Bomb Disposal Squad in the new episodes. In last night's episode, it was revealed the person behind the bomb attacks was Lana's love interest Karl, played by Warren Brown. One person wrote on Twitter: 'What a let down Trigger Point was. I guessed it was him in Episode 2! Series could have been done in 4 episodes easy!' Scroll down for video Trigger Point viewers have branded last night's finale 'predictable', 'rushed' and ' very disappointing'. Pictured, Vicky McClure as Lana Washington In last night's episode, it was revealed the person behind the bomb attacks was Lana's love interest Karl (pictured), played by Warren Brown Another said: 'Anyone else completely underwhelmed by Trigger Point? There were some good parts, but I'm sad that I feel disappointed because I like Vicky McClure.' A third added: 'I enjoyed Trigger Point but it was all rather too obvious. Clearly wasn't John behind it all and also pretty obvious it was Karl from the start... hardly any drama in last night's finale sadly.' However, it wasn't all negative reaction, with one viewer insisting online: 'Trigger Point was brilliant. Vicky McClure, what an actress.' Another wrote: 'Loved ITV's Trigger Point with Vicky McClure. Looking forward to the next series, great Sunday night TV.' McClure played front line officer Lana Washington, who is an experienced bomb disposal operative, known as an Expo. Fans of the ITV drama took to Twitter to claim that the person behind the bomb attacks throughout the series, whose identify was revealed during the ending, has been 'obvious' from the start Adrian Lester played Joel Nutkins, who worked alongside her. Both ex-military, the pair are close, having served together in Afghanistan. When a terrorist campaign threatened the capital over the summer, the Expos were at the forefront of urgent efforts to find out who was behind the bombings before fatalities escalated In the last episode, the mastermind behind the terrorist campaign, The Crusaders, is revealed as Karl. Towards the end of the programme, Karl revealed that he was wearing a bomber vest when at a by-election. He explained how he intended to take revenge on an MP, who he claimed had covered up a number of British soldiers' deaths. However, it wasn't all negative reaction, with one viewer insisting online: 'Trigger Point was brilliant. Vicky McClure, what an actress.' Fortunately, Lana managed to diffuse the bomb after Karl was shot down by a police officer. The series centres on the Expo officers who risk their lives daily on 'the long walk' towards danger. Trigger Point was written by screenwriting newcomer Daniel Brierley and produced by Jed Mercurio's HTM Television. Ahead of the series finale on Sunday, Jed - the mastermind behind BBC's Line Of Duty - took to Twitter to thank avid viewers for tuning in, along with a teaser clip. Fans flooded the reply section to heap praise onto not only the show, but Vicky's performance and Jed's talent. Rave reviews: Fans flooded Twitter to heap praise onto not only the show, but Vicky's performance and Jed Mercurio's producing talent 'Thank you for a super series again Jed. Don't want it to end. Been great,' one review read. Someone else penned: 'I've watched @vicky_mcclure through the This Is England series, Line Of Duty and now Trigger Point. I swear she'd make watching paint dry dramatic. What a talent.' Another chimed: 'This has/is THE best drama for years'. To date, nearly 11 million viewers have watched the first episode and the series is currently averaging 9.24 million viewers for episodes 1-4, as the audience enjoy the series on ITV, ITV Hub and BritBox. Success: The series centres on the Expo officers who risk their lives daily on 'the long walk' towards danger and has been lauded by viewers Stats: To date, nearly 11 million viewers have watched the first episode and the series is currently averaging 9.24 million viewers for episodes 1-4 Of the second series announcement, Jed said: 'Everyone at HTM Television is thrilled by the success of Trigger Point. Thanks to all our brilliant cast and crew and especially to the viewers who watched in such large numbers. 'We've received unswerving support from ITV throughout the production and we are delighted to have been commissioned for a second series.' Meanwhile scriptwriter Daniel added: 'I'm honoured and excited to be given the chance to continue Lana's story. 'I feel there's many more twists and turns in her future. It's been thrilling to see how the public have responded to our show and I can't wait to see what they will make of the next instalment!' Trigger Point is available to view on ITV Hub and BritBox. Watch Trigger Point only on Stan in Australia. A Georgia mother is spreading awareness about a super-rare condition called 'uncombable hair syndrome,' which causes her own son's unruly hair to grow out in all directions and makes it impossible to comb down. Katelyn Samples, 33, from Atlanta, Georgia, says that when her 17-month-old Locklan's hair started to grow in at around five months old, she and her husband, Caleb, 33, thought the odd texture was just a sign that it would be curly. But a few months later, when someone on Instagram suggested that he could have uncombable hair syndrome, they got Locklan checked out by a specialist and learned that he is among only about 100 reported cases in the world. Little Locklan from Atlanta, Georgia has uncontrollable hair syndrome, a real and very rare condition The 17-month-old boy's hair started growing in at five months and his parents noticed an odd texture A stranger messaged on Katelyn Samples, 33, on Instagram to ask if the boy had uncontrollable hair syndrome' Locklan's hair started to grown in at five months old, and Katelyn and Caleb described the texture as 'peach fuzz.' At first, they assumed that it would grown in curly like Locklan's two-year-old brother, Shepard. 'We were like, huh, what is this?' Katelyn told People. 'We knew it was different but didn't know exactly how. And then it kept growing and growing.' They didn't realize just how different the little boy was until this summer, when a stranger messaged Katelyn on Instagram asking if Locklan had been diagnosed with uncombable hair syndrome. Katelyn didn't know what that was. 'At first, you see "syndrome" and you're like, "Oh my gosh," like is something wrong with my baby? Is he in pain or something?' Katelyn told Good Morning America. 'At first, you see "syndrome" and you're like, "Oh my gosh," like is something wrong with my baby? Is he in pain or something?' Katelyn said She and her husband, Caleb, 33, took Locklan to a specialist in Atlanta, Georgia who ran tests and confirmed the diagnosis The doctor told her that she hadn't seen a case of uncombable hair syndrome once in the 19 years she'd been practicing The condition causes a structural anomaly of the hair that causes it to grow in all directions and makes it impossible to brush down or flatten Also called spun glass hair, it's usually straw-colored with a dull texture - and under a microscope, the hairs are triangular in shape, rather than cylindrical 'I just went in a tailspin and did a Google deep dive, called his pediatrician and the pediatrician even was like, "Hang on, let us look into this." They hadn't even heard of it. So they sent us to a specialist, a pediatric dermatologist at Emory in Atlanta, and that's where we were able to get the diagnosis.' The doctor told her that she hadn't seen a case of uncombable hair syndrome once in the 19 years she'd been practicing. It's certainly a rare genetic condition, which causes a structural anomaly of the hair that causes it to grow in all directions and makes it impossible to brush down or flatten. Also called spun glass hair, it's usually straw-colored with a dull texture and under a microscope, the hairs are triangular in shape, rather than cylindrical. Only about 100 cases of the syndrome have reported in the world, though there may be more unreported cases, and it usually affects children between the ages of three months to three years. It tends to improve into puberty and adulthood. Only about 100 cases of the syndrome have reported in the world, though there may be more unreported cases It usually affects children between the ages of three months to three years. It tends to improve into puberty and adulthood Katelyn said Locklan's hair is delicate but she rarely has to wash it because it doesn't get greasy The family is embracing the boy's hair, and dressed him up as Doc Brown from the Back to the Future movies for Halloween Uncombable Hair Syndrome: The condition that was made famous by Albert Einstein Uncombable hair syndrome is a rare inherited disorder that causes locks to stand up from the roots and not be flattened. Such hair is usually silvery-blond or straw colored. The hair usually appears between three and 12 months of age. In rare cases, the syndrome has occurred alongside bone and eye abnormalities. The syndrome usually resolves or improves at the onset of puberty. It may be more manageable through applying conditioners and using soft brushes. Source: Genetic and rare diseases information center Advertisement Katelyn was surprised to get a diagnosis of such a rare condition. 'You're just going about your day thinking everything's fine and that your kid might have curly hair, which does run in the family. And then to hear that there's a rare syndrome associated with your kid it was crazy,' Katelyn said. Fortunately, Locklan is developing normally in every other way, was she and Caleb were told that they didn't need to be concerned. Managing his hair is a bit different: Katelyn said that her son's hair is fragile and can tangle and get matted easily. She said that she rarely washes it, unless he is playing in dirt, noting that it doesn't get greasy. It also draws a lot of attention when they go out. 'We get a lot of comments about him looking like a dandelion and that's actually a very accurate description of appearance and how it feels,' she said. 'His hair is extremely soft, like a little baby chick. People will ask to touch it, which is fine with us, as long as people ask.' Locklan has also earned attention on Instagram, where he has 16,700 followers. 'Our biggest message is to celebrate what makes you stand out and what makes you different and hopefully bring awareness to this uncombable hair syndrome and hopefully, we can get more information,' Katelyn said. 'If you think your kid might have it, go inquire and ask questions and be your child's advocate.' A man is being slammed online after he claimed it was 'unfair' that 'all the men have to stay and fight' amid the war in Ukraine, while the 'children, elderly, and women leave the country.' The TikToker, who goes by the username @notpoliticalspeaking online, sparked fury after he posted a video where he voiced his outrage over not enough women fighting in the current war between Ukraine and Russia, while hitting out at feminists for being 'quiet' about it. 'Once again, all the men in Ukraine have to stay and fight to protect the children, elderly, and women leaving the country,' he wrote in the controversial clip, which has now been viewed more than two million times. 'Where are all the feminist at to say this is unfair? It's been really quiet lately.' A man is being slammed online after he claimed it was 'unfair' that 'all the men have to stay and fight' amid the war in Ukraine, while the 'children, elderly, and women leave the country' A TikToker, who goes by the username @notpoliticalspeaking online, has angered a lot of people on the internet after he hit out at feminists for being 'quiet' about it Russia launched an all-out attack on Ukraine on Thursday, with missiles raining from the sky, tanks rolling across the border, and masses of attack helicopters swarming on capital Kyiv Amid the invasion, Ukraine announced that men between the ages of 18 and 60 have to remain and fight. Russian armored vehicles are pictured on roads near the Chernobyl plant More than 120,000 Ukrainians have fled the country to seek refuge. Two couples are pictured saying goodbye before the women got on a train to head to safety in a neighboring country However, many women have stayed behind to help defend their country. A woman is pictured during a military drill for the civilians before Russia's invasion Russia launched an all-out attack on Ukraine on Thursday, with missiles raining from the sky, tanks rolling across the border from Belarus, and masses of attack helicopters swarming on capital Kyiv after Russian leader Vladimir Putin personally gave the order to invade. Ukrainian troops are fighting Russian forces for control of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, 60 miles north of the capital Kyiv, amid fears the battle could damage storage facilities holding nuclear waste sparking a fallout that could blanket Europe. Ukraine announced on Thursday that men between the ages of 18 and 60 were not allowed to leave the country and had to remain and fight amid Russia's invasion. More than 120,000 Ukrainians - mostly women and children - have fled in an attempt to seek refuge and safety in neighboring countries. However, many women have stayed behind to help defend their country, including Yaryna Arieva - a deputy on the Kyiv City Council. 'We have to protect it. We have to protect the people we love and the land we live on,' Yaryna told CNN. 'I hope for the best, but I do what I can to protect my land.' It has also been reported that many of the women and children who are still in Ukraine have started to prepare a makeshift arsenal of weapons to use against invading Russian forces in a mass civilian resistance campaign. Many of the women and children who are still in Ukraine are now preparing makeshift weapons to use against Russian forces. They are pictured making the weapons They started producing Molotov cocktails - a type of bomb - following calls from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for civilians to engage Russian troops with guerilla warfare The Wall Street Journal reported that 32,000 women are currently serving in Ukraine's military - accounting for some 15 per cent of total military personnel They started producing Molotov cocktails - a type of bomb - following calls from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for civilians to engage Russian troops with guerilla warfare when they enter cities like Lviv and Kyiv. Military instructors were assigned into civilian areas of Ukraine to teach the brave women and children how to make and throw the improvised weapons - contained in glass bottles - in early February, when Russia was preparing to invade. A teacher named Arina told BBC News: 'Nobody thought that this was how we would spend our weekend. 'Nobody thought but now we're doing this and it seems like the only important thing to do now. We can't just live our ordinary lives if we are safe, we have to do something.' Another woman, named Victoria, told the outlet that she was 'not afraid' and had no plans to 'leave her country.' 'Honestly, I'm not afraid. I only worry about my daughters, that's all. I see that things are not good for Ukraine, but I cannot leave my country. We have to be patriotic,' she said. The Wall Street Journal reported that 32,000 women are currently serving in Ukraine's military - accounting for some 15 per cent of total military personnel. 'On the front line, it makes no difference if youre a man or a woman,' Oksana Kuzma, a female soldier with a rank equivalent to private first class, told them. In the comment section of the video, the TikToker claimed that despite many women staying behind to fight, it is still a small percentage of the population. 'On the front line, it makes no difference if youre a man or a woman,' Oksana Kuzma, a female soldier, told the outlet. Pictured are the hands of a different female soldier Ukrainian troops are fighting Russian forces for control of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, 60 miles north of the capital Kyiv There are fears that the battle could damage storage facilities holding nuclear waste sparking a fallout that could blanket Europe. A Ukrainian woman is pictured training for battle 'Yall keep saying 32,000 women are fighting in Ukraine. Ukraine has 17 million women of age,' he wrote. 'Thats only 0.00188 per cent out of 17 million older then 18.' A Ukrainian woman is pictured during a shooting practice before the invasion The man's comments quickly sparked backlash, with many people taking to the comment section of the video to share their dismay. 'How do you take such a serious thing happening right now and twist it into this?' asked one disgruntled viewer. Another added: 'Man's is using a full scale invasion to justify his disdain for women.' 'Bro said lemme actually take a horrific event and take the opportunity to turn it into something misogynistic like bro... Get help for real,' said someone else. A fourth comment read, 'People were dying and your first thought was to drag women down? Bro you need help FAST.' 'Most y'all boys would cry your first night in boot camp,' wrote a woman who previously fought in the military. 'I served four years. Where were y'all?' 'Don't act like this is about equal rights when you can't even begin to understand how those families are feeling right now,' a different TikTok user agreed. 'And who made it like that? Ah yes, men,' someone else commented. In the comment section of the video, the TikToker claimed that despite many women staying behind to fight, it is still a small percentage of the population The man's comments quickly sparked backlash, with many people taking to the comment section of the video to share their dismay and slam him The man told DailyDot he was not bothered by the angry comments, adding that 'what matters is the truth.' He also posted a video in response to someone who called him 'misogynistic' 'Bro half the time men don't want us in the military,' pointed out another viewer. 'And if we do get in, we'll probably be sexually assaulted. But go off.' 'My guy, there are many women fighting in the military right now while you're sitting there recording this TikTok,' added another. The man told DailyDot that he was not bothered by the angry comments, adding that 'what matters is the truth' and reiterating his claims that men are called upon 'when hard times come up in life.' He also posted a second video in response to someone who wrote, 'People are dying and you care about this? You're never getting b**ches.' 'See how y'all say I'm "being misogynistic" or I hate woman. But this is how you label women as b**ches. That seems very sexist to me,' he replied. United States officials have ordered Capitol police to reinstall the fence around the building prior to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address later this week amid the threat of the "Freedom Convoy" taking inspiration from its Canadian counterpart. In an announcement on Sunday, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said that an inner-perimeter fence was to be installed around the Capitol for Tuesday's address. The official said that the decision to reinstall the defensive barrier was made out of an abundance of caution and was in cooperation with the United States Secret Service. State of the Union Address The chief's remarks noted that his Department's mission was to protect the United States Congress, the Capitol, and the legislative process, which remained unwavering. Manger noted that there was a possibility of a demonstration in the following weeks. He added they were working with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to create a security plan. The plan would be designed to prevent any form of disruption attempt to the important work of Congress. Authorities are also planning to increase security details amid rumors that truck convoys could be arriving in Washington, as per The Hill. In recent weeks, truckers closed off parts of Ottawa as part of their protests against the country's coronavirus mandates. The demonstrations resonated with some residents in the U.S., with the Capitol Police announcing earlier this month that agencies were aware of plans of truck convoys to travel to Washington. Read Also: Donald Trump: Ex-POTUS Slams Joe Biden, World Leaders Amid Russia-Ukraine Crisis, Teases 2024 Presidential Run On Feb. 23, the "People's Convoy," a U.S.-based group of activists, left Southern California for a cross-country trip. The convoy plans to arrive in the region on Mar. 5, but organizers have said that they wanted to target the Beltway and block it, instead of traveling into the city. According to the Washington Post, social media platforms have recently become home to a number of spinoffs, including groups that said they planned to meet with the People's Convoy and others wanting to travel to D.C. The various routes, dates, and organizers have placed authorities in a precarious situation. Truckers' Convoy The temporary fencing was previously installed ahead of a rally last September where protesters supported Jan. 6 defendants. Last April, congressional security officials have discussed plans to reinstall the barriers over the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted in the murder of George Floyd. Furthermore, some Republican lawmakers have shared their support of the Canadian truckers convoy with their own voicing of opposition to Biden's vaccine mandates. One of the groups filed a permit with the National Park Service for a Mar. 1 protest that was planned to be held next to the Washington Monument. The group claimed to have had up to 3,000 demonstrators who supported the Canadian trucker protests against vaccine mandates. Officials from the Pentagon authorized as many 700 National Guard personnel to support the Metropolitan Police and the Capitol Police in an unarmed capacity through Mar. 7. On Sunday Capitol Police also said that they would close off some roads around the Capitol in preparation for Biden's address, Politico reported. Related Article: Barr's New Memoir Criticizes Trump, Says Former President is 'Unfit' To Lead @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Duchess of Sussex has weighed in on President Joe Biden's pick of Ketanji Brown Jackson as Supreme Court Justice - after facing calls she should be stripped of her royal title for meddling in US politics. Meghan Markle, 40, who is currently living in her $14 million mansion in California, has been increasingly vocal about politics in the US having stepped back from royal duty last year. Over the weekend, the mother-of-two spoke to Anita Hill for URL media about the nomination of Judge Jackson, saying: 'Judge Jacksons nomination has opened new ground for womens representation at the highest level of a judicial system that for too long has tilted against the very community she hails from. 'For the millions of young women who will rightfully find inspiration from this moment, lets remind ourselves that Black achievement is something that exists not just today or yesterday, and not just in moments of celebration, but as a fabric woven into the entire chronicle of the American story.' Anita said the pair had 'recently connected' and said there was 'a measure of parallelism given her experience navigating uncharted territory as a Black woman.' The duchess's latest intervention heightens speculation that she sees herself in a political position in the future, like her heroines Angelina Jolie and Amal Clooney. The Duchess of Sussex, 40, has weighed in with her opinion of President Joe Biden's pick of Ketanji Brown Jackson as Supreme Court Justice - after facing calls she should be stripped of her royal title for meddling in US politics Over the weekend, the mother-of-two spoke to Anita Hill about the nomination of Judge Jackson by President Biden It is not the first time the Duchess has weighed in on politics in the US. Last year, she made a series of calls for compulsory paid family leave in the US, including in her first major TV appearance since her notorious tell-all with Oprah Winfrey. In a soft-soap interview with chat show host Ellen DeGeneres in November, Meghan told her close friend she would do 'everything' in her power to change US policy for millions of Americans. The duchess also caused controversy by cold-calling US senators on their private phones and using her royal title to urge them to vote in favour of paid leave. Previously she wrote a letter to the US Congress asking them to considering making paid leave law. Sources previously said the Duchess was eyeing 2024, when President Joe Biden will be 82 and deciding whether he wants to run for a second term Republican Representative Jason Smith of Missouri condemned Meghan for interfering in American politics, and even suggested she should be stripped of her title to stop her using it to gain political leverage. Meghan told The Ellen Show: 'I think that people truly forget, or don't even know that in this country, it's one of the only six countries in the entire world and the only wealthy nation in the entire world that does not mandate and have a federal paid leave programme. 'Everybody knows, especially if you have had a child and even if you haven't, you know how hard it is and how critical it is in those first few weeks if not months to be together as a family. 'And the fact that we don't offer that here is something that now as a mom of two, I will do everything that I can to make sure that we can implement that for people.' Last year, she made a series of calls for compulsory paid family leave in the US, including in her first major TV appearance since her notorious tell-all with Oprah Winfrey Meghan previously insisted she is not playing politics by calling for paid family leave for all, which she says is a 'humanitarian issue', during an appearance at the New York Times DealBook summit. Speaking to Andrew Sorkin, who edits DealBook, the Times' financial newsletter, and appeared alongside Mellody Hobson, co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based investment firm, she said: 'I don't see this as a political issue frankly. 'There is a precedent among my husband's family, the royal family, of not having any involvement in politics. From my standpoint, this is a humanitarian issue.' In a October 20 letter to US congressmen Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, Meghan wrote: 'I'm not an elected official, and I'm not a politician. I'm writing to you at this deeply important time - as a mom - to advocate for paid leave.' The extraordinary 1,030-word letter asked the two Democratic leaders to consider her plea 'on behalf of my family, Archie and Lili and Harry'. The duchess depicted humble beginnings, saying that her family struggled when she was young - despite her well-documented middle class upbringing in which she attended private primary and secondary schools on her Emmy award-winning lighting director father's $200,000-a-year salary. Markle, pictured above with Prince Harry and her first born Archie, made a rare political statement last year And last year, rumours circulating in Westminster suggested Meghan planned to use the furore over her interview with Oprah to launch a political career which could take her all the way to the White House. One senior Labour figure a veteran of Tony Blair's Downing Street administration with strong links to Washington claimed to The Mail on Sunday that Meghan was networking among senior Democrats with a view to building a campaign and fundraising teams for a tilt at the US Presidency. A source close to the Duchess declined to comment, but the couple have made little secret of their political beliefs. During the US election she and Prince Harry levelled a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump by urging voters to 'reject hate speech', which a spokesperson for the couple described as 'a call for decency'. Trump himself declared that he was 'not a fan' of Meghan. And, a friend of the Duchess told Vanity Fair magazine that one of the reasons she did not give up her American citizenship when she married into the Royal Family was to allow her to keep open the option of entering Washington politics. US constitutional experts responded that she would have to renounce her title if she wanted to hold public office in the States, because it would cut across the US oath of allegiance. Buckingham Palace tried to distance the Royal Family from the remarks made during the US election by issuing a statement saying that 'the Duke is not a working member of the Royal Family' and describing his comments as 'made in a personal capacity'. President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first black woman selected to serve on the bench Biden shakes hands with Jackson after announcing her nomination to the Supreme Court The source added that the presumption was that the Duchess was eyeing 2024, when President Joe Biden will be 82 and deciding whether he wants to run for a second term. Meghan's friends have previously encouraged speculation about her political ambitions describing her rise from modest beginnings as 'the embodiment of the American dream'. Her latest comments come as President Biden said he nominated Judge Jackson to unite the country despite being accused of undermining her professional achievements by announcing his nominee had to be a black woman. Speaking to online interviewer Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, Biden listed his reasons for nominating Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 'Number one, I committed, two years ago, that if I got elected president, I would name, if I had an opportunity, I would name the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court because I think the court should look like the country,' he said. 'The point is that I want to bring the country together.' Despite his hopes, Biden has received criticism for basing his decision off race and sex, with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham saying Jackson's nomination 'means the radical left has won President Biden over yet again.' When asked to comment about Graham's statement, Biden lamented that the nation was being split by politics. 'Unfortunately, we've become so politicized in this country,' he said. 'I wish it would be a different Lindsey used to be a close friend. 'I just wish they'd give it a chance. There's no basis for that assertion. But. It's what it is.' In his push for her nomination, Biden pointed to Jackson's unique qualifications - she would be the high court's first former public defender - and that she has been previously confirmed by the Senate for the federal bench, garnering Republican votes in the Senate for that position. 'She served both in public service as a federal public defender, a federal public defender and in private law practice as an accomplished lawyer with a prestigious law firm,' the president said on Friday. Yet despite her impressive qualifications, many believed the nomination process was tainted by Biden's vow two years ago and that it undermined Jackson's extensive career. Former presidential candidate Ben Carson said he was disappointed with the process and what it would mean for Jackson. 'People will assume that she got the position because of her color and not because of her qualifications,' Carson told the Daily Signal. 'That may not be the case, but that will be a natural assumption.' A Twitter user with the handle name Carpet Braggers wrote echoed Carson's sentiments, writing, 'Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a diversity hire if she is confirmed. 'POTUS nominated her first and foremost because of the color of her skin rather than her qualifications. Her tenure will always be tainted with this fact.' Bridgerton actress Golda Rosheuvel looked incredible in a lavish gown as she stunned on the cover of April's Tatler magazine. The 52-year-old Guyanese-British actress, is reprising her role as Queen Charlotte in the hit period drama, which is returning to screens next month. She explained how she had waited her entire life to play the role, saying: 'Im a great believer in waiting, in biding my time, being confident enough in my craft and who I am as a person to know that it will happen, that one day someone would see me and go, "Right, you are perfect for playing the Queen of England".' Based on a series of books of the same name by Julia Quinn, the Netflix show follows the eight siblings of the Bridgerton family as they attempt to find love in Regency-era England. Bridgerton actress Golda Rosheuvel looked incredible in a lavish gown as she stunned on the cover of April's Tatler magazine Golda grew up in a high society environment similar to that of which Queen Charlotte did, in Guyana, South America, before the family relocated to England when she was five. She explained that every time she dresses up as the Queen from the 1700s, she is 'paying homage' to her mother, who was a high-society socialite. When her mother, Judith, visited Golda's great-uncle, who was Bishop of Barbados and later Archbishop of Jamaica, she had dinner with Princess Margaret. 'I didnt need to do much research because I knew the world this character came from already it was my mothers world and that makes her very easy to play,' she explained. The 52-year-old Guyanese-British actress, is reprising her role as Queen Charlotte in the hit period drama, which is returning to screens next month (pictured) 'Every time I dress up as Queen Charlotte, I pay homage to my mother. [She came from an] upper-middle-class London family. 'Before the war they had butlers; their world was very public school. 'My grandfather was the headmaster of Colet Court [St Pauls prep school], my great-uncle was Bishop of Barbados, later Archbishop of Jamaica, and when my mother visited him there, she had dinner with Princess Margaret.' Golda debuted her acting career in a performance of musical production Hair on the West End, as well as appearances on Holby City, Luther and Silent Witness. Golda, who performs in Bridgerton as George III's consort, Queen Charlotte, is the only character in the series not to appear in the original Regency-set novels by Julia Quinn - and the only one based on a real person (pictured in Tatler) She told Tatler she had been dreaming of playing the Queen of England for her whole life (pictured in April edition) In her steady rise to the grand role of Queen Charlotte in worldwide sensation Bridgerton, she explained that she never fully understood if racism was a hindrance on her career or not, noting that she, as a mixed-race woman, was either 'not black enough' or 'too black' for particular roles. In 2018, Golda auditioned for the role of Lady Danbury, which then went to Adjoa Andoh. But shortly after, she was then asked to do an audition tape for the Queen, something which says was 'the easiest tape I've ever done' and sent it off within half an hour. The idea that Queen Charlotte was black was partly popularised by historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom Who was Queen Charlotte and why do some claim she was of African descent? Sophia Charlotte ( Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; May 19 1744 November 17 1818) was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a duchy in what is now northern Germany but was then part of the Holy Roman Empire. The theory that she may have had African ancestry was popularised by historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom. He argued that portraits of her show she had African features which were also noted by her contemporaries. Despite her German heritage, he claimed in a blog for American investigative programme PBS Frontline that she was distantly descended from a black branch of the Portuguese royal family. He said she was related to Margarita de Castro e Souza, a 15th-Century Portuguese noblewoman whose own ancestry traces back to 13th-Century King Alfonso III and his lover Madragana. Valdes claimed Madragana was a Moor and therefore a black African. However, historian Kate Williams told The Guardian that 'if we class Charlotte as black' because of the alleged distant heritage, 'then ergo Queen Victoria and our entire royal family, [down to Prince Harry, are also black'. Referring to the portrait of Charlotte by Sir Allan Ramsay, Valdes wrote that it had 'negroid characteristics' even though 'Artists of that period were expected to play down, soften or even obliterate undesirable features in a subject's face.' He adds: '[But] Sir Allan Ramsay was the artist responsible for the majority of the paintings of the queen, and his representations of her were the most decidedly African of all her portraits.' Valdes suggests that Ramsay was an anti-slavery campaigner who may have stressed the true 'African characteristics' of Charlotte for political reasons. But Desmond Shawe-Taylor, the Surveyor of the Queen's pictures, previously said of the same portrait, 'I can't see it to be honest.' 'We've got a version of the same portrait. I look at it pretty often and it's never occurred to me that she's got African features of any kind. It sounds like the ancestry is there and it's not impossible it was reflected in her features, but I can't see it.' He added that none of the caricatures of Charlotte held at the British Museum show her as African. He said that they would likely do so if she was 'visibly' of African descent. Advertisement And her huge role was part of the phenomenon that is Bridgerton - in just four weeks of its release on Christmas Day 2020, it garnered 82 million worldwide views and gained the title of Netflix's most-watched series to date. Filming for season two, which is out on 25 March, began in Spring last year, something she describes as like the 'family getting back together' after a third national lockdown had finally eased. Queen Charlotte is the only character in the series not to appear in the original Regency-set novels by Julia Quinn - and the only one based on a real person. The second season sees Queen Charlotte witnessing her husband, King George III, go through mental illness, pointing the eye of the audiences further into her private life and internal monologue. Golda also revealed how her role meant she had to dedicate two hours per day to fit the Queen's wigs, which are often worn for 11 hours straight, and that it can take her 20 minutes to take a quick trip to the toilet after removing all her corsets and crinolines. She said: 'Our favourite scenes are the ball scenes because its the only time were all together and you get to catch up on peoples children, their husbands, their dogs. 'The directors find it quite difficult with everybody chat, chat, chatting away. Theyre like, "Come on!"' Sitting on the fictional throne even made Rosheuvel a fan of the Royal family, she explained. 'I like to see the royals as human beings, trying to live a life, and I think we often miss that,' she said. 'Theyre set at a height of perceived unattainability, but to me theyre just guys and gals trying to live their lives in the best way they can.' It was reported last year a Bridgerton prequel series 'based on the origins of Queen Charlotte' is in the pipeline at Netflix from creator Shonda Rhimes. The story is reportedly being written by Rhimes herself will follow the origins of a young Queen Charlotte who grows up to be King George III's wife. It will also include the origins of other characters featured in Bridgerton, namely Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury. 'Many viewers had never known the story of Queen Charlotte before Bridgerton brought her to the world, and I'm thrilled this new series will further expand her story and the world of Bridgerton,' Netflix head of global TV Bela Bajaria told Deadline. Adding: 'Shonda and her team are thoughtfully building out the Bridgerton universe so they can keep delivering for the fans with the same quality and style they love. And by planning and prepping all the upcoming seasons now, we also hope to keep up a pace that will keep even the most insatiable viewers totally fulfilled.' In an attempt to keep up that break-neck pace of production, Deadline also reported that Jess Brownell was being brought on as showrunner for seasons three and four of Bridgerton. Meanwhile, Chris Van Dusen, who served in the role for season one will stay on board in the same capacity for season two. The April issue of Tatler is available on newsstands and via digital download on Thursday 3rd March. Advertisement US car maker Fisker has today confirmed that its first volume-selling model - the Ocean SUV - will start from less than 35,000 when it goes on sale in the UK next year. The Californian auto brand is set to challenge Elon Musk and Tesla's electric vehicle empire with its stylish zero-emission family model, which has a range of 275 to 390 miles, depending on specification. The car made its official European debut in Barcelona today, during the Mobile World Congress event held in Spain. Among other features it includes a partially retracting roof, a rotating touchscreen and a doggie window rear windscreen that goes down. UK examples, which will be produced in Austria, are set to arrive from the second quarter of 2023 with performance to rival Tesla's vehicles but at a fraction of the cost. The US Tesla rival heading for the UK next year: This is the all-electric Fisker Ocean SUV that will be sold in Britain in 2023 with a starting price of 34,990 Henrik Fisker, car designer and CEO of Fisker, said on Monday: 'Europe is critical to the company's success as we work towards building the most sustainable vehicle and starting production in November.' The entry version of the Fisker Ocean - called the Sport - links a 'Touring Range' battery to a 275bhp electric motor powering the front wheels, meaning a 0-to-60mph sprint time of 6.6 seconds and an estimated range of 275 miles. It will start from 34,990, meaning it does not qualify for the Plug-in Car Grant of 1,500. That said, it is some 8,000 less than the cheapest Tesla Model 3 saloon and a massive 20,000 under the least expensive Model Y SUV - though lowest-spec versions of both Teslas offer better ranges and performance stats. Other notable rivals from mainstream brands include the Audi Q4 E-tron, BMW iX3, Skoda Enyaq iV and Volkswagen ID.5. All cars will come with the company's six-year or 100,000 kilometre (62,000 miles) warranty, with a powertrain and battery warranty of 10 years or 160,000 kilometres (100,000 miles) - whichever comes first. Prices rise to 48,900 for the mid-spec all-wheel drive Ocean Ultra, which has a 'Hyper Range' battery and adds a second electric motor at the rear axle to boost power to 540bhp. This cuts acceleration time to 60mph down to 3.9 seconds and offers a claimed 379-mile range - which is on par with rival machinery from Musk's popular marque. The range-topping Ocean Extreme (with the same Hyper Range battery) will cost 59,900 and features a slightly improved 550bhp electric motor combo, shaving 0.3 seconds off the 0-to-60mph time and extending the range to an estimated 390 miles. The Extreme also has the option of solar panels installed in the roof that can help to boost driving range. For those in sunnier climates, Fisker says it can add around 1,500 miles per year - though that might not be the case in Great Britain's bleak conditions. UK examples, which will be produced in Austria, are set to arrive with customers from the second quarter of 2023 with performance to rival Tesla's vehicles but at a fraction of the cost The Californian auto brand is set to challenge Elon Musk and Tesla's electric vehicle empire with its stylish zero-emission family model, which has a range 275 to 390 miles, depending on specification The car made its official European debut in Barcelona today, during the Mobile World Congress event held in Spain Battery capacity information has yet to be confirmed by Fisker, as is also the case for charging times and top speeds. However, it has stated that the vehicle's maximum towing capacity will be around 4,000lbs (1,800kg). The EV brand also confirmed that the initial 5,000 cars built will carry the Ocean 'One' moniker, offering the same drivetrain and performance as the top-of-the-range Extreme (and the same price) but with exclusive wheels and a few additional design features. Fisker Ocean: Will it fit in my garage? Price: from 34,990 to 59,990 Production: Graz, Austria On sale: UK first deliveries second quarter 2023 Length: 4,775mm Height: 1,631mm Width: 1,994.5mm Wheelbase: 2,921mm Seats: 5 Doors: 5 Versions Sport - 'Touring Range' battery and single electric motor, Front Wheel Drive Ultra / Extreme / One - 'Hyper Range' batter and dual electric motor, All Wheel Drive Range: 275 to 391 miles Power: 275bhp to 550bhp Acceleration 0-62mph: 6.6 seconds to 3.6 seconds Fisker promises after-sale care in all regions the car is sold, with vehicles collected from owner's addresses or Fisker Mobile Services carrying out regular maintenance of vehicles at homes. The five-seat Ocean SUV was first unveiled in Los Angeles - where its headquarters are located - at the LA Auto Show last year, but today is the first time it has been shown on this continent. European-spec models will be built by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, as the brand looks to increase its footprint outside of the US. The Austrian manufacturer also build's Jaguar's I-Pace. Fisker recently opened its European head office in Munich, Germany, and will also set-up 'brand experience centres' in both Germany and the UK. Last year, it announced a 'Fisker Magic Works' department that will produce special edition models, with the division's headquarters in England. Henrik Fisker forecasts full-year annual sales of around 60,000 units in Europe, with the brand having already produced prototype models that will be used for crash tests so that it can be brought to market as quickly as possible. The car itself combines striking looks and is packed with tech. In terms of dimensions, it is just under 4.8 metres long, 2 metres wide and 1.6 metres tall, making it slightly larger than an Audi Q5 but smaller than a Range Rover Sport. The US company says it will look like a 'true SUV', with an elevated ride height, short overhangs, squared wheel arches and a wide track. The design is fuss-free, with slim light clusters front and back, flush door handles that pop-out when the car is unlocked and deep indents chiselled into its profile. The exterior design has lots of clean lines and is generally fuss-free, with slim light clusters at both the front and front and back and four flush door handles Inside, the cabin is 'fully vegan', with cloth materials made from reclaimed fishing nets, T-shirts and rubber Slide me The Fisker Ocean has a number of party pieces up its sleeve. Among these is a rotating 17.1-inch infotainment screen that can swivel from landscape to portrait view at the push of a button when at a standstill Inside, the cabin is 'fully vegan', with cloth materials made from reclaimed fishing nets, T-shirts and rubber to produce the 'world's most sustainable electric vehicle', say bosses. It has a number of party pieces up its sleeve, too. Among these is a rotating 17.1-inch infotainment screen that can swivel from landscape to portrait view at the push of a button when at a standstill. With all the windows down, the roof panel above the driver and passenger's head can be retracted behind the B-pillars to give a sensation of open-top driving up front. And mid-spec and above examples also get a unique rear 'doggie power window', which rolls down the glass so pooches in the boot can get some fresh air or, as the Fisker images suggest, can facilitate the transportation of surf boards. Mid-spec and above examples of the Fisker Ocean get this 'doggie power window' at the back, that allows the user to wind the rear glass down so dogs in the boot can get some fresh air The 'doggie power windows' can also be useful for transporting longer items, such as a surf board Revealing the car to the Barcelona show crowd on Monday, Mr Fisker said: 'Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the ideal place to showcase the Fisker Ocean, as our vehicle is full of advanced technology, including over-the-air offerings that we will take to a new level. 'With the Fisker Ocean's combination of performance, value and sustainability, I believe we have a unique electric vehicle with industry-first features, such as California Mode, a 17.1-inch rotating screen and the longest range in our segment.' Last year, Fisker said it will be producing the first all-electric Popemobile for Pope Francis, presenting His Holiness with images of the converted Ocean SUV he will be able to ride around in. The entry version of the Fisker Ocean - called the Sport - links a 'Touring Range' battery to a 275bhp electric motor powering the front wheels, meaning a 0-to-60mph sprint time of 6.6 seconds and an estimated range of 275 miles The range-topping Ocean Extreme (with the same Hyper Range battery) will cost 59,900 and feature a slightly improved 550bhp electric motor combo, shaving 0.3 seconds off the 0-to-60mph time and extending the range to 390 miles Disgraced LV chairman Alan Cook finally left yesterday 80 days after his botched attempt to sell it to American private equity. Cook, 68, was instrumental in pushing the 530million sale to Bain Capital, which would have stripped the 179-year-old insurer of its mutual status. The deal was rejected in December by LVs 1.2million members after a Daily Mail campaign. Cook promised to step down but has remained until now, collecting 45,000 in pay in the process. Exit: LV chairman Alan Cook was instrumental in pushing the 530m sale to Bain Capital, which would have stripped the 179-year-old insurer of its mutual status The deal also cast a spotlight on his past, including his tenure as the Post Offices managing director when it began prosecuting sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft. Critics welcomed Cooks exit, but said chief executive Mark Hartigan, the other key driver of the deal, must leave LV too. They also said acting chairman Seamus Creedon, who would have continued to be employed under Bain, has questions to answer. LV has appointed two non-executives to its board. Natalie Ceeney, CBE, is the ex-chief executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service, which handles disputes between customers and financial firms. And former Merrill Lynch banker Suzy Neubert is married to ex-Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester, who is now chairman of Easyjet. In a change in direction for the board, which unanimously backed Bain takeover, Creedon said his first task was to appoint directors who will continue to develop LV as a growing mutual insurer. Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake, a Treasury select committee member, said of Cook: How he was able to cling on for so long earning huge wages is beyond me. 'It seems this sorry saga is slowly coming to an end and LVs future as a mutual is becoming more secure. Labour MP Gareth Thomas, chairman of Parliaments all-party group on mutuals, said Hartigan should go too. He added: Frankly, Mr Creedon has many questions to answer about his own role in the Bain debacle. 'Top of the list is why on earth he thinks he can be trusted in charge when he would have benefited from the demutualisation and tie-up with Bain too. Only a change of board and a new chief executive can set LV free of its recent past. Its annual report this month will show whether Hartigan will be paid a 740,000 bonus. Lockheed Martin is looking to spend 50million to set up a base for its space business in the North East. The US company, the worlds biggest defence group, is in talks in Newcastle about a project which could create up to 2,300 jobs. It could build a factory as well as a research centre. It already has 2,000 staff in the UK and invests 1.8billion in Britain a year. Lift off: Executives from the US company are holding talks in Newcastle about the potential project, which could create up to 2,300 jobs Lockheed is a major space contractor that has been involved in all 22 Nasa missions to Mars. More than 45,000 people work in the UKs space industry. Nik Smith, of Lockheed Martin UK and Europe, said: We are committed to make the UK one of the most prosperous and capable space sectors in the world. 'With its strong manufacturing heritage, highly skilled workforce and reputation for quality, we've identified North East England as a strong contender for our future operations, potentially creating new high-technology engineering and manufacturing jobs for the region.' The boss of GlaxoSmithKline deplored the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the pharma giant revealed it was supporting relief efforts in the country. Emma Walmsley said the FTSE 100 firm utterly condemned the invasion and was helping its 400 Ukrainian staff as well as humanitarian organisations such as Save the Children and the Red Cross. We have just huge respect for the courage and resolve of the people of Ukraine, our people and the people beyond that, and want to do everything we can to help, Walmsley said. Support: GlaxoSmithKline boss Emma Walmsley (pictured) said the FTSE 100 firm was helping its Ukrainian staff as well as humanitarian groups such as Save the Children and the Red Cross She added that the company would support and comply with all sanctions. It has two businesses in Kyiv, according to its annual report, but has no factories in Ukraine. The comments came as the group confirmed plans to complete the demerger of its consumer healthcare business in July this year. The division, which was named Haleon last week, owns brands including Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol painkillers. Goldman Sachs previously valued the consumer business at around 45billion. The separation is expected to be the biggest demerger in Europe for 20 years and the largest London listing in a decade. Despite market volatility caused by the war in Ukraine, Walmsley said that she was extremely confident that the separation of Haleon will be completed on time. The spinning out of Haleon is a key plank of her plans for the business. Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is under fire from politicians for his roles at Russian companies including Rosneft. Social democrat Schroeder led Germany from 1998 to 2005, when he was replaced by Angela Merkel. The 77-year-old, who is a close friend of President Putin, has been chairman of Rosneft since 2017 and was paid 500,000 last year. Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (pictured, left with Vladimir Putin), has been chairman of Rosneft since 2017 and was paid 500,000 last year He also leads the shareholder committee at the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. And last month he was nominated to join the board of state-backed energy group Gazprom, which owns Nord Stream 2. But German politicians in his own party have lashed out at him for keeping his ties with Russian companies going despite the invasion of Ukraine. SPD co-chairman Saskia Esken said: Rosneft and Gazprom are now the infrastructure of a bloody war of aggression. With his mandates there, Gerhard Schroeder is damaging the reputation of Germany and social democracy. Dealings with a warmonger are incompatible with the role of a former chancellor. Schroeder was instrumental in setting up the Nord Stream 2 project while in office but Germany recently blocked the pipeline from opening as tensions escalated. He has blamed Russia for the war but has not gone any further leaving it unclear if he will keep his current roles. He has been criticised for his ties before and provoked a backlash in 2004 when he described Putin as a flawless democrat. Advertisement Mardi Gras revelers were given rapid COVID-19 tests alongside the customary beads on Thursday after descending on New Orleans, and now have to mask up and show proof of vaccine to enter bars and indoor venues as the festival returns for the first time since the 'superspreader' event in 2020. The effort is emblematic of the city's effort to avoid a surge of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths while reviving cherished, and economically vital, Carnival events. Those events were largely silenced in 2021 after officials realized the 2020 celebration had been a 'superspreader' event that made Louisiana an early Southern hot spot for the disease, leading to a 50,000-strong infection spat and causing a handful of deaths. In light of the failures of the 2020 Mardi Gras event, last year's festivities were entirely virtual. The city health department said Wednesday that staff and volunteers would be parading at the head of Thursday night's Muses procession, some in the back of a pickup truck and some walking alongside, to hand out test kits. One Mardi Gras reveler snapped a picture on social media of celebratory parade bags which had been handed out, which included beads, a backup battery, a face mask, hand sanitizer, and a rapid COVID-19 test. Scroll down for video A Mardi Gras reveler holds up a rapid COVID-19 test as handed out alongside beads during carnival celebrations this week Pictured: a Mardi Gras reveler snapped a picture of parade bags, which included beads, a backup battery, a mask, hand sanitizer, and a rapid COVID-19 test A member of the Krewe of Okeanos throw beads to the crowd as his float rolls down the streets during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana, February, 27 2022 Pictured: a member of the Krewe of Okeanos walks by her float in New Orleans on Sunday Endymion's "Welcome to the Mardi Gras" float makes its way down Canal Street Saturday night. #mardigras #wwltv pic.twitter.com/McoJfTS7ak WWL-TV (@WWLTV) February 27, 2022 Parade watchers who received a kit were encouraged to test themselves and use a special QR code on the package to anonymously report the results to help the health department study the effects of Carnival season on the city's health. The health department said rapid tests also would be available for several hours for people arriving at the airport on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 'If we want to participate in the activities we love at Carnival, we can't let our guard down,' Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the city's health director, said in a news release. 'COVID is not over yet, and we need to use every tool at our disposal to prevent a repeat of the tragedies of Mardi Gras 2020.' 'Catch beads, not COVID-19' reads a Louisiana Department of Health advertisement for this year's Mardi Gras Joe Cain Day, named for a clerk who started Mobile's modern Mardi Gras by dressing up and parading through town in the late 1860s after the Civil War, roared back to life after taking a year off because of the pandemic A man comes up to grab some beads as the Krewe of Okeanos rolls down the streets during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans Strings of plastic beads line a fence along the parade route as the Krewe of Okeanos prepares to roll down the streets for Mardi Gras Hands reach up to grab beads as the Krewe of Okeanos rolls down the streets during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans on Thursday A member of the Krewe of Okeanos holds a string of beads as her float rolls down the streets during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans Carnival revelry is already being tempered by several restrictions: Entry into bars, restaurants and numerous other indoor venues requires both a mask and proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. Float riders in city parades are required to be vaccinated. Visitors are returning for this year's celebration, if not in numbers from years past. Tourism officials say about 89 percent of the 26,000 hotel rooms in downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter will be filled Saturday, down from nearly 98 percent for the same Saturday in 2020. How strictly will the mandates be enforced? While businesses that run afoul of the requirements run the risk of sanctions, 'There are no mask police,' city spokesman Beau Tidwell said at a news conference this week, emphasizing the need for cooperation by residents and visitors. Tidwell found himself having to defend Mayor LaToya Cantrell amid social media criticism over pictures of her and other city leaders, sometimes without masks, at a Carnival ball. Members of the 610 Stompers dance down the street with the Krewe of Thoth parade during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans on Saturday A float shaped like an alligator spews out smoke as the Krewe of Bacchus rolls down the street during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans A member of the Krewe of Thoth throws beads to the crowd on Thursday A dance troupe dressed as angels marches down the street with the Krewe of Okeanos during Mardi Gras Tidwell said Cantrell removed her mask for pictures and to eat and drink, but acknowledged 'we need to do a better job of modeling the expected behavior.' The city says 77 percent of the total population and 96 percent of its adult population is partially vaccinated, while 67 percent of the total population, and 85 percent of the adult population, is fully vaccinated. Muses is among a group of 'super krewes' with the largest and most elaborate high-tech floats. The all-female group's signature parade handouts are glittery, hand-decorated high-heeled shoes. The parade is one of nearly two dozen that are set to roll in the city Thursday through Tuesday. The US Embassy in Moscow urged American citizens in Russia to leave the country immediately on Sunday, as some airlines halt flights there and some countries close their skies to Russian aircraft. 'U.S. citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available,' the Embassy said in a statement on its website. Officials in Washington in recent weeks have urged Americans not to travel to Russia, and warned that the U.S. government could not help in any evacuation of Americans from there. An earlier alert recommended Americans develop contingency plans about how to leave the country if necessary. The European Union was among those announcing Sunday they were closing their airspace to Russian flights. The US Embassy in Moscow urged American citizens in Russia to leave the country immediately on Sunday. A view of the US Embassy on Novinsky Boulevard A woman stands in front of a destroyed building after a Russian missile attack A big fire at a petroleum storage depot after a Russian missile attack, in Vasylkiv, near Kyiv, Ukraine 'The Embassy reminds U.S. citizens that the Department of State's Travel Advisory level for Russia is at 'Level 4: Do Not Travel,' the statement added. According to Statista, Americans made up 10 percent of all expats living in Russia as of 2018. Russian forces are said to have taken a small Ukrainian town in the south of the country on Sunday night. Berdyansk, is a port city with a naval base on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, in the south-east Ukraine is home to 100,000 people. Charred military vehicles and rubble are seen in Bucha, Ukraine US President Joe Biden meets with the National Security Council on the Ukraine-Russia crisis Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the Pentagon Tuesday French President Emmanuel Macron (right) greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky It is located close to the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and from which it launched one of several invasion forces. Elsewhere in the country, Russian are said to be troops closing in around Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million. The mayor expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Ukrainian defenders have been putting up stiff resistance that appeared to slow Russia's advance. Kyiv was eerily quiet on Sunday morning after explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one airport. A main boulevard was practically deserted as a strict curfew kept people off the streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur. Terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Food and medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. The southern Ukrainian town has a small naval base on the Sea of Azov A woman reacts as paramedics perform CPR on a girl who was injured during shelling, at city hospital of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. The girl did not survive 'Right now, the most important question is to defend our country,' Klitschko said. In the southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling. Nearly 560 miles away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv. 'I wish I had never lived to see this,' said Bystritska, an 87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 90 miles from Kyiv. Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights 'so we dont draw their attention,' said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself. As Russian troops draw closer to the Ukrainian capital, Kyivs mayor is both filled with pride over his citizens spirit and anxious about how long they can hold out. In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, after a grueling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said there were no plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv. 'We cant do that, because all ways are blocked,' he said. 'Right now we are encircled.' When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Thursday, the city of 2.8 million people initially reacted with concern but also a measure of self-possession. However, nerves started fraying when grocery stores began closing and the citys famously deep subway system turned its stations into bomb shelters. The mayor confirmed to the AP that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child. A former student has made millions after joining OnlyFans and filming herself living out punters' fantasies ranging from pouring beans over her body to pretending to be a giant. Kaya Corbridge, 25, has made $2.8m (2.1million) as a content creator on the platform since she first joined in 2017, and racked up 98.3k subscribers to her pictures and videos. She's been asked for all sorts, from pictures of her feet to eating videos and to pretend to be a giant. Miss Corbridge, from Lancashire, said: 'I've had people asking me to shave my hair off, I've had invites to people's weddings which is a bit strange. These people have never met me. 'There are food fetishes, where people want me to pour beans on myself, there's a giant fetish where people want me to pretend that I'm a giant and I'm squashing them. So in that, I use the camera angle on the floor to make me look bigger and like use a little Lego man that they pretend is them. 'It doesn't feel strange at all anymore. Nothing surprises me anymore, it's just normal for me now.' Kaya Corbridge, 25, has made $2.8m (2.1million) as a content creator on the platform since she first joined in 2017 Miss Corbridge, from Lancashire, said: 'I've had people asking me to shave my hair off, I've had invites to people's weddings which is a bit strange. These people have never met me' Miss Corbridge quit her degree in international relations at Leeds Beckett University after she joined OnlyFans in 2017. In March 2021, she had 18,000 subscribers, and had earned $869,000 (635,147) in the year from March 2020. Her reach has exploded since then, as she got into TikTok to find new ways to bring in subscribers and fans, and now has almost 100,000 people signed up. While most of these are paying subscribers, in the past she said has given out free subscriptions to 'give back', such as to health workers during the pandemic and more recently to disabled people. Miss Corbridge had her best performing month ever in January 2022, when she made $111k (83k) in just a month. She said even a bad month means an income of $50k (37k). 'It's just going from strength to strength. I'm still surprising myself all the time and it's been four years', she said. 'I've been able to travel the world, which was my lifelong dream. I've been able to help my family, put through my sister through education, help my brother buy a house, help my parents if they need it. 'I've always said that I'll stop when the money stops but it doesn't stop - it just gets better. When I first started people did not know what OnlyFans was. But it was the pandemic that made things soar. Now everyone knows someone who uses it. Miss Corbridge quit her degree in international relations at Leeds Beckett University after she joined OnlyFans in 2017 'I don't think there's competition though. There's enough money out there for us all and you've just got to go and take it. 'I do want to put some more roots down now though and focus on the business..' Miss Corbridge is now in the process of purchasing her own farm for her and her two dogs. She is launching a new couple's channel with her partner on March 2, to bring in new audiences. She is also encouraging people to come to her and her partner to ask questions about sex they might be embarrassed to elsewhere. Miss Corbridge will answer the questions and provide tutorials. She said: 'There's a lot of men out there who are quite shy and don't have women's opinions on things so they ask people like me.' Miss Corbridge said she would like to spend more time learning about sex education and Tantra yoga meditation and mantras and how it relates to sexuality. In March 2021, she had 18,000 subscribers, and had earned $869,000 (635,147) in the year from March 2020 She says she doesn't regret leaving university though but advises others considering the same to think carefully. 'It's something you've really got to think about. I did it to earn extra money because I literally couldn't afford to be at university and feed myself. I didn't have help doing that,' Miss Corbridge said. 'I had the highest loan but I still didn't have enough money to pay for my rent. 'It depends on your situation. For other people, I'd say think carefully if you're wanting to earn extra money at university. Obviously, you're at university because you want a certain career, while I went just to go university because everyone else was. 'This is perfect for me because I get to work for myself, travel the world, do all the work from my phone. It's comfortable for me but once you do it there's no going back. 'It has worried me in the past but because of how much I've made now and the way I invest my money I've kind of set myself up for life. Not everyone will have the same success as that though - I've been here since early on and I think it would've been much harder if I'd started now.' United States Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene attended and spoke before a meeting of white nationalists who expressed their support for Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the Ukraine crisis, prompting criticism from fellow GOP members. The leader of the Republican National Committee, chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, was among those who expressed their disappointment in Greene. She said that White supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech, and bigotry were disgusting things that did not have a home in the Republican party. White Nationalist Conference In defense of her appearance at the conference, Greene, who is currently barred from sitting on congressional committees due to her previous extremist comments, said she was not aware of the views of the delegates but did not make an apology for being at the event. In a Twitter post, the Republican said she refused to be led into the "guilt by association game in which you demand every conservative should justify anything ever said by anyone they've ever shared a room with." The official said that she talked about God and Liberty during the conference. Greene added that she was not going to turn down the opportunity to speak to roughly 1,200 young America First patriots because of a few off-color remarks by another speaker. The Georgia Republican appeared in Orlando at the America First Political Action Conference on Friday night, as per USA Today. Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney also shared his discontent with GOP members who attended the White nationalist event and those who openly supported Putin. In an interview, the official said there was no place in either political party for White nationalism or racism, calling them simply wrong and evil. Read Also: President Joe Biden Sparks Fury For His Absence in DC; POTUS Spends Weekend in Delaware Despite War Wages in Ukraine The GOP member referred to Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar when making his remarks and cited an old movie he watched with the line, "Morons, I've got morons on my team." He argued that any person willing to sit down with White nationalists and speak at their events was missing a few IQ points. According to CNN, Romney's comments followed Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney's criticism of Greene and Gosar for their appearance at the conference. Furthermore, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who is also a member of the House Select Committee along with Cheney, also had his say. Criticism From Other Republicans Other Republicans who attended the conference include former Congressman Steve King of Iowa, taken off the U.S. House committees for racist remarks, and Idaho Lieutenant Gov. Janice McGeachin. Video footage of the event was released that showed the organizer, Nick Fuentes, attendees cheering for Putin and approving comparisons between the Russian president and German Dictator Adolf Hitler. In response to Greene's attendance at the conference, the Republican Jewish Coalition quickly denounced the official's attendance on Saturday. They called her and Gosar's attendance "appalling and outrageous." Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, while criticizing "racial politics," also said he completely disagrees with Greene's attendance at the conference. In an interview, he said that everyone should be given the same opportunities, Yahoo News reported. Related Article: New York City Mayor Eric Adams Teases Removal of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate; But Why Will It Happen Next Week? @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The dramatic rescue of an elderly man has been caught on camera after he was forced to swim for his life through dangerous waters when his houseboat smashed into a ferry terminal. Emergency crews battling Queensland's devastating flood crisis rushed to the Brisbane River's Holman St ferry terminal at about 9am on Sunday when the floating home was smashed by a loose pontoon. Terrifying footage showed the vessel flying through the river, with a man aged in his 70s walking on the barge before it collided with the terminal. The houseboat then capsized and sunk with the passenger nowhere to be seen. New video shows the moment the elderly man was heroically saved, with bystanders and emergency services linking arms to help him from the water after he was swept to the nearby Howard Smith Wharves. Bystanders link arms to help rescue a man aged in his 70s from the Brisbane River on Sunday after his house boat was ripped loose by a pontoon In just a matter of seconds the barge capsizes and sinks beneath the surface after smashing into the Holman Street ferry terminal at Kangaroo Point (pictured) Several boats and other debris have smashed into the Milton ferry terminal on Brisbane River after days of severe weather and flooding More than a dozen locals can be seen clinging to the structure and each other as they reach into the rising floodwaters and pull the elderly man back to solid ground. The man can be seen wearing a lifejacket, a decision that likely saved his life. Two men in high vis led him away and he was treated by paramedics, but sustained no injuries. While the boat (pictured) was completely destroyed in the crash the man escaped the terrifying incident with no serious injuries Boats have been destroyed with some capsizing after several vessels smashed into the Milton ferry terminal over the weekend Police have urged boat-owners to remain vigilant as southeast Queensland continues to be hammered by floods and rivers fill with debris and large objects. Images from the Milton ferry terminal show on the northern side of the Brisbane River show several vessels destroyed, submerged and capsized after smashing into the wharf over the weekend. The walkway from the terminal has been dislodged and is also underwater, with clean-up crews facing a huge task ahead. A yacht capsizes after it was struck by debris on the Brisbane River on Monday morning The walkway of the terminal has been disloged and is underwater It's expected southeast Queensland will be hammered with 24 hours of torrential rain from major thunderstorms with six people already losing their life (pictured, a car is towed from a flooded road in Oxley, Queensland) A 'major flooding' alert was issued by Brisbane City Council just after 8pm on Sunday night as the Bureau of Meteorology warned severe flooding is likely to come with the high tide on Monday morning. Residents who live along the Brisbane River have been warned their properties may be at risk as the river was expected to peak at 4m. Some 49,000 houses across the region have been left without power with residents already fleeing their homes in Rosalie and Milton. At least seven people have already died in the worst flooding in the state since 2011. NSW residents living south of the Queensland border have abandoned Lismore after the SES sent an emergency warning to Northern Rivers locals at 3am. North Lismore, South Lismore, Lismore CBD, East Lismore, Girards Hill, Woodburn, Swan Bay, Coraki, Marshalls Creek and Bilinudgel are all under threat. Floodwaters have reached their highest levels in half a century along Wilsons River after reaching 12.26m at 5am - smashing the 12.15m record set in March 1974. About 15,000 people have been evacuated on the north coast with the SES overwhelmed by calls for help and rescue teams unable to reach some people. Severe warnings are in place for Brisbane, Logan, and Moreton with water levels already worse than the 2011 and 2013 floods in several areas including Gympie (pictured, the Brisbane River) Lismore mother cradling her child in a police jacket after the pair were rescued on Monday An exhausted Lismore resident collapses into the arms of a loved one as she cradles her dog Families have been forced to evacuate as relentless rain continues to batter parts of south-east Queensland - while an entire regional town has been emptied with the worst floods in 50 years hitting northern NSW Boats are piled together after tehy were thrashed around by floodwaters at Milton ferry terminal in Brisbane Record flooding hits QLD and NSW Thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes as record flooding batters Queensland and New South Wales. Queensland: A 'major flooding' alert was issued by Brisbane City Council just after 8pm on Sunday night as the Bureau of Meteorology warned severe flooding is likely to come with the high tide on Monday morning. Rosalie and Milton are among the suburbs badly hit by the floods with residents forced to flee their homes. At least seven people have already died in the worst flooding in the state since 2011. New South Wales: About 15,000 people have been evacuated on the north coast. North Lismore, South Lismore, Lismore CBD, East Lismore, Girards Hill, Woodburn, Swan Bay, Coraki, Marshalls Creek and Bilinudgel are all inundated. Floodwaters have reached their highest levels in half a century along Wilsons River after reaching 12.26m at 5am - smashing the 12.15m record set in March 1974. The Bureau of Meteorology says Lismore's Wilsons River could reach around 14.20 metres on Monday afternoon, stoking fears of unprecedented inundation in the area. Advertisement 'We're all actually sitting on the kitchen benches in a house on stilts where the water is now 14 metres from the ground,' Ms Witham told ABC. 'The fridge is just about to go over. We've got another six inches and then we're all going to have to, I don't know, swim out. People next door are on the roof. We're going to have to somehow get out and on the roof.' Ms Witham was forced to cut the conversation short as floodwaters rose rapidly around her. She said she would try to seek higher ground and climb onto the roof. Residents were told by the SES to evacuate or risk becoming stranded at their homes. 'Once flood water begins inundating the area road access, water, sewerage, power, phones and internet may be lost. If you remain in the area you will be trapped and it may be too dangerous for SES to rescue you,' the SES message read. NSW Emergency Services Minister Stephanie Cooke said the situation in Lismore was much more severe than forecast on Sunday, straining the resources of SES. 'We are putting every single available emergency services personnel and resources in place to support the community,' Ms Cooke told radio 2GB. 'We appreciate that this situation is absolutely heartbreaking.' The government was 'throwing everything' it had at the crisis, and resources from RFS, NSW Fire and Rescue, police and ambulance, and SES were headed to the area as part of a 'multi-agency response', she said. Floodwaters have reached their highest levels in half a century along Wilsons River after reaching 12.26m at 5am - smashing the 12.15m record set in March 1974 (pictured, business owner kayaks across flood waters in Rosalie, Brisbane) Lismore locals band together to help rescue each other from the rising floodwaters A man wades through floodwaters reaching up to his shoulders in Milton, Brisbane The flood situation in Lismore was 'worsening', with hundreds of calls for assistance from the area, and the search for a man missing in floodwaters suspended until conditions allow it to resume, NSW police said. Police heard the man call out for help about 4pm on Sunday but lost sight of him a short time later, with reports suggesting he may have been swept into a storm drain. Richmond Police District put up a warning online telling motorists to avoid travelling in the region. 'Due to heavy flooding the Lismore CBD is inundated with water and is now off limits to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic,' the warning reads. 'Motorists are reminded NOT to drive through flood waters for the safety of YOU and your FAMILY please evacuate the township now.' Major flood warnings are in place for Clarence River at Grafton, Ulmarra, Maclean, Brunswick River and Marshalls Creek. The BoM is warning of the potential for life-threatening flash flooding with six-hourly rainfall totals between 80 and 120mm likely, possibly reaching in excess of 150mm. A stranded Mazda abandoned with floodwaters continuing to rise in the area on Monday People take shelter at an evacuation centre in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, on Sunday Lismore residents have been quick to lend a helping hand in rescue efforts as the SES is overhwlemed with calls for help Brisbane City Council issued a text message (pictured) to residents warning of major flooding Suburbs from Pullenvale to Mt Crosby in Brisbane's west could be cut off for days due to rising floodwaters and dangerous conditions, as emergency services scramble to provide supplies to residents. A child who was stranded in the area without an insulin pump was transported by the SES via boat on Sunday morning and taken to Royal Childrens Hospital after Moggill Road was completely submerged. The ferry cannot operate in the area due to heavy debris in the river, including cars, damaged property and trees. Dramatic footage of another emerged on Sunday after Lockyer Valley resident Shane Dickson waded into dangerous waters to save a man named Leo. Mr Dickson and a friend said they heard a man screaming while standing beside the rising floodwaters, before seeing a man named Leo being washed downstream. 'Help, I can't breathe,' Leo said, as he disappeared underwater three times. The pair followed him for more than 300metres before Mr Dickson swum into the water and dragged him to safety. 'I thought I seen someone in the water and that was it, there was,' Mr Dickson said. 'Had to go about 300 metres off the road (to get to him). I had to wait to get my breath back to get him.' Dramatic footage has emerged of a rescue from a local hero on Saturday night after Lockyer Valley resident Shane Dickson waded into dangerous waters to save a man named Leo (pictured New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding her state from doing business with Russia, as the invasion continued this weekend, and said Ukrainian refugees are welcome in New York. At the press conference on Sunday, Hochul noted that New York is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the U.S. 'We have said we'll open up our hearts, our homes, our resources to the people of the Ukraine, to say, 'We stand with you,'' Hochul said. Federal estimates show that around 140,000 of the more than one million people in the U.S. who report Ukrainian ancestry live in New York. 'If you need a place to stay, you want to come over here, we will help you become integrated into our community,' she said, 'as we have been open so to so many other refugees in the past, including those from Afghanistan most recently.' Hochul didn't immediately get into specifics regarding her state's economic sanctions against Moscow - including how much the state has invested in Russian entities - but pointed out that New York's economy is larger than that of Russia. 'We strongly condemn the action of Putin and Russia for this unprovoked attack,' Hochul said during the press briefing. 'This is the state of New York and we are home to the largest Ukrainian population in America. These are our fellow brothers and sisters. They are an important part of the fabric of New York State.' The governor's executive order means the state 'will not permit its own investment activity, whether directly or indirectly, to aid Russia as it commits these human rights violations and atrocities.' 'We are going to be reviewing all state purchases, all of our investments... as well as investments with any company or institution that is on a list of Russian headquartered entities,' Hochul said, adding that she wants to 'make sure we are spending no taxpayer dollars to prop up that regime.' Scroll for video New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding New York from doing business with Russia The governor also said New York will welcome Ukrainian refugees in response to Russia's invasion, noting at a press conference in Albany that her state is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the U.S. A Polish woman holding a teddy bear and a sign with a name of an Ukrainian girl to flee Ukraine stands at the Medyka border crossing in Poland, on Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The U.N. has estimated the conflict could produce as many as 4 million refugees, depending how long the invasion continues An elderly Ukrainian woman at the train station in Przemysl, Poland is one of hundreds of Ukrainian refugees who had nowhere to go and had to stay overnight at the station prepared by the local authorities Ukraine filed a case at the United Nations' highest court accusing Russia of planning genocide. 'We strongly condemn the action of Putin and Russia for this unprovoked attack which is now leading to atrocities against innocent human beings, and that is not tolerable,' Hochul said. New York's sanctions follow those issued by President Joe Biden last week targeting Russia's financial system. Biden said the U.S. will block assets of large Russian banks, impose export controls aimed at the nation's high-tech needs and sanction its business oligarchs. It was not immediately known how much money the sanctions could represent, but Hochul said she wants state agencies to review contracts and assets to be sure that taxpayer money isn't being used to indirectly fund Russia's invasion of the Ukraine. Hochul ordered state agencies to divest money and assets from investments in companies or institutions determined to be a 'Russian or supporting entity.' And she forbid the state from doing business with such entities. The executive order defined a supporting entity as any institution or company that is aiding Russia in its war against the Ukraine. A mother holds her child at the reception point in Przemysl, Poland, where Ukrainian refugees are receiving help. New York Gov. Hochul said Sunday refugees are welcome in New York The city of Przemysl, Poland has set up temporary reception points where shelter, first aid, food, drinks and clothing are provided to Ukrainian refugees arriving in Poland It's used by Russian military forces when preparing to engage in conflict The 'Z' symbol on the sign is often displayed on Russian tanks and trucks Pro-Russian protesters have erected a Russian military symbol outside one of the country's Australian consulates as they clash with Ukrainian demonstrators. Video has emerged showing demonstrators hanging the anti-Ukrainian 'Z' symbol out the front of the Russian consulate in Sydney's east on the weekend. The alphabetical symbol has regularly been displayed on Russian tanks and trucks during the invasion of Ukraine to identify allied military units before battle. It is painted on with infrared paint to avoid friendly fire. A video has surfaced online showing Russian loyalists outside the Sydney consulate on Saturday hanging a mysterious sign with the letter 'Z' The protesters, who clashed with Ukrainian supporters outside the Sydney consulate over Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, are seen in the clip attaching the sign to a tree The ominous 'Z' symbol is regularly displayed on tanks and trucks to identify ally military units before battle and to avoid friendly fire. It has been seen several times during the Russian invasion of Ukraine The 'Z' marking is one of the many symbols adopted by the Russian military, with some experts claiming the markings refer to where certain vehicles are headed when they are preparing to wage war. Professor Michael Clarke, former director of the defence think tank Rusi, told Sky News UK: 'Often these symbols will be location based - they will be communicating where a unit is heading. 'If they were only to mark the vehicles as being Russian, you could just use one symbol. 'The fact that they are different tells you more - they are probably signs which tell you which units are heading to the north-east or north-west of a district, for example.' Clarke says these symbols are not uncommon during war times and are usually painted on vehicles just before a battle is expected to take place. Many of these symbols have been seen in recent images and video on Russian military vehicles as the conflict between Ukraine rages on. The small group of Russian supporters gathered outside the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Woollahra on Saturday repeating the regime's propaganda, while bearing flags and insignia associated with the Russian military takeover. The group appeared to be led by a Russian-educated pro-Putin activist Simeon Boikov, who goes by the nickname the Aussie Cossack. He confronted several men protesting in support of Ukraine. Protesters gathered on the footsteps of the Russian consulate in Woollahra in Sydney's east on Saturday. On left, one protester can be seen holding the sign in question Russian supporters held pro-Russian flags, including the Z symbol, which features on Russian tanks. Another protester held up the soviet communist flag The group appeared to be led by a Russian-educated pro-Putin activist Simeon Boikov (left), who also goes by the name 'The Aussie Cossack' The pro-Putin protesters displayed various flags to show their support for the Kremlin's invasion, with one individual holding a Soviet Communist flag. Ukrainian supporters also took to the streets of Sydney's CBD on the same day, draped in Ukraine's blue and yellow flag and carrying signs condemning Russia's attempts to topple the Ukrainian government. Some speakers demanded that the government expand sanctions against Moscow and ban Russian citizens from visiting Australia, while others called for the NATO to step into the conflict. Sydney protesters also carried also signs condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempts to topple the Ukrainian government (pictured, protesters gather in Sydney CBD to rally against Russian attacks on Ukraine on Saturday) Details of assault charges against the man who abducted Cleo Smith could finally be revealed three months after the little girl's dramatic rescue. Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, will appear in Carnarvon Magistrates Court by video link on Monday, accused of assaulting a public officer while in custody in a police cell a day after he was arrested in his Western Australia hometown. The assault allegations first emerged in court last month, where he pleaded guilty to a single charge of child stealing. Court records revealed at the time he had been hit with the separate charge, but did not elaborate. Specific details about the alleged assault while in police custody were closely guarded by police but could be revealed in court on Monday morning. Terence Darrell Kelly (pictured) will be back in court via videolink on Monday, accused of arresting a public officer while in police custody His alleged attacked was in lock-up in Carnarvon on November 4, the day after four-year-old Cleo was found 18 days after she vanished from her family's campsite. Kelly had to be hospitalised twice during his brief stint at police custody in Carnarvon after self-harming himself. He was later flown to Perth on a chartered flight with officers from the Justice Department's special operations group. Kelly will appear via video link from Hakea Prison on Monday, signalling a possible move from higher-security Casuarina Prison where he was previously held, The West Australian reported. Cleo Smith (pictured with her parents after she was found) was abducted from her family campsite Cleo was holidaying with her parents and baby sister on October 16 at the Blowholes campsite, about 80km north of Carnarvon, when she vanished from her tent. She woke up about 1.30am and asked for water but when her parents got up at 6am the little girl was gone. The extensive land, air and sea search that followed failed to find any trace of Cleo. Five days after she went missing, police said they believed Cleo was abducted and offered a $1 million reward. She was rescued from a property across town from her family home in Carnarvon. Police forced entry to the home and found the little girl alone in a room, physically unharmed and playing with toys, where she told them 'my name is Cleo'. Cleo Smith (pictured in hospital after her dramatic rescue) was camping at the Blowholes campsite when she vanished from her family's tent Kelly was arrested on a nearby street less than an hour earlier. He is alleged to have acted alone and is yet to enter a plea to his charges. Police said he had no connection to Cleo's family. Kelly pleaded guilty to a single charge of child stealing. His next court on that charge is March 25, where he could be given a sentencing date. That's when the court will hear full details of Kelly's alleged crimes over the 18 days he held Cleo captive in his home. The left-wing New York Times reporter and creator of the controversial 1619 Project accused the media of depicting 'insidious racism' in its heavy coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine - compared to other conflicts - and accused some journalists only have concern for 'Europeans with blond hair and blue eyes.' 'Every journalist covering Ukraine should really, really look internally. This is why I say we should stop pretending we have objectivity and in instead acknowledge our biases so that we can report against them. Many of us see the racialized analysis and language,' Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted Sunday. Hannah-Jones, whose 1619 Project initiative aims to reframe American history by placing the consequences of slavery at the center of the national narrative, also alleged the 'admissions of shock' for Ukraine demonstrates racial bias and a lack of attention for 'peoples not considered white'. 'Honestly, these admissions of shock that this is happening in a European country are ahistorical and also serve to justify the lack of sympathy for other invasions, other occupations and other refugee crisis involving peoples not considered white,' she added. While the journalist blasted the widespread coverage of the crisis in Kyiv, she also noted that people 'should care about Ukraine' and that 'all people deserve to be free'. Meantime, Ukraine's health ministry said Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. The ongoing conflict has forced at least 200,000 people to flee. Kyiv and Moscow agreed to hold peace talks on Monday at the border with Belarus, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted he wasn't confident of a positive resolution. Nikole Hannah-Jones, left-wing New York Times reporter and creator of the controversial 1619 Project, accused the media of depicting 'insidious racism' in its coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, alleging some journalists only have concern for 'Europeans with blond hair and blue eyes' Hannah-Jones made her allegations in a string of controversial tweets published Sunday Despite her claims that the media's coverage of invasion includes 'racialized analysis and language,' Hannah-Jones added: 'To be clear: We should care about Ukraine. But not because it is European, or the people appear white, or they are civilized and not impoverished.' 'All people deserve to be free and to be welcomed when their countries are at war.' She also noted 'Europe is not a continent by definition' and argued it was 'geopolitical fiction to separate it from Asia.' 'So the alarm about a European, or civilized, or First World nation being invaded is a dog whistle to tell us we should care because they are like us.' Her controversial remarks prompted negative response on Twitter. Sky Media Coordinator Maurice Anton Brown hit back at the journalist, accusing her remarks of being ill-timed. 'I dont think this is the time to focus on that. Maybe in a few years from now, but not today, tomorrow, or next week,' he replied to her post calling on the media to acknowledge its biases. Hannah-Jones responded: 'Thats absolutely ridiculous. Journalists shouldnt focus on improving their coverage in real time?' Sky Media Coordinator Maurice Anton Brown hit back at the journalist, accusing her remarks of being ill-timed. Hannah-Jones responded: 'Thats absolutely ridiculous. Journalists shouldnt focus on improving their coverage in real time?' The New York Times' reporter's controversial remarks prompted negative response on Twitter 'Too short-sighted. I understand your perspective but the shock is real and its because its simply nearer to our own countries and its a new dimension here in Europe for young generations,' Twitter user @tommyberlin7 told the reporter. 'Its human to feel more affected when the its happening closer to you.' 'Don't Forget that Ukraine is a strong country with real democracy and a interest to join UE (sic),' echoed @AkokaElie. 'European have one big ideal in which they will always stand for and its freedom. When conflicts are against country Where they don't see this freedom (of speech and votes) its not the same.' 'Wow, did you pay any attention to the Syrian war and refugee crisis? Millions of Syrians and Afghans came to Europe. I know, i worked at the refugee camps,' @leesteffy1 added. 'Bosnia/Serbia was a civil war. Yugoslavia coming apart,' argued @Leopard24601. Others applauded Hannah-Jones, citing examples of alleged inaccuracies and racism in the news. 'YES! first ground war in 70 years? What about Bosnia?!?!?! How can editors let such rash statements pass? Oh right, no more editors...' wrote author Tim Riley. 'I think of when Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization and replied I think it would be a good idea. War is terrible everywhere, people should not care more or less just because a war is happening in Europe,' said @RichardrjMcCoy. Others applauded Hannah-Jones, citing examples of alleged inaccuracies and racism in the news 'Thank you for this,' wrote @THArealKWOODS. 'I also think its "funny" how folk are on here saying I didnt know this, thnxBUT the closeness to nuclear war is more alarming than racial implications We know. We also know how its being reported on is erroneous, and culturally harmful. 2 things can be right.' Twitter user @Shoes4Indstry, replying to Hannah-Jones, included two examples of alleged racial bias about the conflict in Ukraine. The social media commenter shared a post from Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin alleging Ukraine was invaded by 'Soviet dictator Vladimir Putin,' despite the fact that the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. The user also shared a clip of CBS News coverage of the conflict in which the network's on-the-ground correspondent said: 'This is not a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. 'This is a relatively civilized, relatively European - I have to choose those words carefully too - city where you wouldn't expect or hope that it's going to happen.' Hannah-Jones' tweets came as Ukraine's health ministry said Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. (Pictured: Russian forces taking control of the village of Nikolaevka, Ukraine on Sunday) Fighting in Ukraine has claimed dozens of civilian lives, forced hundreds and thousands of to flee west and could, according to the EU, eventually displace up to seven million people (Pictured: Refugees from many different countries, mostly students of Ukrainian universities, are seen at the Medyka pedestrian border crossing fleeing the conflict in Ukraine on Sunday) Ukraine and Russia agreed to hold peace talks on Monday at the border with Belarus, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted he wasn't confident of a positive resolution (Pictured: Firefighters inspect the damage at a building following a rocket attack on the city of Kyiv on Friday) Ukraine war latest, at a glance Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko warns the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into WWIII The EU has unveiled a new package of sanctions against Putin's regime, closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik Kyiv and Moscow will hold peace talks at the border with Belarus, Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed The Ukrainian President's office said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl Putin orders forces operating Russia's nuclear deterrent to be on alert amid simmering tensions with the West U.S. blasts Putin's nuclear order as 'unacceptable' and says war crimes tribunal isn't off the table Putin's desperate troops adopt 'siege tactics' after being driven out of Kharkiv by resistance fighters Ukraine's defence ministry claims Russian death toll stands at 4,300 Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion At least 200,000 people have fled Ukraine to three countries, with 150,000 said to have crossed into Poland alone Ukraine's defence ministry today appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back Putin's army US and EU have agreed to curtail Russia's use of SWIFT messaging system, which is vital to for global financial transactions Iskander missiles were launched from Belarus to Ukraine Russia acknowledged it had lost troops for the first time today, but did not give a number BP announces it is ditching its controversial 20 per cent stake in the Russian energy group Rosneft 'with immediate effect Advertisement Hannah-Jones has frequently made controversial remarks on her Twitter account. Earlier this month she called out civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton over his remarks about rampant petty theft in New York City and accused him of 'legitimizing the carceral state'. Last month she slammed Americans who listen to podcaster Joe Rogan, alleging the reason he has millions of followers is 'not a mystery' and because of 'open racism'. The tweet was later deleted, according to Fox News. In 2020, she accused the New York City government of setting off fireworks 'to disorient and destabilize the #BlackLivesMatter movement '. She deleted the tweet, National Review reported, and issued a statement saying it was 'irresponsible' to use her platform to promote an unproven theory. Meanwhile, fighting in Ukraine has claimed dozens of civilian lives, forced hundreds and thousands of to flee west and could, according to the EU, eventually displace up to seven million people. Ukraine and Russia have agreed to meet Monday on the border with Belarus, in an attempt to hold peace talks. Although President Zelensky admitted he wasn't confident there would be a positive resolution, he argued he owed it to his people to at least try and engage. Zelensky said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl, in a deal brokered in a phone call with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. The Ukranian president described his discussion with Lukashenko as 'very substantive', adding that he had made it clear he did not want troops to move from Belarus to Ukraine and Lukashenko 'assured him of this'. The move came as Russian President Vladimir Putin declared, in his own televised address, that he had ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a 'special regime of duty' in light of 'aggressive statements' from NATO leaders and 'unfriendly economic actions'. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg responded: 'This is dangerous rhetoric'. Lukashenko also issued a chilling threat Sunday night that the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into a Third World War, after Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on 'alert'. Additionally, Sunday evening also saw the EU unveil a fresh package of sanctions against Putin's regime, closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik. In response to the measures, Russian carrier Aeroflot said it was suspending all flights to Europe. Two Republican Congressmen slammed President Joe Biden's return to Delaware this weekend as war waged in Ukraine, though White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki clarified that he was doing business in Wilmington while at a family funeral. Representative Darrell Issa of California, 68, and Mark Green of Tennessee, 57, made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The two were specifically asked about the US response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. 'He's gone back to Delaware - there is no weakness in the White House, he abandoned the capital!' Issa said. 'One hundred per cent,' added Green. Issa then mocked the US government's offer of an evacuation for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. President Joe Biden leaves St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., after attending a Mass, Saturday Representative Mark Green attends a meeting with members of the bipartisan delegation of the US Congress in Kyiv Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference An Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighter examines a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicle GAZ Tigr after the fight in Kharkiv on February 27 'When he offered to evacuate Zelensky, Zelensky said 'no, I need bullets,' so he evacuated himself to Delaware!' Issa then joked that Delaware would be 'the last line of defense in the Union' but said Biden would be fine 'as long as those trains don't take the enemy there.' It wasn't clear that Issa or Green were aware of the reasons for Biden's travel to Wilmington. Biden spent the weekend in Delaware at a funeral - according to the Wilmington Journal, Biden's late son Beau's widow (and Hunter's ex-girlfriend) Hallie's mother died recently - but spokesperson Mike Gwin said that Biden was still working. Gwin said the Biden 'rallied our allies, militarily reinforced our NATO partners on the eastern flank, provided critical assistance to brave Ukrainian fighters, and marshaled unprecedentedly severe sanctions against Putin and his cronies' during the present crisis.' He put that in contrast to how he felt the Congressmen had responded to various behaviors of former President Donald Trump. President Biden is pictured leaving the White House for his Delaware home on Friday evening Biden and his wife Jill appeared relaxed as they headed for Marine One, despite Europe currently experiencing its biggest conflict since World War Two 'In contrast, these Congressmen were eager to defend former President Trump as he weakened America's standing globally and caved to Putin - even when Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine as a bargaining chip, or when he sided with Putin, a former KGB agent, over our own intelligence community,' Gwin added. The president and First Lady Jill Biden were snapped exiting the White House on Friday evening to board their Marine One helicopter as Europe faces its biggest conflict since World War Two. President Biden, 79, and First Lady Biden, 70, donned their customary face masks, even though both are vaccinated and boosted, and the CDC itself has indicated that the time to lift almost all mandates has come. Biden has access to technology that allows him to work from his luxury home in Rehoboth Beach, and will be following the latest developments in Ukraine from there. But critics will likely ask whether Biden should remain at the White House to help project the power and authority that comes with his office during a time that has left many across the United States and wider world fearful for their safety. Biden frequently spends his weekends at his Delaware home, though former President Trump also frequently spent weekends at his clubs at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster. The United States has imposed a raft of punitive financial sanctions against Russia in a bid to try and deter Vladimir Putin from continuing to invade Ukraine. But thus far, the Russian premier - whose personal fortune has been estimated by Forbes to sit at $200 billion - has not been deterred. The US has provided Ukraine with considerable military hardware, and thus far President Volodymyr Zelensky's forces appear to have slowed the Russian onslaught. But Kremlin troops had entered Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday morning, and it is feared the capital city could fall to Putin later on Saturday. Pentagon efforts to try and stop the war from flaring were slick, but ultimately unsuccessful. US intelligence on Russian troops' movements ahead of the invasion was shared far more freely than normal, in an attempt to spook Putin. America also warned of the sanctions Russia would face if Putin did invade, but the image-obsessed Russian leader ultimately decided to plow on anyway. The POTUS and FLOTUS both wore masks outdoors, even though both have received their COVID vaccines and booster shots President Biden and the first lady held hands as they walked towards Marine One The United States on Sunday condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's order to put his nuclear forces on high alert as dangerous and 'unacceptable.' The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said nothing was 'off the table' when asked about the possibility of Putin being tried in international court as a war criminal. In issuing his order to prepare Russia's nuclear weapons for increased readiness for launch, Putin cited 'aggressive statements' from NATO allies and widespread sanctions imposed by Western nations. Thomas-Greenfield told CBS's 'Face the Nation' program that Putin's actions have escalated the conflict. She said the United States was 'continuing to look at new and even harsher measures against the Russians.' In a separate interview on CNN's State of the Union, the diplomat responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling for Putin to stand trial in the International Court of Justice. 'We're holding the Russians accountable at every level,' Thomas-Greenfield said. 'They are the aggressors. And they have to be held accountable, whether it's in the United Nations or elsewhere. And all of that continues to be discussed and is on the table. A Russian military vehicle is seen ablaze in Kharkiv on Sunday morning after troops entered the eastern Ukrainian city Ukrainian servicemen have a rest on a position near Kyiv, Ukraine, February 27, 2022 A big fire at a petroleum storage depot after a Russian missile attack, in Vasylkiv, near Kyiv Thomas-Greenfield said 'everything is on the table' when asked about possibly trying Vladimir Putin in the international criminal court 'As you know, we will be having a discussion in Geneva at the U.N. Human Rights Council, bringing Russia before the Human Rights Council as well. And there's another resolution that we're bringing before the General Assembly in a special emergency meeting that we're requesting tonight.' Host Dana Bash pressed her, 'You didn't mention a war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Is that also on the table?' 'I think everything is on the table as we move forward. But as we're dealing with the situation today, we're continuing to address all of those issues,' Thomas-Greenfield said. Zelensky accused the Russian military of genocide in recorded remarks and demanded Putin be tried at the Hague in an early Sunday morning statement on Twitter. 'Ukraine has submitted its application against Russia to the ICJ. Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression. We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week,' he said. He said in a video message the same day that Putin's 'criminal actions against Ukraine bear signs of genocide.' At the Pentagon, a senior U.S. defense official also described Putin's nuclear order as an escalation and said it was 'putting in play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous.' The United States is trying to determine what Putin's order means 'in tangible terms,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Therese Rein has been ridiculed for attacking a parody Twitter account of Scott Morrison as it's revealed her ex-PM husband Kevin Rudd has been considering a political comeback. Mr Rudd's political career effectively ended in 2013 when he lost the Federal election to Tony Abbott just weeks after he staged a coup against the then-PM Julia Gillard. But it's been revealed that Mr Rudd has now been actively campaigning in the Queensland seat of Fairfax with a view to making a return to Canberra. However, the campaign was brought to a halt by Labor powerbrokers who did not want it creating a sideshow at the upcoming election. The revelation came as Mr Rudd's wife apparently mistook a Scott Morrison parody Twitter account for the real one and tried to savage the PM with a snarky reply. Therese Rein (pictured right) has been ridiculed for attacking a parody Twitter account as it's revealed ex-PM husband Kevin Rudd (left) has mulled a return to Parliament Therese Rein apparently mistook a Scott Morrison parody Twitter account for the real one and tried to savage the PM with a snarky reply (pictured) The fake account Scotty from Marketing posted a joke tweet on Sunday afternoon saying: 'I will comment on the Queensland floods when I am back at work tomorrow.' Ms Rein replied: 'Because flooding and suffering and anxiety and loss don't happen on your weekends or holidays.' She was inundated with replies pointing out her error as well as others also jumping on the PM, before Ms Rein insisted 90 minutes later that she knew it was a hoax. Queensland LNP senator Amanda Stoker sent a withering reply to the ex-PM's wife: 'I'd have thought you were smarter than to fall for a fake misinformation account. 'Scott Morrison is in Qld and helping with the floods - not virtue signalling on Twitter like others *ahem*' Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured left) with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (right) at the Kedron Emergency Services complex in Brisbane on Sunday Another added: 'Commenting on a clear parody account (it even says it in big letters) God your family are a joke.' 'This is a parody account,' posted one. 'How embarrassing.' Kevin Rudd led the Labor Party through tumultuous times that saw him lead Labor back to power in 2007, only to be unseated before the end of his first term by his deputy Julia Gillard in 2010. He got his revenge three years later and returned to the PM's job in 2013 for a matter of weeks before Labor was wiped out in a Coalition landslide. Since then he has been on the periphery of Australian politics, devoting his efforts to pushing for a royal commission into Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) attended the St Andrew's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Sydney on Sunday before flying to Queensland However, last year he reportedly explored a chance to return to Canberra by fighting the seat of Fairfax, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. It's currently held by Liberal Ted O'Brien by a margin of 13.5 per cent and is considered a safe Liberal seat, although it was briefly held by Clive Palmer for one term in 2013. The Rudds live close to the seat after buying Pat Rafter's former Noosa mansion for $17million in July 2020. And according to the Herald, Mr Rudd and his wife were active and high profile in the Sunshine Coast seat last winter in what was seen as a potential test run for a dramatic return to politics. Mr Rudd was a regular at Labor party meetings in the area last winter and visited schools and staged public events locally, heavily advertised in local newspapers. One source told Nine newspapers that Mr Rudd even wanted to challenge the sitting MP to a debate in Mandarin at the Nambour Country Women's Association. The Rudds live close to the Fairfax electorate after buying Pat Rafter's former Noosa mansion (pictured) for $17million in July 2020 The Rudds sold their Brisbane penthouse (pictured) to make the move to Noosa Locals were said to have been robopolled last September on preferred candidates between Mr Rudd, former treasurer Wayne Swan, Mr O'Brien and former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. It's not clear who commissioned the survey, but the speculation is that it was paid for by Mr Rudd. Soon after, however, Mr Rudd's campaign came to an end and he endorsed the ALP candidate Sue Ferguson for the seat in October. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Rudd's office for comment. His representatives told media he had been approached by Labor members to run in the seat - but had declined. They added: 'Kevin is frequently approached by local branch members to run for seats around the country, but he's always politely rejected these approaches. 'Kevin intends to spend this election scrutinising the Murdoch media's continued abuse of its monopoly power to spread lies about the Labor Party and its policies.' A New York event worker who was awarded a historic multi-million dollar verdict in 2019 after an accident at Jones Beach left him with severe brain injuries years ago is now embroiled in a dispute with his former lawyer over $5.5 million in legal fees. The amount is on top of the more than $18 million that Long Island man Mark Perez, 38, has already paid attorney Benedict Morelli. Morelli is now claiming that he is entitled to $5.5 million in legal fees, and filed a lawsuit last month, according to the New York Post. Perez received a $109 million jury verdict in 2019 after suing Live Nation for an accident that happened in 2013. In June 2013, a forklift crashed into the structure Perez was working on at the Jones Beach Theater in New York, causing him to fall 10 feet. He suffered skull fractures and traumatic brain injury that required multiple surgeries. Mark Perez, 38, who was awarded a multi-million verdict after an accident at Jones Beach, is being sued by his ex-attorney, Benedict Morelli, who claims he is entitled to $5.5 million in legal fees Attorney Benedict Morelli said he never agreed to the hourly pay rate and that Perez 'chose to remain silent' about the extra 10 percent fee until the case was closed Perez and his attorney at the time, Morelli, agreed that Morelli would get one-third of the verdict award money as a contingency fee. But when the verdict went to appeal, Morelli tried to negotiate an additional 10-percent fee. Perez, however, sought to pay the lawyer an hourly rate, according to his counterclaims to the suit Morelli filed against him last month. 'I think that lawyers should be paid well for their work, a person like me needs them to fight for them but for Mr. Morelli to take away so much of the settlement, it just seems wrong,' Perez recently wrote to the judge that oversaw his personal injury trial. Perez never signed an agreement over an additional fee, the Post reported, and Morelli continued working on the case and he was able to get Perez a $55 million settlement. Out of the settlement total, Perez only received about $28 million. '[Morelli] continues to insist that he should be paid $5.5 million for the post-trial and appellate work (on top of the $18,333,333.30 that Mr. Perez has already paid in legal fees), demonstrating that Morelli's greed knows no bounds,' Perez's countersuit alleges. Last week, Morelli asked a judge to throw out his former client's counterclaims, stating he never agreed to the hourly pay rate and that Perez 'chose to remain silent' about the extra 10 percent fee until the case was closed. In June 2013, a forklift crashed into the structure Perez was working on at the Jones Beach Theater, causing him to fall 10 feet. He suffered skull fractures that required multiple surgeries 'Mr. Perez accepted the benefits of the firm's work with respect to the appeal, did not terminate the firm, and did not ask the firm to stop working on the matter,' Morelli's lawyers wrote in the Thursday filing. 'He chose to remain silent while the firm completed the appeal and thereby ratified the 10% fee agreement.' In a letter to the judge, Perez stated, 'I am the one that lives with seizures, surgeries and the constant fear of more medical problems. 'I hope you are able to help me now by deciding what should be done here. Thank you for hearing my trial. I'm looking forward to moving on and putting this last upsetting situation behind me.' Perez's doctors estimated a 10 percent survival rate when they first treated him, according to the initial lawsuit. Since his recovery, they estimate that Perez will suffer lifelong consequences from his brain injuries. Aside from physical injuries, Perez has also suffered mental and emotional injuries with the loss of his relationship with his fiancee, his ability to enjoy former hobbies, like snorkeling, and his ability to maintain a normal lifestyle. Elon Musk is pushing to build a massive 6.2-mile underground tunnel to ferry Tesla vehicles and their passengers in the traffic-clogged area of North Miami Beach. Musk's Boring Company are currently considering the Hard Rock Stadium and Florida International Universitys Biscayne campus as hosts for the proposed transit tunnel, which will run underneath Miami-Dade, according to the Miami Herald. The tunnel, which would initially see Tesla vehicles carrying as many as 7,500 passengers per hour with an eventualy goal of as many as 15,000 per hour, would have drivers passing underneath State Road 826 East from Northwest 2nd Avenue to Northeast 35th Avenue. The 'rough' estimated cost for the project sits at between $180 million and $220 million, and is expected to be completed in a 36-month construction time frame, according to Boring. A loop to Hard Rock would stretch three additional miles, while the FIU-Biscayne spur would run about 1.8 miles. Pictured: an example of The Boring Company's transit tunnels, which would allow for Tesla vehicles and their passengers to be ferried with ease in traffic-clogged areas The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Board of Directors approved a contract with The Boring Company to design and construct a twin-tunnel Loop system for the Las Vegas Convention Center Tesla electric cars are lined up in front of two one-way tunnels built by Elon Musk's The Boring Company at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada, US, April 2021 Traffic slows down to a 10 mph crawl along State Route 7 in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas The idea, which is also being considered in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, is designed to tackle traffic and gridlock issues. Critics of the plan only have to look as far as Las Vegas, where Musk's Vegas Loop - a 1.7-mile track for manual driven Teslas to drive beneath the city's convention center at top speeds of 40 miles per hour - where users have expressed concerns over getting stuck in the tunnel and other safety issues. A viral video of a traffic jam forming within a tunnel during last month's 2022 CES consumer electronics trade shows that Musk's system is far from immune to the issue of gridlock. 'The Vegas Loop can't even deal with #CES2022 during a pandemic,' tech blogger Sascha Pallenberg tweeted on Thursday. 'Congratulations @CityOfLasVegas this must be the most advanced traffic jam in the world!' Musk's tunneling company submitted the proposal earlier this month on February 1 for North Miami Beach, making it the second of two after Fort Lauderdale's plans were submitted in June. Not everyone is a fan of the concept, however, with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez favoring an expanded transit system. Meanwhile, North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph says the project would both alleviate traffic congestion while serving as a tourist attraction for the city in the process. 'Why not us?' he said, having recently toured the Vegas Loop, calling it 'cutting edge.' 'We have a lot of development coming, we want to plan ahead. We know development is coming from all over the place.' The next step in the process is to submit an interim agreement before city officials on March 15, according to city manager Chris Lagerbloom. Elon Musk arrives in a modified Tesla Model X electric vehicle during an unveiling event for The Boring Company Hawthorne test tunnel December 18, 2018 in Hawthorne, California Elon Musk shows off first renders of Boring Company's Las Vegas loop station where passengers will board high-speed driverless Teslas Pictured: Musks' 1.7-mile Vegas Loop allows for human-driven Teslas to cruise beneath the city's convention center at speeds topping out at 40 miles per hour Pictured: the proposed location for the Fort Lauderdale tunnel 'It is a very real project,' Lagerbloom added. The details regarding the projects funding and feasibility are reportedly still being discussed. Joseph said city officials are currently in the process of working to determine potential funding sources to build the underground tunnel. He noted a substantial portion could come from money included in federal infrastructure legislation just signed into law by President Joseph R. Biden, with state funding likely also contributing to the project. 'We know theyre looking to put money behind communities that do not traditionally receive infrastructure funding,' Joseph said. 'And were a majority-minority community.' 'Engineers have looked at it, and I've talked to more subterranean engineers than I ever would have before,' Lagerbloom said of the tunnel's feasibility.. 'Subterranean tunneling has been accepted around the world as a very doable solution for vehicles, trains, any mode of transit. The fact that we're in South Florida doesn't have any impact on whether we can tunnel. It mainly has to do with what method, and some polymers used to keep water out. But as far as whether its possible: It's very possible.' Thousands of homes have been damaged or submerged in Queensland's devastating storm that emergency services can't reach them all. Alyssa Mahoney, 18, shared a video on Saturday of the moment the roof of her home in Toowoomba, 136km west of Brisbane, caved in under heavy rainfall. Ms Mahoney said she had only been living in the home for three months and was recording the video to show her housemate strange bubbling in the roof's paint. Alyssa Mahoney, 18, shared a video on Saturday of the roof of her home in Toowoomba, southeast Queensland, caving in under heavy rainfall Ms Mahoney said she had only been living in the home for three months when the roof caved in and was recording the bubbling paint to show her housemate 'Was a pool room to start with, so stoked to have a sun roof with it,' she joked. Commenters were amazed by the sudden damage and shared their own stories from Queensland's recent wild weather. 'We just had to pull all our insulation out where water was leaking to prevent this, we've been waiting three days for SES to tarp house,' one wrote. 'The exact same thing happened to me girl Im not even phased no more,' another said. 'Heres a tip for those with roof leaks get a screwdriver and pop small holes in the ceiling itll prevent this happening,' one commenter shared. Commenters on the video wrote they had similar experiences during southeast Queensland's wild weather and shared their rain-proofing tips Ms Mahoney is one of several residents who experienced weather damage in Toowoomba due to southeast Queensland's widespread flooding Toowoomba has experienced flash flooding since Saturday as part of southeast Queensland current widespread flooding event. The local council created a dashboard showing roads affected by weather conditions. At least seven people have already died in the worst flood in Queensland since 2011. A 'major flooding' alert was issued to residents along the Brisbane River just after 8pm on Sunday night as homeowners prepared for the river to peak at 4m on Monday. Some 49,000 houses across the region have been left without power with residents already fleeing their homes in Rosalie and Milton. Toowoomba Regional Council created a Disaster Dashboard showing road conditions in the area (closures marked in red, water over road marked by hazard symbol, flood marked by blue) Residents south of the Queensland border in Lismore were urged to evacuate the town on Monday after the Wilson River broke its levee overnight Residents south of the Queensland border in Lismore were urged to evacuate the town on Monday after the Wilson River broke its levee overnight. Several residents were seen boarding boats with pets and loved ones while battling heavy rain. Richmond Police District warned residents to avoid driving in floodwater as SES crews remain overwhelmed by calls for help. 'Due to heavy flooding the Lismore CBD is inundated with water and is now off limits to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic,' the warning reads. 'Motorists are reminded NOT to drive through flood waters for the safety of YOU and your FAMILY please evacuate the township now.' North Lismore, South Lismore, Lismore CBD, East Lismore, Girards Hill, Woodburn, Swan Bay, Coraki, Marshalls Creek and Bilinudgel are also under threat. Floodwaters have reached their highest levels in half a century along Wilsons River after reaching 12.26m at 5am - smashing the 12.15m record set in March 1974. Belarus may join Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Monday, following a referendum on Sunday that approved a new constitution that dropped the country's non-nuclear status that permits Russian nuclear weapons within Belarusian territory, raising fears for a possibility of World War 3. The White House official, who requested anonymity, claimed that Minsk, Belarus' capital, has already become an extension of Russia. Though the official did not provide details on the deployment of military forces. For the first time since the Soviet Union fell apart, the new constitution of Belarus might allow nuclear weapons to be used in the country. Russian Nukes Now Allowed in Belarus On Sunday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko issued a warning at a voting precinct that he might ask Russia to bring back nuclear weapons to his country. The Nuclear Threat Initiative reported that Belarus acquired several Soviet nuclear warheads after the USSR broke up in 1991, which is then handed to Russia, per France 24. Lukashenko remarked that the planned heavy economic sanctions of the United States and its allies against Russia are "worse than war." "This is pushing Russia into a Third World War. We need to be restrained here so as not to get into trouble. Because nuclear war is the end of everything," he said. Belarusians voted to allow the state to permanently host nuclear weapons and the Russian military as part of a package of constitutional revisions that also saw President Alexander Lukashenko's tenure prolonged. Read Also: Volodymyr Zelensky Agrees to Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks Without Preconditions Despite Vladimir Putin's Deadly Threat According to Russian news sources, the president of the Central Election Commission, Igor Karpenko, said 65.16 percent of referendum participants voted in favor of the constitutional reforms, while 10.07 percent voted against them. According to Karpenko, 78.63 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote. The changes must receive at least 50% of the vote and a turnout of more than half of the electorate to become valid. After historic protests against his questionable re-election in 2020, Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, promised a referendum. The revisions in Belarus' constitution also provide immunity to past leaders who committed crimes during their term. On the other hand, the West has announced that it will not recognize the referendum's results, which caused anti-war protests in many areas, according to Reuters. Though it has not been directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Belarus has been supporting Russia's actions. Weeks before the invasion, the two countries conducted military exercises near the Ukrainian border. Ukrainian security authorities reported that the rocket that hit Zhytomyr Airport, which is 93 miles west of Kyiv, was launched from the Belarusian dominion. According to Ukrainian intelligence, 'special ops' soldiers have been detected boarding planes within Belarus preparing for a big attack, per Daily Mail. Russia-Ukraine Talks Has Started As of this present writing, the dialogue between Ukraine and Russia has just begun at the Belarussian border. The information came from Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak according to Al Jazeera. The goal of the talks, according to Kyiv, is an immediate truce and the pullout of all Russian troops from Ukraine. The development came after the call for international unity made by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He the parliament that in order to stop Russian aggression, the Netherlands must join its partners and allies. According to Filippo Grandi, UN's high commissioner for refugees, more than 500,000 people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion started on Feb. 20. Related Article: US Banks Prepare For Russian Cyberattacks Amid New Sanctions on Moscow @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A Today Show reporter has slammed a 'dangerous' driver for motoring through floodwaters almost up to his windscreen live on TV. Mia Glover fumed as the vehicle pushed through water in Palm Beach on the Gold Coast, which along with the rest of southeast Queensland has been battered by the heaviest rainfall it has ever seen. 'There is a car just trying to come through this floodwater, just extraordinary, it is so deep,' she said, even as the car effortlessly cruised through the floods. 'This is exactly what authorities don't want to see, they don't want anyone gambling with their lives, and driving through these floodwaters.' Ms Glover was surprised to see the 4WD 'making waves' and questioned whether the large vehicle would make it. 'They're trying to get out, trying to get to shelter, but this is just so dangerous,' she said. However, the 4WD barely even slowed down as it drove through the flooded street with ease, looking far from being in a dangerous situation. The car passed close by her as it rose out of the water - and she fumed as it came close to hitting the TV crew. 'Oh my goodness, we going to have to move back,' Glover exclaimed. 'The water just came up right close to us there, he almost hit us, that was just so close, that is just so dangerous, you cannot do that in these floodwaters. A Today Show reporter lashed out at a 4WD driver who navigated dangerous floodwaters on the Gold Coast on Monday The 4WD kept up a steady pace through waters that came close to the windscreen in the suburb of Palm Beach 'That is something the police really don't want to see, because they are the ones who have to go in there and rescue these people.' Glover was also unhappy to be splashed by a wave the car generated in its wake, which rippled towards her as it approached. A 4WD, when driven correctly, is typically able to navigate through water up to a reasonable depth and makes waves as it goes. Gold Coast residents took a battering with heavy rains Sunday night, and an emergency alert for life-threatening flash flooding was in place for parts of the city. The 4WD managed to emerge from the floodwaters - coming close to hitting a TV crew on the way Residents in Tallebudgera Valley and Currumbin Valley were urged to sit tight under shelter unless it was unsafe to do so. Access to the town has been cut and numerous rescues are underway, as all schools and beaches remain closed. Further north there are major flood warnings in place for the Albert and Logan Rivers. The city copped the brunt of the wild weather over the past 48 hours, with conditions ramping up Monday morning as severe thunderstorms made their way across the region. The Queensland flood death toll has risen to eight, as residents are urged to stay indoors. Australia exported uranium to Russia a decade ago and flirted with establishing a widespread nuclear fuel trade with Vladimir Putin's government - despite evidence of the aggressive tactics he was already using on neighbouring countries. Russian's authoritarian leader has now told his nuclear forces to remain on high alert as troops invade Ukraine. Blasts have been heard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with satellite images showing a five kilometre convoy of Russian military trucks, prompting President Volodymyr Zelensky to warn of a 'crucial' 24 hours. The country's second biggest city of Kharkiv has also been rocked by explosions. Russian forces last week also seized the site of the Chernobyl reactor in northern Ukraine which in 1986 was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster. Australia previously exported uranium to Russia despite evidence of Vladimir Putin's aggressive tactics used on neighbouring countries. Russian's authoritarian leader has now told his nuclear forces to remain on high alert as troops invade Ukraine (pictured is a man in mourning over a dead body after an airstrike near Kharkiv) A decade ago, Australia briefly exported uranium to Russia despite concerns it could not be trusted to avoid using it to manufacture nuclear weapons and only use it for electricity generation. This occurred even though a parliamentary committee raised objections in 2008 to a deal to allow Australian uranium exports to Russia, and after Putin had ordered the invasion of neighbouring Georgia. Putin was once more diplomatic and in September 2007 became the first ever serving Russian leader to visit Australia. He arrived in Sydney for the APEC summit and reached an agreement with then prime minister John Howard allowing for the export of uranium to Russia. The agreement between Australia and Russia was titled, 'Cooperation in the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes' and the Labor Opposition supported at it the time with an election looming. While Australia is opposed to domestic nuclear energy, it hailed the prospect of 'assisting Russia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric pollution through the use of nuclear power, especially given Russia's high projected growth in electricity demand'. 'Russia is seeking secure, long-term sources of uranium to satisfy its expanding nuclear energy program,' the deal said. Blasts have been heard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with satellite images showing a five kilometre convoy of Russian military trucks, prompting President Volodymyr Zelensky to warn of a 'crucial' 24 hours (pictured are Ukrainian security forces helping a wounded man after an airstrike at Chuhuiv) Australia's nuclear past 1970: Australia signed UN's Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty 1990: Signs agreement with crumbling Soviet Union to allow uranium exports for enrichment purposes but not nuclear power 2007: Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Sydney for APEC and agrees to 'Cooperation in the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes' deal with then prime minister John Howard 2008: Joint parliamentary committee on treaties objects after Russia invades Georgia 2010: Then prime minister Julia Gillard endorses Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with Russia's stop-gap president Dmitry Medvedev 2012: Australian uranium shipment sent to St Petersburg as part of a trial 2014: Then prime minister Tony Abbott bans uranium exports after Russian-back separatists in eastern Ukraine shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 Advertisement 'There is strong commercial interest in the long term amongst Australian uranium producers in supplying uranium to Russia. 'Russia is proposing at least a two-fold increase in its nuclear energy output by 2020.' A year later, in September 2008, Australia's joint parliamentary committee on treaties had misgivings a month after Russia invaded Georgia. MPs called into question whether Russia could be trusted to use uranium only for peaceful purposes like power generation. Former federal Labor MP Kelvin Thomson, who chaired this committee, said Russia's ambassador to Australia at the time Alexander Blokhin remonstrated to him at Parliament House in Canberra after he doubted his country's trustworthiness on nuclear weapons. 'He was a bit unhappy about what I and the treaties committee were having to say about things,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'At that point, he had a pen or a pencil and it snapped. 'There was a problem with trust. 'I was certainly concerned about whether the Russian government could be relied on to be a genuine partner in future and what leverage, what recourse we would have if we supplied the uranium to them and they then turned around and used it for purposes that were in breach of the agreement.' Nonetheless, Australia and Russia in November 2010 signed a Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with then prime minister Julia Gillard and stop-gap president Dmitry Medvedev witnessing the deal in Seoul. Russian President Vladimir (left) Putin was once more diplomatic and in September 2007 became the first ever Russian leader to visit Australia. He arrived in Sydney for the APEC summit and reached an agreement with then prime minister John Howard (right) allowing for the export of uranium to Russia Australia's uranium mines BHP: Olympic Dam mine in South Australia ERA: Jabiluka mines in the Northern Territory. The Ranger mine closed in January 2021 after 40 years Quasar Resources: Four Mile mine in South Australia Heathgate Resources: Beverley mine in South Australia Boss Energy: Honeywood mine in South Australia Advertisement A trial shipment of uranium ore was sent to Russia in September 2012 and arrived at St Petersburg in November 2012. The Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office's annual report for 2012-13 noted the shipment was to test if Russia would abide by agreements to refrain from using uranium to make nuclear weapons. 'The trial shipment enabled the Australian producer to test commercial and transport arrangements,' it said. 'In addition, it enabled Australian and Russian government officials to ensure that there was a common understanding of the administrative arrangements underpinning the nuclear cooperation agreement.' Mr Thomson, who quit the Labor Party in 2019 to join the Sustainable Australia Party, said he had concerns about his then boss Ms Gillard pursuing that policy during an era where free trade concerns came before international security. 'I would have preferred that we hadn't signed off on that and entered into that agreement,' he said. 'The government did try conscientiously to get appropriate safeguards into place, they worked hard at making sure the agreement would stick. Australia and Russia in November 2010 signed a Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with then prime minister Julia Gillard (left) and stop gap president Dmitry Medvedev (right) witnessing the deal in Seoul 'The ideology of free trade is that you can't have any limitations or restrictions - if someone wants to buy and someone wants to sell, that's the end of the story.' In September 2014, then prime minister Tony Abbott banned uranium exports to Russia after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, killing 298 people including 38 Australians. 'Australia has no intention of selling uranium to a country which is so obviously in breach of international law as Russia currently is,' Mr Abbott said. This occurred six months after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in February and March 2014. Now Putin has again angered Western powers and NATO after announcing in a televised address that Russia's nuclear 'deterrence forces' were ready for 'a special mode of combat service' as troops close in on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. In September 2014, then prime minister Tony Abbott banned uranium exports to Russia after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine shot down MH17, killing 298 people including 38 Australians (he is pictured with Putin in November 2014 in Brisbane during the G20) During the dying era of Soviet communism, in 1990, Australia signed an agreement that allowed Russia to enrich Australian uranium for 'eligible third states' without permitting its use in Russian nuclear power plants. Australia in 1970 signed up to the UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons where it agreed to supply uranium only for peaceful purposes. But Australia is reluctant to sign up to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade arguing this 'would not eliminate a single nuclear weapon'. Even without access to Australian uranium, Russia can rely on neighbouring Kazakhstan, the world's top one producer in 2021 followed by Australia, a distant second. Luckily, only a small amount of uranium was ever exported to Russia. UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putins invasion Russian forces are said to have taken a small Ukrainian town in the south of the country on Sunday night. Berdyansk, is a port city with a naval base on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, in the south-east Ukraine is home to 100,000 people. It is located close to the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and from which it launched one of several invasion forces. The acting mayor of the town, Oleksandr Svidlo, confirmed on Facebook that Russian forces came into the town and took control. Video was shot that appeared to show Russian tanks moving into the town of Berdyansk Oleksandr Svidlo, the acting mayor of the town posted a message to the town's residents on his Facebook page on Sunday which said 'armed men' had entered the municipal buildings The acting mayor of the town, Oleksandr Svidlo, confirmed on Facebook that Russian forces came into the town and took control Soldiers and military vehicles could be seen on the streets of Berdyansk on Sunday night The southern Ukrainian town has a small naval base on the Sea of Azov 'A few hours ago, you and I witnessed how heavy military equipment and armed soldiers entered the city and began advancing throughout our hometown. As soon as I learned about that, I tried to inform all the residents of the city so that you have the opportunity to hide in shelters. 'Some time ago, armed soldiers entered the executive committee building and introduced themselves as soldiers of the Russian army, they informed us that all administrative buildings were under their control and that they were taking control of the executive committee building,' Svidlo wrote in a posting online. He explained how officials had been asked to continue working but had decided to leave the the town hall offices. Video was shot by residents living in nearby building able to get a good view of soldiers Russian military vehicles could be seen driving along the streets of the port town in Ukraine 'Under the control of armed men, I consider this proposal unacceptable, so we, as all members of the operational headquarters, left the building of the executive committee,' Svidlo explained. 'Today Berdyansk was on the line of fire. I don't know what tomorrow will be like, but I think tonight will be very, very hard,' he added. Earlier on Sunday, a Russian state-owned news agency said Russian troops had also 'completely blocked' the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and taken over the towns of Henichesk and an airport near Kherson. According to reporters Russian troops have taken the Ukrainian town of Berdyansk Soldiers could purportedly seen patrolling the streets in the small southern Ukrainian town Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday A view of Khreshchatyk, the main street, empty, due to curfew in the central of Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday. Kyiv was eerily quiet Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv Mayor and former heavyweight champion, speaks on the phone in his office in the City Hall in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday. The mayor has said he does not believe the capital's 3 million residents will all be able to be evacuated Elsewhere in the country, Russian are said to be troops closing in around Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million. The mayor expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Ukrainian defenders have been putting up stiff resistance that appeared to slow Russia's advance. Kyiv was eerily quiet on Sunday morning after explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one airport. A main boulevard was practically deserted as a strict curfew kept people off the streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur. Terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Food and medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. A woman reacts as paramedics perform CPR on a girl who was injured during shelling, at city hospital of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. The girl did not survive "Right now, the most important question is to defend our country," Klitschko said. In the southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling. Nearly 560 miles away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv. 'I wish I had never lived to see this,' said Bystritska, an 87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 90 miles from Kyiv. Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights 'so we dont draw their attention,' said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself. 'The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this constant thundering noise,' she said. Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and buy weapons for Ukraine. 'For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,' said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, she said. Queensland residents are on edge with the Brisbane River expected to be hit by two potentially catastrophic peaks in the next 24 hours - with seven dead, a young man missing and 15,000 homes already underwater. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday morning, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 - with authorities warning residents of 140 suburbs. Two more peaks are expected on Monday night and Tuesday morning. More than 53,000 homes are without power with 1,500 residents seeking shelter in evacuation centres as the rain heads south with warnings of flash flooding for parts of the Gold Coast. Eight people have died in the state's floods while at least four people are feared missing. Surf lifesavers found the bodies of a man in his 50s and his dog in a submerged car in the Currumbin Valley on Monday after they were swept off the road hours earlier. The vehicle was believed to have been driven 30 to 40 metres into flood waters, police said. Boats and other debris have washed up at Milton ferry terminal in Brisbane following heavy rain and widespread floods Queensland has recorded its heaviest three day rainfall total ever. Above, a dramatic weather map showing wet weather conditions on Monday Resident Jillian Handyside inspects the devastation from the front door of her flooded home in Milton in Brisbane's inner west Senior Sergeant Rob Finlay described the man's death as a tragedy. It's understood the man had gone to a house in the area to move his car from rising floodwaters when he veered or was swept off Currumbin Creek Rd into the creek. 'All the roads in this area were inundated at the time,' he said. 'It was very early in the morning so people can get disorientated. Police were made aware (of the man's disappearance) by a call to Triple 0 this morning. 'Unfortunately, the deceased had a dog with him in the vehicle which is sad as well.' Meanwhile, a desperate search for a young father who was feared missing has ended after he was found alive. Cameron Rogers (pictured) was feared missing after he returned to his flooded Goodna home on Sunday night. He has since been found alive and well Cameron Rogers, 32, hasn't seen been since since returning to his flooded Goodna home west of Brisbane on Sunday night to collect the family pets and move personal belongings to higher ground. It's understood he dropped off his fiancee and his child at a friend's place before returning home. He later contacted a friend to meet at the Goodna train station but has seen or heard from since. Mr Rogers' frantic sister told Nine News the family are beside themselves. 'She tells me the police and SES have been checking his home. He's not there. His car remains at the train station. So far there has been no sign of Cameron this morning,' reporter Jess Millward said. Police have since confirmed Mr Rogers has since been found in the Goodna area alive and well. The M1 and Bruce Highway remain closed due to flooding with a year's worth of rain drenching Queensland's south-east in recent days. Residents in low-lying areas river are preparing to evacuate, including in Brisbane CBD, Newstead, West End, New Farm, Milton, St Lucia, Bulimba, South Brisbane, Toowong and Rocklea. Another 3600 homes have been flooded in Gympie north of Brisbane in the town's worst flood in more than 100 years. More than 1000 schools across the state have been closed and most public transport in Brisbane has been cancelled. The CBD has been inundated with water with iconic landmarks such as Riverside Ferry Terminal and waterside restaurants flooded. Anyone near the vicinity of Howard Smith Wharves and Riverside Walkaway is urged to evacuate immediately after a pontoon carrying a crane broke free of its mooring on Monday afternoon. 'Locals are advised to avoid the area, and unless absolutely necessary, STAY HOME,' a police alert read. Brisbane Airport remains open but has warned passengers to expect major delays. 'We are experiencing major delays with domestic check-in & screening due to staff resource issues,' the airport tweeted. 'Please arrive at least 90 minutes prior to your flight. The situation is changing - wait times may increase. We appreciate your understanding and patience.' Kayak was the only transport option for these residents to get around in the flooded Brisbane suburb of Rosalie The entire riverside inner Brisbane suburb of Milton is underwater as residents inspect the devastation via boat Residents waded through flooded streets carrying sand bags in a desperate bid to save their homes in the Brisbane suburb of Rosalie Floodwaters have cut off arterial roads in Milton, Brisbane, leaving some residents stranded in their homes The floods are 'very different' to 2011 due to five consecutive days of rain. 'It has been fast and it has been furious, and it has had a big impact. That is the facts,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters at a briefing on Monday. 'No-one has seen this amount of rain in such a short period of time over our entire south-east catchment zone. 'This was an unpredictable rain bomb across entire southeast Queensland. 'What we're seeing is the system pushing south to Logan, the Gold Coast and seeing some tragedies unfolding in NSW,' 'We've been through a lot together. We've been through a pandemic of two years and yet another flood. While the rain in Brisbane has eased, the flood emergency is far from over with the Brisbane River expected to peak again on Monday night around 8pm. Another significant peak to 3.7m is expected 9am on Tuesday. 'That being said, the risk for significant flooding is still very real,' the Bureau of Meteorology's Diana Eadie said. 'There's still a lot of water around [the Brisbane and Bremer rivers] we could see a secondary peak this evening at around about 8pm. A man wades through floodwaters reaching up to his shoulders in Milton, Brisbane A Milton family devastated by the Brisbane floods is a lounge chair missing after it was swept away by floodwaters Five days of heavy rain has flooded large swathes of Brisbane Residents in low lying areas such as Milton (pictured) are bracing for more devastation with the Brisbane River expected to peak again on Monday night This motorist decided to try his luck driving through a flooded road at Ipswich, west of Brisbane Untethered boats and pontoons caused carnage on the swollen Brisbane River as the 1000mm rain bomb continued to smash south-east Queensland. Residents in low lying streets returned to their flooded homes via kayak, boats and other water vessels to inspect the damage while others fled to higher ground. Upper Springbrook near the Gold Coast was the wettest part of state with 530mm in the last 24 hours while Bracken Ridge in Brisbane's north received 444mm. Creek Street in Brisbane's CBD (pictured) was living up to its name on Monday Much of the Brisbane CBD is underwater with most train, bus and ferry services cancelled Thousands of Brisbane residents were unable to get to work as floodwaters swamped the CBD A young woman was knee-depth in floodwaters in South Brisbane's Melbourne Street Premier Palaszczuk said severity of the weather wasn't forecast. 'We didn't know that was going to happen. This is Mother Nature. I can't control Mother Nature, the people this state can't control Mother Nature, and sometimes they throw stuff at us and we got to deal with it,' she said. The rain has headed south with life-threatening flash flooding recorded in the Tallebudgera and Currumbin valleys on the southern Gold Coast on Monday morning. 'Shelter in place unless it is unsafe to do so. Access to area is cut and inaccessible in multiple places,' a QFES alert read. The Bureau Of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning issued for south-east Queensland with flash flooding in areas such as Coolangatta likely. QFES has made more than 100 swift-water rescues amid 8000 calls for help in the Brisbane, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast since 3pm on Sunday. A 59-year-old man drowned in Brisbanes north on Sunday afternoon after he became pinned against a fence while trying to cross a flooded creek The federal government has announced disaster assistance payments for affected residents devastated by the floods while the Defence Force will be deployed to help mammoth clean up. 'It can include troops themselves engaged directly in the same clean-up effort that so many people from the city of Brisbane will be engaged with as part of the Mud Army,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. Human remains found in the Margaret River region in Western Australia are suspected to be of a missing father-of-three who vanished three months prior when a bushfire ravaged the area. The body of Jordan Marshall is believed to have been discovered in the Boranup Forest on Sunday morning, although the body is yet to be formally identified. Mr Marshall disappeared on December 8. Mr Marshall was last spotted at Mammoth Cave on the same day a fire, which police suspect was deliberately lit, spread through the region and razed 7800ha of land. Remains of missing father-of-three are found three months after he vanished during a raging bushfire in the Margaret River region Friends and family of the real estate agent feared for his wellbeing after he was not seen or heard from following the aftermath of the blaze, creating grave concerns that he was lost in the massive fire. A police search was subsequently carried out but it initially failed to locate Mr Marshall. A Facebook page titled 'help find Jordan Marshall' was launched in early January by family and friends to continue search efforts and provide updates on the father-of-three's whereabouts. A major bushfire in Western Australia's Margaret River region that has forced residents to evacuate was deliberately lit, police believe Mr Marshall was last spotted at Mammoth Cave on the same day a fire, which police suspect was deliberately lit , spread through the region and razed 7800ha of land More than 30 of Mr Marhall's close friends and family, including his distressed father Ross Marshall, tried to find him in the scorched Boranup Forest before an organised search on Sunday resulted in the discovery of human remains. Jordan's younger brother Daniel provided further context as to how Jordan wound up in the forest when the fire broke out. 'He said he was apologetic for not being himself, that he loved me, he was taking medications and that he was otherwise doing OK,' Daniel told the ABC. More than 30 of Mr Marhall's close friends and family, including his distressed father Ross Marshall, tried to find him in the scorched Boranup Forest before an organised search on Sunday resulted in the discovery of human remains. 'When he was feeling unwell or stressed, he would come down to Margaret River, where we have a family home,' he added. It's been revealed that Mr Marshall was struggling with mental health issues at the time of his disappearance. He was also due to face court in early December after being charged with four counts of criminal damage of destruction of property, and one count of unlawful assault. He vanished just days before he was meant to appear. It's been revealed that Mr Marshall was struggling with mental health issues at the time of his disappearance. He was also due to face in court in early December but vanished before the court date The Margaret River region was ravaged by a fire in early December that WA police believe was deliberately lit. It's suspected the blaze was ignited near Mammoth Cave, which is where Mr Marshall was last seen. The huge inferno forced local residents to evacuate. An investigation into a possible arsonist is ongoing. Ministers will today unveil new powers to seize the hidden assets of Russian oligarchs in the UK. A new Economic Crime Bill will force foreign shell companies holding property in the UK including the mansions of oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin to reveal the identities of the true owners. Police will also be handed strengthened powers to investigate and seize the 'unexplained wealth' of foreigners suspected of laundering cash in the UK. Priti Patel, pictured, said: 'Time is up for Putin's cronies hiding dirty money in the UK and this new legislation will help to crack down on economic crime' Home Secretary Priti Patel said: 'The Government has taken unprecedented action in the face of barbaric Russian aggression. 'Time is up for Putin's cronies hiding dirty money in the UK and this new legislation will help to crack down on economic crime.' Powers will also be introduced to allow the courts to freeze and forfeit money hidden in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. And a new 'Kleptocracy Cell' is being established in the National Crime Agency to target those trying to evade sanctions imposed in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ministers have so far sanctioned eight oligarchs linked to the Putin regime, but Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said dozens more would face action in the coming weeks as officials work through a 'hit list' of oligarchs linked to Putin. She told Sky News: 'We have compiled a hit list of oligarchs. We are working through and putting the cases together, and every few weeks we will sanction new oligarchs. 'We will be targeting oligarchs' private jets, we will be targeting their properties, we will be targeting other possessions that they have and there will be nowhere to hide.' A new Economic Crime Bill will force foreign shell companies holding property in the UK including the mansions of oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin to reveal the identities of the true owners Boris Johnson last night said the decision to fast-track the Economic Crime Bill underlined ministers' determination to squeeze Putin's inner circle. 'There is no place for dirty money in the UK,' he said. 'We are going faster and harder to tear back the facade that those supporting Putin's campaign of destruction have been hiding behind for so long. 'Those backing Putin have been put on notice: there will be nowhere to hide your ill-gotten gains.' Powers called Unexplained Wealth Orders known as 'McMafia orders' were introduced in 2017 in the wake of the Salisbury novichok attack. But the National Crime Agency has issued just nine orders relating to four cases. The new laws will make it easier to penetrate the web of shell companies that masks the true ownership of properties held in the UK by foreign corporations. A new register will require anonymous foreign owners to reveal their true identities. Shell companies that refuse to reveal their 'beneficial owner' will face restrictions on selling the properties they hold. Ministers have so far sanctioned eight oligarchs linked to the Putin regime, but Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (pictured) said dozens more would face action in the coming weeks Miss Truss said sanctions on Russia may have to remain in place for many years, warning that the West faced a 'very long haul'. She said the 'very, very tough' sanctions were 'cutting the Russian economy at its knees'. She also acknowledged that the sanctions would carry a cost for British families, including through higher fuel prices, but said it was a price worth paying to defend democracy. Miss Truss added: 'Yes, there will be an economic cost here in Britain, there will be a cost in terms of access to oil and gas markets. 'But I firmly believe the British public understand the price we will pay if we don't stand up to Putin now.' j.groves@dailymail.co.uk With the Russian invasion of Ukraine continuing, over 4,000 US Army troops deployed to Europe are going to have their tours of duty extended. The extension, announced Sunday, is part of the United States' effort to instill confidence in their eastern European allies during the crisis. 'I don't want to speculate on a timeline, but be assured it will only be for as long as they are needed,' John Tomassi, a spokesman for the Army in Europe, told CNN when asked about a time frame for this continued deployment. The troops - members of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat team of the 1st Infantry Division - were scheduled to return following nine months abroad in March. The teams will now continue their training and deterrence missions alongside troops from Poland, Romania and the Baltic states. Paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, assist with humanitarian aid in support of the US Agency for International Development Firefighters inspect the damage at a building following a rocket attack on the city of Kyiv A map of the United States' military bases in Europe The Army also said that 'additional support troops' will have their deployment extended as well. Armed forces regularly switch out combat brigades in and out of the continent to keep a consistent military presence in the region. 'The deployment of ready, combat-credible US forces to Europe in support US Army Europe and Africa is evidence of the strong and unremitting US commitment to NATO and Europe,' Tomassi added. Russian forces are said to have taken a small Ukrainian town in the south of the country on Sunday night. Berdyansk, is a port city with a naval base on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, in the south-east Ukraine is home to 100,000 people. Charred military vehicles and rubble are seen in Bucha, Ukraine US President Joe Biden meets with the National Security Council on the Ukraine-Russia crisis Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the Pentagon Tuesday French President Emmanuel Macron (right) greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) It is located close to the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and from which it launched one of several invasion forces. Elsewhere in the country, Russian are said to be troops closing in around Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million. The mayor expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Ukrainian defenders have been putting up stiff resistance that appeared to slow Russia's advance. Kyiv was eerily quiet on Sunday morning after explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one airport. A main boulevard was practically deserted as a strict curfew kept people off the streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur. Terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Food and medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. The southern Ukrainian town has a small naval base on the Sea of Azov A woman reacts as paramedics perform CPR on a girl who was injured during shelling, at city hospital of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. The girl did not survive "Right now, the most important question is to defend our country," Klitschko said. In the southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling. Nearly 560 miles away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv. 'I wish I had never lived to see this,' said Bystritska, an 87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 90 miles from Kyiv. Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights 'so we dont draw their attention,' said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself. A fringe group of Russian patriots in Australia are fervently backing Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine. As western allies including Australia back financial sanctions against Russia and its wealthy oligarchs, members of a Sydney-based self-styled military group who hold meetings in Soviet-style uniforms and a bikie club known as 'Putin's Angels' are staunchly defending the Russian President. They boldly claim Ukraine is the aggressor and Putin is merely recognising self-proclaimed republics in the area of Donbass in southeastern Ukraine, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), some of whose territory has been occupied by pro-Russian separatist groups since 2014. Simeon 'The Aussie Cossack' Boikov of Cabramatta in western Sydney leads a self-styled military unit called Australian Cossacks or Zabaikal Cossack Society of Australia. While many Australian-based Russians would be ashamed of Putin's actions, Boikov claims the President's aim is the 'demilitarisation and de-Nazification' of Ukraine, which had been waging a war of its own with missile strikes and killing civilians' who speak Russian' for the last eight years. Simeon 'The Aussie Cossack' Boikov of Cabramatta in western Sydney leads a self-styled military unit called Australian Cossacks or Zabaikal Cossack Society of Australia Australian Night Wolves' Sasha Duganov (left of above left), with global bikie group president, Alexander Zaldostanov, and (above right) Russian Australians dressed in uniforms and mocked up their cars as tanks The Russian nationalist activist publishes a monthly newspaper in Australia printed in Russian, The Russian Frontier, campaigned but did not eventually run as an independent in the Strathfield by-election. On his Youtube channel he described Russia versus Ukraine as 'Z' (the symbol on Russian tanks) v 'The Elites' and claims it's a welcome distraction for politicians like Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and US President Joe Biden. The West United For Russia drove from Centennial Park to Bondi on the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII in a cavalcade of cars mocked up as Russian maquette tanks with gun turrets mounted on the car roofs emblazoned with the words 'Victory 1945' Boikov claims to be a part of a Cossack cultural tradition of people from both Ukraine and Russia who support Russia's last emperor, Tsar Nicholas II, whose reign included the 1905 Bloody Sunday massacre of workers. The Cossacks are descendants of a group of Russian horsemen who fought with Tsarist forces during the Russian civil war, and supported Russia in the long-running Russo-Ukrainian War. More recently, the Cossacks have been a key pro-Russian group supporting the fight against Ukrainian forces over the strategic Crimean peninsular since its annexation by Russia in 2014. Sydney-based group The West United For Russia, also campaigns against Ukraine and against sanctions on its Facebook page with photos of Australians waving flags and wearing T-shirts with the hashtag #IStandWithRussia. On May 9, 2020, the group drove from Centennial Park to Bondi in a cavalcade of cars mocked up as Russian maquette tanks with gun turrets mounted on the car roofs emblazoned with the words 'Victory 1945'. In 2015, Australia started its own chapter of the Night Wolves (above), Russia's largest bikie gang which sometimes works in its homeland as an informal militia The West United for Russia is a group which protests against sanctions taken out by allies to punish Russia at time when it is actively at war with Ukraine Australian members of bike gang Night Wolves, beloved by the Russian President and also known as Putin's Angels, which have fiercely defended his actions in the Ukraine The drive, which marked the 70th Victory Day celebration of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany, was hashtagged on the group's Facebook page with #RussianTanksSydney and #IStandWithRussia. The West United for Russia's lead activist, Sean Davis mounted a protest on one previous occasion when then prime Minister Tony Abbott imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against Russia after the country annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. The group's Facebook page declared the sanctions an 'Act of War ... always used by Governments as a precursor to war, and never had successfully been used to avert it'. Russian patriot groups in Australia also include the Night Wolves, a local chapter of Vladimir Putin's favourite motorcycle club - nicknamed 'Putin's Angels' - which holds rides and events to commemorate World War I, World War II, and the victims who died in those wars. Simeon Boikov, the 'Aussie Cossack' (above, left) says that Australia is an enemy state of Russia when it imposes sanctions against the country for actions in Ukraine Vladimir Putin (above, left) awarded Night Wolves president and former surgeon Alexander Zaldostanov (right) a medal for the work he had done in the Crimean peninsula Boikov organised traditional Cossack dancers (above) at a 2016 screening in the Sydney suburb of Burwood of a movie he made about his Australian Cossacks group Past Australian national president Vladimir Simonian has described the Night Wolves as a 'patriotic club' of members who can't join unless they own a motorbike. Founded in 2015, the Australian chapter of the Night Wolves has members in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. 'We just want to show the world that Russia has a massive history and we are trying to keep it up,' says Night Wolves national vice-president, Sasha Duganov, who knows personally Alex Zaldostanov, who is known as 'The Surgeon'. A former facial reconstructive surgeon who became a political activist, Zaldostanov is global president of the Night Wolves, Russia's largest motorcycle club, . In Russia, the club has been described as a 'proxy' for the Kremlin: willing to carry out or support military operations at arms-length from the Russian government. Russian Night Wolves members are said to have fought alongside pro-Russian militants, and participated in attacks on a natural gas facility and the naval headquarters in Sevastopol. Putin (right) awarded Zaldostanov (left) the 'Medal For the Return of Crimea' for his activism, which included his offering the Night Wolves to the Russian Government as an informal militia. Melbourne Russian supporter wears T-shirt hashtagged #IStandWithRussia in support of the country after clashes in the Ukraine between the two nations began in 2014 over the strategic Crimean peninsula Putin awarded Zaldostanov the 'Medal For the Return of Crimea' for his activism, which included his offering the Night Wolves to the Russian Government as an informal militia. Individuals like Sydney communications specialist Alexander Buryak are flooding their Facebook pages with defences of Russia's actions in Ukraine. Mr Buryak has previously had Facebook ban a cover photo, of himself waving a Russian flag in an image superimposed with the words, written in Russian, 'One cannot rewrite History with political Assassinations... Donbass, Sydney is with you!' He defiantly reinstated his 'banned' image and is currently reposting Facebook messages which described Ukrainians as 'neoNazis' and describing alleged accounts saying 'people were shot by the Ukrainian Army'. Fervent Russia supporter Alexander Buryak (above left) has claimed on Facebhook Ukraine has committed war crimes, while Sydney's Sean Davis waves a Russian flag in support of the country's fight against Ukraine over the last eight years Wearing Russian military uniforms, Australians took to the streets driving cars mocked up as Russian tanks to celebrate the 70th anniversary of victory over Germany in WWII Alex Buryak has previously had Facebook ban a cover photo of himself (above) waving a Russian flag when he superimposed it with the words in Russian, 'One cannot rewrite History with political Assassinations... Donbass, Sydney is with you!' One of the posts says people have been 'poisoned by propaganda and hatred' and that 'our grandfathers fought against fascism'. Mr Buryak posted that 'Kiev government (has been) shelling civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk regions for 8 years straight' and has reposted the videos and images of a British documentary maker, Graham William Phillips. Phillips claims on his Facebhook page to have 'hundreds of videos' which would help prosecute 'Ukrainian war criminals, for war crimes in Donbass'. One Facebook responder to Mr Buryak's post claimed Phillips' reports were 'fake news' and that he was a blogger employed by 'Russian propaganda TV channels'. Some Australian Putin patriots like Simeon Boikov dress up in Russian military uniform when pushing the Putin ultranationalist line. In 2016, Mr Boikov hosted 450 guests at the Burwood Event Cinema for a screening of his movie, Zabaikal Cossacks Odyssey, along with Russian Cossack dancing and light refreshments. The Sydney-born loyalist once declared in 2018 that Australia was an 'enemy state' to Russia and that 'we have a unique opportunity to support Russia from within an enemy state'. He said Cossacks in Australia could 'pursue a pro-Russian position, lobby politicians and members of parliament, oppose anyone who lies about Russia, attacks Russia or imposes sanctions. Basically, they can wage an information war.' Simeon Boikov was born in Sydney but identifies with Russia's fight against Ukraine and has declared that the current attack is justified to 'deNazify' Ukraine Sean Davis and a fellow protestor declare sanctions are an 'act of war' in an earlier protest, when then PM Tony Abbott instigated sanctions and travel bans against Russia He later told the ABC that Australia was 'a state which is placing sanctions against Russia and behaving in an anti-Russian manner, in that way could be perceived that the activities are not the activities of an ally.' Mr Boikov has previously denied Russian involvement in the 2014 shooting down of Malaysian Airlines MH17 over Ukraine, in which 283 people died, 38 of them Australians. In 2015, Mr Boikov flew to Moscow to visit Igor Girkin, one of the pro-Russian separatist leaders accused of being responsible for the MH17 tragedy. Boikov, who claims the title Ataman. which means 'chieftain', is said to have 150 to 200 members of his Aussie Cossacks group who dress in Russian uniform for meetings. A cohort of Liberal Party turned Clive Palmer's United Australia Party candidate Craig Kelly, Mr Boikov campaigned politically as anti-vax and anti-lockdown for Strathfield. However, when the ballot papers were printed, Boikov's name was not among the candidates. UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putins invasion The Ukrainian Air Force has carried out two drone strikes on Russian targets using Turkish-made drones, officials said. Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, the chief of Ukraine's Air Force, confirmed they used 'life-giving' Bayraktar TB2 drones. The Ukrainian Embassy released footage of a Russian convoy consisting of more than a dozen vehicles blown to pieces by the strike. The footage was shot near the city of Malyn, about 60 miles northwest of Kyiv. Ukraine's Air Force claims to have conducted successful drone attacks against Russian forces In one image shot by a Turkish drone, a purported convoy of Russian trucks is shown driving Seconds later, the entire group are blown to bits having been the victims of a drone strike Ukrainian servicemen push a Bayraktar TB2 drone, or unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), file photo from June 2021 The Air Force said that one of the strikes occurred in the town of Chornobaivka, in southern Ukraine. The area has been the focus of intense fighting in the past few days. 'Never a rose without a thorn,' the embassy wrote in one of the tweets. 'Russian invaders have to put up with Bayraktar TB2s.' On Saturday, Ukrainian forces released another drone video which showed a Russian convoy being hit by a drone strike, this time in the southern city of Kherson. The first shipments of the Turkish-made drones began arriving in Ukraine in 2019 reports the Wall Street Journal. The TB2 aircraft are able to stay in the air for 25 hours at a height of 25,000 feet with the pilot able to control it from several hundred miles away. Ukrainian forces have managed to halt the advance of Russian troops on the capital, blowing bridges into the city to hinder the advance of Moscow's soldiers. Russian forces were on Sunday afternoon destroyed in Bucha, near the Gostomel air base in the north west of Kyiv, after becoming trapped when the Irpin bridge into the city was destroyed. Footage posted online purported to show the harrowing aftermath of what military experts said was likely a drone strike on the Russian Airborne Forces column, with parts of vehicles strewn across the road in a warp, fiery heap. Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian servicemen were pictured roaming in the centre of Kyiv to enforce a 39-hour curfew to keep people off the streets. Mayor Klitschko said no Russian troops had managed to enter the city despite the bombardment. A Russian tank burning in the Ukrainians city of Sumy, in north-eastern Ukraine, pictured on Sunday Ukraine's Ministry of Defense on Sunday claimed it has killed more than 4,300 Russian soldiers in the first three days of fighting. Russia has not released an updates on its military losses. Pictured: An Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighter examines a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicle GAZ Tigr after the fight in Kharkiv on Sunday Russian forces entered Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday He also warned those outside after 5pm and before 8am will be considered part of 'the enemy's sabotage and reconnaissance groups' - he later said there were no Russian troops inside the city. But he announced that at least nine civilian had been 'lost or killed' in the capital, among them one child, since the start of the invasion. Satellite imagery taken on Sunday also showed a large deployment of Russian ground troops moving in the direction of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv from approximately 40 miles away, a private U.S. company said. The images released by Maxar Technologies showed a deployment comprised of hundreds of military vehicles and extending more than 3 miles. The company has been tracking the buildup of Russian forces for weeks. The latest pictures could not be independently verified. A handout satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows Russian ground forces in convoy near of Ivankiv, Ukraine This Maxar satellite image shows a column of Russian military vehicles as they move towards Kyiv, on the P-02-02 road (Shevchenka Road) on the outskirts of Ivankiv Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded It was a day a day when the expected assault on Kyiv again failed to materialize and the Ukrainians claimed to have driven Russian forces out of the country's second city Kharkiv. Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, today said Ukrainian troops had managed to reclaim the city. In a post on Telegram, he said: 'Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! 'The armed forces, the national police, and the defence forces are working and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy.' Kharkiv's defence came as Ukraine's Ministry of Defence today claimed Ukrainian troops had killed or injured more than 4,300 Russian soldiers in the first three days of fighting. Russia has not released an updates on its military losses. After a grueling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city on Sunday, mayor Vitali Klitschko was silent for several seconds when asked if there were plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv Congress has ditched its mask mandate ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, a move officials say is response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issuing new coronavirus guidelines last week. The Office of the Attending Physician announced the policy change Sunday, noting 'individuals may choose to mask at any time, but it is no longer a requirement'. The Capitol move comes just a day before Washington's mask mandate expires on Monday, and as a host of states and local governments have begun implementing the new CDC guidelines and lifting mask-mandates indoors and in schools. It also follows the new guidelines issued by the CDC on Friday that will lift mask recommendations for 70 percent of Americans. According to the new CDC system, Washington D.C. is now in the 'green level' or an area considered low risk for the spread of coronavirus, allowing for a reduction in prevention measures. Congress has ditched its mask mandate ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, a move officials say is response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing new coronavirus guidance last week The relaxed guidance comes as Biden aims to use Congressional address to highlight the progress against COVID made over the last year, including vaccinations and therapeutics, and guide the country into a 'new phase' of the virus response that is not driven by emergency measures and looks more like life pre-pandemic. Mask-wearing will still be a personal choice in Congress and special precautions will be in place for Biden's speech on Tuesday, which unlike last year's joint address will be open to all members of Congress. 'I think you're going to see it look much more like a normal state of the union than the president's joint address,' White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Saturday. 'It's going to look like the most normal thing people have seen in Washington in a long time.' Seating for Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress, last April, was capped at about 200 - about 20% of usual capacity for a presidential presentation - and White House aides fretted that a repeat would be a dissonant image from the message the president aimed to deliver to the American people. Although masks will be optional, all State of the Union attendees will be required to take a COVID test before entering the chamber ahead of the address. The changes to the Capitol's operation posture also states that 'people with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a properly fitted high quality filtration mask (KN95 or N95).' Coronavirus layered protection measures, such as vaccination emphasis, and daily health screening inventories will continue for Congressional members and staff. The Office of the Attending Physician announced the policy change Sunday, noting 'individuals may choose to mask at any time, but it is no longer a requirement' The relaxed guidance comes as Biden (pictured at the White House on Friday) aims to use Congressional address to highlight the progress against COVID-19 made over the last year, including vaccinations and therapeutics, and guide the country into a 'new phase' of the virus response that is not driven by emergency measures and looks more like life pre-pandemic Mandatory masking had been in place for much of the past two years and had become a partisan flashpoint on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had announced initial guidelines earlier this month from the Office of the Sergeant at Arms that included a threat that violation of guidelines for social distancing and mask wearing during the event would 'result in the attendee's removal.' The change ahead of Biden's speech will avoid a potential disruptive display of national tensions and frustration as Biden tries to nudge the country to move beyond the pandemic. It also eases the fears of some Biden allies who had been gearing up for potentially disruptive protests from Republicans to the policies. Some GOP lawmakers have racked up thousands of dollars in fines for violating mask-wearing mandates on the House floor. Slide me The revised CDC guidelines - released Friday - moved the number of U.S. counties considered as 'high' or 'substantial' risk down to 30% (right) from 95% (left). The first map is the nation's counties under initial calculations, while the second is the revised version unveiled by the CDC Friday afternoon The CDC tiers its recommendations for people to live safely with COVID depending on their counties deemed risk level The move comes as case loads across the country have dropped precipitously since their early January peak, with the omicron variant proving to be less likely than earlier strains to cause death or serious illness, especially in vaccinated and boosted individuals. On average, 75,549 people are recording a COVID infection every day in America. This is a 35 percent fall over the past week, and a 92 percent drop since the Omicron surge peaked at 800,000 cases per day in mid-January. Deaths are finally starting to plummet as well. On average, 1,742 Americans are dying from COVID daily, a 20 percent drop over the past week - as of Friday - and a 30 percent drop for the peak of the Omicrons surge when around 2,500 Americans were succumbing to the virus daily. Under the CDC's newly revised calculations, only 28.2 percent of the American population - living in 37 percent of counties - is still recommended to mask up in indoor, public, settings. These counties are scattered throughout America, but include the entire state of West Virginia and much of its neighbor, Kentucky. Oregon and Montana have large portions of the state classified as 'high' risk as well. On average, 75,549 people are recording a COVID infection every day in America. This is a 35 percent fall over the past week, and a 92 percent drop since the Omicron surge peaked at 800,000 cases per day in mid-January Deaths are finally starting to plummet as well. On average, 1,742 Americans are dying from COVID daily, a 20 percent drop over the past week - as of Friday - and a 30 percent drop for the peak of the Omicrons surge when around 2,500 Americans were succumbing to the virus daily The number of COVID hospitalizations is also on the decline Just under 30 percent of Americans live in an area of 'low' risk, with 39.6 percent of Americans suffering 'medium' COVID risk in their communities. The 'substantial' categorization has been removed, seemingly joined with high. While state and county level officials still have power to set mandates and regulations for their own jurisdiction, many, especially in blue states, generally follow CDC guidelines when making such decisions. For areas considered to be of low risk, the CDC only recommends that people get vaccinated, but otherwise they can safely live their life as normal. A person living in a place deemed to have medium risk can also live as normal, unless they are immunocompromised or have other serious comorbidities, in which they should mask in public places and talk to their doctor about other potential decisions to protect themselves. The CDC is still advising people, including schoolchildren, wear masks where the risk of COVID is high. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the agency, said that the new guidelines allow Americans to feel safe in dropping masks and other restrictions for now, when COVID is not as much of a threat as it was in the past. It also leaves the door open for officials to bring back masks and other restrictions in the future in times where the pandemic situation becomes more dire, without overreacting to an uptick in mild cases. Apple Pay and Google Pay would not be accessible to Russian customers for the unforeseeable time. President Joe Biden addressed the nation on Thursday (Feb. 25) stated that America, along with its allied countries, will impose economic sanctions on Russia as part of its political consequences. The sanctions were immediately imposed. Thereafter, thousands of Russian citizens were affected through their bank transactions. The Effect of Apple Pay and Google Play The Central Bank of Russia reported that its customers are unable to access contactless transactions from both American tech giants. This is due to the issues of the cards issued by the banks in Russia since other countries' sanctions have been imposed. The Russian banks affected by the financial sanctions are Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, VTB Bank, and Otkritie. Russian citizens with banks to any financial institutions will not be able to make international transactions to countries that have agreed to implement sanctions on Russia. Apple Pay is an online platform that can be accessed on multiple Apple devices such as the iPhone and the Apple Watch. It is a "digital wallet" that can be used with Apple devices such as the iPhone and Apple Watch. This digital wallet allows users to make purchases using their device rather than having to take out their wallet, purse, credit card, or cash first. On the other hand, Google Pay is also a digital wallet platform, allowing users to purchase, transfer, and pay for numerous merchant partners that require payments. Developed by Google, it also enables users to make contactless payments on mobile devices in-app, online, and in-person. Like Apple Pay, Google Pay's digital wallet can also be accessed on multiple devices such as Android phones, watches, and tablets. However, as clarified by The Verge, the two most popular mobile payment platforms in Russia are Sberbank Online and YooMoney. This only means that only a few Russians use Apple and Google Pay for their payment transactions. Read Also: Facebook Security: 4 Steps to Follow to Lock FB Profile and Prevent Hacking, Manipulation Possibility of FinTech Unrest? President Vladimir Putin had launched an invasion of Ukraine on Thursday (Feb.24). Russians awoke to the news of the war as their military forces were sent to launch an attack on Ukraine. As reported by Business Insider, countries that imposed sanctions on Russia are the United Kingdom, Australia, United States, and EU countries. These countries are also imposing economic sanctions and financial US sanctions. The countries have threatened all together that foreign-held assets of Russian banks- Sberbank, General Bank, IS Bank, Rossiya, and the Black Sea Bank, will be frozen. An increase in sanctions has been implemented in response to Moscow's order to invade Ukraine. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed it was an act of self-defense against NATO's expansion into eastern Europe. According to the Wall Street Journal, people in Russia have been queuing up at ATMs to withdraw U.S. dollars. Russians fear that the value of the Russian currency Ruble will continue to plummet. In addition to that, it has also been reported that the country is running out of dollars as people try to withdraw massively. If this continues, this might leave banks with insufficient capital to lend and finance their customers. Furthermore, it may be possible that US sanctions in fintech and numerous industries to Russia will continue to increase over time if the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues. Related Article: Apple to Increase Salary from 2 to 10 percent For Retail Employees Britain was last night pushing for even tougher sanctions against Moscow, amid predictions that Russian banks could start to run out of money. In a major climbdown at the weekend, Germany and Italy agreed to drop their opposition to excluding Russian banks from the Swift payment system, which dominates international trade. In a joint statement, Britain, the US, the EU and Canada said selected Russian banks would be removed from the Swift system, disconnecting them from the international financial system and harming their ability to operate globally. In a joint statement, Britain, the US, the EU and Canada said selected Russian banks would be removed from the Swift system A Government source said the move would mean 70 per cent of Russias main banks were excluded from the system, making it increasingly difficult for Russian firms to conduct trade. Western leaders also agreed to place restrictive measures on Russias central bank to prevent it from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions. But Foreign Secretary Liz Truss yesterday said the UK would continue to push for harsher measures. Miss Truss, who raised the issue with G7 finance ministers yesterday, said the measures were unprecedented, but added: We continue to press for tougher and tougher sanctions. We were very clear with the G7 that there will be escalatory sanctions, that the ratchet would be tightened on Russia. And thats what were seeing. We have led the calls for Russia to be excluded from the Swift system. We are making progress. It doesnt end here. An expat fleeing Ukraine with his two-week-old baby has slammed the British Government for its heartless refusal to fast-track a visa for his wife. Ken Stewart, 54, from Edinburgh, his Ukrainian wife Tanya, 36, and their two young children were battling to reach the sanctuary of Poland yesterday before heading to Britain. He posted photos on social media after 18 hours in [a] near-stationary queue on the dangerous journey from their village, 40 miles from Kyiv. Mr Stewart said his wife would have to go through a convoluted visa application to get into the UK despite both their children having UK citizenship. He said the Government was a heartless bunch who showed zero compassion for my family or for any Ukrainian refugees. My heart is broken, he added. Mr Stewart wrote: My wife is Ukrainian and Im a UK citizen- both children have UK citizenship. But the UK government absolutely refuses to make the process easier for my wife to get a visa. When we finally get the visa and eventually get to UK I will be publicly shaming UK government. They are heartless bunch and have shown zero compassion for my family or for any Ukrainian refugees. Ken Stewart (left) and his Ukrainian wife Tanya (right) pictured together. Mr Stewart has branded the Government a heartless bunch over its refusal to grant his wife a visa Mr Stewart has posted updates as his family tries to flee Ukraine, including pictures of his two-week-old baby Ken Stewart, 54, with his wife Tetiana, 36, and their daughter Yryna, 3, at their home in Ukraine Mr Stewart says his wife would have to go through a convoluted visa application to get into the UK Commenting during an overnight break, he added: Tonight my heart is broken and tears stream down my face as I write this. 'I have had to take my little family away from our home - I have lived in Ukraine for 15 years- and may never return to our house in what was once a peaceful village in a peaceful region of a country that wanted nothing but peace. I have left behind hundreds of friends, friends who are now enduring hell on earth because of the madness of one country. No not just Putin. Russia. Putin isnt flying the planes and helicopters that murder children, or firing artillery on apartment blocks in my beloved Kyiv. He said his wifes relatives have moved into their home outside Kyiv and are awaiting an unknown fate. Praising Tanyas resilience, he added on Facebook: She hasnt slept for 2 days. Could you if your country was burning? She is an amazing mother to our kids and has held it together in ways you cant imagine. Her entire Ukrainian family are in extreme danger as I write this. We had to make the decision to get the kids to safety and so we drove across the country all day, parallel with, and very near to, the Belarus border- Belarus what have you done?- as it was the most direct route to Poland. Tomorrow we will join the several miles long queue for the Polish border. Hopefully well get across eventually. Thanks to all who supported us. Ukraine will rise again! Ukraines future is in Europe, not in barbaric Russia. Vladimir Putin's closest advisers appeared perturbed when he dropped his bombshell about readying nuclear weapons yesterday. The expressions of army general Valery Gerasimov and defence minister Sergey Shoygu were caught on camera as the Russian president put his atomic arsenal on stand-by. A senior US defence official said last night Putin's step is 'potentially putting in play forces that if there's a miscalculation could make things much, much more dangerous'. Unsettled: Valery Gerasimov (left) and Sergey Shoygu pictured at yesterday's Kremlin press conference And a senior White House official described it as 'yet another escalatory and totally unnecessary step'. They said in a statement: 'At every step of this conflict, Putin has manufactured threats to justify more aggressive actions. 'He was never under threat from Ukraine or from Nato, which is a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine. 'The only reason his forces face a threat today is because they invaded a sovereign country, and one without nuclear weapons.' Max Bergmann, a former State Department official, called Putin's talk predictable but dangerous sabre-rattling. 'Things could spiral out of control,' he warned. And a senior White House said in a statement: 'At every step of this conflict, Putin (pictured) has manufactured threats to justify more aggressive actions' It was unclear last night whether Putin was referring to short-range or intercontinental nuclear missiles. A US study published this month suggested that despite hundreds of billions of pounds in investment by Nato countries in recent decades, its member states remain significantly vulnerable to intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nato's best chance of blocking a nuclear weapon is said to be the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence System, which would attempt to blow it out of the sky. It is fitted on to US warships which, for the purposes of European defence, are based in Spain. The system's land equivalent, the Aegis Ashore, is deployed in Romania. The generals' appearance at yesterday's Kremlin press conference came just over a fortnight after they told senior British officials they were not going to invade Ukraine. The pledge was made to Ben Wallace making the first visit to Moscow by a UK defence secretary for 20 years and Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff. Russia has claimed its most potent nuclear missile, the 16,000mph hypersonic 'Satan-2', can fit 12 nuclear warheads and could destroy the UK Approximately 90 per cent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States, which each have about 4,000 warheads in their military stockpiles. No other nuclear-armed state sees a need for more than a few hundred warheads for national security. Globally, the overall inventory of nuclear weapons is declining, but the pace of reductions has been slowing compared with the past 30 years. The reductions are happening only because the United States and Russia are still dismantling previously retired warheads. Russia has claimed its most potent nuclear missile, the 16,000mph hypersonic 'Satan-2', can fit 12 nuclear warheads and could destroy the UK. The Kremlin has also significantly increased the number of test launches of atomic weapons this year perhaps in anticipation of the conflict with Ukraine. But last night a former UK military intelligence officer said 'we shouldn't be immediately concerned'. Philip Ingram said: 'Russia's nuclear capability has been a very high priority for western intelligence for many years. So any real changes in their status are likely to be closely watched. 'This is an attempt at deterrence by Putin, not a statement he has any immediate intention to use nuclear weapons. 'However, you have to remember that if you threaten something, it is only credible if you are prepared to use them.' Russia's invasion of Ukraine could lead to a spike in Covid cases and even new variants, ABC Covid doomsayer Dr Norman Swan claims. Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale war last week, with 150,000 soldiers attacking key cities and territories near the border as they attempt to take the capital of Kyiv. But while most Australians worried about whether Ukraine would be able to hold out, Dr Swan fretted about low immunisation rates in Eastern European nations. The former GP and ABC presenter said the invasion had huge health ramifications on both populations given the chaotic movement of people. 'Fresh outbreaks, new variants. Warfare through the centuries is a concurrent theme in making pandemics worse or creating them in the first place,' he told ABC Radio National. Dr Norman Swan said Russia's invasion of Ukraine could lead to a spike in Covid cases and even new variants given low immunisation rates Ukraine has vaccination rates of just 35 per cent in its eligible population, with Russia just over 56 per cent. Russia is suffering a wave of Covid cases, with a rolling average of more than 137,000 new infections a day as Omicron makes it way through the country. The combination of high infection rates and low immunisation could lead to a medical catastrophe, with vulnerable people packed together in wartime conditions, Dr Swan warned. 'If this goes on a lot longer, where people are getting hungry, sanitation breaks down, Covid may be the least of it,' he said. 'But you will certainly see an exacerbation in Covid-19, particularly in the elderly population of the Ukraine.' There are also questions over the effectiveness Sputnik vaccine that is being administered in Russia, with fears infected soldiers could expose at-risk populations. 'Even the Russians coming in are vulnerable because they've got the vaccine which has dubious protection,' the physician said. 'You've got two populations coming in together who are either under-immunised or they've got an inadequate vaccine.' Dr Norman Swan, a former GP and presenter for the ABC, said the invasion had overwhelming health rammifications on both populations Dr Swan said separate from Covid, the war would see an increase in other diseases and illnesses associated with the conditions of conflict. He said there would be more common sicknesses like colds, diarrhea, vomiting, and gastroenteritis spreading through the community, but things could get much worse if the invasion was prolonged. 'If it goes on a long time you'll see pneumonia. Kids will die of childhood diseases,' the ABC doctor said. 'It doesn't bear thinking about how bad it could get with the usual disease, much less Covid-19 going around in a vulnerable population.' Surrounding countries like Poland, Romania, and Moldova were also at risk as thousands of Ukrainian refugees fled over the border. So far, the Ukrainian response has been stern and effective, with President Volodymyr Zelensky confirming they were to hold talks with Russian officials on the Ukranian-Belarusian border 'without preconditions'. President Zelensky warned Ukraine faced a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia threw even more ground forces at Kyiv. Satellite images overnight showed a three mile-long convoy heading towards the capital, after Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on 'alert'. Russian military vehicles were pictured moving in despite officials agreeing to hold peace talks at the border with Belarus later today. The images, released by Maxar Technologies, showed hundreds of military vehicles moving in the direction of the Ukrainian capital from about 64km away. A satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows a large convoy of Russian ground forces in convoy near Ivankiv, Ukraine Earlier on Sunday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko issued a chilling threat that the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into a Third World War. 'Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector, gas, oil, SWIFT,' Lukashenko said. 'It's worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a Third World War. We need to be restrained here so as not to get into trouble. Because nuclear war is the end of everything.' Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded President Zelensky's office had earlier said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl, in a deal brokered in a phone call with Lukashenko himself. A spokesperson added that Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks and return. President Zelensky has warned that Ukraine faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv Zelensky described his discussion with Lukashenko as 'very substantive', adding that he had made it clear he did not want troops to move from Belarus to Ukraine and Lukashenko 'assured him of this'. He added: 'I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try, so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war.' It came as Putin declared, in his own televised address, that he had ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a 'special regime of duty' in light of 'aggressive statements' from NATO leaders and 'unfriendly economic actions'. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg responded: 'This is dangerous rhetoric'. Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia at the Hague, with Mr Zelensky requesting that the UN International Court of Justice orders Russia to stop its attack against Ukraine and starts trials soon. An Aussie couple have landed in Poland and will try to cross the border into war-torn Ukraine to rescue their newborn daughter, as frantic doctors put signs on hospital roofs to stop them from being bombed. Jessica Van Nooten and Kevin Middleton, from Melbourne, had 15 failed rounds of IVF over a seven-year period before they decided to get help from a surrogacy agency in Ukraine. Their miracle baby Alba was born 10 weeks early on February 22 in Odesa, in southern Ukraine - two days before Russian forces invaded the country. The couple were at Dubai Airport when they suddenly found out their connecting flight to the East European nation had been cancelled, leaving them no choice but to book a last-minute flight to Warsaw, the Polish capital, to save their daughter. Jessica Van Nooten and Kevin Middleton (pictured) have been together for 20 years Their daughter Alba (pictured) was born 10 weeks' early in the Ukraine - two days before Russia invaded Daily Mail Australia understands there is a medical sign on the roof of the neonatal intensive care ward where Alba is hooked up to life-saving machines. Local health workers are hoping the signs will be enough to keep deter Russian soldiers from dropping bombs on medical facilities. Ms Van Nooten and Mr Middleton landed on Sunday and are hoping to drive to Moldova before they attempt to enter Ukraine, despite the Australian government urging residents to flee the area immediately. Russia was added to the 'do not travel' list on Monday with all Australians told to leave, and if not then to 'remain vigilant'. 'If you're in Russia, consider leaving by commercial or private means if it's safe to do so,' the warning read. 'The security situation could deteriorate further with little warning.' Melbourne couple Jessica and Kevin Van Nooten received news their daughter Alba had been born 10 weeks early Alba (pictured) is hooked up to machines in Odesa, southern Ukraine. Her parents are frantically trying to reach her 'If you decide to stay in Russia, review your personal security plans. You're responsible for your own safety and that of your family. 'Russian authorities may adopt a more negative attitude towards foreigners in Russia in reaction to perceived support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.' Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Monday that the country faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at the capital city Kyiv - which is about 400km away from Odesa. Satellite images shared overnight showed a five kilometre-long convoy heading towards the capital, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on 'alert'. Ukrainian servicemen patrol during a curfew as Russian forces continue to advance on the third day The couple have landed in Poland to try and rescue Alba. Pictured: Ukrainian family reunites at the Medyka border crossing in Poland The images showed a deployment of hundreds of military vehicles moving in the direction of the Ukrainian capital from about 65km away. It is understood that more than 400 Russian mercenaries have been flown in from Africa to assassinate President Zelensky. Ms Van Nooten told 7 News on Friday that Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told her not to go to the Ukraine. 'I said, 'I'm going to Ukraine'. How could you not go? You're just going to leave your child there? Not an option,' she told the network. 'What clothes is she wearing? What nappies is she wearing? Who is cuddling her? Who is touching her? Who is reading her stories? You know what, no one is.' The couple, who have been together for 20 years but only got married so they could qualify for surrogacy in the Ukraine, sent the embryos to Ukraine in May and found out they were going to be parents in September. A fundraiser to help the new parents pay travel and medical bills has reached more than $50,000. UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putins invasion A 57-year-old man has been arrested for kicking a female scientist down a New York City subway station stairs and smashing her repeatedly in the head with a hammer - just days after Mayor Eric Adams vowed to crack down on violence in the transit system. William Blount was pictured as he was escorted out of Transit District 20 on Sunday after he was arrested for the hammer attack of Dr Nina Rothschild - a NYC Department of Health scientist - at the Queens Plaza subway station Thursday. Blount, who was charged with attempted murder, robbery and assault, allegedly kicked the 58-year-old down the stairs and bashed her head repeatedly with a hammer at a subway station, leaving her critically wounded. Surveillance footage from outside the station in Queens Plaza, in Long Island City, showed a man, reported to be Blount, walking with a cane as he approached Rothschild, as she carefully walked down the stairs to the subway platform on Thursday at 11.22 pm. Blount reportedly began by kicking her in the back and attempting to knock her over, but when Rothschild stays on her feet and appears to try and slowly flee, he pulls out a hammer, according to authorities. Police said he then proceeded to bash her in the head 13 times while she struggled, with the final hit knocking her over. William Blount, pictured center, is arrested on Sunday in connection to the hammer attack of a woman at the Queens Plaza subway station Thursday Blount, pictured center, as he is escorted by police from the Briarwood subway station in Queens Police escort Blount, 57, after his arrest on Sunday for allegedly attacking Nina Rothschild, also 57, at a Queens subway station on Thursday Blount, pictured being taken to the back of a police car, has a half-dozen prior arrests including charges of robbery and criminal possession of a controlled substance Pictured: Nina Rothschild, the 58-year-old NYC Department of Health scientist who was kicked down the stairs and had her head repeatedly hit a hammer Blount, whose last known address is in Astoria, has a half-dozen prior arrests including charges of robbery and criminal possession of a controlled substance, then grabbed her purse and fled, according to the New York Post. He served time in the late 1980s for attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance, records show. Officers found the woman lying on the ground, suffering from a fractured skull and lacerations to her head. Blount reportedly stole two cellphones, debit cards, credit cards and an unknown amount of money from Rothschild, according to police, who was taken to nearby Weill Cornell Medical in critical condition. The attack comes just one week after Adams announced his Subway Safety Plan initiative and deployed 1,000 additional officers, as well as teams of health workers, to crack down on rising crime in the subways. Surveillance footage from outside the station in Queens Plaza, in Long Island City, showed a man, reported to be Blount, walking with a cane The man in the video kicked the woman down the stairs at the Queens Plaza subway station and proceeded to pull out a hammer and attack her He bashed her head 13 times with the weapon and stole her purse The suspect walks out slowly from the subway, with both cane and hammer in hand The attack is the latest in a string of stabbings and robberies that have occurred in the past week in New York City's subway system, which serves more than 3 million people daily Adams said NYPD officers would be deployed on the A, E, 1, 2, N and R lines to ensure public safety. Both the E and R trains run through the Queens Plaza Station where Thursday night's attack occurred. The station is in the eastern-end of Long Island City, an affluent area home to many young professionals and where Amazon considered opening its second headquarters back in 2019. An MTA worker at the station told the New York Post he was surprised about the attack in the community. 'Look around, they've done a lot with this area, so it's usually pretty safe,' he said. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the new Subway Safety Plan initiative on Friday as a way to crackdown on crime and violence in the city's transit system Under Adams' plan, officers and service workers would be part of 'End of the Line' teams with officers to make sure the trains are cleared during their final stops. The health workers would be there to help the mentally ill and guide them to the city's support services, while the officers are directed to enforce laws against laying down, sleeping, outstretching, littering, drug use and aggressive behavior towards riders. The plan came after a spate of recent crimes committed by homeless individuals, including a break-dancer who was stabbed by a homeless man last Thursday and Michelle Go's murder, where the 40-year-old was pushed beneath a train last month by a homeless man with a history of mental illness. 'Let's be clear on this, [the homeless] are not dangerous,' Adams said. 'The vast majority are not dangerous, but we have to be honest about the number of individuals dealing with mental health crises. They are dangerous to themselves and dangerous to New Yorkers.' The mayor's plan received support from Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said the state would deliver 600 new psychiatric beds and another 500 beds at shelters in the city to try and provide help for those currently living in the subways, many of whom suffer from severe mental illness. 'We will accomplish what new Yorkers deserve, and that is a safe ride on our subway system while also recognizing the very real humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding before our eyes for far too long.' The city has deployed an additional 1,000 officers to patrol the subway system starting Friday Thursday's attack happened at the Queens Plaza Station, which services the E and R lines that were supposed to be enforced better under the Mayor's plan. An MTA worker at the station said he was shocked to learn about the attack because the area is usual safe But despite their efforts, crime continues to plague the city's transit system, which serves more than 3 million people every day. New York City subway stabbings and slashings have spiked 29 percent in the last last year, with 182 incidents compared to 141 a year before in 2020. And 2022 is squaring up to be even worse. So far this year there have been 27 subway attacks on passengers - a 35 percent increase on the 20 reported for the same period of 2021. One of the latest victims, a Trader Joe's employee named Kevin Young, was repeatedly slashed across the face, hand and behind the ear after accidentally bumping into into a disturbed passenger on February 12. The incident occurred around 5:45 am at the Union Square subway station on East 14th street as Young tried to step off a southbound Q train on his way to work to begin his 6 am shift. 'Subway crime is out of control,' fumed Young, 36, to the New York Post. 'He's trying to get on the train and I'm trying to get out and after a shoving match he goes for his blade,' Young recalled. 'I tried to defend myself as much as possible. As soon as I held him down, he got his blade and went to work.' New York City has seen a nearly 50 percent spike in criminal incidents this year when compared to the same span in 2021. Felony assaults have increased by more than 20 percent, while shootings are up by a marked 30 percent Evelina Rivera, a 30-year-old chef, was struck by a homeless man wielding a metal pole on her way home from her shift on Monday morning What does Adams's subway safety plan for NYC look like? The mayor's plan lays out how the Adams administration, in partnership with the MTA and other state entities, will confront these concurrent challenges on New York City's subway systems. Investments in people will provide immediate support and protection to New Yorkers, while investments in places like drop-in-centers, safe havens, stabilization beds, and Street Homeless Outreach Wellness vans, as well as policy changes at local, state, and federal levels will provide medium- and long-term solutions. These include: Deploying up to 30 Joint Response Teams that bring together DHS, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYPD, and community-based providers in high-need locations across the city Training NYPD officers in the city's subway system to enforce the MTA and New York City Transit Authority's rules of conduct in a fair and transparent way Expanding Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division 'B-HEARD' teams to six new precincts, more than doubling the precincts covered to 11. These teams will expand on the already-successful pilot of answering non-violent 911 mental health calls with mental health professionals Incorporating medical services into DHS sites serving individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Expanded DHS Safe Havens and stabilization bed programs will offer on-site physical and behavioral health care to immediately address clients' needs Immediately improving coordination across government with weekly 'Enhanced Outreach Taskforce' meetings that bring together senior leaders from 13 city and state agencies to address issues quickly Creating new Drop-in-Centers to provide an immediate pathway for individuals to come indoors, and exploring opportunities to site Drop-in-Centers close to key subway stations to directly transition individuals from trains and platforms to safe spaces Streamlining the placement process into supportive housing and reducing the amount of paperwork it takes to prove eligibility Calling on state government to expand psychiatric bed resources and amending Kendra's Law to improve mental health care delivery for New Yorkers on Assisted Outpatient Treatment Requiring instead of requesting everyone to leave the train and the station at the end of the line Advertisement Young required 25 stitches to close his wounds, and underwent surgery at Bellevue Hospital on Thursday to fix some nerve damage in his left middle finger that he sustained during the attack. 'And I have to get pin plates inserted into my right index finger so the bones could grow back,' he groaned. His assailant, who has yet to be identified or arrested as of Saturday, was last seen wearing a black jacket, black jeans, black Adidas bag and eyeglasses, police said. The attack on Young comes just days after a 39-year-old woman was slashed in the forehead by another woman with a boxcutter while traveling on a 5 train at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue. On Monday, just hours before Adams' safety plan was set to go in effect, one man was attacked with a hatchet and a woman had her nose ring crushed by a homeless man wielding a metal pipe. The first of the brutal attacks on Monday came at around 12.30 a.m. when Kyle Westby, 42, was on his way home from a late dinner out with his girlfriend when he arrived at the Prospect Heights station and saw two men, one of whom asked 'Why are you staring at me,' the New York Post reports. 'I saw him reach into his jacket and pull out a brown object,' Westby told the Post. 'He swung at me, and I ran away, so I ran up the stairs and thank God the cops were there. 'I said 'Officers, this man swung at me with an ax.' Immediately, they went down and apprehended him.' Police report they took Robert Griffith, 58, into custody following the attack, and charged him with attempted assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, saying Griffith also allegedly had a punch dagger and screwdriver. Hours later, Evelina Rivera, a 30-year-old chef, was struck by a homeless man wielding a metal pole on her way home from her shift. She was on her way home on a No. 4 train heading to the Bronx at 2.39 a.m. when a homeless man, who had earlier poured honey over himself, asked her and another female passenger: 'Oh would you guys just shut the f*** up?' 'We're like, 'Anyway,' and we keep talking, and he's like 'I'll make you shut up,' she told the Post. At that point, she said, the man tried to strike the other woman, 'misses her by a millimeter' and instead broke the subway window, as the would-be victim used pepper spray to blind him. Unable to see, Rivera said, the man started swinging wildly and 'hit me so hard the ball came out of my [septum] piercing. It's crooked.' Rivera said she was 'about to have a panic attack' following the attack,' and she and the other woman got off at the next stop to report the incident to police. But when the cops showed up, the Post reports, they patrolled the subway to look for the suspect, who is described as having facial piercings and was last seen wearing all black, but were unable to find him. Several other New Yorkers were also attacked in vicious slashings over the weekend, with some subway stops roped off by police as blood stained the walls. In the aftermath, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the attacks should not be considered 'normal.' 'People who would prey on New Yorkers riding transit should get the message that it's not going to be tolerated,' he said in a statement to the New York Times, adding they 'underscore the urgent need' for the new safety plan. A spokesman for the mayor, Fabien Levy, also said that Adams strongly condemned the attacks, noting that they 'shouldn't be subject to sweeping generalizations.' 'We should not conflate such isolated acts of violence on the subway with broad statements about the behavioral and mental health challenges the city is confronting, or the issue of aiding those experiencing homeless that the mayor's plan directly addresses.' Labour's biggest union backer was accused of hypocrisy last night for proposing to scrap its staff final salary pension scheme. The move by the Unite trade union, which represents more than 1.4million workers, comes despite it previously taking action against companies that have proposed similar steps. The change has been prompted by the need to tackle the deficit in the union's pension scheme. A senior union source said: '[Unite secretary general] Sharon Graham (pictured) needs to be open with the members about the mess she's inherited from Len McCluskey' A letter to scheme members outlined the decision to move them 'from a final salary to a career average revalued earnings (Care) benefit structure'. It said the move 'reduces the risk of funding deficits' as it is easier to predict and claimed it 'does not necessarily provide lower benefits than a final salary scheme'. A final salary scheme pays out an income based on the wage at the time of retiring, while a Care scheme calculates the salary average across a worker's career. But a document on Unite's website suggests switching to a Care scheme 'will be calculated as reducing the cost of pension' for employers. One example suggests a worker on a 22,950 salary could receive 440 a year less in their pension in a Care scheme than in a final salary one. Unite has also proposed raising the 'normal retirement age' for its scheme from 63 to 65 and increasing the average contribution rate from employees. There have been several occasions in recent years where Unite moved against companies proposing to scrap their own final salary pension schemes. A document on Unite's website suggests switching to a Care scheme 'will be calculated as reducing the cost of pension' for employers (stock photo used) In December, union members at Aston Martin voted for strike action. A few months earlier, hundreds of members at the Stanlow oil refinery voted for similar steps over the 'proposed closure of the pension scheme'. Action was also taken in June against General Electric, as well as at Delphi Technologies and Glasgow and Aberdeen airports in 2019. A senior union source said: 'This does seem hypocritical when the union is fighting employers who are seeking to change members' pension rights, yet seems prepared to do the same for its own employees. '[Unite secretary general] Sharon Graham needs to be open with the members about the mess she's inherited from Len McCluskey.' Among the inherited problems is a 98million hotel complex built by her predecessor Mr McCluskey. Miss Graham, who was elected last August, announced an inquiry into the project now valued at less than the cost to build. A Unite spokesman said Miss Graham was 'keen to deal with the long-standing pension deficit which she inherited'. Dog owners who dress up their pets in outfits may have to accept their love has got out of hand, vets warn. A study suggests that pet owners who do so, such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, may see the animals as almost human. Researchers asked 326 owners about their feelings towards their dogs and if they would buy fashion items for them. They found people are more likely to buy them an outfit if they show signs of seeing the dog as human. Researchers wanted to understand why people buy clothing for dogs, so conducted a detailed online survey These include celebrating the pet's birthday and giving them nicknames like 'baby' and 'sweetheart'. Study co-author Dr Patrick Hartmann, from Spain's Basque Country University, said: 'For retailers, this knowledge could help them profit by offering matching outfits for people and dogs.' However, vet Lynne James, of charity PDSA, said: 'Our pets don't always share the same joy they can feel uncomfortable and unable to move freely.' The booming pet industry is predicted to see people in Britain spend more than 2 billion on pet products and services by next year. These include grooming, 'pet spas', speciality food and fashion. Researchers wanted to understand why people buy clothing for dogs, so conducted a detailed online survey. To judge if the 326 dog owners saw their pets almost as human they asked how much they agreed with a set of statements including 'my pet understands everything I say', 'I like celebrating my pet's birthday' and 'I like giving my pet affectionate nicknames like 'baby' or 'sweetheart'.' The booming pet industry is predicted to see people in Britain spend more than 2 billion on pet products and services by next year. These include grooming, 'pet spas', speciality food and fashion People who saw their pets more like people were more likely to want to buy fashion clothing for their dogs. As a result, the researchers suggest, retailers might do well to sell dog clothing which looks more human, such as skirts, trousers and accessories. The dog owners, from Australia, were asked if they planned to buy any fashion clothing for their pet in the next two months, and how likely they were to buy these products in the near future. Those who indicated they would soon buy a dog outfit also had higher levels of attachment to their pet. This meant they were more likely to have a picture of their dog in their wallet, for example, or felt closer to their pet than to their family or many friends. Responding to the research, published in the Journal of Business Research, Malcolm Morley, junior vice-president of the British Veterinary Association, said: 'Most owners consider pets a part of the family, which is great, but we should remember that pets are not fashion accessories. 'Owners should be aware that inappropriate anthropomorphism such as dressing up dogs or otherwise unnaturally changing their appearance is not only unnecessary and potentially harmful, but in some cases can also prevent pets from expressing their natural behaviours.' He added: 'With rare exceptions, dogs don't need to wear clothes as they already have a thick fur layer to keep them warm. 'Only dogs with thin fur such as greyhounds and whippets or older dogs may need a coat to keep them warm during winter walks.' With each passing hour, the sheer scale of the humanitarian catastrophe engulfing Ukraine worsens. Hundreds of thousands of terrified refugees, their worldly belongings crammed into suitcases or carrier bags, are fleeing Vladimir Putin's monstrous act of aggression. Such harrowing scenes are redolent of the Second World War's darkest days. That the exodus is happening in 21st century Europe, supposedly a beacon of peaceful, civilised prosperity, is deeply shocking. People in Zaporizhzhia prepare molotov cocktails yesterday, the fourth day of Russian's invasion on Ukraine Molotov cocktails prepared by people in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, yesterday, following Russia's invasion of the country Wrenched from their menfolk, who are staying behind to fight the Russian invaders, almost all of this heartbreaking human tide are women, children, the elderly and infirm. Tonight, the luckiest will sleep in tents in makeshift camps after reaching neighbouring countries. The less fortunate must slumber in appalling squalor on freezing streets. Against this distressing background, it is easy to remember how war brings out the worst in people. The Kremlin's armed forces have shown savagery and sickening indifference to civilians, blasting apartment blocks and even a hospital with missiles. Nothing could illustrate more starkly Putin's deranged depravity than his threat to unleash nuclear hell, perversely blaming Nato 'aggression'. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pictured yesterday, delivering an address in Kyiv, Ukraine Ukrainian civilians who came to Poland following Russia's attacks on the Ukraine pictured at the train station in Medyka Demonstrators hold placards and Ukrainian flags during a protest in Trafalgar Square in London yesterday Is the killer president so befuddled he doesn't realise the Western alliance only galvanised because his troops stormed a peaceable sovereign nation? The truth is, the tyrant is ratcheting up tensions because it is dawning on him he may have miscalculated. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday UKRAINE REFUGEE APPEAL Readers of Mail Newspapers have always shown immense generosity at times of crisis. Calling upon that human spirit, we are now launching an appeal to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. For, surely, no one can fail to be moved by the heartbreaking images and stories of families mostly women, children, the infirm and elderly fleeing from Russia's invading armed forces. As this tally of misery increases over the coming days and months, these innocent victims of a tyrant will require accommodation, schools and medical support. All donations to the Mail Ukraine Appeal will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. In the name of charity and compassion, we urge all our readers to give swiftly and generously. TO MAKE A DONATION ONLINE Via bank transfer, please use these details: Account name: Associated Newspapers Account number: 20769512 Sort code: 50-00-00 TO MAKE A DONATION VIA CHEQUE Make your cheque payable to 'Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal' and post it to: Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal, GFM, 42 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JY Advertisement Ukrainian fighters, bolstered by weapons from Britain and others, have proved impressively resolute. And the ligature of sanctions initially lamentably tame is tightening around Putin's neck. Russia's trade (which finances its war machine) is crumbling and its economy is wobbling. But as well as bringing out people's worst, war can also conjure up their best. Take Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky. A comic actor not long ago, he's rallied his citizens by defiantly shunning offers of exile to fight for democracy. And who could fail to be inspired by the courage of ordinary Ukrainians? This time last week, they were going about their everyday lives. Now they are taking up arms to defend their cherished liberties. Closer to home, Boris Johnson has handled the crisis with aplomb. Leading from the front, he has succeeded in shaming EU foot-draggers to step up support for Ukraine a huge blow to Putin. Today, we ask you our remarkable readers to join the struggle. With our sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, we are campaigning to raise money for the refugees. Over the coming weeks, these victims of an immoral dictator will need shelter, hot food, schooling and medical support. Every single penny we receive will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. And the appeal has got off to a flying start. On day one alone, you dug deep to donate 268,000. And the Mail's parent company added 500,000. The Prime Minister has applauded readers for 'playing their part in helping those in dire need'. And with the Government making it easier for some stricken Ukrainians to come here, Britain is upholding its fine tradition of supporting refugees from conflict. Many have called for ministers to throw the doors open. That sentiment is noble. But leave aside the practicalities of housing the displaced. The Ukrainian ambassador himself says it is better to support them to remain near their homes so when conditions improve it's easier for them to return. In all this paper's campaigns, from fighting plastic pollution to volunteering for the NHS, to funding PPE for nurses, you have exceeded our highest expectations. Charity and compassion are your bywords. So we are confident you will help those who have lost everything to Putin's barbarism. The death of a dog can feel as tragic as losing a family member. But theres hope for canine owners thanks to a potentially lifespan-extending pill. US researchers believe a drug called rapamycin could extend the average lifespan of a dog by as much as a third. Previous experiments in mice found it can extend lifespan by up to 30 per cent. Matt Kaeberlein, a professor at the University of Washington involved in the project, told The Daily Telegraph: We dont know if those effects will be similar in absolute or relative magnitude in dogs, but I think its possible. The trial focuses on large breeds, such as labradors, which live to ten to 12 years. A drug called Rapamycin could extend average lifespan of dogs, according to US researchers (stock image) Prof Kaeberlein added: Our study is powered to be able to detect lifespan extension nine per cent or greater. The project, called Triad (test of rapamycin in ageing dogs), forms part of the larger Dog Aging Project (DAP) that will investigate the different aspects of dog lifespan. Interestingly, owners could be thrown a bone by the project too. DAP is looking at how dog lifespan and ageing may translate to humans. Sim Swapping's massive hacking threat and all the things you need to know about the Truth Social App are here on this week's iTech Post rundown! Our first entry this week at number five is our story on the sim swapping scam. Scamming has became more prevalent during this pandemic. The authorities have received surmountable complaints about a new new scamming technique called sim swapping. In Januaryy 2018 to December 2020, legal authorities have actually received 320 reports involving this crime. This has equated to a total $ 12 million in losses. However, in 2021, a recorded high of 1,611 complaints and $68 million in losses have been reported by the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. This type of scam usually succeeds when threat actors are able to collect personal information and phone number of their victims. A few ways to prevent the sim swapping scam is through being cautious when it comes to the user's personal information. This includes not providing personal passwords and pins to random callers, posting sensitive information on social media, and authenticating the identity of a caller. At number four, we have the Hubble Space Telescope capturing another scientific discovery in space. The Hubble Space Telescope of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have successfully captured three galaxies merging into one. This interacting galaxies that are about to merge is named IC 2431. IC 2431 is found in the cancer constellation and is located 681-million light-years away. NASA stated that the discovery of IC 2431 was because of the Galaxy Zoo project. The Galaxy Zoo project used a series of Hubble image observations. Galaxy Zoo is the world's biggest galaxy census, relying on more than 100,000 volunteers to categorize 900,000 unstudied galaxies. Coming in at number three in our list is the social media platform founded by former President Donald Trump, the Truth Social. The Truth Social App was launched this week. The app was founded by former President Donald Trump after being subjected to account banning by social media platforms. The app's goal is to provide freedom of expression for people living in the United States. This allows users to publish and share "truths" on the internet. Upon using the app, multiple users have seen similarities it has with Twitter. The Truth Social App can be downloaded through the Apple app store. The company also clarified that the app, for now, is only available on the iOS system. Read Also: Facebook Security: 4 Steps to Follow to Lock FB Profile and Prevent Hacking, Manipulation Next is another Truth Social news about the app waitlist users have experienced. The Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) owns the Truth Social App. Trump is a well-known figure for using social media to express his views and opinions. His tendency to do so is also undeniably one of the reason why a few social media companies have blocked his accounts. Upon launching the app, their team was overwhelmed by the amount of support and influx of users. The quick influx of users resulted ta o rough start for the app after launching. The Truth Social became most popular app on the App Store early Monday after it went live before Sunday midnight. Due to the high demand, some people were placed on the waitlist. Last but not the least, this week's most popular story is another Truth Social news. It was reported that there was a fake app duplicate for Android phones. Fake duplicates have emerged online due to the popularity attained by Trump's social media platform. It was reported that the Android version of the app was downloaded around 100,000 times. The company then immediately clarified that the Truth Social available on Android is fake. Truth Social app on Android is called "MAGA Hub - Truth Social Trump." This misled a lot of users into thinking it is the same, which led to thousands of customers download the app right away. Users can click this link to download the real Truth Social app. Related Article: Truth Social App: 5 Safety and Security Tips Before You Sign Up on Donald Trump's Social Media Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to Instagram yesterday to hail the Daily Mail for its coverage of Ukraine. The Mails Saturday front page, which splashed Kyiv, the city of courage, was the first paper he chose to include in a series of images from UK newspapers shared on social media. The post, which had more than 750,000 likes and nearly 22,000 comments, also included the front pages from the Daily Mirror, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 44, has won praise for his defiance in refusing to leave Kyiv Alongside the post, he wrote: The whole world knows the truth. 'All the world hears it. The entire world is behind us and we can feel it. President Zelensky has won praise for his defiance in refusing to leave Kyiv. The president, 44, has posted daily videos on his Telegram account of him providing updates while dressed in military uniform. His refusal to leave the capital has come despite claiming he was being targeted by Russian special forces. Earlier this week he said: I am target number one, my wife and children are number two. Labor leader Antony Albanese and his girlfriend Jodie Haydon were guests of honour at Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons' glitzy star-studded shindig at the weekend. The celebrity couple previously threw a regular Australia Day party at their palatial North Shore mansion until the annual event was derailed by the pandemic. But now it has returned, rebranded in 2020 as an Independence Day party in honour of FitzSimons' Republican movement - and pushed back a month to February 26. A Who's Who of Sydney's progressive media elite queued up to get in at the sprawling harbourside home, including comic actor Magda Szubanski, stars from Ten's The Project and ABC journalists. But one notable omission was ABC's Q+A host Stan Grant after he mercilessly mocked the get-together in print last year. Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons (pictured) threw their glitzy star-studded shindig at their palatial home on Sydney's North Shore weekend Labor leader Antony Albanese and girlfriend Jodie Haydon (pictured) were guests of honour Grant branded the parties 'a woke lefty love-in' of 'journos, actors, writers, a couple of ex-Wallabies, a few washed-up politiciansand a former managing director of the ABC'. Saturday's party guest list list largely matched Grant's predictions, according to The Australian's Media Diary, and even included former ABC MD Mark Scott. Mr Albanese and Ms Haydon joined NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns at the resurrected event, in what was seen as a clear signal of support for Labor. Both Wilkinson and FitzSimons have been strident critics - through their roles on The Project and in the Sun Herald - of PM Scott Morrison and the Coalition government. One notable omission was ABC's Q+A host Stan Grant (pictured) after he mercilessly mocked the get-together in print last year Guests included pregnant Sunday Project panellist Jan Fran (pictured) Bachelor host Osher Gunsberg (pictured) was also at Saturday's shindig ABC names were said to include Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan (pictured) They were also joined by Ten talent including Wilkinson's Sunday Project co-hosts Hamish Macdonald and pregnant panellist Jan Fran, as well as Chris Taylor and Osher Gunsberg. The Australian reported other guests included ex-Sydney Morning Herald editor Lisa Davies, investigative reporter Kate McClymont, columnists Jacqueline Maley and Jane Caro, as well as outspoken former columnist, Mike Carlton. ABC names were said to include The Drum host Julia Baird, One Plus One host Kurt Fearnley, and Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan. Also among guests was the bandana-wearing former Wallaby's daughter, Billi FitzSimons. Other Ten talent included Wilkinson's Sunday Project co-hosts Hamish Macdonald (pictured) NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns (pictured) joined his Federal leader at the harbourside party Prince Andrew's multi-million pound out-of-court settlement with his accuser Virginia Roberts cannot be probed by MPs due to an ancient custom barring the discussion of royals in Parliament. The Duke of York is believed to be facing a legal bill of up to 12 million following his out-of-court agreement with Ms Roberts, who was suing the Queen's son in New York for alleged sexual abuse after she claims she was trafficked by his friend and convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein. Prince Andrew vehemently denied these claims. Questions remain over whether the monarch - who is said to favour Andrew - is helping him foot the bill, which includes a 2million donation to Ms Giuffre's charity, which helps victims of sexual assault and trafficking. However, an ancient rule means that MPs are restricted from discussing royalty in the Commons and therefore Prince Andrew's settlement can't be questioned. Meanwhile, Labour MP for Middlesborough Andy McDonald has demanded that a minister comes to the House to reveal if any taxpayer money from the Sovereign Grant - cash paid to the royals from the public - was used to pay off 38-year-old Ms Roberts, according to The Sun. Prince Andrew's multi-million pound out-of-court settlement with his accuser Virginia Roberts cannot be probed by MPs due to an ancient custom barring the discussion of royals in Parliament The Duke of York is believed to be facing a legal bill of up to 12 million following his out-of-court agreement with Ms Roberts, who was suing the Queen's son in New York for alleged sexual abuse after she claims she was trafficked by his friend and convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein. Prince Andrew vehemently denied these claims Labour MP for Middlesborough Andy McDonald has demanded that a minister comes to the House to reveal if any taxpayer money from the Sovereign Grant - cash paid to the royals from the public - was used to pay off 38-year-old Ms Roberts, according to The Sun Mr McDonald has since written to minister Steve Barclay so he can confirm if any taxpayer money was used at all to pay the out-of-court settlement and establish that 'no public funds have been or will be used in part or whole in satisfaction of the settlement'. Mr McDonald said: 'Raising an issue relating to the Royal Family in the House is fraught with difficulties.' A Government spokesman said: 'The Sovereign Grant supports the monarch and certain members of the Royal Family in carrying out their official duties. 'Prince Andrew stopped receiving support through the Sovereign Grant in 2019 when he ceased carrying out official duties.' Mr McDonald previously warned there would be 'an almighty hue and cry' if it emerged that public money was being used. 'That would just be a step too far,' he said. 'I can't predict what form that protest would take. 'But people would be inordinately upset if taxpayers' monies was used as a payoff for litigation, from a man who was hitherto quite content to be associated with a paedophile [Jeffrey Epstein] and child trafficker [Ghislaine Maxwell].' It comes as Prince Andrew was recently urged to give up his Earl of Inverness title after settling a multi-million pound rape claim by Ms Roberts. Mr McDonald has since written to minister Steve Barclay so he can confirm if any taxpayer money was used at all to pay the out-of-court settlement and establish that 'no public funds have been or will be used in part or whole in satisfaction of the settlement' The Duke of York was told 'to do the right thing' and forfeit the rank amid fury over the civil sex allegation against him. Locals said they fear the city is being dragged into disrepute over its continued association with the Royal. Councillor Ron MacWilliam, who is on Highland Council's City of Inverness Area Committee, wrote to Buckingham Palace to urge the Prince to give up his earldom. The SNP member, who represents the Inverness Ness-side ward, said the Duke no longer speaks for the city. He said: 'Prince Andrew never had much to do with Inverness anyway in the 36 years he has held the title. 'He's ever hardly been here to visit. Yet we are being dragged into this by association. We do not want him to be associated with Inverness. 'But there is no mechanism for us to remove the title so I am writing to Buckingham Palace to get him to do the decent thing and give it up for our city's sake.' The 28th Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards honored more than just Hollywood's finest, with several stars paying tribute and offering prayers for those impacted by the crisis in Ukraine. Lady Gaga stepped onto the red carpet in Santa Monica, California Sunday night in a white and sequenced Armani Prive gown as she gave her support for Ukraine. 'I am just really honored to be here,' the 35-year-old House of Gucci actress said. 'This is a beautiful night where we all get to celebrate art together and celebrate each other. There's so much going on in the world and my heart goes out to Ukraine. I think tonight we should all really sit in the gratitude of this.' Her remarks were echoed by actor Michael Douglas, 77, who sported a blue-and-yellow pocket square resembling the Ukrainian flag. Pointing to the square, told Access Hollywood: 'This is not the LA Rams,' referencing the Los Angeles football team that outfits in the same colors. 'If ever there was a time for us to appreciate what true democracy is, I'm just so proud of what these people of this country have done.' Lady Gaga said during a red carpet interview: 'There's so much going on in the world and my heart goes out to Ukraine. I think tonight we should all really sit in the gratitude of this' Michael Douglas sported a blue-and-yellow pocket square resembling the Ukrainian flag. During an interview on the red carpet, he pointed to the pocket square and said: 'This is not the LA Rams,' referencing the Los Angeles football team that outfits in the same colors. 'If ever there was a time for us to appreciate what true democracy is, I'm just so proud of what these people of this country have done' gaga mentioning ukraine in a middle of an interview we really stan harder #SAGAwards pic.twitter.com/OOuM9KXxJm (@pinkishgaga_) February 28, 2022 Several other performers, including SAG President Fran Drescher, used their speeches to address the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 'First, I would like to extend prayers to the people of Ukraine,' Drescher, 64, best known for her television sitcom The Nanny, told the audience as she arrived on stage mid-ceremony. Her remarks were echoed by 40-year-old Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. who kicked off the annual awards show, saying: 'We're holding a place in our hearts for Ukraine and sending our thoughts, prayers and hopes for impending peace.' Jean Smart, who took home the award for outstanding female actor in a comedy series, was met with a standing ovation ahead of her acceptance speech. The Hacks star reminded the audience of the importance of acting before closing her remarks with a request for prayers. 'Oh, you guys, thank you so much. I love actors, nobody gets us actors. What we do is valuable, we are the tribe's storytellers since man crawled out the cave and sat around the fire together and it's important,' Smart, 70, said before giving a shout out to her children. She concluded her remarks by saying: 'Please everyone, pray for peace.' SAG President Fran Drescher told the awards show audience: I would like to extend prayers to the people of Ukraine' Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. (left) - accompanied by co-stars Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) and Daveed Diggs (far right) - kicked off the annual awards show, saying: 'We're holding a place in our hearts for Ukraine and sending our thoughts, prayers and hopes for impending peace' Jean Smart, who took home the award for outstanding female actor in a comedy series, concluded her remarks by saying: 'Please everyone, pray for peace' 'My heart is with our international family all over the world right now, who is fighting for their safety and their freedom,' echoed Jessica Chastain, 44, who won the award for female actor in a film for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. She paid her tribute to those impacted by the invasion during her acceptance speech. Actor Brian Cox, who alongside his fellow Succession cast took home the trophy for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, described the invasion as 'truly awful,' but also condemned how artists in Russia were being impacted by the conflict. 'This is a thing that's come to me about what's going on in the Ukraine. It's truly, truly awful, really, really awful what's happening. And it's particularly awful in terms of what is effecting the other people, particularly in our profession,' the actor, 75, said during his acceptance speech. 'The thing that's really distressed me is what's happening in Russia to my fellow actors and actresses and performers, and critics. They are told under pain of high treason that they cannot say a word about Ukraine. And I think that is pretty awful. I think we should all stand together and also for those people in Russia who do not like what's going on, particularly the artists.' He added: 'I think we should really join in celebrating them and hoping that they can actually make a shift. Because I believe they can.' 'My heart is with our international family all over the world right now, who is fighting for their safety and their freedom,' echoed Jessica Chastain, who won the award for female actor in a film for The Eyes of Tammy Faye Actor Brian Cox, speaking to the SAG Awards audience Sunday night after his Succession win, called the invasion of Ukraine 'truly awful,' but also condemned how artists in Russia were being impacted by the conflict When accepting his award for male actor in a miniseries or TV movie for Dopesick, Michael Keaton also commented on the Ukrainian President's performance history. He said: 'We have a fellow actor in Zelensky, who deserves some credit tonight for fighting the fight' Cox also shared how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 44, was a comic performer before serving as the nation's leader. 'The president of Ukraine was a comic, you know, he was a wonderful comic performer,' the Succession star applauded. 'And we should respect that for him, and to come to the presidency is amazing.' When accepting his award for male actor in a miniseries or TV movie for Dopesick, Michael Keaton also commented on Zelensky's performance history. 'We have a fellow actor in Zelensky, who deserves some credit tonight for fighting the fight,' Keaton, 70, said. Actor and producer Tyler Perry wears a ribbon with the colors of the Ukrainian flag as he arrives for the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Actress Greta Lee, 38, paraded the red carpet in a yellow and blue Marc Jacobs dress. Many suspect her outfit choose was in tribute to the Ukrainian flag Douglas Hodge attends the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards at Barker Hangar sporting a blue-and-yellow ribbon in support of Ukraine In addition to emotional speeches during the ceremony, the SAG Awards red carpet saw a wave of yellow and blue as celebrities sported the colors of the Ukrainian flag while making their debut. Actress Greta Lee, 38, paraded the red carpet in a Marc Jacobs dress paying tribute to the flag. Actress Shari Belafonte, 67, and actors Douglas Hodge, 62, Tyler Perry, 52, and Jon Bernthal, 45, wore blue-and-yellow ribbons honoring the nation. Stylist Ilaria Urbinati - who often dresses the likes of Perry, Charlie Puth and Ryan Reynolds - posted a close-up of the ribbons on her Instagram account with a caption reading: 'SAG awards prep #standwithukraine.' Actress Lisa Ann Walter, 58, was seen wearing a blue-and-yellow corsage. Actress Lisa Ann Walter wore a blue and yellow floral corsage in honor of Ukraine Jon Bernthal, wearing a blue and yellow ribbon to show support for Ukraine, arrives at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Stylist Ilaria Urbinati - who often dresses the likes of Perry, Charlie Puth and Ryan Reynolds - posted a close-up of the ribbons on her Instagram account with a caption reading: 'SAG awards prep #standwithukraine' Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox, who served as E! News' red carpet emcee, addressed the conflict during her live coverage of the event. She told the audience: 'The performances we are celebrating here tonight have brought you joy and inspiration this year.' 'With all this going on in the world, it can sometimes be difficult to find light and hope. Tonight, our hearts are with our friends in Ukraine. We stand with them and pray for their safety.' As she spoke with fellow Hollywood talents, a sentiment of concern and heavy-hearts was echoed. Andrew Garfield, who was nominated for his portrayal of playwright Jonathan Larson in the Netflix musical tick, tickBOOM!, told Cox, 49, ahead of the show: 'It's a tricky day to celebrate. 'Keeping what's happening in Ukraine in our hearts. It's weird.' Shari Belafonte points to her blue-and-yellow ribbon worn in support of Ukraine Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox, who served as E! News' red carpet emcee, addressed the conflict during her live coverage of the event. She told the audience: 'Tonight, our hearts are with our friends in Ukraine. We stand with them and pray for their safety' Andrew Garfield, discussing the invasion from the red carpet, said: 'Keeping what's happening in Ukraine in our hearts. It's weird. It's definitely odd that we are dressing up in this moment, but yeah, I'm very, very grateful to be here with our community - a community of love' 'It's definitely odd that we are dressing up in this moment, but yeah, I'm very, very grateful to be here with our community - a community of love - and trying to bring Jonathan [Larson] seasons of love,' the Spider-Man: No Way Home actor added. Garfield, 38, remarks referenced the hit song, Seasons of Love, from Larson's famed Broadway musical Rent. The play served as a tribute to his friends who died from AIDS in New York City. Larson died of an aortic aneurysm 10 days before his 36th birthday. As the stars were honored in Santa Monica, California, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the country's second biggest city of Kharkiv were met with blasts early Monday morning. We could listen to Andrew Garfield all day, but we specifically love him at the #SAGAwards. pic.twitter.com/BKp6pBGt78 E! News (@enews) February 28, 2022 Kyiv had been mainly quiet overnight according to information provided by Ukrainian officials who released a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app. An air raid alert sounded in the city at about 4.30am local time with residents urged to head to the nearest shelter. A missile also hit a residential building in the centre of Chernihiv, a city about 100 miles north of Kyiv. Early on Monday morning, the Mayor of Kharkiv issued a message to residents of the city of 1.4 million people where he described how he was attempting to keep the city functioning while holding off Russian forces. 'Starting from this morning multiple units of Russian Army made a breakthrough into Kharkiv. You saw them into residential areas of the city. Yesterday night there was an enormous artillery bombardment. But we have held the line. And we will forever,' wrote Mayor Igor Terekhov. As the stars were honored in Santa Monica, California, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the country's second biggest city of Kharkiv were met with blasts early Monday morning. Public Chernihiv reports that a rocket hit a residential building in the center of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv. A fire broke out with two lower floors ablaze. The number of injured is currently unknown Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has warned the country faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv (Pictured: Russian armored personnel carrier burns amid damaged and abandoned light utility vehicles after fighting in Kharkiv on Sunday) Ukraine's health ministry said Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. The ongoing conflict has forced at least 200,000 people to flee (Pictured: Evacuees from Kyiv at a train station in Warsaw, Poland on Sunday) Ukraine war latest, at a glance Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko warns the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into WWIII The EU has unveiled a new package of sanctions against Putin's regime, closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik Kyiv and Moscow will hold peace talks at the border with Belarus, Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed The Ukrainian President's office said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl Putin orders forces operating Russia's nuclear deterrent to be on alert amid simmering tensions with the West U.S. blasts Putin's nuclear order as 'unacceptable' and says war crimes tribunal isn't off the table Putin's desperate troops adopt 'siege tactics' after being driven out of Kharkiv by resistance fighters Ukraine's defence ministry claims Russian death toll stands at 4,300 Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion At least 200,000 people have fled Ukraine to three countries, with 150,000 said to have crossed into Poland alone Ukraine's defence ministry today appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back Putin's army US and EU have agreed to curtail Russia's use of SWIFT messaging system, which is vital to for global financial transactions Iskander missiles were launched from Belarus to Ukraine Russia acknowledged it had lost troops for the first time today, but did not give a number BP announces it is ditching its controversial 20 per cent stake in the Russian energy group Rosneft 'with immediate effect Advertisement 'Dear Inhabitants of Kharkiv. My dears. We must stick together. Me and our utility service are doing all what we can: we reconnect central heating. This morning, we reinitiated garbage collection. But were had to stop because we were under gunfire. 'Bread. We do our best. Unfortunately, the bakery was not working because it was also coming under shelling. We maintain water supply in the city. 'I beg you to take care of yourself. We are doing everything possible and sometimes have to admit it that it is impossible together with our utilities service to ensure the functioning of the city of Kharkiv. 'We will withstand. We are Kharkovites.' Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has warned the country faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv. Ukraine's health ministry said Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. The ongoing conflict has forced at least 200,000 people to flee. Ukraine and Russia have agreed to meet Monday on the border with Belarus, in an attempt to hold peace talks. Although Zelensky admitted he wasn't confident there would be a positive resolution, he argued he owed it to his people to at least try and engage. Zelensky said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl, in a deal brokered in a phone call with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. The Ukranian president described his discussion with Lukashenko as 'very substantive', adding that he had made it clear he did not want troops to move from Belarus to Ukraine and Lukashenko 'assured him of this'. The move came as Russian President Vladimir Putin declared, in his own televised address, that he had ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a 'special regime of duty' in light of 'aggressive statements' from NATO leaders and 'unfriendly economic actions'. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg responded: 'This is dangerous rhetoric'. Lukashenko also issued a chilling threat Sunday night that the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into a Third World War, after Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on 'alert'. Additionally, Sunday evening also saw the EU unveil a fresh package of sanctions against Putin's regime, closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik. In response to the measures, Russian carrier Aeroflot said it was suspending all flights to Europe. A disabled mother was trapped and at risk of drowning in her submerged home as her town suffered its worst flooding in living memory. Sam Connor shared a tweet about 10.20am on Monday on behalf of a distressed woman whose mother, Helen Parfitt, was trapped in her Lismore home. Ms Parfitt suffers from muscular dystrophy and was stuck in her flooded home on top of a bunk bed. A mother suffering from muscular dystrophy has trapped by floodwaters in her Lismore home on Monday Resident's homes in Lismore were inundated by floodwater after the collapse of the Wilson River levee Lismore, northern NSW, residents were ordered to evacuate on Monday morning following the collapse of the town's levee 'Please help my mother is stuck inside the house about to drown, she has muscular dystrophy and can't use her muscle please help,' the desperate plea read. 'She cannot climb to safety is in rising waters in her home on top of bunkbed.' Within two hours the tweet was shared 600 times as users did their all to share the distressing message. Emergency crews, SES, and locals have conducted a large-scale evacuation effort as flood water rises Lismore residents were seen bundling belongings, pets, and loved ones into SES and local boats on Monday Distressed locals were rescued from flood water by emergency crews and residents with boats Fortunately, Ms Connor shared an hour later that Ms Parfitt had been rescued by State Emergency Service volunteers. 'You are amazing, SES - thank you for what you do,' she wrote, on behalf of Ms Parfitt's relieved daughter. Hundreds of other residents are trapped inside their homes, some heard desperately screaming for help until rescuers found them. Others sat on the roofs of their homes hoping the floodwaters wouldn't engulf them, as the SES and other emergency services plucked them to safety. Residents in Lismore, northern NSW, were evacuated from the town on Monday morning following the collapse of the Wilson River levee. Residents in Lismore, northern NSW, were evacuated from the town on Monday morning following the collapse of the Wilson River levee Distressed locals had little time to prepare to evacuate Lismore amid heavy rain and rising flood water Locals and SES crews rushed their boats to the town to help stranded residents. 374 calls for assistance in the Northern Rivers region were made to the SES in half an hour. Helicopters and military assistance have since arrived to help in rescue efforts. Pets and loved ones were bundled into the small boats as rescue crews battled heavy rain and rising flood water. Heartbreaking photos show soaking residents evacuating the town. Lismore residents grabbed pets and loved ones as they evacuated the town on Monday morning Locals are reporting hearing people screaming for help from inside homes in #Lismore. Residents across the town are taking to kayaks and boats to rescue as many people and animals as possible. Wilsons River now expected to reach 14.4m this afternoon. @nbnnews @9NewsSyd @Ninecomau pic.twitter.com/V8VRfp0wtA Olivia Grace-Curran (@livgracecurran) February 28, 2022 Locals have reported hearing screams from residents trapped inside their homes as rescue efforts continue. In another tweet Ms Connor shared a call for the rescue of a wheel-chair bound father trapped in his flooded home. 'Please help my dad is in a wheel chair and the water is at waste height,' it read. 'He cant stand for long and is there with my mum, brother and my dog. They cant get to higher ground.' SES volunteers had carried out 70 flood rescues and evacuated some 15,000 people from NSW's north coast since torrential rain began falling on Tuesday, Premier Dominic Perrottet told reporters on Sunday. 'We know that whilst there might be blue skies in certain parts of NSW that does not mean that there will not be significant flooding events that occur over the course of this week,' he said. One NSW life has already been lost to the weather, with a man killed when his Land Cruiser was carried away by floodwater. Richmond Police District warned residents to avoid driving in floodwater and to evacuate as soon as possible SES volunteers had carried out 70 flood rescues and evacuated some 15,000 people from NSW's north coast since torrential rain began falling on Tuesday Richmond Police District warned residents to avoid driving in floodwater and to evacuate as soon as possible. 'Due to heavy flooding the Lismore CBD is inundated with water and is now off limits to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic,' the warning reads. 'Motorists are reminded NOT to drive through flood waters for the safety of YOU and your FAMILY please evacuate the township now.' Police will resume search efforts for a man who went missing in floodwaters in Lismore on Sunday. Officers heard him calling out for help about 4pm but 'lost sight of the man a short time later'. NSW Evacuation Orders - Midday Monday Murwillumbah CBD and low-lying areas of East Murwillumbah Coraki Rocky Creek Dam Brunswick River at Mullumbimby Marshalls Creek at Billinudgel Ocean Shores New Brighton Brunswick Heads South Gold Beach Lismore South Murwillumbah, Condong and surrounding areas Richmond River - Kyogle and Wiangaree Tumbulgum and Surrounding Areas Source: NSW SES Advertisement Two Russian billionaires have become the first powerful oligarchs to speak out and call for an end to the conflict triggered by President Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine. Mikhail Fridman, who was born in western Ukraine, and Oleg Deripaska have condemned Putin's invasion by calling for peace talks 'as fast as possible' between the two countries in an unusual intervention from Russia's leading business elite. Mr Fridman, who is a co-founder of Russias largest private bank Alfa and controls private equity firm LetterOne, called for the 'bloodshed' to end. The 57-year-old, who was ranked as the 128th richest person in the world by Forbes in 2021, also said the war was a 'tragedy' for both countries' people and told LetterOne staff in a letter that the conflict was driving a wedge between the two eastern Slav peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who have been brothers for centuries. He wrote: 'I was born in Western Ukraine and lived there until I was 17. My parents are Ukrainian citizens and live in Lviv, my favourite city. 'But I have also spent much of my life as a citizen of Russia, building and growing businesses. I am deeply attached to the Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.' Meanwhile billionaire Mr Deripaska - who is the founder of Russian aluminium giant Rusal in which he still owns a stake via his shares in its parent company En+ Group - used a post on Telegram to called for peace talks to begin 'as fast as possible'. The 54-year-old simply said: 'Peace is very important.' Russia's so-called oligarchs, who once exercised significant influence over President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, are facing economic chaos after the West imposed severe sanctions on Russia over Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Billionaire Mikhail Fridman (pictured), who was born in western Ukraine, said the war was a 'tragedy' for both countries' people and told LetterOne staff in a letter that the conflict was driving a wedge between the two eastern Slav peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who have been brothers for centuries Oleg Deripaska (pictured) has also condemned Putin's invasion by calling for peace talks 'as fast as possible' between the two countries in an unusual intervention from Russia's leading business elite Russia's so-called oligarchs, who once exercised significant influence over President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, are facing economic chaos after the West imposed severe sanctions on Russia over Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin It comes as the Foreign Office announced they are preparing a 'hit list' of Russian oligarchs to be targeted by sanctions in the coming months and fears the conflict in Ukraine could last a decade. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said there would be 'nowhere left to hide' for the super-rich allies of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin. Boris Johnson last week named eight high net worth Russians who will be hit by travel bans and asset freezes along with more the 100 individuals, entities and subsidiaries. Separately the Home Office is going to give more power to the National Crime Agency to explore issuing Unexplained Wealth Orders to find out where money has come from. Ms Truss said there would be new names added to the list every few weeks as ministers seek to ratchet up the pressure on Mr Putin following his invasion of Ukraine. Washington also imposed sanctions on Deripaska and other influential Russians because of their ties to Putin after alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, which Moscow denies. Putin, after consulting his security council of senior officials, said he ordered the special military operation to protect people, including Russian citizens, from 'genocide' - an accusation the West calls baseless propaganda. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said yesterday she has 'hit list' of Russian oligarchs targeted by sanctions The Ukrainian president's office said negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would be held at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. 'This crisis will cost lives and damage two nations who have been brothers for hundreds of years,' Fridman said. 'While a solution seems frighteningly far off, I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end. I'm sure my partners share my view.' One of Fridman's long-term partners, Pyotr Aven, attended a meeting at the Kremlin with Putin and 36 other major Russian businessmen last week, the Kremlin said. Another Moscow billionaire told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the war was going to be a catastrophe. 'It is going to be catastrophic in all senses: for the economy, for relations with the rest of the world, for the political situation,' the billionaire said. The billionaires who gathered for a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday were silent, he said. 'Businessmen understand very well the consequences. But who is asking the opinion of business about this?' First Lady Jill Biden urged anyone whose mental health was suffering due to the conflict in Ukraine to reach out for help. 'I imagine many of us are feeling the weight of what is happening in Ukraine over recent days,' she said in the tweet thread. 'Parents are sitting in front of the television with their children, explaining reports from thousands of miles away. 'Teachers are standing in front of classrooms, answering questions of 'why' and 'what is going to happen next?' The first lady went on to say that, 'our military families are acutely aware that events taking place in Europe may have a rippling effect on the future of their loved ones in uniform.' 'In this difficult time there are no easy answers, and that may cause a feeling of uncertainty,' she wrote. 'It is okay to ask for help.' She encouraged people to reach out to MentalHealth.gov and told military service members and their families to seek counseling at Military OneSource and Veteran Affairs. The first lady added that she and President Joe Biden were praying for 'the brave and proud people of Ukraine.' 'Our hearts are with our troops and our military families, including those who are stationed throughout Europe demonstrating solidarity with our Allies. We are profoundly grateful for your service,' she wrote. US first lady Jill Biden expressed concern in a series of tweets Sunday for the mental health of those who are feeling distressed about the conflict in Ukraine She expressed concern and offered comforting words regarding the mental health of those who are worried about the conflict in Ukraine The first lady encouraged people to reach out for help She linked to resources for mental health and added that US President Joe Biden were praying for 'the brave and proud people of Ukraine' The first lady's tweets came just a couple of hours before blasts were heard both in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the country's second biggest city of Kharkiv early Monday morning after a mainly quiet night, according to information provided by Ukrainian officials who released a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app. On video footage shot in the darkness in Kharkiv posted to Twitter in the early hours of the morning, several rounds of gunfire can be heard. 'Kharkiv airport and residential areas are under heavy shelling,' read the message posted to social media. An air raid alert sounded in the city at about4.30am local time with residents urged to head to the nearest shelter. A missile also hit a residential building in the center of Chernihiv, a city about 100 miles north of Kyiv. It saw a fire break out on the lower floors of the building. 'A rocket hit a residential building in the centre of Chernihiv. A fire broke out, two lower floors are on fire. The number of injured is currently unknown,' a statement on Twitter read. Public Chernihiv reports that a rocket hit a residential building in the center of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv. A fire broke out with two lower floors ablaze. The number of injured is currently unknown Early on Monday morning, the Mayor of Kharkiv issued a message to residents of the city of 1.4million people where he described how he was attempting to keep the city functioning while holding off Russian forces. 'Starting from this morning multiple units of Russian Army made a breakthrough into Kharkiv. You saw them into residential areas of the city. Yesterday night there was an enormous artillery bombardment. But we have held the line. And we will forever,' wrote Mayor Igor Terekhov. 'Dear Inhabitants of Kharkiv. My dears. We must stick together. Me and our utility service are doing all what we can: we reconnect central heating. This morning, we reinitiated garbage collection. But were had to stop because we were under gunfire. 'Bread. We do our best. Unfortunately, the bakery was not working because it was also coming under shelling. We maintain water supply in the city. 'I beg you to take care of yourself. We are doing everything possible and sometimes have to admit it that it is impossible together with our utilities service to ensure the functioning of the city of Kharkiv. 'We will withstand. We are Kharkovites.' Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has warned the country faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv. Satellite images overnight showed a three mile-long convoy heading towards the capital, after Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on 'alert'. Russian military vehicles were pictured moving in despite officials agreeing to hold peace talks at the border with Belarus later today. The images, released by Maxar Technologies, showed a deployment of hundreds of military vehicles moving in the direction of the Ukrainian capital from approximately 40 miles away. The images showed a massive convoy of Russian troops heading toward the Ukraine capital Kyiv today Citizens of Kyiv have resorted to arming themselves amid fears of an imminent invasion by Russian troops. (Pictured: satellite image showing Russian army heading to the captial of Ukraine) Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Ukraine faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Thursday, the city of 2.8 million people initially reacted with concern but also a measure of self-possession. However, nerves started fraying when grocery stores began closing and the city's famously deep subway system turned its stations into bomb shelters. Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded. At least 200,000 people have fled Ukraine to three countries, with 150,000 said to have crossed into Poland alone. On Sunday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order forbidding state agencies from doing business with Russia, said Ukrainian refugees are welcome in New York, which is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the U.S. 'We have said we'll open up our hearts, our homes, our resources to the people of the Ukraine, to say, 'We stand with you,'' Hochul said. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding New York from doing business with Russia Mothers fleeing with their children from Ukraine stand at Nyugati station, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Budapest, Hungary A mother fleeing with her children from Ukraine stands at Nyugati station, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Budapest, Hungary President Zelensky again spoke to Boris Johnson last night, who told him he will do 'all he could' to ensure further military aid reaches Ukrainian forces. The Prime Minister praised the 'heroic' resistance of the Ukrainian people in the face of the Russian attack, according to the No 10 readout of the call. Zelensky said, in turn, that the next 24 hours will be 'a crucial period' for his country. 'The Prime Minister lauded the bravery of the Ukrainian people following the Russian invasion and praised the leadership of President Zelensky in the face of such adversity,' a No 10 spokesman said. 'The resistance of the Ukrainian people was heroic, the Prime Minister added. 'President Zelensky said he believed the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine, and the Prime Minister said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine. 'The leaders agreed to continue to stay in close contact and the Prime Minister reiterated the UK's staunch support for Ukraine's sovereignty.' It came as Ursula von der Leyen last night insisted Ukraine is 'one of us' as she led calls for the war-torn nation to join the European Union - which unveiled a fresh package of sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime, including closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik. Earlier on Sunday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko issued a chilling threat that the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into a Third World War. 'Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector, gas, oil, SWIFT,' Lukashenko said. 'It's worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a Third World War. We need to be restrained here so as not to get into trouble. Because nuclear war is the end of everything.' Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded President Zelensky's office had earlier said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl, in a deal brokered in a phone call with Lukashenko himself. A spokesperson added that Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks and return. Zelensky described his discussion with Lukashenko as 'very substantive', adding that he had made it clear he did not want troops to move from Belarus to Ukraine and Lukashenko 'assured him of this'. He added: 'I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try, so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war.' It came as Putin declared, in his own televised address, that he had ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a 'special regime of duty' in light of 'aggressive statements' from NATO leaders and 'unfriendly economic actions'. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg responded: 'This is dangerous rhetoric'. Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia at the Hague, with Zelensky requesting that the UN International Court of Justice orders Russia to stop its attack against Ukraine and starts trials soon. Russian forces were filmed advancing through Kharkiv on Sunday morning - moments before gunfire rang out, sending some soldiers running while others returned fire Plumes of smoke rise from a building, which was caused by a cruise missile according to local media, in Kyiv, Ukraine Ukraine war latest, at a glance Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko warns the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into WWIII The EU has unveiled a new package of sanctions against Putin's regime, closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik Kyiv and Moscow will hold peace talks at the border with Belarus, Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed The Ukrainian President's office said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl Putin orders forces operating Russia's nuclear deterrent to be on alert amid simmering tensions with the West U.S. blasts Putin's nuclear order as 'unacceptable' and says war crimes tribunal isn't off the table Putin's desperate troops adopt 'siege tactics' after being driven out of Kharkiv by resistance fighters Ukraine's defence ministry claims Russian death toll stands at 4,300 Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion At least 200,000 people have fled Ukraine to three countries, with 150,000 said to have crossed into Poland alone Ukraine's defence ministry today appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back Putin's army US and EU have agreed to curtail Russia's use of SWIFT messaging system, which is vital to for global financial transactions Iskander missiles were launched from Belarus to Ukraine Russia acknowledged it had lost troops for the first time today, but did not give a number BP announces it is ditching its controversial 20 per cent stake in the Russian energy group Rosneft 'with immediate effect Advertisement The United States condemned Putin's order to put his nuclear forces on high alert as dangerous and 'unacceptable.' The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said nothing was 'off the table' when asked about the possibility of Putin being tried in international court as a war criminal. Boris Johnson, meanwhile, dismissed Putin's announcement as a 'distraction' from the struggle his troops are facing in Ukraine. The Prime Minister also cast doubt on possible negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations to try to resolve the crisis. 'There's nothing I've seen so far in his behaviour that leads me to think that he could possibly be sincere,' he said. Earlier Russian television footage showed Mr Putin meeting with his defense minister and the chief of the general staff, and instructing them to put the nuclear deterrent on a 'special regime of combat duty'. 'Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading Nato members made aggressive statements regarding our country,' he said. But on a day when the expected assault on Kyiv again failed to materialise and the Ukrainians claimed to have driven Russian forces out of the country's second city Kharkiv, Mr Johnson said his words were 'a distraction from the reality of what's going on'. 'This is an innocent people who are facing a totally unprovoked act of aggression against them, and what's actually happening is that they are fighting back perhaps with more effect, with more resistance, than the Kremlin had bargained for,' he said. 'You can see some of the logistical difficulties that the Russian forces are experiencing. The Russian defence ministry have themselves conceded that they're having casualties. This is a disastrous misbegotten venture by President Putin.' Elsewhere, oil giant BP announced on Sunday it is ditching its controversial 20 per cent stake in the Russian energy group Rosneft 'with immediate effect'. Chief executive Bernard Looney revealed the move today, saying he was 'saddened' and 'shocked' by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It comes after he was summoned to a meeting with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday amid growing unease about the BP's Russian dealings. As Russian troops draw closer to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv's mayor is filled with pride over his citizens' spirit but remains anxious about how long they can hold out. After a grueling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city, mayor Vitali Klitschko was silent for several seconds when asked if there were plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv. 'We can't do that, because all ways are blocked,' he finally said. 'Right now we are encircled.' This map shows the strikes Russia is so-far known to have carried out against Ukraine, with more explosions rocking the country in the early hours of Sunday morning Russian forces stormed Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday after failing in their overnight efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv. However reports in Ukraine suggest troops have managed to successfully repel the Russian advance on Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border, with one British reporter on the ground confirming that the city remains under Ukrainian control despite this morning's attack. Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian troops had managed to reclaim the city. In a post on Telegram, he said: 'Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! 'The armed forces, the national police, and the defence forces are working and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy.' Kharkiv's defence came as Ukraine's Ministry of Defence claimed Ukrainian troops had killed or injured more than 4,300 Russian soldiers in the first three days of fighting. Russia has not released an updates on its military losses. The Kremlin accepted it had lost troops in the conflict for the first time yesterday, but did not provide a number. 'There have been killed and wounded among the Russian military during the course of the special military operation,' the defence ministry in Moscow said in a statement quoted by TASS news agency A US official told Reuters that Russia had committed around two-thirds of its combat power inside Ukraine and launched more than 320 missiles over the course of the conflict. In an article yesterday, UK Armed Forces minister James Heappey has insisted Putin's 'days are numbered' if he fails in Ukraine, with his campaign falling 'well behind' its planned timeline. Heappey, a former major in the Rifles, said Putin's forces had been unable to capture key cities in the first few days of fighting as intended and had left pockets of 'well-armed' Ukrainians to the rear of their front line. The convoy of thousands of Russian troops heading to Kyiv is three and a quarter miles long and is believed to be carrying fuel, logistics and armored vehicles. (Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin) Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24 prompting the country's president to declare martial law and triggering a series of announcements by Western countries to impose severe economic sanctions on Russia A picture is emerging of a haphazard and disorganized invasion effort, with armored columns running out of fuel or getting lost, and some having to advance without air cover. Heappey wrote in the Telegraph: 'After three days of intense fighting, spurred by dogged Ukrainian resistance, Russia is well behind its planned timeline. 'Progress to Kyiv has been much slower than they'd expected, they were unable to take key cities early and now must try to bypass them. 'This leaves pockets of well-armed and well-trained Ukrainians to the rear of the Russian front line, exposing a vulnerable logistics tail - an omen for what awaits Putin.' At the same time, Ukrainians are volunteering in their droves, with 'long queues' at recruitment centers, the minister wrote. Meanwhile, footage from the town of Koryukivka, near the Russian border, showed hundreds of locals massing on a road to block the advance of a Russian tank column. Heappey believes that if Putin fails and ordinary Russians realize 'how little he cares for them ... [his] days as president will surely be numbered and so too will those of the kleptocratic elite that surround him,' he wrote. 'He'll lose power and he won't get to choose his successor.' There have been fresh questions raised about Putin's mental state, including whether Covid-19 has fueled his paranoia after claims emerged the isolated president spent time 'stewing in his own fears' after 'withdrawing into himself' during the pandemic. A total of 4,000 Russians have now been arrested at anti-war protests in recent days, according to independent monitoring group OVD-Info, with a demonstration outside the Kremlin near the site where opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down. Advertisement Australians in Russia have been urged to get out of the country amid fears they could be targeted by anti-Western sentiment. The Foreign Affairs Department issued a dire warning that Australia's support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia and its interests could spur retaliation. Russia was added to the 'do not travel' list on Monday with all Australians told to leave, and if not then to 'remain vigilant'. 'If you're in Russia, consider leaving by commercial or private means if it's safe to do so,' the warning read. Police officers detain a woman during a protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine at Pushkinskaya square on February 27, 2022 in Moscow, Russia Protest have erupted worldwide over Russian President Putin's invasion of Ukraine (pictured: a protest in Canada) 'The security situation could deteriorate further with little warning. 'If you decide to stay in Russia, review your personal security plans. You're responsible for your own safety and that of your family. 'Russian authorities may adopt a more negative attitude towards foreigners in Russia in reaction to perceived support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.' Australians who chose to stay, or were unable to leave immediately, should 'avoid protests or demonstrations and commenting publicly on political developments'. A cameraman films as an armored vehicle rolls outside Mykolaivka, Donetsk region, the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday Burning Russian military equipment on the streets of Kharkiv minutes after Russian army entered the city Foreign Affairs said there were reports non-Russian credit and debit cards being declined in retaliation for Russia being removed from the SWIFT system. 'Be prepared with alternate means of payment should your cards be declined,' it said. Two major groups of the United Nations - the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council - will hold separate meetings Monday on Russias invasion of Ukraine. They will discuss widespread international demands for an immediate cease-fire and escalating concern for the plight of millions of Ukrainians caught up in the war. The Security Council gave a green light Sunday for the first emergency session of the General Assembly in decades. It will give all U.N. members an opportunity to speak about the war Monday and vote on a resolution later in the week that U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said would 'hold Russia to account for its indefensible actions and for its violations of the U.N. Charter.' Plumes of smoke rise from a building in capital Kyiv, which was caused by a cruise missile according to local media, in Kyiv, Ukraine Russian forces entered Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv after failing in their efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv (pictured: a Russian armoured personnel carrier on Saturday in Kharkiv which Ukraine retained control of on Sunday) Blasts were heard in Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection said. Kyiv had been quiet for a few hours prior to that, it said in a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app. In a separate statement, the agency said a residential building in the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine was on fire after being struck by a missile. Another northern Ukrainian city, Zhytomyr, was hit by missiles overnight, Ukrainian Ground Forces command said on Facebook. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Federal Government's advice for all Australians remains 'do not travel to Ukraine'. He added the legalities around Australian's travelling to the conflict was 'unclear' amid Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for foreign volunteers to fight against Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Ukraine faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv A Ukrainian serviceman and his dog stands in a position looking at smoke from a burned petroleum storage depot behind after a Russian missile attacked near Kyiv Ukrainian troops gather around a fire during a brief period of rest as they defend their capital, Kyiv, from Russian forces This map shows the strikes Russia is so-far known to have carried out against Ukraine, with more explosions rocking the country in the early hours of Sunday morning 'This is a complicated situation, and at present it is still somewhat unclear what the president of Ukraine has proposed,' Mr Morrison said. 'Our law sets out arrangements where people can be involved in official activity by a sovereign state, which Ukraine obviously qualifies for, but the nature of these arrangements are very uncertain.' 'I would counsel against making assumptions about the legality of such activity at this point given the uncertainties that are associated with the arrangements and the force that President Zelensky is putting in place,' he said. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was more firm. 'Under Australian law, Australian citizens cannot go and fight in conflict zones, but we have very clear travel advice... please do not travel into a conflict zone,' he said. A man was filmed trying desperately to rescue a submerged blue Porsche from floodwaters in Brisbane as the once-in-a-decade flood took its toll on the river city. The aerial view of the driver's plight was posted on social media platform Reddit, where he is seen wading around and attempting to push the car, as rain pelts down. He is seen trudging from one side of the car to the back to save the drowning high-performance sportscar. A enamored man waded in Brisbane's floodwaters to save a Porsche When the car fails to budge the man doubles down at the back and is seen trying to push the car up out of the water. Commentators took to Reddit to mock the man's efforts saying: 'It's just a little waterlogged, it's still good, it's still good.' 'Just leave it in a bag of rice overnight.' 'Bruh it's way passed dead. Dunno why you would even risk going into flood waters at that point.' Many folks took to Reddit social media mocking and berating the man Others said: 'Oh no that's beached as bro,' and 'Condolences.' The author of the perplexing footage piled on that the man's efforts had been in vain. 'I forgot to add, his car was floating away and he was just walking it around to secure it, and it inevitably sunk,' the post said. Despite his best efforts the car eventually, sadly, sunk in the waters Queensland residents are on edge with the Brisbane River expected to be hit by two potentially catastrophic peaks in the next 24 hours. Eight people have died in the flood crisis and more than 15,000 homes are underwater. Some 49,000 houses across Queensland's south-east were left without power with residents already fleeing their homes in the popular inner city suburbs of Rosalie and Milton. Ben Roberts-Smith allegedly told his squad mates 'this is what the story is' after being accused of catapulting an unarmed Afghan prisoner off a cliff, a trial has heard. A former SAS sergeant, codenamed Person Four, told the Federal Court on Monday about a controversial mission during which local man Ali Jan was allegedly handcuffed and kicked off a 'steep slope' in the village of Darwan, Uruzgan province in September 2012. The witness said the man, accompanied by a donkey adorned with a traditional red rug carrying baskets full of wood for cooking, was located in a compound they were clearing. He was searched, handcuffed, and positioned up against a wall where he was tactically questioned by Mr Roberts-Smith through an interpreter, he said. More bombshell claims were made about Ben Roberts-Smith (pictured) in court on Monday At some point the troop's 'extraction' was radioed-in, prompting their removal to a designated location, when Person Four rounded the corner of a rocky slope and spotted another soldier dubbed Person 11. Person 11 was holding the same prisoner by his right shoulder and with his 'back towards a large drop-off,' he said. Person Four was 'trying to understand what was happening' as he noticed Mr Roberts-Smith positioned a few metres away. 'He turned around, walked forward (and) kicked the individual in the chest. 'The individual was catapulted backwards and fell down the slope.' Person Four said he could see the prisoner's face strike a large rock and sustain a 'serious injury'. 'Your Honour it knocked out a number of his teeth including his front teeth.' Mr Roberts-Smith vehemently disputes the allegations and has previously testified the man was a Taliban spotter shot in a cornfield. The Victoria Cross recipient (pictured left with his ex- wife Emma Roberts-Smith) is accused of catapulting an unarmed Afghan prisoner off a cliff while serving in 2012 The 43-year-old war veteran is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation over reports that he committed war crimes and murders in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2012. Person Four said he then followed the two soldiers down a 'track system' that led to a creek bed, while he was 'in some shock'. 'It was something I had never encountered before ... the visual effect of seeing that individual going over the side.' As the troop approached the man he 'attempted to sit up and fell back down again,' and Person Four said he and another soldier were ordered to drag him over to a large tree. After walking some distance away he turned around to see the prisoner standing before 'shots rang out'. An Icom radio was then allegedly positioned on the body before photographs were taken and delivered back to headquarters. Private investigator John McLeod (pictured) in the Federal Court last week where he testified against his one-time friend Ben Roberts-Smith A debriefing between Mr Roberts-Smith and a number of commanders followed, before he rejoined his three troop comrades, Person Four said. 'He came back into our room and said: 'This is what the story is. The story is that we engaged a spotter',' whilst moving to the extraction spot, he said. Later Person Four spotted a whiteboard with a drawing depicting a 'winged penis kicking an individual' from a cliff, he said, adding Person 35 had a reputation for winged penis cartoons. Mr Roberts-Smith - one of a handful of Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross since 1970 - has suggested the execution claims and others stem from jealous associates spiteful of his medallic achievements. The trial continues. Returned servicemen in need of ongoing support should call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046 Ukraine recently raised more than $10 million in cryptocurrency to help support its military and its citizens. The Ukrainian government posted three crypto wallet addresses for people willing to donate cryptos to the country on Feb. 26. According to the Ukrainian government's tweet, they accept donations in Bitcoin and Ethereum, per Cointelegraph. The advertised wallets would later receive $5.4 million in Bitcoin, Ether, and other coin donations within eight hours, according to BBC. Stand with the people of Ukraine Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Ethereum. Bitcoin and Tether (USDTtrc20) BTC 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P ETH 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14 USDT (trc20) TEFccmfQ38cZS1DTZVhsxKVDckA8Y6VfCy Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022 Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov supplemented the Ukrainian Government's tweet with one of his. In his tweet, the Vice Prime Minister Fedorov people to "Stand with the people of Ukraine" while another crypto wallet address for USDT, a token tracking the value of the U.S. dollar, was shared to the public, according to CNBC. Both of the tweets did not specify how the donations would be used, sparking concerns that scammers are trying to take advantage of the situation by tricking donors into giving them money rather than to Ukraine. However, American diplomat Tomicah Tilleman and Bitcoin Magazine co-founder Vitality Dmitriyevich Buterin confirmed that the crypto wallet address is indeed real, but warned people to be always on alert and to be slow and careful when sending irreversible crypto transactions. Unconfirmed reports seem to indicate that the addresses shared by the Ukrainian government will be used directly by the government. NFTS to the Rescue The sale of non-fungible tokens or NFTs have also become a crucial part of the donations that have gone to Ukraine. Elliptic reports that $1.86 million seems to have come from an NFT sale supposed to help fund Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's legal defense for 18 criminal charges, including breaking a spying law, according to The Guardian. Read Also: Steam Deck Reviews: NASA, NOAA Confirm GOES-T Weather Satellite Launch on March 1 NFTs were also reported to have been donated to the Ukrainian government's Ethereum account. One such NFT, Goat Soup #1189, has a value of approximately $300 at the time of Elliptic's report. UKRAINIAN FLAG 1/1. LIVE NOW 100% proceeds go to support Ukrainians suffering for the war. https://t.co/0UZ8DxYLgO Anyone can participate with a contribution of any size via Party Bid: https://t.co/cIqb9VJ6TQ pic.twitter.com/RkZ5uxVJnW UkraineDAO (@Ukraine_DAO) February 26, 2022 A decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) going by the name of UkraineDAO recently announced in a Twitter post it was selling an NFT of the Ukrainian flag to fund Ukrainian civilian organizations who are out helping the country's citizens. The DAO was led by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a conceptual artist, political activist and member of the anarchist feminist group Pussy Riot, per Cointelegraph's report. Crypto Donations are (Arguably) Better Tom Robinson, Elliptic's chief scientist, wrote in a blog post saying that crypto assets like Bitcoin have emerged as an "important alternative crowdfunding method". This success is because they allow quick cross-border donations that bypass financial institutions that might be blocking payments to groups helping Ukraine. Robinson's statement is proven true by a few Twitter users, especially by ARTYOM FEDOSOV, whose tweet says that while his Ukrainian credit cards are no longer working, his cryptos are still active. Twitter user @tymo_tt also advocated the use of cryptos as donations, saying that they are quick, cheap, and secure. Patreon Suspends Come Back Alive's Page Patreon, the popular crowdfunding website, has suspended Come Back Alive's Patreon page as it "does not allow any campaigns involved in violence or purchasing of military equipment regardless of their cause," according to a company spokesperson as reported by a CNBC article. Come Back Alive is a nonprofit organization that provides equipment for the Ukrainian army and has since received high amounts of funding to support the Ukrainian military. Patreon has removed Come Back Alive's Patreon page and will be refunding any funds given to the organization after Feb. 1, according to the website's blog post. However, the company behind the website listed several charities that could benefit from donors' donations. Related Article: Apple Pay and Google Pay Discontinue Services to Russians as part of US Sanctions The flooding in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales has caused widespread destruction to both residences and towns, with one Brisbane local revealing the real impact the deluge has had on her home. TikTok user josiejoyyy has shared depressing footage of the moment she discovered her home had been completely inundated with water. The 21-year-old woman, who resides in the inner-city suburb of West End, walks through the brown-murky water that has swamped her home - with her furniture and household items seen in the video completely submerged. The harrowing reality of Australias flood crisis: Depressing footage emerges of the inside of an inundated Queensland home: The water came in so fast 'My home in West End is gone, and the worst is yet to come,' she captioned the clip. 'Pray for Queensland.' The woman reveals in the video that she was woken up at 3am to a phone call urging for her to come home and 'save what I could'. She then shows the damage the floods have had on her neighbours' homes and includes one shot of her street completely underwater. TikTok user josiejoyyy, who resides in the inner-city suburb of West End, walked through the brown-murky water that has flooded her home as her furniture and household items are seen in the video completely submerged 'My home in West End is gone, and the worst is yet to come. Pray for Queensland,' she captioned the clip The young woman then showed the damage the floods have had on her neighbours' homes and includes one shot of her street completely underwater The young woman says the water 'came so fast' and 'ruined the homes of our neighbours and mine'. She later added that her and her boyfriend were meant to move out soon but were now stuck as her home had been ruined and she now has 'nothing left'. The devastation comes as hundreds of residents from the north-eastern New South Wales town of Lismore were rescued from their rooftops by helicopters and boats with the region is swamped by the worst flood in living memory. Families raced to higher ground on Monday morning as rivers burst their banks with floodwaters claiming the lives of eight people in Queensland alone - the latest a man aged in his 50s and his dog who were found in a submerged car in Currumbin Valley. A Daily Mail Australia photographer captured dramatic scenes on the streets of the NSW Northern Rivers town on Monday as emergency workers helped entire families - including babies and dogs - escape their homes. An exhausted Lismore resident collapses into the arms of a loved one as she cradles her dog as rescue efforts continue in the region Floodwaters have forced residents and pets in their hundreds from their homes in Lismore, northeastern NSW Dozens load into boats to escape Lismore on Monday after the entire town fell victim to flash flooding Dozens of rescue boats are going back and forth from homes around Lismore to higher ground as floodwaters engulf the tow Some 15,000 people have already been evacuated along the NSW north coast with thousands more stranded and hundreds of calls to the State Emergency Service. The Wilsons River reached levels of 14.37m on Monday afternoon, more than two metres higher than its previous record set more than 50 years ago when the river hit a depth of 12.27m in 1954. Lismore CBD has been completely inundated with floodwaters spilling over in North Lismore, South Lismore, East Lismore, Girards Hill, Woodburn, Swan Bay, Coraki, Marshalls Creek and Bilinudgel. Dramatic footage showed helicopters landing on rooftops and rescue crews bundling stranded residents onto the aircraft before flying away. Residents create makeshift rafts to escape Lismore after the town was evacuated on Monday Lismore locals help an elderly woman off a rescue boat as the SES races against time to save residents from rising floodwaters Families have been forced to evacuate as relentless rain continues to batter parts of south-east Queensland - while an entire regional town has been emptied with the worst floods in 50 years hitting northern NSW Meanwhile, Queensland residents are on edge with the Brisbane River expected to be hit by two potentially catastrophic peaks in the next 24 hours - with eight dead, a young man missing and 15,000 homes already underwater. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday morning, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 - with authorities warning residents of 140 suburbs. Two more peaks are expected on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Eight people have died in the state's floods while at least four people are feared missing. Boats and other debris have washed up at Milton ferry terminal in Brisbane following heavy rain and widespread floods Resident Jillian Handyside inspects the devastation from the front door of her flooded home in Milton in Brisbane's inner west A desperate search continues for a young father feared missing in floodwaters at Goodna (pictured underwater) west of Brisbane The M1 and Bruce Highway remain closed due to flooding with a year's worth of rain drenching Queensland's south-east in recent days. Residents in low-lying areas river are preparing to evacuate, including in Brisbane CBD, Newstead, West End, New Farm, Milton, St Lucia, Bulimba, South Brisbane, Toowong and Rocklea. More than 1000 schools across the state have been closed and most public transport in Brisbane has been cancelled. The CBD has been inundated with water with iconic landmarks such as Riverside Ferry Terminal and waterside restaurants flooded. Kayak was the only transport option for these residents to get around in the flooded Brisbane suburb of Rosalie Much of the Brisbane CBD is underwater with most train, bus and ferry services cancelled Anyone near the vicinity of Howard Smith Wharves and Riverside Walkaway is urged to evacuate immediately after a pontoon carrying a crane broke free of its mooring on Monday afternoon. 'Locals are advised to avoid the area, and unless absolutely necessary, STAY HOME,' a police alert read. Brisbane Airport remains open but has warned passengers to expect major delays. New Zealanders will finally be able to freely come and go from their island fortress in just a few days with the borders finally opening just a crack. Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announced on Monday there will be no required quarantine for vaccinated New Zealanders returning home from March 3. Kiwis stuck in Australia through the Covid pandemic have finally been able to get back home after being locked out for months. The first 910 passengers from five Australia-New Zealand flights were reunited with tearful families at Auckland Airport on Monday morning. Families waited at Auckland airport for loved ones to arrive home from Australia after New Zealand opened its borders on Monday 910 passengers from five Australia-New Zealand flights reunited with tearful families at Auckland airport Arrivals from Monday were required to complete seven days quarantine before boarding their flights ahead of quarantine-free travel set to be introduced on Thursday Kiwis in Australia could already return to New Zealand without quarantine from Monday, February 28, as part of NZ's staggered opening scheme. Travellers from the rest of the world were required to complete seven days of self-isolation, but that will be scrapped from Thursday for all countries of arrival. New Zealand created a five step plan for reopening its borders, with Monday's announcement marking an acceleration of step two. The first international flight since New Zealand opened its borders to fully vaccinated Kiwis arrived at Auckland Airport on Monday Signs were given to friends and family waiting to be reunited with their loved ones from Australia Teary families were reunited as New Zealand announced an early entrance into step two of its border opening plan Loved ones were finally able to reunite on Monday after New Zealand's strict border policy closed the country off for two years Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the change allowed Kiwis to immediately reconnect with their loved ones. 'Cabinet has agreed to lift all self-isolation requirements for vaccinated travellers entering New Zealand,' he said. 'That means that all Kiwis coming home and tourists entering the country will be able to step off the plane and immediately connect with family and friends and enjoy all New Zealand has to offer.' Quarantine-free travel had initially been planned for March 13 but Ms Ardern said high cases in NZ meant the date could be brought forward. 'We've wanted to make sure that we're carefully easing up the border so that we don't over-burden our health system, but with so many cases in New Zealand now, it makes sense to look at those settings,' she said. Quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand existed briefly in 2021 before the Omicron outbreak forced Kiwis to lock their borders. Auckland Airport welcomed Kiwis back to New Zealand as family waited to see each other International travellers completed seven days quarantine prior to arriving in New Zealand Vaccinated tourists from all other countries will be allowed to visit New Zealand from October International travellers are required to complete a pre-departure and arrival rapid antigen test as well as a test on day five/six after their arrival. Unvaccinated travellers to New Zealand will still be required to undergo a period in a Managed Isolation and Quarantine facility. Vaccinated tourists from all other countries were set to be allowed to visit New Zealand from October but the government indicated that date could also be brought forward. The announcement comes as New Zealand moves away from its much-maligned zero-Covid strategy and eases restrictions despite high case numbers. On Sunday, the country recorded 14,633 new cases and 344 people receiving treatment in hospital. A pontoon that was carrying a crane has broken free of its mooring at the Howard Smith Wharves in Brisbane as massive flooding continues to devastate the city. Queensland emergency services have strongly urged anyone at Howard Smith Wharves, the riverside walkway or any surrounding businesses to evacuate the area immediately. The public safety alert at the Howard Smith Wharves was issued by the Queensland Police Service. The Story Bridge, a busy thoroughfare, has been closed due to the incident. Emergency on the Brisbane River as a pontoon carrying a CRANE broke free as authorities order residents to evacuate immediately A pontoon that was carrying a crane has broken free of its mooring at the Howard Smith Wharves in Brisbane as massive flooding continues to devastate the city Queensland residents are on edge with the Brisbane River expected to be hit by two potentially catastrophic peaks in the next 24 hours - with eight dead, a young man missing and 15,000 homes already underwater. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday morning, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 - with authorities warning residents of 140 suburbs. Two more peaks are expected on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Boats and other debris have washed up at Milton ferry terminal in Brisbane following heavy rain and widespread floods Queensland has recorded its heaviest three day rainfall total ever. Above, a dramatic weather map showing wet weather conditions on Monday More than 53,000 homes are without power with 1,500 residents seeking shelter in evacuation centres as the rain heads south with warnings of flash flooding for parts of the Gold Coast. Eight people have died in the state's floods while at least four people are feared missing. Surf lifesavers found the bodies of a man in his 50s and his dog in a submerged car in the Currumbin Valley on Monday after they were swept off the road hours earlier. The vehicle was believed to have been driven 30 to 40 metres into flood waters, police said. A desperate search for a young father who was feared missing has ended after he was found alive. Resident Jillian Handyside inspects the devastation from the front door of her flooded home in Milton in Brisbane's inner west A desperate search continues for a young father feared missing in floodwaters at Goodna (pictured underwater) west of Brisbane Cameron Rogers (pictured) was feared missing after he returned to his flooded Goodna home on Sunday night. He has since been found alive and well Cameron Rogers, 32, hasn't seen been since since returning to his flooded Goodna home west of Brisbane on Sunday night to collect the family pets and move personal belongings to higher ground. It's understood he dropped off his fiancee and his child at a friend's place before returning home. He later contacted a friend to meet at the Goodna train station but has seen or heard from since. Mr Rogers' frantic sister told Nine News the family are beside themselves. 'She tells me the police and SES have been checking his home. He's not there. His car remains at the train station. So far there has been no sign of Cameron this morning,' reporter Jess Millward said. Police have since confirmed Mr Rogers has since been found in the Goodna area alive and well. The M1 and Bruce Highway remain closed due to flooding with a year's worth of rain drenching Queensland's south-east in recent days. Residents in low-lying areas river are preparing to evacuate, including in Brisbane CBD, Newstead, West End, New Farm, Milton, St Lucia, Bulimba, South Brisbane, Toowong and Rocklea. Another 3600 homes have been flooded in Gympie north of Brisbane in the town's worst flood in more than 100 years. More than 1000 schools across the state have been closed and most public transport in Brisbane has been cancelled. The CBD has been inundated with water with iconic landmarks such as Riverside Ferry Terminal and waterside restaurants flooded. Anyone near the vicinity of Howard Smith Wharves and Riverside Walkaway is urged to evacuate immediately after a pontoon carrying a crane broke free of its mooring on Monday afternoon. 'Locals are advised to avoid the area, and unless absolutely necessary, STAY HOME,' a police alert read. Brisbane Airport remains open but has warned passengers to expect major delays. 'We are experiencing major delays with domestic check-in & screening due to staff resource issues,' the airport tweeted. 'Please arrive at least 90 minutes prior to your flight. The situation is changing - wait times may increase. We appreciate your understanding and patience.' Kayak was the only transport option for these residents to get around in the flooded Brisbane suburb of Rosalie The entire riverside inner Brisbane suburb of Milton is underwater as residents inspect the devastation via boat Residents waded through flooded streets carrying sand bags in a desperate bid to save their homes in the Brisbane suburb of Rosalie Floodwaters have cut off arterial roads in Milton, Brisbane, leaving some residents stranded in their homes The floods are 'very different' to 2011 due to five consecutive days of rain. 'It has been fast and it has been furious, and it has had a big impact. That is the facts,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters at a briefing on Monday. 'No-one has seen this amount of rain in such a short period of time over our entire south-east catchment zone. 'This was an unpredictable rain bomb across entire southeast Queensland. 'What we're seeing is the system pushing south to Logan, the Gold Coast and seeing some tragedies unfolding in NSW,' 'We've been through a lot together. We've been through a pandemic of two years and yet another flood. While the rain in Brisbane has eased, the flood emergency is far from over with the Brisbane River expected to peak again on Monday night around 8pm. Another significant peak to 3.7m is expected 9am on Tuesday. 'That being said, the risk for significant flooding is still very real,' the Bureau of Meteorology's Diana Eadie said. 'There's still a lot of water around [the Brisbane and Bremer rivers] we could see a secondary peak this evening at around about 8pm. A man wades through floodwaters reaching up to his shoulders in Milton, Brisbane A Milton family devastated by the Brisbane floods is a lounge chair missing after it was swept away by floodwaters Five days of heavy rain has flooded large swathes of Brisbane Residents in low lying areas such as Milton (pictured) are bracing for more devastation with the Brisbane River expected to peak again on Monday night This motorist decided to try his luck driving through a flooded road at Ipswich, west of Brisbane Untethered boats and pontoons caused carnage on the swollen Brisbane River as the 1000mm rain bomb continued to smash south-east Queensland. Residents in low lying streets returned to their flooded homes via kayak, boats and other water vessels to inspect the damage while others fled to higher ground. Upper Springbrook near the Gold Coast was the wettest part of state with 530mm in the last 24 hours while Bracken Ridge in Brisbane's north received 444mm. Creek Street in Brisbane's CBD (pictured) was living up to its name on Monday Much of the Brisbane CBD is underwater with most train, bus and ferry services cancelled Thousands of Brisbane residents were unable to get to work as floodwaters swamped the CBD A young woman was knee-depth in floodwaters in South Brisbane's Melbourne Street Premier Palaszczuk said severity of the weather wasn't forecast. 'We didn't know that was going to happen. This is Mother Nature. I can't control Mother Nature, the people this state can't control Mother Nature, and sometimes they throw stuff at us and we got to deal with it,' she said. The rain has headed south with life-threatening flash flooding recorded in the Tallebudgera and Currumbin valleys on the southern Gold Coast on Monday morning. 'Shelter in place unless it is unsafe to do so. Access to area is cut and inaccessible in multiple places,' a QFES alert read. The Bureau Of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning issued for south-east Queensland with flash flooding in areas such as Coolangatta likely. QFES has made more than 100 swift-water rescues amid 8000 calls for help in the Brisbane, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast since 3pm on Sunday. A 59-year-old man drowned in Brisbanes north on Sunday afternoon after he became pinned against a fence while trying to cross a flooded creek The federal government has announced disaster assistance payments for affected residents devastated by the floods while the Defence Force will be deployed to help mammoth clean up. 'It can include troops themselves engaged directly in the same clean-up effort that so many people from the city of Brisbane will be engaged with as part of the Mud Army,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. Christian Porter has revealed he will work as a lawyer and possibly a writer after he leaves Parliament. The former attorney-general hoped to be Prime Minister until his political career came crashing down after he denied a historical rape allegation last year. The Liberal MP for Pearce in WA was demoted to science minister and then dumped from the frontbench altogether before announcing he would not seek re-election this year. The former attorney-general, 51, walked arm-in-arm with his new partner, criminal lawyer Karen Espiner, after the two dined with a group of friends at the Justin Hemmes-owned eatery Mimi's in Coogee on February 5 Mr Porter (pictured in the House) has revealed he will work as a lawyer and possibly a writer after he leaves Parliament In an update to a register of his interests on Monday, Mr Porter revealed he set up two companies called Henley Stirling Lawyers Pty Ltd and Henley Stirling Consultants Pty on February 3. 'The first company has been registered for the purposes of conducting legal practice, which practice will not commence until I cease to be a Member of Parliament,' he wrote. 'The second company has been established with respect to possible future writing ventures.' Mr Porter, a father of two, also set up the CP Family Trust which is the sole shareholder of both companies. It comes after 7.30 reported that Mr Porter may act for a defendant in a gun heist trial in Perth. Three men are accused of breaking into a Perth firearms shop and stealing more than 100 weapons. According to a transcript of a court hearing seen by the ABC, a solicitor for one of the defendants said 'Mr Porter will be counsel'. But the former public prosecutor will not officially accept the job until the election is called meaning he will no longer be an MP. The election is expected to be called in April and held in May. The two laughed and smiled as they held hands and wrapped arms while walking by the beach in the trendy suburb Ms Espiner calls home The couple (pictured together) were all smiles after they met up with friends for lunch and cocktails Mr Porter said in a statement: 'After politics I am intending to return to private legal practice. This is well known and I have been approached by a number of people with a number of potential future briefs. 'Obviously what briefs are ultimately accepted and when I commence appearance work will depend upon the timing of when the election is called.' In a lengthy resignation statement in December, Mr Porter - who has been relentlessly trolled online - hit out at his critics, saying: 'Perhaps the only certainty now is that there appears to be no limit to what some will say or allege or do to gain an advantage over a perceived enemy. 'This makes the harshness that can accompany the privilege of representing people, harder than ever before.' Christian Porter and ex-wife Jennifer in 2018 The MP, who split from second wife Jennifer in January 2020, said he will spend more time with his son and daughter. 'My little boy was born one day before I first became a Commonwealth Minister. He and his little sister have never known anything but their father's regular absence and so the next part of my working life will be anchored around being close to them and being there for them,' he said. Mr Porter's career was shattered when the ABC published an article detailing historic rape allegations against an unnamed cabinet minister in February last year. In an extraordinary press briefing in Perth in March, a shattered and tearful Mr Porter outed himself to deny the allegations which dated back to 1988. He confirmed he attended a debating competition at Sydney University with his accuser when he was 17 and she was 16 - but he categorically denied ever sleeping with the woman who took her own life in June 2020. The rape allegations did not end Mr Porter's cabinet career but, after a few weeks of mental health leave, Scott Morrison shuffled him from attorney-general to science minister. Mr Porter sued the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan for defamation over her online article which aired the rape allegations. Following mediation, Mr Porter - who was not charged after a police investigation - decided to drop his case against the ABC in May. He was not paid any settlement fee but the ABC was required to update its article with an editors' note expressing 'regret' that readers may have thought the minister was guilty. In September Mr Porter revealed he had accepted an anonymous donation to help cover his legal costs estimated to be worth $600,000 to $1million. The donation was made through a blind trust which meant the identity of the donor or donors was kept secret, including from Mr Porter. Mining magnate Gina Rinehart, media mogul Kerry Stokes, and Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest each denied handing cash to Mr Porter's fund. Labor said it was unacceptable for a member of parliament to receive a donation when they could not verify where it had come from. Under intense pressure, Mr Porter resigned from cabinet so he would not be a 'distraction' for the Government. Residents of eastern Tasmania are being warned to brace for severe thunderstorms and potentially dangerous flash flooding in some areas. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe storm warning for the state's east coast, and parts of the southeast and northeast for Monday afternoon. 'An unstable and humid easterly flow is causing thunderstorms embedded within areas of rain,' the bureau says. The Bureau of Meteorology has warned residents of eastern Tasmania to brace for severe thunderstorms and potentially dangerous flash flooding in some areas Heavy rain and flash flooding may also occur down the east coast and could hit Tasmanian towns including St Helens, Swansea, Bicheno, Orford, Fingal and Scamander following the flood disaster in Lismore Evacuation efforts for residents in Lismore, northern NSW, continued into Monday afternoon following the collapse of the Wilson River levee 'Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce intense rainfall that may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding over the next several hours in parts of the northeast.' Heavy rain and flash flooding may also occur down the east coast and could hit towns including St Helens, Swansea, Bicheno, Orford, Fingal and Scamander. Some 66mm of rain has been recorded since 9am on Monday at Eddystone Point/larapuna in the northeast. Lismore, northern NSW, residents were forced to flee flooded homes, bundling pets and loved ones into boats to escape Locals with boats, emergency crews, and the military are assisting with the evacuation order in Lismore as flood water continues to rise The news follows severe flooding in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. Evacuation efforts for residents in Lismore, northern NSW, continued into Monday afternoon following the collapse of the Wilson River levee. Several residents shared pleas for help online as people became trapped in their homes by rising flood water. The evacuation of Lismore residents continued into the afternoon as locals are warned the river could reach 14.2 metres Several Lismore residents shared pleas for help online as people became trapped in their homes by rising flood water Locals on boats, SES crews, and the military are assisting in rescue efforts as residents have reported hearing screams from people unable to escape. 374 calls for assistance in the Northern Rivers region were made to the SES in half an hour. Pets and loved ones were bundled into the small boats on Monday morning amid reports the Lismore River could reach 14.2 metres in the afternoon. SES volunteers had carried out 70 flood rescues and evacuated some 15,000 people from NSW's north coast since torrential rain began falling on Tuesday, Premier Dominic Perrottet told reporters on Sunday. 374 calls for assistance in the Northern Rivers region were made to the SES in half an hour One NSW life has already been lost to the weather, with a man killed when his Land Cruiser was carried away by floodwater. Police will resume search efforts for a man who went missing in floodwaters in Lismore on Sunday. Officers heard him calling out for help about 4pm but 'lost sight of the man a short time later'. Southeast Queensland has been subject to major widespread flooding since late last week Residents in Milton, Brisbane, were hard hit by deep flooding following days of heavy rainfall Seven Queensland resident have died and some 49,000 lost power as the state faces its worst flood since 2011 NSW Emergency Services Minister Stephanie Cooke said the situation in Lismore was much more severe than forecast on Sunday, straining the resources of SES. 'We are putting every single available emergency services personnel and resources in place to support the community,' Ms Cooke told radio 2GB. 'We appreciate that this situation is absolutely heartbreaking.' Floodwaters have reached their highest levels in half a century along Wilsons River after reaching 12.26m at 5am - smashing the 12.15m record set in March 1974. Residents along the Brisbane River received a 'major flooding' alert from Brisbane council as news broke the river was expected to peak at 4m on Monday morning Paddington, Brisbane, locals came up with creative ways of getting around as floodwater continues to rise Seven Queensland resident have died as the state faces its worst flood since 2011. Residents along the Brisbane River received a 'major flooding' alert from Brisbane council as news broke the river was expected to peak at 4m on Monday morning. Some 49,000 houses in the region have lost power as residents in Rosalie and Milton fled their homes. Emergency services are attempting to get supplies through to suburbs in Brisbane's west as conditions worsen. Suburbs from Pullenvale to Mt Crosby could be cut off for days due to rising floodwaters. A former state Labor MP could face criminal charges after the NSW corruption watchdog ruled on Monday that one thousand $100 notes delivered to NSW Labor offices in an Aldi bag came from a prohibited donor. The $100,000 cash donation brought to Labor's Sussex Street headquarters in Sydney came from billionaire Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo. Mr Huang was a property developer and therefore banned from donating to political parties in NSW, making the donation 'unlawful', the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said. ICAC also found the 2015 donation was made out to have come from a group of hospitality staff and other donors. Former NSW Labor MP Ernest Wong engaged in corrupt conduct by concealing the illegal political donations and then trying to get one of the fake donors to lie about it, ICAC found. Huang Xiangmo (pictured) made an illegal donation of $100,000 to the NSW Labor Party, ICAC has found 'The NSW ICAC has found that former NSW MLC Ernest Wong engaged in serious corrupt conduct by misusing the privileges to which he was entitled as a member of the Legislative Council in relation to a scheme to circumvent electoral funding laws and by attempting to procure a witness to give false testimony,' the ICAC statement said. The watchdog's report said Mr Wong used his parliamentary scanner and email address to plan aspects of a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner, which was used to conceal Mr Huang's $100,000 donation. Two weeks after the dinner, an associate of Mr Wong arranged for 10 people to falsely declare donations using the forms, which were later used to conceal the source of Mr Huang's donation. 'Mr Wong knew, at the time that he procured donor declaration forms from each of the 12 putative donors, that Mr Huang, whom Mr Wong believed to be a 'prohibited donor', was the true source of the $100k cash,' the ICAC report said. Mr Huang, who had his Australian visa cancelled over character concerns in 2018, was legally represented at - but did not participate in - the inquiry. Nor did his executive assistant Wun Chi Wang, who the commission says withdrew $100,000 in cash from a 'junket account' at The Star casino on behalf of Mr Huang, before a meeting with then NSW Labor secretary James Clements. Former NSW Labor MP Ernest Wong (pictured) leaves the ICAC public inquiry into allegations concerning political donations in Sydney on Tuesday, September 3, 2019 Despite 'no direct evidence' linking the withdrawal to the donation, ICAC says other contextual evidence and 'the fact that both of those transactions involved Mr Huang, the same amount of cash, and identical denominations' meant it could not accept it as a coincidence. Mr Wong also tried to have a listed donor, Steven Tong, give false testimony to investigating authorities about whether he had made donations in connection with the 2015 Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner. Mr Tong told the hearing Mr Wong confiscated his phone and put it in a drawer during a September 2018 meeting in his parliamentary office, prompting Mr Tong to take a note of the meeting afterwards. In his contemporaneous note submitted to ICAC, Mr Tong said he told Mr Wong he was upset about being implicated in an investigation into a donation he did not make. An Aldi bag containing $100,000 in cash was brought to the NSW Labor Party headquarters. Pictured is a stock image of an Aldi bag The money was in the form of 1,000 $100 notes. Pictured is a stock image of $100 notes He said he knew nothing of the $5,000 donation made in his name until he received a letter from Labor informing him he was eligible to deduct the donation from his taxes. Mr Tong's and another man's evidence about the meeting was disputed by Mr Wong, but ICAC accepted their evidence over his. 'In essence, the commission considers that Mr Wong is not a witness of credit,' the report reads. His evidence about the meeting was regarded as 'internally inconsistent, at odds with the other evidence and unreliable'. Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo splashed $12.8 million on this lavish hillside mansion in 2012 at Beauty Point in Mosman The NSW Electoral Commission referred the matter to ICAC in January 2018 after suspicions were raised about how five donors who said they were restaurant waiting staff could afford to make substantial political donations. Operation Aero was created to investigate and zeroed in on a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner held at a restaurant in the inner-Sydney suburb of Haymarket. HUANG XIANGMO AND THE MOSMAN HILLSIDE MANSION In 2016 Daily Mail Australia revealed Huang Xiangmo bought a multi-million dollar home at Beauty Point in the wealthy Sydney suburb of Mosman because he thought the area had good feng shui. Richard Simeon, of Simeon Manners Property said at the time that the sale only went ahead after the businessman flew in his feng shui consultant from China to assess the home. His purchase caused a number of other wealthy Chinese investors to buy in the area, where Mr Huang became known as 'king of the mountain' because of the mansion's hilltop location. The property is now one of the Australian assets subject to a freezing order as the ATO seeks $140million from Mr Huang. Advertisement ICAC reported many of the donors lacked the financial means to make such large donations, were not Labor members, did not attend the dinner, explained the source of their cash donations in similar ways and gave them to the same man, who did not keep a record of receiving it from them. Hearings were conducted over 37 days in 2019, and the commission released a report into its findings on Monday. ICAC is seeking advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether to pursue prosecution against Mr Huang, Mr Wong and more than a dozen other people. The 288-page report said Mr Wong and his associate Jonathan Yee each took numerous steps between 2015 and the public inquiry in 2019 to 'monitor and influence investigations by the NSW Electoral Commission and the ICAC. NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said the report was 'tough and troubling' and that Labor would accept all of its recommendations. 'We face a big task ahead of us to rebuild that trust in the run up to the 2023 NSW state election. We're determined to do that and we will use this report as a guide to ensure that we make those changes,' Mr Minns told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'Labor supports the ICAC not because it investigates our political opponents but because it investigates us. We support the ICAC and accept these recommendations,' he said. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said he would review the recommendations, which would then be considered by cabinet. 'There is no place for corruption in NSW and whatever we can do to stamp it out, we will,' Mr Perrottet said. 'And any of those recommendations to the government provide guidance to us in terms of actions that we can take to ensure the events of the past, here in circumstances of the Labor Party, do not occur again.' Huang Xiangmo (centre left, holding photo) was regularly pictured with politicians from both of the major Australian parties, including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull (centre right) Mr Huang, who is ranked one of China's richest men has lost a High Court battle against the Australian Tax Office in December relating to a $140million tax debt. The former Australian resident who had his visa cancelled over character concerns in 2018, lost out as the ATO appealed against an earlier ruling which had overturned a freezing order on his local assets. Among the assets is the lavish harbourside mansion he purchased at Beauty Point, Mosman on Sydney's North Shore in 2012. Mr Huang was regularly pictured with politicians from both of the major Australian parties, including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. A man who bound, gagged and repeatedly raped a teenager in her home will remain in prison indefinitely, after a Queensland court intervened to stop his release. Stephen Bruce Porter, dubbed the 'stinky rapist' because of his foul-smelling body odour, was sentenced to 15 years in prison over the 2007 attack. During his trial the court heard he tied his 19-year-old victim up with electrical cords and a blindfold before raping her. Porter, who was infected with hepatitis C at the time, then forced the woman - still blindfolded - into the shower where he washed her in an attempt to remove evidence. In a decision handed down on Friday, a Queensland Supreme Court (pictured) judge agreed Porter, now 57, should remain in custody indefinitely for his crimes Porter was due to be released this year after serving his sentence, but the Queensland attorney-general petitioned for him to remain behind bars, arguing he posed an unacceptable risk to the community if freed. In a decision handed down on Friday, a Queensland Supreme Court judge agreed Porter, now 57, should remain in custody indefinitely. Citing a number of factors, Justice Peter Davis concluded Porter is 'a serious danger to the community'. While the 2007 attack was his first sexual offence, Porter has an extensive criminal history and has spent most of his adult life in prison, he noted. Although reportedly clean while in prison, he has also abused substances since the age of 17. Porter's history of failing to comply with bail conditions and resisting or assaulting police 'indicates a lack of ability or willingness to submit to authority', Justice Davis said, and suggests he would not comply with supervision orders if released. But the primary concern of the psychiatrists assessing him was Porter's continued denial of his offending and refusal of treatment. Porter did not engage with any of the three doctors who tried to assess him - abruptly hanging up on at least one - and has refused to participate in treatment programs for drug or sex offending. Porter was due to be released this year after serving his sentence, but the Queensland attorney-general successfully petitioned for him to remain behind bars, arguing he posed an unacceptable risk to the community if freed (pictured, the Brisbane Magistrates Court) 'Prisoner Porter has an Antisocial Personality Disorder and quite likely significant Psychopathic Personality traits,' Dr Ken Arthur concluded. 'Ultimately, prisoner Porter remains an untreated sex offender who fails to take any responsibility for the offences or engage in risk assessments or treatment.' All three psychiatrists concluded Porter had - at least - an above average risk of committing more sexual offences. 'Should he resume house-breaking as a way of funding his habit, there is a risk of opportunistic sexual offending,' Dr Arthur said. Concluding a supervision order would not lower the risk of offending to an acceptable level, Justice Davis ruled Porter be detained indefinitely. The matter will be reviewed again in two years. This is the first picture of the irate Ukrainian sailor who tried to sink a rich Russian's 5million-plus yacht in the Med after war broke out at home. Mechanical engineer Taras Ostapchuk, 55, today revealed that having scuppered the vessel in Mallorca he now plans to fly home this afternoon to fight with the brave soldiers fighting Vladimir Putin's invaders. The 156ft luxury yacht, named Lady Anastasia, was moored at Pord Adriano by Alexander Mijeev, a former head of the Russian Helicopter Corporation who took over state-owned weapons supplier Rostec six years ago. Mr Ostapchuk opened valves on the vessel moored in Mallorca because he claims his boss sells weapons to Putin that are being used to murder and maim his countrymen. He told police who turned up to arrest him: 'I don't regret anything I've done and I would do it again', adding: 'My boss is a criminal who sells weapons that kill the Ukrainian people.' And as he was named for the first time, Mr Ostapchuk made the pledge to sign up the Ukrainian Army and admitted: 'I've lost the first battle, which was to sink my Russian boss's ship but I will win the next one.' He confirmed he went berserk around midday on Saturday after seeing a helicopter carrying weapons he believes were made by Mijeev's firm attacking an apartment block in Kyiv similar to one where his family live. Mechanical engineer Taras Ostapchuk, 55, (left) today revealed that he has scuppered the vessel belonging to Alexander Mijeev (right), a former head of the Russian Helicopter Corporation who took over state-owned weapons supplier Rostec six years ago, in Mallorca The Ukrainian sank the Lady Anastasia in Mallorca because he claims his Russian boss sells weapons to Putin The yacht (pictured) is worth at least 5million and is currently in the Med The 156ft luxury yacht, named Lady Anastasia, was moored at Pord Adriano when it was scuppered The unrepentant sailor, speaking after being released by a court in Majorca pending an ongoing probe, told island paper Ultima Hora he would catch a flight to Poland from Majorca this afternoon before getting on a train or bus to the Ukrainian capital. He told the paper: 'I'm going to fight. As soon as I reach the first Ukrainian city I will look for a military commander and ask him if they need me. 'I told myself: 'Why do I need a job if I have my country. I had a good job as a head mechanic on the boat and a good salary but I am going to fight for my nation. 'I am not going to lose my country. I am not a hero, I'm a middle-aged man, but I have a lot of experience as a mechanic. I've never held a weapon but if necessary I will. Why not'. Speaking of the TV footage he was watching on a Spanish news channel that led to him allegedly carrying out the attack on Lady Anastasia, he added: 'I live in a very similar building. 'From my window I can see the Ukrainian parliament. I was wondering what's had happened to my house when I saw the footage because its in a very similar position.' Mijeev's member of staff, who had worked for him for several years, decided to sink the ship after Russia's invasion began. He opened three valves on the five-cabin yacht so it would take on water 'in an act of revenge. The 156ft luxury yacht (pictured), named Lady Anastasia, was moored at Pord Adriano when it was flooded by the Ukrainian engineer The ship has five luxury cabins (pictured). The damage to the vessel is not yet known The three other crew members had no idea of the plot until he is alleged to have rushed in and told them to abandon ship saying: 'Don't worry because I will take all the blame'. When the police arrived he is said to have been waiting next to the boat as it went down and reportedly told a Civil Guard: 'My boss is a criminal who sells weapons that kill the Ukrainian people.' The court heard that he was watching the news and saw a Russian missile attack on Kyiv. Within two hours he had gone to Lady Anastasia and decided he would sink it. He even decided to shut the fuel valves to avoid polluting the marina. The saboteur opened a valve in the engine room to bring in water - and two more in living quarters for the staff and crew. The result is that the yacht became partially submerged but still tied to its moorings. After his arrest he admitted responsibility but was freed by a judge. It is still not clear if he has been charged with an offences. One person has died and four people remain in hospital in South Australia, their cases possibly linked to mosquito-borne diseases, prompting a warning from health officials. SA Health says people should avoid exposure to mosquitoes, following the recent detection of various flaviviruses in southern parts of Australia - spread through the bite of infected insects. 'In South Australia, there have been seven cases of acute encephalitis identified in the past month, which are currently undergoing investigation for flavivirus infection,' executive director of health protection Chris Lease said. SA Health says people should avoid exposure to mosquitoes, following the recent detection of various flaviviruses in southern parts of Australia 'All of these people required hospitalisation with four people currently still in hospital, and one person having sadly passed away.' Dr Lease said the Kokobera virus had been detected in adult mosquitoes in the SA Riverland in recent weeks, while the rare Japanese encephalitis virus had been found in pigs in NSW, Victoria and Queensland and the West Nile virus in horses in NSW. 'Kokobera virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, West Nile virus, and Murray Valley encephalitis virus all belong to the flavivirus group,' he said. 'Most people who are infected with these viruses are asymptomatic or develop a mild febrile illness, but a small proportion of infected people - less than one per cent - will develop encephalitis, which may be fatal or cause long-term neurological damage.' Symptoms of encephalitis may include confusion, headaches, neck stiffness, tremors, drowsiness and seizures. Japanese encephalitis virus is endemic in the Torres Strait and had not previously been detected in NSW or Victoria, and has never been detected in South Australia. Volunteers along the Mornington Peninsula will place non-toxic mosquito traps designed to trap pregnant mozzies with a 'sticky card' Murray Valley encephalitis virus and West Nile virus are endemic in birds in northern Australia with occasional cases occurring in humans. Chief Veterinary Officer Mary Carr said the Department of Primary Industries and Regions was undertaking surveillance measures within SA to monitor for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). 'The normal life cycle of JEV is between waterbirds and mosquitoes, which may then accidentally spill over to pigs and horses, but there are currently no confirmed livestock detections of JEV in South Australia.' Dr Carr said. Dr Lease said, in addition to the seven cases of acute encephalitis, there had also been an increase in the number of cases of Ross River virus with 77 reported so far this year compared to 48 at the same time last year. The increase in all mosquito-borne diseases has been linked to the La Nina weather event across southeastern Australia this summer. RUSSIA-UKRAINE LIVE: Russians keep attacking Mariupol despite 'ceasefire', Boris Johnson praises Sky News' Stuart Ramsay and Foreign Office tells Brits to quit Russia Ukraine has dramatically cancelled an evacuation of more than 200,000 civilians from Mariupol after it accused Russian forces of derailing a promised ceasefire by continuing to shell the strategic port city. Plans to evacuate the population have now been delayed as the Russian invasion enters its 10th day. Help refugees by donating to the Mail's Ukraine Refugee Appeal here. This live blog has now ended. Russian forces destroy world's biggest cargo plane Mriya in Ukraine Xinhua) 08:24, February 28, 2022 KIEV, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian forces have destroyed Ukraine's flagman aircraft An-225 Mriya, the world's biggest cargo plane, Ukraine's state defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom said Sunday on Telegram. The aircraft was destroyed in an attack by Russian troops on the Hostomel airport outside Kiev, Ukroboronprom said. The restoration of the plane will cost more than 3 billion U.S. dollars and will take a long time, it said. The An-225 Mriya, designed in the 1980s, is the longest and the heaviest airplane ever built. It was capable of carrying up to 640 tons of cargo. (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) "Squid Game" costars Lee Jung-Jae, left, winner of the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series, and Jung Ho-yeon, winner of the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, pose in the press room at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, Sunday (local time). AP-Yonhap Lee, Jung win best actors at SAG Awards By Dong Sun-hwa The Korean dystopian drama "Squid Game" and its actors have made history in Korea's drama industry by winning three awards at the U.S. Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, Sunday (local time). Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon, who starred in Netflix's mega-hit 2021 series, took home best male actor and female actor awards in the TV drama category, becoming the first Korean actors to pull off the feat. The drama also clinched the Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a TV Series award. This is the first time for non-English-speaking performers to notch the SAG's drama acting awards. "It is a notable accomplishment, considering that the SAG awards do not frequently recognize non-English-speaking actors," pop culture critic Kim Hern-sik told The Korea Times, Monday. Kim pointed out that global streaming platforms like Netflix have played a pivotal role in raising Korean dramas' profile by changing how they are distributed. "In the past, it was challenging for Korean dramas to directly enter the American market," he said. "It was not easy for Korean actors to star in American series or films as well. But now, content made in Korea can be distributed widely to different countries via platforms like Netflix." Directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, "Squid Game" is Netflix's biggest hit Korean original series, which scored more than 1.65 billion hours of viewing during the first four weeks of its release on Sept. 17. The nine-episode series reportedly generated nearly $900 million total profit for Netflix. Lee Jung-Jae reacts amid actors and film industry people as he is announced the winner for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for "Squid Game" at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, Sunday (local time). AP-Yonhap Western Australia is introducing Australia's toughest Covid-19 public health restrictions despite having just 11 people in hospital with the virus. Year three students and above will be required to wear face masks in public and home gatherings will be limited to 10 people under new rules coming into effect statewide from 12.01am on Thursday. Hospitality venues will avoid being subject to a four square metre density rule but will be limited to 150 patrons. WA on Monday recorded a further 1,140 infections but none of the 11 cases in hospital are in intensive care. The state now has 5,540 active cases. Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan pictured right with his wife Sarah. WA is bringing in tough new Covid restrictions Among the new infections were 476 self-reported positive rapid antigen tests (RAT). Premier Mark McGowan insisted the strict new 'level two' rules were necessary to manage an outbreak which the government now expects to peak at about 10,000 daily cases within two to three weeks. He said he was hopeful they would only need to remain in place for a month. 'Based on the experience over east, this Omicron outbreak is expected to peak before the end of March,' he said. 'Case numbers will dramatically rise, hospitalisations will rise, some people will get very sick and tragically, some people may die. 'March will be the most difficult month Western Australia experiences in this whole pandemic and we would be irresponsible if we didn't have the most appropriate measures in place during the period where they are most required.' Mr McGowan said the home gathering cap was being introduced because the virus often spread during those visits. 'We know from the experience around the country, that it is the home gatherings of families that cause the most spread of the virus,' he said. NEW RESTRICTIONS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA From 12.01am on Thursday: Home gatherings are limited to 10 people Weddings and funerals in the outdoor area of a private home can have up to 150 people with the 2 sqm rule Masks for children in Years 3 to 6 added Major venues such as Optus Stadium capped at 50 per cent Aged care and disability services will be restricted to two visitors per resident each day Advertisement 'We know that many families are already doing the right thing and minimising contact, particularly protecting the most vulnerable in their family, which is so important.' With the rest of the nation easing restrictions, Mr McGowan denied it was premature to tighten rules which had only been in place for one week. He expected hospitalisations to increase 'dramatically' despite WA entering its Omicron outbreak with far higher vaccination rates than other jurisdictions had. About 63 per cent of eligible West Australians have now received their third vaccine dose. WA Health modelling suggests the state will have almost half a million cases and 129 deaths over the next six months, with 715 people admitted to ICU. One person has so far died during WA's Omicron outbreak. The government had initially flagged that a four square metre density rule would be implemented at some stage across hospitality venues. That rule will now only come into effect at the Crown casino gaming floor. Major stadiums, theatres and cinemas will have their capacity slashed to 50 per cent while hospital visits will be banned except for spouses, parents or carers, birth partners or those allowed in for compassionate reasons. Weddings and funerals will be capped at 150 attendees. Mr McGowan said the revised rules would spare smaller venues such as cafes and restaurants from financial pain while slowing the spread of cases. A passenger is greeted by a loved one after a flight from Sydney arrives into Perth Airport on December 8, 2020. WA is due to reopen its borders to vaccinated travellers from Thursday 'While we have avoided some of the tougher measures, this will still be an impact on many operators and on people's lives and for that, I'm sorry,' he said. A new round of financial assistance for affected businesses will be announced later this week. WA is due to also reopen its borders to vaccinated travellers from Thursday, with modelling indicating it will have a negligible impact on case numbers. Mr McGowan announced on Sunday that in an Australian first, more than one million WA households would be provided with five RAT kits after registering online. People were given the option of having the kits sent by post or picking them up at Perth Airport. A young woman wears a face mask on December 24, 2021 in Perth. Western Australia is about to introduce Australia's toughest Covid-19 restrictions 'Every West Australian deserves to have access to a rapid test, no matter who they are and no matter where they live across WA,' Mr McGowan said. There have been more than 400,000 registrations so far, though some people said they had got an email saying their home address had already been registered. A spokesperson for the premier said 'an issue with the sequencing of emails' had led to some people receiving an 'address claimed' notification. In an Australian first, more than one million WA households would be provided with five RAT kits after registering online 'We are working through this issue and will advise if people need to reorder their kit,' they said. 'Separate to this, an issue with the address validation process has, in some cases, resulted in duplication of emails going out. 'This issue does not mean those who have received multiple emails won't receive a RAT via delivery or be able to collect their kit. 'If they have an order number, they will still receive a delivery or be able to collect their RAT.' RATs can be registered for here. Click here for MailOnline's liveblog with the latest updates on the Ukraine crisis Advertisement Putin's disgraceful war waged on the people of Ukraine is laid bare today in heart-wrenching pictures capturing the death of an innocent six-year-old dubbed the girl in the pink unicorn pyjamas - one of 16 children now killed in the conflict. These upsetting pictures chart the fight to save the unnamed little girl who was fatally injured when the Russians shelled her Mariupol apartment block yesterday - and epitomises the terrible toll war is having on civilians, especially children. During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, turned to the AP photographer and said: 'Show this to Putin: The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.' Ukraine war: The latest Ukraine's MoD says Russia has lost 5,300 soldiers, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 151 tanks Russia's MoD has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses, but refused to say how many Russian economy entered freefall as Western sanctions put in place over the weekend took effect, with ruble sliding to its lowest level ever Moscow's central bank has more-than doubled the interest rate to 20 per cent Russia orders people and companies to sell 80 per cent of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble to help prop it up Moscow stock exchange won't open until at least 3pm in an attempt to head off all-out crash Zelensky has allowed Ukrainian prisoners to be freed if they join defence forces to 'repay their debt' Ukraine president also announced creation of 'international brigade' for foreign volunteers wishing to join military, after 'thousands' applied Spain's foreign minister called Putin's order to put nuclear forces on high alert 'one more sign of [his] absolute irrationality' Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his country should be open to hosting nuclear weapons Germany announced a $112million fund to rebuild the country's armed forces, more-than double its current self-defence budget EU announced, for the first time in its history, that it will send funds to Ukraine for weapons - including fighter jets Advertisement Clutching her blood-covered hand to her mouth and carrying the child's slippers, pompom scarf and bobble hat, one woman, who could be her mother, was photographed as attempts were made to resuscitate the six-year-old in the back of an ambulance after the artillery strike. The next picture, too graphic to be published, shows the girl's father holding his lifeless child's hand as the paramedic performs CPR on her tiny body. He is sobbing while covered in what appears to be her blood. A team of doctors then tenderly carries the child, who is still wearing her red-stained unicorn pyjamas, into the hospital in the coastal city. Her bedclothes are then cut away so a team of seven doctors work on her body, which is still being gripped by her praying father. The final image shows the child alone on a gurney in an empty ward, having been declared dead in a war that had by Sunday claimed civilian victims of at least 210, including more than a dozen children. More than 500,000 refugees, mainly women and children, are fleeing Ukraine for the West, with some children separated or even orphaned since the invasion began. Queues of up to 25 miles are reported at the border with Poland and Romania. It came as Mail readers donated an extraordinary 268,000 on the first day of our Ukraine Appeal. The newspaper's owner also pledged 500,000 sending the first day's monumental total soaring past 750,000 to be given to reputable charities that are already on the ground doling out hot food, blankets and vital shelter to stricken families. The gut-wrenching picture of the six-year-old child's pale and lifeless body could become the defining images of the conflict in the same way the photo of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, washed up drowned on a Turkish beach 2015, horrified the world and laid bare the plight of refugees fleeing the wartorn country. Her death, and of other children, exposes Putin's filthy lie that he is not waging war on the Ukrainian people amid calls for him to be treated as a war criminal for his bombing of civilians. Several nurseries and kindergartens have also been hit. Today the Deputy Mayor of Kyiv Vladimir Bondarenko shared a photograph of a pink-haired girl Polina, believed to be around ten or 11, killed while trying to escape the capital in a car with her family. She was shot dead by the Russians with her parents, according to the BBC. Her younger brother and sister were taken to hospital, where they are in intensive care. A woman, who could be the child's mother, reacts as paramedics perform CPR on the girl who was fatally injured during shelling in Mariupol yesterday. She clutches her blood-soaked hand to her mouth while clutching the child's belongings with the other including shoes and a scarf The child lies dead and alone in the city's hospital after Russian attacks claimed her life in a picture that has shocked the world. 16 children have died in Ukraine since Thursday, 45 are wounded The deputy mayor of Kyiv and BBC has shared this picture of a little girl named Polina, who they say was shot and killed by the Russians while in a car with her parents. The Harry Potter fan was due to finish primary school this year Father Anton Kudrin, and wife Svetlana Zapadynskaya and their middle daughter Polina died, their eldest daughter Sofia (at the back) and youngest son Semyon (right) are fighting for life in hospitals. An injured child is supported by a loved one as he lies on a ventilator after being wounded in a car during Russian attacks that claimed the life of a six-year-old sibling A Ukrainian father says a tearful goodbye to his son as he boards a train with his mother and sister as men stay behind in Kyiv and other cities to fight the Russians Gravely ill children, including several diagnosed with cancer, are now receiving treatment on the basement floor of the shelter of Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital A Ukrainian child sobs alone in a railways station as Europe faces a fresh refugee crisis as millions are potentially displaced by war Children cling to the windows of coaches or cry as they are separated from families and taken away from the front line A woman and a child wait for a call to cross the Polish passport control after arriving in a train from Kiev at the Przemysl main train station A member of the Slovak Armed Forces carries a child fleeing from Ukraine who arrived in Slovakia with her family, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine Run on the Russian banks after interest rate is hiked to TWENTY per cent in desperate bid to stop rouble crashing Vast queues have been seen outside Russian ATMs despite the country's central bank hiking interest rates in a bid to stop a run on the rouble Vast queues have been seen outside cash machines is Russia, despite the country's central bank hiking interest rates in a bid to stop a run on the rouble. Pictures show people in Saint Petersburg queuing around the corner to use nearby ATMs. It comes as fears rise of an economic collapse in Russia due to biting Western sanctions imposed following president Vladimir Putin's now floundering invasion of Ukraine. In a bid to stop a potentially disastrous run on the rouble, Russia's central bank - The Bank of Russia - is hiking interest rates from 9.5 per cent to 20 per cent this morning. Its board of directors blamed a 'drastic change' on the 'external conditions for the economy' behind the massive interest rate hike. Top economists and the finance ministry also ordered exporting companies to sell 80 per cent of their foreign currency revenues on the market to try to support the rouble - the value of which continued to collapse against the dollar and the euro on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Monday. Despite banking chiefs attempting to steady the ship, the Russian rouble plummeted 30 per cent overnight to an all-time low as the West's sanctions over the Ukraine war start to squeeze the economy. The European Central Bank also warned on Monday that the European subsidiary of the Russian state-owned Sberbank - one of the Russian banks under UK sanctions - was facing bankruptcy. Advertisement President Zelensky said in a TV address today that 16 Ukrainian children have been killed and 45 wounded in the four days since the invasion began. Little boy Mark Goncharuk was filmed fleeing with others in a van toward the Ukrainian border, fighting the tears as he spoke about how his father stayed behind to help support the fight against the Russians. As tears poured down his face he said: 'We left our Dad in Kyiv. He is helping our heroes, our army, and may even fight himself'. The family were picked up by a team from the Reuters press agency. Mark said: 'We were walking for three hours and planned to walk for three days. You saved us'. As 16 Ukrainian children lost their lives since Thursday's invasion, it also emerged today: Kyiv has survived another night under Russian attack with Putin's 'demoralised and exhausted' troops suffering 'heavy losses' trying and failing to break through defences in the city's outskirts, the city's army commander has said. But Putins forces are encircling the capital city and making gains in the south and east of the country, amid claims they are dropping cluster bombs on civilian areas of Kharkiv; Ukrainian prisoners with combat experience will be released from jail and allowed to serve their debt to society on the front lines of the conflict with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced; Sanctions from the West are already biting hard in Russia. Millions of Russians are trying to get cash out of banks as the rouble plunges in value against the dollar and pound. In a bid to stop a potentially disastrous run on the banks. Russia's central bank - The Bank of Russia - is hiking interest rates from 9.5 per cent to 20 per cent. The finance ministry also ordered exporting companies to sell 80 per cent of their foreign currency revenues on the market to try to support the currency; British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says he has reassured his 12-year-old son there won't be a nuclear war, accusing Putin of 'distraction' tactics because his invasion has gone badly; After two oligarchs criticised the war, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is trying to broker a deal end to the war in Ukraine and has already arrived in Belarus to assist in peace talks, it has been reported. His daughter was on social media also slamming the invasion; Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert on Sunday, while Ukraine's embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin's forces drove deeper into the country. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday UKRAINE REFUGEE APPEAL Readers of Mail Newspapers have always shown immense generosity at times of crisis. Calling upon that human spirit, we are now launching an appeal to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. For, surely, no one can fail to be moved by the heartbreaking images and stories of families mostly women, children, the infirm and elderly fleeing from Russia's invading armed forces. As this tally of misery increases over the coming days and months, these innocent victims of a tyrant will require accommodation, schools and medical support. All donations to the Mail Ukraine Appeal will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. In the name of charity and compassion, we urge all our readers to give swiftly and generously. TO MAKE A DONATION ONLINE Via bank transfer, please use these details: Account name: Associated Newspapers Account number: 20769512 Sort code: 50-00-00 TO MAKE A DONATION VIA CHEQUE Make your cheque payable to 'Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal' and post it to: Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal, GFM, 42 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JY Advertisement Putin cited 'aggressive statements' by NATO in issuing a directive to increase the readiness of his country's nuclear weapons - a step that raised fears that the invasion of Ukraine could boil over into nuclear war, whether by design or mistake. The Russian leader is 'potentially putting in play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,' said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Amid the mounting tensions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office announced that the two sides would meet at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border, where a Russian delegation was waiting Sunday. But the Kremlin's ultimate aims in Ukraine - and what steps might be enough to satisfy Moscow - remained unclear. The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv, battles broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from Russian forces. With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost 3million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt civilians could be evacuated. Across the country, Ukrainian defenders were putting up stiff resistance that appeared to slow Russia's advance. Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and fund the purchase of weapons for Ukraine. 'For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,' said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, she said. Also, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly scheduled an emergency session Monday on Russia's invasion. Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only statements by NATO members - who have rushed to reinforce the military alliance's members in Eastern Europe - but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself. He told his military chiefs to put nuclear forces in a 'special regime of combat duty.' 'Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,' Putin said in televised comments. Polina, believed to be around ten or 11, killed while trying to escape the capital in a car with her family. She was shot dead by the Russians with her parents, according to the BBC A child collects toys near a clothes donating point as refugees fleeing conflict in Ukraine arrive at the Medyka border crossing in Poland A pregnant woman and her children sit on a bench in the improvised bomb shelter in a sports center, which can accommodate up to 2000 people, in Mariupol, Ukraine A woman carries a child as they board a bus after fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania An Ukrainian child looks through the window of a car stuck in traffic, as her family drives towards the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing between Ukraine and Poland while fleeing the conflict in their country, near the Ukrainian village of Tvirzha, some 20km from the border Refugee children open sweets received from volunteers after fleeing the conflict from neighbouring Ukraine at the Romanian-Ukrainian border, in Siret, Romania A woman reacts as she embraces a child at a border crossing between Poland and Ukraine, as Polish Border Guards close lanes for vehicles to allow more pedestrian traffic A member of the Polish Border Guard holds a child at a border crossing between Poland and Ukrain A woman clutches her hand to her mouth in a shelter in Mariupol - as Russian troops squeeze strategic ports in the country's south People take shelter inside a building in Mariupol yesterday as children run and crawl underground as the Russians batter the city above A shattered residential building, which locals said was damaged by recent shelling, in Mariupol on Saturday A woman and a girl walk to a shelter during Russian shelling outside Mariupol after the invasion on Thursday A child sleeps on a broken chair as Putin's forces try to take the southern port close to Crimea Anna Zubenko, 60, who was wounded during a rocket attack, talks with her daughter in a hospital in Mariupol on Friday A woman holds her sleeping child in a shelter during Russian shelling, in Mariupol on Thursday Roman Abramovich tries to broker peace deal in Ukraine Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich applauds, as players celebrate their league title win at the end of the Premier League season in 2017 Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is trying to broker a deal end to the war in Ukraine and has already arrived in Belarus to assist in peace talks, it has today been reported. The Russian-Israeli billionaire is believed to have flown into the eastern European country ahead of crunch talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials later today. The businessman has come under pressure to speak out following the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's forces. And there have been calls in Parliament for him to face sanctions as a major oligarch 'with links to the Russian state'. On Saturday, amid the mounting pressure, Mr Abramovich announced plans to hand over the stewardship of his beloved Chelsea to the club's charitable trust. But today, in a surprising move, a spokesman for the club revealed that the businessman has been 'trying to help' in brokering a peace deal 'I can confirm that Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution, and that he has been trying to help ever since,' a Chelsea spokesman said. 'Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have not commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement.' According to the Jerusalem Post, Mr Abramovich is already in Belarus, where delegations from Russia and Ukraine are today set to meet on the border town of Gomel. Ukraine's Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Kornichuk told the news site he would not comment specifically on Abramovich's involvement in the talks. However he added: 'We appreciate anyone who can help, if he has enough influence.' Advertisement U.S. defense officials would not disclose their current nuclear alert level except to say that the military is prepared all times to defend its homeland and allies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC that Putin is resorting to the pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, 'which is to manufacture threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression.' The practical meaning of Putin's order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarine-based nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not. If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the United States might feel compelled to respond in kind, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. That would mark a worrisome escalation, he said. Earlier Sunday, Kyiv was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. A main boulevard was practically deserted as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur. Terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Supplies of food and medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. 'Right now, the most important question is to defend our country,' Klitschko said. In downtown Kharkiv, 86-year-old Olena Dudnik said she and her husband were nearly thrown from their bed by the pressure blast of a nearby explosion. 'Every day there are street fights, even downtown,' with Ukrainian fighters trying to stop Russian tanks, armored vehicles and missile launchers, Dudnik said by phone. She said the lines at drugstores were hours long. 'We are suffering immensely,' she said. 'We don't have much food in the pantry, and I worry the stores aren't going to have anything either, if they reopen.' She added: 'I just want the shooting to stop, people to stop being killed.' Pentagon officials said that Russian troops are being slowed by Ukrainian resistance, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, and that Ukraine's air defense systems, while weakened, are still operating. But a senior U.S. defense official said that will probably change: 'We are in day four. The Russians will learn and adapt.' A man helps a firefighter to extinguish a burning barn following Russian shelling outside outside Mariupol last week Despite the barrage the sane Ukrainian then tried to re install a broken fence at his home This man carried a dog away from his shattered property in the besieged city of Mariupol on Thursday Smoke rise from an air defence base in the aftermath of a Russian strike in Mariupol Damaged radar, a vehicle and equipment are seen at a Ukrainian military facility outside Mariupol on Thursday Putin hasn't disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow's Cold War-era influence. The number of casualties from Europe's largest land conflict since World War II remained unclear amid the fog of war. Ukraine's health minister reported Saturday that 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others wounded. It was not clear whether those figures included both military and civilian casualties. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov gave no figures on Russia's dead and wounded Sunday but said his country's losses were 'many times' lower than Ukraine's. The U.N. refugee agency said Sunday that about 368,000 Ukrainians have arrived in neighboring countries since the invasion started Thursday. Over the weekend, the U.S. pledged an additional $350 million in military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons and body armor. Germany said it would send missiles and anti-tank weapons. The U.S., European Union and Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which moves money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide. They also moved to slap restrictions on Russia's central bank. Russia's economy has taken a pounding since the invasion, with the ruble plunging, the central bank calling for calm to avoid bank runs, and long lines forming at ATMs. Putin sent forces into Ukraine after massing almost 200,000 troops along the country's borders. He claims the West has failed to take seriously Russia's security concerns about NATO, the Western military alliance that Ukraine aspires to join. But he has also expressed scorn about Ukraine's right to exist as an independent state. Russia claims its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighborhoods have been hit. Kyiv survives another night: 'Demoralised' Russian troops suffer 'heavy losses' as they FAIL to breach Ukrainian capital's defences despite city being 'carpet bombed' as negotiators prepare to meet on Belarus border for 'talks' Kyiv has survived another night under Russian attack with Putin's 'demoralised and exhausted' troops suffering 'heavy losses' trying and failing to break through defences in the city's outskirts, Ukraine's commander has said. Colonel General Alexander Syrsky, who is in charge of defending the city, said on Monday morning that 'all attempts' to breach the city failed and that the situation is currently 'under control'. 'We showed that we can protect our home from uninvited guests,' he added. Ukraine's defence ministry put the total number of Russian casualties at 5,300, though that number could not be independently verified. Russia's defence ministry has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses in the conflict, but has not said how many have died. Attacks on Kyiv failed despite the city suffering heavy bombardment, with witnesses reporting the sound of 'carpet-bombing'. At 6am Monday, a curfew that had been in place since 3pm Saturday was lifted - allowing people out to buy food and breathe fresh air - but air raid sirens sounded shortly afterwards. In the early hours, Russia invited all Ukrainian citizens to leave the city via a 'safe' highway - sparking fears that the bombardment could be about to dramatically step up. Moscow employed the same strategy in Syria while fighting alongside Assad's forces, usually before shelling and bombing cities with heavy casualties. Though Russian advanced forces have been fighting in Kyiv's outskirts for several days, the bulk of Putin's assault force is still located around 20 miles away having been slowed up by determined resistance fighters - with satellite images revealing a huge column of vehicles headed for the city. Speaking on Monday morning, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Ukraine to be 'immediately' admitted to the EU - after the alliance stepped up to supply hundreds of million of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, a first in the bloc's history - saying his country had 'earned' the right. He also said Russia's attack had so-far killed 15 children, and wounded dozens more. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says her office has confirmed that 102 civilians, including 7 children, have been killed, and 304 others injured in violence in Ukraine since Thursday, as she cautioned that the tally was likely a vast undercount. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke out against EU plans to arm Ukraine, saying it was a 'hostile action against Russia' - including the possibility that MiG or Sukhoi fighter jets in use by member states could be sent to replenish the Ukrainian air force. The cities of Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv were also bombed overnight, with air raid sirens sounding in other areas. Fighting continued in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city located in the east near the border with Russia, which has been the site of the heaviest clashes so far. In the south, Russians reported capturing the port city of Berdiansk with troops and armoured vehicles shown rolling through the centre, and were closing in on the city of Mariupol which was in danger of becoming surrounded - though remained under Ukrainian control as of the early hours. Even as the battle raged, negotiating teams from both Ukraine and Russia met for talks on the Belarus border aimed at ending the fighting. President Volodymyr Zelensky said ahead of the negotiations that he doesn't expect them to succeed, but had sent a delegation 'to show I tried' to end the war. Ukraine's diplomats, sitting down with their Russian counterparts, said their aim for the talks was ceasefire coupled with the withdrawal of all Putin's forces. Moscow would not be drawn on its aims for the negotiations. It came amid reports that Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko is poised to throw his own troops into the fighting, which US intelligence said could come as soon as Monday. The move follows on from Chechen forces being thrown into battle, which led to the almost-immediate destruction of a column of armoured vehicles and the death of one of their top generals. Belarus on Sunday also voted to amend the country's constitution allowing them to host Russian nuclear weapons, which came after Vladimir Putin's chilling order to his defence chiefs to put the country's nuclear weapons on 'alert' in response to 'threats' from the West. A Russian tank is pictured driving through Borodyanka, to the north-west of Kyiv, as Russian forces attempt to encircle the Ukrainian capital from the west An armed Ukrainian guard is seen on the streets of Kyiv on Monday morning as security is stepped up amid fears of more-frequent and bloodier Russian attacks Security guards in Kyiv search a car amid fears that Russian undercover units will increasingly try to stage sabotage attacks in order to pave the way for a ground offensive Smoke rises over the city of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, where fierce fighting is going on as Russian troops try to take it Ukraine war, day 5: Russian forces are now attempting to skirt around Kyiv and encircle it from the west. Troops fighting out of Crimea continue to make gains and are likely to surround Mariupol soon, while also reaching the outskirts of a key Ukrainian nuclear plant. Fighting in the east continues to be heavy with no breakthrough for Putin An apartment building is pictured on fire in Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, as Russian forces continue to try and reach the Ukrainian capital en masse so they can seize the city Smoke rises over Kyiv on Monday morning as the city awoke from a night of heavy Russian bombardment to relative calm, though there are fears that Moscow's troops could quickly step up their attacks Plumes of smoke rise from a building, which was caused by a cruise missile according to local media, in Kyiv, Ukraine Smoke billows over the town of Vasylkiv just outside Kyiv after an oil refinery was struck by a Russian missile A Ukrainian military vehicle is seen after the curfew was lifted, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov arrives to attend the talks between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Belarus's Gomel region on Monday morning While the exact effect of Putin's order is unclear, it is likely to mean Russian nuclear warheads being moved close to launch systems such as missiles to allow them to be deployed at shorter notice. The two are usually stored separately to avoid the risk of a weapon accidentally being fired. It could also mean mobile weapons being dispersed around the country to make them harder to track down and destroy, and bombs being loaded on to aircraft though not armed - again to reduce the time it would take to mount an attack. Putin's order, while short of raising nuclear tensions to the levels seen between East and West during the Cold War, will add to fears that the war in Ukraine could rapidly escalate into a more far-reaching and devastating conflict - or that an accident could occur sparking potentially devastating consequences. The Russian president gave the order to Sergei Shoigu on Sunday - drawing a quizzical look from his usually-stoic defence minister, who is a veteran of every Russian president since the fall of the Soviet Union. And a senior White House official described it as 'yet another escalatory and totally unnecessary step'. They said in a statement: 'At every step of this conflict, Putin has manufactured threats to justify more aggressive actions. 'He was never under threat from Ukraine or from Nato, which is a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine. 'The only reason his forces face a threat today is because they invaded a sovereign country, and one without nuclear weapons.' Max Bergmann, a former State Department official, called Putin's talk predictable but dangerous sabre-rattling. 'Things could spiral out of control,' he warned. The Russian leader is 'potentially putting in play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,' said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss rapidly unfolding military operations. Putin's directive came as Russian forces encountered strong opposition from Ukraine defenders. Russian invasion forces seized two small cities in southeastern Ukraine and the area around a nuclear power plant, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, but ran into stiff resistance elsewhere as Moscow's diplomatic and economic isolation deepened. Having launched the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two, President Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday in the face of a barrage of Western-led reprisals for his war on Ukraine. Blasts were heard before dawn on Monday in the capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian authorities said. But, Russian ground forces' attempts to capture major urban centres had been repelled, they added. Russia's defence ministry, however, said its forces had taken over the towns of Berdyansk and Enerhodar in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhya region as well as the area around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Interfax reported. The plant's operations continued normally, it said. Ukraine denied that the nuclear plant had fallen into Russian hands, according to the news agency. As Western governments mustered more support for sanctions against Moscow, diplomatic manoeuvring continued with the Vatican joining efforts to end the conflict by offering to 'facilitate dialogue' between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine said negotiations with Moscow without preconditions would be held at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. Russian news agency Tass cited an unidentified source as saying the talks would start on Monday morning. U.S. President Joe Biden will host a call with allies and partners on Monday to coordinate a united response, the White House said. The United States said Putin was escalating the war with 'dangerous rhetoric' about Russia's nuclear posture, amid signs Russian forces were preparing to besiege major cities in the democratic country of about 44 million people. British defence minister Ben Wallace said that he does not expect Russian President Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons. As missiles rained down, nearly 400,000 civilians, mainly women and children, have fled into neighbouring countries, a U.N. relief agency said. A senior U.S. defence official said Russia had fired more than 350 missiles at Ukrainian targets since it launched the invasion last week, some hitting civilian infrastructure. 'It appears that they are adopting a siege mentality, which any student of military tactics and strategy will tell you, when you adopt siege tactics, it increases the likelihood of collateral damage,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson by telephone on Sunday that the next 24 hours would be crucial for Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said. So far, the Russian offensive cannot claim any major victories. Russia has not taken any Ukrainian city, does not control Ukraine's airspace, and its troops remained roughly 19 miles from Kyiv's city centre for a second day, the official said. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a 'special operation' that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. Western-led political, strategic, economic and corporate sanctions were unprecedented in their extent and coordination, and there were further pledges of military support for Ukraine's badly outgunned armed forces. The rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the dollar, after Western nations on Saturday unveiled harsh sanctions including blocking some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system. China's foreign ministry voiced disapproval of the use of sanctions, saying it opposed unilateral, illegal action. Regarding Putin's order to put its nuclear deterrent on high alert, it said that all sides should remain calm and avoid escalation. Japan and South Korea said they would join in the action to block some banks from SWIFT. South Korea, a major exporter of semiconductors, said it would also ban exports of strategic items to Russia. Singapore, a financial and shipping hub, said it intended to impose sanctions and restrictions on Russia, the Straits Times newspaper reported. Japan said it was also considering imposing sanctions against some individuals in Belarus, a key staging area for the Russian invasion. A referendum in Belarus on Sunday approved a new constitution ditching the country's non-nuclear status. In the Baltic state of Latvia, the parliament gave its blessing to any citizen who wanted to fight in Ukraine against the Russian invaders. Several European subsidiaries of Sberbank Russia, majority owned by the Russian government, were failing or were likely to fail due to the reputational cost of the war in Ukraine, the European Central Bank said. Britain said on Monday it was taking further measures against Russia in concert with the United States and European Union, effectively cutting off Moscow's major financial institutions from Western markets. Russia's central bank scrambled to manage the broadening fallout of the sanctions saying it would resume buying gold on the domestic market, launch a repurchase auction with no limits and ease restrictions on banks' open foreign currency positions. A huge column of Russian tanks and support vehicles is seen near Ivankiv, around 40 miles north of Kyiv, on Sunday. The column is now thought to be around 20 miles from the city Russian vehicles are pictured moving in convoy down a highway north of Kyiv at the city of Ivankiv, amid fears that Putin's army is about to significantly step up its assault on the city Russian ground forces in convoy near the city of Ivankiv as they advance towards Kyiv, which has been under bombardment and attack by Moscow's advance forces for days Shoigu and Gerasimov - Russia's two most senior military officials - looked stony-faced during a meeting with Putin during which he ordered the country's nuclear forces on to higher alert Satellite images reveal damage to Gostomel Airport, on the ouskirts of Kyiv, after Russian forces attempted to capture it and use it to deploy paratroopers in an apparent attempt to end the war early Damage is seen to the airport at Gostomel, Ukraine, after days of heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces Smoke rises into the air over the runway at Gostomel Airport, near Kyiv, which has been the scene of heavy fighting It also ordered brokers to block attempt by foreigners to sell Russian securities. That could complicate plans by the sovereign wealth funds of Norway and Australia, which said they planned to wind down their exposure to Russian-listed companies. Corporate giants also took action, with British oil major BP BP, the biggest foreign investor in Russia, saying it would abandon its stake in state oil company Rosneft at a cost of up to $25 billion. The European Union on Sunday decided for the first time in its history to supply weapons to a country at war, pledging arms including fighter jets to Ukraine. Germany, which had already frozen a planned undersea gas pipeline from Russia, said it would increase defence spending massively, casting off decades of reluctance to match its economic power with military clout. EU Chief Executive Ursula von der Leyen expressed support for Ukraine's membership in an interview with Euronews, saying 'they are one of us.' The EU shut all Russian planes out of its airspace, as did Canada, forcing Russian airline Aeroflot to cancel all flights to European destinations until further notice. The United States and France urged their citizens to consider leaving Russia immediately. The EU also banned the Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik. In New York, the U.N. Security Council convened a rare emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, or all the United Nations' 193 member states, for Monday. Rolling protests have been held around the world against the invasion, including in Russia, where almost 6,000 people have been detained at anti-war protests since Thursday, the OVD-Info protest monitor said. Tens of thousands of people across Europe marched in protest, including more than 100,000 in Berlin. Nearly, 71,000 Ukrainians had crossed into Romania since the invasion began, a Romanian government spokesman said. Meta Platforms said it had removed a network of about 40 fake accounts, groups and pages across Facebook and Instagram that operated from Russia and Ukraine targeting public figures in Ukraine, for violating its rules against coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Twitter said it had also suspended more than a dozen accounts and blocked the sharing of several links for violating its rules against platform manipulation and spam. Moscow has so far failed to win full control of Ukraine's airspace, despite advances across the country. U.S. officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts. The conflict - seemingly more quiet overnight Sunday than in past nights - could evolve significantly if Russia gets military help from neighboring Belarus, which is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as Monday, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of current U.S. intelligence assessments who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The official said that whether Belarus enters the war depends on Ukraine-Russia talks set to happen in coming days. Amid the mounting pressure, Western nations said they would tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft. European countries will also supply fighter jets to Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, meanwhile, announced plans for a meeting with a Russian delegation at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border. It wasn't immediately clear when the meeting would take place, nor what the Kremlin was ultimately seeking, either in those potential talks on the border or, more broadly, from its war in Ukraine. Western officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow's Cold War-era influence. The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv. Battles also broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from Russian forces. By late Sunday, Russian forces had taken Berdyansk, a Ukrainian city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy's office. Russian troops also made advances toward Kherson, another city in the south of Ukraine, while Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov that is considered a prime Russian target, is 'hanging on,' Arestovich said. With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. In Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling. During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, looked directly into the Associated Press video camera capturing the scene. 'Show this to Putin,' he said angrily. 'The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.' Their resuscitation efforts failed, and the girl lay dead on a gurney, her jacket spattered with blood. Nearly 900 kilometers (560 miles) away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv. 'I wish I had never lived to see this,' said Bystritska, an 87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Kyiv. Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to Russian rebel forces in eastern Donbass region are show inside an assembly hall Soldiers with Ukrainian flags on their sleeves are pictured after apparently being captured by Moscow's forces A Russian tank burning in the Ukrainians city of Sumy just days after newly revealed dashcam footage showed a huge column of tanks moving in Russian forces entered Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv today after failing in their overnight efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv Ukraine's Ministry of Defence today claimed it has killed more than 4,300 Russian soldiers in the first three days of fighting. Russia has not released an updates on its military losses. Pictured: An Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighter examines a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicle GAZ Tigr after the fight in Kharkiv The mood is not exactly promising for talks but Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv and Moscow will hold peace talks at the northern border with Belarus later on Monday. Pictured, the meeting room where the talks will take place Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Ukraine faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights 'so we don't draw their attention,' said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself. 'The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this constant thundering noise,' she said. Meanwhile, the top official in the EU outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and buy weapons for Ukraine. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The U.S. also stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday. Germany likewise plans to send 500 Stingers and other military supplies. Also, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly scheduled an emergency session Monday on Russia's invasion. Putin, in ordering the nuclear alert, cited not only statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself. 'Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,' Putin said in televised comments. U.S. defense officials would not disclose their current nuclear alert level except to say that the military is prepared all times to defend its homeland and allies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC that Putin is resorting to the pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, 'which is to manufacture threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression.' The practical meaning of Putin's order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarine-based nuclear forces that are on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not. In Kyiv, terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Food and medicine were running low, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. 'Right now, the most important question is to defend our country,' Klitschko said. In downtown Kharkiv, 86-year-old Olena Dudnik said she and her husband were nearly thrown from their bed by the pressure blast of a nearby explosion. 'We are suffering immensely,' she said by phone. 'We don't have much food in the pantry, and I worry the stores aren't going to have anything either, if they reopen.' She added: 'I just want the shooting to stop, people to stop being killed.' Russia's failure thus far to win full control of Ukraine's airspace is a surprising lapse that has given outgunned Ukrainian forces a chance to slow the advance of Russian ground forces. Normally, gaining what the military calls air superiority is one of the first priorities for an invading force. But even though Russian troops are being slowed by Ukrainian resistance, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, a senior U.S. defense official said that will probably change. 'We are in day four. The Russians will learn and adapt,' the official said. The number of casualties from Europe's largest land conflict since World War II remained unclear amid the confusion. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said Sunday that 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, including 14 children. It said an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov gave no figures on Russia's dead and wounded but said Sunday his country's losses were 'many times' lower than Ukraine's. Along with military assistance, the U.S., European Union and Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which moves money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide. Russia's economy has taken a pounding since the invasion, with the ruble plunging and the central bank calling for calm to avoid bank runs. Russia, which massed almost 200,000 troops along Ukraine's borders, claims its assault is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighborhoods have also been h Advertisement The Kremlin has blamed the UK's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for ordering Russia's nuclear deterrent to be on high alert, claiming she made 'absolutely unacceptable' remarks about wider conflict with NATO. Vladimir Putin said he had placed Moscow's nuclear forces on a 'special regime of combat duty' in response to 'aggressive statements' from members of the Nato defence alliance. But his spokesman Dmitry Peskov went further on Monday to blame the escalation during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on Ms Truss. Ukraine war: The latest Ukraine's MoD says Russia has lost 5,300 soldiers, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 151 tanks Russia's MoD has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses, but refused to say how many Russian economy entered freefall as Western sanctions put in place over the weekend took effect, with ruble sliding to its lowest level ever Moscow's central bank has more-than doubled the interest rate to 20 per cent Russia orders people and companies to sell 80 per cent of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble to help prop it up Moscow stock exchange won't open until at least 3pm in an attempt to head off all-out crash Advertisement The Foreign Secretary quickly struck back, with an ally saying the move was 'clearly designed to distract from the situation on the ground in Ukraine'. It comes after experts warned Putin putting Russia's nuclear deterrent on 'alert' 'sounds like a direct threat of nuclear war'. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, the editor of Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said the move meant 'if Russia isn't treated as he wants, then everything will be destroyed'. He also pointed out calls from the West for political elites there to overthrow their president were redundant because 'they always take the side of the ruler'. Meanwhile a US defence official warned Putin could be tempted to turn to his nuclear arsenal if he keeps being frustrated by his stumbling Ukraine invasion. And Caitlin Talmadge, a nuclear policy expert at Georgetown University, said there is a 'real possibility' the Russian leader could drop a bomb if the diplomatic and political situation continues to crumble. But NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned Putin, saying he was being 'reckless and dangerous'. The escalating fears of a nuclear battle come despite Kyiv and Moscow agreeing to hold peace talks at the border with Belarus later on Monday. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was sceptical about the negotiations, with his government reporting hundreds of civilian deaths and Russian troops besieging key cities. Elsewhere in the spiralling crisis: Alexander Lukashenko issued his own threat that the West's sanctions are pushing the Kremlin into WWIII; Photographs capturing the death of an innocent six-year-old dubbed the girl in the pink unicorn pyjamas; Anonymous have targeted three Russian state news agencies and have taken down the Kremlin website; Roman Abramovich is trying to broker a deal to end to the war in Ukraine and 'has already arrived in Belarus'; Britons are 'willing to die' for Ukraine and will head to the war-torn country to fight against the invading army. Putin's spokesman today blamed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (pictured today) for Russia placing its nuclear deterrent on high alert - after she warned the Ukrainian invasion risked spilling over into a wider conflict, involving NATO member states Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured left) today confirmed negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would be held at the border with Belarus - as Vladimir Putin (pictured today on a trip to the National Space Centre) ordered the forces operating Russia's nuclear deterrent to be on alert amid simmering tensions with the West. The Ukrainian President's office said the two delegations will meet 'without preconditions' near the Pripyat River, in a deal struck during a phone call with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. The Ukrainian delegation disembarks a Belarusian military helicopter as they arrive for Russian-Ukrainian talks this morning The Ukrainian delegation is pictured arriving on Belarusian military helicopters for the Russian/Ukrainian talks on Monday morning A huge table in the hall at Rumyantsev-Paskevich Palace, the venue hosting the talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations, is pictured in Grodno today This map shows the strikes Russia is so-far known to have carried out against Ukraine, with more explosions rocking the country in the early hours of Sunday morning 'Why do we need the world, if Russia won't be in it?' Putin's 'propagandist-in-chief' threatens the West with nuclear destruction Vladimir Putin's 'propagandist-in-chief' has threatened the West with nuclear destruction just hours after the Russian leader put his deterrent forces on 'alert'. Speaking on nation-wide TV amid a frenzy of anti-Western rhetoric, TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov told viewers: 'Our submarines can shoot more than 500 nuclear warheads. 'This would guarantee destruction of the USA, and all other NATO countries. 'In accordance with the principle 'Why do we need the world, if Russia isn't there?' 'Russia's nuclear arms are delivered by the world's fastest strategic bombers. 'That's without even mentioning Russian Strategic Missile Forces. The Russian nuclear potential is the strongest in the world. 'Today our Russian Nuclear Triad is on the high alert. Putin did warn [the West]. Do not try to scare Russia.' TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov has threatened the West with nuclear destruction just hours after the Russian leader put his deterrent forces on 'alert' Advertisement Mr Putin's spokesman told the Interfex news agency today: 'Statements were made by various representatives at various levels on possible altercations or even collisions and clashes between Nato and Russia. 'We believe that such statements are absolutely unacceptable. I would not call the authors of these statements by name, although it was the British foreign minister.' It was not immediately clear what statements the Kremlin was referring to. An ally of Ms Truss quickly struck back at the Kremlin's claims, saying: 'Nothing Liz has said warrants that sort of escalation. 'It's clearly designed to distract from the situation on the ground in Ukraine. 'The Foreign Secretary has always talked about Nato in the context of it being a defensive alliance. 'Her point is that we stand by Article 5, and that we must do everything we can to help Ukraine short of putting boots on the ground. 'We take it very seriously and want to keep the situation calm.' Meanwhile Mr Muratov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for 'safeguarding freedom of expression', told the BBC: 'Putin's words sound like a direct threat of nuclear war. 'This is a threat that if Russia isn't treated as he wants, then everything will be destroyed.' He added: 'Russia's political elites are never with the people. They always take the side of the ruler.' Meanwhile Ms Talmadge, an associate professor of security studies, said Putin's move was 'escalatory as it is potentially putting at play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous'. She told the FT: 'There's a real possibility Putin could turn to nuclear weapons if he continues to experience military setbacks and sees the diplomatic and political situation crumbling.' Chairman of the UK's Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat said Russia sees battlefield nuclear weapons as simply 'a bigger bang' and could give a military order to use them. The Tory MP told the Today programme: 'The Russian military doctrine doesn't work in the same way as the Nato military doctrine. 'They do assume that they may use battlefield nuclear weapons and they see them as just a, if you'll excuse the expression, a bigger bang. They don't treat fallout in the same way we do.' He added although the situation was 'concerning,' it was not unprecedented for Russia to threaten nuclear action. He said: 'That said, Russia has frequently threatened nuclear deployments in the past. 'This is not unusual but at the same time it is concerning and it is not impossible a Russian military order to use battlefield nuclear weapons could be given.' Mr Muratov (pictured), who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for 'safeguarding freedom of expression', told the BBC: 'Putin's words sound like a direct threat of nuclear war Shoigu and Gerasimov - Russia's two most senior military officials - looked stony-faced during the meeting with Putin Putin attends a meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov in Moscow In a televised address, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (pictured right) said the talks were called after Belarus prepared its forces to join the Russian invasion. 'Today, we were as close as ever to the entry of Belarus armed forces into the war. This is why Presiden Zelensky and President Lukashenko (pictured left) spoke today,' he said in his address. A view of Kyiv during a curfew in the early morning with steam from a heating plant on Monday in the capital city A Russian tank burning in the Ukrainians city of Sumy just days after newly revealed dashcam footage showed a huge column of tanks moving in Ukraine's Ministry of Defence today claimed it has killed more than 4,300 Russian soldiers in the first three days of fighting. Russia has not released an updates on its military losses. Pictured: An Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighter examines a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicle GAZ Tigr after the fight in Kharkiv Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24 prompting the country's president to declare martial law and triggering a series of announcements by Western countries to impose severe economic sanctions on Russia Now oligarchs turn on Putin Two Russian billionaires have become the first powerful oligarchs to speak out and call for an end to the conflict triggered by President Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine. Mikhail Fridman, who was born in western Ukraine, and Oleg Deripaska have condemned Putin's invasion by calling for peace talks 'as fast as possible' between the two countries in an unusual intervention from Russia's leading business elite. Mr Fridman, who is a co-founder of Russia's largest private bank Alfa and controls private equity firm LetterOne, called for the 'bloodshed' to end. The 57-year-old, who was ranked as the 128th richest person in the world by Forbes in 2021, also said the war was a 'tragedy' for both countries' people and told LetterOne staff in a letter that the conflict was driving a wedge between the two eastern Slav peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who have been brothers for centuries. He wrote: 'I was born in Western Ukraine and lived there until I was 17. My parents are Ukrainian citizens and live in Lviv, my favourite city. But I have also spent much of my life as a citizen of Russia, building and growing businesses. I am deeply attached to the Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.' Meanwhile billionaire Mr Deripaska - who is the founder of Russian aluminium giant Rusal in which he still owns a stake via his shares in its parent company En+ Group - used a post on Telegram to called for peace talks to begin 'as fast as possible'. The 54-year-old said: 'Peace is very important.' Advertisement Putin escalated tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert after new crippling Western sanctions forced his Central Bank to sharply raise its key rate to save the rouble from collapse. The explosions and gunfire around the Ukrainian capital besieged by the Russian forces appeared to subside overnight. The Russian military offered to allow residents to leave Kyiv via a safe corridor while it has beefed up for an onslaught on the capital. Ukraine has agreed to talks with Moscow and its delegation was heading to the border with Belarus in the north for the meeting. Citing 'aggressive statements' by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin yesterday increased the readiness of his nuclear weapons, raising fears the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war. Putin's directive came as Russian forces encountered strong opposition from Ukraine defenders across the country but notably in Kyiv. Moscow has so far failed to win full control of airspace, despite advances across the country. US officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult than the Kremlin envisioned though it could change. The conflict - seemingly more quiet overnight Sunday than in past nights - could evolve significantly if Russia gets military help from neighbouring Belarus, which is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as Monday. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said whether Belarus enters the war depends on Ukraine-Russia talks set to happen in coming days. Amid the mounting pressure, Western nations said they would tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft. European countries will also supply fighter jets to Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday evening. Lukashenko said: 'Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector, gas, oil, Swift. It's worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a Third World War. We need to be restrained here so as not to get into trouble. Because nuclear war is the end of everything.' UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putin's invasion Students and staff of the Uzhgorod Vocational Training Center weld anti-tank hedgehogs, in Uzhhorod, western Ukraine A person walks on a street after the curfew was lifted, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, this morning A Ukrainian military vehicle is seen after the curfew was lifted, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, this morning Police officers check people from a car they are stopped amid mass panic in the city there are Russian spies infiltrating them Kremlin 'sends more than 400 mercenaries from private militia into Kyiv to assassinate President Zelensky and his government' More than 400 Russian mercenaries have been flown in from Africa to assassinate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, it was revealed last night. A private militia known as the Wagner Group allegedly has orders from Vladimir Putin to take out Zelensky - and 23 other government figures - to allow Moscow to take over its eastern European neighbour. According to the Times, the army-for-hire, run by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin - a close ally of the Russian president who is often dubbed 'Putin's chef' - was flown in five weeks ago and is being offered a huge sum for the mission. The highly-trained operatives are said to be waiting for the green light from the Kremlin to pounce, with their hit list also including Ukraine's prime minister, the entire cabinet, mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir - both boxing champions who have become iconic figures on the front lines of the capital. However the plans were rumbled after they reached the upper echelons of the Ukrainian government on Saturday morning. Advertisement President Zelenskyy's office has confirmed a meeting with a Russian delegation at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border. It was not immediately clear when the meeting would take place, nor what the Kremlin was ultimately seeking, either in those potential talks on the border or, more broadly, from its war in Ukraine. Western officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow's Cold War-era influence. The developments came as scattered fighting has continued around Kyiv. Battles also broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from Russian forces. By late Sunday, Russian forces had taken Berdyansk, a Ukrainian city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy's office. Russian troops also made advances toward Kherson, another city in the south of Ukraine, while Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov that is considered a prime Russian target, is 'hanging on,' Arestovich said. Russian Defence Minister Major General Igor Konashenkov also said troops took control of the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the south, but said the plant was safe and the radiation levels remained normal. With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of three million, the mayor expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs. But Konashenkov said the military would let Kyiv residents use a highway that leads out of the city to the southwest - an offer that appeared to signal a new onslaught is coming. A nearly 40-hour curfew in Kyiv ended on Monday morning. The curfew will resume each night, from 10 pm until 7am. A deserted street is seen after the curfew was lifted, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, on Monday morning Ukrainians wait for their relatives after passing the border checkpoint as civilians from Ukraine arrive at the Velke Slemence border crossing, Slovakia Ukrainians wait for their relatives after passing the border checkpoint at the Velke Slemence on Monday morning A Ukrainian woman stands on the phone as she waits at the border crossing into Slovakia in the dark on Monday morning Ukrainians wait for their relatives after passing the border checkpoint as civilians from Ukraine arrive at Velke Slemence A man stands on a phone call as he waits for relatives after passing the border checkpoint the Velke Slemence this morning Ukrainian sailor arrested for 'partially SINKING' 5m yacht owned by Russian boss who makes weapons for Putin An irate Ukrainian sailor who tried to sink a rich Russian's 5million-plus yacht in the Med after war broke out at home has been set free and declared: 'I'd do it again'. The unnamed 55-year-old mechanic said he scuppered the vessel in Mallorca because he claims his boss sells weapons to Putin that are being used to kill and maim his countrymen. He told police: 'I don't regret anything I've done and I would do it again.' The 156ft luxury yacht, named Lady Anastasia, was moored at Pord Adriano by Alexander Mijeev, a former head of the Russian Helicopter Corporation who took over state-owned weapons supplier Rostec six years ago. Mijeev's member of staff, who had worked for him for several years, decided to sink the ship shortly after Russia's invasion began. He allegedly opened three valves on the five-cabin yacht so it would take on water 'in an act of revenge', according to Mallorcan newspaper Ultima Hora. The Ukrainian sank the Lady Anastasia in Mallorca because he claims his Russian boss sells weapons to Putin Advertisement In Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling. A doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, said: 'Show this to Putin. The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.' Their resuscitation efforts failed, and the girl lay dead on a gurney, her jacket spattered with blood. Nearly 560 miles away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv. 'I wish I had never lived to see this,' said Bystritska, an 87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 90 miles from Kyiv. Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights 'so we don't draw their attention,' said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself. 'The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this constant thundering noise,' she said. Meanwhile Western allies announced a freeze on Russia's hard currency reserves - an unprecedented move that could have devastating consequences for the country's financial system. The rouble dived sharply on the news, and Russia's Central Bank has raised its key rate from 9.5 per cent to 20 per cent in a desperate attempt to shore up the plummeting national currency and and prevent a run on banks. The US, European Union and Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which facilitates moving money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide. The EU on Sunday also closed its airspace to Russian airlines and buy weapons for Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The US stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday. Germany likewise plans to send 500 Stingers and other military supplies. Also, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly scheduled an emergency session Monday on Russia's invasion. Putin, in ordering the nuclear alert, cited not only statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself. He said on TV: 'Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country.' US defence officials would not disclose their current nuclear alert level except to say the military is prepared at all times to defend its homeland and allies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC Putin is resorting to the pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, 'which is to manufacture threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression'. The practical meaning of Putin's order was not immediately clear. Russia and the US typically have land- and submarine-based nuclear forces that are on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but aircraft are not. While Russian troops are being slowed by Ukrainians, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, a senior US defence official said it will probably change. He said: 'We are in day four. The Russians will learn and adapt.' The number of casualties from Europe's largest land conflict since the Second World War remained unclear amid the confusion. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said Sunday that 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, including 14 children. It said an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded. Russia's Defence gave no figures on Russia's dead and wounded but said Sunday his country's losses were 'many times' lower than Ukraine's. Russia, which massed almost 200,000 troops along Ukraine's borders, claims its assault is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighbourhoods have also been hit. UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putin's invasion HOW IS PUTIN'S WAR NOT GOING TO PLAN? MONEY According to Ukrainian intelligence sources, Putin's war with Ukraine is costing the Russian economy around 15billion-per-day alone meaning the Kremlin will have spent around 45billion by the end of today in fighting Ukraine. Writing on Twitter, Terras claimed that Russia would be forced to enter negotiations with Ukraine if Kyiv can hold off the Kremlin's advance for 10 days, by which point Russia will have spent around 150billion. Though it is widely believed that the Russian dictator will have factored Western sanctions into his calculations, the combined effect of punitive measures on Russia's banking system will further squeeze its economy. The United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, Australia and the European Union unveiled more sanctions on Moscow on top of penalties earlier this week, including a move by Germany to halt a gas pipeline from Russia. President Joe Biden delivered further measures to target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors, while the EU unveiled its own new package including financial, energy and technological sanctions. WEAPONS AND RESOURCES Citing Ukrainian intelligence, Terras also claimed that Russia has rockets for 'three to four days at most' which they use 'sparingly'. He added: 'They lack weapons, the Tula and 2 Rotenberg plants can't physically fulfil the orders for weapons. Rifles and ammo are the most they can do. 'The next Russian weapons can be produced in 3-4 months if even that. They have no raw materials. What was previously supplied mainly from Slovenia, Finland and Germany is now cut off. 'If Ukraine manages to hold the Russians off for 10 days, then the Russians will have to enter negotiations. Because they have no money, weapons, or resources'. OVERCONFIDENCE Terras also claimed that at a meeting of the oligarchs in his lair in the Urals, Putin was 'furious' and ranted about how he thought the war would be 'easily' won in 'one to four days'. He continued: 'Russia's whole plan relies on panic that the civilians and armed forces surrender and Zelensky flees. 'They expect Kharkiv to surrender first so the other cities would follow suit to avoid bloodshed. The Russians are in shock of the fierce resistance they have encountered'. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog has said missiles hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Ukrainian officials informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general's office of the strike late on Sunday. There were no initial reports of damage to the buildings or indications of a release of radioactive material but further monitoring was underway. Such facilities typically hold low-level radioactive materials such as waste from hospitals and industry, but IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the two incidents highlight a 'very real risk'. He said if the sites are damaged there could be 'potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment'. It is not clear whether Russian forces deliberately attacked the site after they targeted Chernobyl, taking it during the first days of the invasion. The report of an attack came a day after an electrical transformer at a similar disposal facility in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was damaged and as Russian troops appeared to have encircled the capital. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog has said missiles hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. (pictured, a big fire at a petroleum storage depot after a Russian missile attack, in Vasylkiv near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Saturday night) It is not clear whether Russian forces deliberately attacked the site after they targeted Chernobyl, the site of a nuclear disaster in 1986 (pictured), taking it during the first days of the invasion Such facilities typically hold low-level radioactive materials such as waste from hospitals and industry, but IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the two incidents highlight a 'very real risk' It comes as Russian troops drew closer to the Ukrainian capital whose mayor warned the city was encircled, and President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces to be put on high alert. In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) on Sunday, after a gruelling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city, mayor Vitali Klitschko was silent for several seconds when asked if there were plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv. 'We can't do that, because all ways are blocked,' he finally said. 'Right now we are encircled.' A senior US intelligence official has also said Belarus is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as today to fight alongside Russian forces that invaded last week. Belarus has been providing support for Russia's war effort, but so far has not taken a direct part in the conflict. Belarus is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as Monday to fight alongside Russian forces that invaded last week (pictured, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko) A Russian tank burning in the Ukrainians city of Sumy just days after newly revealed dashcam footage showed a huge column of tanks moving in Ukraine's Ministry of Defence today claimed it has killed more than 4,300 Russian soldiers in the first three days of fighting. Russia has not released an updates on its military losses. Pictured: An Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighter examines a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicle GAZ Tigr after the fight in Kharkiv The Russian rouble sank nearly 26 per cent against the US dollar early on Monday after Western nations moved to block Russian banks from the Swift global payment system. The rouble was trading at a record low 105.27 per dollar (78.95), down from about 84 per dollar (63) late on Friday. Earlier, Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces to be put on high alert in response to what he called 'aggressive statements' by leading NATO powers. The order to put Russia's nuclear weapons in an increased state of readiness for launch raised fears that the crisis could boil over into nuclear warfare, whether by design or miscalculation. Amid the mounting tensions, Ukraine announced that a delegation would meet with Russian officials for talks. But the Kremlin's ultimate intentions towards Ukraine - and what steps might be enough to satisfy Moscow - remained unclear. Hours after Putin's announcement, the top official in the European Union said the 27-nation bloc will close its airspace to Russian airlines and fund the purchase of weapons for Ukraine and ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, she said. Street fighting also broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under pressure from the invading forces. Ukrainian and Russian officials will on Monday meet for peace talks, though it is not thought to be likely the negotiations will result in a breakthrough. Ukrainian servicemen patrol during a curfew as Russian forces continue to advance on the third day of fighting around Kyiv Ukrainian troops gather around a fire during a brief period of rest as they defend their capital, Kyiv, from Russian forces The mood is not exactly promising for talks but Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv and Moscow will hold peace talks at the northern border with Belarus later on Monday. Pictured, the meeting room where the talks will take place UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putins invasion A Russian talk show host has claimed Ukrainian nationalists are 'annihilating locals' in a 'witch hunt' after Putin's 'propagandist-in-chief' threatened the West with nuclear destruction in another TV rant. Olga Skabeyeva, known as the 'iron doll of Putin TV', made the fake claim that a civil war has broken out in Ukraine and nationalists are killing their own neighbours. According to the BBC's Francis Scarr, she said: 'In Kyiv, the witch hunt is well underway. Ukrainian nationalists are annihilating the locals, and they're doing it extra-judicially. 'The civil war in Ukraine is now more than real. People are starting to realise that they don't need to fear Russian soldiers, but their own neighbours who've got hold of weapons.' Dmitry Kiselev, one of the Kremlin's most venomous TV propagandists, also accused German chancellor Olaf Scholz of 'solidarity with the genocide of today' that Kiselev, parroting Putin, claimed was being perpetrated against Russian-speakers in Ukraine. The propaganda has led many Russians to be convinced that the conflict was provoked by the West. Olga Skabeyeva, known as the 'iron doll of Putin TV', made the fake claim that a civil war has broken out in Ukraine and nationalists are killing their own neighbours TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov has threatened the West with nuclear destruction just hours after the Russian leader put his deterrent forces on 'alert' Speaking on nation-wide TV amid a frenzy of anti-Western rhetoric, TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov told viewers: 'Our submarines can shoot more than 500 nuclear warheads. 'This would guarantee destruction of the USA, and all other NATO countries. 'In accordance with the principle 'Why do we need the world, if Russia isn't there?' 'Russia's nuclear arms are delivered by the world's fastest strategic bombers. 'That's without even mentioning Russian Strategic Missile Forces. The Russian nuclear potential is the strongest in the world. 'Today our Russian Nuclear Triad is on the high alert. Putin did warn [the West]. Do not try to scare Russia.' In his Vesti Nedeli weekly news show on state-run Rossiya 1 channel aired across Russia's 11 time zones, he blamed Liz Truss for seeking to 'intimidate' Russia. In his Vesti Nedeli weekly news show on state-run Rossiya 1 channel aired across Russia's 11 time zones, Kiselyov blamed Liz Truss for seeking to 'intimidate' Russia His comments come after Putin ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a 'special regime of duty' Kiselyov chided the foreign secretary for reportedly saying a conflict between Russia and NATO could emerge from the crescent Ukrainian crisis. 'A conflict between Russia and NATO over Ukraine - nothing like this has been said before,' he said. But Russia's nuclear capability with new-age 'superweapons' like 'hypersonic Tsirkon' were more than a match for the West's capability, he said. The threats are part of a media offensive from the Kremlin in which Ukraine's fighters are painted as Nazis and Russia is viewed as a liberating force. Meanwhile Russian state TV talk show host Olga Skabeyeva said: 'You know, as they retreat, the Ukrainian Nazis continue to destroy Donbas. 'Today Zhelobok was shelled with Grad multiple rocket launchers. Yesterday the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched Tochka ballistic missiles at an oil facility.' The propaganda has led many Russians to be convinced that the conflict was provoked by the West. The threats are part of a media offensive from the Kremlin in which Ukraine's fighters are painted as Nazis and Russia is viewed as a liberating force 'Nato pushed us into this war,' said Vladimir Butyrkin, 61, a retired trucker. 'We are a peaceful people. Nobody in Russia wanted this. The Ukrainians are our brothers but sometimes you need to correct your brothers when they get stupid ideas in their heads.' Younger, tech-savvy Russians who access independent news are more likely to be critical of Putin and his invasion, but the Kremlin has responded by shutting Facebook down. Now the cyber security team at Meta - parent of Facebook and Instagram - has blocked a set of pro-Russian fake accounts and hacked social media profiles that were part of a scheme to undermine Ukraine, the tech giant said Sunday. The accounts were conducting a campaign of misinformation, pushing content supporting Russian activities and painting Ukraine as a pawn of the West, according to a Meta statement. 'They ran websites posing as independent news entities and created fake personas across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and also Odnoklassniki and VK (Russian social media networks),' Meta said in a blog post. In some cases, 'they used profile pictures that we believe were likely generated using artificial intelligence techniques.' The small network of Facebook and Instagram accounts targeted people in Ukraine, using posts to try to get people to visit websites featuring bogus news about the country's effort to defend itself from the invasion by Russia. It comes after Putin ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a 'special regime of duty' in light of 'aggressive statements' from NATO leaders and 'unfriendly economic actions'. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg responded: 'This is dangerous rhetoric'. Citing 'aggressive statements' by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia's nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake. A damaged military vehicle is pictured on the outskirt of Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia's nuclear weapons A satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows a large convoy of Russian ground forces in convoy near Ivankiv, Ukraine The Russian leader is 'potentially putting in play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,' said a senior US defence official. Russia has the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles. The US, the world's second largest nuclear power, slammed Putin's order as 'totally unacceptable'. Germany said Putin's nuclear order was because his offensive had 'halted' and was not going to plan. Putin's directive came as Russian forces encountered strong opposition from Ukraine defenders. Moscow has so far failed to win full control of Ukraine's airspace, despite advances across the country. Ukrainian servicemen patrol during a curfew as Russian forces continue to advance on the third day in Kyiv Citizens of Kyiv have resorted to arming themselves amid fears of an imminent invasion by Russian troops. (Pictured: satellite image showing Russian army heading to the capital of Ukraine) US officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts. The conflict - seemingly more quiet overnight Sunday than in past nights - could evolve significantly if Russia gets military help from neighbouring Belarus, which is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as today, according to a senior US official. The source said that whether Belarus enters the war depends on Ukraine-Russia talks set to happen in coming days. Amid the mounting pressure, Western nations said they would tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft. European countries will also supply fighter jets to Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, has confirmed a meeting with a Russian delegation at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border. It wasn't immediately clear when the meeting would take place, nor what the Kremlin was ultimately seeking, either in those potential talks on the border or, more broadly, from its war in Ukraine. Western officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow's Cold War-era influence. A rescue of two Lismore residents from fast-rising floodwaters has been broadcast on live television with one of the elderly locals delivering a classic Australian response to the crisis. John, 86, was helped onto a boat by Seven News reporter Bill Hogan as he walked along the Bruxner Highway when floodwaters forced him to leave his house of five decades. After struggling to climb aboard because of arthritis in both hips, John was asked how he felt about the deluge and replied: 'I'd rather not talk about it... good to see some rain though'. He then pointed to where he had walked from, which was entirely underwater, and said he had seen quite a few floods in his 56 years at the property. Rescued of Lismore residents have been going on throughout Monday amid record breaking floods (pictured) 'We've been waiting at the house since 9 o'clock but these fellas (the rescue crews) were busy, they do a wonderful job don't you think.' 'We can't grumble, there's always someone worse off isn't there,' he added. Rescues of Lismore residents have been carried out throughout Monday as a record breaking torrential downpour cause rivers in the area to break their banks. Kate Davis climbed onto the roof of her house on Casino Street, South Lismore, with her husband and children before dawn on Monday as water overwhelmed their home after the Wilson river breached its levee. The family has been waiting six hours for help, taking shelter under their solar panels and planning an escape on their boogie boards. John, 86, after he was helped aboard the boat as he walked across the Wilson River bridge in the background (pictured) 'About 12 o'clock last night, we were ankle deep in water and by three this morning it was lapping at our two-storey balcony,' Ms Davis told the Nine Network on Monday. 'By 4.15 we were on the roof.' 'It was dark. We just grabbed shoes and whatever floatation devices we could find and popped the kids on the roof and called for help. 'We have been sitting waiting ever since.' Ms Davis says her children have been trying to keep warm and dry under a shelter attached to their solar panels, while many of their neighbours seek refuge in their roof cavities. SES crews and Lismore locals have been ferrying locals to higher ground (pictured) One man was pictured rescuing a pet goat from the rapidly rising floods (pictured) She has been posting about their situation on social media, but there has been no word from emergency services on when they will be rescued. 'I have some neighbours next to us who are actually stuck in their roof cavity and they really need help, desperately, but we are still waiting.' The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast rainfall of up to 200mm, with a major flood warning for the Tweed River. 'If another 200mm comes, we will all be swimming and I am talking about at least 50 people,' Ms Davis said. 'It is really, really scary.' Ms Davis says her daughters are coping 'surprisingly' well. 'We have our boogie boards. We will use our leg ropes to tie ourselves together and float if that is what it comes to.' The water had reached roof level by Monday afternoon with the peak not expected until late Monday night. A group of surfers on have been praised for their heroic actions after dramatically rescuing an elderly man who was being swept out to sea in wild weather. The surfers were making the most of the swell by surfing floodwaters being released from Dee Why lagoon into Long Reef Beach, which happens regularly during periods of heavy rain. But amid the the fun, a man got caught by the water as he was trying to cross the lagoon. Fabio Silvestre was the first to reach the man, but was unable on his own to stop him from being swept away. Surfers are pictured rescuing an elderly man who was being swept out to sea on Sydney's Northern Beaches Dramatic footage captured by a local drone surf photographer showed three more surfers then coming to the man's aid, but the wall of water was still pushing them all out of the lagoon. 'Everything happened super quick, we just got a wash out, we tried to keep his head up,' Mr Silvestre said. Then another surfer joined in with the rescue and managed to offer the elderly man his hand and get him out and onto the sand. The surfers in the initial rescue party also managed to pull themselves back to the safety of the dunes. 'He was in shock, he didn't say much, a bunch of the guys asked him if he was OK, did he take in water and he was just shaking his head,' Eugene Du Plessis, another surfer, said. The surfers said the man did not say anything, but tried to go back into the water again to get across the lagoon before giving up and heading to the carpark. His identity remains a mystery. Fabio Silvestre (pictured) is one of the surfers being hailed as heroes for rescuing an elderly man being pulled out to sea in wild weather Locals said the lagoon is rarely as dangerous as it was on this occasion due to the wild weather. 'The water running out like the way it did, I've never seen it like that,' Mr Du Plessis said. Though they he didn't know the rescued man, Mr Du Plessis would like to meet him again. 'Hopefully we see the guy down the beach again and we can have a beer and have a laugh about it.' Mr Silvestre was very modest about his heroics, just saying: 'I'm glad we were there at the right time, and he went home.' A mother has alleged that Aldi refused to let her buy trolley loads of nappies, sanitary pads and wet wipes to send to refugees on the Ukrainian border because it 'didn't have enough stock'. Agata Casey, 36, of Southend-on-Sea, said she decided to buy supplies to send to Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border after seeing Facebook messages about a local restaurant collecting donations. The mother-of-two, who is a Polish national, said she went with her friend to Aldi in Southend-on-Sea at around 3pm on Sunday to buy nappies, sanitary pads and wet wipes to send as donations. Ms Casey said they had only picked up certain sizes of nappies and had been careful to leave stock behind for other people, but claimed they were told they were not allowed to buy 'all of the stock'. Aldi claimed they offered to bulk order stock for Ms Casey to collect in two days' time, saying they try to allow customers to buy 'as much stock as possible' . Video footage, taken by Ms Casey's friend, allegedly shows an Aldi worker packing nappies back into a trolley to put back on the shelves due to 'shortages' in the UK. Agata Casey said she and her friend were told they couldn't buy large quantities of nappies, sanitary pads and wet wipes for Ukrainian refugees at Aldi in Southend-on-Sea on Sunday Ms Casey claimed she and her friend were only allowed to buy 98.70 worth of items, while the video shows another trolley full of items to be returned to the shelves instead. An Aldi spokesperson said: 'Our colleagues try to allow customers to buy as much stock as possible while making sure that there is still enough stock for other shoppers. 'We are committed to helping those in need and offered to bulk order stock specifically for Ms Casey to collect in two days' time.' Speaking about the incident, Ms Casey said she was made to feel like a 'rat' and that she was 'looting' for wanting to buy donations for Ukrainian refugees. She told MailOnline: 'I was asked like a rat to put this back on the shelves because I am looting Aldi in Southend for Ukrainian people and how dare I. This is how it felt.' The dental hygienist said she decided to buy items for Ukrainian refugees after seeing a post on Facebook page Polacy W Southend-on-Sea. Video footage, taken by Ms Casey's friend, allegedly shows an Aldi worker packing nappies back into a trolley (pictured) to put back on the shelves due to 'shortages' in the UK The post said a lorry will be travelling to Poland on Saturday filled with stock to help refugees and urged people to drop off donations at Polish restaurant Domowe obiady U Babci. The post said items needed as donations included long-life food, clothes, blankets, sleeping bags and hygiene accessories. Ms Casey said she asked her friend to go to Aldi with her to buy nappies, sanitary pads, toothbrushes and wet wipes that they could drop off at the restaurant as donations. Ms Casey said she wanted to do what she could to help during the 'biggest crisis of our lifetime', adding that her parents, who live in Krakow, are taking in refugees in a bid to help. She said: 'I'm reading these articles about the mum feeding baby underground and my heart is broken. 'The least I can do is get some nappies, some wet wipes, some sanitary pads, some toothbrushes.' Ms Casey said she and her friend were conscious about leaving some stock behind for other people and claimed they only tried to buy a handful of nappy sizes - newborn, size two, size four and size six. Speaking about the incident, Ms Casey said she was made to feel like a 'rat' and that she was 'looting' for wanting to buy donations for refugees. Pictured: Aldi in Southend-on-Sea She explained: 'We bought two or three of each sizes, but I said the newborn sizes, lets not buy all of the sizes because the newborns will hopefully have some nappies from the hospital, then a size two is good. 'I said skip the size three because it's similar to size two - its a crisis, I'm sure they will make do - let's buy some size fours and some sixes. 'Because I said without the size five it's doable, there's limited spaces in the car, these sizes will be good.' She claimed she could sense 'tension' around her from customers and staff after they loaded up the trolley, saying that she could have been buying that much stock because she had 'five kids'. Ms Casey said when they were queuing for the till, there was an announcement calling a manager, saying she initially thought something had happened with the cashier and she would have to move queue, before realising it was because of her purchase. She claimed that she was told by the manager that she could not buy the amount of stock they had selected and would have to put some back on the shelves. She explained: 'I'm thinking 'oh my god I always pick the wrong queue, thinking I'm going to have to queue up for a long time now because something has happened with the cashier', you know how it is. Agata Casey, 36, of Southend-on-Sea, said she decided to buy supplies for Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border after seeing a Facebook post about a local restaurant collecting donations 'But then my heart is sinking and I'm thinking 'for goodness sake I hope this isn't about my nappies in that trolley'. But yes, it was about the nappies in my trolley.' Ms Casey said she hadn't bought any canned food, baby powder or other products, and had only tried to buy sanitary pads, nappies, wet wipes and toothbrushes. As allegedly shown in the video, boxes of products were put in a trolley by an Aldi worker to be put back on the shelves, while Ms Casey and her friend said they were allowed to buy 98.70 worth of items. Ms Casey said: 'I had been accused of looting supplies for Southend, which is not true because we then drove to Lidl and we packed up another couple of nappies and there was plenty of stock.' The mother-of-two said although it looked like a lot of stock, they had only picked up certain sizes of nappies and said there were just two packets of nappies in each box. She added that they had only picked up the nappies still in the boxes because they thought it would be easier to ship that way. She continued: 'It's not like there's a shortage. I understand that during coronavirus pandemic people were panic buying. Ms Casey claimed she and her friend were only allowed to buy one trolley of items, but insisted they were not 'panic buying and had left stock for others. Pictured: Aldi in Southend-on-sea 'I did not panic buy, because there were plenty of stock left back on the shelf, I took certain sizes thinking 'we have probably limited spaces in that lorry and it's a crisis, let's make sure they have something'. 'We had sanitary pads as well and then big nappies, adult nappies, because in that message they said they needed adult nappies.' Ms Casey said she went to Lidl afterwards and was told she was allowed to buy nappies in larger quantities, adding that she also went to Farmfoods, where they said the same. She said: 'We went to Farmfoods and we got some tea, coffee, milk powder, we got some dry biscuits and I said 'listen, can I buy that many of the stuff' and they looked at us like we were delusional and said 'yes, buy whatever you want, there's no restriction'.' Ms Casey said she felt like 'crying' in Aldi, saying she was just trying to do 'everything' she could to help the Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country amid Russia's invasion. 'Obviously everybody wants to help we can't just leave our friends and neighbours in need. I can't even imagine, if I am like this and nobody is sending nothing, I would be devastated,' she said. 'I just felt unwelcome, I just felt like crying in the middle of that shop.' Frustrated Queenslanders have complained of empty supermarket shelves as rising floodwaters leave major highways underwater and food trucks stranded. ABC Journalist Tobi Loftus posted a series of photos of bare shelves and freezers from a Coles supermarket in Gladstone, 500km north of Brisbane, on Monday. 'Very empty fresh produce and meat shelves in Coles in Gladstone. Was told there are similar scenes in Rockhampton and other parts of Central Queensland,' he said. Another Queensland resident complained of the same food shortages tweeting: 'You can't get veggies or fruit in Mooloolaba.... no trucks...' Frustrated Queenslanders have complained of empty supermarket shelves (pictured) as rising floodwaters leave major highways underwater and food trucks stranded Another Queensland resident complained of the same food shortages tweeting: 'You can't get veggies or fruit in Mooloolaba.... no trucks...' (pictured, empty shelves at a QLD Woolworths) A Mooloolaba shopper was forced to try four stores to find fresh produce - in shortages comparable to the start of the Covid pandemic in March 2020. It comes after residents of some suburbs including Newstead on the banks of the Brisbane River flocked to supermarkets to stock up on emergency supplies. Shelves of fresh bread were quickly cleaned out along with an entire aisle of bottled water over the weekend as floodwaters threatened the southeast. It is understood some flood-affected residents are concerned drinking water could become contaminated by the floods. A Woolworths spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia all of their Sunshine Coast stores were open and trading at normal hours at this stage. 'The Bruce Highway has re-opened to the Sunshine Coast, so deliveries have recommenced today, but it will take a few days to catch up,' they said. A Mooloolaba shopper was forced to try four stores to find fresh produce - in shortages comparable to the start of the Covid pandemic (pictured, floodwaters in Ipswich) residents of some suburbs including Newstead on the banks of the Brisbane River flocked to supermarkets to stock up on emergency supplies (pictured, a flooded McDonalds in Lismore) 'Our teams are working hard to restock shelves as quickly as possible. We are currently exploring road options into Gympie to resupply the stores there.' The spokesperson said some temporary purchase limits would be placed on specific categories to ensure all customers had access to the essentials. 'We encourage customers to be mindful of others in the community and only buy what they need,' the spokesperson said. It comes as incredible footage shows the scale of the massive floods which have inundated Lismore on the north coast - with a McDonald's restaurant, a Caltex service station and entire shopping centre underwater. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a new warning about life-threatening floodwaters on Monday as the weather bureau forecast further torrential rain on Tuesday. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a new warning about life-threatening floodwaters on Monday as the weather bureau forecast further torrential rain on Tuesday (pictured, flooded businesses in Lismore, northeastern NSW on Monday) Dozens of residents and their pets have been rescued by SES and QFES crew (pictured) Houses were engulfed by flood waters in the suburb of Auchenflower, Brisbane (pictured) It follows harrowing scenes in the state's north with dozens of families rescued from the roofs of their homes by helicopters and boats earlier on Monday with reports there are up to 400 people unaccounted for. The BoM is warning parts of the NSW coast from Lismore to Port Macquarie should expect 'intense' rainfall over the next 24 hours. QUEENSLAND FLOODS - KEY FIGURES Current Brisbane River peak is lower than 2011 emergency with a current high of 3.85m compared to 4.46m 11 years ago No trains are running in Brisbane and all bus routes have been suspended Gold Coast trams are currently operating More than 1,000 schools across the state are closed 1,544 Queenslanders are in evacuation centres 15,000 Brisbane homes have been impacted by the severe weather 3,600 homes in Gympie have been effected There are 51,000 homes across Queensland that have no power Bremmer River has peaked at 17m Maryborough River is expected to peak Monday Logan and Albert rivers are being closely monitored Advertisement Meteorologist Dean Narramore said some areas near Lismore received 700mm of rain in total on Sunday and Monday which had contributed to the 'catastrophic flooding'. Meanwhile NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet warned the flood crises is deteriorating. The state leader described the flooding in northern NSW as 'unprecedented' and warned conditions were expected to worsen. The Wilsons River at Lismore is expected to peak at more than 16 metres on Monday night while the entire Lismore CBD remains underwater after days of heavy rain. There are 12 evacuation orders in place across the state's north, affecting close to 16,000 people, while six areas are under evacuation warnings, covering around 14,000 people. In Gympie, two hours north of Brisbane, more than 1,000 homes have been submerged in water in the town's worst flood in over a century. The region was declared a disaster area on Saturday, with hundreds forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in crowded evacuation centres. 'We have around 550 people in the Gympie evacuation centre and a total of 1,040 across the state,' Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. 'We haven't really experienced this much rain in such a short period of time before.' A severe weather warning is in place for large swathes of southeast Queensland and northern NSW as dozens are rescued from their waterlogged homes. The Mary River was expected to fall below the major flood level on Monday after it peaked at 23m and flooded the town over the weekend. Residents have reported livestock turning up in backyards and carparks after being washed away from farms upstream as water levels rise in the CBD. A Queensland Fire and Rescue Swift Water Rescue crew move through the flooded streets in the city of Paddington in suburban Brisbane The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 (pictured, people paddle kayaks in Milton, Brisbane) In Brisbane, 53,000 households are currently without power and 15,000 homes have been flooded with eight dead and at least four still missing. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 - with authorities warning residents of 140 suburbs. Two catastrophic peaks are expected on Monday night and Tuesday morning. The crisis is widening, with multiple major flood warnings for northeastern NSW including the Tweed, Richmond, Wilsons, Bellinger and Clarence rivers. State Emergency Services Commissioner Carlene York is co-ordinating a multi-agency response which includes the ADF, NSW Fire and Rescue, police and ambulance, but she admits the weather is making it difficult to get helicopters into the air and boats into the water. She urged people to heed evacuation warnings, saying otherwise the SES 'can't promise to respond at a later stage if you do get into difficulty'. Flooded scenes from Southbank in Brisbane on Monday where 53,000 households are currently without power and 15,000 homes have been flooded In the past 24 hours there have been 500 flood rescues and 927 requests for help (pictured, the flooded city of Maryborough along the over-flowing Mary river) In the past 24 hours there have been 500 flood rescues and 927 requests for help and the premier is warning conditions in the north have not peaked. Families raced to higher ground on Monday morning as rivers burst their banks from torrential rains slamming NSW and south-east Queensland with floodwaters claiming the lives of eight people in Queensland alone - the latest a man aged in his 50s and his dog who were found in a submerged car in Currumbin Valley. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that residents who have been affected by the floods will be eligible for a disaster recovery payment. Eligible adults will receive $1000 and eligible children will receive $400 which can be accessed through Services Australia. Australia's Defence Force will be deployed to help with the mammoth clean up. 'It can include troops themselves engaged directly in the same clean-up effort that so many people from the city of Brisbane will be engaged with as part of the Mud Army,' Mr Morrison said. Residents in Brisbane on Monday as the state grapples with a days-long flood crisis Some 15,000 people have already been evacuated along the NSW north coast with thousands more stranded (pictured, an aerial view of the flooded town of Maryborough) Some 15,000 people have already been evacuated along the NSW north coast with thousands more stranded and hundreds of calls to the State Emergency Service. The SES is so overwhelmed its rescue boats have not been able to reach every resident, forcing desperate locals to post their addresses on a Facebook page to plead for a rescue. QFES has made more than 100 swift-water rescues amid 8000 calls for help in the Brisbane, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast since 3pm on Sunday. Queensland's M1 and Bruce Highway remain closed due to flooding with a year's worth of rain drenching Queensland's southeast in recent days. While the rain in Brisbane has eased, the flood emergency is far from over with the Brisbane River expected to peak again on Monday night around 8pm (pictured, a boy wades through floodwaters in Paddington, Brisbane) More than 1000 schools across the state have been closed and most public transport in Brisbane has been cancelled (pictured, residents dispose of water-damaged belongings) Residents in low-lying areas river are preparing to evacuate, including in Brisbane CBD, Newstead, West End, New Farm, Milton, St Lucia, Bulimba, South Brisbane, Toowong and Rocklea. Another 3600 homes have been flooded in Gympie north of Brisbane in the town's worst flood in more than 100 years. More than 1000 schools across the state have been closed and most public transport in Brisbane has been cancelled. While the rain in Brisbane has eased, the flood emergency is far from over with the Brisbane River expected to peak again on Monday night around 8pm. Another significant peak to 3.7m is expected 9am on Tuesday. A 64-year-old man who felt he had 'nothing left to live for' after the break up of his marriage killed himself with a crossbow, an inquest heard. Mars Aspen-Murray, who had changed his name from Martin Espley, was found dead at his home in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, on October 29 last year, an inquest was told. He had an exit wound on the back of his neck and the bolt was stuck in the ceiling above him, a police officer told the hearing. Mr Aspen-Murray purchased the crossbow in the summer of 2020, prompting concerns from his friends, after he had previously taken an overdose in 2017 when his marriage broke down and again in 2019, the inquest heard. Assistant Gloucestershire Coroner Roland Wooderson recorded a conclusion of suicide, adding: 'Very sadly this is a case where I should record a conclusion of suicide, with death being due to a crossbow bolt injury.' Mars Aspen-Murray, who had changed his name from Martin Espley, was found dead at his home in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, on October 29 last year Neighbour Rachel Nobes was the first person to find Mr Aspen-Murray after his death and said in a statement that she had known him since he moved into his home in January 2020. She said he lived alone and did not go out at all and she did not know of any family. Mr Wooderson said: 'On October 29, [Mrs Nobes] knocked on his door to deliver his medication. 'She went straight in. The front door was unlocked, as it always was. 'As she walked into the bedroom she could see straightaway that he was deceased. She called paramedics. 'She says he was a man who kept himself to himself. Earlier in the year he had raised concerns to her that he felt lonely. She didnt know any details of his family. She believed he was a diabetic.' Sgt Alexander Pockett of Gloucestershire Police said he arrived at the property with colleagues after the death was reported and found the deceased in the front bedroom. 'The crossbow bolt was stuck in the ceiling above him', stated the officer. 'Both front and rear doors of the property were unlocked but there were no signs of a disturbance or of anything missing.' An inquest heard 64-year-old Mr Aspen-Murray felt he had 'nothing left to live for' after the break up of his marriage before he killed himself with a crossbow Mr Wooderson said it was the officer's opinion that Mr Aspen-Murray had taken his own life and that 'there was no third party involvement'. A letter from Mr Aspen-Murrays GP practice at Minchinhampton said he had taken an overdose in 2017 after his marriage broke down. Mr Wooderson said computer records showed he had also attempted to take his own life on August 16, 2019, under the name Martin Espley. On that occasion, Mr Apsen-Murrays solicitor called police to say she received an email from him saying he was taking his own life and he wanted his son to be informed, the inquest heard. The solicitor said she had drawn up a will for him the previous year. On that occasion, it was found Mr Aspen-Murray had taken an overdose of prescription medication. Detective Constable Ashley Bailey said Mr Aspen-Murray was, at that time of his death, spending most of his time in bed or in front of his computer and was depressed. Mr Aspen-Murray was found by his neighbour Rachel Nobes had known him since he moved into his home in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, in January 2020 He said he had 'nothing more to live for' after separating from his wife a few years earlier. Mr Aspen-Murray's GP practice was informed that he had purchased a crossbow in the summer of 2020 after friends raised concerns. A GP spoke to Mr Aspen-Murray that day and he said he had no plans to kill himself, the inquest heard. He was provided with the number of the NHS Crisis team and a GP visited him three times over the next few weeks to check on him and was told the crossbow was broken. The coroner concluded: 'Very sadly, he had attempted to kill himself on a couple of occasions in the past.' **For confidential support call Samaritans on 116123 or visit a Samaritans branch** Yu Eui-tae / Courtesy of High Miles By Ko Dong-hwan Debuting his acting career debut in Netflix's 2019 hit "Kingdom," Yu Eui-tae is thrilled to have finally landed a role in a domestic TV series. Yu will feature in "Business Proposal," an SBS romance drama based on a popular Korean online novel series of the same title published on Kakao Page. Despite his previous experience with "Kingdom" and his first main role in the short thriller film,"The Daughter" (2021), the actor said he still feels like a rookie as the first episode of the drama goes on air. "Whether it is a Netflix series or a movie, there is a particular tone in each different work and shooting, and my emotional setting adjusts to such varying environments," Yu told The Korea Times. "If the plot is less tumultuous or fluctuates up and down hard, the atmosphere around shooting for each job changes a lot, and my feelings naturally adapt to that as well. Although my role is a small one in 'Business Proposal,' I was really thrilled to have joined the crew on a TV series for the first time." Yu's role is one of the bureau chiefs inside a food company in Korea, where the heroine, a female employee who did her friend a favor by subbing for her on a blind date, coincidentally met the company's attractive CEO who was determined to marry whoever he met on the date. "My character is a vivid embodiment of this country's grim working environment in reality, where office workers desperately fight and cry out to survive without quitting in the end," Yu said. "It's an ultra-realistic role many viewers will be able to sympathize with." Yu still remembers fondly how he first met Park Sun-ho, the director of "Business Proposal," at the audition for his role. He said the encounter felt so good that it was engraved into his memory more deeply than when they were by side while shooting scenes. "Auditioning is often chilling and nerve-racking," Yu said. "But Park helped me withstand such difficulties by keeping the audition place cozy on my account. Of course, he was as affectionate to me while shooting as he was during the audition." The up-and-coming actor has already tasted how sweet public reception of a good actor can be. Following "Kingdom," where he drew some positive reviews for his magnetic charisma, Yu experienced some "fun time" with movie-goers during his first guest-visit session with audience members when "The Daughter" was invited to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival's Korea Fantastic: Shorts category. "I pretended I wasn't an actor and secretly sat in audience seats during the festival when they were showing my movie," Yu said. "It felt pretty good whenever there came jump-scare moments and people freaked out or when they said how scary the movie was as they exited after the movie ended." Yu said the guest-visit session improved his innate nature as an actor, as he appreciated sharing conversations with audience members about how they all differently interpreted critical scenes and relationships between characters in such a broad spectrum. "The only thing I regretted during the session was that they were all wearing masks as a safety measure against COVID-19 so I couldn't watch the expressions on their faces," Yu said. A British man has launched a one-man mission to save his wife and baby son stuck in Ukraine amid the brutal Russian invasion. Ian Umney, an English teacher from London, travelled to the war-torn country to rescue Nelia and their little boy. The former cybersecurity worker vowed he was 'on the way to reunite with my family by whatever means'. It comes as UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace urged Britons not to travel to Ukraine to join the fighting as he said the 'very dangerous' situation could lead to death. Mr Wallace said he did not 'want to see British people killed any more than I want to see Ukrainians' dying. His words followed Cabinet colleague Liz Truss saying she would 'absolutely' support Brits who chose to go to help fight against the Russian invasion. The bloody conflict entered a fifth day on Monday as Russian forces continued to bombard major cities. But Ukrainian soldiers and citizen warriors launched a strong counterinsurgency and have mostly held their own. Ian Umney, an English teacher from London, travelled to the war-torn country to rescue Nelia and their little boy (pictured together) Mr Umney has documented his journey through the Ukraine crisis across social media before he decided to fly out. He posted a video on TikTok yesterday of his military bag packed with belongings as well as a holdall as he prepared to make the trip. He captioned the clip: 'I am heading to Ukraine to rescue my wife and son.' He said in the footage: 'I've got everything packed, not going to get much more in there.' He continued: 'Decided to take a little holdall because as a Brit going abroad I need the most essential things - PG Tips and a cup. 'And I've got my everyday things in there, chargers, cigs and stuff, but yes, I'm ready to go. I'm leaving to the airport... I'll let you know what happens.' Mr Umney travelled to Manchester Airport where he was taking a flight to Krakow in Poland. He said in another post: 'I'm here at Manchester Airport heading to the gate then on to the flight to Krakow. 'The next update I want to do is if I can get into Krakow, get on the WiFi, make sure everyone knows I'm there.' He added: 'But mainly will be when I'm at the border of Ukraine - so I'll give you an update then.' The former cybersecurity worker (pictured with his wife) vowed he was 'on the way to reunite with my family by whatever means' The next video he shared was of him walking through the railway station at Krakow Airport. He said: 'There's the train going to the city centre, next stop will be the border. Stay in touch. Slava Ukraini.' Mr Umney posted his most recent clip on Monday morning as he crossed the border into Ukraine on what appeared to be a bus. He said: 'So I made it successfully into Ukraine last night. And now we're just approaching the outskirts of Lviv.' The Briton went to school in Western Australia where he played first team rugby before moving to Germany to attend Frankfurt International School. He went on to study computer engineering at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in the US. Mr Umney moved to Ukraine in February 2016 where he worked as a teacher at a school in Dnipro. But for the past five years he has run his own service, which runs courses for locals looking to speak English. His LinkedIn says: 'Experienced teacher with a history of working in the private education system in Ukraine. 'I have a strong interest in cyber security and I am currently studying for several CompTIA certifications to pivot into the industry next year. 'My personal ambition is to relocate back to the UK next year, in the new career, and build up experience and skills to progress into digital forensics within 10 years.' Mr Umney has documented his journey through the Ukraine crisis across social media before he decided to fly out. Pictured: Mrs Umney Mr Umney appeared to toy with the idea on social media as the Russian invasion spiralled out of control before declaring he would fly out. He wrote on Facebook: 'I cannot sit here, while my wife and son are in Ukraine, and watch the freedom and safety of Ukraine be threatened by Putin. 'I took four days of stress, upset, hurt, and anger but now I have packed my bag, planned, written my letters. 'I'm now on the way to reunite with my family by whatever means. Please continue to support Ukraine and those who are in need. 'I will post updates. I love you all. I will be safe. Stand strong, Ukraine! Glory to Ukraine.' It comes as Defence Secretary Mr Wallace urged Britons not to travel to Ukraine to join the fighting. He said he did not 'want to see British people killed any more than I want to see Ukrainians' dying. But it comes days after Cabinet colleague Liz Truss said she would 'absolutely' support British nationals who chose to go to help fight against the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a new 'international legion' to defend his country and appealed to foreigners to come forward and bare arms. Foreign Secretary Ms Truss told the BBC: 'The people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe. 'Absolutely, if people want to support that struggle I would support them in doing that.' It comes as Defence Secretary Mr Wallace urged Britons not to travel to Ukraine to join the fighting But Mr Wallace, who served in the Scots Guards, said there were 'better ways' for Britons to help. He told Sky News Ms Truss was right it was a 'just cause', but added: 'If you're keen to help and you're a United Kingdom citizen, come and join our armed forces. 'Look, there are people who will go... I think what I would say is unless you are properly trained, unless you are a, you know, experienced member of an armed forces, I think there are better ways for you to contribute to the security of Ukraine.' He said this could be through donating money through the Ukrainian embassy to be spent on weaponry and aid, or to volunteer with organisations helping refugees. Mr Zelensky's call for an international legion carried echoes of the International Brigades that fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba appeared to encourage the comparison, saying just as Hitler had finally been defeated, 'we will defeat Putin, too'. He tweeted: 'Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries. 'Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.' Volunteers from the Territorial Defense Units gather in an outpost to collect weapons, train and get their assignments in Kyiv Mr Wallace was asked on LBC whether, with his military experience, he would head to Ukraine if he was not a Government minister. He said although he would 'always fight for my country', he joked he would 'probably be reduced by now to be in charge of, at my age, the Home Guard or something'. But he said the situation in Ukraine was 'very dangerous' and citizens should find other ways to support the country. Armed forces minister James Heappey was asked on Good Morning Britain whether he would echo Ms Truss's words. He said: 'I probably wouldn't. And I think that the travel advice is that UK nationals should not travel to Ukraine. 'But if people are filled with a desire to stand up for freedom, like generations of young people before them, they would be very, very welcome at their nearest Army, Navy, Air Force recruiting office,' he said. 'I just think people have to have their eyes wide open to what war is and it is not somewhere that you just jump on a plane, grab a rifle and get going. 'The people that you see doing that in Kyiv are doing it because they are facing an existential threat, out of absolute desperation.' There have been questions about the legality of Britons going abroad to fight in previous foreign conflicts. In 2014, the CPS warned UK nationals who went to fight in the Syrian civil war could be committing an offence, even if they joined the rebels fighting Bashar Assad. UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putin's invasion Sixty British volunteers are heading to fight Putin's invaders: Band of ex-Army and Special Forces soldiers 'will arrive in Ukraine within days' - as Ben Wallace urges people in UK NOT to join fighting Sixty British volunteers will fight Putin's invaders in Ukraine within days The move answers Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's call to arms They are led by Mamuka Mamulashvili, Georgian National Legion commander Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK will back Britons going to fight in Ukraine Yet Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has urged Brits not to join the fighting Sixty British volunteers are heading to Ukraine to fight against Vladimir Putin's Russian forces. The former Army and Special Forces soldiers have been gathered by Mamuka Mamulashvili, 43, commander of the Georgian National Legion. It comes after MailOnline exclusively revealed on Saturday that foreigners crossing into Ukraine to take up arms after a call from president Volodymyr Zelensky. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Sunday the UK would back Britons if they travelled to join the resistance movement who are bravely repelling the Russian forces. However, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he didn't 'want to see British people killed any more than I want to see Ukrainians' and asked people who were not properly trained or an 'experienced member of an armed forced' not to join the war in Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was 'very dangerous', he told Sky News, and there were 'better ways' to support the country. In an exclusive interview with MailOnline commander Mamulashvili said: 'I have a very big group of Britons, around sixty travelling to Ukraine to join up with my Georgian National League unit. Sixty British volunteers are heading to Ukraine to fight against Vladimir Putin's Russian forces, led by Mamuka Mamulashvili, Georgian National Legion (pictured training in Kyiv in January) commander Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (pictured) said the UK will back Britons going to fight in Ukraine Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (pictured) said he didn't 'want to see British people killed any more than I want to see Ukrainians' and asked people who were not properly trained or an 'experienced member of an armed forced' not to join the war in Ukraine A Russian tank burning in the Ukrainian city of Sumy just days after newly revealed dashcam footage showed a huge column of tanks moving in 'They are travelling by car from the UK and will cross over at the Polish border. I am expecting them here with equipment and supplies in the next few days. 'They are mostly guys who have fought with me in Ukraine before but there are also new recruits as well. 'We will provide them with training and weapons and they are coming from London and all over Britain. 'Their background is former British Army and Special Forces and they are good fighters, they can be trusted to take on the Russian aggressors and most importantly win. Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Ukraine faces a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv Plumes of smoke rise from a building, which was caused by a cruise missile according to local media, in Kyiv, Ukraine Smoke billows over the town of Vasylkiv, which is just outside Kyiv on February 27 Public Chernihiv reports that a rocket hit a residential building in the centre of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv. A fire broke out with two lower floors ablaze. The number of injured is currently unknown 'What I want to stress is that none of them are getting paid, they are not mercenaries, they are all volunteers.' Commander Mamulashvili is a veteran of the 2008 war against Russia in Georgia and a mixed martial arts expert and founded the unit in 2014 to provide foreign fighters in Ukraine's war against Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region. He added: 'The guys from the UK are just bringing basic equipment with their uniforms and rations, they will get weapons when they arrive. 'Putin is very much mistaken if he thinks he will take Ukraine, he will face a fight to the death as the Ukrainian army has shown how brave and strong it is. 'They have experience and now they have good equipment from the rest of Europe and the world and now we have the backing of some of the best foreign volunteer soldiers in the world. 'We know some of us might die but unless we fight against Russia, Putin will just keep going and trying to take countries. 'When he went into Georgia in 2008 the then President of my country said Ukraine would be next and he was right.' Father-of-two Mamulashvili added that he 'expected' the number of volunteers from Britain and elsewhere to top 500 within the next few days after having received dozens of requests asking for details on how to join up. Members of Georgian Legion train civilians to adapt them with the self-defence capabilities in January The paramilitary unit formed mainly by ethnic Georgian volunteers to fight against Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014, now includes people of various nationalities Commander Mamuka Mamulashvili told MailOnline: 'anyone from the UK who wants to come and fight is to get in touch with the Ukrainian embassy in London and they will advise how to get to our base. If that is not possible volunteers should make their way to Poland and cross the border into Ukraine and head for the city of Lviv where we have a mobilisation base and make themselves known to the local authorities' He added: 'My advice for anyone from the UK who wants to come and fight is to get in touch with the Ukrainian embassy in London and they will advise how to get to our base. Ukraine war: The latest Ukraine's MoD says Russia has lost 5,300 soldiers, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 151 tanks Russia's MoD has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses but refused to say how many Russian economy entered freefall as Western sanctions put in place over the weekend took effect, with the ruble sliding to its lowest level ever Moscow's central bank has more than doubled the interest rate to 20 per cent Russia orders people and companies to sell 80 per cent of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble to help prop it up Moscow stock exchange won't open until at least 3pm in an attempt to head off all-out crash Advertisement 'If that is not possible volunteers should make their way to Poland and cross the border into Ukraine and head for the city of Lviv where we have a mobilisation base and make themselves known to the local authorities but for obvious reasons I cannot give you the exact address.' Earlier this year it emerged that at least two Brits were fighting in Ukraine, Aiden Aslin, 28, from Newark, Nottinghamshire and Sean Pinner, 48, from Bedfordshire. Harry Jackson, 27, who founded UK Aid for Ukraine, and launched an appeal on Facebook for volunteers and equipment said he had been 'flooded with offers of help'. Harry said: 'I'm putting people in touch with Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian National Legion. 'I have helmets, flak jackets and medical supplies all going out as well as a group of volunteers.' On Sunday President Zelensky urged foreigners to head to Ukrainian embassies in their home countries to sign up for an 'international brigade' to help fight invading Russian forces. He said: 'All foreigners wishing to join the resistance against the Russian occupiers and protect global security are invited by the Ukrainian leadership to come to our state and join the ranks of the territorial defence forces,' Zelensky said in a statement on the presidential website. 'A separate unit is being formed from foreigners the International Brigade of the territorial defence of Ukraine. This will be a key testimony of your support for our country.' Since 2016 it has been legal for foreigners to join the Ukrainian army. Click here for MailOnline's liveblog with the latest updates on the Ukraine crisis Annette has accused the panel of abusing its powers by subpoenaing records Committee has subpoenaed records of Annette Shroyer, mother of Alex Jones employee Owen Shroyer, who was charged with breaching Capitol Hill grounds The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol has subpoenaed the phone records of a mother whose son works for right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as the panel tries to understand the Infowars host's role before the riots. Court documents filed on Sunday show the committee has subpoenaed records for Annette Shroyer, the mother of Jones employee Owen Shroyer, who was charged with breaching the Capitol Hill grounds during the riots last year. Annette Shroyer has accused the panel of abusing its powers and asked a judge to let her join Jones' pending lawsuit against the committee, reports Politico. Jones sued the House committee in December last year in an effort to block the subpoenas he'd been issued. Court documents filed on Sunday show the committee has subpoenaed records for Annette Shroyer, the mother of Jones employee Owen Shroyer, who was charged with breaching the Capitol Hill grounds during the riots. Pictured: Owen Shroyer from InfoWars is removed from a public impeachment inquiry hearing with the House Judiciary Committee in Capitol Hill on December 9, 2019 The mother received notice of the subpoena on February 10 and Verizon has indicated it would provide Annette Shroyer's phone records unless she filed a suit by February 28. The select committee declined to comment. Jones' attorney Norman Pattis indicated in the court filing that Owen Shroyer 'will properly assert the Fifth Amendment' against attempts by the House committee to obtain his records. It is not clear if the panel has subpoenaed his phone records. Owen Shroyer, who hosts 'The War Room With Owen Shroyer' for the website operated by Jones, is charged with crimes including disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area of Capitol grounds. He was seen on the west side of the Capitol next to the inauguration stage as well as at the top of the stairs on the east side of the Capitol, according to court documents. He is not accused of going into the Capitol building. Owen Shroyer is one of a few people connected to Jones who has been charged over the Capital Hill riots. Annette Shroyer has accused the panel of abusing its powers and asked a judge to let her join Alex Jones' (pictured) pending lawsuit against the committee, reports Politico . Jones sued the House committee in December last year in an effort to block the subpoenas he'd been issued. Jones on Monday said he had appeared before the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots - and invoked the Fifth Amendment 'almost 100 times'. Speaking on his InfoWars show Monday, Jones confirmed he had just finished a virtual interview with the committee about the attack on the nation's capitol building following a rally by President Donald Trump outside the White House. The right-wing broadcaster had been subpoenaed by the committee to provide testimony and records about the event after he spoke at a rally in Washington DC the day before, and had also been in contact with organizers of the rallies on January 6. Jones however is not accused of entering the building at any time and has not been cited for any criminal activity. In the show, broadcast online, he also denied any knowledge of plans for violence on the day of the riots. 'I went there to have a peaceful political rally, to put peaceful political pressure on Congress,' Jones said. 'It's a horrible historic fiasco and I wish it never happened.' Jones said that he 'wanted' to provide answers to the committee's 'overall pretty reasonable' questions of the events surrounding the Capitol incident, but held back over fears political enemies on the panel could accuse him of perjury. 'My lawyer told me, almost 100 times today.. : "On advice of counsel, I am asserting my Fifth Amendment right to remain silent." And the media tells you thats because you're guilty, or because youre going to incriminate yourself.' Jones described the circumstances around January 6 as 'one big blur', adding: 'About half the questions I didnt know the answer to, and a bunch of them were emails I had never seen and planning things I had never seen. At least from memory.' In the show, Jones picked on Democrat Adam Schiff, a member of the committee, saying that was 'famous for creating fake quotes', and could use Jones' testimony against him. Jones described the circumstances around January 6 as 'one big blur', adding: 'About half the questions I didnt know the answer to, and a bunch of them were emails I had never seen and planning things I had never seen. At least from memory.' Jones said the committee showed emails and text messages to him during their session from organizers - some of the thousands of records investigators have obtained from dozens of witnesses during their months-long investigation. He said he 'didn't do anything and didn't plan any violence'. On a previous show, Jones said that the White House had asked him to 'lead the march' to the Capitol. The right-wing broadcaster had been subpoenaed by the committee to provide testimony and records about the event after he spoke at a rally in Washington DC the day before, and had also been in contact with organizers of the rallies on January 6. Pictured: Jones on the National Mall on January 6 But on his show Monday, he said he never supported efforts to enter the Capitol and that his main point of contact was Trump campaign fundraiser Caroline Wren, who helped organize the rally outside the White House on January 6. He reiterated the claim that one million people showed up to the march, and the event became 'impossible to control'. Of the rioters seen breaking into the Capitol building, Jones said: 'That was so stupid and so dumb. I did not support it that day and I do not support it now.' Jones is one of dozens of Trump supporters and allies of the former president who have testified before the committee in recent weeks as the investigation continues to look at rallies leading up to the attack. Ben Wallace today revealed he has assured his son there will not be a nuclear war despite Vladimir Putin putting Russia's arsenal on high readiness. The Defence Secretary admitted the 12-year-old had asked him about the risk, but insisted the president was trying to 'distract' from the stalled Ukraine invasion. He said there had not been a 'significant change' in Russia's nuclear 'posture', and Mr Putin's intention appeared to be to remind the world he had the weapons. Meanwhile, a senior Tory MP has warned that Russia could deploy battlefield nukes in Ukraine. Foreign Affairs committee chair Tom Tugendhat said it is 'not unusual' for Moscow to make nuclear threats, but it did view some forms of the weapons as more acceptable than the West. In a televised address over the weekend, Mr Putin said he had ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a 'special regime of duty' in light of 'aggressive statements' from NATO leaders and 'unfriendly economic actions'. In other developments as the world faces chaos: Russia is facing economic meltdown with the rouble in freefall and interest rates hiked to 20 per cent as Western sanctions bite; Shares in BP slumped sharply after the markets opened lower again in London; Ministers are under pressure to improve the offer of visas for people fleeing Ukraine, after Boris Johnson suggested only those with close family links to the UK will be welcome; Russia should be banned from all international sporting and cultural events, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell has said. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace admitted the 12-year-old had asked him about the risk, but insisted the president was trying to 'distract' from the stalled Ukraine invasion Mr Wallace said Mr Putin's (pictured) intention appeared to be to remind the world he had nuclear weapons Plumes of smoke rise from a building, which was caused by a cruise missile according to local media, in Kyiv, Ukraine Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has warned of 'dangerous rhetoric' from Mr Putin, amid fears that the risk of a nuclear miscalculation has been heightened. On a round of interviews, Mr Wallace said his 12-year-old son had grilled him on the possibility of nuclear war 'because, you know, it's all over the news'. Pressed on how he had replied, Mr Wallace said: 'Well, Dad says, no, we're not going to have a nuclear war. 'What I've said to him is, look, President Putin is dealing at the moment in a rhetoric. 'He wants to distract from what's gone wrong in Ukraine and he wants us all to be reminded that he has a nuclear deterrent.' The Defence Secretary said he had thought of the 1980s when the nuclear threat had been more commonly discussed. 'Britain has a nuclear deterrent. It's somewhere out there under the sea, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It's kept us safe for decades,' he said. 'It is a deterrent by definition and design and President Putin knows that. And he knows that America and France also have a deterrent... 'We've looked at their posture. There isn't a significant change. 'This is more about, I think, putting it on the table to flex muscles and detract, but it's also to say to those people, listening to this programme, is that, you know, no one is going to do anything to unnecessarily provoke him, or indeed, to escalate this beyond trying to deter him from his actions in Ukraine and we know that he gets deterred by might.' Mr Tugendhat told BBC's Radio 4 Today programme that Russian threats were 'not unusual', but cautioned that they saw battlefield nuclear weapons as a 'bigger bang'. 'The Russian military doctrine doesn't work in the same way as the Nato military doctrine,' he said. 'They do assume that they may use battlefield nuclear weapons and they see them as just a, if you'll excuse the expression, a bigger bang. They don't treat fallout in the same way we do.' He added: 'That said, Russia has frequently threatened nuclear deployments in the past. 'This is not unusual but at the same time it is concerning and it is not impossible a Russian military order to use battlefield nuclear weapons could be given.' Volunteers from the Territorial Defense Units gather in an outpost to collect weapons, train and get their assignments in Kyiv Former health secretary Matt Hancock has denied he broke the law by having an affair with a close aide during lockdown that destroyed his political career. The 43-year-old was forced to quit last June after CCTV images showed him in an embrace with his married lover Gina Coladangelo, 44, inside the Department of Health during the height of the pandemic. But speaking to a business podcast he said the relationship started 'quite quickly' after legal social distancing curbs were lifted and replaced by guidance. Speaking to The Diary of a CEO podcast, released this morning, Mr Hancock said he 'fell in love' with Coladangelo after bringing her in to work with him. He told the podcast host, entrepreneur and Dragons' Den investor Steven Bartlett: 'It actually happened after the rules were lifted, but the guidance was still in place. I resigned because I broke the social distancing guidelines by then. 'They weren't actually rules. They weren't the law. But that's not the point. 'The point is they were the guidelines that I'd been proposing. And that happened because I fell in love with somebody.' People had to stay two metres apart from anyone outside their household or bubble, under the guidance at the time. Mr Hancock stressed that his relationship with Miss Coladangelo was serious, saying he hated that some had 'got the impression somehow that this was [casual sex]'. Speaking to a business podcast he said the relationship started 'quite quickly' after legal social distancing curbs were lifted and replaced by guidance. The 43-year-old was forced to quit last June after CCTV images showed him in an embrace with his married lover Gina Coladangelo, 44, inside the Department of Health during the height of the pandemic. Speaking to the The Diary of a CEO podcast, released this morning, Mr Hancock said he 'fell in love' with Coladangelo after bringing her in to work with him. Mr Bartlett, who appears on the Dragen's Den show as an investor, said on Twitter that Mr Hancock and Gina Coladangelo had 'stopped by' for a chat The host said the interview was 'a little heated' but Mr Hancock 'did answer all of the tough questions I asked him and nothing will be edited out' The father-of-three expressed his regret at the pain that the affair had caused after it triggered the breakdown of his 15-year marriage to wife Martha to be with Miss Coladangelo - who was also married with three children. He added that he had known Miss Coladangelo for 'more than half of my life' since first working together on the student radio at Oxford University. She was brought by him into the health department for help with 'public communications'. Mr Hancock said: 'We spent a lot of time together, ironically, trying to get me to be able to communicate in a more emotionally intelligent way. 'And we fell in love. And that's something that was completely outside of my control.' He also admitted the Government knew some measures it took during the pandemic were 'very damaging'. The couple have been seen in public together a handful of times since the affair was revealed, including on romantic getaways in Split, Croatia, and in the Swiss Alps last year. Mr Hancock found himself in hot water in January this year after stripping off for a bracing winter swim in Hyde Park's Serpentine lake Mr Hancock was forced to quit the Cabinet last year after CCTV from his Whitehall office was leaked which showed him kissing his married aide in breach of Covid social-distancing guidance. The pair continued dating after their affair was exposed. Mr Bartlett tweeted a fortnight ago that he had interviewed Mr Hancock. He said: 'Matt Hancock x The Diary Of A CEO! Matt Hancock stopped by with his new partner Gina to speak to me. 'Its time to find out what really happened, its time to ask the questions weve not had answers to; Party gate? Where did the CCTV footage come from? What mistakes did he make?' He added: 'This is the first time in the history of The Diary Of A CEO that things got a little heated between me and a guest at one point. 'However, Matt did answer all of the tough questions I asked him and nothing will be edited out. You will see it all.' Mr Bartlett also tweeted pictures of Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo at the interview, with the former health secretary wearing blue jeans and a navy roll-neck jumper. The podcast interview comes after Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo were pictured together at the Brit Awards in London earlier this month. One reveller told The Sun that Mr Hancock had been mobbed by spectators and was 'treated like some sort of rock God'. They said the couple were 'kissing quite a bit, and are clearly pretty smitten with one another'. Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo were pictured together last September as they headed out for dinner with friends during a romantic getaway to the Swiss Alps. The couple stayed at a 87-a-night hotel tucked away in the mountains in the village of Villars-sur-Ollon, near Montreux. Russia's feared Omon paramilitary thugs have been taking to the streets to stamp out any opposition to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Nearly 6,000 people have now been detained in antiwar protests across the country, with the helmeted cosmonauts in camouflaged riot gear regularly dragging away demonstrators. Protests against the invasion started Thursday in Russia and have continued daily ever since, despite the Omon and police moving swiftly to crack down on the rallies. The Kremlin has sought to downplay the protests, insisting that a much broader share of Russians support the assault on Ukraine. But younger tech-savvy Russians with access to independent media have been voicing their opposition to the Kremlin's invasion, risking jail and even treason charges. A protester is dragged away by Omon paramilitary members during a demonstration in Moscow yesterday Nearly 6,000 people have now been detained in antiwar protests across the country since Thursday Russia's feared Omon paramilitary thugs have been taking to the streets to stamp out any opposition to the invasion Protests against the invasion started Thursday in Russia and have continued daily ever since In Saint Petersburg, where several hundred gathered in the city centre, police in full riot gear were grabbing one protester after another and dragging some into police vans, even though the demonstration was peaceful. Footage from Moscow showed police throwing several female protesters on the ground before dragging them away. On Pushkin Square a planned protest was stymied by several hundred officers in camouflage uniforms and visored helmets, positioned in groups of three and spaced five yards apart across every public space. Menacing men in civilian clothes but wearing black cloth facemasks stood at the entrances to shopping malls, shops and clubs, ready to repel protesters if they should try to flee. Police officers detain a man during a protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine in central Moscow yesterday The Kremlin has sought to downplay the protests, insisting that a much broader share of Russians support the assault on Ukraine Helmeted cosmonauts in camouflaged riot gear are a regular fixture now on the streets of Russia Small groups of young people who had heeded calls on social media to protest stood around, nervously chatting and smoking. Whenever a group of six or more formed, police swooped, demanding to see papers and rifling handbags and rucksacks. According to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests, police detained at least 2,710 Russians in 51 cities for anti-war demonstrations Sunday, bringing the total of those detained over four days to nearly 6,000. Yasha, 21, a theatre student, says: 'You get arrested once, they put you in jail for two days and you get a criminal record. 'Second time, it's three months. And you get thrown out of college or your work. That's properly terrifying.' An already-repressive law on state treason which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in jail has been updated to include 'any act beneficial or giving succour to the enemy'. According to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests, police detained at least 2,710 Russians in 51 cities for anti-war demonstrations Sunday The anti-war protests on Sunday appeared smaller and more scattered than the ones that took place on the first day of Russia's attack In Moscow and Saint Petersburg, many people went to makeshift memorials for Boris Nemtsov The amendment was clearly designed to criminalise anti-war protests with savage punishment. The anti-war protests on Sunday appeared smaller and more scattered than the ones that took place on the first day of Russia's attack in Ukraine, when thousands of people rallied in Moscow and St. Petersburg. 'It is a crime both against Ukraine and Russia. I think it is killing both Ukraine and Russia. I am outraged, I haven't slept for three nights, and I think we must now declare very loudly that we don't want to be killed and don't want Ukraine to be killed,' said Olga Mikheeva, who protested in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. In Moscow and Saint Petersburg, many people went to makeshift memorials for Boris Nemtsov, a top Russian opposition figure who was shot dead near the Kremlin on February 27, 2015. Some brought flowers to honor Nemtsov's memory, while others also held banners protesting the invasion of Ukraine, only to be detained minutes after taking them out. Access to Twitter and Facebook has been restricted, and human rights advocates feared similar steps would soon be taken against YouTube Russia's state communications and media watchdog Roskomnadzor on Sunday demanded that Google lift restrictions Riot police detain a demonstrator during anti-war protest in Pushkin Square in central Moscow Nemtsov, one of Russia's most charismatic opposition figures, was a staunch advocate against the fighting in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been battling with Ukrainian forces since 2014 in a drawn-out conflict that has killed more than 14,000. Russian authorities in recent days have moved to stifle critical voices. Speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament Vyacheslav Volodin said the anti-war stance of 'certain cultural figures' was 'inappropriate' and 'nothing short of a betrayal of your own people.' Access to Twitter and Facebook has been restricted, and human rights advocates feared similar steps would soon be taken against YouTube. Russia's state communications and media watchdog Roskomnadzor on Sunday demanded that Google lift restrictions imposed on YouTube channels run by several Russian state media outlets. The Network Freedoms rights group noted that Facebook's refusal to comply with a similar demand this week led to restricted access to the platform. The website of the Current Time, a Russian TV channel launched by the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that has been critical of the Kremlin, became unavailable Sunday after the channel reported receiving a notification from Roskomnadzor about blocking it. In addition to street protests, tens of thousands of people in recent days have endorsed open letters and signed petitions condemning the invasion. The media has created a divide in Russia, with older and less-educated people more likely to rely on state TV The Russian government announced a Soviet-style ban on any references to 'war' or 'invasion' on any media Celebrities and famous TV personalities spoke out against it, too. One online petition, launched hours after Putin announced the attack, has gathered over 930,000 signatures in four days, becoming one of the most widely supported petitions in Russia in recent years. The Russian government also announced a Soviet-style ban on any references to 'war' or 'invasion' on any media decreeing that the aggression against Ukraine is to be termed 'a limited military operation'. At the same time the Kremlin's media machine has gone into overdrive in an attempt to convince Russian viewers and listeners that the Kremlin is 'liberating' Ukraine from a 'fascist' American-backed puppet government. Dmitry Kiselev, one of the Kremlin's most venomous TV propagandists, accused German chancellor Olaf Scholz of 'solidarity with the genocide of today' that Kiselev, parroting Putin, claimed was being perpetrated against Russian-speakers in Ukraine. The media has created a divide in Russia, with older and less-educated people more likely to rely on state TV, while younger generations use the internet for their news. Surveys show that the former makes up some 70 per cent of the population. It'll all be over quickly, just as soon as we get those fascists out of Kiev,' said Marina Gordeyeva, 38, the producer of a TV shopping channel. 'The Ukrainian people will thank us.' Many other Russians remain convinced that the conflict was provoked by the West. 'Nato pushed us into this war,' said Vladimir Butyrkin, 61, a retired trucker. 'We are a peaceful people. Nobody in Russia wanted this. The Ukrainians are our brothers but sometimes you need to correct your brothers when they get stupid ideas in their heads.' A mother-of-three has shared chilling pictures of the injuries inflicted by her abusive ex who then forced her to go on the school run with him minutes later. Tanya Villiers split up with her partner Dominic George just seven weeks after he was released from prison. But George used a spare key to get into her home before brutally attacking her while her three-year-old boy played downstairs. The 33-year-old, from Rochester, says George then told her to cover up the bruising he had inflicted on her before picking her children up from school. The incident left her face purple and swollen, and last week George was sent back to prison for 15 months and given a five year restraining order after being convicted of the attack. Tanya Villiers says her ex boyfriend viciously attacked her while her three-year-old son was playing downstairs. Here she is pictured with bruises and swelling to her face after the assault Ms Villiers, pictured here with bruising and swelling to her face, says her former boyfriend forced her to go on the school run with him. She says he made her hide the injuries when in public Dominic George and Ms Villiers in happier times. George has now been jailed for 15 months and ordered not to contact her for at least five years The 30-year-old had previously been remanded in custody by a judge after assaulting a woman in 2014. However the mum claims he told her he was behind bars for a different reason. The full-time mum, from Rochester, met George in 2016, though the two were initially 'just friends', she said. Ms Villiers began a relationship with George while he was serving a prison sentence, sending him money and visiting him. After George was released from prison in November 2021, the two began dating. But on January 17, the day after her nine-year-old son's birthday, Ms Viliers said she broke up with George claiming he had been dishonest during their relationship. Ms Villiers said George told her he would be coming to her house to collect his belongings, despite her protests. 'He didn't have much here - maybe a couple of boxers and a t-shirt,' she said. About two hours later, she claimed George let himself into the property using a spare key and demanded Ms Villiers hand over her phone, slapping her across the face. Conscious that her three-year-old boy was in the house at the time, Ms Villiers said she did not confront him and handed the phone over. Ms Villiers said George then allegedly followed her into the bedroom, where he shouted at her before launching a violent attack on her. 'As I'm in my bedroom I can hear him stamping up the stairs. Next thing I know he's on top of me laying into my face, telling me that I'm taking him for a mug,' she said. 'I just kind of lay there and took it because my son was downstairs and I was worried about what he might do to him.' Ms Villiers said she did not fight back and eventually, George stopped the attack. Realising the time, she told George she needed to collect her other two children from school. George, who still had Ms Villiers' phone but feared she would call the police, refused to allow her to leave, she added. The terrified mum suggested George come with her on the school run, to which she said George agreed, ordering Ms Villiers to cover her swollen face with her hair. She remembers him telling her: 'Don't do anything stupid.' Ms Villiers said George repeatedly told her to cover her face on the way to school. She said she had planned to seek help in the school's reception but claims George grabbed the hand of her eldest son, preventing her from lingering at the school. Ms Villiers says George (pictured) smirked at her as he was sent to prison at Woolwich Crown Court last week What is Clare's Law? How you can find out your partner's domestic violence history, thanks to father's campaign Clare Wood, 36, was strangled by an ex Clare's Law was created in 2014 following a campaign by Michael Brown, whose daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. The initiative, officially called the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, was designed to provide people with information that may protect them from a potentially abusive situation. The scheme allows the police to disclose information about a partner's previous history of domestic violence or violent acts. Clare Wood, 36, was strangled and set on fire by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton at her home in Salford, Greater Manchester, in February 2009. The mother-of-one had met Appleton on Facebook, unaware of his horrific history of violence against women, including repeated harassment, threats and the kidnapping at knifepoint of one of his ex-girlfriends. Advertisement The group then went to a local park, where Ms Villiers said she began to feel sick, all the while she said George ordered her to keep her face covered. 'My nine-year-old knew something was wrong. He didn't want to play. He was walking around watching what I was doing,' Ms Villiers said. To escape George, Ms Villiers began telling George she loved him and that she didn't want to see him go to prison. 'It was obviously bulls***, but I just wanted to to get home,' she said. Ms Villiers managed to make it back to the house with George, who she said 'showed no remorse' for her bruised face. She told George a friend was due to drop off some toilet paper at the house and he should leave if she didn't want the friend to call the police. Ms Villiers said that George then grabbed a knife and threatened to kill himself. She said: 'I remember thinking, 'I don't give a s*** if you kill yourself, just don't do it in my house. I'm not moving a body thanks'.' George then left the house, taking the knife with him, she added. Ms Villiers then sent her friend a message: 'F*** the bog roll, you need to get here now.' The friend arrived within minutes, called an ambulance and then the police. George was arrested hours later, while Ms Villiers was taken to hospital. 'I remember thinking, 'please let something be broken', because at least he'll get a longer sentence,' she said. George, of Dulwich, South London, was convicted of causing Actual Bodily Harm, as the injuries had not caused a bleed nor broken any bones, and ordered to pay a 156 victim surcharge. Ms Villiers said her ex smirked at her throughout the hearing at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday (February 21). He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, although Ms Villiers worries he may be released early on good behaviour. 'I'm more worried about any future victims,' she said. It's not gonna stop, it's just not.' Women can call The Freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge on 0808 2000 247 for free at any time, day or night. The staff will offer confidential, non-judgemental information and support. Men can call Men's Advice Line on 0808 8010 327 (Monday and Wednesday, 9am to 8pm, and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9am to 5pm) for non-judgemental information and support. Ukrainian prisoners with combat experience will be released from jail and allowed to serve their debt to society on the front lines of the conflict with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced today. Ukraine's leader, who has gained plaudits from around the globe for his response to Russian aggression, said inmates will be able to 'compensate for their guilt in the hottest spots', in a presidential video address this morning. 'Under martial law, Ukrainians with real combat experience will be released from custody and will be able to compensate for their guilt in the hottest spots of the conflict,' Zelensky said. 'We have taken a decision which is not easy from the moral point of view, but which is useful from the point of view of our defences. 'The key is now defence.' The Ukrainian leader - a former comedian who came to power in 2019 - released his latest video statement as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators prepared to sit down for their first face-to-face talks since Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade last Thursday. Ukraine's leader, who has rapidly gained plaudits from around the globe for his response to Russian aggression, said inmates will be able to 'compensate for their guilt in the hottest spots', in a presidential video address this morning 'Under martial law, Ukrainians with real combat experience will be released from custody and will be able to compensate for their guilt in the hottest spots of the conflict,' Zelensky said (pictured: a serviceman of Ukrainian Military Forces holds a hand grenade launcher on his position on the front line with Russia backed separatists, near Novognativka village, Donetsk) 'We have taken a decision which is not easy from the moral point of view, but which is useful from the point of view of our defences,' Zelensky said (A Ukrainian service member is seen, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, at a check point in the city of Zhytomyr) Ukrainian firefighters put out a fire on a high-rise apartment block which was hit by shelling in Kyiv Smoke rises over Kyiv on Monday morning as the city awoke from a night of heavy Russian bombardment to relative calm, though there are fears that Moscow's troops could quickly step up their attacks The leader also made an appeal to the EU, requesting that the bloc allow Ukraine to join immediately in the face of Russian aggression. 'We appeal to the European Union for the immediate accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure,' the 44-year-old leader said in a new video address. 'Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing. I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible.' He said 16 children had died during the first four days of Moscow's assault and another 45 were wounded as he hailed 'Ukrainian heroes.' The UN's human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Monday that at least 102 civilians, including seven children, had been killed but warned the real numbers were probably far higher. 'Ukrainians have shown the world who we are. And Russia has shown what it has become,' Zelensky said. Zelensky also urged Russian soldiers to lay down their weapons during the video address. 'Abandon your equipment. Get out of here. Don't believe your commanders. Don't believe your propagandists. Just save your lives,' Zelensky said. He claimed that more than 4,500 Russian soldiers had already lost their lives during the Kremlin's assault. Russian authorities have admitted their forces have sustained casualties but have not yet given an official death toll. Zelensky rounded off the presidential address on the fifth day of the Russian invasion by thanking the West for its support. 'Support of our anti-war coalition is unconditional and unprecedented. Each of us is a warrior. And I am sure that each of us will win,' he said. Zelensky's latest video address comes after Kyiv survived another night under Russian attack, with Putin's 'demoralised and exhausted' troops suffering 'heavy losses' trying and failing to break through defences in the city's outskirts, according to a top Ukrainian general. Ukraine war, day 5: Russian forces are now attempting to skirt around Kyiv and encircle it from the west. Troops fighting out of Crimea continue to make gains and are likely to surround Mariupol soon, while also reaching the outskirts of a key Ukrainian nuclear plant. Fighting in the east continues to be heavy with no breakthrough for Putin An apartment building is pictured on fire in Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, as Russian forces continue to try and reach the Ukrainian capital en masse so they can seize the city Zelensky's latest video address comes after Kyiv survived another night under Russian attack, with Putin's 'demoralised and exhausted' troops suffering 'heavy losses' trying and failing to break through defences in the city's outskirts, according to a top Ukrainian general (Putin pictured Feb 27, 2022) Colonel General Alexander Syrsky, who is in charge of defending the city, said this morning that 'all attempts' to breach the city failed and that the situation is currently 'under control'. 'We showed that we can protect our home from uninvited guests,' he added. Attacks on Kyiv failed despite the city suffering heavy bombardment, with witnesses reporting the sound of 'carpet-bombing'. At 6am Monday, a curfew that had been in place since 3pm Saturday was lifted - allowing people out to buy food and breathe fresh air - but air raid sirens sounded shortly afterwards. In the early hours, Russia invited all Ukrainian citizens to leave the city via a 'safe' highway - sparking fears that the bombardment could be about to dramatically step up. Moscow employed the same strategy in Syria while fighting alongside Assad's forces, usually before shelling and bombing cities with heavy casualties. Though Russian advanced forces have been fighting in Kyiv's outskirts for several days, the bulk of Putin's assault force is still located around 20 miles away having been slowed up by determined resistance fighters - with satellite images revealing a huge column of vehicles headed for the city. Russian vehicles are pictured moving in convoy down a highway north of Kyiv at the city of Ivankiv, amid fears that Putin's army is about to significantly step up its assault on the city A huge column of Russian tanks and support vehicles is seen near Ivankiv, around 40 miles north of Kyiv, on Sunday. The column is now thought to be around 20 miles from the city The cities of Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv were also bombed overnight, with air raid sirens sounding in other areas. Fighting continued in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city located in the east near the border with Russia, which has been the site of the heaviest clashes so far. Zelensky's appeal for Ukraine to be admitted to the EU came after the alliance announced it will supply the nation with hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov meanwhile spoke out against EU plans to arm Ukraine, saying it was a 'hostile action against Russia' amid reports that Poland will send some of its MiG attack jets to replenish Ukrainian forces. Actor Michael Keaton broke down in tears as he dedicated his Screen Actors Guild Award to his late nephew Michael who died in 2016 from a heroin and fentanyl overdose. Keaton, 70, was victorious in the category for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series at the SAG awards on Sunday night for his work in Dopesick, a miniseries focusing on America's opioid crisis. In his acceptance speech for his work on the Hulu project, a teary Keaton dedicated the honors to his sister Pam and late nephew Michael, who died in his 30s after overdosing on heroin and fentanyl at home in Pennsylvania. Keaton became visibly emotional with tears in his eyes during the speech and he paused before saying: 'Given the subject matter, this is for my nephew, Michael, and my sister, Pam.' 'I lost Michael to drugs and it hurts. To my sister Pam, thanks,' he added as his voice cracked with emotion. Keaton in Dopesick played the role of a rural doctor named Dr. Samuel Finnix who eventually found himself addicted to drugs. Dopesick focuses on how Purdue Pharma aggressively pushed OxyContin, a highly addictive painkiller blamed for the U.S. opioid crisis that has killed 500,000 Americans since 1999. Keaton expressed his gratitude for being able to tell meaningful stories in his acceptance speech. Actor Michael Keaton broke down in tears as he dedicated his Screen Actors Guild Award to his late nephew Michael who died in 2016 from a heroin and fentanyl overdose Keaton, 70, was victorious in the category for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series at the SAG awards on Sunday night for his work in the miniseries Dopesick 'There's an argument to be made, it's a legitimate argument, that a night like tonight is self-serving, narcissistic - it's a legitimate argument to be made - that said, I'll speak for myself, I am so fortunate,' Keaton said. 'I'm so blessed to do what I do. 'I have a job where I can be part of a production like Dopesick, that actually can spawn thought, conversation, actual change, who gets to have that job? Seriously how fortunate am I that good can come from what I do just because I decided to be an actor?' Keaton added: 'There's massive inequity in the world. In Dopesick, when you talk about addiction, the way to heal the problem is to accept that you have a problem. 'Not our country, the entire world, economically, racially, socially, financially, there's massive inequity in the world. There just is. There's fair and there's unfair. There's not a lot of room in between. In his acceptance speech for his work on the Hulu project, a teary Keaton dedicated the honors to his sister Pam and late nephew Michael, who died in his 30s from an accidental overdose of heroin and fentanyl Keaton in Dopesick played the role of a rural doctor named Dr. Samuel Finnix who eventually found himself addicted to drugs. He expressed his gratitude for being able to tell meaningful stories in his acceptance speech Salma Hayek Pinault, left, presents Michael Keaton with the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series at the SAG awards 'I can feel right now the rolling thunder of eye rolling coming across people saying to me things like, 'shut up and dribble,' 'shut up and act.' 'The acting I'll quit. The shutting up, not so much. I'm blessed to do something that might improve someone's life.' Keaton has previously said he told his sister Pam, Michael's mother, that 'the number one reason I'm doing this is for Michael and you and for everyone out there', adding that he 'takes pride' in 'holding those people accountable for the victims of this opioid crisis'. He said: 'There were moments where we were reading the script, and you would say: 'Jeez, this is Michael's story'.' His miniseries Dopesick explores how Purdue Pharma aggressively pushed OxyContin, a highly addictive prescription painkiller blamed for the country's opioid crisis that has caused half a million US overdose deaths since 1999. Purdue executives last year pleaded guilty to criminal charges that included defrauding federal health agencies by downplaying the addictive nature of the medication, and paying illegal kickbacks to doctors. Last week, it emerged that members of the Sackler family, who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, are willing to kick in more money up to $6 billion total to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids as the company tries to work out a deal with state attorneys general who torpedoed an earlier settlement. The offer of extra cash was detailed in a report filed earlier this month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court by a federal mediator who asked the court to let her have until the end of the month to broker a new settlement. The miniseries Dopesick explores how Purdue Pharma - owned by the Sackler family - aggressively pushed OxyContin, a highly addictive prescription painkiller blamed for the country's opioid crisis that has caused half a million US overdose deaths since 1999. Pictured: Dr. Raymond Sackler with his wife, Beverly, before his death Michael Keaton as Dr. Samuel Finnix in Dopesick Under the latest proposal, the Sacklers would contribute between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, an increase from the $4.3 billion they had agreed to in the original bankruptcy settlement. The last of the money would not be paid out for 18 years, and the exact amount would depend on how much the family would make from selling its international drug companies. The additional money would have to be used to combat a crisis that has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades. Part of it would be controlled by the eight states, joined by the District of Columbia, that objected to the original settlement last year even when other states agreed to it. In exchange, members of the family would be shielded from current and future opioid-related lawsuits. That protection was contained in the original bankruptcy settlement but prompted the objecting states to file an appeal that ultimately succeeded, leading to the current round of negotiations. The objecting states said the earlier amount of $4.5 billion did not go far enough to hold accountable members of a family that made billions from the sale of OxyContin. Purdue Pharma has been alleged to have misled the public about the dangers of Oxycontin, which is highly addictive, after the company started marketing it in 1996 Advocates for opioid victims and their families were concerned about where the additional money would go. Ryan Hampton, an advocate for people with opioid use disorder, said it did not appear that the $750 million set aside for payments to victims of the crisis and their families would increase under the latest proposal. 'The government's pot will continue to get larger as additional settlement negotiations may continue, yet there's no increase for direct payments to families and survivors,' Hampton said. 'It's dead wrong and unjust.' The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tallied more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. to opioid overdose, including both prescription drugs and illicit ones such as heroin and illegally produced fentanyl, since 2000. Purdue filed for bankruptcy in September 2019 amid an onslaught of litigation against the company and its owners. Roughly 3,000 lawsuits nationwide sought to blame Purdue and Sackler family members. The Dopesick series is based on Beth Macey's non-fiction book 'Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America.' Macey, a journalist based in Virginia, charted the lost lives of ordinary victims including high school football stars and middle-class moms, in the Appalachian region of the eastern United States seen as the epicenter of the epidemic. Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. (left) - accompanied by co-stars Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) and Daveed Diggs (far right) - kicked off the annual awards show, saying: 'We're holding a place in our hearts for Ukraine and sending our thoughts, prayers and hopes for impending peace' Actor Brian Cox, speaking to the SAG Awards audience Sunday night after his Succession win, called the invasion of Ukraine 'truly awful,' but also condemned how artists in Russia were being impacted by the conflict 'I tend to not want to revisit anything,' said Keaton as he announced his role in Dopesick last year. 'But this is societal, and has a much larger canvas or a bigger story to tell.' 'It shines a light on white-collar America and its guilt,' he told a Television Critics Association panel. Unlike the early decades of the 'war on drugs,' which focused on locking up abusers -- including crack addicts, often from urban and minority communities -- now '70 percent of all overdoses that happened last year were opioids,' said co-star Rosario Dawson. 'This is affecting people across the nation -- across the world.' Keaton was born and raised in Pennsylvania, close to the heart of a region where the crisis 'infiltrated every class group.' For series creator Danny Strong, the inspiration for making the show was to 'expose this in some kind of big mainstream way.' 'I couldn't believe what this company did, and how they were able to keep doing it over and over and over for years, no matter what was happening, no matter how they were exposed,' he said. 'The lying, the manipulation, the influence peddling. It's such a shocking story... I just couldn't get it out of my head. A jealous mother has been jailed for three years for running over a love rival after learning she was expecting a baby with her partner. Alexis Glass, 20, mounted the pavement and crushed Chantay Dunlavy against a wall on Summerwood Road, Isleworth, west London, on September 10 last year. Glass had given birth two months before the incident and Ms Dunlavy was 36 weeks pregnant at the time, with both children sharing the same father, known as Jayden, Isleworth Crown Court heard. A day before the incident, the two women had exchanged aggressive text messages in which Glass threatened to kill Ms Dunlavy, the court heard. David Markham, prosecuting, told the court Glass then 'deliberately drove her vehicle' at Ms Dunlavy while her 'own child was in the vehicle in an unsecure baby seat'. Glass pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child, dangerous driving, malicious communication and grievous bodily harm with intent, and was sentenced to three years in a young offenders institution and banned from driving for 30 months. Jealous mother Alexis Glass, 20, mounted the pavement in her car and crushed her love rival Chantay Dunlavy against a wall on Summerwood Road, Isleworth, west London, on September 10 last year Mr Markham said it was clear that tension 'simmered between the two women before the attack' in September. In the messages, which were read to the court, Glass said she would be happy if Ms Dunlavy's baby died during labour. In response, Ms Dunlavy wrote: 'You're pushing your luck. You don't know who I am, Jayden can give you numerous occasions where I've thumped a bitch's face. 'Last time I saw you you ran. Instead of being a full grown adult you are being a pathetic little child. No one wants him, you can have him.' In a follow up message, Glass said: 'Your baby is going to grow up knowing it should have been aborted. Luckily I drive, I will just run you over.' The next day, Ms Dunlavy went with her mother to the property where Glass was living to 'resolve matters peacefully', Mr Markham said. When Glass arrived, Ms Dunlavy's mother got out of the car to speak to her, leaving her daughter alone in the vehicle. She told the defendant she had seen the messages and that it had to stop as they were both in the same situation with Jayden. As Ms Dunlavy left the car to join her mother, she and Glass began shouting at each other, prompting the mother to leave the scene with her daughter. Glass got into her car and said: 'You've come to my house, I'm going to kill you. This is self defence', the court was told. Ms Dunlavy and her mother moved to an area behind some bollards as Glass sped at them and slammed the brakes, the court heard. CCTV footage showed Glass driving towards them, mounting the pavement and pinning Ms Dunlavy against a wall. Her mother jumped on the bonnet while shouting at the defendant before Glass reversed her car and drove off. Ms Dunlavy suffered a crushed right leg and spent three weeks in St Mary's Hospital, in London. Fortunately her baby was uninjured. In a victim impact statement read in court by Mr Markham, Ms Dunlavy said she felt 'overwhelmed with sadness and fear about losing her baby'. Mr Markham said: 'The attack ruined the remaining weeks of her pregnancy and replaced it with fear. She was unable to give birth in the way she had planned. 'It was extremely traumatic for her.' Ms Dunlavy said: 'Since the attack I have suffered with extreme panic attacks, depression, feelings of fear. 'I avoid social situations and even avoid going to the shop.' She also said she struggles to walk more than a few metres without having to stop and is still suffering from swelling and pain nearly six months later. Mr Markham said she 'expresses concern that there may be another attack' from Glass. Glass pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child, dangerous driving, malicious communication and grievous bodily harm with intent, and at Isleworth Crown Court (pictured) she was sentenced to three years in a young offenders institution and banned from driving for 30 months Appearing by video link from HMP Bronzefield, Glass left the video room while Mr Markham read the facts of the case but she returned to listen to her representative, Jose Olivares-Chandler. 'I have had numerous conferences with Miss Glass and during those she has appreciated the impact on Chantay and her family', Mr Olivares-Chandler said. 'This was an impulsive, isolated and out of character incident. This defendant wants nothing more to do with the victim and her family.' Judge Alistair Hammerton said: 'The defendant's actions were aggressive and impulsive and she appeared to be acting from raw emotions, anger and jealousy, because her boyfriend was having a baby with someone else. 'She used her car as a weapon and targeted someone who was pregnant and therefore vulnerable. 'I accept that she was suffering from postnatal depression at the time and I have also read references describing her as a loving mother who worked for the elderly.' Glass' son is now in foster care, the court heard, and Judge Hammerton said it is unlikely Glass will be given primary care of him when she is released. She received three years detention in a young offenders institute and is banned from driving for 30 months. Glass was also given a restraining order preventing her from contacting Ms Dunlavy or her mother for five years. A brother and sister were killed when a van smashed into their car on the hard shoulder as their mother drove them way home from a birthday party, an inquest heard. Gracie-Ann Lucas, four, and her brother Jayden-Lee Lucas, three, were sat in the back of their family car when it was hit by van driver Martin Newman, 41, on the M4 motorway on February 5. The family had been driving home from a birthday party when they pulled over on to the hard shoulder and stopped. The car was stationary when it was hit by the Ford Transit van near Tredegar Park in Newport, Gwent, the inquest heard. Both children suffered multiple injuries and died later in hospital. Gracie-Ann Lucas, four, and her brother Jayden-Lee Lucas (both pictured), three, were in their family car when it was hit by Martin Newman, 41, on the M4 motorway on February 5 The youngsters, from Tredegar, had been returning from a birthday party at around 1.45pm on February 5 when the car they were travelling in collided with a van. Jayden (pictured left) and Gracie-Ann (pictured right) suffered multiple injuries and died later in hospital A post-mortem examination, carried out by Dr Stephen Leadbeatter, found Gracie-Ann died as a result of multiple injuries at 4.45am the following day. Brother Jayden-Lee was also rushed to the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff but died five days later. A post-mortem examination found he died as a result of a blunt force head injury. He was identified by his parents. The siblings, also known by the surname Wheaton, had been in the car with their mother Rhiannon Lucas and her partner. Newman, of Croeserw, South Wales, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. He also pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving to mother Rhiannon Lucas at Cardiff Crown Court. The inquest in Newport was adjourned by senior coroner Caroline Saunders for a date to be fixed. Newman will be sentenced on April 8 before Judge Daniel Williams. A 41-year-old man today appeared in court charged with causing death by dangerous driving in relation to the crash (pictured: Cars queued on the motorway following the collision) Gracie-Ann (pictured left and right) suffered a cardiac arrest due to the severity of her injuries and died the following day at around 5am Tributes flooded in for Gracie-Ann and Jayden-Lee following their deaths, with loved ones describing them as 'delightful' children. Headteacher Huw Waythe, of Deighton Primary School, described the siblings as two 'special children'. He said: 'Everyone at the school is immensely sad to hear of the passing of a second pupil following a road traffic collision on 5th February 2022. 'Our thoughts remain with members of the family, and words cannot adequately express the shock and pain which they must be feeling. 'We are shocked and saddened by the loss of two of our own. We will never forget how special the children were to our school community. 'They both put a smile on all our faces daily. They were a delight to have and both always lit up any room with their positive personality and beaming smiles. 'Gracie-Ann and Jayden-Lee's lives will continue to be celebrated and remembered by us all. Jayden and Gracie-Ann (both pictured), and their parents, were rushed to the intensive care unit (ICU) of University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, following the crash 'They both have a special place in our hearts and Deighton Primary School will never forget them. 'We will support each other through this, seeking and providing further specific professional assistance for those pupils and staff who find this time the most upsetting. 'We ask that you give us your support by allowing us some time to process our thoughts and feelings.' In a family statement, cousin Jamie Lucas, 19, from Abergavenny, said: 'He [Jayden] was wonderful, creative and a kind soul. Turned the grey skies blue. 'She [Gracie-Ann] was so young. She had a bright future ahead of her. She was such a wonderful child.' A GoFundMe page, which was set up to raise money for the siblings' funeral, has raised almost 16,000. A mobile subscription page of the government's Youth Hope savings product is seen at a bank's sales office in Seoul on Feb. 21. Yonhap By Lee Min-hyung The government's ambitious savings product is stirring controversy, as foreign nationals residing here can also sign up for the high-interest product, which many people argue goes against its original intent. Those aged between 19 and 34 can subscribe to the so-called "Youth Hope" savings product if their annual salary from the previous year does not exceed 36 million won ($29,800). The product has drawn popularity among young people here, as it offers a maximum of 10 percent interest returns annually. A total of 11 commercial banks here started registration for the product on Feb. 21. The government will allocate a 45.6 billion won budget to providing high returns for subscribers to the welfare program. But this has drawn strong public backlash from those who believe it is a waste of Korean taxpayers' money to provide equal assistance to foreigners residing and paying taxes here. Under the budget, only around 380,000 people can subscribe to the product if they join with a maximum monthly deposit of 500,000 won over a period of two years. Foreign residents who satisfy the basic criteria are qualified to sign up for the benefit if they have resided in Korea for more than 183 days and pay income tax here. "It would be better for the government to come up with policies in more detail, so Korean citizens do not feel a sense of frustration due to such reverse discrimination," a 32-year-old office worker surnamed Kim said. "The point should be to make more young people benefit from the product, rather than helping foreigners who pay less taxes than locals win the benefit." On top of that, the government failed to forecast demand for the products by a huge margin, so the government is advised to take into consideration a number of factors before launching such a welfare product, Kim said. The highly controversial youth savings product received greater-than-expected response, causing connection delays in some banking apps on the day of its launch. The government is considering an expansion of the budget, so more young people can take advantage of the product. But cries of discrimination from disenfranchised citizens show little sign of abating unless foreign residents are disqualified from eligibility for subscription. A 34-year-old salaried worker also expressed complaints over the annual salary limit of the product. "Every time the government introduces such a financial product for public welfare, I am unqualified for it, as my salary exceeds the limit slightly," he said. "I have been in a welfare blind spot. If the government had restricted foreign residents from signing the product, it would have been able to increase the salary limit or reshape the program, so more young people here could benefit from the product in various ways." Another office worker, identified only by her age of 34, posted a petition on the presidential office's website a few days after the savings product became mired in controversy over claims of reverse discrimination against Korean citizens. The post has since drawn agreement from more than 12,600 people only four days after it was uploaded to the website on Feb. 24. "It is desirable that the minimum wage increases and the government provides support to young people here," she said. But it is not fair that foreign residents can receive the benefit with Korean taxpayers' money at a time when local citizens who also paid taxes cannot do so, according to her. It is not known how many eligible foreign residents have signed up. A firefighter who was sacked after sending WhatsApp messages to colleagues calling a disabled man 'fat' after he became stuck on his toilet has been pictured for the first time. Christopher Ketterer, 29, lost his job in June 2020 after a message he sent to five close friends from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was widely shared and ultimately seen by bosses. He appealed against the sacking but this was rejected after an employment tribunal found Ketterer had breached the fire services values. Speaking to MailOnline, Ketterer said he believes disciplinary action was taken against him after an amendment to fire service working conditions was rejected, with 60 per cent of members voting against it. A Scottish employment tribunal heard that in the early hours of February 14, 2020, Ketterer was on duty when just before 3am he attended an emergency call out as part of a four person crew. An individual with impaired mobility was reported to be 'trapped' in the toilet of his home and that he could not get off the bathroom floor. The crew arrived at the house but was then re-routed to a second address - home to the caller's cousin - so that a set of keys for the original address could be collected. The crew picked up the keys, went to the caller's home and helped him into his wheelchair and discovered he had not been trapped but was unable to get up off the toilet. The tribunal heard the claimant and fellow firefighters were frustrated at being called out over the incident as they did not believe it was a genuine emergency and the caller was known to have made similar calls in the past. Christopher Ketterer was sacked for moaning to colleagues about a middle of the night call to help a disabled man trapped in his toilet Ketterer perceived the demeanour of the caller and his cousin to indicate that they were trivialising the status of his role and knowing they were wasting the firefighters' time. The incident happened at a time when firefighters were looking at pay and conditions and whether this type of incident should be part of their remit and whether there would be more call outs of this type if the role was expanded. They were also unhappy the call had been a partly blue light incident when it was not an emergency. Ketterer finished his 14 hour night shift and posted the message describing the incident, which he said was 'no emergency whatsoever', and mentioning 'for yous that are still in-between a yes and a no vote' - a reference to the workplace review under consideration. He said the crew should have picked up a McDonald's for the guy on top of everything else they were doing, described the man's legs as being too fat to get him off the toilet and said the room smelt like 's***'. He wrote: 'Just to recap we got turned out under blue lights to an address then for control to come over and tell us to head to another address to pick a set of keys up to let us into the first address never heard anything like this before it's an absolute disgrace (angry face emoji) no emergency what so ever (sic)'. Ketterer said this was typical language he would privately use to colleagues on a daily basis and they would not be offended, but accepted he should not have sent the message. Ketterer said another firefighter, who sent a similar message about the man, was ultimately given a final written warning while the member of staff who shared the message on Twitter alongside further details on the patient was given a fine for breaching GDPR. Within an hour, Ketterer's WhatsApp message was shared into another group and copied to other firefighters at his station in Pollok, Glasgow, and in other stations in West Scotland including senior employees and later shared by someone else anonymously on Twitter. He was sacked for gross misconduct in June 2020 after 11 years in the fire service because his message was deemed vile and shocking due to the derogatory language. The tribunal heard that during his disciplinary hearing, Ketterer had said he sent the message out of frustration. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said their social media policy states posting offensive material or harassing staff or the public via social media will be treated as seriously as if it had happened in the workplace. Ketterer, who worked at the Pollok fire station in Glasgow, was sacked in June 2020 after 11 years with the fire service and his appeal failed after he was found to have breached the fire service's values It says any inappropriate posts can lead to disciplinary action and in extreme cases civil and criminal law. Employment Judge Brian Campbell said his appeal against his sacking for gross misconduct failed after he found Ketterer had breached the fire services values. He said: 'The post, which Mr Ketterer to his credit never denied sending, largely speaks for itself in terms of its tone and language. 'It was a wholly inappropriate way to refer to a vulnerable member of the public, which again to his credit he accepted in retrospect. 'He showed genuine remorse for his isolated act of misconduct, and may not have appreciated fully the seriousness of that act at the time. 'On the evidence there were no issues generally with his performance, commitment to the role or popularity among his colleagues.' Ketterer said he was disappointed with the way the disciplinary process was carried out and said letters of support from eight other fire stations - who unanimously backed him - were never read. He said he has moved on from the incident and is currently training to be a gas engineer, hoping to be fully qualified in the next three months. He also became a father six months ago and said his sacking came at the worst possible time due to the Covid pandemic. A Boris loyalist Tory peer has launched an attack on police for investigating the Prime Minister over Partygate, saying officers should 'butt out'. Lord Daniel Moylan, who was an adviser to Mr Johnson when he was mayor of London, accused Scotland Yard of treating the PM like the hosts of 'egregious acid house parties'. Senior politicians are awaiting the results of the Metropolitan Police probe, with Mr Johnson facing the possibility of becoming the first serving leader to face criminal action for breaking the law. He complied with a request to return a questionnaire to officers investigating a string of events in Downing Street amid claims that they were parties that broke lockdown rules. Mr Johnson is expected to argue that he believed all the functions he attended were essential for work, but Downing Street has insisted the document will not be made public. Lord Moylan reacted to claims that the police sent similar questionnaires to people on no10 about events they did not attend, telling the Telegraph: 'Time for the police to butt out of this farcical investigation.' 'My view has always been that during the pandemic the role of the police and the role police gave themselves was to seek compliance with the regulations through a gentle word of encouragement and admonition. 'Only in the case of recidivist and egregious acid house parties did police start to use enforcement powers. I don't know of any other case where they have started an investigation to require retrospective compliance. Lord Daniel Moylan, who was an adviser to Mr Johnson when he was mayor of London, accused Scotland Yard of treating the PM like the hosts of ''egregious acid house parties'. Senior politicians are awaiting the results of the Metropolitan Police probe, with Mr Johnson facing the possibility of becoming the first serving leader to face criminal action for breaking the law. 'I was astonished when police said they were going to seek to do it. They are not seeking compliance. They are seeking punishment. 'That wasn't their purpose in enforcing Covid regulations.' Officers involved with Operation Hillman, which is examining whether Covid restrictions were broken in Downing Street and across Whitehall, sent formal questionnaires to approximately 50 people as they lookinto the details of alleged Covid rule-breaking. Cabinet Office official Sue Gray carried out a probe into claims of lockdown breaches at the top of Government but has only published an interim report while she waits for the police investigation to be completed. Out of 16 events Ms Gray reviewed, police are investigating 12 of them, including as many as six that the Prime Minister is reported to have attended. Mr Johnson is believed to have attended as many as six of the parties being investigating by the Metropolitan Police. The remarks by Lord Moylan are his latest controversial remarks in recent weeks. A fortnight ago he provoked anger in Yorkshire when he said he was worried he would find 'leftist whingers begging for handouts' during a visit to the county, during a Twitter tirade against the Yorkshire Post. The former merchant banker who went on to become Boris Johnson's chief adviser on airports and Crossrail 2, sent the fiery tweet head of a planned break in the county. It came after the newspaper's planned front page for Saturday was published online, carrying a headline which criticised the Conservative government's 'levelling up' plan as a failure. The Baron took umbrage with the Yorkshire Post's suggestion and bit back sharply. 'I'm going to Yorkshire for a short break next week. Everything I've read recently in @yorkshirepost makes me fear I'm going to find it transformed into a county of leftist whingers begging for handouts,' he tweeted. 'Let's hope that's not the case.' The brutal tweet alienated many users, who swiftly condemned the Baron's harsh words and strongly encouraged him to take his weekend break elsewhere. Editor of the Yorkshire Post James Mitchinson was one of the first to respond, taking aim at Moylan's Conservative cronies before referring to him sarcastically as 'm'Lord'. 'You'll find folks thoroughly fed up with sneering politicians who think they're better than us and an awful lot of people who cannot stand liars and charlatans,' Mitchinson wrote. 'It isn't about right and left for us, m'Lord. It's about right and wrong. Enjoy your stay. You are most welcome.' Advertisement An international hacking organisation has launched an all-out 'cyberwar' on Vladimir Putin's media, social media sites and Kremlin-backed broadcaster in a bid to thwart the despot's propaganda against Ukraine and the West. Anonymous have apparently targeted three Russian state news agencies and urged Russia to 'stop this madness' after attacking Kremlin-backed channel RT and the Kremlin website. When trying to access TASS, Fontanka, and Kommersant's websites on Monday morning, error messages appeared and the websites were unable to load. The latest move comes after the elusive computer hackers declared a 'cyber war' against Vladimir Putin's government on Thursday after he mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And on Saturday, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said the country was creating an 'IT army' to 'fight on the cyber front' amid a string of tit-for-tat cyberattacks. Moscow has been accused of producing Hollywood-style 'fake news' videos to inflame tensions with Ukraine. Misinformation about the conflict includes the notion that Ukrainian soldiers are 'radical nationalists' who are defending a genocide against Russians. When MailOnline tried to access Fontanka, a news outlet based in St Petersburg, on Monday morning, a message signed by Anonymous urged citizens to 'stop this madness' and said Vladimir Putin has 'put us in danger'. When trying to access Fontanka, a message reads: 'Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death' When MailOnline attempted to access Kommersant's website on Monday morning, a message appeared saying 'the site can't be reached' The message, which replaced the website's normal homepage, claimed they will be 'fired' or 'jailed' for their actions but added that they 'can't take it anymore'. It reads: 'Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death. Putin makes us lie and puts us in danger. 'We were isolated from the whole world, they stopped buying oil and gas. In a few years we will live like in North Korea. 'What is it for us? To put Putin in the textbooks? This is not our war, let's stop it! 'This message will be deleted, and some of us will be fired or even jailed. But we can't take it anymore. 'Indifferent journalists of Russia.' It bore the mark of Anonymous, the activist collective known for cyber attacks against some governments and corporations. Likewise, when MailOnline attempted to access daily newspaper Kommersant's website on Monday morning, a message appeared saying 'the site can't be reached'. A similar message appeared on news agency TASS's website, which said 'an error occurred'. A similar error message appeared when trying to access TASS's website on Monday morning It comes after Anonymous declared 'cyber war' against Vladimir Putin's (pictured) government after he mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine It added: 'Sorry the page you are looking for is currently unavailable. Please try again later.' Some Russian news websites have been criticised for being part of a media offensive from the Kremlin in which Ukraine's fighters are painted as Nazis and Russia is viewed as a liberating force. Some Russian reporters have also insisted the Russian military is not targeting civilians, despite images of bloodied Ukrainians and bombed-out tower blocks. Describing Ukrainian fighters as 'Nazis', Russian state TV talk show host Olga Skabeyeva said: 'You know, as they retreat, the Ukrainian Nazis continue to destroy Donbas. 'Today Zhelobok was shelled with Grad multiple rocket launchers. Yesterday the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched Tochka ballistic missiles at an oil facility.' Criticised stories included TASS headlines, which claimed Russian troops were 'welcomed with flags in Ukraine's Melitopol' and that Ukrainian forces have 'actively resorted to sabotage'. The propaganda has led many Russians to be convinced that the conflict was provoked by the West. Amid the misinformation, Anonymous announced on Twitter on Thursday evening that it was declaring a 'cyber war' against Vladimir Putin's government. They said shortly before 10pm: 'The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government.' Some Russian websites have been criticised for being part of a media offensive from the Kremlin in which Ukraine's fighters are painted as Nazis and Russia is viewed as a liberating force Around 30 minutes later, they announced that they had taken down the website of the Kremlin-backed TV channel RT, which broadcasts in Britain and has been heavily criticised for its coverage. When MailOnline attempted to access the RT site on Friday morning, it was still inaccessible and only displayed an error message that said 'this site can't be reached'. On Monday, the website appeared to be back up and running. The cyber war declaration raised the prospect that Russia could be subjected to more systematic hacking attempts. THE ELUSIVE HACKING GROUP ANONYMOUS Hacker group Anonymous has been linked to online attacks around the world aimed at punishing governments for policies of which the hackers disapprove. Members are known as 'Anons' and are distinguished by their Guy Fawkes masks. The group are seen as anything from digital Robin Hoods to cyber terrorists for their hacking campaigns against government agencies, child pornography sites and the Klu Klux Klan. In 2008 the online community staged a series of protests, pranks, and hacks Church of Scientology as part if its 'Project Chanology.' Later targets of Anonymous 'hacktivism' included government agencies of the US, Israel, Tunisia, Uganda, and others, copyright protection agencies; the Westboro Baptist Church; and corporations such as PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, and Sony. In 2013 they declared war on secretive 'chat sites' used by paedophiles to trade images. Last November they hacked into the Twitter account of the Ku Klux Klan after the white supremacist group distributed flyers threatening 'lethal force' protesters in Ferguson. Dozens of people have been arrested for involvement in Anonymous cyberattacks, in countries including the US, UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey. Advertisement Over the weekend, Russian government websites including the official Kremlin and media regulator pages were down, in what was predicted to be the first round of tit-for-tat cyberattacks. Ukraine's telecoms agency also announced that Russian TV channels had been hacked to broadcast Ukrainian songs, the Kyiv Independent reported on Saturday afternoon. It came after Kyiv was hit by a 'massive' cyberattack targeting its government and banks just hours before Russia's tyrant launched his aggressive war to 'demilitarise' and 'de-Nazify' Ukraine. The websites of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service, and Cabinet of Ministers were all out of action Wednesday afternoon. Bomb threats were also phoned in to several government buildings, thought to be part of a psychological pressure campaign by Moscow. On Saturday, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said the country was creating an 'IT army' to 'fight on the cyber front' amid tit-for-tat cyberattacks. 'We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents,' he tweeted. 'There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front. The first task is on the channel for cyber specialists.' The Russian president's war appears not to be going to plan due to Kremlin 'overconfidence', poor tactical planning, and 'shock' at the fierce resistance put up by brave Ukrainians fighting for national survival, intelligence sources have claimed. People on social media responded positively to Anonymous's cyber war declaration against Putin. One person wrote: 'THANK YOU! Now, work on draining their finances.' Another said: 'You are awesome, thanks.' A third wrote: 'THANK YOU! I love you! The most beautiful thing EVER...' Anonymous said in their tweet about RT: 'The #Anonymous collective has taken down the website of the #Russian propaganda station RT News.' Anonymous have previously targeted groups including the Ku Klux Klan and Islamic extremists. Members are known as 'Anons' and are distinguished by their Guy Fawkes masks. In July last year, the collective warned Tesla founder Elon Musk that they planned to target him after saying he wields too much power over the cryptocurrency markets. On Thursday evening, Anonymous said shortly before 10pm: 'The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government' The elusive computer experts issued the stark announcement on their Twitter account on Thursday evening The group also announced that they had taken down the website of the Kremlin-backed TV channel RT, which broadcasts in Britain and has been heavily criticised for its coverage Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow was last week accused of producing Hollywood-style 'fake news' videos to inflame tensions with Ukraine. News bulletins in Russia were full of reports of shelling and other apparent provocations by Ukraine that were unverified or denied by the West and Kiev. One video, released by the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, appeared to show a man pretending his leg had been blown off by a Ukrainian artillery strike. It was mocked online as it showed the man's left leg, supposedly blown off under the knee, was already a prosthetic with the lower half detached. The video was later removed from social media. Another clip from Russian state TV station Rossiya 1 showed a senior war correspondent in Donetsk claiming the city was coming under fire from Ukrainian shelling and that a Ukrainian invasion was imminent. The West has long warned that Vladimir Putin would invent 'false flag' incidents giving him an excuse to invade Ukraine. Moscow claimed on February 20 that it had killed five Ukrainian 'saboteurs' who allegedly crossed the border to stage an attack. It also said a Ukrainian shell had destroyed a border facility used by Russia's Federal Security Service in the Rostov region on the frontier between the two countries. But experts said digital locators embedded in online videos about the supposed incidents showed both had been filmed in the same area, despite Russian claims that they took place far apart. When MailOnline attempted to access the RT site this morning, it was still inaccessible and only displayed an error message that said 'this site can't be reached' Latvia's foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics told Bloomberg: 'It's all made up like a Hollywood movie.' And Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba took to social media to deny Moscow's claims, writing: 'Russia, stop your fake-producing factory now.' Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said there had been a 'proliferation of false flag operations, propaganda stunts and Russian news outlets carrying fictitious allegations'. Social media experts have debunked several videos put out by Moscow by analysing embedded data. For example, footage of a car allegedly loaded with explosives to attack Ukrainians fleeing to Russia had data showing it had been filmed in 2019. Ukraine has even accused Russia of taking corpses from morgues to use in incidents of fake attacks blamed on Kiev. Another video, released by the People's Militia of the Donetsk People's Republic on February 18, claimed 'Polish saboteurs' were planning to blow up a tank. However, Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative website Bellingcat, discovered the audio matched another video uploaded to YouTube in 2010. Christo Grozev, Bellingcat's executive director, tweeted: 'If you're wondering if [the] Kremlin's poorly executed war propaganda works on its domestic audience: sadly, it does. 'Have been talking to young people from Russia's countryside. They are convinced Ukraine is shelling.' Referring to the video of the man pretending his leg had been blown off, analyst Oliver Alexander said: 'The propaganda is reaching crazy levels.' Meanwhile, Meta has banned Russian state media from running ads or monetising content on Facebook as Vladimir Putin launches a sweeping crackdown on internal dissent over Russia's unpopular and illegal aggressive war with Ukraine. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday UKRAINE REFUGEE APPEAL Readers of Mail Newspapers have always shown immense generosity at times of crisis. Calling upon that human spirit, we are now launching an appeal to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. For, surely, no one can fail to be moved by the heartbreaking images and stories of families mostly women, children, the infirm and elderly fleeing from Russia's invading armed forces. As this tally of misery increases over the coming days and months, these innocent victims of a tyrant will require accommodation, schools and medical support. All donations to the Mail Ukraine Appeal will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. In the name of charity and compassion, we urge all our readers to give swiftly and generously. TO MAKE A DONATION ONLINE Via bank transfer, please use these details: Account name: Associated Newspapers Account number: 20769512 Sort code: 50-00-00 TO MAKE A DONATION VIA CHEQUE Make your cheque payable to 'Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal' and post it to: Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal, GFM, 42 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JY Advertisement Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of security policy, announced the ban on Twitter last week, writing: 'We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. 'We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend'. Putin on Friday ordered a 'partial' block on Facebook, with Kremlin officials claiming it was a response to the tech giant's 'censorship' of its state media. Russia's tyrant is now frantically repressing domestic criticism of the war in Ukraine, with the media watchdog on Saturday ordering media to remove reports describing the Kremlin's attack as an 'assault, invasion or declaration of war', or face being blocked and fined. In a statement, Roskomnadzor accused several independent media outlets including television channel Dozhd and the country's top independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta of spreading 'unreliable socially significant untrue information' about the shelling of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army and civilian deaths. Citing a request from the General Prosecutor's Office, the communications regulator said the media outlets that also include Echo of Moscow radio will be blocked unless they remove the 'unreliable information'. 'Roskomnadzor also launched an administrative investigation into the dissemination of unreliable publicly significant information by the above-mentioned media,' the watchdog said. The offence is punishable by a fine of up to 5 million rubles ($60,000), it said. The Russian media regulator also said that 'reliable information' could be found in 'official Russian information outlets'. Moscow has not so far provided any details of Russian losses in the fighting in the face of statements from Kyiv that they have inflicted heavy casualties on Moscow's forces. It came after the cyber security team at Meta - parent of Facebook and Instagram - blocked a set of pro-Russian fake accounts and hacked social media profiles that were part of a scheme to undermine Ukraine, the tech giant said on Sunday. The accounts were conducting a campaign of misinformation, pushing content supporting Russian activities and painting Ukraine as a pawn of the West, according to a Meta statement. 'They ran websites posing as independent news entities and created fake personas across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and also Odnoklassniki and VK (Russian social media networks),' Meta said in a blog post. In some cases, 'they used profile pictures that we believe were likely generated using artificial intelligence techniques'. The small network of Facebook and Instagram accounts targeted people in Ukraine, using posts to try to get people to visit websites featuring bogus news about the country's effort to defend itself from the invasion by Russia. Amid Russia's campaign of propaganda, Ursula von der Leyen said trust in Putin is 'completely broken and eroded', as Brussels unveiled a new package of sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime. The bloc banned Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik and closed off its airspace to all Russian planes - which later saw Russian carrier Aeroflot suspend all flights to Europe. Meta has banned Russian state media from running ads or monetising content on Facebook Amid the campaign of propaganda, Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) said trust in Putin is 'broken and eroded', as the bloc banned Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik A Russian Armoured personnel carrier (APC) burning during fight with the Ukrainian armed forces in Kharkiv on February 26 Ms von der Leyen said this was the first time the EU had done this for a country under attack. She said: 'We are shutting down the EU's airspace for all Russian aircraft, including the private jets of oligarchs. 'Second, in another unprecedented step, we will ban, in the EU, the Kremlin's media machine. 'The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to support Putin's lies.' Since, Russia Today has also faced furious backlash for selling Ukraine invasion T-shirts with 'Z' logo seen on Putin's tanks and convoys. The state-controlled TV network started flogging items with the logo - which was on the side of military vehicles - to 'support our guys' in the war. Westerners slammed the channel for capitalising on the war but some joked the 'Z' stood for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Tory MPs also demanded the TV regulator take action against RT after it called the invasion of Ukraine a 'special military operation' to 'liberate' the country. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries was among those to tell Ofcom to take 'timely and transparent' action against the channel. Despite an expectation that Ofcom would crack down on RT, a spokeswoman last night admitted that no new action had been taken. Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said RT was 'not an information network, it's a weapon against us'. 'So, what is it doing on our screens when media watchdog Ofcom already has the power to take action?' he added. RT posted a link to its 'Z' merchandise on social media on Sunday morning, saying the channel has 'new merch'. The tweet showed a number of tops in a range of sizes featuring the logo, on sale for around 12. Since, Russia Today has also faced furious backlash for selling Ukraine invasion T-shirts with 'Z' logo seen on Putin's tanks and convoys It said the cash raised 'will go to help the refugees of Donbass and the heroes of the RT Children of War project'. Pictured: A tank with the marking on last week The message read: 'RT has new merch. Let's support our guys in Ukraine. We will start sending Z to our friends tomorrow. 'All proceeds from sales will go to help the refugees of Donbass and the heroes of the RT Children of War project.' The symbol has been widely seen on Russian tanks and other military vehicles streaking across the border into Ukraine over the last few days. It is believed to have been painted on the side of them to avoid friendly fire during the fog of war, or to note where they are heading. Russia also used similar tactics on military vehicles when its army invaded Crimea in 2014. Westerners were repulsed by RT's new merchandise, with some saying those working for the organisation should be 'disgusted'. Francis Scarr, who works for BBC Monitoring in Moscow, tweeted: 'Nothing to see here. 'Just Russian state broadcaster @RT_com selling merchandise endorsing the war in Ukraine.' Moscow correspondent for the Guardian Andrew Roth posted: 'I hope that there are RT employees who are disgusted by their employer putting out merchandise for a war in Ukraine. This can't be what you want. If it isn't, step up and say so.' The Kremlin-funded channel, which launched in 2005, is run by Putin's ally Margarita Simonyan, who once said RT would conduct 'an information war against the West'. A 64-year-old grandmother was allegedly stabbed to death by her 16-year-old grandson in Huston. Delia Arriaga's husband came home to find his wife covered in blood and on the floor of their north Harris County home. The victims husband called 911 immediately and initiated CPR, with deputies responding to Vickery Street in the East Aldine area shortly before 6pm. But emergency responders found Delia Arriaga dead at the scene. Texan police arrested Delia's sixteen-year-old grandson for the murder two days after the stabbing. Vickery Street, Houston, where Delia Arriaga was allegedly stabbed to death by her grandson The grandson was forensically linked to the murder scene, officers found. Deputies charged the teen with murder and referred him to Harris County juvenile probation. The Sheriff's Office website listed the crime as a "capital murder", meaning the perpetrator can be punished with the death penalty or life imprisonment. Investigators do not yet know what motivated the attack A Texan homicide sergeant (pictured) said Delia suffered stab wounds and was confirmed deceased on the scene in a media briefing "It hurts me that I didn't get a chance to and won't be able, to sit down and talk to her as an adult and parent I am now," wrote her nephew, an ex-marine and purchasing manager at Phoenix Lamar, in a Facebook post. "You were tough loving and straight up, cards on the table. I can only hope to raise my daughters to be as tough and hard working and loving as you were." The nephew wrote he had stayed quiet about the murder "for my cousin's sake and my other family in Houston." A funeral for Delia will be held Friday, March 5. British farmers have slammed the UK's new trade deal with New Zealand and warned low-price lamb imports could put them out of business. The two nations today formally signed a post-Brexit trade pact which the Government said will mean cheaper wine, Manuka honey and kiwi fruit for British shoppers. International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan rubberstamped the pact this afternoon along with her counterpart from New Zealand, Damien O'Connor. The deal will see tariffs scrapped on goods heading in each direction which means consumers in both countries should see prices on products fall. But farming bosses have criticised the agreement, warning that in the future 'there will be no limit to the amount of goods New Zealand can export to the UK'. Minette Batters, the President of the National Farmers' Union, said 'there appears to be extremely little in this New Zealand trade deal to benefit British farmers'. She said UK farms face 'significantly higher costs of production than farmers in New Zealand' and the Government is now 'asking British farmers to go toe-to-toe with some of the most export-orientated farmers in the world'. International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan rubberstamped the pact this afternoon alongside her counterpart from New Zealand, Damien O'Connor The deal could mean cheaper New Zealand wine, Manuka honey and kiwi fruit for British shoppers. The country is known for its Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Riesling However, the deal has sparked a furious backlash from British farmers who fear cheap lamb imports from New Zealand could put them out of business What is the UK getting from its trade deal with New Zealand? Tariff-free access for British goods: UK businesses sending goods to New Zealand will no longer have to pay tariffs on any items, reducing the cost of exporting. A tariff of up to 10 per cent on clothing and footwear will be one of many to go. Cheaper Kiwi goods: Tariffs on imports from New Zealand will be scrapped which means UK consumers should see prices in shops fall. The price of favourite items like Sauvignon Blanc wine, Manuka honey and kiwi fruit should all be lower under the deal. Red tape slashed: The Government said bureaucracy associated with exporting goods to New Zealand will be reduced significantly, benefiting 6,200 small and medium-sized businesses who already trade with the country. Easier for professionals to work in New Zealand: The trade pact will make it easier for people in certain careers to operate in New Zealand. Lawyers and architects will be among those to benefit, paving the way for UK firms to establish operations in the country. Advertisement The UK-New Zealand trade relationship was worth 2.3billion in 2020 and the Government believes the new deal will see that number increase by almost 60 per cent. The deal with New Zealand is the second major post-Brexit trade accord struck by the UK after it agreed terms with Australia in June last year. The deals are viewed as crucial steps towards the UK eventually joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership which includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Britain's agreement with New Zealand will see tariffs eliminated on all UK exports to New Zealand, including current tariffs of up to 10 per cent on clothing and footwear, five per cent on buses and up to five per cent on ships, bulldozers and excavators. The deal will also make it easier for some British professionals, such as lawyers and auditors, to work in New Zealand. Red tape will be slashed to make it simpler for small and medium-sized businesses to export goods to New Zealand. Ms Trevelyan said: 'This deal will slash red tape, remove all tariffs and make it easier for our services companies to set up and prosper in New Zealand. 'Our trade with New Zealand will soar, benefiting businesses and consumers throughout the UK and helping level up the whole country. 'Like all our new trade deals, it is part of a plan to build a network of trade alliances with the most dynamic parts of the world economy, so we set the UK on a path to future prosperity.' Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison pose with a variety of British and Australian goods, including a personalised 'Boris' Vegemite jar at Downing Street in July last year What are the main goods currently traded between the UK and New Zealand? The top five goods exported from the UK to New Zealand: 1. Cars - 21 per cent of all UK goods exported to New Zealand. 2. Specialised machinery - seven per cent. 3. Medicinal and pharmaceutical products - four per cent. 4. Road vehicles other than cars - four per cent. 5. Manufactured consumer goods - four per cent. The top five goods imported to the UK from New Zealand: 1. Drinks - 30 per cent of all UK goods imported from New Zealand. 2. Meat - 27 per cent. 3. Vegetables and fruit - six per cent. 4. Scientific instruments - five per cent. 5. Sugar - five per cent. Source: Department for International Trade statistics for the four quarters to the end of Q1 2021 Advertisement Meat is one of New Zealand's top exports to the UK, with sheep farming a major industry in the country. The trade deal will enable farmers in New Zealand to send more of their products to the British market. That has sparked an angry backlash from British farmers who fear being undercut by international competitors who are not subject to the same high standards and regulations. British farmers expressed the same concerns over the deal the UK agreed with Australia. The New Zealand deal was agreed in principle last October and the National Farmers' Union said at the time that the pact 'could damage the viability of many British farms in the years ahead'. Ms Batters said in a statement issued this afternoon: 'As expected, this deal takes the same approach as the UK-Australia deal in eliminating tariffs for agricultural products, meaning that even for sensitive sectors like beef and lamb, dairy and horticulture, in time there will be no limit to the amount of goods New Zealand can export to the UK. 'I have consistently pointed out that the real risk to UK farmers, and longer term for people wanting to buy British food, from the Government's approach to trade deals is not the individual deals themselves but the cumulative impact of each deal when added together. This deal today shows I was right to be concerned. 'Once again, there appears to be extremely little in this New Zealand trade deal to benefit British farmers. 'UK farm businesses face significantly higher costs of production than farmers in New Zealand, and margins are likely to tighten further in the face of rising input costs, higher energy bills and labour shortages. 'The Government is now asking British farmers to go toe-to-toe with some of the most export-orientated farmers in the world, without the serious, long-term and properly funded investment in UK agriculture that can enable us to do so; the sort of strategic investment in farming and exports that the New Zealand government has made in recent decades.' Ms Batters said there is an 'urgent need' for ministers to deliver a 'coherent approach' across all of Whitehall to boost UK farming's productivity. She said the Government's domestic policy is still 'woefully sparse' on how 'farmers will be supported to become competitive food producers at a time when food security is an increasingly important concern'. Under the trade deal, New Zealand will be granted more access to the UK market for lamb exports. The deal will see all quotas on lamb lifted after 15 years, but before that there will be a quota of 35,000 tonnes for the first four years, then 50,000 additional tonnes thereafter. However, the extra quota will only be accessible once the existing quota that the country has under World Trade Organisation rules of 114,000 tonnes is filled to 90 per cent, and officials insisted that as it stands New Zealand currently only uses half of that. They also stressed there are safeguards in place to protect UK farming. A man has been miraculously rescued from the fast flowing waters of the Brisbane River after onlookers spotted him desperately clinging to a dinghy. The man was captured flailing around in the brown waters of the river in the city's CBD on Monday before clambering on top of the upturned boat. He is seen being quickly swept along with the fast-moving currents of the Brisbane River as concerned spectators watch from a building on the bank. The man is quickly swept along the fast-moving currents of the Brisbane River as concerned spectators watch from the bank (pictured) 'He'll make it to that boat. He'll be right,' one woman encourages as the man uses his arms to guide the dinghy towards a group of boats further downstream. 'How the f*** did he end up there,' another man questions. The man in the water calls out for help as he approaches the catamaran and reaches out an arm to grab a nearby rope. As he grabs onto the back of the boat the relief on the bank is palpable, as a man onboard hauls the relieved swimmer out of the water to safety. 'My heart is pumping so hard,' a woman watching says. As he grabs onto the back of the catamaran the relief on the bank is palpable, as a man onboard hauls the relieved swimmer out of the water (pictured) A group of people, including a man who rides his bike through the waist-deep water, are seen making their way over to the swimmer to help. Social media users were quick to share their thoughts on the heart-stopping footage, with many commenting the man was lucky to be alive. 'OMG. How lucky was he that the current swept him into those boats,' one said. 'I had to take a moment when he vanished but so glad he grabbed the boat. Glad you're safe fella,' another commented. 'That's the Aussie spirit we all need to band together to help anyone in need,' a third user shared. The close call comes as large swathes of Queensland's southeast and NSW's northeast are hammered with a relentless deluge causing life-threatening floods. The close call comes as large swathes of Queensland's southeast and NSW's northeast are hammered with a relentless deluge causing life-threatening floods (pictured, a police officer carries a child in Lismore on Monday) The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 (pictured, rescue efforts in Lismore) The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 - with authorities warning residents of 140 suburbs. Two catastrophic peaks are expected on Monday night and Tuesday morning. In Brisbane, 53,000 households are currently without power and 15,000 homes have been flooded with eight dead and at least four still missing. There are 12 evacuation orders in place across the state's north, affecting close to 16,000 people, while six areas are under evacuation warnings, covering around 14,000 people. In Gympie, two hours north of Brisbane, more than 1,000 homes have been submerged in water in the town's worst flood in over a century. The region was declared a disaster area on Saturday, with hundreds forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in crowded evacuation centres. 'We have around 550 people in the Gympie evacuation centre and a total of 1,040 across the state,' Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. In Brisbane, 53,000 households are currently without power and 15,000 homes have been flooded (pictured, a man is wrapped in a blanket in Lismore on Monday) In Gympie, two hours north of Brisbane, more than 1,000 homes have been submerged in water in the town's worst flood in over a century (pictured, a man carries a child in Lismore) 'We haven't really experienced this much rain in such a short period of time before.' It follows harrowing scenes in the state's north with dozens of families rescued from the roofs of their homes by helicopters and boats earlier on Monday with reports there are up to 400 people unaccounted for. The flood crisis is widening, with multiple major flood warnings for northeastern NSW including the Tweed, Richmond, Wilsons, Bellinger and Clarence rivers. State Emergency Services Commissioner Carlene York is co-ordinating a multi-agency response which includes the ADF, NSW Fire and Rescue, police and ambulance, but she admits the weather is making it difficult to get helicopters into the air and boats into the water. She urged people to heed evacuation warnings, saying otherwise the SES 'can't promise to respond at a later stage if you do get into difficulty'. State Emergency Services Commissioner Carlene York is co-ordinating a multi-agency response which includes the ADF, NSW Fire and Rescue, police and ambulance (pictured, residents and pets were evacuated in Lismore on Monday) In the past 24 hours there have been 500 flood rescues and 927 requests for help and the premier is warning conditions in the north have not peaked (pictured, a flooded home in Maryborough where the Mary River has burst its banks) In the past 24 hours there have been 500 flood rescues and 927 requests for help and the premier is warning conditions in the north have not peaked. QFES has made more than 100 swift-water rescues amid 8000 calls for help in the Brisbane, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast since 3pm on Sunday. Some 15,000 people have already been evacuated along the NSW north coast with thousands more stranded and hundreds of calls to the State Emergency Service. Families raced to higher ground on Monday morning as rivers burst their banks from torrential rains slamming NSW and south-east Queensland. People were forced to dispose of their waterlogged belongings after torrential rain and widespread flooding caused chaos over the weekend (pictured, residents in Albion, Brisbane) Floodwaters have claimed the lives of eight people in Queensland alone - the latest a man aged in his 50s and his dog who were found in a car in Currumbin Valley. The vehicle had been driven 30 to 40 metres into floodwaters and couldn't be located by emergency services. Surf lifesavers discovered the submerged vehicle just after 10.45am about 10 metres from the roadway with the man and dog still inside. While the rain in Brisbane has eased, the flood emergency is far from over with the Brisbane River expected to peak again on Monday night around 8pm. Another significant peak to 3.7m is expected 9am on Tuesday. Advertisement Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said on Monday that he rejected a request from the Biden administration to provide Florida National Guard troops for added protection during the State of the Union on Tuesday evening. A ring of reinforced fencing was erected around the US Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's address to Congress, as Washington braces for protests by trucker convoys. DeSantis, among Biden's most prominent critics, claimed the federal government asked states the week prior to send extra support before lawmakers and other top US officials gather in the capital. 'Last week, the Biden Administration requested the assistance of State National Guards to deploy to Washington D.C. I have rejected this request there will be no [Florida National Guard] sent to D.C. for Bidens State of the Union. The White House referred DailyMail.com to the Defense Department for comment. Barricades around the Capitol were initially installed following the events of January 6, 2021 when protestors stormed the Capitol in the wake of the election result, and remained in place for months before being removed. Now steel fencing circles the Capitol once more amid fears that a convoy of US truckers will cause major traffic build up and engage in protests against pandemic restrictions as Biden gives his address. The Pentagon has already approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to be used to assist with traffic control during potential demonstrations. DeSantis, aside from not sending Guardsmen, has previously signaled support for such protests. Earlier this month he pledged to investigate fundraising site GoFundMe after it axed campaigns to raise cash for truckers protesting Canada's COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Capitol Police chief Tom Manger said fencing is being put up 'out of an abundance of caution', in consultation with the Secret Service. 'In light of the upcoming State of the Union Address, and the possibility of demonstrations in the next couple of weeks,' Manger said in a statement, 'a plan has been approved to put up the inner-perimeter fence around the Capitol building for the State of the Union Address.' He has also asked for assistance from the D.C. National Guard. And some streets around the four acre campus have been closed. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said she will 'ensure that the fencing comes down as soon as possible to restore freedom of movement for District of Columbia residents and the general public.' Capitol Hill staff were warned about the barricades and road closures. They were also told not to be alarmed at a heavy police presence when they came to work on Monday. WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 27: Fences and barriers surround the US Capitol after being re-installed ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of Congress on February 27, 2022 in Washington, DC The temporary security fencing was erected over the weekend around the Capitol complex The new security fencing around the Capitol A U.S. Capitol Police command vehicle is seen outside of the Capitol building Lawmakers return to Washington D.C. on Monday after being in their districts last week U.S. Capitol Police, in addition to putting up the fencing, have asked for assistance from the D.C. National Guard The barricades were initially installed following the events of January 6, 2021 when protestors stormed the Capitol in the wake of the election result, and remained in place for months But the steel fences are now being reintroduced amid fears that a convoy of US truckers will cause major traffic build up and engage in protests against pandemic restrictions as Biden gives his address The People's Convoy left from Big Cabin,Oklahoma in the early morning hours heading towards Washington, DC Supporters wave on the People's Convoy The US trucker convoy has been modelled on the efforts of Canadian truckers in recent weeks, whose demonstrations initially condemned vaccine mandates but later morphed to challenge the nation's entire Covid policy and the faux liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (a trucker from Ohio taking part in the convoy is pictured) 'For situational awareness, the D.C. National Guard and other state and local law enforcement and public safety agencies will be in the D.C. metropolitan area supporting the USSS, US Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department,' House Sergeant at Arms William J. Walker said in a note to staff on Sunday night. Lawmakers return to Washington D.C. on Monday after being in their districts last week. Last year, security officials in the Capitol considered putting up fencing ahead Bidens joint address to Congress last April amid concern there would be protests over the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who was convicted of killing George Floyd, but the idea was eventually scrapped. But the trucker protests have drawn greater concern. One group has filed a permit with the National Park Service for a protest next to the Washington Monument on March 1 - the day Biden delivers his address. The permit claims it could have up to 3,000 demonstrators in support of the Canadian trucker protests. US trucker convoys have been modelled on the efforts of Canadian truckers in recent weeks, whose demonstrations initially condemned vaccine mandates but later morphed to challenge the nation's entire Covid policy and the faux liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The largest group of truckers, known as the People's Convoy, is not expected to arrive in the capital until later this week, but smaller convoys could arrive as early as tomorrow. A large group of American truckers began a cross-country trip from California to Washington last week. More than two dozen 18-wheeler trucks, along with about 50 pickups and recreational vehicles, left Adelanto, California, about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, last Wednesday. This self-styled 'People's Convoy' is bound for the Beltway, a major highway encircling the US capital, to demand an end to Covid vaccine mandates, mask requirements and other restrictions. Modelled after the recent trucker protests in Canada, the truck convoy has been planned through online forums, with several smaller convoys splintering off from the main group. Florida's governor claimed on Monday afternoon that Joe Biden asked states to send National Guardsmen to Washington for the State of the Union DeSantis, among the Biden administration's most vocal critics, has also been touted as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate The convoys have different starting points, departure dates and routes, making it difficult to say how many protestors there will be, where demonstrations could take place, and what the participants are planning to do. Some of them are scheduled to arrive in time for the President's State of the Union address, though the main convoy is unlikely to arrive in the capital until later this week. Manger said his force's 'mission to protect the United States Congress, the Capitol, and the legislative process remains unwavering'. The chief said his officers 'have been working closely with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners on a security plan to prevent any disruption to the important work of Congress.' The fencing had been a stark symbol of the fear many in the Capitol felt after a mob of demonstrators pushed its way past overwhelmed police officers, broke through windows and doors and rampaged through the building on January 6, 2021, in a failed effort to block Congress from formally certifying former President Trump's 2020 election loss to Biden. The group of American truckers began a cross-country trip from California to Washington last week. More than two dozen 18-wheeler trucks, along with about 50 pickups and recreational vehicles, left Adelanto, California, about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, last Wednesday Tourists walk through an open section of the fence that surrounds the U.S. Capitol after being re-installed ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of Congress on February 27, 2022 in Washington, DC The fences were first erected in January last year following the Capitol riots and remained in place for six months before being pulled down Capitol Police chief Tom Manger said in a statement that the fence is being put up 'out of an abundance of caution', in consultation with the Secret Service. Mr Manger said his force's 'mission to protect the United States Congress, the Capitol, and the legislative process remains unwavering' The fencing had been a stark symbol of the fear many in the Capitol felt after a mob of demonstrators pushed its way past overwhelmed police officers, broke through windows and doors and rampaged through the building on January 6, 2021, in a failed effort to block Congress from formally certifying former President Trump's 2020 election loss to Biden Protestors are pictured storming the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington The barricades remained in place for half a year, but were eventually removed in July after Capitol Police said the threat environment no longer justified having the fencing in place. The US Capitol Police Board later approved a plan to briefly reinstall the fence for a rally in September that was organized to support people who remained jailed in connection with the insurrection. But law enforcement officers and members of the media vastly outnumbered the protesters, with the planned demonstrations fizzling out quickly with only a few minor incidents reported. Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee has said his department is closely monitoring the shifting information and would be devoting additional policing in a rolling state of heightened alert over the next few weeks. A plane crash in a remote part of West Arnhem Land has left one person dead and another seriously injured. Northern Territory police were advised of the crash shortly before 11am and dispatched the nearest officers at Goulburn Island to attend the location on King River, several hours away by boat. CareFlight also dispatched a rescue helicopter, and the Australian Rescue Coordination Centre, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and NT WorkSafe were also advised. A plane crash in a remote part of West Arnhem Land has left one person dead and another seriously injured Authorities reached the site on Monday afternoon and confirmed the death of a 34-year-old man. The survivor, a 28-year-old man, was transported to Royal Darwin Hospital. Investigations into the crash are under way. Some stores shilled Russian products at a slashed rate to get rid of their stock Some stores shilled Russian products at a slashed rate to get rid of their stock Bars and liquor store owners responded to Putin's aggression by pouring out Russian-branded spirits such as Russian Standard and Stolichnaya, Bars and liquor store owners responded to Putin's aggression by pouring out Russian-branded spirits such as Russian Standard and Stolichnaya, Russia's most famous export, vodka, has so far been at the forefront of the burgeoning backlash The state sanctions may result in shoppers struggling to find certain Russian staples at their local market An increasing number of US states have demanded stores remove Russian products from their shelves to protest the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine Americans looking to indulge in Russian caviar may find the delicacy hard to find as states across the country push for a ban on products imported from warmonger Vladimir Putin's nation. An increasing number of US states have demanded stores remove Russian products from their shelves to protest the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which may result in shoppers struggling to find certain Russian staples at their local market. Russia's most famous export, vodka, has so far been at the forefront of the burgeoning backlash, with officials in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Utah and New Hampshire last week calling on liquor shops to remove Russian-made or Russian-branded products from their store stock. Meanwhile, bars and liquor store owners responded to Putin's aggression by pouring out Russian-branded spirits such as Russian Standard and Stolichnaya, with some stores shilling Russian products at a slashed rate to get rid of their stock. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding her state from doing business with Russia, and said Ukrainian refugees are welcome in New York. 'We have said we'll open up our hearts, our homes, our resources to the people of the Ukraine, to say, 'We stand with you,' Hochul said. She joined a long list of politicians seeking to show solidarity with Ukraine and hurt Russia economically, though the impact will mostly be symbolic. And as the conflict continues, other exports from the Eastern European nation - such as caviar, seafood, jewelry, corn, furs and grain - may soon become scarce. However, many popular ethnic food staples like kielbasas, cheeses and candies should remain in stores since they are produced in the US. 'The majority of Russian food products sold in US stores are made in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York,' said Gary Korkin, an Odessa-born US citizen who owned a Russian grocery story in the Bronx. Total Wine & More in New Jersey lets its shoppers know it has pulled Russian-made liquors from its shelves Monday Premier Wines in Amherst, New York, posted image of Ukrainian flag in announcing it won't sell Russian-made spirits Still, the few specialty items that are imported, whether it's the popular Russian ice cream brand Bandi or dairy products like kefir, could soon be scarce. At Ann's Deli & Bakery, a longtime fixture selling Russian goods in Chicago, a sign greeted shoppers Monday, saying: 'Ann's Bakery no longer supplies Russian-made products.' The same type of messages have popped up mainly at liquor stores around the country. On Sunday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf asked the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to remove Russian-sourced products from stores in the state. The board later decreed that all Russian-made products be removed as a show of solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine. While caviar made in Russia may be pulled from store shelves, other ethnic delicacies are expected to be available because the majority are made in the US Utah Governor Spencer Cox requested Saturday that state-run liquor outlets 'remove all Russian-produced and Russian-branded products,' stating that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an 'egregious violation of human rights.' New Hampshire's Governor Chris Sununu made a similar announcement, asking for the removal of 'Russian-made and Russian-branded spirits' in the 'Live Free or Die' state. On Saturday, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin ordered the Department of General Services to review state contracts to see if tax dollars were being spent on goods and services from Russian companies, WRIC-TV reported. Earlier in the week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered his state's Office of Information Technology and the Department of Personnel and Administration to peruse state contracts to see if any Russian state-owned companies are currently doing business with Colorado, instructing officials to nix any that are found. In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine moved to halt the purchase and sale of all vodka made by Russian Standard, a renowned, Russian-owned liquor company. American store and bar owners have also joined in on the makeshift sanctions by the state officials, dumping out bottles of Russian vodka - and even liquor originating from other country's bearing Russian branding, such as Stolichnaya, which bears a Russian name and origin but is produced in Latvia, is based in pro-Ukraine Luxemburg. According to the Associated Press, the removal of Russian-made products from shelves is happening across the country and even in Canada. In West New York, liquor store Attica Wine & Spirits announced Friday that it would be doing away with its Russian-made spirits, saying it would be selling off remaining Russian items at a reduced rate in an effort to rid their supply. 'Due to the current situation in Ukraine, we have decided to remove all items made in Russia from our shelves,' the liquor store, located 30 miles east of Buffalo wrote in a post on Facebook. 'These items will be discounted until gone. Thanks for your understanding.' The store then announced in a subsequent post Sunday it was going to replace Russian-made vodkas with Vodka from the Ukraine next week. 'Starting next week, Ukrainian vodka will be taking the place of Russian vodka on our shelves,' owners wrote. 'It is a small gesture, but millions of small gestures make a large gesture! #westandwithukraine.' New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding New York from doing business with Russia Meanwhile, in Arizona, the proprietor of Scottsdale restaurant SumoMaya took a similar stand against the conflict in Ukraine, by dumping all the establishment's Russian alcohol and fine caviar. Guillermo Gutierrez, the restaurant's general manager, says his boss told him telling nix the products - worth thousands of dollars - at the Asian eatery and his other restaurant, Local Bistro. They'll also be replacing the lost items with Ukrainian products. RUSSIAN-MADE PRODUCTS SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES -Vodka -Furs -Jewelry (pearls, stones, metals, coins) -Caviar -Seafood -Meats -Candies -Corn -Grain -Fertilizers Advertisement 'We live in an amazing country that allows us to do this freely and not have any negative repercussions from it,' Gutierrez said. 'We're very passionate about it.' Russia sells about $41 million worth of vodka to the U.S. every year, which economics professor Paul Isely says is a drop in the bucket for the Kremlin-led country. 'That's really small compared to the $1.7 trillion economy in Russia,' the Grand Valley State University educator told TV station WZZM. Isely said that while ditching Russian products may put a squeeze on Russian businesses and manufacturers, it's not likely to change the country's course with Ukraine. Elsewhere in the US, a liquor store in Wichita, Kansas, has removed more than 100 bottles of Russian vodka from its shelves and pouring some of it on the ground in protest to Putin's actions. 'I think the whole world knows by now that Russia's at war with Ukraine for no apparent reason,' Jamie Stratton, wine director and partner of Jacob Liquor Exchange, told KSNW-TV in Wichita, Kansas. 'I guess this is our sanction and this may be small, but every small thing makes a difference.' In Oregon, the owner of Pine Tavern in Bend recorded himself emptying all of his Russian vodka, according to FOX 12 of Portland. 'Russia is acting as though it's 1939 and going into Europe with a full force that they have in the Ukraine,' owner Bill McCormick told the station. 'I am so concerned about it metastasizing into other countries.' He added that he expects to lose a few hundred dollars over his decision - but said that the protest was worth it. Bill McCormick (pictured), owner of Pine Tavern in Bend, Oregon, is emptying the entire bar's Russian vodka in protest against Russia, which is 'acting as though it's 1939' Two men working at Evel Pie - a popular pizzeria / bar in Las Vegas - decided to dump out all the Russian Vodka that it owned and replace it with Ukrainian Vodka. They are donating all of the proceeds to help the people of Ukraine Another bar owner in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told MLive.com he cleaned his shelves of Russian items as a 'protest against the aggression.' 'I just made the decision on the spot,' Bob Quay, owner of Bob's Bar, said. 'It's just something little we can do.' Quay added that, once it's warmer outside, he might organize an event to pour the bottles out in the parking lot in front of a crowd. A ski resort in Vermont took to Twitter to share a video of staffers pouring Russian vodka down a literal drain. 'Sorry @Stoli lovers,' Magic Mountain Ski Area said in a Tweet. 'No more.' In a video attached to the tweet, a customer off-camera can be heard asking for a Stoli and soda. The bartender tells him that 'we don't serve Russian products here,' before dumping a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka down the bar counter's drain. Some brands are already feeling the effects of the boycott, with the company behind Russian-named Stolichnaya, the Stoli Group, quick to point out that they are not a Russian company, when reaching out to bar and liquor store owners to ask them to continue supporting their products. 'With regard to us being Russian. We are absolutely NOT a Russian company,' Damian McKinney, Stoli Group global CEO, wrote in a letter to Stratton, according to KSNW. 'We are a global organization with a significant portfolio of spirits and wine brands from around the world, with Stoli's European Global HQ based in Luxembourg. Stoli Premium and Elit are manufactured and bottled in Riga, Latvia.' Most of Russia's $22.3 billion in exports to the US are not things you're likely to find at your local grocery, with its biggest contribution to the country being mineral fuels - estimated at $13 billion - which accounts for more than half of the goods supplied by the country. However, the Eastern European nation does provide an array of items associated with lavish living, including black caviar - a historic staple of the country. Black caviar - one of the most famous and expensive delicacies in the world, and the oil-rich country's original 'black gold' - was once one of the nation's leading exports and sources of wealth, but production has since dwindled since the fall of the former Soviet Union, after the country lost two thirds of its access to sturgeon species endemic to the Caspian Sea to nations formed after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The country currently exports 50 metric tons a year, which then sells for as much as $1,000 to $2,000 per kilogram - a yield of just $1-to-2million, due to the sturgeon's reduced numbers as a result of centuries of overfishing. The sale of Russian furs, meanwhile, has also declined in recent years, due to the advent of other, cheaper options from Asian countries like China, and finer options in countries like France and Italy. Williamson, Cole and teen deny murder and are on trial at Cardiff Crown Court Logan was found dead, still dressed in his pyjamas, having suffered 56 injuries Court heard Logan was found 'fly-tipped like rubbish' beside the River Ogmore She is charged with murder, alongside partner John Cole and a 14-year-old boy A policewoman found a five-year-old boy dead in a river wearing his dinosaur pyjama bottoms and a Spiderman top, a court has heard. Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found lying in the River Ogmore within Pandy Park, in Sarn, Bridgend, just after 6am on July 31. At Cardiff Crown Court, a jury was shown footage from the body camera worn by South Wales police constable Lauren Keen as she ran over towards the young boy's body. PC Keen and special constable Peter Freeth had been deployed to search the park land after a 999 call was made to police by Logan's mother Angharad Williamson. Williamson is now on trial along with two others charged with Logan's murder. A court has previously heard the emergency call is alleged to have been part of a cover-up concocted between Williamson, Logan's stepfather John Cole and a 14-year-old boy. The court heard last week how Logan was found wearing mismatched pyjamas and had suffered over 56 'catastrophic' injuries to his head and body. Angharad Williamson is standing trial at Cardiff Crown Court accused of murdering her five-year-old son Logan Mwangi Having spotted Logan's body through an opening in a hedge at the corner of the park near the young boy's home on Lower Llansantffraid, PC Keen said she activated her body-worn camera before running down the muddy bank towards boulders which Logan lay beyond. Prior to the footage being shown to jurors, prosecutor Caroline Rees QC warned the court the footage was 'moving' and 'distressing in nature'. PC Keen told the jury: 'He (Logan) was laying on his right side. 'He was in an open foetal position and he was submerged under the water. 'I immediately went into the water, I took around three strides to get to where Logan was. 'I picked him up in my arms and walked back towards where special constable Freeth was waiting on the bank. 'I could see Logan had an injury to the left side of his head. 'His eyes were wide open, his body was stiff and his lips blue. 'I formed the opinion that Logan was deceased.' As the short video was played, Williamson began sobbing loudly in the dock, leaning her head on a prison officer. Another clip of both officers trying to revive Logan was also played in court; however, the video had been heavily blurred by investigators. PC Keen said: 'My immediate opinion was that Logan was unfortunately already deceased, but it wasn't down to me to determine that was the case. 'So I just tried my best until paramedics arrived.' PCSO Freeth recalled finding Logan and described him as wearing 'dinosaur pyjama bottoms and a Spiderman top'. He said: 'As I looked down I could see a child's body lying in the water on its right side in a foetal position. It was submerged in the water and a about two feet from the bank. 'I panicked first of all as I didn't expect to see what I saw in there. I didn't go to the river straight away as we are trained not to enter water alone so I went back and called for PC Keen and let her know where I was and both went down the bank to the river. 'She ran back to where I was and ran down the bank into the water. I went to the edge of the water and she passed Logan up to me. I lifted him by his arms and spun him round onto the bank.' Williamson is standing trial alongside Logan's stepfather John Cole (pictured with Williamson) and a 14-year-old boy He told the court they had been called to look for the missing child. He said: 'We got the call to say it was a child in Spiderman pyjamas. I had that image in my mind.' PC Ryan Matthews, who responded to the missing person report, said Williamson was 'shouting and screaming' when he attended the family's ground floor flat in Sarn, Bridgend. PC Matthews told the court he was responding to a missing person's report for Logan Mwangi - also known as Logan Williamson - when he arrived at the home. He said: 'There was a woman who I now know to be Angharad Williamson there. She was distressed - very upset and extremely hard to understand. 'She was outside the address screaming and shouting.' PC Matthews told how he went into the flat where he searched Logan's bedroom - including under his bed - for signs of the missing five year old. He told Cardiff Crown Court a window in Logan's bedroom was slightly open and the back door to the property was open and unlocked. He said: 'When I was searching Logan's room Williamson was stood in the doorway. She told me he was wearing Spiderman pyjamas. 'I searched under the bed, around the bed, I pulled back the curtains. ' PC Matthews continued the search through the property before heading into the back garden. He said: 'The exterior back door was fully open and the keys were in the door. I asked Angharad Williamson why the back door was open she said she didn't know.' The court heard that during the search PC Matthews could hear laundry being used. He said: 'There was a washing machine or tumble drier on. It sounded as if it was mid cycle.' After searching the flat PC Matthews said Williamson provided him with a photo of Logan to help the search and he left the property to look nearby. The jury was then shown bodycam footage from PC Matthews of him walking through playing fields of the nearby Pandy Park where he came across John Cole and the teenager. Upon approaching the pair, PC Matthews tells them to go to the flat where a supervising officer can speak to them. During the footage PC Matthews says: 'I need you to go back to the house my inspector is there waiting for you. Cole - wearing a black Marvel hoody - replies: 'Is everything ok?' PC Matthews says: 'I honestly don't know. We'll talk to you when we get back to the house.' As they walk through the park Cole can be heard asking: 'What's going on?' PC Matthews replies: 'We'll talk back at the house.' South Wales police constable Lauren Keen found Logan lying dead in the River Ogmore within Pandy Park in Sarn, Bridgend just after 6am on July 31 Williamson, Cole, 40, and the 14-year-old boy, are on trial accused of murdering the youngster between July 28 and August 1. All three are also accused of perverting the course of justice, including moving Logan's body to the river near Pandy Park, removing his clothing, washing bloodstained bed linen, and making a false missing person report to police. Williamson and the youth have pleaded not guilty to both offences. Cole has denied murder but admitted disposing of Logan's body and incriminating evidence. He claims Williamson was aware of and actively took part in the cover-up of the crime. Williamson and Cole are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they both deny. The trial continues. Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, left, and main opposition People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol / Yonhap By Anna J. Park With the country's presidential election only 10 days away, most election-themed stocks' prices have been on a downward spiral over the past week, according to market analysts, Sunday. Election-themed stocks refer to local listed stocks that bear some relevance whether it be significant or random in nature with the major presidential candidates. These stocks' prices tend to fluctuate heavily, according to the ebb and flow of candidates' changing levels of popularity during election campaign periods, they said. The analysts warn investors that such election-themed stocks tend to fall drastically when elections are approaching, and investing in companies that do not bear any significant relevance to the candidates is like a pure gamble. Byun Joon-ho, an analyst at Heungkuk Securities, said that extreme volatility has been seen in the prices of such election-themed stocks since late last year. Ukraine and Moscow have ended a meeting with Kyiv slamming Russia's 'destructive processes' as a huge convoy of Belarusian tanks and troop carriers is seen near the border. The talks ended without resolutions and a second round of negotiations will be held in the coming days, with a member of the Ukrainian delegation today saying talks were difficult and the Russian side was biased. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter: 'The Russian side, unfortunately, still has a very biased view of the destructive processes it has launched.' Russian officials, meanwhile, said: 'We have identified certain points from which we can predict general positions.' Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky earlier admitted he was not confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage. He had been reticent to agree to talks in Belarus, a country used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion and which is now poised to join the war, offering instead to meet in Istanbul, Warsaw or Baku. Ukraine had indicated it would request a ceasefire and full withdrawal of Russian forces but Moscow remained tight lipped over what the negotiations, held at noon in Gomel in southeastern Belarus, would entail. It comes as columns of Belarusian military vehicles were spotted today heading east from the south western corner of the country in what appeared to be preparations to join the invasion of Ukraine. Some observers warned the talks could be a pretext for Moscow to ramp up its attacks on Ukraine if Kyiv's officials refuse Russian demands. Ukrainian and Russian officials today met for peace talks in Belarus as observers warned the talks could be a pretext for Moscow to ramp up its attack if Kyiv's officials refuse Russian demands Columns of Belarusian military vehicles were spotted today heading east from the south western corner of the country in what appeared to be preparations to join the invasion of Ukraine Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky admitted he was not confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage Among those present at the talks were the Ukrainian defence minister, a lead advisor to the President's office and the deputy minister of foreign affairs. But while Ukraine sent its defence minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putin's adviser on culture - an unlikely envoy for ending the war and perhaps a sign of how Moscow views the talks. Meanwhile ahead of peace talks today Russian military officials ordered heavy strategic bomber flights as part of what appears to be efforts to prevent international aid from reaching Ukraine. Observers have warned the order suggests Vladimir Putin's forces are preparing to ramp up the bombardment of Ukraine in the coming days. Richard Nass, president of the Council of Foreign Affairs, warned recent developments mean the most likely development of the conflict is 'conventional' military escalation by Russia, rather than a diplomatic breakthrough. Nass, writing on Twitter, speculated that Moscow was using negotiations to 'appear somewhat reasonable' to slow sanctions against Russia as well as help to Ukraine. But he warned the Kremlin's forces were likely to turn to 'more destructive munitions' if peace talks collapse, using the failure to negotiate a diplomatic breakthrough as a pretext. Delegations from Ukraine and Russia, including aides to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, hold peace talks in Belarus' Gomel region The Ukrainian delegation leaves a Belarusian military helicopter after landing in Gomel region ahead of peace talks with Russian officials on Monday The Russian delegation gets off a bus in the Gomel region of Belarus ahead of peace negotiations with Ukraine on Monday Ukraine war, day 5: Russian forces are now attempting to skirt around Kyiv and encircle it from the west. Troops fighting out of Crimea continue to make gains and are likely to surround Mariupol soon, while also reaching the outskirts of a key Ukrainian nuclear plant. Fighting in the east continues to be heavy with no breakthrough for Putin Kyiv has been holding out for days against Russian attempts to breach the outskirts of the city, with tanks now trying to encircle it and a large column of armour approaching amid fears the fighting could get much worse As outgunned but determined Ukrainian forces slowed the Russian advance and sanctions crippled the Russian economy, the military confirmed that its nuclear forces were on high alert, following President Vladimir Putin's order. While that raised the unimaginable specter of nuclear conflict, it was unclear what practical effect it had. A tense calm reigned in Kyiv by Monday morning, explosions and gunfire were heard in embattled cities in eastern Ukraine, and terrified Ukrainian families huddled overnight in shelters, basements or corridors. A former radio executive arranged payment to have children as young as 12 in the Philippines meet him for sex, a court has been told. Mark Page, 63, of Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, denies five counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence. Three of the offences were said to have occurred in 2016 on webcams, when he was in the UK and the children were in the Philippines, Teesside Crown Court was told. The remaining two offences were said to have happened in person after Page, who was also a DJ, travelled to the Philippines. It was alleged Page, who was at the time managing director of Garrison FM which broadcast to British Army bases, used the pseudonyms Pancho and Thai-G on a Philippines-based dating app. Page is accused of sending explicit Skype messages to a 14-year-old girl in the Philippines, asking for a 12-year-old girl to join her. It is alleged that Page had asked for someone younger when she said she would invite a 15-year-old schoolgirl to perform sexual acts with her. Mark Page (pictured), 63, of Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, denies five counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence The prosecutor said Page denies being responsible, and that by implication, somebody else used his Skype account, his dating app account and someone else arranged the payments. The court heard that Page later travelled to the Philippines and made arrangements via text messages to meet the same girl and a 13-year-old boy. Page is accused of bargaining down the price to have the boy involved, saying in a message '3k too much for him', before later making a payment of 2,000 Philippine pesos (around 30). It was alleged Page arranged for the children to go to his room at the Prince Plaza ll Condotel in Makati City in October 2016 after he had graphically described what he intended to do. Hours after the arrangement had been made, the court heard that Page texted the girl saying: 'Thanks babe.' Days later, the agreed sum left his credit card and was paid out via Western Union in the Philippines, the court heard. Jurors were told that Facebook monitors raised concerns about messages which exploited children which were sent to a charity that protects young people. The charity contacted UK law enforcement and Cleveland Police carried out a search warrant at Page's home in in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, in January 2020. Officers seized his phone, tablet and a computer tower, which were analysed, and which the Crown said showed Page had been in contact with children in the Philippines and had arranged payments by money transfers. Prosecutor Jodie Kidd told the court: 'The Prosecution case is that Mark Page arranged to contact and meet children in the Philippines and the purpose of the communication was to arrange to carry out child sex offences over web cams and also when he travelled to the Philippines. Page (pictured) is accused of sending explicit Skype messages to a 14-year-old girl in the Philippines, asking for a 12-year-old girl to join her 'He used his business and charity as a cover to meet up and under age people in order to met them for sex.' Police found conversations between Page and the girl aged 14, who he allegedly met via a dating site called Filipinocupid using the Pancho pseudonym. In August 2016, Page allegedly told the girl he will be visiting the Philippines and asked her: 'Can you fix a schoolgirl for me? How young can you do babe?' The girl responded: 'I can bring a schoolgirl who is 15.' Page is then said to have responded: 'Younger than her?' When the girl responded: 'Ok, 12,' to which Page allegedly replied: 'Girls 12 can do it OK'. In October 2016, Page travelled to the Philippines and Ms Kidd showed jurors a photograph him geolocated to the country at the relevant time. She read text messages in which he allegedly arranges for the 14-year-old girl to attend his room on the ground floor of the Prince Plaza ll hotel. The court heard Page messaged the girl to say: 'Hi, it's Marky. Maybe we meet tomorrow at 4pm. I'm in Makati, who will you bring with you?' Ms Kidd said the girl arranged to bring a 13-year-old boy with her and they haggled over the price. Three of the offences were said to have occurred in 2016 on webcams, when he was in the UK and the children were in the Philippines, Teesside Crown Court (pictured) was told Police discovered evidence that Page was still active three years later when he allegedly tried to coerce another Filipino girl, this time aged 13, into sexual activity. Jurors were told he arranged to meet with the girl and agreed a fee of 1,000 Philippine pesos (around 14.50). Following his arrest in January 2020, Page denied that he was the person behind the messages and replied 'no comment' to questions put to him by detectives. Ms Kidd told the court: 'Mark Page denies that he is responsible for these conversations. 'By implication somebody else must have used his Skype account, somebody else must have known he was a member of Filipinocupid.com and must have known he used the pseudonym Pancho. 'Someone else must have been able to get into his Western Union account and arranged the bank transfer because Mark Page says that it was not him.' Page denies five charges of arranging the commission of child sexual offences in August 2016, October 2016 and March and April 2019 involving girls aged 14, 13 and 12 and a boy aged 13. The trial, which is expected to last five to seven days, continues. A German billionaire has bought one of Britain's 'last great wildernesses' hoping to rewild it and turn it into a tourist destination. Tycoon Christoph Henkel, 64, has purchased 13,000 acre Kilchoan estate on the Knoydart peninsula in the Scottish Highlands, adding to his global portfolio of secluded resorts. Mr Henkel, said to be worth 1.4 billion, has revealed he plans to rewild Kilchoan and revamp its tourist accommodation like he has for his other luxury resorts in the US and the Caribbean. Tycoon Christoph Henkel, 64, has purchased 13,000 acre Kilchoan estate in the Knoydart peninsula in the Scottish Highlands Mr Henkel, said to be worth 1.4 billion, has revealed he plans to rewild Kilchoan and revamp its tourist accommodation In a similar move Mr Henkel turned Dunton, a former mining town in Colorado, into a hot springs resort where rooms cost around 2,300 a night. Mr Henkel's purchase of the property was criticised by Ailsa Raeburn, chair of Community Land Scotland. Ms Raeburn said: 'The concept of a billionaire absentee landowners buying large rural landholdings to do with as they please is about as far from the idea of Scotland as a modern, progressive country as it's possible to get. 'It underlines the pressing need for further radical land reform that empowers local communities and serves the wider public interest, rather than enabling the super-rich to become 21st century lairds, with all the power and privilege that confers, just because they can.' Mr Henkel responded to the criticism: 'Obviously I know about the sentiment with some people, but this land was for sale, it was unencumbered, and I bought it. The peninsula has been described as one of Britain's 'last great wildernesses' The sprawling estate on Scotland's west coast includes the idyllic Loch Nevis (pictured) 'Inverie did the community buyout of the majority of the land on the peninsula, and the past owner of Kilchoan was one of the people who helped that. 'But I don't know what to say. It was for sale, I bought it, and there we are. 'It's also not like one is buying a piece of land with 20,000 apartments on it. It is really as unprotected as land gets. 'I understand the political settlement, but I don't agree with it, let's put it this way.' Mr Henkel added that he was planting 80 hectares of naturally-occurring trees in the estate and said he was not interested in profit - only in preserving the wilderness. Supplies and equipment have already been shipped in and planning applications lodged with Highland Council to turn the estate into a modern visitor destination. A friend in London told Mr Henkel about the peninsula years ago and he jumped at the chance to buy it when it went up for sale Kilchoan, owned for years by the Delwart family from Belgium, had already been on the market for six months by the time Mr Henkel first visited it in November 2019. Mr Henkel plans to add further accommodation, although stressed it would represent a modest increase, and declined to put a figure on how much he intends to invest. He said: 'There is one thing which the places have in common - people love to come and stay in wild places, and sleep in a comfortable bed at the same time. 'We're adding a few buildings because the ones we have now are basically falling down. 'A barn is falling apart, and we're taking it down and rebuilding it and making it energy efficient. 'Will we be successful in getting people to come? That's the entrepreneurial question. I can't give you the answer but we have some interest.' A friend in London told him about the peninsula years ago, and when he caught wind that one of its prized estates was up for sale, he jumped at the chance to buy it. Industrialist Mr Henkel said: 'I was just blown away by it. I really had no long-term plan to acquire anything in Scotland. 'But when I saw Kilchoan and Knoydart, it spoke to me. 'I was probably the first one who the seller saw who said, 'Great, it doesn't have a road' Sellers Bidwells, who handled the sale, said they received inquiries from Russia, South Africa and Australia for the estate. They said it was a once in a generation chance to acquire 'one of the last great wildernesses left on mainland Britain'. Christoph Henkel's fortune comes in the form of Henkel, the German chemical company founded by his grandfather With no road network the land is only accessible by ferry, or a two-day hike. Prospective purchasers used private jets and helicopters to view the property, and take in its expansive views across to Eigg and Rum. Mr Henkel finalised a deal just weeks before the first lockdown in March 2020. Registers of Scotland shows a purchase price of 1.2 million. The accounts for Kilchoan's newly incorporated estate company, which has Mr Henkel as its sole director, values its property at 4.2 million. Mr Henkel has promised to work alongside the community, take a 'measured and balanced' approach to rewilding. He said he wants to ensure Kilchoan remains 'as remote and untouched as possible'. The pandemic has hindered his plans for the estate but he managed to spend six or seven weeks at Kilchoan last year, where he met with some of the locals. He intends to return in May and said he is excited at the prospect of 'enhancing' the estate, just as he and his wife did with their Colorado property. The old farmhouse at Kilchoan was one of the first properties to be overhauled by the Henkels. The work has been praised by longstanding visitors to the peninsula - but it has a 1,250 nightly rate now in place during spring and summer. Other properties on the estate, including the three-bedroom Tigh na Broc and two-bedroom Tigh na Dobhran, have also undergone renovation. Two major Australian bottle shops have pledged to wipe shelves of all Russian-made vodka in opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. The move comes after Ukrainian Australians called for businesses to ramp-up support for the community as Russian forces wreak havoc in the capital, Kyiv. Parent company Endeavour Group said the decision was made to remove Russian imports from Dan Murphy's and BWS in response to the lobbying efforts. Dan Murphy's (pictured) and BWS have pledged to wipe shelves of all Russian-made vodka in opposition to the invasion of Ukraine The decision to pull beverages, namely vodka, from shelves had been made in response to calls from the Ukrainian Australian community (pictured, empty shelves in Dan Murphy's) 'As an organisation, Endeavour Group is deeply concerned with the situation in Ukraine and we join the calls for peace,' a spokesperson told the ABC. The spokesperson said the decision to pull beverages, namely vodka, from shelves had been made in response to feedback from a variety of stakeholders. The Endeavour Group - which owns major bottle shops Dan Murphys and BWS - has more than 1,500 stores across Australia. The company also owns Jimmy Brings, Cellarmasters and ALH Hotels, however it is unclear if these brands will follow suit and boycott all Russian products. It comes after the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations asked the federal government to ban the import and distribution of Russian imports. The group's co-chair Stefan Romaniw called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to go harder when it came to condemning Russia and the invasion. Mr Romaniw asked the prime minister to close the Russian consulate, cancel visas for Russian visitors and ban all goods from the eastern European country. The move to boycott Russian vodka (pictured) comes after Ukrainian Australians called for businesses to ramp-up support for the community as Russian forces wreak havoc in Kyiv Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale war last week, with 150,000 soldiers attacking key cities and territories near the border as they attempt to take the capital of Kyiv (pictured, people coming from Ukraine catch a ferry to Romania) Mr Morrison has flagged he will not hesitate in banning all trade with Russia, with the federal government already imposing sanctions this week. Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong has confirmed she will offer bi-partisan support if the federal government wishes to cease trade entirely. The United States, Britain, Europe and Canada have blocked Russian access to the SWIFT international payment system as part of another round of sanctions, a move Treasurer Josh Frydneberg said would isolate it from the global financial system. On Sunday morning, Mr Morrison announced that Australia will seek to provide what he described as 'lethal aid' - funding for weapons delivered through NATO. PM Scott Morrison (pictured) has flagged he will not hesitate in banning all trade with Russia, with the federal government already imposing sanctions this week Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale war last week, with 150,000 soldiers attacking key cities and territories near the border as they attempt to take the capital of Kyiv. So far, the Ukrainian response has been stern and effective, with President Volodymyr Zelensky confirming they were to hold talks with Russian officials on the Ukranian-Belarusian border 'without preconditions'. President Zelensky warned Ukraine faced a 'crucial' 24 hours as Russia threw even more ground forces at Kyiv. Satellite images overnight showed a three mile-long convoy heading towards the capital, after Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on 'alert'. Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded. The US will close its embassy in Minsk, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, following reports that Belarus may join Russia' invasion of Ukraine. The US government is also warning Belarus that it could risk further sanctions if it helps Vladimir Putin continue his assault. Last week President Joe Biden announced sanctions against 24 Belarusian entities and individuals for its role in Russia's attack. Blinken also gave non-essential staff at the US embassy in Moscow the green light to go home, citing 'security and safety issues' brought on by Putin's unprovoked attack on his neighbor. When asked about the threat of Belarus joining the deadly fray, a White House official told CNN it was 'watching those events very carefully.' 'Weve said to the extent Belarus continues to aid and abet Russias aggression in Ukraine, they will also face consequences,' the official said. 'Weve already rolled out some of those measures. Those costs will continue to ratchet much higher.' DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment. The announcements came while Kyiv officials representing President Volodymyr Zelensky and officials from the Kremlin hold potential peace talks at Ukraine's border with Belarus. A view of a wreckage after a missile hit buildings as Russian attacks continue in Ukrainian capital, Kyiv on February 28. The fighting has continued even as officials from Moscow and Kyiv meet for negotiations Cars are stopped at a roadblock set by civil defensemen at a road leading to central Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28 'The US Department of State has suspended operations at our Embassy in Minsk, Belarus and authorized the voluntary departure ('authorized departure') of non-emergency employees and family members at our Embassy in Moscow, Russia,' Blinken said in a statement. 'We took these steps due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine.' He added that his department 'continually adjusts its posture' at posts around the world 'in line with its mission, the local security environment, and the health situation.' 'We ultimately have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens, and that includes our US government personnel and their dependents serving around the world,' Blinken said. Heightened concerns that Belarus could join Putin's war come after a referendum in the country on Sunday approved a new constitution that ditches the country's non-nuclear status - meaning it could potentially host Russian weapons. Belarus, which borders both Russia and Ukraine, is run by Alexander Lukashenko, who has closely allied himself with Putin. Though it has not taken part in Russia's war directly, Belarus has allowed Vladimir Putin to station troops within its borders and even conduct large-scale military exercises there, such as the one pictured from February 19 -- days before the invasion of neighboring Ukraine Secretary of State Antony Blinken said non-essential staff at the US embassy in Moscow could leave on Monday, citing Putin's 'unprovoked and unjustified' actions in Ukraine Blinken said the US would also close the US embassy in Belarus after reports that its strongman dictator Alexander Lukashenko may join Vladimir Putin's war effort The American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Washington Post, said that 'its very clear [Belarus' capital] Minsk is now an extension of the Kremlin. No indication on how many troops nor where they would be deployed was given by the official. The new constitution could see nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union. On Sunday, speaking at a polling station, Lukashenko said he could ask Russia to return nuclear weapons to Belarus. Belarus has been providing support for Russia's war effort, but so far has not taken a direct part in the conflict. It's allowed Moscow's troops to station at its border with Ukraine and conduct large-scale military drills shortly before Putin personally ordered his troops to attack. This revelation came hours after the Ukrainian state security service officially reported that a rocket attack on Zhytomyr Airport -- located some 93 miles west of Kiev -- was launched from the territory of Belarus. Belarusian special forces were seen loading onto airplanes in preparation for an air assault on Kyiv in what could be a widening of the war, military sources stated. Ukrainian intelligence has reportedly learned from within Belarus that special ops troops have been spotted loading up planes for a major attack. The West has already said it will not recognize the results of the referendum in Belarus, which is taking place against the background of a sweeping crackdown on domestic opponents of the government. According to human rights activists, as of Sunday, there were more than a thousand political prisoners in Belarus Russian forces have encountered strong resistance from Ukraine defenders, and US officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts. The American official, speaking with direct knowledge of current US intelligence assessments, says the decision to bring Belarus further into the war depends on talks between Russia and Ukraine happening in the coming days. Lukashenko Sunday night issued a chilling threat that the West's sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into a Third World War. It follows Putin's order to troops that morning to be on standby for potential nuclear warfare. Lukashenko's comments came as Kyiv and Moscow agreed to hold peace talks at the border with Belarus -- though Zelensky admitted he wasn't confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage. The deployment could significantly affect those peace talks. On Monday the US ratcheted up its economic penalties on Russia, as Ukraine's military continues to put up an historic and unprecedented resistance effort against the Kremlin's attacks. The Treasury Department announced it is implementing sanctions against Russia's central bank as well as investment funds The move was described as the most 'significant action' that Treasury has taken against an economy of Russia's size, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the sanctions on the condition of anonymity. Biden administration officials said Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, European Union and others will join the U.S. in targeting the Russian central bank. 'The unprecedented action we are taking today will significantly limit Russia's ability to use assets to finance its destabilizing activities, and target the funds Putin and his inner circle depend on to enable his invasion of Ukraine,' Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. Treasury said the move effectively immobilizes any assets of the Russian Central Bank in the United States or held by Americans, and would severely limit Putin's ability to mitigate the impact of previous sanctions. The Biden administration estimated that the move could impact 'hundreds of billions of dollars' of Russia funding. Advertisement Tears rolling down his face and his voice breaking with emotion, this little boy describes the fear and grief suffered by hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children now separated from their families because of the Russian invasion. Mark Goncharuk was interviewed as he headed west from Kyiv having just said goodbye to his father, who decided to stay behind to defend the capital from Putin's forces. The little boy, believed to be no more than eight years old, was rescued by the side of a road around three days walk from the Polish border. Exhausted, he was interviewed by a Finnish journalist, who he thanked 'for saving us'. Trying to blink away his tears before breaking down, he said: 'We left dad in Kyiv and dad will be selling things and helping our heroes, our army. He might even fight'. Others on the minibus heading out of Ukraine are also seen crying as he says to the reporter: 'We've been walking for many hours and you saved us. We thought we would have to walk for many days. You helped us', even managing a tiny smile for those who picked him up. It is not clear if he is with any other members of his family. The heartbreaking video epitomises the human tragedy unfolding in Ukraine where more than 500,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country last week, according to the UN refugee agency. The latest, and still growing count, had 281,000 people entering Poland, more than 84,500 in Hungary, about 36,400 in Moldova, over 32,500 in Romania and about 30,000 in Slovakia, UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said. There are queues of more than 25 miles for vehicles trying to leave Ukraine's borders with the West. There are also hardly any trains, meaning many thousands are just walking instead. The rest were scattered in unidentified other countries, she said. Another train carrying hundreds of refugees from Ukraine arrived early on Monday in the town of Przemysl in southeastern Poland. Ukrainian boy Mark Goncharuk breaks down as he describes leaving his father behind in Kyiv where he will fight the Russians But the brave little boy managed a smile for the journalists who rescued him from the side of the road as he walked away from the Ukrainian capital In winter coats to protect them against near-freezing temperatures, with small suitcases, they lined up at the platform to the exit. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday UKRAINE REFUGEE APPEAL Readers of Mail Newspapers have always shown immense generosity at times of crisis. Calling upon that human spirit, we are now launching an appeal to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. For, surely, no one can fail to be moved by the heartbreaking images and stories of families mostly women, children, the infirm and elderly fleeing from Russia's invading armed forces. As this tally of misery increases over the coming days and months, these innocent victims of a tyrant will require accommodation, schools and medical support. All donations to the Mail Ukraine Appeal will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. In the name of charity and compassion, we urge all our readers to give swiftly and generously. TO MAKE A DONATION ONLINE Via bank transfer, please use these details: Account name: Associated Newspapers Account number: 20769512 Sort code: 50-00-00 TO MAKE A DONATION VIA CHEQUE Make your cheque payable to 'Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal' and post it to: Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal, GFM, 42 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JY Advertisement Some waved at the cameras to show they felt relief to be out of the war zone. Many were making phone calls. Viktoria and Diana Petrova are the lucky ones that escaped the bloodshed and made it into Poland but it was an arduous journey to safety. They spent the first night of Vladimir Putins bombardment sleeping rough with their family in a car park in Kyiv. But last night the teenagers and their mother, Elena, 46, took shelter at one of the nine centres that have been set up by Polish officials for Ukrainians fleeing the bloodshed. The centre is in Korczowa, which is close to the border between Poland and Ukraine. It wasnt safe to sleep in the basement, the visibly exhausted 19-year-old Viktoria said. The only alternative was the metro but there was no space. The family, who are from Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine, spent two days stuck in traffic trying to escape before walking over the border into Poland. Ukrainian refugees who cross on foot are picked up on buses by border guards. Some have even been ferried by ordinary Poles who have volunteered to help. The family described how locals here have answered the call of duty to help their neighbours as they flee Russias military assault. On the border, Polish people were waiting with a lot of food and warm clothes, Diana, 14, said as she sat on her makeshift bed in the refugee camp, which used to be a shopping centre. Mrs Petrova smiled with appreciation as she spoke of the kindness that has been shown. The family told the Daily Mail that they had been offered a lift by a stranger to Lubin, a six-hour drive, close to the German border. We are safe now, Mrs Petrova said. Maybe the situation in Ukraine will not last that long and we will be able to go back in a week or two. The sprawling aircraft hangar-like building, now dubbed Kyiv Hall, has 600 makeshift camp beds. The operation is being handled by Polands military, which is taking charge of the logistics and distributing supplies to those in need. Donations of food, clothes, medicines and even toys have been handed out after a massive grassroots effort across Poland. At the camp, the food is left out in cardboard boxes and shopping trolleys for refugees to collect. Gaia Kosciolko, 17, and her schoolfriend, Martyna Farion, 18, spent yesterday handing out teddy bears to the younger children. A Polish Border Guard carries a child at the border crossing between Poland and Ukraine, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Medyka, Poland Ukrainian refugees arrive by train from Kiev at the Warszawa Wschodnia station in Warsaw, Poland A Ukrainian family eat on their camp beds in an emergency centre set up for refugees of the Ukrainian war at a warehouse in Korczowa And Izabela Nowak, 31, told the Mail how she had rallied a group of 30 volunteers to set up a soup kitchen for refugees. We will be here for as long as we need to be, she said. Miss Nowak works at a computer store run by Adam Holboy, 38, who decided to shut down his business so he could help the Ukrainians. Last night the Mail saw how locals braved freezing temperatures to welcome the new arrivals. They gathered outside Kyiv Hall as two buses, both crammed full of people, pulled up and offered them a free taxi service to other parts of the country. Some had even come from further afield to help. Frank Koryk, a 27-year-old wind turbine technician, said he had driven from Prague overnight so he could be here to take the Ukrainians to safety. I felt this was better than just watching what was happening on TV, Mr Koryk said. We Czechs have been under Soviet occupation as well, so I wanted to help. Polish volunteer drivers are walking through the building, calling out their destination at the top of their voice. Anyone to Berlin? shouts one man. But there were reports last night that African migrants in Ukraine were being blocked from entering Poland. A man said he and his family had been turned away from the border and told no blacks, The Independent reported. Most of the arrivals spend just a few hours here before they leave for hotels, apartments, or to stay with relatives in other parts of Poland. The centre has a high turnover, with people coming and going on a near hourly basis. One NGO worker, who declined to be named, said that there had been an increase in arrivals over the weekend. Its really chaos here now, he said. We are trying to find beds for people, or at least places for them to go. Most of those crossing the border seem to want to stay in Poland or go to Germany. A Texas school superintendent is on an administrative leave after being accused by his mistress of trying to force her to abort their baby and then assaulting her when she refused, prompting the woman to obtain a protective order against him. The scandal in the Round Rock Independent School District has been brewing for months, and it has since come to encompass allegations of a coverup by a former school board president and the silencing of the board's critics. Two fathers from Round Rock were arrested last year after bringing up allegations of misconduct against Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez during public school board meetings. An independent investigation into Azaiez's conduct had been launched last month, but the final report is still pending and will not be released until next month following a 5-2 vote by the school board to extend the deadline. Round Rock Independent School Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez is on a paid administrative leave after being accused of trying to get his mistress to abort their baby and then assaulting her last year Round Rock father Jeremy Strong is pictured being removed from a school board meeting in August after bringing up a protective order against Azaiez In September, Dustin Clark, who has children in the Round Rock district, was arrested after speaking out against Azaiez during a meeting (pictured) Azaiez, who previously served as superintendent in the Donna Independent School District, was hired by the Road Rock School Board in June 2021, signing a three-year contract offering a $350,000 annual salary. But just weeks after Azaiez assumed his new post, his alleged mistress filed a protective order against him, accusing the top education official of trying to get her to terminate her pregnancy in order to protect his career and reputation, and then physically assaulting her when she would not agree to have the abortion. When the school district learned of the allegations against Azaiez five months later, it hired an independent investigator and placed the superintendent on paid administrative leave. No criminal charges have been filed against Azaiez, and the protective order against him has expired. The application for the protective order was filed in the Travis County Court on July 28, 2021, by a woman who described herself as 'an educator and a school leader' pursuing a doctorate, reported Texas Scorecard. She claimed to have been in an on-again, off-again extramarital relationship with Azaiez between September 2018 and June 2021. Both Story (left) and Clark (right) were charged with hinder proceeding by disorderly conduct The mistress, who has not been named, described Azaiez as manipulative, controlling and 'very rough' in their intimacy. She claimed that Azaiez, who was married, told her he was estranged from his wife and was only waiting for his children to grow up to file for a divorce. The superintendent's lover wrote in her affidavit that she told Azaiez about her pregnancy on June 24, 2021, after he had just signed the contract naming him Round Rock's new superintendent. 'He was very worried about the possibility of losing his job,' the mistress wrote. 'He was very angry and accused me of doing this on purpose to destroy his career and family.' According to the filing, Azaiez blamed the woman for their affair and pregnancy, and then allegedly started to threaten her on phone calls and in text messages. 'He asked me to have an abortion so he would not lose his career and family. I was very upset at this, and I said no to an abortion and told him that I had made up my mind to have the child,' the woman, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time, wrote. School Board President Amy Weir (pictured) has been accused of saying she would protect Azaiez from misconduct accusations 'He said this child was a mistake and so was I, he wanted nothing to do with this child, he did not want it,' she continued. 'He said I was lying, and he was not the father of the child.' The woman insisted she was 'one hundred percent sure' Azaiez was the father, because she said she was faithful to him for the entire duration of their three-year relationship. A few days later, she wrote that Azaiez started to intimidate her 'by telling me he was in a position of power...he then said no one would believe me if I said he was the father and that he would tell everyone I was crazy and make me look crazy.' The mistress said she repeatedly implored Azaiez to inform the school board of her pregnancy, but she claimed the newly hired superintendent bragged to her that then-School Board President Amy Weir 'had offered to protect him, she was informing him of everything and guaranteed him he would not lose his job,' according to the court document. The petitioner continued: 'In the past I had heard conversations between him and the school board preside plotting things and keeping things from other school board members.' The mom-to-be added that she felt 'very intimidated' by Weir. The filing alleged that on July 6, Azaiez called his mistress, accusing her of informing the school board of her pregnancy behind his back. He allegedly reiterated that Weir would protect him and the woman 'was going to pay for him losing his career and family.' Later that same day, Azaiez allegedly came to his pregnant girlfriend' home and again tried to convince her to get an abortion, but she refused. 'He became so angry he grabbed my arms with force, shaking me and shoving me until he threw me to the floor,' she claimed. When the woman threatened to call the police, she said Azaiez took away her phone, but then told her he did not mean to do this and left. The woman claimed that after the attack, she developed a bleeding and was told by her doctor that she could miscarry. It's unclear at this time whether the woman brought the pregnancy to term. Azaiez was hired as superintendent in June 2021, signing a three-year contract with $350,000 annual salary According to the protective order application, the mistress was left fearing for her life and her baby's life after someone broke into her home in the Austin area in mid-July and stole items containing her personal information, including her iPad, laptop, and journals, but not her jewelry, cash or other valuables. 'I believe the break-in was Mr Azaiez gathering my personal items that might expose him and prove that this relationship was true and an possible evidence I may have to support the existence of the relationship and his threatening behaviors,' she claimed. The woman added she was forced to leave her home and temporarily move in with a friend for fear of retaliation from Azaiez. 'I feel like my life is in danger and need protection from him,' she wrote. 'if this situation were to come to light, I fear he will lose it and retaliate against me and hurt me in a worse way.' Azaiez has not been charged neither for the assault nor for the burglary at his girlfriend's home. His attorney told Fox News Digital that she has 'incontrovertible' evidence proving that the assault never happened, but she did not say what it is. She also revealed that Azaiez and his mistress have 'amicably' reached a confidential settlement agreement. During a school board meeting in August 2021, Jeremy Story, a father of seven who lives in the Round Rock district, brought up the protective order against Azaiez, prompting then-Board President Weir to cut him off. Police then escorted the parent out of the meeting. Weir, who has since been replaced as board president but remains on the board, previously denied any attempts to silence Story. On September 14, Dustin Clark, a father of four children attending schools in the Round Rock district, spoke at a school board meeting and also mentioned the allegations of misconduct against Azaiez, resulting in his removal from the venue, which he said could accommodate 300 people but had only 18 chairs set up for the meeting. School district officials blamed COVID restrictions on the reduced capacity. Three days later, both Story and Clark were arrested by the sheriff's office on charges of hinder proceeding by disorderly conduct. Story called on the school board to investigate its own members, but the board recently voted 5-2 against such an investigation. Clark, who spent three days in jail, railed against Weir and other board members for allegedly suppressing and intimidating community members who seek to expose Azaiez's alleged misconduct, and he demanded that both the superintendent and Weir 'do the right thing' and resign. The final report of the investigation into Azaiez is expected to be released on March 8, according to the Austin American Statesman. Despite her past insistence against running for the White House, Michelle Obama is a 'completely plausible' 2024 candidate, a former Trump aide said A former Trump administration official this weekend floated the possibility of Michelle Obama succeeding President Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic nominee, warning that the former first lady would be a formidable opponent to the GOP. 'If [Democrats] were to run Michelle Obama, that would put us in a very difficult position,' former Trump aide Monica Crowley said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando on Saturday. 'They'd reach for a candidate who is completely plausible, very popular, and immune to criticism.' Crowley, who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs under Donald Trump, appeared at a panel discussion alongside former White House physician-turned-House Rep. Ronny Jackson, conservative activist Jack Posobiec and California lawyer Kurt Schlichter during the multi-day event. After tossing the popular Democratic first lady's hat in the ring, Crowley explained how Obama would have been positioning herself to mount a White House bid in the years after her husband Barack Obama left the White House in early 2017. 'When you think about her positioning, she spoke as a [Democratic National Convention] keynote speaker in 2020,' Crowley claimed. 'She wrote her autobiography and did a 50-city tour, she has massive Netflix and Spotify deals, and she's got a voting rights group alongside Stacey Abrams.' Obama's memoir 'Becoming' sold more than two million copies in various forms within 15 days of publication, quickly becoming a bestseller. It's a testament to the Harvard-educated lawyer's popularity, particularly among Democrats. Monica Crowley made the comments during a Saturday panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida She previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs under Donald Trump (pictured with Donald Trump Jr. (left) and former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (right) She was voted as the top most admired woman in YouGov's global survey three years in a row, most recently winning the number one spot in December 2021. And while Obama has publicly dismissed the idea of running for her husband's old job, a recent Hill-HarrisX poll placed her high on the list of potential candidates in 2024 should Biden choose not to run. The president, who's so far said he's running for re-election, would be 81 years old at the start of his second term. The late November 2021 survey found Obama second in a list of likely Democrat candidates, just behind Vice President Kamala Harris. But on Saturday, former Trump aide Crowley highlighted Harris' gaffe-laden first year. She suggested Obama would be a good alternative so as not to alienate black women, among the Democratic Party's most loyal voters, according to Business Insider. Obama has long been admired by Democrats and even Independents, and would have immediate name recognition should she cast a 2024 bid. Despite her insistence that she won't run, Crowley warned her crowd at the Republican event to be ready for it and compared Obama's profile-enhancing activism that put her back into the public eye after leaving the White House to the actions of Hillary Clinton -- another rumored potential 2024 candidate. 'For all of these people who say, "Michelle Obama isn't political, they're making too much money now," keep a very close eye on her because her trajectory is exactly what Barack Obama did before he ran for president and what Bill and Hillary Clinton both did,' Crowley said. She reasserted: 'I think if she were to run, that would be a very difficult situation for us.' Obama famously said during a leadership conference in Boston in 2018 that to run for president, 'my sense is that, first of all, you have to want the job.' She went even further to say that she 'never had the passion for politics,' adding: 'I just happened to be married to somebody who has the passion for politics, and he drug me kicking and screaming into the arena.' But despite her claimed distaste for running for office, Obama has waded into the political arena several times -- to a warm reception. Obama was seen as a key asset for her husband's successful 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, including a highly praised speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She also delivered an impassioned speech endorsing Biden in 2020, claiming he was the only one who could 'put an end to this chaos' of the Trump administration. Most recently, Obama waded into November's midterm elections, throwing her weighty influence and her group When We All Vote behind an effort to register 1 million new people for the ballot box this year. In late December, a potential Obama 2024 campaign got backing from an unlikely ally -- podcast host Joe Rogan. 'She's great, she's articulate, she's intelligent, she's the wife of the best president that we have had in our lifetime,' Rogan said. 'She can win.' Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump laid down a marker to other possible Republican 2024 runners by winning 59 percent support of CPAC attendees. The annual straw poll is seen as a key indicator of who is favored by the party base. The survey of 2500 attendees found that the most popular candidates occupied the same political territory as Trump - such as allies Mike Pompeo, Rand Paul and Kristi Noem Trump's win was no surprise -- but he took five percentage points more than last year -- with Governor Ron DeSantis, who gave a rousing speech at the gathering on Thursday, in second with 28 percent. That left the rest of the field as rank outsiders, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo taking two percent and Vice President Mike Pence one percent - along side Nikki Haley, Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem, and Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. But CPAC's status as a gathering of hardline conservatives tends to skew the results towards the Trumpist wing of the party. If Trump were not running, DeSantis takes 61 percent. And the Republican Party is already cashing in on the chances of Michelle Obama being their opponent. Two January fundraising emails from the National Republican Senatorial Committee were sent to donors touting the possibility of another Obama in the White House. 'Left-wing Democrats KNOW they are going to LOSE their Majority in Congress this November, so they want to bring out an OBAMA to save them in 2024,' one email obtained by Punchbowl News read. The second stated: 'Rumors are spreading like wildfire that a certain someone, someone who already spent 8 YEARS in the White House, is thinking of running for PRESIDENT in 2024.' Heroic Ukrainians are continuing to fight back against Russian troops, standing in the way of tanks and refusing to comply with the invading forces as more stories of incredible bravery emerge from the war. A group of unarmed civilians blocked one tank from entering the town of Koryukivka in the Chernihiv Oblast after forming a human barrier on the street. The Russian soldiers were reportedly asking for directions when the Ukrainians swarmed the tank to keep it from moving into the Kyiv. A group of unarmed civilians blocked one tank from entering the town of Koryukivka in the Chernihiv Oblast after forming a human barrier on the street The Russian soldiers were reportedly asking for directions when the Ukrainians swarmed the tank to keep it from moving into the Kyiv A group of Ukrainians also chanted 'go home' to armed Russian soldiers in another incredible show of resistance. Hundreds gathered in front of Putin's men in the southern city of Berdyansk to protest against the invasion which has already cost hundreds of lives. Meanwhile a defiant woman driver lambasted a Russian military invader when he demanded to see her passport in the Sumy region. She refused and labelled him a 'terrorist' for occupying her country and brandishing a machine gun in her face. The unnamed woman demanded the Russian soldier remove his mask so she could see the face of the occupier. A group of Ukrainians also chanted 'go home' to armed Russian soldiers in another incredible show of resistance Hundreds gathered in front of Putin's men in the southern city of Berdyansk to protest against the invasion which has already cost hundreds of lives 'Take your mask off! I just want to see what kind of person you are, aiming your machine gun at a woman,' she told him as she filmed during her furious tirade. He replied: 'Why should I take my mask off?' The driver shot back: 'And why shall I show you my passport? I am a citizen of Ukraine, and according to the Constitution of Ukraine I can drive freely without a passport.' She demanded: 'And why do we have to show our passports to terrorists? 'I am a citizen of Ukraine. I was born here! Here, this is the land I was born, do you understand? A defiant woman driver lambasted a Russian military invader when he demanded to see her passport in the Sumy region The unnamed woman demanded the Russian soldier remove his mask so she could see the face of the occupier 'Why did you come - to kill my father, my children? Who the hell are you? Why are you stopping me on my land?' The Russian soldier asked: 'Why should I take my mask off? She replied: 'And why shall I show you my passport? When she challenged him on why the Russians needed a document check, he replied: 'I don't know, perhaps you came here to kill us.' The occupying Russian soldier had ordered her to show her documents and open the boot of her car. A set of mysterious symbols have emerged on various buildings in Kyiv, sparking fears that Russian saboteurs may be marking out targets for a major aerial assault. Images of the symbols circulated on social media after Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (DSSZZI) on Friday posted a warning on social media encouraging residents to cover them up. Red and orange crosshairs have been painted onto various structures in the capital, including several high-rise buildings, with certain symbols only visible under UV light. 'City officials are asking residents of high-rise buildings who have access to the roof to urgently check the rooftops for symbols,' the post read. 'If any symbols are found, please cover them up with dirt or something else.' Fears that the symbols could in fact be target indicators were confirmed over the weekend when Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko declared: 'City officials are urging citizens to immediately report tagged locations, submit photos to law enforcement, and report suspects who may be involved in tagging.' 'Labels are placed to adjust the fire of the occupying forces of the Russian Federation.' It comes amid rising concerns that Kyiv could soon come under heavy attack, after the Kremlin this morning warned civilians to leave the city via a 'safe highway' to the south-west. Russia used similar tactics during its intervention in Syria, in which military leaders told civilians to leave cities along a safe route before conducting heavy bombing campaigns while fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad. Kyiv, along with the cities of Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv, have already been hit by Russian artillery fire. A set of mysterious symbols have emerged on various buildings in Kyiv, sparking fears that Russian saboteurs may be marking out targets for a major aerial assault. Images purporting to show the symbols are circulating on social media Red and orange crosshairs have reportedly been painted onto various structures in the capital, with Kyiv's mayor and government social media accounts calling on citizens to cover them up It comes amid rising concerns that Kyiv could soon come under heavy attack, after the Kremlin this morning warned civilians to leave the city via a 'safe route' to the south-west (pictured: the moment after a missile struck a residential building in Kyiv over the weekend) Fears that the symbols could in fact be target indicators were confirmed over the weekend when Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko declared: 'City officials are urging citizens to immediately report tagged locations, submit photos to law enforcement, and report suspects who may be involved in tagging.' 'Labels are placed to adjust the fire of the occupying forces of the Russian Federation' The use of target indicators (TIs) for aerial assaults was pioneered primarily by the RAF and the German Luftwaffe in World War II. Target-marking squadrons would perform a flyover of any intended targets and drop bomb casings filled with flares, showering the area with bright sparks and providing a sighted target for oncoming bombers. Now, the Ukrainian military has reportedly seized several silent, light-emitting beacons from several positions around the capital, which are believed to be TIs for Russian aircraft or missiles. These lights can be used as TIs to lead missiles to their targets with pinpoint accuracy and help them to avoid obstacles or enemy fire. Ukraine's service of special communications and information protection (DSSZZI) on Friday posted a warning about the symbols. 'City officials are asking residents of high-rise buildings who have access to the roof to urgently check the rooftops for symbols,' the post read. 'If any symbols are found, please cover them up with dirt or something else' The painted crosshairs meanwhile represent a more old-fashioned approach to target indication - though they are less susceptible to sabotage, jamming and hacking unlike more technologically advanced methods. A video shared on Twitter purported to show one of the transmitting devices captured by Ukrainian forces, which flashed intermittently with a sharp green light. The caption read: 'Footage of the device that is used by Russian saboteur units in Ukraine. The light-emitting object has been retrieved by Ukrainian forces. 'These are beacons that are used for either airstrikes, artillery strikes, or for the landing of Russian troops.' Footage of the device that is used by Russian saboteur units in Ukraine. The light emitting object has been retrieved by Ukrainian forces. These are beacons that are used for either airstrikes, artillery strikes or for the landing of Russian troops. pic.twitter.com/CrwrpBztDD CaucasusWarReport (@Caucasuswar) February 26, 2022 Now, the Ukrainian military has reportedly seized several silent, light-emitting beacons from several positions around the capital, which are believed to be TIs for Russian aircraft or missiles. The painted crosshairs meanwhile represent a more old-fashioned approach to target indication - though they are less susceptible to sabotage, jamming and hacking unlike more technologically advanced methods Plumes of smoke rise from a building, which was caused by a cruise missile according to local media, in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 27, 2022 Other mysterious markings are seemingly only visible under UV light, while other more high-tech devices which emit bursts of light have been seized by the Ukrainian military Though Russia has executed a number of air and missile strikes on key strategic locations across Ukraine, there were very few civilian casualties in the first days of the invasion. That changed over the weekend when fighting broke out in the streets of several Ukrainian cities, while one Russian missile caused severe damage to a residential high-rise in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday. Now dozens of civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded after Russian rocket artillery opened fire on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian officials. Kharkiv, which has witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the war so far, was hit by rockets fired from Russian positions in the early hours of this morning - with video showing an area around a shopping centre in the Serpnia area blanketed by explosions. Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, came under heavy bombardment from indiscriminate Russian artillery and may have been hit by so-called 'cluster' munitions, causing 'dozens' of casualties This photograph shows a view of a school destroyed as a result of fight not far from the center of Ukrainian city of Kharkiv Ukraine war, day 5: Russian forces are now attempting to skirt around Kyiv and encircle it from the west. Troops fighting out of Crimea continue to make gains and are likely to surround Mariupol soon, while also reaching the outskirts of a key Ukrainian nuclear plant. Fighting in the east continues to be heavy with no breakthrough for Putin Part of a Russian rocket is seen in the street outside a shop in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, after bombardment by Russian forces A military source told MailOnline that 'cluster' munitions had been used, in a possible war crime. The BM-21 Grad is a multiple launch rocket system used for area denial, dropping cluster bombs on a concentrated area,' the expert said. 'It's mainly used on enemy troops before an offensive. Used against civilians, its not only a war crime, but has only one purpose to spread terror and alarm among the civilian population. Graphic images and video then revealed streets littered with the bodies of dead and badly wounded civilians, with other images showing spent BM-21 Grad rocket cartridges laying in the streets and having fallen through apartment roofs. It marks one of the most-serious attacks on civilians since the war began five days ago, and came despite Ukrainian and Russian delegations sitting down in Belarus for 'peace talks'. The cities of Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv were also bombed overnight, with air raid sirens sounding in other areas. Oh Young-jin, the president-publisher of The Korea Times, has been named the seventh chairman of the Foreign Language Newspapers Association of Korea (FNA). The association announced his election at its meeting of executive directors, Friday. Oh will lead the group for a year. Established in July 2015, the FNA carries out joint research and projects for the development of foreign-language newspapers here. Its members are The Korea Times, The Korea Herald, The Korea JoongAng Daily and The Aju Daily, which is Aju Business Daily's Chinese edition. Since joining The Korea Times in 1988, Oh has worked at various desks covering politics, business and social issues as both a reporter and an editor. He served as the managing editor from 2012 to 2015 before becoming a chief editorial writer, then the digital managing editor and the director of content and digitization. He was named president-publisher in April 2020. Sarah Moulds (pictured outside court today) is accused of causing unnecessary suffering to a horse. Today, she pleaded not guilty A former primary school teacher who was filmed kicking and slapping her horse during a hunt will face trial after denying animal cruelty charges. Sarah Moulds is accused of causing unnecessary suffering to the grey pony, named Bruce Almighty, and failing to take reasonable steps to protect the pony from pain, suffering or injury following a probe by the RSPCA. The alleged incident happened in the vicinity of The Drift, Gunby, Lincolnshire, in November last year. The 37-year-old pleaded not guilty during a short hearing in front of Lincoln Crown Court Recorder Paul Mann QC today. Moulds was initially summonsed to court after footage was shared online showing a woman repeatedly slapping a horse when it ran into the road. Wearing a black top and a grey skirt, Moulds spoke only to confirm her name, date of birth and to enter her pleas. At the time of the alleged incident, Moulds was participating in the Cottesmore Hunt, one of Britain's oldest foxhound packs. The footage of the alleged incident was investigated by the RSPCA after anti-hunting activists, the Hertfordshire Hunt Saboteurs, posted it to Twitter. The animal charity described it at the time as 'really upsetting' and urged anyone with information to come forward. Moulds, of Somerby, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, was granted unconditional bail to appear at Lincoln Crown Court for trial on October 17. The mother-of-two, who is well known in local equestrian circles, is being prosecuted by the RSPCA but not the police or Crown Prosecution Service. Last month, she opted to be tried by a jury at a crown court. Moulds, of Somerby, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, was granted unconditional bail to appear at Lincoln Crown Court for trial on October 17 Moulds pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges during a short hearing at Lincoln Crown Court (pictured) She lives with her plumber husband Daniel and children and had worked as a primary school teacher. But she lost her job last month after being suspended following the outrage. However some social media users criticised the decision with one saying the incident was 'unrelated to teaching'. Moulds was also a director of the Knossington and Somerby Pre-School before being axed. It is understood she also lost her role with the local Pony Club branch. After anti-hunt saboteurs released the clip she received death threats and was forced into hiding with her family. Liz Cheney slammed Kevin McCarthy and other members of House GOP leadership for not chastising Marjorie Taylor Greene for speaking at a white nationalist event. 'House GOP Leaders: Have you lost all sense of decency?,' Cheney wrote on Twitter Sunday evening after Greene posted video of her speech to her official Congressional Twitter account. 'Marjorie Taylor Greene now using her official USG congressional account to promote anti-Semitic, white supremacist, pro-Hitler, pro-Putin conference. This is a toxin in the bloodstream of America. It must stop,' Cheney said. Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, is one of several Republicans who have criticized Greene for speaking at an event hosted by a far-right activist, but Greene defended her appearance and said she doesn't support white nationalism. Greene appeared as a surprise guest at the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, an event organized by Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who was permanently suspended from YouTube for anti-Semitic hate speech in 2020. Liz Cheney slammed House GOP leadership for not chastising Marjorie Taylor Greene for speaking at a white nationalist event Other Republicans have spoken out against her appearance. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney slammed both Greene and Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, who sent pre-taped remarks to the conference. 'Morons,' Romney called them. 'Anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points,' the senator told CNN on Sunday. And Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that 'white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech and bigotry are disgusting and do not have a home in the Republican Party.' Greene has repeatedly clashed with other members of her party. The Democratic-controlled House took away her committee assignments after she spread information from conspiracy theories. Cheney has been an outspoken critic of members of her party that she disagrees with. After speaking at the event, Greene posed in a photo with Fuentes and right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin, but when questioned about her appearance at AFPAC and relationship with Fuentes, Greene denied she knew him. 'I do not know Nick Fuentes,' Greene told CBS on Saturday. 'I have never heard him speak, I have never seen a video [of him]. 'I do not know what his views are so I am not aligned with anything that is controversial.' She went on to explain that she appeared at Fuentes' AFPAC event in to talk about 'god and liberty' and reach out to his young followers because 'it's a generation I'm extremely concerned about.' US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (center) denied knowing white nationalist Nick Fuentes (right) despite taking a picture together with him and right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin during his America First Political Action Conference in Orlando on Friday Greene came out as a special guest at Fuentes' AFPAC event to talk about 'god and liberty.' The two are pictured together at Friday's event Greene defended her appearance at AFPAC and denied any involvement with Fuentes. She is pictured speaking at Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday Nick Fuentes, (above) founded AFPAC in 2020 to rival CPAC. Fuentes has been described as a white supremacist by the Anti-Defamation League and was permanently banned from YouTube for making anti-Semitic remarks When one of the CBS reporters informed Greene that Fuentes was a white nationalist, she said she didn't support that view and repeated that she knows nothing about Fuentes Fuentes, who has been described as a white supremacist by the Anti-Defamation League, founded AFPAC in 2020 to rival the popular Conservative Political Action Conference, which also held it's annual conference on Saturday. He gained infamy for making many anti-Semitic comments, denying the Holocaust happened and opposing women's right to vote. On Twitter, Greene said that she is not responsible for Fuentes views, only for her own. 'I am not going to play the guilt by association game in which you demand every conservative should justify anything ever said by anyone they've ever shared a room with,' she said. 'I'm also not going to turn down the opportunity to speak to 1,200 young America First patriots because of a few off-color remarks by another speaker, even if I find those remarks unsavory.' Greene defended her appearance at AFPAC and said she is not guilty by association for speaking at Fuentes' event The Republican Jewish Coalition has condemned Greene 'in the strongest possible terms' for attending the event with 'Nazi-sympathizer Nick Fuentes.' 'It is appalling and outrageous that a Member of Congress would share a platform with an individual who has actively spread antisemtic bile, mocked the Holocaust, and promoted dangerous anti-Israel conspiracy theories.' Chinese media have warned Taiwan not to rely on Washington Critics of President Biden say Beijing may see weakness in his failure to prevent Ukraine's invasion of Ukraine It is due to arrive on Tuesday amid fears of a Chinese attack on the island It will be led by former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen An unofficial US delegation to Taiwan will be left by former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen this week The Biden administration on Monday dispatched former senior defense officials to Taiwan in a show of support as the world wonders whether Russia's invasion of Ukraine could trigger a Chinese invasion of the self-governing island. The visit will be led by Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a senior administration official. It comes after months of Chinese aggression directed at Taiwan, including nine Chinese aircraft entering its air defence zone on the day Russian troops invaded Ukraine. At the same time President Tsai Ing-wen ordered Taiwan's military and intelligence security apparatus on to high alert, amid warnings that China could sense Western weakness after failing to prevent Russia'a attack. Kurt Campbell, Biden's Asia czar, described the delegation as 'unofficial' during an online discussion with the German Marshall Fund on Monday. Beijing claims the self-governed island as its own and has promised to bring it under Chinese control, by force if necessary. Beijing's ambassador to Washington ratcheted up tension further in January by warning that the two superpowers could go to war if the US encouraged the island's independence. The attack on Ukraine has added another dimension at a time when relations between Beijing and Moscow were reported to be at a historic high. Last week China appeared to throw Russia a sanctions-busting lifeline, by lifting wheat import restrictions. Taiwanese army soldiers during a Readiness Enhancement Drill, amid escalating Taiwan-China tensions in January. The government in Taipei is watching the fallout from Ukraine Beijing claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as its own territory, and has promised to take it by force if necessary. It has stepped up aggressive flights by warplanes in recent months The remains of Russian Army all-terrain infantry mobility vehicles Tigr-M (Tiger) on a road in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Monday. The invasion has heightened fears China could move on Taiwan Soldiers in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday as forces battle Russian invaders who have closed on the Ukrainian capital but have not achieved the rapid victory that Moscow expected A Taiwanese corvette is deployed during a Readiness Enhancement Drill, amid escalating Taiwan-China tensions, in Taiwan The US team will arrive on Tuesday, according to Reuters which was first to report the news, and will be led by Mullen, a retired Navy admiral who was the most senior military officer in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administration. Meghan O'Sullivan, a former deputy national security adviser, and Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense under Obama, are also part of the delegation. And two former National Security Council senior directors for Asia, Mike Green and Evan Medeiros, will also make the trip, which is intended to demonstrate continued support for Taiwan. 'The selection of these five individuals sends an important signal about the bipartisan U.S. commitment to Taiwan and its democracy, and demonstrates that the Biden administration's broader commitment to Taiwan remains rock solid,' said the senior administration official. Details emerged four days after Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine, and nine Chinese jets buzzed Taiwanese airspace - a greater number than the usual incursions. The number of aircraft involved was well off the last large-scale incursion - 39 Chinese aircraft on January 23 - and since then, such fly-bys have been sporadic with far fewer aircraft. The ministry said the latest mission involved eight Chinese J-16 fighters and one Y-8 reconnaissance aircraft, which flew over an area to the northeast of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of the South China Sea. Taiwan said eight Chinese J-16 fighter jets flew over an area to the northeast of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of the South China Sea Taiwan said it scrambled interceptors to counter the threat from eight Chinese J-16 fighters and one Y-8 reconnaissance aircraft, which flew over an area to the northeast of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of the South China Sea. Taipei has been warily watching the fallout from Ukraine. 'The principle of self-determination cannot be erased by brute force,' said Taiwan's Vice President Lai Ching-te. Diplomats said the delegation was evidence that Russian actions had prompted Washington, which under Biden has increased its focus on the Indo-Pacific region, to bolster relationships. 'The overall sense is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has precipitated seismic shift in geopolitics. It doesn't undermine Indo-Pacific efforts - it reinforces them,' said a senior Western diplomat. 'We'll see the US doubling down on relationships in and beyond the region.' The delegation is expected to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday afternoon and stay until Wednesday evening, during which time they plan to meet Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng and other senior officials. Taiwan's presidential office confirmed the visit and meeting with Tsai, saying that its timing during the Ukraine crisis showed Taiwan-U.S. ties were 'rock solid.' The U.S. official declined to say whether the timing of the visit was influenced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, some elements of Chinese-state controlled media have delighted in linking Taiwan and Ukraine. Last week, the Global Times used an editorial to warn Taiwan's ruling party no to move too close to Washington. 'The performance of the US in Ukraine should remind Taiwan independence advocates: You cannot rely on Washington,' it said. Critics of Biden in the US have also raised questions. On Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said it all stemmed from Biden's hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan, which emboldened emboldened Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. 'You think Vladimir Putin didn't see that and say, "Excellent." You think that Xi over in China wasn't saying, "Hey, whatever my timeline for taking over Taiwan was: accelerate it,"' he said. Estee Lauder has fired its senior brand executive after he posted a racial slur in a Sesame Street-themed joke about the coronavirus on his personal Instagram. John Demsey, 65, who handled MAC and Clinique - two of the company's biggest brands - was forced out of the cosmetic company after 31 years amid growing public pressure regarding his post of a mock children's book cover which showed Big Bird at the bedside Mr. Snuffleupagus, who has a thermometer in his mouth. 'My n***a Snuffy done got the 'rona at a Chingy concert,' the book title says, referring to the St. Louis-born rapper by that name. It's unclear why Chingy, a protegee of Ludacris, whose albums include 'Powerballin' and 'Hoodstar' would have a super spreader concert. Demsey, who is divorced with a grown son, has since taken the post down. Chief Executive Fabrizio Freda and Chairman William Lauder first suspended Demsey without pay last week, the Wall Street Journal first reported, but after taking the weekend to think about it, they decided to make it permanent. 'Today, John Demsey, Executive Group President, The Estee Lauder Companies, was informed he must leave the company, effective this week,' the company said in a public statement. John Demsey, 65, who makes $9.6 million a year, was fired after posting a racially-charged Instagram post on his personal account. He apologized days later, saying he hadn't read it before posting Demsey was fired after posting this mock children's book meme on his personal Instagram account Demsey posted this apology to his Instagram account after removing the 'This decision is the result of his recent Instagram posts, which do not reflect the values of The Estee Lauder Companies, have caused widespread offense, are damaging to our efforts to drive inclusivity both inside and outside our walls, and do not reflect the judgment we expect of our leaders.' Demsey, who reportedly made $9.6 million from the makeup company last year, apologized for his social media faux pas last week saying that he hadn't read the meme before posting it. 'I am terribly sorry and deeply ashamed that I hurt so many people when I made the horrible mistake of carelessly reposting a racist meme without regarding it beforehand,' he posted on his Instagram account, after taking down the offending post. 'There are not enough words to express my remorse and sorrow.' The executive's verified Instagram profile has over 73,000 followers and includes images on Estee Lauder's MAC Cosmetics and Clinique brands, as well as several memes. Estee Lauder executives suspended Demsey last week, but then decided his post was so damaging to their brand that they fired him on Monday Demsey often posts fashion and makeup themed photos as well as jokey viral memes. He was born in the upper middle-class Cleveland, Ohio, suburb of Shaker Heights, the son of a steal manufacturer. Demsey went to Stanford University as an undergraduate and New York University business school to get his Master's of Business Administration, according to an interview he gave to New York magazine. Demsey joined Estee Lauder in the 1991 when the company purchased MAC, a Canadian cosmetics firm. He also oversees smaller brands Too Faced and Smashbox. The ousted executive transformed MAC into a global brand and rose to executive group president in 2015. After his divorce, Demsey was spotted escorting Real Housewife Kelly Bensimon Demsey was instrumental in bringing black singers like Rihanna to the MAC cosmetic brand John Demsey tried to make MAC a more inclusive brand by bringing in Mary J. Blige to help promote it Ironically, he was lauded for bringing black celebrities like singers Mary J. Blige, Saweetie and Rihanna to the MAC brand. Demsey also launched the MAC Viva Glam campaign, which raised $430 million to fight AIDS/HIV. He married Anouschka Izmirlian, a gemologist and counselor to the Armenia Mission to the United Nations, in 2007, according to the wedding announcement in The New York Times. It's unclear when they divorced. He was later seen squiring Real Housewives of New York star Kelly Bensimon in Miami's Design District. He admitted to New York magazine in 2018 that he had a weakness for Instagram. 'I'm obsessed with Instagram,' he told the publication. 'In today's impulse-driven Instagram world, anyone can be a star, and a star can be a brand. I guess Andy Warhol was right. Everyone is looking for their 15 minutes of fame. In today's crazy world, you can bank it!' In the same interview he admitted that he found it difficult to master 'impulse control.' The company said that they forced Demsey out because 'our employees, and especially our senior leaders, are accountable to continue driving our progress and to respect the values of this company for the long term.' 'I'm kind of flabbergasted that somebody in the personal care/beauty business would even risk, on a pretty hefty social media account, joking about some of these things,' Parsons School of Design professor Mark Lipton told the Walls Street Journal. Some fashion executives rushed to his defense. 'You pioneered the concept of diversity and inclusion way before this movement started and anyone that knows your contributions could never accuse you of being racist,' Laura Slatkin, CEO of Nest Fragrance, responded to Demsey's Instagram apology. 'People who are true racists should suffer the consequences of their actions. You are not a racist. This is just not fair.' The creepy prison cell where a teen boy was allegedly kept locked up and under constant video surveillance by his clean-cut Christian parents can be revealed for the first time by DailyMail.com. Tracy and Timothy Ferriter face child abuse charges over claims they whipped and beat their adopted 14-year-old son and forced him to live inside an 8ft by 8ft box in the garage of their Jupiter, Florida home. The accused couple, both 46, told cops the makeshift cage was a home office - despite it having no windows and no door handle on the inside but with a deadbolt and the only light switch located on the outside. It was also fitted with a CCTV camera so the pair could monitor the youngster day and night as he slept, ate and spent up to 18 hours at a time inside the pokey drywall cube, only allowing him out to go to school, its alleged. Their three other kids aged two, 13 and 16, lived normally at the familys spacious $750,000 property while their sibling was fed scraps and forced to do yard work and write lines for petty offences such as stealing cookies, according to court filings. Tracy Ferriter, 46 (left), and Timothy Ferriter, 46 (right), both of Jupiter, have both pled not guilty to one count of aggravated child abuse and one count of false imprisonment for allegedly forcing their adopted son to stay in a locked cell-like structure in their garage whenever he wasn't attending school Tracy and Timothy Ferriter face child abuse charges over claims they whipped and beat their adopted 14-year-old son and forced him to live inside an 8ft by 8ft box in the garage of their Jupiter, Florida home The accused couple, both 46, told cops the makeshift cage was a home office - despite it having no windows and no door handle on the inside but with a deadbolt and the only light switch located on the outside DailyMail.com can reveal the couple were first reported to authorities on December 28 last year by builder Jacques Ben Aim who was paid $3,000 and given just two days to build a very strange office inside their garage The Ferriters were arrested on February 8 after their son ran away and revealed his grim plight to police, telling them he would rather be locked up in prison than sent back to his devout Catholic parents, who face trial for aggravated abuse and false imprisonment. Ben Aim was told the free-standing structure would not require a window and should only have a lock on the outside of the door. He was asked to drill a hole in the ceiling for a video camera cord DailyMail.com can reveal the couple were first reported to authorities on December 28 last year by builder Jacques Ben Aim who was paid $3,000 and given just two days to build a very strange office inside their garage. Ben Aim was told the free-standing structure would not require a window and should only have a lock on the outside of the door. He was asked to drill a hole in the ceiling for a video camera cord. The husband Timothy rang me and said he wanted an eight by eight foot office with no window, Ben Aim, 43, told DailyMail.com this week. 'He said it should have its own ceiling so it was sealed completely. That meant it was like a cage but I said ok, its his money, what do I care if he doesnt want a window? On the last day he asked me to fit a lock but he wanted it reversed so that the knob was on the outside. Thats what set off the red lights. I could not think of a single reason to reverse the lock, accept one to lock someone inside. The shocking revelations followed a year-long child abuse investigation, sparked on January 28, 2021 when the teen ran away the Ferriter home at the 200 block of Crane Point North in the Egret Landing community, pictured Tracy and Tommy Ferriter are pictured with three of their children. The couple's three other children were removed from their house by Child Protective Services, including one child who is two years old Ben Aim was so troubled by the specs that he rang the Jupiter Police Department, warning that it could be used to keep someone prisoner. He says that detectives agreed it was suspicious but couldnt act on the information because there was no specific evidence of a crime. That changed on January 28 of this year when Tracy Ferriter contacted police to say her son had gone missing, claiming he suffered from several behavioral disorders and had been in trouble at school. Detective Andrew Sharp visited the Ferriter property so he could look for clues and examine the office described in Ben Aims tip-off for himself, according to court filings. Sharp located the cubicle in the couples garage and found a bed, chair, a desk and some school books inside it. When the missing teen was located close to his school the next day he told cops all about his alleged life of captivity, saying he was banned from the rest of his house, fed leftovers and forced to go to the toilet in a bucket. He also claimed he had been whipped, spanked with a belt, struck in the face and spat on by his parents who monitored him via a Ring camera and only let him out for lessons and yard work. [The victim] stated the spankings would take place in his bedroom and he would be naked bent over his bed. [The victim] stated he could recall one spanking was so painful he fell off his bed in pain, the affidavit states. When investigators seized the Ring device they found thousands of videos showing the boy being bullied and locked up on a daily basis, according to filings. The unnamed 14year-old boy told police he was spanked, hit with a belt and a jumprope and frequently spit on, and reportedly asked to be put in jail so he didn't have to go back to his adopted parents, pictured here with their children In one video in particular [the victim] was locked in his room after being found to have stolen chocolate cookies from the kitchen despite being told he was not allowed to have them, the affidavit states. This behavior resulted in [the victim] having the covers removed from his mattress, his mattress picked up and tossed against the wall and Timothy grabbing [the victim] against the arm yelling at him. The boy told cops he ran away because I feel like nobody loves me. He begged them to take him into care because he would rather be in prison than back home, the affidavit adds. Outwardly respectable Timothy Ferriter has held high-up marketing positions at several Fortune 500 companies, according to a now-deleted online profile. He was previously listed as the president of a publishing company named Decided Excellence Catholic Media and in 2018 he was a guest on a SiriusXM podcast hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York. Detectives suspect he and his wife could have been locking up their son since as long ago as 2017 after finding evidence that similar cell-like rooms existed at their previous houses. Before moving to Jupiter in November 2021 the family lived at a sprawling ranch in Tucson, Arizona, whose current owner told DailyMail.com he saw a strange box structure in the garage when he first toured the property. It was torn down before he moved in and he never reported it to police as he had no reason to doubt the couple, whose social media pages are filled with wholesome pictures of vacations, family meals and outings. Prior to that the Ferriters lived at a different house in Jupiter from 2014 to 2017 which was advertised as having a bonus room in its garage when they sold it to current owner, Anthony Tanona. Tanona told police he had it removed because the room could only be locked from the outside and he believed the room was made to keep someone inside of it, according to court filings. When he was shown inside the room it had a small child sized bed inside with comforter, the filings add. Timothy and Tracy Ferriter were released on $50,000 bond but all four of their kids were removed by Child Protective Services. The couples attorney, Nellie King, presented documents in court suggesting their son suffered from a condition called reactive attachment disorder. A lawyer representing Timothy Ferriter, right, and his wife said that the 14-year-old suffered from a reactive attachment disorder that prevented him from forming healthy emotional bonds with his caretakers, and suggested that this contributed to his parents' decision to lock him up The condition makes it hard for children to form a healthy bond with their caretakers and may have played a role in their decision to lock him up, she said, according to a report from WPTV. King also claimed in a statement that investigators ignored critical evidence from Arizona that will ultimately vindicate the Ferriters. 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 said. What Tim and Tracy have lived through the past many years will therefore be presented in court. Sinaloa Cartel Founded in 1989 by Hector Palma, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman and Ismael El Mayo Zambada, the Sinaloa Cartel today stands as one of the most established transnational drug trafficking organizations. While it has carved out a presence in 15 of the 32 Mexican states, the cartel also expanded its operations into the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. With El Chapo in prison, the cartel has been plagued by internal fighting between Zambada and three of El Chapos four sons, known as Los Chapitos. The Drug Enforcement Administration views the Sinaloa Cartel as one of the top two criminal organizations along with its rival, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The DEA said the Sinaloa Cartel 'exports and distributes wholesale amounts of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana in the United States by maintaining distribution hubs in various cities.' How they get drugs into the US: 'Illicit drugs distributed by the Sinaloa Cartel are primarily smuggled into the United States through crossing points located along the [south west border]. The cartel employs gatekeepers assigned to Ports Of Entry and controls Arizona and California area smuggling corridors into the United States.' Jalisco New Generation Cartel The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was once allied to the Sinaloa Cartel as El Chapo depended on its firepower to combat Los Zetas. Commandeered by Nemesio El Mencho Oseguera, the group set itself apart from other cartels in the country butchering its enemies and today is considered by the Mexican government as the most dangerous group in the country. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is spread out across 23 of the Mexico's 32 states and currently finds itself at war with at least ten cartels. The group has been known to have increased the power that its members have by purchasing military weapons and parts from the United States. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to the DEA, specializes 'in manufacturing and distributing large amounts of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.' How they get drugs into the US: 'The CJNG smuggles illicit drugs into the United States by accessing various trafficking corridors in northern Mexico along the SWB including Tijuana, Juarez, and Nuevo Laredo. The CJNG also has influence over the busiest port in Mexico, the Port of Manzanillo, and utilizes that influence for the distribution of large quantities of drugs.' Beltran-Leyva Organization For a while, the Beltran-Leyva Organization [BLO] was born out of the Sinaloa Cartel and became one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico led by the Beltran Leyva brothers: Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo, Mario Alberto and Hector. The Beltran-Leyva Organization was involved in a deadly war with the Sinaloa Cartel after the brothers accused their cousin, El Chapo, of being responsible for the January 2008 arrest of Alfredo. The brothers retaliated by reportedly plotting the murder of El Chapos 22-year-old son, Edgar Guzman, in May 2008. Alfredos arrest sparked one of the worst periods in Mexicos war on drugs as the BLOs new ally, the Juarez Cartel, went to war with the Sinaloa Cartel in Ciudad Juarez, a border town across from Texas. The BLO also expanded its might by going toe-to-toe with the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel in the northeastern border city of Reynosa. While the cartel remains viable today, the organizations members over time split into 11 factions. How they get drugs into the US: 'BLO relies on its loose alliances with larger cartels for access to drug smuggling corridors along the [south west border].' Los Zetas and the Cartel del Noreste [Northeast Cartel] Los Zetas were created by Mexican military deserters who formed an alliance with the Gulf Cartel in 1999 and based its operations in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across from Laredo, Texas. The group quickly carved out a named for itself through its savage killings. By 2010, Los Zetas split from the Gulf Cartel. Los Zetas at one point dominated more cities across Mexico than the Sinaloa Cartel, with whom it clashed amidst a threat from the Gulf Cartel to eliminate it completely. Like some of the other Mexican cartels, Los Zetas saw some of its members split and form their own groups. Los Zetas role play in the drug trade is enforced by one of its factions, the Cartel del Noreste [Northeast Cartel]. Together, the criminal groups have set up its small, but lucrative, drug trade business into the Texas border cities of Laredo and Eagle Pass while controlling routes and turfs in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas. How they get drugs into the US: 'Members smuggle the majority of their illicit drugs through the [south west border] in the areas of Laredo, Texas; Eagle Pass, Texas; and the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and parts of Tamaulipas.' Guerrero Unidos Operating in central Mexico, the Guerrero Unidos broke away from the Beltran-Leyva Organization and formed an alliance with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel to traffic drugs into the United States and bring back its profits into Mexico. The cartel is accused of being behind the September 2014 disappearance of 43 students, who were kidnapped by local police in Iguala, a city in the southern state of Guerrero. How they get drugs into the US: 'The cartel has a working partnership with the CJNG and uses the same transportation networks to move drug shipments into the United States and to return drug proceeds back to Mexico.' Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel is considered to be one of the oldest active criminal organizations in Mexico and is believed to have close ties to other gangs in Europe, West Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and the United States. The organization started off by smuggling alcohol into the United States during the Prohibition Era. It was not until the 1980 that it got itself immersed into the drug trade. The DEA believes the Gulf Cartel has been working closely with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as it ships heroin and cocaine to the Texas border cities of McAllen and Brownsville. How they get drugs into the US: 'The Gulf Cartel focuses its drug trafficking activities on heroin and cocaine by transporting loads into the United States near the McAllen and Brownsville, Texas, areas.' Juarez Cartel and La Linea The Juarez Cartel cemented itself as one of the mayor players in the drug trade business back in the 1970s. It founder, Amado Carrillo, was known as 'El Senor de los Cielos' or 'The Lord of the Skies' due to the massive fleet of planes he owned to transport drugs, especially cocaine from Colombia and other countries in Latin America. The cartel was once allied to El Chapo before that relationship fell apart after the notorious drug lord declined to pay the Juarez Cartel for the right to use its drug smuggling routes. The Juarez Cartel has depended on its armed wing, La Linea, to transport heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. How they get drugs into the US: 'These cartels greatest territorial influence is in the state of Chihuahua near the [south west border]. This area has profitable smuggling opportunities between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas.' La Familia Michoacana La Familia Michoacana was once linked to the Gulf Cartel before it went on its own in 2006. Between 2009 and 2010, the cartel proposed to the Mexican government that it had plans of laying down its arms as long as its home state of Michoacan was granted protection. However, President Felipe Calderon shot down their offer, which led to the cartel becoming increasingly involved in the funding of political candidates. La Familia Michoacana today maintains a relationship with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and other criminal groups as part of its drug smuggling operation. How they get drugs into the US: 'LFM has some ties to the CJNG and also works with other smaller groups to further the cartels drug trafficking activities.' Los Rojos Just like Guerreros Unidos, Los Rojos was formed as an armed wing and broke away from the Beltran-Leyva Organization. According to a 2020 Congressional report, Los Rojos 'operates in Guerrero and relies heavily on kidnapping and extortion for revenue as well as trafficking cocaine, although analysts dispute the scope of its involvement in the drug trade.' How they get drugs into the US: 'Los Rojos is involved in heroin trafficking' Grant Shapps today told UK ports to turn away Russian-linked ships saying they are 'not welcome'. The Transport Secretary acted after protests that a Moscow-owned tanker was due to dock in Orkney tomorrow. The NS Champion belongs to shipping company Sovcomflot, a firm that is majority owned by the Russian state, and Orkney Islands Council had said it is powerless to prevent it docking. Mr Shapps said tonight he has written to all UK ports saying they should deny access to Russian flagged, registered or operated vessels. He tweeted: 'Today I've written to all UK ports asking them not to provide access to any Russian flagged, registered, owned, controlled, chartered or operated vessels. 'Given Putin's action in #Ukraine I've made clear these vessels are NOT welcome here with prohibiting legislation to follow.' Grant Shapps today told UK ports to turn away Russian-linked ships saying they are 'not welcome' The ban is the latest punishment to hit Vladimir Putin (pictured) after the invasion of Ukraine In his letter to all UK ports, Mr Shapps said the maritime sector 'must play our part' in sanctioning Russia over Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. He wrote: 'Russia's assault on Ukraine is an unprovoked, premeditated attack against a sovereign democratic state. The UK Government has been clear there would be massive consequences and a severe cost for any Russian military incursion into Ukraine, and, in co-ordination with our international allies and partners, we are developing an unprecedented package of further sanctions. 'The maritime sector is fundamental to international trade and we must play our part in restricting Russia's economic interests and holding the Russian government to account. 'In these circumstances the Department for Transport does not consider it appropriate for Russian vessels to continue to enter UK ports. From this point onwards, UK ports are asked not to provide access to any ship which they have reason to believe is: Owned, controlled, chartered, or operated by any person connected with Russia owned, controlled, chartered or operated by designated persons flying the Russian flag registered in Russia. 'We will seek to support UK ports in identifying Russian ships within scope of the above and will communicate directly with relevant ports when we identify ships bound for UK ports who fall within scope of the above. 'Further detailed sanctions against Russian shipping are being developed and further details will be shared very shortly.' Earlier, Nicola Sturgeon waded into the row saying allowing the tanker to dock would send the wrong message to the people of Ukraine. 'Let me be blunt, I don't want that tanker to dock in Orkney tomorrow, ' Ms Sturgeon told the media during a visit to Aberdeen. She continued: 'This is an issue that is reserved to the UK Government, this tanker is majority owned by a Russian government-controlled company. 'It would go against, if not the letter, then certainly the spirit of the sanctions and I think it would send the wrong message to people in Ukraine and across the world right now. 'It is a matter for the UK Government. I personally had discussions last night with Grant Shapps, the UK Secretary of State for Transport. 'To be fair to him, he agreed with me about how unacceptable it would be for that tanker to dock as planned, and we're continuing discussions with him and his officials over the course of today. 'Hopefully we can find a way of stopping that happening.' The mother and sister of Sasha Johnson who was shot in the head last summer have released a harrowing image of the equal rights activist in her hospital bed. Ms Johnson, who has two young sons, was hit by a bullet and left with catastrophic and permanent injuries when four masked men stormed into a party in Peckham, south-east London, in May 2021. Having initially been described as 'critical', Ms Johnson's condition was last week said to be serious but stable as she continued to receive treatment in hospital. Her mother Ellet Dalling and sister Shakira Williams spoke outside New Scotland Yard today after the criminal case against four men accused of the shooting collapsed. In an emotional interview, Ms Dalling said: 'She is strong, she is a fighter and she will come and tell the story of who did this to her.' Ms Johnson, 28, is a founding member of the Taking The Initiative Party and had been a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement last summer, but there was no suggestion that the shooting was targeted. She was hit by a bullet and left with catastrophic and permanent injuries when four masked men stormed into a party in Peckham, south-east London, in May 2021 The mother and sister of black equal rights activist Sasha Johnson have pledged to get justice and said she is a fighter who will recover to tell her own story Ms Johnson, pictured with her son Cavali, was last week said to be serious but stable as she continued to receive treatment in hospital The family of Ms Johnson, pictured alongside her son Cavali, said she is a fighter who 'will come and tell the story of who did this to her' Prince Dixon, 25, of Gravesend, Kent, Troy Reid, 20 of Southwark, Cameron Deriggs, 19, of Lewisham, and Devonte Brown, 19, of Southwark, had denied conspiracy to murder. The men, who appeared by video link from Belmarsh top security prison, had also pleaded not guilty to a charge of possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. A trial had been fixed for March 7 but at an Old Bailey hearing on Tuesday prosecutor Mark Heywood QC said the Crown would not be pursuing the case, for reasons that could not be set out fully in open court. The decision followed a rare notification hearing, held behind closed doors, which can be used in cases that involve evidence from informants or listening devices. Sasha Johnson's sister Shakira Williams (left) and mother Ellet Dalling (right) at New Scotland Yard, London, speaking to media for first time since she was shot at a birthday party on May 25, 2021 Ms Johnson, pictured with her other son Mykell, was left with catastrophic and permanent injuries when four masked men stormed into a party in Peckham Ms Johnson with anti-racist campaigners, community activists and school children at a protest against police violence as they march on Tottenham Police Station, in December 11, 2020 Her sister said that despite the case collapsing, the family are determined that they will get justice. Ms Williams said: 'One of the only things that's kept us going is our faith. 'We were hurt, but we had to pull ourselves together because breaking now is not it. 'And we learned that it's not over. This is a bump in the road.' Her mother added: 'We will get justice, and Sasha will come and let us get justice.' Urging witnesses to come forward, Ms Dalling said: 'Don't let it happen to someone else again. Don't go silent. 'These people that did this to Sasha need to come off the street. 'We need justice for Sasha. So please, I'm asking everyone at the party to come out and speak out for Sasha. We need justice.' 'Don't let it happen to someone else, get them off the street.' Ms Williams said: 'The silence is crazy, when you're supposed to be shouting. A life. My sister. It could have been yours.' 19-year-old Cameron Deriggs (pictured in court sketch, above), Prince Dixon, 25, Troy Reid, 20 and Devonte Brown, 19, had denied conspiracy to murder. The four men smiled as they were told their Old Bailey case was going to be quashed upon review Police officers are pictured at the scene of the house in Peckham where the shooting took place on May 23, 2021 During last week's hearing before Mr Justice Hilliard, Mr Heywood outlined the circumstantial case against the defendants, saying the decision to drop the case had followed a careful review involving the highest level at the Crown Prosecution Service. He said he was unable to give full reasons for the decision but had provided details to the court as to why the CPS had no option. Outlining the case, he said it concerned a 'deliberate shooting' at partygoers at the rear of the address in Peckham. Four males in balaclavas had approached the house and discharged a weapon at guests, with one round striking Ms Johnson in the head at 'very close range'. He said the Crown had alleged the four males were the defendants, who were known to each other. The prosecutor made clear that there was nothing to suggest Ms Johnson was targeted because of her anti-racism campaigning and involvement in the BLM movement. Each of the defendants had denied being part of the alleged conspiracy or present on the night of the shooting. Two bandits, one carrying a gun, ambushed and battered a man getting into his Ferrari after he exited a Beverly Hills jewelry store in a brazen attempt to steal his watch in crime-ravaged Los Angeles. The violent attack was caught on video, showing the assailants beating the unidentified victim bloody, before fleeing. The incident comes as Los Angeles County, under the leadership of progressive District Attorney George Gascon, continues to struggle with rising crime rates, especially robberies, burglaries and carjackings. A brazen robbery attempt was caught on video in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday, showing two thugs attacking the owner of a Ferrari The victim was punched and pistol-whipped after refusing to hand over his watch to the attackers, who ambushed him on South Beverly Drive After encountering resistance, the perpetrators (pictured left) fled the scene The botched robbery attempt took place just after 3pm on Friday in the 200 block of South Beverly Drive, according to police. The male victim reportedly had just exited a nearby jewelry store and was approaching his black Ferrari parked outside an optician when he was accosted by the two robbers. The viral video shows one of the attackers punching and pistol-whipping the man. The bloodied victim managed to prevent the thugs from taking his watch before they fled. The unnamed victim is seen in a screenshot lying injured in the middle of the street, just steps away from his luxury car Witnesses rushed to the man's aid and helped stopped the bleeding from a head wound before medics arrived A small crowd gathered at the scene as police set up a perimeter to try and catch the robbers In the cellphone recording, the victim is seen lying injured in the middle of the street. Good Samaritans rush to his side and administer first aid, with one of them seen carrying a bloodied towel. Garin Oganin, the owner of L'Optique, described a 'horrible scene.' 'I tried to go out and get involved and help, try to basically help out the guy,' he told Fox 11. 'The minute I tried to do that, I noticed one of the guys had a gun and I thought this is going to make things worse if someone interferes. 'Shortly after, everybody started screaming he has a gun, and the guys took off. They were basically trying to steal his watch. It has been a trend here in Beverly Hills.' Police said the two robbers managed to elude capture despite cops setting up a perimeter around the crime scene. Witnesses said one robber took off running, while the other jumped into a waiting car and sped away. 'I want to reassure the community that all measures are being taken to keep our community safe. This evening, we have a full complement of police officers on high alert,' Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark Stainbrook said in a statement. LA County DA George Gascon is facing a second recall attempt after being accused of being soft on crime As of Monday morning, no arrests have been announced in connection with the violent robbery attempt. Beverly Hills, which is home to Hollywood celebrities and luxury stores, has been the scene of numerous brazen smash-and-grab robberies in recent months. By the end of 2021, robberies and aggravated assaults in the city of 34,000 people were up 13 and 23 percent, respectively, compared to the previous year. In January 2022, Beverly Hills saw six robberies, 29 burglaries and 81 larcenies. Beverly Hills leaders have come out in force against DA Gascon, who has been widely criticized as being soft-on-crime for displaying what has been perceived as undue leniency towards suspected criminals. The progressive prosecutor is currently facing a second recall vote, after the first attempt to have him removed from office failed last year, despite receiving support from LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and victims rights advocates. Videos from California showing teens looting a Walgreens and a shoplifter casually strolling out of a Ross clothing store with multiple pairs of shoes have surfaced as retail stores battle an increase in shameless shoplifting. In footage from Walgreens that surfaced Sunday, three people pry open a locked shelf and fill garbage bags with merchandise. Customers and staff watch helplessly as the store is ransacked. At one point, a new customer walks in with a cart and quickly notices the brazen theft happening to his left. In video from the discount retailer Ross, a woman walks out of the store with multiple pairs of shoes hanging from her hands. The alarm goes off as she nonchalantly walks out of the shop and into the dark street. Instagram user @ppv_tahoe, who posted the video, says it was the same Ross location where a man was filmed walking out with an overflowing cart earlier this month. Both thefts appear to have taken place in California, according to social media posts, but their exact locations have not been verified. Videos of bold shoplifting, often involving groups of people, have become more common during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some blaming massive layoffs and economic instability for the spike in crime. Others point to prosecutors who have de-prioritized shoplifting, along with laws, like one in California, that make theft under $1,000 a misdemeanor. A 2021 retail security survey by the National Retail Federation found that half of respondents saw an increase in shoplifting in the year prior. About 69 percent of retailers said they've experienced a significant increase in 'organized retail crime.' Scroll down for video Video from a California Walgreens circulating on social media shows masked thieves ransacking the shelves as staff and customers watch One of the perpetrators walks out of the store as the others continue to loot the shelves In a video from a Ross retail store in California, a woman walks out with several pairs of sneakers hanging from her fists It appears to be the same Ross where a man, above, filled a shopping cart with merchandise and walked out earlier this month Walgreens and Ross did not immediately respond to questions about the videos from DailyMail.com. CVS, which operates retail pharmacies similar to Walgreens, has been plagued by a 300 percent increase in retail theft since the pandemic began, the company confirmed to DailyMail.com. In video from Walgreens posted by WorldStarHipHop, the thieves appear unconcerned as they are filmed and watched by other shoppers. They wore face masks, which helped conceal their identity from the cameras as they violently pulled product from the shelves. 'Take a picture, take a picture, come on,' one person says off camera. 'A video. Let's take a video of her face.' At the Ross, a female shoplifter wore a leopard print winter hat and a coat as she walked off with the shoes. A social media user who posted the video said it was the same store where another incident happened earlier this month. CVS was has been plagued by a 300 percent increase in retail theft since the pandemic began (Pictured: Empty shelves at an Upper East Side CVS in January) A Hell's Kitchen Rite Aid store is closing its doors after $200,000 worth of goods were stolen in December and January In that video, a man in a brown jacket and a blue surgical mask takes only a quick glance behind him before confidently strolling out the sliding doors. A pole on the cart - which is there to prevent cart theft - catches on the door, but that doesn't stop the thief who tugs vigorously until the pole breaks. The cart begins tipping sideways but, unbothered by the obstacles, the thief manages to grab a trash bag from a nearby garbage, and shove the clothes and shoes into it. In the meantime, customers are seen entering and exiting the store without sparing him a second glance. When he tries to lift the bulging bag, shoes tumble out - and he resorts to Plan B: taking the whole garbage can with him. He shoves everything into the bin and drags it through the parking lot. In video from the same Ross store earlier this month, a pole on the cart catches on the door, but a thief tugs vigorously until the pole breaks The cart begins tipping sideways but the thief manages to grab a trash bag from a nearby garbage, and shove the clothes into it. He even stole the store's trash can to haul his goodies away. Theft has been on the rise across California's major cities as many politicians implement woke policies that lower crimes like theft from a felony to a misdemeanor Leaders in the retail industry - which was already hard hit by the impacts of the pandemic, labor shortages and supply chain interruptions - argue theft has gotten out of control and security guards have their hands tied, as they are told to 'observe and report' and not get physical with criminals. Retailers and citizens alike are urging state attorney generals and Congress to take action by passing new legislation, stricter laws on bail reform and felony thresholds, and creating anti-shoplifting task forces. Crime has become so rampant that even the Rev. Al Sharpton has called on New York City Mayor Eric Adams to crack down on shoplifting, saying basic items such as toothpaste are now locked up at local pharmacies to try and prevent theft. Customers at this California Walgreens were greeted to a brazen theft as they walked in through the front door 'Take a picture, take a picture, come on,' one person says off camera. 'A video. Let's take a video of her face' In New York City is so high that a Rite Aid pharmacy in Midtown Manhattan announced that it would close after losing more than $200,000 in merchandise to theft in December and January, according to the New York Post. From January to September 12, 2021, the NYPD counted more than 26,000 complaints for shoplifting compared to the same time period in 2020, which was over 20,000, according to CBS News. 'It's out of control it is just out of control,' Lisa LaBruno, SVP of operations and innovation at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, told Axios earlier this month. California's Proposition 47 - lighter sentences for thieves Proposition 47 was passed by California voters on November 5, 2014. It made some 'non-violent' property crimes, where the value of the stolen goods does not exceed $950, into misdemeanors. It also made some 'simple' drug possession offenses into misdemeanors, and allows past convictions for these charges to be reduced to a misdemeanor by a court. Under California law, though, if two or more persons conspire to 'cheat and defraud any person or any property, by any means which are in themselves criminal' they can face no more than one year in county prison, a fine of $10,000 or a combination of the two. Advertisement The CEOs of nearly two dozen retail companies have called on Congress to pass the INFORM Consumers Act, which would require online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay to verify sellers and allow buyers access to seller verification and contact information. 'As millions of Americans have undoubtedly seen on the news in recent weeks and months, retail establishments of all kinds have seen a significant uptick in organized crime in communities across the nation,' the store leaders wrote in a letter to Congress. 'Leading retailers are concerned about the growing impact organized retail crime is having on the communities we proudly serve, which is why we strongly support the bipartisan and bicameral Integrity, Notification and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces (INFORM) for Consumers Act.' The CEOs claim the INFORM Acts will 'modernize consumer protection laws' and protect community members from the sale of illicit products. They are urging Congress pass the bill quickly. Brian Dodge, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, told Axios in December that re-selling stolen goods online has become a 'low-risk crime' because thieves can sell the products to unsuspecting customers while 'hiding behind fake usernames and untraceable email addresses rather than legitimate kinds of business information that any other operating business would have to provide like a name.' Attorneys general in California, Arizona and New Mexico are setting up anti-shoplifting task forces in an effort to combat crime. They are also re-evaluating their bail reform laws and felony thresholds. Retailers claim that although they 'constantly invest in people, policies, and innovative technology to deter theft, criminals are capitalizing on the anonymity of the Internet and the failure of certain marketplaces to verify their sellers.' In New York, a shoplifter at a Queens CVS stabbed a manager in the hand and fled with cough medicine and hair products on February 15. An unknown man entered the store in Forest Hills at around 12.24pm and began grabbing cough medicine and hair products off the shelves, attempting to walkaway with the merchandise, the NYPD said. A shoplifter stabbed a manager at a CVS in Forest Hills, Queens, on February 15 Police said the unknown suspect entered the store at around 12:24 and began taking cough medicine and hair products off the shelfs New York City has seen a nearly 50 percent spike in criminal incidents this year when compared to the same span in 2021. Felony assaults have increased by more than 20 percent, while shootings are up by a marked 30 percent The suspect then stabbed a 44-year-old male manager in the hand, running away in an unknown direction, and the victim was taken to a nearby hospital. He was reported to be in stable condition. Robberies in the Big Apple have gone up from 1,076 by this time last year to 1,452 cases reported so far this year. Felony assault also rose from 1,837 cases in 2021 to 2,081 cases by the same time this year, more than a 13 percent increase. The number of shooting victims in the same time period also went up by nearly 30 percent, and rapes have also seen a dramatic spike of more than 35 percent. Overall crimes has gone up by nearly 42 percent. In December, a woman carrying a pickaxe in broad daylight casually walked into a Los Angeles Rite Aid, stole merchandise and threatened store employees and customers. A woman was spotted walking around at a Los Angeles Rite Aid in December with a pickaxe The women threatened employees and cursed out shoppers witnessing the crime The bizarre footage captured the moment the unknown woman dragged a basket full of merchandise across the floor of the Rite Aid, in Venice, California. She seems to be headed for the door, with basket and pickaxe in hand, before stopping by the counter and telling an employee she'll come back. 'I'm not f*****g around,' she says as an employee tries to ask her to stop as she makes a grab for beauty products. 'I don't want to smell like sh** when I'm knocking these b****** out,' she adds as she drops a spray into the basket. Before leaving, she tells everyone at the store, 'Don't say sh**. Shut the f*** up. Be quiet and follow suit.' By Dong Sun-hwa Lim Chae-chung, publisher of the vernacular newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, has been appointed as head of the Korean Association of Newspapers. The association said it selected Lim at its general meeting last Friday. He will lead the group for two years. "Our association should put its utmost effort into promoting press freedom and protecting the public's right to know," Lim said in his inauguration speech. "We should never compromise when there is an attempt to suppress these rights. The launch of a new government this year will bring about a lot of changes, but I believe we can get over all hardships if our members join forces." Founded in 1957, the association aims to promote the growth of the newspaper industry and make newspapers more approachable for readers. Its membership includes 52 daily newspapers and two news agencies, including The Korea Times and its sister paper, the Hankook Ilbo. Lim, who majored in law at Seoul National University, joined Dong-A Ilbo in 1984, and has served as its managing editor and chief editorial writer. He has also been the vice president of the association. A British Army Gurkha hid in a toilet for a cleaner then tried to drag her into a cubicle for sex after she twice rejected his offer of a kiss, a court martial hears. Rifleman Tarahang Rai, 26, denies sexual assaulting the cleaner at the base after it was alleged he begged the woman for a kiss several times while she was doing her job. He allegedly made the unwanted advances on two occasions before she went to try to clean the toilets for a third time, thinking he had left when he was actually hiding in the cubicle. She told the court Rfn Rai did not let go of her hands until she threatened to shout for help. A Wiltshire military court was also told he asked for sex and tried to drag her into the cubicle. Rfn Rai denies sexually assaulting the cleaner and claims she came onto him and made up the allegation because she was insulted that he turned down her advances. Rifleman Tarahang Rai, 26, denied sexual assaulting the cleaner at the base after it was was alleged he begged the woman for a kiss several times while she was doing her job Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard a British Army Gurkha, Mr Rai, 26, repeatedly pestered a female cleaner for a kiss before trying to drag her into a toilet cubicle for sex Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard the woman was cleaning on the Tuker Lines base in Brunei when she was sexually assaulted by Mr Rai Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard the woman was cleaning on the Tuker Lines base in Brunei when she was sexually assaulted by Rfn Rai. Prosecuting, William Peters said: 'The female cleaner encountered Rfn Rai on three occasions within the men's toilet that it was her job to clean. 'On the first two occasions he made suggestive comments to her and asked for a kiss and on the third and final occasion he actually grabbed hold of her and tried to pull her into the cubicle having again asked her for a kiss.' Mr Peters told the court she first went to the men's toilet block to wash some mugs and she was met with silence after calling out to check there was no one inside. After entering the toilet block, she found Rfn Rai who asked her to do what she described as 'silly things' such as kiss him. The cleaner then left to carry out some of her other cleaning duties and returned to the toilets later to finish the washing up she had started. She thought the coast was clear again as she got no response when she asked if anyone was in the toilet but Rfn Rai was still there so she left. On the third occasion, the woman called out again to no response and also could not see anyone in the toilets as Rfn Rai was behind a partially closed cubicle door, the court heard. Mr Peters said: 'He emerged and and continued where he left off, harassing her, but took it a stage further and grabbed hold of her forcefully and tried to pull her to the toilet. After a relatively short time, she was able to push him off.' The cleaner said it was 'painful' when Rfn Rai grabbed her wrists and she was 'scared' of losing her job if she made a fuss. She said: 'He really wanted to ask silly things, some things like requesting to kiss. 'In my mind [I could tell] there was something wrong with this guy. I knew already he was going to do a bad thing. 'He asked me to kiss him and then wanted to do a bad thing. 'I wanted to scream but I did not want to create any trouble at the time because I was scared of losing my job. 'I rejected him politely because I know the Army is more powerful than a weak woman. 'I said 'please leave me alone'... he said 'just a couple of minutes, just for a few minutes'. 'I tried to get out but he wouldn't let me go. 'I said 'just let me go, just let me go', he said 'no'. 'He asked for sex... I told him I wasn't really interested. 'I was very scared. I tried to calm down myself [and tried] not to panic. He was forcing me to kiss him, I told him let me go or I would shout. 'Once I told him I would shout he [let go of] my hands. 'I said if you do not let me go then I will have to tell my supervisor. Maybe at the time he thought I was just kidding, he did not believe I was brave enough to complain. 'I was angry with him but I managed to control the situation.' After breaking free from Rfn Rai's 'rough' grip and leaving the toilets, the woman reported the incident to her boss. Rfn Rai, of the 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles, denies one charge of sexual assault and claims the cleaner made advances towards him while he was urinating and called him 'cute' in Facebook messages before he claims he blocked her. The cleaner denied this and said she had never messaged Rfn Rai on Facebook. The trial continues. The left-wing group Democratic Socialists of America has been under fire over the weekend after calling for the dissolution of NATO's Western alliance and blaming the United States' 'imperialist expansionism' for Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine. The DSA, which boasts high-profile members like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, released a Saturday night statement condemning Russia's invasion and calling for Vladimir Putin to immediately recall his troops. Immediately after demanding a ceasefire the progressive group also called for an end to 'further intervention' -- even as Kyiv's own top officials have invited Europeans and other global allies to come take up arms and fight Moscow's military. They also appeared to dismiss the coordinated sanctions levied against Russia in a historic cooperative effort as economic 'brinksmanship' and claim the West's attempts to punish Putin will only cost more lives. Current and former Democrat lawmakers and even a Biden White House official lambasted their take. 'There is no solution through war or further intervention. This crisis requires an immediate international antiwar response demanding de-escalation, international cooperation, and opposition to unilateral coercive measures, militarization, and other forms of economic and military brinkmanship that will only exacerbate the human toll of this conflict,' the Democratic Socialists stated. A Ukrainian soldier in Kyiv, Ukraine, 28 February. In the early hours of Thursday morning last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his military an order to invade their neighbor A view of a wreckage after a missile hit buildings as Russian attacks continue in Ukrainian capital, Kyiv on February 28 A US soldier plays with a dog at a military camp in Arlamow, southeastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine, on Monday, Feb. 28 'DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict. 'We call on antiwar activists in the US and across the world to oppose violent escalations, demand a lasting diplomatic solution, and stress the crucial need to accept any and all refugees resulting from this crisis.' The statement ended: 'No war but class war.' A slew of Democrats leapt up to criticize the DSA's message, including the White House. Biden's rapid response director Mike Gwin slammed the far-left statement as 'shameful.' The Twitter handle of the Los Angeles branch of the DSA countered: 'It's a good statement, mike.' The Biden official returned fire with a statement the DSA made earlier this year accusing Western media of 'drumming up conflict' in Ukraine's separatist region -- which has been at war with Russian-backed rebels since 2014 -- and calling the country's revolution against their Moscow puppet government that year a 'coup.' White House Rapid Response Director Mike Gwin condemned the Democratic Socialists of America for their statement supporting the dissolution of NATO 'You might want to reevaluate why you referred to the deaths of dozens of Ukrainians seeking democracy and basic freedoms in 2014 as a "coup",' Gwin said. Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York accused the DSA of peddling a pro-Putin message and comparing it to sentiments espoused by conservative Fox host Tucker Carlson. 'FACT: [DSA] called for US withdrawal from NATO, which would be a gift to Vladimir Putin. FACT: [Tucker Carlson] referred to Russias imminent invasion of Ukraine as a "border dispute",' Torres wrote on Twitter Sunday. He said Carlson and the DSA 'have joined forces to form a pro-Putin axis in American politics, an alliance of useful idiots.' Former New York Rep. Max Rose, who is running to take back his seat this year, tweeted: 'I am deeply concerned with DSA's statement calling on the US to unilaterally leave NATO in the midst of a level of Russian Aggression on the European Continent that we have not seen since World War 2.' Another left-wing New York lawmaker, Rep. Tom Suozzi, applauded Rose's message. 'I adamantly oppose the DSA's statement calling on the US to leave NATO. We must stand by NATO, stand with Ukraine, and stand up against Putin's bullying,' Suozzi, who is leaving the House at the end of this year to run for governor, said. A slew of other Democrat lawmakers leapt to defend NATO and slam the DSA's comments Foreign policy expert Benjamin Wittes accused the Democratic socialists of waging a 'war on its honorable history' It's not surprising how many New York lawmakers oppose the message given their state is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the country. Democrat Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, who's running for Senate this year, defended the US's sending of weapons and defensive equipment to Ukraine: 'I'm positive that your words mean nothing to them, but anti-tank missiles & bullets do.' Brookings Institute Fellow Benjamin Wittes accused the Democratic Socialists of waging a 'war on honorable history.' 'The [DSA] continues its war on its honorable history, responding to Russias invasion of Ukraine by calling on the US to leave NATO and abandon the imperialism that, it says, gave rise to this conflict. Did DSA consult a single Eastern European before releasing this?' Wittes wrote on Twitter Sunday night. The North Atlantic Treaty Alliance was formed in 1949 to counter the former Soviet Union. Ukraine's interest in joining the Western defensive organization has been seen as a threat by the Kremlin, which demanded among its security guarantees that it never be allowed to do so. It's not clear if Ocasio-Cortez or Sanders support the DSA's call to overhaul the global security order by withdrawing the US from NATO, but both progressives have appeared wary of too much involvement in the conflict. Two of the DSA's highest profile members are Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders. It's not clear if either supports the DSA's call to pull the US out of NATO, but both progressives have appeared wary of too much involvement in the conflict Just days before Putin personally gave the order for his forces to invade, Ocasio-Cortez joined an ideologically diverse coalition of lawmakers that also included representatives from the conservative Freedom Caucus in demanding that President Joe Biden first ask Congress' permission before putting troops on the ground in Ukraine. 'The American people, through their representatives in Congress, deserve to have a say before US troops are placed in harms way or the US becomes involved in yet another foreign conflict,' a letter to Biden dated February 22 read. Biden has repeatedly vowed that American boots on the ground in Ukraine is off the table. Earlier this month Sanders stopped short of calling for significant changes to NATO. Speaking on the Senate floor as Russian troops and equipment menacingly amassed at Ukraine's borders, he urged his colleagues to think about Russia's security concerns. He compared the situation to the hypothetical unease the US would feel if neighboring Mexico were to 'form a military alliance with a US adversary.' 'Countries should be free to make their own foreign policy choices, but making those choices wisely requires a serious consideration of the costs and benefits. The fact is that the U.S. and Ukraine entering into a deeper security relationship is likely to have some very serious costs -- for both countries,' Sanders said on February 10. DailyMail.com has reached out to both Sanders' and Ocasio-Cortez's offices to ask whether they support the Democratic Socialists' message and the dissolution of NATO. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki rejected calls Monday for the U.S. to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine by citing the risk it could draw the U.S. in a direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia. Psaki was asked about the proposal in an interview with MSNBC following reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had directly asked President Joe Biden to impose one. She ruled out the idea as a risky escalation. 'What that would require is implementation by the U.S. military. It would essentially mean the U.S. military would be shooting down planes Russian planes. That is definitely escalatory, and would potentially put us in a place in a military conflict with Russia. That is not something the president wants to do.' 'Those are the reasons it's not a good idea,' she added when pressed. Her comment came on a day when the U.S. and western allies continued to take steps intended to harm Russia in other ways up to and including pledges of defensive weapons. 'Those are the reasons it's not a good idea.' Jen Psaki rejected the idea of a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone over Ukraine "We are not going to have a military war with Russia with U.S. troops," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says. pic.twitter.com/7oZlvPGv7w MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 28, 2022 President Biden on Friday instructed the State Department to release an additional $350 million in military aide to Ukraine. State said anti-aircraft weapons were included. Germany overcame its reticence to sending weaponry to war zones when it announced it would send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine. Russia has continued to hammer Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv, even as U.S. officials said its airspace remains contested. Psaki made her comments to MSNBC amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine US officials fear a growing number of civilian casualties amid Russia's ongoing assault It is still not entirely clear how allies will get the arms and ammunition inside Ukraine amid the massive Russian invasion. A trainload of Czech equipment arrived Sunday, with another en route Monday, the AP reported. Zelensky asked Biden to impose a no-fly zone over 'significant parts' of the country, Axios reported. Zelensky, said in a statement to the publication provided by an advisor: 'If the West does this, Ukraine will defeat the aggressor with much less blood.' He said U.S. and European sanctions 'are heading in the right direction,' but that 'In addition to disconnecting the Russian Central Bank from SWIFT [the international banking system] and providing more Stingers and anti-tank weapons, we need the West to impose a no-fly zone over significant parts of Ukraine.' President Zelensky has signed a request for Ukraine to join the EU 'immediately' as troops withstand a fierce Russia onslaught but Brussels' officials warn the process to join the block takes years. EU officials dampened Ukraine's hopes that suddenly becoming part of the European club could help it better weather the Russian onslaught and speed up military, financial and political support. This comes after the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen's comments appeared to hold out the prospect of Ukraine being admitted. 'They are one of us and we want them in,' she told Euronews in an interview on Sunday, after emphasising existing EU-Ukraine cooperation. After this on Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the European Union 'for the immediate accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure'. But Ms von der Leyen's spokesman walked back from her statement saying, she meant Europe 'in general' and there was already a process for joining the bloc. This sentiment was reiterated by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, who said there were already longstanding disagreements among EU countries on new members joining. President Zelensky has signed a request for Ukraine to join the EU 'immediately' as troops withstand a fierce Russia onslaught but Brussels' officials warn the process to join the block takes years This was in contrast with the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen's comments that appeared to hold out the prospect of Ukraine being admitted The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, told a group of journalists that there were already longstanding disagreements among EU countries on enlarging the bloc Eric Mamer, Ms Von der Leyen's spokesman, said the EU chief meant that Ukraine 'is a European country and we want them in, meaning Europe in general'. 'She then also specified that there is a process (for joining the EU). And I think that this is the important point,' he added. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal tweeted that 'the time to put it down on paper has come. Ukraine is applying for EU membership under a special procedure.' However no such fast-track procedure exists, officials said. Joining the bloc can be a long and complex process that often requires major reforms to reach EU standards. They also have to prove that their finances are heading in a direction that will allow them to adopt the euro. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that any bid for membership could take 'a lot of years'. The European Commission said that, in any case, it can only negotiate with hopeful candidate countries on the basis of a mandate from the EU's 27 member states - something it has not received for Ukraine. 'At the end of the day, this is a debate at the highest political level, for the (European) Council,' where the member states take decisions, said a commission spokeswoman, Ana Pisonero. President Zelensky, left, said: 'Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing. I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible'. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, right, said Kyiv would have to submit an official request to join before member states - which would have to greenlight membership unanimously - could come up with a position A view of a car which was destroyed by recent shelling in Kyiv outskirts on Sunday as the EU appeared to reject Ukraine's plea to be fastracked to EU membership According to Mr Zelensky's social media channel, the Ukrainian president signed the EU request on Monday The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, told a group of journalists that there were already longstanding disagreements among EU countries on enlarging the bloc. 'There are different opinions and sensitivities within the EU on enlargement,' he told a group of journalists. He said Kyiv would have to submit an official request to join before member states - which would have to greenlight membership unanimously - could come up with a position. According to Mr Zelensky's Telegram channel, the Ukrainian president signed such a request on Monday. 'Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing,' he said. 'I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible.' The European Union, created by six nations under a different name in 1957, has expanded in four waves over the past three decades. After Britain's exit from the bloc in 2020, it counts 27 member states. There are currently five countries that are candidates to join - Turkey, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania - but their bids have been stuck in limbo for years. The last country to join the EU was Croatia, which was admitted in 2013 - after nearly a decade of negotiations and reforms. A massage therapist has avoided jail with a suspended sentence after acting out 'pornographic fantasy' when molesting a young professional woman two decades his junior. Masseur Graham Stannard, 47, of Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, repeatedly touched the 25-year-old between her legs, claiming he was encouraged by her moans of pleasure. But the woman insists she did not consent and her involuntary groans were a response to him massaging her painful condition - caused by an irritated nerve. The jury rejected Stannard's claim he honestly believed the woman was consenting and unanimously found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault. Uniquely, Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court Judge John Lodge ordered Stannard to pay 600 towards the victim's twenty-three private psychotherapy sessions she needed after he molested her. He received twenty-one months imprisonment, suspended for two years and must complete 35 days of the Horizon sex offenders programme and up to 30 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement. Graham Stannard, 47, (pictured) has avoided jail with a suspended sentence after acting out 'pornographic fantasy' when molesting a young professional woman two decades his junior 'It is hard to imagine a grosser abuse of trust than a woman on a massage table, in a position vulnerability, expecting to receive therapy and instead becoming a victim of abuse,' the judge told first-time offender Stannard. 'The generosity of spirit of your victim, who should have nothing but contempt for you, is reflected in her victim impact statement where she says: 'I hope the man is provided with the professional tools needed to address his behaviour and prevent any further assaults.' 'It is impossible in a case of sexual violation to seek to place a monetary value on it. It diminishes the gross violation of these offences, but the victim has sought to have therapy and that has cost her.' 'That was the bizarre thing about the trial,' added Judge Lodge. 'That he had a reasonable belief there was consent, which the jury understandably rejected.' The trial heard Stannard, the boss of Healing Zen Massage and a practitioner of Zen-Su deep release massage had a therapy room in a beauty salon in Bedford Hill, Balham, south London. After reading his positive online reviews the woman, who has a high-pressure desk job, booked an appointment to receive a massage on August 2, 2020. The jury viewed her recorded police statement in which she said: 'When I removed my mask he said: "Wow. You've got such a lovely smile," and I thought that was the first thing out of place.' She stripped-down to her knickers and lied face-down on the massage table as Stannard began. 'He said: "It's really nice you are making those noises. I'd like to hear more of them". 'They were just the normal noises of a massage,' she told the trial, explaining Stannard put his hand between her legs after massaging her hip area. 'He just went for it and touched me four times or something, quite hard under my knickers so it was not a mistake. 'I went completely quiet. I always thought in a situation like that I'd be shouty and tell him to: '"F*** off," but I just completely froze. 'I started moving my bum and hips away, but it didn't deter him and I thought: "What the f***?" 'I thought: "F***, he's going to do it again," and this time he really went for it. 'He asked me to turn over. I was topless and he looked stoked, so happy with eyes wide open, buzzing. 'He said: "You've got such an amazing body," he was ecstatic and said he was going to do my front and I thought he would do something worse.' She said Stannard hastily concluded the massage then tried to discuss it with her. 'He was close to my face and from then it was just creepy. 'He returned after ten minutes and he was like: "God, that was amazing. Maybe I can take you out to dinner and do a massage after that." 'He gave me a hug and was going to try and kiss me and I left and called my boyfriend and burst into tears and told him what happened. He received twenty-one months imprisonment, suspended for two years and must complete 35 days of the Horizon sex offenders programme and up to 30 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement 'I was sitting on the kerb, breathing heavily, it was horrible. I walked around for twenty minutes dry heaving and had a bath when I got home because I had oil all over me and wanted to get it off.' She then received a text from Stannard, which read: 'Lovely to see you. Let me know about home massage.' Today, prosecutor Warwick Tatford told the court: 'This defendant was working as a provider of massage services within a hairdresser's and a booking was made online by the woman. 'The defendant appeared to have a sexual attraction towards her and commented on her smile, which she thought was strange and while on her front her touched her above her knickers and then twice skin on skin.' During the trial the prosecutor told the jury: 'No doubt his regular clients think good of him, but he gave into sexual temptation that day when he gave a massage to this twenty-five year-old lady, an attractive lady as you will see in the video. 'He just fancied her and couldn't resist sexually assaulting her. It was quite a forceful massage and she made noises when he hit a painful spot. 'She talks about moaning, but not with a sexual meaning. He started imitating what she was saying, like it was turning into some sort of pornographic fantasy. 'The defendant seems to have been caught up in the excitement of it all and acting out a sexual pleasure. 'He told the officers he was sexually aroused and had crossed the line. That's quite close to admitting sexual assault and he says he got carried away in the moment and that it felt consensual.' Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court (pictured) Judge John Lodge ordered Stannard to pay 600 towards the victim's twenty-three private psychotherapy sessions she needed after he molested her When cross-examined the woman was asked about the noises she made and said it was 'wrong' to conclude she was 'aroused' during the massage. She was asked why she did not ask Stannard to stop, replying: 'It happened so quickly, I was in shock. I didn't know what to say.' Additionally, the woman was questioned as to whether moving her bum and hips could be 'misconstrued' as joining in with the sexual behaviour. Stannard's lawyer John Livingston told the court: 'This is a man who is generally a kind and sensitive individual. This was out of character behaviour, crossing the line of professionalism in his line of work, which he has been doing for a number of years. 'This is the only incident of any complaint and the woman researched before booking the massage and the results indicated he was good at his job and helped a lot of people. 'It seems to have been an isolated incident of losing his proper professional judgement and now he is very remorseful about it.' However, in his Probation Service interview Stannard repeated his claim he believed the woman was genuinely sexually aroused. 'That may be the result of extreme embarrassment of what he did and his remorse,' added Mr Livingston. 'The chances of his reoffending are low and going through the trial process has been traumatic. 'He has learned a very big lesson in the harshest possible way and has no intention of risking repeating any sort of offending. 'He had to stop his massage work. That has not been feasible since the start of this case and he is now a delivery driver for Uber Eats.' Judge Lodge concluded: 'The work of Horizon and the rehabilitation activity requirement will provide a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and reduce the risk of further offending so the sentence can be suspended.' Stannard was also made subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, prohibiting him providing any physical, mental or spiritual therapy and he must sign the sex offenders register for the same period of time. Advertisement Readers of Mail Newspapers have always shown immense generosity at times of crisis. Calling upon that human spirit, we are now launching an appeal to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. For, surely, no one can fail to be moved by the heartbreaking images and stories of families mostly women, children, the infirm and elderly fleeing from Russia's invading armed forces. As this tally of misery increases over the coming days and months, these innocent victims of a tyrant will require accommodation, schools and medical support. All donations to the Mail Ukraine Appeal will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. In the name of charity and compassion, we urge all our readers to give swiftly and generously. TO MAKE A DONATION ONLINE Via bank transfer, please use these details: Account name: Associated Newspapers Account number: 20769512 Sort code: 50-00-00 TO MAKE A DONATION VIA CHEQUE Make your cheque payable to 'Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal' and post it to: Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal, GFM, 42 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JY. TO MAKE A DONATION BY TEXT To donate 10, text HELP to 70115 To donate 20, text AID to 70115 Texts cost either 10 or 20 plus a standard network rate message. 100% of the donation goes to charity. TO MAKE A DONATION BY PHONE Call 0300 12345 77 and follow the instructions to make your donation. A small fee will be deducted by the payment processing platforms when you pay by debit or credit card. Dianne Feinstein's husband Richard Blum passed away at the age of 86 after a long battle with cancer, the California senator announced Monday. 'My heart is broken today,' Feinstein wrote in a statement. 'My husband was my partner and best friend for more than 40 years. He was by my side for the good times and for the challenges. I am going to miss him terribly.' The couple were a staple in California politics. They married in 1980 when Feinstein was the mayor of San Francisco and Blum was working in private equity at the firm he founded - Blum Capital Partners. It was Feinstein's third marriage and Blum's second. He had three daughters from his previous marriage. 'Dick was incredibly devoted to his family, particularly his daughters and his grandchildren, and my heart is with them and everyone who Dick encountered,' she added. 'He was the type of man who really replaced his divot in life, who left things better than he found them. His enormous generosity is an inspiration for so many of us.' Over the years, he advised Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton on economic policy. Former President Barack Obama tapped Blum to serve on the president's Global Development Council. A longtime friend of the Dalai Lama, Feinstein said that her husband's 'most enduring legacy' is his 'compassion and devotion to the people of the Himalayan region.' 'My heart is broken today,' Sen. Dianne Feinstein, right, wrote in a statement announcing the passing of her husband Richard Blum, left 'Dick was incredibly devoted to his family, particularly his daughters and his grandchildren, and my heart is with them and everyone who Dick encountered,' Feinstein said of Blum A longtime friend of the Dalai Lama, left, Feinstein said that her husband's 'most enduring legacy' is his 'compassion and devotion to the people of the Himalayan region' Blum shares a laugh with Michelle Obama before she delivers the commencement speech at UC Merced in 2009 In 1981 he founded the American Himalayan Foundation, a non-profit that provides aid to Tibetans, Sherpas and Nepalis of that region. 'We have a hole in our hearts that will never be filled,' Feinstein concluded. 'Dick, we love you, we'll miss you and we'll continue to celebrate everything you accomplished during an amazing life.' Blum reportedly inquired about an ambassadorial post in Europe with the Biden administration, after he and Feinstein were staunch backers of Biden's candidacy throughout the race. As Feinstein, 88, spent the last thirty years in Congress, her husband also spent years serving on the University of California's Board of Regents. In 2020 a state audit accused a regent, who turned out to be Blum, of writing to the University of California at Berkeley's chancellor to push for the admission of an applicant who had been waitlisted and had about a 1-in-4 chance of getting in. The audit found that the unnamed student's admission was 'likely influenced by the regent's advocacy. In response to the audit, Blum admitted to the San Jose Mercury News he'd done it numerous times and didn't view the letter as improperly using his sway. 'I did it a bunch of times,' he said, adding that he didn't think his letters 'ever had much influence.' 'This is the first time I've heard that maybe I did something that wasn't right,' he said. 'I think it's a bunch of nonsense.' The audit came on the heels of an unrelated college admissions scandal that tied up celebrities and big names like Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Feinstein herself is up for re-election in 2024. The senator has not yet said if she plans to run for re-election, but she would be 91 by Election Day. Feinstein and Blum are pictured above celebrating their engagement with champagne Feinstein and Blum above are pictured in 1992 celebrating her Senate win Feinstein and Blum are pictured arriving for a State dinner with Queen Elizabeth in San Francisco in 1983 Blunt at times faced questions about his financial ties to China as his wife was pushing for closer relations between Washington and Beijing in the 90s, fighting for permanent most-favored-nation trading status for China. After questions about his China business, Blum promised to donate any future profits from his investments there to his nonprofit. 'This should remove any perception that I, in any way, shape or form benefit from or influence my wife's position on China as a U.S. senator,' Blum said at the time. There were also questions about his company's investments in defense firms as his wife was ranking member of the Senates military construction appropriations subcommittee, though neither were found to have violated any laws. Nail-biting video shows the dramatic moment a father put his life - and body - on the line to save his son from a rampaging bull at a Texas rodeo. Landis Hooks, of Louisiana, has been hailed as a hero for coming to the rescue of his 18-year-old bull-rider son, Cody Hooks, who had fallen off the animal during an exhibition event at the Bell County Expo Center in Belton earlier this month. In the now-viral clip shared to Instagram, Cody can be seen being hurled off the bull moments after the animal bursts from its stall and into the packed arena. Rendered unconscious by the fall, Cody can be seen in the footage laying motionless as the irate bull continues to run and buck around the ring. Scroll down for video: Nail-biting video shows the dramatic moment hero father Landis Hooks put his life - and body - on the line to save his bull rider son, Cody Hooks, from a rampaging bull at a Texas rodeo The footage shows several cowboys and rodeo wranglers attempting to reel in the beast, to no avail, as the bull continues to rampage around the arena. At one point in the clip, which spans less than 20 seconds, the animal can be seen making a charge for the still-unconscious Cody. Seemingly recognizing the gravity of the situation, Landis, who had been in the crowd as a spectator to watch his son's performance, quickly jumped into action just seven seconds after Cody was slammed to the floor, hopping a fence into the ring and running to his son, the recording shows. As the bull charges forward, Landis does the unthinkable and drapes his body over his boy, forming a human shield to protect him. In the now-viral clip shared to Instagram, young Cody can be seen being hurled off the bull moments after the animal bursts from its stall and into the packed arena Cody was rendered unconscious by the fall. The footage shows several cowboys and rodeo staffers attempting to reel in the bull as the animal continues to rampage around the arena - dangerously close to a still-downed Cody 'You see that cowboy lay his life over the top,' an announcer can be heard saying in the heart-pounding clip. The video then shows Landis blocking a charge from the animal using his own body, putting it between the bull and Cody's head, which likely would have been struck - and even gorged - if the quick-thinking father had not acted. Now, social media users are calling Landis - who took the brunt of the impact but suffered only minor injuries from the incident - a hero for the mind-blowing feat, after his son posted the footage to his Instagram account. 'Not one to post falling off, but big thanks to my dad @hooks.landis and the bullfighters last night in Belton, Tx could've been a hella lot worse,' wrote the teen - who came out of the encounter unscathed and had been professionally bull riding since last year - of his father's courageous act. Cody Landis, 18, who hails from Louisiana, walked away from the incident without any injuries At one point in the clip, the animal can be seen making a charge for the still-unconscious Cody - but Landis springs into action just in time, covering up his unconscious son with his own body The video then shows Landis blocking a charge from the animal using his own body to protect his son's head, which likely would have been struck - and even gorged - if the quick-thinking father had not acted Both walked away from the incident without any serious injuries, with Landis since being hailed as a hero by thousands on social media for the heroic feat Others quickly followed suit, as the clip went on to garner widespread, national attention. 'Every dad hopes he'd take action like this one did. Impressive,' one user wrote in response to a repost of the clip on Twitter that has garnered more than million views. 'A father willing to lay down his life for his son!,' another marveled. 'We are glad you're okay! Rest up!' someone else wrote. Another added: 'That's a hell of a Dad you got!' 'I just wanted to say you and your dad are both incredible human beings,' an additional user gushed, 'This made me tear up as a mom watching your relationship and your dad's love for you. Strong men! Glad you're both okay!' Russian billionaire and real estate developer Vladislav Doronin has publicly condemned Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, in a statement to DailyMail.com. The wealthy businessman and former longtime boyfriend of supermodel Naomi Campbell spoke out after a small group of protesters gathered outside his soon-to-open posh Midtown Manhattan hotel - Aman New York - over the weekend. 'I denounce the aggression of Russia on Ukraine and fervently wish for peace,' Doronin said on Monday. 'I was born in the USSR, a union which no longer exists, which comprised both Russia and Ukraine. I left in 1986 before its dissolution and have therefore never been a Russian national. Russian real estate developer Vladislav Doronin, the former boyfriend of supermodel Naomi Campbell (right), has denounced Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine Doronin spoke out amid calls from protesters for Russian oligarchs to take a stand against Putin and the war 'As an international businessman with teams situated across all corners of the globe,' Doronin continued, 'I have always embraced a culture of inclusion and peace. Doronin, 59, is owner and chairman of Aman Resorts, which is planning to open a luxury hotel and 'urban sanctuary' in the former Museum of Modern Art in the spring, offering $100,000 memberships to a private club featuring a three-story spa with a 25-meter indoor pool, sauna and steam rooms, and a terrace with cabana, day bed and fireplace. Peter Zinkovetsky, a New York real estate attorney from Ukraine who has family holed up in a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, helped organize Saturday's rally, which brought a few dozen people from a larger protest in Times Square to picket the property near the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. 'This is as prime real estate as you can get,' Zinkovetsky told DailyMail.com hours after the protest. 'Every oligarch needs to take a stand, do you support the war in Ukraine, do you support Russian regime?' he added. 'If an owner of such a large corporation cannot answer such a simple question, that speaks for itself.' Doronin, 59, is owner and chairman of Aman Resorts, whose newest hotel Aman New York is set to open this spring in Manhattan's iconic Crown Building The resort is offering $100,000 memberships to a private club featuring a three-story spa with a 25-meter indoor pool, sauna and steam rooms, and a terrace with cabana, day bed and fireplace Doronin spoke out after protesters from a larger protest in Times Square gathered to picket the property near the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street over the weekend. Pictured: Demonstrators in New York City Doronin is also the CEO and chairman of US-based international development company, OKO Group, which has locations in Miami and Manhattan. The company currently has several development projects in the works including Aman New York, and two residential and one commercial site in Miami. Protesters had been planning to gather outside one of Doronin's properties in Miami on Monday, before he issued a statement opposing the war. 'That was because of the protest,' Zinkovetsky insisted, though Doronin did not acknowledge his comments were connected. 'He had no comment before that. That was my point exactly, that once you push with the Russian oligarchs, with the Russian companies, they will have to go on the record, just like Doronin did. All Ukrainian people thank him for now taking a stand.' Michael Mudrik, a real estate agent in Miami who is from western Ukraine, was helping plan today's protest. Doronin is also the CEO and chairman of US-based international development company OKO Group, which is also in the process of developing commercial and residential sites in Miami. Pictured: Una Residences (left) a condo tower overlooking Biscayne Bay and Missoni Baja (right) Doronin is set to open 830 Brickell, Miami a premium office space in the heart of Miami's financial center Doronin has been in a relationship with Russian model Kristina Romanova (right) since 2014 'We're thankful he did the right thing,' he told DailyMail.com. The organizers are considering new targets. 'We don't want to hurt Russians doing business in the United States. That's not what this is about,' Zinkovetsky said. 'This is about the Russian oligarchs who support this war and the Putin machine. 'We just want the oligarchs to come out and take a stand. If they support Putin, this war, the invasion, then there is no reason why they should be allowed to do business in the United States or anywhere else in the civilized world.' Doronin, in his release, stated he was born in the former USSR and left in 1986 and has therefore never been a Russian national. 'As an international businessman with teams situated across all corners of the globe, I have always embraced a culture of inclusion and peace,' he continued. 'In doing so, together we not only celebrate many cultures, but we do so with purpose and a unified voice, which has harmony, goodwill, and wellbeing at its heart.' Doronin's comments came after two Russian billionaires became the first powerful oligarchs to call for an end to the conflict. Mikhail Fridman, who was born in western Ukraine, and Oleg Deripaska have condemned Putin's invasion by calling for peace talks 'as fast as possible' between the two countries in an unusual intervention from Russia's leading business elite. Fellow Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman (left), who was born in western Ukraine, and Oleg Deripaska (right) have also condemned Putin's invasion People gather for a rally supporting Ukraine across the street from United Nations headquarters as the United Nations General Assembly meets for an emergency session to consider a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine in New York on Monday Fridman, who is a co-founder of Russia's largest private bank Alfa and controls private equity firm LetterOne, called for the 'bloodshed' to end. The 57-year-old, who was ranked as the 128th richest person in the world by Forbes in 2021, also said the war was a 'tragedy' for both countries' people and told LetterOne staff in a letter that the conflict was driving a wedge between the two eastern Slav peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who have been brothers for centuries. He wrote: 'I was born in Western Ukraine and lived there until I was 17. My parents are Ukrainian citizens and live in Lviv, my favorite city. 'But I have also spent much of my life as a citizen of Russia, building and growing businesses. 'I am deeply attached to the Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.' Meanwhile billionaire Deripaska - who is the founder of Russian aluminium giant Rusal in which he still owns a stake via his shares in its parent company En+ Group - used a post on Telegram to calle for peace talks to begin 'as fast as possible'. The 54-year-old simply said: 'Peace is very important.' Russia's so-called oligarchs, who once exercised significant influence over President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, are facing economic chaos after the West imposed severe sanctions on Russia over Putin's invasion of Ukraine. A Pennsylvania man convicted two months ago for storming the Capitol during the January 6 riots was found dead from an apparent suicide while waiting to be sentenced in April. Matthew Lawrence Perna, of Sharpsville, died 'of a broken heart' on February 25, according to an obituary published on WKBN. 'His community, which he loved, his country and the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life. Matt was an amazing man!' his family wrote. The family did not reveal details about his death. Perna, 37, was charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly conduct in a capitol building. He was arrested on January 21, 2021, just days after the riot, according to the Department of Justice. He was indicted a month later and pled guilty to all charges on December 17. He faced a maximum of 20 years in prison at his sentencing on April 1 in US District Court in Washington, DC. However, the longest sentence so far has gone to Robert Palmer of Florida, who was given more than five years in prison in December for fighting with officers and throwing a fire extinguisher at them. Matthew Lawrence Perna of Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, killed himself on February 25 Prosecutors say he spent 20 minutes inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, filming the event on his phone and chanting 'USA' while wearing a MAGA hoodie The 37-year-old pleaded guilty to five charges related to the riot in December. He faced a maximum of 20 years in prison, though the toughest sentence given to someone in the riot has been just five years so far. He was scheduled to be sentenced April 1 Perna entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021 at about 2:47pm, according to prosecutors. He was allegedly inside for about 20 minutes. In an eight-minute video posted to his Facebook account the night of the riot, he said, 'Steve and I we walked right into the Capitol building.' Also in the video, he warned: 'It's not over, trust me.' A witness who knew Perna for years contacted the FBI and told agents that they recognized him. Perna was depicted as '73' on an FBI bulletin. When he met with agents, he claimed he was 'pushed into the building by a crowd that had gathered behind him,' according to a DOJ statement of facts, and that it was not his 'intention to enter the Capitol.' He also said he was only inside for about five to 10 minutes. 'In a later interview, Perna admitted that at one point he become frustrated, and, using a metal pole, tapped on a window of the Capitol building.' 'Perna admitted that at one point he become frustrated, and, using a metal pole, tapped on a window of the Capitol building,' prosecutors wrote. Someone he knew tipped the FBI about his identity The witness who identified Perna said he regularly posted on social media about his support of Donald Trump and the QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles runs Hollywood and the government's 'deep state.' The witness also said they saw a Facebook post indicating that Perna had bought a handgun. Based on video and photos from the riot, Perna wore a red hoodie with white lettering that read 'Make America Great Again,' President Trump's campaign slogan. He was seen filming on his phone and chanting 'USA,' according to prosecutors. Perna is one of 786 people who have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot, according to Insider. Most of those in the crowd were supporters of President Donald Trump who disagreed with the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and breached the Capitol as lawmakers were certifying the election in favor of Joe Biden. Perna's family says he only went to the rally to 'peacefully stand up for his beliefs. 'After learning that the FBI was looking for him, he immediately turned himself in. More than 730 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot on January 6, 2021. Over 210 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors with a maximum sentence of 6 months imprisonment Restitution has been the most common punishment for those sentenced for the riot; 98 people have been ordered to pay between $500 to $2,000; 28 people were ordered to pay fines of up to $5,000. Donald Trump supporters are pictured storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021 'He entered the Capitol through a previously opened door (he did not break in as was reported), where he was ushered in by police. He didn't break, touch or steal anything. He did not harm anyone, as he stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures. 'For this act he has been persecuted by many members of his community, friends, relatives and people who had never met him. Many people were quietly supportive and Matt was truly grateful for them. The constant delays in hearings and postponements dragged out for over a year. 'Because of this, Matts heart broke and his spirit died and many people are responsible for the pain he endured. Matt did not have a hateful bone in his body. He embraced people of all races, income brackets and beliefs, never once berating anyone for having different views,' Perna's obituary states. His family said he attended Sharpsville High School and graduated from Penn State University. He taught English in Thailand and South Korea and 'traveled extensively' in Europe, Asia, South America, India and the US.' His family also said he was a deeply religious man who once went on a mission trip to Haiti. 'He was a Christian who read his Bible daily,' they said. 'Matts family stood by him during this devastating ordeal and are extremely proud of his passion for life and his pursuit of many dreams. His actions last year are not looked down upon, instead his family is grateful and humbled by his courage. They say God never gives anyone more than they can handle. That statement is not Biblical, nor is it true. Rest Easy Matt, you are finally FREE!' The events at the Capitol riot led to the deaths of five people, including protestor Ashli Babbitt. The Capitol Police union says that about 140 officers were injured during the event, according to the Washington Post. Former Attorney General Bill Barr unleashed on his former boss in his forthcoming memoir, claiming Donald Trump 'lost his grip' when he began pushing his baseless 2020 election fraud theories. Barr said those theories directly 'led to the rioting on Capitol Hill' on January 6 last year in an excerpt from his 600-page new book that was shared with the Wall Street Journal. Former Attorney General Bill Barr unleashes on his old boss Donald Trump in his forthcoming memoir, after becoming one of his most scathing critics following the 2020 election Trump said Barr was a 'disappointment in every sense of the word' last year and according to the book, yelled at the ex-attorney general over his statement that there was no widespread election fraud 'The election was not "stolen." Trump lost it,' the former attorney general states plainly in 'One Damn Thing After Another.' The lengthy memoir recounts his time as the Republican president's attorney general. Trump and Barr's relationship soured after Barr, the nation's top law enforcement official at the time, told the Associated Press on December 1, 2020 that his Justice Department found no evidence of widespread election fraud. Barr left his post at the end of that month, just weeks before Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 results. Trump called Barr a 'disappointment in every sense of the word' in June of last year. In the new excerpt Barr writes that Trump could have won the election fairly had he 'just exercised a modicum of self-restraint, moderating even a little of his pettiness.' He also detailed an explosive confrontation with Trump that led to his resignation shortly after that Associated Press interview. 'This is killing me -- killing me. This is pulling the rug right out from under me,' Barr claims Trump shouted, just hours after he further legitimized Joe Biden's electoral victory. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during a ruling party meeting in Pyongyang, Feb. 26, in this photo provided by the North Korean government. AP-Yonhap North Korea claimed Monday to have carried out an "important test" for developing a "reconnaissance satellite" despite South Korea's characterization of it as a ballistic missile launch. Sunday's test came amid concerns the North could fire a long-range rocket under the disguise of a satellite launch or conduct other provocative acts following its veiled threat last month to suspend its voluntary moratorium on nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests. "The DPRK National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) and the Academy of Defence Science conducted an important test Sunday under the plan of developing a reconnaissance satellite," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The test helped confirm the "characteristics and working accuracy of high definition photographing system, data transmission system and attitude control devices," the KCNA added. South Korea's military has said the North fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea, Sunday morning, in its eighth show of such force this year. Launched from around the Sunan area in Pyongyang, the missile flew about 300 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 620 km, according to the military. The development of a reconnaissance satellite is among the key defense projects that the North unveiled during its major congress of the ruling Workers' Party in January last year. Some observers viewed Sunday's test as an ominous prelude to preparations for a long-range rocket test. In the past, the North claimed to have conducted satellite launches, which outsiders criticized as long-range rocket tests under the guise of a "peaceful" space development project. Concerns about the North's possible ICBM test have lingered since it made the veiled threat last month to suspend its self-imposed moratorium on strategic weapons tests declared in April 2018 amid diplomacy with the United States. North Korea watchers said that the North could engage in a provocative act to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's late grandfather Kim Il-sung, April 15. The latest launch, the first in just under a month, came 10 days ahead of South Korea's presidential election and amid the armed conflict in Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country last week. (Yonhap) Health authorities are looking at dual tests which check for flu and Covid - as well as fourth doses of the coronavirus vaccine - to make winter safer for the elderly. The work comes as Australia's Covid vaccine rollout passed another milestone, with 50 per cent of children aged five to 11 having received their first dose. The figure was reached on Monday, with more than 1.1 million children in the cohort being vaccinated. The vaccine rollout for young children started in early January and the age-group halfway mark comes days after a second type of inoculation was approved for children. Health authorities are looking at rolling out fourth doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Pictured is a dose being administered in Sydney The dual Covid-flu tests are of interest particularly in terms of elderly and frail people having significant respiratory symptoms. Knowing whether the person has flu or Covid will ensure they get the appropriate treatment. Health officials say a lot of planning and thought is also going into whether vulnerable people will need a fourth dose. A final plan would require the nod from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation giving approval. A federal health department spokeswoman told AAP that ATAGI was constantly examining vaccine data. 'ATAGI continues to monitor evidence emerging from medical research on the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines both locally and internationally' the spokeswoman said. 'ATAGI will update its advice and recommendations accordingly.' Meanwhile, more than 11.4 million booster doses have been administered across the country, or more than 63 per cent of the eligible population aged 16 and over. Ahead of its hard border reopening to the rest of the country this week, Western Australia registered its highest daily total of Covid-19 cases, with 1140 new infections. Australia has reached a Covid vaccination milestone, with 50 per cent of children aged five to 11 having received their first dose The state's border will come down on Thursday, after months of being isolated from eastern states. A further 12 Covid-deaths were reported on Monday across the country. Of those, six were from NSW, three in Victoria, as well as one in Queensland, South Australia and the ACT. There were more than 19,000 new infections detected nationally in the latest reporting period. Across the country there are 2001 patients in hospital for COVID - mostly in NSW. A father whose photograph was seen around the world saying goodbye to his son in war-torn Ukraine has spoken of his relief at getting his family to safety. Ruslan Gladkiy revealed his wife and family are now safely across the border in neighbouring Hungary. Mr Gladkiy, 35, is doing vital voluntary work for his local community by delivering meat and sausages to the frail and elderly. Ruslan Gladkiy, 35 (pictured), revealed his wife and family are now safely across the border in neighbouring Hungary A woman from Ukraine hugs a child after arriving at Nyugati station in Budapest, Hungary today He spoke by phone to his wife Galina who is with their nine-year-old son Hordeiy and daughter Emilia, four. The heart-rending photograph of Hordeiy in his father's arms at the station rekindled memories of evacuee children in the Blitz leaving London. 'I haven't cried for a long time but I did when I was on my own and saw the photo today,' Mr Gladkiy said. He said he refused to cry when he bade farewell to his wife and children at Lviv train station on Sunday because he didn't want to upset them. He said: 'They are on a train to Budapest and heading for the airport. Refugees fleeing from Ukraine, arrive with their dogs at Nyugati station in Budapest, Hungary today 'From there they will fly to Italy - to Rome where my wife's mother lives and works. 'I'm very relieved they will be safe. 'My wife has had to turn her phone off as the battery is now so low.' He added: 'If the Russians come to my home town I will be getting a gun and shooting them.' A 32-year-old woman was found dead with an injury to her head inside her luxury condominium apartment in Midtown Manhattan on Sunday night. The unidentified victim was discovered lying face down on her bedroom floor at The Club at Turtle Bay - a 38-story high-rise building on East 47th Street - at around 5.30pm, according to police sources quoted by the New York Post. The woman had suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A 32-year-old woman was found lying face down, with an injury to her head, in her condominium apartment at The Club at Turtle Bay high-rise building on East 47th Street The Club at Turtle Bay has 173 units ranging in price from $240,000 to $5.4million The medical examiner's office autopsy will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death. It's unclear at this time whether foul play is suspected. DailyMail.com on Monday reached out to the police, seeking comment on the investigation, and was awaiting a reply. According to the real estate site StreetEasy.com, The Club at Turtle Bay has 173 units ranging in price from $240,000 to $5.4million. The woman's death comes two weeks after Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was fatally stabbed inside her apartment on the Lower East Side. Police said Assamad Nash, 25, a homeless career criminal, followed Lee home and attacked her, leaving her bloodied body in the bathtub. Advertisement United against a despot, Russians and Ukrainians join thousands of protesters in Trafalgar Square and say they are brothers and sister who are devastated by Putins invasion of Ukraine The demonstrators gathered in London's most famous square as huge explosions rocked Kyiv streets in the latest invasion attempt from President Putin. Several described the 'very close' ties between the two countries, calling Ukrainians 'brothers and sisters' and 'best friends' and spoke about President Vladimir Putin's lack of support. Ukrainians have gathered in London's most famous square in an ongoing series of protests over the continuing Russian invasion of their homeland The demonstration in Trafalgar Square came as huge explosions also rocked Kyiv streets in the latest invasion attempt Andrei Postylyakov, 35, who is from St Petersburg but has been in the UK for just a month, said attending the protest is 'the least I can do' adding that he is 'frustrated and very sorry' about what is happening in Ukraine In between speeches, demonstrators sang Bez Boyu, a Ukrainian song by artist Okean Elzi, which means: 'I won't give up without a fight' London was not alone in holding protests with Cambridge, Oxford, Norwich, Newcastle, Brighton, Exeter, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham, and the Welsh village the Mumbles also holding similar gatherings recently Maria Divid, 35, who has lived in the UK for 14 years but is originally from Moscow, told the PA news agency, that she and her fellow Russians are 'absolutely devastated and ashamed' Ms David said hardly any of her friends support President Putin and she is proud of her 69-year-old mother back in Moscow who has not been 'zombified' by his propaganda machine Maria Divid, 35, who has lived in the UK for 14 years but is originally from Moscow, told the PA news agency, that she and her fellow Russians are 'absolutely devastated and ashamed'. She said: 'Me and all my Russian friends here are completely devastated and ashamed. 'We did not want this war. 'We are absolutely devastated about what our country is doing in the 21st Century.' Ms David said hardly any of her friends support President Putin and she is proud of her 69-year-old mother back in Moscow who has not been 'zombified' by his propaganda machine. 'Putin is really the worst thing that has happened to Russia. 'With him, there is no future for Russia. We want him out,' she said. Andrei Postylyakov, 35, who is from St Petersburg but has been in the UK for just a month, said attending the protest is 'the least I can do' adding that he is 'frustrated and very sorry' about what is happening in Ukraine. 'It is a shame that we have lots of friends and our people are brothers and sisters so we are ground together with Ukrainians. 'It is a crazy thing happening now and it is like a nightmare. 'It should be stopped as soon as possible.' He also described how his friends in Russia are unable to go out into the street to protest without going to prison. 'It is hard to protest in Russia because there is a war inside which is aimed against its own citizens.' 'But we want to fix our country and make it grow without Putin,' he added. In a speech to the London crowd, Natalia Ravlyuk, a volunteer who helped organise the protest, called Mr Putin 'crazy' Sophie, 24, whose family comes from Moscow and did not want to share her last name out of fear of repercussions, said: 'This is not what Russia wants Sophie added it is therefore 'important' for Russians abroad to 'come out and stand out against the war because if you say nothing you are complicit' Sophie, 24, whose family comes from Moscow and did not want to share her last name out of fear of repercussions, said: 'This is not what Russia wants. 'This is not for the benefit of Russians. 'In the UK, we have the freedom to come out here and say what we want to say. She added it is therefore 'important' for Russians abroad to 'come out and stand out against the war because if you say nothing you are complicit.' 'Russians and Ukrainians, we are sisters, we are brothers, we are neighbours,' she said, adding that her family feel 'anger', 'shame' and 'devastation'. Dasha, 33, who also was nervous to share her last name, explained how she is attending protests with dozens of other Russians in the UK who met over a messenger app group that was first set up when opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained last year. She said: 'This is unbelievable. We are all in shock. It is heartbreaking. We do not have our country anymore.' She called the Kremlin 'miserable', adding: 'They do not have hearts because they bomb their best friends. 'It is absolutely crazy.' Meanwhile, Darina Nazarova, 27, who was born in Siberia, said most of her family are Ukrainian. 'I spent half my life in Ukraine,' she said. 'We are very close with the country and I have friends from Russia here and everyone is really upset because we all have relatives in Ukraine.' Crowds at the protest also chanted: 'Stop Putin. Stop the War' and carried signs saying 'Putler Get Off' and 'Save Ukraine. Save democracy.' Meanwhile, Darina Nazarova, 27, who was born in Siberia, said most of her family are Ukrainian. 'I spent half my life in Ukraine,' she said. 'We are very close with the country and I have friends from Russia here and everyone is really upset because we all have relatives in Ukraine' In between speeches, demonstrators sang Bez Boyu, a Ukrainian song by artist Okean Elzi, which means: 'I won't give up without a fight' In a speech to the crowd, Natalia Ravlyuk, a volunteer who helped organise the protest, called Mr Putin 'crazy', adding: 'He is a monkey with a grenade.' She said: 'Russian army needs to go home' Crowds at the protest also chanted: 'Stop Putin. Stop the War' and carried signs saying 'Putler Get Off' and 'Save Ukraine. Save democracy.' In between speeches, demonstrators sang Bez Boyu, a Ukrainian song by artist Okean Elzi, which means: 'I won't give up without a fight'. In a speech to the crowd, Natalia Ravlyuk, a volunteer who helped organise the protest, called Mr Putin 'crazy', adding: 'He is a monkey with a grenade.' She said: 'Russian army needs to go home. 'They need to return to their families.' London was not alone in holding protests with Cambridge, Oxford, Norwich, Newcastle, Brighton, Exeter, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham, and the Welsh village the Mumbles also holding similar gatherings recently. A British-Russian media boss is the latest oligarch to speak out and call for an end to the conflict triggered by President Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine. Evgeny Lebedev, who owns the Evening Standard newspaper alongside The Independent, condemned Putin's invasion and 'pleaded' with him to 'save the world from annihilation' in an open letter. The 41-year-old, who is the son of powerful former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev, used the front page of the Evening Standard to address the Russian leader, making him the third oligarch to speak out against Putin in the last few days. Russia's so-called oligarchs, who once exercised significant influence over President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, are facing economic chaos after the West imposed severe sanctions on Russia over Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Evgeny Lebedev (pictured), who owns the Evening Standard newspaper alongside The Independent, condemned Putin's invasion and 'pleaded' with him to 'save the world from annihilation' in an open letter The 41-year-old, who is the son of former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev, used the front page of the Evening Standard London newspaper to address the Russian leader, making him the third oligarch to speak out against Putin in the last few days Russia's so-called oligarchs, who once exercised significant influence over President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, are facing economic chaos after the West imposed severe sanctions on Russia over Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin The Russian-born crossbench peer, who is a long-term friend of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he wrote: 'I plead with you to use today's negotiations to bring this terrible conflict in Ukraine to an end.' In a statement published alongside a photograph of a paramedic performing CPR on a girl injured by shelling, Lord Lebedev said: 'On this page are the final minutes of a six-year-old child fatally injured by shells that struck her Mariupol apartment block on Sunday. 'She is still wearing her pink jacket as medics fight to save her. But it is too late. Other children, and other families, are suffering similar fates across Ukraine. 'As a Russian citizen I plead with you to stop Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers and sisters.' 'As a British citizen I ask you to save Europe from war. As a Russian patriot I plead that you prevent any more young Russian soldiers from dying needlessly. As a citizen of the world I ask you to save the world from annihilation. 'Todays negotiations at the Ukraine-Belarus border provide a moment of hope. You can stop this conflict. Please seize the moment and end this war today.' This news comes as Mikhail Fridman, who was born in western Ukraine, and Oleg Deripaska also condemned Putin's invasion by calling for peace talks 'as fast as possible' between the two countries in an unusual intervention from Russia's leading business elite. Mr Fridman, who is a co-founder of Russias largest private bank Alfa and controls private equity firm LetterOne, called for the 'bloodshed' to end. Billionaire Mikhail Fridman (pictured), who was born in western Ukraine, said the war was a 'tragedy' for both countries' people and told LetterOne staff in a letter that the conflict was driving a wedge between the two eastern Slav peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who have been brothers for centuries The 57-year-old, who was ranked as the 128th richest person in the world by Forbes in 2021, also said the war was a 'tragedy' for both countries' people and told LetterOne staff in a letter that the conflict was driving a wedge between the two eastern Slav peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who have been brothers for centuries. He wrote: 'I was born in Western Ukraine and lived there until I was 17. My parents are Ukrainian citizens and live in Lviv, my favourite city. 'But I have also spent much of my life as a citizen of Russia, building and growing businesses. I am deeply attached to the Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.' Meanwhile billionaire Mr Deripaska - who is the founder of Russian aluminium giant Rusal in which he still owns a stake via his shares in its parent company En+ Group - used a post on Telegram to called for peace talks to begin 'as fast as possible'. The 54-year-old simply said: 'Peace is very important.' Oleg Deripaska (pictured) has also condemned Putin's invasion by calling for peace talks 'as fast as possible' between the two countries in an unusual intervention from Russia's leading business elite Meanwhile, the Foreign Office announced they are preparing a 'hit list' of Russian oligarchs to be targeted by sanctions in the coming months and fears the conflict in Ukraine could last a decade. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said there would be 'nowhere left to hide' for the super-rich allies of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin. Boris Johnson last week named eight high net worth Russians who will be hit by travel bans and asset freezes along with more the 100 individuals, entities and subsidiaries. Separately the Home Office is going to give more power to the National Crime Agency to explore issuing Unexplained Wealth Orders to find out where money has come from. Ms Truss said there would be new names added to the list every few weeks as ministers seek to ratchet up the pressure on Mr Putin following his invasion of Ukraine. Washington also imposed sanctions on Deripaska and other influential Russians because of their ties to Putin after alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, which Moscow denies. Putin, after consulting his security council of senior officials, said he ordered the special military operation to protect people, including Russian citizens, from 'genocide' - an accusation the West calls baseless propaganda. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says she has 'hit list' of Russian oligarchs targeted by sanctions The Ukrainian president's office said negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would be held at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. 'This crisis will cost lives and damage two nations who have been brothers for hundreds of years,' Fridman said. 'While a solution seems frighteningly far off, I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end. I'm sure my partners share my view.' One of Fridman's long-term partners, Pyotr Aven, attended a meeting at the Kremlin with Putin and 36 other major Russian businessmen last week, the Kremlin said. Another Moscow billionaire told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the war was going to be a catastrophe. 'It is going to be catastrophic in all senses: for the economy, for relations with the rest of the world, for the political situation,' the billionaire said. The billionaires who gathered for a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday were silent, he said. 'Businessmen understand very well the consequences. But who is asking the opinion of business about this?' Lindsay Boylan, 36 Former aide Lindsay Boylan, 36, was the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment in a Medium post on February 24. She claimed that the governor asked her to play strip poker and kissed her on the lips without her permission when she worked for him in 2017. Lindsay Boylan, 36 Charlotte Bennett, 25 Charlotte Bennett, 25, came forward a few days after Boylan and claimed that Cuomo sexually harassed her last June while she was working as a health policy adviser in his administration at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. Bennett accused Cuomo of 'grooming' her and asking inappropriate questions about her sex life. She also claimed that he told her he was open to dating women in their 20s. BENNETT said the governor asked her about her love life - including whether she ever had sex with older men - and talked about his own, saying that age differences didn't matter in relationships and he was open to dating women over 22. During a meeting alone in his office, the governor said he was lonely and talked about wanting to hug someone, Bennett said. She said she swiftly complained to Cuomo's chief of staff and was transferred to another job. She said she spoke to a lawyer for the governor, but didnt insist on further action because she liked her new post and wanted to move on. Charlotte Bennett, 25 Anna Ruch, 33 Anna Ruch was the third woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment and the only one thus far who did not work with him in a professional capacity. She claimed that Cuomo put his hands on her face and asked if he could kiss her just moments after they met at a September 2019 wedding in Manhattan. Anna Ruch, 33 Ana Liss, 35 Ana Liss, 35, a former aide, said Cuomo asked her whether she had a boyfriend, once kissed her hand at her desk and called her by patronizing names, including 'blondie,' 'sweetheart' and 'honey.' At a reception, the governor hugged her then put his arm around her lower back and waist as they posed for photo, Liss said. She said she eventually asked for a job transfer. In an interview, Liss said she was 'not claiming sexual harassment per se,' but felt the administration 'wasn't a safe space for young women to work.' Liss, who previously served as Cuomo's policy and operations aide between 2013 and 2015, told the Wall Street Journal that during her time in his administration, the governor had subjected her to unsolicited advances, including touching her lower back, kissing her hand and quizzing her about her love life. Ana Liss, 35 Karen Hinton, 62 The oldest allegations against Cuomo came from Karen Hinton, who served as a press aide for him when he led the US Department of Housing and Urban Development two decades ago and she was a consultant for the agency. Hinton told the Washington Post about a 2000 incident when she said Cuomo summoned her to his 'dimly lit' hotel room and embraced her after a work event. She said she tried to pull away from Cuomo when he pulled her back and held her before she managed to escape the room. Karen Hinton, 62 Unnamed sixth accuser The most damning allegations leveled against Cuomo to date came from a sixth accuser, whose name has not been released. The accuser, who is a member of Cuomo's staff, alleged that he closed a door, reached under her blouse and fondled her after summoning her to the governor's mansion in Albany for help with his cellphone, according to the Times Union of Albany. It first reported on her accusation last month; she then gave more detail in her first interview on the matter. The woman spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy, although her identity is known within the governors circle, the Times Union reported. The woman, an executive assistant, told the Times Union the governor gave her kisses on the cheek and inappropriately tight hugs for years and made remarks including, 'If you were single, the things that I would do to you' and 'I'm single and ready to mingle.' Then, one day in November, she was summoned to his Executive Mansion office to help him with a cellphone problem, she said. He got up from his desk, started groping her and told her 'I don't care' after she tried to deflect him by saying he was going to get them into trouble, and then he slammed the door, she said. Then he reached under her blouse and clutched one of her breasts over her bra, she told the newspaper. The woman told a colleague this winter about the alleged encounter, and the co-worker told a supervisor in early March, according to the newspaper. Cuomo called the report 'gut-wrenching' in a March statement and said: 'I have never done anything like this.' Another female aide, who has remained anonymous, claimed he called her to his Executive Mansion last year, reached under her blouse and fondled her Jessica Bakeman Jessica Bakeman claimed in a first-person article for New York Magazine that she was sexually harassed by Cuomo on several occasions since the start of her journalism career in 2012. Bakeman added her voice as the seventh accuser as she detailed inappropriate touching by the governor as he continued to deny all of the claims. 'He took my hand, as if to shake it, then refused to let go,' Bakeman wrote of an interaction with Cuomo as she said goodnight at a holiday party in 2014 when she was only 25 years old. 'He put his other arm around my back, his hand on my waist, and held me firmly in place while indicating to a photographer he wanted us to pose for a picture.' At the time Bakeman had been working for what is now Politico New York and claimed that red flags went up as her 'job was to analyze and scrutinize him'. 'I didn't want a photo of him with his hands on my body and a smile on my face,' she wrote. Jessica Bakeman, a reporter who once covered the Cuomo administration, was the seventh woman to come forward with claims of harassment 'But I made the reflexive assessment that most women and marginalized people know instinctively, the calculation about risk and power and self-preservation. I knew it would be far easier to smile for the brief moment it takes to snap a picture than to challenge one of the most powerful men in the country.' In an earlier 2012 incident while she was working for USA Today, Bakeman also claims that Cuomo kept her pinned to his side as he told a story to her male colleagues. 'He left it there, and kept me pinned next to him, for several minutes as he finished telling his story,' she said. 'I stood there, my cheeks hot, giggling nervously as my male colleagues did the same. We all knew it was wrong, but we did nothing.' The reporter, who now works in Florida, claimed that Cuomo 'never let me forget I was a woman' as she also alleged that he made frequent attempts to humiliate her, including calling out her purple phone instead of answering her question during a press gaggle. Alyssa McGrath, 33 McGrath, a current administrative assistant in Cuomo's office, told The New York Times that he looked down her shirt, quizzed her about her marital status, and told her she was beautiful, using an Italian phrase she had to ask her parents to interpret. McGrath didn't say the governor made sexual contact with her but thought his behavior was sexual harassment. She recalled Cuomo kissing her on the forehead and gripping her firmly around the sides while posing for a photo at a 2019 office Christmas party. Alyssa McGrath (pictured) is one of two aides who have come forward to accuse the governor of harassment Sherry Vill, 55 Sherry Vill, 55, accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct during a press conference with her attorney Gloria Allred on Monday. She alleges Cuomo grabbed her face and kissed her 'aggressively and in a sexual manner' on both cheeks in May 2017 while he was touring her home in Greece, near Rochester, as he inspected local flood damage. Vill, who said she felt uncomfortable at the time, shared an image her daughter took on the day that showed Cuomo holding her face as he kissed her cheek and her attorney held up multiple photos showing the Governor inside her home. The same photos appear on Cuomo's Flickr account, as well as multiple others that show him kissing and greeting residents as he toured the town. None of the women in the other photos have accused the governor of inappropriate behavior or wrongdoing. The United States announced it was expelling 12 Russian diplomats at the United Nations for spying, as Washington steps up pressure on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine. Details of the expulsions emerged in theatrical style when the Russian ambassador to the United Nations halted a news conference. 'Would you allow me just a second because I need to answer this call please,' he said. Vassily Nebenzia finished the call and turned back to journalists to say he had 'just received information that the US authorities have undertaken another hostile action against the Russian Mission to the ... United Nations.' He said 12 people had been declared 'persona non grata' and told to leave by March 7. But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki undermined the dramatic performance, and said the move had been in the 'works for months.' 'The United States informed the United Nations and the Russian mission to the United Nations that we were beginning the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian mission who had abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security,' she said. 'Would you allow me just a second because I need to answer this call please,' said Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia moments after starting a news conference at UN headquarters After finishing the call he accused the US of a hostile action by declaring 12 members of the Russian mission to the UN to be 'persona non grata' and told to leave by March 7 White House Press Secretary said the 12 were intelligence operatives who abused their position to engage 'in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security' Nebenzia raised the issue again at the start of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. He said it was a violation of America's role as host of the UN headquarters in New York US Deputy UN Ambassador Richard Mills responded: 'Those diplomats that have been asked to leave the United States were engaged in activities that were not in accordance with their responsibilities and obligations as diplomats.' It came during an intense day of international diplomacy, the fifth day since Russian forces entered Ukraine. Ukrainian and Russian officials held talks on the Belarus border, but they left without resolution. President Joe Biden spent more than an hour on a secure call with allies and partners, discussing how to intensify pressure on Russia. Meanwhile the Pentagon said three-quarters of the estimated 160,000 Russian troops massed around Ukraine had not entered the country, as Moscow tries to overcome fierce Ukrainian resistance. An official said Russia appeared intent on encircling the capital Kyiv. The Western response has been to impose swingeing sanctions on Russia, and to supply military hardware to Ukraine. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is among the figures sanctioned, warned of consequences for anyone sending arms Rubble burns in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels Ukraine war, day 5: Russian forces are now attempting to skirt around Kyiv and encircle it from the west. Troops fighting out of Crimea continue to make gains and are likely to surround Mariupol soon, while also reaching the outskirts of a key Ukrainian nuclear plant. Fighting in the east continues to be heavy with no breakthrough for Putin The 193-nation General Assembly is expected to vote this week on a draft resolution demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops. However, its resolutions are non binding He said 'those supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine will bear responsibility,' according to the Interfax news agency. The White House paid no heed, saying it was working to expedite delivery of arms approved in a $350 million package by President Joe Biden on Friday. 'We expect equipment to start arriving within the next couple of days from this package that brought the total security systems we've approved for Ukraine to $1 billion over the past year,' said Psaki. The package includes small arms, munitions, and body armor as well as the tank-busting Javelin missiles that have proved essential to the defense of Ukraine. 'We're also working with NATO allies to facilitate the transfer of us made equipment from their inventories to Ukraine,' said Psaki. Ealier the 193-nation UN General Assembly gathered for an emergency meeting on Ukraine. It will vote this week on a draft resolution demanding Russian troops withdraw. Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations read what he said were the final text messages from a Russian soldier to his mother - describing his horror at the unfolding war before he was killed. Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, on Monday read out what he said were the final text messages from a Russian soldier to his mother - describing his horror at the unfolding war before he was killed People walk past burned cars a day after a shelling on a residential area in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The country is enduring its fifth day of fighting after Russian invaded on Thursday Sergiy Kyslytsya help up a screenshot of the texts as he made a powerful plea for help. 'Mom I'm no longer in Crimea,' they began. 'I'm not in training sessions.' His mother asks: 'Where are you then? Papa is asking whether I can send you a parcel.' 'What kind of a parcel mama can you send me,' he responds 'What are you talking about? What happened?' 'Mama, I'm in Ukraine,' he responds, before describing the horror unfolding. 'There is a real war raging here. I'm afraid. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians. 'We were told that they would welcome us and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass. 'They call us fascists. Mama. This is so hard.' Kyslytsya concluded the exchange by saying the last message was sent 'moments' before the soldier was killed. Details of the messages could not be immediately verified. But Kyslytsya continued by comparing Russia's actions with those of Nazi Germany, as he described a militarized state invading a smaller neighbor and deadly airstrikes on civilians. Firefighters tackle blaze at a house after recent shelling, in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine, as the conflict rages into its fifth day 'Very clear parallels can be drawn with the beginning of the Second World War,' he said. 'And Russia's course of action is very similar to what their spiritual mentors from the Third Reich employed on the Ukrainian land eight years ago.' In 2014 Moscow annexed Crimea, beginning eight years of clashes in the eastern Donbas portion of Ukraine. Kyslytsya continued his comparison by mocking President Vladimir Putin's decision to put Russia's nuclear forces on alert 'If he wants to kill himself he doesn't have to use a nuclear arsenal, he has to do what the guy in Berlin did in a bunker in 1945,' he said, in a reference to Hitler's suicide. Kyslytsya concluded his appeal with a warning that the international order depended on Ukraine's survival. 'If Ukraine does not survive... international peace will not survive,' he said. 'If Ukraine does not survive, the United Nations will not survive. 'Have no illusions. If Ukraine does not survive, we cannot be surprised if democracy fails next.' A second round of talks aimed at ending Russia's attack on Ukraine is set to take place after the first meeting ended without resolution. The first set of talks, which were held in Belarus on Monday afternoon, ended with Kyiv slamming Russia' destructive processes'. A member of the Ukrainian delegation today said the discussions, which took five hours, were difficult and the Russian side was biased. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter: 'The Russian side, unfortunately, still has a very biased view of the destructive processes it has launched.' Russian officials, meanwhile, said: 'We have identified certain points from which we can predict general positions.' Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky earlier admitted he was not confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage. A new round of talks is now set to take place in the coming days, according to an aide to Russia's president Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Medinsky said: 'Another round of talks was agreed to. 'Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave few details except to say that the talks, held near the Ukraine-Belarus border, were focused on a possible cease-fire and that a second round could take place 'in the near future.' 'The next meeting will take place in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is an agreement to that effect,' Medinsky said. A second round of talks aimed at ending Russia's attack on Ukraine is set to take place after the first meeting (pictured) ended without resolution Zelensky been reticent to agree to talks in Belarus, a country used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion and which is now poised to join the war, offering instead to meet in Istanbul, Warsaw or Baku. Ukraine had indicated it would request a ceasefire and full withdrawal of Russian forces but Moscow remained tight lipped over what the negotiations, held at noon in Gomel in southeastern Belarus, would entail. It comes as columns of Belarusian military vehicles were spotted today heading east from the south western corner of the country in what appeared to be preparations to join the invasion of Ukraine. Some observers warned the talks could be a pretext for Moscow to ramp up its attacks on Ukraine if Kyiv's officials refuse Russian demands. The first set of talks, which were held in Belarus on Monday afternoon, ended with Kyiv slamming Russia' destructive processes'. Above: Members of the Ukrainian delegation arriving at Monday's talks Columns of Belarusian military vehicles were spotted on Monday heading east from the south western corner of the country in what appeared to be preparations to join the invasion of Ukraine Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky admitted he was not confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage Among those present at the talks were the Ukrainian defence minister, a lead advisor to the President's office and the deputy minister of foreign affairs. But while Ukraine sent its defence minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putin's adviser on culture - an unlikely envoy for ending the war and perhaps a sign of how Moscow views the talks. Meanwhile, ahead of peace talks on Monday, Russian military officials ordered heavy strategic bomber flights as part of what appeared to be efforts to prevent international aid from reaching Ukraine. Observers have warned the order suggests Vladimir Putin's forces are preparing to ramp up the bombardment of Ukraine in the coming days. Richard Nass, president of the Council of Foreign Affairs, warned recent developments mean the most likely development of the conflict is 'conventional' military escalation by Russia, rather than a diplomatic breakthrough. Nass, writing on Twitter, speculated that Moscow was using negotiations to 'appear somewhat reasonable' to slow sanctions against Russia as well as help to Ukraine. But he warned the Kremlin's forces were likely to turn to 'more destructive munitions' if peace talks collapse, using the failure to negotiate a diplomatic breakthrough as a pretext. Delegations from Ukraine and Russia, including aides to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, hold peace talks in Belarus' Gomel region The Ukrainian delegation leaves a Belarusian military helicopter after landing in Gomel region ahead of peace talks with Russian officials on Monday The Russian delegation gets off a bus in the Gomel region of Belarus ahead of peace negotiations with Ukraine on Monday Ukraine war, day 5: Russian forces are now attempting to skirt around Kyiv and encircle it from the west. Troops fighting out of Crimea continue to make gains and are likely to surround Mariupol soon, while also reaching the outskirts of a key Ukrainian nuclear plant. Fighting in the east continues to be heavy with no breakthrough for Putin Kyiv has been holding out for days against Russian attempts to breach the outskirts of the city, with tanks now trying to encircle it and a large column of armour approaching amid fears the fighting could get much worse As outgunned but determined Ukrainian forces slowed the Russian advance and sanctions crippled the Russian economy, the military confirmed that its nuclear forces were on high alert, following President Vladimir Putin's order. While that raised the unimaginable specter of nuclear conflict, it was unclear what practical effect it had. A tense calm reigned in Kyiv by Monday morning, explosions and gunfire were heard in embattled cities in eastern Ukraine, and terrified Ukrainian families huddled overnight in shelters, basements or corridors. NZ head of distribution Kath Bray said changes were a clear sign of the times As Australian banks continue to focus on digital transactions for customers, ATMs and bank branches are disappearing across the country, according to new data. The analysis revealed close to 460 bank branches have shut down across the nation in recent years, and dating back to 2020, approximately 3800 previously active ATMs have been removed. NSW alone now has 140 fewer in-store banks, and almost 300 suburbs don't have a singular ATM to withdraw cash. It is a similar story in Victoria, where 120 branches have permanently closed their doors to customers. 'Closures have a devastating impact on local communities,' Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano said. As Australian banks continue to go digital, ATM's are becoming rapidly redundant, according to new data (pictured, customers using a cash machine in Sydney) In NSW alone, NSW now has 140 less in-store banks compared to a few years ago, and almost 300 suburbs across the state don't have a singular ATM to withdraw cash (pictured, a customer outside the Reserve Bank of Australia) 'Jobs are lost, business is impacted, and another local service disappears.' The closures have hit hard in regional and rural areas, and for older citizens, Ms Angrisano added. Another key factor for the branch closures and reduced ATM's is the fact that banks are bringing in a small fortune from daily digital transactions. As Australia accelerates towards a cashless society, fees from either the customer or vender for online banking have become common place. In a modern-day digital world, an estimated 80 per cent of Aussies prefer to bank online. But the remaining 20 per cent, namely the disabled or those who are not digital savvy, have been left stranded. Tellingly, CBA now has 875 bank branches nationwide - compared to 1134 in February 2020. Their number of ATMs has reduced to just over 2000 - in 2019 there were 4118 ATM's in circulation. Last year, ANZ head of distribution Kath Bray said bank branch closures were a sign of the times, with digital transactions now the primary focus for many. Protests have today broken out across St Petersburg, Russia, with demonstrators seen shouting 'no to war' in the city's Senate Square. Many were detained, according to local media, and one woman lost consciousness while being arrested, Novaya Gazeta reports. It added that arrests were being made across Gostiny Dvor, Senate Square and Nevsky Prospekt, where police vans were seen. Protests have today broken out across St Petersburg, Russia, with demonstrators seen shouting 'no to war' in the city's Senate Square Many were detained, according to local media, and one woman lost consciousness while being arrested, Novaya Gazeta reports The OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests now counts 6440 detentions in anti-war demonstrations in the country since February 24 Videos on Telegram show protesters sitting on the floor, clapping, and chanting 'no to war' as others showed police taking protesters away Videos on Telegram show protesters sitting on the floor, clapping, and chanting 'no to war'. Others showed police making arrests and taking detained demonstrators into vans as protesters continued to call out for an end to the conflict in the background. Local media reports that at least 80 people could be seen gathering for the protest, as witnesses also reported a heavy police presence. Last week, protests broke out across Russia following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and continued despite the threat of 'treason' charges as the Kremlin continues its crackdown on dissent against the growing antiwar sentiment. Local reports said that arrests were being made across Gostiny Dvor, Senate Square and Nevsky Prospekt, where police vans were seen Others showed police making arrests and taking detained demonstrators into vans as others continued to call out for an end to the conflict in the background Local media reports that at least 80 people could be seen gathering for the protest, as witnesses reported a large police presence The OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests now counts 6440 detentions in anti-war demonstrations in the country since February 24. Last week in Saint Petersburg, women were dragged away by police in riot gear during clashes as thousands took to the streets against the Russian leader. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sought to downplay the scale of the protests, saying that while Putin 'hears everyone's opinion,' he also knows 'the share of those who have a different point of view and those who are sympathetic to such a necessary operation.' Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol speaks with World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during an online conference, Feb. 23 (local time). Courtesy of Ministry of Health and Welfare By Lee Hyo-jin While vaccines and treatments remain vital tools to combat the ongoing global health crisis triggered by COVID-19, inequitable access to medical resources has hindered pandemic responses in low- and middle-income countries. Unlike rich countries that are gearing up to return to normal life thanks to high vaccination rates and sustainable supply of treatments, low- and middle-income countries are still suffering from high fatality rates and surging infections, due to shortages of lifesaving treatments and vaccines. Not only is this unjust, but this situation poses serious threats to the world, as low levels of vaccine coverage could lead to an emergence of unexpected variants, prolonging the pandemic indefinitely. Against this backdrop, Korea, a leading biopharmaceutical country, has joined international initiatives to enable even and timely access to vaccines and treatments around the world. The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced recently that Korea has been selected as the World Health Organization's (WHO) vaccine training hub, to serve low- and middle-income countries to produce biologicals such as vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, as well as in preparation for future pandemics. In an online conference held on Feb. 23 (local time) attended by Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the launch of the vaccine training hub, as a part of the international organization's plan to enable equal distribution of pharmaceutical products. "One of the key barriers to successful technology transfer in low- and middle-income countries is the lack of a skilled workforce and weak regulatory systems. Building those skills will ensure that they can manufacture the health products they need at a good quality standard so that they no longer have to wait at the end of the queue," Tedros said. According to the health ministry, two training centers each in Incheon's Songdo and North Chungcheong Province's Osong that are already carrying out bio-manufacturing training for local companies will now expand their operations to accommodate trainees from other countries. Beginning in July, the facilities will provide 370 foreign trainees with both technical and hands-on training on operational and manufacturing practices. Another 150 Korean trainees will join the program to boost human resources exchanges with other countries in the biotechnology field. The ministry plans to enhance its training programs both in quantity and quality, so that by 2025, over 2,000 foreign trainees would be invited to the training hub each year. The government has developed a comprehensive curriculum on general bio-manufacturing in cooperation with leading domestic pharmaceutical companies including Samsung Biologics, SK Bioscience, Celltrion and GC Pharma. Health Minister Kwon said the launch of the training hub marks the country's transition from a recipient to a donor in the biotechnology sector. "Sixty years ago, Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world," Kwon said in a statement. "But with the help and support of WHO and the international community, we have transitioned into a country with a strong public health system and bio industry. And Korea deeply cherishes the solidarity that the international community has shown us during this transition," he added. "By sharing this knowledge we've learnt from our own experiences, we will strive to support the low- and middle-income countries in strengthening their bio-manufacturing capabilities so that we could pave the way together towards a safer world during the next pandemic," Kwon said. Lee Kang-ho, deputy minister of the global vaccine hub office, said the launch of the training hub was the result of months-long joint efforts among governmental bodies and the National Assembly. "When we submitted the proposal to the WHO last December, we were told that Korea was among 10 candidates. Competition was quite high," Lee told The Korea Times. During his meeting with the WHO Director-General in Geneva last November, Assembly Speaker Park Byung-seug requested the establishment of the training hub in Korea. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, for his part, sent a letter to the director-general expressing the administration's strong willingness to provide support to low- and middle-income countries. "I believe the WHO has chosen Korea because of our robust bio-manufacturing capacity and training infrastructure, as well as the government's willingness to commit to the international community," Lee said. He added that the launch of the training hub will take the country on a big step toward its goal of becoming a global vaccine hub. There are calls for a group of heroic Fijian abattoir workers to be granted Australian citizenship after rescuing elderly residents of an aged care home from New South Wales' generational floods. The city of Lismore in northern NSW remains cut off, where more than 1,000 stranded residents are trapped or waiting to be rescued on Tuesday morning. The severe weather cell is now moving south, with a further 300,000 residents are currently subject to evacuation warnings. A team of 45 Fijians emigrated to the town under the Pacific Labour Scheme last year, a program designed to help the country's labour shortage due to the pandemic. The men, who work in a local abattoir, leapt into action on Monday after hearing an aged care home was flooded with dozens caught inside. 'It was just devastating, the entire building was underwater,' Apenisa Marau told Ben Fordham. There are calls for a group of heroic Fijian abattoir workers to be granted Australian citizenship after rescuing eldery residents of an aged care home The bureau has issued a flood watch for the Mid North Coast, Central Coast, Greater Sydney, the Illawarra and the South Coast. There are also major flood warnings for rivers in the state's north and minor to moderate flood warnings on the Mid North Coast. The rain fell in record-breaking numbers in northern NSW in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, with 775mm of rain in Dunoon, 537mm in Nimbin, 520mm in Mullumbimby and in 467mm Lismore. SES crews and local volunteers continue to boat residents away from their home as they race to rescue the remaining people as floodwaters continue to rise. Mr Marau said the situation was 'terrifying' and their task made more challenging given the condition of some of the aged care residents. 'It was really hard, and quite terrifying trying to get those elderly people out of their homes,' he told 2GB. 'Most of them were bedridden, in wheelchairs, some of them were just trying to stay afloat. 'They were pretty shocked by the time we reached them, but we were glad we were able to get them to safety.' The men, who work in a local abattoir, leapt into action on Monday after hearing a Lismore aged care home was flooded with dozens caught inside ADF and abattoir workers aid flood emergency As #Lismore faces its worst-ever flood disaster, the Australian Defence Force has been called in to help. It comes as Fijian abattoir workers aid SES and emergency volunteers to evacuate 60 nursing home residents. Special #Floods coverage LIVE: 9Soci.al/iLTI30sc2LW Posted by 9 News Sydney on Sunday, February 27, 2022 Despite the horrific conditions, which has seen the Wilsons River peak at 14.4 metres overnight, the 45 Fijians are on deck to help out again on Tuesday. 'The boys are ready, we're getting everything organised and then we'll see who we can send down to the SES to help with the search this morning. The rest are here at the shelter assisting the SES as well,' Mr Marau said. 'You stepped in when people needed help. You've done your country proud and you've done Australia proud,' Fordham replied, commending the group on their heroism. The Fijians managed to help move the 60 trapped elderly residents to safety, before the SES workers boated them out of the town. 'We just tried to do what we can, since we're going to be here for the next three years, we wanted to be a part of the community,' the Fijian worker said. Mr Marau said the situation was 'terrifying' and their task made more challenging given the condition of some of the aged care residents A woman is assisted to higher ground as people use small boats to travel through flood water in Lismore The entire Lismore CBD was underwater on Monday after days of heavy rain that led to the Wilsons River breaching its levee overnight, with roads cut off. Some residents resorted to cutting holes in the corrugated iron roof of their homes so they could climb out to be rescued - with the water above doors and windows. Waters in Lismore were receding on Monday after peaking at 14.4m. The Brisbane River was also falling with the tide after peaking at 3.5m, but is expected to reach 3.7m on Monday morning. A distraught woman is helped through the flood in the town of Lismore by SES workers Residents evacuate from flooding occurs in Lismore, on February 28, 2022. A severe weather warning is in place for south-east Queensland and areas in northern New South Wales State Emergency Service commissioner Carlene York said even with the best forecasting, it was hard to tell which areas would be worst hit. 'The issues with these types of east coast lows is that it just depends where it goes how close to the coast and what path it travels. And then the unknown is where it will actually drop the heaviest rainfall,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney is predicted to get up to 90mm of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, while further south, Kiama is forecast to get up to 80mm on Tuesday and 150mm on Wednesday. The Batemans Bay region will be inundated with similar levels on Wednesday and Thursday. A man wearing just his boardies is pictured leading a dog on a string through flooded waters in Lismore The huge geographic spread of the floods is stretching emergency resources. Ms York said the SES resisted sending more people to northern NSW to ensure there was capacity down south when needed. 'We have moved extra members up into the Northern Rivers district, but also we have retained our volunteers and other emergency service partner members down on the South Coast to make sure that they are in the stages of planning, and also getting messaging out and communication out to the community to prepare them for this event as it comes through,' she said. Ms York said the rain coming to Sydney is unlikely to be as heavy as the storms up north, but could still lead to flash flooding. 'That is affected by the amount of saturation that's in the land at the moment that there is no way for the water to run as it falls onto the ground, which will cause flash flooding and that's a very dangerous situation for any motorists.' Africans fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine are suffering racism, it has been claimed, with black refugees blocked from public transport and threatened at gunpoint by marauding militiamen. Korrine Sky, 26, a British-Zimbabwean national who has been studying medicine in Ukraine since September, said the situation had deteriorated and become 'like an apocalypse movie', with armed vigilantes roaming the streets. Ms Sky, mother of a nine-month-old baby, told The Independent she had been threatened at gunpoint due to the colour of her skin by local armed men as she tried to make her escape from the rapidly escalating conflict. According to Ms Sky's Twitter, she has driven to the border with Romania, where she is still waiting to cross, and she reports having received 'some threats of violence from some local Ukrainians who don't believe we should enter'. Meanwhile, Osarumen, a father-of-three and a Nigerian national, said he and his family were asked to give up their seat on a cross-border bus out of Ukraine, with the driver and military officers using the phrase 'no blacks' as justification. The current chair of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and African Union Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat said Monday that they were 'particularly disturbed by reports that African citizens on the Ukrainian side of the border are being refused the right to cross the border to safety'. Black people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine have reported falling victim to racist behaviour, with one Nigerian family told 'no blacks' when they tried boarding a bus and a British-Zimbabwean medical student being threatened at gunpoint. Pictured: Korrine Sky, 26, a medical student who said on Twitter she experienced racial violence while fleeing Ukraine Korrine Sky, 26, a Zimbabwean national who has been studying medicine in Ukraine since September, said the situation had deteriorated and become 'like an apocalypse movie', with armed vigilantes roaming the streets Osarumen told The Independent: 'In all of my years as an activist, I have never seen anything like this. 'When I look into the eyes of those who are turning us away, I see bloodshot racism; they want to save themselves and they are losing their humanity in the process.' Osatumen, who has been living in Ukraine since 2009, said he was stranded at a train station in Kyiv. He said: 'This isn't just happening to black people even Indians, Arabs and Syrians,' he added, 'and that shouldn't be the case.' Nigerian presidential advisor Garba Shehu said on Monday there had been 'unfortunate reports of Ukrainian police and security personnel refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains heading towards the Ukraine-Poland border' Responding to the reports, African Union chiefs said in a statement: 'Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach international law.' Nigeria on Monday urged border officials in Ukraine and elsewhere to treat its citizens equally. 'There have been unfortunate reports of Ukrainian police and security personnel refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains heading towards the Ukraine-Poland border,' said presidential advisor Garba Shehu in a statement. Shehu referenced a video on social media where a Nigerian mother with a young baby was filmed being physically forced to give up her seat. He said there are also reports of Polish officials refusing Nigerian citizens entry into Poland from Ukraine. 'All who flee a conflict situation have the same right to safe passage under UN Convention and the colour of their passport or their skin should make no difference,' said Shehu. Korrine Sky, a Zimbabwean-British medical student in Ukraine, has arrived at the border with Romania, although she is still engaged in bureaucratic wrangling over papers to finalise her escape, according to the latest activity on her Twitter A GoFundMe page specifically for Afro-Caribbean students leaving Ukraine had raised over 7,000 on Monday A group of South Africans, mostly students, were stuck at the Ukrainian-Polish border, the country's foreign ministry spokesman, Clayson Monyela, said on Twitter. The South African ambassador to Warsaw was at the site trying to get them through, according to Monyela who on Sunday had said Africans were being 'treated badly' at the Polish-Ukraine border. Poland's ambassador to Nigeria Joanna Tarnawska dismissed claims of unfair treatment. 'Everybody receives equal treatment. I can assure you that I have reports that already some Nigerian nationals have crossed the border into Poland,' she told local media. She said Nigerians could stay for 15 days. Even invalid documents were being accepted to cross the border and Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, she added. Some Nigerians who made it across the borders described frightening journeys in the dark to reach traffic-packed frontiers where they were made to wait as officials gave priority to Ukrainian women and children. 'One of the officers came and told us it's harder for us foreigners because they have to get in touch with our government in different countries,' Stephanie Agekameh, a medical student now in Poland, said by text message. Speaking from Korczowa in Poland, Nigerian managerial sciences student Agantem Moshe, said Ukrainian police had pushed Africans out of the way to make way for women and children. 'From the Polish side it was smooth, they were professionals. In Ukraine, they kept us outside in the cold,' he said. The UN said that more than half a million refugees from Ukraine had so far crossed into neighbouring countries. Nigeria's embassy in Bucharest said it had received 130 Nigerians from Ukraine, with more being processed having reached Warsaw or Budapest. 'We assure Nigerians that all hands are on deck and arrangements are being put in place to effectively evacuate our citizens,' Nigerian official Gabriel Aduda said in a statement. Ghana's government said it would meet with parents of students stuck in Ukraine on Tuesday and sent embassy officials to border points to help. DR Congo Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula said on Twitter he would meet with the Polish ambassador to help with the passage across the border of about 200 Congolese, mostly students. Ivory Coast, which according to state media has 500 nationals in Ukraine, said it was also making arrangements for their evacuation. Kenya's foreign affairs ministry said last week around 200 Kenyans were safe and accounted for but that some were stuck at the Polish border because of visa restrictions. Nigerian accountant Lukmon Busari said his son, a fourth-year medical student, was already out after waiting for a day on the Polish border. 'Initially they didn't allow them to move as they gave priority to Ukrainians, to women and children. Eventually they allowed them into Poland,' Busari told AFP by telephone. According to him, the Polish authorities 'did a marvellous job'. Dozens of Australians have vowed to travel to Kyiv to help the country fight off the unprovoked Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials have revealed. The Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Sydney Jaroslav Duma said his embassy fielded about 20 calls on Monday from those wanting to head over and fight the Russians. The offers of support came just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged all 'citizens of the world' to join the fight against the 'Russian onslaught'. 'They're saying to me: "We want to go and fight these terrorists. We understand Ukraine is a sovereign nation, this is just wrong",' Mr Duma told The Daily Telegraph. 'I'm thankful for the support but I can't turn around and say "yes, you must do this".' Pro-Ukraine protesters call on Russians to take a stand against their government during a rally in Sydney on Saturday. Dozens of Australians have called up the Ukrainian embassy this week offering to help fight the unprovoked Russian invasion of the eastern European nation 'If they really push, I just say ring the embassy.' The diplomat said others had called him asking if they could travel to Ukraine to offer humanitarian aid. Foreign Minister Marise Payne warned on Monday Australians who travel to fight in Ukraine with a non-government armed group may be committing a criminal offence. 'It is very important for individuals who may seek to do this, to be clear of the provisions of Australian laws that may apply to their activity,' she said. 'Frankly, I would strongly encourage them to observe the travel advice, which is do not travel.' However many Australian citizens are tapping into online solidarity for the stricken nation. An armed Ukrainian guard is seen on the streets of Kyiv on Monday morning. The Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Sydney Jaroslav Duma said his embassy fielded about 20 calls on Monday from those wanting to head over and fight the Russians Whether sharing heartfelt memes or joining the call to 'arms' by hacking collective Anonymous, it's not all about boots on the ground. Known as 'tactical s***posting', short videos are being made by Ukrainian solders and others and shared worldwide by keyboard warriors. Twitter user Peedu Tuisk, based in the Estonian cyber heartland of Tallinn, shares a Ukrainian soldier's choice words, with English subtitles which explicitly explain it is Russia's last chance to surrender. Some posts, also not verifiable, say they have come across unhappy Russian solders who thought they were on a training exercise but would be shot as deserters if they tried to go home. One meme, Geography 101, shows a map with Russia clearly marked and its neighbour Ukraine and the Crimea as 'not Russia", Romania "does it look like Russia?' Poland as 'this is not Russia', others as 'nope', 'no', 'still not', and the proud Baltic states 'also not Russia'. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday urged all 'citizens of the world' to join the fight against the 'Russian onslaught' Some posts show Ukrainian soldiers saving a freezing puppy, who subsequently stands guard at their post and has been named Rambo. Russia is also peddling its own information, or misinformation. 'Russian propaganda has gone off the rails and speculates Ukraine might be preparing to drop a 'dirty bomb' on the Russian territory,' Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. 'This is a sick fake,' he says. 'Ukraine doesn't have nuclear weapons, doesn't conduct any work to create/acquire them.' SBS swiftly moved to suspend the broadcast of news bulletins NTV Moscow and Russia Today, in response to community feedback from the Australian Russian-speaking community about misinformation.so Simon Leviev, better known by his off-putting pseudonym The Tinder Swindler, is being sued by the wealthy, diamond-rich family he claimed to be a part of when he scammed women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars using the dating app. The 'malice defamation' suit was filed Monday in Tel Aviv Magistrates Court in Israel on behalf of the true Leviev family, whose patriarch, Israeli businessman Lev Leviev, 65, is a billionaire diamond magnate who Forbes once referred to as 'The King of Diamonds.' The lawsuit lists Simon Leviev - whose real name is Shimon Heyada Hayut - as a defendant after he allegedly pretended to be the mogul's son on the app to dupe multiple women in locales across the globe out of nearly $10million. Simon Leviev, better known by his off-putting pseudonym 'The Tinder Swindler,' is being sued by the wealthy, diamond-rich family he claimed to be a part of when he scammed women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars using the dating app The 'malice defamation' suit was filed Monday in Tel Aviv Magistrates Court in Israel on behalf of Israeli mogul Lev Leviev, 65, a billionaire diamond magnate tabbed 'The King of Diamonds' The real Leviev's lawyer, Guy Ophir, told TMZ Monday that the filing is just the first step in an 'all-out legal war' the family's waged against Hayut, 31, as well as anyone who aided in his schemes. Ophir said the family wants justice to be served for the 'malice' brought against the Leviev name, the outlet reported Monday afternoon. According to TMZ, the filing describes in detail the ways in which Simon allegedly took advantage of the family, including changing his name to give the appearance of wealth and luring women with private jets, yachts and fancy cars, telling them he was the son of the renowned billionaire. 'He is a crook and deceiver who changed his name for criminal purposes, while identifying that he is a member of the Leviev family and taking the reputation of the complainants,' a translated portion of the suit reads, according to Rolling Stone. Ophir said in a statement Monday that the suit was the first 'in a series of legal proceedings that the Leviev family has instructed me to take against this crook and his accomplices.' Simon Leviev (pictured at left in a photo he doctored alongside Lev Leviev and wife Olga) - whose real name is Shimon Heyada Hayut - pretended to be the mogul's son on the app to dupe multiple women in locales across the globe out of nearly $10million He added: 'In the coming days a monetary claim will also be filed against the crook and anyone who has been involved in his past and present actions. 'Similarly, a lawsuit will be filed against the sites that chose to join the crook and allow him to sell paid greetings while exploiting his victims.' The legal eagle then revealed that the Leviev family will donate any money it obtains during legal proceedings to Hayut's other known victims. Ophir did not immediately return DailyMail.coms request for comment Monday evening. The lawyer's website, however, confirmed the suit had been filed Monday. A rep for Simon Leviev similarly did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hayut, who also hails from Israel, told numerous women over the course of several years that he was the son of the Israeli-Russian billionaire - a man Forbes once called the 'King of Diamonds' - and the chief executive of Leviev's LLD Diamonds. Hayut, who also hails from Israel, told numerous women over the course of several years that he was the son of Israeli-Russian billionaire The international conman would dazzle his victims with his apparently luxurious lifestyle of private jets, designer clothes and five-star hotels - before tricking them into giving him eye-watering sums. In a twisted Ponzi scheme, he would use the cash he stole from them to lure in his next target, lavishing them too with trips abroad, and with hundreds of red roses and tables in VIP clubs. He left his victims with suicidal feelings, crippling bank debts and the agony and humiliation of discovering their relationship with him was a sham. Hayut was arrested for fraud in 2019 after a victim who had become wise to his tricks reported him to Interpol for using a fake passport in Greece. He was released the following May, after serving five months of his 15-month sentence. Hayut was arrested for on fraud in 2019 after a victim who had become wise to his tricks reported him to Interpol for using a fake passport in Greece. He was released the following May, after serving five months of his 15-month sentence Hayut has denied all allegations against him, claiming he is 'not a fraud and not a fake' but instead a 'legitimate businessman' who made his fortune by investing in Bitcoin. In an interview on CBS' Inside Edition, he insisted this week: 'I'm not this monster. I was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder.' In the interview, he kissed his current girlfriend Kate Konlin, an Israeli-Ukrainian model, for the cameras as she accused his victims of creating a 'fake story'. Konlin, 24, however, is standing by her beau despite the recent release of a Netflix documentary chronicling his underhanded exploits, The Tinder Swindler, now seen by more than 50 million people worldwide. A 20-year-old Minnesota college student was killed on Friday night when the house where she was looking after a family's dogs exploded. The blast ignited a raging fire that ravaged the residence in Lexington Township at around 11.30pm, leaving a crater filled with piles of smoking, charred debris. First responders who arrived on the scene discovered the body of Kailey Mach in the basement of the destroyed home, located about 60 miles south of Minneapolis. The cause of the explosion is under investigation. The owners of the property were away at the time of the explosion, and Mach was looking after their home and their two dogs, whose fate is unknown at this time. Kailey Mach, 20 (left and right), a student at Augsburg University, was killed in a Minnesota house explosion on Friday night. She was pronounced dead at the scene The blast leveled the home in Lexington Township, Minnesota, leaving a crater littered with charred debris (pictured) The cause of the blast that destroyed the home and killed Mach is under investigation Mach was a student at Augsburg University, where officials confirmed her death, reported CBS Minnesota. 'The Augsburg University community is deeply saddened by Kaileys tragic passing this weekend. We offer our profound condolences to her family, friends, professors, classmates, and all who were close to her,' university officials said in a statement. Mach's uncle, Tim Siebsen, told KARE11 his niece aspired to become a teacher, and worked as a pre-school aide while pursuing her college degree. 'She was so loved by all of her kiddos,' Siebsen said. 'She was so loved by anyone that met her.' The owners of the home were away and Mach was looking after the property and their two dogs Mach was an aspiring teacher. She was also and active member of the local Czech-American community (pictured right in a traditional dress) The 20-year-old is survived by her parents and brother. Her heartbroken mother called her 'an angel here on earth' Mach was involved with a youth church group and was proud of her Czech heritage. She served as a junior director of a Czech dance company. Mach is survived by her parents and brother. 'Our hearts are shattered and mine is still numb in shock. ' her mother Vicki Bettin Mach wrote on Facebook. 'Fly high baby girl.. you were an angel here on earth to us and we will never be the same.' The Le Sueur County Sheriff's Office and the State Fire Marshall's Office have launched a joint investigation to determine the cause of the deadly house explosion. The Queen enjoyed an afternoon with some of her nearest and dearest as she continued her remarkable recovery from Covid, the Daily Mail can reveal. The 95-year-old monarch, who tested positive for the virus just over a week ago, went to Frogmore on her Windsor Estate on Sunday, where younger members of her family had gathered to meet her for the first time since her diagnosis. They included Princess Beatrice, her baby daughter Sienna and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children, who were all making the most of the unseasonably glorious sunshine. The Queen (pictured) enjoyed an afternoon with some of her nearest and dearest as she continued her remarkable recovery from Covid, the Daily Mail can reveal It is believed that Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank and their year-old son August (pictured), who live at Frogmore Cottage, were not at home on Sunday When in better health, the Queen often drives to Frogmore, which is about a mile from Windsor Castle, to walk her dogs. But following a spate of issues and her recent diagnosis with Covid-19, she has not been such a frequent visitor of late. It is believed that Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank and their year-old son August, who live at Frogmore Cottage, were not at home on Sunday. The 95-year-old monarch went to Frogmore on her Windsor Estate on Sunday, where younger members of her family, including Princess Beatrice (pictured), had gathered to meet her When in better health, the Queen often drives to Frogmore, which is about a mile from Windsor Castle, to walk her dogs The Queen is said to be making a 'good recovery' from her bout of coronavirus following an outbreak of cases at Windsor. Last week she was forced to cancel a number of online engagements while in isolation. But sources said there was no cause for alarm, explaining her reluctance to appear on camera was due to sounding rather hoarse as a result of the virus. William and Kate's presence was intriguing coming the day after the Mail revealed that their plans for a new family life in the Home Counties were moving forwards swiftly. The couple are advanced in their decision for a new Berkshire prep school for their eldest son Prince George, eight. And they have been looking at new family homes on the Windsor Estate, although well-placed sources have said that the castle itself has been earmarked for the couple one day. Advertisement About 340,000 residents in northern NSW are now under evacuation orders or warnings as unprecedented flooding leaves hundreds unaccounted for in the regional town of Lismore. The flood crisis has engulfed the northeastern part of the state, with major flood warnings in place for the Tweed, Richmond, Wilsons, Brunswick, Bellinger and Clarence rivers. The Bureau of Meteorology is warning NSW is in for more thunderstorms, heavy rain and damaging winds on Tuesday evening as extreme weather moves south. As much as 200mm of rain could fall in just six hours on the state's south coast with heavy winds forecast in Newcastle, Sydney and down to the Bega Valley near the Victorian border, the bureau warned on Tuesday morning. NSW Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said 340,000 people in the northern rivers and north coast areas of the state are on high alert under evacuation orders or warnings. There are 26 evacuation orders in place covering around 40,000 people, with those in west Ballina the latest to be ordered to flee their homes. There are five evacuation warnings in place covering about 300,000 people. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said anyone under an evacuation order should leave their home immediately. 'If you can leave safely please do so. Do not wait,' he told a press conference on Tuesday morning. The unfolding crisis is at its worst in the northern rivers city of Lismore, which remains submerged after the Wilson River peaked at 14.4m at 3pm on Monday before starting to fall. Photos taken at Lismore's Trinity Catholic College showed school buildings inundated by floodwaters, which appeared to be at least three metres high. Pictured is a home nearly completely submerged in Woodburn, near Ballina in NSW's north. There are 26 evacuation orders in place covering about 40,000 residents, with those in west Ballina the latest to be ordered to flee their homes Flooded farmland near Tumbulgum in northern NSW, close to the border with Queensland. The Bureau of Meteorology is warning NSW is in for more thunderstorms, heavy rain and damaging winds as extreme weather moves south along the coast Photos taken at Lismore's Trinity Catholic College showed school buildings inundated by floodwaters which appeared to be at least three metres high A man and a dog walk along a roof in Woodburn near Ballina on Tuesday. Disaster assistance is now available in 17 local government areas in response to severe storms and flooding - including Ballina Pictured: The same view of the school on a normal day. The unfolding crisis is at its worst in the northern rivers city, where the Wilson River peaked at 14.4m at 3pm on Monday before starting to fall Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for in the city and at least one man is feared dead after a man went missing in flood waters. 'So if you put that all together we are talking about 340,00 people in that area who are currently on high alert and impacted by this unfolding, unprecedented event,' she said. 'Please prepare to leave at very short notice,' she told Sydney radio station 2GB. The situation could escalate very quickly, she said. 'Please have your bag packed... be ready to go.' The rain fell in record-breaking numbers in northern NSW in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, with 775mm of rain in Dunoon, 537mm in Nimbin, 520mm in Mullumbimby and in 467mm Lismore. An map of Queensland and northern NSW (pictured) has revealed the regions hardest hit by the incessant deluge as residents fight to keep their heads above water Pictured are metres-high floodwaters reaching the top of a motel-front verandah in Lismore on Tuesday morning as the city's residents were forced to evacuate The entire Lismore CBD was underwater on Tuesday after days of heavy rain that led to the Wilsons River breaching its levee overnight, with roads cut off The Lismore flooding. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for in Lismore and at least one man is feared dead after a man went missing in flood waters The rain fell in record-breaking numbers in northern NSW in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, with 467mm recorded in Lismore Pictured are residents inspecting floodwaters outside the college. NSW Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke says 340,000 people in the northern rivers and north coast areas of the state are on high alert under evacuation orders or warnings Emergency crews were overwhelmed with calls for help on Monday and hundreds of people across the region were stranded for hours on rooftops as state and federal emergency services struggled to access impacted areas. Premier Dominic Perrottet described the flooding and its impacts as 'unprecedented' and 'distressing'. Rescuers in a flotilla of dinghies and inflatables plucked stranded Lismore residents from the rooftops and balconies of submerged homes. Disaster assistance is now available in 17 local government areas in response to severe storms and flooding, which began on February 22 and continues to impact large areas of northern NSW. The LGAs are Armidale, Ballina, Bellingen, Byron, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Glen Innes Severn, Hornsby, Kempsey, Kyogle, Lismore, Nambucca, Port Macquarie/Hastings, Richmond, Tenterfield, The Hills and Tweed. A woman carries a baby as people use small boats to travel through flood water in Lismore, NSW on Monday, February 28, 2022. Heavy rain is bringing record flooding to some east coast areas Help is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. As the low pressure system moves south on Tuesday, communities from the NSW Mid North Coast to the South Coast are bracing for the deluge, with up to 150mm of rain and winds of up to 90km/h expected to hit. The authorities and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) advised people to prepare for what NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has called 'unprecedented' weather. Southeast Queensland residents have also been warned to expect more flooding with dam releases and heavy rain on the way. Flooding in Lismore (pictured), north-eastern New South Wales on Monday, February 28, 2022 A McDonald's sign (pictured) is all that's visible in a flooding scene from Lismore, New South Wales Very high winds and flooding are forecast to hit Sydney over the next 48 hours. 'Many would have seen distressing images of survival and there are many distressing reports, particularly around the Lismore area, of people who are isolated and currently stranded,' Mr Perrottet said. 'Simply because your community has not flooded in the past does not mean it will not flood over the course of this week we would expect things to get worse over this period of time.' Milton resident Jillian Handyside is seen at her flooded house in Brisbane, Monday, February 28, 2022 People are pictured on flooded streets in Lismore in northern New South Wales State Emergency Service commissioner Carlene York said even with the best forecasting, it was hard to tell which areas would be worst hit. 'The issues with these types of east coast lows is that it just depends where it goes how close to the coast and what path it travels. And then the unknown is where it will actually drop the heaviest rainfall,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney is predicted to get up to 90mm of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, while further south, Kiama is forecast to get up to 80mm on Tuesday and 150mm on Wednesday. The Batemans Bay region will be inundated with similar levels on Wednesday and Thursday. As the low moves south on Tuesday, communities from the NSW Mid North Coast to the South Coast are bracing for what is coming A man is pictured carrying a child as people wade through flood water in Lismore, NSW on Monday, February 28, 2022 People use small boats to travel through flood water in Lismore on Monday, February 28, 2022 A man (pictured) is wrapped in a blanket to shield from the rain as water floods through Lismore A police officer is pictured carrying a child through flood water in Lismore on Monday, February 28, 2022 Flooding in seen the city of Lismore, north-eastern New South Wales on Monday, February 28 Rescue boats are pictured operating in the flooded city of Lismore in northern New South Wales A distraught woman (pictured) is helped through the flood in the town of Lismore The huge geographic spread of the floods is stretching emergency resources. Ms York said the SES resisted sending more people to northern NSW to ensure there was capacity down south when needed. 'We have moved extra members up into the Northern Rivers district, but also we have retained our volunteers and other emergency service partner members down on the South Coast to make sure that they are in the stages of planning, and also getting messaging out and communication out to the community to prepare them for this event as it comes through,' she said. Ms York said the rain coming to Sydney is unlikely to be as heavy as the storms up north, but could still lead to flash flooding. More than one metre of #rain has fallen across parts of southeast #QLD and northeast #NSW over the past week. What caused the record-breaking rain? Here's a look at some of the influences that have come into play. More at https://t.co/wb88a6VLBo pic.twitter.com/cSx6vk76pK Weatherzone (@weatherzone) February 28, 2022 'That is affected by the amount of saturation that's in the land at the moment that there is no way for the water to run as it falls onto the ground, which will cause flash flooding and that's a very dangerous situation for any motorists.' After floods inundated at least 20,000 homes in Brisbane over the weekend, Lismore in northern NSW was the next major centre to be slammed by the disaster. The entire Lismore CBD was underwater on Tuesday after days of heavy rain that led to the Wilsons River breaching its levee overnight, with roads cut off. Residents evacuate from flooding occurs in Lismore, on February 28, 2022. A severe weather warning is in place for south-east Queensland and areas in northern New South Wales. The weather pattern will spread further down in NSW on Tuesday and Wednesday Flooding is pictured having rising to almost the height of streetlights in Lismore, NSW Advice for people in flood-affected areas: Never drive through flood waters Clean out your gutters Tie down loose equipment Prepare an emergency pack in case you have to leave Include food, water, medication, important documents, a torch, battery pack and a radio Source: SES Advertisement Some residents resorted to cutting holes in the corrugated iron roof of their homes so they could climb out to be rescued - with the water above doors and windows. Waters in Lismore were receding on Monday after peaking at 14.4m. The Brisbane River was also falling with the tide after peaking at 3.5m, but is expected to reach 3.7m on Monday morning. BoM has warned that flooding could continue to plague Brisbane and the surrounds throughout the week, with persistant showers hitting Wednesday and continuing into the weekend. Schools will remain closed in Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast on Tuesday, and trains are expected to stay offline for several days. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m at 8am on Monday, the highest level seen since the devastating floods of 2011 - with authorities warning residents of 140 suburbs. Two catastrophic peaks are expected on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, a pontoon carrying a crane has broken free of its mooring at the Howard Smith Wharves in Brisbane. A major evacuation was sparked earlier in the day with authorities fearing it could move downstream and slam into parks or buildings, including Howard Smith Wharves. The situation was monitored overnight. A tug boat was brought in to move the giant crane on Tuesday. Flood waters inundate Lismore in northern NSW, almost to the top of street signs, on February 28, 2022 A man wearing just his swimming trunks is pictured leading a dog on a string through flooded waters in Lismore An Asian grandmother who fought for three months to recover from brain damage after being smashed in the face with a rock during a New York City street attack has succumbed to her injuries. GuiYing Ma, 61, died on February 22, despite briefly coming out of her coma weeks earlier. Ma, who immigrated four years ago from Liaoning, China, was sweeping her front sidewalk on November 26, 2021 in Jackson Heights, Queens when Elisaul Perez, 32, homeless man who was sleeping on the street attacked her, according to her family. He was arrested and charged with assault, but police and prosecutors do not consider it a hate crime. However, the family said that the deadly has made other Asians in the city feel targeted. 'The defendant who was arrested and indicted in this attack had multiple prior arrests, a long criminal record, and was known to be a menace to the community,' her family said in a GoFundMe post that announced her death. 'The family urges tougher law enforcement to keep the Asian-American community safe.' GuiYing Ma, 61, died on February 22, despite briefly coming out of her coma weeks earlier. Ma fought to recover from her brain injuries from the attack and briefly came out of her coma in early February before dying on February 22 GuiYing Ma, 61, who immigrated four years ago from Liaoning, China, was sweeping her front sidewalk on November 26, 2021 in Jackson Heights, Queens when Elisaul Perez, 32, homeless man who was sleeping on the street attacked her The assault left Ma with permanent damage to the right side of her brain, and part of her skull had to be removed by doctors to ease the swelling. Even with her traumatic brain injury she was able to recognize her husband and responded to him by moving her eyes and tearing up when he would speak to her. 'The love between Mrs. Ma and her husband Mr. Zhanxin Gao remained,' her family wrote on the crowdfunding website. '[She] was able to raise her hand in response to Mr. Gao even thought she could not speak still.' Sadly she passed away earlier this month. Her family said that she will be remembered as an 'outgoing, friendly and kind individual who took care of everyone and insisted on giving to others even when she had very little to give.' In addition to her husband, she leaves behind her son, who is still in China, and two grandchildren. Her son is expected to fly to New York for the funeral service. Elisaul Perez, 32, was charged with assault on Ma, but the Queens District Attorney's office is considering more severe charges The Queens District attorney said they are reviewing the case and weighing more serious charges, including homicide, against Perez since her death. Ma is one of four high profile street attacks against Asians in New York over the last few months. Deloitte consultant Michelle Go, 40, was shoved under a moving subway train by a homeless man in Times Square in mid-January. Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was stabbed to death by a homeless man after she was followed into her apartment building as she returned from a night out. Yao Pan Ma, 49, who made ends meet collecting cans to recycle on the street, died on January 31, after being brutally stomped in the head by Jared Powell, who claimed he was exacting revenge because he had been robbed by an Asian man. There were 131 hate crime attacks on Asian New Yorkers last year, a massive spike from the 28 Asian assaults in 2020, according to New York City Police Department data. Advertisement Ukraine's president has given Boris Johnson a 'shopping list' of weapons that are needed in the fight against Vladimir Putin's forces, it was claimed last night. A source told The Sun that Volodymyr Zelensky 'made specific requests for military hardware during near daily phone calls, and we are working round the clock to get them into Ukraine.' Boris Johnson responded by saying that the latest batch of weapons would be flown to Poland within 'hours and days' before being driven to Ukraine. Ukraine war: The latest Ukraine's MoD says Russia has lost 5,300 soldiers, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 151 tanks Russia's MoD has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses, but refused to say how many Russian economy entered freefall as Western sanctions put in place over the weekend took effect, with ruble sliding to its lowest level ever Moscow's central bank has more-than doubled the interest rate to 20 per cent Russia orders people and companies to sell 80 per cent of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble to help prop it up Moscow stock exchange won't open until at least 3pm in an attempt to head off all-out crash Advertisement The PM will today fly to Poland to visit British troops manning Nato's eastern border with Russia. The UK has already shipped 2,000 Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapons (NLAW) to Ukraine, whilst the U.S., Germany, and Belgium are among other countries that have sent or are set to send weapons. It comes after Russia promised that it would hit back against the EU following its support of Ukraine and warned the West against supplying weapons. A spokesman for the country's foreign ministry said the steps the bloc has taken against it following its invasion of Ukraine, which include sanctions, will 'not go unanswered'. It also warned that 'EU citizens and structures' involved in sending weapons to Ukraine would be 'responsible for any consequences'. The threat followed the EU's decision to close off its airspace to all Russian planes - which later saw Russian carrier Aeroflot suspend all flights to Europe - and ban Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday that this was the first time the EU had done this for a country under attack. EU defence ministers were today also set to discuss plans to send defensive weapons to Ukraine. The bloc's foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said: 'Half a billion euros [$560 million] will be devoted to providing defensive arms, high-calibre arms, and anti-tank [equipment] all kinds of agreements in order to repel the aggression. 'We have to coordinate what we are doing and what we can do additionally with these resources,' he added. Ukraine's president has given Boris Johnson a 'shopping list' of weapons that are needed in the fight against Vladimir Putin's forces, it was claimed last night. Above: A Ukrainian serviceman fires a British NLAW anti-tank weapon during an exercise in the Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, February 15, 2022 Volodymyr Zelensky 'made specific requests for military hardware during near daily phone calls, and we are working round the clock to get them into Ukraine', a source said Boris Johnson responded by saying that the latest batch of weapons would be flown to Poland within 'hours and days' before being driven to Ukraine It comes after Russia promised that it would hit back against the EU following its support of Ukraine and warned the West against supplying weapons. Pictured: Vladimir Putin According to CNN, Russia's foreign ministry spokesman said: 'EU citizens and structures involved in supplying lethal weapons and fuel and lubricants to the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be responsible for any consequences of such actions in the context of the ongoing special military operation. 'They cannot fail to understand the degree of danger of the consequences,' the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement read.' The statement went on to diminish the punishing sanctions regime imposed by Western nations and the EU. The spokesman claimed the sanctions are 'illegitimate under international law' and intend to 'inflict maximum damage on Russia'. 'The actions of the European Union will not go unanswered,' they added. 'Russia will continue to ensure the realization of its vital national interests without regard to sanctions and their threats. 'It is time for Western countries to understand that their undivided dominance in the global economy is long a thing of the past.' Ms von der Leyen said last night: 'We are shutting down the EU's airspace for all Russian aircraft, including the private jets of oligarchs. 'Second, in another unprecedented step, we will ban, in the EU, the Kremlin's media machine. 'The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to support Putin's lies.' Ms von der Leyen also gave her backing for Ukraine to join the European Union after the country's president Volodymyr Zelensky pushed for accession. A Russian tank is seen ablaze in the Ukrainian city of Sumy amid the ongoing fighting with Ukrainian troops The threat came after the EU closed off its airspace to all Russian planes - which later saw Russian carrier Aeroflot suspend all flights to Europe - and banned Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) said on Sunday that this was the first time the EU had done this for a country under attack Russia warned that 'EU citizens and structures' involved in sending weapons to Ukraine would be 'responsible for any consequences'. Above: Soldiers from the breakaway republic of Lugansk She told Euronews: 'We have a process with Ukraine that is, for example, integrating the Ukrainian market into the single market. We have very close cooperation on the energy grid, for example. 'So many topics where we work very closely together and indeed over time, they belong to us. They are one of us and we want them in.' Ms von der Leyen also said trust in Putin is 'completely broken and eroded', as Brussels unveiled a new package of sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime. On the back of her comments, Zelensky signed a request for Ukraine to join the EU 'immediately' as his country continued to face a Russian onslaught. He called 'for the immediate accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure'. But Ms von der Leyen's spokesman walked back from her earlier comments, saying she meant Europe 'in general' and there was already a process for joining the bloc. This sentiment was reiterated by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, who said there were already longstanding disagreements among EU countries on new members joining. President Zelensky has signed a request for Ukraine to join the EU 'immediately' as troops withstand a fierce Russia onslaught but Brussels' officials warn the process to join the block takes years Eric Mamer, Ms Von der Leyen's spokesman, said the EU chief meant that Ukraine 'is a European country and we want them in, meaning Europe in general'. 'She then also specified that there is a process (for joining the EU). And I think that this is the important point,' he added. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal tweeted that 'the time to put it down on paper has come. Ukraine is applying for EU membership under a special procedure.' However no such fast-track procedure exists, officials said. Joining the bloc can be a long and complex process that often requires major reforms to reach EU standards. They also have to prove that their finances are heading in a direction that will allow them to adopt the euro. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that any bid for membership could take 'a lot of years'. The European Commission said that, in any case, it can only negotiate with hopeful candidate countries on the basis of a mandate from the EU's 27 member states - something it has not received for Ukraine. 'At the end of the day, this is a debate at the highest political level, for the (European) Council,' where the member states take decisions, said a commission spokeswoman, Ana Pisonero. President Zelensky, left, said: 'Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing. I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible'. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, right, said Kyiv would have to submit an official request to join before member states - which would have to greenlight membership unanimously - could come up with a position A view of a car which was destroyed by recent shelling in Kyiv outskirts on Sunday as the EU appeared to reject Ukraine's plea to be fastracked to EU membership According to Mr Zelensky's social media channel, the Ukrainian president signed the EU request on Monday The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, told a group of journalists that there were already longstanding disagreements among EU countries on enlarging the bloc. 'There are different opinions and sensitivities within the EU on enlargement,' he told a group of journalists. He said Kyiv would have to submit an official request to join before member states - which would have to greenlight membership unanimously - could come up with a position. According to Mr Zelensky's Telegram channel, the Ukrainian president signed such a request on Monday. 'Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing,' he said. 'I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible.' The European Union, created by six nations under a different name in 1957, has expanded in four waves over the past three decades. After Britain's exit from the bloc in 2020, it counts 27 member states. There are currently five countries that are candidates to join - Turkey, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania - but their bids have been stuck in limbo for years. The last country to join the EU was Croatia, which was admitted in 2013 - after nearly a decade of negotiations and reforms. Countries that have so far sent military aid to Ukraine include Britain, Germany, the U.S., France and Belgium. The UK has shipped 2,000 Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapons (NLAW) to Ukraine, while the US last month sent a plane loaded with 300 Javelin missiles worth some $50million to Kyiv. Other countries, including Turkey, the Czech Republic and Estonia have also followed suit. Germany overruled its own lethal weapons transfer policy to send its military aid. It will supply Ukraine with 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles from its armed forces stocks, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday. 'The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It is our duty to do our best to support Ukraine in defending itself against Putin's invading army,' Scholz said on Twitter. In addition, the German economy and climate ministry said Germany is allowing the Netherlands to ship 400 German-made anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. Germany will also send 14 armoured vehicles and up to 10,000 tonnes of fuel to Ukraine. Earlier on Saturday, the Dutch government said in a letter to parliament that it will supply 200 air defence rockets to Ukraine as quickly as possible. The Netherlands will supply 200 Stinger air defence rockets to Ukraine as quickly as possible, the Dutch government said in a letter to parliament on Saturday. Belgium has pledged 2,000 machine guns and 3,800 tons of fuel. France has decided to send defensive military equipment to Ukraine to support the country against Russia's invasion, a French army spokesman said on Saturday, adding that the issue of sending offensive arms was still under consideration. First lady Jill Biden accidentally introduced Vice President Kamala Harris as 'president of the United States' at a Black History Month event at the White House Monday. The first lady made the flub in a speech where she saluted Harris as a 'partner to Joe' and made reference to her role as the first black vice president. 'Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the vice president of the United States,' the first lady said, drawing instant laughs when she corrected herself. Among those seen guffawing were the president himself. She also had a joke her husband's expense when praising DJ D-Nice, who was at the event in the East Room. 'Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the vice president of the United States,' said first lady Jill Biden when introducing Vice President Kamala Harris at a White House Black History Month event She credited him and his Club Quarantine for bringing us 'so much joy during the dark moments' of the pandemic. 'Before we came out Kamala and Doug were saying how many times they were in their apartment and they were dancing together in a party of two. I can't say the same of Joe party of one,' she said, earning laughs from a room packed with dignitaries. The president referenced the quip in his own remarks. 'My name is Joe Biden, I'm Jill Biden's husband, and you probably figured out I can't dance,' he quipped. The first lady celebrated 'a history as beautiful and diverse as our nation,' at packed event that took on the feel of pre-pandemic White House celebrations, just a day White House mask restrictions are set to be lifted. It was the first in-person Black history month event, and was attended by Rev. Jesse Jackson, MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus including Reps. James C. Clyburn (D-S.C.), 'squad' member Rep. Ilhan Omar, and others. The first lady wore a mask with yellow sunflower, the flower of Ukraine, in a statement of solidarity. Harris praised Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden's Supreme Court nominee, as someone who would make a 'phenomenal justice.' 'Elections matter. And when folks vote, they order what they want. And in this case, they got what they asked for,' she said to applause. 'I went off script a little bit,' she added. President Biden pointed to the political power of the civil rights community, adding: 'I understand as they say who brung me to the dance.' He referenced passing over Rep. James Clyburn's preferred Supreme Court pick epa09792574 US Vice President Kamala Harris (L) gestures toward US President Joe Biden (Front R), with Cateo Hilton (Front C), student and Junior Mentor of the Life Pieces to Masterpieces program in Washington DC, Acting Director Shalanda Young (Back C) of the Office of Management and Budget, and Administrator Michael Regan (Back R) of the Environmental Protection Agency; during a celebration to mark Black History Month, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 28 February 2022 Numerous officials went to greet Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been treated for Parkinson's disease 'Squad' member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was there Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the crisis in Ukraine and made an appeal for voting rights legislation at a Black History Month event US President Joe Biden reaches out to Cateo Hilton, a student and Junior Mentor of the Life Pieces to Masterpieces program, at an event to celebrate Black History Month in the East Room of the White House on February 28, 2022 in Washington, DC The president was the first out of his seat to cheer for introducer Cateo Hilton, a student and junior mentor from Delaware State University, a historically black college in Biden's home state. He pointed out that there are 'a number of African Americans in high places' in his administration including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who was on hand with other cabinet members and advisors. He pointed to the political power of the civil rights community, adding: 'I understand as they say who brung me to the dance.' He also acknowledged Clyburn, even after failing to select his preferred choice for the Supreme Court although he noted he nominated her to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Biden called Judge Jackson an 'incredible woman.' 'I can tell you Jim -- Jim supported all the nominees. But the one he most supported ... I've already nominated her to be on the Circuit Court of Appeals, the second highest court in the land,' earning applause at his reference to District Court Judge Michelle Childs, whom Clyburn publicly backed. 'Black history is American history,' said Biden. 'Black culture is American culture,' Biden said during his remarks. Justice Minister Par Beom-kye / Hankookilbo The government is considering granting Ukrainians in South Korea stay extension on humanitarian grounds in the wake of Russia's invasion of the Eastern European nation, Justice Minister Park Beom-kye said Monday. "We are considering stay extension measures just like we did during the Myanmar crisis," Park told reporters, referring to the government's granting of special stay permits for Myanmar nationals last year after the military coup in the country. Prime Minister Scott Morrison convened Australia's peak security committee to action further responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cabinet's national security committee was expected to finalise on Tuesday what lethal aid Australia will provide Ukraine, with the federal government already pledging $4 million in military assistance through NATO's trust fund for Ukraine. But Mr Morrison says national security considerations may prevent him from publicly disclosing what lethal aid Australia would be sending. Australia's Parliament House illuminated with the colours of Ukraine's national flag on Monday 'I don't want to flag that (there) will soon be a list that we may provide,' he said. 'We will consider that as we work through those issues but the lethal aid support sees us step up again together with the rest of the world.' The head of the Ukrainian embassy in Canberra welcomed any support from Australia, saying military support will make a huge difference after initial missile strikes from Russia targeted the country's military infrastructure. 'That is why it is crucial for us to have reliable support,' Charge d'Affaires Volodymyr Shalkivskyi said. 'Thanks to the international community, our partners, we are confident that we will not run out of bullets and weapons to defend our country.' Mr Shalkivskyi said ordinary men in Ukraine had already taken up the fight, ensuring Russia's plan for a swift invasion and to install a pro-Russian puppet government had failed. Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) convened Australia's peak security committee to action further responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine 'We have strong morale among our soldiers and officers,' he said. 'We are a young, liberal democracy with a huge history that goes to the ancient times. There were a number of invasions in our history but eventually, all of them failed.' Canberra's Parliament House was lit up overnight with the colours of the Ukrainian flag to show support for the country's people and government. Mr Shalkivskyi said the display of the Ukrainian flag was a symbol of solidarity with the people of Ukraine 'who stand for the principles of freedom'. Australia has already slapped sanctions on Russian elites, including President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu. All members of the Russian security council and 339 members of its parliament have also been sanctioned, as have key Belarusian individuals. Military and financial entities across both countries have also been targeted. The federal government has also updated its travel advice to Russia, urging Australians not to go to the country and for citizens to leave as soon as possible. The prime minister urged Ukrainians in Australia not to fly to Ukraine to fight in the conflict. 'At this time, the legality of such actions are uncertain under Australian law,' he said. Charred military vehicles and rubble are seen in Bucha, Ukraine on Sunday Mr Shalkivskyi said it was important that Australians complied with the legislation after around 20 people had contacted the Ukrainian embassy on Monday morning to inquire about heading overseas to fight. 'I feel really pleased to hear such words of support. At the same time, it's important to carefully evaluate how you can proceed,' he said. 'We appreciate such willingness from Australian people to help Ukraine to defend our country (but) there are different ways to support our military and to protect our civilians (like) financial assistance, humanitarian aid.' Russian invaded Ukraine - which used to be part of the Soviet Union until it collapsed in 1991 - on Thursday after building up troops since November. Putin wants to stop it joining the anti-Russian alliance Nato. Overnight snowfall across western Ukraine, and the city of Lviv is even more picturesque under its fresh white blanket. But as far as the hundreds of thousands fleeing the Russian invasion are concerned, the icy winds and treacherous conditions of a classic East European winter are yet another burden to bear. No more so than the mothers on the move with their babies and young children. Sometimes at a moment's notice, they have been pitched from their homes by war and are now travelling west often without their partners who have stayed behind to fight in sub-zero temperatures. Overnight snowfall across western Ukraine, and the city of Lviv is even more picturesque under its fresh white blanket, Richard Pendlebury writes for the Daily Mail from the city of Lviv And still they arrive here from north, east and south, as Putin's forces attempt to tighten their grip on a neighbour's throat. You have probably never heard of the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia. Nor had I, until now. It is situated north west of the fiercely contested seaport of Mariupol, on the mighty Dnieper river which flows from the besieged capital Kyiv to the Black Sea. The evidence here, yesterday, was that war has also pitched its tent in Zaporizhzhia. The women and children of whole neighbourhoods of the city have crossed Ukraine to Lviv in the past 48 hours, they told me. 'We heard bombs and that is why we decided to leave,' one young mother said. She was in transit with her own mother and her only child, 20-month-old son Yan, whose cheeks were pinched red with cold. She didn't want to give her own name. She was scared. 'My husband stayed to defend our home,' she said. 'It is very difficult to travel with a baby in wartime. 'The trains are very crowded. We don't know what we will do next. 'We might shelter in Lviv or maybe we will go abroad. Refugees that fled the conflict from neighbouring Ukraine await transportation at the Romanian-Ukrainian border, in Siret, Romani Scenes at Lviv station in Western Ukraine as thousands of women and children try to catch trains to Poland to escape fighting 'All we were able to do before we left was pack the essentials for Yan; nothing more than what we could get into two small bags. 'In the bomb shelters back home there was not enough light and the air was bad.' Nearby there was another group of mothers and children from Zaporizhzhia, surrounded by meagre luggage, their breath billowing in the cold. 'We were afraid for the lives of our children,' Nastya said, cradling one-year-old son Matvij. 'Because of Putin, we were made to leave our homes and come here. We hope to get to Poland.' The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday UKRAINE REFUGEE APPEAL Readers of Mail Newspapers have always shown immense generosity at times of crisis. Calling upon that human spirit, we are now launching an appeal to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. For, surely, no one can fail to be moved by the heartbreaking images and stories of families mostly women, children, the infirm and elderly fleeing from Russia's invading armed forces. As this tally of misery increases over the coming days and months, these innocent victims of a tyrant will require accommodation, schools and medical support. All donations to the Mail Ukraine Appeal will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. In the name of charity and compassion, we urge all our readers to give swiftly and generously. TO MAKE A DONATION BY TEXT To donate 10, text HELP to 70115 To donate 20, text AID to 70115 Texts cost either 10 or 20 plus a standard network rate message. 100% of the donation goes to charity. TO MAKE A DONATION BY PHONE Call 0300 12345 77 and follow the instructions to make your donation. A small fee will be deducted by the payment processing platforms when you pay by debit or credit card. TO MAKE A DONATION ONLINE Via bank transfer, please use these details: Account name: Associated Newspapers Account number: 20769512 Sort code: 50-00-00 TO MAKE A DONATION VIA CHEQUE Make your cheque payable to 'Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal' and post it to: Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal, GFM, 42 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JY Advertisement She said her husband and father had stayed behind to fight. 'We are living near the airport and yesterday it was attacked so we had to leave. 'Our district is almost deserted now.' Their escape was made more difficult, she said, by the Ukrainian military having to destroy a bridge over the Dnieper to stall the Russian advance. Ukraine has denied reports that the city, also home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant, had fallen into Russian hands. Nastya said her daughter Lera, seven, had been particularly affected by the ordeal. 'Matvij is too young to understand but she knows exactly what is happening. In the bomb shelter where we spent two days she was very frightened and crying.' Did Nastya have a message for the outside world? 'Yes, just please let us live in peace in our homes.' At Lviv's main railway station two young women Katya and Maria from a town on the Dnieper river, had assembled a pile of luggage and travel boxes for their three dogs, Mario, Misha and Vasily, and two cats, Bucks and Korsha. 'I know it looks a little strange,' said Katya. 'But they are so dear to our hearts. How could we leave them behind?' She then began to rage against the Russian president, bursting into tears as she did so. 'It is hard to realise we have lost our old life because of some ill person,' she said. 'He cares nothing for us. He is not a kind person. In fact, he is not human. I do not have a big enough vocabulary in English to describe what I feel for that man.' Natalya was a young mother from Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkiv, which is being attacked by Russia, with reported heavy civilian casualties. She was with her five-year-old daughter Alicia. 'We were under bombardment, we had to leave,' Natalya said. Nearby, a little boy was pushing his toy car along the frozen pavement as little boys do even when surrounded by catastrophe. Nestor is four. He too is from Kharkiv and was travelling with his 22-year-old parents Dmitri and Angelina. They were accompanied by Dmitri's teenage brother Oleksii and his friend Daniel. They had left their home two days before because 'the bombardment was all around us', said Dmitri. A telephone conversation with a relative in Kharkiv had to be ended because of new attacks. More than 400,000 people have escaped Ukraine since Friday, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. But many more are on the move inside this country. The authorities are preparing for the worst. We visited one of the main maternity hospitals in Lviv. Walls of sandbags had been piled along the lowest windows. The basement was being prepared to receive and treat war wounded rather than expectant mothers. The joyous moments, the miracles of life, are having to play second fiddle to the bloody fallout from the Kremlin's vicious ambition. Spring seems a long way away here. Generous Mail readers have opened their hearts and wallets to send our record-breaking Ukraine appeal past 1million in two days. On top of 500,000 pledged by the Daily Mail's owner, a sensational 710,000 has been donated already for a grand total of more than 1.2million so far, making this the fastest fundraising appeal in newspaper history. On top of 500,000 pledged by the Daily Mail's owner, 710,000 has been donated by the Mail's readers for a grand total of more than 1.2million so far With 1.2million raised in just two days, the fundraising campaign has quickly become the most successful in the paper's history The Mail's readers can donate to the appeal by bank transfer online or by cheque (details below) There are now even more ways to give, as we launch new services to donate via phone and text message. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday UKRAINE REFUGEE APPEAL Readers of Mail Newspapers have always shown immense generosity at times of crisis. Calling upon that human spirit, we are now launching an appeal to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. For, surely, no one can fail to be moved by the heartbreaking images and stories of families mostly women, children, the infirm and elderly fleeing from Russia's invading armed forces. As this tally of misery increases over the coming days and months, these innocent victims of a tyrant will require accommodation, schools and medical support. All donations to the Mail Ukraine Appeal will be distributed to charities and aid organisations providing such essential services. In the name of charity and compassion, we urge all our readers to give swiftly and generously. TO MAKE A DONATION BY TEXT To donate 10, text HELP to 70115 To donate 20, text AID to 70115 Texts cost either 10 or 20 plus a standard network rate message. 100% of the donation goes to charity. TO MAKE A DONATION BY PHONE Call 0300 12345 77 and follow the instructions to make your donation. A small fee will be deducted by the payment processing platforms when you pay by debit or credit card. TO MAKE A DONATION ONLINE Via bank transfer, please use these details: Account name: Associated Newspapers Account number: 20769512 Sort code: 50-00-00 TO MAKE A DONATION VIA CHEQUE Make your cheque payable to 'Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal' and post it to: Mail Newspapers Ukraine Appeal, GFM, 42 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JY Advertisement The vital funds will go to charities helping families who are desperate to escape the Kremlin's missiles. As Vladimir Putin unleashed cluster bombs near homes and schools yesterday, thousands more men, women and children rushed to the borders. More than half a million have now fled since the Russian invasion began, according to the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees. With Putin's troops swarming into Ukraine from the north, south and east, refugees are heading west to Poland, Romania and Hungary. Wearing winter coats to protect against the freezing conditions, they arrive in EU countries with nothing but a few suitcases. At a makeshift refugee centre in the Polish village of Korczowa, two miles from the border, one volunteer praised the 'incredible' generosity of Mail readers. Magdalena Wierzbinska, a 27-year-old jewellery shop assistant who has taken time off from her day job to help distribute supplies, said: 'I am really grateful, because they don't need to do it. 'I hope their hearts are open to give maybe the little that they can.' She said the centre formerly Korczowa's indoor market still needs donations of food, drink, toiletries and medical supplies. She added: 'The sheer number of people coming means we are short. 'There's a lot more who will come. 'We will need your donations to help these people.' Our urgent appeal, run in parallel with our sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, has already been backed by the Prime Minister and Labour leader. Their support was echoed yesterday by two more leading figures from opposite sides of the political divide. Tom Tugendhat, Tory chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, said: 'Brits have always admired courage and patriotism and we're seeing both in Ukraine. 'I know we will stand with those who need it.' Sarah Champion, Labour chairman of the international development select committee, said: 'As this immoral invasion intensifies, more people will need our help. 'The British have always done the right thing and stood by those in need. 'Please do all you can to support the Mail campaign and help the Ukrainians who stay, and those are forced to flee.' Gary Bonini spent 12 years in the British Army. Later this week he aims to head out to Ukraine to join their forces bravely fighting to save the nation from a devastating Russian invasion. Bonini, 30, will be accompanied by Jo Stirling, his former Army comrade, as the Scottish pair answer President Volodymyr Zelensky's plea for foreigners to take up arms in a new international brigade being formed to defend Ukraine. 'I've seen what is happening in Ukraine with all the shelling and carpet bombing, then I heard their president asking for help. Gary Bonini, pictured, spent 12 years in the British Army. Later this week he aims to head out to Ukraine to join their forces fighting to save the nation from a devastating Russian invasion It sparked a fire in me to do something to help their fight,' says Bonini, a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan. He's among a wave of British citizens preparing to join Ukraine's fight after Zelensky's call for international volunteers was backed by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Sunday. Bonini says his plans had met 'a very positive' response from British diplomats so he would be travelling later this week to Lviv, in western Ukraine, to sign up for the Territorial Defence Force, which is made up of military reservists. 'I've been on holiday to Ukraine and love the country, along with its people, so for me this fight to help them feels personal.' He admits his parents were less positive, but says they understood his position. 'How can you not feel passionate when you watch these people take up arms to defend their country?' he says. 'Russia has absolutely no right to invade.' Stirling, 28, from Edinburgh, who served alongside Bonini in the Royal Regiment of Scotland for six years and once went on holiday with him to Kyiv, says he was inspired by the people he met there although he admits that he likes 'getting into a scrap.' He served a stint in Iraq, although says it was mostly spent on guard duty and was 'boring since nothing really happened'. Zelensky made his dramatic call for foreign volunteers this weekend when announcing the creation of a new military unit, the International Legion for the Territorial Defence of Ukraine, to combat Russia's 'vile' tactics. 'This is the beginning of a war against Europe,' the president said. Bonini (pictured), 30, will be accompanied by Jo Stirling, his former Army comrade, as the Scottish pair answer President Volodymyr Zelensky's plea for foreigners to take up arms 'Anyone who wants to join the defence of Ukraine, Europe, and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals.' Zelensky's unit has been compared with the international brigades of the Spanish Civil War, which famously included writer George Orwell who fought with the republicans against the fascists of General Franco. At least two British citizens are already serving in Ukraine's armed forces with the First Battalion of the Marine Corps and are thought to be engaged in some of the fiercest fighting around the industrial port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Shaun Pinner, 48, who spent seven years in the British Army, was promoted to commander of his marines unit six months after joining. Originally from Bedfordshire, he now lives in Mariupol with his wife Larysa, a native of the city. A resident pictured cleaning a bomb shelter under an out-of-service cinema, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Zhytomyr He told The Mail on Sunday last month: 'Russia started this war but we will fight them, make no mistake about that.' He is serving with Aiden Aslin, 28, a former carer from Newark, Nottinghamshire, who previously fought with Kurdish militia against Islamic State in Syria. He was held on suspicion of terrorism after returning home but the charges were dropped. The pair were among at least ten British volunteers who took up arms against pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas region, eastern Ukraine, in the war sparked by Russia's President Vladimir Putin in 2014, which left more than 14,000 dead. They included Newport-born Michael Jenkins who is abandoning recent plans to start a new life working with a defence engineering firm in New York and is heading back this week to join the fight for his Ukrainian wife's nation. People remove debris at the site of a military base building that, according to the Ukrainian ground forces, was destroyed by an air strike, in the town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region Another British Army veteran, Jenkins is worried about his wife Sabina who has stayed with her grandmother in Pervomaisk, a town in central Ukraine about 120 miles from some of the worst fighting against Russian forces along the southern coastal areas. 'She is safe but I feel for the Ukrainian people,' he said. Jenkins, who left Ukraine's marines unit at the end of last year, is gathering a group of foreigners to join the battle against Putin's invading forces. They're due to meet later this week in Slovakia before travelling over the border. He claims to have received 'hundreds' of approaches through social media and says his final group will include ten British men and a further eight from the United States. A Ukrainian service member loads ammunition into cartridges, in central Zhytomyr, Ukraine, following Russia's invasion last week Another report claimed a squad of ten special forces veterans including three Britons and a German trained in close combat and counter-terrorism are in Poland, preparing to cross the border into Ukraine. Other Britons interested in volunteering have been contacting Harry Jackson, 27, the founder of UK Aid for Ukraine, a Facebook group that aims to supply military and medical aid for the country. Jackson said he is putting potential recruits in touch with Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian National Legion a group of foreign fighters set up in 2014 and now falling under the Kyiv Territorial Defence Force. Yesterday it published instructions on social media for foreign recruits, instructing them to contact their embassies first before making an application to the Ukrainian armed forces and obtaining military gear such as body armour and helmets. Mamulashvili claimed yesterday to have 'a very big group' of about 60 Britons travelling by road to Ukraine through Poland. 'I am expecting them here with equipment and supplies in the next few days,' he said. He added that they were former British military who 'can be trusted to take on the Russian aggressors and, most importantly, win.' Advertisement Vladimir Putin has 'blood on his hands', Liz Truss will say today at a UN summit, while Boris Johnson will visit British troops defending Nato's eastern border with Russia. In a speech in Geneva, the Foreign Secretary will condemn Putin's brutal tactics and accuse him of 'murdering Ukrainians indiscriminately'. Ukraine war: The latest Ukraine's MoD says Russia has lost 5,300 soldiers, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 151 tanks Russia's MoD has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses, but refused to say how many Russian economy entered freefall as Western sanctions put in place over the weekend took effect, with ruble sliding to its lowest level ever Moscow's central bank has more-than doubled the interest rate to 20 per cent Russia orders people and companies to sell 80 per cent of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble to help prop it up Moscow stock exchange won't open until at least 3pm in an attempt to head off all-out crash Advertisement Miss Truss will say: 'The consequences of Vladimir Putin's unjustified aggression are horrific. 'Russian troops are laying siege to once peaceful cities. Tanks are tearing through towns while missiles barrage homes and hospitals. 'Putin is murdering Ukrainians indiscriminately. There is blood on his hands, not just of innocent Ukrainians but the men he sent to die.' She will hint at potential war crimes prosecutions, accusing the Russian president of 'violating international law, including the UN Charter'. The Foreign Secretary will continue: 'He is violating human rights on an industrial scale and the world will not stand for it. 'There are no shades of grey. It is about right and wrong. This is Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war against a sovereign nation.' Miss Truss will use today's meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council to discuss relief for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict. Her comments go further than most other senior Western figures in condemning Putin's growing use of indiscriminate weapons in heavily populated civilian areas. Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday pulled out of the UN conference, where he was expected to face condemnation, saying EU travel sanctions meant he could no longer attend. Miss Truss warned MPs yesterday that 'Putin's war could end up lasting months and years' but insisted inspiring Ukrainian resistance coupled with Western resolve would ensure he eventually failed. 'Putin must lose,' she said. 'We are doing everything we can to stop him and to restore Ukraine's sovereignty.' Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will accuse Putin of of having 'blood on his hands' at a UN summit, going further than most Western leaders, even suggesting Putin could stand trial for war crimes 'There are no shades of grey. It is about right and wrong. This is Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war against a sovereign nation', Liz Truss will say at a UN summit Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of war crimes on Monday after Vladimir Putin's forces launched what were believed to be cluster and vacuum bomb attacks on the fifth day of their invasion. Above: Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, coming under heavy attack on Monday It comes after the Kremlin has blamed Miss Truss for ordering Russia's nuclear deterrent to be on high alert, claiming she made 'absolutely unacceptable' remarks about wider conflict with NATO. Putin said he had placed Moscow's nuclear forces on a 'special regime of combat duty' in response to 'aggressive statements' from members of the Nato defence alliance. But his spokesman Dmitry Peskov went further on Monday to blame the escalation during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on Ms Truss. The Foreign Secretary quickly struck back, with an ally saying the move was 'clearly designed to distract from the situation on the ground in Ukraine'. Meanwhile, Mr Johnson prepared to travel to eastern Europe today for talks in Poland and Estonia, two Nato nations fearful they could be next on Putin's hit list. In Estonia, he will visit British troops serving as part of Nato operations to deter further Russian aggression and also meet Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg. Speaking ahead of his trip, the Prime Minister said: 'I will visit two countries that are acutely affected by the crisis in Ukraine. We have shared values that are more important than ever to protect.' Yesterday he told the Cabinet it was 'becoming clearer with each day that Putin had made a colossal mistake' as the 'Ukrainian people had put up a fierce resistance in defence of their homeland'. Downing Street said Mr Johnson discussed the latest intelligence suggesting Russia's advance had also been hit 'by logistical problems'. Miss Truss yesterday announced the UK will freeze the assets of all Russian banks within days as she set out the Government's latest sanctions against Vladimir Putin. The Foreign Secretary said the UK will also move to prevent Russian banks from clearing payments in sterling. She also unveiled a new ban on the export of goods from Britain to Russia in a 'range of critical sectors'. This move is designed to prevent Russia securing access to items which could be used in its war effort against Ukraine. Ms Truss said the export ban will 'act as a drag on Russias economy for years to come' as she also vowed to continue 'ratcheting up' sanctions in the coming weeks. Liz Truss yesterday announced the UK will freeze the assets of all Russian banks within days as she set out the Government's latest sanctions against Vladimir Putin The attack on Kharkiv is believed to have left nine people dead, including three children. Above: The aftermath of the strike The UK and its Western allies unveiled a wave of sanctions against Mr Putin last week. But there were immediate calls to go even further and the Government has promised to step up its efforts. Delivering a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon, Ms Truss announced two new sanction areas, with one relating to banks and the other to exports. She said: 'Today I can inform the House I will be laying two new pieces of sanctions legislation. The first introduces a set of new powers against Russias financial sector. It includes powers to prevent Russian banks from clearing payments in sterling. With over 50 per cent of Russian trade denominated in dollars or sterling, our coordinated action with the United States will damage Russias ability to trade with the world. And as soon as this legislation comes into force, we will apply it to Sberbank, Russias largest bank. I will also be imposing a full asset freeze on three further banks, VEB, Russias national development bank, Sovcombank bank, the third largest privately owned financial institution in Russia, and Otkritie, one of Russias largest commercial banks. We will bring in a full asset freeze on all Russian banks in days, looking to coordinate with our allies. Ms Truss said the second piece of legislation being brought forward by the Government will 'ban exports to Russia across a range of critical sectors'. The Government wants to stop Russia from being able to secure high tech equipment from British firms. Ms Truss said: This includes high end technological equipment such as micro-electronics, marine and navigation equipment. This will blunt Russias military industrial capabilities and act as a drag on Russias economy for years to come. I appreciate the consequences of this step for British people and British businesses operating in Russia and the Department of International Trade and the Treasury will offer advice and guidance to affected UK businesses. My consular staff will continue to support British nationals in Russia as well as those in Ukraine. And we will keep ratcheting up our response. More legislation will follow in coming weeks in sanctioning Russian-occupied territories in the Donbas, extending more sanctions to Belarus and limiting Russian deposits in UK banks. Earlier in the day, Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed the UK Government will match new sanctions imposed by the US and the EU over the weekend by preventing Russian central banks from accessing cash in the UK. The move by the UK, the US and the EU means the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR), the Russian National Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation will struggle to access cash reserves. It led to the rouble dropping more than 20 per cent against the dollar and could have fallen further if not for the central bank raising interest rates from 9.5 per cent to 20 per cent on Monday. It comes as Ukraine's president accused Russia of war crimes last night after Putin's forces launched what were believed to be cluster and vacuum bomb attacks on the fifth day of their invasion. In a late night address directed at Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky said there would 'definitely be an international tribunal' for what he said was a 'violation of all conventions' and added that 'no one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people.' In a panicked bid to reignite his stalled military onslaught, Vladimir Putin had launched an indiscriminate bombing campaign on the eastern city of Kharkiv just 24 hours after local resistance had sent his troops packing from its streets. Weapons rained down on the most Russia-friendly city in Ukraine which sits 25 miles from the border and is home to 1.5million people in a bid to break its will to resist. The hail of bombs, shells and rockets which began falling at lunchtime left at least 11 dead, including three children, with homes and even a school reduced to rubble. A military source told MailOnline that videos of the onslaught showed 'cluster' munitions - which are illegal under international law - had been used. Since it was introduced in the iPhone X back in 2017, the 'notch' has been one of the most-hated features in Apple's smartphones. The unsightly black bar houses the front-facing cameras, but eats away into the display, and is particularly obstructive while watching films or playing games. Now, a new leak suggests that Apple could finally be ditching the notch in favour of two cut-outs at the top of the screen. While Apple is yet to confirm or deny the news, a leaked schematic posted to Chinese social media site Weibo shows what the new feature could look like. Now, a new report suggests that Apple could finally be ditching the notch in favour of two cut-outs at the top of the screen What is the 'notch'? The sensor-housing notch was first introduced to the iPhone with 2017's iPhone X but was mercilessly lambasted by critics and fans alike as a terrible design flaw. Aside from taking up precious screen space, the notch was too reminiscent of a receding hairline for many balding men. Apple's phone-making rival Samsung even mocked the notch in an ad for its Galaxy Note 8 smartphone at the time, featuring a man with a notch-shaped haircut. Apple has persisted with the notch on subsequent iPhone models since, but it's likely that the camera technology currently housed inside is now advanced enough to fit within a smaller space making the notch expendable. Advertisement The schematic was spotted by 9to5Mac, and appears to show two cut-outs that will replace the notch. The left cut-out is pill-shaped, while the right is circular arguably marginally better than the current continuous black bar. 'It looks as if Apple is essentially taking the components of the notch and applying them directly in the display, eliminating any waste areas that don't include the cameras or sensors,' Apple Track said. Other smartphone makers including Samsung have got around the notch issue but opting for a hole-punch design, while Huawei uses a pill-cut out for its front-facing cameras. However, this is the first time that we've seen the two shapes combined. Jon Prosser, a respected Apple leaker, pointed out that the new design may actually be more obstructive than the current notch. In a video posted to his YouTube channel, he said: 'On this schematic, you can see that it's actually bigger than everyone thought. 'This is oddly big. I have independently been able to verify that this is likely the size of this notch cut-out thing for iPhone 14.' MailOnline has contacted Apple for comment. The sensor-housing notch was first introduced to the iPhone with 2017's iPhone X but was mercilessly lambasted by critics and fans alike as a terrible design flaw. Aside from taking up precious screen space, the notch was too reminiscent of a receding hairline for many balding men. Apple's phone-making rival Samsung even mocked the notch in an ad for its Galaxy Note 8 smartphone at the time, featuring a man with a notch-shaped haircut. The sensor-housing notch was first introduced to the iPhone with 2017's iPhone X but was mercilessly lambasted by critics and fans alike as a terrible design flaw Apple has persisted with the notch on subsequent iPhone models since, but it's likely that the camera technology currently housed inside is now advanced enough to fit within a smaller space making the notch expendable. Apple is expected to lauch the iPhone 14 at its annual event in September, although the tech giant has remained tight-lipped about the date or details for this year's event. However, we may see a new iPhone launch before then, with rumours of a spring event where Apple could unveil the iPhone SE 3. It is understood the model, which was last updated two years ago when the tech giant released a long-awaited follow-up to its original SE, will have a faster processor and an improved camera. But it is unlikely to feature a radical new design, meaning the classic iPhone 'Home' button will not be phased out completely. The current iPhone SE uses a Home button similar to that of 2017's iPhone 8. The window of opportunity to save the planet is 'rapidly closing', the UN has warned in its gravest report yet. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released today, claims that rising temperatures are now affecting all living things. The report says that if global warming isn't limited to just another couple tenths of a degree, an Earth now struck regularly by deadly heat, fires, floods and drought in future decades will degrade in 127 ways with some being 'potentially irreversible'. 'The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health,' the report said. Delaying cuts in heat-trapping carbon emissions and waiting on adapting to warming's impacts, it warns, 'will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.' The window of opportunity to save the planet is 'rapidly closing', the UN has warned in its gravest report yet (pictured, a figure in the Silverado community in Orange County, California) The report reveals how sea level rise under current estimations will put millions of people around the world at risk of coastal flooding within the next 100 years How many more people will die? Large numbers of people are being displaced by worsening weather extremes. And the world's poor are being hit by far the hardest, it says. More people are going to die each year from heat waves, diseases, extreme weather, air pollution and starvation because of global warming, the report says. Just how many people die depends on how much heat-trapping gas from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas gets spewed into the air and how the world adapts to an ever-hotter world, scientists say. 'Climate change is killing people,' said co-author Helen Adams of King's College London. 'Yes, things are bad, but actually the future depends on us, not the climate.' With every tenth of a degree of warming, many more people die from heat stress, heart and lung problems from heat and air pollution, infectious diseases, illnesses from mosquitoes and starvation, the authors say. Advertisement Today's children who may still be alive in the year 2100 are going to experience four times more climate extremes than they do now even with only a few more tenths of a degree of warming over today's heat. But if temperatures increase nearly 2 more degrees Celsius from now (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) they would feel five times the floods, storms, drought and heat waves, according to the collection of scientists at the IPCC. Already at least 3.3 billion people's daily lives 'are highly vulnerable to climate change' and 15 times more likely to die from extreme weather, the report says. Large numbers of people are being displaced by worsening weather extremes. And the world's poor are being hit by far the hardest, it says. More people are going to die each year from heat waves, diseases, extreme weather, air pollution and starvation because of global warming, the report says. Just how many people die depends on how much heat-trapping gas from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas gets spewed into the air and how the world adapts to an ever-hotter world, scientists say. 'Climate change is killing people,' said co-author Helen Adams of King's College London. 'Yes, things are bad, but actually the future depends on us, not the climate.' With every tenth of a degree of warming, many more people die from heat stress, heart and lung problems from heat and air pollution, infectious diseases, illnesses from mosquitoes and starvation, the authors say. Climate change could have devastating impacts on ecosystems, with terrestrial, freshwater and oceans all at risk The report lists mounting dangers to people, plants, animals, ecosystems and economies, with people at risk in the millions and billions and potential damages in the trillions of dollars. The report highlights people being displaced from homes, places becoming uninhabitable, the number of species dwindling, coral disappearing, ice shrinking and rising and increasingly oxygen-depleted and acidic oceans. Some of these risks can still be prevented or lessened with prompt action. If temperatures increase nearly 2 more degrees Celsius from now (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) future generations would feel five times the floods, storms, drought and heat waves, according to the collection of scientists at the IPCC (homes are flooded in Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida) The report lists mounting dangers to human systems, with people at risk in the millions and billions and potential damages in the trillions of dollars Cities are 'hotspots' of climate impacts and risks The report provides a detailed assessment of climate change impacts, risks and adaptation in cities, where more than half the world's population lives. People's health, lives and livelihoods, as well as property and critical infrastructure, including energy and transportation systems, are being increasingly adversely affected by hazards from heatwaves, storms, drought and flooding as well as slow-onset changes, including sea level rise. 'Together, growing urbanization and climate change create complex risks, especially for those cities that already experience poorly planned urban growth, high levels of poverty and unemployment, and a lack of basic services,' Debra Roberts said. 'But cities also provide opportunities for climate action green buildings, reliable supplies of clean water and renewable energy, and sustainable transport systems that connect urban and rural areas can all lead to a more inclusive, fairer society.' Advertisement 'Today's IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,' United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. 'With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change.' The panel of more than 200 scientists puts out a series of these massive reports every five to seven years, with this one, the second of the series, devoted to how climate change affects people and the planet. Last August the science panel published a report on the latest climate science and projections for future warming, branded 'code red' by the United Nations. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of The Nature Conservancy, who wasn't part of the latest report, calls it the 'Your House is on Fire' report. 'There's real existential threats,' report co-chair Debra Roberts of South Africa told The Associated Press. Since the last version of this impacts panel's report in 2014, 'all the risks are coming at us faster than we thought before,' said report co-author Maarten van Aalst, a climate scientist for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, mentioning floods, droughts and storms. 'More of it will get really bad much sooner than we thought before.' 'Every bit of warming matters. The longer you wait... the more you will pay later,' said report co-chair Hans-Otto Poertner of Germany told the AP in an interview. By 2050, a billion people will face coastal flooding risk from rising seas, the report says. More people will be forced out of their homes from weather disasters, especially flooding, sea level rise and tropical cyclones. More people are going to die each year from heat waves, diseases, extreme weather, air pollution and starvation because of global warming, the report says (Shayanne Summers holds her dog, Toph, while wrapped in a blanket after spending days staying in a tent at an evacuation centre at the Milwaukie-Portland Elks Lodge because of a fire in Oregon) If warming exceeds a few more tenths of a degree, it could lead to some areas becoming uninhabitable, including some small islands, said report co-author Adelle Thomas of the University of Bahamas and Climate Analytics. And eventually in some places it will become too hot for people to work outdoor, which will be a problem for raising crops, said report co-author Rachel Bezner Kerr of Cornell University. Some of these climate change harms have been warned about for years, even decades, and have become reality, now written in the past and present tenses. Others are still warnings about future woes fast approaching. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of The Nature Conservancy, who wasn't part of the latest report, calls it the 'Your House is on Fire' report (pictured: part of an area that was burnt due to wildfires near Porto Velho, Brazil) Climate change could lead to extinctions If the world warms just another nine-tenths of a degree Celsius from now (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the amount of land burned by wildfires globally will increase by 35 per cent, the report says. And the rest of the living world won't be spared either, with the report warning of climate change extinctions. Already two species - the mammal Bramble Cays melomys in Australia and Central America's golden toad - have gone extinct because of climate change. But much more will come with every bit of warming, said Poertner, the German co-chair. Advertisement Today's 36-page summary, condensed from more than 1,000 pages of analysis, was written by scientists and then edited line-by-line by governments and scientists with that final summary approved by consensus Saturday during a two-week virtual conference that occurred while Russia invaded Ukraine. In the final hours, a Ukrainian delegate made an impassioned plea that the war not overshadow the climate change report, some authors said. Study authors said much of Africa, parts of Central and South America and South Asia are 'hot spots' for the worst harms to people and ecosystems. The report has a new emphasis on the mental health toll climate change has taken, both on people displaced or harmed by extreme weather and on people's anxiety level, especially youths worried about their futures. If the world warms just another nine-tenths of a degree Celsius from now (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the amount of land burned by wildfires globally will increase by 35 per cent, the report says. And the rest of the living world won't be spared either, with the report warning of climate change extinctions. Already two species - the mammal Bramble Cays melomys in Australia and Central America's golden toad - have gone extinct because of climate change. But much more will come with every bit of warming, said Poertner, the German co-chair. In the 2015 Paris agreement, the world adopted a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, which was then further cemented when a special IPCC report in 2018 showed massive harms beyond that 1.5 degree mark One of the biggest changes in the report from previous versions emphasizes how crucial a key temperature threshold is scientifically and for people and how exceeding it, even if only a few decades, can cause permanent damage. In the 2015 Paris agreement, the world adopted a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, which was then further cemented when a special IPCC report in 2018 showed massive harms beyond that 1.5 degree mark. This new report found that threshold is even more important, but scientists do note that the world does not fall off a cliff after that mark. Because the world is already 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial time and emissions are still rising, not falling, the vast majority of future scenarios show temperatures are on track to shoot well above 1.5 degrees, hitting the mark in the 2030s. So some officials began to count on going over that threshold and coming back down a decade or so later with still-to-be-proven expensive technology to suck carbon out of the air or by some other means. The report says that if that overshoot happens, 'then many human and natural systems will face additional severe risks... some will be irreversible, even if global warming is reduced.' Countries need to do more to adapt to warming, with rich countries needing to do a better job giving financial help to poorer nations to adjust to climate change caused mostly by the developing world, the report says. But there are limits to what adapting can accomplish and sometimes - like in the case of sea walls - technical fixes to lessen harms in one place will make it worse somewhere else, the report says. Amid all the danger signs, experts said they want to shy away from doom. 'Fear is not a good advisor and never is,' German vice chancellor and minister for climate and economy Robert Habeck told the AP. 'Hope is the right one.' Hayhoe said what's needed is realism, action and hope. 'It's really bad and there's a good chance that it will get worse,' she said. 'But if we do everything we can, that will make a difference. Our actions will make the difference... That's what hope is.' Work is set to begin on the UK's first commercial spaceport, which will see satellites launched into orbit from the Shetlands by the end of the year after plans won the backing of the local authority. The Lamba Ness peninsular in Unst will be home to the 43 million spaceport, with builders set to start work in late March, after Shetland Islands Council gave the project planning permission. Three launchpads will be built at the SaxaVord spaceport, allowing for the launch of small satellites into either polar or sun-synchronous low-Earth orbits. The company is aiming to launch 30 rockets a year, and has set the target of seeing its first orbital launch from UK soil after the third quarter of this year. Work is set to begin on the UK's first commercial spaceport, which will see satellites launched into orbit from the Shetlands by the end of the year after plans won the backing of the local authority The UK's first spaceport Cost: 43 million, rising to 100 million in the next five years Number of launchpads: 3 Other infrastructure: Satellite tracking station, hangars, and other infrastructure needed to support launches Number of launches: 30/year Timeline: First orbital launch after the third quarter of this year Advertisement SaxaVord Spaceport CEO, Frank Strang, said: 'We have been working on bringing the space economy to Shetland for five years, so it is fantastic that the economic benefits are already being felt. 'To date, we have teamed up with established Shetland companies, such as Sandisons and Ocean Kinetics, as well as emerging local organisations, created by Unst residents who wish to support our exciting project. 'We will spend upwards of 43m over the next 18 months, rising to 100m in the next five years. 'We have already started blasting and crushing stone and are seeking to clarify the conditions imposed on the development by HES, SIC and others as soon as possible. 'Our team will collectively do everything in its power to ensure we can deliver this historic mission for Shetland, Scotland, and the UK.' After the initial build costs, the company is expected to spend 100 million at the port in the next five years. Planning permission allows the Scottish Government a 28-day window to review the application, with work set to start on the site once that period has ended. Scotland is the best place in the UK to reach in-demand satellite orbits with vertically launched rockets the type many will have seen on television, taking off from places like Florida. With Shetland being at the highest latitude point in the UK, and one of the highest in Europe, greater payloads can be launched for the same fuel load. The company behind the spaceport said the launch facility is 'monumental in supporting the UK's ambitions of becoming a global science superpower'. As well as the launchpads, the facility will include a satellite tracking station, hangars, and other infrastructure needed to support launches. Mr Strang added that the SaxaVord Spaceport team had received a tremendous amount of support from the people of Unst. The Lamba Ness peninsular in Unst will be home to the 43 million spaceport, with builders set to start work in late March, after Shetland Islands Council gave the project planning permission The launch of the two metre Skylark Nano rocket in June, which reached an altitude of six kilometres, from the mainland of Shetland 'In many ways, it has been humbling for us all. I would like to thank everyone involved for their patience and belief in what we are delivering,' he said. 'Lastly, space is a global business, and we at SaxaVord are working with clients from all over the world to achieve this. 'Only the other week, with the Under Secretary of State for Scotland, we hosted several engineers from Edinburgh-based launch company Skyrora, who are committed to launching from our site on Shetland in the next few years. 'Although Scottish domiciled, their roots are very much in Ukraine. 'I would like to express our very best wishes and support to all their staff and families who are now caught up in the dreadful events in Ukraine following the senseless Russian invasion of their homeland.' NASA's Curiosity rover has captured an image of what appears to be a coral-like 'flower' in the Gale Crater on Mars, but is actually a microscopic mineral formation. The microscopic view of Martian sand was taken with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a tool for imaging minerals, textures and structures in rocks and soil at scales smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The Curiosity team confirmed it was a 'diagenetic crystal cluster', that experts from NASA JPL suggest may have been formed by minerals precipitating from water. While it looks large in the images, it is actually smaller than a penny, and consists of three-dimensional crystal clusters made from a combination of minerals. NASA scientists say it can tell them more about the structure of Martian soil, and how the planet may once have looked, including the flow of long-gone water. NASA's Curiosity rover has captured an image of what appears to be a coral-like 'flower' in the Gale Crater on Mars, but is actually a microscopic mineral formation The Curiosity team confirmed it was a 'diagenetic crystal cluster', that experts from NASA JPL suggest may have been formed by minerals precipitating from water. Curiosity is studying Gale Crater, a dry lake bed that spans 96 miles in diameter and includes the mountain Aeolis Mons that rises 18,000ft above the crater floor. NASA originally picked the crater as a site for Curiosity, which landed on Mars in November 2011, due to evidence of water being present in the distant past. Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity project scientist, took to Twitter to explain the unusual formation, describing it as 'teeny, tiny delicate structures that formed by mineral precipitating from water.' This isn't the first time the rover has seen these formations, which are likely made of salts called sulfates, if this one is the same as previously discovered versions. The Curiosity team confirmed it was a 'diagenetic crystal cluster', that experts from NASA JPL suggest may have been formed by minerals precipitating from water While it looks large in the images, it is actually smaller than a penny, and consists of three-dimensional crystal clusters made from a combination of minerals It is known as a diagenetic crystal cluster, where diagenetic refers to the recombination of minerals, in this case likely from flowing water. Studies of earlier versions have revealed that the minerals, sprouting out in different directions, were likely embedded inside a rock that eroded away over time. However, it looks like the minerals are resistant to erosion, so remain on the dusty surface of the Red Planet, the NASA scientists explained. The microscopic view of Martian sand was taken with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a tool for imaging minerals, textures and structures in rocks and soil at scales smaller than the diameter of a human hair The feature is also known as concretion, with versions also seen by the Opportunity rover, which is no longer operating, and had been dubbed 'blueberries', as they were small and round. Curiosity also found a similar, flower-like feature in 2013, and the Spirit rover saw rocks it named 'cauliflower' because they had knobbly protuberances. The same type of blueberry-like structures spotted by Opportunity can also be seen in the new Curiosity image, next to the flower-like feature. This feature has been named 'Blackthorn Salt' by the NASA Curiosity rover team, which used MAHLI to take the close-up view, showing minerals and textures. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be used to hunt for the crater left behind after the impact of a rogue rocket into the surface of the moon on March 4. The origin of the rocket is under debate, with the leading theory suggesting it was launched by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in 2014, as part of the Chang'e 5-T1 mission, a precursor to the launch that saw moon rocks return to Earth. The Chinese government deny this, saying it is 'very careful about its disposal policies after launch,' and US Space Force tracking suggest the Chang'e 5-T1 mission rocket burnt up in Earth's atmosphere in 2015. Whoever launched the rocket, it is set to crash into the surface of the moon on March 4, and while it won't be in a position to see the impact, NASA says its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be able to find the aftermath. It is set to crash into the far side of the moon, out of reach of Earth-based telescopes. But NASA's satellite can use its cameras to search for the impact site. NASA says it won't be easy to find, and the search, as well as processing images taken before and after the impact, could take weeks to months. The origin of the rocket is under debate, with the leading theory suggesting it was launched by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in 2014, as part of the Chang'e 5-T1 mission, a precursor to the launch that saw moon rocks return to Earth The Chinese government deny this, saying it is 'very careful about its disposal policies after launch,' and US Space Force tracking suggest the Chang'e 5-T1 mission rocket burnt up in Earth's atmosphere in 2015. Stock image The item now floating near the moon was first identified as part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket by Bill Gray, the developer of the astronomical software Project Pluto, from a mission that launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite. However, follow-up observations suggest it more closely matches 2014-065B, which is the booster stage for Change'e 5-T1. This rocket launched into space in 2014 as part of the CNSA lunar exploration program, and acted as a test-bed for the mission that would return samples to Earth. Gray wrote that the mission's booster was first seen floating in space in March 2015 by the Catalina Sky Survey. Because the booster had gone past the moon two days after the SpaceX DSCOVR launch, he said that he and other astronomers 'came to accept the identification with the second stage as correct.' NASA said in late January that it would attempt to observe the crater that will be formed by the explosion of this object, thanks to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The plans have since moved apace, and NASA now hopes to use the orbiter to look for changes in the lunar surface over time. 'The mission team is assessing if observations can be made to any changes to the lunar environment associated with the impact, and later identify the crater formed by the impact,' a NASA spokesperson told Space.com. The booster helped launch the Chang'e 5-T1 spacecraft, a precursor to the Chang'e 5 mission which collected moon samples and brought them back down to China Whoever launched the rocket, it is set to crash into the surface of the moon on March 4, and while it won't be in a position to see the impact, NASA says its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be able to find the aftermath 'This unique event presents an exciting research opportunity. Following the impact, the mission can use its cameras to identify the impact site, comparing older images to images taken after the impact. 'The search for the impact crater will be challenging and might take weeks to months.' The agency previously called it an 'exciting research opportunity.' THE CHANG'E 5-T1 MISSION Chang'e 5-T1 is an experimental robotic spacecraft that was launched to the Moon on October 23, 2014. Its purpose was to conduct atmospheric re-entry tests on the capsule design planned to be used in the Chang'e 5 mission (eventually launched in 2020). Chang'e 5-T1 rocket booster has been implicated in a collision with the moon that's set for March 4, 2022. Advertisement Mark Robinson, a professor of earth and space exploration at Arizona State University, told the New York Times in January that the item is believed to weigh about four tons and is traveling at 5,700 miles per hour. It's expected to carve a crater about 65 feet in diameter on the surface of the moon, just a bit longer than a 10-pin bowling lane. Regardless of its identity, the collision course has re-ignited discussion about space debris and who is legally responsible for tracking space junk floating outside the Earth's atmosphere. According to NASA, there are about 23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. In 2021, an expert at the European Commission warned that unwanted debris left by humans in low-Earth orbit have become the equivalent of a 'new drifting island of plastic'. There are currently fewer than 200 large pieces of space junk around the moon, but with 50 missions planned by US, China LRO has previously been used to find various Apollo landing sites, previously lost impact sites from previous rocket launches, and unusual features of our moon. It is also being used by NASA to create high-definition maps of the lunar surface, and hunt for signs of water, that will be used by future astronauts. NASA says it won't be easy to find, and the search, as well as processing images taken before and after the impact, could take weeks to months NASA plans to send the first woman and first person of color to land on the surface of the moon by the end of the decade, currently scheduled for 2025. Known as the Artemis missions, it will also create a sustainable presence in lunar orbit, in the form of the Lunar Gateway, that will make visiting the surface easier. Finding water and oxygen on the moon will be key to its sustainable future as a base for humanity, according to experts, and a British firm recently announced plans for a machine that can extract oxygen from moon rocks. Thales Alenia Space has won a contract from the European Space Agency for the project, which could be launched into the lunar atmosphere in the next two years. Protesters lie on the ground during a rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, near the Russian Embassy in Seoul, Feb. 28. AP-Yonhap The government granted Ukrainians in South Korea stay extensions on humanitarian grounds, Monday, in the wake of Russia's invasion of the Eastern European nation, the justice ministry said. The measure will apply to 3,843 registered Ukrainian nationals here. If they wish to remain in South Korea after the expiration of their visas, the government will issue them with temporary stay permits that will also allow them to get jobs, according to the ministry. The government will also allow those whose period of stay has already expired to remain in the country until after the situation stabilizes. A massive cosmic shockwave, stretching 6.5 million light years across, has been studied by a team of astronomers, explaining it is the largest visible from Earth. These gigantic shock waves are larger than our entire galaxy, and form when clusters of galaxies collide, according to the researchers led by the University of Hamburg. Our universe is populated by galaxies that are not uniformly spread but concentrated in vast structures, with the largest containing thousands of galaxies. Sometimes, two galaxy clusters start attracting each other via the force of gravity, leading to an inevitable collision - generating spectacular 'fireworks' that can be observed using modern radio telescopes, such as MeerKAT in South Africa. A pair of combined galaxy clusters produce cosmic shockwaves that travel through the newly formed cluster, and astronomers, led by the University of Hamburg in Germany, have produced images of the largest ever observed. It originated from galaxy cluster Abell 3667, and can provide insights into the structure of shock waves and galactic clusters, according to the astronomers. A zoom-in on the largest of the two shock waves, where the complex filamentary structure is evident. Most of the visible galaxies are not part of the cluster, being either in the background or in front of it These gigantic shock waves are larger than our entire galaxy, and form when clusters of galaxies collide, according to the researchers led by the University of Hamburg The two galaxy clusters that produced the gigantic shockwave came together about a billion years ago, producing one of the most energetic events since the Big Bang. Modern radio telescopes can witness the propagation of a pair of gigantic shock waves, produced by the two galactic clusters, as they pass through the newly formed cluster, similar to the sonic booms from supersonic aircraft. 'These structures are full of surprises and much more complex than what we initially thought', said Professor Francesco de Gasperin, lead author of the study. The shock waves act as giant particle accelerators, similar to the Large Hadron Collider, where electrons are sped up close to the speed of light. Our universe is populated by galaxies that are not uniformly spread but concentrated in vast structures, with the largest containing thousands of galaxies Sometimes, two galaxy clusters start attracting each other via the force of gravity, leading to an inevitable collision - generating spectacular 'fireworks' that can be observed using modern radio telescopes, such as MeerKAT in South Africa When these fast electrons cross a magnetic field they emit the radio waves that we see from the Earth using telescopes like MeerKAT. The shocks are threaded by an intricate pattern of bright filaments that trace the location of both giant magnetic field lines, and the regions where the electrons are accelerated within the wave. These shock waves are still propagating through the galaxy cluster that formed from the collision at an incredible 932 miles per second, or 3.3 million miles per hour. This means that the shock front would cross the entire Earth in the time needed to read this sentence, Prof de Gasperin explained. The size of the main shock wave is impressive, spanning the entire width of the galaxy cluster for a total size of 6.5 million light years. For comparison, the Milky Way, the galaxy we live in, is more than 60 times smaller than this shock wave. 'The presence of the shocks in Abell 3667 is detected using sharp changes in the properties of the hot gas, traced by its X-ray emission,' added Professor Alexis Finoguenov at the University of Helsinki, who assisted the research by analysing the X-ray data, collected by the XMM-Newton observatory. The findings have been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Liverpool's senior players ensured Takumi Minamino was given a rousing reception when he lifted the Carabao Cup after their final win. Jurgen Klopp's side ended a 10-year wait for League Cup glory as they clinched victory over Chelsea in a 22-penalty shootout at Wembley. Minamino had been an integral part of the Reds' cup run. He bagged a brace in the third round win at Norwich City, before maintaining their momentum with the winning goal at Preston North End. Liverpool's senior players ensured Takumi Minamino (right) was given a rousing reception The Japan international had been an integral part of the Reds' cup run to Wembley His biggest contribution came when he rescued Liverpool from elimination against Leicester in the quarter finals. The Japanese international ultimately missed his spotkick in the deciding penalty shootout but it was his last-gasp equaliser that ensured Liverpool did not crash out to the Foxes 3-2. He was unlucky not to get a minute under the Wembley arch but his team-mates ensure he got the recognition he deserved for his role in their win. The 27-year-old's last-gasp equaliser that ensured Liverpool were not eliminated to Leicester Captain Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Ibrahima Konate could be seen whipping up the crowd as Minamino lifted the trophy towards the travelling Reds. Liverpool fans were quick to notice the touching gesture as they praised the team for their 'togetherness'. One supporter took to social media to say: 'Also big into the squad togetherness levels that put Minamino, whose goals and assists quite literally brought us here, at the center. Good, lovely lads.' Jordan Henderson (second left), Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho (right) and Ibrahima Konate (left) could be seen whipping up the crowd Another fan was quick to recognise Minamino's participation in the victory as they branded the moment 'beautiful'. 'This is so beautiful,' they wrote. 'This is what Liverpool FC represents. So happy for Taki. He deserves it. Literary dragged us to final.' 'That's why I really love this Group, Big whole Family, win or Lose together. YNWA,' added another. Liverpool fans were quick to praise the squad's 'togetherness' on social media One Red highlighted the closeness of Jurgen Klopp's squad, saying: 'This video underlines how close our squad is. So great to see!' Other Liverpool supporters hailed the forward as a 'massive reason' the Reds lifted the trophy. 'A massive reason and as big as any as to why we won this trophy,' they said. 'Well done @takumimina0116' While another pointed out his crucial last-gasp strike against Leicester. 'Taki got a big goal against Leicester... he deserves this moment,' they said. He's the Queensland property developer who joined Married at First Sight in search of true love. But a glimpse into Dion Giannarelli's past suggests he is also on the hunt for fame. The 34-year-old has made several attempts to become a reality star in recent years, including pitching his own real estate program to a major American broadcaster, reports Emerald City. Fame hungry: Inside MAFS groom Dion Giannarelli's desperate quest for fame - from his failed attempt to become a celebrity chef to unsuccessfully pitching his own property show The businessman reportedly told friends in 2018 he was 'in talks with NBCUniversal in Los Angeles' for his own reality show titled Dealing with Dion. According to the gossip column, Dion often used the hashtag #DealingWithDion on social media in an attempt to generate buzz about the project. However, the show never eventuated, and Dion's dreams of becoming a celebrity property developer were dashed. Hollywood dream: The businessman reportedly told friends in 2018 he was 'in talks with NBCUniversal in Los Angeles' for his own reality show titled Dealing with Dion Promotion: According to Emerald City, Dion often used the hashtag #DealingWithDion on social media in an attempt to generate buzz about the project Not meant to be: The show never eventuated, and Dion's dreams of becoming a celebrity property developer were dashed Last year, Daily Mail Australia also revealed Dion had plans to become a famous chef, and even launched his own YouTube channel called Cooking with Dion Giannarelli. He launched the channel in early 2021 and has amassed just 156 subscribers. Just months after starting the channel, Dion was cast on Married At First Sight, tying the knot with Brazilian bombshell Carolina Santos. Watch out, Jamie Oliver! Last year, Daily Mail Australia also revealed Dion had plans to become a famous chef, and even launched a YouTube channel called Cooking with Dion Giannarelli Slow burn? He launched the channel in early 2021 and has amassed just 156 subscribers Bride: Just months after starting the channel, Dion was cast on Married At First Sight, tying the knot with Brazilian bombshell Carolina Santo (left) Endemol Shine, the production company behind Married At First Sight, has reportedly been impressed by Dion's performance on the Channel Nine show, and is considering casting him in the next season of Celebrity Apprentice. Dion is no stranger to mingling with bona fide celebrities. Daily Mail Australia previously revealed he was friends with Today host Karl Stefanovic and his wife Jasmine. Peaky Blinders was back with a bang on Sunday night as the hit BBC period drama returned for its sixth and final season. Critics and viewers alike responded positively to the show's return, with the episode dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who played Polly Gray, following her death from breast cancer last year. Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was still alive and kicking, having not shot himself in the field viewers last saw him in at the end of series five. Return: Peaky Blinders was back with a bang on Sunday night as the hit BBC period drama returned for its sixth and final season The episode also saw the burial of Polly Gray along with an on-screen tribute to Helen reading: 'Dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory OBE 'Polly Gray'. Viewers reacted positively to the tribute with one fan writing: 'The passing of Polly Gray couldn't have been scripted any better, a perfect tribute to the great Helen McCrory. 'It takes an incredible cast to have the courage to act out those scenes and they did her proud. Brilliant first episode.' Another viewer said: 'Today and everyday we remember Helen McCrory, Peaky Blinders isn't the same without aunt pol'. Tribute: Critics and viewers alike responded positively to the show's return, with the episode dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who played Polly Gray, following her death from breast cancer last year Star: Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was still alive and kicking, having not shot himself in the field viewers last saw him in at the end of series five Reviews: The Telegraph 's Benji Wilson gave the episode five stars and proclaimed it a 'masterclass in style and substance' One fan added: 'Aunt Polly's burial hit different. What a scene,' while another said: 'Beautiful scene to remember the late Helen McCrory'. The Telegraph's Benji Wilson gave the episode five stars and proclaimed it a 'masterclass in style and substance'. He wrote: 'Rest assured that the final series is a worthy testament to this outstanding actress, and the character she created.' In a separate four-star review for the episode, the publication said the final series of the show will 'go out with a bang'. Reaction: Viewers reacted positively to the tribute with one fan writing: 'The passing of Polly Gray couldn't have been scripted any better, a perfect tribute to the great Helen McCrory The Herald gave the episode four out of five stars and said the series could be the show's best yet. They wrote: 'While it has stumbled occasionally (those curiously- accented Billy Boys for example) Peaky Blinders has built an army of devoted followers. If this firing on all cylinders opener is a guide, this could be the best series yet. The Evening Standard gave the episode three stars and said the new series was off to a 'screaming start' while adding viewers hoping for 'wind-down viewing' should look elsewhere. Reception: The Evening Standard gave the episode three stars and said the new series was off to a 'screaming start' (James Frecheville as Jack Nelson) They wrote: 'If the last nine years and 30 episodes have taught us anything, its that beginning a new season of Peaky Blinders is like starting a mystery needlepoint project - nothing really makes sense yet and there are a whole lot of loose ends.' Elsewhere, The Guardian awarded the episode four out of five stars, writing: 'Our Zelig-like hero has always enjoyed having his fingers in too many pies. Indeed, after failing to kill himself at the end of series five, the clothes horse from nowhere is back where we want him to be: in all kinds of trouble.' Peaky Blinders airs on Sunday at 9pm on BBC One. A Blinding farewell: Peaky gang doff their caps to lost star Helen McCrory, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS in a five-star review of the opening to hit show's sendoff season By Christopher Stevens for the Daily Mail Peaky Blinders, Series 6, Ep. 1 BBC1, last night Rating: A man walks into a bar in the roughest, toughest town in the world and orders a glass of water. This sounds like the set-up for a joke but its the beginning of the end for Peaky Blinders (BBC1). Writer Steven Knights incomparably stylish, surreally gory gangster drama returned for its final series without even pausing for the opening credits or their ominous theme tune, Nick Caves thunderous Red Right Hand. A fragmented blur of images from the previous season strobed across the screen, as though central character Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was watching his life flash before his eyes. The sound of his dying first wifes last laboured breaths echoed deafeningly in his ears and, ankle-deep in mud like the battlefields of Flanders where Tommy lost his sanity, he screamed and raised a revolver to his brains. Thats where we left him last time, in 2019. This time, he pulled the trigger. The gun was empty his brother Arthur (Paul Anderson), who loves him, took the bullets. His second wife Lizzie, who despises him, stormed through the mud in her satin pyjamas to throw the bullets at his head and call him a coward. For any viewer coming newly to the show, this blizzard of heavily stylised images might have seemed incomprehensible. Dont worry. Everyone feels like that when they first encounter Peaky Blinders. When the drama debuted on BBC2 in 2013, it appeared to be an incongruous mix of heavy rock soundtrack, historical fantasy, comic book villains and balletic violence in slow motion, with a double handful of the supernatural. Writer Steven Knights incomparably stylish, surreally gory gangster drama returned for its final series without even pausing for the opening credits or their ominous theme tune, Nick Caves thunderous Red Right Hand It is still all those things but, after half a dozen episodes, the clashing elements combine in a hypnotic collage like one of those eye-watering kaleidoscopic paintings that coalesce into a three-dimensional portrait, if you gaze at them long enough. Telly snobs will tell you theyve been hooked from the start but the truth is that the first two series drew small audiences. It was not until the show aired on Netflix that it found its fanbase. Today it is so popular that, after this concluding season, a movie is planned. Tragically, that will go ahead without the central figure of Helen McCrory as Aunt Polly. The 52-year-old mother-of-two who was married to actor Damian Lewis died last year following a secret battle with cancer. Her absence might have prompted the decision to dispense with music and titles. Instead, we watched Tommy slit open a body bag, sent by IRA mobsters who murdered Polly for reasons unexplained. Tommys grief seemed unfeigned. He knelt and sobbed over her. Murphy has said: Helen was my closest colleague on Peaky, and one of the finest actors Ive ever worked opposite. Any material, any scene she made it special. She could do power and vulnerability, one after the other. In a long funeral sequence, Pollys wooden caravan was torched with her body and all her possessions inside, in tribute to the familys gypsy roots. At the end of the hour, a caption dedicated the episode to McCrorys memory. Once again, there was no music this time, only birdsong. With Polly dead and Arthur a hopeless opium addict, all the emphasis now falls on Tommy. Previously, he was not only a whisky smuggler and an arms dealer but a rising MP. Telly snobs will tell you theyve been hooked from the start but the truth is that the first two series drew small audiences. It was not until the show aired on Netflix that it found its fanbase His political career appears to have been abandoned but his feud with cousin Michael (Finn Cole), Pollys son, has not. Tommy arranged for Michael to be jailed on drugs charges and then made a start on the slow seduction of his wife, the doll-like American moll Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy). Shes straight from the pages of a story by the chroniclers of the Jazz Age, John OHara or Damon Runyon. Tommy himself is more Gary Cooper in a cowboy role written by a miserable French philosopher. When he stalked into that Canadian bar and announced his name, Je mappelle Thomas Shelby, this might have been High Noon reimagined by Jean-Paul Sartre. A brief discussion on the meaning of life followed with the locals, a bunch of depressive existentialists. Since I foreswore alcohol, Ive become a calmer and more peaceful person, Tommy explained, before drawing a knife and a gun. In the ensuing melee, a mans face was slashed and a pigeon shot dead. Everyone was trying to make teetotaller Tommy rescind his pledge. Gina sniggered as she waved a balloon glass of brandy under his nose. A Boston thug filled a tumbler with battery acid hooch and ordered him to down it. Tommy refused. I now realise that whisky is just fuel for the loud engines inside your head, he said, before quoting William Blake. For now, hes on the horse-drawn wagon. How long before he tumbles off is anyones guess. But when he does, therell be all hell to pay. Pregnant Dancing With The Stars pro Sharna Burgess has shared her advice 'to all the single women in their 30s'. The 36-year-old Australian beauty, who is expecting her first child with boyfriend Brian Austin Green, advised women not to settle for second best when it came to romance. 'All that you ask for is already on its way, just give it time,' she wrote in a Monday Instagram post. Voice of wisdom: Pregnant dancer Sharna Burgess has shared her advice 'to all the single women in their 30s' after she found love with Brian Austin Green (both pictured) She also added a slideshow showing off her baby bump during a trip to Mexico with Green. The images were superimposed with the words, 'For all the single women in their 30s that have ppl telling you you're too picky, your standards are too high, your expectations are realistic and you need to settle and have babies before it's too late.' She added, 'Don't listen. Their timeline is not yours.' Bumping along nicely: The Dancing with the Stars professional partner also added a slideshow showing off her baby bump during a trip to Mexico with Green 'You will attract exactly what you believe you deserve, so keep believing you are worthy of great love, joy and happiness in abundance.' 'You know what you want, stay the path and journey with love and courage,' she signed off. Burgess previously dated choreographer and dancer Paul Kirkland from 2010 to 2015 before hooking up with Green in December 2020. Mr Right: Burgess previously dated choreographer and dancer Paul Kirkland from 2010 to 2015 before hooking up with Green in December 2020 It comes after news that Brian's ex-wife Megan Fox was 'surprised to hear' that the 90210 star is expecting a child with girlfriend Sharna Burgess. The news about the 35-year-old performer was reported by Us Weekly, with a source telling the outlet that she was caught off guard by the pregnancy announcement. Fox and Green share three sons and finalized their divorce last year after 10 years of marriage. Surprised: Megan Fox was 'surprised to hear' that her ex-husband Brian Austin Green is expecting a child with girlfriend Sharna Burgess The insider began by noting that Fox was caught completely off guard by the happy couple's announcement about their future. They noted that 'Megan was surprised to hear the news about Brian and Sharna expecting.' The source went on to express that the idea that the happy couple would have been trying for a baby had not 'even crossed her mind.' The insider made a point of stating that the Transformers actress had not been concerned about Green's activities, stating: 'Megan also doesn't put much thought into what her ex is up to.' Unexpected: The insider began by noting that Fox was caught completely off guard by the happy couple's announcement about their future; Brian and Sharna pictured in 2021 Hands off: 'Megan also doesn't put much thought into what her ex is up to' the source added; Megan and Brian pictured in 2019 They added that the performer was only interested in how her former husband was treating their children. 'She cares the most about Brian being a father to their boys and being there for them,' they said. Fox and Green, 48, initially met while working on an episode of Hope & Faith in 2004. The two then began a relationship, and despite having a 12-year age difference, they became engaged in 2006. In the past: Fox and Green, 48, initially met while working on an episode of Hope & Faith in 2004; Fox and Green pictured in 2014 The pair went on to split in 2009, although they resumed their relationship and tied the knot the following year. Fox and Green welcomed a son named Noah Shannon, aged nine, in 2012, and they went on to add Bodhi Ransom, aged eight, two years later. The couple separated for a second time in 2015, and they went on to both reconcile before she gave birth to Journey River, aged five, in 2016. The former pair announced that they had split up for a third time in 2020, and they went on to finalize their divorce last year. Starting a family: Fox and Green welcomed a son named Noah Shannon, aged nine, in 2012, and they went on to add Bodhi Ransom, aged eight, two years later Green went on to begin dating Burgess, and they were initially spotted locking lips in December of that year. They went public with their relationship last January, and they announced that they were expecting a child earlier this month. Fox later began a relationship with rapper Machine Gun Kellly, whom she met while working on the film Midnight in the Switchgrass. Starting over: Green went on to begin dating Burgess, and they were initially spotted locking lips in December of that year; they are seen in 2021 The pair were together for roughly two years before becoming engaged this past January. Fox shared a solo picture and a shot of herself with the rapper, 31, to her Instagram account on Saturday. The brunette beauty was dressed in a low-cut sleeveless purple top and a set of matching skintight pants. New man: Fox later began a relationship with rapper Machine Gun Kellly, whom she met while working on the film Midnight in the Switchgrass; they are seen in 2020 Her gorgeous brunette locks cascaded onto her shoulders and she accessorized with a zebra-print purse. The performer, born Colson Baker, opted for a vibrantly colored long-sleeve top and an equally eye-catching set of pants, as well as a set of hot pink shoes. Fox also wrote a short message in her post's caption that read: 'I thought you couldn't make a h** into a housewife?' Laverne Cox cut a fashionable figure as she stepped on to the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet. The actress, 49, donned a sheer silver top which showed off her ample cleavage. She wore a long scarf around her neck which ended in two fuzzy balls at the bottoms. The dress ended in a long skirt that continued all the way to the ground. It covered her black high heels. Fashionable chic: Laverne Cox cut a fashionable figure as she stepped on to the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet The Orange is the New Black star held a sparkling silver hand bag that hung off her dainty wrist. Her light brown hair was colored mostly blonde and her bright white teeth sparkled underneath the lights. Cox is sharing hosting duties for Live From E!: SAG Awards on the red carpet with Community star Yvette Nicole Brown. Sheer top and long skirt: The actress, 49, donned a sheer silver top which showed off her ample cleavage. She wore a long scarf around her neck which ended in two fuzzy balls Close-up: Cox's light brown hair was colored mostly blonde and her bright white teeth sparkled underneath the lights The pre-show for the event began at 6 p.m. Eastern time, 3 p.m. Pacific. Cox is a two-time SAG Award winner for her work on Orange is the New Black. While she has a busy night ahead of her, it's no more busy than her career has been recently. No stranger to the SAG Awards: Cox is a two-time SAG Award winner for her work on Orange is the New Black New series recently released: She recently played a role in the miniseries Inventing Anna which was released on Netflix earlier this month She recently played a role in the miniseries Inventing Anna which was released on Netflix earlier this month. The story centers around a journalist who interviews a German heiress who ingrained herself in high society before stealing millions from them. She has two other projects, a movie titled Uglies and a television series titled Clean Slate, on the way. The former is in post-production while the latter is still in very early stage development. Rozalia Russian celebrated her 34th birthday in style over the weekend. The Melbourne socialite was joined by close pal Rebecca Harding, in-demand stylist Elliot Garnaut and her nightclub-owner husband Nick Russian for a wild party at the couple's trendy bar and restaurant venue Bar Bambi on Saturday night. It seems the group had a whale of a time, with Rozalia sharing videos on Instagram of her friends dancing the night away, climbing on the furniture, devouring a custom-made cake and drinking expensive cocktails. Scroll down for video Oh what a night! Melbourne socialite Rozalia Russian celebrated her 34th birthday in style over the weekend alongside her husband Nick Russian and their close friends 'Birthday spam!' she captioned a gallery of photos and videos from the day. She wore a $500 sequin mini dress from Ukrainian fashion brand CultNaked, and captioned her post, 'Soutiens l'Ukraine s'il vous plait', which translates to, 'Please support Ukraine'. The brunette looked incredible in the baby-blue number, which featured a daring thigh split that showed off her endless pins to perfection. She teamed her outfit with a $1,890 feather pouch bag from The Attico, and a pair of beige high heels. Stunning: 'Birthday spam!' Rozalia captioned a gallery of photos and videos from the day. She wore a $500 sequin mini dress from Ukrainian fashion brand CultNaked Fashionistas: Rozalia was joined by her friend Rebecca Harding, who wore a floral mini dress Dance party! Rozalia shared videos of her friends climbing on the furniture and dancing to Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape Gorgeous: The brunette looked incredible in the baby-blue number, which featured a daring thigh split that showed off her endless pins to perfection Inside the venue, the group were seen enjoying cocktails and food, before jumping on chairs to dance to Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape. Rebecca Harding, who is the girlfriend of comedian and TV host Andy Lee, looked absolutely sensational in a floral dress with matching gloves. The short, slinky number had puffy black sleeves, and Rebecca teamed her look with beige heels and a black handbag. Also joining them was Elliot Garnaut, who is one of Australia's most in-demand stylists and a close friend of Rozalia's. Besties: Also joining them was Elliot Garnaut (centre), who is one of Australia's most in-demand stylists and a close friend of Rozalia's Blurry: The group ordered several rounds of drinks at the popular Melbourne hotspot Elliot is a major player in Melbourne fashion circles, with clients including Phoebe Burgess, Elyse Knowles, Nadia Fairfax, Kate Waterhouse and Shanina Shaik. 'Forever,' he captioned a picture of himself with the birthday girl and Rebecca. Rozalia also shared a group photo which featured her husband Nick Russian, whom she married in 2012. He looked dapper in a pair of beige pants, a blue shirt and brown dress shoes. Love story: Rozalia also shared a group photo which featured her husband Nick Russian (right), whom she married in 2012 Girls gone wild! Rozalia and her pals posed for sultry Instagram photos at the table Cute: Nick, who rose to fame on reality show Temptation Island in 2002, is Melbourne's most prolific nightclub owner and entrepreneur Nick, who rose to fame on dating show Temptation Island in 2002, is Melbourne's most prolific nightclub owner and entrepreneur. He became an official candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne last year, after the Liberal Party reportedly called for him to make a bid for the city's top job. Following his stint as a reality TV star, Nick ran the popular nightclub Eve Bar, where he became friends with a slew of celebrities before selling the venue in 2015. Celebration: Rozalia also shared a video of herself blowing out a candle on a custom-made 'R' cake, which featured chocolate and fruit drizzled on top Oozing sass! Rozalia looked stunning as she posed outside the venue Cute! The socialite lifted her leg in the air as she posed with a blonde pal Tasty! Rozalia shared this photo of herself lifting a piece of the cake and placing it elegantly in her mouth, all the while balancing on the furniture with her pal Rebecca He now runs Together Events, which is 'a luxury lifestyle and events brand created for sophisticated, fun and fashion-conscious individuals'. Rozalia shared a video of herself blowing out a candle on a custom-made 'R' cake, which featured chocolate and fruit drizzled on top. She also posted a photo of herself lifting a piece of the cake and placing it elegantly in her mouth, all the while balancing on the furniture with her pal Rebecca. The following morning, Rozalia revealed her husband had gifted her a white bouquet of flowers in bed, as she recovered from her big night out. Peta Murgatroyd said she's 'going through hell right now' as her husband Maksim Chmerkovskiy remains in the Ukraine, four days into Russia's military assault on the country. Murgatroyd, 35, took to Instagram on Sunday with an emotional message in which she shared that an empathetic group of strangers had made a kind gesture to her amid the absence of her husband, 42, who is in his native country to work as judge on Dancing With the Stars Ukraine. 'Although I'm going through hell right now and I want it all to end[there] is light that shines through the darkness,' said Murgatroyd, who is mother to five-year-old son Shai with Chmerkovskiy, who she wed in July of 2017. The latest: Peta Murgatroyd, 35, said she's 'going through hell right now' as her husband Maksim Chmerkovskiy, 42, remains in the Ukraine, four days into Russia's military assault on the country. The couple was seen earlier this year Murgatroyd, an alum of Dancing With the Stars, remains at the family's home in California amid the uncertain time. She said that strangers baked her cookies 'and proudly brought them to [her] door. 'They stood there with smiles so wide. Let me repeat strangers, whom I don't talk to thought that they should get in their kitchen and bake me cookies,' she said. 'They also took it upon themselves to google if I was allergic to anything, just to make sure they weren't hurting me.' Murgatroyd said she 'welled up' as the people let her know they were there for her, adding, 'I'm a cancer by zodiac ... I'm already emotional and these acts of kindness push me over the edge.' Chmerkovskiy responded, 'I love you and Ill see you soon! Save me a cookie.' Murgatroyd took to Instagram on Sunday with an emotional message in which she shared that an empathetic group of strangers had made a kind gesture to her amid the absence of her husband Chmerkovskiy, who is in his native country to work as judge on Dancing With the Stars Ukraine, has been unable to leave the region amid national mandates and safety concerns Murgatroyd expressed her gratitude to all who have sent positive messages to her in recent days, saying, 'It's beyond and it means the world to me.' She said: 'Thank you to EVERYONE who has reached out, whether it be by text/calls/DM's/email/comments/street/post office.people I haven't spoken to in 15 years have found me on social just to pray for me.' Murgatroyd has been vocal on social media in recent days about her personal situation following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She said in a post on Thursday: 'Please pray for my husband Maks ... I don't usually ask these things from my social media network, however today is extremely hard and the next few will be even harder.' She said that Chmerkovskiy was safe, adding, 'Please pray that he comes home soon,' as well as for the well-being of the Ukraine and the 'innocent civilians [whose] lives are being uprooted.' Hannah Brown, an alum of The Bachelorette and Dancing with the Stars, took to social media Sunday to urge people to pray for the couple and Ukrainians during the conflict. Chmerkovskiy has provided frequent social media updates amid the conflict Chmerkovskiy urged the Russian people to abandon support for their leader amid the invasion Chmerkovskiy has also provided frequent social media updates amid the conflict, as he said Thursday he had not attempted to leave the country due to safety concerns around the border of Poland. The professional dancer said he felt his odds for departure from the Ukraine were helped in having an American passport. Amid the Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials have mandated men between the ages of 18 and 60 to remain in the country if they are needed for battle, and have restricted them from crossing borders into other countries, Reuters reported. Chmerkovskiy added that the conflict had taken an emotional toll on him, as he said he 'will never be the same' in the wake of the invasion. 'This is stressful and Im getting old feelings back, like Ive done this before,' he said Thursday. 'This does feel like the way it was when and why we left in the 90s. Like my old PTSD Ive finally fixed is coming back.' On Sunday, Chmerkovskiy took to Instagram Stories with a number of messages, urging people in the dance community in European countries to help take care of refugees if they were able to. He shared a number of links to resources to help people exit safely amid the ongoing military conflict. Murgatroyd shared a post with multiple candles lit in prayer of her husband's safe return Hannah Brown, an alum of The Bachelorette and Dancing with the Stars, took to social media Sunday to urge people to pray for the couple and people of Ukraine Chmerkovskiy also wrote, 'Russia needs a revolution!!! Russian people are being lied to!!! Russians! Wake up! It will take you generations to get over this and generations of people around the world will never forgive you!!!' On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to put nuclear weapons on enhanced alert for 'special regime of combat duty' amid heightened tensions with Europe and the United States following the invasion. Putin cited aggression toward Russia from NATO as well as economic sanctions and moves shutting down Russian banking institutions using the banking system SWIFT. The U.N. Security Council is slated to hold an emergency meeting regarding the invasion Monday. How do you prepare to confront your wife's lover? Laurence Olivier chose to invite him for dinner at his imposing marital home, Notley Abbey, near Oxford. As the three of them ate and chatted, there was no mention of the affair. It was only when his wife, Vivien Leigh, left to make coffee that Olivier invited her lover into his old-fashioned library and poured him a glass of port. And that, unfortunately, is when the actor Peter Finch got the giggles. STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Naked and quite mad, Vivien Leigh alternately sobbed like a child and then snarled like a caged animal, after her marriage broke down and she suffered psychosis There was something about the smell of old leather, and the stern aspect of the wronged husband, that felt like a third-rate farce. Olivier was not immune: to defuse the peculiar tension, he immediately transformed himself into a rather idiotic lord-of-the-manor. And Finch, taking his cue, responded by becoming an elderly, rather seedy butler. After improvising a comical scene together, both husband and lover ended up hysterical with laughter at their own wit. Then, suddenly, Vivien threw open the door. At her most imperious, she demanded: 'Will one of you come to bed with me now?' Olivier stopped laughing. 'You've got to choose. This isn't OK,' he told his wife. Vivien looked at Finch for a long moment, then told her husband: 'Darling, his fingernails, they're dirty!' Little more was said as Finch rose from his chair, departed for the nearest train station and left their lives apparently for good. Finch's rugged good looks had first caught Vivien's eye in 1948, when he was 32 and yet to make a name for himself. Three years older, she was already a star, having won an Oscar eight years before for playing Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind. At first, Finch was Olivier's protege, but Vivien soon started inviting him and his wife, a former ballerina, to Notley. Unknown to the Finches, Vivien was already suffering from the bipolar condition that would increasingly blight her life. At first, she would be fine for long stretches, but by 1953 she was experiencing shorter intervals between bleak depression and mania. Even so, she was still landing movie roles. Her latest was Elephant Walk, to be filmed mostly on location in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and she'd been given carte blanche to choose the male lead. Vivien Leigh (middle) made moves on the married actor Dana Andrews (left), by knocking on his door while stark naked. Peter Finch (right) had an affair with the Gone with the Wind (1939) actress, earning him the uncomfortable privilege of being invited over by Vivien Leigh's husband Laurence Olivier so that the two could hash out their differences - a tense exchange that ended in a fit of laughter, according to biographer Stephen Galloway Finch was in bed with his wife Tamara when their phone rang at 2am. It was Vivien, announcing in a determined voice that she was coming round immediately. On her arrival wearing a mink coat with nothing underneath but a thin slip she handed Finch the Elephant Walk screenplay and said she wanted him as her co-star. When he hesitated, not having read the script, she insisted. Was Vivien planning to pay Olivier back in kind? Shortly before, he'd started a serious affair with the 22-year-old actress Dorothy Tutin. When Vivien had learned about it, she'd insisted on meeting her rival face-to-face and had threatened to kill herself if Tutin didn't back off. The affair ended soon afterwards, though Olivier kept Tutin's last letter to him in his wallet until it had frayed away. Now it was Vivien's turn to misbehave. By the time she and Finch arrived in Ceylon, however, it was clear to the cast and crew that she wasn't her usual self. Unable to sleep, she started self-medicating with alcohol and often wandered about all night. A friend recalled: 'She appeared to be racing with time. She never got tired. She never got tight [whereas] Peter looked like a boxer who enjoyed being knocked out.' Quickly, Vivien began to deteriorate. One of the film technicians was surprised when his 64-year-old Cockney assistant came to him 'shaking like a leaf' and swore that Vivien had 'tried to vamp him'. Soon she was making moves on another married actor, Dana Andrews, by knocking on his door while stark naked. Days later, as she swung from being over-bright to tears and depression, the producer cabled Olivier and begged him to fly out. He came at once only for Vivien to tell him that she was having an affair with Finch. According to a friend, the novelist Elaine Dundy who later published a biography of Finch, Olivier was seething and 'understandably exhibited a certain chill towards [Finch]. Not so understandably, he held him responsible for Vivien's breakdown'. But there was nothing Olivier could do, and after a few days he flew home. Vivien continued to deteriorate, showing signs for the first time of psychosis a complete break with reality. On set, she would run after Finch, calling out 'Larry' Olivier's name in the coy tones of a newly-wed. 'It was apparent to everyone in the company that she was hallucinating,' said Dundy. Packed off on a plane to Los Angeles, where shooting would resume on a soundstage, Vivien began screaming that the wing was on fire. 'She became hysterical,' according to Dundy. 'She flew at her window like a trapped bird, beating it with her fists, fighting to get out. 'Then she tore at the neckline of her dress, ripping it down the middle. 'She scratched and clawed at everyone trying to restrain her. Finally they managed to sedate her.' Finch was shattered: his fleeting romance had turned into a nightmare, one that had cost him not only his friendship with Olivier but possibly his marriage. His wife was in London when Finch's agent urged her to hurry to LA. On arrival, Tamara was shocked to discover that her husband was sharing a mansion with Vivien, each theoretically living in a separate wing. Hours later, Vivien arrived back from Paramount Studios with Finch, embraced Tamara warmly and told her to get ready because she'd arranged a welcome party with 70 famous guests, including David Niven and Stewart Granger. When the partygoers arrived, however, Vivien was nowhere to be found. Hours later, conversation ground to a halt as the mansion resounded with loud sobs and shouts. Finch raced up the stairs, calling to Niven and Granger for help. Minutes later, Tamara recalled, 'Vivien began to rush down the stairs screaming, crying and fighting, restrained by Niven and Granger, then forcibly taken upstairs again, shouting 'Larry, Larry. I want Larry!' Finally, Vivien calmed down, and Tamara collapsed into bed with Finch only for their bedroom door to fly open. 'A demented-looking Vivien, with her light robe open and disclosing her naked body, rushed to our bed and, with tremendous energy and screaming obscenities, tore off the bedclothes,' she said. 'On discovering us naked, she threw herself on Peter in great passionate embraces. 'He pushed her away and she collapsed at the foot of the bed sobbing, shouting: 'You haven't told her, you haven't told her! How could you be sleeping with her, you monster? You're my lover!' For Tamara, the news was a 'thunderbolt'. Finch, meanwhile, was shaking with rage. He tried to pull Vivien to her feet, but she clung to his legs and tried to kiss him. Finally, he managed to pin her against the wall, shouting: 'We'd agreed to keep Larry and Tamara out of this!' But Vivien had lost any semblance of rationality. Clawing at him, she called him every dirty word she could think of until he dragged her back to her room. The following day, Finch and Vivien calmly drove off to Paramount together to resume filming. The uneasy truce didn't last. At dawn one day, Vivien crept into the Finches' bed, tears rolling down her cheeks. Tamara managed to get her back to her room, where Vivien begged her forgiveness and asked for a cuddle. A few days later, an actor called John Buckmaster turned up at the house, presumably invited by Vivien. He'd only just been let out of a New York asylum after groping a stranger and pulling a knife on the police. Moving in, he began an affair with Vivien, to which he brought a mystical twist, with dark lighting, overpowering incense, chants and strange rituals. Niven later described getting a call from Vivien's maid. 'Mista David,' she screamed, 'she's possessed that's what! You git over here real quick now!' He found Vivien at the top of the stairs. 'She was naked and looked quite, quite mad,' he recalled. 'I had never seen real hysteria before and didn't know how to cope with it. 'I tried walking up the stairs towards her, but she backed away, screaming, 'Go away! Go away! I hate you!' When Niven tried to reason with her, she sat on the landing, 'alternately sobbing like a child and snarling down through the bannisters like a caged animal'. Then she tried to seduce him. 'Come and get it,' she whispered before throwing glasses and bottles at him. She could plainly no longer continue filming. Paramount issued a statement saying she'd suffered 'an acute nervous breakdown', then replaced her with Elizabeth Taylor. English actor and director Laurence Olivier (left) would reflect tearfully on his turbulent marriage to second wife Vivien Leigh in the final part of his life, saying it had been 'the real thing' - true love As for Vivien, she was bundled on to a plane back to London. Taken to a mental hospital in Surrey, she received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for the first time and was kept in a coma for a fortnight. For years, Olivier blamed himself for not being there when his distraught wife regained consciousness, for 'not being more alive to my duties, no matter how painful or how mortally sick of them I was'. Six weeks after her release from hospital, the Oliviers made their first high-profile appearance, joining 8,000 guests in Westminster Abbey for the Queen's coronation. Above all, they wanted to signal to the world that their relationship was intact. It wasn't. Feeling that Vivien was now all but a stranger, Olivier indulged in a fleeting secret affair with his latest co-star, the 23-year-old actress Claire Bloom. For Vivien, there was now another problem: though still stunning, she'd become hyper-conscious of her ageing looks. Muffling herself in furs, she covered her face and avoided the light. The show, of course, had to go on, and the Oliviers moved to Stratford to star in three Shakespeare plays. Maxine Audley, who played Olivia in Twelfth Night, recalled that Vivien 'behaved violently to everyone'. The saddest thing, she added, 'is that we didn't realise that she had an illness. We all thought she was just behaving badly'. In the grip of mania again, Vivien turned on her husband. Standing beside him on stage in Titus Andronicus, while he spoke Shakespeare's words of love to her, she'd curse him with extreme obscenities which all the other actors though thankfully not the audience could hear. Noel Coward, visiting the Oliviers in Stratford, was shocked by what he saw. 'Their life together is really hideous and here they are trapped by public acclaim, scrabbling about in the cold ashes of a physical passion that burnt itself out years ago,' he wrote. 'They are eminent, successful, envied and adored, and most wretchedly unhappy.' After the Stratford run, Vivien once again sought solace with Finch, often inviting him to Notley. Even his wife Tamara accepted this state of affairs, reasoning they could hardly be carrying on while Olivier was also in residence. But they were, and in December 1955, they ran off together to France. Olivier eventually caught up with them and brought Vivien home at which point he arranged the confrontation with Finch in his library. That should have marked the end of the affair, but Vivien now age 42 continued to pursue her lover relentlessly. In July 1956, she discovered she was expecting a baby, but couldn't be sure whose it was. Ironically, news that Vivien was pregnant caused a media frenzy. To the public, the Oliviers remained towering icons of romance so there was much sympathy when she miscarried a few weeks later. Occasionally, the old Vivien would shine through and she'd slip free of her mental fog. But one particular violent incident made Olivier realise they were doomed. He'd been dozing in a chair when Vivien suddenly started slapping his face with a wet cloth. He fled into an empty room, locking the door behind him, but she started hammering on it. 'Something snapped in my brain,' Olivier wrote later. He grabbed Vivien, hurling her towards a bed, but she struck her head on a marble table. As blood oozed from a cut on her forehead, Olivier 'realised with horror that each of us was quite capable of murdering the other'. Appalled, he fled to a friend's cottage. He was alone and at his most vulnerable, when a new woman entered his life 27-year-old Joan Plowright, then appearing with him in The Entertainer. An exceptional actress, she was also Vivien's opposite: earthy, stolid and sober, all qualities that were very appealing at this point in Olivier's life. 'I'm going to marry Joan,' he told John Gielgud. 'Vivien's given me some of the happiest times in my life, but it has absolutely worn me out knowing that these moods and attacks are coming on and I can do nothing to stop them.' His decision left Vivien in agony. She wrote constantly to Olivier, desperate to get him back. 'I shall never ever love anyone as I love him,' she told Coward. By 1960, Vivien's longing for Olivier had become a full-blown obsession. 'It was a very difficult time for her, because she was absolutely heartbroken,' says the actress Juliet Mills. 'She never thought that Larry would leave her.' When the public finally learned that the Oliviers' marriage had floundered, Joan began to receive death threats. But life moved on: Vivien had more ECT treatments, the divorce went through and Olivier remarried. Vivien had started seeing a gentle 42-year-old actor called Jack Merivale. Friends say she adored him, and that he looked after her tenderly but he was not Olivier, whose photo still had pride of place on her bedside table. She continued working until 1967, when she was struck down by tuberculosis. One night, after coming home from the play he was appearing in, Merivale found her lying dead on the floor. She was just 53. The following morning, he called her ex-husband, who was in hospital having treatment for prostate cancer. Olivier immediately discharged himself. Alone with Vivien again in her bedroom, he reflected that their life together had 'resembled nothing so much as an express lift skying me upwards and throwing me downwards in insanely non-stop fashion . . . I stood and prayed for forgiveness, for all the evils that had sprung up between us'. Much later, in his final years, he'd often think of her. A friend, visiting him at home shortly before he died, found him alone, watching one of her movies. His eyes were full of tears. 'This, this was love,' he said. 'This was the real thing.' Lucciana Beynon, the model daughter of Gold Coast tobacco tycoon Travers 'The Candyman' Beynon, is no stranger to sharing racy selfies. And the Venezuelan-Australian beauty, 20, staged an impromptu photo shoot for Instagram while in the back of a car in London on Sunday. Lucciana shared a slew of sultry snaps as she posed with her very full lips on display. Love is in the air: Venezuelan-Australian model Lucciana Beynon staged an impromptu photo shoot for Instagram while in the back of a car in London on Sunday She wore her hair in a chic updo for several of the close-up photos. For other pictures, the socialite styled her raven locks loosely and cascading past her shoulders. 'Tit for tat,' Lucciana captioned the gallery. Sultry: The 20-year-old shared a slew of sultry snaps as she posed with her full lips on display Her boyfriend, Love Island UK star Wes Nelson, showed off his cheeky side by commenting below the photos: 'I'm Tat.' The couple went public on Valentine's Day this year. Lucciana shared a photo on Instagram of herself kissing Wes' cheek on a balcony alongside the text 'mi amour', which translates to 'my love'. Glamazon: 'Tit for tat,' Lucciana captioned the gallery 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. Daring: She wore her hair in a chic updo for several of the close-up photos. For other pictures, the socialite styled her raven locks loosely and cascading past her shoulders Despite only going 'Instagram official' this month, 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. Low-key couple: Despite only going 'Instagram official' on Valentine's Day, Lucciana and her boyfriend Wes Nelson (left) have actually been an item since April last year 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'. Couple: Wes wished his girlfriend happy Valentine's Day with this loved-up post 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? 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' '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.' Feature: Rural Hungarians unite to provide aid for Ukrainians fleeing conflict Xinhua) 08:25, February 28, 2022 BEREGSURANY, Hungary, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Hungarians living in rural villages came together to help people fleeing over the border with Ukraine as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues on Sunday. "We have been shocked by what happened in Ukraine, we never thought it could actually happen," Gusztav Furedi, a volunteer with the Hungarian charity Transcarpathian Coordination Office, told Xinhua. "What you see here is a response to all the difficulties, problems and fear that are present in Ukraine," he added. Reception points have been set up by volunteers, welcoming people from Ukraine with hot drinks and food, and organizing free ongoing transport. Furedi said that the majority of people coming from Ukraine belonged to the Hungarian ethnic minority of Transcarpathia, and spoke Hungarian, so there was no need to provide interpreters. The Transcarpathian Coordination Office is also ready to provide legal counsel to refugees hoping to apply for asylum in Hungary, Furedi added. The majority of the Ukrainians were taken to relatives or friends at the border station, but those traveling alone were taken in vans to Beregsurany's cultural center, which the city council has turned into a temporary shelter. Other villages such as Takos also participated in the effort, turning their gymnasiums or cultural centers into temporary shelters. Most of the refugees are reluctant to speak to the press, let alone give their names. These included a man who had crossed over the border with his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and three children. "Our journey took us about ten hours, and we also waited four to five hours at the border control," he said. Meanwhile, his wife told Xinhua that the family was going to stay with relatives in Csegod, a small Romanian village close to the border with Hungary. One young mother of three did not want to leave the welcome point at the border without her husband, fearing that he would be drafted for military service. She was later reunited with him at the village shelter, some eight km from the border. Ukraine imposed a ban on adult men leaving the country on Thursday night, meaning that the overwhelming majority of people crossing the border now are women and children. Lajos Csafit, a driver from Mezoladany, told Xinhua that he began driving people from the border station to the shelter in Mzeoladany three days ago. "We went to the store and bought the things women and children need, also food and beverages, and left them here at the cultural center," he said. Csafit pledged to provide accommodation for five families at his own home. "We will welcome them immediately if needed," he said. "When the armed conflict broke out in Ukraine, we went to the border immediately to ask people what they needed the most after crossing to Hungary," Istvan Herka, mayor of Beregsurany, told Xinhua. On the first day, the Ukrainians just passed through to Budapest or the surrounding area, and did not require shelter. However, from the second day onwards, some began arriving with no immediate place to go. "So we turned the cultural house into this shelter to keep them warm, where they typically spend three to five hours," Herka said. "In the next few days, we expect the number of people coming from Ukraine to increase, as there are more than 3,000 cars waiting now at the other side of the border, and according to the news, peace is still far away," he explained. (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) Protesters stage a rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, near the Russian Embassy in Seoul, Feb. 28. AP-Yonhap South Korea has decided to ban exports of strategic materials to Russia as part of international sanctions against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, the foreign ministry said Monday. Seoul also plans to join the international move to exclude Russia from the SWIFT payment system and notified the United States of the decision via a diplomatic channel, according to the ministry. Influencers are known for taking risks when it comes to fashion. But Bella Varelis really pushed the envelope on Sunday when she wore a sleeveless knit top with completely exposed sides. Posing in a changing room, the Bachelor star, 26, went braless in the racy ensemble, and admitted she was one sudden move from a wardrobe malfunction. Scroll down for video 'Should I or shouldn't I?' Former Bachelor star Bella Varelis pushed the envelope on Sunday when she wore a sleeveless knit top with completely exposed sides There was nothing except the collar holding together the front and back of the top, which hung loosely over her slender frame. While the item certainly looked chic, it wouldn't offer much coverage during windy weather, especially if the wearer decided to go sans bra. 'Should I or shouldn't I?' Bella asked her 106,000 Instagram followers as she tried on the top with a pair of baggy jeans. She added: 'It's such a vibe, but so risky on the girls.' Dare to bare: There was nothing except the collar holding together the front and back of the top, which hung loosely over Bella's frame. 'It's such a vibe, but so risky on the girls,' she said It comes after Bella inadvertently revealed how much money she has earned as a social media influencer. She accidentally shared a post on Instagram last month that showed her bank details, confirming she had more than $98,000 in her savings account. While she quickly deleted the post, it was screenshotted by a fan and later reuploaded by the private influencer.updates.au Instagram account. Bella's savings, which likely represent her earnings as an influencer since starring on The Bachelor in 2019, were discussed on a January episode of Outspoken the Podcast, hosted by journalist sisters Amy, Kate and Sophie Taeuber. Money matter: Last month, Bella inadvertently revealed how much money she has earned as a social media influencer. She shared a post on Instagram that showed her bank details, confirming she had more than $98,000 in her savings account Kate said: 'The Instagram [post] in question shows an overview of Bella's bank account, which features an everyday account and a savings account. 'Bella had $560 in her everyday account and over $98,000 in her savings account. 'My initial reaction was, "Wow, that's a lot of money to have in your savings account as an everyday person." 'But then I thought, "If she is this big influencer living it up in Sydney, I kind of expected her to have a little bit more."' Talking points: Bella's savings, which likely represent her earnings as an influencer since starring on The Bachelor in 2019, were discussed on a January episode of Outspoken the Podcast, hosted by journalist sisters Amy, Kate and Sophie Taeuber Smoke and mirrors? The Taubers noted that some fans felt Bella's savings did not match the lavish lifestyle she portrays on social media. At the time, her latest luxury purchase was a Louis Vuitton Loop handbag, valued at $3,250 (pictured) The Taubers noted that some fans felt Bella's savings did not match the lavish lifestyle she portrays on social media. At the time, Bella's latest luxury purchase was a Louis Vuitton Loop handbag, valued at $3,250. She has also shared photos on Instagram of herself in designer outfits, staying at five-star hotels and dining at trendy Sydney hotspots. Living it up! She has also shared photos on Instagram of herself in designer outfits, staying at five-star hotels and dining at trendy Sydney hotspots One of the Outspoken hosts said Bella's bank balance had caused a stir on Instagram because 'what influencers earn is such a big secret'. They added: 'While we might get an insight into their potential earnings designer goods and flashy lifestyle - it's always hard to determine what they're actually paid for and what they're actually gifted.' The Taubers were impressed that Bella had managed to save up $98,000 by the age of 26, but they questioned how the screenshot of her bank account was 'accidentally' posted on her Instagram Stories in the first place. One host noted some fans were sceptical it was even an 'accident' and suspected she had 'purposely' shared the post as a 'flex... to show how much money she has'. Bella later denied the bank account was hers and said her profile had been hacked. All for show? The Taubers were impressed that Bella had managed to save up $98,000 by the age of 26, but they questioned how the screenshot of her bank account was 'accidentally' posted on her Instagram Stories in the first place Bella is best known for being the runner-up on season eight of The Bachelor. She had her heart broken by Locky Gilbert, who chose nurse Irena Srbinovska instead. She had already been working as a lower-tier influencer before joining the show. As of Monday, she has 106,000 followers on Instagram. Most industry experts say an influencer needs at least 100,000 followers to make a good living off social media. They are one of Hollywood's most loved-up couples. And Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban weren't afraid to pack on the PDA as they attended the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. The Aussie actress and country musician, both 54, lovingly gazed into each other's eyes while posing for photos on the red carpet. Loved-up display: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban looked affectionate on the red carpet at the SAG Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday Nicole looked glamorous in a black gown with long sleeves and a white collar. She teamed her glamorous dress with a black clutch and wore a full face of makeup including red lipstick and blush. Keith looked dapper in a black tuxedo, shirt and boots. They only have eyes for each other: The Aussie actress and country musician, both 54, lovingly gazed into each other's eyes while posing for photos on the red carpet Nicole and Keith married on June 25, 2006, after meeting at an event in LA the previous year. The couple tied the knot at the Cardinal Cerretti Chapel, on the grounds of St Patrick's College in Manly, Sydney. Nicole's two adopted children, Isabella, 27, and Connor, 25, whom she shares with ex-husband Tom Cruise, acted as bridesmaid and usher respectively. She and Keith later welcomed daughters Sunday Rose, 13, and Faith Margaret, 11. Stunning: Nicole looked glamorous in a black gown with long sleeves and a white collar Last month, Nicole revealed the secret to her happy marriage. 'We're a mix. We're very suited [for each other]. I'm incredibly lucky to have met him,' the Oscar winner told CBS Mornings. Nicole went on to describe Keith as 'the best thing that's ever happened to me'. 'I met him later in life and it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. That man is the best thing that's ever happened to me,' she said. Lisa Curry's rural property in Queensland has been badly damaged by the floods causing havoc across much of Australia's east coast. The Olympian, 59, shared confronting footage on Instagram on Monday of the devastation around her home, as well as signs showing her road had been closed due to catastrophic floodwater. 'Our pond runneth over! This overflow knocked down four trees on the other side of our driveway,' Curry wrote. Before and after: Lisa Curry's rural property in Queensland has been badly damaged by the floods causing havoc across much of Australia's east coast. (Left: Curry at her home before the floods; and right: the damage caused by the floodwater on Monday) Curry lives at the property with her husband, Elvis impersonator Mark Tabone. She continued: 'So much rain coming through our property creating waterfalls, full trees have fallen and our new driveway washed away. 'Thankfully our house and all our Mali Retreat buildings are on high ground so only a couple of easily fixed leaks. We are stuck here though. 'Both ends of Bald Knob Rd are blocked. One end [is] flooded and the other with landslide and large trees fallen or about to.' High water: The Olympian, 59, shared confronting footage on Instagram of the devastation around her home Curry added: 'Seriously do not drive through moving water, it's much more powerful than you think. 'Can't get out to see mum can't get food, found some out of date biscuits though. 'Stay safe everyone and let's hope we can all help the people who have lost everything.' No exit: Signs showed her road had been closed due to dangerous floodwater Danger zone: Curry wrote on Instagram, 'Seriously do not drive through moving water, it's much more powerful than you think' Seven people have been killed and thousands of families forced to evacuate as relentless rain batters parts of south-east Queensland and a regional town in northern NSW is inundated by the worst floods in 50 years. A 'major flooding' alert was issued by Brisbane City Council just after 8pm on Sunday night as the Bureau of Meteorology warned severe flooding was likely to come with the high tide on Monday morning. Residents who live along the Brisbane River have been warned their properties may be at risk as the river was expected to peak at 4m, in the worst flooding the state has seen since 2011. Brisbane: Seven people have been killed and thousands of families forced to evacuate as relentless rain batters parts of south-east Queensland Some 49,000 houses across the region have been left without power with residents already fleeing their homes in Rosalie and Milton. NSW residents living south of the Queensland border have abandoned Lismore after the SES sent an emergency warning to Northern Rivers locals at 3am. North Lismore, South Lismore, Lismore CBD, East Lismore, Girards Hill, Woodburn, Swan Bay, Coraki, Marshalls Creek and Bilinudgel are all under threat. Floodwaters have reached their highest levels in half a century along Wilsons River after reaching 12.26m at 5am - smashing the 12.15m record set in March 1974. About 15,000 people have been evacuated on the north coast with the SES overwhelmed by calls for help and rescue teams unable to reach some people. Advertisement She is known for her impeccable sense of style. And Cate Blanchett did not disappoint on the red carpet at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. The Australian actress, 52, turned heads as she put on a very busty display in a racy low-cut Armani gown. Va-Va-Voom! Cate Blanchett, 52, stole the show at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday as she showed off her ample cleavage in a VERY low-cut Armani gown The frock featured a plunging neckline, embellished with large stones to draw attention to her bust, and was cinched in at the waist to highlight her slender midsection. The Blue Jasmine star accessorised with stunning jewels by Italian fine jeweler Pomellato, including diamond and emerald drop earrings and several cocktail rings. Cate opted for a smokey eye and nude lip combination for her makeup and her blonde locks were styled in soft waves courtesy of celebrity hairstylist Robert Vetica, who used products from az Craft Luxury Haircare - including the Elevate Luxe Mousse and the Obey Hairspray - to create the actress' stunning 'do for the evening. Stunning: The frock featured a plunging neckline embellished with large stones to draw attention to her bust Hitting the mark: Cate is known for her impeccable sense of style and she didn't disappoint Silhouette: Her gown was cinched in at the waist to highlight the actress' slender midsection It comes after Cate received the Honorary Cesar award during the 47th Cesar Film Awards Ceremony in Paris on Friday. She became emotional as she took to the stage to accept the Honorary Cesar award. In her early 50s, Cate is the second youngest recipient of the prize, which is the highest honour presented by the prestigious Film at Lincoln Center, one of the major arts organisations in the US. The perfect fit! Cate's gown fit the actress like a glove Flawless: The Blue Jasmine star opted for a smokey eye and nude lip combination for her makeup and her blonde locks were styled in soft waves Best dressed? Cate's gown was one of her best red carpet looks to date The award, which was founded in 1972 and is named after Charlie Chaplin, is given to recognise the career and contribution of artists who left their mark on the medium. The prize has been awarded 47 times. Previous winners include Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Robert de Niro and Tom Hanks. Announcing the news in the Hollywood Reporter on February 18, a spokesperson from Film at Lincoln Center said that it would be a privilege to dedicate an evening of celebration to Cate. Bejewelled: The Blue Jasmine star accessorised with stunning jewels by Italian fine jeweler Pomellato, including diamond and emerald drop earrings and several cocktail rings Something to smile about! Her red carpet appearance comes after Cate received the Honorary Cesar award during the 47th Cesar Film Awards Ceremony in Paris on Friday 'Ms. Blanchett's career includes extraordinary performances in films ranging from small independent efforts to major studio franchises.' Cate has worked tirelessly for the last 25 years racking up dozens of credits in theatre, film and TV. A regular on the global awards circuit, Cate has received major prizes from all over the world, including two Oscars, three BAFTAs, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Order of Australia, and in France a Chevalier, for her contribution to the arts. Extraordinary Portraits Rating: Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy Rating: Arent celebrities wonderful? They can do anything they choose, you know, simply through the power of self-belief. Take Tinie Tempah, the rapper turned property developer and telly presenter. Hes just called Tinie now hes lost his Tempah. Hes also an art critic, apparently. Im self-taught, he emphasised on Extraordinary Portraits (BBC1), just in case we were worried that he might be encumbered by anything as boring as expertise or formal education. Creativity is everything to me, he explained, as he strolled through the National Gallery, waving at paintings as though he owned them. Art has allowed me to share my story with the world and helped me understand all my different sides. That pretentious waffle means nothing but proves Tinie is a world-class bluffer, unafraid to spout voluminous horse-feathers. Perhaps he is a natural art critic after all. His new six-part series has him commissioning pictures of ordinary British heroes, not just the people with power and money though he was quick to let us know that his own image hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. Musician Tinie hosts the new BBC Arts show which aims to 'put a spotlight on contemporary British heroes' First up for immortalisation were 28-year-old twins Georgia and Melissa Laurie, who made headlines last summer after they were attacked by crocodiles while swimming on holiday in Mexico. Georgia risked her life to punch and kick the creature till she could drag Mel free. Then she sang to her sister to keep her conscious as they waited for medical help. Artist Roxana Halls was commissioned to paint their double portrait, though what she actually did was pose them for a photograph that served as the template for her artwork. Whether this was a Covid precaution or her usual method was not explained. The inevitable result was a picture that looked like a reworked photo, the sort of illustration that graphic designers produce for magazines every week. The need for artificial tension and a dramatic reveal at the end of the half-hour meant we didnt see much of the artists technique. Instead, art was presented as something magical, to be marvelled over but not understood. Hollywood star Stanley Tucci was marvelling over every dish as he explored his parents homeland on Searching For Italy (BBC2). The inexplicable magic here concerned Stans ability to scoff pizzas, pork pasties, platefuls of spaghetti and rabbits flambeed in wine, and yet remain as slender as Botticellis paintbrush. In white trousers as tight as leggings, he looked like a ballet dancer wearing Eric Morecambes NHS specs. This foodie travel doc, the first of six, was just 40 minutes long. Made for the U.S. market, it left space for 20 minutes of ads. Hollywood actor Stanley Tucci travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the countrys regional cuisines in a new BBC series The overall effect, as he travelled from Naples to Minori on the Amalfi coast, was rushed and disjointed. Stan narrated in the American style, his inflexion falling at the end of every line so that every sentence sounded like a final statement. If youve ever wondered why U.S. documentaries always seem so ponderous and pompous, thats the reason. This ceased to matter when the camera lingered on stunning views and, in a seafront restaurant during a storm, the Italian weather. Lightning slashed open a mauve sky, before the film crew dived inside to shelter from hail the size of Amalfi lemons. We also saw mozzarella congealing from buffalo milk and learned Neapolitans first acquired a taste for bread fried in olive oil during cholera epidemics the bubbling vats killing off the virus. High-calorie hygiene . . . its fattening but healthy. What more could you desire? Jessica Chastain admitted she was 'completely stunned' when her name was called in the best actress category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday evening. The Eyes of Tammy Faye actress, 44, looked delighted and surprised after beating betting favourite Nicole Kidman as well as Olivia Colman, Jennifer Hudson and Lady Gaga in the tough category. Tearful Jessica said it was a 'dream' to have played evangelist Tammy in the film, during an emotional acceptance speech at the The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Shook! Jessica Chastain admitted she was 'completely stunned' when her name was called in the best actress category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday evening Jessica said: 'Whoa. Wow. Okay, I'm really surprised. Thank you SAG for this, I'm completely stunned,' she said. 'I had the best acting troupe one could have with Andrew Garfield, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cherry Jones. I'm the luckiest person ever.' 'She was a real trailblazer I'm so nervous! She wrapped her arms around those who were repeatedly cast aside and she launched herself into decades of LGBTQ love. Jessica, who was presented the award by American actor Jeff Goldblum, added: 'I worked on the project for 10 years, and I hope that we made her story in a way that she would be proud of. Overwhelmed: The Eyes of Tammy Faye actress, 44, looked delighted and surprised after beating betting favourite Nicole Kidman as well as Olivia Colman, Jennifer Hudson and Lady Gaga in the tough category Jessica said: 'Whoa. Wow. Okay, I'm really surprised. Thank you SAG for this, I'm completely stunned,' she said. 'I had the best acting troupe one could have with Andrew Garfield, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cherry Jones. I'm the luckiest person ever' Thank you! Tearful Jessica said it was a 'dream' to have played evangelist Tammy in the film, during an emotional acceptance speech at the The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica Oops! After leaving the stage, Jessica later headed to the winners room where she was spotted being picked up off the floor by Jeff, clearly overwhelmed by her shock win Jessica said: 'She was a real trailblazer I'm so nervous! She wrapped her arms around those who were repeatedly cast aside and she launched herself into decades of LGBTQ love' Discussing her rise to acting, she continued: 'I wanted to be an actor my whole life, and ever since I was a kid it was the only thing I ever really thought about, and there were years of studying and auditioning and not getting jobs. SAG 2022 WINNERS: FIRST GLANCE Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Jason Sudeikis ('Ted Lasso') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Jean Smart ('Hacks') Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series 'Ted Lasso' (Apple TV Plus) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Lee Jung-Jae ('Squid Game') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Jung Ho-yeon ('Squid Game') Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series 'Succession' (HBO) Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Ariana DeBose ('West Side Story') Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Troy Kotsur ('CODA') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain ('The Eyes of Tammy Faye') Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Will Smith ('King Richard') Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 'CODA' (Apple Original Films) Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture 'No Time to Die' 'Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series 'Squid Game' Advertisement 'And I know what that feels like and I know the loneliness of what that feels like.' She wrapped up her speech with a message to everyone who is 'struggling and feeling unseen'. 'For those of you who are struggling and feeling unseen I just want you to keep going because you're one job away, I promise! And the thing that really kept me going was you. It was everyone in this room and it was this community.' Jessica also touched on the horrof the war in Ukraine, and said: 'And I love my artistic family. And my heart is with our international family all over the world right now who is fighting for their safety and their freedom. And I love you all so much. Thank you very, very much.' The biographical film the actress starred in was an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker as she played the titular role. After leaving the stage, Jessica later headed to the winners room where she was spotted being picked up off the floor by Jeff, clearly overwhelmed by her shock win Ahead of her awards win, Jessica arrived at the star-studded event shining like a star. The Zero Dark Thirty actress was the epitome of chic as she posed for photographers in a shimmering two-piece silver Dior pantsuit. The red-haired beauty was daring in the unique shining ensemble - which was held together by one snap - wearing no shirt underneath and showcasing her cleavage. Her stunning red tresses were parted in the middle and lightly curled for the occasion, cascading down her back. As for makeup, the Sacramento native opted for a glamorous sparkling silver eyeshadow and strong black eyeliner to make her blue eyes pop. 'I think for sure I've done some permanent damage to my skin on this. Listen, I eat very pure, and I take very good care of my skin and I stay out of the sun and all that stuff,' she said. 'But it's heavy. And when you're wearing it all day, every day the weight of it on your body, it stretches your skin out,' she shared. 'I finally took it off, and I was like, 'I look 50 years old!'' she joked, before adding, 'No, I'm kidding. But it's fine. It's for my art.' Jessica and her Scenes From a Marriage co-star Oscar Isaac also presented the award for an Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role to Troy Kotsur for his role in CODA. Glam: The Zero Dark Thirty actress was the epitome of chic as she posed for photographers in a shimmering two-piece silver Dior pantsuit Silver siren: The red-haired beauty was daring in the unique shining ensemble - which was held together by one snap - wearing no shirt underneath and showcasing her cleavage Daring: The red-haired beauty was daring in the unique shining ensemble - which was held together by one snap - wearing no shirt underneath and showcasing her cleavage Beauty: Her stunning red tresses were parted in the middle and lightly curled for the occasion, cascading down her back Chastain added even more sparkle to the look with a gorgeous pair of earrings and rings on her fingers. The star appeared to be in good spirits and flashed a bright smile at the cameras as she made her way to the event. Once inside, the actress was thrilled to accept the SAG Award for her incredible transformation into the scandal-ridden televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. The award was well-deserved as the star has previously shared how much of a toll the heavy makeup, prosthetics, and wigs she had to wear for the role took on her appearance while speaking with The Los Angeles Times. Lovely: The star appeared to be in good spirits and flashed a bright smile at the cameras as she made her way to the event What a transformation: Jessica won for her incredible portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye biopic; Still from The Eyes of Tammy Faye Happy: The actress flashed a bright smile while posing with her award With Oscar: Jessica and her Scenes From a Marriage co-star Oscar Isaac also presented the award for an Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Winner: The award went to Troy Kotsur for his role in CODA Earlier in the day the beauty took to Instagram to share a closer look at her makeup and outfit. She also posted a snap of herself as a makeup artist worked to get her glammed-up for the special evening. Jessica's role as Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye biopic has earned her not only a SAG nomination but also an Academy Award nomination - making it her third one. Shining bright: Earlier in the day the beauty took to Instagram to share a closer look at her makeup and outfit Getting ready: She also posted a snap of herself as a makeup artist worked to get her glammed-up for the special evening Advertisement Helen Mirren wowed audiences as she accepted her Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday night in Los Angeles - with a total of 13 SAG nominations and five SAG Actor wins to her name. The 76-year-old Oscar winner was introduced by fellow British actress Kate Winslet, who explained she could not be there on the night, instead beaming in remotely, but didn't reveal why. Winslet, 46, praised Mirren for pushing boundaries for female actresses getting older, and invited Cate Blanchett to finish off the tribute before handing out the award. Impressive: Helen Mirren wowed audiences as she accepted her Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday night in Los Angeles - she has a total of 13 SAG nominations and five SAG Actor wins to her name Taking to the stage, Mirren immediately had the audience laughing as she joked she didn't like to say the word 'sag' at her age. 'Well, lifetime achievement, Sounds so grand,' Mirren began. 'I suppose I'm still alive, so by that measure, I'm eligible. But honestly, any achievement that I've succeeded in is the result of my mantra, which is basically, be on time and don't be an a**. 'Thank you, SAG, so much for this. I hate to say the word 'Sag' at my age. So it's S.A.G. For me. I'm simultaneously and enormously proud, and driven with the understanding that I absolutely do not deserve this. Beaming in: The 76-year-old Oscar winner was introduced by fellow British actress Kate Winslet, who explained she could not be there on the night Presenting: Winslet, 46, praised Mirren for pushing boundaries for female actresses getting older, and invited Cate Blanchett to finish off the tribute before handing out the award 'And there, there is the conflict that I believe you all understand. Insecurity versus ego, huh? That cocktail that I believe most actors sip in the evening as they contemplate the wonderful gift they received the moment they decided to become an actor.' 'So, any way, I've been thinking about what to say tonight and I waited for inspiration. And then it came. It came to me, to all those people with whom I have shared my professional life, the actors. I will talk about actors,' before self-deprecatingly joking, 'Oh my god, what a brilliant idea. So original, I mean I like to think inside the box!' She dedicated her award to her tribe of 'rogues and vagabonds' as she celebrated British actors like Kate Winslet, Olivia Colman and Vanessa Kirby. Going down a storm: Taking to the stage, Mirren immediately had the audience laughing as she joked she didn't like to say the word 'sag' at her age Hit: Her impassioned speech garnered cheers from the audience that included movie stars such as Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon Humble: Mirren is the 57th actor to receive the honor as last year it was not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic SAG 2022 WINNERS: FIRST GLANCE Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Jason Sudeikis ('Ted Lasso') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Jean Smart ('Hacks') Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series 'Ted Lasso' (Apple TV Plus) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Lee Jung-Jae ('Squid Game') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Jung Ho-yeon ('Squid Game') Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series 'Succession' (HBO) Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Ariana DeBose ('West Side Story') Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Troy Kotsur ('CODA') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain ('The Eyes of Tammy Faye') Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Will Smith ('King Richard') Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 'CODA' (Apple Original Films) Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture 'No Time to Die' 'Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series 'Squid Game' Advertisement 'It's you, actors, that I want to thank. For your wit and your humour all the giggles all the laughter I've laughed all my life, honestly,' she continued, adding, 'Your perception, your emotional generosity, your great intelligence, and your incredible energy.' Her impassioned speech garnered cheers from the audience that included movie stars such as Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. She also elicited an emotional moment from Lady Gaga during the evening. In between commercial breaks, the actresses were spotted chatting with each other and sharing a long embrace before Gaga, 35, started sobbing, overcome with meeting the screen legend. Gaga was nominated for outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role for her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani in the Ridley-Scott-directed murder drama House of Gucci on Sunday, losing to Jessica Chastain. Mirren is the 57th actor to receive the honor as last year it was not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The London-born star has had quite the storied career as she has earned multiple accolades including being the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting (film, television, and stage) in both the United States and United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 film The Queen. Mirren also earned a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in 2013 play The Audience written by playwright Peter Morgan. When it comes to television she earned three British Academy Television Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards for drama Prime Suspect which aired over seven seasons from 1991 to 2006. Mirren also earned two more Primetime Emmys for playing Queen Elizabeth I in 2005's Elizabeth I and her portrayal of Amy Rand in 1999's The Passion Of Amy Rand. She has been nominated a total of 10 times. In addition to her Oscar win for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2007, she has been nominated three other times including in 1995 for The Madness Of King George, in 2002 for Gosford Park, and 2010 for The Last Station. She began her career in her late teens as she excelled on stage with the National Youth Theatre. Her performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 led her to being invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before making her West End stage debut in 1975. Mirren made her breakthrough in film years later as she starred in 1980's The Long Good Friday. In 1984 she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Cal. She has starred in several critically acclaimed films including: 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). Mirren has not exclusively starred in serious dramas as she has been in several action films including: Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021). Proud: Kate Winslet, 46, praised Mirren for pushing boundaries for female actresses getting older, and invited Cate Blanchett to finish off the tribute before handing out the award Pretty in pink: Taking to the stage, Mirren immediately had the audience laughing as she joked she didn't like to say the word 'sag' at her age Wise words: Helen told the audience that 'any achievement that I've succeeded in is the result of my mantra, which is basically, be on time and don't be an a**' Victorious: Dame Helen was on cloud nine as she lapped up the applause from the A-list attendees Time to party! After receiving her award, Helen posed up with Cate Blanchett, who had presented her with the gong Acting trio: Elle Fanning joined Helen and Cate for a chat, with the a-list audience keen to congratulate Mirren Two legends: Helen looked radiant in her embellished Dolce & Gabbana gown as she embraced an equally glam Cate Consoling her: Mirren also had to contend with a very emotional Lady Gaga who came over for a chat Gracious: In between commercial breaks, the actresses were spotted chatting with each other and sharing a long embrace before Gaga, 35, started sobbing, overcome with meeting the screen legend Embrace: An overcome Gaga was in floods as Dame Helen enveloped her in a huge hug while being swarmed by snappers Strike a pose: The two stars were captured posing up a storm for the crowd of photographers after Gaga had dried her tears Cheer up! Gaga had earlier lost out on the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role to Jessica Chastain Loss: Gaga was nominated for outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role for her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci Proud as punch: Helen posed with her award backstage after her monumental night at the SAGs Holding court: Helen was seen larking around with her gong and happily greeting fellow Hollywood stars after her speech Congrats! Cate cooed over Helen's award as she cradled it in her arms backstage at The Barker Hangar A popular Instagram model has revealed she is getting 'hateful' messages from her followers who say her 'happy' content makes them feel bad about themselves. Cathy Evans, who appeared on Married At First Sight Australia in 2020, said on Sunday her recent posts had drawn the ire of critics who argue she shouldn't be bragging about her lifestyle while others are less fortunate. Ms Evans, a full-time fashion and beauty influencer with almost 200,000 followers, said the backlash intensified when she went on holiday. Criticism: Instagram model Cathy Evans has revealed she is getting 'hateful' messages from her followers who say her 'happy' content makes them feel bad about themselves 'I've had a few (actually a f**k load) [of people] message me being really unhappy (actually just straight hateful) that I was on holiday, went out to eat, I went shopping. I showed what I brought,' she wrote. Ms Evans said she was constantly being told not to share these moments on Instagram simply because others weren't able to do the same. She claimed her followers had told her to stop posting about her designer clothes and also to limit her posts about her upcoming holiday in Thailand. Jealousy: Ms Evans said on Sunday her recent posts had drawn the ire of critics who argue she shouldn't be bragging about her lifestyle while others are less fortunate Far from leading a charmed life, Ms Evans claimed she'd actually suffered financially before starring on reality TV and making a career out of Instagram. She also suggested that her critics should be 'inspired' by her lifestyle. 'I remember humbly being so tight on money and I would watch friends and public figures go on holiday or just getting some cool shoes and I never let it affect me negatively. I actually enjoyed watching it quietly - I would be inspired,' she said. Ms Evans, who recently underwent a $30,000 surgery transformation, including liposuction and a mini Brazilian butt lift, added that she wouldn't let others bully her into changing her content. Humble: Far from leading a charmed life, Ms Evans claimed she'd actually suffered financially before starring on reality TV and making a career out of Instagram. She also suggested that her critics should be 'inspired' by her lifestyle 'I say this respectfully but you cannot control what others do or say, only how you react and feel,' she said. 'I encourage those to put themselves in an environment that promotes a healthy, happy response.' While Ms Evans acknowledged social media can trigger jealousy, she said people should take more responsibility when it comes to the accounts they follow. 'Unfollow or mute those who trigger a negative reaction in you. Follow those who make you feel good and inspire you in some way,' she wrote. 'Unfollow or mute': While Ms Evans acknowledged social media can trigger jealousy, she said people should take more responsibility when it comes to the accounts they follow Troy Kotsur made history as the first deaf actor to claim an individual prize at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday. The 53-year-old star took home the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role accolade for his work as Frank Rossi in CODA and reflected on his beginnings as a struggling actor in an acceptance speech delivered via an ASL interpreter. He signed to the audience: 'Wow. Thank you so much to all the members of SAG. I am so proud to be a member. I've been a member since 2001, and so now I feel like I'm finally part of the family. 'It just shows that dreams can come true': CODA star Troy Kotsur breaks records becoming the first deaf actor to win an individual SAG Award: 'It just shows that dreams can come true' 'I know you all are artists, and I know you all know what its like to be a starving actor. Back then, I used to sleep in my car. I slept in my dressing room backstage, I couch-surfed and all of that, you feel me, right? So, thank you so much. Im so grateful to SAG [for protecting] us actors.' Backstage the actor told the press room: ''It just shows that dreams can come true.' Troy beat out competition from Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar), Bradley Cooper (Licorice Pizza), Jared Leto (House of Gucci) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) to take the prize. Award-winning role: Troy Kotsur as Frank Rossi in CODA Elsewhere, Ariana DeBose scooped the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role accolade for her work on West Side Story, seeing off a shortlist of Caitriona Balfe (Belfast), Cate Blanchett (Nightmare Alley), Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog), and Ruth Negga (Passing). The 31-year-old star admitted she was 'extremely proud' of her portrayal of Anita in the musical. She said: 'It's taken a long time for me to feel comfortable calling myself an actor. My roots come from the dance world and the Broadway stage...' Big win: Eugenio Derbez, Marlee Matlin, Daniel Durant, Troy Kotsur, and Emilia Jones accept the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 'The Anita that we see on the screen, took every bit of me, but she took 10 years to make and Im extremely proud of her and of our film. And I really do believe that when you recognise one of us you recognize all of us in a way.' As well as thanking the cast and crew, Ariana singled out director Steven Spielberg for special praise because he had believed 'in the possibility of not only my talent but of that of my colleagues.' She ended her speech by thanking those assembled for the ceremony. Arrivals: Troy Kotsur and Deanne Bray arriving at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Barker Hangar on Sunday She said: 'I have watched so many of you for a very long time. You inspire me and you continue to do so and I am just thrilled to be among you.' Earlier in the evening, Ariana had grown tearful on the red carpet at Santa Monica's Barker Hangar when she reflected on how far she's come since she tried out for 'So You Think You Can Dance' at the age of just 18. She told Live From E!: SAG Awards host Laverne Cox: 'Already, I'm already crying. It's amazing...This is what dreams are made of.' Ita Buttrose's nephew Richard became visibly emotional as he spoke about his time in prison during a tense interrogation on Monday night's SAS Australia. The 49-year-old broke down as he revealed how his wife Pollyanna Stoneham gave birth to his daughter - their second child - two days after he was arrested. His face dropped further as he revealed that five years into his prison sentence, he received a letter from his wife saying that she was pregnant with another man's child and wanted a divorce. Heartache: Ita Buttrose's nephew Richard became visibly emotional as he spoke about his time in prison during a tense interrogation on Monday night's SAS Australia 'I was married with a son and a pregnant wife, and I lost of all that. My daughter was born two days after I got arrested,' he said. 'My wife was amazing for the first five years of my incarceration. They moved back to England, so she would send hand prints, little art work from the kids. I watched my children grow up through photographs. 'She was amazing. One day I got a letter - typical, talking about my son playing sport and my daughter walking, talking. After all this beautiful stuff about my kids and everything - "I'm pregnant".' 'Yeah. She was pregnant and she wanted a divorce,' he added in a camera interview with producers. Over: His face dropped further as he revealed that five years into their marriage, he received a letter from his wife saying that she was pregnant with another man's child and wanted a divorce He went on to tell the Directing Staff (DS) that he didn't want any sympathy 'as a convicted drug dealer'. 'But the other people it affected - my aunt, my wife, my children...' he added. 'You still haven't got over that, have you?' DS Ollie Ollerton asked him, to which he shook his head. He also spoke about how he got caught and arrested in 2009, saying it was someone close to him who revealed his criminal activity to police. 'I got dobbed in. A friend. I never spoke to him afterwards,' he said. He said he initially was just using cocaine, before he began supplying it to friends and it 'just grew'. 'Yeah. She was pregnant and she wanted a divorce,' he added in a camera interview with producers Sighing at the man he used to be, he added: 'It's insane to think that I've logically now - the person making those decisions back then. I got rid of that guy the day I got arrested.' When asked what he wanted from the experience, he said: 'Just that last step at redemption. People look at money and drugs and think of those shortcuts. 'I didn't take any shortcuts in jail - I did the time. I didn't rat on anyone, I just f**king took responsibility for everything I got caught with, pleaded guilty for everything I got caught with, and did the time.' Last October, Richard married his long-time partner Tiffany Farrington in Sydney. Richard, whose late father Julian is Ita's brother, recently married publicist Tiffany at an intimate ceremony at Parsley Bay reserve, before continuing the festivities at the Buttrose family mansion in Vaucluse, according to Emerald City. Family: Richard's ABC chair aunt Ita Buttrose sat front row at Richard's court appearance following his high-profile arrest in 2009 'We're very happy and very much in love,' Tiffany told the publication. Richard and Tiffany, who dated for four years before becoming engaged, were able to celebrate with a maximum of five guests as per New South Wales' Covid restrictions at the time. Richard, a former drug-dealer to Sydney's elite, served nine years of a 12-year-sentence after being caught with two six kilogram bags of cocaine and more than Australian $1.3 million in cash. Ita sat front row at Richard's court appearance, following his high-profile arrest in 2009. He walked free from Berrima Correctional Centre in late 2017. Richard left prison with a degree in both accounting and a Master's in business administration. He is reportedly now studying to become a lawyer. Seoul also plans to ban exports of strategic materials to Moscow By Kang Seung-woo Korea has decided to participate in the international community's move to block select Russian banks from a global payments network as part of efforts to stand in line with global sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine, Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday. In addition, Korea also plans to ban exports of strategic materials to Russia. The decision came days after the United States and its key allies, including Germany and Britain, announced Saturday (local time) that they would remove some Russian banks from the SWIFT bank messaging system. SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication that facilitates rapid cross-border payments. President Moon Jae-in said, Thursday that Korea will join international sanctions against Russia in protest against its military aggression. "The Korean government will join the international community's move to remove Russia from the SWIFT and its specific plan will be decided following relevant ministries' discussions," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The ministry added that the government had notified the U.S. of its decision via a diplomatic channel. There is widespread speculation that the SWIFT exclusion will hit Russia's economy hard immediately as it will need to use "a telephone or a fax machine" to make payments, according to the White House. In addition, the measure is expected to hamper Russia's ability to profit off oil and gas production that accounts for more than 40 percent of its revenue. When it comes to export controls on strategic materials, Seoul is expected to ban shipments to Russia of strategic materials singled out by four multilateral export control regimes the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG); the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA); the Australia Group (AG); and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). They seek to fend off the spread of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery vehicles and related technologies and equipment. Also, Korea is reviewing whether to bar non-strategic materials that include semiconductors, computers, telecommunications and information security equipment, lasers and sensors, and cover items produced in the U.S. or foreign items produced using American equipment and software. Besides, the government has also decided to release strategic oil reserves and review reselling liquefied natural gas to Europe in order to stabilize the global energy market. The ministry also said it will beef up humanitarian assistance in cooperation with the international community. Ukraine is one of the Korea International Cooperation Agency's partner countries. Meanwhile, the government will seek close consultations with the U.S. to receive an exemption from Washington's recently expanded sanctions against Russia to minimize the impact of the restrictions on local firms and the economy. Last week, the U.S. government announced the Foreign Direct Product Rule for all of Russia as part of sweeping export controls, which requires companies to receive a license from the U.S. for tech-related items using American technology before they can be shipped to Russia. However, Korea has failed to make the exemption list unlike other U.S. allies such as Japan and Taiwan. Earlier, Washington announced restrictions on exports of U.S. origin technology and products to 49 Russian military entities, including its defense ministry, under a policy of denial. Washington is known to have requested Seoul take such strong export control measures against Moscow. Kirsten Dunst was a head-turner at the the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet, wearing a sparkly red off-shoulder gown. The Power of the Dog star, 39, was accompanied by her co-star and fiance Jesse Plemons, 33, who looked dapper in a classic black tuxedo. Dunst was nominated for her portrayal of Rose Gordon in the movie, in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role category, but lost out to Ariana DeBose from West Side Story. Head turner: Kirsten Dunst was a head-turner at the the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet, wearing a sparkly red off-shoulder gown The actress wore her lovely blonde tresses in gentle curls and parted on the side, cascading across her bare shoulders. The New Jersey native matched her stylish bold gown with a bright red lipstick on her pout and red-tinted eye makeup. She accessorized the look with a chic pair of earrings as well as rings on her fingers. Blonde beauty: The actress wore her blonde tresses in gentle curls, cascading across her bare shoulders Classy couple: The Power of the Dog star, 39, was accompanied by her co-star and fiance Jesse Plemons, 33, who looked dapper in a classic black tuxedo New parents: The offscreen couple - who share sons Ennis Howard Plemons, three, and James Robert Plemons, nine months - appeared happy as they posed for photographs together Co-stars: Dunst was nominated for an Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her performance in The Power of the Dog, where she stars alongside her fiance The offscreen couple - who share sons Ennis Howard Plemons, three, and James Robert Plemons, nine months - appeared happy as they posed for photographs together. Inside of the event, Kirsten was spotted placing a tender hand on her partner's back as they watched the ceremony unfold. The couple also did an interview with Laverne Cox for E! News, where Jesse talked about working with his wife on The Power of the Dog. Happy working together: The couple also did an interview with Laverne Cox for E! News, where Jesse talked about how much he enjoyed working with his lady love Sweet: 'It's pretty rare to get to work with such an incredible director in such an amazing location,' he said, adding that it was special 'to get to do it with your wife and have your family over there' Tender: Inside of the event, Kirsten was spotted placing a tender hand on her partner's back as they watched the ceremony unfold 'It's pretty rare to get to work with such an incredible director in such an amazing location,' he said, adding that it was special 'to get to do it with your wife and have your family over there.' Both actors are also nominated for Academy Awards for their respective roles in the movie. This isn't the first time the offscreen lovers have starred together. The couple first met while portraying Peggy and Ed Blumquist in the hit series Fargo in 2016. Cheesing: The actress didn't seem worried about her loss, and was seen happily grinning during the event Selena Gomez went barefoot as she was a presenter at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. The 29-year-old actress was accompanied by Only Murders in the Building costar Martin Short, 71, onstage at the ceremony as they were presenters for the honors of Outstanding Female Actress in a Supporting Role. (West Side Story's Ariana DeBose took home the honors.) The Dead Don't Die actress donned a luxe ensemble to the award show in Southern California, wearing a black Oscar de la Renta gown with a $1 million Bulgari necklace with more than 200 carats of diamonds. The latest: Selena Gomez, 29, went barefoot as she was a presenter at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California Gomez was previously seen walking the red carpet in a pair of black heels, in which she tripped, presumably leading to the change of plans. Gomez's luxe look for Sunday's show was put together by her team including stylist Kate Young, makeup artist Hung Vanngo, hairstylist Marissa Marino and nail artist Tom Bachik. Gomez earlier Sunday had documented her glam routine in getting ready for the award season staple. A number of fans of the actress took to Twitter Sunday evening to hail the actress for her relatable fashion move. The Dead Don't Die actress donned a luxe ensemble to the award show in Southern California She wore a black Oscar de la Renta gown with a $1 million Bulgari necklace with more than 200 carats of diamonds Gomez was previously seen walking the red carpet in a pair of black heels, in which she tripped, presumably leading to the change of plans One person wrote, 'selena presenting barefoot is the most selena gomez thing ever,' while another said, 'selena going barefoot infront of some of the biggest celebrities is actually the most selena gomez thing she could do #SAGAwards.' Said another: 'Who walks barefoot at an award show? Only Selena Gomez ... she really hosted the award barefoot' One fan declared, 'SelenaGomez barefoot is my fav part of the #SAGAwards so far!' Gomez was joined by her Only Murders in the Building costar Martin Short, 71, at the ceremony as they were presenters for the honors of Outstanding Female Actress in a Supporting Role (West Side Story's Ariana DeBose took home the honors.) Kate Winslet took home one of the top acting prizes at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. However, the British star was not there in attendance to accept the trophy, as she was forced to stay at home for the event for unknown reasons. While Kate, 46, did beam in remotely to introduce Helen Mirren's Lifetime Achievement Award, she mysteriously did not appear again to give a speech for her own award. No show: Kate Winslet won the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in TV, but did not accept it, instead she appeared remotely to present Helen Mirren with an award The Titanic star won the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or limited series for her role as Mare Sheehan in HBO's Mare of Easttown. Earlier in the night, Kate told viewers she was 'heartbroken' not to be there. 'Good evening, everyone. I was meant to be there with you in person and I'm heart broken not to be,' she said. Gritty: Kate won for her role as Mare Sheehan in HBO's Mare of Easttown Remote: Kate speaks onscreen during the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Barker Hangar in LA on Sunday It is not clear where the British star was beaming in from. She went on: 'But I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to gush on an artist who is acting royalty, Helen Mirren.' 'She's the opposite of grand. Instead, she's an actress who wants to roll up her cleaves with the rest of us and just get on with the job.' Big hit: The HBO drama won both rave reviews and good ratings Tribute: Kate appeared onscreen to gush over Helen Mirren 'She loves collaboration, she loves to act, she loves to play, we all assume she was classically trained in her craft, but she wasn't.' 'Her parents were against her becoming an actress at all. So it's safe to say Helen commits heart and soul to giving truthful performances, as well as so many actresses to aspire to be just like you. I can say, Helen, that your commitment and integrity inspire us all.' After Winslet gushed over Mirren, many viewers had expected her to reappear when she won the award for Mare of Easttown, but instead the statuette was accepted by another actor on her behalf. Yvonne Strahovski has thrown her support behind Ukraine during a march in Toronto. The Australian actress, 39, joined thousands in the 'Mega March for Ukraine' and posted images from the rally to Instagram on Monday. In one of the images, the Handmaid's Tale star, donned a face mask painted with the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Speaking up: Yvonne Strahovski (pictured) has thrown her support behind Ukraine during a march in Toronto Another image showed a protester holding a 'Stand with Ukraine' sign as they walked the streets of Toronto. Strahovski captioned the post, 'Today Toronto marched #ukraina #stoimyzukraina'. Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded. Strahovski was born in Werrington Downs, New South Wales after her parents emigrated from Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland. March: The Australian actress, 39, joined thousands in the 'Mega March for Ukraine' and posted images from the event to Instagram on Monday Uprising: Another image showed a protester holding a 'Stand with Ukraine' sign as they marched the streets of Toronto Last year, the Aussie star became a proud mum-of-two after welcoming her second child with husband Tim Loden earlier in December. The Tomorrow War actress announced the news in a post on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself cradling her newborn son. 'An angel joined our world this past week. Welcome to the family my love. I love you so very much. #mamaoftwo,' she captioned the post. New addition: Last year, the Aussie star became a proud mum-of-two after welcoming her second child with husband Tim Loden earlier in December It's the second child for Yvonne and her actor husband of four years, with the couple also parents to a three-year-old son, William. The Aussie actress announced her second pregnancy by showing off her baby bump at the premiere of The Tomorrow War in Los Angeles in July. 'I'm super excited to be here, and this is a very special moment,' she told ET at the premiere, adding, 'I'm having a boy! You heard it first!' He's here! The actress announced the ews in a post on Instagram Yvonne announced the arrival of her first son with another heartfelt post on Instagram back in October 2018. 'My heart has melted into a billion pieces a thousand times already. We have been blessed with the greatest joy of our lives, our baby boy,' she wrote at the time. 'Welcome to the world Peanut, your parents love you beyond measure and you are already my little dream boat. My heart has been stolen!' Growing family: It's the second child for Yvonne and her actor husband Tim Loden, with the couple also parents to a three-year-old son, William In an interview with Glamour UK in July 2019, Yvonne spoke about returning to work on The Handsmaid's Tale shortly after welcoming her first child. 'It was definitely one of the hardest and most challenging moments ever in my entire career. Coming back to work with a newborn and all the sleep deprivation that comes with that, plus I was breastfeeding,' she recounted. Describing it as 'crazy', she added: 'I was running in between set and my trailer, breastfeeding on demand and doing scene work.' Balancing act: In an interview with Glamour UK in July 2019, Yvonne spoke about returning to work on The Handsmaid's Tale shortly after welcoming her first child UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR LIVE: Get the latest news on Putins invasion Julianna Margulies and her husband, Keith Lieberthal, were seen spending time at the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on Sunday. The 55-year-old actress and her spouse appeared to be enjoying their time at the star-studded event, and they were seen posing for several photos during their time in front of the cameras. The performer, as well as the rest of the cast of The Morning Show, was notably nominated for the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award at the ceremony. Cute couple: Julianna Margulies and her husband, Keith Lieberthal, were seen spending time at the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on Sunday Margulies wore a lovely black-and-magenta sleeveless dress while spending time with her spouse. The ER star also carried a small black clutch with her and accessorized with a lovely set of earrings. Her jet-black hair was tied back into a tight bun for the duration of the annual awards ceremony, while her makeup look was created by beauty pro Rachel Goodwin, who used products from Thrive Causemetics and QMS Medicosmetics to perfect the actress's complexion. Before beginning her makeup, Rachel prepped Margulies' skin with the QMS Hydrating Boost Tonic Mist and the Day Collagen Serum, before applying the Thrive Causemetics CC Cream. She then moved onto the star's eyes, which she enhanced with the Thrive Causemetics Focus Palette and the Infinity Waterproof Eyeshadow Stick, as well as a few coats of the Liquid Lash Extension Mascara. Lieberthal kept it classy in a black suit, tie and matching pants, as well as a stark white button-up shirt. Standing out: Margulies wore a lovely black-and-magenta sleeveless dress while spending time with her spouse Extra storage: The ER star also carried a small black clutch with her and accessorized with a lovely set of earrings Margulies and her husband initially met in the mid-2000s and began dating in February of 2006. The performer was previously involved with Ron Eldard, whom she saw between 1991 and 2003. The now-couple went on to make their union official in 2007, and they started a family with the birth of their son Kieran, 13, a year later. The actress spoke about how Lieberthal was unaware of her career during the beginning of their relationship in an interview with People, and she remarked that 'he honestly didn't know who I was.' In the past: Margulies and her husband initially met in the mid-2000s and began dating in February of 2006 Making it official: The now-couple went on to make their union official in 2007, and they started a family with the birth of their son Kieran, 13, a year later Margulies also recalled that she knew that her now-husband was an ideal partner after she invited him to the premiere of Snakes on a Plane. She remarked: 'At dinner, I was like, 'Wow, if he could sit through that and still see me for who I am, I would marry this guy if he asked me tomorrow."' The actress, along with the rest of the cast of The Morning Show, was nominated for the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award at the ceremony. The distinction was ultimately won by the cast of Succession, whose lineup includes performers such as Brian Cox and Mark Strong. Doing well: The actress, along with the rest of the cast of The Morning Show, was nominated for the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award at the ceremony The Morning Show is based on Brian Stelter's 2013 book Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV. The series boasts an ensemble cast that includes the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Billy Crudup, among numerous others. Margulies joined the cast of the program in December of 2020, ahead of the premiere of its second season. The performer portrays Laura Peterson, a news anchor working alongside the other characters at fictional network UBA. Signing on: Margulies joined the cast of the program in December of 2020, ahead of the premiere of its second season. The performer portrays Laura Peterson, a news anchor working alongside the other characters at fictional network UBA The Morning Show's second season received mixed to positive reviews upon its debut, which occurred last September. Margulies spoke about finding inspiration for her role during an interview with Elle, where she named figures such as Christiane Amanpour and Diane Sawyers as models for her character. The performer remarked that 'I tried to take a little bit of all of them and meld them into one.' Opening up: Margulies spoke about finding inspiration for her role during an interview with Elle, where she named figures such as Christiane Amanpour and Diane Sawyers as models for her character All over the place: The performer remarked that 'I tried to take a little bit of all of them and meld them into one' The actress also described her character as a grounding figure for all of the other individuals in the program. 'She's the calm in the midst of all this craziness...that's what I love about Laura,' she said. The Morning Show was recently renewed for a third season, which does not currently have a set release date. Back for more: The Morning Show was recently renewed for a third season, which does not currently have a set release date NSW may be being battered by record downpours causing devastating floods, but Simone Holtznagel has her own gripe with the weather. The SAS Australia star was left devastated on Monday after her $3000 Givenchy handbag was left moudly and ruined by Sydney's humid and rainy weather. The 28-year-old shared a post to Instagram, revealing that 'disaster has struck' her purse collection. Oh dear: NSW may be being battered by record downpours causing devastating floods, but Sydney resident Simone Holtznagel (pictured) has her own gripe with the weather after it ruined her expensive bag 'Going through my wardrobe packing my stuff for the week and I think I haven't used this Givenchy purse for a while,' she said. Holding up the bag, Simone revealed that the back was heavily mouldy from the humid weather. 'Can this weather and humidity f**king not?' she captioned the video clip. Wrecked: The SAS Australia star was left devastated on Monday after her $3000 Givenchy handbag was left moudly and ruined by Sydney's humid and rainy weather 'Can this weather and humidity f**king not?' she captioned the video clip The upmarket purse is Givenchy's leather Antigona bag, which retails for around $3000. Simone's complaint comes as hundreds remain trapped in the worst ever floods to hit New South Wales and Queensland, leaving eight people dead. Residents in Lismore, on the NSW north coast, were forced to flee, with some rescued by helicopter and boats as the military was called in during record flooding on Monday. Simone has come under fire for her diva-like appearance on SAS Australia, with some fans branding her 'a bit precious'. Record rains: Simone's complaint comes as hundreds remain trapped in the worst ever floods to hit New South Wales and Queensland, leaving eight people dead. Pictured: Residents in Lismore, on the NSW north coast, fleeing on Monday Finer things: Simone has come under fire for her diva-like appearance on SAS Australia, with some fans branding her 'a bit precious' The barrage of criticism comes after Simone refused to clean toilets or eat the breakfast on offer at the camp. Simone is frequently spotted at trendy, top tier eateries owned by billionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes, who is dating her sister, fellow model Madeline Holtznagel. 'I do like the finer things in life. I love going to nice restaurants,' she admitted in a piece to camera. Bob Saget, Betty White and Sydney Poitier were among those remembered in the In Memoriam segment at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. The Lost Daughter director Maggie Gyllenhaal took to the stage at Santa Monica's Barker Hangar to introduce the video montage and reflected on the 'painful losses' of the last 12 months. Among those included James Michael Tyler, Willie Garson, Michael K. Williams and Norm Macdonald. The latest: Bob Saget, Betty White and Sydney Poitier were among those remembered in the In Memoriam segment at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday She said: 'There's been a lot of painful loss this year. Tonight we honor our peers who have gone before us. To them, we say thank you for your work and inspiration and in some cases, even thank you for being a friend.' The memorial montage was set to the tune of Sailboat by Cody Fry and Ben Recor. Other stars recognized in the emotional segment included Jackie Mason, Ed Asner, Lisa Barnes, Helen McCrory, Saginaw Grant, Suzzanne Douglas, Al Harrington, Norman Lloyd, Melvin Van Peebles, Sonny Chiba, Meat Loaf, Ned Beatty, Gaspard Ulliel, Louie Anderson, and Peter Bogdanovich. A number of those remembered - Bob, Sydney, Meat, Gaspard, Louie, and Peter - all only passed away last month. The Lost Daughter director Maggie Gyllenhaal took to the stage at Santa Monica's Barker Hangar to introduce the video montage and reflected on the 'painful losses' of the last 12 months Iconic actor Sidney Poitier was honored after his passing last month at 94 The Wire alum Michael K. Williams was remembered following his death last year at 54 SNL alum Norm Macdonald was featured in the segment following his death last September at 61 Betty died on December 31, just a few weeks before her 100th birthday. Her agent, Jeff Witjas, told People in a statement at the time: 'Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever. 'I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don't think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. 'She believed she would be with him again. Betty died peacefully in her sleep at her home early this morning.' Actress Olympia Dukakis was seen in the segment following her passing last May at 89 Comedian Jackie Mason was featured in the segment following his death in July at 93 Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich was featured in the segment after his death last month at 82 Back to School star Sally Kellerman was featured in the segment following her death last week at 84 Jessica Chastain showed she was still good friends with Succession star Jeremy Strong when she shared a hug with him on Sunday at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The 44-year-old Oscar nominee reiterated her support for Strong, 43, after she previously spoke out in his favor in the wake of a controversial New Yorker profile detailing his extreme methods and preparation for his projects. The longtime buddies were also in a good mood after she won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role at the ceremony in Santa Monica, while he joined the rest of the Succession cast in taking home the trophy for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Still pals: Jessica Chastain, 44, confirmed her support for her friend Jeremy Strong, 43, at the 2022 SAG Awards on Sunday in Santa Monica by giving him a hug in the wake of his controversial New Yorker profile During some downtime at the ceremony, Chastain and Strong stopped to chat and she hugged him behind while smiling for photos. The two also looked playful as they straightened up back-to-back and crossed the arms. Chastain looked glamorous in a sparkling Dior pantsuit, while the Succession star looked dashing in a velvet fuchsia suit. She reiterated her support for her friend more than two months after he was the subject of a New Yorker profile by Michael Schulman that detailed his often-intense preparations for that show and other projects. Having fun with it: Chastain hugged Strong and also playfully posed with her back to his while they folded their arms Suited up: looked glamorous in a sparkling Dior pantsuit, while the Succession star looked dashing in a velvet fuchsia suit Winner: Strong and his costars won outstanding drama series ensemble for HBO's Succession, which was heavily featured in the New Yorker profile from December Schulman noted some of the extremes that Strong went to to get his performances, including requesting that he be sprayed with real tear gas while filming Aaron Sorkin's historical drama The Trial Of The Chicago 7. In another anecdote, Strong walked around the set of a funeral scene while in the Robert Downey Jr.starring film The Judge, in which he played the lead's mentally disabled brother. Despite not even being featured in the scene, he wanted to be expressing his emotions on set. He even took his Succession performance so far that he injured himself several times on set. Going all out: Writer Michael Schulman noted how Strong injured himself several times on the Succession set, and he also went to extreme ends on other projects Speaking up: Costars Kieran Culkin and Brian Cox were quoted by supportive but lightly critical in the piece, which lit up social media To the rescue: Though the profile wasn't a hatchet job, social media users mocked the most extreme anecdotes, prompting Chastain to defend her Zero Dark Thirty costar on Twitter on December 7 The New Yorker profile included lightly critical quotations from his costars Keiran Culkin and Brian Cox. 'After the first season, he said something to me like, "I'm worried that people might think that the show is a comedy,"' Culkin recalled. 'And I said, "I think the show is a comedy." He thought I was kidding.' Cox shared his admiration for Strong's performances on screen but worried that he might be damaging himself long-term. 'The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous,' he admitted. 'I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.' Supportive: 'Ive known Jeremy Strong for 20yrs & worked with him on 2 films. Hes a lovely person. Very inspiring & passionate about his work,' she wrote Biased: 'The profile that came out on him was incredibly one sided. Don't believe everything you read folks,' she continued. 'Snark sells but maybe its time we move beyond it' Although the profile wasn't a traditional take-down piece, many readers took it to be a mockery of Strong on social media and shared some of the most salacious bits about his extreme preparation, which is often incorrectly labeled Method acting. Amid the surge of joking and critical tweets, Chastain and other former collaborators including Sorkin spoke out to defend Strong. The actress, who costarred with Strong in Zero Dark Thirty, tweeted on December 7: 'Ive known Jeremy Strong for 20yrs & worked with him on 2 films. Hes a lovely person. Very inspiring & passionate about his work. The profile that came out on him was incredibly one sided. Don't believe everything you read folks.' She added: 'Snark sells but maybe its time we move beyond it.' Winner! It was a big night for Chastain, who was 'completely stunned' to be named best actress in a leading role for her work on The Eyes Of Tammy Faye Flying high: Strong celebrated his ensemble win with his costar Kieran Culkin after the show It was a big night for Chastain, who was 'completely stunned' to be named best actress in a leading role for her work on The Eyes Of Tammy Faye. Speaking on stage at Santa Monica's Barker Hangar, she said: 'Whoa. Wow. Okay I'm really surprised. Thank you SAG-AFTRA for this, I'm completely stunned. I'm the luckiest person ever... 'I wanted to be an actor my whole life, and ever since I was a kid it was the only thing I ever really thought about, and there were years of studying and auditioning and not getting jobs. And I know what that feels like and I know the loneliness of what that feels like. 'And so, for those of you who are struggling and feeling unseen I just want you to keep going because you're one job away, I promise! And the thing that really kept me going was you. It was everyone in this room and it was this community.' Although Strong lost out on his individual SAG nomination for lead actor (as did Culkin, Cox and Sarah Snook), the whole cast was honored with the prestigious ensemble award, with Cox delivering the acceptance speech. Leading the way: Brian Cox (R) delivered a stirring speech referencing the Russian attack on Ukraine while accepting the award for the rest of the cast Fran Drescher, the newly-appointed SAG-AFTRA president, said last month: 'After such a long time apart, we're excited to be together again this year at the 28th annual Screen Actor's Guild Awards.' Rosario Dawson and Vanessa Hudgens named the nominees in a presentation via Instagram Live last month. Helen Mirren who has received a total of five SAG Awards from 13 nominations will receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement honor. The accolades are given out by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Founded in 1952, the awards recognize outstanding performances in movie and prime time television. Before Will Smith won his first ever Screen Actors Guild award, he got a hug and some incredibly kind words from his mentor, Denzel Washington. Smith, 53, reunited with Washington, 67, at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards, held at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on Sunday evening. After winning Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Smith revealed to PEOPLE (the TV Show!) that Washington told him that 2022 was 'your year.' Denzel and Will: Before Will Smith won his first ever Screen Actors Guild award, he got a hug and some incredibly kind words from his mentor, Denzel Washington Will arrived at the event in a classic three-piece dark blue suit, with a dark blue suit coat, dark blue vest, light blue dress shirt and black tie. He even color matched his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who arrived in a navy blue Gareth Pugh gown with her husband of 25 years. Denzel, who was nominated for his performance in The Tragedy of Macbeth but lost to his old friend Smith, opted for a classic black suit with a white shirt and black tie. Will and Denzel: Will arrived at the event in a classic three-piece dark blue suit, with a dark blue suit coat, dark blue vest, light blue dress shirt and black tie Will and Jada: He even color matched his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who arrived in a navy blue Gareth Pugh gown with her husband of 25 years Smith has already won a Golden Globe and a National Board of Review award for his performance in King Richard, and he's nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and a slew of other awards. When asked after receiving his award what his longtime friend and mentor Denzel Washington said to him while the reunited, Smith revealed to People what Washington said. 'We've spent a lot of time together. So we've been talking, he's always been a mentor for me and he grabbed me and he said, "This is your year,"' Smith said. Will's year: 'We've spent a lot of time together. So we've been talking, he's always been a mentor for me and he grabbed me and he said, "This is your year,"' Smith said Smith has been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar twice, back in 2002 for Ali and 2007 for The Pursuit of Happyness, but he's hoping a third time is the charm with his third nomination for King Richard. Smith added that Washington, 'just hugged me and he said, "I'm so happy for you. Just love who you're becoming."' 'He knew me years ago, I would go to Denzel for advice so he's seen me through the years and he was just telling me how proud he is of who I've become and what I've become. He was saying that he felt like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders somehow,' Smith added of his mentor. So happy: Smith added that Washington, 'just hugged me and he said, "I'm so happy for you. Just love who you're becoming"' Weight: 'He knew me years ago, I would go to Denzel for advice so he's seen me through the years and he was just telling me how proud he is of who I've become and what I've become. He was saying that he felt like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders somehow,' Smith added of his mentor Smith and Washington will be vying for the Oscar together, as they're both nominated for Best Actor. They will be going up against Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog) and Andrew Garfield (tick, tick... BOOM!). The awards will be handed out on Sunday, March 27 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, airing on ABC. Oscar nominees: Smith and Washington will be vying for the Oscar together, as they're both nominated for Best Actor Competition: They will be going up against Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog) and Andrew Garfield (tick, tick... BOOM!) She was lighting up runways in France ahead of Paris Fashion week earlier this month. And Meadow Walker decided to give her 3.6 million Instagram followers a private fashion show on Sunday with an intimate mirror selfie. The 23-year-old model and daughter of the late Paul Walker highlighted her svelte figure in the photo while wearing a casual black bikini. Back in black: Meadow Walker, 23, showcased her washboard abs and svelte figure in a sleek black bikini in a mirror selfie posted to Instagram on Sunday Meadow's toned abs were on full display in the skimpy outfit, though her face was obscured by her phone. She had on a boxy bandeau-like top with thin spaghetti straps, which she paired with a thick, high-cut black bottom. The catwalk star had her hair styled in a short black bob, which was parted down the middle and swept back. She let the gorgeous selfie do all the talking and merely captioned it with an emoji of a woman shrugging her shoulders. Chic: The catwalk star had her hair styled in a short black bob and parted down the middle. She let the selfie do all the talking and merely captioned it with a shoulder-shrug emoji Later on Sunday, Meadow posted another photo of herself, this time a Polaroid-style closeup. In the Anna Suistyled image, she she wore a pink coat with a furry lavender collar over a black-and-pink patterned top while wearing stylish eye makeup. She noted in her caption that she was wearing her 'favorite butterfly ring.' The model didn't note if she was back home in the US, or if she was still abroad in France when she snapped her first selfie. Last month, she strutted down the runway at the Y/Project Menswear Fall/Winter 2022-2023 show ahead of the official start of Paris Fashion Week on Monday. Walk this way: Last month, she strutted down the runway at the Y/Project Menswear Fall/Winter 2022-2023 show ahead of the official start of Paris Fashion Week on Monday; seen January 19 Strike a pose: The fashionista also stunned in an edgy black suit designed by Glenn Martens for Jean Paul Gaultier Courture's Spring 2022 show The fashionista also stunned in an edgy black suit designed by Glenn Martens for Jean Paul Gaultier Courture's Spring 2022 show. Meadow's husband Louis Thornton-Allan whom she married in a ceremony held in the Dominican Republic in October wasn't anywhere to be seen in her latest social media posts. The couple exchanged their vows on a beach, and it was her father's friend and costar Vin Diesel who is also her godfather who walked her down the aisle. The model announced in late October that they had wed earlier that month, just two months after she and Louis got engaged. He is believed to have popped the question to Meadow while they were on vacation in the desert in August. MIA: Meadow's husband Louis Thornton-Allan whom she married in a ceremony held in the Dominican Republic in October wasn't anywhere to be seen in her latest social media posts In addition to being a rising model, Meadow previously paid tribute to her father by establishing The Paul Walker Foundation, a non-profit focused on marine science. In late November, she paid tribute to Paul on Instagram for the eighth anniversary of the fiery car crash that claimed his life. 'I love and miss you endlessly,' she captioned a sweet photo of her father kissing her on the cheek when she was just a baby. A college student listens to an online lecture in Seoul, in this March 29, 2020 photo. Korea Times photo by Jung Jun-hee By Bahk Eun-ji Universities' guidelines to conduct hybrid modes of learning online and face-to-face lectures are causing confusion among students. In line with the recommendation of the Ministry of Education (MOE) to expand in-person lectures from the first semester of this year, some universities have prepared new guidelines to conduct hybrid lectures. For example, Sogang University and Chung-Ang University will conduct face-to-face classes for fewer than 40 students and in-person classes for more than 40 students. Yonsei University and Sungkyunkwan University have chosen hybrid learning for some of the same subjects, meaning that students will attend some classes in-person and others virtually. As the learning options have diversified, many students are expressing their concerns when they have to take both types of classes on the same day. On an online community used by Yonsei University students, one user wrote, "Every Thursday at 5 p.m., after the in-person lecture, I have to prepare for the next online lecture during the 10-minute break." "I plan to go to a nearby cafe and attend the class online, but I think it will be difficult for me to participate in the class actively if I have to discuss something or give a presentation," the user wrote. In an online community used by Korea University students, a user wrote, "As the teaching method has been divided into online and in-person, it has become more difficult to make a timetable." "Previously, I had to sign up for lectures that I wanted to take so that the class time did not overlap, but this semester, I had to consider not only the teaching options, but also the day I have to go to school." Some students point out that, to them that it seems useless to have lectures virtually because students have to go to school anyway if they have any in-person lectures on that day. Some departments at Sungkyunkwan University, Sogang University, and Korea University have decided to open empty lecture rooms or auditoriums for students who need to take online classes while on campus. Such a decision will reduce the inconveniences of students finding a place to use their laptops, but many said that it goes against the initial purpose of the online lectures to prevent COVID-19 infection by reducing contact between students as well as teaching staff. Kim Ye-rim, 21, a university student in Seoul, said, "For me, it would be absurd to watch the professor on the laptop screen and listen to the class while sitting in a lecture room." Robert Pattinson showed off his unique sense of style on Sunday at The Batman Miami fan screening. The actor, 35, looked dapper in a brown check blazer as he walked down the red carpet of the event at AMC Sunset Place 24. He looked fashionable as he donned a pair of matching check trousers and layered a purple shirt underneath his double breasted blazer. Looking sharp: Robert Pattinson looked dapper in a brown check blazer and purple shirt as he attended The Batman Miami fan screening on Sunday Robert was dressed to impress as he completed the look with a pair of black shiny dress shoes. The Tenet star sported a clean shave and wore his short brunette locks in his signature style as he attended the special screening of the film, in which he plays the titular character. The star beamed for the cameras as he held a microphone in his hand and stopped to talk to fans at the event. Strike a pose: The actor donned a pair of matching check trousers as he strutted down the red carpet Happy: The star beamed for the cameras as he stopped to talk to fans at the start of the event Robert Pattinson has revealed his relief at being able to put The Batman behind him - following a gruelling three year shoot costing a whopping 100 million and a reported fallout with the blockbuster's perfectionist director, Matt Reeves. He also confessed that he was the type who would be 'looking for the exit strategy before you've even started' something, adding that the picture 'was one of the hardest things I've done in my life'. Not only did the actor, 35, break his wrist while performing a stunt early in the production process, he was allegedly forced to reshoot scenes over 50 times and refused to keep in shape while taking six months out due to lockdown restrictions. He reportedly caused crew members to become paranoid when he tested positive for Covid upon his return, battled with loneliness while living in a tent around the country and had his take on Batman's voice overruled after two weeks of filming. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Meanwhile an eager stuntman put on a daring display by hanging from one of the pods going around the London Eye Spitting image: He donned the hero's signature cape and cowl to stand atop one of the Eye's famous pods Phew! Robert Pattinson (pictured in-character) has admitted he was 'looking for an exit strategy' from The Batman - after breaking his wrist on-set, battling with loneliness and 'falling out with director Matt Reeves when he was forced to reshoot a scene over 50 times' At the superhero film's London screening at Waterloo's BFI IMAX on Wednesday, the former Twilight star let out to The Sun: 'It's a relief. For (director) Matt Reeves, this is five years. I've been kind of working on this for three years.' Originally set for release in 2018, R-Patz is thought to have been paid $3m (2.24m) to replace Ben Affleck, who had originally signed up to star in the titular role while directing and producing before suffering interferences in his personal life. Having transformed into the character for Batman v Superman and Justice League, Ben checked into rehab for alcohol addiction in 2018 amid his divorce from his then-wife Jennifer Garner, following a thirteen year marriage. Matt then cast Zoe Kravitz to play Catwoman, but she was soon left praying he would call 'cut' before her co-star's sweat would fall in her mouth, during exhausting scenes which caused him to sweat profusely. A source had told the publication: 'Matt will insist on doing scenes over and over again and get bogged down in the tiny details. Sometimes it's like he doesn't know when to stop.' Stressful: A source said: 'Matt (right) will insist on doing scenes over and over again and get bogged down in the tiny details. Sometimes it's like he doesn't know when to stop' (pictured with Robert) Lenny Kravitz's daughter stopped going out in fear of catching the virus and admitted she 'started to cry' after being fitted into her 'tight and restrictive' costume, although found solace in Robert, with Matt claiming the pair 'really connected'. In December 2020 and amid The Batman shoot, she filed for divorce from her husband Karl Glusman and it was said Robert had tenderly draped his coat over her shoulders during one shivering shoot. It was soon revealed thought that Zoe had begun dating Hollywood heartthrob Channing Tatum while Robert's relationship with model Suki Waterhouse went from strength to strength. The MTV Movie Award winner also confessed he was given a slap on the wrist just two weeks into filming after speaking with a whispery voice in his role as Bruce Wayne. He had been attempting to steer away from the 'gruff and gravelly' portrayal by his predecessors, Ben, Christian Bale, George Clooney and Michael Keaton. Robert went on to claim he felt 'alone' while living in a tent between Liverpool, London and Glasgow, which left him disconnected with the outside world. Moviegoers excited to see Robert's The Batman movie in cinemas from March 4 should brace themselves, as it's set to be the longest film in the franchise ever at nearly three hours long. The hotly-anticipated comic book film is said to have a running time of two hours and 55 minutes, including eight minutes of credits, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ben will reclaim his role in The Flash later this year alongside former Batman star Michael, who will also play the character but in another dimension. With studio bosses planning for a trilogy in Robert's installment, The Sun has claimed that a sequel may not be so certain. The forthcoming motion picture features an ensemble cast including Dano as Edward Nashton/The Riddler, Zoe as Catwoman/Selina Kyle and Colin Farrell as The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot. The movie is set to arrive in theaters March 4. Killing Eve made its much-anticipated return to screens for its final series on Monday, with the murderous Villanelle struggling to move on from her deadly past. The series opener sees all of the main characters attempting a reinvention, with little success, as our titular heroine is hell-bent on finding Helene, with the help of her hunky new beau. Elsewhere, despite trying to force a belief in God by getting baptised, it's clear Villanelle can't just switch off her deadling instincts, accidentally drowning a cat before coming close to killing a fellow observer. It's back! Killing Eve made its much-anticipated return to screens for its final series on Monday, with the murderous Villanelle struggling to move on from her deadly past The episode begins with a leather-clad figure speeding through Russia on a motorbike, driving past faded posters of a beloved politician: Konstantin, who has reinvented himself as a local mayor. After apprehending a guard, the armed figure makes their way into the office where Konstantin is receiving a head massage, and as he stands down the gun's barrel, he notes: 'If I'm going to die, can I at least take this off? The headlines wouldn't be good.' The figure then removes their helmet, and it's revealed to be Eve - who shoots Konstantin in the leg as revenge for Kenny's death. Love is in the air! The series opener sees all of the main characters attempting a reinvention, as our titular heroine is hell-bent on finding Helene, with the help of her hunky new beau Demanding the whereabouts of Helene so she can destroy the mysterious organisation The Twelve, Konstantin notes her best chance is to contact Villanelle. It's then revealed that our beloved assassin is a far cry from her killer ways, performing in a lavish church to a watching congregation. Appearing to have committed herself to religious work, Villanelle is seen cleaning carpets and collecting orders of service, and after a fellow worshipper lauds her for her commitment to her faith, she ominously notes: 'I have to.' It's then revealed that Eve has landed herself a new job in private security alongside a hunky new boyfriend named Yusuf, who far from being 'camouflage' for her new life, is assisting with her quest for revenge. A man of service? The episode begins with a leather-clad figure speeding through Russia on a motorbike threatening Konstantin, who has reinvented himself as a local mayor Hell-bent: Demanding the whereabouts of Helene so she can destroy the mysterious organisation The Twelve, Konstantin notes her best chance is to contact Villanelle New face: It's then revealed that Eve has landed herself a new job in private security alongside a hunky new boyfriend named Yusuf, who far from being 'camouflage' Among her post, it's revealed she's been sent an invitation to Villanelle's baptism, which Eve quickly tears to shreds, before Yusef reveals he's gotten her a new lead by finding the funeral home where former Twelve assassin Rhian's body was taken. Meanwhile, in Mallorca, Carolyn has landed herself a tedious new position as a cultural attache, that includes attending plays and judging sandcastle competitions, and as she receives her daily briefing she is greeted by an unexpected visitor. It's clear she is far from interesting in teaching children about British culture, and is investigating murders connected to The Twelve with the help of Czech intelligence... before she is rudely interrupted by the newly-promoted (and smug) Hugo, who has landed her old job in Russia. New life: Appearing to have committed herself to religious work, Villanelle is seen cleaning carpets and collecting orders of service Helping hand: Yusef shows his commitment to Eve by helping track down the funeral home where former Twelve member Rhian's body was stored While Hugo tries to convince Carolyn to stand down, she notes The Twelve are more dangerous than any of the hostile states, despite his threats she could spend a 'long long long time' in prison. Hugo reminds Carolyn that she is responsible for Paul Bradwell's death, but she simply brushed it off noting his 'inflamed' sunburn. Meanwhile Villanelle has fully embraced her new religious calling, eating little more than fish and loaves for dinner, and moving in with a fellow observer named May and her father. Dropped down the ranks: Meanwhile, in Mallorca, Caroyln has landed herself a tedious new position as a cultural attache At odds: Hugo, who has now been promoted to her old job in Russia, issues a chilling threat to stop investigating, or face going to prison for a 'long long long time' It's a far cry from the ruthless killer fans have grown to love in three series past, as she prays for a 'new life' before bonding with a household cat named Lucifer, who violently bites her before drowning in the bath. Attempting to distract herself from the accident, Villanelle begs a less-than pure May - who had been in the midst of penning racy fiction - to stroke her hair. Back in London, Eve is reluctantly reuniting with Carolyn, who tries to enlist her help in tracking down a killer who is murdering members of The Twelve, and despite her refusal, it's clear she is tempted to investigate. No thanks! Back in London, Eve is reluctantly reuniting with Carolyn, who tries to enlist her help in tracking down a killer who is murdering members of The Twelve Hell-bent: Villanelle prays for a 'new life' before bonding with a household cat named Lucifer, who violently bites her before drowning in the bath. Sweet: It's clear that May has taken a shine to Villanelle, despite her vicar father's reluctannce Furious: After realising Eve has failed to attend her baptism, she and Villanelle cross paths in a hotel, and the assassin doesn't get the response she hoped for In the church, Villanelle is trying to explain why she was found burying a cat in the graveyard, after catching the Reverend's eye with her focus on someone witnessing her baptism. Asked whether she truly believes in God, she replies: 'I believe that people who believe in God are good people for me to be around.' before insisting she's not as 's****y inside as people think she is.' As she heads to the funeral home, Eve tries to find answers about Rhian's body, catching the attention of an embalmer, who nonchalantly agrees to find out more about her body, before coming back empty-handed. Donning a sophisticated white gown for her baptism, it's clear that Villanelle is disappointed her reserved seat remains empty, and she furiously screams 'Just dunk me!' into the font to complete her baptism. As Eve heads into the lobby of her hotel, she suddently encounters Villanelle through the water of a fish tank, leading to an unexpectedly tender moment where she says: 'I forgive you' for failing to attend her baptism. Mysterious: As she heads to the funeral home, Eve tries to find answers about Rhian's body, catching the attention of an embalmer Raging: It's rejection that Villanelle doesn't take well, as she heads back to the church before ranting at a crucifix for proof that God is real, with May trying to lean in for a kiss But the gesture doesn't deliver the reaction she hoped, as Eve simply walks away in an uncaring manner, insiting Villanelle is still the 'same person' despite her sudden love for prayer. Proving the pair can't keep away from each other, Eve notes: 'If you had changed, you wouldn't have come here,' before furiously slapping the killer. It's rejection that Villanelle doesn't take well, as she heads back to the church before ranting at a crucifix for proof that God is real, dramatically whispering: 'I knew you weren't real.' Back to her old ways! Villanelle notes that May 'doesn't even know her,' before coming dangerously close to drowning her in the font After being joined by May, who in a surprise development leans in for a kiss, Villanelle notes that even she 'doesn't know her,' before coming dangerously close to drowning her in the font. Eve tries to pursue the mysterious embalmer from the funeral home, before being violently assaulted by her in a subway, before finally tracking down Helene. As Villanelle tries to move on from her near-kill, she is greeted by a hallucination of herself dressed as Christ himself, who notes: 'What can I say? I'm as surprised as you!' before saying they plan to 'lead her to salvation.' A tearful Villanelle can't hide her delight, ending the opening episode on an ambiguous note. Killing Eve's final series continues on BBC iPlayer on March 7th. It airs on BBC American in the US. Cindy Crawford and her doppelganger daughter Kaia Gerber oozed sophistication as they left their Paris hotel on Sunday evening. The pair stepped out for dinner in the French capital after flying to mainland Europe for Paris Fashion Week. Supermodel Cindy, 56, looked chic in an open-front camel wool-blend trench coat while greeting onlookers. Chic: Cindy Crawford oozed sophistication as she left her Paris hotel with daughter Kaia Gerber on Sunday ahead of fashion week She added to her look with a plunging satin blouse which she tucked into her black tailored trousers. The supermodel rounded things off with a pair of suede ankle boots while accessorising with a leopard print clutch. Meanwhile, daughter Kaia, 20, took inspiration from her superstar mother by wrapping up in a sweeping oversized coat. Hero: Kaia recently celebrated her mother's birthday, sharing an adorable snap to her 7.5m followers on Instagram Kaia recently celebrated her mother's birthday by sharing an adorable snap to her 7.5m followers on Instagram. She described Cindy as 'her hero' in the post, captioning: 'Happy birthday mom (red heart) here's to celebrating you everyday because one day will never be enough. My hero forever. I love you.' Kaia has recently been spotted spending time with boyfriend Austin Butler, 30. On the catwalk: Kaia recently modelled for Prada in Milan with a host of other top models, including Gigi and Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Irina Shayk The pair were first spotted together in December, following Kaia's split with actor ex-boyfriend Jacob Elordi. Austin, who is 10 years her senior, famously dated High School Musical actress Vanessa Hudgens. Meanwhile the fashionista has been jet-setting across the globe to grace the catwalks of Milan, London and Paris. Most recently she was seen modelling for Prada in Italy with a host of other top models, among them Gigi and Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Irina Shayk. Josie Gibson has issued a desperate plea for help as she revealed her unnamed friend and her two children are trapped in war-torn Ukraine. The This Morning star, 37, took to Twitter on Sunday to share what she said was the 'most important tweet Ive ever written' as she asked her 344,000 followers for assistance in getting her pal transportation to a train station or the border. She wrote: 'Please RT: this is the most important tweet Ive ever written and its a long shot. Reaching out: Josie Gibson has issued a desperate plea for help as she revealed her friend and her two children are trapped in war-torn Ukraine, (Josie pictured on This Morning) 'We have friends a woman and her two British children stuck by Kharkiv does anyone know of any charities or people on the ground with fuel who can drive them to the train station or border?' Josie's post was soon flooded with plenty of suggestions from her concerned fans, with the star noting that the friend had travelled top the Ukraine to care for her poorly grandmother. She added: 'They only went to care for a sick grandmother and got stuck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.' Appeal: The This Morning star, 37, took to Twitter on Sunday to share what she said was the 'most important tweet Ive ever written' as she asked her 344,000 followers for assistance in getting her pal transportation to a train station or the border Desperation: She wrote: 'Please RT: this is the most important tweet Ive ever written and its a long shot The former Big Brother contestant also wrote a similar message in Ukrainian, translated as: 'Urgently!!! I am looking for help in transporting a mother and two children aged 6 and 9 years old, British citizens To Kharkov railway station Or to any border in Western Ukraine.' In the early hours of Thursday morning, Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion on Thursday with it being confirmed on Saturday the Ukrainian civilian death toll is 219. Putin personally gave the order to attack Ukraine at around 5am on Thursday, unleashing a salvo of rocket fire in order to knock out the country's military command structure. Asking for help: The former Big Brother contestant also wrote a similar message in Ukrainian UKRAINE WAR: LATEST Vladimir Putin urges Ukrainian military to overthrow the country's leadership and negotiate peace Ukraine and Russia discuss a place and time for talks Russia vetoes draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would have deplored Moscow's invasion of Ukraine - China abstained from the vote President Joe Biden instructs the U.S. State Department to release $350 million in military aid to Ukraine Canada, the US, Britain and the European Union said they could act to exclude Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payments system Ukraine said more than 1,000 Russian soldiers had been killed - Russia did not release casualty figures NATO allies will provide more weapons to Ukraine and deploy more forces to the eastern part of the alliance The conflict could drive up to five million people abroad The MoD said the bulk of Russian forces involved in the advance on Kyiv are now 30 km (19 miles) from the city centre A curfew is in force until 8am Monday Russia closes airspace to flights from Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic China's support for Putin wavers as state banks limit finance for Russian oil and gas Advertisement And on Saturday, in a video message to the besieged nation, Zelensky accused the Kremlin of attempting to seize the capital, overthrow the government and install a 'puppet' regime 'like in Donetsk', one of two separatist regions which warmonger Vladimir Putin officially recognised before launching an all-out invasion. Declaring 'we broke their idea', he added: 'The fights are going on in many cities and areas of our state. But we know that we are protecting the country, the land, the future of our children. Kyiv and key cities around the capital are controlled by our army. 'Each Ukrainian should keep one thing in mind: if you can stop and destroy the occupiers - do it. Everyone who can come back to Ukraine - come back to defend Ukraine.' Meanwhile, a curfew in Kyiv has been imposed until 8am on Monday to ensure the most effective defence of the city and the safety of its people. A previous daily curfew had run from 10pm to 7am. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said: 'All civilians on the street during the curfew will be considered members of the enemy's sabotage and reconnaissance groups.' It comes after Josie previously vowed to transform her size 18 figure to a 12 after falling back into 'unhealthy habits' of overeating bread and chocolate. The presenter told MailOnline last month she no longer feels 'sexy' and only sees herself as a 'working mum' now her body is at an 'uncomfortable size.' In an exclusive interview, Josie, who's a single mum to son Reggie, two, confessed to overindulging with foods that don't work well with her metabolism as she aims to slim down before getting back on the dating scene. Josie, who is the new ambassador for weight loss brand WW, said: 'I can't wait to start feeling sexy again. I can't remember the last time I felt proper sexy. I just feel like a working mum. I don't feel sexy. 'I have obviously been big my whole life I have always been one of those people that's struggled with my weight. Putin's invasion of Ukraine has sparked international outrage and resolution to stop him 'In 2013 I lost weight and then I started putting it on again when I had my son in 2019 and it's getting to a point now where I feel really, really uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable with the size I am. I am a size 18. 'I would like to be a comfortable 12 or a 12-14. I would be so happy with that. I have been a size 8. I don't think it suits me and it's a lot of work to get there so I just need to find that happy medium. A size 12 would be ideal.' Josie, who slimmed down to a size 8 in 2013, said her biggest vice is bread but she hopes incorporating yoga as well as HITT training into her schedule will help to eliminate her unhealthy urges. 'I don't feel sexy': It comes after Josie previously vowed to transform her size 18 figure to a 12 after falling back into 'unhealthy habits' of overeating bread and chocolate She said: 'My biggest thing is bread I love bread and I've got the body that's not designed to love bread. 'I've been eating chocolate anything I want to have, I've had it. Not everyday can be a treat day when you've got the metabolism I have. I just can't wait to have more energy. 'I remember feeling so fit and healthy and I had so much clarity and nothing was a chore. I have gone back to my old unhealthy eating habits. 'Because I have got so big, I am really feeling it in my joints now. Yoga is going to be a big part of my journey. I was all about HITT before but now I'm going to have a balance with it all.' He is best known for playing the charismatic Kendall Roy on Succession. However, Jeremy Strong, 43, looked worlds away from his on-screen character as he embraced his natural grey hair at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night. The actor was joined by the rest of the cast in taking home the trophy for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. New look: Succession star Jeremy Strong looked worlds away from his on-screen character as he embraced his natural grey hair at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night Jeremy, who has played one of the leading roles in the HBO series for the past three seasons looked completely different as he graced the red carpet. Known on screen for his jet black locks, the Trial of the Chicago 7 star confidently debuted his new look while making sure to stand out in a velvet fuchsia tuxedo suit. Oozing confidence with his new appearance, Jeremy smouldered in a silver shirt and matching bow tie. Out with the old: The Succession star is known on screen for his jet black locks Looking good: The star confidently debuted his new look while making sure to stand out in a velvet fuchsia tuxedo suit Handsome: Oozing confidence with his new appearance, the silver fox smouldered in a silver shirt and matching bow tie Stepping out on the night, he wore a pair of square-toed shoes which finished off the suave look impeccably. The star was all smiles as he caressed his new do, while the handsome star also appeared to rock his grey stubble. SAG 2022 WINNERS: FIRST GLANCE Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Jason Sudeikis ('Ted Lasso') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Jean Smart ('Hacks') Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series 'Ted Lasso' (Apple TV Plus) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Lee Jung-Jae ('Squid Game') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Jung Ho-yeon ('Squid Game') Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series 'Succession' (HBO) Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Ariana DeBose ('West Side Story') Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Troy Kotsur ('CODA') Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain ('The Eyes of Tammy Faye') Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Will Smith ('King Richard') Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 'CODA' (Apple Original Films) Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture 'No Time to Die' 'Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series 'Squid Game' Advertisement Elsewhere on the night, Jessica Chastain reiterated her support for Jeremy, after she previously spoke out in his favor in the wake of a controversial New Yorker profile detailing his extreme methods and preparation for his projects. The longtime buddies shared a warm embrace after Jessica won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role at the ceremony in Santa Monica. During some downtime at the ceremony, Jessica and Jeremy stopped to chat and she hugged him from behind while smiling for photos. The two also looked playful as they straightened up back-to-back and crossed arms. Jessica reiterated her support for her friend more than two months after he was the subject of a New Yorker profile by Michael Schulman that detailed his often-intense preparations for that show and other projects. Michael noted some of the extremes that Strong went to to get his performances, including requesting that he be sprayed with real tear gas while filming Aaron Sorkin's historical drama The Trial Of The Chicago 7. In another anecdote, Jeremy walked around the set of a funeral scene while in the Robert Downey Jr.starring film The Judge, in which he played the lead's mentally disabled brother. Despite not even being featured in the scene, he wanted to be expressing his emotions on set. He even took his Succession performance so far that he injured himself several times on set. The New Yorker profile included lightly critical quotations from his co-stars Kieran Culkin and Brian Cox. 'After the first season, he said something to me like, "I'm worried that people might think that the show is a comedy,"' Kevin recalled. 'And I said, "I think the show is a comedy." He thought I was kidding.' Brian Cox shared his admiration for Jeremy's performances on screen but worried that he might be damaging himself long-term. 'The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous,' he admitted. 'I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.' Still pals: Jessica Chastain, 44, confirmed her support for her friend Jeremy at the 2022 SAG Awards by giving him a hug in the wake of his controversial New Yorker profile Having fun with it: Chastain hugged Strong and also playfully posed with her back to his while they folded their arms Suited up: looked glamorous in a sparkling Dior pantsuit, while the Succession star looked dashing in his velvet fuchsia suit Winner: Strong and his costars won outstanding drama series ensemble for HBO's Succession, which was heavily featured in the New Yorker profile from December Going all out: Writer Michael Schulman noted how Strong injured himself several times on the Succession set, and he also went to extreme ends on other projects Speaking up: Co-stars Kieran Culkin and Brian Cox were quoted by supportive but lightly critical in the piece, which lit up social media To the rescue: Though the profile wasn't a hatchet job, social media users mocked the most extreme anecdotes, prompting Chastain to defend her Zero Dark Thirty costar on Twitter on December 7 Supportive: 'I've known Jeremy Strong for 20yrs & worked with him on 2 films. He's a lovely person. Very inspiring & passionate about his work,' she wrote Biased: 'The profile that came out on him was incredibly one sided. Don't believe everything you read folks,' she continued. 'Snark sells but maybe its time we move beyond it' Although the profile wasn't a traditional take-down piece, many readers took it to be a mockery of Jeremy on social media and shared some of the most salacious bits about his extreme preparation, which is often incorrectly labelled Method acting. Amid the surge of joking and critical tweets, Jessica and other former collaborators spoke out to defend Strong. The actress, who co-starred with Jeremy in Zero Dark Thirty, tweeted on December 7: 'Ive known Jeremy Strong for 20yrs & worked with him on 2 films. He's a lovely person. Very inspiring & passionate about his work. The profile that came out on him was incredibly one sided. Don't believe everything you read folks.' She added: 'Snark sells but maybe its time we move beyond it.' Winner! It was a big night for Chastain, who was 'completely stunned' to be named best actress in a leading role for her work on The Eyes Of Tammy Faye Flying high: Strong celebrated his ensemble win with his costar Kieran Culkin after the show Sunday was a big night for Jessica, who was 'completely stunned' to be named best actress in a leading role for her work on The Eyes Of Tammy Faye. Speaking on stage at Santa Monica's Barker Hangar, she said: 'Whoa. Wow. Okay I'm really surprised. Thank you SAG-AFTRA for this, I'm completely stunned. I'm the luckiest person ever... 'I wanted to be an actor my whole life, and ever since I was a kid it was the only thing I ever really thought about, and there were years of studying and auditioning and not getting jobs. And I know what that feels like and I know the loneliness of what that feels like. 'And so, for those of you who are struggling and feeling unseen I just want you to keep going because you're one job away, I promise! And the thing that really kept me going was you. It was everyone in this room and it was this community.' Although Jeremy lost out on his individual SAG nomination for lead actor (as did Keran Culkin, Brian Cox and Sarah Snook), the whole cast was honored with the prestigious ensemble award, with Brian delivering the acceptance speech. Leading the way: Brian Cox (R) delivered a stirring speech referencing the Russian attack on Ukraine while accepting the award for the rest of the cast She has touched down in Paris after taking Milan Fashion Week by storm last week. And Bella Hadid appeared to be having the time of her life already, as she larked around on the balcony of the five-star Costes hotel on Monday afternoon. The model, 25, beamed broadly while posing in an orange and pink faux fur hat and a quirky blue Louis Vuitton chain-style top, over a silver bralet. So chic! Bella Hadid appeared to be having the time of her life as she larked around on the balcony of the five-star Costes hotel on Monday afternoon The eye-catching top was teamed with a pair of baggy blue jeans with the words 'tourist' and 'purist' printed on the garment in bold red lettering. Bella appeared in high spirits as she waved to fans who were stood before, before heading back into her hotel room. The media personality opted for minimal make-up and wore her raven locks swept back into chic braids. Funky! The model, 25, beamed broadly while posing in an orange and pink faux fur hat and a quirky blue Louis Vuitton chain-style top, over a silver bralet Slogan: The eye-catching top was teamed with a pair of baggy blue jeans with the words 'tourist' and 'purist' printed on the garment in bold red lettering Earlier in the day, Bella wowed once again as she put on a leggy display while leaving Le Royal Monceau hote. She had slipped into a one-shouldered cream knitted dress for the low-key solo outing. Bella teamed her chic knitwear, which featured a pocket detail on the sleeve, with black tights and chunky black lace-up boots. Cool: The media personality opted for minimal make-up and wore her raven locks swept back into chic braids Yoohoo! Bella happily greeted people from her balcony Famous pals! Bella was joined at the hotel by her siser Gigi (left) and friend Kendall (right) The stunner further accessorised her look with trendy shades, large gold earrings and a gold watch, while she tucked a nude and tan handbag under her arm. Keeping her overall look simple, Bella left her brunette locks loose, while she highlighted her features with a minimal make-up palette. The sister of fellow model Gigi appeared in great spirits as she flashed a smile as she walked, though the star appeared to carefully cradle her arm. Looking good: Bella wowed once again on Monday as she put on a leggy display while leaving Le Royal Monceau hotel Walk this way: She slipped into a one-shouldered cream knitted dress for the solo outing Bella cut a solo figure during the outing, though she was previously accompanied by boyfriend Marc Kalman for her trip to the Italian fashion capital, however the Vogue coverstar tends to keep their relationship private. The Vogue coverstar and the art director have been dating since last year following her split from The Weeknd in 2019. The pair went public with their romance this past July when she posted a picture of her and Marc locking lips in Cannes. Best foot forward: Bella teamed her chic knitwear, which featured a pocket detail on the sleeve, with black tights and chunky black lace-up boots Details: The stunner further accessorised her look with trendy shades, large gold earrings and a gold watch, while she tucked a nude and tan handbag under her arm Out and about: The sister of fellow model Gigi appeared in great spirits as she flashed a smile as she walked, though the star appeared to carefully cradle her arm Radiant: The model was bound to turn heads as she strolled out of her hotel amid another fashion week They are said to have carried on the romance in New York amid the coronavirus pandemic while assiduously making sure they never got caught together. Bella has made a name for herself in the modelling world for the past several years. At the beginning of her career in 2016, Bella was voted Model of the Year by industry professionals. This was the same year she walked in her first ever Victoria's Secret fashion show. It is no surprise that Bella has risen to superstardom fame, following in her mother, Yolanda Hadid and sister Gigi's footsteps. Gorgeous: Meanwhile, Bella's sister Gigi was spotted putting on a sultry display as she posed during a photoshoot The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda was a major model in the '80s and '90s and got Gigi into modelling when she was just two-years-old. Meanwhile, Bella's sister Gigi was spotted putting on a sultry display as she posed during a photoshoot in Paris on Monday. The model, 26, looked stunning as she slipped into a longline beige trench coat as she posed for sunny snaps on a balcony. Elsewhere, the siblings' close pal Kendall Jenner was seen once again showing off her newly-dyed auburn tresses. The reality star, 26, was recognisable despite covering up in a cap and sunglasses, with Kendall adding a stylish brown bomber jacket and blue jeans to her look. Advertisement It was Bradley Cooper, but not as we know him during an appearance at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday evening. The celebrated Hollywood star, 47, revealed a notably smooth complexion after taking his seat ahead of proceedings at the cavernous Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Cooper's apparent lack of facial contours was all the more evident as he broke into a grin while reuniting with old friend Lady Gaga and posing for photos with comedy legend Martin Short. A star is reborn! It was Bradley Cooper, but not as we know him during an appearance at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday evening (left, at the SAGS, and right, in 2021) This year, Cooper was nominated for Licorice Pizza and lost to CODA's Troy Kotsur, while Gaga was nominated for House of Gucci and lost to The Eyes of Tammy Faye's Jessica Chastain. The actor stepped out in a classic black tuxedo with a black coat, white shirt, black bowtie, black pants and black shoes for the annual event. Cooper and Gaga sparked romance rumors aplenty during their awards season run for A Star Is Born, particularly since she ended her engagement with Christian Carino in February 2019. Nothing to see here: The celebrated Hollywood star revealed a notably smooth complexion as he greeted old friend Lady Gaga at the cavernous Barker Hangar in Santa Monica Reading between the lines: Cooper also posed for photos with comedy legend Martin Short The actor was still with Russian supermodel Irina Shayk at the time, with both he and Gaga insisting in interviews that there was never any romance on set. Gaga has been dating entrepreneur Michael Polansky since February 2020, though Cooper is believed to be single since splitting with Shayk in 2019. The star is coming off both Nightmare Alley and Licorice Pizza in 2021, and will return as Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Here he comes: Cooper at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (L) and out and about in 2021 (R) In contention: Cooper was nominated for Licorice Pizza and lost to CODA's Troy Kotsur, while Gaga was nominated for House of Gucci and lost to The Eyes of Tammy Faye's Jessica Chastain SAG 2022: WINNERS Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Michael Keaton - Dopesick Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Kate Winslet - Mare Of Easttown Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Jason Sudeikis Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Jean Smart - Hacks Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Ted Lasso - Apple TV plus Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Advertisement He is also making The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, debuting in late 2022, and he's getting set to star in and direct Maestro about composer Leonard Bernstein. The actor chatted last month with Mahershala Ali for Variety about his role in Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley for the publication's Actors on Actors feature. Cooper admitted that 'it was insecurity and ego' that drove him to accept the lead role in the crime drama, as Leonardo DiCaprio was initially linked to the part prior to leaving the project. 'Nightmare Alley was an interesting example of how insecure I am,' he said. 'I was like, "Oh, I guess I still am the guy that wants to be in the group," because I had no intention of acting in anything other than what Ive been writing. 'Leonardo DiCaprio fell out, and Guillermo del Toro came to me. I still remember thinking, "Oh wow, the guys that dont hire me, they want to hire me?" And then it was like, "Of course, I have to do it just because Ive never been allowed into that group."' Cooper said that appearing in the film, which also features Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe and Rooney Mara, 'wound up being an incredible experience.' The Academy Award-nominated star opened up on playing the role of Stanton Carlisle, who ascends from carnival worker to respected mentalist over the course of the motion picture. 'That was very interesting to me to play a character, Stanton Carlisle, who has clearly been traumatized as a kid, has no parental foundation, has no foundation for love, intimacy, real connection, and he just is surviving off of a gratification and a desperate need to find out who he is,' Cooper said. 'In this movie, a lot of things happened on the day. It felt like Stanton taught Guillermo and I about where this exploration into humanity could go. 'It was terrifying for both Guillermo and myself because of that; it was really going into the unknowing. 'The whole movie leads towards the end, where finally someone tells him who he is.' Dame Judi Dench was warned by an M&S manager not to steal anything after Tracey Ullman did an impression of her as a kleptomaniac. Comedian Tracey, 62, revealed she sent presents to apologise after the Oscar winning actress was told by a store boss manager he was keeping an eye on her. In Tracey Ullman's 2016 show, where she also impersonated Angela Merkel and Camilla Parker-Bowles - Dame Judi steals from shops but because she's a national treasure, she gets away with it. Ha! Dame Judi Dench was warned by an M&S manager not to steal anything after Tracey Ullman did an impression of her as a kleptomaniac (Tracey pictured dressed as Judi) 'It was just fun,' Tracey said. 'Then the Judi Dench called me and said 'I've been having a problem in Marks and Spencer's'. 'She said the store manager had said to her 'I'm watching you'.' 'Like she was really going to steal stuff so I felt a bit bad so I said to Judi a big big big big thank you for letting me steal her persona and use it on my show. 'I sent her a nice present, I sent her some nice pottery and she said 'I got the presents and the pottery I swiftly smashed' like pretending she was being naughty but she was such a good sport about it.' What a hoot! 62-year-old comedian Tracey revealed she sent presents to apologise after the Oscar winning actress was told by a store boss manager he was keeping an eye on her Spot the difference: 'It was just fun,' Tracey said. 'Then the Judi Dench called me and said 'I've been having a problem in Marks and Spencer's' (Tracey as Judi in 2016) She added: 'How would I have called Judi and said 'Judi I'm going to portray you as a kleptomaniac'. It wouldn't have gone down that well.' Tracey said she would keep the costume on during her lunch break and visit designer shops where the assistants believed she was really Dench. 'When I was Judi Dench in Richmond [London] when we were filming my BBC show and I took my lunch hour and I decided to go and look into the shops as Judi. 'And people were just like 'oh we loved you in the Bond films' 'hello oh did you darling? They were marvellous, marvellous film makers',' Tracey would say, pretending to be Judi. Lol: Tracey said she would keep the costume on during her lunch break and visit designer shops where the assistants believed she was really Dench Cheeky: 'When I was Judi Dench in Richmond [London] when we were filming my BBC show and I took my lunch hour and I decided to go and look into the shops as Judi Speaking on the Tea with Twiggy podcast, Tracey continued: 'Sometimes people look at the makeup and go 'oh that's weird, there's a bit of glue on her head' and some people don't look at it at all' Speaking on the Tea with Twiggy podcast, Tracey continued: 'Sometimes people look at the makeup and go 'oh that's weird, there's a bit of glue on her head' and some people don't look at it at all. 'So I went shopping in Margaret Howell as Judi Dench and that was just so much fun because the two people in the shop really believed I was Judi Dench and I just got such a kick out of it.' The sketch featured Judi shoplifting in her local Co-op and giggling: 'Because I'm a national treasure I can get away with anything,' she giggled. After pinching her weekly groceries, she kicked a bin over on the way out. Later she was seen vandalising Harry Potter star Rupert Grint's iPad on a movie set. Talented: In Tracey Ullman's Show, where she also impersonated Angela Merkel and Camilla Parker-Bowles, Dame Judi Dench steals from shops but as she's a national treasure, she gets away with it It comes after Judi revealed earlier this month that she feels 'frightened' when she finishes an acting job. The actress, 87, admitted despite her legendary reputation, she is always worried no one will want to hire her again. Judi detailed how grateful she is to still be 'employed' and the relief that comes with being cast in a new project. In an interview with Reader's Digest magazine she confessed: 'I've always thought, one is very lucky to be employed. 'I always get frightened at the end of the job because I think I'm not going to be employed again and then feel very relieved at the beginning of the next one.' Despite her decades of success, Judi, who most recently starred in the coming of age drama Belfast, admitted that she still feels nervous when she lands a new job. She exclaimed: 'I'll say! I get more anxious now. Oh yes, much more anxious. There's more things to consider and more things to find out and more things to learn about. And you think, 'Oh God, have I got the energy to do this?' When it comes to looking for new roles, the Belfast star is always on the hunt for something different to anything she's done before. She said: 'I just, really, always hope that I will be asked to do something different. And perhaps not expected. Or something that has no reference to anything I've done before.' Kristina Rihanoff has said she is 'deeply sorry' for writing, 'I don't give a s**t about the war,' in a controversial Twitter post over the weekend. The former Strictly pro, 44, who originates from Russia, backtracked on her shocking comments after being met with widespread criticism from her followers. Having deleted her original post, she took to the social network on Sunday to direct her anger towards politicians who 'all lie', according to her. Eye-bulging: Russian former Strictly pro Kristina Rihanoff has claimed she is 'deeply sorry' for raging 'I don't give a s**t about the war' in shocking tweet In full, the statement read: 'I made fun of Eurovision tweet by Sky. I did think there was far more important information on that day that Eurovision. This is in any form says I was supporting what's happening at the moment between Russia & Ukraine. 'It's absolutely devastating for someone like me who's grandad from Ukraine and I gave Ukrainian name to my daughter Milena. My best friend is also from Ukraine. I grew up with knowledge that we were one nation and one country.' She continued: 'I'm not into politics and hate politicians because THEY ALL LIE. Seeing the news is breaking my heart as I have Russian friends who live in UKRAINE and vice versa. 'The awful thing is that there is casualties on both sides and on both sides mums & dads will cry for their lost relatives. The point is that this shouldn't ever taken place, never should have happened. Wow! The former Strictly pro, 44, who originates from Russia, backtracked on her shocking comments after being met with widespread criticism from her followers (pictured in 2014) 'The country leaders Should have found the way along time ago to sort this peacefully but they didn't bcs war is a profitable business and someone unfortunately making profit on this. 'I'm not supporting Putin, war, invasion, lost lives and politics. I hate it as much as a human being possibly can. If I offended anyone it wasn't my intention and I'm deeply sorry. While I was born in Russia I left it 22yrs ago and an American citizen. 'So you can hate me if this will give you comfort but If I didn't say something you wanted me to say it's bcs sadly I'm powerless doing anything to help anyone in both countries and I don't believe in useless posts which can't help to safe lives. The message concluded: 'I can only hope and pray like everyone that this is over soon. And it's really sad that the hate is so powerful everywhere you look at the moment. The whole world is burning in it'. Statement: On Sunday, Kristina took to Twitter with a lengthy apology, saying she is 'deeply sorry' for offending anyone Kristina came under fire over the weekend for raging: 'I don't give a s**t about the war' on Twitter. The ballroom dancer, who served as a professional on the BBC show from 2008 to 2015, shared the since-deleted post while detailing how her business had been impacted by the pandemic. The tweet read: 'I do want to focus on what sort of punishment Boris Johnson will have for destroying my family run business and 1000 of others. Many of my friends LOST businesses because of government lockdowns. 'Don't give a s**t about the war but I do about the debt because of NO TRADING for 2yrs.' 'Totally thoughtless': Kristina came under fire over the weekend for raging: 'I don't give a s**t about the war' on Twitter An element of the shocking tweet read: 'Don't give a s**t about the war but I do about the debt because of NO TRADING for 2yrs' Rage: Kristina also hit out at a Ukrainian journalist who announced her mother's fleeing from the country Kristina also hit out at a Ukrainian journalist who announced her mother's fleeing from the country. 'Why don't you report about everyone who was abused in Ukraine by extreme nationalists for 8 yrs Prohibiting families to speak Russian language, terrorising peaceful Russian families which I know many who live in Ukraine,' the dancer wrote in reply. The enraged content didn't end there, with the mother-of-one also discussing the diverted attention from Boris Johnson's 'diabolical' parties. Angry: The enraged content didn't end there, with the mother-of-one also discussing the diverted attention from Boris Johnson's 'diabolical' parties 'Thoughts - Biden can only change his diapers on his own, he can't do anything else. People who control him know that war is very profitable. 'Let's make sure war happens. At all costs. And isn't it great that UK no longer angry at diabolical parties. How convenient,' the angry tweet read. The next rant was directed at Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, following the news of sanctions against Russia. #embarrasing: The next rant was directed at Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, following the news of sanctions against Russia 'Pure genius': An additional post that has now been deleted showed a cartoon of US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson pointing and saying 'Russian man bad' atop a pile of bodies Kristina fumed: 'Nobody gives a flying monkey about your sanctions. Just like bfr ALL countries will crawl back AGAIN begging to trade & start tourism. 'Stand up first for UK & sort out your own s**t & get geography & history lesson next time you go to Russia to talk politics U R #embarrassing'. An additional post that has now been deleted showed a cartoon of US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson pointing and saying 'Russian man bad' atop a pile of bodies. Kristina captioned: 'Don't even have to say anything - pure genius'. The opinionated content sparked fury among Twitter's users, who told the ballroom pro to 'read the room' and 'delete the insensitive tweets.' Kristina was born in Vladivostok but now resides in Northampton with rugby player partner Ben Cohen and their daughter Milena, five. Teresa Palmer held a party for her son, Bodhi, in Adelaide on Sunday. The actress, 36, shared a series of images to Instagram of the shindig, which was held to celebrate Bodhi's eighth birthday. The festivities included a vegan birthday cake and a table-wide charcuterie featuring lots of healthy snacks. Party time: Teresa Palmer held a party for her son, Bodhi, in Adelaide on Sunday. Pictured with her daughter Prairie The drinks on offer included a tub of iced kombucha, which is a fermented black or green tea. For activities, the children who were guests on the day enjoyed a backyard water park complete with slides. Teresa wrote in her caption: 'Bodhi finally got the party he's been asking for yesterday. Aww! The actress shared a series of images to Instagram of the shindig, which was held to celebrate Bodhi's eighth birthday. Bodhi is pictured with his father Mark Webber Eat up: A table-wide charcuterie featured lots of healthy snacks and some naughtier treats Tasty: The drinks on offer included a tub of iced kombucha, which is a fermented black or green tea 'After a couple of years of low key celebrations we went with just a chill 'water park at home' theme thanks to all the beautiful people who helped us celebrate him! ' She explained her son was treated to an 'epic vegan cake' from Small Delights in Adelaide as well as pizza made by his dad Mark Webber, 41. 'Still can't believe that spread almost ALL got eaten! A fun day to lift spirits and let the kids run wild,' Teresa added. 'Still can't believe that spread almost ALL got eaten! A fun day to lift spirits and let the kids run wild,' Teresa wrote on Instagram Fun: For activities, the children who were guests on the day enjoyed a backyard water park complete with slides Yum! The festivities included a vegan birthday cake from Small Delights in Adelaide The Discovery of Witches actress welcomed her fourth child, daughter Prairie Moon Palmer, in August last year. Teresa and her husband Mark also share three other children: sons Bodhi Rain, Forest Sage, five, and daughter Poet Lake, two. Screenwriter Mark is additionally father to 14-year-old son Isaac Love, from a previous relationship. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that Germany is committing 100 billion euros to a special fund for its armed forces, raising its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP. "It's clear we need to invest significantly more in the security of our country, in order to protect our freedom and our democracy," Scholz told a special session of the Bundestag in Berlin Sunday morning. The move is a significant one for Germany, which has come under criticism from the United States and other NATO allies for not investing adequately in its defense budget. Scholz's announcement, which came during a special session of Germany's Bundestag Sunday morning, was the latest in a series of major shifts in German defense and security policy this weekend in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On Saturday evening, the German government announced it would be sending weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine, which is fighting to keep Russia from invading its capital city. (AP) Neighbours legend Alan Fletcher looked completely different as he appeared on Monday's This Morning to discuss the end of the long-running soap. The Australian actor, 64, who famously plays Dr Karl Kennedy, joined Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield virtually to discuss how he feels about the show coming to an end after Channel 5 pulled the plug. And the star, who donned a casual white polo top and sported a moustache and a goatee, looked a far cry from his TV persona. TV appearance: Neighbours legend Alan Fletcher looked completely different as he appeared on Monday's This Morning to discuss the end of the long-running soap Star: The Australian actor, 64, who famously plays Dr Karl Kennedy, joined Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield virtually to discuss how he feels about the show coming to an end after Channel 5 pulled the plug Meanwhile, the star opened up on how he and the cast reacted when they were told Neighbours was getting the axe after 37 years on air. He explained: 'The funny this is - and you'll know this Phil being an actor - we work on yearly contracts on a show like Neighbours so for 28 years I've been expecting the phone call to say, "Thanks, you're no longer required". 'So, in a way, we're always steeled for that possibility. Of course, it's very disorientating to get that call to say that everyone's not required anymore! It was a tough day for everyone, I won't downplay that. 'But the main thing that leaps into mind, besides jobs of course, is the impact on fans and that's become very, very manifest with fans really speaking out about their love for the show.' The soap star went on to say what fans can do to help the show, telling the hosts: 'Watch it right through to the end of August and get those viewers figures up so that maybe someone out there will say, 'Hey this is a super popular show and maybe it has life in some other aspect.' On his relationship with onscreen wife Jackie Woodburn (Susan), he said: 'Jackie and I have been dear dear friends for 40 years and we will miss being on set, and miss feeling we are allies in the making of something really special to us. That will be a great loss to be frank. Tough time: Meanwhile, the star opened up on how he and the cast reacted when they were told Neighbours was getting the axe after 37 years on air Candid: t's very disorientating to get that call to say that everyone's not required anymore! It was a tough day for everyone, I won't downplay that' 'It will leave a big hole. But she's just down the street, we won't be strangers. And we've got a lot to talk about.' The actor then went on to reveal his idea of how he's like his popular character to bow out as he teased a very shocking twist. Alan suggested: 'I've always had this idea that the whole street finds out Karl never qualified as a doctor.' His idea left Phil and Holly stunned, with Holly adding: 'Can you imagine, oh my God.' Longtime pals: On his relationship with onscreen wife Jackie Woodburn (Susan), he said: 'Jackie and I have been dear dear friends for 40 years and we will miss being on set' Wow: The actor then went on to reveal his idea of how he's like his popular character to bow out as he teased a very shocking twist Neighbours fans were left devastated earlier this month following news the long-running soap is set to be axed after 37 years on-air. The show's future hangs in the balance after UK broadcaster Channel 5, who has bankrolled production for years, confirmed its decision not to renew their contract to air the Aussie soap with producers Fremantle Australia. In a statement, Channel 5 confirmed its decision not to renew their contract to air the Australian soap with producers Fremantle Australia. Fremantle later emailed staff saying filming would end on June 10, and if no new broadcaster emerged to provide the funds to resume production, the show looked to be at an end. Legendary TV: The Australian soap, which still gets 1.2million UK viewers per day, has been on the air in Oz since 1985 Channel 5's statement read: 'It's been a much-loved part of our schedule for more than a decade, and we'd like to thank the cast, Fremantle and all of the production team for their fantastic work on this iconic series. 'We'd also of course like to thank the fans for their loyal support of Neighbours across the years. 'We recognise that there will be disappointment about this decision, however our current focus is on increasing our investment in original UK drama, which has strong appeal for our viewers.' The Australian soap, which still gets 1.2million UK viewers per day, has been on the air in Oz since 1985 but producers and Channel 5were said to be looking at options to keep it on screen, three years before its 40th anniversary. Robert De Niro cut a dapper figure as he arrived to give a prestigious talk at Cambridge University on Sunday. The Hollywood legend, 78, was seen arriving with his rumoured love interest Tiffany Chen in the English city to detail his impressive acting career and give his views on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The father-of-six donned a blue shirt with a tie and wrapped up for the cold weather in a black coat. Out and about: Robert De Niro cut a smart figure as he head out with his rumoured love interest Tiffany Chen to give a prestigious talk at Cambridge University on Sunday Tiffany also looked smart as she stepped into the car in a blue striped shirt and wore her brunette locks slicked back in a ponytail. Robert addressed students at the Union - founded in 1815 and has more than 70,000 life members worldwide - for around two hours yesterday. The event, which had been kept secret until just days before, was only open to its members on a strictly first-come, first-served basis. During the talk, the acting icon was asked his views on Ukraine, to which he responded: 'You have to stand up and say, "you can't do that, it's wrong". We have to do something - to stop this kind of aggression.' Looking good: Meanwhile Tiffany looked smart in a blue striped shirt as she showed her support for Robert at the talk Adding that's 'not even about democracy', more so right and wrong, Robert continued: 'The sanctions - I don't know how that really works, well I sort of do, but I don't know how much of a bite they have, what teeth they have - that's really my question. 'My fear is that this thing will go on and on, and people will get bored, watching it, even - and all of a sudden you've got a country like Ukraine that has been overtaken, and you know it shouldn't be. 'There might have to be a stronger position taken by people.' Conflict: During the talk, the acting icon was asked his views on Ukraine, to which he responded: 'You have to stand up and say, "you can't do that, it's wrong"' (pictured Shellfire damage in Donetsks Kiyevsky District on Monday) Previous speakers include Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, actors Clint Eastwood and Ian McKellen, Katie Price, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Dalai Lama. Robert and Tiffany are yet to confirm whether they are a couple, but have been seen looking loved up several times together in public. The Goodfellas actor was last seen with the martial arts trainer during their French jaunt last year, where they kissed, held hands and cosied up. Robert and Tiffany were seen packing on the PDA in Cote d'Azur, on his birthday during a jaunt on his friend and business partner James Packer's $200million yacht. Smart: The Hollywood legend looked dapper as he donned a blue shirt with a tie and wrapped up for the cold weather in a black coat Robert's outing also comes in the midst of his torturous divorce battle with ex-wife Grace. The ex-spouses have been locked in a divorce battle since December 2018. In April, a judge ruled that his ex-wife, 66, should receive $1 million annually and that the couple will split the proceeds after selling their $20 million home. Robert and Grace were married in 1997, split in 1999, then got back together, renewed their vows in 2004 before he filed for divorce in 2018. Initially the pair fought over custody of their nine-year-old child but now the arguments are over money and property. Hightower's average monthly spend was $215,000 a month on credit cards and $160,000 in cash. De Niro's attorney, Caroline Krauss, claims the financial strain means the actor is running out of money. She said the coronavirus pandemic led to a drying up of work projects for the Hollywood star. Months earlier, De Niro earned $5 million for acting in Martin Scorsese's hit gangster flick, The Irishman. He also received 'tens of millions of dollars' through a federal coronavirus relief program. Hightower claims that De Niro is worth $500 million, but his attorney Caroline Krauss says that his estranged wife's extravagant lifestyle is making things worse. Ron Perlman hit the red carpet with his stunning fiancee Allison Dunbar at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday evening. The 71-year-old actor could not keep his hands off the pretty blonde as they worked the red carpet at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California side by side then went in for a kiss during a video she shared to social media. The lovebirds have been together since 2019. They were first seen in each other's company just days after the actor split with his wife of 38 years, Opal Stone. Happy couple: Ron Perlman hit the red carpet with fiancee Allison Dunbar at the SAG awards on Sunday in Los Angeles Perlman stepped out in a black suit with black tie and white shirt. The actor looked to be in great spirits as his future wife put a hand on his chest as both smiled. Dunbar was wearing an elegant white and gold dress dress which came in at the waistline and fell all the way to the floor. Ron's look: Perlman stepped out in a black suit with black tie and crisp white shirt There was a sheer white cape over her shoulders that had crystal embellishments on the V neckline. She also wore big diamond earrings and held a clutch purse in gold. Her diamond engagement ring from Ron sparkled. Perlman and Dunbar had previously starred in the Crackle series StartUp in 2018, before they started dating in 2019. Kissy for the camera: On social media the lovebirds were seen locking lips as they sat in their seats at the SAG awards Allison's look: Dunbar was wearing an elegant white and gold dress dress which came in at the waistline and fell all the way to the floor Perlman had been married to Opal Stone from 1981 until their surprise split in May 2019, sharing two kids together, daughter Blake, 37, and son Brandon, 31, who creates music under the stage name Delroy Edwards. Perlman filed for divorce in November 2019, and the actor was grated a 'bifurcation,' which declared him legally 'single' and free to marry Dunbar, even while his divorce proceedings with Stone continue. There is no indication when Perlman and Dunbar plan on tying the knot quite yet, or when the actor's divorce may be finalized. Marriage: Perlman had been married to Opal Stone from 1981 until their surprise split in May 2019, sharing two kids together, daughter Blake, 37, and son Brandon, 31, who creates music under the stage name Delroy Edwards So much bling on this lady: The looker had on several bracelets as well as her diamond engagement ring from Ron Perlman plays Colonel Ben Drask in Don't Look Up, which follows two astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) who embark on a worldwide media tour to warn of a comet that will destroy Earth. He has a number of other film projects in the works such as The Jesuit with Brian Cox and Neal McDonough and The Retirement Plan with Nicolas Cage and Ashley Greene. The actor also voices Mangiafuoco in the upcoming Pinocchio movie from his longtime collaborator, director Guillermo del Toro. Ron's role: Perlman plays Colonel Ben Drask in Don't Look Up, which follows two astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) who embark on a worldwide media tour to warn of a comet that will destroy Earth More projects: He has a number of other film projects in the works such as The Jesuit with Brian Cox and Neal McDonough and The Retirement Plan with Nicolas Cage and Ashley Greene James Jordan has been embroiled in a social media spat with Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas after she urged dancers to 'show sympathy to Ukraine'. The pro, who had slammed Russian dancers for remaining tight-lipped in the wake of their country's invasion of the Baltic state, noted that Shirley had questioned his decision to speak out despite clearly having a 'similar sentiment' to him. It comes in the wake of Russian Strictly pro Kristina Rihanoff's apology after she wrote she didn't give a s**t about the war,' in a controversial Twitter post. At odds: James Jordan has been embroiled in a social media spat with Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas after she urged dancers to 'show sympathy to Ukraine' James had previously tweeted: 'I don't see many of the Russian dancers I know and have even shared the Strictly dance floor with them openly speaking out about the war against Ukraine [the country's flag]. 'But are still promoting themselves on social media - very disappointed [sad face] They know who they are - not 1 post about it [sic]'. In a later tweet he then noted: 'If they are too scared to speak out against wrong then stay the f**k off social media for a while and stop with the self-promotion during this horrific time. 'Have some respect. Or maybe they are not speaking out because they are brainwashed too.' Raging: James had originally taken to social media on Saturday to call out Russian dancers who were staying tight-lipped on their homeland's invasion of Ukraine Shirley then responded to James' tweet, writing: 'Taking issue with Jordan's impassioned post, Ballas claimed she knew plenty of Russian dancers speaking up against Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. 'Dear James, not sure who you follow and who follows you. Many dancers I know have retweeted in support of Ukraine and have felt shame at their own government. 'Lots of help for their fellow dancers Lots have spoken out and retweeted.' But James was then quick to note that just a day earlier Shirley herself had taken to social media pleading with dancers to 'show some sensitivity towards the suffering Ukraine.' Controversy: Shirley responded to James' tweet by noting she had seen dancers sharing their support for Ukraine, and fury towards Russia He tweeted: 'Why post this yesterday then? A similar sentiment to me.' Shirley's original post read: 'Dancers please, just for a few days show some sensitivity towards the suffering in Ukraine... you don't need to promote youselves, your shows, competitions and teaching every single day... 'Your colleagues, students, competitors and their families are in the middle of a shocking war and need your support... YOUR business can wait. Show some respect. We are one family. ' Really? James was then quick to note that just a day earlier Shirley had shared an Instagram post urging dances to 'show some sensitivity' towards Ukraine It comes after Kristina claimed she was deeply sorry' for raging 'I don't give a s**t about the war' in shocking tweet The former Strictly Come Dancing pro backtracked on her shocking comments after being met with widespread criticism from her followers. Having deleted her original post, she took to the social network on Sunday to direct her anger towards politicians who 'all lie', according to her. 'Deepy sorry': It comes in the wake of Russian Strictly pro Kristina Rihanoff's apology after she wrote she didn't give a s**t about the war,' in a controversial Twitter post In full, the statement read: 'I made fun of Eurovision tweet by Sky. I did think there was far more important information on that day that Eurovision. This is in any form says I was supporting what's happening at the moment between Russia & Ukraine. 'It's absolutely devastating for someone like me who's grandad from Ukraine and I gave Ukrainian name to my daughter Milena. My best friend is also from Ukraine. I grew up with knowledge that we were one nation and one country.' She continued: 'I'm not into politics and hate politicians because THEY ALL LIE. Seeing the news is breaking my heart as I have Russian friends who live in UKRAINE and vice versa. 'The awful thing is that there is casualties on both sides and on both sides mums & dads will cry for their lost relatives. The point is that this shouldn't ever taken place, never should have happened. Wow! Kristina who originates from Russia, backtracked on her shocking comments after being met with widespread criticism from her followers (pictured in 2014) 'The country leaders Should have found the way along time ago to sort this peacefully but they didn't bcs war is a profitable business and someone unfortunately making profit on this. 'I'm not supporting Putin, war, invasion, lost lives and politics. I hate it as much as a human being possibly can. If I offended anyone it wasn't my intention and I'm deeply sorry. While I was born in Russia I left it 22yrs ago and an American citizen. 'So you can hate me if this will give you comfort but If I didn't say something you wanted me to say it's bcs sadly I'm powerless doing anything to help anyone in both countries and I don't believe in useless posts which can't help to safe lives. The message concluded: 'I can only hope and pray like everyone that this is over soon. And it's really sad that the hate is so powerful everywhere you look at the moment. The whole world is burning in it'. Statement: On Sunday, Kristina took to Twitter with a lengthy apology, saying she is 'deeply sorry' for offending anyone Kristina came under fire over the weekend for raging: 'I don't give a s**t about the war' on Twitter. The ballroom dancer, who served as a professional on the BBC show from 2008 to 2015, shared the since-deleted post while detailing how her business had been impacted by the pandemic. The tweet read: 'I do want to focus on what sort of punishment Boris Johnson will have for destroying my family run business and 1000 of others. Many of my friends LOST businesses because of government lockdowns. 'Don't give a s**t about the war but I do about the debt because of NO TRADING for 2yrs.' 'Totally thoughtless': Kristina came under fire over the weekend for raging: 'I don't give a s**t about the war' on Twitter An element of the shocking tweet read: 'Don't give a s**t about the war but I do about the debt because of NO TRADING for 2yrs' Rage: Kristina also hit out at a Ukrainian journalist who announced her mother's fleeing from the country Kristina also hit out at a Ukrainian journalist who announced her mother's fleeing from the country. 'Why don't you report about everyone who was abused in Ukraine by extreme nationalists for 8 yrs Prohibiting families to speak Russian language, terrorising peaceful Russian families which I know many who live in Ukraine,' the dancer wrote in reply. The enraged content didn't end there, with the mother-of-one also discussing the diverted attention from Boris Johnson's 'diabolical' parties. Angry: The enraged content didn't end there, with the mother-of-one also discussing the diverted attention from Boris Johnson's 'diabolical' parties 'Thoughts - Biden can only change his diapers on his own, he can't do anything else. People who control him know that war is very profitable. 'Let's make sure war happens. At all costs. And isn't it great that UK no longer angry at diabolical parties. How convenient,' the angry tweet read. The next rant was directed at Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, following the news of sanctions against Russia. #embarrasing: The next rant was directed at Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, following the news of sanctions against Russia 'Pure genius': An additional post that has now been deleted showed a cartoon of US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson pointing and saying 'Russian man bad' atop a pile of bodies Kristina fumed: 'Nobody gives a flying monkey about your sanctions. Just like bfr ALL countries will crawl back AGAIN begging to trade & start tourism. 'Stand up first for UK & sort out your own s**t & get geography & history lesson next time you go to Russia to talk politics U R #embarrassing'. An additional post that has now been deleted showed a cartoon of US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson pointing and saying 'Russian man bad' atop a pile of bodies. Kristina captioned: 'Don't even have to say anything - pure genius'. The opinionated content sparked fury among Twitter's users, who told the ballroom pro to 'read the room' and 'delete the insensitive tweets.' Kristina was born in Vladivostok but now resides in Northampton with rugby player partner Ben Cohen and their daughter Milena, five. Maksim Chmerkovskiy has revealed he was arrested while in Kyiv, Ukraine and is going to try and make his way out amid the Russian military assault on the country. The Dancing With The Stars pro said it was a 'reality check' getting arrested but called it the 'least traumatizing moment in this whole thing as far as Ukraine is concerned.' The father-of-one, 42, spoke to his followers in the Monday morning Instagram video, revealing that he was leaving the country and felt 'a little nervous' but he he thinks 'it's going to be okay.' Maksim was in his native country working on World of Dance as a judge. The latest: Maksim Chmerkovskiy revealed he was arrested while in Kyiv, Ukraine and is going to try and make his way out amid the Russian military assault on the country. The Dancing With The Stars pro said it was a 'reality check' getting arrested but called it the 'least traumatizing moment in this whole thing as far as Ukraine is concerned 'The streets are crazy,' he said. 'At one point I got arrested but again all good, promise. That was probably the least traumatizing moment in this whole thing as far as Ukraine is concerned, but for me, it was just a reality check.' The Ukrainian-born star said he will be disappearing from social media 'for a while' as he makes his way out of the country, only speaking to his wife Pete Murgatroyd, his parents and his brother Val Chmerkovskiy, 35. 'I'm going to try and make my way out. I'm going to start making my way towards the border. I have options.' Adding: 'Just a little nervous but I think it's going to be alright. I know it's going to be okay. From the heart: Maksim was in his native country working on Dancing With The Stars Ukraine as a judge He said to his followers and distant family not to panic because he's going to disappear for a little bit as he makes his way out of the country. Maksim posted graphic videos to his stories and grid throughout Ukraine, as the star says he's tried and stressed out after seeing innocent people being killed. He said on Sunday: 'I'm in a very safe place but this is nuts and I think everybody is going through a lot of emotions and i think it's time I expose mine in a more personal manner. 'This is a war. This is a crazy situation. It's insane and I'm losing my final little things. This is not a cry for help. I'm a big boy. I can handle myself.. but I'm starting to not be able to just sort of keep my head.' 'The reality is, I just want to go home. I'm just hoping for a safe ending to it all.' His wife Peta, 35, took to Instagram on Sunday with an emotional message in which she shared that an empathetic group of strangers had made a kind gesture to her amid the absence of Maksim. 'Although I'm going through hell right now and I want it all to end[there] is light that shines through the darkness,' said Murgatroyd, who is mother to five-year-old son Shai with Chmerkovskiy, who she wed in July of 2017. Murgatroyd, an alum of Dancing With the Stars, remains at the family's home in California amid the uncertain time. She said that strangers baked her cookies 'and proudly brought them to [her] door. 'They stood there with smiles so wide. Let me repeat strangers, whom I don't talk to thought that they should get in their kitchen and bake me cookies,' she said. 'They also took it upon themselves to google if I was allergic to anything, just to make sure they weren't hurting me.' Strength: His wife Peta, 35, took to Instagram on Sunday with an emotional message in which she shared that an empathetic group of strangers had made a kind gesture to her amid the absence of Maks Chmerkovskiy has also provided frequent social media updates amid the conflict, as he said Thursday he had not attempted to leave the country due to safety concerns around the border of Poland. The professional dancer said he felt his odds for departure from the Ukraine were helped in having an American passport. Amid the Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials have mandated men between the ages of 18 and 60 to remain in the country if they are needed for battle, and have restricted them from crossing borders into other countries, Reuters reported. Chmerkovskiy added that the conflict had taken an emotional toll on him, as he said he 'will never be the same' in the wake of the invasion. 'This is stressful and Im getting old feelings back, like Ive done this before,' he said Thursday. 'This does feel like the way it was when and why we left in the 90s. Like my old PTSD Ive finally fixed is coming back.' Courage: 'Although I'm going through hell right now and I want it all to end[there] is light that shines through the darkness,' said Murgatroyd, who is mother to five-year-old son Shai with Chmerkovskiy, who she wed in July of 2017 On Sunday, Chmerkovskiy took to Instagram Stories with a number of messages, urging people in the dance community in European countries to help take care of refugees if they were able to. He shared a number of links to resources to help people exit safely amid the ongoing military conflict. Chmerkovskiy also wrote, 'Russia needs a revolution!!! Russian people are being lied to!!! Russians! Wake up! It will take you generations to get over this and generations of people around the world will never forgive you!!!' On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to put nuclear weapons on enhanced alert for 'special regime of combat duty' amid heightened tensions with Europe and the United States following the invasion. Putin cited aggression toward Russia from NATO as well as economic sanctions and moves shutting down Russian banking institutions using the banking system SWIFT. The U.N. Security Council is slated to hold an emergency meeting regarding the invasion Monday. Vicky Pattinson showcased her incredible figure on Sunday in a series of snaps posted to her Instagram. The newly engaged reality star, 34, donned a Barbie pink maxi skirt and crop top from Missy Empire that perfectly showed off her toned physique. Vicky wore her balayage'd locks up in a chic high ponytail, going for a glamorous makeup look with brown eyeshadow. Wow! Vicky Pattinson, 34, showcased her incredible figure on Sunday in a series of snaps posted to her Instagram Vicky added to the look with a pair of nude perspex heels as she showed off her latest sexy look on social media. Sharing the snaps with her five million followers, Vicky captioned the post: 'Co-ord cuteness...' Vicky showed off her sunkissed tan in the post, after returning back to the UK from Dubai on Thursday. Glam: The reality star wore her balayage'd locks up in a chic high ponytail, going for a glamorous makeup look with brown eyeshadow Toned! The newly engaged beauty donned a bright pink maxi skirt and crop top from Missy Empire - showing off her toned physique. In the details: Vicky added to the look with a pair of nude perspex heels as she showed off her latest sexy look on social media Beau Ercan Ramadan, 28, proposed during the couple's holiday, getting down on one knee on the beach to pop the question. The reality star took to Instagram to show off the moment the couple got engaged, captioning: 'I choose you and I'll choose you over and over without pause, without a doubt, in a heartbeat... It'll always be you. To our forever @ercan_ram.' Vicky also gave fans a peak at her engagement ring, which is thought to be worth around 200,000. Congrats! It comes after Vicky's boyfriend Ercan Ramadan, 28, proposed during the couple's holiday to Dubai, getting down on one knee on the beach to pop the question To our forever: the reality star, 34, took to Instagram to show off the moment the couple got engaged What a rock! Vicky also gave fans a peak at her engagement ring, which is thought to be worth around 200,000 Vicky previously sparked rumours she will walk down the aisle after sharing a loved-up post of herself kissing Ercan, alongside the caption: 'I love you - tonight was everything!' Now that the couple are back to reality after their getaway, they have been celebrating another milestone - their pet dog Milo's first birthday. Vicky and Ercan celebrated the Labrador's birthday on Saturday with a lavish party, held at their Essex home, after taking Milo for a pampering session at a local dog grooming salon. Peaky Blinders' sixth series got off to a roaring start on Sunday night as an impressive 3.8million viewers tuned into episode one - making it the biggest ever launch. The 3.8 million ratings beat last years figures for the series 5 opener, which bagged 3.7million views. Overnight ratings from Sunday reveal that the period crime drama came in fourth position among the terrestrial channels, finishing up behind The Good Karma Hospital, Antiques Roadshow and the Trigger Point finale which garnered over 5million views. And fans tuning in were quick to praise the show's handling of the late Helen McCrory as they praised the 'perfect tribute' to the star, who passed away last year after a secret battle with cancer. Success: Star: Peaky Blinders' sixth series got off to a roaring start on Sunday night as an impressive 3.8million viewers tuned into episode one As the finale series got underway with Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) revealed to be alive and kicking after the series five cliffhanger, the show hit a peak of 4.1million. The BBC programme narrowly beat Dancing On Ice in the ratings, which came in with 3.6 million viewers. Critics and viewers alike responded positively to the show's return, with the episode dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who played Polly Gray, following her death from breast cancer aged just 52. The episode also saw the burial of Polly Gray along with an on-screen tribute to Helen reading: 'Dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory OBE 'Polly Gray'. Honoured: Fans tuning in praised the show's handling of the late Helen McCrory as they praised the 'perfect tribute' to the star, who passed away last year after a secret battle with cancer Viewers reacted positively to the tribute with one fan writing: 'The passing of Polly Gray couldn't have been scripted any better, a perfect tribute to the great Helen McCrory. 'It takes an incredible cast to have the courage to act out those scenes and they did her proud. Brilliant first episode. Another viewer said: 'Today and everyday we remember Helen McCrory, Peaky Blinders isn't the same without aunt pol'. Fans of the acclaimed drama have waited more than two years for a new series, with explosive scenes teased in a recent trailer showing Shelby open fire with a machine gun. The fifth season ended on a cliffhanger, with Tommy seeing visions of his late wife Grace (Annabelle Wallis) and turning a gun on himself following his botched assassination attempt of the British Union of Fascists leader. Episode: Overnight ratings from Sunday reveal that the period crime drama came in fourth position among the terrestrial channels Ratings: Peaky Blinders finished up behind The Good Karma Hospital, Antiques Roadshow and the Trigger Point finale which garnered over 5million views (pictured Trigger Point's Vicky McClure) Peaky Blinders began airing in 2013 and tells the tale of the notorious Shelby familys rise to prominence and power, against the backdrop of working class, post-First World War Birmingham. This comes as creator Steven Knight said the final season of Peaky Blinders will 'go into and beyond the Second World War' and is 'the end of the beginning' as he teased a future film release. For many years the creator claimed the gangster show would end with air-raid sirens over Birmingham marking the start of World War Two. But in an apparent U-turn, Knight has revealed the sixth series is merely the end of the narrative on the small screen and teased that the story will continue in a feature-length film. 'It was always Britain between the wars how the lesson from one war was not learned and was repeated,' he told Empire. Tribute: Critics and viewers alike responded positively to the show's return, with the episode dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who played Polly Gray, following her death from breast cancer last year Its also the end of empire: we enter the Second World War and by the end of it, there is no empire, really. But I have revised the scope of what it is. It will now go into and beyond the Second World War. Because I just think the energy that is out there in the world for this, I want to keep it going, and I want to see how this can progress beyond that.. 'I think of this sixth series as the end of the beginning.' Peaky Blinders much-anticipated trailer for its final season left fans on the edge of their seats as Shelby opened fire in intense scenes. The 90-second teaser trailer kicks off with Tommy dramatically walking across a shadowy field before firing a machine gun into the air while shouting. Star: Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was still alive and kicking, having not shot himself in the field viewers last saw him in at the end of series five 'One last deal to be done, then we Peaky Blinders rest,' Tommy says. The trailer was jam-packed with nail-biting stand-offs, intense fight scenes and a devastating fire, leaving fans wondering what plot twists the final series would bring. Tense scenes also featured appearances from Joe Cole's John Shelby, Anya Taylor-Joy's Gina Gray and fascist leader Oswald Mosley, played by Sam Claflin. Stephen Graham, known for his roles in This Is England and Line of Duty, has also joined the cast for the final series of the Birmingham crime drama. It was previously revealed that Tom Hardy's Alfie Solomons will return for the sixth and final series, after many fans believed he was dead after being shot by Tommy. James Jordan shared a sweet snap of his family at daughter Ella's second birthday party on Monday. The professional dancer, 43, took to Instagram to post the gorgeous snap showing wife, Ola, 39, and little Ella in front of a giant light up '2' and a wall of balloons. Dressed in a lilac t-shirt and grey trousers, he gazed at his little girl who wore an adorable white dress. Adorable: James Jordan has shared a sweet snap of his family at daughter Ella's second birthday party on Monday Heartfelt: Captioning the stunning photo, he wrote: 'So my baby is now 2. 'It melts my heart every time she looks at me' Captioning the stunning photo, he wrote: 'So my baby is now 2. It melts my heart every time she looks at me.' Ola looked radiant in the snap as she donned a pink printed shirt along with a pair of dark green trousers. James has been embroiled in a social media spat with Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas after she urged dancers to 'show sympathy to Ukraine'. The pro, who had slammed Russian dancers for remaining tight-lipped in the wake of their country's invasion of the Baltic state, noted that Shirley had questioned his decision to speak out despite clearly having a 'similar sentiment' to him. At odds: James has been embroiled in a social media spat with Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas after she urged dancers to 'show sympathy to Ukraine' It comes in the wake of Russian Strictly pro Kristina Rihanoff's apology after she wrote she didn't give a s**t about the war,' in a controversial Twitter post. James had previously tweeted: 'I don't see many of the Russian dancers I know and have even shared the Strictly dance floor with them openly speaking out about the war against Ukraine [the country's flag]. 'But are still promoting themselves on social media - very disappointed [sad face] They know who they are - not 1 post about it [sic]'. In a later tweet he then noted: 'If they are too scared to speak out against wrong then stay the f**k off social media for a while and stop with the self-promotion during this horrific time. 'Have some respect. Or maybe they are not speaking out because they are brainwashed too.' Raging: James had originally taken to social media on Saturday to call out Russian dancers who were staying tight-lipped on their homeland's invasion of Ukraine Shirley then responded to James' tweet, writing: 'Taking issue with Jordan's impassioned post, Shirley claimed she knew plenty of Russian dancers speaking up against Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. 'Dear James, not sure who you follow and who follows you. Many dancers I know have retweeted in support of Ukraine and have felt shame at their own government. 'Lots of help for their fellow dancers Lots have spoken out and retweeted.' But James was then quick to note that just a day earlier Shirley herself had taken to social media pleading with dancers to 'show some sensitivity towards the suffering Ukraine.' Controversy: Shirley responded to James' tweet by noting she had seen dancers sharing their support for Ukraine, and fury towards Russia He tweeted: 'Why post this yesterday then? A similar sentiment to me.' Shirley's original post read: 'Dancers please, just for a few days show some sensitivity towards the suffering in Ukraine... you don't need to promote yourselves, your shows, competitions and teaching every single day... 'Your colleagues, students, competitors and their families are in the middle of a shocking war and need your support... YOUR business can wait. Show some respect. We are one family. ' Really? James was then quick to note that just a day earlier Shirley had shared an Instagram post urging dances to 'show some sensitivity' towards Ukraine It comes after Kristina claimed she was deeply sorry' for raging 'I don't give a s**t about the war' in shocking tweet The former Strictly Come Dancing pro backtracked on her shocking comments after being met with widespread criticism from her followers. Having deleted her original post, she took to the social network on Sunday to direct her anger towards politicians who 'all lie', according to her. 'Deepy sorry': It comes in the wake of Russian Strictly pro Kristina Rihanoff's apology after she wrote she didn't give a s**t about the war,' in a controversial Twitter post In full, the statement read: 'I made fun of Eurovision tweet by Sky. I did think there was far more important information on that day that Eurovision. This is in any form says I was supporting what's happening at the moment between Russia & Ukraine. 'It's absolutely devastating for someone like me who's grandad from Ukraine and I gave Ukrainian name to my daughter Milena. My best friend is also from Ukraine. I grew up with knowledge that we were one nation and one country.' She continued: 'I'm not into politics and hate politicians because THEY ALL LIE. Seeing the news is breaking my heart as I have Russian friends who live in UKRAINE and vice versa. 'The awful thing is that there is casualties on both sides and on both sides mums & dads will cry for their lost relatives. The point is that this shouldn't ever taken place, never should have happened. Wow! Kristina who originates from Russia, backtracked on her shocking comments after being met with widespread criticism from her followers (pictured in 2014) 'The country leaders Should have found the way along time ago to sort this peacefully but they didn't bcs war is a profitable business and someone unfortunately making profit on this. 'I'm not supporting Putin, war, invasion, lost lives and politics. I hate it as much as a human being possibly can. If I offended anyone it wasn't my intention and I'm deeply sorry. While I was born in Russia I left it 22yrs ago and an American citizen. 'So you can hate me if this will give you comfort but If I didn't say something you wanted me to say it's bcs sadly I'm powerless doing anything to help anyone in both countries and I don't believe in useless posts which can't help to safe lives. The message concluded: 'I can only hope and pray like everyone that this is over soon. And it's really sad that the hate is so powerful everywhere you look at the moment. The whole world is burning in it'. Statement: On Sunday, Kristina took to Twitter with a lengthy apology, saying she is 'deeply sorry' for offending anyone Kristina came under fire over the weekend for raging: 'I don't give a s**t about the war' on Twitter. The ballroom dancer, who served as a professional on the BBC show from 2008 to 2015, shared the since-deleted post while detailing how her business had been impacted by the pandemic. The tweet read: 'I do want to focus on what sort of punishment Boris Johnson will have for destroying my family run business and 1000 of others. Many of my friends LOST businesses because of government lockdowns. 'Don't give a s**t about the war but I do about the debt because of NO TRADING for 2yrs.' 'Totally thoughtless': Kristina came under fire over the weekend for raging: 'I don't give a s**t about the war' on Twitter An element of the shocking tweet read: 'Don't give a s**t about the war but I do about the debt because of NO TRADING for 2yrs' Rage: Kristina also hit out at a Ukrainian journalist who announced her mother's fleeing from the country Kristina also hit out at a Ukrainian journalist who announced her mother's fleeing from the country. 'Why don't you report about everyone who was abused in Ukraine by extreme nationalists for 8 yrs Prohibiting families to speak Russian language, terrorising peaceful Russian families which I know many who live in Ukraine,' the dancer wrote in reply. The enraged content didn't end there, with the mother-of-one also discussing the diverted attention from Boris Johnson's 'diabolical' parties. Angry: The enraged content didn't end there, with the mother-of-one also discussing the diverted attention from Boris Johnson's 'diabolical' parties 'Thoughts - Biden can only change his diapers on his own, he can't do anything else. People who control him know that war is very profitable. 'Let's make sure war happens. At all costs. And isn't it great that UK no longer angry at diabolical parties. How convenient,' the angry tweet read. The next rant was directed at Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, following the news of sanctions against Russia. #embarrasing: The next rant was directed at Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, following the news of sanctions against Russia 'Pure genius': An additional post that has now been deleted showed a cartoon of US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson pointing and saying 'Russian man bad' atop a pile of bodies Kristina fumed: 'Nobody gives a flying monkey about your sanctions. Just like bfr ALL countries will crawl back AGAIN begging to trade & start tourism. 'Stand up first for UK & sort out your own s**t & get geography & history lesson next time you go to Russia to talk politics U R #embarrassing'. An additional post that has now been deleted showed a cartoon of US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson pointing and saying 'Russian man bad' atop a pile of bodies. Kristina captioned: 'Don't even have to say anything - pure genius'. The opinionated content sparked fury among Twitter's users, who told the ballroom pro to 'read the room' and 'delete the insensitive tweets.' Kristina was born in Vladivostok but now resides in Northampton with rugby player partner Ben Cohen and their daughter Milena, five. Alessandra Ambrosio is once again heating up her timeline while on vacation. On Sunday, the 40-year-old Brazilian model posted a few pictures of herself in a tiny, string orange bikini as she relaxed on the beaches with the crystal clear Caribbean ocean behind her. 'Un petit bout de paradis Ive missed u #stbarth #favoritespotonearth,' Alessandra captioned her post. Relaxing: Alessandra Ambrosio is once again heating up her timeline while on vacation The first half of her message is in French, which translates to 'a little piece of paradise'. The mother-of-two paired a large sunhat with orange glasses to protect her ageless face from the sun. Alessandra had a drink in her hand as she posed for the camera on a turquoise beach towel. The longtime supermodel has been soaking up the sights and sun of St. Barts with her boyfriend and family over the last few days. On vacation: On Sunday, the 40-year-old Brazilian model posted a few pictures of herself in a tiny, string orange bikini as she relaxed on the beaches with the crystal clear Caribbean ocean behind her Model body: 'un petit bout de paradis Ive missed u #stbarth #favoritespotonearth,' Alessandra captioned her post Model behavior: The mother-of-two paired a large sunhat with orange glasses to protect her ageless face from the sun On her Instagram story, Alessandra shared some more bikini snaps with her nearly 11 million followers. On Sunday, Alessandra uploaded a few selfies in a burnt-orange bikini while she took a dip in the ocean. 'New @galfloripa coming out soon...' she captioned the images, promoting her swimwear line. The supermodel's minimal bikini was part of her Gal Floripa line that she co-founded with her sister Aline Ambrosio and best friend Gisele Coria in 2019. Taking a swim: On her Instagram story, Alessandra shared some more bikini snaps with her nearly 11 million followers Promoting her brand: 'New @galfloripa coming out soon...' she captioned the images, promoting her swimwear line Brunette beauty: The supermodel's minimal bikini was part of her Gal Floripa line that she co-founded with her sister Aline Ambrosio and best friend Gisele Coria in 2019 'Growing up in Brazil, Gisele, Aline and I spent most of our summers together by the beach, immersed in the natural beauty of Florianopolis, known as 'The Magic Island', and spending almost every moment of the day in our swimwear,' Ambrosio reveals on her Gal Floripa webpage, adding, 'It makes sense that swimwear became like a second skin.' Ambrosio is enjoying her Caribbean getaway with her boyfriend Richard Lee and her nine year-old son Noah. Missing from the documented family fun was Ambrosio's daughter Anja Mazur, 13. Enjoying St. Barts: Ambrosio is enjoying her Caribbean getaway with her boyfriend Richard Lee and her nine year-old son Noah She shares her two children with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur, whom she dated from 2005 to 2018. Ambrosio and her current partner Lee have been romantically linked for one year, after they were first spotted canoodling in February 2021. They have since been captured vacationing together several times, most recently in her native Brazil around the new year. Green Day will no longer be performing in Russia amid the country's invasion of Ukraine. The band posted the update to their Instagram page on Sunday, announcing the cancellation of their May 29 show at Spartak Stadium in Moscow, Russia. They noted that 'this moment is not about stadium rock shows' but they 'feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future.' The latest: Green Day will no longer be performing in Russia amid the country's invasion of Ukraine. The band posted the update to their Instagram page on Sunday, announcing the cancellation of their May 29 show at Spartak Stadium in Moscow, Russia Green Day wrote: 'With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium. We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, it's much bigger than that.' The iconic band, which consists of Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt, added, 'But we also know that rock and roll is forever and we feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future. Refunds available at the point of purchase. Stay safe.' The Killers have also withdrawn from the Park Live Festival in July in Moscow amid the ongoing situation in Ukraine, a rep for the band told TMZ Monday. The group, which has hits such as Mr. Brightside, All These Things That I've Done and When You Were Young, had been slated to play at the festival at Gorky Park. Other performers currently scheduled to take the stage at the festival include Iggy Pop, My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Gorillaz, Deftones and Five Finger Death Punch, among others, according to the outlet. Cancellation: They noted that 'this moment is not about stadium rock shows' but they 'feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future;' pictured 2016 Details: The Killers have also withdrawn from the Park Live Festival in July in Moscow amid the ongoing situation in Ukraine; an ad advertising the band was seen on the festival's page last year United: The Killers' (L-R) Mark Stoemer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr., Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning were pictured in Las Vegas in December of 2017 The news comes just hours after what many called the 'tone deaf' Screen Actors Guild Awards, with the ceremony receiving backlash for taking place amid the crisis in Ukraine. Fourteen children have been killed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine; the military aggression began last week. It is claimed that 352 civilians have since died since Russian president Vladimir Putin has declared war on the people of Ukraine, CNN noted. Over 500,000 civilians refugees have fled the country to the neighboring countries, including Poland and Germany. Talks ended between Russia and Ukraine, CNN reported, with Belarus as well - a country who is prepared to join Russian in their invasion. CNN reported that several large explosions were heard east of Kyiv after the talks ended on Monday. Not the right time: Green Day wrote: 'With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium. We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, it's much bigger than that;' seen 2019 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's advisor Mikhaylo Podolyak told reporters: 'Ukrainian and Russian delegates held the first round of negotiations. Their main goal was to discuss ceasefire and the end of combat actions on the territory of Ukraine. The parties have determined the topics where certain decisions were mapped out. In order for these decisions to be implemented as roadmap, the parties are returning for consultations to their capitals. The parties discussed holding another round of negotiations where these decisions can develop, per CNN. The outlet reported that harsher sanctions from countries around the world have begun to be implemented, including the European Union closing its airspaces to Russia, a move that also bars any private jets of oligarchs as well. Notoriously neutral Switzerland will also adopt sanctions against Russian as the EU, despite their commitment to 'Swiss neutrality.' Swiss Federal President Ignazio Cassis said: 'The Swiss Federal Council has decided today to fully adopt EU sanctions. It is an unparalleled action of Switzerland, who has always stayed neutral before.' The US also prohibited the Russian central bank from US dollar transactions, a move that will prevent the country from accessing their 'rainy day fund,' CNN reported. In addition to the EU and the US, the UK, France, Canada, Germany and more have introduced sanctions against Russia. The move means Russian can no longer access funds it keeps in US dollars, and can't use the reserves it has to bummer the plummeting value of the Ruble, their form of currency. The Russian military's advancement to Kyiv, Ukraine, the capital of the country, 'remains slowed,' the outlet reported. They are 'roughly 25 kilometers out of Kyiv' (15 miles), a senior US defense official said to reporters, per CNN. Updates: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pictured on Monday, February 28 'Their advancement on Kyiv still appears to be their main line of effort and we expect that they're going to want to continue to move forward and try to encircle the city in coming days,' per CNN. The Russians have not yet captured the cities Kharkiv and Mariupol, Ukraine. Antonio Gueterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, spoke during their emergency meeting in front of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday. In what was the first emergency since 1982, he said that 'enough is enough' and 'the fighting in Ukraine must stop,' adding that the Russians putting their nuclear defenses on alert is a 'chilling development,' CNN reported. 'The mere idea of a nuclear development is simply inconceivable. Nothing can justify the use of nuclear weapons.' He spoke about the half a million Ukrainian refugees fleeing their homeland: 'We are facing what could easily be the humanitarian and refugee crisis in Europe in decades, when the number of refugee and internally displaced persons will increase by millions.' President Zelensky signed an application for Ukraine to become a member of the European Union. Korea will have talks with the United States early next month over joining Washington in export sanctions on Moscow following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the finance ministry here said Sunday. The ministry said it reached the decision following a meeting of its task force on the war in Ukraine, adding its upcoming discussions with the U.S. will cover the process of joining sanctions and export controls against Russia. The ministry added it will also brief local exporters and other relevant institutions on such measures in hopes of minimizing collateral damage to Korean firms. Washington earlier announced restrictions on exports of U.S.-origin technology and products to 49 Russian military entities, including its defense ministry. The sanctions apply to semiconductors, computers, telecommunications, information security equipment, lasers and sensors, and cover items produced in the U.S. or foreign items produced using U.S. equipment and software. Russia is Korea's 10th-largest trading partner, accounting for 1.6 percent of Seoul's exports in 2021. In sectors such as auto parts, steel structures and synthetic resins, half of Korea's exports went to Russia. The finance ministry is also working on measures to protect Korean companies in light of U.S. financial sanctions targeting Russian banks. The U.S. and its allies have decided to block some Russian banks' access to the SWIFT international payment system, which will hamper their ability to operate globally. But it will also hurt companies and banks that deal with targeted Russian banks. SWIFT, which stands for "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication," is a secure messaging system that connects 11,000 financial institutions in some 200 countries and territories, and alerts them on upcoming transactions. As for materials that South Korea mainly imports from Russia, such as neon gas and krypton, the finance ministry will look to increase trade with other countries and find alternative materials. (Yonhap) The Batman has been described as 'mopey' with Robert Pattinson playing a 'young, goth' as the titular character in the resurrection of the comic book franchise, alongside a 'woke' Catwoman. Rather than being an origin story, the film, directed by Matt Reeves, begins with Batman having been in the job for just over a year. Batman and Commissioner Gordon hunt for a Zodiac-like killer who leaves riddles addressed to Batman at the crime scenes around Gotham. The release, based on the DC Comics superhero sees Batman pursue The Riddler in his second year of crime fighting, uncovering corruption that is connected to his own family in the investigation, forcing him to make new allies to bring the supervillain to justice. An all-star cast sees Robert Pattinson star as Batman while Zoe Kravitz appears as Selina Kyle, or Catwoman. Reviewed: The Batman has been branded both 'self-important' and 'tiresome' in a mixed bag of reviews of the hotly anticipated Matt Reeves-directed blockbuster Also appearing is Paul Dano as Edward Nashton / Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, John Turturro as Gotham City crimelord Carmine Falcone, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Colin Farrell as Penguin. However, while the film was criticized for its 'overlong' runtime of nearly three hours and its characters 'bland' performances, others were somewhat impressed, simply describing it as a 'good film'. The New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski questioned why the film was even being made at all. 'Theres an unshakable feeling here of Whats the point? 'Director Matt Reeves downer movie embraces the realism of The Dark Knight the opposite of Tim Burtons purple-hazed funhouse only without the payoff of excellent writing and acting. 'Whereas previous iterations hid their crimefighting alter ego by being charming, tuxedo-clad socialites at parties, Pattinsons billionaire Bruce is a brooding recluse who stays home all the time and whom many residents havent seen since he was a little boy. Oleksinski describes the film as an 'old-school mystery' which takes views through a 'banal story'. 'With not much to sink his fangs into, Pattinson is wasted here. Normally, hes an electric, funny and unpredictable actor but thats the opposite of Batman, who hides by necessity. He doesnt act conflicted, determined or scared he just seems bored.' Roger Friedman of Showbiz411 says the film 'brings David Fincher-Like darkness to a young, goth Bruce Wayne and a woke Catwoman.' Pattinson's Batman 'does more for Bruce Wayne than it has in the past. And he needs it: Reeves imagines Bruce as a disaffected Kurt Cobain with dark circles under his eyes and nary a comb in sight. Kravitzs Catwoman 'gets the most interaction with Batman' and 'has a woke moment describing Gotham society as 'rich, privileged white people.' Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle describes Robbert Pattinson's performance as 'stiff'. 'Bruce Wayne is a mopey sort of guy who really should wash his hair more often... If you eliminate from The Batman the good-versus-evil struggle, the only grounding point of focus can be on Bruce Wayne/Batmans internal conflict, his woundedness, his confusion, his desire to do good. But no, as written by Reeves and his collaborators and as played by Pattinson, hes just a big stiff. His performance doesnt suggest depths, but an actors cramped understanding, hammered over and over for three hours.' Zoe Kravitzs Catwoman 'gets the most interaction with Batman' and 'has a woke moment describing Gotham society as 'rich, privileged white people.' Star-studded: An all-star cast sees Robert Pattinson star as Batman while Zoe Kravitz appears as Selina Kyle, or Catwoman Robert Pattinson is pictured in a scene from The Batman 'It is tremendously designed, visually spectacular with great set pieces and juddering, sternum-shivering impacts coming at you out of the darkness.' Writing for the Associated Press, Jake Coyle sees The Batman film as having found its dark tone and then wallowing in it. 'There is surprisingly little suspense because the film struggles to find more than one note (powerful though it is) to strike. Pattinson's Bruce Wayne is just as downbeat and grave as his Batman ... He has abandoned nearly all social engagement, instead tortuously writing a diary to document the horrors he witnesses nightly. Pretty much since Adam West put on the cape and cowl, Batman has steadily grown darker. But Pattinsons despondent Dark Knight takes the cake.' 'OK, but does Batman, like, kick some butt, too? What about the Batmobile? Its not all just a seedy slog through the Gotham sewer, is it? Well, almost,' Coyle adds noting that the plot is structured as a detective story and makes for a 'distinctive work separate from previous movie iterations of the character.' Writing for the Associated Press , Jake Coyle sees The Batman film as having found its dark tone and then wallowing in it 'The Batman is dark, no doubt about it. Even darker than the already dark Christopher Nolandirected trilogy,' writes Bilge Ebiri at Vulture. 'You might have thought Batman couldnt get any darker, but youd be wrong. 'This is a Batman movie reimagined as a grisly serial-killer film, only this time its not just the serial killer who looms in the shadows, watching his prey and waiting to pounce; the hero does, too. Ebiri highlights some positives including car chases and fight scenes. 'Reeves sustains the tense mood throughout, and the procedural elements are mostly absorbing. The action keeps with the austere, grim mood. One nighttime car chase, shot through the blur of heavy rainfall and the delirious dance of car lights reflected in windows, takes your breath away. The fights are often shot in long takes that emphasize both the impressive stunt work and the sheer difficulty of being Batman. And as with the Nolan films, the directorial sensibility matches the form.' It's a view echoed by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian who gave the film three stars a wrote the 'gloomy reboot' was 'overly' and felt 'like a serial killer chiller such as Saw.' He said the start was 'intriguing', comparing it to a serial killer chiller such as Saw that promises a mystery plot 'for a time'. 'For a time it promises a mystery plot relating to the theme of municipal corruption which is so important to the Batman franchise, and holds out hope of an unmasking with a satisfying narrative resolution. But not really. 'The film is overlong; the Riddlers puzzles arent particularly ingenious or even important to the story and theres a pretty feeble non-ending. The ending is tiresome and shark-jumping in the extreme, with faux-apocalyptic scenes which work better in less solemn superhero adventures.' Bradshaw praised Zoe Kravitz in the role of Selina Kyle, or Catwoman, writing that her 'superpower is charisma' and said that Jeffrey Wright and John Turturro both put in good performances. He wrote: 'The ending is tiresome and shark-jumping in the extreme, with faux-apocalyptic scenes which work better in less solemn superhero adventures, and an exasperating non-revelation whose significance is teased for the next film. 'Inevitably, night falls on the latest Batman iteration with the cloudy sense that of course nothing has really been at stake. A classy turn from Pattinson, however, as the crime fighter with an injured soul.' Bradshaw does reserve some praise for the overall look of the production. Empire's John Nugent gave the movie four stars and wrote: 'Matt Reeves arrival in the Bat-verse is a gripping, beautifully shot, neo-noir take on an age-old character. 'Though not a totally radical refit of the Nolan/Snyder era, it establishes a Gotham City we would keenly want a return visit to.' He said the director's approach was 'evolution rather than revolution' and so Pattison's Bruce Wayne was very different from previous portrayals. 'Where Christian Bale and Ben Affleck embraced the macho side of the character, Pattinson looks like a boyish vampire, his skin tone only a shade warmer than in Twilight,' he wrote 'His is the first screen Batman to be fully seen wearing the eyeshadow... In the suit hes methodical and muscular; out of it, hes racked with insecurity and self-doubt. A repeated needle drop of Nirvanas Something In The Way confirms it: this is emo-Bats.' The Batman: What the critics said 'The moody self-importance... tries to bludgeon the audience into submission and to distract them from how derivative nearly everything on screen is... 'Pattinson, who has delivered so many thrilling turns recently, struggles to elevate his antihero beyond a pouty emo brat.' - The Times critic Kevin Maher Rating: 'The ending is tiresome and shark-jumping in the extreme, with faux-apocalyptic scenes which work better in less solemn superhero adventures, and an exasperating non-revelation whose significance is teased for the next film. 'Inevitably, night falls on the latest Batman iteration with the cloudy sense that of course nothing has really been at stake. A classy turn from Pattinson, however, as the crime fighter with an injured soul.' - The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw Rating: 'Where Christian Bale and Ben Affleck embraced the macho side of the character, Pattinson looks like a boyish vampire, his skin tone only a shade warmer than in Twilight. 'His is the first screen Batman to be fully seen wearing the eyeshadow... In the suit hes methodical and muscular; out of it, hes racked with insecurity and self-doubt. A repeated needle drop of Nirvanas Something In The Way confirms it: this is emo-Bats.' - Empire critic John Nugent Rating: 'The Batman is a very good Batman film. To think of it as anything more only leads fo delusion or disappointment.' The Independent critic Clarisse Loughrey Rating: 'Pattinson and Kravitz together generate more sensual charge than entire franchises have been known to muster... '(The film brings) a deep bench of tremendous character performances that add enthralling colour and intrigue to the winding underworld mystery plot.' - The Telegraph critic Robbie Collin Rating: Advertisement Tension: This year's release, based on the DC Comics superhero sees Batman pursue The Riddler in his second year of crime fighting Caution: The hotly-anticipated comic book film is said to have a running time of two hours and 55 minutes The Telegraph's Robbie Collin gave the flick a full five stars, saying Pattinson and Kravitz 'generate an astonishing sensual charge in a brilliant addition to the Batman canon that refuses to behave like a blockbuster'. While he claims the film has no 'star turn' as 'the film doesnt have room for one', telling movie fans to 'dispel all thoughts of Jim Carreys Lycra-sheathed flamboyance (as the Riddler) in Batman Forever', he insists the set up brings 'a deep bench of tremendous character performances that add enthralling colour and intrigue to the winding underworld mystery plot'. He added that 'Pattinson and Kravitz together generate more sensual charge than entire franchises have been known to muster'. Kevin Maher of The Times gave the film two stars, lamenting it for its near three-hour length and 'moody self-importance' that 'tries to bludgeon the audience into submission and to distract them from how derivative nearly everything on screen is'. He seemed equally unimpressed with the star performances, writing that 'Pattinson, who has delivered so many thrilling turns recently, struggles to elevate his antihero beyond a pouty emo brat'. However, he praised Colin Farrell in the 'underused' role of the Penguin for 'having a blast throughout'. Mixed bag: while the film was criticised for its 'overlong' runtime of nearly three hours and its characters 'bland' performances, others were somewhat impressed The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey gave the movie four stars and wrote: 'The Batman is a very good Batman film. To think of it as anything more only leads to delusion or disappointment'. She pitched the flick between Christopher Nolan's and Tim Burton's, saying Reeves' version has 'one foot in our reality, and the other planted in a Gothic noir aesthetic and comics'. Clarisse stated that the film seems more 'intimate' than other Batman films but insisted it did not need nearly three hours to tell the story of a 'relatively simple story of its heros moral awakening'. She concluded: 'The Batman has risen but it might be pushing its luck if it decides to return.' While theatregoers will have to wait until Friday to judge the action for themselves, they have been warned that some scenes could be a challenge to see due to the extensive rainfall in the movie. Shots showing rain showers take up over a third of the running time of the movie, appearing on screens for 62 minutes and 40 seconds of the screen time of the three hour running time. The Batman will be released in cinemas on March 4. When you stretch a narrative arc you end up with a flat line, but there's still plenty to relish: BRIAN VINER reviews The Batman for the Daily Mail Rating: Those of us old enough to remember Adam Wests Batman in the Sixties TV series, complete with pop-art Pow! and Thwack! graphics, have since seen the Caped Crusader fly a long way - although not necessarily in the right direction. George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck are among the stars who have subsequently played the scourge of the Gotham City underworld, and now, in the latest big-budget reboot of the DC Comics franchise, The Batman, its the turn of British actor Robert Pattinson. Hes perfectly fine both as billionaire Bruce Wayne and his crime-busting alter ego, although the extravagant length of this movie, at just a Zzzzz! under three hours, made me decidedly nostalgic for the caped capers of Batman and his sidekick Robin in the long-ago telly version. Just when you think the storys all done theres an unwanted added 20 per cent, almost as if The Batman had been crossed with the VAT man. When you stretch a narrative arc you end up with a flat line, but there's still plenty to relish: BRIAN VINER reviews The Batman Director Matt Reeves, who took a whole 36 minutes less to resolve The War for The Planet of the Apes (2017), evidently decided that this time he needed to stretch his narrative arc. After all, the illustrious likes of Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton have already made widely-acclaimed Batman films, so how better to create an even bigger impact - Ker-pow! - than with one that cinema audiences might remember for a nasty onset of cramp? The shame of it is that theres a cracking movie of little more than two hours fighting - biff! - to get out of the near three-hour running-time. Unfortunately, when you stretch a narrative arc, or indeed any arc, you end up with a flat line. So it is here. I enjoyed the films two parallel stories - one in which Batman tangles with the Gotham City mob led by Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and another in which he tries to identify a serial killer known only as the Riddler (Paul Dano) - but they both end up flat-lining long before the 176 minutes are up. Pattinson plays Bruce as a dour, tormented young man, still uncomfortably in thrall to his spiky mentor and father-substitute Alfred (Andy Serkis), and basically too floppy-haired and miserable for anyone to put two and two together and connect him with the masked vigilante who keeps swooping down every time a bat motif appears, illuminated in the night sky. The basic premise of this doggedly cheerless film is that Batman isnt yet a fully-fledged crime-fighter. Hes still finding his feet - not easy in that beefy tunic - and so falls into an alliance with a sexy but embittered waitress, Selina (Zoe Kravitz). She works at the sleazy nightclub run by a scarred mobster called Oswald Cobblepot (an unrecognisable Colin Farrell), and although all comic-book enthusiasts know him better as The Penguin and her as Catwoman, the implication is that those nicknames, even more than Batman, have yet to be earned. Theres a striking dearth of humour throughout but a pleasing wink to the audience when Oswald, his feet bound together, is forced to waddle like a certain flightless aquatic bird. Tormented: Pattinson plays Bruce as a dour, tormented young man, still uncomfortably in thrall to his spiky mentor and father-substitute Alfred Meanwhile, a sadistic psycho is brutally knocking off the high and mighty but irredeemably corrupt of Gotham City, starting with the mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones). He leaves a creepy riddle at every murder scene, one of many reasons why The Batman feels more like a psychological film noir than a superhero movie, borrowing almost as conspicuously from the likes of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Seven (1995) as it does from its most obvious influence, Nolans The Dark Knight trilogy. But where The Dark Knight (2008) had an unsurpassable baddie in Heath Ledgers Joker, this film creates a problem for itself by keeping its principal fiend from us (brilliant as Dano is) almost until the end. Another self-inflicted issue is Batmans voice, a kind of monotone whisper. When he says of the crime-ridden metropolis that maybe its beyond saving, I heard it as maybe its Beyonce, which seemed like a truly startling guess as to the identity of the killer. Still, once your ears get attuned, and your eyes too, for that matter, since daylight hardly ever encroaches, there is plenty to relish in The Batman. Theres oodles of atmosphere, and for those familiar with the great city of Liverpool, the bonus of realising that it is Gothams stunt double. But none of that can mitigate the challenge to the bladder when - eeek! - you realise that youve been in there over two and a half hours, with 25 minutes still to go. The Batman opens in cinemas on Friday A former stylist for the X Factor has spoken out about the 'tense' environment on the show as judges Cheryl and Dannii Minogue were pitted against each other. Grace Woodward, 46, who worked as fashion director on the series in 2010, revealed that Cheryl was 'vulnerable' and 'volatile' during the show's peak. She admitted that she had seen both Dannii, 50, and Cheryl, 38, 'in tears' as the pressures of their 'unsecure' roles had Cheryl 'singing for her supper.' Dannii sat on the show's judging panel from 2007 to 2010 while Cheryl featured from 20082010, returning for 2014 to 2015. 'She was singing for her supper': Cheryl, 38, was left 'in tears' on the X Factor as she was pitted against Dannii Minogue - a former stylist on the show has revealed Grace spoke out about the 'expendability' of females on the ITV series as the likes of One Direction, Cher Lloyd, Rebecca Ferguson rocketed to fame, with Matt Cardle triumphing as 17.2 million viewers tuned in. The stylist confessed that she had a spat with Cheryl when they argued over one of Rebecca's costumes, with Grace describing Cheryl as 'vulnerable' and 'volatile' during her time on the series. In an Interview with The Sun Grace said: 'She also seemed volatile. The mask would be on, but then it would slip and you could see that underneath it there was a real sensitivity. In week two we had quite a heated disagreement ahead of the show.' Judge: Dannii (pictured) sat on the show's judging panel from 2007 to 2010 while Cheryl featured from 20082010, returning for 2014 to 2015 She explained the importance of Cheryl's contestant, Rebecca needing to look 'innocent', which sparked a heated debate between the pair. Grace continued: 'It created a lot of tension from that point on. But I always thought that was because of the pressure Cheryl was under in her role. She was singing for her supper as much as the rest of us.' The creative added that Dannii too felt the pressures as she fought to present her artists in 'the right way' and she also saw her 'in tears.' Tense: Grace Woodward, 46, who worked as fashion director on the series in 2010, has revealed that Cheryl, was 'vulnerable' and 'volatile' during the shows peak Panel: Grace spoke out about the 'expendability' of females on the ITV series as the likes of One Direction, Cher Lloyd, Rebecca Ferguson rocketed to fame, with Matt Cardle triumphing Grace explained: 'You only have to look at how many times the female judges changed during the shows history to see their places on that panel were not that secure.' Cheryl replaced Sharon Osbourne on The X Factor UK in 2008, working alongside Danni, Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh, leaving the show in 2011. An X Factor spokesman told MailOnline: 'These allegations are unsubstantiated, dating back 12 years on a show that is no longer in production or on television. They continued: 'The wellbeing of everyone involved in any of our programming is paramount and we have thorough and robust duty of care protocols in place to provide support for anyone who may need it including psychologists on hand to provide expert opinion. 'If we are made aware of any concerns, we treat the issue seriously and investigate immediately.' MailOnline has contacted representatives for ITV, The X Factor, Simon Cowell and Syco, Dannii Minogue, Cheryl, Liam Payne, Cher Lloyd, Katie Waissel, and Matt Cardle for comment. Contender: She explained the importance of Cheryl's contestant, Rebecca Ferguson needing to look 'innocent', which sparked a heated debate between the pair. Last year, Simon pulled the plug on the ITV talent show - which launched in 2004 and last aired in 2018 - because he didn't want the programme to 'become a bit of a joke'. While around the world the format is still successful, it seems Simon accepted in the UK 'it has become slightly stale' and so reportedly decided to 'shelve it' for five years, but sources are claiming it's now 'unlikely' to ever return. A show insider told The Sun last year: 'Globally, it is still a phenomenon and rakes in millions every year. But in the UK, there is no question it has become slightly stale. 'Simon remains at the top of his game and knows how to make a hit. He owns the rights to the show, and it's his call not ITV's whether or not he drops it. 'Clearly the last thing he wants is for X Factor to fizzle out with a whimper and become a bit of a joke especially in contrast to the show in its pomp.' She took the runway by storm in Milan last week. And on Monday, Iris Law marked the start of yet another prestigious week in the fashion calendar as she presented a statement look in Paris. Wearing a lion-emblazoned ensemble while arriving at 5-star Costes Hotel, the 21-year-old model looked prepared for another ten days of intense modelling as Fashion Week kicked off in France's capital. From Milan To Paris! Iris Law donned a lion-emblazoned ensemble in France's capital as the city's Fashion Week kicked off on Monday The eccentric co-ord comprised a long-sleeve zip top teamed with a flowy skirt - on which the creature was splashed. Keeping large sunglasses perched on top of her head, the blonde beauty looked in high spirits as she toted a mustard leather bag. Her choice of footwear was classically bold - chunky ankle boots which were embellished with silver detailing. High spirits: While arriving at 5-star Costes Hotel, the 21-year-old model looked prepared for another ten days of intense modelling Stepping out: The eccentric co-ord comprised a long-sleeve zip top teamed with a flowy skirt - on which the creature was splashed The runway star is the celebrity offpring of Jude Law and Sadie Frost who has broken into the fashion world. And on Friday, Iris was once again every inch the budding supermodel as she took to the Missoni runway, while Romeo Beckham's girlfriend Mia Regan watched from the front row during Milan Fashion Week. Iris cut an elegant figure in a black glitzy evening gown with spaghetti straps and a sweetheart neckline, teamed with a pair of satin green stilettos for her jaunt down the catwalk. Model material: The runway star is the celebrity offpring of Jude Law and Sadie Frost who has broken into the fashion world (pictured on Friday) Wow: On Friday, Iris was once again every inch the budding supermodel as she took to the Missoni runway Quirky: Iris was sporting her signature blonde buzzcut hairstyle as well as a full face of make-up Iris was sporting her signature blonde buzzcut hairstyle as well as a full face of make-up. Meanwhile, Mia, 19, looked just as chic off the runway as she posed for snaps at the fashion event, wearing a cool patchwork dress with chunk black boots. She wore her hair up in a carefree style, with strands framing her pretty features. Kim Kardashian has stepped up her workout by adding ankle weights during an early morning training session. The influencer shared shots from her 6:30 am exercise session on her Instagram story on Monday. The 41-year-old entrepreneur donned basic black workout gear, but added a touch of grey in the form of an ankle weight as she got her steps in on her stair climber machine. Early bird: Kim Kardashian has stepped up her workout by adding ankle weights during an early morning training session. The influencer shared shots from her 6:30 am workout on her Instagram story on Monday A weighty matter: The 41-year-old entrepreneur donned basic black workout gear, but added a touch of grey in the form of an ankle weight as she got her steps in on her stair climber machine The busy mom of four has said she makes habit of getting up early to make sure she gets in her gym time before she begins her busy day. The fashionista recently returned from Milan, Italy where she attended fashion week in her brand new private jet, which she has dubbed 'Kim Air." The Skims creator ordered a lot of custom work on the aircraft with sells for around $95 million dollars including reported upgrades that include a cream colored interior and leather seats. The estimated final cost of the jet is around $150 million. Kim's hair stylist, Chris Appleton, posted a picture showing off the interior while showing off the model's latest Vogue cover. Kim Air: The entrepreneur returned to California after attending Milan fashion week in her brand new private airplane dubbed 'Kim Air" No jetlag: The busy businesswoman posted she had no jetlag on Instagram after returning home from Milan fashion week aboard her private jet Kim's new aircraft was reportedly designed to complement her car collection, which matches her Calabasas home. The beauty styled her locks in two low braids on either side of her head and held up a peace sign. She sported a black bra that showed off her curves as she posed in her nude colored home, and despite the extensive travel, Kim wrote in her caption, 'shockingly not jet-lagged.' Over the weekend she shared photos in a gray coat with green shirt that she wore in Milan last week. Angela Scanlon has given birth to her second child. The One Show presenter, 38, announced the baby joy on Instagram on Monday. Alongside an image of her newborn daughter cradled against her chest, a besotted Angela wrote: 'Marnie Fae Horgan 11.2.22 Chapped lips & chapped nips can only mean one thing our little woman has arrived!! We are besotted x'. Baby joy: The One Show's Angela Scanlon has welcomed her second child with husband Roy - a little girl called Marnie Messages of congratulations accumulated underneath the precious snap. Reality star Vicky Pattison wrote: 'Omg congratulations beautiful girl,' followed by a heart-eyed emoji. Meanwhile fellow presenter Stacey Dooley commented: 'Yayyyyyyyyyyy! ' Sweet: The reporter and presenter, 38, announced the baby joy on Instagram on Monday A besotted Angela wrote: 'Marnie Fae Horgan 11.2.22 Chapped lips & chapped nips can only mean one thing our little woman has arrived!! We are besotted x'. Yay! Messages of congratulations accumulated underneath the precious snap Angela shares another daughter, four-year-old Ruby Ellen, with eco-entrepreneur husband Roy Horgan. They pair tied the knot in 2014 in County Wicklow, Ireland. Their second bout of baby joy was announced last October in an Instagram post. Happy couple: Angela shares another daughter, four-year-old Ruby Ellen, with eco-entrepreneur husband Roy Horgan (the pair pictured in 2014) Angela wrote: 'SO, this is happening!! I'm pregnant & apparently already prepping for actual labour. Baby Horgan The Second (official title) arrives next spring.' She added: 'Feeling very lucky & excited & also nervous about jumping on a trampoline (forever).' The news of baby number two came just weeks after Angela revealed that she was involved in a car crash. Baby news: Their second bout of baby joy was announced last October in an Instagram post Angela was rushed to hospital after being involved in a serious crash with a private ambulance and two other cars. According to The Sun, the star was in an Addison Lee private car at 9.30am, when it collided with the ambulance on north London's The Bishops Avenue - nicknamed 'billionaires' row' due to its concentration of sprawling mansions. Witnesses claimed Angela's vehicle was hit by a van which had first been struck by a BMW. Angela later shared a video updating fans on her well-being and said she was 'absolutely fine'. She said: 'I'm absolutely fine. There was a car accident yesterday, I was in it. It looked pretty bad, nobody was hurt thankfully. We crashed into an ambulance. 'They were amazing, everyone was amazing. I did have to go to hospital just as a precaution but I'm fine. 'Took a day off, absolutely fine. Both drivers are fine. Sorry if anyone panicked. I panicked a bit when I saw it!' Weekend Sunrise host Matt Doran has resumed on-air duties at Channel Seven after taking an extended hiatus to focus on his mental health. The 38-year-old was part of the reporting team in Queensland for Sunrise's special coverage of the catastrophic floods on Tuesday. He interviewed residents in Auchenflower, an inner suburb of Brisbane badly affected by the floodwater, and also showed confronting scenes of a completely submerged street. Back in action: Weekend Sunrise host Matt Doran, 38, has resumed on-air duties at Seven after taking an extended hiatus to focus on his mental health. He was part of the reporting team in Queensland for Sunrise's special coverage of the catastrophic floods on Tuesday Doran had taken time off work in late January to recuperate after facing intense trolling online over his infamous botched interview with Adele late last year. He reportedly spent time in a health facility. Doran had failed to listen to Adele's new album before interviewing the British superstar in London in November, and after admitting this to her on camera, Sony Music withdrew permission to air the footage. It was said to be a costly mistake for Seven, which had reportedly paid $1million for a package that included the exclusive interview plus rights to Adele's One Night Only concert and her sit-down with Oprah Winfrey. (Seven later disputed this figure.) On the ground: Doran interviewed residents in Auchenflower, an inner suburb of Brisbane badly impacted by the floodwater Work: He delivered several live crosses from Auchenflower while Sunrise anchor Natalie Barr (left) handled most of the coverage from flood-affected Brisbane Meanwhile, more rain is set to inundate southeast Queensland, prolonging devastating flooding and disrupting clean-up efforts across the region. A 'Mud Army' of volunteers is primed to mop up once flood waters that have killed eight people and damaged thousands of homes and businesses recede. There are also about 200 Defence Force personnel on standby to provide support to the Queensland government's recovery efforts. Controversy: Doran had taken time off work in late January to recuperate after facing intense trolling online over his infamous botched interview with Adele (pictured) late last year Gaffe: Doran (pictured with his UK crew) had failed to listen to Adele's new album before interviewing the British superstar in London in November, and after admitting this to her on camera, Sony Music withdrew permission to air the footage However, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned severe thunderstorms are set to return this week in what is expected to frustrate clean up efforts. 'Severe thunderstorms are possible mid and late week over south eastern parts of Queensland,' BOM's Dean Narramore said. 'They can bring heavy rain and damaging winds and large hail that will continue to impact the recovery efforts ongoing through southeastern parts of Queensland.' Getting better: Doran (right, with Weekend Sunrise co-host Monique Wright) reportedly spent time in a health facility Logan and Gold Coast City Councils are bracing themselves with flooding expected to exceed record 2017 levels on Tuesday. The regions are copping the tail end of a low-pressure system moving south that has dumped one year's worth of rain on parts of the southeast, affecting about 15,000 homes. The Logan River is set to exceed the landmark 2017 flood level of 20.50m when ex-tropical cyclone Debbie hit. About 1000 properties are already affected in the region before the 9am Tuesday predicted peak, prompting the council to open a 24-7 evacuation centre at Crestmead. 'Our residents are very resilient. We have had a lot of floods over the last 10 years or so,' Logan Mayor Darren Power told AAP. 'Residents are getting used to it...but they are not taking this lightly. It could be a long morning with the Logan River tomorrow.' Gold Coast has issued emergency alerts for Currumbin Valley and Tallebudgera Valley with 24-7 evacuation centres at Burleigh and Ormeau. Gold Coast beaches will remain closed on Tuesday with a sandbag station set up at Pimpama. In Brisbane, emergency services are monitoring a crane on a pontoon that broke free of its moorings near the Story Bridge on Monday afternoon due to major flooding. Police are monitoring the pontoon which was tilting but largely stationary on Monday night. Catastrophic weather: A woman carries a baby as people use small boats to travel through flood water in Lismore, NSW, on Monday, February 28, 2022. Heavy rain is bringing record flooding to some east coast areas A tug boat is on standby to intercept it, with evacuation orders for the Howard Smith Wharves and riverside walkways downstream still current on Monday night. 'The contractor is working with the Maritime Safety Queensland Harbour Master and Queensland Police to further secure the barge,' a Brisbane City Council spokesperson told AAP. Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m on Monday, below the 2011 levels of 4.46m, but it's set to rise again to 3.7m at 9am on Tuesday and prolong the deadly floods. The death toll reached eight after a man's body was found in a submerged car with his dog in the Currumbin Valley on the Gold Coast on Monday. There are also 'grave concerns' for two men missing in floodwaters in inner Brisbane and at Glen Esk. Major flooding is underway on the Brisbane, Logan, Bremer and Mary rivers, and Warrill Creek ahead of another high tide on Monday night after record rainfall over a seven day period. Submerged: Many Brisbane suburbs remained underwater on Tuesday morning. (Pictured: a flooded road in Milton) Mount Glorious recorded 1776mm, 1550mm at Pomona and 1231mm at Upper Springbrook. Brisbane copped 795mm - the wettest week since records began in 1840. About 15,000 southeast homes have been affected. More than 1200 homes were still without electricity across Brisbane on Monday night with almost 55,000 affected in the southeast. Queensland Rail's southeast services and Brisbane River ferries will remain suspended on Tuesday with a limited bus timetable available. Some schools in Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Lockyer Valley will reopen. Maksim Chmerkovskiy has fled warn-torn Ukraine in search of safety on a 'sweaty and claustrophobic' train full of women and children heading to Warsaw, Poland, following his arrest in the capital city of Kyiv. The Ukrainian Dancing With the Stars pro, 42, updated followers in series of social media posts on Monday, detailing his 'traumatizing' attempt to get out of the country amid the Russian invasion. Chmerkovskiy, who has been in Kyiv working as a judge on the Ukrainian version of World of Dance, had planned on staying in his native land when the fighting first broke out, however, after he got a 'reality check' by being arrested he decided to flee. The country announced last week that men of fighting age - between 18-60 - were prohibited from leaving Ukraine but since Maks holds a U.S. passport, he is exempt from the mandate. Seeking safety: Maksim Chmerkovskiy has fled warn-torn Ukraine in search of safety on a 'sweaty and claustrophobic' train full of women and children heading to Warsaw, Poland, following his arrest in the capital city of Kyiv 'I made it on the train. We're heading to Warsaw (hopefully). Train to Lviv was not an option,' the choreographer penned. 'The situation at the train station is insane. AT first it feels manageable, but it get A LOT worse when it comes time to actually board the train.' 'Long story but all I can say now is that I'm a big man with nothing but a backpack it's TRAUMATIZING,' he continued. 'Currently I'm in a cabin with 4 adults and 7 kids (ages 2-11) which is usually only occupied by maximum of 3 people.' Maksim revealed that the train car that he's currently traveling in is outfitted for roughly 30 riders but refugees were told they needed to fit 135 people inside. 'Walkways are packed. People everywhere. It's sweaty and claustrophobic,' he said. Photos from a train station in illustrate the reality star's situation. Thousands of people were seen bundled up in freezing temperatures standing practically on top of one another as they attempted to get a train out of the country. Refugees: Chmerkovskiy, who has been in Kyiv working as a judge on the Ukrainian version of World of Dance, had planned on staying in his native land when the fighting first broke out, however, after he got a 'reality check' by being arrested he decided to flee One of the lucky ones: Ukraine announced last week that men of fighting age - between 18-60 - were prohibited from leaving Ukraine but since Maks holds a U.S. passport, he is exempt from the mandate Fighting-aged men are prohibited from leaving Ukraine under a new mandate so the trains are filled primarily with women and children. Back in the 1990s, Maksim and his family emigrated to the United States and thus he holds a U.S. passport, allowing him the rare opportunity to flee for safety. 'What finally broke me is when I was watching an eight-ish year old boy, hysterically crying and not wanting to let go of his father,' he wrote in a heartbreaking post on Instagram. 'Verbatim: "if you stay I want to stay too because if they kill you I won't be able to help".' His wife, Peta Murgatroyd, shared his post on her social media feed saying she was 'so f**king proud' of her husband for helping out the refugee children. Maks' decision to finally leave Kyiv came after he was arrested while in the capital city amid the Russian military assault. Terrifying: Thousands of people were seen bundled up in freezing temperatures standing practically on top of one another as they attempted to get a train out of the country (Pictured: Evacuation train in Kyiv) Getting out: Thousands of Ukrainian residents waiting for hours to board trains into neighboring countries as Russian forces continue to shell cities across the country (Pictured: Lviv train station) 'The streets are crazy,' he said. 'At one point I got arrested but again all good, promise. That was probably the least traumatizing moment in this whole thing as far as Ukraine is concerned, but for me, it was just a reality check.' 'I'm going to try and make my way out. I'm going to start making my way towards the border. I have options.' Adding: 'Just a little nervous but I think it's going to be alright. I know it's going to be okay. Maksim posted graphic videos to his stories and grid throughout Ukraine, as the star says he's tried and stressed out after seeing innocent people being killed. He said on Sunday: 'I'm in a very safe place but this is nuts and I think everybody is going through a lot of emotions and i think it's time I expose mine in a more personal manner. 'This is a war. This is a crazy situation. It's insane and I'm losing my final little things. This is not a cry for help. I'm a big boy. I can handle myself.. but I'm starting to not be able to just sort of keep my head.' Support: His wife, Peta Murgatroyd, shared his post on her social media feed saying she was 'so f**king proud' of her husband for helping out the refugee children 'The reality is, I just want to go home. I'm just hoping for a safe ending to it all.' His wife Peta, 35, took to Instagram on Sunday with an emotional message in which she shared that an empathetic group of strangers had made a kind gesture to her amid the absence of Maksim. 'Although I'm going through hell right now and I want it all to end[there] is light that shines through the darkness,' said Murgatroyd, who is mother to five-year-old son Shai with Chmerkovskiy, who she wed in July of 2017. Murgatroyd, an alum of Dancing With the Stars, remains at the family's home in California amid the uncertain time. She said that strangers baked her cookies 'and proudly brought them to [her] door. 'They stood there with smiles so wide. Let me repeat strangers, whom I don't talk to thought that they should get in their kitchen and bake me cookies,' she said. 'They also took it upon themselves to google if I was allergic to anything, just to make sure they weren't hurting me.' The latest: Maksim Chmerkovskiy revealed he was arrested while in Kyiv, Ukraine but called it the 'least traumatizing moment in this whole thing as far as Ukraine is concerned Chmerkovskiy has also provided frequent social media updates amid the conflict, as he said Thursday he had not attempted to leave the country due to safety concerns around the border of Poland. The professional dancer said he felt his odds for departure from the Ukraine were helped in having an American passport. Chmerkovskiy added that the conflict had taken an emotional toll on him, as he said he 'will never be the same' in the wake of the invasion. 'This is stressful and Im getting old feelings back, like Ive done this before,' he said Thursday. 'This does feel like the way it was when and why we left in the 90s. Like my old PTSD Ive finally fixed is coming back.' On Sunday, Chmerkovskiy took to Instagram Stories with a number of messages, urging people in the dance community in European countries to help take care of refugees if they were able to. He shared a number of links to resources to help people exit safely amid the ongoing military conflict. Chmerkovskiy also wrote, 'Russia needs a revolution!!! Russian people are being lied to!!! Russians! Wake up! It will take you generations to get over this and generations of people around the world will never forgive you!!!' On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to put nuclear weapons on enhanced alert for 'special regime of combat duty' amid heightened tensions with Europe and the United States following the invasion. Putin cited aggression toward Russia from NATO as well as economic sanctions and moves shutting down Russian banking institutions using the banking system SWIFT. The U.N. Security Council is slated to hold an emergency meeting regarding the invasion Monday. Molly-Mae Hague gave fans a peek into her latest work trip on Monday. The 22-year-old influencer is currently in Tulum, Mexico, shooting a campaign and showed off her modelling skills and natural beauty with two beachwear-clad snaps. But prior to the getaway glimpses, Molly-Mae reached out to her loyal 6.2million followers via her Story to gauge whether she should share holiday content in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. Beach beauty: Molly-Mae Hague slipped on a fringed beach dress while working on a campaign in Mexico on Monday - after asking fans whether she should post holiday content in the wake of Ukraine crisis Five hours before sharing the candid images in a fringed beach dress, the former Love Island star confessed it felt 'impossible' to carry on with life as normal 'without feeling guilty.' Molly-Mae created a poll, asking her fanbase whether they wanted to remain updated with her content. The message read: 'Given everything that's happening in the world right now I feel it's impossible to carry on with life as normal without feeling guilty... Candid: The 22-year-old influencer is currently in Tulum, Mexico, shooting a campaign and showed off her modelling skills and natural beauty with two beachwear-clad snaps 'I'm currently away for work shooting a campaign but haven't known whether to share as usual for the people that come on Instagram to escape... 'I care about you guys so much and how my content makes you all feel.' She added: 'Please let me know', followed by the options, 'keep you updated' and 'not at the moment'. Initiating response: Molly-Mae reached out to her loyal 6.2million followers via her Story to gauge whether she should share holiday content in the wake of the Ukraine crisis Results: Almost three quarters of her fans opted to remain in the know, with PrettyLittleThing's Creative Director sharing some of their responses in a follow-up Story Views: Following the poll, Molly-Mae captured the serenity for her followers to see Almost three quarters of her fans opted to remain in the know, with PrettyLittleThing's Creative Director sharing some of their responses in a follow-up Story. 'I've been reading everyone's dm's and it's really helped me understand how everyone's feeling right now. 'I'm going to continue posting for the majority that want me to... my dm's are always open, I really want to find other ways I can continue using my platform to raise awareness,' she penned. The fashionista stuck to her word and used her influential profile to share a post outlining how people can help those in Ukraine. Platform: The fashionista stuck to her word and used her influential profile to share a post outlining how people can help those in Ukraine On Monday, President Zelensky signed a request for Ukraine to join the EU 'immediately' as troops withstood a fierce Russia onslaught but Brussels' officials warned the process to join the block takes years. EU officials dampened Ukraine's hopes that suddenly becoming part of the European club could help it better weather the Russian onslaught and speed up military, financial and political support. This comes after the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen's comments appeared to hold out the prospect of Ukraine being admitted. The latest: On Monday, President Zelensky signed a request for Ukraine to join the EU 'immediately' 'They are one of us and we want them in,' she told Euronews in an interview on Sunday, after emphasising existing EU-Ukraine cooperation. After this on Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the European Union 'for the immediate accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure'. But Ms von der Leyen's spokesman walked back from her statement saying, she meant Europe 'in general' and there was already a process for joining the bloc. This sentiment was reiterated by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, who said there were already longstanding disagreements among EU countries on new members joining. Benedict Cumberbatch was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame during a ceremony in LA on Monday. The actor, 45, put on a dapper display in a navy suit and a buttoned-down white shirt as he posed on the red carpet before bending down to touch his plaque. He was supported at the event by his wife Sophie Hunter, 43, who looked effortlessly stylish in a little black dress. Support: Benedict Cumberbatch was supported by wife Sophie Hunter as he received a highly-coveted star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on Monday Waving towards onlookers, Benedict later beamed alongside politician Mitch O'Farrell, who presented him with the prestigious recognition. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director J.J. Abrams also supported the Doctor Strange star. Benedict used his speech at the unveiling ceremony to pay tribute to his sibling Tracy Peacock, who died of cancer last year. He said: 'I want to mention my sister who we lost last year. She would have loved this. She was unbelievably loyal, supportive, and she would have loved the glitz and the oddness and the glamour. She would have just been laughing nonstop all the way through, and probably crying. Wow! Benedict certainly appeared to be in high spirits while bending down to touch his plaque 'I hope somewhere up there, where the real stars shine, you're looking down on this moment now. I'm sure you are. We miss you so much. You remain such a good and wonderful person to have had in our lives.' The 45-year-old actor also pledged his support for the people of Ukraine, and those in Russia who are opposed to Vladimir Putin's decision to invade their neighbours. He said: 'I can't speak today at this amazing moment in my life, on this extraordinary platform, without acknowledging the obvious of what's happening in Ukraine and to show my support for the people of Ukraine, my support for the people of Russia who are opposing the Kleptocracy and the idiocy of their rulers to try and halt the progression of this atrocity.' And the Doctor Strange actor urged people to take steps to offer help and support in whatever ways they can. Looking good: The actor, 45, put on a dapper display in a navy suit and a buttoned-down white shirt as he posed on the red carpet before bending down to touch his plaque He continued: 'But it's more now for all of us to do than just have thoughts and prayers. We need to act, we need to go on to embassy websites, we need to see what we can do as citizens of the world, citizens of Europe and people who want a better place and a better outcome for this horrendous moment for these people with children, with families who are struggling to survive as rockets rain down on their cities.' 'We can't stand back anymore. This is no longer a time for avarice or sloth or inactiveness or ineptitude. We need to act, and there are things you can do. You can support organisations. You can support those who help refugees on the ground. You can support human rights organisations. You can pressure your politicians, your bank, your industries to recognise anything that you can do to help. It is possible, so I urge people to do that on this day.' Cheerio! He towards onlookers who had gathered to watch the spectacle The actor looked fresh faced at the ceremony, despite spending the evening beforehand at the glittering Screen Actors Guild Awards. Benedict had been nominated in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role category for his role in The Power Of The Dog, however he lost out to Will Smith for his starring role in King Richard. It comes after Benedict revealed that he helped to rescue a family from a herd of cows after learning how to wrangle cattle for his role in The Power Of The Dog. The Sherlock star, who has landed an Oscar nomination for his role in the Netflix western, told Graham Norton he managed to 'part the waves' of animals in the field after returning from shooting the film in August. Pals: Politician Mitch O'Farrell (right) presented him with the prestigious recognition Happy: They both beamed from ear-to-ear while the Sherlock star held up a framed certificate Benedict, who played volatile ranch owner Phil Burbank in the film, also revealed that director Jane Campion encouraged him to stay in character during breaks from filming, and he spent two months living on a ranch to get into the role. He explained: 'Jane encouraged me to stay in character. She was very secure about all the things I was insecure about and said, ''Do whatever you have to do to feel ownership of this very different lived experience.'' 'So, I went off to Montana for two months to find out what it is like to live on a ranch and to experience all those things you see in the film. It was incredible and so far from anything I have ever done.' The Avengers star then revealed his newfound herding skills were put to use when he discovered a family trapped in a field thanks to an intimidating herd of cows. He explained: 'I came back from shooting the film in August and we were off to the beach. To get there we had to cross a field and in the field was a petrified family who just couldn't move, they were frozen because of a herd of cows with calves. ' Friends: Film director J.J. Abrams (right) shook hands with the Doctor Strange star (left) 'I thought, ''I can do this,'' and I just sort of parted the waves of cattle. The family was like, ''That was incredible. Hey, aren't you Sherlock?'' It was very un-Sherlock activity!' Benedict also briefly touched on his Oscar nomination for Best Actor, after The Power Of The Dog received a staggering 12 nods ahead of the ceremony next month. He said: 'Whatever happens on the night the whole raft of those nominations are so richly deserved and obviously I am thrilled that the four of us as a cast are nominated. 'We are going to be awesome on that dancefloor it's going to be great no matter what happens.' Passionate: Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also gave a speech about his friend Embrace: They went on to share a warm hug while grinning like Cheshire cats Late night? The actor looked fresh faced at the ceremony, despite spending the evening beforehand at the glittering Screen Actors Guild Awards In the psychological drama Benedict plays a secretive and cruel rancher whose brother brings home his new wife and her son to the families 1920s Montana ranch. Kodi Smit-McPhee takes on the role as Peter Gordon who is tormented by Benedict's conflicted cowboy character, Phil, while Kirsten Dunst plays Phil's sister-in-law Rose, who descends into alcoholism thanks to the rancher's torment. The Power Of The Dog landed nominations for Best Actress, Achievement in Sound, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Best Actor, Director and Best Picture. The nomination for his role in the film will be Benedict's second Oscar nomination after he was nominated in 2014 for his role in The Imitation Game, only to lose to Eddie Redmayne for as Stephen Hawkins in The Theory Of Everything. Aussie influencers are aghast at new laws restricting influencers from promoting certain health and skincare products. WAG Sarita Holland, 39, told the Herald Sun the regulations on sponsored posts '[take] the mickey out of the general public' by insulting their intelligence. 'People can make up their own minds and this is in a way inferring that people are dumb,' said the wife of former Collingwood and Fremantle player Brodie Holland. Desperate: WAG Sarita Holland, 39, (pictured) told the Herald Sun the regulations on sponsored posts '[take] the mickey out of the general public' by insulting their intelligence Influencer manager Genevieve Day of Day Management added that the new rules put undue responsibility on influencers as opposed to brands. 'I wish the same emphasis was on the brands making the claims as the influencers promoting it,' Ms Day said. However influencer Sarah Czarnuch agreed with the changes. 'It definitely needs to be regulated,' she said. 'As long as brands are smart and savvy and working with the right influencer, anything that benefits the consumer, it's going to be advantageous.' Rationale: 'People can make up their own minds and this is in a way inferring that people are dumb,' said the wife of ex-Collingwood and Fremantle player Brodie Holland (both pictured) The comments come days after Ruby Tuesday Matthews spoke out against the rules. The 27-year-old shared an article about the TGA regulations on Instagram on Sunday, alongside her opinion on the subject. 'Whilst I completely agree the need for more regulation, structure (rules) and accountability by brands and influencers within these industries, it makes me sad to think how many great small businesses/start ups this will affect,' she wrote. Anger: The comments come days after Ruby Tuesday Matthews spoke out against the rules 'It also blows my mind that we are targeting health and wellness brands encouraging a healthy lifestyle but not alcohol or junk food,' Ruby added. The influencer is known to endorse a number of 'wellness' and beauty brands online. Just last month she endorsed Krumbled Foods, which is touted as a 'functional beauty snack' with five 'clinically proven anti-ageing ingredients'. Having her say: 'Whilst I completely agree the need for more regulation, structure (rules) and accountability by brands and influencers within these industries, it makes me sad to think how many great small businesses/start ups this will affect,' she wrote She has also spruiked Nutra Organics, a superfoods brand, revealing she likes their bone broth and miso ramen chicken. Ruby has likewise thrown her support behind The Daily Co. skincare, which offers 'clean cosmeceuticals', and ran a giveaway featuring the company. On Saturday, The Australian reported influencers are being banned from receiving benefits to spruik health products. Influence: The influencer is known to endorse a number of 'wellness' and beauty brands on her Instagram. Just last month she endorsed Krumbled Foods, which is touted as a 'functional beauty snack' with five 'clinically proven anti-ageing ingredients' Support: Ruby has likewise thrown her support behind The Daily Co. skincare, which offers 'clean cosmeceuticals' The new Therapeutic Goods Administration advertising code only allows influencers to promote products if they receive nothing in return. It applies to sunscreens, protein powers, vitamins, supplements, skincare, medicines and skin lightning products. Former Bachelor star Laura Byrne has also spoken out against new laws restricting influencers from promoting health and skincare products, pointing out that she feels it's unfair that Instagram stars cannot promote sunscreen. Foodie: She has also spruiked Nutra Organics, a superfoods brand, revealing she likes their bone broth and miso ramen chicken Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko casts his ballot in the referendum on the constitutional amendments at a polling station in Minsk on Sunday. AFP-Yonhap Belarusians cast ballots Sunday in a constitutional referendum that the country's authoritarian leader called to cement his 27-year old grip on power, even as he offers the country's territory to his ally Russia to invade Ukraine. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has edged even closer to Russia amid crippling Western sanctions over his crackdown on domestic protests, said he was confident that Belarusians will support a set of constitutional amendments that would allow him to stay in power until 2035. The revised main law also sheds Belarus' neutral status, opening the way for stronger military cooperation with Russia, which deployed forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of the invasion that began Thursday. Some of those forces quickly closed in on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, located just 75 kilometers (less than 50 miles) south of the border. In a video message Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rebuked Belarusians for allowing their country to be used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion, adding that Ukrainian cities are facing an attack on a scale unseen since World War II when Belarus and Ukraine faced a Nazi invasion as parts of the Soviet Union. "But you aren't on the same side with us in the war that is going on now," Zelenskyy said in Russian, which is widely spoken in Belarus. "The Russian military is launching missiles at Ukraine from your territory. From your territory they are killing our children, they are destroying our homes and trying to blow up everything that has been built for decades." In an emotional speech, the Ukrainian leader questioned how Belarusians will be able "to look into the eyes of your children, into the eyes of each other." "We are your neighbors. Be Belarus, not Russia!" he said. The Belarusian leader quickly shot back, denigrating the Ukrainian president as an American puppet and charging that the Russian attack resulted from Zelenskyy's failure to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand for Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO. The West responded to Belarus hosting Russian troops for the invasion by slamming it with new tough sanctions along with Russia. Lukashenko ominously warned Sunday that more sanctions from the West are "pushing the world to the brink of World War III." The Belarusian leader, who said previously that his country could host Russian nuclear weapons, said that he warned French President Emmanuel Macron in a call Saturday that he was ready to make the move if the U.S. and its allies deploy nuclear weapons to NATO members Poland and Lithuania, which border Belarus. "We have developed plans to protect Belarus and agreed with Putin to deploy such weapons here that will make Poles and Lithuanians lose any desire to go to war," he said. The constitutional amendments bring back limits on presidential terms that had been abolished during Lukashenko's tenure, allowing a president only two five-year terms in office. However, the restriction will only take effect once a "newly elected president" assumes office, which gives Lukashenko an opportunity to run for two more terms after his current one expires in 2025. "This pseudo referendum is being held under the Russian gun barrels and under effective control of the Russian military which has come to stay in Belarus for a long time," Belarus' first post-Soviet leader, Stanislav Sushkevich, told The Associated Press. "The absurdity that is going on now directly contradicts the existing main law that envisages Belarus' neutral status." Shushkevich warned that "Lukashenko is depriving Belarus of its future and turning the country into a staging ground for Putin's mad games," adding that "the Belarusian leader has no choice, he also is a pariah." In 2020, Lukashenko relied on Moscow's support to survive the largest and the most sustained wave of mass protests in the country's history. Demonstrations, the biggest of which drew up to 200,000 people, were triggered by him winning a sixth term in office in a presidential election in August 2020 that the opposition and the West denounced as rigged. Protesters demanding a new election and Lukashenko's ouster faced a brutal crackdown from the authorities, with more than 35,000 arrested and thousands brutally beaten. Key opposition figures, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko's main contender in the election, left the country amid the clampdown, along with thousands of ordinary Belarusians. The opposition denounced the vote as ''farce'' and said it wouldn't recognize its results. "The Belarusians are again being offered a choice between Lukashenko and Lukashenko," Tsikhanouskaya told the AP. "Belarusians want change, but harsh large-scale repressions forced many to remain silent." She said that Belarusians widely oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "Belarusians' hearts hurt as it's not just the fate of Ukraine but also our fate that is decided now," Tsilhanouskaya told The Associated Press. "We realize that Belarus' independence is closely connected with Ukraine's independence." (AP) Ben Affleck appeared ready to step behind the camera to help celebrate his son Samuel's 10th birthday on Sunday in Los Angeles. The 49-year-old actor arrived carrying a bag full of photographic gear at ex-wife Jennifer Garner's home. The busy dad kept his look low-key, wearing a pair of faded brown corduroy pants, a navy blue sweater and gray wool jacket. The bearded Oscar winner donned a pair of aviator sunglasses to help protect his eyes from the bright California sunshine. Scroll down for video Smile for the camera: Ben Affleck arrived carrying camera gear at ex-wife Jennifer Garner's home ahead of son's 10th birthday The Justice League star arrived alone for the celebration, although he and current flame, Jennifer Lopez, were spotted together in Los Angeles on Saturday. Affleck and the Marry Me star attended a movie. Meanwhile, on Monday, his ex Garner was seen in a black double-breasted coat with a leopard print lining in New York City. Underneath she had on a polka dot dress with a tie in front. And the 13 Going On 30 star added pointy black heels. Affleck and Lopez continue to receive a lot of attention from paparazzi, but seem to be better to handle it in their second go-round as a couple. The two were engaged after meeting on the set of Gigli in 2002, but called off the wedding in 2004. Back with the bat: Affleck will reprise his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the upcoming film The Flash, which will is schedule for release later this year Giving direction: Affleck has a series of projects ahead, including acting in and producing a remake of Agatha Christie's beloved mystery Witness for the Prosecution His ex: Meanwhile, on Monday, his ex Garner was seen in a black double-breasted coat with a leopard print lining in New York City So chic in the city: Underneath she had on a to-the-calf polka dot dress with a tie in front. And the 13 Going On 30 star added pointy black heels as she showed off her tanned, bare legs Lopez has told People, 'We're older now, we're smarter, we have more experience, we're at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things.' Both Ben and Jen are staying busy. Affleck will reprise his role at Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Flash, which will arrive in theaters later this year. He has also signed on to star in and co-produce a remake of Witness for the Prosecution, based on the Agatha Christie mystery. Lopez is set to star in the upcoming The Godmother, a gritty drama based on the life of the late drug dealer Griselda Blanco His lady: The Justice League star arrived alone for the celebration, although he and current flame, Jennifer Lopez, were spotted together in Los Angeles on Saturday. Seen on February 8 in Los Angeles Comedian Celeste Barber has revealed her husband Api Robin is helping to rescue those stranded in the floods in Queensland and New South Wales. The 39-year-old shared a video on Monday of Robin riding on a jet ski with a friend to water-submerged homes to see if anyone needed evacuating. The footage showed Robin riding towards the window of a two-storey home, with only the top floor visible above the floodwater. Helping hand: Comedian Celeste Barber (left) has revealed her husband Api Robin (right) is helping to rescue those stranded in the floods in Queensland and New South Wales 'This is a two-storey house!' Barber captioned the video, adding: '@JoelParko and @Hothusband [Robin] are on their jet skis going around getting people out.' Barber lives with her husband and their sons, Lou, nine, and Buddy, six, at a $1.175million home in Tweed Heads, on the border of NSW and Queensland. She also has two stepdaughters, Kyah, 20, and Sahra, 18. Rescue: Barber, 39, shared a video of Robin riding towards a two-storey home on his jet ski, with only the top floor visible above the floodwater NSW State Emergency Service has made a record-breaking number of flood rescues in the past 24 hours, and has responded to almost 1,000 desperate calls for help across northern NSW. The city of Lismore remains cut off, where more than 1,000 stranded residents are trapped or waiting to be rescued on Tuesday morning, according to local mayor Steve Krieg. 'There was a family of five people that were sitting on a roof about 15 km out of Lismore who were awaiting getting airlifted,' Mr Krieg told ABC Radio. 'So 400 calls could translate to anywhere up to 1000 people still.' More than 4,000 rescues were performed on Monday with civilians pitching in help relieve the emergency demand on emergency services. Disbelief: 'This is a two storey house!' Barber captioned the video, adding: '@JoelParko and @Hothusband [Robin] are on their jet skis going around getting people out' 'There were civilian water craft out and about, kayaks, jet skis and fishing boats all lending a hand and I know that goes against every protocol but with the sheer volume of people that need saving and rescuing, it is great to see a community like Lismore come together and help each other out,' Mr Krieg told the Today show on Tuesday. Around 300,000 residents are currently subject to evacuation warnings. 'My message to those people is please prepare to leave at very short notice,' Ms Cooke told 2GB. 'Please have your bag packed, please have your supplies your mobile phone and a charger to charge it.' Residents in the nearby town Ballina in low lying areas were urged to immediately evacuate to higher ground on Tuesday morning with some in South Ballina told it's already too late to leave. The town of Grafton is also under threat with a major flood warning for the Clarence River and a major to moderate warning for the Orara River. Help: People use small boats to travel through flood water in Lismore on Monday, February 28, 2022 South-east Queensland residents are also bracing more heavy rain and flooding with dam releases and heavy rain on the way. The Brisbane River is expected to rise to 3.7m at 9am on Tuesday after peaking at 3.85m on Monday. The Logan River is set to exceed the record 2017 flood level of 20.50m when tropical cyclone Debbie hit while Mary River at Maryborough could also reach a peak of 10.5m More than 1200 homes across Brisbane were still without electricity on Monday night after the city copped 795mm in the last seven days, its wettest week since records began in 1840. Emergency services are monitoring a crane on a pontoon that broke free of its moorings near the Story Bridge on Monday afternoon. Queensland Rail's southeast services and Brisbane River ferries remain suspended with a limited bus service available. Gold Coast beaches remain closed on Tuesday while some schools in Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Lockyer Valley will reopen. Actor Ned Eisenberg has died at age 65 after a battle with cancer. The Law & Order: SUV and Mare of Easttown star had been privately battling cholangiocarcinoma and ocular melanoma for the past two years, and passed away Sunday at his home in New York. His wife confirmed the news in a statement to TMZ on Monday. 'As Ned would say, he was attacked by two very rare assassins cholangiocarcinoma and ocular melanoma,' his wife Patricia said. Law & Order: SVU star Ned Eisenberg dead at 65 following private two-year battle with cancer (Pictured above in 2012) 'Over the course of two years, he bravely fought the cancers in private while continuing to work in show business to ensure that his medical coverage paid for himself and his family.' His representative Jeremy Leiner of Nicolosi & Co. announced confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he passed away Sunday at his home in New York. The character actor is survived by his wife Patricia and his son, Lino. Eisenberg was born in New York and attended the famed Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan where he studied acting. Character actor: He recently played Detective Hauser on the hit HBO drama Mare of Easttown, starring opposite Oscar-winner Kate Winslet (filmed in late 2019, pictured above) He recently played Detective Hauser on the hit HBO drama Mare of Easttown, starring opposite Oscar-winner Kate Winslet. Eisenberg also starred as Lou Rabinowitz on the hit Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. His other recent TV credits include The Blacklist, Elementary, Bull, Madam Secretary and The Good Wife. Many viewers will remember him most from the Law & Order franchise including Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Health: The Law & Order: SUV and Mare of Easttown star had been privately battling cholangiocarcinoma and ocular melanoma for the past two years (Pictured; 2012) His first movie role came in 1980 when he appeared in the action flick the Exterminator. He would go on to frequently appear on the big screen, including roles in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Flags of Our Fathers (2006). Other film credits include The Burning (1981), Moving Violations (1985), Roger Spottiswoode's Air America (1990), Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996), Mike Nichols' Primary Colors (1998), Steven Zaillian's A Civil Action (1998), Oliver Stones World Trade Center(2006), Limitless (2011), Won't Back Down (2012), Experimenter (2015) and Asher (2018). Russias assault on Ukraine continued for the 5th day, with Ukrainian forces having managed to keep them out of the capital city Kyiv for another night. Talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the conflict are set to begin today near the Belarusian border. However, Kyiv has said there will be no pre-conditions to the talks and that they will not give up even an inch of territory. Ukraine-Russia war entered 5th day. Photo: National Guard of Ukraine/Twitter On the other hand, reports suggested that Belarus is preparing to send troops to join the Russian forces in the invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin put the nuclear forces on high alert citing mounting Western threats. Western countries have continued to squeeze the Russian economy, with the Ruble tumbling massively. Several major Russian banks have been excluded from the SWIFT payments system. The Russian invasion began with a short and incomplete air campaign on February 24, according to the Institute for the Study of War. On day four, logistical issues seem to have cropped up temporarily, halting further advances.#DIU #Video #Russia #Ukraine #RussiaUkraineWar pic.twitter.com/6BuGlXgMIq IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) February 28, 2022 At the UNSC on Friday, India along with China and the UAE abstained from voting on a resolution condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine. The United Nations Security Council has once again called for a rare emergency meeting today. Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other high-ranking ministers have taken to the streets in the fight, while several hundreds and thousands of Ukrainians fled west towards borders. Ukraine forces also managed to take control of Kharkiv the second largest city in the country from the Russian forces. CASUALTIES: Civilian deaths: 352 including 33 children Civilian injuries: 1,684 including 116 children Here are the latest updates on the story: RUSSIA, UKRAINE BEGIN TALKS Russia and Ukraine began the first dialogue to end war, Belarusian state media reported. PUTIN FOCUSED ON THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY #BREAKING Putin focused on economy after Western sanctions: Kremlin pic.twitter.com/rdSYA3XGc8 AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 28, 2022 AFP reported that Russia's President Vladimir Putin was focused on the Russian economy following Western sanctions. Meanwhile, Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues unabated. ZELENSKYY DEMANDS IMMEDIATE EU MEMBERSHIP Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded immediate European Union membership for his country saying that their goal is to be together with all Europeans and on equal footing. KREMLIN CLAIMS EU ARMS HELP IS DESTABILISING #UkraineRussiaCrisis Kremlin on arms supplies to Ukraine says- EU is acting in hostile fashion towards us, adds, "Weapons' supplies to Ukraine are dangerous and destabilizing": Reuters ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 Russia claimed that the arms supply by the EU and other nations to Ukraine is destabilising and is a hostile act towards Moscow. 20TH CENTURY ART DESTROYED IN WAR As a result of ?? invasion, about 25 works by outstanding ?? artist Mariia Pryimachenko were burned. The paintings were stored in Ivankiv Museum, Kyiv region. She created world-famous masterpieces. Her special gift and talent captivated Pablo Picasso.?Two-headed chicken, 1977 pic.twitter.com/dfAyfkn1k9 MFA of Ukraine ?? (@MFA_Ukraine) February 28, 2022 Ukraine says around 25 works by 20th-century Ukrainian painter Mariia Pryimachenko were burned during the conflict. Pryimachenko was known for her village and folk art and had once captured the attention of Pablo Picasso. The destroyed paintings were being stored Ivankiv Museum, Kyiv region. MAP SHOWS RUSSIAN HELD TERRITORIES IN UKRAINE Maps of Ukraine comparing areas under Russian control as of February 24 to February 27 at 2000 GMT pic.twitter.com/VlFHByrT9U AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 28, 2022 The map shows the extent to which Russian forces have been able to capture Ukraine. The battle is underway for Ukraine's capital city, Kyiv. UKRAINE ESTIMATES 5,300 CASUALTIES ON THE RUSSIAN SIDE SO FAR Ukraine put out a list of losses incurred by the Russian forces after 5 days of fighting. So far, Ukraine estimates around 5,300 Russian soldiers to have perished in the battle. UKRAINE FEARS MILLIONS WILL BE DISPLACED The number of Ukrainian refugees has exceeded 4 lakh. If the war is not stopped, the number can reach up to 7 million. there are very long queues on the border. Lakhs of Ukrainians are standing in queues, trying to cross the border: Dr Igor Polikha, Ambassador of Ukraine to India pic.twitter.com/wscGJqnMWn ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 Ukraine's envoy to India Dr Igor Polikha said that so far around 4 lakh Ukrainians have become refugees due to the war. Several of them are standing in queues near various border waiting to cross. He said that if the war is not stopped immediately, Ukraine could see around 7 million people becoming refugees. UKRAINIAN PRISONERS WILLING TO FIGHT TO BE RELEASED Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will release prisoners with military experience if willing to join fight against Russia: Reuters #RussiaUkraineConflict pic.twitter.com/Ezhb1lviVs ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a televised address announced that the government is ready to release prisoners who would be willing to fight in the war against Russia. NATIONAL GUARD OF UKRAINE TWEETS ABOUT POWs Russian soldiers are being taken prisoner en masse in Ukraine and crying. Big slicing. .https://t.co/vjPAUFkOgt , . pic.twitter.com/Svqopy6DFo (@ng_ukraine) February 28, 2022 The official Twitter account of the National Guard of Ukraine tweeted a picture of some captured Russian soldiers, saying that if the invading forces lay down their weapons, then they will be allowed to return safely to their homes. 'HOW TO ATTACK A TANK WITH PETROL BOMBS' . ! !https://t.co/L4e2u1BMGx pic.twitter.com/g64CdCvgZI (@GeneralStaffUA) February 28, 2022 The Ukrainian Armed Forces tweeted a guide to how to attack an enemy tank using petrol bombs or Molotov cocktails by pointing out vulnerabilities in the vehicle. Several Ukrainian citizens are preparing hundreds of Molotov cocktails to prevent the Russian forces from advancing further. 'RUSSIAN FORCES' ADVANCE SLOWED' Latest Defence Intelligence update on Ukraine pic.twitter.com/6WoxBkatNt Ministry of Defence ?? (@DefenceHQ) February 28, 2022 The UK Defence Ministry in its updates on the Ukraine situation stated that Putin's forces remained 30 km away from capital city Kyiv and that their advance has been slowed down by the Ukrainian forces. UKRAINIAN DELEGATION ARRIVES FOR TALKS The Ukrainian delegation arrived at the Belarus border for talks with Russia. The delegation includes Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak among others. The key demands for Kyiv is for immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. 'VENUE FOR TALKS READY' Good morning. Belarus state media Belta reporting that a room has been prepared for Russia-Ukraine talks pic.twitter.com/hSKLoihr3M Polina Ivanova (@polinaivanovva) February 28, 2022 The venue for talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives is ready, a Belarusian state-run news agency Belta reported. Anatoly Glaz, a spokesperson from the Belarus Foreign Ministry was quoted saying that the talks will begin as soon as delegations from both sides arrive. BOXER KLITSCHKO BROTHERS TO FIGHT RUSSIAN FORCES Hall of Fame Ukrainian boxer Vitali Klitschko and his brother former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko are returning to their homeland to join the fight against Russian forces. UKRAINIAN MP TAKES TO KALASHNIKOV I learn to use #Kalashnikov and prepare to bear arms. It sounds surreal as just a few days ago it would never come to my mind. Our #women will protect our soil the same way as our #men. Go #Ukraine! ?? pic.twitter.com/UbF4JRGlcy Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) February 25, 2022 While ordinary Ukrainians are joining the fight to defend their land against Russian forces, Ukrainian Member of Parliament Kira Rudik also said she's picking up arms in defence. She took to Twitter to announced that she's learning to use the Kalashnikov, to protect Ukrainian soil the same way as the men. EX-MISS UKRAINE PICKS UP ARMS View this post on Instagram A post shared by Miss Ukraine??Anastasiia Lenna (@anastasiia.lenna) The former Miss Ukraine Anastasiia Lenna announced that she is picking up arms to fight the invading Russian forces. GOOGLE MAPS TEMPORARILY DISABLED Google temporarily disabled live traffic data on its Maps in Ukraine on Sunday citing the safety of local communities. Meanwhile, a Reddit user asked why Google Maps doesnt label all territories held by Russia as Russian. Comments on the post clarified that Google Maps doesnt label each small territory in various places and even gave an example of how not all Indonesian islands are marked Indonesia. CANADA SENDING MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE To transport these supplies to Ukraine, and to address other NATO needs, @CanadianForces will provide airlift support. As we continue to respond to President Putins brazen disregard for international law and human rights, well be there for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 27, 2022 Canada announced that it will be shipping non-lethal military aid to Ukraine to help the forces defend against the Russian invasion. Canada will be sending equipment such as helmets, bulletproof vests, gas masks and night vision equipment among other things to its ally. However, Ottawa ruled out sending Canadian troops to Ukraine to fight alongside the Ukrainian forces. INDIAN UNION MINISTERS TO AID EVACUATIONS Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will be going to neighboring countries of Ukraine as Special Envoys of India.#RussiaUkraineCrisis ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 While some Indian nationals were evacuated from Ukraine through neighbouring countries, several more remain stranded in the war-torn country. Reports have also emerged of Indian nationals being harassed by Ukrainian forces reportedly due to Indias stance on the issue at the UNSC. Now, the Indian government is sending Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh to Ukraines neighbouring countries as Special Envoys of India to facilitate the evacuation. UKRAINIANS FIGHT BACK VIDEO: Ukrainians block path of Russian tanks.On the outskirts of Koryukivka people are blocking the movement of Russian soldiers. Reports suggest Russian soldiers stopped to ask for directions and were surrounded by locals to prevent them from moving towards Kyiv pic.twitter.com/sWViXmARMi AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 28, 2022 Several viral videos showed civilian Ukrainians taking to the streets to fight the Russian forces. A group of people was also seen blocking the movement of Russian tanks on the outskirts of Koryukivka, a town in Ukraine. Ukrainians have also blown up roads, bridges and removed street signs to prevent Russian forces from proceeding towards capital Kyiv. WORLDS LARGEST AIRCRAFT DESTROYED This was the worlds largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8 Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022 Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba revealed that the worlds largest aircraft AN-225 Mriya (meaning Dream in Ukrainian), was destroyed by the Russian forces during the fighting. STRIKING PHOTOS AND VIDEOS FROM THE WAR Here is a compilation of the latest striking photos and videos from the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. 1. Anti-war protests in Russia VIDEO Police detain protesters at a rally against Russias invasion of Ukraine in St Petersburg pic.twitter.com/3oMMOUu7TU AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 27, 2022 2. Russian military equipment set on fire ??? ? pic.twitter.com/d61LnxbYTv (@ng_ukraine) February 26, 2022 3. Historic building in Ukraine bombed ? In Chernihiv, 16 people were injured by enemy rockets in the city center. Damaged houses, pediatric dentistry. Youth Center large Shchorsa cinema are destroyed. #StopRussia #StopRussianAggression #RussiaInvadedUkraine pic.twitter.com/B5ONjkGw48 Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) February 27, 2022 4. Wounded Governor records ordeal Deputy Mayor of Nova Kakhovka Volodymyr Arnauta was wounded in close combat. He recorded a farewell video, because he thought he would die. Doctors successfully performed the operation and saved the soldier.Glory to the brave fighter!#StopRussia #StopRussianAggression pic.twitter.com/BnoH3bZmSM Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) February 27, 2022 5. Rocket attack reportedly launched from Belarus Ukrainian State Service of Special Communication confirms that a rocket attack at the airport in Zhytomyr was launched from the territory of Belarus in the evening of February 27. The rocket was likely launched by Iskander ballistic missile system.#StopRussianAggression pic.twitter.com/uDurlkPRTH Emine Dzheppar (@EmineDzheppar) February 27, 2022 6. Russian forces have hit several civilian properties ??claims that does not fire on civilian objects. See how a "peacekeeping"missile hits an apartment building in Kyiv. The cynical lies of the puppet media are trying to disguise the crimes of Russia's top leadership against??. ??troops attack??civilian?for the 4th consecutive day pic.twitter.com/xxO55FCtkd Emine Dzheppar (@EmineDzheppar) February 27, 2022 7. Current situation in Ukraine - a compilation 8. Ukrainian wears Guy Fawkes anonymous mask while patrolling the streets of Kyiv 9. Ukrainian farmer steals Russian tank 10. A Slovakian soldier helped a Ukrainian refugee carry her bags #Slovakia A Slovak soldier helps a Ukrainian woman to carry her luggage after after she crossed the border in Vysne Nemecke, eastern Slovakia.? Peter Lazar #AFP pic.twitter.com/XySZt74fFv AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) February 27, 2022 11. Bar owners in the US pour Russian Vodka down the drain DRINK TO THAT: The business also created a unique fundraiser to help out Ukrainians. https://t.co/A2QpLMeNYD pic.twitter.com/ZC8iWTqyHh Fox News (@FoxNews) February 28, 2022 12. Ukrainians are preparing Molotov cocktails to defend themselves from Russian forces 13. Destroyed building in Ukraine #UPDATE Ukraine says Russian troops have slowed down "the pace of the offensive" as Moscow's assault enters fifth day."The Russian occupiers have reduced the pace of the offensive, but are still trying to develop success in some areas"? A destroyed building in Okhtyrka pic.twitter.com/ZE7EnJ0KnT AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 28, 2022 14. Man tried to stop a tank by lying down underneath it In the video, a man wants to stop a Russian tank and rushes under it. The tank stopped and the man was taken away by locals.This is a real Peoples War. pic.twitter.com/5qxLaYZzoU MFA of Ukraine ?? (@MFA_Ukraine) February 28, 2022 15. Ukraine Defence Ministry shows the ugly side of the war , !?????? pic.twitter.com/Qp48m4L73F Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 28, 2022 This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has sparked controversy over his remarks about Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a TV debate Friday. During the TV debate held, Friday, Lee said a novice politician with six months of political experience had become the country's leader and caused a major clash by inciting Russia with a hasty promise regarding Ukraine's admission into NATO. "President Zelenskyy has been staying in Kyiv and leading his country's fight against Russia rather than fleeing, but Lee's remarks were an act of mocking 72 percent of the Ukrainian people who are supporting him," Yoon wrote on Facebook, adding that Lee's accusation of Zelenskyy was the outcome of ignorance. Article By Kang Seung-woo Seattle, WA (98195) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 63F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers after midnight. Low 47F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BETHEL Despite commands not to drive, a state trooper charged with driving under the influence last weekend told an officer to watch this before driving away, a police report obtained Wednesday shows. Andrew Murphy, a trooper assigned to the Troop A barracks in Southbury, is facing charges of operating under the influence of alcohol, disobeying the signal of an officer and interfering with an officer. He was released from custody after a friend posted $500 bond and is due to appear Monday in state Superior Court in Danbury. Murphy, a state trooper since July 2019, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, state police officials said. In a police report obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media, Bethel police said Murphy repeatedly told them he was a state police officer, and claimed they were hurting one of their own in a expletive-laden interaction. The report also said Murphy refused a urine test, and was uncooperative during questioning after his arrest, forcing officers to repeatedly ask him to stop yelling, according to the report. The incident began around 2:10 a.m. Sunday when a patrol officer spotted Murphy standing by the open door of his Mazda sedan in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven on Stony Hill Road, according to the report. As the officer approached, he reported that he saw Murphy was having difficulty keeping his balance, the report said. He shouted at Murphy to ask if he was all right, and was told in very slurred speech that he was fine, according to the report. The officer told Murphy he looked like he needed a ride and did not want him to be driving, the report read. When the state trooper got into his car, the officer wrote in the report that he yelled at him to stop and not to drive, but Murphy told him watch this, watch me! Murphy then pulled out of the lot without wearing his seat belt and drove to his home about a mile away, the report said. When the officer spotted a tire on Murphys car go off the road, he put on his lights and siren to pull Murphy over, but he did not stop, the report said. Along the way, the officer claims Murphy was drifting around turns and driving at around 10 mph, the report said. When Murphy pulled into the driveway of his home, the officer requested backup. As Murphy got out of his car, he had such poor balance he needed to brace himself on his vehicle, the report said. When the officer asked Murphy why he didnt stop, he told the officer he wanted to go home, and pointed to his Connecticut State Police cruiser in the driveway, according to the report. The officer wrote in the report that he smelled a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from Murphys breath, and that the trooper told him he had had four drinks that night, the report said. The officer conducted a field sobriety test, during which Murphy told police he needed an ambulance because everything hurt, the officer wrote in the report. When police questioned Murphy about whether his firearm was in the car, he became aggressive and began yelling, according to the report, claiming Bethel police were (expletive) one of your own. He was transported to Danbury Hospital before being taken to the Bethel Police Department and processed, according to the report. About two hours after arriving at the police station, the officer reported that Murphy began talking with me and appeared able to gather his words better than before. Murphy began asking me questions about the motor vehicle stop and how he ended up getting arrested. The questions included how Murphy ended up at the 7-Eleven, the officer wrote in the report. Murphy is not the only state police trooper to face a DUI charge in recent years. State police charged one of their own, Sgt. John McDonald, with driving under the influence in 2019. State police said McDonald was leaving a retirement party for another officer at a Brewery in Oxford when he drove through a stop sign and struck a car carrying a woman and her daughter. McDonald pleaded nolo contendere to to two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment last month as part of a plea agreement that will allow him to complete a pretrial alcohol education program and have the DUI charge dismissed. State police said Wednesday McDonald remains on administrative suspension. Main opposition People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol gestures during a public speech in Donghae, Gangwon Province, Monday. Joint Press Corps Foreign policy emerging as hot campaign issue after DPK candidate's inappropriate remarks on Ukraine president By Nam Hyun-woo The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) are clashing over DPK candidate Lee Jae-myung's controversial remark that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's lack of diplomatic experience incited Russia to invade. In previous presidential elections, foreign affairs have rarely been major campaign issues. However, candidates in this election slated for March 9 have been exchanging salvos over each other's stance on foreign policy issues such as Russia's attack on Ukraine and Japan's Self-Defense Forces about its possible role in contingency. Lee made the remarks during a televised debate on Friday in which he described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "a novice politician" and said that Zelenskyy is responsible for the armed clash as he incited Russia through hasty moves for Ukraine's admission into NATO. He apologized later, saying his remarks he made were mainly aimed at pointing out Yoon's "ill-founded diplomatic and security views" rather than disparaging the Ukrainian president. Despite this, his remarks have gone viral on the internet locally and internationally, with Ukrainian Ambassador to Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko retweeting The Korea Times' previous article on Lee's remarks. PPP presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday criticized Lee's remarks from the debate. "Russia has launched an invasion of Ukraine a few days ago, which is a violation of international law," Yoon said during his campaign speech in Donghae, Gangwon Province. "However, the DPK is saying that 'a comedian-turned novice politician' has invited Russia to invade his country.'" Yoon continued, "With Ukraine government officials fleeing the country, its people and president are resisting the invasion. In this situation, the DPK has rather hurt Ukrainians rather than helping them. Shame on him." PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok also criticized Lee on Facebook for his remarks. "As the rest of the world point the finger at Russia as the instigator of war, (Lee) blamed Ukraine, in order to criticize Yoon. But what he said has backfired, causing him to become notorious worldwide for his inappropriate remarks." During a PPP meeting on Monday, campaign chief Rep. Kwon Young-se also slammed Lee, saying, "If Lee is correct, it's fair to say that President Moon Jae-in has incited North Korea to fire missiles." Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung speaks during a canvassing event in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, Monday. Joint Press Corps Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription and are still unable to access our content, please link your digital account to your print subscription If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. "By the middle of the century, around 35 million people in India could face annual coastal flooding, with 45-50 million at risk by the end of the century if emissions are high, with far fewer at risk if emissions are lower," it said. (AFP Photo) New Delhi: From heat passing the limits of human survivability, food and water scarcity, higher sea levels to severe economic damage, India will be seriously harmed if emissions are not cut, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in its latest report released on Monday. The second instalment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II report on 'Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability' said that globally, heat and humidity will create conditions beyond human tolerance if emissions are not rapidly eliminated and that India is among the places that will experience these intolerable conditions. The report cautioned that climate-related risks to agriculture and food systems in Asia will progressively escalate with the changing climate, with differentiated impacts across the region. In India, rice production can decrease from 10 to 30 per cent whereas maize production can decrease from 25 to 70 per cent assuming a range of temperature increase from 1 degree Celsius to 4 degree Celsius, it said. Referring to wet-bulb temperatures, a measure that combines heat and humidity, the report warned that if emissions continue to rise, wet-bulb temperatures will approach or exceed the unsurvivable limit of 35 degrees C over much of India, with the majority of the country reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 31 degrees C or more. A wet-bulb temperature of 31 degrees C is extremely dangerous for humans, while a value of 35 degrees C is unsurvivable for more than about six hours, even for fit and healthy adults resting in the shade. Currently, wet-bulb temperatures in India rarely exceed 31 degree C, with most of the country experiencing maximum wet-bulb temperatures of 25-30 degree C," said the IPCC report. The report said that both climatic and non-climatic drivers such as socio-economic changes have created water stress conditions in both water supply and demand in all sub-regions of Asia. By mid-21st Century, the international transboundary river basins of Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges and inter-state Sabarmati-river basin in India could face severe water scarcity challenges with climate change acting as a stress multiplier. Due to global warming Asian countries could experience an increase of drought conditions (5-20 per cent) by the end of this century, it said. According to the report, temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall variables are significantly and positively associated with increased dengue cases or transmission rates globally, including in India. It said that increased exposure to carcinogenic toxins via multiple pathways is also a concern. Aflatoxin (carcinogen) exposure, for example, is expected to increase in Europe, India, Africa and North America. Other carcinogenic toxins originate from cyanobacteria blooms which are projected to increase in frequency and distribution with climate change, the report said. In India, projected scenarios for the 2030s indicate changes in the spatial distribution of malaria, with new foci and potential outbreaks in the Himalayan region, southern and eastern states, and an overall increase in months suitable for transmission overall, with some other areas experiencing a reduction in transmission months, the report said. Warning about the sea level rise, the report said that India is one of the most vulnerable countries globally in terms of the population that will be affected by sea-level rise. By the middle of the century, around 35 million people in India could face annual coastal flooding, with 45-50 million at risk by the end of the century if emissions are high, with far fewer at risk if emissions are lower, it said. According to the report, high levels of warming could cause a global GDP decline of 10-23 per cent by the end of the century, compared to a world without warming. Several major economies could see even larger economic declines because of climate change, with a study cited in the report estimating GDP losses by the end of the century of up to 42 per cent in China and 92 per cent in India, if emissions are high. The representatives meeting has passed resolutions related to the present situation in Karnataka. (Representational image: Twitter) Mangaluru: Popular Front of India (PFI) has urged the Karnataka government to allocate at least Rs 10, 000 crores for welfare of minorities in the forthcoming state Budget. The two-day meeting of PFI state representatives headed by state president Yasir Hasan was held at Mittur in Dakshina Kannada district. The government should give importance to the uplift of minorities, backward classes, SC/STs in the state Budget scheduled to be presented on March 4. There has been a significant decrease in Budget allocation to the Minority Welfare Department. This has affected the development of minorities, especially Muslims. The government should earmark at least Rs.10,000 crores for the minority welfare department, PFI meeting urged. The representatives meeting has passed resolutions related to the present situation. Taking serious note of the recent violence in Shivamogga, the PFI has sought a judicial inquiry by a High Court judge. The miscreants of Sangh Parivar targeted and pelted stones at the houses, shops, and places of worship of Muslims. The police have not arrested those who were behind the violence. The culprits should be arrested immediately and the government should provide compensation to the victims, PFI demanded. The PFI representatives have also sought the immediate suspension of Minister K S Eshwarappa and requested the state government to provide assistance to the stranded Kannadigas in Ukraine. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis here late on Sunday night, when the evacuation mission of Indian citizens was discussed at length, as many distress messages from Indians stranded there, particularly students, started pouring in. With around 15,000 Indians still in the war zone, India is racing against time to pull out its citizens as Ukraines borders remained clogged and at one Poland border Indian students were reportedly flogged. As flights started landing in Indian airports with hundreds of students who were lucky to escape in time, the Indian government assured those still in the conflict zone not to lose hope and that each and every one of them would be brought back. Commerce minister Piyush Goyal told the Indian students who landed in Mumbai that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar were actively engaged with the leaders of various countries, including Russia and Ukraine, to allow safe passage to Indian citizens. Other ministers, including civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and urban development minister Hardeep Singh Puri, went to Delhi airport to receive the Indian students and give them a pep talk. Every student is being brought back. Mr Modi is himself monitoring the situation and we have sent teams to neighbouring nations of Ukraine. The MEA has also set up a control room, Mr Puri said. The Indian government made it clear this evacuation mission, termed Operation Ganga, is free of cost and fleeing Indian citizens do not have to pay as the government is meeting their flight and other expenses. Several state governments have said they are making arrangements to bring back their people from New Delhi and Mumbai, where they are landing. So far Air India was pressed into service but now SpiceJet and IndiGo too will operate evacuation flights from Budapest and Bucharest. On Saturday, Indias ambassador in Romania Rahul Srivastawa told the returning students that in their worst time they must always remember this day, when they faced a war and escaped safe. Remember this date, 26 February. Whenever in life you feel things are becoming difficult, remember this day and everything will be fine, he told the students on board an Air India flight to Mumbai. Indians fleeing the war zone have been asked to prominently display the tricolour on their buses to escape amid confusion as the Russian war machines moved menacingly in Ukrainian cities. While many Indians have managed to reach safe zones or border areas, some still remain stuck inside Ukrainian cities and are unable to move out due to the precarious situation. It was reported that at the Poland border, many Indian students were stopped by the Ukrainian border security guards after India abstained in the vote on the UN resolution against the Russian military action on Ukraine. When your government has not cooperated with us, why should we cooperate with you? they said, the Indian students claimed on the social media. Many of the Indian students are travelling without passports or other travel documents due to the rush to leave the country. There were unconfirmed videos circulating on social media of Ukrainian border police beating Indian students and preventing them crossing over to Poland. This comes after Ukrainian ambassador to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya issued a diplomatic threat to India, saying the countries which abstained from voting should have thought before taking the decision. It is exactly (for) the safety of your nationals in Ukraine that you should be the first to vote to stop the war to save your nationals in Ukraine, and not to think that you should vote or not vote, he said. However, Polands ambassador to India Adam Burakowski said that his country was allowing Indian students to enter without visas. Foreign secretary Harsh V. Shringla said he was coordinating with both Ukraine and Russia on the safety of Indian citizens. I called in both ambassadors of Russia and Ukraine separately, conveyed my concerns on the safety of Indian citizens. I have shared the locations where Indian citizens are concentrated. Both ambassadors took note of our concerns and assured us of the safety of Indian citizens, Mr Shringla said. The Government of India has launched multi-pronged Operation Ganga to evacuate our citizens stranded in Ukraine. This evacuation process will be at government cost, the FS said. He said so far under Operation Ganga, thousands of Indian nationals have been flown out of Romania and Hungary and another thousand have been evacuated from Ukraine through land routes. He added that the border crossing to Hungary and Romania was functioning, but the exit point to Poland was clogged due to lakhs of foreign nationals trying to escape from that point. Those who judge that the situation is not conducive for travel, or are unable to leave due to any reason, may wait until further developments, the Embassy of India in Kyiv said in an advisory. Those who are near the borders of Hungary and Romania are guided towards their border points in phases, he informed. The FS said the Indian government had given adequate warning to people and asked them to leave the country as the war clouds started gathering. Our embassy in Kyiv and our ministry had issued a number of advisories prior to the situation developing. 4,000 of our nationals left before the conflict, pursuant to these advisories. We estimated that about 15,000 citizens are left in Ukraine, Mr Shringla said. Students who landed in Delhi said people from neighbouring countries are doing their bit. We came through Romania and people there prepared home-cooked meals for us, said the students who came back from Ukraine. Countries like Austria and Germany allowed refugees and fleeing people to travel on their trains without tickets. While Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold talks, the United Nations Security Council will vote to convene a rare emergency session of the 193-member General Assembly on the Russian military action. This will be only the 11th Emergency Special Session of the UNGA since 1950. Indian nationals, evacuated from war-torn Ukraine, upon their arrival at the IGI Airport, in New Delhi. (PTI Photo/Kamal Kishore) New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: India on Sunday evacuated 688 more nationals from war-hit Ukraine on three Air India flights and said it was in touch with the other countries in that region to ensure the return of all its stranded citizens as concerns mounted over their safety. Approximately 13,000 Indians are in Ukraine as of now, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who received the evacuees at the Delhi airport this morning, said. Around a thousand Indians have already been flown out of Romania and Hungary and another 1,000 have been evacuated from Ukraine through the land routes, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told a media briefing. He said that locations of the Indian citizens are being shared with Ukraine and Russia for ensuring their protection and Indians who are near the borders with Hungary, Romania and Slovakia are being guided towards the respective border points in phases. The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) has also been urged to escort the Indians safely out of the country. Scenes of tearful reunion were seen at the Delhi airport after two Air India flights from Romanian capital Bucharest and one from Hungarian capital Budapest arrived with 688 Indian nationals on Sunday. IndiGo also said it will operate two flights to Budapest via Istanbul on Monday and Tuesday from Delhi to bring back Indians. The first evacuation flight from Bucharest with 219 people on board had landed in Mumbai a day earlier under Operation Ganga and many of the returnees reached their home states. "Since we were evacuated quickly, we escaped from the impact (of war), but a large number of students are stuck on the eastern side of Ukraine," Selvapriya, a student from Tamil Nadu who is studying in an institution in western Ukraine, said on her return. Belonging to Pudukottai district, Selvapriya said several students from the western region have crossed the Romanian border and that they had to walk for about 5-8 kilometers to get out of Ukraine. A Vadodara-based man, whose daughter managed to come back, said the family was desolate ever since they got the news of the war in Ukraine. "We can smile now that our daughter is here," he said. However, it continues to be a harrowing wait for hundreds of families whose kin are still not back from Ukraine. Videos shared on social media showed Malayali students huddled in bunkers or underground metro stations in various parts of eastern Ukraine in below-freezing temperatures, crying out for help. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his immediate intervention. In the letter, he said some of the Indians have taken refuge in bunkers in eastern cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv and Sumi and were facing food and water shortage. Chandigarh-based Dinesh Dogra, whose daughter Simran, too is stuck in Kharkiv, said she and her friends take shelter in bunkers when sirens buzz outside. We pray when there are air raid sirens and shelling, Simran told the media over a video call. We are worried about her safety and the well-being of other children with her. These days we are not able to sleep, Dogra said. The Ministry of External affairs, meanwhile, said a dedicated Twitter handle @opganga has been set up to assist in the evacuation of Indians from Ukraine. Shringla said he held separate meetings with the ambassadors of Ukraine and Russia and shared with them the locations of the Indian citizens in Ukraine for ensuring their protection. The foreign secretary said though the border crossings to Hungary and Romania are functioning, the exit point to Poland has been clogged with lakhs of Ukrainians and foreign nationals trying to leave the strife-torn country through it. India is using the land routes to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine has closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the Russian attack. Shringla said that Indians who are near the borders with Hungary, Romania and Slovakia are being guided towards the respective border points in phases. "We are aware of a number of Indian citizens, particularly students, who continue to be in cities in the east and south-east of Ukraine. "'Unfortunately, these areas are live conflict areas and it is generally deemed unsafe for people to move around freely. We will try to find suitable evacuation modalities for them," he said. He said approximately 2,000 Indian citizens were in Kyiv and many of them have begun to move to the western part of the country. Shringla said the Indian embassy in Ukraine suggested that those who are located in the eastern areas including Kyiv should start moving westwards to avoid the areas of increasing conflict and that they should come near the border points. "We have also contacted the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. Our Permanent Representative in Geneva has spoken to the President of the ICRC," he said. "The ICRC is commencing its operation in Ukraine. We have told them to please make sure that as and when they start their operation, they should be cognisant of the needs of our citizens and wherever possible escort them out," he added. Early this morning, Scindia welcomed the evacuees of the AI1942 flight at the Delhi airport by handing out roses to them. Scindia told reporters at the airport terminal that approximately 13,000 Indians are stranded in Ukraine as of now. "You know it is an extremely sensitive situation there (Ukraine). In this situation, we are talking with each Indian national, including students, through telecommunications," he said. "We will bring them back as soon as possible," he said. Addressing the returnees, Scindia said, "I know you all have been through a very, very difficult time, a very, very trying time. But know this that the PM is with you at every step, the Indian government is with you at every step, and 130 crore Indians are with you at every step." The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since February 24 morning when the Russian military offensive began. Therefore, the Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest. Scindia said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in touch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and talks are being held so that everyone is brought home safely. The minister said talks are also on with the Russian government, and the Indian government will breathe easy only after every stranded Indian is evacuated from Ukraine. "So, please pass on this message to all your friends and all your colleagues that we are with them and we will guarantee their safe passage back," Scindia said. The Indian Embassy in Ukraine said on Sunday that whenever curfew is lifted and people are moving around in a neighbourhood, Indian nationals are advised to use nearby railway stations to proceed towards western parts of the country. The western parts of the country are relatively conflict-free as of now. The transportation mode of Railways is operational and safer Ukrainian Railways is also operating special trains for evacuation of people free of charge on a first-come-first-serve basis at the railway station, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine noted. It said Indians should travel in groups and carry only essentials in a rucksack or a bag. Indian students in Ukraine show the Indian flag before being evacuated. (Photo: ANI) New Delhi: The sixth flight carrying 240 stranded Indian nationals has departed from Hungary's Budapest for Delhi under Operation Ganga, informed External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday. "Sixth Operation Ganga flight from Budapest has taken off with 240 Indian nationals for Delhi. Evacuation efforts continue to get stronger," read Jaishankar's tweet. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sending four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine, according to government sources. "Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students," Government sources said. The union government has launched Operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Further, the Indian embassy in Ukraine today informed that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv. The embassy said that Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations and advised all students to make their way to the railway station for a journey to the western parts. Hyderabad: Election strategist Prashant Kishor and noted film actor Prakash Raj met TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Saturday. The meeting comes just a week after the Chief Ministers apparently successful visit to Mumbai to get the support of Maharashtra parties for his proposed national front. Kishor, who is credited with plotting the victory of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is reported to have discussed several issues including Chandrashekar Raos entry into national politics, the remarks made by Rao against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government, with the Chief Minister. The meeting took place at Chandrashekar Raos farmhouse in Erravelli. Kishor has been in Telangana for the last two days, gathering first-hand information on the political situation in the state, it was stated. Prakash Raj was a sudden addition to the Chief Ministers retinue when he visited Mumbai. Later, Kishor and Prakash Raj visited Mallannasagar on Saturday, reportedly on the advise of the Chief Minister. The reservoir, one of the biggest on the Godavari, was dedicated to the nation by Rao last week. The photographs of Kishor and Prakash Raj at Mallannasagar went viral on social media Reportedly, Prakash Raj also had a look at the welfare schemes and developmental activities taken up in the Gajwel Assembly constituency, represented by Chandrasekhar Rao. Toyota Motor Corp , a late-comer to the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market, is weaving in all efforts to make sure its first mass-market model is safer and lasts longer than rivals' products when it goes on sale later this year. BEVs have grown in popularity globally, but some consumers have been put off by EV battery-related fire risks and rapid degradation. General Motors and Hyundai Motor were forced last year to recall EVs, carrying batteries manufactured by LG Energy Solution, after reports of fires. "We focused on balancing three factors: cruising range, battery degradation and charging speed," Masaya Yamamoto, a project manager at Toyota, said at a test-drive event for the bZ4X sport utility vehicle (SUV) prototype last week. BEVs typically take hours to charge, and using quick-charging methods often cause the battery's cells to heat up, leading to degradation. That, in turn, reduces cruising range over time, hurting a vehicle's resale value. Toyota said its batteries, developed with Panasonic Corp , contain a special coolant that does not conduct electricity easily. Battery packs are also structured to keep the cells and coolant separated in case of a leak. This and other innovations mean the new BEV series' batteries would retain more than 90 per cent of their capacity after a decade, Toyota said. For consumers in Japan, where EVs have been slow to take off, Toyota is considering offering the EVs only through "subscription" - a bid to address worries over battery life and resale value. The subscription fee would cover the cost of maintenance and battery replacement among other features. Toyota has said it would start selling the SUV model in Japan and other major markets in mid-2022. Toyota has set a goal of selling 35 lakh BEVs annually by 2030 through an 8 trillion yen ($70 billion) investment to electrify its vehicles. Check out DH's latest videos: People watch a TV at Seoul Railway Station, Feb. 27, showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program. AP-Yonhap North Korea fired an apparent ballistic missile toward the East Sea, Sunday, South Korea's military said, in the recalcitrant regime's eighth show of force this year. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from around the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 7:52 a.m. It did not elaborate. The latest launch, the first in just under a month, came in the midst of the armed conflict in Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country last week. "Currently, our military is keeping close tabs on the possibility of additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture," the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters. Sunan is where the North test-fired what it claimed to be a tactical guided missile Jan. 17. The missile, called the KN-24, was seen as modeled after the U.S.' Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). India is more worried about the impact caused by the standoff between Ukraine and Russia, particularly on its exports, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. Interacting with industry captains at an event here, Sitharaman said the Centre was seized of the matter and discussions were on between Ministries for a "complete assessment" on the issue. "On the larger issue of the situation prevailing in Ukraine and about India's position in the UN Security Council and so on. It is widely open and I went through the press releases and press commentaries which the External Affairs Ministry is making," she said. Voicing concern over the country's imports and exports from Russia and the war-torn nation, the Union Minister said, "As regards to what is going to have a bearing on our immediate imports and equally on our exports to Ukraine, we are rightly worried about what comes from there, but I am more worried, about what is going to happen to our exporters who are doing very well, particularly to the farming sector..," To a query on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Sitharaman said, "We are already looking at an emergent situation but I will have to have a complete assessment done through the various concerned Ministries and then only be in a position to comment on it." She however assured that the government was fairly seized of the matter in its granular form, as it is going to have an impact on the essentials like edible oil coming from Ukraine and so on. India is currently engaged in bringing back the students stranded in Ukraine following the stand off and as on Monday the sixth flight under India's evacuation mission 'Operation Ganga' left for New Delhi from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals. Watch the latest DH Videos here: Oil prices jumped Monday as escalating sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, which, in turn, led President Vladimir Putin to put his country's nuclear deterrent on high alert. Brent jumped back above $100 a barrel, initially surging more than $7, as the nuclear alert and bank payment constraints heightened fears that oil shipments from the world's second-largest producer could be disrupted. Russia accounts for about 10 per cent of global oil supply. At 7.58 am, Brent crude futures were up $3.95, or 4 per cent, at $101.88, after hitting a high of $105.07 a barrel in early trade. Last week, the benchmark hit a more than seven-year high of $105.79 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began. The April Brent contract expires on Monday. Also read: Ukraine rejects Russia's genocide claim, asks UN court to halt invasion US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up $4.55, or 5 per cent, at $96.14 a barrel, after hitting a high of $99.10 early in the day. WTI climbed to as much as $100.54 last week. "Moves by the US and Europe to remove certain Russian banks from the SWIFT system have raised fears of a disruption to supply of some sort in the near term," said ANZ commodity strategist Daniel Hynes. "The risk to supply is the greatest we've seen for some time and it comes in a tight market," he said. Putin raised the stakes on Sunday, ordering Russia's "deterrence forces" which wield nuclear weaponsonto high alert, citing aggressive statements by NATO leaders and the range of economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the West. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation." "President Putin's decision to put Russian nuclear forces on high alert is a clear and worrying escalation that can only be supportive for oil prices," said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. Escalating war came days ahead of a March 2 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and allies, together called OPEC+. The group is expected to stick to plans to add 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of supply in April. Click here to follow live updates on the Ukraine-Russia crisis Ahead of the meeting, OPEC+ revised down its forecast for the oil market surplus for 2022 by about 200,000 bpd to 1.1 million bpd, according to a technical committee report reviewed by Reuters on Sunday. Further underscoring how tight the market is, the data also showed stocks in the developed world falling to 62 million barrels below the 2015 to 2019 average by the end of the year. A separate report showed OPEC+ in January produced 972,000 bpd less than their agreed targets. "The market being so tight with OPEC producers really struggling to raise output as well, means any issue with Russian supplies would be felt pretty significantly across the market," ANZ's Hynes said. Check out latest videos from DH: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday activated a dedicated Twitter handle, "OpGanga Helpline" (@opganga), to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from war-torn Ukraine. The mission to evacuate the stranded Indians from Ukraine has been named "Operation Ganga". India has already set up round-the-clock "control centres" in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine through border-crossing points with these countries. The helpline numbers of the control room in Poland are: +48225400000, +48795850877 and +48792712511. Those requiring help can also write an email to controlroominwarsaw@gmail.com, according to the MEA. Also read: India abstains on resolution to call for UN General Assembly session on Ukraine The helpline numbers of the control room in Romania are: +40732124309, +40771632567, +40745161631 and +40741528123. The email address for contacting the control room in Romania is controlroombucharest@gmail.com. The MEA said Indians can contact the control room in Hungary on phone numbers +36 308517373, +36 13257742 and +36 13257743. It also has a WhatsApp number: +36 308517373 for assistance. The helpline numbers of the control room in Slovakia are +421 252631377, +421 252962916 and +421 951697560. The email address is hoc.bratislava@mea.gov.in. Check out latest videos from DH: A bomb blast and firing on a JD(U) candidate by miscreants raised questions about the law and order situation in Manipur as the state began voting on Monday in 38 out of 60 Assembly constituencies. Over 12 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in 1,721 polling stations to decide the fate of 173 candidates in five districts, Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Kangpokpi, and Churachandpur. Unidentified miscreants fired at Wanglembam Rohit Singh at around 12.30 am on Sunday when he was meeting his supporters at Naharup Makhapat in Imphal East district. Singh is a JD(U) candidate in Kshetrigao Assembly constituency in Imphal East district. Singh was admitted to a hospital with bullet injury on his chest. A few hours before, a blast carried out by miscreants at Gangpimual village in Churachandpur district killed three persons and injured five others. Police said the explosion was carried out by a mortar. Read more: Manipur polls: Development, youth & women welfare on Moirang voters' agenda Violence ahead of elections led the Opposition Congress, National Peoples Party (NPP), and JD(U) to move the Election Commission seeking more steps for peaceful conduct of the elections. The father of an NPP candidate was shot at by miscreants on February 18 during campaigning. Opposition parties have raised questions about the law and order situation as BJP claimed that it brought peace to Manipur since it formed its first government in 2017. Both the NPP and the JD(U), an ally of BJP have put up 38 candidates each and have set a target to emerge as the single largest party this time. NPP is a partner of the BJP-led government in Manipur since 2017. BJP this time has set the target for the absolute majority. Congress, on the other hand, has tied up with five smaller parties including the Left parties to bounce back to power. Polling in 22 other constituencies will be held in the second and final phase on March 5. Hello and welcome to another edition of DH Radio's Poll Whistle series. We put the spotlight on Manipur, a state heading to the polling booths in two phases. Track Assembly Election updates here To go deeper into the electoral dynamics there, DH Radio's Rasheed Kappan speaks to Deccan Herald Principal Correspondent Sumir Karmakar. In Manipur Assembly Election 2022, Lamsang Assembly Constituency (AC No. 17) in Imphal West district goes to polls on February 28, 2022. Manipur Election Result 2022: Lamsang Assembly constituency result will be declared on March 10, 2022. In Manipur Assembly Election 2017, BJP candidate Sorokhaibam Rajen Singh won Lamsang constituency seat beating INC candidate Wangkheimayum Brajabidhu Singh by a margin of 1280 votes. In 2017, the total voters in Lamsang constituency were 30267. Of that, 27862 voters cast their ballot visiting polling booths or exercising their voting franchise through postal ballots. Use the map below to get the latest updates, winners and losers in Lamsang assembly constituency. Once a year, Hollywood hosts the Oscars -- but every night hundreds of homeless people sleep on and around the Los Angeles neighborhood's star-lined streets. Those two starkly contrasting worlds are set to collide next month when the directors of "Lead Me Home," a nominated film on the United States' homeless crisis, plan to invite their subjects onto the Oscars' red carpet as their guests. "Hopefully, on the day of the ceremony we can shine a little bit of a light on that juxtaposition, and raise awareness of the humanity that's right across the street, literally, and that we've all been ignoring for too long," said Pedro Kos, co-director of the short documentary. "We have our fingers crossed that we can bring two or three of them with us" to the March 27 ceremony, his fellow director Jon Shenk told AFP. The film, available on Netflix, follows a dozen or so homeless and vulnerable people in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle over the course of three years. It presents in intimate detail their daily routines and struggles on the streets, and their hopes and dreams for escaping them. Subjects include Luis Rivera Miranda, a middle-aged dog-owner who strikes up romance with a fellow homeless woman, and Ronnie "Futuristic Astaire" Willis, who dances for tourists on Hollywood Boulevard in order to afford food. "He has an extraordinary story -- someone who is a classically trained dancer, who has danced with Janet Jackson, who choreographed Sisqo's 'Thong Song,' who fell on hard times, unfortunately, due to many different factors," said Kos. In Willis's scenes "you actually see the side of the Dolby Theater" where the Oscars are held, he added. According to the filmmakers, a major problem is that so many people view their unhoused neighbors in a dehumanizing way, and convince themselves that the homeless must be to blame for their own plight. But asked how they became homeless, the film's subjects list diverse factors such as disability, rejection by family members after coming out as transgender, and even depression triggered by the 9/11 attacks. "I think it comes from our own fear of falling through the cracks," said Shenk. "And so we're hoping that the film can in some ways provide a new perspective that personalises this, breaks it down, says, 'Hey, wait a minute, let's remember who we're talking about -- these are Americans, they're our neighbors, they have rights, they are people.'" The directors gained access and earned their subjects' trust by working with a number of homeless support organizations. Rather than interviewing them directly, Shenk set up his camera at shelters where the homeless underwent "vulnerability assessment" interviews, leaving the room so that they could discuss their situations more freely. But one of the film's more harrowing moments comes as a homeless woman tells a social worker at a makeshift camp that she has been beaten again by a man called Mike, prompting the social worker to call a shelter to help her escape. "For women, the sexual violence is really real," said Shenk. "I can't think of a woman that we met that didn't have some story related to that." Shenk and Kos do not have a grand solution to a problem that plagues every elected leader in the West Coast cities -- and other US cities as well -- but said that simplifying the vast bureaucracy of programs available to the homeless would be a start. Los Angeles is currently conducting its first homeless count in two years. The last census was scrapped due to Covid-19. The film notes that moratoriums on evictions brought in due to the pandemic are about to expire, potentially worsening the crisis. "There's no question in our minds that there is a giant crisis of humanity going on in America," said Shenk. "We hope to use this tiny little moment that is shining on our tiny little film to have an open conversation that allows people to see perhaps a perspective they haven't been exposed to on this issue." Watch the latest DH Videos here: At least 11 people were killed on Monday in rocket strikes by Russian forces on residential districts of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the head of the regional administration Oleg Synegubov said. The northeastern city, Ukraine's second largest, has become one of the major battlegrounds since Russia invaded Ukraine last week in the biggest assault on a European state since World War II. Follow live Ukraine-Russia crisis updates here Synegubov said Russian forces were firing artillery at residential areas of Kharkiv where there are no Ukrainian army positions or strategic infrastructure. "This is happening in the daytime, when people have gone out to the pharmacy, for groceries, or for drinking water. It's a crime," he said. Eleven people were killed on Monday and dozens wounded, he said. Also Read -- Rouble crashes amid Western sanctions over Ukraine assault It was not immediately possible to independently verify the casualty figures. Earlier Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said Russian rocket strikes on Kharkiv on Monday had killed dozens of people. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a special operation that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. On Sunday, Ukraine's health ministry said 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of the invasion. Watch the latest DH Videos here: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Sunday that South America's biggest country will remain "neutral" over Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. The far-right Bolsonaro, who undertook a controversial visit to Moscow on February 16 to meet with President Vladimir Putin just as Russian leaders were finalising plans for their full-scale invasion, said his Russian counterpart confided some "secret" issues about Ukraine in their lengthy conversation. Bolsonaro said he told Putin that Brazil will maintain a position of neutrality in the war, and that it remains "in favour of peace." "We are not going to take sides," Bolsonaro told reporters. "We are going to continue our neutrality and help as much as possible in the search for a solution." Brazilians "want peace, but we cannot bring (the war's) consequences here," he added, recalling that Brazil is a major purchaser of Russian fertilisers. Bolsonaro, who has expressed admiration for Putin, has largely avoided criticising Russia over its aggression, even as Putin's Ukraine operation has been broadly lambasted by the West. Also Read Russia's invasion of Ukraine kills 352 civilians, including 14 children Last Thursday, he upbraided his own vice president, Hamilton Mourao, for saying Brazil did not agree with the invasion of Ukraine. Bolsonaro on Sunday said Brazil actively worked to help water down a United Nations Security Council resolution that criticised Russia, referring to the change of the word "condemns" to "deplores" in the final version of the measure. Brazil voted in favour of that resolution, which was vetoed by Russia. But Brazil did not sign a declaration by member countries of the Organization of American States in which they strongly condemned Russia's invasion. Bolsonaro's trip to Moscow earned a firm rebuke by the White House, which described Brazil as being "on the other side of where the global community stands." Watch the latest DH Videos here: Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said Sunday night that it had shut influence and hacking campaigns targeting its users in Ukraine. The efforts were tied to people in Russia and Ukraine, as well as to a hacking group thought to be affiliated with Belarus, Meta executives said. One operation spread links to misleading news articles that claimed Ukraine was a failed state, and included messages of support for the Russian government. Meta said it found evidence the effort was linked to another operation the company had disclosed in 2020 that included two publishers, News Front and South Front. The publishers operate out of Crimea and have long been used to spread propaganda targeting enemies of the Kremlin. The influence network engaged in what Facebook calls coordinated inauthentic behaviour, or groups of Facebook accounts and pages that operate under false names and fake profile photos to spread targeted messages across the platform. The campaign received fewer than 5,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram before being taken offline, Meta officials said. Also Read US radio sets out to break Russian 'propaganda wall' Meta said the disinformation campaign was active on other social media platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, European social network VK, Russian social platform Odnoklassniki and the chat app Telegram. A Twitter spokesperson said the company had removed more than a dozen accounts that participated in the campaign and blocked several links from being shared on Twitter. The accounts and links originated in Russia and were attempting to disrupt the public conversation around the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the Twitter spokesperson said. Meta said it had also detected a hacking operation that targeted military leaders and politicians in Ukraine, as well as at least one journalist. The effort, which Meta said was linked to the hacking group Ghostwriter, attempted to take over these high-profile accounts and then use them to spread disinformation. Ghostwriter has targeted politicians in Eastern Europe for several years, often pushing narratives that oppose NATO and the United States. The hacking group was long thought to be affiliated with Russia. But in November, the threat intelligence firm Mandiant discovered that the group was linked to Belarus. Ghostwriter has previously targeted the NATO alliance, seeking to erode support for the organization, Ben Read, a director at Mandiant, said in a statement. I wouldnt be surprised if similar operations were seen in the near future. Also Read Do sanctions ever work? Could they stop Russias invasion of Ukraine? A small number of high-profile individuals were targeted, and several Facebook accounts were compromised, Meta executives said. Some posts on those accounts attempted to portray the Ukrainian military surrendering, sharing videos of soldiers walking out of a forest waving a white flag. Facebook was able, in some cases, to block the hackers from posting. Historically, what weve seen from Ghostwriter is targeting of military, public figures, journalists and politicians across Europe, said David Agranovich, a director of threat disruption at Meta. Since the invasion, weve seen a pivot in Ghostwriters focus to people in Ukraine. Meta is among a number of Silicon Valley social media companies under pressure as Russian operatives attempt to spread digital propaganda campaigns across the internet in tandem with President Vladimir Putins siege of Ukraine. Meta has focused on taking action against entities that violate the companys policies regulating behaviour on its platforms. Meta, YouTube and Twitter have also blocked Russian state media outlets from monetizing their pages on the platforms. Watch the latest DH Videos here: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, Jan. 19, in this photo provided by the North Korean government. AP-Yonhap North Korea ascribed the armed conflict in Ukraine to the United States' "high-handedness and arbitrariness," Saturday, accusing Washington of having pursued "military supremacy" in disregard of Russia's security concerns. In a post on the North's foreign ministry website, Ri Ji-song, a researcher at the Society for International Politics Study, made the remarks the North's first public mention of the conflict following Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this week. "The root cause of the Ukrainian crisis also lies in the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the U.S. which has held on solely to the unilateral sanction and pressure while pursuing only global hegemony and military supremacy in disregard of the legitimate demand of Russia for its security," Ri wrote. Ri also cited what he claims to be comments by global media and experts that the contributing factor to the Ukrainian crisis is the "imbalance of power in Europe due to the unilateral expansion of NATO and its threat as well as the grave threat to the national security of Russia." Belarus said Monday that it had prepared the venue for talks between delegations from Ukraine and Russia, as Moscow's offensive against Ukraine went into its fifth day. Ukraine has agreed to send a delegation to meet Russian representatives in neighbouring Belarus, a key Kremlin ally that has allowed Russian troops passage to attack Ukraine. "The venue for talks between Russia and Ukraine in Belarus has been prepared, the arrival of delegations is expected," the Belarusian foreign ministry said on social media, releasing a picture of a long table with Russian and Ukrainian flags. Separately, Belarusian foreign ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said: "The talks will start as soon as all the delegations arrive at the meeting point." Also Read Ukraine says Russian troops have 'slowed pace of offensive' Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, sending shockwaves around the world. Kyiv was initially reluctant to send a delegation to Belarus, given the country's role as facilitator in Russia's attack on Ukraine. Ukraine has vowed not to give ground at the talks, which come as its forces fiercely resist the Russian offensive and a day after President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence chiefs to put Russia's nuclear forces on high alert. The fighting in Ukraine has claimed dozens of civilian lives including children. Kyiv insisted there were no pre-conditions to the talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was sceptical about the prospect of talks in Belarus. "As always: I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try," he said. Watch the latest DH Videos here: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion can come to the UK if they already have members of their immediate family settled in the country. As part of a new 40 million humanitarian package for the supply of basic necessities and medical supplies such as medicines, syringes, dressings and wound care pack, Johnson confirmed that any person settled in the UK will be able to bring their Ukrainian immediate family members to join them here. Downing Street said this would benefit many thousands of people who at this moment are making desperate choices about their future. Follow live Ukraine-Russia crisis updates here "The UK will not turn our backs in Ukraines hour of need. We are providing all the economic and military support we can to help those Ukrainians risking everything to protect their country, Johnson said. "In the last days the world has witnessed awe-inspiring displays of bravery and heroism from the Ukrainian people in response to those who seek to obliterate their freedom by force, he said. More details of the new Ukrainian visa policy is set to be announced in Parliament this week. Also Read | UK lets in more Ukrainians, rejects Russian nuclear threat "We want to be as generous as we possibly can, and certainly we want people who have relatives in Ukraine to be able to bring them over as fast as possible. We want to make sure that we have routes for people fleeing disaster, war, persecution in Ukraine to come here," Johnson told reporters. UK government humanitarian experts have also deployed to the region to support those fleeing the violence in Ukraine. Downing Street said the weekend assistance package brings the total amount of UK government aid pledged to Ukraine this year to 140 million. Last week, Prime Minister Johnson also announced the UK would guarantee up to $500 million of loans to Ukraine through Multilateral Development Banks and the UK said it continues to supply defensive military equipment to the Ukrainian military to bolster their resistance against invading Russian forces. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: Putins regime has undertaken an illegal and violent assault against the people of Ukraine. The UK will provide 40 million in aid to help our Ukrainian friends, more funding to tackle what is becoming a humanitarian crisis. We stand with Ukraine, shoulder to shoulder, in its hour of need. During a visit to the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London on Sunday evening, Johnson delivered a similar message of support saying that the UK would fulfil its neighbourly duty to Ukraine. He also made a clear distinction that it was the Russian leadership led by President Vladimir Putin who was responsible for the crisis and not the Russian people. Never in all my study, my memory of politics and international affairs have I seen so clear a distinction between right and wrong, between good and evil, between light and dark. And that is the real reason why Ukraine is our neighbour today, Johnson said in his address to the congregation. I want to stress that there is no hostility in my part towards the Russian people. None whatever. Quite the reverse. My heart aches for the Russian parents who are already losing their children in this vicious and appalling war, just as it aches for the civilians and the people of Ukraine. But when it comes to the Russian leadership that chose this path of violence, and I stress chose, this path of violence and aggression, there can be no possible excuse, he added. He said the people of Ukraine were facing "the darkest times in modern memory" and described Russia's invasion as a "barbaric and unprovoked attack". In his latest phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, Johnson promised further military aid for Ukrainian forces. President Zelenskyy said he believed the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine, and the Prime Minister said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine. The leaders agreed to continue to stay in close contact and the Prime Minister reiterated the UKs staunch support for Ukraines sovereignty, Downing Street said in a readout of the call. Meanwhile, there have been several demonstrations held in support of Ukraine in different parts of the UK, including vigils and protests in London and also in Scotland and Wales. Check out latest DH videos here Hundreds of Ukrainian government websites were hit by malicious data-wiping software a day after the Russian invasion. Suspicion fell on the Kremlin as it has repeatedly been accused of hacks against Ukraine and other countries. As Ukraine vows to fight off Russia's digital intrusions, cyberwarfare, and its role in geopolitical conflicts, is back in the spotlight. The attention to cyber warfare is crucial because Ukraine has been among the three most affected countries by Russian cyber activity in the past year, according to the Microsoft Digital Defense Report. Between 2017 and 2019, Ukraine suffered at least nine cyber attacks from Russia. What is cyberwarfare? Cyberwarfare refers to the use of technology to deliberately attack information systems of nations or organisations for strategic or military purposes. Cyberwarfare is planned with an aim to "weaken, disrupt or destroy" another nation, according to a report by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Tools of cyber warfare include viruses, phishing, computer worms and malware that destroy critical infrastructures, ransomware for data hostage, propaganda or disinformation campaigns, theft of private data from government websites, etc. Between 2009 and 2018, there has been a 440 per cent increase in the number of cyberwarfare attacks globally and as much as 30 per cent of them originated in Russia or China, a Privacy Affair report said. Russian attackers have targeted 19 countries in 75 cyberwarfare incidents between 2009 and 2019. Even though the USA was Russias main target, Russian cyber attackers frequently attempted to access eight European Union countries, the German Parliament, and Ukraine. Countries most affected by cyberwarfare Between July 2020 to June 2021, the US and Ukraine have been the most targeted nations by state-backed cyber attacks, according to Microsoft Digital Defense Report released in October 2021. It also notes that such incidents have increased in frequency with a rise in geopolitical tensions between nations. Countries conducting most cyber attacks Between July 2020 to June 2021, Russia has been the source of most state-sponsored cyber attacks, as per the report. Over 50 per cent of cyber attacks between that period was originated from Russia while North Korea was behind 23 per cent of them. While these attacks have a low success rate but the high number of attempts ensure that some of their goals are served. Ukraine-Russia cyberwarfare Ukraine is among the three most affected countries by Russian cyber activity in the past year, according to the Microsoft Digital Defense Report. Between 2017 and 2019, Ukraine has suffered at least nine cyber attacks from Russia. Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, cyber attacks against Ukrainian government websites and affiliated organisations added to the confusion of Russia's military assault on February 24. In December 2015, the countrys power grid was affected by Russian attackers and shut down electricity supplies to residents of Kyiv. Even in 2014, the Russian government allegedly conducted a DDoS attack on Ukraines internet and pro-Russian rebels took control of Crimea. The number of Ukrainian customers impacted by cyberattacks has raised to over 1,200 this year from six last fiscal year due to Russia-based NOBELIUM. This Russian attacker heavily targeted the Ukrainian governments efforts to gather support against a build-up of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border. A week ago, Russias cyber attackers were less visible in the process of invasion but now they have taken the front seat. Russias military invasion of Ukraine has led to dramatic sanctions being imposed on Putin and his country, a move that could, in turn, expose Western countries to greater risk of cyber attacks. Check out the latest videos from DH: European nations and Canada moved on Sunday to shut their airspace to Russian aircraft, an unprecedented step aimed at pressuring President Vladimir Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two. Aeroflot said it would cancel all flights to European destinations after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the European Union had decided to close its airspace to Russian traffic. The United States is considering similar action, but has yet to make a final decision, according to US officials. The US government said citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately on commercial flights, citing an increasing number of airlines cancelling flights as countries closed their airspace to Russia. Also Read | Cyberwarfare and countries involved: Ukraine among 3 most affected by Russian cyber activity The ban on Russian jets comes as the airline industry continues to grapple with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic that is still undermining global demand for travel. Germany, Spain and France joined Britain, the Nordics and Baltic states in declaring bans on Russian use of their airspace, a major escalation in a tactic by mostly NATO allies to wage economic war against Putin in retaliation for the invasion. The West, led by the United States, also unveiled sweeping new financial sanctions on Russia. Russia is now widely expected to retaliate further against the air blockades and other sanctions. It has already responded to the earliest European airspace bans with its own edicts barring airlines from Britain, Bulgaria and Poland. Without access to Russia's airways, experts say carriers will have to divert flights south while also avoiding areas of tension in the Middle East. Also Read | 'Operation Ganga': Evacuating Indians from Ukraine A reciprocal airspace ban by Russia and the United States would cause longer flight times for US carriers and could require crew changes on East Coast routes to Asia, said US-based analyst Robert Mann of R.W. Mann & Company, Inc. It could make certain flights too costly to operate for US carriers. "It would just add a lot of expense," he said. Will Washington follow? France on Sunday evening said it was shutting its airspace to all Russian aircraft and airlines, in an announcement echoed across continental Europe. The closure of European airspace to Russian airlines and vice versa had immediate impacts on global aviation. Air France-KLM said it is suspending flights to and from Russia as well as the overflight of Russian airspace until further notice. Air France said it was also suspending flights to and from China, South Korea and Japan temporarily while it studied flight plans that avoided Russian airspace. Also Read | At UN top court, Ukraine accuses Russia of 'planning genocide' Finnair said it would cancel flights to Russia, Japan, South Korea and China through March 6 as it avoided Russian airspace, though flights to Singapore, Thailand and India would continue with an added hour of flight time. If US airlines were barred from Russian airspace, it would lengthen some international flights and some would likely be forced to refuel in Anchorage, industry sources told Reuters. The flights that could be impacted include US flights to India, China, Japan and Korea, the sources said. The White House National Security Council declined to comment on whether the United States will close its skies to Russia and referred questions to the Federal Aviation Administration, which did not immediately comment. Swiss International Air Lines, a unit of Germany's Lufthansa 3.0; Reduces the Company's overall royalty rates and operating costs per boe; and Estimated 2022 operating netback on acquired production of $60.50/bbl2 for a PDP Recycle Ratio of 3.2x.1 (1)Assuming US$75 WTI oil price for 2022 "In addition to the superior netback oil production, the Strategic Acquisition contributes numerous high quality drilling development wells and abundant exploration locations for Saturn's long-term growth," commented Justin Kaufmann, Senior Vice-President, Exploration. "The Strategic Acquisition puts Saturn in a better position to take advantage of the Viking asset during a period of high commodity prices while continuing to grow the Oxbow Asset with the drill bit." Concurrent Non-Brokered Private Placement Concurrent with its previously announced upsized bought deal prospectus financing, Saturn intends to complete a Non-Brokered Private Placement of units ("Units") by issuing an aggregate of 730,000 Units at a price of $3.00 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $2,190,000. Each Unit will consist of one common share (a "Share") and one common share purchase warrant of the Company (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will be exercisable to acquire one Share for 36 months following the Closing Date, at an exercise price of $4.00, subject to adjustment in certain events. The Company will make reasonable efforts to list the Warrants on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). The Non-Brokered Private Placement will facilitate participation of strategic existing shareholders from Europe structurally unable to participate in the concurrent bought deal prospectus financing. "The proceeds of current equity financings will allow for a much-expanded capital expenditure budget for 2022 and allow the company to accelerate its production growth in the current high oil price environment," stated John Jeffrey, CEO of Saturn. "We expect that the incremental growth in the Company's cash flow will far exceed the dilution of the financings and will be to the long-term benefit of all shareholders." Saturn intends to provide a corporate update as well as its 2022 capital expenditure budget and related financial guidance after the closing of the previously announced upsized bought deal prospectus financing expected on or about March 10, 2022. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Non-Brokered Private Placement to expand capital expenditures, for working capital and general corporate purposes. Closing of the Non-Brokered Private Placement is expected to occur on or about March 10, 2022, or such other date as the Company may choose (the "Closing Date") and is subject to customary closing conditions, including, the approval of the TSXV. The Non-Brokered Private Placement will take place by way of a private placement pursuant to applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirements in those jurisdictions where the Non-Brokered Private Placement can lawfully be made, including the United States under private placement exemptions. The Shares and Warrants shares issued pursuant to the Non-Brokered Private Placement will have a hold period of four months and one day from the Closing Date in accordance with applicable securities laws. About Saturn Oil & Gas Inc. Saturn Oil & Gas Inc. is a growing Canadian energy company focused on generating positive shareholder returns through the continued responsible development of high-quality, light oil weighted assets, supported by an acquisition strategy that targets highly accretive, complementary opportunities. Saturn has assembled an attractive portfolio of free-cash flowing, low-decline operated assets in Southeastern Saskatchewan and West Central Saskatchewan that provide a deep inventory of long-term economic drilling opportunities across multiple zones. With an unwavering commitment to building an ESG-focused culture, Saturn's goal is to increase reserves, production and cash flows at an attractive return on invested capital. Saturn's shares are listed for trading on the TSX.V under ticker 'SOIL' and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under symbol 'SMKA'. Further information and a corporate presentation is available on Saturn's website at www.saturnoil.com . Saturn Oil & Gas Investor & Media Contacts: John Jeffrey, MBA - Chief Executive Officer Tel: +1 (587) 392-7902 www.saturnoil.com Kevin Smith, MBA - VP Corporate Development Tel: +1 (587) 392-7900 info@saturnoil.com Reader Advisory NON-GAAP MEASURES This news release includes non-GAAP measures as further described herein. These non-GAAP measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and, therefore, may not be comparable with the calculation of similar measures by other companies and should not be used to make such comparisons. Management believes that the presentation of these non-GAAP measures provides useful information to investors and shareholders as the measures provide increased transparency and the ability to better analyze performance against prior periods on a comparable basis. "Netback" and "Operating netback per bbl" are determined by deducting royalties, operating expenses and transportation expenses from petroleum and natural gas sales. Operating netbacks are per boe measures used in operational and capital allocation decisions. Presenting operating netbacks on a per boe basis allows management to better analyze performance against prior periods on a comparable basis. "Recycle Ratio" is an estimate of the amount of undiscounted cash flow from production that is expected to be generated relative to the amount of capital required to put that unit of future production into production. It is calculated by dividing the Netback of production by the development or acquisition cost of that production and represents the amount of future cash flow that is expected to be produced from each dollar of capital investment, undiscounted. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND STATEMENTS. Certain information included in this press release constitutes forward-looking information under applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information typically contains statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "project", "scheduled", "will" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Forward-looking information in this press release may include, but is not limited to, (i) estimated 2022 operating netback for the assets acquired pursuant to the Strategic Acquisition; (ii), completion of the Non-Brokered Private Placement, including TSXV approval; (iii) listing of the Warrants, (iv) the use of proceeds from the Non-Brokered Private Placement, and (v) incremental growth in the Company's cash flow. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Saturn, including expectations and assumptions concerning: the timing of and success of future drilling, development and completion activities, the performance of existing wells, the performance of new wells, the availability and performance of facilities and pipelines, the geological characteristics of Saturn's properties, the application of regulatory and licensing requirements, the availability of capital, labour and services, the creditworthiness of industry partners and the ability to source and complete further asset acquisitions. Although Saturn believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because Saturn can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general (e.g., operational risks in development, exploration and production; the uncertainty of reserve estimates; the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks), constraint in the availability of services, commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations, the current COVID-19 pandemic, actions of OPEC and OPEC+ members, changes in legislation impacting the oil and gas industry, adverse weather or break-up conditions and uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures. These and other risks are set out in more detail in Saturn's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2020. Forward-looking information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such information but which may prove to be incorrect. Although Saturn believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information because Saturn can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. In addition to other factors and assumptions which may be identified in this press release, assumptions have been made regarding and are implicit in, among other things, the timely receipt of any required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of all conditions to the completion of the Non-Brokered Private Placement. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which have been used. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof and Saturn undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. BOE PRESENTATION Boe means barrel of oil equivalent. All boe conversions in this news release are derived by converting gas to oil at the ratio of six thousand cubic feet ("Mcf") of natural gas to one barrel ("Bbl") of oil. Boe may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A Boe conversion rate of 1 Bbl: 6 Mcf is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. Given that the value ratio of oil compared to natural gas based on currently prevailing prices is significantly different than the energy equivalency ratio of 1 Bbl: 6 Mcf, utilizing a conversion ratio of 1 Bbl: 6 Mcf may be misleading as an indication of value. ABREVIATIONS AND FREQUENTLY REOCCURING TERMS Saturn uses the following abbreviations and frequently recurring terms in this press release: "WTI" refers to West Texas Intermediate, a grade of light sweet crude oil used as benchmark pricing in the United States and "Mcf" refers to thousand cubic feet. 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 press release. All dollar figures included herein are presented in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. Not for distribution in the United States or via US newswire Services To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/115156 IHS Holding Limited (NYSE: IHS) ("IHS Towers"), one of the largest independent owners, operators and developers of shared telecommunications infrastructure in the world by tower count, today announces the appointment of Colby Synesael as Senior Vice President of Communications effective March 1, 2022. Based in New York City, Colby will be responsible for further developing the Group's Investor Relations practice and the existing Communications Sustainability team. He will be reporting to the company CFO and will also work closely with Sam Darwish, Chairman and CEO, in addition to becoming a member of IHS Towers' Executive Management Committee. The appointment is part of a broader initiative within IHS Towers to expand the senior management team, including the recent appointment of Bill Bates as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer in January 2022, as the company looks to further scale the business following the public listing of IHS Towers on the NYSE in October last year. Colby has been in sell-side equity research for the past 20 years and is regarded as one of the top Communications Infrastructure (towers, data centers, fiber, small cells) analysts, having been ranked within the top three of Institutional Investor's (II) annual sell-side polls each of the past five years. Colby has spent the past 12 years at Cowen as a leader of the research team. Sam Darwish, IHS Towers Chairman and CEO, said: "I am delighted to welcome Colby and add yet another seasoned expert to our Executive Management Committee. Colby brings invaluable insight as an II-ranked research analyst in the Communications Infrastructure sector along with significant knowledge of and experience in working directly with the investor and analyst community. His appointment reflects our larger agenda to continue to further strengthen our senior management team and ensure sustainable long-term value creation for our shareholders." Jeffrey M. Solomon, Cowen Chair and CEO, said: "Colby has been an outstanding partner of ours at Cowen for over a decade. As a senior research analyst, he is a well-respected thought leader within the Communications Infrastructure space. Although we will miss his curiosity and valuable insights, we are grateful for his contributions to our award-winning research franchise and wish him much success in his new role." Colby Synesael, IHS Towers Senior Vice President of Communications, said: "I'm excited to join IHS Towers having gotten to know Sam and other members of the management team during the company's IPO process. I believe IHS has a meaningful growth opportunity in front of it that, if executed upon and effectively communicated, should translate into real and durable value creation for shareholders over the next several years. Having been on the sell-side for essentially my entire career, I'm looking forward to this next chapter and can't think of a more exciting company to be joining. I expect we will see significant demand for communications infrastructure within emerging markets over the next decade and believe that IHS is uniquely positioned to benefit. I also want to thank Cowen for the opportunity they gave me and for being such a great place to work. I'm proud of what we built together and believe they are well positioned to continue to grow its leadership within the broader Communications Services space in the years to come." ENDS About IHS Towers: IHS Towers is one of the largest independent owners, operators and developers of shared telecommunications infrastructure in the world by tower count and is the only towerco solely focused on the emerging markets. The Company has more than 38,000 towers pro forma across its 11 markets, including Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Kuwait, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia. For more information, please email: communications@ihstowers.com or visit: www.ihstowers.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220228006151/en/ Contacts: Carolina Desmeules Jessica McGhie communications@ihstowers.com Vancouver, British Columbia and Johannesburg, South Africa--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2022) - Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (TSX: PTM) (NYSE American: PLG) ("Platinum Group" or the "Company") is pleased to announce positive results from its Annual General Meeting held on February 28, 2022 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The meeting had a turnout of shareholders representing 54.42% of its issued shares eligible to vote at the meeting. Shareholders strongly supported the appointment of the Board and the resolutions proposed. The number of directors is fixed at six and on a show of hands the Shareholders elected management's six nominees for directors. Details of the proxy voting are as follows: DIRECTOR NUMBER OF SHARES PERCENTAGE OF VOTES CAST FOR FOR WITHHELD Diana Walters 33,204,401 99.54% 0.46% Frank Hallam 33,203,359 99.54% 0.46% Timothy Marlow 33,095,631 99.22% 0.78% John Copelyn 32,732,123 98.13% 1.87% Stuart Harshaw 32,456,396 97.30% 2.70% Mpho Makwana 33,203,989 99.54% 0.46% The re-appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors was voted in favour by 99.14% of the Shareholders. For more information on these matters, please refer to Platinum Group's information circular, available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or visit our website at www.platinumgroupmetals.net. About Platinum Group Metals Ltd. and Waterberg Project Platinum Group Metals Ltd. is the operator of the Waterberg Project, a bulk underground palladium and platinum deposit located in South Africa. The Waterberg Project was discovered by Platinum Group and is being jointly developed with Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., Mnombo Wethu Consultants (Pty) Ltd., Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation and Hanwa Co. Ltd. On behalf of the Board of Platinum Group Metals Ltd. Frank R. Hallam President and CEO For further information contact: Kris Begic, VP, Corporate Development Platinum Group Metals Ltd., Vancouver Tel: (604) 899-5450 / Toll Free: (866) 899-5450 www.platinumgroupmetals.net Disclosure The Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE American have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this news release, which has been prepared by management. This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. securities laws (collectively "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, plans, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes any forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations and assumptions in such statements will prove to be correct. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The Company directs readers to the risk factors described in the Company's Form 20-F annual report, annual information form and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulators, which may be viewed at www.sec.gov and www.sedar.com, respectively. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/115145 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2022) - SLANG Worldwide Inc. (CSE: SLNG) (OTCQB: SLGWF) ("SLANG" or the "Company"), a leading global cannabis consumer packaged goods ("CPG") company with a diversified portfolio of popular brands, announced today that, following approval by its shareholders at the Company's special shareholder meeting held on February 18, 2022, the Company has implemented a consolidation (the "Consolidation") of its outstanding common shares ("Common Shares") and its outstanding restricted voting shares ("Restricted Shares", and together with the Common Shares, the "Shares") on the basis of one new Share for every six currently outstanding Shares. The effective date of the Consolidation is February 28, 2022. Immediately prior to the Consolidation, a total of 422,457,742 Common Shares and 141,758,367 Restricted Shares were issued and outstanding. Immediately following the Consolidation, a total of approximately 70,409,448 Common Shares and 23,555,755 Restricted Shares are issued and outstanding. No fractional Shares were issued. Any fractional interest in Shares resulting from the Consolidation were rounded down to the nearest whole Share. SLANG expects trading of the Common Shares on a post-consolidation basis on the Canadian Securities Exchange and OTCQB will commence on or around market open on March 3, 2022. The new CUSIP number for the post-consolidated Common Shares is 831006309. Letters of transmittal will be mailed to registered shareholders of the Company ("Shareholders") and registered Shareholders will be required to deposit their share certificate(s) or DRS statement(s), together with a duly completed letter of transmittal, with Odyssey Trust Company, the Company's registrar and transfer agent. Non-registered Shareholders holding Shares through an intermediary (a securities broker, dealer, bank or financial institution) should be aware that the intermediary may have different procedures for processing the Consolidation than those that will be put in place by the Company for registered Shareholders. If Shareholders hold their Shares through intermediaries and have questions in this regard, they are encouraged to contact their intermediaries. Outstanding stock options and Share purchase warrants will also be adjusted by the Consolidation ratio and the respective exercise prices of outstanding options and share purchase warrants will be adjusted accordingly. Drew McManigle, Interim CEO and Chairman of SLANG said, "The share consolidation is strategically aligned with our mission to improve shareholder value as we continue to build our product portfolio in key markets throughout the U.S. With our forward-thinking management team now in place, we are aggressively advancing our growth strategy that focuses on building our leadership position in our core markets to achieve profitable revenue growth. Our ability to scale our operations and efficiently meet consumer demand will serve to drive our success and deliver attractive returns for our shareholders going forward." To be added to SLANG's email distribution list, please email SLNG@kcsa.com with "SLNG" in the subject. About SLANG Worldwide Inc. SLANG Worldwide Inc. is a global leader in the cannabis CPG sector with a diversified portfolio of popular brands distributed across the United States. SLANG specializes in acquiring and developing market-proven regional brands as well as launching innovative new brands to seize global market opportunities. For more information, please visit www.slangww.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management of SLANG at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to regulatory risks, risks related to the COVID-19 global pandemic, changes in laws, resolutions and guidelines, market risks, concentration risks, operating history, competition, the risks associated with international and foreign operations and the other risks identified under the headings "Risk Factors" in SLANG's annual information form dated April 29, 2021 and other disclosure documents available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. SLANG is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. Media and Investor inquiries Investors@SLANGww.com KCSA Strategic Communications Phil Carlson SLANG@kcsa.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/115153 Aberdeen Standard Global Infrastructure Income Fund ("ASGI") Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund, Inc. ("FAX") PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2022 / The above-noted abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds (the "Funds" or individually the "Fund"), today announced that the Funds paid the distributions noted in the table below on February 28, 2022, on a per share basis to all shareholders of record as of February 22, 2022 (ex-dividend date February 18, 2022). Ticker Exchange Fund Amount ASGI NYSE Aberdeen Standard Global Infrastructure Income Fund $ 0.1083 FAX NYSE American Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund, Inc. $ 0.0275 Each Fund has adopted a distribution policy to provide investors with a stable distribution out of current income, supplemented by realized capital gains and, to the extent necessary, paid-in capital. Under applicable U.S. tax rules, the amount and character of distributable income for each Fund's fiscal year can be finally determined only as of the end of the Fund's fiscal year. However, under Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and related rules, the Funds may be required to indicate to shareholders the estimated source of certain distributions to shareholders. The following tables set forth the estimated amounts of the sources of the distributions for purposes of Section 19 of the 1940 Act and the rules adopted thereunder. The tables have been computed based on generally accepted accounting principles. The tables include estimated amounts and percentages for the current distributions paid this month as well as for the cumulative distributions paid relating to fiscal year to date, from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short-term capital gains; net realized long-term capital gains; and return of capital. The estimated compositions of the distributions may vary because the estimated composition may be impacted by future income, expenses and realized gains and losses on securities and currencies. Each Fund's estimated sources of the current distribution paid this month and for its current fiscal year to date are as follows: Estimated Amounts of Current Distribution per Share Fund Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short-Term Gains** Net Realized Long-Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $0.1083 - - $0.0011 1% $0.1072 99% - - FAX $0.0275 $0.0162 59% - - - - $0.0113 41% Estimated Amounts of Fiscal Year* to Date Cumulative Distributions per Share Fund Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short-Term Gains ** Net Realized Long-Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $0.5415 - - $0.0054 1% $0.5361 99% - - FAX $0.1100 $0.0649 59% - - - - $0.0451 41% * ASGI has a 9/30 fiscal year end; FAX has a 10/31 fiscal year end. **includes currency gains. Where the estimated amounts above show a portion of the distribution to be a "Return of Capital," it means that Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in a Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income." The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The final determination of the source of all distributions for the current year will only be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. After the end of each calendar year, a Form 1099-DIV will be sent to shareholders for the prior calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. The following table provides the Funds' total return performance based on net asset value (NAV) over various time periods compared to the Funds' annualized and cumulative distribution rates. Fund Performance and Distribution Rate Information Fund Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 01/31/2022 Current Fiscal Period's Annualized Distribution Rate on NAV Cumulative Total Return on NAV Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV ASGI 13.92%3 5.82% 2.43% 1.94% FAX 3.20% 7.93% (2.98%) 1.98% 1 Return data is net of all Fund expenses and fees and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions reinvested at prices obtained under the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan. 2 Based on the Fund's NAV as of January 31, 2022. 3 The Fund launched within the past 5 years; the performance and distribution rate information presented reflects data from inception (July 29, 2020) through January 31, 2022. Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about a Fund's investment performance from the amount of the Fund's current distributions or from the terms of the distribution policy (the "Distribution Policy"). While NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market. Pursuant to an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Funds may distribute any long-term capital gains more frequently than the limits provided in Section 19(b) under the 1940 Act and Rule 19b-1 thereunder. Therefore, distributions paid by the Funds during the year may include net income, short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and/or a return of capital. Net income dividends and short-term capital gain dividends, while generally taxable at ordinary income rates, may be eligible, to the extent of qualified dividend income earned by the Funds, to be taxed at a lower rate not to exceed the maximum rate applicable to your long-term capital gains. Distributions made in any calendar year in excess of investment company taxable income and net capital gain are treated as taxable ordinary dividends to the extent of undistributed earnings and profits, and then as a return of capital that reduces the adjusted basis in the shares held. To the extent return of capital distributions exceed the adjusted basis in the shares held, capital gain is recognized with a holding period based on the period the shares have been held at the date such amount is received. The payment of distributions in accordance with the Distribution Policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expense ratio and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The Distribution Policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the distribution. Each Fund's Board has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the Distribution Policy at any time. The amendment, suspension or termination of the Distribution Policy may affect the Fund's market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances. Circular 230 disclosure : To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Treasury, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. In the United States, abrdn is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., abrdn Australia Limited, abrdn Asia Limited, Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs Advisors LLC and Aberdeen Standard Alternative Funds Limited. Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. A Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that a Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results. If you If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact Investor.Relations@abrdn.com https://www.abrdn.com/en-us/cefinvestorcenter/fund-centre/closed-end-funds For More Information Contact: abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds Investor Relations 1-800-522-5465 Investor.Relations@abrdn.com SOURCE: abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/690787/Abrdn-US-Closed-End-Funds-Announce-Distribution-Payment-Details WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Florida-based real estate company, SBA Communications Corporation (SBAC), announced its guidance for the full year on Monday. The earnings, projected by the company came in better than the Street projection. For the full year, the company expects earnings to be $1.26 billion or $11.48 earnings per share to $1.30 billion or $11.85 earnings per share, excluding one-time items. On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the earnings guidance to come at $4.02 per share. The company projection for revenue for the next financial year was $2.43 billion to $2.47 billion. On average, the analysts guided for $2.43 billion in revenue. Apart from these, the board of directors of the company has also agreed on a cash dividend of $0.71 per share for the quarter, an increase of 22% year-over-year. The amount will be payable on March 25 to the shareholders on record on March 10. 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. Clickatell, a Redwood City, Calif.-based SaaS Chat Commerce company, secured $91m in Series C funding. The round was led by Arrowroot Capital, with participation from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Endeavor Global and Harvest. The company will use the capital to scale and expand three key areas: (i) Accelerated development and innovation of its Chat Commerce offering, (ii) Expansion of its footprint in the U.S., and (iii) Scaling of sales and marketing efforts. Led by Pieter de Villiers, Co-Founder and CEO, Clickatell provides a platform powering mobile messaging / CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) and payments within chat. The system enables customer-centric brands to connect, interact and transact with their customers. Its low / no-code, feature-rich Chat Commerce orchestration capability includes assisted (chat desk) and unassisted (bots) chat and secure payments capability in its recently launched Chat 2 Pay offering. The company serves more than 10,000 customers, many of which are Fortune 500 companies and leading global brands such as Coca Cola, Deloitte, GT Bank, Booking.com, GoDaddy, IKEA, Novartis, Standard Bank, Tangerine, Telegram, US Foods, Visa, Zipcar, Capitec and others. Clickatell also has offices in Canada, South Africa and Nigeria. FinSMEs 28/02/2022 A model of a CVX carrier / Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy By Kim Hyun-bin Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Hanwha Systems and LIG Nex1 are set to form an alliance for the development of weapon systems and radars to be equipped on the Korean CVX carrier project, according to company officials Monday. Currently, HHI and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) are competing to construct the carrier for the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN). The special ship division of HHI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LIG Nex1 for R&D on Korean aircraft carriers and combat systems to be mounted on the carriers as well as technical cooperation such as multi-function radar (MFR) and control radar. These are considered to be key technologies enhancing the operational capability of the carrier. Also currently discussing technological cooperation with HHI is Hanwha Systems, which has strengths in combat management system (CMS) a weapon system for the integrated operation of various sensors, armaments and other communication and command systems mounted on a ship. It serves as the brain of the ship and is critical to achieve victory in naval battles. "We plan to sign an MOU related to the carrier business soon," a Hanwha Systems official said. "Since the MOU is signed at the beginning of the project and before the bidding, it is impossible to predict how the bidding will go." HHI is establishing a cooperative system with LIG Nex1 and Hanwha Systems to increase the possibility of winning the basic design orders. An industry analyst said whether a basic design order is won or not will also affect future ship construction contracts. Last October, HHI also signed an MOU with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the only aircraft manufacturing company in Korea, for cooperation in the basic design of CVX carriers. In August the same year, it signed a partnership with Babcock in the U.K. to win an order for basic design and construction. In response, DSME joined hands with the Italian state-owned shipyard Fincantieri, which has experience in building a next-generation American frigate and two Italian light carriers. The two companies plan to start detailed design and construction this year. Mariposa Technology, a Metairie and New Orleans, LA-based AgTech startup, raised $560K in seed funding. The round was raised through a private equity offering on Netcapital. The company intends to use the funds to further develop its PAMAP digital farming tool. Co-Founded in 2021 by Mickal Adler (CEO) and John Roberts (CKO), Mariposa Technology, in an exclusive agreement with Texas A&M, is building a proprietary database and software to deliver real time onsite answers about live hemp plants gleaned from their molecular structure. Farmers can maximize their profits with real time test results giving them access to information about their crops. Farmers across Louisiana, Texas and Colorado have already participated in scanning trials for THC levels, determination of male/female in immature plants and variety identification. An array of cannabinoids will soon be added to the proprietary database. FinSMEs 28/02/2022 Nosso, a London, UK-based provider of an app for parents to invest and plan for their childrens financial futures, raised $2.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Octopus Ventures and Anthemis with participation from Entrepreneur First, Ventures Together, Errol Damelin, Tracy Doree and Peter Hetherington. The company intends to use the funds to continue expanding its product offering for families. Led by CEO Youssef Darwich, Nosso provides an app that allows parents to open up Junior stocks & shares ISAs and General Investment Accounts and select investments from a range of ETFs managed by BlackRock. Founded by Youssef Darwich and Sigurjon Isaksson who met in 2020 at Entrepreneur First, Nosso offers children investment accounts that two parents can track, manage and contribute to, together. The app also provides each user with a unique contribution link that they can share with anyone. This allows grandparents (as well as other family and friends) to contribute directly with no additional paperwork or even the need to open a Nosso account. Family members can also leave messages and pictures with their contributions allowing them to pass down memories as well as wealth to future generations. Nosso is also expecting to launch one of the first fully digital Junior Investment Accounts (Bare trusts) later this year. FinSMEs 28/02/2022 Plexium, a San Diego, CA-based targeted protein degradation (TPD) company, raised $102M in funding. The round was led by BVF Partners, L.P. and TCG X, with participation from Softbank Vision Fund 2, RA Capital Management, Surveyor Capital, Pappas Capital, The Column Group, DCVC Bio, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Lux Capital, M Ventures, CRV and Neotribe Ventures. In connection with the financing, Cariad Chester, partner at TCG X, has joined the Plexium Board of Directors. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its pipeline programs toward the clinic, including a molecular glue that selectively degrades the IKZF2 transcription factor, selective degraders of CDK2 and SMARCA2, and other undisclosed high value targets. In addition, the financing will support the advancement of Plexiums TPD platform, powered by a proprietary high-throughput cell-based screening technology, to discover novel therapies across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology and other diseases. Led by CEO Percival Barretto-Ko, Plexium is a targeted protein degradation company seeking to discover a wide range of monovalent target protein degraders that address the limitations of PROTACs and cereblon IMiDs. The companys platform is a proprietary drug discovery platform designed to identify novel small molecules that induce selective degradation of drug target proteins through E3 ligase mediated proteasomal degradation. From molecular glues to monovalent degraders, Plexium is advancing a pipeline of protein degraders for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Due to its expertise in TPD, the company has entered into a strategic collaboration with Amgen to discover and develop new therapies for cancer and others serious diseases and is supported by high quality investors. FinSMEs 28/02/2022 LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - One person is dead and 13 others were injured early Saturday morning in a shooting at Mannys Glo Afterdark Hookah Lounge just east of the Las Vegas Strip. About 3:15 a.m. on Feb. 26, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police were called to the 900 block of East Sahara Avenue near Las Vegas Boulevard to reports of gunfire. According to LVMPD Captain Dori Koren, one adult male died of his injuries. Two victims are in critical condition and each of the injured were transported to UMC and Sunrise hospitals. All are believed to be adults, police said. Police worked to render aid to the victims by applying tourniquets to the wounded and administering CPR. Dillon Ancheta, a journalist for Hawaii News Now, a sister station of FOX5, reported seeing multiple patrol, fire and medical units respond to the scene before 4 a.m. The deceased victim was identified by the Clark County Coroners Office as 33-year-old Demetreus Beard. Beard died from multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide. A suspect or suspects are still outstanding. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with any information about this incident is urged to contact the LVMPD Homicide Section by phone at 702-828-3521, or by email at homicide@lvmpd.com. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 702-385-5555, or on the internet at www.crimestoppersofnv.com. Copyright 2022 KVVU. All rights reserved. President Moon Jae-in is being briefed on energy policies at Cheong Wa Dae, Feb. 25. Korea Times file President now favors nuclear power amid surging oil prices By Lee Kyung-min President Moon Jae-in has come under intense criticism over his sudden embrace of nuclear energy, Monday, in what critics say is a desperate, last-minute turnaround in policy to limit the accountability of his administrative failures. Energy experts said Monday that the nuclear phase-out policy spearheaded by Moon is the definition of populism gone wrong, brought into existence largely because the then-presidential candidate used the Korean film "Pandora" a disaster movie highlighting the consequences of using the much-criticized energy source for his own political gain. The railroading of Moon's green initiative over the past five years has come at the expense of the nuclear energy industry, experts said. Many small and medium-sized businesses in the industry say they had to bear the brunt of the "ill-conceived, ill-executed and politically motivated" government policy. Gone to waste, they add, are years of money, time, energy and efforts that have been put into developing key technologies needed to construct and maintain the nuclear facilities, with very little to no chance of bouncing back from the business failures brought on by botched state policies. Further fueling the criticism is Cheong Wa Dae's brazen claim that the Moon administration is not being inconsistent with the energy policy, since it never said that the government would put an "immediate end" to using nuclear energy. A nuclear plant in Uljin in North Gyeongsang Province. Korea Times file Keep the conversation about local news & events going by joining us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Recent updates from The News-Post and also from News-Post staff members are compiled below. HKSAR chief executive meets with mainland health official, epidemiologists on combating COVID-19 Xinhua) 08:28, February 28, 2022 HONG KONG, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam met with the deputy head of the health commission of Guangdong province and mainland epidemiologists Sunday on the fight against COVID-19 in Hong Kong. Lam expressed gratitude to the central authorities and Guangdong province for their support for the anti-COVID efforts in Hong Kong following their inspection of the local anti-epidemic work. She was also grateful for the constructive advice given by the delegation of mainland epidemiological experts, including the "Communicable Disease Public Interface" platform being launched online for patients to report their information. At the meeting, Lam and the participating officials discussed with Zhang Yurun and members of the expert delegation the recent improvements to the HKSAR government's COVID-19 testing-related measures with regard to the risk assessment and optimum use of testing resources. These included wider adoption of rapid antigen tests and persistent "restriction-testing declaration" operations targeting buildings with higher risk. The participants agreed that it is necessary at present to strengthen the multi-tiered approach of providing treatment based on the patient's conditions to reduce severe and death cases so that medical resources could be more effectively allocated to imminent cases. Lam said the mainland's rich experience in combatting COVID-19 helped Hong Kong fully examine its existing anti-epidemic strategies and measures so as to adjust them considering Hong Kong's actual circumstances in pursuit of the goal of "dynamic zero infection." "We will continue to leverage the staunch support of the central authorities to stabilize the epidemic as soon as possible for safeguarding the lives and safety of the public at large," she said. Hong Kong recorded 26,026 new COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths on Sunday, showed official data. (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) Hyundai Motor's manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor By Baek Byung-yeul Hyundai Motor has been monitoring the escalating Russia-Ukraine military conflict closely, as it has and will adversely affect Korea's largest carmaker, which has been operating a plant in Russia, according to securities analysts Monday. The analysts said Hyundai Motor may have difficulties exporting cars to Russia or suffer foreign exchange losses as Western countries impose economic sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. On Feb. 26, the U.S. and EU agreed to remove selected Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which enables secure cross-border settlements and payments, to impose severe limits on Russian-denominated assets and the country's capacity to access international reserves. Due to the sanction, Im Eun-young, an analyst at Samsung Securities, presumed that Hyundai Motor could suffer up to 200 billion won ($166 million) in losses and Kia could see up to 250 billion won in losses. Kia, a sister brand of Hyundai Motor, also operates manufacturing lines there. In 2021, Kia sold 205,000 cars in Russia, and Hyundai sold 186,000, to become the second- and third-largest car brands there following local Russian brand Avtovaz. "Hyundai Motor's wholesale numbers in Russia in 2021 amounted to 201,000, accounting for 5 percent of its global sales. As of September 2021, the sales of its Russian subsidiary stood at 2.3 trillion won and net profit at 134.6 billion won. The losses which could be caused by a decrease in the number of sales can be estimated at about 200 billion won, about 4 percent of net profit," the analyst said. Lee Hyun-soo, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, also estimated, "If conflicts between Russia and Ukraine continue and Western countries impose economic sanctions on Russia, there is a possibility that Hyundai Motor will incur losses due to the fall in the ruble exchange rate." An industry official familiar with the matter said the company will likely have no big problems in Russia as it produces and sells locally there. "I think that Hyundai is closely watching the ongoing situation. The exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT system will have little impact on its business there," the official said. Hyundai Motor shares fell sharply to 173,000 won from 180,500 won last Thursday when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. On Monday, the shares inched up by 1,000 won or 0.57 percent to 175,000 won from last Friday, while the benchmark KOSPI rose 0.84 percent to 2,699.18. Braden Manning, Gettysburg baseball: Braden went 9-for-13 with 2 doubles, 2 triples and 7 RBI over 4 games. He also struck out 11 batters in a win over South Western. Amy Anderson, Delone Catholic softball: Amy went 5-for-12 with 6 RBI, 3 runs scored and a triple over 3 games. She also struck out 17 batters and went 2-1 in those games. Parker Sanders, Bermudian Springs Tennis: Parker won 3 matches on his way to a fourth-place finish in the YAIAA Class 2A Singles Tournament. Andrew Koons, Fairfield baseball: Andrew went 5-for-11 with 8 RBI, 4 runs scored and 2 home runs over 3 games, including a grand slam. He was also the winning pitcher against Biglerville. Ben Angstadt, Biglerville baseball: Ben went 8-for-17 with 7 RBI, 4 runs scored, a double and a home run over 4 games for the Canners. Vote View Results Gillette, WY (82718) Today Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. High around 50F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 38F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. The Samsung flag hangs in front of a building in the Samsung Town office park in Seocho District, Seoul, in this 2020 file photo. Korea Times file By Park Jae-hyuk Samsung Electronics is now more likely to avoid the first-ever strike in its 53-year history, as the company's management told its union on Friday that one of its co-CEOs will meet workers in early March to resume wage negotiations. "We received an official reply from the management to our request for a dialogue with the company's chief executives," the conglomerate's four unions said in a statement. "We are delighted that the management has changed its stance." Earlier this week, the unionized workers asked the management to reply by Friday to their request for a dialogue with the company's top executives, such as Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong. The workers made the demand after they won the legal right to go on a strike in the wake of a disagreement with management over their wages for 2021. Although the management has reiterated that it will continue to hold talks with workers, it has remained reluctant to accept their request for a 10-million-won ($8,400) increase in each employee's annual salary and the payment of performance-based bonuses equivalent to 25 percent of the conglomerate's operating profit. According to a representative from one of the four unions, management told them that it has yet to decide which co-CEO will meet with the unionized workers. A Samsung Electronics spokesman also said that it remains unclear who will participate in the negotiations. The union representative added that management had replied verbally on Friday afternoon, promising to send an official letter by 5 p.m. that day. "The management said over the telephone on Wednesday that it will send a letter by Friday to express its intention to resume the wage talks," he said. Industry officials expect Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee or President Kyung Kye-hyun to meet with the workers. Kyung will be officially appointed as a co-CEO during the forthcoming general meeting of shareholders on March 16. The management reportedly suggested resuming talks next month, considering that the Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union, the largest among the four unions, plans to elect new leaders through an online vote between Feb. 28 and March 3. Han will also depart for Barcelona on Sunday to attend the Mobile World Congress exhibition that will take place from Feb. 28 to March 3, according to industry officials. The speech-language pathology leveling track is a four-course online program intended to allow for a wider range of applicants for the 24-month Master of Science in speech-language pathology program at Midwestern. (Photo courtesy of Midwestern University) Sydney, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Proactive, provider of real-time news and video interviews on growth companies listed in Australia, has covered the following companies: About Proactive Proactive is a unique tech-enabled platform providing companies globally with a comprehensive investor engagement solution across their business lifecycle. With six offices on three continents, Proactive works with innovative growth companies quoted on the worlds major stock exchanges, helping executives to engage intelligently with investors. In 2020, Proactive featured in 809 million search results, our content was viewed over 165 million times and our readers spent over 10 million hours on our websites. Proactive has produced over 300,000 articles and 20,000 executive interviews since it was established in 2006. For more information on how Proactive can help you make a difference, email us at action@proactiveinvestors.com Gurugram, India, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bachelor in Science is an essential Degree to purse MD in Philippines which collectively makes the Bachelors for Physician for 5 Years. Specialized Courses in Philippines include Anesthesiology, Gynecology, Pediatrician, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Ophthalmology and more. Our Lady Fatima is one the top university with a high of campuses across Philippines which eventually make it one of the top universities in terms of Intake and Graduate. Popularity of Philippines Medical Education Market: Philippines is country with a population of 109.5 Mn and faces a huge shortage of Primary Healthcare workers and medical doctors to its population which is 25/10,000.Hence, in past few years many initiatives are taken by the Philippines government to increase the inclination of the students towards medical education. Most public and private medical colleges offer theoretical as well as training based education system. All medical aspirants need to undergo Examination to pursue Bachelor in Medical Science and become a Physician. It takes roughly 10-13 years to become a specialized doctor in Philippines. Enablers of Medical Education in Philippines: Philippines are considered as one of the finest places for medical education in the world especially for International Students. It provides with range of Public and Private Colleges which vary in the course structure and fee for both domestic and international students. Public colleges have relatively less fee than the private institution. Philippines provide a very welcoming environment to its International students with no language barrier and cheap cost of living. Specialized Courses in Philippines: There are many specialized courses available in the Philippines Education System such as Pediatrician, Surgery, Internal medicine, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology and more. Specialization in Philippines is regarded as residency program as well the fellowship program (Training Programs) for collectively 5 Years. There is a dedicated board for each specialization that conducts an exam which is mandatory for every doctor to qualify to become a specialist. The report titled " Landscape of Philippines Medical Education Market- Outcome Based Curriculum with Clear Explicit Articulations that Medical Graduates should Demonstrate " by Ken Research suggested that the Colleges have faced a slight downfall in terms of No. of Intake, Enrollment and Graduates amid COVID-19. On an average, it takes 13 years to become a specialist in Philippines including both theatrical and clinical training. Major merits of pursuing medicine in Philippines Universities are factors such as no language barrier, cheap cost of living, free style education and high opportunities. Key Segments Covered:- Market Segmentation basis Type of Institution (Number of Colleges) Private College Public College Market Segmentation basis Region (Number of Colleges) Central Region Southern Region Northern Region Market Segmentation basis Prominent Locations (Number of Colleges) Metro Manila South Luzon Mindanao North and Central Luzon Visayas Physician Admission Process Intake Status Selection Process Total No. of Graduates Total Number of Intake Internal Medicine Admission Process Intake Status Selection Process Total No. of Graduates Total Number of Intake Ophthalmology Admission Process Intake Status Selection Process Total No. of Graduates Total Number of Intake Key Target Audience:- Public Medical Colleges Private Medical Colleges Aspiring students of Bachelor in Medical Education Aspiring students of Master in Medical Education especially Internal Medicine and Ophthalmology Time Period Captured in the Report:- Base Year: 2020 2020 Study Period: 20162020 20162020 Historical Period: 2016-2020 Colleges Covered:- Landscape on Philippines Top 10 Medical Education institutions include colleges, Our Lady of Fatima University University of Santo Tomas Far Eastern University University of the East MHAM College of Medicine De La Salle Medical and Health sciences Institute Southwestern University Davao Medical School Foundation Inc. Saint Louis University Ateneo De Manila University Key Topics Covered in the Report Philippines Medical Education Introduction Detailed Landscape of Private and Public Colleges Market Ecosystem Market Segmentation basis Institution and Regions Admission Process for both Bachelor and Master Course Detailed Analysis on Physician Courses (Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates) Detailed Analysis on Internal Medicine Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates) Detailed Analysis on Ophthalmology Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates) Major Players in Philippines Medical Education Market Philippines Medical Education Market Philippines Ophthalmology Education Market Philippines Internal Medicine Education Market Philippines Physician Education Market Philippines Education Market Ophthalmologists in Philippines Internist in Philippines Physicians in Philippines MBBS in Philippines MD in Philippines Medical Higher Education in Philippines Medical Graduates in Philippines Philippines Education Board Growth of Ophthalmology Education Market in Philippines Growth of Internal Medicine Education Market in Philippines Growth of Physician Education Market in Philippines Philippines Ophthalmology Education College Course Fee Philippines MBBS Education College Course Fee Philippines Physician Education College Course Fee Philippines Internal Medicine Education College Course Fee Major Colleges for Internal Medicine in Philippines For More Information on the research report, refer to below link:- Philippines Medical Education Market Related Reports:- Landscape of Vietnam Medical Education Market- Outcome Based Curriculum Began with Clear Explicit Articulations that Medical Graduates should Demonstrate Acceptable Professional Standards Vietnam Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical Professional prevailing in the Industry. Some of the major challenges faced by the Industry are lack of standard entrance exam, Statutory and Regulatory Body like Medical Council, Lack of standardized entry channels for Residency programmes, Diverse syllabi and heavy reliance on theoretical foundations. Major Enabler in the Vietnam Medical Education Market is mostly the capacity to accommodate medical students and imbalance in the medical ecosystem with increase in support staff like optometrist and technicians. Landscape of Thailand Medical Education Market-Increasing Number of Top Rated Universities coupled with Undertaking Cutting Edge Research Driving the Industry Medical Education in Thailand has seen a long journey with various turns with intense progress. The journey has given the system its fair share of challenges to deal with issues including keeping pace with rapidly changing knowledge and installing same coping abilities in the students, maintaining quality of training of students with their increasing demand, mental health issues arising for medical students under heavy pressure, funds and scholarships to arrange the education, to retain good quality staff and lack of private investment in medical education. Various factors that drive the growth of Medical Education Sytem in Thailand are expensive public infrastructure and universal coverage, postgraduate program is in alignment with international standards, the brain drain is at lower level in comparison to its neighbouring countries because majority of education is in Thai, changes in the need of society, changes in the nature of students, evolution in learning and teaching processes, rapid changes in technologies supporting medical practices and education, enormous explosion in medical knowledge and changes in the health system. Landscape of Indonesia Medical Education Market- Consistent Changes In The Course Curriculum Helping Indonesian Medical Education System to Improve Skills of Medical Graduates Indonesia Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro-challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical professionals prevailing in the Industry. Some of the common challenges faced by the Industry are high fees of medical programs, absence of standardized admission process, and difficulty to crack exams. The Industry also faces a major challenge in the form of learning outcomes, there is a disparity between the skills of graduates and the needs of employers. Hence Medical Education needs a curriculum that improves the skills of the graduates. Major Enabler in the Indonesia Medical Education Market is mostly the great environment to accommodate students especially International Aspirants provided by the country owing to factors such as a large number of medical schools, good infrastructure, high employment opportunities, and excellent scholarship schemes. Landscape of Malaysia Medical Education Market-Growth in Medical Graduates, Pushing Candidates to Seek Specialization Contributing to Medical Workforce Malaysia Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical Professional prevailing in the Industry. Some challenges are opening up over the time however some challenges have become stagnant. Enablers in the Malaysia Medical Education Market are mostly apprehending for the international students. CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iManage, the company dedicated to Making Knowledge Work, today announced that Carey ranked by Chambers and Partners as the Chilean law firm of the year eight separate times, including in 2021 has selected iManage Cloud as the comprehensive platform for document and email management and secure collaboration across the organization. As an iManage customer for almost two decades, Carey saw the move to iManage Cloud as a way to reduce the complexity of managing IT in-house alongside modernizing its user experience by leveraging iManage Work 10. Its been clear for a while that cloud is the future, said Jaime Carey, Managing Partner of Carey. Moving from an on-premises deployment of iManage Work to iManage Cloud is a strategic choice by our firm to deliver a modern user experience and to keep pace with the innovation of the foremost firms across the world. Carey is working with iManage partner, Tecnolex, on the move to iManage Cloud, which will require migrating 11 terabytes of data and nearly 30 million documents and emails. An ISO27001-certified company, Tecnolex is an experienced iManage partner, skilled in migrating large amounts of confidential data. Tecnolexs strategic insight, technology expertise, and practical experience forms a critical component of Careys technology planning and execution. The deployment is currently scheduled to go live in March 2022, giving Careys 500 legal professionals including 270 lawyers the ability to be productive from anywhere, on any device, while ensuring that their IT environment is always up to date and incorporates all available best practices and security protections. Choosing iManage Cloud, rather than trying to build and maintain a cloud on-premises, just makes sense for any law firm, even those with only 10 or 20 users, said Sebastian Carey, CEO of Tecnolex. While iManage is handling the cloud, the IT department can focus their time and energy on the legal workflows that matter to Careys legal professionals and help drive better business outcomes. Staying at the forefront in all areas iManage Cloud will provide the firm with a competitive advantage in several important respects, including interactions with clients. Work 10 provides the productivity, collaboration, and integration capabilities to make our lawyers lives easier in their day-to-day work and interactions with their clients, said Jaime Carey. We serve clients all over the world, and the General Counsels we interact with are very familiar with iManage. They understand the value that iManage delivers, and they appreciate working with a law firm who also understands the benefits it brings. Additionally, Carey feels that having the latest technology and being on a modern knowledge work platform will be important for attracting and retaining talent within the law firm. Ongoing training and development of our professionals is important to our firm, said Jaime Carey. When we send our associates to participate in foreign associate programs at the major law firms in New York and in London, our goal is to ensure they are either equal to or more advanced than the associates in those firms from a technological perspective. Moving to iManage Cloud ensures our professionals are staying on the cutting edge. Having Chiles largest full-service law firm select iManage Cloud is a clear testament to the value long-time customers see in changing the way they deliver a comprehensive knowledge work platform to their professionals, said Neil Araujo, iManage CEO. By making the move to iManage Cloud, Carey is enabling the firm to work smarter, more productively, and more securely while gaining greater IT agility. The importance of these benefits cannot be overstated in an increasingly competitive legal environment. Follow iManage via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/imanage Twitter: https://twitter.com/imanageinc Blog: https://imanage.com/blog/ About iManage iManage is the company dedicated to Making Knowledge Work. Its intelligent, cloud-enabled, secure knowledge work platform enables organizations to uncover and activate the knowledge that exists inside their business content and communications. Advanced Artificial Intelligence and powerful document and email management create connections across data, systems, and people while leveraging the context of organizational content to fuel deep insights, informed business decisions, and collaboration. Underpinned by best-of-breed security and sophisticated workflows and governance approaches, iManage has earned its place as the industry standard by continually innovating to solve complex professional challenges and enabling better business outcomes for over one million professionals across 65+ countries. Visit www.imanage.com/ to learn more. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProSomnus Sleep Technologies, the leader in patient-preferred medical devices for the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), will showcase its oral appliance therapy (OAT) devices in four poster abstracts at the World Sleep Congress 2022, being held from March 11-16, 2022, in Rome, Italy. Now in its 16th iteration, the World Sleep Congress is a global scientific meeting that consistently gathers leaders in sleep medicine and research for scientific sessions and networking. ProSomnus Medical Director Dr. Edward T. Sall and Chief Scientist Dr. John E. Remmers will present the posters on Monday, March 14 and Tuesday, March 15 from 5:30pm-7:00pm (Central European Time). The posters showcase: The results of a systematic study of the efficacy of ProSomnuss precision oral appliances in treating moderate and severe OSA. The efficacy data on treating OSA vs. legacy OATs with the ProSomnus EVO. ProSomnuss ability to manufacture a new Morning Occlusal Guide in the same maximum intercuspation that a patient had initiated treatment with under a different system to better recapture bite changes. The ability of ProSomnuss OATs to successfully treat patients with all levels of severity of OSA. ProSomnus will also sponsor a World Sleep 2022 Satellite Symposium on Monday, March 14 from 12:30pm-2:00pm in Room 21, titled Personalized Care and Precision Medicine in Sleep Apnea: Emerging Technologies and Latest trends in Treating Sleep Apnea with Non-CPAP Therapies, featuring leading sleep medicine experts Prof. Dr. Olivier Vanderveken, Dr. John E. Remmers, Dr. Shouresh Charkhandeh and Dr. Edward T. Sall. This symposium will explore alternative approaches to treating OSA. Presentations will focus principally on non-CPAP treatment options where a good understanding of patient characteristics related to treatment success is very important. It will also focus on the latest advancements on precision therapy and the evolution of Mandibular Advancement Devices (MAD), and how they can optimize OAT as an effective alternative or even first-line treatment for OSA. ProSomnus is committed to evidence-based research that enables clinicians to provide the best patient experiences and outcomes for OSA therapy. ProSomnus medical devices are rapidly emerging as the leading, patient-preferred alternative to CPAP for the treatment of OSA. Effective, non-intrusive and easy to use, each ProSomnus device is prescribed by a physician and fitted by a Dental Sleep Medicine specialist. ProSomnus devices are an excellent option for people with OSA who prefer a more comfortable treatment experience, and are designed to enhance compliance, mitigate side effects and, enable providers to achieve excellent patient experiences and outcomes. ProSomnuss devices have been used to treat thousands of patients, with clinical performance that has been validated in numerous studies. About ProSomnus Sleep Technologies ProSomnus is the first manufacturer of precision, mass-customized Oral Appliance Therapy (OAT) devices to treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), which affects over 74 million Americans and is associated with serious comorbidities, including heart failure, stroke, hypertension, morbid obesity and type 2 diabetes. ProSomnuss patented devices are a more comfortable and less invasive alternative to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy, and lead to more effective and patient-preferred outcomes. With more than 135,000 patients treated, ProSomnuss devices are the most prescribed OATs in the U.S. To learn more, visit www.ProSomnus.com. Media: Sean Leous ICR Westwicke Phone: +1.646.866.4012 Email: Sean.Leous@westwicke.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/16f8b1c6-27d9-49d7-889b-d98105d773a7 Hyundai Motor's IONIQ 5 electric vehicle / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group By Baek Byung-yeul Hyundai Motor Group's two electric vehicles (EVs) Hyundai Motor's IONIQ 5 and Kia's EV6 have been recognized as the most competitive EVs in Germany, raising expectations that their expansion in the European market will gain momentum, the automotive group said, Sunday. The group said the IONIQ 5 and the EV6 ranked first and second in the recent comparative evaluation of electric SUVs conducted by the German-based car magazine, Auto Zeitung. In the comparative evaluation of five electric SUVs by the magazine, the IONIQ 5 topped the list with a total of 3,222 points and the EV6 ranked second with 3,178 points. They were followed by the Polestar 2, Tesla's Model Y and Mercedes-Benz's EQB. The evaluation was conducted based on five evaluation points: the body, driving comfort, powertrain, driving dynamic and environment/cost. The IONIQ 5 received the highest score in the driving comfort sector and the second-highest in the driving dynamic and the environment/cost sectors. Hyundai Motor Group said that the magazine had evaluated the IONIC 5 as showing "overall harmony by applying the automotive group's electric vehicle-only platform, E-GMP. "The car has the highest driving stability, economic feasibility and even provides fun driving, making it to the top in the SUV electric vehicle sector with the top classes," the magazine was quoted as stating by Hyundai. Kia's EV6 electric vehicle / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group New York, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Sexually Transmitted Diseases Testing Market By Disease Type, By the Location of Testing, By Regional Outlook, Industry Analysis Report and Forecast, 2021 - 2027" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06241031/?utm_source=GNW Vaginal, oral, or anal sex are the most common forms of sexual contacts through which STDs get transmitted. Additionally, these diseases can spread through other forms of intimate physical contact also. This is due to the fact that some STDs, such as herpes and HPV, are spread through skin-to-skin contact since some of them are caused by Bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Gonorrhea, genital herpes, human papillomavirus infection, HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, and syphilis are only a few examples of STDs. HIV/AIDS has consistently rated among the top ten leading causes of death for decades. In developed countries, testing and treatment have considerably reduced the diseases impact and prevalence. However, among younger groups, there has been a substantial increase in infection rates. COVID-19 Impact Analysis The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health disaster that has a negative impact on the STD testing market. Sexually transmitted infection cases were high prior to the pandemic, but following the pandemic, STD testing cases have reduced. Due to difficulties in health care and sexually transmitted infection testing services during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, testing reports of sexually transmitted infections were declined. Due to a scarcity of intensive care resources, efforts were concentrated on ensuring the availability of critical care services. In addition, the imposition of restrictions like the ban on imports & exports and disruption in the supply chain have hampered the demand for STD testing kits and hence, hinder the growth of the STD testing market in the upcoming years. Market Growth Factors: Increasing awareness among population There are many governments across developed and developing nations who are trying to aware people regarding the importance of early testing of STDs. For this, government and other healthcare authorities have strategized various campaigns for creating awareness among people regarding STDs. For example, CDC has initiated STD Awareness Week, which held in the second week of April. Also, many other renowned healthcare organizations are running campaigns for the same in their respective regions or even worldwide. Rising government investments or funds Several government authorities are increasing their investment in the development of fast and effective STD testing since it helps them to control the cases of STDs by providing correct medications at the correct time. The death rate of people having STDs is significantly high because patients do not get tested with correct measures at right time, which makes their condition more vulnerable and difficult to treat. Market Restraining Factors: Weak health services for screening and curing STDs People seeking STI testing and treatment face numerous issues. Limited resources, poor service quality, and little or no sexual partner follow-up are among them. STI services are given independently in many countries and are not included in primary health care, family planning, or other regular health treatments. Because of a shortage of qualified employees, laboratory capacity, and adequate supply of relevant medicines, many services are unable to perform screening for asymptomatic infections. Disease Type Outlook Based on Disease Type, the market is segmented into Chlamydia, Herpes simplex, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Human papillomavirus (HPV), and Other Disease. Gonorrhea segment is estimated to garner a substantial share in the market during the forecast period. The bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae causes gonorrhoea, which is a sexually transmitted illness (STD). Location of Testing Outlook Based on the Location of Testing, the market is segmented into Laboratory Testing and Point of care (POC) Testing. Point of care testing refers to the medical diagnostic testing done in the nearby care center. People who have not undergone professional laboratory training can also undertake POC testing. Regional Outlook Based on Regions, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, Middle East & Africa. Asia-Pacific emerged as the leading region in the sexually transmitted diseases market with the largest revenue share and is projected to continue this trend during the forecast period. This is due to an increase in the number of cases of sexually transmitted illnesses in developing countries like China and Japan. The major strategies followed by the market participants are Product Launches. Based on the Analysis presented in the Cardinal matrix; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. is the major forerunner in the Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Testing Market. Companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. are some of the key innovators in the Market Strategies deployed in Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Testing Market Partnerships, Collaborations & Agreements: Jun-2020: Roche formed a partnership with SpeeDx, a developer of innovative molecular diagnostic solutions. This partnership aimed to enable Roche Diagnostics to offer clinicians critical and advanced tools for the detection of antibiotic resistance in patients with sexually transmitted infections. Apr-2017: Thermo Fisher Scientific entered into a partnership with SpeeDx, a provider of innovative multiplex and isothermal amplification solutions for clinical diagnostics. This partnership aimed to get FDA clearance of the Australian developers ResistancePlus MG molecular diagnostic for the sexually transmitted infection, which is constantly developing into an antibiotic-resistant superbug. Product Launches and Product Expansions: Dec-2021: Becton, Dickinson, and Company (BD) expanded its BD COR System to involve the latest MX instrument for high-throughput infectious diseases testing. This accessibility of the MX instrument would expand the usage of the platform and automate testing for an expanding list of high-demand, important assays for womens health & STI testing utilizing multiplex PCR assay design, beginning with BDs CTGCTV2 test. Dec-2021: Hologic unveiled Panther Trax that presents the new addition to the Panther Scalable Solutions (PSS) portfolio of products. This product would offer advancement in lab automation by physically connecting various Panther instruments together into one, powerful work cell, which would enable labs to boost testing volumes without raising the number of staff. Sep-2020: Roche released the Elecsys HIV Duo immunoassay in the U.S., which has received FDA approval. By this separate measurement of the anti-HIV antibodies (caused by immune reaction) and HIV p24 antigen (the virus), this test can be used to identify an acute HIV infection prior to their existing methods. Oct-2019: Novosanis, a subsidiary of OraSure Technologies released two variants of its urine-capturing device, Colli-Pee. The latest variants enable the collection of smaller and bigger amounts of first-void urine in comparison to the original 20 mL device, which would provide additional applications in the area of uro-oncology, infectious disease, and beyond. Acquisitions and Mergers: Mar-2021: Hologic took over Diagenode, a privately held, European developer and manufacturer of molecular diagnostic assays and epigenetics products. This acquisition aimed to strengthen its molecular diagnostics business by expanding its international capabilities, enhancing its regional time-to-market, and enabling the company to provide a wider, more differentiated test menu. Feb-2020: Bio-Rad Laboratories acquired Exact Diagnostics, developer of various diagnostic products. This acquisition aimed to access a complete catalog of molecular quality control products in the field of respiratory, transplant, virology, sexually transmitted infections, microbiology, and vector-borne diseases. Jan-2019: OraSure Technologies completed the acquisition of Novosanis, a privately-held, Belgian company. The acquisition aimed to represent a clear fit in its stated core growth strategy for the Molecular business in order to expand its portfolio of collection products beyond oral samples by leveraging its expertise in stabilization and collection tools & technologies, which is utilized at home or in the clinic. Approvals and Trials: May-2019: Hologic got the FDA clearance for its new Aptima BV and Aptima CV/TV assays. This clearance would offer a precise and objective way for diagnosing vaginitis, which is a very common and complicated health issue affecting millions of women every year. Mar-2019: Abbott received CE Mark for its Alinity m diagnostics system and assays. This latest technology would assist in keeping up with the rising demand for infectious disease testing. Alinity m provides initial assays that include virologic testing for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), sexual health-related testing for Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Mycoplasma genitalium or CT/NG/TV/MG panel; hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV); and high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) testing. Jan-2019: Hologic received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Aptima Mycoplasma genitalium assay. This essay is the first and only FDA-cleared test to identify the under-recognized as well as highly common sexually transmitted infection (STI). The launch of the Aptima Mycoplasma genitalium assay would provide healthcare professionals the opportunity to offer optimal care for their patients and support Hologics mission to develop advanced solutions that fulfill the emerging public health threats. The market research report covers the analysis of key stake holders of the market. Key companies profiled in the report include BioMerieux S.A., Abbott Laboratories, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Hologic, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., DiaSorin Molecular LLC, Danaher Corporation, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., and OraSure Technologies, Inc. Scope of the Study Market Segments covered in the Report: By Disease Type Chlamydia Herpes simplex Gonorrhea Syphilis Human papillomavirus (HPV) Other Disease By Location of Testing Laboratory Testing Point of care (POC) Testing By Geography North America o US o Canada o Mexico o Rest of North America Europe o Germany o UK o France o Russia o Spain o Italy o Rest of Europe Asia Pacific o China o Japan o India o South Korea o Singapore o Malaysia o Rest of Asia Pacific LAMEA o Brazil o Argentina o UAE o Saudi Arabia o South Africa o Nigeria o Rest of LAMEA Companies Profiled BioMerieux S.A. Abbott Laboratories Becton, Dickinson and Company Hologic, Inc. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. DiaSorin Molecular LLC Danaher Corporation Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. OraSure Technologies, Inc. Unique Offerings Exhaustive coverage Highest number of market tables and figures Subscription based model available Guaranteed best price Assured post sales research support with 10% customization free Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06241031/?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. __________________________ Pune, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Food E-Commerce Market report gives a comprehensive report on Global Food E-Commerce industry. This includes overview and deep study of factors which are considered to have greater influence over future course of the market such as market size, share, different dynamics of the industry, Food E-Commerce Market companies, regional analysis of the domestic markets, value chain analysis, consumption, demand, key application areas and more. The study also talks about crucial pockets of the industry such as products or services offered, downstream fields, end using customers, historic data figures regarding revenue and sales, market context and more. Food E-Commerce Market Growth Statistics: The global Food E-Commerce market size was USD 1,38,833 million in 2019. As per our research, the market is expected to reach USD 3,93,657 million by 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 18.97% during the forecast period. Get a Sample PDF of report @ https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/food-e-commerce-market-100031 The main objective of the study is to contribute to the informed decision-making of the market participants and how best their business issues can be addressed fully and productively by using the valuable information presented. The global Food E-Commerce market is segmented into different segments. In terms of market share, the segments that held the largest market share in 2022 and are predicted to witness a considerable growth rate during the years 2022-2025. The key undertakings such as government initiatives market expansion initiatives in the segments are discussed in the report. This report centers about the top players in global Food E-Commerce marketplace: E.Leclerc Sainsbury's Rakuten Alibaba Group Amazon Tesco Peapod Costco Albert Heijn JD.com, Inc Ocado Kroger Walmart Target Carrefour Enquire before purchasing this report - https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/enquiry/queries/food-e-commerce-market-100031 The report categorizes the global Food E-Commerce market also based on the regional performance. Based on regional aspects the global Food E-Commerce market is categorized into key geographic regions. The regions and countries that held more market share in 2020 and the Food E-Commerce industry is projected to exceed USD billion by 2025 are highlighted and studied in the report. On the basis of product , this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into: Restaurant Meal Delivery Fresh Ready-to-Eat Meals and Meal Kits Dtc Products Pickup Grocery Delivery On the basis of the end users/applications , this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including: Businesses Households Get a sample copy of the Food E-Commerce Market report 2022-2025 Global Food E-Commerce Market research report offers: Market definition of the global Food E-Commerce market along with the analysis of different influencing factors like drivers, restraints, and opportunities. Extensive research on the competitive landscape of global Food E-Commerce Identification and analysis of micro and macro factors that are and will effect on the growth of the market. A comprehensive list of key market players operating in the global Food E-Commerce market. Analysis of the different market segments such as type, size, applications, and end-users. It offers a descriptive analysis of demand-supply chaining in the global Food E-Commerce market. Statistical analysis of some significant economics facts Figures, charts, graphs, pictures to describe the market clearly. Regional Outlook: Europe North America South America Asia-Pacific Middle East & Africa Purchase this report (Price 3260 USD for a single-user license) - https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/checkout-page/100031 Reasons to buy: Procure strategically important competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D strategies. Recognize emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage. Classify potential new clients or partners in the target demographic. Develop tactical initiatives by understanding the focus areas of leading companies. Plan mergers and acquisitions meritoriously by identifying Top Manufacturer. Formulate corrective measures for pipeline projects by understanding Food E-Commerce pipeline depth. Develop and design in-licensing and out-licensing strategies by identifying prospective partners with the most attractive projects to enhance and expand business potential and Scope. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within some working days of order. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Report Methodology: The information contained in this report is based upon both primary and secondary research. Primary research included interaction with Food E-Commerce manufacturers, distributors and industry experts. Secondary research included an exhaustive search of relevant publications like company annual reports, financial reports and proprietary databases. Some Major TOC Points: 1 Report Overview 1.1 Research Objectives 1.2 Study Scope 1.3 Key Market Segments 1.4 Market Investment Scenario Strategic 2 Industry Insights 2.1 Industry Ecosystem Analysis 2.1.1 Industry Chain Analysis 2.1.2 Distribution Channel Analysis 2.2 Market Trend Analysis 2.2.1 Growth Drivers 2.2.2 Industry Constraints and Challenges 2.3 Industry Trends Under COVID-19 2.3.1 Risk Assessment on COVID-19 2.3.2 Assessment of the Overall Impact of COVID-19 on the Industry 2.3.3 Pre COVID-19 and Post COVID-19 Market Scenario 2.4 Industry Innovation Prospect Analysis 2.5 The Impact of Covid-19 From the Perspective of Industry Chain 3 Global Food E-Commerce Market, By Product Type 3.1 Global Food E-Commerce Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Types (2015-2020) 3.1.1 Global Food E-Commerce Sales and Market Share by Types (2015-2020) 3.1.2 Global Food E-Commerce Revenue and Market Share by Types (2015-2020) 3.1.3 Global Food E-Commerce Price by Types (2015-2020) 3.2 Key Trends by Types 3.3 Global Food E-Commerce Sales, Price and Growth Rate of Traditional (2015-2020) 3.4 Global Food E-Commerce Sales, Price and Growth Rate of Online-Only (2015-2020) 4 Global Food E-Commerce Market, By Applications 4.1 Global Food E-Commerce Consumption, Revenue and Market Share by Applications (2015-2020) 4.1.1 Global Food E-Commerce Consumption and Market Share by Applications (2015-2020) 4.1.2 Global Food E-Commerce Revenue and Market Share by Applications (2015-2020) 4.2 Household 4.3 Commercial 5 Global Food E-Commerce Market, By Regions 5.1 Global Food E-Commerce Market Sales and Market Share by Regions 5.1.1 Global Food E-Commerce Sales by Regions (2015-2020) 5.1.2 Global Food E-Commerce Sales Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 5.2 Global Food E-Commerce Market Revenue and Market Share by Regions 5.2.1 Global Food E-Commerce Revenue by Regions (2015-2020) 5.2.2 Global Food E-Commerce Revenue Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 5.3 Key Trends by Regions 5.3.1 Emerging Market Analysis 6 North America Food E-Commerce Market Analysis 6.1 North America Food E-Commerce Market Size 6.1.1 North America Food E-Commerce Market Sales and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 6.1.2 North America Food E-Commerce Market Revenue and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 6.2 U.S. Food E-Commerce Market Size 6.3 Canada Food E-Commerce Market Size 6.4 Mexico Food E-Commerce Market Size 6.5 Key Macroeconomic Indicators 6.6 The Influence of COVID-19 on North America Market 7 Europe Food E-Commerce Market Analysis 7.1 Europe Food E-Commerce Market Size 7.1.1 Europe Food E-Commerce Market Sales and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 7.1.2 Europe Food E-Commerce Market Revenue and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 7.2 Germany Food E-Commerce Market Size 7.3 United Kingdom Food E-Commerce Market Size 7.4 France Food E-Commerce Market Size 7.5 Italy Food E-Commerce Market Size 7.6 Spain Food E-Commerce Market Size 7.7 Russia Food E-Commerce Market Size 7.8 Key Macroeconomic Indicators 7.9 The Influence of COVID-19 on Europe Market 8 Asia-Pacific Food E-Commerce Market Analysis 8.1 Asia-Pacific Food E-Commerce Market Size 8.1.1 Asia-Pacific Food E-Commerce Market Sales and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 8.1.2 Asia-Pacific Food E-Commerce Market Revenue and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 8.2 China Food E-Commerce Market Size 8.3 Japan Food E-Commerce Market Size 8.4 South Korea Food E-Commerce Market Size 8.5 Australia Food E-Commerce Market Size 8.6 India Food E-Commerce Market Size 8.7 Key Macroeconomic Indicators 8.8 The Influence of COVID-19 on Asia Pacific Market 9 Middle East and Africa Food E-Commerce Market Analysis 9.1 Middle East and Africa Food E-Commerce Market Size 9.1.1 Middle East and Africa Food E-Commerce Market Sales and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 9.1.2 Middle East and Africa Food E-Commerce Market Revenue and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 9.2 Saudi Arabia Food E-Commerce Market Size 9.3 UAE Food E-Commerce Market Size 9.4 Egypt Food E-Commerce Market Size 9.5 South Africa Food E-Commerce Market Size 9.6 Key Macroeconomic Indicators 9.7 The Influence of COVID-19 on Middle East and Africa Market 10 South America Food E-Commerce Market Analysis 10.1 South America Food E-Commerce Market Size 10.1.1 South America Food E-Commerce Market Sales and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 10.1.2 South America Food E-Commerce Market Revenue and Growth Rate (2015-2020) 10.2 Brazil Food E-Commerce Market Size 10.3 Argentina Food E-Commerce Market Size 10.4 Columbia Food E-Commerce Market Size 10.5 Key Macroeconomic Indicators 10.6 The Influence of COVID-19 on South America Market 11 Competition Landscape and Company Profiles 11.1 E.Leclerc 11.1.1 E.Leclerc Basic Information 11.1.2 E.Leclerc Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.1.3 E.Leclerc Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.2 Sainsbury's 11.2.1 Sainsbury's Basic Information 11.2.2 Sainsbury's Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.2.3 Sainsbury's Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.3 Rakuten 11.3.1 Rakuten Basic Information 11.3.2 Rakuten Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.3.3 Rakuten Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.4 Alibaba Group 11.4.1 Alibaba Group Basic Information 11.4.2 Alibaba Group Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.4.3 Alibaba Group Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.5 Amazon 11.5.1 Amazon Basic Information 11.5.2 Amazon Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.5.3 Amazon Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.6 Tesco 11.6.1 Tesco Basic Information 11.6.2 Tesco Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.6.3 Tesco Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.7 Peapod 11.7.1 Peapod Basic Information 11.7.2 Peapod Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.7.3 Peapod Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.8 Costco 11.8.1 Costco Basic Information 11.8.2 Costco Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.8.3 Costco Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.9 Albert Heijn 11.9.1 Albert Heijn Basic Information 11.9.2 Albert Heijn Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.9.3 Albert Heijn Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.10 JD.com, Inc 11.10.1 JD.com, Inc Basic Information 11.10.2 JD.com, Inc Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.10.3 JD.com, Inc Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.11 Ocado 11.11.1 Ocado Basic Information 11.11.2 Ocado Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.11.3 Ocado Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.12 Kroger 11.12.1 Kroger Basic Information 11.12.2 Kroger Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.12.3 Kroger Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.13 Walmart 11.13.1 Walmart Basic Information 11.13.2 Walmart Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.13.3 Walmart Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.14 Target 11.14.1 Target Basic Information 11.14.2 Target Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.14.3 Target Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) 11.15 Carrefour 11.15.1 Carrefour Basic Information 11.15.2 Carrefour Product Profiles, Application and Specification 11.15.3 Carrefour Food E-Commerce Market Performance (2015-2020) Continued.. Detailed TOC of Global Food E-Commerce Market @ https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/toc/food-e-commerce-market-100031 About Us: Business Research Insights is a unique organization that offers expert analysis and accurate data-based market intelligence, aiding companies of all shapes and sizes to make well-informed decisions. We tailor inventive solutions for our clients, helping them tackle any challenges that are likely to emerge from time to time and affect their businesses. At Business Research Insights, our principal goal is to empower our customers with a granular market analysis while incorporating a panoramic overview of the market they are intending to enter and establish themselves. Rockville, Maryland, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Whats the News: Zyter has collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and other ecosystem members to support the demonstration of high bandwidth, low latency 5G private networks with network management, a consolidated dashboard, and three initial production-ready applications. Why it Matters: Current public 5G and Wi-Fi networks do not have the bandwidth, low latency, flexibility, control over security and network management capabilities that modern organizations need, hampering the digital transformation of factories, warehouses, hospitals, airports and even rural areas. Who its For: Any industry seeking to adopt leading-edge applications that require higher performance, lower latency, more flexibility, better security and superior network management features than current public 5G and Wi-Fi networks can provide. ROCKVILLE, Md., February 28, 2022 Zyter, Inc., a leading digital health and IoT-enablement platform, announced today that it has collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to support the demonstration of 5G private networks by providing network management services, a user interface/dashboard, and three initial production-ready applications that include autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), LiDAR-based analytics and AI-based cameras. 5G private networks offer significant advantages over todays public 5G and Wi-Fi networks. To fully support digital transformation efforts, modern businesses and organizations need a higher-bandwidth, lower-latency network that can potentially support thousands of devices and data intensive applications. Advanced network management capabilities, such as allocating bandwidth to different devices or customizing security protocols are also necessary. Current Wi-Fi and 5G public networks offer limited flexibility in these areas. Qualcomm Technologies, Zyter and other ecosystem members are solving these challenges through the demonstration of 5G private networks powered by Qualcomm FSM 5G RAN Platforms. In addition to providing network management and a consolidated dashboard to display application and device data, Zyter is also making three production-ready applications available that include: Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) Equipped with sensors and cameras, AMRs use AI and machine learning to autonomously move goods inside a defined space such as a factory or warehouse. LiDAR-Based Analytics Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) cameras can be used to detect the movement of people and goods in a defined space, which is rendered on a 3D map viewed on Zyter's dashboard. AI-Based Cameras This application supports 4K video streams originating from eight cameras provided by Qualcomm Technologies device ecosystem members as well as data analysis. Applications like LiDAR-based analytics require high bandwidth, low latency networks that can potentially support thousands of devices, render images in 3D, or enable autonomous mobile robots to react in milliseconds, said Sanjay Govil, founder and CEO of Zyter, Inc. The combination of Qualcomm Technologies platforms for 5G private networks with Zyters leading-edge applications offer a world of new possibilities for organizations that want more performance, ownership and control. Zyter is one of the system integrators supporting the introduction of the Qualcomm Private Networks RAN Automation solution. Zyter 5G applications are available for demonstration on the Qualcomm Smart Campus in San Diego. For more information, please visit www.zyter.com/IoT About Zyter, Inc. Zyter delivers a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions spanning buildings, stadiums, campuses, and even cities. The Zyter SmartSpaces platform supports solutions for multiple markets including healthcare, education, logistics, retail, travel, and construction. By integrating and consolidating data from IoT devices and applications, organizations can gain new insights to improve efficiencies while providing end-users with an engaging digital experience. In 2021, Zyter won more than 37 global awards for its IoT products including Best Technology and Company Innovation of the Year. Founded in 2017, the privately-held company is based in Rockville, Md. For more information, please visit www.Zyter.com/IoT. Zyter Media Contact: Michael E. Donner, Chief Marketing Officer, Zyter, Inc., Press@Zyter.com Qualcomm is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm 5G RAN Platforms and Qualcomm Private Networks RAN Automation are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Attachment SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges Gatos Silver, Inc. (NYSE: GATO) investors with significant losses to submit your losses now. A securities class action has been filed and certain investors who purchased shares in Gatos Silvers Oct. 2020 IPO and/or on the open market afterwards may have valuable claims. Class Period: Oct. 28, 2020 Jan. 25, 2022 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Apr. 25, 2022 Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/GATO Contact An Attorney Now: GATO@hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895 Gatos Silver, Inc. (GATO) Securities Class Action: The litigation focuses on Gatos statements concerning its Cerro Los Gatos (CLG) mine located in Chihuahua, Mexico, including the Companys estimates in its July 1, 2020 Technical Report (2020 Technical Report) that the CLG deposit contains approximately 9.6 million diluted tonnes of proven and probable mineral reserves. According to the complaint, defendants made materially false and misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts, including: (1) that the 2020 Technical Report contained errors; and (2) that, among other things, the GLG mineral reserves had been overestimated by as much as 50%. The truth came to light on Jan. 25, 2022, when Gatos disclosed that during a resource and reserve update process, which included a detailed reconciliation of recent production performance, the Company concluded that there were errors in the 2020 Technical Report, as well as indications that there is an overestimation in the existing resource model. As a result, the Company estimated a potential reduction of the metal content of CLG mineral reserve ranging from 30% to 50% of the metal content and warned that the mineral resource and reserve estimates in the 2020 Technical Report should not be relied upon This revelation drove the price of Gatos shares as much as 70% lower on Jan. 26, 2022. Were focused on investors losses and proving defendants knew the 2020 Technical Report was inaccurate at the time of the IPO and thereafter, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation. If you invested in Gatos and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman. Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Gatos should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email GATO@hbsslaw.com. About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw. ATLANTA, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gray Television, Inc. (Gray, we, us or our) (NYSE: GTN) today announced that its Board of Directors unanimously voted to expand the Board by one seat and elected Lorri McClain as an independent Director to fill that position, effective March 1, 2022. Like all Directors, Ms. McClains term will run through our next Annual Meeting. Ms. McClain is currently the President of Reicon Management, Inc., a family investment office, and Chair of the Board of Directors of Anverse Inc., a charitable foundation. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of NSORO, a non-profit organization serving children aging out of foster care. Ms. McClain previously served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Prestige Communications, Inc. prior to its sale in 2000 to one of the largest telecommunications companies in the US at the time. Prestige was a privately owned, Georgia-based cable operator with 175,000 subscribers in Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland. She has long been active in non-profit charitable organizations and philanthropic activities. Ms. McClain is a past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Center for Children and a previous member of the Board of Atlantas High Museum of Art, as well as numerous other civic and educational organizations. Ms. McClain is a past President of the Atlanta Chapter of Women in Cable & Telecommunications. She holds a B.S. in Management from Georgia State University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of the South. Grays Executive Chairman and CEO Hilton H. Howell, Jr., said We are excited to welcome Lorri to Grays Board. She brings a different perspective from business and community involvement that will allow her to make valuable contributions to our Board. After considering a number of well qualified candidates, it is clear that our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee made an excellent decision, and we look forward to working with her. Ms. McClain added I am thrilled to join Grays Board of Directors, which has, through both well managed existing holdings and smart acquisitions, created the ability to broadcast such excellent content to one-third of the households in the United States through its local television stations. I believe this company is exciting and truly visionary in the operations of its broadcast businesses as well as its other innovative media holdings. I am thrilled to be a part of this team. About Gray: Gray Television, Inc. is a multimedia company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. We are the nations largest owner of top-rated local television stations and digital assets in the United States that serve 113 television markets reaching approximately 36 percent of US television households. This portfolio includes 80 markets with the top-rated television station and 100 markets with the first and/or second highest rated television station. We also own video program companies Raycom Sports, Tupelo Honey, and PowerNation Studios, as well as Third Rail Studios. # # # Attachment NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES MARKHAM, Ontario, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sienna Senior Living Inc. (Sienna or the Company) (TSX:SIA) provided an update on the Company's acquisition activity and announced today the launch of a $75 million equity offering, on a bought deal basis. Todays announcement further underscores our ability to execute on our growth strategy, as we continue to expand our portfolio in Ontario and Saskatchewan, said Nitin Jain, President and CEO of Sienna. Supported by strong investor confidence, we aim to build a platform known for industry-leading resident and team member experience amid strengthening market fundamentals in Canadian seniors' living." ACQUISITION ACTIVITY As previously announced on February 3, 2022, Sienna entered into an agreement to acquire a 50% ownership interest in eleven seniors' living assets comprised of 1,048 private-pay suites in Ontario and Saskatchewan (the Retirement Portfolio) in partnership with Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc., who is acquiring the other 50% interest, with Sienna as the manager of the Retirement Portfolio. Sienna announced today that it has entered into an agreement with a related party to purchase the Woods Park Care Centre (Woods Park), which is managed by the Company, for a purchase price of $26 million. Woods Park is located in Barrie, Ontario and offers a continuum of care, comprised of 55 private-pay independent living (IL) suites and 123 government-funded Class A long-term care beds. The addition of Woods Park to Sienna's portfolio further expands the Companys footprint in Ontario and in markets within close proximity to the Greater Toronto Area. In addition, Sienna is currently in advanced negotiations to acquire a 50% interest in a newly built, private-pay retirement residence in Saskatchewan (the Saskatchewan Residence) that consists of 159 private-pay IL suites and 27 private-pay assisted living suites. If completed, the acquisition of the Saskatchewan Residence would be complementary to the Retirement Portfolio and further enhance the Companys scale and leadership in Saskatchewan. Sienna intends to act as manager of the property and earn a management fee. The aggregate purchase price for the acquisition of the Retirement Portfolio, Woods Park, and, if a purchase agreement is executed with respect thereto, the Saskatchewan Residence (collectively, the Acquisitions) is expected to be approximately $216 million at Sienna's proportionate ownership interest. The Company expects the Acquisitions to be accretive to Sienna's Operating Funds From Operations (OFFO) and Adjusted Funds From Operations (AFFO) per common share on a leverage neutral basis. Completion of the Acquisitions is subject to customary closing conditions for transactions of this nature, including the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including approvals from the Ontario Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority, Saskatchewan Health Authority and Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, and pursuant to the Competition Act (Canada). Sienna expects the completion of the acquisition of the Retirement Portfolio and, if a purchase agreement is executed with respect thereto, the Saskatchewan Residence to occur in late Q2 2022, and completion of the acquisition of Woods Park to occur in Q4 2022. ACQUISITION FINANCING The Acquisitions and related transaction costs are being financed through a combination of: (i) net proceeds of the Offering (as defined below); (ii) an acquisition term loan for up to $150 million (the Acquisition Term Loan) that the Company expects to refinance post-closing; (iii) the assumption of the approximately $11 million existing mortgage on Woods Park; (iv) proceeds from the sale of Rideau Retirement Residence and Camilla Care Community; and (v) draws on the Company's existing credit facilities. Following closing of the Offering and the Acquisitions, and taking into account expected proceeds from the previously announced dispositions of Rideau Retirement Residence and Camilla Care Community, the Company's Debt to Gross Book Value ratio on a pro forma basis is expected to increase from 45% as at December 31, 2021 to approximately 46%. DESCRIPTION OF THE PUBLIC OFFERING Sienna has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters (the Underwriters) led by TD Securities Inc., as sole bookrunner, under which the Underwriters have agreed to buy, on a bought deal basis, 5,000,000 common shares of the Company (the Common Shares) at a price of $15.00 per Common Share (the Offering Price) for gross proceeds of $75 million (the Offering). The Company has also granted the Underwriters an option (the Over-Allotment Option) to purchase up to an additional 750,000 Common Shares at the Offering Price to cover the Underwriters' over-allocation position, if any, exercisable, in whole or in part, no later than 30 days after the closing of the Offering. If the Over-Allotment Option is exercised in full, the gross proceeds to the Company will be approximately $86 million. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering and any Over-Allotment Option to partially fund the Acquisitions and pay the Company's expenses of the Acquisitions. On or before March 4, 2022 the Company will file with the securities commissions or other similar regulatory authorities in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, a preliminary short form prospectus relating to the issuance of the Common Shares. The Offering is expected to close on or about March 23, 2022, subject to normal regulatory approvals, including approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The securities offered pursuant to the Offering have not and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of such Act. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities in any jurisdiction. ABOUT SIENNA SENIOR LIVING Sienna Senior Living Inc. (TSX:SIA) offers a full range of seniors' living options, including independent living, assisted living, long-term care, and specialized programs and services. Sienna's approximately 12,000 employees are passionate about helping residents live fully every day. For more information, please visit www.siennaliving.ca. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking information based on managements current expectations, estimates and projections about the future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities for Sienna. Forward-looking statements include: the Company's intention to complete the Offering and the timing thereof; the Companys intention to execute a definitive agreement with respect to the Saskatchewan Residence and the terms, including the purchase price, and the expectation that Sienna will act as manager and earn fees with respect thereto; the successful closing of the Acquisitions and the timing thereof; the expected benefits of the Acquisitions to Sienna shareholders, including that the Acquisitions are anticipated to be accretive to the Companys OFFO and AFFO per common share; the Acquisition Term Loan; the expected assumption of the existing mortgage on Woods Park; the financing of the Acquisitions through draws on the Company's existing credit facilities; the closing of the sales of Rideau Retirement Residence and Camilla Care Community and the timing thereof; the expected Debt to Gross Book Value ratio following the closing of the Acquisitions and the anticipated closing date of the Offering. Forward-looking statements are based upon a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are based on information currently available and what management currently believes are reasonable assumptions, including the funding of long-term care residences by government entities. Material factors or assumptions that were applied to drawing a conclusion or making an estimate set out in forward-looking statements include: Siennas expectation of entering into a definitive agreement for the Saskatchewan Residence; the views of management of Sienna regarding current and anticipated market conditions; expected government priorities and spending; absence of material changes to government and environmental regulations affecting Siennas operations; managements views as to demographic trends; Siennas ability to maintain good relationships with unionized employees; the ongoing impact and development of the COVID-19 pandemic and related vaccines on Siennas operations, business and financial results; the successful completion of the Acquisitions and the financing thereof, including the Offering, and the financial and operating attributes of Sienna and the acquired properties as at the date hereof. Although management believes that it has a reasonable basis for the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements, actual results may differ from those suggested by the forward-looking statements for various reasons. The assumptions, risks and uncertainties described above are not exhaustive and other events and risk factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results and events discussed in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect current expectations of Sienna as at the date of this news release and speak only as at the date of this news release. Sienna does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as may be required by applicable law. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results could differ materially from those expected, estimated or implied by such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Risk factors include, but are not limited to, failure by Sienna to complete the Acquisitions and the Offering on the terms and basis set out herein; failure to achieve the anticipated benefits of the Acquisitions; material adverse impacts and developments in the COVID-19 pandemic; and material shifts in demographic or economic trends. These factors are more fully described, in the Risk Factors section of Siennas managements discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2021 (the MD&A), and in materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada from time to time, including, but not limited to, the Companys annual information form and the preliminary short form prospectus for the Offering which are, or will be, as applicable, available under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. NON-IFRS MEASURES Certain terms used in this news release, such as OFFO per common share, AFFO per common share and Debt to Gross Book Value, are not measures defined under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS. OFFO and AFFO should not be construed as alternatives to net income or cash flow from operating activities determined in accordance with IFRS as indicators of the Companys performance. The Companys method of calculating OFFO, AFFO and Debt to Gross Book Value may differ from other issuers methods and accordingly, these measures may not be comparable to measures used by other issuers. The Company believes that OFFO is useful in the assessment of its operating performance, AFFO is a relevant measure of its ability to earn cash and pay dividends on its common shares and Debt to Gross Book Value is useful to monitor the Companys compliance with certain financial covenants. The definitions of these non-IFRS measures and an example of the reconciliation of OFFO and AFFO to the most directly comparable IFRS measure are provided on pages 3, 45 and 48 of the MD&A. AVAILABILITY OF DOCUMENTS Copies of Offering-related documents, such as the preliminary short form prospectus, underwriting agreement and marketing materials, will be available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) as part of the public filings of Sienna. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Karen Hon Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President (905) 489-0254 karen.hon@siennaliving.ca Nancy Webb Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Marketing (905) 489-0788 nancy.webb@siennaliving.ca VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finning International Inc. (TSX: FTT) (Finning or the Company or we, our or us) today announced that Nancy Tower and Manjit Sharma have been nominated to stand for election to the Companys Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting to be held on May 10, 2022. Nancy Tower has over 30 years of industry and board experience, including senior executive positions at Emera Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Nova Scotia Power Inc. Ms. Tower most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Tampa Electric Company, a regulated electric utility company and a subsidiary of Emera Inc. Ms. Tower serves on the board of AltaGas Ltd., a leading North American energy infrastructure company. She was recognized as one of Canadas Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011. Ms. Tower holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Dalhousie University and is a Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant. Manjit Sharma brings over 30 years of cross-functional experience in various industries. She most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of WSP Canada Inc., a world leading professional services consulting firm. Prior to joining WSP, Ms. Sharma spent 20 years with General Electric Canada in progressively senior positions, including Chief Financial Officer. In 2019, she was recognized as one of Canadas Top 100 Most Powerful Women. Ms. Sharma serves on the board of Vermilion Energy Inc., an international oil and gas producer, and on the board of Export Development Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto and is a Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant. We are pleased to nominate Nancy Tower and Manjit Sharma to our Board of Directors and look forward to benefitting from their extensive business experience, proven leadership, and valuable insight, said Harold Kvisle, Chairman of the Board. In addition, Kathleen ONeill has advised of her intention to retire from the Companys Board of Directors and, accordingly, not to stand for re-election at the upcoming Annual Meeting. Ms. ONeill has served on our Board since 2007. During her tenure, she served on several committees, including as Chair and a financial expert of the Audit Committee. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we would like to thank Kathleen for her leadership and exemplary service during her 15 years with Finning, said Mr. Kvisle. About Finning Finning International is the worlds largest Caterpillar dealer delivering unrivalled service to customers for nearly 90 years. Headquartered in Surrey, British Columbia, we provide Caterpillar equipment, parts, services, and performance solutions in Western Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Contact Information: Amanda Hobson Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury (604) 331-4865 amanda.hobson@finning.com www.finning.com Washington, DC, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recent Trend Shows More States Adopting Strong Anti-SLAPP Laws, Four State Houses Have Already Approved New or Improved Proposals in 2022 WASHINGTON Most states do a poor job of protecting their citizens from frivolous lawsuits intended to stifle free speech, according to a new study released today by the Institute for Free Speech. The 50-state report card evaluates the strength of legal procedures to protect free speech in court for each state and the District of Columbia and assigns them letter grades while also making recommendations for policymakers on how they can improve their laws. Our legal system is broken in too many states and allows those with deep pockets to threaten critics with financial ruin if they dont shut up, said Institute for Free Speech President David Keating. A state without an anti-SLAPP law is a state hostile to free speech. A strong anti-SLAPP law is one of the best and easiest protections for free speech that states can provide. Every state should have one, and make sure it covers as much speech as possible. Thirty-one states were given grades of Ds or Fs, an indication of how widespread the risk from frivolous lawsuits is to American citizens free speech. While the median grade was a D, 16 states plus Washington, D.C. earned A or B grades in the report. In all, 32 jurisdictions (31 states + D.C.) currently provide at least some protection against lawsuits that threaten free speech. The potential victims of non-existent or weak anti-SLAPP laws are numerous and transcend political and ideological divides, which is why strong anti-SLAPP laws often enjoy nearly unanimous bipartisan support when adopted. In recent years, beneficiaries of robust anti-SLAPP laws have included journalists, environmental activists, citizens speaking at government meetings, conservative Christians, Hollywood filmmakers, scientists, people leaving Yelp reviews, people who post on social media, podcasters, anti-abortion groups, labor unions, public officials, community advocates and more. The First Amendment enshrines strong protections for free speech and free expression. However, all too often, legal action or the mere threat of it can have a chilling effect on speech. Speakers who criticize a big corporation or wealthy individual risk being dragged into court with a frivolous defamation lawsuit, also known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP. Even when the First Amendment is on your side, the financial costs and risks of such a legal battle are enough to force many Americans into self-censorship. Anti-SLAPP laws are designed to limit the risk to speakers. Strong anti-SLAPP laws create procedures that make it easier for speakers to get frivolous cases dismissed quickly. They force plaintiffs to show that their case has merit before forcing speakers to bear significant legal costs. Strong laws also give speakers a right to immediately appeal an adverse ruling and force losing plaintiffs to pay a speakers legal fees for fighting off the SLAPP. The study also makes recommendations for policymakers on how to improve free speech protections in their state. The authors hold up the Uniform Law Commissions (ULC) model anti-SLAPP statute, the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA) produced in 2020, as the gold standard while outlining specific changes to existing laws that would meet that standard. The ULC is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization of state commissioners on uniform laws that recommends and drafts model state legislation. Most of the states that received D grades have a fundamental flaw in their statute: covering too little speech, said Keating. Nearly all of those states could earn A or B grades simply by modifying their laws to protect the same kinds of speech covered by the Uniform Law Commissions Model Act. Despite the high number of states with lackluster grades, in recent years there has been an increasing trend of states enacting strong anti-SLAPP laws to fix the problem. In 2022 alone, bills in at least five states have strong prospects of passing. Already five states are considering adopting the ULCs model statute this year: Iowa and Kentucky, which would be new laws, and Missouri, Hawaii, and Indiana, to greatly improve existing laws. The Iowa and Kentucky bills have already passed the House in each state by unanimous votes. Hawaiis Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill based on the ULC model. Other states are expected to see new bills based on the ULC model act introduced later this year. In late February, strong majorities in the Arizona and Maryland lower chambers passed bills proposing substantial improvements to their existing laws. There are four excellent new state laws adopted in the last three years (out of 16 states with strong laws): Colorado and Tennessee in 2019 (new or effectively new) New York in 2020 (big improvements) Washington in 2021 (new) Other relatively recent enactments: Kansas was in 2016 (another A grade) Oklahoma in 2014 (another A) Nevada substantially improved its law in 2013 (also an A) Outside the United States, there is a significant effort underway in the European Union to enact an anti-SLAPP measure. MORE ABOUT THE STUDY Anti-SLAPP Statutes: A Report Card, authored by attorney Dan Greenberg and Institute for Free Speech President David Keating, evaluates the strength of anti-SLAPP protections across America. The report considers several key components of these laws and assigns each state an overall numerical rating and letter grade. The report also includes an appendix providing a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction summary of the statute in each state and Washington D.C., including cites to both statutory text and some relevant case law. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have functioning anti-SLAPP statutes that provide at least some useful procedural protections for some speakers in court. But the study finds 12 of those 32 laws have a severe flaw resulting in D grades. According to the report, 11 of these states could improve their grades to B- or better by simply covering more speech. Weak anti-SLAPP laws either only protect speech about particular topics or speech in certain forums, such as before a government body. Strong laws protect any speech about a matter of public importance in any forum, whether in newspapers, social media, online reviews, or anywhere else. Nineteen states do not have an anti-SLAPP law, leaving citizens at high risk of being sued into silence with a meritless case. The report recommends these states adopt the model anti-SLAPP act drafted by the Uniform Law Commission. To read the report, click here. To view an interactive map with each states grade, learn how states can improve their scores, and more, click here. ABOUT THE INSTITUTE FOR FREE SPEECH The Institute for Free Speech promotes and defends the First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government through strategic litigation, communication, activism, training, research, and education. ### Gloucester, MA (01930) Today Cloudy. Some light rain will fall throughout the day. Expect mist and reduced visibilities at times. High 51F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 46F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on as he visits the construction site of the National Space Agency on the premises of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre in Moscow, Feb. 27. AP-Yonhap President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday, while Ukraine's embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin's troops and tanks drove deeper into the country, closing in around the capital. Citing ''aggressive statements'' by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia's nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could boil over into nuclear war, whether by design or mistake. The Russian leader is ''potentially putting in play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,'' said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Amid the mounting tensions, Western nations said they would buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office announced plans for a meeting with a Russian delegation at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border. It wasn't immediately clear when the meeting would take place, nor what the Kremlin was ultimately seeking, either in those potential talks on the border or, more broadly, in its war in Ukraine. The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv. Battles also broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from Russian forces. By late Sunday, Russian forces had taken Berdyansk, a Ukrainian city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy's office. With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt that civilians could be evacuated. Across the country, Ukrainian defenders were putting up stiff resistance that appeared to slow Russia's advance. In the southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling. During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, looked directly into the Associated Press video camera capturing the scene. ''Show this to Putin,'' he said angrily. ''The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.'' Their resuscitation efforts failed, and the girl lay dead on a gurney, her jacket spattered with blood. Nearly 900 kilometers (560 miles) away, Faina Bystritska was under threat in the city of Chernihiv. ''I wish I had never lived to see this,'' said Bystritska, an 87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in the city, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Kyiv. Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any lights ''so we don't draw their attention,'' said Bystritska, who has been living in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself. ''The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this constant thundering noise,'' she said. Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and buy weapons for Ukraine. ''For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,'' said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, she said. The U.S. also stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing it will send Stinger missiles, as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday. Germany likewise plans to send 500 Stingers and other military supplies. Also, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly scheduled an emergency session Monday on Russia's invasion. Putin, in ordering the nuclear alert, cited not only statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself. ''Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,'' Putin said in televised comments. , U.S. defense officials would not disclose their current nuclear alert level except to say that the military is prepared all times to defend its homeland and allies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC that Putin is resorting to the pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, ''which is to manufacture threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression.'' Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, and First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow, Feb. 27. AP-Yonhap Governor Youngkin Recognizes Recipients of 2021 Governors Fire Service Awards RICHMOND, VA - Governor Glenn Youngkin today announced the recipients of the 2021 Governors Fire Service Awards today as part of the annual Virginia Fire Chiefs Association and Rescue Conference in Virginia Beach. Established in 2002, the Governors Fire Service Awards honor excellence in Virginias fire services and are facilitated by the Virginia Department of Fire Programs in collaboration with the Virginia Fire Services Board. I am pleased to recognize these outstanding fire service professionals, said Governor Youngkin. Im so grateful to Virginias fire service personnel for risking their lives every day to protect us. Im proud to honor and thank Virginias first responders and support staff for their dedication to the Commonwealth. The recipients have navigated the challenges of the pandemic all the while strategically developing new procedures and trainings to stay well equipped for any emergency, said Virginia Department of Fire Programs Acting Executive Director Garrett Dyer. We are proud to recognize these courageous men and women who work tirelessly to protect their communities. We celebrate these 13 award recipients from across Virginia, said Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Robert Mosier. Each of them has contributed something toward the betterment of Virginias fire service and we are grateful for their contributions to the Commonwealth. 2021 Governors Fire Service Awards Recipients EXCELLENCE IN VIRGINIA FIRE SERVICES Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue High Threat Team The Loudoun County High Threat Team consists of uniformed members of the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System and the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. In 2021, this team worked cooperatively across disciplines to develop new levels of integrated training, policy development, and combined response initiatives. The most innovative and successful integrated training is the 'Act of Violence Unified Command Competency Lab Training'. Conducted in the fire and rescue command lab, police commanders and fire commanders are confronted with a simulated active shooter incident. Together, they form unified command and direct units to deploy into the warm zone for patient care and extraction. Through these trainings, fire commanders and police commanders develop effective working relationships (and handle simulated incidents) before handling actual incidents. This greatly improves the interagency cooperation on all incidents. The daily working relationship and unified command training fostered by the Loudoun County High Threat Team is unmatched. It provides an example of fire and law enforcement cooperation, not just for the active shooter incident, but for all incidents handled together. EXCELLENCE IN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY RISK REDUCTION Marlow Jones, Virginia Department of Fire Programs Marlow is a fire services professional driven to serve people in need and is a creative problem-solver with a healthy dose of entrepreneurial spirit. As a deputy state fire marshal in the eastern region, Marlow regularly seeks opportunities to benefit the community, not only sharing fire prevention strategies but also in creating innovative outreach programs. He recently launched a comprehensive home fire inspection program that is offered free of charge to Petersburg residents. His program addresses an unmet need and reduces resistance to using fire protection tools such as smoke detectors by avoiding cost and cultural barriers. Henrico Division of Fire, Fire Marshals Office For more than 20 years, the Henrico Division of Fire has offered an invaluable service through the Fire Marshal's Office for at-risk youth. Recently, the Division has significantly enhanced the program and truly encompassed the ideas of community risk reduction to address the identified hazards around youth-set fires. Each class is different and focuses on the identified individual needs of the participants. The Division works with the Henrico Sheriff's Office, Virginia Commonwealth University Evans-Haynes Burn Center and other community partners that share the common goal of preventing fire setting and burn injuries. EXCELLENCE IN VIRGINIA FIRE SERVICE TRAINING Captain Earl Copes, Lynchburg Fire Department Captain Earl Copes is a fire service professional that has dedicated his life to improving the Lynchburg Fire Department's response abilities. Captain Copes developed a Recruit Academy Academic Report Card to assist recruits in being successful through continuous feedback during their academy experience. This comprehensive evaluation system identifies strengths and weaknesses that assists the recruit in prioritizing areas of focus for overall program success. In addition, Captain Copes initiated a Wide Area Search Rope Train the Trainer program for regional responders to increase their knowledge, skills, and abilities on searching large open areas such as schools and warehouses and also developed a Firefighter Assistance Search Team Train the Trainer program for regional responders on firefighter rescue and removal techniques. OUTSTANDING FIRE DEPARTMENT RESPONSE Occoquan Woodbridge Lorton Volunteer Fire Department At an incident on June 27, 2021, Occoquan Woodbridge Lorton Volunteer Fire Department and Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue responded to a residence for a sickness. Due to no response at the door, units made entry where they located and extricated three unconscious victims who all required emergency breathing assistance. The call was soon upgraded to a gas leak. With three unconscious victims and very limited resources, due to the rapid upscaling of the incident, the on-scene units from multiple departments worked together to treat the patients. Timing in this situation was everything and the outcome was a result of the way the units managed the situation. Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department, et. al On April 29, 2021 Stafford County Fire Rescue Department responded to a reported commercial vehicle crash. Upon arrival, units found a large flatbed truck hauling a 1000-gallon concrete septic tank that had rear ended a box-style tractor trailer. First arriving units reported major damage to both vehicles and the driver of the flatbed was entrapped and pinned. The on-scene report preempted requests for a second heavy rescue, Fauquier Countys EMS supervisor and a medevac helicopter. An advanced life support provider entered the cab, performed a patient assessment and began treatment. The patient was extricated and turned over to a combination of EMS personnel from Stafford County, Fauquier County and PHI Aircare 2. Once stabilized, the patient was transferred to the nearby helistop and transported to Fairfax Hospital. After a lengthy hospital stay, numerous surgeries and family support, the patient was released from the hospital. PRIVATE SECTOR EXCELLENCE IN VIRGINIA FIRE SERVICE SUPPORT United Rentals For the past six years, United Rentals has supported technical rescue training at the Virginia Public Safety Center. United Rentals provides equipment such as a large excavator and specialized transport service to and from the trainings due to the size of the equipment. Additionally, United Rentals, in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Fire Programs, has supported events, such as the Trench Safety Stand Down, to educate utility contractors about the importance of trench safety and how first responders systematically work to mitigate trench rescue scenarios. CIVILIAN EXCELLENCE IN VIRGINIA FIRE SERVICE SUPPORT Rebecca Brewster, Tazewell County Rebecca Brewster has worked tirelessly throughout the year to provide support for the fire and EMS personnel of Tazewell County. She provides support to the Tazewell County Chief's Association by keeping the minutes, as well as supporting the individual fire departments. She has assisted with grant writing, designed multiple fire department forms and has assisted in training members in computer skills. She has volunteered her time for all COVID-19 vaccination clinics throughout the year, as well as many other events. The firefighters of Tazewell County are truly blessed to have her support. Chesapeake Amateur Radio Services Chesapeake Amateur Radio Services is comprised of a dedicated group of amateur radio operators who provide back-up emergency communications for the City of Chesapeake and surrounding areas during times of natural disasters. The team ensures the City of Chesapeake, as well as the region as far as Richmond, will have worldwide emergency communications even when all other systems are down. While their members are not affiliated with the fire service, the critical service they provide greatly enhances the capability of both the fire and police departments should normal communication systems be disabled. They are a group of highly skilled, community-minded volunteers working diligently to help protect the citizens of Virginia from the devastating effects of environmental disasters. Not only do members donate their time and expertise, they often donate equipment that will improve the function of the radio system. VIRGINIA FIREFIGHTER OF THE YEAR Lieutenant Andrew Zysk, City of Newport News Fire Department Colleagues say there is no finer training officer and no person of higher character than Lieutenant Andrew Zysk. His passion for physical fitness inspires his students to dedicate themselves to become stronger firefighters, and it shows as they progress through the academy. When it comes to fire ground skills, he believes that "every rep is a gift," a chance to do things better and more efficiently. He asks nothing of his students that he does not do himself. When he demonstrates a skill, he is able to break down the mechanics of it so that the students clearly understand. He upholds the belief that you shouldn't train until you get things right, you train until you can't get it wrong. He does not treat every evolution as a test upon which his students should feel judged or embarrassed if they are unsuccessful. He allows them to recognize the mistake, learn from it, and move on. Lt. Zysk takes a holistic approach to dealing with the stresses and hardships his recruits as part of the program. He maintains an open-door policy, and is accessible and approachable to offer advice or assistance. His genuine care for the well-being of each recruit is obvious, and is a natural expression of his high character and altruism. Beyond his work with the fire academy, he participates annually at a camp for children who have received burns in house fires. Russell Stevens, Town of Bedford Fire Department Since joining the fire service in 1974, Russell Stevens has been a hallmark of the central Virginia fire and emergency services and a stable force in the volunteer fire community. He has served as a Bedford County Fire training officer for many years and is one of the original Deputy Hazardous Material Coordinators, which is a role that he continues to serve in today. Many of the roles that Russell has performed have greatly evolved over time with the advent of technology and Russell is a true believer and user of technology. His willingness to aid any person regardless of their need is so uncommon that he is not only a tremendous example of the Virginias fire service but he is a family man, spouse, church member and dear friend and mentor to so many. His actions and dedication to the fire service are examples of a man that truly reflects the mantra of service above self. VIRGINIA FIRE CHIEF OF THE YEAR R. Scott Garber, City of Staunton Fire & Rescue Under his leadership, Chief Garber has demonstrated for many years how greatly he cares for the community that he serves. He has continued his support of the Firefighters for Literacy program that was developed by the department in 2019. Chief Garber enables the department to interact and form pivotal relationships with the community. Leadership and inspiring confidence are common themes with Chief Garber. He has not only dedicated his time to the department, but also to educating others around the Commonwealth, as he instructs more than 20 classes each year around the state. He goes above and beyond to advocate for members of the department and works tirelessly to ensure that staffing needs are met. Colleagues say they know Chief Garber has the entire departments best interest at heart and that is something they all benefit from. Brad Creasy, Town of Bedford Fire Department The amount of leadership, comradery, and passion that Chief Brad Creasy has brought to the Bedford Fire Department is unimaginable, and truly impossible to put into words. Leadership for Chief Creasy comes naturally, and his drive and determination are contagious to those around him. Since walking into the department in 1996, Chief Creasy has kept up with the history and core values established before him and has remained committed to instilling them into the members of the department. Chief Creasy is an advocate for continuous improvement and encourages training through classroom workshops, drills, cross training with other organizations, and peer-to-peer education and coaching. He recently completed the Chief Fire Officer program which he can now add to the long list of accolades achieved over the years. # # # European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference on Ukraine at EU headquarters in Brussels, Feb. 24. AP-Yonhap The European Union agreed Sunday to close its airspace to Russian airlines, spend hundreds of millions of euros on buying weapons for Ukraine and ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets in its latest response to Russia's invasion, according to EU officials. That and Germany's announcement earlier in the day that it would almost triple its defense budget this year underscored how Russia's invasion of Ukraine is rewriting Europe's post-World War II security and defense policy in ways that were unthinkable only a few weeks ago. In what he described as ''a defining moment for European history,'' EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the bloc's 27 foreign ministers had green-lighted the unprecedented support for Ukraine and that those actions would take effect within hours. ''We have decided to use our capacities to provide lethal arms, lethal assistance, to the Ukrainian army by a value of 450 million (euros) ($502 million) and 50 more million ($56 million) for non-lethal supplies, fuel, protective equipment,'' Borrell told reporters. Borrell said EU defense ministers will discuss Monday how to convert the funds into useful military materiel and ensure that it reaches the Ukrainian armed forces. He said Poland has agreed to act as a hub to distribute the arms and equipment. The EU ministers also agreed to add several more people and organizations to a growing list of sanctions. Those included Russian oligarchs whose money, Borrell said, is important for the Russian economy, as well as other key officials, notably those spreading disinformation. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have already seen their assets in Europe frozen. In a separate announcement, Germany's leader said the country would commit 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to a special armed forces fund and keep its defense spending above NATO's target of 2% of GDP. People hold banners at a protest against Russia's massive military operation in Ukraine, in London, Feb. 25. Reuters-Yonhap Anti-war protesters, meanwhile, took to the streets in Berlin, Rome, Prague, Istanbul and elsewhere even Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in a dozen Belarusian cities to demand an end to the war, the largest ground offensive on the continent since WWII. According to the OVD-Info rights group, Russian police detained at least 2,063 Russians in 48 cities over anti-war demonstrations on Sunday alone. Human rights advocates reported that more than 170 people had been arrested in the Belarusian protests. In Minsk, a large pile of flowers kept growing in front of the Ukrainian Embassy. Tens of thousands of people massed Sunday in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, with some carrying posters with slogans such as ''Hands off Ukraine,'' ''Tanks to Windmills'' and ''Putin, go to therapy and leave Ukraine and the world in peace.'' The EU's plan to fund weapons would help to buy air defense systems, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and other military equipment for Ukraine's armed forces. It would also supply things such as fuel, protective gear, helmets and first aid kits. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said beyond the weapons purchases, EU nations would shut down European airspace to Russia. ''We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft. These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU,'' she said. She said the EU will also ban ''the Kremlin's media machine. The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war and to sow division in our union.'' Von der Leyen added that the EU will also target Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for supporting Russia's military campaign in Ukraine. ''We will hit Lukashenko's regime with a new package of sanctions,'' she said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's announcement of new defense funding is hugely significant for Germany, which has come under criticism from the United States and other NATO allies for not investing adequately in its defense budget. ''It's clear we need to invest significantly more in the security of our country, in order to protect our freedom and our democracy,'' Scholz told a special session of the Bundestag in Berlin. Scholz said the $113 billion fund was currently a one-time measure for 2022. Still, Scholz indicated Germany will exceed the 2% of GDP threshold going forward, signaling an overall future increase in defense spending. A day earlier, Germany announced another major policy shift, saying it will send weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine, including 500 Stinger missiles, which are used to shoot down helicopters and warplanes, and 1,000 anti-tank weapons. Israel announced it was sending 100 tons of humanitarian aid medical equipment and medicine, tents, sleeping bags and blankets to help civilians in Ukraine. Israel also offered itself as a potential mediator during a phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Putin, the Kremlin and Israel said. Bennett spoke also Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish. As Greece sent more military aid, Turkish officials termed Russia's invasion a ''war,'' a categorization that could lead Ankara to close down the Turkish straits to Russian warships, which Ukraine requested earlier this week. The 1936 Montreux Convention gives Turkey the right to bar ''belligerent states'' from using the Dardanelles and the Bosporus during wartime but provides an exception for Black Sea vessels to return to port. On the sanctions front, Japan joined the United States and European nations in cutting key Russian banks from the SWIFT international financial banking system. Japan will also freeze assets of Putin and other top Russian officials, while sending $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters. People hold Ukraine's national flag during Pope Francis' traditional Sunday Angelus prayer in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City, Feb. 27. EPA-Yonhap Catholic and Orthodox religious leaders, meanwhile, prayed Sunday for peace, voiced solidarity with Ukrainians and denounced the Russian invasion. At the Vatican, Ukrainian flags fluttered in St. Peter's Square as Pope Francis delivered his weekly Sunday blessing and appealed for global solidarity for ''the suffering people of Ukraine.'' ''Those who make war forget humanity,'' Francis said. He refrained from citing Russia by name, in apparent deference to his hopes of keeping dialogue open with the Russian Orthodox Church. Also Sunday, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople described Russia's invasion as ''beyond every sense of law and morality'' and pleaded for an end to the war. Patriarch Bartholomew is considered the spiritual leader and first among equals of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide. In 2019, he granted the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which severed relations with the Russian church to which it had been tied since 1686. The Russian Orthodox Church severed relations with him as result. (AP) Ambassadors speak during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York City, Feb. 27. AP-Yonhap The United Nations Security Council voted Sunday to hold a rare emergency special session of the General Assembly to discuss Russia's attack on Ukraine. The meeting will be convened Monday, and is set to give all 193 members of the global body the opportunity to express their views on the invasion. Russia voted against the resolution, but under U.N. regulations it did not have veto power to derail the referral of the war to the General Assembly. The procedure is allowed under a 1950 resolution called "Uniting for Peace." It allows for members of the Security Council to seize the General Assembly for a special session if the five permanent members Russia, the United States, Britain, France and China fail to agree among themselves to act together to maintain peace. The move was sparked by Russia using its veto Friday to block a Security Council resolution that condemned Moscow's invasion and called for the immediate withdrawal of its troops. Only the support of nine of the council's 15 members is required to call an emergency special session of the General Assembly. Eleven countries voted in favor. Russia opposed, while the United Arab Emirates, China and India abstained. It will just be the 11th such session that the assembly has held, according to diplomats. The discussion is expected to highlight the extent of Russia's isolation in the international community over the invasion of Ukraine. "The council members who supported this resolution recognize that this is no ordinary moment," said U.S. ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. "These are issues that affect all member states and now in the General Assembly they can all make their voices heard on Russia's war of choice," she added. Monday's session is scheduled to start at 10:00 am in New York (local time) and is expected to last at least all day. On Monday, the Security Council is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine at 5:00 pm. It was requested by French President Emmanuel Macron and will be participated in by officials from the U.N.'s humanitarian affairs and refugee agencies, according to diplomats. (AFP) Chevron Corporation and Renewable Energy Group announced a definitive agreement under which Chevron will acquire the outstanding shares of REG in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.15 billion, or $61.50 per share. The acquisition combines REGs growing renewable fuels production and leading feedstock capabilities with Chevrons large manufacturing, distribution and commercial marketing position. REG was a founder of the renewable fuels industry and has been a leading innovator ever since. Together, we can grow more quickly and efficiently than either could on its own. Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth The transaction is expected to accelerate progress toward Chevrons goal to grow renewable fuels production capacity to 100,000 barrels per day by 2030 and brings additional feedstock supplies and pre-treatment facilities. After closing of the acquisition, Chevrons renewable fuels business, Renewable Fuels - REG, will be headquartered in Ames, Iowa. In addition, REG president & CEO CJ Warner is expected to join Chevrons Board of Directors. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Chevron earnings in the first year after closing and accretive to free cash flow after start-up of REGs Geismar expansion. Transaction details. The acquisition consideration is 100% cash. Total enterprise value of $2.75 billion includes a net cash position around $400 million greater than debt. The transaction has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is expected to close in the second half of 2022. The acquisition is subject to REG shareholder approval. It is also subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The transaction price represents a premium of around 57% on a 30-day average based on closing stock prices on 25 February 2022. A team from the US Department of Energys Ames Laboratory and Zhengzhou University in China has demonstrated a metal-free carbocatalystnitrogen-assembly carbons (NCs)for the release of hydrogen from liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) even at ambient temperature, showing greater activity than transition metalbased catalysts. An open-access paper on their work is published in the journal Science Advances. Hydrogen offers one potential solution in the effort to decrease reliance on fossil fuels. According to the DOE, improving hydrogen storage is key to advancing hydrogen fuel cell technologies. One of the ways to store hydrogen is chemically. Chemical storage relies on materials that react with hydrogen molecules and store them as hydrogen atoms, such as in LOHCs. This type of storage allows large amounts of hydrogen to be stored in small volumes at ambient temperatures. However, for the hydrogen to be used, catalysts are needed to activate LOHCs and release the hydrogen. This process is called dehydrogenation. Schematic representation of the other LOHC dehydrogenation strategies and the new approach for catalytic dehydrogenation to release dihydrogen. Hu et al. Ames scientist Long Qi said that currently there are other dehydrogenation methods, but they raise some challenges. Some methods rely on metal-based catalysts, which involve critical platinum group metals. Supplies of these metals are limited and expensive. Other methods require additives to release the hydrogen. The additives are not reusable and result in a higher overall cost because they need to be added in each cycle. The new catalyst requires neither metals nor additives. Its fairly simple. Basically, just add the metal-free catalyst into the LOHC, and then the hydrogen gas is just popping out, even at room temperature. Long Qi The catalyst is composed of nitrogen and carbon. The key to its efficiency is the structure of the nitrogen. Catalytic activity can take place at room temperature because of the unique closely spaced graphitic nitrogens as nitrogen assembly which were formed during the carbonization process. The nitrogen assembly catalyzes the cleavage of carbon-hydrogen (CH) bonds in LOHCs and facilitates the desorption of hydrogen molecules. This process is what makes the catalyst more efficient than other catalysts in use. DOE goals for vehicle hydrogen storage capacity needs to be close to 6.5% by weight. The researchers are optimistic about the future of their work to meet the goal with molecules that have a larger capacity. Resources People reunite at the arrivals hall in Auckland International Airport on the first day of New Zealanders returning from Australia, after New Zealand ended a requirement that incoming travelers isolate themselves, Feb. 28. AFP-Yonhap New Zealand is ending a requirement that incoming travelers isolate themselves as it continues to remove coronavirus border protections in the face of a growing domestic outbreak. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday the requirement that vaccinated travelers isolate for a week after arriving would end Wednesday. Initially the changes will apply only to returning New Zealanders, as tourists are still not allowed to visit. Travelers will still need to test negative for the virus before leaving and after arriving. ''I know this will be welcome news to the members of our team overseas, eager to travel home to see loved ones as soon as possible,'' Ardern said. ''We can't wait to see you.'' The changes were welcomed by the tourism industry, although leaders wanted more certainty over when tourists could return. International tourism used to account for about 20% of New Zealand's foreign income but has evaporated since the pandemic began. Ardern said Monday her Cabinet was considering fully reopening the borders to tourists sooner than the current scheduled date of July for Australians and October for those from elsewhere in the world. Earlier this month, the government announced it was ending the requirement that most incoming travelers spend time in quarantine hotel rooms run by the military. For now, that requirement remains for unvaccinated travelers. New Zealand enacted some of the world's strictest border controls when the pandemic began. The measures were initially credited with saving thousands of lives and allowed New Zealand to eliminate or contain several outbreaks. But the controls have increasingly been viewed as out-of-step in a world where the virus is becoming endemic, and in a country where it is now spreading rapidly. New Zealand has been recording about 15,000 cases of COVID-19 per day, up from 2,000 just 10 days ago as an outbreak of the Omicron variant spreads. Some political opponents of Ardern have long called for a loosening of border restrictions and welcomed the move, although they said it should also apply immediately to tourists. (AP) Hyundai Motor Company and Shell are embarking on a new strategic collaboration to explore ways to offer lower carbon emissions products and services and to reduce emissions across their operations. Jaehoon Chang, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, and Huibert Vigeveno, Shells Downstream Director, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in a ceremony held at Hyundai Motor America headquarters in Fountain Valley, California. The MOU builds on a strong foundation of several years of collaboration and will draw on the companies expertise in electric vehicle (EV) charging, hydrogen, low-carbon energy solutions and digital technology as potential opportunities for both companies to reduce carbon emissions. Areas of focus for the two companies will include: How to Clip Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. When you're happy with your selection, click the checkmark icon next to the clipping area to continue. Support local journalism We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH The Greenwich Library is lifting its mask requirement starting Tuesday. When the main library downtown and its branches in Cos Cob and Byram open their doors March 1, masks will no longer be required. The use of masks will be optional for visitors and staff. The decision by the librarys Board of Trustees was announced Monday morning. The library had previously required masks for anyone over the age of 2 as a COVID-19 precaution. Greenwich Library has pivoted to a masks-optional protocol, and the Board of Trustees will reevaluate and modify as and when laws, science, and/or institutional requirements change, Greenwich Library Director Barbara Ormerod-Glynn said. As the pandemic shifted over the past two years, we pivoted many times to accommodate our patrons need for library services. We extend our gratitude to the community for their continued support, she said. Kevin McCarthy, director of the Perrot Memorial Library in Old Greenwich, said it would enact a similar policy starting Tuesday. Our mask policy will emulate the Greenwich Library and (its) branches policy, McCarthy said. We will change our signs from face masks required to face masks recommended. The Perrot Memorial Library operates independently of Greenwich Library. But the mask requirement will remain for events in the Greenwich Librarys new Berkley Theater, which recently held a full house for an author talk by U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. To attend an event in the theater, proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event will also be required. Ormerod-Glynn said this requirement was being kept in place, due to the close proximity of seating and inability to socially distance. The library had kept its mask requirement in place longer than First Selectman Fred Camillo had for town-owned buildings such as Greenwich Town Hall and the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center. Camillo lifted the mask requirement for all employees and visitors as of Feb. 18 and made masks optional. The Greenwich Public Schools is also going to a mask optional rule as of Tuesday for students and staff in its buildings. Private businesses in town are allowed to set their own policies when it comes to mask requirements. The changes in policy come as COVID-19 cases in town continue to drop. As of Monday morning, Greenwich Hospital reported it was treating three COVID-positive patients, with 65 COVID patients systemwide in the Yale New Haven Health System network of five hospitals. On Friday, in his weekly e-blast to residents, Camillo said the town Health Department was monitoring 58 active cases, which is a drop of 48 from the week prior. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin talk to each other during their meeting in Beijing, China on Feb. 4, 2022. Three weeks ago, on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the leaders of China and Russia declared that the friendship between their countries "has no limits." But that was before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a gambit that will test just how far China is willing to go. AP-Yonhap Beijing on Monday called for de-escalation and "restraint" over the Ukraine crisis as Russia and Ukraine prepared to meet for their first talks since Moscow's invasion of its western neighbor. Russia invaded on Thursday and quickly announced it had neutralized key Ukrainian military facilities, with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordering his country's nuclear forces onto high alert. Representatives from Moscow and Kyiv are set to meet on the border with Belarus on Monday, after Western allies hit Russia with a slew of sanctions and pledged arms for Ukraine. China has trod a cautious diplomatic tightrope on the crisis as it tries to balance its core foreign policy line that a country's sovereignty is sacrosanct and others should not interfere with its support for close ally Moscow. Instead it has called for Russia's "reasonable" security demands to be heard, repeatedly refusing to condemn Putin's actions or use the term "invasion". Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Monday urged both sides to "remain calm and exercise restraint to prevent further escalation of the situation." "China pays close attention to changes in the Ukraine situation and supports all efforts to de-escalate the situation and resolve it politically," Wang said at a regular press briefing. Among a range of sanctions imposed on Moscow over its aggression towards Ukraine, the West has said it would remove some Russian banks from the SWIFT bank messaging system and freeze central bank assets. China does not support the use of sanctions, Wang added, saying Beijing is "even more opposed to unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law." Sanctions against Russia could "interfere with the process of political settlement," and China will continue normal trade relations with Moscow, he said. Beijing voted to abstain from a Friday UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine, which was vetoed by Russia. China's President Xi Jinping told Putin in a call last week that he hoped the crisis could be resolved with a "balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations." But as Beijing tries to stick to a neutral position, Chinese nationals in Ukraine have claimed to face rising hostility as public perceptions of the Asian country sour given China's position on the invasion. The Chinese embassy in Kyiv on Sunday warned citizens not to "provoke" locals and to refrain from revealing their nationality, just days after telling those leaving Kyiv to display a Chinese flag on their vehicles. The embassy had announced Thursday that it would prepare charter flights to evacuate its citizens but later said it was still too unsafe to do so. (AFP) HMD Global is not happy about the court ruling that forced it to pull its phones out of Germany (and other regions), but its not taking it laying down either. The company reached out to us with a statement about the legal issue and what it is doing about it. VoiceAgeEVS LLC (VAEVS) filed suits in multiple jurisdictions over a patent on Enhanced Voice Services, an audio codec used in VoLTE. HMD argues that VAEVS made excessive non-FRAND royalty demands. Patents that are essential to an industry standard (like VoLTE in this case) are required to be licensed under Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Of course, companies often have disagreements over what is fair and reasonable. HMD is confident that it can win the legal battle, but in the meantime the company is removing the functionality that uses the patent in question. Note that Enhanced Voice Services is an optional part of VoLTE, so this doesnt mean that the VoLTE is being removed in full. Expect to see the full range of Nokia smartphones return to Nokia.com soon. Here is the full statement from HMD Global: Nokia C21 Released 2022, May 03 195g, 8.8mm thickness Android 11 32GB/64GB storage, microSDXC 2.0% 56,598 hits 9 Become a fan 6.52" 720x1600 pixels 8 MP 720p 2/3 GB RAM Unisoc SC9863A 3000 mAh Li-Ion Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. Read more Samsung already announced its Galaxy S22 smartphones, so the Galaxy Book2 Pro laptops were next in line. Right before the first day of MWC 2022 in Barcelona, we saw the announcement of the Galaxy Book2 Pro and Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 - two laptops, each of them coming in two sizes. The first one is a straightforward notebook with an AMOLED panel and S Pen support, while the 360 has a hinge that allows the device to transform into a tablet mode and can be used standing or laying on its keyboard. We got the chance to play around with the devices, and here are our initial impressions from these promising notebooks. Design Samsung is proud of how thin and light these laptops are. We can confirm the weight of just over 1 kg (1040 grams, to be precise) of the 13.3 model feels even less. The 15.6 variant is also extremely light, compared with devices in the same category. The company really did a great job to provide a laptop that will be able to take anywhere. Thin laptops are usually associated with unimpressive battery life, but Samsung equipped a 63 Wh battery to the 13.3 Galaxy Books, while the 15.6 model has 68 Wh. We spoke with company executives from Samsung HQ, and they promised the charge was enough for 21 hours of video playback. Yes, the number was achieved with the brightness set at 150 nits, but the AMOLED display is bright enough with great contrast, so this should not be an issue in real life. On the left-hand side, Samsung equipped the laptops with one USB-C and one Thunderbolt 4 port. We have the 3.5 mm audio jack, another USB-C, and a card reader on the right. We wouldve preferred to have the charging port above the regular USB, but all the ports are usable even with this design. There is a fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button. Samsung prides itself in using a separate chip for security, meaning the finger is not stored anywhere else in the laptops memory. Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro ports Samsung executives confirmed with us the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 will have the S Pen in the retail box. It does not have Bluetooth, but now it works faster and flows smoother than any other stylus. The keyboard is quite lovely, feels quick and has low travel. Hardware and performance Samsung developed a feature called Optimized Video Call. It brings AI Noise Cancellation with supported VoIP applications like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp. We loved that when there are two or more people in the meeting, the video automatically zooms to the speaker. However, there arent many use case scenarios in reality. People are working from home now more than ever, so having two people on one side of the meeting is extremely rare unless it is a family meeting. Also, the face zoom works only without masks, so having two people in close proximity who are not close is still frowned upon. Nevertheless, the feature is there, and it works in real life, and it could improve group meetings even more. Samsung also improved the camera itself - it has 1080p resolution and an 87-degree FoV - greater than the previous Galaxy Books. Samsung and Microsoft have worked closely to link mobile phones to Windows for some years, and now with the One UI 4 on mobile, there is a quick toggle for quick connectivity. Drag-and-drop from the laptop to a Galaxy flagship is extremely easy, and while browsing on the phone will not be a top priority, it does the job to preview notifications and type in a quick answer. Having a tablet in the home ecosystem does wonders. We had a Galaxy Tab S8 on our hands next to the Galaxy Book2 Pro, and it essentially acts as a secondary screen. Users can drag-and-drop windows, duplicate the monitor or use the second one - all the features with the Win+P combination are covered. With an S Pen and the ability to stand, the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360, in theory, can be great for art and doodling. We enjoyed the possibilities, and while it can virtually stand at any angle, the sturdiest position is extremely uncomfortable for the wrist in the long term. We prefer to use it as a screen when eating or doing something without the need for touch interaction (like following recipes, for example). The Galaxy Book2 Pro laptops were introduced with 12th gen Intel i5 and i7 processors. It was an expected feature, but the reality is we have to wait a bit for them to launch. Company executives promised April 2022, but we have to wait and see how Samsung will deal with any eventual chip shortages, and the current geopolitical situation is not helping as well. Conclusion All things considered, it is hard to pinpoint a significant flaw in the latest Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro laptops. They are fantastic for what they are - lightweight devices to work from anywhere, even if work includes some graphic or video editing, but not too much. Starting prices of $1,050 (and $1,250 for the 360) are quite impressive, and we do believe people will prefer them over other devices by competitors. They look good, feel good, offer a lot, especially in the Samsung environment, and they are a worthy consideration for a 2022 laptop. The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is in its full swing, and Oppo is the next company ready to introduce new products. We already saw the Find X5 flagships get introduced, along with a tablet and some wearables, so the Chinese maker is apparently preparing a surprise for all its fans. The live stream begins 15:00 CET and it will be on YouTube and other major social media channels, and you can watch it with us. Oppo is a company that always brings innovation, so we can only hope we will see a new foldable factor. Realme just introduced a 150W fast charging, so we wouldnt be surprised Oppo to a quicker SuperVOOC as well. There are many unknowns, but we will follow closely and once the event is over, well be ready with all the latest information. At the heart of Guam is the land and its people. Verdant, lush coastlines offer pandanus leaves and coconuts, ifit trees grow in limestone forests despite the threats against them, and the sea offers a highway to neighboring islands for those who know the way. The CHamoru people have lived and worked in concert with these resources for thousands of years. Their ingenuity as engineers, builders, seafarers, and artists is responsible for a thriving culture that has sustained itself through colonization, plague, world wars, and pressured cultural assimilation. Through good times and bad, the manamko have passed on lifetimes of knowledge to the next generation. Which herbs will alleviate suffering, how a fish bone can return to the sea as a fish hook, how to transform an old leaf spring into a machete to support day to day life each skill intricately connected to what the land gives, and what humans need to live with it. In the mid-20th century these practices faced a monumental turning point in CHamoru history. The U.S. military removed families from their land, interrupting long-held traditions while forcing reliance on imported food and manufactured goods, and speaking the CHamoru language was discouraged, hampering intergenerational communication. The practices that make up this rich culture might have been lost were it not for the foresight and dedication of individuals who kept making, teaching and speaking in the face of tragedy and change. Early documentation By the 1980s, the people working to preserve and pass on their CHamoru cultural heritage were beginning to reach their twilight years. In an effort to celebrate their contributions and carry on their legacy, the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts to document their work in print and through a local television program. Judy Flores led the program as CAHAs first folk arts coordinator, and though the CHamoru Masters Program had not yet been formalized, she set about documenting cultural practitioners who would go on to be recognized as masters, including Master Blacksmith Joaquin Jack Lujan and Master Weaver Lucia Torres. That was the beginning of the folk arts masters program. And we didnt have the designation Master yet, and we needed to work on that, we thought it was very important to do that. So in the course of my 10 years there, I started documenting and it was just such a wonderful job to identify folk artists, to document that tradition, and to promote the artists and the tradition, Flores said. CHamoru Masters posters This work took a step toward formalization in 1996, when CAHA supported artist Ron J. Castro with a grant that allowed him to spend three years focused on interviewing and documenting the work of 24 masters Flores had identified during her tenure. This program was started because a lot of the masters were getting older, and they needed that acknowledgment. They want the public to know that these are the people if you want to know a particular craft these are the people you would go to. We have recognized them and we have given them the title of Master. The criteria also set up the standards for being acknowledged as a master in the hours, days, months, time that they put into their craft, (and) if they had any apprentices under them, Castro said. Castro was also supported by generous local sponsorships from the likes of IT&E, Nissan and Exxon that allowed him to shut down his advertising agency to focus on the project. His in-depth search led to the creation of 24 iconic CHamoru Master posters featuring beautiful photos of the masters and detailed illustrations of their tools and crafts. The posters accompanied the masters as they demonstrated around the island and the world, and were published along with a subsequent set of posters by CAHA in the coffee table book A Journey with the Masters of Chamorro Tradition in 2000. They let me know when they were available or were planning on doing demonstrations, and then I would go out there and talk with the weavers. A lot of it was done in Gef Pago in Inalahan. ... After the tour buses left, thats when I was able to sit with them individually and talk about their process, their techniques, why that particular form, Castro said. The pandanus weavers, Tan Dolores Paulino made some beautiful hats, and then the mats and the purses and things like that. Tan Elena Benavente, also a pandanus weaver, she wove every day. And during CHamoru week all the masters would be in different venues around the island, demonstrating their craft. So it was those days that I was able to go out there and watch them demonstrate for the public and work on their craft, but seeing the quality of their product, the detail that they put into their product, their craft thats what it means. Flores sees a connection between the work done to honor these masters and their crafts and the proliferation of cultural practice among young people on Guam today. I think the importance is in the contributions the masters program made to the renaissance of CHamoru arts today. I think the importance of reviving these traditions and honoring them and making people aware that these things had happened, were in their ancestry that is the importance. Because what you see today is such a vibrant renaissance of all of these ancient arts, and they keep coming up with others, Flores said. An official award According to Jackie Balbas, a program coordinator for CAHA who has contributed fieldwork research and more to the CHamoru Masters program since the mid-1990s, has seen the program survive lack of funding and come out on the other side. We didnt have a stable funding to continue this masters program. When we published the books, and the poster series, we did it through fundraising efforts. All the money was raised to produce it, but we didnt have steady income on a yearly basis, so the program kind of slowed down. Then, in 2010, the CAHA board decided to resurrect that program, and they worked with the Legislature, and through their efforts Public Law 30-139 was created. And that was specifically the Guam Masters Award, Balbas said. With this award, it set criteria for how a master is selected, but CAHA would be running and facilitating the program. So as a result of that public law in 2010, research was done. And then from 2011 to 2015, eight more masters were recognized. So theyre bringing credibility and bringing the program back. Future masters Castro and Flores each expressed a hope that CAHA would name another set of masters in the near future, and Castro is even working to develop an apprenticeship template for masters to use as they pass on their skills. He will be developing the template over the course of the coming year while apprenticing with Master Carver Julie Jill Benavente. Balbas confirmed that CAHA is discussing next steps for the Guam Masters Award within the council. Though nothing is firm yet, they hope to be accepting nominations for additional masters in the near future. With a little more than a dozen of the 63 designated masters still living, according to a document provided by Balbas, there are certainly shoes to be filled. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of honoring and paying tribute and recognizing these individuals, because they really did commit most of their lifetime to passing on their traditions. It wasnt really for their recognition, or for them to get attention that they were doing this. It was really more to teach people these traditions and to carry it on, Balbas said. Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation reported a 30th person has died from COVID-related causes in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. No details about the death were reported. As of Sunday, there were five people hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, three were vaccinated and two were partially vaccinated. There were 117 new COVID-19 cases reported, bringing the CNMI total to 9,595 cases since March 26, 2020. Of those, nine were identified on Tinian, and seven were identified on Rota. People who test positive for COVID-19 should stay home and isolate when they are sick, except to get medical care, according to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation. Register for COVID-19 vaccines at www.vaccinatecnmi.com, or call 670-682-7468. To view the schedule for community-based testing, visit covidtesting.chcc.health. No code is required to register. The CNMI has 927 active cases of COVID-19, according to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation. For dancer Jeanisha Jorden Guerrero Salas, the return to the stage couldnt have come at a better time than Mes CHamoru. Salas was happy to once again have the opportunity to express her cultural pride through dance. You truly feel the spirit of our ancestors when youre performing, Salas said. This kind of surge, it just feels great to be back on the stage, performing and sharing our beautiful culture, she said. Saturdays performance at Agana Shopping Center was the first for the Guma Rasan Acho Latte group since the pandemic. They joined with the dance group JFKHS Chapter, from John F. Kennedy High School, in a celebration of CHamoru culture. Salas has been with the dance group, which is headed by instructor Brian BJ Terlaje, for about six years. This was the first group performance for John F. Kennedy High School senior Raven Merrick De Jesus and the members of JFKHS Chapter. Everyone in my class was really nervous. We werent really built for performing. I think for most of us, this is our first time ever so its really an experience to actually perform in a crowd, he said. When I got up there, I dont know how to explain this. Its like when Im performing, it feels like Im a completely different person, he said. Fascination Although De Jesus is Filipino, he has a fascination with CHamoru culture that was sparked by his kindergarten teacher. He enjoys learning about the culture and taking part in activities related to it. De Jesus felt fortunate to join Terlajes class and the JFKHS Chapter, saying he learned more about the culture in the class than he thought he would. De Jesus said he and the other student dancers were nervous about performing, and some felt uncomfortable in the costume. We felt like we were naked, but when we got up there, we just had to put our game faces on and just really appreciate the moment of being up there. For John F. Kennedy High CHamoru language and cultural arts teacher Terlaje, this is his way of teaching about culture. He said for as long as he could remember, he has always been interested in the arts. And his forte is in dance. Disconnect Terlaje got his start in the cultural arts through hula, learning Hawaiian dance and music. However, while he enjoyed performing, he felt disconnected. It really felt like I wasnt satisfied. I actually told myself that this is not my language. This is not my culture, he said. It just got me to dig deeper, and find the heart of what I do now, he said. Since then, he has made it his mission to not only learn and showcase his culture through CHamoru cultural dance, but through his teaching. Terlaje believes passion should be shown when teaching. That is why students are interested in subjects and want to learn more. When you open up your heart, and the students see that they dont see it with their eyes, but they see with their heart, I think thats when they start to relate, he said. To me, it is the payment of being a teacher, it is having the students engaged in what you do. Local performers participate in a reenactment of Magellans landing during the Guam History and Chamorro Heritage Day Festival at Humatak Bay Park, March 4, 2019. Haiti - DR : Nearly 250,000 Haitians repatriated in 5 years The Dominican Republic repatriated 248,778 Haitians between 2017 and the end of 2021, according to figures provided by the General Directorate of Migration (DGM), which represent 99.7% of all repatriations carried out by the DGM over the past five years. The second place is occupied by the Venezuelans (306), followed by the Cubans (74). In 2020 and 2021 the Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on the decrease in repatriations. In 2020, the DGM repatriated 23,664 Haitians to Haiti (down 64.9%), compared to 67,469 in 2019. In 2021, 44,020 of Haitian nationality were repatriated. During the last months of 2021, the Dominican Government has reinforced its migratory measures towards Haitians https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35140-icihaiti-dr-tens-of-thousands-of-haitian-workers-in-an-irregular-situation-risk-deportation-in-january-2022.html as well as for pregnant Haitians who come to give birth illegally in Dominican health centers, by limiting to all foreigners in an irregular migratory situation (most being Haitian) access to public hospitals for emergency cases only https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35171-haiti-dom-rep-end-of-health-services-to-illegal-haitians-except-in-emergencies.html Let's recall that according to the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera nearly 40% of all births nationwide correspond to Haitian mothers in an irregular migratory situation. Emphasizing that the Dominican health system cannot support this burden in terms of human and financial resources (of 100 million dollars https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21014-haiti-dr-more-than-5-billion-pesos-for-the-delivery-of-women-from-haiti.html to which are added 60 million dollars for medical care for mothers and children https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21694-haiti-dr-nearly-8-billion-pesos-in-hospital-care-and-services-for-haitians.html - Source Dr Nelson Rodriguez Monegros, Director of Information of the National Service of Health (SNS) in 2017. Should be noted that the arrests and repatriations of pregnant Haitians, although criticized by civil society organizations working with migrants, but also by international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights man (IACHR), who called on the country to suspend them, continue. Between November 9, 2021 and January 31 of this year, 627 pregnant women were arrested and repatriated to Haiti. Finally, less than 2 weeks ago, the Dominican Republic launched the construction of a technological fence along the border with Haiti to prevent the illegal entry of Haitians into its territory. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36049-haiti-flash-the-first-54-km-of-the-dominican-border-fence-will-be-completed-in-7-months-video.html See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36049-haiti-flash-the-first-54-km-of-the-dominican-border-fence-will-be-completed-in-7-months-video.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35171-haiti-dom-rep-end-of-health-services-to-illegal-haitians-except-in-emergencies.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35140-icihaiti-dr-tens-of-thousands-of-haitian-workers-in-an-irregular-situation-risk-deportation-in-january-2022.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-33527-icihaiti-dr-29-of-dominican-maternity-beds-are-occupied-by-haitians.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33196-haiti-dr-towards-the-end-of-free-deliveries-for-haitian-women-in-the-dominican-republic.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-25827-icihaiti-social-the-number-of-haitians-giving-birth-in-dr-would-have-dropped.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21694-haiti-dr-nearly-8-billion-pesos-in-hospital-care-and-services-for-haitians.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21014-haiti-dr-more-than-5-billion-pesos-for-the-delivery-of-women-from-haiti.html S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Justice : Imprisoned at 15 on a false accusation, he spent 3 years in prison without trial At 15, "Renel" (fictitious name to preserve anonymity) was detained without trial for 3 years, wrongly accused of having stolen two ducks from a small seller. "One day, when I was 15, I decided to attend a festival in my town after school to have fun with my friends. Once there, a local seller that I knew by sight suddenly arrived and he started shouting at me very angry [...] Someone had stolen two ducks from him and he thought it was me. I tried to explain to him that it was a misunderstanding, but he suddenly slapped me in the face [...] and dragged me by the wrist to the police station of Les Cayes [..] After hearing the theft charges against Renel [...] They put me behind bars in a cell full of men," said "Renel". After 3 years in detention without any trial, the case of "Renel" was taken up by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) "It was easy to see the seriousness of the case of "Renel". He had been imprisoned for a minor offense when he was still a child. He was about to spend his youth behind the bars of a cell without anyone taking care of his legal defense," said Wegbert Chery, evaluation manager at UNDP. "I knew from experience that extended pretrial detention existed in Haiti, but this child was so incredibly vulnerable to flaws in the system that I decided to bring the matter immediately to the attention of the Bureau d'Assistance Legale (BAL) a initiative of the UNDP, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the Haitian Ministry of Justice" "Renel" was released several months after UNDP intervention and is now struggling to readjust to his old life. Read also about pre-trial detention in Haiti : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25697-haiti-justice-haiti-tops-the-list-of-people-imprisoned-without-conviction.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25602-haiti-justice-74-of-detainees-in-haiti-have-never-been-tried.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23929-haiti-justice-3-years-of-preventive-detention-for-a-stolen-phone.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20317-haiti-justice-gustavo-gallon-harshly-judge-the-haitian-prison-system.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13254-haiti-justice-89-of-the-inmates-of-the-national-penitentiary-in-prolonged-pretrial-detention.html HL/ S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Diaspora Covid-19 : Daily Bulletin #710 GLOBAL SITUATION 2019-2022: Epidemiological situation: Monday, February 28, 2022 the number of people infected worldwide with the Covid-19 coronavirus and its variants since the start of the pandemic (March 11, 2020) amounts to 436,012,909 cases (+913,010 in 24 hours ), the day before (+1,334,797) Number of infected countries: 224 *Healings: 366,576,451 people have been cured of Covid-19 worldwide (+1,385,817 in 24 hours), the day before (+1,699,271) *Deaths: 5,968,333 people died of Covid-19 worldwide (+3,545 in 24 hours), the day before (+6,397) *Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries) in the world is currently 63,468,125 cases (-476,352 in 24 hours), the day before (-370,871) Average cure rate in the world: 84.07% (+) Average mortality rate in the world: 1.36% (-) World: Number of daily confirmed cases (Day-1) Vaccination: 10.78 billion doses of vaccine injected (+20 million doses injected in 24 hours. Update February 28, 2022 (latest data available). HAITI: Epidemiological situation: According to the Ministry of Public Health, +6 new in 48 hours of Covid-19 and its variants have been confirmed in Haiti as of February 24, 2022 (latest partial data available) for a total of 30,342 confirmed cases throughout the national territory (48.7% women and 51.3% men), since the first case (March 19, 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html ). Previous update (+37 cases on February 22, 2022). Heals: 25,210 (+4) Cure rate: 83.08% (=) Deaths: 820 deaths (+0) Death rate: 2.70% (=) 5th Wave (Omicron Dominant): Total of the 5th wave (starting December 27, 2021) amounts to 4,341 confirmed cases and 54 deaths Haiti: Active Cases Trend: (less recoveries and deaths) (Day-1) Screening since the start of the pandemic: 179,117 tests (+646 in 48 hours) since March 19, 2020, latest data available. Note that the very small number of people screened every day at the national level out of a population estimated at 11.6 million citizens, does not statistically allow us to make a representative estimate of the situation in Haiti, which translates into a < B>number of daily confirmed cases largely underestimated. TOP 5 of the most affected municipalities in the West (2022): Delmas: 725 (+2); Petion-ville 612 (+0); Port-au-Prince 404 (+0); Tabarre 278 (+0); Cross-Bouquets 224 (+0) Confirmed cases by department (2022 / 2021 / 2020): West: 2022: 2,486 cases; (2021: 9.890); (2020: 6,945 cases) North: 2022: 261 cases; (2021: 664); (2020: 677 cases) Center: 2022: 211 cases; (2021: 1.001); (2020: 508 cases) Artibonitis: 2022: 162 cases; (2021: 855); (2020: 593 cases) Northeast: 2022: 147 cases; (2021: 404); (2020: 314 cases) Southeast: 2022: 229 cases; (2021: 768); (2020: 274 cases) South: 2022: 211 cases; (2021: 891); (2020: 262 cases) North West: 2022: 241 cases; (2021: 383); (2020: 229 cases) Grand'Anse: 2022: 136 cases; (2021: 861); (2020: 176 cases) Nippes: 2022: 33 cases; (2021: 249) (2020: 149 cases) Cumulative deaths by department (2022-2021): West: 292 deaths (2020: 104 deaths) North: 53 deaths (2020: 34 deaths) Center: 74 deaths (2020: 13 deaths) Artibonite: 39 deaths (2020: 39 deaths) North East: 7 deaths (2020: 6 deaths) South: 51 deaths (2020: 6 deaths) Southeast: 14 deaths (2020: 9 deaths) North West: 15 deaths (2020: 12 deaths) Grand'Anse: 7 deaths (2020: 13 deaths) Nippes: 27 deaths (2020: 5 deaths) Distribution of deaths by age (since the start of the epidemic): 0-9 years: 15 deaths 10-19 years: 10 deaths 20-29 years: 29 deaths 30-39 years: 54 deaths 40-49 years: 78 deaths 50-59 years: 133 deaths 60-69 years: 186 deaths 70-79 years: 181 deaths 80 years and over: 134 deaths Vaccination: 150,734 Haitians (1.29% of the population) +920 in 24 hours have received a 1st dose of vaccine since July 16, 2021, date of the first injection through 149 open vaccination centers https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35051-haiti-covid-19-list-of-149-vaccination-centers-open-in-the-country.html and 100,126 Haitians are fully vaccinated (2 doses, 0.86% of the population) +889 in 24h. Update February 15, 2022 latest information available (source MSPP). List of the 149 Vaccination Centers open in Haiti (and hours) by department: (updated October 20, 2021, latest information available) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35051-haiti-covid-19-list-of-149-vaccination-centers-open-in-the-country.html DIASPORA: Epidemiological situation: USA: *Cases since the first case (February 29, 2020): 80,567,757 cases (+7,464 in 24 hours), the day before (+27,986) *Healings: 53,192,990 healings (+155,945 in 24 hours), the day before (+170,795) National Cure Rate: 66.02% (+) *Deaths: 973,119 deaths (+189 in 24 hours), the day before (+730) National mortality rate: 1.20% (=) *Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries): 26,401,648 (-148,670 in 24 hours), the day before (-143,539) Tests: 947,752,321 last data available. USA: Number of daily confirmed cases (Day-1) Vaccination: 553.05 million doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, date of the first injection in the United States (+220,000 doses in 24 hours). Update February 28, 2022 (latest data available). DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Warning: The Dominican Central Directorate of Epidemiology has not updated the data for February 27. The figures below are therefore those of February 26. Confirmed cases since March 1, 2020: 574,071 cases (+295 in 24 hours) the day before (+318). First case (March 1, 2020) Healings: 568,031 healings (+282), the day before (+522) National Cure Rate: 98.94% (=) Deaths: 4,368 deaths (+0 in 24 hours), the day before (+2) Death rate: 0.76% (=) Positivity rate over 4 epidemiological weeks: 5.76% (-) Active cases: (excluding deaths and recoveries) 1,672 cases (+10 in 24 hours) the day before (-206) Dominican Republic: Trend of active cases: (minus recoveries and deaths) (Day-1) TOP 5 Provinces with the most new cases in the last 24 hours: National District: +88 new cases in 24 hours (+51 compared to the previous day) Santo Domingo: +87 new cases in 24 hours (+18 compared to the day before) Santiago: +30 new cases in 24 hours (-10 compared to the day before) San Jose de Ocoa: +23 new cases in 24 hours (-5 compared to the day before) San Juan: + 22 new cases in 24 hours () Tests (since the 1st case): 3,103,088 tests (+7,179 in 24 hours), the day before (+6,736) Vaccination: 15.26 million doses of vaccine injected since February 16, 2021, date of the first injection in the Dominican Republic (+10,000 doses injected in 24 hours). Update February 27, 2022 (latest data available). QUEBEC: Warning: Quebec health authorities no longer update data on the Covid situation on weekends. The figures below are therefore the latest available. Confirmed cases since the first case (February 27, 2020): 918,821 (+1,542 in 24 hours), previous (+1,517) Healings: 886,721 people (+2,298 in 24 hours), previous (+1,846) Cure rate: 96.50% (+) Deaths: 13,955 deaths (+24 in 24 hours), previous (+28) Death rate: 1.51% (=) Active cases: (excluding death and recovery) 18,145 cases (-780 in 24 hours), previous (-357) Quebec: Confirmed case trend: Test: 16,658,680 people tested since the first case (+18,485 in 24 hours) Vaccination: 18,382,262 doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, date of the first injection (+14,825 doses in 24 hours), latest data available - MSSS as of February 25, 2022) FRANCE: *Confirmed cases since the first case (January 24, 2020): 22,646,732 cases (+42,600 cases in 24 hours), previous (+53,623) *Healings: 20,620,312 healings (+45,925 in 24h), previous (+155,338) National Cure Rate: 91.05% (=) Deaths: 138,135 deaths (+76 in 24 hours), previous (+101) Death rate: 0.60% (=) Active Cases: 1,884,960 (-3,401 in 24h), previous (-101,614) Test: 246,629,975 (last data available February 27, 2022) France: Trend of active cases: (minus recoveries and deaths) (day 1) Vaccination: 140.78 million doses of vaccine injected since December 27, 2020, date of the first injection in France (+80,000 doses injected in 24 hours. Update February 28, 2022 (latest data available) Previous bulletin : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36061-haiti-diaspora-covid-19-daily-bulletin-709.html See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30165-haiti-flash-first-case-of-covid-19-in-the-dominican-republic.html HL/ HaitiLibre By William Schwartz | Published on 2022/02/27 Entertainer Jung Hyung-don is back in the news as South Korean social media has made more notice of his confession to having filmed himself committing a crime. This past February 23rd, he posted a video entitled "The Devil Rotary of Ulsan" to his YouTube account. At around the 8:30 mark, Jung Hyung-don asks for a phone so that he can conduct an impromptu interview. English subtitles are not available. Advertisement Speaking on the phone while driving a car is a violation of Article 49 of the Road Traffic Act, incurring a penalty of 15 points to revocation of a person's driver's license. Commenters to the video pointed this out. The surprising part of the story is that Jung Hyung-don himself apologized for his actions, in a comment now pinned to the top of the video's feed. He also promised to turn himself in to the police, accepting the lawful penalty for his actions, and pledged to be more careful in the future. The prompt and direct nature of the apology was surprising, as the infraction was unlikely to be noticed. The video in question only has 48,296 views as of this writing. Consequently Jung Hyung-don has received more support than criticism on social media for his actions. Jung Hyung-don principally works in variety shows, his most recent appearance as an actor being a cameo in the cable television drama "Please Don't Date Him" from last year. Written by William Schwartz What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 574-583-5121 or email cgrace@thehj.com. (The Center Square) Head Start teachers in Louisiana, Ohio and Virginia are suing the Biden administration over a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination mandate for the federally funded program. Elizabeth Etherton, a preschool teacher at Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court over a threatened termination Monday for failing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. The lawsuit, which was filed last week, followed a similar case involving Head Start teachers Sandy Brick in Louisiana and Jessica Trenn in Ohio, challenging an interim final rule by the Office of Head Start under the Department of Health and Human Services. The rule, issued Nov. 30, requires all staff, contractors and volunteers to receive a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Jan. 31. The order also required all adults and children over 2 years old in the program to wear masks. I love my job and it breaks my heart to think I may lose the opportunity to work with my students over this federal mandate, Etherton said. I did everything I could to adapt to challenges over the last two years. I taught from home. I stayed late to clean my classroom. I followed the procedures, participated in weekly testing, and submitted a medical exemption saying I could not receive this vaccine. But that wasnt enough. So many teachers are in this position and this lawsuit is my last resort to protect myself and others like me. Etherton, Brick and Trenn are among about 280,000 Americans employed in programs that receive federal funding through Head Start. Those programs are largely nonprofits or run through local public school districts and serve children age 2-5 from low-income families. The Head Start programs offer services beyond traditional preschool by providing nutrition, social skills and other support for students. The federal vaccination mandate applies to teachers as well as volunteers, estimated at about 1 million people. The teachers are represented by the national, nonprofit law firm Liberty Justice Center. In Louisiana and Ohio, attorneys with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy are assisting with the case. The Liberty Justice Center and Pelican Institute partnered for a similar effort to block the Biden administrations vaccine-or-test mandate for private businesses that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last month. This mandate is yet another example of the federal governments relentless, illegal effort to control the private choices of Americans, said Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center. The Biden Administration does not have the authority from Congress or the U.S. Constitution to issue blanket vaccine and mask mandates. Attorneys representing the Louisiana and Ohio teachers are seeking to join a federal lawsuit brought by 24 states regarding the Head Start vaccination mandate. In January, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty granted a preliminary injunction to block the mandate for the 24 states, which includes Ohio and Louisiana. A separate lawsuit in Texas also resulted in a judge blocking the mandate, Suhr said. The government has not appealed yet in the Texas or Louisiana cases, he said. We have asked for our teachers to be consolidated or merged into the state case and that request is currently being briefed. Hopefully, well get all those cases merged so they can be resolved on the same track, Suhr said. Once appealed, the cases would head to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the same court that enjoined the private employer vaccine mandate before it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In Virginia, a state that is not a party to the broader state lawsuits, Etherton remains under the government vaccine ultimatum. I think part of the reason they have not appealed is because the rulings are only effective in the states that brought the cases, Suhr said. All of the cases center on the same legal argument: the Head Start statute does not give the U.S. government authority to implement a vaccination mandate, while the individual teacher cases also assert violations of personal freedoms. Courts have consistently recognized the liberty each of us has to make medical decision affecting our lives, Suhr said. We feel a government mandating a vaccine invades that individual liberty. Ferocious winds that sent what was a small wildfire racing toward homes on the outskirts of a northern Arizona city presented a dilemma. Most residents in the Girls Ranch neighborhood north of Flagstaff, Arizona, fled the flames. One couple stood their ground. Another raced to save animals on neighbors' properties. Two homes in the close-knit neighborhood were among 30 in the area that were destroyed. The wildfire left a mosaic of charred land before it was almost fully contained this weekend. The blaze is one of many this spring that have forced panicked residents to make life-or-death, fight-or-flee decisions as wildfire season heats up in the U.S. West. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit The Democratic Union Party in Girke Legi district gives a lecture on the occasion of International Women's Day, at 16:00. (Photos and videos are attached) The people of Al-Jazera canton go out in a central march condemning the policies of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and demanding the physical freedom of the leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Terbespiye district, at 11:00. (photos and video attached). People of Qamishlo city mourn the body of a fighter in the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the shrine of the martyr Dalil Sarukh, at 14:00. (photos and video are attached). The people of al-Hasakah mourn the bodies of 3 martyrs from the Syrian Democratic Forces, namely Jamil Ayed al-Hashim, Tayseer Ahmad al-Khalaf and Hisham Khalaf al-Hussein in the shrine of al-Shaddadi district at 10:00 (photos and videos are attached). He devoted most of his life to the struggle of his people and their cause. He was known for his sincerity and dedication. He was arrested by the security branches of the Damascus government and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, but he insisted on continuing the struggle tirelessly. He is the national figure Kouri Haji Mohi. (photos and video attached). The mercenaries of the Turkish occupation continue to commit crimes against the remaining residents of Afrin. Within five days, the Turkish intelligence and its mercenaries kidnapped 5 citizens, including an imam, and cut down more than 700 perennial olive trees for firewood and trade. (photos and video attached). Displaced women from Afrin confirmed that the policies pursued by the Damascus government and its suffocating siege aim to weaken the spirit of resistance in them, and they stressed the approach of resistance and not to surrender or leave their land, saying, "We will resist because our resistance is our dignity." (photos and video attached). The residents of the village of Al-Suwaid, in the Ain Issa district, attributed their non-return to their homes as a result of the continued Turkish bombing and direct targeting, and demanded the Russian guarantor and the international community to deter the Turkish occupation state, and ensure their return to their homes. (photos and video attached). Politics Through its repeated meetings with the political parties in Iraq, whether with the Sunnis or the Kurds, Turkey seeks to control the Iraqi political scene, and the Iraqi political and economic researcher Nabil Jabbar Al-Ali believes that Al-Halbousi exceeded the constitutional powers granted to him by meeting Erdogan, and confirmed that the meeting carries with it political projects and economic interests. (Pictures attached). Kurdistan The initiative for international justice for the Kurds to remove the name of the Kurdistan Workers Party from the terror lists is still bearing fruit in Europe, the Middle East, and northern and eastern Syria, as the Mothers of Guerilla assert that the PKK has a legitimate cause, and struggles to achieve freedom for the oppressed peoples. (photos and video attached). ANHA Henderson, NC (27536) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 59F. Winds light and variable. PLA says US warship's Straits transit 'provocative' By ZHANG ZHIHAO (China Daily) 08:29, February 28, 2022 The recent passage by a United States' warship through the Taiwan Straits amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis was a ploy to reassure Taiwan separatist forces that the US is committed to the island's security, but that's a wrong signal and will stir up tension in the Straits, experts said. On Saturday, the guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson made a transit through the strategic waterway, prompting the Chinese military to organize forces to track and monitor the vessel's voyage, according to a statement by the People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command. Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for the command, said such an action is provocative and aims to embolden Taiwan separatist forces, calling it "hypocritical and futile". As the Russia-Ukraine crisis intensifies, the US' previous withdrawal from Afghanistan and recent pledge not to send troops to defend Ukraine have fueled public debate on Taiwan social media about the US' security commitment to the island. The discourse reached a boiling point recently when a social media post said the island ranked 21st in the 2022 World Military Strength Rankings, one spot higher than Ukraine. The post has gone viral and given rise to the phrase "Today Ukraine, Tomorrow Taiwan" in Taiwan society. Officials of the pro-secession Democratic Progressive Party scrambled to squash such sentiments. They included Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, who said in an interview that the recent speculation was the result of fearmongering misinformation spread by other forces. Su Huan-chih, former magistrate of Tainan county in Taiwan, responded on social media, saying Tsai's comment was ignorant and tantamount to burying one's head in the sand. Su also called Tsai insidious for discounting genuine concerns by people who love Taiwan as misinformation and part of a propaganda war. A professor of Taiwan affairs based in Xiamen, Fujian province, who requested anonymity, said that after the situation in Ukraine escalated, worries about possible armed conflict between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan increased among people living on both sides of the Straits. "People are concerned that if the US and Taiwan separatist forces keep ignoring China's core interests, like how the US and NATO keep disregarding Russia's security concerns, then war will be highly likely after all options for peaceful reunification have been exhausted," the expert said. Li Haidong, a professor of US studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said the US warship's transit was designed to show that despite the crisis in Europe drawing the bulk of US diplomatic attention, the US is still willing to continue its strategic competition with China in the Asia-Pacific region. "In some way, the transit serves to pressure China into following the US' lead in punishing Russia," he said. "The current chaos in Europe is not enough, now it wants to stir up tension in the Taiwan Straits at this critical moment in European geopolitics." (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Judge rules Neill has failed to make restitution as sentence required Sam Neill scans a document as his attorney, Brooks Kamszik, asks a question during a trial last week. Its the rare probation violation that results in a full-blown trial with sworn witnesses, exhibits, testimony, cross examination, redirect and closing arguments. But when $3,705,057 in restitution is at stake, probation gains gravity. Last week in Courtroom 2 at the Grove Street Courthouse, Superior Court Judge Bradley Letts ruled that Sam Neill, the disbarred lawyer convicted in 2013 of stealing millions from five estates, had violated terms of his probation. Neill pleaded guilty to the felonies in federal and state courts in April of 2013 and served six years in federal and state prisons before his release, from Craggy Correctional Institute in Asheville, on June 28, 2019. Judge Letts found him guilty of failing to make restitution and extended his probation, which was scheduled to end this coming June, by two years. Neill avoided spending more time in jail for now. Letts ordered him to serve 90 days in jail, but stayed the sentence pending Neills expected appeal of the probation violation conviction. The trial, which lasted about four hours, focused mainly on the large discrepancy in Neills accounting of restitution he has made and the official number kept by the Clerk of Superior Court. Neill testified repeatedly that land transfers he made to the victim estates before he went to prison have produced $1.1 million for two of the estates while a pending land sale would pay $475,000 to a third estate. Tracy Howell, Neills probation officer, charged him with the probation violation last September for failing to make restitution payments. Based on clerk of court records, As of today hes paid $780, Howell said. He had made no payments to the clerks office for the first six months of his probation, she said. He agreed that whatever was happening outside of the clerks office he would pay something so we could show that restitution was being made. She said she told him, You need to pay as much as you can as often as you can because he was so far behind on his schedule. He began paying $20 a month in January of 2020. The court ordered amount is $89,730 a month, a number arrived at by a formula the state uses the total restitution divided by total months of probation minus four months. Ameshia Cooper-Chester, a deputy state attorney general, talks about the Neill case during a break as Community Foundation Chair Bill McKibbin, foundation President McCray Benson and Four Seasons Development Director Stephanie Wilson listen.He has not been in trouble at all, she said, and has been cooperative and respectful. She said when they first met, Neill advised her that he was retired. Now 72, Neill testified in his own defense about his life since he was released from prison, why he is not working and how he had made every effort to repay the victims of his crime. The day he got out of prison, he signed an agreement to make the almost $90,000-a-month restitution payment. He explained why. She said if I didnt sign it I would be in violation immediately so I signed it, he said. I surrendered my law license, he said. I explained to her that my sole income was Social Security. My mother was very ill and caring for her was basically like a job. I had a lot of guilt that I hadnt been there and my brother had to do everything while I was incarcerated and I took it upon myself to care for his mother until her death in March 2020. His monthly income of around $3,100, he said, is from a Social Security check alone. The IRS subtracts $475 before the check reaches Neill. The garnishment goes to pay down a $900,000 judgment resulting from tax evasion charges related to the estate thefts. Neill said he had to buy clothes after he was released from prison because he lost 100 pounds while incarcerated. He said he shops in thrift stores, adding that Blue Ridge Humane is my favorite. He testified that hes immunocompromised and has been cautious about Covid-19. I was hospitalized for pneumonia not once but twice and almost died, he said. For now, he lives in his late mothers house on Lyndale Avenue off Greenville Highway but expects to be evicted when the estate closes soon. My expenses will dramatically increase once I vacate my mothers house, he said. Responding to questions from his attorney and from Ameshia Cooper-Chester, a special deputy attorney general, Neill insisted over and over that the irrevocable real estate trusts he had given to the victims' estates had covered a large amount of the debt he owes. When I set all this up, I was doing it in a way that the victims would get the money as quickly as possible, he said. If I hadnt done it this way the property would have just wasted. I have no land of any type or any assets that are not secured for victims. My intent was for victims to be paid and paid promptly. He and his attorney, Brooks Kamszik, argued against extending his probation or adding a civil judgment against him for the restitution. Every asset I have has already been secured for the victims estates, Neill said. I have nothing else. If I win the lottery tomorrow Id write everybody a check Ive given everything I had and Ive done it in a way that I cant go back on. A civil judgment will do no good because theres an IRS judgment ahead of them for $900,000. I dont think it would help them but it would harm me. It would wipe out my effort to get credit. Neill testified that last real estate that he owned 100 acres off Locust Grove is under contract to sell for $900,000. When that closes, he said, victims will have received $1,542,500. Stephanie Wilson, director of development for Four Seasons hospice and palliative care, and McCray Benson, president of the Community Foundation of Henderson County, both read victim impact letters at the close of the testimony. Four Seasons and the Community Foundation were to split the $1.1 million from the Barry Clemo estate. Neill "spent years portaying an image of being a community champion and building trust among individuals who had a charitable nature," Benson said. Neill had handled the estate of Barry Clemo, who had left $1,151,000 to the Community Foundation and Four Seasons. "Upon Mr. Clemo's death, we made regular contact with Mr. Neill who fabricated extenuating circumstances, complications and avoided our contacts causing great strain on charitable organizations, all the while knowing full well he had stolen these resources." The foundation asked the judge not to release Neill from his obligation to pay the victims of his thefts. "He has shown he had a great ability to mislead others, an inability to indepently resist his underlying motives of self-interest and lacks the ability to honor his word to lifelong friends much less a community," Benson said. Throughout the trial, his prison time and since his release "at no time has he expressed compassion for those from whom he stole. To date he has made no attempt to send a note of apology for his actions." Both Cooper-Chester and Judge Letts noted in response to Neills version of how he repaid the estates that the payments have never been properly credited through the courts. It was Neills responsibility, they said, to make sure that was done. While Mr. Neill was disbarred, he nevertheless did not lose his training, education or talent, which he used for many years, Letts said as he summarized the facts late Wednesday afternoon. There would have been time to file a motion seeking some kind of reconciliation and accounting to get credit for the money he claims he paid to the victims estates. Although Neill provided information to then-District Attorney Greg Newman, the local district attorney did not prosecute the case, Letts said. The case was prosecuted by the attorney generals office. At no time did Mr. Neill provide accountings or any other documents to the attorney generals office to properly capture those monies which Mr. Neill claims to have paid. The transfers were made outside the normal, lawful process of probation, which applies in all 100 of our counties." Though the transfers were voluntary, they were done under his terms and under his control, prepared at his office, where attorneys were required to try to find some sort of resolution or settlement. Explaining his decision to find Neill guilty of violating his probation and extending the probation by two years, Letts recalled the disbarred lawyers original sentencing in the same courthouse almost nine years ago. Once the two of you were finished, that left many many lives irreparably affected, not just your own, he said. Sadly, your actions still reverberate today on the byways and in the hamlets of Henderson County. GOP leaders appeal court-ordered congressional map at U.S. Supreme Court Graphic shows partisan makeup of North Carolina's 14 congressional seats in a 2022 map ordered by the state Supreme Court. [JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION] State legislative leaders are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step into the legal dispute over a new congressional map for North Carolina. Lawmakers on Friday filed for an emergency stay of a state court ruling that ordered a court-imposed map to be used for this year's congressional elections. Based on recommendations from an appointed group of special masters, a three-judge Superior Court panel threw out the General Assembly's latest congressional map. The United States Constitution is clear state legislatures, not state judges, are responsible for setting the rules governing elections," state House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said in a statement on the court filing. "By striking the General Assemblys congressional map and redrawing their own, with the help of Democrat partisans, the courts have, once again, violated the separation of powers. This effort to circumvent the elected representatives of the people will not stand. Furthermore, this coordinated effort is funded by Eric Holder and led by disgraced Democrat operative Marc Elias, who have no business in interfering in our elections," Moore added. A U.S. attorney general under former President Barack Obama, Holder leads a national redistricting effort designed to support Democrats. Elias' law firm represents one of three separate groups of plaintiffs who challenged N.C. congressional and legislative election maps. "I will pursue all legal means to ensure that North Carolinas elections are decided by North Carolinians and that the constitution and rule of law are followed, Moore said. The appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court follows final action on new election maps at the state court level. Late on Wednesday the N.C. Supreme Court rejected all appeals of a decision from a three-judge Superior Court panel. That panel upheld revised maps drawn for elections to the N.C. House and Senate. But the panel tossed out a map for North Carolina's 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Based on recommendations from three advisers known as special masters former N.C. Supreme Court Justices Bob Edmunds and Bob Orr and former UNC System President Tom Ross the three-judge panel replaced the General Assembly's congressional map with a map of its own. The panel ruled that the map would be used only for the 2022 elections. "The statewide result is a 7-7 split of congressional districts in typical elections," wrote Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation. "That result is out of touch with North Carolinas political realities for two reasons. First, North Carolina is not a 50-50 state but leans slightly to the right. It is no accident that Republicans have won over 58% of statewide elections over the past decade. Also, Democratic voters tend to be concentrated while Republicans are more evenly spread across the state. Because of those two factors, the plaintiffs own expert witnesses in the redistricting case found that a map drawn using politically neutral redistricting criteria would most likely have a 9-5 or 8-6 Republican split." Candidate filing reopened Thursday for all N.C. elections. Filing is scheduled to last through March 4, with a primary election scheduled for May 17. It's unclear how that schedule would change if the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the case. "The federal constitution expressly provides that the manner of federal elections shall 'be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof,'" according to the court filing. "Yet barring this Courts immediate intervention, elections during the 2022 election cycle for the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina will be conducted in a manner prescribed not by the States General Assembly but rather by its courts. 'The Constitution provides that state legislatures' not 'state judges' 'bear primary responsibility for setting election rules,' ... and this Court should intervene to protect the Constitutions allocation of power over this matter of fundamental importance to our democratic system of government." THERES a rare chance to see three of the finest folk musicians together on Monday night when McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle return to Nettlebed Village Club on Monday. With Mike McGoldrick playing flute, whistles and Uillean pipes, John McCusker playing fiddle and John Doyle providing the vocals and guitar, the trio have worked with names including Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler, Jools Holland and Joan Baez. Friends since their teens, the men really gelled after working together on the BBCs annual Transatlantic Sessions in 2007 and hit the musical circuit as a trio in 2009. They released a live album in the same year and after many years of touring together, they released their first studio album, The Wishing Tree, in 2018. McGoldrick is also a member of popular folk outfit Capercaillie and McCusker was in the Battlefield Band for 11 years and has released six solo albums. Doyle formed supergroup Solas, who perform traditional Irish music. The club in High Street, Nettlebed, is currently operating at 80 per cent capacity to ensure everyone has a little more space. Tickets cost 19 in advance or 20 on the night. Doors open at 7.50pm. To book, call 01628 636620 between 10am and 8pm or visit www.nettlebedfolkclub.co.uk A CAMPAIGN by actor Jeremy Irons to use an empty building in Watlington to house an Afghan refugee family may have stalled. Some members of the parish council are concerned about the cost of the initiative when it is not responsible for the former charity shop at No 33 High Street. The council has been negotiating with Oxfordshire County Council to take over ownership of the building since 2017 but without success. Last month, Mr Irons, who lives in the town, approached the parish council with a proposal to make the building habitable again and use it as emergency housing accommodation for a refugee family. The 73-year-old actor offered to pay for some of the work himself and to start a fundraising campaign. Parish councillors welcomed the proposal, saying it would help its negotiations with the county council. Matt Reid, who chairs the parish council, said that since then the council had applied to have the water reconnected. It was also applying for a grant from national membership network Locality to spend on surveys of the building and preliminary work. Speaking at a parish council meeting, Councillor Reid said: Im pleased to say its all moving ahead very quickly. It has gained some momentum, which is very good, and we now need the county council to stand behind what they promised us. However, other councillors raised concerns about spending money on the building before the transfer of ownership has been completed. Councillor Steve Bolingbroke said: Im concerned about spending money on something that we dont own. Councillor Tim Horton said: We want to see this project achieved but I think we should continue to be cautious about it. Councillor Ian Hill said: This grant application is running in parallel with Jeremy Ironss campaign and at this stage we are just getting our application in. We are not going to spend any money until we know that the transfer is going ahead. Gill Bindoff, who chairs the Watlington neighbourhood plan advisory board, said: If we do get the grant, we would be using the money for structural surveys and architect plans. Theres obviously a degree of uncertainty here because of the transfer of ownership but its worth continuing with the application. The parish council agreed in 2018 to become the sole trustee of the Charlotte Coxe Trust, which oversees the building and the library next door. Both properties were left to the county council in 1949 by Charlotte Coxe, who founded the library for the benefit of the people of Watlington. No 33 has not been occupied since Age Concern moved out in 2009 and needs significant work to make it habitable again. Some residents have demanded the county council takes responsibility for the delay in the transfer and pays compensation for the loss of rent and the damage caused by poor maintenance of the building. A county council spokesman said: The council supports the project to renovate 33 High Street and make it habitable and is working closely with Watlington Parish Council and Jeremy Irons in connection with it. Delivering the project is separate from decision-making over the future management of the Charlotte Coxe Trust and the project can still be delivered while the trust is managed by the county council. In a letter to the council, Irons said: As a country, we have a duty to house refugees. As a community, Watlington wants to be part of that process. Housing is in short supply but 33 High Street has been empty for too many years. I would ask those with the responsibility for running our community to do all in their power to free up this accommodation, to allow us to help with this humanitarian need. 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Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here. Stock Market News UK Market Open - Fresh measures will help Ukrainians seek refuge in UK, Defence Secretary hints 28-02-2022 02:49 Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk Some of the best years of my life I miss those people. Good times and memories, but I have moved on. Not my best days, but I have made peace with them. Glad to be away from those people I dont miss the high school experience. Vote View Results The much-loved brand is part of the IHG Hotels & Resorts' family and opens in partnership with Pro-invest Hotels. Conveniently located on one of Melbourne's most iconic laneways, this brand new, design-led hotel provides the perfect base for smart, savvy travellers who can experience more for less in the heart of the city's best shopping, dining and cultural attractions. Offering incredible value without compromising on quality, each of the 312 modern guest rooms have been thoughtfully designed to offer a seamless and comfortable stay and feature special touches such as a study nook, speedy WiFi, walk-in power shower and an 'Express Recharge' zone designed to deliver a comfortable and restful overnight boost with premium bedding, choice of firm and soft pillows and black-out blinds. As part of the brand's signature perks, guests can kick start their day with a complimentary Express Start Breakfast that includes everyone's favourite hot and cold options or for those in a rush, there's the choice of the Express Start Breakfast Grab & Go option instead. Set amongst Melbourne's majestic heritage buildings, boutiques, and hole-in-the-wall cafes, Holiday Inn Express Melbourne Little Collins boasts a fresh, contemporary design, with hints of New York attitude thanks to the feature wall of black and white mosaic tiles, exposed copper plumbing and glowing vintage feature lights that line the ceiling. Plus, the interior design of the expansive dining room showcases an exposed brick feature wall, vintage lamps, contemporary furniture and vibrant red seating that provides a striking contrast to the white marble bar counter front. With a commitment to sustainability, Holiday Inn Express Melbourne Little Collins is on track to achieve Green Engage Level 1 Certification - Partner status and is targeting a minimum 4.5-star NABERS Energy & Water rating after 12 months of operation. In addition, the hotel is committed to reducing plastic and has phased out single use plastics with Zip Taps located through-out the hotel. Holiday Inn Express is one of IHG's fastest growing brands with over 3,000 hotels globally. The new opening is the 8th for Pro-invest Hotels across Australia and New Zealand, following the opening of Holiday Inn Express & Suites Queenstown and Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport. Hotel website Guests will enjoy the best of sophisticated Japanese hospitality and breathtaking nature with Tohoku's first luxury resort. InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, the world's first and largest luxury hotel brand, continues its legacy of pioneering luxury travel in emerging destinations with the opening of ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort. As the first luxury resort in Tohoku, Japan, the all-Club InterContinental resort marks a new era of world-class travel in the region. The Appi Kogen precinct is now complete with three IHG Hotels & Resorts properties following the rebrand of ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen and ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen in December 2021. Set upon stunning snowscapes, renowned by locals as 'miracle silky snow', Appi Kogen is the largest-scale ski resort in Japan's northeastern Tohoku region and accessible in just over two hours from Tokyo on the Shinkansen bullet train. Guests will immerse in the rich beauty of Appi and the nearby Hachimantai region, offering picturesque snowscapes in Winter and lush greenery and white birch forests in the Summer. Introducing Japan's newest all-Club InterContinental stay experience With 75 years of pioneering luxury travel globally, the InterContinental brand will bring an elevated stay experience with high-valued service to the all-Club InterContinental resort, including a public space viewing terrace. Each touchpoint, from arrival to departure, has been thoughtfully curated to evoke a sense of place and a connection to the surrounding nature, including a design-led darkened hallway, which represents the start of a journey through an abundant forest and leading to the 'Dragon Eye' - a stunning art piece based on how the snow melts at Kagami pond, near the summit of Mount Hachimantai. The image illustrates the raw beauty created by nature as it leads guests to the Club Lounge. Inside the Club Lounge, an impressive artwork displays a 400-year-old Japanese beech tree - called a mother tree from the Tsugaru Toge area - and basalt columns which are characteristic of the Matsukawa gorge that overlap one another and cover the Club Lounge wall. A small fire is lit in the evenings and sits at the centre of the Lounge to welcome guests for the evening drink ritual. The resort offers 38 all-Club InterContinental rooms and suites, each with show stopping views of the Appi ski slopes and landscape of Hachimantai. The memorable design features include Japanese traditional paper - called Washi - used to adorn the bedheads to represent the pillowy elements of cloud or snow, as well as large floor rugs with various designs to represent clouds, morning glow and the dragon eye motif. Inside the guest bathrooms, rock and white wood evoke a sense of tranquil nature, while large bathroom windows overlook the ski slopes, giving guests the sense of soaking in an outdoor hot spring. On the ground floor, an outdoor space gives a sense of freedom to sit and relax with a refreshing beverage. The Presidential Suite offers the height of luxury, covering more than 300 square metres and boasts a floor-to-ceiling corner window facing the ski slopes. The suite also includes specialty sake, kitchen, large dining area that can also be used as meeting space, private office and a viewing terrace. World-class gourmet experiences and relaxation facilities Guests will continue their journey through art into the SHIRATSUYU restaurant, with impressive pieces throughout the interiors. Traditional local craftworks are on display throughout SHIRATSUYU as well as a wall-art of fine woodwork (called Nanbu Sazamekumi Monyouzaiku) produced by Japanese artisans, Nagayama Kogei. The nature-rich qualities of Appi underpin the restaurant and bars experience inside the resort. SHIRATSUYU is the signature restaurant with a Japanese/French cuisine built on a philosophy of focusing on the ingredients. The culinary team take the 'farm to table' concept and enhance it by engaging with the guests to educate them on the origins of the produce - for example, where the seafood is caught off the coast of Iwate - and then asking how they would like their ingredients prepared, in a Japanese or French style. The restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, highlighting specialty food from the Iwate and Tohoku region. Japanese bar, MOCCO, located up on the third floor has been designed to evoke a secret hideaway above the mountains and is the ideal place to relax with a wide selection of Japanese whisky and other Japanese spirits. The resort is also home to two traditional onsen Japanese baths, the IWA and HINOKI. The baths are made from rock and cypress, offering a modern bathing ritual exclusively for guests. The onsen baths are located on the third floor, where guests have the option to soak outside while snow lightly falls around them as they sit in the revitalizing onsen minerals. For the ultimate in relaxation, the luxury spa LAVILLA SPA APPI, is available to guests offering treatments from traditional shiatsu massages to facial treatments using Elemis products. Hotel website W Abu Dhabi - Yas Island has a new marketing manager. Rebecca Renee, who joined as a marketing executive in 2019, steps up to the role. It is Renee's first managerial position, having been a marketing trainee at Renaissance Downtown Hotel Dubai (now St. Regis Downtown) in March 2019. Renee featured on Hotelier Middle East's inaugural 30 under 30 list last year, 27 years old at the time, she was lauded by her team at W for taking on the responsibilities of a marketing manager during the pandemic. The hotel's director of sales and marketing Jatinder Singh said you could easily be fooled into thinking she's been in the role far longer, having driven the marketing strategy of the property forward without a departmental head leading her. He said she understands the market, knows what to push and is also not afraid to voice her own opinion. Now officially the manager, Renee said her growth in the Abu Dhabi hotel has been thanks to hard work and support from her team. Still one of the youngest managers in Middle Eastern hospitality, the new marketing head said she sees her age being a benefit. Having recently transferred from Singapore to Jakarta, Simon Barnett brings a wealth of international experience to his new role as General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta. A veteran hotelier with 30 years in the industry, including over a decade with Four Seasons, Simon embodies a rare combination of operational and sales and marketing experience. Starting out in the front office of a five-star hotel is Brisbane, Australia, he ventured into various departments, including concierge and reservations before discovering a strong affinity with sales. In 2011, Simon joined Four Seasons Hotel Sydney as Director of Catering and Conference Services, rapidly earning a promotion to Director of Marketing. It was around this time that he felt an increasing urge to return to operations and to take on a role that would encompass the Hotel in its entirety. His transition to Hotel Manager in Sydney was followed by a move to Four Seasons Hotel Singapore where he served simultaneously as Hotel Manager and Director of Marketing. On the cards is a series of curated experiences and exciting offers, designed to showcase the best of the Four Seasons lifestyle - from staying in splendid suites and discovering the Hotel's in-house art collection, to savouring sky-high gastronomy and sipping storied cocktails. Local residents can also look forward to glamorous functions featuring the Indonesia Classic Car Owners Club and an art-inspired calendar of events, featuring collaborations with an artist-in-residence program. Growing up in the suburbs of Melbourne, young Simon loved to visit Lygon Street, an Italian-Greek neighbourhood filled with family-run restaurants. As a leader, Simon strives to foster a similar sense of mutual care in his teams. When he's not at work, you're likely to find Simon exploring new restaurants and bars with his wif, Bozenka. The couple is excited to immerse in Jakarta's vibrant food culture and discover its live music circuit. They also love to go for long walks with their dog Kanga, who is very much part of the family "this is her fifth country with us!" The city's CrossFit enthusiasts might occasionally bump into Simon, who has been following the fitness regime for years - not just for its health benefits but also for its sense of community. As a former rugby player and lifelong fan, he also finds plenty of inspiration in captains such as Nick Farr-Jones and John Eales. Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) is educating HITEC Orlando attendees about housing pirates in its efforts to prevent them from experiencing fraudulent actions. The Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC) will be held at the Orange County Convention Center on June 27-30, 2022 in Orlando, Florida USA. To assist with accommodations HFTP enlists the services of Orchid Events to help manage the thousands of hotel room nights necessary for the event. A housing pirate is an unauthorized housing provider that may approach exhibitors and attendees with fraudulent offerings of hotel rooms, request credit card information for existing reservations and provides false information regarding extended show dates. Only the official HITEC Housing Bureau can guarantee room reservations. To ensure attendees have time to make hotel room reservations, the HITEC Housing Bureau deadline is May 27. Making a reservation through Orchid Event Solutions the official HITEC Housing Bureau is the only way to receive proper customer service from HITEC if you have a housing issue during booking or onsite," said HFTP CEO Frank Wolfe, CAE, CEO of HFTP. "Booking through an unofficial housing company puts you at risk for losing significant deposits, hotel reservations and discovering hidden costs." HITEC also has a policy against pirate exhibitors (often known as outboarders or suitcasers). It is common for unaffiliated or non-exhibiting vendors to take advantage of the show's popularity by promoting their wares leading up to and near the show, or on the exhibit hall floor in an unofficial capacity. Pirate vendors ultimately damage the overall success of the show for all involved, said Wolfe. The official exhibitors and service providers spend thousands of dollars to be part of HITEC, and we feel it is our responsibility that they get the best experience possible at the show. Companies that attempt to circumvent the system should be on notice that HFTP will do everything it can to protect the integrity of HITEC. Attendees approached by a hotel company other than the HITEC housing bureau or non-exhibiting vendors with invitations to attend product demonstrations or similar events at HITEC are asked to notify HFTP. Celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2022, HITEC North America will take place on June 2730 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida USA. HITEC is the world's largest hospitality technology exposition and conference. It offers a unique combination of top-notch hospitality technology education, led by industry peers and experts, and an unparalleled trade show showcasing the latest hospitality technology products and services. Registration for HITEC Orlando is now open. In addition, HFTP and dmg events are producing HITEC Dubai, co-located with The Hotel Show Dubai on May 24-26, 2023 at the Dubai World Trade Center in Dubai, UAE. About HFTP Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), established in 1952, is a hospitality nonprofit association headquartered in Austin, Texas USA with offices in United Kingdom, Netherlands and Dubai. HFTP is recognized as the spokes group for the finance and technology segments of the hospitality industry with an international network of members and stakeholders. HFTP uniquely understands the industry's pressing issues and assists its stakeholders in finding solutions to their challenges more efficiently than any organization. HFTP offers expert networks, educational resources, career development programs, research, leadership opportunities and conferences and events. HFTP Is the publisher of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI). For more information about HFTP, visit www.hftp.org. For the latest news, visit the HFTP News page at news.hftp.org and the HFTP Connect blog at blog.hftp.org. Eliza Selig Staff VP, Marketing and Communications +1 512 220 4026 HFTP Londons tourism sector will benefit from the planned multi-million-pound campaign to drive visitors to the city, says GlobalData. However, the leading data and analytics company notes that the tourism industry remains in a precarious position as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hannah Free, Travel and Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, comments: Londons tourism industry has been badly affected by COVID-19, which has kept many business and leisure tourists away from Englands capital. While rural staycation areas in the UK have been able to capitalise on changes in demand, tourism businesses in London have suffered and continue to face a barrage of challenges. This includes the UK governments plans to increase VAT in April 2022, staff shortages exacerbated by Brexit and COVID-19, concerns around health due to the pandemic, and the rising cost of living. COVID-19 related travel restrictions saw international arrivals to the UK decline by 80.2% year-on-year (YoY) to 7.8 million in 2020, according to GlobalData. Concurrently, inbound tourism spending declined by 84.2% YoY, from $43.2 billion in 2019 to $6.8 billion in 2020, which will have decimated many of Londons tourism and hospitality businesses that depend on international tourists. As travel restrictions ease globally, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, plans to encourage international tourists to return to London with a 7 million ($9.5 million) international marketing campaign. Free adds: GlobalData forecasts expect international arrivals to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, with a projected 39.8 million visitors. However, competitor cities are already out-promoting and out-spending London. For instance, New York has been running a 30 million ($40.1 million) tourism campaign since April 2021. With Englands capital on the backfoot, the city will face additional challenges attracting visitors. The Mayor reportedly plans to spend an additional 3 million ($4.1 million) attracting domestic tourists to London as an extension of Lets Do London. However, a GlobalData survey* reveals that 68% of UK respondents are concerned about eating out at restaurants because of COVID-19 risk and a further 69% are concerned about visiting shops. Free concludes: While the proposed campaign will be a welcomed driver of domestic tourism, a cornerstone of promotional activity will need to showcase London as a safe destination to attract visitors. *GlobalData Q4 2021 Consumer Survey 22,074 Global Respondents, 511 UK Respondents. About GlobalData 4,000 of the world's largest companies, including over 70% of FTSE 100 and 60% of Fortune 100 companies, make more timely and better business decisions thanks to GlobalData's unique data, expert analysis and innovative solutions, all in one platform. GlobalData's mission is to help our clients decode the future to be more successful and innovative across a range of industries, including the healthcare, consumer, retail, financial, technology and professional services sectors. GlobalData | LinkedIn | Twitter GlobalData Press Office +44 207 832 4399 GlobalData Plc Key Takeaways Airbnb.org and Airbnb are announcing that Airbnb.org will offer free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. These stays will be funded by Airbnb, Inc., donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund, and the generosity of Hosts through Airbnb.org. Anyone interested in opening their homes to support this effort can learn how to get involved at Airbnb.org. Airbnb and Airbnb.org are announcing that Airbnb.org will offer free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. These stays will be funded by Airbnb, Inc., donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund, and the generosity of Hosts through Airbnb.org. Earlier today, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, Airbnb co-founder and Airbnb.org Chairman Joe Gebbia, and Airbnb Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk sent letters to leaders across Europe, starting with the leaders of Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania, offering support in welcoming refugees within their borders. While Airbnb.org is committing to facilitate short-term housing for up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine, it will work closely with governments to best support the specific needs in each country, including by providing longer-term stays. Todays announcement builds on the ongoing work of Airbnb.org an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in moments of crisis to support refugees and other displaced people around the world. Last week, the organization announced that it has provided housing to 21,300 Afghan refugees, and it set a new goal of providing free, temporary housing to another 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America, and other regions. Airbnb.orgs offer to provide housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine is in addition to this broader effort. Over the past five years, Airbnb and Airbnb.org have connected more than 54,000 refugees and asylees including from Syria, Venezuela and Afghanistan to temporary housing through Airbnb.org partners. Last year, Airbnb.org announced the creation of its Refugee Fund and has galvanized more than 4,000 donors to further support its work with refugees and asylum seekers worldwide. Along with supporting refugees, Airbnb.org has nearly a decade of experience in providing emergency accommodations to those in need. In 2020, Hosts on Airbnb around the world opened their doors to tens of thousands of frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19, including healthcare professionals and relief workers, in partnership with the NHS in the UK, Mexican Red Cross, 1199SEIU and New York State, the City of New Orleans, Los Angeles County and organizations in Italy and France. Last year, Airbnb.org also activated its emergency response program to provide those affected by the devastating floods across Western Europe. We know that Hosts and guests on Airbnb around the world will be eager to stand up and assist this massive effort to help those fleeing Ukraine. In the coming days, Airbnb and Airbnb.org will share additional details on how Hosts and the broader community can support this initiative, including by offering free or discounted stays. In the meantime, learn more about Airbnb.orgs work to open homes in times of crisis at Airbnb.org. Airbnb.org will work directly through nonprofits on the ground, who are responsible for booking and coordinating stays for refugee guests, regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, or how they identify. As Airbnb.org works to establish partners in each country, refugees and asylum seekers fleeing Ukraine who are in need of immediate support can get connected to available resources from the UN Refugee Agency. Airbnb is also dedicated to the safety of Hosts and guests in Ukraine, and we are actively working to support our local community. About Airbnb Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities. About Airbnb.org Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc."s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org"s charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform. Airbnb Press Airbnb Press Office Airbnb Richmond, Va. Sandpiper Hospitality a Virginia-based hotel management company with vast expertise in the extended stay segment continued to enjoy a strong growth trajectory in 2021, with hotel revenues up 36 percent while also adding two strategic new industry partnerships. In 2021, Sandpiper Hospitality achievements included: Hotel Revenue increase of 36 percent from 2020 to 2021, approaching $100 million Hotel GOP increase of 47 percent from 2020 to 2021 Addition of two key new brand partnerships - Suburban Extended Stay Hotel by Choice Hotels & multiple brands with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Addition of five new properties with a total of 544 new keys Expanded presence into several new markets, including Denver, CO New Sandpiper Hospitality properties added last year include the 125-room WoodSpring Suites Atlanta Newnan and the 122-room WoodSpring Suites Charlotte University Research Park. Both hotels achieved phenomenal success in 2021, including the Newnan property earning revenues in the top 15 of all WoodSpring Suites. The company also introduced the Do More Good community service platform, designed to provide a pathway for each hotel location to give back to the communities in which they operate. In the first six months of 2022, Sandpiper Hospitality will add at least eight new properties to its portfolio in Florida, Texas and North Carolina, including an AmericInn by Wyndham in San Angelo, Texas and the first ground-up dual-branded La Quinta/Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham in Austin/Pflugerville, Texas. The additional properties come from both affiliated growth from Sandpiper Lodging Trust and third-party owners and developers. Our extended stay hotels have continued to perform at very high occupancy rates and offer a fantastic return on investment, said Sandpiper Hospitality President & CEO Jim Darter. We were thrilled to recently be ranked as a Top 50 Management Company in the 2022 Hotel Business Green Book thanks to our strong revenue growth. This marks the second consecutive year that we were rated as one of the fastest growing companies in all of hospitality management. Sandpiper Hospitality is approved by Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International, Suburban Extended Stay Hotels and Extended Stay America to manage their select-service and extended stay brands and now manages over ten different brands in its portfolio. Sandpiper Hospitality has a portfolio of 56 hotels open or under contract with 23 of them under management for third-party clients. Sandpiper Hospitality continues to demonstrate its unique ability to combine a flexible approach to third-party management with extra-ordinary financial results for its investors and clients. For more information, please visit www.sandpiperhospitality.com. About Sandpiper Based in Richmond, Va., Sandpiper Lodging Trust ("SLT") is a nationally-focused real estate investment trust recognized as one of the leading companies specializing in extended stay lodging properties. The company continues to develop its portfolio through ground-up development and selective acquisition of performing and non-performing properties. SLT, along with its affiliated funds, owns a total of 33 extended stay hotels under the WoodSpring Suites, Candlewood Suites and Suburban Extended Stay brands. For more information, please visit www.sandpiperlodgingtrust.com. Sandpiper Hospitality, an affiliated hotel management company, manages the entire SLT portfolio and also manages 23 more hotels for unaffiliated third parties. Sandpiper Hospitality has earned its position as the leading operator in the extended stay hotel segment of hospitality by combining the spirit of genuine, welcoming hospitality with superior financial returns, fueling the growth and prosperity of its various stakeholders from associates to guests to owners and investors. For more information, visit www.sandpiperhospitality.com. Alexandria, VA There are positive indications that business travel continues to turn the corner on COVID-19, and especially over the past month, as concern from Omicron begins to wane and global travel restrictions loosen. Also on the rise are business travel volume expectations for the year ahead, as well as employees willingness to travel and to blend business travel with leisure time. Responding companies also expect to be heading back to the office, at least a few days a week, and many of them are facing headwinds in hiring and retaining qualified workers. This is according to data and insights from the February COVID-19 recovery poll, the latest and 26th in a series, from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the worlds premier association serving the business travel industry. For over two years, GBTA has been regularly surveying travel buyers, travel suppliers and other stakeholders around the world to keep a pulse on the business travel industry as it navigates recovery during the pandemic. We are entering into the next phase of global business travel one of thoughtful recovery and our recent research reflects that shift. The business travel industry is more optimistic about the path to recovery. The signs are there. With safety and health remaining at the forefront, we are moving into a more endemic way of managing the pandemic, step by step. And were defining and creating what will be needed for the next normal in global business travel for the industry, businesses, and travelers, said Suzanne Neufang, CEO, GBTA. Here are some of the results from GBTAs February COVID-19 recovery poll: OPTIMISM RETURNS IN A BIG WAY . Three in four (78%) supplier and travel management company (TMC) professionals surveyed currently feel optimistic about the business travel industrys path to recovery, up from 54% who reported being optimistic in the January poll. . Three in four (78%) supplier and travel management company (TMC) professionals surveyed currently feel optimistic about the business travel industrys path to recovery, up from 54% who reported being optimistic in the January poll. MORE BUSINESS TRAVEL PERMITTED AND DESIRED. The percentage of respondents who report non-essential domestic business travel is sometimes or usually allowed increased to 73% in February, compared to 66% in January.Four in five (82%) poll respondents feel their employees are willing or very willing to travel for business in the current environment, compared to 64% in the January poll. And among those surveyed, most (68%) anticipate they will want to travel about the same amount (55%) or more (13%) as they did before the pandemic in the future. An additional third (30%) say they want to travel somewhat or much less than they did before the pandemic. The percentage of respondents who report non-essential domestic business travel is sometimes or usually allowed increased to 73% in February, compared to 66% in January.Four in five (82%) poll respondents feel their employees are willing or very willing to travel for business in the current environment, compared to 64% in the January poll. And among those surveyed, most (68%) anticipate they will want to travel about the same amount (55%) or more (13%) as they did before the pandemic in the future. An additional third (30%) say they want to travel somewhat or much less than they did before the pandemic. BOOKINGS IMPROVE. INCREMENTALLY. On average, travel buyers say their companys business travel bookings are at 33% of their pre-pandemic level, while travel suppliers report their business travel bookings are back to 42% compared to pre-pandemic levels. On average, travel buyers say their companys business travel bookings are at 33% of their pre-pandemic level, while travel suppliers report their business travel bookings are back to 42% compared to pre-pandemic levels. OMICRON AND MORE TRAVEL AHEAD. Concerning Omicron, most professionals polled (79%) think the worst is behind us. However, expectations vary for how quickly business travel will resume. Half (50%) expect business travel to return more slowly over the next three months, whereas one in three (29%) expect it will pick up quickly. Concerning Omicron, most professionals polled (79%) think the worst is behind us. However, expectations vary for how quickly business travel will resume. Half (50%) expect business travel to return more slowly over the next three months, whereas one in three (29%) expect it will pick up quickly. TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS: TOO TIGHT OR ABOUT RIGHT? When it comes to entry requirements for international visitors, half (46%) feel current restrictions are just right and one-third (34%) feel requirements are either too strict or much too strict. Support for proof of vaccination is strong (76% support or strongly support), but much lower for mandated quarantines (67% opposed or very opposed) and travel bans (62% opposed or very opposed).The recent increase in the travel restrictions being eased in countries and regions around the world comes as good news for many. Of those polled, 79% report government travel restrictions have greatly (23%) or somewhat (56%) disrupted their business operations. Half (51%) say it would take three months or longer for their companys business operations to return to normal after travel restrictions are lifted. When it comes to entry requirements for international visitors, half (46%) feel current restrictions are just right and one-third (34%) feel requirements are either too strict or much too strict. Support for proof of vaccination is strong (76% support or strongly support), but much lower for mandated quarantines (67% opposed or very opposed) and travel bans (62% opposed or very opposed).The recent increase in the travel restrictions being eased in countries and regions around the world comes as good news for many. Of those polled, 79% report government travel restrictions have greatly (23%) or somewhat (56%) disrupted their business operations. Half (51%) say it would take three months or longer for their companys business operations to return to normal after travel restrictions are lifted. BRING ON BLENDED TRAVEL. Travel managers were asked if they think their employees are interested in extending work trips to include a leisure component (also called bleisure travel) compared to before the pandemic. Most (82%) think their employees are equally interested (53%) or more/much more interested (29%) in combining business travel with leisure. Travel managers were asked if they think their employees are interested in extending work trips to include a leisure component (also called bleisure travel) compared to before the pandemic. Most (82%) think their employees are equally interested (53%) or more/much more interested (29%) in combining business travel with leisure. BACK TO OFFICE. SOMETIMES. Over half of respondents (56%) expect their company will require most employees to report to the office, at least some days. However, 15% expect their company to prefer employees report to the office, but not require it, and might consider offering incentives if they do (e.g., free lunch or other benefits). And 19% have no preference if employees work from the office or from home. Over half of respondents (56%) expect their company will require most employees to report to the office, at least some days. However, 15% expect their company to prefer employees report to the office, but not require it, and might consider offering incentives if they do (e.g., free lunch or other benefits). And 19% have no preference if employees work from the office or from home. STATE OF THE TRAVEL WORKFORCE. A majority of suppliers agree it is difficult to hire qualified employees in the current environment (68%) and retain qualified employees (58%). Two-thirds (67%) agree that additional pay or incentives are required to hire/retain qualified workers. Additionally, suppliers and travel management companies (TMCs) report their staff size is either somewhat or much smaller (66%) than before the pandemic. Methodology: GBTA conducted this poll among its members and other business travel industry professionals including travel buyers and travel suppliers across the globe from February 7-14, 2022. A total of 461 responses were received. View the complete February GBTA COVID-19 poll results and related key highlights, as well as the full series of GBTA COVID-19 polls. About the Global Business Travel Association The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world"s largest business travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area with operations across four continents. GBTA"s members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA delivers world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media to a growing global network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts. To learn how business travel drives lasting business growth, visit www.gbta.org. Debbie Iannaci GBTA Global Communications, PR & Research +1 305 301 7057 GBTA The Indian hospitality industry has grown rapidly in recent decades, employing 8.8% of the countrys workforce in 2019. However, the industry has long struggled with a shortage of trained workforce although several students emerge from hospitality colleges each year. The demand-supply equations are daunting even though the sector has tried to close the gap over the years. As per a Ministry of Tourism study, the manpower shortage in 2018 was 2.6 million, and the sector is staring at a deficit of 1.1 million in 2025, posing a significant threat to the sector's recovery post-COVID. Several factors have contributed to this, and the situation is expected to get worse post the pandemic. One key reason is that over the past decade, several other allied industries have started hiring hospitality professionals in their teams as they have specific 'high-in-demand' competencies such as adaptability, outstanding communication, and collaboration skills, as well as extensive exposure to a dynamic 24x7 work environment. This trend has accelerated since the pandemic, as hospitality companies resorted to layoffs and salary cuts to survive the COVID crisis, and displaced hospitality professionals were compelled to find work in other industries. However, with rising demand, the industry is now confronted with a new set of obstacles. Companies are now having difficulty in attracting the right talent as several hospitality professionals who were displaced and found work in other industries are now hesitant to return to the industry. Moreover, experienced employees are reluctant to re-join at a lower salary and instead prefer joining allied industries. The hospitality industry has historically seen a high attrition rate, which has often resulted in higher recruitment and training costs for organizations. The long-held perception that a hospitality career entails long hours, physically demanding jobs and low compensation has tarnished the industrys reputation. Add in the fact that other industries such as IT/ITeS, retail, and e-commerce increasingly offer higher income, better work environments, flexible working hours, and even remote/hybrid work possibilities, which is discouraging many people from pursuing a career in hospitality. The industry and educational institutions play a vital role in addressing these issues. The immediate need of the hour is for hospitality institutes to upgrade their curriculum and teaching infrastructure to align with the changing needs of the industry. Skill development courses in culinary, guest services, and communication must be prioritized. Technology adoption in the hospitality industry is growing at a rapid pace, and technological competence, analytics, and digital skills will soon be critical differentiators. It is vital that hospitality institutes running undergraduate courses impart knowledge beyond traditional hotel operations and include a deeper insight into the business of hospitality. Continuous counseling of students on the nature of work, career growth, and problems they will experience along the way is equally important so that the glamour which often attracts young aspirants to this field is merged with reality, and students are better prepared for their post-campus hospitality careers. On the industrys part, it's past time to abandon the age-old narrative that a career in hotel operations means long hours and hard work, which serves as a continual warning to aspiring youngsters interested in pursuing a hospitality career. While this may well be true, it is not any different in other industries, except that the other industries have created the perception of fun and exciting jobs. Workplaces and work environments have changed dramatically over the last few years because of the changes brought about by new-age global businesses such as Google, Facebook, and others attempting to attract millennials. The hotel industry, on the other hand, has been slow to adapt, and the difference between guest areas in a hotel and employee areas can often be rather stark. The hospitality industry has done very little to entice newcomers into the business. The exhilarating exposure to a 'live' 24X7 setting with frequent adrenaline rushes that may be found in hotels is greatly undervalued. The career growth opportunities of becoming a General Manager, the most coveted job, in your early 30s is not a very well-known fact. The intriguing tale surrounding a truly fantastic employment opportunity is something that the industry has made no attempt to develop, enabling other industries to take the lead and create a more attractive option. Moreover, the industry has been unable to dispel the prevalent perception that it is a low-paying job. While starting salaries are often lower than in other industries, the industry quickly catches up and offers a job that does not confine a person to a desk in an office. It is, therefore, imperative that the industry focuses on addressing these challenges. As a result of the lessons learned from the pandemic, hospitality companies have now learned to recalibrate their numbers and deliver more with less. The industry must now pass on a share of the savings from reduced manpower costs toward more competitive compensation and work environments. Moreover, prioritizing continual learning and employee reskilling & upskilling through specialized training programs geared toward future leaders can help maximize potential, increase employee engagement, and enhance operations. Industry leaders should invest time and resources in developing the next generation of hospitality leaders. Improving remuneration standards, outlining professional growth paths, and putting in place efficient succession planning can assist the industry to recruit and retain people and achieve its growth potential. Mandeep S Lamba President (South Asia), New Delhi +91 (124) 488 5552 HVS View source S Hotels & Resorts, a subsidiary of Singha Estate Public Company Limited, is a new era Thai-inspired personalized hospitality brand that caters to upscale travelers with an independent spirit. The group offers guests a portfolio of 39 properties in 5 countries with a total of 4,647 keys and provides guests with the opportunity to experience the best destinations from a unique perspective while enjoying world class facilities and tailored services. S Hotels & Resorts properties are located in attractive, unspoiled locales to provide an exclusive playground built around nature, culture, wellness and adventure, with a generous helping of creature comforts and fine cuisine. Each property boasts its own distinctive, destination sensitive designs and unique signatures while also providing consistency thanks to a well-defined brand philosophy and a service culture that focuses on exceptional guest experiences backed up by Thai-inspired hospitality and global quality standards. Houston-based oil and gas company Amplify Energy is suing two major shipping companies for their alleged roles in last years oil spill, which leaked some 25,000 gallons of crude from a pipeline off the coast of Orange County, Calif. The complaint, filed Monday in California District Court, seeks damages from Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Capetanissa Maritime Corp., a subsidiary of Greek shipping giant Costamare, accusing their ships of dragging anchors over Amplifys pipeline during a storm. MSC and Costamare could not be immediately reached for comment Monday. On HoustonChronicle.com: Why the latest oil spill could have profound implications for Houston's economy The 13-mile spill closed popular beaches, fisheries and led to the cancellation of the Huntington Beach air show when it was discovered in October. It was the third in a string of major incidents last year that raised questions about whether the Biden administration should limit offshore drilling. Amplify and its subsidiaries, which operate oil rigs and a pipeline off Long Beach, were charged in December by a federal grand jury with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil. The charge carries up to five years of probation for the corporation and fines that could total millions of dollars. But Amplify said the blame doesnt fall solely on its shoulders. By dragging their anchors over our pipeline early last year, these two ships damaged the pipeline and caused the release that occurred last October, Amplify said in a statement Monday. Had either of the ships or the Maritime Exchange notified Amplify Energy of the anchor strikes, we would have immediately assessed the situation and made any necessary repairs. Amplifys pipeline was damaged months before the spill was discovered in October, the company said. The events origins trace back to a winter storm in January 2021, when both ships the MSC Danit and COSCO Beijing stayed anchored in San Pedro Bay while 20 others headed for deeper waters as a storm approached, according to the lawsuit. Heavy winds and waves rocked the vessels, dragging their anchors and the pipeline along with it, causing damage, it said. A locations service that tracks vessels showed both anchored ships crossed the pipeline multiple times during the storm on Jan. 25, 2021, the suit said. Months later, the damaged and displaced pipeline leaked oil into the San Pedro Bay, Amplify said in the suit. Within days, the Coast Guards ensuing investigation into the discharge quickly revealed the Shipping Defendants roles in the oil discharge. The suit also claims Marine Exchange, a nonprofit charged with monitoring and directing ship traffic in and out of ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, failed to monitor anchor incidents during the storm. The court asks that Marine Exchange be required to prevent ships from anchoring near pipelines during a storm and to warn pipeline owners about anchor-dragging incidents. The organization could not be immediately reached Monday. amanda.drane@chron.com The potential for Western powers to put sanctions on Russian energy supplies in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine will be the main factor driving oil markets this week, analysts said. The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark for the price of oil, topped the $100 per barrel during intraday trading last week after Russian forces crossed the border into Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, came very close to following suit during trading Thursday. As the Western response unfolded without targeting Russias energy supplies, however, neither benchmark stayed around $100 threshold for long. WTI finished the week where it started off, closing the trading day Friday at $91.59 per barrel. On HoustonChronicle.com: What will Russia's invasion in Ukraine mean for Houston? Soaring oil prices are just the start. But as Russia pressed its attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other major cities, the White House insisted it would not target oil and gas flows nor financial transactions related to energy. Its unclear how those financial transactions would be affected should Western powers decide to isolate Russia further from the SWIFT international banking system. Its still too early to tell what type of sanctions the West will go for against Russia, said Claudio Galimberti, a senior vice president of analysis at Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. That will determine the oil price risk premium going forward. Most analysts estimate the conflict, along with sporadic attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in the Middle East, has tacked on a $10 to a barrel of oil. That risk premium would increase should Western powers tighten the financial noose on the Kremlin, Galimberti added. There may indeed be a harsher response from the West on Monday after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was responding to aggressive statements from NATO allies by putting nuclear deterrent forces on alert while raising the prospects for direct talks with Ukraine. Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group in Chicago, said its been difficult to ascertain Putins motives, but it does look like the Russian president is concerned the invasion did not result in the quick collapse of the Ukrainian government of Volodymyr Zelensky. To calm energy markets, Flynn added, Western powers are likely to tap strategic petroleum reserves. But such moves would not have much of an impact should shipping lanes close due to war. Turkey, which controls the outlet to the Black Sea, said it would block some Russian maritime traffic due to the conflict. U.S. producers, meanwhile, are ready to respond. Ed Longanecker, the president of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association, said domestic producers have the most powerful weapon against Russian aggression and market volatility - shale oil and gas. We see an upward pressure on commodity prices beyond the invasion in Ukraine driven by growing demand and underinvestment in domestic production, he said. All of these factors underscore the pivotal role that Texas has in providing energy security to our country and other democracies around the world. On HoustonChronicle.com: Rig count jumps again as Russia moves into Ukraine U.S. drillers were already responding to the high price environment before war broke out in Ukraine. The Baker Hughes rig count shows companies putting more drilling rigs into operation across North America. The Energy Department is forecasting steady gains in crude production over the next year. All this will factor into the meeting of OPEC and its allies on Wednesday when they will again consider whether to adjust plans to put an additional 400,000 barrels of oil on the market each month. But even with the exceptionally tight market few analysts expect the group to boost production beyond the monthly quota. Elsewhere, markets are likely to react to Bidens State of the Union address Tuesday and congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. BP shares fell about 5 percent as investors weighed the cost of its decision to exit Russia against the reputational benefits of ending the controversial alliance with Rosneft. The London-based company warned that it could take a writedown of as much as $25 billion as a result of quitting Russia in President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine. Several analysts predicted a financial hit on that scale was the most likely outcome, as economic sanctions imposed by the West make it hard to find a buyer. Yet BPs quick decision removes other risks, such as the reputational damage from its partnership with the Kremlin-controlled company and questions about how Russian oil and gas fits in with its pledge to pivot to clean energy. Walking away at this time is obviously not ideal from a shareholder value perspective, RBC analyst Biraj Borkhataria said in a note. Monetizing the stake for fair value looked difficult even in more normal times, and now, to us, it looks extremely challenging. That said, the exit from this stake ultimately removes one of the concerns with the long term investment case. Shares of the company dropped as much as 7.5 percent and were 6.5 lower at 354.05 pence as of 12:43 p.m. in London. Thats a relatively modest move considering that Rosneft accounted for about a third of BPs reported oil and gas production. While BPs stake in the Kremlin-controlled oil producer had a lot of symbolism, marking the continuation of three decades of operating in the country, in some practical ways the alliance was shallower than it appeared. While BP reported its share of Rosneft production, reserves and profit for accounting purposes, it didnt have direct stakes in any of Rosnefts fields nor physical access to the hydrocarbons they produced. BPs principal financial benefit from the stake was to receive a dividend, which last year was $640 million and in 2020 was zero. BPs total operational cash flow in 2021 was $23.6 billion. Exiting Rosneft is significant, but is only a 5 percent adjustment to projected Ebitda in 2025, said Allegra Dawes, an analyst at Third Bridge. Furthermore, oil prices are up strongly today, and given that the non-Russian parts of BPs production are higher margin barrels, the impact to shareholders is not devastating. Sundays surprise move from the British company was the latest sign of how far Western powers are willing to go to punish Putin. BP has been in Russia for three decades and just weeks ago was staunchly defending its presence there. But it was coming under growing pressure from the U.K. government over the alliance with Rosneft. Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney was summoned by U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to explain the companys Russian links last week. Kwarteng welcomed BPs move on Sunday. This military action represents a fundamental change, BP Chairman Helge Lund said in a statement. It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue. Looney will also resign with immediate effect from the Russian companys board, as will his predecessor Bob Dudley. BP will also exit its other business in Russia, which include three joint ventures with a carrying value on its books of about $1.4 billion. The company didnt say whether it was planning to sell its roughly 20 percent stake in Rosneft, or simply walk away. Any potential buyer would have to navigate a tightening web of economic sanctions that would make any transaction extremely difficult. Given the circumstances and Russias aggression in Ukraine, finding such a buyer may prove very challenging, said Banco Santander analyst Jason Kenney. As it stands right now a write-off is likely although the situation in changing fast. In a memo to employees, Looney said there would be financial consequences from the move that would show up in its next quarterly results. A spokesperson said there could be a writedown of as much as $25 billion. We are strongly supportive of the boards decision and applaud them for taking swift action following the events of the last week, said Andrew Millington, head of U.K. equities at abrdn plc. While there may be a significant financial cost to BP in exiting Rosneft it is unquestionably the right thing to do. Even before the invasion of Ukraine, BP had been subject to growing criticism about its interest in the Russian company. Unlike BP, which has pledged to gradually shift from hydrocarbons to cleaner forms of energy, Rosneft remains staunchly committed to fossil fuels and is planning a massive new oil and gas development in the Arctic. A bank used by Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay the salaries and pensions of its workforce in Russia was among those sanctioned by the White House, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move sent the oil giant rushing to line up a new financial institution to keep its Russian operations going, one of the people said. Both were granted anonymity to discuss non-public information. The situation illustrates the effect the U.S. measures are having on the energy industry even as President Joe Biden seeks to avoid penalties that could further increase oil and gasoline prices for U.S. consumers in response to President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine. Exxon, which has hundreds of workers in Russia, didnt respond to requests for comment. The White House declined to comment on Exxons situation, citing comments by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday. We want to take every step to maximize the impact and the consequences on President Putin while minimizing the impact on the American people and the global community, Psaki said on ABCs This Week. The Biden administration said last week it was sanctioning five of Russias largest banks, including Sberbank of Russia PJSC and VTB Bank PJSC, hampering their ability to operate. The bank used by Exxon couldnt be learned. Exxon and others in the energy industry lobbied the Biden administration in the buildup to the Russian invasion to exercise caution on directly sanctioning Russias energy industry, according to one of the people, who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The Biden administration wont sanction Russian crude oil or the states oil and gas sector, Amos Hochstein, the State Departments senior energy security adviser, said on Bloomberg Television on Friday. Our sanctions are not designed to cause any disruption to the current flow of energy from Russia to the world, Daleep Singh, Bidens deputy national security adviser for international economics, told reporters Thursday. Energy is the one area where Russia has systemic importance in the global economy, he said. Exxons main remaining asset in Russia is a long-standing joint venture with Rosneft PJSC on Sakhalin Island in Russias Far East. Exxon abandoned other joint ventures with Rosneft in 2018 in the face of international sanctions against Russias energy sector. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate As interim president and former chair of the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, Carol Guess has helped guide local Black-owned businesses through significant times of tumult, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing fights for racial justice and economic equity. With her at the helm, the Chamber has implemented myriad programs to combat the economic fallout form the pandemic, offering Black-owned businesses new programs to network and build multi-generational wealth. Black-owned businesses were hit especially hard by the pandemic. They were five times more likely than white business owners to be denied assistance federal disaster help, including through the Paycheck Protection Program, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And recent surveys by H&R Block found that roughly 53 percent of Black business owners lost at least half of their revenue since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to 37 percent of white business owners. Before becoming interim president, Guess served as chair of the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce. She earned her law degree at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University and her bachelors at Vanderbilt University. The Chronicle spoke to Guess about the state of Black business in Houston as the pandemic continues and supply chain disruptions and labor shortages persist. 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. Q: Black-owned businesses bore an uneven brunt of the economic fallout from COVID-19. Can you explain a bit about why that was, and how that might exacerbate inequality in the future? A: The negative economic effects of racism on Black wealth over the years, legislation such as segregation (essentially separate but unequal), Jim Crow, and discriminatory practices, such as redlining. These are not criticisms of the United States these are facts about acts that occurred as part of our American history that have virtually guaranteed that Blacks would start and lag behind in business, as well as other areas of life, such as health and the maintenance of the family unit. On HoustonChronicle.com: Houstons Black neighborhoods saw a surge of new businesses. Experts point to COVID and BLM. As a result, many Black-owned businesses start off in precarious positions, self-funding, lacking capital, access to markets, and saddled with small margins. Because of these issues, when major disruptors hit the marketplace such as COVID-19, many Black businesses, very vulnerable to begin with, cannot withstand the negative impacts of such events. If, as a society, we decide not to institute measures to close the gaps in these areas, these problems will persist, ultimately creating an even greater wealth gap for Blacks, eventually significantly dragging down the U.S. economy. Q: What can be done to reverse that trend? A: Consistent greater access to business education, mentorship, and access to capital can reverse this trend. Also, nondiscriminatory treatment of Black-owned businesses that have demonstrated viability when competing for contracts, both in the private and public sectors. Q: What are the biggest issues you continue to hear from members about? A: Lack of workers due to the pandemic, and access to capital. Q: How has COVID-19 changed the way you think about your role, and the Chambers role more broadly? A: One of the tenets of our motto is advocacy. During this time, I believe that the Chambers role is to be at the forefront of advocating for our members against the barriers to business we face that have been brought to light due to the pandemic, and to work collaboratively with those corporations, nonprofit organizations, interested persons and governmental entities that seek to align with us in our mission to empower Black-owned businesses, and therefore, our economy as a whole. Q: How have supply chain issues been affecting member businesses? Are there specific sectors where the problems have been particularly acute? A: I have received the most negative feedback from members in the service industry, especially restaurateurs and caterers. Q: Do you think supply chain issues have been getting better or worse? A: I believe that supply chain issues have remained the same to this point, and that the businesses have figured out ways to handle the shortages to stay open and deliver the same level of service that they have become known for, be it through collaborating with other businesses, or marketing best sellers more to accommodate for the losses sustained on other items due to supply chain issues. On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston Equity fund gets $20 million donation to boost minority-owned businesses Q: In what ways are member businesses being affected by the tight labor market and resulting lack of available workers? How have businesses adapted to meet demands of workers for things such as higher pay or remote work? A: Our members have been incentivizing workers, offering higher wages and greater benefits, such as flex-time. Q: Are there any legislative items that the chamber is keeping an eye on? A: We are consistently monitoring the acts of all legislative bodies to ensure that our members are provided a meaningful opportunity to participate in the economic opportunities therefrom. robert.downen@chron.com The partners behind Kau Ba Saigon have recruited top talent Yoshi Katsuyama to open Aya Sushi later this spring in downtown Bellaire. Katsuyama, a veteran of Uchi, helped Austin chef Andy Chen launch the impressive Soto on Lower Westheimer last year. Aya Sushi will put Katsuyamas omakase skills on display in a space revamped from the former Bernies Burger Bus, at 5407 Bellaire Boulevard. The restaurant will seat 80 inside and unusually for a sushi spot 50 on the patio. The indoor capacity includes 10 seats at the sushi bar and an additional 10 bar seats. The project will expand the Bellaire Triangles nucleus of serious dining destinations that already includes Costa Brava Bistro, Saltillo and Blood Bros. BBQ the last just a few doors down the strip center from Aka. Pak Tsui, a Kau Ba Saigon investor and a restaurateur who counts Fat Bao, Ka Sushi in the Heights and Spice Lane in Sugar Land among his projects, is taking the lead on Ayas design and build-out. Look for the kind of dramatic metalwork that his contractors installed at Ka Sushi, and an interior mural by Annaly Phelan, whose work makes the Kau Ba patio so charming. The art syncs up wih the Aya name, which means design or colorful in Japanese. One of the inspirations for the interior color palette was the bottle for the Champagne house Salon. Chef Katsuyama will be a partner in the new venture. Tsui has tapped Chris Morris, who has done a transformative job as Kau Bas beverage director to fill the same role for Aya. Morris is promising an extensive wine, Champagne and sake list chosen to suit the restaurants a la carte sushi items, and to pair with the multi-course, chefs-choice omakase dinners for which chef Katsuyama is known. Regular omakase will be priced at $125, with a premium version going for $225. Beyond the omakase options, there will be a wide variety of nigiri, sashimi and sushi rolls. We want to make the experience fun and accessible for all, notes Morris. Aya will be open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week. Seasonal fish will be flown in daily, and the omakase selection will include such niche items as kama toro (tuna cheek); monkfish liver; and engawa, the supple and surprising flounder fin. Katsuyamas team will make their tamago (egg omelet) in house and have some fun with playful caviar presentations, along with the chefs takea on miso seabass and grilled Wagyu shortrib wih miso sesame sauce. On the beverage side, Morris says that right around Ayas opening date, he expects to receive a shipment of namazake, the unpasteurized sake released right after the brewing season, when its at its freshest. Think of it as the sake version of Beaujolais Nouveau, he jokes. Morris will be stocking food-friendly Japanese whiskeys as well. Hes procured a special nitrogen siphon to make a Nitro Midori Sour for his cocktail list. Another of his projects is an Onimasa cocktail, named for a 1982 yakuza film set in the Taisho period of the early 20th century. It involves rice whiskey infused with hoicha, a fire-roasted green tea, plus pandan syrup, black truffle and cocoa bitters, all made in-house. Judging from what Morris has accomplished at Kau Ba Saigon, the bar at Aya seems primed to become an extra attraction in an area notably short on the modern cocktail arts. Renovation of the space is currently underway, following the dismantling of the full-size school bus left behind when Bernies closed. It was disassembled with welding torches and carted out the front door in pieces. Elon Musk is fast becoming a real Texan. Over the weekend, the SpaceX founder and recent Texas resident was spotted carrying his youngest son at an annual event in Brownsville that celebrates Texas and Mexican culture known as the Sombrero Festival. In a video posted on social media, someone at the festival is seen handing Musk an spiropapa, a fried potato sliced into a spiral on a stick. Musk takes several bites and appears to contemplate the flavor before moving on. STARLINK IN DEMAND: Elon Musk says Starlink satellite internet service is now 'active' after Ukraine minister's plea In addition to trying the food, Musk posed for photographs and walked the festival grounds with Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. We tried to keep moving because it became apparent that everyone wanted to take a photo with him and it was going to get out of hand quickly, Trevino told the Brownsville Herald. It was so neat to see the reaction and faces, especially of the kids who were recognizing who he was and saying or asking, Is that Elon Musk? 'STOP SPACEX?': Brownsville activist accused of defacing Elon Musk-funded mural blasts mayor for Facebook mugshot SpaceX is developing spacecraft prototypes in Boca Chica beach, just outside of Brownsville. Musk founded the company in 2002 and, in more recent years, has chose the Rio Grande Valley location as the testbed for his Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket that are being designed to carry people to the moon, Mars and beyond. Musk originally agreed to attend Charro Days earlier this month during a presentation at the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica when a reporter asked if he would go. The Sombrero Festival takes place during the Charro Days festivities in the South Texas City. THIS IS NOT SPACEX PROPERTY': SpaceX looks to recast South Texas town as Starbase SpaceX was also a sponsor of the festival and had a float in the Charro Days parade. Images posted on social media show company employees in traditional Mexican clothing standing around one of Starships methane-fueled Raptor engines. Musks appearance at the Sombrero Festival wasnt his first attempt at a Texas tradition. During a conference call in January to discuss Teslas fourth-quarter earnings, Musk said he took his children to H-E-B during the early days of the pandemic to see if people were really panic-buying toilet paper, the Express-News reported. This was reportedly before he became a Texas resident. Musk personally relocated to the Austin area from Los Angeles, where he had lived for two decades. He also officially moved Tesla to Austin in December. Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Activist Sandra Edwards didnt want Black History Month to pass her by without again calling attention to Union Pacifics failure to remove all the toxic creosote that seeped into the groundwater and soil at the end of her street in Fifth Ward. Residents in this historically Black community are tired of fighting for change but still they press on, promising theyre not going to stop. About a dozen gathered on a sunny but cold Monday morning to hold signs by the site and publicly ask yet again for the company to clean up its contamination. Our voices still need to be heard, Cookie Straughter said. It needs to be a continuous thing, to let them know we mean business. Rail ties were long treated with creosote in the U.S. to preserve them. Now creosote is considered a likely carcinogen. And while wood hasnt been treated at this site for decades, the chemicals remain in the ground, a situation that residents in Fifth Ward say people in richer, whiter communities wouldnt be asked to tolerate. On HoustonChronicle.com: Sitting time bomb: Turner says buyouts may be solution for residents near Fifth Ward creosote site 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. On Monday, as they scrawled messages on cardboard and posters, they remembered the generations that came before them in this community and hoped this fight wouldnt last past their own deaths. Some recalled growing up alongside the rail yard, playing on the tracks and smelling polluted air that kept them up at night. Back then, no one knew their environment might be dangerous. State researchers recently found elevated rates of certain types of cancer in the surrounding community. What about, We have been forgotten? asked Walter Mallett, standing in Edwards driveway and trying to come up with a phrase to write on his sign. OK, Joetta Stevenson encouraged. Were the forgotten people, he said, continuing to brainstorm. Union Pacific is still working with the state to come up with a plan for addressing the issue. Theyve covered some of the soil with concrete. Residents arent supposed to drink water from groundwater wells. Instead, theyve been asked to use the citys water instead. The company says they arent at risk and site monitoring is ongoing. The rail line said in a statement Monday that it had followed state permitting and remediation requirements since it acquired the site in 1997. It continued: Weve consistently met with many stakeholders and are planning meetings with more in the future. The communitys fight, organized by a group called IMPACT, has drawn attention from the federal level. EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited late last year and promised to submit feedback on the proposed cleanup plan. Around 11:30 a.m. Monday, the group gathered across the street from the rail yard and held their signs proudly. We are the power, one sign said. We are one for our people read another. I love 5th Ward read a third. They represented different generations, taking turns shouting into a microphone and addressing the media. We will not be silenced, Edwards said. They have been watching closely as the companys plans slowly move ahead. State regulators have been planning to hold a second public meeting for residents to give input on the cleanup plans. There was no doubt: People here want to be heard. emily.foxhall@chron.com As the sun began to rise, a worker went down a row of people who were sleeping on the sidewalk, lowering his walkie talkie to their ears, where it emitted a loud beep. One woman began to cry. Others began tying on their shoes and zipping their things into bags. A few began yelling. Hes not the guy I married! shouted a woman into the cold. Kiki Aguero got out from under her blankets and began interrogating the worker. Where are we supposed to go? she asked pointedly. The Beacons open, he offered, referring to a resource center for the homeless that is open mornings. Tranquility Parks feeding people. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer The worker, who declined to give his name because he said he was not supposed to talk with the media, explained he empathized with the people he was waking up that morning. Before I did this, I used to be out here, he said. But rather than lie out here prohibited downtown by city ordinance between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Id ride up and down the train. But Aguero was less focused on where he was coming from she wanted to make a point about what was right. She has crafted a role for herself among the people who live unsheltered downtown as an activist, someone fighting to make life on Houstons sidewalks better. On the street, relationships and identities form quickly, both as a form of protection and a way to find meaning and sustain against life's indignities. They can also make that community harder to leave. This is my light, she later said. This gives me meaning. Too much stuff Aguero returned to her spot on the sidewalk on Feb. 9 with a cup of hot chocolate to a heart-sinking sight: All of her things were gone. The Houston Police Department and Downtown Management District had been by to clean up and had taken her clothes, blankets, hygiene items and cardboard, which she used to insulate herself from the cold of the concrete at night. What she was most worried about, however, was a clear backpack that contained her tablet, birth certificate and social security card. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Two others also lost things in the cleanup: Linda Gibson and Brandon (who didnt give his last name). They were willing to let it go while Gibson had lost some of her seizure medication, she had more on her person, and Brandon dismissed the issue as materialist. Then Aguero took charge. Aguero likes to talk about who she is now more than who she used to be or what led her to live outside the Beacon. Shes been on the street, off and on, for two years, leaving for brief stints to stay with cousins or friends. But shes found she tires easily of the rules that come with inhabiting someone elses space. And after being denied for housing once, she said, she hasnt tried again. Shes focused on improving life on the streets instead of leaving them. She began walking in search of someone she could speak to, the other two trailing in her wake. On her white denim jacket - a gift from a good Samaritan - she had clipped her badge from a food service company where she sometimes worked as a contractor, like an amulet to ward off unspoken assumptions of the people shed meet along the way. First, she found a district employee who had no answers but gave her a business card; then she walked to where she thought the districts office was located but found instead an empty building. She called the number on the business card, but was told no one could meet her for half an hour. Finally she found another district employee who pointed her to the office, and she wrangled a meeting with a manager. He gave her two sheets of paper with directions on how to get to the warehouse and when it was open not until the next day. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle Progress Mama, Aguero said to Gibson, who had mentioned she was feeling sick from back pain. Do you want anything from the store? Chicken broth. Aguero took out her food stamp card, and they turned into a shop on the corner of Lamar and Main. As they walked inside, the noises of the street - the cars and subway and construction - faded away. They looked at a case of neatly arranged bottles of jewel-toned beverages. Harish Parmar, the owner of Main Food Store, helped them find the broth. We can use a pocket knife to open that, Aguero murmured, looking at the can, which did not have a pull tab. Parmar, who has run the store for a decade, speaks glowingly about the transformation he thinks the police and Downtown Management District have wrought on Main Street - the crowds of people who used to loiter outside the store and sometimes spilled inside, cussing, fighting and scaring off customers have left in recent months, he said with a smile. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer For 10 years, no one cared But now everything is good. The group made their purchase and headed back to their spot on a sidewalk. Aguero had called a philanthropic woman who regularly brought by items like clothing; she met them with blankets and sheets. Gibson immediately curled up on a blanket, pulled a sheet over her body and fell asleep. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Calling for help Those living and working closer to the blocks where Aguero stays say they have not seen the changes Parmar has seen on Main Street. Koula Hanges, who has owned a building since 1977, said shes had her windows smashed and people threaten her. Nancy and John Geigel, who live nearby, have had someone try their door, swearing he lived there. He kept yelling, Wheres my key! They worry about the drug use and mental illness they see outside. The next day, Aguero woke up and went for a walk as she waited for the storage center to open. She was halfway down the block when she saw a man curled on the curb, his face against the pavement. Pink saliva dribbled from his mouth. She took out her phone. Im calling for help, she said when he protested. He waved such help away, and she stopped and asked him if knew where he was. He grinned weakly and said Houston. She helped him stand up and move so he could sit against the Beacons walls. Its okay. Alright? Its okay, she said. The man, a father and lover of the French philosopher Camus, had recently spiraled out of sobriety following a breakup. He listened, his face wavering between hope and collapse. I know, Aguero continued. I used to be an alcoholic myself at one point It doesnt make you less human, less of a man. Okay? Youre human. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Going to find the belongings After lunch, Aguero corralled the two others who had lost their things. A bus ride took the group, which had grown over half a dozen, to the warehouse. Inside, four rows of industrial shelving were piled high with bags, suitcases, plastic bins and other items two shoe racks, an ice chest and a pair of giant paintings. On the end of each aisle was a label, a Dewey Decimal system of sorts mapping out the main thoroughfares of downtown Houstons homeless population: Prairie Area, 290/610 Pierce Area, Chartres Area. Gibson spotted her quilt on a section of shelves labeled 2/22 Caroline St, then Brandon and Aguero spotted possessions they recognized as well. I cant believe it, said Patrick Law, whose things were in a different section and had been tagged five months before. I didnt think itd really be here. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle But after the rest were satisfied that they had found their things, Aguero still couldnt find the clear backpack she said housed her tablet, birth certificate and social security card. She ripped open bags of her things to make sure they werent inside, and began taking video of staff. She demanded names, both of the person checking out the material and the officer who checked it in, and pushed back on the implication that someone on the street could have stolen the backpack. We take care of one another. On the way back, others carried their things, laughing and expressing their disbelief. Aguero felt like she would burst with frustration. Like she needed a Four Loko. It will take so long to get those documents back. Things fall apart Gone were the white jacket and badge. The sky overhead had begun to darken. Brandon said, offhand, that Aguero should stop leaving her things out because someone could take it. She felt flash of emotion was he saying it was her fault? Then something inside her tipped over. On Friday night as James Stafford and his wife readied for dinner, they heard yelling outside. Stafford rushed to the window and saw a man and a woman grappling in the street as cars paused around them. He opened the window and shouted at them to stop, that he was calling the police. He took out his phone and started filming. A light A few days later, Aguero sat in a new folding chair, looking as though nothing had happened. What is going to look good on me? she mused, as she went through the contents of a gray drawstring bag, taking out a can of hairspray. Oh! She took out a dark purple lipstick and applied it in a concave mirror, then drew the mirror close to her face for a better look. Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle A man wearing camouflaged bib overalls and a gray bowl cut came up to Aguero and smiled shyly, rocking back and forth as he spoke. Out of all the places Ive been, this is the first place where someone stands up for us, he said. And it touches me right here, he said, putting his hand over his heart. Aguero beamed. Gone from the sidewalk She soon set up a meeting with a Houston Police officer to discuss the ways ordinances were being enforced. In preparation for the big day, she'd met with the cousin of a woman who used to live on the sidewalk outside the Beacon to talk about research and outfits. But the day before the meeting, a warrant was issued for Aguero's arrest in connection with a charge from nearly a year before, an alleged scam. At the time, a judge had given Aguero deferred adjudication a special type of probation which would, upon its successful completion, allow her to seal the charge from her record. Conditions of the probation had included working or attending school full time, registering any change of residence and breaking no laws. The warrant meant the court believed she had failed to meet those conditions. Hours before the meeting with Houston Police, she was arrested and brought to a Harris County jail, where she was denied bail. Her neighbors on the sidewalk, many of whom have had run-ins with the law themselves, were less interested in the details of Aguero's probation and whether or not she had met its conditions than in the hole she was leaving behind. "I'm very upset. I'm very confused. She had the people out here feeling safer," said Lillard Knotts, who said she has also been on deferred adjudication. Godofredo A. Vasquez contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A mother said she feels heartbroken after her 3-year old son was allegedly sexually assaulted while under the care of a southwest Houston daycare. A Houston Police Department spokesperson said the incident is an ongoing sexual assault investigation involving a juvenile suspect and juvenile complainant at Prince and Princess Daycare, located at 8085 W. Airport Blvd. The mom, identified on social media as A'shunte, has also spoken out about the alleged assault on Twitter and Yelp. She said her son told her he wasn't feeling well when she picked him up on Feb. 18 and she alleges that she later discovered he had been sodomized with an open-ended marker at the daycare he attended for nearly a year. She immediately took her son to Texas Children's Hospital for care, according to Fox 26. "(It) is heartbreaking," she said on Twitter. "They stole his innocence and took away his confidence and he's only 3! It's life changing and extremely devastating." She called for the daycare to be shut down. It is unclear if Prince and Princess Daycare is still operating, but the business Facebook page appears to have recently been deactivated. The business did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Prince and Princess Daycare is a licensed center - child care program in Houston with a maximum capacity of 100 children, and helps with children in the age range of Infant, Toddler, Pre-Kindergarten and school, according to ChildCareCenter.us. OnHoustonChronicle.com: Some Houston workers can get 1 year of free childcare, and Hidalgo wants more people to sign up The daycare has been cited 48 times in the last five years, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, with some violations relating to building and equipment maintenance and others citing safety and inadequate supervision of children. A spokesperson for Texas DFPS confirmed the agency is investigating the case and it could take roughly a month. "The findings will be turned over to the Health and Human Services Commission, the agency that licenses and regulates daycares,"said Melissa Lanford with DFPS. Many people in Houston have spoken out in support of the family, including rapper Trae Tha Truth, who just last week stood up for another child, an Aldine ISD student who was attacked in a viral video. "It's not okay for kids to be sexually assaulted touched or hurt in any form or fashion," the rapper and community ambassador said on Instagram. On Saturday he posted a picture with the child and his family surrounded by toys. The left needs a new narrative. Such is the idea that has gripped the minds of many on the left around the world today, as attempts are made to build alternatives to the dominant, bourgeois parties. What is the substance behind this idea? And can it help take the working class forward in any way? As Yola Kipcak explains in this article, first published in issue 34 of In Defence of Marxism, playing around with words is no substitute for class struggle. Click here to subscribe and get the latest issue of In Defence of Marxism magazine. The idea that the left needs an improved narrative and the connected notion that we require some sort of left populism has occupied the attention of left-wing parties and organisations throughout Europe and beyond. To cite one example, Jorg Schindler, the general secretary of the Left Party in Germany, has written, In order for us to be at the forefront of the climate movement which is where we belong we need a convincing LEFT narrative.[1] Katja Kipping, chairwoman of the same party, explained, I believe we need a left populism in order to make clear that there are alternatives. And we must strengthen alternative explanation patterns and counter [German chancellor Angela Merkels] narrative with a different narrative.[2] The latest In Defence of Marxism magazine is available NOW! Subscribe today at https://t.co/vvFupbO5RU#indefenceofmarxism pic.twitter.com/DtM3dVjstU Wellred Books (@WellredBooks) February 9, 2022 Finally, at an event in 2019 in Vienna, organised by Transform Europe a project of the European Left Party comprising the likes of SYRIZA, Die LINKE, Rifondazione Comunista and Bloco de Esquerda at which the Young Lefts, the Communist Party of Austria, and others were present, the term left narrative was used liberally throughout the two-hour discussion. These are just small examples that bear witness to the extent to which these ideas have sunk roots in the left in a variety of countries. The idea of a left narrative has been floating around university circles for a long time now. However, it only really began taking off in popularity with the sudden surge in support for new left parties such as SYRIZA in Greece and Podemos in Spain, which became points of reference for much of the left internationally. Prominent figures in both parties would litter their speeches with references to this concept some years ago. And indeed, the idea has its theoreticians, one of the most prominent of which is the Belgian academic, Chantal Mouffe. Along with her late partner, Ernest Laclau, Mouffe attempted to develop a theory of a narrative-based left populism. In the list of acknowledgements to her latest book, For a Left Populism, Mouffe is keen to credit both Inigo Errejon (Podemos) and Jean-Luc Melenchon (La France Insoumise) for their contributions, and personal conversations. What lies behind the narrative? Fundamental to Mouffes theory that we need to build a left populism based on a new left narrative, is the idea that reality is made up of narratives that is to say, of stories. According to this notion, if politicians manage to cast the experiences of the people in gripping terms effectively framing narratives this will in turn influence the peoples actions, thus producing reality itself. Reality then is not made up of an objective, material existence that forms the basis of our ideas. On the contrary, it is our ideas that mould the world. Thus, capitalism is not an economic system out of which arose a working class and a capitalist class, but rather a narrative, a construction. Mouffe calls her theoretical approach anti-essentialist. This means that, according to her, there is no objective, real world (what she terms essence) corresponding to our concepts. She believes that society is always divided and discursively constructed through hegemonic practices, and that it is never the manifestation of a deeper objectivity[3]. According to Mouffes theory if politicians manage to cast the experiences of the people in gripping terms this will in turn influence the peoples actions, thus producing reality itself / Image: In Defence of Marxism From this, it flows that there are no real classes in society. The working class is just one of many identities created by narratives, discourses and language: It is through representation that collective political subjects are created; they do not exist beforehand.[4] The goal of a left narrative of a left populism is therefore to construe a collective identity by telling people that they have shared interests and that the elites are their enemy. It is a discursive strategy of constructing a political frontier dividing society into two camps and calling for the mobilization of the underdog against those in power.[5] In a recently published book, Deeply Red and Radically Colourful For a New Left Narrative by Julia Fritzsche, we are told that such a narrative, must first of all connect to the daily experiences of people, pick them up. It must give the impression that the narrative corresponds to shared experiences. It doesnt matter if they actually had these experiences.[6] (Our emphasis) It is no wonder then, that whenever defenders of left narratives talk about societal changes, of practical action, that class struggles or class action are conspicuously absent. If they do talk about them, it is only as an after-thought, as a more-or-less agreeable additional extra. Instead, they call on us to articulate, talk about, depict, show, etc. It is in this context that we should consider the comments of an exponent of these ideas from the Austrian Social Democracy, Max Lercher. Lercher argued that the Social Democracy needs a new founding congress as a fresh start for the party, and wrote: What do a Czech industrial worker and a Styrian mine worker have in common? Or a Viennese social reformer and a Hungarian radical socialist? After all, we are all different people and have different viewpoints. And this is a good thing. But in Hainfeld, [the location of the founding of the Austrian Socialist Democratic Workers Party in 1888] we managed to agree on some central, common ideas. And a party to assert these ideas was founded. The new working class are all those who dont have fair access to prosperity. This also includes small and medium-sized companies. Here, we can define a new line of conflict. (Our emphasis). Let us note here that, firstly, for Lercher, the basis for unity is not shared class interests, but ideas. And secondly, that for him the lines of conflict in society are not objectively given, but can be defined, so that suddenly small and medium-sized capitalists are also part of the working class! From a Marxist point of view, a Czech and a Styrian worker actually have a lot in common both carry out wage labour, are exploited by a capitalist, and are thus objectively part of the working class. However, if you assume that our identities are constructed by gripping, emotional stories, the logical conclusion is that capitalism cannot be overthrown by class struggle against the capitalists, but only by writing new stories. This story then becomes powerful (hegemonic) in the minds of the people. As Mouffe writes: [Every] existing order is therefore susceptible to being challenged by counter-hegemonic practices, practices which attempt to disarticulate it in order to install another form of hegemony.[7] (Our emphasis) And Fritzsche concurs: Narratives will not be the quickest way out of the hassling present day conditions A new left narrative will have fissures and holes, but in the long run, it is the only way out of the oppressive present.[8] In truth, this means a rejection of revolution, a rejection of a break with the ruling system. Proponents of the left narrative, Lercher, Herr & co., consciously or otherwise, take a decidedly un-Marxist stance. Mouffe is a conscious anti-Marxist. She writes that the myth of communism has to be abandoned, claiming it had already failed in practice because of its supposed class reductionism, i.e. that it reduces all struggles to class struggles, whereas Mouffe and her companions regard the working class as merely one among other movements such as feminism, environmentalism, LGBT activism etc. She further states: there will always be antagonisms, struggles and partial opaqueness of the social. By this, she simply means that inequality, oppression and so on are inevitable, and can never be fully overcome. It is on this pessimistic basis that she proposes her anti-hegemonic practice. It is an alternative to communism; although she admits it would never achieve a fully liberated society and the emancipatory project could not be conceived any longer as the elimination of the state.[9] In her theoretical appendix, she roundly states that her approach forecloses the possibility of a society beyond division and power.[10] In short, behind her complex and radical-sounding language, she rejects revolution, and embraces reformism. The idea of opposing such struggles as those of women and LGBT people to the class struggle is precisely an attempt at a class collaborationist approach. That is, to unite with sections of the capitalist and middle class, to fight for a fairer form of capitalism. Some among the more daring proponents of the idea of a left narrative may address capitalism, but the idea of removing it remains the furthest thing from their minds. Intelligent criticism of capitalism is appropriate, we have to take up this issue, says Lercher, and in the same interview states his views more precisely: What we need is a partly state-owned job market which conforms to the market and is non-profitable.[11] This confused mixture of capitalism with half-hearted control measures is like trying to turn a tiger into a vegetarian. It is more utopian than any socialist idea of a nationalised, planned economy, controlled by the working class. We can see quite clearly here how the philosophical basis of these ideas leads to the justification that capitalism itself is untouchable. This is why it is so important for Marxists to stand on a firm philosophical basis, uncovering reformist half-heartedness, and counterposing a revolutionary answer. To become the state The main orientation of the proponents of the so-called left narrative is not towards class struggle against capitalism, but towards democratic demands. We have to dare for more democracy, writes Lercher in his article, For what do we need Social Democracy today? Then-Austrian Young Socialists chair, Julia Herr, said: Social Democracy in the 1970s fought to democratise the economic system and to distribute the wealth earned in a fair way. Then we somehow, at some point, just lost confidence.[12] The think tank Institut Solidarische Moderne (ISM), closely associated with the German Left Party, explains that social questions must be posed radically, in a yet-to-be-defined sense, as questions of democracy. According to ISM ideologist and board member of the Left Partys Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Thomas Seibert, the real struggle is for true democracy. The main orientation of the proponents of the so-called left narrative is not towards class struggle against capitalism, but towards democratic demands / Image: CEU, Flickr And Mouffe writes: The problem with modern democratic societies, in our view, was that their constitutive principles of liberty and equality for all were not put into practiceThe radical and plural democracy that we advocated can therefore be conceived as a radicalisation of the existing democratic institutions[13] The perspective presented here is one of the status quo! The existing superstructure of democratic institutions, which have been shown time and again to be rigged in favour of the ruling class, should not be abolished, we are told, but only improved. Meanwhile, the real cause of such inequality and exploitation capitalism isnt even acknowledged as such. A crucial dividing line here is our conception of the state and its so-called democratic institutions. For revolutionaries, clarity concerning the nature of the state is vital. It is a life-and-death question for a revolutionary movement. There is a decisive difference between wanting to abolish the state through revolution, and believing the state can be transformed and modelled in the interests of the oppressed. The latter view invariably translates into collaboration with the existing state, and thus with the class interests that it serves. Let us then compare a Marxist understanding of the state with that of the advocates of left narratives. Mouffe and the other left narrators understand the state in the following terms: [...] a crystallization of the relations of forces and as a terrain of struggle. [] Envisaged as a surface for agonistic interventions, these public spaces can provide the terrain for important democratic advances. This is why a hegemonic strategy should engage with the diverse state apparatuses in order to transform them, so as to make the state a vehicle for the expression of the manifold democratic demands. [] In a certain sense, both the revolutionary type of politics and the hegemonic one can be called radical as they imply a form of rupture with the existing hegemonic order. However, this rupture is not of the same nature and it is inappropriate to put them in the same category, labelled extreme left, as is often the case. Contrary to what is often claimed, the left populist strategy is not an avatar of the extreme left but a different way of envisaging the rupture with neoliberalism through the recovery and radicalization of democracy.[14] As we can see, Mouffe is very clear in differentiating between a revolutionary approach and her own approach, which she calls hegemonic. For her, the state is a network of institutions and functions that do not correspond to a common interest. There is room therefore for left populism to influence, transform and shift them around. For Marxists, on the contrary, the state is not a neutral terrain of struggle but an instrument of the ruling class that needs to be smashed and substituted by a workers state. Having suppressed the old, capitalist order and cleared the ground for a classless, communist society, this workers state will wither away as the classes in society also disappear. This viewpoint is ridiculed as being too simplistic by postmodern theoreticians such as Mouffe. But by analysing the historical emergence of the state, and the purpose that states developed to serve, we can say with absolute confidence that this definition grasps the essence of what the state is. Marx and Engels explained how the state appeared historically with the rise of class society. Class society arose as humanity developed the productive forces necessary to produce more than they needed for immediate survival. For the first time in history a small layer of society did not have to labour in the same manner as before. But production was not advanced enough for all of society to enjoy this privilege. This created the conditions for social classes. There emerged ruling classes that own the means of production, and oppressed classes that are exploited and produce the wealth the ruling class appropriates. These antagonistic class interests, however, need to be managed. The oppressed must be made to believe that the current order of things is untouchable and any who dare to question it must be punished. At the same time, the oppressors themselves must be prevented from consuming themselves through perpetual war with one another. The state was born precisely for that purpose. Engels explained: But in order that these antagonisms, classes with conflicting economic interests, shall not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, a power, apparently standing above society, has become necessary to moderate the conflict and keep it within the bounds of order; and this power, arisen out of society, but placing itself above it and increasingly alienating itself from it, is the state.[15] In the last instance, the state is therefore an oppressive organ consisting of special bodies of armed men (the military and police), prisons, courts and so on, that appears to stand above society but which fundamentally defends the economic system that gave birth to it. With the rise of the bourgeoisie as the dominant class, and capitalism as the dominant mode of production on a world scale, the bourgeoisie also created its own state. The liberal democracy Mouffe defends is the product of revolutions that were carried out in the interest of the bourgeoisie itself. To believe, as she and the other left narrators do, that this form of state is the ultimate, best and last institution there will ever be, and that it therefore must not be touched, is to adopt a completely ahistorical view. It also means defending the instrument of the current ruling class: the capitalists. Of course, the fact that the state is an oppressive instrument of the ruling class is not always clearly visible. Its true character is consciously shrouded by the capitalists. It would be impossible, not to mention inefficient, for the capitalists to rule by force and repression alone. The oppressed are the majority in society. Were the majority of the oppressed to understand this fact, capitalist society would be staring its overthrow in the face. In normal times, to the extent they can afford to do so, the ruling class tries to keep up a show of fairness, of equality of opportunity, etc. The capitalists therefore generally prefer states that have free elections, that guarantee some freedom of the press, several political parties and so on. Such states also allow certain room for manoeuvre. But under no circumstances will the ruling class allow their fundamental role as the owners of the means of production to be challenged. The state is there precisely to uphold this role. It is no wonder that literally the only right enshrined in the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is not constantly disregarded and broken, but rather carefully protected with the full force of the law, is Article 17: everyone has the right to own property and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. In the last instance, this is precisely the purpose of the state, its laws and the whole justice system. This is also why Marxists explain that the bourgeois state must be smashed through revolution. It is fundamentally linked to the bourgeoisie and its rule as a class. From a Marxist point of view, we recognise democracy as a political regime a political superstructure, that raises itself upon the capitalist system. Capitalism produces different kinds of regimes: bourgeois-democratic ones as well as dictatorships. However, they are all varieties of capitalist states, connected through a thousand threads to the bourgeoisie. It was for good reason that Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto: The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.[16] Of course, the form of a regime how the state apparatus concretely manifests itself certainly shapes the extent of our freedoms and the rights that people have. This is why the struggle for democratic demands such as one head, one vote have played such an important role in the history of the revolutionary movement. Marxists consistently advance and support democratic demands, which can mobilise the vast majority of society against the ruling class and forge the unity of the oppressed and the exploited, thus facilitating the best conditions for the development of the class struggle. And Marxists do not disregard or ignore democratic elections. They can serve as an important indicator of the mood in society, and participation in them can be used as a means in the class struggle. But the core contradictions of capitalism the exploitation of the working class by the capitalists; the constant crises and wars continue to exist under every kind of bourgeois regime, however democratic. This is precisely why liberty and equality for all cannot be implemented within capitalism. For revolutionaries, elections and parliamentary representation can be used to present revolutionary political ideas to a mass audience. They can also be used to expose the hypocrisy of the capitalist class and its institutions. For example, should revolutionaries in parliament demand that true equality and social justice be established by expropriating big industry and banks that is, by challenging the capitalists ownership over the means of production the whole establishment would be used to counter this demand. If necessary as we will show below they will disregard democracy and majorities in parliament, and forget all their past talk about freedom, in order to save capitalism. Should revolutionaries simply stop there, throwing their hands up and saying, oh well, there is nothing we can do about it, we just havent won the hegemonic battle within the state yet, they wouldnt be revolutionaries at all. They would be reformists. But this is exactly what the left narrators suggest. By accepting the limit of the economic system (capitalism) and its political superstructure (bourgeois democracy), they cannot go further than this. Revolutionaries, on the other hand, see the activity of the masses as the key element in surpassing these limits and changing society. Parliaments and elections are but one useful element in strengthening and fostering their activity. Lenin pointed out that many, if not all, revolutions, show the great utility of, a combination of mass action outside a reactionary parliament with an opposition sympathetic to (or, better still, directly supporting) the revolution within it. At the same time, he explains: [Action] by the masses, a big strike, for instance, is more important than parliamentary activity at all times, and not only during a revolution or in a revolutionary situation.[17] The approach of Marxists to the state can thus be summed up in the following way: it is an oppressive instrument of the ruling class. It must be abolished and replaced by a workers state. After a successful socialist revolution, eventually all forms of state will disappear, together with classes. But this doesnt mean that we deem democratic rights and freedoms here and now to be unnecessary. On the contrary, we fight for these freedoms and utilise them. But at the same time, we do not sow any illusions that democracy can solve the fundamental cause of oppression, poverty and inequality. This can only be done by abolishing capitalism. The theoreticians of the left narrative decidedly reject the Marxist theory of the state and focus their main arguments instead on the question of democracy. According to them: it is clear that there is no necessary relationship between capitalism and liberal democracy. It is unfortunate that Marxism has contributed to this confusion by presenting liberal democracy as the superstructure of capitalism.[18] The unfortunate confusion lies, in fact, entirely with these philosophers of language. To them, states are only discursive constructs institutions that can be changed by new narratives. The state, they say, is a terrain of struggle. And in order to re-articulate this presumably neutral, class-independent terrain, one has to become a part of it. The objective is not the seizure of state power, they tell us, but one of becoming [the] state.[19] It is once more apparent why this theory is so popular with reformists. Becoming part of the state apparatus preferably with as little interference from the masses as possible is the raison detre of the reformists. In the terrain of struggle represented by the state apparatus, the goal becomes one of forming a partnership on equal terms with the capitalists in order to come to an agreement concerning improvements for the voters. Max Lercher describes this in the following way: The Social Democracy must show capital its place and tame the markets. [] I have a social welfare state in mind which distributes prosperity in a fair way and leaves some room for manoeuvre. But beware! In confrontation with the class enemy (a term they wouldnt use) it is important that conflict when it arises does not take the form of an antagonism (struggle between enemies), instead, the opponent is not considered an enemy to be destroyed but an adversary whose existence is perceived as legitimate.[20] This is just social partnership, and balancing between class interests, translated into academic language. If it were possible to gain constant reforms and improvements by way of patient, peaceful work on a new paradigm (c.f. Fritzsche), the majority of the working class certainly wouldnt have anything against it. However, the problem is that capitalism because of its own contradictions is repeatedly thrown into crises. Brutal austerity by the evil neoliberals doesnt spring from a sudden urge on their part to inflict human suffering. It is the result of the pressures of the capitalist system, in which an increase of profits (and this is, after all, the sole purpose of capitalists) is only made possible by harsher and more intensified attacks on the working class. It is not, as Herr puts it, that Social Democracy has suddenly lost confidence since the 1970s. Reformism has run into the objective limits of capitalism. Today, there simply is no more room for lasting, meaningful reforms within capitalism. The responsibility of the leadership The Greek masses have already lived to see the painful reality of the limits of reformism. In response to the crisis that hit the country particularly hard after 2012, the masses engaged in fierce struggles over many years. First, there were massive sit-ins in public squares. Then the working class threw itself into the struggle and led numerous strikes and general strikes. SYRIZA openly betrayed the results of the July 2015 referendum vote that overwhelmingly rejected the terms imposed by the Troika for a bailout / Image: Ggia, Wikimedia Commons When all of this failed to yield results (not least because of the obstructive role of the trade union leadership), the Greek masses expressed their anger through the polls by voting for the left party, SYRIZA, standing on an anti-austerity programme. Within a short period of time, however, SYRIZAs leader, Alexis Tsipras, subordinated the country to the dictatorship of EU and IMF-imposed austerity. This was an open betrayal of the July 2015 referendum vote that overwhelmingly rejected the terms imposed by the Troika for a bailout, with 61 percent voting No. This meant the destruction of living standards for the masses. Against the will of the Greek people, capitalism and its faithful representatives in the EU pushed their agenda through. What do the left populists have to say about this defeat? The struggle of SYRIZA was lost because only a resistance of significant proportions in the core countries of the Eurozone could have leveraged the ideas of SYRIZA. Only in this way, could they have achieved a breakthrough and transformed the economic and political crisis of Greece into a crisis of the whole EU.[21] And: Unfortunately, SYRIZA has not been able to implement its anti-austerity programme because of the brutal response of the European Union that reacted with a financial coup and forced the party to accept the diktats of the Troika.[22] The brutal response of the EU was not a surprise at all. Yet Tsipras still spent months meeting the pope and important heads of European governments to discursively win them to his side. When he failed to convince them, he proceeded to capitulate to the Troika, betraying the expectations of the vast majority of the Greek people that were mobilising in support of SYRIZAs anti-austerity programme. The Greek comrades of the IMT, who were part of SYRIZAs central committee at that time, wrote the following immediately following the elections: No illusions in negotiating with European capital and its institutions! Our opponents are the capitalist interests, local and foreign, that are hiding behind the troika and not their technocrat employees. Our only true ally is the European working class! SYRIZA must call now for a Europe-wide programme of mass action to make Europe a vast Puerta del Sol! [A reference to the indignados movement that erupted across Spain in 2011-12][23] They suggested a whole number of measures for Greece, such as the cancellation of the state debt and the nationalisation of the banks measures that struck at the heart of the matter: break with capitalism or submit to the will of the Troika. The claim that all kinds of unfortunate factors are to blame for the defeat of SYRIZA everything apart from the leadership of the party itself, in fact is typical of reformism. In critical political situations, the role of leadership is decisive. Leaders have the ear of the masses and the authority to propose and organise the correct next steps. After the defeat of a mass movement, it is of vital importance to study the role of the leadership closely. Did they have the right ideas? Why did they not dare to take the necessary steps? If we ignore these questions, we serve to cover up for bad leaders and disguise the role they played in the defeat. The result is to throw blame on the fighting masses themselves for the defeats. Fritzsche, for example, has the following to say about the failures not only of the yellow vests movement in France, and the Occupy movement, but even of the Arab Spring: [They failed] because potentially interested people thought them too academic, or because they thought [their] tents were nice and cute, but that capitalism was somehow better. Because the occupants of the squares gave up in order to get back to their jobs, or because they occupied places where they disturbed no-one. And in the end also, because if they were disruptive, the police and the military nudged them from the squares, beat them and imprisoned them.[24] This is pure cynicism. The masses in countries such as Egypt or Tunisia literally risked their lives, overcame sectarian divisions and were willing to give it all to achieve freedom. Let us also note that the yellow vest movement not only achieved its initial goal of defeating Macrons regressive fuel tax hike, but the workers and youth involved learned more through the movement about the role of the state and bourgeois democracy than they could glean from all the books on left narratives put together. Friztsches line of argument is extremely convenient for politicians who dont want to confront the capitalists. It is very soothing for those who wish to explain away their own traitorous inaction and hesitation by blaming the lack of hegemony in society. Revolutionary practice The concept of a left narrative is a good example of the connection between philosophical ideas and political practice. The seemingly radical narrative of the figures discussed here is actually a cover for reformist politics that pose no threat whatsoever to capitalism. As this concept assumes that there is no reality outside of storytelling, the left narrative leads to a lot of talking, and nothing else. The proponents of a new left narrative want to talk about the problems of the exploited and oppressed, and bring in the votes for reformist parties, but they deliver few concrete suggestions or demands. What few demands they do raise are limited to exclusively democratic questions, or constitute little more than pious hopes for a social welfare state. Such demands are not necessarily wrong in themselves, but they place no emphasis on the necessity of class struggle against the capitalists to achieve them. When these tamely worded demands are then shattered in the face of real opposition by the ruling class as we saw so clearly with SYRIZA the responsibility is loaded onto the shoulders of the masses; or else, the hegemony of neoliberalism is blamed for the result. Whether the defenders of the left narrative consciously promote the philosophical premises of their theory (as Mouffe does), or whether they unconsciously pick up this concept as useful to justify their own (in)actions, is irrelevant. The task of revolutionaries is to uncover such ideas and the practice that flows from them, and counterpose real solutions to the misery of capitalism. This is the reason why Marxists place so much importance on philosophical questions. In the last instance, ideas are an expression of the class interests in society and a guide to action. We must ask: do certain ideas help the ruling class, do they throw dust into the eyes of workers and left activists? Or do they help us to change society? Let us confront reality with our eyes open. Let us fight for a world without exploitation and oppression for a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Notes [1] Jorg Schindler, Warum der Klimawandel ein linkes Thema ist, Die Linke, July 9, 2019. [2] Katja Kipping & Bernd Riexinger, Wir brauchen einen linken Populismus, interview by Ingo Stutzle & Jan Ole Arps, Analyse & Kritik, September 21, 2012. [3] Chantal Mouffe, For a Left Populism, (London & New York: Verso, 2018), pg 12. [4] Ibid., pg 35. [5] Ibid., pg 13. [6] Julia Fritzsche, Tiefrot und Radikal Bunt: Fur eine neue linke Erzahlung, (Hamburg: Edition Nautilus, 2019), pg 20. [7] Mouffe, For a Left Populism, pg 49. [8] Fritzsche, Tiefrot und Radikal Bunt, pg 177-8. [9] Mouffe, For a Left Populism, pg 9. [10] Ibid., pg 49. [11] Max Lercher, Wir mussen ein System zerschlagen, interview by Florian Gasser, Zeit, October 10, 2019. [12] Julia Herr & Josef Cap, Julia Herr und Josef Cap uber die Defizite der Sozialdemokratie, interview by Rosemarie Schwaiger, Profil, September 25, 2019. [13] Mouffe, For a Left Populism, pg 27. [14] Ibid., pg 30-1. [15] Frederick Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, (London: Wellred Books, 2020). [16] Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto, in The Classics of Marxism: Volume One, (London: Wellred Books, 2013), pg 5. [17] Vladimir Lenin, Left-Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder in The Classics of Marxism: Volume Two, (London: Wellred Books, 2015). [18] Mouffe, For a Left Populism, pg 31. [19] Ibid. [20] Ibid., pg 51. [21] Thomas Seibert, Erste Notizen zum Plan A einer neuen Linken (nicht nur) in Deutschland, Marxistische Linke, December 8, 2015. [22] Mouffe, For a Left Populism, pg 17. [23] Communist Tendency of Syriza, The ruling class is terrified of the virus of SYRIZA - Time to move forward!, In Defence of Marxism, February 9, 2015. [24] Fritzsche, Tiefrot und Radikal Bunt, pg 25. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Jeylin Hernandez Carmona took the news surprisingly well for a 9-year-old. A tiny piece of her baby tooth was stuck inside her gum, a dental student explained, pointing to the white fragment on an X-ray image. Thats what had been causing her pain. I think theyre going to take that out, said the fourth-year student, Elizabeth Cutbirth. Is that OK? Yes! Carmona said jovially before explaining the prognosis to her mother in Spanish. Originally from Honduras, the mother and daughter were among nearly 200 uninsured or underinsured Houston-area families who on Friday received free dental care at UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry. The school hosts the Give Kids a Smile program each year, providing thousands of dollars worth of dental cleanings and urgent treatment for children referred by the San Jose Clinic or the local Communities in Schools program. Many of the children, like Carmona, were immigrants who dont have insurance and face at least a partial language barrier. Even for those who have a Medicaid plan, lack of reliable transportation and frenetic work schedules complicate the process of seeking dental care. Some of the really small ones in underserved communities have really bad dental problems that need extraction, said Dr. Antonio Cardenas, a UTHealth professor of pediatric dentistry. Some of them need to go to the hospital and go to sleep for the whole treatment because they are sometimes two or three years of age. The Greater Houston region had the highest number of uninsured residents in the country in 2019, with nearly one in five people in the metropolitan area lacking health coverage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Among children enrolled in Medicaid, few receive their required dental services, according to a 2016 study from the Department of Health and Human Services. The pandemic also led to fewer visits to dental offices, said Dr. Margo Melchor, associate professor in the Department of Periodontics and Dental Hygiene and at the UTHealth School of Dentistry. We dont have teledentistry yet, she said. So youve got people who are not getting out if they had a toothache or something. They were probably just grinning and bearing it. A bill passed during the previous legislative session authorizing teledentistry in the state, but the logistics are still being worked out, Melchor said. For many kids at the clinic on Friday, it was their first time receiving dental care. Fourth-year dental students and professional volunteers took care of their immediate needs and talked to the families about how to keep gums and teeth healthy. But the school also tries to connect families with a dental home where they can receive consistent, affordable long-term care. The environment put some parents at ease in an unfamiliar country. Creusa Athu, who is from Bazil, brought her two boys to the clinic for the second year in a row. This helps us feel welcome, she said. julian.gill@chron.com On March 2, 1836, a delegation of men from towns and settlements across Texas were preparing to sign their names to a hastily drafted document declaring independence from Mexico. By that act, they would put their lives in mortal danger. In fact, they would soon be fleeing the wretched, little cabin where they had been meeting, in a raw, little community on the Brazos called Washington. A few days afterward, Mexican Gen. Santa Annas troops caught up with the interim president of the breakaway republic, David G. Burnet, as he and his party frantically rowed away from shore toward the safety of Galveston Island. The soldiers would have fired except for the presence of Mrs. Burnet in the boat. Tomorrow, 186 years later, Texans are voting at least, we hope they are. Election officials tell us that early-voting numbers were down across the state. Primaries in a non-presidential election year usually attract even fewer voters than in a general election. The usual reasons include lack of interest, few compelling issues, few compelling candidates. Its also possible that some voters are confused about who can participate in a primary election. Short answer: every single registered Texas voter. Unlike some states, Texas has open primaries, meaning you dont have to be a member of the Republican or Democratic parties to vote. And those who dont vote, especially Republicans, are throwing away a chance to have real influence. Since Texas is essentially a one-party state, its the prelims that generally decide the ultimate winners, not the November elections against Democrats. Yet, November turnout can be more than three times turnout in the primaries, says Rice University political science professor Mark Jones. Voters who do not participate in this years primaries are for all intents and purposes delegating their right of suffrage to the between 2 and 3 million Texans who will cast a ballot in the March 1 primary, Jones says. Sure, maybe some Texans who havent made it to the polls yet are still planning to go on Election Day. But its also true, sadly enough, that we, the descendants of those Declaration signers, are not particularly interested in doing our part to make sure democracy functions. In 2020, we ranked 47th in voter turnout in the general election. A ranking like that might make a Declaration signer question whether it was worth the effort. In some ways the apathy is understandable: Republicans have stacked the deck so much in skewing voting map lines in their favor that, in November, there may be as few as only two competitive congressional districts out of 38. Meanwhile, there are at least 10 competitive primaries this spring that voters still have a chance to influence. What worries us is the possibility that even more voters than usual stayed away from the polls because they were either stymied or intimidated by the nationwide campaign Republicans have waged to make it more difficult to vote. In Texas and elsewhere, new, nitpicking voter identification requirements, stricter rules regarding voter assistance and other measures allegedly implemented to combat voter fraud appear to be naked attempts to make sure that only the right people vote. Sowing confusion about the voting process also discourages would-be voters. No one wants to venture to the polls knowing that you might be breaking some rule GOP lawmakers have recently concocted or elevated to a felony punishment. No one wants to be spied upon by partisan poll watchers convinced that voter fraud is rampant and that you could be part of the problem. And if you too are persuaded by vote-fraud propaganda, why would you even bother? Our message on this Election Day is three-fold: (1) VOTE. Every registered voter has the right, and the duty, to vote in one Texas primary. With Congress basically in perpetual gridlock, races for governor, lieutenant governor and other statewide contests are important. Theyre the elected officials making decisions regarding an education system thats poorly funded, property taxes that are too high, health care thats not accessible to all and other issues directly affecting our lives. (2) THINK: This year, the need to pick candidates of good will has never been more urgent. Our democracy has been wounded. Whether Republican or Democrat, voters must nominate candidates from top to bottom who spurn the Big Lie, who refuse to demonize the opposition, who work to solve problems, not profit from them, and who believe in governments capacity, even if limited, to work for the people. If you need some suggestions, see our list of recommendations, based on reporting, interviews and common sense. You can even print out a handy PDF to take to the polls. (3) BE BRAVE: Dont let poll-watchers or anyone else intimidate you. As long as youre registered to vote, you have a fundamental right to cast a ballot. If youre confused or have questions about the process, dont be afraid to ask an election official. What youre doing is what the Founders fought for. If youre still feeling anxious, remind yourself that it could be worse: At least youre not a sitting duck bobbing in a tiny rowboat in the Gulf. Regarding Why low voter turnout for the 2022 primaries means Texas politics are about to get more extreme, (Feb. 17): It is time for independents and moderates to go to the polls and vote. As long as ordinary citizens continue to sit out elections, the extremes on the far left and the far right will continue to dominate the political process and perpetuate the polarization. Ordinary citizens feel outnumbered and powerless. Most voters want ethical and fair representatives who will look for common ground and will ensure that every voice is heard. They want a return to civility, bipartisanship and a willingness to compromise. Those who do not vote in the primaries will have no voice and will continue to enable the toxic environment and dysfunctional political process. Those who do vote will have a huge influence and can bring about positive change. Go vote! Mary Grace Greenwood, Houston Regarding: We asked all 143 Texas GOP congressional candidates about Biden's win. Only 13 call it legitimate. (February 16): Deja vu! Forty years ago, a coworker of mine, Luise, was a Holocaust denier. She grew up in Germany in the 1930s and was a member of the Hitler Youth. Her only news source was Joseph Goebbels Nazi fake news propaganda which she believed wholeheartedly. When I told Luise that a college classmate of mine, Ute, who was a small child in Germany at the end of World War II, described how she, her parents and her neighbors were marched through a concentration camp and saw piles of corpses, Luise said that it couldnt be true and Ute must be lying. We now have elected representatives who only want to believe one-sided news and propaganda and who deliberately choose to ignore the results of the 2020 presidential election. As long as people, both Republicans and Democrats, listen to only partisan print, television, and internet media that cater to their narrow, ossified beliefs, we will remain a divided nation with limited ability to address and solve our national and international problems. Peter Sacks, Pearland Transgender minors Regarding Texas CPS says it will treat hormone therapy for transgender kids as possible child abuse, (Feb. 22): Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have perilously twisted the definition of child abuse by asking Texans to report parents of transgender minors receiving gender-affirming medical care to child protection. This directive runs counter to the purpose of the child protection system, endangers children and parents and unjustly targets transgender children and young people. A child protection report raises the question of whether a child is in immediate danger of neglect or abuse. Gender-affirming medical treatment does not meet this definition. The medical community has established protocols to support caregivers and children in safely making these decisions. Moreover, a report could potentially result in separation of a child from their family. That event alone increases a childs chances for poorer educational, social and economic outcomes. Texass child protection agencies are already heavily burdened with reports that merit attention. This mandate would divert resources that could help children in legitimate danger. Child abuse reporting has long been weaponized against communities historically targeted for oppression. The effort to remove parental rights and to reject trans childrens innate sense of self is another example. We implore Texans to refuse this call and affirm the belonging of trans children and their parents. Kathy Park, CEO, Evident Change By the time I moved to Houston, Americas most diverse city, and began working at Texas Childrens, one of Americas most diverse hospitals, around my 50th birthday I had finally become proud of being a Black woman. This took some work. I was never proud to be Black when I was younger. I have the darkest skin in my family, for which I was regularly teased. I felt certain that lighter skin was better and that my complexion was inextricably linked to me not being good enough. For example, I quickly dismissed the idea of becoming a doctor because I thought I didnt have the right look. And, of course, race has always played a part in my life and work. I was routinely mistaken for my white patient care assistant, a subordinate, when I was a nurse. Despite completing high school and ultimately earning a doctorate, I felt a particular shame for having a teenage pregnancy. Living and working in such a diverse environment during a national time of reckoning, being regularly challenged at Texas Childrens to think and talk about race, both formally and informally, with my team, I learned that many of us struggle with achieving self-love not just me. All this made me wonder: How can I help our patients and families, my colleagues and my community to proudly embody their whole selves? My January visit to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis located in the former Lorraine Hotel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated showed me that teaching American history in a way that leans into both its ugly parts and its complexity is a key part of the answer. It was at the museum that I first understood what a slave ship really looked like, and the extent and severity of slave abuse and murder. I learned about the freedmen, about African and Caribbean royalty who found themselves on slave ships, and about James Peck and the serious injuries he suffered. I virtually experienced Freedom Riders taking their places at all-white lunch counters; I saw their bus get blown up. The chaos that surrounded young Black children trying simply to go to school felt visceral, as did Dr. Kings hotel room, which was set up just as it had been the day he died. I never had this fullness or context in school. I do not remember learning about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, or the West African prince turned Mississippi slave whose release a sultan negotiated with President John Quincy Adams. Rather, my teachers glossed over slavery so generally that it felt almost natural or, worse, deserved. I never learned about most of the Black revolutionaries and allies who pushed the Civil Rights movement forward, nor their complex organization. While the white people I learned about had whole, nuanced lives, Blacks were just Dr. King, who was little more than a figurehead. I am still processing my experience in Memphis. But I am proud to come from a culture that was strong and brave enough to pave the way for Civil Rights. I would have accomplished more, and done better, had I been gifted holistic knowledge of my roots of my American history in school. Every child deserves to know who they are and where they come from. They deserve to understand the systems that contribute to how they feel about themselves. This will help them feel whole and valid, and as a result, to bring their whole selves to school, work, their communities and our government. Knowledge, context, and understanding unleash our potential, which I know from experience only makes us better. Anita L. Harris-Brown, DNP, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, is the director of clinical support operations for Texas Childrens Hospital. Mail ballot usage during early voting has dropped precipitously since 2018, with tens of thousands of voters especially Republicans ditching the forms after two years of the GOPs baseless claims that absentee voting facilitates fraud. By the end of early voting on Friday, about 76,000 mail ballots had been processed in Texas 15 most populous counties, representing .7 percent of registered voters there. Four years ago, the total was 126,000 about 1.3 percent of voters in those counties. (The Secretary of State does not provide statewide early voting totals for the 2018 election.) Its a roughly 40 percent drop in raw numbers, but the gap grows wider when considering that Texas has added roughly 2 million people to its voter rolls since 2018 nearly 1.4 million of them in the most populous counties. The drop-off is most dramatic among Republicans, whose party has repeatedly alleged, without evidence, that state-approved expansions of mail ballots during the pandemic led to widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. I think that you have a whole bunch of Republican primary voters that have taken that to heart and decided, Well, I think Im going to either vote early in person or wait until Election Day so that I can make sure that nothing happens to my mail-in ballot, said Derek Ryan, a GOP elections analyst based in Austin. During the last midterm primary election in 2018, more than 67,000 Republicans in the states most populous counties filled out a mail ballot by the close of early voting. This year, the total is just more than 27,000. While mail ballot usage has also dipped slightly on the Democratic side, those differences are more easily attributable to difficulties with Texas new voting law, said Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. Nearly 50,000 Democratic voters in those counties have cast an absentee ballot this year, compared to 59,000 in 2018. The sweeping voting legislation made it more difficult to vote absentee, he said, by instituting extra ID requirements for mail-in ballots and the applications for them. Thousands of voters have been thrown off by the additional mandate, either forgetting to add their ID or writing down one that doesnt match what their local elections office has on file. BACKGROUND: Mail ballot rejection rates still high as Texas early voting kicks off The confusion has led to record rejection rates for both ballots and applications ahead of the March 1 primary election. By the time the application deadline passed on Feb. 18, Dallas County had rejected about 15.7 percent of all forms, the majority of them for a missing or incorrect ID. In Travis County, the rejection rate was 9 percent. Now, county officials are dealing with the same problem for the actual ballots, which must be submitted by Tuesday. As of Friday, 30 percent of mail ballots were rejected over the new ID law in Harris County. In Dallas, it was 27 percent. Political experts say the troubles stem from the lack of a state-led education campaign on the new ID requirements. Local elections officials and nonprofit groups have attempted to fill the gaps, but I just dont think theres been enough time or resources in order to overcome some of the ambiguities in the law, said Renee Cross, the senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston. We have a lot of new election laws in place without a lot of voter outreach, she said. Specifically, on the vote-by-mail aspect, I think anybody that glanced at the news last fall may have known that there was discussion about all these changes. I dont know that the state government really went all-out in educating the public about how these changes are going to be implemented. Even if the Secretary of States office wanted to roll out a more robust education campaign, the Texas Legislature hasnt funded such an effort, Jones added. Plus, given GOP reluctance to use the method, any education effort would help Democrats to a greater extent than Republicans, he said. Still, early voting turnout was almost exactly on par with 2018 totals in the states most populous counties. That year, 8.93 percent of registered voters cast ballots in-person or by mail during the early voting period. State data show that number at 8.95 percent this year. Statewide, roughly 9.6 percent of Texas 17.2 million registered voters have cast a ballot so far. More than 1 million of them voted in the Republican Primary, and another 630,000 voted for Democrats. Almost 120,000 Texans have voted by mail. Some expected turnout to increase this year just because people are getting more engaged and more energized about politics in general, said Ryan, the elections analyst. That doesnt seem to be the case so far. In the 2018 primary elections, about 17.2 percent of voters turned out overall. If the numbers stay on trend, Texas can expect another 1.3 million people to cast a ballot by Tuesday. cayla.harris@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON Courtney Litvak says she was a junior in a Katy high school, traumatized after she was sexually assaulted by an older boyfriend, when she met the people who groomed her for sex trafficking. She was taking drugs, in a downward spiral. When her parents took away her phone, her new friends gave her one to use. I just thought that was incredibly flattering and that they were serious about helping me, she said. But the phone was also their key into her life. Its emotional and mental access to you A constant, consistent line of communication to me, to be able to reach me at all times. By the time she was 18, Litvak says she was brainwashed. She walked out of her parents house, ran down the street and got in a car with the sex traffickers who would control her life for several months, moving her from Katy to Houston and across the country before she could get free. Now 21, Litvak is headed to the White House on Friday as the Trump administration touts its efforts to curb human trafficking, something President Donald Trump has long cast as a top priority, though some advocates have questioned his commitment. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Litvak, who with her mother Kelly now runs a nonprofit, ChildProof America, aimed at helping people like herself, wants her story to be a wake-up call: Sex trafficking isn't just a problem in big cities like Houston, but in suburbs across the nation. In Texas alone, there were more than 300,000 victims of human trafficking in 2016 that number includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking a University of Texas at Austin study estimated at the time. The same study found there were almost 79,000 youth victims of sex trafficking in the state, costing more than $6 billion a year in law enforcement, criminal prosecutions, social services, and caring for them. The issue has become an increasing concern for Texas Republicans, who last year passed legislation giving authorities more tools to go after online sex traffickers, increase victims access to specially trained nurses, and seal the criminal records of sex trafficking victims. The state has put up billboards to raise awareness of the issue and is training troopers and highway workers to spot it. Its in suburbia, said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who has worked with the Litvaks. Were seeing this epidemic hit high schools, like Westlake High School in Austin to Katy High School in Katy. Traditionally you would not view these as at-risk schools. Litvak says thats where her journey began, and shes ringing the alarm bells. People are going through this right now "People cant relate to the life," Litvak said. "But people can relate to what happens before that. People are going through this right now, here in Katy, on a daily basis. At 17, Litvak says she was a wholesome person, proudly wearing a purity ring her father gave her. But she started dating an older guy, a senior, who she says gave her drugs one night and sexually assaulted her. In a matter of months, not even one year, I went from saving myself for marriage in a very safe relationship with someone to have that taken from me all in one night, Litvak said. SPECIAL REPORT: Sold for Sex Litvak said she blamed herself for the assault, unable to see herself as a victim. During this free falling season of my life, I was trying to grab onto anything, she said. My moral compass, I would say, was shot. Litvak says she quickly developed a new reputation at school, which attracted a new crowd new friends with easier access to drugs and alcohol. They connected her to people on the outside as well former students who were working as traffickers. They knew exactly what to say to me and what I was looking for and my vulnerabilities, Litvak said. They said if youre really serious about wanting a better life and to get money and independence we need to introduce you to the higher-up people. Five hundred dollars for my life Litvaks parents were concerned about her increasingly erratic behavior. They were taking up my phones left and right, trying to regain control, she said. So one of the pimps gave her friends at school an old iPhone for her. Soon she was getting comments on Instagram posts from men she didnt know. They were often in code emojis she didnt understand at the time. I thought it was someone showing interest in me as a boyfriend, Litvak said. It didnt cross my mind this was terminology. The pimp, meanwhile, was pretending he had romantic interests. I was like, This is going to be my boyfriend, theyll be my person, Litvak said. He will give me a successful future, why do I need school? At one point, her parents sent her to a rehab facility out of state. She faked her way through and came back more determined than ever to break away. Days after I turned 18, I was gone, she said. Though she had never met him face to face, she said, Im thinking Im going to be a girlfriend to this person this person was saying they love me, Im saying I love them back. Litvak walked out of her house, down the street to the car where he was waiting. But when she got in, there was another man in the car, as well, very intimidating looking, seems very rough around the edges. As soon as she got in the car, they asked for her ID, birth certificate and social security card. Im in the car and at that moment, I knew I had lost control, she said. The time they invested was to get me in that car. They dropped off the man Litvak had been talking to and took her to an apartment complex in Houston where she met her first trafficker, a woman whose real name she said she never learned and who she was taught to fear from the moment she met her. She found out later the man she thought she loved was paid a finders fee of $500. Five hundred dollars for my life, she said. All that work for $500. Training for officers These professionals are very good at what they do, said McCaul, a former federal prosecutor. Litvaks mother, Kelly, contacted his office while her daughter was being trafficked, hoping he could help. McCaul has kept in touch with Kelly and Courtney Litvak as hes pushed federal legislation to combat trafficking, including mandating training for homeland security personnel. McCaul is behind another effort to expand training developed by the Texas Department of Public Safety which teaches state troopers how to spot trafficking victims and offer it to federal law enforcement agencies. In November, McCaul introduced the Litvaks to Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter and adviser who has led his administration's anti-trafficking efforts and organized Fridays summit. It was incredibly humbling to meet with Courtney and Kelly Litvak, Ivanka Trump said. The scourge of human trafficking does not start at the waters edge, its affecting people in our own neighborhoods and throughout the United States. This administration is deeply committed to ensuring that Courtneys experience will never be repeated. Among other things, the Trump administration has restricted aid to the governments of a slew of countries it says arent doing enough to combat trafficking. But several prominent anti-trafficking groups, are reportedly boycotting the event, protesting portions of the administrations immigration crackdown that they say endanger trafficking victims. At issue is the administrations increased scrutiny of visas granting temporary legal status to immigrants who can prove theyre trafficking victims. Litvak says she was lucky to get out. At the end, she said, she was in the worst physical condition of her life, literally lying on my deathbed. I need to do something with what has happened to me. That is what drives me, Litvak said. Not just learn how to survive, but to learn how to live again. Theres proof you can do that, you can come out a better and changed person. ben.wermund@chron.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department launched one of the largest and most complex criminal investigations in its history after a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol over a year ago. Now it's time for a jury to hear some of the government's evidence about the unparalleled attack on American democracy. The first trial for one of the hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions began this week, with jury selection starting Monday for the case against Guy Wesley Reffitt. The Texas man is charged with bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds, interfering with police officers guarding the building, and threatening his teenage children if they reported him to authorities. Reffitt's trial could be a bellwether for many other Capitol riot cases. A conviction would give prosecutors more leverage in plea talks with rioters facing the most serious charges. An acquittal may lead others to wait for their own day in court. CHAOS AT CAPITOL: 64 Texans were charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. A year later, here's where things stand. Reffitt "truly is the canary in the coal mine, said Gregg Sofer, a former federal prosecutor who served as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas from October 2020 to February 2021. Itll really be interesting to see how strong a case the government has and whether or not theyre relying on evidence that, when pushed and tested, stands up. Its going to have a huge impact going forward, added Sofer, now a partner at a law firm. Reffitt is a member of a militia-style group called the Texas Three Percenters, according to prosecutors. The Three Percenters militia movement refers to the myth that only 3% of Americans fought in the Revolutionary War against the British. On Jan. 6, 2021, Reffitt was armed with a handgun in a holster on his waist, carrying zip-tie handcuffs and wearing body armor and a helmet equipped with a video camera when he and others charged at police officers on the west side of the Capitol, according to prosecutors. This action caused the police line guarding the building to retreat closer to the building itself; soon after this, law enforcement was overwhelmed, and rioters flooded the building, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Reffitt retreated only after an officer pepper sprayed him in the face, prosecutors said. FACT CHECK: GOP Texas House candidate repeats false claim that FBI instigated Jan. 6 Capitol riot Prosecutors believe Reffitt took at least two firearms with him to Washington: an AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol. When FBI agents searched Reffitt's home in Wylie, Texas, they found a handgun in a holster on a nightstand in the defendants bedroom. Prosecutors say photos and video of Reffitt during the riot show a handgun holster on his right hip, with what appears to be a silver object inside the holster. On the morning of Jan. 6, Reffitt said he planned to do the recon and then come back for weapons hot and sent messages about meeting at a rendezvous point, according to prosecutors. These messages, along with the weapons that Reffitt carried and the gear he wore, make clear that the defendant did not come to D.C. with the intention to engage in peaceful activity, prosecutors wrote. The siege resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer. The Justice Department says more than 235 rioters have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, injuring over 100 officers. Rioters caused over $1 million in damage to the Capitol. Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press The Justice Department says its investigation has generated an unprecedented volume of evidence, with hundreds of thousands of documents and thousands of hours of videos to share with defense attorneys. Shared files total more than nine terabytes of information and would take over 100 days to view, the department says. More than 750 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 200 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors carrying a maximum sentence of six months' imprisonment. More than 100 riot defendants have been sentenced. And at least 90 others have trial dates this year. JAN. 6 CHARGES: Texas man who founded Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots Philadelphia-based defense attorney Justin Danilewitz, who was a federal prosecutor in New Jersey from 2012 to 2017, said a conviction in Reffitt's case may lead to a flurry of guilty pleas by other riot defendants. And that can benefit defendants on occasion because its better than the alternative if the alternative is a conviction following a trial, Danilewitz added. An acquittal could inspire other defendants to dig in their heels and either push for a better plea offer from prosecutors or gamble a trial of their own, he said. Defense attorney William Welch has said there is no evidence that Reffitt damaged property, used force or physically harmed anybody. In a May 2021 court filing, Welch said none of the videos or photos shows a gun in Reffitts possession at the Capitol. In fact, neither of the police officers interviewed by the government said anything about a firearm, he wrote. Kent Nishimura/TNS Reffitt has been jailed since his arrest in Texas less than a week after the riot. He faces five counts: obstruction of an official proceeding, being unlawfully present on Capitol grounds while armed with a firearm, transporting firearms during a civil disorder, interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, and obstruction of justice. A HOUSTON COP, BAKER AND A FLORIST: Meet the Texans charged in the Capitol riot The obstructing justice charge stems from threats that he allegedly made against his son, then 18, and daughter, then 16, after returning home from Washington. Reffett told his children to choose a side or die and said they would be traitors if they reported him to law enforcement, prosecutors said. He predicted future political violence in statements both to his family and to fellow militia members, bragged to fellow militia members about his involvement in the riot, recruited other rioters into the militia, and ordered bear spray and riot shields to his home to prepare for further violence," prosecutors wrote. Messages recovered from Reffitts cellphone indicate he planned to joined an armed insurrection on Jan. 6 and intended to occupy the Capitol, prosecutors said. We had thousands of weapons and fired no rounds yet showed numbers. The next time we will not be so cordial, he wrote, according to prosecutors. Presiding over Reffitt's trial is U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017. Friedrich already has sentenced nine rioters who pleaded guilty. Win McNamee/TNS Prosecutors expect to call about a dozen witnesses, including three Capitol police officers who interacted with Reffitt and an officer who was in charge of the U.S. Capitol Police command center. POLITIFACT 2021 LIE OF THE YEAR: False claims about Jan. 6 Capitol riot Jurors will see videos that captured Reffitt's confrontation with police. Prosecutors also have audio recordings of Reffitt talking about the riot inside his home after returning home. We made a point. That was a historic day," Refffitt said during one of the recorded conversations, according to prosecutors. And guess what? Im not done yet. I got a lot more to do. Thats the beginning." Reffitts son, daughter and a fellow Texas Three Percenter group member also are listed as government witnesses. The group member traveled with Reffitt to Washington and back to Texas between Jan. 4 and Jan. 8, 2021. During the drive (to Washington), Reffitt talked about 'dragging those people out of the Capitol by their ankles' and installing a new government, prosecutors wrote. A court filing that refers to the other militia member by the initials R.H. says the man will tell jurors he was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Welch has said Reffiitt worked as a rig manager and as a consultant in the petroleum industry before COVID-19 restrictions effectively shut down his business. The claim: We recently found out our nation hit a grim milestone: 100,000 Americans died of an overdose in a single year. Sen. John Cornyn. Cornyn, a Republican, linked this statistic to President Joe Bidens border policy and wrote, Pres. Bidens open borders policies are letting drugs like fentanyl pour into our communities. This cannot go on we must secure the border. PolitiFact rating: True. While Cornyn did not specify in the tweet which year he was referring to, the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports his claim. Its important to note, however, that the one-year period cited by Cornyns office started during Donald Trumps presidency and ended roughly three months after Biden took office. Discussion The National Center for Health Statistics estimated there were more than 100,300 drug overdose deaths nationally in a 12-month period ending April 2021. That matches what Cornyn said. Compared to the same period the year prior, drug overdose deaths had increased 28.5 percent. Data released Feb. 16 indicate an estimated 104,288 Americans died from drug overdoses from September 2020 to September 2021, according to CDC media relations. Marcia Ory, Texas A&M University School of Public Health professor and co-chair of Texas A&Ms Opioid Task Force, believes that number may be an undercount. Ory said she sees that to be the case in Texas rural counties. Texas has very few medical examiners in all of our 254 counties, so we already know that its often a justice of the peace or someone whos not medically trained, Ory said. Because of that the symptoms of an overdose death might be interpreted as cardiac failure, respiratory problems. Cornyns tweet included a video of his remarks in the Feb. 14 Senate session, where he described how opioid overdose deaths are driving drug overdose deaths and how the drug overdose death rate changed from 2018 to 2020. Scott Walters professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth and a leader in a National Institutes of Health-backed initiative to stem the opioid crisis said Cornyns characterization of overdose deaths decreasing in 2018, increasing in 2019, and skyrocketing in 2020 was right. Cornyns right that in 2018 we had seen a slow decrease, slow slide, of drug overdose deaths. Thats absolutely true. But coinciding with the start of the pandemic, we saw a sharp increase in the number of overdose deaths, Walters said. Cornyn points to fentanyl use About PolitiFact PolitiFact is a fact-checking project to help you sort out fact from fiction in politics. Truth-O-Meter ratings are determined by a panel of three editors. The burden of proof is on the speaker, and PolitiFact rates statements based on the information known at the time the statement is made. See More Collapse When it comes to drug overdose deaths, the driver of the increase is opioid use. The CDC reported that deaths from opioids increased by 35 percent from the one-year period ending in April 2020 to the one ending in April 2021. Cornyn specifically emphasized fentanyl use. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be lethal, even in small amounts. The Department of Justice describes fentanyl practically and effectively 50 and 100 times more potent than heroin or prescription opioids on its public awareness webpage on opioids. Cornyn wrote in his tweet, Pres. Bidens open borders policies are letting drugs like Fentanyl pour into our communities. This cannot go on we must secure the border. Cornyn said he believed Customs and Border Protection agents focus on an influx of migrants has detracted from drug interdiction efforts. U.S. Customs and Border Protection in South Texas saw a 1,066 percent increase in fentanyl seized in fiscal year 2021, according to a January press release from the agency. Mexico and China were the primary source for fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. in 2019, according to a 2020 report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Starting with the beginning of the pandemic and the lockdown, what happened was that the normal the so-called normal supply routes for heroin were all pinched. It was just plain more difficult to get heroin anymore, Walters said. So people started to shift during the pandemic, Walters said. You saw a shift from heroin and prescription pill-based products to more synthetic products. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl, Walters said. Thats responsible for the increase. Jane Maxwell, a University of Texas professor who monitors drug use patterns in Texas, said there is not a lot of data available on users, despite fentanyls link to many recent drug overdose deaths. While Cornyn pointed to Bidens border policy as part of the problem, Walters said he isnt sure open borders is the problem. Walters noted people have been moving substances across the border for years, and fentanyl is smaller and easier to conceal. Walters said he believes drug awareness campaigns need to be rethought. Well-established public health education tactics, like for public education on the dangers of smoking, assume people have a long time to use drugs before something terrible happens. That long period of time allows more opportunities to cut down or quit. With fentanyl, lethal doses are much smaller. Its a lot more like a poison in circulation. And we ought to be thinking more about a poison control solution rather than a stereotypical drug use campaign, Walters said. Wait! Before you go Please sign up for our Evening Digest and Breaking Newsletters Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. Alan Woods (editor of marxist.com) provides an update on the situation in Ukraine. Since Russia's invasion, a barrage of propaganda has been pumped out by the Western media, contributing to an atmosphere of utter hysteria, with the papers now screeching about the threat of a Third World War. Meanwhile, the imperialist leaders continue to display disgusting hypocrisy in their condemnation of Putin's 'violation of Ukraine's national sovereignty', having never shied from warfare in pursuit of their own interests in the past. Marxists must reject the cynical message of 'patriotism' and 'national unity', as we continue to oppose our own ruling classes in every country. It is often said that the first victim of war is the truth. Amidst this poisonous fog of propaganda, lies and half-truths, it is extremely difficult to give an accurate assessment of the military situation on the ground. The invasion of Ukraine has been met by a deafening chorus of condemnation from the imperialists. There is an avalanche of propaganda, designed to place all the blame on Russia, and to show that Putins military offensive has failed because of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian army. Repeated claims that the Russian offensive has ground to a halt, that the Ukrainian army has rallied and forced the enemy onto the defensive, must be treated with great caution. Whatever else they are intended to do, it is certainly not to present an accurate and truthful picture of the situation. But the aim of a deafening chorus is not to encourage people to think rationally. Quite the contrary, it is precisely to make them deaf to all rational argument and cease thinking altogether. This unprecedented propaganda barrage is designed to create an atmosphere of hysteria, and in this, they have achieved considerable success at least in the initial stages. The central aim is to convince the populations of the West of the need to close ranks, to unite against the threat of Russian aggression in the name of national unity. But unity with whom? Why, unity with their existing leaders and governments, with the Americans and NATO in a word with, their own ruling class and the most aggressive and reactionary imperialist forces. Samuel Johnson once said: Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. That was well said in the 18th century, and it is no less true today. Scratch any one of these patriotic ladies and gentlemen and you will always find the most cynical, lying, vicious rogues that can be imagined. The most repulsive role in all this has been played by the right-wing reformist leaders of the social democracy and the trade unions in Europe, who have lost no time falling over themselves to join the capitalists and imperialists in their hysterical anti-Russian campaign. They have revealed themselves as the most servile lackeys of the enemies of the working class in every country. For their part, the conduct of the left reformists has not been much better. To a greater or lesser extent, they have allowed themselves to be dragged behind the chorus of save poor little Ukraine, without ever bothering to analyse the class interests that lie behind the present conflict. World War Three? The prevailing mood among the masses in the West is a confused mixture of natural sympathy for the sufferings of the Ukrainian people and refugees, and fear of the conflicting spreading, leading to World War Three, with unspeakable consequences for the world. These fears have been exacerbated by the latest statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin, placing Russias nuclear forces on an action footing. However, they are entirely groundless. Let us spell it out very clearly: there will be no war between the United States and Russia, neither now or in the foreseeable future. The capitalists do not wage war for patriotism, democracy, or any other high-sounding principles. They wage war for profit, to capture foreign markets, sources of raw material, and to expand spheres of influence / Image: In Defence of Marxism Let us repeat things that ought to be ABC for any Marxist. The capitalists do not wage war for patriotism, democracy, or any other high-sounding principles. They wage war for profit, to capture foreign markets, sources of raw material (such as oil), and to expand spheres of influence. Is that elementary proposition not absolutely clear? And is it also not quite clear that a nuclear war would signify none of these things, but only the mutual destruction of both sides. They have even coined a phrase to describe this: MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). That such a war would not be in the interests of the bankers and capitalists will be evident even to a not very intelligent child of six, although apparently it is not evident to some people who, for reasons best known to themselves, call themselves Marxists. Another decisive factor is the mass opposition to war, particularly (but not exclusively) in the United States of America. A recent poll indicates that only 25 percent of the US population would favour direct military intervention in Ukraine, which means that the overwhelming majority would be opposed. This is hardly surprising, given the humiliating defeats suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan, a fact that is burned in the consciousness of the people of the United States. That was already shown when Obama attempted and failed to get permission to intervene militarily in Syria. The people of the US are heartily sick of foreign interventions and wars, and this is a powerful factor limiting the room for manoeuvre of both Biden and the Pentagon. It is this, and not any fear of the Third World War, that has prevented them from sending troops into a direct confrontation with the Russian army in Ukraine. The fact that Putin has made demagogic statements about putting his nuclear forces on action stations is not of the slightest military significance. This is fully understood by the strategists of capital and the Pentagon, who see it for what it is a clumsy attempt at psychological warfare. Incidentally, the USA itself was guilty of precisely such an attempt in 1973, during the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Egypt, when they also announced that their nuclear deterrent would be placed on level III (level I would be war). Such manoeuvres may well set nerves jangling in Berlin and Brussels, but they will have no effect whatsoever on the present conflict in Ukraine, nor on the calculations of the serious strategists of capital. Will sanctions work? Having already discounted the possibility of sending troops to the Ukraine the only serious step that could affect the outcome of the conflict the imperialists must content themselves with scoring cheap propaganda points through an hysterical campaign of insults directed at Moscow, alongside new sanctions against Russian banks and businesses and the sending of a certain amount of military aid to Kiev. None of this will have the slightest effect on the outcome of the war. We can confidently predict that when the present conflict ends these sanctions will be quietly dropped, since the harmful effect on the European economy would be too painful to bear / Image: Samuel Bailey, Wikimedia Commons The much-vaunted sanctions will fail, firstly because sanctions have never succeeded in the past and Putin has already introduced a series of measures specifically designed to reduce Russias dependence on trade and financial transactions with the West. In any case, the effects of economic sanctions will take time to work months, if not years by which time the Ukrainian conflict will have been long settled. But there is another reason, which ought to be clear to any half-intelligent person. Right now, they are bragging and boasting about the expulsion of Russian banks from Swift, the financial institution that deals with transactions in international trade. But, in the first place, only some banks are to be excluded. It is perfectly clear that those key banks that deal with the export of Russian oil and gas to Europe will not be affected. After dragging its feet for some time, Germany said it was halting certification of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. To be exact, not exactly halting, but only suspending, which is not at all the same thing. And we can confidently predict that the moment the present conflict ends (as, one way or another, it must), this sanction, and many others, will be quietly dropped, since the harmful effect on the European economy, in the first instance in Germany, would be too painful to bear. Despite all the claims to the contrary, Germany cannot find suitable alternative sources for oil and gas at sustainable prices. And as we know, principles are principles, but business is business. The sudden decision to send weapons to Ukraine something which the Germans in particular had always rejected is a particularly cynical action. It is too little and too late to halt the Russian advance, but may conceivably help to prolong the painful and bloody conflict at the suffering of the people, which the West claims is its one and only concern. There is no reason to doubt the sincere sense of solidarity with the suffering of the Ukrainian people felt by workers everywhere. When a Russian, German, French or American worker expresses sympathy for Ukrainians, we can believe them. But when Biden, Johnson, Macron or Scholz say the same thing, honest people can only turn away in disgust. The vile hypocrisy of the imperialists knows no bounds. Has the offensive failed? The imperialist propaganda machine insists that Putin has failed in his objective, and that the Russian armys advance has been halted by the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian army. Given the lack of any firm information, it is difficult to verify the facts. But such statements cannot be taken at face value. The first fact to note is that only a minority of the 190,000 troops that were stationed on the borders of Ukraine have so far been deployed. The relatively slow pace can be explained by the need to bring up supplies of fuel, ammunition, food etc., and to prevent the supply lines with Russia being stretched to a dangerous level. Ukraine, after all, is a very big country. Far from retreating, everything points to the Russian army advancing uninterruptedly by stages, capturing one key point after another / Image: Viewsridge, Wikimedia Commons It should also be noted that, at each stage when the army has halted, Putin has offered to negotiate. This appears to have been a deliberate strategy. He was clearly hoping that the fact of an invasion would be sufficient to force the Ukrainians to the negotiating table, where his demands could be addressed. There were certain indications that this strategy was, in fact, succeeding. On Friday night, there were clear indications that Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelensky was prepared to negotiate. He was clearly in a state of panic. However, the combined pressure of the extreme right-wing elements, and of NATO and the Americans, were sufficient to make him change mind. He subsequently adopted a defiant attitude. That meant that the war would continue. It is, of course, entirely possible that the Russian army has suffered some reverses, that at least part of the Ukrainian army has recovered from the initial shock and rallied to the extent that it is putting up a more-effective resistance. That is perfectly probable. The equation of war is extremely complicated, defeats can be swiftly followed by further advances, and vice versa. But it is not sufficient to quote individual instances as proof that the overall campaign is moving in one direction or another. Ultimately, it is the balance of forces that will determine the outcome. And that is overwhelmingly in favour of Russia. Far from retreating, everything points to the Russian army advancing uninterruptedly by stages, capturing one key point after another. Russian forces are surrounding the capital Kiev from different sides and have also surrounded the second city, Kharkiv. They are advancing from Crimea to the North and North-west, reaching Mykolaiv, and also towards the North-east, along the coast of the Azov Sea, where they have taken over Melitopol and Berdiansk, and have nearly managed to close off the key city of Mariupol, thus linking up with the forces coming south from Donetsk. Yet at the same time, the Russians are still pressing for negotiations. That was clearly part of a plan. It was no accident that the Ukrainians rejected the offer of a meeting in Minsk, protesting that Belarus is an ally of Russia and is assisting in the invasion. Subsequently, both Israel and Azerbaijan have offered their services, which Putin was quick to accept. Sooner or later, the negotiations must start. The question is, can they succeed? The real reason for Zelenskys reluctance to go to the negotiating table is obvious. Given the situation on the ground, any negotiations would place the Ukrainian government at an extreme disadvantage. The first question which must be asked is: what has Zelensky got to negotiate with? He will be like a gambler who sits down at the table with no cards to play. From that point of view, negotiations will very much resemble a prelude to capitulation. However, egged on by Washington and Berlin, Zelensky seems in no mood to capitulate. The result of the negotiations will therefore be complete failure. The issue will be decided as was clear from the outset not by negotiations, but on the field of battle. And there, Ukrainians will find themselves hopelessly outgunned. A few shipments of arms from Berlin will make very little difference. How the imperialists betrayed Ukraine The imperialists, as well as the Kiev government, seem to be relying on change inside Russia to upset Putins calculations. In a completely cynical manoeuvre, they are making demagogic appeals to the Russian people to turn against their masters in the Kremlin. It goes without saying that Putin and the oligarchy that he serves are the enemies of the Russian workers. And his support base has been steadily declining, which was obviously one of the reasons why he decided to play the card of invading Ukraine. It is also true that this move may well backfire on him at a certain stage. The Ukrainian people found out just how much the promised help of NATO was worth when the decisive moment arrived - they see the Ukrainian people as mere pawns in their cynical game / Image: president.gov.ua However, any suggestion that the reactionary imperialists can, in any way, shape or form, defend the interests of the people of Russia, Ukraine or any other country is a despicable lie. The Ukrainian people found out just how much the promised help and solidarity of NATO and the West was worth when the decisive moment arrived. They see the Ukrainian people as mere pawns in a cynical game, cannon fodder that can be usefully sacrificed in order to bring discredit upon Russia, without costing them the life of a single soldier. No trust whatsoever should be placed in these gangsters. And that is particularly true for workers and socialists in the West. The task of fighting against the reactionary gang in the Kremlin is the task of the Russian workers alone. Our task is to fight against our bourgeoisie, against NATO, and against American imperialism the most counterrevolutionary force on the planet. It is difficult to assess the psychology of the Russian masses at this moment. But the overwhelming majority of Russian people must detest the idea of fighting against their brothers and sisters in Ukraine, which has always occupied a special place in their hearts. They understand that NATO and US imperialism are their enemies and would be prepared to fight them. But they do not see the people of the Ukraine in the same way, and that is a correct and healthy instinct. If they accept Putins war (and many do not) it is reluctantly, because of the despicable conduct of the Kiev government, its collaboration with reactionary fascists and followers of wartime Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, their oppression of the Russian speaking people in Donbas, and other corrupt and oppressive acts. And behind the Kiev government, they see the bloody hand of imperialism. The Russian comrades of the IMT are doing their duty in this respect. It is up to us to follow their example and to come out boldly and clearly against the ruling class and imperialists in our own country. No other policy is permissible for genuine revolutionaries and proletarian internationalists. We cannot support either side in this war, because it is a reactionary war on both sides. In the final analysis, this is a conflict between two groups of imperialists. We do not support either of them. The people of poor, bleeding Ukraine are the victims in this conflict, which they did not create and do not desire. No one can exactly predict the outcome of this war, but it will not be positive for the working class in Ukraine, Russia or internationally. The immediate effect will be falling living standards and rising prices everywhere. The masses will be told that this was a necessary price to pay for the defence of peace and democracy. That will be cold comfort for millions of people facing poverty, unemployment and suffering. The dislocation caused by the war and aggravated by sanctions that will disrupt world trade still further will prepare the way for an economic collapse in the not-too-distant future. The result will be a worldwide slump. That would be the basis for enormous social and political instability, and an unprecedented intensification of the class struggle. At the beginning of every war, the consciousness of the masses is confused and blunted by the fog of propaganda, which creates a sensational hysteria, resembling a drunken stupor. Under such conditions, the most reactionary sections of the bourgeoisie can succeed in establishing an illusion of national unity. We must all stand together against the external enemy! We must all make sacrifices to pay for improved national defence! And so on and so forth. But, as in all cases of drunken orgies, the fumes eventually wear off. The propaganda loses its value through endless repetition. The message of patriotism and national unity will sound empty, as men and women lose their jobs, their homes and their hopes. History shows that war, that terrible bloody affair, can often lead directly to revolutionary consequences. And history has not yet delivered its final bill. Down with capitalism and imperialism! Long live the world socialist revolution! Long live the International Marxist tendency! Workers of the world, unite! London, 28 February 2022. Can (and should) AI-generated works be protected by copyright? Should Artificial Intelligence (AI) music and other creations recieve the same copyright protections that human generated works do? Learn current interpretations of the law and join the debate. A guest post by Mike Masnick of TechDirt. For years, throughout the entire monkey selfie lawsuit saga, we kept noting that the real reason a prestigious law firm like Irell & Manella filed such a patently bogus lawsuit was to position itself to be the go-to law firm to argue for AI-generated works deserving copyright. However, weve always argued that AI-generated works are (somewhat obviously) in the public domain, and get no copyright. Again, this goes back to the entire nature of copyright law which is to create a (limited time) incentive for creators, in order to get them to create a work that they might not have otherwise created. When youre talking about an AI, it doesnt need a monetary incentive (or a restrictive one). The AI just generates when its told to generate. This idea shouldnt even be controversial. It goes way, way back. In 1966 the Copyright Offices annual report noted that it needed to determine if a computer-created work was authored by the computer and how copyright should work around such works: In 1985, prescient copyright law expert, Pam Samuelson, wrote a whole paper exploring the role of copyright in works created by artificial intelligence. In that paper, she noted that, while declaring such works to be in the public domain, it seemed like an unlikely result as the legislature, the executive branch, and the courts seem to strongly favor maximalizing intellectual property rewards and: For some, the very notion of output being in the public domain may seem to be an anathema, a temporary inefficient situation that will be much improved when individual property rights are recognized. Rights must be given to someone, argue those who hold this view; the question is to whom to give rights, not whether to give them at all. Indeed, weve seen exactly that. Back in 2018, we wrote about examples of lawyers having trouble even conceptualizing a public domain for such works, as they argued that someone must hold the copyright. But thats not the way it needs to be. The public domain is a thing, and it shouldnt just be for century-old works. works that lack human authorship Thankfully (and perhaps not surprisingly, since they started thinking about it all the way back in the 1960s), when the Copyright Office released its third edition of the giant Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, it noted that it would not grant a copyright on works that lack human authorship using a photograph taken by a monkey as one example, but also noting the Office will not register works produced by a machine or mere mechanical process that operates randomly or automatically without any creative input or intervention from a human author. Of course, that leaves open some kinds of mischief, and the Office even admits that whether the creative work is done by a human or a computer is the crucial question. And, thats left open attempts to copyright AI-generated works. Jumping in to push for copyrights for the machines was Stephen Thaler. Weve written about Thaler going all the way back to 2004 when he was creating a computer program to generate music and inventions. But, hes become a copyright and patent pest around the globe. Weve had multiple stories about attempts to patent AI-generated inventions in different countries including the US, Australia, the EU and even China. The case in China didnt involve Thaler (as far as we know), but the US, EU, and Australia cases all did (so far, only Australia has been open to allowing a patent for AI). But Thaler is not content to just mess up patent law, hes pushing for AI copyrights as well. And for years, hes been trying to get the Copyright Office go give his AI the right to claim copyright. As laid out in a comprehensive post over at IPKat, the Copyright Office has refused him many times over, with yet another rejection coming on Valentines Day. The Review Board was, once again, unimpressed. It held that human authorship is a prerequisite to copyright protection in the United States and that the Work therefore cannot be registered. The phrase original works of authorship under 102(a) of the Act sets limits to what can be protected by copyright. As early as in Sarony (a seminal case concerning copyright protection of photographs), the US Supreme Court referred to authors as human. This approach was reiterated in other Supreme Courts precedents like Mazer and Goldstein, and has been also consistently adopted by lower courts. While no case has been yet decided on the specific issue of AI-creativity, guidance from the line of cases above indicates that works entirely created by machines do not access copyright protection. Such a conclusion is also consistent with the majority of responses that the USPTO received in its consultation on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy. The Review also rejected Thalers argument that AI can be an author under copyright law because the work made for hire doctrine allows for non-human, artificial persons such as companies to be authors. First, held the Board, a machine cannot enter into any binding legal contract. Secondly, the doctrine is about ownership, not existence of a valid copyright. Somehow, I doubt that Thaler is going to stop trying, but one hopes that he gets the message. Also, it would be nice for everyone to recognize that having more public domain is a good thing and not a problem Share on: We, Belarusian civil society organizations, profess peace and security as indisputable values. We are governed in our activities by human rights standards and principles of humanity. We have worked for many years to create a democratic society, free of discrimination, without inequalities and without violence. We have not stopped and continue to work in the face of pressure, harassment and brutal repression. We underline that the current illegitimate government is pursuing a policy which contradicts the Constitution and international norms, has engaged Belarus in military aggression against Ukraine and is sending Belarusian armed forces and others to take part in this war. The existing illegitimate authorities, which allowed the deployment of the armies of the Russian Federation, let them pass through our territory, supported the aggression at the political level and endangered the sovereignty and independence of Belarus. We declare our strong opposition to the policies of an illegitimate government and will stand together to defend our values, dignity, human rights and rights to peace by all available non-violent measures. We will continue to work for security and justice, solidarity and mutual support, the right to self-determination, freedom and independence. With this in view, we declare our commitment: to work together to stop the war and prevent its effects; to act against the involvement of the Belarusian people in military aggression by the illegitimate head of state; to spread reliable information about the situation in Belarus and Ukraine; to support the people of Ukraine in their fight for independence and territorial integrity; to express protest against military aggression and expand the principles of peaceful and good-neighbourly coexistence between the states; to help the Belarusian and Ukrainian communities to overcome the humanitarian crisis. We demand that the territory of the Republic of Belarus not be used as a military launching ground and territory of military aggression. We call on civil society organisations and initiatives to sign the statement and express solidarity. Source: https://bit.ly/Statement_Nie_Vajne BCC's Education Department to Hold Virtual Information Session PITTSFIELD, Mass. Berkshire Community College (BCC)'s Education Department will hold a virtual information session on Monday, March 7 at 6 pm. The free one-hour session provides an opportunity for prospective students to meet education faculty members, ask questions and get started on a cost-effective, intellectually challenging pathway to teaching. The session includes a program overview of various early childhood and elementary education programs offered at BCC; a brief summary of grant opportunities; admissions and financial aid tips; and a Q&A session with faculty and current education students. To register for the event, visit www.berkshirecc.edu/openhouse and scroll to Program Information Sessions. Click on the registration link to sign up for the session, which will be held via Zoom. Education programs at BCC include: Pittsfield Man To Receive Black Excellence award PITTSFIELD, Mass. Kamaar Taliaferro of Pittsfield will recognized with the 2022 Black Excellence award as part of the Black Excellence on the Hill event. This awards event, held annually by the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus (MBLLC), commemorates Black community leaders. The MBLLC seeks to highlight the heritage and work of those belonging to the Black diaspora through a virtual Black Excellence on the Hill celebration. L Taliaferro was nominated by state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier. "Kamaar Taliaferro is a young man who is quietly working to support and enhance his community in a variety of ways. Often in the background, but very much a leader and team player, Kamaar is a member of the local chapter of NAACP serving as Housing Committee Chair and is a member of West Side Legends (WSL). WSL is group of People of Color (POC) that grew up on the west side of Pittsfield that are invested in helping the community," she wrote. One of Taliaferro's friends and fellow members of NAACP, Shirley Edgerton, described Taliaferro as a "genius no exaggeration, working tirelessly conducting research and advocating for change and equity where it's needed. He is passionate about promoting fair and affordable housing, particularly for POC. A community activist from a very young age, Kamaar helps people with housing evictions and assists with overcoming obstacles that prevent them from staying housed and getting housing. He is solution oriented." Taliaferro has been working with a local financial institution on the history of redlining, a project to help address wealth gaps and inequities for POC to purchase homes. Taliaferro has helped many Pittsfield residents understand the process of ARPA funding and other opportunities. Taliaferro has also been instrumental in working with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission on the Healthy and Efficient Homes Pilot Project to address indoor environmental hazards and energy efficiency issues in homes in particular areas of Pittsfield with older homes. Taliaferro has been teaching community members about the importance of farm to table eating and the value in supporting local agriculture. In addition, he is passionate about Biodynamic farming, using a broad fork vs machinery such as a rototiller. The process he utilizes enhances soil fertility, protects crops and enhances overall plant health. He also contributes his home-grown vegetables to organizations that serve some of our most vulnerable communities. Taliaferro will be recognized at a virtual celebration on Monday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m. Jaykyri Simpson, executive director of Young Man with a Plan, will be the keynote speaker and the public is invited to register for the celebration at FEMA Awards $2.9 Million To BMC For COVID-19 Costs BOSTON The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will send more than $2.9 million to Massachusetts to reimburse Berkshire Medical Center (BMC) for the additional costs of operating safely and handling increased patient loads during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospital will receive a total of $2,908,751 in federal funding through FEMA's Public Assistance grant program to reimburse some of the costs associated with operating in a pandemic environment between June and September 2020, including: Setting up a temporary COVID-19 testing site in the hospital's parking lot and providing 17,044 tests; Contracting for security, diagnostic/laboratory services, nursing labor, and ambulatory services; and Converting a total of 48 additional rooms to airborne isolation rooms "FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Berkshire Medical Center with these costs," said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. "Providing resources for our partners on the front lines of the pandemic fight is critical to their success, and our success as a nation." So far, FEMA has provided nearly $867 million in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses. Additional information about FEMA's Public Assistance program is available at https://www.fema.gov/public-assistance-local-state-tribal-and-non-profit Note from the editorial board: Today we are reproducing a pair of very important articles that blow sky high all the lying western propaganda that has surrounded the war in Ukraine from day one up to the present. The author of these remarkable documents is not a Marxist. Far from it. He is Jacques Baud, a former colonel in the Swiss army and ex-member of the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service. He also worked for NATO, during and after the 2014 Ukraine crisis, following which he participated in programmes related to Ukraine. State Treasurer Announces Interim Lottery Executive Director BOSTON State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg announced that Michael Sweeney, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery, is departing from the agency for a new role outside of state government. "I want to thank Michael for his countless contributions to the Massachusetts State Lottery over the last seven years, and am grateful for his prior service at the State Treasurer's Office," said State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg. " I wish him well in all his future endeavors." The Treasurer has appointed Mark William Bracken as interim Executive Director. Bracken is tasked with leading the strategic business operations of the Lottery and its five regional offices as the Treasurer begins the search for a permanent Executive Director. Bracken has worked for the Massachusetts State Treasurer's Office since 2011. He is currently an Assistant Treasurer and Director of the state's Unclaimed Property Division. He attended St. Anselm College and Suffolk University Law School where he received his JD. Bracken has also served as the President of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. The Massachusetts State Lottery was created in 1972 to generate local aid revenues for the Commonwealth's cities and towns. Since its inception, the Lottery has returned more than $29 billion in net profit to the Commonwealth. Hong Kong: Govt updates discharge rules The Government announced today the latest criteria for discharge from isolation for people infected with COVID-19 and discharge from home quarantine for close contacts. Based on the requirements previously announced, infected people who have been sent to community isolation facilities (CIFs), people pending admission to hospitals or isolation facilities and close contacts under home quarantine are required to undergo 14 days of medical surveillance at CIFs or home. Under the new criteria, infected people who have been sent to CIFs and people pending admission may conduct a rapid antigen test (RAT) on day 6 and day 7 after testing positive, once they have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Similarly, close contacts who have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine may conduct RATs on day 6 and day 7 of the home quarantine period. At a press briefing this afternoon, Director of Health Dr Ronald Lam said if these two groups of people obtain negative test results during RATs on these two successive days, they may leave CIFs or home premises earlier on day 7 for their daily activities. The public may visit the COVID-19 dedicated website for information on selecting and using RAT kits. The guidelines on the website will be updated periodically to provide information most suited to people who have tested positive, including those who have tested positive by RAT, but pending admission. The Government reminded the public that, as RAT has its limitations, they should not fully trust a negative RAT result, and should remain vigilant. A negative RAT result will not be accepted as a negative result required under compulsory testing. Separately, the Hospital Authority has updated its discharge arrangement to increase the turnover of hospital beds, such that medical resources can be more effectively deployed on more imminent cases. If a patient is in a clinically stable condition, and his or her home premises or residential home environment is suitable, or he or she will be accepted by other CIFs, the patient will be discharged from hospital as early as possible to stay at home, at a residential home or at another appropriate facility until the individual obtains a negative test result. Only by then can the patient safely leave home, their residential home or the facility. Hospital Authority Chief Executive Dr Tony Ko emphasised that the doctor in charge will make a clinical judgment and assess the risk level of a person admitted to hospital upon clinical assessment. When a doctor or a medical colleague considers whether a patient is suitable for discharge, they consider the overall clinical pictures. That is, when a positive COVID-19 patient, who is of course in hospital, we conduct a thorough clinical assessment with overall clinical pictures. If they consider the patient is relatively stable and ready for discharge, we will arrange discharge based on different criteria, like the clinical condition, the symptoms, investigations among many other things. So, we wont just rely on a single parameter, for example, the number of days to decide whether the patient is suitable for discharge. This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Police seize over 7 kg of drugs in China's Guangxi Xinhua) 08:31, February 28, 2022 NANNING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Border police in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said on Sunday that they recently seized over 7 kg of heroin and arrested seven suspects. The border police received a tip-off in late January, reporting that a gang of drug dealers was planning to smuggle drugs into China through Daxin County, which borders Vietnam. The local public security bureaus and related departments immediately launched an operation. A suspect was spotted on the highway and 20 pieces of heroin weighing 7 kg in total were seized on the spot. Police then traced six others suspected of drug trafficking and six drug users. Further investigations into the case are underway. (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) Name: Brian Keare Company: Incorta Job title: CIO and Cloud General Manager Date started current role: September of 2019 Location: Los Angeles County, CA Brian Keare is the CIO and Cloud General Manager of Incorta, where he advises Fortune 10 to Fortune 500 companies on their digital transformation strategies and how to gain the most valuable data insights in near real time. Prior to joining Incorta, Keare was senior vice president of IT at Nortek Security & Control, a company that engineers, manufactures, and distributes tens of thousands of security and home automation products. What was your first job? My very first job during high school was working at a local paint store as a mixer. In college, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, so my first real job after graduating was at a global law firm in Paris. While at the law firm, I managed billing, which was - at the time - a highly manual process. This was around 1990 and I was using the early version/precursor of what is now Microsoft Excel. During my time there, I was struck by how manual everything about that process was. It became a big frustration of mine, which ultimately helped me realise that I did not want to be a lawyer or work at a law firm for my entire career. Nonetheless, the lessons from that experience stuck with me through business school, in turn paving my way into IT. Did you always want to work in IT? I did not! For me, IT was - and largely still is - a vehicle to help companies accomplish amazing things that they otherwise could not do without the help of technology. After finishing business school, I ran a small company that required me to wear a variety of hats. I was able to experience first hand what being successful looks like. I also quickly realised where my true passion lies: leveraging technology to accomplish the impossible. Looking back, I was always fascinated with wrapping my head around the technology and how it was able to transform a company and achieve some really powerful things. What was your education? Do you hold any certifications? What are they? I received my Bachelor of Arts (AB) in Politics at Princeton University. I then went on to receive my Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Explain your career path. Did you take any detours? If so, discuss. As I mentioned above, I did not always want to work in IT. It wasnt until after business school, and specifically while getting my feet wet in a few different CFO and COO roles, that I found myself gravitating towards technology. My passion was really on display while at Nortek. My task was to lead a team to implement a huge ERP platform (Netsuite) at a global company in an effort to rethink how Nortek was doing business. A few years after this implementation, while re-engineering our data & analytics strategy in another effort to help drive success via technology at Nortek, I ended up learning about, selecting, and implementing Incorta. This paved the way to yet another transition - from a global manufacturing enterprise to a technology software company, Incorta - where I am the CIO today. Being at Incorta has been extraordinarily rewarding - shaping our product and helping global enterprises leverage our technology to do amazing things. What business or technology initiatives will be most significant in driving IT investments in your organisation in the coming year? At Incorta, in the coming year we will be laser focused on taking the incredible technology we have and working to deliver the benefits to our customers more efficiently to keep up with skyrocketing demand. Many of the key IT investments are happening within our secure cloud platform, ensuring it is reliable, cost efficient, and scalable. What are the CEO's top priorities for you in the coming year? How do you plan to support the business with IT? Our CEO, Scott Jones, is prioritising product-led growth powered via cloud innovation. Traditionally, Incorta has been an engineering-led organisation, and these engineers have developed amazing technologies that will revolutionise enterprise data analytics. In 2021 our emphasis has been (a) to shift of a product-led growth strategy, developing our technology in ways that allow customers to have their own A-HA moment within the product quickly, and (b) to deliver our product on a secure, easy-to-deploy and easy-to-manage cloud platform. We are continually uncovering ways to make Incorta even easier for our customers to understand, deploy, and use in a cost efficient way within their organisations. Pursuing a product-led and cloud-powered growth strategy also enables us to more quickly bring our innovations to market, to be able to serve customers more quickly and efficiently, and to ensure that as we grow that we can maintain outstanding levels of quality and service. Perhaps most importantly, this strategy allows us to be closer to our customers, helping them leverage our technology to successfully tackle their most consequential data challenges. And this allows the Incorta team to have better visibility into how the platform is being used by our customers in a virtuous cycle so that we can continue to improve our product in ways that are important to our customers. Does the conventional CIO role include responsibilities it should not hold? Should the role have additional responsibilities it does not currently include? The role of the CIO is, and always should be, evolving. Decades ago, the nature of a CIO's role was to view the function similar to how we would view a utility: does everyone have what they need, and does it function. A lot of the effort traditionally was reactive, focusing on fixing things that are reported broken. As the internet, the cloud, and digital transformation efforts took hold, CIOs had new opportunities to implement easily customisable business systems and technology within their organisations. Some got more involved in the architecture of these systems in the service of driving productivity or even transforming their companies business models - while others were content to let others architect systems that they were merely caretakers of. On top of this, we are now in the midst of an exponential explosion of data. Transactional data, product data, environmental data - you name it. Sensor data from one customer product (a car, for example) can today generate more data in an hour than global enterprises had produced in their entire history a couple of decades ago. CIOs today can either choose to leave this challenge to others, or tackle the opportunities presented by these revolutions head on. So as these seismic shifts happen beneath our feet, does a CIO re-invent herself? Does a CIO become the de-facto Chief Data and Analytics Officer of the company - or do they wait for the company to hire someone different for that role? The best CIOs I know have always been re-inventing what they do. When implementing a new ERP, they become the business process re-engineering leader of the organisation. In the face of the data revolution, they become the CDAO. They continually search for, and find, disruptive technologies and re-invent the structure and process of how they deliver value to the organisation. Most importantly, they always figure out how to strategically leverage technologies at their disposal in the service of their business while also partnering with their fellow executives across the board - the CEO, COO, CFO, CRO, and Head of Sales - they make them all heroes and figure out how to empower them and their teams to do their jobs better. Are you leading a digital transformation? If so, does it emphasise customer experience and revenue growth or operational efficiency? If both, how do you balance the two? We are indeed driving digital transformation here at Incorta. Internally, my efforts in this regard focus on operational efficiency. We are leveraging technologies that allow us to bring together people and processes in a way that allows us to be efficient and to profitably scale. And to be able to manage efficiently across a distributed global workforce. Of course, we also use our own unified data analytics platform in these efforts because of how effective a tool it is in the service of digital transformation. Externally, digital transformation efforts help us grow and help us efficiently deliver value to our customers via our products and services. Describe the maturity of your digital business. For example, do you have KPIs to quantify the value of IT? At Incorta, given that we are a data analytics company, we try to drink our own champagne by using Incorta data analytics to measure everything we do internally. Like many companies, we're smaller and entrepreneurial in nature, but also quickly growing. It is in our DNA to measure what we do. What does good culture fit look like in your organisation? How do you cultivate it? I initially saw Incortas culture through my experience with them as a customer while at Nortek. It was clear to me that the Incorta team was an incredibly smart group, who think big about how they can tackle insane challenges successfully. I also saw them as humble, transparent, and team-oriented individuals. You cultivate a good culture fit first and foremost by having a careful recruiting and onboarding strategy. I always find hiring slow and purposefully leads to the best outcome versus just hiring to fill a seat. When hiring, it is also important to give the person an opportunity to thrive. We are also not bashful about hiring people who are smarter than us. If we are successful, our new team members arent order takers but are in fact are the ones who tell us what we should be doing to take our company to the next level. Its amazing to me how consistently this dynamic plays out at Incorta - to the benefit of absolutely everyone. What roles or skills are you finding (or anticipate to be) the most difficult to fill? The competition for technology talent is real - it is extraordinarily difficult to recruit out there today. Talented individuals have many options, and desperate companies fuel bidding wars for such talent. Any role having to do with the cloud or cybersecurity these days is especially hard to fill. The realisation over the past couple of years that remote work is not only do-able but is here to stay - this means the gloves are off and the top firms will look farther and wider to find the best talent to join their teams. Which makes the recruiting environment is even more competitive. Thus, in todays age, you need to be able to offer more than just an attractive compensation package. You also need to also offer a robust, challenging, enjoyable work environment that helps folks with their job satisfaction and career advancement goals as well. What's the best career advice you ever received? Good choices stem from being able to choose among multiple, attractive alternatives. If a good opportunity comes your way and you are tempted to jump on, balance that against other alternatives you have (and there should always be multiple). If you are not generating other attractive alternatives, then you are making a decision by default rather than one that is deliberately considered. Do you have a succession plan? If so, discuss the importance of and challenges with training up high-performing staff. In line with my above thought that you hire people not to tell them what to do, but for them to tell you/your organisation what to do...If you really stand by this, then you are giving your team members the opportunity to excel in areas which you might not personally be great at. If I am doing my job right when hiring, I will always look to hire those who are smarter and have greater knowledge in their respective area of expertise than myself. My job is to ensure these team members have the resources, company alignment, and support to execute on their initiatives. Through this, they are taking responsibilities off my own plate, fulfilling duties under me, and in the process enabling me as CIO to do bigger and better things for my organisation. If I am doing a good job, then I am always implementing my succession plan so that I can elevate to even higher ways to add value. What advice would you give to aspiring IT leaders? In IT, it is easy to become enamoured with tools. But tools and software are only a means to a higher end; they are only a piece of the puzzle. I advise folks to learn how the tools you are working with fit with both processes and people. These three elements tools, processes, and people all need to come together to be successful. I also give the advice to get out of a functional lane and think strategically about how what you are doing (in IT) can turbocharge the efforts of your organisation. Dont only check off the task lists and to-dos, but actually understand how the functional role of IT fits into the larger goals of the organisation and allows it to be successful. If you can look up and see the proverbial forest from the trees, you will be able to be a much more effective IT leader. What has been your greatest career achievement? My greatest career achievement to date was turning the battleship while I was at Nortek helping the organisation to transition from how they did business for the last 20+ years and onto a new ERP platform, which was a very ambitious effort. Since the outbreak of Russia's armed conflict against Ukraine, the International Federation of Journalists has been in constant contact with its Ukrainian affiliates, NUJU and IMTUU, and has echoed warnings against journalists being seduced by disinformation. The IFJ and its affiliates around the world call on Unesco to do everything possible to protect journalists. In the space of a few days, hundreds of Ukrainian civilians have already been killed by Russian bombs, which have earned Putin's regime the ire of the international community. This is a war, in violation of a country's sovereignty, in violation of international law and the founding principles of the United Nations Charter. The IFJ and the International Trade Union Confederation, representing more than 200 million workers worldwide, call on their members to express their solidarity with the workers and citizens of Ukraine through a solidarity fund for ITUC affiliated organisations in Ukraine and by calling on the governments of countries in the region to provide a safe place for refugees fleeing the conflict. In order to increase pressure on Russia, the Global Federations are asking their affiliates to call on their respective governments, and regional international institutions, in Europe, Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East, the Americas and Asia-Pacific, to put in place sanctions measures against the Putin government. Furthermore, the IFJ, representing journalists at the United Nations, calls on the Director General of UNESCO, the agency in charge of the protection and safety of journalists, to do everything possible to ensure that journalists in Ukraine, both national and foreign, can carry out their mission of informing the public in complete safety. The IFJ updated its safety advice on 24 February and calls on all news organisations to take steps to protect their reporters in the field. Finally, the battle against disinformation is one of the pillars of the IFJ Global Ethics Charter for Journalists and must remain the backbone of journalists' work in both Ukraine and Russia. IFJ affiliates in Ukraine, IMTUU (Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine) and NUJU (National Union of Journalists of Ukraine) and RUJ in Russia (Russian Union of Journalists) have urged their members to respect these professional principles. NUJU has launched a hotline and announced the establishment of a support committee for journalists. All IFJ affiliates around the world are urged to give practical support to our Ukrainian comrades. Journalist Weng Kian Yong was fined by health department authorities for allegedly failing to adhere to standard operating procedures (SOP) at the Larkin nomination centre in Johor on February 26. The International Federation of Journalists and its affiliate, the National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia (NUJM), express concern over the Malaysian authorities penalising of journalists and media workers simply for carrying out their work. Candidates and members of the press gather outside the Larkin nomination centre in Johor. Credit: Twitter Weng Kian Yong, a journalist with Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew, was reporting on the upcoming Johor state election when authorities from the health department issued him a RM 1,000 (approx. USD 238) fine for violating the standard operating procedure. The compound notice stated that the journalist had failed to adhere to the centres Covid-19 physical distancing guidelines set out by the department. Weng Kia Yong said that he did nothing wrong, and was simply approaching candidates to obtain their personal information, including their names and contact details. Never did I think that it was an offense. I was the only person who was compounded among several other journalists who were doing the same thing, he said in a statement to Malay Mail. Khairulanuar Yahaya, another journalist covering the election from news portal Malaysia Gazette, was also issued with a warning by health department officers, but was not given a fine. The NUJM said: NUJ Malaysia is extremely disappointed over the above incident as we are in view that journalists who were present there, or at any event of news coverage, were just carrying their duty as a professional journalist. We will advise all media personnel especially, our members, who are covering the Johor state election process to adhere to the standard operating procedure. However, at the same time, NUJ urges government authorities to give a fair treatment to the media, as the journalists are helping the government in disseminating vital information to the public. The IFJ said: The unjustified penalising of journalists under the guise of health orders sets a worrying precedent for press freedom in Malaysia. The IFJ calls for the immediate dismissal of the fine issued to Weng Kian Yong and urges Malaysian officials to better safeguard journalists safeguarded who are carrying out their work. Over the weekend, Elon Musk said he was activating Starlink, the satellite internet service from SpaceX, in Ukraine. That came in a tweet responding to a request from Ukraine's vice prime minister, and minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, who specifically asked for Starlink to be turned on in Ukraine. I suspect the majority of Starlink receivers are likely to be used by Ukraine's government to ensure it continues to have the ability to communicate and share information. That's important during any crisis, but Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has shown himself to be especially adept at communicating via social media. Zelensky has effectively rallied his citizens, as well as the rest of the world, to Ukraine's cause. At the same time, as Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian cities, the country has seen "a series of significant disruptions to internet service," according to NetBlocks, which monitors internet activity. Having a reliable backup to stay online is useful for obvious reasons. At first, it was hard to know what to do with Musk's response. Of course, it's admirable that the world's wealthiest person, who runs two of its most important tech companies, is doing something tangible to aid a country that can use all of the help it can get. At the same time, Musk has a history of making promises, often with mixed results. For example, he's been promising that your Tesla will be able to drive itself for years. Early in the pandemic, he promised 1,000 ventilators to hospitals, which never actually arrived. The ones that did were BiPap machines, which aren't the same thing as ventilators needed to treat Covid-19 patients in the ICU. Then he promised to build them out of Model 3 parts. He's also talked up a series of features and products that almost never arrive as promised. The Cybertruck is only the most recent example. It would be easy to dismiss this criticism as taking his flair for hyperbole too seriously, but promises create expectations. When you make promises, people expect you to deliver on them. Musk has a tendency to make promises and figure out how to make them true later. To a large extent, he's made that strategy work for himself, but there's a cost every time you don't keep your promises. Sometimes, just making promises can be problematic, like the time he said he had the funding in place and planned to take Tesla private. That one got him in actual trouble with the SEC, which banned him from being the chairman of a public company for three years. I think we can all agree that Musk's quick response to Fedorov was exactly the right mentality. The problem is that providing satellite internet service isn't as simple as replying to a tweet. Even if Starlink has turned on service in Ukraine, there's the small matter of needing a receiver to use that service. It's not easy to go out and buy one when your country has been invaded and the city you live in is surrounded by hostile forces. In this case, however, it appears Musk did deliver. Fedorov tweeted out a photo on Monday of what appears to be a truck full of Starlink receivers. Later on Monday, a user shared a screenshot of their internet connection using Starlink in Kyiv. My point is this: I applaud Musk's willingness to do whatever possible to assist the people of Ukraine. The truth is, Starlink provides a service that is essential, even more so during a time of war. The ability to connect to the internet means getting information. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold, experts are urging American businesses to double down on their cybersecurity protocols. In mid-February, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a federal agency that seeks to improve cybersecurity readiness, issued a "shields-up" warning to U.S. organizations, as tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated. The shields-up initiative encourages organizations of all sizes to take steps to reduce their chances of a cyberattack and ensure that they're prepared in the case of a breach. "T]he reason why there are these bulletins coming out, especially directed at small and medium-size businesses, is that we have learned the hard way about the fragility of the global supply chain," says Theresa Payton, a former White House chief information officer under George W. Bush. That fragility was apparent last year in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, which resulted in widespread panic buying that led gas stations to run out of fuel. And the Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, a chipmaker, said on Friday that it's looking into a cybersecurity incident, though it's unclear if the potential cyberattack is linked to any specific entity. Ukraine itself has already sustained a number of cyberattacks as the conflict with Russia continues, most recently a wave of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks--incursions in which an attacker uses a botnet to overwhelm a server with fake traffic to disrupt the flow of normal traffic. Hundreds of computers in Ukraine have been infected with destructive malware as well. Given how interconnected the world is, there is potential that these cyberattacks against Ukraine could reach U.S. systems, Payton says. She also points to historical reasons to act. Bad actors allegedly placed malicious code in an update for a tax program used by a Ukraine software firm, which paved the way for the 2017 NotPetya attack that racked up billions in damages and wreaked havoc across the globe. The interconnected nature of supply chains, for instance, makes girding for an attack particularly challenging, says Payton. Whether it's contact systems in Ukraine or other core systems located in the country, that exposure increases a U.S. business's vulnerability. There's also the potential of a small business's third-party vendor becoming infected, which could lead back to their network. And it's long been known that small businesses tend to be easier targets compared with their larger counterparts since they don't have as many resources. To overcome these challenges, it's best to get on the defensive. While assessing unusual behavior and shoring up your crisis-response team may be standard safeguards to deploy, Payton adds that a few other tips to combat a Russia-derived attack should also be on the table. Here are four: Look out for DDoS attacks: One question businesses should be asking is if their technology services provider knows how to detect DDoS attacks, and what that provider can do to help. If your website is not the main way that your customers interact with you, then maybe DDoS attacks are less of a concern. But if you operate a retailer or your website is how third parties connect with you, then talk to your technology services provider to learn about the protective measures they may have in place. There's no need to panic if the answer is no right now, but it's something to remedy for future outlook. Close side doors: If a third-party that a small business works with is hit by a breach, there is potential for bad actors to breach that small business through a "side door" hack. But businesses can stay on top of side door hacks through log management. Logging is the process of recording all movements and events concerning an organization's data and other systems. These logs include entries, which have information related to events that take place in systems and networks. Businesses should manage their logs and keep a close eye on files and other data that's being copied, moved, zipped, or sent outside of an organization. Roll out the encrypted backups: Critical infrastructure and financial services may be key targets in a coordinated ransomware attack. This is where businesses want to ensure that they have a full backup of their systems and data. Make sure everything is encrypted as well. Another tip? Keep backups separate from network connections, which increases an organization's resilience in the event of a breach. That way if one system is compromised, it helps prevent malicious code from spreading to connected systems. Double-check MFA: Even if you believe that you've fully rolled out multifactor authentication and strong passwords, now is the time to double-check them. Businesses don't need any technical resources for this and can check their systems on their own. But organizations could also go to the extent of asking an internal or external team to conduct a red team assessment, which simulates an attack to identify any vulnerabilities. It's important to ensure that MFA and strong passwords are working as designed, since Payton highlights that Russian cyber operatives are known for their savviness at guessing passwords through what she describes as "password spraying." Your workers have a password problem. It's an old problem, but the risks are getting bigger. A recent report commissioned by the New Zealand-based Mobile Mentor, an information technology and services company, shows that employees aren't managing their passwords as well as they could be: Only 31 percent of those surveyed use a password management tool. The report was conducted by the Center for Generational Kinetics, an Austin-based research firm. Workers are using other methods to keep track of their passwords; unfortunately, they're not very secure. Twenty-nine percent of people keep it old school by jotting down their passwords in a journal, while 24 percent record their passwords in the notes application on their cellphone, according to Mobile Mentor's report. The research surveyed 1,500 individuals--1,000 in the U.S. and 500 in Australia--working across the health care, education, government, and financial services sectors. Storing your passwords securely can ward off future headaches like identity theft, data breaches, or financial losses. Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week highlighted the increased risk of cyberattacks against businesses. Reuters reports that U.S. banks are already preparing for cyberattacks following the sanctions that Western nations imposed on Russia. And the Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, a chipmaker, said on Friday that it's looking into a cybersecurity incident. But not all businesses have the best password practices. Digital security company NordPass worked with independent researchers to examine more than 15.6 million breaches that Fortune 500 companies sustained. The results? The word password was one of the most popular passwords among all industries--and has been for decades. NordPass also recently conducted a small-scale study that revealed that some small and midsize businesses are even storing passwords in unprotected Word and Excel documents. Spoiler alert: This is an unwise tactic given security concerns, says Gerald Kasulis, NordPass's head of business and channel operations. "Ultimately, when you store your passwords in a Word document, for instance, it's not an encrypted document," Kasulis says. "So it's easy for anyone to gain access to that document," he adds, pointing to phishing attacks as one example. Passwords may be a pain, but they're a necessary hindrance. So what's the latest advice for keeping track of a constantly rotating suite of passwords? The Tempe, Arizona-based software company NortonLifeLock recommends browser password managers or password manager applications to safely store passwords. Many internet browsers, such as Google Chrome or Safari, offer password management features, though one drawback is that such a tool is browser specific. 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. Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. 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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. In its regulatory filing, Punjab National Bank Limited informed that Anil Kumar Misra has been appointed as a Director of the Bank under Section 9(3)(c) of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, in terms of Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, GOI. His appointment shall be effective until further orders.Shri Anil Kumar Misra was superannuated as an Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India on 31.07.2018.Anil Kumar is succeeding in the position of Shri Vivek Aggarwal.Punjab National Banks stock ended lower at Rs34.95, down by 0.14% or 50 paise, against its previous closing price of Rs35. It touched the days high and low of Rs35.15 and Rs34.05 respectively. The BSE and NSE will be shut for trading on Thursday, March 1 on account of Mahashivratri. The currency markets will also be closed during the day, while the commodity markets will be closed in the morning session, but will resume trading in the evening.The stock market and currency market will reopen for trading on March 2 i.e. Wednesday.The BSE Sensex rebounded from day's low to close in the green as investors turned optimistic amid hopes for Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Ukraine said that negotiations with Moscow would be held at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.Tata Steel, PowerGrid, Reliance Industries, Titan, NTPC, L&T, Asian Paints and ICICI Bank were the major gainers on the 30-share BSE index, whereas Dr Reddy's, Axis Bank, M&M, HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank) settled in the red. Mahindra Lifespace Developers: Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund bought additional 2.19 lakh equity shares via open market transactions on February 23. With this, its shareholding in the company stands at 5.13% now, up from 4.98% earlier. The stock gained 3% on Friday to close at Rs292.Rain Industries: The company posted a loss of Rs72.3 crore for the quarter ended December 2021 against a profit of Rs322 crore in the year-ago period, as there was an abnormal fall in the net realizable value of inventories after a change in the macro-economic conditions like the effect of COVID-19 and fall in crude oil prices. However, revenue grew sharply by 52% yoy to Rs4,026 crore in Q4CY21.Bharti Airtel: The company is going to buy 4.7% stake in Indus Towers, from Vodafone. It has entered into an agreement with Euro Pacific Securities Ltd, an affiliate of Vodafone Group Plc for acquisition of stake in the tower infrastructure company.Hindalco Industries: The aluminium major has entered into a share purchase agreement with Brazilian firm Terrabel Empreedimentos Ltda, to divest entire equity shareholding in Hindalco Do Brazil Industria Comercia de Alumina LTDA (HDB), the wholly owned step down subsidiary.Fortis Healthcare: Rating agency CRISIL has upgraded long term rating to 'AA-, from 'A+' for the private hospitals chain, and placed rating on watch with developing implications. Further, the short-term rating has been upgraded to A1+, from 'A1' and placed rating on watch with developing implications.Hinduja Global Solutions: Subsidiary HGS International Mauritius has completed the acquisition of Australian company Diversify. In January, its arm entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% equity stake in Diversify Offshore Staffing Solutions Pty Ltd, Australia.SJVN: The government has granted in-principle approval for development of 400MW solar park at Kinnaur, to SJVN. These projects will assist SJVN in achieving its ambitious shared vision of 5000 MW by 2023, 25000 MW by 2030 and 50000 MW by 2040. Lehigh Valley high school students perform during the opening number Thursday, May 23, 2019, at the Freddy Awards at the State Theatre in Easton. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call ) The year was 2019 and Bangor Area High Schools Mamma Mia swept the annual Freddy Awards. No one knew then that it would be three full years until another ceremony would be held again. Advertisement It is thrilling to be back. To think about the kids over the last two years that have waited for their moment and to not have it be their usual lovefest, it was very difficult, said Shelley Brown, president and CEO of Eastons State Theatre. We are looking forward to our 20th year. Marking two decades honoring the best of high school theater, the State Theatre will host a fully in-person, staged-live Freddy Awards show on May 26. The ceremony will air live on WFMZ from 7 to 10 p.m. Advertisement The #Freddys are back! Heres the full list of shows https://t.co/mUuNZj5HNC @StateTheatrePA GO Guide: The Morning Call (@GoGuideLV) March 1, 2022 This year, students from 28 high schools will perform in musicals including Mamma Mia and The Sound of Music. The timing of the pandemics arrival could not have been worse for the Freddys. When COVID-19 first struck the Lehigh Valley in the spring of 2020, most of the high schools had to cancel their musical performances. With no musicals staged and the state in lockdown, a live Freddys could not be held. A pre-recorded show honoring students aired on WFMZ. Not being able to host a live Freddys was devastating. Brown said. Kids emailed me and mothers saying they looked forward to it and there wasnt any way to do anything about it, Brown said. You felt powerless. Bangor performs "Dancing Queen from Mamma Mia!" during the 2019 Freddy Awards at the State Theatre in Easton on Thursday, May 23, 2019. (Rick Kintzel / The Morning Call) In 2021, as vaccines began to roll out, the Freddys again had to be a recorded event airing only on TV. This year, organizers pushed to have a normal Freddys as schools across our area had mostly in-person classes throughout the school year. This time, timing worked in their favor: Its the Freddys 20th year. Advertisement We were talking about looking forward to the 20th year and what could we do that would be special, Brown said. We just want to do the Freddys. I want it to be as much like it always is as possible. Jamie Balliet, Freddy Awards coordinator and producer and senior vice president for marketing at The State, said this years show will follow the same format as it has in years past. It promises to be an elaborate and glamorous Tony Awards-style show, featuring all high school performers. Balliet has been part of the Freddys since the very beginning, 20 years ago and the last two years of recorded shows have been much harder. Parkland performs "Show People" from "Curtains" during the 2019 Freddy Awards at the State Theatre in Easton on Thursday, May 23, 2019. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call ) It was harder to get all those elements together for the recorded shows, Balliet said. I am very happy to have a live show. Im grateful and grateful for the kids. When planning began last fall, Balliet said she was pretty confident they would be able to have a fully in-person live show. We just want to do the Freddys. I want it to be as much like it always is as possible. Shelley Brown, president and CEO of Eastons State Theatre Of course, the pandemic and variants are still with us, but Balliet said they will continue to monitor all the guidance from state, local and city health officials as well as the school districts. Advertisement We want to put on a great show, Balliet said. While the program will look largely the same as it did in 2019, theres an added importance this year. Ive known it for a long time, Brown said. its not about the awards. Its about the encouragement and how important it is for the kids mental health. Its all about the whole gathering of the kids. Its a lovefest, and that they will all be celebrating. Info on the Freddys Scholarships and community awards: Since 2003, more than $1.8 million in college scholarships, paid internships and community awards have been presented to Freddy Award participating students. For the list of 2022 scholarship and community opportunities to go freddyawards.org/scholarships-community-awards Since 2003, more than $1.8 million in college scholarships, paid internships and community awards have been presented to Freddy Award participating students. For the list of 2022 scholarship and community opportunities to go freddyawards.org/scholarships-community-awards Preview night May 25: Catch a glimpse of performance rehearsals including the opening and closing numbers, lead actor and actress medleys and overall musical nominees. Preview night tickets are $25 adults/$10 students for 4:30 to 10 p.m. show. There will also be the preview party in the Lehigh Valley Health Network Gallery & Annex, featuring a silent auction, buffet, beverages and more: $95 per person; 4:30 to 8 p.m. Catch a glimpse of performance rehearsals including the opening and closing numbers, lead actor and actress medleys and overall musical nominees. Preview night tickets are $25 adults/$10 students for 4:30 to 10 p.m. show. There will also be the preview party in the Lehigh Valley Health Network Gallery & Annex, featuring a silent auction, buffet, beverages and more: $95 per person; 4:30 to 8 p.m. More info: freddyawards.org/ Schools shows and times MARCH * Northwestern Lehigh: Bye, Bye, Birdie, 7 p.m. March 3., 7 p.m.. March 4, 7 p.m. March 5, 2 p.m. March 6 Tickets: 610-298-8661 x2211 Advertisement Info: https://northwesterntigers.org/ * Easton Area: 42nd Street: 7 p.m. March 4, 1:30 p.m. March 5, 7 p.m. March 5, 1:30 p.m. March 6. Tickets: https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/55705 Hackettstown, "Tuck Everlasting" wins Outstanding Overall Production by a Smaller School during the 2019 Freddy Awards at the State Theatre in Easton on Thursday, May 23, 2019. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call ) * Moravian Academy: HMS: Pinafore; 7:30 p.m. March 4, 7:30 p.m. March 5, 2 p.m. March 6. Limited in-person and streamed; https://www.moravianacademy.org/ * Wilson Area: The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy; 7:30 p.m. March 4, 7:30 p.m. March 5, 2:30 p.m. March 6 Advertisement Tickets: http://wahsdrama.booktix.com * Salisbury: Rent, 7 p.m. March 10, 7 p.m. March 11., 7 p.m. March 12, 2 p.m. March 13 Tickets on sale March 1; salisburysd.org * Northern Lehigh: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, 7 p.m. March 10, 7 p.m. March 11., 7 p.m. March 12, 2 p.m. March 13 Tickets: https://nlsd.hometownticketing.com/embed/all?depts=3 * Southern Lehigh: Bye, Bye, Birdie, 7 p.m. March 16, 7 p.m. March 17, 7 p.m. March 18, 7 p.m. March 19, 2 p.m. March 20 Advertisement Tickets: southernlehightheatre@gmail.com * Saucon Valley: Shrek: The Musical, 7 p.m. March 17, 7 p.m. March 18, 7 p.m. March 19., 2 p.m. March 20 Tickets: https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/60283 Lehigh Valley high school drama students perform "Last Dance" (Summer, The Donna Summer Musical) during the 2019 Freddy Awards at the State Theatre in Easton on Thursday, May 23, 2019. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call ) * Catasauqua: Chicago: High School Edition, 7 p.m. March 18, 7 p.m. March 19, 2 p.m. March 20 Tickets: https://www.onthestage.tickets/chsdrama * Liberty: The Sound of Music, 7 p.m. March 24, 7 p.m. March 25., 1 and 7 p.m. March 26 Advertisement Tickets: https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/60225 * Northampton Area: Mamma Mia!, 7 p.m. March 24, 7 p.m. March 25, 7 p.m. March 26, 2 p.m. March 27 Tickets on sale March 1, https://www.showtix4u.com/events/nasd * North Warren Regional: The Addams Family: School Edition, 6 p.m. March 25., 6 p.m. March 26, 1 p.m. March 27, 7 p.m. April 1, 6 p.m. April 2 Tickets on sale March 1, https://www.northwarren.org/ * Emmaus: The Addams Family: School Edition, 7 p.m. March 30; 7 p.m. March 31; 7 p.m. April 1; 2 and 7 p.m. April 2; 2 p.m. April 3 Advertisement Tickets: www.eastpennsd.org/ehs * Whitehall: Godspell: 2012 Revised Version, 7 p.m. March 31, 7 p.m. April 1; 7 p.m. April 2; 2 p.m. April 3; Tickets: www.showtix4u.com/events/whitehalltheater Lehigh Valley high school students perform during the opening number Thursday, May 23, 2019, at the Freddy Awards at the State Theatre in Easton. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call ) APRIL * Belvidere: Godspell, 7 p.m. April 1, 1 p.m. April 2, 7 p.m. April 2., On sale March 11, https://www.belvideresd.org/ Advertisement * Bangor: Les Miserables: School Edition, 7:30 p.m. April 1, 2 p.m. April 2, 7:30 p.m. April 2 , 2 p.m. April 3. Tickets: https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/60187 * Allentown Central Catholic: Disneys The Little Mermaid, 7 p.m. April 7, 7 p.m. April 8; 2 and 7 p.m. April 9. Tickets on sale March 1, https://www.acchs.info/ * Warren Hills Regional: Mamma Mia! 7 p.m. April 7, 7 p.m. April 8, 2 and 7 p.m. April 9 Tickets on sale March 21, https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/59650 Advertisement * Phillipsburg: Guys & Dolls, 7:30 p.m. April 8, 7:30 p.m. April 9, 2 p.m. April 10; Tickets on sale March 1, showtix4u.com * Notre Dame: Disneys Beauty and the Beast,7 p.m. April 8., 7 p.m. April 9, 2 p.m. April 10 Tickets on sale March 1, ndcrusaders.org * Parkland: Mamma Mia! 7:30 p.m. April 20, 7:30 p.m. April 21, 7:30 p.m. April 22., 7:30 p.m. April 23, 3 p.m. April 24 Tickets: https://www.showtix4u.com/ Advertisement * Freedom: Curtains, 7 p.m., April 21 7 p.m. April 22, 2 and 7 p.m. April 23; 2 p.m. April 24 Tickets: showtix4u.com/events/FHSTC * William Allen: Grease, 7 p.m. April 21, 7p.m. April 22; 2 and 7 p.m. April 23; 2 p.m. April 24 Tickets: https://www.ticketor.com/wahsboxoffice * Nazareth: Little Shop of Horrors: 7:30 p.m. April 21, 7:30 p.m. April 22, 7:30 p.m. April 23, 2 p.m. April 24 Tickets on sale March 1, www.nazhstheatre.com Advertisement * Bethlehem Catholic: Hello, Dolly!, 7 p.m. April 22, 7 p.m. April 23, 3 p.m. April 24 Tickets: https://ticketstothecity.com/bethlehem * Warren County Technical: All Shook Up, 7:30 p.m. April 28, 7:30 p.m. April 29; 7:30 p.m. April 30; 2 p.m. May 1 Tickets: http://www.wctech.org/ * Hackettstown: Sister Act 7 p.m. April 28, 7 p.m. April 29, 7 p.m. April 30., 2 p.m. May 1 Tickets: https://hhs.hackettstown.org/ * Dieruff: Godspell: 2012 Revised Version: 7 p.m. April 28; 7 p.m. April 29; 2 and 7 p.m. April 30; Advertisement Tickets to go on sale soon: https://drf.allentownsd.org/fine_arts/theatre The unfolding of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine has devastated many lives and left people heartbroken globally. The reportage from the Ukraine-Russia conflict has left everyone in tenterhooks. To give us a closer look at the crisis, a documentary by critically acclaimed actor Sean Penn will make one honest attempt. dw.com Hollywood star and filmmaker Sean Penn is currently filming a documentary on Russias military operation in Ukraine, expressed his views about the ongoing crisis. Agencies Sharing a statement with People, Penn described Russias actions as a brutal mistake. Indian embassy in Ukraine (It is) already a brutal mistake of lives taken and hearts broken, and if he doesnt relent, I believe (Russian president) Mr. (Vladimir) Putin will have made a most horrible mistake for all of humankind. President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people have risen as historic symbols of courage and principle. Ukraine is the tip of the spear for the democratic embrace of dreams. If we allow it to fight alone, our soul as America is lost, he said. The Oscar winner appeared at a press briefing on Thursday in Kyiv, listening to government officials of Ukraine talking about the situation. Agencies The documentary is a Vice Studios production in association with Vice World News and Endeavor Content. Penn last visited Ukraine in November 2021 to start the preparations for his documentary by visiting the countrys military installations. (With agency inputs) (Here are helpline numbers for Indians stuck in Ukraine. They are: toll-free - 1800118797; telephone - 011-23012113 / 23014105 / 23017905; fax : 011-23088124; e-mail: situationroom@mea.gov.in.) (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.) Romana Irshad, a 2nd standard student from Garkote village of border town Uri in northern Kashmir is now able to play in the fields, all because of the ceasefire agreement between Indo-Pak militaries. The agreement has completed one year. Earlier, I used to play in the room due to the fear of shelling from the other side of Line of Control (LoC) and now I am playing in my fields with other kids, she said. Numan Aftab, a 12th class student from the same village told Indiatimes that cross border shelling had affected their studies. In past, many schools along the LoC have been damaged due to shelling and it caused an uncertainty among the student community but now things have changed and we want to attend our schools, he said. Peace Is Back Idrees Bukhtiyar Abdul Khaliq Bhat, sarpanch of Silikote village, located on the zero line that has suffered the worst during the shelling said that a lot has changed in the last one year. Everything is calm here. Normal life has been restored. Villagers can now move out easily and do their daily chores, he said. Life was terrible for us and our children during the shelling. We would never have a peaceful sleep but the ceasefire made a difference, he said. Mohd Usman Bhat, 50, a local of Sahoora village along LoC said that business activities have also resumed. Since Uri is very popular for the walnut trade, people from LoC were unable to take it to market in Uri. But now people are earning and doing the business happily, he said. Lal Din Khatana, village head Charunda, located along LoC said all the villagers are happy after the ceasefire agreement. We would request the governments of both the countries to continue this peace as the people want to live a normal life without any violence because we have suffered a lot in the past, he said. Enrolment Up In LoC Schools Idrees Bukhtiyar Following the ceasefire at LOC, the enrolment of students studying in border villages in Uri has gone up. We are witnessing a rise in the admissions and credit goes to the ceasefire agreement. We have been conducting various programs and awareness camps for the students of these villages so as to bring them back to the schools, said Zonal Education Planning Officer (ZEPO) Uri, Wali Mohammad Kakroo. Chief Education Officer (CEO) Baramulla, Ghulam Mohammad Lone said, Students have been in fear due to cross-border shelling and avoided visiting schools. Many had shifted to schools in main Uri. But we are setting things back on the track. Border Tourism Idrees Bukhtiyar As the guns fall silent on the LoC, the government is mulling to promote such places as tourist destinations under the government's border tourism plan. On February 10, Director Tourism Kashmir Dr G N Itoo visited Uri where he carried out an array of developmental activities meant to promote border tourism through development and up gradation of basic facilities available at different tourist resorts in the area. Since ceasefire, there has been a huge demand for promoting Uri as a tourist destination and we are looking for the options, Itoo said. For the last one year, locals have started visiting the various tourist sites in Uri which fall along the LoC. Rustum is one of them. It is close to a strategic LoC. It is endowed with majestic landscape and one can witness the huge rush of visitors, said Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a local RTI activist. Restore Cross-LoC Bus, Trade Idrees Bukhtiyar The traders and locals of Uri have demanded the restoration of cross-LoC bus service and trade saying it will boost the relations of both the countries. I think now it is the right time to restore these services as they have been strictly following the peace pact along the LoC. The Prime Ministers of both countries should sit on the table and resolve these issues amicably for the benefit of a common man, said Mohd Yousuf Kakroo, a walnut trader in Uris Lagama market. He added, Since things are calm on borders, we have been easily doing the business and getting the walnut supply from LoC villages too. The cross-LoC bus and trade were suspended after the deadly Pulwama attack on 14th February 2019 which led to the death of over 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel. A Year Of Ceasefire Completes Idrees Bukhtiyar Indian and Pakistani militaries on February 24 last year announced that they had begun observing a ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir from midnight. Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the Line of Control and all other sectors with effect from midnight 24/25 Feb 2021, the statement said. The DGMOs also agreed to address each others core issues and concerns which have propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence in the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders. There were 4,645 ceasefire violations in 2020; 3,168 in 2019 and 1,629 violations in 2018. In contrast, there were 592 ceasefire violations last year till the ceasefire was announced. For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News. "Modi ji aap kaha the, ek mahine se aap UP election me busy the. Aaj yaha pe koi US citizen toh nahi fasa hai, Biden ko kaise pata chala aur aapko kaise nahi pata chala, hum lagataar aapko mail kar rahe hain" These are the words spoken on live TV news by an Indian student stranded in Ukraine as the country is invaded by Russia. "Modi ji aap kaha the, ek mahine se aap UP election me busy the. Aaj yaha pe koi US citizen toh nahi fasa hai, Biden ko kaise pata chala aur aapko kaise nahi pata chala, hum lagataar aapko mail kar rahe hain" Student in Ukraine. #UkraineRussiaWar #RussiaUkraine pic.twitter.com/ilXbAu6xov Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) February 27, 2022 Speaking to a reporter of Aaj Tak, an Indian student stranded in Ukraine complained that there's little help from India. She said the Indians had been asked to move to the border, but there were only two people there to help thousands. She also said that the Indian embassy has been missing in action. Indian students beaten up Videos circulating on social media revealed the horrific ordeal that Indian students had to go through while trying to flee Ukraine and reach the borders of the neighbouring countries. Forces of Romania and Poland were seen kicking and beating stranded Indian students, girls and boys alike. A video allegedly shot by a student shows Indians sitting on a road, reportedly at the Ukraine-Poland border. In the video, border forces are seen kicking and harassing Indian students. Some posts also suggest that African students were also beaten and kicked by the forces at national borders. Many students Ukraine-Poland border have sent out videos alleging that Ukrainian soldiers and police are forcing them back into Ukraine from the border of Poland by firing in the air and attempting to drive their cars into the crowd. Other videos show forced at country borders are beating Indian students, however, it's still not clear which country they belong to. Twitter Angel, a Malayali student, can be heard saying in a video that she and her friend were pushed and beaten. Adding that the police tried to ram their vehicles into the group of students, Angel said that the Ukrainian soldiers did not care that students fell. This is too bad, this is not the way that the Ukraine government or military should treat foreign citizens. This is not how we expect help," she said. Other images and videos showed a sea of students waiting at the border of Ukraine-Poland to cross over into the country. Many students have taken shelter in bunkers and thousands of them are trying to cross over to other neighbouring countries on foot after being given an assurance of help. For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. Facebook has restricted Russian state medias ability to make money on its social media platform after Moscow invaded the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine. Reuters Also Read: Meta Share Drop Cuts Facebook Value By $200 Billion, Largest Ever In History Reported first by AFP, this was announced by Facebooks security policy head, Nathaniel Gleicher on his Twitter handle. Gleicher stated that Facebook would continue to prohibit Russian state media from running ads or monetising on the platform. Moreover, they would continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. Facebooks parent company, Meta had warned that it would place restrictions on its services after it refused authorities order to stop using fact-checkers and content-warning labels on its platforms. Social media platforms have taken the place of another battlefield where theres constant content surrounding Russias invasion of Ukraine, and oftentimes, it includes misleading information while also offering real-time information of the changing landscape in one of Europes biggest geopolitical crises in decades. Russias media regulator actually went ahead and limited access to Facebook, accusing the social media company of censorship and violating rights of Russian citizens. To this, Metas Nick Clegg responded in a statement, "Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organisations. We refused." Reuters Also Read: Zuckerberg's Meta Building An AI-Supported 'Universal Speech Translator' Facebook also rolled out a feature, specifically for Ukraine users where it allowed them to lock their profiles for better security -- something that was also seen during the Afghanistan-Taliban crises last year. Keep reading Indiatimes.com for the latest science and technology news. After turning to an unlikely crowdfunding method amid war, Ukraines government has raised more than $10 million in cryptocurrency donations, as per CNBC. On Saturday, the official Twitter account of the Ukrainian government had posted addresses for two crypto wallets. Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT. BTC - 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P ETH and USDT (ERC-20) - 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14 Ukraine / (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022 And as of yesterday, i.e. Sunday, those two crypto wallets have received $10.2 million worth of crypto, according to research from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. Thats on top of the millions in digital currency donated to non-governmental organizations supporting the Ukrainian military amid the Russian invasion. As per the analytics firm Elliptic, around $1.86 million of the money donated to Ukraines government was generated through the sale of an NFT that was originally intended to raise funds for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Another instance of Ukraine turning to crypto for assistance is the NGO Come Back Alive, which provides equipment to the Ukrainian military. The NGO has been accepting crypto donations since 2018 and has recently raised millions of dollars worth of digital currency since Russias invasion began last week, as per CNBC. Total crypto donations to the Ukrainian government and NGOs supporting the military now stand at $16.7 million, according to Elliptic. Ukraine Ministers Request To Crypto Exchanges Yesterday, Ukrainian Vice PM and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov called on major crypto exchanges to block payments to Russian users. I'm asking all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users. It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users. Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 27, 2022 Also Read: Amid Crisis, Pakistan Govt Planning To Borrow People's Gold For Help A day before that, the U.S., European allies and Canada on Saturday had agreed to remove certain Russian banks from Swift, the global interbank messaging system. They also agreed to prevent Russias central bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that may undermine sanctions. These are amongst some of the latest financial measures being taken globally by many countries and organizations against Russia for invading Ukraine. Meanwhile, President Putin has put Russias nuclear forces on alert, citing the hard-hitting financial sanctions. Also Read: Beijing 2022: Amid Conflict, Vladimir Putin Pretends To Be Asleep As Ukraine Winter Olympic Team Makes An Entry For the latest financial news, keep reading Worth. Click here. Real-time social media posts from local businesses and organizations across Northern Virginia, powered by Friends2Follow. To add your business to the stream, email cfields@insidenova.com or click on the green button below. At their March Board Meeting, downtown development district Rio Nuevo announced plans to fund and advance multiple real estate projects. The announcements come as Rio Nuevo reports it is back to pre-pandemic sales tax revenue and is seeing strong requests for new construction downtown. William Brown and Lindsay Watson take a break at the office of FIA NYC Employment Services in Allentown, the employment agency they founded in New York City and relocated in 2013 to the Lehigh Valley. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call ) After a company contacts Allentown employment agency co-founder William Brown for help, one of his key steps is a sort of surprise visit to that companys office. The office employees, often nearly all white, dont know who he is or why hes there. Brown has arranged it that way with company ownership and management in advance. Advertisement The employees know only that hes been cleared by their bosses to visit. And that hes Black. I want to see how the employees react to my presence, Brown said Feb. 1 while scheduling clients on his office desk laptop at FIA NYC, the employment agency he co-founded in New York City in 2012 and moved to Allentown in 2013. Advertisement How comfortable do they seem with a Black stranger walking and looking around their office? he said as agency co-founder Lindsay Watson of Whitehall Township reviewed resumes elsewhere in the converted office at a property Brown owns in the 100 block of Elm Street. To me, that determines how comfortable theyll feel around co-workers who dont look like them or come from where they come from. FIA (Faith In Action) NYC matches job applicants with a particular focus on those of color with companies looking to create diverse, equitable, inclusive work environments at all position levels, from entry to management. The effort to build workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, has been a part of the nationwide movement for racial equality and justice spawned by the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota. This is especially needed in places like the Lehigh Valley, where traditionally, diverse hiring has been a challenge, said A.J. Suero of Allentown, director of communications for PBS39/WLVT and WLVR (91.3 FM). Its important for us as people of color to show our younger generations that we are capable of pursuing career paths and advancing in fields where traditionally you dont see many of us represented, Brown said. It benefits everyone, not just people of color, when we work together to create racially diverse work environments where everyone feels equally valued. FIA NYC placed Suero, who is Latino, at the Public Broadcasting Service TV station in Allentown and noncommercial radio station owned by Lehigh University in Bethlehem. That was after he met Brown and Watson while collaborating on communications and public affairs projects for the American Red Cross in Allentown, where he worked previously. Suero said preparing and placing him with PBS39/WLVR took about five weeks. From the beginning, there were very clear expectations regarding the process, he said. We had a couple of brainstorming sessions that were very productive. Advertisement Thats part of the companys efforts to build an ideal work environment. You cant just throw qualified people of color onto a white staff, just because you want it to look like youre hiring minorities, and then pay them less than their white co-workers in the same positions, Brown said. They shouldnt feel singled out or like they have to work twice as hard as their white co-workers to have the same opportunities for advancement. Otherwise, theyre just tokens, not truly part of your workplace family. Brown, a former pastor with a background in music production, experienced these things himself when working for various employers before starting his own business. He and Watson want to keep it from happening to others. FIA NYC has grown significantly over the past two years, Watson said. Not only have our staffing services expanded, but weve also had the opportunity to support our community through our DEI efforts. Our diversity staffing has provided us the opportunity to help open doors for our clients to make immediate hiring decisions that support their DEI goals. The agency was among those companies that began focusing on DEI in 2020. Thats when United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley in Allentown, which had formed its own DEI committee in 2012, contacted FIA NYC to fill a position in its resource development team, United Way spokesperson Laura McHugh said. As we worked with [FIA NYC], we realized [Browns] passion and goals for DEI really aligned with our organizational values around inclusivity, McHugh said, calling Brown one of the many voices that have shaped and led our DEI work over many, many years. Advertisement Brown told the United Way what he tells other employers looking to diversify their staff. Getting tropical fish for your aquarium means making sure the ecosystem will be right for those particular fish when they arrive, Brown said, i.e. employees of color need a setting where their contributions are appreciated and theyre fairly represented in management as well as lower-level positions, especially if their employers serve racially diverse communities. McHugh said the United Way, as a result of input from Brown and others, appointed Marci Martinez-Howey as the organizations first associate vice president of DEI. [DEI is] core to all we are and all we do, she said. This contrasts with employers who say they want diverse, equitable, inclusive workforces, then invite guest speakers to discuss implementing DEI and/or put employees of color in charge of implementation efforts, but dont follow through, Brown said, declining to name any companies. These companies may tell their employees theyre doing enough on DEI, and the employees have to accept and not challenge it if they want to keep their jobs, he said. But, as an independent consultant, [FIA NYC is] not one of their employees, so we get to tell them, No, its not enough. Advertisement While the agency cannot and would not try to force employers to take advice, Brown said it would be wise if they did. If youre a company trying to market a product or service to an audience that doesnt look like you and isnt of your culture, wouldnt it make sense to hire qualified people from that audience on your staff and have them share their thoughts on how to more effectively reach that audience? he said. Crayola, the creative products manufacturer based in Forks Township, agrees. We definitely believe a diverse workforce provides a broad spectrum of employees with different ideas and perspectives and enables us to understand our consumers better, said Lisa Rodrigues, who continued her predecessors partnership with the agency after she became Crayolas talent acquisition manager in the fall. But just as important as hiring people of diverse backgrounds is ensuring theyre right for the job. Advertisement First Call Daily Leading local stories delivered on weekday mornings > Watson said FIA NYC has had a success rate of about 95% in matching qualified applicants of color with employers. Advertisement I call it our triple-win for the applicant, our client and us, she said. What will help continue this winning streak depends in large part on employers willingness to be genuinely open to change. When youre around your family dinner table at home or out drinking with friends, how do you talk about people of a different race or culture, if you even talk about them at all? Brown said. Because the honest thoughts you share with those closest to you determine how you as an employer will treat employees who are different from you. Morning Call reporter Andrew Scott can be reached at 610-820-6508 or ascott@mcall.com. A federal judge ruled Friday that a Virginia school system illegally discriminated against Asian Americans when it overhauled the admissions policies at an elite public school. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton found that impermissible racial balancing was at the core of the plan to overhaul admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, known as TJ. The school routinely ranks as the best or one of the best public schools in the country, and slots at the school are highly competitive. In 2020, the Fairfax County School Board significantly revamped the admissions process at the school. A standardized test that had been a linchpin of the admissions process was scrapped in favor of a system that set aside equal numbers of TJ slots at each of the countys middle schools, among other changes. Hilton, in his ruling, wrote, The discussion of admissions changes was infected with talk of racial balancing from its inception. Although the school has enjoyed a stellar academic reputation for decades, Black and Hispanic students were woefully underrepresented in the student body. TJs current freshman class, the first to be accepted under the new policies, reflected a significant change in racial makeup. Asian representation decreased from 73% to 54%. The percentage of Black students increased from 1% last year to 7%. Hispanic representation increased from 3% to 11%. The school system insisted its new admissions policies are race-neutral; among other things, they noted that the panelists who evaluate applications dont even know the race of the students they are evaluating. The school system also argued that efforts to increase Black and Hispanic representation are legally permissible as long as the school board had not demonstrated a desire to harm Asian Americans. John Foster, a lawyer for the school system, said the school board will appeal Hiltons ruling. The new process is blind to race, gender and national origin and gives the most talented students from every middle school a seat at TJ, Foster said. Hilton, though, said the backdrop under which the school board acted showed that racial considerations were first and foremost on the mind. He noted that the death of George Floyd in May 2020 prompted calls for racial justice across the country. He also noted that the Virginia General Assembly and Department of Education were pushing schools like TJ _ known as Governors Schools in Virginia _ to develop plans to quickly address the lack of Black and Hispanic students. Throughout this process, Board members and high-level FCPS officials expressed their desire to remake TJ admissions because they were dissatisfied with the racial composition of the school, Hilton wrote. The Coalition for TJ, the group of parents who challenged the admissions process in court with help from the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement that it is thrilled by Judge Claude Hiltons clear renunciation of racism and discrimination and his powerful defense of equality. Hiltons ruling comes roughly a month after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a similar case filed by Asian American families against Harvard University over its admissions policies. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Education K-12 Virginia The man who served 16 years in prison for the 1981 rape of author Alice Sebold and was exonerated last year filed a lawsuit Friday against New York state for $50 million over his wrongful conviction. Anthony Broadwater, 61, was cleared in November of his conviction for the rape, which took place when Sebold was a student at Syracuse University. Prosecutors determined after a reexamination of the case that there were serious flaws in the mans arrest and trial. According to the lawsuit, Broadwater always maintained his innocence from the investigation, through trial and on appeal, while incarcerated, after his release, and up to today. The lawsuit went on to say, He dutifully sought to overturn his conviction on at least five occasions in the decades following his conviction. An email seeking comment was sent to the state attorney generals office. Sebold wrote about the rape in her 1999 memoir, Lucky. Some months after the attack, Sebold didnt pick Broadwater out of a police lineup, but authorities put him on trial anyway, and she identified him as her rapist on the stand. Shortly after Broadwaters exoneration, Sebold issued a statement publicly apologizing to him. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits New York Indias cabinet approved on Saturday a policy amendment allowing foreign direct investment of up to 20% in Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), a government source said, a change aimed at easing the listing of the state-run insurer. Indias biggest insurance company plans to float a stake of 5% to raise about $8 billion next month for the south Asian nations largest initial public offering (IPO) by far. Prospective Investors in Giant LIC IPO Worried About Govt Control of Insurer: Sources Indias State-Run Insurer LIC Set to Launch Record $8 Billion IPO on March 11: Sources The amendment would allow foreign direct investors to buy up to 20% of LICs shares through an automatic route, said the government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity after the cabinet meeting. Under current rules, foreign investment is not allowed in the LIC, governed by the special parliament act, while 74% foreign direct investment is allowed in other private insurance companies. The amendment would allow the government to raise the foreign direct investment limit in the LIC up to 20%, on par with the rule for state-run banks, the government source said. The cabinet decision comes amid growing fears among some investors that the government could defer public listing of the LIC due to increasing volatility in the market after Russias invasion of Ukraine. Government officials, have however, said that there was no plan to defer the listing of the insurance company critical for plans to raise funds for budgeted spending. In the IPO, the firm will also earmark a certain percentage of shares for policyholders, not exceeding 10% of the offer size, while the portion reserved for employees will not be more than 5% of post-offer equity share capital, according to the IPO filing. LIC employed 114,498 people as of end-March, 2021. LIC, which was formed six decades ago when Indias insurance sector was nationalized, straddles the business in the country, with more than 280 million policies and over 60% of the insurance segment. (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; writing by Manoj Kumar; editing by Clarence Fernandez) Topics Carriers India This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Euler Hermes, Gallagher Re and Marsh. A summary of these new hires follows here. Rosa Appointed CEO of Euler Hermes World Agency Euler Hermes, the world leader in trade credit insurance, announced that Riccardo Rosa has been appointed CEO of its multinationals segment, Euler Hermes World Agency. He replaces Anil Berry, who was appointed member of the group board of management of Euler Hermes in charge of market management, commercial and distribution in June 2021. Rosa graduated from Universita di Bologna. He spent 10 years with IBM Global Financing, before joining GE Capital in 2001 for 14 years. He then joined the Euler Hermes Group in 2013 as regional chief commercial officer for the Mediterranean, Middle East & Africa region. In 2016, he was appointed global chief commercial officer of Euler Hermes World Agency, the team dedicated to multinational solutions. After a transition period between July and November 2021, Rosa was appointed CEO of Euler Hermes World Agency, effective December 2021. About Euler Hermes Euler Hermes is the global leader in trade credit insurance and a recognized specialist in the areas of surety, collections, structured trade credit and political risk. Headquartered in Paris, Euler Hermes is present in more than 50 countries with 5,800 employees. In 2020, Euler Hermes global business transactions represented 824 billion Euro in exposure. Euler Hermes is a full member of Allianz Group. *** Gallagher Re Names Aons LaPalme to Head New Canada Branch Gallagher Re, the global reinsurance broker, announced the launch of a new branch in Montreal, led by Isabelle LaPalme, who has joined as executive vice-president (EVP). LaPalme will lead Gallagher Res expansion into Quebec and the French-speaking insurance community. She will collaborate closely with her colleagues in Toronto as part of the 30-strong broking, actuarial and catastrophe modeling team of professionals within Gallagher Re in Canada. An actuary by profession, LaPalme has experience as a consulting, pricing and reserving actuary. She is well known and highly respected in the Quebec insurance community having been a market presence there since 1996. She brings more than 25 years insurance and reinsurance industry experience in Canada and internationally, moving into the reinsurance broking sector in 2010. She joins Gallagher Re from Aon where she most recently held the role of chief of Broking Operations and senior vice president. As EVP and branch manager in Montreal, LaPalme will be responsible for establishing and growing Gallagher Res local presence as well as being core to the continued and successful growth of the companys Canadian operations. Since establishing its Canadian reinsurance broking operation in 2014 (as Willis Re), Gallagher Re has grown to become a top-three reinsurance broker in Canada. It has invested heavily in building a multi-disciplinary team to support and service its expanding roster of national clients, through the design of innovative reinsurance solutions. Weve long aspired to build a presence at the heart of the French-speaking Canadian re/insurance community and no one is better placed to lead that development than Isabelle, commented Geoff Lubert, CEO, Canada, Gallagher Re. Having been embedded in the Montreal market for 25 years, her closeness to clients and the thriving local insurance sector is as invaluable as her integrated experience across broking and analytics. *** Marsh Appoints Lipinska and Cobb to UK & Ireland Industry Practices Team Global insurance broker Marsh announced the expansion of its UK & Ireland Industry Practices with the appointment of Kasia Lipinska as Manufacturing & Automotive Industry leader and Rory Cobb as Professional & Business Services Industry leader. Based in London, Lipinska will report to Charles Beresford-Davies, head of Industries, UK & Ireland, Marsh. Cobb also will report to Beresford-Davies and Tim Payne, UK chairman, Financial and Professional practice, Marsh Specialty. Lipinska and Cobb join Marshs UK & Ireland Industry leadership team, which spans 20 industry groups covering major segments of the economy, and which develops and delivers industry-specific services and solutions to clients ranging from small and medium sized organisations to global corporations. Lipinska joins Marsh from Aviva, where most recently she oversaw the development of insurance solutions for leading clients, specializing in marine, cargo, and logistics risks. Lipinska has also worked as an underwriter for RSA and Thomas Miller. She brings more than 20 years industry experience to Marsh. Cobb joins Marsh from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) where for the last three years he was UK head of Business Development and Sales Enablement and led a team of senior professionals focused on delivering exceptional client experiences across the UK. Before JLL, Cobb was employed by PwC for six years in various leadership and client engagement roles. Cobb has more than 15 years experience in the professional and business services industry. Topics Reinsurance Aon Canada A.J. Gallagher Integrated risk management software provider Riskonnect reports it has acquired the Sword GRC, a UK-based software company that specializes in project and enterprise risk management products, from global technology firm Sword Group. The acquisition of Swords (Governance, Risk and Compliance) business advances Atlanta, Georgia-based Riskonnects integrated approach by incorporating project risk into its platform. The acquisition also enables Riskonnect to enter into new vertical and geographic markets. Sword GRC specializes in project and enterprise risk management for the aerospace and defense, energy, financial services and government industries. The company serves more than 300 customers worldwide and has 150+ employees in the U.S., UK, and Asia Pacific. Sword GRC has offices in the UK, U.S., Singapore and Australia. Why Some Organizations Are Managing Coronavirus Risk Better Than Others Jim Wetekamp, Riskonnect CEO, called Sword GRCs Active Risk Manager program a natural fit and one that will integrate seamlessly with Riskconnects offerings. Riskonnect acquired ICIX last October. ICIX is a California-based value chain governance company that helps businesses manage and verify environmental, socials and governance (ESG ) performance. ICIXs software provides risk, audit, and compliance tools for sourcing and supply chain management, safety and quality compliance, diversity and inclusion, trading partner onboarding, information exchange, and performance management. In 2018, Riskonnect acquired Marsh ClearSight, a risk, safety and claims business unit of insurance broker Marsh. Related: Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Risk Management An Ohio business says its insurance company must compensate it for financial losses suffered during a pandemic-related shutdown. The insurance company refused to pay, saying its policy didnt cover such losses. The Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments from both sides this month. At issue before the court is a policy purchased by Neuro-Communication Services Inc., a northeastern Ohio audiology company, from the Cincinnati Insurance Co. The company was closed from March 23, 2020, until May 4, 2020, when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine shut down businesses in the early days of the pandemic, and suffered significant income losses, according to a court filing that doesnt specify an amount. Those losses should be covered by the all-risk policy the company purchased from Cincinnati Insurance, company attorneys argued in an August court filing. In oral arguments before the state high court earlier this month, an attorney for Neuro-Communication Services likened the virus to a dangerous element such as mold infiltrating a business. Such an infiltration constitutes direct physical loss or damage to property, attorney Nick DiCello said during oral arguments on Feb. 8. But lawyers for Cincinnati Insurance say the policy covers only accidental physical loss to Neuro-Communications property, not financial setbacks caused by closing because of the coronavirus. The flu, though less serious, arrives every year, but property isnt replaced or repaired in reaction, Daniel Litchfield, an attorney representing the insurance company, said during oral arguments. Similarly, the coronavirus hurts people but doesnt alter buildings, he said. It would be absurd, for instance, to determine that as a matter of law a building suffered direct physical loss or damage because a virus is generally present in the community, just as the flu is generally present in the community during a season, every year, Litchfield said. More than 250 courts nationally have considered and rejected similar insurance claims for COVID-19 damages, according to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, which says allowing coronavirus claims could be financially ruinous to the insurance industry. But focusing on physical damage ignores the unprecedented losses suffered by the restaurant industry that go beyond physical damage, according to the Restaurant Law Center, which urged the court to side with Neuro-Communication Services. On Wednesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected equivalent arguments by seven Michigan restaurant companies that also sought compensation from Cincinnati Insurance. The businesses contended their losses were similar to those compensated after shutdown orders during unrest in Detroit in 1967 and 1968. But a three-judge panel disagreed, saying those orders eliminated all access to businesses, whereas the states 2020 order encouraged restaurants to remain operational for pick-up and delivery. In its ruling, the appeals court upheld a lower courts finding that the mere presence of the virus on the physical structure of the premises does not amount to direct physical loss. In the Ohio Supreme Court case, justices seemed skeptical of the audiology companys arguments. Chief Justice Maureen OConnor noted that if the podium DiCello stood before in the courtroom was contaminated with the COVID-19 virus, a swipe of a bleach wipe would fix it. DiCello argued the podium could be re-contaminated. The question is when does the period of restoration end for this podium? he said. You wipe it off, it still exists, Justice Sharon Kennedy said. Its unmarred, its unharmed, Im struggling with how you define that as property damage? For the period their property was unavailable, Neuro-Communication was deprived of the effective use of it, DiCello said. A decision isnt expected for months. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits COVID-19 Profit Loss Property Ohio Restaurant A claims adjusters sub-standard investigation of a potential fatal accident claim does not warrant a multi-million award of damages against an insurer that issued a policy with a $25,000 limit, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled. An appellate panel on Friday reversed a trial court decision to garnish Key Insurance Co. for $3,353,777.52 in damages owed to Nancy Granados after her husband died in a motor vehicle crash. The court said an insurer cannot be held liable for damages in excess of the policy limit unless its actions caused the excess judgment. Although an insurer must exercise diligence and good faith in its efforts to settle claims within the policy limits, we hold an insurer owes no affirmative duty to initiate settlement negotiations with a third party before the third party makes a claim for damages, the opinion says. Mrs. Granados husband, Francisco Granados, was killed in an October 2017 crash in Kansas City, Kansas that was caused by John Wilson, whos vehicle was insured by Key. Wilson was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he ran a red light and crashed into Granados car. A passenger in Wilsons car testified that he and Wilson had smoked a marijuana joint and shared a pint of brandy before the accident. Wilson reported the crash to Key the next day, but denied causing it. Claims adjuster Alexandra Soto requested a copy of the police report, which listed 12 witnesses to the crash and Granados insurance carrier, State Farm Automobile Insurance Co. Soto completed a claim evaluation on Dec. 17, 2017 that determined Wilson was at fault, but she did not contact Mrs. Granados and didnt interview any of the witnesses. She later set a loss reserve of $25,000, knowing that the damages would be more than that. In the meantime, Nancy Granados hired an attorney. Key learned for the first time that there was a claim against Wilsons policy on July 2, 2018, when it received notice of a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Wyandotte District Court. The insurer offered to settle the lawsuit for the $25,000 limit three weeks later. Granados rejected the settlement offer. Her attorney said in a letter that Key should have offered the policy limit a long time ago and demanded$2,973,434 to settle the claim. After a bench trail, District Court Judge Bill Klapper ruled in October 2019 that Mrs. Granados damages amounted to $4,603,777.52. The parties negotiated and stipulated later that damages were $3,353,777.52. In December 2019, Nancy Granados filed a request for garnishment against Key for the damages. During a bench trial, Key claims manager Leonard Gragson testified that Soto had not complied with the carriers claims handling standards. She did not interview witnesses, contact Granados insurance carrier or notify Wilson of the potential severity of the claim against him. Judge Klapper cited Gragsons testimony in meandering findings that led to a ruling that Key was liable for the excess damages, the panel opinion states. The judge said Soto had not been forthcoming and had breached her duty to Wilson by failing to advise him of the potential claim. The appellate panel said the judge imposed a greater duty on the insurer than was actually owed. While Sotos investigation did not meet industry standards, there is no legal precedent in Kansas that requires an insurerto offer a settlement before receiving any official notice of a claim. Instead, the authorities state that an insurer has a duty to defend when a claimmeaning some demand for damages or lawsuitis made, the opinion says. Topics Carriers Legislation Claims Kansas When Omaha National president and CEO Reagan Pufall thinks back to how COVID-19 has affected recruiting and hiring at the workers compensation insurance provider, his main verdict is: not much. The key characteristics that have enabled the managing general agent (MGA) / insurance carrier to grow from eight to 200 employees in a little over five years remain steadfast amidst all the workplace changes affecting the insurance industry. As Insurance Careers Month 2022 winds down, Pufall hopes that Omaha National can serve as an example for other companies hoping to rebuild or extend their workforce. The Nebraska-based MGA works with small to midsize companies and provides coverage in over a dozen states. Pufall considers Omaha National to be relatively young company, having been founded by a small group of investors in 2016. According to Pufall, the company reported lower-than-average accident year loss ratio in 2021 and has $135 million of in force premium. In September 2021, the company completed its Series B financing round, raising $45 million. When Omaha National was just getting off the ground, Pufall and his team had a clear blueprint for the types of employees they were going after. Experience in the industry was a non-factor. They knew that it was incumbent on the company to invest in and develop new hires. We very rarely hire people who have previous experience in the workers comp industry, Pufall says. Most of the people we hire dont have previous experience. We hire them as trainees and we train them ourselves, which means of course we make a big commitment to having a very strong internal training program. It helps that one of Omaha Nationals founders, Dave Holloway, has a background as a professional recruiter. Holloway had previously served as director of recruiting for Warren Buffets Berkshire Hathaway. What we found was that really gave us a huge advantage, Pufall says. The quality of people weve brought into this company is far beyond anything Ive ever experienced in my career. When you fill a company with great people, it just makes everything so much easier. Pufall finds that most candidates, even ones with no prior knowledge on workers comp, are most interested in joining a company with a demonstrated satisfied workforce. Pufall says its important to hire workers based on how their personality and background fit within their desired line of work. We have a very wide variety of people that we need because we do a very wide variety of work, Pufall says. The kind of person who is going to love being a sales rep is very different from the kind of person who is going to thrive as an underwriter. In addition to its unique sales and underwriting model, Omaha National designs its own software in-house, leading to a demand for a select number of highly-skilled developers. Pufall says its crucial to give developers maximum autonomy instead of reviewing the code thats written by a junior developer or spending their day reviewing the code thats been written by an outsourced developer. Coders dont enjoy sitting around and reviewing each others codes, Pufall says. A good coder just really loves to code. Whether Omaha National is hiring a veteran software whiz or an aspiring underwriter right out of college, the key trait in a new employee is someone who will contribute to the companys existing cohesion. Regardless of the attributes that are required for each individual position, Pufall says, the one thing were really looking for is someone who can come in and support to that happy, positive culture. Topics Workers' Compensation Talent Insurance Wholesale The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to address whether federal drug law that criminalizes possession of marijuana invalidates state orders requiring employers and their workers compensation insurers to pay for medical marijuana prescriptions for employees injured on the job. However, before it fully takes on the question, the high court has asked the Solicitor General, who represents the federal government before the high court, for guidance in light of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution that gives federal statutes primacy over state laws. Five state supreme courts have addressed whether the reimbursement of medical marijuana costs is permissible, with two ruling yes and three ruling no. The Supreme Court is being asked to resolve this split in authority. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana is a criminal offense, with the exception of when the drug is part of a Food and Drug Administration research study. The Supreme Courts involvement is related to two cases from Minnesota Bierbach v Diggers Polaris and State Auto/ United Fire & Casualty and Musta v. Mendota Heights Dental Center and in which injured employees challenged their employers and their insurers for refusing to reimburse them for their medical marijuana prescriptions. Musta suffered a neck injury in her work at a medical facility while Bierbach was injured in an accident while working for an all-terrain vehicle dealer. Minnesota authorized the use of marijuana for medical purposes in 2014. Under the states medical marijuana act, the Minnesota Department of Health administers a program that permits certain registered patients to possess marijuana for medical purposes. Under Minnesotas workers compensation statute, if an employee sustains an injury at work, [t]he employer shall furnish any medical . . . treatment, including . . . medicines . . . as may reasonably be required at the time of the injury and any time thereafter to cure and relieve from the effects of the injury. Minnesotas Workers Compensation Appeals Court ruled in Bierbachs favor that the employer and insurer were required to reimburse him because the prescribed medical marijuana was a reasonable treatment for the workers injuries. But the insurer and employer appealed and a divided Minnesota Supreme Court ruled the opposite, finding that the CSA preempts the Minnesota workers compensation courts order mandating reimbursement. Minnesotas high court adopted the same reasoning in both the Bierbach and Musta opinions, finding that the reimbursement could expose the employer and insurer to criminal liability. Specifically, the court reasoned that the CSA preempted an order obligat[ing] an employer to reimburse an employee for the cost of medical cannabis because compliance with that order would expose the employer to criminal liability under federal law for aiding and abetting unlawful possession of cannabis. After he lost before the Minnesota Supreme Court, Bierbach petitioned for a writ of certiorari for the Supreme Court to review the judgment in his case. In his petition, Bierbach offers several arguments to counter the opinion that the policy of reimbursement is in conflict with the CSA. First, he says the federal and state laws are not irreconcilable. A reimbursement order under Minnesotas workers compensation law does not require the employer to possess, manufacture, or distribute marijuana in contravention of the CSA. And the Act does not prohibit an employer or insurer from reimbursing an employee for his purchase of medical marijuana, Bierbach argues. He dismisses the aiding and abetting argument, noting that the marijuana possession is complete by the time of reimbursement and contending that the employer and insurer are merely complying with a reimbursement order. At most, they are only incidentally facilitating the possession. Bierbach further notes that Congress has several times passed appropriations bills with riders that bar the Department of Justice from enforcing federal marijuana laws in connection with medical marijuana programs that comply with state law. This, Bierbach believes, shows that Congress has chosen to tolerate the tension between state medical cannabis laws and the CSA. Finally, he argues that the CSA has no role in regulating insurance Thirty-seven states have now legalized medical marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of these states, six have cannabis reimbursement under workers compensation, with four of them doing so based on a state court decision, according to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Another six prohibit workers compensation reimbursement, while other states do not require it or are silent on the issue. However, the future policy in states may now be subject to change if the Supreme Court enters the fray. Four state supreme courts in addition to Minnesotas have issued conflicting decisions regarding the question of federal preemption. The supreme courts of Maine and Minnesota have held over dissents that the CSA preempts an order under their states workers compensation laws requiring reimbursement for medical marijuana. But the supreme courts of New Hampshire and New Jersey have reached the opposite conclusion with respect to their states medical marijuana laws. The Supreme Court has not indicated the Solicitor Generals deadline for submitting its brief. It typically takes months. Topics Carriers Workers' Compensation Cannabis Minnesota Drugs Dozens of animals including prairie dogs, lemurs and hedgehogs were killed when a fire broke out in a barn at an Arkansas petting zoo, according to a woman who volunteers at the zoo. At a news conference Feb. 25, Jennifer Williams, who volunteers at Cockrills Country Critters, estimated that 40 to 50 animals died in the Feb. 24 fire in a barn at the petting zoo near Austin, located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock. Williams said most of the animals died due to smoke inhalation. She said some reptiles, including snakes and iguanas, survived. Austin Fire Chief Chris Nelson told told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. He said damage was confined to a room, and there was no structural damage. Zoo owner Janice Cockrill-Griffin told newspaper via text on Friday that she was devastated. Those were my babies and they all had a special place in my heart, she said. Cockrill-Griffin said most of the petting zoos animals were killed in the fire. Our Capuchin monkey lives with us and our baby kangaroos were being bottle-fed and they are safe, Cockrill-Griffin said. Im so thankful for that. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Arkansas A recent Town Square op-ed addressed a serious reading and literacy problem in the Allentown School District. Unfortunately, this failure is not limited to Allentown and we would be ill-advised to think so. We must acknowledge and attack this reading and literacy problem and its accompanying racism and inequality. One of the best ways to do it is to make sure that every third grader in America can read at a third grade level at the end of the school year. How could this accomplishment make a difference? Keep in mind the well-established principle that children learn to read between kindergarten and third grade and read to learn from fourth grade onward. Advertisement Here is the bad news. On a national level, two out of three children cannot read at grade level when they finish third grade, according to Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. More than 80% of low-income students miss this critical milestone. Most children entering fourth grade are critically handicapped in their ability to read to learn. The inability of so many third graders to read at grade level is the most-significant academic challenge facing public education in the United States. Advertisement Anthony Muir (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Students attend the Allentown School District's pre-K summer enrichment classes in 2018 at the Jackson Early Childhood Center. (APRIL GAMIZ / THE MORNING CALL) (APRIL GAMIZ / THE MORNING CALL ) What are the consequences? Studies show that children who are not proficient in reading at the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers, and 88% of students who fail to earn a high school diploma were struggling readers in third grade. The United States represents 4.4% of the worlds population but is home to 21% of the worlds prison population. High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than high school graduates; 68% of all men in prison do not have a high school diploma; and more than 60% of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate. Economically, as our educational system falls further behind most of our trading competitors, the nation suffers. Who is to blame? We all are. The problem does not begin in the early grades. The front-end of the reading problem is the readiness gap between birth and kindergarten. Too many of our children enter kindergarten ill-equipped to succeed. The first five years of a childs life are critical to brain development and, importantly, to later life outcomes. Preschool attendance is one of the strongest success factors that influences school readiness. A 2012 study by the Center for the Next Generation reported that one-half of United States children get no earlier childhood education and there was no national strategy to increase enrollment. The Starting Well Index ranks the availability, affordability and quality of preschool environments in 45 countries. We fare poorly on the Index: 31st on availability of early education, 16th on affordability and 22nd on quality. From a policy standpoint, separating the availability of pre-kindergarten education from the traditional K-12 educational system creates an unnatural dichotomy, which for many is critical. Congressional help may be on the horizon. President Bidens proposed education, health care and climate package would provide pre-K classes for all three- and four-year-old children. This legislation would provide more than 6 million children with the opportunity to attend school, more than doubling the number of seats in pre-K programs across the country, and would add two grade levels to our public education system. This component of the proposed legislation has received relatively little pushback compared with other provisions of the spending bill. It appears there is a consensus in Congress that our national preschool situation is in desperate need of help. So how to solve the problem? The Lehigh Valley needs a public consortium to aggressively address the problem. We are blessed with the community resources which can do this, including school districts, colleges and nonprofit organizations. Efforts are already underway to address this problem, but there needs to be community unity and a plan of action to close the readiness gap and to embrace the science of reading for all children. Our community needs to know that it has a third grade reading problem. It is not an exaggeration to say that as a country we are at substantial risk of flunking the future if we do not solve this problem and only we can do it. Advertisement Anthony Muir is a former vice president of the Allentown School District Foundation and a retired lawyer. Bakofsky Named Chief of Staff at Florida OIR Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier announced that communications director Alexis Bakofsky has been elevated to chief of staff. Bakofsky joined the state Office of Insurance Regulation in 2019 and has also served as deputy chief of staff. Prior to OIR, she worked as deputy communications director for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, leading outreach and education initiatives. Bakofsky has a bachelors degree in health sciences from the University of Florida and a master of arts in communication and leadership from Gonzaga University. She is also an AmeriCorps VISTA alumna. Gorman to be Deputy of North Carolina Captive Division North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey has named Lori Gorman as deputy commissioner of the Captive Insurance Company Division. Gorman has been at the N.C. Department of Insurance for 15 years. She currently serves as assistant chief financial analyst with the departments Financial Analysis Section of the Company Service Group. In her current role, Gorman assists with monitoring the financial solvency of North Carolinas 90 domestic and more than 1,400 foreign insurers licensed in North Carolina. In addition, Gorman serves as a representative for the department on a working group with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Before joining the Department of Insurance, Gorman worked in public accounting and in the insurance industry, including work as the director of internal audit with the former Durham Life Insurance Co. Topics Florida North Carolina Its more bad news for Dollar General stores, one of the largest food and household goods retailers in the country. Federal safety regulators announced that they have added another $1 million in fines against the company after inspections at stores in Alabama and Georgia, bringing the retailers total penalties since 2016 to more than $3.6 million. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the chain after 55 inspections around the country in recent years for hazardous work conditions, including blocked exits and blocked electrical panels. Last week, OSHA announced that, after inspections last summer at stores in Mobile, Alabama, and Dalton, Georgia, it has again fined Dollar General for similar hazards. Dollar Generals long and extensive history of workplace safety violations and repeated failures to protect its workers shows willful recklessness, OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer said in a statement. Their blatant and continued disregard for the safety of their employees must come to an end. The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration will make every effort to hold them accountable for their failures. Based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, Dolgencorp is a subsidiary of Dollar General Corp. It operates about 17,000 stores and 17 distribution centers around the nation and employs more than 150,000 people, OSHA said. Dollar General has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, or request an informal conference with OSHAs area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The potentially hazardous conditions raise concerns about workplace injuries and workers compensation claims. Dollar General representatives could not be reached for comment Monday. But the Florida Office of Judges of Compensation Claims, one of the few state comp agencies to post claims information, shows that in Florida, more than 350 claims against Dollar General and Dolgencorp have been contested since Jan. 1, 2016. The OSHA citations came the same week that another dollar-store chain, Family Dollar, closed 404 stores around the country after investigators found an extensive rat infestation at a distribution center in Arkansas. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it had found as many as 1,000 of the rodents, alive and dead, at the center, sparking concerns that packaged food sent to stores had been contaminated. Recalls were issued for some items and then the stores were closed altogether, according to news reports. Topics USA Workers' Compensation Commercial Lines Business Insurance One of the oldest Roman Catholic dioceses in the U.S. is suing four insurance companies over claims that they havent fulfilled contracts to provide liability coverage for sexual abuse complaints. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe filed the lawsuit this week as it deals with a bankruptcy case involving more than 400 people who allege they were victims of clergy sexual abuse. Some of the claims date back decades. The archdiocese hopes to raise enough money, including through insurance payouts, to settle the bankruptcy case, which has stretched over more than three years and is on its third mediator. At least one attorney sees the archdioceses lawsuit as a step toward a resolution in the case, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The defendants named in the lawsuit are Great American Insurance Co., Arrowood Indemnity Co., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and United States Fire Insurance Co. Representatives of three of the companies couldnt be reached for comment, nor could attorneys representing the archdiocese. A man in the legal department of United States Fire Insurance Co. said his company doesnt comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma that would outline the rights and obligations of the parties in a contract. The lawsuit says this would terminate or significantly reduce the existing controversy between the parties. Aaron Boland, a Santa Fe attorney who represents one of the accusers, said the archdioceses lawsuit pulls back the curtain on the case. The hope is this will move things toward justice, he said. Earlier this month, Thuma rejected the archdioceses request to seal court filings involving confidential insurance documents from public view. The archdiocese has been raising money through property sales, property auctions and contributions to settle with people claiming abuse, though the amount of funding it would need to settle the case has not been specified. Insurance payouts also are expected to fund a large chunk of the settlement. According to the lawsuit, the archdiocese in the 1990s sought coverage for sexual abuse claims from insurers that had sold liability to the Catholic organization between February 1953 and April 1986, and they reached a series of agreements. Some settlements released certain insurers from continuing insurance obligations, the suit says, but agreements with the insurers named as defendants didnt free them of all liability. The archdiocese claims those insurers have ongoing obligations to provide insurance coverage for present and future sexual abuse claims. Church officials also claim in the lawsuit that the insurance companies actions have impeded and obstructed the archdioceses ability to resolve the bankruptcy case. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Carriers USA Mexico New Mexico While February is the designated time to remember and celebrate Black history, according to Iowa State students, Black History should be celebrated all year round. Ireland will close off its airspace to all Russian aircraft, as the invasion of Ukraine continues. On Sunday morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney confirmed that Ireland will move to shut off the countrys airspace to Russian planes. He tweeted: Shocking Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight. Ireland will move to shut off Irish airspace to all Russian aircraft. Mr Coveney also called on other EU countries to do the same. Various European countries including the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have already decided to close their airspace to Russian airlines. The UK has made a similar decision. We encourage other EU partners to do the same. We also support new wide-ranging sanctions to be agreed today at EU FAC [Foreign Affairs Council] and new assistance package for Ukraine, Mr Coveney said. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland has told Irish citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Russia. In an update to travel guidance, the department said: Due to the ongoing disruption to flight services to and from Russia, the Department of Foreign Affairs is advising citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Russia at this time. Further flight cancellations and uncertainty on travel routes from Russia are expected in the coming days. Overnight, Russian troops entered Ukraines second-largest city of Kharkiv and fighting is under way in the streets, according to Ukrainian authorities. It comes as the US, European Union and UK have agreed to block selected Russian banks from the Swift global financial messaging system in retaliation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Irishman Brendan Murphy says he and his family are still four or five days away from crossing the border from Ukraine into Poland. They have been among the tide of people trying to flee Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Thursday morning. Nearly half a million people have already fled Ukraine, the UN's refugee agency has reported, while the European Union forecasts that more than 7m people could be displaced as a result of the conflict. Speaking to the Irish Examiner from the war-torn country, Mr Murphy said he estimates at least two more days of walking to the border and then another three to cross. Thats if we're crossing in Poland," he said. "We could try to travel further to other border countries, Slovakia is supposed to be easier to cross into, but it's dangerous to travel further through Ukraine. He said they hope to make it to a safe house which has been organised by Irish and Ukrainian people, and while theyre getting there, he says they are still at risk. Mr Murphy said that at this point, every part of Ukraine is under attack consistently, and it is very hard to predict where Russian paratroopers could fall from the sky. They are now killing people who are fleeing," he said, recalling news reports of women and children being killed. They are killing, giving the bodies back to Ukrainian families and saying: Take your trash, this is Russia now, he said. They're shooting at cars, attacking pharmacy trucks and vans delivering medical supplies. What they're doing is just vile." Mr Murphy and his Ukrainian wife Marina, as well as Marinas 80-year-old mother, her daughter, and her three-year-old granddaughter, fled Kyiv on Thursday morning when the invasion began. He has criticised the Irish Government for not waiving visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens sooner so that his whole family could have flown to Ireland before the invasion cut off air travel. Mr Murphy said his 80-year-old mother-in-law is now struggling with the arduous journey to the border. Marinas mother, she's 80, she was in the front seat of the car for 20 hours, crying in pain, he said. "Its very hard, I can't put her through that again, and again. The more we wait, the more at risk we are of being killed by the Russians. So we have to move. But if I move and put her under distress, I'm going to kill her that way. There's a balance and a judgement to be made, and it's a difficult one because I don't want someone to die in the car of exhaustion, but equally I dont want someone to die because the Russians shoot us. "Its kind of a case of being stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. But were not dead yet, and we certainly have no plans [to be]. As people navigate their way through unfamiliar towns and routes, Mr Murphy said local community Facebook groups are a crucial source of information on Russian movements. A lot of the Facebook pages for towns and communities are now being used for information, so people will alert you to Russians on their street here, or that theres a tank there, that kind of thing, he said. However, he said that online navigation tools like Google Maps cannot be relied upon, as Russians are constantly trying to manipulate them. Theyre manipulating it to send you off into dangerous places, because they want to block the roads so that the Ukrainian army cant get them, he said. Mr Murphy said that a lot of Russian soldiers are being killed or surrendering, but more seem to keep coming. Russians are coming through forests and to towns, and Ukrainian people are killing them, and a lot of them are surrendering," he said. Ukraine is killing more and more Russians because Putin is sending more and more people to kill. He's just not stopping, and the only time he will stop is when he's no longer able to do anything. Mr Murphy said that sanctions to turn off the tap on the Russian economy are welcome, and one job done, but that now countries need to send people of military experience to work with and support the Ukrainian army. If people with military experience organise to come to fight, then obviously that will help a lot, to give rest and support to the Ukrainian army, to everyone, he said. A woman has told the Central Criminal Court that her rape by two men in a field in Co Clare five years ago changed her from a carefree child to a frightened guilt-ridden victim. The two Limerick men were convicted after a trial last November of raping the then 14-year-old on the night of April 22, 2107. The men were aged 22 and 21 at the time. Both of them denied raping the girl and told gardai that they believed she was aged 16 at the time. The court heard there was evidence that the age profile of the group of friends the girl was in was 14 to 16. The 27-year-old defendant, who was 22 at the time, was convicted on a single count of rape. His co-accused, who is 26, and was 21 at the time, was convicted of rape and an additional charge of sexual assault. The men, who denied all the charges, cannot be identified in order to protect the statutory anonymity of the complainant. The court heard that on the night in question the girl was drinking with her group of friends, and the two defendants joined them. At some point in the night, the victim's friends dispersed and she was left with the two men. She told gardai later she was very drunk and had limited memory of where she was. She said she was in a mess. She said she was passed out and woke up to find the 21-year-old taking down her leggings and with his mouth on her genital area. She said she was falling in and out of consciousness and came to again a little later to find the 21-year-old raping her. She said when he finished, he said to the other man: It's your turn. She said this man began raping her while the first man masturbated. She said that afterwards, she walked back with them across the fields to a nearby residential area where they were met by her mother and other people who were looking for her. Alice Fawsitt, prosecuting, told the court she knew she was in trouble then, she was in a mess, she was extremely drunk. She said her mother was extremely cross and the complainant said nothing about the sexual activity. A week later, she feared she was pregnant and bought a test. This came back negative, but her mother found the packaging and confronted the girl who told her she had been raped. In her victim impact statement, the girl said that rumours spread in the locality and she became marked as the girl who was raped and that some people said vulgar things about her. She said that she and her family decided to leave the area to get away from this. She said she had left her home on the night of the rapes a bubbly, fun-loving, outgoing kid and came home a frightened confused guilt-ridden victim. She said her family had to uproot their lives. She said she still feels shame and anxiety as a result of the events that night. Lawyers for both men told the court their clients do not accept the jury verdicts and continue to protest their innocence. Counsel for the younger defendant said his client feels hard done by and wronged by the conviction. He said his client is a young man who has started a family since these events and has held down a job. Counsel for the now 27-year-old asked the court to consider that he is still a relatively a young man and has no other relevant criminal convictions. Justice Eileen Creedon adjourned sentencing to May 9. As thousands of people flee the Russian invasion, many Ukrainian nationals living in Ireland are returning home to defend their country. Among those ready to go home and fight are a Cork-based plumber and a Limerick-based civil engineer. Pavlo Serdiuk, an apprentice plumber working with Trevor Hill Plumbing, said he would return to Ukraine to do his duty. "I'm not going to lie, I am scared. The closer you get the more scared you are, but it is what it is," he said. Mr Serdiuk was among a group of Ukrainian men interviewed by RTE, as they packed and readied themselves to depart Ireland and return to their country. The group flew to Krakow in Poland on Sunday night. Their plan was to then drive across the border into Ukraine and join the civilian resistance to the invading Russian army. The men were travelling with donations of essential supplies like batteries, sleeping bags, helmets, flak jackets and money, all donated from Irish people and the Ukrainian community in Ireland. Speaking from Kyiv over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on foreign volunteers to come and fight in Ukraines defence. Polands Border Guard said some 22,000 people have crossed into Ukraine since Thursday when Russia invaded the country. More are arriving every hour. 'If the situation worsens Im going to go back to Ukraine to protect them' Andrej Mitigan, a civil engineer who lives in Limerick with his wife and young daughter, said he was also prepared to go back to Ukraine and fight. Mr Mitigan, 35, said his parents and brother informed him they have already taken up arms, and are sleeping in basements to try to avoid Russian missile strikes. Andrej, his wife, Alisa, and their two-year-old daughter, Mia, settled in Limerick in 2020, when he began working for a local construction company. "Im from Kyiv, my family are there, my father, mother, brother, and all of them are pushed to take the weapons to protect themselves, their lives," he said. "We don't want a war, Ukrainians love peace and democracy but the Russians are trying to destroy our country; every day they are attacking us, killing us. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Ukrainians abroad to return home and join the fight against Russian forces. Picture: Johanna Geron/ Pool Photo via AP, File Becoming emotional, Mr Mitigan said: My daughter is two years old, and yesterday she said to me, Father, lets draw a rocket, and I cried. Mr Mitigan said his family in Ukraine have already seen the worst of the war, they see how people die, and they hear rockets. I want to protect them, and if the situation worsens Im going to go back to Ukraine to protect them. Im a civil engineer, Im not a soldier, but I will go back and fight. I support our president because Russias rockets are not only killing our soldiers, they are hitting our houses, and even our kindergartens have been attacked; they are killing civilians not only soldiers. Mr Mitigan said economic sanctions imposed on Russia are not enough, but he believes Ukraine can defend itself without the need for allied troops in the country but only as long as Western powers continue to supply Ukraine with military support. His message to those who can support Ukraines defence against Russia is a simple one: Help us with weapons. Ms Mitigan's parents live close to the shellshocked capital city Kyiv and are fully supportive the orders of Ukraine president Mr Zelenskyy. Of course, I am worried for them, I don't know if I will see them in the future, I don't know if I will see them alive again, they don't know what will happen, said Ms Mitigan. I cry every day, I ring them and ask them are they okay, all our thoughts are about Ukraine now. Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) is the most toxic work environment a three-time victimised law lecturer there has ever experienced. Last week, criminal law lecturer, Dr Kathleen Moore Walsh was successful in securing her third separate workplace victimisation award against WIT bringing to a total of 45,000 WIT has been ordered to pay the US national victimisation compensation since 2004. WIT has the right to appeal the latest Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) 25,000 award and ruling to the Labour Court, but Dr Moore Walsh confirmed on Monday that if she receives the award she intends to donate the money to charity as she has done with the previous awards. She said: It has never been about the money. It has always been about equal opportunity to progress. In making the 25,000 award, WRC Adjudicator Breiffni ONeill, noted that the previous two awards do not appear to have had the desired objective of being dissuasive as Dr Moore Walsh has once again been victimised. In an interview on the outcome of the case, Dr Moore Walsh stated: I know my career was stunted and I just hope that changes are made so that other women dont find themselves in this position - that if they raise an equality issue they don't get slammed for raising the issue. Dr Moore Walsh said that she felt vindicated by the WRC ruling. Read More Lecturer compensated a third time for being victimised by Waterford IT She said: Vindication, in that an employee shouldn't be punished for raising an equality issue and I think it was a legitimate issue that I raised. I am very happy with the finding that I was victimised - again. Employed at WIT since 1997, Dr Moore Walsh confirmed that she has taken six separate workplace relations cases against WIT since 2004. Asked if she will be viewed as being a trouble-maker', Dr Moore Walsh laughed for a moment and said: I think that happened a long time ago. I think I was branded a trouble maker at the very beginning and it just stuck. On the various cases taken over the years, Dr Moore Walsh said: It has been a long slog but nothing has really improved and although WIT is an institute of higher education it does not learn lessons. "My third case I settled it for an equality review and WIT did the equality review but they never implemented the experts suggestions or recommendations, particularly with regard to interviewing, which is what led to Case 5 which led to Case 6. Asked what it is like going into work each day, Dr Moore Walsh said: It is often difficult. WIT is the most toxic work environment I have ever experienced. I used to think things would get better, but they have not. "However, I work with some very decent people who are very supportive so that is good." The US lawyer said that the worst thing is that there is no accountability for WITs actions. She said: "If this was a private company paying their own way victimisation probably wouldnt happen over and over and lessons would be learned, but WIT instead uses the resources of the State against employees to defend what I consider the indefensible victimisation. "There is no transparency and no accountability even after findings. A native of southern Illinois and a holder of two law doctorates including one in victimology from UCC, Dr Moore Walsh came to Ireland in 1995 after falling in love with a south Kilkenny dairy farmer, Peter Walsh. They met previously during a bucket list holiday to Ireland with her terminally ill mother. Dr Moore Walsh said that she doesnt see herself as a pathfinder improving female employees experience in the workplace. She said: No. I dont see myself in that role but I think when you find something wrong and you want it to be fixed, you have to raise it. Unfortunately, my raising of equality issues or problems resulted in adverse treatment or victimisation which probably serves and continues to keep others from raising issues. Asked to respond to Dr Moore Walsh's comments, a spokeswoman for WIT said on Monday: Waterford Institute of Technology does not comment on matters relating to individual staff members. The institute is fully committed to fostering a work environment that promotes dignity and respect across the institute for all staff and students. We promote this in many ways in our everyday interactions, through training and notably through our policies, including, in particular, our dignity and respect policy. WIT didnt respond to a query if it intends to appeal the WRC award or not to the Labour Court. The University of Montanas removal of the mask mandate in February was seen by many as a symbolic end to the COVID-19 pandemic thats ravaged campus for the last two years. But the struggle and the resilience weve seen at UM over these years wasnt for nothing. Weve learned what it me On the night of July 20, 2021, Ruham Hawash lay awake unsure of where she was, mistaking her hotel bed in Koblenz, Germany, for the cramped and filthy cell in Damascus where, in 2012, she was detained and brutalised. The next day, in a German court, she would see and testify against the Syrian colonel who oversaw her torture. The trial was history-making. Two Syrian state security officers had been arrested and charged in Germany for crimes against humanity, including torture, murder, and sexual assault. It was the first time anyone from the Syrian regime would be tried for its crimes. In Arabic, they are called the mukhabarat, four security bodies that have for decades carried out the Syrian regimes surveillance and repression of its people. Without them, the regime, under both the current ruler, Bashar al-Assad, and his father, Hafez, before him, would never have been able to maintain its rule over more than half a century. In that time, they have crushed any dissent and opposition from several generations of Syrians. The two defendants like Hawash herself, and over half a million other Syrians had sought refuge in Germany. Both men readily admitted to working for the mukhabarat, as if their defections would absolve them of their pasts. But if they thought they would disappear into the flood of Syrians arriving in Europe, cleansed and free to start new lives, they failed to account for two things. First, their fellow Syrian exiles were determined that those responsible for the unraveling of Syria would not enjoy absolute impunity. Second, they landed in a nation that had grappled with its own legacy of war crimes and was now increasingly committed to pursuing war criminals operating far beyond Germanys borders. In the days leading up to her testimony, Hawash, 34, agonised over her decision to participate. Much had changed since 2019, when she decided not only to be a witness in the German states case but also to join it as a named plaintiff. When the trial started amid the pandemic in April 2020, the international news media covered it, and some Syrian proponents of the trial promised that Syrians would finally have justice. But attendance quickly dwindled, partly because Koblenz is far from where many Syrian activists now live in Berlin, but also because the court didnt provide access to the in-court Arabic translation for the public, leading some Syrians to wonder who the trial was for. Although Hawash knew it was possible for the Syrian regime to harm her in Germany, where she would soon become a citizen, what she feared more was what the memories might do to her. Two close girlfriends Syrians who, like her, were active in the uprising against the regime and now lived in Berlin accompanied her to Koblenz. She wanted people in the courtroom who knew her from Syria, who would relate to what she would say and know that she wasnt making it up. Displaced Over the last decade, more than 500,000 Syrians have been killed and more than half the countrys population has been displaced, both within and outside Syrias borders. What began in 2011 as a popular and peaceful movement calling for the regime in power undemocratically since 1970 to reform and to end its corruption has turned into a brutal civil and proxy war. Throughout, the Syrian people have been victims of and witnesses to countless crimes against humanity. While armed opponents of the regime, such as ISIS, also committed such offenses more often capturing the worlds horrified if fleeting attention the Syrian regime, backed by Russia and Iran, has, by far, perpetrated most of the violence. To stay in power, al-Assad has unleashed conventional and chemical weapons, aerial bombardment, siege, starvation, and expulsion, mostly against civilians. This destruction remains nakedly visible across the country. But behind the closed doors of its opaque detention system, the regime has also carried out the much more hidden but no less lethal violence of mass disappearances, mass torture, and mass executions. When some atrocities have garnered international scrutiny, the regime has either denied its involvement, claimed that the victims are actually terrorists, or accused their enemies of staging these attacks. But the regimes culpability has been well documented, not only by civilians, journalists, activists, and human rights organisations both Syrian and international but also by the regime itself. Perhaps most famous are the pictures taken by a former Syrian military police forensic photographer, code-named Caesar, who defected in 2013. The images he smuggled out show at least 6,627 dead Syrians, an estimated two-thirds of whom died from torture between May 2011 and August 2013, either in detention or after their transfer to a military hospital. (Another third are Syrian military casualties from battles with armed opponents.) The corpses are, remarkably, tagged with the number of the mukhabarat facility where they died. In addition, two organisations, the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, have become repositories for verified regime documents that reveal its own policies and directives since 2011. What the documents described came as no surprise to the Syria Justice and Accountability Centres executive director Mohammad al Abdallah. He still remembers the daily morning warning his mother would give before he went to school in Syria, to not repeat out loud anything he heard the adults say at home. Otherwise, she said, people will come and take Baba his father and we wont see him again. Later, as an adult, al Abdallah would experience firsthand what it meant to be taken. What did shock him, though, was how unconcerned the authors were that such documents could ever be used against them. Youd expect them to try to hide things, he says. But no, they still signed with their names, rank, and in their own handwriting. They believed 100% they could write what they want and behave the way they want. While Syria is far from Germany, thousands of potential witnesses and victims and, undoubtedly, perpetrators as well now find themselves together in Germany. Among them are key Syrian human rights lawyers and activists who lost no time even in the pain and discombobulation of displacement and exile in trying to stop further offences in Syria, as well as seeking some morsel of justice for victims and accountability for the perpetrators. They have found willing partners in German civil society and the German federal public prosecutor generals office, which handles cases relating to international war crimes. When it comes to its own war crimes, Germany has made a point of prosecuting Nazi perpetrators no matter how long it takes or how old the accused become. That commitment has nonetheless been an evolution, and before the country was unified, one that differed between East and West. While the former East Germany repudiated its Nazi past and would embrace the Nuremberg Trials, West Germany was much more hostile to the idea, seeing them as victors justice. Trial day On the day of her testimony last summer, Hawash wore a mustard-coloured blouse, black pants, and a black blazer, an outfit she chose specifically because there was nothing special about it. Around her neck was the custom-made gold peace pendant she had worn every day since 2007. Her usually close-cropped hair needed a trim, but she had chosen to wait until after she testified. You get your hair fixed for happy occasions. She walked in the sunshine to the courthouse, which faces Koblenzs small memorial to the Nazis victims. A sightseeing train drives tourists past it. She had managed to put aside questions of whether her testimony mattered to the trial. With millions of Syrians being denied any justice as a people, many individual Syrians had discounted their right, let alone acknowledged any need, to find some justice for themselves. Her attorneys, Patrick Kroker and Sebastian Scharmer, waited to escort her through security, the former in blue high-top Chucks, the latter in black Doc Martens. As she entered the courtroom, Hawash couldnt help reflecting on how surreal it all felt: Here I am in Germany, joining my government in prosecuting someone who tortured me in Syria. Then she saw him. Raslan was standing in the courtroom, chatting with people around him, as if nothing were out of the ordinary. She noticed his clean clothes a pair of jeans and a grey sweatshirt, its Polo logo visible. She saw that he was neither blindfolded nor bound, as she had been during her interrogations. He had clearly not been beaten either. She tensed up, thinking, 'at any minute, he could do something to me'. But as she walked past one of her friends who was already seated in the gallery, Hawash saw her smile and reach toward her, grazing her fingertips. With that light touch, she felt anchored. Ruham Hawash: Testified against the Syrian colonel who oversaw her torture. When Hawash took her seat at the witness table in front of the judges, with Kroker by her side, she kept her eyes on Kerber. Raslan was only a few feet away, and when she removed her mask, he studied her. Hawash had decided to testify in German because she didnt want to recreate the dynamics that defined her and Raslan in Syria where she was a victim, and he had power. She was adamant: I am not a victim today. Speaking in German also allowed her, not the translator, to choose her words. Kerber began by prompting Hawash to introduce herself and state what happened to her. Hawash took a long drink of water and avoided looking at Raslan, focusing on Kerber, as if it were a one-on-one conversation. At a regime checkpoint outside Damascus, she told the court, the mukhabarat confiscated her ID and possessions. If she wanted them back, they said, she must turn herself in at Branch 251. Without an ID in Syria, life is impossible. She agonised and even went into hiding, she said, terrified of entering the notorious facility. Finally, she had no choice but to go. She didnt mention torture. Only that at some point, the interrogation was no longer friendly. Eventually she was let go, she said, without her ID. She was issued a one-way travel permit and told to leave Syria and never come back. The judges questioning then began, aimed at soliciting specifics regarding dates and times, about torture and whether she was sexually assaulted. As they had done with other witnesses, they referred to Hawashs statement to the police given the year before. Hawash bristled; did they doubt her? Reluctantly, she recounted how her investigator became impatient with her, telling her he could better refresh her memory in another room. She was then bound, blindfolded, and taken underground she could tell from the dank smell. But she was generally allowed to see, and what she saw were implements of torture and walls filthy with dirt and blood. She testified to being beaten sometimes seated, sometimes standing with her arms bound above her head and suspended from the ceiling on her head, neck, ears, and face. Under judges questioning, she specified that her torturers applied electric devices to her knees and fingertips, then her shoulders and chest. She recalled how she had no sense of time: I didnt know if it was day or night. Yes, she answered the judges, she could hear others crying and screaming. After an hour, Hawash asked for a break, and the court went into a 15-minute recess. Seeing that Hawash had nearly finished her bottle of water, Kerber asked a court aide to bring a new one. When Hawash returned, she felt ready again. She had thought about it, and she realised that she didnt see others who were tortured as weak. She answered all the remaining questions, from the prosecutors, defense counsel, and her own lawyers. In less than an hour, Kerber thanked her. It was over. Before court was dismissed, Kerber added 10 counts of murder to Raslans charges, based on testimony presented the previous month. As Kerber read out the names of the witnesses, Hawash was astounded to recognise many of them. How small is the world, she thought. It turned and turned, and those who felt we had no power you wanted to silence us. Those of us who survived, we are the ones judging you. Verdict On January 1, the day the verdict would be announced, spectators who wanted a coveted seat in the courtroom began lining up at 3am outside the courthouse doors, which wouldnt open until 8am. In the darkness, with temperatures below freezing, people camped out with snacks and thermoses of hot coffee, happily sharing with strangers. Syrians had come from across Germany, Europe, and beyond. There were several joyful reunions. But any sense of excitement or satisfaction with what was expected to be a guilty verdict was tempered by frustration over just how small the days justice would be and how blatantly ongoing the Syrian regimes impunity is. The Syrians held vigil as camera crews filmed them. Two women pushed a window open from still-dark offices across the way and leaned out to take a picture. It was the court clerk and one of the judges, their faces illuminated by the light of their cellphones. Once the doors opened, only a few were able to enter. After security checks, it would take another two hours to seat everyone in the small gallery. When Raslan was brought in, in handcuffs, people stood to see him. What a sight! someone said in Arabic. Ubal malmak, Mahmoud said. May your boss be next. Mazen Darwish, one of the Syrian lawyers who helped bring the case to fruition, sighed: I wish it were in Damascus. How different it would be. Women hold posters and photographs during a demonstration outside the courthouse where former Syrian intelligence officer Anwar Raslan stood on trial in Koblenz, Germany, on January 13, after the verdict was spoken on charges for crimes against humanity. Picture: Bernd Lauter/AFP via Getty Images) As the judges climbed the dais, everyone quietened down, waiting for Kerber to signal they could sit. Hawash was seated at the front with the other joint plaintiffs. Her hair was freshly cut in a high fade. The judges took their seats. Kerber held in her hands the judgment that she would read out loud, pausing regularly to allow the Arabic interpreters to translate. It would take more than five hours, with a few 10-minute breaks and none for lunch. She announced the verdict and sentence first. Finding in the form of killing, torture, serious deprivation of liberty, rape and sexual assault in combination with murder in 27 cases, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment. But the court allowed that the sentence could be suspended on probation after 15 years, taking into consideration that, among other things, Raslan had defected. He did not appear to react. Hawash didnt particularly care how much prison time Raslan received. What was important to her were the broader findings about the nature of the regime, she says, which she believes will lay the groundwork for the road ahead, no matter how long it takes. But her composure crumbled later in the afternoon when, in Kerbers summation of the testimony, the judge recounted the specifics of the plaintiffs detentions, by name. She cried silently as Kerber described the conditions of Hawashs torture in German, which were even more excruciating to her as the interpreter repeated them in Arabic. Sitting in the German courtroom where this victory was won, Hawash suffered flashbacks to her Syrian cell. In comparison to the day she testified, she felt even more exposed in the now-packed courtroom. She again feared being seen as weak. But she knew now that she was not. It had been almost two years since she joined the case. I can leave it here, she said. I can start something new. All she wanted now was to walk out of the building and call her parents. Syrias unraveling had flung her family far apart, but she was always thinking of them, especially that day. She wanted to hear her parents voices and tell them, its done. Good scientists aren't prone to hyperbole, typically detesting media sensationalism and anti-intellectual rhetoric - so when some of the world's finest minds say we're hurtling towards self-destruction, it's worth paying attention. This isn't the first rodeo for the hundreds of scientists across the world forming the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). How long, how long must they sing their song, before world leaders and the lay public alike listen to their grim words? The planet has already passed the point of no return for some of the effects of climate change and has a narrow window to avoid even further pain for billions of people. While to some it may sound like sensationalism and doom-mongering, the 34,000 cited references in the IPCC report put together by professors, doctors, and other experts in their field tell a different story - this is pure science. People take part in a climate change protest last November in Dublin. Professor Debra Roberts, co-chair of the IPCC, said: "Our report clearly indicates that places where people live and work may cease to exist, that ecosystems and species that we've all grown up with and that are central to our cultures and inform our languages may disappear." Academia, for all its faults, has no time for sentiment - the conclusions are based on cold, clear, and unambiguous evidence. "Increased heatwaves, droughts and floods are already exceeding plants and animals tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species such as trees and corals. "These weather extremes are occurring simultaneously, causing cascading impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage. They have exposed millions of people to acute food and water insecurity, especially in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, on small islands and in the Arctic, the IPCC said in its latest findings. This, bear in mind, is less than eight months since its previously grim projections of passing 1.5 degrees global warming, and less than four months since world leaders at Glasgow's Cop26 climate change summit pledged to cooperate to radically reduce global emissions in the coming decades. How long, how long must they sing their song? Since Cop26, we have a US Congress strangled by political posturing from a maddeningly anti-science Republican Party, and a ruling Democratic party held to ransom by two of its own senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, blocking President Joe Biden's already weakened climate mitigation package from passing into legislation. Campaigners from Friends of the Earth Scotland, Get Glasgow Moving and the International Transport Workers Federation gathered in George Square, Glasgow, last November during the Cop26 summit in the city. How long, how long must they sing their song? Picture date: Wednesday November 10, 2021. In Europe, we see emissions return to almost what they were pre-pandemic and closer to home, no consensus on tackling emissions from agriculture in Ireland because of the political fallout. More pressingly, the IPCC report this week must fight for every inch of newspaper space and every minute of television time due to the actions of a reckless Russian president in his neighbouring Ukraine. Poignantly, the tragedy of Ukrainian refugees will be replicated over and over again in the future as communities all over the world are forced from their lands because of a force even more powerful than Russian tanks and mortars - the force of climate change. It is also sad that Russia's dominant position when it comes to oil and gas has emboldened Vladimir Putin's imperial ambitions, gambling that he would ride out the storm geopolitically because of the West's reliance on fossil fuel. Teachers Diane Killoughy and Jerrieann Sullivan on the way to Dublin for the Global Day of Action on climate change last November. If environmental factors weren't reason enough to strive for a renewable energy future, then geopolitical reasons have now bolstered the case. Unfortunately, the perilous change in climate doesn't hang around for political cycles. It doesn't stop for peace talks or ceasefires. Hurricanes don't take breaks to go campaigning, monsoon rains don't stop for election day. Climate change just marches on, growing stronger from the insidious energy that humans feed it. When we talk about saving the planet, we aren't talking about the big blue sphere on which we eke out a brief existence - that will be just fine. It's the people living on it, and the animals and creatures that most of us profess to love and cherish. Former president Donald Trump has against appealed a judges decision requiring he answer questions under oath in New York states civil investigation into his business practices. Lawyers for Mr Trump and his two eldest children filed papers on Monday with the appellate division of the states trial court, seeking to overturn Manhattan Judge Arthur Engorons February 17 ruling. They argue ordering the Trumps to testify violates their constitutional rights because their answers could be used in a parallel criminal investigation. In an eight-page ruling, Judge Engoron set a March 10 deadline for Trump and his children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr, to sit for depositions. Donald Trump Jr (John Raoux/AP) Lawyers for the Trumps asked the appellate court for a stay to spare them from questioning while it considers the matter. The court did not set a date for arguments. It typically issues decisions several months after that, but could be inclined to rule on an expedited basis given the urgency of New York Attorney General Letitia James investigation and the Trumps desire to swiftly overturn Judge Engorons ruling. A message seeking comment was left with Ms James office. In a statement on Friday, as lawyers for the Trumps were preparing their appeal, the attorney general signalled she was ready for a long fight to get them to testify. Donald J Trump, Donald Trump, Jr, and Ivanka Trump were ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr Trump and the Trump Organisations financial dealings, Ms James said in the statement. While they have the right to seek a delay, they cannot deter us from following the facts and the law wherever they may lead. Make no mistake: My office will continue to pursue this case without favour because no one is above the law. Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr (Evan Vucci/AP) Mr Trump did not immediately comment on the appeal. In a statement following Judge Engorons decision, he called the ruling a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in history. Ms James, a Democrat, has said her investigation has uncovered evidence Mr Trumps company, the Trump Organisation, used fraudulent or misleading valuations of assets like golf courses and skyscrapers to get loans and tax benefits. In his ruling, Judge Engoron wrote: A State Attorney General commences investigating a business entity, uncovers copious evidence of possible financial fraud, and wants to question, under oath, several of the entities principals, including its namesake. She has the clear right to do so. If Judge Engorons decision is upheld, it could force Mr Trump into a tough decision about whether to answer questions, or stay silent, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Anything Mr Trump says in a civil deposition could be used against him in the criminal probe being overseen by the Manhattan district attorneys office. Burma Myanmar Democracy Activists Hold Rallies in Support of Ukraine Young democracy activists from Lawnglung Township in Dawei district in southern Myanmar show solidarity with the people of Ukraine on Sunday. / DMSC-Dawei Braving the juntas brutal crackdowns, democracy activists in Myanmar staged protests over the weekend to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine as they attempt to repel the ongoing invasion of their country by Russia. Dozens of young protesters holding pro-democracy banners and Ukrainian flags held flash-mob protests in Myanmars commercial hub Yangon, as well as in Dawei in Tanintharyi Region in the countrys deep south and Kachin State in the north on Sunday, as their civilian counterparts in Ukraine grabbed automatic rifles to push back the invading Russians. Myanmar has been under a military dictatorship since February last year. Since then the whole country has been resisting the regime by all means at their disposal, from peaceful protest to armed struggle. So far, more than 1,500 civilians have been killed by the regime. Until May last year, Ukraine had links with the Myanmar military, with arms exports and technology transfers. Despite this, the Russian invasion of the second-largest country in Europe last week has enraged Myanmar democracy activists, who feel a connection with Ukraines civilians as they take up arms to defend their land. On the surface, Sundays protests in Myanmar were a denunciation of military bullying and an offer of encouragement from one group of civilians who have been fighting for freedom and democracy to another. Beyond the moral support, however, Myanmar and Ukraine have a common enemy. To the Ukrainians, Russian President Vladimir Putin is their invader. To the Myanmar people, Russia is a close ally of the Myanmar regime, supplying it with military hardware, among other kinds of support. Raising a three-finger salute, Raymond, a member of the Democracy Movement Strike Committee (Dawei), said Myanmars anti-regime movement, known as the Spring Revolution, felt solidarity with the oppressed people of Ukraine. We are inspired by Ukraines war in defense of democracy. Like them, the Myanmar Spring Revolution will continue to fight for our freedom until we win, he said in a video. Behind him a group of young activists held placards reading Glory to Ukraine and Putin Must Fail. He said if Putin won in Ukraine, it would give a boost to the military regime in Myanmar and to the enemies of democracy everywhere. The world is a scary place right now. But were all in this together, and when people unite we can accomplish anything. Slava Ukraini! Democracy must prevail! he said. In Yangon, a more challenging environment for protesters, given the regimes brutal crackdowns in the city, a group of young activists staged a flash mob protest, shouting anti-regime slogans and waving placards bearing slogans like In Solidarity with Ukraine. Fortunately, the protest was uninterrupted and protesters successfully dispersed. In Kachin State in Myanmars north, more than a dozen ethnic Kachin young people held a rally to show their support for Ukraine. Some rally participants painted their faces in the Ukrainian flag while others held placards reading Save Ukraine and Stop War. Myanmars shadow National Unity Government said on Friday that it condemned the Russian war against Ukraine and its people, adding Myanmar stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. While Russias invasion of Ukraine has been globally condemned, the Myanmar regime has taken a different approach. In an apparent attempt to show its gratitude to Russia for its support, the regime said Russia was acting to maintain its sovereignty and praised Moscow for what it called its role in balancing global power. You may also like these stories: Ukraine Vows No Capitulation at Talks; Putin Orders Nuclear Alert Fuel Shortages Hit Parts of Myanmar Due to Road Closures, Global Price Hikes Serbia Sold Arms to Myanmar Junta After Coup Burma Myanmar Junta Planes Bomb Village Sheltering Displaced Karenni Civilians Internally displaced people from Demoso / Karenni Refugee Supporting Network Myanmar regime forces on Sunday used aircraft to bomb Lo Bar Kho Village in Demoso Township, Kayah State, where around 3,000 internally displaced civilians (IDPs) are sheltering. Junta airplanes dropped two bombs on the village on Sunday morning, with one falling near a clinic opened for the refugees, destroying a few buildings nearby. A resistance fighter from Kayah State said the village is far from the frontlines of the recent fighting in the state. They cannot attack Lo Bar Kho Village with artillery because it is out of range, on the border of Shan and Kayah states. So, they used airplanes to drop bombs and send a warning to the refugees that there is no safe place for them within the state. Most of the displaced people there fled Nan Mal Kone, Pekon and Demoso. They headed for Lo Bar Kho Village thinking it would be the safest place for them. A majority of Kayah States population of 200,000 people have been displaced by fighting, with clashes taking place almost daily. A senior staffer at the Karenni State Refugee Supporting Network said the displaced people dont dare use tarpaulin sheets as roofs for their makeshift dwellings, because junta military airplanes attack when they see blue tarpaulin roofs. The refugees had to run without taking any of their belongings. They didnt dare to take tarpaulin shelters. The refugees are scattering. Some have gone into the forest, he said. They are in despair. They dont know where is a safe place for them now, he added. The displaced people are also facing a shortage of food. The network has asked international organizations to provide emergency food supplies for the Karenni IDPs. On Jan. 17, the juntas indiscriminate aerial bombing killed three civilians including a 7-year-old girl in a displacement camp in Kayah States Hpruso Township. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Junta Chief Hands Golden Triangle Resorts to Associates Myanmar Junta Troops Kill Villagers; Hold Schoolkids Hostage Myanmar Democracy Activists Hold Rallies in Support of Ukraine Burma Myanmar Junta Troops Kill Villagers; Hold Schoolkids Hostage Junta soldiers were helicoptered into Chin Pone Village in Sagaing Regions Yinmabin Township. / Yinmabin True News Regime forces killed at least nine people during raids in upper Myanmar villages and detained over 80 primary schoolchildren as potential human shields. The children, who were released on Monday, were detained for around 36 hours at a Buddhist monastery in Chin Pone Village in Sagaing Regions Yinmabin Township, after the village and adjacent area were targeted by junta soldiers airlifted by helicopter and indiscriminate airstrikes. During the raid, the children, who were all under the age of 12 with many around five to seven-years-old, were detained while attending a kindergarten at the monastery. An adult who was detained with the children told The Irrawaddy on Monday that they tried to evacuate the children to the basement of the monastery when the helicopters landed, but were detained by junta forces. They pointed guns at us. We had to beg them not to shoot kids, said the adult. Villagers and local Peoples Defense Force (PDF) fighters said the regime troops took the children hostage so they could be used as human shields in case of attacks by PDFs. Some villagers were also arrested during the raid. They were interrogated and beaten by the junta soldiers, who asked them about local resistance fighters. At least nine people were killed in the raid and some villagers reportedly remain under arrest. One local said that they found six bodies near a primary school, one near the monastery and two more on the outskirts of the village. Almost all were killed by one shot to the head, he said. Only one of the victims has been confirmed to be a Chin Pone villager, he added. Junta forces reportedly threatened to burn down Chin Pone Village during the raid if the villagers who had fled didnt return. Some parents have yet to be reunited with their children, despite them being released. Regime troops are suspected of taking four villagers when they left the village on Monday afternoon. We are still looking for the children who are missing, a PDF member said. Nearby Thapyayaye Village was attacked with airstrikes on Monday. In a statement released on Monday, the parallel civilian National Unity Governments Ministry of Women, Youths and Children said they condemned in the strongest possible terms taking children hostage, as well as teachers and their parents. Children have a primary claim to protection under international law, and their abduction and hostage-taking comprises a grave violation, the ministry said. Since last years coup, military regime forces have killed at least 1,582 innocent civilians and arrested over 12,000 people. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Democracy Activists Hold Rallies in Support of Ukraine Ukraine Vows No Capitulation at Talks; Putin Orders Nuclear Alert Fuel Shortages Hit Parts of Myanmar Due to Road Closures, Global Price Hikes SPECTRUM hosted a walkout at the fountain on Indiana State Universitys campus Friday. The walkout lasted from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm in order to raise awareness against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation raised in 2022, and was part of walkouts being hosted across the United States. Were working to cover how COVID-19 is affecting our region. Tell us your story. Have you or someone close to you been monitored, quarantined or tested and can you share about the process? Are you a medical professional dealing with this who wants to share your experience and needs at this time? Are you a student or worker affected by closures? Are there questions you have about the coronavirus and COVID-19 response that havent been answered? We want to hear about your experience. We understand this is a sensitive and private issue and we are willing to protect your identity if you request it. GUEST OPINION: Most organisations are focused on immediate priorities, and have a short planning horizon for cyber. Cyber doesnt seem as immediate as the need to meet targets, respond to Freedom Of Information, or complete reporting cycles. Anything that disrupts core business is seen as too high a price to pay. But the most serious cyber incidents have a slow burn. Threat actors can lie dormant in systems for years before striking, or can be slowly exfiltrating data without detection. For critical infrastructure, foreign state actors position themselves to cripple networks in the event of a conflict, shutting down our economy and infrastructure to weaken our defences. Below are recent events in the sector, and how those breaches happened: 1. Insider leak, whether malicious or accidental. This is by far the most likely. Staff already have access to systems, and are trusted to use them. This is what happened at NAB in 2019. That year the bank paid nearly $700k in compensation to affected customers. 2. Software vulnerabilities. A glitch in US financial research firm Morningstars systems exposed the alert profiles of KPMG executives in Australia. 3. Malicious breach. Compromise of the Accelion infrastructure affected many organisations, Reserve Banks of New Zealand, and ASIC among them. None of these things are in the control of the day to day user, or even most Executives. Its widely recognised that being breached is almost inevitable. If we quickly consider the many types of breach, and may types of threat actor, we can get a better picture. Key types of threat actor There are several different groups who perpetrate these breaches. Foreign State actors. Foreign governments have a lot of capability to breach networks, and do so in order to undermine Australian national interests, as well as to steal IP. If you service so government and critical industry clients, have PII, or have unique IP, you are a potential target. Criminal. Cybercriminals use hacking to extort money, or sell credentials they steal. Organised crime groups may also want to target you because of your client data, or for ransom. Competitors. While usually less capable than other threat actors, competitors may be highly motivated to steal your trade secrets and IP. And feeding into them all, the trusted insider. It is much more likely that someone in the company will be tricked into, or recruited into, facilitating a breach by one of the other types of threat actor. Insiders can be motivated by money, ideology, compromise, or even just ego. With work from home and churn from the labour shortage, its extremely hard to monitor and continuously vet our people. Reducing the impact We need to do what we can to reduce likelihood of a breach but we can never completely prevent one. What we need to focus much more on is reducing the impact of a breach. How do we do this? The Supply Chain Principles are available on the Home Affairs website, and the very first principle is: Understand what needs to be protected, why it needs to be protected, and how it can be protected. We have to know our own data, so that we can focus our efforts on the data that has the most risk. What is this risky data? National security Sensitive personal Financial (PCI for example) These are fairly easy to detect as they are consistent. What about risks specific to your organisation? Every organisation has a unique risk profile. Different organisations have different types of risk data unique to them. Firstly, IP. This is always unique and specific, and cant be identified by generic pattern matching algorithms. Secondly, core business data that is sensitive. The fact that you are doing a certain merger, or running a certain kind of project, or engaging with a certain entity, might be sensitive. But not all mergers, projects, or relationships are. Its up to each individual business what topics you consider risky, and its not repeatable across organisations. Sometimes, a certain business activity will be politically sensitive to the community knowing where that data is, and who can see it, is vital. Finally, regulated information. This is data that, if you allow unauthorised access or use, can result in civil or criminal penalties. There are more than 500 secrecy provisions just in Commonwealth legislation and more apply for every jurisdiction you operate in. Secrecy provisions go beyond the usual suspects, to things you might not consider sensitive if youre not familiar with those laws. The way ahead Knowing and applying regulatory rules is one of the best ways to reduce cyber risk. But how can we find all that risky data, track it, match it to the regulations and rules, and manage it compliantly? The way to address this is with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Castlepoint is a new kind of AI where we register every system in an environment, in the cloud and on prem. We register every record in every system (structured or unstructured), and every file in every record, and we use Natural Language Processing to extract all the meaningful topics and entities mentioned in every item, no matter the format. We capture every event on the data, as well as all metadata. We do all this without agents or connectors, and without moving, duplicating, or modifying data. This provides command and control through powerful discovery, audit, and automated records management. It is completely invisible to general users, and we are unique in managing all information, for its whole lifecycle, with no impacts. Artificial Intelligence makes this possible. Some of the problems this technology has recently solved have included: Finding references to potential child abuse in government databases with 99.8% accuracy Providing command and control over more than 56,000 systems for one organisation Reducing the cost of legal discovery for one agency by 97% per year. To help you manage your risk, you will need defensible, transparent visibility of your obligations, as well as your data. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of State said in a statement Monday that it has suspended operations at the U.S. Embassy in Belarus and authorized the voluntary departure of "non-emergency" employees and family members at the U.S. Embassy in Russia. The statement said Washington took these steps due to the ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. The Washington Post, citing an administration official, first reported Sunday that the United States believes Belarus will send its troops into Ukraine to fight alongside Russian forces as soon as Monday. The Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border for talks on Monday. Major Australian bank Westpac has appointed Damien MacRae to the role of CEO of Westpac Banking as a Service. MacRae is currently managing director of Westpac Pacific and Specialist Finance. Westpac chief executive of specialist businesses Jason Yetton described MacRae as an outstanding internal appointment. "Fintech innovation is changing banking in important ways and banking as a service is part of our long-term strategy to support this trend and better respond to changing customer needs," he said. "Banking as a service is a growth opportunity for the group and a key priority this year is to increase our customer base and build out our product offering following agreements with our initial partners including Afterpay and SocietyOne". MacRae rejoined Westpac less than a year ago. He was previously deputy COO at InvoCare and APAC COO at Experian, after an earlier 12 year stint at Westpac that culminated in the role of general manager of premium banking. Earlier in his career MacRae worked for NatWest, Commonwealth Bank, and Australian Guarantee Corporation. He holds a bachelor of commerce degree from Western Sydney University. "Banking is increasingly becoming embedded in platforms and apps and younger customers are migrating to new digital brands that are cost effective, fast and innovative. I'm excited at the opportunity to keep Westpac at the front of this trend," said MacRae. Compiling reviews from IMDb and Metacritic, Stacker composed a list of the 50 best space movies of all time, from classic hits to new releases. Click for more. Jacksonville, TX (75766) Today Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. CAIRO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan held on Sunday a phone conversation over strengthening cooperation. During the conversation, Sisi lauded the continuous development of relations between the two countries, as well as coordination on regional and international issues, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement. Sisi also stressed the importance of continuing efforts to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation to maximize the common interests of both countries, highlighting the positive results of the recent joint higher committee meetings between the two sides. The Jordanian king said his country will continue advancing bilateral cooperation frameworks at all levels and praised the convening of the Joint Egyptian-Jordanian Higher Committee recently in Cairo chaired by the prime ministers of the two countries, said the statement. The two leaders also exchanged views on the developments of regional and international affairs. Joplin, MO (64801) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High around 60F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Rain likely. Low 58F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. BRUSSELS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) should be ready to face the cost of its sanctions against Russia as Moscow is now widely expected to retaliate, EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell warned on Monday. "Sanctions will backlash, sanctions have a cost ... We have to be ready to pay this price now, because if not, we will have to pay a much bigger price in the future," Borrell said, adding that it was important to be realistic in this situation. "Energy will not be out of this conflict, like it or not," Borrell said at a press conference following a video conference of EU defense ministers. As Europe is highly dependent on Russian gas and oil, the EU will have to accelerate its green transition towards renewables, he said. On Sunday, the EU member states' foreign ministers agreed on a 500-million-euro (560.7 million U.S. dollars) budget for military assistance to be sent to Ukraine -- a move the bloc described as a "watershed moment" in its history. Before that, two sets of sanctions aiming at isolating and weakening Russia had been agreed by the ministers. Borrell presided over a meeting of the EU defense ministers, which was called to coordinate the member states' efforts to provide military assistance to Ukraine. "We are creating a clearing house (mediator) to keep track of the Ukrainian requests in one side, and their needs, and our offers, member states offers, in order to be sure of the maximum effectiveness and coordination of our support," explained Borrell. This unit will be working in coordination with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), he added. Military help to be sent by the EU to Ukraine includes weapons, munitions and materials that will "allow the Ukrainians to defend themselves," according to Borrell. As the EU decided to supply military assistance to Ukraine, it is moving from a peace union to a military union, said Borrell. "Until now, it was considered that the European Union, which is a peace union, not a military union, was not allowed to supply arms to a third country. That's what we are doing now. This is another taboo that falls," he told the press conference, adding that this was a turning point in the history of EU integration. POOR planning and non-disclosure of children born out of wedlock have complicated most estates of late prominent figures, including top politicians and businesspeople, as the Master of High Court battles to clear over 500 high profile inheritance files. Such cases, according to the Masters Office, are the most problematic as they involve a number of assets and cash and some of the figures are viewed as breadwinners by many in their respective extended families. More often than not, the deceased estates of high profile figures in Zimbabwe take inordinately long to wind up because of internecine fights among beneficiaries and relatives. High profile figures in this context are those members of our society who have made names for themselves in various fields of endeavour; from politics, music, sports, through to business, industry and even the professions. Over the years, the media has been awash with inheritance disputes pitting families of late Cabinet ministers, national heroes, prominent businesspeople, politicians, artistes and socialites. The major challenge, legal experts say, is the fact that some of those prominent figures have children born out of wedlock and other wives, but they keep it a secret and neither do they write responsible wills. In most cases, children born out of wedlock and other wives pitch up during the funeral and misunderstandings ensue. The legal wife would be in a state of denial and cannot simply accommodate the new additions. This normally creates divisions among the deceaseds relatives as some will claim to know about the existence of these children, while others stand by the legitimate wives and claim to be in the dark. Most of the time, high profile figures are breadwinners for the whole clan, not just their immediate family. They act as the umbrella or shield for the entire extended family. Their deaths result in the extended family losing that shield and all the support it came with. This then causes members of the extended family to jostle to get whatever they can out of the estate to use to start life without the support of the now deceased. The Master of High Court, Mr Eldard Mutasa, confirmed the challenge, saying his office was overwhelmed with long-drawn out high profile estates. Currently, we have over 500 high profile files saddled with disputes and this is largely as a result of poor estate planning, he said. Generally, there is reluctance to write wills or formation of trusts. This goes a long way in ensuring a proper and usually peaceful distribution of ones estate upon his or her death. There are, however, some who may write irresponsible wills which award assets to undeserving people. Such wills are usually written when one is over-excited or with a view to punish a potential beneficiary for unclear reasons. Mr Mutasa said some disputes were complicated by the involvement of some influential friends and relatives who try to interfere with the Masters Office. To make matters worse, there could be some influential family members who believe that a moral position takes precedence over a legal position, he said. Because of their influence, they mislead some beneficiaries into giving prominence to a moral position over a legal one. For instance, they can declare that women who were married by the deceased should all be recognised as surviving spouses, notwithstanding that the deceaseds first marriage was a monogamous marriage. So, when these people approach the office of the Master, their minds will be holding a position which they strongly believe as the correct position. Any ruling by the Master or executor which goes against a position that they believe as correct would result in numerous allegations of favouritism, bias or corruption. Instead of taking the Masters decision on review through court process, some beneficiaries go shopping for influential people in the vain hope of reversing decisions made by the Master. In some cases, there can even be some women who claim to have been privately married to the deceased who would wish to be recognised as legal wives. Such a scenario creates a headache not only for the family or relatives, but even for the executor and the office of the Master of the High Court which has the mandate to superintend the administration of all deceased estates in Zimbabwe. The office of the Master of High Court and the executor will now be expected to assist in the resolution of these disputes. In some cases, the Masters Office will try and resolve a dispute involving a family with two or three camps, all expecting a favourable outcome. Legal expert Advocate Joshua Chirambwi said disputes in high profile estates arose out of greed and he urged the living to properly plan for their families. Those estates have disputes mainly because of greed and malice punctuated by moral turpitude, he said. Most high profile people fail to realise the need for proper estate plans done by experts. It is only that they cannot speak in their graves, but it cannot be gainsayed that they would be turning in their graves at the point where their estates develop real disputes. The living should be responsible for what happens after they die, it is their duty to safeguard children and spouses from disputation. The time is come for the nation to see this. Another lawyer who handles inheritance cases, Mr Vunganayi Chiwore, said failure by the rich to disclose all their assets and business interests to families also complicated their estates. Many high profile people want to keep their affairs very private such that they believe registration of their assets may unduly expose them, especially politicians, he said. Some high profile people have irregularly obtained wealth which they want to keep a secret. Once they die, it is those secretive assets which haunt them. Mr Chiwore also cited greediness as a cause for complications in the estates. Many wealthy people have more than one family and those family disputes play out during administration of their estates, he said. Where there are internal family disputes, things like greediness come to the fore easily. Then credit is a huge issue. You see a high profile person wth a lot of assets during his lifetime, but when he passes on, it turns out he had equally more creditors and the beneficiaries may not be comfortable with it. Mr Chiwore said the wealthy usually take care of extended families during their lifetime and such beneficiaries may also cause problems in inheritance cases. I recently handled the estate of a powerful man, whose estate was huge, but only had two beneficiaries, his children, he said. During the life of this man, he, on a monthly basis, provided salaries and groceries for 60 relatives and for all of them to understand the estate cannot pay them as was before because its not provided for, it became a huge challenge which sparked a dispute. Former Deputy Master of High Court Mr Reuben Mukavhi, who is now in private practice, said most high profile estate cases drag for years due to disputes. He called for proper estate planning to avoid disputes. The most important thing for any person who has some wealth is to prescribe how that wealth should be distributed in the event of his or her death, he said. It is called wealth planning. Several approaches lend themselves for use. A person can write a will, prescribing how the estate should be distributed upon their death. A will is like the person speaking from the grave about who gets what form the estate. The advantage of a will is that it only takes effect upon the death of the testator, which means that it can be changed as many times as the testator wishes. The testator can cater for any and all the people he/she wants to get a share from the estate. The distribution will be in black and white, so to speak. Another approach is to set up a trust. A trust can be set up during the lifetime of the founder, or upon his/her death through a will. Whichever way, the advantage of the trust is that it takes away legal title over the assets and vests it in trustees who then manage the assets for the benefit of beneficiaries. The beneficiaries will not fight for the assets because the assets would be outside of the deceased estate, having been transferred to the trust. The advantage of the trust is that the founder stipulates the beneficiaries of the trust and the formula for the distribution of the benefits. This again allows the founder to cater for all and any people he/she wants to benefit. Mr Mukavhi added: Companies are another good way of wealth planning. A company is a juristic person that has an existence of its own separate from the owners. The assets of the company belong to the company, not to the owners of the company. If the company is properly run, with good corporate governance structures, then it can be a very good tool for wealth planning. The beneficiaries of the estate will inherit shares in the company, but not the individual assets in the company. Their benefits will come in the form of dividends when the company makes profits. The advantage of companies is that it shields the assets from the beneficiaries, thereby preserving them so that they continue generating income for the beneficiaries. However, it should be noted that the fact that there will now be more than one shareholder in the place of the deceased is fertile ground for shareholder disputes, which inevitably will spill to the boardroom and to the business in general. There is, therefore, need for more awareness programmes on inheritance laws as inheritance matters affect everyone. Herald Opinion Columnist Chris Powell has worked for the Journal Inquirer since 1967, first as a reporter, then as an editor, and now as a columnist. He was managing editor from 1974 until retiring from that position in 2018. The scene has become all-too-common during Ethiopias drawn-out war: thousands of Eritrean refugees, shell-shocked and separated from loved ones, fleeing on foot through harsh terrain to escape artillery and gunfire. It played out again this month, after the Bahrale refugee camp in the northeastern Afar region sustained what survivors described as a brazen assault by rebels from neighbouring Tigray. At least five people were killed and an untold number of women kidnapped. Those lucky enough to escape are now scattered across Afar, awaiting an uncertain future in a country they once saw as a haven from their repressive homeland. The attack marked the first time Eritrean refugees were targeted outside Tigray, where the war began, and was the first such assault on Eritrean refugees belonging to the ethnic Afar minority. Yet in other respects, the incident followed a familiar pattern one analysts say highlights failings of the Ethiopian government, the rebels and the international community at large. It has also renewed debate on how to accommodate one of the most vulnerable groups in Africas second most populous country. I just cant emphasise enough how unprecedented this is, said Sarah Miller, senior fellow with Refugees International, highlighting the scale and scope of abuses against Eritreans during every stage of the 15-month war. Ethiopia is no longer a safe place for Eritrean refugees thats quite clear. War crimes Eritrean refugees have a long history in northern Ethiopia, first arriving in 2000 towards the end of a two-year border war that killed tens of thousands. Before the current conflict broke out, some 113,000 Eritrean refugees were registered in Tigray and Afar, according to the UN. Most were fleeing the authoritarian rule of President Isaias Afwerki, whose abysmal rights record has led some to dub Eritrea Africas North Korea. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize in large part for initiating a surprise rapprochement with Isaias following a two-decade stalemate. Yet Isaias and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigrays former ruling party, remained bitter enemies, and Eritrean refugees felt at home in the region. That changed after Abiy sent troops to topple the TPLF in November 2020, enlisting support from Eritrean soldiers. Early in the conflict, refugees at two camps near the border faced abuses including killings, rapes and looting at the hands of Tigrayan rebels and Eritrean soldiers that Human Rights Watch has termed evident war crimes. Those two camps were ultimately destroyed in what one aid group called a rampage after the area came under Eritrean control. Thousands remain missing. Last July, fighting reached two other camps farther south in Tigray. Since then, refugees there have faced extended cuts to food and medical aid, and three were killed in a drone strike in January. Looting, kidnapping The attack on the Bahrale camp began February 3, part of a broader offensive in Afar that diplomats say represents the latest setback to hoped-for peace talks. Heavy weapons were thrown into the refugee camp and Tigray forces controlled the area. The same day they started looting property, recalled one survivor, according to testimony collected by an aid agency and shared with AFP. They kidnapped some refugee women, we do not know where they are, said the woman, who became separated from her sister and nine-year-old son. Hundreds of Bahrale refugees have sought shelter at the Agda Hotel in Afars capital Semera, gathering under cardboard boxes or spindly trees in the courtyard to shield themselves from the sun. For three days we had no kind of food or water, but because of our fear we werent thinking about that at all, Abdu Ahmed told AFP. A TPLF spokesman dismissed claims that its fighters attacked refugees as lies. No one in their corner Of 34,000 refugees registered in and around Bahrale, fewer than half 14,250 have been accounted for, UN refugee agency spokesman Neven Crvenkovic told AFP last week. Ethiopia plans to house them in a temporary site in Serdo, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Semera. But attempts to establish new sites elsewhere in the country have moved slowly. Refugees told AFP they were heartbroken about having to flee Bahrale but resigned to their circumstances. If God took my family and my home from me, I dont have anyone to ask about it, I will accept it, said Halima Kedir, who has located just one of her eight children since the attack. For Miller, from Refugees International, the Eritreans plight highlights broader failures to protect civilians during a war that has killed thousands and, according to the UN and the US, driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation. The humanitarian community has a lot of reckoning and deep thinking to do around whats been going on in Ethiopia, she said. We have a special duty to Eritrean refugees, who have no one in their corner, who have no one protecting them. For many international lawyers, judges, and human rights actors, the peace versus justice debate has long been resolved in favour of justice. They can point to a growing tendency in international law to see amnesties as unacceptable; to the overturning of longstanding amnesties in some countries; and to the institutionalisation of an anti-amnesty policy at the United Nations as indicators of how certain concessions on justice are no longer permissible even when adopted to ensure peace and to prevent new atrocities. In recent years, the UN Special Rapporteur for Transitional Justice and some international human rights NGOs have sought to consolidate and expand on these claims by arguing that international law now prohibits other forms of leniency for international crimes, such as pardons, early release measures, or alternative sentencing. Several international courts have also argued, since the late 1990s, that an international prohibition on amnesties is crystallising. Yet, conflict resolution efforts within many societies often paint a different picture, rarely resolving them according to these supposed new standards. Just in the last few months, broad amnesties have been granted as part of peace efforts in Chad and Ethiopia. Elsewhere, existing amnesties are being implemented, and amnesty decisions by the truth commissions in The Gambia and the Seychelles are pending. Even where amnesties are omitted from peace deals, or explicitly exclude serious crimes, de facto impunity is often entrenched because of the huge number of violations and perpetrators that the system needs to face. Restoring flexibility to negotiators All told, the continued use of amnesties by states, together with the categorical reluctance of states to codify any international prohibition of amnesties, undermine any notion that an anti-amnesty norm has become settled law. Indeed, as recently as 2019, the International Criminal Court (ICC) stated that international law is still in the developmental stage on the question of acceptability of amnesties. The African Union, in turn, has highlighted that in the fragile post-conflict setting, a balance and compromise must be struck between peace and reconciliation on the one hand and responsibility and accountability on the other. Some legal scholars go further by questioning whether the turn to criminal justice has had negative consequences for the human rights field. Likewise, Third World Approaches to International Law have highlighted the risks of imposing Western approaches to criminal justice. Peace negotiators, mediators, and supporters of conflict resolution are understandably left uncertain about how much scope they have for flexibility on justice or amnesty provisions in peace agreements. This can result in them often holding differing interpretations of what the law requires or feeling pressured to adopt positions that could be destabilising to peace negotiations and implementation. Just as consequentially, the uncertainty reduces the will and scope for exploring creative solutions that might provide reasonable compromises in processes that by their nature require mutual concessions. From a conflict resolution and atrocity prevention perspective, this is an unsatisfactory status quo. Legal parameters for conditional amnesty The Peace Treaty Initiative, a new global project of the Institute of Integrated Transitions, may offer a way out through the introduction of a concept known as the presumption of conformity. The concept is embedded in the indicative text of the proposed new treaty, which seeks to develop an international law to incentivise conflict prevention and resolution. Specifically, the indicative text creates explicit minimal criteria and a clear process for the possibility of creating a positive presumption in favour of the international legality of the amnesty reached within a peace negotiation. How does the mechanism work? The answer is found in Article 12 of the indicative text. It provides an automatic presumption of conformity to the entirety of a signed accord on the principal substantive agenda items of any peace negotiation that is handled through the treatys unique referral process; but it carves out a limited exception vis-a-vis atrocity crimes in the event that a majority of States Parties declares that any conditional amnesty provisions: (i) are unnecessary for achieving the objective of this Convention, particularly the prevention or resolution of armed conflict; (ii) lack appropriate accountability conditions or obligations in regard to relevant individuals and entities; and (iii) neglect to incorporate targeted measures addressing the needs of victims, including with respect to missing and disappeared persons. It is worth unpacking this. Favouring peaceful conflict resolution First, a legal presumption is a not a legal finding, but a device more akin to a rebuttable premise. Its main effect, in this case, would be to place the burden of proof on the challenger rather than the defender of the conditional amnesty. However, nothing about the presumption would oust the authority of the court to make an independent final judgement on the legality of the amnesty. Second, because the overarching goal of the new treaty is to incentivise the choice of peaceful conflict resolution over confrontation, the presumption has the dual benefit of 1) creating a default signal through international law that favours the legal stability of peace agreements, and 2) avoiding the kind of red lines on amnesty prohibition that produce the negative effects already mentioned. Third, the presumption of conformity forces an active deliberation by the Conference of States Parties concerning any conditional amnesty, in which it must weigh the cost of precluding the application of the presumption (which could potentially jeopardise the entire peace accord) against the cost of allowing it (which could disincentivise legal challenges to the amnesty). That weighing process is not open-ended, but rather guided by the explicit but flexible criteria set out in the indicative text. Untying the Gordian knot of peace and justice The concept of the presumption of conformity is not reflected in any existing international treaty. Yet, it will be a familiar concept to most international lawyers because of its place in domestic law. Courts everywhere from Germany to Poland, South Africa, the United States, Israel, and most Commonwealth countries apply to their domestic laws a presumption of conformity with international law. The indicative text of the proposed new treaty borrows the concept mainly because of its utility for making the path of dialogue more attractive including on the Gordian knot of peace and justice. By providing the parties to a conflict with the prospect of a positive legal signal that a signed agreement will presumptively be respected, the principle can help nudge conflict parties towards negotiation. While some may wonder if it is advisable for the Conference of States Parties to appear as judge of the legality of any conditional amnesty included in a peace deal reached within the terms of the new treaty, in fact the only judgement within its remit is whether or not to accord the presumption of conformity to the negotiated amnesty. The Conference has no authority to determine legality or illegality as such. Participating in the treatys development For now, the indicative text offers the chance for a new direction in the unresolved debate on amnesties. And because the text is the subject of an inclusive global consultation process, improvements can be made. For example, a future version of Article 12 could provide greater or lesser detail in the criteria of accountability and attention to victims; increase or decrease the voting threshold of the Conference of States Parties; or contemplate any other number of potential adjustments. Regardless, the indicative text including the presumption of conformity it proposes should take us beyond the stale and unsatisfactory debates that persist as regards amnesty, peace and justice. In doing so, it may also help to increase awareness of the independent needs of negotiation itself including the fact that it is not a process in which one side can simply impose its will on the other. This logically militates in favour of a future treaty that provides for tailored legal incentives, increased legal flexibility and greater legal clarity on key questions of international law that negotiators systematically encounter. Let the new debate begin. Recommended reading Here is a way for international law to better help end conflicts (1/3) Subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you get podcasts. Mainland to expand help as HK reports new record infections By Chen Qingqing and Liu Caiyu (Global Times) 08:31, February 28, 2022 The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) reported a record high of 26,026 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the total amid the fifth wave of the outbreak to more than 150,000. As the number of infections continues to rocket, local hospitals are struggling with shortages of manpower, facilities and experience in treating severe infections, for which the Chinese mainland is ready to offer any help at the request of Hong Kong. Local health authorities announced on Sunday that as of Sunday, there had been over 150,000 infections amid the fifth wave of the outbreak. The city has also recently adjusted its testing procedures by allowing some residents to test from home instead of going to designated testing centers, which require long lines. If the result from a rapid test kit shows a positive result, the person would be considered as a positive case and advised not to go outdoors and undergo self-quarantine if the household environment permits. The city has been recording double-digit numbers in the death toll caused by the outbreak in recent days, and local authorities said on Sunday that 83 people passed away in the previous 24 hours, ranging from 19 to 100 years old. Sixty people were in critical condition, local media reported. The total death toll of the fifth wave has reached 402, all of whom passed away in the past week, highlighting the severe issue, with the local health system in Hong Kong having been overwhelmed by the surging numbers. Carrie Lam, chief executive of the HKSAR government, met with several epidemiologists from the Guangdong provincial health commission to discuss how to enhance the hierarchical treatment and reduce severely critical cases as well as the death toll, in order to better allocate medical resources to individual cases. Irons Sze Wing Wai, a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory, said he tested positive for COVID-19 the day that he arrived in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong neighboring Hong Kong, on his way to the upcoming two sessions in Beijing in early March. He had a fever and is now under quarantine. He said he felt regret as 10 others on the same bus from Hong Kong to Shenzhen as he was have to be isolated for 21 days, and can't fly to Beijing for the annual political gathering. "Given the severe epidemic situation in Hong Kong, I think we need to focus on treating elderly people and patients in critical condition. Also, traditional Chinese medicines like Lianhua Qingwen are very useful," Sze said. Also, the city has been facing a shortage of medical staff and equipment, which is the most urgent issue, he noted. Given the shortage of manpower, Fan Hung-ling, chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, told the Global Times in a recent interviewthat hopefully, the central government could dispatch more medical staff from the mainland, probably from 3,000 to 5,000 in the first batch, besides thousands of nucleic acid testing staff, to support Fangcang makeshift hospitals and quarantine sites. "I believe many of our medical staff in the mainland are willing to offer help," Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times on Sunday. "However, it's not that easy as Hong Kong has a different system of practicing medical services, not like we offer help from one mainland city to another," he said. "As long as this issue could be handled, we could offer help at the request of the HKSAR authorities, as it's a very urgent issue for them considering that there are infections among medical staff," Zeng noted. The current health care system in Hong Kong is facing the risk of being overloaded, and the shortage of medical staff is the bottleneck. It will be a major breakthrough if medical workers from the mainland are allowed to participate directly in Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic, Feng Zijian, who participated in the supervision of the mainland's anti-epidemic efforts in Hong Kong, was quoted as saying in a Xinhua report on Sunday. The HKSAR government invoked a new emergency regulation on Thursday to provide the legal basis for anti-epidemic measures, including making more flexible and rapid use of the mainland's support and resources when needed, and carrying out key anti-epidemic projects at full speed. "The power of the chief executive to formulate emergency law is unlimited under the Constitution and Basic Law," Louis Chen, committee member of the All-China Youth Federation and member of the Election Committee (fifth sector), told the Global Times on Sunday, as with the implementation of the regulation, mainland medical staff could practice medicine in Hong Kong, streamlining the mainland's assistance in the city's anti-epidemic battle. Law Chi-kwong, Hong Kong's Secretary for Labor and Welfare, said in a blog post on Sunday that due to the shortage of manpower in nursing houses across the city, the authority adopted two special measures by directly hiring 1,000 temporary contracted caregivers from the mainland for three months, and authorities streamlined relevant procedures to allow them to work in Hong Kong. The HKSAR government also asked for help from the central government to coordinate the application approval procedures, and the first batch of caregivers is expected to arrive in Hong Kong soon and receive basic training. With the support of the central government, there are eight Fangcang makeshift hospitals under construction, and the one in Tsing Yi is expected to be put into use in the coming week, which could provide over 3,800 beds. "The urgent tasks for Hong Kong are to put infected people into collective quarantine in order to cut off community transmission, and to accelerate vaccinations, especially among the elderly people," Lu Hongzhou, head of the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, told the Global Times on Sunday. "The mainland is ready to offer help to Hong Kong at its request," he said, noting that it's also important to provide the mainland's experience of treating severely ill patients to Hong Kong hospitals, and of preventing a surging death toll. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) RELATIVES of the late socialite and businessman Genius Ginimbi Kadungure will now share his wealth to the exclusion of friends and other outsiders after the High Court nullified the dubious will that bequeathed his Lamborghini to a questionable character identified as Kit-Kat. Proceedings in the distribution of Ginimbis estate will now start afresh after the High Court nullified the will as dubious and relieved the executor Ms Patricia Darangwa of her duties citing irregularities. Ms Darangwa was appointed executor based on an unsigned will that also bequeathed Ginimbis Lamborghini to Kit-Kat. Kit-Kat later turned out to be one Nomatter Zinyengere, who was in some documents, identified as Nomatter Zinyengerere. The will in question had no signature of the deceased neither was it dated. Ms Darangwa became an executor to an estate where she was also benefiting. Although the defective will had been accepted by the Master of High Court and the Kadungure family members, the executor had to be stopped when she was about to distribute the Lamborghini to Kit Kat before winding up of the estate. The rush to hand over the vehicle to Kit Kat raised eyebrows, sparking a legal battle that led to the nullification of the will and as well as Ms Darangwas appointment. Ginimbis sisters Juliet and Neria together with their father Anderson sought review of the Master of High Courts decision to accept the questionable will as well as the appointment of Ms Darangwa as executor on the basis of the same defective document. Ms Darangwa, the Master of High Court and Kit Kat were listed as respondents in the review application. High Court judge Justice Amy Tsanga ruled in favour of the Kadungure family. She declared that Ginimbi died intestate and his family can inherit. In the circumstances, the late Genius Kadungure popularly known as Ginimbi, indeed died intestate. This is not a bad thing, his family gets to inherit, ruled Justice Tsanga. It is hereby declared that: 1 the document registered with the second respondent (Master) on November 25 2020 under DRNumber 1771/20 as the will of the late Genuis Kadungure who died on November 8 2020, is null and void. 2 The deceased died intestate. The judge further set aside the decision by the Master to register and accept that document for the purposes of administering the estate. She added: The second respondents appointment of the first respondent (Ms Darangwa) on 2 December 2020 as the testamentary execvutrix of the estate of the deceased and all acts done by the first respondent under and by virtue of such appointment be and are hereby declared null and void. The Master of High Court, according to the court, shall convene another meeting to appoint an executor. The officers who dealt with the matter since 2020 were barred from handling it, a development that calls for allocation of the case to a new pair of hands in the Master of High Courts office. Ms Darangwa and Kit Kat were slapped with an order to pay costs of the suit. The court said Ms Darangwa drafted the will illegally. It is not in dispute that the will was never authored by the testator himself but by the first respondent Ms Patricia Darangwa. It is also common cause that it was not attested to in the sense of anyone subscribing to it as a witness. There was therefore no basis upon which the Master could have accepted it as a valid will in terms of Section 8(5) of the Wills Act. It was indeed a nullity and nothing can stand on it, including the Masters appointment of first respondent as an executor, ruled Justice Tsanga. After the death of Ginimbi, Kit-Kat, claiming to be Ginimbis best friend, registered the deceaseds estate and unsuccessfully tried to push the Master of High Court into immediately accepting the unsigned will. Although Ginimbis father Mr Anderson Kadungure and sisters Juliet and Neria were listed as possible beneficiaries of the estate in that defective will, Kit Kat has been leading the legal process. The nullified document showed that Kadungure owned the Domboshava mansion, a company called Infinity Gas, an undisclosed fleet of vehicles and several other companies. The custodians of the unsigned will, Ranros Estate Administrators, wrote a cover letter seeking the speedy acceptance of the unsigned document as the actual last will and testament for the distribution of the estate. They argued that some of Kadungures companies in Botswana had stopped operating since that country requires an estate to be reported to the authorities before operations can resume. The deceased died before signing his last will and testament. We are therefore kindly asking your office to urgently convene a meeting with all beneficiaries so that you can accept the will and issue the court sealed letters of administration. The deceased had a running business in Botswana and it stopped operations on November 9, 2020. The laws of that country require the estate to be reported to the Master of High Court within 14 days so that operations will resume. The major fear of the beneficiaries is that the business partners of the deceased in Botswana might take advantage and vandalise the assets of the deceased, reads part of the letter. However, the Office of the Master through a letter signed by K F Chigomararwa, an Additional Master of High Court in-charge of the Deceased Estates, refused to be pushed into accepting the unsigned will. Instead, she asked the Kadungure family members and other beneficiaries to attend a meeting. The unsigned will stated the Domboshava mansion, while part of the proposed trust, should be turned into a hotel to be run by the trustees. When the family attended the meeting, they accepted the document as the official will of the deceased resulting in the Master of High Court registering it. The family later made a U-turn when pressure for the immediate release of the lamborghini was now coming from the executor before the winding up of the estate. They successfully sought review of the decision at the High Court. Ginimbi died on the spot on November 8 2020 along Liberation Legacy Way in Harare when his speeding Rolls Royce collided head-on with a Honda Fit. It veered off the road and hit a tree before catching fire. He was with two foreigners who had come for the Saturday night party of a friend Mitchelle Amuli. Limumba Karim of Malawi and a Mozambican, who was only identified as Alishia and the birthday girl, Mitchelle were burnt beyond recognition after the doors of the Rolls Royce jammed on impact and it took many hours for police and the Fire Brigade to retrieve their remains from the wreckage. Herald Netflix original series "Juvenile Justice" starring Kim Hye Soo, Kim Mu Yeol and Lee Sung Min gives a bold, gripping and riveting drama that interests the viewers, depicting how society contributes to juveniles' unspeakable acts. On February 25, the new court-room drama makes the hearts pound as Kim Hye Soo and Kim Mu Yeol give the victims justice, and punish young offenders with lawful sentences. With that, here are the highlights of the first half of "Juvenile Justice." 'Juvenile Justice' Episode 1: Always Keep Emotions and Judgment Separated The first episode takes viewers to a roller coaster ride as a heart-stopping murder takes place. Judge Shim Eun Seok (Kim Hye Soo), known for her coldness and ruthlessness, is transferred to Yeonhwa District Court for juveniles. She meets judge Cha Tae Joo (Kim Mu Yeol), an associate judge with a soft heart, even to juvenile offenders. On her first day, she'ss welcomed by the huge case of Baek Seong U (Lee Yeon), a 13-year-old student with schizophrenia who turned himself in to the police after killing a 13-year-old boy. The two judges work religiously on the case, especially when they find evidence that doesn't add up together. 'Juvenile Justice' Episode 2: The Court Punishes the Evil Shim Eun Seok bumps an old friend, Attorney Heo (Kim Young Ah), Han Ye Eun's (Hwang Hyun Jung) lawyers. Episode 2 reveals Baek Seong U didn't act alone in killing the poor young boy; rather, he was an accessory to the crime. Shim Eun Seok, Cha Tae Joo and presiding judge Kang Won Jung (Lee Sung Min) tried the two juveniles for the murder of Yoon Ji Hu (Lee Joo Won). At the end of the episode, Baek Seong U receives a two-year sentence in the juvenile reformatory while Han Ye Eun gets 20 years in prison after they confessed to their heinous crimes. On the other hand, Shim Eun Seok's stern attitude and rude manners interest the media, receiving endless criticisms. 'Juvenile Justice' Episode 3: Is Blood Really Thicker Than Water? Episode 3 discusses a topic that hits closer to home for Cha Tae Joo. Shim Eun Seok, with her passion for her job, takes matters into her own hands after Seo Yu Ri (Shim Dal Gi), a juvenile offender that was recently released, comes to the courthouse late at night with bruises and cuts oozing with blood. However, Yu Ri refuses help. Later on, Eun Seok learns that the young offender is a victim of domestic abuse. Meanwhile, the staff at the courthouse, as well as Eun Seok, takes interest in Cha Tae Joo's dark, mysterious past. 'Juvenile Justice' Episode 4: Shim Eun Seok Looks Through the Curtains of Pureum Home In episode 4, Seo Yu Ri's agony ends as Shim Eun Seok sentences her abusive father for his crime. On the other hand, Cha Tae Joo opens up about his past. When he was younger, his abusive father took his problems out on him. Looking for an out, he results in attempting patricide. Thankfully, he was guided throughout his teenage years and became a lawful judge. On the other hand, Yeonhwa District Court receives a tip that the Pureum Home for Girls youth counsel is abusing the girls. Shim Eun Seok and Cha Tae Joo visited the place for inspection, but Oh Seon Ja (Yeom Hye Ran) and the girls' statements don't match with each other. Meanwhile, Kang Won Jung contemplates stepping down from the court and joining the National Assembly. 'Juvenile Justice' Episode 5: To Turn Over a New Leaf The young offender residing at Pureum didn't change a bit. Not even remorse can be seen in their faces as they escape, going back to their old habits. Shim Eun Seok and Cha Tae Joo, alongside Oh Seong Ja, combed Seoul for the missing juvenile girls. Some of them resort back to stealing, pimping and selling their own bodies for money. These young offenders are a product of bad parenting, poor society and pain. However, once they commit a crime, they must face its consequences. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THIS: 'Money Heist' Actress Jeon Jong Seo Couples Up With Jin Seon Kyu in New Disaster Thriller Series With that, they are sentenced to reflect on themselves inside the reformatory. On the other hand, Kang Won Jung submits his resignation as he wishes to join the National Assembly, which he'd been dreaming of for so long. He then receives a call from his son who is involved in the controversial university exam leakage case. KDramaStars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. Seezn's upcoming teenage noir drama "Boys Flight" (also known as "Juvenile Delinquency") keeps the fans interested as it shares a sneak peek of Yoon Chan Young, Won Ji An, Yoon Hyun Soo, Han Se Jin and Yang Seo Hyun's performances in the drama's first script table reading! Yoon Chan Young, Won Ji An, More Display Incredible Synergy in 'Boys Flight' Script Reading Seezn delivers a spine-chilling teenage noir drama "Boys Flight" which tells the story of a young country girl who's born to be used as a drug mule by her own parents. Her life changes after meeting a young city boy and his friends. The coming-of-age drama includes rising actors Yoon Chan Young, who's shown his immense skills in the recently released apocalyptic drama "All of Us Are Dead," actress Won Ji An, Yoon Hyun Soo, Han Se Jin and Yang Seo Hyun. The rookie stars showed off their youthful and promising acting skills in the drama's first script table reading, which was also attended by director Jo Yong Ik. The actors' passion for acting was vividly seen in the script reading site as the young actors perfectly synchronized with their respective roles. Won Jin An completely melted as one with her character Kyung Da Jeong's narrative, showing a powerful acting performance. Opposite Yoon Chan Young who evoked admiration with his emotional acting as Gong Yoon Tak, a young boy who meets Kyung Da Jeong. Yoon Hyun Soo, who portrays Gong Yoon Jae, created a realistic chemistry with Yoon Chan Young as brothers in the drama. Han Se Jin immersed himself completely as Kim Gook Hee, who becomes the group's vitality with his unique bright smile. In addition to that, Yang Seo Hyun showed off her chicness as Hong Ae Ran. The impressive teamwork of the young actors added enthusiasm and color to the drama's script reading event. In particular, the cast also improved their ways of acting by sharing their impressions and opinions of each other's acting. They also laughed and joked around during breaks, forming a new friendship. Meanwhile, the production unit of "Boys Flight" was impressed with the five actors' performances, and confidently asked the public to look forward to the drama. 'Boys Flight' Pre-Production, Release Date and Where to Watch It The new Seezn coming-of-age noir drama "Boys Flight" is directed by the award-winning director Cho Yong Ik, who created "Taxi Driver" and "Chinatown," and penned by screenwriter Jung Soo Yoon. "Boys Flight" delivers suspense, healing and resonating elements through the stories of struggles of the youth while finding their purposes in life. It is scheduled to air for the first time on March 25 on the online streaming platform Seezn. While you're here, watch the drama trailer of "Boys Flight" below: TVING's newest heart-shaking drama "The King of Pigs" starring Kim Sung Kyu, Kim Dong Wook, Chae Jung Ahn and Han Soo Yeon unveiled its first ever teaser! Kim Sung Kyu Tries to Stop Kim Dong Wook From Becoming a Monster in 'The King of Pigs' TVING's thriller drama "The King of Pigs" follows the story of people who recall their experience of violence from the serial killings that happened when they receive a strange message from the past. The drama stars Kim Dong Wook as Hwang Kyung Min, a man who lives with the trauma from the school violence he experienced 20 years ago. On the other hand, Kim Sung Kyu takes on the role of Jung Jong Suk, a passionate detective who traces the mysterious messages sent by a friend from the past. Meanwhile, Chae Jung Ahn plays the role of the tactical detective Kang Jin Ah, a principled woman who will do anything to solve a case. The newly released trailer depicts the relationship of Hwang Kyung Min and Jung Jong Suk, who were once schoolmates but grew apart and became very different adults. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Seo Ha Joon, Lee Young Eun, More Display Incredible Teamwork in New MBC Drama Script Reading The video begins with high school student Hwang Kyung Min celebrating his freedom from his bullies. In the next scene, adult Hwang Kyung Min scratches out someone's face in a school photo that is covered with blood. Jung Jong Suk is welcomed with a new murder case as Kang Jin Ah mentions Hwang Kyung Min. The former replies with "I haven't seen him since middle school. He was warm and bright." However, his memories of the man show a different thing. He then predicts that Hwang Kyung Min continues killing people. At the end of the teaser, Hwang Kyung Min appears with a blood-covered face. Jung Jong Suk then declares that he will do anything to stop his old friend from becoming a cold-blooded murderer. The chemistry between the two veteran actors raises fans and viewers' anticipation for the drama. In particular, the genre of the new drama piques fans' interest, amplifying excitement. 'The King of Pigs' K-Drama Details and What We Know for Now Based on the director Yeon Sang Ho's animated film of the same name, "The King of Pigs" tackles the origin of school violence, and violence in general, in modern society. The TVING drama will be produced by "Less Than Evil" and "Hotel King" director Kim Dae Jin and penned by screenwriter Tak Jae Young. "The King of Pigs" airs for the first time on March 18 on TVING. It will also be available for worldwide streaming on Netflix. What are you most excited to see in Kim Sung Kyu and Kim Dong Wook's new thriller drama? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below! KDramaStars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. Ukrainian service members collect unexploded shells after a fighting with Russian raiding group in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the morning of February 26, 2022. A new high school with space for 1,200 students will be built in West Kelowna on a 10-acre site owned by the school district, shown in grey. The province on Monday confirmed funding of $103 million for the new school, which had been the district's top capital project for years. SEX workers will be considered as gainfully self-employed during the National Population and Housing Census to be held next month as they contribute to economic activity. The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) yesterday said the 2022 Population and Housing Census to be held from 21 to 30 April will establish the countrys employment and unemployment rates. Zimstat will be using the International Labour Organisations (ILO) definition of employment to classify the countrys employment figures hence the inclusion of sex work as employment. ILO estimates that sex workers support between five to eight people with their earnings and they contribute to economic activity. However, sex work remains illegal in the country while most people in the informal sector consider themselves unemployed despite generating incomes. In an interview on the sidelines of the ongoing census training for provincial government officials in Bulawayo, Zimstat acting manager Surveys and Provincial Operations Mr Langton Chikeya said part of the census exercise will be to establish the countrys working population. Mr Chikeya said anyone involved in profit generating projects, including sex work, will be considered to be a worker. If we get our working population then we are going to classify them into a labour force where we have people who are employed and those who are not employed. So, we define employment as work performed for others in exchange of pay, profit or family gain. So, those who are employed are employees for example, a statistician is an employee of a certain company and those who are self-employed or we can call them on account workers for instance vendors can be called on account workers, because they are doing work for profit, said Mr Chikeya. You can also talk about sex workers, they are doing work for profit or family gain. We also have employers who also fall under the bracket of employment. He said another group of gainfully employed people are those working for a family business although they might be directly paid as they also get some form of benefits. Mr Chikeya said employed individuals are those performing an economic activity to provide goods and services and are paid for it. But work excludes activities that do not produce goods and services. Activities such as begging and stealing we cannot consider that as work because they are not producing goods or a service, he said. Mr Chikeya said the census will also make a classification for individuals who will be considered to be unemployed. We have part of unemployment, there are three conditions that are supposed to be met if we want to say this person is unemployed. We are saying a person is unemployed if the person is without work, is seeking work and available for work, said Mr Chikeya. If you do not meet any of these three you are not in unemployment. I think that is where most people get it wrong when they classify unemployment. You have to satisfy the three conditions if you are to be considered unemployed for you to be called unemployed. He said individuals who might not be working and are not seeking employment are not classified as unemployed. Mr Chikeya said Zimstat is also seeking to establish the prevalence of child labour cases in the country. The census is looking at the working population so we are collecting information on people who are 10 years and above. Usually, we are supposed to collect information for 15-year-olds and above that is the working age population. So, we have included the 10-year-olds and above so that we can capture data on working children, Mr Chikeya. He said through the exercise, the country will also establish the number of discouraged workers. Labour force is important because it shows us the unemployment rate, and it also shows that level where we are in terms of labour force in Zimbabwe. For example, you might say a person is unemployed, but if that person does not meet the three criteria that I mentioned, that person is not seeking work and is available for work, that person is a discouraged work seeker, he said. They have no work; they want the work, but are not looking for work because they know that they are not going to find work. It will show that our country does not have enough jobs for people and this comes from the census. This is good that the census is taking every household and everyone is counted. This is the most appropriate methodology to get such information than a survey because we are going to talk to everyone. Chronicle Voters in the Kenosha Unified School District will have a diverse field of candidates from which to choose four challengers and two incumbents vying for three School Board seats up for election on April 5. Seeking office are: Eric Meadows, a Pleasant Prairie resident and project manager, who previously ran for the board a year ago; and three newcomers to the race from Kenosha Jon Kim, grandmaster and owner of U.S. Taekwondo Academy; Kristine Schmaling, a registered nurse; and Sam Roochnik, a student and aftercare specialist. The race also features just two incumbents, including Atifa Robinson, 44, of Kenosha, a nutrition administrator for Kenosha and Racine counties through University of Wisconsin Extension and Rebecca Stevens, 62, a Kenosha resident and RSVP program director with Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, Inc. Robinson is the newest member of the School Board, having been appointed to carry out the term of Dan Wade, who stepped down in July. Stevens is the longest-serving board member, having served five consecutive terms dating back to 2007. Incumbent Tony Garcia said he would not seek a third term and filed non-candidacy papers in December. Kenosha Unified School Board positions are at-large seats in the district that encompasses Kenosha, Pleasant Prairie and Somers, east of Interstate 94. The three candidates receiving the highest vote totals in the election will each serve three-year terms that expire on April 27, 2025. School Board members each earn $6,500 annually. The Kenosha News asked each candidate to answer a questionnaire to address and define issues they believe are most important and why they chose to run for office. Here are there responses to the following: What do you see as the issues in the election? Kim: The top issue for me is that we have so many policies that complicate what the vision and mission of KUSD is and what the founders intended. Meadows: Academic achievement does not seem to be a particular focus for KUSD right now. The most recent report card from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction gave KUSD failing grades across the district in reading and math. The achievement gap between different demographics is widening. A large population of parents feels their opinions are being ignored. The board has cut off public comments, tried to move them to the end of meetings, canceled meetings at the last minute, all so they didnt have to listen to the public. This has to stop. Schools must partner with parents who know what their children need better than anyone. Teachers are being pulled in too many different directions as they are sadly suffering from the same labor shortage as everyone else. We need to allow teachers to focus on teaching and less on other lesser priorities. We need to ensure that teachers are fairly compensated and competitive with other surrounding districts. Robinson: The issue for the 2022 election is equitable learning environments for all students in the Kenosha Unified School District (KUSD). Many students from the black and brown communities have barriers to learning. The goal is to focus on all aspects of a students environment, such as housing, food insecurities, health, and learning conditions. Community Partners can work together with KUSD to increase all students and teachers access to educational resources by identifying the root causes to closing the achievement gaps and removing barriers that students face based on their race, ethnicity, disability, or gender. By creating educational opportunities listed below: 1. Engage students, families, and communities in collaboration workshops. 2. Diversify the educator workforce. 3. Provide meaningful professional development and support for the Teachers/educator to reduce the classroom challenges. 4. Ensure equitable access to a culturally diverse curriculum that strives to include literature from other cultures, parts of the world, and various authors. Roochnik: COVID broke a system long under strain. While it has been a rough couple of years, and while the education situation is pretty miserable for all stakeholders right now, I see an opportunity to create a learning environment where teachers feel empowered to teach how they want and students feel empowered to learn what they want. School can and should be fun, and we must redesign curricular standards and expectations to have them align with the challenges of our modern world while empowering students to develop individually, socially, culturally, and economically (as put forth by Dr. Ken Robinson in Creative Schools). It should be educators that lead this charge, with students and parents meaningfully included in the process, all guided by what we know about the science of learning. To rise from the ashes of pandemic education like a phoenix, we must all work together. Schmaling: Students first. Has the current board been striving to have academic excellence a priority which then equals students first? STEAM learning should be having a comeback seeing as our students are only 23 % proficient in reading and math. Celebrating diversity without being divisive. Community engagement Strong communities build strong schools so the board needs to engage with the community in new ways so every stakeholder has a voice, is responded to, and is able to engage in civil discourse. Unmasking our children. Parent involvement and engagement.Transparency of curriculum and financial accountability.Fiscal Management. The district is going to be facing significant fiscal restraints while developing the 2022-23 budget, a focus will need to be on allocating resources in a fiscally conservative manner that will support ALL students. How will this board manage spending ESSER funds? Stevens: Our teachers and school staff need more positive support and time for planning in order to create individualized plans for students. The negative impact COVID-19 has had on our community, families and children has been overwhelming and stressful for everyone. Moving forward we need to work together and focus on the positive supports we can put in place to help our students get back on track by setting targeted learning goals, positive social emotional goals to help offset trauma, decrease anxiety and improve behavior to ensure a learning environment in which all our children will thrive. We need additional behavioral health support in our schools to accomplish these goals. Teaching students to use positive self regulating techniques will support better outcomes for educational opportunities. Why are you running for office? Kim: We have had a taekwondo school in Kenosha for more than 40 years and have had generations from every school in Kenosha go through our doors. I am running to participate in my community and push for the change that reflects the community. Meadows: I decided to run for School Board because I strongly believe a solid educational foundation is essential to ensuring a production, and successful future. This was drilled into me by mother, who was an elementary school librarian when I was growing up. I have been happy with KUSD until recently when I noticed a decline of the quality of education I was seeing for my daughter. I also started to see evidence that parental rights were being ignored and even trampled. Instead of merely complaining, I decided to do something about it. I want to bring a focus back to actual academic achievement that has been suffering in our district. Our district has been focusing time and money on things that do not improve actual learning. Our teachers have been forced to split their time on so many things instead of actually teaching our kids reading and math. Robinson: Im running for KUSD School Board to work on an action plan to address the achievement gap, provide innovative health and wellness resources for families around stress, and appropriate coping strategies to prevent Teachers burnout in the school system. Kenosha Unified School District has creative and knowledgeable teachers, and its critical to retain as many employees as possible in our public schools. We have the third largest district in the State of Wisconsin, and its vital to work together and ensure our schools are safe. I hope by 2023 that, teachers, students, and parents have the high-quality tools they need for student success. Roochnik: I have recent experience and training as a leader, student, and teacher. I attend board meetings regularly, am constantly informing myself on district-, state-, and national-level educational policy, have met with district leadership and employees, teachers, students, parents, and with over 20 principals in the district (and plan to meet with the rest of them), to better understand the challenges facing KUSD and to develop a vision on how to lead us out of our current mess. I loved teaching math at Indian Trail; I love my colleagues and I love my students. As much as I miss the classroom though, I think I can serve them, my own son, and my community better by using my training and experience to improve the public education system for students and teachers alike. Schmaling: I was presented an opportunity to contribute and improve our community-uniquely positioned to be an advocate for our students. In no other country would I have this opportunity to have a such great responsibility in education. I have a deep appreciation for educators. I personally could never do it. I have had to pray long and hard in regards to taking on such an important role in supporting educators, representing this community and the students that attend KUSD. According to the DPI, our kids are only at 23.3% of mastering or proficient in math and 23% in reading. Schools are failing our kids and this has been the score for the last five to six years. The status quo is not acceptable anymore. We need to be accountable for these outcomes and we need to take action. I would definitely push for and focus on and what I would consider an academic recovery plan. Stevens: I am running for School Board to help support positive learning goals, designed to support our teachers/school staff and students. I want to continue to work with fellow board members, teachers, our superintendent and staff to create long lasting solutions to address the issues we face in public education to improve education for all students. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Four slept outdoors Sunday night to bring attention to food insecurity and homelessness in Kenosha as part of the 2022 Freezin for a Reason at Grace Lutheran Church. Its always humbling during Wisconsin winters to think people are sleeping outside, said Rev. Jonathan Barker. Thats always important for people to remember. Barker, Brandi Ferree, Sean Krajacic and Justin Blake, who learned about the event over Facebook and joined the trio as a surprise, set up in front of the church, 2006 60th St., around 2 p.m. on Sunday. The event, which continued until 9 p.m. Monday, encouraged residents to drop off food and cash donations. By Monday morning, residents had donated more than $18,000 and two pallets worth of food, roughly 1,200 pounds. Im floored by all the people that have come by bringing food, Im floored by all the people that have donated financially to support this, Barker said. My heart just really is warmed by the people of Kenosha. Barker said they hoped to raise $82,000 to fund repairs to the churchs parking lot and 10,000 pounds of food for their food pantry program. Ferree, whos a regular volunteer with Grace Lutheran, said that the monetary and food donations were both important. With the parking lot in severe disrepair, it was beginning to hamper both church and pantry activity. My motivation is basically to make sure the community is aware of the need in Kenosha, Ferree said. These donations will make sure we can keep providing for our neighbors. Last year, the Grace Welcome Center Food Pantry gave out nearly 300,000 pounds of food to 6,835 families, serving more than 14,000 adults and 8,600 children. Barker said they serve on average 135 families a week. Its a uniquely difficult human experience not knowing where youre going to eat, Barker said. Grown during pandemic Barker said that at the start of the pandemic, they only intended to serve a maximum of 40 families. But as the community need continued to grow, he said they rose to match it. Barker shared several stories he heard during the pandemic as people struggled with lost work, illness, and death. One resident lost both his uncle and mother to COVID, Barker said, and was at a loss for what to do. He calls me in tears, Barker said. At least we were able to say, We can get you food here. Barker said he was shocked by, just the volume of the what started as a little food pantry at the start of the pandemic. If you had told us these numbers we would have laughed you out of the room, Barker said. Joined in the effort Blake, also a regular Grace Lutheran volunteer, joined the event to offer the same support he says he received from Barker when he first came to Kenosha. When Justice for Jacob Blake first landed, it was basically housed over here (in Grace Lutheran), Blake said. So with them opening their hearts and minds trying to help my nephew, it was just a natural progression that we would turn around and reciprocate. Although the event concluded Monday, food donations can still be made every Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon. Monetary donations can also be made online at gracewelcomecenter.org. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SALEM, Ore. Gov. Kate Brown announced Monday plans to once again move up the date for lifting the states mask mandate, and this time, shes joined by the other West Coast states. Gov. Gavin Newsom in California and Gov. Jay Inslee in Washington will be joining Oregon in removing the requirements for indoor spaces and schools at 11:59 p.m. on March 11. Due to other state and federal requirements, masks will still be required on public transit and in health care settings, however. Two years ago today, we identified Oregons first case of COVID-19. As has been made clear time and again over the last two years, COVID-19 does not stop at state borders or county lines, Brown said in a statement. State officials in Oregon continue to recommend mask wearing in schools. EUGENE, Ore. A man was taken into custody twice in the span of hours after police say he broke into two different Eugene businesses. It started just after 4 a.m. on Monday when officers responded to Dari Mart at 111 North Monroe Street following reports of a burglary. Police said officers found Timothy Hills, 54, of Eugene inside, and the front glass door was broken. Hills, who was eating something, was ordered to get out, and he cooperated, police said. Due to Hills behavior and cuts he had suffered, police said officers took him to a local hospital for treatment and cited him for second-degree burglary and second-degree criminal mischief. Then, just a couple of hours later, police were called to a different burglary, this time at Hutchs Bicycle at 960 Charnelton Street. Police said they found Hills inside the business, which had its front door broken. They said he was pushing one of the bicycles from the showroom floor toward the front door. However, this time, Hills was allegedly uncooperative and threw a fire extinguisher at officers. Eventually, an officer coaxed hills into putting the bike down and coming out, police said. He reportedly crawled through the hole hed smashed in the glass and was speaking incoherently, according to authorities. Hills was taken to the Lane County Jail on a charge of second-degree burglary. Hutchs Bicycle was the target of a massive burglary back in November 2021. In that theft, about 21 bikes were stolen, adding up to about $100,000 in losses. WALTON, Ore. Police are releasing more details about a fatal crash west of Walton on Sunday. The two-vehicle wreck happened just before 6 p.m. on Highway 126W near milepost 28. Oregon State Police said Sadie Cervantes, 24, of Florence was headed east in a silver Hyundai Santa Fe and drifted into oncoming traffic, colliding head-on with a white Toyota Prius. The driver of the Toyota, June Lemke, 47, of Gold Beach, was killed. Its not known what caused Cervantes to leave the eastbound lane, police say. Cervantes was taken to an area hospital with injuries. The highway was closed for about five hours after the crash as authorities investigated. The Lane County Sheriffs Office and Oregon Department of Transportation assisted police. The family has set up a GoFundMe here: Zanu PF National Secretary for Legal Affairs Paul Mangwana recently told village heads in Chingwizi to pledge the number of votes each will bring to Zanu PF on the March 26 by-election. Mangwana was speaking at a rally organised by Zanu PF in Chingwizi area where he called all village heads and cell chairpersons, telling them to pledge the number of votes each will bring to the ruling party in the upcoming by-election. I want all the cell chairpersons here and all village heads to come here. We are in a war and these are our field commanders so you have to listen to them. So I want them pledge to us how many votes each is going to produce for Zanu PF and (Master) Makope on 26 March. After this meeting, leadership, I want to you to sit down with these people and each one should tell us the votes he or she will give to Zanu PF and Cde Makope from his area in the upcoming election. After the election, we will have another rally here where we would want to see how each one of you has performed, said Mangwana. He went on to order the registry department operating in the area to be lenient with people so that they get access to identity cards and other important documents for them to register to vote. I also heard people complaining also against the registry department. We have brought their boss, the District Development Coordinator here. So DDC, please tell the registry department to be lenient with these people when they go to get IDs, said Mangwana. Speaking at the same event, Zanu PF chief whip and Gutu South MP Pupurai Togarepi labelled all the people in Chingwizi as belonging to Zanu PF saying victory was certain. He went on to praise Zanu PF candidate for Mwenezi East Makope as the best saying he will soon have him in parliament. If you meet a woman or a youth in Chingwizi you have met Zanu PF. I want to thank you for that and I am happy because I heard Makope speaking and I knew as the chief whip in parliament that I have got another best MP, said Togarepi. Makope will battle it out with Free Zimbabwe Congress Turner Mhango and Tendekai Mandizvidza of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). Zanu PF has been known to use traditional leaders to intimidate their subjects into voting Zanu PF, a trick that has worked over the years and gave the party control over the rural electorate. Last year Chiefs were taken for induction together with the District Development Committee members who had been elected where they were inducted by members from the Hebert Chitepo School of ideology. Mwenezi, Zaka and Bikita traditional leaders are known to be Zanu PF supporters and would force their people to vote for Zanu PF, threatening all those who vote for the opposition with unknown consequences. Chief Nyakunhuwa of Zaka once bragged publicly that all headmen should join Zanu PF. TellZimNews Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. To subscribe, click here. Already a subscriber? Click here. Private cloud company, Stryve has been honoured with an award at the Chambers Ireland In Business Recognition Awards 2021. The Stryve team has won Best Cyber Security and Compliance Company at an event held on Friday in the Clayton Hotel, Dublin 4. The annual Chamber Awards, kindly sponsored by Zurich, seek to recognise the outstanding work of its Chamber network around the country. The ceremony was opened by Ian Talbot, CEO of Chambers Ireland and the MC for the afternoon was Vincent Wall, business journalist and broadcaster. The event was attended by Paul Delahunty, Chief Security Officer at Stryve, a leading security expert, with fellow Tipperary native, Andrew Tobin, CEO, all-star Kilkenny Hurler and Business Development Manager, Eoin Murphy and Andrew Cushen a Penetration Tester from the winning private cloud company. Kilkenny All-star hurler, Eoin Murphy, joined Stryve in 2021. Eoin combines his busy hurling schedule with a career as Business Development Manager at Stryve. "Stryve is delighted to receive this acknowledgement from Chambers Ireland and to be aligned with such a respected international organisation at the fore of business thought leadership across the globe," said Stryve CEO, Andrew Tobin. "This seal of approval from Chambers Ireland has given our team a real boost. The Stryve team are incredible. They work tirelessly to provide hands-on and personal service to our clients. They know they are valued and are the heart of the organisation but getting external validation for their work has put a pep in everyones step!" With more people working from home, the change in working patterns with employees now working from home or using the hybrid model has increased the need for greater data security awareness. Stryve has a niche in private cloud with data centres in Ireland, the UK and Poland and is well-positioned to realise its ambition of becoming Europes largest private cloud provider. Its private cloud solutions offer several key benefits to its clients. Stryve designs bespoke, scalable solutions for each client. Real-time backup and a fast recovery time are additional benefits of Stryves technology. Crucially, should a problem occur, a client support employee is always available to resolve the problem day or night. Most SMEs dont have the skills needed to understand the cyber security and cloud needs for the business. They are looking to companies like us for advice. People want to know their data is safe. They do not want to waste resources sorting out a problem that could have been prevented," Paul Delahunty, CSO with Stryve explains. One advantage for Stryve customers is that there is always a support person available at the end of the phone. Offering a personal service is a core value for our team and is reassuring for our clients. The work of the Eastern Environs Defibrillator Group was acknowledged on Friday when Mayor Andrew McGuinness hosted a Mayor's Reception to thank the group for their 'life-saving work'. The group are responsible for fundraising and providing defibillators at five locations in Kilkenny City while also providing the necessary training for people to use them and maintain them. The five locations are St Johns Parish Centre, Freshco, Dublin Road, John & Andrew McGuinness Constituency Office, The Orchard House Restaurant and James Stephens Army Barracks. Speaking at the event, Mayor Andrew McGuinness said, "this is the first event we have had in City Hall since the start of Covid and I'm delighted that it's to acknowledge the fantastic work of this group." "They have successfully provided defibrillators around Kilkenny City and the relevant training for people to use them. This helps to equip local communities with life saving equipment. The Eastern Environs Defibrillator Group have done Kilkenny a great service and, as Mayor, I wanted to thank them for that and acknowledge their great work. Katherine Peacock from Kilkenny Civil Defence was also acknowledged with a Mayor's Award for her work helping the group to achieve their goal of providing the equipment in public spaces. "Katherine has went above and beyond her call of duty by giving her experience, expertise and professional knowledge to the group. She was a great help to the project and that is in addition to the fantastic work she already does. It was important to acknowledge that," said Mayor McGuinness. The Mayor also paid tribute to everyone that helped the group along the way, including Fr Frank Purcell, Fr Dan Carroll, Katherine Peacock, Michael Delahunty, Sharon & Mark Kelly, John Murphy, Khan Kiely, Lieutenant Paul Murphy, Shirley Bergin, Community Policing, Civil Defence, Irish Red Cross, Order of Malta and local media. The Eastern Environs Defibrillator Committee are - Chair Frank Cody, Secretary Margaret Lanigan, Pat Coonan, Sr Kathleen Meagher, Jim Fogarty, Mick Dooley, Larry Murphy. The people of Kilkenny are showing their support for the people of the Ukraine through donating food and other goods at various drop off points in the city and county. Volunteer with Chernobyl Children International, Jim Kavanagh is spearheading a collection in Kilkenny City and the response has been massive. Jim will drive to the Ukranian border with the donations. Mary Pierce, Kilkenny Helping the Homeless posted a pic on social media of the response so far. "First 24 hours of collections for Ukraine being delivered to Jim Kavanagh. What a massive response from the people of kilkenny. Van is full to the back door," she said. Donations can be dropped to 19 Newpark Lower R95w1rr or to Jim Kavanagh at Radestown Lane, Kilkenny R95 VW59. In Thomastown donations can be left at Thomastown United's club shop on Tuesday between 6.15 and 8.30pm. Another collection point is organised in the Aldi carpark in Graignamanagh on Friday at 11am. Items needed include but are not limited to: medical items such as bandages, burn creams, antiseptic wipes, gloves, dried food, tinned food, plasters, toothpaste/tooth brushes, shower gels/shampoo, baby food, nappies, clothing, sleeping bags and camping mats, colouring books and pencils, markers etc for children. Kilkennys Moldova Store is also taking donations that will be shipped to Ukraine. Everyone who wants to make a donation can drop it to the shop (Hebron industrial Estate, opposite An Post depot). Mayor of Kilkenny, Andrew McGuinness today met with members of Kilkenny's Ukrainian community to show his solidarity and offer his support. "This morning I have met with some members of the Ukrainian community in Kilkenny. It was heartbreaking to hear the difficulties they and their families at home are going through. Later today I will hang the Ukrainian flag on City Hall as a symbol of solidarity but also a sign of support to Ukrainian people living in Kilkenny," he said. On Wednesday, Fr. Dan Carroll and the priests of the St Johns Parish will host a Mass for Peace at 7pm in St Johns church. All are welcome. Meanwhile The Red Cross are, who have people working on the ground in the Ukraine, are urging people to make a cash donation. "Red Cross teams are on the ground now in Ukraine and will continue their work to repair vital infrastructure, support health facilities, and help families with life-saving food and hygiene items. This is a rapidly evolving crisis. Your donation will help those affected get food, medicine, shelter and water. Your support will also help the Red Cross to assist those displaced by conflict," a spokesperson said. To donate go to www.redcross.ie Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. More patients were left waiting for a bed at St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny this month than any previous February, according to INMO records. A total of 519 people were on trolleys and wards during the month - up from 128 in the same month last year. In 2020 it was 219, but in the first year that the INMO kept records for St Luke's (2011), the figure was just 26. The scale of the hospital overcrowding has prompted INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha to urge plans to be stepped up - specifically mentioning St Luke's. It has been an incredibly difficult month in Irish hospitals with consistent overcrowding in all parts of the country.," she said. Our nurses and midwives are under severe pressure, they are dealing with huge numbers of Covid and non-Covid patients presenting at emergency departments coupled with in adequate staffing levels. We are once again back in the bad old days of hospital overcrowding, with numbers of patients on trolleys now exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The INMO has been sounding the alarm on this situation for too long. Our members are sick of apologising for the state of our health service to patients who have been waiting an unacceptable amount of time to be treated. "This isnt an issue that is confined to one part of the country, aside from the top five overcrowded hospitals, we have seen significant overcrowding in St Vincents University Hospital (585 patients) St Lukes General Hospital, Kilkenny (519 patients), Tipperary University Hospital (216 patients) Midlands Regional Mullingar (266 patients). The Saolta Hospital Group alone makes up for 30% of overcrowding in February. Bespoke plans to tackle overcrowding in each individual hospital are now badly needed. We know that if a patient is on a trolley for more than five hours it can have a significant knock-on impact on their health and indeed their mortality. State agencies such as the Department of Health, HIQA and the HSE need to step up to their responsibilities they have here and take decisive action. It is extremely disappointing that the HSE has not prioritised convening the Emergency Department Taskforce despite numerous requests. The INMO looks forward to presenting these issues at the Oireachtas Health Committee on March 9. It is very important that political system gets a real grasp of this country-wide problem that exists within our health service. After almost 20 years, Castlecomer Community School Transition Year students will be back on the musical trail in March with the musical, All Shook Up. The planning for the musical began in May 2021 and the staging of the musical has created a great buzz in Castlecomer Community School. The musical love story features the music and songs of Elvis Presley and will be performed March 8, 9 and 11 in Castlecomer Community Hall at 7pm. The much-loved tunes from the king of rock and roll, Elvis, comes alive in All Shook Up. Inspired by Shakespeares Twelfth Night, All Shook Up follows a small Midwestern town that is thrown into a frenzy with the arrival of Chad, a good-looking, motorcycle-riding roustabout, who rides from town to town with a guitar on his back, blue suede shoes on his feet, and a song in his heart. Repressed by their conservative mayor, the town begins to come alive once more under Chads influence. Lovers meet, woo, pursue, and more, all in one zany night that will change the town forever. All Shook Up is a rocking, heartwarming tale about following dreams, opening up to love, and the power of music. The cast consists of 72 Transition Year students who have been rehearsing rigorously since September and have brought a great energy to it to give a performance that I am sure we will all be proud of. The schools last production was South Pacific in 2004, a show produced before any of the current cast members were even born. "We are delighted this tradition has been reignited and hope to make it a much-loved annual event in our Transition Year programme for our school and community," says TY coordinator Pat Tynan. Students are looking forward to the final two weeks of rehearsals under the guidance of Mr Tynan, Ms Teresa Bourke, Ms Paula Boyd, Mr Sean Murphy, Mr Robert Dunne (organising the musical props) Ms Carol Coogan and Ms Lisa Coogan with the support of school management and all the staff in Castlecomer Community School. Tickets are on sale Monday to Friday from 9am-1pm. Call (086) 849 1502 to book yours. SUSPECTED Zanu PF supporters on Monday disrupted Parliaments public hearings on the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Bill in Harare. The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service is currently gathering views on the Bill viewed to be oppressive as its provisions will effectively eliminate CSOs involved in promoting and defending human rights in the country. Yesterday, public hearings on the Bill were held in Highfield (Harare), Guruve and Mutare. They will also be held in other provinces in the country. In Highfield, Zanu PF activists dominated the event and disrupted the public hearings. In a statement yesterday, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) said the disruptions were likely to compromise citizens participation in the public hearings. We deplore the violent nature of the Zanu PF activists and implore the ruling party to exercise tolerance of divergent views. We reiterate that amendments to the PVO Act are part of the efforts to close the democratic space in Zimbabwe and citizens must unite in rejecting these amendments which will curtail fundamental freedoms and entrench authoritarian rule, the CiZC statement read. Efforts to get a comment from Zanu PF spokesperson Chris Mutsvangwa were fruitless. Zanu PF commissar Mike Bimha said he could not comment on the issue as he was in a meeting. Some of the views aired before the disruptions included that the Bill gazetted in November 2021 should not give the government powers to interfere in operations of CSOs. A Highfield resident said: Ministers have a lot of things that they can focus on and, therefore, must not interfere in operations of CSOs. They should let NGOs operate freely as they assist the poor with fees payment, food assistance and also assist people with disabilities. Another resident said NGOs have been coming up with youth-friendly projects to assist the youth. In Guruve, a resident said operations of NGOs should be scrutinised as they used to give food aid in bags with notes encouraging people to vote for a certain political party. Another Guruve resident said stakeholders should be given enough time to scrutinise the Bill as it was not unpacked to the public. The European Union recently said the PVO Amendment Bill was one of the reasons sanctions on Zimbabwe were renewed last month. Newsday To make his performance in The Batman soar, Jeffrey Wright says he drew inspiration from the citys most prominent former police officer. Wright stars as James Gordon in the upcoming superhero film, the only cop in Gotham who trusts Batman when new terrors wreak havoc in the fictional metropolis. Advertisement Gotham is kind of a proxy for New York, and I thought about Eric Adams, our current mayor, for example, who happened to be the captain at one time of my neighborhoods precinct, Wright, a longtime Brooklyn resident, told the Daily News. He was one of the few, and certainly the most powerful, voices in blue that seemed to be speaking in line with the concerns of citizens about police brutality. ... He was an outlier in a way that Gordon is an outlier, so I thought about him as a reference, among others. Advertisement Coming to theaters Friday, The Batman ushers in a new era for the DC Comics franchise, with Robert Pattinson suiting up as the titular caped crusader for the first time. The movie is set toward the beginning of the partnership between Bruce Wayne, who is in his second year of fighting crime as Batman, and Gordon is a police lieutenant rather than Gothams commissioner. Jeffrey Wright (left) as Lt. James Gordon and Robert Pattinson in The Batman." (Warner Bros. Pictures) Its a partnership of necessity, said Wright, 56. They both find themselves isolated in a Gotham where trust is a rare resource. Theres still some uncertainty between them. Out of desperation, they come together to do their best for a desperate city. Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman follows the emergence of a mysterious villain, the Riddler, who targets the citys corrupt politicians and leaves puzzles for Batman and Gordon to solve. Matt really wanted to honor the evolution of Batman the comic, Wright said. He wanted to celebrate the more narrative-focused elements of Batman, and those being mystery-based. He wanted to celebrate Batman, the worlds greatest detective, because I think, as well, it makes for interesting filmmaking. [ Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld share how Hawkeye expands one Marvel heros story, and begins anothers ] The actor also referred to generations of Batman comics, beginning with the first issue, to learn the trajectory of his character before making the film, which also stars Zoe Kravitz as the vigilante Catwoman. Wright, whose other roles include Felix Leiter in the James Bond movies and Bernard Lowe on HBOs dystopian Westworld series, praised Pattinson for giving a nuanced performance that breathes fresh breath into the Dark Knight. Jeffrey Wright (left) with Robert Pattinson in The Batman." (Warner Bros. Pictures) His Bruce Wayne and his Batman couldnt be more distinct, Wright said. He walked past me during this funeral scene. ... Its the only scene that I have with him as Bruce Wayne. The others are with him as the Batman. I was like, who is that? I didnt even recognize him, and it wasnt so much because he wasnt wearing the suit. Advertisement He had this grace about him, this elegance about him, a haunted quality, and it seemed as though he was 3 inches, 4 inches taller than the Rob that I knew. His Batman has a more grounded, fierce thing to it. Wright says Reeves set out to make a great film that also happened to be a Batman movie. Yes, this is a comic book film, its a Batman film, its kinetic, it has a velocity to it, Wright said. But Matt wanted to use that, really, as a framework for more thematic explorations, psychological explorations, emotional explorations and also an exploration of social issues that are relevant today. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 56F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Low around 50F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Two Easy Ways To Subscribe! The Kodiak Daily Mirror offers full-service, five-day a week subscriptions with home delivery in addition to unlimited access to our online services (including our e-Edition). Online-access-only subscriptions include unlimited access to the Mirror's online services without delivery of the printed newspaper. (Note: New users: You must register and login before purchasing a subscription. Support local journalism Local news, sports and entertainment when you want it. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the best local news, sports and entertainment coverage. A Rikers Island inmate died Sunday, officials said the first death of a city jail detainee reported this year. Tarz Youngblood, 38, who has been in custody since Sept. 5, was found unresponsive in George R. Vierno Center, a jail on the island. Advertisement He was found by four of his fellow inmates unconscious in his cell and moved to a table in a common area where corrections officials administered CPR and medical aid. The man was taken to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11:44 a.m. The cause of death is under investigation by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Advertisement (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) We will work aggressively to determine the circumstances surrounding his death. My deepest sympathy goes out to the loved ones of this individual, Commissioner Louis Molina said. Youngblood was arrested in September for stalking, assault, witness tampering and other crimes. He has prior convictions for assault Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > In 2021, 16 city jail inmates died in custody at the troubled jail complex, the most fatal year in recent history. A federal monitor assigned to investigate violence at the correctional facility said that last year was the worst in the six years that it has been looking at the jail. Data on uses of force, fights, stabbings, and slashings among people in custody and assaults on staff reveal that 2021 has been the most dangerous year, the monitor wrote. Conditions were so bad that a Bronx judge ordered an inmate released because jail official did not have control enough to ensure his safety. The inmate, who was not named, was forced to fight with another inmate for sport. DOC officials utterly failed the public as well as this (detainee) by ignoring the looming threat of a crisis at Rikers Island, by delaying emergency measures as staff shortages increased, and by not adopting an all hands on deck approach to this entirely foreseeable crisis, acting Judge April Newbauer wrote in her decision. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, eight years into his administration, established an emergency plan to address the rising rate of violence, poor conditions and chronic absenteeism by the jail guards. Advertisement He called for the closure of Rikers in favor of five smaller jails that would be based in each borough. The idea met with instant resistance from the communities where the detention complexes would be based. Vanessa and Jake Leitza pose in front of the sign for The Station House at Katfish Katys. The mother-son duo closed the restaurant in January. Ambassadors of the European Union and Ukraine display small EU flags and stand behind the Ukrainian flag in Seoul on Friday. Photo courtesy of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Korea By Kang Hyun-kyung The ambassadors of the European Union and Ukraine based in Korea issued a joint statement on Monday voicing their unified stance against Russia for invading Ukraine. The statement came an hour before the Russian Embassy in Seoul held a news conference to make a case for its invasion of Ukraine. In the statement, the European envoys stressed that Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected, calling Russia's invasion an act that violates the fundamental principles of international law in the U.N. Charter. Following is their joint statement: The Ambassadors of the European Union, its Member States?and Ukraine to the Republic of Korea, underline EU's unwavering support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and call on the Republic of Korea to stand with Ukraine and the wider international community in confronting this unprecedented assault by the Russian Federation on a sovereign country and on international norms. Ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Song-young-gil, right, and floor leader Rep. Yoon Ho-jung talk to each other during a general meeting of party lawmakers for the possible adoption of a political reform bill seeking a multi-party coalition system, at the National Assembly on Seoul's Yeouido, Sunday. Joint Press Corps DPK woos minor parties for coalition ahead of presidential election By Jung Da-min With the March 9 presidential election just around the corner, the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has adopted a comprehensive political reform bill aimed at better distributing power among different parties, in a bid to woo minor parties. On Sunday, lawmakers of the DPK held a general meeting at the National Assembly to officially adopt the political reform bill seeking to transform the Assembly which is currently dominated by the two major parties into one where power is shared more equally among several different parties. The DPK lawmakers' adoption of the political reform bill came on the same day negotiations between the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) and the minor opposition People's Party to field a unified conservative candidate failed. Political watchers say the DPK's move aims to appeal to minor parties including the People's Party, the progressive Justice Party and New Wave, the former Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon's new political party. "The DPK will first reflect our past faults of creating 'winner-take-all' politics, which has made election reform disappear as a result of the creation of satellite parties; 'nae-ro-nam-bul' politics, which has created more generous standards only for those on the same side; and the 'destructive confrontational politics,' which is far from the reality of people's lives," read a resolution by the DPK lawmakers. "Naeronambul" is a Korean term for double standards, constructed as an abbreviation of 'romance if I do it, scandal if others do it.' "Now is the best time and opportunity for political reform," the resolution read. The DPK lawmakers' adoption of the political reform bill came days after DPK presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung announced his election pledge for such a political reform during a press conference in Seoul's Myeong-dong area, Feb. 14. Last Thursday, DPK Chairman Rep. Song Young-gil also held a press conference to announce the party's plan for the creation of a multi-party government representation system. After the party's adoption of the bill, Lee posted on Facebook: "During Friday's presidential debate, several candidates pointed out that the DPK lacks the will to carry out political reform. I also sympathized with such criticism and requested the party to take urgent action. As a result, the political reform bill was adopted at the National Assembly two days later." Major candidates running for the March 9 presidential election pose before their fourth TV debate at broadcaster SBS' studio in Sangam-dong in Seoul's Mapo District, Friday. From left, Justice Party presidential candidate Sim Sang-jung, People's Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and Democratic Party of Korea candidate Lee Jae-myung. Joint Press Corps By Lee Jong-eun Multiple international analysts have predicted that the Asia-Pacific region will be the likely location of a "new Cold War." With the rise of China, policy experts have applied theoretical concepts such as the "Thucydides Trap" to warn of the inevitable strategic rivalry between existing and rising superpowers, the United States and China. Such predictions have shown signs of materializing from the foreign policies of the two superpowers in recent years. While China has started to assert its regional influence over the South China Sea, the U.S. has also elevated the strategic importance of Asia-Pacific. Proclaiming to defend a "free and open Indo-Pacific," the U.S. has expanded strategic partnerships within the region through institutions such as the Quad and AUKUS, comprising the U.S. and its major allies such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. Under the current Biden administration, the U.S. has become vocal in criticizing China's domestic policies related to Xinjiang and Hong Kong, even declining to send a diplomatic delegation to this year's Beijing Winter Olympics. In response, China has criticized the U.S. attempts to contain its rise and has redoubled efforts to achieve self-reliance in high-tech industries. Taiwan, in particular, has received attention as a likely location for strategic confrontation between China and the U.S. Then last week, U.S. foreign policy experienced a "geopolitical earthquake." After months of heightened tensions, Russia launched military operations in Ukraine. Declaring Russia's aggression will be met with severe consequences, the Biden administration is collaborating with European allies to impose strict sanctions on Russia. However, with Russia appearing determined to withstand international sanctions to achieve its strategic objectives, the Ukraine crisis could become a prolonged conflict in Europe. For China, it would not be the first time in this century to experience an unexpected shift in U.S. strategic focus. In 2001, the Bush Administration was planning a foreign policy that is more assertive toward China. As a presidential candidate, Bush had described China as a "strategic competitor" and promised to be "tough and firm" in honoring the U.S. commitment to defend Taiwan from China's threat. In its first year, the Bush Administration approved the largest arms sale to Taiwan since 1992; and the Pentagon began drafting a new Quadrennial Defense Review Report, which treated China as a "potential threat and outlined measures of response." However, the 9/11 terror attacks reoriented U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East. For the next two decades, the U.S. administrations would be entrapped fighting the "War on Terror," which ended last year with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. As a result, "pivot to Asia" was stalled for at least 15-20 years, a timeframe in which China emerged as the second greatest superpower. The crisis in Europe presents another opportunity for China to divert U.S. strategic pressures toward another actor. First, despite controversies, China's foreign policy now appears more prudent than the militancy of another revisionist power, Russia. So long as China refrains from overt military aggression toward Taiwan, China's image can improve as a relatively more responsible state actor. Second, China's economic contributions will become even more important for the global economy. Despite China's tacit alignment with Russia, the Biden administration will likely be reluctant to advocate mutual sanctions against Russia and China; such measures could have severe consequences for the global economy. As the U.S. encourages the international community to collaborate in sanctions against Russia, maintaining stable economic ties with China will be critical in mitigating damage to the global economy. Third, China's neutrality is crucial in the new round of the U.S.-Russia conflict. Even if it is unrealistic to expect China to renounce its alignment with Russia or participate in international sanctions, the U.S. will request that China minimize assistance to Russia. U.S. policymakers might fear antagonizing China could motivate it to more actively side with Russia, supporting Russia's military operations in Ukraine. How might China take advantage of the present U.S.-Russia conflict? China appears to be engaging in a "buck-passing strategy," tacitly endorsing Russia's stance on Ukraine but without pledging specific assistance. Chinese officials have refused to characterize Russia's military operations as an "invasion" and have opposed sanctions. However, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson also suggested "Russia as a powerful nation also does not need China or other countries to provide (military assistance)," implying China's intention for minimal involvement. China had displayed similar strategic behavior during the Iraq War. In taking a low-key opposition stance to the war, China "buck-passed" to France and Germany, active resistance to U.S. foreign policy, evading the wrath of the Bush administration. The Russia-Ukraine war does pose a strategic danger for China. If Russia is defeated too quickly in Ukraine, China might regret its strategy of passing the buck. The victorious U.S. would then pivot again to Asia with renewed confidence and assertiveness. However, if China is perceived as an active ally of Russia, the cost of the new cold war could spill over to China as well. In determining the level of their involvement, Chinese policymakers will carefully observe Russia's ability to confront the U.S. unilaterally. For China, an optimal strategic outcome would be "hun shui mo yu" (to fish in troubled water). While U.S. strategic resources and attention are tied in Europe, China could consolidate its regional hegemony, though avoiding an overreach that could provoke the U.S.' two-front cold war. After resolving the crisis with Russia, U.S. policymakers might view China as having risen too high to contain and be forced to consider a grand strategic bargain. Lee Jong-eun (jl4375a@student.american.edu) is a Ph.D. candidate and is also an adjunct faculty at the American University School of International Service. Prior to this, he has served as a South Korean Airforce intelligence officer. His research specialty includes U.S. foreign policy, South Korean politics and foreign policy, alliance management, East Asian regional security. Police on Sunday charged a homeless man with attempted murder for the brutal hammer attack and mugging of a Department of Health research scientist inside a Queens Plaza subway stairwell last week. William Blount, 57, was arrested at 57 Wall St., a Radisson Hotel that had been converted to a homeless shelter during the pandemic. Advertisement Blount, who has a violent criminal record going back to 1983, ambushed Nina Rothschild, 57, from behind about 11:20 on Feb. 24 as she made her way down the stairs to the subway, kicking her in the back and when she didnt go down, smashing her 13 times in the head with a hammer, police charged. Subway attack victim Nina Rothschild (columbia.edu) A video of the attack shows Rothschild holding onto the handrail for support as her assailant raises his weapon and repeatedly slams it down on her head. Advertisement When she finally collapsed at the base of the stairs, the assailant, who was carrying a cane and shrouded in a black coat with a hood, reached over her and plucked her red striped tote bag and fled out of the Queens Plaza station. She suffered a fractured skull and cuts to her head in the attack. Rothschilds brother told the Daily News on the day after the attack that she was mentally intact and alert despite the brutal mugging. Ill do what I can to get Nina better and get her back to where she wants to be, which is at the Department of Health, working, Gerson Rothschild, 54, said. City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi stopped by New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital on Friday to check in with her, the brother said. Our thoughts are with Nina and her family following this horrific incident, Chokshi said. Nina has worked tirelessly in service to her fellow New Yorkers and she is truly a public health hero. The NYPD offered up a $3,500 reward for information to his arrest, but police said extensive video canvasing and good police work led them to Blount at the Radisson homeless shelter. A New York City Department of Health worker was attacked with a hammer in a caught-on-camera mugging at a Queens subway station, leaving her with critical injuries. Holding a cane in one hand, the attacker followed the victim, identified by sources as city employee Nina Rothschild, down the stairs at the Queens Plaza station on Queens Blvd. around 11:20 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, before kicking her in the back twice. (NYPD / DCPI) 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 city moved many homeless men to the Financial District shelter from the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side after complaints from the community that they lowered the quality of life in the neighborhoods with open-air drug use and public urination. Advertisement This is not Blounts first arrest. Hes was busted for robbery in 1983, drug possession and petty larceny in 1990 and burglary in 1993, records show. Deloitte analyst Michelle Allyssa Go, 40, died under a subway train after being pushed onto the tracks by 61-year-old Martial Simon on January 15. Prompted in part by the death of Go, Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to dedicate more funds to policing the subway and helping the mentally ill and homeless, who often find shelter in the subways. A woman taking the train should not be struck in the head with a hammer, Adams said after the attack. The violent robbery was the latest in a rash of underground assaults, with major subway crime up 61% in the latest 2022 crime figures. Brooklyn College Conservatory Orchestra violinist Stephen Hanson, 35, was stabbed by a deranged man in the Franklin Ave-Medgar Evers College station by a deranged man also on Feb. 24. He survived the attack. The alleged killer of former drug lord Alberto Alpo Martinez was arrested and charged in the Oct. 31 Harlem hit, police said Sunday night. A 55yr old man driving a red Dodge RAM 2500 pickup truck was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital after he was shot multiple times on Frederick Douglass Boulevard at West 151st Street in Manhattan on Sunday October 31, 2021. 0820. The Victim then drove for several blocks before crashing into several parked vehicles on Frederick Douglass Boulevard at West 147th Street, just across from the NYPD Police Service Area 6. (Theodore Parisienne) (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Shakeem Parker, 27, of W. 149th St.,who was already in custody on Rikers Island for a previous gun case, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Advertisement Detectives gathered information that he was the shooter, a police spokesman said. Aside from the November gun possession case, Parker has prior arrests for burglary, robbery and drug possession, police said. Advertisement Martinez, 55, was behind the wheel of a Dodge Ram on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 152nd St. when several gunshots exploded through his drivers side window just after 3:20 a.m., police told the Daily News at the time. In the early morning ambush, police found Martinez gasping for air in the truck, shot six times in his arm and once in his chest, sources told The News. He also had a graze wound on the left side of his chin. The druglord turned federal witness was portrayed by the rapper Camron in the 2002 film, Paid in Full. Mekhi Phifer played a character based on Rich Porter, 24, Martinezs business partner and best friend who Martinez notoriously shot to death in 1990. Jay-Z was among the movies producers. Alberto Alpo Martinez (Handout) Martinez was a controversial figure on the streets of Harlem after he testified against underlings in his murderous drug-trafficking ring to avoid a life sentence including his enforcer, Wayne Perry, who took a life sentence reportedly to avoid the death penalty in 1994. In the Flower Room, Beau Deuilhet, Dir. of Cultivation; talks about the process during a tour of the new, bigger, LSU medical marijuana facility run by Good Day Farm Wednesday Jan. 19, 2022, in Ruston, La. (Photo by Bill Feig, The Advocate) Harrisburg, Pa. One member of the House is seeking to separate from Russia by introducing new legislation. Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) Monday said he plans to introduce legislation to divest Pennsylvania of any Russian financial assets in which the Commonwealth may be invested. Clearly the people of Pennsylvania stand with the people of Ukraine and against this unprovoked Russian aggression. Over the weekend, the Liquor Control Board pulled Russian-made vodka from its shelves, something I commend, and the Capitol was lit with the colors of the Ukrainian flag," Benninghof said. "But I think it is time we start moving beyond symbolism and get to concrete action with what Pennsylvania can do to hold Russia accountable and apply pressure to stop this attack on the innocent people of Ukraine as well as the viability of Eastern Europe, Benninghoff said. Related reading: Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board removing Russian-made products from stores The Commonwealths public funds represent a substantial amount of investment power. We have a moral obligation to ensure that our public fund investments are not inadvertently supporting those who are engaging in an unprovoked invasion of their democratically elected neighbors, he said. According to a co-sponsorship memo released Monday, Benninghoffs legislation would divest the Commonwealths holdings in the State Treasury and pension funds from investments that are connected to the Russian government and its critical supporters. The effort would expand upon Act 44 of 2010s divesture of the State Treasury and pension funds from investments related to Iran and Sudan. President Joe Biden spoke with President Vladimir Putin prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on a diplomatic solution to the crisis on Feb. 12, 2022. The FDNYs new $22 million state-of-the art computer-aided dispatch system isnt any better than an antiquated one used by EMS and has crashed as many times as the older system in the six months its been in use, the Daily News has learned. The new Computer Aided Dispatch system, known as FireCAD, has unexpectedly gone off-line three times since department dispatchers and fire companies started using it on Aug. 2, 2021, raising doubts among some union officials and the rank and file that the program was worth the money. Advertisement FDNY Trucks outside a fire on Webb Ave. in Kingsbridge in the Bronx on Dec. 20, 2021. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News) (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News) Why are they spending all this money on the system if its constantly crashing? one FDNY union official who wished not to be named told The News. When it doesnt work, our dispatchers have to go to the old system with some even going to papers and pens. It only works because we have well-trained dispatchers who know what to do, the union official said. When it crashes, they just simply say, OK, well go back to kindergarten. Advertisement The FDNY EMS dispatch system, known as EMSCAD, has been in operation for decades and also went down three times in the last six months. None of the outages resulted in missed calls or a loss of life or property, FDNY officials said. The FireCAD system, developed by Accenture, was designed to replace the FDNYs 45-year-old Starfire dispatch system. When it was unveiled, the Fire Department called it the most reliable system of its kind. That doesnt seem to be the case, the fire union official said. The FDNY response to a fire on Story Ave. in Castle Hill, the Bronx on Dec. 20, 2021. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News) (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News) We cant keep having these glitches, the union official said. What if we are working a catastrophic incident and the system goes down? When someone calls 911, the operator asks if the caller needs police, the Fire Department or EMS. If the caller needs either the Fire Department or EMS, the call is routed to that particular computer-aided dispatch system to get the information to firefighters, EMTs and paramedics. FDNY officials confirm the FireCAD system experienced unexpected outages on Oct. 4 and Nov. 7 in 2021, and Valentines Day this year. The system was down for a combined total of one hour and 13 minutes. The FireCAD system is also different from computer programs used by the Bureau of Fire Investigations. As a result, fire marshals and other department investigators couldnt access information that could help with their probes, one recently retired FDNY member told The News. Advertisement They didnt import the data from one system to another so when someone in the Bureau of Fire Investigation would run an address, they would get no results, said the former employee, who wished not to be named. When you create a new program, you are supposed to make it easier, not harder and if they were going to make it harder, youd think they would have told someone. Bureau of Fire Investigation employees have since been trained on how to access information with the updated technology, FDNY officials said. Every call for help has been answered by the department, FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer said. Computer-aided dispatch is of course preferred to manual, but in the event of outages, the highly trained dispatchers switch to the protocols they are trained on to ensure quick, seamless transition for dispatch and that every call receives a quick emergency response. The EMSCAD system, which is much older than FireCAD, also had three unexpected outages in the last six months and was off-line for a total of four hours and 30 minutes. The longest outage was Sept. 18 and lasted for three hours. When the EMSCAD system goes down, multiple units are sometimes sent to the same location, which Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507, the union that represents EMTs and paramedics, says causes a delay in resources. During the Sept. 18 outage, some emergency calls were delayed by up to an hour, union members claim. Advertisement Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > There is a lot of issues with the EMSCAD system, Barzilay said. It really could use an improvement. Weve spoken to them about the antiquated system, but it falls on deaf ears and it will keep falling on deaf ears until someone gets hurt or injured. Thats when things are going to change. Multiple ambulances may be dispatched to the same scene or re-sent to a scene out of an abundance of caution to make sure no jobs were skipped, Dwyer said. The department is currently working on replacing the EMSCAD system with a newer program, although it wasnt immediately clear when it would be introduced. As with any technology, and in particular computer software, there are always updates that will enhance the product and the user experience, he said. The department constantly strives to improve all aspects of emergency response. Advertisement The software may go off-line, but the department always continues to handle every emergency, Dwyer added. President Joe Biden will mark Black History Month with an event at the White House on February 28, just on the heels of announcing he plans to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Black woman, to the US Supreme Court. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to put Russia's deterrence forces, which includes nuclear arms, on high alert are part of a wider pattern of unprovoked escalation and "manufactured threats" from the Kremlin. Stephan Pankiv joined the Soviet army in 1990. You have to swear [to fight for the USSR], he explained. You know, how they make you swear on a Bible when you come to America. Months later, the USSR collapsed, and being from the Lviv region, which is now part of Ukraine Stephan found himself required to swear fealty again, but this time to the Ukrainian army. A refusal to do so, he said, could land you with a five-year prison sentence or, alternately, you might just be assigned to non-combatant duties. You never knew what might happen. Stephan knows of a man who served prison time for refusing to swear to fight. Both for the Soviet army and Ukrainian army, Stephan refused to take the vow. A devout Christian, he says he could not imagine how he could kill a brother-in-Christ. Christian brotherhood, he says, runs deeper than national camaraderie. For one reason or another, Stephan managed to avoid time in prison. Instead of a gun, the army handed him a wrench. I was a mechanic, he said. His wife is from neighboring Poland. They moved to the United States in 1995 four years after the fall of the USSR, and 19 years before the NATO-backed coup that overthrew the Ukrainian government. We got refugee status to come to United States, he recalled. Because of their Christian faith, they were able to leave the former soviet state as religious refugees. Thats why theres a lot of Ukrainian/Russians in the United States, he said. Theyve raised a family here, Stephan is a truck driver, and now all his family is in the U.S. four sisters and four brothers, and his parents. Over the past week, watching the shocking situation unfold in Ukraine, Stephan does so with a back-story that few Americans could understand, but that likely many Russians and Ukrainians can, and do. We call our cousins brothers, he said. And so there are untold thousands of brothers fighting brothers, as family members, friends, and former brothers-in-arms find themselves on opposite sides of the political debate or the battle lines. Here, on the opposite side of the world, in his home at Lake of the Ozarks, Stephan could only watch things unfold from afar. I just felt so angry, he said. Some of the Pankivs best friends here in the U.S. are Russians. They too are Christians. Those friends claim that the Ukrainian news outlets the Pankivs read are full of bias and false information. The Pankivs feel the same way about the Russian outlets. Stephan says they've found it best to simply avoid the subject of politics altogether. Its just like Republicans and Democrats, here in the U.S., he mused. But through the heightened emotions of these recent, dramatic days, Stephan says he was recently reminded of something. It happened during Sundays sermon at the church his family is part of, Riverview Baptist in Osage Beach, Mo. Pastor Michaels sermon today, he said. It reminds me that we are not Russian. Not Ukrainian. We are Christians. Its that same fealty which kept him from pledging on the Bible to shoot a Christian across enemy lines, from both sides of the line. He talks about the importance of training children in this faith, this way of thinking at home, at school, at church so young Christians can grow up understanding their mission, no matter what flag they happen to live under. Every political [situation] is going to hide the true story for people, he said, adding in the poetic turn-of-phrase that non-native English speakers seem to have a knack for, Every government is lies. Only true is God. Now, Stephan's concern is for his friends and family back home in Ukraine who have been sleeping outside every night since the war began, to avoid the danger of their home collapsing during a shelling attack and for his brother (cousin), a missionary who has opened more than a dozen foster centers in Ukraine. Internet troubles, he says: he hasnt heard from them in days. Despite the pain of watching his homeland being torn apart by war and conflict, Stephans faith is resolute, and he speaks clearly about his refusal to descend into the political conflicts that would set brother against brother. Gods kingdom, he knows, transcends political lines. - *Editors note: Quotations have been slightly edited for readability, and approved by Mr. Pankiv. Cattle fitted with GPS collars stand in a corral waiting to be released onto pasture in Oklahoma. Virtual fencing utilizes GPS collars to contain livestock within a pasture boundary, without a physical fence. Where is your milk being processed? How much do farmers make off of milk sales? The Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board has the answers. Helen Mirren, who was honored as the 57th recipient of the SAG Life Achievement Award at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, has shared deets of her upcoming projects. Wearing a blush floral Prada gown and matching headband, Mirren told Variety about her upcoming role as villain Hespera in the superhero film 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods', set to release in 2023. Jason Momoa Is in Talks to Join Vin Diesel in Fast and Furious 10. "I had such a good time in 'Shazam,' playing a Roman goddess," Mirren shared. "I am a bit of a baddie, yes. Watch this space." Throughout her career, Mirren has taken on roles that range from three different British queens to her upcoming turn as Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of Israel. She's also a featured player in the 'Fast and Furious' franchise, as the formidable Magdalene Shaw. Asked whether she'll join the film series in for its final chapters 'Fast 10' and '11', Mirren said, "Oh gosh, I hope so. I just wait by the phone to see if they will call me." BAFTA Awards 2022 Longlist: No Time to Die, Belfast and West Side Story Lead the Nominations, Heres the Full List of the Nominees. Mirren noted that she's always trying to mix it up when it comes to her roles in television and film, whether it's a superhero movie or a romantic comedy. "I love the genre work," Mirren explained. "I love working with those incredible artists of stunts and of special effects. ... It's just great to watch them work and to be a part of their work, and I love to mix it up. I love to go from those big-budget extraordinary technical films to a film that's much more about relationships and conversations rather than bangs." Mirren also spoke about receiving the award, which was presented to her by Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett. "It's incredibly meaningful; it completely took me by surprise," Mirren said. "I suppose everyone who gets it says that, but it is true. And, of course, to get it from my fellow actors is amazing, and I have to say specifically my fellow actors in America." As for what's next for the lifetime achievement winner, Mirren has a couple of ideas of how to keep audiences guessing. "I think the next hurdle, I would love to play a cowboy," Mirren said. "Just a cowboy on a horse. I've fallen off a horse so many times. I absolutely can't ride, so that would be a major challenge." (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) When the autistic kids Nicole Iannarone works with went to remote learning in the first months of the pandemic, something became quite clear, quite quickly. The gains theyd made before COVID hit began to evaporate. Their routines were destroyed. And for many families, it began to seem as if they would fall through the cracks altogether. Advertisement But Iannarone wasnt going to let that happen. As a board-certified behavior analyst and the director of Cornerstone Behavioral Services in Wantagh, L.I., she and her team assist autistic children in their homes and advocate for them and their parents at school. When public schools shifted to remote learning, those kids needed all the advocacy they could get. Advertisement The kids with special needs just suffered tremendously during that time, Iannarone, 38, recalled. Everyone was really desperate and distraught. It was a really awful time for a lot of families. Nicole Iannarone, founder and president of Cornerstone Behavioral Services. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Many parents didnt know exactly what kind of resources their children were entitled to receive from schools, and they struggled to adjust not only to life under pandemic lockdown, but also with what that meant for the education and development of an autistic child. Establishing a routine and structure is important for the development of many children with autism, and when their routines were shattered, Iannarone was called upon to help reestablish them and later to ensure that there was continuity when kids returned to school. Iannarone recalled one first-grader she worked with who began acting out after the pandemic forced his entire family to work from home. He began engaging in a lot of physical aggression and property destruction, she said. We met with them and went through what his day was like, and at that point, we came up with a structure. It started with baby steps. First, Iannarone and the family devised a plan to establish transitions between the boys school activities like reading to him, or giving him five minutes to play. They began gradually extending the length of time of his Zoom meetings with teachers the meetings lasted five minutes, then 10, until he could sit for a session that lasted half an hour. Advertisement We broke his day down to 15-minute increments, said Iannarone, who lives in Wantagh and grew up in Baldwin, L.I. And he did beautifully. It took some time, but he ended up doing well. Nick Colandrea, who met Iannarone through a charity event, described her as a godsend and nominated her for a New York Daily News Hometown Hero award. When the pandemic started, everyone didnt know what to do. And shes navigating it, talking to schools, said Colandrea, who has a nephew with special needs. Shell call and shes like that calming voice. Nicole Iannarone (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Part of Iannarones work also involves advocating on behalf of special needs kids and their parents. Often this boils down to the classroom a child is placed in and whether that placement and behavior intervention plan suits their specific needs. For schools, the placements can seem like a step in a bureaucratic process, but to parents they often mean the difference between their child backsliding or thriving. Unfortunately, though, parents dont always know what information theyre entitled to receive when they meet with a schools staff. Iannarone does. Advertisement Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > If they ask, parents should be provided with classroom profiles that lay out IQ levels, social and emotional levels and behavioral needs. A bad placement can really set a kid back, Iannarone said. If you dont fight for it, it doesnt happen. The kind of support and advocacy Iannarone provides was not widely available in years past two of her mothers cousins had special needs, but help was nonexistent. And in many places outside the New York area, it still is. Theres still places where they dont understand it, she said. Theres still a lot that needs to happen, but its come a long way. ***** Do you know a Hometown Hero? Every Monday, the Daily News will run a weekly feature in print and online profiling a Hometown Hero in several categories first responders (police officers, firefighters, EMTs), health care workers, transit workers, educators and extraordinary everyday citizens nominated by our readers. Advertisement For more information on how to nominate someone for a Daily News Hometown Heroes award, go to nydailynews.com/new-york/hometown-heroes. Hyderabad, Feb 28 (PTI) Against the backdrop of a recent meeting with political strategist Prashant Kishor and ongoing efforts to bring together different parties against the BJP's alleged anti-people policies, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday left for Delhi. Also Read | Arya Aldrin, Indian Medical Student in Ukraine, Refuses To Leave Behind Her 5-Year-Old Siberian Husky Zairaa. Rao left for Delhi on a visit, an official release said. However, it did not provide further details. Also Read | Indian Railways Resumes General Class Passenger Services As COVID-19 Cases Decline. It is expected that Rao may confer with leaders of like-minded parties during his stay in the national capital. Rao's visit comes against the backdrop of a meeting here with Kishor during the last couple of days and also his recent meetings with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai. Rao, who has been critical of the BJP and the Centre on a number of issues, had said he will hold meetings with his Maharashtra and West Bengal counterparts as part of efforts to unite various political parties against the BJP and the NDA government. Addressing a public meeting in Siddipet district on February 23, Rao had said he is moving in the direction of influencing national politics and that he would use all his abilities to set the things right in the country, "even by shedding the last drop of blood". (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, February 28: Stepping up its efforts to evacuate Indian students stranded in war-hit Ukraine, the Centre on Monday decided that Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and V K Singh will travel to its neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students, government sources said. These ministers will be going there as "special envoys" of India, they said. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, also attended the meeting. Modi had chaired a meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday too and had asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority. PM Narendra Modi Calls High-Level Meet on Ukraine Crisis, Some Union Ministers Including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju May Go To Ukraine's Neighbouring Countries to Coordinate Evacuations, Say Sources. It was also decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students, sources had said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bengaluru, Feb 28 (PTI) Hijab and Burqa wearing girls were denied entry to educational institutions in Shivamogga and Udupi by the authorities citing the Karnataka High Court's interim order on Monday. Also Read | Holi 2022: Odisha Govt Bans Holi Celebrations in Public Places, Restricts Large Gathering During Festivals Due to COVID-19. According to information received, 15 students were not allowed inside the DVS College in Shivamogga as they insisted that they should be allowed not only putting on Hijab but also with Burqa. Also Read | Punjab Shocker: Drunk Man Attempts To Rape 7-Year-Old Girl in Ludhiana; Booked. The college authorities told them that they cannot attend the classes as the HC interim order was in force, sources said. The girls then gathered at the college gate but the policemen deployed there said they cannot form any group as the prohibitory orders were in place under Section 144 of the CrPC. Similarly in Udupi, Muslim girls were not allowed inside the Government PU Girls College and hence, they were not allowed to attend the science practical tests held as part of the preparatory exams. The practical examinations for second-year science students began at the government pre-university college for women in Udupi with the college not allowing three students to appear for the examinations wearing hijab. The controversy over the hijab dress code spread to other colleges in Karnataka from this pre-university college after six students demanded permission to wear hijab in the classroom. Of the six students, three, A H Almas, Hazra Shifa and Bibi Ayesha, are in the science stream. They arrived in the college Monday wearing hijab to appear for the examination. But Principal Rudre Gowda did not allow them to enter the exam centre wearing a hijab citing the interim of order of the High Court. The students returned home. Almas said, "Today was our final practical exam. We had completed our record books and went in great hopes to attend the practical exam. It was so disheartening when our principal threatened us saying 'you have 5 minutes to leave, if you don't leave, I will have to file a police complaint, the principal told us," she said. "Right now, we should have been in our labs attending the practical exams, not compelled to leave. The hopes I had from my college and my dreams are getting shattered due to the hatred sowed against hijab." Denying the allegation of the student, the principal told reporters that he tried explaining to the students on the need to follow the interim order of the High Court. They opted to return home without appearing for the examinations, prinicipal Rudre Gowda said. Meanwhile, Bharath composite pre-university college at Mastikatte, on the outskirts of Mangaluru, which declared a holiday from February 25 following protests by students over hijab, did not open for classes on Monday. The Hijab row started in December end when a few girls denied entry into the college with Hijab. On January 1, six girl students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference held by the CFI in the coastal town protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into classrooms wearing hijab. This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear hijab in classes which was not allowed. Till then, students used to wear the headscarf to the campus, but entered the classroom after removing it, college principal Rudre Gowda had said. "The institution did not have any rule on hijab-wearing 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. As the issue of Hijab versus saffron scarves spread to several educational institutions in many parts of Karnataka, the state government announced holiday from February 9 to 15 in all the pre-university college and from February 9 to February 16 in degree and diploma colleges. The girls then approached the Karnataka High Court seeking relief and quashing the government order on February 5 restraining students from wearing any cloth that could disturb, peace, harmony and public order. The full bench of the High Court comprising CJ Awasthi, Justice J M Khazi and Justice Krishna S Dixit, which has been hearing the case on a day-to-day basis since February 10, in its interim order asked the state government to reopen the educational institutions, which were hit by the agitation, and restrained students from wearing Hijab and saffron scarves in the class-room till the final order is delivered. The court has completed its hearing and is likely to pass its final order soon. (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 28 (ANI): With 8,013 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, India on Monday witnessed a drop in the daily cases, the Union Ministry of Health informed. India's active COVID caseload, as per the Ministry's press release, is presently at 1,02,601, constituting 0.24 per cent of the country's total positive cases. Also Read | Madhya Pradesh Shocker: Woman Kills Husband, Dumps Body in Septic Tank; Arrested After Son Brags About It. The weekly positivity rate in India currently stands at 1.17 per cent, while the daily positivity rate is reported to be 1.11 per cent. As many as 16,765 patients have recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours. The cumulative tally of recovered patients, since the beginning of the pandemic, is now at 4,23,07,686. Also Read | Google Play Pass Launched in India for Android Devices, Check Price & Benefits. In the last 24 hours, 119 deaths were also reported, taking the COVID death toll 5,13,843. The Ministry further informed that with the administration of nearly 5 lakh (4,90,321) COVID vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 177.50 crore (1,77,50,86,335) as per provisional reports till 7 am today. "This has been achieved through 2,03,49,590 sessions," the release read. The last 24 hours saw a total of 7,23,828 COVID tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 76.74 crore (76,74,81,346) cumulative COVID tests, the Ministry informed. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Imphal (Manipur) [India], February 28 (ANI): Manipur Governor La Ganesan on Monday cast his vote at Tamphasana Girls' Higher Secondary School in Imphal as voting for the first phase of Manipur elections commenced. Speaking to reporters, Ganesan said that sign of democracy is elections. He appealed to all voters to take part in the polling. Also Read | Nokia C21, Nokia C21 Plus & Nokia C2 2nd Edition Launched; Check Prices & Other Details Here. "I appeal to all people of Manipur that they should exercise their franchise because in our country democracy is prevailing and the sign of democracy is the election," he said. Polling in 38 Assembly constituencies spread across five districts, including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi, got underway on Monday morning. Also Read | Weather Forecast: Rain And Thunder Forecast For Kerala, Tamil Nadu on March 2, 3. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 females, are in the fray in the first phase of the Manipur Assembly elections. Voting will continue till 4 pm. The voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour, between 3 pm to 4 pm. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is contesting from his traditional home seat, Heingang constituency of Imphal East. Notably, the Chief Minister is seeking the fifth term in Manipur. The BJP formed the government in Manipur in 2017 with the support of the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, the BJP is contesting the Assembly elections on its own. The second phase of the 60-member Assembly elections will take place on March 5. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi, February 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday paid tributes to Morarji Desai on his birth anniversary, saying the former prime minister made extensive efforts to make India more prosperous. Born in 1896 in Valsad, then part of the state of Bombay and now in Gujarat, Desai was the first non-Congress prime minister of the country. National Science Day 2022: PM Narendra Modi Extends Greetings to All Scientists and Science Enthusiasts. I pay homage to our former PM Shri Morarjibhai Desai. He is widely respected for his monumental contribution to nation building. He made extensive efforts to make India more prosperous. He always emphasised on probity in public life. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2022 "He (Morarji Desai) is widely respected for his monumental contribution to nation building. He made extensive efforts to make India more prosperous. He always emphasised on probity in public life," Modi 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) New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will shortly chair another high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis, said government sources on Monday evening. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister called a high-level meeting over the prevailing situation in Ukraine which was attended by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Foreign Secretary of India Harsh V Shringla, other ministers and a host of senior bureaucrats. Also Read | Punjab Shocker: Drunk Man Attempts To Rape 7-Year-Old Girl in Ludhiana; Booked. Government Sources on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sending four Union Ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine. "Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students," Government sources said. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: India Opens New Route Through Moldova to Evacuate Its Citizens From Ukraine, Says MEA. These Ministers will be going as special envoys of India. Upon his return from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening, the Prime Minister held a two-hour long meeting with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and other senior bureaucrats on Ukraine crisis. In the meeting, PM Modi once again reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nation's top priority. It was also discussed to further enhance cooperation with neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of the stranded Indians. The Prime Minister on February 24 chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting in New Delhi on the Ukraine crisis. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Hardeep Singh Puri among others were present in the meeting. The union government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". Meanwhile, a fifth flight carrying 249 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine landed in New Delhi today morning. (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, Feb 28 (PTI) The Rajasthan BJP on Monday launched a helpline for people of the state who are stranded in crisis-hit Ukraine. BJP state president Satish Poonia formally launched the helpline. According to the party, a team of Rajasthan BJP will try to provide all possible help and support through the helpline. Also Read | Punjab Shocker: Drunk Man Attempts To Rape 7-Year-Old Girl in Ludhiana; Booked. Students and migrants stranded in Ukraine can call up the helpline number 8929208080 for assistance, it said. Poonia said the Narendra Modi government at the Centre was making all efforts to bring back people of the country from Ukraine through Operation Ganga, which is yielding positive results. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: India Opens New Route Through Moldova to Evacuate Its Citizens From Ukraine, Says MEA. Information collected from the helpline will be coordinated with the BJP's central team for further action, 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) New Delhi, Feb 28 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asserted that the entire government machinery was working round the clock to ensure all Indians in Ukraine are safe and secure as he deputed four Union ministers to countries bordering the war-hit nation as special envoys to oversee the rescue efforts and more evacuation flights were deployed. India will also help people from neighbouring and developing countries who are stranded in the eastern European nation and the first consignment of relief supplies to Ukraine to deal with the humanitarian situation on Ukraine's borders would be sent on Tuesday. Also Read | Arya Aldrin, Indian Medical Student in Ukraine, Refuses To Leave Behind Her 5-Year-Old Siberian Husky Zairaa. The prime minister made the remarks at a high-level meeting, his second of the day, that was held to review the ongoing efforts under "Operation Ganga" to bring back the Indians stranded in Ukraine, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Spokesperson in the MEA Arindam Bagchi said around 8,000 Indians left Ukraine since the first advisory was issued around a fortnight back and a total of 1,396 Indians were brought back home in six flights after the evacuation mission was launched on Saturday. Also Read | Indian Railways Resumes General Class Passenger Services As COVID-19 Cases Decline. Two of these Air India flights from Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest landed in Delhi on Monday with 489 Indian nationals. Other private carriers such as SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India Express have also sent their planes to the two cities for evacuation of Indians as the Ukraine airspace is closed for civilian aircraft. MEA officials told a parliamentary panel they are planning 13 other flights in the next 2-3 days and subsequently nine flights a day, according to sources As fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces raged on despite the two sides holding talks for the first time since the outbreak of hostilities, around 14,000 Indians, including a large number of students, were still stranded in Ukraine and have been narrating through the media and on phone their ordeal. While some are unable to move to western areas, which are less affected, others have reached borders but were unable to cross and were facing a shortage of food and water. The Indian embassy in Ukraine advised all Indian students stranded in Kyiv to reach the railway station in the Ukrainian capital for their onward journey to the western parts of the war-torn country. However, an Indian student who managed to reach the Kyiv train station said Ukrainian guards were not allowing students to board trains and were also beating up people. It's getting difficult for us to stay here, Ansh Pandita told PTI as scores of Indian students, including women, sat huddled together at the teeming Vokzal railway station in Kyiv, holding a large tricolour aloft so they could be recognised in the crowd and also so no one from the group gets lost. Officials said the situation on the Polish border remained problematic as a large number of people had gathered there in order to cross the border. At a media briefing, the MEA spokesperson said the government has decided to send Union Minister Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju will and Gen (retd) V K Singh as the prime minister's special envoys to oversee the evacuation of Indians. He said Puri will go to Hungary, Scindia will oversee the evacuation process in Romania and Moldova, Rijiju will travel to Slovakia and Gen (retd) V K Singh is leaving for Poland. "The special envoys will be travelling to these countries to basically coordinate and oversee the evacuation process on the ground," Bagchi said, adding they may also go close the places where the evacuation is happening if the situation permits. Bagchi said India managed to accelerate the evacuation process in the last 24 hours as a new border crossing has been opened through Moldova for taking the Indians to Romania and there was an improvement in the movement of people through the Polis transit point. He said India is encouraging its citizens, particularly students, to move towards Western Ukraine and emphasised that they should not reach the border directly. Amid concerns over the safety of Indians in Ukraine, the country's envoy Igor Polikha said that his government is helping the stranded Indians and extending assistance in their evacuation notwithstanding the "very difficult" ground situation. Specifically asked about the safety of Indians, he said that assurance can only be given by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also said that Ukraine was looking for humanitarian assistance from India. Polikha also rubbished the suggestion that Ukrainian authorities were discriminating against Indian citizens after India abstained from a UN Security Council resolution deploring the Russian military attack on the country. In the briefing, Bagchi said India is sending humanitarian assistance to Ukraine including medicines. Bagchi said the "situation on the ground in terms of evacuation continues to be "complex and fluid" but India has managed to accelerate the evacuation process in the last 24 hours." "You have seen media reports. Some of them are concerning. Nevertheless, we have been able to accelerate our evacuation process clearly over the last 24 hours," he said. The MEA spokesperson also urged the Indian students not to panic. "Our estimate is that over 8,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since we issued the initial advisories. It's not since the conflict began, but since we issued the initial advisories," he emphasised. With a large number of Indians stuck at the Polish border point along with several thousand other nationalities, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his counterpart from Poland Zbigniew Rau "Discussed the Ukraine developments with @RauZbigniew of Poland. Appreciate Poland's facilitation of the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine. His words of support in that regard are very welcome," he tweeted. Bagchi said India's focus has been on evacuating its nationals through the land border crossings, noting that there has been some improvement in the movement of people into Poland through the situation in the Polish border is still difficult. Bagchi said flights are not a constraint. "We will add more flights as needed. We are continually augmenting the number of MEA teams in border crossing points. We are also augmenting a number of officials in the nearby countries," he said. India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland. India also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine. India is using the land routes to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine has closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the Russian attack. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 28 (ANI): Parents of students from Madurai, who are studying in Ukraine, submitted a petition to the officials of the District Administration and urged them to initiate steps to rescue their children stranded in the country. Jhansi, a student's mother, said, "My son is studying medicine for the past six years in Ukraine. He has been staying in the bunker for the past four days and he is suffering from shortness of breath since this morning. He is very scared. The Central and the state governments should immediately rescue the students." Also Read | Sensex Gains 389 Points, Nifty Up 135 Points as Oil, Metal Stocks Recover. Sheikh Syed, another parent, said, "When I spoke with my daughter, who is pursuing her MBBS programme in Ukraine, she said that she is running short of food and water. I hope the government will rescue her and bring her back to India." (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Ministry dispatches work group to handle Yunnan road accident Xinhua) 08:32, February 28, 2022 BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Public Security has dispatched a work group to handle and guide the investigation into a major traffic accident in southwest China's Yunnan Province. At around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, a severely overloaded heavy dump truck cartwheeled and crushed a minivan, leaving all the six people in the minivan dead. Preliminary investigations show that, as the offending vehicle rounded a downhill bend in the city of Yuxi, it overturned due to its heavy load, which was more than twice its capacity, combined with brake failure and poor handling. The local police have taken legal measures against the truck driver. The ministry has asked for a detailed investigation into the accident and an assessment of the liabilities, in accordance with the law. (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) A Queens grandmother bashed in the head with a rock during an attack the day after Thanksgiving has died, police said Monday. Guiying Ma, 62, was sweeping the sidewalk outside her Jackson Heights home on Nov. 26 when a man ambushed her, smashing a large rock against the left side of her head just inches from her eye. Advertisement The gutsy grandma had recently emerged from a monthslong coma and even opened her eyes and waved to her husband, Zanxin Gao. Guiying Ma with husband Zanxin Gao (Obtained by Daily News) But the head trauma she suffered was too much to overcome, and Ma died last Tuesday at Elmhurst Hospital Center. Advertisement The news was so shocking to her husband and us, said Yihung Hsieh, the victims friend and landlord. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Just one day earlier he was staying with her and she was waving her hand. Everything looked like it was getting better. Then the next day we got a phone call from the hospital and the doctor said she had no heartbeat anymore. Ma had needed surgery to open her skull and drain fluid to relieve pressure on her brain. A GoFundMe page Hsieh set up for Ma kept supporters up to date on her condition. The victim did not have medical insurance and had lost her job during the pandemic. Cops arrested a suspect, Elisaul Perez, and charged him with assault. Mas death has been deemed a homicide. We are reviewing the latest development in this tragedy and will add or upgrade any appropriate charges supported by the evidence, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney said Monday. In the meanwhile, on behalf of the district attorney, we extend our condolences to the family. Perez and Ma got into an argument, which culminated with Perez, 33, knocking her unconscious with the rock, according to a criminal complaint. He threw the rock at her a second time while she lay on the ground, bleeding from the head, prosecutors charge. Perez has pleaded not guilty and is in custody. While Mas alleged attacker is not charged with a hate crime, the incident occurred during an alarming spike in anti-Asian incidents around the city. With Rocco Parascandola New Delhi, Feb 28 (PTI) Union Minister V K Singh said he is leaving for Poland Monday night to coordinate the evacuation of Indians from Ukraine amid a Russian military offensive. With the Ukrainian airspace being closed for civilian aircraft, India is evacuating its citizens through its neighbouring countries. Also Read | Sensex Gains 389 Points, Nifty Up 135 Points as Oil, Metal Stocks Recover. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assigned four Union ministers to be on the ground in the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to facilitate the smooth and safe evaluation of Indian nationals. While Singh will coordinate the evacuation efforts in Poland, Kiren Rijiju will be in Slovakia and Hardeep Singh Puri in Hungary. Jyotiraditya Scindia will look after evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From CM Yogi Adityanath to Vinay Shankar Tiwari, List of Five Key Candidates in Phase 6 of UP Polls . Singh said Prime Minister Modi has taken a visionary step to send the Union ministers to neighbouring countries of war-torn Ukraine. "I am leaving for Poland today and will coordinate with both Ukraine and Poland to facilitate evacuation of Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine," Singh told reporters here. He is expected to meet the Polish ambassador before leaving for Poland. Singh said he wants to assure the Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine that the Indian government is taking all steps for their safe return and urged them to be patient and safe. The decision to send these ministers as "special envoys" of India came a day after Modi asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority. (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 28 (ANI): State Election Commissioner (SEC) Saurab Das's meeting with West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday to brief him on the alleged failure of the constitutional duty to hold polls to Howrah Municipality yesterday has been postponed to 3.30 pm. Originally, the meeting was scheduled for 10 am today. Also Read | Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro, Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 Laptops Unveiled. Taking to Twitter, Dhankhar informed that the meeting has been postponed. He further said that it is against the backdrop of "alarmingly disturbing inputs, depicting scenario of violence and lawlessness, with administration in partisan mode, and systemic failure of State Election Commission," in the election process to Municipalities- Constitutional Bodies under Part IX A of the Constitution. Also Read | Manipur Assembly Elections 2022: BJP Will Win 30 out of 38 in 1st Phase, Says CM N Biren Singh. "State Election Commissioner Saurab Das has been called upon to be fully updated on developments in the election process on February 27 that prima facie indicates failure of democracy," he said. "State Election Commissioner Saurab Das has also been called upon to indicate why there is failure of constitutional duty by State Election Commission to hold elections to the Howrah Municipality," he added. Voting for 108 municipalities across West Bengal was held on Sunday, during which a clash between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers broke out. The BJP West Bengal vice-president Arjun Singh alleged that two Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were vandalized in ward 9 and there was a similar situation across the state. The party has called a 12-hour statewide bandh for today against alleged rigging and violence in the state's civic 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) Beijing, Feb 28 (PTI) In a quandary over the delayed evacuation of its over 6000 students in Ukraine, China is chalking out alternative arrangements like operating chartered flights to shift them to safer locations amid growing anxiety over their safety following Russia's military operations in eastern Ukraine. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China has launched the emergency coordination mechanism and maintained close communication with all parties to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and institutions, official media reported. Also Read | Amid Russia-Ukraine Conflict, John Oliver Calls Out Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sundays Episode of Last Week Tonight. The Chinese Embassy in Ukraine is also mulling alternative plans to evacuate local Chinese nationals amid the deteriorating situation in the country, and as long as safety premises are met, they will immediately take action and launch the evacuation plan, an official of the Chinese embassy in Ukraine told state-run Global Times. China was in a fix to evacuate the students and stranded nationals from Ukraine as its response came far later than that of the US, EU and Japan which asked their citizens to leave Ukraine far earlier than Russia commenced its military offensive. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: South Korea To Ban Exports of Strategic Materials to Russia. In a video, Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong has rejected rumours that he had left the country. "Given the situation in Ukraine, the first thing we need to do is to assure our Chinese nationals and ease their anxiety, an embassy staffer told the Global Times. The embassy said it is unable to organise evacuation charter flights for now as the safety of evacuees cannot be guaranteed. There are strict controls on airspace as well as the danger posed by missile attacks and bombardments. However, they are considering alternatives, noting that as long as safety issues are met, they will immediately launch the evacuation plan, the embassy officials said. Added to the concerns that Chinese nationals in Ukraine faced hostility from locals in view of China's support to Russia. The situation in Ukraine has become more difficult with the constant sounds of sirens, explosions and gunfire, and there may be many unpredictable changes in the coming days, the Chinese ambassador to Ukraine said, reminding Chinese nationals to avoid confrontation with local people, or recording scenes out of curiosity, and to especially stay away from military-related personnel or facilities. The Ukrainian people are going through a hard time, the envoy said. "We should have more understanding toward them and show the friendliness and rationality that the Chinese people have always had, he said, adding that China respects Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and hopes the current crisis will be resolved through political negotiations. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kabul [Afghanistan], February 28 (ANI): The European Union condemned the Taliban's comprehensive home search operations in Kabul and called it a crime. The European Union Ambassador to Afghanistan, Von Brant urged to stop home search operations. In a Twitter message, he said to the Taliban that Afghanistan is being watched by the world besides the Russia-Ukraine crisis, reported The Khaama Press. Also Read | Spider-Man Star Andrew Garfield Weighs in on Russia-Ukraine Crisis at the 2022 SAG Awards. "The intimidations, house searches, arrests, and violence against members of different ethnic groups and women are crimes and must stop immediately," Von Brant tweeted. Despite Putin's war, we are watching you, he added referring to Russian military operations in Ukraine, reported The Khaama Press. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Next 24 Hours Crucial For Ukraine, Says President Volodymyr Zelenksy. This comes as the Taliban have launched comprehensive home search operations in Kabul since last week. The move has been widely criticized in the media and on social media platforms by the citizens, journalists, and civil society members watching Afghanistan from outside. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Brussels, March 1 (AP) The European Union has slapped sanctions on 26 more Russians, including oligarchs, senior officials and an energy insurance company, in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine, bringing the total of people targeted to 680. EU headquarters said those listed include oligarchs and businessmen active in the oil, banking and finance sectors, government officials, top military brass and propagandists who contributed to spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda and promote a positive attitude towards the invasion of Ukraine. Also Read | 'Russia Putting Nuclear Forces on High Alert Chilling Development', Says UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The bloc had already imposed an asset freeze on President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. No travel ban was imposed to allow the two men to take part in any diplomatic efforts, should Russia consider bringing an end to the war on its former Soviet neighbour. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Ukrainian Towns Authorise Officers To Shoot Looters on the Spot. EU sanctions now apply to a total of 680 people and 53 entities, which are usually organizations, agencies, banks or companies. Gas Industry Insurance Company SOGAZ was listed Monday. ___ Kyiv: Satellite images show Russian troops are attacking Ukraine on multiple fronts and are advancing on the capital city of Kyiv. On Monday, a convoy consisting of hundreds of armoured vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was just 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the centre of Kyiv. The city is home to nearly 3 million residents. The images from Maxar Technologies also captured signs of fighting outside Kyiv, including destroyed vehicles and a damaged bridge. ___ Paris: France has decided to move its embassy out of the Ukrainian capital, but the French ambassador will remain in the country. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says the French Embassy, which had been holding out in Kyiv amid war, was being transferred to the western city of Lviv. Le Drian told French television station BFMTV on Monday that Ambassador Etienne de Poncins would remain in Ukraine. Russia invaded its smaller neighbour on Thursday, drawing international condemnation. Asked if the ambassador was under threat in the capital, Le Drian said that the risks and threats were sufficiently important to transfer the embassy's operations to Lviv, not far from the Polish border. ___ Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists his country won't give up on its relations with either Russia or Ukraine, but says it will implement an international convention that allows Turkey to shut down the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to the warships of belligerent countries. The 1936 Montreux Convention gives Turkey the right to bar warships from using the Dardanelles and the Bosporus during wartime. Ukraine has asked Turkey to implement the treaty and bar access to Russian warships. Several Russian ships have already sailed through the straits to the Black Sea in the past weeks and it was not clear how much of an impact Turkey's decision to close down the straits would have on the conflict. The convention, also provides an exception for Black Sea vessels returning to port. Turkey has criticised Russia's military aggression in Ukraine, but has also been trying to balance its close ties to Ukraine with its interests in not upsetting its fragile economic relationship with Russia. ___ Moscow: The first round of Ukraine-Russia talks aimed at ending the fighting between Moscow and its smaller neighbour concluded with no immediate agreements. An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin says talks with Ukrainian officials lasted nearly five hours. Vladimir Medinsky headed the Russian delegation in Belarus. He said the two sides found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen. Another round of talks was agreed to, Medinsky said. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave few details except to say that the talks, held near the Ukraine-Belarus border, were focused on a possible cease-fire and that a second round could take place in the near future. "The next meeting will take place in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is an agreement to that effect, Medinsky said. ___ Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has signed an application for Ukraine to join the European Union. The action comes five days after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour, touching off widespread international condemnation and offers of military assistance from the 27-member nation EU and elsewhere. Andrii Sybiha, head of Zelenskyy's office, said on his official Facebook page that the documents are on the way to Brussels. Photos of Zelenskyy were posted in Facebook. He was flanked by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and chairman of the parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk. The history is being created now," the post said. The application was largely symbolic, however. The process could take years. EU membership must be unanimously approved by all members. Ukraine has been weakened by endemic corruption for many years, making the benchmarks of approval extremely hard to reach. ___ Berlin: The European Space Agency says the planned launch of a joint mission with Russia to Mars this year is now very unlikely due to sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine. Following a meeting of officials from its 22 member states Monday, the agency said in a statement that it was assessing the consequences of sanctions for its cooperation with Russia's Roscosmos space agency. Regarding the ExoMars program continuation, the sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely, it said. The launch was already postponed from 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak and technical problems. The mission's goal is to put a lander on the red planet to help determine whether there has ever been life on Mars. On Saturday, Roscosmos said it was pulling its personnel from the European space port in Kourou, French Guiana. ___ Cairo: The Arab League has voiced concerns about the war in Ukraine, but it refrained from demanding an end to the Russian invasion. The pan-Arab organisation says in a communique Monday it supports all ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis through dialogue and diplomacy. The communique comes after a meeting of representatives of the 22-member Arab League in Cairo. The communique didn't mention Russia, which has close ties with regional powers like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Most governments in the Arab regions have avoided criticising Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The UAE, which holds a temporary seat at the UN Security Council, has joined China and India in abstaining during a vote on a US resolution condemning the invasion. ___ Kyiv: Ukrainian authorities say at least 44 people have been wounded in fighting in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, and that seven of them died in hospitals. It wasn't clear if the casualties, which covered the past 24 hours, were all civilians. The state emergencies agency said the casualties could be higher because the damage from Monday's shelling of residential areas is still being assessed. Ukrainian social networks featured videos showing residential quarters hit by a series of powerful explosions amid fighting with Russian forces. The Russian military has consistently denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of residential buildings, schools and hospitals. ___ Geneva: The Swiss president says Russia's attack on Ukraine is unacceptable and Switzerland will adopt European Union sanctions, including asset freezes, targeting Russians all but depriving well-heeled Russians of access to one of their favourite havens to park their money. Ignazio Cassis told a news conference Monday that Russia's invasion was intolerable on moral and political grounds. Switzerland's government has been trying to balance its condemnation of Russia's actions with its history of neutrality and as an intermediary between opposing countries. Referring to the Swiss executive body, he added: The Federal Council has decided to take up fully the sanctions of the European Union, including the asset freezes. Switzerland is not a European Union member but is all but surrounded by four EU countries: Austria, France, Germany and Italy. ___ Moscow: Russia has closed its airspace to carriers from 36 nations, including European countries and Canada, responding in kind to their move to close their respective airspaces to all Russian aircraft. The move, announced Monday by the state aviation agency, follows a decision by the EU and Canada over the weekend to close their skies to the Russian planes in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. It added that planes from those countries could only enter Russia's airspace with special permission. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) United Nations, Feb 28 (PTI) For the second time in as many days, India abstained on a UN Security Council resolution to convene a rare emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi asserted that there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue to settle the Ukraine crisis. The 15-nation Council met Sunday afternoon to vote on a procedural resolution to refer the Ukrainian situation to an emergency session of the 193-member UN General Assembly. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Australia Announces Fresh Sanctions Against Russia, Imposes Travel Ban on Vladimir Putin. India, China and the UAE abstained while Russia voted against the resolution and 11 Council members - Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States - voted in favour. It was the second time since Friday that India abstained in the Council on a resolution on the Ukraine crisis. The vote calling for the UNGA session was procedural so none of the five permanent members of the Council - China, France, Russia, UK and the US - could exercise their vetoes. The resolution was adopted, paving the way for the General Assembly to meet on the worsening crisis on Monday morning. Also Read | Ukraine Files Application Instituting Proceedings Against Russia in International Court of Justice. The voting record in the Council Sunday was the same as that on Friday, with India, China and the UAE abstaining, Russia using its veto and 11 Council members voting in favour. The procedural resolution said that the Council has decided to call an emergency special session of the General Assembly to examine the Ukraine crisis after taking into account that the lack of unanimity of its permanent members at the Friday meeting prevented it from exercising its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. In the explanation of the vote, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said it is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the Council last convened on this matter on Friday. He reiterated India's call for an immediate cessation of violence and an end to all hostilities, underlining that there is no other choice but to return back to the path of diplomacy and dialogue. Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advocated this strongly in his recent conversations with the Russian and Ukrainian leadership, Tirumurti said, We welcome today's announcement by both sides to hold talks at the Belarus border. In his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Modi reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to dialogue and expressed India's willingness to contribute in any way towards peace efforts. In the telephonic call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Modi reiterated his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia and the NATO group can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue. He appealed for an immediate cessation of violence and called for concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogue. Tirumurti also said that India continues to be deeply concerned about the safety and security of its nationals, including a large number of Indian students, who are still stranded in Ukraine. Our evacuation efforts have been adversely impacted by the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings. It is important to maintain an uninterrupted and predictable movement of people. It is an urgent humanitarian necessity that must be immediately addressed, Tirumurti said. Taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances, we have decided to abstain, he said. The global order is anchored on international law, the UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states. We are all agreed on these principles, he said. While a UNSC resolution would have been legally binding and General Assembly resolution are not, vote in the Assembly is symbolic of world opinion on the crisis. With the adoption of the resolution by the UN Security Council, it was for the first time in 40 years that the Council decided to call for an emergency special session in the UN General Assembly. This will be only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950. Following the decision taken in the Security Council, President of the 76th session of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid tweeted that he will preside over the Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on Monday morning. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in the Council Sunday that the Security Council has taken an important step forward toward holding Russia accountable. For the first time in decades, it has called for an Emergency Special Session in the General Assembly. The Council members who supported this resolution recognise that this is no ordinary moment. We need to take extraordinary actions to meet this threat to our international system and do everything we can to help Ukraine and its people, she said. The US envoy said President Putin put Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, even though he is invading a country with no nuclear weapons and is under no threat from NATO, a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine. Ukraine's envoy at the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya said that those Council members who see no reason in supporting the request to have the emergency UNGA session should know that most Ukrainian cities are now constantly hearing warnings of air raids and they should look at the pictures and footage of what happened afterwards. Elaborating on other consequences of violence across Ukraine, he voiced extreme alarm at Russia's nuclear blackmail, a threat he said the world must take very seriously. Russia's envoy at the UN and Council President for February Vassily Nebenzia, spoke in his national capacity, saying that each permanent member has a right to use the veto for such specific reasons as achieving global stability. He also urged members to stop aiding and abetting the current social media misinformation war against the Russian Federation. We hear lies and deceit about the indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian facilities, hospitals and schools when the Russian army does not threaten civilians in Ukraine; it does not shell civilian infrastructure, Nebenzia said. During the Security Council meeting, many members sought diplomatic efforts to peacefully settle the Ukraine crisis, and said they would be watching Ukraine-Russia meeting expected to take place on Monday. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Minsk, February 28: A Ukrainian delegation that is expected to hold talks with Russia is headed to Belarus via Poland and the meeting is expected to start on Monday morning, a source close to the organizers of the talks told Sputnik. "The talks will be held on Monday morning due to the fact that, fearing for their lives, the Ukrainian delegation did not take the direct route, through Gomel, but will enter [Belarus] through Poland, at the 'Warsaw Bridge' checkpoint. They are taking a huge detour," the source said on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Kiev had agreed to hold talks with Russia in Belarus. Belta reported that the two delegations will meet in the Gomel region, at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. Russia-Ukraine War: Russian Customers Barred From Using Apple, Google Pay Services After US Imposed Heavy Financial Sanctions. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Russian delegation is already prepared for the talks and is waiting for their Ukrainian counterparts to arrive, following a phone call between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters on Sunday that Kiev "will not surrender" and expects the upcoming talks with Russia to result in a Russian troop withdrawal from Ukraine. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Berlin, Feb 28 (AP) The United Nations' nuclear watchdog says missiles have hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, but there are no reports of damage to the buildings or indications of a release of radioactive material. In a statement late Sunday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi says Ukrainian authorities informed his office about the overnight strike. He says his agency expects to soon receive the results of on-site radioactive monitoring. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Russian Customers Barred From Using Apple, Google Pay Services After US Imposed Heavy Financial Sanctions. The report came a day after an electrical transformer at a similar disposal facility in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was damaged. Such facilities typically hold low-level radioactive materials such as waste from hospitals and industry, but Grossi says the two incidents highlight a very real risk. He says if the sites are damaged there could be potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Also Read | BREAKING: Reuters Reports That the Bank of Chinas Singapore Division Has stopped Latest Tweet by The Spectator Index. Canberra Australia will provide lethal military equipment to Ukraine to help the Ukrainians resist the Russian invasion. The Australian government's announcement Monday gave no details on what material it may be sending. The move follows an offer on Friday of non-lethal military equipment, medical supplies and a $3 million contribution to a NATO trust fund for support of the besieged country. Australia has imposed sanctions on more than 350 Russian individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin since Thursday. Australia has also targeted with sanctions 13 individuals and entities in Belarus, including that country's defense minister, Viktor Khrenin. Belarus is supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine. ___ Toronto The two largest media companies in Canada are dropping Russian state TV channel RT from their cable offerings. Rogers spokesman Andrew Garas says Russia Today will no longer be available on its channel lineup as of Monday. The Bell media company also is removing RT. Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is commending the action, saying Russia has been conducting warfare in Ukraine since 2014 and information warfare across the world. He says RT is the propaganda arm of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime that spreads disinformation. ___ Frankfurt An Austria-based subsidiary of Russia's state-owned Sberbank has been ruled likely to fail after depositors fled due to the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The European Central Bank said early Monday that the bank had 13.6 billion euros in assets at the end of last year, but has experienced significant deposit outflows due to geopolitical tensions. The ECB says Vienna-headquartered Sberbank Europe AG is likely to be unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due. The bank is a fully owned subsidiary of Russia's Sberbank, whose majority shareholder is the Russian government. Europe's bank resolution board separately says it has imposed a payments ban on money owed by the bank and a limit on how much depositors can withdraw. The board will decide on further steps, which could include restructuring, selling or liquidating the bank. Sberbank Europe operates 185 branches and has more than 3,933 employees. (AP) (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 28 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to his Slovakian counterpart Eduard Heger and thanked him for the assistance provided by the Slovak Republic in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. In a phone call, PM Modi requested for Slovak Republic's continued assistance in the next few days as well as India undertook to evacuate other citizens from conflict zones. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Ukrainian Towns Authorise Officers To Shoot Looters on the Spot. "Prime Minister thanked Eduard Heger for the assistance provided by Slovak Republic in evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine, and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. He requested for Slovak Republic's continued assistance in the next few days as India undertook to evacuate other citizens from conflict zones," the Prime Minister's office said in a statement. PM Modi also informed Heger about the deployment of Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Law and Justice, as his special envoy to oversee the evacuation efforts of Indian citizens. Also Read | Arya Aldrin, Indian Medical Student in Ukraine, Refuses To Leave Behind Her 5-Year-Old Siberian Husky Zairaa. He expressed his anguish at the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and reiterated India's consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue, the statement said adding further that PM Modi also stressed upon the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Taipei, February 28: The Russian military operations in Ukraine have put the world's limelight on Taiwan. It is on this tenuous front line. Just as President Vladimir Putin can't tolerate Ukrainian sovereignty, the Chinese Communist Party will never accept the separateness of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a core part of China. The American media is already speculating that, in the words of The Atlantic, Russia's action "makes the frightening possibility of China seizing control of the island more real," reported think tank, Policy Research Group (POREG) "President Xi Jinping's nationalist fervour, commitment to the restoration of Chinese power, and more aggressive approach compared with his predecessors when it comes to territorial and maritime disputes, relations with the US and its allies, as well as the international system writ large, have already become a destabilizing force in Asia," said The Atlantic article. "Gaining control over Taiwan, or as the party prefers to call it, 'reunification,' is a primary goal of Chinese foreign policy. In a world order where authoritarian states are more assertive and democratic allies are on the back foot, the chances of war over Taiwan increase," added the article. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Negotiations Between Russia and Ukraine Begin in Belarus to Resolve the Ongoing Conflict. Xi has already been intimidating the government in Taipei by sending squadrons of jets to harass the island, while Beijing's complete suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong undermines any hope that Taiwan would retain a semblance of its current freedom were it to be incorporated into Communist Party-led China. It is, of course, too premature to give a date for China's so-called advance against Taiwan. The simple explanation is, unlike Putin, Xi is not "amassing an invasion force on the strait separating Taiwan from the Chinese mainland," reported POREG. Unlike Putin, the Chinese in him makes Xi rely more on patience than hurry because he believes Taiwan is inevitably China's and so he can wait for the right time. And if the United States, European Union and NATO do nothing to thwart Putin other than heap sanctions against him, it will send a specific message to authoritarian regimes like Xi's. They would want to test the outer limits of western liberal politics time and again. Significantly, Xi may interpret the western reaction short of military intervention as a sign of growing American weakness. A leader like Xi can fatalistically believe it to be the inevitable American decline and see in it the necessary rise of China. That is problematic, reported POREG. China is already playing the Russian roulette, much to the West's consternation. The Asian giant has in recent weeks been leaning towards Russia as the Ukraine build-up continued. Beijing's reaction was at four levels - Blame the US and NATO for the conflict; Provide tacit diplomatic support to Russia; Urge resolution of conflict through dialogue and Stress principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference Optimists may say China too must have been surprised by Putin's sudden march into Ukraine and, therefore, tried to balance its strategic ties with Russia and its current relations with Europe and the US. China also blames NATO's expansion for the Ukraine crisis and sees Russia committing no wrong and no transgression against all international rules. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) A teen tossed out of a Brooklyn party then accused of stabbing two bouncers, one fatally, claims he found the murder weapon in the middle of the clash, police said Monday. Jose Velasco, 19, allegedly knifed a 21-year-old bouncer in the back and killed fellow bouncer Marvin Pretto, 25, with a stab wound to the chest. Advertisement Velasco, who has no previous arrest history, showed up at a bash inside a new event space on the ground floor of a building on Seventh St. near Third Ave. in Gowanus Saturday night. Scene of fatal stabbing on 7th St. near Third Ave. in Gowanus, Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Around 10:40 p.m., Velasco was kicked out of the party, sparking a melee on the sidewalk that spilled over into the street, surveillance video viewed by the Daily News shows. Advertisement The second bouncer came towards the defendant. They were fighting outside in the street, Assistant District Attorney David Ingle said during Velascos arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday. The defendant stabbed that second bouncer in the chest causing him to collapse and then to succumb to his injuries. Velasco was arrested a few blocks away after the stabbings. He was charged with first-degree manslaughter for the killing and assault for the stabbing of the bouncer who survived. The defendant stated that he found the knife when he got into the fight, Ingle said in court. A woodworker who lives in the neighborhood said the party was only an hour old when the stabbing happened. There had to be 50 to a hundred people at this party, said the man, who gave only his first name, Pat, 34. I saw a bunch of arguing. ... Somebody in the crowd yelled, He has a knife! The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > Pat said he grabbed rags from his workshop, ran to Pretto and tore off his shirt, applying pressure to his wound. Blood on the sidewalk where a fatal stabbing took place on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Medics rush Pretto to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital but he could not be saved. Advertisement His wounded coworker is in stable condition at the same hospital. Velasco was ordered held without bail at his Monday arraignment. My client is a 19-year-old with no criminal history, said Roy Wasserman, a Legal Aid attorney. He declined to comment on the specifics of the case. Wasserman said he will investigate the case further before he makes an argument that Velasco should be released on bail. Velasco is due back in court March 4. The stabbing happened just down the block from the popular Bell House music venue. New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI): As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to evolve rapidly, the Ukrainian Ambassador to India Dr Igor Polikha on Monday said that the country has suffered many civilian casualties due to the Russian military operation. Speaking at a press conference here in New Delhi, Polikha said, "We're suffering a lot of civilian casualties. According to official information of our Ministry, already 16 children were killed from bombings, shellings and so on as a result of Russian peace-fighting operation." Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Next 24 Hours Crucial For Ukraine, Says President Volodymyr Zelenksy. Giving an update on the ongoing conflict, Polikha said the Air space of Europe was closed for Russian airplanes on Sunday. "The Russian economy is crippling every day. Russia is having absolutely unprecedented casualties. Approximately 5,300 Russian soldiers have lost their lives," he claimed. Polikha also requested all foreign partners of Ukraine to exert pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to "stop the war." "Today, our delegation went to hold the first round of peace talks. Continuous shelling, bombing took place even during the peace talk," he said. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Russians Central Bank Raises Rate to 20% From 9.5% to Help Ruble Amid Western Financial Sanctions. This press conference comes two days after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday over the situation in his country and urged India for its political support in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) against Russia. During the presser today, Polikha said the number of Ukrainian refugees has exceeded 4 lakh due to the ongoing conflict in his country. "If the war is not stopped, the number can reach up to 7 million. there are very long queues on the border. Lakhs of Ukrainians are standing in queues, trying to cross the border," he said. Last week, the Ukrainian ambassador had called India a "very influential global player" and sought India's support amid the ongoing Russian military operation in Ukraine. Despite claims of civilian casualties from Ukraine, Russia continues to maintain that they are targeting only military installations in the country. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington, February 28: White House on Sunday (local time) said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's move to place the country's nuclear deterrent forces on a "special" alert shows the pattern of unwarranted escalation and "manufactured threats" from the Kremlin, reported local media. "This is really a pattern that we've seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression -- and the global community and the American people should look at it through that prism," CNN News quoted White House press secretary Jen Psaki during her conversation with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week". Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War Live Updates: Ukraine Agrees to Hold Talks With Russia; Belarus Votes to Give up Non-Nuclear Status. Terming Putin's move as a totally unnecessary step, another senior administration official said that Putin was never under threat from Ukraine or NATO. "The only reason his forces face a threat today is that they invaded a sovereign country, and one without nuclear weapons," the media outlet quoted him as saying. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Australia Announces Fresh Sanctions Against Russia, Imposes Travel Ban on Vladimir Putin. This comes as Putin placed Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on a "special" alert on Sunday amid the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine. "Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area... I'm speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of. However, the top officials of the leading NATO countries also make aggressive statements against our country as well," RT News quoted him as saying. Meanwhile, Ukraine has agreed to meet with a Russian delegation in Belarus, and Russians are heading to the place where the talks will be held, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said on Sunday. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bollywood actor Sonu Sood is quite elated with his journey as a host of the youth-based reality show 'Roadies 18'. He has replaced actor-VJ Rannvijay Singha, who has been hosting the show for the past many years. Season 18 of the reality show is set against the locales of South Africa. While sharing his excitement, Sonu says: "I am overjoyed to begin the 'Roadies' shoot." Confirmed! Rannvijay Singha To Quit Roadies; Sonu Sood To Be The Mentor-Host Of The Reality Show? "It is one reality show I have been following very closely over the years, and I am very excited to add my flavour to it. I am sure it will be a journey like no other," he adds. As per the reports, the concept of the show has also changed a bit and the idea of gang leaders maynot exist. Neha Dhupia, Prince Narula, and others were seen as gang leaders in past seasons. The show is expected to start in March on MTV India. Sonu Sood Announced as New Host of MTV Roadies After Rannvijay Singha's Exit. Meanwhile, Sonu Sood has Chandraprakash Dwivedi's historical epic action drama, 'Prithviraj' and Koratala Siva's 'Acharya'. He will also venture into an out-and-out actioner with 'Fateh'. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2022 05:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Maha Shivratri is a propitious Hindu festival that is celebrated annually on Chaturdashi Tithi during Krishna Paksha in the month of Magha. According to the Hindu calendar, in other parts of India, the auspicious occasion is observed on the 13th or 14th night of Krishna Paksha in Phalguna. Unlike most Hindu festivals which are celebrated during the day, the Maha Shivaratri is celebrated at night. There are numerous holy rituals and customs which are practiced by the devotees of God Shiva to praise him. Like as a tradition, people wake up early in the morning and take a customary morning bath before visiting the Shiv temple. Some women keep day-long fast, or Maha Shivratri Vrat for their partners or future husband. Maha Shivratri 2022 Wishes in Hindi & Bholenath Images for Free Download Online: WhatsApp Stickers, GIFs, HD Wallpapers and SMS To Send to Family & Friends. Traditionally, there are some specific plants that are offered to Shiv Ji during the puja. We have curated some major flowers and fruit plants that are used during the Maha Shivratri puja and are considered Mahadev's favourite. Maha Shivratri 2022: From Shree Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain to Baba Bhootnath Mandir in Mandi, 5 Best Places To Visit and Celebrate Lord Shiva Festival. 1. Dhatura Dhatura Plant (Photo Credits: Wiki Media Commons) Also known as moonflower or thorn apple, Dhatura is extensively used during Maha Shivratri Puja. The flower and fruits of Dhatura plant are considered holy because of mythological reasons. It is believed that Dhatura plant grew out of Shiva's chest when he drank the dangerous Halahala poison which came out during the Samudra Manthan. The Dhatura plant abated the effect of poison, possessing some poisonous qualities itself. That being the case, devotees offer Dhatura plant to Lord Shiva and pray for removing all the toxins, bad emotions, and negativity from the soul and body. 2. Bael Bael Plant (Photo Credits: Wiki Media Commons) Bael or Bilpatre in Hindi, is offered to Lord Shiva in order to cool down his temper and represent happiness, wellbeing, and destruction of sins. The leaves of Bael are kept on the head of God Shiva or on the emblem the Shiv lingam. 3. Bhang Cannabis Plant (Photo Credits: Flickr) As per Hindu mythologies, Bhang or Cannabis kept Lord Shiva intoxicated and warm in harsh and cold weather conditions of the Himalayas. That's bhang leaves are also used during the Maha Shivratri puja. 4. Peeli Kaner Peeli Kaner Plant (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons) People believe that the bright yellow poisonous flower is Shiv Ji's favourite and that's why they are also offered to the Shiv Lingam during the Maha Shivratri Puja. Watch: Maha Shivratri Puja Vidhi Furthermore, Rudraksha and the white flower Akonda are also offered to Shiv Ji. Following the rituals prescribed in the Shiva Purana, every three hours, Shivalingam is given a special bath with honey, milk, yogurt, sandalwood paste, and rose water. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2022 12:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the biggest concern for the Government of India is the evacuation of Indians. The Indian government has launched a mission to airlift stranded Indians in Ukraine. It has been named 'Operation Ganga'. #Lebanon and #Algeria have signed two legal agreements on the extradition of criminals and judicial cooperation in the criminal field, the National News Agency reported. pic.twitter.com/cI1giCzkug IANS Tweets (@ians_india) February 27, 2022 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) Nepal's Parliament ratifies contentious US-funded grant agreement Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 27, 2022 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh to travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students, said Govt sources. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called high-level meet on Monday on Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to the sources in government of India, said Some Union Ministers may go to neighboring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuations of Indian stranded at the borders amid Russia-Ukraine War. Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls a high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis. Some Union Ministers may go to neighboring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuations: Government Sources#RussiaUkraineCrisis (File photo) pic.twitter.com/WGhxQW0Kfg ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) El Salvador's government is seeing a new tourism number growth with a 30 percent jump since it made the cryptocurrency legal tender. This week, El Salvador's minister of tourism Morena Valdez said that the 1.4 million tourists surpassed the government's expectation of 1.1 million visitors, with Americans accounting for 60 percent of the tourists, Fortune reported. But aside from the newly passed law making cryptocurrency its legal tender, there are other reasons to visit the Central American region, which had many tourist attractions, including beaches, lush landscapes, and Mayan ruin sites. READ NEXT: Travel in Brazil Amid Pandemic: Here Are Things You Should Be Aware of Before Visiting the Latin American Country Travel in El Salvador The U.S. Department of State advised travelers to reconsider traveling to El Salvador due to crime and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Travel Health Notice for the Central American region, currently at Alert Level 3. The CDC advised travelers to ensure vaccination, and they are up to date with their COVID vaccines before traveling to El Salvador. All travelers must also follow all airline mandates, such as any requirements at their destination such as mask-wearing, proof of vaccination, testing, or quarantine. Travel requirements in other countries may be different from U.S. requirements. Those who refuse to follow their destination's requirements may be denied entry and required to return to the U.S. The State Department also advised travelers to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate tourists in an emergency. Travelers must also engage local guides certified by the national or local tourist authority when hiking in backcountry areas. El Salvador's Department of Foreign Affairs described security status as a "high degree of caution." Travelers were also advised to bring vaccination proof with them as certain locations in El Salvador require those. Wearing face masks is still a requirement. El Salvador's Tourist Attractions El Salvador flaunts volcanic formations, natural areas, and historical buildings as tourist attractions. The Central American country houses Spanish-colonial villages in field valleys, with long, broad stretches that could accommodate avid surfers. Tazumal is the place for those who wanted to see the most impressive Mayan ruin in El Salvador, with archaeologists estimating that it was first settled in 5,000 BCE and abandoned in the 13th century, according to Culture Trip. The architectural site was extensively restored in the 1940s and 1950s. However, many of the ruins remain unexcavated. Tazumal was reportedly known to have played an important role in trade. Its translation in the K'iche language means "pyramid where the victims were burned." Travelers can also visit Joya de Ceren. It is a known UNESCO World Heritage site featuring a farming community. The Mayan ruin site is also referred to as the Pompeii of the Americas after it was preserved for centuries beneath layers of volcanic ash from the eruption of Loma Caldera, according to El Salvador Info. If beaches are more of your flavor, Playa El Tunco welcomes you as the beach town is a popular destination for backpackers and surfers. For a gentler surf, Playa El Esteron is recommended. It is not as popular as many others in El Salvador but could provide you with a more tranquil ambiance in the absence of the usual crowd. For history lovers, the former colonial city Suchitoto should be in your book. The architectural landmark had suffered structural damage in the civil war that started in 1980 and lasted until 1992. Its streets are filled with culture, arts, and food festivals. Ruta de las Flores is another architectural landmark and one of the most visited destinations in El Salvador, according to Salvadorean Tours. Travelers can enjoy local traditions, coffee culture, adventure activities, local restaurants, and local markets. READ MORE: Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele Express Support to Joe Rogan This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: San Salvador, El Salvador Travel Guide 2022 - From Island Hopper TV Former first lady Michelle Obama's possible presidential bid would place Republicans "in a very difficult position," according to an ex-aide of former President Donald Trump. Speaking at the CPAC event in Orlando, Florida on Saturday, former treasury spokeswoman Monica Crowley said Michelle is both popular and "immune to criticism," The Guardian reported. Crowley noted that if Democrats were to make the former first lady run, that would be difficult for Republicans as they would reach for a candidate "who is completely plausible." She said Michelle was a Democratic convention keynote speaker in 2020, wrote her autobiography that became a bestseller, and done a 50-city tour. Crowley added that the former first lady also has huge Netflix and Spotify deals, with a voting rights group alongside Stacey Abrams, who is a Georgia politician and campaigner. She said Michelle's current trajectory "is exactly what Barack Obama did before he ran for president." She further noted that Bill and Hillary Clinton both did it too, Business Insider reported. However, Michelle has already refuted claims of her running for president during the 2018 Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston. She said at the time that the reason why she did not want to run for president was that "you have to want the job." Michelle continued to say that they just cannot find the women they like and ask them to do it as there are millions of women who are inclined and have a passion for politics. READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden Would Only Get 36 Percent of Votes if Presidential Election Was Held Today, New Poll Finds Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris 2024 Bid A November 2021 poll showed that Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris have risen as favorites for the Democratic nomination in 2024 if President Joe Biden decides not to run for reelection. Some of the other likely candidates also include former presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Harris had the most support among those candidates, with 13 percent of respondents saying they would support her. She was followed by Michelle, with the support of 10 percent of respondents, according to the Independent. American podcaster Joe Rogan speculated Michelle's run for the presidency. Rogan told listeners of the Joe Rogan Experience in 2021 that he really believes Michelle would win if she decides to run, Newsweek reported. The former first lady has been voted the most admired woman in the United States for three years in a row. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier said that Biden's intention is still to run for a second term in office. Michelle Obama During her stint as a first lady, Michelle Obama advocated for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls' education. In 2010, she introduced "Let's Move!" which brought together community leaders, medical professionals, parents, and others in a nationwide initiative to address the challenge of childhood obesity, according to Obama White House Archives. The former first lady and Biden's first lady, Jill Biden, collaborated and launched "Joining Forces" in 2011, which is a nationwide initiative calling all Americans to promote service members, veteran, and their families while supporting them through wellness, education, and employment opportunities. She launched another education initiative for young people called "Reach Higher" in 2014. The following year, Michelle Obama launched "Let Girls Learn," which is a U.S. government-wide effort to help girls around the world to go to school and stay in school. READ MORE: Donald Trump Mocks Joe Biden at Arizona Rally, Mimics the President's Voice: 'I'm Gonna Get Rid of COVID' This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Joe Rogan PREDICTS Michelle Obama Would Defeat Donald Trump In Potential 2024 Presidential Matchup - From The Hill A 27-year-old man was shot and wounded during a confrontation on a Brooklyn subway platform, police said Monday. The victim was blasted in the chest on the L train platform inside the Broadway Junction station about 10:10 p.m. Sunday, cops said. Advertisement Medics rushed the victim to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was listed Monday in stable condition. The gunman got away and has not been caught. Advertisement Police investigate a shooting at the Broadway Junction subway station in Brooklyn on Sunday. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News) Last Monday, the city started its promised crackdown on violence in the subway, with an emphasis on getting help for the mentally ill and the homeless, some of whom have been involved in high-profile transit attacks. Police investigate a shooting at the Broadway Junction subway station in Brooklyn on Sunday. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News) Since then, there have been several headline-grabbing subway crimes, including a woman attacked with a pipe in the Bronx, a man nearly struck with a hatchet in Brooklyn and another Brooklyn incident in which a violinist was slashed in the neck. On Sunday homeless man William Blount, 57, was charged in a brutal Queens assault in which he allegedly ambushed a city research scientist, striking her in the head 13 times with a hammer. The victim, Nina Rothschild, 57, is recovering. With Clayton Guse The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is advising American citizens to consider leaving Russia immediately as more commercial flights from the country are being canceled. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in a statement late Sunday that citizens should leave while commercial options are still available amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions between the West and Russia, Bloomberg reported. In January, the U.S. State Department issued a recommendation that Americans should avoid traveling to Russia. According to DW News, Russian carrier Aeroflot said it was cutting off flights to all European destinations, adding that fellow Russian carrier Rossiya Airlines would also be affected. The Russian carrier said Aeroflot cancels and suspends flights from Moscow and St. Petersburg to a number of destinations due to the closure of the airspace of several European countries. Some European countries have imposed a ban on Russian aircraft from their airspace, including Germany, Italy, Iceland, the Netherlands, the U.K., and most Eastern European EU member states. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has ordered that Russia's nuclear deterrence forces be put on high alert. Putin said that he ordered the defense minister and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces to put the deterrence force of the Russian army into a special mode of combat service. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said the number of people who have fled Ukraine has now surpassed 368,000. READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden's Administration Handed China Intelligence on Russia's Invasion; China Told Russia the U.S. Intel: Report U.S. Embassy in Moscow Calls Amid Russia-Ukraine Crisis The U.S. Embassy in Moscow also asked American citizens to have a "contingency plan that does not rely on U.S. government assistance," Reuters reported. The embassy advised Americans on February 20 to have an evacuation plan with the threat of attacks in Moscow and along the Russian border with Ukraine. The E.U.'s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the Russia-Ukraine crisis would be a defining moment for the history of Europe. Borrell noted that there had been a "taboo" against the European Union using collective resources to arm a country that is at war with another. However, he added that "another taboo has fallen these days," NBC News reported. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, said that Putin has "resorted to nuclear blackmail" and perverted the basis of the international Genocide Convention for his own agenda. Russia's Ambassador to U.N. Denies Targeting Civilians in Ukraine Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian diplomat assigned to the U.N., denied accusations of Russian armed forces targeting Ukrainian civilians. Nebenzya continued to push the narrative that crimes by Ukrainian nationalists were what drove Putin's invasion. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden called on American citizens in Ukraine to leave "now" as Russia continues to threaten an invasion. Biden told NBC News anchor Lester Holt that it was not like dealing with a terrorist organization but "with one of the largest armies in the world." "It's a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly," the president added. READ MORE: Pres. Joe Biden Smirks, Picks Teeth After Reporter Asks if He 'Underestimated' Russia's President Vladimir Putin This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Thousands of Ukrainian, US Citizens Flee Amid Russia's Initial Invasion | Nightline - From ABC News Alfredo "El Contador" Cardenas, an elusive Gulf Cartel leader, was arrested in Mexico's state of Tamaulipas on Saturday. According to Breitbart, state police forces arrested El Contador in Matamoros city based on various criminal charges filed by the Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office (FGJ). El Contador, a known top leader of the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros and its surrounding areas, is a relative of jailed drug kingpin Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the former head of the Gulf Cartel and founder of the Los Zetas cartel. Mexican authorities have already arrested El Contador twice in the past. However, the feared drug cartel boss was released by federal judges under suspicious rulings after claims of irregularities in the case. El Contador's arrest came a week after Tamaulipas state police forces apprehended another Gulf Cartel leader named Obed Pena, who was a regional leader in Diaz Ordaz city. Mexican authorities then turned him over to their U.S. counterparts in relation to a murder in Hidalgo County in Texas. A Hidalgo County Justice of the Peace has formally charged Pena with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder, and a judge has set his bonds at $2 million. In response to his arrest, members of the Gulf Cartel reportedly set out blockades and a series of attacks in Diaz Ordaz, Miguel Aleman, and Reynosa cities. They fired their firearms to scare the public and knocked down security police cameras. READ NEXT: Mexico: Jalisco Cartel, Los Mezcales Cartel Engage in Bloody Spree That Saw Human Remains Left in Garbage Bag Arrest of El Contador Sets Warning of Possible Retaliation From Gulf Cartel After the arrest of El Contador and Obed Pena, the Texas Military Department (TMD) and Department of Public Safety (DPS) issued a warning over a possible retaliation from the Gulf Cartel. Breitbart reported that officials of TMD and DPS warned the National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers working in securing the border about possible retaliation from the Gulf Cartel's Matamoros faction. "We assess threats against our entire force daily, and as those threats evolve, so do our force protection measures," TMD Director of Communications Colonel Rita Holton told Breitbart. Holton assured their service members are "well-trained" and "always ready" to serve the state and secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Texas DPS Spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez underscored that there were no specific threats against their personnel as of Sunday. However, Olivarez still advised their troops to "remain vigilant." Gulf Cartel in Mexico The Gulf Cartel is one of Mexico's oldest and most powerful criminal groups before losing in recent years its territory over rivals, including its former enforcer faction, the Zetas. The criminal activities of the Gulf Cartel can be dated back to 1984 when Juan Garcia Abrego was in control of the drug-trafficking business that his uncle formerly headed. InSight Crime reported that the Gulf Cartel is still in control of a key criminal area in Tamaulipas that allows the group to continue trafficking large drug shipments across the U.S.-Mexico border. READ MORE: Mexico Government Confirms Gulf Cartel Clandestine Human Incineration Site Near Texas Border This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Joshua Summers WATCH: Mexican Cartels: The Gulf Cartel - From RANE Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said the Starlink satellite broadband service is available in Ukraine, whose internet has been disrupted by Russia's invasion. Musk, who is considered one of the richest men in the world, tweeted this after the Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister and minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, asked him for help with its internet amid its war with Russia. On Saturday, Fedorov asked Musk for Starlink stations from SpaceX. According to The Street, Starlink, SpaceX's first consumer product, is one of the fastest and most robust satellite internet systems powered by a network of thousands of small low-orbit satellites. "@elonmusk, while you try to colonize Mars - Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space - Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand," Fedorov tweeted. After a few hours, the billionaire replied: "Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route." Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2022 According to reports, the Russian invasion has affected internet connectivity in Ukraine, particularly in the country's southern and eastern regions, where fighting has been the most intense. Although satellite technology is costly to deploy, it gives internet to those who live in rural or difficult-to-reach areas where cell towers and fiber-optic cables cannot reach. Elon Musk's SpaceX Will Make It Impossible for Russia to Disable Internet Access in Ukraine One commenter to the billionaire's post pointed out that Elon Musk's providing Ukraine with Starlink service will make it impossible for Russia to disable Ukrainian internet access fully without cyber attacking foreign data centers. "TRANSLATION - 'Ukraine people have access to the fastest satellite internet system ever created. Russia can not disable the Ukrainian internet access fully without cyber attacking foreign data centers'," commented American businessman Jeremy Padawer. Other comments were mostly supportive, as typical of Elon Musk fans. "I love you Elon. You rock! This sounds and feels like a super hero movie scene," a user wrote. "Perfect time Elon. Thanks!" another user commented. Fedorov appeared delighted, and he quickly announced the news on his Twitter account and thanked Elon Musk. READ NEXT: Latino Civil Rights Group Collaborates With DoorDash to Provide Training, Grants to Latino Workforce Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Appeals to Tech Giants to Block Products and Services in Russia Mykhailo Fedorov has been campaigning for tech companies to block their products and services in Russia in protest against its invasion of Ukraine. He even wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. As the Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister does everything possible to protect Ukraine and Europe, he wrote in his letter, "To stop supplying Apple Services and products to the Russian Federation, including blocking access to App Store!" Fedorov also issued similar requests to Google, Netflix, Youtube, and Facebook. However, Facebook, now known as Meta, has already taken measures against Russian businesses. According to Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Facebook, one of the measures was that they were now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on its platform anywhere in the world. Facebook also continues to apply labels to additional Russian state media, Gleicher added. Twitter has also imposed almost similar measures. READ MORE: Russia Threatens to Drop International Space Station on America, Europe Over Ukraine War Sanctions This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: Elon Musk Helps Ukraine: Activates Starlink in Ukraine - From Bubba Blue A source close to the Royal Family claims that the family is facing a "mounting distress" that Queen Elizabeth's immune system might not be able to stand up to the virus after the Queen's aides announced her COVID-19 diagnosis. Queen Elizabeth has tested positive for the virus last week and has not been seen in public since the diagnosis, according to The Daily Star report. The Queen's virtual engagements were also postponed while she is battling the virus. A source close to the family said it has left Royals "deeply worried." The source said that there are worries that the 95-year-old royal has been exposed at the "worst possible time." The person close to the family said that they are staying "tight-lipped and putting up a good front." However, there is no doubt that the Queen's condition is a worrisome scenario, with the whole country being rattled. Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace had insisted that the Queen would be continuing light duties at her desk. Queen Elizabeth is also triple vaccinated. READ NEXT: Queen Elizabeth Strips Prince Andrew of Military Titles, Use of His Royal Highness Amid Sexual Assault Allegations Queen Elizabeth Amid COVID-19 Infection Prince Charles and Prince William have come under criticism for not having stepped up during Queen Elizabeth's COVID-19 diagnosis. Royal author and biographer Clive Irving said that the two are not handling the situation as the CEO of a corporate world, looking at the situation in terms of the monarchy being a brand or company, according to a Geo TV News report. Irving added that this is the moment that the Prince of Wales should "really step forward" and have the intention to help his mother in dealing with the situation. A source earlier said that the Queen has a team of doctors to depend on whenever needed and support staff "that's second to none." The source noted that the Queen has been handling the COVID-19 diagnosis without any fuss or need to involve too many people in her recovery. The source told U.S. Weekly report that the Queen has shown extraordinary courage and is grateful for the love and support she has received. Buckingham Palace said in a statement that the Queen is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week. The palace also said that the Queen is one of several people at Windsor Castle who are infected, implying an outbreak at the royal residence, according to The New York Times report. The Queen has met with her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles. He was later reported to be reinfected with COVID-19 and went into isolation. The Prince of Wales last contracted a mild case of COVID-19 in March 2020. The palace did not detail whether Charles was the source of the infection. The Queen received a dose of a COVID vaccine in January 2021 at Windsor Castle with his husband Prince Philip. However, the palace has not confirmed whether the Queen has received the following vaccine dose. But it is widely believed that she has received two doses, with a booster. Charles and Camilla have confirmed that they are fully vaccinated, as well as administered with boosters. The Queen is scheduled to host a diplomatic reception on March 2, wherein hundreds of members of the Diplomatic Corps would be in attendance at Windsor. READ MORE: Queen Elizabeth II Warns British Media to Stay Away From Balmoral - And Her Son Prince Andrew This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: The Queen Tests Positive for COVID-19 As False Death Rumours Circulate Online | ROYAL REWIND - from ET Canada Former Attorney General Bill Barr has attacked former U.S. President Donald Trump on his new book entitled "One Damn Thing After Another." Barr's 600-page memoir is due to hit the shelves on March 8, with reports saying that Barr used the new book to attack Trump's credibility, leadership, and temperament. He also formed his own service during the Trump administration as a "personal sacrifice," according to The Daily Wire report. Barr also made his stance clear on Trump's claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. The former attorney general said that the election was not stolen from Trump and that the former president lost it. Barr claimed that the loss might have been avoided if Trump behaved differently in the weeks and months prior to the election. He added that the former president could have had "just exercised a modicum of self-restraint, moderating even a little of his pettiness." Critics lashed out at Barr for not having come forward earlier, saying that he might have been able to do something to change Trump's behavior. Legal analyst Joyce Vance tweeted about Barr's new book, as well as Sherrilyn Ifill, who is the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. How on character that Barr waited until he could make money off of it with a book to say Trump was totally unsuited for the presidency, instead of doing something about it when he had the power to. https://t.co/v9nm4ZenF5 Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 27, 2022 READ NEXT: Donald Trump Called Russian President Vladimir Putin "Pretty Savvy" Over Move On Ukraine; Pres. Joe Biden Imposes New Sanctions Bill Barr's New Book Barr also discussed in his book how country and principle "took second place" during the Trump administration. He then went on to say that the United States needs leaders not only capable of fighting and "punching" but also leaders who can frame and advocate for an uplifting vision of what it means to be an American citizen. Barr said that Trump has shown that he has "neither the temperament nor persuasive powers" to deliver the kind of positive leadership, according to an Insider report. In addition, the former attorney general cited Monday lunches with other White House attorneys, discussing a series of the "legally problematic ideas floating around the administration." The discussion includes Trump's aim to end birthright citizenship. Barr also said in his upcoming book that the possibility of Trump running for the presidency again is "dismaying." He then called the Republican Party to look at other candidates. He describes Trump as "incorrigible narcissist" who lack self-control, according to The Washington Post report. Barr wrote in his book that White House lawyers operated like "a tag team," and referred to the act as "eat the grenade." The former attorney general also cited that the former president had broached the subject of Hunter Biden, U.S. President Joe Biden's son, in mid-October 2020. Barr said that he responded to Trump's talk by saying that he is not going to talk to him about Hunter Biden. The gap in Barr and Trump's relationship appeared to have started when he refused to support the former president's claims of widespread election fraud. He said that he marshaled the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe fraud claims. Barr wrote that in each instance, the agency officials could not find any evidence to support the former president's claims of election fraud. READ MORE: Donald Trump Would Win and Beat Pres. Joe Biden if Next Presidential Election Were Held Now, New Poll Shows This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Former AG Barr says Trump's election fraud claims were found to be false - from Good Morning America There are currently 197 inmates on Texas' Death Row, including Cameron County native Melissa Lucio who would be the first Latina executed by the State of Texas and the sixth woman executed in the United States in the past decade. Lucio and her husband were moving out of their second-story apartment in February 2007 when their 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, slipped down the staircase, according to her lawyers. Despite appearing to be in good health, she died two days later as a result of injuries sustained in her accident, per the Texas Public Radio. During the trial in Cameron County, prosecutors presented a different theory: Lucio had intentionally and knowingly killed Mariah by abusing her. She was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Now facing an April 27 execution date, Lucio is making one last attempt to save her life. Her attorneys filed a motion to withdraw or modify the execution date, arguing she was denied a fair trial and wrongfully convicted. Key to Lucio's Claim of Innocence: A Police Interrogation Since then, Lucio has been on death row for 14 years, but a five-hour police interview the night Mariah died is crucial to her claim of innocence. Pressured repeatedly in admitting to abusing her daughter while deprived of food and sleep, Lucio eventually answered, "I guess I did it," her attorneys stated in their motion. Lucio had a long history of being sexually and physically abused, according to Vanessa Potkin, an attorney for Lucio and director of special litigation at the Innocence Project, making her vulnerable to the "aggressive, intimidating and psychological" tactics of the male officers. Potkin said that during the late-night interrogation, officers also analyzed Lucio's body language, assuming her guilty because she slumped over and made little eye contact. The jury never heard testimony to that effect. Lucio's defense team said they attempted to present two expert witnesses to testify that her "confession" was untrustworthy because of her background of abuse, which caused her to please others. However, both witnesses were excluded by the judge that their testimony was irrelevant, as per the lawyers' motion. The attorneys wrote that there are "serious reasons to doubt the jury's verdict and death sentence." The jury was denied the opportunity to hear Lucio's defense, which would have contextualized her custodial statement, the principal evidence against her. ALSO READ: Latino Civil Rights Group Collaborates With DoorDash to Provide Training, Grants to Latino Workforce False, Fabricated Confessions, Not Uncommon According to the National Registry of Exonerations, about 17% of exonerations in 2019 contained false or fabricated confessions. People may plead to crimes they did not commit in part due to intimidation, fear, or impaired reasoning ability, according to the Innocence Project, an organization that tries to exonerate the unfairly convicted. A state medical examiner discovered bruising on Mariah's body, a fracture in her arm, missing or patchy hair, and marks on her back, concluding that she had been beaten and died of a head injury. Potkin, on the other hand, believes that the forensic evidence in the case has never been properly examined to determine the medical support that Mariah died accidentally. In their latest motion, Lucio's attorneys are seeking more time to show evidence of her innocence. If the Cameron County District Attorney does not withdraw its request for an execution date, the case will most likely continue in the state court, according to Potkin. A prospective clemency application would be decided by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, as well as Governor Abbott. In 2020, Lucio's case became the subject of a documentary by film director and journalist Sabrina Van Tassel, titled "The State of Texas vs. Melissa." READ MORE: Russia Threatens to Drop International Space Station on America, Europe Over Ukraine War Sanctions This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: The Case of Melissa Lucio - PowerfulJRE A video circulating online shows an alleged group of armed people who arrived at a wake and opened fire, leaving at least 17 people dead in Mexico's Michoacan state Sunday. "It's not Ukraine, It's San Jose de Gracia, Michoacan," tweeted the first person to post the video. No es ucrania es San Jose de Gracia Michoacan pic.twitter.com/WGHJmUFxdx JJ Chavez (@JJChave78324397) February 28, 2022 A bystander in a neighboring house caught the horrific moment on video, which captured how the armed individuals who arrived in various white vehicles were waiting for the moment to open fire on a group of people formed on a wall. At 00:32-mark, a series of shots from large-caliber weapons were heard in the community of San Jose de Gracia, located between the borders of Michoacan and Jalisco. According to NY Daily News, the shooting occurred just a few meters from a wake, though it is unknown whose funeral services were being held. It is expected that the exact number of victims will be announced soon as authorities are already conducting various investigations in the area, MVS Noticias added. Meanwhile, agents from the National Guard, the Michoacan Police, and the Mexican Army have already launched a search operation for the alleged assassins, although there have been no positive results so far. Several drug cartels operate in the Municipality of Marcos Castellanos and are fighting for control of the region. The La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Los Caballeros Templarios, and Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) cartels are all in a turf war. "This Sunday, an armed attack on civilians in the town of San Jose de Gracia, state and federal security forces carried out patrols on highways, gaps and surrounding towns," the state agency said in a statement obtained by news outlet 24 Horas, "with the aim of avoiding more acts of violence." Authorities urged citizens to report any criminal event and provide information about the San Jose de Gracia incident that could lead to the capture of the alleged perpetrators. ALSO READ: Russia Threatens to Drop International Space Station on America, Europe Over Ukraine War Sanctions Nine Killed, One Injured in Armed Attack on a Wake in Central Mexico Last Month, attackers opened fire at a wake in Celaya's Arboledas de San Rafael, the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, killing nine people and wounding one, officials have said, per Al Jazeera. Officials from Celaya Public Safety Department said in a statement that the attackers arrived late Thursday night. The wake was held for a man who had been murdered a day earlier, according to local news. Photos from the scene showed bodies strewn in the street. Guanajuato is in the midst of a bloody turf war between opposing organized crime groups. There was no immediate report of who was responsible for the killings. Since the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang clashed with the Jalisco New Generation cartel in 2017, thousands have been killed in Guanajuato. READ MORE: Ukraine Vice PM Asks Elon Musk for Starlink Help Amid Russia Crisis, SpaceX Boss Gives Perfect Response! This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: Tulum Shooting: 2 Dead, Multiple Injured After Shooting In Mexico - NBC News For two years before his indictment on charges of looting his unions treasury, Sergeants Benevolent Association ex-president Ed Mullins spent significant time pursuing a reexamination of the 2003 death of a young Staten Island woman believed to have killed herself with a gun belonging to her police officer boyfriend, the womans family and other sources told the Daily News. Marissa Antonucci, 23, was found with a gaping bullet wound in her head on Feb. 28, 2003 on the floor of the bathroom in her apartment on Quail Lane in Rossville. Next to her was an NYPD-issued gun registered to her boyfriend, Police Officer Joseph Keeney, 29. Advertisement Marissa Antonucci, 23, was found with a gaping bullet wound in her head on Feb. 28, 2003 on the floor of the bathroom in her apartment on Quail Lane in Rossville. Next to her was an NYPD-issued gun registered to her boyfriend, Police Officer Joseph Keeney, 29. (Obtained by Daily News) Antonuccis family has been campaigning for years to reopen the investigation into her death, which they have long viewed as suspicious. Mullins took an interest in the case in 2020 and visited Antonuccis mother on the 17th anniversary of the young womans death. Advertisement Then, in an unusual move for the head of a 12,600-member police union, Mullins paved the way for meetings on the case in SBA headquarters on Worth St. in lower Manhattan and helped bring in three experts who did detailed reexaminations of the case, including a reconstruction of the death scene. Former SBA President Ed Mullins leaves Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday after being arraigned. (GREGG VIGLIOTTI/for New York Daily News) Mullins involvement in the case gave me a lot of hope and faith in the case being reopened and investigated, said Antonuccis mom, Laura Anzalone, 59. We have never believed she took her own life, Anzalone said. When he got involved, things started to take on momentum. Laura Anzalone holds a photo of her daughter, Marissa Antonucci. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Mullins, who was indicted Wednesday in Manhattan Federal Court on federal wire fraud charges involving allegedly false expense reports, declined to comment through his lawyer. He stepped down from the union in October. Front page for Oct. 6, 2021: Union big Mullins quits as FBI raids his home and office. (New York Daily News) Antonuccis relatives say that in February 2003 she had decided to break off her four-year relationship with Keeney, who is the son of retired NYPD assistant chief Joseph Keeney. Antonucci had been diagnosed with lupus and was seeing a therapist but her family maintains she showed no sign of wanting to take her own life. On the morning before she died Antonucci was in bed recovering from tonsil surgery. She had made plans to see her aunt Camille Passantino and two close friends later that day or the next morning. She had also left a message to let family know when she would be home from the hospital. Advertisement About 3 p.m., Antonuccis father John visited to check on her. Her boyfriend, Keeney, came outside and spoke with the dad for a few minutes. Marissa Antonucci holds her younger sister, Mary Spagnuolo. (Obtained by Daily News) Keeney told investigators he then went inside and found Antonucci dead of a gunshot wound. She was in a seated position, her body partially blocking the bathroom door, with Keeneys police-issue semiautomatic pistol lying next to her. She had been alone in the house for only a few minutes, investigators found. She was completely out of it from the anesthetic from her recent surgery, said Passantino, 46, a yoga instructor. How in that short period she could get up, decide to do this, get the gun, sit on the floor, lift the gun and pull the trigger it just never made any sense to me. The investigation concluded Antonucci took the gun from the top of the refrigerator, where Keeney had left it. Investigators also found a note dated that day which read, I love you. No more pain. Advertisement The Staten Island DA at the time, William Murphy, was related to Keeney, as was a detective in Staten Islands 123rd Precinct, so the Brooklyn DAs office was brought in to review the case. The Brooklyn prosecutors took no action and referred it back to the NYPD. Marrissa Antonucci's sister Mary Spagnuolo (left) and her mother, Laura Anzalone (right) hold photos of her. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) An investigation by the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau found that Keeney failed to secure his weapon. He lost nine vacation days as a penalty but kept his job. Keeney retired from the NYPD in 2008 after 14 years, and was awarded a lifetime disability pension for a line-of-duty shoulder injury that pays him $67,756.08 a year tax free, records show. Laura Anzalone filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2004 against Keeney and the City of New York that was dismissed in 2009. According to a letter on file from her lawyer at the time, she failed to appear at a key court date and became difficult to reach, leaving the judge with no choice but to dismiss the case. When Mullins got involved in 2020, he paved the way for Anzalone to obtain pro bono services from three experts, including Barbara Butcher, a former chief of staff for the city medical examiner, and John Paolucci, a former detective sergeant in the NYPDs Forensics Investigation Division. Mullins also allowed SBA headquarters to be used for eight meetings. Advertisement Paolucci performed a videotaped reconstruction of the scene and compiled a 105-page presentation that argued it was highly unlikely Antonucci shot herself. Reached by the Daily News, Paolucci said in a text message, I welcome the opportunity to present my findings in this case to members of the justice system. Former SBA President Ed Mullins left 500 Pearl St. in Manhattan last Wednesday after arraignment on corruption charges. He posted $250,000 bond. (GREGG VIGLIOTTI/for New York Daily News) In September 2020, Butcher and Paolucci led a two-hour Zoom meeting with Dr. Barbara Sampson, then the citys chief medical examiner, making the case for the cause of death to be changed. Sampson, in a two-paragraph letter later that month, declined to do so but did not state her reasons, records show. Butcher declined to comment on her association with the case and Sampson did not reply to an email. The third expert, Dr. Robert Gonzalez, a former assistant NYPD commissioner for training, wrote a memo in October 2020 to Antonuccis family listing a series of discrepancies in the original police investigation, which he called peculiar and incompetent. Gonzalez concluded that a ballistics exam wasnt completed before Internal Affairs began closing the case and the medical examiner ruled Antonuccis death a suicide, his memo says. Advertisement He also wrote that the gun appeared to be wiped clean and sanitized and blood drops on the floor were inconsistent with blood spatter normally found in a close-range shooting. And he wrote that a complete review of phone records did not appear to have been done. Based on the discrepancies, coupled with the ballistics report, a new investigation into the details of this incident is required, Gonzalez wrote, suggesting the case reeked of a cover-up. Joe Murray, a lawyer advising Antonuccis family, said the reexamination of the case prodded by Mullins raises many questions. I believe a reopening of this investigation is warranted based on the totality of the circumstances, based on the evidence that weve seen, Murray said. Just the appearance of impropriety here is enough to warrant a reinvestigation. The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > Murray said he plans to make an additional submission to the Medical Examiners office with affidavits from people never interviewed by the police and other material. NYPD officials declined to comment on the possibility of reopening the probe of Antonuccis death. Advertisement Antonuccis half-sister Mary Spagnuolo (left(, and her mother, Laura Anzalone (right). (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Antonuccis half-sister Mary Spagnuolo, 27, was eight when she died. I remember her almost as a second mother. She was very artistic, very funny, Spaguolo said. It took a great toll on the family. I would like to see something that is representative of justice. Reached Friday, Keeney, now 48 and living out of state, expressed surprise at the renewed examination of the case. I dont have a problem with the family. What she did, she did, he said. It was 19 years ago. I loved the girl. She was awesome. But you dont know whats going on in someone elses head. I dont know what else to say. Of course, it affected me. Im the one who found her, Keeney added. What people say or think about me is one thing. I only know what I know. I went in and found her, and called 911. People in Laois clearly want a right to flexible work at home following the results a new opinion poll,. according Labour representative in Laois Eoin Barry. He was commenting on the results of Ireland Thinks poll that shows 69% of people in Leinster believe in right to flexible work. Calling on the Government to support Labours bill to provide an automatic right to flexible work, Mr Barry said the gains for workers, families, communities, marginalised groups and the environment which have resulted from the greater adoption of flexible work practices during the pandemic must not be squandered. There is a clear demand to keep the newfound flexibility of the work for better access to employment and a better work life balance. A right to flexible work can, and already has, make work more equal in this country. With female full-time employment rising by an impressive 7.5% in a two-year period between the end of 2019 and 2021, we know that something has happened during the pandemic. 81% of women surveyed on behalf of the Labour Party want flexible work to be the default and not the exception. Ireland has the highest rate of joblessness among lone parents in the EU. We also have the highest share of those with a permanent disability who are not in paid employment. There are many who want to work but due to structural reasons feel shut out by the jobs market. We believe that the availability of flexible work is the answer to encouraging a more equal, more diverse workplace that works for people. We have seen communities throughout Laois thrive during the pandemic. As well as improving their quality of life, this contribution to local economies in Laois has been clearly felt. At a time when government remains disinterested in resolving the extortionate cost of renting in our cities, Labour are demanding that government do not turn the clock back in terms of work in Ireland. Prior to the pandemic far too many people in Laois were forced to commute long distances to work. This was always unstustainable but is even more challenging now with the rise in the cost of fuel. Thats what the Bill we have published hopes to achieve. We want flexible work to be made available to all employees in jobs where it is possible. Work arrangements have evolved during the pandemic and this must be taken into account. Experience of flexible work must count for both existing and incoming workers. Under the governments proposed legislation, employers essentially have the right to refuse requests for flexible work. Our Bill does not give an absolute veto to employers to refuse working arrangements. Any appeal on the grounds of refusal would be available through the Workplace Relations Commission. Unlike the governments menu of options for refusal, the grounds for refusal in our bill have been tightly restricted to issues of practicality or security reasons. The future of how work in Ireland is organised is one of the great issues of our times. We have seen perhaps 15 years of change pushed into two years. Embedding a right to flexible work in legislation would be a game changer for people in Laois, he said. The poll also showed that 81% of women want the right to flexible work and 81% of young people call for the right to flexible work. The Government has promised legislation which gives people the right to ask to work remotely. Mr Barry contested the last local elections in Laois as a candidate in the Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District. Kildare County Councillors have called on An Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Minister for Foregin Affairs, Simon Coveney to expel the Russian Ambassador to Ireland. The letter was issued by Mayor of Kildare, Cllr Naoise O Cearuil on behalf of Kildare County Council and received unanimous support from the forty Kildare councillors. The letter states: In response to the unlawful invasion of Ukraine by President Putin and to show Irelands support for Ukraines government and people, the members of Kildare County Council, representing the people of Kildare, call upon the Irish Government to expel the Russian Ambassador to Ireland, Yury Anatoliyevich Filatov. Mayor O Cearuil stated, "Many people will be watching the horror and tragedy unfolding in Ukraine and will feel a sense of helplessness. Collectively we must all look to what little thing we can do to support our European neighbours in Ukraine, boost their morale and offer them whatever little hope or assistance we can. This is a small symbol to the Ukrainian people in Ireland and particularly here in Kildare that says "we're with you". At the request of Mayor O Cearuil Kildare County Council will also be flying the Ukrainian flag at Aras Chill Dara. Ireland may expel some Russian diplomats in the coming days, but will likely stop short of ejecting the ambassador, the Foreign Affairs Minister has said. Simon Coveney, speaking amid growing calls for the Russian ambassador to be expelled, said that he understood public and political anger directed at Russia and Yury Filatov as the countrys representative in Ireland. He indicated that Ireland might move to expel some Russian diplomats, but ruled out expelling the ambassador. I can totally understand the anger and the sentiment behind that. My job as a foreign minister is to try to think ahead here. We are going to have Irish citizens, hundreds of them, living and working in Russia. We do have today. We have many Irish citizens still in Ukraine too. I need to make sure that we have lines of communication open so that I can help those people and do my job. And even if you fundamentally disagree with somebody, as we do with Russia right now, and youre trying to hold them to account, as we are trying at the moment, you still have to keep lines of communication open, in my view. Does that mean that we wont be expelling some Russian diplomats or some operatives that are in Ireland who may not be diplomats in the next few days? No, it doesnt. We may well do that. But I dont think its wise for us to expel the Russian ambassador and have no Russian presence in Ireland to allow us to have a direct line of communication with Moscow for humanitarian reasons primarily, but also to ensure that we can let them know what the Irish view is very directly in terms of Russian actions. Mr Coveney said that no country in the EU has so far moved to expel their Russian ambassador. The expulsion of diplomats or Russian staff in embassies is quite a significant thing to do. It sends a very strong signal and Russia will respond in kind. I think its likely that something will happen in that space, but we do need to be targeted. We need to bear in mind the interests of Irish citizens, both in Russia and across Ukraine. Priti Patel ruled out a visa waiver for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict with Russia because of fears that Moscows troops and extremists could seek to come to the UK. The Home Secretary, who has come under intense political pressure from MPs across the Commons to do more to allow Ukrainian refugees to reach the UK, insisted she was taking action to open safe routes. She told MPs she was following the strongest security advice as she rejected the call to scrap the need for visas. Over the weekend I have seen members of this House calling for full visa waivers for all Ukrainians, Ms Patel said. The facts for Ukrainian nationals on the ground wishing to apply for a UK Visa: Share this now #StandwithUkraine pic.twitter.com/Y9mMkEnLTG Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) February 26, 2022 Security and biometric checks are a fundamental part of our visa approval process worldwide and will continue, as they did for the evacuation of people from Afghanistan. That is vital to keep British citizens safe and to ensure that we are helping those in genuine need, particularly as Russian troops are now infiltrating Ukraine and merging into Ukrainian forces. Intelligence reports also state the presence of extremist groups and organisations who threaten the region but also our domestic homeland. We know all too well what Putins Russia is willing to do, even on our soil, as we saw through the Salisbury attack. Research by Dogs Trust Ireland has revealed that 54% of dog owners have not considered who will look after their pet, should they pass away before their dog does. The Charity hopes its poignant Big Shoes to Fill campaign will highlight the importance of having plans in place for pets should the worst happen and motivate dog owners to avail of their free Canine Care Card service. The emotive TV ad shows the special bond between a dog and his owner who sadly passes away. Having the card means Dogs Trust will be able to care for beloved pets, should their owners become too ill to be able to keep their dog or should the worst happen. With almost 22% of those surveyed admitting that they havent even thought about what would happen to their dog if they became seriously ill or pass away, the charity is concerned this is putting some dogs in a vulnerable position. Worryingly, over 31% of respondents said while they think they have a friend or family member who would take over ownership of the dog, they have not discussed it with the person in question. Also, more than 10% said they are not sure or do not have anyone who would be able to help a cause for concern for the nations dogs. Six-year-old Bumbles owner sadly passed away last year but the charity took her and her three siblings into their care and have since found loving homes for each of the Labradors. Speaking about the free service, Becky Bristow, Executive Director at Dogs Trust Ireland said: The recent pandemic has highlighted how unpredictable life can be. Our free Canine Care Card ensures dog owners can have peace of mind that dogs like Bumble will be cared for and will find a loving home through Dogs Trust, should the worst happen. We want to normalise people making plans for their pets, so no dog is left without an owner and a roof over their head. Ciara Murran, Head of Communications at Dogs Trust Ireland continued: We're encouraging people of all ages to consider what would happen to their dog should they become too ill to care for them or should they pass away before their pet. We suggest appointing a trusted friend or family member who agrees to take care of your dog or who agrees to sign your dog over to Dogs Trust, should you be unable to do so. We also recommend updating your will to include your Canine Care Card information and letting your family and friends know of your wishes. For more information and to ensure your dog will receive a lifetime of care, even when you can't look after them, visit www.DogsTrust.ie/CanineCareCard. An apprentice electrician who money laundered more than 50,000 after answering an ad on Snapchat has been ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service. Sean William O'Rourke (21) told gardai he agreed to hand over his bank card to money launderers after seeing an ad on social media in order to make a few quid, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court previously heard. O'Rourke was told he would receive a couple of thousand euro if he allowed his bank account to be used, Detective Garda David Jennings told the court. O'Rourke, with an address at Glenview Lawns, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering within the state on February 7, 2021. He has no previous convictions. At a sentence hearing last November, Judge Martin Nolan said the court has been dealing with a lot of similar cases of young people with no prior criminal records getting involved in money laundering. This epidemic is going to have to stop somehow, Judge Nolan said. If that means young people go to jail to stop it, those young people are going to have to go to jail. The judge said he would not jail O'Rourke on this occasion. He ordered him to carry out 100 hours of community service, provided he is deemed suitable by the Probation Service. He confirmed that sentence on Monday after the Probation Service confirmed O'Rourke was suitable for community service. Det Gda Jennings told Lisa Dempsey BL, prosecuting, that an email between a company and a client was hacked, leading to the company paying a sum of 52,186 into the wrong account. The fraudulent transaction came to light when the client contacted the company seeking the payment they hadn't received. The money was traced to O'Rourke's account, which was frozen immediately. When interviewed by gardai, O'Rourke, an apprentice electrician, said he had seen an ad on Snapchat looking for people to give out their bank account details and he saw it as a way of making a few quid. He was gullible, Det Gda Jennings said. O'Rourke met a man in Tallaght and gave him his bank card. He was able to continue accessing money to his account using the tap function on his phone, the court heard. Det Gda Jennings said gardai are aware of criminal gangs in the Tallaght, Blanchardstown and Coolock areas of Dublin who are carrying out such money laundering operations. John Griffin BL, defending, said his client had not come to the attention of gardai either before or after this incident. The court heard O'Rourke didn't make any money out of the operation. The 50,000 was returned in full to the company. CHIEF Superintendent Gerry Roche says the turnaround in the garda analysis of computers is now "much faster". When contacted by the Limerick Leader following comments made by Judge Tom ODonnell regarding delays, Chief Supt Roche said: "Definitely, it has changed". In last weeks newspaper, there was a court report of a middle-aged Limerick man admitting to possessing and distributing "category one" pictures and videos under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998. A detective garda assigned to the divisional protective service unit in Henry Street told Limerick Circuit Court that he conducted a search under warrant at the mans address in February, 2015. Two devices were seized and sent to Dublin for examination. The investigating garda got the results back in 2018. The detective garda said a total of 268 images and 28 videos were found. And that 45 pictures and six videos were shared by the defendant. "They were category one offences adults having sex with children," said the detective garda. When asked about the three year delay between the search and the man being arrested, the detective said it was down to the delay in the devices being examined in Dublin. "Unfortunately there is a delay," said the detective garda. The barrister for the defendant said: "He has had this hanging over him for a long number of years." During sentencing, Judge Tom ODonnell said a mitigating factor was that there is a delay in the system. He said the accused was "caught red-handed" in February 2015. "I accept matters have to take a course but the devices were sent to Dublin for analysis in 2015. It was not completed until 2018," said Judge ODonnell. He said due to the seriousness of the categories it was deserving of a custodial sentence. "I have listened to the mitigation. It is a period of seven years since the seizure of the computers. I feel it is too long to impose a custodial sentence. It would be disproportionate," said Judge ODonnell, who stressed that he didnt want to give the impression for one moment that this court takes lightly the possession and distribution of child pornography. The accused received a two and half year suspended prison sentence to run concurrently for both the possession and distribution of child pornography. Chief Supt Roche told the Leader there were backlogs in the past. "That was a risk that was identified in the last couple of years. A national strategy was put in place to change it and there are new computer crime investigation (CCI) units in every region. There is one based in Cork. We have supplied some people to that as well. All the people that have gone into that unit have qualified in cyber crime investigation at Masters level, said Chief Supt Roche. While there are some "older cases" like the one mentioned above, the top garda in Limerick said the turnaround in computers being analysed is now "much faster". "When a case goes to court it takes a bit of time as well. The turnaround in analysis is well reduced. Devices can go to Cork or the cyber crime investigation unit in Dublin depending on the particular issue that needs to be addressed. There is criteria there, explained Chief Supt Roche. At least 17 people were reportedly shot dead in Mexicos Michoacan state Sunday after gunmen pulled them out of a wake and opened fire with automatic weapons. A bystander in a neighboring house caught the horrific moment on video when shots rang out. It reportedly showed men lined up at the wall just before they were shot. Advertisement Its not Ukraine, its San Jose de Gracia Michoacan, tweeted the first person to post the video, which was later corroborated by local news outlets. Reports said they were attendees of the wake in the community of San Jose de Gracia in Marcos Castellanos, near the Jalisco border, and the alleged executioners had emerged from a line of white vehicles. Advertisement Michoacan police, along with the Mexican Army and the National Guard, are investigating and seeking the gunmen, who fled in white vehicles, MVS Noticias reported. It was not known who the funeral was for, MVS Noticias said. Several drug cartels operate in Marcos Castellanos and are fighting for control of the region, MVS Noticias reported. The Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), La Nueva Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios cartels are all in a turf war. After it was reported, around 5:00 p.m. this Sunday, an armed attack on civilians in the town of San Jose de Gracia, state and federal security forces carried out patrols on local highways, terrain and surrounding towns with the aim of avoiding more acts of violence, the state agency said in a statement, according to the news outlet 24 Horas. Authorities urged the public to report to emergency services any information that could help solve the crime and capture suspects, 24 Horas reported. A COMMUNITY gathered together to celebrate the highly anticipated launch of one national schools brand-new website. Many months of hard, fastidious work had gone into the redesign of Parteen National Schools new website by principal Miriam Smyth, along with two other tech savvy staff members. Principal Smyth, who spoke at the event, addressed the crowd: Children, your enthusiasm each and every day makes this school a joy to teach in. The school teamed up with third-level institute TUS Limerick, who captured video and photo content, assisted by staff member Aisling O Hara and well-known Limerick photographer, Eamonn Andrews. With such enthusiasm from pupils around the new website, the school decided to mark the occasion with song, music and dance. The event was chaired by two 6th class pupils, Kara Foley and Niall Cox, who are also members of the School Council. Parents were treated to Edelweiss from the Broadway Musical and 1965 film The Sound of Music, performed by staff members, Ruth Andrews on clarinet and Judy Meskell on flute. Following this, the newly formed Parteen School trad band, composed of teachers, pupils and relatives of pupils performed: John Ryans Polka, Maggie in the Woods and The Kerry Polka. Five fantastic Irish dancers from the student body danced along to the three tunes. Principal Smyth thanked teachers, who, she said, give 100% to ensure that the children are not only receiving an excellent education, but are also enjoying each and every lesson they experience. Your combined input has made our website a vibrant celebration of the essence of Parteen National School in Clare, Principal Smyth, who was appointed in 2021, concluded. Visit the new website here: www.parteenschool.ie THE WORLD'S largest plane, that had previously visited Shannon Airport, has been destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine. It is reported that the Antonov AN-225 was destroyed at the Antonov airfield in Gostomel near Kyiv, yesterday, The plane was undergoing maintenance in a hangar at the airfield when Russian forces moved in. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies show significant damage to the hangar where the aircraft was being stored. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry confirmed in a statement that the plane had been destroyed and would be re-built "at the expense of the Russians". The statement read: "The occupiers destroyed the airplane, but they wont be able to destroy our common dream. Mriya will definitely be reborn. "The restoration is estimated to take over 3 bln USD and over 5 years. Our task is to ensure that these costs are covered by the Russian Federation, which has caused intentional damage to Ukraines aviation and the air cargo sector. "Russia has destroyed our "Mriya" (laterally translated as lathe dream), but the dream of Ukraine to get free from the occupier cannot be destroyed." The Mriya touched down in Shannon numerous times, most recently in October 2021, when it landed carrying a cargo consignment from China for distribution in the Irish retail sector. In June 2020 the aircraft visited Shannon carrying the single largest consignment of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to be flown into Ireland on a single flight. The six-storey-high plane was the only one of its kind. It had a wingspan of 88 metres, 32 wheels and was capable of carrying 640,000kgs on take-off. DIPLOMATIC relations in the west of Ireland are soaring high following the US Ambassadors first time touching down in Shannon Airport since her appointment. Shannon Group welcomed the new US Ambassador to Ireland in what was her inaugural visit to Shannon Airport since presenting her credentials to President Michael D Higgins earlier this month. During her visit, Ambassador Claire D. Cronin met with Padraig O Ceidigh, Chairman, Shannon Group, and Mary Considine, Shannon Group CEO and was briefed on activities at Shannon Airport and across the Shannon Campus. A special tour was facilitated by the Airport Operations Director Niall Maloney, who showed Ambassador Cronin the airports aviation gallery and wall of fame and the famous faces adorning it. Ambassador Cronin also received a tour of Shannon Duty Free, the worlds first duty free zone and was given a demonstration of the new airport security screening system, which is the first of its kind in any state airport, according to Shannon Group. The Ambassador also met with the airports US Customs and Border Protection team and received a tour of the facility. Welcoming the Ambassador to Shannon Airport,, CEO, Shannon Group Mary Considine referenced the notable visits of previous statespersons, movie stars, celebrities and every US Presidents since Kennedy arrived in 1963. And we were delighted to continue that tradition by welcoming the first female US Ambassador to Ireland since Jean Kennedy Smith in 1998, who was a regular visitor to Shannon, she said. The Chairperson added that the visit of Ambassador Cronin was timely, as Ireland looks forward to welcoming US tourists and businesspeople back to Shannon Airport with the restart of transatlantic air services which are so important for our regional economy. Transatlantic services will recommence from Shannon Airport on March 10 with the return of the Aer Lingus Shannon to Boston service, followed next day by the recommencement of the Aer Lingus to New York service. March 28 will see the return of the Newark service with United. INDEPENDENT Limerick TD Richard O'Donoghue is recovering following a serious road accident which saw his car flip and roll on the M7 motorway. The incident happened on the Limerick-bound carriageway of the M7 late last week as Deputy O'Donoghue was returning home from Leinster House. The 51-year-old says he lost control of his Volkswagen Passat when he encountered a 'freak shower of hailstones' near Junction 21 - Borris-In-Ossory. "It was like going from a carpet onto tiles. I was in the fast lane so I hit the (median) barrier on the right hand side - the front of the car tipped the barrier which put me into a 360-spin and took me down the road at a 45 degree angle. I crossed the two lanes and the hard shoulder and I hit the earth bank at the other side and she flicked me upside down," he told the Limerick Leader. Mr O'Donoghue (pictured), who is an experienced driver, says he is lucky not to have been killed or seriously injured. "When I landed I just started smiling and said to myself I'm alive - Jesus, I'm alive," he said adding that he was worried, in the immediate aftermath, that he would be killed by an oncoming vehicle as his car came to a stop while still partially on the motorway. However, he managed to move the car to safety and 'walked away' from the accident without any serious injury. After he returned to Limerick he was advised to seek medical attention and subsequently attended University Hospital Limerick where he was kept in overnight for observation. While there he was assessed and underwent a number of scans and an x-ray - as is the norm with people who have been involved in similar road traffic incidents. "I couldn't talk highly enough about the staff who are in there - the nurses, the doctors, everyone - they were running and racing to different people. The amount of trolleys there was actually unsafe, they had trolleys on both sides of the corridors and on three or four occasions they had to move me to get somebody else passed," he said. "Zone A, Zone B and Zone C - all the corridors were full of trolleys on both sides," he added. The independent TD says having seen first-hand the reality on the ground at UHL, he believes there is only one solution. "They have to re-open the A & E's in Ennis and Nenagh again - it's the only answer - they have no place to put people when they go in there (UHL) and it's not the staff's fault - they have no place to put them and they are understaffed," he said. Deputy O'Donoghue, who was discharged following 24 hours in hospital says he is 'stiff and sore' but did not sustain any serious injuries in the accident. His car, however, is a write-off. The Taoiseach has cast doubt on the idea that Ukraine may be able to join the EU with immediate effect. The Ukrainian president has indicated that he would like his country to join the European Union as soon as possible. But, speaking in Dublin, Micheal Martin said: I dont know whether it can be done immediately. But I certainly would be a proponent and supporter of accelerating it and making it very clear that they can become members of the European Union. Ive always favoured the acceleration of the European perspective for countries in our neighbourhood. The Taoiseach also said the Irish decision to fund items such as PPE, medical equipment and supplies for Ukraine, as part of a wider EU package, does not undermine Irelands longstanding military neutrality. The EU announced on Sunday an unprecedented set of measures to support Ukrainians, confirming it will close its air space to Russian airlines, fund supplies of weapons to Ukraine and ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets in response to Russias invasion. Ireland will constructively abstain from the planned delivery of arms to Ukraine. Our contribution to the non-lethal strand of that peace facility does not undermine our military neutrality, Mr Martin told reporters in Dublin. We are not politically neutral, and have never been politically neutral in the sense that we uphold democratic values and democratic principles. Mr Martin was speaking after a brief ceremony at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, where the portrait of the first female president of the organisation, Professor Mary Horgan, was unveiled. He welcomed initial talks between Ukraine and Russia, saying: I think dialogue is the only way to resolve this issue. And I would call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the violence. The humanitarian toll is mounting. Theres too much loss of life already, too many people have been injured. Civilians are under siege in their cities. He also condemned the decision of the Russian president to put his countrys nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. I think its extremely reckless and irresponsible of Vladimir Putin to threaten that. Its not so long ago since all major nuclear powers committed to the non-utilisation of nuclear weapons. It would have catastrophic repercussions for the world if such a decision was taken. Mr Martin was pressed on why Ireland had not yet decided to expel the Russian ambassador. Around 40 TDs, senators and MEPs from his own party, Fianna Fail, have called for Yury Filatov to be ejected from the country over the Russian invasion. Protesters have also called for his expulsion. Mr Martin said it is vital that whatever decision is taken, the EU acts in concert. Unity of purpose across Europe is key here, because Europe working with the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and others collectively is the most powerful response to the Russian Federation that can happen, he said. Individual states doing things individually does not have the same impact and doesnt pack the same punch, to be blunt. He reiterated that retaining a channel of communication to Moscow may be useful in the weeks ahead. We dont quite know for certain how this crisis will unfold. So keeping channels open gives us an extra capacity to help citizens, Irish citizens, who could be in difficult or family members of Ukrainian Irish citizens now who live in Ireland. And so its extremely important that we retain that capacity. Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said that while Ireland is not planning to expel the Russian ambassador, it may expel some diplomats in the days to come. He said that he understood public and political anger directed at Russia and Mr Filatov, adding: I can totally understand the anger and the sentiment behind that. My job as a foreign minister is to try to think ahead here. We are going to have Irish citizens, hundreds of them, living and working in Russia. We do have today. We have many Irish citizens still in Ukraine too. I need to make sure that we have lines of communication open so that I can help those people and do my job. And even if you fundamentally disagree with somebody, as we do with Russia right now, and youre trying to hold them to account, as we are trying at the moment, you still have to keep lines of communication open, in my view. Does that mean that we wont be expelling some Russian diplomats or some operatives that are in Ireland who may not be diplomats in the next few days? No, it doesnt. We may well do that. But I dont think its wise for us to expel the Russian ambassador and have no Russian presence in Ireland to allow us to have a direct line of communication with Moscow for humanitarian reasons primarily, but also to ensure that we can let them know what the Irish view is very directly in terms of Russian actions. Mr Coveney said no country in the EU has expelled their Russian ambassador. The expulsion of diplomats or Russian staff in embassies is quite a significant thing to do. It sends a very strong signal and Russia will respond in kind. I think its likely that something will happen in that space, but we do need to be targeted. We need to bear in mind the interests of Irish citizens, both in Russia and across Ukraine. Mr Coveney said Ireland will send around 9million of non-lethal equipment to Ukraine as part of the EU fund. Our money will be used for non-lethal weapons things like helmets, protection vests, medical kits, fuel, Mr Coveney told RTE radio. I think the European Union is right to intervene and support the Ukrainian military who are under enormous pressure at the moment. I think if the European Union cant take a stand, well, then I think we have to question the moral substance of the European Union. Mr Martin was also pressed on Mr Coveneys use of the word operatives and was asked whether there were Russian spies in Dublin. Mr Martin declined to comment specifically. However, he said: I think were all realists in the world. Across the diplomatic world, there are people below the ambassadorial level with various functions. But he said that definitive knowledge of any particular activity of any particular individual is not necessarily possible. Ukrainian nationals gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in Dublin today to call on the global superpower to wield its influence against Russia Demonstrators, who have taken to the streets of the Irish capital in the days since since Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, called on China to choose the side of good. The Chinese embassy, on the Ailesbury Road in leafy south Dublin, is only a short walk from the Russian Embassy residence, the scene of a large demonstration on Sunday. In recent years, China has grown increasingly close to Moscow. Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Beijing earlier this month, and China has refused to either condemn or endorse Russias actions, despite its insistence on upholding national sovereignty above all. People protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in Dublin Gardai were on patrol outside the embassy as the protest took place. Vlad Dziuba, who is from Ukraine, has been working in Ireland for two years. We decided to go to Chinese Embassy, because right now China doesnt really have any statement about Russia neither support, neither deny. And Russia is really looking to China to support its trade, he said. He said that as the western world imposed punitive sanctions on Russia, it was important to get China on side. If China wont help, this work might not bring results, he said. We are staying here to push China to have some statement against Russia and show their support for Ukraine and, ironically, democracy. Sergey Koloskov, who attended the protest, is from Donetsk, one of the two breakaway republics recognised by Russia. He carried a sign made by his 12-year-old daughter. I am the example of a Russia-speaking Ukrainian citizen, which Putin is allegedly protecting, he said. My own family is relatively fine. But when I hear stories of my friends, they are not fine. Many of them are in big trouble. He said that his daughter is becoming aware of what is going on in her parents country. She hears her mum talking to university friend, who is stuck in an apartment right in the middle of the worst fighting in Kyiv. Like a World War Two tank battle. It has been very stressful, so far. Home Delivery of The Troy Free Press print PLUS full access to LincolnNewsNow.com.com as well as full access to the Electronic Edition of The Troy Free Press. ONLY $19.99 per month for the first 3 months! Only $23.99 per month after promotional period. Or ONLY $37.99 for a full year Only $49.99 per year after promotional period. Elevator pitch: Bring enough light to simulate daylight into your home and office. This idea has been shared in Less Wrong circles for a couple years. Yudkowsky wrote Inadequate Equilibria in 2017 where he and his wife invented the idea, and Raemon wrote a playbook in 2018 for how to do it yourself. Now I and at least two other friends are trying to build something similar, and I suspect theres a bigger-than-it-looks market opportunity here because its one of those things that a lot of people would probably want, if they knew it existed and could experience it. And its only recently become cheap enough to execute well. Coelux makes a high-end artificial skylight which certainly looks awesome, but it costs upwards of $30k and also takes a lot of headroom in the ceiling. Can we do better for cheaper? Brightness from first principles First lets clear up some definitions: Watts is a measure of power consumption, not brightness. Watt equivalent brightness is usually listed for LED bulbs, at least for the standard household bulb form factor. You should generally ignore this (instead, just look at the lumens rating), because it is confusing. Normally watt equivalent is computed by dividing lumens by 15 or so. (bulb manufacturers like to make LED bulbs that are easy to compare, by having similar brightness to the incandescents they replace, hence watt equivalent) Lumens output is a measurement of an individual bulb, but says nothing about the distribution of those rays of light. For that you want to be doing math to estimate lux. Lux, or luminous flux, is the measurement of how bright light is on a certain surface (such as a wall or your face). Lux is measured in lumens per square meter. Usually, your end goal when designing lighting is to create a certain amount of lux. Direct sunlight shines 100k lux (source for these on Wikipedia) Full daylight (indirect) is more than 10k lux An overcast day or bright TV studio lighting is 1000 lux Indoor office lighting is typically 500 Indoor living room at night might be only 50 Side note: This scale surprises me greatly! We usefully make use of vision with four or more orders of magnitude differences in lux within a single day. Our human vision hardware is doing a lot of work to make the world look reasonable within these vast differences of amount of light. Regardless, this post is about getting a lot of lux. I hypothesize that lux is associated with both happiness and productivity, and during the dark season when we dont get as much lux from the sun, Im looking to get some from artificial lights. If you put a single 1000-lumen (66-watt-equivalent) omnidirectional bulb in the center of a spherical room of 2m radius (which approximates a 12 square bedroom), the lux at the radius of the sphere is 50. So now we can get a sense of the scope of the problem. When doctors say you should be getting 10,000 lux for 30 minutes a day, the defaults for home lighting are two orders of magnitude off. Raemons bulbs are 100W equivalent which is ~1500 lumens per bulb. So hes got 36k lumens. If we treat this as a point source and expect that Raemons head is 2m away from the bulbs, then hes getting 1800 lux, which is twice the TV studio lighting and seems pretty respectable. I havent accounted for reflected light from the ceiling either, so reality might be better than this, but I doubt it changes the calculation by more than a factor of 2 but I dont have a robust way of estimating ambient light, so ideas are welcome. David Chapmans plan uses three 20k-lumen LED light bars for offroad SUV driving, for a total of 60k lumens. But because the light bars aim the light at a relatively focused point on the floor, David estimates that most of that light is being delivered to a roughly 6-square-meter workspace for a total of 10k lux. The photos he shared of his workspace seem to support this estimate. Other important factors besides brightness Color temperature seems important to well-being. Color temperature is measured in kelvins with reference to black-body radiation, but you can think of it as, on the spectrum from warm white to cool white, what do you prefer? Raemons plan uses an even split between 2700K and 5000K bulbs. 2700K is quite yellow-y, 5000 is nearly pure white. In my experimentation I discovered that I liked closer to 5000 in the mornings and closer to 2700 in evenings. And what about light distribution? Large panels of bright light would seem the closest to daylight in form-factor. Real windows are brighter near the top, and it is considered dramatic and unnatural to have bright lighting coming from the ground. Also, single bright point sources are painful to look at and can seem harsh. I think theres a lot of flexibility here, but I think my personal ideal light would be a large, window-sized panel of light mounted on the ceiling or high on the wall. Also, color accuracy: LEDs are notoriously narrow spectrum by default; manufacturers have to do work to make their LEDs look more like incandescent bulbs in how they light up objects of different colors. Check for a measure called Color Rendering Index, or CRI, in product descriptions. 100 is considered perfect color rendering, and anything less than 80 looks increasingly awful as you go down. The difference between CRI 80 and 90 is definitely noticeable to some people. I havent blind tested myself, and definitely might be imagining it, but I feel like there was some kind of noticeable upgrade of the coziness or warmth in my room when upgrading from CRI 80 to CRI 95 bulbs. Dimmability? (Are you kidding? We want brightness, not dimness!) Okay, fine, if you insist. Most high-end LED bulbs seem dimmable today, so I hope this is not an onerous requirement. Last thing I can think of is flicker. I have only seen flicker as a major problem with really low-end bulbs, but I can easily see and be annoyed by 60hz flicker out of the corner of my eye. Cheap Christmas LED light strings have super bad flicker, but it seems like manufacturers of nicer LEDs today have caught on, because I havent had any flicker problems with LED bulbs in years. Okay, so to summarize: I want an all-in-one light panel that produces at least 20000 lumens and can be mounted to a wall or ceiling, with no noticeable flicker, good CRI, and adjustable (perhaps automatically adjusting) color temperature throughout the day. A redditor made a fake window for their basement (see it to the right) which is quite impressive for under $200. This is definitely along the axis I am imagining. I havent mentioned operating cost. Full-spectrum LEDs seem to output about 75 lumens per watt, so if our panel is 20k lumens then we should expect our panel to draw 266 watts. This seems reasonable to me. If you leave it on 8 hours a day, youre going to use 25 cents per day in electricity (at $.12 per kWh). Marketing and Costs What do you think people will pay for the product? I have already put 6+ hours into researching this idea; I would probably pay at least $400 to get that time back, if the result satisfied all my requirements; I expect to put in quite a bit more time, so I think I could probably be convinced to pay north of $1000 for a really good product. Hard to say what others would pay, but I wouldnt be surprised if you could build a good product in the $400-1200 range that would be quite popular. What about costs? Today, Home Depot sells Cree 90-CRI, 815-lumen bulbs on their website for $1.93 per bulb for a cost of $2.37 per 1000 lumens. This is the cheapest Ive seen high quality bulbs. (The higher lumen bulbs are annoyingly quite a bit more expensive). To get 36k lumens at this price costs under $100 retail. Presumably there are cooling considerations when packing LEDs close together but those seem solvable if youre doing the panel form factor. There are other costs Im sure, but it seems like the LEDs and driver are likely to dominate most of the costs. These are dimmable but not color temperature adjustable. Yuji LEDs sells 2700K-6500K dimmable LED strips, also with 95+ CRI, at $100 for 6250 lumens (so a cost of $16 per 1000 lumens). This is 7x more expensive per lumen, but knowing that it exists is really helpful. Promotion and Distribution Kickstarter is the obvious idea for getting this idea out there. I would also recommend starting a subreddit (if it doesnt exist; I havent checked yet) for do-it-yourselfers who want to build or buy really bright lighting systems for their homes, as I think there is probably enough sustained interest in such a topic for it to exist. You can also try to get press. The idea of indoor light as bright as daylight is probably somewhat viral so Id hope you can get people to write about you. Coelux got a bunch of press a few years ago doing this exact thing, but their product is so expensive that they dont even list their price on their website, but in articles about Coelux you can see people commenting that they wish they could afford one. I do think the idea needs to be spread more. Most people dont know this is possible, so theres a lot of work youll be doing to just explain that such a thing is possible and healthy. Competition? I dont think theres any relevant competition out there today. Coelux is super high end. The competition is do-it-yourselfers, but this market is far bigger than the number of people who are excited to do-it-themself. Some have mentioned high bay lights, which are designed to be mounted high in warehouses and such, and throw a light cone a long distance to the floor. I am excited to try this and I will probably try it next, but I am not super optimistic about it because I expect it to be quite harsh. This is the one that Yuji sells, but you can find cheaper and presumably lower-quality ones on Amazon. Grow lights exist for growing plants indoors. But they are optimized for plant health, not human health; I think their CRI is probably not good and I expect them to emit a lot of ultraviolet by default as well. Part of my motivation for writing this blog post is to source ideas for other things that exist that could fill this niche. So please, email me (lincoln, techhouse dot org) or post a comment on HN or LW if you have solved this problem in a way I havent described! Ill update this post with ideas. If you start this company, also email me and Ill buy one and try your product and probably write about it :) Building a Sustainable Business If you put a bunch of research into designing a really great product and it succeeds but gets effectively copied by low-cost clones, youll be sad. I am not sure how to defend this, and I think it is probably the weakest point of this business model; but it is a weakness that many hardware companies share, and a lot of them still carve out a niche. One idea would be to build up your products branding and reputation, by explaining why low-cost clones suck in various ways. Another is just to give really good service. Lastly, if you avoid manufacturing things in China, maybe Chinese clone companies wont copy your technology as quickly. Amid Ukraine and Russia crisis, the government has established numerous 24X7 control centres to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals . According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), a dedicated Twitter account has been set up 'OpGanga' to assist Operation Ganga. Thousands of Indian nations are being brought back via a bunch of flights from the crisis-hit region in the past few days. 24x7 Control Centres set up to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals through the border crossing points with Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republichttps://t.co/uMI1Wu5Jwd#OperationGanga pic.twitter.com/UXF1NVBFcr OpGanga Helpline (@opganga) February 27, 2022 So far, a total of 469 Indian nationals have been evacuated from Ukraine, out of which 250 landed in Delhi on Sunday morning and 219 landed in Mumbai on Saturday evening. One of the flights carrying 249 stranded Indian nationals has departed from Romania's Bucharest for Delhi under operation Ganga on Monday. Moving forward in bringing Indians home. Fifth #OperationGanga flight departs Bucharest for Delhi with 249 Indian nationals. https://t.co/x2VQd3j4Nd Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 27, 2022 The Indian Embassy in Kyiv has advised Indian citizens against moving to any of the border checkpoints without prior coordination with government officials at border posts.It said it is working continuously with Embassies in the neighbouring countries for coordinated evacuation of our citizens."All Indian Citizens in Ukraine are advised to not move to any of the border posts without prior coordination with Government of India officials at the border posts and the Emergency numbers of Embassy of India, Kyiv," the advisory read. The embassy further advised Indians to stay in western cities of Ukraine where access to water, food, accommodation, and basic amenities is relatively safer. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis in which the PM said the evacuation of Indian students stranded in Ukraine should be the country's top priority. Earlier on Saturday, PM Modi spoke with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and expressed India's willingness to contribute in any way towards peace efforts. PM Modi expressed his deep anguish about the loss of life and property due to the ongoing conflict. Notably, Russia on Friday (local time) vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine, while India, China, and UAE abstained from voting. The vote was 11 in favour, one against, and three abstentions. India has abstained from the vote but New Delhi has called for immediate de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine and advocated for a diplomatic solution. Russia had on Monday recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhanussisk - as independent entities following which the situation escalated. Asking students stranded in Kyiv to reach the railway station after the curfew was lifted, the Indian embassy on Monday advised them to remain calm" and only carry essentials with them to ensure mobility. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts. Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations," said the embassy. We sincerely request all Indian nationals/students to remain calm, peaceful and united. A large crowd can be expected at the railway stations, therefore, it is advised that all Indian students remain patient, composed and especially not to exhibit aggressive behaviours," it added. The embassy said that some trains may be delayed or cancelled, but the Ukrainian nationals and authorities have been remarkably supportive in facilitating evacuation efforts". Indian students are requested to carry their passport, sufficient cash, ready to eat meals, easy accessible winter clothing and only essential items, to ensure easy mobility. Be mindful of your belongings at all times," it said. View Full Image Indian embassy advisory This comes as foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday had said the main concern for India is ensuring the safety of its nationals stuck in areas witnessing intense fighting, including Kyiv, which has around 2,000 Indians. India has already evacuated over 2,000 of its citizens from Ukraine and more than 1,000 of them have been brought back home on chartered flights from Hungary and Romania. The areas in the east of Ukraine including Kharkiv and Sumy are the conflict zones and India has been focusing on taking out its citizens from these areas to the country's western region for their subsequent evacuation through border crossings to Hungary, Romania, Poland and Slovakia. India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland. The country also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine. Meanwhile, the sixth flight carrying 240 stranded Indian nationals departed from Hungary's Budapest for Delhi earlier in the day. The man accused of murdering a Kentucky lawyer and daughter of a former state representative during a home invasion at her fathers house was arrested Monday. Shannon Gilday, 23, was taken into custody around 4:30 a.m. when he was found by a Madison County Sheriffs Office deputy while walking along a road, according to the Kentucky State Police. Advertisement Last Tuesday, Gilday allegedly burst into the Richmond home of former state representative Wesley Morgan and fatally shot his daughter, 32-year-old Jordan Morgan, in her bed around 4 a.m. Gilday, dressed in camo or tactical style pants and jacket and a face mask, then traded gunfire with Wesley Morgan before fleeing, according to police. Advertisement Wesley Morgan sustained non-life threatening injuries. Shannon Gilday (Kentucky State Police) On Facebook, Gildays mother painted a terrifying picture of a young man who has not been of sound mind the last couple of weeks, distraught with the certainty a nuclear war is imminent. He spoke of building a bunker and the CIA following him, Katie Gilday wrote. I tried to get him psychiatric help but to no avail. A Zillow listing for Morgans home highlights a 26 underground with 39 solid concrete ceiling and 15 walls with wings and labels it the most secure home on the market in this country. The shelter includes three air filtrations and two escape tunnels and is built to withstand a Seismic 12 earthquake, according to the listing. Gilday has been charged with murder, burglary, criminal mischief, assault and two counts of attempted murder. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting with his cabinet ministers including Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. On the PM's direction, Rajiv Gauba, the Cabinet Secretary of India has spoken to the Chief Secretary of States in India and have directed them along with district collectors to contact the family members of the students stranded in Ukraine and keep them informed of the of arrangements being made. PM Modi in the meeting reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nation's top priority. The Narendra Modi government has launched Operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India under "Operation Ganga". Indian government is making all efforts to evacuate to almost 20,000 Indian students stuck in the war-torn Ukraine. Gauba also informed them of all the efforts the Indian government is taking to bring back all the students safely. The Prime Minister is reportedly going to send four union ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid Russian military operations in Ukraine. As per the news agency ANI, Union Ministers Hardeep Singh puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students. Air India has been ferrying hundreds of people back to India. IndiGo airlines have also joined the operation. Amid Russia and Ukraine crisis, the Embassy of India on Monday informed that the weekend curfew has been lifted in Kyiv. The Embassy advised students to move towards the railway station and added that the Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations. "Weekend curfew lifted in Kyiv. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for an onward journey to the western parts.Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations". The first evacuation flight carrying 219 Indians from Bucharest landed in Mumbai on Saturday evening. The second flight with 250 nationals arrived in Delhi in the early hours of Sunday. The third Air India flight with around 240 Indians had also left for Delhi from Hungarian capital Budapest. The fourth evacuation flight carrying 198 passengers leaving the Romanian capital Bucharest left for India on Sunday. The fifth flight carrying 249 stranded Indian nationals from Bucharest (Romania) have reached Delhi on Monday. The largest plane in the world -- Ukraine's Antonov-225 cargo plane -- was destroyed by Russian strikes outside Kyiv on the fourth day of Moscow's invasion, Ukraine's state-owned Ukroboronprom group said Sunday. "The biggest plane in the world "Mriya" (The Dream) was destroyed by Russian occupants on an airfield near Kyiv. We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free, and democratic Ukraine," tweeted Ukraine from their official Twitter handle, mourning the destruction of the aircraft. Along with the tweet, Ukraine's handle posted a picture of the plane with a caption that read: "They burned the biggest plane but our Mriya will never perish." The biggest plane in the world "Mriya" (The Dream) was destroyed by Russian occupants on an airfield near Kyiv. We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free, and democratic Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Gy6DN8E1VR Ukraine / (@Ukraine) February 27, 2022 Weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom estimated that restoring the "Mriya" would cost over $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) and could take over five years, news agency AFP reported. "This was the world's largest aircraft, AN-225 'Mriya'" Ukraine' Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Sunday. "Russia may have destroyed our 'Mriya'. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail!", he added. This was the worlds largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8 Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022 World's largest aircraft, AN-225 'Mriya' The aircraft was unique to the world, at 84 meters long (276 feet) it could transport up to 250 tonnes (551,000 pounds) of cargo at a speed of up to 850 kilometres per hour (528 mph). It had been named "Mriya", which means "dream" in Ukrainian. Initially built as part of the Soviet aeronautical program, the An-225 made its first flight in 1988. After years of not flying after the fall of the Soviet Union, the only existing copy made a test flight in 2001 in Gostomel, about 20 kilometres from Kyiv. It has been operated by Ukraine's Antonov Airlines for cargo flights and was in high demand during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The "birds and the bees" is a story parents tell their children to deflect the question "Where do babies come from?" The phrase "the birds and the bees" is a term used to explain the mechanics of reproduction to younger children, relying on the imagery of bees pollinating and eggs hatching to substitute for a more technical explanation of sexual intercourse. It is a way of deflecting the inevitable question that every parent dreads: "Where do babies come from?" and it is an alternative to the explanation that the stork delivers babies. It is uncertain when the phrase was first used or how it gained popularity. It does not necessarily mean that parents are explaining how birds and bees reproduce. The connection between human sexuality and eggs and pollination is vague, which can cause some confusion among curious children. Though there are some variations, the story typically involves bees pollinating flowers, symbolizing male fertilization, and the birds laying eggs, which equates to female ovulation. In another telling of the story, a baby is created when a bee stings a bird. Literary and musical references There are quite a few allusions to the phrase in literature and song. One of the early references to this bird and bees as a euphemism for reproduction is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1825 poem, "Work Without Hope": "All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair The bees are stirring birds are on the wing And Winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing." Another commonly cited use of the phrase is American naturalist John Burroughs' 1875 set of essays, "Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other Papers." These were attempts to provide children with simple explanations of nature, but there is no attempt at sex education. Dr. Emma Frances Angell Drake described the birds and bees in a section of the publication "The Story of Life," which was widely distributed between 1893 and 1930. In her explanation of reproduction to her young daughters, she used images of blue eggs in the robin's nest, the wind blowing pollen dust from one plant to the other, and bees gathering honey from the flowers. A more direct reference can be found in Cole Porter's lyrics to the 1928 song "Let's Do It." "It is nature, thats all Simply telling us to fall in love And that's why birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it Let's do it, let's fall in love" The phrase also appeared in a 1939 issue of the "Freeport Journal Standard": "A Frenchman was born sophisticated: he knows about the birds and the bees. In consequence, French films are made on a basis of artistic understanding that does not hamper the story." A more modern reference to the phrase occurred on "The Simpsons." episode Homer vs. Patty and Selma, first broadcast in 1995, according to Phrases.org.uk. The episode includes a scene has 10-year-old Bart Simpson remarking to his friend Milhouse, "The Sun is out, birds are singing, bees are trying to have sex with them as is my understanding ..." Additional resources Read more about the history of the phrase the birds and the bees with this article from World Histories . Explore an age-by-age guide to teaching kids about the birds and the bees with this informative article from Family Education. Check out five of the best books for explaining the birds and the bees with this article from Maternity & Infant Family . A hot gas, when confined in a chamber, exerts pressure on a piston, causing it to move downward. The movement can be harnessed to do work equal to the total force applied to the top of the piston times the distance that the piston moves. The first law of thermodynamics states that heat is a form of energy, and thermodynamic processes are therefore subject to the principle of conservation of energy. This means that heat energy cannot be created or destroyed, according to Britannica. It can, however, be transferred from one location to another and converted to and from other forms of energy. Thermodynamics is the branch of physics that deals with the relationships between heat and other forms of energy. In particular, it describes how thermal energy is converted to and from other forms of energy and how it affects matter. The fundamental principles of thermodynamics are expressed in four laws. "The First Law says that the internal energy of a system has to be equal to the work that is being done on the system, plus or minus the heat that flows in or out of the system and any other work that is done on the system," Saibal Mitra, a professor of physics at Missouri State University, told Live Science. "So, it's a restatement of conservation of energy." "The change in internal energy of a system is the sum of all the energy inputs and outputs to and from the system similarly to how all the deposits and withdrawals you make determine the changes in your bank balance," Mitra said. This is expressed mathematically as: U = Q W, where U is the change in the internal energy, Q is the heat added to the system, and W is the work done by the system, according to Britannica. History of the first law of thermodynamics Scientists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries adhered to caloric theory, first proposed by Antoine Lavoisier in 1783, and further bolstered by the work of Sadi Carnot in 1824, according to the American Physical Society. This scientific theory treated heat as a kind of fluid that naturally flowed from hot to cold regions, much as water flows from high to low places. When this caloric fluid flowed from a hot to a cold region, it could be converted to kinetic energy and made to do work much as falling water could drive a water wheel. It wasn't until Rudolf Clausius published "The Mechanical Theory of Heat" in 1867 that caloric theory was finally put to rest, according to the University of Virginia. Thermodynamic systems Energy can be divided into two parts, said David McKee, a professor of physics at Missouri Southern State University. One is our human-scale macroscopic contribution, such as a piston moving and pushing on a system of gas. The rest is made up of the things that happen at a very tiny scale where we can't keep track of the individual contributions. "When I put two samples of metal up against each other, and the atoms are rattling around at the boundary, and two atoms bounce into each other, and one of them comes off faster than the other, I can't keep track of it. It happens on a very small time scale and a very small distance, and it happens many, many times per second," McKee told Live Science. "So, we just divide all energy transfer into two groups: the stuff we're going to keep track of, and the stuff we're not going to keep track of. The latter of these is what we call heat." Thermodynamic systems are generally regarded as being open, closed or isolated. According to the University of Calgary, an open system freely exchanges energy and matter with its surroundings; a closed system exchanges energy, but not matter, with its surroundings; and an isolated system does not exchange energy or matter with its surroundings. For example, a pot of boiling soup receives energy from the stove, radiates heat from the pan, and emits matter in the form of steam, which also carries away heat energy. This would be an open system. If we put a tight lid on the pot, it would still radiate heat energy, but would ideally no longer emit matter in the form of steam. This would be a closed system. However, if we were to pour the soup into a perfectly insulated thermos bottle and seal the lid, there would be no energy or matter going into or out of the system. This would be an isolated system. In practice, however, perfectly isolated systems cannot exist. All systems transfer energy to their environment no matter how well insulated they are. The soup in the thermos will only stay hot for a few hours and will reach room temperature by the following day. In another example, white dwarf stars, the hot remnants of burned-out stars that no longer produce energy, can be insulated by light-years of near perfect vacuum in interstellar space, yet they will eventually cool down from several tens of thousands of degrees to near absolute zero due to energy loss through radiation. Although this process takes longer than the present age of the universe, there's no stopping it. Heat engines The most common practical application of the First Law is the heat engine. Heat engines convert thermal energy into mechanical energy and vice versa. Most heat engines fall into the category of open systems. The basic principle of a heat engine exploits the relationships among heat, volume and pressure of a working fluid (any substance that flows), typically a gas, according to Georgia State University. Examples of working fluids include steam in a steam engine and hydrofluorocarbons in refrigeration systems. When gas is heated, it expands; however, when that gas is prevented from expanding, it increases in pressure. If the bottom wall of the confinement chamber is the top of a movable piston, this pressure exerts a force on the surface of the piston causing it to move downward. This movement can then be harnessed to do work equal to the total force applied to the top of the piston times the distance that the piston moves. There are numerous variations on the basic heat engine. For instance, steam engines rely on external combustion to heat a boiler tank containing the working fluid, typically water. The water is converted to steam, and the pressure is then used to drive a piston that converts heat energy to mechanical energy. Automobile engines, however, use internal combustion, where liquid fuel is vaporized, mixed with air and ignited inside a cylinder above a movable piston, driving it downward, according to The University of Oklahoma. Refrigerators, air conditioners and heat pumps Refrigerators and heat pumps are heat engines that convert mechanical energy to heat. Most of these fall into the category of closed systems. When the working fluid, or gas, is compressed, its temperature increases. This hot gas can then transfer heat to its surrounding environment. Then, when the compressed gas is allowed to expand, its temperature becomes colder than it was before it was compressed because some of its heat energy was removed during the hot cycle. This cold gas can then absorb heat energy from its environment. This is the working principle behind an air conditioner, according to Boston University. Air conditioners don't actually produce cold; they remove heat. A mechanical pump transfers the working fluid outdoors, where it is heated by compression. Next, the heat transfers to the outdoor environment, usually through an air-cooled heat exchanger, which often uses an electric fan to expel heat into the environment. Then, the working fluid is brought back indoors, where it is allowed to expand and cool so it can absorb heat from the indoor air through another heat exchanger. A heat pump is simply an air conditioner run in reverse. The heat from the compressed working fluid is used to warm the building. It is then transferred outside where it expands and becomes cold, thereby allowing it to absorb heat from the outside air, which even in winter is usually warmer than the cold working fluid. The working fluid typically has a low enough freezing point to keep flowing even in very low temperatures. Geothermal or ground-source air conditioning and heat pump systems use long U-shaped tubes in deep wells or an array of horizontal tubes buried in a large area through which the working fluid is circulated, and heat is transferred to or from the earth, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Other systems use rivers or ocean water to heat or cool the working fluid. Live Science contributor Ashley Hamer updated this article on Jan. 28, 2022. Additional resources Here are three other explanations of the first law of thermodynamics: Conceptual Academy on YouTube George Mason University earth science professor Robert M. Hazen on The Great Courses Daily This OpenStax College Physics chapter from the University of Iowa Bibliography Britannica, "The first law of thermodynamics," June 1 2021. https://www.britannica.com/science/thermodynamics/The-first-law-of-thermodynamics Science History Institute, "Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier," December 11 2017. https://sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/antoine-laurent-lavoisier The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, "Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot," April 10 2012, https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/nicolas-leonard-sadi-carnot Rudolfph Clausius, "The Mechanical Theory of Heat." John Van Voorst, 1867. American Physical Society, "This Month Physics History December 1840: Joule's abstract on converting mechanical power into heat," December 2009. https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200912/physicshistory.cfm University of Virginia, "Teaching Heat: the Rise and Fall of the Caloric Theory," July 2003. http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/more_stuff/TeachingHeat.htm University of Calgary Energy Education, "System and Surrounding," September 27, 2021. https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/System_and_surrounding University of Georgia Hyperphysics, "Heat Engine Cycle," http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/heaeng.html University of Oklahoma ECourses, "Thermodynamics - Theory." http://www.ecourses.ou.edu/cgi-bin/ebook.cgi?topic=th&chap_sec=08.1&page=theory Boston University, "Heat engines and the second law," December 10 1999. http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/py105/Heatengines.html US Department of Energy, "Geothermal Heat Pumps." https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/geothermal-heat-pumps This weekend, Saturday Night Live faced two questions of significantly different orders of magnitude: Would the show try to find topical humor in the Russian invasion of Ukraine? And, of far less importance to the global order, but still a noteworthy matter within the SNL realm: How would it address the return of John Mulaney? To answer the first question, the show avoided an opening comedy sketch altogether and instead began with a performance by Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York, which sang the hymn Prayer for Ukraine. At the conclusion of the performance, cast members Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong took the stage behind an arrangement of candles that were shown to spell Kyiv. The opening recalled other rare but consequential moments when SNL has opted for a more contemplative start to the show, as in its first episode after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a 2012 broadcast that followed the Sandy Hook school shooting. Then, in his opening monologue, Mulaney addressed what he acknowledged has been a very complicated year for him. Mulaney, making his fifth appearance as a host, has long been seen as an SNL success story: a former writer and sometime Weekend Update panelist who became a popular stand-up and a star of unexpectedly tender comedy projects like John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch. His past visits to the show promised new installments in signature franchises like the Diner Lobster/Bodega Bathroom series of musical sketches. Mulaney had also been a faithful friend, on and off the show, to Pete Davidson while Davidson was working to preserve his sobriety and improve his mental health. But in December 2020, it was reported that Mulaney had entered a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abuse. As Mulaney later explained in a 2021 interview with Seth Meyers, he had first entered rehab in September 2020, exited that October, hosted a Halloween episode of SNL, relapsed and returned to rehab after Meyers and other friends organized an intervention for him. In that time, Mulaney divorced his wife, artist Anna Marie Tendler, and began dating actress Olivia Munn; he and Munn have a son, Malcolm, who was born in November. At the start of his monologue this weekend, Mulaney said with obvious sarcasm that it is wonderful to be in a place thats always emphasized sobriety and mental health. He shared the story of his intervention, which he said was presented to him as a dinner at a friends apartment but whose true purpose he knew the moment he entered. Do you know how bad of a drug problem you have to have, if, when you open a door and see people gathered, your first thought is, this is probably an intervention about my drug problem? Mulaney said. Theres no other reason people would be behind a door. Mulaney described the experience of contacting his former drug dealer to tell him he was deleting and blocking him from his phone. But before he could do so, Mulaney said, the dealer texted him back to say, I only bought drugs to sell to you because I was worried about you. And I didnt want you to get worse stuff off the street. Speaking to the dealer, Mulaney said, This is a weird time to ask, but are you a drug dealer? He said, No, Im a painter; we talked about this. Ladies and gentlemen, I have no idea how I know this person. Mulaney also talked about being a father to his 12-week-old son, whose favorite brand of pacifiers was recently recalled. Even so, Mulaney said, his son continues to eye a bowl full of those pacifiers with a look that seems to say, I want to use those, but I cant because they could kill me. He paused and added: Welcome to my world, homey. Rite of Passage of the Week It was Mulaneys fifth stint as an SNL host, which meant it was time for another visit to the shows fabled Five-Timers Club. It also meant that SNL could finally make good on its obligation to Paul Rudd, who crossed that threshold when he hosted the show last December in a curtailed episode that was missing a musical guest and most of the cast because of concerns about COVID-19. This time, both Mulaney and Rudd received their welcomes (and a single jacket to share between them) from other veteran hosts that included Steve Martin, Candice Bergen, Tina Fey and Elliott Gould, as well as Conan OBrien, who has only hosted once but said he was dropping by to sign up for Peacock. Weekend Update Jokes of the Week Over at the Weekend Update desk, anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on the worldwide fallout from Russias invasion of Ukraine. Jost began: "This week, Russia began their invasion of Ukraine. President Putin launched the attack with support from allies like Belarus and Tucker Carlson. Many analysts were surprised Putin went through with the invasion, even though it was obviously going to be a colossal mistake. But he couldnt back down after all that buildup. Kind of like how NBC still had to go through with airing the Winter Olympics. Experts on Russian politics are saying that economic sanctions in the West will not deter Putin because his money is in nontraditional assets that are difficult to trace. Ugh, so on top of everything else awful about Putin, hes also into crypto." Che continued: "After the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian stock market fell by 30%, to negative 90%. This is a tough subject to make jokes about. I mean, in my lifetime Ive seen footage of attacks like this on other countries but never a white one. I dont know very much about this whole situation, but I have a very close friend whos Russian, and I asked her what she thought about it. And she said, 'Michael, you no pay me to talk, baby.' I am very impressed by all the Ukrainian citizens signing up to defend their country, even the famous ones. Imagine that here. If you ever read on the news, Michael Che has joined an American war, we have just lost that war." Musical Tradition of the Week If you let out a little sigh of relief the moment you saw Mulaney operating a subway newsstand at the start of this segment, then you probably recognized it as the latest entry in his long-running series of musical sketches, set in familiarly seedy New York locations. This time around, the song-and-dance numbers are triggered by a subway passenger (Andrew Dismukes) looking to buy a churro from a vendor of questionable standards (Melissa Villasenor) watch for homages to South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof, Little Shop of Horrors, The Music Man, Les Miserables and more, all in the grimiest contexts you could possibly imagine. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. A Las Vegas cop may have taken some pointers from the criminals he usually arrests. Caleb Rogers, a 33-year-old police officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, has been arrested and charged with an armed robbery at a casino Sunday morning. Advertisement Police responded to the off-Strip Rio Hotel and Casino sportsbook around 7 a.m. Sunday and found the suspect in the custody of casino security, according to the LVMPD. Rogers, who was off-duty at the time, has been charged with burglary with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon. Advertisement Caleb Rogers (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept.) The officer, who has been with the department since 2015, has been suspended without pay pending an investigation. Rogers may be tied to at least two other armed robberies, one at the Red Rock Casino Resort on Nov. 12 and one in North Las Vegas on Jan. 6, sources told CBS 8. A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News Monday. This file photo offers an aerial view of the former Tonawanda Coke facility. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced Friday that the site has been accepted into state's Brownfield Cleanup Program. If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option. A plea aimed at reducing waiting times for children and adolescents needing orthopaedic surgery was acceded to last week by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. Cllr Peggy Nolan spoke openly at last week's monthly meeting of Longford County Council for local politicians to support a campaign which, in recent years, has steadily began to attract growing national prominence. It's heartbreaking to imagine your child being nine, ten or 11 years-old and having to go through this (waiting time) and to see how it affects their self esteem and everything about them, she said. It's something these children and parents should not have to tolerate any longer. Fianna Fail group leader Cllr Seamus Butler wasted little time in throwing his weight behind the call. He referenced how leading surgeons like Professor Damian McCormack at Cappagh's National Orthopaedic Hospital had previously vowed to work weekends to drive down waiting list numbers should the required state funding be made available. This has been going on years and years, he said. If you have an eight-year-old and they have to wait two years, that's a quarter of their life. As a mark of society, if we can't look after those in most need then it's a black mark to us. Those comments were aired a day before Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced a new plan to reduce waiting times for children with scoliosis and spina bifida. Mr Donnelly told last Thursday of how he had approved plans from Childrens Health Ireland and Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital that, if successful, will cut waiting times for children and teenagers in urgent need of orthopaedic surgery. The plan will include a target to reduce the number of scoliosis patients waiting more than four months from more than 90 at the moment to zero by the end of the year. It comes amid repeated warnings in recent months that Irish healthcare for children suffering from conditions like scoliosis is woefully inadequate. The plan, according to the Wicklow TD will see scoliosis spinal surgeries increase by 92 this year, with the total scoliosis waiting list to be cut by over 40% by the end of the year. A total of 107 extra spina bifida cases are also expected to be treated under the plan. A jobless father of four has been sentenced after publicly ridiculing a garda at a checkpoint, telling him: Go f*** yourself, youre on the minimum wage; your kids got nothing for Christmas. Thirty-two-year-old Patrick McDonnell, 84 Ardnacassa Avenue, Longford was sentenced to one month in prison, suspended for a period of six months following an incident at Ardnacassa Avenue, Longford on January 9 2021. Sgt Enda Daly, for the prosecution, told last weeks sitting of Longford District Court of how Gardai Paul Stuart and Denise Dockery came across the accused while conducting a checkpoint shortly before 4pm. The court heard Garda Dockery had stopped a car being driven by the accused before attempting to seize the vehicle under Section 41 of the Road Traffic Act. Sgt Daly said Garda Stuart noticed Mr McDonnell becoming verbally abusive and approached the vehicle to lend assistance to his female colleague. It was at that stage, Judge Bernadette Owens was told, Mr McDonnell suddenly flung open the drivers door narrowly missing Garda Stuart in the process. During Garda Stuarts attempts to question the Longford man over his conduct, it was revealed the accused began shouting a torrent of abuse in front of startled onlookers. Sgt Daly said Mr McDonnell told Garda Stuart: Go f*** yourself, ya faggot ya, youre on the minimum wage. Your kids got nothing for Christmas, they dont even get Christmas dinner. Mr McDonnell, who pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour, then attempted to openly taunt the rank and file garda while brandishing a sum of cash in the air. See that money there, thats three days of their (Gardais) wages, he yelled. They have nothing better to do, they are only on 400 a week. They have to pay mortgages. As he continued his tirade of abuse and telling Garda Stuart he was just a Covid guard, Mr McDonnell took out his mobile phone before pointing it at both officers. Sgt Daly said he proceeded to inform the pair on at least three occasions: I have this on record, give me your name and badge number. In defence, solicitor Brid Mimnagh conceded the evidence presented in court made for grim reading. She said Mr McDonnell, despite apologising both on the day of last Tuesdays court sitting and at a previous juncture, was someone who obviously has a big mouth and should have known better than to have engaged in such vitriol. It was an outrageous carry on by Mr McDonnell and he is very apologetic and embarrassed by it, she said. Ms Mimnagh said Mr McDonnell suffers from depression and had not come to garda attention since. She also revealed her client had been under adverse pressure at the time with his daughter being sick and under the care of medics at Mullingars Midland Regional Hospital. Ms Mimnagh added that while her client was unemployed and on social welfare, he had brought 200 to court with him by way of recompense. He should stop and think before he talks, she said, adding Mr McDonnell is due to become a father for a fifth time at the end of March. He knows he is at the mercy of the court. Judge Owens convicted Mr McDonnell of the Section 6 public order charge, sentencing him to one month in prison with the term being suspended for a period of six months. While the eyes of the world are on Ukraine as its people fight to keep their country from the grasp of Russian invaders, people in Longford are doing what little they can to offer their support to those Ukrainians who need it. And, despite being a rural county in the middle of a small country on the edge of Europe, what little we can do could prove to be huge to those in need. Helping Hands Longford has begun a massive collection drive for Ukraine, with plans to transport donations of essentials to Poland later this week, thanks to a heroic offer of help from local charity, Hungry Horse Outside. Items that are being collected include personal hygiene items, sanitary products, baby items such as food, nappies, etc, medical bandages, plasters, antiseptics, underwear and socks for all ages, sleeping bags, foil heat sheets, hats, gloves, scarves, pads for disabled and those with special needs, non-perishable food, etc. "At the minute the drop off point is my house which is pretty full at the minute," Tena Keown, a main organiser of the collection, told the Longford Leader. "We are hoping to find a storage space soon. I've been chatting to someone already and I'm seeing a couple more tomorrow, the drop off point needs to be central and accessible by traffic. "Huge thanks to Hungry Horse Outside Rescue who are transporting all the items. The first delivery is going this Thursday. Subsequent deliveries are yet to be finalised." Local woman, Hazel Robinson, along with her mother Hilary, are planning to transport the first delivery later this week. "Im delighted to be able to say that Hungry Horse Outside, in connection with Stand with Ukraine- Waterford, is offering to transport goods needed from Ireland to Poland," Hazel posted on Facebook. "Our equine rescue will cover the cost of diesel. So it will be at no additional charge. Myself and my mother have offered our services to drive. "Although down the list of priorities we are trying to find out if we can bring some provisions for small pets belonging to families also. "Small bit nervous, but eager to help. Hopefully more can also offer their services. Ireland stands with Ukraine." Meanwhile, Midlands Polish Community is doing what it can to further help those in Ukraine, with a number of collection boxes across county Longford. "Due to the tragic situation in Ukraine, we are asking for donations to help those affected by the armed conflict," read a statement posted on the Midlands Polish Community Facebook page. Magic Scissors in Longford will be cutting hair for Ukraine all week from 10am to 11am with all proceeds from haircuts at those times going to support the Polish Red Cross. More collection boxes can be found at Little Europa in Edgeworthstown, Longford Gold Club & Restaurant, and Polska Strefa, Longford. To keep up to date on how to donate, see Hungry Horse Outside, Longford Helping Hands or Midlands Polish Community on Facebook. For more on this amazing community story, see this week's Longford Leader. Local News, Crime, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics By Chris Boyle Published: February 28 2022 I especially admire the work that President Shevlin has done throughout his career to prioritize mental health care within the ranks of law enforcement, Legislator Drucker said. Nassau County Legislator Arnold W. Drucker (D - Plainview) joined Nassau County Legislator Debra Mule at the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association (PBA) Government Leadership Breakfast on Monday, Feb. 7. Held at 388 Restaurant in Roslyn Heights, the breakfast was hosted in honor of new PBA President Tommy Shevlin and the organizations Executive Board. Legislator Drucker presented a Nassau County Legislature Citation to President Shevlin during the gathering. I especially admire the work that President Shevlin has done throughout his career to prioritize mental health care within the ranks of law enforcement, Legislator Drucker said. His openness about his own personal journey creates a pathway for others to seek care in their hour of need. I look forward to working closely with President Shevlin and continuing our partnership with the men and women of law enforcement to keep this the safest County of its size in the nation! Ensure you get a print copy of the Loudoun Times-Mirror delivered weekly to your home or business! Complete online access is included with all print subscriptions purchased online. Plus, up to four other members of your household can share online access through this subscription with their own, individual linked accounts at no additional charge. (Are you a current advertiser? Ask your sales rep for our special advertiser rate code!) A 4-year-old boy was killed in an accidental shooting in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store in DeKalb, Georgia, authorities said Sunday. Police in DeKalb County responded at 5:19 p.m. to a report that someone had been shot at the supermarket in Lithonia, Georgia, WAGA-TV reported. Advertisement The boy was rushed to a hospital but died there, WGCL-TV reported, noting that investigators believe the shooting was an accident, and unrelated to road rage. The victim was a 4-year-old boy who had been inside a vehicle with a relative, police said. No other injuries were reported, and it was unclear whether there had been any arrests, WAGA reported. Advertisement Details about the incident were scant, and the investigation was continuing. (Sharecast News) - London stocks slid in early trade on Monday after the West imposed tougher sanctions on Russia, which has now put its nuclear forces on high alert. At 0845 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 1.1% at 7,404.35, while oil prices jumped to as high as $105 a barrel. Walid Koudmani, chief market analyst at XTB, said: "While stocks saw some signs of recovery towards the end of last week with Asian, European and US markets recovering some of their losses following the invasion of Ukraine from Russia, stock prices could have a very difficult week ahead as tensions escalate and more sanctions continue to be announced. "Over the weekend, the European union announced a variety of sanctions on Russia including limiting its access to EU airspace and prohibiting certain banks from utilising the Swift banking system, a move which could have catastrophic effects on the Russian economy and was by some considered to be on the most potentially effective deterrents. "Investors are taking that into consideration and while the war for Ukraine rages on, this week is set to be one of the most volatile across markets with the prices of stocks and commodities being extremely susceptible to any kind of sanction and geopolitical instability. If the situation continues to escalate, risky assets like stocks and crypto currencies could be seeing another week of losses while investors continue to rush to safe havens like gold and the USD which benefited greatly last week from the shocking turn of events." Investors will be keeping an eye out for further developments in the Ukraine crisis, with high-level talks due to take place between Kyiv and Moscow later in the day on the Ukraine-Belarus border. In equity markets, Anglo-Russian precious metals miner Polymetal and Russian steelmaker Evraz tumbled, suffering the heaviest losses on the FTSE 100. BP lost ground after the oil giant said it will exit its near-20% holding in state-owned oil giant Rosneft in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at an expected cost of around $25bn. Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Just how BP will manage this exit is unclear but it looks like it will be highly difficult for the company to recover anywhere near what was considered to be the full value of the stake, estimated to be $14 billion at the end of 2021 and it will also strip BP of lucrative dividends which were due to pour in from the Russian business." Primark owner AB Foods was also in the red despite saying it expects half-year sales and adjusted operating profit to be strongly ahead of last year and higher than interims in pre-Covid in 2020. Travel-related stocks were under the cosh again after the EU announced over the weekend that it was closing its airspace to Russian aircraft, with BA owner IAG, budget airlines Wizz and easyJet and travel firm Tui all sharply lower. On the upside, defence companies BAE Systems and Babcock, defence technology firm Qinetiq and specialist defence manufacturer Chemring all rallied. Qinetiq was also benefitting from a rating upgrade at JPMorgan. Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,404.35 -1.14% FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,799.50 -0.51% techMARK (TASX) 4,370.33 0.64% FTSE 100 - Risers BAE Systems (BA.) 742.20p 12.96% Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,005.00p 2.70% Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,362.50p 1.84% Rightmove (RMV) 659.20p 1.80% National Grid (NG.) 1,117.80p 1.69% Bunzl (BNZL) 2,816.00p 1.45% Anglo American (AAL) 3,795.00p 1.35% Admiral Group (ADM) 3,001.00p 1.32% Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,759.00p 1.18% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 499.80p 1.09% FTSE 100 - Fallers Polymetal International (POLY) 480.00p -38.65% Evraz (EVR) 167.85p -18.54% Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,033.00p -4.59% BP (BP.) 360.75p -4.52% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 514.50p -4.44% Mondi (MNDI) 1,692.50p -4.20% Prudential (PRU) 1,139.00p -3.72% Standard Chartered (STAN) 536.80p -3.50% Melrose Industries (MRO) 145.15p -3.11% NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 228.00p -3.10% FTSE 250 - Risers QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 288.00p 9.51% Chemring Group (CHG) 298.50p 8.06% Babcock International Group (BAB) 324.00p 6.85% Darktrace (DARK) 432.80p 6.29% Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 170.00p 3.03% Hochschild Mining (HOC) 114.30p 3.00% BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 727.00p 2.39% Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 3,154.00p 2.21% Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 826.40p 2.07% Capricorn Energy (CNE) 219.00p 2.04% FTSE 250 - Fallers Petropavlovsk (POG) 8.20p -12.28% RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 2,740.00p -9.03% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 3,268.00p -8.22% Ferrexpo (FXPO) 151.30p -6.27% easyJet (EZJ) 598.60p -4.66% Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 198.00p -4.47% TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 242.00p -4.12% Cineworld Group (CINE) 39.61p -3.86% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,168.00p -3.61% Wood Group (John) (WG.) 177.65p -3.16% (Alliance News) - GlaxoSmithKline PLC on Monday said Haleon, the company to result from the proposed demerger of its Consumer Healthcare arm, is expected to list in July. The Brentford, England-based pharmaceutical company said its new consumer healthcare business is expected to list on a premium segment of the London Stock Exchange, with American Depository Receipts to list in the US in July. This follows the previous announcement back in June of a proposed demerger of its Consumer Healthcare unit where at least 80% of GSK's holding would be sold to shareholders. The unit is a joint venture between GSK and Pfizer Inc, with GSK holding 68%, and Pfizer 32%. Unilever PLC had bid three times unsuccessfully for the division. Last Tuesday, GSK announced the new company resulting from the demerger would be called Haleon. The demerger is still subject to shareholder approval. Haleon will house brands such as Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol & Advil pain relief, and Centrum vitamins, and be headquartered in Weybridge, England. Haleon is expected to deliver annual organic sales growth between 4% and 6% in the medium term, with "sustainable moderate expansion" of adjusted operating margin. GSK's Consumer Healthcare business achieved GBP9.5 billion in sales over 2021. Haleon's margin in 2022 will reflect synergies from the integration of Pfizer's portfolio of around GBP600 million, which will offset GBP175 million to GBP200 million of new costs associated with running a standalone public limited company. GSK expects continued high cash conversion for Haleon, targeting a net debt to adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ratio of less than three times. This would be reduced from the ratio of up to four times at the time of the demerger. Subject to approval by Haleon's board, the initial dividend is likely to be "at the lower end" of a 30% to 50% payout ratio range. Shares in GSK were down 1.4% to 1,542.00 pence each in London on Monday during midday trading. GSK Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley commented: "Today is an important milestone for GSK as we formally introduce Haleon to investors. It comes ahead of what promises to be the most significant corporate change for GSK in the last 20 years, to create two new growth companies that will positively impact the health of billions of people." Following the demerger, GSK will retain 20% of its holding in Haleon, with Pfizer to keep its 32% stake. By Elizabeth Winter; elizabethwinter@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - The UK on Monday said it will introduce further sanctions against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, promising a "full assets freeze" on all of the country's banks. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the freeze would take effect "in days", as part of new legislation to squeeze Russia's economy for its "unjustified aggression". Britain last weekend joined the US and Western allies in preventing the Russian central bank's ability to use reserves to support the plummeting ruble. And it also cut selected banks from the SWIFT international money transfer system, which Truss said was only the first step in a "total SWIFT ban". As Truss spoke in parliament, the Treasury announced asset freezes on Russia's state development bank VEB, and commercial lenders Otkritie and Sovcombank. The sanctions add to those announced last week on a series of Russian banks, businesses, billionaires, the Russian president himself and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Truss said the UK wants "a situation where they (Russia) can't access their funds, their trade can't flow, their ships can't dock and their planes can't land". More than 50% of Russian trade is denominated in dollars or sterling and the new powers "will damage Russia's ability to trade with the world", she said. "As soon as this legislation comes into force, we will apply it to Sberbank, Russia's largest bank," she added. The assets freeze on Russian banks will stop the Kremlin from raising debt in the UK and will prevent more than three million businesses from accessing UK capital markets. "Global giants like Gazprom will no longer be able to issue debt or equity in London," said Truss. Truss also promised a ban on "high-end technological equipment such as micro-electronics, marine and navigation equipment". "This will blunt Russia's military industrial capabilities and act as a drag on Russia's economy for years to come," she said. London has long been accused of turning a blind eye to illicit Russian money, but Truss promised new measures would target oligarchs' "houses, their yachts and every aspect of their lives". "I say to our Ukrainian friends, we are with you. In Britain and around the world we're prepared to suffer economic sacrifices to support you however long it takes," she added. "We will not rest until Ukraine sovereignty is restored." source: AFP Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. 25 February 2022 Power Metal Resources PLC ("Power Metal" or the "Company") USGS Releases 2022 List of Critical Minerals Power Metal Resources plc (LON:POW), the London listed exploration company seeking large-scale metal discoveries across its global project portfolio highlights the United States Geological Survey's ("USGS") 2022 List of Critical Minerals which was published on February 22, 2022. The full announcement can be found at the following link: U.S. Geological Survey Releases 2022 List of Critical Minerals | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov) The Critical Minerals list is published every three years and is determined using modern scientific methods to evaluate mineral criticality. The new list that was recently published contains 50 non-fuel mineral or mineral material that that are considered essential to the economic or national security of the United States of America ("USA") and which has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption. Additionally, critical minerals are characterized as serving an essential function in the manufacturing various critical products, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economy or national security of the USA. The notable changes from the 2018 list include the additional of nickel and zinc, as well as the removal of helium, potash, rhenium and strontium. Tungsten, lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements and platinum group metals all retained their inclusion in the 2022 Critical Minerals list. Power Metal's Exposure - Tungsten (W) was once again included on the USGS's Critical Minerals list. The main uses can be viewed at the following link: Tungsten Statistics and Information | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov). Power Metal, through its portfolio company Golden Metal Resources ("Golden Metal") maintains significant exposure to the critical mineral through its 100% holding of the Pilot Mountain Project located in Nevada, USA. Pilot Mountain hosts a robust Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 12.53Mt at 0.27% WO3 with significant silver, copper and zinc credits. Golden Metal is undertaking a planned listing on the London capital markets in 2022. - Power Metal also maintains significant global exploration exposure to several other metals on the Critical Minerals list including: o Lithium: Through its Authier North Property located in Quebec, Canada, as well as its Haneti Project located in Tanzania. o Rare Earth Elements (REEs): Through its Ditau Property located in Botswana, as well as its Selta Project located in the Northern Territory, Australia, held through its portfolio company, First Development Resources Limited. o Platinum Group Metals (PGMs): Through its Molopo Farms project located in Botswana. o Nickel: Through its Tati and Molopo Farms projects located in Botswana, as well as its Haneti Project located in Tanzania. For further information and to view the new corporate presentation please visit the newly launched website at: https://www.goldenmetalresources.com For further information please visit https://www.powermetalresources.com/ or contact: Power Metal Resources plc Paul Johnson (Chief Executive Officer) +44 (0) 7766 465 617 SP Angel Corporate Finance (Nomad and Joint Broker) Ewan Leggat/Charlie Bouverat +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SI Capital Limited (Joint Broker) Nick Emerson +44 (0) 1483 413 500 First Equity Limited (Joint Broker) David Cockbill/Jason Robertson +44 (0) 20 7330 1883 NOTES TO EDITORS Power Metal Resources plc - Background Power Metal Resources plc (LON:POW) is an AIM listed metals exploration company which finances and manages global resource projects and is seeking large scale metal discoveries. The Company has a principal focus on opportunities offering district scale potential across a global portfolio including precious, base and strategic metal exploration in North America, Africa and Australia. Project interests range from early-stage greenfield exploration to later-stage prospects currently subject to drill programmes. Power Metal will develop projects internally or through strategic joint ventures until a project becomes ready for disposal through outright sale or separate listing on a recognised stock exchange thereby crystallising the value generated from our internal exploration and development work. Value generated through disposals will be deployed internally to drive the Company's growth or may be returned to shareholders through share buy backs, dividends or in-specie distributions of assets. Power Metal Exploration Programmes Underway/Results Awaited Power Metal has exploration programmes completed or underway, with results awaited, as outlined below: Project Location POW % Work Completed or Underway Results Awaited Alamo Gold Project USA Earn-in to 75% Excavation of multiple test pits and mapping & sampling. Field and assay results from on-site work programme. Athabasca Uranium Canada 100% Data compilation across uranium properties Interpretation results from 5 of 7 properties. Authier North Lithium Canada Earn-in to 100% Soil & rock sampling completed Interpretation of laboratory assay results of samples collected defining next exploration steps. Ditau Project Botswana 50% Preparatory exploration work underway on target I10 leading to planned accelerated drilling targeting rare-earth elements and base metals Field programme findings and defined drill targets for near term drilling. Kalahari Copper Belt Botswana 50% Exploration programme underway across the South Ghanzi Project and further exploration at the more recently acquired South Ghanzi Extension and Mamuno licence areas Field programme findings and defined drill targets for near term drilling. Molopo Farms Botswana 53%A Kavango Option to acquire an interest in local project holding company. Option fee payable through defined work programme Results from various work activities underway as part of the Kavango Option. Tati Gold/Nickel Botswana 100% Reverse circulation drill programme completed Laboratory assay results awaited. Haneti Project Tanzania 35% Diamond drill programme completed Laboratory assay results awaited. Selta Uranium Rare Earth Element Project Australia 83.33% Geological, geophysical and geochemical review across the project. Findings of review including confirmation of key targets for next stage exploration. Victoria Goldfields Australia 49.9% Diamond drill programme underway Field updates and Laboratory assay results awaited. Paterson Projects Australia 83.33% Wallal passive seismic and 2D seismic processing work programme completed. Review of historical data and target generation for Ripon Hills & Braeside West projects Findings from multiple work programmes including final approvals and preparations for planned deep diamond drilling. A should Kavango exercise their option to acquire Kalahari Key, Power Metal interest would reduce to 40% of the Molopo Farms Complex project File photo Significant issues affecting the Great Lakes from algal blooms to the historic MI Clean Water investment are covered in the 2021 State of the Great Lakes report released Monday by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energys Office of the Great Lakes. Topics include the current state of knowledge on harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes, collaborative efforts to restore valuable fisheries like native whitefishes, new tools that hold promise to better understand groundwater resources, and an emphasis on the connectivity of all water resources. MANISTEE COUNTY Teen dating violence affects around 10% of all teens in the U.S., but its impacts can be even more pronounced among minority and LGBTQ communities. This is a concern for Michol Ludwig. As an outreach specialist with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Victim Services Program, Ludwig works with Tribal members and other Manistee-area residents. Ludwig says that a variety of racial and cultural components may contribute to how and even if an abuse victim seeks help. Native Americans are quite often very private, and there are studies that show that Native Americans have a harder time coming forward for help, she said. So culture is going to impact what that looks like for people to get help. Although there arent many current studies that identify the rate of teen dating violence in Native communities, data from the National Indigenous Womens Resource Center shows that native women in the U.S. experience some of the highest rates of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking and murder in the country. Ludwig and other members of the recently formed Teen Dating Violence Planning Committee point to resources available for Indigenous youth that have been abused. These include the StrongHearts Native Helpline, a 24/7 culturally appropriate domestic, dating and sexual violence helpline for Native Americans and Alaska Natives. It is available by calling or texting 1-844-7NATIVE or clicking on the chat icon on strongheartshelpline.org. According to a news release from StrongHearts Native Helpline, it started a pilot project in 2021 to expand its existing domestic and sexual violence advocacy services to support tribal programs and their contacts in that state. The project is a partnership with the Division of Victim Services at Michigans Department of Health and Human Services, which is also providing the funding. A well recognized issue throughout tribal domestic violence advocacy and shelter work is that many tribal programs are small with limited staff. Their advocates may need to carry pagers or cell phones at all times in order to respond to victims, resulting in overtime and additional stress, reads part of the release. Sometimes, advocates are unable to respond and victims calling after hours are simply advised to call back during office hours, which can create a safety issue for them. This project will give Native American victim-survivors in Michigan access to culturally-appropriate advocacy 24/7 even if they call their local tribal program after regular operating hours. Help is available Resources are available for those impacted by teen dating violence. A 24-hour relationship violence hotline can be reached at 866-331-9474 and people can text LOVE IS to 22522. An online chat is available at loveisrespect.org. Visit loveisrespect.org for more resources and information on health relationships for young adults. Victim Services Program: victimservicesprogram.org The National Domestic Violence Hotline: thehotline.org LGBTQ specific support LGBT National Help Center: serving the LGBTQ+ community by providing free and confidential peer support and local resources. Call 1-800-246-7743 or chat at glbthotline.org. Brown Boi Project: a community of people working across race and gender to eradicate sexism, homophobia and transphobia and create healthy framework of masculinity and change. brownboiproject.org Scarleteen: inclusive, comprehensive, supportive reproductive and relationships info for teens. scarleteen.com The Trevor Project: provides 24/7 confidential crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people under 25. Call 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678678 or chat live at thetrevorproject.org Support for Black, Indigenous and communities of color Heart: ensures that Muslims have the resources, language, and choice to nurture sexual health and confront sexual violence. hearttogrow.org StrongHearts: 24/7 free, confidential, and culturally-relevant support for Native American and Alaska Native teens and young adults experiencing dating abuse and sexual violence. Call 844-7NATIVE or chat live at strongheartshelpline.org. See More Collapse Nationwide, teen dating violence affects approximately 10% of all teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18, according to data from the National Institute of Justice, and in 2020, 1 in 10 U.S. high school students contacted the National Domestic Violence Hotline due to dating violence, according to information from Family Crisis Centers. Nearly 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While one-quarter of all high school girls have been victims of physical or sexual abuse, a 1992 Minnesota youth study found that 92 percent of American Indian girls who reported having sexual intercourse have been forced against their will, states the StrongHearst Native Hotline website. Despite these sobering statistics, a study conducted by Ludwig in late 2019 found that a quarter of Manistee teens werent concerned with the risks of teen dating violence because they were either not yet dating, or were not currently in an abusive relationship. Ludwig described the survey results as alarming in an email to the News Advocate and said it was exactly why we need to focus on awareness and prevention. Advocates also point to the elevated risk for teen dating violence among LGBTQ youth. LGBTQ youth are among those at the highest risk for attempting suicide, and those who experience physical dating violence are at significantly greater rate, reports the Trevor Project, a leading advocate for LGBTQ youth. Overall, 11% of LGBTQ youth who reported dating someone in the past year experienced physical dating violence, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control. Although LGBTQ youth under age 18 had comparable odds of experiencing physical dating abuse compared to those over 18, there were significant differences within gender identity and race/ethnicity, states the Trevor Project website. Most LGBTQ youth do not disclose their experiences with physical dating violence with adults such as parents, family members, therapists and medical professionals who may be in a position to help them access professional support, according to the Trevor Project website. The Trevor Project also reports that LGBTQ youth who experienced physical dating violence in the past year had significantly greater odds of reporting a past-year suicide attempt and 37% of LGBTQ youth did not tell anyone about their experience of physical dating violence. It is important to note that the dynamics of (teen dating violence) in the LGBTQ+ community, while similar in many ways, differs as well so helping may look differently, Ludwig stated in an email to the News Advocate. Also, boys being abused by a partner may not be believed or offered the same support as a girl because of a man up mentality. Did you know ... The magnificent city of Chicago, our neighbors across Lake Michigan, was settled by a black man named Jean Baptiste Point DuSable. He was born on the island of Haiti around 1745 to a French mariner and a mother who was a slave of African descent. His father provided him an education in France. DuSable also worked as a seaman on his fathers ships. By the 1760s, DuSable lived in the Louisiana Territory, then under French rule. During that time, he ran his fathers business. However, in 1764, the Spanish occupied Louisiana and DuSable moved from New Orleans to St. Louis, which was under French control. He remained faithful to the French and chose to live among the Potawatomies. His fur trapping expeditions took him across North America to sites of what are now Chicago, Detroit and Ontario, Canada. In 1772, he established a historic fur trading post on the Chicago River near Lake Michigan. This was the first permanent settlement in the area. Known as the Father of Chicago, DuSable was a successful tradesman, the first city administrator, a business entrepreneur, a real estate developer and a proponent of multi-culturalism. He peacefully co-existed with the indigenous Potawatomi and married Kittihawa (Katherine) and settled into running a family trading post. He had a daughter named Suzanne and later had a son. DuSable traded heavily with the Native Americans in the area and became known as a peacemaker between warring tribes. DuSable was fluent in French, English, Spanish and many of the Indian languages. During the Revolutionary War, he tried to continue his role as a peacemaker for both sides. DuSable was jailed, by the British, on suspicion of treason. He and his family were detained by the British for five years during the Revolutionary War. DuSable was freed when he proved he was a citizen of the United States. He moved to Michigan during the 1780s when he worked at a Pinery (a forest of pine trees) just north of Detroit. After returning to Chicago, he built a trading post and a home that became legendary for its elaborate furnishings and modern conveniences. His business was so prosperous it included two barns, a mill, a bake house, a poultry house and a large livestock building. In 1800, DuSable sold his Chicago holdings to a European trader for $1,200 ($17,000). Some reports say he moved with his son on property they owned in Saint Charles, Missouri. There are many theories as to why he left Chicago but many believe that his imprisonment during the Revolutionary War by the British may have precipitated his move from the region as the westward expansion of Europeans continued to advance. DuSable died a pauper on Aug. 28, 1818 in St. Charles, Missouri. He was apparently forsaken by his relatives. His life and perseverance stand as a symbol of African American ingenuity and self-reliance. There is a Native American saying that captures the magnitude of his historical legacy, The first white man to settle in Chicago was a black man. The famous Lakeshore Drive in Chicago has been renamed Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lakeshore Drive. Hundreds of Ukrainians were killed, thousands more fled for their lives and much of the international community heaped scorn on Russia as it continued its brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine through the weekend. By the end of day four of the attack on Sunday, at least 352 civilians including 14 children had been killed, according to Ukraines Interior Ministry. Ukraines government claimed 4,300 Russian service members died since launching their invasion last week, though news outlets could not verify the number. Advertisement An armored vehicle rolls outside Mykolaivka, Donetsk region, the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants, in eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. Fighting also raged in two eastern territories controlled by pro-Russia separatists. (AP) Russian forces had reportedly blocked all exits from Kyiv by Sunday night, but the capital remained in the Ukrainian governments hands. Ukrainian forces, including numerous civilian men and women who answered their countrys call to arms, engaged in street-fighting in Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraines second-biggest city. But satellite images showed a big convoy of Russian forces approaching Kyiv on Sunday, suggesting the worst was yet to come. Advertisement There is no life in Kyiv, there is just a lot of Russian occupiers. They come with tanks and rockets, everything is on fire. It is terrible now, a woman who gave her name as Daryna told the BBC after escaping to Hungary. Ukrainian family reunites at the Medyka border crossing in Poland on Sunday. The U.N. has estimated the conflict could produce as many as 4 million refugees, depending how long the invasion continues. (Visar Kryeziu/AP) She was among an estimated 368,000 people who have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion poised to be the worst military conflict in Europe since World War II. Still, the door to diplomacy was not completely closed as of Sunday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreeing to talks with Russia. We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River, he was quoted saying on his official Telegram channel by The New York Times. The agreement came during a call with Aleksandr Lukashenko, president of Belarus, which Russia has used as one of its staging points for the invasion. Details of the talks were not immediately known. An elderly Ukrainian woman on a wheelchair is seen at the train station in Przemysl. (SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett) In spite of the diplomatic development, Russias strongman president, Vladimir Putin, ominously announced he was putting his countrys nuclear forces on high alert. He said aggressive statements by NATO prompted the move. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, denounced the decision. A Ukrainian family waits for a train inside Lviv railway station on Sunday in Lviv, west Ukraine. Thousands of people massed at Lviv's main train station on Sunday, attempting to board trains that would take them out of Ukraine and into the safety of Europe as the Russian invasion of that country continued. (Bernat Armangue/AP) He is under no threat from NATO, a defense alliance that will not fight in Ukraine, she said. We urge Russia to tone down its dangerous rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons. Advertisement The U.S. will try to isolate Russia on the world stage, she said. We can isolate them in the United Nations. We can isolate them in UN specialized agencies. They are feeling that isolation, Thomas-Greenfield said on NBCs Meet the Press. She promised that at a Monday meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Russia will be called out and their aggressions will be brought to the attention of the world. President Biden has said U.S. troops wont be sent to Ukraine. But more sanctions on Russia are coming, according to Thomas-Greenfield. Medics perform CPR on a girl at the city hospital of Mariupol, who was injured during shelling in a residential area in eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The girl did not survive. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) The Russians can be assured that we will continue to put more and more sanctions as they continue to press more on the Ukrainian government, she said. Congress was expected to weigh another $6.4 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine this week. Advertisement Meanwhile, U.S. businesses should cut their ties with Russia, the besieged nations ambassador to the U.S. said. This is a full-fledged, unjust war and I think its time for many American businesses to think about saving reputations and not cooperating with a regime that will end up in the Hague for everything theyve done and theyre doing now today, Ambassador Oksana Markarova said on ABCs This Week. Ukraine sent accusations of Russian war crimes to the International Criminal Court in the Hague on Saturday, citing attacks on kindergartens and orphanages. Ukrainian asylum seekers are resting on camp-beds at the train station in Przemysl. Hundreds of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in przemysl and had nowhere to go stayed overnight at the train station hall prepared by the local authorities. (SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett) The European Union and Canada took the extraordinary step of shutting their airspace to Russian-owned and Russian-registered planes. There is no room in Dutch airspace for a regime that applies unnecessary and brutal violence, tweeted Mark Harbers, the Netherlands minister of infrastructure and waterworks. The E.U. also banned Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik, calling them the Kremlins media machine. Advertisement The global response to Russias unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is on par with the support foreign countries showed the U.S. after 9/11, a Republican Senator said Sunday. The world is standing up in ways that frankly I havent seen this kind of unity since 9/11, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said on NBCs Meet the Press. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > I think that is something that will, in the end, be very helpful, but weve got to provide more military assistance, he asserted. Weve got to tighten up the sanctions further. From New York City to Tokyo, demonstrators have gathered by the thousands to protest the Russian aggression. In Russia, more than 3,000 people have reportedly been arrested for protesting against their governments actions. Most Republican elected officials have condemned the invasion. But former President Donald Trump has given stunning remarks praising Putin as pretty smart. GOP leaders have taken pains to avoid criticizing Trump, who remains popular among Republican voters. Advertisement On Sunday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) refused to condemn Trumps comments. After trying to dodge the question on ABCs This Week, he said: if you want to know what Donald Trump thinks about Vladimir Putin or any other topic, Id encourage you to invite him on your show. With News Wire Services President Joe Biden will host the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for a special summit in Washington next month, the White House announced Monday. The meeting of the 10-member ASEAN will be held March 28-29 and is being billed by the White House as an opportunity to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to the bloc and a chance to mark 45 years of U.S.-ASEAN relations. "It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner and to strengthen an empowered and unified ASEAN to address the challenges of our time," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. The ASEAN nations are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. ASEAN barred Myanmar's military-installed government leadership from the last annual summit in October, instead restricting the nation's participation to non-political representatives. That policy is expected to remain in place for the March summit, according to a Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly. The summit comes as Biden has sought to make relations in the Pacific a top foreign policy priority amid growing concerns about China as a military and economic adversary. Biden has criticized Beijing for human rights abuses against Uyghurs in northwest China, suppression of democratic protests in Hong Kong, military aggression against the self-ruled island of Taiwan and more. Biden participated in the October summit, where he announced more than $100 million in new U.S. spending in ASEAN countries on health programs, a new climate initiative, programs to assist with the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and education programs. It marked the first time since 2017, when President Donald Trump participated in the summit, that a U.S. president took part in a meeting of the bloc. Kosovo have asked the United States to set up a permanent military base in the county and to speed up their integration into NATO. The request has been sparked by Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Already, the United States has over 600 soldiers in Kosovo as part of a NATO 'peacekeeping' mission. "Accelerating Kosovo's membership in NATO and having a permanent base of American forces is an immediate need to guarantee peace, security and stability in the Western Balkans," Kosovo's defence minister Armend Mehaj said on his Facebook page. Due to objections from Russia, Kosovo are still to become a United Nations member. They did, though, join other countries in introducing sanctions against Russia after their actions in Ukraine, and Mehaj has insisted that they are ready to help Ukraine however they can in any military operation. Although Russia and Serbia don't recognise Kosovo's independence - gained in 2008 - more than 110 nations worldwide do. A total of four NATO members refuse to recognise their independence. Our New Arrival, Ferrand Renegade Barrel No.3, is an eau-de-vie from the Charente region aged in French oak before a secondary maturation in casks that previously held some seriously funky Jamaican rum. Just dont call it Cognac. When is a Cognac not a Cognac? When its aged in rogue barrels, thats when. Our New Arrival, Ferrand Renegade Barrel No.3, comes from spirits maverick Alexandre Gabriel who we have written about on the blog before. Since he took over venerable Cognac producer Maison Ferrand, hes had a whale of a time pushing the boundaries of whats acceptable in this often rather staid region. This is not acceptable! As a rum producer through the Plantation brand, and a whisky lover, he brings a cross-category approach to Cognac. Hes always looking to experiment with casks he has acquired from other spirits. But while this kind of approach might work in Scotch whisky mezcal cask Lagavulin, anyone? or rum, it hasnt always gone down well with the BNIC, Cognacs regulatory body. The first Renegade bottling was partly aged in old Sauternes barriques, a historic technique in the region, and it was passed, somewhat reluctantly I like to think, by the BNIC. But Renegade No. 2 was finished in chestnut wood casks and that had the Cognac bigwigs harrumphing into their moustaches so Alexander simply marketed it as an eau-de-vie. Since then, in a move that surprised many in the industry, Gabriel became vice president of the BNIC in December 2020. And yet hes still producing maverick bottlings like Ferrand Renegade Barrel No.3, our New Arrival of the Week. This started life as a Grand Champagne Cognac from premier cru vineyards distilled in 2011. But following a period of ageing in French oak, Gabriel moved it into barrels that had previously held Plantation rum from the Long Pond Distillery in Jamaica that was distilled in 1996. This would be a funky high ester rum providing a touch of what the French used to call hogo or haut gout high flavour ie. the funk. The moment it hit that wood, it was no longer legally Cognac. Following this extra maturation, it was bottled at 48.2% ABV. The history man Gabriel is something of a controversial figure not just for his Cognac experiments but for partly-ageing his Caribbean rums in France and being completely open about sweetening some of his products if he feels they need it. We have covered the long-running feud between him and Richard Seale of Foursquare over the GI (geographical indication) for Barbados rum. Gabriels reply is that in rum as in Cognac hes simply reviving old techniques that have fallen by the wayside: Cognac has a rich history full of old and forgotten techniques that we love to explore and revive, he said. Anyone who has spent time with him will know his deep love and knowledge of the history of drinks. He elaborated: This Renegade Barrel No. 3 is a tribute to the old master bonders who, until 40 years ago, would go to the harbour in Bordeaux to collect rum barrels as they arrived from the Caribbean. I know an old Cognac maker who actually remembers ageing some of his Cognacs that way. I could help but try it. We were so excited to see how beautifully it developed. Gabriel has found newspaper adverts from 1912 offering rum barrels for sale to Cognac producers. Its difficult to argue with someone who brings so much knowledge and passion to his products so probably best just to sit back and enjoy the magnificence of his creations. Gabriel is also a massive cocktail fan so as well as savouring this rare spirit neat, we imagine hed love you to try it in a cocktail. It would be particularly good in a Harvard similar to a Manhattan but made with Cognac. Sorry, eaux-de-vie. New Arrival of the Week: Ferrand Renegade Barrel No.3 is available from Master of Malt. Click here to buy. Tasting note for Ferrand Renegade Barrel No.3 Nose: Intense and fruity with orange, guava and Cape gooseberry, accompanied by pastry notes of almond and vanilla with a floral touch of honeysuckle. Taste: With the same fruity profile on the nose, some notes of quince paste, peach and tangerine with a spicy touch of nutmeg and cinnamon. Finish: Long and suave with lemongrass and liquorice and a touch of coffee and a minty feel. Weather Alert ...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...Portions of Arkansas and Oklahoma, including the following counties, in Arkansas, Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Madison, Sebastian and Washington AR. In Oklahoma, Adair, Cherokee, Choctaw, Craig, Creek, Delaware, Haskell, Latimer, Le Flore, Mayes, McIntosh, Muskogee, Nowata, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pittsburg, Pushmataha, Rogers, Sequoyah, Tulsa, Wagoner and Washington OK. * WHEN...Through Thursday afternoon. * IMPACTS...Excessive runoff will likely result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations, especially in areas that have already received heavy rainfall over the past few days. Several main-stem rivers could go into flood. A few locations could see significant flash flooding. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Multiple rounds of thunderstorms are expected today through Thursday afternoon with the potential for very heavy rainfall. Widespread 2 to 3 inches of rain is expected with locally higher amounts of 5 to 6 inches. The heavier rain will begin to shift east of far southeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas Thursday afternoon. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible Flood Warnings. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop. && MARIUPOL, Ukraine In the port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainians are trying to fend off a Russian advance, an ambulance raced into a city hospital Sunday, carrying a 6-year-old girl mortally injured in Russian shelling. She was pale. Her brown hair was pulled back with a rubber band. Her bloody pyjama pants were decorated with cartoon unicorns. She was brought in with her wounded father, his head bloodied and bandaged. Advertisement A medical team pumped her chest, fighting desperately to revive her. Her mother stood outside the ambulance, weeping. Medics transport a girl injured during shelling from an ambulance in city hospital of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The girl did not survive. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) Take her out! Take her out! We can make it! a hospital worker shouted, pushing a gurney to the ambulance. Advertisement The girl was raced inside and doctors and nurses huddled around her. One gave her an injection. Another tried to revive her with a defibrillator. A nurse wept. A doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into her, looked straight at the camera of an Associated Press videojournalist who had been allowed inside. Show this to Putin, he said angrily. The eyes of this child, and crying doctors. Medics perform CPR on a girl at the city hospital of Mariupol, who was injured during shelling in a residential area in eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The girl did not survive. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) The girl, whose name was not immediately known, could not be saved. The doctor reached gently over her face to close her eyes. Her body was left alone in the room, covered by her brightly colored polyester jacket, now spattered with blood. Shancheng Alley in Chongqing full of new vitality after renovation Xinhua) 08:50, February 28, 2022 People sit at a teahouse in the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) A visitor takes photos at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Photo by Liu Huan/Xinhua) A man interacts with a cat at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People enjoy the night view at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People walk out of a library at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit a library at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) An unrepentant former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched an advertisement aimed at clearing his name on Monday, more than six months after a torrent of sexual harassment allegations drove him out of office. The 30-second spot, which highlights decisions by New York district attorneys not to press criminal charges against him, closes with a picture of the beleaguered former governor behind an overlay of the words: Political attacks won. And New Yorkers lost a proven leader. Advertisement Five criminal probes of Cuomo, 64, closed without charges, although some prosecutors said they found accusations against him credible. Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes coupled his decision with a plea to lawmakers to tighten sexual harassment laws. Politics vs. the Law from Rich Azzopardi Vimeo. Cuomo, a three-term Democrat, has mostly laid low since resigning, but has begun to poke his head out recently. He told Bloomberg News in an interview this month that he had been vindicated by the decisions of the prosecutors. Advertisement In August, state Attorney General Letitia James released a bombshell report that found Cuomo had sexually harassed at least 11 women. The probe met swift outrage and Cuomo quit after its release rather than face possible impeachment. A November state Assembly report bolstered the findings of James office, saying that the evidence of Cuomos sexual misconduct was overwhelming. But Cuomo has stridently denied the claims against him. His surrogates have painted James report as a partisan hatchet job. Accusations fly around the world at the speed of light, but the truth crawls at a snails pace, Rich Azzopardi, Cuomos spokesman, said in a statement on Monday. We will not rest until all the facts are out and New Yorkers understand the full scope of the craven politics and prosecutorial misconduct that permeated this process, Azzopardi added in the statement. James pushed back against Cuomo at the New York State Democratic Convention this month, accusing Cuomo of attacking anyone in his path and pushing down others in order to prop himself up. In a statewide Siena College poll published last week, 33% of voters said they viewed Cuomo favorably and 60% said they viewed him unfavorably. While a quarter of the respondents said they believed Cuomo had been vindicated, 56% said they did not. New Yorkers are not ready to forgive and forget when it comes to Cuomo, Steven Greenberg, Sienas pollster, said in a statement. In whats sure to be viewed as throwing down the gauntlet to socialists and progressives in the city, Mayor Adams declared Monday that hes a compassionate capitalist minutes after ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Adams self-branding with its echoes of former Republican President George W. Bushs use of the term compassionate conservative marks another departure from his predecessor and political ally, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who made it a point to keep Wall Street at arms length during his eight years in City Hall. Advertisement New York City Mayor Eric Adams rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, New York on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office) I dont know what the heck happened to our country where the foundation of our existence has been on capitalism. Why are we apologizing for being capitalists? Were working hard. Were opening small businesses and hopefully one day opening a corporation. Weve allowed people to embarrass us for the foundation of our existence, Adams said during an interview on CNBC. Im a compassionate capitalist. And Im not going to apologize for that. And we should encourage new businesses to be here, but be compassionate in our actions. Advertisement Adams, who famously converted his first three paychecks as mayor into Bitcoin, was responding to a question about how New York City could become a leader in cryptocurrency. The interview came about 20 minutes after he kicked off trading on the stock exchange by ringing its opening bell. Joined by the exchanges president, Stacey Cunningham, Adams flashed two thumbs up and then gave her a high-five after ringing the bell. He then suggested the market would take some hits due to the war in Ukraine. New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, New York on Monday, February 28, 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office) That war is going to sort of make people sort of scary right now, he told reporters. But were resilient, and were going to be fine, and were going to continue growing our economy. It didnt take long for Adams, a Democrat and former NYPD captain who was a registered Republican for a brief time, to draw criticisms from socialists and progressives for his compassionate capitalist stance. Sumathy Kumar, co-chairwoman of the Democratic Socialists of America New York City chapter, called Adams new catchphrase an oxymoron and used cryptocurrency as an example, noting the environmental toll it takes to create specific forms of crypto. You cant be a compassionate capitalist, she said. Everything has a cost. And when your bottom line is profit, you will always put that before the needs of people. Bill Neidhardt, a former spokesman for de Blasio, also said Adams compassionate capitalist self-brand makes no sense in the context of promoting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Advertisement If Mayor Adams wants to embrace Bitcoin, and the dirty Bitcoin mining business that relies on coal and natural gas, then he needs to explain why thats worth flooding working-class communities and fueling superstorms, Neidhardt said. Bitcoin mining, the computer process that generates the currency, depends on more electricity use than what many countries produce, which in turn has contributed to climate change. You cant support Bitcoin as a government and not support the disastrous climate destruction done by Bitcoin mining, Neidhardt added. Job Title: Field Agronomist Project name: Feed The Future DRC, Management of Fall Armyworm DRC (MFAW) Place of work: Mbuji-Mayi (Kasai Oriental), Kalemie (Tanganyika), and Ngandajika (Lomami). Supervision: Agriculture Education and Training Team Leader Background Land O'Lakes Venture37 is a non-profit organization (501(c)(3)) committed to helping communities around the world build economies by strengthening local agriculture, helping agribusinesses create jobs, and connecting farmers to markets. Since 1981, it has implemented more than 315 integrated dairy, livestock, and crop development programs in nearly 80 countries creating a lasting impact by connecting farmers, businesses, and the public and private sectors in local and global contexts. Land O'Lakes Venture37's long-standing affiliation with Land O'Lakes, Inc. sets it apart. Land O'Lakes, Inc. is one of the largest farmer-owned cooperatives in the United States. It supports the implementation of the Land O'Lakes Venture37 project with nearly 100 years of expertise in dairy, animal nutrition, crop inputs and agricultural knowledge and technologies. This gives Land O'Lakes Venture37 development projects a unique holistic view of agriculture, food, and the power of well-functioning market systems. Land O'Lakes, Inc. supports these efforts as part of its corporate goal of nurturing human progress in the DRC and around the world. Project Summary Land O'Lakes Venture37 (Venture37) is implementing a project to improve Fall Armyworm (FAW) management in maize for smallholder farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The project has three components: 1) validation of safe and cost-effective integrated pest management (IPM) technologies, practices and approaches suitable for small-scale maize producers; 2) facilitation of the adoption by smallholders and the system of appropriate technologies, practices and approaches that will strengthen the resilience of maize small producers and the support market system; and (3) strengthen the enabling environment needed to coordinate systemic approaches to manage FAW. As part of the DRC M-FAW project, Land O'Lakes Venture 37 is seeking to hire three (3) experienced agronomists to implement project activities in Kasai Oriental, Lomami, and Tanganyika provinces. Position Description Global Responsibilities Under the supervision of the Agricultural Education and Training Team Leader, the Field Agronomist will be expected to ensure that each province's business plans are implemented effectively and on time in all villages planned for implementation. The Field Agronomist will provide technical and methodological support to community facilitators in supporting small-scale maize producers, with a view to adopting FAW IPM practices and approaches for efficient and cost-effective management of FAW and increasing maize yields in their areas of assignment. The Field Agronomist will participate in the creation/or strengthening of an enabling and necessary environment for the coordination of systemic approaches to control FAW, in the project intervention areas. Specific responsibilities DRC M-FAW Business Planning: Participate in strategic planning sessions for annual project activities. Based on the annual business plan, develop quarterly, monthly, and weekly implementation plans specific to his/her intervention zone. Support community facilitators, community animators, Agrodealers, SNV, the Provincial Inspectorate of Agriculture (IPA), in the development and implementation of action plans sensitive to FAW Improved IPM. In collaboration with community facilitators, provide support and necessary tools to Farmers' Fields Schools (FFS) in the development of their seasonal business plans, aimed at the integration of IPM technologies, approaches, and practices in their demonstration fields. In collaboration with the Extension and Advisory Services Team Leader, develop quarterly activity planning of community radios and other SBCC stakeholders in the project areas. Implementation and Monitoring of DRC M-FAW activities: Provide training to community facilitators and maize smallholder farmers in effective and cost-effective approaches, practices and technologies for the FAW management. In accordance with the project database, and jointly with community facilitators, ensure close monitoring of maize producers in the implementation of FAW IPM practices and technologies, in their individual maize plots. Identify Champion maize producers in Improved IPM practices, hold community open days related to FAW Improved IPM. Conduct visits to FFS activities, conduct participatory assessments of their capacities in CLA's IPM practices, and propose, where appropriate, appropriate practices. Update the list of FAW IPM Agrodealers specialized in inputs and equipment (Approved in DRC). Plan, coordinate, and report on territorial and community campaigns to control FAW, in coordination with MINAGRI Specialized Services (SNV, Crop Protection, SENAFIC, IPA), INERA and Universities. Organize, implement and supervise FAW open days on improved IPM practices, approaches and technologies, including FFS, Champion producers, Specialized Services of Agriculture (Agriculture extension agents). Identify 'Success Stories', document and share with FAW project Communication Component. Host radio programs on FAW, through local radios and medias, on FAW's improved IPM approaches, practices and technologies. Monitoring Evaluation Learning and Accountability: In collaboration with the Project M&E Specialist, maintain a list of tools/forms for collecting and reporting data on project activities. With the use of tablets, enter and synchronize on IMPACTS, at each end of an activity, the data contributing to the realization of the project's indicators. Prepare, with DRC M-FAW's Accountability and Learning team, lessons learned workshops in communities including all relevant stakeholders. In accordance with Land O'Lakes Venture 37 and USAID standards, conduct, on a regular basis, participatory evaluations of project activities, with FFS participants and other project stakeholders to learn from activities implementation. Representation and coordination: Represent Land O'Lakes 37 in meetings relating to the coordination of agricultural activities in the intervention area. Participate/facilitate the activities of the Provincial Task Force, with a view to maintaining an enabling environment for the coordination of systemic approaches to FAW Improved Integrated management. Make suggestions to Land O'Lakes Venture 37, on strategies for the proper integration of project activities into provincial plans to control FAW and improve maize yield of smallholder farmers. Qualifications Nationality: This position is reserved only for Congolese people based in respective recruitment locations (Kasai Oriental, Tanganyika, and Lomami). Education: Bachelors degree or equivalent in Agriculture, majored in Crop Protection is an asset. Experience required At least 2 years of proven experience in the management and implementation of Improved Integrated Pest Management projects (on maize is an asset), 5 years of proven experience in participatory extension approaches. Proven experience in organizing open days, sensitizing stakeholders to FAW management in remote areas. Proven skills in project cycle management (agricultural development projects is an asset). Able to move in difficult areas, specifically riding a motorcycle. Knowledge of the work area with previous experience of other organizations. Skills/Competencies Required Excellent integration, analysis and synthesis capabilities. Listening and dialogue skills, as well as good interpersonal skills. Ability to work with minimal supervision. A proven sense of respect for the environment and the protection of ecosystems. A synthetic approach in the understanding of situations and rapid development of adaptation strategies. Autonomous in work and very creative, with a good innovative spirit. Good previous experience working with public institutions (IPA, SNV, DPROTV, SENAFIC), Good command of local languages (Tshiluba in Kasai Oriental, Kisongye in Lomami, Swahili in Tanganyika), Excellent writing skills (formulation of success stories, reports and other written documents). Excellent level in French (written, spoken). Computer tool (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet). Able to work in a structured, dynamic way and with a sense of initiative and a focus on results. Very good practical knowledge of cross-cutting themes (Gender, Environment, Do No Harm). Fair and transparent decision-making. To Apply, please submit your application to this address, no than 30 March 2022: https://lol.avature.net/Careers/JobDetail/Congo-Democratic-Republic-of-the-Field-Agronomist/1573 Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. No phone calls will be accepted. Land O'Lakes Venture37 will never ask you for personally identifiable information, and we will never ask for money or payment during the recruitment or employment process. Please refer any questions or concerns to Venture37generalinquiries@landolakesventure37.org. Land O'Lakes Venture37 is an equal opportunity employer and an organization that strives to help global communities thrive through agriculture. We consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or veteran status, among other factors. Our culture values the diversity of voices. So, bring us your unique experiences, work style and dreams they will only make us stronger. Titre du poste : Agronome de Terrain Nom du projet : Feed The Future RDC, Projet de Lutte contre la Chenille Legionnaire d'Automne du Mais en RDC (MFAW). Lieu de travail : Mbuji-Mayi, Kalemie et Ngandajika. Sous la Supervision de : Chef dEquipe Formation agricole et Renforcement des Capacites et du Chef dEquipe Vulgarisation et Conseils Agricoles I. Contexte Land O'Lakes Venture37 est un organisme a but non lucratif (501(c)(3)) qui s'engage a aider les communautes du monde entier a batir des economies en renforcant l'agriculture locale, en aidant les agro-industries a creer des emplois et en reliant les agriculteurs aux marches. Depuis 1981, elle a mis en uvre plus de 315 programmes integres de developpement du secteur laitier, de l'elevage et des cultures dans pres de 80 pays - creant un impact durable en reliant les agriculteurs, les entreprises et les secteurs public et prive dans des contextes locaux et mondiaux. L'affiliation de longue date de Land O'Lakes Venture37 avec Land O'Lakes, Inc. la distingue. Land O'Lakes, Inc. est l'une des plus grandes cooperatives americaines appartenant a des agriculteurs. Elle soutient la mise en uvre du projet Land O'Lakes Venture37 avec pres de 100 ans d'expertise dans les domaines des produits laitiers, de la nutrition animale, des intrants de culture et des connaissances et technologies agricoles. Cela confere aux projets de developpement Land O'Lakes Venture37 une vision globale unique de l'agriculture, de l'alimentation et du pouvoir des systemes de marche qui fonctionnent bien. Land O'Lakes, Inc. soutient ces efforts dans le cadre de son objectif d'entreprise consistant a nourrir le progres humain en RDC et dans le monde entier. Resume du projet : Land O'Lakes Venture37 (Venture37) met en uvre un projet visant a ameliorer la gestion de la chenille legionnaire d'automne (CLA) dans le mais pour les petits exploitants agricoles en Republique democratique du Congo (RDC). L'approche comporte trois volets : 1) valider des technologies, des pratiques et des approches de lutte integree contre les ravageurs (IPM) sures et rentables, adaptees aux petits producteurs de mais ; 2) faciliter l'adoption par les petits exploitants et le systeme de technologies, de pratiques et d'approches adaptees qui renforceront la resilience des petits producteurs et du systeme de marche de soutien ; et 3) renforcer l'environnement favorable necessaire pour coordonner les approches systemiques de la lutte contre la CLA. II. Description du poste : 2.1. Responsabilites generales. Dans le cadre du projet DRC M-FAW, Land OLakes Venture 37 cherche a engager trois (3) agronomes experimentes pour la mise en uvre des activites du projet dans les provinces du Kasai Oriental, de Lomami et de Tanganyika. Sous la Supervision du Chef dEquipe Formation Agricole et Renforcement des Capacites, les meilleurs candidats retenus pour ces postes devront assurer que les plans dactivites de chaque province seront implementes efficacement et dans les delais dans tous les villages prevus sur les plans dimplementation. Ils apporteront un appui technique et methodologique aux facilitateurs communautaires dans laccompagnement des petits producteurs de mais, en vue de ladoption des pratiques et approches FAW IPM pour une gestion efficace et rentable de la CLA, et laccroissement du rendement de mais dans leurs zones daffectation. Ils participeront a la creation/ou au renforcement dun environnement favorable et necessaire a la coordination des approches systemiques de la lutte contre la CLA, dans leurs zones daffectation. 2.2. Responsabilites specifiques. Planification des activites DRC M-FAW : Participer aux sessions de planification strategiques des activites annuelles du projet. Sur base du plan dactivites annuel, developper des plans de mise en uvre trimestriels, mensuels et hebdomadaires specifiques a sa zone daffectation et tenant compte des realites locales. Appuyer les facilitateurs communautaires, les animateurs communautaires, les Agrodealers, SNV et lInspection provinciale de lAgriculture dans lelaboration et la mise en uvre des plans daction sensibles a la Chenille legionnaire dAutomne. En collaboration avec les facilitateurs communautaires, fournir un appui et des outils necessaires aux Champs Ecoles paysans (CEP) dans le developpement de leurs plans dactivites saisonniers, visant lintegration des technologies, approches et pratiques IPM dans leurs champs de demonstration. Sous la collaboration du Chef dEquipe de Vulgarisation et Conseils agricoles, developper des calendriers dactivites trimestriels des radios communautaires et les autres parties prenantes SBCC au projet. Mise en uvre et Suivi des activites DRC M-FAW : Assurer les formations des facilitateurs communautaires dans les approches, les pratiques et technologies efficaces et rentables de gestion de la CLA dans sa zone daffectation. En conformite avec la base de donnees du projet, et conjointement avec les facilitateurs communautaires, assurer un suivi de proximite des producteurs de mais dans la mise en place des pratiques et technologies IPM de la CLA, dans leurs propres champs. Identifier les producteurs de mais Champions dans lintegration des pratiques IPM de la CLA, dans leurs pratiques de production de mais. Etablir les listes des producteurs champions en vue de la tenue des journees portes ouvertes sur la CLA. Effectuer des visites des activites des CEP, mener des evaluations participatives de leurs capacites dans les pratiques IPM de la CLA, et proposer, le cas echeant, des pratiques appropriees. Mettre a jour la liste des Agrodealers specialises dans les intrants et equipements (Approuves en RDC) contre la CLA. Coordonner la sensibilisation des producteurs de mais sur lusage efficace, rationnel et respectueux de la conformite, des pesticides a faible toxicite. Planifier, coordonner et rapporter les campagnes territoriales et communautaires de lutte contre la CLA, en coordination avec les Services Specialises du Ministere provincial de lAgriculture (SNV, Protection des Vegetaux, SENAFIC, IPA), lINERA et les Universites ayant des activites sur la CLA. Organiser, implementer et superviser les journees portes-ouvertes sur les pratiques, approches et technologies IPM, incluant les CEP, producteurs Champions, Services specialises de lagriculture (Moniteurs agricoles, ITAPEL). Identifier les cas Recits a succes, les documenter et les partager avec la Composante Communication du projet. Animer des emissions radiodiffusees sur la CLA, a travers les radios et medias locaux, sur les approches IPM de la CLA. Suivi Evaluation Apprentissage et Redevabilite Elaborer, au debut de chaque mois, un plan des activites determinant les objectifs quantitatifs et qualitatifs a atteindre. En collaboration avec le Specialiste M&E du projet, tenir la liste des outils/formulaires de collecte et rapportage de donnees sur les activites du projet. Avec lusage des tablettes, saisir et synchroniser sur IMPACTS, a chaque fin dune activite, les donnees concourant a la realisation des indicateurs du projet. Preparer, avec lequipe de Redevabilite et Apprentissage de DRC M-FAW, les ateliers de lecons apprises dans les communautes en incluant toutes les parties prenantes concernees. Assurer que les donnees sur les activites mises en uvre sont collectees et rapportees conformement aux normes de Land OLakes Venture 37 et USAID. Realiser, sur une base reguliere, les evaluations participatives des activites du projet, avec les CEP et autres parties prenantes du projet, et partager les lecons apprises au projet. Representation et coordination Representer Land OLakes 37 dans les reunions relatives a la coordination des activites agricoles dans la zone dintervention. Participer/faciliter les activites de la Task Force provinciale, en vue de maintenir un environnement favorable a la coordination des approches systemiques de la lutte contre la CLA. Faire des suggestions, a Land OLakes Venture 37, sur les strategies de la bonne integration des activites du projet, dans les plans provinciaux de lutte contre la CLA, et damelioration du rendement du mais. III. Qualifications requises: Nationalite : Ce poste est reserve uniquement aux congolais bases dans des lieux respectifs de recrutement (Kasai Oriental, Tanganyika et Lomami). Niveau de formation : Diplome dIngenieur Agronome A0 (Production et Protection Vegetales), obtenue dans une Universite officiellement reconnue. * Experience exigee : o Au moins 2 ans dexperience dans la gestion et mise en uvre des projets de Gestion Integree des maladies et ravageurs des cultures (sur le mais est un atout), o 5 ans dexperience dans les approches participatives de vulgarisation, axees sur la gestion integree des ravageurs, dont la CLA. o Experience averee dans l'organisation des journees portes ouvertes, les sensibilisations des parties prenantes a la CLA dans une zone reculee. o Competences averees dans le cycle de gestion des projets de developpement agricole, o Apte a se mouvoir dans les zones difficiles, specifiquement avec une moto. o Connaissance de la zone de travail avec experience precedente dautres organisations. * Aptitudes/Competences requises : o Excellentes capacites dintegration, danalyse et de synthese. o Capacites decoute et de dialogue, ainsi quun bon sens relationnel. o Aptitude de travailler avec un minimum de supervision. o Un sens prouve de respect de lenvironnement et la protection des ecosystemes. o Une approche synthetique dans la comprehension des situations et developpement rapide des strategies dadaptation. o Autonome dans le travail et tres creatif, avec un bon esprit innovatif. o Bonne experience precedente de travail avec les institutions publiques (IPA, SNV, DPROTV, SENAFIC), o Bonne maitrise des langues locales (Tshiluba au Kasai Oriental, Kisongye au Lomami, Swahili au Tanganyika), o Excellente capacite de redaction (formulation des recits de succes, rapports et autres documents ecrits). o Excellent niveau en francais (ecrit, parle), langlais etant un atout additionnel. o Outil informatique (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet). o Capable de travailler de maniere structuree, dynamique et avec un sens dinitiative et une orientation vers les resultats. o Tres bonnes connaissances pratiques des themes transversaux (Genre, Environnement, Do No Harm). o Prise de decision juste et transparente. Pour postuler, priere de soumettre votre candidature au plus tard le 30 mars 2022 a 17h00 de Kinshasa, a cette adresse : https://lol.avature.net/Careers/JobDetail/Congo-Democratic-Republic-of-the-Field-Agronomist/1573 Seuls les candidats preselectionnes seront contactes. Aucun appel telephonique ne sera accepte. Land O'Lakes Venture37 ne vous demandera jamais d'informations permettant de vous identifier, et nous ne demanderons jamais d'argent ou de paiement pendant le processus de recrutement ou d'emploi. Veuillez soumettre toute question ou preoccupation a Venture37generalinquiries@landolakesventure37.org. Land O'Lakes Venture37 est un employeur qui respecte l'egalite des chances et une organisation qui s'efforce d'aider les communautes mondiales a prosperer grace a l'agriculture. Nous prenons en consideration tous les candidats qualifies sans tenir compte de la race, de la religion, de l'origine nationale, de l'age, de l'orientation sexuelle, de l'identite sexuelle, du handicap ou du statut d'ancien combattant, entre autres facteurs. Notre culture valorise la diversite des voix. Alors, apportez-nous vos experiences uniques, votre style de travail et vos reves - ils ne feront que nous rendre plus forts. For many, Elon Musk is the closest, real-life equivalent to Marvels Tony Stark. Tesla and SpaceXs founder may have his detractors, but hes always had a knack to turn up with solutions when least expected. Elon Musk The war between Russia and Ukraine has dominated headlines over the past few days, and for good reasons. Russian premier, Vladimir Putins decision to invade Ukraine has been met with global derision, with hundreds of casualties already being reported. Prior to this recent campaign, the conflict between the two neighbouring states was last seen in 2014, following the deposing of the pro-Russian president, which prompted Putin to invade and seize large parts of the east, while also claiming 14 thousand innocent lives in the process. In light of these trying times, Elon Musk announced that the Starlink satellite broadband service provided by his company, SpaceX has been activated in Ukraine after a Kyiv official had requested the Tesla founder for assistance. @elonmusk, while you try to colonize Mars Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand. Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022 Mykhailo Fedorov had tweeted, "While you try to colonize Mars -- Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space -- Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations. The plea for action and help directed towards Elon Musk did not go unheeded, with the tech titan responding via a tweet, "Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,", adding "more terminals en route." Starlinks network consists of a constellation of over 2,000 satellites that are designed to provide internet access across the globe. On Friday SpaceX launched a further 50 Starlink satellites to ensure uninterrupted services, with several more scheduled to be launched into the Earth's orbit. Musks response, although 10 hours belated, does help the Ukrainians maintain communications, which is crucial at a time when serious disruptions have been caused to their infrastructure by the Russian invasion. Elon Musk NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the Internet, said that Ukraine had seen a "series of significant disruptions to internet service" since Thursday when its neighbour Russia had begun the military campaign against the country. Mykhailo Fedorov, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, also implored Musk "to address sane Russians to stand" against their government's invasion. According to a report by a United Nations relief agency, at least 64 civilians have lost their lives, and more than 1,60,000 have been displaced since the beginning of the Russian campaign. We hope peace talks ensue swiftly, with further losses to life avoided at all costs. This is truly a thing our generation may have only witnessed in the movies. While we have all once spoken about a potential war, well, it's surely not a thing of the past or the future. It's truly the reality of Ukraine, which is currently being invaded by Russia on the orders of their President Vladimir Putin. Reuters At the back of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the idea of war is insane, however, it's still happening while we watch videos of bombings from the comfort of our homes, the reality of citizens losing their livelihoods and homes to such a travesty is crazy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is leading the war from the front and looks like the people of the country are following in his footsteps in picking up arms to fight for their country and not flee it. Reuters One such personality who seems to have joined the battle against the Russian invasion is former Miss Ukraine Anastasiia Lenna, who has chosen to join the fight in order to square off against the Russian troops. Instagram/Anastasiaa Lenna Lenna, who had represented Ukraine in the 2015 Miss Grand International beauty contest, had been sharing various Instagram stories addressing the crisis of the invasion. However, it looks like she has now had enough of it and wants to actually get in on the action. Many famous personalities and citizens in Ukraine have opted to voluntarily take up arms to assist their countrys military and President Zelenskyy against Russia, and Lenna is the latest addition. Lenna has shared a series of photos of herself in which she can be seen wearing a uniform while carrying a gun. In her latest Instagram post, Lenna is seen holding a gun while captioning the post as, "Stand With Ukraine Hands Off Ukraine." Not just that, Lenna has also shared a warning for Russian troops, telling them that none of them will be spared if they dare cross the border. Posting on Instagram, Lenna wrote, Everyone who crosses the Ukrainian border with the intent to invade will be killed!. Lenna had also shared a photo of Ukrainian soldiers walking with their President Zelensky, who she's called a true and strong leader. Lenna, who is a marketing and management graduate from Slavistik University in Kyiv, Ukraine, has been continuously urging for support and for donations to the Ukrainian armed forces. The beauty pageant/warrior has worked in Turkey - Bodrum, Ankara, and Istanbul as a Public Relations manager and is also said to know five languages. Kudos to her bravery! We really hope that she is successful in defending her country and this crazy war scenario can be called off soon! From having read stories of the previous world wars to nearly witnessing a potential one right now as Russia invades Ukraine, it seems that as the world is spinning on its axis, its coming closer and closer to its end. On Thursday last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered a full-blown attack on Ukraine, leaving the world in a state of disbelief. He announced that Russia could not feel "safe, develop and exist" and feared a constant threat from modern Ukraine, which is why they began the attack on Ukraine. BCCI In the past couple of days, things have gotten too intense as troops invaded the borders, Black Sea island, and started bombing parts of Kyiv. In the meantime, as witnessing countries chose their sides on either side of this war, Indias focus was to first evacuate Indian students stuck at the Ukraine-Poland border. Twitter It turns out several Indian students had been stuck for over 72 hours at the Ukraine border, but that was not the most concerning part. What was, was all of them claiming how they had been manhandled and treated poorly by the Ukrainian security personnel. They alleged that they were kicked, beaten, dragged and had even their phones snatched by the border guards, who at first were allowing students to cross over to Poland, but later stopped them from going across. Twitter Sandeep Kaur, one of the students shared, I was waiting along with my brother and some of our friends in a group. First, the officials asked us to stand in a line and we did. Later they asked the girls to make a separate line... They then let me cross the border while my brother waited on the other side. When my brother said that he too was in the queue, they dragged and beat him with a baton. Twitter He went on to share how things only got worse since there was no one from the Indian embassy to coordinate with the Ukrainian government. He said, After we crossed the Poland border, we met Indian embassy officials but there was none on the Ukrainian side. Boys on the Ukrainian side have been manhandled badly. Now my brother is returning to his college hostel along with his friends as the situation has worsened. Twitter Another student on the other hand revealed to New Indian Express that, We left at 4 am in the morning from Ternopil. The Indian Embassy had informed us that the Poland border is open and we can leave, but at the border, we were stopped by the Ukrainian Army. The temperature is three degrees. People are falling sick. When we called the Polish embassy, they asked us to call the Kyiv Embassy which told us to coordinate with the Polish Embassy. Twitter Students are claiming that since India has seemingly made its stance clear in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Ukrainian personnel are unhappy with them, which is the reason behind their ill-treatment. Source: The New Indian Express Unless you are living under a rock, you would know about the Russian-Ukrainian crisis that has shaken up the world right now. Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine is being condemned by several global leaders and spectators. Among them are some creative minds who are expressing their disapproval through a new and rather controversial social media trend. iStock Its the poem title Sorry That I Was Not Your Mother which Indian comedian Vir Das too jumped on the bandwagon and penned a desi version of the poem and the people on the internet find it part hilarious and part problematic. Instagram/Vir Das In the poem, he gives the gist of how desi children are raised and what would happen if Putin too was raised by an Indian mum. Read it here. For those who do not know, actress, activist and amateur Twitter poet, AnnaLynne McCord started this social media trend when she recited a poem in a video post addressing Putin. The poem suggests that the Russian-Ukrainian war wouldnt have happened if the President was raised better. Dear Mister President Vladimir Putin pic.twitter.com/LbDFBHVWJf AnnaLynne McCord (@IAMannalynnemcc) February 24, 2022 This is problematic because this puts the blame on Putins mother for his beliefs and actions, which is what society tends to dohold women responsible for mens actions! It received a lot of flak from people on the internet with some saying it was done in a bad taste, while others said it was unfair and unacceptable to not only drag his mother into it but also blame her upbringing for the conflict. Reuters However, it became a social media trend for those who were amused to slam Russias invasion into Ukraine. Vir Dass take on the trend too received mixed reactions from his followers. Here is what they said. Instagram/Vir Das Instagram/Vir Das While a war between two countries is not funny and making memes or joke on the subject is highly insensitive, this satire by Vir Das sounds like its more targeted on desi parenting than Putin. Doesnt it? A Memorial Service of Christian Burial will begin at 2 p.m., Saturday, May 7, 2022, at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home Chapel. Robert Barham Family Funeral Home is honored to be entrusted with the arrangements. Mrs. Cobb, 68, of Meridian, passed away Sunday, May 1, 2022, at Bedford Care Ce Sen. Mitt Romney implied Sunday that some of his fellow Republicans are morons treading dangerously close to treason after Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar appeared at a white nationalist conference helmed by someone the U.S. government itself has branded a white supremacist. Theres no place in either political party for this white nationalism and racism, Romney (R-Utah) told CNNs Dana Bash on Face the Nation, calling it evil and questioning their mental competence. Its simply wrong. Advertisement Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine the federal response to Covid-19 and new emerging variants on January 11, 2022 at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Photo by Greg Nash / POOL / AFP) (GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) As most GOP leadership aside from Rep. Liz Cheney continued to remain mum, Romney said anyone who would support white nationalists and despots is missing a few IQ points. Greene made a surprise appearance at the America First Political Action Conference on Friday, taking the stage just after founder Nick Fuentes praised Russian president Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine, according to The Daily Beast. After she spoke, Fuentes compared Putin with Adolf Hitler favorably. Advertisement And now theyre going on about Russia, and Vladimir Putin is Hitler and they say thats not a good thing Fuentes said, according to The Daily Beast. Can we get a round of applause for Russia? Yes! Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) smiles at Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol Building on December 07, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Gosar spoke for the second straight year in a scheduled appearance, the first sitting member of Congress to have appeared there at all. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, I dont know them, but Im reminded of that old line from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie where one character says, Morons. Ive got morons on my team, " Romney said. And I have to think anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points. He said he assumed their motivation was to deliver shock value, and that it would get them more eyeballs, and maybe make a little more money for them or their network, he added. Its disgusting. And Im hopeful that youre seeing some of those people recognize just how wrong they were. "It's unthinkable to me. It's almost treasonous. And it just makes me ill to see some of these people do that." - Sen. Mitt Romney reacts to pro-Putin sentiments from GOP members and some media outlets: https://t.co/S6ESuaj46b #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ZPDC3bGMgI State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 27, 2022 Greene rebutted criticism in a statement Sunday laced with religious references and accused the Democratic party of having an obsession with skin color, sexuality and gender. She praised Ukraine for resisting the Russian invasion, though she did not address Fuentes stated admiration for Putin. Instead Greene tried to point fingers elsewhere. U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) speaks at a news conference at the Capitol Building on December 07, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Were not going to be deterred by journalists and Washington insiders who fear the name of Our Lord, and relentlessly attack those of us who proclaim His name. We know that Christ is our only judge, Greene said in a statement. The Pharisees in the Republican Party may attack me for being willing to break barriers and speak to a lost generation of young people who are desperate for love and leadership. But I wont abandon these young men and women, because I believe we need to do better by them. More than 700 firefighters from across Kentucky and some who traveled from nearby states attended the 35th annual Bryant Stiles Officers School that took place this weekend at the Owensboro Convention Center. The event, which is hosted by the Green River Firefighters Association (GRFA), is one of the largest firefighter schools in the state, according to Lee Williams, president of the GRFA, who is also a career firefighter in Madisonville and who is an instructor for state fire rescue training. Throughout the weekend participants had the opportunity to attend any of the 32 classes offered. Classes ranged from recruitment and retention to fire alarm systems for inspectors to the art of reading smoke. Kenn Fontenot, of Louisiana, was teaching a course on managing the fireground and tactical considerations. In the course he talked about evaluating key attributes of a fire, from its volume, pressure, density, and color. He also told the room full of students about how important it is to know different types of building construction. Building construction has changed extensively, along with materials, over the years, he said. Having knowledge of this will help you determine the outcome of a fire. For example, Fontenot said, a modern built home tends to have a higher chance of collapsing in a fire than a home built 30 years ago. Thats not because newer homes are built incorrectly; they are just built differently now in a way that makes them burn quicker, he said. Fontenots class was an example of the expansive reach of the instructors that come from all over the country to teach the courses, Williams said. The classes are intended to prepare people who are already officers and people who aspire to be an officer, Williams said. These classes allow them to meet those certifications they need to step into those roles, he said. Its important to Williams, and the other members of the GRFA board, to make the classes as accessible as possible, so that firefighters in Kentucky can receive quality training without having to travel far. There are 85 fire departments that are a part of the GRFA, but fire departments come from all over to take advantage of the offerings. Williams said its also important to design courses that will be relevant to the firefighters. The GRFA tries to keep the training and classes as uniform as possible so that firefighters can take the information learned back to their respective departments and not have to mold or change the tactics. Thats why we get the draw that we get, he said. As president, my goal of officer school is to provide the highest quality of instruction to these up and coming officers to make them the best officers they can be at their departments. On Saturday the event trade show attracted a crowd of more than 1,000 to the convention center. Area firefighters who dont participate in the classes also have an opportunity to attend and see the multiple vehicles on display and check out equipment and other items offered by the vendors. Three Kentucky Firefighters Association Legacy Awards were also given during the vendor show. They were awarded to three past presidents of the association for their dedication to GRFA and to fire service: Robert Cooper, Rick Montague (posthumously) and David McCrady (posthumously). Saturday night was the firefighter appreciation party, which included live music, dancing, karaoke and prizes. On Sunday the GRFA leadership team was set up in the convention center lobby discussing plans for next years convention. We pretty much get started planning next years event right away, Williams said. Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315 Owensboro resident Marla Carter has started a nonprofit, Faithful Friends, to help seniors in long-term care facilities connect with others in the community. The nonprofit, she said, grew out of a ministry established by her and her husband at their church, Pleasant Valley Community Church. The couple, along with others at the church, made a habit of regularly visiting with residents at Chautauqua Health and Rehabilitation and providing spiritual services, along with cards, gifts and other necessities that the residents might need, as well as some additional support for nursing home staff. After some time, she said other long-term care facilities began reaching out to see if the group could provide visits to residents. While Carter knew it was important to provide support for long-term care residents in other homes, it was too much for just one group. Establishing the nonprofit, she said, helps create a model for other groups and churches to become involved and adopt other facilities to expand the reach of the ministry. I cant be everywhere, so we just decided this would be a great program to try and encourage other churches or organizations and small groups to adopt, she said. The name, Faithful Friends, epitomizes exactly what the mission of the organization is to be a friend for residents and to be a faithful one that returns on a regular basis and maintains that relationship with the seniors. We want to not forget them, she said. We dont want to just drop off a bag of goodies and thats it, or just come one time and visit, we want to develop relationships with residents, and we want to encourage other churches and other groups to do the same thing. That relationship is really what they need, because theyre so lonely. Carter said, statistically, about 60% of residents do not receive visitors on a regular basis. I would say in our experience, its probably closer to 80%, and thats really a significant number, if you think about it the number of people who never see anybody coming just for them, she said. COVID-19 and visitor restrictions that were placed on long-term care facilities, she said, have not helped matters. Seniors in many long-term care facilities went without visitors for a long period of time during the pandemic. And while visitation is opening back up, many residents who do not have nearby family and loved ones are still not receiving visitors, which can be detrimental to their mental and physical health, Carter said. We were getting calls from facilities asking, can you come visit such and such resident because hes noticing that other people are having visits now from their loved ones now that things are opening back up, and hes not getting visitors, and hes crying and upset, she said. The ones that dont have visitors notice for sure, and they just feel forgotten. The goal of the nonprofit, she said, is to ensure seniors do not feel forgotten. The hope for expanding it is to not only reach other long-term care facilities locally, but to bring Faithful Friends to seniors throughout Kentucky. They cant get out and visit people on their own weve got to go to them, she said. They are very limited in what they can do. Churches or other groups interested in becoming a part of Faithful Friends can contact Carter via email at Marla@FaithfulFriendsKY.org. Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360 With a red caboose that once rode the tracks for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad parked next to it, it would be hard to miss the Hancock County Museum in Hawesville. Housed in a historic train depot built by the L&N Railroad in 1902, the museum tells the history of not only Hawesville, but of the surrounding towns and communities. Patsy Young, a charter member of the Hancock County Historical Society, said the society was established in 1973, with a goal of having a permanent home to display artifacts and tell the history of Hancock County. In 1988, the goal was accomplished, and the Hancock County Museum opened its doors to visitors. I was born in the city limits of Hawesville, and except for 14 months when I married and my husband was stationed on Cape Cod, other than that, I have lived right in the city limits of Hawesville all these 88 years, said Young, as she pointed out highlights of the museums collection. Young points to a framed photograph dating to the mid-1800s and begins telling a story connecting Abraham Lincoln to Hancock County. President Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, and they moved over into Indiana, and so he was on the river, and he took a gentlemen from that side of the river into the middle of the river to get on a large boat, Young said. There were brothers that had a contract to transport people from that side of the river across to Hancock County, and they said Lincoln was infringing on their contract, so they sued him. The future 16th president of the United States successfully defended himself in court and was acquitted of any wrongdoing. They say this is where Lincoln started his interest in law, Young said. One permanent exhibit at the museum is a display featuring photographs of all 40 one-room school houses that once provided a roof overhead for countless school children throughout the county. Our superintendent, as they closed each one of these schools, they took a picture, and we have this book, and it has all the information about where the property came from, Young said. We were really thankful to have the pictures. Another eye-catching museum display is a recreation of the Hancock County Courthouse, with original furnishings from the courthouse built between 1867 and 1869. Young points to the large, ornately-carved judge-executives chair and points to a spot on each arm rest where the wood is completely worn down from decades of use. There are a lot of stories about Hancock County, Young said. Hancock County had what they called cannel coal. Because cannel coal was reportedly cleaner-burning than other coals, according to legend, a load of coal was shipped to Queen Victoria in England. While the Hancock County Museum has been closed to the public throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum is typically open 2-4 p.m. during the last Sunday of the month from April through October. A tentative opening date for the 2022 season is Sunday, April 24. Young said the historical society and museum are in need of volunteers from the community. We are low on volunteers, she said. Right now, we dont have a chairman of the museum board. For more information about the Hancock County Museum or to join the Hancock County Historical Society, call Patsy Young at 270-927-8721. President Biden said Americans should not fear that nuclear war could erupt amid the growing crisis over Russias invasion of Ukraine. Biden replied, No, when asked by a reporter about the possible threat posed by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Advertisement President Joe Biden speaks at an event to celebrate Black History Month in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. (Patrick Semansky/AP) The White House is seeking to ratchet down the rhetoric a day after Putin announced he was placing Russias so-called military deterrent including its arsenal of nuclear weapons on higher alert. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki suggested on Monday that Putin was engaged in empty saber-rattling. Advertisement We have not changed our own posture, Psaki said. We have moved to reduce the tension, take the tenor of the rhetoric down. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 191 Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after an airstrike hit a tire shop in Lviv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Monday, killing at least six people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow's troops stepped up strikes on infrastructure in preparation for an all-out assault on the east. (Mykola Tys/AP) Biden is expected to directly address the American people about the crisis in Ukraine in his State of the Union address planned for Tuesday evening. So far, American public opinion remains strongly behind Biden as he leads the response to Putins invasion, with 74% blaming Russia for the conflict. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Photo provided by Adam Wittbrodt Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Photo provided by Adam Wittbrodt Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Photo provided by Adam Wittbrodt Show More Show Less 5 of 5 A Midland family lost everything and three pet cats Saturday morning when a fire started in the kitchen in their Parsons Court home, which is a complete loss. Denise Wittbrodt Fry and her husband escaped. Their two children, ages 14 and 9, werent home at the time of the fire. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For Midland resident Vivian Palmer, staying surrounded by family makes for a long and happy life. She is celebrating her 100th birthday on Monday. Vivian was born Feb. 28, 1922 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas to Grace Wagoner. Her father, William Wagoner, died in an automobile accident in the Ozarks before she was born. Vivian was the eldest of three sisters, but her siblings lived outside the home. Grace and Vivian lived in several different small towns around Arkansas and Oklahoma, until Vivian turned 16 and her mom put her on a bus to Midland. Vivian and her mom often stayed in one- or two-room houses with Vivians grandmother. If anyone got hungry, they went outside where they could snack on a variety of nuts hickory nuts, pecans and black walnuts - and persimmons in the autumn. It was during the 20s and the 30s, so it was really rough times the Dust Bowl years and the Great Depression, said Barbara Fauver, Palmers daughter. Vivian connected with extended family members in the Midland area, who looked after her through her high school years, providing her with transportation to family events on the weekends. During the week, Vivian worked for her room and board, staying with local families and working as a nanny and companion for their children. After graduating from Midland High School in 1941, Vivian was employed at Newberrys Five and Dime. She worked at the household counter, in the dishes department, and then was promoted down to the basement, which turned out to be a better position, Vivian explained. I kept threatening to go back to Arkansas, and they would give me a little raise. I started out at about $6 or $7 a week and worked my way up to $13, Vivian said. Vivian worked at Newberrys for about a year before marrying Louis Palmer on Aug. 9, 1942 in Detroit. She knew Louis because she had gone to school with his sister, and his brother had married Vivians cousin. Louis served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Vivian lived with him on stateside military bases in Washington and Oregon before moving back to Midland. Louis then was stationed in Texas before serving as a hospital nurse in England during the war. He felt bad that he was safe when the wounded guys came to the hospital. He felt like he wasnt doing his part, Vivian said. He came home on V.E. Day in 1944. He was on the (Queen) Mary Ship in New York Harbor. He was coming home on furlough to go to the Pacific when the war ended, so he didnt have to go to the Pacific." After the war, Louis returned to his job as a welder for The Dow Chemical Co. The Palmers built a life in Midland, raising their three children: Joyce Nightlinger, Darrel Palmer, and Fauver. Over the years, their family grew to include seven grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren. Before Louis died in 1999, the couple enjoyed hunting squirrels and deer, fishing, camping, and traveling around the states and visiting national parks. They also wintered in Florida for about 20 years. Vivian kept very busy looking after her family through the decades.The Palmers only had one car and Vivian would get to use it once a week to run errands. She recalls how she would park in front of Newberrys and go buy groceries at the A&P grocery store while her children shopped at the dime store, with the girls getting paper dolls and her son purchasing grapes, and waited for her in the car. Its always improving. Theyre always tearing up Main Street and changing things. I liked Midland back in the 1940s. Vivian said. The family would also pick huckleberries making it into a picnic outing and sell them on Saginaw Road to Dow workers for spending money or clothes money. Vivian made some extra money on the side by selling nylons, working at the election polls in Lincoln Township and making clothes for neighbors. Vivian would encourage her children to play outside while she did her daily chores. Fauver said that while her mom ironed clothes, she would listen to Detroit Tigers games on the radio, write down each of the plays and report them to Louis when he came home that night. Shes been a caregiver all her life to everybody, whether it was her mother, a couple of stepfathers, Grandma and Grandpa Palmer. Even to this day, her worry for her son-in-law (Hugh Nightlinger) is enormous, Fauver said. Nightlinger, who lived across the street from Vivian, died on Feb. 12. Midland is a nice place to live. Ive had so many nice friends whove helped me live this long. Although I miss the South, Im lucky to live here, Vivian said. Vivian has remained close with her family and extended relatives. She attributes her longevity to having good people around her and being happy. She encourages younger generations to spend quality time with their loved ones. I love my family. Its very important to me. Im very lucky to have such a good family. To celebrate her birthday, Vivian and her family plan to have a meal at The Boulevard Lounge, one of their favorite gathering places, with a small group of relatives on Monday. Those wishing to send birthday cards to Vivian may mail them to P.O. Box 317, Sanford, MI 48657. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MIDDLETOWN The Washington Street cemetery is filled with gravestones that date back centuries, including several engraved with the names of Black Civil War soldiers. Local historians believe the cemetery, and the entire Beman Triangle area, should be distinguished as a National Historic Landmark. Jesse Nasta, an assistant professor of African American Studies at Wesleyan University, has been studying Middletowns Beman Triangle region since he was a student at Wesleyan more than a decade ago. Its a very significant site, said Nasta, who is also the executive director of the Middlesex County Historical Society. The historic Beman Triangle was a pre-Civil War community comprised of free, property-owning African Americans, and was one of the first planned African American communities in Connecticut. The community formed in the 1820s and remained predominantly comprised of Black residents for almost a century. That area remained Middletowns African American center for decades, Nasta said. Much of the land around Knowles Avenue, Vine Street and Cross Street was part of this historic district, that is now formally known as the Leveritt Beman Historic District, which also includes the Washington Street cemetery. Six of the gravestones in the cemetery mark the resting place of Beman Triangle natives who fought in the Civil War, including Isaac Truitt, whose house still stands today on Vine Street. Nasta said there were at least 17 African American Civil War soldiers from Middletown, and Truitt, who was in his 40s at the time, was likely the oldest to enlist. I just think Truitt is really amazing, Nasta said. There are varying reports of how Truitt ended up in Middletown, Nasta said. Some say he bought his freedom, while other reports claim he had escaped from slavery. Ultimately, he ended up in Middletowns Beman Triangle, where he was a prominent figure at the Cross Street AME Zion Church. It has relocated twice and now stands at 440 West St. When the Civil War began in 1861, African Americans were not initially allowed to enlist. Truitt and many others enlisted as soon as that rule was lifted, Nasta said. They had a real interest in winning the Civil War, Nasta said. They likely wouldve still had enslaved family. He said 10 percent of those involved in the Civil War were Black soldiers, and that number would likely have been higher if many werent still enslaved at the time. Many of the soldiers from Middletown served in the 29th and 30th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry regiments, and saw combat all across the South, Nasta said. Four of the other Black Civil War soldiers known to be buried in the Washington Street Cemetery Alfred Powers, Christian H. Gordon, James H. Powers and Rufus Addison served in the 29th. For many, it was a point of pride to have contributed in the Civil War, Nasta said. Fighting in the war had implications in future opportunities, rights and freedoms for African-Americans, Nasta said. This was really significant, Nasta said. The cemetery and the Cross Street AME Zion Church are spots on the Connecticut Freedom Trail and on the states Register of Historic Places. Now Nasta and the Middlesex County Historical Society are seeking a National Register Designation, which would qualify the district for preservation-related funding. More information on others buried in the Washington Street Cemetery is available online through a Wesleyan University community and public archaeology project. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MIDDLETOWN The cause of a Route 66 motel blaze that displaced about 20 people staying at the winter shelter Saturday afternoon is still under investigation. No one was injured in the blaze at the Wesley Inn & Suites, 988 Washington St., fire officials said. When crews arrived just after 4 p.m., heavy fire was coming from the rear of the building, Middletown Fire Battalion Chief Drew France said Saturday. One room had extensive fire damage and those surrounding it suffered extensive smoke damage, he said. Power to the building was shut off and the front area was condemned, according to Acting Health Director Kevin Elak, whose department helps coordinate the shelter that is operational until the end of March. The Columbus House of New Haven, which has housed people at its winter shelter at the motel for two years, moved the individuals to the Eddy Shelter at 1 LaBella Circle, on the grounds of Connecticut Valley Hospital, Elak said. A couple with two children were relocated to an undamaged room at the back of the motel, and the American Red Cross helped another couple with monetary assistance and supplies, he added. St. Vincent dePaul Middletown Executive Director Maryellen Shuckerow and her staff dropped off toilet paper, blankets, food and other items, Elak said. Everybody has been pitching in, he said. The Columbus House is accepting donations of all types, including mens clothing and coats, in medium and large sizes; womens apparel, including undergarments and feminine products; and hair products, toilet paper, blankets, pillows, disinfectant spray, gift cards, snacks, water, juice and more. Middletown Planning and Zoning Board Commissioner Shanay Fulton, the residential supervisor at The Connection, posted a video Monday on her Facebook page detailing other needs, such as prepared food and water bottles. There is also a need for bedding, and gift cards to supermarkets, coffee shops and other businesses, she said. Please support Columbus House in any way you can, Fulton said. Were working to make sure they all have a home to go to. The plan is to eventually send people back to the Wesley Inn when it reopens, Fulton said. Westfield Fire District Deputy Fire Marshal Scott Kotowski said Monday morning that the investigation is ongoing. Hearst Media Connecticut reporter Adam Hushin contributed to this report. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to approve whatever President Biden requests in aid to Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion as well as additional money to the Pentagon amid the crisis. With a $6.4 billion Ukraine package on the table, Pelosi said she was only waiting for an official request from the White House. Advertisement Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) Well have to see what the need is, and whatever it is, well support it, Pelosi told reporters on Monday. Well see what the president sends down. The powerful Democrat said she expects Biden to discuss the aid package in the State of the Union Address scheduled for Tuesday. Advertisement The White House took the first step Friday toward officially proposing the package, including $2.9 billion in direct security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and $3.5 billion more for the Pentagon. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday he would ensure any Ukraine aid package is rapidly approved by the Senate. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 191 Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after an airstrike hit a tire shop in Lviv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Monday, killing at least six people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow's troops stepped up strikes on infrastructure in preparation for an all-out assault on the east. (Mykola Tys/AP) The assistance will likely be included in the must-pass so-called omnibus spending package that Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans are hammering out. Congressional leaders say there is widespread bipartisan support for Ukraine amidst Russia launching a full-scale invasion last week. Contributed Anton Sovetov, a 44-year-old Yale University employee from New Haven has been missing since Feb. 4. (Contributed photos) NEW HAVEN Yale and New Haven police are seeking help from the public in their search for missing Yale University employee, Anton Sovetov, who has been missing since Feb. 4. Sovetov, 44, of New Haven, is a graphic designer who works in the Yale Office of Public Affairs & Communications. He is a 2016 graduate of the Yale School of Art and joined the university staff in 2017. He is about 6-foot-2, weighs approximately 200 pounds, and has a beard and short brown hair. SEOUL, South Korea North Korea said Monday it tested cameras to be installed on a spy satellite, a suggestion that itll likely soon conduct a banned long-range rocket launch to modernize its weapons arsenal and apply more pressure on the Biden administration. The United Nations and others view a satellite launch by North Korea as a cover for tests of missile technology, as ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite lift-offs share similar bodies, engines and other technology. Concerns about a North Korean satellite launch flared after it recently threatened to lift a four-year moratorium on big weapons tests to cope with what it called U.S. hostility. The official Korean Central News Agency said Sundays test involved cameras for a reconnaissance satellite conducting vertical and oblique photography of a specific area of Earth. It said the test is of great significance in developing the reconnaissance satellite and released photos of the Korean Peninsula that appeared to be taken from space. North Korea didnt directly acknowledge any missile launch, but the KCNA statement suggests North Korea fired a rocket or a missile to take space-based photos. U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials said Sunday they detected a new ballistic missile launch by North Korea, the eighth of its kind this year. Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Koreas Science and Technology Policy Institute, said the photos were likely taken when the missile was soaring or reached its apogee. But Lee said he couldnt verify the quality of the North Korean cameras because it didnt release higher-resolution satellite images. After repeated failures, North Korea successfully put its first satellite into orbit in 2012 and second one in 2016. North Korea says both are Earth observation satellites launched under its peaceful space development program. Lee said North Korea developed both satellites to spy on its rivals. He said the second satellite is said to be still in obit but there is no evidence that it has relayed any imagery back to North Korea. Experts say the Norths past satellite launches have still improved its missile programs. In 2017, North Korea performed three intercontinental ballistic missile tests that demonstrated its potential ability to attack the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons. A spy satellite is among an array of sophisticated weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed last year to develop under five-year military build-up plans. It remains unclear whether North Korea has developed or secured sufficient levels of cameras to be put on a satellite and enable it to monitor South Korean and U.S. military activities. Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said that North Korea is expected to launch a rocket carrying a spy satellite ahead of a major political anniversary in April, the birthday of state founder Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of Kim Jong Un. He suggested that Washingtons strained ties with Moscow and Beijing both veto-wielding powers at the U.N. Security Council would make it difficult for the U.N. to slap additional sanctions on North Korea over the satellite launch. He said tensions would still deepen as the United States would strengthen military drills with South Korea, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal, in response. In January, North Korea test-launched a variety of missiles including one capable of reaching the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and hinted at restarting suspended long-range and nuclear tests. The North Korean moves were seen as a bid to prefect its weapons technology while pressuring the Biden administration to offer concessions like sanctions relief and increasing its leverage in future negotiations with Washington. Some experts say North Korea may also view the U.S. preoccupation with Russias invasion of Ukraine as a chance to accelerate testing activity without receiving any serious response from Washington. According to the Japanese assessment, the North Korean missile fired Sunday few about 300 kilometers (190 miles) at a maximum altitude of about 600 kilometers (370 miles) before landing off North Koreas eastern coast. Lee said the North needs a much more powerful rocket to put a functioning spy satellite into orbit. After Sundays launch, Sung Kim, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, held calls with senior South Korean and Japanese diplomats. He underscored the U.S. readiness to engage in serious diplomacy with North Korea while reaffirming ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said. A preschool in northeastern Ukraine was slammed with rockets early in the morning of Feb. 25, reportedly leaving three civilians, including one child, dead, according to local media footage and international human rights organizations. Drone video footage of the aftermath of the bombing shared on Twitter showed pools of blood in the school's parking lot, shattered glass from windows and blast marks on the roof as locals rushed to the scene. "While I was walking down [with] my wife, there were immediate explosions," an older man told Amnesty International, a London-based human rights organization. "You see, everyone is covered with blood, everything. Look at it. It kills me, the fact it's a kindergarten." Read Next: Putin Nuclear Order Stirs Fears, Uncertainty in US The attack, which Amnesty International said appears to have been carried out by Russian forces, is suspected to have utilized rocket-fired cluster munitions -- a widely banned and controversial weapon known to wreak havoc over a large area and leave unexploded rounds in areas, which lead to civilian deaths years after a conflict. While many countries have banned their use, the U.S. has resisted calls to pull them from the Pentagon's arsenal, with the Trump administration reversing a previous policy that would have eliminated the American stockpile over time. Cluster munitions have also taken the lives of U.S. service members. An extensive New York Times review of casualty records from Operation Desert Storm indicates that at least 12 American service members were killed and dozens of troops wounded by dud bomblets; approximately 12 more were killed in Iraq and Kuwait by the munitions after the cease-fire. Cluster munitions open mid-air and disperse smaller submunitions -- anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds -- onto a target. They can be fired from rocket launchers or ground artillery or dropped as bombs by airplanes. The weapons have been condemned by human rights organizations for the high rate at which they fail to detonate, sometimes upward of 30%, according to a 2019 report from the Congressional Research Service. Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine last week, reports and videos of cluster munitions in action have been widely shared on social media. Mark Hiznay, a senior researcher in the Arms Division for the nonprofit Human Rights Watch who specializes in identifying cluster munition strikes, told Military.com that it appears the rounds have not been dropped by aircraft but rather fired from missile launchers on the ground. He added that since the invasion started, evidence of cluster bombs has only increased, with notable attacks on Monday in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv. "We saw our first attack on day one," Hiznay said. "Today was particularly important or notable because there were several strikes in the city of Kharkiv that were caught on people's phones and on door cameras." A thread posted on Twitter by Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based open-source intelligence website, has reported nearly a dozen examples of cluster munitions being used in Ukraine, noting the rounds being dropped near children's hospitals, public parks and neighborhoods. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the Defense Department can't independently verify whether Russia has used cluster weapons on the battlefield. But human rights groups have been loudly criticizing the alleged use of the weapons. "There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school," Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, said in a press release. "This attack bears all the hallmarks of Russia's use of this inherently indiscriminate and internationally-banned weapon, and shows flagrant disregard for civilian life." More than 100 countries have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions out of Switzerland, a 2008 treaty pledging to ban the inherently indiscriminate weapons. Notably, neither Ukraine nor Russia has pledged to stop using cluster munitions, and both countries claim they need them for their defense. Hiznay, who first began following cluster munitions when both sides were using them in 2014, added that Russia has relied on them heavily for years. "This is a tool they've reached to many times in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, and now in Ukraine," Hiznay said. "It's pretty endemic in their system." In 2017, then-President Donald Trump replaced a Defense Department directive on cluster munitions issued by George W. Bush's administration in July 2008. It abandoned a requirement that, by the end of 2018, the U.S. could no longer use munitions that result in more than a 1% rate of unexploded ordnance. "The (international) ban proceeded without really any regard to the major military powers," Hiznay said. "We think the stigma, the so-called 'ick factor,' of using cluster munitions will eventually start to influence their behavior." The U.S. last used cluster munitions during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with the exception of a single attack in Yemen in 2009, according to Human Rights Watch. And the Air Force and Army have moved their focus to other programs, Hiznay added. President Joe Biden's administration has yet to review or reverse the Trump-era policy change on cluster munitions. -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly. Related: Air Force Tests New Bomb That Could Replace Controversial Cluster Munitions WASHINGTON The State Department has closed the U.S. Embassy in Belarus and is allowing non-essential staff at the U.S. Embassy in Russia to leave the country due to the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the suspension of operations at the Minsk embassy and the authorized departure from Moscow in a statement on Monday. We took these steps due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine, he said. Ukainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to the press in the town of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, on April 4, 2022. (Ronaldo Schemidt/Getty-AFP) KYIV, Ukraine Russian forces shelled Ukraines second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking. The countrys embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions. Advertisement I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hourslong talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery. For the second day in a row, the Kremlin raised the specter of nuclear war, announcing that its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers had all been put on high alert, following President Vladimir Putins orders over the weekend. Advertisement Stepping up his rhetoric, Putin denounced the U.S. and its allies as an empire of lies. Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union a largely symbolic move for now, but one that is unlikely to sit well with Putin, who has long accused the U.S. of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscows orbit. A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first talks held between the two sides since the invasion lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen. He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days. As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 17 miles from the center of the city, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies. A member of the Ukrainian territorial defense directs cars in a traffic jam ahead of a military checkpoint outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. (VADIM GHIRDA/AP) People in Kyiv lined up for groceries after the end of a weekend curfew, standing beneath a building with a gaping hole blown in its side. Messages aimed at the advancing Russian soldiers popped up on billboards, bus stops and electronic traffic signs across the capital. Some used profanity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity. Russian soldier Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean conscience, one read. Video from Kharkiv, Ukraines second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, showed residential areas being shelled, with apartment buildings shaken by repeated, powerful blasts. Flashes of fire and gray plumes of smoke could be seen. Advertisement Footage released by the government from Kharkiv depicted what appeared to be a home with water gushing from a pierced ceiling. What looked like an undetonated projectile was on the floor. Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They warned that casualties could be far higher. They wanted to have a blitzkrieg, but it failed, so they act this way, said 83-year-old Valentin Petrovich, who watched the shelling from his downtown apartment and gave just his first name and his Russian-style middle name out of fear for his safety. The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals. Fighting raged in other towns and cities across the country. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is hanging on, said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy. In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main square against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian national anthem. They described the soldiers as exhausted young conscripts. Advertisement Frightened kids, frightened looks. They want to eat, Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone. He said the soldiers went into a supermarket and grabbed canned meat, vodka and cigarettes. They ate right in the store, he said. It looked like they havent been fed in recent days. Across Ukraine, terrified families huddled overnight in shelters, basements or corridors. I sit and pray for these negotiations to end successfully, so that they reach an agreement to end the slaughter, said Alexandra Mikhailova, weeping as she clutched her cat in a shelter in Mariupol. Around her, parents tried to console children and keep them warm. For many, Russias announcement of a nuclear high alert stirred fears that the West could be drawn into direct conflict with Russia. But a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had yet to see any appreciable change in Russias nuclear posture. As far-reaching Western sanctions on Russian banks and other institutions took hold, the ruble plummeted, and Russias Central Bank scrambled to shore it up, as did Putin, signing a decree restricting foreign currency. Advertisement But that did little to calm Russian fears. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as the sanctions threatened to drive up prices and reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary Russians. In yet another blow to Russias economy, oil giant Shell said it is pulling out of the country because of the invasion. It announced it will withdraw from its joint ventures with state-owned gas company Gazprom and other entities and end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project between Russia and Europe. The economic sanctions, ordered by the U.S. and other allies, were just one contributor to Russias growing status as a pariah country. Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is restricted in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. On Monday, in a major blow to a soccer-mad nation, Russian teams were suspended from all international soccer. In other developments: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he will open an investigation soon into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Advertisement Cyberattacks hit Ukrainian embassies around the world, and Russian media outlets. The United States announced it is expelling 12 members of Russias U.N. mission, accusing them of spying. The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly opened its first emergency session in decades, with Assembly President Abdulla Shahid calling for an immediate cease-fire and a full return to diplomacy and dialogue. The U.N. human rights chief said at least 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded warning that figure is probably a vast undercount and Ukraines president said at least 16 children were among the dead. More than a half-million people have fled the country since the invasion, another U.N. official said, many of them going to Poland, Romania and Hungary. Among the refugees in Hungary was Maria Pavlushko, 24, an information technology project manager from a city west of Kyiv. She said her father stayed behind to fight the Russians. Advertisement Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > I am proud about him, she said, adding that many of her friends were planning to fight too. The negotiators at Mondays talks met at a long table with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag on one side and the Russian tricolor on the other. But while Ukraine sent its defense minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putins adviser on culture an unlikely envoy for ending a war and perhaps a sign of how seriously Moscow took the talks. It wasnt immediately clear what Putin is seeking in the talks, or from the war itself, though Western officials believe he wants to overthrow Ukraines government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscows Cold War-era influence. At this stage, Ukraine is many years away from reaching the standards for achieving EU membership. Any addition to the 27-nation bloc must be approved unanimously by its members, and Ukraines deep-seated corruption could make it hard for the country to win acceptance. Still, in an interview with Euronews on Sunday, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said: We want them in the European Union. Advertisement Isachenkov and Litvinova reported from Moscow. Robert Burns in Washington; Francesca Ebel, Josef Federman and Andrew Drake in Kyiv; Lorne Cook in Brussels; and other AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report. The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Russian President Vladimir Putin justifies his war on Ukraine as a peacekeeping mission, a "denazification" of the country. In his address to the Russian people on Feb. 24, 2022, Putin said the purpose was to "protect people" who had been "subjected to bullying and genocide for the last eight years. And for this we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine." The victims of the genocide claimed by Putin are Russian speakers; the Nazis he referenced are the elected representatives of the Ukrainian people. While Ukraine's new language laws have upset some minorities, independent news media have uncovered no evidence of genocide against Russian speakers. In fact, as the historian Timothy Snyder has pointed out, Russian speakers have more freedom in Ukraine than they have in Russia, where Putin's authoritarian government routinely suppresses political dissent. And while far right groups have been growing in Ukraine, their electoral power is limited. As the author of a recently published book on anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine and a historian of the Holocaust, I know why the accusations of Nazism and genocide have resonance in Ukraine. But I also understand that despite episodic violence, Ukrainian history offers a model of tolerance and democratic government. Ukraine's Jewish leadership First, it is worth pointing out that Ukraine today is a vibrant, pluralistic democracy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky won a five-year term in the 2019 presidential election with a landslide majority, defeating 39 candidates. His Servant of the People party then swept the parliamentary elections in July 2019, winning 254 seats in the 450-seat chamber, becoming the first majority government in the history of the modern Ukrainian state. Zelensky was well-known as a comedian and star of the popular sitcom "Servant of the People," from which his party's name was derived. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, not pictured, give statements ahead of talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Monday, July 12, 2021. (Stefanie Loos/Pool Photo via AP) The fact that Zelensky is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and was raised in what he told The Times of Israel was "an ordinary Soviet Jewish family" was barely noted during the election. "Nobody cares. Nobody asks about it," he remarked in the same interview. Nor did Ukrainians seem to mind that the prime minister at the time of Zelensky's election, Volodymyr Groysman, also had a Jewish background. For a brief period of time, Ukraine was the only state outside of Israel to have both a Jewish head of state and a Jewish head of government. "How could I be a Nazi?" Zelensky asked in a public address after the Russian invasion began. "Explain it to my grandfather." The pogroms against Jews Sporadic episodes of violence against Jews, or pogroms, began well before the Holocaust. In 1881, for instance, after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, ordinary churchgoers, laborers, railway workers and soldiers attacked Jewish-owned shops, mills and canteens, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Jews in what was then considered the south of Russia, but is now Ukraine. During another wave of violence following the Revolution of 1905, workers, peasants and soldiers, egged on by Russian right-wing paramilitary groups, murdered 5,000 Jews in the region. During the unrest that followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, about 100,000 Jews died as a result of attacks perpetrated against them by soldiers fighting to restore a united Russia, as well as by the armies of the newly established Ukrainian and Polish states. Finally, during the Second World War, German soldiers murdered 1.5 million Jews in the areas that are now Ukraine, often with the collaboration of Ukrainian militias established in the diaspora and with the help of local auxiliary police. The role of ethnic Ukrainians in the Holocaust remains contentious in Ukraine today, where nationalist heroes who collaborated with the Nazis continue to be honored. Small stones, on an ancient Jewish tradition to place stones the graves, lay on the photos of victims of the 1941 Babi Yar massacre close to a Babi Yar ravine, where the Nazi killed tens of thousands of Jews during WWII, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Yet at the same time, millions of non-Jewish Ukrainians lost their lives under the Nazis or were exploited as slave laborers. The occupiers treated Ukrainian lands as little more than Lebensraum, living space for ethnic Germans. A pluralistic state Forgotten in this history is the period between 1917 and 1919 when an independent Ukrainian state offered a different model of multiculturalism and pluralism. The Ukrainian state that declared its independence from Russia in the aftermath of the 1917 Revolutions, envisioned a Ukraine for all ethnicities and religious groups living within its territory. One of its first acts was passing the Law on National Autonomy in January 1918, which allowed each of the major ethnic minority groups Russians, Jews, and Poles broad autonomous rights, including the right to use their own language. The cabinet included a Secretariat of National Affairs, with vice-secretariats for Russians, Jews and Poles, and, briefly in 1919, even a Ministry of Jewish Affairs. The legislative body, as well, included proportional representation from each of the national minorities. The state issued declarations and currency printed in four languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish. However, this state, hailed by Jews around the world as a model for the new nation states then emerging in eastern and central Europe, never managed to hold the capital for more than a few months at a time. By April of 1919, the government was being run from a moving train and could barely claim more land than the tracks beneath it. From its inauguration in January 1918, Ukraine found itself enmeshed in a bloody war on multiple fronts. The Soviet Red Army attacked it from the east, while Moscow sought to ignite Bolshevik revolutions throughout Ukraine. A Russian White Army led by officers from the old tsarist army attacked from the south, hoping to reestablish a version of the Russian Empire. From the west, the army of the newly established Polish Republic attacked with the goal of restoring historic Poland's borders. At the same time, a range of insurgent fighters and anarchists formed militias to seize land for themselves. In the midst of this chaos, the dream of a pluralistic state devolved into inter-ethnic violence. In March 1921, the war ended with the Treaty of Riga, incorporating much of the territory claimed by the independent Ukrainian state into the Soviet Union. Putin's selective telling of the past exaggerates the legacy of Nazism in Ukraine while ignoring the state's historic struggle for pluralism and democracy. There is a good reason for this: he fears democracy more than he fears Nazism. Jeffrey Veidlinger is a Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan How to use the mindat.org media viewer Click/touch this help panel to close it. Welcome to the mindat.org media viewer. Here is a quick guide to some of the options available to you. 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Summary of all keyboard shortcuts As a current print subscriber, you receive 24/7 access to our website and online e-edition at no additional charge. All you have to do is activate your access. To activate digital access, you will need your account number. You can find your account number on any recent subscription notice or bill. 28.02.2022 LISTEN Ghanaian comedian DKB has revealed that he has invoked curses on a Graphic Showbiz reporter who he believes messed his carrier with a false story. It is recalled that in 2017, a reporter with the Graphic Showbiz put out a story claiming that the wife of ex-president Jerry John Rawlings after watching him (DKB) perform at an event that year remarked that he was not funny. This, according to DKB was the beginning of doom to his career as the story broke bounds and spread wildly across all media platforms in the country despite Mrs. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings rebuttal to the publication. People have written several false things about me and that is no problem but this particular brought me down, destroyed my career, and blocked all my chances, he painfully recounted. He revealed that in her quest to prove she had nothing to do with the said publication, Mrs. Rawlings invited him to perform at her 70th birthday ceremony. Will she have invited me if I was not a good comedian? he queried. DKB added that he was preparing to host the second edition of his show, Point of View but had to put it on hold after the publication which according to him dropped his ratings. When asked whether the Graphic Showbiz extended apologies to him, DKB stated that he was not interested and revealed that all he had to do was to curse the reporter. The event which was held at the Accra International Conference Center in 2017 had DKB as the headline comedian for the night alongside Jacinta, Lexcy De Comic amongst others. A report from Graphic Showbiz reporter Jayne Owoo Buckman saw several negative descriptions by the reporter. Five years down the line, DKB says he still keeps evidence of curses made by him towards the lady on his phone and he has vowed that the reporter will suffer her entire life for ruining his source of livelihood. 25.02.2022 LISTEN Pornography addiction is defined as being dependent on pornographic materials to the extent that it interferes with daily life, relationships, finances or other aspects of human life. It is a behaviour that has a very strong influence on the life of anyone involved in it. The more you watch pornographic materials, the more you want to watch. Porn addiction is like any other chronic addictive behaviour e.g. alcohol, drug and gambling addiction. It is very rampant among youths in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. It is destroying lives and breaking homes on a daily basis. In 2018 the World Health Organisation added compulsive sexual behaviour as a mental health disorder. A pornography addict may not be able to succeed in life and he or she may never have a peaceful home until he or she is able to overcome the addiction. Watching pornography is very easy because it requires less effort than interacting with a partner. This is why social media addicts are the most vulnerable to pornography addiction. Advancement of technology, particularly the introduction of the internet, social media, smartphone, iPad etc has increased the rate at which people get addicted to pornographic materials. According to Pornhub, the world leading free porn site, 42 billion visits were recorded in 2019 which is approximately 115 million per day. Overcoming pornography addiction may look difficult but it is possible if the right steps and precautions are taken. CAUSES OF PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION: 1. Sexual sin. 2. Lack of moral education. 3. Lack of internet safety education. 4. Watching of immoral videos. 5. Family conflicts. 6. Drug & alcohol addiction. 7. Depression. SIGNS OF PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION: 1. Losing interest in other activities. 2. Watching pornographic materials for a long time. 3. Spending money on pornographic materials at the expense of other personal needs. 4. Using pornography to cope with anxiety or sadness. 5. Making attempts to stop watching pornography but unable to do so. 6. Watching pornography secretly at work, school, in the toilet or any other place that is not appropriate. 7. Having problems with job or school e.g. poor performance. EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION: 1. It has negative impact on work and academic performance of students. 2. It leaves anyone involved in it with a sense of guilt and shame. 3. It damages sex life. 4. It may easily destroy marriage and family relationship. 5. It increases the number of rape cases in the society. 6. It may lead to sex addiction. 7. It may lead to unwanted pregnancy. LASTING SOLUTION TO PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION: 1. Repent, rededicate your life to God and begin to live a life that is free from sin and evil. 2. Avoid watching immoral videos and other pornographic materials. 3. Spend more time on productive activities. 4. Always think about the consequences of pornography addiction. 5. Disassociate yourself from other pornography addicts. 6. Write down your goals for each day and focus on how to achieve them. 7. When all efforts to stop it prove abortive, seek professional help from counselors. Rotimi Onadipe CEO Onadipe Technologies, Founder, Internet Safety Magazine. Tel: +234-8169121819 Email: [email protected] The Central Regional Communication Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Robert Amissah has assuaged the fears of all aspiring polling station executives within the region. He is asking them to calm down, pick their nomination forms, fill and submit at will. He assures that no one was going to hoard nomination forms. "All aspiring part members should calm down and should not fear that someone was going to hoard forms to prevent anyone from contesting. Don't rush for the forms because you've three days (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) to pick, fill and submit same," he stated. According to him, that some members are harbouring fear over hidden agendas is just to prevent some members from contesting isn't going to happen. "They are mere rumours and must be disregarded." Explaining the processes, Stagger as he is affectionately called, shared that the party shall take eleven days to complete the elections of all Polling Station Executives. "This is because the Committee cannot be everywhere at the same time so, they need time to plan to move around to organise the elections." He added, "the committee shall vet all forms that are submitted to them before the elections start on the 25th of February and end on 5th March, 2022. The committee shall take three days to do the vetting. Thus, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to complete the work". He continued, "After all the polling Station Executives have been elected, they form the delegates to elect the Polling Station Coordinator. All these members together with the current constituency executives, current constituency council of elders, current constituency patrons to form the delegates to elect new constituency executives." The NPP Regional Communication Director furthered that when all these have been accomplished, then the party can organise their regional elections before the national party elections. Stagger spoke to DC Kwame Kwakye of GBC Radio Central via telephone on Centre Stage on Saturday 19th February, 2022. In ending, he encouraged all party faithfuls to abide by all the rules and regulations regarding the elections. "Today I was marveled, I was shocked at the number of individuals, party people who are willing and want to serve the party. "We're urging everybody to go because the offices are going to be opened from tomorrow and Monday again. You can walk in with your ten cedis and pick the forms. This is a party matter and there is no need to panic. If you go the constituency office and you don't find the forms to buy you, you can go the regional office or even to the national and you would be given the forms to buy." Some members of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, in the New Juaben South Constituency have secured a court injunction against the constituencys upcoming polling station and area coordinators elections. The four plaintiffs, Jalil Ibn Tahir, Amoh Jonas, Ako George and Mable Asantewaa Aikins, said there has been a deliberate attempt by the constituency executives not to make the nomination forms available to all aspirants. They claim that the executives are rather selling the forms to their favourite aspirants clandestinely, hence denying others the opportunity to contest in the elections. All efforts to buy copies of the nomination forms have proved futileThe plaintiffs say the defendants are secretly and or clandestinely selling nomination forms to their favourites, depriving other prospective candidates attempts to contest for their respective positions in their various poling stations, they mentioned in their statement of claim. They accused the Constituency Chairman, Prince Benjamin Aboagye and the Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Alhassan of failing to open nominations on the expected date, 19th February, 2022. They also accused them of failing to communicate the venue for the picking of nomination forms as expected of them. According to the plaintiffs, although they petitioned the elections committee over the issue, nothing was done about it. They therefore want the court to order the defendants to cancel the entire electioneering process due to the irregularities and an order of the court directed at the defendants who are in charge/custody of the nomination forms for the polling station and electoral area coordinators election to make same available to all eligible prospective candidates in the upcoming polling station and electoral area coordinators elections New Juaben Constituency. They also want the national executives to take charge of the sale of nomination forms and an order that no prospective aspirant shall be denied access to the purchase of application forms. There have been disagreements in the NPP after some party members accused executives of giving preferential treatment in the distribution of the forms for the polling station elections in some constituencies. In other parts of the country, party members are also protesting a decision by the executives to sell out the forms to them after some big-wigs in the NPP announced that they had paid for the forms. The polling station elections have been scheduled for March 24-25, 2020. There has been malcontent in multiple constituencies over claims some party executives are hoarding nomination forms. The confusion started in Manhyia North, where an executive had to seek refuge in a police station after being hounded by some supporters. In the Volta Region, some Ho Central Constituency executives, aspirants, and NPP polling station executives are also threatening to disrupt the NPP's constituency elections due to disagreements over the distribution of nomination forms. Some members of the party in the Odododiodioo constituency of the Greater Accra Region protested against the leadership of the party accusing them of distributing fake forms . These tensions have prompted the National Executive Committee of the NPP to meet on the matter. The NPP has said it will investigate the issues leading to the chaos in the distribution of forms in parts of the country. citinewsroom Russia says its troops have captured 471 Ukrainian soldiers during the fight in Ukraine. Since Thursday morning, 975 military targets have been destroyed, Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Eight fighter planes and seven helicopters as well as 11 combat drones had been shot down. Another 28 aircraft were destroyed on the ground, along with 223 tanks and other combat vehicles. Konashenkov did not give any information on the number of soldiers killed in the Russian ranks. In the eastern Donbass region, Russian-backed separatists had now advanced a further 12 kilometres, he said. They had captured two settlements north-east of the embattled port city of Mariupol. The information cannot be independently verified. Near the eastern city of Kharkiv, Konashenkov said that a regiment of Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered. As soon as bureaucratic formalities were completed, they would be able to return to their families, he said. GNA The viral heroes of the Ukrainian resistance are alive and well. Last week, 13 Ukrainian border guards made national headlines in a defiant stand against an incoming Russian warship when they refused to surrender their posts on Snake Island in the Black Sea. Advertisement This is a Russian warship, an unidentified voice says in an audio clip that emerged online. I propose you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary victims. Otherwise you will be bombed. Russian warship, go f--k yourself, the Ukrainians replied. Advertisement At the time, Ukrainian officials announced that the guards were all presumed dead after the Russian troops opened fire, despite Russias insistence that the guards had surrendered. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he would award them posthumous heroism honors as a Hero of Ukraine. Snake Island (Shutterstock) On Monday, the Ukrainian army revealed that the soldiers were actually alive and had been taken captive by Russian occupiers. We are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive and well with them! the army wrote on Facebook. Officials also accused the Russian army of twisting the narrative, claiming that they conveniently forgot to report that they had completely destroyed the islands infrastructure: lighthouse, carnations, antennas. Tens of thousands of demonstrators throughout Europe showed their support for Ukraine Saturday, with some calling on Russians to oppose President Vladimir Putin on the third day of Moscow's attack on Ukraine. Meanwhile there were also growing protests in Russia, despite increasing numbers of arrests. "We, Russian doctors, nurses, and paramedics, are decidedly against the attacks conducted by Russian troops on Ukrainian territory," read a petition in Russia that was signed by more than 300 people. Dozens of Russian humanitarian organizations published an open letter to Putin, asking him to stop the war: "War is a humanitarian catastrophe that leads to pain and suffering... We consider violent solutions to political conflicts inhumane and call upon you to cease fire and begin negotiations." More than 3,000 people have been arrested since Thursday at demonstrations against the war. There have been at least 3,093 arrests in the past three days, the civil rights group OWD-Info reported on Saturday evening. Almost 2,000 people were arrested on the first day alone, immediately after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russian authorities have urged citizens not to take part in protests, which have been banned due to the alleged risk of coronavirus transmission. Russian authorities prefer to speak of a "military operation" in Ukraine and have been taking action against the use of the word "war" in the media. Foreign television channels have been blocked for days in a large residential and office complex in the centre of Moscow, where many diplomats and foreign correspondents live and work alongside Russian officials. The management of the building has blamed a failure of the satellite systems and has offered to activate Russian state channels instead. Putin has justified his war on Ukraine by saying that he wanted to disarm the NATO-aspiring country and liberate it from its "neo-Nazi" government. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Putin of unprecedented aggression and declared resistance. Even a member of the Russian Communist Party demanded an end to the war. He said that it had not been his intention to unleash a war with his vote in parliament to recognize the People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. On social media, many Russians have voiced their dismay at the war in Ukraine. Protests were held throughout Europe, drawing tens of thousands who were eager to show their support for Ukraine. There were rallies held in several cities in Estonia. In the capital Tallinn, several thousand people gathered at Freedom Square in the city centre to protest against the war. According to police, at times it was estimated that up to 30,000 demonstrators were present at the rally and the subsequent solidarity concert for Ukraine. "The world we knew a week ago no longer exists," President Alar Karis said in his speech at the rally. He said the current war in Ukraine was "inconceivable, absurd and horrific." He appealed to his compatriots to "open the souls and the doors of Estonia to the Ukrainian refugees." In Switzerland, 20,000 people protested in Bern, calling for peace in Ukraine, organizers said. The demonstration in the traditionally neutral country was directed at Putin, but also the Swiss government for not fully following the European Union's raft of sanctions on Russia. "It is irresponsible for the government not to immediately freeze the billions of Swiss francs in Russian hands," Cdric Wermuth, a co-president of the Swiss Social Democrats, said in a speech. Several thousand people protested in Vienna, with one Ukrainian woman in the crowd called for Russians to show active resistance to Putin. "Do something for God's sake," she said in Russian. Another demonstrator told Russians outside of Russia to contact relatives there and push for protests. In Bulgaria, about 200 people carrying Ukrainian flags gathered in front of the presidential office in the centre of the capital Sofia and similar events were also held in the Black Sea cities of Varna and Burgas. In Germany, thousands of people also protested in Frankfurt, where many carried blue and yellow Ukrainian flags in a show of solidarity with the eastern European country. Rallies, demonstrations and vigils were also planned in many other places in Germany on Saturday. Further north, more than 10,000 people joined several rallies held in Helsinki and other cities. Finland has a long border with Russia stretching over 1,300 kilometres. People are therefore watching the events in Ukraine with particular concern. Only on Friday, a Russian government spokeswoman had issued a threat towards Finland. Should the country join NATO, this would have "serious military and political consequences," she said. Thousands of people also turned out in Israel on Saturday to protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, demanding an end to the war and more support for Ukraine, according to local media. Israeli-Ukrainian ties are strong and Ukraine has been a large source of immigration to Israel in recent years, with as many as 7,000 Ukrainian immigrants arriving in the country per year. According to estimates, around 43,000 Jews currently live in Ukraine, while a further 15,000 Israeli nationals call the country home, according to the Foreign Ministry. GNA The Ukrainian armed forces face attacks by the Russian army "from all directions" in several locations, according to reports early Sunday. The Russian military onslaught was being met with "determined resistance," the Ukrainian army said in a statement. According to this account, Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian attack near Kharkiv. In the course of heavy fighting around Kharkiv, a gas pipeline burst into flames after an explosion on Sunday night. According to the Ukrainian agency UNIAN, the line was blown up by Russian troops. This could not be independently verified. According to media reports, a refinery was hit by rockets and set on fire in a suburb of Kiev. And in Kherson in the south, Russian units reportedly succeeded in advancing after bitter fighting. Heavy fighting was also said to be raging in the Luhansk region, and on the outskirts of the capital Kiev. The Kyiv Independent quoted the mayor of Vasylkiv, south of Kiev, as saying the city and airfield has sustained heavy shelling from ballistic missiles. "The enemy wants to destroy everything around, but he will not succeed," mayor Natalia Balasinovich said. "Hold on!" GNA At least 240 civilians have been injured and 64 killed since Russian troops entered Ukraine, the United Nations said. However, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned the figures will rise over the coming days. Hundreds of thousands of people are without power or water, while more than 160,000 people had been internally displaced it said. Some 116,000 people have been forced to flee across international borders into neighbouring European countries, with Ukraine's government estimating as many as 5 million refugees in a worst-case scenario. Hundreds of homes had been damaged or destroyed, while bridges and roads damaged by shelling had left some communities cut off from supplies. UN agencies and humanitarian partners had been forced to suspend operations in Ukraine due to the deteriorating security situation, OCHA said. "The ongoing conflict continues to have severe human costs, causing a growing number of civilian casualties, interrupting livelihoods and damaging critical civilian infrastructure, including hundreds of homes, water and sanitation infrastructure, schools and health facilities." It warned the conflict came as Covid-19 cases within Ukraine soar, with case numbers rising 555% in 10 days, putting additional pressure on the country's already-stretched health system. "The current situation is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation in the [Donbass] region and generating new multisectoral needs across the country," OCHA said. GNA At least one Zimbabwean opposition activist was killed and 17 others were hospitalised on Sunday after violence broke out during a rally, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) announced. However, a police spokesperson could not be reached immediately to confirm the claim. Thousands of activists had gathered in the central city of Kwekwe to listen to a speech by party leader Nelson Chamisa, the main opponent of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ZANU-PF party, in power since independence, according to an AFP photographer. More than a dozen men, suspected of being ZANU-PF militants, got out of a pick-up truck and initiated violence on the sidelines of the rally, noted the photographer, claiming that an elderly gentleman had his leg broken in a stampede. Footage circulating on social media showed them throwing rocks at the crowd. Witnesses also said they used iron bars and machetes to attack CCC members. The clashes continued, forcing Chamisa to interrupt his speech, a month before by-elections perceived as a test poll ahead of next year's general elections. The local Red Cross has also taken care of dozens of injured activists. The events come a day after the country's vice president Constantino Chiwenga said the ruling party would "crush" the opposition, fuelling fears of a new wave of state-sponsored violence. On Saturday, the police used violence to disperse hundreds of opponents in Gokwe, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) away from Kwekwe, on the pretext that they lacked the personnel to supervise the rally properly. "We condemn the unbridled violence," CCC spokeswoman Fadzayi Mahere told AFP on Sunday. "We demand an end to the political persecution and incitement of senior ZANU leaders who threatened that they will 'crush CCC like lice'. This is not acceptable in a democracy." President Mnangagwa, successor in 2017 to Robert Mugabe who reigned with an iron fist for 37 years, is often accused of wanting to muzzle any opposition. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has refuted claims that a train transporting Ghanaians from the Eastern part of Ukraine has been attacked by Russians. This follows reports that the Member of Parliament(MP) for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa had asserted on Accra-based TV3 that a train conveying some Ghanaians from Ukraine was attacked by Russians. According to the North Tongu law maker, the Ghanaians escaped unhurt, despite the attack. Reacting to the claims by the North Tongu MP, during a press conference to update Ghanaians on the situation of nationals residing in Ukraine, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration noted that: We wish to debunk the unsubstantiated reports such as the allegation that a bus or a train conveying some Ghanaians to the Eastern part of Ukraine was shot at. The Minister further called on all persons to be circumspect in their reportage of the developments in Ukraine due to the sensitive nature of the situation. These are delicate times, let us all endeavour to stay clear of sensationalism and unconfirmed reports that will heighten tensions at this time. We have parents and relatives of Ghanaians stuck in a war situation and the least we can do is not to play politics or to be sensational with news that is not confirmed. It is not right. We must stop it, the Minister said. She also assured Ghanaians of governments efforts to ensure that nationals are safe. I can assure you that our diplomatic missions are working around the clock in a coordinated manner to secure the safety at all time of our citizens and their evacuation process, the Minister added. classfmonline.com Ministry of National Security has denied arresting a freelance journalist, Sacut Amenga-Etegu for following up on a case of extortion levelled against an operative of the Ministry. A statement issued by the Ministry on Sunday February 27 said the journalist was arrested based on a High Court order for filming court proceedings without authority. The Ministry of National Security has taken note of a false publication in circulation on social media which purports that Sacut Amenga-Etegu, a freelance journalist has been unduly arrested and detained by personnel of the Ministry. According to the said publication, the journalist was arrested at the premises of a court where he had gone to follow up on a case of extortion levelled against some operatives of the Ministry of National Security . Contrary to the content of the publication the journalist was arrested based on an order of a High Court for Filming and / or videoing the court proceedings without authority. It is worth noting that the journalist was remanded by the same court to reapear on 14th March 2022. The public is therefore urged to disregard the content of the false publication in circulation on social media, the statement said. 3news.com Tomorrow, February 28 Ghana will mark the 74th anniversary of the 28th February Christianborg Crossroads shooting incident, which led to the killing of three war veterans in the colonial era. The landmark incident, which occurred in 1948, led to the killing of Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey. On February 28 each year, the State holds a special ceremony at the Freedom Monument, near the Black Star Square at Osu, in Accra, in memory of the three Ghanaian World War II veterans. The killing of the three veterans provoked a major strike and the call for an end to colonial rule and a major precursor to the country becoming an independent State on March 6, 1957. The celebrated World War II veterans and their allied forces in the then Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force were demanding their gratuity through street protest when they were killed. The protest followed several appeals to the colonial government, which yielded no fruitful results. The veterans then decided to march to the seat of the Christiansborg Castle, Accra, Gold Coast (Ghana), to present a petition to the colonial governor demanding their end of war benefits promised them. But the peaceful protest turned deadly when they were intercepted at the crossroads the exact location of the present Freedom Monument by a contingent of armed policemen who shot and killed the three. A British police superintendent, Imray, shot and killed the three veterans. Imray was said to have killed the veterans after a subordinate he had ordered to do so had failed to execute the order. The act sparked widespread uproar and condemnation, with people in Accra and other parts of the country taking to the streets and attacking European and Asian businesses and property. Shortly after the disturbances, the leadership of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), a political organisation advocating an end to colonialism, sent a cable to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London. In the letter, the UGCC warned that the situation would get out of control if the Colonial Government was not changed. unless the Colonial Government is changed and a new Government of the people and their chiefs installed at the centre immediately, the conduct of the masses will be completely out of control with strikes threatened in Police quarters...and result in worse violent and irresponsible acts by uncontrolled people, it said. The protest lasted for five days and on 1st March, 1948, the Colonial Governor declared a state of emergency and put in place a new Riot Act. Leading members of the UGCC (The Big Six), including Dr Kwame Nkrumah, were accused of orchestrating the disturbances. They were subsequently arrested and incarcerated in remote northern parts of the country. Dr Nkrumah later broke away from the UGCC to form the Convention People's Party (CPP). The CPP, through a campaign dubbed: Positive Action, waged a successful anti-colonial campaign and achieved an end to colonial rule and the realisation of an independent Ghana on March 6, 1957. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Ex WOI Bright Segbefia, Public Relations Officer, Veterans Administration Ghana (VAG), said the commemoration of the Christianborg Crossroads incident was an important occasion on the calendar of the Administration. He said the ceremony did not only honour the three veterans who were killed during the 1948 protest but all veteran officers who had contributed significantly to the security and protection of the nation. This year, we will be honouring two veteran officers for their dedication and service to the nation. It is important to let our officers know that they will be honoured for their sacrifices to the nation, he said. WOI Segbefia appealed to the Government to pay critical attention to the health needs of veteran officers as way of showing appreciation for their service to the nation. He said many retired officers suffered various health complications but had no money to treat their conditions. They have to rely on their pensions and that is not enough to give them the best of care, he said. GNA The scene has become all-too-common during Ethiopia's drawn-out war: thousands of Eritrean refugees, shell-shocked and separated from loved ones, fleeing on foot through harsh terrain to escape artillery and gunfire. It played out again this month, after the Bahrale refugee camp in the northeastern Afar region sustained what survivors described as a brazen assault by rebels from neighbouring Tigray. At least five people were killed and an untold number of women kidnapped. Those lucky enough to escape are now scattered across Afar, awaiting an uncertain future in a country they once saw as a haven from their repressive homeland. The attack marked the first time Eritrean refugees were targeted outside Tigray, where the war began, and was the first such assault on Eritrean refugees belonging to the ethnic Afar minority. Hundreds of Bahrale refugees have sought shelter at the Agda Hotel in Afar's capital Semera. By EDUARDO SOTERAS AFP Yet in other respects, the incident followed a familiar pattern -- one analysts say highlights failings of the Ethiopian government, the rebels and the international community at large. It has also renewed debate on how to accommodate one of the most vulnerable groups in Africa's second most populous country. "I just can't emphasise enough how unprecedented this is," said Sarah Miller, senior fellow with Refugees International, highlighting the "scale and scope" of abuses against Eritreans during every stage of the 15-month war. "Ethiopia is no longer a safe place for Eritrean refugees -- that's quite clear." 'War crimes' Eritrean refugees have a long history in northern Ethiopia, first arriving in 2000 towards the end of a two-year border war that killed tens of thousands. Before the current conflict around 113,000 Eritrean refugees were registered in Tigray and Afar. By EDUARDO SOTERAS AFP Before the current conflict broke out, some 113,000 Eritrean refugees were registered in Tigray and Afar, according to the UN. Most were fleeing the authoritarian rule of President Isaias Afwerki, whose abysmal rights record has led some to dub Eritrea "Africa's North Korea". Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize in large part for initiating a surprise rapprochement with Isaias following a two-decade stalemate. Yet Isaias and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray's former ruling party, remained bitter enemies, and Eritrean refugees felt at home in the region. That changed after Abiy sent troops to topple the TPLF in November 2020, enlisting support from Eritrean soldiers. Early in the conflict, refugees at two camps near the border faced abuses -- including killings, rapes and looting -- at the hands of Tigrayan rebels and Eritrean soldiers that Human Rights Watch has termed "evident war crimes". Fewer than half of the 34,000 refugees registered in and around Bahrale have been accounted for. By EDUARDO SOTERAS AFP Those two camps were ultimately destroyed in what one aid group called a "rampage" after the area came under Eritrean control. Thousands remain missing. Last July, fighting reached two other camps farther south in Tigray. Since then, refugees there have faced extended cuts to food and medical aid, and three were killed in a drone strike in January. Looting, kidnapping The attack on the Bahrale camp began February 3, part of a broader offensive in Afar that diplomats say represents the latest setback to hoped-for peace talks. Ethiopia plans to house them in a temporary site in Serdo, 40 kilometres 25 miles northeast of Semera.But attempts to establish new sites elsewhere in the country have moved slowly.. By EDUARDO SOTERAS AFP "Heavy weapons were thrown into the refugee camp and Tigray forces controlled the area. The same day they started looting property," recalled one survivor, according to testimony collected by an aid agency and shared with AFP. "They kidnapped some refugee women, we do not know where they are," said the woman, who became separated from her sister and nine-year-old son. Hundreds of Bahrale refugees have sought shelter at the Agda Hotel in Afar's capital Semera, gathering under cardboard boxes or spindly trees in the courtyard to shield themselves from the sun. "For three days we had no kind of food or water, but because of our fear we weren't thinking about that at all," Abdu Ahmed told AFP. A TPLF spokesman dismissed claims that its fighters attacked refugees as "lies". 'No one in their corner' Of 34,000 refugees registered in and around Bahrale, fewer than half -- 14,250 -- have been accounted for, UN refugee agency spokesman Neven Crvenkovic told AFP last week. Ethiopia plans to house them in a "temporary site" in Serdo, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Semera. The war has killed thousands and driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation. By EDUARDO SOTERAS AFP But attempts to establish new sites elsewhere in the country have moved slowly. Refugees told AFP they were heartbroken about having to flee Bahrale but resigned to their circumstances. "If God took my family and my home from me, I don't have anyone to ask about it, I will accept it," said Halima Kedir, who has located just one of her eight children since the attack. For Miller, from Refugees International, the Eritreans' plight highlights broader failures to protect civilians during a war that has killed thousands and, according to the UN and the US, driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation. "The humanitarian community has a lot of reckoning and deep thinking to do around what's been going on in Ethiopia," she said. "We have a special duty to Eritrean refugees, who have no one in their corner, who have no one protecting them." 28.02.2022 LISTEN A convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, returns to Court today, Monday, February 28, after he was charged with treason felony and remanded by the Ashaiman District Court. The charge stemmed from comments he made about the government's E-Levy which in the view of the state threatens a coup d'etat. He was arrested on Friday, February 11 at the airport upon his return to the country, and was put before the Ashaiman District Court on Monday, February 14, where he was denied bail and remanded into police custody. The police in a statement said his arrest was necessitated by comments he made on social media to the effect that he would stage a coup if the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy popularly known as E-levy is passed into law. A subsequent application by lawyers for Mr. Barker-Vormawor, to seek answers from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Attorney-General on why their client was detained more than 48 hours was thrown away by the Tema High Court. The Court advised that the lawyers should rather appeal the bail if they so wish. The controversy surrounding this matter has been simplified in this 3NewsExplainer. ---3news.com The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare has told Police personnel that they are there to serve the community they are posted to and not to lord over and scare the people. He noted that the Police is poised to protect lives and property and to enhance the safety and security of the citizenry. He further called for support from all and sundry to help the Police to deliver on its mandate since security is a shared responsibility. The IGP also assured the citizenry that the Police Administration is resolute in changing the face of the service to meet international standards. Dr Dampare said these when he paid a three-day working visit to the Oti Region to experience the general security situations in the region and also to encourage personnel to be dedicated to Service and Ghana in the maintenance of law and order. Further, the IGP outlined some of the policies being pursued by the Police Administration to make Ghana Police Service a world-class Police institution. Notable among the policies is the implementation of the new holistic training programmes at the various Police Training Schools to produce all-around effective and efficient Policemen and women who are proficient in driving, riding and swimming and Police officers who respect the fundamental human rights of the citizenry to harness the human resource base. While on the tour, the IGP and his entourage seized the opportunity to pay a courtesy call on the Regional Minister of Oti Region, Dr. Joshua Makubu. The team also visited the various paramountcies in the region. The IGP also used the occasion to interact with students and pupils of Dambai College of Education and St Thomas Aquinas Roman Basic School in Dambai where he encouraged them to be committed to their education which is the bedrock of success. He also encouraged them to see challenges as an opportunity to achieve future goals. Accompanying the IGP were Director-General (DG) National Patrol Department, COP Mr. Paul Manly Awini; DG/MTTD, COP Mr. Francis Aboagye Nyarko and DG/Welfare, DCOP Mrs Habiba Twumasi Sarpong, Others include Deputy-Chief Staff Officer, C/Supt Grace Ansah-Akrofi; Director, Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU); C/Supt/Mr A. Abass and Director, Public Affairs Directorate, Supt/Mr Alexander K. Obeng. The team was welcomed by the Oti Regional Police Commander, DCOP/Mr Charles Dormamban together with other Senior Police officers with the Regional Headquarters formation. ---Classfmonline.com What he has said and done is simply treasonous South River, N.J.: Lets fact-check what we know about our Apprentice ex-president, Donald Trump. With his own words, he has proven he has no respect for our veterans. He said he didnt care about veterans returning from war with PTSD (They are weak). He didnt want wounded vets marching in his parade (No one wants to see that)! He sees no reason to visit a cemetery that honors our WWI fallen (Its filled with losers)! He has an ongoing love affair with known enemies of our country, the so-called leaders of Russia and North Korea. Russia puts a bounty on the heads of our military no condemnation from Trump. Putin denies any involvement in our elections despite proof from our intelligence agencies Trump believes Putin. Now we come to today. Putin again breaks international law by invading another nation under pretenses based on lies (a tactic Trump is an expert on) and is pushing the world toward war. And Trump finds this praiseworthy? Trump has been called many things: a criminal, a con-man, a liar. I call him a traitor! And the ReTrumplicans that continue to kiss his butt and promote his lies all fall into the same category including the fake news reporters at Fox News, whose anti-American rhetoric is getting rave reviews in Moscow. Advertisement I am an 81-year-old Air Force veteran and I am heartbroken over what this Trumpism cult is doing to the land I love. Many years ago, Irving Berlin wrote a song asking God to bless America. I pray every day asking God to save America. Don McSorley Buddies. (Evan Vucci/AP) To Russia, with love Hackensack, N.J.: I see Biden hasnt frozen all the Russian assets yet. Fox News and Tucker Carlson are still broadcasting. Ken Byrnes Advertisement Idly by Effort, Pa.: If a sovereign country falls and the world stands by and watches, does it make a sound? Kathleen Slattery Outbreak of hostilities Mineola, L.I.: Are Biden followers who were very happy to see him win now happy that there is war? Maria Perez Fuel to the fire Bronx: The politics of division in America has not only hurt our country but our allies, too. We put sanctions on Russia, yet we import about 20 million barrels of oil a month from the former Soviet Union. We were energy independent; we could have exported oil to all the countries that rely on Russian oil and thereby strangle the Russian economy. Is Russian oil not a fossil fuel? Al DAngelo Personal connections Brooklyn: Bidens delayed response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia leads us only to believe he does not wish to upset Vladimir Putin or the source of Bidens family finances. There is a lot at stake for the Biden family: Hunters position on the Burisma board of directors and accompanying salary, trading on his fathers name and his artwork sales. So why not let Putin take back Ukraine and keep that money pipeline open? Finally, evidence of Russian collusion between Putin and Joe Biden. Lydia DiBello Missed perspectives Manhattan: City Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan can argue that the United States did not accommodate Russian security needs as NATO expanded. But the United States was far from the central driver of that expansion. Poland, Hungary and then-Czechoslovakia were desperate to join NATO, fearing eventual Russian threats. Many German leaders favored NATO expansion as well, eager that their country not be NATOs eastern frontier. To see the current crisis only through the lens of U.S.-Russian differences is to return to the simplistic bipolar perspective of the Cold War. And to dismiss Eastern European worries about Russia seems rather wrongheaded. Just ask Ukraine. Michael Barnhart Cold War commando Staten Island: To Voicer Kathi Mitchell: You might be right that Putin had the invasion planned for years. No matter who is in the White House, Putin would do whatever he wants. I believe what President Trump meant was that Russia attacking on three sides was brilliant. I do not support this invasion but that is strategy. What I believe is that Putin wants all the countries that broke away from the USSR to be brought back under his control. Remember, Putin is not only the president of Russia; he was an intelligence officer in the KGB. Thomas Bell Send a message Fresh Meadows: The U.S. should expel all Russian diplomats and their families and immediately close the Russian embassy in Washington, as well as the various consulates that Russia has around the country. Also, the FAA should ban all Aeroflot flights to the U.S.and close off our airspace to Russian passenger planes. Vladimir Putin must know that he will pay dearly for his unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine. John Amato Pattern of behavior The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > Whiting, N.J.: Hey, Voicer David DiBello: Your boy Trump held back arms for Ukraine as he tried to blackmail President Zelensky in exchange for dirt on Hunter Biden. And as far as abandoning our Afghan allies, the Former Guy initiated our pullout of troops while he was in office. The Trump mob believes that if he were still in office, Putin would not have dared invade Ukraine in fear of the mighty Donald. More realistically, Trump would have praised Putin and denied our intelligence communitys warnings of incursions by the Russians. Bill McConnell Advertisement Redesign Brooklyn: I am wondering why the Post Office chose to print the $0.58 Forever stamps with three U.S. flags pointing down instead of the previous one, which shows one free, happy flag waving in the wind. Francisco J. Castillo Defunder Bronx: Does anyone else find it hilariously ironic that Ed Mullins was defunding the police all along? Daniel Velez Too soft Kearny, N.J.: A man is stabbed in the chest with an 8- to 10-inch knife for the unpardonable offense of having disrespected a piece of garbage whos deserving of no respect whatsoever and somehow the crime is deemed manslaughter, not murder (Gets 20 yrs. for senseless slay, Feb. 24). Adding insult to injury, the clueless judge then sentences said piece of garbage to a mere 20 years in jail for robbing the world of a talented, churchgoing man who went to daily Mass and volunteered as a handyman at a monastery. He showed no mercy to his victim, but we collectively do so for him. The nuns are robbed of their helping hand, a wife is left bereaved and suicidal, and the best the justice system can do is to put the killer away until hes in his late 30s or early 40s. John Woodmaska Statistically unsound Holliswood: Leonard Greene is a great race-baiter. In his article about fatal police use of force (A white womans tears mean more than a Black victims mother, column, Feb. 20), he laments that, What also makes these kinds of encounters racial incidents is that the victim is almost never white. Really? If he had done a quick Google search, he would discover that white people in America have more fatal use-of-force encounters with the police than Black people. But that doesnt fit the racially divisive narrative that he and his ilk (which includes this newspaper) want to present. Sad. Gregory W. Chupa Guilty Rutherford, N.J.: The three officers who chose to do nothing and failed to intervene and save George Floyd were convicted. Likewise, Trump chose to do nothing and failed to intervene during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. To his credit, Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, had the National Guard ready but didnt have the power to deploy it. Only Donald Trump and his secretary of defense had the power to deploy the Guard to quell the riot, but they chose to do nothing for at least three hours, and in the meantime, people died. Why havent they been charged with a crime by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, just like those three police officers who failed to intervene to save George Floyd? And why hasnt the congressional committee recommended this? And why havent I seen this idea being pursued by the media? Francis J. Viola Handsy has-been Central Islip, L.I.: Cuomo plans a comeback. Why? He cant find enough women to grope outside the office? Thomas Sarc The government of Ghana has announced that some 220 Ghanaians have successfully exited Ukraine and will this week arrive in the country. This was confirmed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mrs. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway. During an engagement with the media on Sunday, February 27, 2022, the Minister said, I am pleased to inform you that, a good number, over 220 of our compatriots have exited Ukraine and should be with us in Ghana soon, and we are earnestly facilitating the safe return of a lot more. Mrs. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway added, 24 have arrived in Bucharest, Romania, and our officer on the ground is procuring tickets for them to leave tomorrow Monday en route to Accra. She further disclosed that more than 460 Ghanaian students in troubled Ukraine are also close to exiting the country. She said they will be received by representatives of the government in Poland, Hungary, and other countries close by before their evacuation to Ghana. As at midday, today Sunday information gathered is that over 460 students have left Ukraine en route to Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The students will be received by our diplomatic missions, honorary consuls, and officials of the students union and associations, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration said. The government assures that in the midst of the Russian attacks on Ukraine, it will continue to do everything in its power to ensure the safety of the citizenry caught up in the European country. The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) is demanding the shutdown of the University of Ghana (UTAG) following a decision by lectures to continue their strike action despite the court ruling. UTAG-UG lecturers were expected to begin academic work today, Monday, February 28, 2022 following the over six weeks strike that was suspended last week. However, after an emergency meeting on Sunday, UTAG-UG has sent a letter to the management of Ghanas premium university informing the management that it is unable to commence teaching. After extensive deliberations, they directed me to bring to your attention, their inability to comply with the decision of the Business and Executive Committee for the resumption of teaching on Monday 28th February 2022, part of a letter signed by UTAG-UG General Secretary Prof. Ransford Gyampo to the management of the school reads. Not pleased by the development, NUGS says it will be better if the University of Ghana is shut down. The resolution of the UG-UTAG not to comply with the Business and Executive Committees schedule for teaching and learning is rather unfortunate. Students cannot continue to bear the brunt of this strike action. If the teaching is no where in sight, shut down the school, an official statement from the students' group reads on Twitter. A: Introduction On 18th January, 2022, the Supreme Court gave its ruling in Ex Parte Ecobank Ghana Limited[1] and reserved its reasons for a later date. The main issue for determination in the application was whether C.I 132[2] has taken away the High Courts jurisdiction to hear applications filed after an appeal is lodged against a High Courts decision. Many were those who waited for the Supreme Courts decision and the reasons thereof with bated breath. The new amendments introduced into the Court of Appeal Rules by C.I 132 had given many lawyers and judges anxious moments. This article sets out the basis for the application in Ex Parte Ecobank Ghana Limited. It discusses the genesis of the problem the parties encountered in the High Court that ended in the application for judicial review before the Supreme Court. The article posits that the conclusion reached by the Supreme Court that C.I 132 did not take away the High Courts inherent jurisdiction to entertain applications pending appeal, is great and a welcome development[3]. But the question that remains to be answered is whether the reasons given by the Supreme Court in support of its ruling is grounded in law. The article concludes by suggesting that C.I 132 only came to create problems where none previously existed and the Rules of Court Committee must do the needful and restore the revoked provisions. That way, the Supreme Court may be saved the head-scratching task of dealing with another application cast in the mold of Ex Parte Ecobank Ghana Limited. B: The case: Ex Parte Ecobank Ghana Limited The case involved a simple set of facts. The High Court (Commercial Division), Accra handled a suit between the interested parties as plaintiff and defendant. The plaintiff, as judgment-creditor, went into execution and instituted garnishee proceedings against two banks, that is, Ecobank Ghana Limited (the applicant) and another bank. The High Court made a garnishee order absolute against only the applicant for the payment of the whole of the judgment debt. The applicant was unhappy with the Courts decision and so, filed an appeal against the order to the Court of Appeal. The applicant applied to the Court of Appeal for stay of execution pending appeal. The Court of Appeal refused the application. The applicant then went back to the High Court with an application under the Courts inherent jurisdiction for an order to suspend the garnishee order absolute and stay the proceedings of execution pending the determination of the appeal. Then, Counsel for the judgment-creditor raised a preliminary objection to the hearing of the application by the High Court arguing that, the power of the High Court to stay execution of its judgment or order that has been appealed against has been taken away by C.I.132. The learned High Court judge agreed and upheld the objection and declined to hear the application for stay of execution on the merits. The application was, therefore, dismissed in limine as being incompetent. The garnishee, that is, the applicant herein, then filed a motion before the Supreme Court for an order of certiorari to quash the High Courts ruling on grounds of blatant error of law apparent on the face of the record and further, for an order of mandamus compelling the trial High Court judge to hear and determine the application on the merits. The Supreme Court held that, the applicant was right in filing the application for stay of execution before the High Court. Therefore, the trial judge fell in error when she ruled that she had no jurisdiction to hear the application. The Supreme Court quashed the trial judges decision and further granted an order of mandamus directed at the trial judge to hear and determine the application on its merits. C: Was C.I 132 necessary? The Supreme Courts decision that the applicant was right in filing its application for stay of execution pending appeal at trial High Court instead of the Court of Appeal is most commendable. The question that arises from the Supreme Courts ruling is this: was C.1 132 necessary if applications for stay of execution and proceedings pending appeal are still to be made to the lower court (High Court or Circuit Court) and not the appellate court (Court of Appeal)? In giving its ruling in Ex Parte Ecobank Ghana Limited, the Supreme Court relied heavily on Rule 21 of C.I 19.[4] Rule 21 is on control of proceedings during pendency of appeal and that is why the Rule opens by saying After the record of appeal has been transmitted from the court below to the Court, the Court shall be seised of the whole of the proceedings as between the parties and every application shall be made to the Court and not to the court below, but any application may be filed in the court below for transmission to the Court. (Emphasis supplied) Now, if the Rules of Court Committee was aware that Rule 21 of C.I 19 required that all applications pending appeal must be made first, to the court below, then why did they choose to revoke only Rules 27(A) and 28 in C.I 132? At any rate, it is difficult for one to agree with the Supreme Courts position that since Rule 21 is still in operation, applications for stay of execution and proceedings pending appeal could properly be made under Rule 21. The fact is that, before an appeal will be deemed to be pending before the Court of Appeal, that is, before the record of appeal is transmitted to the Court of Appeal, Rule 21 will not be the applicable rule under which the parties will bring applications before the Court of Appeal. As stated in the preceding paragraph, Rule 21 kicks in and becomes operational only after the record of appeal has been transmitted from the court below to the Court of Appeal. It was for that reason that the old Rules 27(A) and 28 were specifically enacted to deal with interlocutory applications that may be filed by parties before the record of appeal has been transmitted from the court below. In other words, the old Rules 27 (A) and 28 regulated interlocutory applications pending appeal until the appeal was ripe for hearing, and then Rule 21 will take over from there, literally speaking. The revoked Rule 28 provided for the court to which application should be made when a case is on appeal thus: Subject to these Rules and to any other enactment, where under any enactment an application may be made either to the court below or to the Court, it shall be made in the first instance to the court below, but if the court below refuses to grant the application, the applicant shall be entitled to have the application determined by the Court.[5] This provision accorded the best guide to applicants, lawyers and Judges alike as to the proper forum to file applications relating to appeals. If, as the Supreme Court admits in Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Limited, Rule 28 codified a settled practice of the courts, [and] its revocation does not take away the right of an applicant whose application for stay of execution has been refused by the lower court to repeat same in the Court of Appeal even if the record of appeal has not yet been transmitted to the Court of Appeal, then, the multi-million cedi question is: why did the Rules Of Court Committee revoke such a provision that had graciously codified a settled practice only to supplant it with settled practice and inherent jurisdiction?[6] Interestingly, in spite of the great pains the Supreme Court took to make the amendments in C.I 132 look fine, their Lordships could not advance a single policy, practice or other tangible reason to explain why such amendments were made. Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Limited is the best example yet of the practical problems C.I 132 has visited on the entire judicial system; parties, lawyers and Judges. As the Supreme Court rightly notes, even the applicants lawyer initially laboured under the impression that C.I 132 had taken away the High Courts jurisdiction to hear applications for stay of execution pending appeal and that was why the initial application for stay was filed at the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal panel saw through the danger in assuming jurisdiction over such an application under C.I 132 and rightly declined the invitation. One can only imagine the frustration and trepidation with which the applicant had to change its mind and go back to the High Court with a different song on its lips. As it happened, the High Court was not enamoured with the new song and threw the applicant out. Finally, the Supreme Court came to the applicant's rescue, but not without its own fits and falls. Thus far, C.I 132 has brought us. D: The Road to perdition Perhaps, the most telling aspect of the Supreme Courts ruling in Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Limited is their Lordships reference to, and reliance on, the execution processes set forth in Order 43 rule 11 and Order 45 rule 15 (1) of C.I 47.[7] This is what the Supreme Court said: a close reading of the language of the original Rules 27 and 28 together, will reveal that the rules do not purport to confer jurisdiction on the lower court to hear applications for stay of execution pending appeal but only made reference to existing jurisdiction of the lower court in that regard. That existing jurisdiction of the lower court is to be located in the settled practice of the High Court that has been stated in the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I.47) in Rule 11 of Order 43 and Rule 15 (1) of Order 45 which deal specifically with stay of execution in the High Court. Order 43 Rule 11 is a very general power to grant stay of execution by means of any process of execution or to grant other form of relief from the legal consequences of any decision of the High Court for justifiable (sic) reason of a matter occurring after the judgment. The filing of an appeal is certainly one matter that may occur after a judgment and can ground an application for stay of execution or of proceedings under Order 43 Rule 11. Similarly, an appeal can also warrant an application for stay of execution under Order 45 Rule 11 (sic)[8] if it raises special circumstances for the consideration of the court.[9] (Emphasis supplied) With all due respect to the Supreme Court, the reference to Order 43 rule 11 and Order 45 rule 15 (1) of C.I 47 as being provisions that afford appellants the opportunity to file applications for stay of execution or proceedings pending appeal, is misconceived. These High Court rules have nothing to do with cases in which appeals have been filed against a trial courts judgment as will be demonstrated presently. There are different ways of applying for stay of execution of a judgment of a court. First, there is application for stay of execution pending appeal. This application may be filed before the trial court and if it is dismissed, it may be repeated at the appellate court. This kind of application for stay of execution falls under the Court of Appeal Rules in cases on appeal from the Circuit Court or High Court. Such applications for stay of execution pending appeal were for several years made under the old Rules 27 (A) and 28 (revoked by C.1 132). Such an application would be made to the trial court in the first instance. If the trial court refused the application, then the applicant could repeat it at the Court of Appeal.[10] A typical example of such an application is what transpired in Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Limited. Secondly, a party may apply for stay of execution under Order 43 rule 11 of C.I 47. This application for stay of execution is not dependent on an appeal. Under this rule, the judgment debtor may apply for stay of execution where he has not appealed against the judgment given by the trial court but can demonstrate to the trial court that some events that have happened since the judgment was given justifies a stay of the execution of the judgment. Order 43 rule 11 provides that a party against whom a judgment or order has been given or made may apply to the Court for a stay of execution of the judgment or order or other relief on the ground of matters which have occurred since the date of the judgment or order, and the Court may by order grant the relief, on such terms as it thinks just.[11] (Emphasis added) This provision is without prejudice to Order 45 rule 15, which we will examine shortly. Order 43 rule 11, therefore, is a special type of stay of execution that a party can apply for on the basis of new developments that have taken place since the judgment was given. The application is made to the trial court that gave the judgment or made the order. Typical examples are applications for stay of execution and to set aside a default judgment or for variation of a courts previous orders. It could be a judgment in default of appearance, default of defence, non-attendance in court, or non-compliance with the rules or a court order. In Republic v High Court (Commercial Division) Accra; Ex parte Double Crown Investment Ltd (Granada Hotel Ltd Interested Party)[12] the Supreme Court held that the application for variation of the order made after the consent judgment was entered was in order. The application for variation of the order did not need to be premised on an appeal. In London Permanent Benefit Building Society v de Baer,[13] Plowman, J. held that the power to grant relief under the rule (the analogous provision of Order 43 rule 11 in the English Rules) was to be exercised on the basis of matters that have occurred since the date of the judgment or order, that is, matters that would have prevented the order being made or would have led to a stay of execution if they occurred at the date of the order. Now, a third method of staying execution of a judgment or order is under Order 45 rule 15 (1). It relates solely to stay of execution by writ of fieri facias (fi: fa) where the judgment or order is for payment of money. Where a judgment is given or an order is made for the payment of money by a party, and the party (judgment debtor) is able to satisfy the court (a) that there are special circumstances which render it inexpedient to enforce the judgment or order;[14] or (b) that the applicant is unable from any just cause to pay the money, the court may grant an application for stay of execution. Under this rule too, there is no requirement that an appeal must be pending before the judgment debtor can apply for stay of execution. Indeed, there is yet a fourth instance where a party may apply for stay of execution and for an order to pay the judgment debt by instalment without filing an appeal against the judgment. Applications for stay of execution and payment of judgment debt by instalment is specifically provided for under Order 41 rule 8 (1) of C.I 47[15]. It is worthy to observe that under the old High Court Rules, though Order 42 mentioned payment by instalment, there was nothing to show that it was in relation to stay of execution. Consequently, for many years, our courts were reluctant to recognize such a provision in our Rules for stay of execution and for payment of judgment debt by instalment.[16] But with time, the grant of orders for stay of execution and payment by instalment received recognition under Order 42 rule 16 (1) (b) of L.N. 140A because, as the courts reasoned, an order for payment of a judgment debt by instalments was an order staying execution conditionally.[17] In Ghana, the notion that an application for stay of execution pending appeal is separate and distinct from the other grounds for applying for stay of execution before a trial court as set out above is trite knowledge. For example, the distinction was established and amplified by E. D Kom as far back as 1990 in his short but concise book on Civil Procedure. Speaking about what came to be included eventually in C.I 47 in 2004 as Order 43 rule 11 and Order 45 rule 15 (1), Kom noted thus: [t]he new Rules have introduced two types of stay of execution when the judgment debtor has not appealed or is not challenging the correctness of the judgment[18] In his seminal and arguably, the most comprehensive book on the law and practice of Civil Procedure in Ghana to date, the venerable S. Kwami Tetteh states as follows: The power of [a] court to stay execution is distinct from the power to stay execution pending appeal; the principles are markedly different and must be observed.[19] The learned author then proceeds to treat the various forms of applications for stay of execution under distinct headings regarding stay of execution and payment by instalment under Order 41 rule 8 (1), stay of execution by fi:fa under Order 45 rule 15 (1), stay of execution on ground of matters which have occurred since judgment was given under Order 43 rule 11 and stay of execution pending appeal under C.I 19.[20] In the light of the foregoing, the Supreme Courts assertion that applications for stay of execution pending appeal can be made to the High Court under Order 43 rule 11 and Order 45 rule 15 (1), with all due deference to their Lordships, is totally misconceived in law. Applications for stay of execution pending appeal fall under the ambit of the Court of Appeal Rules (C.I 19 as amended) and not the High Court Rules (C.I 47), as noted by Kom and Tetteh. It is submitted that, once the Supreme Court could not locate any peg in the Court of Appeal Rules on which to hang its ruling in Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Limited, the apex Court should have said so and directed the Rules of Court Committee to restore the old Rules 27 (A) and 28 of C.I 19. Opting rather to take a dive into the High Court Rules for rescue only led the Supreme Court on a path to perdition. E: Conclusion The learned trial judge who ruled and declined jurisdiction to entertain the applicants application for stay of execution pending appeal on the basis of C.I 132 cannot be faulted in any way. To be fair to the learned trial judge, once the old Rules 27 (A) and 28 had been revoked by C.I 132, the learned judge had no option but to decline jurisdiction. The author had earlier anticipated that, with the revocations made in C.I 132, such rulings were bound to come from the courts.[21] In the circumstances, the Supreme Courts conclusion that the learned judge should have exercised the Courts inherent jurisdiction and settled practice to cloth herself with jurisdiction to entertain the application for stay of execution pending appeal, even in the face of the express revocation of Rules 27 (A) and 28, was a touch unreasonable. Even with the ruling in Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Limited, it is yet to be seen how parties and the Courts will fare under C.I 132 in its current form. The Supreme Court has tried its best, indeed, somersaulted, to tame the beast unleashed by the revocation of the old Rules 27(A) and 28 of C.I 19. Perhaps, a better and more lasting solution is for the Rules of Court Committee to eat humble pie and restore the old Rules. FOOTNOTES [1] The full citation of the case is Republic v High Court (Commercial Division 9), Accra; Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Ltd (Origin 8 Limited & Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (Interested Parties) Civil Motion No. J5/10/2022 unreported decision of the Supreme Court dated 18th January, 2022. [2] The Court of Appeal (Amendment) Rules, 2020 [3] The writer put forth a similar conclusion in her article dated 15th July, 2021 and titled For better or for worse? : New changes introduced into the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Rules. It is available online: https://fsboateng.com/2021/07/15/new-changes-introduced-into-the-court-of-appeal-and-supreme-court-rules/ [4] Court of Appeal Rules, 1997 [5] The revoked Rule 27 (A) of C.I 19 also provided as follows: The Court may in any interlocutory appeal, civil or criminal before it, grant stay of proceedings pending the determination of the interlocutory appeal subject to such terms as the Court considers fit. [6] The members of the Rules of Court Committee that birthed C.I 132 were: Anin Yeboah, CJ, Chairperson; Gloria Afua Akuffo, Attorney-General; Victor Jones Dotse, JSC; Victor Ofoe, JA; Charles Baiden, J.; Brigadier General Gyeke-Asante; Margaret Awuku-Gyekye; Justin Amenuvor and Dennis Armah (all members). The Supreme Court panel that gave the ruling in Ex parte Ecobank Ghana Limited comprised of: Anin Yeboah, CJ (Presiding) Pwamang, JSC, Mariama Owusu, JSC, Honyenuga, JSC and Amadu, JSC. [7] High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 [8] Should have read Order 45 rule 15 (1) [9] Dictum of Pwamang, JSC, who delivered the unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court [10] See cases such as: Alex Adu v The Commissioner- General, Ghana Revenue Authority, Civil Appeal No. J4/21/2014 unreported decision of the Supreme Court dated 10th April, 2014 [11] This provision is in pari materia with Rule 40.8A of the UK Civil Procedure Rules, 1998 [12] [2009] SCGLR 524 [13] [1968] 1 All ER 372 [14] See Ellis v Scott [1964] 2 All ER 987 where it was held that this was a case where there were special circumstances that warranted that the application must be granted. [15] Order 41 rule 8 (1) of C.I 47 provides: Where any judgment or order directs the payment of money, the Court may, for any sufficient reason, order that the amount shall be paid by instalments, with or without interest; and the order may be made at the time of giving the judgment, or at any time afterwards by the same or any other Judge and may be rescinded upon specific cause shown at any time. For cases where the Courts have granted applications for stay of execution and payment of judgment debt by instalment, see: Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Ltd v Western Steel & Forgings Ltd and Others Civil Appeal No. J4/34/2016 31st May, 2017; KMK Ltd & 2 Ors v Agricultural Development Bank & Kumesh Ltd Review Motion No. J7/11/2014 29th May, 2014, SC (unreported) [16] High [Supreme] Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 1954 (L.N. 140A). So, in cases like Standard Bank of West Africa Ltd. v Boaitey [1971] 2 G.L.R. 308 and Amo-Mensah v Owusu [1972]1 GLR 251, it was held that the High Court had no power under its Rules to order payment of judgment debts by instalment. [17] See: Ghana Commercial Bank v Camb Motors Ltd [1982-83] GLR 489; Fiankuma v Cobbina [1991] 2 GLR 369 where, even under L.N. 140A, the Courts recognized orders for stay of execution and for payment of judgment debt by instalments [18] See: Enoch D. Kom, CIVIL PROCEDURE, 3rd Ed., 1990 p. 152. For Koms exposition on the subject that supports the authors view that applications for stay of execution pending appeal are separate, distinct and have no relationship with the provisions in the current Order 43 rule 11 and Order 45 rule 15 (1) of C.I 47, see p. 151 and 152 [19] See: S. Kwami Tetteh, CIVIL PROCEDURE, A PRACTICAL APPROACH, 1st Ed., (2011) at 1050 [20] Ibid at 1050 1051 and Chapter 44. [21] For the authors earlier article on the new Court of Appeal Rules introduced by C.I 132, see: For better or for worse? New changes introduced into the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Rules available online at https://fsboateng.com/2021/07/15/new-changes-introduced-into-the-court-of-appeal-and-supreme-court-rules/ The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has condemned the military invasion of Ukraine by Russia which has led to casualties, particularly among civilians. ECOWAS in a statement said it is following with great concern the military invasion. It strongly condemned the action and called for both parties to stop the fight and use dialogue to solve their differences in the interest of peace in this region. ECOWAS also called on all parties to ensure the safety of the citizens of all its member states living in Ukraine. Russian forces began attacking Ukraine early on Thursday morning. Its President, Vladimir Putin, announced the military operation at dawn despite calls for de-escalation from world leaders. There have been reports of explosions near major Ukrainian cities, including its capital, Kyiv. Recent tensions have stemmed from Russia's opposition to Ukraine's moves towards European institutions like Nato and the EU. ---citinewsroom A senior lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Jonathan Asante Okyere has advised government to take frantic steps to ameliorate the hardships Ghanaians are experiencing. According to the university lecturer, the hardships under the current Akufo-Addo-led government are above the hardships experienced under previous regimes be it the Jerry John Rawlings regime, former President John Agyekum Kufour, late president Prof. John Atta-Mills, and former president John Dramani Mahama. Am not saying that these regimes brought heaven to Ghana but the hardships in these times are too much, he said. Yesterday I went to the pump, I was told a gallon of petrol is GHS35.5 when the price was GHS16 a gallon, some people called the then government incompetent, he added. He maintained that the tax build-up on the price of fuel is the reason the price is so high in the country. He questioned where the government intends to take the price of petrol to realize the price is too much. How does the government expect the people to live under the current economic dispensation? he quizzed adding that Ghanaians are beginning to become fed up and very soon there will be more strikes. He called on President Akufo-Addo to take steps to ameliorate the hardships Ghanaians are seeing under his administration. He explained that this government is not doing enough to offer Ghanaians some respite in the face of the economic downturn in the country. It appears that the government is not looking out for the welfare of the people, he stressed. He predicted more strikes in the coming days adding that the system is becoming murkier. Mr. Okyere said these on the Ghana Yensom morning show hosted by Kwame Obeng Sarkodie on Accra 100.5 FM on Monday 28, 2022. He warned that if care is not taken the hardships being experienced under the president will not auger well for the state 28.02.2022 LISTEN The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has today condemned the military attack on Ukraine by Russia. In a statement from its Abuja office, the commission stated that it was vehemently against the attack by Russia. It called on all parties to cease the brewing war and resort to dialogue as a means of settling differences in order to ensure the safety of all citizens and individuals living in Ukraine. Find the full statement below The Bono East regions agenda of becoming the rice production hub in the country and the sub-region at large is on course as the Regional Minister, Kwasi Adu-Gyan, is leaving no stone unturned to make this vision a reality. This agenda, which is a brainchild of the Regional Minister, is to harness the regions rice production potentials for both local consumption and for export. Several thousands of jobs are expected to be created in the rice production value-chain while rice processing factories in the country would readily have raw materials on a sustainable basis to process. It is expected that the pilot cultivation of about 3,000 hectares would begin this farming season. Last weekend, three public institutions namely; the Ghana Armed Forces, Council for Scientific and Industry Research (Crop Research Institute CSR) and the National Service Secretariat, visited some rice valleys within the Kintampo North enclave to assess the viability of commercial rice production project in the region. The Regional Minister, Kwasi Adu-Gyan, in the company of the Kintampo Municipal Chief Executive, Isaac Baffoe Ameyaw and some top officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) led the delegations from those institutions to visit the proposed rice valleys on Friday, February 25, 2022. A Director at the Crop Research Institute of the CSIR in-charge of Cereal Crop Development, Rev. Dr Raphael Bako and Mr. Kwame Ohene Gyan, Deputy Director in charge of Operations later engaged the Regional minister on the way forward, especially with regards to land preparations, seedlings, and mechanization plans, among others. Prior to this, other institutions such as the Prisons Service (Yeji Camp Prisons), the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) as well as some diplomatic missions and foreign investors have had discussions with the Bono East Regional Co-ordinating Council and expressed interest in this laudable initiative. These three institutions and others like the NABCO, Yeji Camp Prisons and foreign investors have already expressed interest in partnering the region for such a laudable initiative. 28.02.2022 LISTEN Some 25 Assembly Members in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region have expressed anger at a news publication carried out by the Inquisitor newspaper today about their MCE, Hon. Dorcas Elizabeth Amoah. They claim the publication is the work of some saboteurs in the municipality who deliberately want to destroy the work of the current MCE and the assembly members for their political advantage. Reacting to a publication carried out by the Inquisitor newspaper today, Monday 28th of February,2022, titled, "Our MCE is missing," Mr. Daniel Afful, Assembly Member for Tolenu electoral area in Center of Axim, the municipal capital described the publication as false. He claims the attack on the MCE is out of hatred towards her rather good works. According to him, the MCE, Hon. Dorcas Elizabeth Amoah is not missing as suggested. He revealed to this reporter in a telephone conversation this morning that the MCE is even in the office preparing the grounds for the independence day celebration on March 6. "We are here with our MCE and she's not missing, those doing their propaganda know why they are saying that but for we the assembly members, our MCE is not missing. I just spoke to her this morning, so how can I speak to a missing person," Mr. Daniel Afful further indicated. He added, "We don't even know where this malicious publication is coming from. And let me say this on record that we have not granted any interview to any media house to warrant this barbaric and false publication." Mr. Daniel Afful accused one Alfred Meanzah (Eagle) polling station chairman of Ewoku on the ticket of the NPP who has been publishing false information about the assembly of being behind the publication against the MCE. According to him, Eagle has said on several platforms that he will cause the removal of the current MCE because his boss (former MCE, Frank Okpenyen) was not retained for the second term. Another Assembly member who expressed unhappiness about the publication was Emmanuel Ebisah, Assembly Member for Brawire electoral area. According to him, they are ready to find the faceless persons behind the publication and make sure that legal actions are taken against them. "We can confirm that the supposed missing Nzema East MCE is not missing rather alive and kicking at Axim, the municipal capital because we spoke to her before filing this reporter," he intimated. The Centre for Gender Research Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD), University of Cape Coast has held the first of its 2022 webinar series on the topic, Womanism, African Feminism, and Post-Colonial Feminism. The Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy, and Documentation (CEGRAD) is a non-teaching Centre established in the University of Cape Coast in 2013. CEGRAD's main focus is on Research, Advocacy, and Outreach and operates under two core departments, Research and Documentation and Advocacy and Outreach. These units support the Director in the delivery of the centres mandate. CEGRADs Mission is to engage in theory and practice to position the University of Cape Coast as a leader in gender equality and womens rights within the academy and beyond, with the vision to create a safe, creative and inclusive space where gender and womens rights are fully protected. The Director of CEGRAD and host of the webinar, Dr. Georgina Yaa Oduro in her welcome address indicated that the series was to provide the enabling environment for members of the academy to discuss issues critical to the overall growth of gender studies, specifically, feminism and application of such knowledge in the wider society. Dr. Oduro stated that since the roll-out of the series in 2020 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, nine sessions have been successfully organized on different aspects of gender studies. She assured participants of an engaging and insightful meeting where their misunderstandings and misconceptions will be clarified. An Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Akosua Darkwah, observed that Post-colonial Feminism (PF) falls within the ambit of third-wave feminism. She explained that PF refers to non-Western women's feminism after the 1980s and is informed by colonized countries. She reiterated how race, class, and other intersecting variables come together to have an impact on womens perception of the world. She explained further that some Africans do not want to be identified with feminism because they associate it with the west. Dr. Martha Donkor, West Chester University, USA, highlighted how African women including traders and farmers have been feminists from time immemorial though they never identified as such. Feminism has always been present in Africa, and is based on the belief in justice and fairness. She stated that, in contrast to previous years, African feminism has made significant progress, with some centers openly promoting its activities. Africa feminism, she explained, is about the continent's intellectual progress. Dr. S. N. Nyeck of Emory University, USA. Said womanism is embracing and opens up for both males and females, and is the interpretation of past, present, and future Africana stories. She emphasized the fundamental and important functions that womanism plays in the self-interpretation process. She said Womanism reminds us that prejudice is closer to us than we believe, and warns us against the tendency to view the struggle against injustice as a contextual conflict. The investiture of Dr Adwoa Kwegyiriba as the 14th Principal of St. Francis College of Education, Hohoe in the Volta Region, was held during the congregation of the 2019 and 2020 batches of graduands. The colourful joint ceremony, held at the Franco Auditorium amidst cultural performances was attended by members of the past governing council, the convocation, Dr Eric Nkansah, Director of Tertiary Education, MoE who represented the Minister of Education, Principals of various Colleges of Education, Hon. Dr Prince Hamid Armah, MP for Kwesimintsim and former acting Director-General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) students and staff of the college, people from the academia, clergy, political and traditional leaders as well as family and friends. Dr Ahmed Jinapor Deputy Director General for Ghana Tertiary Education Commission chaired the occasion. Dr. Adwoa Kwegyiriba is assuming the position of the first substantive female Principal of the college with rich experience as an academic as well as a good track record in university administration. In a speech, the new Principal stated her preparedness to make St Francis College of Education one of the best teacher training institutions in the country. She said, We shall ensure that we remain and maintain our focus of inculcating in our students, the requisite academic abilities, professional competencies, and moral values for teaching in the basic school level for the physical, social and economic advancement of this country. With regards to teaching and learning, the new Principal promised a new dawn for students of the college. She said her vision is to position the college as a competitive teacher training institution for the advancement in quality teacher education delivery towards sustainable, national, and global development. This she added can be achieved through transformative leadership skills, active stakeholder participation, quality education delivery, research, and international partnership. "It is in that regard that the college sent three students to Belgium on a study program for three months. Four tutors will join them in March. This is as a result of a partnership program between St. Francis College of Education and St. Thomas More University, Belgium," she noted. On his part, the Registrar of the National Teaching Council, Dr Christian Addai-Poku advised students to be highly skilled in the use of information and communication technologies by integrating them in their teaching delivery. Various speakers at the event advised the graduating students to appreciate and implement the core values of the noble profession which include honesty, integrity, and creativity. The congregation which was held on the theme: Inculcating the 21st Century skills into Teacher Education, the role of Colleges of Education had a total of 768 students graduating. For the 2019 batch, 12 students were awarded first-class honours, 148 had second class (upper division), 152 obtained second class (lower division), and 59 had third class with 14 making a pass. The 2020 batch presented 385 students with 20 awarded a first-class, 197 and 104 had second class upper and lower divisions respectively, 47 received third class with 7 having a pass. Mr Isaac Tetteh was adjudged the overall best graduating student of the 2019 graduating class whilst Mr Wise Kwesi Asamoah emerged as the best graduating student of the 2020 graduating class. A special award was given Mr Aaron Dela Abotsi of the 2020 graduating class for being the first SRC President to obtain first class in the history of the college. Brief Profile of the new Principal, Dr Adwoa Kwegyiriba Dr Adwoa Kwegyiriba is a professional teacher who holds the Teachers Certificate "A" from the Komenda College of Education in 1996. She also has a Bachelor of Education in Primary Education and a Master of Arts Degree in Development Studies, both from the University of Cape Coast. Dr. Kwegyiribas passion for knowledge and interest in academia led her to pursue further studies abroad where she obtained her PhD in Economics and Management of Education at Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) Graduate School of Education, Wuhan, China. Dr. Kwegyiriba is an astute researcher and has authored 46 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Kwegyiriba is the National Director of Research for Women in Technical Education, a member of the Chartered Professional Administrators (ChPA), and a professional fellow of the Chartered Institute of Administrators and Management Consultants (CIAMC)-Ghana. Until her appointment as the substantive principal, she worked in different capacities at Takoradi Technical University from 2008. She is an accomplished academic and university administrator with over fifteen years of experience in the field of higher education. She was the Dean of the Centre for Languages and Liberal Studies (20202021). She also worked as an acting librarian (20192021). Her work at the Technical University was not only limited to managerial and administrative duties but also academic roles. She was a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Languages and Liberal Studies. What makes a city safe? For many, the answer is to reflexively look to the criminal justice system: the police, courts, our jails and prisons. But there is another, less formal system at work in our safest communities. This system is made up of millions of tiny connections between and among neighbors. It is the sidewalk ballet that Jane Jacobs described so eloquently in The Death and Life of Great American Cities: city residents, with the help of local government, taking ownership of public spaces and creating an environment that discourages lawlessness. This second, shadow system is our social fabric. Advertisement NYPD officers and detectives investigate a shooting in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News) Of course, it is hard to wrap your arms around the social fabric. Much easier to simply default to the police whenever crime rises. This makes a certain amount of sense the police are well-organized and they have an established beachhead in every neighborhood. We pay them and train them to arrest people when they break the law. And, despite the claims of many activists, there is solid evidence that effective policing can deter crime. But here in New York, we have also seen that policing comes with some profound costs. These costs are disproportionately borne by young Black New Yorkers, who in recent years have found themselves on the receiving end of an unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policy and the overuse of incarceration. Advertisement In the wake of an unprecedented surge in shootings and increase in murders, we now find ourselves at an inflection point in New York City. A recent Quinnipiac College poll suggests that 74% of city voters think that crime is a very serious problem the highest ever recorded since Quinnipiac first asked the question in 1999. While it is a fact that violent crime pales in comparison to its levels in the late 90s, thats no comfort to people living through a sharp increase in fear and street mayhem. Unfortunately, much of the public debate about how to respond to the increase in violence seems to boil down to a single, basic question more enforcement or less enforcement? with partisans on each side carving out predictably extreme positions. Is it possible to break this logjam? We believe it is. We believe that the way forward should be illuminated by evidence, not ideology. We come to this conclusion from very different starting points. One of us is a system insider, who made her bones as a federal prosecutor focused on violent crime and has served as a top adviser to both the mayor and governor on crime. The other of us has spent his career outside of the justice system in the progressive nonprofit sector, including running the Center for Court Innovation for nearly 20 years. When it comes to reducing gun violence, we believe that the immediate goal should be to reduce shootings by half, bringing us back to the historic lows we achieved in the not-so-distant year of 2019. The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > We can accomplish this in two years by: Identifying every lever that can be used to tackle the violence. This should include deploying not just government but the nonprofit sector and the business community as well. It should also include scrutiny of how existing city budgets are deployed. Advertisement Investing in community infrastructure, from summer jobs to street lighting. We must develop a civic infrastructure for justice that is as robust and as well-funded as the formal criminal justice system. Using police for what they do best: solving crimes. Police should focus on those few individuals who are responsible for the lions share of shootings. As residents see this happening, it will promote greater trust and, in turn, increase cooperation. Making a commitment to radical transparency. Government should aggressively use data to gain a better understanding of the issues at hand and to track progress in solving problems. Moreover, this data should be made available to the general public so that they can see whats happening. Mayor Adams may have his preferred solutions and criminal justice reform advocates may have theirs. By letting all the data out, perhaps we can reach some consensus on what really works best. In short, we must chart a course that sidesteps the paralyzing either/or debate between those who argue that we need to default to police to solve our public safety problems by force and those who argue that police have no role to play in making our neighborhoods safer. The best path toward enduring safety is rooted in promoting our civic strengths first and foremost, with the criminal justice system functioning as a necessary backstop of last resort. Glazer and Berman are co-editors of the new journal Vital City. The Board of Directors of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has expressed deep concerns about the apparent relapse of democratic governance and the deterioration of media freedom conditions in the West Africa region. At its recent meeting on February 16, 2022, the Board noted that the recent coup detats in some countries in the region have very serious implications for democratic governance as well as the promotion and protection of human rights in the region. The concerns of the Board follow military takeovers in Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, and a recent attempted coup in Guinea Bissau. The apprehension of the Board also comes at a time when there is increasing public concern about a growing atmosphere of state repression against free speech and expression. It also comes at a time when there is an escalation of media rights violations in the form of physical attacks on journalists and media organisations, the application of arcane laws to effect the arrest and criminal prosecution of journalists in nearly all countries in the region. The Board, therefore, called on the regional inter-governmental body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), and the international community, to take immediate steps to help stabilise and advance democratic governance in the region. The board recommended that, as a matter of urgency, ECOWAS member states should jointly deploy their defence resources to fight against terrorists and fundamentalists groups in the Sahel region to help improve security and humanitarian conditions in the Sahel parts of the region in particular and in the entire region. These, among other concerns, were contained in a seven-point resolution adopted by the Board after its meeting. Below is the seven-point resolution adopted by the Board: Resolution by the Board of Directors of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) at its Meeting held on February 16, 2022. On February 16, 2022, the Board of Directors of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) held a virtual meeting to review the organisations work for 2021 and approve the workplan of the organisation for 2022. The meeting also focused on discussing a number of major issues affecting the regional context including the spate of democratic recession in the region, declining press freedom and freedom of expression conditions, and the general governance and human rights context in the region. The meeting, which was presided over by the Chairperson of the Board, Ms. Sophie Ly Sow of Senegal, unanimously adopted and issued this seven-point resolution. Growing up in early 1950s before Independence, we used to see airplanes flying overhead in my small town of Abetifi, that town of many rich folks up the mountains some 90 miles from the Ghana capital of Accra. As kids we used to wave at the planes just in case somebody up there could see us poor kids on earth! We all have heard our politicians talk about how rich Africa is! We all talk about the minerals and other natural resources in Ghana and Africa and we all thump our chests with pride! Lets stop and think for a minute. Human Resources are used to extract Natural Resources for survival! Is that not true? Gold and Diamonds dont just wash off the shores like in the old fantasy tales! Sometimes you even need a little Capital also! In the post Independence era save the first nine years under Nkrumah, the mostly selfish and greedy forces unleashed on Ghana as leaders forgot that Ghana was a rich country! Or if you excuse the language, were they sebe sebe too naive to realize that human societies are built by leaders using Engineers! - Engineers by themselves dont just start building society! No! In the post Independence era Ghana had students sent overseas to study as Engineers in these areas: - Aerospace, - Agricultural, - Building Technology - Mechanical, - Civil, - Chemical, - Electrical /Power systems - Electronics, - Marine - Materials Sciences & Engineering - Metallurgy, - Petroleum, -Roads & Highways, - Telecommunications (IT) - Transportation systems - Water Resource This started in early 1960s. Many Western nations felt the need to help the new African nations. Perhaps they felt guilty of the past. But all the same we had good nations like Germany, UK, Soviet Union, America, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Australia, etc, all generous to offer scholarships to students from Ghana. The RETURN: Occasionally you hear people talk about those who went overseas not returning home to help build their nation. QUESTION: how many 22 year olds graduate from University and start building nations? Even if you want to point to the American situation and cite people like Bill Gates of Microsoft and the late Steve Jobs of Apple who dropped out of College, please study the history of Venture Capitalists in America from the 1800s- the time of Thomas Edison and the story of Banker JP Morgan. QUESTION: - Did the Ghana Government keep track of these students? - Granted some of them returned to teach at our Universities, mostly KNUST, what happened to the Human Resources needed to build Ghana? - Did anybody in power have a PLAN? -Did any of the big boys think Engineers simply walk out of the top Engineering Schools and start building bridges and airplanes, trains and telecom Systems? I use the word naive above because some of our own Colleagues who were into Political power failed to realize the need for HR in building a nation. Sure we used to build mud houses in the villages without Engineers; and some boys used to connect discarded wires in the village to batteries and bulbs, and we called them Engineers. Funny indeed! Did our colleagues in High Schools who studied Economics, Law, Sociology and Business at the University and who were recruited into Government, understand this simple PRINCIPLE that it takes Engineers and Architects to design and supervise the construction of roads and modern houses and buildings and provide water and electricity, radio, television, water, telecommunication services in society? And it takes Capital or Sika! I am just asking oo! It is hard to imagine anybody, educated or not, would fail to realize this. It is also hard to think that anybody would believe that once a student graduates from University they are ready to build a nation! No! In the last 10 years I have hired a few Software Engineers from Ghana and from India to develop some Application software for my company. I know the problems and challenges. Who is to give these graduates the challenge and the experience before they start making contributions? The questions for Ghana and for the International community are: can an Engineering degree by itself help build a nation? Who creates the opportunity for the young Engineer to gain the valuable experience after which his academic knowledge is mature enough to start contributing effectively to building a nation? I am just asking oo! Community leaders and cocoa farmers vehemently oppose the idea to cut down cocoa trees 28.02.2022 LISTEN Ghanas cocoa is one of the best in the world. It is cultivated in six regions in Ghana: Western, Central, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Ashanti and the Volta regions. At its peak it accounts for about 66% of the country's foreign exchange. Due to the high foreign exchange accrued from cocoa over the years, governments introduced policys to support cocoa farmers by providing them with subsidized fertilizers, free cocoa seedlings, free mass spraying programme among other interventions needed to boost cocoa production. The story is however different in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality of the Western Region of Ghana as about 250, 000 acres of cocoa farms in the following communities Dikoto Junction, Wassa Kumasi, Abaase, Sebeho, Supanso, Appiakrom, Dikoto Krofrom, Ojugu and Larbikrom among others has been earmarked for destruction by the Chief of Wassa Dikoto if authorities within the cocoa sector do not intervene immediately. Community leaders say about 4000 cocoa farmers from the 13 cocoa growing communities in the Dikoto-Nsuaem Traditional Area of the municipality will lose their farms in the coming weeks, as their landlord pushes through his plan to cut down cocoa farms to make way for an Indian company to cultivate an oil palm plantation instead. This was disclosed during an interaction with members of the Ghana Agricultural and Rural Development Journalist Association (GARDJA), when they visited the 13 cocoa growing communities in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality in the Western Region to ascertain challenges confronting cocoa production in the region. According to the farmers, their traditional ruler, Nana Ntiako Agyiri II, is actively pushing through a plan to establish an oil palm plantation and milling plant as part of his development agenda for the area. But the over four thousand cocoa farmers in the Dikoto-Nsuaem Traditional Area of the municipality vehemently oppose the idea. Mr. Yaw Bioh, who has over 30 acres of cocoa farm says he does not support any project to cut down cocoa. Ghana, famous for its cocoa, at its peak it accounts for about 66% of the country's foreign exchange; so why should personal interest supersede national interest. If authorities dont prevent the Chief and his investors from implementing this initiative; it may lead to conflict and increase poverty, he added. Madam Yaa Pokuaa said she is shocked at the chiefs decision and fears it would rob her family of the only livelihood they have known for 40 years if nothing is done. Nana Ntiako Agyiris oil palm plantation project will adversely affect food security in the communities, adding her people have no plans of vacating their ancestral land for the Indian investor, she pointed out. The chief of Dikoto junction, one of the affected communities, Nana Ayeh Gyampoh III, contended that several appeals to the traditional ruler to reconsider his decision fell on deaf ears, forcing them to petition the paramount chief of the Wassa Amenfi but their petition yielded no positive outcome. Assemblyman for the Dikoto junction Electoral Area, John Bawuah, confirmed the narrative of the aggrieved farmers, emphasising that almost all residents are against the chiefs plan. According to the cocoa farmers and their community leaders, the situation forced them to reach out to EcoCare Ghana, a civil society organisation that specializes in environmental and human rights advocacy issues to come to their aid which they hope would yield some results in the coming days. In an interview with this reporter Mr. Obed Owusu-Addai, the Managing Campaigner of EcoCare Ghana explained that his organisation took interest in the matter upon realising that the communities are cocoa growers. Our inability to prevent the chief and his investors from implementing this initiative may lead to conflict, increase poverty, rural urban migration, loss of biodiversity, environmental degradation and affect the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 1, 8, 13 and 15. Its a human rights issue and we want to advocate ensuring that their basic human right is not trampled upon. "We know that the chief is converting the land into a mono-cultural oil palm plantation which does not support biodiversity. "Additionally, the Economic Plant Protection Act of 1979 says that cocoa is an economic plant and you cannot just cut it without recourse to COCOBOD and the laws of the state. "He might have his right to the land as the overlord, but his right is also within the greater context of Ghana as a whole. "EcoCare Ghana is not against the developmental agenda of the chief but he should not trample upon the rights of the indigenes and the migrants on the land. "We also hope that it should not be something that will bring environmental challenges to the people staying in these cocoa growing communities, he pointed out. Leaders from the 13 affected communities with support from EcoCare Ghana have petitioned the Wassa Amenfi East Assembly, District Administration of Ghana Cocoa Board and the Forestry Commission on the matter. Municipal Chief Executive of the Assembly, Mr. Frederick Korankye, received the groups petition with a pledge to engage the parties for an amicable resolution. I admit the fact that Wassa Amenfi is known for cocoa farming. Its our major occupation in this municipality and I will do my best to see how we can resolve this issue, he added. Meanwhile, the Chief of Dikoto, Nana Ntiako Agyiri II has declined comment on the accusations against him. 28.02.2022 LISTEN The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), says it is dissatisfied with governments decision to review the benchmark discount value while consultations are still ongoing. After months of agitation and weeks of consultations with stakeholders in the trading community on the benchmark values reduction policy, the government has finally concluded on a 30 percent discount for all goods and 10 percent for vehicles. According to the government, this change, which will take effect from March 1, 2022, allows for a win-win situation for all parties involved. Initially, a discount of 50% was applied on the benchmark values of selected goods, while a 30 percent discount was applied on vehicles. But the AGI in a statement issued on Monday, February 25, 2022, said the decision by the government will not settle the concerns of local manufacturers, indicating that they are very dissatisfied. Our attention has been drawn to a reduction of the 50% benchmark discount value to30% for general goods and 10% for vehicles, while consultation was still in progress. This revision by the government does not offer solutions or address the concerns of local manufacturers. While we acknowledge efforts by the government to address this distortion, we are very dissatisfied with this review. The association further stated that the reduction does not automatically restore the local manufacturers to their previous state or increase competitiveness after suffering the impact of the decision for more than two years. After bearing the brunt of this policy for over two years, it has been our expectation that the revision will spare us further stress. AGI wishes to state that a review from 50% to 30% for general goods and 10% for vehicles does not restore local manufacturers to the status quo, let alone competitiveness. This will not achieve the desired impact, and we consider this not adequate to ensure the competitiveness of our manufacturers. Indeed, we are disappointed. The association says it wants to see a road map of what the governments decision to gradually reverse the benchmark will look like. Since the government has indicated a gradual reversal of the benchmark discount policy, we would like to see a road map with timelines for this process. Abena Osei Asare, a Deputy Finance Minister is confident that the new review of the value will help the government and the Ghana Revenue Authority meet the GH80.3 billion revenue target for the year 2022. She stated, What I can say is that it's going to help us achieve our GH80.3 billion revenue target set out in the 2022 budget. So we look forward to it. We'll give them all the support that they need to enable them to implement it, and to be guided by what we have done. At the end of it all, it is Ghana that will benefit. The policy has, since its inception, received varied views among players within the port and trading industry. When the government in 2019 announced the decision to reduce benchmark values for some general goods by 50% and 30% on cars, the idea was to increase volumes of traffic at the port and ultimately increase government revenue. While importers and exporters, freight forwarders as well as the Ghana Union of Traders' Association praised the government for how the decision reduced the cost of doing business, groups such as the Association of Ghanaian industries were concerned about the impact on the competitiveness of their products. Two years down the line, the government announced the reversal of the benchmark value reduction policy in the 2022 budget and set January 4 as the implementation date of the policy. That was met with stiff resistance from the trading community, with GUTA hinting of a 50% increment in the cost of goods and services if the policy is implemented. On January 4 however, business came to a standstill at the ports as freight forwarders who had made their declarations and accepted their duties could not proceed to make payments. This led to a temporary postponement of the date to January 6 and later to January 17 for stakeholder engagements. The Presidency subsequently suspended it and gave the GRA a January 17 deadline to consult on the matter. ---citinewsroom 28.02.2022 LISTEN I HAD the occasion to discuss the exploits of a pimp who once ensured that prostitution was the order of the day in this country. Im compelled to revisit the issue because the unrepentant pimp continues to make very ridiculous claims. To refresh your memory, a pimp is a man who controls prostitutes and arranges clients for them, taking a percentage of their earnings in return. This country once witnessed the exploits of one of the greatest pimps to ever set foot on its shores. He was proud of the nefarious acts of his damsels and did not hide his admiration for their whorish exploits. He also left no stone unturned in his determination to protect his wayward girls. All that mattered to him were the cowries the ladies brought. He epitomised the traits of those Dr. Jerry Boom once described as 'greedy bastards'. After working as assistant pimp for over two-years and subsequently as chief pimp for 4-years, his cup became full. He was arrested by the security authorities and incarcerated for 4-years. How we all jubilated over his incarceration! Less than two-years into his incarceration, the chief pimp publicly announced that he would rid the country of prostitution after serving his sentence. After serving his time, he was incarcerated for another four-year term. Ironically, he is still claiming to be the only one to rid the country of prostitution. We would have believed his cock and bull story if he had confessed his crimes and asked for forgiveness. But we cant believe him when he still maintains his damsels did no wrong in selling their bodies in return for cowries. So you see, his desire cannot be genuine since he still believes in the pimping business. Obviously, his proclamation is nothing but an attempt to hoodwink his compatriots into sympathizing with him. The Chief Pimp, President Ogwanfunu, was a president who institutionalized, created, looted and shared in this country. Not only did he look the other way when his appointees dabbled in corrupt practices, but was also caught in flagrante delicto (red-handed) engaging in corrupt acts. In case youve forgotten, he was the only sitting vice-president in this country to have had a committee set up by his own boss to investigate him for corruption. The committee, set up to investigate the shady Embraer jet deal, is what I refer to. Again, President Ogwanfunu is the only president in the whole world to have been implicated in numerous court-certified scams. After a long wait, he finally admitted, albeit subtly, that he was Government Official 1 as mentioned in the stinking Airbus scandal. The same man was also mentioned for his role in the messy Goldman Sachs deal. How corrupt can a man be! Was he also not the one who received a $100,000 Ford from Djibril Kanazoe, the Burkinabe contractor? Call it what you wish, but we all know the so-called gift was a thank you from the Burkinabe contractor for the Ghana Embassy contract in his homeland. It is, therefore, funny to hear such a man accusing others of engaging in sakawa a Ghanaian term for scams. Yes, 'sakawa' was his favourite term before the 2020 polls. It was indeed very rich coming from a man fully drenched in corruption. Im sure Abusuapanin remembers the six so-called mobile clinics procured by President Ogwanfunu at a unit cost of $80,000 but became white elephants because these werent fit for purpose. The trucks are currently overgrown with weeds in a junk yard somewhere around Korle-Gonno. Was President Ogwanfunu not the one who presided over the stealing of more than $12 million of our taxes on salvaged 207 buses, fitted with kitchen cabinets, as ambulances? Its refreshing to know that a certain Forson, and two others, had been dragged to the courts to answer for their respective roles in the unadulterated thievery. Sometimes I wonder if President Ogwanfunu has the word shame in his lexicon. If he had, he would be the last person in this country to accuse others of 'sakawa' or corruption. But I do understand him. He still deludes himself that his compatriots have short memories. So he erroneously thinks we have forgotten about the numerous create, loot and share schemes under his watch. Of course, some do have very short memories. But those of us with long memories will not shirk our responsibility of reminding our compatriots of the ills of the Ogwanfunu government, in order not to repeat the mistake it made in the 2008 polls. President Ogwanfunu epitomises the proverbial thief who, being chased by a mob, also starts shouting thief, thief to deflect attention from himself. But his scream will not do the trick because he has already soiled himself after eating bad food. Even those who have difficulties perceiving smell could tell that his stool has an unusually strong, fetid smell. See you next week for another interesting konkonsa, Deo volente! Mrs. Ruth Lindenberger has been given the clearance to contest for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) youth organiser position in Germany, the office has stated. After making her intention to contest for the position known, she was dragged before the partys leadership after a petition was filed to oppose her legitimacy. At a National Council meeting held on 27th February 2022 where the frivolous and mischievous petition against Mrs. Ruth Lindenberger was heard, the petitioners failed to discharge their burden of proof as no evidence was adduced to support any of their vexatious claims. As a result, the National Council has cleared the youth organiser aspirant to contest for the position. Accordingly, Mrs. Ruth Lindenberger was cleared to contest. It is instructive to note that, our candidate is in pole position to win the upcoming contest and that, the petition is a failed red herring intended to distract our campaign, part of a release issued by the Office of the Ruth Lindenberger Campaign has said. It concludes, All our supporters should remain focused and not pay attention to any baseless side issues. Read the full release below: PETITION AGAINST RUTH LINDENBERGER'S CANDIDATURE SUFFERS LEGAL SET BACK At a National Council meeting held on 27th February 2022 where the frivolous and mischievous petition against our candidate, Mrs Ruth Lindenberger was heard, the petitioners failed to discharge their burden of proof as no evidence was adduced to support any of their vexatious claims. Again, the petitioners' poor appreciation of the rules and regulations of the branch as well as the party's constitution, was badly exposed by our legal representative. Further, the poverty of thought and incoherence of the petitioners' arguments were brutally exposed. Most importantly, our legal representative succeeded in striping the faces of those behind the petition beyond reasonable doubt. The Ag. Chairman in agreeing with our legal position, reiterated the point that none of the points raised by the petitioners is founded on law. Indeed, the Ag. Chairman mentioned that, Mrs. Ruth Lindenberger is qualified per the rules and regulations of the branch. Consequently, the Ag. Chairman implored the petitioners to withdraw their panic petition. The Ag. Chairman said failure for the petitioners to withdraw their mischief-laden petition will trigger our counter-suit action against the real face behind the petition. Accordingly, Mrs. Ruth Lindenberger was cleared to contest. It is instructive to note that, our candidate is in pole position to win the upcoming contest and that, the petition is a failed red herring intended to distract our campaign. All our supporters should remain focused and not pay attention to any baseless side issues. Thank you. Office of the Ruth Lindenberger Campaign Sulemana Issifu (MSc) PhD Researcher (Molecular Ecology Group) Hans Ruthenberg Institute (490e) University of Hohenheim Garbenstrasse 13 70599 Stuttgart Germany 28.02.2022 LISTEN Workers of Textile Ghana Limited, producers of GTP in Tema, have suspended their strike which began last Thursday, February 24, 2022. The workers laid down their tools over alleged unfair treatment by their Managing Director, Fatoumata Doro. The workers, who are calling for the dismissal of their MD, claimed that she has disregarded their collective bargaining agreement that spelled out their conditions of service. In an interview with Citi News, an employee, John Ackon, said their leadership would meet with the National Labour Commission, NLC, on Wednesday. This morning our leadership briefed us after a meeting with the National Labour Commission. They have asked that we hold on as they meet with the Labour Commission. Since we want to protect our company, we will resume work while they handle the issue. We have also agreed that the MD we are protesting against stays outside until we are done with all the issues. The gates are still locked. We are protecting the environment to ensure that she [the MD)] doesnt enter the room. We know her and how vindictive she can be. The workers of the Textile Ghana Limited led by the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union on Thursday, February 24, 2022, demonstrated and presented a petition to the stakeholders of the company to get the Managing Director, Fatoumata Doro dismissed, claiming that she is incurring cost on the company and not respecting their conditions of service. ---Citi Newsroom The latest UN climate report, released on Monday, warns that the world faces a terrible "atlas of human suffering", the direct result of a decades-old "criminal" policy of ignoring the devastating impact of man's activities on the global ecosystem. Nearly half the planet's population is now exposed to a devastating array of climate impacts, according to the latest 3,600-page report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). UN chief Antonio Guterres blasted world powers for what he called their "criminal" abdication of leadership. Guterres said the most compelling scientific overview from the UN's climate experts was a "damning indictment" of the failure of the international community to act. "Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone -- now. Many ecosystems are at the point of no return -- now," he said, adding that the facts of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions were "undeniable". According to the report from the UN climate watchdog, time has very nearly run out to ensure a "liveable future" for all. Cascade of catastrophe Species extinction, ecosystem collapse, insect-borne disease, deadly heatwaves, megastorms, water shortages, reduced crop yields -- all are measurably worse due to rising temperatures, the report says. In the last 12 months alone, the world has seen a cascade of unprecedented floods, heatwaves and wildfires across four continents. All these impacts will accelerate in the coming decades, even if the fossil fuel pollution driving climate change is rapidly brought under control, the 195-nation IPCC warned. As nations struggle to force the curve of carbon dioxide emissions downward, they must also prepare for a climate onslaught that in some cases can no longer be avoided, the report warns. 'Turn rage into action' The UN chief said coal and other fossil fuels are "choking humanity" and called for G20 economies to follow up on their commitments to stop funding coal abroad by ending its use at home. Oil and gas giants and their financial backers were also "on notice", he said. "Now is the time to turn rage into action," he added. "Every fraction of a degree matters. Every voice can make a difference. And every second counts." The report examines the irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes in the climate system known as tipping points, which are triggered at different thresholds of global warming. These include the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic, freeing enough frozen water to lift global sea level by 13 metres, the rapid replacement of the tropical forest in the Amazon basin with savannah grassland and the disruption of global ocean currents which distribute heat across the globe. "The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and planetary health," the report concludes. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has petitioned the Commonwealth of Nations over what it says is the persecution of its members by the Akufo-Addo-led government. According to the NDC, this action on the part of the government has resulted in Ghana being categorised among nations with bad governance in the sub-region. Speaking at a press conference held in Accra, the General Secretary of the biggest opposition party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said Ghana became a member of the Commonwealth in 1957 under the leadership of the late Kwame Nkrumah to sustain a common right for every Ghanaian. According to Mr Nketia, the NDC, led by the late Jerry John Rawlings, played a pivotal role in this organisation and supported Ghanas democracy to gain respect in the Commonwealth. He said Ghana has a hung parliament but President Nana Akufo-Addo hates to be criticised. He also expressed worry about the poor security measures put in place during the 2020 elections, which resulted in some people being disenfranchised while others lost their lives. He bemoaned the situation whereby social media personalities are being persecuted by the government for speaking the truth to power. This, he explained, does not sit well with the good governance criteria of the Commonwealth. Mr Nketia said there have been some instances where a member of the NDC, Dr Stephen Opuni, the former COCOBOD CEO, has been treated unfairly by some judges who sat on his case of causing financial loss to the state. He said that all these actions were perpetrated to facilitate fraud against Dr Opuni in order to create the impression that he is guilty before being judged. He continued that the case of the partys Chairman, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, and other members, are also classical examples of persecutions on the part of the government. ---Classfmonline.com 28.02.2022 LISTEN Member of Parliament for Juaboso, Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has called on Ghanaians to fast and pray so that the Majority in Parliament will not have the numbers to approve the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) bill. According to him, the only way the bill will be approved is for the NPP to marshal all its 137 MPs, plus the independent MP for Fomena, to the chamber since the minority will never lend its support to the bill. The E-Levy seeks to impose a 1.75% levy on some electronic transactions: mobile money transfers done between accounts on the same Electronic Money Issuers (EMI), Mobile money transfers from accounts on one EMI to a recipient on another EMI, Transfers from bank accounts to mobile money accounts (either directly, GIP debit, bank cards or another scheme), Transfers from mobile money accounts to bank accounts (either directly, GIP debit, bank cards or another scheme) and Bank transfers originating from a bank account belonging to an individual. But the introduction of the bill has met stiff opposition from the opposition, who argue it will further compound the hardships of the ordinary Ghanaian. The government has, however, assured the citizens that a revised bill will be re-laid in parliament after its town hall meetings through which the Finance Ministry is explaining to the general populace the rationale behind the introduction of the levy. The laying of the revised bill before parliament has suffered some postponements as the governing NPP is unable to marshal all its numbers, with DomeKwabenya MP Sarah Adwoa Safo still being overseas and demanding she be made the Deputy Majority Leader before she shows up in parliament. Speaking at an engagement to solicit the views of his constituents on whether or not to approve the bill, Mr Akandoh said: You say you dont want the e-levy and that when the issue is raised before the house, I should vote against it. You say that even if all the 275 MPs support the levy, I, as your MP, should vote against it. Then you have to pray and fast against the NPP having all their numbers in the chamber, he urged, adding: Its the only way to kick against it because even if we [NDC] oppose it, the NPP will approve it with their numbers, if theyre all present, he said. ---Classfmonline.com As Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin ordered the arrest and imprisonment of dissenters in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This denial of free speech to those who oppose Putins unlawful war should surprise no one. Todays Russia brooks no dissent. In America, on the other hand, the First Amendment guarantees the right to dissent, even when we are at war. Both my former colleague Laurence Tribe and I strongly opposed our military actions in Vietnam and Iraq. But Tribe now apparently believes that opposing President Bidens stance on Ukraine constitutes treason at least when it is done by Tucker Carlson and Fox News. Advertisement In this March 2, 20217, file photo, Tucker Carlson, host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio in New York. (Richard Drew/AP) In a recent (now deleted) tweet, this is what Tribe who fancies himself as the nations leading expert on the text of the Constitution said: Led by Fox News channels Tucker Carlson, the GOP Trump wing appears to be throwing its weight behind Putin. If Putin opts to wage war on our ally Ukraine, such aid and comfort to an enemy would appear to become treason as defined by Article III of the United States Constitution. I, too, disagree with Carlsons views on Ukraine, but I believe the First Amendment gives him the right to be wrong. For Tribe and many of his woke progressive allies, the Constitution means one thing for people on the left, and quite another thing for people on the right. Freedom of speech is For me, but not for thee. Treason, on the other hand, is For thee, but not for me. When Tribe opposed Vietnam and Iraq wars, that was patriotism, but when Carlson opposes American policy in Ukraine, that is treason. Advertisement Nor was this self-proclaimed expert in constitutional law speaking metaphorically, or being hyperbolic, as he often is. After receiving much-deserved criticism for his claim that Carlson might be guilty of treason as defined by Article III, Tribe tweeted a criticism of those who mistakenly thought I meant to be using the word treason literally? But any reasonable person reading his words including his citation of Article II of the Constitution as the source of his accusation would understandably assume that he meant it quite literally. As further proof of Tribes misuse of his constitutional expertise, look at what he said during the dispute over the counting of electoral votes following the election of 2020: Any halfway decent member of the House or Senate who was planning to object to the Electoral Vote count must now desist. Theyve had not just their day in court but months in court. Enough already. This has crossed the line past sedition. Its domestic terrorism and treason. In this Nov. 28, 2000, file photo Attorney Laurence Tribe addresses the press outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (KAMENKO PAJIC/ASSOCIATED PRESS) The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > Tribes willingness to invoke the T word so promiscuously illustrates the manner by which he claims to interpret the Constitution. His interpretations consistently come out in favor of his partisan political views. He doesnt interpret the Constitution; he manipulates its words to support his political views. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Tribe interpreted the impeachment provisions of the Constitution narrowly and correctly in my view so as to support Clinton. But even before President Trump took office, Tribe demanded his impeachment, offering the broadest possible view of what constitutes an impeachable offense, including tweets. When Clinton was president, Tribe interpreted the Constitution to preclude the criminal prosecution of a sitting president, but when Trump became president, he suddenly changed his interpretation so as to permit the prosecution of a sitting president. Thats Tribe. He has always been a partisan. But he has gotten far more transparent in recent years in his overt hypocrisy and double standards. Tribe not only fails the shoe on the other foot test a test that requires the same rule without regard to who it supports or undercuts he doesnt even bother these days to claim consistency. He assumes, quite correctly, that partisans will forgive him his inconsistency as long as he comes out their way. Tribe has become a symbol of what is wrong with academia and public intellectuals in our deeply divided country. So when he offers his interpretations of the Constitution, caveat emptor. Let the reader be aware that they are getting partisan propaganda, not objective interpretation. Advertisement Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, emeritus, is host of the DerShow on Rumble and is the author most recently of The Case for Color Blind Equality in the Age of Identity Politics and The Case for Vaccine Mandates. ECOWAS National Security Advisors have been charged to embark on concerted actions to reverse the gloomy security challenges in the sub-region. Dominic Nitiwul, Ghanas Defence Minister who made the call said it is common knowledge that the security situation in the sub-region has deteriorated within the past years, with terrorist activities causing havoc. Many lives have been lost while millions of people are internally displaced, schools are closed, markets and health facilities have become inaccessible to many people particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, he disclosed. He said even more worrisome is the spate of coups in three countries in the region and a failed one in another. Dominic Nitiwul made the call while addressing the ECOWAS forum of National Security Advisors conference held in Accra over the weekend. The conference, which is the first to be held, was attended by National Security Advisors from eleven countries including Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Cote dIvoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Gambia and Ghana. Speaking on the theme: Enhancing rapid and appropriate regional responses to emerging security threats in West Africa: Bridging the gaps between early warning and early response, Mr. Nitiwul said as a newly created ECOWAS advisory body, it bestows on members to develop appropriate strategies which will support existing mechanisms to improve on the security of the sub-region. Ghanas National Security Advisor, Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere (rtd) in an address expressed their gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for taking up the matter and ensuring that Security Advisors come together under one platform to discuss security threats in the sub-region and how to curb it. Also present were Ghana s Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Chairman of ECOWAS Commission, General Francis Boniface Behanzin Awagbe, Dr. Lika Kuol of African Centre for Strategic Studies, representatives of the Interior Ministry, the Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, the Chief of Army Staff, other senior military officers and the United States Embassy in Ghana. ---DGN Online The families of the three war veterans who were killed in the 1948 Christianborg Crossroads shooting incident say they have not received any compensation from the State 74 years after the landmark incident. Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey were killed during a protest on February 28, 1948, to demand payment of war benefits, which they had been promised by the then colonial government. Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Monday, February 28, 2022, led a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 74th anniversary of the incident at the Freedom Monument, near the Black Star Square at Osu, in Accra, in memory of the three Ghanaian World War II veterans. In separate interviews with the Ghana News Agency, the families of the three veterans said the annual commemoration of the incident was not enough. They proposed the construction of houses for the families, named after the three veterans, with other packages, as compensation to the families for the loss. Mr David Hammond, Head of Private Odartey Family, said the sacrifice of the three veterans triggered Ghana's independence victory and that their families deserved to be compensated in appreciation of their sacrifices to the State. Every year, they call us to come and sit in the sun and after that nothing happens. It was through these veterans that we had our independence, but after 74 years, nothing has been done for the family, he said. He added: We don't want anything big from the State. We want an estate house, which would be named after them. Mr Prosper Attipoe, a Member of the Attipoe family, said decades after the tragic killing of their family member, the family remained heartbroken. We have lost a great leader in the family, thinking that the reason they went to protest, and were killed, their families can be presented something. But up to now we have not been given anything and we don't know why it is delaying, he said. Madam Mary Adjei Okankai, granddaughter of Sergeant Adjetey, said her grandfather was the breadwinner of the family and that his death severely affected the welfare and livelihood of the family. He was the first son of the family so his death really worried the family. If he were alive, my parents and other members of the family would have had the opportunity to go to school and our lives would have been better by now, she said. She appealed to the Government to listen to the pleas of the family and offer them a befitting compensation. The three celebrated World War II veterans and their allied forces in the then Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force were shot and killed whiles demanding their gratuity after they had returned from the Second World War. The protest followed several appeals to the colonial government, which yielded no fruitful results. The veterans then decided to march to the seat of the Christiansborg Castle, Accra, Gold Coast (Ghana), to hand in a petition to the colonial governor, demanding their end of war benefits promised them. But the peaceful protest turned deadly when they were intercepted at the crossroads the exact location of the present Freedom Monument by a contingent of armed police officers who shot and killed them. A British police superintendent, Imray, shot and killed the three veterans. Imray was said to have killed the veterans after a subordinate he had ordered to do so had failed to execute the order. GNA President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called for a stable labour front to create the conducive environment for Government to implement its policies and programmes to build a robust economy for sustainable development. He said a stable labour front would ensure a good business climate and attract increased investment, both domestic and foreign, to create jobs and improve the standards of living for the people. The President made the call when he opened a two-day National Labour Conference at Kwawu-Nkwatia in the Eastern Region on Monday. The meeting, organised by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and its Tripartite Constituents, is on the theme, "Strengthening Tripartism for Peaceful Labour Relations and Resilient Economy." It will reinforce a tripartite conversation on the dynamics and happenings on the labour front, and engender discussions on the state of the economy, conditions of service of public sector workers, public sector salaries, labour productivity, labour dispute prevention and resolution, and sustainable pensions for all. The conference will inform and shape Government's approach to the resolution of labour issues for national development. It will provide a unique opportunity for the various actors to exchange views and ideas on the thematic areas and emerging issues in a changing world of work to promote a positive and proactive approach to resolving labour issues for national development. President Akufo-Addo emphasised that building peaceful labour relations and a resilient economy were collective responsibilities that demanded a participatory approach by stakeholders to forge consensus on national issues. He said the Government had no intention of abandoning tripartism and social dialogue in the implementation of its policies and programmes because its interventions were intended to improve the wellbeing of the people. It is only fair and appropriate that we accommodate divergent views in the policy making process, he said. The President noted also that the strengthening of tripartism for building peaceful relations and a resilient economy would be mere rhetoric if everyone is not carried along. He said the social and economic devastation occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, required active involvement and participation of all, including the larger informal economy for the transformation of the fiscal space of the country. President Akufo-Addo told the conference that there was need to find intelligent ways to bring everyone on board to hasten the country's recovery from the pandemic. Thus, the situation where only a small proportion of the population carried the tax burden ought to change to enable rapid transformation of the economy, he said. An economy in which only a small proportion of the population bears the brunt of direct taxation is unlikely to witness any rapid transformation we have to make concerted efforts as partners to hasten our recovery from COVID-19 by finding intelligent ways of bringing everyone on board to contribute their quota, no matter how small. We cannot continue to allow less than ten percent of the population, about 2.4 million people, carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people we must provide an opportunity for every Ghanaian to contribute towards nation-building, he said. President Akufo-Addo noted that Ghana's tax to GDP ratio of 4.2 percent compared unfavourably with peers the world over, and stressed on the need to urgently enhance significantly domestic revenue mobilisation to realise our development potential and create opportunities for our vibrant and dynamic youth and deliver improved livelihoods for our people. With the average tax to GDP ratio in West Africa standing at 18 percent, he said the proposed Electronic levy (E-Levy) was a fiscal measure that would help improve Ghana's tax to GDP ratio on an equitable basis. I believe strongly that it is in the public interest that it should be enacted into law. We cannot continue to live forever on foreign savingsIt is time we accepted the full implications of our goal of a Ghana Beyond Aid and design our fiscal profile accordingly. A technical presentation will be made by the Minister for Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta on The State of the Economy, for discussions to proceed on the concerns of workers and employers in the public sector in relation to economic realities. Participants will, subsequently, agree on ways to collaborate on measures to address the concerns. The conference will provide a unique opportunity for the various actors to exchange views and ideas on the thematic areas and emerging issues in a changing world of work to promote a positive and proactive approach to resolving labour issues for national development. The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, and other social partners, will also address the conference at the Rock City Hotel. Participants include representatives of Government, Organised Labour, Employers, media organisations and other stakeholders. Daasebre Akuamoah Agyapong II, Kwahuhene and President of the Kwahu Traditional Council is chairing the conference. It will be officially closed by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on Tuesday. GNA Below is a press release on a significant statement by President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria on the restitution of looted Nigerian treasures. The declaration clarifies critical issues that have led to doubts or controversies between groups in Nigeria and abroad. Sometimes, these issues have been utilized as excuses by unwilling holders of looted objects to create distrust and disputes. Readers may recall discussions on whether returned Benin artwork must go to the Oba of Benin or to the Edo State Government or to the Federal Government. The President has clarified the roles of the Federal Government, represented by the Nigerian Commission on Museums and Monuments (NCMM), and of the traditional authorities. The NCMM, representing the Federal Government, negotiates the release of the artworks from foreign museums and institutions on behalf of Nigeria and the traditional institutions that lost the antiquities. Both the NCMM and the traditional authorities will jointly ensure the valorization of Nigerian arts and the Nigerian peoples. The NCMM and the traditional authorities co-operate to safeguard and preserve Nigerian culture. The restituted treasures will be returned to the places where they were taken. The traditional leaders are considered the true guardians of our history, customs, and traditions. This directive finally settles the question of who the owners of the retrieved treasures are. Henceforth, be there should be no room for asking where the restituted objects are to be returned or who the owners are. Others have tried to argue or defend delays in restitution on this basis. Moreover, no one can still argue that there has been no demand, formal or informal, from Nigeria for looted artworks, as Bristol Museum recently argued. The President emphasized the determination of Nigeria to recover her stolen treasures and urged all holders to emulate the gestures of the University of Aberdeen in returning a commemorative head of an Oba, and Jesus College, Cambridge, in restoring the Okwukor to Benin. Germanys decision to return 1,130 Benin objects was also commended as a worthy example to follow. Thus no one can argue, as some Western museums have done in the past, that no one has asked them to return looted Nigerian artworks. This discredited pre-Ouagadougou argument should be finally abandoned. The British Museum has still not answered the official letter the Director-General of the MCMM, Professor Abba Issa Tijani, handed over to the Director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, last October. Meanwhile, the museums homepage continues to use misleading, misrepresenting, and distorting language, omissions, and half-truths about the Nigerian request for the restitution of the Benin artworks. https://www.britishmuseum.org/...contested-objects-collection/benin-bronzes Nigeria will recover her looted treasures whether museums and other institutions, major or minor, accept it or not. The direction of history towards restitution can be recognized by all. Bronze for Benin, Gold for Ghana, Silver and Gold for Ethiopia. Kwame Opoku. STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE PRESIDENT BUHARI DEMANDS RETURN OF MORE NIGERIAS ARTEFACTS FROM ABROAD In the aftermath of the return of two important Nigerian artefacts from Britain, President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to nations, institutions, and bodies, both private and public, to return Nigerias artefacts in their possession. The President welcomed the official handover, on Saturday, of the Okwukor and the Head of an Oba of Benin bronzes, to the Oba of Benin, His Royal Highness, Oba Ewuare II. They were repatriated from the University of Cambridge and University of Aberdeen, respectively, in the United Kingdom, after 125 years of their leaving the territory of present-day Nigeria. Urging other countries to take a cue from the institutions, the President vowed that the Federal Government will pursue the repatriation of Nigerian artefacts vigorously. He pledged that government would ensure that they are put to good and proper use on their return in museums and other facilities in conjunction with the royal families and kingdoms that lost these artefacts. The President noted that in line with international law and practice, export, import and control over antiquities are matters within the purview of national governments to be exercised on behalf of sub-national authorities, institutions and bodies. He thanked the Government of the United Kingdom that facilitated the return of these artefacts by issuing the prerequisite Export Permits to Nigeria at no cost, as well as the University of Cambridge and the University of Aberdeen who agreed to return these artefacts to Nigeria. ''These are unprecedented moves worth emulating by others,'' he said, adding that the Federal Government hopes to work hand in hand in the future to encourage the return of more Nigerian artefacts from the United Kingdom. ''I also want to appreciate the Federal Republic of Germany which is planning the process of repatriating 1,130 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria from many of Germanys public museums. These returns are scheduled for this year.'' The President also commended the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom, Sarafa Ishola, and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) for their collaborative works that led to the repatriation of these artefacts. The President said it is noteworthy that several others are currently in the process of being returned while discussions are ongoing to repatriate many more. President Buhari recounted that the artefacts now returned to the Oba of Benin were taken away by British soldiers in 1897 when they attacked the ancient Benin Kingdom and took thousands of artefacts away. ''These artefacts are part of the records of the history of the Benin people. ''My directive to return these artefacts to the Oba of Benin marks the beginning of another aspect in the highly valued relationship between the Federal Government of Nigeria and our traditional institutions who are indeed the true custodians of our history, customs and traditions. ''This directive is also significant because it will introduce a working relationship between the Federal Government as represented by the NCMM and the traditional institutions whereby this Commission negotiates the release of antiquities from foreign museums and institutions on behalf of Nigeria and the traditional institutions that lost the antiquities and jointly they all take steps to ensure the valourisation of Nigerian and Nigerian people through these great arts and cultural emblems,'' the President explained. Garba Shehu Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) February 21, 2022 Head of Oba, Benin, Nigeria, now in Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom, still in continued illegal and illegitimate detention of 125 years. Okwukor, Benin, Nigeria, returned to Oba of Benin by Jesus College, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Commemorative Head of Oba, Benin, Nigeria, returned to Oba of Benin by University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. Ori Olokun, an Ife head, Ife, Nigeria, now in British Museum, London, United Kingdom. Court Dwarfs, Benin, Nigeria, now in World Museum, Vienna, Austria. Will they return to the Obas court, or will they remain in continued illegal and illegitimate detention in Vienna? Queen-mother Idia, Benin, Nigeria, now in British Museum, London, United Kingdom. Will the great Benin heroine return home to her people in Benin or remain in continued 125 years of illegal and illegitimate detention in the colonialist and imperialist capital? 28.02.2022 LISTEN The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has dragged President Akufo-Addo to the Commonwealth Secretariat accusing the ruling government of human rights violations, criminal persecution and harassment of its members. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) wishes to bring to the attention of the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations various acts of human rights violations, criminal persecutions and harassment of its members and supporters by the Government of Ghana headed by His Excellency, President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and calls upon the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations to advise and encourage the Government of Ghana to desist from these acts that threaten Ghana's peace and security, part of the petition reads. In a petition obtained by Modernghana News, it cites the cases of the Ayawaso West Wuogon bye-elections where NDCs candidate was attacked plus the arrest of National chairman Ofosu Ampofo, and the legal suit against Casiel Ato Forson as examples. The NDC after running to the Commonwealth Secretariat insists that the actions of President Akufo-Addo's government create conditions that threaten Ghana's political stability and further erode the country's democratic values. The NDC among other things wants the Commonwealth of Nations to use its office to closely follow the political and human rights situation in Ghana since the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy, and fundamental freedoms is a core value of the Commonwealth. The main opposition party also wants the Common Secretariat to engage with a broad range of actors, including government officials, political parties, representatives of civil society, to respect, promote protect human rights in Ghana and call upon the government of Ghana to put a stop to these persecution, harassments, threats, and killings of supporters and members of the NDC. Find more in the attachment below: 28.02.2022 LISTEN Two weeks ago, only political leaders knew the president of Ukraine by his full name and former occupation. Today, Volodymyr Zelensky has millions around the globe deep in worry about him and his nation. Talk about the power of social media. Since the inception of the social media era, Russias attack on Ukraine has been the first major military face off. While Ukraine has tactically used the media to her advantage, Putin seems to fail woefully at this simple task. Perhaps, the fact that he has been in power long before the iphone era could be the reason for his stoic approach to problem solving techniques. Zelenskys and Putins intentions are very different. It is clear from their choice of words. 'There will be no winners. And you will be pulled into this conflict against your willwhoever will try and stop us should know that Russias response will be immediate and you will face consequences that you have never faced in your history'. Here, Putin, the warlord, in all his wisdom and confederation of intelligence experts, thinks it wise to threaten the world irrespective of the sanctions he knew it would bring. What should interest you is that this was not Russias first self sabotage social media plan. As a matter of fact, when this war loomed, Putins plan was to publicise videos of Russias dreadful military equipment ambushing Ukraines borders, all shot and released by the Russian defence ministry. How brilliant. Seeing that is not working in his favour, Putin has devised an even more brilliant plan to confuse his enemies, by spinning media coverage to leave people confused about who is right or wrong in the war. In a new war segment called helmet cam, Ukrainian soldiers are seen invading Russia with cameras attached to their helmets, a very important battle component. To be honest, Putins social media moves begs the question of which president was indeed a comedian. However, with Zelensky, we see a more genuine and different approach to solving Ukraines problems. ...if they try to take our country away from us, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. Not attack, but defend ourselves. And when you will be attacking us, you will see our faces, not our backs, but our faces, the distraught President said in his speech to Russians. Zelenskys series of moving speeches are just but a fraction of moves he has made to appeal for freedom from Russia. Recently, the countrys Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, penned an urgent letter to Apple with a request to disconnect Russians from the App store and other Apple services. Now, the Ukrainian President has publicly asked for the EU to fasttrack the countrys membership. Ukraine is fighting not only for themselves, but for EU security and other benefits too, through social media. And we see that they seem to be winning the war, at least on social media. For example, the UN has called for up to $2B in aid for Ukraine. While bodies such as NATO, EU, UN and other concerned countries have shown support for Ukrainians by donating cash, fighter jets, anti-tank weapons and other military weapons, public accounts have been set up for individuals to also support. But why is the world solely focusing on the Russia-Ukraine crisis? Countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq have been world war zones for years but have not received as much coverage as Ukraine is currently receiving. As a matter of fact, in the heat of the Putin vs Zelensky war, the US has snuck up on Somalia with an airstrike for the first time since August. Also, in Myanmar, villagers were forced to flee from their villages after being attacked by fighter jets. Does this mean the rest of these attacks on the world are insignificant compared to Ukraine? The truth is simple; Zelensky has mastered the art of social media. He has seen that everyday, people increase their voracious appetite for the media. What is consumed and how it is consumed shapes the human mind and perception and Zelensky has understood that. Video clips from him in Kyiv are swaying the world. As such, should social media be the new route for hastening solutions to countries crises? One thing is for certain, social media cannot stop the physical destruction of Russias bombs. But if Ukraine succeeds in clinching the peace it asks for, Zelensky will be seen as the man who used social media to buy the support he needs in defeating Putin. Claire Mom is a Nigerian journalist. Email: [email protected] Twitter: speakclairely_ The Rohingya and Afghan refugee issues are also currently important international issues. More than 1.1 million Rohingyas have taken refuge in Bangladesh since August 2017 due to genocide and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. About 50,000 newborn Rohingya children are added to it every year. Earlier, the Rohingya had been subjected to systematic discrimination, deprivation of the right to vote, and regular targeting of violence in Myanmar for decades. In the last four and a half years, despite various initiatives, no real progress has been made in resolving the Rohingya crisis. Under pressure from the international community, the Myanmar government signed an agreement on Rohingya repatriation, but to no avail. According to the agreement, the Rohingyas were to be repatriated in stages. The repatriation process has not started for a long time. The Myanmar government has failed to repatriate the displaced Rohingya and resolve the crisis. Bangladesh has repeatedly urged various international forums to take effective steps to resolve the Rohingya crisis. The proposal is based on the human rights situation of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in the context of the state of emergency in Myanmar. Top politicians were arrested after a military coup overthrew a democratic government in the country on February 1 and declared a state of emergency. Political unrest, protests and clashes are going on in the country. Thousands of people have lost their lives in the repression of the army. Whatever the context, the unanimous resolution adopted by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly is very important for Bangladesh. 108 countries have supported it. The proposal calls for finding out the root cause of the Rohingya problem. The resolution, with a number of guidelines for the introduction of democratic governance, called on all human rights organizations, including the UN Secretary-Generals Special Envoy to Myanmar, to cooperate. A resolution presented by the OIC and the EU on the protection of the Rohingya was unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 2021. Observers say the UN recognition is a reflection of the international communitys strong commitment to resolving the crisis. In addition to the EU and OIC, the resolution is supported and co-sponsored by a large number of countries in various geographical regions, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea. The world community has been expressing solidarity with Bangladesh for the shelter of Rohingyas for humanitarian reasons and urging for repatriation of Rohingyas. Myanmar authorities have agreed to repatriate Rohingya in the face of international pressure. They did not take back the Rohingyas even after two rounds of time. In this situation, as part of regular diplomacy, Bangladesh has raised the issue of the Rohingya crisis in various forums of the world, but everyone is listening quietly, no response or action is seen. Citizens of neighboring Myanmar have been given asylum in Bangladesh for humanitarian reasons. The extra responsibility of this huge number of people is definitely a big burden for Bangladesh. The frustration of the Rohingya is intensifying due to the lack of progress on repatriation, which is creating various security concerns and instability in the region. The International Criminal Court (ICJ) continued hearing the case of genocide against the Rohingya people in Myanmar from February 21 to February 28. According to Human Rights Watch and the Global Justice Center, the hearing is a crucial step in bringing justice to Myanmar's military's crackdown on the Rohingya people. The Gambia filed a lawsuit against Myanmar in the ICJ in November 2019 for failing to stop the genocide against the Rohingya or punish the perpetrators. The case, filed by Gambia, alleges that the Rohingya in Myanmar violated various anti-genocide memoranda and agreements by torturing the Rohingya. This case is not a criminal case against any individual, but an entire nation has been blamed for the genocide. Earlier, at the request of Gambia, the ICJ issued an interim order on January 23, 2020 to The Hague in the Netherlands to take emergency measures to protect the Rohingya in Myanmar. Originally, the order was issued for the safety of the remaining 6 lakh Rohingyas in the country. Specifically, the ICJ asked the Myanmar government to take four temporary measures. These include preventing genocide, ensuring that military and police forces do not commit genocide, preserving evidence of genocide, and reporting on compliance with these orders within 4 months. This report should be reviewed every 6 months. The ICJ issued the order on the basis of hearing the case. However, Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar's military junta of committing genocide, torture, violence, harassing arrests and other human rights abuses since the military coup in 2021. They allege that security forces killed about 1,500 people, including 100 children, and detained more than 11,000 people for harassment. Detainees include human rights activists, politicians, journalists and others. Those who tried to flee the Rakhine state were severely punished. In 2019, the Myanmar government appointed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi to represent the country in the ICJ delegation. But during the 2021 coup, she was detained by the military. She was later sentenced to 150 years in prison in various cases. A panel consisting of six senior members of the military junta was then formed to represent the court. Representatives from Myanmar and the Gambia argued whether the ICJ has the authority to investigate and prosecute genocide allegations against Myanmar at the hearing. The hearing was hold in a hybrid format in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. Earlier, Myanmar security forces cracked down on Rohingyas on several occasions. Bangladesh is still a shelter. Teknaf in Cox's Bazar became the largest shelter in the world. Bangladesh has held several talks with the Myanmar government on Rohingya repatriation. Although an agreement was reached between the two countries in December 2016, the result was zero. In this situation, after the army coup in February last year, it also fell into disrepair. Read more: Rohingya genocide case unfounded: Myanmar junta Despite repeated repression of the Rohingya, Western countries, including the United States, have been limited to condemnation. The United Nations has not taken any action, citing reports of genocide after an investigation by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission in Rakhine. That is why millions of Rohingya are now waiting for the verdict of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. We hope that this crisis will be resolved soon. A political solution to the Rohingya issue is essential for lasting peace, stability, and security in the region. The regional crisis is also growing. The locals are suffering from various problems due to Rohingyas. The only way to resolve the crisis is to send the Rohingya back to Myanmar as soon as possible. Amidst these, last Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the attack on Ukraine. In response, the United States and its Western allies have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia. Eventually a full-fledged war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow on Thursday launched an attack on neighboring Ukraine, which is seen as a new crisis in the world, which has been devastated by the quake. Observers say it is the largest attack in any European country since World War II. This is the most important burning international issue now. Definitely this is a burning international issue. But there are also some other important international issues also. World shouldnt should forget those international crises. The Nigerian government has called on Ukrainian border officials and those in neighbouring countries on Monday to treat its citizens equally after reports that Africans were being discriminated against while trying to flee from the Russian invasion. Nigerians, Ghanaians, Somalis and other Africans studying in Ukraine have been trying to escape across the borders along with hundreds and thousands of people since Russia launched an offensive last week. "There have been unfortunate reports of Ukrainian police and security personnel refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains heading towards the Ukraine-Poland border," said presidential advisor Garba Shehu in a statement. "In one video widely circulating on social media, a Nigerian mother with her young baby was filmed being physically forced to give up her seat to another person, he said. Calling the reports that Africans were being discriminated against "disappointing", Crisis Group Senior Analyst Arrey E. Ntui went on social media to denounce the violations of human rights of Africans on the ground in Ukraine. "Africa's three members in UNSC (UN Security Council) must bear this in mind and defend all human rights," he added. Shehu added that there are separate reports of Polish officials refusing Nigerian citizens entry into Poland from Ukraine, and while he recognized the constraints of the such a situation, he also asked for equal treatment. "For that reason, it is paramount that everyone is treated with dignity and without favour," added Shehu. Poland's ambassador to Nigeria Joanna Tarnawska maintained that this was not the case. "Everybody receives equal treatment. I can assure you that I have reports that already some Nigerian nationals have crossed the border into Poland," she told local media. Tarnawska said Nigerians, like other non-European citizens, had 15 days to leave the country or find other arrangements, adding that even expired documents were being accepted to cross the border and Covid-19 restrictions had been lifted. One African student who identified herself as Guinean-Sierra Leonean said on social media she had finally made it across the border on Monday, but in previous tweets, she said she didn't even have her tablet, an extra pair of jeans, or any of her schoolbooks. On Friday, the Somali government issued a statement to all Somali nationals in Ukraine to urgently contact the Berlin and Brussels embassies for evacuation assistance. Ghana also issued a statement on Friday, saying that their nationals have been identified and contacted. The airspace has been shut, but they called on all Ghanaians to evacuate by land through Moldova, Belarus, Slovakia, or Hungary, saying in a statement that talks with various countries to deal with their nationals is "far advanced." "The government has put in place the necessary package to facilitate the transportation, accommodation, feeding, medical support, etc., to ease the burden on our compatriots," according to a statement published by Ghana's foreign ministry on Friday. Senegal's ambassador to Ukraine and Poland Papa Diop said that special arrangements had been made to help the 70 nationals residing in Ukraine to cross over into Poland. He said that long queues had formed and that conditions were difficult. The European Union stepped in on Sunday moved to coordinate hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian attack. Agence France Presse newswire estimates that some 400,000 Ukrainians have entered the EU since the beginning of the Russian offensive on Thursday, with the Polish government saying that half of those fleeing have entered Poland. The Chief Executive Officer of Engineers & Planners Ltd, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama on Monday donated food items to his alma mater, Tamale Senior High School, TAMASCO. The donation was done on behalf of Mr. Ibrahim Mahama by his aide Rafik Mahama at the school premises in Tamale in the Northern Region. The items include 1000 bags of rice, 100 bottles of cooking oil, 200 boxes of Mackerel and 200 boxes of tomato paste. Mr. Rafik Mahama said the items are expected to cater for the students throughout the semester. "The school consume 986 bags of rice per semester but a total of 1000 bags were presented to the school. Other food items were also presented," he stated According to him, his boss wants lives to be better for students on campus and the vulnerable or less privileged in society. Mr. Ibrahim Mahama sent me from Accra to come and present these various food items to TAMASCO, his alma mater." "This is the number of bags needed to take care of the entire students' population on campus for the semester. We hope the gesture will go a long way to inspire the students to study hard as they aspire to be great people in society," he emphasised. Receiving the items on behalf of the School, the Headmaster expressed his gratitude to Mr. Ibrahim Mahama for his continuous support to the school needs. Its a very good gesture and this will help solve any food challenges the school may encounter." He noted Mr Mahama as an old student of the school, is also putting up a 550 Ultra-Modern dormitory for the school. According to him, the facility will help solve the accommodation challenges students face on campus. He said, work kn the project which commenced in September last year is progressing very well. The Headmaster indicated that work on the 550 - bed ultra-modern dormitory for the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) is 75% complete fully financed by Mr. Ibrahim Mahama. This year sees the 25th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Rim Association. Nine of the organisation's member states are African, ranging from Somalia in the north west to South Africa in the south. It also includes islands, such as Mauritius, off the western seaboard. It brings together governments, business and academics and researchers across the Indian Ocean Region. Set up to strengthen regional cooperation and sustainable development, the association has grown from 14 member states initially in 1997 to 23 in 2022. It has adopted the 'Blue Economy' as a focus area. It is also increasingly paying attention to climate change and environmental issues as well as the regulation of fishing and other threats of growing importance to the maritime realm. In recent years the organisation's member states have increasingly been confronted by the geopolitical rivalry between China and the US in the mega-region, referred to as the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific is home to more than half the world's population and seven out of the 15 biggest economies in the world are located here. For the US and its allies, who have largely appropriated the Indo-Pacific concept, the region is first and foremost of geo-economic concern. The economic interaction is crucial, as seen by the Build Back Better World initiative, although it remains vague on practicalities. For China, the Indian Ocean forms an important part of the maritime component of its Belt and Road Initiative. This emphasises economic development over geopolitics. That China is increasingly taking note of developments in the Western Indo-Pacific is reflected in the January 2022 Africa visit of foreign minister Wang Yi. His tour focused on Africa's eastern seaboard. It included Eritrea, Kenya, and the Comoros (and even further afield to the Maldives and Sri Lanka). The Indo-Pacific is crucial for the interests of all these states and their regional organisations or informal forums and alliances. The two oceans have been at the heart of world trade for centuries. An estimated 80% of the world's oil is moved across the Indian Ocean. In addition, oceans and coastal environments are becoming the next frontier of expansion for sustainable development. Fishing, mineral and energy sources and tourism are drawing investment as countries realise the potential in ocean and coastal resources. And ownership of these resources may turn contentious. This was illustrated recently in the maritime boundary dispute between Kenya and Somalia. Another reason for the growing importance of the Indo-Pacific is related to increased transnational organised crime. This includes human and drug trafficking, illegal fishing and harvesting and trafficking of wildlife and timber and the illicit trade in electronic waste. Africa has been a long-time supporter of the idea of the Indian Ocean as a 'zone of peace'. This was first confirmed in a UN resolution in 1971 . But the current geopolitical contention in the Indo-Pacific is reminiscent of gunboat diplomacy and is raising many concerns. What is clear, though, is that Africa and the littoral states in the western Indo-Pacific don't have a vision for the super-region. The African Union's 2050 Integrated Maritime Strategy could serve as a starting point. But even then, those states that are on the western Indo-Pacific need to think through their own interests in such a continental approach to this evolving super-region. Growing importance of the region The past few years have seen a spate of policy and strategy documents setting out the positions of organisations and states for the Indo-Pacific. The 'Quad' the informal alliance of the US , Japan , Australia and India has already developed and formalised individual state strategic perspectives. Although their geographic imaginations of the Indo-Pacific vary . India and Australia are also big players in the Indian Ocean Rim Association. ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Indonesia, France and the European Union all have policy documents relating to the Indo-Pacific. One logical explanation for Africa's silence might lie in the fact that the focus of the Indian Ocean Rim Association from the start was economic development. Security concerns are a much more recent development. Yet, this is the organisation that perhaps best lends itself to African agency in developing common positions on the Indo-Pacific based on shared interests and principles. Relations with external powers outside of the association are mostly bilateral. This is particularly true at the level at which infrastructure projects including military bases are negotiated. Using the association for the development of a vision that reflects the African agenda would be ideal. This is because it provides a platform with global reach. More than half the members are from the central and eastern Indian Ocean, while several are members of ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organisation. In addition, the association's dialogue partners include the US, China, Russia, the UK, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Turkey and South Korea. But it all starts with a national vision. Since 2021, for instance, Kenya has began to formulate a position on the Indo-Pacific and explored the opportunity to work with partners such as India. But it has yet to put out a clear foreign policy statement or strategy document. Neither has South Africa. The year ahead offers an excellent opportunity for states such as South Africa to develop its approach to the Indo-Pacific. How to steer a position that would serve the country and the continent's interests in the context of these developments, has become a serious challenge. At the same time, it could promote a broader multilateral discussion within the African Union. Failing to do so will mean that Africa will be running the risk, yet again, of being an onlooker while others make policy for the continent. A developmental agenda remains important, yet there is an increasing realisation that there is no escaping the reality of an increasingly politicised and militarised region. Yu-Shan Wu receives research support from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), South Africa. Maxi Schoeman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Yu-Shan Wu, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Pretoria And Maxi Schoeman, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Pretoria Taiwan reports 60 new COVID-19 cases Xinhua) 09:01, February 28, 2022 TAIPEI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan reported 60 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, including 16 locally-transmitted infections and 44 imported ones, the island's disease-monitoring agency said. The new local infections, including 11 in Taoyuan and five in New Taipei, are all related to previously reported cases, it said. To date, Taiwan has reported 20,433 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 15,426 were local infections. (Web editor: Peng yukai, Liang Jun) Succession star Brian Cox received a standing ovation at the Screen Actors Guild Awards as he spoke about censorship in Russia following the countrys invasion of Ukraine. The Scottish-born actor, 75, described the situation in Ukraine as truly, truly awful during a stirring speech Sunday after Succession won best ensemble cast in a drama series. Advertisement Brian Cox (center) at Sunday's SAG Awards. (Rich Fury/Getty Images) The thing thats really distressed me is whats happening in Russia, to my fellow actors and actresses and performers, and writers and critics, they are told under pain of high treason that they cannot say a word about Ukraine, Cox said. And I think that is pretty awful. And I think we should all stand together. Cox, who wore a mask reading F--k Off on stage, also said the Ukraine situation is as particularly awful in terms of what is affecting the other people, particularly in our profession. Advertisement The president of Ukraine was a comic, Cox said. He was a wonderful comic performer, and we should respect that for him, and to come to the presidency is amazing. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 77 Janina Gavankar attends the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Barker Hangar on February 27, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) It was one of several moments during the ceremony that someone spoke about Russia invading Ukraine last week. While tonight is a celebration, we are all at the same time holding a place in our hearts for the people of Ukraine, and sending our thoughts, prayers and hopes for impending peace, Leslie Odom Jr. said after doing an opening segment alongside fellow Hamilton stars Lin-Manuel Miranda and Daveed Diggs. Joseph Kony, head of the Lordamp;39;s Resistance Army Centre arrives for a past peace talks at a jungle in Southern Sudan. - Source: 28.02.2022 LISTEN The US, through its embassy in the Central African Republic, recently published a warrant offering up to US$5 million for information leading to the capture of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. The US had previously announced the bounty in early 2013. It has been on the trail of the Lord's Resistance Army leader since the early 2000s, spending at least US$800 million on efforts to bring him to book. We asked international justice experts Tonny Kirabira and Leila Choukroune to unpack the renewed interest in the Ugandan fugitive. What's the history of the Lord's Resistance Army? The Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group led by Joseph Kony, launched a war in northern Uganda in 1987. For over two decades, the group engaged the Uganda People's Defence Forces, while also targeting civilians. Besides massacres and destruction of property, the group systematically targeted and abducted children to become its soldiers and sex slaves. It is infamous for having pushed 66,000 children into war, and driven about 2 million people into camps. Over the years, various military campaigns by the Ugandan Army weakened the group and pushed its members into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Kony and four of his top commanders Vincent Otti, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen in 2005. The group took part in a two-year peace negotiation with the Ugandan government. The negotiation, brokered by South Sudan, collapsed in 2008. Kony pulled out after Uganda's government failed to urge the International Criminal Court to lift the indictment against him and the other top commanders. In 2008, the Ugandan forces and troops from neighbouring countries launched Operation Lightning Thunder , which drove the militants further into the Central African Republic. That's where Joseph Kony is believed to be stationed. What has kept this group together? Besides its push for governance based on the Ten Commandments , the Lord's Resistance Army's primary objective was to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni . They perceived Museveni's government as hostile towards Kony's Acholi ethnic group in northern Uganda. In the early stages of the war, it was believed that the Sudanese government provided logistical support to the group. At the time, Sudan had accused the Uganda government of supporting rebels in its Darfur region. The Lord's Resistance Army also engaged in elephant poaching and illegal ivory trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to fund its war. What's known about the group's activities today? The Lord's Resistance Army is believed to have fewer than 1,000 fighters , all scattered in splinter groups. There are reports of its atrocities in South Sudan and Central African Republic. The group's actions include violent attacks on civilian populations and abduction of children. Read more: Photographs reveal the personal lives of the Lord's Resistance Army Significant reduction in the number of fighters, and deaths of commanders like Otti, Okot and Lukwiya, dismantled the group's top leadership. In addition, its commander, Ongwen, surrendered to US forces in the Central African Republic in 2015. In 2021, Ongwen was convicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. Read more: Child victim, soldier, war criminal: unpacking Dominic Ongwen's journey Why is the US going for Joseph Kony now? The US has always maintained a strategic role and responsibility in the efforts to counter Kony's group. But its recent action issuing a warrant and providing a WhatsApp number for relaying the information poses more questions than it offers solutions. Previously, the US put political pressure on the Democratic Republic of Congo to counter the rebel group. The George W. Bush administration provided logistical and intelligence support for the Operation Lightning Thunder in 2008 and 2009. US civil society has also been active in the efforts to neuter Kony's group. As a result, President Obama signed the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 in 2010. In 2011, Obama deployed 100 military advisors in Central African Republic to enhance regional efforts against the Lord's Resistance Army. Succinctly, the deployment was premised on both national security and foreign policy interests of the US. While the foreign policy is magnified in the growth of US presence and influence in the region, supporting counterinsurgency operations could be critical to national security interests. But with the reduction in the group's capacity and threat, the renewed US interest is not clear. Does the move aim to support the International Criminal Court's mandate, or is it simply a humanitarian intervention for civilians? Following the conviction of Ongwen in 2021, the US Department of State issued a statement in support of the International Criminal Court's verdict. The statement noted: While we continue to believe the court is in need of significant reform, we are pleased to see Ongwen brought to justice. It is in this same statement that the US emphasised its goal of hunting down Kony. The US$5 million prize for information leading to the arrest, transfer, or conviction of Kony was first announced by the Obama administration in 2013 . Different interpretations can be made from this explicit US interest. The US$5m prize could demonstrate a tacit support of institutions like the International Criminal Court, as alternative avenues for peace and justice. Read more: The hunt may be off, but a $5 million pledge might bring Kony to justice Prior to the Donald Trump administration, the US supported the International Criminal Court's interventions in Darfur and Libya. It is important to note that the US is not a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It has had a fractious relationship with The Hague based court in previous years. Ultimately, the Biden administration could be viewed as a new chapter in the US - International Criminal Court relationship, albeit under partial and conditional cooperation. In essence, such cooperation is only limited to situations where US interests are at stake. In this case, the intervention in the fight against the Lord's Resistance Army in Central Africa Republic. Therefore, by placing a prize on Kony's arrest, the Biden administration could be demonstrating a willingness to assist in the enforcement of an International Criminal Court-sanctioned warrant, in the process offering support to the Court. But it could be argued that searching for Kony is a US entry point back into the Central African Republic. This is amid the growing influence of Russia in the country. France, the UK and the US accuse Russian paramilitary forces of committing atrocities in the Central African Republic. Read more: What it will take to end civil war in the Central African Republic From a humanitarian perspective, the US intervention can be founded on a moral imperative to protect civilian victims of the Lord's Resistance Army. And an external intervention would attain more legitimacy if received as a humanitarian intervention. The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Tonny Raymond Kirabira, PhD Candidate in Law, University of Portsmouth And Leila Choukroune, Professor of International Law and Director of the University Research and Innovation Theme in Democratic Citizenship, University of Portsmouth 28.02.2022 LISTEN The President of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Dr. Samuel Bert Boadi-Kusi has stated that some members rejecting the decision to call off the strike are just exercising their right per the Association's constitution. Speaking on Joy News today, he stated that, per the UTAG constitution, after the National Executive Committee has taken a decision, member campuses are also required to vote in favour or against the decision. He indicated that, if majority of the members vote against the decision, then the NEC has no option than to reconsider the decision. This is a typical constitutional matter. The union has a constitutional provision which says that when the national leadership takes a decision of a such magnitude it must receive gratification from its members, but that same constitution also makes provision for the fact that when the campuses have voted the national executives would have to come back and check the situation and decide whether to resume the strike again or otherwise, he told Joy News. Dr. Samuel Bert Boadi-Kusi noted that the mass rejection only explains that members are not in agreement with the national leadership. At the UCC campus, he indicated that the voting exercise waiting for the outcome to be announced however, from his own observations he could predict that about 81% would vote against the decision by UTAG NEC. The indication is that across most of the campuses they are rejecting the decision by the National Executive Committee of course on my campus election has just ended, the electoral commission is yet to declare, but I know for sure that roughly around 81% are saying no to the decision of NEC, he intimated. UTAG after a court order called it off its strike action however, after the decision was taken by the NEC, nine out of fifteen members campuses have voted against the decision of the NEC. Executives of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) chapter in the University of Ghana have conceded to return to the lecture halls after an initial refusal. In a statement released on February 28, the chapter stated that although they are in disagreement with their National Executive Committee (NEC) to call of the strike, they would cooperate with the institutions management and return to teaching. The committee stated that the initial decision not to return to lecture halls was in the best interest of students, but had been misinterpreted and pitched UTAG members against the schools management. The Executive Committee of the chapter noted that, they were fighting government for improved conditions of service and not against the schools' management effort to members back to work. The chapter after an announcement by the universitys management to have lectures resumed on February 28 stated refused to return to the classroom as a result of its opposition to the NECs decision to temporarily suspend the strike. Find full statement here. The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has announced today that it would begin to admit Ghanaian passengers and dual nationals who possess the Ghana card and are returning to Ghana as travel document from March 1, 2022. In its press statement sighted by Modern Ghana News, the Immigration service stated that the decision was as a result of the official recognition of the Ghana Card as an ICAO-complaint travel document. According to GIS, the Ghana Card is only valid for entry into Ghana but cannot be used for travel in the sub-region as a result of unsigned bilateral agreements with other countries. It added that Ghanaians who have renounced citizenship to obtain citizenship of another country are not eligible. The new arrangement would allow Ghanaians who entered the country with a Ghana Card to leave on the same note. Ghana Card holders travelling to Ghana would not need visas to enter the country. The immigration service warned that a fraudulent person who acquires fake Ghana Cards would be denied entry or arrested. See the full statement below. Russian president Vladimir Putin told France's Emmanuel Macron during a phone conference that he would 'spare civilians' trying to flee Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian and Russian delegations were hosted in Belarus for their first talks since last week's invasion. French President Emmanuel Macron called on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to spare civilians in Ukraine, the French leader's office said in a statement. Macron's office said in a statement that in a 90-minute phone call he had asked the Russian leader to stop attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, and secure major roadways, in particular the road from the south of Kyiv. "President Putin confirmed his willingness to make commitments on these three points," the statement said. Macron also called on Putin to respect international humanitarian law, and allow aid shipments to reach the population, the statement said. For his part, Putin stressed that the demilitarisation of Ukraine and Western recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula were prerequisites to ending fighting in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. "Vladimir Putin stressed that a settlement is possible only if Russia's legitimate security interests are unconditionally taken into account, including the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the demilitarisation and denazification of the Ukrainian state and ensuring its neutral status," according to a Kremlin readout of the call. Talks in Belarus Meanwhile, in Belarus, state news agency Belta said that Ukrainian and Russian delegations had held talks in a villa belonging to Belarusian President Alexandre Loukashenko, near the Belarus/Ukraine border. Ahead of the negotiations, the Ukrainian presidency had demanded an immediate Russian ceasefire and troop withdrawal. Kyiv had been initially reluctant to send a delegation to Belarus, given the country's role in facilitating Russia's attack on Ukraine by hosting troops and weaponry used for the invasion. On Sunday, the government in Minsk agreed to allow Moscow to install nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. President Zelensky was not participating in the talks, which were being led by his Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov and Russian presidential advisor Vladimir Medinsky. As the talks got under way, at least 11 civilians were killed in Russian shelling on Ukraine's second most populated city Kharkiv, the regional governor said, adding that dozens more had been injured. "The Russian enemy is bombing residential areas," Oleg Sinegubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app, saying that: "As a result of the bombardments that are ongoing, we cannot call on the emergency services... currently there are 11 dead and dozens wounded." The Russian economy is reported to be in serious difficulties as a result of international sanctions in response to the crisis. Many Russian banks have been excluded from the SWIFT bank system, which is used to settle international trade, and the Russian central bank has seen its foreign assets frozen, depriving Moscow of access to these emergency funds. The ruble lost 30 percent of its value in early trading on Monday. 28.02.2022 LISTEN The Member of Parliament (MP) for Juaboso, Mr. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has charged his constituents to fast and pray if they do not want to see the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) bill passed by Parliament. According to the Juaboso MP, although the Minority group will continue to oppose the passing of the levy, votes from all 137 Majority MPs plus the vote of the only independent MP for Fomena could shift things in the favour of the government. At a programme to engage his constituents on the E-Levy, Mintah Akandoh told his people that if indeed they do not want to see the implementation of the new tax, then they should fast and pray without ceasing. You say you dont want the E-Levy and that when the issue is raised before the house, I should vote against it. You say that even if all the 275 MPs support the levy, I as your MP should vote against it. Then you have to pray and fast against the NPP having all their numbers in the chamber. Its the only way to kick against it. Because even if we (NDC) oppose it, the NPP will approve it with their numbers, if theyre all present, the Juaboso MP told his constituents. The levy has been met by strong opposition not only from the Minority in Parliament but Ghanaians who argue that the country is already experiencing hard times and for that matter, the e-levy will make the situation worst to survive. When approved by parliament in its current state, the citizenry will pay a 1.50% tax on financial electronic transactions that exceed GHS100 per day including Mobile Money transactions. The Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, says government must confess its difficulties in managing the economy to Ghanaians to win public support for the controversial E-levy. Speaking at a forum organized by Solidare Ghana, Prof. Atuguba suggested that due to the governments own commentary about the economy under the Mahama government, it must come clean to Ghanaians and admit that those comments were unfounded. The starting point for passing the E-levy is for government to stop lying to the citizenry, come clean and confess that they thought the job of managing the economy was simple, but now they know better, plead with the people of Ghana that we have limited options now, he said. He said the government will get the needed support because Ghanaians are empathetic and will reason with the government if an apology is rendered. He further called on Ghanaians to accept the E-levy despite the fact that it isnt convenient. He described the controversial levy as horrendous and wicked, but said the government needed that revenue to sustain the economy and save it from collapse. The first step is to pass the E-levy immediately and implement it effectively. To prevent the collapse of the economy and a return to the stronghold of the IMF, we have no choice but to pass it. As horrible and wicked as it is, it is the only way to save our economy from collapse in the short term Prof. Atuguba said. The E-levy is a new tax measure introduced by the government in the 2022 Budget on basic transactions related to digital payments and electronic platform transactions. A charge of 1.75% will apply to electronic transactions that are more than GH100 on a daily basis. It is yet to get parliamentary approval. ---citinewsroom Fifty years ago, the US and China signed the "Shanghai Communique" leading to the normalisation of ties between Washington and Beijing. Its main purpose was to counter the Soviet Union which had threatened to "take out" China's nuclear arsenal. RFI looks at how this historical 'triangle' is being reformed against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. US President Richard Nixon's groundbreaking visit to China from 21-28 February 1972, half a century ago, resulted in a strategic cooperation with China sharing intelligence on Soviet troop movements through its listening posts near the Russian border in Xinjiang, discouraging Moscow from attacking China, and thus preventing a nuclear Armageddon. The relationship grew so close, that after official ties were established in 1979, then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping visited the top-secret situation room in the CIA headquarters in Lanlgley, Virginia, as reported for the first time only last week in a podcast by veteran China watcher Jane Perlez. What Perlez failed to mention is that the China-US love affair can be explained as US revenge on Moscow for refusing a similar request from Washington some five years earlier. According to an 2010 article in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the US wanted to attack China's nuclear installations before it developed a bomb and saw the Sino-Soviet split in 1961 as "the perfect opportunity for a joint operation." On 14 July, 1963, an American emissary in Moscow gave "a detailed presentation of China's nuclear programme" and, according to the paper, "proposed a joint operation to stop it. But Soviet president Nikita Khruschev said the programme posed no threat." Betrayal After the Chinese-US detente, Russia felt betrayed, but cancelled its plans for a nuclear attack on China. The threat of a nuclear war remained, but Washington and Moscow managed to agree to limit the numbers of nuclear warheads through a series of negotiations resulting in the Salt and Start treaties. When the cold war ended in 1989, and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the threat of a nuclear war greatly evaporated. Former soviet states which had nuclear weapons on their territory gave them to Russia. But the weapons were never removed. Fast forward to 2022. On 27 February, on the fourth day after invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces into high alert in response to what he called "unfriendly" steps by the West. The same day, Belta, the Belarus state controlled news wire reported on a "referendum" that would allow lawmakers to "amend the constitution." It appeared to be a decision, made by Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, that would allow Russia to move nuclear arms to Belarus territory. Slamming the "fake referendum," the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Monday that the Belarussian decision to drop the country's non-nuclear status was "very dangerous." "We know what it means for Belarus to be nuclear. It means that Russia will put nuclear weapons in Belarus and this is a very dangerous path," he said. The waiting game But it is far from clear if China, which was threatened with a nuclear attack by Moscow over fifty years ago, will support Russia when it comes to active deployment of nuclear weapons. When the Olympic Winter Games started in Beijing two weeks ago, Putin was there, and had a high-level meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is likely that Xi knew about Russia's invasion plans, but asked Putin not to invade during the Olympic games, as he did in 2008, when Russian troops invaded Georgia on the first day of the Olympic Summer Games, which Beijing hosted as well. But China's recent abstention in the UN Security Council on a vote that would condemn Russia's invasion into Ukraine (Russia was the only country that voted against; China, India and the UAE abstained) shows Beijing's reluctance to fully support Putin. "Restraint" Beijing has also been consistent in saying that its own nuclear arsenal (estimated at some 350 warheads, against Russia's 6,257 and the US's 5,550) is only meant for deterrence and never for "first strike". But China on Monday called for de-escalation and "restraint" over the Ukraine crisis as Russia and Ukraine prepared to meet for their first talks since Moscow's invasion of its western neighbour and pressed for Russia's "reasonable" security demands to be heard, repeatedly refusing to condemn Putin's actions or use the term "invasion". Xi Jinping told Putin in a call last week that he hoped the crisis could be resolved with a "balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations." Meanwhile, China shares Moscow's opinion that the US, Nato and the EU are largely responsible for Russia's anger, because of the eastward expansion of the Atlantic Alliance, which, it claims, was a "violation of promises." Last week, referring to the 50th anniversary of the Shanghai Communique, China's Xinhua News Agency said that "it is high time that Washington realised that, though the post-pandemic world will face new situations and challenges, conflict and confrontation between major countries are not the theme of the world, nor will it solve the problems facing the United States and other countries." But at the same time, while not talking about an "invasion," Beijing repeats its long-held dogma of "non-interference" in other countries' affairs and the importance of "national sovereignty," and, earlier this month, dedicated a large part of the front page of the official People's Daily to congratulate Ukraine on its independence. Even though the e-levy is a horrible tax, it is imperative it is passed as soon as possible to prevent the collapse of the Ghanaian economy, the Dean of the University Of Ghana School Of Law, Prof Raymond Atuguba, has told MPs. At a forum organised by Solidare Ghana, Prof Atuguba said: The first step is to pass the e-levy immediately and implement it effectively, adding: To prevent the collapse of the economy and a return to the stronghold of the IMF, we have no choice but to pass it. As horrible and wicked as it is, it is the only way to save our economy from collapse in the short term, Prof Atuguba noted. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some civil society organisations have strongly been against the levy, which was proposed by the 2022 budget to raise, at least, GHS6.9 billion. In Prof Atugubas view, however, The starting point for passing the e-levy is for government to stop lying to the citizenry, come clean and confess that they thought the job of managing the economy was simple but now they know better; plead with the people of Ghana that we have limited options now. In his view, Ghanaians will support it if this is done right. He warned, If we do not support the e-levy, the government will simply tax something else such as fuel, leading to a hike in trotro fares. Depending on the rate and patronage, well rake in billions of revenue every year. We can no longer borrow on the international financial market except at horrendous rates, Prof Atuguba observed. We should, however, ask for one thing: absolute transparency every step of the way in the way and manner this e-levy is used. Source: Classfmonline.com 28.02.2022 LISTEN The Police have arrested a man for staging a robbery attack with the plan to use a sum of GHS69,000 belonging to his bosses to travel abroad. In a statement posted on the official Facebook page of the Ghana Police Service, it says the suspect of the fake robbery attack is in custody and will be arraigned before court soon. The Police in Accra has arrested suspect, Godfred Kataso on suspicion of faking a robbery incident which he claimed to have occurred on February 11, 2022, around the National Theatre. Police reports indicate that on February 11, 2022, suspect, Godfred Kataso filed a robbery report at the Accra Central Police Station that two young men robbed him at gunpoint and made away with an amount of Sixty-Nine Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH 69,000.00) belonging to his boss which he was on the way to deposit at the bank. Police investigation into the report established that the alleged robbery was a hoax. During interrogation, the suspect confirmed feigning the robbery as he stole the money himself to enable him to travel abroad, the Police statement on Monday evening reads. The Police further confirm that after the investigations, the GHS69,000 has been retrieved for evidential purposes. Dancing with the Stars professional Maksim Chmerkovskiy described a traumatizing scene Monday as he fled his native Ukraine amid Russias invasion. Chmerkovskiy said he boarded a train to Warsaw, Poland, that was packed with way more people than its normal capacity, calling it sweaty and claustrophobic. Advertisement Theres usually up to 30 people in this particular wagon, Chmerkovskiy wrote on Instagram. We were told we have to fit 135. Walkways are packed. Maksim Chmerkovskiy visits Build Studios on March 10, 2020 in New York City. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images) Chmerkovskiy said he observed a boy around 8 years old who was hysterically crying and not wanting to let go of his father. He wrote that the child told his dad, if you stay I want to stay, too, because if they kill you I wont be able to help. Advertisement The 42-year-old Chmerkovskiy has frequently chronicled the terror unfolding in Ukraine on social media after the invasion began last week. Earlier Monday, he said in an Instagram video from Kyiv that he was arrested without specifying for what. Just a lot of fighting everywhere, Chmerkovskiy said in Mondays video. Streets are crazy. (At) one point, I got arrested like a foot outside of here, but again, all good. Promise. He added the arrest was probably the least traumatizing moment in this whole thing, as far as Ukraine is concerned, but for me, it was just a reality check. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 191 Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after an airstrike hit a tire shop in Lviv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Monday, killing at least six people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow's troops stepped up strikes on infrastructure in preparation for an all-out assault on the east. (Mykola Tys/AP) The professional dancer also called for everyone to receive fair treatment at the borders as people try to leave Ukraine amid the violence. My options are better than most peoples, unfortunately, Chmerkovskiy said. Just a little nervous, to be honest with you, but I think its going to be all right. Well, I know its going to be OK. Chmerkovskiy, who moved to Brooklyn as a teenager, wrote in a previous Instagram post, WAR is NEVER an answer! He cautioned his followers on Monday not to panic if he doesnt post for a little while, saying hes mostly only in contact with his wife, Peta Murgatroyd, brother, Val Chmerkovskiy, and his parents. A 26-year-old church drummer who had sex with a six-year-old girl at a church office at Laterbiokoshie, a suburb of Accra, has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court. Nathaniel Ayiku pleaded not guilty to defilement. The court presided over by Mrs Christina Cann, however, found him guilty at the end of the trial and sentenced him accordingly. Prosecuting, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Agnes Boafo narrated that the complainant was an usher at the church (name withheld) at Laterbiokoshie and a mother of the victim, whiles the accused, now convict, was a drummer of the same church. DSP Boafo said Ayiku had permission from the church to be sleeping at the auditorium. The prosecution said on October 30, last year, a wedding ceremony was held at the church and after the ceremony, Ayiku went to sit in one of the offices at the church premises. It said whiles Ayiku was in the office, the victim accidentally entered the office in search of rubber bands to play with. The prosecution said when the victim bent down to pick a rubber band, the convict realised that she was not wearing a pant and asked the victim to hold a table while he stood behind and defiled her. It said on November 20, this year, the victim complained to the complainant of blood in her urine. The prosecution said the complainant observed the victim and found her claims to be true and when the victim was asked what had happened to her, she narrated her ordeal to the complainant. A report was made to the Police and a medical form was given to the complainant to seek medical care for the victim. The victim was later arrested and during investigations, he admitted the offence in his caution statement. GNA The United States has also imposed hard-hitting sanctions on the Russian central bank, banning US citizens and institutions from conducting transactions with the institution, says a senior White House official. The measures also mean that the central bank can no longer conduct business in dollars anywhere in the world, according to the official. These and sanctions imposed by other allies effectively block most of Russia's foreign exchange reserves, worth $630 billion, meaning Moscow cannot use them to counter the economic consequences of the war, he said. He added that Russia's sovereign wealth fund and Finance Ministry would also face sanctions, in a strategy aiming to "make sure that the Russian economy goes backwards, as long as President Putin decides to go forward with his invasion of Ukraine," the official said. GNA US tech company, Alphabet, has switched off real-time traffic information services for Ukraine in its Google Maps navigation software, as Russia continued its invasion of the country. The company said it had taken the measure in consultation with the Ukrainian authorities, and in doing so, intended to protect the population. Google collects location data using smartphones that have the Android operating system and uses it to identify traffic jams or other major traffic flow issues. In Ukraine, however, this enabled the real-time tracking of whether civilians were stuck in traffic jams at roadblocks, at a time when people are fleeing the onslaught of Russian troops. Shutting down the display of traffic flows is part of a package of measures Google launched last week. "Our incident response team is actively monitoring the war in Ukraine and working around the clock, focusing on the safety and security of our employees, users, and customers," Google said on Twitter. Google is also providing technical support to protect Ukrainian websites against cyber attacks. GNA The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has petitioned the Commonwealth over alleged human rights violations, criminal prosecutions, and harassment of some its members, supporters, and other social activists in the country. Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the Party, at a media engagement in Accra on Monday, said the NDC was also concerned about attacks on journalists and the closure of some media houses in the country. The cases filed at the Commonwealth included the Republic vs Stephen Kwabena Opuni and two others, the Republic vs Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and Anthony Kwaku Boahen, and the Republic vs Cassiel Ato Forson and others. Other issues of concern to the Party were the fallout from the 2020 general election regarding the non-representation of the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi (SALL) in the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic. Mr Nketia also said it was worrying that the killers of Investigative Journalist, Ahmed Hussein-Suale, three years on had not been found just as the case of Ibrahim Mohammed, also known as Kaaka Macho, remained inconclusive. The Party also lamented about the arrest of Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, a social media activist as well as recent attacks, arrest and incarceration of some journalists, including Accra FM's Presenter Kwabena Bobbie Ansah and Oheneba Boamah Bennie, of Power FM. The 2021 World Press Freedom Index maintained Ghana's rank at 30 among 180 countries. It cited the failure of State authorities to investigate and prosecute persons involved in the killing of Mr Hussein-Suale for the non-improvement in the ranking. The current situation, Mr Nketia said, threatened the country's political stability, peace and security, while Ghana's democratic credentials could be dented. Mr Nketia alleged that: Since assuming the reins of power in 2016, the message of physical violence against political opponents that Nana Addo preached and championed before the 2016 general elections has turned into structural, institutional and systematic forms of violence in the form of human rights violations, harassment, and political persecutions against members and supporters of the NDC. These actions of the government of Ghana create conditions that threaten Ghana's political stability and further erode our democratic values. He added that: It is very unfortunate that after riding on the high horse ad banner of a human right activist, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has become a democratic despot who brooks no opposition. The NDC General Secretary said the Party had since petitioned the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, to monitor human rights violations, investigate the matters, and monitor criminal prosecutions against NDC members. The plea of the Party was for the Commonwealth to ultimately: Call upon the government of Ghana to put a stop to these persecution, harassment, threats, and killings of supporters and members of the NDC. Mr Nketia said it was important for Commonwealth to, Closely follow the political and human services situation since the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and fundamental freedom is a core value of the Commonwealth. He said a team of lawyers, judges, and other legal experts were also required in the country, to assess the adequacy and quality of the justice being administered to members of the NDC who are facing criminal prosecutions. The Party also asked the Commonwealth to continue to engage the government, support and encourage their pursuit of accountability for the perpetrators of the Ayawaso West Wuogon bye-election and the killings of eight Ghanaians during the December 7, 2020, general election. The NDC also called for engagements to be held with government officials, political parties, representatives of civil society, to respect, promote, protect, human rights in Ghana. Ghana is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations; a political association that promotes world peace, representative democracy and individual liberty. Members could be suspended from the Councils of the Commonwealth for serious or persistent violations of the Harare Declaration, particularly in abrogating their responsibility to have democratic government. GNA The governing council chairman of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Nana Ofori-Ansah I is justified for the removal of the substantive Finance Officer Mr Francis Obeng. He is acting on the advice of the Attorney General to ensure that peace prevails in UEW. A document from the Attorney General which recommended the action to be taken against the Finance Officer penned other ways to ensure that the relative calm at UEW is not undermined again by any person or group. It further advises the governing council under the leadership Prof. Mawutor Avoke who was recently reinstated by a court order as Vice Chancellor of the university after a long legal battle to take the necessary steps to maintain peace. Yesterday, UEW Convocation Representatives called on government to intervene and have the schools governing council chairman, Nana Ofori-Ansah I fired. In a joint press release from the UEW Convocation Representatives, it has condemned recent happenings in the University and the conduct of the Chairman who is accused of abusing his office and being autocratic. Particularly referencing the unilateral decision by Nana Ofori-Ansah I to terminate the appointment of substantive Finance Officer Mr. Francis Obeng, the UEW Convocation Representatives stresses that he must be stopped immediately. We need to put on record that the inconclusive Council meeting held on the 24th of February 2022 on the matter of substantive Finance Officer position, and the unilateral decision of the Council Chairman to terminate the appointment of the substantive Finance Officer, Mr. Francis Obeng, without assigning any tangible reason, without due process and without recourse or reference to the Governing Council but on his personal decision and accord is dictatorial, authoritarian, wrong administratively, illegitimate, and a slap in the face of university administrative principles, part of a joint release copied to President Akufo-Addo reads. 28.02.2022 LISTEN President Nana Akufo-Addo says it is in the public interest for the E-levy bill to be enacted into law. He said Ghana cannot continue to depend on foreign aid, and must therefore find innovative ways such as the E-levy to raise revenue to finance its development. Delivering the keynote address at the 2022 National Labour Conference at Kwahu- Nkwatia in the Eastern Region, Nana Akufo-Addo said the percentage of Ghanaians paying direct taxes is woefully inadequate and efforts must be made to bridge the gap. We cannot continue to allow less than 10%, specifically 7.8%, that is, 2.4 million people of the population to carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people. We must provide an opportunity for every Ghanaian to contibrute towards nation building. The proposed e-levy is such an innovative fiscal measure which will help improve our tax to GDP ratio on an equitable basis. I believe strongly that it is in the public interest that it should be enacted into law. We cannot continue to live on foreign savings, he noted. The President said the E-levy will provide the opportunity for every Ghanaian to contribute towards nation building, stressing that Ghanaians must accept the implications of Ghana beyond aid. It is time we accepted the full implications of our goal of Ghana beyond aid and design our fiscal profile accordingly. This will be one of the surest ways of expanding the tax base for mobilizing our own resources, he said. The E-levy is a new tax measure introduced by the government in the 2022 Budget on basic transactions related to digital payments and electronic platform transactions. A charge of 1.75% will apply to electronic transactions that are more than GH100 on a daily basis. The approval of the e-levy by Parliament has been fraught with many challenges with the minority kicking against it. The government has indicated that it will withdraw the bill from parliament, make some amendments and relay it. ---citinewsroom A wreath-laying and flag raising ceremony was held to commemorate the incident that provoked the country's struggle for independence. It was attended by government officials, security personnel, traditional leaders, veterans, relatives of the three fallen heroes, the clergy, students, and pupils from selected basic and second cycle schools. In all, five wreaths were laid. Vice President Bawumia laid a wreath on behalf of the government and the people of Ghana. Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, the Chief of Defence Staff, laid a wreath on behalf of the security services; and Major General Clayton Naa Boanubah Yaache (Rtd), Chairman of the Veterans Administration, Ghana (VAG), laid one on behalf of the veterans. Gbese Mantse, Nii Ayi-Bonte II, laid a wreath on behalf of the traditional authorities and Nii Ala Nmashie I, a representative of Sergeant Adjetey's family, laid a wreath on behalf of the fallen soldiers. The ceremony is held annually to honour three ex-servicemen who were killed during a peaceful march to the Christiansborg Castle on February 28, 1948. The three - Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lampteyall members of the then Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force, were killed by the colonial Police while marching peacefully to the Castle to present a petition to the then Governor, Sir Gerald Creasy. Background On the noon of February 28, 1948, a number of ex-servicemen were marching from Accra to the Christiansborg Castle to present a petition to the governor over their unpaid war benefits. They were, however, intercepted at the crossroads by a contingent of armed Policemen. The contingent, led by British Police Superintendent, Mr Colin Imray, ordered that they disperse and when they refused to obey, he gave an order to the Police to open fire; and the three ex-servicemen were killed. The ex-soldiers had fought alongside the allied forces in the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force during the Second World War and had returned home poor, but they were not paid their gratuity. After several appeals to the colonial government to consider their plight had failed, the ex-servicemen decided that a direct appeal should be made to the British colonial governor of the Gold Coast, hence the march. GNA The Sunyani East Constituency Election Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected over 400 nominations of aspirants, ahead of the Party's nationwide polling station elections. Mr Christian Yeboh Gyabaah, the Secretary of the nine-member Committee told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani, saying some of the rejected forms were duplicates while others had different registration codes and stamps. He said the Committee received more than 3,000 applications from party members aspiring for various positions in the 225 polling stations across the 34 electoral areas in the Constituency. Mr Gyabaah who could not give the actual date for the polling stations elections in the Constituency said vetting of the aspirants would have begun from Sunday February 27 to March 1. Meanwhile, Mr Musah Damtarl, the Sunyani East Constituency Chairman of the NPP had advised the aspirants whose forms had been rejected to remain calm and channel their grievances through the Party's laid-down procedures for redress. Many of the rejected forms were supposedly procured from the Party's Elections' Directorate in Accra and we are cross-checking to authenticate the truth, he said. Mr Damtarl gave the assurance the Party would ensure that the right thing was done for credible polling station elections in the Constituency. Later in another interview with the GNA, Mr Maxwell Mahama, a leading Member of the NPP in the Constituency expressed grave concern about irregularities that characterised the sales of the Party's nomination forms in the Constituency. He said the interest of the NPP must override the ambition of any individual and asked the Elections Committee to ensure the right thing was done for the sake of the Election 2024. Mr Mahama said the NPP in the Constituency needed a united front to go to the 2024 General Election to break the eight and therefore asked the leadership of the Party and the Committee to guard against tendencies that had the potential to disturb the unity in the party. GNA The driver of the Rhino truck involved in a motor accident at Dr Mensah Market in Kumasi, on Sunday afternoon, killing two women has been arrested by the police. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Kwaku Buah, Manhyia Divisional Police Commander, told the Ghana News Agency on Monday morning that, the driver and his mate were in custody assisting the police in investigation. The brakes of the truck with registration number AS 4403-12 loaded with bags of rice and groundnuts from Tamale, were alleged to have failed while descending a hill to offload the goods at the market. In the process, it crashed into an oncoming Toyota Hiace bus, turned on its side and landed on some traders who were selling on the shoulders of the road. Two of them died on the spot while others were injured. DCOP Buah said one of the women was yet to be identified, while the other woman has been identified. He said the police were investigating the accident. GNA It is encouraging for my government and party, the New Patriotic Party, to recall that the rate of growth of the economy, 5.6%, against the background of the exceptionally difficult circumstances of the COVID-era, is still considerably better than the 3.4% we inherited (in 2016) in calmer times from our predecessor administration. These were the words of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when he delivered the keynote address at the National Labour Conference, held in Kwahu Nkwatia, in the Eastern Region, on Monday 28th February 2022. According to President Akufo-Addo, Ghanaians should not forget that, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, we witnessed average annual GDP growth rates of seven percent (7%) in 2017, 2018, 2019 and part of 2020, when our economy was then, generally, acknowledged as one of the fastest growing in the world. Speaking at the event, he indicated that the proactive decisions taken by Government to fight the pandemic, as well as revitalising and transforming the economy, with the one hundred-billion-cedi Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (Ghana CARES) Obaatampa Programme, to create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians over a three-year period, have begun yielding results. The first phase of the Ghana CARES programme, the phase of stabilisation, came to end in 2020. The second phase, which started in 2021, aims at revitalising and transforming the economy between 2021 and 2023, and is focused on supporting commercial farming and attracting educated youth into agriculture, building Ghana's light manufacturing sector, developing the engineering/machine tools and ICT/digital economy, developing Ghana's housing and construction industry, reviewing and optimizing the implementation of Government flagships and key Programmes, creating jobs for young people, and expanding opportunities for the vulnerable in society, including physically challenged persons. As a result of this programme and the policies being implemented by Government, the economy grew at a provisional 5.2% in the first three quarters of 2021. This growth is expected to be sustained in the medium term, he said. President Akufo-Addo continued, The overall real GDP for the medium term is projected to grow at an average rate of 5.6%, and we remain committed to returning to the fiscal deficit target threshold, as enshrined in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, Act 982, from this year. Government, he reassured, will continue to demonstrate the ability, resolve and determination to change the trajectory of our economy in order to help us recover faster from the effects of COVID-19. A film crew member who worked on Rust said he continues to experience pain months after he was allegedly bitten on the arm by a brown recluse spider. Jason Miller told TMZ hes made strides since suffering a serious infection from the spiders venom, with doctors managing to save his arm from a potential amputation. Advertisement He said he cant lift his injured arm above his head or behind his back, however, and struggles to sleep at night, according to the gossip site. "Rust" crew member Jason Miller's arm is pictured in a photo released by TMZ. (TMZ) Millers family said in an online fundraiser that Miller suffered the spider bite while he was working for the Rust wrap team. Advertisement Production for the Western movie was halted in October after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot by a prop firearm that was being handled by actor Alec Baldwin at the Bonanza Creek Ranch set in Santa Fe, N.M. Jason Miller, whose arm is pictured in a photo released by TMZ, says he was bitten by a brown recluse spider. (TMZ) In a matter of days (Miller) experienced severe symptoms including necrosis of his arm and sepsis, Millers family wrote on the GoFundMe page, which was set up late last year. He has been hospitalized and endured multiple surgeries each day as doctors do their best to stop the infection. The online fundraiser has garnered more than $14,000 over the past three months to support Miller, who is also reportedly receiving compensation from an insurance company that was aligned with Rust. The GoFundMe page identified Miller as a pipe rigger and lamp operator. New Mexico authorities launched an investigation into the death of Hutchins, with officials working to determine why live ammunition was on the movies set. The Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M., on Oct. 23. (Jae C. Hong/AP) Baldwin, 63, contends he was told the prop was cold, meaning it didnt have live ammunition in it. No one has been charged in connection with Hutchins death. 28.02.2022 LISTEN The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has described the proposed e-levy as an innovative fiscal measure, which will help improve the countrys tax-to-GDP ratio on an equitable basis. According to President Akufo-Addo, I believe strongly that it is in the public interest that it should be enacted into law. We cannot continue to live forever on foreign savings. Those who are concerned about our debt burden are right to focus on it as a major pre-occupation. Delivering the keynote address at the National Labour Conference, held on Monday, 28th February 2022, at Kwahu Nkwatia, in the Eastern Region, the President stated that it is time we accepted the full implications of our goal of Ghana Beyond Aid, and designed our fiscal profile accordingly. The Asian Tigers, whom we envy and want to emulate, financed their rapid development from their own savings. We need to do the same. With the pandemic of COVID-19 ravaging the economies of the world, including that of Ghana, he told the gathering that transforming the economy would require the active involvement and participation of all, including the large informal economy. The President explained that an economy, in which only a small proportion of the population bears the brunt of direct taxation, is unlikely to witness any rapid transformation. We have to make concerted efforts as Partners to hasten our recovery from COVID-19 by finding intelligent ways of bringing everyone on board to contribute their quota, no matter how small, he said. President Akufo-Addo continued, Government, on its part, is implementing a policy of cutting the budgets of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) by twenty percent (20%) this year, as its contribution to measures to ensure fiscal consolidation. Ghanas tax-to-GDP ratio of 12.2%, the President said, compares unfavourably with the rest of the world, as the average tax-to-GDP ratio in West Africa stands at 18%, and the average for OECD countries standing at 34%. It is, thus, no wonder that American, German, French, Japanese and British peoples, amongst others, can readily find the means to fund their own development, particularly their infrastructural development, whereas we are constantly struggling to do the same, he said. President Akufo-Addo stressed that there is an urgent need to enhance significantly the nations capacity for domestic revenue mobilisation to realise our development potential, create opportunities for the vibrant and dynamic youth, and deliver improved livelihoods for the citizenry. He reiterated that we cannot continue to allow less than ten percent (10%), specifically 7.8%, i.e., 2.4 million people, of the population carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people. We must provide an opportunity for every Ghanaian to contribute towards nation building. The President, thus, appealed to all Ghanaians, including those participating at the National Labour Conference to ensure that the hidden, submerged or informal economy is brought within the remit of the formal economy. This would be one of the surest ways of expanding the tax base for mobilising adequate resources to sustain development." The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reaffirmed the commitment of Government to bring to an end the strike action that has been undertaken by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG). Speaking at the National Labour Conference on Monday, 28th February 2022, at Kwahu Nkwatia, in the Eastern Region, President Akufo-Addo, whilst expressing his appreciation for the relative peace prevailing on the industrial front, stated that more needs to be done to strengthen the rapport between tripartite partners for greater cooperation. This is important, in the wake of the recent six-week strike action by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG). Government is determined to find a satisfactory solution to this impasse, and ensure that the academic calendar is not, substantially, derailed, he said. President Akufo-Addo continued, The best form of negotiations are those in which both parties to the dispute exhibit good faith within the context of what is affordable and equitable. I continue to hope that our dons will see this in that light, and help bring the impasse to an end so that the education of our young people can resume in serenity. He assured Members of Organised Labour of Governments commitment to addressing their concerns at all times, and he appealed to Organised Labour to give enthusiastic support and co-operation to Governments programme of economic recovery. Government is determined to work with all stakeholders to see us through this crisis, and all the challenges it has brought in its wake. Government will continue to demonstrate the ability, resolve and determination to change the trajectory of our economy in order to help us recover faster from the effects of COVID-19. Our commitment to transform the economy with great urgency should be the guiding principle of all Social Partners, he said. To this end, the President was expectant that discussions at the parallel sessions of the Conference to be informed by the real situation on the ground. This will enable us manage our expectations going forward. Nonetheless, and as has been the practice, Government would continue to dialogue with you on decisions that are in the best interest of the country, labour and the business community. I look forward to more of such dialogues in the coming months, dialogues that will address the goals of equity, productivity and decent wages, President Akufo-Addo said. He assured that Government will work to advance opportunities for all Ghanaians to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and dignity. We will continue to work proactively, by implementing programmes and policies, that will protect the citizenry from the consequences of the pandemic, he added. "It is in the public interest of all Ghanaians for the e-levy to be passed into law to expand the tax burden which is currently being shouldered by less than 3 million people and to also save the country from relying on foreign funds," President Akufo-Addo has said. In his keynote address at the 2022 National Labour Conference at Kwahu-Nkwatia in the Eastern Region, the President said: We cannot continue to allow less than 10%, specifically 7.8%; that is 2.4 million people of the population, to carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people. We must provide an opportunity for every Ghanaian to contribute toward nation-building, he said. The proposed e-levy is such an innovative fiscal measure which will help improve our tax-to-GDP ratio on an equitable basis, Nana Akufo-Addo observed. I believe strongly that it is in the public interest that it should be enacted into law, he asserted. We cannot continue to live on foreign savings, he declared. The President said: It is time we accepted the full implications of our goal of Ghana beyond aid and design our fiscal profile accordingly. This will be one of the surest ways of expanding the tax base for mobilising our own resources, he said. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some civil society organisations have strongly been against the levy, which was proposed by the 2022 budget to raise, at least, GHS6.9 billion every year. A former Chief Inspector of the Ghana Police Service has been installed as the Chief of Kyekyewere in the Ayensuano District of the Eastern Region under the stool name Okunini Gyebi Kwame Ababio II with a promise to flash out activities of landguards in his community. Known in private name as Mr. Edward Afful, Okunini Gyebi Kwame Ababio II says activities of landguards in Kyekyewere and its surrounding areas were becoming a security threat to the people who are mostly farmers thus denying them of their economic growth and development. In an interview with Newsmen soon after he had sworn the oath of allegiance, the newly installed Chief noted that he won't sit unconcerned for his people to be tortured by such criminals. "These landguards have illegally taken over lands from their owners and are engaging in Sand Winning activities without authorization from anybody and are heavily armed to the teeth. "I want to assure my people that the activities of these landguards in Kyekyewere and its surrounding areas would be eradicated in a short possible time. "It is illegal for anyone to engage in landguard activities in the country. Am going to flash them out of our system for peace and security to prevail. "There is no law in the country to authorize people to forcefully take over people's lands and farms let alone threatened them with weapons. "Every land in Kyekyewere has its owner and I as custodian of the lands in Kyekyewere and other surrounding communities, I will protect it accordingly. It would be better for them to stay off of the lands or face the consequences for their illegal activities. "Am ready to work with all manner of people in my areas of operations in what capacity be it religious, tribal, political or otherwise. We are going to work together as one people seeking the well-being and development," he stated. The former Police Prosecutor cautioned the kingpins in the landguards activities to put an end to it for their own good. Okunini Gyebi Kwame Ababio II lamented over situations where the landguards use bulldozers to destroy people's farm products for sand winning without consultation with the owners. According to Okunini Gyebi Kwame Ababio II, he was in constant communication with the Eastern Regional Security Council as well as the Ayensuano District Security Council to flash out such activities in the vicinity. "Let me cautioned that any person or group of people who would step foot on any of the lands in Kyekyewere or any of my land jurisdictions, they won't be spared," he noted. On education and economic growth, Okunini Gyebi Kwame Ababio II disclosed that plans were far advanced for the construction of an ultra-modern market center to boost the economic activities of the people. He noted that people in Kyekyewere and its surrounding Communities were mostly farmers who depends on farming for their daily bread and would therefore need a market center to sell their farm produce. "This is my first priority towards the development of Kyekyewere. We need to attract traders from every part of the country to patronize our foods and cash crops to boost our local economy," he emphasised. The newly installed Chief stressed that a modern library complex was also going to be constructed to give school children in the community access to modern technology. "Our children should be given access to ICT to able them be abreast with the global world. In this time and age, everything is centred around technology and our children cannot be left out of this modern era," he stated. Okunini Gyebi Kwame Ababio II hinted that he was going to contact stakeholders in the various agencies to spearhead development in Kyekyewere. He lamented over lack of development in the vicinity even though Kyekyewere happens to be one the oldest community. The District Chief Executive for Ayensuano, Hon. Josephine Awuku Ansaa Inkoom confirming the illegal activities of landguards in the District noted that the District Security Council (DISEC) has put in place achievable measures to stop their activities. Hon. Josephine Awuku Ansaa Inkoom disclosed that the Assembly was in collaboration with various security agencies in the District to fight the menace. The DCE dislocated that she has personally contacted Minister for Interior to support them with more security personnel to combat the anti-social canker in the Ayensuano District. She noted that the lack of logistics for police personnel especially vehicles was hampering their activities in the area. "Before I assumed office as the District Chief Executive, Sand Winning activities in the District, especially in Kyekyewere, was going out of hand. At least four people had been killed by the Sand Winners. But thank God, these activities have been reduced drastically through the efforts of the District Police Commander nevertheless, it should be eradicated completely from the system. "Landguard activities is becoming a headache to the Assembly but I hope positive response from the Ministry of Interior would facilitate the fight against these criminal activities." While congratulating Okunini Gyebi Kwame Ababio II for his installation, Hon. Josephine Awuku Ansaa Inkoom lauded the kingmakers for the peaceful manner the whole process went through. She recounted a number of times where the installation of chiefs turned bloody in some places. The Ayensuano District Chief Executive pledged the commitment of the Assembly towards the development of Kyekyewere and its surrounding communities assuring the newly installed Chief that her doors were opened for consultation and advice. She strongly advocated for a common festival that could bring all tribes in the district under one umbrella to enhance coexistence. " We must put all hands on deck to ensure infrastructure development in the Ayensuano District". The DCE noted. Member of Parliament for Ayensuano Constituency, Hon. Teddy Safori Addi addressed the durbar said he was ever ready to lobby for developmental projects for the various Communities. Hon. Teddy Safori Addi expressed concern about the deprived nature of the Constituency and encouraged the people to work together with one accord devoid of partisan towards the economic growth and development. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has assured that it will play a key role to have Ghanas Food Systems Dialogues document disseminated to all relevant stakeholders to ensure its intended purpose is achieved by 2030. Ghana is one of three African countries including Malawi and Rwanda selected after the United Nations (UN) Food System Summit Dialogues to pilot the Food System Transformative Integrated Policy (FS-TIP) programme after demonstrating courageous leadership in the development and implementation of an ambitious food system policy agenda. Ghanas national FSSD process began with the establishment of a national FSSD secretariat which instituted coordinating mechanisms to steer the dialogue process; after months of engagement between the various agencies and stakeholders, AGRA on Thursday held a workshop for stakeholders to disseminate findings from Ghanas Food Systems Dialogues by consultants. The meeting took place in Accra with the theme: Dissemination of findings from the Ghana Food Systems Dialogues. A consultant and convener for food systems summit in Ghana, Prof. Amos Laar explained that their work centered on finding new solutions to the challenges identified at the global and country levels in order to attain sustainable food systems. He indicated that there is the need to develop food systems transformation investment plans, enhanced investments in agricultural expansion, and also improve accessibility to financial services including raw credit and microcredit to fund small agribusinesses. Food systems have been conceptualized to encompass the entire range of activities involved in the production, processing, marketing, consumption, and disposal of goods that originate from agriculture, forestry, or fisheries, including the inputs needed and the outputs generated at each of these steps. "Ghanas success in this space, to a large extent, is attributed to the governments forward thinking long term policies that have paved the way for short midterm, and cross sectoral interventions. "Ghanaian food systems stakeholders recognize that the road to 2030 will be bumpy due to multiplicity of challenges but they are resolute to achieve their target, he said. Dr. Dorothy Effa, Programme Officer, Advocacy and Policy, AGRA said AGRA is an African led organization with the aim of helping small holder farmers to increase production and wealth. Now that we have the document, there is the need to develop a strategy for dissemination especially for follow-ups because Ghana has made commitments. "This Food Systems Dialogues are very essential because we have challenges and if you have challenges then there is the need to find solutions. "We want everybody to have a stake in the ongoing dialogues for us to achieve the goals of the Food Systems Summit Dialogues, she said. The Food Systems Summit Dialogues (FSSDs) brought together diverse groups of stakeholders who collaborated, deliberated, debated ideas and solutions and took actions geared towards attaining a better and quality food systems in Ghana. Shapoorji Pallonji group head Cyrus Mistry has moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to expunge adverse remarks made against him in the judgment passed by the apex court in March last year, setting aside the NCLAT order, which restored him as Executive Chairman of the Tata conglomerate. On Monday, senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, representing Mistry, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana that his client has filed an application seeking to expunge certain remarks which affect his reputation and character. The bench, also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said the court will hear the matter after 10 days. Tata Sons was represented by senior advocates Harish N. Salve and A.M. Singhvi, along with a team of advocates from Karanjawala & Co. Recently, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ramana and comprising Justices Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian considered the review petition filed by Mistry. The top court, in its February 15 order, with which Justice Ramasubramanian dissented, said: "Applications seeking exemption from filing affidavits are allowed. Applications seeking oral hearing of the Review Petitions are allowed. List the Review Petitions on Wednesday, the 9th March, 2022." Justice Ramasubramanian, in his dissenting opinion, said: "With utmost respect, I regret my inability to agree with the order. I have carefully gone through the Review Petitions and I do not find any valid ground to review the judgment. The grounds raised in the Review Petitions do not fall within the parameters of a review and hence the applications seeking oral hearing deserve to be dismissed." In the verdict passed on March 26 last year, the top court said: "We find all the questions of law are liable to be answered in favour of the appellants (Tata Group) and the appeals filed by the Tata Group are liable to be allowed and Shapoorji Pallonji group is liable to be dismissed." It also said the value of SP Group shares will depend on the valuation by Tata Sons equities and the court will not determine the fair value. In December 2019, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had ruled that the proceedings of the Board meeting of Tata Sons held on October 24, 2016 removing Mistry as Chairperson was illegal. 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. Harrisburg, Pa. At the urging of Gov. Tom Wolf, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) announced Sunday evening that they are removing Russian-made products from shelves of the Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores as a show of solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine. Russian-made special order products also are no longer available, according to a PLCB release. As of today, these products will no longer be sold or procured by the PLCB, said Board Chairman Tim Holden. Given the evolving political-economic climate, its just the right thing to do. Wolf sent a letter to PLCB officials earlier in the day Sunday asking that the Russian-sourced products be removed immediately. Wolf said in the letter the move would be a small show of solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine, and an expression of our collective revulsion with the unprovoked actions of the Russian state. PLCB said in the release that only two products stocked in stores Russian Standard and Ustianochka 80-proof vodkas as well as about a half-dozen special order brands come from Russian. Many other producers give their vodkas Russian-themed monikers and marketing because many consumers often associate vodka with Russia, but they are not actually Russian. The PLCB will not be restricting sales of Russian-branded products that are not sourced from Russia, as doing so could unfairly and adversely impact those brands, according to the release. Brent James of Georgia Power meets with Colquitt County High School students during a job fair Thursday. The job fair is a key component of Project Purpose, a union of education and business leaders working to help CCHS students find their path forward after graduation. Bloomberg photo by Callaghan O'Hare. (Bloomberg) -- Occidental Petroleum Corp. is buying back $2.5 billion of its bonds as the junk-rated company seeks to cut debt after reporting better-than-expected earnings with rising crude prices. The oil producer launched a tender offer Monday to repurchase 15 tranches of notes with maturities ranging from 2023 to 2049. Some of its targeted bonds gained. The $663 million of 4.1% unsecured notes due in 2047 vaulted 5 cents to 92.5 cents on the dollar Monday morning, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The U.S. of A isnt the only country whose political leaders have graced movie and television screens. Before he became the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a comedian and a television star. Advertisement The former Dancing with the Stars winner was also the voice of Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian version of the hit 2014 live-action comedy film and its sequel. President Volodymyr Zelensky provided the voice for Paddington bear when the film was released in Ukraine. Social media chatter erupted Sunday about Zelenskyy serving as the voice of the beloved childrens literature character. Advertisement According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paddington producer StudioCanal confirmed on Monday that the 44-year-old creator and star Servant of the People is indeed the Ukrainian voice heard in 2014s Paddington and its 2017 sequel Paddington 2. Production of Paddington 3 is reportedly in the works, with actor Ben Whishaw attached to the project. No word if Zelensky will revive his involvement, considering his new role as the Ukrainian resistance leader. Based on the best-selling series of childrens stories by British author Michael Bond, Paddington has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide and have been translated into over 40 languages. The Mary Allen Seminary, located on top of a hill in the East Texas town of Crockett, is one of the oldest colleges in Texas where black women could receive a higher education. First established in 1886 by the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church, the four-story building, which later became the Mary Allen Junior College, finally closed down for good in 1972. It's a significant landmark in Texas and American history. However, the historic structure has fallen into disrepair over the last 50 years. Robbie Brown, a historical and paranormal investigator and content creator from Devine, recently took an excursion out to the site to assess the state of things. Robbie Brown "When I got inside it was one of the most extremely hazardous places I've ever been, only for the fact that it was four stories and all three top stories were caved in. Even the back corner of the building was collapsed to the ground," said Brown. While the exterior brick remains mostly intact today, the interior has fallen victim to the elements. A 1983 document from the National Register of Historic Places states that the building suffered damages from various fires, as well as from Hurricane Carla in 1962. "Once the site of a 12-building campus and the home of a noted academic program of quality education and religion, this site serves as a reminder of the proud heritage of Texas' black population," a sign on the property reads. More historical Photos: Photos show Splashtown after permanently closing last summer Robbie Brown Robbie Brown With friend and fellow explorer Nick, otherwise known as "Project Bad," Brown captured the dilapidated building on camera for his exploratory YouTube channel, Unknown Ventures. "After doing the video there, what it left me thinking was like 'man, what can be done for that place to help save it?'" said Brown. The institution began as a boarding school, and was named after the wife of Reverend Richard Allen, who was a part of The Board of Missions for Freedmen. Mary Allen was instrumental in raising the organizational funds for the new seminary, according to signage on the property, and helped the organization along with Reverend Samuel Fisher Tenney to establish the school. In 1924, the program was restructured when Dr. Byrd R. Smith became the school's first black president. With expanded programming, he enabled students to get teaching certificates. In 1933, Smith transitioned the seminary into a coeducational junior college, accredited by the State Department of Education, according to official documents. However, Smith's death in 1941 and the outbreak of World War II resulted in a blow to enrollment. In 1943, the school was sold to the General Baptist Convention of Texas, before shuttering in the early 70s. "I would love to see something done with the seminary in a positive way, of course. I just wish something would be done to preserve it better, because I mean, it's getting older, and based off what I was reading from locals it's getting in worse shape," he continued. The Mary Allen Museum in Crockett did not immediately reply for MySA's request for comment about the state of the building, however, previous reporting has described monetary roadblocks to maintaining the historic site. Robbie Brown Robbie Brown "That's what I try to do is make these videos and bring back to life a lot of these old places and show that there is some value no matter what. You know, paranormal value or or historical value, it all tells a story" said Brown. Since 2020, Brown has visited historic and haunted places across the country. In San Antonio, he has also recently explored the shuttered Splashtown location as well as the haunted Victoria's Black Swan Inn. More Black History:'We will carry the torch': San Antonio's Eastside mourns passing of Carver Center leader Inside Hook Its that wonderful time of year again when Girl Scouts set up shop outside grocery stores and in office buildings around the country, peddling delicious cookies that will almost definitely be gobbled up in one sitting. Unfortunately, this also means its once again time for the girls selling those cookies (some as young as five) to be harassed by grown ass adults for absolutely no reason. According to a recent report from Insider, harassment of Girl Scouts just trying to sell some cookies is nothing new, but it has gotten worse in recent years. One L.A.-based scout parent suggested the harassment has worsened in the past 10 years or so, and even more significantly since the pandemic. But what kind of problems could someone possibly have with an innocent girl whos just trying to sell them some beloved cookies? According to Insider, Girl Scouts selling cookies are subject to all kinds of bullying, aggression and mean-spirited comments from adults who take issue with everything from the inflated price of the cookies and their caloric content to the Girl Scouts rumored ties to Planned Parenthood and use of environmentally unfriendly palm oil. Meanwhile, the girls are also routinely subjected to plenty of fat-shaming and plain old sexual harassment. Oviedo Mall shoppers spotting a different name on the Barnes & Noble store dont need to worry that the chain bookseller has left, but some might get nostalgic about the change. The malls book store switched names to B. Dalton Bookseller in February, making it the only location for the brand that Barnes & Noble acquired in 1987, according to an unsigned statement sent in response to questions from the Orlando Sentinel. Advertisement The only thing that has changed is the name, said Josh Gunderson, the malls marketing director. Having them around is a huge plus for us. The Oviedo Mall Barnes & Noble has changed names to B. Dalton Bookseller. (Courtesy of Josh Gunderson) Barnes & Noble wanted to freshen up the location, the statement said. The company is giving all of its stores more autonomy as each location looks to better serve local customers. Advertisement At a meeting with some of our Florida booksellers, the suggestion was made to try the B. Dalton Bookseller branding, given that the store is unusual in its smaller size than the majority of Barnes & Noble stores, the statement said. The space is 10,000 square feet, Gunderson said. The switch follows the nearby Waterford Lakes Barnes & Noble shutting its doors in September after 21 years to make way for a Nike Unite store and specialty gift business The Paper Store. Barnes & Noble has not yet found a new home for the Waterford Lakes location. The owners of Colonial Plaza near downtown Orlando are also considering tearing down the Barnes & Noble and a couple of other businesses in that plaza and building apartments, according to a report in GrowthSpotter. The B. Dalton Bookseller brand has only been used online in recent years. The chain once had hundreds of stores including on Park Avenue in Winter Park, which closed there in 1999. Barnes & Noble remaining, albeit with a new name, is good news for Oviedo Mall, which has weathered the departures of big name shops such as Macys, Sears, and Victorias Secret. afuller@orlandosentinel.com Local governments expect to receive more than $18 million of the landmark $26 billion settlement reached with major drug distributors over the opioid crisis. More than $300 million is expected to come to South Carolina over the next 18 years, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Friday. The settlement money is expected to begin arriving later this year. These settlements will provide much-needed financial resources which will help combat South Carolinas opioid epidemic, Wilson said in a news release. My Office looks forward to working with stakeholders around the state to ensure that these dollars have the greatest impact possible in each of our communities. The deal involves three pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen as well as Johnson & Johnson. Nationwide, more than 4,000 claims were filed by state and local governments regarding opioids. The governments accused the companies of understating the risk of addiction to medical professionals and not following federal requirements for tracking opioid shipments. The settlement is the second-largest multi-state agreement in history, according to Wilsons office. Only the tobacco industry settlement was larger. All of the states 46 counties are eligible for funding as well as 43 municipalities and the Health Services District of Kershaw County. Locally, Horry County Government could receive the most money: nearly $12 million, according to the attorney generals office. Myrtle Beach is projected to receive as much as $4.3 million while North Myrtle Beach ($1.4 million) and Conway ($660,000) are also eligible for settlement funding. Robert Kittle, a spokesman for the S.C. Attorney Generals Office, said there are some caveats to the settlement. For example, the local government funding is contingent upon the state meeting certain benchmarks, such as passing legislation prohibiting further lawsuits. If there were other suits after this settlement, the amount of money the state would get would be less, Kittle said in an email. So these numbers are not set in stone. Its also important to stress that this money will be paid out over 18 years. This is not a big lump sum coming in all at once. Duncan_Andison/Getty Images/iStockphoto Jacksonville City Council is scheduled to meet in regular session by 7 p.m. today in the Municipal Building, 200 W. Douglas Ave. The meeting will follow a 6 p.m. workshop, and will be available online on the city's website. TALLAHASSEE A Leon County circuit judge Monday approved a plan that will transfer as many as 147,000 customers of Orlando-based St. Johns Insurance Co., which has been placed under state receivership amid widespread financial problems in the property-insurance industry. Judge Angela Dempsey issued an order that will shift the policies to Slide Insurance Co., effective Tuesday. The Florida Department of Financial Services, which was appointed receiver on Friday, asked Dempsey to approve the transition plan. Advertisement The Office (of Insurance Regulation) and the receiver represent that, without the transition plan, as many as 147,000 of respondents (St. Johns) policyholders would be canceled with 30 days notice and forced to seek replacement coverage; approximately 2,000 of respondents independent agents would be searching to find such coverage in Floridas challenging residential property insurance market, the transition plan said. Customers will receive new coverage from Slide without needing to file applications or pay premiums that they have already paid to St. Johns, according to the plan. Slide will cover losses that occur starting Tuesday. Advertisement Due to the exigent circumstances and the current state of the Florida property and casualty insurance market, the transition plan will give the St. Johns policyholders continuous coverage for the remainder of their policy period and offer a glide path to a new insurance policy at their regular renewal time, attorneys for the Department of Financial Services Division of Rehabilitation and Liquidation, wrote Friday in a motion to approve the transition plan. Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier last week sent a letter to state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis that said St. Johns had agreed to receivership and acknowledged that it is insolvent. A 1,418-mile carbon-capture pipeline that will cross through west-central Illinois on its way from South Dakota to a sequestration site in Christian County will be the focus of a members-only Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau meeting Tuesday. About 125 miles of the Heartland Greenway System will go through Morgan, Brown, Scott and Sangamon counties under its proposed path. A separate line would tap into the system near the Adams-Schuyler counties border, carrying captured carbon dioxide through McDonough, Schuyler and other counties. The Farm Bureau meeting at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Prairieland FS, 1132 Veterans Drive, is intended to help answer questions and listen to any concerns about the project that is being planned by Dallas-based Navigator CO2 Ventures. The company said in October that it had obtained necessary board approvals to proceed with the pipeline system and has started the process to obtain necessary permits. Under its timetable, the pipeline could go on line in late 2024 and into early 2025. Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the manufacturing process. Carbon capturing is designed to keep the environment-damaging gas from being released into the atmosphere by catching the emissions, which then are dehydrated and compressed into a liquid form that can be piped to a storage location. Once at the sequestration site, it is injected and stored about 6,400 feet into a sandstone formation more than twice as deep as any water sources. Pipeline supporters said it initially would keep as much as 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year from being released into the atmosphere and would have the capacity to capture up to 15 million metric tons. That's like eliminating "the carbon footprint of (the) Des Moines metro area three times over," according to the company. Heartland Greenway backers said there will be safety measures built into the construction process, but at least one group is publicly opposing the plan over what it said are health and safety concerns posed by liquified carbon dioxide pipelines. The Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance said it is especially concerned about routes through residential areas. "Carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant and displaces oxygen. In too high quantities, it can cause unconsciousness or death. Lesser amounts can cause convulsions, disorientation, foaming at the mouth, nausea, vomiting and other health problems," according to a spokesman. Pipeline representatives met with people in the region in January to address some of the concerns, and Navigator CO2 Ventures representative Elizabeth Burns-Thompson said the company plans to return to discuss agriculture-related issues, including mitigation agreements. To register for the Farm Bureau meeting, call 217-245-6833 or email cmfb1@frontier.com. Some west-central Illinois law enforcement agencies are struggling to find qualified candidates to fill vacant positions and, when they do manage to fill a position, getting training for the new hire also has been a challenge. Morgan County Sheriff's Department has two open patrol positions while the department awaits training openings at the Illinois State Police Academy, Sheriff Mike Carmody said. "We currently have a list of eight people, but none are scheduled for schools," Carmody said. "We are on a waiting list. As soon as a spot opens up, we'll get someone in there." Many of those on the waiting list are working at Morgan County Detention Center and the move to patrol will be a lateral one when it happens "I doubt we'll get a spot in one of the academies in 2022," Carmody said. Though Cass County Sheriff's Department currently is fully staffed, Sheriff Devron Ohrn said there has been some discussion about adding another position, and any of his deputies could take other jobs. "We are, luckily, in good shape right now, but that could change," Ohrn said. "It used to be when you had a job opening, you had no fear of finding someone." When he does have an open position now, Ohrn is lucky to receive 10% of the number of applications he used to, he said. Of that 10%, even fewer already are trained, he said. Beardstown Police Chief Martin Coad said he has one open position and may have a second open by year's end with few prospects to fill them. "We tested two weeks ago. We had four people tested," Coad said. "Of those four, only two passed." Even if they pass the testing, it would be a year or more before they could get into the academy for training, Coad said, noting that he counts himself lucky that a call he made in October about training for a new hire resulted in a spot in the April academy. Four candidates is a low turnout for testing, he said. "We use to get 30 people for a test; now we get four," Coad said. "Part of it is the environment. Nobody wants to be a cop." While being a cop once was a top dream job of young children, that's changed with the perception of police and the challenges facing police departments and officers, Coad said. "We get a few for who this is all they've ever dreamed about doing, and they are great," Coad said. "But they have become few and far between. We don't get seasoned officers applying. In fact, many seasoned officers are taking their retirement." Illinois' recent criminal justice reform legislation also adds to concerns for current and future law enforcement officers, Coad said. The legislation requires all police officers to wear body cameras by 2025. It ends cash bail in Illinois, bans police from using chokeholds, and establishes new guidelines for "decertification" of police officers. Being a law enforcement officer is difficult and fewer people want to make the commitment, Ohrn said. "It's the different shifts the night shifts, the time away from family," Ohrn said. "It isn't as appealing as it once was. The perception is that the public doesn't support the police, but I think it's the opposite. I think at least around here that 99% of people support police. It's just that 1% that is overshadowing the others." If this were an ordinary column, I'd offer some neat prescription or exhort policymakers to take action on the solution to the crisis happening in Ukraine that's staring them in the face. But the truth is that I don't have a pithy solution or a sound bite-sized call to action as the United States and its allies confront a humanitarian disaster in the making. There are no easy answers. The fact that we are even in this place to begin with is the fruit of two decades of failures and missteps, across presidential administrations, to bring Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to heel. I do, however, know one thing: There is only one language that a bully and murderous thug such as Putin understands. And if our nation and elected leaders truly are serious about defending liberal democracy in Ukraine and around the world , they have to speak loudly, and with one voice, and tell Putin he can go no further. I realize this is far easier said than done. It's hard enough for the United States to speak with one voice at home on the most basic of issues. It is a problem exacerbated by our polarized politics and the sad reality that there's a whole segment of one of the major political parties that has proven, through its actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and beyond, that it has little to no interest in democratic norms. It can appallingly dismiss the carnage of that horrible day as an exercise in legitimate political discourse, and actively try to erase from its ranks those who think otherwise. I am also painfully aware of the kind of reality distortion field that must be erected to decry Putin's war of choice in Ukraine, even as the specter of three decades of American misadventures in the Persian Gulf and a war of choice in Iraq glares over our collective shoulder. But it's clear that every tool in the international community's arsenal, short of direct force, has to be deployed as Putin tries to reset the international order that traces its origins to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the former Soviet Union that followed just a few years later. Make no mistake, that is his goal a resurgent Russia that stands above the west. On Thursday, President Joe Biden piled more sanctions on Russia, decrying Putin's "brutal assault" on Ukraine and its people. The Pentagon ordered an additional 7,000 soldiers to Europe, a move that cheered allies but surely sent a shudder through American military families already weary of more than two decades of continuous war. A veteran armed forces officer told me that they were closely watching developments in Ukraine unfold, and the Pentagon's response to it. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity so that they could speak freely, said a U.S. response could start with such rapidly deployable forces as the 82nd Airborne Division, as was the case with the evacuation of Kabul Airport last year. Indeed, elements of the 82nd already have deployed to Poland, according to published reports. A military response is surely the least palatable and most potentially catastrophic option. History teaches that ground engagements with the Russians never end well. As one expert notes, that currently does not appear to be in the cards. Instead, "the U.S. is rallying the world to isolate Russia through economic sanctions and to respond to cyber attacks," analyst Jon Hutson wrote on Twitter. And with Putin muttering threateningly about nuclear strikes if the west launches reprisal attacks, according to The Telegraph, the West cannot engage in similar saber-rattling. That's effectively how Europe blundered into World War I. Still, there's no middle ground here. This is a battle between good and evil. "Everything that the Kremlin says is a lie. Please dont both sides this," podcaster and analyst Terrell Jermaine Starr wrote on Twitter. "Putin is killing innocent people and Ukraine did nothing to deserve it." That's a message that needs to be repeated over and over again. To the editor: The contemporary world we live in is a world characterized by disorder-confusion, contradiction, conflict, chaos the list goes on and on. Lawlessness has taken center stage as one result of socialist-inspired people who have been elevated to positions of power and authority. These people seek one common selfish goal, that being to expand their realm of authority, power and influence, which brings them great material wealth, the fruits of unbridled greed. Tactics employed by these arrogant, egotistical, self-acclaimed "elites" are lies, deception and hypocrisy on a scale that defies comprehension. And the shame of these tactics employed by shameless political hypocrites is that the targeted constituency they play to, whether it be the blue collar working class, people of color, trade unions, etc., whoever or whatever they perceive that can be used to enhance their power base, voluntarily become merchandise and nothing more than forgotten dupes of broken promises or political chattel who sell their souls to aid these racist political hacks in cementing their position of power and prestige. Therein lies the ultimate evil of "progressive" socialism, the characteristics of which are best described as visions decorated with a multitude of "free" promises that eventually become dashed in the cold reality of emptiness, deception, distrust and division in the masses who voluntarily surrender the freedoms of their God-given citizenship for the bondage of servitude to the fascist whims of satanic-inspired politicians. Such is the sad and sorry state of a world that has forgotten their creator. In particular, shame rests on the once freedom-leading nations of America and Canada for allowing such to occur in our lands so richly blessed by God. Roger True Murrayville Students pick up masks during arrival at Maitland Middle School on the first day of classes after the winter break, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Orange County Public Schools announced Monday it was reinstating its mask mandate for all employees, visitors and vendors to Orange County's 200+ campuses, but not students. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) (Joe Burbank/AP) Orange County Public Schools is ending its last masking requirement on Monday due to low COVID-19 caseloads. OCPS families and employees, due to the continuing decline of COVID-19 cases in our district and in the community, the use of face masks will be voluntary for all adults beginning Monday, Feb. 28, a statement on the OCPS Facebook page read. Remember, anyone exhibiting illness or symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home. Advertisement The school system issued a mask mandate for adults when COVID-19 cases reached record highs at the beginning of January. Masks have been optional for students since November, when Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature passed a law banning mask mandates in public schools. As of Saturday there were three confirmed COVID-19 cases in the school system according to the OCPS dashboard, down from 10 on Friday. Orange Countys seven-day new case positivity rate is down to 6.9% as of Friday according to the Florida Department of Health. Advertisement According to criteria issued on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Orange County still has a high level of COVID-19. Everyone should wear a mask in public indoor areas, including schools, in areas with high COVID-19 levels in the community, the CDC said Friday. ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com President Joe Biden View Photo President Biden spoke about his nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court. Biden was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words: Today, as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, Im here to fulfill my responsibilities under the Constitution to preserve freedom and liberty here in the United States of America. And its my honor to introduce to the country a daughter of former public school teachers, a proven consensus builder, an accomplished lawyer, a distinguished jurist one of the nations most on one of the nations most prestigious courts. My nominee for the United States Supreme Court is Judge Ketanji Jackson. You know, four weeks ago, when a member of the Court a friend of mine; we used to work together in the Senate Justice Stephen Breyer, announced his retirement, I said then choosing someone to serve on the United States Supreme Court is one of the most serious constitutional responsibilities a President has. And I mean it. I promised the process would be rigorous, that I would select a nominee worthy of Justice Breyers legacy of excellence and decency someone extremely qualified, with a brilliant legal mind, with the utmost character and integrity, which are equally as important. And that I would bring this decision to this decision my perspective as a lawyer; a former Constitutional law professor; chairman of the Judiciary Committee for many, many years; and Im almost reluctant to say it someone who has presided over more Supreme Court nominations than almost anyone living today, which makes me 28 years old (laughter) I started doing it when I was 32 and who has devoted much of my career to thinking about the Constitution and the role of the Supreme Court. With that perspective, I carefully studierd [sic] the re- studied the records of candidates. Ive invited senators of both parties to offer their ideas and points of view, and Ive met with a number of them. As a result, because I truly respect not only the consent I know they give consent, but it says the Constitution says advice and consent, and I sought the advice of Democrats and Republicans. Ive consulted with leading legal scholars and lawyers. And Ive been fortunate to have the advice of the Vice President Harris and I mean this sincerely an exceptional lawyer, a former Attorney General of California, and a former member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. And during this process, I looked for someone who, like Justice Breyer, has a pragmatic understanding that the law must work for the American people. Someone who has the historical perspective to understand that the Constitution is a resilient charter of liberty. Someone with the wisdom to appreciate that the Constitution protects certain inalienable rights rights that fall within the most fundamental personal freedoms that our society recognizes. And then, someone with extraordinary character, who will bring to the Supreme Court an independent mind, uncompromising integrity, and with a strong moral compass and the courage to stand up for what she thinks is right. For too long, our government, our courts havent looked like America. And I believe its time that we have a Court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level. Ive admired these traits of pragmatism, historical perspective, wisdom, character in the jurists nominated by Republican presidents as well as Democratic presidents. And today, Im pleased to introduce to the American people a candidate who continues in this great tradition. Judge Jackson grew up in Miami, Florida. And by the way, the mayor of Miami a Republican endorsed you; I thought that was interesting. Her parents grew up with segregation but never gave up hope that their children would enjoy the true promise of America. Her parents graduated from Historic Brac- Black Colleges and become public school teachers her mom, a principal; her Dad, a teacher, who later went back to school and became a lawyer representing that very school district that school board. Judge Jackson describes finding her love for the law from an apartment complex at the University of Miami where her dad was attending law school. Shed draw in her coloring book at the dining room table, next to her dads law books. She grew up to be a star student elected mayor of her junior high school and president of her high school class, where she was a standout she was a standout on the speech and debate team. And it was after a debate tournament that took place at Harvard when she was in high school that she believed she could one day be a student there. There were those who told her she shouldnt set her sights too high, but she refused to accept limits others set for her. She did go on to Harvard undergraduate school, where she graduated magna cum laude. She went into to attend Harvard Law School, where she was a top student and editor of the prestigious Law Review. Then she applied for a highly competitive and coveted clerkship on the United States Supreme Court, and she was selected. The justice who thought that she was worthy of this high honor was a young lawyer. It was none other than Justice Stephen Breyer, whos seat I am nominating her to fill. Not only did she learn about being a judge from Justice Breyer himself, she saw the great rigor through which Justice Breyer approached his work. She learned from his willingness to work with colleagues with different viewpoints critical qualities for in my view, for any Supreme Court Justice. Now, years later, she steps up to fill Justice Breyers place on the Court with a uniquely accomplished and wide-ranging background. She has served both in public service as a federal public defender a federal public defender and in private law practice as an accomplished lawyer in pr- with a prestigious law firm. If confirmed, she will join Justice Sotomayor as the only other member of the United States Supreme Court who has experience as a trial court judge - a critical qualification, in my view. And once again following in the footsteps of her mentor, Justice Breyer, she would become the only member of the Court who previously served as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission. And she brings an additional perspective to the Court as well. She comes from a family of law enforcement, with her brother and uncles having served as police officers. Thats one reason, I expect, why the Fraternal Order of Police the national organization today said, and I quote, There is little doubt [that] she has the temperament, the intellect, and the legal experience, and family background to have earned this appointment. And they went on to say they are confident she will, quote, approach her future cases with an open mind and treat issues related to law enforcement fairly and justly. Incredibly, Judge Jackson has already been confirmed by the United States Senate three times. First, to serve on the U.S. Sentencing Commission a bipartisan, independent commission we help I helped design to reduce the unwarranted disparities in sentencing and promote transparency and fairness in the criminal justice system. On the commission, Judge Jackson was known for working with Democrats and Republicans to find common ground on critical issues. Second, she was concerned by confirmed by the United States Senate with bipartisan support on the federal district court to administer justice with the special rigors and fairness that come with presiding over trials. And third, she was confirmed with a bipartisan Senate vote to serve on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, considered the second most powerful court behind the Supreme Court itself and the court she once argued cases before as a distinguished advocate. And when Judge Jackson was nominated to this Circuit Court, one of its distinguished retired members, Judge Thomas Griffith, a former general counsel of Brigham Young University and a George Bush appointee to that court said he backed her enthusiastically, hailing her hailing her exemplary legal career in both public and private practice and, he went on to say, her careful approach as a trial court judge. Judge Jacksons service on the District Circuit Court of for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is another superb qualification for service on the Supreme Court. Three of her of the current Supreme Court Justices also served with the D.C. Circuit judges where Judge Jackson now serves. Her opinions are always carefully reasoned, tethered to precedent, and demonstrate refrect respect for how the law impacts everyday people. It doesnt mean she puts her thumb on the scale of justice one way or the other, but she understands the broader impact of her decisions. Whether its cases addressing the rights of workers or government service, she cares about making sure that our democracy works for the American people. She listens. She looks people in the eye lawyers, defendants, victims, and families. And she strives to ensure that everyone understands why she made a decision, what the law is, and what it means to them. She strives to be fair, to get it right, to do justice. Thats something all of us should remember, and its something Ive thought about throughout this process. And as a matter of fact, I thought about it walking over here with her. One floor below, we have several displays celebrating Black History Month. One of them includes the judicial oath of office taken and signed by Justice Thurgood Marshall himself an oath that will be once again administered to a distinguished American who will help write the next chapter in the history of the journey of America a journey that Judge Jackson will take with her family. I hope I dont embarrass him, but her husband, Patrick a surgeon Dr. Patrick, stand up. Let them see who you are. There you go. They met when they were undergraduate students at Harvard, and hes a distinguished cancer surgeon at Georgetown. And like so many women in this country, Judge Jackson is a working mom. She had her eldest child, Talia, when she was a private lawyer in practice. She had her second child, Leila, when she served as U- on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Stand up, Leila. I asked Leila, when I showed her through the office, whether shed like to be president. She looked, No, I dont know about that. (Laughter.) Theres other things that anyway, Leila, youre welcome to be here. Thank you so much. And welcome your sister, whos up in school in Rhode Island now. I have children and grandchildren. Let me tell you, Judge, youre always a mom. Thats not going to change no matter what youre doing. Youre on whether youre on the Supreme Court or not. And Ive always had a deep respect for the Supreme Court and judiciary as a coequal branch of the government, and I mean it. The Court is equally as important as the presidency or the Congress. Its coequal. So, today, Im pleased to nominate Judge Jackson, who will bring extraordinary qualifications, deep experience and intellect, and a rigorous judicial record to the Court. Judge Jackson deserves to be confirmed as the next justice of the Supreme Court. Ive met with the chairman and ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Chuck Grassley, and my hope is that they will move promptly, and I know theyll move fairly. Judge Jackson, congratulations. The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML. Jason Michael Buckley -CCSO Image View Photo Valley Springs, CA The Calaveras County Sheriffs Office has put out a public notice that a sex offender was recently released from confinement several states away and relocated to the county. The sheriffs office wants the community to know that Jason Michael Buckley, 35, of North Dakota, was convicted of sexual assault in a juvenile court, and then reoffended at age 20. Buckley was released from custody two weeks ago and has since moved to Valley Springs. In explaining the details of why the sheriff wants the community to know this information, the office reports, The purpose of this release is to enhance public safety and allow members of the public to protect themselves and their children from sex offenders. Adding, Buckley is not wanted by law enforcement. This is a release of information only. The sheriffs office reports that Buckley has been residing in the area of Baldwin Street in Valley Springs. Masking Will Be Optional in California Schools Later Next Month Sacramento, CA Governor Gavin Newsom announces that mask requirements in California schools and childcare settings will be dropped effective March 12. It falls on a Saturday, so the first-day students will no longer be required to mask up is Monday, March 14. He cites the declining COVID-19 case rate. The governor says masks will still be recommended, but not required. The governor has recently been criticized for loosening mask requirements in most public settings, but not schools. Newsom says, We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward. The governor states that individual school districts, counties, and cities will still have the ability to implement their own masking requirements, if they so choose. The governors of Washington and Oregon also announced similar plans today to lift the masking requirement in schools on March 12. Police arrested a man who was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight trying to take off from Orlando International Airport last week after witnesses said he tried to get other passengers to take off their face masks. Chad Breaux, 43, or River Ridge, Louisiana was arrested by officers with the Orlando Police Department responding to a call about a disturbance ahead of Flight 2419 to New Orleans at around 3 p.m. Thursday. Advertisement Crew members said Breaux was acting strange and began yelling at other passengers saying at one point, If you were a man, you would not be wearing a mask, according to the OPD arrest report. Breaux was reportedly not complying with the airlines face mask requirement of wearing it at all times during the flight including during boarding and disembarking the plane. Advertisement The arrest report said that as officers were voluntarily escorting the arrestee off the flight he became irate and aggressive toward the officers. The report stated one officer had to shove Breaux back with an open hand because they felt Breaux was going to strike. After getting off the plan, Breaux continued to yell profanities towards these officers and the passengers who were standing by, the report said, once again announcing, If you are a man or woman, you would not wear a mask. The report said Breaux become more angry and aggressive and poked an officer in their right shoulder, and then approached another officer who said they felt threatened. Breaux was then placed under arrest and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, assault on an LEO and disorderly conduct. . Bond was set at $2,750. An Orange County deputy was arrested by West Melbourne police Saturday for allegedly driving under the influence, the Sheriffs Office said Monday. Deputy Zachary Erickson was pulled over around 12:30 a.m. after police clocked him driving 79 mph in a 40 mph zone, according to an arrest affidavit. Advertisement Erickson, 29, had a strong odor of alcohol coming from him, slurred speech and glassy eyes, the report said. Officers noted his irrational behavior and inability to stand up straight in the report. Erickson told officers he had beers earlier that evening, the affidavit said, and refused a field sobriety test. He was taken to the Brevard County jail, where he later bonded out, according to online records. Advertisement Erickson, who was hired by OCSO in 2016, has been removed from patrol and reassigned to administrative duties during the DUI investigation, according to an unsigned statement from the agency. lgarza@orlandosentinel.com Theron and Kelci Jagge's driver sped through Kyiv, flying over train tracks and darting through traffic in a mad dash to reach the U.S. Embassy. The couple was on a desperate mission to secure a visa for their adopted son before embassy personnel were pulled out of Ukraine's capital. The couple got there as the doors were closing on Feb. 11, and their driver and interpreter had to coax embassy staffers to let them in, Theron Jagge told The Washington Post. "He basically pushed us in the door and made them take us." The embassy processed the visa, Jagge said. The rest was supposed to be smooth sailing. The San Antonio couple had arrived in Ukraine about two weeks earlier to adopt 4-year-old Ruslan from an orphanage in Donetsk - an eastern region claimed and partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists. The close call at the embassy marked the start of the Jagges' frantic attempt to leave Ukraine ahead of a possible Russian invasion. Early on Feb. 12, Theron, Kelci and their newest family member were ready to hop on a 6 a.m. flight and begin their journey back to the United States. But when they got to the airport, Jagge said, border guards would not let them pass. Instead, the family was taken into an office and told that Ruslan could not leave Ukraine. The boy would have to wait another 30 days, according to adoption requirements. By that time, some 130,000 Russian troops had amassed outside the country's borders as U.S. officials warned of an imminent invasion, The Post reported. Only hours before the Jagges had arrived at the airport with their son, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told all Americans in Ukraine to "leave as soon as possible." "If you stay, you are assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave, and no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion," Sullivan said. But the family was not only facing the threat of war. Ruslan has cerebral palsy, and his health "was deteriorating," Jagge said. The boy was running a fever and had pneumonia. He was also suffering severe withdrawal symptoms from medications he'd been given at the orphanage, Jagge said. "We had gotten to the point where it was a real concern that we would run out of medicine for him," he told The Post. There was "a lot piling up against us." During the five hours the family was kept in an office at the airport, Jagge said, arguments ensued. Border guards told the couple their child would need to remain in Ukraine for another month, Jagge recalled. Theron and Kelci Jagge argued that the requirement had been waived because of Ruslan's medical condition and that border agents were reading the documents wrong, Jagge said. But the guards repeatedly told the couple, "Our decision is final," Jagge said. After seven hours in the airport, and having missed their flight, the family went back to an apartment in the city. That's when they realized the crisis was intensifying, Jagge said. Residents were being advised to stock up on water and supplies in the event of power outages, he recalled. Meanwhile, the Jagges met with a lawyer who said she could argue their case to the guards, but the attorney warned they only had about a 50% chance of success. In what Jagge referred to as a miracle, it worked. On Feb. 14, the lawyer was able to get Ruslan cleared to leave the country, Jagge said. While flights out of Ukraine were getting harder to find, the Jagges managed to book one to Istanbul. From there, the family flew to the United States and rushed the boy to the hospital. About 10 days later, Russian troops invaded Ukraine and attacks on cities, including Kyiv, followed. U.S. government officials said early Friday the capital could soon fall to advancing Russian troops, The Post reported. Ruslan, meanwhile, remains in an intensive care unit, Jagge said, and "he's doing a lot better now." Once released, the boy will join the Jagges and their two other children - an 11-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son - just outside San Antonio. But Theron Jagge continues to think of the 80-odd children at the orphanage from which he and his wife had adopted Ruslan. Kramatorsk, the city in Eastern Ukraine where the orphanage is located, has experienced multiple explosions, according to BuzzFeed and the New York Times. Jagge also reflected on where he would be if things did not go their way. "It's a very real possibility that we would still be in Ukraine," he told The Post. "It's a very real possibility that Ruslan would either be on his deathbed or he would not have made it." "For me to say that was something other than a miracle, I would just be kidding myself," Jagge added. "We should still be there in a lot of ways. There's no reason why we realistically should have gotten out of there - but we did." Sadie Layher/MySA In an act of solidarity with Ukraine, Governor Greg Abbott has asked the Texas Restaurant Association, Texas Package Stores Association, and all Texas retailers to voluntarily remove all Russian products from their shelves in a tweet last weekend. It's one of several government sanctions taking place all over the world in an attempt to cripple Russia's economy and stifle it's armed forces. "Texas stands with Ukraine," the governor wrote on Twitter on the afternoon of Saturday, February 26. TPWD Brodey Davis, an angler from Oklahoma, recently caught one of the largest Texas ShareLunkers largemouth bass in the past 30 years while fishing on O.H. Ivie Lake on February 24. His bass weighed 17.06 pounds, making it the seventh largest in the program in Texas history and the new pending lake record for O.H. Ivie, according to the Toyota ShareLunker program with Texas Parks and Wildlife. The last largest bass caught in Texas was set in 1992 when Barry StClair reeled in an 18.18 pounds bass from Lake Fork. Cody Hooks A bull ride lasts eight seconds, but a lot can go wrong in those eight seconds. A father is being praised on social media after a viral video shows him saving his son from a charging bull at a Texas rodeo show earlier this month. His son, Cody Hooks, was thrown from his bull while participating in a rodeo event in Belton, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The video showed Hooks getting knocked unconscious right out the gate. The bull prepares to charge Hooks, however, his father Landis Hooks, jumped into the arena and drapes himself over his son's body to protect him. Johannes Beermann: Cash of the future Bank of International Settlements. Beermann is the member of the Bundesbank Executive Board responsible for cash. Worth a read. Fraud and embezzlement allegations at Austrian group stun investors FT. Stunned, I tell ya! Climate #COVID19 This AI can detect DNA that unlocks backdoors in lab software The Register. Does this mean that wastewater surveillance can be gamed? China? Myanmar Australia was quick to sanction Moscow. Why not Myanmar? The Lowy Interpreter Perceptions of corruption are growing in Australia, and its costing the economy The Conversation India Ukraine war: Asia is caught in rip tide of power polarisation and sanctions chaos South China Morning Post New Not-So-Cold War Syraqistan Peace has led to more deforestation in Colombia Frontiers Science News How Brazils largest crime syndicate built a global drug empire FT Biden Administration Biden administration to push congress for $6.4 billion in aid to Ukraine Schumer Reuters. The Admiralty had demanded six ships; the economists offered four; and we finally compromised on eight. Winston Churchill Supply Chain Drewry: Container Port Throughput Index Hits Lowest Point Since February Hellenic Shipping News Class Warfare Mutual Aid Thomas Hobbes, Laphams Quarterly. From 1640, still germane. Antidote du jour (via): See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here Russias assault on Ukraine has spawned a variety of protests across the globe. In the United States, governors from Ohio, Utah, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania have called on liquor stores to remove Russian-made or Russian-branded products from their shelves and Tennessee's Gov. Bill Lee has called on the state's treasurer to investigate any possible Russian holdings. Here in Nashville, some folks are looking to send a message with their wallets: Support Ukraine. Nestled in a strip mall on Thompson Lane, Alekseys is a small Eastern European market known for its caviar, Moldovan salami, Ukrainian candies and over-the-counter remedies. The Ukrainian-owned shop has experienced an overwhelming amount of support in recent days. People are coming in telling us they heard about us on NextDoor or Facebook,'' says a cashier on Monday afternoon. Most of them dont even know what to buy, but they want to buy something. Case in point: Fred and Ivan Scott, an elderly Brentwood couple. The pair say they decided to venture out to the Berry Hill market after seeing a post on NextDoor. A self-admitted fish out of water, Fred, holding a basket full of Ukrainian candies, says he simply asked the owners to help him pick out Ukrainian products. This is my first time coming here, Fred says. But Ill definitely be back. These are some of the best dark chocolates Ive ever had. Twenty years ago, Yuriy Kvaternyuk and his wife Yevheniya emigrated from Ukraine to Nashville seeking a better life for their then 1-year-old son Maksim. We never could get ahead, says Yuriy, rattling off the string of jobs he held in Ukraine, from delivery man to car dealer. My friends were in Nashville. Like millions of people, we came for a better life. Both found work at Alekseys Yuriy as a chef and Yevheniya as a cashier. Two years later, in 2004, the Kvaternyuks bought the business from owner Aleksey Khimenko. The two sought to grow the grocery store and continue to blend the heritages of their homelands Ukraine and Russia. Yuriy is a Ukrainian native, and Yevheniya has Russian roots. She says her family moved to Russia when she was a young girl. She and Yuriy found love and began a family in Vinnitsa, which is about a three-hour drive from Kyiv, Ukraines capital. Prior to Russias invasion of Ukraine, the couple remained neutral on Eastern European and Russian conflicts. Eight years ago, when Russia invaded Crimea, the Kvaternyuks say they kept their opinions to themselves, as customers had divergent views on the Putin power-grab. They showcased their neutrality by hanging Russian and Ukrainian flags side by side in the shop window. Back then, I would just listen to them, says Yevheniya. I didnt tell them what I thought. We had one customer who was very happy about what was going on in Crimea. But the Kvaternyuks say they cannot remain neutral over Russias invasion of Ukraine. They removed their Russian flag from the storefront. Now, a single Ukrainian flag hangs in solidarity. Back in Ukraine, their parents, siblings, nieces and nephews hide in bomb shelters. They fear for their lives, Yevheniya says. They didnt see this coming. They dont know when, if, or how it is all going to end. Since the invasion, the couple says they have seen a record number of new customers in Alekseys. Yevheniya is grateful for the business, but hopes the support doesnt end when the conflict ends. Detectives in the Town of Davie are investigating an accidental shooting that resulted in one of two roommates being sent to a local hospital on Sunday, The incident occurred in a residential neighborhood in the 3700 block of Southwest 60th Terrace, Davie police said in a statement. Advertisement Rescuers took the unidentified victim to an area hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, police said. Officers met with the roommates inside the home and found that one roommate accidentally shot the other, the department said in a statement. Advertisement The unnamed person who fired the weapon cooperated with police. The statement did not say whether the individual has been charged. The department offered no further information on the circumstances leading up to the shooting. Detectives are continuing their investigation. (Natural News) The Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) plandemic is over, at least to Americans who are no longer getting vaccinated now that the omicron (moronic) variant has come and gone. According to reports, jab rates in the United States are collapsing. The Associated Press (AP) reports that demand for the shots is grinding to a halt and has all but collapsed, especially in rural areas of the country. Currently, the official government data suggests that the number of Americans getting their first dose of the shot is down to around 90,000 per day, the lowest point since the first few days of the Operation Warp Speed campaign that began in December 2020. In general, Americans are no longer worried about the alleged virus, which means they no longer care about rolling up their sleeves to have their DNA permanently modified. The AP, of course, is lamenting this. The fake news giant claims that declining demand for Fauci Flu shots is some kind of national tragedy. Its editors are blaming toothless rednecks in deeply conservative parts of the country for refusing to damage their immune systems with the injections. The AP admits that it is a losing battle to get people vaccinated in these areas. Meanwhile, actual science shows that the injections do absolutely nothing to prevent moronic, and actually encourage more of it to infect and spread. So much for flattening the curve. Americans are done with COVID and the plandemic Keep in mind that even the corporate-controlled media has admitted that neither the primary jabs nor the boosters provide any protection against moronic. The Washington Post, for instance, agrees that coronavirus injection protection is much weaker against omicron compared to earlier alleged variants such as delta. People are just over it, says Judy Smith, the administrator for a 12-county public health district in northwestern Alabama. Theyre tired of it. In Idaho, another right-leaning state, the number of people statewide who are getting injected rarely ever surpasses 500 anymore. Given, the population of that state is small, but this is a tiny figure. Then we have Wyoming, the least-populous state in the country, where about 280 people statewide got their first injection in the entirety of last week. The plandemic is not all that popular there, either. People heard more stories about, well, the omicrons not that bad, said Executive Director Kathy Emmons from the Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department in Wyoming. Just a few months ago, Emmons said, people were lined up to get shot at the departments headquarters. Now, the place is a ghost town. I think a lot of people just kind of rolled the dice and decided, Well, if its not that bad, Im just going to kind of wait it out and see what happens.' It turns out that this was the right strategy, seeing as how the unvaccinated are faring the best right now when it comes to health and immunity. The worst-off are those who panicked and rushed out for an injection or three, and are now suffering from vaccine-induced AIDS (VAIDS) or some other chronic health issue. To all of my fellow non-GMO humans who resisted the clot shot: cheers! wrote someone at Zero Hedge in response to the news. Pureblood for life! said another in response. Someone else questioned the 90,000 per day figure, which seems way too high, especially for being the supposed low point. Way higher than I would have guessed, though I do know of two recent holdouts that just got jabbed this year, this same person wrote. Like the saying goes, ya cant fix stupid.' The latest news about the failing COVID vaccine push can be found at Collapse.news. Sources include: ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) If you still dont believe that Joe Biden and his Democratic Party are not out to destroy what is left of our American republic, this story should convince you otherwise. Readers know that since Biden took office and reversed nearly all of President Donald Trumps border enforcement policies, our countrys boundary with Mexico was essentially eliminated. In the wake of Bidens reversals, historic numbers of migrants have crossed illegally into the U.S., while the Mexican-based cartels have dramatically ramped up the smuggling of deadly fentanyl, which is increasingly being made with ingredients shipped in from China. Now that war has come to eastern Europe, compliments of Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine, there is a real danger that millions of Ukrainian refugees will flood into neighboring countries. Like Poland. In order to handle them, Bidens regime is calling for U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Enforcement volunteers to help Polish authorities, even as the migrant and drug-smuggling crisis on our own border raged. Just the News reports: For the second time in a year, the Biden administration is seeking to divert Customs and Border Protection officers from the southern border crisis to an overseas conflict, this time to help process people fleeing the Russian assault on Ukraine. In a memo sent Thursday morning and obtained by Just the News, CBPs office of field operations sought volunteers willing to deploy immediately to Poland for Operation Ukraine Support. The request comes six months after a similar effort to process Afghan refugees after the bungled U.S. exit from that country. That operation was sharply criticized Friday by the Pentagon inspector general for poor Defense Department vetting that allowed 50 Afghans posing serious security risks to enter the United States. The Office of Field Operations is seeking volunteers to assist with the possible evacuation of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and their immediate family members from Ukraine, the memo sent to field operations executives noted. Eligible employees who volunteer for this situation may be selected to serve a temporary duty assignment in Poland to facilitate travelers for entry into the U.S., to include providing guidance and problems resolution to other government agencies, the memo continued. It also said that volunteers should be ready to ship out within 2-3 days after being selected and ought to plan for at least a months worth of work overseas. The memo also said that volunteers should either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or have natural immunity from a recent infection (notice how that latter condition doesnt apply to the rest of the country). As a mission necessity and to avoid post-arrival quarantine, volunteers must be able to provide a negative PCR test taken within 24 hours of arrival and meet one of the following conditions: fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccination or recovered from COVID-19 within six months prior to arrival, it says. Once deployed employees are expected to perform all assigned duties and may be required to work irregular shifts and schedules, up to seven days per week including holidays and weekends, the memo cautioned, noting that volunteers would be compensated with overtime pay. This insanity was preceded in December by a Biden regime effort via his now-defunct Build Back Better fiasco to help fund the Mexican cartels with U.S. tax dollars, per Open Borders News. Mexican cartels will gain access to taxpayers money as they smuggle more foreign children into American schools, neighborhoods and places of employment, the outlet reported. Republican Party sources said the plan offers up to $3,600 annually to each guardian of the children. Neil Munro of Breitbart noted that this includes imported children who have no Social Security number, the outlet continued. Still think Democrats are an America first party? Sources include: JustTheNews.com OpenBorders.news (Natural News) The Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) plandemic is over, but the Biden regime has promised that its associated restrictions, mandates and tyranny will go on forever. In his upcoming State of the Union address, fake president Joe Biden is expected to recite a script given to him by his handlers outlining what the future holds for Americans, which is quite grim. ABC News reported that in a private online meeting, Jeff Zients, the White House coordinator on the federal Fauci Flu response, led a group discussion about various potential trajectories for the plandemic moving forward. The best-case scenario, they agreed, is that the virus evolves into a mild flu-like illness. In a worst-case scenario, an aggressive new variant that evades the effectiveness of the vaccine could magically appear out of nowhere. The overall consensus was that COVID has fundamentally altered U.S. public health, a report about the meeting revealed. One of the people involved with the meeting further revealed that there is no scenario where we say, Oh my gosh, lets go back to normal.' According to ABC, those in attendance at the online meeting where this all was discussed included: Zients; David Kessler, Bidens chief scientific adviser; Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and medical ethicist with the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Centers for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota; Dr. Luciana Borio, a former senior official at the National Security Council and former acting chief scientist at the Food and Drug Administration now with the Council on Foreign Relations; and David Michaels, an epidemiologist and former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration now with George Washington Universitys School of Public Health. With Biden and his handlers at the helm, there will never be an end to the plandemic misery Overall, Bidens scripted message to Americans on Tuesday, March 1, is expected to be one that praises the Operation Warp Speed injections for supposedly lessening the risk of the virus. Biden is also expected to laud the testing and therapeutics that have also been a part of the sham. Were moving toward a time when COVID isnt a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat, Zients said in a February 16 briefing, the suggestion being that a new normal is still in play for the future. And while were not where we all want to be yet, were encouraged by the dramatic declines were seeing in cases and hospitalizations nationwide. They care so much about our health, right? Yeah, right. Meanwhile, the latest scientific data consistently shows that the best immunity comes naturally. Those whose immune systems had been destroyed by Donald Trumps injections are much worse off than the purebloods, in other words. The CDC released data from New York and California demonstrated that natural immunity was 2.8 times more effective in preventing hospitalization and 3.3 to 4.7 times more effective in preventing COVID infection compared with vaccination, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal last month. The author of that piece is Dr. Marty Makary, a professor and researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who said even the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has acknowledged that natural immunity is preferable to fake vaccine immunity. Because of the NIHs inaction, my Johns Hopkins colleagues and I conducted the study. We found that among 295 unvaccinated people who previously had COVID, antibodies were present in 99 percent of them up to nearly two years after infection, Makary further wrote. More of the latest news about the phony, collapsing plandemic and the Biden regimes efforts to keep it alive can be found at Pandemic.news. Sources include: WesternJournal.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Canada is leaving the Western world. In terms of all-encompassing government, suppression of dissent and the denial of fundamental human rights to many of its citizens, Canada is now more similar to Cuba than to any free country. Canada may eventually return to Western civilization, but as of this writing, the majority of Canadians appear to have no interest in it doing so. According to Maru Public Opinion, two-thirds (66%) of Canadians support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bringing in the Emergencies Act. A majority (56%) of Canadians do not support the truckers who are protesting in any way, shape, or form. This is a majority view held in every province/region across the country. (Article by Dennis Prager republished from WND.com) I suspect that most Americans and certainly most people outside of America or Canada do not know precisely what Canadas Marxist prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is doing to his country. So, allow me to review. Last week, for only the second time in Canadian history other than wartime the first time was under Justin Trudeaus father, Pierre Trudeau, the other Marxist to govern Canada Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. This statute enables a Canadian prime minister to suspend fundamental human rights and rule as a dictator. The CBC described in detail how Trudeau is using the Emergencies Act to destroy the lives of Canadian dissidents. This should be read carefully. Such policies have never been enacted by a Western country against its own citizens (with the extremely rare exceptions of those actively engaged in terrorism): Using powers granted under the Emergencies Act, the federal government has directed banks and other financial institutions to stop doing business with people associated with the anti-vaccine mandate convoy occupying the nations capital. The governments new directive, called the emergency economic measures order, goes beyond asking banks to simply stop transferring funds to protest organizers. The government wants banks to stop doing business with some people altogether. The order says that banks and other financial entities (like credit unions, co-ops, loan companies, trusts and cryptocurrency platforms) must stop providing any financial or related services to people associated with the protests a move that will result in frozen accounts, stranded money and canceled credit cards. The Emergencies Act gives authorities the power to freeze the finances of those connected to blockades and protests, and the consequences could last long after the demonstrations end. The regulations definition of a designated person also includes anyone sending funds to support these protests. Mark Blumberg is a lawyer at Blumberg Segal LLP who specializes in non-profit and charity law. In an interview, he said that while the Emergencies Act gives banks time-limited powers, these institutions may just decide to shut the persons account down because there could be huge risks for banks servicing these customers in the future. Banks will be working with law enforcement to decide who should be de-banked. A senior government official said police could gather the names and license plate numbers of people participating in a protest or an unlawful assembly and share that information with FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada). Former CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) senior strategic analyst Jessica Davis (said) the people who are participating in the protest arent going to be able to do things like pay bills, pay their hotel bills. They will eventually run out of supplies as well. With access to bank accounts and credit cards and other financial instruments suspended, protesters wont be able to pay for things like hotel and fuel bills. Over the longer term, Davis said, it may be hard for some of the truckers participating to ever find work again because they could lack the necessary insurance to operate a big rig. Paying bills, paying rent and any kind of day-to-day financial transaction can be stopped for people who are part of the protest movement, she said. There may also be some unintended consequences from frozen accounts, such as suspended alimony and child support payments, Davis said. Its going to be very difficult for them. Banks have been granted immunity against legal action in the event of disputes over whether someone should have been denied financial services. No proceedings under the Emergencies Act and no civil proceedings lie against an entity for complying with this Order, the regulations read. None of these life-ruining, due-process defying measures is necessary. The truckers demonstrations could have been ended by arresting drivers who would not move their trucks or simply just towing their trucks. The purpose of these regulations is to destroy dissenters and deter future dissent. In a word, it is to ruin the lives of those who disobey Justin Trudeau. As one who has followed Canadian life over the decades I have lectured in nine of Canadas 10 provinces the moral descent of Canada is depressing but not especially surprising. Since I was in college in the 1970s, I traveled abroad every year of my life except in 2020 to some 130 countries. I not only took interest in the countries I visited but in the tourists who visited them. I recall well that when I was young, many young Canadians stitched a Canadian flag onto their backpacks. As almost no tourists from other nations did that, I asked Canadians why they did. Their reason was to identify themselves as Canadian rather than as American. I am not the first observer of Canadians to note that a major part of Canadian identity especially among Canadian elites is being a not-American. Many Canadians were and remain first and foremost not-Americans. Other than that, not much defines Canadians. And when a nation stands essentially for nothing, bad things eventually happen because nothingness is eventually filled or replaced by bad. On my radio show, I once asked the late Charles Krauthammer, one of the most insightful commentators of this era, what he saw as the greatest difference between his native Canada and his adopted country, the United States. Without hesitation, he said that in America the national motto is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and in Canada it is Peace, Order, and Good Government. The first inspires a nation. The second doesnt. Upon the death of Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau gave the most positive assessment of the Cuban tyrant of any Western leader. It is worth quoting in full because it demonstrates Trudeaus affection for communism and because Trudeau is transforming Canada into Cuba: It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cubas longest serving president. Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and health care of his island nation. While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castros supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for el Comandante. I know my father was very proud to call him a friend, and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honor to meet his three sons and his brother, President Raul Castro, during my recent visit to Cuba. On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader. There does remain one major difference between Canada and Cuba. Few Cubans support their Marxist leaders, but most Canadians support theirs. They dont know what theyre in for. Read more at: WND.com (Natural News) Russian President Vladimir Putin upped the ante in his gambit to annex Ukraine by force, ordering his nuclear weapons forces to a higher combat alert as his army becomes bogged down by resistance in what he expected to be a quick, easy conquest. The Associated Press reports: In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russias invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called aggressive statements by leading NATO powers. The order means Putin wants Russias nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch and raises the threat that Moscows invasion of Ukraine and the Wests response to it could boil over into nuclear warfare. Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only the alleged statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including the Russian leader himself. Specifically, according to Fox News Digital, Putin ordered his nuclear forces to a heightened special regime of combat duty. He is right now threatening a nuclear escalation, former DIA intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler told the outlet. This a veiled threat or maybe such a veiled threat he just met with his chief of general staff and minister of defense. He is escalating the conflict into the nuclear domain in order to de-escalate that is topple Kyivs regime quickly. The threat comes amid reports that both sides are preparing for a diplomatic meeting at the border of Belarus on Monday, though the details are still sketchy as of this writing. Western countries arent only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country, Putin noted in remarks that were televised. White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed that Putin was simply returning to a pattern used in the weeks leading up to his invasion of Ukraine, which is to manufacture threats that dont exist in order to justify further aggression. The global community and American people should look at it through that prism. Weve seen him do this time and time again, she said, according to the AP. She told ABCs This Week that Moscow is not, and has not been, under threat from NATO or Ukraine. This is all a pattern from President Putin and were going to stand up we have the ability to defend ourselves but we also need to call out what were seeing here, Psaki said. Other U.S. officials responded to the heightened nuclear forces alert as well. President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on a Sunday news program. And we have to continue to condemn his actions in the most strong, strongest possible way. The AP explained, The practical meaning of Putins order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have the land- and submarine-based segments of their strategic nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not. Meanwhile, Russian troops are moving against the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the countrys largest city, and its second-biggest city, Kharkiv. Reports noted that explosions could be heard and fighting was heavy in portions of both cities as Russian forces meet more resistance than they expected. Riho Terras, a former defense chief in Estonia and member of the European Parliament, claimed in a Twitter thread posted Saturday that Putin has grown increasingly frustrated with a lack of progress on the ground, saying the Russian leader expected far less resistance than his troops have met. Putin is furious, he thought that the whole war would be easy and everything would be done in 1-4 days. Russians didnt have a tactical plan. The war costs about $20 bln/day. There are rockets for 3-4 days at most, they use them sparingly. They lack weapons, the Tula and 2 Rotenberg plants cant physically fulfil [sp] the orders for weapons. Rifles and ammo are the most they can do, he wrote in one tweet. Sources include: ThreadReaderApp.com Newsmax.com FoxNews.com (Natural News) Kelly Meggs and other members of the Oath Keepers couldnt have done one of the major things of which theyre accused by federal prosecutors: forcing their way into the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021, through the famous Columbus Doors, a defense attorney says. (Article by Joseph M. Hanneman republished from TheEpochTimes.com) The two sets of historic doors that lead into the Rotunda were opened by someone on the inside and not his client, according to defense attorney Jonathon Moseley. Department of Justice video widely circulated on Twitter since last week shows a man trying to open the inner doors by leaning against them, before turning around as if listening to someone, then returning to the entrance and opening the left door for protesters. The outer doors cast from solid bronze would require a bazooka, an artillery shell, or C4 military-grade explosives to breach, Moseley wrote in a letter to federal prosecutors. That of course did not happen. You would sooner break into a bank vault than to break the bronze outer Columbus Doors. The 20,000-pound Columbus Doors that lead into the Rotunda on the east side of the U.S. Capitol are secured by magnetic locks that can only be opened from the inside by using a security code controlled by Capitol Police, Moseley wrote in an eight-page memo. Impossible and Cannot Be Done Imagine how the prosecution will prove at trial what cannot be proven because it is not true, Moseley wrote to prosecutors Jeffrey S. Nestler and Kathryn Leigh Rakoczy of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia. Who is going to testify that the defendants entered the Columbus Doors when the U.S. Capitol Police will begrudgingly testify that that is impossible and cannot be done? In a superseding indictment on Jan. 12, Meggs and 10 other members of the Oath Keepers were charged with seditious conspiracy, destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, tampering with documents, and other counts related to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. The indictment charges that Meggs led a stack formation up the Capitol steps and to the entrance at the Columbus Doors. At 2:39 p.m., the doors were breached, and stack one entered the Capitol with the mob, according to the indictment. Moseley said theres one big problem with that accusation: Its impossible to force entry from the outside. Only someone with the security code could release the locksand only from the inside. Video evidence submitted in the case shows the glass panes in the inner doors were cracked, but intact, so no one accessed the building through the windows or by reaching for the inside door handles, he said. Therefore, nobody opened the Rotunda doors from the outside, Moseley wrote. Someone opened the doors from the inside. Video footage shot by multimedia journalist Michael Nigro shows the outer bronze doors were partially retracted before a large crowd gathered outside of the entrance. The inner doors were closed, and U.S. Capitol Police were stationed outside. Protesters sprayed police with pepper spray, threw items at them, and hit them with flagpoles. A short time later, the inner doors were opened and hundreds of protesters streamed into the Rotunda, the video footage shows. A protester in the Rotunda is heard shouting, Dont vandalize the property! Capitol Tour Confirms Door Security U.S. sculptor Randolph Rogers designed the solid-bronze doors to depict scenes from the life of explorer Christopher Columbus. The doors were first installed in 1863, moved in 1871 to the central east entrance, and moved to their current location in 1961. The doors are 17 feet high and weigh 20,000 pounds, according to the Architect of the Capitol. Once opened, the giant doors retract into pockets in the walls via built-in tracks. Moseley asked federal prosecutors for any and all specifications, details and operational information about the so-called Columbus Doors. He and an assistant took a tour of the Capitol on Jan. 22, along with other attorneys and investigators. The U.S. Capitol Police officers on duty were emphatic that the doors couldnt be opened from the outside, he said. These are facts that in the supposedly largest nationwide investigation in the history of the U.S. since the kidnapping of the Charles Lindbergh baby or the search for Al Capone could easily have been investigated, [checked], and determined before the U.S. Attorneys Office presented false information to the grand jury, Moseley wrote. For these purposes, I dont care who opened the Columbus Doors from the inside, or why, or who they worked for. History will reveal all of that. History will care very much. But all I care about is that it wasnt my client or any of these defendants, and the U.S. Attorneys Office knows that or should have discovered it upon reasonable investigation. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia didnt respond to a request for comment on Moseleys letter by press time. The superseding indictment states that Meggs and four other Oath Keepers became part of a mob that aggressively advanced toward the Rotunda Doors, assaulted the law enforcement officers guarding the doors, threw objects and sprayed chemicals toward the officers and the doors and pulled violently on the doors. The mob breached the Rotunda entrance at about 2:39 p.m., according to the indictment. Nigros video footage from outside the entrance shows a group of Oath Keepers near the Columbus Doors, which are clearly open at the time the men got near the threshold. By the time they entered the Capitol, dozens if not more than 100 people had flowed into the building, the footage shows. Baseless Prosecution Moseley accused prosecutors of crafting a fabricated case against the Oath Keepers thats false and reprehensible. This baseless prosecution is the greatest threat to the Republic since 1812. This prosecution is not about an attack on our Republic. This prosecution IS the attack on our Republic, Moseley wrote, seeking to criminalize political dissent, free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of political association, and the right to petition government for the redress of grievances. Moseley criticized federal authorities for dishonestly trying to deceive the public for eight months by concealing the fact that six demonstration permits had been issued for the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. Implicit in those permits is the permission for people to have ingress and egress across the grounds to reach each event, he said. This baseless prosecution is the greatest threat to the Republic since 1812. Jonathon Moseley Moseley proposed a stipulation that both sides in the case agree that none of the demonstrators or the defendants opened the Columbus Doors on Jan. 6, 2021, and that the government strike three paragraphs of the indictment that refer to the defendants entering the Capitol because theyre untrue and withdrawn. Prosecutors refused that proposal, he said. News of the Columbus Doors issue comes as more video footage released from protective court seal shows large groups of Jan. 6, 2021, protesters peacefully streaming into the U.S. Capitol through wide-open doors. Among them was Rabbi Mike Stepakoff, who spent about five minutes inside the Capitol, doing nothing more than looking around and taking photos. On his way out, Stepakoff stopped to shake hands with a police officer and told him thank you for his service, we love you, and God bless you, according to his attorney, Marina Medvin. Stepakoff was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, all misdemeanors. Stepakoff pleaded guilty to the parading charge and received 12 months of probation. The other charges were dismissed, Medvin said in a statement. The government sought to punish him with a jail term for events he did not partake in, for destruction and violence he did not witness, for severity he did not experience, and for an effect he did not cause nor could foresee, she said. Read more at: TheEpochTimes.com (Natural News) An angry Ukrainian official has blasted the United States and European NATO allies for their pathetically ineffective and loophole-filled financial sanctions against Russia over its invasion of his country. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned a decision by Western governments to continue allowing Russian energy transactions to continue using the international SWIFT banking system, though harsh sanctions were reportedly issued on other financial transactions. I will not be diplomatic. Some countries are trying to leave loopholes, exclude a number of banks so they can apply some measures with their left hands and continue to trade with Russia with their right hands, Kuleba said, according to Fox Business. Stop doing this now. Stop trading with the blood of Ukrainian men women and children. This is not a metaphor but the reality of what you are doing, Kuleba continued. History will judge you and your names will forever remain in history books as names of traitors to humanity. There are examples of such names in the 20th century. I am confident you do not want to add your names. The outlet reported: The comments followed a Saturday move by the United States and European allies to exclude much of Russias banking system, including its central bank, from the SWIFT banking system. According to a senior U.S. administration official, this effectively made Russia a global economic and financial pariah. Sanctions also hit Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian oligarchs personally. But the sanctions specifically carved out energy purchases like oil and natural gas products from Russia that some European countries are heavily reliant on. The network quoted a senior administration official who said on Saturday that U.S. and European officials are currently going institution by institution to try and figure out which of Russias transactions are for energy so those specific ones can be exempted. If those transactions cant be identified, then international regulators can instead exempt entire banking institutions that process a heavy number of energy transactions while banning banks that dont from the SWIFT system. The goal, the official said, is very carefully to maximize the impact on Russia and minimize the spillovers to Europe and the global economy. But that will prove to be pointless when Putin figures out he can simply route all transactions energy and otherwise through the exempted banks. After White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed that energy sanctions are still on the table, Kuleba said that wasnt good enough. It is critically important that Russia is disconnected from SWIFT on the fullest possible extent. All possible banks. Dont play political games and stop earning money soaked in our blood, he said. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), in an interview Sunday with ABCs George Stephanopoulos, also blasted the administrations weak sanctions regime and said as well it is rife with loopholes. Vladimir Putin controls 100 percent of the banks in Russia. He can use the other 20 percent to finance his war machine, Cotton, a former U.S. Army infantry officer and veteran, said. Its time to remove all Russian institutions from the international payment system. Its time to impose sanctions on oil and gas exports. We need to rush those weapons that were announced for delivery yesterday to the front, he added. Anti-tank, anti-aircraft missiles, sniper rifles, ammunition. It should have been done weeks ago, Cotton added. Its time for the president to quit pussy-footing around. The financial sanctions are riddled with loopholes. Stephanopoulos responded by noting that Putin had raised the threat status of his nuclear deterrent forces, and asked Cotton whether he believed others were right to question Putins mental state. Im not going to play psychologist. What Vladimir Putin said is not a surprise, Cotton replied, noting that Putin has been projecting his intention to invade for months by building up forces along Ukraines borders. Thats why Ive been urging this administration to take the threat from Vladimir Putin seriously, to impose sanctions weeks and months ago, to send weapons to Ukraine weeks ago, Cotton noted further. Ms. Psaki said we made the mistake of seeing Vladimir Putin of seeing the world through global norms. I never made that mistake. Ive seen him as a ruthless dictator. He took the ambitions hes always had and went for the jugular, he added. Sources include: PatriotsForPresidentTrump.com FoxBusiness.com (Natural News) As Russian forces continue to push into Ukraine by the tens of thousands, and with NATO sitting this war out so far, the besieged countrys leader has been reduced to mobilizing every man between the ages of 18 and 60 while also calling for a foreign legion of volunteers from around the world to come to fight on his behalf. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued his call Sunday on the fourth day of fighting, as Russian bombs landed in Kyiv and also Kharkiv, the countrys second-largest city, and as Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the readiness level of his nuclear forces. Zelenskyy hopes to draw in fighters from around the world to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, according to Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who advised interested parties to make contact through their countries diplomatic offices. Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too, Kuleba said, according to Fox News. The outlet adds: The U.S. and its NATO allies have announced economic sanctions against several major Russian entities and have supplied Ukraine with material support, but have not sent troops onto the ground to assist in physical fighting. Meanwhile, there has been some attempt at diplomacy, though the efforts have been hackneyed and intermittent. Putin has suggested he and Zelenskyy meet in a Belarusan city, which the Ukrainian president has flatly rejected, considering that Putin staged some Russian forces in that country prior to his invasion. At the same time, Zelenskyy is calling for Russia to lose its prestigious power as a voting member of the U.N. Security Council, claiming correctly that the attack by Putin on his country is tantamount to criminal actions that is producing signs of genocide, a report noted. This is terror, he said in a video message. They are going to bomb our Ukrainian cities even more, they are going to kill our children even more subtly, he continued, according to Reuters. This is the evil that has come to our land and must be destroyed. Russias criminal actions against Ukraine bear signs of genocide, he added. As for negotiations to end the fighting, Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We proposed all of them, Zelenskyy said, referring to several alternative locations for the proposed talks, Agence France-Press noted. And any other city in a country from whose territory missiles do not fly would suit us, he added. Also Sunday, the Kremlin said that a diplomatic team had been dispatched to Belarus and was awaiting counterparts from Ukraine. The Russian delegation is ready for talks, and we are now waiting for the Ukrainians, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who noted the delegation includes military personnel and diplomats. Ukrainian officials countered that the offer for peace talks was not real and was instead designed to push Russian propaganda. The back-and-forth over peace talks came as Putin ordered his nuclear forces upgraded to special regime of combat readiness. He is right now threatening a nuclear escalation, said former DIA intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler. This a veiled threat or maybe such a veiled threat he just met with his chief of general staff and minister of defense. He is escalating the conflict into the nuclear domain in order to de-escalate that is topple Kyivs regime quickly. As you notice, this order by President Putin came shortly after the announcement was made about the two delegations ready to meet. And we see this announcement this order, as an attempt to raise stakes and to put additional pressure on the Ukrainian delegation, Kuleba said in a briefing in Kyiv, noting that the two sides had agreed later Sunday to a Monday morning meeting at the Belarus-Ukraine border. But we will not give in to this pressure and said, We will approach this talks with a very simple approach, according to CNN. Sources include: CNN.com FoxNews.com (Natural News) Libertarian economist Paul Matzko of the CATO Institute says that in the future we will own less but have more and live under a streams of service economy. (Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com) Think Netflix or rental cars but for almost everything, Matzko said in a thread Friday on Twitter. In the future we will own less but have more. Thats b/c we will swap out physical possession for access to streams of service. Think Netflix or rental cars but for almost everything. Paul Matzko (@PMatzko) February 18, 2022 The vision CATO and Matzko is putting forward is virtually identical to the World Economic Forums, which says that in the future youll own nothing and youll be happy. For a glimpse at why this will not work, just take a look at what happened with the bike share programs in Baltimore and DC a few years ago. Baltimore officials refused to even tell the public how many ride share bikes were stolen from their multi-million dollar scheme. In DC, one official revealed companies lost half their fleets. From The Washington Post: They have lost a lot of their bikes, Kimberly Lucas, the citys bike program specialist told a group of regional transportation officials at a dockless-bike-share workshop sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in May. She said companies have told city transportation officials that they have lost up to half of their fleets, which is significant because each company is allowed to operate a maximum of 400 bikes in the city. Sharing everything is a nice idea in theory but in the New America we already know it doesnt work in practice. The other issue is any Big Tech company which doesnt like you can just ban you because they dont like your political views. Ive been #bannedbyairbnb (along with my husband!) as retaliation for my free speech and #AmericaFirst journalism. Its insane & un-American and I could use your help fighting back. Stay tuned. https://t.co/JjZvLzRzSl #michellefightsairbnb @Airbnb pic.twitter.com/Ko6DH7IIaL Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 2, 2022 Matzko acknowledged thats an issue but claimed people could just switch over to other providers if they got banned. People like Nick Fuentes who has not been convicted of a single crime have been banned from every major social media site, every major payment processor, blocked from all the big sharing services, had their bank accounts frozen/closed and were put on the No Fly List. Thats the whole point of the streams of service-based social credit system thats being created. To our globalist oligarchs, deplatforming people from life is a feature and not a bug. Read more at: InformationLiberation.com FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - MARCH 23: Paula Ziadi works with Truman, a black labrador retriever, as they hunt for Burmese python along a levee in the Florida Everglades on March 23, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is using the dogs to sniff out Burmese pythons. A black lab named Truman and a point setter named Eleanor hunt five days a week with a dog handler and an FWC biologist to search for pythons on different public lands across south Florida. The FWC is implementing dog sniffing python hunters to help find and eliminate invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades ecosystem. (Photo : Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) As shown in a literature review of 426 Italian dog owners released in Scientific Publications, emotion regulation modifications displayed by canines after the passing of companion canine in the same residence could be symptomatic of distress. Dogs Go Through Grieving Behavior Study Finds According to News Scientist, animal lovers may have presumed it for a considerable time, but recent research has discovered that approximately 90% of dogs who undergone the passing of a friend dog in much the same residential area exhibited undesirable behavior in the immediate aftermath. This includes appearing less fun, consuming lesser, begin to interact anxious and wanting more supervision. Federica Pirrone and associates questioned persons whose beloved dog had perished while they also kept at least another one canine. The guardians, nearly half of which had bereaved their dog in the previous years, were questioned if there had been any adjustments in the remaining pet's conduct since the bereavement. Furthermore, homeowners mentioned the earlier bond among their pets as well as their own degrees of grief following the death. Associate professor at the University of Milan in Italy, Federica Pirrone explained that the action might be a sign of pain. Whereas grief-like behavior has been observed in creatures such as elephants, orcas, and chimps, it has not been studied in canine, despite numerous reports from owners. Pirrone's team polled 426 individuals who owned at least 2 canines, one of which had perished, and inquired about any behavior on the part of the remaining dogs. Following the loss of their other dog, 86% of parents saw a detrimental shift in the attitude of their remaining dog, with 32% said they lasted within 2 and 6 months, while 25% said they lasted more than 6 months. When asked to explain these lifestyle patterns, 67% of owners said the living pets became affection demanding, 57% said they interacted lesser, and 46% said they grew less energetic. Meanwhile, 35% of owners said their remaining dog napped ever more and grew scared, 32% said they consumed lesser, and 30% said they whined or barked excessively. Before the death of their pet, 93% of owners indicated that their canines had stayed alongside for more than a year, and 69% regarded their dogs'connection as amicable. Also read: Space Rock That Fell off a Dog Kennel's Wooden House Goes for Auction How Dogs React After Death of Companion Assuming that the dogs had a close friendship, particularly if they used to share a meal acceptable, these pups were much more probable to grieve their recently departed partner. However, they were more likely to be negatively affected if their holder was also experiencing grief, implying that they were responding to the host's altered behavior as well. According to Pirrone, canines have grown extraordinarily sensitive to the emotional communicating movements and nonverbal cues. A caretaker and a dog build a personal bond. The dogs' responses were unchanged by the length of time the two dogs had recognized one other, yet virtually all of them had resided alongside for longer than one year. According to Pirrone, a puppy's thoughts is comparable to that of a real infant around the age of two. It is reasonable to anticipate that detachment from a friend would result in adverse outcomes that intersect with those that we ordinarily perceive as grieving. The researchers state that grief-like reactions in dogs may be a significant animal social assistance concern that has gone unnoticed. Also read: Giant 8-Foot-Long Snake Found in the State of Georgia, Biggest One Yet in Years Kharkiv shelter in camera of Chinese student in Ukraine (People's Daily App) 09:59, February 28, 2022 A shelter in a Kharkiv subway station was revealed in this video taken by a Chinese student in Ukraine. Residents bring their belongings, children and pets to sit on the steps of the station and try to escape the war. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, who has represented parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties since 2010 and is a senior Democratic member of Congress, wont seek re-election and plans to resign before the end of his current term. Deutch said Monday he would become CEO of the American Jewish Committee, which will allow him to be devoted full-time to advocating for the Jewish community and for Israel, and combatting antisemitism causes that were passions of his long before he first ran for political office more than 15 years ago. Advertisement At a time of rising antisemitism and at a time when Israel continues to be under attack by so many who seek to delegitimize Israel, this is an opportunity to work on these issues on a global platform, and to focus every day about things that Im passionate about, he said in a telephone interview. Standing up for global Jewry is something that has always been my passion. [ RELATED: Ted Deutchs decision to not seek re-election sets off scramble among potential successors ] The move immediately set of a flurry of political activity, as many people currently holding state and local office started assessing candidacies to run for the suddenly open seat. And it underscored the dismal political landscape for Democrats, who are widely expected to lose control of the House in November, prompting many incumbents to opt against running for re-election. Advertisement He plans to start his new job on Oct. 1. By then, he said, Congress is scheduled to recess for the fall election season. I was elected to a two-year term and wanted to at least do the work of the people before the election, he said. [ RELATED: Friends and foes, constituents and political pros assess Congressman Ted Deutch performance ] Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 23 US Rep. Ted Deutch and Four Seasons developer Dev Motwani tour Fort Lauderdale Beach at Breakers Avenue between Riomar Street and Vistamar Street, which could receive infrastructure money to improve lighting and provide underground sewage and water utility improvements. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel) National landscape Deutch was widely seen as all-but-certain to win re-election. But his decision not to run is a further indication that Democrats expect major losses in the 2022 election. He is the 31st House Democrat who has decided not to seek re-election this year. The majority party has complete control of the House, and many representatives dont want to move to minority party status after serving in the majority. [ RELATED: Ted Deutch is new chairman of House panel on Middle East, including Israel and Iran ] Hes chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Global Counterterrorism and chairman of the Ethics Committee. If Democrats lose the majority, Deutch would no longer be a committee chairman. Deutch said the political landscape is not why hes leaving. This is not about running away from Congress. This is about running to an opportunity to focus full-time on the issues that Im passionate about, he said. I dont want to understate it, but the challenges to the Jewish community are real, and the timing of this couldnt have been better. [ RELATED: Deutch expresses anguish over school shootings, wonders if anything will change ] Fred Guttenberg, who has become politically and personally close with Deutch since his daughter Jaime was killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, said its a mistake for people to assume Deutch is bailing out because of the political landscape. I knew people were going to think that, and I just say this: that has nothing to do with that. He legitimately had a career opportunity, a life opportunity that just doesnt come along often. If not for that he would still be there, Guttenberg said. Advertisement In life, sometimes we get these opportunities to reinvent ourselves and do something that is just so meaningful, and he has that, Guttenberg said. It is a life opportunity for him and his passions and what matters to him so deeply. [ RELATED: Congressional Democrats and Republicans sound alarm over dramatic spike in violent antisemitism ] Republicans saw something going on Its not a surprise that another Democrat has chosen not to run in anticipation of the red wave in 2022, said Tom Powers, chairman of the Broward Republican Party. And Julia Friedland, Florida communications director for the Republican National Committee, added in a statement that its a sign of whats to come in the fall elections. Good choice on retirement, Ted Deutch. Dont worry youll be joined by more of your Democrat friends soon enough! Terrie Rizzo, chairwoman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, declined to directly comment on the implications of so many Democrats heading for the exits, rather than staying around to serve in an all-but-certain Republican-controlled House. Im not going to say that. We will be battling and fighting hard, Rizzo said. Its not unusual, honestly, for us to see this. There will be great Democrats running in all the districts. Congressman @TedDeutch and his spouse @jilldeutch as @KamalaHarris wraps up speech at drive-in rally at Palm Beach State College. pic.twitter.com/zWkiDs7CUo Anthony Man (@browardpolitics) October 31, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [ RELATED: In break with Obama, Ted Deutch opposes Iran nuclear agreement ] Local outlook Boundaries of the district, which currently includes most of Broward north of Interstate 595 along with southeast Palm Beach County, will change before the August primary and the November election. Regardless of its exact shape, given the voter registration in most of Broward and Palm Beach counties, whoever the Democrats nominate in the August primary is likely to become the next member of Congress. Powers, who lives in the district, said this years elections in which Republicans nationwide are expected to do well, could be an exception. Advertisement I will not concede that any Democratic seat is safe in this country based on whats happening across America right now, Powers said. [ RELATED: South Floridas Jewish lawmakers denounce colleagues antisemitic tweets ] Deutch and other Democrats said Its definitely going to be a Democratic district. It has an overwhelming number of hard-working and committed Democrats, said Terrie Rizzo, chairwoman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, adding, With hard work, Democrats will retain the seat. State Sen. Shevrin Jones, a South Broward/north Miami-Dade County Democrat who is leading an effort to increase mail-voting by minority voters, said on Twitter he was sure Deutch would be succeeded by a Democrat. After praising the departing congressman on Twitter, Jones added: I am MORE than confident that his replacement will continue to carry that mantle. [ RELATED: Ted Deutch joins push to expel QAnon-promoter Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress ] Congressional map The state Legislature is currently considering how it wants to redraw boundaries of the states congressional districts to account for population changes uncovered in the 2020 Census. Members of Congress must be residents of the state they represent, but they dont have to live in the district. Deutch doesnt live in his current district, the boundaries of which were changed during an unusual mid-decade redistricting. He lives west of Boca Raton and the Palm Beach County portion of the district takes in just the southeastern part of the county. Deutch Deutch, 55, was elected to the Florida Senate in 2006. His only difficult, contentious race was the Senate primary that year, when he defeated then-state Rep. Irv Slosberg. Advertisement Succeeding U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler in 2010, he became one of the most liberal members of the Florida congressional delegation. But he enjoyed cordial relationships with many Democrats, and was an early leader of a bipartisan task force trying to forge agreement on combating global climate change. [ RELATED: Ted Deutch wants to change Constitution to curb money in politics ] He notably broke with then-President Barack Obama and voted against the 2015 deal with Iran aimed at reducing its ability to develop nuclear weapons. The agreement was later cancelled by then-President Donald Trump. Deutch has supported increasing taxes to solve the long-term financing crunch facing Social Security, he favored LGBT adoption and same-sex marriage long before support became almost universal among Democrats, and he pushed to amend the Constitution to overturn the Citizens United campaign finance decision from the U.S. Supreme Court and allow laws to regulate campaign spending. Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. > He received national attention since the Stoneman Douglas massacre in Parkland, which sits in his district and just a few miles from his home in West Boca. Amid #HurricaneDorian prep @TedDeutch laments gun violence. There is no website you can go to, there is no evacuation plan you can put in place and Lord knows all the bottled water in the world will not keep you safe from a dangerous person with a gun who walks into a school. pic.twitter.com/DwbnSz5sP7 Anthony Man (@browardpolitics) August 29, 2019 Deutch said he would spend a lot of time in New York and a lot of time in Washington, D.C., but said he would continue to live in South Florida. Theres some political deja vu in Deutchs decision to resign. Advertisement He was elected in an April 2010 special election to fill the vacancy created when then-U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler resigned from Congress after 13 years to become president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the first Jewish women from Florida elected to Congress, said in a statement that No one is more committed to strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship and fighting the scourge of antisemitism than Ted. AJC, 116-years-old, has about 300 employees in two dozen offices around the world. William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said in a statement that Deutch is the perfect leader to lead AJC. Ted is the menschs mensch. Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @browardpolitics SOUTHWICK, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 19: A fallen tree blocks a road on February 19, 2022 in Southwick, England. Three people were killed and thousands left without power as storm Eunice hit the UK yesterday. Yellow weather warnings for wind have been issued for coastal areas in the South today. (Photo : Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) A massive crater compelled residents to evacuate their residences since gobbling up a greenery as the frightening Hurricane Eunice bludgeoned Britain. The lawn in Keighley, West Yorkshire, was annihilated by devious wind conditions as severe storms pummeled throughout the nation. Storm Eunice Caused Massive Sinkhole The frightening video showed a massive sinkhole that emerged unexpectedly outside of a residence on Sunday, Feb. 27, swallowing the whole furnishings of the exterior space, according to the New York Post. Peter Kaszefko filmed the horrifying impact of the incident as the earth fell as the deadliest rainstorm in a decade wreaked devastation. The Met Office published an unusual threat to human life red cautionary, telling British citizens to prepare for high gale force winds. Following the steel structures breakinh away due to the hazardous circumstances, the fragments of the homeowner's landscape were scattered amid the wreckage. When the large hollow emerged, residents were constrained to run away from their own houses within a week of already getting pummeled by continuous cold weather and high winds. The video shows Kaszefko inspecting the serious harm from what seems to be a small crushing defeat as personnel in bright fluorescent clothing arrives just outside of the residence. As he proceeded into the rear compost bin of the residence, he displays the shocking magnitude of the havoc Cyclone Eunice wrought. Steel pipelines and cylinders protruded from the soaked root system where they had initially backed chunks of concrete flooring. The pit was strewn with household furnishings and the resident's belongings after the large number of the greenhouse had already been swallowed up more toward the stream. A structure will clearly be observed perched on the ledge of the massive crater, centimeters from collapsing into the devastation below. To make this situation even worst, the neighboring riverbank has breached its boundaries, inundating the tree branches. Local residents were compelled to abandon the safety of their houses and endure the hurricane after rescue workers ordered them to do so. Also read: Experts Discourage Thousands of Tourists From Visiting Antarctica The Aftermath of Storm Eunice The hole occurred as a result of the massive flooding surge carried by Storm Eunice when it blasted into the UK, according to rescue officials. Individuals expressed their condolences to the property owners struggling to deal with the destroyed backyard after the disturbing video on the internet. With the video posted online, many shared their thoughts and sentiments, with one user sincerely wishing the individuals have nice relatives and colleagues to assist and cash for support, while other says that the incident looks like a small collapse. "Oh God, those miserable people. What a terrible, unexpected event to transpire," said a user. In a news published by The Sun - a media outlet, a large clean-up operation is underway throughout the nation after Eunice caused severe devastation, inconvenience, and record-breaking 122mph gale force winds in the UK, killing at least 4 individuals. Transportation disruption, aircraft delays, electrical problems, and an influx of requests to enforcement agencies resulted from the perilous circumstances. Soaring material wreaked havoc on railway infrastructures, and the top of the O2 was blown apart, causing major destruction to residences as well as commercial structures. The countrywide restoration expenditure is estimated to exceed 500 million, with reimbursement firms bracing for a significant increase in claims. Also read: Regions Previously Unaffected by Fires Face Extreme Risks by the End of Century Dolphins swim in the Tagus past a boat observing marine species off the coast of Lisbon on August 7, 2021. - Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, dolphins have returned to the Tagus estuary in Lisbon, where they have found an unusual calm in less polluted water, thanks to restrictions which have led to a drop in maritime traffic, according to scientists. (Photo : Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images) Whilst the Biden government proceeded to authorize contracts for oil and gas digging in the Gulf of Mexico, recent data that was disclosed to experts showed that almost 80% of dolphins subjected to oil in the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe are still suffering approximately 12 years later. Deepwater Horizon Disaster and Dolphins Experts searched at the protracted implications of the environmental disaster on bottlenose dolphins residing in Barataria Sea, particularly those dolphins that has resided and continued to dwell in New Orleans. In a news report published by The Guardian, oil contaminated the lake off the Louisiana coast, killing vast numbers of dolphins, rendering the dolphin community to have become mildly more than portion of what was before the disaster. The remaining dolphins, nevertheless, could hardly avoid harm, as shown in consensus research published in Conservation Biology. As per Lori Schwacke, an infectious disease specialist with the National Marine Mammal Foundation and the report's principal investigator, respiratory sickness has become the greatest problem among the dolphins. Numerous signs of degradation in the dolphins' mental wellbeing have led Schwacke to assume they are experiencing pain from an ailment roughly comparable to prolonged intransigent respiratory sickness (COPD), a gradual respiratory problem. Maturity level consequences might even be a factor. Furthermore, as shown by latest statistics, the citizenry of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Harbour has decreased by up to 45% ever since the catastrophic event, to only around 2,000. The surviving women' breeding accomplishment was considerably diminished. Dolphins born following the accident, on the other hand, remain asymptomatic of medical conditions. Schwacke added that the goal of the project is that the living creatures will dominate and control through the community throughout period. Also read: Australian Woman "Lucky to be Alive" After Picking Up World's Deadliest Sea Creature Dolphins at Risk Due to the Drilling and River Plan Restoration to initial levels is expected to take three decades, assuming no major challenges emerge in the nearest term. Meanwhile, in November 2021, the US administration licensed vast swaths of the Gulf of Mexico's seafloor for oil and gas exploration. Despite the fact that the transactions were just dissolved in arbitration, there may be an intervention, raising the potential of some other oil disaster. Furthermore, the proposal to move enormous volumes of water and silt from the Mississippi River into Barataria Gulf increases the danger. The aim of this survey, according to the Louisiana Maritime Preservation and Rehabilitation Agency, is to rehabilitate marine communities, such as seashore wetlands, and to improve water infrastructure, with construction slated to begin the upcoming year. However, the input of surface water will reduce the saltiness of the marsh to less than 5 parts per thousand. In an interview with Schwacke, he informed that the event is predicted to harm dolphins. Reduced salt content causes drastic physiological responses, exacerbating abnormalities and inflammation in their skin prior to actually massacring the others. According to the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the proposal will lead to the loss of approximately one-third of the community annually. Moreover, to Schwacke, the dolphins are doubtful to migrate to mitigate the influence of the Mississippi development. Creatures like the bottlenose dolphin have high location accurateness, the researcher explained, noting that if the depositional misdirection arrangement goes forward, the dolphin community would almost undoubtedly be annihilated. Also read: Space Rock That Fell off a Dog Kennel's Wooden House Goes for Auction A man walks in front of a destroyed building after a Russian missile attack in the town of Vasylkiv, near Kyiv, on February 27, 2022. - Ukraine's foreign minister said on February 27, that Kyiv would not buckle at talks with Russia over its invasion, accusing President Vladimir Putin of seeking to increase "pressure" by ordering his nuclear forces on high alert. (Photo : DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images) On Thursday, Russian forces launched missile attacks and shelling against Ukraine, igniting a significant escalation of the violence in the region. Experts believe that while a nuclear war seems unlikely, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made direct nuclear threats. "No matter who tries to stand in our way or... create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history," Putin said when announcing his invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russia-Ukraine War A senior US defense official claimed that Russia had launched around 200 missiles since the attack began at a Friday news conference. According to the latest tally from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 25 people have been killed in the fighting. The researchers who spoke to Vox when Russia first invaded Ukraine argued that while a nuclear strike is unlikely, it is nonetheless a matter of concern, given that the invasion launched Europe's greatest military operation since WWII. Kristensen stated, "I'm more concerned than I was a week ago." He noted that in reaction to Putin's remarks, NATO upped its readiness levels for "all contingencies" and that increased military buildup comes with growing uncertainty. "That's the fog of battle. From there, twists and turns can emerge, leading you down a route you couldn't have predicted a week ago." When questioned about Putin's decision to raise nuclear alert levels, Kristense claimed that Putin has once again taken another unnessecary step to raise the situation in what seems to be a direct nuclear threat. "There is nothing in Russia's stated public nuclear doctrine that justifies this," he added. Related Article: Smoke From Nuclear War May Eradicate Humans by Threatening Global Food Supplies, Warn Experts Radioactive Fallout From Nuclear War An all-out nuclear war between two powerful countries would produce more radioactive fallout if the weapon hit land, as earth and other elements would be hurled into the atmosphere. However, if a country dropped the bomb in mid-air, the shockwaves would ricochet off the ground and reinforce one another, resulting in a significantly bigger area of destruction, according to Drozdenko. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, this "airburst" might also carry radioactive materials as high as 50 miles into the atmosphere. How Nuclear War May Impact the Environment Research into the full effects of nuclear war has been done, hidden, and done again over the years. Due to regional cooling and soot blasted up into the atmosphere, nuclear war, even on a small scale, would bring mortality in addition to those initially hurt in the blast. Due to nuclear winter, reduced sunlight, and decreased rainfall, a wider war might result in a decade of global starvation. Furthermore, a huge battle might deplete substantial portions of the ozone layer, which protects the Earth from damaging UV radiation, resulting in significantly reduced ocean life, less healthy plant life, and long-term problems resulting from the ozone loss. Any nuclear war would kill many more people than those caught in the initial blast, and a wider war would have far-reaching consequences for life on Earth in the future. Even a single nuclear bomb is hazardous to the environment, but an all-out conflict would be disastrous. Also Read: The Possible Effects if a Nuclear War to Hit the Planet For similar news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! LAUDERHILL A neighbor fatally shot a dog that was attacking its owner on Monday in the back yard of a Florida home, police said. The neighbor heard the commotion and ran to the backyard, where the dog was shot, Lauderhill police Lt. Michael Santiago told news outlets. Advertisement The woman who owned the dog was taken to a hospital with injuries to her hand, he said. Authorities have not identified the woman or the neighbor. They also have not said what breed the dog was. Advertisement But the boyfriend of the woman who was attacked told Local 10 News that he is furious that his neighbor killed the dog, saying he believes his girlfriend had the dog under control. I guess the dogs started fighting she tried to break it up, he said. One of the dogs bit her, and as far as I knew, one of the neighbors had came over and broke apart the two boys, because it was about two boys that were going at it. And they broke apart the two boys, and once the two boys were broken apart, to my knowledge, the activity was ceased. I thought Id not live to see this again. But it happened Wednesday night. Lethal Russian military force marching and rocketing across sovereign borders to impose the will of the Kremlin. And this time led by a personally angry Russian president, a former KGB senior officer in Germany at the fall of the wall in 1989. Putin is on a quest not only to redraw borders but to rewrite and reverse post-1990 Europe to his vision. I was 8. A frightened young boy hiding in a Budapest basement when on Nov. 4 ,1956 Soviet tanks and troops crossed the border in massive force. What began as a spontaneous peoples demonstration and revolt on Oct. 23 for independence turned that night into a war. People died; many young. Post-World War II Soviet control over Hungary was reestablished in days. Our family escaped in December and we were welcomed to the United States among more than 30,000 refugees. In 1968 (by then a U.S. citizen and college student) I had come to believe in detente and a possible end to the Cold War and new freedoms in Central Europe were like candles starting to shed bits of light. I was studying for two months in what we then called Eastern Europe and crossed over to Uzsgorod a town over the Soviet Union border and now a part of Ukraine. I was awakened at 3 a.m. Aug.20 by the thunder of hundreds of Soviet tanks headed to Prague crossing at the Slovak border of then Czechoslovakia. The next day the headline in the New York Times read Soviets Turn Back the Clock. And with some change, gradual openings in economic structure, trade and interaction with the United States and Western Europe the clock was stuck and East Europe, including East Germany and Poland remained under a Russian-Soviet sphere of control. It took another quarter of a century for the seismic change the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Since then Germany is one unified country and a global economic and political power. Hungary, Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland and the Baltic states among other Central European countries have joined NATO and the EU. Some leaders such as Hungarys Victor Orban have been disappointing in espousing illiberal democracy. But even Hungary voted to support the EU/ NATO actions this week with respect to Ukraine. They are now protected by Article 5 of the NATO treaty. Ukraine, however, is not a NATO member. While the transatlantic alliance has faced some strains particularly during the Trump presidency we went into the dark night of 2/23/22 unified in support of democratic values and governing principles and the rule of law assuring the sovereignty of nation state borders developed over time post WWII. President Joe Biden has been laser focused on a reset of the transatlantic relationship founded on a shared commitment to democratic values and aspirations and respect for the views and particular needs of member states. The Biden commitment was also to lead by example and reform following our shame of Jan. 6. President Vladimir Putins goal is to revert to a Soviet sphere of power and control extending out from the current borders of Russia. His motivation is not improving the Russian peoples lives nor of those living in Ukraine or other borders his control now seeks to dominate by force. His focus is border restructuring and geographic expansion. This is a dangerous moment. Our transatlantic alliance based unified response must remain firm and coordinated with an increasing breadth and depth of global allies and European commitment. Solutions will be complex to find but the governing principles are clear. Russia cannot rewrite history. Borders can not be crossed with military force with impunity and false justifications. But the most painful tragedy is the human one. The innocent who will die in Ukraine. The families and children and grandparents who now live in darkness and fear and uncertainty. The refugee families who will seek shelter beyond the borders of Ukraine in Europe and yes here in the United States and as new neighbors in Connecticut. I remember still remember 65 years later how scared I was in the Budapest basement. I think of the people of Ukraine huddle as families in fear by candlelight or in darkness tonight and for many days ahead. Other family freeze out on the front lines in ditches as they fight a brave resistance. The battle may have just begun. Its end point is not within sight yet. The sacrifices ahead are unclear. Much will be asked of so many. The economic impacts will be felt first in Europe but here too initially in energy prices but likely more broadly through the global supply chain. The world has never engaged in targeted cyberwarfare; but Putin has threatened it. While we have prepared our capacity to counter it the potential impact on our lives is scary and real. And most tragically so families will lose children and grandchildren in Ukraine and in Russia too. No, I never thought I would see another Russian attack like the one Putin launched. We are an ocean away from Europe and Ukraine. But in 2022 the ocean is not enough distance to protect our future and democratic values. Only building and participating fully in a committed transatlantic alliance with firm resolve can we hope to protect a future for our children and grandchildren where the rule of law is respected and the value and respect for human life and individual aspirations nourished. Gov. Ned Lamont spoke for all of us Friday pledging, The people of Connecticut stand in solidarity with the citizens of Ukraine and pray for their safety as they endure this assault on their freedom. We need to be ready to welcome to Connecticut those seeking shelter from Putins war of 2022. Greenwich resident Stephen Fuzesi Jr. is on the Board of Directors of the CT Institute for Refugees and Immigrants with offices in Bridgeport, Stamford, Hartford and Waterbury. On Feb. 15, Remington Arms reached a $73 million settlement with the families of the victims of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six staff members. Nine of the victims families sued. They argued that Remington violated state consumer laws based on its advertising of the weapon used in the shooting, a .223-caliber Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle. The Consider Your Man Card Reissued ad campaign, for example, implied that buying this particular rifle restored masculinity. Bushmasters website declared before the text was quickly removed after the massacre In a world of rapidly depleting testosterone, the Bushmaster Man Card declares and confirms that you are a mans man. The aggressive marketing strategy used by Remington, the plaintiffs contended, directly targeted at-risk young men like Lanza. The now-bankrupt Remington Arms did not formally accept liability. But this historic settlement indicates that gun manufacturers can face financial consequences for the use of their products under some circumstances and be held accountable for their marketing. 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 victims families. For the gun industry, he said, 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. This settlement marks a sharp departure from precedent. Dating back to the 19th century, firearms manufacturers have avoided responsibility for the violent acts committed with their rifles and pistols, even as they have aggressively marketed their lethal products to white men and boys. In the 18th and early-19th centuries, highly trained gunsmiths carefully crafted customized weapons at the behest of individual civilian buyers. The time-consuming process meant guns were expensive, and few households purchased more than one. Ordinary Americans, of course, owned and used guns, but a large civilian market for mass-produced weapons did not exist before the 1840s. But the Industrial Revolution ushered in a new era of manufacturing. Expansive factories made it possible to rapidly assemble rifles and revolvers by relying upon unskilled labor, industrial machinery and interchangeable parts. Mass production, however, created a problem for prospective gun tycoons. Producing lots of guns cheaply and efficiently would only be profitable if they sold those weapons in large quantities. The solution: advertising. Instead of the public seeing guns as largely for military use or as household tools, Americans had to desire them. Manufacturers including but not limited to the Colt Manufacturing Co. and Winchester Repeating Arms Co. in Connecticut and Remington in New York initiated aggressive advertising campaigns that promoted their products to white civilian men. The mid-19th-century economy was highly unregulated, and the federal government placed few restrictions on selling weapons and ammunition. As historian Pamela Haag has explained, No pangs of conscience were attached to firearms sales or marketing, and there were no more special regulations, prohibitions, values or mystique relating to the manufacture, marketing or sales of guns than of shovels. As typical 19th-century capitalists, arms manufacturers held little to no personal affinity for guns; they held only a fascination with production, standardization, efficiency and moneymaking. Samuel Colt, of Hartford, exemplified the art of selling guns on unregulated markets. According to one historian, Colts greatest invention was the system he built to manufacture [repeating revolvers] and the apparatus of sales, image management and marketing that made his guns the most popular, prolific and storied handgun in American history. Remington and other competitors built upon this profitable system. From the start, Colt implicitly connected his revolvers to ideas of white manhood and power. In Colt lore, two origin stories exist about the repeating revolver. Today the dominant narrative claims that 16-year-old Colt became inspired by a ships wheel while sailing to Kolkata, and he whittled pieces for the gun. The lesser-known origin story is more sinister. It connects Colts revolver to Nat Turners revolt, an 1831 uprising among enslaved workers in Virginia. According to an 1838 endorsement in an American journal, Colt was startled to think about the fearful odds with which white planters contended due to being surrounded by a swarming population of slaves. A multi-shot revolver would enable the planter to repose in peace. This inspiration exposed how Colt was happy to sell firearms to paying customers for nefarious purposes. (Colt Manufacturing did not respond to a request for comment.) That became even clearer in the late 1850s, when he began urging his factory managers to run the armory at a double set of hands make hay while the sun shines as the sectional fracture in the United States grew. Surplus was welcome. In 1860, Colt used his resources to build up supply for when the demand for weapons inevitably came. Seeing the warlike mood in the South, Colt told his factory superintendent Elisha K. Root that he was sure there is a market for all arms we can make, whether there is a fight or not. On the eve of the Civil War, however, Northerners had a momentary crisis of conscience. As the New York Times warned, Southerners had bargained with Northern people for weapons for destroying the people of the North. Nor had all arms manufacturers stopped responding to Southern orders when the deeply malignant purposes of the South became known beyond all question. Instead, a prominent gun factory was at this moment working under the utmost pressure to furnish Southern traitors with the implements of treasonable warfare. While not explicitly named in the Jan. 16, 1861, New York Times editorial, Colt had deliberately drummed up business below the Mason-Dixon Line in the years before the Civil War and supplied guns to the future rebels. Astoundingly, the companys last Southern order appears to have shipped from New England to Texas on April 16, 1861 almost four months after South Carolina seceded and a week after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. In a letter to the editor of the Boston Transcript, Colt dismissed this criticism. Rebutting the claim that he favored Southern sales or offered discounts, he sought credit for refusing the most tempting offers from speculators and those who desire to monopolize firearms at this important crisis. Distracted by the war, the American public soon forgot the incident and the company avoided blowback. After the Civil War, arms manufacturers shifted gears, but their basic strategy of aggressively chasing customers and tying their products to white masculinity remained steady. The Winchester Repeating Arms Co., based in New Haven, launched the boy plan, aimed at American youths and their parents. Corporate executives developed a marketing strategy to reach more than 1 million boys between ages 10 and 16. When the boys and girls of your town arrive at the age of 12 years old, they become your prospects, noted the companys internal sales letter. In the late 1910s, the companys slogan Every real boy wants a Winchester rifle became prominent. This marketing campaign informed boys that, to be real men, they needed a Winchester. These advertisements eerily similar to more contemporary ads used by arms manufacturers in the 21st century clearly targeted the young male demographic. (Winchester did not respond to a request for comment.) Today young men are responsible for 98 percent of mass shootings in the United States. Yet even as the death toll has mounted over the past quarter-century, gun manufacturers continued to produce technologically advanced weapons with high-capacity magazines and to use marketing campaigns to urge men to purchase additional guns for home defense and self-defense. Gun manufacturers, however, are rarely held accountable for their marketing tactics or for the irreversible damage caused by their lethal products. A rise in gun violence and mass shootings in the 1990s triggered lawsuits from various cities across the nation, but courts often dismissed such cases. Then, in 2005, Congress made legal protections for firearms manufacturers explicit. As part of the settlement, Remington will finally open its books and show exactly how it marketed modern firearms. This is unprecedented, and it promises to reveal to the public whether gun manufacturers have crossed lines in marketing their products. Tracy L. Barnett is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Georgia. She wrote this for the Washington Post, where it first appeared. Then as now, it began with lies. On Sept. 1, 1939, Adolf Hitlers forces crossed the border into Poland. The German chancellor did so on the pretext that ethnic Germans were being persecuted. German operatives, disguised as Poles, even staged an attack on a German radio station, yelling anti-German threats into the microphone. Advertisement With that lie, the most devastating war in the history of the world began. It is far too early to know how devastating this latest European war will turn out to be, how many will die, how many will be left homeless and stateless, how the repercussions will play out across the globe. There is, however, an ominous resonance in the lies from which it arose. Advertisement Leonard Pitts. First, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed he had no intention of invading Ukraine, even as he massed troops on that countrys border. Then he announced Russia would recognize two separatist regions. Finally, shortly before Russian ordnance began to pound the smaller country, he announced a military operation aimed at peacekeeping and denazification. Now, as then, lies. And now, as then, what strikes you is not just the utter brazenness of them, but the threadbare flimsiness of them. Hitler, granted, put some work into his lie, but at the end of the day, was anyone really expected to believe that Poland, which had more horses than tanks, had suddenly decided to attack its heavily armed neighbor? Putins lies are even shoddier. He would have us believe his forces were needed to keep the peace in a nation that was at peace and to evict Nazis from a nation whose democratically elected president is a Jew. These are the kinds of lies you tell when you dont care what anyone thinks. Their very shabbiness is an expression of contempt. And the fact that Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, J.D. Vance, Steve Bannon and other denizens of the American right either lionize this liar Savvy, Trump called him or dismiss the suffering of his victims I dont really care what happens to Ukraine, said Vance is a clear, albeit superfluous indicator of just how broken our own country has become. Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. > Like Putin, much of the right bears allegiance not to truth, much less to democracy, but rather, to the brutish power of the strongman to do as he pleases, unfettered by such niceties. Thats what they very nearly imposed in 2016. It is what they promise in 2024. And if youre not frightened, youre not paying attention. This moment has been a long time coming. A little more than a quarter-century ago, a House speaker named Newt Gingrich declared politics war and an upstart cable network called Fox declared facts optional. It was called a conservative resurgence, but it was actually the foundation stone for the kingdom of lies our country has become. No wonder Trump likes Putin and claims the feeling is mutual. Each recognizes himself in the other. What they recognize, what they have in common, is that transactional disdain for the truth and, more to the point, for anyone naive enough to expect it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her Russian counterpart a red reset button, Russia accepted it, but kept right on being a thugocracy. TV pundits kept assuring us Trump was going to become presidential any second now, but to his last day, he remained a willful child. Now families seek refuge in Ukrainian subways, while Trump cheers their tormentor on. Advertisement Let no one be surprised. What begins in lies tends to end in carnage. Leonard Pitts is a columnist for the Miami Herald. Help support your local hometown newspaper/website. Independent local news reporting matters. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, for as little as $3, so we can continue to provide independent local reporting on our communities. Trump shouldnt have made front page I cannot be the only reader disgusted with the Orlando Sentinels decision to put the defeated, twice-impeached, former presidents picture front and center in Sundays paper (CPAC in Orlando: Trump slams radical left, President Biden, Feb. 27), while relegating the legitimate president, Joe Biden, to the second section. The media are doing what they unfortunately have done all along: giving far too much attention to a person who continues to spread lies, misinformation and vitriol, at the same time he panders to a murderous dictator who has wantonly attacked a peaceful, democratically run neighboring country, killing innocent citizens. Advertisement If The Former Guy should be in the paper at all, he should be relegated to the funny pages. Chris Fox Clermont Advertisement I-4 Express should toll by plate Let me see if I have this straight: tolls for the express lanes along I-4 will be collected only via transponder. There is no Toll-By-Plate as is common on other toll roads. Yet, if someone goes through the express lanes, they will be billed for the toll PLUS a $25 violation fee. So, they wont collect Toll-By-Plate, but they will do Fine-By-Plate. I refuse to use any of Floridas special privilege toll lanes, as I consider them unfair to people of lesser means. Doug Quara Mount Dora Both parents have value in raising child Rep. Fred Hawkins column in the Saturday Orlando Sentinel (Make responsible fatherhood a priority) offers some thoughtful ideas to help fathers and their families through rough times. What I dont see in the essay: Ideas for helping mothers. Yes, it can be said that if the father is part of the family, things will often be better for everyone. But couldnt mothers also benefit from employment, transitioning from incarceration, and accessing health care? Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. > In fact, regarding health care, I note that Rep. Hawkins voted for the Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality bill that recently passed the Florida House. That bill forbids abortion after 15 weeks gestation, taking out of a womans hands at that stage of the pregnancy the ability to choose whether she is ready or able to become a parent, even if the pregnancy results from incest or rape. Making responsible parenthood a priority would be a better goal, since it implies the participation of both parties, and that ideal should include a womans need to have the final decision in whether to become a parent. Advertisement Russ Kesler Orlando Corporate taxes trickle to consumer Wise up! Do you know who pays corporate taxes? The consumer does, rich and poor alike (Stop the greedy corporate tax giveaways in Tallahassee, Feb. 26). The gasoline pump is an example. The price of oil goes up, the price at the pump goes up. Taxes on gasoline go up, the price at the pump goes up. Corporations are in business to make a profit so if their expenses go up, prices on their items go up. Susan Ruffini Winter Park Zelenskys not a ride comment is historic I believe that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys response to our offer of evacuation, I need ammunition, not a ride, will rank with U.S. Gen. Anthony McAuliffes response to the German demand for the surrender of his forces in Bastogne in December 1944: Nuts. It is tragic that we have few, if any leaders left or right who exhibit that kind of leadership, fortitude and bravery in our own country at the moment. We can all name a few who persevere with conviction in the face of political pressure, but we would all be well served by leaders like Zelensky, rather than ideologues who spew lies and race to conform to the lowest possible denominator of political discourse. Kurt Fleckenstein Orlando CPAC in Orlando last week could have been Gov. Ron Santis time to shine even more in advance of a potential 2024 run for president, but the Florida governor remains in political limbo after former President Trump gave his clearest indication yet that hell run again. We did it twice, and well do it again, Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday night, continuing his false claim of fraud in the 2020 election. Were going to be doing it again. A third time. Advertisement The next day, Trump defeated DeSantis by a 30-plus-point margin in the events straw poll, almost exactly the same result as in 2021. I think DeSantis is the nominee-in-waiting, said former Florida GOP congressman turned independent David Jolly. And hes waiting. Advertisement Last years CPAC, also held in Orlando, was DeSantis coming-out party to the nation as he welcomed conservatives to the free state of Florida amid COVID-19 restrictions elsewhere. But 2022s version remained a Trump-dominated space, from the gold statue on display to the hundreds of Trump hats for sale to the repeated pledges of loyalty and grievances on his behalf from speakers. Most notably, amid reports of a rift between them, neither mentioned the other in their speeches. Theyre the two belles at the ball, if you will, kind of competing for the affection of the suitors, Jolly said. But theyre not friends. Its clear. Trump and DeSantis merchandise on sale at CPAC in Orlando (Steven Lemongello) DeSantis spoke at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, an earlier time slot than in 2021, and his remarks were overshadowed by President Bidens speech on Russias invasion of Ukraine at the exact same time. Unlike many prominent GOP politicians who praised Ukrainians or condemned Russia, DeSantis did not mention the crisis in his speech. He did tap into the main theme of this years CPAC, Awake, not woke, by citing his anti-woke bill that was just passed by the Florida House. He also echoed his anti-COVID-restriction message from 2021, calling countries with strict measures such as Canada or Australia examples of nations chafing under authoritarian rule all across the world. Trump, who had the prime speaking slot Saturday night, has been at odds with DeSantis over COVID, praising vaccines while calling politicians like DeSantis gutless for not revealing if they were boosted. Advertisement Trump, too, condemned COVID restrictions as left-wing tyranny, despite his own administrations early measures, it played only a small role in his speech. Trump defended his Russia and Ukraine policies, and his description of Russian President Vladimir Putin as smart, while repeating his false claims of fraud and victory. Most of his speech, though, was about the culture wars. Trump even leaned into one of DeSantis biggest talking points, parents rights, describing it as something new that came up. Parents rights, whoever thought? Trump said. In the past, Jolly said DeSantis has been brilliant not just in adopting the parts of Trump that hold the most currency in the party. Ron DeSantis, more so than anybody else in the party, figured out how to use Donald Trump. And I mean that in a pejorative way. He used Donald Trump to get to the governors mansion. He used that Trump brand better than anybody. And the moment he got elected, [that] disappeared. Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. > But despite the ambition, Jolly said, youre not going to see DeSantis publicly try to elbow out Trump. Hes too disciplined. Hell probably lose it. So he knows he has to sit and wait. Advertisement Matt Isbell, a Democratic consultant who runs the MCIMaps website, agreed. They both cant run, Isbell said. At the end of the day, if Trump runs, I think DeSantis stays out of it. I think he has this idea that he could do it. But I just dont see it. DeSantis being forced aside by something that hasnt happened since the 1800s, a former president running again after losing, would have major implications for his political future. By 28, DeSantis is a former governor of Florida, Jolly said. Hes not the hot ticket anymore. And thats got to eat at DeSantis every day of the week, that this guy with all the potential, and the front-runner status outside of Trump, might actually miss his shot altogether. DeSantis, who would only be 50 years old in 2028, would still be more than young enough to run, Jolly said. But the politics of the party will be very different, he said. Columnist Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich). Longview, TX (75601) Today Cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 89F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mainly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. A front is pushing into the Central Florida area Monday as northerly winds call for a breezier and cooler day ahead of scattered showers. Not going to be raining steadily all day, but notice the afternoon hours are more favored that means you may have to open the umbrellas for the after school pick up and have the wipers up for the evening commute, said Spectrum News 13 meteorologist Maureen McCann. Advertisement Monday has the strongest chance of rain this week at 40% this afternoon. Temperatures are expected at a high of 78 and a low of 56. Cooler temperatures should stick around for the first part of the work week with Tuesday having a low of 58 and Wednesday at 62. However, temperature highs are expected to climb higher into the 80s by the weekend with Sunday having a high of 86. Advertisement Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com Peanut allergies are hard to treat and can cause fatal or near-fatal anaphylactic reactions. People usually don't outgrow peanut allergy, requiring lifelong scrutiny of food labels to avoid even small traces of peanut. A first-of-its-kind clinical trial at Boston Children's Hospital now finds that fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) from healthy, non-allergic donors allow some severely allergic young adults to consume small amounts of peanut safely. Rima Rachid, MD, lead investigator and co-director of the Food Allergy Program at Boston Children's, will present the results February 26 at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) annual meeting, during a morning symposium on Food Allergy. The FMT treatment was derived from stool samples provided by healthy, non-allergic donors and delivered in frozen capsules. It enabled some study participants -; who initially had allergic reactions to less than half a peanut -; to consume more than two peanuts before reacting, the study found. That amount may be enough to eliminate concern about traces of peanut in foods, says Rachid. These results were very encouraging. A single FMT led to a significant increase in the threshold of reactivity to peanut at both 1 month and 4 months after treatment, showing that the effect was prolonged. This study is offering hope that microbiome interventions may be effective in food allergy." Rima Rachid, MD, lead investigator and co-director of the Food Allergy Program at Boston Children's Why FMT for food allergy? Increasing evidence supports the idea that the bacteria living in our intestines help shape our immune systems. Known informally as a "poop transplant," FMT replaces the intestinal bacteria of peanut-allergic patients with that of non-allergic donors. The donors in this study were rigorously screened by OpenBiome, a nonprofit stool bank in Cambridge, Mass. The Phase 1 open-label trial enrolled 15 participants, ages 18 to 33, who had allergic reactions to 100 milligrams of peanut (half a peanut) or less. All received FMT, swallowing 36 capsules over the course of three hours. In one arm of the study, 10 participants received a single dose of FMT alone. Three (30 percent) were able to tolerate larger amounts of peanut -; one as much as four peanuts -; when challenged both one and four months after FMT. In the second arm, five participants were pretreated with antibiotics as an extra measure to kill off their own microbiome, clearing the way for the donor bacteria. Three of the five (60 percent) became more peanut-tolerant after FMT. There were no serious adverse reactions to FMT. While the number of participants was small, laboratory tests were consistent with the clinical results. Participants who responded to FMT had increases in the regulatory T cells associated with immune tolerance and reductions in the T helper cells associated with allergy. When their microbiomes were transplanted into a strain of allergy-prone mice, the mice showed similar immune changes and were protected from anaphylaxis when challenged with food allergens. In contrast, when the non-responders' microbiomes were transplanted, the allergic mice were not protected. "This shows that the therapeutic response to FMT is microbiome-related," says Rachid. A new treatment option? Currently, food allergies are often treated by giving people gradually increasing amounts of peanut under medical supervision, sometimes together with medications to suppress their immune response. But this method is not curative and is not effective in adults, says Rachid. "The long-term effect of oral immunotherapy is not clear, and many patients stop therapy over time," she says. "Additionally, it requires daily administration, and is not without risks of allergic reactions. Microbiome interventions are very promising alternatives for treating food allergy." The trial is based on years of groundwork. Rachid and her colleagues began by comparing the intestinal bacteria in babies with and without food allergies. These studies, originally published in 2019 in the journal Nature Medicine, established that the stool bacteria in babies with food allergies were different from those in non-allergic babies. The researchers then experimented with FMT in mice, transplanting fecal bacteria from the babies into allergy-prone mice. Mice given fecal bacteria from food-allergic babies went into anaphylaxis when challenged with an allergen; those given fecal bacteria from healthy babies did not. Rachid now hopes to conduct a Phase II clinical trial in 12- to 17-year-olds, providing antibiotic pretreatment and a purified Microbial Transplantation Therapy (MTT) preparation in collaboration with Alexander Khoruts, MD, from the University of Minnesota. The preparation can be stored in a home refrigerator, avoiding the need for patients to come to the clinic to be treated. "Home administration makes microbiome interventions very attractive," says Rachid. A team of scientists from Germany has recently conducted a serological screening on wild animals to assess seroprevalence against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other pathogenic viruses related to domestic ruminants. The findings reveal that wild animals are not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. High seropositivity has only been observed against the Schmallenberg virus. The study is currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint server while awaiting peer review. Study: Serological screening in wild ruminants in Germany, 2021/22: No evidence of SARS-CoV-2, bluetongue virus or pestivirus spread but high seroprevalences against Schmallenberg virus. Image Credit: WildMedia / Shutterstock Many infectious pathogens relevant to public health can infect wild animals, turning them into reservoirs of a plethora of viruses and bacteria. As a result, these animals possess a constant risk of zoonotic transmission of pathogens to humans. In central Europe, the majority of wild ruminants are susceptible to two insect-borne viruses, namely bluetongue virus and Schmallenberg virus. While infection with the Schmallenberg virus is known to cause fever, diarrhea, reduced milk production, and reproductive defects in domestic ruminants, the bluetongue virus primarily causes subclinical infections. However, vascular injuries from bluetongue virus infection can induce systemic hemorrhagic fever, which has a high mortality rate. Besides insect-borne viruses, there are many pathogens that can infect both wild and domestic animals via direct contact. These pathogens include the bovine viral diarrhea virus and border disease virus. In the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many cases of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in American mink, ferrets, felines, canines, and primates from human exposure have been identified. Infection of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer has also been detected in North America. This raises a concern that these animals may potentially act as reservoirs capable of reintroducing the virus to humans. In the current study, the scientists have investigated the seroprevalence against SARS-CoV-2 infection in European wild ruminants. In addition, they have assessed seropositivity against four viruses of veterinary relevance, including bluetongue virus, Schmallenberg virus, bovine viral diarrhea virus, and border disease virus. Study design A total of 493 samples collected from wild ruminants during 2021 2022 in Germany were included for the serological analysis. The study animals included fallow deer, red deer, roe deer, mouflon, and wisent (European bison). For SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity analysis, additional 307 samples collected between 2017 and 2020 were included. Proportion of wild ruminant samples that tested positive (red) for antibodies against the Culicoides-transmitted viruses Schmallenberg virus (left) and bluetongue virus (right). BY Bavaria, HE Hesse, MV Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, NW North Rhine-Westphalia, RP Rhineland-Palatinate Serology of veterinary viruses About 13% of samples collected between September 2021 and January 2022 showed seropositivity against the Schmallenberg virus. Except wisent, individual animals from every studied species were affected by the Schmallenberg virus. In contrast, all samples except one showed seronegativity against the bluetongue virus. The only sample that tested positive against bluetongue virus was collected from a fallow deer of unknown age. Regarding bovine viral diarrhea virus and border disease virus, all samples showed seronegativity. Serology of coronaviruses About 5% of samples collected during 2021 2022 tested positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) antibodies. To further confirm the seropositivity of samples, virus neutralization test was conducted using replicating SARS-CoV-2. In this confirmatory test, none of the samples showed seropositivity against SARS-CoV-2. The analysis of samples collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that about 6.5% of samples have antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD. However, the seropositivity of these samples could not be confirmed by virus neutralization test. Further analysis of SARS-CoV-2 seropositive samples collected before and during the pandemic revealed that about 90% of the samples have antibodies against the spike RBD of SARS-CoV-1, the causative pathogen of the 20022004 SARS outbreak. Both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 belong to the subgenus Sarbecovirus of the beta-coronaviruses. Overall, these findings highlight the presence of at least one previously unknown coronavirus in the wildlife population that is closely related to viruses of the Sarbecovirus subgenus. The antibodies developed against this unknown coronavirus have shown cross-reactivity against both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. Study significance The serological screening conducted in the study reveals that wild ruminants in Germany are not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, these animals have shown high seroprevalence against the Schmallenberg virus. The seropositivity against SARS-CoV-2 observed in some animals could be due to another previously unknown coronavirus belonging to the subgenus Sarbecovirus of beta-coronaviruses. *Important notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. In a recent research report from the United States, currently available on bioRxiv* preprint server, scientists have shown that bacterial taxonomic and functional profiles can discriminate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) status even without directly detecting viral transcripts opening the door for entirely novel approaches in wastewater-based epidemiology. Study: Bacterial metatranscriptomes in wastewater can differentiate virally infected human populations. Image Credit: People Image Studio / Shutterstock Wastewater-based epidemiology for tracking diseases represents a concept that is becoming more pervasive in recent years due to many advantages compared to traditional approaches, as it can provide particularly comprehensive information on different communities. One significant advantage is that it is non-invasive and cost-effective when compared to individual clinical testing. Furthermore, it does not necessitate individual consent to clinical testing in order to report the results to public health agencies thus it can be highly beneficial to under-served populations. Nonetheless, at the moment, the wastewater-based epidemiology scheme is limited to pathogen detection and characterization by using real-time PCR and sequencing methods, which means it cannot detect disease agents for which a screening test has not been developed. Recent studies that have used a highly spatially resolved, high-throughput wastewater monitoring system on a college campus showed that it was possible to collect and characterize thousands of wastewater samples with real-time PCR, identifying 85% of clinical cases caused by SARS-CoV-2, and also enable genomic surveillance for emerging variants of concern by complete genome sequencing. In this research paper, a research group led by Dr. Rodolfo A Salido and Dr. Rob Knight from the University of California San Diego in La Jolla (USA) used a metatranscriptomics approach for an untargeted community/population-level disease monitoring strategy. High Throughput pipeline for Virally Enriched (VE) wastewater metatranscriptomics. Flow diagram of metatranscriptomic data generation from VE wastewater samples, from auto-sampler to sequencer. Key robotic instrumentation and tools are depicted alongside each step. The flow diagram is color-coded according to the different stages of sample processing. The high throughput pipeline increases sample processing parallelization through incremental compression of samples from 24-well plates to 384-well plates. Significant per sample cost savings are achieved through miniaturization of molecular reactions in 384-well format, for which specialized low volume liquid handling infrastructure is needed. Rationale behind the study Akin to many other different pathogens, SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to cause systematic disruptions in the microbial communities of the human gut (also known as intestinal microbiome), which is the principal human microbial input to wastewater. Consequently, metatranscriptomics in this context can leverage correlations in observable changes in wastewater microbiomes with human microbiome disruptions that can be linked to a certain disease state, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) known to affect the gastrointestinal tract as well. Here the research group performed untargeted metatranscriptomics on virally-enriched wastewater samples from ten locations on the University of California San Diego campus, and validated the predictive power for wastewater SARS-CoV-2 status discrimination. A proof-of-principle for wastewater-based epidemiology In a nutshell, the results of this study showed that wastewater metatranscriptomes could divulge traces of rare pathogens via alterations of the microbiome of the infected individuals, which are subsequently reflected in the wastewater microbiome. Samples obtained from each sewer hole in this study have shown a distinct microbiome signature, which likely reflects a composite of the individual microbiomes of those contributing to each wastewater stream. This in turn established a proof-of-principle for high-throughput biomarker discovery in wastewater-based epidemiology. In any case, the untargeted nature of this data modality makes it somewhat flexible for monitoring a myriad of diseases at the population scale and is superior to metagenomic monitoring since it encompasses all living organisms and viruses. Screening large populations This type of wastewater sample monitoring at building-level resolution can screen large populations for SARS-CoV-2, prioritizing testing and isolation efforts. In addition, the methodology can be applied to different types of biospecimens and have a considerable impact beyond the field of epidemiology. One of the limitations of the proposed strategy is the narrow stability of the samples RNA molecules, caution study authors in this bioRxiv preprint paper that is currently under peer-review. However, our methods dont claim to comprehensively characterize the wastewater metatranscriptome and instead focus on the fact that changes in the observable bacterial metatranscriptome are sufficient to discriminate the wastewaters viral status, with SARS-CoV-2 detection status serving as a relevant case study, they add. But even though pivotal features of the bacterial metatranscriptome discriminate SARS-CoV-2 detection, additional work will be necessary to determine how broadly this phenomenon can actually be generalized to other pathogens. *Important notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. In early 2021, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and NORC at the University of Chicago showed that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use -; a comprehensive system they developed to assist health care institutions with establishing and operating antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) -; successfully helped more than 400 U.S. hospitals ensure that patients only received antibiotics when needed, and then, only in the correct amounts and for the prescribed dosage period. The program enabled front-line clinicians in the hospitals to make informed and responsible decisions about prescribing antibiotics, reducing both the emergence of drug-resistant bacterial strains and outbreaks of hospital-acquired infections -; primarily Clostridioides difficile, a pathogen that causes severe diarrhea and colitis, and commonly attacks people taking antibiotics in whom the medication also has killed protective gut bacteria. Now, the organizations have once again teamed to demonstrate the AHRQ safety program is effective in a different type of health care setting, one with a population especially susceptible to serious outcomes from unnecessary antibiotic use -; the residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities, including nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The findings from the research team's year-long evaluation of the program in 439 LTCs across the nation are published today in JAMA Network Open. It can be incredibly challenging to implement effective stewardship programs in the long-term care setting because of high staff turnover rates and limited resources; however, it's very important for the older adults living there who can have severe side effects if given unnecessary antibiotics. Reframing antibiotic use as a patient safety issue and incorporating direct care staff in the prescribing process can make these programs more sustainable." Morgan Katz, M.D., M.H.S., study lead author, assistant professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The AHRQ safety program used in the study consisted of 15 webinars -; each repeated three times, as well as recorded for online viewing -; over a 12-month time span (December 2018 to November 2019). The webinars focused on how to establish and maintain an antibiotic stewardship program at an LTC, methods for improving teamwork and communication, and best practices for diagnosing and managing infections without overusing antibiotics. Participants in the program received tools to incorporate stewardship principles into routine decision-making, underscoring the importance of communication about antibiotic prescribing. The 439 LTCs that completed the full year of the AHRQ safety program -; out of 523 that started it -; saw significant decreases per 1,000 resident days for both the number of antibiotic treatment courses started and for the length of therapy using fluoroquinolones and other orally given antibiotics. The researchers also found that LTCs following the safety program significantly reduced the number of urine cultures performed per 1,000 resident days. This is an important point, Katz says, because routine urine tests -; without clinical signs of disease to warrant them -; may be positive for harmless or protective bacteria and lead to unnecessary antibiotic therapy. "Particularly worth noting was our finding that improvements in antibiotic use were more pronounced in LTCs with greater engagement in the ASP, suggesting that for antibiotic stewardship, those who do the work, get the results," Katz says. Katz adds that the researchers also found there was a greater reduction in orally administered antibiotics compared with those given intravenously. "This is important because oral antibiotics are used more frequently in the LTC setting, and these medications, particularly fluoroquinolones -; which saw the most significant reduction -; were a target of the safety program," Katz says. The researchers say more data are needed to evaluate the sustainability of these interventions and their long-term effect on antibiotic use, health outcomes for residents, and staff and resident satisfaction. Along with Katz, the members of the research team from Johns Hopkins Medicine are Sara Cosgrove, Kathleen Speck and Pranita Tamma. Other team members include Melissa Miller from the AHRQ; Roy Ahn, Prashila Dullabh, Yue Gao and Savyasachi Shah from NORC; Therese Rowe from the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine; and senior study author Robin Jump from VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System. A Children's Hospital Los Angeles team has become the first in the world to implant a cardiac stent that's designed specifically for babies and young children and can be expanded all the way to adult size. The first-in-human procedure, which took place Feb. 1 in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, is part of a multicenter early feasibility study led by Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The study aims to solve a longstanding limitation of traditional cardiac stents: They're too large to be used in the youngest and smallest patients. We know that stents can work really well for patients with congenital heart disease. But we've been lacking appropriate stent technology for neonates, infants and young children. This expandable stent opens the door to a whole new treatment option for these children. It has the potential to make an enormous impact." Darren Berman, MD, Director of Congenital Interventional Catheterization and the national principal investigator for the study A better option The stent's first recipient was a 5-month-old boy named Asher who was born with two complex congenital heart defects: dextro-transposition of the great arteries (D-TGA)-;a condition where the two main arteries carrying blood out of the heart are switched in position-;and coarctation (narrowing) of the aorta, which carries blood flow to the body. Soon after birth, Asher had surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles to repair those defects, but the narrowing in his aorta recurred. In November, the team performed a minimally invasive procedure in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, using a balloon to try to open the artery. But again, the fix did not last long. "Balloon angioplasty is successful in a certain percentage of children. But it's generally not as successful as implanting a stent, which acts as a metal scaffold that can more reliably keep the artery open," Dr. Berman explains. Normally, the next step would have been to try the balloon procedure again or do open-heart surgery. Asher had already had a tough recovery from his first surgery. "It was a long, hard process for him," says his mom, Hilla. "We didn't want him to have to go through that again." The investigational expandable stent offered an appealing option. The stent is designed for neonates, infants and young children who have blockages or narrowing in the aorta or pulmonary artery. "Right off the bat, we were excited," Hilla says. "But when we learned that Asher would be the first human [to receive it], that set us back a bit. We were scared. But after weighing the pros and cons, we decided to try the stent. It was minimally invasive and less pain and a shorter recovery for Asher. That's what we were looking for." Miniaturized technology The pioneering procedure was performed by Dr. Berman and Patrick Sullivan, MD, the site principal investigator for the study. The team inserted a catheter-;a thin, flexible tube-;into an artery in the baby's leg. Guided by an X-ray monitor, they then carefully threaded it through the artery and across the area of narrowing. The physicians used a stent made by Renata Medical that comes premounted and crimped onto a balloon inside the delivery catheter. The company's engineers worked to miniaturize this technology to accommodate the cardiac needs in pediatric patients. When the catheter reached the narrowed aorta, the team inflated the balloon, expanding the stent across the area to prop open the artery. The balloon was then deflated and removed, along with the catheter, while the stent remained securely in place. "One of the most remarkable aspects of this new stent and delivery system is its size," Dr. Berman says. "The delivery system is about the size of a piece of spaghetti. Currently available adult-sized stents require much larger-sized catheters that can't be safely used in neonates and infants. The miniaturization of this technology is really groundbreaking." The other key innovation is that the stent can be expanded to fit a child's growing blood vessels. As the child grows, the team can expand the stent all the way up to adult sizes-;more than 18 millimeters wide. Dr. Berman anticipates that patients who receive the stent as babies will likely need to have it expanded two to four times over their life. The adjustments will be done through minimally invasive catheter procedures. "It's designed to essentially last a lifetime," he says. Home the next day In addition to Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the study is taking place at three other centers around the country. The goal is to enroll a total of 10 patients across the four sites over the next few months. The Food and Drug Administration will then review the safety and efficacy data from those first 10 patients. If results are positive, the next step will be a larger trial involving more patients and centers. Meanwhile, the first procedure was a success, and Asher went home the next day-;quickly returning to his normal, happy, smiley self. "He's doing amazing," Hilla says. "It is such a relief. Every day now I wake up happy. We are so grateful and appreciative that we were offered this option." Dr. Berman stresses that bringing breakthrough technology to patients at Children's Hospital Los Angeles is a team effort across the entire Heart Institute, led by Co-Directors Vaughn Starnes, MD, and Paul Kantor, MBBCh, MSc, FRCPC. That effort also involves the entire Cardiac Catheterization Lab team-;including interventional cardiologists, cardiovascular technicians, cardiac nurses and dedicated cardiac anesthesiologists. "This was a momentous procedure and a tremendous collaboration," Dr. Berman says. "We're very excited to be leading this study and to help advance new technology for the youngest children with complex heart defects." Medicaid enrollees continue to get vaccinated against covid at far lower rates than the general population despite vigorous outreach efforts by government officials and private organizations to get low-income people inoculated, according to data from several states. That leaves many Medicaid enrollees who tend to be sicker than those with private insurance at higher risk for severe illness, hospitalization, or death from the virus. Nationally, more than 215 million Americans including 75% of adults and 57% of children ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among children 5 to 11 years old, who have only been eligible for a shot since early November, about 25% have been fully vaccinated. A vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. There is no nationwide compilation of how many Medicaid enrollees have been vaccinated. But in Utah one of a handful of states that publish that data fewer than half of adult Medicaid enrollees are fully vaccinated. Disparities exist in every age and racial/ethnic group that the state publishes data on. For example, about 40% of Black Medicaid enrollees are vaccinated, compared with 56% of Black people overall. Among Hispanics, 38% of Medicaid enrollees are vaccinated, compared with 51% of the overall Hispanic population. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.) Among children 12 to 18, about 35% of Medicaid enrollees are vaccinated, compared with 57% overall. Officials at Molina Healthcare, which is one of Utah's four Medicaid managed-care plans and has about 90,000 members, said overcoming resistance to the covid vaccine has been difficult. One of the biggest hurdles is getting in touch with members. Molina officials told a Utah Medicaid advisory board in January that they can't reach 40% of their members because they don't have correct addresses or phone numbers. "It's worrying," said Brian Roach, division services manager at the Utah Department of Health, which oversees the federal-state health insurance program for low-income residents. "We still see little increases every month, but it is not enough to close the gap," he added. "There has been no silver bullet to solve this issue." Roach said he is not surprised Medicaid health plans have difficulty reaching members. "The Medicaid population is pretty transient, and people change jobs and move," he said. Under federal rules implemented for the covid public health emergency, states can't remove people from the Medicaid rolls if their income changes, so enrollees have generally not had to check in with the state to renew their eligibility. As a result, states might not have updated contact information. Personal contact with someone trusted by the enrollee is crucial to persuading members to get vaccinated. Harley Jones, a senior manager at Project Hope, a global humanitarian relief group, said unvaccinated people often need to hear from someone they know, such as a clinic nurse, to persuade them to get the shots. Since last summer, the nonprofit has been using a federal grant to help free health clinics in Texas boost vaccination rates. "It's been a year since the mass vaccination clinics, and this is a slow slog," he said. "What works is finding the trusted voice for people who is from their community, knows the culture, and that one-on-one can take hours or a month to pay off." The federal government has authorized nearly $400 million for vaccination outreach efforts to underserved communities. Utah's difficulty getting Medicaid enrollees vaccinated is mirrored in other states. In Ohio, 54% of adult Medicaid enrollees are at least partly vaccinated, compared with 73% of adults in the general state population. Washington state has vaccinated 43% of its Medicaid enrollees 5 and older, compared with 76% of all state residents in that age group. In Virginia, 41% of Medicaid enrollees 5 and older are vaccinated, compared with 76% of state residents in that age group. In California, about 54% of Medicaid members 5 and older are at least partly vaccinated, compared with 81% of state residents in that age group. Dr. Christopher Chen, medical director for the Washington Medicaid program, said that since Medicaid enrollees are more likely to be in poorer health, they are more likely to benefit from the vaccine to prevent complications from covid. "It's definitely something to be concerned about," he said. Washington, he noted, increased pay to doctors and pharmacists to vaccinate Medicaid enrollees and agreed to pay doctors to counsel patients about the vaccine. The state also gave its Medicaid health plans access to data showing which of their members had not been immunized so they could reach out to those people. The University of Alabama received a $1 million federal grant last July to increase vaccination rates in an 18-county rural region in the southern part of the state where African Americans make up the majority of the population. Under the plan, community health workers canvass the region to inform residents about the benefit of the vaccine. The initiative also provides a $15 incentive payment for getting a shot. Since last summer, many of the counties have seen vaccination rates double. But because the rates were so low to begin with, most of the area still has fewer than half of residents vaccinated. Dr. Hee Yun Lee, who oversees the grant and is associate dean for research at the University of Alabama School of Social Work, said many people lack easy access to shots because they don't have cars and mistrust of vaccines runs strong. Another obstacle has been skepticism from some pastors, who told congregations not to fear covid, Lee said. They also incorrectly told congregants that the disease can't afflict them while they attend church, she said. A gathering of more than 300 people in a church recently led to an outbreak. "There are a lot of misconceptions about the virus here," she said. In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers evidenced that messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are safe in pregnancy, with lower rates of significant adverse event following immunization (AEFIs) in pregnant women than non-pregnant females. Background Multiple research works have published positive recommendations for mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy, based on the evidence of high efficacy in pre-authorization clinical trials. However, in the absence of a contemporaneous control group to enable comparison with background rates of AEFIs and comparisons based solely on historical rates of AEFIs, apprehensions surrounding the safety of mRNA vaccines during pregnancy are still lurking around. The Canadian National Vaccine Safety (CANVAS) Network, established during the 2009 influenza pandemic, has been monitoring COVID-19 vaccine safety in Canada since the vaccine rollout in December 2020 to provide rapid, real-time safety data. The CANVAS actively follow-up individuals with significant health events and actively enrolls control group(s) to enable comparisons with unvaccinated individuals in a similar time frame. About the study In the present study, researchers recruited pregnant and non-pregnant females aged 15-49 years, as of 4 November 2021, under the vaccinated and control cohorts in Canada to evaluate the safety profile of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. The females in the vaccinated cohort had received the first dose of a vaccine within seven days before enrolling for the study. They had an active email address and telephone number and could communicate in English or French. They reported the occurrence of AEFIs over an email after seven days following each dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and at seven months after their first vaccine dose. The control group participants were unvaccinated and reported significant health events that occurred seven days, 28 days, and six months after enrolling in the study. All the participants had to report injection site reactions; however, only those who indicated having a significant health event had to provide further details. The researchers analyzed two types of exposures for the study analysis: vaccination status among pregnant people; pregnancy status among vaccinated people. Two endpoints were analyzed, including significant and serious health events, including common and uncommon symptoms following the first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The former is defined as a new or worsening of a health event sufficient to cause work/school absenteeism or medical consultation in the previous seven days, and the latter describes any event resulting in hospitalization. Likewise, they analyzed three vaccine groups: BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, and any mRNA vaccine. They also examined associations between the outcomes and the exposures, using two sets of univariate/multivariate (MV) logistic regression models. When fitting MV models, they adjusted known or expected covariates such as age group, prior COVID-19 infection, and trimester of pregnancy, as appropriate. Lastly, they conducted two sensitivity analyses to evaluate the robustness of the findings. Study findings Significant health events were lower in pregnant people than in age-matched non-pregnant vaccine recipients. Among pregnant females, AEFI was higher in those who received the second dose of the mRNA-1273 vaccine. However, there was no difference in AEFIs after either dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine. Initial clinical trials of the mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2 vaccines have reported relatively high rates of AEFIs compared with most routinely used vaccines, including higher rates for dose two than dose one. The current study analysis revealed similar patterns among pregnant females. Although the analysis specifically quantified the significant and serious AEFI rates in this population for each of the mRNA vaccines, the lower rate of significant AEFIs among pregnant people, compared with vaccinated non-pregnant females, revealed interesting insights. During pregnancy, dynamic immunologic adaptations occur, for instance, a skewed response towards a T helper cell 2 (Th2)-dominant state. Since mRNA vaccines have specifically elicited a Th1-biased immune response, the Th2-bias during pregnancy may be partially responsible for this lower rate of significant AEFIs. Conclusions Considering the high rate of complications related to COVID-19 in pregnancy, it is crucial to maximize vaccine coverage in this at-high risk population for the protection of both the pregnant female and her young infant. Immunized mothers pass on antigen-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 via placenta or breast milk. Overall, the study data appropriately informed about the reactogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy. This information should be considered alongside effectiveness and immunogenicity data to make appropriate recommendations about the best use of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy. The long-term data from this cohort following a six-month follow-up, when available, could also prove quite useful. Similar data from countries where the ChAdOx-S vaccines are used could provide a complete overview of the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy. In the future, research studies should identify whether the observed reduced reactogenicity of non-COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in pregnant people in this study is a feature of the vaccine platform or these specific vaccines. *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. UiB research shows that being born to term with a weight lower than 3,5 kilos is related to a higher risk of developing neurodevelopmental problems such as cerebral palsy and autism. In medical research it is well known that being born preterm gives you a higher risk of health issues later in life, including neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD and autism. However, most babies that develop neurodevelopmental disabilities are born to term. Marianna Cortese at the Department of Clinical Medicine wanted to find out if being born at term but with a lower weight, affected the risk of developing these disabilities. They looked at 1.8 million births from the Medical Birth Registry in Norway. By using the unique personal identifiers assigned at birth they linked the data to other mandatory health and administrative registries. This way they could follow the babies' health into adulthood. They adjusted for factors such as maternal smoking, marital status of the mother and immigrant status. Those factors had only a trivial impact of the result: Compared to babies born with a weight in the range of 3.5-3.9 kg, lower birth weight was associated with an increased likelihood of developing one of the above neurodevelopmental disabilities. We conclude that lower birth weight can be a marker of neurodevelopmental (ND) disabilities independent of preterm delivery." Marianna Cortese, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen Up to 25-fold higher risk The strongest association was for cerebral palsy, with 25-fold increased odds for the lowest birth weights. This was followed by 16-fold for vision/hearing disabilities, 11-fold for intellectual impairment and 7-fold for schizophrenia. For epilepsy the risk was 5,4-fold and for autism spectrum disorder and other behavioral disorders (including ADHD) it was 3,5-fold. Cortese adds: "Despite these large associations and risk increases, low birth weight only explains a smaller proportion of term ND disabilities (the largest proportion was for intellectual disability with 21%), meaning that these are complex multifactorial diseases". They excluded all the babies with malformations from the study: "Malformations can be part of syndromes and are associated with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Therefore, we excluded babies with malformations to minimize the possibility that our results could be due to babies with malformations", says Cortese. The only factor they adjusted for that made an impact on the result was year of birth: "Year of birth could be capturing trends that are going on related to other risk factors, the occurrence of ND disorders, changes in care, et cetera", Cortese explains. "Could be a marker of some prenatal problem" Despite the strong connection between low birth weight and neurodevelopmental disabilities, the researchers don't think that low birth weight is an independent risk factor: "We believe that lower birth weight indicates that something may have happened during the pregnancy that led to a slower growth and consequently to a lower birth weight, and this event predisposes or increases at the same time the risk of certain ND disabilities. Low birth weight could thus be a marker of some prenatal insult or problem", she says. Babies born with a higher weight than normal have also an increased risk for the same disabilities. As to what are the potential clinical outcomes of this study, Cortese says: "Hopefully these findings will motivate further research on potential prenatal insults, events, problems, pathologies that could be the underlying cause of some ND disabilities. If these are causes that could be intervened on that means we one day maybe would be able to prevent the occurrence of ND disabilities in some children." Single-payer health care didn't stand a chance in California this year. Even in this deep-blue bastion, Democratic lawmakers shied away from legislation that would have put state government in charge of health care and taxed Californians heavily to do so a massive transformation that would have forced them to take on the powerful health care industry. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had promised to spearhead single-payer when he ran for governor four years ago, dashed its chances this year when he declined to publicly support it. Instead, the first-term Democrat, who is running for reelection this November, is pushing for "universal health care," which aims to provide all Californians with coverage but, unlike single-payer, would keep private health insurance intact. Newsom's retreat devastated progressive activists and the powerful California Nurses Association union, which championed the cause. The death of single-payer in the nation's most populous state also deals a major blow to similar campaigns elsewhere in the nation which had looked to California for inspiration and leadership casting doubt on their ability to succeed. "We're also fighting in New York, but just like in California, there's not 100% Democratic consensus among legislators," said Ursula Rozum, co-director of the Campaign for New York Health, which is working to pass single-payer legislation. "It feels like a constant question of 'Can we win this?'" Health policy experts agree that California's failure to adopt single-payer dampens momentum across the country. "California, given its size and politics, has always been a bellwether for progressive policy, so this certainly sends a signal to other states about how hard this is," said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF. But Rozum and single-payer activists in Colorado, Washington state, and elsewhere say that rather than giving up, they are taking key lessons from California's failure: It is essential to win and keep support from the governor. Groups pushing single-payer must unite Democrats, bringing in business-friendly moderates and broader support from organized labor. And they say they must learn how to counter intense lobbying by doctors, hospitals, and health insurance companies fighting to preserve the status quo. "We've seen what happened in California, so we are working hard to get our governor on the record in support of single-payer so she will sign it when it gets to her desk," Rozum said. "And just like there, our union movement is divided. We know we need them to have any chance of moving forward with our bill." So far, single-payer proponents haven't been able to broaden their movement beyond liberal activists or convince people that they should pay higher taxes in exchange for scrapping health care premiums, deductibles, and copays. The only state that has passed single-payer, Vermont, didn't implement it. Vermont adopted a single-payer plan in 2011 with unequivocal support from its then-governor, Democrat Peter Shumlin. But he abandoned the effort in 2014 amid growing concerns about tax increases and runaway health care costs. "There isn't a political party in the world that's going to raise their hands every year to increase taxes on hard-working citizens," Shumlin told KHN. "That's the big mistake I made in Vermont." But progressive dreams for single-payer didn't die when Vermont retreated. "Medicare for All" became a liberal rallying cry for Democrats nationally when Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stumped for it during his presidential campaigns. After President Joe Biden was elected, the movement shifted to the states, in part because Biden has opposed Medicare for All. Activists in Colorado are mobilizing for another single-payer campaign after the overwhelming defeat of a 2016 ballot initiative that failed partly because of intense health care industry opposition. Organizers in Washington state are pushing legislation and trying to get a single-payer initiative on the ballot next year. Shumlin said Democrats must be prepared to take on deep-pocketed industry groups and rein in soaring health care spending or they'll be confronted with the political difficulty of constantly raising taxes. "California is the best state to lead this because it has the fifth-biggest economy in the world. It's all about scale," Shumlin said. "And if California gets it right, other states and the federal government will follow. But this is hard stuff, so get ready to get bloodied." Some Democratic lawmakers and the California Nurses Association had hoped California would lead the way this year and that Newsom would be their champion. State Assembly member Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) introduced legislation sponsored by the union that would have created government-run health insurance for all state residents while significantly raising taxes on employers, employees, and businesses to pay for it. State estimates pegged the cost at roughly $360 billion a year, with a little less than half coming from tax increases and the rest from the federal government. On Newsom's first day in office in 2019, he said, "I committed to this and I want folks to know I was serious." But since then, he has distanced himself from single-payer. I'm tired of politicians saying they support single payer but that it's too soon, too expensive or someone else's problem. -; Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 22, 2017 Instead, he has created a commission to study the concept and asked the Biden administration for permission to collect federal money that flows to the state via the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and Medicare, which California could use to help finance a single-payer system. But Biden can't simply approve the request California would need complicated federal waivers and approval from Congress. Newsom has shifted to a platform of "universal health care," which includes Medicaid coverage for all income-eligible unauthorized immigrants and state-funded subsidies for Californians who buy health insurance from Covered California, the state's Obamacare insurance exchange. Newsom said in January that he has long believed single-payer is "inevitable" but signaled that the federal government should take the lead. Kalra decided not to bring his bill up for a vote in the state Assembly, saying on Jan. 31 that he couldn't muster enough support. "It makes it harder to get the votes you need when I'm trying to convince my colleagues that there's an absolute path to success," Kalra said. "We have a governor who campaigned on single-payer, and if we're going to successfully have single-payer health care in California, at some point we need his engagement and it needs to be genuine." Kalra said he's considering introducing another bill next year but conceded that he must shift his strategy to bring more Democrats and unions into the campaign. These are lessons other states are heeding. "There's no question that had California passed a single-payer health care plan, we'd be in a position in the state of Washington to say, 'Look what California is doing,'" said Andre Stackhouse, campaign director for Whole Washington, an advocacy group trying to get a single-payer initiative on the ballot next year. Stackhouse worked on behalf of California's single-payer campaign this year, helping with a phone-banking campaign to pressure lawmakers. He's part of a new national coalition called Medicare for All Everywhere, a group of organizers and volunteers working to identify why single-payer efforts fail and how to overcome political and lobbying obstacles. California was a key test, he said. "We've learned all the ways Democrats can kill a bill, but we can't spend all of our time grieving this loss and the huge setback that it is," Stackhouse said. For instance, a major goal for the movement is to persuade more unions to join the fight. Although the nurses union is leading the battle in California, other unions are against single-payer. "As trade unionists, we believe everybody should have health care, but there's a big fear that we're going to lose the benefits that we have," said Chris Snyder, political director for the local International Union of Operating Engineers in Northern California. "We have our own health care trust fund, and we don't want benefits that we've fought for for decades to be taken away or watered down." Lack of union support is a major problem in New York, where Democratic Assembly member Richard Gottfried has introduced a single-payer bill in every legislative session for the past 30 years. "What is keeping the bill from moving in the legislature is opposition from public employee unions," Gottfried said. "They feel they have negotiated excellent coverage, so we need to convince them that the New York Health Act is as good or better than what they have now." Gottfried said he has been negotiating with teachers, sanitation workers, and other trade unions on legislative language that would provide "more explicit guarantees" that union members would receive better coverage without paying more out-of-pocket than they already do. It's not clear if the measure will get a vote this year. "Whichever state goes first will help build momentum for other states," he said. This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The Chadian government Monday expressed concern over a motor accident that claimed some 30 lives in the country's capital, Oum-Hadjer, said a report released by the Chadian government The poll workers volunteered to help with the local primary elections on Tuesday. (Newser) A former comedian and actor, President Volodymyr Zelensky's latest role couldn't be more serious: uniting the people of Ukraine in fighting off the Russian invasion. He's receiving positive reviews from his people and from abroad. The communication skills from his previous career and his ability to move audiences have helped, the Washington Post reports. But it's his actions, too, as Zelensky has refused to flee as Russian forces bear down on the capital. "This man did not jump away to some other country like previous presidents, said a 31-year-old mechanic in Kyiv who signed up to fight. "He can show us the way." Other assessments of the job Zelensky is doing have addressed: His courage : "I need ammunition, not a ride," Zelensky said to an offer to evacuate. He and his country "are teaching the rest of the world a lesson about freedom, resolve and love of country," Rep. August Pfluger writes in USA Today. And Zelensky's lesson is taking hold, the Texas Republican says. "His courageous leadership has emboldened many countries formerly friendly with Russia like Hungary and Kazakhstan to denounce Putin and side with freedom," Pfluger writes. : "I need ammunition, not a ride," Zelensky said to an offer to evacuate. He and his country "are teaching the rest of the world a lesson about freedom, resolve and love of country," Rep. August Pfluger writes in USA Today. And Zelensky's lesson is taking hold, the Texas Republican says. "His courageous leadership has emboldened many countries formerly friendly with Russia like Hungary and Kazakhstan to denounce Putin and side with freedom," Pfluger writes. His wartime leadership : Zelensky's messaging has been consistent since the fight began. Speaking their language, he appealed directly to the Russian people to protest the invasion. He's projected determination. "He will never acquiesce when he thinks something is wrong," an adviser said. A Ukrainian political analyst said that although Zelensky wasn't looking for a fight, "he is acting exactly how a president should act in the wartime regime." : Zelensky's messaging has been consistent since the fight began. Speaking their language, he appealed directly to the Russian people to protest the invasion. He's projected determination. "He will never acquiesce when he thinks something is wrong," an adviser said. A Ukrainian political analyst said that although Zelensky wasn't looking for a fight, "he is acting exactly how a president should act in the wartime regime." His call to arms : "You are indomitable," Zelensky told the nation in an address Thursday after 16 of its cities already had come under fire. "You are Ukrainians." He's stoked his people's pride in country. A 61-year-old woman who was lukewarm toward Zelensky before no longer is. "The people have really come together, and such a unity can't possibly be defeated," she said. : "You are indomitable," Zelensky told the nation in an address Thursday after 16 of its cities already had come under fire. "You are Ukrainians." He's stoked his people's pride in country. A 61-year-old woman who was lukewarm toward Zelensky before no longer is. "The people have really come together, and such a unity can't possibly be defeated," she said. The change : "We're watching Shecky Greene transform into Churchill," fellow comedian Jon Stewart said, evoking an old-timey nightclub act and Britain's inspirational leader during World War II. "What this dude is doing, it is incredibly moving," Stewart said. : "We're watching Shecky Greene transform into Churchill," fellow comedian Jon Stewart said, evoking an old-timey nightclub act and Britain's inspirational leader during World War II. "What this dude is doing, it is incredibly moving," Stewart said. The reality: Zelensky's approval ratings had been falling before the invasion, and there had been doubts about whether Zelensky and his aides were prepared for such a test; some of his advisers joined the government from his comedy studio, per the New York Times. He didn't do much to fortify border defenses and had played down the chances of an attack. One woman told Politico that Zelensky "has some shortcomings," but she added: "We must unite. I support him very much at this moment. Because he is the nation's leader." (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) (Newser) Update: Guy Wesley Reffitt was found guilty Tuesday of all five counts against him related to the Capitol riot, reports NBC News. In the first federal trial stemming from the Jan. 6 violence, Reffitt was convicted of storming the Capitol with a holstered gun, among other things. He faces serious jail time when sentenced, and the AP sees the guilty verdict as a potential "bellwether" for future riot cases. Our earlier story from Feb. 27 follows: The first trial of an alleged Capitol rioter begins Monday in Federal District Court in Washington, DC. Guy Wesley Reffitt, the man who was turned in by his own son despite allegedly threatening to kill his kids if they did so, is one of about 750 defendants charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, but more than 200 of them have pleaded guilty, and his is the first case so far to head to court. A rundown of the coverage surrounding the trial: The charges: He is charged with five counts, including obstruction of Congress, a charge originally meant to criminalize activities like tampering with documents or witnessesdefense lawyers tried to have it dismissed, arguing it was being taken too far, but judges are allowing a jury to decide, for the first time, whether it can apply to cases like this, the New York Times reports. That charge, the most serious, carries a sentence of up to 20 years, WUSA 9 reports. He is charged with four other felonies: two different civil disorder counts, being on restricted ground with a firearm, and obstruction of justice. His kids are key witnesses: Two of the 49-year-old's children will testify to the fact that he issued death threats should they turn him in, per WUSA 9. The obstruction of justice charge involves threats of physical force, which the 19- and 17-year-old kids will speak about, the station says, adding that recordings they made of him will be introduced as evidence. The 19-year-old is reportedly estranged from his family now. Two of the 49-year-old's children will testify to the fact that he issued death threats should they turn him in, per WUSA 9. The obstruction of justice charge involves threats of physical force, which the 19- and 17-year-old kids will speak about, the station says, adding that recordings they made of him will be introduced as evidence. The 19-year-old is reportedly estranged from his family now. Militia group: Another key witness will be an alleged fellow member of the Three Percenter militia group who authorities say traveled to DC from Texas with Reffitt; the witness was offered immunity in exchange for his testimony. Another key witness will be an alleged fellow member of the Three Percenter militia group who authorities say traveled to DC from Texas with Reffitt; the witness was offered immunity in exchange for his testimony. Setting the tone: As the Times explains in its look at the case, this trial will likely "set the tone" for dozens more that are scheduled to happen this year. "For the first time in a courtroom, [prosecutors] will present a broad portrait of the violent chaos that erupted that day and seek to persuade a jury that the pro-Trump mob that Mr. Reffitt is accused of joining struck at the heart of American democracy by disrupting the transition of presidential power." As the Times explains in its look at the case, this trial will likely "set the tone" for dozens more that are scheduled to happen this year. "For the first time in a courtroom, [prosecutors] will present a broad portrait of the violent chaos that erupted that day and seek to persuade a jury that the pro-Trump mob that Mr. Reffitt is accused of joining struck at the heart of American democracy by disrupting the transition of presidential power." How long will this take? Jury selection is Monday, with opening arguments and testimony likely starting by Tuesday afternoon. The trial could last a week or longer, depending how long jury deliberations take. Jury selection is Monday, with opening arguments and testimony likely starting by Tuesday afternoon. The trial could last a week or longer, depending how long jury deliberations take. Juror bias? Defense lawyers have argued that DC jurors will be biased against Jan. 6 defendants, and as such, judges will be closely watching for signs of bias, the Washington Post reports. "Reffitts prospective jurors Monday will be the subjects of a kind of trial-within-a-trial, scrutinized by both parties and the wider public, with potential ramifications for Capitol breach defendants to come." Defense lawyers have argued that DC jurors will be biased against Jan. 6 defendants, and as such, judges will be closely watching for signs of bias, the Washington Post reports. "Reffitts prospective jurors Monday will be the subjects of a kind of trial-within-a-trial, scrutinized by both parties and the wider public, with potential ramifications for Capitol breach defendants to come." Jailhouse letter: Last week, Reffitt penned a defiant letter saying he's ready to "receive the bullet of freedom," WUSA 9 reports. (Read more Capitol riot stories.) (Newser) "It's unbearableit's a constant acoustic aggression." That's how one resident of Paris describes the never-ending traffic noise outside his family's apartment, and it's a problem France now hopes to solve with its new "sound radars," reports the New York Times. These sensors, which last week were positioned in seven cities around the nation, including Paris, are designed to detect vehiclescars, motorcycles, even modified scootersthat are making an extra-loud commotion, then take pictures of them. While there will be no financial repercussions this year, $150 fines will start to be issued in 2023 in Paris to owners of vehicles that exceed noise-level limits. Reuters notes that this test period for the sensors, which will be placed on structures such as street lampposts, will be used to see if the radars can accurately ID vehicle license plates. A law is already on the books that bans excessive noiselike that of someone revving their motorcycle when stopped for red lights, which one motorcycle rights advocate admits to the Times is like a "noise from hell." This system, however, which will eventually send out automatic fines, makes it easier to document it as it happens. "The problem is that police often have other things to do," the head of Bruitparif, a nonprofit that studies environmental noise, tells Reuters. This effort to combat noise pollution isn't just because people are annoyed by it. Studies have shown that it can up the risk of health problems, such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular issues. It also has a financial component to it, as there's a loss of productivity when people don't sleep, as well as declining property values along thoroughfares plagued with cacophonous traffic. A recent United Nations report shows the physical and mental fallout from noise pollution in cities is "one of the top emerging environmental threats," per Smart Cities Dive. Noise "is odorless, colorless, and not perhaps easily perceived, like some types of air pollution are," says Rick Neitzel, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan. But "we've known noise is bad" for centuries, he adds. (Read more France stories.) (Newser) A senior US intelligence official says Belarus is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as Monday to fight alongside Russian forces that invaded Ukraine last week, the AP reports. Belarus has been providing support for Russias war effort, but so far has not taken a direct part in the conflict. The American official has direct knowledge of current US intelligence assessments and says the decision by Belarus leader on whether to bring Belarus further into the war depends on talks between Russia and Ukraine happening in the coming days. The official spoke anonymously to discuss the sensitive information. Russian forces have encountered strong resistance from Ukraine defenders, and US officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts. More of the latest developments: The two major bodies in the United Nations will hold separate meetings Monday on Russias invasion of Ukraine. The meetings of the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council reflect widespread demands for a ceasefire and escalating concern for the millions of Ukrainians caught up in the war. The Security Council gave a green light Sunday for the first emergency session of the General Assembly in decades. Russia has apparently rendered Facebook largely unusable across leading Russian telecommunications providers amid rising friction between Moscow and the social media platform. Asian stock prices have fallen after Western nations moved to tighten sanctions against Russia and as President Vladimir Putin escalated tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces on high alert. US futures fell, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 2.5% early Monday. The stock markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai declined while Sydney was higher. The United Nations nuclear watchdog says missiles have hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, but there are no reports of damage to the buildings or indications of a release of radioactive material. Australia will provide lethal military equipment to Ukraine, the government announced Monday. Canada will send an additional $25 million worth of defensive military equipment including helmets, body armor, gas masks, and night-vision gear. Germany will send 500 Stinger missiles and other weapons and supplies. And the US for the first time has approved the direct delivery of Stinger missiles to Ukraine as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday. Ukraines Interior Ministry says 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during Russias invasion, including 14 children. It says an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) New York, US (PANA) - The Security Council voted on Sunday to call for a rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russias military operation in Ukraine, which will be held on Monday (Newser) People are coping with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in different ways, but for one Ukrainian sailor on the Spanish island of Majorca, his coping mechanism took a particularly vengeful turn: He tried to sink a Russian oligarch's $7.8 million superyacht, reports the BBC. The nearly 160-foot-long Lady Anastasiaowned by Alexander Mikheev, the head of Russian state arms company Rosoboronexport, which exports tanks, ships, ammo, weapons, and other wares of warwas docked in Port Adriano on Saturday when police were called to the scene, where they found the vessel partially submerged, per the Telegraph. Authorities arrested a man identified by the Majorca Daily Bulletin as D. Taras O., the chief engineer who'd spent the past decade working on the Lady Anastasia. Cops say Taras told them: "My boss is a criminal who sells weapons that kill the Ukrainian people." The newspaper reports that Taras allegedly shut off the vessel's fuel valves and cut the electricity, opened up two valves in the engine room and crew's quarters, then told the three crew members on board to get off the yacht. Later, Taras told a judge that he'd become infuriated after seeing TV reports of the attack on his homeland. "There was a video of a helicopter attack on a building in Kyiv," he said in court. "The armaments used are produced by the yacht owner's company. They were attacking innocents." As for his level of remorse on trying to sink the yacht, Taras told the judge: "I don't regret anything I've done and I would do it again." There's been no comment so far from Mikheev. The judge released Taras on bail, and the sailor, who likely no longer has a job with the oligarch, noted he was headed home. "That was my first battle," Taras said, per the Telegraph. "Today I am returning to Ukraine." (Read more Majorca stories.) (Newser) Update: The first day of talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials have ended without any immediate breakthroughs. The two sides were returning to their respective capitals for "consultations," says an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, per CNN. The delegates discussed meeting again, but there was no word on when that might happen. In the meantime, explosions rattled the capital of Kyiv as well as the second-largest city of Kharkiv. Cluster bombs were suspected in the latter bombing, reports the Washington Post, with 11 people reported killed and dozens hospitalized. Our original story from Monday morning follows: The good news is that delegations from Ukraine and Russia have begun meeting face to face Monday for the first time since Russian troops crossed the border. The bad news is that "expectations are not high," as the BBC puts it, which might be an understatement based on current coverage. The AP sees the talks, underway near the Ukraine-Belarus border, as a "tiny sliver of hope" toward ending the hostilities. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky (not part of the actual talks) "expressed little hope" beforehand of a breakthrough, per the New York Times. But "let them try so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war," he said, per the Guardian. Before the talks began, Zelensky's office said it was demanding an immediate ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops. Top Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky issued more of a boilerplate statement saying Moscow wanted an agreement in the interest of both sides, per Reuters. However, the Washington Post notes that the Kremlin was still demanding that Ukraine 'demilitarize and denazify,' making it clear it expected Ukraines capitulation" in the talks. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also complained Monday that the volume of weapons heading into Ukraine from Western countries was extremely dangerous." Meanwhile, battles continued to rage, and Belarus was expected to join the Russian side soon. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) (Newser) Ukraine's famously defiant soldiers appear to be alive after all. The story went viral after Russia launched its invasion: After a Russian warship ordered troops guarding Snake Island to surrender, one of the soldiers was heard on audio telling the warship to "go f--- yourself." Early accounts said all 13 island guards were killed in a subsequent Russian assault. President Volodymyr Zelensky even said he would posthumously grant them "Hero of Ukraine" awards. Now, however, Ukraine's Navy has announced a twist: "We are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive and well," the Navy said on social media, per Euronews. "The Marines and frontier guards [were] captured by the Russian occupiers on Snake Island." The Navy statement came after the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine announced it had a "strong belief" the soldiers were alive, reports the Guardian. Russia had denied the initial reports the soldiers were killed and released TV footage of what it claimed were the detainees. Skeptics didn't buy it, though it now appears the footage was legit. The Ukraine Navy says Russia also captured a nonmilitary vessel that went to the island on what it described as a humanitarian mission after the reported deaths. "We demand from the Russian Federation immediate release of illegally captured citizens of Ukraine," says the Navy. (Read more Ukraine stories.) (Newser) Switzerland is traditionally, famously, neutral in international conflicts, but not this one. The nation said Monday that it would freeze the assets of Vladimir Putin, other top Russian officials, and nearly 400 individuals, reports the New York Times. In following the European Union's lead on the penalties, Switzerland condemned "the unprecedented military attack by Russia on a sovereign European state." It added, however, that it would be willing to try to mediate the conflict with Ukraine. Reuters notes that Switzerland had faced growing international pressure to join the sanctions. The Swiss action has the potential to sting because the nation is the most popular banking destination for Russian billionaires, ahead of Britain, Spain, Luxembourg, and the US, reports the AP. "Switzerland has for years been by far the most important destination worldwide for rich Russians to manage their wealth," says a report compiled by the Swiss Embassy in Moscow. But don't count too much on the idea of oligarchs applying pressure to the Russian leader, writes Nicolas Rivero in Quartz: "Russia's elites don't control Putinthey're under Putin's control." (Read more Switzerland stories.) (Newser) The State Department has closed the US embassy in Belarus and is allowing nonessential staff at the US Embassy in Russia to leave the country because of the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the suspension of operations at the Minsk embassy and the authorized departure from Moscow in a statement on Monday, the AP reports. "We took these steps due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine," he said. In a video message Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked Belarusians for allowing their country to be used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion, reports the AP. "The Russian military is launching missiles at Ukraine from your territory. From your territory they are kiling our children, they are destroying our homes and trying to blow up everything that has been built for decades." In an emotional speech, the Ukrainian leader questioned how Belarusians will be able to look into the eyes of your children, into the eyes of each other. He added: "We are your neighbors. Be Belarus, not Russia!" Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko quickly shot back, denigrating the Ukrainian president as an American puppet. (Belarus may actually join in the fighting.) (Newser) An American team of former defense and security officials is headed to Taipei to demonstrate that, despite the attention-consuming battle in Ukraine, the US has not forgotten Taiwan. The government has raised the alert level on the island out of concern that China, which claims Taiwan, will make a move across the Taiwan Strait while all eyes are on Eastern Europe. Nine Chinese aircraft breached Taiwan's air identification zone last week, Reuters reports. The delegation will be led by retired Adm. Mike Mullen, who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Taiwan's US representative to the US tweeted, "welcoming this gesture of strong bipartisan support for Taiwan," per the Hill. A senior US official said the makeup of the delegation "sends an important signal about the bipartisan US commitment to Taiwan. The team will include Meghan O'Sullivan, a former deputy national security adviser under Bush, and Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense under Obama. They're scheduled to arrive Tuesday afternoon and meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng before leaving Wednesday evening. Mike Pompeo, who was secretary of state under former President Donald Trump, also plans a go to Taiwan this week. He's scheduled to give a speech at a think tank and meet with the foreign minister. Saying he's a private citizen, White House officials have declined to comment on Pompeo's trip. The US does not recognize Taiwan diplomatically but is obligated to provide the means for it to defend itself. Some members of Congress, including Democrats, have called for ending this "strategic ambiguity" and a clarification about the extent of that obligation, per Reuters. (Read more Taiwan stories.) (Newser) Ordinary Russians faced the prospect of higher prices and crimped foreign travel as Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine sent the ruble plummeting, leading uneasy depositors to line up at banks and ATMs on Monday in a country that has seen more than one currency disaster in the post-Soviet era. The Russian currency plunged about 30% against the US dollar after Western nations announced unprecedented moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and to restrict Russia's use of its massive foreign currency reserves, the AP reports. Russians wary that sanctions would deal a crippling blow to the economy have been flocking to banks and ATMs for days, with reports on social media of long lines and machines running out. People in some central European countries also rushed to pull money from subsidiaries of Russias state-owned Sberbank after the Russian parent bank was hit with international sanctions. Moscow's department of public transport warned city residents over the weekend that they might experience problems with using Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay to pay fares because VTB, another Russian bank facing sanctions, handles card payments in Moscow's metro, buses and trams A sharp devaluation of the ruble would mean a drop in the standard of living for the average Russian, economists and analysts said. Russians are still reliant on a multitude of imported goods, and the prices for those items are likely to skyrocket, such as iPhones and PlayStations. Foreign travel would become more expensive as their rubles buy less currency abroad. And deeper economic turmoil will come in the coming weeks if price shocks and supply chain issues cause Russian factories to shut down due to lower demand. "Its going to ripple through their economy really fast, says David Feldman, an economics professor at William & Mary in Virginia. "Anything that is imported is going to see the local cost in currency surge. The only way to stop it will be heavy subsidization." (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) (Newser) As Russia's international isolation deepened Monday, Ukraine's president took a big step toward the West with a formal application to join the European Union. "The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has just signed a historical documentUkraines application for European Union membership," Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of the president's office said in a tweet, per the Hill. "Glory to Ukraine," added Sybiha, who shared photos of Zelensky signing the documents with the country's prime minister and head of parliament. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday that the bloc wants Ukraine to join "over time," though she didn't set out a timeline. The move was seen as largely symbolic, the AP reports. Ukraine is currently a long way from meeting the usual economic standards for joining the EU and it's far from clear whether its membership bid will get the required unanimous approval from all 27 member nations. In a video broadcast from Kyiv Monday, Zelensky appealed to the EU "for Ukraines immediate accession under a new special procedure," the New York Times reports. "Our goal is to stand alongside all Europeans and, most importantly, to stand on their level," the president said. Zelensky also praised the EU countries that have supplied the country with arms in the days since the Russian invasion. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) Local top story City makes push to install downtown camera system SHAMOKIN The citys Economic Development Authority (EDA) hopes to have security cameras installed throughout Independence Street by summer, according to city officials. The effort to bring city-owned and monitored cameras to downtown began pre-pandemic, but was stalled by the effects of COVID-19 and logistical issues. Kathy Vetovich, a member of the EDA who is overseeing the project, said four cameras have been purchased at a cost to the city of $13,000. Last year, the city removed trees along Independence Street, which Vetovich said was done to allow for better views for the security cameras and because many of the trees were dying. She said the city originally hoped to be able to install the cameras on PPL poles that line Independence Street, an idea that was shot down by the electricity provider. It would have been good placement because you have to install these at certain heights not too high or low but PPL told us we couldnt do that, so now we have been contacting different business and property owners and we have received several OKs from. Vetovich said she expects the installation process to begin in spring and be completed by the summer. She said the cameras will be installed by Ben Anderson, who works for Shamokin Area School District and runs the schools television and technology departments. The cameras display hub will be located at the Shamokin Police Department and will be accessible by city employees. Councilman Joseph Leschinskie Jr. said he has been disheartened by the delays of the project, but said he is optimistic the cameras installation could help to deter crime. I personally think the project should have stayed in the citys hands, and thats nothing against the EDA, but I just wish it would be done, he said. Leschinskie said the cameras are only one piece of the citys focus to combat crime in its downtown area. Mayor Rick Ulrich said he has high hopes that the addition of three new officers in May, pending their completion of the police academy, will allow the city to return to making frequent patrols of criminal hot spots throughout the municipality. This is very high on our list of priorities, he said. I said during the campaign I would do whatever it takes to fight drugs and crime and thats what were looking to do. Leschinskie specifically noted criminal activity that often occurs in the area of House of Wins and the downtown laundromat. Theres a lot of things that go on there that we need to look into, he said, noting another recent break-in of both Ming Guan and a property operated by Firehouse Winery owner Rick Long. Long spoke with The News-Item after the most recent break-in two weeks ago, where he reported about $1,000 was stolen from his business along with the hard drive for his security cameras. The incident marked the sixth time his business has been vandalized in just over a year. When asked about House of Wins, Councilman Scott Roughton said, We need to explore different avenues as to what we can do. Theres a lot that ties into the issue there and Im sure other agencies that are far-and-above ours are involved with looking into that property. Please purchase a subscription read this premium content. If you have a subscription, please sign up for a digital website account or log in. 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 Note: The great granddaughter of Madame Renio is the office manager at the Fairbanks Pioneer Museum. This mystical history nugget has been proudly brought to you by the Fairbanks Igloos of the Pioneers of Alaska who would like to remind you that more history nuggets are posted on our website pioneerofalaskafairbanks.org. 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. Capt. Anthony April joined the Alaska State Troopers in 1997 after serving three years as a correctional officer at Spring Creek Maximum Correctional Center in Seward. He also serves as vice president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) Region Six. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or making a contribution. The Daily News-Miner is locally owned by the Helen E. Snedden Foundation, a 501(c)(3) Subscribe or donate Welcome Guest! You Are Here: TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Information Minister Ali bin Mohammed Al Romaihi has mourned the former Director of Bahrain Radio, Abdulrahman Abdullah Al Rai, who passed away after a rich professional march in the media field. The Information Minister paid homage to Al Rai, recalling his good qualities and services to the nation and praying to Allah Almighty to bless him with mercy, rest his soul in vast paradise and provide his family with patience and fortitude. Al Rai joined Bahrain Radio in 1954 and contributed, in collaboration with the late Ibrahim Kanoo, to the launch of Bahrain Radio from the moment he assumed his duties. He took up many posts until a decision was issued on September 24, 1990, appointing him Director of Bahrain Radio. An array of development projects was carried out then which contributed to promoting Bahrain Radio at the local, Gulf and Arab levels. He retired in 2001. Al Rai was known for his distinction and creativity in presenting topics and radio programmes. He also showed a keen desire to use his knowledge and experience to build and train a Bahraini generation capable of conveying Bahrains voice to the world. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Staff Reporter The banking market is undergoing a revolutionary change and shortly banks will have competition from not only financial institutions but also from tech companies, opined a fintech expert yesterday. Speaking at the seminar organised by the Central Bank of Bahrain, IFID and Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) marking the Third Annual Islamic Finance Innovation Day, Anouar Adham, CFA, Co-Founder and CEO of CrowdToLive, said all technological firms will soon emerge as potential competitors for banks. Banks and financial institutions have to widen their horizons to stay relevant in the competition. If Apple or any other smartphone makers or operation platforms come with a smart financial product or app, people would subscribe to the product, and we can see that it is creating direct competition with the players occupying the financial sphere, he said. Mr Anouar highlighted that it is the power of the ecosystem that determines the value of products and companies, be it financial or non-financial. This explains why Teslas market capitalisation is four times that of Toyota, which is the worlds largest seller of automobiles. Innovation and trust are the real two factors deciding the future growth of any company. Earlier in his inaugural address, CBB Governor Rasheed Al Maraj said the Kingdom has already emerged as the regional leader in digital financial progression. BisB Chief Executive Officer Hassan Jarrar said digital innovation is the need of the hour for Islamic banks. Innovation is different from the invention as the former is all about bringing in new ideas that add value to the existing one. Innovation is a must in the financial sector as customer or user experience goes along with shifts in demographics and customer behaviour. The culture has to be brought into a paradigm shift where everyone does innovation. Without innovation, Islamic banks will have a hard time delivering goals, he added. Yasmeen Al Sharaf, Director of Fintech and Innovation Unit at CBB, said the Kingdom is a leader in the financial digital revolution. The Kingdom hosts close to 400 financial institutions and the digital revolution is very much part of the economic recovery drive. It is exciting as well as equally challenging to be a regulator. Maisaa Shunnar, BisB Group Chief Digital Transformation, said reinventing self and renewing promises are key for banks and financial institutions in the contemporary scenario. If you see funding to SMEs, 16 per cent of it are from non-banking organisations. We have to renew our promises to customers to simplify the money equations. Yasmeen Al Saffar, Head of Financial Services, Bahrain Economic Development Board, said Bahrain has been one of the pioneers in embracing the fintech culture since its beginnings in 2014. EDB has always been playing the role of an enabler in embracing the fintech culture and innovations. Roberto Mancone, CEO and Executive Board Member, BEYON Money, said fintech is a cultural setting. Regulatory frameworks are important in the functioning and progression of the fintech industry. Mohamed Toorani, Partner and Head of Bahrain office, DLA Piper, emphasised the significance of embedded finance defining the future of the fintech industry. Embedded finance is when non-financial companies offer their customers access to credit through their technology platform. The customers can be individuals or businesses, and the credit can be offered by the company or by a third party. Entrepreneur and subject matter expert Ashar Nazim said the future of fintech lies in bridging the financial economy and digital economy. Islamic finance industry must embrace tech change and forming core teams is vital for all fintech organisations in tackling the challenges from time to time. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Staff Reporter A Bahraini researcher and political thinker have warned against Irans efforts to arbitrage America and its main powers in the Middle East. The Iranian regime is orchestrating wars to produce Middle Eastern countries liberated from the prevailing international order, said Dr Nooh Khalifa calling for US-Gulf talks to roll back proxy wars against main powers. He observed that Irans negotiators successfully maneuvered with the Obama Administration and moved forward with the formation of a large military force. The Iranian regime seeks to create a sufficient distance between Washington and the Gulf to rise as a larger regional power. He referred to the wars of the Iranian regime through the Houthis in Yemen, Hizbollah in Lebanon and militias in Iraq and stressed that the time is right for US-Gulf talks to discuss the movements of extremism and colonial entities that are waging proxy wars for Iran as part of a scheme against America and the main powers in the Middle East which he described as large and very dangerous. Dr Khalifa announced these findings as he revealed the fourth topic of his study Bahrain and America: Developments of the Alliance in Security and Peace Issues Between the Reigns of Joe Biden and Ronald Reagan which includes the dimensions of highlighting the contents of Irans threats in key locations in the newspapers as well as implementing specific images and colours to highlight them. 74 per cent of the news deepened the importance of doubling the strength of perceptions of consensus between the Biden Administration and the Arabian Gulf. And 22.2pc of the press material that dealt with issues of Iranian threats in Bahraini newspapers were published on the front page, revealed Dr Khalifa. This highlights the importance of the US-Gulf alliance in dealing with the spread of Iranian escalation in several Arab regions which is destined to change the rules of battle by imposing higher control that equals the American Power along with main powers in the Middle East. Dr Khalifa stressed the danger of Irans moves to encircle the Arabian Peninsula by using Iraq to supply Syria with weapons and fighters while also supporting the Assad Regime, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis to control the free flow of oil and imposing its options on the security of the region, Israel and American bases. He added that the front pages of newspapers highlighted President Joe Bidens policies which prioritised nuclear negotiations and considered addressing other issues as a future step although disappointed at the failure of the 2015 nuclear agreement to curb Irans nuclear, missile and colonial activities was still ongoing. This warns of a retreat in confidence regarding the seriousness of Americas new policies in maintaining the security of the region unless it adopts an agreement allied with the countries impacted by Irans colonial influence, added Dr Khalifa. Newspapers highlighted through the contents of the nuclear agreement negotiations published in the top upper half of the page the responsibility of the 2015 nuclear agreement for Iranian nuclear, missile and colonial developments. These findings are in line with the results of several studies that suggested that Iran had successfully maneuvered with the Obama Administration and moved forward in forming a larger military force. Dr Khalifa added that press material highlighted Iran expanding the circle of conflict to the borders of main powers in the region in anticipation of President Joe Bidens position by publishing the contents of the Presidents discussions on Iranian attacks with the King of Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister of Iraq and former Prime Minister of Israel. TDT | Manama/Kharkiv The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Staff Reporter Courage and persistence remain the vital words for 23-year-old Ashly Prem, a Bahrain resident, who is trapped in one of the war zones of Ukraine. The Indian national, a former student of Asian School and Indian School Bahrain, told The Daily Tribune that she along with her fellow classmates are being sheltered at the subway station in Kharkiv, which "is considered safe from attacks". Initially, I was a bit worried as the loud sounds of explosions rocked Kharkiv. But now if you really ask me, I am not afraid amidst a whole nation facing a huge challenge. We have to summon courage when placed in such situations, said the fifth-year medical student at Karazin Kharkiv National University. Ashly said the battlefield in Kharkiv has intensified with the Ukrainian forces putting up great resistance against the invading Russians. A picture instantly captured on her mobile showed smoke billowing from a neighbouring building after the site was targeted by Russian forces. These scenes are horrifying and the victims are innocent people, who have nothing to do with politics. We want this fight to end and peace set in soon. She said Ukrainians are the most gentle people. We are one and there is no discrimination between the citizens and foreigners. Ashly thanked the Ukrainian authorities for regularly offering food, water and other requirements to those sheltered at Kharkiv Metro Station. We are in touch with the Indian Mission here through a web link. Evacuating us looks like a hard task for the embassy as this region is located on the eastern side of Ukraine and only has a border with Russia. We are only 40km away from the Russian border. Ashlys father Preman Kandoth, a long-time resident in the Kingdom, is among the Indian parents having their children in Ukraine, who have sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting to bring them home. Meanwhile, Kharkiv City Governor yesterday claimed that Ukrainian forces have repelled a Russian attempt to seize Kharkiv after fierce fighting and street battles with advancing Russian troops. According to Oleh Synyehubov, Ukrainian soldiers were cleaning up the eastern city. The governor said Russian soldiers were surrendering in groups of five to 10 and throwing their equipment in the middle of the road. Control over Kharkiv is completely ours, Synyehubov posted on Facebook. A complete cleansing of the city from the enemy is happening. The Russian enemy is absolutely demoralised. Speaking to The Daily Tribune, another Bahrain resident Razzak Mohammed Sheikh said he was worried about the safety of his grandson and daughter-in-law, both Ukrainian citizens from the city of Poltava. Last night, they were moved into a bunker following a siren. We are worried about their safety. People including Ukrainians and Russians living in Japan gathered in front of central Tokyo's Shibuya station on Sunday to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Organizers say about 1,000 people took part in the protest in response to calls on social media. Participants held up placards that read "Stop Putin" and "Bring peace to Ukraine" in Japanese and English. Infrastructure investment has a vital role in stabilizing growth By Sheng Songcheng, Long Yuwei and Wang Dan (China Daily) 10:34, February 28, 2022 A saleswoman (left) shows a model of a newly developed residential area to a potential homebuyer in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on April 24. [Photo by Zhang Xiuke/For China Daily] Infrastructure investment is an important means for China to achieve steady growth this year. In 2021, real estate, infrastructure and manufacturing investment accounted for 24 percent, 25 percent and 32 percent of fixed asset investment, respectively. Though pickups were seen last year, investment in manufacturing may not be a stable driving factor as it could be easily disturbed by external demand variables. Also, it will take time for consumption to recover due to COVID-19 uncertainties and the resulting slow recovery of employment and incomes. Therefore, being more easily controllable, infrastructure investment has become an ideal tool to stabilize economic growth and boost market confidence. In fact, there are several areas in need of infrastructure investment in the country. The per capita infrastructure capital stock is only 20-30 percent that of developed countries, and the urban-rural and regional development gap is still large, indicating the potential to further tap infrastructure construction. Also, with the issuance in advance of local government special bonds and other sources of funds such as fiscal surplus funds from previous years, government guiding funds and urban investment bonds, funds for infrastructure investment are abundant. The Central Economic Work Conference held in December clearly stated that infrastructure investment should be carried out moderately ahead of schedule. Despite being key to a sound 2022 economy, infrastructure investment should be seen in the right light to better serve the economy. It should be made clear that such investment should be in line with the general direction of the nation's economic transformation and development. The integration of new and traditional infrastructure is important to stabilize economic fundamentals, and there are major projects for both categories of infrastructure outlined in China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). As for benefits, there should surely always be a weighing of advantages and disadvantages before carrying out infrastructure construction, but with a focus keeping on long-term and overall benefits. A key pillar China may have to achieve a 5 percent growth in infrastructure investment this year to better support its economic performance. Most provincial governments, according to their work reports released recently, set growth targets between 5.5 percent and 7 percent, with the minimum goal 0.4 percentage point higher than the average growth rate of 2021. Exports and consumption, however, can hardly maintain their momentum as shown over the last two years, hence leaving a gap for investment to fill. According to our calculations, to achieve that minimum goal, infrastructure investment should at least grow by 5.4 percentan increase of 828 billion yuan ($130.72 billion)or even higher to fend off the risk of an economic downturn. Abundant project reserves According to the National Development and Reform Commission, which requires special debt projects be declared in advance, as of Feb 12, a total of 1,831 PPP (public-private partnership) projects in China have entered construction phases or were launched, with investment standing at 2.72 trillion yuan. Reserve projects with a total investment of 8.33 trillion yuan are yet to be put into construction and operation. Meanwhile, on Jan 10, an executive meeting of the State CouncilChina's Cabinetcalled for accelerated efforts in boosting key major projects identified in the 14th Five-Year Plan, including new infrastructure construction, new urbanization construction, transportation, water conservancy and other major projects. In 2020, China saw an investment of 1 trillion yuan in key areas of new infrastructure. Compared to traditional infrastructure, new infrastructure can better integrate and develop with both upstream and downstream firms in terms of industrial chains. Construction of 5G networks, for instance, can create new momentum by boosting both the digital economy and information economy. According to local government reports, 21 regions will act to boost 5G construction and layouts this year, among which eight have planned for a total of some 276,000 5G base stations. With mounting investments, new infrastructure could funnel more capital into new manufacturing and service industries by connecting upstream with downstream firms. The new urbanization has advanced rapidly in recent years. As outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the urbanization rate nationwide will rise to 65 percent. Issues of unbalanced and insufficient development are still prominent; the development gap between urban and rural areas as well as among different regions is still large; there are also many weak links in the fields of infrastructure and people's livelihoods all these indicate a broad space for investment. According to the NDRC, as of Feb 12, among PPP project investments, there were as many as 3,031 urban infrastructure projects, with an investment of 4.54 trillion yuan. There are sufficient reserves of traffic and transportation projects in China as well. Projects such as urban and intercity railways and old-road upgrades for self-driving pilot zones are calling for investment. The latest five-year plan also calls for newly-built intercity railways and urban (suburban) railways with a total length of 3,000 kilometers, urban rail transit of 3,000 km, and refurbished expressways of 25,000 km. More than 30 new civil aviation airports will be built to promote the construction of some 120 national logistics hubs. According to the plan, the country will also propel key construction projects for water supply and transfer, irrigation and flood control. Last July, the State Council said it sped up efforts in 150 major projects of water conservancy for 2020-22, with five main functions and 1 trillion yuan of investment. Still, more efforts are needed to promote the infrastructure construction of water conservancy in rural areas. Plentiful funds China has reported a surplus in its fiscal balance for two consecutive years. According to some estimates, there are currently more than 5 trillion yuan in funds that can be reserved for use in future years. The Ministry of Finance has issued a quota of 1.46 trillion yuan for special debt this year in advance, and it has made clear that the special debt will be used in nine major fields, including transportation infrastructure, energy, agriculture, forestry and water conservancy, and ecological and environmental protection. In January, a total of 698.9 billion yuan of local government bonds was issued, an increase of about 93 percent over the same period of the previous year. Unlike previous years, most of them were newly added bonds (583.7 billion yuan), and the new funds will be invested in major projects. Special bonds are valued at 484.4 billion yuan among the newly issued bonds in January, accounting for one-third of the quota issued by the Ministry of Finance in advance and 69 percent of the total bond issuance during the month. In addition, the government guiding fund ushered in a new round of development. The scale of government guiding funds has been rising in recent years. According to Zero2IPO, a Hong Kong-listed consultancy, since 2021, a total of 163 government guiding funds have been established, with a total size of 980.6 billion yuan. Therefore, we hereby suggest appropriately increasing transfer payments from the central government to local governments impacted by COVID-19, or those having financial constraints, to help them develop local infrastructure projects in accordance with their actual needs, and accelerate the allocation of financial transfer payment funds. Efforts can also be made by institutions such as the China Development Bank and the Agricultural Development Bank of China to boost infrastructure investment. There is still ample room for infrastructure construction in China. Under the premise of scientific planning, rational layout and emphasis on efficiency, infrastructure investment is promising. Infrastructure investment can promote stabilization of the economy in a relatively short period of time, help improve market expectations and stimulate enthusiasm of market players, which is of significance for steady economic growth this year. Sheng is professor with the Shanghai-based CEIBS and former head of the PBOC's statistics and analysis department. Long is a researcher with CEIBS Lujiazui Institute of International Finance and Wang is a doctoral candidate at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY The city announced major plans on Monday afternoon to purchase land and develop its highly anticipated career academy at the property where Cartus Corporation is located. The announcement marks a pivot from earlier negotiations with the Summit, a west side development where officials initially hoped to build the school. Cartus plans to move out of the building. It's a very special day for the city of Danbury and for myself, to tell you the truth, said Mayor Dean Esposito, who made the announcement during a press conference on his birthday. The options that we have here today are just unbelievable. After a resident vote, the city hopes to purchase the property for a still-unnamed sum, Esposito said. The addition of the career academy is Danburys main focus in plans to manage its overflowing student population. The academy would be able to serve about 1,400 middle and high school students, and is expected to be able to open its doors in the fall of 2024. Roughly 1,100 high schoolers would relocate to the academy, easing already dire spacing issues in the overcrowded high school building where another 200 students are projected to enroll this fall. Officials said that the Cartus building would also have space for 360 middle schoolers. Its unclear how much the land purchase and project changes will cost, but numbers are expected to be finalized on Wednesday, officials said. Significant estimates on HVAC and other utilities are not yet finalized, according to Antonio Iadarola, public works director. When the school was planned for the Summit, cost estimates increased from an initial $99 million to $144.5 million. The state was expected to cover about $115.6 million, or 80 percent. State Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, and state Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, both said they think it very likely the state will still be able to hit the 80 percent funding mark, even with price adjustments. The talk I'm hearing is that the price tag will be similar to what we were anticipating with the Summit, Kushner added. Owning the land outright could also allow Danbury to put more money into the students education rather than paying the Summits condo common charges, said state Rep. Pat Callahan, R-Danbury. While the school is still projected to open in fall 2024, Iadarola said it would require some hard pushing to make the deadline due to material and labor shortages. Danbury Schools Superintendent Kevin Walston assured those gathered that leaders would know well ahead of time if the school wont meet the deadline. He thanked legislators, the mayor, Iadarola, and several others for their hard work on the project. A new option Plans came together quickly. The deal with Cartus has only been in negotiations for about two weeks, the mayor said. The Cartus land owner contacted the mayor as negotiations at the Summit continued to falter. In Gods blessing, we got a call, Esposito said. On the other line was Danburys Powers Construction Company owner Melvin Powers. His message was, Hey, we got a building with 1,600 parking spots, a cafeteria and a gym, Esposito said. Discussions with the Powers family moved quickly because the land is owned privately and no third parties have to get involved, Esposito said. Theyre Danburians. Their goals are to see Danbury move forward, he said. Kushner, who attended the press conference Monday, said she was thrilled with the announcement. It's really exciting, she said. It's a great location. I think it still meets all the needs that we had, and what Im excited about is that everyone got a picture of what these academies will provide academically, which is so fabulous. The school will be focused on helping Danburys students gain experience in different career fields theyre interested in. The Danbury Career Academy is just this type of unique opportunity to provide students with turnkey skills and experiences that will make their college and career experiences more directed and more rewarding while also giving them a unique edge in the job market, Walston said. Initial floor plans for the 270,000 square-foot building were finished Saturday and include layouts for a four-floor, dual-use middle and high school complete with a greenhouse, auditorium, and designated school board administration offices. The middle school would be predominantly located in the buildings north wing with classrooms on the second and third floors, while the high school would be in the south wing. I really believe this project here will be the capstone of my career, Iadarola said. I'm so happy to be involved in a project like this where we're not only changing the way we're educating our kids, we're changing the way we're actually building schools. State legislators had to draft special legislation to approve the converted use of the Summit condominiums when those negotiations were still on the table. Godfrey noted that the Cartus location brings less complications than the Summit location. This fits so many of the real needs to expand the bricks-and-mortar part of this, he said. A shining star Developing the building into two schools is going to take some effort and its going to take some investment, Esposito acknowledged, but in the end it's going to be a shining star of Connecticut. Cartus issued a press release that said in light of its continued hybrid work set-up, it would upgrade its global headquarters, which has been based in Danbury for the past three decades, and transition to a new space. To that end, we are currently engaged in negotiations to terminate our Apple Ridge Road lease in conjunction with the potential sale of the facility to the City of Danbury to serve as the site of their new Danbury Career Academy, the release said. Esposito said that with Cartus being such a large employer in Danbury, we're going to support them with whatever they do. The company called the negotiations a win-win for all parties. Esposito and Walston have walked through the building at least five times in the past two weeks, according to Esposito. We both smiled at each other and said this is the future of education here in Danbury, the mayor said. We're going to get this career academy done, and this is going to be the location for the future. DANBURY Starting Tuesday, mask wearing will be optional for Danbury students and teachers. The boards Policy Committee met at 7 p.m. Monday over Zoom and voted unanimously to suspend its mask policy, as well as two other policies related to COVID-19, following recommendations from city health director Kara Prunty and updated federal health guidelines. The full school board also voted to rescind the mask-wearing policies at a special meeting following the policy committees vote. Masks are also no longer required on school buses, per new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. Students will still have to wear masks on days six through 10 of COVID infection. Last week, the board initially opted to delay its mask decision until March 23, the day after a second dose vaccine clinic for children 5 to 11. As surrounding school districts dropped their mask mandates on Monday, the school board moved up its vote on its policy. In Pruntys recommendation to go mask optional, the health director cited a city case rate of 8.3 cases per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of 4.2, which she said was one of the lowest of all cities in Connecticut. The Danbury Health Department has made data-driven recommendations to the school throughout the pandemic, she said. It is my recommendation to go mask optional as of March 1. The full boards Zoom meeting echoed with ayes a unanimous vote followed by clapping, an alright! and a woohoo! I do just want to thank everyone for their patience and doing their due diligence waiting for all of the guidance that we said we were going to receive, said board chair Rachel Chaleski. I know we were all under a lot of pressure so I do appreciate all of you and the thoughtful discussion that we were able to have. Danburys school board has faced pressure from both sides of the mask debate, with a online petition calling for masks to be optional gaining more than 500 signatures in recent days. During the policy meeting, Chaleski asked how the school plans to support students who choose to wear masks. Walston said he met with principals Monday regarding the possible changes and will circulate a letter to families. Walston added that the school leaders would be a little bit extra vigilant in supporting that right to choose, saying it would be first and foremost in the staffs minds. I applaud the decision made by Superintendent Walston, Board Chair Chaleski, and the entire Board of Education making masking optional effective immediately, wrote Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito to the News-Times following the vote. I believe this is the correct first step in returning to a more pleasant and productive learning environment for our children. I am looking forward to seeing all their smiling faces again. It can happen any time of the day or night the harsh, bellowing sound of the air raids signaling to Ukrainian residents to go into hiding. It can be 15 times a day, it depends on the day, said Oleksandra Romanyshyn, a 40-year-old Ridgefield resident whose parents and older brother live western Ukraine. When the sirens begin, theyre a sign to the Ukraine people that everybody has to stop what they are doing and go hide somewhere on the ground, such as in their basement area. The air raids began Thursday when Russia invaded Ukraine. As of Friday, Russian troopers descended upon Kyiv, Ukraines capital, according to the Associated Press. The United Nations reported 25 civilian deaths and 102 injured, mostly from shelling and airstrikes. Since Thursday, Romanyshyn has been on the phone with her family nonstop. We can barely sleep, we can barely eat, because you never know what can happen, she said. Russia strikes missiles in different parts of the country. My parents are very afraid. Her family must follow a strict curfew. They are not allowed to turn their lights on after 7 p.m. Nobody is allowed on the street and there must be no lights in the house because the army wants to make sure they can strike the Russian rockets, she said, adding her parents have been sending her brother to the grocery store for them. She said theres a very large Ukrainian community in the state and everyone is growing increasingly worried. All of my Ukrainian friends have families left in Ukraine, said Romanyshyn, who grew up in Ternopil, Ukraine, and came to the U.S. with her husband, Volodymyr Romanyshyn, in 2006. They lived in Stamford and Norwalk before settling in Ridgefield. Shes employed as a contract manufacturer with Sound Intel Technologies in Norwalk. Both her family and her husbands family live in the western part of Ukraine. While its a little bit safer over there, she said, theres still cause for concern because its close to the Belarus border. On Sunday, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Belarus is expected to send troops into Ukraine to fight alongside Russian forces. Romanyshyn said shes very sad shes not able to be with her parents in person during this time. Our parents were able to come every year to visit us but because of COVID, they didnt come for the past two years, she said. But now, since the war began, no airplanes are flying in and from Ukraine. She added the only way she can bring her parents to the U.S. is if they drive to Poland and fly to the U.S. from there. But since so many women and kids are trying to escape the country, there is a line of the cars for miles and miles on the Ukrainian-Polish border. People are waiting in the car for two to three days in order to get to Poland and my parents are not ready for such a journey now, she said. If the situation on the western part of Ukraine worsens, she added, theyll definitely have no choice but to leave their home. Ukrainians in her parents neighborhood are looking to aid in various ways, she said. Theyre preparing food for the soldiers, theyre making Molotov cocktails and theyre helping patrol the villages through territorial defense teams which are created by local men in order to prevent any possibility of Russian occupants, she said. Romanyshyns brother is part of one of one of those defense teams. Romansyshyn said Ukraine needs help on all fronts. We need help from everywhere, she said. We need European help, we need American help, we need help from Canada we need the entire world to be united to fight Russia. Relief efforts can provide both humanitarian and military help to Ukraine. One way to help is through Revived Soldiers Ukraine, a nonprofit organization that provides aid for medical care, freedom of belief and freedom for an adequate standard of living. Another is Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine, supports the UNWLA (Ukrainian National Women's League of America, Inc), a national organization that helps unite women of Ukrainian descent or affiliation to preserve their ethnic identity and cultural heritage. Romanyshyn said Ukrainians are confident in the future. We dont need peace, she said. We need victory. We will fight to the end for our country and our land. She said Ukrainians will do whatever it takes to win and has no doubt they will succeed. We are proud to be Ukrainians and now its a really hard time over there, said Romanyshyn, choking back tears. We will never stop fighting for our freedom. sandra.fox@hearstmediact.com 203-948-9802 TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2022 /CNW/ - The ALS Society of Canada (ALS Canada) today marks Rare Disease Day 2022 by calling on the Ontario government to champion the urgent need for faster access to approved therapies for people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) a devastating terminal disease that gradually paralyzes people because the brain is no longer able to communicate with the muscles of the body that we are typically able to move at will. "While today represents an important opportunity for all rare disease communities to raise awareness about the need for health policy change, every minute of every day is critical for people living with ALS who are awaiting access to treatment," said Tammy Moore, CEO of ALS Canada. "When you consider the average life expectancy of ALS is only three years post diagnosis, it is clear the current drug approval and reimbursement processes in Canada do not function in a way that reflects the realities of living with this disease." ALS Canada in consultation with the broader Canadian ALS community released the Time is Now Position Paper that offers two concrete solutions to getting Health Canada-approved therapies to Canadians living with ALS in a timeframe that more accurately meets the urgent needs this community. During the week of March 7-11, 2022, Ontario's ALS community will be meeting with elected officials and other decision makers within the province's healthcare system as part of ALS Canada's first-ever Virtual Advocacy Week. The purpose of these meetings is to encourage the Ontario government to build and implement a plan in partnership with the ALS community that would see the province championing the two solutions outlined in the position paper. To date, several meetings have already been scheduled with elected officials across Ontario. "My sister Carla was diagnosed with ALS in November 2019 at 42 years of age. Carla was a vibrant, energetic first grade teacher who was always on the go and always helping others. By May 2020 she had lost the ability to speak and by July she was confined to a power wheelchair and needed a feeding tube," said Paula Rodriguez, from Maple, Ontario. "It only took 19 months for this cruel disease to take my sister. The sad reality is that under the current pathways in Canada, it takes double the time my sister was living with ALS, for treatments to be made accessible to people who need them." A diagnosis of ALS and the impact of living with the disease have a profound and pervasive effect on the lives of not only those who are struck by this devastating disease, but also anyone who loves and cares for them. The realities of the disease are harsh and they reinforce the need for better government support and access within the healthcare system. "I think we can all agree that when it comes to expediting access to ALS treatments, the time is now. That is why the ALS community is looking beyond Rare Disease Day towards what we want to see created in Ontario today and in the future," said Ms. Moore. "We believe that the solutions put forward in our position paper provide a feasible roadmap to get ALS therapies to Canadians urgently, predictably and equitably." About ALS ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that gradually causes paralysis because the brain is no longer able to communicate with the muscles of the body. Over time, as their motor neurons die, someone living with ALS will lose the ability to walk, talk, eat, swallow, and eventually breathe.i An estimated 3,000 Canadians are currently living with ALS. Each year approximately 1,000 Canadians die from ALS. A similar number of Canadians are diagnosed with the disease each year.ii There is no cure for ALS and few treatment options for the majority of people living with the disease.i Approximately 80 per cent of people with ALS die within two to five years of being diagnosed.ii That is why the ALS community measures time not by months or years, but by loss loss of function and loss of life. About ALS Canada The ALS Society of Canada is working to change what it means to live with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an unrelenting and currently terminal disease. Grounded in and informed by the Canadian ALS community, we respond to the urgent unmet need for life-changing treatments by investing in high-quality research that will fuel scientific discovery and by engaging industry, supporting increased clinical capacity and advocating for equitable, affordable and timely access to proven therapies. Responding to the tremendous need for current and credible ALS knowledge, awareness and education, we empower Canadians affected by ALS to navigate the current realities of ALS, be informed consumers of ALS information, and advocate effectively for change. In Ontario, we provide direct community services to help people navigate ALS. Founded in 1977, we are a registered charity that receives no core government funding our work is powered by generous donors who share our vision of a future without ALS. To learn more, visit www.als.ca References: i ALS Society of Canada. About ALS. Available at: https://als.ca/what-is-als/about-als/. Accessed on February 24, 2022. ii ALS Society of Canada. ALS Figures. Available at: https://als.ca/what-is-als/about-als/progression/. Accessed on February 24, 2022. SOURCE ALS Canada For further information: Email: [email protected], Tel: 1-800-267-4257 Chris Lang , former chairman, Lang Partnerships Network , former chairman, Lang Partnerships Network Zak Mroueh , founder and chief creative officer, Zulu Alpha Kilo , founder and chief creative officer, Zulu Alpha Kilo Brenda Pritchard , partner, Gowling WLG , partner, Gowling WLG Dani Reiss , president and CEO, Canada Goose Inc. , president and CEO, Canada Goose Inc. Edie Weiss , president and CEO, Radke Film Group The 2022 Marketer-on-the-Rise is Marie Chevrier Schwartz, founder and CEO of Sampler, a leading digital product-sampling company. "Each of these diverse Canadians has elevated our industry in Canada and on the international stage and are being recognized for their remarkable leadership achievements," says Tina Portillo, president of AMA Toronto, the association that runs CMHOL. "Through the Marketing Hall of Legends, their career stories are celebrated to inspire us, share wisdom, and ultimately help empower new leadership and business growth throughout our community." Canada's Marketing Hall of Legends honours the industry's most inspiring visionaries, enablers, builders and mentors who've had tremendous impact on the field of marketing throughout their careers. The Marketer-on-the-Rise award celebrates Canada's top up-and-comers the next generation of influential marketing leaders. The award winners will be honoured and formally inducted by AMA Toronto on May 12 at an in-person gala event. "Canada's Marketing Hall of Legends is the longest-running industry program of its type," says Jacob Kessler, VP, CMHOL, AMA Toronto. "Only a select few are inducted annually, making the award a highly-coveted badge of honour." The Marketing Legends were chosen from this year's nominations by a selection committee made up of a distinguished, diverse group of marketing experts chaired by 2020 Legend inductee Nancy Marcus, former chief marketing officer at Kruger Products. Canada's Marketing Hall of Legends is made possible by AMA Toronto sponsors and partners that include: Lulu Marketing Communications, Mission Hill Family Estate Winery, and the Globe Media Group. About Canada's Marketing Hall of Legends (CMHOL) Founded in 2004, Canada's Marketing Hall of Legends honours inspiring Canadian leaders who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of excellence in the field of marketing. The award, created to spotlight the stories, people and brands behind Canada's greatest marketing successes, recognizes a noteworthy body of work and a life-time of achievements and leadership. Nominations for induction are held annually. About AMA Toronto The Toronto Chapter of the American Marketing Association ( AMA Toronto ) is a community of volunteer marketers who have been empowering leadership and business growth for more than 70 years in Canada. The AMA, with more than 30,000 members and 70 chapters across North America, is the largest not-for-profit marketing association in the world serving organizations and individuals who practice, teach and study marketing. SOURCE AMA-Toronto For further information: Robert MacLean, VP, Public Relations, AMA Toronto, [email protected], (416) 817-4259 Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will be overseeing the repatriation operations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deputed four Union Ministers to oversee the evacuation of stranded Indians amid the ongoing Russian military campaign in Ukraine. This comes after PM Modi held a high-level meeting over the crisis between Russia and Ukraine on Monday. Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will be overseeing the repatriation operations in the neighbouring countries of Ukraine from where Indian repatriation flights are taking off as part of Operation Ganga. Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia. Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland. Todays meeting was the second high-level meeting chaired by PM Modi in the last 24 hours over the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine. At the Monday meeting, PM Modi reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nations top priority. The Indian government has launched Operation Ganga to bring back Indian citizens affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India from Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia to repatriate Indian citizens. As many as 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in India so far. On Monday, MEA spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi informed via his tweet that a dedicated Twitter handle has been set up to assist in the evacuation of stranded Indians in Ukraine. The tweet read, A dedicated Twitter handle has been set up to assist in the evacuation of Indians from Ukraine OpGanga Helpline. Please direct all related queries to @opganga. The funding will help aid agencies respond to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, creating a lifeline for Ukrainians with access to basic necessities and medical supplies such as medicines, syringes, dressings and wound care packs. The United Kingdom will provide an additional USD 53 million (40 million) in humanitarian aid to Ukraine amid the Russian military operations in the country, the UK Prime Ministers office announced on Sunday. The funding will help aid agencies respond to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, creating a lifeline for Ukrainians with access to basic necessities and medical supplies such as medicines, syringes, dressings and wound care packs. UK Government humanitarian experts have also been deployed to the region to support those fleeing the violence in Ukraine. On Saturday evening UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke again to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy who updated him on the critical need for humanitarian assistance as people are forced to flee their homes and seek safety. In response to the growing concern of Ukrainians living in the UK, Johnson also confirmed that any person settled in the UK will be able to bring their Ukrainian immediate family members to join them here. According to a statement, the UK also continues to support those Ukrainians who wish to remain close to home through logistical and humanitarian support to Ukraines neighbours. The UK Prime Minister said: In the last days the world has witnessed awe-inspiring displays of bravery and heroism from the Ukrainian people in response to those who seek to obliterate their freedom by force. The UK will not turn our backs in Ukraines hour of need. We are providing all the economic and military support we can to help those Ukrainians risking everything to protect their country, he added. This latest assistance package brings the total amount of UK Government aid pledged to Ukraine this year to 140 million. Last week the Prime Minister also announced the UK would guarantee up to USD 500 million of loans to Ukraine through Multilateral Development Banks. Western nations have increased sanctions pressure on Russia after it launched a military operation in Ukraine following requests for help from the people's republics in Donbas. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine and that the purpose of its operation is to save the civilian population from genocide and liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. US President Joe Biden will hold a secure call with Washingtons allies on Monday to discuss the situation in Ukraine and Western response measures, according to the White House schedule. 11:15 AM [16:15 GMT] THE PRESIDENT hosts a secure call with Allies and partners to discuss the latest developments regarding Russias attack on Ukraine and to coordinate our united response, the White House schedule for Monday, February 28, says. Western nations have increased sanctions pressure on Russia after it launched a military operation in Ukraine following requests for help from the peoples republics in Donbas. The Russian Defense Ministry said the operation was targeting the military infrastructure of Ukraine only and that the civilian population was not in danger. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine and that the purpose of its operation is to save the civilian population from genocide and liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics (DPR and LPR), including through the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. A Russian and a Kyiv delegation are expected to hold talks in the Gomel region in Belarus, at the Ukrainian border, on Monday. India on Sunday (local time) abstained from voting on a resolution to call for a special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This came two days after India abstained from voting on the UNSC resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with China and the UAE. It is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the Council last convened on this matter, said Indias Permanent Representative to the United Nations, TS Tirumurti at the UNSC meeting on Ukraine. Tirumurti reiterated the call for an immediate cessation of violence and an end to all hostilities. Them is no other choice but to return back to the path of diplomacy and dialogue, he said. Tirumurti welcomed the announcement by Ukraine and the Russian delegation to hold talks at the Belarus border. Our Prime Minister has advocated this strongly in his recent conversations with the leadership of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. In this regard, we welcome todays announcement by both sides to hold talks at the Belarus border, Tirumurti said. He further said, The global order is anchored on international law, the UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states. We are all agreed on these principles. Tirumurti reiterated to be deeply concerned about the safety and security of Indian nationals, including a large number of Indian students, who are still stranded in Ukraine. Our evacuation efforts have been adversely impacted by the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings. It is important to maintain an uninterrupted and predictable movement of people. It is an urgent humanitarian necessity that must be immediately addressed, Tirumurti said. Taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances, we have decided to ABSTAIN, he added. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate As some consumers boycott Russian imports as a show of support for Ukraine, anyone avoiding Smirnoff would be hurting a brand that found an adopted home in Connecticut and continues to be distilled in the United States. While Smirnoff was started in Russia in the 19th century, an immigrant carried to Connecticut the North American rights to the brand and began bottling vodka in Bethel during the Great Depression. After a company called Heublein acquired Smirnoff, production was moved to Hartford and continued under subsequent ownership by R.J. Reynolds, before being sold again in 1987 to a Diageo predecessor company. Smirnoff is now distilled in Illinois. In response to a Hearst Connecticut Media Group inquiry, a Diageo spokesperson did not say whether the company anticipates any backlash against Smirnoff. After Russia invaded Ukraine last week, some consumers, groups and even state governors have organized boycotts of Russian products. On Monday, Stew Leonards Wines & Spirits confirmed it has ceased sales of Russian imports. After witnessing last weeks events, my family and I spoke about how we could best show our support for Ukraine, said Blake Leonard, vice president of the retailer, which has several locations in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. All Russian-made products specifically vodka are no longer carried at Stew Leonards Wines & Spirits. Speaking Monday in New Haven, Gov. Ned Lamont expressed support for sanctions against Russia, specifically related to oil. But we need America speaking loudly with one voice, that this is evil and will not stand, Lamont said. I am shocked that former President Trump is all over Russian TV. It sounds like hes rooting for Putin. And its really important that the United States stands and speakers with one voice that this shall not stand. Lamont said he doubts state government has any significant business dealings with Russian companies. I cant imagine what it would be buy paper clips from St. Petersburg? Lamont quipped. I dont think so. We dont buy vodka. Even as peace talks picked up Monday, some expect an extended hangover for Russias exporters whether by businesses that have already been looking to expand their list of suppliers during the COVID-19 pandemic, or consumers taking a stance in a show of support for Ukraine. On Saturday, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu ordered state-owned liquor stores to stop selling Russian-made and Russian-branded vodka, with his Utah counterpart adopting a similar stance. A Sununu aide told Hearst Connecticut on Monday that the governors order does not include Smirnoff, given its U.S. production. The Connecticut Package Stores Association issued a statement, cautioning consumers to do their research and expressing support for the people of Ukraine. Although we are subject to anti-trust laws in organizing any boycott of Russian-produced spirits, we encourage our member package stores to use their discretion and to follow their conscience in making individual decisions to remove Russian spirits in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, the Connecticut Package Stores Association said in the statement. Most popular vodka brands are not affiliated with Russia, and are either produced in the United States or in countries that are outspoken supporters of Ukraine. We encourage our members to exercise due diligence when making their decisions. Diageo was based in Norwalk until two years ago when it moved its headquarters to New York City while establishing a satellite office in Stamford. In a nod to Smirnoffs perch in its history, Diageo included a sculpture wall of more than 400 bottles of the vodka in an innovation center it created at its new office in Stamford. Texas-based Titos Handmade Vodka was the top-selling U.S. liquor brand in 2020, according to BeverageDynamics, well ahead of Diageos whiskey brand Crown Royal, which ranked second. Among brands seeing sales growth, the only other vodka brands to crack the top 10 were New Amsterdam Vodka sold by E&J Gallo Winery and Svedka imported from Sweden by Constellation Brands. While Smirnoff has seen its U.S. growth eclipsed in the past decade by fellow Diageo brands Ketel One and Ciroc, the companys CEO told investors last week to expect new initiatives under the Smirnoff label, and noted the brand has been performing well in emerging markets. We've got good marketing and innovation coming behind Smirnoff, Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes said in a January conference call. We just need them to be stable to slight growth, and we do see that happening. Ken Dixon contributed to this report. Includes prior reporting by Erik Ofgang and Paul Schott. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman We are coming to that time of year Lent when people prepare to make a sacrifice but not without some revelry. Mardi Gras parties are ready to roll. Check your area just to see how many there will be. Saturday, at The Bijou Theatre, Stax of Soul, Tribute to Stax Record Label is honoring Otis Redding, Wilson Picket, Same & Dave, Booker T & MGs and more, with the featured guest, Lady Soul sings Aretha Franklin. Stax of Soul has been called a soul pumpin, bass thumpin ass kickin tribute to the great artists of Stax Record Label. Featuring vocalist Julius Dilligard Jr. (Crown Heights Affair) and the SOS killer band complete with horn section, it authentically captures the sound and power of this feel good genre of music, which crosses the age barrier like no other, and makes you want to dance all night. Check the Bijou website for virtual tickets. The Roux, a Cajun eatery in Simsbury that provides Louisiana food, music and culture in New England, gets in the Mardi Gras spirit at 6 p.m. Saturday. Besides the NOLA menu, River City Slim & The Zydeco Hogs will be there. You can eat your fill of great Cajun food and then dance the night away with red-hot rockin Zydeco from the Northeasts premier Louisiana-style Zydeco band. Sunday, =Otis & the Hurricanes are at Roux for a Mardi Gras Brunch; the Tipping Chair has its Mardi Gras Party with Who Dat Band, Tuesday. Also Tuesday, its Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras Madness at Black-Eyed Sallys, Fat Tuesday. There will be partying all day long with stilt walkers, Mardi Gras beads, face painting and music; an a ll-u-can eat Southern Feast Lunch, followed by a Happy Hour with free appetizers and specials, with dancing to Rivercity Slim & the Zydeco Hogs. Friday, Charter Oak Brewing has Ol Moose and Friends, while at the Black Duck Cafe the Tony Ferrigno Band entertains. Notch 8 is hosting the Dan Zlotnick Band. Over at The Note in Bethel it is Michael Bram. The Sunday Brunch features Dan Stevens. Saturday the Sugar Hollow Taproom has Union Rail and Notch 8 brings in Fade to Blues. Also Saturday, the Black Rock Social House has Tracy Jo & The Toads; and Ace & Friends are at the Old Greenwich Social Club. The Barn has the F & Blues Band. Sunday afternoon, the Petey Hop All-Stars play the Brass Horse Cafe and Lisa Marie is at CC OBriens. Thursday theres pizza and blues with Carl Ricci & 706 Union Ave. at Sassos Coal Fired Pizza. Theodores BBQ on Friday has the Orb Mellon Duo. Saturday, the Duo will be at Burgy Brews Taproom (6pm) in Williamsburg. Fat Tuesday at Theodores has Krewe Les Gras. Inspired by the sounds of the Crescent City, the birthplace of so much American music, Krewe Les Gras seeks to bring the New Orleans experience to the masses. Cajun rhythms, funky grooves, and wild improvisations are sure to keep you on the dance floor all night and day. Friday, Daryls House brings in Dana Fuchs. Shes known as a Jaggeresque blues-jammer, Otis soul-sister, juke-joint Janis and Sexy Sadie all rolled into one passionate performer and compassionate performer. Sunday, Back to the Garden 1969 is at Daryls House. This group of seasoned players have toured, performed, and recorded nationally. The musicians all are multi-instrumentalists, as well as unique lead vocalists. Their common bond is a love for the music of the Woodstock era, and they formed this band for the sheer enjoyment of playing these songs. Towne Crier Cafe has a Chris Smither show Friday. A profound songwriter, Smither draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, modern poets and philosophers. Reviewers continue to praise his dazzling guitar work, gravelly voice and songwriting. Then on Sunday, hear Blues Chaser featuring Big Thurrsty, Tom the suit Forst, Tony Delisio, and Joey Primo. Eight to the Bar has a Sunday date at the Knickerbocker Cafe. Ed Peabody and the Big Blue Thang will handle Lets Dance Wednesday. The Alexis P Suter Band will be at The Turning Point Cafe Sunday, while the Falcon Main Stage has its Mardi Gras show with the Glen David Andrews Band, The Crown Prince of Treme, New Orleans most charismatic live performer. Hes distinctively NOLA but mixes things up with an eclectic variety of styles. For starters, if youve never heard Glen David Andrews, his vocals are amazing. Its like Willie Dixon meets James Brown. Friday, Fiddlers Green Pub in Carmel has Elle Sera. Weekly events include live on-stage at the Tipping Chair Tavern with Lee-Ann Lovelace, for dinner and a show, with a featured guest each Monday. Michael Stark is this weeks guest. Sunday, it is live music trivia with What Trivia. David Stoltz & Co. Sunday Blues at have a regular gig at The Flying Monkey. See the Connecticut Blues Society for more gig listings: https://www.ctblues.org/weekly-calendar Any questions or comments should be sent to Domenic Forcella at TWBlus@aol.com. NEW HAVEN A former city man allegedly defrauded older people of large amounts of money through a telephone scheme, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Rhode Island. Jean-Richard Audate, 35, now of Jamaica, N.Y., was indicted Monday on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, three counts of mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft, officials said in an email. Audate and other individuals allegedly participated in a conspiracy to defraud (older) victims by posing on the telephone as their grandchild or other family member, or an attorney representing a family member, officials said. The caller would convince victims that their family member had been arrested or incarcerated in another state or, was in financial and legal distress; and that cash payments were urgently needed to pay legal fees or related costs. Victims were instructed to send cash payments via FedEx or UPS to addresses provide by the conspirators, officials said. In January, city police received reports from departments beyond Connecticut, including in Rhode Island, that (older) residents had been defrauded of large amounts of money through a grandparent scam in which victims were instructed to send cash payments to addresses in New Haven, according to the email. New Haven Police determined that many of the addresses were in close proximity to one another, including the address of an Airbnb allegedly utilized by Audate, officials said. It is alleged that Audate visited many of the addresses and retrieved the packages, many of which New Haven Police and the FBI determined allegedly contained between as $7,900 and $150,000 in cash. Audate was arraigned in Providence, R.I. last Thursday and released on a $10,000 bond, officials said. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN Reflecting on his recent trip to Israel, in which the goal was to promote business expansion and partnerships with Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday that the laboratory-grown chicken tasted like...chicken. So maybe Connecticuts future includes producing beef and chicken from stem cells in a high-tech, low methane-generating way to satisfy consumer demand for meat in the 21st Century, he said. This cultured meat and chicken is fascinating to me, Lamont told told reporters during a morning news conference in the offices of the quasi-public Connecticut Innovations Inc. You were growing 10 pounds of prime beef or chicken starting out in a petri dish. Necessity is the mother of invention. Israel doesnt have a lot of land. They dont have a lot of water, but they like meat and chicken, so heres your opportunity to develop 10 pounds of prime beef without water, without acres of land, without any of that environmental devastation. Theyve got some preliminary approvals about it and they are very interested in Connecticut. That was one highlight in the flurry of activity where the governors delegation met with venture capitalists, government officials, start-ups, accelerators, and thought leaders. Lamont said the week-long excursion gave his team, including interim University of Connecticut President Radenka Maric, Matt McCooe, CEO of Connecticut Innovations Inc., and Commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development David Lehman a chance to tout Connecticuts position on the East Coast, its proximity to New York airports, its Jewish population and its interest in providing companies with 50 to 75 employees a chance to grow in the state. We now have the relationships with the folks that know all the entrepreneurs, the folks that know all the small businesses, the folks that are funding them, the venture capital firms, he said. We met with each and every one of them. It could be that Connecticut Innovations is going to co-invest in some of these. Its not a guarantee that they come to Connecticut, but Connecticut is on the radar screen. I think thats a new way of doing it and its incredibly important. Aerospace and defense industries were also part of the conversation, along with health care, cryptocurrency and UConns relationship with Technion Univerity in Israel. The group from Connecticut included personnel from Raytheon, Hartford HealthCare, and the Digital Currency Group, the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut. Lehman said at least two firms Future Meat and Aleph Farms are contemplating imminent $75 and $150 million capital investments within the next six months. In Israel, theres a fast-moving economic atmosphere where the government is transitioning away from the authoritarian regime of Benjamin Netanyahu, thanks to a more-diverse government that is including more of a voice for Palestinians. Lamont said Connecticuts support of diversity includes more opportunities for woman as well. I can tell you that Prime Minister (Naftali) Bennett was proud that they have such a diverse coalition, said Lamont, who became the first Connecticut governor to visit Israel since the 1990s. Ironically, hes proud of the fact that its representative of the Arab-Muslim party is the deciding vote only because the margins are so thin. The next thing to do is follow-up. Were not leading with incentives, but if you want to come to the great state of Connecticut, come, Lamont said. Were going to roll out the red carpet for you just like you rolled-out the red carpet for us. Lehman said Connecticut Innovations has made direct investments in Israel, while another tool is to help invest. The state is selling its proximity to New York airports and Northeast markets, the cost of doing business, the 3.3 percent Jewish population here and its family-friend lifestyle. This year well probably invest between $45 and $50 million into 100-plus investment opportunities and companies, of which a very small percentage are Israeli, McCooe said. The three-pronged goal is to bring companies to Connecticut, help companies already here and returns. If we invest $1 million in an entrepreneur, we want to get back two, three, four, five million dollars, McCooe said. And that allows us to invest in the next five entrepreneurs. The governor said the most-moving hour of my life occurred at Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust memorial, where he joined in a lighting ceremony of the Eternal Flame. The various trips in the nation of 9 million people included meetings with Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, President Isaac Herzog, and Dr. Salman Zarka, Israels chief COVID-19 officer . The issue of diversity came up during the meeting with Bennett, who Lamont said agreed with the current moment in which people who might not have had much workplace opportunities in the past, can now reap the fruits of the openings in the workforce both in Israel and the United States, where skilled employees are needed. We compared notes about how this is an extraordinary opportunity to lift up people whove never had that opportunity before, Lamont said, adding that Palestinians, Israeli-Arabs, Muslims and Orthodox Jews now have more opportunities in Israel. When asked what the lab-grown meat tasted like, Lamont laughed and recalled the company officials who accompanied the Connecticut delegation on their tour of the laboratory. I had the chicken and theyre all watching. I said it was really good. I thought it was tasty. I pretended to gag for a minute to get their attention, but its really good. I think, believe it or not, its got a future. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo NEW HAVEN Investigators are asking any witnesses to the shooting of a city teen over the weekend to come forward, police said Monday. The department got a call at around 8:45 p.m. Sunday about an 18-year-old city resident who had been shot. Officer Scott Shumway said the teen was dropped off at a Hamden firehouse after the shooting. SEYMOUR A wrong-way driver was charged with driving while intoxicated on Route 8 in Seymour early Saturday morning, according to state police. The arrest came around the same time that two separate fatal crashes involving wrong-way drivers on Interstate 84 in Hartford and Interstate 91 in Meriden killed six people. State police were dispatched about 3 a.m. Saturday to Route 8 on reports of a wrong-way driver on the southbound lanes near Exit 20. When they arrived, Seymour Police had stopped the car on the Exit 22 entrance ramp, state police said in a press release Saturday morning. Police noticed the driver, identified as 54-year-old Manchester resident Michael Brown, appeared to have glassy and bloodshot eyes. Police also said they could smell alcohol on his breath as he spoke, according to state police. Troopers administered field sobriety tests which Brown failed to perform to standard, police said. Brown was charged with operating under the influence, driving the wrong way on a divided highway and failure to carry a license. He was released on a $1,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court in Derby on March 18. Fatal wrong-way crashes have increased across highways nationwide in recent years. However, from 2015 to 2018, Connecticut saw a decline, according to an AAA analysis using data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administrations Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Between 2010 to 2014, the state had 29 fatal wrong-way crashes, and 20 wrong-way crashes from 2015 to 2018, the analysis stated. AAAs study found that alcohol impairment was the single most significant factor in the majority of wrong-way driving crashes, according to Fran Mayko, a spokeswoman for AAA Northeast. The study said alcohol played a role in 60 percent of the crashes where drivers had a blood alcohol concentration over the .08 legal limit. The study also identified advanced age and driving without a passenger as prime causes of fatalities in wrong-way crashes. Officers responded to 18th Street and Walnut Avenue about 2:40 a.m. for reports of a motor vehicle accident involving a police vehicle. ALBANY As COVID-19 transmission rates plunge, nearly three out of five New York voters wan Six Flags Darien Lake to hire 1,500 positions MARCH 5: The theme park is hosting in-person hiring event to fill roles for the 2022 season. A former Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said Nigerians would be safe in his hands if he becomes Presiden... A former Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said Nigerians would be safe in his hands if he becomes President in 2023. Atiku said he understands the countrys challenges; hence Nigerians would be in safe hands if he becomes President. He spoke at the South-West edition of the Atiku Abubakar Town Hall Meetings of National Unity and Prosperity Forum 2022, powered by the Atiku Kawai Media Group, held in Lagos. According to Atiku: I am aware of the daunting challenges faced by visioners as they struggle to create a nation out of an amalgamation of communities. The willpower and empathy required to fix Nigeria will need a leader who knows both the historical and contemporary issues of our generations. Nigeria and indeed Nigerians will be safe in my hands. And together, we can halt the slide and redirect our collective resources to build a prosperous country. Atiku is yet to declare his intentions to run for the presidency in 2023. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Ebonyi State chapter, on Monday staged a peaceful protest to demand an immediate end t... The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Ebonyi State chapter, on Monday staged a peaceful protest to demand an immediate end to the ongoing one-month warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The students barricaded the Presco Campus section of the ever-busy Abakaliki-Enugu road demanding immediate end to incessant strikes. The students, led by the acting Deputy Coordinator of Zone F, Comrade Ewa Chukwumaijem, and the Joint Campus Committee (JCC) Chairman-elect in the state, Comrade Ituma Kelvin, carried placards with inscriptions such as Age is irreversible, house rents are non-refundable, Stop disrupting our life plans, FG stop delaying our career, Stop toying with our future and that of our dear nation, We cant continue to be bait for anybody, among others. Addressing newsmen, Chukwumaijem said the protest was to register their displeasure over the incessant ASUU strikes in the nations universities. He noted that the strikes had always been about the selfish interests of ASUU and never about the interest of the students. He called on the Federal Government and ASUU to take immediate actions towards resolving the strike for the interest of the students. He said, this is a nationwide protest. It is being done in different states of the federation. We have decided to do our own today irrespective of insecurity in the state, but the protest is a peaceful one. The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is on strike, on incessant strike. At the end of the strike, ASUU will sort out its differences with the federal government. Who will now sort out with the students? Nobody. The students will end up paying another house rent because we pay house rent per session. When you pay per session and the strike take up the session, there is no how the landlord will allow you without paying again. And most of us are of age that if you do not calculate yourself very well, you will not be mobilize for service. You will now have to exmpet yourself by collecting exemption letter. What we are saying is that what ASUU is doing is for their personal interest. It is not in the benefit of any Nigeria student. A course that should take you four or five years will linger from seven to eight years. There is no how we can benefit from the strike. ASUU should learn another better way to negotiate with the federal government. The federal government should also learn to honour agreement. They say when two elephants fights, the grass suffers it. The students are the one suffering it now. We say no to ASSU strike . Enough is enough. After this nationwide protest of NANS today, ASSU and the Federal Government should see the reasons to call off the strike. The meeting between the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, and protesting Nigerian students, on Monday, ended in deadlock as the minister... The meeting between the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, and protesting Nigerian students, on Monday, ended in deadlock as the minister walked out on them. The students had earlier occupied the gate of the National Assembly demanding the lingering strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) must be resolved. ASUU Must Go! Open the gate! the students chanted as they headed from the Unity Fountain to the gate of the National Assembly. They were however stopped by security operatives at the NASS gate. NANS National president, Sunday Asefon who led the students said the police officers are meant to join the protesting students because they have children in schools who are currently at home, due to the strike. He insisted that education is a right of every Nigerian youth and the ASUU members need to resolve their disagreement with the Federal Government so students can go back to the classrooms. We are not here to fight. We are here to meet the Minister of Education, Asefo said as the students stood at the gate of the NASS complex. Representatives of the students were later allowed in and a meeting was held with the Education Minister. The meeting however ended with no resolution as the Minister of Education walked out on the students. The United States, Canada and other European countries have so far responded to urgent Ukrainian appeals for military equipment. Accord... The United States, Canada and other European countries have so far responded to urgent Ukrainian appeals for military equipment. According to AFP reports, some of the countries, including Sweden, have started to send military or humanitarian aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded on Thursday. Here are 15 of the countries: United States Washington said Saturday it is sending an extra $350 million in military aid to Kyiv to bring its total support to more than a billion dollars over the last year. This package will include further lethal defensive assistance to help Ukraine address the armoured, airborne and other threats it is now facing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. On Sunday, Blinken announced $54 million in new humanitarian aid to be spent through NGOs. Canada Canada is sending lethal military weaponry to Ukraine and loaning Kyiv half a billion Canadian dollars ($394 million) to help it defend itself. Germany Berlin has broken a longstanding taboo of not exporting arms to conflict zones in vowing to send Ukraine 1,000 anti-tank weapons, 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles and nine howitzers. It is also donating 14 armoured vehicles and 10,000 tonnes of fuel. Sweden Stockholm is also breaking its historic neutral stance to send 5,000 anti-tank rockets to Ukraine as well as field rations and body armour. It is the first time Sweden has sent weapons to a country in armed conflict since the Soviet Union invaded neighbouring Finland in 1939. France France, which has already sent help, is dispatching more military equipment as well as fuel. Paris says it has acted on earlier Ukrainian requests for defensive anti-aircraft and digital weapons. Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is committed to provide further UK support to Ukraine in the coming days, without specifying what it might be. Belgium Belgium says it will supply Ukraine with 3,000 more automatic rifles and 200 anti-tank weapons, as well as 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands The Dutch defence ministry says it is sending 200 Stinger missiles as soon as possible, after a shipment Saturday of sniper rifles and helmets. It adds to the 20 million euros ($22 million) of humanitarian aid it has already promised. Czech Republic Prague said Saturday it is sending 4,000 mortars in the next few hours as well as an arsenal of 30,000 pistols, 7,000 assault rifles, 3,000 machine guns as well as scores of sniper rifles and a million bullets. The Czechs had already promised Kyiv 4,000 mortars worth 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) which have yet to be delivered. Italy Rome has sent 110 million euros ($123 million) in immediate aid to the Ukrainian government as a concrete sign of our support, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio tweeted. Portugal Portugal is giving Ukraine night vision goggles, bulletproof vest, helmets, grenades, ammunition and automatic G3 rifles. Greece Greece, which has a large community in Ukraine 10 of whom have been killed with many more in the firing line is sending defence equipment as well as humanitarian aid. Romania Bucharest which shares a border with Ukraine is offering to treat the wounded in its 11 military hospitals as well as sending fuel, bulletproof vests, helmets and other military material worth three million euros ($3.3 million). Spain Madrid has promised to send 20 tonnes of aid to Ukraine, mostly medical and defensive equipment such as bulletproof vests. Israel Israel says it is sending 100 tonnes of humanitarian aid such as medical equipment, water purifiers, tents and sleeping bags. The Rasaq Salinsile faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has announced that the appeal committee on the partys 2022... The Rasaq Salinsile faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has announced that the appeal committee on the partys 2022 gubernatorial primary election in the State remains a rumour. The faction, which has the backing of Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior and former governor of Osun State, also announced that their aspirant, Moshood Adeoti and his lawyers were never informed or invited to appear before any panel to defend the petition against the election. Making this known via a press statement signed by Abiodun Agboola, the factions Publicity Secretary, the group maintained that it would be an act of impunity and total disregard to democratic process if truly the appeal committee had sat and dismissed Adeotis appeal without due process. According to the statement, Alhaji Adeoti participated in the governorship primary and was rigged out with impunity by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, who manipulated the election process in his own favour because he is a member of the National Caretaker and Extra Ordinary Convention Planning Committee that organized the primary. In line with the guideline and timetable of the primary, Alhaji Adeoti filed a petition to the Osun APC governorship primary election Appeal Committee on Tuesday, February 22. His lawyers were at the National Secretariat of the APC on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with the aim of knowing and meeting the Appeal Committee. They were told that the National Secretariat was yet to constitute the committee and up till now, we are not aware of any Appeal Committee on the Osun APC governorship primary. We are, however, surprised to read the junks, or better put, rumour on social media that the Appeal Committee had sat and dismissed Alhaji Adeotis petition. We urge the general public to disregard such rumour. The Osun APC had conducted its gubernatorial primary election on Saturday, February 19, 2022, which the incumbent governor of the State, Adegboyega Oyetola won with a vote of 222,169, as against 12, 921 votes for Moshood Adeoti, a former Secretary to the State Government and 460 for Lasun Yusuf, a former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives. Prior to the exercise, there had been confrontations between the leadership of the two factions in the Osun APC. The Rasaq Salinsile faction which is mostly populated by members of The Osun Progressive (TOP) have accused the IleriOluwa faction, which has the support of Governor Oyetola of hijacking the party. No. The money should go to something that would benefit all citizens of the county, not just Watertown. Yes. The community would benefit from the indoor pools the project would provide. Vote View Results Watertown, NY (13601) Today Occasional light rain. High 57F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 39F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East The underappreciated role of mules in Carnival is finally being recognized. The animals were the subject this year of an online, paid subscription lecture as part of the Friends of the Cabildo Carnival history classes called A Garbage Mule Fit For A King: How Beasts of Burden Shaped Carnival. French Quarter buggy driver and historian Charlotte Jones detailed the important role the creatures played in Mardi Gras for nearly a century. It is likely the Mistick Krewe of Comus used mules in their first, two-float parade when they debuted in 1857. Mules pulled streetcars from the Civil War until the 1890s. Before and after that, they pulled cotton wagons from Mississippi River wharves. Contrary to the images on 19th century Carnival bulletins, which show horse-drawn floats, only on very rare occasions were horses used. For the most part, mule power propelled Mardi Gras floats. A 1973 Dixie Roto feature explained, The animals were cleaned and brushed and adorned with white caps and robes bearing the emblem of a crown, and hoofs painted a glittering gold." The same publication reported that in 1929 the city owned 329 mules, its all time high number in its stock. Legendary Louisiana historian Charles Pie Dufour, writing in the States-Item in 1966, explained why mules worked so well. The mule is patient and plodding, even docile, he said. But Dufour also acknowledged that mules could be stubborn. In the 20th century, mules pulled the citys garbage wagons during the day and then pulled floats at night. Each mule had a name and a personality, and mules almost always worked as a team. Carnival parades in the old days were often late in taking to the streets because mules that worked all day sometimes refused to walk at night. A newspaper headline in 1948 reported Mules Stage Sit Down Strike. The proliferation of parades made the double-duty of the mules problematic. Then, in 1949, the New Orleans Sanitation Department started to become mechanized, and mules were phased out. In 1950, Rex announced the switch to the more reliable tractors, which provided a far smoother ride. All other krewes followed with the exception of the Krewe of Choctaw, whose parade was mule-drawn until 1953. Today, purely for nostalgic reasons, Hermes and Babylon use mules to pull royalty floats. Mules also put in an appearance in the Krewe du Vieux and Le Krewe d'Etat parades. And this year, for the first time since 1949, a mule will appear in the Rex parade, pulling a riderless signature float in the sesquicentennial procession. Its Mardi Gras and the beginning of festival season, which means well all be spending loads of time in the streets drinking, partying and having a general grand ol time. And that means its the fat season for street performers, wholl typically make much of their years income over the next few months. Heres some tips for how residents and tourists alike can help support these amazing musicians and performers. Tipping! This one should be obvious throw folks a few bucks! Unlike a lot of cities, plenty of people still carry cash in New Orleans, thanks to all the cash-only bars and establishments we have around town. Although lots of street musicians also play paid gigs, many still draw a significant part of their income from the tips they make on the streets. And while busking was one of the few economic lifelines musicians had in the city during the pandemic, they're still hurting, so every bit helps. Besides, these folks work hard to create the sound track of life in New Orleans and are a key part of our history and culture, so it's important to help keep the busking tradition alive. No seriously, tip em! Even if you dont have cash! But even if you dont have cash on ya, most performers these days have Venmo, CashApp, Paypal or some other way of taking electronic tips. In fact, according to Renard Bridgewater, community engagement coordinator for the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MaCCNO), using these sorts of mechanisms to tip folks on the street can have bigger benefits than simply giving them money, thanks to the social media aspects of online payment systems. Which leans us to Promote street musicians! You dont have to be a social media influencer or even very good at it at all to have an impact on performers lives. Putting up videos of performers playing can mean a big return for musicians so long as you do it correctly. "Ive seen viral posts, millions of hits it's important to direct those viewers to them, if you're documenting it. Direct [viewers] to their websites, [and ways for people to make] monetary donations, Bridgewater says, adding tipping is important, but if you want to go a step further, be able to document its important to relay it back to the source. Make sure to include the performers name, their website or social media handle, online payment information like Venmo handle and their QR Code. Even if your post doesnt go super viral, theres a good chance your friends will watch your videos, which in turn could mean more tips. Helping get the word out about your favorite street performer also has the added benefit of promoting the broader community, and the city itself. After all, street music has long been a significant draw for tourists. Theres a tremendous reach with social media, said Ehtan Ellestad, MaCCNOs executive director. It brings visitors; its the best free advertising the city can get. I cant put a number on what the economic impact is for the city Im sure its within the millions. Its more important than having a float in the Macys Day parade. Support reopening the Royal Street pedestrian mall and other policy measures! Although its been shut down since the 2019 Hard Rock Hotel collapse, the Royal Street pedestrian mall was traditionally one of the best spots in the city for musicians to play. MaCCNO and others have urged the city to re-open the mall to provide more space for buskers. Additionally, there are a number of other steps the city could take to nurture street performers. Bridgewater points to other tourism-heavy cities, like Virginia Beach, that offer financial support to street performers from a municipal level. Tourists [to New Orleans] might assume the city is taking care of them because they see them out on the streets, and they are viewed as cultural ambassadors. But New Orleans has not provided a stipend. A literal rainy day fund, he says, could go a long way to help buskers during inclement weather particularly in the summertime when tourism goes to the wayside, combined with the threat of heavy rain and hurricanes that keep people cooped up inside or out of town. Ellestad points out that street performers are often uncredited, though they bring unprecedented value from a tourism perspective and also to the general ambiance of living here. It would be awesome to be able to get that through from a policy perspective, says Bridgewater. Just to be able to provide some form of financial some form of more concrete support. Hey Blake, At Dryades and Philip Streets, there is an old building with a stone image of a book above the doorway. Was it a church or maybe a library? What can you tell me about it? Dear reader, The two-story, red brick building at 1924 Philip St. was a former branch of the New Orleans Public Library. It was dedicated in 1915, and its location near the corner of Dryades Street (a section of which was later renamed Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard) led to its name as the Dryades Street branch. The library was built at a cost of $25,000 and designed by architect William R. Burk. According to The Times-Picayune, the Dryades branch was the last of several library facilities built in New Orleans thanks to a gift by Andrew Carnegie. The steel magnate and philanthropist donated millions of dollars to build nearly 2,000 public libraries nationwide. The Dryades library was the only library in the city where Black New Orleanians were allowed to use public library services before libraries were integrated in 1954. It also became a community center for members of the Black community. Meetings of the nearby Dryades YMCA, the Negro Board of Trade and the NAACP were held there. Nationally known figures such as historian Carter G. Woodson and actor-activist Paul Robeson made public appearances at the library as well. The library closed in 1965 after suffering damage in Hurricane Betsy as well as a fire. The city sold the building in 1966, and it was renovated into a hotel, which was open for several years. In 1982, the Historic District Landmarks Commission designated the building a protected landmark. The Dryades YMCA owns the building today and has used it for various purposes, including as part of its charter school campus. Last year, the building was named to the National Register of Historic Places. One of Lee Giorgio's earliest Mardi Gras memories is staring up at the framed picture of his grandfather, John Lenfant, owner of Lenfant's restaurant and banquet hall on Canal Boulevard, decked out as king of the Krewe of Mid-City. We were a pretty humble family, recalls Giorgio, 72, the co-founder of Select Properties. And to see your grandfather as the king of Mid-City, in his full regalia Mardi Gras was the greatest free show on earth, and it was always impressive to me. In the decades that followed, Giorgio's involvement with Carnival grew in the way it does for many New Orleanians. He attended parades with family and friends. He later became a krewe member of Endymion, and currently belongs to Bacchus. But this year, Giorgio joins a smaller circle when he reigns as King Argus in the parade that rolls in Metairie on Mardi Gras. "After going with my kids all these years on Veteran's Boulevard, Im really looking forward to it, he said recently amid the whirl of ceremonies he oversees as the Jefferson Parish krewe's king. A civic leader But finding time is Giorgio's specialty. As chief executive of Select Properties, which he founded with Don Moffatt four decades ago, Giorgio has had a hand in roughly $250 million in real estate deals throughout the New Orleans area. He also serves on the boards of numerous civic, academic and business organizations, including the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, which he co-founded 25 years ago, the Louisiana Community & Technical Colleges System, the Ochsner Foundation, the Metropolitan Crime Commission, First NBC Bank and Greater New Orleans Inc. He is chairman of the Jefferson Business Council and the Southeast Regional Coalition of Business Councils and is one of the longest-standing members of the Regional Planning Commission's board. He's also chairman of the board of Delgado Community College, a post that holds special meaning for Giorgio because of his passion for community technical college education that began with his involvement with the school 25 years ago. Back then, he said, "people didnt even understand what a community college was, but its where the action is in workforce development. It just changes people's lives and gives them the ability to get good jobs." How does he find the time? "I get asked that a lot," he said, crediting the strength of the team at Select Properties, many of whom have worked for him for decades. "The truth of the matter is, Im a workaholic," he said with a chuckle. "I'm trying to change my ways, but Im not very good at it. The more I give, the more I get back. Work hard, give back Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Giorgio's work ethic stems from his parents, who instilled in him a crucial set of values: "You better appreciate what you have, live up to your potential and you better give back." "Im no martyr," he said. "Ive just seen the rewards of making a difference in people's lives. Giorgio attended Holy Cross School before going on to University of Southern Mississippi and then the University of Illinois for his post-graduate studies. He was a Green Beret in the U.S. Army in 1969. He started his professional career at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta and was an officer there for 10 years. But his entry into real estate was a bit of an accident. When the time came to buy a house in New Orleans, he thought he might take a real estate course to make himself a more informed consumer. It worked, and he soon was helping friends and family with their home purchases. After meeting up with Moffatt, Giorgio got his broker's license and entered the world of commercial real estate. Select Properties was born in 1981. Its been a good run, he said. Ready to roll With Carnival festivities canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Giorgio said there's a lot of pent-up enthusiasm to celebrate. "I think it felt better, just because people missed it last year," he said of the recent Argus ball and other festivities. "Theyre hungry for normality again its kind of a relief thing. Giorgio said he has arranged for Argus to have a special, tandem float that will serve as a celebration of our resiliency." It will include 40 riders including health care workers, police officers, firefighters, four of Jefferson Parish's teachers of the year and others, "the people who helped us get through the pandemic." Giorgio said he can't wait. "I've been king-in-waiting for two years," he said. "Its showtime. Im looking forward to it. Editor's note: This story was changed on March 2, 2022, to reflect the correct location of Lenfant's. Heaven Nettles came to New Orleans from Houston last weekend to spend time with her late mothers family at some Carnival parades. She went with relatives to an oyster stand outside a Mid-City bar on Saturday, about three blocks off the Endymion route, when a man started shooting at another, according to her father. Gunfire struck and killed Heaven, along with two men, leaving her loved ones to grapple with how a family reunion had turned so tragic. She didnt know anyone out there she wasnt affiliated with anyone out there, her father, Jamal Briscoe, said in an interview Monday. Was it worth it? What (the shooter) was after was it worth taking my childs life, too? Briscoes remarks, made through tears and sobs, came as New Orleans police entered their third day searching for suspects in a shooting that also killed Donald Roberts Jr., 39, and Marvin Pepp, 56. Police have stopped short of publicly naming suspects or discussing a motive for the triple slaying. But multiple senior law enforcement sources confirmed that Heaven was not the intended target of the shooting. Briscoe said Heavens mother died three years ago, and he wanted his daughter to see her maternal relatives for Carnival this year after the 2021 parade season was canceled. So their family traveled from Houston to go to the NOMTOC parade on the west bank where Briscoe grew up before moving to Texas on Saturday morning, before heading to Endymion in the evening. Heaven went with her aunt and some siblings, and after parking, the group went to buy oysters from a truck outside a bar in the 2900 block of Conti Street. Suddenly, gunfire aimed neither at Heaven nor any of her relatives erupted. Heaven started backing away, Briscoe said. And her body just fell. Paramedics brought Heaven to a hospital, but she had been pronounced dead by Sunday, authorities said. Roberts and Pepp were pronounced dead at the scene. Briscoe said he may never be able to comprehend having lost his daughter so abruptly and violently. She spent the last months of her life trying to surpass her twin brother Lancers 3.0 grade point average in school. She was one of 11 children or stepchildren of her father, and Heaven had also helped him and her stepmother take care of the younger ones, Briscoe said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up They took my help away from me, Briscoe said. He added that whatever little free time Heaven had away from her responsibilities, she preferred most to spend it watching animated films. While Heaven grew up in Los Angeles and had been living more recently in Houston, she was in New Orleans for one of the most formative summers of her young life two years ago, said her aunt, Donna Nettles. Heaven went to the Us Helping Us camp at the former B.W. Cooper housing development in Central City, learning about Black history, financial literacy, science, and math, as well as taking field trips. The camp fueled Heavens dreams of working in early childhood development education, like her mother, Temica, once did. Who in their right mind could believe this? Nettles said. We have a wonderful, vibrant, beautiful, silly little girl in the morgue. We have a baby lying in the morgue here. Briscoe on Monday pleaded for New Orleans police to pursue Heaven's killer relentlessly. He said he had sent messages to city leaders urging them to not let her murder go unanswered. This is a child a kid that didnt deserve this, Briscoe said. Nettles called on the killer to spare a heartbroken family the pain of a lengthy investigation and instead surrender. You took away a precious, innocent baby my niece is never going to have a baby, or get married, because she was just 15, Nettles said. Turn yourself in, and make amends because Heaven is gone. Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward. Homer Plessy Community Schools might leave its spot in a historic French Quarter school building known as the "Little Red Schoolhouse" if it can move into another building in the Bywater that would accommodate an expansion, the head of school said Friday. The arts-focused school is among those vying for spots in three Orleans Parish Public School District-owned buildings that will be vacated at the end of this school year. In a letter to the Plessy school community, Head of School Meghan Raychaudhuri said that needed repairs to the French Quarter building would be too costly and a new space in the Bywater would allow the school to expand its arts spaces and better serve special education students. Homer Plessy, a C-rated school, teaches kindergarten through fourth grade at its French Quarter campus and fifth through eighth grades at its campus less than a mile down St. Philip Street in Treme. What Ive heard from the community is they want a school in the French Quarter, Raychaudhuri told parents at a meeting last week discussing the possible move. My obligation as head of this organization is to protect its long-term existence and protect its stability. Homer Plessy is among those schools eligible to apply for the three buildings that will be empty at the end of the year. The school applied to move into the Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School, 3819 St. Claude Ave. The building houses Arise Academy, but its charter was not renewed because of academic failures, financial management concerns and other issues. NOLA Public Schools will decide who gets to move into the buildings by March 18. If approved, Homer Plessy's move would leave the French Quarter without any schools public or private and 721 St. Philip St. would be without a school for the first time since 1860, according to Historic New Orleans property records. Nearly a decade ago, the Archdiocese of New Orleans closed Cathedral Academy, established in 1914 as the St. Louis Cathedral School, which was the last Catholic school in the French Quarter. The building was later turned into luxury apartments, called The Academy. The Homer Plessy board would also have to approve any move, Raychaudhuri told parents. The school's Treme opened in 2020. The French Quarter school building dates to the 1930s and needs an extensive renovation, Raychaudhuri said. Its heating, cooling and plumbing systems must be repaired, and water sometimes collects in classrooms. The major mechanical systems of the building are reaching the end of their useful life, and we know that costly repairs are on the horizon, Raychaudhuri said. Because the school district doesn't plan renovations any time soon, the charter would need to buy it and cover the renovations. Obtaining financing would be difficult and the ensuing debt would cut into classroom resources for years, Raychaudhuri said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Homer Plessy Community Schools has occupied the building since 2017, when it took over from KIPP's McDonogh 15 School for the Creative Arts, another public school with arts curriculum. The school moved from the 7th Ward to the French Quarter partly to maintain its economic and racial diversity goals, or as its mission statement says, to "have hallways that reflect the same diversity we see on our sidewalks. Last year, the school had 52% Black students, 27% White students and 9% Latino students, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Teddy McGlenn-Wright, a parent of two Homer Plessy students who lives in Treme, worries that moving to the Bywater could make the student body whiter and wealthier. He said the school is an integral part of the French Quarter neighborhood. Its an arts-based curriculum in a place surrounded by artists," he said. At the end of this school year, three school district-owned buildings will be empty. In addition to the Drew building, IDEA Oscar Dunn will leave Frances Gaudet School on Hayne Boulevard, and FirstLine Live Oak will leave its building on Constance Street, according to NOLA Public Schools. The Orleans Parish School Board say the board must offer any unoccupied building to charter schools before it is put up for sale. Chris Olsen, who has a kindergartener and second grader at Plessy, said he and his wife chose the school for its arts curriculum, which is bolstered by its location in the heart of the French Quarter. Olsen's online petition urging the school to stay has garnered nearly 1,500 signatures. Avery Brewton, whose child is a second grader at Homer Plessy, said the French Quarter has become part of our life everyday. When her second grader heard the school might move, he asked if the kids would still play at the nearby Cabrini Playground and whether the teachers would move, too. If the school does move, she isnt sure he will stay. Given everything weve gone through Im going to make sure my child is OK, she said. Will that be at Homer Plessy? Thats our community, but we will see. Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said Plessy was a D-rated school. But that was a "simulated" score due to the pandemic. The school's last official letter grade was from 2018-2019, when it was a C-rated school. The fight outside North High School in Denver was about to turn more violent as one girl wrapped a bike chain around her fist to strike the other. Just before the attacker used the weapon, school staff arrived and restrained her, ending the fight but not the story. Most high schools would have referred the chain-wielding girl to the police. But North High brought the two girls together to resolve the conflict through conversation. They discovered that a boy was playing them off each other. Feeling less hostile after figuring out the backstory, the girls did not fight again. This alternative method of discipline, called restorative practices, is spreading across the country and being put to the test. Many schools are enduring sharp increases in violence following the return of students from COVID lockdowns, making this softer approach a higher-stakes experiment in student safety. Kids are getting into more fights and disturbances because they are struggling, says Yoli Anyon, a professor of social work at San Jose State University. So schools are relying on restorative practices as a way to help young people transition back to the classroom. Long pushed by racial justice groups, the method aims to curb suspensions and arrests that disproportionately affect students of color. It replaces punishment with discussions about the causes and harmful impact of misbehavior, from sassing teachers and smoking pot to fighting (serious offenses like gun possession are still referred to the police). The hope is that students, through apologizing and making amends, will learn from their misdeeds and form healthier relationships with peers and teachers, making school violence less likely as they continue their education. Orange County, Calif., is spearheading an expansion of the program into 32 schools, and Iowa City just started its own. Many other large districts including Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas City, Miami, New York City, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Washington D.C. introduced the alternative in recent years. Denver, which pioneered restorative practices more than a decade ago and inspired districts to follow its lead, seems a good place to ask: Is the kinder approach working? Yes and no, and often the answer depends on the eye of the beholder. Suspensions have fallen significantly, in keeping with the intent of the changed discipline policy. But fighting and other serious incidents have not meaningfully declined, the district says. Other cities have reported similar outcomes, according to evaluations and school leaders. Critics point to the massacre in Parkland, Fla., as a chilling example of what can go wrong. Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 fellow students and staff members in 2018, was able to stay in school and pass a background check to purchase the weapon he used because the district tried to address his violent behavior before the shooting through counseling instead of referring him to authorities. The reasons for the mixed results in Denver, where Latinos and blacks make up two-thirds of the students, and other cities are complex. Some teachers and administrations dont buy the restorative philosophy. In schools struggling with low test scores and overcrowded classrooms, it seems like another time-consuming educational fad. And students who are demoralized by school sometimes see a restorative conversation as an easy way to escape suspension rather than a learning experience. Restorative practices arent a silver bullet that alone fix behavior problems, says Don Haddad, the superintendent of Colorados St. Vrain Valley School District, which has used the program for years. It only works as part of a comprehensive improvement of schools, with better academic programs that give students hope for the future. Otherwise, it has the potential to be just another feel-good program. Cops get the boot Last year, Denver doubled down on restorative practices when it expelled police, called school resource officers (SROs), from its schools. Officers ticketed and arrested 4,500 students at school from 2014 to 2019 in a district of about 90,000 pupils. Critics of the use of SROs say many of these incidents, like marijuana possession, should have been handled by restorative conversations. The Black Lives Matter protests after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020 gave the progressive Denver School Board an opening to move against the SROs. When Denver police used tear gas on protesters, Tay Anderson, who joined the board after serving as a restorative coordinator at North High, says he decided to ride the momentum against law enforcement that was sweeping the country. He immediately helped draft a resolution to phase the officers out of schools by the middle of 2021. Many school leaders, who werent consulted about the order, objected. North High Principal Scott Wolf told board members that the role of SROs in schools is misunderstood. He called them an incredible asset by building positive relationships with students and helping improve the schools culture. In the model of community policing, SROs serve mostly to deter crime. But the board passed the measure unanimously, joining more than 30 districts nationwide in removing police from schools. In late summer, when Denver students returned to the school buildings after more than a year of remote learning, the police were no longer there to help tamp down the violence. The outbreak in Denver was alarming. In just the first month of instruction, there were 102 student fights, 11 sexual assaults, eight assaults on staff and 29 weapons violations, including four loaded firearms and a stabbing of a student with a knife, according to Boardhawk, a news website that covers the district. Michael Eaton, chief of the Department of Safety for Denver schools, warned in November that hes never seen such a surge of crime in his 10 years of service. The murder of George Floyd had nothing to do with SROs, but for political reasons districts made the decision to remove a very protective element from their schools, says Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. We now see that this didnt make schools safer. Officials in Alexandria, Va., and at least one other district called the police back to school last fall to combat the jump in assaults and gun threats. But Anderson, a progressive leader of the Denver board at age 23, rejects the criticism that it blundered. We would have seen these spontaneous incidents across the district whether there was an officer present or not, he says. The Rise and Fall of Suspensions Denver and other districts nationwide saw a rise in suspensions after one of the most tragic days in Colorado school history: the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School by two armed students. Districts adopted zero-tolerance policies in the wake of Columbine, handing out tougher penalties including suspensions for a long list of offenses, from talking in class and insubordination to gang fights. Three years after Columbine, suspensions in Denver rose to 13,679. Violence in schools fell during the early days of zero tolerance along with a national decline in crime, making this policys impact hard to discern. Amid the inevitable excesses, such as elementary students suspended for playing with make-believe guns, one fact stood out: Black students were being suspended at three times the rate of whites, according to the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. The debate over the causes of the racial disparity continues today: Are schools acting with racial bias in suspending a higher percentage of blacks, or are these students misbehaving more often than whites? The question isnt merely academic, since students who are suspended or expelled are about three times as likely to be involved with the juvenile justice system the following year, research shows. The Obama administration took sides, warning schools that it saw racism at work and would carry out civil rights investigations against schools that didnt rectify the disparity in suspensions. More than 300 investigations were launched, causing schools to change their discipline policies to penalize fewer blacks and Latinos. The Trump administration rescinded Obamas guidance as a misuse of federal power. Now President Bidens education secretary, Miguel Cardona, is preparing new guidance that appears to be in line with Obamas. While bias is hard to prove, researchers have approached it from several angles. In a study of Denvers K-12 schools, Professor Anyon controlled for several factors such as whether students had disabilities, were identified as gifted, or came from low-income families. She found that black and Latino students were often punished more harshly than their white peers for the same offenses and were at greater risk for suspensions. In a Stanford study of implicit bias, 191 teachers were presented with vignettes of a range of misbehavior by students with both black (Deshawn) and white (Jake) sounding names. When asked if they could imagine suspending the students, the teachers were significantly more likely to suspend the students they thought were black. But the findings of subtle bias have run up against a straightforward fact African American and Latino students get into more fights than whites and Asians. Since 1993, the National Center for Education Statistics has surveyed students in grades 9-12, asking if they have been in a physical fight at school. In 2019, American Indian students fought the most (18.9%), followed by blacks (15.5%), Pacific Islanders (9.1%), Latinos (7.8%), whites (6.4%) and Asians (4.9%). These differences have held steady over decades. Gail Heriot, a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, says advocates wrongly dismiss evidence that shows behavior, rather than bias, better explains the disparity in suspensions. This includes her follow commissioners, whom Heriot took to task in a dissent to a 2019 report claiming that students of color dont commit more disciplinable offenses. Sometimes people simply neglect whats clear from the data, says Heriot, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. It seems to me that woke-ism is a large part of why people reject the data. Do blacks and Latinos fight more because some live in communities torn apart by poverty, violence and gangs, and bring these animosities with them into schools? To me, thats a racist narrative, says Anyon. The vast majority of kids from low-income communities are not involved in gangs. They are not violent. Their parents are not criminals. But its what we see in the media. Anyon says the root of the suspension problem isnt unruly behavior. Rather, its the limited resources available to segregated schools and the lack of training for staff to prevent conflicts from escalating. The fix? Restorative practices. Denvers Model of Justice Denver School Board leaders were lobbied to adopt restorative practices by Padres & Jovenes Unidos and other racial justice groups. The city started in 2006 with a pilot project at North High and three other schools, supported by more than $1 million in state grants, and a revamp of its discipline code. Federal and state laws require schools to report to police the most serious offenses, such as possessing a firearm, assaults that cause injuries and selling drugs. But Denver changed how it handled the more common incidents, such as fights, verbal abuse and smoking marijuana, by often sending students through a restorative process rather than suspending them or calling the police. After a fight, each student talks separately with a restorative coordinator, often a recent high school graduate who is hired as a full-time employee and trained in the practice. The coordinator calms down the students and explains the process before they all meet. During the restorative conversation, the goal is to get students to discuss the harm they have caused other students by disrupting class or bullying them. They also agree on a prevention plan, like going to counseling. Some make amends by cleaning the lunchroom or writing a letter of apology. Some students develop empathy by seeing the implications of their actions and afterward get along better with peers, says Haddad, the superintendent. Several years ago, a group of students caused a lot of damage to a school building as part of a senior prank that got out of hand. Instead of facing vandalism charges, they went through a restorative meeting, wrote letters of apology and helped repair the school. When we see these kids today, they still thank us for giving them a chance to avoid a police record, which would have been very problematic, he says. But the practice doesn't always work. Sometimes students brawl again and again, forcing the coordinator to change their schedules so they wont encounter each other in class or the hallways. At times, victims of a fight demand the arrest of their attackers. While the coordinator will try to dissuade them, the school cant stop them from calling the police. What happens when students are caught smoking marijuana? We realized that sending students home for cannabis use was not the best thing since they continue to use it and play video games rather than being in class, says Jay Grimm, Denvers district director of restorative practices. Instead, we brought in 25 health professionals to run education sessions and provide therapy to drug users. Denver now hopes to bring restorative practices directly into the classrooms by training its teachers, who are predominately white, to check their possible racial biases. Grimm says teachers sometimes trigger conflicts that can lead to suspensions by their unforgiving responses to minor infractions, like using a cellphone in class or being tardy. If the teacher scolds and shames Carlos in front of the class for being late, he might talk back and then get kicked out, Grimm says. But teachers can also just say, Welcome, Carlos. Lets talk after class. Resistance From Teachers The challenge for Denver is that the entire district isnt onboard with restorative practices. About 63% of the districts more than 230 schools have chosen to hire a restorative coordinator, a relatively low-paying job that doesnt require a college degree. Some schools use coordinators to enforce traditional discipline as hall and lunchroom monitors. Grimm estimates that about a third of teachers, who are currently dealing with students who fell behind during the pandemic, arent supportive. Some teachers object because restorative practices are not part of the union agreement. Others dont believe it works. Whether Denver is a success story depends on the measuring stick. The district sees its sizeable drop in suspensions, even as the student body grew, as a big win. Suspensions fell from 10,344 in the school year ending in 2010 to 4,160 nine years later before the pandemic closed schools, according to district data. But the aggressive behavior of students didnt change a lot during that time. The district experienced a small increase to 714 in referrals of serious incidents to police. However, the number of mutual fights dropped to 915 in 2019 from 1,069 four years prior. Sam Song, a professor of psychology who evaluates restorative programs in Nevada, says they cant be expected to solve the complicated problem of violence in schools. Its so hard to make changes in schools, but we have lots of examples where restorative practices made a positive difference in a students life, he says. So if it helps only 50% of the kids, I think thats worth it. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Harrisburg, Pa. A Bradford County nurse practitioner has been charged for allegedly having sexual relations with patients and fraudulently billing their insurance companies for medications at the time, according to a release from Attorney General Josh Shapiros office. Stephanie King, 45, of Ulster, is charged with three felony counts of violation of the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act, two felony counts of insurance fraud, six felony counts of Medicaid fraud, six felony counts of forgery, two felony counts of tampering with Public records, and three felony counts of theft by deception. The investigation found that beginning in November 2016, King entered into a sexual relationship with a patient at her Athens practice and billed a private insurer for their rendezvous during this time. Thereafter, King allegedly entered a second relationship with a patient and continued to prescribe controlled substances to him, despite discontinuing medical care for him after the relationship began, according to the release. Prosecutors also allege that King misled past physician collaborators and renewed previous agreements without their knowledge. Under Pennsylvania law, nurse practitioners are required to enter into collaborative agreements with Pennsylvania licensed physicians in order to perform medical diagnoses and to prescribe controlled substances. In total the investigation found that Ms. King falsely billed in excess of $300,000 to private insurers, as well as $100,000 to the Commonwealth for services below acceptable medical treatment standards. Additionally, she allegedly wrote over 3,750 prescriptions to patients while not meeting the requirements to prescribe under Pennsylvania law, according to the release. This defendant is accused of engaging in activity that violated her responsibilities as a medical professional and stole resources meant to help our most vulnerable, said AG Shapiro. We will not allow individuals to compromise our Commonwealths health care programs and put patients at risk. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. This case is being prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Mark Bellavia and Deputy Attorney General Christopher R. Sherwood and was investigated by Special Agents David Bunchalk and Matthew Yocum. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Scranton, Pa. -- The owner of a hotel in the Poconos was sentenced last week in federal court on charges of sex and drug trafficking, according to a release from the United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Faizal Bhimani, 45, of Bartonsville, Pa., received a sentence of 180 months' imprisonment by U.S. District court Judge Malachy E. Mannion at the federal courthouse in Scranton. Bhimani owned the Pocono Plaza Inn hotel as part of Om Sr Sai, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, with co-defendant Nazim Hassam, 64, also of Bartonsville. The hotel, located in Stroudsburg, was formerly known as the Quality Inn in Stroudburg, Pa. Bhimanis sentencing follows a two-week jury trial in Scranton in October 2020, which concluded with the jury returning guilty verdicts against Bhimani and co-defendant Hassam. Related Reading: Owner and general manager of Pocono area hotels convicted of sex and drug trafficking Bhimani was general manager of a Howard Johnson hotel in Bartonsville which was owned by Om Sri Sai, Inc. Hassam, part owner and vice president of Om Sr Sai and managing shareholder of both the Howard Johnson and Quality Inn in Stroudsburg, also was convicted of sex and drug trafficking charges. The evidence at trial, presented through more than 35 witnesses and more than 150 exhibits, established that the Howard Johnson Hotel in Bartonsville was a safe haven for criminal activity between 2011 and 2019, according to the release. Bhimani, as manager, made rooms available for sex traffickers and drug dealers, and at times took payment for the hotel directly from the proceeds of criminal activity. Bhimani also traded discounted and free rooms for sex, which traffickers would direct their victims to provide. Dozens of women were compelled by multiple traffickers, sometimes called pimps, to conduct prostitution in the hotel either by physical force, threats, false promises, or coercion, including through blackmail and drug addiction, according to the release. Women who were addicted to heroin, crack, or other controlled substances were provided with just enough drugs to keep them working, and pimps used their addictions and the threat of withdrawal to control them. Several admitted sex traffickers testified at the trial, explaining how they used these various methods to compel women to sell sex and turn over all of the proceeds. Multiple survivors also testified that they were required to follow the traffickers rules, were forced to rely entirely on the traffickers for food, clothing, even hygiene products, and they were often punished for violations with violence, including sexual assault, according to the release. Evidence at trial also showed that the Pocono Plaza Inn, known as Quality Inn before losing that franchise, was also riddled with drug activity. Police officers testified to multiple overdoses, some resulting in deaths, as well as numerous drug seizures, undercover drug purchases, and arrests at each hotel over a period of several years. The hotels were both known by SARPD officers as high drug crime areas. Evidence showed that a bartender at the Pocono Plaza Inn sold cocaine and heroin right over the bar, and that when the manager was alerted to that fact by another employee and a patrons online review, she did not fire the bartender or notify police, the release said. In 2016, another employee who lived at the hotel was arrested for heroin trafficking the day after a woman died of an overdose in his room. In all, forty defendants have been convicted federally as a result of this investigation, many of whom trafficked women and drugs in the Bartonsville Howard Johnson and the Pocono Plaza Inn. Other defendants have been charged and convicted in state courts. These convictions mark the culmination of a six-year, joint investigation into sex trafficking, drug trafficking, and violent crime in Monroe County by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). This case began in 2014 with an FBI investigation into the Black P Stone gang, a set of the Bloods that was responsible for gun violence and drug trafficking in Monroe County at the time. Local agencies, including the Stroud Area Regional Police Department and the Monroe County District Attorneys Office, joined the effort early on, and eventually expanded beyond the P Stones to uncover more widespread sex and drug trafficking in Monroe County. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Williamsport, Pa. Two men were sentenced Wednesday in federal court for their roles in a drug trafficking conspiracy in Lycoming County. According to a release from the United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Braheem Lewis, 24, of Philadelphia and Ethan Bailey, 23, of Williamsport, was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment. Both will be required to serve a three-year term of supervised release after serving their imprisonment sentences. Lewis and Bailey conspired to distribute fentanyl in Lycoming County from August 2019 to August 2020. At the hearing, Chief Judge Matthew W. Brann highlighted the way that the distribution of fentanyl has ravaged this community and the country. Three other co-defendants were previously sentenced and received the following: Basil Arties, 27, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment; Damion Bethea, 26, was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment; and Kenyon Bonaparte, 21, was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment. Co-defendants Kevin Bryant and Ira Sims have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Co-defendants Angellitto Lawton and Jordan Watkins are awaiting trial. The charges stem from an investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police, the Williamsport Bureau of Police, the Lycoming County Narcotics Enforcement Unit, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant United States Attorney Alisan V. Martin is prosecuting the case. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Picture Rocks, Pa. -- Through a generous grant from the Williamsport Lycoming Community Fund at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, funding has been secured to complete various planned upgrades to the Veterans Memorial Park in Picture Rocks. Planned improvements throughout the year include drilling a well; installing a filtration system; permanent edging; installation of a cement patio; and the addition of benches for visitors to use while spending time at the memorial park. Park volunteers encourage visitors to make use of the benches to sit and contemplate the sacrifices that the nation's veterans have made and continue to make. The mission of the Veterans Memorial Park of Picture Rocks, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is to design, construct, and maintain a suitable location where any veteran from any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces may be honored. The park is located along State Route 220 in the Borough of Picture Rocks. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Local featured Heart of the Community sees overwhelming support at Saturday Heart Walk Olivia Morley More than 100 people came out to Heart of the Communitys Heart Walk Saturday to recognize this years Heart of the Community recipients. Olivia Morley Heart of the Community recipient Tina Brinson hugs Heart Walk Chair Chris Jackson before receiving her medal Saturday morning. Olivia Morley Rev. Norris K. Allen receives his Heart of the Community medal at the Heart Walk Saturday. Olivia Morley Java Joy employees serve up coffee and smiles at the Heart Walk at Ridge Ferry Park Saturday morning. Olivia Morley Heart Walk Chair Chris Jackson welcomes a large crowd to the annual Heart Walk event at Ridge Ferry Park Saturday. Olivia Morley Heart of the Community recipient Lauren Sklar (center) poses with her friends and family at the Heart Walk Saturday, Olivia Morley Floyd County Sheriff's Office Chaplain David Thornton receives his Heart of the Community medal at the Heart Walk Saturday. A large crowd of families, friends and dogs came out to Ridge Ferry Park Saturday morning to show their support at the Heart of the Community Annual Heart Walk. Despite all the change weve had in our health community over the last year, this being a priority has continued, Heart Walk Chair Chris Jackson said. We have two new hospital organizations, and yet people are recognizing our unsung heroes and also, promoting heart health. This years walk is also the first Heart of the Community event since AdventHealth bought Redmond Regional Medical Center back in October, becoming AdventHealth Redmond. Its really neat that the mission of AdventHealth really aligns well with the Redmond mission at its core. So merging the groups together have been a natural fit, Redmond spokesperson Andrea Pitts said. Java Joy was on site serving up coffee and smiles and other community groups were in attendance, such as the Coosa River Basin Initiative and TRED. Hundreds of people came out in support of the Heart of the Community recipients, an honor bestowed on a select few each year who have made an impact in the community. Recipients get a medal, a trophy and a sum of money to donate to a charity or nonprofit of their choice. This years recipients are Rev. Norris Allen, Tina Brinson, Villa Sulbacher Hizer, Hardy Realty, Scott Thompson, Lauren Sklar and David Thornton. It is such an honor. Ive been on this board for 15 years, off and on, so to be on this side is humbling and just sweet to be recognized, Sklar said. Im going to divide my community donation by two: Im going to donate to the Community Kitchen and the Bagwell Food Pantry. Those are two places near and dear to my heart. The annual gala has been postponed due to the recent surge in Omicron numbers over the last couple months, but Pitts said theyre planning on hosting one this summer. Still, the MateStation X should be powerful enough for most tasks, thanks to the Ryzen 5 5600H and Ryzen 7 5800H, both Zen 3 APUs based on AMD's Cezanne H architecture. While the pair are 7 nm and 45 W APUs, the Ryzen 7 5800H has two more cores and four more threads than the Ryzen 5 5600H. Additionally, Huawei complements the powerful APUs with 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and a 512 GB SSD. Unfortunately, it seems that these components are not user-replaceable. The flagship of the T series was renovated last year, and another redesign is happening this year, due to the change toe 16:10 screens. Another focus: The new Intel Alder Lake CPUs and AMD Ryzen 6000, as well as a new screen option. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Benchmark , Biotech , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , E-Mobility , Education , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel , Intel Evo , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Leaks / Rumors , Linux / Unix , List , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Raptor Lake , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Single-Board Computer (SBC) , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Wi-Fi 7 , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) , Zen 4 Ticker About the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G2, we wrote last year "Very good business laptop despite 16:9". With the new Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G3, the "despite" is gone, as Lenovo is going back to the taller screen ration 16:10 with the 2022 model. At MWC 2022, Lenovo is announcing this new ThinkPad T14s Gen 3, the flagship of the ThinkPad T series for large business customers, in two versions: With Intel Alder Lake as well as AMD Ryzen 6000U. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 3: New 2.8K OLED Option with 90 Hz Alongside the move to 16:10, the screen options are renewed. Lenovo keeps around most things they offered with the predecessor, but now with the equivalent 16:10 resolution. WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) is replacing FHD (1,920 x 1,080). Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. VALPARAISO Although the Valparaiso School Boards agenda was short Thursday night, the meeting was dominated by residents bringing up their concerns about the lawsuit filed against Valparaiso Community Schools by the ACLU of Indiana concerning the rights of a transgender student at Valparaiso High School. According to court records, Jasper Wisecarver is an 18-year-old man and senior at VHS who is receiving hormone replacement therapy and other treatment to alleviate his gender dysphoria. Wisecarver has asked to use mens restrooms and locker rooms at VHS, but Valparaiso Community Schools employees have denied his request and threatened him with discipline if he uses the facilities. School district policy requires students to use the bathroom of the sex they were assigned at birth. Wisecarver does not feel comfortable using the women's restroom, and as an alternative, he was told he could use the single-occupancy restroom in the school nurses office, according to the lawsuit. But Wisecarver said it is far from many of his classes, and he has acquired numerous tardies. It is also not available during extracurricular activities. He has also been prohibited from using the mens locker room and was warned that his use would result in disciplinary action that could impact his likelihood of earning admission to college. Simon Schelling, who chairs LGBTQ Outreach of Porter County, said the organization stands in solidarity with Wisecarver. Not only is VCS not doing right by Jasper in their unwillingness to ensure his rights, they are sending the wrong message to LGBTQ+ students, students of color and other underrepresented groups in our community, Schelling said. He said that the district should reevaluate its policies on bathroom use and that the School Board should institute mandatory diversity and inclusion training for all faculty and staff. Debora Porter, president and founding member of PFLAG Valparaiso, an organization in support of the LGBTQ+ community, said there is an ongoing exodus of young adults in the Region due to the intolerance they see. We, the members of PFLAG, ask that you, as the representatives of our schools, stand on the side of doing right by all of your students, Porter said. Acknowledge that all of your students must feel safe at school and implement change." Adam Gibson, a parent with students at Valparaiso schools, asked the board what it means that a student felt so alienated at their school that they had to reach out to an outside organization for support. Whos their advocate within the schools? Gibson asked. Dawn Miller spoke in defense of Valparaiso Community Schools actions toward Wisecarver. She said she wanted to touch on the LGBYQ issue and apologized if she was not saying it correctly. We should not change the things going on right now. I reject the position, Miller said. She brought up the idea that trans students can be predatory. This claim has been repeatedly denied by advocates for trans individuals. Following public comment, Superintendent Jim McCall addressed the issue regarding trans students. He said that while the board does not address comments on individual students, staff and litigation, Valparaiso strives to provide the most supportive and inclusive learning environment for all its students. McCall said that current practices are now aligned to the most recent case law on the matter and that school officials will continue to look at the topic. Allies Against Racism also presented a petition signed by more than 500 community members concerning desired actions from Valparaiso Community Schools in confronting discrimination. The petition asks Valparaiso to implement a restorative practices/justice process to deal with racial and other discrimination, provide implicit bias training, hire people of color and conduct a thorough and critical examination of curriculum. Kat Peters, a member of Allies Against Racism, said the group wants more transparency of what the school is doing regarding these matters. The petition emphasizes that the Valparaiso community is getting more diverse. Stephanie Pals said one of her daughters is African American. She said her daughter has only had one incident, and it was handled without input from the school. I have my problems with Valparaiso Community Schools, but racism is not one of them, Pals said. McCall said that he appreciates the petition and that several of the desires are already being worked on. He said he has provided several updates on the subject. At the end of the meeting, board member Erika Watkins emphasized how it is important for adults to understand the subjects they discuss. We as adults need to be educated as well. When we call on a group, we want to be clear to say LGBTQ community, we want to be able to say black and be comfortable with it, because I am very proud of being a black woman, Watkins said. She said she knows the community quite well and knows what is happening in Valparaiso. She understands that everybody is different. There are some points that we will not ever all agree on, and thats OK, but I think whats respectful is to listen to one another, hear each other out and have some sincere conversation about what those could be, and until people are ready to do that, we will always be at odds with one another, Watkins said. Following her comments, several in the audience applauded. Love 5 Funny 11 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 2 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CROWN POINT A commissioner called for further investigation and an anti-gun activist warned of "a false sense of security" in the wake of the sheriff's announcement last week of a months-long undercover investigation targeting the long-criticized gun shows at the Lake County Fairgrounds. Dan Hedger, who owns the company that puts on the gun shows, said he's wasn't aware of an undercover police operation but had no problems with it. "I'm actually fine with it," Hedger said Sunday. "I've tried to get them put undercovers in there. I've always been acceptable to that." The Crown Point gun shows, which have been held for decades, long have been criticized as a place where straw purchasers who often have no convictions that would prevent them from buying a gun can divert firearms to those cannot legally possess them. Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. announced Thursday his department seized 66 firearms and more than $18,000 in cash during Operation Scarecrow, which began in September. Police arrested or detained 56 people as a result of the operation, and charges against at least 22 people were filed, police said. Despite calls for tighter controls on gun sales at the shows and an anti-gun rally in 2018, the Lake County Board of Commissioners as been reluctant to enact restrictions outside of current state and federal laws. The commissioners run the fairgrounds. Commissioner Jerry Tippy, R-Schererville, said Friday he and his fellow commissioners "do not condone any illegal or irresponsible behavior at the fairgrounds." "We will continue to investigate and will make the appropriate decisions once we have all of the facts," Tippy said. Commissioner Mike Repay, D-Hammond, said law enforcement is Martinez's job. "So he's doing a good job," Repay said. "He should get a pat on the back for that." Hedger, owner of Central Indiana Gun Shows for more than 20 years, said he previously invited the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to set up inside the gun shows and works with sheriff's police, who provide security at fairgrounds events. Gun show rules are clearly posted and warn against improper transfer of firearms, Hedger said. Show patrons also are advised they must pull down face masks to be identified, must be at least 18 years old to enter, cannot bring in loaded firearms and more, he said. Over the years, Hedger and some of the dealers at the shows have reported suspicious activity to police, he said. "We do everything we can to stop people from doing stupid things," Hedger said. Court records show a dealer brought suspicious activity to the attention of sheriff's police during Operation Scarecrow. John Halstead, one of the organizers of the anti-gun protest in 2018, said, "Focusing on the police arresting those involved in illegal gun sales contributes to a false sense of security." Halstead pointed to a review of data for 2020 by the Pew Research Center, which found more than half of gun deaths in 2020 resulted from suicide. A 2005 study by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics showed "most murders (including gun murders) are committed by family (a quarter) or friends and acquaintances (over half), and not by strangers (a quarter)," Halstead said. "What bothers me more than gun ownership, or even illegal gun ownership, is the toxic gun culture in the U.S., which is tied up with racism, toxic masculinity, romanticizing of violence and hyper-individualism," he said. The Crown Point gun shows first became a subject of controversy when the late Rudy Clay, a former county commissioner and Gary mayor, denounced them in 1993. Clay lobbied unsuccessfully for an ordinance barring the sale of guns on county property. In 2013, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich raised concerns about possible straw buyers at the guns shows. Buncich pushed Lake County commissioners to tighten controls on gun show vendors and private sales, but commissioners ultimately rejected Buncich's request and the guns shows continued. Dart's office said he was unavailable Friday to comment on Operation Scarecrow. Times correspondent Bill Dolan contributed to this report. Love 2 Funny 6 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 5 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MERRILLVILLE Every parent may think their daughter is a princess, and Sunday those little girls looked the part. Little princesses in gowns and tiaras, inspired by Disney features, and their parents filled the Croatian Center for the Princess and Prince Ball, a benefit for the PAD Foundation, which supports animal rescue shelters. PAD stands for Peter and Adam Del Rio-Bathurst, two young boys who died in 2016 and 2017. Their mother, Elizabeth Bathurst, of Portage, founded PAD for her sons, who were animal lovers. The foundation financially assists animal shelters throughout Northwest Indiana. Beneficiaries include no-kill, nonprofit and volunteer-run shelters for animals in need. A gala for adults was held the previous evening, said Jennifer Pozdzal, who is involved in PAD. A lot of kids wanted to have something for them, Pozdzal said, so we came up with this. The Disney-themed afternoon featured girls dressed as Disney princesses and other characters. The program included a royal court of older girls dressed as characters from "Snow White," "Mulan," "Frozen," "Pocahontas," "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," "Rapunzel" and "Beauty and the Beast." I like that mothers can bring their daughters and help out a little, raising funds for animal rescues, Pozdzal said. Were also able to teach children something about philanthropy. Theyre learning the importance of being productive citizens. After a magic show from Nate the Great Lacny, guests were presented with the royal court, followed by lunch and dessert from a table of Disney-inspired goodies from Nicole Babbitt. Working from home, the Crown Point woman prepared beignets, cupcakes, gelatin, carriage cookies and other cookies shaped as frog princesses. Its just a hobby of mine, and I love giving back to the community, Babbitt said. I like to see the kids excited and happy to be here. Bathurst said, I love it. Im so glad we have a lot of kids here. She added that after her sons died, I wanted to so something to honor the boys. As director of Indiana Youth Ballet, this seemed like a nice fit. PAD has previously raised funds for Lakeshore PAWS and Kittens for Keeps. This years beneficiaries are Treasured Friends Animal Rescue and Feline Community Network. Highland-based Treasured Friends has been serving homeless and unwanted animals for more than 30 years. The organization provides care based on the animals needs. Feline Community Network is a cat rescue and rehabilitation center located in Hobart. The group works with other organizations to promote the feline-human bond. Michael Willis, a PAD board member, told the audience. Your presence enriches this day, exalts the memories of Peter and Adam, and shows kindness to animals throughout Northwest Indiana. Meanwhile, Ashley Tarin, of Valparaiso, and daughter Lexi, 9, were enjoying their mother-daughter time, while her sons were with their father. Tarin commented, I like seeing all the little princesses, and this is something a little different. Rachel Saller, of Highland, brought daughter Josie, 4, dressed as Cinderella. Judy Katz, of Crown Point, a PAD board member, invited them.. I love just seeing all the little kids having fun, Katz said. Plus, its helping rescue groups. Erica Yakovetz, of Merrillville, was enjoying lunch with daughter Aria, 6, and her new stuffed elephant. The atmosphere is really impressive, Yakovetz said. They do a beautiful job. Rachel Smith, of Valparaiso, came with daughters Charlotte, 6, and Olivia, 3, both dressed as princesses. Were going to Disney World in March, the mom said, so we thought it would be fun to get in the spirit. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Staff Photographer John began his career as a photojournalist at The Times in 1985. He was a late bloomer at the age of 29 and sometimes has to laugh because many of his colleagues were not even born when he started working at the paper. MERRILLVILLE The Merrillville Police Department is resurrecting its adopt-a-school program. Police Chief Wiley Luther Cuttino said this comes after discussing the initiative with Danny Lackey, executive director of Student Support Services for Merrillville schools. We wanted to bring something back to continue to do a positive interaction with the students, Cuttino said. He said the adopt-a-school program goes back about 15 years, and it involves officers participating in a variety of activities with students. During the school week, theyre going to meet the students as they arrive, theyre going to greet them, theyre going to do some reading in the classes, theyre also going to have lunch with them and probably on occasion go on field trips, Cuttino said. Five Merrillville officers are volunteering their time to take part in the program. Its not by force, its by choice, Cuttino said. He said that the officers will focus on the towns elementary schools for the remainder of the school year and that he hopes to expand the program in the fall. The Town Council recently decided Merrillville will contribute $1,500 to help fund the adopt-a-school program. Council President Rick Bella said the Urban League of Northwest Indiana also is contributing $1,500, and the Merrillville Community School Corp. is adding $3,000. Were appreciative of the support of the school system and the Town Council for bringing this out of the archives and making it successful again, Cuttino said of the program. The adopt-a-school initiative isnt the only way the town has collaborated with Merrillville schools. The council recently wrapped up a Black History Month program that involved students participating in council meetings. During the Feb. 8 council session, the Merrillville High School Vocal Teens performed African American spirituals. Merrillville Intermediate School students attended Tuesdays council meeting to give reports on black civil rights activists, politicians, inventors, entertainers and athletes. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. VALPARAISO Porter County voters now will be able to use any polling place in the county on election day. The Board of Elections, Board of Commissioners and County Council have all signed off on a plan to switch to vote centers. There will be 44 vote centers, a reduction from the 61 polling places used in the 2018 election, Elections & Registration Office Director Sundae Schoon said. The reduction comes from eliminating redundant sites. The voting process is not changing. Its just allowing more access to the polling locations, Schoon said. The state would have required the county to have just 13 sites, based on its population, but the election board wanted more locations, Council Vice President Mike Jessen, R-4th, said. County Clerk Jessica Bailey said the countys election crew will publicize the change in a variety of ways, including sending postcards to registered voters, putting the information in property tax bills and sending email blasts using the Memorial Opera House, library and parks email lists, among others. Were going to reach out to many entities to put it in their newsletters, she said. Signs will be put up at former polling places, too, to direct voters to a nearby vote center. Schoon said the switch to vote centers is all about ease of access for the voters. Were not looking at it as a cost-saving measure, she said. If we save money, its a bonus, Bailey told the council, which controls the countys purse strings. She wants to make sure each voter center is well staffed to speed the voting process. One of the advantages of vote centers is that all machines for casting votes will be programmed with all of the ballots for the county. If one vote center loses power, for example, the machines could be transferred to a different location without having to be reprogrammed. Thats a cost savings as well as making voting more convenient. Council President Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, said he hopes being able to vote at any polling place in the county will boost voter turnout. We need 50%, 60%, 70% to give voters a stronger voice, he said. The election board also expanded early voting locations. Early voting begins April 5. Hours will be 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursday. Hours on April 23 and April 30, the last two Saturdays before the election, will be 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Early voting locations are the Porter County Administration Building, 155 Indiana Ave., Room 102A, in downtown Valparaiso; Chesterton Town Hall, 790 Broadway; Hebron Community Center, 611 N. Main St.; North County Government Complex, 3560 Willowcreek Road, Portage; Union Township Fire Station 2, 267 N. 600 West; the Valparaiso Fire Department training building, 355 Evans Ave.; and USW Local 6787, 1100 N. Max Mochal Hwy., Chesterton. In addition, the Votemobile will be at the Kouts Public Library from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays in April, South Haven Public Library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 23 and Jamestown Apartments in Valparaiso from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 30. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. VALPARAISO Emergency responders throughout the Region were taught recently how to give medical treatment to police dogs wounded or harmed in the line of duty. The training was held at the Multi Agency Academic Cooperative in Valparaiso. Todd Konrady, a tactical medicine teacher at MAAC, said the training is in response to a new state law allowing public safety dogs to be treated out in the field and transported to a local animal clinic. We want to be able to take care of them just as much as we can as our own fellow human first responders, he said. The training sessions were led by Dr. Lee Palmer, director of medical education at PennVet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He also provided instruction on medical care for canines in the military. During his training, one of the focuses was treating canines exposed to heroin and other narcotic powders during vehicle searches. Training was also provided on treating gunshot wounds, broken legs and other conditions like heat stroke. Heat stroke is a leading cause of harm for police dogs, followed by hemorrhaging from gunshots, stabbings and contact with other sharp objects, said Lyn Schuh, co-founder of the Operational Canine Medical Team of Wisconsin. Her group trains emergency responders throughout Wisconsin in providing medical care for police dogs out in the field. If theyre two miles out tracking a bad guy, they (the responders) need to know what they can do right there, she said. Most of the lifesaving procedures were practiced on a robotic dog belonging to MAAC, which is in the process of forming its own canine tactical medicine training program. Theres a lot of stuff we can do with this dog, Konrady said. A live dog was used to practice things like bandaging. C.C. Ditchcreek, a firefighter and paramedic in Hobart, said she will be able to apply what she learned to a dog being trained to detect gasoline and various other accelerants in potential cases of arson. She knows the signs of heatstroke and smoke inhalation in dogs now and how to give treatment to burns on the paw pads of dogs working the scene of a still smoldering fire. This class was super informational about that, she said. Among the pieces of advice from Palmer to his students was to be prepared as much as possible. Its better to make mistakes in training than making mistakes in real life, he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Putin ratchets up tensions on Ukraine Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, further intensified the crisis in Ukraine by placing his nuclear forces on alert, threatening the West as it rallied behind Ukraine. President Biden chose to de-escalate by refusing to change Americas own alert status, portraying Putin as once again manufacturing a menace. Follow the latest updates. The U.N. Security Council responded by voting to convene a rare special session of the General Assembly only the 11th time it has done so since 1950. Eleven of the Security Councils 15 members voted in favor of the resolution. China, India and the U.A.E. abstained, as they had for a resolution last week condemning the invasion. Despite Putins announcement, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, agreed to talks with Putin at the border with Belarus without preconditions. The talks are scheduled to begin today. Fighting: The violence continued yesterday, with the Russians shelling in almost all directions, according to a Ukrainian military official. Residents of Ukraines country towns have joined the fight. More than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed since the invasion began, according to Ukrainian officials. Satellite imagery showed a miles-long convoy of hundreds of Russian military vehicles closing in on Kyiv. Image Patients waiting at a temporary treatment area outside the Caritas Medical Center in Hong Kong on Saturday. Credit... Kin Cheung/Associated Press Dead bodies are piling up on gurneys in hospital hallways as Hong Kongs health system is overloaded by its biggest Covid-19 outbreak of the pandemic. Officials said they were struggling to move the dead to the citys public morgues quickly enough after more than 400 people died from Covid-19 last week, according to the latest official statistics. The news comes as the city is struggling to tamp down on an Omicron-fueled outbreak, with more than 26,000 cases and 83 deaths reported on Sunday. The citys hospital authority blamed transportation delays for the situation. That is why some bodies that were planned to be transported stayed in the hospital, said Lau Ka-hin, the chief manager of quality and standards at Hong Kongs hospital authority. The citys three public mortuaries, which can take up to 3,000 bodies, are nearly at full capacity, a top official for the Center for Health Protection said on Sunday. Public hospitals are overwhelmed as many of the sick have rushed to seek medical help in recent weeks. Over the last two weeks, Hong Kong has recorded an 821 percent spike in new cases, according to a New York Times database. Hospitals have run out of beds in isolation wards, leaving many patients waiting on gurneys on the street outside the hospitals. The surge in cases is putting Hong Kongs strict zero-Covid strategy under pressure. Mainland China has pursued a similar strategy. Chinese officials and pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong have been calling for more stringent measures to try to stamp out the outbreak, including a citywide lockdown. But Hong Kong lacks the kinds of resources that mainland officials have used to lock down entire cities. Hong Kong officials said they planned to ease strict testing and isolation rules in order to help free up resources, including allowing some children who test positive to stay at home instead of separating them from their parents and hospitalizing them. They have also appealed to the public to only go to the hospital if they have severe symptoms in order to allow more space for medical emergencies. Show more Smith, considered the Oscar front-runner, began tearing up when the show ran a clip from King Richard, in which he plays the father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. That may have been one of the greatest moments of my career just now, Smith said, because my name was called for King Richard sitting next to Venus Williams. (On the television side, Succession and Ted Lasso won top cast honors, while Lee Jung-jae and HoYeon Jung of Squid Game took lead performer honors.) Though the SAG Awards are considered among the more important Oscar precursors, recent winners have sometimes diverged from precedent. Both of the lead actors who took SAG Awards last year Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis from Ma Raineys Black Bottom lost the Oscar. And of this years SAG races, only one category best actor matched Oscars picks five for five. In the supporting categories, the overlap was much slimmer, and only two of the five SAG nominees also received Oscar nominations. Still, the four SAG film winners are all contending for an Oscar, as is CODA, a film about a deaf family and its hearing daughter that is nominated for best picture. You are all our peers, signed the cast member Marlee Marlin upon accepting the best-ensemble award. We, deaf actors, have come a long way. Here is a complete list of winners: Movies Outstanding Cast CODA Actor in a Leading Role Will Smith, King Richard Actress in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye My problem seems to have started in the summer of 2016. Which was just a few months after I lost much of my hearing. It never occurred to me that there was any connection between losing my hearing and losing my balance. But of course theres a connection, my doctor told me. Youve lost your sense of certainty in the world. Your gait and your stance are off because, with the change in your hearing, you literally dont know where you are in space. That was also the year I expected to see the election of the first female president, only to witness the Oval Office occupied by a man who unleashed a dark font of vitriol aimed at people like me: feminists, progressives, L.G.B.T.Q. individuals, the disabled. Sadly, the election of Joe Biden failed to illuminate that darkness. Abortion rights nationally are probably about to be crushed, and one whole party now seems ever more determined to end American democracy as weve known it. On Thursday the governor of Texas directed state agencies to investigate categorized gender-affirming care for trans youths as child abuse. Im not the only one whos lost her sense of balance in this world. But if weve lost our sense of equilibrium, I know from experience its not impossible to get it back. In mid-February I walked, for the first time in two years, the five blocks from my apartment to in-person worship at New Yorks Riverside Church, a place with a long history of fighting social injustice and of working for peace. I sat down in my old pew, No. 523. Most of the people who I used to see before the pandemic were gone, but there were a few familiar faces; we shared the peace by bumping elbows. There at the pulpit was the Rev. Michael Livingston, whose sermon that day was about forgiveness an idea he wove carefully around the forgiveness that Joseph showed his brothers in Genesis 45, when they appeared before him in Egypt, years after they sold him into slavery. Joseph, Mr. Livingston told the congregants, might have sought revenge. Instead, Joseph chose compassion, standing on the side of forgiveness. Thats what we have to do: stand. When your enemies surround you, stand, said Mr. Livingston. When all seems lost, stand. Using classic Gospel anaphora, he recounted examples of people fighting injustice and showing forgiveness, and then he repeated that word: Stand! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created a straightforward online tool that can help people see whether their area is at high, medium or low community risk for the coronavirus, the deciding factor in the new guidelines the agency released on Friday. With the huge wave of Omicron-driven cases, hospitalizations and deaths receding across the United States, the new C.D.C. guidance is aimed at helping more communities get back to a semblance of normality, by gauging the need for pandemic restrictions like mask wearing and social distancing by county. The guidance is not binding, so local mask requirements may still apply, and the federal mask requirement on mass transit and air travel remains in place until at least March 18. However, some states had few restrictions to begin with, and many state and local governments had already eased many restrictions, including on masks. The C.D.C.s move is likely to prompt more such moves. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C.s director, warned Americans not to let down their guard entirely. We want to give people a break from things like masking when our levels are low, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things get worse in the future, she said as she announced the new guidance on Friday. We need to be prepared, and we need to be ready for whatever comes next. Now the question is how General Gerasimov will translate Mr. Putins vaguely worded order for special combat readiness into action. The answer should be clear in the next day or two. A vast nuclear-detection apparatus run by the United States and its allies monitors Russias nuclear forces at all times, and experts said they would not be surprised to see Russian bombers taken out of their hangars and loaded with nuclear weapons, or submarines stuffed with nuclear weapons leave port and head out to sea. Both Russia and the United States conduct drills that replicate various levels of nuclear alert status, so the choreography of such moves is well understood by both sides. A deviation from usual practice would almost certainly be noticeable. The ground-based nuclear forces the intercontinental ballistic missiles kept in silos by both nations are always in a state of readiness, a keystone to the strategy of mutually assured destruction that helped avoid nuclear exchanges at even the most tense moments of the Cold War. Whatever one thinks of Mr. Putins judgment, the decision to put the forces on alert in the midst of extraordinary tensions over the invasion of Ukraine was highly unusual. It came only a few days after he warned the United States and other NATO powers to stay out of the conflict, adding that the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history. It has put an end, at least for now, to the discussions between Russia and the United States about what they do in four years, when the one remaining nuclear treaty between the two countries, called New START, expires. The treaty limits each side to 1,550 deployed strategic weapons, down from tens of thousands at the height of the Cold War. But that does not include smaller, tactical weapons designed for battlefield use, a major worry in the current crisis. Just as Mr. Putin claimed last week that the United States had designs to put such weapons on Ukrainian territory one of his many justifications for the invasion American officials fear that Mr. Putins next move is to put them in Ukraine, if he succeeds in seizing the country, and in Belarus. Until last week, the two nations were meeting regularly to discuss new arms-control regimes, including a revival of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which President Donald J. Trump abandoned in 2019. But the United States said last week that it was suspending those talks. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Americans shopped online like crazy during the pandemic, right? Motivated by fear or convenience, more of us grew comfortable clicking buy from our sofas including to buy sofas and theres no turning back. That is true. And also, well no? Or maybe? Fresh data from the U.S. government shows something that surprised me: Physical stores beat online shopping in 2021. No joke. Americans spent 18 percent more on food, cars, furniture, electronics and other retail products last year compared with 2020, the Commerce Department disclosed on Friday. Online retail sales increased by 14 percent. In other words, e-commerce lost ground last year to brick-and-mortar stores. Admittedly, 2021 was a strange year for shopping. More of us had the urge to browse in person than we did in the scary first months of Covid in the U.S. Climbing prices and shortages changed what people bought and where they shopped. And one year doesnt alter the long-term trend that online shopping is grabbing more of Americans wallets. BERLIN It took an invasion of a sovereign country nearby, threats of nuclear attack, images of civilians facing off against Russian tanks and a spate of shaming from allies for Germany to shake its decades-long faith in a military-averse foreign policy that was born of the crimes of the Third Reich. But once Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to act, the countrys about-face was swift. Feb. 24, 2022, marks a historic turning point in the history of our continent, Mr. Scholz said in an address to a special session of Parliament on Sunday, citing the date when President Vladimir V. Putin ordered Russian forces to launch an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. He announced that Germany would increase its military spending to more than 2 percent of the countrys economic output, beginning immediately with a one-off 100 billion euros, or $113 billion, to invest in the countrys woefully underequipped armed forces. He added that Germany would speed up construction of two terminals for receiving liquefied natural gas, or LNG, part of efforts to ease the countrys reliance on Russian energy. At the heart of the matter is the question of whether power can break the law, Mr. Scholz said. Whether we allow Putin to turn back the hands of time to the days of the great powers of the 19th century. Or whether we find it within ourselves to set limits on a warmonger like Putin. Executives at the investment firm TIAA are especially proud of one aspect of their back-to-work plans: The company is on only its second round of setting a return-to-office date. They first hoped to bring employees back in January, but were derailed by the Omicron variant. Now the firm is targeting March 7. We noticed other employers were saying, Well be back in April. Well be back in June. But we said we need some certainty, said Sean Woodroffe, the head of human resources at TIAA, which has 12,000 U.S. employees. This March 7 date is only the second time we announced a date. And Mr. Woodroffe is facing this new return-to-office date with optimism, he explained, seated at his desk in front of a glimmering cityscape, high above what he described as the bustling vibe of Midtown Manhattan. After all, the firm has a 98 percent Covid-19 vaccination rate, employees have been supplied with at-home tests and the line at the Third Avenue Wendys has been inching longer during lunchtime. With Omicron, we realized that we needed to pivot from thinking about coming back into the office when Covid vanishes, he said. We recognized we have to pivot to how do you responsibly cope with Covid? The City of Amsterdam on Monday handed over a painting by the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky to heirs of a Jewish couple who had sold it as they tried to escape the Netherlands after the Nazi invasion during World War II. The 1909 work, Painting With Houses, had been held since 1940 by the Stedelijk Museum, which is responsible for the city of Amsterdams 95,000-item art collection. In a statement, the city said it had reached an agreement with the heirs of the couple, Robert Lewenstein and Irma Klein, on the basis of mutual respect and settled an ownership dispute that began years ago. As a city, we bear a great responsibility for dealing with the indescribable suffering and injustice inflicted on the Jewish population in the Second World War, Touria Meliani, a deputy mayor, said in the statement. To the extent that anything can be restored, we as a society have a moral duty to act accordingly. The destruction of the artworks has not been independently confirmed by The New York Times. In a tweet, the ministry said that the works had been housed inside a historical museum in the town of Ivankiv, about 50 miles northwest of Kyiv, the capital. Ministry officials praised the painter, known for her colorful folk art style, for having created world-famous masterpieces. Damian Koropeckyj, a senior analyst at the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab at the Virginia Museum of Natural History, said that satellite imagery confirmed the museum had been destroyed. The lab, a partnership with the Smithsonian, is monitoring cultural heritage sites at risk in Ukraine. The wife-and-husband gallerists Julia and Max Voloshyn had planned to return to Kyiv last week to open a new show at their space there. But with commercial air traffic halted as Russian troops invaded Ukraine, their stay in Miami and the run of their pop-up exhibition there was extended. The show, titled The Memory on Her Face, features socially charged work by five Ukrainian artists. After arriving in Miami in November to run booths at two of the satellite art fairs held concurrently with Art Basel Miami Beach NADA and Untitled Art the Voloshyns contracted Covid, postponing their return for a month. By mid-January, with several prominent Ukrainian art collectors coming to Miami in February, they mounted this impromptu show inside a small warehouse in the Allapattah neighborhood, with Untitleds Omar Lopez-Chahoud as the curator. Its a documentation of what has been happening in Ukraine for the last few years, explained Julia Voloshyn by phone from the Miami rental, where she, her husband and their small child are staying. STATE OF THE UNION 9 p.m. on various networks (check local listings); streaming on Facebook, Twitter, WH.gov and YouTube. President Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday night. Biden will presumably speak to the progress that his administration has made since his first address to Congress last year including the passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the nearly $1.9 trillion stimulus package though hell have a lot more to cover. Hes likely to address Russias war on Ukraine, the selection of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court and the state of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosen safety guidelines. THE LARRY DAVID STORY 9 p.m. on HBO. Whats the difference between Larry David the Curb Your Enthusiasm character and Larry David the successful producer and performer? Based on a trailer for The Larry David Story, the answer is a dusting of facial hair and a touch of introspection. David reflects on his life and career in this two-part documentary, which covers his upbringing in Brooklyn, his beginnings in comedy, his success with Seinfeld (which he co-created) and his more recent work on Curb Your Enthusiasm. The documentary was directed by the comic and filmmaker Larry Charles, a staff writer on Seinfeld whose well-established rapport with David comes through in their conversations. Wednesday LA STRADA (1956) 6 p.m. on TCM. When the Oscar for best international feature is handed out at the Academy Awards ceremony next month, the winner will become part of a lineage that La Strada helped establish: This Federico Fellini classic was the first movie to win the best foreign-language film honor when that category became a competitive award at the Oscars in 1956. The movie raised the profiles of both Fellini and his wife and collaborator, Giulietta Masina, who plays a young woman who is sold to a traveling circus strongman (Anthony Quinn). La Strada is often sentimental and not always convincing but the ending packs a wallop, J. Hoberman wrote about the film last year in his Rewind column. Thursday I WAS BETTER LAST NIGHT A Memoir By Harvey Fierstein Illustrated. 383 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $30. The actor, writer and consummate New Yawker Harvey Fierstein is assuredly a man of many talents. Who knew needlework was one of them? In his new memoir, I Was Better Last Night the title refers to a theater performers perennial lament, but with aptly sexualized undertones Fierstein writes of his passion for crochet. In the lean years before his play Torch Song Trilogy hit Manhattan like a ton of graffitied bricks in 1981, he embroidered clothes for chic boutiques and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Detoxing from Southern Comfort, his longest love affair, Fierstein took up quilting, hoping eventually to contribute to the famous AIDS memorial project, but also recognizing the hobbys general practicality: Quilts have two sides, doubling the chance youll find something you can live with. Intentionally or not, I Was Better Last Night is very quilt-like. Fierstein shares his life less in conventional chapters than in colorful patches: 59 of them, stitched together with photos and a plush index. The sum of this is warm and enveloping and indeed two-sided: One is a raw, cobwebby tale of anger, hurt, indignation and pain; flip it over and you get billowing ribbons of humor, gossip and fabulous, hot-pink success. As with a treasured blankie, the frayed side is somehow more lovable. Fierstein writes of growing up with his older brother, Ronald, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, where Jews cautiously befriended Italians, who guardedly befriended the Greeks. He was one of several students named Harvey the names trendiness being one of the three greatest mistakes of the 50s, he jokes, along with Formica and thalidomide but always stood out in a crowd. Enlarged tonsils made it hard to eat; removing them led to gorging and weight struggles. Overdeveloped secondary vocal cords were responsible for his distinctive growl. From a young age he wanted to dress up and make up and make believe, including as a mermaid, and wondered if he was a girl. Now he recognizes that he was a 7-year-old gender warrior. THE BEAUTY OF DUSK: On Vision Lost and Found, by Frank Bruni One October morning in 2017, the writer Frank Bruni woke up unable to see clearly. During the night, he had suffered a stroke, and the drop in blood pressure damaged an optic nerve, resulting in blindness in his right eye. After a series of doctors visits, Bruni learned that he had non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, known by its acronym, NAION. While undergoing an experimental drug trial involving many needles, Bruni discovered that his partner, Tom, was unfaithful. Then Brunis father, the pillar in his life, developed dementia. Life keeps knocking. What happened next and how Bruni managed would have made for a valuable story; however, what makes The Beauty of Dusk far more remarkable than one mans triumph over lifes cruelties is how Bruni persevered through the difficulties: by seeking the counsel of others who had suffered physical losses. This isnt the sad story of a man who lost his sight; it is the generous narrative of a student who sought wisdom when trials appeared in his life. Brunis biography is relevant here. A lifelong journalist, he has served as a White House correspondent, Rome bureau chief, restaurant critic and Op-Ed columnist for this newspaper. Early in his career, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He has written one book on President George W. Bush and another on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church demonstrating his knowledge of institutions of power. A memoir, Born Round, dealt with body image, eating disorders, mental health, sexual identity, being a restaurant critic and the loss of his mother to uterine cancer. And he published a compendium of 49 meatloaf recipes with his fellow Times journalist Jennifer Steinhauer. He has covered wars, child abuse, elections and the advantage of tortilla chips as a preferred binder for meatloaf. The scope and range of his writings remind me of what M.F.K. Fisher would reply when asked why she wrote about food and drink. She would say she was writing not about food but rather about hunger, and when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it. Brunis prodigious output inspires awe, and as with anyone who does that much work so faithfully and so well, it raises the questions: What do you do when your body says you are no longer in control? What will you do with your vast hunger for life? Which precautions is the mayor targeting? The first is masks in schools. The second precaution is proof of vaccination to enter some venues. Everyone has had to show proof of vaccination when you enter indoor dining or gyms or movie theaters, and now you wont have to do that anymore. But businesses can still decide to ask people for proof of vaccination if they want. Im actually seeing my first Broadway show in two years on Friday Six and I will be wearing my mask since theyre still required. Adams is saying hell end more pandemic restrictions in the future, but for now, hes comfortable relaxing those two mandates. What mandates are still in place? The big ones are the employer mandates. So city workers police officers, teachers, sanitation workers they all must be vaccinated. And then theres the vaccine mandate for private employers. It applies only to people who are working in person, for example, at a grocery store or a tech company. So thats the approach that theyre using to try and make sure that all adults in New York City are vaccinated and it has worked. More than 95 percent of adults in New York City have received at least one dose of the vaccine at this point. How are New Yorkers feeling these days? Eric Adams has kind of become the citys psychologist. He keeps telling us, its time to get back out there; New York is open for business; its time to get out of your pajamas. To be honest with you, Im wearing my pajamas right now while Im working from home, and a lot of us still are. Still, New Yorkers are feeling a lot better than they were over the holidays and in January, where everybody knew someone who was sick and it just felt like Covid was everywhere. What does New York Citys next chapter look like? If there isnt another serious variant and if cases remain low, then theres a lot of hope that New York Citys recovery is on the horizon. Companies are going back to the office now. Theres going to be more activity in Manhattan, and thats really what Eric Adams is pushing for. Hes saying this is the time for our recovery. Hes saying we can get back to normalcy in a lot of ways. HK could see shortage of health workers 14:24, February 28, 2022 By SHADOW LI and CHEN SHUMAN in Hong Kong ( China Daily Residents line up at a nucleic acid testing site in Hong Kong, on Feb 18, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua] Medical experts say changes needed to care for growing ranks of virus patients Hong Kong reported 26,026 COVID-19 infections and 83 related deaths on Sunday, by far the largest numbers since the pandemic began in 2020 and bringing the city's current case number to 164,981. Medical experts warned that Hong Kong could run into a shortage of medical workers with the new hospitals and the steep rise in infections, and they suggested streamlining the city's resources and allowing mainland doctors and nurses to come in to help. Li Dachuan, deputy director of the Medical Administration Bureau of the National Health Commission, said in an interview with local media that a team of about 9,000 nucleic acid test workers from the mainland is ready to come to Hong Kong to offer services at any time. Official data show that 90 percent of the city's isolation beds are occupied and 2,776 Hospital Authority staff members have contracted the virus. In an interview with Xinhua, mainland medical expert Feng Zijian, who participated in the supervision of the mainland's anti-epidemic efforts in Hong Kong, said the healthcare system in Hong Kong risks becoming overloaded and the shortage of medical workers is the bottleneck. It would be a major breakthrough if medical workers from the mainland were allowed to participate directly in Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic. Feng acknowledged that the Hospital Authority is also optimizing patient assessment and triage, prioritizing medical resources to critical patients to minimize avoidable deaths. In an interview with China Daily, Ming Wai-kit, an assistant professor of public health at the City University of Hong Kong, anticipated a more severe staffing shortage when the city's pandemic hits an expected climax in March and will further worsen when new hospitals being built by the mainland fully open. A makeshift hospital in Tsing Yi, providing 3,800 beds, is going to be completed on Monday. The project is one of nine isolation and treatment facilities being built with the mainland's help. In all, these projects are expected to provide 50,000 places for isolation and treatment. Ming said the introduction of mainland doctors and nurses will provide timely and adequate treatment for patients when the pandemic is at its height and after that, it will be easier to get it under control. For more holistic planning, Ming suggested the city set up triage centers to treat mildly ill patients and that public hospitals suspend all nonemergency services and transfer those patients to private hospitals, which could double the public sector's capacity to handle COVID-patients. On Saturday, the SAR government announced it would optimize the city's testing rules by recognizing the results of rapid antigen tests. Also, tests results gathered by contractors will be deemed reliable in confirming infections and high-risk groups can take the rapid antigen tests instead of mandatory deep throat saliva tests. Sixty-seven of the 83 reported dead on Sunday were elderly people in residential care homes. An additional 27 deaths were not reported earlier because of information delays, bringing the total deaths to 717. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said the government has sought help from the mainland by hiring 1,000 additional workers as temporary caretakers for three months as many nursing homes have staffing shortages due to the surge of infections. The government also plans to relax rules on importing laborers and will discuss it on Monday. Help continued to pour in from the private sector. SINOMAX, a Hong Kong enterprise based in Dongguan, donated commodities worth over 8 million yuan ($1.27 million) for the mobile-cabin hospitals being constructed, including pillows and mattresses. Also, a group of Hong Kong doctors formed a volunteer support team to advise people on home quarantine via video calls for seven consecutive days starting on Friday. Starting on Saturday, residents began to receive anti-pandemic proprietary Chinese medicines, medical protective gear, such as N95 and KN95 face masks, and rapid antigen test kits donated from the mainland. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Kharkiv is bombed as Ukraine and Russia meet Delegations from Ukraine and Russia met in Belarus for hours of talks on Monday while Ukrainian officials accused Russians of bombing a residential area in Kharkiv and killing dozens. Follow our live updates, maps of the war and timeline of the crisis. Initial talks between Russia and Ukraine concluded without result on Monday evening. Kyiv is seeking a cease-fire in Ukraine and an end to hostilities; the Kremlins demands include the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, and that Ukraine demilitarize and give up a right to join NATO. Russian forces were gathering outside Kyiv, British intelligence showed, but they were slowed by fierce resistance from Ukrainian soldiers and civilian volunteers. Moscows actions have fueled nationwide resistance, forced half a million refugees to flee Ukraine and left Russia to deal with growing sanctions and isolation. Economy: The ruble cratered as Western sanctions shook Russias economy. The public rushed to get cash, and the Russian stock market was closed. BERLIN Western sanctions meant to punish President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for invading Ukraine may have also dealt a big blow to European companies that leased commercial aircraft to Russian airlines. The majority of commercial aircraft flown by Russian companies are leased, more than half of them from companies abroad. Most of those companies are based in Ireland, a member of the European Union, which banned the sale or leasing of aircraft to companies in Russia as part of its sanctions package. At stake is the fate of hundreds of planes worth an estimated $12 billion, according to Ishka, a consulting firm that specializes in the aviation industry. Those based in Ireland are particularly exposed, with $4 billion to $5 billion worth of aircraft in Russia, it said. The sanctions give companies leasing the planes until March 28 to terminate existing contracts, the Irish government confirmed on Monday. Thane Gustafson, author of Wheel of Fortune, an account of the Russian oil industry after the fall of the Soviet Union, recalled that the oil executives who were instrumental in establishing their companies in Russia John Browne of BP, Rex W. Tillerson of Exxon Mobil, and Christophe de Margerie of TotalEnergies were hailed at the time, and rightly, as models of Western entrepreneurship. Now, he said, the participation of the three brand-name majors at this moment is not crucial for Russia, no. And the momentum to leave Russia is building. On Monday, Equinor, the Norwegian energy company, said it would stop new investments into Russia and start the process of exiting joint ventures there. In the current situation, we regard our position as untenable, Anders Opedal, the companys president and chief executive, said in a statement. Equinors investments in Russia are small, producing about 30,000 barrels a day, around 1.5 percent of the companys total output, but calls for others to leave are continuing. All of the Western oil companies deals in Russia over the last three decades must now be considered at risk, although the extent of their activities there and their importance to their overall results varies. While even a complete write-off a possibility for BP would not threaten the existence of any of the companies in this group, analysts say, losing a foothold in a major petroleum producer will still hurt. In turn, Russia could lose the marketing power of these giant companies, making it more difficult to sell Russian oil while sanctions are already making buyers cautious. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, oil companies headed to Russia and its vast quantities of oil and gas, partly in hopes of replacing the resources they had lost to nationalizations in Saudi Arabia, Iran and other countries. The dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly that they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt unless greenhouse gas emissions are quickly reduced, according to a major new scientific report released on Monday. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, is the most detailed look yet at the threats posed by global warming. It concludes that nations arent doing nearly enough to protect cities, farms and coastlines from the hazards that climate change has unleashed so far, such as record droughts and rising seas, let alone from the even greater disasters in store as the planet continues to warm. Written by 270 researchers from 67 countries, the report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership, said Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary general. With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change. The perils are already visible across the globe, the report said. In 2019, storms, floods and other extreme weather events displaced more than 13 million people across Asia and Africa. Rising heat and drought are killing crops and trees, putting millions worldwide at increased risk of hunger and malnutrition, while mosquitoes carrying diseases like malaria and dengue are spreading into new areas. Roughly half the worlds population currently faces severe water scarcity at least part of the year. Global temperatures have already increased by an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, as humans have pumped heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere by burning coal, oil and gas for energy, and cutting down forests. Many leaders, including President Biden, have vowed to limit total global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels. Thats the threshold beyond which scientists say the likelihood of catastrophic climate impacts increases significantly. But achieving that goal would require nations to all but eliminate their fossil-fuel emissions by 2050, and most are far off-track. The world is currently on pace to warm somewhere between 2 degrees and 3 degrees Celsius this century, experts have estimated. If average warming passes 1.5 degrees Celsius, even humanitys best efforts to adapt could falter, the report warns. The cost of defending coastal communities against rising seas could exceed what many nations can afford. In some regions, including parts of North America, livestock and outdoor workers could face rising levels of heat stress that make farming increasingly difficult. Beyond 1.5, were not going to manage on a lot of fronts, said Maarten van Aalst, the director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center and an author of the report. If we dont implement changes now in terms of how we deal with physical infrastructure, but also how we organize our societies, its going to be bad. Poor nations are far more exposed to climate risks than rich countries. Between 2010 and 2020, droughts, floods and storms killed 15 times as many people in highly vulnerable countries, including those in Africa and Asia, as in the wealthiest countries, the report said. After nearly a century in the shadows, Irish whiskey is rebounding toward its former dominance. Its all explained by David Wondrich, a drinks scholar and writer, who details the trajectory and the evolution of Irish bars in the United States since the 17th century in his foreword to Paddy Drinks: The World of Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails. The book, by most of the partners in the Dead Rabbit, an esteemed bar in Lower Manhattan, is an up-to-date treatise on the whiskey, defining its four styles: pot still, malt, grain and blended. There are details for about 50 labels, and the book serves as a technical primer on Irish whiskey cocktails and how to build them. Following recipes for six classics, there are scores of Dead Rabbit creations, most of which call for esoteric ingredients like tonka bean syrup, zaatar tincture and toasted fennel salt (recipes are provided). There are a few more pantry-friendly options, like the head bartender Jillian Voses deliciously bitter Broadway Junction and the Precision Pilot, which she said was one of the first drinks she created at the bar. Paddy Drinks: The World of Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails by Jillian Vose, Jack McGarry, Sean Muldoon and Conor Kelly (Mariner Books, $28). For years, Dr. Xiulu Ruan was one of the nations top prescribers of quick-release fentanyl drugs. The medicines were approved only for severe breakthrough pain in cancer patients, but Dr. Ruan dispensed them almost exclusively for more common ailments: neck aches, back and joint pain. According to the Department of Justice, he and his partner wrote almost 300,000 prescriptions for controlled substances from 2011 to 2015, filled through the doctors own pharmacy in Mobile, Ala. Dr. Ruan often signed prescriptions without seeing patients, prosecutors said. Dr. Ruan has been serving a 21-year sentence in federal prison, convicted in 2017 for illegally prescribing opioids and related financial crimes. To collect millions of dollars in fines, the government seized houses, beach condos and bank accounts belonging to him and his business partner, as well as 23 luxury cars, such as Bentleys, Lamborghinis and Ferraris. On Tuesday, lawyers both for Dr. Ruan and for Dr. Shakeel Kahn, who is serving 25 years on charges related to pill mill clinics in Arizona and Wyoming will argue before the Supreme Court of the United States that the criminal standard the physicians faced is applied inconsistently among the federal circuits. In asking that the doctors convictions be overturned, they want the court to establish a uniform standard that permits doctors to raise a good faith defense. Juries could then consider whether doctors subjectively believed they were using their best medical judgment. The likelihood of these two doctors being set free is small, legal experts believe, but the courts decision on the broader legal questions could have significant implications for the latitude doctors can take in prescribing potentially addictive painkillers and other restricted medications. The Covid pandemic has presented older Americans with plenty of grim news, from staffing shortages in long-term care and hospices to the punishing effects of loneliness and isolation. But there have been encouraging developments too the kind of incremental progress that can take years to achieve, as lawsuits wend their way through courts, bills die in state legislatures and rise again, and the pandemic complicates everything. The results are not always dramatic, but they can improve lives and health for older people, especially those with low income. Here are three. A New Right to Appeal Medicare Decisions First, a federal appellate court recently ruled that if Medicare declines to pay for your rehabilitation in a nursing home after youve left the hospital, because you were on observation, you can appeal the decision. This issue has boggled patients and families for years. You were in a hospital bed, doctors and nurses provided care, you were examined and perhaps received medication, but you were not actually admitted. Or you were, and then the hospital changed your status to on observation. Technically you were an outpatient, not an inpatient. Dr. Tichell lost his license in 1997 for unrelated reasons. Reached by phone at his home in Buffalo, Dr. Tichell, 89, said it was possible that he was the biological father of at least one of his patients children. I was a donor at one time, he said. Sometimes back in those days, before the days of fertility clinics, if you couldnt get hold of a donor and you were working with a patient who was looking to get pregnant it wasnt exactly ethical, but it wasnt unknown to happen. He added: I assume other doctors did it, but no one ever talked about it. He elaborated in a subsequent text message: I admit I did it when a donor did not respond. Women were anxious to be inseminated, and the timing was crucial. It may have been less than perfect, but with luck, the women were able to conceive. Advancing legislation When children were conceived via artificial insemination in the 1970s and 1980s, sperm banks were not prevalent and the practice of freezing sperm was not widespread, so many physicians used so-called fresh sperm from donors. The first large-scale sperm bank in the country, California Cryobank, was created in 1977. After the AIDS epidemic, physicians started using frozen sperm because it allowed donors to be retested for AIDS after six months. By 1988, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control recommended that only frozen sperm be used for donor insemination, and the sperm-banking industry was subsequently born. Many physicians donated sperm as medical students in the 1960s and 1970s, and some observers believe that a number of doctors may have gone on to use their own sperm to treat infertility when they were trying to build a reputation for themselves as successful fertility doctors. VISTA, Calif. Dr. Bronners, the liquid soap company best known for its teeny-font labels preaching brotherly love and world peace, would like you to consider the benefits of mind-altering drugs. The sentiment is promoted on limited-edition soap bottles that sing the praises of psychedelic-assisted therapies, and through the trippy pronouncements of David Bronner, grandson of the companys founder and one of its top executives, who is not shy about sharing details of his many hallucinogenic journeys. Lets face it, the world would be a far better place if more people experienced psychedelic medicines, said David, whose company in January became among the first in the United States to offer ketamine therapy as part of its employee health care coverage. Perhaps less well known is Dr. Bronners role as one of the countrys biggest financial supporters of efforts to win mainstream acceptance of psychedelics and to loosen government restrictions on all illegal drugs. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (March 28) The Wire star Idris Elba is in top form in this handsome biopic of Nelson Mandela, tracking his journey from childhood in Apartheid-era South Africa through his protest, imprisonment, release and triumphant election as the nations first democratically elected president. The film is plagued by the issues of brevity so common to the biopic form, but the electrifying performances of Elba and Naomie Harris as Mandelas wife, Winnie, give the picture its forward momentum and a sense of urgency. Stream it here. Blood Diamond (March 31) Leonardo DiCaprio snagged his third Academy Award nomination for his quicksilver turn as Danny Archer, a morally slippery smuggler and mercenary. Archer will do just about anything for a payday, so his initial presence in Sierra Leone circa 1999 is purely financial, but the more he learns about the struggles of civilians and the barbarism of loyalists, the less he can shrug off what he sees as the price of doing business. The director Edward Zwick is particularly proficient at personalizing stories of political and historical conflict (his earlier films include Glory, The Siege and The Last Samurai), and he is, as ever, a fine actors director, stewarding solid work from not only DiCaprio but also his co-star Djimon Hounsou, an Oscar nominee for best supporting actor. Stream it here. Bright Star (March 31) Jane Campion is heavily favored to win this years Oscar for best director for her stunning navigation of The Power of the Dog. Her masterful direction is rendered even more impressive by her long absence from the big screen; Dog was her first feature film since this fact-based romance, released in 2009. She tells the story of the poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his late-in-life romance with his muse, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). Other filmmakers might have focused on Keats and viewed Brawne as a mere passing fancy. But as she has throughout her career, Campion is fascinated by the emotional push-pull of romantic entanglements and the unexpected ways women find their power in these encounters. Stream it here. Gremlins (March 31) The rules have become part of pop culture consciousness: Dont give them water; keep them way from bright light; and whatever you do, never, ever feed them after midnight. Of course, rules are made to be broken, and one of the purest pleasures of Joe Dantes giddily entertaining 1984 smash is his winking acknowledgment that were waiting for all hell to break loose. Dantes gift for barely-controlled chaos gives just enough discipline to Chris Columbuss witty screenplay, while its cheerful disemboweling of twinkly, small-town values feels particularly subversive for a Reagan-era movie. Stream it here. I Love You, Man (March 31) The best Judd Apatow comedy that Apatow had nothing to do with, this shaggily charming 2009 comedy finds newly engaged (and likably uptight) Paul Rudd seeking out an adult male pal for the first time, and finding himself pulled into the orbit of goofy man-child Jason Segel. The writer and director John Hamburg (Along Came Polly) never quite builds up much in the way of stakes, but its such a pleasure to watch his stars play as well as such welcome supporting players as Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons and Jane Curtin that you likely wont mind. Stream it here. Corey Samerson, 23, was arrested in the theft and accused of committing at least three other armed robberies in Manhattan in early January. Mr. Samerson had just spent almost four years in federal prison for a similar string of armed robberies. At his sentencing in 2019, he told the court that he committed them to pay for drugs. In a letter to the judge in 2019, Mr. Samersons mother said she had pleaded with everyone from church youth leaders to Mr. Samersons probation officer for help with his drug addiction, anger issues and suicidal thoughts. Here I am with a young man with so much potential but crying out for help, she wrote, and there are no resources. In the current case, Mr. Samerson, who remains in custody, was ordered by a judge to receive medical treatment last month. His lawyer declined to comment. As Mr. Alhirsh was recovering from that robbery, he was attacked again. Earlier this month, he ran out of the store to stop someone who had stolen a bottle of coconut water. The persons accomplice shoved him to the sidewalk, according to video footage. It was about 9 p.m., and no one was around to help. Mr. Alhirsh stood up in a daze, hands bleeding, and walked back into the store. Rebecca Davis OBrien and Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting. Its not that I disapprove of the secular expressions of the Lenten observation that have sprung up during this century of steeply declining church membership. If people want to lose 10 pounds or jump-start their new novel or give veganism a try, I say more power to them. And God knows Im all for a social media fast. Life is hard for all living things. To make it harder knowingly and willingly, for even a contained period is a uniquely human exercise. We want to be better than we are. We want living to mean more than surviving. There is something truly beautiful about that impulse, whatever form it takes. But as a new member of the unchurched Christian faithful, what am I supposed to do with Lent? Surely there must be some spiritual practice that falls between a church-ordained ritual and a secular perfectibility project. Something that would help me use this time of prayer and reflection to move away from the fears I cannot shake for my country, for my planet and toward a stronger faith in the possibility of redemption, a more certain conviction that all is not yet lost in this deeply troubled world. My maternal forebears, all Protestants, were great believers in starting the day with a prayer and an entry from that seasons devotional. But my idea of a daily spiritual practice is less a prayer written by someone else than a walk in the woods alone. A devotional isnt what Im looking for, and neither is another churchs Lenten program. Not yet, anyway. Honestly, I dont know what Im looking for. Forty years ago, I took a college course in the philosophy of religion. I still have the textbook, and Ive been looking at what I underlined in that book, at which passages I carefully marked with a star. Why did the girl I was 40 years ago decide certain passages should be marked with a star? I signed up for the class because I was having my first crisis of faith. The class itself did nothing to clarify my confusion, and continually thinking about the questions that plagued me wasnt helping, either. Still I fretted. Still I tried to figure out what I believed and why. Then one summer afternoon, months later, I was sitting in my parents backyard, listening to a mockingbird sing. Suddenly, inexplicably, a feeling of peace came over me. A feeling of perfect, absolute peace. No voice of reassurance came with it, and no words formed in my own mind to explain it. But if there had been words, they wouldve sounded something like: Its OK. Dont worry. Its OK. To the Editor: Re Armed or Not, Villagers Rush to Join Fight (front page, Feb. 28): I cannot remember the last time I was so moved by the bravery of a people the people of Ukraine. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and several nations broke free of the Soviet Union, it was a collective effort by heroic people all throughout the former Warsaw Pact nations to seize the moment and assert their independence. This is different. This is one nation. Alone. Standing fast against overwhelming odds. Fighting with every breath. Men and women alike. Ordinary citizens banded together against a pitiless enemy and giving no quarter, never yielding, laying it all on the line for their families, their friends, their homes, their country. I will never forget their bravery as long as I live. I thought I knew what bravery was. And then I saw Ukraine. Perry Perez Sunrise, Fla. To the Editor: Instead of fleeing for his safety as Russian troops advance, much like a captain of his ship, President Volodymyr Zelensky heroically and courageously has chosen to stand strong with his beloved people and country. His bravery in the face of what could be his own death, as well as his familys, is to be admired. Godspeed to Mr. Zelensky and all of Ukraine. Yet both the amateur and the professional should beware. Its critical for reformers not to misread the great racial awakening. Even as many took to the streets to defund the police, city residents, especially those who have endured histories of overpolicing and underprotection, hold complicated views on these issues. Right after George Floyds murder in Minneapolis ignited a conflagration that consumed the nation, 50 percent of Black voters in that city opposed reducing the size of the citys police force, and 49 percent believed that doing so would have a negative effect on public safety, according to a poll conducted for a consortium of Minnesota news outlets. Last September, a poll conducted for the same group, with PBSs Frontline, found that 74 percent of Black voters in Minneapolis said they believed crime had increased in the city. Unsurprisingly, the proportion of Black voters opposing reductions in the size of the citys police force had climbed to 75 percent. Violence also looms large in the minds of New Yorkers. When asked, What worries you about living in NYC? in a recent survey, respondents ranked crime and public safety near the top of concerns after the cost of living and the cost of housing. When asked to list priorities for the new mayoral administration, public safety, including guns and drugs, topped the list. Only 3 percent mentioned police and criminal justice reform, including 3 percent of Black respondents and 3.2 percent of Latinos. Even so, professional Democrats should resist the temptation to find refuge in the political security blanket of law and order. Palpable fear in the streets must be met with seriousness, compassion and nuance: People want more than just punishment. In that same poll of New Yorkers, when asked What would make you feel safer in your neighborhood?, respondents prioritized more stable and affordable housing, more mental health support and outreach and more job opportunities for young people over more police presence. These beliefs are not contradictory. City residents seek instant relief from the pangs of violence and a long-term cure for the underlying disease. A few years ago, Lisa L. Miller, a political scientist, found that aggregate public attention to crime is more in line with actual violent crime than researchers assume and that most people believe both law enforcement and social welfare policy contribute to greater public safety. Political elites are the problem. Attentive to public outcry and law enforcement groups, they tend to expand capacity around policing and punishment without increasing resources for social programs that could also decrease violence. Today, Democrats could chart a new path. Progressive D.A.s and Democratic mayors, with the support of Democrats in Washington and state capitals, could begin a coordinated attack on violence that responds to the publics desire for both immediate solutions and more gradual structural remedies. Consider two examples: Aaron Chalfin, a University of Pennsylvania criminologist, and his colleagues recently found that in the aftermath of targeted gang takedowns (arresting dozens of feuding gang members at the same time) in housing projects in New York City, shootings and homicides in those communities declined by roughly a third. On the other hand, the Manhattan Institutes Charles Fain Lehman found that someone who gets a summer job is between 30 percent and 40 percent less likely to be charged with either violent or property crime. These findings suggest that focusing enforcement remedies on the small number of individuals responsible for most of the crime and expanding capacity around effective community-based solutions could offer protection for the disadvantaged without subjecting them to indiscriminate harassment, brutality or mass imprisonment. But a party at war with itself can provide neither greater peace nor sustainable reform. So I hope hell tell America that although there will be some short-term suffering, theres nothing about the Ukraine crisis that will require reviving the Keystone XL pipeline. That our country can deal with both this immediate challenge from Russia and the long-term challenge of global warming. Bret: We disagree at last! The more we can do to reduce the Wests dependence on energy from Russia, the better. That should mean reinvesting heavily in new, safe, dependable nuclear energy. The campaign against nuclear turned out to be one of the environmental movements dumber moves, since it only made the West more reliant on nasty petrostates like Russia while demonizing a reliable, energy-dense, low-carbon power source. And more fracking for natural gas would help, too, since natural gas is much better for the environment than coal and has the additional advantage that it can be shipped to our European friends in liquefied form. Gail: This is the future of the planet were talking about. Weve got to find the safest conceivable path forward when it comes to energy. Theres a ton of options for promoting clean power sources if everybodys willing to admit that its going to be an expensive trip forward. Needing much government support, even if that means (cough, cough) more taxes. Bret: Or less red tape, especially for nuclear power. The other big news of the week, Gail, is Bidens Supreme Court nominee. Your thoughts on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and the politics of her nomination? Gail: Shes obviously superqualified. I know a few Republicans were open to at least one of the other possible nominees who had a more centrist record, but were talking about replacing Justice Stephen Breyer, a liberal, with a liberal justice who once was a Breyer clerk. Its not going to change the balance of the court, unfortunately. Bret: Or fortunately. Sorry, go on. Gail: Ill be interested to see how the Senate hearings go. I have memories of days of yore when both parties regarded a court appointment as such a solemn duty that they proceeded in a dignified, almost collegial manner. Dont suppose that will happen now. And I know youre going to remind me how messy the Democrats were with the Trump nominations. After which Ill howl about Mitch McConnell never even letting Obamas Supreme Court nominee come up for a vote. Or we can just move forward. How do you feel? Bret: I think she should be confirmed 100 to 0 or at least 96 to 3, which was the vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg back in 1993. And I say that as someone who will probably disagree with a lot of Jacksons opinions. My basic view is that presidents should have a right to their Supreme Court pick, regardless of ideology, and that the battles weve had in recent years over every nominee havent helped anyone, least of all the reputation of the Senate, the image of the court or the sanity of the country. All Western nations, not just those in the E.U., should open their borders to Ukrainians and ensure that they find safety and stability after escaping the chaos of war. That means fully fledged refugee status, with the rights to work and receive state services. There is also a vital need, immediately, for effective administration of reception and registration centers with dedicated services for pregnant women, targeted efforts for those with medical conditions, and special attention to children. This will require clear lines of responsibility and close coordination between E.U. and U.N. agencies. Faced with potentially up to five million refugees, Europe must create a plan to share resettlement among European nations and provide financial support to those countries closest to Ukraine that are likely to bear the greatest burden. The lesson of the Syria crisis when too much was expected of Greece and Italy, where most refugees first landed is that Poland and Hungary cannot be expected to do it all. Second, Ukrainians remaining in the country will likely be in greatest need. There are already too many examples around the world, from Yemen to Nigeria, of aid being blocked from reaching civilians. Access to aid is a right under international humanitarian law: It must be protected, and it must be sustained. That is why it is vital that aid efforts across borders and across conflict lines be established immediately and that humanitarians are able to carry out their work without facing political interference or threats to their lives. This is the moment when rhetoric about the sanctity and dignity of human life will be tested on the ground. Experience shows that only massive pressure can keep aid flows going. Third, there must be accountability for the conduct of the conflict. There are reports of shells hitting a hospital and schools, plus what appears to be indiscriminate bombing of civilian housing. Such serious breaches of international law banned under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 can constitute war crimes. These incidents must be documented and investigated. Just as German courts have convicted individuals for war crimes in Syria, so must any parties violating international law in Ukraine be held to account. Otherwise, the law of the jungle prevails. It can feel these days that we are swimming in a sea of ostensible contrition. But something strange has happened in the process. Instead of leaving us feeling healed, or as if there is a rightful place for accountability in our world, all this apologizing seems to, instead, have had a flattening effect. Everyone is sorry, yet at the same time, no ones apology feels like enough. Call it apology atrophy. Apologies for major offenses at times hardly register; those for microharms that books-in-bars guy delivered a lovely apology, but did he need to? are lauded, while others (from, say, an Oklahoma congressional candidate who threw up into a girls shoe during a visit to a tween slumber party where she accidentally got blackout drunk) feel almost too humiliating to treat as national news. And an apologys sincerity, it seems, often has little to do with any subsequent punishment. Why did Ms. Goldberg who, by all accounts, followed the textbook formula for a good apology, doing so twice, then enlisting the help of the Anti-Defamation League to make amends receive a two-week suspension from her job, while Joe Rogan, who called his repeated use of a racial slur the most regretful and shameful thing that Ive ever had to talk about publicly, received no penalty? This isnt the first age of apology. Nor is it the first in which public apologies have been deemed insincere. And yet, something about this era of contrition feels different. Its not just the speed at which the apologies are incoming, though thats part of it. (With each edit of this Opinion piece, a new apology has emerged. The latest or, at least, one of the latest came from Rosie ODonnell, for assuming that Priyanka Chopra and Deepak Chopra were related, which they are not. Ms. ODonnell apologized but while doing so seemed to not remember Ms. Chopras first name, for which she issued a second apology, which Ms. Chopra declined to accept.) Its more than the disembodied way in which such apologies are delivered, though thats a factor too. (Ms. ODonnells was on TikTok, and Ms. Chopra responded in Instagram stories.) Perhaps its that public apologies, no matter how insincere, once seemed to serve a social function: They established our societal red lines, they showed us that even the powerful could be held responsible for their actions, and the act of apologizing itself, with all the discomfort and squirming involved, often seemed like real punishment. It was an admission of defeat as much as an admission of guilt, said the linguist Deborah Tannen. Some Burden collaborators still speak mournfully of the ideas that never quite made it. In the mid-1990s, when the curator and designer Peter Noever invited Burden to propose an exhibition for Viennas MAK Museum of Applied Arts, where Noever was the director, the artist was more radical than I could imagine, he says approvingly. Burden wanted to transport about 200 tons of his art to the Austrian capital by water, a journey that would have involved flooding a dry canal near the building for its final leg. The shipping containers would be part of the show. Noever worked out how to do it all, but the cost was immense, he says, adding, Once you understand it is possible, then you dont understand why it is not possible. In the end, it was only for a stupid financial reason, which is not an excuse. Instead, the MAK presented a more conventional show that included Burdens Flying Steamroller (1996), a sculpture that consists of a 12-ton steamroller gliding through the air after working up speed, thanks to a pivoting arm and counterweight. The museum had to reinforce its floors to install it, a pushing of boundaries that distilled Burdens philosophy. If art is contemporary, then it has to hurt it has to hurt you, Noever says while discussing that process, because otherwise its only a game. David Boggs, an electrical engineer and computer scientist who helped create Ethernet, the computer networking technology that connects PCs to printers, other devices and the internet in offices and homes, died on Feb. 19 in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 71. His wife, Marcia Bush, said his death, at Stanford Hospital, was caused by heart failure. In the spring of 1973, just after enrolling as a graduate student at Stanford University, Mr. Boggs began an internship at Xerox PARC, a Silicon Valley research lab that was developing a new kind of personal computer. One afternoon, in the basement of the lab, he noticed another researcher tinkering with a long strand of cable. The researcher, another new hire named Bob Metcalfe, was exploring ways of sending information to and from the labs new computer, the Alto. Mr. Metcalfe was trying to send electrical pulses down the cable, and he was struggling to make it work. So Mr. Boggs offered to help. Over the next two years, they designed the first version of Ethernet. He was the perfect partner for me, Mr. Metcalfe said in an interview. I was more of a concept artist, and he was a build-the-hardware-in-the-back-room engineer. India's key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- fell sharply in early trade on Monday as investors are worried about the full-fledged Russia-Ukraine war that is panning out. At 9.55 a.m., Sensex was 1.5 per cent or 817 points down at 55,041 points, whereas Nifty 1.4 per cent or 233 points was down at 16,425 points. "Asian markets are trading mixed in the early Monday trade with Nikkei and HangSeng trading in negative territory while Taiwan and Korean markets trading in positive territory. WTI Crude rose more than 5 per cent on the Russia-Ukraine crisis as Western nations imposed fresh sanctions on Moscow," said Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS at Hem Securities. Nigam believes investors should trade with caution in the next few trading sessions as the volatility is expected to persist for some time. "One can use these dips to open and make fresh positions in quality stocks for the long term." Russias invasion of Ukraine has become a defining geopolitical moment for some of the worlds biggest tech companies, as their platforms have turned into major battlefields for a parallel information war and their data and services have become vital links in the conflict. Over the last few days, Google, Meta, Twitter, Telegram and others have been forced to grapple with how to wield that power, caught between escalating demands by Ukrainian, Russian, European Union and U.S. officials. On Friday, Ukrainian leaders pleaded with Apple, Meta and Google to restrict their services inside Russia. Then Google and Meta, which owns Facebook, barred Russian state-run media from selling ads on their platforms. Sundar Pichai, Googles chief executive, also spoke with top European Union officials over how to counter Russian disinformation. At the same time, Telegram, a widely used messaging app in Russia and Ukraine, threatened to shut down channels related to the war because of rampant misinformation. And this week, Twitter said it would label all posts containing links to Russian state-affiliated media outlets, and Meta and YouTube said they would restrict access to some of those outlets across the European Union to ward off war propaganda. Would you like to sign in with your palm? That was the question a cheerful Amazon employee posed when greeting me last week at the opening of a Whole Foods Market in Washingtons Glover Park neighborhood. She blithely added, You can also begin shopping by scanning the QR code in your Amazon app. Lets go for the palm, I said. In less than a minute, I scanned both hands on a kiosk and linked them to my Amazon account. Then I hovered my right palm over the turnstile reader to enter the nations most technologically sophisticated grocery store. For the next 30 minutes, I shopped. I picked up a bag of cauliflower florets, grapefruit sparkling water, a carton of strawberries and a package of organic chicken sausages. Cameras and sensors recorded each of my moves, creating a virtual shopping cart for me in real time. Then I simply walked out, no cashier necessary. Whole Foods or rather Amazon would bill my account later. More than four years ago, Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13 billion. Now the Amazon-ification of the grocery chain is physically complete, as showcased by the revamped Whole Foods store in Glover Park. For a brief moment, as hundreds of blue morpho butterflies floated gracefully around us, the green hues of the tropical forest were transformed into a neon blue. But the dreamlike scene, reminiscent of something out of James Camerons Avatar, was interrupted by a series of loud chirps from the canopy above. Straining my eyes to see up into the treetops, I caught a glimpse of the culprits: a pair of orange-tinted Azuero spider monkeys searching for fruit. The White House is relaxing its mask mandate in time for President Bidens State of the Union address on Tuesday, according to a memo sent to staff on Monday. Effective tomorrow, Tuesday, March 1, we are lifting the requirement that fully vaccinated individuals wear masks on the White House campus, the memo said. It added: Some individuals will choose to continue to wear masks to protect themselves. We must respect these choices. The policy for unvaccinated people visiting the White House is not changing, a spokesman said: They will still be required to be tested, wear masks and maintain social distance. Nearly the entire White House staff is vaccinated. A person familiar with the White Houses mask guidance said that the memo was a first step toward opening up the White House in the next few weeks, adding that the president and Jill Biden, the first lady, will have guests at the White House for food and drinks before the address on Tuesday. And up till now, they did not attend White House events with refreshments as part of Covid safety protocols. With the Omicron variant in retreat across much of the country, federal officials on Friday inched toward a new pandemic normal by easing their guidelines for staying safe from the coronavirus. Based on new criteria for measuring a communitys Covid-19 risk, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 70 percent of Americans could stop wearing masks, and would no longer need to social distance or avoid crowded indoor spaces. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, what this means for Californians is not that simple. The federal guidance is merely a baseline upon which local rules are layered. In other words, even if C.D.C. officials say masks arent needed where you live, the mayor of your city might still prohibit you from going barefaced to the grocery store. These rules can be confusing, so today Im going to walk you through the latest federal, state and local recommendations and how they could apply to you. Mike Costello and Amy Dawson of Lost Creek, W.Va., in their homemade masks at the Fasnacht festival in Helvetia on Sunday. Credit... Luke Sharrett for The New York Times Follow live updates on the Texas primary election and election results. BROWNSVILLE, Texas Mayra Flores, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, has done much of her campaigning in South Texas in Spanish. She has heard one phrase repeatedly from voters as she and other candidates try to become the first Republicans to represent the Rio Grande Valley in Congress. Y nosotros? And what about us? I hear every day that theyre tired they feel that there is so much attention and help being given to the immigrants, Ms. Flores said. The attentions on all these illegal immigrants, and not on them. Grievance politics, it turns out, translates. Donald J. Trumps brand of populism has been widely viewed as an appeal to white voters: Republicans around the country continue to exploit the fear that the left is attacking religious values and wants to replace traditional white American culture with nonwhite multiculturalism. But similar grievances have resonated in the Rio Grande Valley in a profound way, driving the Republican Partys successes in a Democratic stronghold where Hispanics make up more than 90 percent of the population. The difference is in the type of culture believed to be under assault. Democrats are destroying a Latino culture built around God, family and patriotism, dozens of Hispanic voters and candidates in South Texas said in interviews. The Trump-era anti-immigrant rhetoric of being tough on the border and building the wall has not repelled these voters from the Republican Party or struck them as anti-Hispanic bigotry. Instead, it has drawn them in. The fund, according to its website, works with the worlds foremost investors to make direct investments in leading and promising Russian companies. It has reserved capital of $10 billion under management and has attracted over $40 billion into the Russian economy. The sanctions ban any Americans from investing in the fund and freeze any assets that it holds in the United States. Senior Biden administration officials said the actions were effective immediately. They noted that the value of Russias ruble had already fallen more than 30 percent over the weekend and that Russias central bank more than doubled its interest rate to try to mitigate the fallout. They also predicted that inflation would soon spike and economic activity would contract as the countrys currency lost value. Even nations that usually remain neutral in global disputes entered the fray. Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country, setting aside its tradition of neutrality to join the European Union and a growing number of nations seeking to penalize Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. The country said it would immediately freeze the assets of Mr. Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail V. Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, as well as all 367 individuals the European Union imposed sanctions on last week. More aggressive actions in that vein could be in store. Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said after a classified briefing on Monday that the United States and allies were preparing to go beyond freezing the assets of Mr. Putin and Russian oligarchs and actually begin seizing them. This is likely a further step than Putins inner circle anticipated, Mr. Murphy said on Twitter. The U.S. moves represent a significant escalation of sanctions, although the Treasury Department said it was making an exemption to ensure that transactions related to Russias energy exports could continue. It is issuing a general license to authorize certain energy-related transactions with the Russian central bank. The carve-out means that energy payments will continue to flow, mitigating risks to global energy markets and Europe, which is heavily reliant on Russian oil and gas exports. U.S. officials said that they wanted energy prices to remain steady and that they did not want a spike in prices to benefit Mr. Putin. However, they noted that they were considering measures that would restrict Russia from acquiring technology it needs to be an energy production leader in the long term. The U.S. and other Western economies have deployed a set of highly potent financial weapons against Russia with remarkable speed, said Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University economics professor and a former International Monetary Fund official. Cutting off access to global financial markets and to a countrys war chest of international reserves held in currencies of Western economies amounts to a crippling financial blow, especially to an economy like Russias that relies to such a large extent on export revenues. Neither Maliha Karimi nor most of her family members had ever been on a plane or even inside the Kabul airport, but the idea of leaving gathered momentum, and they set off for the airport. I just took my passport and one phone, she recalled, We had no food, no water. Ms. Karimi, 27, the sole breadwinner for her parents and one disabled brother and his family of six, had a special reason to get out. As a beautician, she had lost her job the moment the Taliban returned, because they banned beauty salons as immoral, making it impossible for her to care for her family. They thought they were brothels, she said. The Karimi family reached the airport at 6 a.m. The crowds were terrible, pushing and shouting, and the Taliban were shooting in the air, Ms. Karimi said. In the chaos, the family became separated. Ms. Karimi grabbed the hand of one of her brothers children, 6-year-old Sorush, while a cousin, Soraya, took the boys other hand. Keeping their heads down, they fought their way toward the gate. I just decided to go forward, not backward, she said. I just kept going forward. Suddenly, the two young women, with Sorush between them, were swept through the gate. The other 33 family members were left behind, but there was no turning back. It was four full days before they reached Fort Bliss in El Paso, where Ms. Karimi finally could access Wi-Fi and call Kabul to speak with the anguished parents of Sorush, who was so upset he had stopped eating. Everyone wept: the parents aching for their son and Sorush homesick for his family. With Ms. Karimi gone and no one in her family back in Afghanistan working, they are short of everything: food, heating oil and medicines and are begging Ms. Karimi for help. The Singapore Court of Appeal, the countrys top court, declined Monday to overturn a law criminalizing gay sex, ruling that three men who brought challenges did not have legal standing because the government has pledged not to enforce the colonial-era law. Gay rights advocates had sought to overturn the law, known as Section 377A, arguing that it stigmatizes gay men and promotes discrimination. The law, enacted in 1938 during British rule, does not apply to women. Pink Dot SG, a leading L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group that organizes Singapores annual pride event, said it was profoundly disappointed by the decision. The acknowledgment that Section 377A is unenforceable only in the prosecutorial sense is cold comfort, the group said in a statement. Section 377As real impact lies in how it perpetuates discrimination across every aspect of life: at home, in schools, in the workplace, in our media, and even access to vital services like health care. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the ongoing evacuations of Indians stranded in war torn Ukraine. The sources in the government said that it was decided that the Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and General V.K. Singh will be travelling to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help the Indians including students. The Ministers will go to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania to oversee the evacuation process via these countries. Modi on Sunday evening also reviewed the progress of the evacuations of Indians from these neighbouring countries. The government sources on Monday also said that over 1,137 Indian students have been airlifted so far and more and more flights are planned to evacuate the Indians, especially students from these countries bordering Ukraine. Meanwhile the Indian embassies in Warsaw, Bucharest, and Budapest have made arrangements for stay in these countries for the students once they enter from Ukraine border. Buses have been lined up to ferry them to the designated places in these countries. The government officials also said that three Air India flights have been scheduled from Budapest to New Delhi and Mumbai on Monday. MOSCOW For two decades under President Vladimir V. Putin, Russians reaped the bounties of capitalism and globalization: cheap flights, affordable mortgages, a plethora of imported gadgets and cars. On Monday, those perks of modern life were abruptly disappearing, replaced by a crush of anxiety as sanctions imposed by the West in retaliation for Moscows invasion of Ukraine rattled the foundations of Russias financial system. The ruble cratered, losing a quarter of its value, and the central bank shuttered stock trading in Moscow through Tuesday. The public rushed to withdraw cash from A.T.M.s, and Aeroflot, the national airline, canceled all its flights to Europe after countries banned Russian planes from using their air space. Concern about travel was so great that some people rushed to book seats on the few international flights still operating. Ive become one concentrated ball of fear, said the owner of a small advertising agency in Moscow, Azaliya Idrisova, 33. She said she planned to depart for Argentina in the coming days and was not sure whether her clients would still pay her. BRUSSELS When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine with nearly 200,000 troops, many observers and seemingly President Vladimir V. Putin himself expected that the force would roll right in and the fighting would be over quickly. Instead, after five days of war, what appears to be unfolding is a Russian miscalculation about tactics and about how hard the Ukrainians would fight. No major cities have been taken after an initial Russian push toward Kyiv, the capital, stalled. While Russia appeared to pull its punches, Ukraine marshaled and armed civilians to cover more ground, and its military has attacked Russian convoys and supply lines, leaving video evidence of scorched Russian vehicles and dead soldiers. But the war was already changing quickly on Monday, and ultimately, it is likely to turn on just how far Russia is willing to go to subjugate Ukraine. The Russian track record in the Syrian civil war, and in its own ruthless efforts to crush separatism in the Russian region of Chechnya, suggest an increasingly brutal campaign ahead. The conductor Valery Gergiev has lost many international engagements since Russias invasion of Ukraine. He led the London Symphony Orchestra in New York in 2015. Valery Gergiev, the star Russian maestro and prominent supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, was removed Tuesday from his post as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic after he refused to denounce Mr. Putins invasion of Ukraine. And Anna Netrebko, the Russian diva who is one of operas biggest international stars and also has ties to Mr. Putin, saw her upcoming engagements with the Bavarian State Opera canceled, and the Zurich Opera House announced that she had withdrawn from her next performances there. Mr. Gergievs abrupt dismissal, three years before his contract was set to expire, was the biggest setback yet for the conductor, who has been the target of widespread anger and condemnation in recent days for his long record of support for Mr. Putin, whom he has known for three decades. Dieter Reiter, the mayor of Munich, said that Mr. Gergiev, who had held the post of chief conductor there since 2015, had failed to respond to a demand issued on Friday by Mr. Reiter that he condemn Mr. Putins brutal war of aggression by Monday or be fired. I would have expected him to reconsider and revise his very positive assessment of Russias leader, Mr. Reiter said in a statement. He didnt. Mr. Gergiev was also dismissed on Tuesday from his position as honorary conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestras managers, who had also recently asked Mr. Gergiev to denounce Mr. Putin, said in a statement that they had spoken with Mr. Gergiev but could not resolve an unbridgeable divide. The orchestra said it was eliminating its Gergiev Festival. Mr. Gergiev did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Image Anna Netrebko, one of operas biggest stars, lost engagements in Munich and Zurich over her ties to Mr. Putin. She opened the season at Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, late last year. Credit... Luca Bruno/Associated Press Ms. Netrebko also came under fire for her ties to Mr. Putin, who has awarded her prizes and praised her artistry. Ms. Netrebko endorsed his re-election bid, and has at times appeared to lend support to his policies, including in 2014, when she was pictured holding a flag used by some Russian-backed separatist groups in Ukraine. While she had in recent days sought some distance from the invasion, issuing a statement over the weekend saying she opposed the war, she has remained silent on Mr. Putin. The director of the Zurich Opera House, Andreas Homoki, called Ms. Netrebkos statement condemning the war a positive development and said the company did not consider it appropriate to judge the decisions and actions of citizens of repressive regimes based on the perspective of those living in a Western European democracy. But Mr. Homoki went on to note that the opera houses decisive condemnation of Mr. Putin and his actions was not compatible with Anna Netrebkos public position. He said that Ms. Netrebko had decided not to sing in the upcoming performances, and relayed a statement from her that said: This is not a time for me to make music and perform. I have therefore decided to take a step back from performing for the time being. It is an extremely difficult decision for me, but I know that my audience will understand and respect this decision. After the cancellations were announced on Tuesday, Ms. Netrebko posted a picture on Instagram of herself with Mr. Gergiev smiling after a concert. Then, in a separate post, she wrote: As I have said, I am opposed to this senseless war of aggression and I am calling on Russia to end this war right now, to save all of us. We need peace right now. Both posts were then deleted. The Metropolitan Opera did not make any announcement regarding Ms. Netrebkos scheduled appearances this spring, but Peter Gelb, its general manager, said in an interview on Tuesday that The Met stands by its position that artists who support Putin are not going to be allowed to perform at the Met. Asked about Ms. Netrebkos statement opposing the war, Mr. Gelb said, In the case of somebody who is so closely associated with Putin, denouncing the war is not enough. Before the Met performed Verdis Don Carlos on Monday evening, the company performed the Ukrainian national anthem. The fast-moving events showed how quickly arts organizations around the world had moved to sever ties with some of Russias most prominent cultural ambassadors since the start of Mr. Putins invasion on Thursday. Mr. Gergiev had lost a number of engagements in the days that followed, but the loss of his leadership position at the helm of a major European orchestra suggested much more serious ramifications for his international career. It is a stunning turnaround for Mr. Gergiev, whose packed schedule and regular engagements with many of the worlds leading concert halls and opera houses has led the website Bachtrack, which collect statistics on classical music performances, to proclaim him the worlds busiest conductor in several recent seasons. Image Mr. Gergievs support of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has led to protests in the past, including in 2014 when he conducted the Munich Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall shortly before he became the orchestras chief conductor. Credit... Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Mr. Gergiev endorsed Mr. Putins re-election and appeared at concerts in Russia and abroad to promote his policies. The two have known each other since the early 1990s, when Mr. Putin was an official in St. Petersburg and Mr. Gergiev was beginning his tenure as the leader of the Mariinsky, then called the Kirov. Mr. Putin has played an important role in Mr. Gergievs success, providing funding to the Mariinsky Theater, where Mr. Gergiev serves as general and artistic director. Mr. Gergievs international engagements began drying up last week, when Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Philharmonic dropped him from a series of performances. On Sunday, Mr. Gergievs manager announced he was ending his relationship with his client. The manager, Marcus Felsner, said in a statement that it had become impossible to defend Mr. Gergiev, whom he described as one of the greatest conductors of all time, a visionary artist loved and admired by many of us, who will not, or cannot, publicly end his long-expressed support for a regime that has come to commit such crimes. On Monday, the fallout continued, with the Verbier Festival in Switzerland saying it had asked for and accepted the resignation of Mr. Gergiev as music director of the festivals orchestra. (The festival also said it would ban other artists who had shown support for Mr. Putins actions, and that it would return donations from individuals under sanctions from Western governments.) The Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland, where Mr. Gergiev served as honorary president, also said Monday that he had resigned his position after being asked to do so. Philharmonie de Paris, a performing arts complex in France, announced it was canceling two concerts in April with Mr. Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. And the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland said it was canceling two performances in August with Mr. Gergiev and the Mariinsky. In view of Russias acts of war in violation of international law, we are sending a clear signal of solidarity to the people of Ukraine, Michael Haefliger, the festivals executive and artistic director, said in a statement. Shortly after the mayor of Munich announced his decision on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany another major concert hall said it, too, had canceled Mr. Gergievs future engagements. Several other institutions are considering similar moves, including Teatro alla Scala, in Milan. Alex Marshall contributed reporting. GENEVA Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country, setting aside a deeply rooted tradition of neutrality to join the European Union and a growing number of nations seeking to penalize Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. After a meeting with the Swiss Federal Council, Switzerlands president, Ignazio Cassis, said that the country would immediately freeze the assets of Russias president, Vladimir V. Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail V. Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, as well as all 367 individuals sanctioned last week by the European Union. Switzerland said it was departing from its usual policy of neutrality because of the unprecedented military attack by Russia on a sovereign European state, but expressed a willingness to help mediate in the conflict. It also joined European neighbors in closing its airspace to Russian aircraft, except for humanitarian or diplomatic purposes. But said it would evaluate whether to join in subsequent E.U. sanctions on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Lavrov, who was scheduled to be in Geneva on Tuesday to address the United Nations Human Rights Council, will no longer make the trip because of the flight ban, Russias mission to the United Nations in Geneva said on Twitter. As Ukraines second largest city reeled under a barrage of Russian rockets that left dozens of people dead, officials said, a Ukrainian delegation met counterparts from Russia on Monday in Belarus for talks that held little hope for an immediate end to the fighting that has sparked a nationwide resistance in Ukraine and left Russias economy increasingly isolated from the world. Among Mondays major developments: The leader of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, hosted the first face-to-face talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials since the Russian invasion began, but President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said before the meeting that he was not hopeful that it would end the hostilities. The Treasury Department announced that it would freeze assets of the Russian Central Bank that are held in the United States and impose sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The value of the ruble plunged by more than 25 percent as the effects of Western sanctions shook Russias economy. KYIV, Ukraine Initial talks between Russia and Ukraine concluded without result on Monday evening, with both delegations returning from the site of the negotiations in Belarus to their capitals for consultations. Kyiv is seeking a cease-fire in Ukraine and an end to hostilities, according to Mihailo Podolyak, a member of the Ukrainian delegation. The parties identified a number of priority topics in which certain solutions were outlined, he said after the discussions ended. In order to get some opportunities for implementation and logistical solutions, the parties are returning to their capitals for consultations. The Kremlin wants its security demands taken into account unconditionally, President Vladimir V. Putin told the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as talks were underway. Those include the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, and demilitarizing and denazifying the Ukrainian state and ensuring its neutral status, meaning that it gives up a right to join the NATO alliance. What do you get if you mix a bird, a squirrel and a lizard? Well, I think youll have a tough time finding a better answer than the Great Eared Nightjar. Seeing a great eared nightjar for the first time, youd be forgiven for mistaking it for a squirrel or even a lizard. The fact is it kind of looks like a combination of animals, or even a real-live version of Toothless, the dragon from DreamWorks Studios hit animation How to Train Your Dragon. You could say its living proof that birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than reptiles. Photo: Jason Thompson/Flickr Native to the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia, the great eared nightjar is a nocturnal bird that builds its nests on the ground, where chicks are well camouflaged among the fallen leaves thanks to their brown plumage. Although it is yet to be scientifically proven, the unique look of the great eared nightjars, with tufts of feathers on their head and a beak camouflaged by feathers, may be an evolutionary trait related to the way it nests. Because it makes its nest on the ground, the great eared nightjar is a lot more exposed to predation than other birds that nest high up in trees, but when you look like a small dragon or a venomous viper, most predators probably dont want to mess with you. Great eared nightjars can be hard to spot because of their looks, but there is no mistaking their distinct calls, so they often act as a tool for identifying these birds. The exact population of great eared nightjars around the world is not known, but according to Kidadl, they have a stable trend in population and are reported to be common in their range. This is great to hear, because knowing that dragon-like birds are thriving is freaking cool. The great eared nightjar is just one of the many fascinating examples of evolutionary camouflage that weve featured on Oddity Central over the years. Theres plenty more to check out if you fancy going down that rabbit hole. Fern Lazar Finn Partners has named Fern Lazar global practice leader of its health unit. She succeeds Kristie Kuhl, who will take over Zeno Groups health and wellness practice at the end of March. Lazar joined Finn Partners after it acquired her shop, Lazar Partners, in 2019. She will now head the more than 200 member health practice, while continuing to lead Lazar/Finn. Gil Bashe, chairman of Finn Partners health operation, said Lazar consistently proves that collaboration and can-do spirit advance bold ideas. Kuhl succeeded Bashe as health chief in July 2021. Finn Partners ranked No. 4 in ODwyers healthcare rankings with fees of $34.1M in 2020. Zeno took the No. 13 spot with $10.8M in income. "I am so excited to come to Ireland. My grandma was very, very Irish, her maiden name was Callaghan and we'd been tryin' to plan a trip to come over there. But I'm very excited that I get to come over next month." That was the voice of Hailey Whitters, who - for my money - is one of the most exciting artists to hit the American country music scene in the last decade. Easy. If she's a new name to anyone out there, get used to hearing a lot more about her, and do yourself a favour as soon as you've finished reading our chat, go look her up, get her music, and follow her everywhere you can. That'll be a decision that will bring only happiness - in the shape of some damn fine country music - to the rest of your days. And if there's anything we all need right now, then God knows it's as much happiness as we can lay our hands on... Earlier this month, on the afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting Hailey for the first time, there was less than a month to go before she's due to take to the 3Arena stage in Dublin to perform at this year's C2C - Country-to-Country - festival. And as you read this for the first time, the evening of Saturday, March 12th, has drawn even closer. So, that's where we kicked things off: How is Hailey feeling about finally making it over here to see us? "I...am...over the moon! It feels like it's been a long time comin', ya know. But I can't believe it's finally here!" Hailey, born and raised in Iowa, comes from an Irish Catholic background. Both her parents were one of nine children, one of her grandfathers was one of fifteen, and Hailey herself is one of six. I wondered if, by any chance, she knew much about her Irish heritage? Was there any family history that had been passed down through the years? "Ya know, I don't, and it's one of my biggest regrets that I haven't got to know more about that. My grandma, her maiden name was Callaghan, and I never got to meet her dad. His family, I think, came from Ireland and were in St. Louis before moving to Hiawatha. I wish I would have got to meet him. I wish I would have got to know so much about it. We were tryin' to plan a trip before she passed actually, and I would have loved to have gone with her. I would have really tried to dig in there and learn more about where we came from and stuff. But I don't [know much], unfortunately. I wish I knew more. I have one song - and I don't know if it's Irish, it may not be - but it's a song that her dad used to sing to her, and that she used to sing to me. That's kind of like the biggest thing I got from him, having never got to meet him." Does Hailey know what that song is called? "[Laughs], It's such a silly song, and I don't know what it's called. It goes like, 'Don't ever marry an old man/ For an old man, he is...", ya know, it was about not marrying an old man! Marry a young man! [Laughs]. Does that sound Irish? Do you know that song? [Laughs]. It was great." I didn't know the song, but I admitted that it sounded like it could well be one of ours! Hailey's trip to Ireland for C2C isn't the only reason why March is going to be a huge month for the rising star. On March 18th, her brand new album 'Raised', officially comes into the world. A seventeen-track collection, with latest single Everything She Ain't (if you love The Chicks from back in their Dixie days, you'll dig this too!) already here to enjoy, I wondered if Hailey could give her fans a little heads-up on what else we can expect? "This record feels like the prequel to 'The Dream' (Hailey's debut album). If 'The Dream' is the girl who moved to Nashville to chase her country music dreams and never give up, 'Raised' feels like the why, ya know? What inspired her to do that? What encouraged her to do that? It's very much a celebration of where I come from, conceptually but also musically. You can hear a lot of the musical influences that were influencing me back growing up as a kid in Iowa listening to country radio. The Chicks, Alan Jackson, so there's fiddle and steel everywhere on the record. It feels very country, yeah!" I love finding out why someone gives a body of work the particular title that it ends up with, because there can be so many possible choices. So why Raised for Hailey on this occasion? "Well ya know, once the songs [for the album] started coming in, it started to seem very much just about where I came from. About my hometown and growing up in the midwest, in the heartland. So I think that title, well we'd had the song called 'Raised' and it's really about how I grew up, my childhood, what I grew up listening to from a production standpoint, the songs that were raising me, ya know, that I was being influenced by and that were inspiring me to pursue country music." Moving on to talk about Hailey as a songwriter, in other interviews I've heard her do, Hailey has referenced people like Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, and Matraca Berg when it comes to the importance of storytelling and lyrics in songwriting, and how she used to actually study Lori McKenna's records. When Hailey does something like that, what - as a songwriter herself - is she listening for? What's moving her in a song? "Well I'm always pretty drawn in lyrically. I tend to try and pay a lot of attention to the lyrics. That's usually what's kind of like the sucker-punch to my heart, a really good lyric. And I'm kind of a sucker for the old-school country hook. The play on words there is always what draws me in. Just recently there I was listening to 'Nobody In His Right Mind Would Have Left Her', the George Strait song, so clever. And just plain-spoken. Again, where I come from. I always say about my dad, for a man of few words he sure says a lot! It's that kind of lyricism that I'm always drawn to in country, not all these fancy, eloquent words. It's just plain-spoken, very simple, but it can twist in a way that has a lot of depth and a lot of meaning. That's what's always drawn me to country music." So would it be fair to say that with her own lyrics, Hailey probably spends a lot of time trying to make them sound as simple as she can? Even though that doesn't always come straight away, sometimes you have to really work at paring things down. "Yeah, totally! I mean, to be able to say things in a very conversational manner is what I'm always trying to do in my own lyrics." Hailey released The Dream on her own label. And what I think I love even more than that fact, is that she called her label Pigasus Records, inspired by a John Steinbeck quote... "Yeah, John Steinbeck is just one of my absolute favourite authors. I'm just so moved by so many of his books, he's been a big inspiration for me, writing-wise. I remember reading an article where he had said that in his signature or something, 'To the stars on the wings of a pig!' That kind of became like his stamp. I thought that was interesting, the midwest connection with Iowa being the biggest pork producer, and my aunt had a pig farm growing up. So it's about those humble beginnings for me, and the element of doing the impossible. Because it was so difficult for me to get anyone to take me seriously in Nashville. So it felt like a little of that 'when pigs fly' mentality, where I'm going to do it no matter what. So if you're not gonna sign me, I'm gonna start my own label, and I'm gonna do it anyways! Pigasus has become a very big symbol for me too, not only of where I come from, but of me trying to make my place in this business, and this genre." Hailey has mentioned before how a fellow songwriter, one more experienced at the time in the ways of Nashville, advised her to find a place that would help keep her grounded. Not in the sense that she might get too big for boots, far from it, but rather in the sense of finding somewhere that she could always depend on to give her a firm connection to real-life, away from the 'show' and 'business' sides of life in Music City. And her hometown of Shueyville is very important to Hailey in that regard. But in terms of other advice that may have come her way as a songwriter, I wondered if there's been anything that's been shared with her and has had such an effect or an impact that it's become something she tends to pass onto other songwriters now as well? "Yeah. I feel that recently one that's been relative in my writing, and not only in my writing but in my industry, is just writing for your fanbase. It sounds like, d'oh, ya know, you should be doing that no matter what [laughs]. But yeah, really just focusing on your fans, and serving your fans in your writing and in your songs and your records. I think it's easy sometimes to look around at what everyone else is doing and trying to compare and be like them, or trying to fit industry standards. But really [it's about], just remembering who's buying the ticket to come to your show? Who's buying your records? Sing for them. Write for them. Make records for them. Because they're the ones that allow you to be able to do it in the first place. And they want to hear what you have to say, and they want to hear you sing for them. You just have to really stay focused there. Don't focus about radio, don't focus about all of the other things. Focus on your fans." Just moving away from the music side of things for a moment, because for Hailey and her producer and boyfriend Jake Gear, music isn't the only reason why 2022 is going to be an extremely memorable year. The pair are getting married! How are plans going in that regard, especially with so much else happening in Hailey's career at the same time? "Yeah, we're getting married! [Laughs]. We're planning things, but ya know, my wedding planner probably hates me because I'm on tour, I'm about to release a record... [laughs]. The wedding is like the third priority in my mind, so I guess I'm probably not the best bride in that respect, ya know what I mean! [Laughs]. But Jake is cool about it, he gets it, and he's right there with me. We're just so excited about this record. We're excited to get married, too! [Laughs]. It's probably going to be a little bit more low-key for us, but that's the way we'd want it anyway, just getting a bunch of our best friends and our closest family members in a field together and everyone just getting drunk, that's the M.O. for our wedding [laughs]. We're thinking October, we kind of always envisioned a fall wedding." On August 7th in 2019, Hailey made her debut at the Grand Ol Opry, singing two songs on that night. Just before she walked out on stage, as she waited in the wings, the Opry's GM Sally Williams advised her to take a moment to "soak it up", because it would fly by. I asked Hailey if there have been other moments in her career since then when those words have echoed in her mind and she's thought to herself, "I really need to enjoy this, to take this all in as it's happening and not just let it pass me by..." "Yeah, I think when I played the Ryman [Auditorium] in December, I think 10th and 11th last year, it hit me there, too. Because that's just such a bucket-list play for me, to get to play the Ryman. When anyone would ask me what's the ultimate venue that I'd love to play in, it was the Ryman. So I remembered Sally's advice then to just soak it in. And anytime I'm really feeling nervous, to be honest...which is a lot of times [laughs], before I go on-stage. Just remembering that advice has been so helpful because I am just so lucky to get to be here and to play those stages, ya know. So, amidst the nerves, I'm trying to remember to...breathe, look around, soak it up, as much as possible." Does Hailey have any little tricks or rituals that she goes through before she goes on-stage, as so many artists do to help settle themselves down before a performance? "I take a big ol' shot of tequila [laughs], and then the band and I all get together and we put our hands in and someone will usually say some kind of quick, funny words, maybe, and then we always do a 'Hell Right!' Then we walk out on-stage. That's kind of like become a thing, to where if we don't do that, we know we're gonna have a bad show. Because anytime we haven't done it is usually when something goes wrong during the set. It's like a little bit of a superstition for us." Hailey has described herself as being both a "negligent optimist" and as being "born a little broken-hearted", two descriptions which I find fascinating. I asked her to share a little bit more about what she meant in each of those cases... "Well, I think being a negligent optimist is just me being foolishly positive! [Laughs]. I really am a glass half-full kinda person, and I just always have looked at things that way. Sometimes, Jake even will tell me, 'You're just not a realist', but I'm always a little more head-in-the-clouds, ya know, [believing] things are gonna work out! And it's gonna be great, there's no need to stress or worry about it, that kind of thing. I just kind of act, I guess, with that mentality. Maybe I should be a realist, I don't know! [Laughs]. Maybe I would be a little less broken-hearted when it doesn't work out if I were that way [laughs]. And as far as being born just a little broken-hearted, I'm probably just naturally a little bit of an Eeyore sometimes. I love sad songs. Sad songs make me really happy sometimes. As far as my relationship with Nashville goes, it's kind of been a little bit of a broken-hearted kind of thing. I have a love-hate relationship with this town in a lot of ways. But I'm a sucker for sad things, ya know, and I think sad things can sometimes bring us all together, and that is actually kinda quite beautiful." Hailey has gone from having the dream of being a country music star - even buying herself a ticket to the Opry on her ten year anniversary in Nashville to try and reignite that dream - to now living that dream. And in doing so, she has become the inspiration for so many more people all across the world to keep fighting for and following their own dreams too. So, speaking to other dreamers out there, and speaking as Hailey the whole human being - songwriter, artist, girlfriend, friend, daughter, everything that she is - what's her one piece of golden-nugget life advice? "I would say do what you love. Do what you love, with people you love. Life is so short, and it's so easy to get distracted, and to sluggishly commit to things and to do things that we maybe don't really want to do, but it's for other people and not ourselves. So do what you love, what makes you happy, because I think the world needs a lot more happy people in it!" ~ Hailey Whitters plays C2C Dublin (Country-to-Country) at the 3Arena on Saturday, March 12th. Her debut album, 'The Dreeam', and deluxe edition 'Living the Dream', are both out now, available on all platforms. Hailey's new album, 'Raised', is out on March 18th. For more info, check out www.haileywhitters.com The company behind an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility that has been the subject of strong local opposition have welcomed planning approval from An Bord Pleanala, saying "deployment of AD plants in Ireland is urgently needed." Strategic Power received approval from An Bord Pleanala to install the AD plant at Ballyduff, Tullamore, last week. It is just the third facility of its kind to be approved in Ireland in the last year. Residents on the Rahan Road, however, say they are "shocked and amazed" at the decision and are adamant that it will not go ahead. "We will not stand for this apparent blatant disregard for the opinions of the common man over big business," said Paschal Fox, the Chair of Rahan Road Residents Association who lodged an objection to the development. Offaly County Council originally refused to grant permission for the facility in January 2021 but that decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanala who have now granted permission despite the local authority refusal and public opposition. Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen TD also added his name to the list of those objecting to the proposal at the time. The development will consist of a renewable biogas facility that will inject BioMethane into the local GNI gas network. Renewable biogas will be captured during anaerobic digestion of agricultural feedstocks, upgraded to BioMethane and injected into the GNI pipe network. The plant will be fed approximately 50,000 tonnes of feedstock that will primarily be sourced from local farms within 10Km of the site. The proposed development will not accept any municipal waste, Strategic Power told the Offaly Express. The residents say a "minimum of 30 loads of farm manure per day will be carried into the site by trucks. The fertiliser will then be brought out to be spread on surrounding farms." Strategic Power said: "The development will provide a nutrient-rich digestate which will be used as an organic bio-fertiliser, which will be returned to the supply farms fully closing the circular economy model and reducing the requirement for imported chemical/synthetic fertilisers. "The plant will produce 40GWh of renewable gas per year which will be sold to through suppliers to consumers domestic and industrial gas users. The BioMethane can also be used a low emissions fuel for heavy goods vehicles." Residents also raised concerns last week about the potential of the site attracting vermin, the 24/7 operating times of the plant and the fear of a fire or explosion. Paschal Fox said: "We are adamant that the proposed activity cannot be conducted at this site nor in the environs of any town in Ireland, no matter how well designed and operated, without significant, environmental impacts occurring. We are determined to have the people of the towns opinions heard before it is too late. We are convinced that preventing the development is the only viable option." In a statement issued to the Offaly Express this week, Paul Carson, Managing Director, Strategic Power said: We are incredibly encouraged by the outcome of this planning decision. The deployment of AD plants in Ireland is urgently needed in order to meet its target for 20% renewable gas on the network by 2030. When operational, the development at Tullamore will have a positive and long-term impact on the local, regional and national economy. It will generate direct and indirect employment as well as bringing tremendous wider benefits to the agriculture industry. The site at Ballyduff was selected after careful consideration of all environmental aspects and we are delighted that An Bord Pleanala have endorsed our assessment that this is an acceptable site for an Agri AD plant. We are aware of the concerns of local residents and are committed to operating as good neighbours. PICTURED: Paul Carson, Managing Director, Strategic Power We are developing this Agri AD plant in partnership with Nicholas Molloy, a progressive young farmer based on the edge of Tullamore town. Nicholas has recently built a successful dairy unit and quickly expanded it alongside his already substantial tillage and beet operation. We are fortunate to work with Nicholas on this project his expertise, commitment and support throughout the design and planning process has been tremendous and we look forward to building on that relationship through the long-term supply arrangement for the plant. Outlining their reasons for granting permission An Bord Pleanala said it took into consideration the requirement for an Anaerobic Digester Plant to be subject to and regulated under an industrial emissions licence to be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. It said it also noted the pattern of existing and permitted development in the vicinity of the site, the location of the proposed development on lands on the outskirts of Tullamore and its close proximity to the source of agricultural feedstock material. It took account of the proximity of the site to the Gas Networks Ireland gas network for export of gas. The Board Inspector proposed that subject to compliance with a number of conditions the development would comprise an acceptable form of energy recovery from primarily agricultural waste. It would also not be prejudicial to public health and would not give rise to a risk of serious pollution or major accident risk. Under the conditions laid out, the developer will be required to submit an annual report on the operation of the facility to the local planning authority. The construction phase of the development at Tullamore will be undertaken on a phased basis over a 12-month duration and is expected to be operational in Autumn 2023. The Ukrainian delegation for talks with Russia is now in Belarus, Sputnik reported on Monday. President Volodymyr Zelensky informed through social media that the country has agreed to hold talks with Russia at Belarusian-Ukrainian border. Earlier Volodymyr Zelensky had rejected Russia's offer to hold negotiations in Belarus, suggesting alternative cities, including Budapest and Warsaw for talks, Xinhua news agency reported. He made the remarks in a video address posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday shortly after the Kremlin announced that a Russian delegation has arrived in Belarus and will be ready to negotiate with Ukraine in the city of Gomel. He said Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but Belarus is not an option because Russia has been carrying out some of its attacks from Belarus. "We're saying no to Minsk. Other cities can be a place to meet," he said. "We want peace, we want to meet, we want the end of the war... Any other city would suit us, any country, from whose territory missiles are not launched at us," Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine has proposed meeting in other countries such as Poland, Hungary, Turkey and Azerbaijan, but Russia has so far refused. Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a delegation, including representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry and other government agencies has arrived in Belarus. Offaly farmer Brian Sheridan, a native of Clara, will address a European Conference on Biodiversity on this Wednesday, March 2. Brian , a farmer who has ancestral connections to Clara Bog, will speak about how he became a promoter and protector of Clara Bog at the conference. His grandfather, John Sheridan, was Trustee of Clara Bog, If you wanted to cut turf youd go to John Sheridan. Hed tell you that you could cut a perch beside so and so. Brian is an active member of Clara Bog and Heritage Society and sits on the Community Wetlands Forum steering committee. He envisions Clara as a hub for visitors who want to learn more about bogs, their biodiversity, their importance in regulating climate, and heritage. Were wiser than we were sixty years ago or more. Since then we discovered we were doing more harm than good. People have realised that the bog is a golden nugget in the centre of Ireland. The bog is more valuable than the rainforests. A new walkway, Tonys Hill, was opened recently by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and The Living Bog Project which meanders around a natural lime hill that formed in the bog. Tonys Hill, named after the last resident of the stone cottage on the hill, has become a popular walkway for locals and visitors. A bridge over troubled water Conference for Biodiversity, hosted by The Greens in Europe, is happening in conjunction with two upcoming key moments: the EU Renaturation Law and the World Biodiversity Conference in Kunming/China. The conference aims to highlight initiatives and institutions that, contrary to the overwhelming rejection of renaturation and sustainable management, are nevertheless doing exemplary work. We want to show the conservation heroes of their sectors and get to know their motives and preconditions. So that even more people and actors become bridges over the raging waters. The conference begins at 5pm GMT on 2nd March. You can register for the conference online HERE. Do you have an inspirational person in your life that deserves recognition? Local artist Rowena Keaveney is inviting you to celebrate a special person in your life whose presence has been, Spectacular. Has someone around you made a significant and positive contribution towards a particular time in your life? It could be a teacher who believed in you; a friend who supported you; a person who you once spoke to while waiting at a bus stop or on a train; a medical professional; relative; someone youve since lost touch with or a co-worker. The possibilities are endless and only you will know who that Spectacular individual is! 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. You can send an image of your special person or write a short story about why you think they are so wonderful. All Spectacular Humans nominated will be celebrated in a special exhibition presented in postcard form with an inspiring explanation from their nominator as to why they are Spectacular. The postcards will then be displayed in Birr and Tullamore Town shop windows and on the In The Open Offaly website from Thursday, April 7th to the end of the month. Rowena Keaveny is a visual artist, arts therapist and facilitator based in Offaly. She completed the Art Therapy course at Crawford College of Art and Design and is now an Art Therapist with Autism Initiatives, Tallaght Horizons & Botanic Horizons, Glasnevin, Dublin. She is the recipient of bursaries from The Community Foundation for Ireland (2012, 2012), The Arts and Disability Ireland Awards (The Arts Council and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland - 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013), Tyrone Guthrie Award (Offaly County Council-2009), Artist in the Community Award (Create + The Arts Council- 2009), The Arts Council (2004). Both in public and private collections, her work uses digital media, photography, animation and socially engaged practice. For all information on the project visit www.intheopenoffaly.ie. To nominate a Spectacular human you know, contact paintpolitik@live.ie subject Spectacular Sapien by the deadline of Wednesday, March 16th! How old is Tullamore really? And how did it change from its early beginnings to the town we know today? It is impossible to be conclusive about the very moment when a group of houses becomes a village or a town. In Ireland, only the New Towns of Shannon in the Republic and Craigavon in Northern Ireland can definitively state the date upon which their first sod was dug. Nonetheless, it is perfectly legitimate for local people to nominate a particular date and say Before this we were of no importance; after it, we were. The event which transformed Tullamore from an inconsequential hamlet at a ford on a river into something more significant, was the implementation of the licence conferred in 1622 on the new land owner John Moore, to hold a weekly market and an annual fair. It is likely that local farmers and traders had always struck informal deals, but now a certain place was identified at which on a specified day, goods would be exchanged. Sellers could now plan how much of their cattle or produce would be presented and buyers would have greater choice and better prices struck. Travelling salesmen would service the attendance and a pub might cater for a post-deal drink. That is how almost all human settlements evolve. But what did Tullamore actually look like in 1622? John Moores lease describes his new lands as including a ruined castle, two watermills and ten cottages. The castle was most likely in the vicinity of the future Harbour and where Moores successors later built a house for themselves. The watermills might have been somewhere to the east or west of the river crossings, but were unlikely to have been between as the river was shallow enough in that stretch to be fordable. It is anybodys guess where the ten cottages were. We have no way of knowing precisely because no reliable maps, drawings, illustrations, anecdotes or written records exist. No trace of the buildings remain and much of the original road pattern of the town was obliterated over the years. The little hamlet may have looked something like my sketch (illus.) which assumes that the Puttaghan road, which was then the main route from Dublin to the south west of Ireland, continued in a straight line to ford the river at the point which is today the location of the Hidden Bridge behind the Library. It then continued into the Fair Green-later OConnor Square. However, in the absence of any physical evidence, that can only be guesswork. Tullamores emerging strategic importance as a regional market required protection and in 1716, another significant date in the history of the town, a barracks for two companies of foot soldiers was built on the edge of the little village. The notorious balloon fire of 1785 prompted a radical building programme which brought a new phase of development. Recent valuable work by Michael Byrne, based on leases and property transfer documents has provided us with the first reliable image of the town in the year before that transformative event. In order to create a useful basis for comparison, I have shown the footprints of the buildings which existed on four dates which best exemplify the changing nature of the town, 1784, 1838, 1960 and 2020. 1784 The barracks is the most prominent feature and Barrack Street (now Patrick Street) is the principal thoroughfare of the little village and joins what is today Colmcille Street and Church Street to form a crossroads. The Fair Green is the central space of the town and merchants and professionals' houses are beginning to spill northwards and southwards. The original Church of Ireland lies on Church Street and the County Infirmary has been established. Charles Street (Harbour Street) is in place and linking northwards to connect to the road to Philipstown (Daingean). It is likely that this road continued westwards to connect with the junction of the Clara and Rahan roads but it vanished following the arrival of the canal. With a population of around 2,000 persons and a stock of almost 300 houses in 1784 it is likely that there were also several back lanes of poorer quality housing whose actual location cannot be identified today. 1838 The 1838 Ordnance Survey Map gives us the first completely reliable picture of the footprint of the town The explosion of development following the arrival of the Grand Canal has transformed the northeastern quarter which is now dominated by the harbour and a new market place. Industry and manufacturing cluster around the river which is a source of power and a waste receptor. Poorer housing is provided in tight terraces close to the centre. Better class housing and prestige buildings including the Gaol and Courthouse extend southwards but little development has occured on the northern and eastern edges. Tanyard Lane and Bachelors Walk are in place. The population has risen to 6,343 persons. 1960 The railway has arrived but the overall form of the town has changed little since 1838 other than the new local authority estates located on the western and northern edges of the centre and which have almost doubled its footprint. Private housing is beginning to sprawl out the approach roads and along the minor lanes such as Spollenstown and Spade Avenue, but large areas of land within or on the edge of the centre remain undeveloped though it is still the principal location for manufacturing industry. Despite this physical expansion, the population of the town has declined to 6,243 persons. 2020 A booming national economy and almost universal car ownership have led to a proliferation of low density housing estates. While the lands in the centre have changed from manufacturing to shopping, large scale retailing is moving to edge locations and farther afield. The schools and institutional facilities have consolidated on their generous sites directly adjoining the centre. Extensive areas of central land are either still open or awaiting redevelopment. The town park has arrived. Today, the population is reckoned to be around 13,000 persons 2040? Tullamore expanded rapidly between 1798 and 1838 following the arrival of the canal. That era determined the form of the town for the next hundred years until a massive local authority house building programme almost doubled its footprint between 1940 and 1960. Rapid growth occurred between 1960 and 2008, expanding out into the countryside but leaving many gaps in its wake. It is now planned that the population of the Tullamore Municipal District will reach 19,000 persons by 2027. A population in the order of 25,000 persons by 2040 might even be anticipated, but this next period will be all about filling in those remaining gaps rather than further edge expansion. A different town, even a small city, is in the making. Ireland may expel some Russian diplomats in the coming days, but will likely stop short of ejecting the ambassador, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Simon Coveney, has said. It comes after the EU announced yesterday (Sunday February 27) an unprecedented set of measures to support Ukrainians, confirming that it will close its airspace to Russian airlines, fund supplies of weapons to Ukraine and ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets in response to Russias invasion. Ireland will constructively abstain from the planned delivery of arms to Ukraine. Simon Coveney, speaking amid growing calls for the Russian ambassador to be expelled, said that he understood public and political anger directed at Russia and Yury Filatov as the countrys representative in Ireland. He indicated that Ireland might move to expel some Russian diplomats, but ruled out expelling the ambassador. I can totally understand the anger and the sentiment behind that. My job as a foreign minister is to try to think ahead here. We are going to have Irish citizens, hundreds of them, living and working in Russia. We do have today. We have many Irish citizens still in Ukraine too. I need to make sure that we have lines of communication open so that I can help those people and do my job. And even if you fundamentally disagree with somebody, as we do with Russia right now, and youre trying to hold them to account, as we are trying at the moment, you still have to keep lines of communication open, in my view. Does that mean that we wont be expelling some Russian diplomats or some operatives that are in Ireland who may not be diplomats in the next few days? No, it doesnt. We may well do that. But I dont think its wise for us to expel the Russian ambassador and have no Russian presence in Ireland to allow us to have a direct line of communication with Moscow for humanitarian reasons primarily, but also to ensure that we can let them know what the Irish view is very directly in terms of Russian actions. Mr Coveney said that no country in the EU has so far moved to expel their Russian ambassador. The expulsion of diplomats or Russian staff in embassies is quite a significant thing to do. It sends a very strong signal and Russia will respond in kind. I think its likely that something will happen in that space, but we do need to be targeted. We need to bear in mind the interests of Irish citizens, both in Russia and across Ukraine. Mr Coveney said the country will send around nine million euros-worth of non-lethal equipment to Ukraine as part of the EU fund. Our money will be used for non-lethal weapons things like helmets, protection vests, medical kits, fuel, Mr Coveney told RTE radio. I think the European Union is right to intervene and support the Ukrainian military who are under enormous pressure at the moment. I think if the European Union cant take a stand, well, then I think we have to question the moral substance of the European Union. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 716-372-3121 or email nfinnerty@oleantimesherald.com. Willard Carroll Smith II, also known by his stage name the Fresh Prince, is an American actor, rapper, and producer. Noted for his work in music, television, and film, Smith has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, four Grammy Awards, and nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award. His Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony nominations make him one of few black individuals to be nominated for the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT). Smith has achieved and held several US and international box office records. As of 2021, his films have grossed over $9.3 billion globally, making him one of Hollywood's most bankable stars. Canadians continue to show support for Ukraine and its fierce and urgent battle against a Russian invasion that has tossed life there into sudden chaos. Rumble 16 Mar 2022 The Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 surprised many around the world for its speed and scale, making it.. The 2022 SAG Awards just ended and we rounded up all of the red carpet photos for you to see in one place! The big winner of the.. Just Jared 28 Feb 2022 As we roll into our third year of a global crisis, capped off by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are still sitting at maximum on the uncertainty scale. The weekend curfew has been lifted in the Ukraine capital paving the way for the stranded Indian nationals to move to the safe and secure locations amidst intense fighting between the Armies of Russia and Ukraine from the past five days. "Weekend curfew lifted in Kiev. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts," the Indian Embassy in Ukraine conveyed through social media. The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine intensified in the early hours of Thursday after Russian forces launched a major assault on Ukraine, firing missiles on cities and military installations and posing a serious danger to the Indian citizens residing there. Since then, India, at the nick of time, began evacuating its citizens from the war-torn region. The Embassy further informed that Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations. Earlier on Sunday, the Indian citizens in the war-torn country's areas where a curfew has been imposed were advised not to venture towards railway stations until and unless the curfew is lifted. "Based on the latest input, intense fighting is underway in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kiev. It is reiterated, Indian Nationals in these cities, and other cities wherever curfew has been applied, are NOT advised to venture towards railway stations until curfew has been lifted and considerable civilian movement is renewed," the Sunday's advisory read. It further said that Ukrainian Railways is also operating special trains for evacuation of people free of charge, on a first come first serve basis at the Railway Station and for which tickets are not required. The Embassy added it is closely monitoring the developing situation especially in eastern regions of Ukraine. Meanwhile, to end the bloodshed, Ukraine has agreed to hold talks with Russia at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border near the Pripyat River. As per latest reports, the Ukrainian delegation is now in Belarus and the talks are expected to start soon. Europe and Canada said Sunday they would close their airspace to Russian airlines after Russias invasion of Ukraine, raising the pressure on the United States to do the same. We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Canadas transport minister, Omar Alghabra, said his nation was closing its airspace to all Russian planes to hold the country accountable for an unprovoked attack on its neighbor. The European Union action came after many of its member countries had said they were barring Russian planes or planned to do so by Sunday night. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted that European skies are open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress. There is no room in Dutch airspace for a regime that applies unnecessary and brutal violence, Mark Harbers, the Netherlands minister of infrastructure and waterworks, said on Twitter. A handful of European nations including Spain, Greece and Turkey had resisted closing their airspace before von der Leyen's announcement. Robert Mann, an aviation consultant in New York, said the moves by the European Union and Canada would put added pressure on the U.S. to also bar Russian flights. It is difficult to understand why we are last to move, both operationally and financially, he said. Russia has responded by banning flights from several European countries. Russian airline S7 suspended flights to Europe. On Sunday afternoon U.S. time, a Moscow-New York flight by Russian national carrier Aeroflot turned back after passing over Norway, according to flight-tracking services. The plane had been routed to fly over Canada. Growing tension between Russia and western nations over Russia's invasion of Ukraine have so far had a... The European Union said it will spend 450 million on weapons and equipment for Ukraine. Kyiv and Moscow have sent envoys to peace talks on the Belarus border. DW has the latest. The federal government committed to send at least $25 million in additional non-lethal military aid to Ukraine as that country fights against a Russian invasion. The EU says it will begin shipping arms to Ukraine, the first time it has done so in a conflict. The EU has banned Russian flights from its airspace and promised weapons for Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said it is facing shelling from all directions. Follow DW for the latest. Immediate family members will be able to join Ukrainians settled in the UK as they flee the Russian invasion, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said. 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. The EU has banned Russian flights from its airspace and promised weapons for Ukraine. Meanwhile, ahead of talks, Ukraine demanded that Russia withdraw its troops. Follow DW for the latest. A Ukrainian man who allegedly tried to sink his Russian boss's multimillion pound yacht has said he has no regrets and would do it again. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that "the next 24 hours" would be a "crucial period" for Ukraine as its conflict with Russia continues, RT reported. Downing Street revealed in a statement that Zelensky told the prime minister he "believed the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine," while Johnson "said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine." Johnson also "praised" Zelensky's "leadership" and said "the resistance of the Ukrainian people was heroic," before the two "agreed to continue to stay in close contact", RT reported. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned on Sunday that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could also turn into a conflict between Russia and NATO ' title=' NATO '>NATO if Western countries "don't stand up to Putin now." On the same day, Truss gave her blessing to Brits to go to Ukraine to fight against Russia despite being warned that such action would be illegal and dangerous and said the UK government had "compiled a hit list" of Russian "oligarchs" to sanction. The federal government is preparing to send a third shipment of lethal weapons to Ukraine as its military continues to fend off better-armed Russian forces. Appealing to voters in Gorakhpur, BSP chief Mayawati said, Send Yogiji back to his mutt, to his family. He had made big promises.. Zee News 26 Feb 2022 Protesters took to the streets across major cities around the world, demanding an end to the Russian assault of Ukraine after its third day Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday that Japan should start discussing whether to seek a nuclear sharing arrangement similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's nuclear National's foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee wants the Government to expel Russia's top diplomat from New Zealand and have New Zealand's ambassador recalled from Moscow. This would be a serious and significant step. Countries... Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday Japan is considering imposing sanctions on Belarus for its support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a move that would be in line Trade Minister Damien O'Connor signed New Zealand's free trade agreement with the United Kingdom in London.The agreement is expected to boost growth by $1 billion, and provide a boon to exporters who had long faced punishing European... Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 28, 2022 West Texas Intermediate crude surged more than six percent Monday and Brent jumped more than five percent as traders grow increasingly worried about an energy crisis after Western nations imposed fresh sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. WTI rose 6.27 percent to $97.33, while Brent crude was up 5.24 percent at $103.06. The United States and European Union said they would ex The measures, co-ordinated with the US and the EU, are designed to cut off Moscow from raising funds. A superhero stunt double rode on top of the London Eye ahead of the cinematic release of new film The Batman. Page Content Psalm 5:11. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exalt in you. Good Morning Excellency, Governor Drs. Eugene Holiday, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs, Members of Parliament, the St. Maarten Police Force, the Police Academy of the Netherlands, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, and a special and proud good morning and welcome to you 18 cadets. It is an honor to be here with you today, to share in this special occasion signifying the completion of your training and official entry into the justice chain. I welcome the opportunity to briefly express my gratitude to you as we know this line of work is not an easy one and can be very dangerous. Nevertheless, you have so bravely taken up the mantle to protect and serve. Your service to your country is unmatched. A task that will require endurance, leadership, and sometimes most importantly compassion. I hereby thank the Police Academy of the Netherlands, Instructors, KPSM Management, support staff and families of these cadets for standing by them and supporting them as they made the decision to undertake this profession of becoming a Law Enforcement officer. What a proud day this must be for you. Today it is official today you graduate prepared to accept the challenges in modern day policing. Each day, whether in uniform or not, you wear a badge of honor to serve the community of St. Maarten. That means, you will, today, take an oath that confirms that you will honor, respect, protect, serve and enforce the law impartially. You are a representation of the Korps Politie Sint Maarten which means you have been entrusted with an incredible amount of authority that comes with an incredible amount of responsibility. Wear this proudly and with dignity. This graduation has been themed reflecting in diversity and indeed we can see this in our cadets. From gender to place of birth to the differences in reasons for joining the police force, but ultimately still being one family. Each of you will have different experiences, encounter different cases and experience different emotions. As you go into our community, you will witness different and at times horrific tragedies from vehicle accidents, suicides, homicides, robberies, matters of domestic violence and the list goes on. You will be the first responders on the scenes of these different serious matters of society. There is no doubt, you have signed up for a stressful career and call of duty, and for that we as a community are forever grateful. As Minister of Justice, I will continue to work on ensuring that every challenge met in this Ministry are dealt with in the best interest of all workers within the justice chain, fostering a better work environment. As I have always stated; challenges are opportunities to learn and to grow. As you take on your demanding careers I encourage you to see challenges as such. In closing, I wish to share two quotes that are diverse in themselves: "I'm continually trying to make choices that put me out of my own comfort zone. As long as you're uncomfortable it means you're growing." Ashton Kutcher "Don't be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered." Michelle Obama At events in Washington, Chicago, Boston and other cities on Sunday, demonstrators expressed their love for the country, anger at Vladimir Putin and hope for peace. On the SAG Awards' silver carpet, actor Michael Douglas shows his support for Ukraine while others express their sadness over conflict. (Feb. 27) Germany's stunning decision to send anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine abandoning its long-held refusal to export weapons to conflict zones is nothing less than a historic break with its post-World War II... Russian President Vladimir Putin's implied threat to turn the Ukraine war into a broader nuclear conflict presents US President Joe Biden with choices rarely contemplated in the atomic age, including whether to raise the alert level... Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky agrees to peace talks with Russia but later questions the possibility of the success of the negotiations. Kyle Verreynne's maiden Test ton was at the heart of South Africa's impressive day four showing as they held New Zealand down to 94/4 in the second Test at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Monday. Canada has closed its airspace to all Russian carriers in protest at the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ottawa announced on Sunday. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "not on schedule" and Vladimir Putin's forces "are in some significant areas of disarray", the defence secretary has told Sky News. As the EU bans Russian state-backed channels RT and Sputnik, DStv says it has no "editorial control over third party channels". Page Content On Saturday, February 26, the Council of Ministers welcomed the members of the Committee of Kingdom Relations of the Dutch Senate to a meeting in the Government Administration Building. The delegation consisted of 15 persons and was escorted by the Dutch Representative of the Netherlands in Philipsburg (VNP), Mr. Chris Johnson. Both parties concluded that it was a fruitful and open conversation about various discussion points, including the relations within the Kingdom along with the COHO and the 12.5% personnel-related cost-cutting measures. The visit of the Senate was added to a slew of recent positively experienced mainly in-person visits of which the last one being the recent visit of the State Secretary Van Huffelen to Sint Maarten. The Senate was mostly interested in ways and means to continue to strengthen and foster relationships between the Dutch and the Sint Maarten Government, and how the Senate could assist Sint Maarten in this process. Having a better understanding of the historical, demographical, financial/economic, and political reality on the island is one of the foundation blocks of being able to build a more trustworthy partnership. The Council of Ministers reconfirmed its commitment to the national reform measures and indicated to the delegation that most of these were already included in its National Development Plan. However, the potential of the island needs to be more highlighted and better profiling of the strengths of Sint Maarten within the Caribbean through politics should occur. Upon request, clarification was provided regarding the absence of capital expenditures to invest in the prison and financial management, though approved yet not forthcoming. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the same period that the current Council of Ministers assumed office, further negatively impacted the absence of the approved funds, resulting in no financial means for capital investments. The meeting continued with the Senate posing various questions to the Ministers present which provided Ministers the opportunity to explain the impact of the cost-cutting measures on education, the ten-year vision of the country where creative arts, safeguarding food security and agriculture, being more resilient to natural disasters - in particular, flooding - and improving infrastructure in general, were emphasized. In its closing words, the Council of Ministers reemphasized its willingness to commit to the reforms yet stressed that imposing while a consensus has to be sought does not aid in building open and trustworthy relations. Neither does a one size fits all approach for all the countries within the Kingdom or applying a negative generalized perception of all politicians on Sint Maarten. The meeting ended with an exchange of gifts and a pledge to continue the open dialogue. After the meeting with the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice joined the delegation at the VNPs office where a presentation on the Prison was provided; this continued with an update on the reconstruction projects followed by a tour displaying the actual progress of some of these projects. The Prime Minister and the director of the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB), Mr. Claret Connor, were able to further elucidate en route via the landfill, the John Larmonie Center shelter, and the Caribbean Heritage travel exhibit, then via the Sint Medical Center (SMMC) and The ew General Hospital that is currently being built, along the lagoon to witness the cleaned-up lagoon after the removal of the shipwrecks. Although the visit of the Kingdom Relations Committee occurred over the weekend, the Prime Minister deemed it important to invest the necessary time and opted to attend the different elements of the delegations program as she equates the investment of this relationship with the long-term (financial/economic) well-being of the citizens of Sint Maarten. euronews (in English) 04 May 2022 EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen has unveiled a proposal that would give EU countries until the end of the year to phase out imports.. Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Norway's sovereign wealth fund will divest all of its investments in Russia following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The $1.3 trillion fund's investments include shares in 47 Russian companies, as well as government bonds. The investments amount to 25 billion Norwegian crowns ($2.83 billion). According to a report from CNN, the fund is the fourth-largest shareholder in Sberbank. Sberbank is the largest financial institution i...................... To view our full article Click here Opalesque Industry Update - Mirova, a pureplay sustainable finance investment firm and affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, has completed hiring for its impact private equity team. The team will manage Mirova's environmental impact investing, which is designed to further the growth of companies that solve sustainability challenges. Marc Romano, Head of Mirova's impact private equity, said the team was now fully rounded out and is ready to invest whenever opportunities are identified. Three investments have already been done by the team (Tallano Technology, Agronutris, Ombrea). "We have hired talented professionals for this innovative approach with direct experience of the verticals we seek to invest in," said Romano. "They are all passionate about impact investing and have made it a focus in their careers." Joanna Parent has joined as investment director after more than six years at Suez Groupe, where she was an investment director for Suez Ventures, its venture capital arm. She was also M&A director for Suez's Smart and Environmental Solutions Business Unit, completing investments in companies which aim to disrupt water and waste management services. Youssef Belatar joins as an investment director from Citizen Capital, a pioneer in impact investing in France. At Citizen Capital, he worked on early-stage and late-stage transactions in various sectors, with a strong focus on energy transition stakes. He led seven investments. He is also involved in social causes including mentoring of students and entrepreneurs, helping homeless people, and serving on the board of the NGO Banlieues Sante?. Anne Boulet joins as an investment manager from Total Eren, where she was vice president in charge of business development in Africa. She participated in transactions in Latin America and Africa. Vanessa Carvalho joins the team as an investment advisor. She joined Mirova Group in early 2021 as part of the Sustainable Ocean Fund team. She spent five years at CDC Group, a leading impact investor in Africa and South Asia. At CDC, she was responsible for due diligence structuring and execution of direct equity investments in food and agriculture, farming and forestry. "All of them have joined us because they want to make an impact," said Romano. "We have hired them for their vertical expertise, for their collaborative outlook, and for their direct experience. "They all have different backgrounds and have worked in a variety of cultures and investment settings. We like these attributes, they reflect Mirova's diverse workforce and allow for better investment decisions." Before joining Mirova, Romano held various positions at Rothschild & Co, including managing director of Five Arrows, the private equity business. He was also General Partner and co-CEO of Rothschild & Co Asset Management. The impact private equity team will be supported by the wider Mirova ecosystem, which includes teams dedicated to energy transition, natural capital, social impact investing and sustainability research. "The new team will have the support of a strong and efficient ecosystem as we set about deploying investors' funds over the coming months and years," Romano added. Opalesque Industry Update - Vivian Tung has joined BNY Mellon as Global Head of ETF Services from Brown Brothers Harriman. In this role, Tung will be responsible for managing all of the operational aspects of BNY Mellon's ETF business, with a particular focus on the innovation, design, and tech implementation of ETF products and the key processes regarding client onboarding and servicing. Vivian will report directly to Paul Vigilante, Head of Accounting & Investor Solutions at BNY Mellon. Tung has over 20 years' experience in the financial services sector with a focus on fund accounting and securities lending. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Tung spent over 16 years at Brown Brothers Harriman where she held the position of Senior Vice President, U.S. ETF Product, since 2011. In this role, Tung oversaw the launch of products for new and existing ETF sponsors including new fund domiciles, structures, asset types and conversions, as well as successfully implementing the firm's global ETF technology platforms. Tung began her career as an accountant at State Street, before joining J.P. Morgan Chase as an Assistant Treasurer in 2001 and then as an Associate in Brown Brothers Harriman's Client Services Group in 2005. Vivian graduated from Babson College and is currently Head of the Boston Chapter for Women in ETFs. Quote: "We are thrilled to welcome Vivian to BNY Mellon and are excited by the significant industry experience and product knowledge she brings with her. Vivian's addition is yet another example of how BNY Mellon is continuing to invest in the growth and development of our ETF business while maintaining a focus on preserving a high-standard of client experience." said Ben Slavin, Global Head of ETFs, Asset Servicing, BNY Mellon. Quote: "I am excited to join BNY Mellon and look forward to contributing to the on-going growth of its ETF business through a focus on optimizing operations and developing processes that allow for further scale and enhancement." said Vivian Tung, Global Head of ETF Operations at BNY Mellon. Opalesque Industry Update - Lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity firm focused on financial services, today announced that it has hired Courtney Sullivan as Managing Director and Head of Fundraising and Investor Relations. She joins Lightyear from Inverness Graham Investments, a private investment firm that specializes in high-growth, innovative manufacturing, technology and service companies, where she was head of investor relations. Lightyear also announced that Managing Director Natalie Ings was appointed to the firm's Investment Committee, where as part of the senior leadership team, she is focused on enhancing value and driving growth at Lightyear's portfolio companies. "Lightyear is distinguished by our talented team members who are core to our long-term success. We welcome Courtney and know she will be a great asset to the firm with her strong track record of fundraising and building sustainable relationships with investors. We are also pleased to appoint Natalie to the Investment Committee. In her six years at Lightyear, she has proven to be a valued and trusted senior leader and is a big part of our successful performance and growth over the years," said Mark F. Vassallo, Managing Partner of Lightyear. Ms. Sullivan worked at Inverness Graham Investments from 2009 - 2022 as head of fundraising and investor relations and marketing. Prior to Inverness Graham she was a Fundraising Associate at Graham Partners and she received a BS from St. Joseph's University. Prior to joining Lightyear, Ms. Ings was a Private Equity Controller at Och-Ziff Capital Management and a Senior Vice President, Head of Finance, at Macquarie Infrastructure Partners. Ms. Ings holds a B.Com. in Accounting and Finance from the University of Sydney and a M.Fin. from INSEAD. She is an Australian Chartered Accountant. Lightyear also announced the following promotions: Trevor Pieri, Principal, Investment Team Ben Strumeier, Principal and Assistant General Counsel Noah Liff, Vice President, Investment Team Jacobo Ochoa, Senior Associate, Investment Team Josh Chawla, Senior Associate, Portfolio Solutions Joe Raio, Senior Associate, Investment Team New Managers Editorial Dear Opalesque Reader, Welcome to the February issue of New Managers! In Bulletin, we have an update on the launch of a new consultancy Archive Capital, which will work with ultra high net worth investors on incorporating systematic strategies into their portfolios. We also get a performance note from the Savin Multi-Strategy Arbitrage Fund which ended its first year up 25%. In Profiles, we speak with Turkish global macro fund Arrow Partners as it reaches its three-year milestone. We also spoke with London-based funds Agera Capital and Katch Investment Group. Agera runs a thematic strategy and Katch runs a li...................... To view our full article please login The president of the Central Council of Independent and Messianic Jews in Germany (ZMJ), Ben Feldman, warns the Russian president against further miscalculations and calls for immediate peace without conditions. At the same time, Feldman criticized the fact that far too little is being done to save Ukrainian Jews in the particularly embattled south of the country. "Neither our colleagues from the state supported Council of rabbinic Jews in Dorothy Denney, 98, of Oskaloosa, passed away Sunday morning, May 1, 2022, at the Mahaska Hospice Serenity House in Oskaloosa. Dorothy Ione Denney, daughter of Elmer and Mary (Passalia) Shipley, was born September 26, 1923, in Sigourney, Iowa. She attended Tioga Country School and then Delta Do you appreciate the work we do as the only independent media outlet dedicated to serving OU students, faculty, staff and alumni on campus and around the world for more than 100 years? Then consider helping fund our endeavors. Around the world, communities are grappling with what journalism is worth and how to fund the civic good that robust news organizations can generate. We believe The OU Daily and Crimson Quarterly magazine provide real value to this community both now by covering OU, and tomorrow by helping launch the careers of media professionals. If youre able, please SUPPORT US TODAY FOR AS LITTLE AS $1. You can make a one-time donation or a recurring pledge. FILER TWP. The Filer Township Board of Trustees could approve its budget for Fiscal Year 2023 at its next meeting Tuesday. A complete review of the general fund, liquor fund, water department, sewer, refuse fund, fire operating fund and Downtown Development Authority revenues and expenses were conducted by the board of trustees at a budget meeting earlier this month. Trustees could approve a millage rate of 1.39555 for township operations, 1.0 for refuse, 0.5 for fire and rescue and an additional 0.5 fire bond. A millage represents the tax rate levied on real estate and other property. Each mill is one thousandth of a dollar, or one tenth of one cent. The millage rate represents the amount a property owner has to pay for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value. Board members will also consider annual salaries for the township treasurer, clerk, supervisor, and trustees, according to the meeting agenda. The meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at Filer Township Hall located at 2505 Filer City Road. Other items on the agenda include: Trustees could consider purchasing bag dispensers for Magoon Creek and Sundling Park for $214.36. The board could also approve the installation of a light on the west side of Red Apple Road, including pole, light, box and meter at a cost not to exceed $8,000. Consideration of the purchase of one picnic table for Sundling Park at $900 plus an additional $35 for mounting hardware and freight. Consideration of the purchase of a message center sign with posts for Filer Township Hall in the amount of $695 plus shipping. The approval to hold the annual spring brush pick-up and permission to seek bids. The Filer Township Board of Trustees took the following actions at its regular monthly meeting for February: Approved a bid for the Filer City Park pavilion roof. Approved of fire department personnel attending Agape Health Care Schools EMT course starting March 9 at a cost of $49 application fee and $1,500 tuition per person. Appointed Jennifer Williams as liaison from the township planning commission to the zoning board of appeals for a term ending Dec. 31, 2024. Approved purchase of Cisco FirePower Firewall to upgrade phone systems in the amount of $650. Approved quote from 5 Alarm Fire for self-contained breathing apparatus for $103,631.31 with funds to be taken from the American Rescue Plan allowance. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate They were homesteaders, farmers, lumbermen, and scholars. They cleared the land, pulled stumps and owned lumber camps. They built schools, roads and railroads. Known collectively as The Old Settlers of Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm counties, the first Blacks who settled the region created a foundation for future generations. The first Black settlers arrived in the early 1860s, not long after the Michigan state legislature authorized the organization of Mecosta County in 1859. (The county boundaries previously had been set in 1840). Many were drawn by the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave homesteaders up to 160 acres of public land regardless of race or gender. They settled in the communities of Bingen/Buckshoey and Beggie Hollow. Never heard of Bingen, Buckshoey and Beggie Hollow? You may know them better as by their current names of Remus and Millbrook. Bingen (also known as Buckshoey) was located in Morton Township Section 13 and Wheatland Township Section 18. The first documented Black Settler in Mecosta County, James (Jim) Guy, bought 160 acres in this area. (President Abraham Lincoln signed his deed in 1861). According to the booklet, The Old Settlers: Bingen Michigan Homesteaders, available at osrw.org, other settlers who arrived with the Guy family included Thomas Cross, Gabriel and Harvey Green, Dan Pointer, Charles Rice, Harrison Harding, and the Gingrich family. Later settlers would include Isaac and Millie Berry. In the 1860s, Blacks owned most of the area. The Bingen name became official in 1877, and the area got a post office. But three years later, Bingen was renamed Remus, after William John Remus. Prior to the establishment of Millbrook in 1865, Blacks began settling in what was then known as Beggie Hollow. Most of the village of Millbrook/Beggie Hollow was located in Millbrook Township in southeastern Mecosta County, but it also extended into Wheatland Township in Mecosta County and the adjacent townships of Rolland and Broomfield in Isabella County. According to the booklet, Millbrook Michigan: Black Pioneer Settlers, 1860s, available at osrw.org, about 60 Black families settled in the area in the 1860s and 70s. Some of the earliest settlers included Grandison and Susan Norman, Marquis and Joanna (Cummings) Norman, William and Harriett (Flowers) Cummings and Thomas and Maria(h) Pointer. By 1873, Blacks owned 1,392 acres in Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm counties, according to oldsettlersreunion.com. The Old Settlers also played a part in the logging boom in the mid- to late-1800s. As the homesteaders cleared their newly obtained land for farming, the lumber would be hauled by horse drawn wagons to area mills and railroads. Logging camps also sprang up, notably Joe Letts Bundy Hill Camp on the Squaw branch of the Chippewa River and the Skinner Camp. Photos in a slideshow video on the osrw.org website show Black settlers standing on piles of logs loaded on horse-drawn wagons. According to the captions with the photos, Old Settlers who worked at the lumber camp included Dick Sleet, George and Dan Norman, William and John Todd, Lon Seaton and Bessie Green-Jackson, who became the camp cook at Bundy Hill at age 15. EDUCATIONAL TRAILBLAZERS The Old Settlers also built several one room schoolhouses, including Oberlin School, McCabe School, Little River School, Cross School, and Joe Lett School. According to oldsettlersreunion.com, the school year ran from after the harvest season ended to the first severe cold snap, then picked up again in spring until planting time. Emma Norman-Todd, the first Black graduate of Central Michigan University, attended grade school at the Joe Lett School near Bundy Hill. According to the booklet, Old Settlers Education Trailblazers, available at osrw.org, Emma drove a horse and buggy every day to what was then called Central Michigan Normal School. In the winter, she stayed on the Chippewa Indian Reservation in Mount Pleasant. After obtaining the highest-level teaching certificate, she returned to her hometown to teach at the Nostrant School, which replaced the Joe Lett school after it burned down in 1910. Another Old Settler, Mary Moore, of Remus, also returned to her hometown to share her collegiate education. After studying piano at Ferris State Institute (Class of 1913-1914), she taught music lessons in Remus for years. The Old Settler who perhaps went the furthest in her educational studies was Merze Tate, of Blanchard. She started her journey at McCabe School, a one room schoolhouse in Millbrook. According to the Old Settlers Education Trailblazers booklet, She earned the highest scholastic record at Western and became the first Colored American at Western Michigan Teachers' College to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree. After earning a masters degree from the Teachers College at Columbia University, Merze became the first Colored American woman to enroll at Oxford University where she studied European diplomatic history, advanced economics and world trade, international relations, and international law. By June 1935, she completed her studies and received a Bachelor of Literature Degree from Oxford, becoming the first Black American, man or woman, to receive that degree. Merze obtained her Ph.D. in government at Harvard University and Radcliff College, and then spent the rest of her career teaching at Morgan State College and Howard University, as well as authoring seven books. For more information on the Old Settlers, visit oldsettlersreunion.com and osrw.org. Ann Brown, age 67, of Palestine, Texas, passed away Sunday, May 1, 2022 in Palestine, Texas. Funeral service will be held at 10AM on Friday, May 6, 2022 at Evangelistic Temple. Burial will follow at Tennessee Colony Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 6PM to 8PM on Thursday, May 5, 2022 a Tibet gets ready to welcome new year Ecns.cn) 14:26, February 28, 2022 A vendor sells traditional stuff at a bazaarin Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Feb 27, 2022. As Losar, or Tibetan New Year, draws near, people in Lhasa get busy with their annual shopping. (Photo: China News Service/Jiang Feibo) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - A delegation from the Libyan Interior Ministry of the Government of National Unity (GNU) on Sunday participated in the meeting in Tunis of the preparatory committee of the 39th session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Interior, which will be hosted by Tunisia during the next two days Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - A joint delegation of envoys from the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) arrived in the Guinean capital on Sunday evening for talks with several members of the transitional government and the newly established National Transitional Council (CNT) Photo: (Photo : Getty images ) Teagan Brill, a college student, shared how she gave birth one week after finding out that she was pregnant, a rare case of cryptic pregnancy. A senior at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, Teagan Brill, was about to participate in her Zoom class but said her stomach hurt severely. Hence, she asked her professor to attend her class with the camera off, Today reported. She said her stomach pains were intense, and she could barely stand up. She tried calling her roommates who were sleeping upstairs. But when she did not get any help, she called 911. "I think I'm giving birth" At the time, Teagan did not know that the stomach cramps that she was having were contractions. While inside the bathroom and on the phone with the 911 operator, Teagan gave birth to a baby boy. The new mom just discovered she was pregnant a week before. Thinking that she was gaining much weight, she took a pregnancy test and got a positive result. Since she and her boyfriend, Mitchell, were in a long-distance relationship, she figured she could be one or three months pregnant. The couple decided to wait a bit before telling their parents and friends the news. When Teagan felt stomach pains a week after, she assumed that she might be having a miscarriage. She explained her situation to the 911 operator. She also told the operator that she could barely stand up and felt intense pain, and it was getting worse. Later, she told the operator that she thought she was already giving birth. When Teagan reached her hand down to pull a baby out, the operator heard the cries of a newborn on the other end of the line. Read Also: Accident Recording of Dying Brain Shows That Life's Memories May Flash Before Your Eyes A case of cryptic pregnancy Experts said that Teagan may have had cryptic pregnancy. According to Verywell Health, it is a condition where a woman is unaware that she is expecting a baby until halfway through or late stages of pregnancy. The condition is rare, as research says only one in 475 pregnancies go undetected until the 20-week mark. Only one in 2,500 pregnancy cases remain unrecognized until the woman goes into labor. Cryptic pregnancy can be due to psychological reasons such as denial of pregnancy. For Taegan, nurses said her six-foot height meant that her son was growing behind her ribs. Hence, her baby bump was not showing. Teagan did not experience any signs of pregnancy in the past nine months. She said that she did not notice any changes in her menstrual cycle. The doctors later explained that the "menstruations" were not her period. Not knowing that she was pregnant, she admitted that she unwittingly drank alcohol. Taegan explained that when emergency responders arrived at the scene, they checked her baby and gave her a series of tests. Doctors said the baby was fine. Delivering the shocking news When the new mother arrived at the hospital, she called her mom to share the good news. Upon learning that she had just given birth, her mom went into a complete panic. Her mom then insisted that she would tell her dad and not Taegan. Taegan's father reportedly shoveled snow on the driveway after he found out. Related Article: Teratogenic Drugs: 1 Out of 16 Pregnant Women Gets Exposed to the Medication That Can Harm Unborn Children Photo: (Photo : Getty images ) It is not unusual for first-time moms to wonder if the baby is getting enough milk from the breast. After all, breastmilk could not be measured. The first few days after the baby arrives, the first milk is called colostrum, which is thick and sticky but nutritious and essential for the baby's immune system. The baby will likely latch 8-12 times in one day. The frequent feeding helps the new mom produce plenty of milk for the baby, Motherly says. How to Spot if the Baby is Well-feed? The La Leche League International cites the following signs that the baby is well-fed: Baby seems content when fed and releases the breast on their own. The baby may make a fist before providing or if they are hungry, but the grip would relax if the baby has had enough milk; Baby's poop turns yellow with a loose and seedy texture on the baby's fifth day. The baby should also have 3-4 stools every day by day 4. Urine volume increases each day. The baby is expected to use at least two wet diapers over 24 hours by day two. As the baby turns five days old, the baby's caregivers would notice that they need to change diapers around six or more times in one day. The baby is gaining weight and is alert and active when awake. How to Know if the baby is not getting enough milk? The baby is spending little or too much time at a breast. A poorly fed baby may sleep after they start feeding. Latching is painful, and the baby seems not to be latching well. The baby is not stooling often, usually three to four stools per day. Read Also: Family Calls for Justice for 5-Year-old Boy, Mom and Boyfriend Murdered Execution-style in Detriot Home Why does the mom have a low milk supply? Today's Parents describe common reasons why there is a low milk supply: Some breasts may not have enough "milk-making" ducts to ensure the baby's needs. Ducts tend to grow, and breastfeeding stimulates more milk ducts; hence, breastfeeding may not be a problem with the second or third baby. Experts recommend continuing breastfeeding as it enables the milk ducts to produce more milk to support the baby's immune system, brain development, and nutritional needs. The baby has a tongue-tie. In some cases, the baby may have difficulty getting milk from the breast as they may have tongue-tie. A thin membrane of tissue at the bottom of his mouth holds the tongue too tightly, so he has difficulty latching and extracting the milk. Check the baby for possible tongue-ties. The doctors can clip the membrane, improving the baby's ability to feed. Not feeding at night or frequently can contribute to a drop in milk supply. Experts recommend reintroducing feeding at night and having frequent feeding to enhance milk supply. Supplementation, like when a baby is given formula supplements, they tend to get less food or milk from the breast, prompting the breast to create less milk. Continuous pumping from the breast can help promote a higher milk production volume. Related Article: Sofia Jirau: Who is Victoria Secret's First Model With Down Syndrome? Photo: (Photo : John Moore/Getty Images) Hundreds of Missouri families have missed out on their monthly SNAP benefits that would have provided food on their table due to a dysfunctional system, which has prompted a lawsuit against the state's Department of Social Services (DSS). Mary Holmes, 55, is one of the complainants in the lawsuit, who stated that she was unable to renew her SNAP benefits because her calls to the DSS were unanswered. Speaking with KMOV4, Holmes said that she was the 469th caller waiting to be answered at one point because the agency's system was overwhelmed. "I waited for approximately an hour and a half, and then I hung up because I was almost out of pre-paid phone minutes," Holmes said, adding that she does not have the internet to complete her SNAP forms online. The Missouri woman's primary source of income is her disability checks, as she is also dealing with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer. As a vulnerable individual, she does not conveniently have a car to drive down to the DSS. Thus, she relies on the call center to facilitate her SNAP benefits renewal. Read Also: New York Families on SNAP Benefits to Get $95 Boost for February, to be Released from the 17th to 25th DSS Understaffed and Underfunded Katherine Holley, who works with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, is helping Missouri families deprived of their food benefits from the state government. She said that hundreds of eligible families could not renew because of the broken system that has gotten worse over time. The lawyer said that the DSS decided to install a specific hotline for the SNAP benefits before the pandemic to lessen the backlogs of applications and renewal. However, instead of helping families, the new system has not been working well. Reports cited that the DSS has been understaffed and underfunded. Another lawyer helping the families, Andrew Scavotto, said that it was inexcusable for DSS to deny access, especially when these families are already struggling to make ends meet and provide food on the table. Holley said her clients are in the low-income bracket who are already beaten down by a failed system. The state has not yet responded to the lawsuit, and no one from the DSS has publicly commented on the issues. However, Holley said that she's hoping this lawsuit will force state officials to fix the problem as soon as possible. How Broken is Missouri's SNAP Benefits Program? Those under SNAP benefits in Missouri have to undergo an interview for renewal or recertification, and uncompleted interviews are automatically rejected. In December 2021, more than 35 percent of SNAP benefits renewal were turned down as it was incomplete. In September of the same year, about 50 percent were rejected. Unfortunately, interviews are not scheduled by appointment. Instead, the calls come at random, and if the beneficiaries miss these calls, they have to try and call back the call center. Meanwhile, there are also long lines at the DSS for in-person interviews because the hours for these resource centers are extremely limited, especially during the lockdowns. In some cases, some of the DSS SNAP benefits centers are open for three days a week only. Related Article: Removing Medicaid Coverage Will Put Missouri Kids Most at Risk Once Pandemic Health Emergency Ends, Study Finds Photo: (Photo : JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images) A Tennessee student with misophonia had filed a lawsuit against her school for failing to acknowledge and accommodate that she had a disorder when she asked to ban gum chewing and eating inside the classroom. Alongside her parents, the student with misophonia stated in her lawsuit that hearing chewing sounds causes her extreme distress. Her condition is also aggravated by migraine as she has an "unusual tolerance to ordinary environmental sounds," per 10 News. The student goes to the L&N Stem Academy in Knox County, Tennessee, as a ninth-grader. She has been identified only as "Jane Doe" in the lawsuit, which was filed with the help of the saw law firm suing the county for its face mask mandate. Read Also: Mom Who Starved Daughter with Down's Syndrome to Death Gets Almost 10 Years Student with Misophonia Has Right to Ask for Changes Documents from the lawsuit showed that the representatives of Jane Doe believe she's in the right to ask for changes about gum chewing and eating in the classroom based on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Her lawyers pointed out that her misophonia is an actual disability because she experiences the need to escape the classroom whenever someone is eating or chewing gum. Sounds can drive people crazy if they suffer from misophonia. They develop annoyance, anger, and panic, so they flee the environment. The condition is also known as selective sound sensitivity syndrome, or hatred and dislike for sound or the repetition of sound. The most common trigger of misophonia is chewing, but others may also tend to hate the sound of the keyboard, tapping fingers, or windshield wipers. Doctors are unsure why misophonia develops, as it can appear suddenly without any health or developmental issues. However, the experts think people with misophonia have trouble with the functions of the brain that filter the sounds. The family of the student with misophonia asked school officials at the L&N Stem Academy to ban gum chewing and eating in class in December 2021. However, instead of approving her request, the school told the girl to take more study halls. The school also said that there is no evidence showing her rights were violated based on the ADA. This meant that the student missed many of her academic classes as her condition prevented her from having a full experience in the classrooms. One of the elective classes she picked allowed food in class since it's 80-minutes long and overlaps with lunchtime. #GumGate Has Begun The girl's family said that her former school, Episcopal School of Knoxville, had no issues accommodating and acknowledging her condition. She had to transfer to L&N Stem Academy since her former school was only up to the eighth grade. She has also tried to use headphones with silencing features to class but with little success, thus requesting a "reasonable accommodation" for her condition. My fear when the court essentially ruled the ADA required government to not only mandate reasonable physical accommodation at public places but also to regulate third party behavior/conditions was that it would open the floodgates for new ADA lawsuits. It's beginning. #GumGate Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) February 25, 2022 Upon learning of the lawsuit, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who was served the lawsuit, posted a tweet to say that #GumGate is happening, and he fears that this will "open the floodgates for new ADA lawsuits." On Thursday, March 3, 2022, U.S. District Judge Katherine Crytzer will hear the motion of the case in court. Related Article: Showjumping Star Sues for Wrongful Conception; Believes She Should Not Have Been Born Photo: (Photo : Getty images ) The Granbury police are investigating the death of a family of four, including two children, in what the authorities described as a murder-suicide after finding the bodies on Thursday while doing a welfare check. A husband, wife, and two children were found shot to death after the police did a welfare check at the home in 300 block of Katy Lane in Granbury, Fox 4 News reported. The victims were identified as Marcus Buchanan, 36, Rita Buchanan, 34, and their two children aged 13 and three years old. Police said they found evidence at the scene that led investigators to believe the incident was a murder-suicide. The community mourns for the loss of the kids Family, neighbors, and friends are in shock and are making sense of the murder-suicide tragedy as a neighbor said that "there was never any indication that anything was wrong." Neighbors also reported that Marcus and Rita Buchanan often sit on the porch. Neighbors described the family as "happy" and that the children seemed to enjoy life as they often played in the backyard. The family moved from Las Vegas six months ago, and the couple worked from home. A neighbor, Madison McVay, told Star-Telegram that seeing the trampoline in their neighbor's yard was "triggering," knowing that the kids would not be able to play on it again. Neighbor Crystal Blanchard told WFAA that her daughter is a friend of the 13-year-old victim. Her daughter, Maddison Blanchard, said that they were close, and they would ride the bus every morning and take walks together. Maddison described the 13-year-old victim as a good person, and her death shocked her. Crystal described Marcus as the happiest guy as he always talked and hung out with them. A classmate of the 13-year old, Kayeleagh Goltl, said she remembered seeing the teen at school on Tuesday, but she was absent from class on Wednesday, February 22. Read Also: Daughter Slips Note to Teacher Leading to Police Finding a Dead Boy in the Freezer and an Abused Mother Nobody in the neighborhood heard any gunfire. Meanwhile, the Granbury ISD confirmed that the two children were students in the district. On Friday, Granbury ISD Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Glenn said that a crisis management team was helping those who were impacted by the tragedy. The school also said in a statement that the tragic loss of the two students is heartbreaking for students, teachers, staff, and the community. The school district expressed its appreciation to the Granbury Police Department for its investigation efforts, and the school is willing to assist in the investigation if necessary. Investigation still ongoing In a report from CBS DFW, police said that there is no evidence that anyone else was involved. Authorities also said that the scene is consistent with a murder-suicide. However, police must conclude the findings as an active investigation is ongoing. The Child Protective Services did not clarify if there was a history of abuse in the family. Related Article: Family Calls for Justice for 5-Year-old Boy, Mom and Boyfriend Murdered Execution-style in Detriot Home Photo: (Photo : Getty images ) The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently issued a recall of wooden baby teethers sold at Target and other stores nationwide for being a choking risk on young children. The items were also sold online. The importer of the product, Bebe au Lait, is recalling around 8,600 teethers as the string that connects the beads on the teethers can come untied, resulting in the release of the beads. The beads are a choking hazard to young children, Fox 13 reported. 12 Different Styles of Wooden Teethers The recall covers the following wooden teether styles: Starfish Wooden Bebe Teether Tropical leaf Wooden Bebe Teether Turtle Wooden Bebe Teether World Wooden Bebe Teether Butterfly and Flower Wooden Bebe Teether Boat Wooden Bebe Teether Cactus Wooden Bebe Teether Dinosaur Wooden Bebe Teether Heart and Flower Wooden Bebe Teether Moon and Star Wooden Bebe Teether Owl Wooden Bebe Teether Rainbow Wooden Bebe Teether The teethers measure 3" x 3" x 1" and are marked "Bebe au Lait." The date codes of the product are 02-2019, 10-2020, or 03-2021. The teethers were sold from May 2019 to October 2021 at Target stores nationwide and other retailers. It was also sold online through Bebeaulait.com, Zulily.com, and other websites. Each teether cost about $15.00, the recall advise stated. Read Also: How to Spot if Your Baby is Not Getting Enough Breast Milk Reports of detached beads Bebe au Lait, a company based in Santa Clara, California, has received six reports of detached beads. The report included a child who reportedly placed a bead in his mouth. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission advises the public to keep the teethers away from the children and contact Bebe au Lait for instructions on how to get a refund of the product or store credit. Bebe au Lait may be contacted through 800-270-9398 from 8 AM to 5 PM PST, Monday through Friday. The company may also be reached through email at recall@bebeaulait.com or online at recall@bebeaulait.com. Recent Baby Formula Recall Meanwhile, the recent recall from the US Food and Drug Authority (FDA) on Abbott milk products has kept families nationwide struggling for sources of baby formula. The manufacturer says they have been producing more formula than ever before, but the supply is still not enough to meet the high milk demand supply. According to Kim Updegrove, the Executive Director at Mother's Milk Bank in Austin, the most affected is the families with babies who are 100% formula-fed on specialized milk formula designed for babies with sensitive guts. Updegrove said that due to the shortage of milk supply, people tend to buy in bulk, fearing that the available formula may be out of stock. Three brands of baby powder formula were recalled due to potential bacterial infections. The three Abbott brands are Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare bay powder. She also said that the Mother's Milk Bank in Austin could provide babies with medical needs if human milk is unavailable. Milk banks provide pasteurized, human milk to babies who need it the most. Related Article: Baby Formula Recall: Abbott Recalls Similac Baby Formula Move over, Wi-Fi 6E! Chip vendors like Qualcomm are beginning to make plans for Wi-Fi 7, the next generation of Wi-Fi technology. Qualcomm said Monday at Mobile World Congress 2022 that it plans to launch the worlds first Wi-Fi 7 chip, the FastConnect 7800, as part of its new premium Snapdragon Connect specification by the end of 2022. The Wi-Fi 7 specification, also known as 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (or just 802.11be), isnt even close to being completed the IEEEs current paper on the current status of 802.11be calls for the standards ratification sometime in 2024. But as with previous Wi-Fi standards, that isnt stopping vendors from developing silicon based upon draft releases, tweaking them via firmware or other updates as the specification moves through its final approval process. Yes, Wi-Fi 7 will be faster, in part because of wider channel widths. But the key improvement Wi-Fi 7 makes is how it smartly uses what earlier Wi-Fi versions have already provided it. What is Wi-Fi 7? The short answer Wi-Fi 7 will significantly increase Wi-Fi bandwidth. How much? According to the IEEE, the maximum nominal throughout of Wi-Fi 7 is 46Gbit/s, 4.8 times faster than Wi-Fi 6 and slightly faster than the 40Gbits/s delivered by a Thunderbolt 3/4 connection. In the real world, the numbers will be lower. According to Mike Roberts, the global vice president for product marketing at Qualcomm, the FastConnect 7800 will reach real-world throughput speeds of 5.8 gigabits per second, 60 percent more than the previous (Wi-Fi 6E) generation. The average latency will be less than two milliseconds, or 60 percent faster than the previous generation, he said. Mediatek, which also recently demonstrated Wi-Fi 7 in action, claims that its 2.4 times faster than Wi-Fi 6. How Wi-Fi 7 improves the overall experience, however, is both cooler as well as a bit more complicated. Wi-Fi 7: faster, smarter, and with far less lag Wi-Fi 6 was optimized for congestion and wireless efficiency, enabling your router to effectively communicate with dozens of wireless devices. Wi-Fi6E weaved in a dedicated 6GHz frequency, adding additional channels for high-bandwidth devices like mesh routers to communicate with one another. If you think of wireless communication as lanes on a freeway, WiFi 6E effectively added a dedicated HOV or commuter lane, allowing high-priority buses and ambulances their own traffic-free channel. In the real world, though, cars moving down a freeway can re-route themselves to avoid congestion. Until now, Wi-Fi couldnt. A Wi-Fi 6 router can communicate data on both the 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz, and 6-GHz channels simultaneously, but theyre all independent of one another. Wi-Fi 7s most significant improvement is that it transforms the router into a multi-link device. Several physical radios can communicate on separate frequencies, yet Wi-Fi 7 ties them all together underneath a single MAC interface so that an Xbox or a smart speaker simply sees a single device. A Wi-Fi 7 router can simply assign data packets to whatever frequency channel is the least congested, because it simply doesnt care which frequency it uses. An IEEE illustration of Wi-Fi 7s multi-link architecture (from Moon, D. Lee, Y. Noh, M. Cheong and H. Yu, Multi-Link Operation: Design Discussion, Sep. 2019) showing how your computer will talk to a single Wi-Fi radio, but that internally it may use one, two, or both. IEEE / S. Moon, D. Lee, Y. Noh, M. Cheong and H. Yu Put another way, the days of manually configuring a device to be on a 2.4-GHz or 5-GHz network appear to be over. Wi-Fi 7 will simply choose which frequency band has the lowest congestion, and send the data over that channel. Qualcomm calls this Alternating Multi-Link, where devices will simply switch back and forth between the available bands. Bouncing back and forth between channels also has implications for power saving, too, according to the IEEE. In a case where a Wi-Fi 7 router is only talking to another device, theres another option that Qualcomm calls High Band Simultaneous Multi-Link. With it, all bands are used simultaneously to blast data across all available radio frequencies. That means what it says; Wi-Fi 7 devices wont necessarily communicate on, say, a 6GHz channel, theyll be able to theoretically communicate on all three, at once. (Practically, that wont happen; the 2.4GHz band will continue to be reserved for slower IoT devices. In the Qualcomm FastConnect 7800, HBS Multi-Link combines four streams across the two 5-and 6-GHz radios, Qualcomm said.) Qualcomm In part, this takes advantage of an additional feature: Wi-Fi 7s wide-channel spectrum use. According to Qualcomm, Wi-Fi 7 widens the maximum available channel width from 160MHz to 320MHz a wider channel band equals more available throughput. The kicker, however, is that the 320MHz channel isnt always available. Instead, Wi-Fi 7 can combine two 160MHz channels in the high (5 and 6-GHz) bands to create an effective 320MHz data channel. Wi-Fi 7 can use then these channels as it chooses, such as using one radio for communicating to a device, and another for receiving data. Wi-Fi 7 also incorporates preamble puncturing, which is a more aggressive way of handling interference, according to Qualcomm. If a Wi-Fi 7 router is trying to connect to a channel thats partially interfered with, the router doesnt give up. Instead, it simply grabs the channel bandwidth thats not being interfered with. The upshot is that Wi-Fi 7 will more efficiently use data. Wi-Fi 7 also includes 1024-QAM, a way of effectively increasing the throughput by increasing the number of bits communicated by the analog signal about 25 percent more data than the 256-QAM of Wi-Fi 5, according to the IEEE. Theres one big additional benefit. From Qualcomms perspective, a Wi-Fi 7 router that can intelligently pick channels also significantly reduces wireless latency or lag. That will be perfect for gaming or for Qualcomms AR/VR ambitions, which demand latency-free video to prevent vertigo. We dont know how this will play out, but in a world moving to cloud gaming and VR, reduced latency may be the most significant addition of all. Snapdragon Connect The Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 will be part of what Qualcomm calls Snapdragon Connect, which will be the premium brand for all of Qualcomms connection technologies. Devices that conform with Snapdragon Connect will ship with our best 5G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Roberts said. This is going to enable faster, more responsive, more reliable, connected experiences. When a device has Snapdragon Connect, it will feature a comprehensive suite of our technologies from our baseband to [the] antenna system. Qualcomms Snapdragon Connect. Qualcomm That suite will include the Snapdragon X70, Qualcomms newest 5G modem, which features AI-powered optimizations of both sub-6GHz and millimeter wave links for improved speeds, coverage, mobility and link robustness, Roberts added. The X70 inherits the 10 Gbps 5G peak download speed record from its predecessor and introduces new features such as switched uplink, enabling 3.5 Gbps peak upload speeds in more networks globally, Qualcomm said. It will also include what Qualcomm calls Advanced Bluetooth Audio, two radios with enhanced connections, allowing Bluetooth accessories to work with twice the range and pair in half the time. Finally, Qualcomm also announced the Lenovo ThinkPad X13S, which will be the first to use the new Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. The Snapdragon Connect-qualified laptop will feature a whopping 28 hours of battery life, Roberts said. All of these may be Qualcomms own specific announcements, certainly. But a new generation of wireless technology for all of us appears to be right over the horizon. The ongoing geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine will not have much impact on Ghanas petroleum products, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr Alex Mould, has said. Therefore, he said, there should be no panic at all among stakeholders. Instead, Mr Mould asked the government to focus on resolving the issue of high exchange rate which he believes threatens the petroleum prices more than the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking on the Key Points with Dzifah Bampoh on TV3/3FM Saturday February 26, he said I think Ghana is not too much of a problem at this moment because oil prices are not going to spike. Our concern should be more on the foreign exchange. We were buying foreign exchange at 6 cedis per dollar and now, it is over 7 cedis and 20 pesewas per dollar. That is what is going to increase the petroleum prices in this country. Like I said, the forecast for 2022 was 85 dollars for Brent now, it was initially pegged at 75 dollars. So, I dont think there should not be any panic at the moment. However government should ensure that we have supply of petroleum product. Russia supplies about 20 per cent of the gas oil in Europe and if that supply fall there will be initial dangerous spike in gassoil that is deiseal. Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu, John Jinapor, has asked the Government of Ghana to use the profits made from crude oil sales to cushion Ghanaians during this difficult moment. The former Deputy Minister of Energy told TV3s Alfred Ocansey on the Business Focus progemmme that the government has made quite substantial profit from the sale of crude oil. He said Based on what is even happening today, because of the geopolitical tension between Russia, the West vis-a-vis Ukraine, you should expect that crude oil prices will not be coming down anytime soon. And so, what is Ghana doing? First of all, we are making a huge windfall. If you look at 61 to 100, that represents a 60 per cent jump, in terms of the revenues that we are expecting and so clearly, we are making some very huge windfall which we can use to cushion the ordinary Ghanaian. The other issue is that if you look at taxes on petroleum products the taxes are so huge, not just the number of taxes but the rate at which they have increased them. In 2021 we introduced what we call the energy sector recovery levy , policing levy, increased and so all those increments culminated in petroleum prices increment of about 13.6per cent instantly. So far the BOST margin has gone up about 200 per cent fuel margin has gone up about 200 per cent , it is just a plethora of taxes. Oil prices went up on Thursday, with Brent rising above $105 a barrel for the first time since 2014 after Russias attack on Ukraine exacerbated concerns about disruptions to global energy supply, the Economic Times reported. Oil prices are soaring with no end in sight as the news of Russias full-scale military incursion of Ukraine, immediately putting at risk up to 1 million bpd (barrels per day) of Russian crude oil exports transitioning through Ukraine and the Black Sea, said Louise Dickson, senior oil market analyst at Rystad Energy. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video At least one person was killed and 10 others injured in skirmishes at an opposition party rally in Kwekwe, central Zimbabwe, on Sunday. The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) supporters were attacked by a group of men armed with spears, machetes, iron bars and stones. One man was stabbed to death, others suffered broken bones and various injuries, according to party officials. The violence forced party leader Nelson Chamisa to abandon his address. The party blamed President Emmerson Mnangagwas supporters for the violence, a charge the ruling party rejected. It comes as rights groups warn of increasing violence ahead of crucial by-elections scheduled for 26 March. Rights groups have warned of inflammatory language in the campaigns. Over the weekend the countrys vice-president warned that the opposition would be crushed like lice, sparking fears of new violence. On Saturday police used teargas and water cannons to disperse another CCC rally that had been okayed by the High Court. Some 28 parliamentary and 122 council seats are up for grabs. The by-elections are seen as a test for the ruling Zanu-PF party ahead of general elections scheduled for 2023. The pre-election period has already been marred by claims of anomalies in the voters roll, of a partisan police and media bias. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The National President of the University Teachers' Association of Ghana (UTAG) has expressed surprise over its branch in the University of Ghana's decision not to return to the classroom. Lectures resumed today, Monday, February 28, at various universities despite votes to reject suspension of the strike according to UTAG. However, UG-UTAG Chapter says they're unable to resume teaching today. According to them in a statement signed by Secretary of UG-UTAG, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, it is not, "prudent to commence teaching for a few days, only to resume the strike again, given the toll this may likely impose on students and parents. He said due to the trust deficit between UTAG and government, "members have indicated their preference to see the outcome of the talks/engagement (not negotiations) initiated by the government to resolve the impasse (which is expected to end on March 4, 2022), before they return to the classroom." Prof Solomon Nunoo, reacting to this in an interview on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', pleaded with the lecturers to resume lectures. However, if they fail to do so, there are ways of dealing with them according to our constitution. "I'm surprised the UG-UTAG say they won't return to the classroom . . . these things are sometimes not helpful . . . we need to work together as one unit. If we all make decisions, it is binding; anytime there's a war or battle there is always a truce for negotiations to take place. So I'll urge the lecturers at UG to go back to the classroom. We should do the right thing at all times," he said. According to him, if they refuse, "we will go to our constitution, because it has the remedy in dealing with issues of this nature. Its unfortunate this letter has come out at this time but I will urge the lecturers to reconsider". Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, has entreated Ghanaians to accept the electronic levy (E-levy) to enable the government to raise the much-needed revenue for holistic development. She said the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and other institutions were helping in educating the people about the importance of the E-levy and individuals must also help by embracing it (E-levy) for the country's socio-economic advancement. Mad. Owusu-Banahene made the appeal when she addressed the 10th-anniversary celebration of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). The anniversary launch was on the theme: A Decade of Academic Excellence in Energy and Natural Resources Education: Commemorating the Past, Celebrating the Presence and Shaping the Future for National Development. It was attended by the members of the Universitys Governing Council, heads of institutions, staff, past and present students. Mad. Owusu-Banahene said for the sustainable funding of particular government programmes such as the Free Senior High School, the acceptance of the E-levy by Ghanaians and its effective implementation by the government was more than necessary. She commended the University for the introduction of entrepreneurship programmes to help its graduates to become job creators instead of job seekers, saying that was the kind of education the current youth of the country needed to become efficient and functionally useful after graduation. Mad. Owusu-Banahene, therefore, suggested the addition of entrepreneurship as part of all programmes of study for every student to have a fair idea of self-employment to be able to fit into the job market after graduation. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Following the strike embarked on by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), an aspiring deputy youth organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Eastern region, Fohad Agbenyadzi, has called on government to as a matter of urgency address the challenges of these teachers. According to him, students can no longer bear with the inconsistency in the education sector coupled with the economic hardship Ghanaians are facing now. He, therefore, called on government to allocate funds for them to let sleeping dogs lie. "I call on this government to for once, redeem its lost credibility with public servants, especially UTAG. Without further delay, government should cease the opportunity to reallocate funds from the unproductive expenses on flights, convoys, allowances to job for the boys appointments, judgement debts, gifts to lure MPs to the chamber and many more," Fohad Agbenyadzi said. "The industrious youth of our democratic country, particularly university students, can no longer bear the economic hardships coupled with the inconsistency in the education system as a result of the multiple failures of this government," he added. Meanwhile, Majority of lecturers across some seven public universities in the country have voted against the decision by UTAGs National Executive Committee (NEC) to suspend its nationwide strike. The dissenting lecturers include lectures from the University of Education, Winneba (UEW); the University of Ghana, Legon; the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR); the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST); the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) and the SD-Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies. According to the votes collated from these 7 public universities, an overwhelming majority of the lecturers do not want UTAG to suspend its nationwide strike. The University of Cape Coast and other member institutions are yet to cast their votes on NECs decision. Read Fohad's release below; Stop being inconsiderate towards UTAG - Fohad tells government The National Labour commission (NLC) as an independent state institution must at all times protect the interest of the government as well as the employees. Unfortunately, that is not the case. It always want to suppress the Ghanaian employee either through the power vested in them or through the judicial institutions. As much as we respect their actions of protecting the interest of government of the day, their actions should not be seen as protecting some political interest of certain government. The continuous display of insensitivity and irresponsibility by this current government towards employees must be a worry to all well meaning citizens. From unpaid meagre stipends of NABCO trainees, national service allowances, nursing and teacher trainees' allowances, other public servants and the worst of it all, the current University teachers worsening conditions of service. Following the UTAG communique of a strike action on January 10, 2022, government has only done nothing meaningful to resolve their legitimate demands, which this same govt agreed with. More irritating, rather the repeat of delay tactics in implementing and restoring their market premium to reflect an improved condition of service, is met with some sort of cohesing them to return to the lecture halls. What government is forgetting is, institutions can only force University Teachers to the lecture halls but can never force them to teach, let alone deliver quality service as in the case of forcing a horse to the river but not drink. Again, some of us consider it a bitter mockery, when government and its officials sing the fallacy of no money to restore the University Teachers market premium to agreed level that improves their condition of service. This call of tightening our belt by some government spokespersons, especially the Minister of Finance is only an acceptance of irresponsible and reckless expenditure in the first term and the 2020 elections. Moreover, the continues lavish and extravagant lifestyle living of Government and its appointees leaves much to be desired. The recent revelation of the Hon. Member of Parliament for Assin Central, is fresh and echoes enough how unproductive expenses drain the national coffers just to satisfy partisan political interests of a few. As an aspiring deputy Youth Organizer of the NDC in the Eastern region, I call on this government to for once, redeem its lost credibility with public servants, especially UTAG. Without further delay, government should cease the opportunity to reallocate funds from the unproductive expenses on flights, convoys, allowances to "job for the boys" appointments, judgement debts, gifts to lure MPs to the chamber and many more. The industrious youth of our democratic country, particularly university students, can no longer bear the economic hardships coupled with the inconsistency in the education system as a result of the multiple failures of this government. To sum up, as youth and more importantly students of this country, we will not forgive this government should UTAG embark on another strike after March 4, 2022 due to another failure from government. To UTAG, the youth and the students of our country share in your concerned that your condition of service must be improved. Hence I add my voice to the parliamentary select committee and other eminent persons to commend your decision to suspend the strike action for negotiations with government once again. To quote Prof. Solomon Nunoo, president of the UTAG "At many forums, the employer has agreed with stakeholders that there is the need to improve the condition of service of University teachers. Thus we are cautiously optimistic that the government will do the needful to improve the working condition of the University Teacher". Written by: #Fohad Agbenyadzi #TheGoldenBoy #GBproject #AspiringE/RdeputyYouthOrganizer Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Twenty-four Ghanaians, the first batch of evacuees from Ukraine will arrive in Accra today aboard Qatar Airways. They are expected to followed by 220 others who have exited Ukraine and will be in Ghana within the week. The 24 are part of about 460 students who have managed to leave the beleaguered Ukraine to neighbouring countries countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Czech Republic. At a press briefing in Accra on Sunday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said the 24 had already arrived in the Romanian capital, Bucharest and officers of the Ghana Mission there had procured tickets for them to leave for Accra Monday. She also denied reports that a train carrying some Ghanaian students out of Ukraine had been attacked. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana Immigration Service announces to the public that, from 1st March 2022, it will begin to admit Ghanaian passengers and dual nationals returning to Ghana on a valid Ghana Card. This follows the official recognition of the Ghana Card as an ICAO-compliant travel document. The Ghana Card will serve as an optional travel document. The Ghana Immigration Service would like to inform the public that until bilateral agreements are signed with other countries, the Ghana Card cannot be used to travel outside the ECOWAS sub-region. Ghanaians who have renounced their Ghanaian citizenship to obtain the citizenship of another country are not eligible to travel on the Ghana Card. Dual nationals holding the Ghana Card will not require visas to enter Ghana. ENTRY PROCEDURES There shall be designated booths at the Kotoka International Airport to process Ghanaian passengers who travel on the Ghana Card into Ghana. Upon arrival, the identity of the Ghana Card holder will be verified against the National Identity Register (NIR). Once the passengers identity has been successfully verified, the passenger is admitted into the country. DEPARTURE PROCEDURE On departure, the Ghanaian who entered Ghana with the Ghana Card will be required to show the Ghana Card to the Immigration officials at the Immigration Departure Control. CAUTION A passenger who arrives in Ghana with a fraudulently acquired or fake Ghana Card will be denied entry and/or arrested and prosecuted in accordance with applicable laws. It is an offence under Section 52 of Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573) for a person to fraudulently acquire or use a forged or fake travel document and convicted offenders may be fined and/or imprisoned. Source: GHANA IMMIGRATION SERVICE Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Nana Ogyedom Tsetsewa I, the Mankralo of Gomoa Ogyan in the Central Region, says parents should not shy away from educating their children on sex because it is not a taboo. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Tema, Nana Tsetsewa said the belief of some parents that it was against the Ghanaian cultural norms to discuss sex with their children was wrong. Sexuality education is not a taboo in our traditional system, she emphasized. She said the inability of parents to be the first people to introduce the topic to their children had led to their seeking answers on sex from peers and other questionable sources. According to Nana Tsetsewa, who is also an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) practitioner, educating a child does not only cover reading and writing but also involved sex education and other life-related issues. She said when children were educated on sex at home, it would enable them to take informed decisions to help reduce the high rate of teenage pregnancies. Nana Tsetsewa said with sex education, children, especially adolescents, would strive to reach their academic and career goals instead of engaging in sexual activities at a younger age. Children end up giving birth at a tender age which makes their dream of becoming better persons soon shattered, she said. She urged parents, guardians, caregivers, teachers, and other stakeholders to help shape the children morally, adding that many children were going wayward due to parental neglect. The Mankralo of Gomoa Ogyan noted that most girls might be going through some emotional and sexual-related issues but could not speak about them and urged the stakeholders, especially parents and teachers, to get close to them to unravel such problems early. Touching on child marriages, she advised parents to desist from marrying off their young daughters at tender ages as a way of solving their financial burdens. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has invited parents and guardians of all Ghanaian nationals in war-hit Ukraine to a meeting. A statement issued by the ministry said the meeting will take place at the Accra International Conference Centre on Tuesday 1 March. In view of the prevailing precarious security situation in Ukraine which has necessitated the evacuation of Ghanaian nationals among others, from the country to safety, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey is cordially inviting all parents, guardians or relatives of Ghanaian nationals in Ukraine to a meeting on Tuesday March 1 at the Accra International Conference Center at 10 AM, the statement said. Meanwhile, the ministry has appealed to Ghanaian nationals in Ukraine, who are travelling to neighbouring countries to contact the designated contact persons for assistance. Press Release on the Contacts for the Ukraine Evacuation.pdf Ghana steps up effort to evacuate Ghanaian students The Akufo-Addo-led government has begun moves to evacuate Ghanaian students who are stranded in war-hit Ukraine, an official statement on Friday said. It comes after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, with missile strikes and explosions reported near major cities and on its military infrastructure. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said discussions with authorities in Switzerland, Turkey, Moldova, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to assist with the smooth evacuation of Ghanaian students in Ukraine are far advanced. Following the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, it had become challenging to airlift our compatriots from Kiev and other parts of the country. Hence the only viable means of evacuation is by land to neighbouring countries such as Moldova, Belarus, Slovakia and Hungary. The government has put in place the necessary package to facilitate the transportation, accommodation, feeding, medical support etc to ease the burden on our compatriots, the statement said. The Ministry through its missions in Berne, Switzerland and the Honorary Consulate in Ukraine are in touch with the Ghanaian students in Ukraine through its leaders. A list of student have been compiled to facilitate the evacuation, the statement said. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ellen Ama Daaku, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) communications team has said lawmakers in the Eighth Parliament of Ghana behave like kindergarten children due to the raucous nature of debates in the House. The current Parliament is split down the middle between the two main political parties, posing the risk of gridlock on finalising national business, especially when it comes to passing bills. MPs shouted at each other and engaged in an open brawl in Parliament on 20 December as the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, vacated his seat to enable him also to cast a vote to pass the controversial E-Levy under a certificate of urgency. It took the marshals to restore order in the House as they wrestled with a group of MPs to protect the Speakers seat, his documents and the mace. Touching on the current situation in Parliament, Daaku said the behaviour of the MPs has emboldened the Speaker Alban Bagbin to sometimes use certain words on them. KG kids This particular Parliament, sometimes they behave like kindergarten children and having been a kindergarten teacher before, I can see how they behave. Its just like the older versions of the KG2 and KG1 children. Sometimes this is how they behave with all due respect, Daaku said on Asaase Radios news analysis and current affairs show The Forum. She added: I believe that Parliament all these years has operated on mutual respect on both sides because you have a lot of people from different levels of society. So, I expect them to continue like that. But this particular Parliament has been quite innovative in misbehaviour. I mean certain form of misbehaviour that youll never have thought that Parliamentarians will be involved in. I think that is also what is informing the Speakers attitude. As much as I do not agree with some of the words that he uses, this particular Parliament by their behaviour, some of the MPs have given him the reason for him to do what hes doing. This particular Speaker has a tendency to be a bit authoritarian and I think it also comes from his long stay in Parliament and practically he knows almost everybody in there and all the processes. Parliament is like Makola market Meanwhile, the MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has said Ghanas Parliament can be likened to a marketplace because there is no order in it. There is no decorum, the maverick politician said on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Tuesday (22 February 2022). The way we are handling Parliament is like were in Makola the busiest market at the Central Business District in Accra. Its all because the numbers are close and in actual fact you dont even know whos the Majority, except when you add the independent candidate to it, Agyapong said, in conversation with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo. Worst period in Parliament Agyapong said he no longer has the zeal to attend to Parliament because of the chaotic nature of debates. What is happening in Parliament is not interesting at all. This is the worst throughout my six terms in Parliament. When Im going to Parliament I dont even have the zeal. And nothing is being done about it. Ill entreat my brothers in opposition to compromise and at the same time the government should also compromise, because you cant be on the defensive all the time. If you do that therell be no peace. We need to come together in the name of the country and move things forward, Agyapong said. Source: asaaseradio.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has held stakeholders engagement with the customers in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality for the installation of prepaid metres. This is to resolve the impasse that has been raging on for a few years now leading to power outage for one week in December last year. The stakeholders engagement held at Odumase-Krobo and Somanya brought together high ranking management staff of the company from both Tema and the head office of the company, youth groups, opinion leaders and other well-recognised organisations in the municipality. The meeting discussed, among other things, the overview of ongoing commercial activities, a roadmap for implementation of prepaid metres, communication and customer education campaign and other related issues to resolve the impasse once and for all. Discussion The Director of Customer Services of the company, Mr Anokye Abebrese, said after management had considered issues that brought about the ECG/Krobo District impasse, the only way to resolve the issue once and for all to bring lasting peace between the company and the customers within the Krobo District was the introduction of prepaid metres as was done in other areas. He explained that in the operation of ECG, all Category A districts fell under prepaid metres of which the Krobo District of the company qualified. Old debt He explained that the old bills for the power consumed by customers from 2018 to 2021 were ready for distribution/collection for payments at the EGGs offices at Somanya and Odumase-Krobo. He said customers had the chance and opportunity to negotiate with the company for payment in installments. He, however, said payment for 2022 starting from January must be paid promptly as it had nothing to do with the old bills that brought about the impasse. Mr Abebrese added that the company would not put the accumulated debt from 2018 to 2021 on the prepaid metres, even though customers had to pay. Any customer, who is issued with prepaid metre, must start enjoying fully, provided the customer buys prepaid credit, he concluded. The Energy Consultant and Director of Telco Services of the ECG, Mr Theophilus Asante Darko, emphasised that the company and the Krobo community impasse, which had raged on for a few years now leading to black out in the area in December last year, would be a thing of the past, if the company introduced prepaid metres to the customers. Public education campaign The General Manager of the Public Relations Unit of the ECG, Mrs Theresa Osabutey, assured customers in the district that the communication directorate of the company had designed communication campaigns including media engagements, panel discussions on radio, community education and public announcements, to ensure the customers understood what the prepaid metres entailed before they would start implementing them. The customers in the municipality, in response, embraced the prepaid metre idea in order to lay the impasse to rest. They, however, appealed for an extension for the payment of the old bills from 2018 to 2021 to four years instead of the two years the company proposed in order to cushion them due to the economic hardships they were facing. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak is demanding answers from the Majority Leadership on what has caused a rescheduling of the Presidents State of the Nation address. It was previously announced that the Presidents sessional address would be delivered on the 3rd of March, but that has been postponed, and no date has been given. The Presidents address will provide governments key policy objectives and deliverables for the year ahead, highlight achievements and challenges, and outline developmental measures for the coming financial year. But the Builsa South legislator said explanations must be offered for why the address has been put on hold. Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, we have to know why the address has been put on hold. I believe that as a nation; with the conditions facing us, we are all anxious to hear what the state of the nation is. So if it has been put on hold, we must know why. Article 67 of the Constitution mandates the President to present the address to Parliament at the beginning of each session of the lawmaking body and before the dissolution of the house. Following the recent happenings in the country; the controversial E-Levy, the spike in fuel prices, labour agitations, uncertainties in the educational sector, among others, may feature strongly in his presentation. Source: citinewsroom Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa has described as "discriminatory" attacks on Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo. Adwoa Safo has been at the receiving end of flak from her colleagues and some New Patriotic Party (NPP) executives following her continuous absence in Parliament. Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyepong says her absenteeism from Parliament for more than 15 days could declare her seat vacant while she continues to dance on TikTok. Others have also accused her of sabotaging the ruling administration. Speaking to this on JoyFm's Newsfile programme, Okudzeto Ablakwa condemned the attacks insisting that she's not the only NPP MP who has been absent from Parliament for more than 15 days. "Focus on Adwoa Safo is discriminatory. Other NPP MPs have been absenting themselves...when you look through these votes proceedings from Tuesday 26th October 2021 to Thursday 25 November 2021, you'll find out that two other NPP MPs: Kennedy Agyepong and Henry Quartey missed 18 sittings; so we should be talking about the possibility of 3 by-elections, not 1" he indicated. According to him, "...once you cross 15 days there's no salvation for you(moreover) the constitution provides that you seek permission; why are they not seeking permission, why are we treating parliament with such contempt". He further expressed worry that Parliament as an institution has no mechanism to "check absenteeism and deal with it". "I am also worried that as an institution we don't have an internal inherent mechanism to check this...Had it not been e-levy, this issue would not have come up and so as an institution we need to deal with this..." he added. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Henry Kwabena Kokofu, has commended the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey for their swift response to the concerns of Ghanaian nationals in Ukraine. Ukraine is under attack from Russia following the latter's President, Vladimir Putin's refusal to heed diplomatic calls to ceasefire. Russian forces had struck military assets and other important defence facilities and were attacking border units with explosions thudding across cities throughout Ukraine including its capital, Kyiv. US President Joe Biden has condemned the "unprovoked and unjustified attack and vowed that the world would hold Russia and Putin accountable for the aggression. Meanwhile, there are fears this unprovoked attack might escalate into the largest military conflict on European soil since the end of World War II. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering, Biden said in a statement after Putin announced military action against Ukraine. Also, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed gratitude to 11 countries including Ghana for backing a resolution that was vetoed by Russia on Friday, February 25, 2022. In a tweet, Mr Zelenskyy said the veto of Russia was a ''bloodstain on its plaque in the Security Council, the map of Europe and the world''. The eleven-member countries voted in favour of the resolution. China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained. Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration also in a tweet empathized with over said it 1000 Ghanaians in Ukraine, expressing grave concern about their security and safety. Hence, arrangements have been made to evacuate them with reports indicating that about twenty-four (24) Ghanaian nationals have currently arrived in the country. Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Kokofu applauded the efforts by the government stressing the President and Foreign Minister are keen on safeguarding Ghanaians in Ukraine. He asked the citizenry to remain calm as the government will ensure they're not scathed but return home safely. "Let's remain calm and pray for those being evacuated that they will arrive safely," he said. 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. Featured Video PPP National Chairman, Nana Ofori Owusu says Ghana should stop being a "begging nation" as this attitude is what is making the country subservient to European world leaders. Dailymail.com reported that Russia has "launched an all-out war on Ukraine with simultaneous attacks coming from south, east and north, by land and by air". According to them, "missiles and bombs rained from the sky, tanks rolled across the border, troops parachuted down on eastern regions and explosions were seen across the country after Vladimir Putin gave the order to attack". Hundreds of Ukrainian troops are said to have been killed in the clashes. US President Joe Biden has condemned the attack saying President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering. Also, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed gratitude to 11 countries including Ghana for backing a resolution that was vetoed by Russia on Friday, February 25, 2022. In a tweet, Mr Zelenskyy said the veto of Russia was a ''bloodstain on its plaque in the Security Council, the map of Europe and the world''. Reacting to the Russia/Ukraine conflict, Nana Ofori Owusu advised Ghanaians to ''build our nation. We must stop our nation from becoming a begging nation to a self-sufficient nation . . . Until we change our attitude and go back to Nkrumah of black man capable of doing for itself, African capable of doing for itself, every time we are at the mercy of what some other people are doing. The Europeans have always been war-thirsty''. "In times of difficulty, we need each other. We need each other. So, if we don't build a nation that loves ourselves as history has proved that the African loves themselves, we will have a problem," he stressed on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo'. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Thank you for reading the Philadelphia Tribune. You have exhausted your free article views for this month. Please press the "subscribe" button below and see our introductory price of $0.10 per week for 10 weeks. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you next month. An Aiken man wanted by three South Carolina law enforcement agencies was arrested Monday morning in connection to multiple felonies. Rodney Glynn Hicks, 49, is charged with kidnapping, burglary in the first degree, possession of less than one gram of meth or cocaine, violation of a city ordinance, trafficking heroin, trafficking cocaine, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, and possession of marijuana by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office. Hicks is also on a temporary hold for charges from the South Carolina Highway Patrol and the Aiken Department of Public Safety. Those charges are currently unknown. Burglary and kidnapping in 2021 On Oct. 7, 2021, Aiken County deputies met with the same victim who said the suspect broke into her house and started bringing tools inside, refusing to leave when asked, according to an incident report obtained from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office. The victim told police the suspect took her phone and held her against her will all night, according to the report. Aiken County deputies went to the house and saw signs of a break-in, but did not find the suspect. Harassment incident Saturday night Around 9:52 p.m. Saturday, ADPS officers responded to the Knights Inn on Richland Ave. West in reference to a harassment call. Officers met with the same victim from the October 2021 incident, who stated the suspect called her and said he was going to go to her house and skin her cat, according to an incident report obtained from ADPS. The suspect was not located. It is unclear if the pending charges from ADPS relate to this incident. Trafficking incident Sunday night Around 11:18 Sunday, an ADPS officer saw the suspect standing outside of a vehicle at 432 Laurens St. NW. When the officer drove by, the suspect "tr[ied] to conceal himself against the car," according to a second incident report obtained from public safety. Officers found the suspect talking to a man in a vehicle, where he gave police a false identity and age, according to the report. A bag was found nearby, which contained what appeared to be crack cocaine, heroin and pills. Police could see a scale, a white powdery substance and other drug paraphernalia in the vehicle and conducted a probable cause search. Marijuana, two bags of what appeared to be heroin, and fentanyl were also found in the vehicle. Officers found $1,061.57 and an unknown pill in the suspect's possession. After checking with dispatch, police realized the suspect had outstanding warrants with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office. He was arrested and transported to the Aiken County detention center early Monday morning. While at the detention center, Aiken County deputies served Hicks warrants for a city ordinance violation, trafficking heroin, trafficking cocaine, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, and possession of marijuana. Breaking news. This story will be updated as new information becomes available. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High around 85F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. When renowned chef Sean Brock left McCradys and brought his inspired brand of Southern cuisine to Husk in 2010, Travis Grimes went with him. Grimes started out as the chef de cuisine, and as Sean Brock started branching out with new ventures, Grimes steadily earned more responsibility. In 2015, he was named executive chef of the downtown Charleston restaurant at 76 Queen St. Now, Grimes is handing over the reins to Ray England, an Idaho-born chef who most recently served as executive chef at Mount Pleasant waterfront eatery Tavern & Table. Its been such a major part of my life what I've done here at Husk. Its a long, interesting story of the family we built here at Husk and how we managed to keep it running and happy and healthy, Grimes said. We managed to do it, and honestly, it was because we always built a family around it. I think Husk will be in good hands moving forward. An established name in Charleston's restaurant industry is replacing Grimes, who worked his last service at Husk Feb. 27. After graduating from culinary school in Portland, Ore., England worked at various restaurants in Oregon and Colorado before earning a chef de cuisine position at Tom Colicchio's Craft Los Angeles. In 2015, England moved to Charleston to help open Scarecrow and Co., which was located in the sprawling space now occupied by recently opened restaurants Share House and Bodega. England eventually joined Tavern & Table after Scarecrow and Co.s closure. Out of a lot of restaurants in town, I dont know that theres a lot of them that I would leave for, but Husk is one of them, England said. Theyre known for working with Southern ingredients and local ingredients, and thats of the utmost importance to me. In his new role, England, alongside new Husk General Manager Steven Chandler, plans to stick with the restaurants ethos by serving innovative Southern cuisine in a cozy yet refined setting. Chandler started his career in the kitchen, so the two plan to create collaboration between the front- and back-of-house. This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to come in and be a part of an institution like this, Chandler said. I think I can really kind of understand the do's and the donts and (know) how hard to push. Patrons could see a little more seafood on the Husk menu under England, given his relationship with local purveyors like Abundant Seafoods Mark Marhefka. Perhaps the biggest change at Husk under England and Chandler will take place next door at the Bar at Husk, which currently serves the same menu as the adjacent restaurant. Chandler said they eventually plan to have the space operate more independently, serving a different menu curated by England. Those changes likely wont take place until this spring. While Grimes has officially served his last meal in the Husk kitchen, the chef will fire up the burners again soon with the upcoming launch of his next venture: Iron Clay Catering. Grimes and his wife Meg, another longtime Husk employee, will cater inside homes and at small events. At each gathering, their goal is to create the same Southern heritage Grimes cultivated at Husk and bring that into Charleston homes. I just want to be able to get back to (working) with people on an individual level, Grimes said. Is it scary? Oh man, its super scary, but at the same time, its really exciting. Grimes is currently working to build out a website, with plans to start accepting gigs in mid-March. Since opening her online nonalcoholic beverages bottle shop Sechey, Emily Heintz has sought a permanent location. Scouring the downtown Charleston real estate market in late 2021 and early 2022 though has proven harder than she imagined. She hoped to have a shop up and running by Dry January. For now, Heintz has located a space on the busy thoroughfare of King Street with hopes to find a more permanent store with room for a bar in the back where cocktail curators can showcase nonalcoholic options with a variety of tasty, zero-proof spirits. "We definitely have evolved as we've been looking for a space this entire time, but it's a difficult market right now," Heintz said. "People recognize physical retail is not dead, and me being a new entrepreneur and new to the city with a concept that can seem strange to people, it's been challenging to find someone who believed in what we were doing to take a risk on a new idea." The current temporary location at 420 King St., right next to Blue Bicycle Books, will at least be occupied by Sechey through the spring, with a possibility of renewing during summertime. Before that, Heintz was hosting pop-ups at The Restoration Hotel's Watch Rooftop to spread awareness about her brand, which curates nonalcoholic wines, beers and spirits and sells them to those looking to cut out or cut down on alcohol. "It's about finding alternatives to alcohol that help you sleep better, can be better for people with depression and anxiety and are overall healthier," Heintz said. "It's reducing the amount were drinking, not a hard and fast youre sober or youre not." Heintz moved her stock of nonalcoholic bottles into the new space just days before a big winter freeze. While liquor wouldn't have frozen, the nonalcoholic alternatives could have. "Dramatic!" Heintz recalled. The bottle shop is organized by type of beverage, from nonalcoholic beers to alternative spirits. There are also options to buy a single can, which unlike a traditional beer, can be sipped while wandering King Street on an afternoon excursion. There are some Southeastern-made options, like Amethyst and Spiritless Kentucky 74, along with national brands' zero-proof options like Busty Lush's golden blond ales and Ghia's aperitifs. "Customers are starting to request things," Heintz said. "Like this new beer called Bravus that offers an oatmeal and peanut butter stout. It's fun to see new products fly off the shelves." Heintz also hopes to open a bar in the back that showcases some booze-free sippers and offers tasting sessions. She wants it to be an educational experience in addition to a safe, fun space to come hang out. Sechey is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, with a possible expansion of hours later into Friday and Saturday evenings. NORTH CHARLESTON One man has died hours after he and three others were shot in a neighborhood the afternoon of Feb. 26. He was pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital, said Harve Jacobs, a North Charleston police spokesman. Two of the victims were treated and released, and the last person is continuing to receive medical care, Jacobs wrote in an email around 10:30 p.m. None of the four victims have been publicly identified. The Charleston County Coroner's Office will released the deceased man's name. Police officers were sent around 3:15 p.m. to South Allen Drive after reports of gunfire. The neighborhood, where small children were seen playing with a puppy just hours after the shooting, is located off Dorchester Road near the Interstate 26 exchange. Authorities learned four people were shot when they arrived at the scene. The victims were taken to a local hospital, Jacobs said. Police had no information about a possible suspect, and an incident report would not be released until Feb. 28, Jacobs said. Neighbors told The Post and Courier gunfire has become an increasing occurrence in the area. One woman, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, blamed the problem on the "youths." "I don't even think they argue anymore," she said. "It's just shooting now." Another said she hears shots "every day." COLUMBIA South Carolina Republicans have a court date to defend congressional district maps critics say were unfairly drawn on racial and partisan lines to benefit their party's incumbents. However, the May 16 court date is likely just the beginning of what observers believe will be a drawn-out legal process. A key dispute is a challenge over whether newly established lines in the Lowcountrys 1st Congressional District currently occupied by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace unfairly carved Black voters and Democrats out and placed them in the Midlands-based majority Democratic 6th District held by Rep. Jim Clyburn. A three-judge panel will hear arguments about South Carolina's statehouse district lines on May 16, just a month before voters go to the polls June 14 to cast ballots in the states party primaries. However, a hearing on the state's congressional plan won't come until July, or after the state's primaries have already been decided. Currently, the state Election Commission is moving ahead with its plans for a June primary using the district lines adopted this year by the S.C. General Assembly, according to a Feb. 16 memo to county boards of elections. Anything's possible, but we don't expect an injunction to stop us from implementing redistricting or make us have to move primary dates, said Chris Whitmire, the election commission spokesman. Our position right now is we're moving forward with the 2022 primaries and the general election under the new lines, and we dont expect delays, he added. The memo did note that depending on the outcome of the redistricting case it may be necessary in places to redraw district lines. While a very real possibility, it is unlikely the challenge would cause the state to experience delays. In early February, the U.S. Supreme Court halted a district courts ruling requiring Alabama to redraw congressional lines with similar dynamics to South Carolinas, citing the short amount of time the state would have to hold an election under constitutional guidelines. Given the imminence of the election and the inadequate time to resolve the factual disputes, our action today shall of necessity allow the election to proceed without an injunction, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion on the case. While South Carolina would likely be required to follow the Supreme Courts precedent if the maps were overturned, a judge could make the decision to proceed with the 2022 elections under the old 2020 district boundaries. "Its really up to the judge, but if the maps were overturned, an election would most likely be under the existing lines, not the new lines that have yet to be litigated, said redistricting committee member and S.C. Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms. So that's probably what would happen. But that's conjecture. State election officials say such a judgment would have to be based on what's actually possible for them to accomplish. If a court was going to order something for the General Assembly, hopefully they would find out if it's actually possible, Whitmire said. When you look at the calendar, moving the candidate filing process forward, there's only about six weeks of wiggle room there. And you start running into key general election deadlines. Last week the jury returned guilty verdicts in the federal trial of the three former Minneapolis police officers the officers other than Derek Chauvin, who pleaded guilty charged with violating the civil rights of George Floyd in the arrest that resulted in his death. The jury found Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng guilty on each of the two counts against them and found Thomas Lane guilty on the one count against him. The jury also found that the violations contributed to Floyds death, which will aggravate the sentences. I commented on the closing arguments here, but it is Andrew McCarthys NRO column quoted in the update that applies to the case at this point. His column raises the question of the legal sufficiency of the charges. By contrast, the prosecutors promptly issued a statement celebrating the convictions. The Department of Justice has posted it here. My first thought upon learning of the verdicts was that it was a dark day for Minneapolis. Good luck signing up new police officers to perform the protective work that is necessary to maintain Minneapolis as a civilized city, or restore it to that status. The obvious question is who in his right mind would do it for the city. You have got to be kidding me. This is not exactly the train of thought pursued by the Star Tribune. In A clear duty to intervene, the Star Tribunes editors raised no issue with the federal convictions. The editors contemplate the consequences and blow them off: Concerns that the verdicts will have a chilling effect on police retention and recruitment are less important than the clear message sent by the jury: If an officer is engaged in excessive force, the law compels others on the scene to intervene. In their conclusion the editors cite the Rev. Al Sharpton in support of their opinion. This is not intended as satire. Most recently, the Star Tribunes editors put their heads together to concoct this modest proposal: Reform policing through better standards. Subhead: Tough times require even higher standards in a now-beleagured profession. This is not intended as satire. Alpha News now reports Minneapolis patrol officers down by more than half. Subhead: The Minneapolis Police Department only has 268 patrol officers, spread across five precincts and three shifts. It seems to me that the Star Tribune illustrates how a dominant daily newspaper can hasten the decline of its hometown. It is a terrible thing to say, but we would be better off without it. It has been clear for a while now that COVID masks are the MAGA hat equivalent for certain kinds of Progressives who march under the banner of COVID-Zero (which means no relaxation of the lockdown mandates until COVID no longer exists, or in other words, never) because they have been conditioned by 50 years of liberalism to expect the government to deliver a zero-risk world. So although polls show even a majority of Democratic voters want the madness to end, the noisy progressives who run the Democratic Party cant give it up. So Biden is stuck, though there is at least a 50% chance that hell use his State of the Union speech Tuesday night to declare an end to COVID. A Democratic strategy firm, Impact Research, has circulated a memo recommending that Democrats declare victory on COVID and return to normalor else get wiped out at the polls in November. The complete document is posted below, but here are some highlights: Declare the crisis phase of COVID over and push for feeling and acting more normal. . . Recognize that people are worn out and feeling real harm from the years- long restrictions and take their side. Most Americans have personally moved out of crisis mode. Twice as many voters are now more concerned about COVIDs effect on the economy (49%) than about someone in their family or someone they know becoming infected with the coronavirus (24%). Two-thirds of parents and 80% of teachers say the pandemic caused learning loss, and voters are overwhelmingly more worried about learning loss than kids getting COVID Six in ten Americans describe themselves as worn out by the pandemic. The more we talk about the threat of COVID and onerously restrict peoples lives because of it, the more we turn them against us and show them were out of touch with their daily realities. . . Dont set COVID zero as the victory condition. Americans also dont think victory is COVID Zero. They think the virus is here to stay, and 83% say the pandemic will be over when its a mild illness like the flu rather than COVID being completely gone, and 55% prefer that COVID should be treated as an endemic disease. . . Stop talking about restrictions and the unknown future ahead. If we focus on how bad things still are and how much worse they could get, we set Democrats up as failures unable to navigate us through this. When 99% of Americans can get vaccinated, we cause more harm than we prevent with voters by going into our third year talking about restrictions. And, if Democrats continue to hold a posture that prioritizes COVID precautions over learning how to live in a world where COVID exists, but does not dominate, they risk paying dearly for it in November. But if you really want confirmation that Democrats want out of the box canyon of their own paranoia and authoritarianism, check out how the issue was handled on Saturday Night Live last night: Update chasers: How conveeeenient. The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has secured N600 million loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria to establish a commercial poultry farm to boost the production of eggs and chicken. Mikhail Buhari, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Technology and Innovation, of the university stated this on Monday while speaking with journalists. Mr Buhari, a professor, said that UNILORIN was the only institution that got the highly competitive loan. He said that when established, the GG Max Poultry Farms would play a key role in the agro-based business toward reviving the poultry sub-sector. According to him, this will reduce importation and close the existing demand and supply gap of eggs and allied poultry products. The deputy vice-chancellor said the university got the loan based on the brilliant proposal it submitted which was rated as the best of presentations made by competing universities. The university would be running the farm with the support of an external consultant, Mr Buhari said, adding that the farm was situated at Amoyo in the Ifelodun Local Government Area. He said when operational, the farm would produce 5,000 broilers per week and raise 9,000 day-old broilers weekly. He added that it would maintain a layers population of 16,000 which translates to 3,679,200 eggs per year. According to him, the project is targeted at building the spirit of entrepreneurial skills among students as it would also generate employment opportunities. He said that it would be run as a typical business venture with its own board of directors and would be accountable to the Vice-Chancellor. (NAN) On Sunday, the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) outlined the technical specifications that must be met before a cinema could showcase a movie across the nation. The National Chairman of CEAN, Patrick Lee, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. Mr Lee said that the technical specifications had to do with the quality of sound, picture production, subtitling, content, the storyline of the movies, and more. He noted that any movie that would be exhibited in any cinema must have good sound and picture quality, a beautiful storyline, and the sub-titling must be meticulously done. According to him, the Bollywood and Hollywood movies usually meet the technical specifications with good quality pictures and sounds, adding that currently, more Nollywood movies were also meeting those specifications. We give out the list of the technical specifications, which has to do with Nollywood, Bollywood, and Hollywood movies to the public and movie producers. Netflix uses the same standard that we use, and DSTV is also improving on their standards. When the technical specifications are met, then we look at the storyline, content, actors that are featured, and more, he said. Mr Lee noted that the content of a movie to be showcased in cinemas must also support the rules and regulations of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB). Specifications According to him, movies that contain homosexual content, smoking, or drugs, which are against the nations rules, are not acceptable. In selecting movies to be shown in cinemas, we take into consideration the rules and regulations that operate in the country, within the purview of the NFVCB. We reject horror movies because they dont sell, unlike the romantic comedy and action movies, that are highly marketable, so the type of movie also matters. Not all movies are meant for the cinemas. Some are for television, while some others are for streaming platforms. In all selection, we are mindful of the regulations that guide the censors board. If any movie goes against the dictates of the board, we dont accept such movies, he said. Mr Lee further stated that cinemas across the nation had been very strategic with the kind of movies to be shown because of the limited number of screens available. Against all odds He explained that Nigeria should not be compared with the United Kingdom, which has over 4,000 screens against Nigerias 300 screens. He said Nigeria does not accept all Hollywood movies released because they are not commercially viable in cinemas due to weak content. There is colossal content coming from Bollywood, but it has a small market here in Nigeria. The market is specific to some regions where the Indian communities are present. Such is Ibadan in Oyo and Victoria Island and Lekki areas of Lagos. There, we have the Indians, usually coming out to support their movies, he said. (NAN) The Atah of Ayede-Ekiti, Afeleye Orisagbemi, narrowly escaped death in the hands of suspected kidnappers on Sunday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Orisagbemi is the fourth Ekiti State traditional ruler to suffer a similar fate in the last one year. The first ruler victim was kidnapped; the second one escaped kidnapping after his attackers scaled the palace fence and beat him to a pulp, while the third one escaped before the assailants struck. Mr Orisagbemi escaped death after he was attacked by the unknown gunmen on Sunday. The incident, according to witnesses, happened when the traditional ruler was returning from a meeting outside his domain. According to one of the witnesses, the hoodlums attempted to kidnap Mr Orisagbemi, shot at him without effect, a development credited to the traditional rulers superior talisman. Mr Orisagbemi is currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital. Efforts to get him to speak on the failed incident were unsuccessful. Police spokesman in Ekiti State, Sunday Abutu, confirmed the incident. Mr Abutu said efforts were in top gear to track down the perpetrators. (NAN) The crisis between Nigerian air carrier Air Peace and the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado-Bayero, took a new turn at the weekend when the chief protocol officer of the monarch, Isah Bayero, gave the airline a 72-hour ultimatum to offer an apology for disrespecting the Emir and causing him to miss his flight. Mr Bayero, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, insisted that the airline must also accept its mistake for not flying on schedule, which he said caused the delay and left the Emir stranded in Lagos. Earlier, in a petition to the NCAA, Mr Bayero, popularly known as Isa Pilot, had said the airline delayed their Banjul (Gambia) to Lagos flight by over one hour and then refused to allow the entourage of the emir to board a connecting flight to Kano. He said the entourage had arrived in Lagos 30 minutes before departure time. Background In the petition, Mr Bayero explained how he called Air Peace Chairman, Allen Onyema, to request him to delay the airlines morning flight to Kano because of the Banjul incident. He flatly refused and avowed that he would not do that. I personally took this as an insult and a flagrant show of disrespect to His Highness and the Kano people at large, Mr Bayero wrote of Mr Onyema in the petition. But in its response Friday, Air Peace described the allegations as deliberate falsehood peddled against the airline. The airlines Chief Operating Officer, Toyin Olajide, argued that Air Peace holds the Emir of Kano in the highest regards and contrary to the insinuation that the emir was disrespected, the airline indeed protected the image of the traditional ruler by not succumbing to what Isa Bayero wanted us to do. The statement said: If we had agreed to stop and delay an aircraft, already set to take-off, for another one hour only for the doors to be opened and the Emir to walk in, there would have been a very serious uproar in the media nationwide against both the airline and the Emir. This we pleaded with Isa Bayero to understand but he refused to accept. How could Isa Bayero want the Management of Air Peace to stop and delay a fully boarded plane with doors already shut and aircraft already moving while our respected Emir and eight others in his entourage, including Isa Bayero, were still at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos after arriving from Banjul? Air Peace explained that from the telephone log evidence on the phone of Mr Onyema, its Chairman/CEO, Mr Bayero called at about 5.52am, a time the CEO was still sleeping. From the log, the airline said, it could be seen that Mr Bayero called him again at 5.59am which obviously woke him up. On seeing that it was Isa Bayero calling, he took the call. Isa told our Chairman that he and the Emir of Kano had just landed the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos from Banjul, Gambia and would be proceeding to Kano same morning, the airline said. He told the Chairman to delay our first flight of the day, the 6:15 am Lagos-Kano flight for him and the Emir with another eight persons. It was not true that our Chairman refused flatly. He rather told Mr. Isa Bayero to give him a few minutes to call the airport to find out the status of the flight. I was the one he called. To show his desire to help, he called me immediately and intimated me with the request. I am the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air Peace. I quickly called the local airport from where we carry on our day to day domestic flight operations and was told that the aircraft had since finished boarding and was almost taxiing out. The crisis has, predictably, created ripples across Nigerian social media platforms. While many Nigerians condemned Mr Bayeros request to delay a flight because of the Emir, others have also expressed reservations about the shabby manners airlines treat customers whose itinerary and business schedules they disrupt with flight delays and abrupt cancellation. In 2019, according to a report by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), there were 41,968 recorded cases of missing and delayed luggage in Nigeria. The agency also recorded the operation of 65,401 flights, of which 37,510 ( about 57%) were delayed and 356 were cancelled. Last December, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the rising spate of delayed and cancelled flights has been a major worry for many Nigerians, amid weak regulations. Lingering Questions As the Air Peace-Kano Emirate crisis deepens, PREMIUM TIMES observes that a key question of consumer protection in the face of weak regulations remains unanswered. In his petition to the NCAA, Mr Bayero specifically claimed that despite having to check into a hotel at personal cost, the airline also requested them to pay a no-show fee when they wanted to rebook the next available flight of the airline which was by 7 pm. This is an extreme case of insensitivity and callousness. In view of the foregoing, I feel strongly aggrieved and demand your kind intervention for restitution and for appropriate measures to be taken to stop this unwholesome development from happening in the future, he wrote in his petition to the NCAA. Curiously, in its press statements released to clarify the issues, the airline did not address this concern. Advertisements On Sunday, the airline said the Banjul-Lagos flight terminated in Lagos and had no connection with any other destination. But it did not address the allegation of asking the Emir to pay for no show. It did not also address the delay in Banjul. In a telephone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES Monday morning, Stanley Olisa, Airpeace spokesperson, declined to respond to the allegation. When this newspaper repeated the allegation and asked for clarity, he hung up the call. According to Part 19.6.1 of the NCAA Regulations, when an operating air carrier reasonably expects a flight to be delayed beyond its scheduled time of departure, it shall provide the passengers with reason(s) for the delay within 30 minutes after the scheduled departure time Similarly, the airline is expected to provide assistance in forms of refreshments, after two hours. It is also expected to provide telephone calls, SMS and E-mails. If it is at a time beyond 10pm till 4am, or at a time when the airport is closed at the point of departure or final destination, it must provide necessary assistance, including hotel accommodation and transport. Expert Intervenes John Ojikutu, a former commandant of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, told PREMIUM TIMES Monday morning that it was wrong to expect that the airline would halt the departure of a flight that was ready for take-off because of another passenger. However, he expressed reservations about Air Peaces conduct thus far. All these things that are going on, they are not very necessary, he said in a telephone interview. We do all sorts of things politically in this country, which is wrong. What Air Peace needed to do when they got to know about the personality involved is to apologise and move forward. Otherwise, there might be a little bit of problems for Air Peace operations in Kano. If we continue to move this way, they will turn it into a political issue and there will be problems. The Emir can sue Air Peace for delaying their flight from Banjul to Lagos, and Air Peace can never win that case. Thats why I said that they have to be very careful. Speaking about the regulatory environment, the aviation expert said the major concern was regulatory failure that makes it difficult to instill discipline within the system. He said: I keep saying that the NCAA itself is not doing a proper oversight, and nobody seems to trust them. The airline themselves dont trust them. What they would have done is to carry the case to NCAA: They delayed my flight and thats why I couldnt catch up with this flight and they are now telling me to pay. He insisted, however, that the passengers can sue Air Peace and warned of the consequences for its business operations. They can sue Air Peace, and I am telling you they will win the case against the airline, especially if they had a delay, whether they were able to catch up with the flight or not. Unfortunately for Air Peace, the two airlines belong to them. So thats why I said they have to handle it very carefully: apologise to the people. I mean, if they do it to somebody like me (the ordinary Nigerian) they can be making all this type of noise. If it happens to me, I will go to the NCAA and report, and I know how it will end up. A common man can go to court; if anybody goes to court on a case like this, he would win against them (Air Peace). One, its your flight (and) you delayed that flight and as a result, I cannot catch up with the other one. What do you do? You apologise! You now want to charge me again on your own flight again? Extra money? No, it doesnt make sense. When Damilola (not real name) met her husband, Israel Alake, in 2018 during a church service at Victoria Island, Lagos, she had hesitated about his proposal. Apart from being only 21, she was still an apprentice at a make-up training centre in the same VI. I was afraid of being rushed into marriage by him because he was already 36 at the time, she told PREMIUM TIMES. However, Mr Alake, an electrician, lavished gifts and pocket money on her. He also showed me love and promised to set up a shop for me after our marriage so that I could be on my own. In fact, the offers were almost irresistible, Mrs Alake, now 25 with two kids, said. Eventually, she agreed to marry him. Thus, in 2018, and without any sustainable means of livelihood, Mrs Alake, a secondary school certificate holder, tied the knot with her heartthrob. But less than a year into their marriage, the relationship began to go south. According to her, Mr Alake soon became a bully and jettisoned all the promises made in the past. But in just three years, they had two kids in spite of the troubled relationship. However, she stepped out to buy some items recently and returned less than an hour after to find her belongings thrown out of the house, with some reportedly in the gutters. Mrs Alake said that with her five-month-old baby strapped to her back, she spent more than an hour outside as he refused to open the door or answer her calls. When he eventually opened the door, he warned her never again to knock at his door or call his phone number. She said it took the neighbours intervention and pleas before Mr Alake gave the reason for his action. He said I disrespected him by going out of the house without telling him, and that I left our firstborn at home with him. But the two of them were sleeping when I rushed out to get something to cook. Until the evening of that day, he did not allow me to enter the house. Mrs Alake, who pleaded with PREMIUM TIMES to conceal her identity in this report, also begged that her husband should not be brought into the matter, or else, he will kill me. She recalled how he beat her the previous week, leaving her with injuries on her face and arm that were yet to heal. My elder sister has been telling me to leave the house but I dont want to give up on our marriage. I am confused. But I have to stay with him for the sake of our children because I dont have anything to cater for them, she said. She said he had sent her away to her parents more than twice and that he always ignored her parents call to settle their crisis. I would end up going back to beg him despite disrespecting my parents because it is a thing of shame for me to live with my parents after marriage. Mrs Alake said apart from working at a private school as an attendant where she earns N10,000 monthly, she also engages in make-up business. She, however, said the business has not been moving well. The mother of two suspected her husband was seeing another woman, and that it was the reason for his conduct. Religion not enough to stop GBV At the age of 27 and having failed to secure university admission after six attempts at the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Zainab Ilias was introduced to a Muslim brother and university graduate, Imran Ilias. They were introduced by the wife of his elder brother identified simply as Hajia, who uses niqab a veil worn by some Muslim women in public, covering all of the face apart from the eyes. Mrs Ilias also accepted to use niqab as advised by her suitor. They were eventually married in 2017 with the husband, a school owner, promising to support her university education dream. But less than two years into the marriage, Mrs Ilias said her husband suddenly changed and stopped talking about the promises made. Advertisements He started looking down on me; he would call me names, saying that he married me with nothing apart from my Olevel certificate. This marriage has been a living hell for me. Though he is religious, he breaks his promises and calls me names. Mrs Illias said she could not visit her parents for three years after her marriage. although this did not go well with her, she felt she had to remain with him for the sake of their children. Asked if her husband has another wife, Mrs Ilias said no. She added that as a Muslim, having another wife is not an issue but that shouldnt affect the love and happiness of the one you have at home. CSO shares experience Most of the time, women tend to remain in abusive relationships as a result of the fact that they are not self-reliant, they are not self-sufficient. Due to lack of employment, they do not have what it takes to stand on their own because they have children in that marriage, says Olajumoke Peters-Fadairo, a lawyer with Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), a womens rights organisation in Nigeria, which provides free services for female victims of gender-based violence and other womens right abuses. Mrs Peters-Fadairo narrated the story of one of WARDCs many clients, Aisha Ogara, a 45-year-old petty trader and mother of three children, ages 24, 20, and 14 years. Mrs Ogara had reported to the organisation how she had suffered abuses for more than 20 years in her marriage. She said Mrs Ogara has scars all over her body from the persistent beating by her husband. Mrs Peters-Fadairo said one of Mrs Ogaras children reported the case to the WARDC, before we eventually invited her for an interview. When she reported to our office, we asked if she wanted justice for the violation of her rights by getting her husband arrested for assault, but she declined. She rather requested that we should caution him on the violence against her and also on the childrens upkeep because she doesnt intend to leave her matrimonial home for fear of losing the shop he got for her. We advised her and proceeded to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare in Ogun State, where her husband was invited and a memorandum of understanding was drafted and her demands were met. What studies show Studies have shown that there are thousands of women experiencing what is termed Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The United Nations defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), violence against women, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence, is a major public health problem and a violation of womens human rights. Estimates published by WHO indicate that globally, about one in three (33 per cent) women worldwide have experienced either physical and or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. The estimates also indicate that almost one-third of women aged 15-49 years, who have been in a relationship, report that they have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. Also, a report from Nigerias National Population Commission (NPC) estimates womens lifetime exposure to IPV from their partner at 19 per cent for emotional IPV, 14 per cent for physical IPV, and 5 per cent for sexual IPV. In 2021, the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) reported that it recorded 10,007 reported cases of domestic violence, including sexual abuse perpetrated against adults and children between May 2019 and August 26, 2021. The breakdown of the cases shows that domestic violence ranked highest with a total of 4,150 cases. Five of the victims were said to have died. As of September 2021, DSVRT noted that three suspects were being prosecuted, while two suspects escaped. Global body reacts Spotlight Initiative, a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, said it has partnered with several civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria that provide services to vulnerable women and girls and particularly those experiencing multiple forms of discrimination. According to its national coordinator in Nigeria, Hadiza Dorayi, women should be empowered from a young age to be confident enough. She said basic literacy and exposure will make a woman confident enough to speak and walk away because she deserves better. We have directly supported about 200,000 women to go back to adult education to complete their courses so that they can have basic literacy, she said. Speaking further on why women refuse to leave an abusive marriage, she said: When it comes to persistent abuse in a marriage, a woman should be able to leave that situation. Although there are things that make a person stay in an abusive relationship or marriage, which could be selective and social norms, these are signs of low self-esteem. The fact remains that anybody can leave an abusive situation. After all, those that have left didnt leave because they had something to do or a place to go. When you decide to leave then you will be able to find something to do. Spotlight initiative tries to make it easier for survivors, for example, we try to give room to women to report cases of abuse, to be treated health-wise, counselling, and legally get representation. She added that the organisation has worked directly with the ministry of women affairs to give shelters so that victims can have a place to stay for a while before starting a business. She said the organisation has shelters in about 10 states in Nigeria and has organised skills acquisition training for over 5,000 out of the millions of women facing abuse in the country. Editors Note: The names of the victims and their partners were changed due to fears of further attacks by the partners. This report was produced with the support of the Africa Womens Journalism Project (AWJP) in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and through the support of the Ford Foundation. Page planning and production: George Ogala The Senate and the House of Representatives will on Tuesday vote on 68 proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution. Both chambers will vote separately on the bills on the amendments during their plenary sessions. The report of the joint committee on constitution review was laid at both chambers last week by the ad hoc committees constituted to review the Constitution. The Committe of the Senate chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, that of the House led by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, had laid the report after harmonising their areas of differences. For the amendment and voting process to be successful, two-third membership of the entire Senate (or House) is required. And some provisions require four-fifth membership of the chamber. The lawmakers are expected to vote electronically. After the voting process, the bills that are approved, will be sent to the 36 states for votes. It is mandatory that each alteration passed by the National Assembly must receive support of simple majority of votes in at least two-thirds of State Houses of Assembly in the federation. And the amendments that receive such approvals, will be sent to the president for assent. Below are some key amendments that will be voted on. Bill to abrogate state and local governments joint accounts The bill seeks to alter the Constitution to repeal the state joint local government account and provide for a special account where all allocations due to the local governments councils, from the Federation Account and state government shall be paid. In the bill, each local government council is to create and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid. Sponsored by late Cross River senator, Rose Oko, it mandates each state to pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its internally generated revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly. Financial autonomy for State Assemblies and Judiciary This bill seeks to alter the Constitution to provide for the financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and state judiciary. The struggle for financial autonomy for state Houses and judiciary has been a long one, which dates back to 1999. When the Constitution was amended in 2010 and the bill passed, only 23 of the 36 assemblies passed the bill thus not meeting the two-third mark required. The lawmakers are including a new clause in Section 121(3) of the Constitution to read Any amount standing to the credit of the House of Assembly of a State and the Judiciary of a State; in the consolidated Revenue Fund of the State shall be paid directly to the said bodies and in the case of the judiciary such amount shall be paid to the heads of the courts concerned. Legislative summons As the name suggests, the legislation seeks to alter the Constitution to compel persons to obey or comply with legislative summons. It also stipulates penalties for offenders of this law. Pension for top lawmakers This controversial and newly introduced bill seeks to grant life pension to presiding officers of the National Assembly. These include the Senate President, Speakers of the House of Representatives and their deputies. Many Nigerians have kicked against the bill as they say Section 84(5) of the Nigerian constitution which guarantees life pension for all former presidents and vice-presidents, already costs about N7.8 billion annually. Remote trials The bill seeks to alter the constitution to legalise virtual court proceedings. This will allow court or tribunal proceedings to be conducted remotely, online or through any media platform or technological innovation. Sponsored by Ekiti senator, Opeyemi Bamidele, the legislation seeks to amend Section 36 of the Constitution to allow for these provisions. Diaspora voting The alteration bill seeks to provide the right for Nigerians in the diaspora to vote during elections. Advertisements The bill sponsored by the Chairperson of the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Tolulope Shadipe, seeks to amend sections 77 and 117 of the Constitution. If passed, the Nigerian communities in the Diaspora will be eligible to vote. Extra Seats for women The bill, sponsored by Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (APC, Abia) and 119 members, seeks to alter sections 48, 49, 71,77,91, and 117 of the 1999 constitution by creating one senatorial seat and two federal constituencies in each state and FCT for women. It also seeks to amend section 91 of the 1999 Constitution by creating an additional 108 seats in the state houses of assembly for women. Independent candidacy The independent candidacy bill is another bill from the last Assembly. The alteration bill which seeks to amend the Constitution to allow citizens to run for office without being sponsored by a political party was considered in the 8th Assembly. The Chief Whip of the House, Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno), reintroduced the bill for consideration. Office of the Mayor for FCTA The House of Representatives is considering a constitution alteration bill to change the administrative structure of the Federal Capital Territory. The bill, sponsored by Dachung Bagos (PDP, Plateau), seeks to remove the President as the Chief Executive Officer of the FCT and opt for an elected Mayor to administer the capital city. Termination of tenure of elected officials for carpet crossing This proposed amendment seeks to provide the process for termination of tenure of certain elected officials on the account of changing political parties. PREMIUM TIMES had in a report detailed the alarming trend of carpet crossing in the green chamber. Power to summon President, governor This alteration seeks to empower the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly Powers to summon the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Governors of States to answer questions on issues on which the National and State Houses of Assembly have the power to make law respectively. In 2020, the House of Representatives had attempted to summon President Muhammadu Buhari over general insecurity in the country. Mr Buhari had turned down the invitation, and the Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, had stated that the National Assembly does not have such powers to summon the President. It was also reported that state governors prevailed on the president not to honour the invitation to avoid setting a precedent that state Houses of Assembly can rely on. This bill, if passed, will give the National Assembly and the sub-national parliaments the constitutional rights to issue summons to presidents and governors. Immunity for Senate President, Speaker and their deputies With this bill, the lawmakers are seeking to confer immunity on the heads of the two chambers and their deputies from prosecution. Despite the outcry against the current immunity enjoyed by the executive, the lawmakers also seek to extend that controversial law. The House Committee had earlier decided to step down the bill, but later backtracked and recommended it to the House. Timeframe for appointing ministers The bill mandates the president to send ministerial nominees to the Senate within 30days. In 2015, it took Mr Buhari about six months to nominate ministers and in 2019, he took another two months to form a cabinet. This proposed amendment seeks to end such wait. A President must send his/her ministerial nominees to the Senate within 30days. Same applies to the governors in the case of commissioners. Expanding the scope of citizenship by registration In the Constitution, a foreign woman married to a Nigerian man gets automatic rights to become a Nigerian by registration. This constitutional right is not extended to a foreign man married to a Nigerian woman. This bill seeks to amend section26 (2a) of the 1999 constitution, by opening citizenship registration to males and females. Separating office of the Attorney-General from the Minister of Justice This bill seeks to separate the Office of the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and of the State separate from the Office of the Minister of Justice or Commissioners for Justice of the state in order to make the Offices Attorneys. It seeks to make the Offices of the Attorney Generals at both federal and states to be independent and insulated from partisanship. This bill has become a recurring one in the National Assembly. It was considered in the 7th and 8th Assembly but was defeated. Now the 9th Assembly is considering it. Moving VAT to exclusive legislative list This amendment seeks to make Value Added Tax an item on the Exclusive Legislative List. This means only the federal government can collect and make laws on VAT. VAT collection is currently a matter of dispute between the federal government and some states like Rivers and Lagos. Both the Lagos and Rivers States Houses of Assembly had passed laws allowing them to collect VAT in their respective states. However, the Court of Appeal had ruled that all the parties involved should maintain the status quo. The Nigerian government on Monday announced that it will begin evacuation of Nigerians fleeing Ukraine from Wednesday. Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigerias minister of foreign affairs, made this known at a meeting with Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House of Representative. He noted that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved an airlift by Air Peace for Nigerians willing to return to the country. We had to sit with Mr President very quickly last week, we went with the chief of staff, saw him and he approved that we should go ahead with an airlift. We negotiated with Air Peace, we tentatively fixed it for Wednesday; the idea is for Romania to be the hub, Mr Onyeama said. According to Mr Onyeama, an estimated 1,000 Nigerians are ready to be picked up from Romania; 200 in Slovakia; 250 in Poland and 250 in Hungary. He added that about 150 Nigerians will be returning from Russia. He added that though some Nigerians do not want to return home, they (Nigeria) have been given a timeline by these countries and are obliged to honour their own side of the agreement. There are over 5,000 Nigerian students in Ukraine, the Nigerian embassy in Ukraine has ascertained. Russia launched a military attack on Ukraine on Thursday and has sustained it despite sanctions by the U.S. and its allies. Five days into the crisis, the situation remains tense with major Ukrainian cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv already targeted. Russia, however, says it is only targeting military facilities. Russia and Ukraine have commenced unconditional talks at the Ukranian-Belarusian border. More than 500,000 people have fled Ukraine while about 3 million require humanitarian aid, according to the UN. The exact death tolls are unclear as of Monday, but the United Nations (UN) has said 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded. The UN however said the figure is likely a vast undercount. The management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) says that the states under its franchise will experience prolonged power outage due to low weekly power allocation to its network by Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). This is contained in a statement issued by IBEDCs Senior Communication Officer, Kikelomo Owoeye, on Sunday in Osogbo. It said that Ogun, Oyo, Ibadan, Osun, and Kwara region would be affected by the power outage. According to the statement, the weekly power allocation to IBEDC network by TCN had dropped from 692.5 megawatts to 368.5 megawatts. This has led to massive load shedding across our franchise in Ogun, Oyo, Ibadan, Osun, and Kwara region. Kindly bear with us, as we work with stakeholders in the electricity value chain on sustainable resolution, IBEDC said. (NAN) Hoodlums suspected to be cultists on Sunday killed a bus conductor, identified as Lekan, in Osogbo, Osun State. The hoodlums attacked the deceased around the Oluode area of the state capital, while he was travelling on a motorcycle alongside three others. Until his death, Mr Lekan worked at a motor park around the Old Garage Area of Osogbo. While others escaped with machete cuts, the deceased was reportedly hit with large stones continually, until he passed out. Contacted, the spokesperson of the Osun State Police command, Yemisi Opalola, confirmed the incident. She noted that the deceased was confirmed dead at a hospital. One Lekan a.k.a Osondi, Quadri a.k.a poplo and two others were attacked by some people suspected to be cultists around 1:30 p.m. in Osogbo. Lekan was confirmed died in the hospital, while others are still receiving treatment at UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital, Osogbo. Our men are already on the trail of people suspected of carrying out the attack. We deployed men to the area where the incident happened and normalcy has returned, while our operatives continue to hunt for the perpetrators. Reacting to the development, the Osun State government said it has been briefed, adding that both the perpetrators and their sponsors will be apprehended. The government spoke through a statement signed by the state Commissioner for information and Civic Education, Funke Egbemode. The current spate of killings in Ilesha and Ede are cult-related, and the security architecture of the state has briefed the governor. But as security strategies are not issues to be discussed in the media, the government cannot disclose details of what its operatives are doing. We can only assure citizens and residents of Osun that everything is being done and will continue to be done, within the ambits of the law, to apprehend those who are arming young people to foment trouble in the state. 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Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e8387a0f40)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838888200)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e8387a0f40)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838888200)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838802820)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838888200)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838888200)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e82e315878)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838887fa8)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838887fa8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 The police in Delta State said they arrested 13 suspected cultists while they were holding their initiation ceremony at a forest in the Aniocha Local Government Area of the state. The police spokesperson in the Delta State, Bright Edafe, who confirmed this in a statement on Monday, said the arrest was carried out during the raid of the criminals hideout on Thursday. A combined team of police and civilian anti-cult successfully foiled the initiation process, he said. A locally made double-barrel shotgun, 25 live cartridges, a Toyota Corolla and a Lexus 350 SUV were among the items recovered during the raid, the statement said. In a related development, Mr Edafe said the police also rescued a 62-year-old kidnap victim during a routine stop-and-search operation in the state. Narrating the incident, Mr Edafe said: On the 24/02/2022 at about 2230hrs, Operatives of Dragon 18 Patrol team while on routine stop-and-search duty along ECN/Otu-Jeremi Aladja road by Ewhrekekan junction, sighted a Mercedes Benz ML 350 and Lexus 350 parked by the roadside. While observing the two vehicles, a kidnapped victim (name withheld), on sighting the police, raised an alarm that he had been kidnapped. The patrol team swung into action and advanced towards the vehicles when suddenly, they heard gunshots. The team immediately returned fire, which made the hoodlums abandon the victim and escape into the bush. Mr Edafe, a deputy superintendent of police, said the victim told operatives that he was abducted the same day, on Thursday, at the entrance of his gate in Afisere road, Ughelli area of the state. He said arms and ammunition, including the Mercedes Benz ML 350 belonging to the victim, were among the items recovered from the kidnappers during the rescue operation. A former Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Tourism in Lagos State, Philip Aivoji, has been elected the new chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. Mr Aivoji was elected at a state congress held on Sunday in Lagos. In a keenly contested congress, Mr Aivoji polled 839 votes to defeat his closest contender, Amos Fawole, who polled 816 votes. Announcing the results on Monday, Governor Douye Diri, the Chairman, Electoral Committee for the Lagos State Congress of PDP and governor of Bayelsa, said the committee was fair and transparent in the conduct of the congress. After the transparent and open electoral process of the Lagos State PDP State Congress, I hereby announce the following results. In the chairmanship contest, we had six candidates. As Chairman of this committee, I hereby declare, Aivoji Philip Olabode as the Chairman-Elect of the Lagos State chapter of the Lagos PDP, Diri said. He said that Adetokunbo Pearse scored zero vote; King Okuneye got 56 votes; Niyi Adams polled 29 votes, while Abiodun Adebiyi scored zero vote. Mr Douye added: I will like to use this opportunity to appreciate members of the PDP, Lagos State Chapter. The PDP is one and the same, this is a family election. I believe there is no winner; the winner is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). And so, everybody should work in a way and in a manner to ensure that the PDP remain united as a family. Even those who had the ambition to lead the party but lost should support the winners to ensure that come 2023 the PDP will take over Lagos State. In his acceptance speech, Mr Aivoji, who said that he considered the call for service as a privilege, promised to work with leaders of PDP to reposition the party in the state in order to win elections. Hakeem Amode, the newly elected Publicity Secretary of the party, commended the party leaders for giving the state a free and fair congress, which he described as first of its kinds in the party. Mr Amode, who noted that the outcome of the congress was a new beginning for Lagos PDP, said that the new executives were looking forward to the challenges the victory would bring. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the partys congress produced the newly elected state executives. They are Benedict Tai (Deputy Chairman), Soji Orioye (Secretary), Hakeem Amodu (Publicity Secretary), and Idowu Akinsanya (Women Leader), among others. The rescheduled congress was held following the aborted congress held on October 16, 2021. (NAN) The European Union (EU) has continued its support for the Nigerian government in the latters effort to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the country. As part of the efforts towards achieving the target, the Federal Ministry of Environment, with the support of the EU, recently organised a two-day stakeholders workshop in Keffi, Nasarawa State. The ministry said the workshop, which had as participants environmental journalists across print, broadcast and online media platforms under the umbrella of the Nigerian Journalists for Climate Action Network (NIJOCAN), was aimed at meeting the nations Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It added that the programme was put in place as part of the activities rolled out under the Nigerian Climate Change Response Programme (NCCRP). The organisers said both the Nigerian government and the EU believe that journalists occupy strategic positions in their efforts towards sensistising the citizens about the global threat, and towards ensuring change in behavioural attitudes among them. At the workshop a new collaborative reporting project was entered into between NIJOCAN and NCCRP. Speaking at the workshop, the director, department of climate change at the ministry, Iniobong Abiola-Awe, who was represented by the deputy director, Victoria Pwol, in her opening remarks, said: To support Nigerias efforts towards meeting the NDC targets, the European Union under its Global Public Goods and Challenges Thematic Programmes, is funding the provisions of technical assistance of the implementation of the Nigerian Climate Change Response Programme (NCCRP). The director added that the programme was implemented to ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals are achieved. She said: In addition, the EU-NCCRP contributes to the concrete achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 13, 7 and 5, which are; climate action, affordable and clean energy and gender equality. The European Commission entrusted the Conseil Sante Consortium to provide technical assistance to the department of climate change of the ministry of environment, as the main beneficiary of the NCCRP. Mrs Pwol further stated that it is believed that after the two-day workshop, members of the NIJOCAN following their interaction with NCCRP experts are expected to be better informed with relevant information on the pragmatic priorities and future directions of the NCCRP. Also in his welcome address, the EU-NCCRP team lead, Todd Ngara, said climate change has massive impacts on individuals, society and the economy. Therefore, its reporting must be apt at a time like this. Kayode Egbeleye, a strategic and communication specialist and Conseil Sante representative, charged journalists at the workshop to exhibit professionalism in their reporting, saying; Your job as journalists and the role you have to play is to make sure climate change issues remain on the public agenda within and outside the shores of Nigeria. It is by doing so that you could create awareness, galvanise people into action, and probably change behavior and attitude, he added. Mr Egbeleye said the workshop was a follow- up to the inaugural one held in March 2021 which he noted opened the participants to the kind of stories the audience would like to see and the kind of approach needed to gather, produce and disseminate such stories. Mr Egbeleye therefore admonished the journalists to tap into the different repositories available to further build their capacities. Highlight At the workshop, a 12-month action plan was designed by the members of NIJOCAN to help effectively report burning climate change issues and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between NIJOCAN and NCCRP. The MoU, which does not compel any legal, financial or any other binding obligations, is intended to guide and support collaborations between both parties. Excerpts from the MoU read in part:The editorial goal of NIJOCAN, which is to provide in-depth, nuanced and solutions-oriented reporting on the issues of climate change mitigation in Nigeria is to support the raison detre of the Nigeria Climate Change Response Programme (NCCRP). The Presidency has frowned at the reported inhuman and discriminatory treatments of Nigerians and other citizens of African countries, who are being denied the same right of passage out of Ukraine. Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesperson, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, said all citizens should be treated with dignity irrespective of the colour of their passports or their skin. He said: From video evidence, first-hand reports, and from those in contact with their wards and/or Nigerian consular officials there have been unfortunate reports of Ukrainian police and security personnel refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains heading towards the Ukraine-Poland border. In one video widely circulating on social media, a Nigerian mother with her young baby was filmed being physically forced to give up her seat to another person. There are also separate reports of Polish officials simply refusing Nigerian citizens entry into Poland from Ukraine. One group of Nigerian students having been repeatedly refused entry into Poland have concluded they have no choice but to travel again across Ukraine and attempt to exit the country via the border with Hungary. According to the presidential aide, it is paramount that everyone is treated with dignity and without favour, adding that all who flee a conflict situation have the same right to safe passage under UN Convention. While efforts to begin talks between Russia and Ukraine are underway, paramount on our minds is the safety and human rights of some four thousand Nigerian citizens and many others from friendly African nations today stranded in Ukraine. He stated that Nigeria would continue to support all and every diplomatic effort to bring the war between Russia and Ukraine to an end. According to him, there is a long history dating back to decades of Nigerians and other Africans studying in Ukraine, particularly medicine, noting that the majority of Nigerian citizens in the country today are university-enrolled students. As a nation, we are proud of those educated in Kyiv and Kharkiv and other cities and centres of learning who have returned to Nigeria to perform great service for our nation and our people. Without the generosity of spirit of the Ukrainian people that would never have been possible. We pray for those directly affected by this conflict. Nigeria, with our 200 million people, support all and every diplomatic effort to bring this war to an end, Mr Shehu said. (NAN) Sorting and counting of votes have commenced in the ongoing Lagos State Peoples Democratic Partys (PDP) congress which started on Sunday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the voting, which began at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday after long hours of accreditation, ended at about 5:38 a.m. on Monday at the congress venue in Ikeja GRA. Thirty nine offices were contested for by various party members in the congress. The delegates from the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Lagos State cast their ballot for all the candidates of their choices. The number of accredited delegates for each LGAs are Agege (87), Alimosho (100), Amuwo-Odofin (96), Ajeromi Ifelodun (95), Apapa (106), Badagry (113), Epe (179), Eti Osa (39), Ibeju-Lekki (45), Ifako Ijaiye (85), Ikeja (75), Ikorodu (130) and Kosofe (41). The accredited delegates in Lagos Mainland is 83, Lagos Island (31), Mushin (104), Ojo (103), Oshodi-Isolo (88), Surulere (95), Somolu, (91). Earlier, the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa, had urged the delegates to work in the interest of the party. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two leading contenders for the chairmanship seat are Philips Aivoji and Amos Fawole. The rescheduled congress was held following the aborted Lagos PDPs Congress held in October 16, 2021. The congress was conducted under the watch of agents and the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). (NAN) President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday applauded the BUA Group for its strides in narrowing the gap between demand and supply of cement in the country. The President spoke at the State House, Abuja, while receiving a top delegation from BUA Group, led by the Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, which was on a thank-you visit. President Buhari had last month visited Sokoto to commission the Line 4 of BUA Cement, which would ensure further availability of cement, of which Nigeria suffers about three million tonnes deficit. I want to congratulate you on your success, the spokesperson for Mr Buhari, Femi Adesina, quoted the President as telling the BUA Group Chairman. And I thank you for mobilizing senior members of your Group to come and say thank you to me. It is remarkable. What you have done in bridging the gap of cement supply in the country is quite commendable. You have proven that the productive capacity of a country is very important. Mr Rabiu said the BUA Group was currently building more factories in two different parts of the country, which will contribute about six million additional tonnes to cement supply. He added: Your presence at the commissioning of our Line 4 sends a strong message of commitment to industrialization of our country. Like you often say, we need to add value to what we produce with locally sourced raw materials, and we remain committed to it. We are ready to work with the Federal Government, and all other relevant stakeholders. The consistent effort of the Government in supporting local capacity has helped us a great deal. The BUA Group Chairman said the support of President Buhari for Nigerian enterprise was unflinching, and we are encouraged to add more value. He further thanked the President for what he called his forthrightness, vision, and passion for Nigeria. Femi Adesina Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity) February 25, 2022 The management of Air Peace airline says its flight from Banjul, Gambia to Lagos, which had the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado-Bayero, on board last week, was not a connecting flight that would have required it to arrange for taking its passengers to their final destinations. The airline said this in a statement on its website yesterday, apparently in response to an ultimatum issued it by an official of the Kano Emirate Council. The official, Isah Bayero, had given Air Peace 72 hours to apologise for allegedly disrespecting the emir by causing a delay to his flight from Banjul to Lagos, which he said caused the emir to miss his flight from Lagos to Kano. Mr Bayero, who is the chief protocol officer of the emir, said the airline must accept its mistake for not flying on schedule, which he said caused the delay and left the emir stranded in Lagos. But in its statement, Air Peace disputed the narrative of the Kano emirate official. Based on misconceptions (with some customers) in some media that our Banjul -Lagos flight of February 24, 2022, which had the Emir of Kano onboard was a connecting flight, we wish to clarify it was never a connecting flight. That regional flight was a totally different flight that terminated in Lagos and had no connection with any destination, hence, the airline would never have known the next destination of its passengers. However, we regret the inconvenience incurred by our esteemed passengers who could not travel to the next destination as they had wanted, Air Peace said. The airline did not speak on the ultimatum issued it by the emirate for an apology to the emir. Background Mr Bayero, who is the uncle of the emir, had complained to the NCAA that the airline delayed their Banjul to Lagos flight by over one hour and then refused to allow the entourage of the emir to board their connecting flight to Kano. He said the entourage had arrived in Lagos 30 minutes before departure time. The petition claimed that Mr Bayero called Air Peace Chairman, Allen Onyema, to request him to delay the airlines morning flight to Kano because of the Banjul incident. He flatly refused and avowed that he would not do that. I personally took this as an insult and a flagrant show of disrespect to His Highness and the Kano people at large, Mr Bayero wrote of Mr Onyema in the petition. On Saturday, Mr Bayero told reporters that he would continue to speak against the alleged ill-treatment the liner caused to the emir and himself as private customers, until Mr Onyema offers the apology. Mr Bayero also refuted the airlines statement that it offered the emir an alternative flight to Abuja for transiting to Kano, insisting the statement is not true. I personally requested the offer from Air Peace to allow the emir to join their flight to Abuja; from there we would be transiting to Kano, but they said that also was fully booked, Mr Bayero said. Since we left Banjul an hour behind schedule, the airline should know they have 10 passengers transiting to Kano and should know the right thing is to reschedule the flight because the delay we had was never our fault. I called severally, they refused to pick but later picked and told us it was not possible. Courtesy demands the management should make necessary arrangements for the VIP because I had called the airline while in Banjul to make provision for (a) vehicle that would transit the emir from international wing to domestic. That they disrespected the emir was the reason why they refused to delay the flight. It is totally wrong and unacceptable because, if they truly respect the emir, they should understand the aircraft was not complete without 10 passengers, including the VIP. We booked our tickets on that aircraft, and anybody that is familiar with international flight understands what is on-transit passengers and that passenger has priority more than any other passenger on board. For delaying us from Banjul, which caused our arriving late to Lagos, Air Peace, has the moral duty to accommodate or take care of us. Unfortunately, there was no option or offer to ease our situation, only for us to be left stranded. It was pure falsehood for Air Peace to make that statement that they provided an alternative flight to Abuja for the emir. For that claim, I was the one that asked for Abuja flight and they said it was fully booked. The Abuja flight was fully booked and if their aircraft to Abuja is full already, how do we get to Abuja? Now, lets assume they had taken us to Abuja, how are we sure Kano flight was available from Abuja? Advertisements I am giving an ultimatum of 72 hours for Air Peace to tender an apology to the emir, first in a national daily and secondly to come down in person to the emir. We would not hesitate to go extra miles to correct the misnormal. The action of Air Peace is sentimental and unprofessional, and we can go any length to defend and protect any act of insensitivity against our prestigious traditional institution. That insult is not heaped on the emir alone but on the good people of Kano and folding our hands on this could trigger something worse and more ridiculous. I wrote to the DG NCAA, to complain but if someone claimed my statement is inciting, well, they are entitled to their opinion. But come to think of it, inciting who? Kano people not to fly Air Peace anymore because the airline insulted their emir and refused to apologise? That I have no regret if anybody claimed or interprets my complaint that way. After all, Air Peace has been in business before coming to Kano and Kano people have been flying across the world without Air Peace. So if that is what he wanted, so be it, we will get there. I am a professional pilot. I have flown five heads of state besides being a prince of Kano, and I am a personal friend to the Chairman of Air Peace, Mr Onyema, Mr Bayero said. NCAA is yet to comment on the issue. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it has registered 236, 206 candidates within the first eight days of the commencement of the registration for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the Direct Entry (DE) programme. This is as the examination body has rescheduled the mock examination earlier scheduled to hold on April 16 for April 9. According to the examination body, the record is a huge improvement when compared to its experience in 2021 when it said only 102,221 candidates were successfully registered within the same period. The examination body, which made the claim in the latest edition of its weekly magazine that was released on Monday, noted that the new development is an indication that its partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on the mandatory use of the National Identity Numbers (NIN) by prospective candidates, is yielding the desired results. JAMB said unlike in 2019 when it had to abruptly suspend the mandatory use of NIN by candidates due to complaints, the reintroduction of the policy in 2020, it said, has helped to significantly curb examination malpractices. The partnership between the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is yielding desired results as the process which, by all indications, was deemed impracticable in 2019 and had to be shelved, was reintroduced in 2020 with little hitches, but has become seamless in all ramifications in 2021 and now improved in 2022, the examination body said. Statistics The statistics provided by JAMB in its bulletin indicated that on the first day of the registration in 2021, only 17 candidates successfully procured the required personal identification number (PIN) but none successfully registered. However, on the first day of registration in 2022, a total of 13,000 prospective candidates had already procured PINs while 5,846 successfully registered. Meanwhile, JAMB said within the first eight days of registration commencement in 2021, a total of 117,314 successfully procured their PINs while 102,221 were successfully registered. But in the ongoing processes, JAMB said a total of 286 candidates have successfully procured the PINs while 236,206 candidates have been successfully registered. Monitoring committee Meanwhile, the examination body said it has approved the constitution of a management committee to monitor the ongoing registration exercise nationwide. It added that apart from the UTME and DE registration, the accredited computer-based test centres have also been approved to register candidates for the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), part-time, sandwich and distance learning programmes, and that proper monitoring would be required to address likely issues of malpractices. JAMB said: To ensure that the candidates and the public get quality services and are not extorted, the Board would be monitoring the 2 0 2 2 UTME /DE registration exercise, as well as assess how the centres are shouldering the added responsibility. The exercise is part of the Boards resolve to ensure that its agents play according to the rules as anyone found wanting would be delisted. Furthermore, the centres were also charged to refrain from charging above the regulated fees. Rescheduled mock exam JAMB said the change in the date of the mock examination is due to the realisation that Easter Saturday is on April 16. The examination agency said; This change is owing to the realisation that 16th April, 2022, earlier chosen, is Easter Saturday, a day celebrated by the Christian faithful as a holy Saturday as it ends the lenten season and falls on the day before Easter Sunday. It would be recalled that the Board was to begin its registration for the 2022/2023 UTME/DE exercise on Saturday, 12th February, 2022, but had to push the exercise to Saturday, 19th of February, 2022. The one-week extension had similarly affected the date for the Mock-UTME which also had to be rescheduled. It said as a responsive organisation that it would continue to act in the interest of Nigerians. JAMB has, therefore, urged all candidates who wish to register early to take part in the mock examination to take note of the change. The Federal High Court Abuja, on Monday, fixed April 28 for Shamsudeen Bala, a son of Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, to open his defence in an alleged N1.2 billion fraud case. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had filed 20 counts of money laundering, forgery and failure to disclose assets against Mr Bala. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the trial judge, Nnamdi Dimgba, in a ruling on the no-case submission filed by Mr Bala, dismissed 11 of the 20 charges in December last year. The judge ruled that EFCC failed to present credible evidence to support the 11 counts relating to money laundering. But he sustained the other nine counts including Mr Balas failure to declare some of his bank accounts and the amount in them to the EFCC, identity fraud, and forgery. He ruled that the defendant had a case to answer in respect of the nine remaining counts. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that at Mondays proceedings, the judge adjourned Mr Balas defence until April 28. This was after his lawyer, Chris Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, asked for more time to deal with certain house-keeping issues. Mr Uche acknowledged that the business of the day was ordinarily for his client to open his defence, but pleaded for an adjournment to better prepare for his clients defence. The prosecutor, Wahab Shittu, told the court that Mr Uche had approached him on the matter and that he was reluctantly conceding to an adjournment. Background EFCC had on February 1, 2017, arraigned Mr Bala on charges of money laundering and other offences involving N1.2 billion which the defendant allegedly used for the purchase of choice properties in Abuja between 2014 and 2015. Part of the flagged transactions took place in the twilight of the tenure of Mr Balas father, Bala Mohammed , as then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The senior Bala was himself facing corruption charges in a different case until he gained immunity after was elected as Bauchi State governor in May 2019. EFCC alleged that the younger Bala, along with four firms charged as co-defendants, made payments of huge sums in cash for the purchase of properties in different parts of Abuja without going through a financial institution. The anti-graft agencys prosecutors said the cash transactions which allegedly summed up to N1.2 billion violated the cash transaction limits stipulated in the anti-money laundering law. EFCC subsequently called 11 prosecution witnesses and tendered 57 documentary exhibits to prove the 202 charges. It rested its case in September 2020. The defendants then filed separate no-case submissions, urging the court to dismiss the charges for not disclosing prima facie case against them. Ruling on December 14, 2021, the judge upheld the no-case submission of the four firms Bird Trust Agro Allied Ltd., Intertrans Global Logistics Ltd., Diakin Telecommunications Ltd. and Bal-Vac Mining Ltd. He also upheld Mr Balas no-case submission in part by dismissing 11 out of the 20 charges filed against him. Mr Bala will now be defending himself in respect of the remaining nine charges. The remaining charges are Mr Balas failure to declare some of his bank accounts and the amount in them to the EFCC, identity fraud, and forgery. (NAN) The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to pay theN82 billion judgement debt owed some oil communities in Akwa Ibom State. The communities in Ibeno Local Government Area of the state led by Obong Effiong Archianga and nine others had sued NNPC and Mobil through their lawyer, Lucius Nwosu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). They had, in their original suit, sought about N100 billion compensation for economic losses they had suffered as a result of the oil spillages caused by the two oil giants during exploration. The judge, Taiwo Taiwo, in a judgement in June 2021, ordered Mobil and NNPC to pay the Akwa Ibom oil communities cumulative damages of N81.9 billion over oil spillage that ruined their economic lives. The companies during exploration had been using decrepit pipelines under water and caused multiple spills. They were asked to recompense, Mr Nwosu told journalists on Monday. With the judgement debtors reluctant to pay the money, the creditors had returned to the Federal High Court for enforcement the judgement by initiating garnishee proceedings. Ruling Ruling on the communities garnishee applications, on Monday, the judge dismissed all the objections raised by the two oil firms and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Since all challenges to the order nisi dated 15 December, 2021 have been dispensed with and found lacking in merit, the order nisi is hereby made absolute against the garnishees, Mr Taiwo held. PREMIUM TIMES reported last week how Seplat Energy entered into a contract with a Nigerian unit of Texas-based supermajor Exxon Mobil, to procure Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimiteds entire oil assets in Nigeria that date back to 1961 when the American firm first got the nod to prospect for oil in the country. This development, Mr Nwosu said is unfortunate, urging the NNPC to quickly get Mobils assets in its custody to pay the judgement debt, warning that the Nigerian government will be held liable. CBN doesnt need Attorney-Generals consent Abayomi Omoruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, while arguing in the garnishee nisi proceedings on behalf of the CBN, had said the central bank needed to get the consent of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) before enforcing the garnishee order. But the court ruled on Monday that the AGFs consent is a colonial constitutional provision aimed at frustrating the enforcement of a judgement debt against the government, which the Supreme Court of Nigeria has in several instances dismissed. The judge added that it was wrong for the central bank to anchor its enforcement of the courts order on the consent on the AGF. Earlier, the judge dismissed an application challenging the service of garnishee order nisi on the judgement debtors. Mr Taiwo noted that the coming into effect of the Petroleum Industry Act had altered the name of the judgement debtor. However, the court said the CEO, Directors, employees of NNPC are still those of NNPC Ltd, adding that the NNPC Ltd inherited assets and liabilities of NNPC. It follows that the suit identity of the judgement debtor has been known, and the misnormer will be corrected, since its a mistake of a name. Judgement debtor is juristic person, and the applicant has not suffered any injustice upon the mistake in the name of the applicant. Stance of applicants counsel is colourful and technical. The Court has power, suo moto to grant amendment of the name if mistakenly written. When a misnomer occurs, it does not vitiate the subject matter of the case. The object of the court is to make findings and dispense justice and not to punish a litigant for a misnomer, the judge held. The court added that the judgement creditor can enter claims jointly and severally against the judgement debtors (NNPC and Mobil). Backstory In his decision last June in a joint suit filed by the aggrieved oil producing communities, Mr Taiwo held that Mobil, the American oil company, and the NNPC were negligent in the way they handled oil spills that caused environmental degradation in the communities. Advertisements Specifically, Mr Taiwo took umbrage at the NNPC for being interested in revenue generation from oil exploration at the expense of the lives of the people in the communities. The judge said he believed the oral and documentary evidence adduced by the plaintiffs to support their claims that lives were made miserable for them when their water and land were polluted through crude oil leakages from old oil pipelines. Mr Taiwo noted the claims of Mobil that it did clean up exercise and held that the oil giant failed to address the compensation that would have mitigated the economic losses of the people said to be mainly fishermen and farmers. He further held that both Mobil and NNPC were negligent by their failure to visit places of the leakages of the crude oil that led to the contamination of rivers and creeks. The court rejected the claims of the Mobils joint venture partner, NNPC, that the suit was statute barred in 2012 when it was filed by the aggrieved plaintiffs. As a result of this, the judge awarded N42.8 billion as damages for intangible losses, N21.9 billion for special damages as annotated, and N10 billion as general damages. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
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Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e83883f340)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838d93240)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e83883f340)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838d93240)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838d84240)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838d93240)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838d93240)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e82e314410)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838da2588)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838da2588)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow have begun talks at the Ukraine-Belarus border, the foreign ministries of both countries have confirmed. Ukraine said its goal for the talks is an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. Al Jazeera reports that Kyiv has sent a delegation of several high-ranking officials, but the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is not joining the discussion. Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Russia wants to reach an agreement that is in the interest of both sides. The negotiation comes five days after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Analysts said it is the biggest attack on a European state since the second world war. By Monday afternoon, Ukrainian soldiers were still trying to resist Russias advances. In the face of stiff resistance and devastating sanctions, Mr Putin set Russias nuclear forces on high alert, threatening to elevate the war to a terrifying new level. Russia has made some military gains in southern Ukraine, experts told Financial Times, but the pace of its advance has slowed and it is yet to take any big Ukrainian population centres, with the capital Kyiv still under government control. Mr Zelensky said on Monday that Ukraine was braced for a crucial 24 hours, as Russian troops stepped up efforts to encircle the capital. The bulk of Mr Putins ground forces remained more than 30km north of Kyiv, according to an assessment by the UK defence ministry, their advance frustrated by logistical failures and staunch Ukrainian resistance. Reinforcements were expected on Monday to buttress what appears to be Russias objective of taking Kyiv to force a surrender, the Financial Times reports Heavy fighting continued around Kharkiv, although media reports suggested that the second largest city remained in government hands. In southern Ukraine, Russian attempts to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea appeared to be having more success. Its forces have captured the towns of Berdyansk, on the Sea of Azov, and Enerhodar, according to a Russian defence ministry statement seen by Financial Times. Reports suggested that the port of Mariupol, the last big stronghold of Ukrainian resistance that has stopped Russia from connecting the eastern border region of Donbas to Crimea, was surrounded. Russias defence ministry added that its troops had seized territory around a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhiya and that Russia now controlled all of the Ukrainian airspaces. Ukraines military confirmed Russian troops continued to attack airports, air defence systems, critical infrastructure and residential areas around the country and had launched missile strikes on buildings in the cities of Zhytomyr and Chernihiv. The exact death tolls are unclear as of Monday, but the United Nations (UN) has said 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded. The UN however said the figure is likely a vast undercount. More than 500,000 people have fled Ukraine while about 3 million require humanitarian aid, according to the UN. Nigerian students under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Monday kicked off a nationwide protest against the continued strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The association said the strike would continue until the lecturers return to the classrooms, saying the disruption of academic activities on the campuses of both the state and federal universities has negatively impacted them. The protests, which began at the Unity Fountain in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and ended at the federal ministry of education, was led by the NANS president, Sunday Asefon. The protesting students had demanded to see the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, but the NANS president told the protesters that he was sure that Mr Adamu was smuggled out of the office as soon as they arrived at his ministry. They carried placards with various inscriptions such as End ASUU Strike Permanently Now, After Strike Government Officials Get Paid, Who Pays Nigerian Students for Time Wasted, Employment Comes with Age Limits, Age is Irreversible, among others. Addressing the students, Mr Asefon said the protest will continue on Tuesday at the venue of the ASUU-government conciliation meeting. He said the students will not yield until the government and the striking lecturers reach an agreement and call off the strike. The protest was also held simultaneously in other Nigerian cities including Kano and Ilorin on Monday. The students also took to Twitter to express their grievances with the hashtag; #EndASUUStrikePermanentlyNow. PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported how NANS had threatened to confront both the striking lecturers union and the Nigerian government. Mr Asefon said his union is not in support of any of the parties, and called for quick resolution so that they could return to their classrooms. Backstory ASUU had after its National Executive Council meeting declared a four-week warning strike that began on Monday, February 14, to press home its demand for an improved welfare package, adequate funding of university education and what it termed proliferation of universities without solid foundation, among many other issues. ASUU accused the government of constantly failing to honour the agreements it had with the union, and specifically the Memorandum of Action (MoA) it noted prompted the union to suspend its nine-month-old strike in December, 2020. While the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, said the strike was illegal because the union failed to notify the government 14 days before the strike, ASUU noted that it did not declare a fresh strike but a roll-over of the one it suspended in 2020. ASUU said the strike was suspended on the condition that its demands would be met. After a conciliatory meeting that lasted several hours last Tuesday, no success was recorded as the meeting ended in a deadlock. Now in its third week of the four-week warning strike, both parties are billed to meet again on Tuesday. Were Nigeria a business or an individual, banks would have stopped lending to her a long time ago. Yes, the ratio of her debt to gross domestic product (GDP) is not as bad as the discussions around its sovereign debt make out. At 35.71 per cent, surely Nigerias debt-to-GDP ratio can only be described as a minuscule portion of the 256 per cent of global output that global debt now comprises. For context and in contrast, it helps to remember that the likes of Japan, Italy and the US closed last year with debt-to-GDP ratios of 256.86 per cent, 154.75 per cent, and 133.28 per cent respectively. Although, most countries were already carrying large, and growing, debt-to-GDP ratios before the second quarter of 2020, the fiscal buffers which governments had to lend to economies across the world, as they tried to contain the adverse economic fallout of the covid-19 pandemic did add to the burden. In 2020 alone, The Economist estimates that global debt grew by twenty-eight percentage points. Nigerias share of this, as with most other countries debt, breaks down into two parts. A domestic component. And an external one. Almost two-thirds of the US$92.63 billion that the country owed as at end-September last year was to locals. One advantage of this is that push comes to shove, government will print the money required to meet the resulting obligations. There is that implication for domestic prices of inflating away the public debt. But as a problem, it is increasingly theoretical in this case. For, truth to tell, that horse long fled the stable. The Central Bank of Nigerias monetisation of the federal governments fiscal deficit has been a fact of macroeconomic policy, here, for some time now. That leaves us with the not so small matter of the second half of the countrys debt the share owed to non-resident lenders. Most striking, at first, in this regard is the transition in the composition of the countrys external debt all US$37.96 billion of it as at September last year from cheaper multilateral borrowing to more expensive commercial sources. Get this, and you begin to get a proper sense of Nigerias debt problems. Just six years ago, multilateral borrowing (on concessional terms) accounted for a little over 70 per cent of our external debt. As at September last year, it was under 50 per cent. In the same period, the commercial component of the countrys external debt has risen from 13 per cent to a tad under 40 per cent. In other words, with Nigerias sovereign debt growing rapidly, and more expensive borrowing accounting for a growing share of this, the cost to the economy of servicing the debt will be that much higher going forward. Still, with the external component of the nations debt about equal to the balance on the countrys gross external reserves, we shouldnt have difficulty meeting obligations on this, even though we might have to break the bank to do so. With oil prices as high as they currently are (the global benchmark blend, Brent, broke the US$100 per barrel mark a couple of days back in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine), we ought to have no reason to break the bank just to meet maturing debt obligations. Except that for a variety of reasons we continue to struggle to meet our OPEC+ assigned crude oil production quota. With little or no accretions to the external reserves from higher oil prices, the pressure from rising prices on the federal governments expenditure line for petrol subsidies then matters disproportionately. This takes us back to what should be your average bankers concern with the balance sheet of its Nigeria country debtor. No borrower services their loans from their net worth. At some point they may turn to a fire-sale of assets to meet their loan obligations. But that will be only as a last resort; part of a reconstruction after the loan turns dodgy. Otherwise, borrowers take out loans on the strength of their income streams. Despite surpassing its target for non-oil earnings by 18.8 per cent in 2021, the federal government still struggled to meet its overall revenue goals for the year as it has done nearly every year since this current assay at democracy commenced. Increases in takings from value added taxes, company income taxes, and Customs collections were more than offset by huge shortfalls in the target for oil revenues. This is why at 7.3 per cent the countrys revenue to debt ratio is one of the worst amongst its peers. Well under South Africas 25.1 per cent and Indias 19.17 per cent. With the U.S. Feds Open Market Committee forecast to start raising the federal funds rate next month, and global cost of funds due to rise as a result, Nigerias straitened revenue profile remains the major vulnerability from our debt profile. Thanks to Russia (and its invasion of Ukraine), though, this outlook is now in flux. With global output poised to be stymied by the aftershocks from Europes first major war in decades, the Fed is unlikely to raise rates as fast as most analysts had called, nor for as many times this year. A quarter-percentage or a half-percentage point raise? Five times this year or seven times? All of these will matter for an economy like ours down Shit Creek with few useable paddles. Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manque and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin. FILE - In this May 8, 2014, file photo David Cohen, Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation testifies during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law oversight hearing on the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Joe Biden is nominating Cohen to serve as his ambassador to Canada, according to the White House. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) Rise in incidences of cerebral palsy across the world and surge in investments by the key players drive the growth of the global cerebral palsy treatment market. PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Cerebral Palsy Treatment Market by Drug Type (Anticholinergics, Anticonvulsants, Antidepressants, and Others), Disease Type (Spastic Cerebral Palsy Treatment, Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy Treatment, Ataxic Cerebral Palsy Treatment, and Mixed Cerebral Palsy Treatment), Distribution Channel (Hospital pharmacies, Retail Stores & Pharmacy, and Online Providers): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." According to the report, the global cerebral palsy treatment industry was estimated at $3.16 billion in 2020, and is anticipated to hit $4.36 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 3.3% from 2021 to 2030. Download Sample Report- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/13709 Drivers, restraints, and opportunities- Rise in incidences of cerebral palsy across the world and surge in investments by the key players drive the growth of the global cerebral palsy treatment market. On the other hand, several side-effects associated with drugs restrain the growth to some extent. However, initiatives taken by government bodies for regulatory approvals are expected to create lucrative opportunities in the industry. Impact of COVID-19 on Cerebral Palsy Treatment Market- Patients suffering from cerebral palsy had to switch to tele-medicine during the lockdown as they couldn't visit the hospitals. This factor impacted the global cerebral palsy treatment market negatively, especially during the initial phase. However, the market is anticipated to get back on track soon. Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Cerebral Palsy Treatment Market- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/13709?reqfor=covid The anticonvulsants segment to dominate by 2030- Based on drug type, the anticonvulsants segment accounted for more than two-fifths of the global cerebral palsy treatment market share in 2020, and is anticipated to rule the roost by 2030. The same segment would also cite the fastest CAGR of 4.0% throughout the forecast period, due to increasing prevalence rate of cerebral palsy and rise in approval of anticonvulsant drugs from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The spastic cerebral palsy segment to maintain the dominant share- Based on disease type, the spastic cerebral palsy segment held more than three-fourths of the global cerebral palsy treatment market revenue in 2020, and is expected to lead the trail by 2030. The same segment would also manifest the fastest CAGR of 3.8% from 2020 to 2030. This is because the majority of cerebral palsy patients suffer from spastic cerebral palsy. For Purchase Inquiry- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/13709 North America, garnered the major share in 2020- Based on region, North America accounted for the major share in 2020, generating more than one-third of the global cerebral palsy treatment market, due to significant rise in investments as well as partnerships & collaborations by the market players in the region. Asia-Pacific, however, would grow at the fastest CAGR of 4.5% by 2030. This is due to increase in number of initiatives along with enhanced investments for the overall R&D activities related to cerebral palsy treatment. Key players in the industry- Pfizer Inc. Teva Pharmaceuticals Bayer AG Johnson & Johnson GlaxoSmithKline plc. Novartis AbbVie Inc. Par Pharmaceutical Allergan plc. Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC. Lannett Company Inc. Official Press Release- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/press-release/cerebral-palsy-treatment-market.html Similar Research Reports for Information, Communication and Technology: Biopharmaceuticals Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Culture Media Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Acne Medication Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Home Medical Equipment Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model): AMR introduces its online premium subscription-based library Avenue, designed specifically to offer cost-effective, one-stop solution for enterprises, investors, and universities. With Avenue, subscribers can avail an entire repository of reports on more than 2,000 niche industries and more than 12,000 company profiles. Moreover, users can get an online access to quantitative and qualitative data in PDF and Excel formats along with analyst support, customization, and updated versions of reports. Get an access to the library of reports at any time from any device and anywhere. For more details, follow the link: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access About Allied Market Research: 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 domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI. 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. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1-855-550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow Us on: LinkedIn Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Allied Market Research Increase in energy demand, prerequisite of cleaner generation of power, and innovative headways in nuclear power equipment drive the global nuclear power plant and equipment market. PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Nuclear Power Plant and Equipment Market by Reactor Type (Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR), Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), Light Water Graphite Reactor (LWGR), Gas Cooled Reactor (GCR), and Others) and Equipment Type (Island Equipment and Auxiliary Equipment): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 20212030." According to the report, the global nuclear power plant and equipment industry generated $41.1 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $58.4 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 3.5% from 2021 to 2030. Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities Increase in energy demand, prerequisite of cleaner generation of power, and innovative headways in nuclear power equipment drive the global nuclear power plant and equipment market. However, difficulties in the administration of atomic waste of nuclear waste hinder the market growth. On the other hand, surge in reliability on nuclear energy in the Asia-Pacific region creates new opportunities in the coming years. Download Sample PDF (225 Pages PDF with Insights): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/970 Covid-19 Scenario: The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the nuclear power and the nuclear fuel industry in terms of supply and demand. The major impact has been on the supply side for uranium as different mining and nuclear fuel cycle facilities suspended their operations due to health concerns. This led to increase in the uranium price by 33% from its lowest point. The demand for nuclear power is related to the demand for nuclear fuel. The demand for nuclear fuel impacted negatively due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Reactor construction schedules have also been impacted during the lockdown. New reactor projects were halted temporarily. Reactor construction activities in the U.S., United Arab Emirates , France , Bangladesh , and the U.K. were impacted negatively. The pressurized water reactor (PWR) segment to continue its leadership status during the forecast period Based on reactor type, the pressurized water reactor (PWR) segment accounted for the highest share in 2020, contributing to nearly three-fourths of the global nuclear power plant and equipment market, and is expected to continue its leadership status during the forecast period. This is due to its stability at high temperatures. However, the light water graphite reactor (LWGR) segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2030. Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Nuclear Power Plant and Equipment Market: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/970?reqfor=covid The auxiliary equipment segment to continue its dominant share in terms of revenue by 2030 Based on equipment type, the auxiliary equipment segment held the highest share in 2020, accounting for more than three-fifths of the global nuclear power plant and equipment market, and is expected to continue its dominant share in terms of revenue during the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is expected to manifest the largest CAGR of 3.7% from 2021 to 2030. This is attributed to its vital role in ensuring safe operations in plants. The research also analyzes the island equipment segment. Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, to continue its lead position by 2030 Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, contributed to the highest market share in 2020, holding nearly two-fifths of the global nuclear power plant and equipment market, and is expected to continue its lead position in terms of revenue by 2030. Moreover, this region is projected to portray the fastest CAGR of 4.0% during the forecast period. This is attributed to surge in reliability on nuclear energy and rise in demand for power. Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/970 Leading Market Players BWX Technologies, Inc. Dongfang Electric Co., Ltd. Doosan Corporation General Electric Korea Electric Power Corporation Larsen & Toubro Limited Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Alstom SA State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) Toshiba International Corporation Interested in Procure Data? Visit Here: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/nuclear-power-plant-and-equipment-market/purchase-options Access AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Avenue is a user-based library of global market report database, provides comprehensive reports pertaining to the world's largest emerging markets. It further offers e-access to all the available industry reports just in a jiffy. By offering core business insights on the varied industries, economies, and end users worldwide, Avenue ensures that the registered members get an easy as well as single gateway to their all-inclusive requirements. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenueTrial Similar Reports We Have: Thermal Power Plant Market is projected to reach $1,820.7 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 3.2% from 2021 to 2030. Geothermal Power Market is projected to reach $6.8 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2019 to 2026. Steam Boiler Market is expected to reach $20.0 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 3.3% from 2020 to 2027. Hydropower Generation Market was valued at $202.4 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $317.8 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2020 to 2027. Power Distribution Unit Market is projected to reach $7.9 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2021 to 2030. Electrostatic Precipitator Market is projected to reach $10.0 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2021 to 2030. Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler Market is projected to reach $1,042.0 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 8.8% from 2021 to 2030. Electrolyzer Market is anticipated to generate $0.9 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 24.6% from 2020 to 2027. Steam Turbine Market is projected to reach $30.2 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 2.8% from 2020 to 2027. Virtual Power Plant Market is projected to reach $5.9 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 21.3% from 2020 to 2027. Pre-Book Now with 10% Discount: Nuclear Energy Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030 Nuclear Electric Power Generation Market: Global Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030 Nuclear Fuels Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030 Nuclear Waste Recycling Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030 Power System Simulator Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 20212030 Nuclear Battery Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 Shunt Reactor Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2028 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. Contact us: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: 1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1-855-550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow us on: LinkedIn Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Allied Market Research MOSCOW, Feb. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund) today announced that the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan has authorized the use of Sputnik M Russian vaccine for adolescents aged 12-17. Thus, Kazakhstan has become the first country outside Russia to authorize the use of Sputnik M. In contrast with some international producers offering their vaccines in the same dosage for both adults and adolescents, the Gamaleya Center has developed Sputnik M specifically for adolescents. Sputnik M is a two-shot vaccine based on the same human adenoviral vectors platform, which is safe and has been widely studied for over 30 years. The only difference between Sputnik M and Sputnik V is a lower concentration of viral particles per dose: Sputnik M for adolescents has 5 times less concentration in comparison with the original Sputnik V in both shots. Russian Ministry of Health registered Sputnik M on November 24, 2021 based on data from clinical trials confirming the high safety and immunogenicity profile of Sputnik M among adolescents. During the trials there were no serious adverse events registered following vaccination with Sputnik M. Current results are corresponding with those obtained during clinical trials and real-world data on Sputnik V after vaccinating adults. Sputnik V has been authorized in 71 countries with total population of over 4 billion people. It induces stronger and longer lasting immune response against COVID (including the Omicron variant) than many other vaccines, which is further strengthened by Sputnik Light booster. A unique comparative study1 conducted at Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Italy by a team of 12 Italian and 9 Russian scientists has shown that Sputnik V vaccine demonstrates more than 2 times higher titers of virus neutralizing antibodies to Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant than 2 doses of Pfizer vaccine (2.1 times higher in total and 2.6 times higher 3 months after vaccination). The study was conducted in the equal laboratory conditions on comparable sera samples from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V and Pfizer with a similar level of IgG antibodies and virus neutralizing activity (VNA) against Wuhan variant. Sputnik V showed significantly smaller (2.6 times) reduction of virus neutralizing activity against Omicron as compared to reference Wuhan variant than Pfizer vaccine (8.1-fold reduction for Sputnik V in contrast to 21.4-fold reduction for Pfizer vaccine). Based on the data collected by the Spallanzani Institute and results of Gamaleya Center's studies Sputnik V provides for strong immune response against Omicron, which is further strengthened by boosting with one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine (the first component of Sputnik V). 1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.15.22269335v1 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1698158/Russian_Direct_Invest_Fund_Logo.jpg SOURCE The Russian Direct Invest Fund (RDIF) Ukrainian, Russian radio enthusiasts battle over alleged Russian military frequency The Kyiv Independent reports that the frequency of a suspected Russian military shortwave radio broadcast, known as the 'buzzer' for its recognizable repeating channel marker, has become the battleground for rival Russian and Ukrainian radio enthusiasts, who have been attempting to hijack the frequency to play memes and propaganda. The UBV-76 transmission, which can be listened to at 4625khz on shortwave radio, is suspected to be used by the Russian military for relaying coded messages to military forces. The signal has been transmitted since the late 1970s, during the height of the cold war. There has been much speculation about the exact purpose of the radio signal, however according to Numbers Station Research and Information Center, the most widely accepted theory is that the transmissions are used to send communications between Russias Western Military District. The radio signals originate from the village of Naro-Fominsk, near Moscow. The frequency is allegedly marked by the Russian military with a repeated buzz, which is occasionally interrupted by live coded messages. With tensions between Russia and Ukraine mounting, enthusiasts noted that the encrypted radio messages were becoming much more frequent. Read the full Kyiv Independent article here: MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global humanitarian organization, Alight , has sent a team of aid workers to Poland. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country and many more to seek shelter underground or with family in safer parts of the country. It's Alight's hope that the fighting will end soon and Ukrainians can return home, but the organization is mobilizing to support Ukrainian families if they cannot. Alight's response team of seasoned humanitarian and emergency response workers has been deployed to Poland, which has received the most Ukrainian refugees. It includes members of Alight's humanitarian team that responded to the Yugoslav Wars in the 90s and 00s the last widescale conflict in Europe. The team has been authorized to do the doable and allocated funds to act immediately to satisfy the needs of refugees they encounter. They are talking to Ukrainian families and organizations responding to understand the best ways Alight can help. "Alight stands with the people of Ukraine," says Alight CEO Jocelyn Wyatt. "If Ukrainian families can't go home, Alight will help them to find peace and safety wherever they shelter. We're listening to what they need right now, and we're working to make sure they have all the essentials." After 40+ years doing this work, Alight knows that families won't just be worried about their basic needs. They'll be thinking of loved ones. And they'll be wondering what comes next, what this all means for their lives. So, beyond ensuring basic needs, Alight will do everything we can to help people cope with the situation and grapple with what to do next. "I can imagine what Ukrainian families are going through right now," states Alight Emergency Response Team Leader Igor Radonjic. "My family experienced the horrors of war in the Balkans in the 1990s and I was forced to flee myself. Our team will meet families where they are and amplify what they tell us so that people around the world can help Ukrainian families in the most meaningful ways possible." The response team is also connecting with local actors and organizations that are also helping Ukrainians, to see where we might coordinate and amplify each others efforts. To stay abreast of Alight's response and to make a donation for Ukrainian refugee families and fuel our rapid response effort, please visit www.wearealight.org . ABOUT ALIGHT Established in 1978 by founder Neal Ball, Alight , formerly known as American Refugee Committee, provides health care, clean water, shelter, protection and economic opportunities to more than 3.5 million people in over 20 countries each year. Alight believes in the incredible creativity, potential and ingenuity of the displaced and works to shine a light on their humanity, the tremendous amount of good that's already happening and the possibilities to do more. In 2020, Alight received the prestigious 4-Star Rating from Charity Navigator for the tenth consecutive year, celebrating a decade of impactful work. SOURCE Alight BUCHAREST, Romania, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitdefender, a global cybersecurity leader, today announced it has expanded its collaboration with Romania's National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC) to provide cybersecurity expertise, threat intelligence and technology at no charge to support the people of Ukraine and its allies. OFFICAL JOINT STATEMENT: Recent geopolitical events have transformed our world as we knew it. We must stand united in facing the increasing cybersecurity challenges of today and for years to come. Sharing the same mission and values of integrity, freedom and resilience, Romania's National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC) in partnership with Bitdefender will provide technical consulting, threat intelligence and, free of charge, cybersecurity technology to any business, government institution or private citizen of Ukraine for as long as it is necessary. Additionally, the Directorate in partnership with Bitdefender will provide Bitdefender cybersecurity technologies free of charge for one year to any company or public entity from NATO or European Union space who seeks to enhance their cybersecurity posture by replacing cybersecurity solutions which present trust concerns from a technical or geopolitical perspective. Romania considers that the cyberspace must be secure and resilient, and no geopolitical or military interests should affect the lives of people and their business. We remain committed to help all citizens, and the private and public sector actors of the free and democratic world, for keeping our planet as a conflict-free place. We invite all NATO and European Union member states to contribute to this endeavour. STATEMENT END As the invasion of Ukraine intensifies, the threat of cyberattacks carried out by nation-states, cybergangs and hacktivist sympathizers is significantly amplified. This enhanced collaboration is designed to support government organizations, critical infrastructure, economic interests and the personal security of citizens at greater risk for destructive attacks and cyber espionage. "We are deeply saddened by the unprovoked brutal act of war against the free people of Ukraine and are committed to doing what we can to support them and our NATO allies," said Florin Talpes co-founder and CEO of Bitdefender. "As proud Romanians and a company of global citizens, we stand with our northern neighbors who bravely fight for their future." For more information on the collaboration visit https://www.dnsc.ro/ and https://www.bitdefender.com/ukraine. About Bitdefender Bitdefender provides cybersecurity solutions with leading security efficacy, performance and ease of use to small and medium businesses, mid-market enterprises and consumers. Guided by a vision to be the world's most trusted cybersecurity solutions provider, Bitdefender is committed to defending organizations and individuals around the globe against cyberattacks to transform and improve their digital experience. For more information, visit https://www.bitdefender.com. Contact: Steve Fiore Bitdefender 1-954-776-6262 [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/833268/Bitdefender_Logo.jpg SOURCE Bitdefender SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft opened the doors to its modern offices in La Sabana's Torre Universal building, located downtown in the capital San Jose. The opening also served to celebrate the company's 28 years in Costa Rica; 4 years ago, the company had just 60 local employees and today, it employs 1,500. Daniel Verswyvel, the General Manager of Microsoft Central America, commented, "Our operational expansion in Costa Rica is a result of our continuing efforts to transform and innovate with Costa Ricans, to such an extent that we continue increasing our presence in the country, so that we can continue strengthening our technological ecosystem and empowering all people and organizations to achieve more." He added: "Our facilities at Torre Universal provide the ideal environment to shape the future of technology and to work with our clients and business partners toward digital transformation in Costa Rica and the Americas. Our new headquarters were designed to create the best experience for our growing number of employees to offer them a flexible and inclusive work environment, foster well-being, and encourage collaboration and creativity, while still maintaining our hallmark of sustainability and Costa Rican culture." Carlos Alvarado, the President of the Republic, thanked the company for its deep trust in Costa Rica and our human talent. "Accelerated growth from one of the most important companies in the world is a clear sign that Costa Rica has the resources, education, and highly qualified human talent to be a benchmark for digital transformation on a global stage, working hand in hand with companies like Microsoft." Andres Valenciano, the Minister of Foreign Trade, was at the opening and commented, "The trajectory that Microsoft has taken in our country over the last 28 years is a clear example of the commitment we have to working hand in hand with highly prestigious companies and creating greater well-being for the Costa Rican population. Thanks to our unique and comprehensive positioning, the company has established in Costa Rica its largest Latin American headquarters, which demonstrates how Costa Rica contributes to the knowledge economy through decarbonization, connectivity, and innovation." In addition, he mentioned: "We are confident that Microsoft will continue to meet important milestones with help from our human talent and, thus, continue hosting new business units that will continue contributing to its operations in the Americas." CINDE's Communication and Marketing Manager, Karin Lachner, commented: "The global health crisis has been a catalyst for driving digital transformation processes around the world. The most recent figures from UNCTAD show that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is the fastest growing sector, both in value and the number of projects in 2021, growing 22% and 15%, respectively. Costa Rica has proven to be the ally for companies that lead this global change; Microsoft is one of them. We celebrate their incorporating high-complexity functions, such as engineering and design. We trust that Costa Rican talent will be a key piece of this new era of Microsoft solutions." During the meeting, Microsoft representatives reaffirmed their commitment to the country and shared with the government delegation the development and transformation opportunities they envision for Costa Rica and the region. "Because of the enormous talent, potential, and growth that we have witnessed since our arrival in the country, we have chosen Costa Rica for Microsoft's largest operations in Latin America. Here, we have established a dynamic platform to develop qualified and high-value talent and we're betting on Costa Ricans, by placing our Latin American regional centers here, for both Technical Customer Service and Internal Sales," noted Ineke Geesink, Microsoft Country Manager in Costa Rica. Growing Human Talent. Microsoft's expanded from fewer than 60 employees just 4 years ago to today's 1,500 and has created an average of 400 highly qualified new positions every year. Likewise, it went from one operations and sales business unit to three, adding Digital Sales and the Support area, which provide their services throughout the Americans. Additionally, a growing engineering team, which in a few months will have 150 members, is headquartered in San Jose and charged with creating and designing Microsoft's main products and solutions. Comprised of 90% Costa Rican talent, the Microsoft Costa Rica team is enriched by empowered women, ethnic minorities, regional talent, and differently abled people, thus fulfilling the company's mission to reflect the society it serves and integrate all perspectives into the technologies they create. The internal teams of [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] (LGTBQI+ Community) have received local and even global recognition for their efforts in favor of inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunities. Harry Vargas, Director of Human Resources for Microsoft Costa Rica, added: "We are committed to attracting and developing a workforce that is not only highly qualified but also diverse, thus allowing us to strengthen an inclusive technological ecosystem where we will continue working to present technology solutions and tools that support organizations in their digital transformation, with help from our more than 1,000 business partners and that reflect the riches and needs of the society they serve." SOURCE Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- eMars/Compliant Client was created in 2001 to give construction company owners an easy, flawless, paperless way to be compliant with the Davis Bacon Act that enforces a prevailing wage and 31 other compliance issues. Compliant Client web was designed with input from the Department of Labor and contractors. Government auditors are given a portal to view the progress of every project. A real-time environment was created to block contractors from altering pay rates then submitting payroll. Woody Chamberlain, President The new American Jobs Plan that calls for the rebuilding of the United States infrastructure works hand in hand with the Davis Bacon Act. This 1931 act requires private contractors to be in compliance with each check paid to employees on all federally funded construction projects over $2,000. The American Jobs Plan offers fixed highways, rebuilt bridges, upgraded ports, airports and transit systems built with properly paid American workers. Construction companies, however, need a streamlined way to stay in compliance with the Davis Bacon Act and Covid regulations. Stiff fines and jail time can result if payroll checks are not in compliance. Many construction companies, however, prepare their payrolls manually. A study of 100,000 manually prepared payrolls shows that 20% of these payrolls will contain 1 or more errors. More than 70,000 contractors handling projects in 45 states, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico use Compliant Client. This system processes between 2,000 and 3,000 payrolls a day. Some payrolls have thousands of workers. Compliant Client provides immediate, concurrent, real-time visibility of all payroll records of the sub, prime, plus - the owner agency. All screens are printable via this paperless system. Every submitted payroll is audited, online and in real time. The results are instantaneous, allowing for immediate corrections. A typical payroll is prepared in less than 5 minutes. Compliant Client requires a PC and about 30 minutes of training. Complete implementation takes less than 1 day. Users report an 80% productivity improvement over manual payrolls. Compliant Client also encrypts it's at rest data. "Security is tantamount," says Woody Chamberlain, President of eMars/Compliant Client. Mr. Chamberlain continued: "Users have a choice of 13 different security roles. Each role enables the user to perform defined processes." Compliant Client clients have not had any random Department of Labor audits for the past 6 years. Please contact eMars at 480-595-0466 or by email: [email protected] Visit eMarsinc.com Media Contact: Woody Chamberlain 480-595-0466 [email protected] SOURCE eMars; Compliant Client CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- First Installment Tax Year 2020 property taxes are due Tuesday, March 1, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas reminded taxpayers today. Almost 1.8 million bills were posted on cookcountytreasurer.com in early December and mailed to taxpayers in late January. "More than 70% of property owners have paid their taxes, including more than 207,000 taxpayers who went to our website and paid online," Pappas said. "Paying online is safe, and online payments will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, March 1." To make a payment or download a copy of your tax bill, visit cookcountytreasurer.com: Select the blue box labeled "Pay Online for Free" Search by property address or enter your Property Index Number There is no fee if you pay from your bank account For those who cannot pay the full amount due, partial payments are accepted. After March 1, any balance due is charged 1.5% per month, as required by state law. While on the website, Pappas encouraged homeowners to: Search for $84 million in available refunds. in available refunds. Check to see if you are missing out on $34 million in tax exemptions, which can lower the tax bill. in tax exemptions, which can lower the tax bill. Read the Pappas Studies, a series of research projects that includes a 20-year history of Cook County property taxes. SOURCE Cook County Treasurer's Office Dealers using Dealer.com, VinSolutions, Xtime and Dealertrack DMS solutions have seen positive impacts to their bottom line, including averages of up to 19% more leads per month, 1 49% more deals closed, 2 $115,000 more revenue per month, 3 and $110 more on every repair order. 4 "A common challenge we find in the industry is that the tools and data insights serving different segments of the business don't often connect, slowing down overall operations and hampering consumer satisfaction," says Lori Wittman, senior vice president, Dealer Software Solutions at Cox Automotive. "Cox Automotive is in a unique position to provide a data-integrated, full spectrum of software solutions and support from performance experts because consumers are more satisfied, and dealerships are more profitable when departments are in sync." Additionally, 2021 and 2022 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey studies show consumer satisfaction with car buying at all-time highs despite supply shortage and rising prices. "With Cox's new connected solution, we have a real competitive advantage and can better serve the evolving needs of our customers," Matt Dagenais, Dealer Partner of Riverside Auto Group (Michigan). "With more robust and reliable first-party customer data, we have the ability to make the car buying journey more seamless in any market. Our overall profitability has also increased now that all of our departments are in sync." Data-driven, intelligent connections now available in 2022 include: - Dealer.com and VinSolutions: Uncover insights that personalize shopping and buying and identify customers who are ready to buy before they submit a lead. - Accelerate My Deal and VinSolutions: Save time by allowing consumers to begin, pause and progress deals from any device, and minimize duplication with a single record of deal activity from start to nish. - Xtime and Dealer.com: Capture more service revenue with intelligent marketing campaigns and flexible service scheduling from anywhere with Xtime and Dealer.com. - Automotive Marketing Platform powered by VinSolutions: Boost engagement with customers through automated one-to-one marketing campaigns, including personalized Dealer.com landing pages. - VinSolutions, Xtime and Dealertrack DMS: Minimize duplication and create efficiencies with seamless data flow across departments. - Cox Automotive Digital Retailing: Deliver an individualized buying experience for any consumer, shopping any way, from anywhere. No one but Cox Automotive can deliver a true end-to-end digital retailing experience. Custom demos for integrated dealer software solutions will be available at NADA Show 2022 in Las Vegas. To learn more and reserve your spot, visit https://www.coxautoinc.com/nada2022/dss/. About Cox Automotive Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company's more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Dickinson Fleet Services, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, VinSolutions, vAuto and Xtime, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com 1 VinSolutions dealers' aggregated performance data from 1/2019 2 Dealers with Xtime, VinSolutions, Dealer.com, and Dealertrack have an average lead close rate of 18.6% compared to industry average of 12.5% (amounts to 49% better lead close rate). 3 Xtime Data Analyzed December 2019-November 2020. 4 Dealers with Dealer.com, Xtime, VinSolutions, and Dealertrack DMS realize $155k more in monthly revenue compared to dealers with two or less products. SOURCE Cox Automotive "While many dealers achieved record-setting profits as they sold wholesale vehicles in 2021, the performance was due to seller-favorable market conditions, not the way dealers choose vehicles to wholesale and take them to market," Dale Pollak, vAuto founder and executive vice president for Cox Automotive, said. "Upside provides a new way for dealers to wholesale vehicles that promises profitability and minimizes risk as the wholesale market becomes less favorable and forgiving. Upside's tagline sums up its benefits--'You take the upside. We take the risk.'" Backed by deep Cox Automotive data science and a portfolio-based approach to managing risks and returns, Upside tells dealers the baseline wholesale value for a vehicle when they acquire it. Upside guarantees dealers at least $300 above the Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer when they use the solution to sell the vehicle. If a vehicle's wholesale sale achieves more than the minimum guaranteed $300, dealers get the lion's share of the upside. If a vehicle's sale does not achieve additional profit, Upside covers the loss. Upside vehicles will sell through Upside Direct, a unique store in the Manheim digital marketplace that will provide buyers an unprecedented level of purchase ease and transparency. Upside Direct will curate the sale of every vehicle, starting bids at 50% of MMR (Manheim Market Report) with no reserves. Upside Direct will also offer buyers the industry's best post-purchase experience, taking back vehicles if the condition doesn't match the condition report. "The power of Upside and Upside Direct is that they solve the biggest pain points at every step of the processfrom trade-in to wholesale disposition for sellers, and from bidding to purchasing for buyers," added Zach Hallowell, senior vice president, Manheim Digital. "It's the industry's only actual win-win for both sides of the wholesale transaction." Upside will be available for Chicago and Atlanta area dealerships in April 2022. Dealers attending the upcoming National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) 2022 convention in Las Vegas can get an early look at the solution by visiting the Cox Automotive booths. In addition, dealers who preview Upside at NADA can get a copy of the new book from Pollak that inspired the Upside solution, "Whole Truth: A Fresh, Money-Making Method to Wholesale, the Most Misunderstood Side of Your Business." For information on all Cox Automotive's 2022 new offerings or to schedule a briefing with the team, visit https://www.coxautoinc.com/nada2022/upside/. About vAuto vAuto provides innovative technology, tools, and business intelligence to thousands of dealerships across the United States and Canada, helping them compete more effectively and increase new/used vehicle sales volumes and profits. Founded in 2005, vAuto revolutionized dealers' used vehicle operations. In 2018, vAuto released the Provision ProfitTime metric and methodology to help dealers maximize inventory turn and gross profit based on the investment value or profit potential of each vehicle. vAuto's solutions also include Conquest, a new vehicle inventory management and pricing system, Stockwave, which enables dealers to efficiently find and purchase vehicles from leading wholesale sources via a single platform, and iRecon to help dealers recondition vehicles and get them retail ready faster. Headquartered near Chicago, Illinois, vAuto is a Cox Automotive brand. About Manheim Manheim is the nation's leading provider of end-to-end wholesale vehicle solutions that help dealer and commercial clients increase profits and efficiencies in their used vehicle operations. Through its physical, mobile and digital sales network, Manheim offers services for decisioning, buying and selling, floor planning, logistics, assurance and reconditioning. Operating the largest vehicle wholesale marketplace, Manheim provides clients with choices to connect and transact business how and when they want. With nearly 8 million used vehicles offered annually, Manheim team members help the company facilitate transactions representing nearly $80 billion in value. Headquartered in Atlanta, Manheim North America is a Cox Automotive brand. For more information, visit http://press.manheim.com About Cox Automotive Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company's more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Dickinson Fleet Services, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, VinSolutions, vAuto and Xtime, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com SOURCE Cox Automotive BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corporation ("Encompass Health" or the "Company") (NYSE: EHC), a national leader in integrated healthcare, offering facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home health and hospice agencies, in response to recent discussions with stockholders, including JANA Partners LLC, today provided the following updates with respect to its previously disclosed Board refreshment process and planned separation of the Company's home health and hospice business, Enhabit. The Company confirms that, in connection with its previously announced Board refreshment process, the size of the Board will consist of no more than 12 directors as of the conclusion of the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The Company's slate of directors who will stand for election to the Board will be set forth in the Company's proxy statement materials when filed. The Company continues to expect to complete the separation of Enhabit in the first half of 2022 via a spin-off. However, as Encompass Health proceeds with the separation process, our Board and management will assess any value-creating strategic opportunities and remain open to value-maximizing alternatives, including a sale or merger of Enhabit. About Encompass Health As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facilitybased and homebased patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 146 hospitals, 251 home health locations, and 96 hospice locations in 42 states and Puerto Rico, the Company provides highquality, cost-effective integrated healthcare. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as the separation of the Enhabit business from Encompass Health and the related rebranding, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition, Encompass Health, through its senior management, may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates and speculative based upon current information, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties about Encompass Health's business plans and strategies, and actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including, equity and general market conditions, the expected benefits and costs of the spin-off transaction, the expected timing of the completion of the spin-off transaction and the transaction terms, and the possibility that Encompass Health may decide not to undertake the spin-off or any separation transaction or that it is not able to consummate the spin-off or other separation transaction or the related rebranding due to, among other things, market, regulatory and other factors, the potential for disruption to Encompass Health's business resulting from the undertaking of any transactions or rebranding, the effect of the transaction and the rebranding on Encompass Heath's ability to retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with its customers, suppliers, operating results and business generally, and adverse conditions in the healthcare services industry, including any effects associated with the COVID-19 or other pandemic, and those factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's current reports on Form 8-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its latest annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021. No assurance can be given that the transactions described herein will be consummated or as to the ultimate terms of any such transactions. Media Contact Erin Wendel-Ritter | 205 970-5912 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact Mark Miller | 205 970-5860 [email protected] SOURCE Encompass Health Corp. DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Vanilla Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Form, Category, and Application" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The vanilla market was valued at US$ 1,434.51 million in 2021 and is projected to reach US$ 1,956.09 million by 2028. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% from 2021 to 2028. Vanilla is the second-most expensive spice after saffron. The bourbon vanilla grown in Madagascar is very popular for its rich flavor, purity, and aroma. Growing vanilla is a tedious process, and growers need to follow stringent procedures to meet the required quality standards. It is cured and dried before packaging as the curing process offers vanilla beans their distinct flavor and aroma. Based on the application, the vanilla market is bifurcated into food and beverage, personal care, pharmaceuticals, and others. The food and beverage segment accounted for a larger market share in 2020. The personal care segment is expected to register a higher CAGR in the market during the forecast period. Due to its anti-inflammatory and soothing properties, vanilla extract is widely used in personal care products, such as moisturizers, scrubs, and anti-aging creams. Vanilla extract is used in products that help fight acne as it possesses antibacterial and antioxidant properties that prevent breakouts while also soothing redness and inflammation. Vanilla contains B-vitamins, such as niacin, thiamin, B6, and pantothenic acid, which are vital for healthy skin. The antioxidant properties of vanilla help protect the skin from pollution and contaminants. Due to all these properties, personal care product manufacturers are frequently utilizing vanilla in their products. Based on the region, the vanilla market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South and Central America (SAM). In 2020, North America held the largest share of the global vanilla market. Asia Pacific is estimated to register the fastest CAGR in the market over the forecast period. The food & beverage industry is an essential part of the US economy. According to the US Committee for Economic Development report, the food and beverage industry consists of close to 27,000 organizations and employs almost 1.5 million people. The continued expansion in the North America food & beverage industry is significantly influencing other related markets, including vanilla. The leading players in the vanilla market are Camlin Fine Sciences Ltd; Givaudan SA; Heilala Vanilla US; LAFAZA Foods; Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc.; Symrise; The Vanilla Company; Kerry Group; Touton SA; and Madagascar Vanilla Company. Reasons to Buy Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies. The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the global vanilla market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long-term strategies. Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets. Scrutinize in-depth the market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it. Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation, and industry verticals. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Key Takeaways 3. Research Methodology 4. Global Vanilla Market Landscape 4.1 Market Overview 4.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 4.2.1 Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.2.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.2.3 Threat of Substitutes 4.2.4 Threat of New Entrants 4.2.5 Competitive Rivalry 4.3 Ecosystem Analysis 4.3.1 Cultivators and Growers 4.3.2 Manufacturing/Processing 4.3.3 Application/End Use Industries 4.4 Expert Opinion 5. Vanilla Market - Key Market Dynamics 5.1 Market Drivers 5.1.1 Increasing Vanilla Usage in Various End-use Industries 5.1.2 Rising Demand for Natural Food Additives/Flavorings 5.2 Market Restraints 5.2.1 Price Volatility and Supply Shortage 5.3 Market Opportunities 5.3.1 Rising Demand for Organic Vanilla 5.4 Future Trends 5.4.1 Growing Popularity of Clean-label and Plant-based Products 5.5 Impact Analysis of Drivers and Restraints 6. Vanilla - Global Market Analysis 6.1 Vanilla Market Overview 6.2 Vanilla Market -Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million) 6.3 Competitive Positioning - Key Market Players 7. Global Vanilla Market Analysis - By Form 7.1 Overview 7.2 Vanilla Market, By Form (2020 and 2028) 7.3 Paste 7.3.1 Overview 7.3.2 Paste: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 7.4 Liquid 7.4.1 Overview 7.4.2 Liquid: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 7.5 Powder 7.5.1 Overview 7.5.2 Powder: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 7.6 Beans 7.6.1 Overview 7.6.2 Beans: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 8. Vanilla Market Analysis - By Category 8.1 Overview 8.2 Vanilla Market, By Category (2020 and 2028) 8.3 Organic 8.3.1 Overview 8.3.2 Organic: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 8.4 Conventional 8.4.1 Overview 8.4.2 Conventional: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 9. Vanilla Market Analysis - By Application 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vanilla Market, By Application (2020 and 2028) 9.3 Food and Beverages 9.3.1 Overview 9.3.2 Food and Beverages: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 9.4 Personal Care 9.4.1 Overview 9.4.2 Personal Care: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 9.5 Pharmaceuticals 9.5.1 Overview 9.5.2 Pharmaceuticals: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 9.6 Others 9.6.1 Overview 9.6.2 Others: Vanilla Market - Revenue and Forecast To 2028 (US$ Million) 10. Global Vanilla Market - Geographic Analysis 11. Overview- Impact of Coronavirus Outbreak 11.1 North America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.2 Europe: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.3 Asia- Pacific: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.4 Middle East and Africa: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.5 South and Central America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 12. Industry Landscape 12.1 Overview 12.2 New Product Development 12.3 Merger and Acquisition 13. Company Profiles 13.1 Camlin Fine Sciences Ltd 13.1.1 Key Facts 13.1.2 Business Description 13.1.3 Products and Services 13.1.4 Financial Overview 13.1.5 SWOT Analysis 13.1.6 Key Developments 13.2 Givaudan S.A 13.2.1 Key Facts 13.2.2 Business Description 13.2.3 Products and Services 13.2.4 Financial Overview 13.2.5 SWOT Analysis 13.2.6 Key Developments 13.3 Heilala Vanilla US 13.3.1 Key Facts 13.3.2 Business Description 13.3.3 Products and Services 13.3.4 Financial Overview 13.3.5 SWOT Analysis 13.3.6 Key Developments 13.4 LAFAZA Foods 13.4.1 Key Facts 13.4.2 Business Description 13.4.3 Products and Services 13.4.4 Financial Overview 13.4.5 SWOT Analysis 13.4.6 Key Developments 13.5 Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc 13.5.1 Key Facts 13.5.2 Business Description 13.5.3 Products and Services 13.5.4 Financial Overview 13.5.5 SWOT Analysis 13.5.6 Key Developments 13.6 Symrise 13.6.1 Key Facts 13.6.2 Business Description 13.6.3 Products and Services 13.6.4 Financial Overview 13.6.5 SWOT Analysis 13.6.6 Key Developments 13.7 The Vanilla Company 13.7.1 Key Facts 13.7.2 Business Description 13.7.3 Products and Services 13.7.4 Financial Overview 13.7.5 SWOT Analysis 13.7.6 Key Developments 13.8 Kerry Group 13.8.1 Key Facts 13.8.2 Business Description 13.8.3 Products and Services 13.8.4 Financial Overview 13.8.5 SWOT Analysis 13.8.6 Key Developments 13.9 Touton S.A 13.9.1 Key Facts 13.9.2 Business Description 13.9.3 Products and Services 13.9.4 Financial Overview 13.9.5 SWOT Analysis 13.9.6 Key Developments 13.10 Madagascar Vanilla Company 13.10.1 Key Facts 13.10.2 Business Description 13.10.3 Products and Services 13.10.4 Financial Overview 13.10.5 SWOT Analysis 13.10.6 Key Developments 14. Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1ej7yc 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 Armin ZadakBar is a serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of The Armin Bar (NYC|Milan) , a boutique digital agency for the now. Since the early millennium he has been actively observing user behavior towards new technologies: "My mother got her first mobile phone in 2002. I vividly remember that her text messages were very formal even though she did not speak to me like that in real life. She did not know how to use this 'new technology' as a new means of communication." Almost a decade later and as the internet found its way into our everyday life, businesses started to use social media for their promotional activities. Armin again noticed a disconnect: "Something felt off. They did not know how to use this 'new technology'. Their whole communication was about 'what they sell' instead of 'why you should buy what they sell'. A simple shift in strategy, but a huge difference in outcome." Businesses need to understand that they are communicating with a complicated system - humans. At the end of the day B2C or B2B, there's always another human on the other side of the screen that makes a decision. Successful communication requires understanding how this system works, and how it acts or reacts to certain things. Our main chemicals of pleasure, dopamine and serotonin, can fluctuate via online communication in the same way that they can through offline communications. This is the essence of "Humanizing the Digital World": apply the principles of psychology and behavioral biology -offline principles- into the digital domain. Since 2016 Armin has been sharing his findings through lectures at several prestigious universities such as Pace University (NY), Bocconi University (Italy), Bologna Business School (Italy), and University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), as well as keynote speeches in various events such as TEDx Talk, and training sessions for many corporations across Europe. Armin has created a framework around this concept at his boutique digital agency The Armin Bar (NYC|Milan), where they specialize in the launch and re-launch of brands/products. SOURCE The Armin Bar (NYC|Milan) Elon Musks Starlink system is now providing satellite internet services in Ukraine The Creek City Times report that Elon Musk says SpaceXs Starlink satellites are now active over Ukraine after a request from the embattled countrys leadership to replace internet services destroyed by the Russian attack. Vladimir Putins unprovoked invasion has left parts of the country without internet, while SpaceX has launched thousands of communications satellites to bring broadband to hard to reach areas of the world. Tesla North reports Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for Starlink internet, a mere 10 hours ago. Just this Saturday afternoon, Musk replied to Federov by saying, Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route. Starlink is a satellite constellation in low Earth orbit, allowing for internet to blanket anywhere on the planet. Users on the ground require satellite dishes that connect to Starlink satellites and ground stations for internet. The situation in Ukraine means if Russian troops damage internet communications, government officials will be able to remain online, thanks to Starlink. SpaceX recently also helped Tonga get connected to Starlink internet, after a volcano severed the island nations fibre optic cable, taking communications offline. Source: Creek City Times https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/02/27/breaking-elon-musks-starlink-system-is-now-providing-satellite-internet-services-in-ukraine/ "We are very pleased with our fiscal second quarter results in which we reported 37% increase in revenue," said Greg Watkin, Chairman and Founder of INEO. "The past two years have been very challenging due to the pandemic, but we have come through stronger than ever with increasing revenue, products with deep technological advantages, a global partnership with Prosegur and a growing pipeline of opportunities including several large retailers. Over the next year we expect to continue to work closely with Prosegur to win retail chain customers and expand our footprint across North America, Europe and South America. In addition, we expect to increase our advertising fill rates through our two programmatic advertising partners, Hivestack and Vistar Media, as well as through our direct sales efforts. We look forward to the coming quarters as we believe 2022 will be a pivotal year for INEO." Fiscal Second Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights: INEO generated $256,987 of revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2021 , representing an increase of 37% as compared to revenue of $187,239 for the three months ended December 31, 2020 . of revenue for the three months ended , representing an increase of 37% as compared to revenue of for the three months ended . INEO generated gross profit for the three months ended December 31, 2021 of $94,296 , as compared to gross profit of $79,287 for the quarter ended December 31, 2020 , representing an increase of 19%. of , as compared to gross profit of for the quarter ended , representing an increase of 19%. Net loss and comprehensive loss for the three months ended December 31, 2021 was $767,772 or $0.01 per share compared to net loss of $525,252 or $0.01 per share for the three months ended December 31, 2020 . was or per share compared to net loss of or per share for the three months ended . EBITDA loss for the three months ended December 31, 2021 was $721,388 , compared to EBITDA loss of $491,519 for the three months ended December 31, 2020 . was , compared to EBITDA loss of for the three months ended . INEO had $3,653,331 of cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2021 , compared to $5,199,328 of cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2021 . of cash and cash equivalents at , compared to of cash and cash equivalents at . As at December 31, 2021 , the Company had 60,190,138 shares issued and outstanding. Fiscal Second Quarter 2022 Business Highlights: On October 4, 2021 INEO announced a contract expansion with FIELDS and McFrugal's retail stores. FHC Enterprises (or "FHC") is the owner-operator of both FIELDS and McFrugal's Discount Stores, including over 60 FIELDS store locations and three McFrugal's Discount Outlet locations across Western Canada. On November 2, 2021 INEO announced a global agreement with Prosegur EAS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prosegur, to manufacture, distribute and expand INEO's Media Network. Under the terms of the Agreement, Prosegur is granted distribution rights to sell, secure, place and expand the patented INEO Welcoming System under their own brand, Prosegur EVO ("EVO"). Prosegur will be responsible for funding, manufacturing, distribution, in-store setup and in-store maintenance of the systems. INEO will be responsible for online provisioning, operating, and managing of the INEO Media Network which powers the screens inside of EVO. Under the terms of the agreement, Prosegur is also granted the right to fund and prosecute intellectual property rights and protection, on INEO's behalf, for the Company's proprietary patented technology. On November 16, 2021 INEO announced that the company had applied for an additional patent related to its INEO Media Network technology. The patent increases the scope of the Company's patent portfolio to protect the INEO Media Network. On November 23, 2021 INEO unveiled the INEO Welcoming G.A.T.E. the company's next generation Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) pedestal designed to be a companion product within the patented INEO Welcoming System. The INEO Welcoming G.A.T.E. works in tandem with the INEO Welcoming Pedestal to provide loss prevention capabilities, video capture of loss prevention alarm events, and delivery of robust traffic analytics data. The INEO Welcoming G.A.T.E. is currently installed in several retail locations across Canada and the US, including two initial locations in Florida and Maine owned by a large North American retail chain. Events Subsequent to December 31, 2022: On January 20, 2022 INEO announced it had acquired the assets of E-Commerce company, Securitytags.com from Vitag PTY Ltd., a leading Australian-based provider of Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) anti-theft products for retailers. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, INEO acquired the Securitytags.com domain name, website, inventory, customer list and social media accounts. On January 25, 2022 INEO announced the Canadian Out-of-Home Marketing and Measurement Bureau (COMMB), the trusted source of Canadian Out-Of-Home (OOH) market insights, accepted INEO as it newest member and has approved INEO's viewer impressions as a verified metric. On February 10, 2022 INEO announced a partnership with Vistar Media, the leading provider of programmatic technology for digital out-of-home (DOOH). With this agreement, all of the digital display screens in the INEO Media Network, including those in INEO's patented INEO Welcoming Systems, are now accessible on Vistar's programmatic advertising platform. Brands and marketers who utilize the Vistar Media platform will now be able to purchase INEO's unique advertising inventory, located at the front entrance of retail stores. Outlook: Kyle Hall, CEO of INEO stated, "Finalizing the definitive agreement with Prosegur has accelerated our sales and marketing efforts, which we believe will increase the pace of deployments and sets the Company up for rapid expansion in the coming year. Prosegur is creating a groundswell of interest and is introducing INEO's products to the retail market faster and in more places than INEO could have achieved on its own. Meanwhile, retailers emerging from the trough of the pandemic are coming back with a strong commitment to invest in technology and improving the customer experience. Data and analytics are becoming increasingly more important to be successful in business, while Digital Out-of-Home advertising is surging. INEO is well positioned to take advantage of these industry trends, with market leading technology and products which will enhance the Company's future growth." INEO's short to medium term strategy is to continue to invest in R&D and customer deployments to create critical mass of systems on the INEO Media Network. INEO has now entered into the next phase of its development with commercialization of its technology, landing wins with larger retailers and scaling up of its business. INEO's key objectives over the next year are as follows: Invest in the growth of INEO as a premier media network for retail, analytics and advertising. Increase revenues through the sale of data analytics and advertising on the INEO Media Network. Expand the INEO Media Network in key geographical markets across Canada , the United States , South America and Europe . , , and . Support Prosegur with its growth and initiatives with key retailers across the globe. INEO's partnership with Prosegur is a significant validation of the Company's technology and business model, positioning INEO for substantial future growth. Prosegur has launched its own website and marketing campaigns to promote INEO's Welcoming Systems under the EVO brand name. Prosegur's EAS sales team is actively working to secure customer trials with a several large retailers around the globe. INEO has already shipped numerous Welcoming Systems which are destined for customer trials with Prosegur's retail clients including grocery, home hardware, apparel and wholesale hub retail chains. INEO expects to convert these trials to customer wins in the coming quarters leading to substantial expansion of INEO's Media Network. Prosegur is now ready to assume production of EVO units at its 35,000 square foot manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic. INEO successfully setup Prosegur with its supply chain, sourcing of components, adjusting assembly line processes, re-tooling machinery, training, documentation and transfer of knowledge to the Czech team. Manufacturing of initial trial systems for Prosegur's North and Central America based customers is being fulfilled from INEO's Surrey, BC facility while Prosegur's manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic will be used to fulfil orders for all of their European based customers and future large scale roll-outs. In addition to Prosegur's growing pipeline of potential retail chain customers, INEO continues to build its own pipeline of opportunities through its direct sales efforts including several small to mid-size Canadian retail chains and one large North American retail chain. INEO expects to continue to increase the size of its independent liquor store network at a slower pace than previously as the Company has shifted its resources to supporting the Prosegur partnership and driving direct sales opportunities with larger retailers. The Company expects advertising fill rates to improve on the INEO Media Network, as the Company achieves critical mass of implementations with retailers. INEO continues to receive advertising through its programmatic advertising partnership with Hivestack and expects its recently announced partnership with Vistar Media will imminently begin to generate advertising revenue in the coming weeks. Key industry and market trends are progressing in INEO's favour. These include: (i) growth in the overall Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising market; (ii) a resurgence in the retail sector; (iii) the use of data and analytics to drive business; and (iv) our global partner, Prosegur, becoming a dominant player in the retail loss prevention sector. To this end, INEO will continue to devote resources to R&D and deployment to expand its INEO Media Network. INEO plans on continuing to innovate in the areas of integrated digital screen and loss prevention technology, improving data analytics with machine learning algorithms, adding retailer self-serve capabilities, incorporating retail cash register data into its systems and optimizing its cloud based digital advertising network. Video Conference Call: INEO will host a video conference call to discuss its fiscal first quarter financial results as follows: Date: February 28, 2022 Time: 1:00pm EST (10:00 am PST) Webcast: https://bit.ly/INEO-Q2-2022 Dial-in: 778-907-2071 (Vancouver local) 647-374-4685 (Toronto local) Confirmation #: 886 5565 0423 Select Financial Highlights: Footnotes: 1 Readers are cautioned that EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), does not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and is considered a non-IFRS measure. EBITDA is a useful supplemental measure of the Company's performance prior to consideration of how operations are financed or how results are taxed or how depreciation and amortization affects results. EBITDA is not intended to represent net earnings calculated in accordance with IFRS. About INEO Tech Corp. INEO Tech Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary, INEO Solutions Inc., operates the INEO Media Network, a digital advertising and analytics solution for retailers. INEO's patented technology integrates and monetizes digital screens with theft detection sensor gates at the entrance of retail stores. The Company's cloud-based platform uses IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology to deliver customized digital advertising to each retail location based on the demographic mix, such as age and gender, of customer traffic at each location. The Company offers its technology through a SaaS-based solution to retailers. INEO is headquartered in Surrey, Canada and publicly traded on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol "INEO" and on the OTCQB-Venture Market under the symbol "INEOF". For more information please visit: www.ineosolutionsinc.com. Forward-Looking Statements Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the disclosure document, any information released or received with respect to the Company may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Important factors including the availability of funds, acceptance of the Company's products, competition, and general market conditions that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed on SEDAR, including the Annual Information Form for the year ended June 30, 2020 filed on SEDAR December 3, 2020. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE INEO Tech Corp. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kleine-Levin Syndrome Foundation today honors Rare Disease Day by calling for the inclusion of Kleine-Levin Syndrome (KLS) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) biennial "Sleep Research Plan." Including KLS in this publication and action plan will help build interest and funding for clinical research about this extremely rare disorder. Only 1 in 1 million individuals has KLS, a complex neurological disorder characterized by long, recurring episodes of excessive sleep and derealization. During episodes that last days, weeks, or months, patients sleep most of the day and night and may experience derealization and significant behavioral changes including a reversion to childlike speech, compulsive eating, intolerance to noise and light and other unusual symptoms. Most patients experience brain fog that makes it difficult to distinguish between reality and dreams. KLS patients experience many cycles of illness over the course of a decade or more that rob them of their adolescence and wreak havoc on family life. The cause of KLS is still unknown, and there are no known treatments. To date, research about KLS has been limited because KLS affects a very small population and is in most cases self-limiting. "KLS shares some symptoms with other clinically rare but culturally well-known sleep disorders and mental health conditions, so there's potential for groundbreaking research that would help desperate KLS patients and also other communities but we need investigative partners and robust funding to realize these within-reach achievements," said Kleine-Levin Syndrome Foundation President Steve Maier, who experienced KLS episodes from age 13-27. This week, the Kleine-Levin Syndrome Foundation is participating in Rare Disease Week on Capitol Hill to build awareness about KLS amongst federal lawmakers. Foundation board members will meet with Members of Congress from New York and Maryland. A Times Square billboard will today feature a plea from the Kleine-Levin Syndrome Foundation for more KLS research. "Our goal is patient advocacy," said Kleine-Levin Syndrome Foundation Vice-President Dani Farber. "We are demonstrating to policymakers the impact of KLS on patients and their families and making clear the need for more federal funding for rare disease research, which could accelerate progress toward a cause, accurate diagnosis and treatment, and ultimately a cure for KLS." Said Farber, who experienced KLS episodes from age 15-25. The KLS Foundation is grateful to the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases and its partners for convening the powerful voices of rare disease advocates from around the U.S. The Kleine-Levin Syndrome Foundation is a home for patient and caregiver support, an educational hub for doctors and clinicians, and an incubator for research to find a cause and a cure for KLS. Support clinical research and learn how the KLS Foundation supports our community at www.klsfoundation.org. SOURCE Kleine-Levin Syndrome Foundation KAWASAKI, Japan, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Latest news from institutes affiliated with K awasaki IN novation G ateway at SKYFRONT (KING SKYFRONT) with Online event organized by Tokyo United Network for Innovation with Technology and EntrepreneursT-UNITEat KINGSKYFRONT; iXflow,inc. at KINGSKYFRONT announces an innovative point of care testing system mTAS technology Details https://tonomachi-ksf.kawasaki-net.ne.jp/ennewsletter/ Online event organized by Tokyo United Network for Innovation with Technology and EntrepreneursT-UNITEat KINGSKYFRONT Creation of Innovation from Nursing and Care Fields by Leveraging Local Resources The event was held to meet the needs of KING SKYFRONT's academia (Center for Professional Education, Kanagawa University of Health Services) by utilizing the local resources of the location of KING SKYFRONT and companies in Kawasaki city with the goal to create seeds for innovation. Furthermore, the event was an initiative carried in cooperation with Kanagawa Prefectural University and Kawasaki City. The JST Social Return Acceleration Program (SCORE) and Tokyo United Network for Innovation with Technology and Entrepreneurs (T-UNITE) also contributed to the event. Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion also cooperated with organizing the event by supporting industry-academia-government collaboration between KINGSKYFRONT and Kawasaki City. The organizers plan to hold such events in the future to create innovation at KINGSKYFRONT. The event was opened by congratulatory speeches by representatives of T-UNITE, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, and the Center for Professional Education, Kanagawa University of Health Services. The opening talk was a plenary lecture by Dr Nobuhiko Okabe, Director-General, Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health on "Expectations for nursing care sites in the age of infectious diseases". This was followed by talks by related organizations on "Aiming for visualization of regional resources". The next talk was on "Report on the results of the "Nursing / Care Site Problems Related to Infectious Diseases" Workshop by Sanae Matsunaga (Practical Research Section Manager, Practical Education Center, Kanagawa Prefectural University of Health and Welfare and Associate Professor, Faculty of Health and Welfare). The talks were followed by a panel discussion before the closing remarks by Toru Asahi (Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University). Further information Website (in Japanese) https://www.shi.kuhs.ac.jp/news/details_01297.html iXflow,inc. at KINGSKYFRONT announces an innovative point of care testing system mTAS technology iXflow,inc. has developed an innovative point of care testing system that is fast, portable and enables testing anywhere including clinics and households. The system is safe, stable and automated and does not require special skills by the operator. The system is a sample in and result out closed system that is the size of A4 notebook where the results are available in less than 30 mins. The mTAS-technology was developed by a collaboration between The University of Tokyo and Nikon Corp, and Product developed / produced by iXflow. mTAS Technology The core technology is cartridge consisting of a reaction system using loop type flow path that enables an all-in-one total assay. The cartridge is a simple structure made of resin plate grooves and elastomer film. Tiny valves in the cartridge enable transport and mixing of the reactants for the analysis. The processes of specimen pretreatment, purification, reaction, sampling washing, detection, and result output are all carried out in the cartridge. Target applications Rapid and on-the-spot COVID-19 genetic testing (Real time PCR) No hassle testing by inserting a test cartridge into the device. Inspection starts with the touch of a button and results are output within 60 minutes. No hassle testing by inserting a test cartridge into the device. Inspection starts with the touch of a button and results are output within 60 minutes. Protein assay as antibody measurement test in blood (ELISA test) Children suffering from fever caused by respiratory infections for rapid release from pain. Further information iXflow,inc. Inside the Nanomedical Innovation Center 3-25-14 Tonomachi, Kawasaki Ward Kawasaki City HP: https://www.ixflow.co.jp/ (Japanese) TEL: 03-5050-2224 About KING SKYFRONT The Kawasaki INnovation Gateway (KING) SKYFRONT is the flagship science and technology innovation hub of Kawasaki City. KING SKYFRONT is a 40 hectare area located in the Tonomachi area of the Keihin Industrial Region that spans Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture and Tokyo International Airport (also often referred to as Haneda Airport). KING SKYFRONT was launched in 2011 as a base for scholars, industrialists and government administrators to work together to devise real life solutions to global issues in the life sciences and environment. Further information KING-SKYFRONT iNewsletter Publishing Team TONOMACHI LifeScience Cluster Division, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion Life Science & Environment research center (LiSE) 1F, 3-25-10, Tonomachi, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, 210-0821 Email: [email protected] Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion (KIIP) Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion was established in 1988 funded 100% from Kawasaki City for the purpose of coping with the hollowing out of industry and changes in the demand structure. In order to realize a higher level of market development, transforming R&D type companies, training technological capabilities to support it, human resources development, understanding market needs, etc., by utilizing the functions of the Kawasaki, KIIP has been contributing to revitalize the local economy by promoting exchanges of local industry information, advancing technology and corporate exchanges with establishment of a R&D institutions, developing creative human resources through workshops and promoting businesses such as expanding sales channels through exhibition business. https://www.kawasaki-net.ne.jp/ SOURCE KING SKYFRONT, Japan NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Language Strategy firm, maslansky + partners (m+p), today announced that it has hired Jaime Hodges, PhD, as its Senior Vice President and Head of Quantitative Research. In this newly created role at maslansky + partners, Dr. Hodges will expand and strengthen m+p's quantitative offering through proprietary methods that integrate sophisticated multi-method research with the firm's deep behavioral science and linguistics expertise. Hodges brings 20 years of research consulting experience, including eight years at Phoenix Marketing International, where she last held the position of Executive Vice President; and three years at Kantar, where she held the position of Group Vice President. She will be reporting into maslansky + partners Chief Executive Officer Michael Maslansky and will drive the firm's strategic direction in quantitative methodologies, including newly-announced Persuasive Strength and core visual aid (CVA) optimization and development. "Clients want more ways to quantify the advice our teams provide, so expanding our quantitative team was an obvious step. Finding the right person was a challenge. Then we met Jaime, who brings a perfect mix of deep research expertise, an academically-rigorous approach and a passion for language. She will spearhead the development, design and execution of critical behavioral science- and linguistics-aligned approaches to solve clients' most troublesome communications challenges," said Maslansky. He continued, "Jaime is already helping us advance the state-of-the-art of Language Strategy by developing two new capabilities which we're excited to announce: core visual aid (CVA) optimization and development and Persuasive Strength. These multi-method, academically-validated approaches will help our clients better quantify the effectiveness of their overall messages; optimize the words, phrases and proof-points that drive the most impact; and align the right elements of their message with the right audience." Dr. Hodges brings a wealth of knowledge in, and passion for, applying research and analytics to unearth disruptive customer insights, with a track record of helping to grow some of the biggest brands in the world. She is already combining her passion and experience to integrate rigorous research principles and innovative techniques with m+p's deep knowledge and expertise in behavioral science and linguistics. These approaches help clients quantitatively assess effectiveness of a range of communications, supporting the firm's "It's not what you say, it's what they hear" philosophy. Current offerings include argument strength analysis for persuasive messaging, implicit testing and corpus analysis for naming and tagline development, and AI-assisted qualitative-quantitative hybrid approaches within the advertising development lifecycle. "I knew that maslansky +partner's blend of strategic communications consulting with roots in behavioral science and linguistics would be the perfect fit for my background. It has been so inspiring and rewarding to develop multi-disciplinary quantitative approaches that can now further validate the importance of framing and language, and the impact it can have on business outcomes," said Dr. Hodges. With this quantitative development and initial offerings, maslansky + partners continues to expand its client-available resources to ensure that communication development and optimization stay at the cutting edge of industry-based methodologies. To learn more about core visual aid development and optimization, visit https://maslansky.com/core-visual-aid-testing/. To learn more about Persuasive Strength, visit https://maslansky.com/persuasive-strength/. About maslanksy + partners maslansky + partners is a language strategy firm widely recognized as a leader in communication, research, and messaging. The firm's approach is based on a simple idea: it's not what you say, it's what they hear. Using a research- and data-driven approach, maslansky + partners helps clients find the right language to simplify the complex, build credibility amidst controversy, stand out from the crowd, and always speak in the language of their audience. For more information on maslansky + partners, a part of Omnicom Public Relations Group, visit www.maslansky.com. About Omnicom Public Relations Group Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, language strategy, global health strategy and change management. As the largest group of communications professionals in the world, our employees provide expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and nonprofits across a wide range of industries. Omnicom Public Relations Group delivers for clients through a relentless focus on talent, continuous pursuit of innovation and a culture steeped in collaboration. Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the Communications Consultancy Network, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC). About Omnicom Group Inc. Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 70 countries. Follow us on Twitter for the latest news. SOURCE Omnicom Public Relations Group RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, North Carolina for Better Medicaid (NCBM) and Health Management Associates (HMA) released a new report on North Carolina's transition to Medicaid Managed Care (MMC). Policymakers, beneficiaries and the entire health care community have closely watched the transformation since it began on July 1, 2021, bringing North Carolina's method of managing Medicaid in line with that of 40 other states. HMA produced the report after interviewing key health care stakeholders in North Carolina, including advocates and care managers who work with Medicaid beneficiaries and have first-hand experience with the recent transition to Managed Care. The report highlights these stakeholders' early experiences with Managed Care and identifies key successes and opportunities for going forward. "Our early experience with Medicaid Managed Care shows just how positive it can be for beneficiaries and those who serve them," said Sheree Vodicka, member of NCBM and chief executive officer for the North Carolina Alliance of YMCAs. "While we are less than a year into the transition, MMC's emphasis on whole-person care is already providing us with opportunities to address the social determinants of health that so often go overlooked in the health care system," she added. The report's key findings include: MMC addresses the social determinants of health - MMC helps beneficiaries by addressing the social determinants of health, such as access to nutritious food, safe housing and reliable transportation. For example, if a beneficiary cannot pick up a prescription because they cannot drive, a care manager can connect them with local organizations that provide transportation. - MMC helps beneficiaries by addressing the social determinants of health, such as access to nutritious food, safe housing and reliable transportation. For example, if a beneficiary cannot pick up a prescription because they cannot drive, a care manager can connect them with local organizations that provide transportation. More accountability for health care providers and plans - There are performance incentives for plans to meet certain standards and key metrics, such as timely access, wait times and the maintenance of an accurate provider directory. - There are performance incentives for plans to meet certain standards and key metrics, such as timely access, wait times and the maintenance of an accurate provider directory. Greater coordination Care managers frequently work with clinical staff to help members navigate the health care system, schedule appointments and understand their medications. Care managers frequently work with clinical staff to help members navigate the health care system, schedule appointments and understand their medications. Local expertise and networks help build trust Multiple care managers said their local expertise and familiarity with the community helped them get both beneficiaries and providers to trust the health plan. It also enables the care managers to more quickly and efficiently connect members with churches or community groups that provide clothing, healthy meals or financial assistance. Multiple care managers said their local expertise and familiarity with the community helped them get both beneficiaries and providers to trust the health plan. It also enables the care managers to more quickly and efficiently connect members with churches or community groups that provide clothing, healthy meals or financial assistance. Flexibility and choice When compared to fee-for-service, MMC allows beneficiaries a greater range of choices and the ability to review and compare the benefits of prepaid health plans. Some beneficiaries find this empowering and see plan competition as likely to improve quality and service. "This report reflects important feedback on Medicaid Managed Care in North Carolina from key stakeholders who have direct experience with the transition," said HMA Regional Vice President Kathleen Nolan. "These early experiences can help inform opportunities for the program as implementation continues." This report contributes to the growing body of evidence suggesting that MMC's flexibilities offer strong opportunities for community-based care through a whole-person approach that doesn't just save the health system money but can also make a meaningful difference in beneficiaries' daily lives. To read the full report, visit the North Carolina for Better Medicaid website here. About North Carolina for Better Medicaid North Carolina for Better Medicaid is a multi-stakeholder, consensus-based group of organizations committed to building a better Medicaid system that improves access, quality, outcomes and affordability in North Carolina. Our members include patient advocates, community-based organizations, health care leaders, health plans and others who are champions of Medicaid and Medicaid Managed Care. Current members include credible and diverse voices in healthcare including Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Mountain Projects Community Action Agency, I-CARE, Inc., the Economic Improvement Council, North Carolina Community Action Association, the North Carolina Black Alliance, the North Carolina Senior Living Association, the YMCA of the Triangle, NC Child, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Healthy Blue), and UnitedHealth Group, who are working to ensure a successful transition to Managed Care and improve health care in the state. Learn more at northcarolinaforbettermedicaid.org About Health Management Associates The HMA team is over 225 colleagues strong and growing, with experience that spans the healthcare industry and stretches across the nation. Dedicated to serving vulnerable populations, HMA successfully tackles a wide variety of healthcare issues, working directly with federal, state, and local government agencies, health systems, providers, health plans, foundations, associations and others to effect change. Our colleagues have held senior level positions in medical and behavioral health provider systems, public health agencies, community-based organizations, state and federal agencies, managed care and accountable care organizations. We offer a breadth and depth of experience we believe is valuable to our clients in helping them achieve their goals and effect change. Founded in 1985, HMA is a private, for-profit "C" corporation, incorporated in the State of Michigan in good standing and legally doing business as Health Management Associates, Inc. Contact: Doug Jackson North Carolina for Better Medicaid [email protected] SOURCE North Carolina for Better Medicaid HOUSTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ocean Winds East, LCC, the partnership between Ocean Winds and New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a leading independent infrastructure fund manager, was named as the winning bidder of the right to lease a 289 km area, Central Bight, off the coast of New York and New Jersey. This lease area was part of the six offshore sites awarded by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)'s "New York Bight" program. This award sets the stage for development of a state-of-the-art offshore wind project. When fully developed, this bottom-fixed farm, located 38 miles off the coast of New York and 53 miles off the coast of New Jersey, is expected to contribute up to 1.7 GW towards U.S., New York/New Jersey's clean energy goals. Ocean Winds is thus reinforcing its presence in the U.S. where it is developing, through Mayflower Wind, a lease area of over 2 GW, of which 1.2 GW already secured through Power Purchase Agreements. With this sizeable platform, Ocean Winds will benefit from a sound position to capture future growth in the country which targets a 30 GW offshore wind installed capacity by 2030. The U.S. BOEM's auction of the New York Bight lease areas began on February 23th and was completed on February 25th, after 63 rounds. The total amount paid for the six lease areas was $4.37 billion, including Ocean Winds East, LLC, successful bid of $765 million for lease area OCS-A 0537. This site brings Ocean Winds' global total offshore wind gross capacity already operating, contracted or with grid connection rights granted to 11 GW. Paulo ALMIRANTE, ENGIE Senior Executive Vice President, in charge of Renewables, Energy Management and Nuclear Activities, said: "ENGIE, through Ocean Winds has been awarded this 39-year lease agreement in the highly competitive New York Bight auction process, amongst the 25 entities qualified to bid. It will allow Ocean Winds to strengthen its footprint in the U.S., one of the biggest offshore wind markets worldwide, and support the growth objective of ENGIE in the country, where it already operates 3.9 GW of onshore wind and solar PV." About ENGIE Our group is a global reference in low-carbon energy and services. Together with our 170,000 employees, our customers, partners and stakeholders, we are committed to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral world, through reduced energy consumption and more environmentally-friendly solutions. Inspired by our purpose ("raison d'etre"), we reconcile economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet, building on our key businesses (gas, renewable energy, services) to offer competitive solutions to our customers. Turnover in 2021: 57.9 billion Euros. The Group is listed on the Paris and Brussels stock exchanges (ENGI) and is represented in the main financial indices (CAC 40, Euronext 100, FTSE Eurotop 100, MSCI Europe) and non-financial indices (DJSI World, DJSI Europe, Euronext Vigeo Eiris - Eurozone 120/ Europe 120/ France 20, MSCI EMU ESG, MSCI Europe ESG, Euro Stoxx 50 ESG, Stoxx Europe 600 ESG, and Stoxx Global 1800 ESG). ENGIE HQ Press contact: Tel. France: +33 (0)1 44 22 24 35 Email: [email protected] ENGIEpress Investor relations contact: Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 22 66 29 Email: [email protected] SOURCE ENGIE North America "Participant Workplace Solutions is all about aligning around key participant decision points and deepening our focus on the end-to-end experience for this significant stakeholder group, helping participants to feel more confident in all aspects of their financial lives," said McCarthy. "Heather is passionate about improving financial security and overall well-being for individuals a view that perfectly aligns with our focus in Retirement Services. She also brings clear vision, shared values and extensive experience to this important role." "My mission is simple: Focus on holistic financial confidence to optimize outcomes for participants," said Dawson, who will report directly to McCarthy. "Keeping our focus on the participant journey also fuels our growth as a business and reinforces what's always differentiated OneAmerica in the marketplace relationships, education and customization." Dawson's team includes financial professionals who are well-versed in critical areas including participant onboarding, participant financial consultation services and participant engagement. Dawson's team is the next step in a multifaceted program kicked off by McCarthy in 2019, to deliver holistic financial wellness programs to participants, including strategically designed persona-driven and personalized education journeys that align to participants' needs. Dawson's 30 years' experience includes leadership roles at Principal Financial Group, Russell Investments, Mercer and Morningstar. The Midwestern native, and a University of Nebraska-Lincoln alum has spent her career in both U.S. and Australian financial service companies. OneAmerica provides record-keeping for plans in asset classes of all sizes for clients related to 401(k), tax-exempt, governmental, combo plans, ESOP, defined benefit, cash balance and pension risk transfer. OneAmerica is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica. Products issued and underwritten by American United Life Insurance Company (AUL), a OneAmerica company. Administrative and recordkeeping services provided by AUL or OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC, companies of OneAmerica, which are not broker/dealers or investment advisors. About OneAmerica A national provider of insurance and financial services for more than 140 years, the companies of OneAmerica help customers build and protect their financial futures. OneAmerica offers a variety of products and services to serve the financial needs of their policyholders and customers. These products include retirement plan products and recordkeeping services, individual life insurance, annuities, asset-based long-term care solutions and employee benefit plan products. Products are issued and underwritten by the companies of OneAmerica and distributed through a nationwide network of employees, agents, brokers and other sources who are committed to providing value to our customers. To learn more about our products, services and the companies of OneAmerica, visit oneamerica.com/about-us/companies-of-oneamerica. Contact: Tom Spalding [email protected] 317-656-7644 SOURCE OneAmerica SAO PAULO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In line with its business expansion strategy, Ornare, an international brand of high-end bespoke furniture, opened a new showroom in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Leading the project is a trio of businesswomen: Carina Fontes, Maryam Khalifa Juma Alnabooda Alsuwaidi, and Shalise Yglesias Basso. The showroom is located in The Opus Tower's building, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. With high-income customers, the retail market in Dubai has seen double-digit growth over the past decade. "The country is marked by economic prosperity and high demand in the luxury market, from customers who give priority to quality. It is an audience that is willing to pay for sophistication and refinement. Therefore, this is a very strategic market for Ornare, and we have excellent expectations for the new showroom", says Carina Fontes. For Esther Schattan, founding partner of Ornare, the brand's arrival in new locations abroad reinforces the importance of the 100% Brazilian product made in a factory in Sao Paulo. "We have grown year after year, and we are consolidating ourselves internationally as a Brazilian luxury company. From Brazil and the world, consumers began to invest even more in their environments, increasing the comfort and beauty of spaces by spending more time in their homes", says Esther. In addition to the Dubai showroom, Ornare has eight other locations strategically located in the United States. The company's goal is that, by 2024, the international structure will be responsible for 40% of total sales. Ornare brings a high level of customization, allowing demanding customers to execute very sophisticated projects. The brand also developed customer experiences. The luxury brand offers new design possibilities in 3D, visible on film and through virtual reality glasses, so customers and business partners can get a glimpse of the project before execution. Pictures: https://we.tl/t-jbQDM26BMe About Ornare Ornare is one of the most sophisticated international brands of high-end bespoke furniture. Ornare's projects attract the attention of the luxury market with cabinets, closets, kitchens, Wall system panels, Home Theaters, furniture, and bathrooms. The brand is present in Brazil and abroad, with eight showrooms in the US. The new Square Round collection was launched in July 2021. Ricardo Bello Dias and designers Vivian Coser and Patricia Martinez signed it under Murillo Schattan, the brand's CEO. SOURCE Ornare Parent Market Analysis Technavio categorizes the global Soil Fumigants Market as a part of the global fertilizers and agricultural chemicals market within the global materials market. Technavio uses the total revenue generated by manufacturers to estimate the global Soil Fumigants Market size. External factors influencing the parent market's growth potential in the coming years have been thoroughly investigated in our research analysis, to know more about the levels of growth of the Soil Fumigants Market throughout the forecast period, Download a free sample . To unlock information about vendor drive costs and customer service, download our free sample report. Vendor Insights The Soil Fumigants Market is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. To make the best of the opportunity, the market vendors should focus more on the fast-growing segment's growth prospect while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the Soil Fumigants Market, including some of the vendors such as American Vanguard Corp., Bayer AG, China National Chemical Corp. Ltd., Corteva Inc., Detia Degesch GmbH, Douglas Products, Draslovka Services Pty Ltd., Eastman Chemical Co., Ecotec Fumigation, Imtrade CropScience, Isagro Spa, LANXESS AG, Nippon Chemical Industrial Co. Ltd., Royal Agro Organic Pvt. Ltd., Solvay SA, Tessenderlo Group NV, and TriCal Group Inc. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Soil Fumigants Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile, and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Soil Fumigants Market forecast report offers in-depth insights into key vendor profiles and offerings Download Free Sample Report Geographical Highlights During the projection period, APAC will account for 45 percent of market growth. In APAC, soil fumigants are mostly sold in China, Japan, and India. The market in this region will increase at a quicker rate than the market in other regions. Over the forecast period, APAC's soil fumigants market will benefit from a rapidly growing population, rising food demand, changing customer lifestyles, rising incomes, purchasing power, consumer demand for nutritional and healthy products, increased consumer awareness, and favorable government policies in developing countries such as China and India. This market research report includes thorough information on competitor intelligence, marketing gaps, and geographical potential for suppliers, all of which will aid in the development of effective business plans. Moreover, countries like Indonesia, the US, China, Japan, India, and the UK are the key market for the Soil Fumigants Market in APAC. To unlock the top strategies practiced by the maximum growth generating region, View Sample Report Key Market Dynamics- Consumer Biometrics Key Market Drivers: The growing awareness of organic soil fumigants Agriculture, soil quality has deteriorated significantly. As a result, the industry is reducing the use of chemical composts and pesticides in favor of organic and bio soil fumigants. Organic soil fumigants break down quickly in the soil, releasing carbon dioxide, methane, and water and improving the soil's nutrient quality. Even though they are used widely over time, they are environmentally safe and nontoxic to the land. Organic soil fumigants save money and are better for the environment. Organic soil fumigants are finding a market thanks to favorable government policies and subsidies, rising awareness of organic farming, and rising sales of organic food items. Consumer Biometrics Key Market Trends: The food security issues As the world's population continues to grow, food security has become a global concern. As a result, using soil fumigants to control crop diseases has become a global requirement. Pests, mites, rodents, and birds are thought to waste over 1,300 million metric tonnes of food each year, resulting in an increase in the use of soil fumigants. Grain output is predicted to reach 3,009 million metric tonnes by 2050. Bugs, mites, mice, and birds are responsible for the loss of about 1300 million metric tonnes of food per year. Because the use of fumigants is a cost-efficient and effective technique for reducing post-harvest losses, demand for fumigants is expected to rise. Download a free sample for highlights on market Drivers & Trends affecting the Soil Fumigants Market. Customize Your Report Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights into this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time. We offer USD 1,000 worth of FREE customization at the time of purchase. Speak to our Analyst now! Related Reports: Construction Chemicals Market in Southeast Asia by Application and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Silicone Adhesives and Sealants Market by Application and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Soil Fumigants Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.07% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 149.86 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.88 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 45% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, India, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled American Vanguard Corp., Bayer AG, China National Chemical Corp. Ltd., Corteva Inc., Detia Degesch GmbH, Douglas Products, Draslovka Services Pty Ltd., Eastman Chemical Co., Ecotec Fumigation, Imtrade CropScience, Isagro Spa, LANXESS AG, Nippon Chemical Industrial Co. Ltd., Royal Agro Organic Pvt. Ltd., Solvay SA, Tessenderlo Group NV, TriCal Group Inc., TriEst Ag Group Inc., Trinity Manufacturing Inc., and UPL Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for the forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. Table of Contents 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Market overview Exhibit 01: Executive Summary Chart on Market Overview Exhibit 02: Executive Summary Data Table on Market Overview Exhibit 03: Executive Summary Chart on Global Market Characteristics Exhibit 04: Executive Summary Chart on Market by Geography Exhibit 05: Executive Summary Chart on Market Segmentation by Form Factor Exhibit 06: Executive Summary Chart on Incremental Growth Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 09: Parent market Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 18: Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by Form Factor 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on Form Factor - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on Form Factor - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Form Factor Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Form Factor Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Form Factor 5.3 Solid - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Solid - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Solid - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Chart on Solid - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Solid - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Liquid - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Liquid - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Liquid - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Chart on Liquid - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Liquid - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Gas - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: Chart on Gas - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: Data Table on Gas - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Chart on Gas - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Gas - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Market opportunity by Form Factor Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by Form Factor ($ million) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 41: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 42: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 44: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 45: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 47: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 48: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 51: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 52: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 63: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 64: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 67: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 68: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 71: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 72: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 75: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 76: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 79: Data Table on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 80: Chart on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 81: Data Table on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 83: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 84: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 85: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.13 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 86: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 87: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 88: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 89: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 90: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 91: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 92: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 American Vanguard Corp. Exhibit 93: American Vanguard Corp. - Overview Exhibit 94: American Vanguard Corp. - Product / Service Exhibit 95: American Vanguard Corp. - Key offerings 10.4 Bayer AG Exhibit 96: Bayer AG - Overview Exhibit 97: Bayer AG - Business segments Exhibit 98: Bayer AG - Key news Exhibit 99: Bayer AG - Key offerings Exhibit 100: Bayer AG - Segment focus 10.5 China National Chemical Corp. Ltd. Exhibit 101: China National Chemical Corp. Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 102: China National Chemical Corp. Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 103: China National Chemical Corp. Ltd. - Key offerings 10.6 Douglas Products Exhibit 104: Douglas Products - Overview Exhibit 105: Douglas Products - Product / Service Exhibit 106: Douglas Products - Key offerings 10.7 Isagro Spa Exhibit 107: Isagro Spa - Overview Exhibit 108: Isagro Spa - Business segments Exhibit 109: Isagro Spa - Key offerings Exhibit 110: Isagro Spa - Segment focus 10.8 Nippon Chemical Industrial Co. Ltd. Exhibit 111: Nippon Chemical Industrial Co. Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 112: Nippon Chemical Industrial Co. Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 113: Nippon Chemical Industrial Co. Ltd. - Key offerings 10.9 Solvay SA Exhibit 114: Solvay SA - Overview Exhibit 115: Solvay SA - Business segments Exhibit 116: Solvay SA - Key news Exhibit 117: Solvay SA - Key offerings Exhibit 118: Solvay SA - Segment focus 10.10 Tessenderlo Group NV Exhibit 119: Tessenderlo Group NV - Overview Exhibit 120: Tessenderlo Group NV - Business segments Exhibit 121: Tessenderlo Group NV - Key offerings Exhibit 122: Tessenderlo Group NV - Segment focus 10.11 Trinity Manufacturing Inc. Exhibit 123: Trinity Manufacturing Inc. - Overview Exhibit 124: Trinity Manufacturing Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 125: Trinity Manufacturing Inc. - Key offerings 10.12 UPL Ltd. Exhibit 126: UPL Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 127: UPL Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 128: UPL Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 129: UPL Ltd. - Segment focus 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 130: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 131: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 132: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 133: Research methodology Exhibit 134: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 135: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 136: 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 AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas FFA Foundation has released a new documentary depicting the history of the Foundation and how the organization supports the Texas FFA aptly named, "The Foundation." The team contracted Wichita Falls-based advertising agency Hoegger Communications to create the film. The documentary can be seen on the MyTexasFFA website. Released during National FFA Week, "The Foundation" gives insight into an organization that often goes unheard of and works primarily behind the scenes. The story begins in 1969 when a Fort Worth philanthropist visited the 41st annual Texas FFA Convention and was so inspired by the students he immediately signed a check, planting a financial seed in the organization. "The Foundation" takes viewers on a journey through the growth of the Texas FFA Foundation, the programs created by it, and highlights leaders like Executive Director Aaron Alejandro, who sparked innovation. "There's a saying that members of the Foundation routinely quote: 'the three vital and renewable Texas resources are youth, agriculture and leadership.' And since 1987, the Texas FFA Foundation has strived to ensure that these resources are in place for future generations," said Aaron Alejandro, executive director of the Texas FFA Foundation. "We are excited to get a chance to tell our story through 'The Foundation' with many audiences, from those who have been involved with us for decades to those living in states outside of Texas who do not know of FFA." Created in 1987, the Foundation's mission is to advance agricultural education and Texas FFA programs, and ensure that future generations have as many opportunities as possible. Through access to real-world programs, students can explore over 300 different career paths within agriculture. The Texas FFA Foundation supports and helps coordinate more than $2M in academic and award scholarships yearly. Besides monetary support, the Foundation works with national brands and sponsors including Ford Motor Company and Justin Boots to give students real-world experiences outside of the classroom. The documentary depicts how the relationship with Ford Motor Company began and the evolution of the Ford Leadership Scholars Program, a hands-on leadership program where students create and execute a project that enriches their community. "The Foundation" can be seen in its entirety on the MyTexasFFA website as well as additional background about the Texas FFA Foundation, its leaders and mission. The documentary will also be shared on the Foundation's Facebook page . About The Texas FFA Foundation The Texas FFA Foundation's purpose is to strengthen agricultural education and the Texas FFA program, so each student can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and leadership in a global marketplace. The foundation has established relationships with key sponsors and individuals to help make countless dreams come true and widen the doors of opportunity for over 154,955 members and over 1,082 local chapters statewide. For more information, please visit www.mytexasffa.org . SOURCE Texas FFA Foundation Shanghai University student wins bronze medal in international origami competition People's Daily Online) 15:02, February 28, 2022 Recently, the list of winners for the ninth International Origami Internet Olympiad (IOIOIX) was announced. Du Jialei, an undergraduate student from Shanghai University, won third place, while the overall Chinese team ranked in second place with a total of 16 medals won by the players. Photo shows Du Jialei creating a piece of origami artwork. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai University) Founded in 2011 by renowned contemporary origami artist Andrey Ermakov, the IOIO is currently the most influential international origami competition, with a total of 803 players from 59 countries around the world participating in this years event. You can use only a single piece of polygon paper to create an origami work, and no cutting or joining sections of the paper together should be applied during the process. Thats the greatest appeal and also the most difficult part of creating an origami work, explained Du, who is a student majoring in architecture at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, the fine arts school of Shanghai University based in east Chinas Shanghai. Photo shows an origami artwork created by Du Jialei. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai University) Du also noted that it is even more difficult to design an artwork from a single piece of paper, as the papers folds need to be planned out very rationally, with this effort requiring a lot of theoretical and mathematical knowledge. This also explains why modern origami has a high threshold for new entrants, with the number of amateurs remaining relatively small. However, this artform is nonetheless attracting an increasing number of young enthusiasts. The award-winning origami artwork of Du, inspired by the emblem of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, was created by the young man based on a quadrate paper sheet design. The young artist also added a nautilus and a sailing ship, which respectively represent the concepts of creativity and endeavoring for something, among other design features that were added to the main body of the artwork to form a marvelous whole upon completion of the piece. Photo shows an origami artwork created by Du Jialei. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai University) Du started cultivating an interest in origami early on during his childhood. As a college student, Du said architecture and origami are complementary fields, since origami requires a deeper understanding of spatial design, while the architectural courses that he has taken have aroused even more of his interest in origami-inspired architecture, geometry, topology, and materials science. Photo shows an origami artwork created by Du Jialei. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai University) Photo shows an origami artwork created by Du Jialei. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai University) Photo shows an origami artwork created by Du Jialei. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai University) (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) FILE - Dave Limp, senior vice president for Amazon devices & services, holds an Echo Dot with Clock device as he speaks Sept. 25, 2019, in Seattle. Amazon and telemedicine provider Teladoc Health are starting a voice-activated virtual care program that lets customers get medical help without picking up their phones. The service, for health issues that arent emergencies, will be available on Amazons Echo devices. Customers can tell the voice assistant Alexa that they want to talk to a doctor, and that will prompt a call back on the device from a Teladoc physician. The program, announced Monday, Feb. 28, 2022 marks Amazons latest health care expansion and another push into telemedicine. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) (Ted S. Warren/AP) If there is no doctor in the house, Amazons Alexa will soon be able to summon one. Amazon and telemedicine provider Teladoc Health are starting a voice-activated virtual care program that lets customers get medical help without picking up their phones. Advertisement The service, for health issues that arent emergencies, will be available around the clock on Amazons Echo devices. Customers can tell the voice assistant Alexa that they want to talk to a doctor, and that will prompt a call back on the device from a Teladoc physician. The program, announced Monday, marks Amazons latest expansion into health care and another push by the retail giant into a form of care that grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advertisement Telehealth now is something that patients have gotten used to and may come to expect as an option for their care, said Lori Uscher-Pines, a senior policy researcher with Rand Corp. (Before) the pandemic, there might not have been this much awareness that this was a service that was available. Amazon already dispenses prescription drugs and is expanding an Amazon Care program it launched in 2019 that offers telemedicine visits with an option to send a care provider to the patient if they need an in-person visit. The companys latest health care expansion comes as several competitors including Walmart and the drugstore chains CVS and Walgreens also beef up their medical offerings. They are adding care clinics or virtual programs to make it easier for patients to find regular help in the fragmented U.S. health care system. Insurers and employers that pay medical bills are pushing for this as a way to improve health and cut down on hospital stays or other big medical expenses. Health care is a huge industry of enormous value, and it is ripe for disruption, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. And Amazon views itself as a disruptor. Some hospitals already use Alexa as a voice assistant in patient rooms. The service announced Monday will be available for customers who create an Alexa voice ID. After telling the voice assistant that they need to talk to a doctor, people will be connected to a Teladoc call center and then get a call back from a physician. The cost for a visit will be $75 without health insurance. Advertisement A Teladoc spokesman said Amazon will not be able to access, record or store the content of the ensuing call. Amazon is moving deeper into health care as other growth engines slow. In its most recent quarter, the Seattle-based company reported that its online retail business dropped 1%. Kate McCarthy, senior research director at research firm Gartner, sees room for Amazon to expand beyond simple doctor calls. In particular, she noted that the companys health care segment in its cloud computing division is aimed at coming up with new services and health care products. McCarthy said she could see Amazon eventually helping to monitor patients that go home after a hospital stay, using Alexa and sensors to check how often they flush the toilet or open the refrigerator. With its prescription services, Amazon hasnt bit off meaningful share from its drugstore rivals, but McCarthy noted it could become a legitimate player. There isnt one kind of magic market entrance, she added It will be a combination of things. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Organization of Concerned Black Men, Inc. (CBM). congratulates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on her historic nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States. Her exemplary career has reflected an abiding commitment to justice, equality and the rule of law. Judge Jackson has devoted the majority of her career to public and judicial service as a U.S. Sentencing Commission lawyer and commissioner, a federal public defender, and a federal judge at both the trial court and appellate court levels. Judge Jackson currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She has been confirmed by the Senate on a bipartisan basis three times twice as federal judge and once to serve on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Judge Jackson was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her parents attended segregated schools in the South and later both started their careers as public school teachers and became leaders and administrators in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. When Judge Jackson expressed her desire to attend Harvard to her high school guidance counselor, the guidance counselor warned her not to set her sights "so high." Despite that admonition, Judge Jackson enrolled in and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and then Harvard Law School. At Harvard Law School, Judge Jackson graduated cum laude and was an editor on the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Judge Jackson served as a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer who became her mentor. She later served as a federal public defender representing defendants who could not afford a lawyer. Judge Jackson then followed in the footsteps of her mentor, Justice Breyer, by working on the U.S. Sentencing Commission where her work focused on reducing sentencing disparities and ensuring that federal sentences were just and proportionate. Upon confirmation, Judge Jackson would become the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court. CBM commends President Biden and joins the rest of the nation in celebrating the historic nomination of this exceptionally qualified nominee. Judge Jackson is one of the brightest legal minds this country has produced. We urge the Senate to move forward with a fair and timely confirmation. Founded in 1975, by five police officers in Philadelphia, PA concerned about youth succumbing to gang violence, CBM grew to a national organization of 15,000 members with 33 chapters across the United States and South Africa. The mission of CBM is to ensure Black men and boys reach their full potential by providing best-practice, evidence-based programs and positive male role models and mentors. CONTACT: Ricky Parker [email protected] (240) 623-5474 SOURCE The National Organization of Concerned Black Men Inc. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tyfone, Inc., a premier provider of digital banking solutions for community financial institutions, today announced from the CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference that the company will begin marketing Tyfone/CU4kids co-branded coffee under a program called Java4Kids. This program is a joint effort with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and was conceived to help raise money for the organization. All profits from the program will go to CMN Hospitals. "We have partnerships with 170 children's hospitals across the U.S. and Canada," said Nick Coleman, Director of Strategic Partnerships for CMN Hospitals. "Since 1996, credit unions have donated more than $165 million through CU4Kids, making them our fifth largest donor. We're excited to partner with Tyfone for Java4Kids as a unique fundraiser." "We all know how important children's health and security are and we all know how crucial coffee is to helping us adults survive, so it only makes sense to leverage one to benefit the other," said Josh DeTar, Tyfone's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "The CU4Kids movement has its roots in Portland, so as a Portland-based company, we're very pleased to do our small part for this important cause." Tyfone will have coffee samples available at its CUNA GAC booth #313 until supplies run out. Java4Kids coffee will be available for purchase on the Tyfone website. About Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Children's Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donationsstay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Since 1983, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $7 billion. Its various fundraising partners and programs support the nonprofit's mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible. Find out why children's hospitals need community support, and learn about your member hospital, at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals. About Tyfone Inc. Based in Portland, Ore, Tyfone is a leading provider of consumer and commercial digital banking services for community financial institutions throughout the United States. The company understands that an elegant, engaging, intuitive user experience is the minimum requirement for any digital banking provider. What differentiates Tyfone is its unwavering commitment to exceptional collaboration and communication. The company considers each customer a true partner and places the highest value on every relationship. Additional information is available at www.tyfone.com. Contact: John San Filippo Phone: (619) 467-0431 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Tyfone, Inc. This time around, ZTE is demonstrating its latest ICT solutions and successful practices at its booth, with a focus on Network Enhancement, Beyond Connectivity, Sustainable Development, Digital Future, and Digital Life. With a range of new products and solutions taking center stage, the company unveils its brand-new simplified site solution UniSite NEO, the industry's first precise 50G PON prototype, GreenPilot solution, flagship Nubia Z40 Pro and mid- and high-end Blade V40 series, and the fourth-generation 5G MBB product family. The company will be participating in five themed events hosted by GSMA, including the 5G mmWave summit, the 5G security conference, digital twin conference, and others. Additionally, ZTE has launched its MWC 2022 online platform, where visitors have the opportunity to get inspired by the company's top executives' in-depth insights into the digital world, and experience four virtual events including 5G Growing, 50G PON Builds a Sustainable Development of Broadband Network, How Superb Networks Boost Value for CSPs, as well as the Cloud Network Core Capabilities and Innovation Achievements Global Conference 2022. In addition, online visitors can explore exciting content such as multi-user interviews, expert interpretation videos of popular solutions, live exhibition tours and beyond. Simplified and efficient networks to meet the on-demand requirements of customers ZTE is committed to helping customers build efficient and modern networks that match their ultimate targets and requirements. With powerful network capabilities, ZTE can also satisfy customers' on-demand network deployment and usage needs. For wireless network deployment, ZTE will be releasing the brand-new simplified site deployment solution UniSite NEO based on a new generation of in-house designed chipsets. Featuring an OMNI-UBR device, UniSite NEO redefines the site deployment form. The next-generation 5G AAU product with higher performance boasts the lightest weight in the industry, helping reduce the energy consumption of multi-frequency all-mode sites by 40%. For wireline networks, ZTE provides ultra-wide optical networks for access to the backbone network, featuring the industry's first precise 50G PON prototype, cost-effective 5-in-1 OTN, and the 1.2T OTN commercial system solution with the highest rate in the industry, to build an infrastructure for the ultimate user experience. Facing increasingly complex network deployment and O&M while adhering to the design concept of "endogenous intelligence, single-domain autonomy, cross-domain collaboration, capability openness and co-construction", ZTE has launched the uSmartNet autonomous network solution, enabling customers to move towards higher-level autonomous networks. One-stop customized private networks to achieve network enhancement Faced with the challenges of various industrial application scenarios and a high deployment complexity, ZTE has innovatively proposed "Private Network as a Service", which helps operators realize one-stop Order-to-Service for the industry in a simple and efficient way throughout the whole process from network planning and precise deployment to streamlined operation and maintenance. ZTE's private network solution is the first in the industry to achieve 4G and 5G integration, voice and data integration, cloud and network integration, as well as full sharing resources and simplified networking. ZTE also released the industry-leading integrated i5GC, through which a server can be deployed with a full set of 5G core network, public network support, dedicated and public cloud-owned deployment, to provide the best cost-effective private network services. To meet the demanding requirements of key industrial applications such as power grid protection, industrial control, port logistics and telemedicine, ZTE proposed the Time Promised Communication (TPC) solution, which integrates 5G TSN/5GLAN/URLLC/SLA precise control, achieving the industry's highest precision of less than 1us clock synchronization and ultra-low jitter, ultra-low deterministic latency of 1-20ms, and ultra-high reliability of more than 99.999%, making it possible to remotely control 5G wireless precision machines. Moreover, based on the TPC solution, ZTE and Qualcomm successfully demonstrated the application of 5G TSN on smart grids, accelerating the commercialization of 5G in key industries. Moreover, ZTE has launched in-house developed products such as 5G AGV components and AR digital twin platform. Joining hands with ZPMC, the company released the first integrated video gateway in the port field. Working with the Sichuan Branch of China Telecom, ZTE launched the 5G+ intelligent supply chain demonstration project, "cloud warehouse configuration", which accelerates the commercial process of 5G in industry verticals. Green and safe digital infrastructure secures long-term sustainable development ZTE, by virtue of its green ICT digital infrastructure, green empowerment towards industry verticals, and green low-carbon operations, has made great contributions to the realization of the dual-carbon goal of the whole society. For its operators, ZTE provides its GreenPilot solution throughout the whole process of energy supply, storage, use and management, to create a green low-carbon digital infrastructure. In terms of network security, ZTE adheres to the four principles of openness, transparency, governance and compliance. The company ensures that every connection is secure and credible, and it has passed multiple third-party security assessments and certifications. Ubiquitous connection boosts a green digital future ZTE focuses on application scenarios and market demand to drive the continuous evolution of the network. The company brings ubiquitous connection towards the future at MWC 2022. In terms of optical network connection, ZTE's satellite PON architecture enables full-scenario optical network coverage at low cost, with such advantages as centralized management, plug-and-play, and shortening TTM. ZTE's multi-core and few-mode optical system breaks through the limit of physical space and achieves a 100-fold jump in optical backbone network capacity from T-level to P-level. Facing the evolution of the wireless access network, ZTE has launched the ZTE RIS solution. The solution employs the intelligent super-surface, one of the core technologies of 5G-Advanced and 6G. The company takes the lead to apply the technology into the 5G network, realizing the co-site coverage of high and low frequencies in dense urban areas. Thus, the solution can significantly reduce high-frequency deployment costs such as millimeter wave, shortening the deployment cycle and decreasing network energy consumption, while accelerating the building of green, low-carbon and efficient networks. In addition, ZTE provides ubiquitous 5G coverage solutions, which can be applied as high in the sky as 10,000 meters, and as far as 100 kilometers out at sea. The 5G signal is transmitted at speeds as fast as 350km/h. With super large capacity, the solution allows users to have 5G experiences anytime and anywhere, making digital life more convenient. Terminal products with a complete ecosystem brings new ultimate experiences At MWC 2022, ZTE will be holding a new product launch conference and display its terminal products with complete ecosystem including individuals, families and industries, bringing new digital and smart life experiences to individuals and families. In the mobile phone and mobile internet terminal experience area, ZTE will bring the newly-released Nubia Z40 Pro, the new flagship featuring a humanistic imagery technique, the global premium Blade V40 series, the new Red Magic 7 with ultimate gaming experience and its ecological peripherals, the Axon series with the ultimate experience of the fourth-generation 5G MBB product family equipped with the Snapdragon X65 and X62 platforms, the Internet of Vehicles as well as industry terminal products. In addition, it will focus on high-power 5G millimeter wave CPE, whose transmission rate has increased up to 10Gbps. In the smart home experience area at MWC 2022, ZTE's technical capabilities, product innovation and market cooperation in the digital family field will be shown to its customers with its home networking connections, end-to-end video solutions, home cloud computer office, and business expansion. Currently, 5G is integrated with cloud/edge computing, big data, AI, XR, robotics and other technologies, and the transformation of home intellectualization and enterprise digitalization continues to accelerate. ZTE adheres to its core principle of "technology creates value", and its core positioning as "the driver of the digital economy". It has been continuously solidifying its core competitiveness, and trialing its digital solutions to make them more suitable for scenarios and more cost-effective. Moving forward, ZTE will join hands with ecological partners to continue to inject new momentum into the digital world. Media Contact: Margaret Ma ZTE Corporation Tel: +86 755 26775189 Email: [email protected] SOURCE ZTE Corporation TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - In a statement from Michal Klaus, CEO of Ataccama, the data management and data governance software company has taken a firm stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and condemned the attacks initiated by Russian President, Vladimir Putin. "We are a business, but we are humans first and foremost," said Klaus. "We are witnessing ongoing, unimaginable, escalating acts of aggression by Russian state leadership towards Ukraine. Today we learned that civilians in Ukraine's second largest city were targeted in a massive missile strike. It is an invasion, it is inhuman, it is criminal, and it needs to be stopped. Although Ataccama does not currently have offices or systems in operation in Russia or Ukraine, we are compelled to contribute in every way we are able. Ataccama is taking action not just for our colleagues and their loved ones who have been impacted, but in support of Ukraine and all Ukrainians in their fight." The company has introduced a number of measures to support the Ukrainian cause and the safety and wellbeing of those affected by the crisis, and will continue to do so in the coming days and weeks. Response actions include setting up a donation fund for humanitarian aid, collecting and delivering supplies to the Ukrainian border, transporting refugees from the border to safe locations in Slovakia and Czechia, organizing temporary housing for displaced Ukranians, and paid time off and relocation support for employees in connection to the crisis. "We are in the process of reviewing all contracts with Russian owned entities and will terminate any connected to the Russian regime, or companies or individuals that support it. We will not work with any person or any company that supports or attempts to justify the ongoing aggression," added Klaus. For the latest updates on the Ataccama response, follow the company on LinkedIn or Twitter . SOURCE Ataccama Key Market Dynamics: Market Driver Market Challenges The increasing disposable income is one of the key drivers that will impact the growth of the adventure tourism market during the forecast period. However, factors such as low penetration rates in developing economies will challenge market growth. To learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges available with Technavio. Read our FREE Sample Report right now! Market Segmentation The adventure tourism market report is classified by type into two segments, namely domestic adventure tourism and international adventure tourism. The domestic adventure tourism segment will have significant market share growth during the forecast period. In terms of geography, the adventure tourism market is classified into five segments, namely Europe, APAC, North America, South America, and MEA. Europe will be the leading region during the forecast period. Moreover, 32% of the market's growth is expected to originate from this region. Germany is the key country for the adventure tourism market in Europe. However, market growth in this region will be slower than the growth of the market in other regions. The adventure tourism market is also segmented by application (indirect contribution, direct contribution, and induced contribution) and service (thrill tourism, eco-tourism, accessible tourism, and ethno-tourism). View our sample report for additional insights into the contribution of all the segments and regional opportunities in the report. Some Companies Mentioned with their Offerings Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC - The company offers a line of products such as luxury small group journeys, wings over the world, and Marco Polo Journeys, among others. The company offers a line of products such as luxury small group journeys, wings over the world, and Marco Polo Journeys, among others. Austin Adventures - The company offers all-new adventure trips from the Scottish Highlands, to Brazil Iguazu Falls, to Californian wine country. The company offers all-new adventure trips from the Scottish Highlands, to Brazil Iguazu Falls, to Californian wine country. Butterfield & Robinson Inc. - The company offers a line of products such as Italian Lakes Walking, Burgundy Wine Country Biking, and Alentejo Biking Private, among others. The company offers a line of products such as Italian Lakes Walking, Burgundy Wine Country Biking, and Alentejo Biking Private, among others. G Adventures - The company offers a line of national geographic travels such as Peru and Bolivia , Explore Machu Picchu and The Amazon River, Botswana and Zimbabwe Safari, and Colombia Journey, among others. The company offers a line of national geographic travels such as and , Explore Machu Picchu and The Amazon River, and Zimbabwe Safari, and Colombia Journey, among others. Intrepid Group - The company offers Alaska tours that include Denali National Park , grizzly bears and wolves, and kayaking upriver to the far-flung Maclaren Glacier. The company offers tours that include , grizzly bears and wolves, and kayaking upriver to the far-flung Maclaren Glacier. To gain access to more vendor profiles with their key offerings available with Technavio, Click Here Related Reports: Climbing Gym Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025 Glamping Market by Mode of Booking and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025 Adventure Tourism Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 31.96% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 1884.63 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 14.26 Regional analysis Europe, APAC, North America, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution Europe at 32% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, Italy, and Japan Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC, Austin Adventures, Butterfield & Robinson Inc., G Adventures, Intrepid Group, Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc., MT Sobek, Recreational Equipment Inc., The Walt Disney Co., and TUI AG Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for 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. Key Topics Covered: Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2020 Market outlook: Forecast for 2020-2025 Five Forces Analysis Five forces summary Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by Type Market segments Comparison by Type Domestic adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 International adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Market opportunity by Type Market Segmentation by Category (qualitative) Thrill tourism Eco-tourism Accessible tourism Ethno-tourism Market Segmentation by Contribution toward GDP Market segments Comparison by Contribution by GDP Indirect contribution - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Direct contribution - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Induced contribution - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Market opportunity by Contribution toward GDP Customer landscape Overview Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 - 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 Overview Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Abercrombie & Kent USA LLC Austin Adventures Butterfield & Robinson Inc. G Adventures Intrepid Group Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. MT Sobek National Geographic Partners LLC Recreational Equipment Inc. TUI AG 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 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 DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AerCap Holdings N.V. ("AerCap") (NYSE: AER) today announced that it has signed agreements with Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA for the lease of ten new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and eight Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft. The aircraft are scheduled to deliver in 2022 and 2023. "We are delighted to support Norwegian's narrowbody fleet renewal program," said Peter Anderson, Chief Commercial Officer of AerCap. "The addition of these aircraft will help Norwegian grow their operations whilst maintaining its commitment to operate a highly competitive, fuel-efficient fleet of aircraft. We wish Geir Karlsen and all the team every success and we look forward to working with them as these aircraft deliver." "The addition of these aircraft will help us achieving our target of building a larger, modern and more fuel-efficient fleet. This will in turn enable us to deliver our products and services in a wide network of routes in the Nordics and to European destinations," said Geir Karlsen, CEO of Norwegian. About AerCap AerCap is the global leader in aviation leasing with one of the most attractive order books in the industry. AerCap serves approximately 300 customers around the world with comprehensive fleet solutions. AerCap is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (AER) and is based in Dublin with offices in Shannon, Miami, Singapore, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Seattle, Toulouse and other locations around the world. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain statements, estimates and forecasts with respect to future performance and events. These statements, estimates and forecasts are "forward-looking statements". In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "predict," "potential" or "continue" or the negatives thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements and are based on various underlying assumptions and expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors, including the impacts of, and associated responses to: the Covid-19 pandemic, our ability to successfully integrate GECAS' operations and employees and realize anticipated synergies and cost savings; and the potential impact of the consummation of the GECAS transaction on relationships, including with employees, suppliers, customers and competitors, that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. As a result, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements included in this press release will prove to be accurate or correct. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future performance or events described in the forward-looking statements in this press release might not occur. Accordingly, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results and we do not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, we do not undertake any obligation to, and will not, update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For more information regarding AerCap and to be added to our email distribution list, please visit www.aercap.com and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/aercapnv . SOURCE AerCap Holdings N.V. MONTEREY, Calif., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to a critical shortage of clinicians able to support youth experiencing mental health crises, AIM Youth Mental Health (AIM) is offering Youth Mental Health First Aid certification for parents, teachers, counselors, first responders, and other caring adults. "Our goal is to create a safety net of support for youth by empowering the adults in their lives to recognize and respond to the mental health challenges that have grown in the wake of COVID," said Lori Butterworth, AIM CEO. "The Youth Mental Health First Aid training is similar to how CPR can support a person in crisis until help arrives." In December, US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued a public advisory urging action in response to the growing mental health crisis among youth, a situation that has only worsened because of the global pandemic. Months of social isolation, school closures and other challenges have led to a sharp increase in anxiety and depression in our youth. Youth Mental Health First Aid is an early intervention, skills-based training developed by the National Council of Mental Wellbeing that teaches a five-step action plan to help youth in both crisis and non-crisis situations. Topics covered include addressing anxiety, depression, suicidality, substance use, eating disorders, and other challenges. The course consists of 2 hours of self-paced content and 5 hours of instructor-led training. Upon completion, adults are certified as Youth Mental Health First Aiders, empowered with tools and strategies to support youth struggling with mental health challenges. AIM is offering the training and certification for $85 (valued at $175), which includes 7 hours of training, course materials, resources, and access to quarterly support and sharing sessions with other Youth Mental Health First Aiders. To learn more and become certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid, please visit https://aimymh.org/mental-health-first-aid/ . Space is limited. Some scholarships are available for people who live or work in Monterey County. About AIM Youth Mental Health: AIM is bridging the gap between research and access to care for youth struggling with their mental health by funding and implementing evidence-based treatments, empowering youth to discover their own mental health solutions, and training parents and caring adults to create a safe holding place for youth in crisis. SOURCE AIM Youth Mental Health New York, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- American Elevator Group (AEG), the largest independent elevator service provider in North America, has experienced unparalleled expansion since its inception in 2020. Having started with a single company Unitec Elevator in NYC AEG has in record time added 18 businesses to its portfolio, covering 21 states, now serving more than 27,000 elevators with more than 1,200 employees. Today, AEG is established as one of the most trusted groups of select and experienced elevator service providers in the United States. "The elevator market is rapidly growing and we are energized to stake our place in it," said Mark Boelhouwer, AEG President. "Our vision for the business is to be the strong, viable alternative that the market needs bridging the gap between regional independent companies and the proprietary corporations. We founded this company to create a platform for independent companies to share resources, technology, and knowledge, while retaining their independence and individualism continuing to provide the same excellent personal, regional service they have always done". Safety and training are major priorities at AEG, and the company has launched several safety initiatives that underpin a deep-rooted safety culture. These include the introduction of mobile safety training units, the rollout of a best-in-class safety training program based on industry-recognized safety excellence, and the deployment of Toolbox Talks to promote continuous learning and awareness. In January, AEG proudly introduced their stunningly designed and user-focused new website, www.americanelevator.com. "We are excited about our new web presence," explained John Curzon, VP of Marketing and Communications at AEG, "however, this is just the beginning. We will shortly be launching a unique user experience, perfectly tailored to the individual's needs and interests." Since launch, AEG has assembled a team of highly regarded industry professionals most recently adding industry heavyweights Eduardo Amato as Chief Financial Officer, Bryan Clairmont as Chief Operating Officer, and Eric Lazear as Vice President of Business Development. In addition, the company has provided continuous investment in its people, upgrading the benefits packages across the group, and introducing a tuition reimbursement program for all employees. "Every team member plays a valued role in our organization and receives the tools, equipment, resources, and training they need to carry out their work safely and efficiently," added Boelhouwer. "AEG is founded on our Declaration of Independents, which commits to investing in our people; never compromising on safety; focusing on what's best for the customer; building winning partnerships; sharing our knowledge; and being a force for good." AEG demonstrated its commitment to being a force for good by supporting #GivingTuesday in November 2021 through charitable donations to 17 different nonprofit organizations in the communities in which its independent elevator service companies serve. In addition, AEG in conjunction with Eastern Elevator Company, made a generous donation to the Johnstown, PA Police Department to fund a new K-9 officer as well as the department's first-ever comfort dog, after the tragic loss of a long-serving K-9 in the line of duty. "Our vision is to continue to grow AEG across North America and beyond, and we are always looking for outstanding partners to add to our group," Boelhouwer said, but clarifying that the purpose of the company's growth goes beyond that of profit. "Our aim is to build something that lasts, which is why we have been so selective about the partners we choose. We are creating something that will make a significant impact on the industry for many years to come." American Elevator Group includes: Abell Elevator International, KY American Elevator & Machine Corporation, NY American Service Group, IN D&D Elevator, NY DC Elevator, KY Dunwell Elevator, NY Dura-Lift Elevator, NJ Eastern Elevator, PA Elevator Learning Center, NY Eltech Elevator, NY Jersey Elevator, NJ Kencor Elevator, PA Precision Elevator, NY Pride & Service Elevator, NJ Right Way Elevator, FL Solid State Elevator, NY South Florida Elevator Service, FL Standard Elevator, NJ Unitec Elevator, NY About American Elevator Group Founded in 2020, American Elevator Group (AEG) is the largest independent elevator service provider in North America with more than 330 years of combined management experience in the elevator industry. The group consists of independent elevator companies that deliver local expertise and customer service across 21 states. Backed by significant resources in safety, finance, technology, marketing, and operations, the group is in a continuous state of growth. For more information on AEG, visit www.americanelevator.com Media Contact: Linda Healan, Warner Communications [email protected] 404-725-7117 SOURCE American Elevator Group Rep. Deutch was unanimously selected by AJC's 28-member Executive Council, the organization's most senior lay body, following an extensive national search for a successor to AJC CEO David Harris, who has led the organization since 1990. Mr. Harris will remain AJC CEO until Rep. Deutch assumes the role, after which Mr. Harris will stay on as a consultant for one year to assist in a seamless transition. Currently serving his seventh term in Congress representing Broward and Palm Beach Counties of South Florida, Rep. Deutch is known for reaching across party lines to build bipartisan consensus. He has been a champion in Congress on issues of concern to the Jewish community most notably, combating antisemitism, supporting the State of Israel, and countering the threats posed by Iran. "We are very pleased to announce that Ted Deutch will serve as AJC's next CEO," said AJC President Harriet P. Schleifer. "Ted's deep and lifelong commitment to the Jewish community, Israel, and to the protection of democratic values is obvious to all who know him. His shared passion for AJC's mission and vision makes him a natural fit to advance our critical global work and to build on David Harris's extraordinary legacy." Rep. Deutch said, "I have worked closely with AJC throughout my tenure in Congress and I am deeply honored to have been chosen to serve as the organization's next CEO. For 116 years, AJC has worked to protect global Jewry, strengthen Israel's place in the community of nations, and advance democratic values around the world. I couldn't be more excited to passionately lead AJC at this critical moment in history and feel immensely privileged to have the opportunity to build on the historic efforts and impact of David Harris, past and present AJC leaders, and the entire team at the organization, who are among the most dedicated professionals in the Jewish world." "I am wholeheartedly committed to furthering AJC's non-partisan, centrist approach, and will be steadfast in my efforts to advance the organization's mission," Rep. Deutch continued, "AJC will continue to defend the global Jewish community whenever and wherever it is threatened in America, Europe, Latin America, online, on campus, at the United Nations. It will prepare Jewish advocates to boldly and knowledgeably stand against antisemitism and other bigotries. And it will use the talent and power of innovative leaders of all ages to defend Israel's rightful place in the world and expand the opportunities to transform the Middle East and the world under the Abraham Accords." AJC CEO David Harris said, "I've had the pleasure of knowing and collaborating with Congressman Ted Deutch for years. Apart from being a mensch, he has demonstrated time and again his enduring commitment to the U.S.-Israel relationship, the well-being of Jewish communities around the world, the fight against rising antisemitism from a multiplicity of sources, the danger of a nuclear Iran, the protection of democratic values and human dignity, the enhancement of interfaith and interethnic relations, and the importance of bipartisanship all of which are core priorities of AJC. I wish him every success in his future at this amazing, one-of-kind global Jewish organization, and will do everything possible to help ensure a smooth transition." Rep. Deutch is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on which he serves as Chairman of the Middle East, North Africa, and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee. In this role, he has worked to advance the interests and values of the United States, Israel, and their allies. He has authored legislation strengthening Israel's security, advancing U.S.-Israel cooperation in energy, agriculture, technology and trade, fought against efforts to delegitimize Israel at the United Nations, and championed human rights and protections for religious minorities. He has also passed federal legislation to crack down on companies that financially support Iran's nuclear weapons program and to counter Iran's dangerous activities around the world. "I know well AJC's deep commitment to advancing the issues that impact Israel and the global Jewish community," said Yair Lapid, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Alternate Prime Minister. "I'm proud to call Ted a personal friend and he is a fantastic choice to lead AJC into the future. His record in Congress advocating for a strong, secure Israel is well-known and I look forward to continuing to work with him to strengthen Israel's standing in the world." As a founding Co-Chair of the House Bipartisan Taskforce for Combating Antisemitism, Rep. Deutch has spoken passionately on the House floor against the increasing incidence of antisemitic expression, confronting colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have invoked such tropes and language. In response to rising hatred on social media, he helped launch an inter-parliamentary coalition to combat online antisemitism with legislators from Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rep. Deutch is also a founding Co-Chair of the Congressional Hellenic-Israel Alliance, as well as a member of the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations, the Latino-Jewish Congressional Caucus, and of AJC's Transatlantic Friends of Israel inter-parliamentary group. He has worked closely with AJC at the national level throughout his tenure in Congress, maintaining close ties locally in Florida through AJC's Palm Beach and Miami regional offices. "I know Republicans and Democrats alike will be thrilled to see Ted as the leader of AJC," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) (1989-2019). "AJC is a well-respected institution, and Ted was made for this role. Ted fits in the mold of AJC. He is fair, even-handed, calm, thoughtful, and kind to everyone. He's also a passionate and forceful leader on the most important issues." AJC's Executive Council selected Rep. Deutch based on his demonstrated passion for Jewish issues, tireless support for the State of Israel, extensive foreign policy experience, deep relationships with foreign leaders and diplomats, and strong track record of working across party lines and standing true to his principles. The search, led by an AJC lay succession committee, was conducted in partnership with the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Since January 2019, Rep. Deutch has chaired the House Ethics Committee. With a reputation for fairness, he works diligently to hold colleagues accountable for their actions and uphold the integrity of the House of Representatives. He is also a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee. In 2015, Rep. Deutch was one of only 25 Democrats in the House of Representatives who voted against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal. While serving in the Florida State Senate, he gained national recognition when he introduced and passed the nation's first law mandating that public pension funds not be used to advance Iran's illicit quest for nuclear weapons. In his personal life, Rep. Deutch has served as a lay leader with the Jewish Federations of Cleveland and South Palm Beach County, and as a member of both UJA's National Young Leadership Cabinet and AIPAC's National New Leadership Network. He graduated from the University of Michigan, where he served as Chair of the Hillel Governing Board, and the University of Michigan Law School. He is the youngest son of the late Jean and Bernard Deutch, a World War II veteran who earned a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge. Rep. Deutch and his wife of 30 years, Jill, have lived and worked in South Florida since 1998, where she is the Director of Development of Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach. Together, they have three children, Gabby, Serena, and Cole. About American Jewish Committee (AJC) With 24 offices across the United States, and 13 overseas, as well as partnerships with 37 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC is the leading global Jewish advocacy organization. From city halls to Capitol Hill, at the UN and in world capitals, AJC works to impact policy and opinion on the most important issues facing the Jewish people: fighting antisemitism and all forms of hate, strengthening Israel's place in the world, and defending democratic values. For more information, visit: https://www.ajc.org/transition SOURCE American Jewish Committee INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With two votes still waiting to be cast, a unanimous National Executive Committee of the nation's largest veterans organization passed a formal statement today calling for "a peaceful conflict resolution in Ukraine," and opposing combat operations for U.S. troops unless certain conditions are fulfilled. "The American Legion was founded after World War I ravaged Europe," American Legion National Commander Paul E. Dillard said. "We are extremely concerned about the horrific consequences that occur during war. There is absolutely no justification for Russia's aggression. Our resolution calls for peace in Ukraine and, in conjunction with NATO and the Russian Federation, supports a European security architecture which considers the national security interests of all parties." According to Resolution 1: Statement on Ukraine, The American Legion will not support related U.S. combat operations unless the president clearly explains why such operations are in "our vital national interests" and mission guidelines are established to include a clear exit strategy. The resolution also states that the organization's support for such a mission be contingent on congressional authorization for the use of military force and that American forces be commanded only by U.S. officers. The resolution also makes clear that the organization would not support combat deployments of U.S. troops "in defense of non-NATO member countries," because of Russia's actions. "We agree with the White House's decision to not send troops to Ukraine, as we continue to support a strong national defense and a strategy of vigilance," Dillard added. "This resolution once again reaffirms our unwavering support for our men and women in uniform and our efforts to ensure their well-being. The American Legion is always here to assist veterans in crisis." The American Legion is dedicated to the motto of "Veterans Strengthening America." Chartered by Congress in 1919, The American Legion is committed to mentoring youth and sponsoring wholesome community programs, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting a strong national security and continued devotion to servicemembers and veterans. Nearly 1.8 million members in more than 12,000 posts across the nation and regions overseas serve their communities with a devotion to mutual helpfulness. Media contacts: John Raughter, [email protected], 317-630-1350, Dave Lapan, [email protected], (703) 403-3835. Feel free to reach out for a copy of Resolution 1, which can also be found on www.legion.org/resolutions. SOURCE The American Legion The Dubliner has been a staple for food, drink and music in Boca Raton's Mizner Park since 2006. (Robert Duyos / Sun Sentinel) A staple of Irish-themed warmth, late-night grub and live music for more than 15 years in Boca Ratons Mizner Park, the Dubliner will close its doors shortly after one final St. Patricks Day farewell. The pub is making way for a new restaurant from Sub-Culture Group, an elevated pizza bistro called Shaker & Pie, named for its devotion to craft cocktails and pies made in a wood-fired oven imported from Italy. Advertisement The new restaurant will open after a major remodel and expansion of the current space, at 435 Plaza Real, including a substantial increase in outdoor seating and an indoor-outdoor bar. Closing day for the Dubliner is contingent on those plans receiving final approval from the city, but Sub-Culture Group expects the pub to shut its doors 30 to 60 days after St. Patricks Day on March 17. Advertisement [ RELATED: Heres how Festival of the Arts Boca will make you smarter about global conflict, the climate and the Rolling Stones ] In 2006, we had this crazy idea to open an Irish pub in Mizner Park, says Scott Frielich, vice president of Sub-Culture Group. Hundreds of thousands of Irish whisky shots, pints of Guinness and great conversations later, it has come time for us to evolve and write the next chapter. [ RELATED: Kapow Noodle Bar moving, expanding in Boca Ratons Mizner Park ] The change is among several chess pieces being moved in Mizner Park by Sub-Culture Group, a prolific Palm Beach County-based dining and nightlife firm. Its properties range from Dada restaurant and Honey nightclub in Delray Beach to legendary rock club Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. Across the terrace from the Dubliner, Sub-Cultures Kapow Noodle Bar is getting ready to move to a much larger space on the other side of Plaza Real in the former location of Blue Fish and Racks Downtown Eatery and Tavern. The new Kapow is under construction, with an opening likely in the middle of May. The current Kapow space will become Penelope, a New Orleans-style brasserie, which will open about 45 days after the Kapow move. [ RELATED: New restaurant coming to Boca Ratons Mizner Park, a New Orleans-style eatery called Penelope ] On the other side of the Dubliner, a new location of SubCulture Coffee is days away from opening. Sub-Culture Group partner Vaughan Dugan says times and tastes have changed since the Dubliner opened. That heavy kind of bar food isnt necessarily the demographic anymore, he says. Advertisement Shaker & Pie will be a model of the contemporary pizza eatery, says Dugan, whose wife, Angela, is a renowned cocktail trendsetter at Kapow. Were really going to focus everything we do in there on that wood-fired oven, with really chef-driven pizza ingredients, he says. But we are still going to be every bit of that Sub-Culture, casual, fun place to come. The Dubliner in Boca Raton's Mizner Park has been a consistent home for local musicans. (Michael Laughlin/Sun Sentinel) Live music programming, a staple at the Dubliner, will not be ignored at Shaker & Pie, but likely in a more limited form, Dugan says. That will always be in our DNA, supporting the local music community, he says. Its an element that people are attracted to, especially being in a beautiful, open-air area like Mizner Park. The Shaker & Pie concept has been years in gestation, its earliest iteration planned in 2014 for a storefront near Mizner Parks IPIC movie theater. [ WEEKEND THINGS TO DO: Weekend things to do: A new list of best local restaurants, a new burger on the New River, a new brunch in Delray Beach ] After focusing on other projects for a few years, Sub-Culture changed course and started developing plans for the theater-adjacent space to be home to an outpost of its iconic West Palm Beach billiards-and-beer bar Lost Weekend. Advertisement We thought it was a missing element in Mizner Park. Then COVID came, Dugan says. Lost Weekend Boca is on the back burner, but could be revived, he says. We love Mizner, obviously. Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation of the pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. Fetch actionable market insights on post COVID-19 impact on each product and service segments. Click Here Some of the Top Aviation Fuel suppliers listed in this report: This report offers detailed insights and analysis of the major cost drivers, volume drivers, and innovations of the Aviation Fuel procurement and sourcing market, which the global suppliers have been leveraging to gain a competitive edge across regions. 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SpendEdge's SUBSCRIPTION platform Table of Content Executive Summary Market Insights Category Pricing Insights Cost-saving Opportunities Best Practices Category Ecosystem Category Management Strategy Category Management Enablers Suppliers Selection Suppliers under Coverage US Market Insights Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. Contacts: SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge Christine McNamara will join the Board effective March 1, 2022, as Independent non-executive Director. Christine has extensive global experience of more than 25 years in leading blue chip energy companies. She has held senior leadership positions across E&P upstream, power, electricity transmission, and telecommunications sectors. Her India energy experience entailed working with PowerGen Plc and BG Group Plc. Christine will take over the Chair of the Audit Committee and shall also join the Board of Azure Power India Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Company. Arno Harris has indicated his desire to step down from the Board after nearly 6 years due to his other commitments. Arno was the chair of the Capital and Audit Committee of the Company. Speaking on her appointment Christine McNamara said, "I am delighted to be joining the Board of Azure Power and look forward to working again in the Indian energy market. Azure Power has huge potential for growth in India and I am excited to be part of this journey." Arno Harris said, "It's been a great privilege to serve on Azure Power's board. I'm proud to have played a part in the company's accomplishments, building two-and-a-half gigawatts of solar generation capacity, and establishing the company as a leader in India's energy transition. I depart with confidence that Azure Power is on a solid foundation to continue its success, with a bright future ahead." Speaking on this occasion, Alan Rosling, Chairman, Board, Azure Power said, "I would like to thank Arno for his years of astute guidance to Azure Power. He brought passion, deep industry knowledge and wise judgement to our Board and he will be sadly missed. I particularly appreciate the support he has extended to me as I joined the Azure Power team last year at the Board, in his chairing of the Capital and Audit Committees, and in private conversations. I also warmly welcome Christine to the Board. She brings years of energy and power experience and deep financial expertise. Her taking on the Chair of Audit, succeeding Arno, inspires confidence that our processes and control environment will continue to be strengthened as we grow." Commenting on the occasion, Ranjit Gupta, MD and CEO, Azure Power said, "We thank Arno for his guidance over the last 6 years. During his tenure, Azure Power became the first energy company from India to list on NYSE in 2016. I personally feel grateful and privileged to have worked with him since I joined the company. We are pleased to welcome Christine on Board. Her extensive experience in corporate finance, strong leadership and connect with Indian businesses, particularly in the power sector, will greatly benefit all of us at the Board and the Management. I look forward to working closely with her to ensure Azure Power continues to deliver positive impact for all its stakeholders." Arno's decision to retire was not the result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the Company's operations, policies, or practices. About Azure Power Azure Power is a leading independent sustainable energy solutions provider, and power producer in India on a mission to create value for all stakeholders through high-performance Renewable Energy assets. We developed India's first utility scale solar project in 2009 and since then, Azure Power has grown rapidly to become a leader in developing and operating renewable energy projects in the country. We have substantially reduced our total project cost, which includes a significant reduction in balance of systems costs due in part to our value engineering, design, and procurement efforts. For more information about us, visit: www.azurepower.com Investor Contact [email protected] Media Contact [email protected] SOURCE Azure Power ORRVILLE, Ohio, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, iconic espresso-style coffee brand Cafe Bustelo announced the start of its 2022 Cafe Bustelo El Cafe del Futuro Scholarship in partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). This year, the company will award 25 $5,000 scholarships, for a total of $125,000 to support the education of Latino students. Since the scholarship began in 2014, $555,000 in college funds have been awarded to 86 Latino students nationwide through the partnership. This year, Cafe Bustelo wants applicants to share how their heritage, family, and community have impacted their desire and motivation to obtain a college degree; how they plan to give back to their community; and what they intend to accomplish with their degree in an essay in English or Spanish (800 words or less). Eligible applicants have the opportunity to receive one of 25 $5,000 scholarships. All eligible applications must be received by July 1, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. CT. Scholarship recipients will be announced on or about September 7, 2022. "At Cafe Bustelo, we strive to support young Latino students who are not only dedicated to their personal academic success, but are also invested in the development of their local communities," said Eduardo Merino, Senior Brand Manager at Cafe Bustelo. "Through the Cafe Bustelo El Cafe del Futuro Scholarship program, we celebrate student accomplishments and help them thrive. La educacion es un tema muy importante en lo personal y para nuestra marca. Nos da mucha alegria poder ofrecer mas becas a mas estudiantes ano tras ano." "HACU is proud of the partnership with Cafe Bustelo that has invested in the higher education success of Hispanic students across the country," said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores. "These scholarships emphasize the positive effect our students' culture has on their desire to achieve a degree and provide much needed financial assistance towards that achievement." For complete information and scholarship guidelines, please visit here. Cafe Bustelo coffee is available at leading grocery retailers nationwide and online at CafeBustelo.com. Visit CafeBustelo.com for more information or follow @CafeBustelo on Instagram, Twitter and @CafeBusteloOfficial on Facebook. About Cafe Bustelo Our delicious coffee and rich espresso heritage was born in 1928. Since then, we've not only been proud of our delicious flavor, but also of our unique and inviting culture. Cafe Bustelo coffee can be prepared using your preferred method. Available in the forms you want, including K-Cup pods. About HACU The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities represents more than 500 colleges and universities committed to Hispanic higher education success in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America, Spain and school districts throughout the U.S. The association's headquarters are located in San Antonio, Texas, with regional offices in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, California. HACU is the only national association representing existing and emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). For more information, visit hacu.net or follow @HACUnews on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. SOURCE The J.M. Smucker Co. ST. LOUIS, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced today it will present at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference, to be held Tuesday, March 15-Thursday, March 17, 2022, at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. Centene will present on Tuesday, March 15th at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET). A simultaneous live audio webcast is available at: https://barclays.webcasts.com/viewer/event.jsp?ei=1532980&tp_key=5e03b3a9f1. A webcast replay will be available afterwards via the Company's website at www.centene.com, under the Investors section. About Centene Corporation Centene Corporation, a Fortune 25 company, is a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach with local brands and local teams to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners. Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the Company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, http://investors.centene.com. SOURCE Centene Corporation Stock Market Symbols GIB (NYSE) GIB.A (TSX) cgi.com/newsroom MELBOURNE, Mar. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) announces that its subsidiary, CGI Technology and Solutions Australia Pty Limited, has completed its planned acquisition of Unico, a technology consultancy and systems integrator based in Melbourne, Australia, following successful approval by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board. Unico, which was established in 1984, brings approximately 130 largely Melbourne-based professionals to CGI, significantly increasing its headcount in Australia. The team will join CGI's existing business in Australia, which forms part of the UK and Australia Strategic Business Unit. "Joining forces with Unico will help our clients further realize new opportunities through the digital transformation of their value chains," said Tara McGeehan, CGI's UK & Australia President. "Unico's services, solutions and highly skilled employees strengthens our services portfolio and united end-to-end services capabilities in Australia. I warmly welcome the Unico team to the CGI family." "It's clear that our organisations have a similar corporate culture and shared values," said Mark Aston, Senior Vice President and Business Unit Leader for UK North and Australia at CGI. "We expect our integration to be smooth and successful, quickly delivering value to our three stakeholders our clients, our shareholders and our professionals. "We strongly believe that this merger will accelerate our diversification into new industries and provide the best growth opportunity across both organisations, including new career opportunities, access to extensive training and development, offshore expertise, and an extended client base." The merger, combined with the recent opening of CGI's Space, Defence and Intelligence Hub in Adelaide, will expand and accelerate CGI's footprint in Australia and its position as a leading provider of secure and flexible end-to-end services, including business and strategic IT consulting, systems integration, managed services and intellectual property-based business solutions. About CGI Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 82,000 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2021 reported revenue is C$12.13 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com. Forward-looking information and statements This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable United States safe harbours. All such forward-looking information and statements are made and disclosed in reliance upon the safe harbour provisions of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. Forward-looking information and statements include all information and statements regarding CGI's intentions, plans, expectations, beliefs, objectives, future performance, and strategy, as well as any other information or statements that relate to future events or circumstances and which do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts. Forward-looking information and statements often but not always use words such as "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "foresee", "plan", "predict", "project", "aim", "seek", "strive", "potential", "continue", "target", "may", "might", "could", "should", and similar expressions and variations thereof. These information and statements are based on our perception of historic trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other assumptions, both general and specific, that we believe are appropriate in the circumstances. Such information and statements are, however, by their very nature, subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, of which many are beyond the control of CGI, and which give rise to the possibility that actual results could differ materially from our expectations expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not restricted to: risks related to the market such as the level of business activity of our clients, which is affected by economic and political conditions, other external risks (such as pandemics) and our ability to negotiate new contracts; risks related to our industry such as competition and our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, to develop and expand our services, to penetrate new markets, and to protect our intellectual property rights; risks related to our business such as risks associated with our growth strategy, including the integration of new operations, financial and operational risks inherent in worldwide operations, foreign exchange risks, income tax laws and other tax programs, our ability to negotiate favourable contractual terms, to deliver our services and to collect receivables, and the reputational and financial risks attendant to cybersecurity breaches and other incidents, and financial risks such as liquidity needs and requirements, maintenance of financial ratios, and changes in creditworthiness and credit ratings; as well as other risks identified or incorporated by reference in this press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and in other documents that we make public, including our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators (on SEDAR at www.sedar.com) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (on EDGAR at www.sec.gov). For a discussion of risks in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see Pandemic risks in section 10.1.1. of our annual MD&A and section 8.1.1 of our quarterly MD&A. Unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking information and statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. While we believe that our assumptions on which these forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are based were reasonable as at the date of this press release, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking information or statements. Furthermore, readers are reminded that forward-looking information and statements are presented for the sole purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our objectives, strategic priorities and business outlook as well as our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Further information on the risks that could cause our actual results to differ significantly from our current expectations may be found in the section titled "Risk Environment" of CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A, which is incorporated by reference in this cautionary statement. We also caution readers that the above-mentioned risks and the risks disclosed in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and other documents and filings are not the only ones that could affect us. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial could also have a material adverse effect on our financial position, financial performance, cash flows, business or reputation. SOURCE CGI Inc. ANAHEIM, Calif., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Channel Bakers, a global full-service eCommerce and retail media agency, has promoted senior team members Marion Anderson and Carol Lai to executive management positions, announced agency Founder & CEO Josh Kreitzer. Marion Anderson has been named Vice President of People & Culture, while Carol Lai was elevated to Vice President of Asia Pacific. Photo Download - Carol Lai Photo Download - Marion Anderson "Marion and Carol have made significant contributions to our worldwide organization," Kreitzer said. "Marion helped build an award-winning People Operations team, established our Learning & Development department and created processes that have helped make our culture what it is today. Carol established our Channel Bakers Taiwan business in just two years time, built teams in the US, Taiwan and China all while profitably driving operations and exceeding her region's sales targets year after year." Prior to joining Channel Bakers, Anderson held positions in international retail operations and human resources for brands including Apple, Calvin Klein and IKEA working in the UK, India, Kuwait and Dubai. While leading Channel Bakers' global People & Culture team, she is currently earning her Ph.D. in Business Administration with a focus on Cross-Cultural Global Leadership from Glasgow Caledonian University. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese & Taiwanese, Lai has more than a decade of experience developing worldwide go-to-market strategies for brands representing a variety of industries. Lai built upon her undergrad International Business degree from Tunghai University in Taiwan with Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Accounting from Cal State Fullerton and the University of Rochester, respectively. Against a backdrop of dramatic increases in worldwide eCommerce adoption, Channel Bakers' senior executive team has overseen an evolution from its roots as the first purely Amazon-focused agency in 2016 to an omni-platform, fully tech-enabled one-stop eCommerce solution for its clients. In the past two years, the agency has seen greater-than 100% year-over-year increases in strategic campaigns and ad spend, and added headcount across all regions, notably in its teams servicing the UK and Europe, Hong Kong, China and Japan. Channel Bakers has maintained a focus on workplace diversity amidst its business growth, with female team members currently comprising 57% of its workforce and 62% of company leadership. About Channel Bakers Channel Bakers is a full-service eCommerce and retail media agency providing multichannel services to vendors and sellers around the globe. With over 200 employees worldwide and in-house creative production departments, Channel Bakers is a one-stop eCommerce solution for brands seeking to start eCommerce selling, expand to new selling regions or boost overall global sales. Channel Bakers delivers a "people-plus-tech" approach focused on optimizing campaign spending in a way that drives incremental revenue for its client brands. More information is available at Channel Bakers. SOURCE Channel Bakers "ChenMed has always advocated for people of every background to share equally in the American dream, and this year we will continue to use our platform to help create a world where everyone is loved, respected, and valued," said Christopher Chen, CEO of ChenMed. In addition, ChenMed's first-ever Employee Resource Group called AWARE2 (All Working to Achieve Racial Equity and Equality) engaged in activating compelling programming and activities for this year's Black History Month. The group was created to generate racial equality and highlight issues of social concern that team members encounter. "We feel very proud of our Black History Month programming this year and all the value that our Employee Resource Group is adding as they work to bring a more inclusive environment to ChenMed," says Stephanie Chen, J.D., ChenMed chief legal and culture officer. "We are confident the AWARE2 team will continue to have measurable impact on our team members lives, strengthening our connections and giving a voice to those who may not have felt they had one before." Last year, ChenMed pledged $100,000 to initiatives and organizations that address issues affecting communities of color. Local and national organizations supported included the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Equal Justice Initiative, Together Chicago, Florida Memorial University Social Justice Symposium and Opa-Locka Community Development Corporation. For celebration of Black History Month this year, ChenMed not only matched last year's $100,000 pledge, but also aligned with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History's (ASALH) 2022 theme of "Black Health and Wellness" to develop programming and content. ChenMed's AWARE2 Employee Resource Group partnered with ChenMed's Culture team to create Black History Month activities and events to help drive open conversations about race and provide an avenue to help recognize the contributions the black community has made to the company, communities and country. Throughout February, ChenMed offered Black History content and activities including weekly newsletters, scavenger hunts highlighting notable Black Americans, media resources to read and watch, profile pieces on black ChenMed employees and trivia events, amongst others. Earlier this month ChenMed hosted TEDx Talk keynote speaker, Shola Kaye, to discuss empathy and work life wellness. Team members were given tools on how to be intentional listeners and provide a sense of inclusion and belonging in the workplace. The company also hosted fireside chats with ChenMed's top black leaders to share their stories of strength, growth and authenticity in Corporate America. About ChenMed ChenMed, headquartered in Miami, is a privately owned medical, management and technology company that delivers the high-touch and personalized primary care Medicare-eligible seniors need to enjoy better health. The company operates nearly 100 senior medical centers in 12 states. Named one of Fortune 2020 "Change the World" companies, ChenMed also was honored by Newsweek as a "Most Loved Workplace" in 2021; and certified as a Great Place to Work by the Great Place to Work Institute. Bringing concierge-style medicine and better health outcomes to the neediest populations, ChenMed brands include Chen Senior Medical Center, Dedicated Senior Medical Center and JenCare Senior Medical Center. SOURCE ChenMed Chindata Group's Board of Directors notes: "The appointment was made after thorough consideration and comprehensive evaluation. The Board recognizes Mr Wu's ability and his contributions to the Group's strategic insight, management expertise, business contribution and industrial resource. We will fully support Mr. Wu's leadership and management work as the Group's CEO." Jonathan Zhu, Managing Director of Bain Capital (Asia) notes: "Mr. Wu has extensive resources and profound influence in the Internet ecosystem. We have sufficient confidence that under the leadership of Mr. Wu, Chindata Group's business will be more diversified, its culture will be more open, and its foundation will be more solid, so as to realize the continuous progress from 10 to 100" Joined Chindata Group in 2019 as President of Chindata China, standing by the "grow together, mutual success" principle, Mr. Wu has built a pioneering "four-in-one" ecosystem of digital, economy and industry around customers, ecological partners, telecom operators and the government, and made profound breakthrough in the group's client diversification, continuous strong business growth and advanced strategic layout. Before joining Chindata Group, Mr. Wu has made versatile achievements in his career. He is the founder of iTechClub Internet Technology Elite Club and the 1024 Academy, served as Vice President of Phoenix New Media and CTO of Ifeng.com. He also served as the executive director of China Computer Users Association, and was elected as a member of AETDEW (Academy of Engineering and Technology for Developing Countries). In his more than 20 years' excellent management experience in the Internet industry, Mr. Wu always focus on restructuring the ecological value of China's computing industry. Throughout his career, he has been continuously devoted to top-level IT architecture design of China's Internet industry, advocating the significance of technology advancement in China's digital era. Mr. Wu has influenced and inspired countless senior Internet talents and is recognized as the "headmaster" by the industry and its practitioner. Mr. Wu Huapeng expressed his gratitude for the recognition and trust of the Board of Directors. "I am honored to shoulder the management responsibility of Chindata Group, an excellent data center enterprise, and looking forward to the close cooperation with the board of directors and management team in the future", quoted Mr. Wu, "at the same time, based on the prominent advantages and industry influence of Chindata Group in products, technology, business model and talent team, we are confident in providing customers with better than expected high-quality services, providing employees with better opportunities, and creating more long period value for our shareholders." In the future, captained by the new CEO Mr. Wu Huapeng, Chindata Group will continue to focus on its core IDC business, as well as making efforts in areas such as siting and development of key computing nodes under the "East Data West Computing" policies, overseas business development, renewable energy development. Chindata Group will deeply dig the needs of customers, continuously improve the products and solutions, consolidate the ecological cooperation system, therefore to enter into a new stage of development and achieve brand new development goals. SOURCE Chindata Group HOUSTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nationwide leader in energy management solutions, Choice! Energy Management, rebrands to GETCHOICE! as it continues to expand its position in the US market by adding telecom, renewable energy and other utility management services. The announcement comes as GETCHOICE! shifts focus on empowering its clients to gain deeper insights into consumption and usage patterns pricing trends, infrastructure requirements, and sustainability progress. "We are extremely happy to roll out our new brand, together with a new mission. In order for us to promise our clients they will become smarter and greener, we needed to walk the talk. And that is exactly what we have done," said Kiki Dikmen, CEO of GETCHOICE!. "With our focus on technology and green options, we help our clients save time and money, as well as help them achieve their sustainability goals." Through its proprietary technology platform (GET), GETCHOICE! empowers its clients to become smarter and greener by providing data driven energy, telecom and utility management solutions that drive efficiency and sustainability. "GETCHOICE! offers solutions that help automate, manage, account, predict and control cost-efficiency while providing a customized roadmap to improve ESG metrics," said Tim Osting, CCO of GETCHOICE!. "Deploying our entire team of experts allows us to monitor, negotiate and validate our client's portfolio, saving them substantial time and money," he added. GETCHOICE!'s complete suite of energy, telecom and other utility management solutions includes facility services, infrastructure assessment, PPA/VPPA, procurement, bill pay, enterprise reporting, market intelligence, and regulatory support, among others. To learn more about GETCHOICE! visit www.getchoice.com or reach out to Lauren Davis via email: [email protected]. About GETCHOICE! GETCHOICE! is the nationwide leader in energy, telecom, and utility management solutions. Through our proprietary technology, we empower our clients to automate, manage, account, predict and control utility cost-efficiency and sustainability. Our suite of services enables our clients to gain deeper insight into infrastructure, consumption, usage patterns, pricing trends and sustainability progress. Our business relationships with diverse group of partners puts us in a superior position to monitor, negotiate and validate the services provided. For more information visit www.getchoice.com Media Contact: Lauren Davis 713.358.5481 [email protected] SOURCE Choice! Energy Management And to ensure immediate pleasure to the taster, Clarendelle wines are sold solely when they are perfectly ready to enjoy. Clarendelle is now pleased to introduce the 2016 vintage of Clarendelle Bordeaux red. The 2016 vintage: a great vintage, perfectly balanced and soft The dry 2016 summer, balanced by beneficial rains at the beginning of Autumn and a magnificent Indian summer with warm days and fresh nights, enabled the elaboration of colorful, fresh and fruity wines. Clarendelle Bordeaux 2016 is then fruity, with aromas of red fruit and blackcurrant alongside floral overtones reminiscent of violet. They combine the tannic power of great vintages with a deliciously velvety texture and rare smooth, powerful, and generous on the palate. Their relativy high level of acidity gives them an admirable freshness and tremendous balance, without any hardness. Clarendelle Bordeaux 2016 can be enjoyed during an aperitif or it can be the perfect elegant partner for lunch and dinner during the coming Spring. A know-how anchored in tradition and firmly farsighted The Clarendelle family of wines is anchored in a century-old blending culture and benefits from the expertise and know-how of a First Growth winemaking team. The ageing of Clarendelle wines happens in a brand new place, both at the cutting edge of technology and environmentally friendly. Besides offering perfect storage conditions for the wines, it is self-sufficient thanks to its roof covered in solar panels and a far less consuming LED lightning and a very efficient isolation. "As a young man, living in London, I had neither a cellar nor a significant budget that would allow me to store and acquire classified growths from Bordeaux. I loved the wines from this region and my tastes had been greatly influenced by my annual stays at Chateau Haut-Brion. I was looking for fine blended wines with some bottle age, an authentic reflection of the South West terroirs and marked by the unique originality of each vintage. They needed to be affordable and dependable while nonetheless displaying complexity, elegance and balance. This is how the Clarendelle family of wines was conceived and ultimately born." Prince Robert de Luxembourg Domaine Clarence Dillon Established in 1935, the family-run company Domaine Clarence Dillon is owner of several prestigious wine estates, Chateau Haut-Brion, Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion and Chateau Quintus. In 2005, Clarence Dillon Wines, one of Bordeaux's most significant fine wine merchant was founded while also creating Bordeaux's premier super premium family of wines; Clarendelle. Domaine Clarence Dillon also owns a Parisian residence, truly an embassy for the French art of living, so highly prized by its Chairman and CEO, Prince Robert of Luxembourg. This houses the two-starred gastronomic restaurant, Le Clarence and La Cave du Chateau, an exceptional retail and e-tail shop selling the finest wines and spirits from France's terroirs (www.lcdc.wine). In 2018, Prince Robert of Luxembourg and Domaine Clarence Dillon joined "Primum Familiae Vini" (Leading Wine Families), an international association bringing together 12 families, owners of prestigious estates and domains producing some of the world's finest wines. In September of 2021, a new visitor centre and wine shop were opened at Chateau Haut-Brion in Bordeaux. Domaine Clarence Dillon press contact : Eline Huet Communications Officer Email : [email protected] Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1750588/Clarendelle_Bordeaux_2016_Table.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1750587/Clarendelle_Logo.jpg SOURCE Domaine Clarence Dillon Fort Lauderdale One person died in a car crash near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport early Monday, authorities said. Deputies with the Broward Sheriffs Office Airport District arrived at the scene just after 3 a.m. Advertisement The southbound lanes of Federal Highway at Griffin Road were closed for several hours, but reopened at about 6:40 a.m., according to Broward Sheriffs Office spokesperson Gerdy St. Louis. The driver was pronounced dead by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, the sheriffs office said. Advertisement Traffic homicide detectives are investigating, Clementine's dedication to providing trusted medical, psychiatric, clinical, and nutritional oversight and care to people of all genders, races, and ethnic groups has led to the expansion of programs across the country. "Expanding national access to care, as well as strengthening the standard quality of care provided, are two of the longest-standing and most important goals of our organization. It is an honor to see these priorities manifest in a way that enables us to offer better care for even more people in need of treatment and in pursuit of full recovery," said Candy Henderson, MS, Chief Executive Officer of Monte Nido & Affiliates. Clementine Hudson Valley will provide treatment for teenagers of all genders between the ages of 12 and 18. Clementine Hudson Valley offers intimate milieus with twenty-four-hour nursing to help adolescents regain their physiological and nutritional balance. "Mindful eating practices, as well as academic and family support, are also part of the program. We have designed our model to meet the specific developmental needs of adolescents," said Melissa Spann, Ph.D., LMHC, CEDS-S, Chief Clinical Officer of Monte Nido & Affiliates. "We provide a personalized treatment which incorporates evidenced-based modalities, backed by research outcomes that demonstrate the efficacy of our care." This programming compliments Clementine's other location in the region, Clementine Briarcliff Manor, which serves adolescent girls. For more information or to inquire about treatment at Clementine Hudson Valley, please go to www.clementineprograms.com or call 855-900-2221. About Monte Nido & Affiliates Monte Nido & Affiliates is one of the country's largest and leading eating disorder treatment providers, offering inpatient, residential, and day treatment programs for eating disorders. Founded in 1996, Monte Nido & Affiliates operates forty-eight programs in thirteen states, with residential programs being Joint Commission accredited. Monte Nido & Affiliates includes five distinct eating disorder program brands: Monte Nido, Walden Behavioral Care, Rosewood Centers, Oliver-Pyatt Centers, and Clementine. Contact: Claire Vartabedian or Abigail Cox L.C. Williams & Associates 312-565-3900 [email protected] SOURCE Monte Nido & Affiliates This week at MWC22 Barcelona will see many exciting announcements, including an automotive launch, with Fisker's unveiling of the new all-electric Ocean SUV. Monday's speaker line-up also delivers compelling keynotes from AT&T, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Millicom, Telstra, Telefonica, Telia Company and Vodafone. Opening MWC22 Barcelona with a keynote address, Mats Granryd, Director General of GSMA, said: "We are delighted to see vibrancy return to Barcelona this year as we convene, collaborate and do business. This edition of MWC provides a collective opportunity to showcase how the digital ecosystem transforms lives and supports global recovery through the power of mobile technology." This year's theme, Connectivity Unleashed, showcases the power of mobile technology in our everyday lives and explores the ground-breaking technologies that will shape industry and society. Connectivity is now intelligently transforming industries as the world moves from simple connectivity to meaningful connectivity. With exceptional speakers lined up, exciting product launches, the launch of the GSMA's Global Mobile Economy Report 2022, and the all-new Industry City. "The doors are now open! Our attendees will experience more than 1500 exhibitors and have access to more than 1000 speakers, plus entrepreneurs, rebels, and people doing the extraordinary," said John Hoffman, CEO GSMA Ltd. "We are on a journey to digital everything, and MWC22 is the place to be to experience what that means." For the first time at MWC, live universal sign language interpretation (SLI) will be provided at all keynotes, Diversity4Tech sessions, and the Mobile for Development (M4D) session 'Reaching Underserved Population Segments' at 4YFN (Four Years From Now), the GSMA's leading start-up and innovation event. The SLI will be provided in person by partner DeafTawk. The interpretation has been made possible by funding DeafTawk secured from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and GSMA Innovation Fund for Assistive Tech. Global Mobile Economy Report 2022 confirms continued 5G momentum Launching today, the annual Global Mobile Economy Report reveals continued momentum in 5G adoption, with the total number of 5G connections expected to reach 1 billion in 2022, as usage grows rapidly in pioneer markets. The report highlights the mobile industry's instrumental role in extending connectivity to people worldwide. In the last decade, network infrastructure investment by operators shrunk the coverage gap from a third of the global population to just 6%, but there is more to be done. The adoption of mobile internet services has not kept pace with the expansion of network coverage. Despite living within the footprint of a mobile broadband network, 3.2 billion people, or 41% of the global population, are not using the mobile internet. The reasons for this usage gap vary by region and include lack of affordability and skills. These barriers to mobile internet adoption impact the most vulnerable segments of the population, including women, the elderly, people in rural areas, and persons with disabilities. Other key findings include: By the end of 2025, 5G will account for around a quarter of total mobile connections, and more than two in five people worldwide will live within reach of a 5G network. In 2021, mobile technologies and services generated $4.5 trillion of economic value, equating to 5% of global GDP. The report predicts that this will grow to $5 trillion in 2025. of economic value, equating to 5% of global GDP. The report predicts that this will grow to in 2025. As 5G adoption accelerates in leading markets such as China , South Korea , and the US, 4G begins to decline. Globally, 4G adoption will account for 55% of total connections by 2025, down from a peak of 58% in 2021. , , and the US, 4G begins to decline. Globally, 4G adoption will account for 55% of total connections by 2025, down from a peak of 58% in 2021. But 4G still has room to grow in most developing markets. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 4G adoption is below a fifth of total connections. 5.3% billion people subscribed to mobile services, representing 67% of the global population, by the end of 2021. In a growing number of markets, most adults now own a mobile phone, meaning that future growth will come from younger populations taking out a mobile subscription for the first time. The report also highlights the vital role that mobile technology will play in accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ahead of the UN's deadline in 2030. These include increasing access to education, healthcare and addressing poverty and inequality. Additionally, the report outlines a set of policy recommendations for achieving a resilient post-pandemic recovery. This involves investing in digital skills training, utilising public funds for connectivity, adopting a balanced approach to collecting revenues through taxes and fees in the mobile sector, and prioritising digital transformation in government services. The GSMA Ministerial Programme is back The GSMA Ministerial Programme welcomes more than 160 international delegations participating in this year's discussions to support the SDGs and other critical issues. Senior policymakers, regulators, industry leaders and government officials will discuss closing the digital gap, meeting global climate targets, building policies for a digital world, and maximising the potential of 5G. Accelerating industry collaboration and 5G transformation Industry City has opened its doors for the first time. Co-delivered with Knowledge Partner, Accenture the exhibit showcases demos from the FinTech, Manufacturing, and Automotive sectors. It also hosts a range of Summits covering robotics and smart mobility topics. Visitors to Industry City can also explore the GSMA Pavilion and the GSMA Foundry Forge, the go-to place for cross-industry collaboration and positive change. At the GSMA Foundry, attendees can see demos and learn about the latest projects, including an autonomous drone flight powered by AI and live-streamed over a 5G network. Addressing societal issues Championing greater diversity in the technology industry, the Diversity4Tech Summit also kicked off today and includes talks, panels, awards, and a roundtable to accelerate transformation and inclusion inspiring attendees to demonstrate leadership on the issue. MWC22 Barcelona will, for the seventh year in a row, be a carbon-neutral event again certified by AENOR International. Mobile was the first industry to commit to achieving net-zero by 2050, and GSMA's commitment extends to MWC22 Barcelona. Tomorrow's programme includes keynote sessions featuring Adam Selipsky, CEO, Amazon Web Services; Shuky Sheffer, President & CEO, Amdocs; Hon. Ms. Jessica Rosenworcel, Chairwoman, FCC; Guo Ping, Rotating Chairman, Huawei; Cher Wang, Chairperson & CEO, HTC; Cristiano Amon, President & CEO, Qualcomm; Pekka Lundmark, President & CEO, Nokia; and Prem Akkaraju, CEO, Weta Digital. Register for MWC22 Barcelona here. About GSMA The GSMA is a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organisations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its members across three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services and Solutions, and Outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, tackling today's biggest societal challenges, underpinning the technology and interoperability that make mobile work, and providing the world's largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events. We invite you to find out more at gsma.com. Media Contacts: GSMA Press Office [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1385555/GSMA_Logo.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1755585/GSMA.jpg SOURCE GSMA ATLANTA, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cygnus Capital, Inc. (together with its affiliates, "Cygnus"), a significant and long-term shareholder of beneficial interests and preferred shares of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:PEI) ("PEI" or the "Trust"), today issued an open letter to PEI shareholders announcing that it has nominated two highly qualified professionals, Ryan J. Levenson and Christopher Swann, to serve as preferred stock trustees on PEI's Board of Trustees (the "Board"). Holders of PEI's 7.375% Series B Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares, 7.20% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares and 6.875% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares have the right to elect two trustees to the Board since the Trust has not paid dividends on its outstanding preferred shares for six quarters. The full text of the letter follows: Cygnus Capital, Inc. 3060 Peachtree Road NW, Suite 1080 Atlanta, Georgia 30305 [email protected] February 28, 2022 Dear Fellow Shareholders, Cygnus Capital, Inc. ("Cygnus Capital" and, together with certain of its affiliates, "Cygnus"), is a significant and long-term shareholder of beneficial interests and preferred shares of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, a Pennsylvania business trust ("PEI" or the "Trust"). As a preferred shareholder, Cygnus has nominated two highly qualified director candidates, Ryan J. Levenson and Christopher Swann, (collectively, the "Nominees"), for election as preferred stock trustees (the "Preferred Stock Trustees") to the Board of Trustees of the Trust (the "Board") at the Trust's 2022 annual meeting of shareholders (the "Annual Meeting"). Cygnus, together with Mr. Levenson and his affiliates, beneficially own approximately 8.9% of the Trust's 7.375% Series B Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares (the "Series B Preferred"), approximately 5.9% of the Trust's 7.20% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares (the "Series C Preferred"), approximately 8.6% of the Trust's 6.875% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares (the "Series D Preferred," and, together with the Series B Preferred and the Series C Preferred, the "Outstanding Preferred") and approximately 2.1% of the Trust's shares of beneficial interest. Since the Trust has not paid dividends on the Outstanding Preferred for six quarters, in accordance with the provisions of the designating amendments to the Trust's Amended and Restated Trust Agreement, as amended (the "Trust Agreement"), which designates the rights, preferences, privileges, qualifications, limitations and restrictions of the Outstanding Preferred, the holders of the Outstanding Preferred, voting together as a single class, have the right to elect two Preferred Stock Trustees to the Board at the Annual Meeting. Cygnus believes that PEI has valuable underlying assets but is trading at a significant discount because it is highly leveraged. Cygnus believes its Nominees can work constructively with the other members of the Board to find new ways to improve the Trust's balance sheet and market valuation. In Cygnus' view, expanding the Board to include two highly seasoned and experienced professionals to the Board is a necessary and important step at this time and will benefit all shareholders not just holders of the Outstanding Preferred. The Nominees are: Ryan J. Levenson (age 46). Mr. Levenson has deep expertise in cost reduction and strategic realignment and an extensive background in private equity, investment and asset management. Mr. Levenson also has significant public board experience, including membership on various audit, compensation and corporate governance committees. Currently serves as Principal and Portfolio Manager of Privet Fund Management, LLC ("Privet"), an investment firm, and Chief Executive Officer of Hardinge, Inc., a multinational machine tool builder acquired by an affiliate of Privet. Previously served as Vice President of Business Development at Millwork Sales International, Inc., a privately held building products distributor and construction services company, and as a financial analyst at Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, LLC, a long/short equity hedge fund and SAC Capital Advisors LLC, an investment management company. Mr. Levenson serves on the boards of directors of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation, the dredging services provider, and Hardinge, Inc. Previously, Mr. Levenson served on the board of directors of AgJunction, Inc., a global positioning system designer and manufacturer, Frequency Electronics, Inc., a telecommunications and electronics company, Cicero, Inc., a software company, BK Technologies Corporation, an American manufacturing company, Material Sciences Corporation, an American materials technology company, and The Middleby Corporation, a commercial and residential cooking and industrial process equipment company. Mr. Levenson received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Vanderbilt University . Christopher Swann (age 51). Mr. Swann has over a decade of experience restructuring distressed commercial real estate and real estate backed debt. He also has extensive capabilities in restructuring across multiple disciplines, including balance sheet, asset management, operations, construction, entitlements and property management. Currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cygnus Capital, a real estate and alternative asset investment management company. Previously, Mr. Swann served as a Portfolio Manager at SAC Capital Advisors LLC, an investment management company, and in a number of roles at GMT Capital Corporation, an investment management company, including serving as a senior analyst and then as a portfolio manager overseeing investments in technology companies as well as building out the firm's investments in Asia , including establishing its Hong Kong office. , including establishing its office. Prior to that, Mr. Swann co-founded two software companies and also worked as an Associate at McKinsey & Co. in the Business Technology practices in Atlanta, GA and Germany. Earlier in his career, Mr. Swann served in senior marketing and sales positions in Germany and Russia for Millicom International Cellular SA, an international telecommunications and media company, and for a division of Merck & Co., Inc., a multinational pharmaceutical company. and Germany. Earlier in his career, Mr. Swann served in senior marketing and sales positions in and for Millicom International Cellular SA, an international telecommunications and media company, and for a division of Merck & Co., Inc., a multinational pharmaceutical company. Mr. Swann received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Public Policy from Duke University and received a dual Masters in Business Administration and Masters of Arts in International Studies degree from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania . Cygnus believes adding the Nominees to the Board can bring fresh perspectives and a shareholder mindset to the Board to better unlock and maximize shareholder value. Cygnus has requested that the Trust provide notice and the means for all shareholders of the Outstanding Preferred to vote for the election of the Nominees at the Annual Meeting. Cygnus trusts PEI to comply with its obligations under the Trust Agreement and looks forward to speaking with its fellow shareholders over the upcoming months about the Nominees. Sincerely, Christopher Swann, President and CEO Cygnus Capital, Inc. About Cygnus Capital, Inc. Cygnus Capital, Inc. is an integrated real estate investment and alternative asset management company focused on opportunistic, special situation, and distressed real estate investments. Cygnus targets long term, absolute returns for investors by applying a differentiated approach to real estate investing. By placing an emphasis on the acquisition, workout, and disposition of real estate debt assets characterized by their complexity, inefficiency, and niche qualities, Cygnus Capital is able to target superior, absolute returns for its investors. Contact: Christopher Swann Cygnus Capital, Inc. [email protected] SOURCE Cygnus Capital, Inc. TSXV: CYP |OTCQX: CYDVF VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Cypress Development Corp. (TSXV: CYP) (OTCQX: CYDVF) (Frankfurt: C1Z1) ("Cypress" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that Wood PLC ("Wood") and Global Resource Engineering ("GRE") will be conducting the work required to complete a Feasibility Study ("FS") in accordance with Canadian Securities National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") on the Company's Clayton Valley Lithium Project located in Nevada, USA. Since the establishment of NI 43-101 in 2001, Wood has been responsible for, or involved in, the preparation of more than 300 such reports. Wood, as the lead consultants, will bring together and author the overall report, including direct responsibility for infrastructure, process design, processing facilities, tailings and waste facilities, and environmental stewardship. GRE, which completed the Preliminary Economic Assessment and Pre-Feasibility Study on the Project, will be responsible for the geologic model, estimation of resources and reserves, and compilation of mine plan and mining production schedule. The financial model and market studies will be mutually developed drawing upon data from established research and investment firms. Wood has completed numerous studies for mining projects in Nevada as well as relevant studies for various lithium projects globally, having just been awarded an agreement last month with Green Lithium, the mineral processing company, to be its Owner's Engineer to build and operate the UK's first large-scale commercial lithium refinery. Wood's extensive mining expertise and ability to provide solutions across the complete asset lifecycle, enables its clients to navigate the ever complex and changing sector landscape, responsibly enabling the securement of integral metals and minerals needed to resource the energy transition. About Wood Wood is a global leader in consulting and engineering across energy and the built environment, helping to unlock solutions to some of the world's most critical challenges. We provide consulting, projects, and operations solutions in more than 60 countries, employing around 40,000 people. www.woodplc.com About Global Resource Engineering GRE is a multifaceted engineering firm specializing in the mining industry. GRE's focus is to add value to a project and company by understanding the client's needs by employing innovative ideas and applying sound engineering practices, while maintaining an economically driven approach. www.global-resource-eng.com About Cypress Development Corp Cypress Development Corp. is a Canadian based advanced-stage lithium exploration company, focused on developing its 100%-owned Clayton Valley Lithium Project in Nevada, USA. Work completed by Cypress led to the discovery of a world-class resource of lithium-bearing claystone adjacent to the Albemarle Silver Peak mine, North America's only lithium brine operation. Cypress is advancing its Clayton Valley Lithium Project in Nevada towards the production of high-purity lithium hydroxide suitable for tier one battery usage. ON BEHALF OF CYPRESS DEVELOPMENT CORP. WILLIAM WILLOUGHBY, PhD., PE President & Chief Executive Officer NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as "expects," "estimates," "projects," "anticipates," "believes," "could," "scheduled," and other similar words. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management 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. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration, and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information. SOURCE Cypress Development Corp. SHANGHAI, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE: DQ) ("Daqo New Energy", the "Company" or "we"), a leading manufacturer of high-purity polysilicon for the global solar PV industry, today announced that its subsidiary Xinjiang Daqo New Energy has signed a long-term high-purity polysilicon supply agreement with a leading solar manufacturing company in China. Under the supply agreement, Xinjiang Daqo will provide high-purity mono-grade polysilicon to a leading solar manufacturing company in a total amount of approximately 30,000 MT between January 2022 and December 2026. Actual volume and prices will be negotiated monthly by both parties according to market conditions. Mr. Longgen Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Daqo New Energy, commented, "We are very pleased to sign the long-term high-purity polysilicon supply contract with this leading solar manufacturing company. With this contract and other existing contracts, our available capacity of this year has already been fully booked. We believe solar PV will play an increasingly important role in the global energy market as we are entering into the era of grid-parity and as the levelized cost of solar PV is being continuously reduced. As always, we will focus on our core business by accelerating our capacity expansion and providing high quality products to contribute our effort to the fast-growing solar PV market." About Daqo New Energy Corp. Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE: DQ) ("Daqo" or the "Company") is a leading manufacturer of high-purity polysilicon for the global solar PV industry. Founded in 2007, the Company manufactures and sells high-purity polysilicon to photovoltaic product manufactures, who further process the polysilicon into ingots, wafers, cells and modules for solar power solutions. The Company has a total polysilicon nameplate capacity of 105,000 metric tons and is one of the world's lowest cost producers of high-purity polysilicon. For more information, please visit www.dqsolar.com Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: the demand for photovoltaic products and the development of photovoltaic technologies; global supply and demand for polysilicon; alternative technologies in cell manufacturing; the Company's ability to significantly expand its polysilicon production capacity and output; the reduction in or elimination of government subsidies and economic incentives for solar energy applications; the Company's ability to lower its production costs; changes in the political and regulatory environment; and the duration of COVID-19 outbreaks in China and many other countries and the impact of the outbreaks and the quarantines and travel restrictions instituted by relevant governments on economic and market conditions, including potentially weaker global demand for solar PV installations that could adversely affect the Company's business and financial performance. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the reports or documents the Company has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information or any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. SOURCE Daqo New Energy Corp. RESTON, Va., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, has been awarded the Defense Enclave Services (DES) contract by the Defense Information Systems Agency. The single-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract has a total estimated value of $11.5 billion and a four-year base period of performance followed by three two-year option periods. "We are honored that DISA has entrusted our team to establish the modern infrastructure foundation that will deliver critical combat support capabilities to our warfighters," said Roger Krone, Leidos Chairman and CEO. "Leidos is committed to helping DISA and the Defense Agencies and Field Activities (DAFA) further their vision, leveraging our decades of technological expertise to bolster their critical mission." "The Defense Enclave Services program demands unique expertise and advanced technology solutions," said Gerry Fasano, Leidos Defense Group President. "Leidos brings both at unparalleled scale, with a focus on constant innovation. We look forward to delivering an improved user experience and enhanced mission capabilities." Through digital modernization and transformation, the Defense Enclave Service (DES) contract will unify the DAFAs on a common network architecture to provide mission services focused on enhanced user experience, improved security, and network reliability. Headquartered in Fort Meade, Maryland, the Defense Information Systems Agency provides, operates, and assures command and control and information-sharing capabilities and a globally accessible enterprise information infrastructure in direct support to joint warfighters, national level leaders and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of military operations. About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets. Leidos' 43,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $13.7 billion for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. For more information, visit www.leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2021, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Contact: Melissa Duenas (571) 526-6850 [email protected] Thomas Doheny (571) 474-4735 [email protected] Jalen Drummond (571) 992-5046 [email protected] SOURCE Leidos Holdings, Inc. VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Dolly Varden Silver Corporation ("Dolly Varden" or the "Company") (TSXV: DV) (OTC: DOLLF) is pleased to announce changes to its board of directors pursuant to the previously announced transaction whereby Dolly Varden acquired from Fury Gold Mines Ltd. ("Fury"), through the acquisition of Fury's wholly-owned subsidiary Homestake Resource Corporation, a 100% interest in the Homestake Ridge gold-silver project, located adjacent to the Dolly Varden Project in the Golden Triangle, British Columbia (the "Transaction"). Shawn Khunkhun, CEO & Director commented, "Over the past two years we have seen significant enhancement to our resource base which has led to our share price, market cap and treasury all growing substantially. These additions to the Dolly Varden team arm us with the experience, expertise and network that will promote the continued advancement of our corporate goal, developing one of the highest grade undeveloped precious metals assets in BC's Golden Triangle." Further to the Investor Rights Agreement forming part of the Transaction, Dolly Varden is pleased to welcome Tim Clark, the Chief Executive Officer of Fury, and Michael Henrichsen, the Senior Vice President, Exploration of Fury, to the Dolly Varden board. The addition of these members of Fury's management to the Dolly Varden board brings years of valuable corporate financial and geological expertise to Dolly Varden. Tim Clark brings 23 years of global capital markets experience with numerous US, European and Canadian banks, including Barclays Capital, National Bank Financial, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and most recently BMO Capital Markets, where he held the role of Managing Director, Institutional Equity Sales. Over the years, he provided corporate strategy, peer and financial analysis and insights for corporations within the materials, commodities and mining sectors. Michael Henrichsen is a structural geologist and leads the Fury technical team. Previously, Mr. Henrichsen was the global structural geologist at Newmont, where his contributions significantly increased the reserves and resources base in the Ahafo district in Ghana. Mr. Henrichsen has also worked extensively at other major gold camps in South America, the Carlin Trend, Guinea and Canada. The Company also welcomes Chairman of Fury Gold Mines Ivan Bebek as an advisor to the Company. Mr. Bebek has over 20 years of experience in financing, foreign negotiations and acquisitions in the mineral exploration industry. His understanding of the capital markets and ability to position, structure and finance companies that he has been associated with has been instrumental in their successes. In order to meet the board size requirements set out in the ancillary rights agreement between Hecla and the Company, dated September 4, 2012, upon closing of the Transaction Thomas Wharton, Donald Birak and Annette Cusworth resigned from the board. At this time, in addition to Tim Clark and Michael Henrichsen, the Dolly Varden board of directors consists of Shawn Khunkhun, Robert McLeod, Darren Devine, and James Sabala. The Company is grateful for and thank Mr. Wharton, Mr. Birak and Ms. Cusworth for their contributions over the past number of years. Stock option grant The Company has granted incentive stock options to directors, officers, and key consultants to purchase up to 3,975,000 common shares in the capital of Dolly Varden. The incentive stock options have an exercise price of $0.79 per share and expire in 5 years. About Dolly Varden Silver Corporation Dolly Varden Silver Corporation is a mineral exploration company focused on advancing its 100% held Kitsault Valley project located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia, Canada, 25kms by road to tide water. The 163 sq. km. project hosts the high-grade silver and gold resources of Dolly Varden and Homestake Ridge along with the past producing Dolly Varden and Torbrit silver mines. It is considered to be prospective for hosting further precious metal deposits, being on the same structural and stratigraphic belts that host numerous other, on-trend, high-grade deposits, such as Eskay Creek and Brucejack. The Project also contains the Big Bulk property which is prospective for porphyry and skarn style copper and gold mineralization, similar to other such deposits in the region (Red Mountain, KSM, Red Chris). Forward Looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements or forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities legislation that may not be based on historical fact, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believe", "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "potential", and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Dolly Varden to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements or information in this release relates to, among other things, potential synergies expected from the combination of the DV Project and Homestake Project, the development potential of the property. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and assume, among other things, the ability of the Company to successfully pursue its current development plans, that future sources of funding will be available to the company, that relevant commodity prices will remain at levels that are economically viable for the Company and that the Company will receive relevant permits in a timely manner in order to enable its operations, but given the uncertainties, assumptions and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements or information. The Company disclaims any obligation to update, or to publicly announce, any such statements, events or developments except as required by law. For additional information on risks and uncertainties, see the Company's most recently filed annual management discussion & analysis ("MD&A"), which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The risk factors identified in the MD&A are not intended to represent a complete list of factors that could affect the Company. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. SOURCE Dolly Varden Silver Corp. BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dotgo, a Gupshup company, and leading provider of Rich Communication Services (RCS) and RCS business messaging (RBM) solutions, announced the launch of Dotgo Universal RCS at Mobile World Congress 2022, Barcelona. The launch expands RCS to iPhone and other non-RCS devices, providing global brands the ability to reach more customers with engaging rich media mobile messaging solutions, including video, audio, and enhanced security features. There are 6.64 billion smartphone users in the world today. RCS is currently used globally on 1.2 billion devices, by 500 million monthly active users. RBM enables brands to send rich and interactive messages with images, GIFs, videos, and carousels, along with suggested replies and suggested actions to customers, from a verified sender id, with a trust mark. However, its reach is currently limited to Android devices with an RCS client, inhibiting businesses from reaching consumers using iPhones or other Android devices without an RCS capable client. Dotgo's Universal RCS Solution enables businesses to overcome this barrier and send RCS messages to everyone. For non-RCS device users, the solution automatically sends an SMS with a link to an RCS experience on the browser. With this, Dotgo is empowering businesses to deliver a rich communication experience to all their customers, increasing user engagement across the board. This innovative solution supports the complete suite of RCS features: including rich media such as images, video, carousels, along with suggested actions/replies and user-initiated messages, enabling 2-way conversational experiences. Users can see the trust mark, the verification details, and access the Bot Store to discover and engage with other brands. "Dotgo's Universal RCS solution delivers an RCS business messaging experience to all iPhone and Android users. By extending the reach of RCS to iPhones, we are accelerating the transformation of business messaging from plain transactions and notifications on SMS, to rich 2-way conversational experiences," said Surinder Singh Anand, CTO, Dotgo. "The solution is designed to ensure a seamless enablement of Universal RCS capability for any RCS agent, avoiding additional development costs or delays. With this innovative offering, brands can reach many more consumers - increasing the impact of their RCS campaigns and improving the ROI of their RCS investments." Mobilesquared, a global leader in independent mobile market intelligence, estimates the global RCS market size to grow to $4.4 billion by 2025, clocking a CAGR of 143.27 percent. "RCS has the potential to become one of the biggest and richest engagement platforms in the world, with rich business messaging set to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars within 10-15 years. As the ecosystem evolves, we expect a large percentage of customer marketing, commerce and support to shift to RCS over the next few years," said Nick Lane, Founder & Chief Insight Analyst, Mobilesquared. Dotgo also launched a whitepaper on 'How RCS is revolutionizing business messaging' , detailing RCS trends, challenges, and recommendations to help brands implement conversational messaging and customer engagement strategies using RBM. Click here to read. "Though SMS has become ubiquitous in our lives, it hasn't kept pace with advancements in mobile technologies. It's an opportune time for SMS to evolve into a next-gen communications channel, with industry leaders like Dotgo pushing the boundaries of innovation in RCS and RBM solutions," said Dario Betti, CEO, Mobile Ecosystem Forum. "Already we see RCS actively used in over 1.2 billion devices with over 450 million users, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. RCS is bound to see exponential growth over the next couple of years." About Dotgo Dotgo, a Gupshup company, is a global leader in RCS. Dotgo is the provider of the Bot Store, world's first and largest directory of RCS bots, Dotgo MaaP, RichOTP, RichSMS, and the RBM Hub. Dotgo is a Google partner and a member of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum. Visit www.dotgo.com . Gupshup enables better business-to-customer interactions through conversational engagement, powering over 6 billion messages per month. With Gupshup, 44,000 businesses have made conversations an integral part of their customer engagement success. Visit www.gupshup.io Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1754550/Dotgo_Logo.jpg SOURCE Dotgo "The Viking Octantis and her sister ship, the Viking Polaris, have been designed for discoveryto enable our guests to explore the world's most pristine destinations in comfort and in the most responsible way possible," said Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking. "With our first Antarctic season underway, we are very pleased with the enthusiastic initial response from our guests, as well as from esteemed design experts." Viking's new expedition ships were designed by the same team behind the award-winning Viking Longships and ocean ships, including Richard Riviere, Founding Principal of internationally acclaimed interior design firm Rottet Studio of Los Angeles. SMC Design of London contributed with their expertise in the maritime sector. Together, the two firms were awarded "Design Studio Team of the Year" in the 2021 Cruise Ship Interior Awards for their work on Viking's expedition ships. "We hope our guests will feel at home on board these elegant vessels, with spaces that are familiar from our ocean shipssuch as the Explorers' Lounge and Mamsen'sas well as innovative new spaces like The Aula and The Hangar that are first of their kind in the travel industry," said Karine Hagen, Executive Vice President of Viking. "As always, our Norwegian heritage and thoughtful attention to detail are infused throughout. With sheltered outdoor observation areas from bow to stern, and a state-of-the-art stabilizing system that makes for very smooth sailing, our new expedition ships optimize exploring the remotest parts of the world in comfort, the Viking way." Viking Expedition Ships The new Polar Class Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris host 378 guests in 189 staterooms. The vessels are purpose-built for expeditions, at an ideal size for safety and comfort in remote destinations. With more indoor and outdoor viewing areas than other expedition vessels, guests are as close as possible to the most magnificent scenery on earth. The architectural photos released today showcase many of the onboard public spaces, such as: The Aula: A stunning panoramic auditorium inspired by the University of Oslo's famed ceremonial hall, the former venue for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Used for lectures, daily briefings, documentaries and films, this spectacular venue features a 4k laser-projected screen that retracts to expose floor-to-ceiling windows and 270 views. A stunning panoramic auditorium inspired by the famed ceremonial hall, the former venue for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Used for lectures, daily briefings, documentaries and films, this spectacular venue features a laser-projected screen that retracts to expose floor-to-ceiling windows and 270 views. Finse Terrace: An outdoor lounge area just above sea level with recessed, heated seating and lava rock "firepits," the Finse Terrace was designed to allow guests the comforts of the ship al fresco while enjoying the dramatic scenery. Named after the Finse Plateau in Norway , where some of the greatest polar explorers, including Nansen and Amundsen, did their expedition training in preparation for their North and South Pole expeditions. An outdoor lounge area just above sea level with recessed, heated seating and lava rock "firepits," the Finse Terrace was designed to allow guests the comforts of the ship al fresco while enjoying the dramatic scenery. Named after the Finse Plateau in , where some of the greatest polar explorers, including Nansen and Amundsen, did their expedition training in preparation for their North and South Pole expeditions. The Hangar: A state-of-the-art, industry-first in-ship marina providing ease of embarkation and disembarkation of Special Operations Boats and other equipment while sheltered from the elements. A state-of-the-art, industry-first in-ship marina providing ease of embarkation and disembarkation of Special Operations Boats and other equipment while sheltered from the elements. The Bow: An important forward-viewing platform. And in the case of inclement weather, The Shelter is a comfortable, partially enclosed space for guests to warm up with a hot drink before going back out into the elements. An important forward-viewing platform. And in the case of inclement weather, is a comfortable, partially enclosed space for guests to warm up with a hot drink before going back out into the elements. The Science Lab: Developed in partnership with the University of Cambridge and Akvaplan-Niva, The Science Lab, at 380 sq. ft., is designed to support a broad range of research activities and is equipped with wet and dry laboratory facilities. Guests have supervised access to The Science Lab to learn from and participate with scientists in undertaking meaningful research. Developed in partnership with the and Akvaplan-Niva, The Science Lab, at 380 sq. ft., is designed to support a broad range of research activities and is equipped with wet and dry laboratory facilities. Guests have supervised access to The Science Lab to learn from and participate with scientists in undertaking meaningful research. Expedition Central: The hub for the expedition team to consult with guests on their expedition activities and share knowledge about the destinations on a one-on-one basis, with the aid of 3D printed maps, digital screens, and a state-of-the-art spatial data visualization chart table. The hub for the expedition team to consult with guests on their expedition activities and share knowledge about the destinations on a one-on-one basis, with the aid of 3D printed maps, digital screens, and a state-of-the-art spatial data visualization chart table. Dining Choices: The Restaurant offers fine dining featuring regional cuisine and always-available classics; the casual World Cafe offers an open kitchen, bakery, grill and premium seafood and sushi choices, as well as a wide range of international flavors; Mamsen's, named for the Hagen family matriarch, serves Scandinavian-inspired fare; and Manfredi's offers the best of Italian cuisine. The Restaurant offers fine dining featuring regional cuisine and always-available classics; the casual World Cafe offers an open kitchen, bakery, grill and premium seafood and sushi choices, as well as a wide range of international flavors; Mamsen's, named for the Hagen family matriarch, serves Scandinavian-inspired fare; and Manfredi's offers the best of Italian cuisine. The Nordic Spa: Following a day of exploration, The Nordic Spa offers guests opportunities to experience the ultimate healthy Nordic traditions, with an indoor heated pool set against expansive windows and a badestamp (wood-sided hot tub) that is open to the outside. Following a day of exploration, The Nordic Spa offers guests opportunities to experience the ultimate healthy Nordic traditions, with an indoor heated pool set against expansive windows and a (wood-sided hot tub) that is open to the outside. Explorers' Lounge: Located high on the ship with floor-to-ceiling windows, the Explorers' Lounge provides guests an ideal space to take in the magnificent scenery, share discoveries with fellow travelers or to enjoy a drink. Located high on the ship with floor-to-ceiling windows, the Explorers' Lounge provides guests an ideal space to take in the magnificent scenery, share discoveries with fellow travelers or to enjoy a drink. The Living Room: On Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris, The Living Room is located to maximize views of the surroundings through floor-to-ceiling windows and a library that informs even the best-read explorers. The Library is curated by acclaimed London bookshop Heywood Hill, as on all Viking vessels, as well as Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute. Additional photos showcase: Nordic Balcony: A first for polar expedition vessels, all staterooms on board Viking's expedition ships feature a Nordic Balcony, a sunroom that converts into an al fresco viewing platform with an observation shelf at elbow level to stabilize binoculars or a camera. Guests can choose from six stateroom categories that range from 222 sq. ft. to 1,223 sq. ft.all with a Nordic Balcony, as well as a king-size bed and large bathroom with spacious glass-enclosed shower, heated bathroom floor and anti-fog mirror. Every stateroom is also equipped with a unique floor-to-ceiling drying closet that circulates warm air to dry and store clothing and expedition gear. A first for polar expedition vessels, all staterooms on board Viking's expedition ships feature a Nordic Balcony, a sunroom that converts into an al fresco viewing platform with an observation shelf at elbow level to stabilize binoculars or a camera. Guests can choose from six stateroom categories that range from 222 sq. ft. to 1,223 sq. ft.all with a Nordic Balcony, as well as a king-size bed and large bathroom with spacious glass-enclosed shower, heated bathroom floor and anti-fog mirror. Every stateroom is also equipped with a unique floor-to-ceiling drying closet that circulates warm air to dry and store clothing and expedition gear. Expedition Ship Suites: Nordic Junior Suites (322 sq. ft.) and Explorer Suites (580 sq. ft.) on Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris are similar to those on Viking's fleet of ocean ships, with wood detailing and amenities that include additional storage and seating, an expanded bathroom with extended shower and double sinks, welcome champagne, a fully-stocked mini-bar replenished daily, complimentary laundry, priority restaurant reservations and more. Explorer Suites feature two separate rooms, a Nordic Balcony and a full outdoor veranda. Additionally, each ship features one Owner's Suite (1,223 sq. ft.) that has three rooms a living room, a board/dining room and a bedroomas well as a 792 sq. ft. private deck with a traditional Norwegian badestamp open to the invigorating outdoors. Media Assets For more information, images and b-roll for Viking, contact [email protected]. About Viking Viking was founded in 1997 and provides destination-focused journeys on rivers, oceans and lakes around the world. Designed for experienced travelers with interests in science, history, culture and cuisine, Chairman Torstein Hagen often says Viking offers guests The Thinking Person's Cruise in contrast to mainstream cruises. With more than 250 awards to its name, Viking has been rated the #1 River Cruise Line and #1 Ocean Cruise Line by Conde Nast Traveler in the publication's 2021 Readers' Choice Awards. Viking has also been consistently rated the #1 ocean cruise line and one of the best river cruise lines in Travel + Leisure's "World's Best" Awards. For additional information, contact Viking at 1-800-2-VIKING (1-800-284-5464) or visit www.viking.com. For Viking's award-winning enrichment channel, visit www.viking.tv. SOURCE Viking Kessler Topaz is one of the world's foremost advocates in protecting the public against corporate fraud and other wrongdoing. Our securities fraud litigators are regularly recognized as leaders in the field individually and our firm is both feared and respected among the defense bar and the insurance bar. We are proud to have recovered billions of dollars for our clients and the classes of shareholders we represent. CANNOT VIEW THIS VIDEO? PLEASE CLICK HERE CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR NEW ORIENTAL LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/edu-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=edu LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: April 5, 2022 CLASS PERIOD: April 24, 2018 through July 22, 2021 CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Email at [email protected] NEW ORIENTAL'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT New Oriental provides educational programs, services and products to students across the People's Republic of China ("China") and delivers online courses through its online learning platforms. On June 1, 2021, Chinese regulators announced they had fined 15 off-campus training institutions, including New Oriental, for illegal activities such as false advertising and fraud. Among the violations were reportedly fabricating teacher qualifications, exaggerating the effects of training, and fabricating user reviews. Following this news, the price of New Oriental American Depository Shares ("ADSs") dropped from $11.09 on June 1, 2021, to $9.32 on June 3, 2021, a 16% decline over the two-day period. 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. This drastic measure effectively ended any potential growth in the for-profit tutoring sector in China. Following this news, the price of New Oriental ADSs fell from $6.40 on July 22, 2021 to just $1.94 by market close on July 26, 2021, a nearly 70% decline. WHAT CAN I DO? New Oriental investors may, no later than April 5, 2022 seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP encourages New Oriental investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF? A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. At the end of the day, we have succeeded if the bad guys pay up, and if you recover your assets. The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com. CONTACT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP James Maro, Jr., Esq. 280 King of Prussia Road Radnor, PA 19087 (484) 270-1453 [email protected] SOURCE Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP As thousands of new luxury homes are planned for West Boca, the state plans on expanding Floridas Turnpike to help ease the frequent rush-hour congestion around the Glades Road exit. Plans are currently being designed to expand the Turnpike from six to eight lanes on a 4.5-mile stretch from the Sawgrass Expressway to north of Glades Road with construction slated to begin in 2025. Advertisement But as more and more people move to the area, some West Boca residents feel that wont produce significant traffic relief and believe the state needs to add an additional Turnpike exit by Palmetto Park Road. [ RELATED: West Boca heats up with new development ] We need it, said Sheri Scarborough, president of the West Boca Community Council, an organization that represents hundreds of homeowners associations across the region. We desperately need that. Something has got to give and it has to be a turnpike interchange. Advertisement Expanding the turnpike absolutely helps traffic flow, but its not going to do anything for our traffic at Glades and the Turnpike, Glades and 441, Lyons Road, people coming up from Broward. That doesnt help us. Fed up with traffic The Glades Road interchange has transformed into a traffic bottleneck for two main reasons: population growth in the western area and its distance from other turnpike exits. To the south, the closest exit is six miles away at the Sawgrass Expressway. The Sample Road exit in Coconut Creek is 10 miles south of Glades Road. That means for people commuting north from Parkland are more likely to converge at the Glades Road entrance for the turnpike. To the north, the next-closest interchange is more than seven miles away at Atlantic Avenue. [ RELATED: More than 520 luxury homes will soon replace a 189-acre golf course in West Boca ] We know that so much of our traffic is coming from Broward County and Parkland, Scarborough said. Amplifying matters is the current surge in development in West Boca. In the past five years, luxury homebuilder GL Homes has added more than 1,300 homes at private communities Boca Bridges and Lotus. Additionally, the developer has plans to add more than 2,500 new homes at various locations across West Boca amid a scorching housing market. Frederico Baggio, vice president of the Coral Lakes Homeowners Association, makes a regular commute to Miami since moving to West Boca in 2014 and said hes seen the congestion around Glades Road get progressively worse. Traffic along Glades Road interchange of Florida's Turnpike in Boca Raton on Friday, February 25, 2022. West Boca could see some potential traffic relief in the near future as the turnpike plans to add an additional lane in each direction for a 4.5-mile stretch from the Sawgrass Expressway to north of Glades Road. (John McCall/South Florida Sun Sentinel) For two years I was living a dream, Baggio said. Im still living a dream, but the turnpike has become very, very bad. Advertisement Every day in the morning, its horrible. ... You have a big line; at least a quarter-mile of cars or more lined up to turn left on the turnpike. Traffic concerns have been a constant theme with the ongoing development. In January, Palm Beach County Commissioners approved GL Homes proposal for a 679-home community near Glades Road, in between State Road 7 and Lyons Road, but rejected a proposed access point to the development on 95th Street after receiving pushback from residents, who said it would have created more congestion. [ RELATED: Palm Beach County approves plan for more than 670 homes in West Boca ] While the West Boca community claimed a victory on that front, theyre fighting an upward battle on creating another turnpike interchange. The state currently has no plans in development for another exit at Palmetto Park Road, Floridas Turnpike spokeswoman Angela Starke said. In 2008, the state considered the potential for new interchanges at Palmetto Park Road, Yamato Road and Clint Moore Road, but none of the new interchange proposals were advanced due to the lack of local support at the time of the study, Starke said. Scarborough, however, says shes meeting with the state Secretary of Transportation on Monday, adding that creating another interchange is definitely something we are going to be working very hard on this year. Advertisement [ RELATED: A huge change is coming to I-95s Glades Road exit. Traffic may get worse before it gets better. ] Additionally, the state has plans to widen the turnpike in other sections across Broward and Palm Beach counties. Farther east, the Glades Road I-95 interchange, which similarly turns into a traffic nightmare during rush hour, is being completely overhauled. The interchange is currently being transformed into an unconventional, yet increasingly popular new formation a diverging diamond, making it the first of its kind in Palm Beach County. A weaving, diamond-shaped pattern, the interchange briefly sends drivers onto the opposite side of the road to allow for safer and easier left-hand turns to and from I-95. Construction is projected to be completed by the end of 2023. "Lucid aspires to be a catalyst for change wherever we go, so it makes perfect sense that we are bringing electric vehicles to one of the world's biggest oil producing nations. Establishing a global manufacturing footprint is a practical, natural step and enables us to grow our brand, scale our business, and address worldwide and untapped market demand on an entirely new level, while also taking action to address climate change through inspiring sustainable transportation," said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Group. "Our strong relationships with the Public Investment Fund and our partners at MISA, KAEC, and SIDF also give us unique insight into the demand for luxury cars and SUVs in Saudi Arabia and beyond, and we are thrilled to introduce the world's most advanced electric vehicles to more global markets." Lucid reviewed multiple opportunities before selecting KAEC in Saudi Arabia as the optimal location and opportunity for its first international manufacturing facility. The new manufacturing hub will be fully owned by Lucid and enable the company to meet growing international demand for luxury electric vehicles. Lucid also expects to benefit from the availability of competitively-priced commodities and energy and a newly emerging domestic supply chain, and a factory location that facilitates global logistics. The company further expects to be able to access financing to build and equip the manufacturing facility and to train automotive workers. Lucid plans to establish operations at KAEC for re-assembly of Lucid Air vehicle "kits" that are pre-manufactured at the company's U.S. AMP-1 Manufacturing Facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, and, over time, for production of complete vehicles. At its peak, the company expects to manufacture up to 150,000 vehicles per year at the KAEC facility. Construction of the plant is expected to start in the first half of 2022. Vehicles in the initial phase will be slated for the market in Saudi Arabia, but Lucid plans to export finished vehicles to other global markets, including exclusive models designed to appeal to Lucid's discerning customers in the region and beyond. Lucid's AMP-1 in Arizona will continue to serve as the company's central manufacturing hub, with the Lucid Production System and other manufacturing technologies refined in the United States before deployment at other factory sites. Lucid has already commenced the second phase of construction at AMP-1 to add 2.85 million square feet of space, with plans to further expand to an annual production capacity of 365,000 vehicles in Arizona. The company expects that its production capacity in Arizona and Saudi Arabia will exceed 500,000 vehicles per year in aggregate when each facility reaches its target capacity. Lucid anticipates that Saudi Arabia's efforts to foster an automotive ecosystem through its Saudi Vision 2030 should yield cost savings for Lucid as well as environmental benefits, with reduced transportation of product to the customer. The project should also enable opportunities for Saudi Arabia to diversify and transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy and transportation. Lucid expects to employ several thousand people at its KAEC facility once full production capacity is established, the majority of which are expected to be Saudi Arabian citizens. Lucid has established an internship program with the PIF to provide educational opportunities and training for Saudi Arabian citizens at Lucid's facilities in California and Arizona to develop talent for operations in Saudi Arabia. The company, in addition, will build and run dedicated training centers in KAEC to support skills development for the workforce. PIF has been partnering with leading innovators globally such as Lucid, which demonstrates PIF's commitment to shape the economies of the future and drive the economic transformation of Saudi Arabia in line with Saudi Vision 2030. "Today, we take a major step towards Saudi Arabia's goal of diversifying its economy by creating a new manufacturing hub to spearhead the future of mobility for the Middle East region. Attracting a global leader in electric vehicles such as Lucid to open its first international manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia reflects our commitment to creating long-term economic value in a sustainable, enduring, and globally integrated way. This project demonstrates the confidence investors have in Saudi Arabia's competitiveness, its ability to create opportunity and serve global demand for a highly complex product such as electric vehicles," said His Excellency Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia. "Establishing Lucid's new manufacturing hub in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is aligned with our national priority of diversifying the economy, and more specifically in growing and diversifying the industrial sector as part of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and The National Industrial Development & Logistics Program," said His Excellency Bandar Alkhorayef, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources and Chairman of SIDF. "We are proud to partner with Lucid to enable this new industry in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the future's most complex and technology-dependent industries, and a major contributor to the supply chain development of other related industries that intersect with auto manufacturing." His Excellency added "We look forward to working with Lucid and other leading companies as we continue to build out our global competitiveness, relying on Saudi Arabia's many qualitative advantages, starting with its proven human resources, its industrial capabilities and its quality digital and physical infrastructure, to its advantageous geographical location in the region." "Lucid Group's landmark decision to establish its first international plant in KAEC marks a significant milestone in our journey to become a leading-edge city with a world-class manufacturing and logistics hub," said Cyril Piaia, CEO of Emaar, The Economic City, the master developer of KAEC. "We are proud that KAEC will serve as a global launchpad for new sustainable mobility innovations such as electric vehicles, furthering its standing as a vision-ready platform that supports Saudi Vision 2030 objectives." "The U.S. government welcomes Saudi Arabia's effort to diversify its economy and fight climate change," said U.S. Charge d'Affaires Martina Strong, the head of the U.S. Mission to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. "This announcement shows it can do both, through partnership and engagement with innovative American companies." About Lucid Group Lucid's mission is to inspire the adoption of sustainable energy by creating advanced technologies and the most captivating luxury electric vehicles centered around the human experience. The company's first car, Lucid Air, is a state-of-the-art luxury sedan with a California-inspired design that features luxurious full-size interior space in a mid-size exterior footprint. Underpinned by race-proven battery technology and proprietary powertrains developed entirely in-house, Lucid Air was named the 2022 MotorTrend Car of the Year. The Lucid Air Dream Edition features an official EPA estimated 520 miles of range or 1,111 horsepower. Customer deliveries of Lucid Air, which is produced at Lucid's new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, are underway. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "target," "continue," "could," "may," "might," "possible," "potential," "predict" or other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Lucid's plans, strategies, and expectations regarding its future manufacturing capabilities and facilities in both Saudi Arabia and Arizona; expected value to Lucid relating to manufacturing in Saudi Arabia; Lucid's expectations regarding availability of commodities and energy and supply chain; the estimated economic value relating to Lucid's selection of KSA for its manufacturing site; environmental benefits; timing of construction; future production capacity; availability of financing; and consumer demand. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties include those identified in the section titled "Risk Factors" in Lucid's annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lucid undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law. Media Contact [email protected] SOURCE Lucid Motors NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a multi-year financial commitment to supporting and investing in New York's future leaders, EmblemHealth, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health insurers, is partnering with One Hundred Black Men of New York (OHBM) and Mount Sinai Hospital to provide scholarships to selected City University of New York students. "EmblemHealth is focused on improving health equity. The key to achieving that objective is to ensure that the healthcare workforce reflects the people we serve. We are dedicated to caring for our next generation and that includes supporting their health and educational futures," said Karen Ignagni, EmblemHealth CEO. "We are honored to partner with One Hundred Black Men and Mt. Sinai to do our part to support, train, and enable that development." The new scholarship program will provide five students with $5,000 each toward a bachelor's degree starting next fall semester. Additionally, recipients will be offered paid internships at either Mount Sinai or EmblemHealth, ongoing networking and mentorship opportunities, as well as consideration for full-time employment at EmblemHealth. "One Hundred Black Men of New York is pleased to continue our partnership with EmblemHealth. They have been supporters of those living in NYC communities for decades," said Courtney Bennet, Executive Director of One Hundred Black Men of New York. "This latest initiative with them and Mount Sinai will not only assist OHBM scholars with the financial burden of higher education, the mentoring and internships will also help launch meaningful careers. Scholars will be positioned to make an immediate impact in their families and communities while stepping onto the path of financial security and future wealth building." City University of New York (CUNY) schools such as Brooklyn College and the CUNY School of Medicine will recommend scholarship recipients. EmblemHealth, One Hundred Black Men of New York, and Mount Sinai Hospital will make final selections. "Mount Sinai is committed to supporting students from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in medicine, science, and allied health professions that provide access to a network of scientists and clinicians who are working on the frontiers of biomedicine," said Dr. Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs at Mount Sinai. "We must provide a path and opportunities to individuals of various experiences and backgrounds to explore these careers, and we are very excited to partner with EmblemHealth and One Hundred Black Men of New York to support future health care leaders, scientists, and clinicians. We truly believe that our culture requires diverse voices, perspectives, and individuals who are driving change, challenging convention, and breaking down systemic structures. That is the only way we move medicine and science forward." Interested applicants can visit ohbm.org starting April 1, 2022. About EmblemHealth EmblemHealth is one of the nation's largest nonprofit health insurers, with 3.2 million members and an 80-year legacy of serving New York's communities. The company offers a full range of commercial and government-sponsored health plans to employers, individuals, and families, as well as convenient community resources. As a market leader in value-based care, EmblemHealth partners with top doctors and hospitals to deliver quality, affordable care. For more information, visit emblemhealth.com. SOURCE EmblemHealth DENVER, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EnerCom, Inc. announces participating companies for the EnerCom Dallas Energy Investment & ESG Conference on April 6-7, 2022. EnerCom Dallas is a financial conference that allows institutional investors an early 2022 opportunity to meet management teams from leading energy companies and the oilfield service companies supporting them. "EnerCom Dallas will give the investment community and peers an early opportunity to hear the leading independent energy companies, including oil and gas producers, energy transition leaders and service companies, present their plans for 2022," said Aaron Vandeford, President of EnerCom. "Continued public expectations around Corporate Sustainability have increased the emphasis by investors on making investments in companies that are actively addressing ESG concerns. EnerCom's consulting practice has been at the center of this discussion with our clients, and we look to continue facilitating this dialogue for the energy industry at our Dallas conference." Company lineup as of February 28, 2022 includes: EnerCom is confirming additional companies to the lineup daily. The complete daily schedule of presenters will be posted shortly on the website (presenters, days, times are subject to change). The conference investor presentations begin at 8:00 a.m. CT and run through 5:00 p.m. CT on April 6-7, 2022. Registration for EnerCom Dallas is now open Investment professionals, sell side analysts and oil and gas company executives may register for the event at no cost through the conference website. The EnerCom Dallas conference follows EnerCom's familiar 25-minute CEO presentation format, followed by 50-minute Q&A opportunities in separate breakout rooms, one-on-one meeting opportunities for investors to meet company management teams, networking opportunities and global insight delivered by leading energy economists and strategists. The event also provides energy industry professionals a venue to learn about important energy topics affecting the global oil and gas industry. The conference offers healthy dialogue and informal networking opportunities for attendees and presenters. Conference Details: Modeled after EnerCom's flagship Denver event, EnerCom Dallas offers investment professionals a unique opportunity to listen to oil and gas company senior management teams update investors on their operational and financial (operational, financial and ESG) strategies and learn how the leading energy companies are building value in 2022. This event will be hosted in an in-person format. Conference Dates: April 6 and 7, 2022 Venue: Dallas Petroleum Club (and webcast live on the conference website). Who Attends the Conference: Institutional and hedge fund investors, private equity investors, energy research analysts, broker/dealers, trust officers, high net worth investors, commercial energy bankers and other energy industry professionals will gather in Dallas for the conference. One-on-One Meetings: EnerCom works in advance with presenting company management teams to arrange one-on-one meetings with the attending institutional investors and research analysts at the conference venue and online. About EnerCom, Inc. Founded in 1994, EnerCom, Inc. is an internationally recognized management consultancy advising companies on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), investor relations, corporate strategy/board advisory, marketing, analysis and valuation, media, branding, and visual communications design. Headquartered in Denver, EnerCom and its team of experts are passionate about the energy industry and our work to provide clients with a wide range of services to build brand recognition that drives valuation and returns. EnerCom's upcoming 2022 oil and gas investment conferences include: EnerCom Dallas April 6-7, 2022 EnerCom Denver August 7-10, 2022 For more information about EnerCom and its services, please visit http://www.enercominc.com/ or call +1 303-296-8834 to speak with the management team or one of our consultants. Event Sponsors Include: About Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. (NSAI) was founded in 1961 to provide the highest quality engineering and geological consulting to the petroleum industry. Today they are recognized as the worldwide leader of petroleum property analysis to industry and financial organizations and government agencies. With offices in Dallas and Houston, NSAI provides a complete range of geological, geophysical, petrophysical, and engineering services and has the technical experience and ability to perform these services in any of the onshore and offshore oil and gas producing areas of the world. They provide reserves reports and audits, acquisition and divestiture evaluations, simulation studies, exploration resources assessments, equity determinations, and management and advisory services. For a complete list of services or to learn more about Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. please visit https://netherlandsewell.com/. About Moss Adams Moss Adams is a fully integrated professional services firm dedicated to assisting clients with growing, managing, and protecting prosperity. With more than 3,400 professionals and staff across more than 25 locations in the West and beyond, we work with many of the world's most innovative companies and leaders. Our strength in the middle market enables us to advise clients at all intervals of developmentfrom start-up, to rapid growth and expansion, to transition. For more information, please visit www.MossAdams.com. About Haynes and Boone Haynes and Boone, LLP is an energy focused corporate law firm, providing a full spectrum of legal services and solutions to clients across the oil and gas industry, including the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. Lawyers from our Denver office and 15 other offices work as a team to meet the legal needs of our domestic and international clients involved in oil and gas. We represent private and public oil and gas companies, financial institutions, investment funds and other investors. Our team of more than 100 energy lawyers and landmen understands the physical and financial energy markets, and the firm has been helping both operators and lenders complete some of the largest financings and M&A transactions in recent years. The BTI Industry Power Rankings, published by BTI Consulting Group, Inc., named Haynes and Boone a "Leading Recommended" firm for the energy industry in 2017, ranking our firm among the top three percent of all law firms. For more information, please visit www.haynesboone.com/. About BDO BDO delivers assurance, tax, and financial advisory services to clients throughout the country and around the globe. We offer numerous industry-specific practices, world-class resources, and an unparalleled commitment to meeting our clients' needs. We currently serve more than 400 publicly traded domestic and international clients. For more information, please visit: www.bdo.com. About Mobius Risk Group Mobius Risk Group is an independent commodity and physical energy risk advisory firm. Founded in 2002, Mobius provides strategic advisory services including financial, physical, and commodity risk management and valuation, carbon strategy development, and regulated energy oversight for producers, consumers, distributors and capital providers backed by its proprietary C/ETRM, RiskNet. For more information, please visit: www.mobiusriskgroup.com. About Project Canary Project Canary is a climate tech company that provides trusted, independent, and verified environmental data to track, measure, and score the "E" in ESG across an enterprise's operational value chain. They are the leaders in providing dynamic environmental ratings using real-time monitoring data at the facility level to assess and improve operating practices and provide a science-based and technology-enabled measurement of emission profiles, including methane. Formed as a Public Benefit Corporation, Project Canary's team of scientists, engineers, and seasoned industry operators have earned recognition for their uncompromising standards, including being named "Best for the World" B Corp. For more information, please visit: www.projectcanary.com. SOURCE EnerCom, Inc. Marta brings a wealth of diverse human resource management experience having worked in a range of HR roles across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She joins Equiti from tech unicorn Deliveroo where she worked as Head of People. In this role she was mainly responsible for business expansion, organisational design, and talent evaluation and development programs for human capital. She also managed a major redesign of HR processes and systems in the Middle East in preparation for the company's IPO in April 2021. Iskandar Najjar, Equiti Group CEO, said: "I'm very pleased to welcome Marta and excited about the initiatives she will bring to Equiti Group. I'm looking forward to Marta's contribution to our performance and delivery culture, the continued expansion of our offices and people, as well as growth of our talent development and management initiatives." Marta Ilbak, Global Head of Human Resources, said: "I have been very impressed by the energy, drive and openness of the management and employees at Equiti. My goal is to drive the company's HR agenda with purpose and passion, develop career progression opportunities and create a great place to work based on integrity, agility, and the best global HR standards. Marta has a Bachelor's degree in Human Resources Management and a Diploma in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Wuppertal in Germany. She succeeds Nigel Holmes who has successfully held the role of Global Head of HR since Equiti Group's inception in early 2017. About Equiti Group Equiti Group Ltd is the parent company of some of the most progressive FX and CFD brands and prime brokerage providers in the industry. With over 400 global staff and 24/6 customer service, Equiti provides clients with access to individual, corporate, and institutional brokerage services across various affiliates and subsidiaries. Equiti Group's global footprint includes local offices in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions and provides trading support and services on the world's leading trading platforms MT4 and MT5. Regulated entities within Equiti Group include Equiti Capital UK Ltd regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, Equiti Group Limited Jordan, regulated and licensed by the Jordan Securities Commission, EGM Futures DMCC, regulated and licensed by UAE's Security and Commodities Authority, EGM Securities Ltd regulated and licensed by Kenya's Capital Markets Authority, Equiti Brokerage (Seychelles) Limited regulated and licensed by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority and Equiti AM CJSC, regulated and licensed by the Central Bank of Armenia. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1755692/Equiti_Group_Marta_Ilbak.jpg Contact: [email protected] +971 52 234 9046 SOURCE Equiti Group JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In October 2021, former Garuda Indonesia commissioner Peter Ghonta took the lid off various problems brewing in the company. Gontha urged the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry to dismantle past cases of alleged corruption in the company related to aircraft leasing. He cited issues related to powerful groups in the company and the price difference between Boeing 777-300ER aircraft rental and CRJ1000 aircraft purchase. Ghonta spoke of having reported the problems to several institutions ranging from the director-general of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to the chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir then filed a report on an alleged graft case in the financially beleaguered state-owned airline PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) to the Attorney General's Office. The report outlines the government's plan to restructure Garuda Indonesia as well as provides evidence regarding the procurement of ATR 72-600 aircraft. We provide evidence from the investigative audit, so it is not an accusation, he asserted. For the past two years, Garuda Indonesia had faced a financial storm due to past mismanagement that caused the company's debt to swell to more than Rp140 trillion, Thohir remarked. Meanwhile, Thohir noted that the Garuda Indonesia case was not just about an aircraft but pertaining to an ecosystem. He encouraged the Garuda Indonesia case to be resolved, as it was impossible to buy or rent an aircraft without a business plan and without calculating flight routes. In the absence of such a calculation, Garuda ultimately paid the aircraft rental fee of up to 28 percent to the lessor as compared to only eight percent to other airlines' aircraft lessors. "Hence, there is a system and there is a solution, so that in the future, Garuda will not repeat similar cases again since due to no management, the loss will also affect the people, in the form of expensive tickets," he pointed out. In addition, the SOEs Ministry has taken steps to restructure and salvage the state-owned airline. The ministry will focus on transforming the airline to make it more accountable, professional, and transparent. More than 470 creditors have submitted claims of up to US$13.8 billion, or equivalent to Rp198 trillion, to Garuda Indonesia as of January 5, 2022, as part of a debt recast. The figure has been cited by Garuda Indonesia's Suspension Debt Payment Obligation (PKPU) team, Thohir remarked. After the verification is completed, the PKPU team will take a decision on January 19, 2022, regarding the amount considered to be valid and can be included in the restructuring process, he remarked. The Garuda management had earlier submitted a proposal to reduce its liabilities by more than 60 percent, from US$9.8 billion to US$3.7 billion through restructuring. The proposal aimed to help the company survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has protracted for two years. Save Garuda Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives formed a working committee to rescue national carrier Garuda Indonesia. "In principle, the Committee for Rescuing Garuda is a follow-up to the three work meetings undertaken by Commission VI with the SOEs minister, deputy ministers, and the Garuda Indonesia Board of Directors," Head of the Committee for Rescuing Garuda Martin Manurung stated. Manurung explained that the working committee will work not only to look for management issues within the state-owned airline but also to explore options offered by the government. The deputy chairman of Commission VI stated that the formation of the working committee was also a form of political support for Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives for Garuda Indonesia to stay afloat. "We want Garuda Indonesia, as a national flag carrier, to be able to stay in the air, to be able to fly, as an airline of national pride," Manurung noted. Meanwhile, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir expressed support for the establishment of a working committee by Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) to rescue and reform national carrier Garuda Indonesia. Establishment of the working committee is proof of DPR RI's concrete support and commitment to monitoring the state-owned airline's rejuvenation process, the minister noted. The political support that the legislature has exhibited would be key to rescuing the flag carrier, the minister noted while adding that his ministry is committed to cooperating with the parliament's working committee for seeking solutions to remedy issues that have plagued the national airline. The ministry will also inform the working committee, which will monitor the airline's restructuring and reform progress, about Garuda Indonesia's future business and reform plan, he added. The State-Owned Enterprises Ministry cannot rescue the airline alone, and we need to collaborate with relevant stakeholders, including DPR RI's Commission VI, in mending Garuda Indonesia, Thohir remarked. Transforming Garuda Indonesia is a must to ensure the flag carrier survives amid the economic uncertainty posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and to ascertain that it records positive performance after the pandemic, he noted. The ministry has also collaborated with the Attorney General's Office to investigate allegations of corruption by the airline management in the past, the state firm minister remarked. Thorough reforms in the law enforcement and business aspects are expected to bolster Garuda Indonesia's performance to become more accountable, professional, and transparent in the future, Thohir affirmed. Jiwasraya, Pension Fund Efforts to eradicate corruption by the minister are also being made in the insurance business sector. Thohir revealed that the completion of Jiwasraya's mega scandal case provided a solution for the aggrieved parties. "However, what distinguishes us from other corruption cases is that the Jiwasraya case has a solution for those who were harmed. It is not a pending case for which there is no explanation. Those who were harmed will be recompensated for their losses," Thohir stated. The minister drew attention to no solution being found to this day in several cases of corruption in pension funds and insurance. No refund was offered to the cheated parties. For instance, the case of illegal online loans where no perpetrators or masterminds had yet been revealed and no refund was provided to the victims and deceived parties. Thohir affirmed that the collaboration was necessary to solve the Jiwasraya case. President Joko Widodo gave directions that the Jiwasraya case should be solved immediately. After looking at the facts and evidence, an audit investigation from the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) and a report from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the Ministry of SOEs officially reported the Jiwasraya case to the Attorney General's Office. "The Ministry of SOEs does not want to become trapped in legal problems, and it focuses on corporate issues," the minister stated. In addition, Thohir will fix pension funds in state-owned enterprises comprehensively this year. The pension fund has become a breeding ground for corruption, with the pensioners' bills not being paid in the end, he pointed out. To this end, the minister of SOEs urged Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives to jointly conduct a focus group discussion on exposure regarding pension funds. "We are ready, but we cannot clean it up right away, as there is a binding law. Hence, the Ministry of SOEs cannot intervene," Thohir noted. Meanwhile, he remarked that comprehensive improvement in pension funds in the state firm became one of the SOE Ministry's programs in 2022. The existence of state-owned companies aims to provide the greatest profits to the state. Thereafter, the profits will be channeled back through various programs for the people, starting from infrastructure development to welfare improvement, and others. There is no place for corruption within SOEs. The accountability, transparency, and anti-graft approaches must continue to be implemented to build prosperous SOEs. SOURCE Ministry of State-Owned Enterprise GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EuroBlooms, LLC has joined forces with the American Cancer Society by selling select flower bulbs and perennials exclusively in Walmart stores for a spring 2022 promotion, generously donating $100,000 through this partnership. "At the American Cancer Society, we are grateful to continue providing the many resources needed by cancer patients, survivors, their caregivers, and educate the many unaware of cancer prevention," says Wayne White, Executive Vice President at the American Cancer Society. "It is because of the commitment and generous support from partners like EuroBlooms that we can continue our work in the fight against cancer." EuroBlooms is a provider of high-quality flower bulbs sold at retailers nationwide. They offer a variety of packaged bulbs and perennials year-round. The selection of bulbs to support the American Cancer Society will be available in select Walmart stores throughout February to June. "EuroBlooms is proud to join the American Cancer Society family and support its efforts in the fight against cancer," said Chris Green, Co-owner of EuroBlooms with his wife Connie. "Cancer affects many families in the US, including ours and our spring flower bulb program is one way we have chosen to give back with the help of our partners at Walmart." The donation from EuroBlooms will help the American Cancer Society fund breakthrough cancer research and life-saving services like free rides to chemo, free places to stay near treatment, and a live 24/7 cancer information helpline. The American Cancer Society is honored that EuroBlooms is dedicated to supporting these critical programs and services. About EuroBlooms, LLC EuroBlooms is a Michigan based company, offering a wide variety of flower bulbs, perennials, and potted trees seasonally to growers and retail stores nationwide. To learn more, visit www.EuroBlooms.com. About the American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society is a global grassroots force of 1.5 million volunteers dedicated to saving lives, celebrating lives and leading the fight for a world without cancer. From breakthrough research to free lodging near treatment, a 24/7/365 live helpline, free rides to treatment and convening powerful activists to create awareness and impact, the Society is attacking cancer from every angle. For more information, visit www.cancer.org. Media Contact: Angela E. Stacy [email protected] SOURCE American Cancer Society BEIJING, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fang Holdings Limited (NYSE: SFUN) ("Fang" or the "Company"), a leading real estate Internet portal in China, today announced changes in its board of directors (the "Board") and management. Changes in Board Appointment of New Chairman of the Board Mr. Vincent Tianquan Mo ("Mr. Mo"), the Company's founder and Executive Chairman of the Board, has stepped down from the Board, the nominating and corporate governance committee and the compensation committee of the Board, for personal reasons, effective from February 28, 2022. Mr. Mo's resignation did not result from any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company's operations, policies or practices. Fang thanks Mr. Mo for his efforts and contributions to the Company. The Board has nominated and appointed Mr. Richard Jiangong Dai ("Mr. Dai"), as a director and Executive Chairman of the Board, chairman of the compensation committee and member of the nominating and corporate governance committee of the Board, effective from February 28, 2022. Mr. Dai expressed that he is dedicated to serving the Company and continuing to create values for the shareholders of the Company. Mr. Dai joined the Company in 1999 and previously served multiple positions in the Company, including the Company's president and chief executive officer from 1999 to 2014 and the Company's director from September 2010 to February 2016. Mr. Dai co-founded Yiyi Technology in 2015 and Xiangshui Technology in 2018 and served as the chief executive officer for the two companies. Mr. Dai received a master's degree from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from Guangxi University. Upon the effectiveness of Mr. Dai's appointment and Mr. Mo's resignation, the Board will consist of six directors, including four independent directors. Changes in Management Appointment of Chief Financial Officer Mr. Peng Cui ("Mr. Cui") has been appointed as Fang's chief financial officer effective from February 28, 2022. Mr. Cui has served as acting chief financial officer of Fang since January 2021, and the deputy general manager of the capital market department of Fang since May 2020. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Cui served in the assurance department of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP San Francisco Office from January 2019 to February 2020. From December 2017 to December 2018, Mr. Cui served as a senior consultant in the transaction advisory service department of Ernst & Young (China) Advisory Ltd. From August 2017 to November 2017, Mr. Cui served as a finance manager at UBS (China) Limited. From October 2012 to July 2017, Mr. Cui served at multiple positions, including the last position as a senior assurance associate, at PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhongtian LLP. Mr. Cui received his bachelor's degree in economics from Tianjin University of Science and Technology in 2007, and a master's degree in business administration from the San Francisco State University in 2011. Mr. Cui is a regular member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. About Fang Fang operates a leading real estate Internet portal in China in terms of the number of page views and visitors to its websites. Through its websites, Fang provides primarily marketing, listing, leads generation and financial services for China's fast-growing real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors. Its user-friendly websites support active online communities and networks of users seeking information on, and value-added services for, the real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors in China. Fang currently maintains approximately 70 offices to focus on local market needs and its website and database contains real estate related content covering 658 cities in China. For more information about Fang, please visit http://ir.fang.com. SOURCE Fang Holdings Limited NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FINN Partners today promotes Fern Lazar, MBA, to managing partner, Global Health Practice Leader. The appointment acknowledges her outstanding results in championing colleagues' and clients' needs. Lazar's time at FINN has led to the creation of new services in investor relations, brand support, patient advocacy, scientific writing and medical communications, and clinical trial patient recruitment, supporting client achievements and improved consumer-health outcomes. Fern Lazar, Managing Partner, Global Health Practice Leader, FINN Partners In her new position, Lazar leads more than 200 health communication professionals across 19 of FINN's 27 global offices. In addition, she continues to serve as head of Lazar/FINN; since joining FINN in September of 2019, this unit has doubled in size and demonstrated the increased importance of uniting health public relations and investor relations disciplines to maximize patient-care impact and shareholder value. As before, Lazar reports to Gil Bashe, managing partner, Chair Global Health and Purpose at FINN. "I've known Fern for three decades and she consistently proves that collaboration and can-do spirit advance bold ideas," said Bashe. "Whether it's advocating for colleagues, clients, shareholders, physicians or patients, Fern speaks the language. Her fluency in four languages has helped galvanize FINN colleagues globally when speed and thoughtfulness are essential to ensuring innovation reaches healers and those in need without delay." Lazar assumes her new role from Kristie Kuhl, JD, who served as Practice Leader since July 2021 and now departs for Zeno Group to take up that agency's lead health and wellness role. "I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to my long-time colleague Kristie Kuhl, who will continue to champion health innovation through a new agency community," reflects Bashe. "The need of patients is great, and communication is a critical part of their care. All who answer the call to action in our field are united in common purpose. We wish Kristie continued success." "It is a privilege to be called upon to lead one of the communication industry's foremost health practices," said Lazar. "In joining Peter, Gil and FINN almost three years ago, it quickly became clear that when people with shared values unite, we can offer much more to our clients and their patients, and the results of our collaboration have exceeded all expectations. Lazar/FINN and FINN have benefited from incredible growth while never losing focus on our people and our clients and their patients, who inspire us each day. It is an honor to serve the industry through this unique, collaborative community. I look forward to supporting my colleagues and their clients around the world to maximize their business goals and improve the health of the patients they serve." Since its founding, the FINN Global Health Practice has grown by double digits annually from $5 million in 2015 to more than $44 million in fees in 2021. Recognized as a top global healthcare agency by PRovoke Media, one of the four largest independent health agencies in O'Dwyer's PR, and "Most Admired Agency" by industry trade community HITMC, the FINN Global Health Practice has become one of the agency's largest units as it continues to expand into Europe and Asia. Lazar has played a key role in these accomplishments and has been extremely impactful in marshaling collaborative efforts in the FINN community. During the last two years, Lazar's mobilizing of FINN colleagues toward integrated digital marketing campaigns has helped clients overcome COVID-era communication challenges. As the Practice expands beyond the United States, Lazar's ability to rally colleagues to client needs will draw on her experience working in Basel, Switzerland for a global pharmaceutical company as well as nearly a decade advising some of Europe's and Latin America's largest companies on their U.S. investor relations programs. Lazar joined FINN in 2019 as a managing partner after leading her agency Lazar Partners for 20 years. Before that, Lazar led the health and financial practices at two global PR firms. Before that, she was a soft commodities trader in New York. Lazar holds a B.S. from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in International Economics and an advanced certificate from the Landeggar Program for International Business Diplomacy. "Fern and Gil are outstanding partners who work toward our clients' and community's success," said Peter Finn, founding managing partner and CEO. "Fern now steps forward to lead one of our agency's most important and fast-growing practices and, with amazing colleagues at her side globally, to make a difference through a practice that is, by its mission, driven to create a healthier, better world." About FINN Partners, Inc. Founded in 2011 on the core principles of innovation and collaborative partnership, FINN Partners has grown from about $24 million in fees to almost $165 million in fees over ten years, becoming one of the fastest-growing independent public relations agencies in the world. The full-service marketing and communications company's record-setting pace is a result of organic growth and integrating new companies and new people into the FINN world through a common philosophy. With more than 1,000 professionals, FINN provides clients with global access and capabilities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In addition, FINN provides its clients with access to top tier agencies around the world through its membership in the global network PROI. Headquartered in New York, FINN's other offices are in Atlanta, Boston, Beijing, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Dublin, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Guam, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Nashville, Paris, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, Southern California, Vancouver and Washington D.C. Find us at finnpartners.com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @finnpartners. Contacts: Finn Partners: Celia Jones, Global Director, Marketing Communications [email protected] +1 773 885 9781 Gil Bashe, Managing Partner, Chair Global Health and Purpose [email protected] +1 732 371 0922 SOURCE FINN Partners Recipients of the Newman's Own Award have included many key players in the military nonprofit community such as Blue Star Families, Inc; Hope for the Warriors; Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund; the Tragedy and Assistance Program for Survivors; and many more. Fisher House Foundation anticipates that future recipients of the Chairman's Award will continue this great tradition of recognizing excellence in service to our greatest national treasure, our service members, veterans, and their loved ones. As part of the award package, recipients of the Chairman's Award will each receive an advertising package valued at $30,000 from Military Times. The name "Chairman's Award" is a nod to the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Award for Excellence in Military Medicine, begun by Fisher House Foundation's late founder, Zachary Fisher. The Chairman's Award recipients will be chosen by a diverse and esteemed judging panel comprised of individuals who combine their knowledge to recognize programs that meet the dynamic needs of military and veteran communities. Moreover, the spouses of senior military leaders have traditionally helped judge submissions since the early 2000s, starting with Mrs. Mary Jo Myers and Mrs. Lynne Pace and most recently Mrs. Kelly Hokanson and Mrs. Mollie Raymond; Fisher House Foundation plans to continue this longstanding practice. Applications for the 2022 Chairman's Award open February 28 and close April 28. Information on the application process, as well as the 2021 Newman's Own Award ceremony and a list of previous winners, is available at https://fisherhouse.org/chairmans-award. About Fisher House Foundation Fisher House Foundation is best known for its network of 92 comfort homes where military and veteran families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment. These homes are located at major military and VA medical centers nationwide, and in Europe, close to the medical center or hospital they serve. Fisher Houses have up to 21 suites, with private bedrooms and baths. Families share a common kitchen, laundry facilities, a warm dining room, and an inviting living room. Fisher House Foundation ensures that there is never a lodging fee. Since inception, the program has saved military and veteran families an estimated $525 million in out-of-pocket costs for lodging and transportation. www.fisherhouse.org About Military Times Foundation Military Times Foundation is a nonprofit corporation organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes to recognize, salute and highlight the exemplary service of active duty personnel serving in each branch of the U.S. Armed Services and support other organizations conducting activities with similar goals. Military Times Foundation has a flagship program entitled Service Members of the Year, which recognizes and awards outstanding service members and veterans each year. SOURCE Fisher House Foundation Prestigious awards, alongside year-over-year growth, reaffirms demand for affordable high-quality college textbooks Tweet this TAA will recognize these textbooks during an awards ceremony on Friday, June 17, 2022. 2022 Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Most Promising New Textbook Award winner: Judges for the TAA Most Promising New Textbook Award commented, "Mastering Human Resource Management is a wonderful entry-level text that provides students with the knowledge needed to know about the HR profession. The book bravely discusses many current HR quandaries, requiring that the students connect the theories and informational content to the real world work environment. It provides an engaging structure within which key ideas relating to the execution of HR were embedded." 2022 Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Excellence Award winners: Judges for the TAA Excellence Award commented, "Data Analytics Using Excel Microsoft 365: With Accounting and Finance Datasets is the example for how a data analysis textbook should be written and presented. It successfully takes on the challenging task of introducing students to Excel and motivates them to continue learning more complex financial analytics. This book deserves to win the Textbook Excellence Award because of the easy to follow examples that engage students and build on one another resulting in the student effortlessly developing skills crucial in the business world." Judges for the TAA Excellence Award commented, "Principles of Economics deserves hands-down to win the Textbook Excellence Award. This textbook attempts to provide an integrated and coherent view of the totality of micro and macroeconomics for undergraduates and succeeds more completely than any text I have seen. Staying current, this learner engaging textbook makes the important and fun subject a truly joyful learning experience." About FlatWorld FlatWorld publishes affordable, high-quality learning materials, including both digital and print textbooks, and a robust online homework platform. Professors at over 2,000 colleges and universities across the U.S., Canada, and around the world, teach with a FlatWorld textbook. Learn more at www.flatworld.com. About the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) The Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) provides a wide range of professional development resources, events, and networking opportunities for textbook authors and authors of scholarly journal articles and books. www.TAAonline.net SOURCE FlatWorld DAYTONA BEACH The survivor of an apparent murder-suicide pact has been charged with his girlfriends death, officials said. Alec Almanzar, 23, fatally shot Ayadalis Chalas, 21, at the Hot Shot Shooting Range in Holly Hill on Oct. 7, police said. Advertisement The pair went to the shooting range and rented a 9mm Glock handgun from the business that afternoon, Holly Hill police Lt. Chris Yates told The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Basically, they just put their heads together and he shot into her head, Yates said on Thursday. The bullet went through her head into his head. Advertisement Yates said a suicide note wasn't found. According to surveillance video from the shooting range, the couple asked for two targets and obtained eye and ear protection and a box of ammunition before heading to the shooting lanes. A camera recorded Almanzar talking to Chalas as he loaded the firearm and then fired at the targets one at a time. He then positioned himself so the right side of his head was touching the left side of Chalas head, the newspaper reported. He pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. But the gun misfired. After checking the gun, he then fired three shots at the target before firing at Chalas' head as his head touched hers, police said. Chalas was dead when rescue workers arrived. Almanzar was sitting in a chair with a compress on his head. After he was released from the hospital on Dec. 15, Almanzar went with his family to New York. He was extradited back to Florida to face second-degree murder charges, Yates said. They knew that the charges were coming down, Yates told the newspaper. Now he is back in our custody and will be facing the charges. NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) has announced a decision to deliver $10 million in emergency assistance to Jews impacted by the crisis in Ukraine, which has left tens of thousands in dire straits. As the situation escalates, many, especially those who are most vulnerable, are in critical need of humanitarian aid to weather these difficult times. GPG is a global philanthropic organization with a core focus on Jewish identity-building and educational programs. In addition to its core mission, GPG and its donors have a long history of responding to crisis situations impacting Jews around the world, including support to Jewish institutions in Europe facing the threat of antisemitism, funding for improved security facilities for vulnerable civilians in Israel and an extensive COVID Emergency Assistance portfolio providing humanitarian aid for Jewish individuals and organizations severely impacted by the pandemic. The $10 million emergency aid package announced today will be distributed in two phases. $5 million in immediate funding has already been committed to support urgent needs related to the current crisis: Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) to support evacuation efforts and enhancing security for Jewish organizations; to support evacuation efforts and enhancing security for Jewish organizations; Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine to provide seed funding for a campaign to distribute 30,000 packages of non-perishable foodstuffs across Ukraine; to provide seed funding for a campaign to distribute 30,000 packages of non-perishable foodstuffs across Ukraine; Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to support their work with vulnerable Jewish populations across Ukraine; to support their work with vulnerable Jewish populations across Ukraine; Regional and local Jewish community organizations operating homes for the elderly, orphanages and other critical communal infrastructure in Ukraine . Additional $5 million will be deployed to support humanitarian aid needs as the situation develops. "As we watch with great distress the scenes coming from Ukraine, we see it as our duty to help Jews in danger, as we have done in other times and places," said Gennady Gazin, Chairman of the Board of Genesis Philanthropy Group. "As someone born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, I am especially pained by this suffering. I hope that peace will return and the Ukranian Jewish community will be able to withstand these hardships and thrive again." "The current crisis in Ukraine has led to a dramatic increase in humanitarian needs and I am ever grateful to our partners at Genesis Philanthropy Group, and to its founders, for their visionary commitment to helping and strengthening Jewish communities in Ukraine and around the world, part of their numerous philanthropic endeavors addressing this goal," said Mark Sisisky, President of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). "Our teams on the ground part of our vast presence in Ukraine and around the former Soviet Union will be able to do so much good with this generous support. We're providing food, medicine, and other emergency aid in Ukraine and also partnering with Jewish communities in surrounding countries to welcome Jews crossing the borders." "In these grave times, as we pray for peace and calm, we are witnessing yet again the power of Jewish unity in the spirit of Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh La-Zeh - All Jews are responsible for each other. It is with this in mind that we are proud to join forces with GPG to bring food to those who are in desperate need today and will be in need tomorrow," said Rabbi Raphael Rutman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine. About Genesis Philanthropy Group Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) is a global family of foundations, co-founded by Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan, international businessmen, investors and philanthropists. GPG aims to advance Jewish engagement into the 21st century to create a more diverse and connected global Jewish community. The work of the foundation is inspired by commitment to: strengthening Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide; fostering bonds and common understanding among Jews living in Israel and in the Diaspora; developing innovative formats geared towards the expansion of Jewish engagement opportunities; expanding local and global Jewish connection opportunities in the UK and Spain. To learn more, visit www.GPG.org . SOURCE Genesis Philanthropy Group Key Points Covered in the Fatty Alcohols Market Report: Am I engaging with the right suppliers? Which KPIs should I use to evaluate my incumbent suppliers? Which supplier selection criteria are relevant for ERP Software? What are the ERP Software category essentials in terms of SLAs and RFx? Key Global Suppliers in the Fatty Alcohols Market: BASF SE Wilmar International Ltd Evonik Industries AG Get Quick Access to the Key Global Suppliers Profiled Extensively in This Report The Fatty Alcohols Market report evaluates suppliers based on provision for applicable insurance policy, real-time analysis, pipeline software solutions, and conduct pipeline surveys. In addition, suppliers are also shortlisted based on business needs, technical specifications, operational requirements, security compliance, regulatory mandates, legal requirements, quality control, change management procedures, pricing models, penalty clauses, SLA nuances, acceptance criteria, and evaluation criteria. Request a Report Sample to Gain Comprehensive Insights at Fatty Alcohols Market: https://www.procurement.spendedge.com/report/fatty-alcohols-market-procurement-research-report Related Trending Topics: Subscribe to our "Free Limited Period Starter Procurement Plan" to get the following: View 6 full reports View 800+ report samples Pre-order upcoming reports Dedicated account manager Subscribe Now for FREE! About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. Contact SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge "It's my 'Limitless' Pill. The secret is out. You're welcome." - Brendan Schaub The CEO of Happy Hippo Herbals is honored to welcome Schaub to the team. This is claimed to be one of their biggest and most influential partnerships in the Kratom Industry yet. "We're excited to have someone as credible and high profile as Brendan supporting Happy Hippo Herbals; There are so many benefits to Kratom and we want to spread the word on why it's one of the fastest-growing natural herbs/botanicals." - Christopher Deoudes The excitement is certainly mutual. We also received this quote from Brendan Schaub's team regarding the new partnership: "The whole Thiccc Boy team, especially Brendan, are very excited about our partnership with Happy Hippo Herbals. In particular, we love Happy Hippo because they utilize the highest quality Kratom powders sourced directly from hand-selected and curated Indonesian farms in all their products, have exceptional customer service, and same-day shipping. Kratom by Happy Hippo is Brendan's go-to product for alertness and focus as he performs in the fast-paced and dynamic world of stand-up comedy and podcasting." - Lex McMahon Who are Happy Hippo Herbals? Happy Hippo Herbals is certified through the American Kratom Association for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), so its manufacturing facility ensures that all Kratom products follow the guidelines to maintain quality standards. Numerous Kratom companies have online Kratom stores, but according to customer testimonials, none of them can compare to Happy Hippo Herbals. Happy Hippo carries Kratom powder in a variety of sizes, Kratom capsules, bundles, extracts, energy shots, alternative herbs, and more! All it takes is one purchase from Happy Hippo, and you're sure to be a customer for life. * Disclaimer: Because Kratom remains unregulated by the FDA, the authors of this text would like to note that although this article contains many points regarding the use of Kratom, they should only serve as a piece of information, not medical advice. Kratom is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Make sure to speak to a physician if you have questions before using Kratom. SOURCE Happy Hippo SEARCY, Ark., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To meet the growing industry demand for highly trained clinical professionals specializing in cardiac rhythm management and electrophysiology, Harding University has created the first Master of Science in Cardiac Function and Interventional Technology (CFIT) degree program in the nation. Beginning in the fall of 2022, accepted students will begin a 10-month cohort program that provides specialized training in cardiac function, cardiac rhythm management, electrophysiology, cardiac interventional procedures and career leadership. "We are leading the charge in the cardiac rhythm management and electrophysiology fields with the launch of our new CFIT program, designed to meet the need for highly-qualified and highly-skilled professionals in such a vital industry," said Dr. David Burks, president of Harding University. "This is yet another exceptional learning opportunity, like many others offered by Harding, to fuel the workforce with professionals who are prepared and ready to serve." Students will have access to one-of-a-kind industry exposure and training with state-of-the-art technology and techniques, as well as cutting-edge procedures presented by industry personnel. Additionally, the CFIT program combines training led by Harding's excellent faculty and staff with learning opportunities developed through partnerships with business and industry leaders. Because of these partnerships, students will also gain hands-on clinical experience through utilization of an on-campus simulator, technology, anatomy and cadaver labs, as well as off-campus supervised clinical activities. "This program is a momentous innovation in the industry and it's happening right here in Arkansas," said CFIT program director Kenneth Turley, Ph.D., FACSM. "We are proud to offer our students a unique educational experience that will provide them with essential industry knowledge, skills and dispositions, as well as the only degree-based career pathway into a $53 billion global industry." In addition to outstanding educational opportunities, the program also offers students multiple opportunities for professional development including networking events with industry and healthcare leaders. They will also receive a membership in the Heart Rhythm Society, the international professional association for physicians and allied health professionals who specialize in cardiac arrhythmia patient care, and will qualify for several certification exams. Offering more than 100 undergraduate majors and more than 40 graduate and professional programs, the university's Christian faculty and high-quality curriculum equip graduates with an exceptional education from a Christ-centered worldview. The first cohort of students in the Master of Science in cardiac function and interventional technology program will begin courses in August 2022. Students interested in the new program must have a bachelor's degree, including at least two courses in Anatomy & Physiology, and have completed the GRE. For more information, visit Harding.edu/CFIT . Photos: Click here for images related to this program . About Harding University Harding University is a private Christian, liberal arts university located in Searcy, Arkansas. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, it is the largest private university in the state. Harding's student body represents students from across the U.S. and more than 50 nations and territories. The University offers more than 100 undergraduate majors; more than 15 pre professional programs; more than 40 graduate and professional programs; as well as numerous study abroad opportunities including locations in Australasia, Peru, England, Greece, Italy and Zambia. For more information, visit Harding.edu. SOURCE Harding University Regional Market Outlook 69% of the market's growth will originate from the US during the forecast period. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in the Rest of Americas. The perception of hunting as a tradition in the US and the popularity of trophy hunting among hunters will facilitate the hunting equipment market growth in the US over the forecast period. Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries. Vendor Landscape The hunting equipment market in Americas is fragmented and the vendors are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. American Outdoor Brands Inc.- The company offers a wide range of hunting equipment such as performance center TC LRR, TC compass II, TC venture II among others through its subsidiary Thompson Center Arms. The company offers a wide range of hunting equipment such as performance center TC LRR, TC compass II, TC venture II among others through its subsidiary Thompson Center Arms. BERETTA HOLDING SA- The company offers a wide range of hunting equipment such as 686 silver pigeon I, ultralight classic, ultralight gold among others. The company offers a wide range of hunting equipment such as 686 silver pigeon I, ultralight classic, ultralight gold among others. Easton Technical Products Inc.- The company offers a wide range of hunting equipment such as bows, arrows and crossbows. Download Report to know about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings. Latest Drivers & Trends of the Global Hunting Equipment Market in Americas Market Driver: Growing popularity of outdoor recreational activities: The growing emphasis on healthy lifestyles among the population in the Americas, especially in the US and Canada, has led to a rise in the popularity of outdoor recreational activities in the region. Hunting is perceived as an integral part of North American culture, particularly in the US and Canada. Additionally, hunting constitutes a vital aid for wildlife management in the US and Canada, as a major revenue share generated from hunting licenses and excise levies from the purchase of hunting equipment is used for wildlife conservation and habitat management in these countries. The growing participation in outdoor recreational activities in the Americas is expected to drive the growth of the hunting equipment market in Americas. Market Trend: Growing prominence of hunters as conservationists: Hunters are the key driving force for wildlife conservation activity, especially in North American countries such as the US and Canada. Through several federal and state-level programs in these countries, hunters contribute to funding that supports wildlife conservation and habitat restoration. The growing prominence of hunters as conservationists is expected to positively influence the hunting equipment market in Americas during the forecast period. Find additional information about various other market drivers & trends mentioned in our FREE sample report. Key Market Segmentation Segmentation by Product: Firearms: The hunting equipment market share growth in Americas by the firearms segment will be significant during the forecast period. While hunters who use rifles and shotguns for game and bird hunting must carry equipment licenses, the use of muzzleloaders, primitive firearms, and handguns involve less stringent regulations in the Americas. Countries such as the US and Canada have predefined hunting seasons for specific types of games. For instance, muzzleloader deer hunting season in Alabama, US, is generally the third week of November every year. Firearm permit holders can hunt with any legal equipment during hunting season in the US and Canada. Ammunition and accessories Archery equipment and knives Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments. Our Hunting Equipment Market Report in Americas Covers the Following Areas: Hunting Equipment Market in Americas: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026 Detailed information on factors that will assist hunting equipment market growth in Americas during the next five years Estimation of the hunting equipment market size in Americas and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the hunting equipment market in Americas Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of hunting equipment market vendors in Americas Need More Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report Want to understand more about the various research methodology Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players Analyze market regulations Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now ! Related Reports: Hunting Apparel Market by Distribution Channel and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025: The hunting apparel market has the potential to grow by USD 4.27 billion during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.11%. To get more exclusive research insights: Download Our FREE Sample Report Binoculars Market by Type, Application, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis: The binoculars market size has the potential to grow by USD 123.44 million during 2020-2024, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate during the forecast period. To get more exclusive research insights: Download Our Latest FREE Sample Report Hunting Equipment Market in Americas Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 1.13% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 544.13 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 1.71 Regional analysis US, Canada, and Rest of Americas Performing market contribution US at 69% Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled American Outdoor Brands Inc., BERETTA HOLDING SA, BPS Direct LLC, Buck Knives Inc., Easton Technical Products Inc., FeraDyne Outdoors, Pure Fishing Inc., Spyderco Inc., Sturm Ruger and Co. Inc., and Vista Outdoor 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 preview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 01: Parent market 2.2: Market Characteristics 2.2 Value chain analysis Exhibit 09: Value chain analysis: Apparel, accessories, and luxury goods 2.2.1 Inputs 2.2.2 Inbound logistics 2.2.3 Operations 2.2.4 Outbound logistics 2.2.5 Marketing and sales 2.2.6 Service 2.2.7 Support activities 2.2.8 Innovation 3. Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 04: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 05: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2020 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025 3.4.1 Estimating growth rates for emerging and high-growth markets 3.4.2 Estimating growth rates for mature markets Exhibit 12: Americas - Market size and forecast 2021 - 2026 ($ million) Exhibit 13: Americas market: Year-over-year growth 2021 - 2026 (%) 4. Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five Forces Summary Exhibit 08: Five forces analysis 2020 & 2025 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers 4.4 Threat of new entrants 4.5 Threat of substitutes 4.6 Threat of rivalry 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 20: Market condition - Five forces 2021 5 Market Segmentation by Product 5.1 Market segments The segments covered in this chapter are: Firearms Ammunition and accessories Archery equipment and knives Exhibit 21: Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Product Exhibit 22: Comparison by Product 5.3 Firearms - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 23: Firearms - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 24: Firearms - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Ammunition and accessories - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 25: Ammunition and accessories - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 26: Ammunition and accessories - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Archery equipment and knives - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 27: Archery equipment and knives - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 28: Archery equipment and knives - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Market opportunity by Product Exhibit 29: Market opportunity by Product 6 Customer landscape 6.1 Overview Exhibit 30: Customer landscape 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation The regions covered in the report are: US Canada Rest of Americas Exhibit 31: Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 32: Geographic comparison 7.3 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 33: US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Rest of Americas - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 35: Rest of Americas - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 36: Rest of Americas - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 37: Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 39: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.1.1 Growing popularity of outdoor recreational activities 8.1.2 Rise in the popularity of online sales 8.1.3 Rapid growth of the tourism industry 8.2 Market challenges 8.2.1 Seasonal nature of business 8.2.2 Stringent regulations on hunting activity 8.2.3 Decline in hunting enthusiasts in the Americas Exhibit 40: Impact of drivers and challenges 8.3 Market trends 8.3.1 Growing prominence of hunters as conservationists 8.3.2 Innovation in ammunition designs 8.3.3 Increase in outdoor initiatives in the US 9. Vendor Landscape 9.1 Competitive scenario 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 40: Vendor Landscape 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 41: Landscape disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 42: Industry risks 10. Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 43: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 45: Market positioning of vendors 10.3 American Outdoor Brands Inc. Exhibit 46: American Outdoor Brands Inc. - Overview Exhibit 47: American Outdoor Brands Inc. - Product and service Exhibit 48: American Outdoor Brands Inc. - Key offerings 10.4 BERETTA HOLDING SA Exhibit 49: BERETTA HOLDING SA - Overview Exhibit 50: BERETTA HOLDING SA - Product and service Exhibit 51: BERETTA HOLDING SA - Key offerings 10.5 BPS Direct LLC Exhibit 52: BPS Direct LLC - Overview Exhibit 53: BPS Direct LLC - Product and service Exhibit 54: BPS Direct LLC - Key offerings 10.6 Buck Knives Inc. Exhibit 55: Buck Knives Inc. - Overview Exhibit 56: Buck Knives Inc. - Product and service Exhibit 57: Buck Knives Inc. - Key offerings 10.7 Easton Technical Products Inc. Exhibit 58: Easton Technical Products Inc. - Overview Exhibit 59: Easton Technical Products Inc. - Product and service Exhibit 60: Easton Technical Products Inc. - Key offerings 10.8 FeraDyne Outdoors Exhibit 61: FeraDyne Outdoors - Overview Exhibit 62: FeraDyne Outdoors - Product and service Exhibit 63: FeraDyne Outdoors - Key offerings 10.9 Pure Fishing Inc. Exhibit 64: Pure Fishing Inc. - Overview Exhibit 65: Pure Fishing Inc. - Product and service Exhibit 66: Pure Fishing Inc. - Key offerings 10.10 Spyderco Inc. Exhibit 67: Spyderco Inc. - Overview Exhibit 68: Spyderco Inc. - Product and service Exhibit 69: Spyderco Inc. - Key offerings 10.11 Sturm Ruger and Co. Inc. Exhibit 70: Sturm Ruger and Co. Inc. - Overview Exhibit 71: Sturm Ruger and Co. Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 72: Sturm Ruger and Co. Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 73: Sturm Ruger and Co. Inc. - Segment focus 10.12 Vista Outdoor Inc. Exhibit 74: Vista Outdoor Inc. - Overview Exhibit 75: Vista Outdoor Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 76: Vista Outdoor Inc.- Key news Exhibit 77: Vista Outdoor Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 78: Vista Outdoor Inc. - Segment focus 11. Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.1.1 Market definition 11.1.2 Objectives 11.1.3 Notes and caveats 11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 82: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.3 Research Methodology Exhibit 83: Research Methodology Exhibit 84: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 85: Information sources 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 Today, 33 percent of the population in Africa have access to the Internet. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the number of individuals using the Internet in Africa grew 23 percent between 2019 and 2021. This growth is driven by a digitally savvy, young, and educated urban workforce, for whom the adoption and consumption of online services is second nature. Installation of the IMRS clusters will add crucial capacity to support the growth in Internet use across Africa. This, in turn, will underpin economic growth and bring opportunities for a large share of new Internet users. The clusters ensure that Internet queries from Africa can be answered within the region, and not be dependent on networks and servers in other parts of the world, thus reducing latency and improving Internet user experience in the entire region. "Extending our infrastructure in Africa is in line with ICANN's mission to ensure that the Internet remains secure, stable and resilient across the world," said Goran Marby, ICANN President and CEO. "Adding the clusters in Africa is a key step to stimulating Internet access and to strengthening the Internet stability of the entire continent. Of course, this could only be achieved with the participation of the local community. We are grateful to the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs in Kenya for their support in establishing the IMRS cluster in their country, and for their commitment to advancing the Internet in the continent." By enabling meaningful connectivity in Africa, ICANN a member of the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D) also contributes to the goal of the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition initiative to bring connectivity and digital transformation to "hard-to-reach" communities. "The Partner2Connect Digital Coalition is a game-changing opportunity for the ICT sector to take a holistic approach, catalyze new partnerships, and mobilize the resources needed to connect those who are still offline," said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. I welcome ICANN's commitment toward Partner2Connect's goals to bring critical Internet infrastructure to Africa and advance universal connectivity and digital transformation." Joseph Mucheru, E.G.H, Cabinet Secretary in the Kenyan ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, welcomed the investment. "This initiative is a welcome positive development both in line with the African Digital Transformation Strategy (2020-2030) and more specifically with Kenya's Digital Economy Blueprint which identifies infrastructure as one of the five key pillars necessary for the digital transformation of the economy. We therefore thank ICANN for their confidence in choosing Kenya one more time as one of the hosts of this important infrastructure that would serve not only Kenya, but the rest of Africa and the world. Implementation of this initiative will be of immense importance in accelerating the digital transformation agenda in Kenya." The clusters will reduce the time it takes for a website to load, particularly when there are spikes in Internet usage. This will bring immediate benefits for everyday Internet users across the continent. Perhaps most important, the new IMRS clusters will reduce the impact of a potential cyberattack in the continent. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) cyberattacks work by overwhelming servers with a flood of queries. With two separate IMRS cluster locations and higher bandwidth and data processing capacity, the risk of the Internet going down because of a cyberattack will be significantly reduced. Increased capacity lessens the impact of attacks. This project is part of a larger ICANN initiative to expand the global presence of its roots servers by adding the two ICANN-operated and managed clusters in Africa to the existing clusters in North America, Asia and Europe. Media Resources ICANN in Africa FAQ ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS) FAQ About ICANN ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address a name or a number into your computer or other device. That address must be unique, so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world. SOURCE ICANN NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ichnos Sciences Inc., a global biotechnology company developing innovative multispecific antibodies for oncology, today announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) comprised of experts in oncology, immunology, protein engineering, drug discovery and development. The SAB will provide strategic and scientific counsel to Ichnos Sciences' management and research and development team to help advance the company's proprietary BEAT platform1 and multispecifics directed at blood cancers and solid tumors. "The official establishment of our Scientific Advisory Board marks a significant step forward in our path for growth and progress at Ichnos Sciences," said Cyril Konto, M.D., President and C.E.O. of Ichnos Sciences. "We are honored to welcome these leading experts in the fields of protein engineering and immuno-oncology, and I am confident that Ichnos Sciences will benefit from their individual and collective expertise as we work to make cure a reality for cancer patients." Ichnos Scientific Advisory Board includes: Adam Cohen , M.D. - Associate Professor of Medicine, Director, Myeloma Immunotherapy, at the University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , USA . Dr. Cohen is a graduate of Harvard University , received his medical degree and residency training from University of Pennsylvania , and completed his hematology/medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York . He has lectured frequently and has been widely published in journals and book chapters on the areas of cancer immunotherapy and multiple myeloma. - Associate Professor of Medicine, Director, Myeloma Immunotherapy, at the , , . Dr. Cohen is a graduate of , received his medical degree and residency training from , and completed his hematology/medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in . He has lectured frequently and has been widely published in journals and book chapters on the areas of cancer immunotherapy and multiple myeloma. Stefan Dubel, Ph.D. - Professor of Biotechnology and Director of the respective department at the Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Germany . He has a Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg and is the editor of the "Handbook of Therapeutic Antibodies" and other antibody engineering books. Dr Dubel is one of the inventors of antibody phage display, holds several patents in antibody engineering technology and cofounded several biotechnology companies. - Professor of Biotechnology and Director of the respective department at the Technische Universitat Braunschweig, . He has a Ph.D. from the University of and is the editor of the "Handbook of Therapeutic Antibodies" and other antibody engineering books. Dr Dubel is one of the inventors of antibody phage display, holds several patents in antibody engineering technology and cofounded several biotechnology companies. Wolf Herve Fridman , M.D., Ph.D. - Professor Emeritus of Immunology, at Universite de Paris Medical School, France . Dr. Fridman's focus is on the role the immune system plays in the control of human malignancies and he is world-renowned in the area of tumor immunology. - Professor Emeritus of Immunology, at Universite de Paris Medical School, . Dr. Fridman's focus is on the role the immune system plays in the control of human malignancies and he is world-renowned in the area of tumor immunology. Sergio Giralt , M.D. - Professor of Medicine, Deputy Division Head of Hematologic Malignancies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. His clinical research focus is on stem cell transplantation for patients with blood disorders. Dr Giralt trained and worked at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he was Deputy Chair of the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies. In May 2010 , he joined the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to lead the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service and served as Chief until February 2020 . - Professor of Medicine, Deputy Division Head of Hematologic Malignancies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. His clinical research focus is on stem cell transplantation for patients with blood disorders. Dr Giralt trained and worked at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he was Deputy Chair of the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies. In , he joined the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to lead the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service and served as Chief until . Philippe Moreau , M.D. - Professor of Clinical Hematology, Head of Translational Research at the University Hospital of Nantes, France . He specializes in clinical hematology, with a particular focus on multiple myeloma and its treatment with high-dose therapy and novel agents, is widely published, and serves on the Board of Directors for the International Myeloma Society. Dr Moreau was appointed University Professor of Clinical Hematology at Nantes Faculty of Medicine in 2003. - Professor of Clinical Hematology, Head of Translational Research at the University Hospital of Nantes, . He specializes in clinical hematology, with a particular focus on multiple myeloma and its treatment with high-dose therapy and novel agents, is widely published, and serves on the Board of Directors for the International Myeloma Society. Dr Moreau was appointed University Professor of Clinical Hematology at Nantes Faculty of Medicine in 2003. Lawrence Olanoff , M.D., Ph.D. Director , Ichnos Sciences, Adjunct Assistant Professor and Special Advisor to the President for Corporate Relations at the Medical University of South Carolina , United States . Dr. Olanoff previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer for Forest Laboratories, Inc., and Chief Executive Officer of Celsion Corporation. During his career, Dr. Olanoff made substantial contributions leading to thirty new drug approvals across several therapeutic areas. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and M.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University and has authored forty scientific publications on topics including drug delivery, pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism. Director Ichnos Sciences, Adjunct Assistant Professor and Special Advisor to the for Corporate Relations at the , . Dr. Olanoff previously served as and Chief Operating Officer for Forest Laboratories, Inc., and Chief Executive Officer of Celsion Corporation. During his career, Dr. Olanoff made substantial contributions leading to thirty new drug approvals across several therapeutic areas. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and M.D. degree from and has authored forty scientific publications on topics including drug delivery, pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism. Sonia Quaratino , M.D., Ph.D. Director, Ichnos Sciences, Former Chief Medical Officer of Kymab, where she oversaw a pipeline of assets in immuno-oncology and immunology. Dr Quaratino has over twenty-five years of experience in research and clinical development at large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has served on multiple boards and overseen research programs at leading academic institutions. She has made significant contributions in the fields of translational clinical oncology and immunology while working at Novartis and Merck Serono and was a Professor of Immunology at the University of Southampton, where her research group focused on the interface between autoimmunity and cancer. Dr. Quaratino received her Medical Degree and Doctorate in Hematology-Oncology from the University of Palermo , and her Ph.D. in Immunology from Imperial College London. Director, Ichnos Sciences, Former Chief Medical Officer of Kymab, where she oversaw a pipeline of assets in immuno-oncology and immunology. Dr Quaratino has over twenty-five years of experience in research and clinical development at large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has served on multiple boards and overseen research programs at leading academic institutions. She has made significant contributions in the fields of translational clinical oncology and immunology while working at Novartis and Merck Serono and was a Professor of Immunology at the University of Southampton, where her research group focused on the interface between autoimmunity and cancer. Dr. Quaratino received her Medical Degree and Doctorate in Hematology-Oncology from the University of , and her Ph.D. in Immunology from Imperial College London. Marion Subklewe , M.D. - Professor of Medicine, Head of Translational Cancer Immunology at Ludwig-Maximillans-Universitat, Germany . Dr Subklewe has been a consultant at the university since 2009, following completion of her postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University in New York . Her areas of focus include cancer immunology, novel tumor-associated antigens, biomarkers, cell therapy and therapeutic antibodies. - Professor of Medicine, Head of Translational Cancer Immunology at Ludwig-Maximillans-Universitat, . Dr Subklewe has been a consultant at the university since 2009, following completion of her postdoctoral research at in . Her areas of focus include cancer immunology, novel tumor-associated antigens, biomarkers, cell therapy and therapeutic antibodies. Lioudmila Tchistiakova, Ph.D. - Entrepreneur in Residence at Third Rock Ventures, Cambridge, Mass , USA. Dr. Tchistiakova specializes in helping companies navigate drug discovery and development opportunities with a particular focus on biotherapeutics. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Shemyakin Institute of Biorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences. "Every member of our newly-formed scientific advisory board brings internationally recognized expertise in key areas that will help drive our research and development strategy forward hematology, oncology, biotechnology, and cancer immunology," said Eric J. Feldman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Ichnos Sciences. "As we continue to advance our oncology portfolio, this esteemed board of scientific leaders brings valuable knowledge and experience to Ichnos Sciences. We are excited to partner with them as we work to create new drug options for cancer patients using our BEAT platform." About Ichnos Sciences Inc. A fully integrated, global biotech with the spirit of a start-up, Ichnos is shifting the way the world thinks about innovation in medicine through its research and development of transformative, disease-centric treatments in oncology and autoimmune diseases. The company, with headquarters in New York, N.Y., is rapidly advancing a clinical-stage pipeline of novel, first-in-class candidates designed to address complex diseases and to treat patients holistically. With its patented BEAT technology platform, along with pioneering teams at two locations in Switzerland, Ichnos Sciences has a mission to provide breakthrough, curative therapies that will extend and improve lives, writing a new chapter in healthcare. 1 B ispecific E ngagement by A ntibodies based on the T CR CONTACT: Grace Maguire Head of Communications and Corporate Affairs Ichnos Sciences [email protected] SOURCE Ichnos Sciences Inc. Company Profiles The interspinous spacers market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as mergers and acquisitions and new product development to compete in the market. The interspinous spacers market report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading vendors including Boston Scientific Corp., Globus Medical Inc., Johnson and Johnson, Life Spine Inc., Medtronic Plc, Mikai SpA, Minimus Spine Inc., Nuvasive Inc., Surgalign Holdings Inc., and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. Few companies with key offerings Boston Scientific Corp. - The company offers interspinous spacers that provide solutions such as defibrillators, left atrial appendage closure, pacemakers, remote patients, monitoring and diagnostic monitoring, single-use scopes, spinal cord stimulator systems, stents. The company offers interspinous spacers that provide solutions such as defibrillators, left atrial appendage closure, pacemakers, remote patients, monitoring and diagnostic monitoring, single-use scopes, spinal cord stimulator systems, stents. Globus Medical Inc. - The company offers interspinous spacers that provide solutions such as anterior cervical. Anterior lumbar, lateral lumbar, motion preservation, posterior cervical, posterior lumbar, sacroiliac joint fixation, spinous process fixation, vertebral augmentation, vertebral body replacement. The company offers interspinous spacers that provide solutions such as anterior cervical. Anterior lumbar, lateral lumbar, motion preservation, posterior cervical, posterior lumbar, sacroiliac joint fixation, spinous process fixation, vertebral augmentation, vertebral body replacement. Johnson and Johnson - The company offers interspinous spacers that provide solutions for Arrhythmias, Neurovascular, and Stroke. The company offers interspinous spacers that provide solutions for Arrhythmias, Neurovascular, and Stroke. Life Spine Inc. - The company offers interspinous spacers that provides procedural solutions for cervical, expandable, lateral, interbody, mis, osseoloc, si fixation, thoracolumbar. The company offers interspinous spacers that provides procedural solutions for cervical, expandable, lateral, interbody, mis, osseoloc, si fixation, thoracolumbar. Medtronic Plc - The company offers interspinous spacers that are used in treatments such as balloon kyphoplasty for spinal fractures, bone grafting, bone tumor treatment, cervical disc, replacement, cervical fusion, living with scoliosis, sacroiliac joint fusion, spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain, spinal surgical robotics. The company offers interspinous spacers that are used in treatments such as balloon kyphoplasty for spinal fractures, bone grafting, bone tumor treatment, cervical disc, replacement, cervical fusion, living with scoliosis, sacroiliac joint fusion, spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain, spinal surgical robotics. To know about all major vendors with their key offerings - Download a free sample now! Market Dynamics Factors such as the rising prevalence of spinal disorders, the growing number of product launches will be crucial in driving the growth of the market. However, the high costs associated with spine surgery will restrict the market growth. The holistic analysis of the drivers & challenges will help in deducing end goals and refining marketing strategies to gain a competitive edge. Competitive Analysis The competitive scenario provided in the interspinous spacers market report analyzes, evaluates, and positions companies based on various performance indicators. Some of the factors considered for this analysis include the financial performance of companies over the past few years, growth strategies, product innovations, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc. Market Segmentation Analysis By Product , the market is classified into segments static and dynamic. , the market is classified into segments static and dynamic. By Geography, the market is classified as North America , Europe , APAC, South America , and MEA. Related Reports Wavefront Aberrometer Market -The wavefront aberrometer market share is expected to increase by USD 141.85 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.86%. Download a free sample now ! Synoptophore Market -The synoptophore market share is expected to increase by USD 62.28 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.09%. Download a free sample now! Interspinous Spacers Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 4.09% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 18.52 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 4.43 Performing market contribution North America at 27% Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Boston Scientific Corp., Globus Medical Inc., Johnson and Johnson, Life Spine Inc., Medtronic Plc, Mikai SpA, Minimus Spine Inc., Nuvasive Inc., Surgalign Holdings Inc., and Zimmer Biomet Holdings 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 1. Executive Summary 1.1 Market Overview 2. Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem 2.1.1 Parent market Exhibit 08: Parent market Exhibit 09: Market Characteristics 2.2 Value chain analysis Exhibit 10: Value chain analysis: Healthcare Equipment 2.2.1 Research and development 2.2.2 Inputs 2.2.3 Operations 2.2.4 Distribution 2.2.5 Marketing and sales 2.2.6 Post-sales and services 2.2.7 Industry innovations 3. Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026 3.4.1 Estimating growth rates for emerging and high-growth markets 3.4.2 Estimating growth rates for mature markets Exhibit 13: Global - Market size and forecast 2021 - 2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Global market: Year-over-year growth 2021 - 2026 (%) 4. Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five Forces Summary Exhibit 15: Five forces analysis 2021 & 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 16: Bargaining power of buyers 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 17: Bargaining power of suppliers 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 18: Threat of new entrants 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 19: Threat of substitutes 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 20: Threat of rivalry 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 21: Market condition - Five forces 2021 5. Market Segmentation by Product 5.1 Market segments The segments covered in this chapter are: Static Dynamic Exhibit 22: Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Product Exhibit 23: Comparison by Product 5.3 Static - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 24: Static - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 25: Static - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Dynamic - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 26: Dynamic - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 27: Dynamic - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Market opportunity by Product Exhibit 28: Market opportunity by Product 6. Customer landscape 6.1 Overview Exhibit 29: Customer landscape 7. Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation The regions covered in the report are: North America Europe APAC South America MEA Exhibit 30: Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 31: Geographic comparison 7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 34: Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 35: Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 38: South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 39: South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 MEA - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 40: MEA - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 41: MEA - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 Key leading countries Exhibit 42: Key leading countries 7.9 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 43: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8. Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.1.1 Rising prevalence of spinal disorders 8.1.2 Growing number of product launches 8.1.3 Strategic business partnerships 8.2 Market challenges 8.2.1 High costs associated with spine surgery 8.2.2 Availability of alternate medication options 8.2.3 Risks associated with interventional spine procedures Exhibit 44: Impact of drivers and challenges 8.3 Market trends 8.3.1 Technological advances 8.3.2 Presence of contract manufacturers 8.3.3 Increasing adoption rate of minimally invasive surgeries 9. Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview Exhibit 45: Vendor landscape 9.2 Landscape disruption Exhibit 46: Landscape disruption Exhibit 47: Industry risks 9.3 Competitive landscape 10. Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 48: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 49: Market positioning of vendors 10.3 Boston Scientific Corp. Exhibit 50: Boston Scientific Corp. - Overview Exhibit 51: Boston Scientific Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 52: Boston Scientific Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 53: Boston Scientific Corp. - Segment focus 10.4 Globus Medical Inc. Exhibit 54: Globus Medical Inc. - Overview Exhibit 55: Globus Medical Inc. - Product and service Exhibit 56: Globus Medical Inc. - Key offerings 10.5 Johnson and Johnson Exhibit 57: Johnson and Johnson - Overview Exhibit 58: Johnson and Johnson - Business segments Exhibit 59: Johnson and Johnson - Key offerings Exhibit 60: Johnson and Johnson - Segment focus 10.6 Life Spine Inc. Exhibit 61: Life Spine Inc. - Overview Exhibit 62: Life Spine Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 63: Life Spine Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 64: Life Spine Inc. - Segment focus 10.7 Medtronic Plc Exhibit 65: Medtronic Plc - Overview Exhibit 66: Medtronic Plc - Business segments Exhibit 67: Medtronic Plc - Key offerings Exhibit 68: Medtronic Plc - Segment focus 10.8 Mikai SpA Exhibit 69: Mikai SpA - Overview Exhibit 70: Mikai SpA - Product and service Exhibit 71: Mikai SpA - Key offerings 10.9 Minimus Spine Inc. Exhibit 72: Minimus Spine Inc. - Overview Exhibit 73: Minimus Spine Inc. - Product and service Exhibit 74: Minimus Spine Inc. - Key offerings 10.10 Nuvasive Inc. Exhibit 75: Nuvasive Inc. - Overview Exhibit 76: Nuvasive Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 77: Nuvasive Inc. Key news Exhibit 78: Nuvasive Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 79: Nuvasive Inc. - Segment focus 10.11 Surgalign Holdings Inc. Exhibit 80: Surgalign Holdings Inc. - Overview Exhibit 81: Surgalign Holdings Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 82: Surgalign Holdings Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 83: Surgalign Holdings Inc. - Segment focus 10.12 Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. Exhibit 84: Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. - Overview Exhibit 85: Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 86: Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 87: Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. - Segment focus 11. Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.1.1 Market definition 11.1.2 Objective 11.1.3 Notes and caveats 11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 88: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.3 Research Methodology Exhibit 89: Research Methodology Exhibit 90: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 91: Information sources 11.4 List of abbreviations Exhibit 92: 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 As the state's first new law school in more than 20 years, the Jacksonville University College of Law will launch classes in the fall of 2022 with an expected inaugural class of 20-30 students and a projected total enrollment of 150 students in Fall 2024. The College of Law will offer a three-year Juris Doctor degree program that is designed to prepare graduates for the Florida Bar exam, filling a crucial gap in legal education and services in the city. "We are proud to partner once again with Mayor Curry and the City of Jacksonville to propel northeast Florida toward a stronger future," said Jacksonville University President Tim Cost. "We thank them and our partners for their support. We believe this is the role of a responsive and agile university in a city like ours to move decisively on opportunities that lift the entire community and to forge partnerships that serve the greater good." Speaking alongside President Cost at City Hall today, Mayor Lenny Curry emphasized the need for a quality law school in the city. "Jacksonville is currently the largest city in the U.S. that does not have a law school," said Mayor Lenny Curry. "Too often, our citizens must choose to leave Jacksonville to pursue a legal education. This College of Law will offer a prime opportunity for current residents and serve as a magnet to attract talent back into our city and our downtown." The Jacksonville University College of Law will offer students an exceptional academic experience with world-class resources, real-world learning opportunities, and small classes that allow for individualized support and mentorship. Students will take courses at the university's Downtown Jacksonville location in the VyStar Tower, which offers connectivity to the region's top legal resources. The Duval County Courthouse and its extensive legal library are within a 10-minute walk, as are numerous legal organizations where students will secure externships and mentorship opportunities. With continuing projected job growth statewide in the legal field, there is increasing demand for individuals with a Juris Doctor. Florida is the third most populous state in the U.S., but is ranked 24th in lawyers per capita. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are roughly 1.5 jobs for every lawyer in the state. All applicants will be considered for merit scholarships, up to $14,400 per year, based on their transcripts from previous institutions and LSAT scores. No additional application is needed for merit scholarship consideration. The field of law connects well to core disciplines such as business, healthcare, technology, communications and public policy, which are all established, highly-regarded programs offered at Jacksonville University. Students will have the unique opportunity to leverage the University's interdisciplinary offerings to pursue a graduate degree concurrently with the Juris Doctor degree. "Jacksonville University believes in building connections, not barriers," said President Cost. "We will encourage students to link their law education to course concentrations in a strong selection of in-demand fields across the breadth of our university. With 10 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs holding a J.D. degree, we believe that Jacksonville University College of Law graduates will be prepared and positioned to run global companies in the future." The College of Law is Jacksonville University's fifth college and fifth doctoral program. It fulfills a lifelong dream of Jacksonville University's founder, The Honorable William J. Porter, who established Porter University in 1934, later to become Jacksonville University, with the vision of educating and graduating top-notch lawyers in Jacksonville. "Jacksonville University continually earns the support of the community and its alumni base which will ensure the success and prominence of the university's law school graduates. I look forward to soon welcoming these students to the Bar," said Michelle Barnett, partner of Alexander, DeGance, Barnett, and immediate past president of the Jacksonville Bar Association. Consistent with accreditation protocol dictated by the American Bar Association (ABA), the Jacksonville University College of Law will start classes in 2022 and will begin the accreditation process in the spring of 2023 with the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the ABA. In the last decade, Jacksonville University has received full accreditation for over 30 programs and is fully accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The University holds nine accreditations from national organizations serving business, healthcare, the arts, nursing and orthodontics. The University's goal and highest priority is to achieve conditional approval of accreditation by the time our first class of students graduates in 2024. The University makes no representation to any applicant that it will receive approval from the Council before the graduation of any matriculating student. The University is now accepting applications for the College of Law. A virtual information session will take place March 24 at 6 p.m. For more information and to apply, visit www.ju.edu/law . 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, with back-to-back Top 30 rankings in 2020 and 2021. 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 Healthcare Administration. With its five colleges, eleven schools and two institutes, Jacksonville University's 235-acre riverfront campus is minutes from downtown and from beautiful area beaches. Contact: Laura Phelps Sr. Director of Communications Jacksonville University [email protected] SOURCE Jacksonville University U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, who has represented parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties since 2010 and is a senior Democratic member of Congress, wont seek re-election and plans to resign before the end of his current term. Deutch said Monday he would become CEO of the American Jewish Committee, which will allow him to be devoted full-time to advocating for the Jewish community and for Israel, and combatting antisemitism causes that were passions of his long before he first ran for political office more than 15 years ago. Advertisement At a time of rising antisemitism and at a time when Israel continues to be under attack by so many who seek to delegitimize Israel, this is an opportunity to work on these issues on a global platform, and to focus every day about things that Im passionate about, he said in a telephone interview. Standing up for global Jewry is something that has always been my passion. [ RELATED: Ted Deutchs decision to not seek re-election sets off scramble among potential successors ] The move immediately set of a flurry of political activity, as many people currently holding state and local office started assessing candidacies to run for the suddenly open seat. And it underscored the dismal political landscape for Democrats, who are widely expected to lose control of the House in November, prompting many incumbents to opt against running for re-election. Advertisement He plans to start his new job on Oct. 1. By then, he said, Congress is scheduled to recess for the fall election season. I was elected to a two-year term and wanted to at least do the work of the people before the election, he said. [ RELATED: Friends and foes, constituents and political pros assess Congressman Ted Deutch performance ] Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 23 US Rep. Ted Deutch and Four Seasons developer Dev Motwani tour Fort Lauderdale Beach at Breakers Avenue between Riomar Street and Vistamar Street, which could receive infrastructure money to improve lighting and provide underground sewage and water utility improvements. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel) National landscape Deutch was widely seen as all-but-certain to win re-election. But his decision not to run is a further indication that Democrats expect major losses in the 2022 election. He is the 31st House Democrat who has decided not to seek re-election this year. The majority party has complete control of the House, and many representatives dont want to move to minority party status after serving in the majority. [ RELATED: Ted Deutch is new chairman of House panel on Middle East, including Israel and Iran ] Hes chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Global Counterterrorism and chairman of the Ethics Committee. If Democrats lose the majority, Deutch would no longer be a committee chairman. Deutch said the political landscape is not why hes leaving. This is not about running away from Congress. This is about running to an opportunity to focus full-time on the issues that Im passionate about, he said. I dont want to understate it, but the challenges to the Jewish community are real, and the timing of this couldnt have been better. [ RELATED: Deutch expresses anguish over school shootings, wonders if anything will change ] Fred Guttenberg, who has become politically and personally close with Deutch since his daughter Jaime was killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, said its a mistake for people to assume Deutch is bailing out because of the political landscape. I knew people were going to think that, and I just say this: that has nothing to do with that. He legitimately had a career opportunity, a life opportunity that just doesnt come along often. If not for that he would still be there, Guttenberg said. Advertisement In life, sometimes we get these opportunities to reinvent ourselves and do something that is just so meaningful, and he has that, Guttenberg said. It is a life opportunity for him and his passions and what matters to him so deeply. [ RELATED: Congressional Democrats and Republicans sound alarm over dramatic spike in violent antisemitism ] Republicans saw something going on Its not a surprise that another Democrat has chosen not to run in anticipation of the red wave in 2022, said Tom Powers, chairman of the Broward Republican Party. And Julia Friedland, Florida communications director for the Republican National Committee, added in a statement that its a sign of whats to come in the fall elections. Good choice on retirement, Ted Deutch. Dont worry youll be joined by more of your Democrat friends soon enough! Terrie Rizzo, chairwoman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, declined to directly comment on the implications of so many Democrats heading for the exits, rather than staying around to serve in an all-but-certain Republican-controlled House. Im not going to say that. We will be battling and fighting hard, Rizzo said. Its not unusual, honestly, for us to see this. There will be great Democrats running in all the districts. Congressman @TedDeutch and his spouse @jilldeutch as @KamalaHarris wraps up speech at drive-in rally at Palm Beach State College. pic.twitter.com/zWkiDs7CUo Anthony Man (@browardpolitics) October 31, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [ RELATED: In break with Obama, Ted Deutch opposes Iran nuclear agreement ] Local outlook Boundaries of the district, which currently includes most of Broward north of Interstate 595 along with southeast Palm Beach County, will change before the August primary and the November election. Regardless of its exact shape, given the voter registration in most of Broward and Palm Beach counties, whoever the Democrats nominate in the August primary is likely to become the next member of Congress. Powers, who lives in the district, said this years elections in which Republicans nationwide are expected to do well, could be an exception. Advertisement I will not concede that any Democratic seat is safe in this country based on whats happening across America right now, Powers said. [ RELATED: South Floridas Jewish lawmakers denounce colleagues antisemitic tweets ] Deutch and other Democrats said Its definitely going to be a Democratic district. It has an overwhelming number of hard-working and committed Democrats, said Terrie Rizzo, chairwoman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, adding, With hard work, Democrats will retain the seat. State Sen. Shevrin Jones, a South Broward/north Miami-Dade County Democrat who is leading an effort to increase mail-voting by minority voters, said on Twitter he was sure Deutch would be succeeded by a Democrat. After praising the departing congressman on Twitter, Jones added: I am MORE than confident that his replacement will continue to carry that mantle. [ RELATED: Ted Deutch joins push to expel QAnon-promoter Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress ] Congressional map The state Legislature is currently considering how it wants to redraw boundaries of the states congressional districts to account for population changes uncovered in the 2020 Census. Members of Congress must be residents of the state they represent, but they dont have to live in the district. Deutch doesnt live in his current district, the boundaries of which were changed during an unusual mid-decade redistricting. He lives west of Boca Raton and the Palm Beach County portion of the district takes in just the southeastern part of the county. Deutch Deutch, 55, was elected to the Florida Senate in 2006. His only difficult, contentious race was the Senate primary that year, when he defeated then-state Rep. Irv Slosberg. Advertisement Succeeding U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler in 2010, he became one of the most liberal members of the Florida congressional delegation. But he enjoyed cordial relationships with many Democrats, and was an early leader of a bipartisan task force trying to forge agreement on combating global climate change. [ RELATED: Ted Deutch wants to change Constitution to curb money in politics ] He notably broke with then-President Barack Obama and voted against the 2015 deal with Iran aimed at reducing its ability to develop nuclear weapons. The agreement was later cancelled by then-President Donald Trump. Deutch has supported increasing taxes to solve the long-term financing crunch facing Social Security, he favored LGBT adoption and same-sex marriage long before support became almost universal among Democrats, and he pushed to amend the Constitution to overturn the Citizens United campaign finance decision from the U.S. Supreme Court and allow laws to regulate campaign spending. He received national attention since the Stoneman Douglas massacre in Parkland, which sits in his district and just a few miles from his home in West Boca. Amid #HurricaneDorian prep @TedDeutch laments gun violence. There is no website you can go to, there is no evacuation plan you can put in place and Lord knows all the bottled water in the world will not keep you safe from a dangerous person with a gun who walks into a school. pic.twitter.com/DwbnSz5sP7 Anthony Man (@browardpolitics) August 29, 2019 Deutch said he would spend a lot of time in New York and a lot of time in Washington, D.C., but said he would continue to live in South Florida. Theres some political deja vu in Deutchs decision to resign. Advertisement He was elected in an April 2010 special election to fill the vacancy created when then-U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler resigned from Congress after 13 years to become president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the first Jewish women from Florida elected to Congress, said in a statement that No one is more committed to strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship and fighting the scourge of antisemitism than Ted. AJC, 116-years-old, has about 300 employees in two dozen offices around the world. William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said in a statement that Deutch is the perfect leader to lead AJC. Ted is the menschs mensch. Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @browardpolitics MOLINE, Ill., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- John Deere (NYSE: DE) has acquired full ownership of three Deere-Hitachi joint venture factories and has begun new license and supply agreements with Hitachi Construction Machinery. Effective today, the two companies have ended their joint venture manufacturing and marketing agreements. The changes were announced in August 2021 and were contingent upon regulatory approvals. The former joint venture factories will continue to manufacture Deere-branded construction excavators and forestry equipment; they will discontinue production of Hitachi-branded products. The locations will now be referred to as: John Deere Kernersville , Kernersville, N.C. , John Deere Specialty Products , Langley, British Columbia , Canada , , Canada John Deere Brasil Escavadeiras, Indaiatuba, Brazil Indaiatuba, Through a new supply agreement with Hitachi, Deere will continue to offer a full portfolio of excavators. Deere's marketing arrangement for Hitachi-branded construction excavators and mining equipment in the Americas has ended; Hitachi has assumed distribution and support of these products. Deere dealers may continue to support their existing field population of Hitachi-branded excavators. With the completion of this acquisition, John Deere now controls its excavator design, product, and feature updates, making it possible to more rapidly respond to customer requirements and integrate excavators with other Deere construction products. "As we launch this new chapter, our legacy of innovation continues," John Stone, president, John Deere Construction & Forestry Division and Power Systems, said. "Going forward, we can leverage technology developed for other product lines and production systems across the Deere enterprise and extend those advanced solutions to Deere-designed excavators, strengthening the entire product portfolio. "We continue our mission to answer the fundamental need for smarter, safer, and more sustainable construction so our customers can shape tomorrow's world." About John Deere Deere & Company (www.JohnDeere.com) is a world leader in providing advanced products, technology, and services for customers whose work is revolutionizing agriculture and construction those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich, and build upon the land to meet the world's increasing need for food, fuel, shelter, and infrastructure. SOURCE Deere & Company PLANTATION, Fla., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Legal Aid Service of Broward County, Inc., (LAS) serving both Broward and Collier counties, is pleased to announce that Brent Thompson has been selected to serve as the nonprofit's new Executive Director effective February 28, 2022. Thompson succeeds Executive Director, Anthony J. (Tony) Karrat, who retired on January 31, 2022, after dedicating more than four decades of extraordinary service to the organization. Additionally, Debra Koprowski was promoted to serve as Deputy Executive Director of Legal Aid Service of Broward County (LASBC) and Carol A. O'Callaghan will serve as Deputy Executive Director of Legal Aid Service of Collier County (LASCC). As Executive Director, Thompson will continue Legal Aid's mission of providing high-quality free civil legal advice, representation, and education to vulnerable residents of Broward and Collier counties. Prior to this role, Thompson served as the Executive Director of East River Legal Services, a non-profit that offers free legal services to more than 46,000 people living in poverty in Eastern South Dakota. "Brent has devoted the past twenty years to providing legal services to those in need and has a proven track record of success," said Douglas Reynolds, Board Chair of LAS. "We look forward to Brent sharing his passion and commitment for public interest law with our South Florida community." As Executive Director of East River Legal Services, Thompson enhanced program capacity resulting in a 300% increase in clients served per year. He also developed a new fundraising strategy, increased programming revenue, and successfully lobbied the South Dakota Legislature resulting in state funding for legal aid, a first in South Dakota's history. Before joining East River Legal Services, Thompson served as a staff attorney for Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid for more than 11 years managing a high-volume caseload and co-chaired the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Interdisciplinary Project Team. Thompson has argued before the Minnesota Court of Appeals and participated in establishing the Stearns County Domestic Violence Court. He graduated from the University of North Dakota School of Law. In addition to Thompson's new role, Debra Koprowski and Carol O'Callaghan have both been promoted to the positions of Deputy Executive Director of Legal Aid Service of Broward County and Deputy Executive Director of Legal Aid Service of Collier County, respectively. "The promotions for both Debra and Carol are well deserved, each bringing experience, extraordinary patience and genuine compassion to the legal profession especially when working with our clients," said Reynolds. "We know they will have a very positive impact in their new leadership positions." Koprowski previously served as the Regional Director of Advocacy for Legal Aid Programs in Broward and Collier Counties from 2010 to 2021. She supervises, mentors, co-counsels, and advises staff attorneys and paralegals in litigation matters. In addition, she executes administrative and project duties for the programs. Prior to this, Debra focused her practice on Senior Law, representing individuals over sixty years of age in foreclosure, eviction, and fraud matters at Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida (CCLA). In 2019, Debra was named Employee of the Year by both LAS and CCLA. She earned a BA (High Honors) from the University of Florida and a JD from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law. O'Callaghan joined Legal Aid Service of Collier County in 2005 as a staff attorney practicing in family law and became Managing Attorney at LASCC in 2010. Carol is past president of both the Collier County Bar Association - Young Lawyers Section and the Collier County Women's Bar Association (CCWBA). The Florida Association of Women Lawyers inducted her as member of the 2015 Class of Leaders in the Law. The CCWBA named her the Woman Lawyer of the Year for 2015/2016. In 2021, she was included on the Naples 100 list by Naples Illustrated as one of Collier County's most influential business leaders. A triple Gator, she earned her BA (Honors), MA, and JD from the University of Florida. About Legal Aid Service of Broward County Legal Aid Service of Broward County is a not-for-profit law firm established in 1973. The mission is to provide high quality free civil legal advice, representation and education to the poor of Broward County so as to improve the lifestyle and living conditions of the low-income community and to encourage self-sufficiency. For more information, please visit BrowardLegalAid.org or call 954-765-8950. Contact: Aimee Adler Cooke (954) 732-0754 [email protected] SOURCE Legal Aid Service of Broward County TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Liquid Meta Capital Holdings Ltd. (NEO: LIQD) ("Liquid Meta" or the "Company"), a decentralized finance infrastructure and technology company, today announced its participation at upcoming investor events: Canaccord Genuity 2022 Digital Disruptor Conference Jonathan Wiesblatt, CEO of Liquid Meta will be participating in a panel discussion at 12pm ET on the challenges and future of DeFi. Date and Time: March 8, 2022 To Register: To listen to a live webcast of the presentation please register here. 8th Annual AlphaNorth Capital Conference Mr. Wiesblatt will be hosting onsite meetings with current and potential investors at the 8th Annual AlphaNorth Capital Conference. Date and Time: March 25-27, 2022 To Register: https://web.cvent.com/event/1a2aef1b-df92-44e1-bdb1-71933ee3f25d/ About Liquid Meta Liquid Meta is a decentralized finance infrastructure and technology company that is powering the next generation of open-access protocols and applications. The Company is creating the bridge between traditional and decentralized finance while ushering in a new era of financial infrastructure that benefits anyone, anywhere. To learn more visit Website | LinkedIn | Twitter Cautionary Notice Neo Exchange has not reviewed or approved this press release for the adequacy or accuracy of its contents. SOURCE Liquid Meta Capital Holdings Ltd In her new position, Gayo will play a key role in developing strategic initiatives that include innovative and dynamic approaches to the business to grow the companies in the Mid-Atlantic Region to serve even more home buyers and sellers, ultimately driving the business, sales performance and productivity of Coldwell Banker Realty agents. Gayo possesses nearly 30 years of experience in the real estate, mortgage and banking industries. She most recently served in a dual role as president of mortgage banking and chief diversity officer for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox Roach & The Trident Group in Devon, Pennsylvania. Previously, she served as the company's senior vice president of operations and capital markets. Across her accomplished career, Gayo worked as a director for Credit Suisse in New York City and Princeton, New Jersey, holding senior roles within the investment banking operations and fixed income division. Prior to Credit Suisse, she also held various management positions for Cendant Mortgage Corp., Sovereign Bank FSB and Hanover Capital Partners Ltd., as well as PNC Bank (formerly Sears Mortgage Corp.). Gayo is a Rutgers University alumna and a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. QUOTE "Marie is the perfect candidate to lead Coldwell Banker Realty's Mid-Atlantic region. For decades, she has specialized in building relationships and growing revenue within industries that are core to the real estate industry. With her deep insight and understanding of agent and consumer needs, I am confident that Marie will boost Coldwell Banker Realty's market presence and inspire agents with her passion for the business." -- M. Ryan Gorman, CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate About Coldwell Banker Realty Coldwell Banker Realty is part of Realogy Brokerage Group. Realogy Brokerage Group operates a full-service real estate brokerage business with approximately 675 owned and operated brokerage offices with approximately 56,000 independent sales agents. Realogy Brokerage Group is a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY). For more information, visit www.ColdwellBankerHomes.com. Media Contact: Kevin Guhl, 973-407-5916 or [email protected] SOURCE Coldwell Banker Realty SAN DIEGO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Franchise Association (IFA) has honored Nancy Bigley, CFE, Brand President and CEO of The Little Gym International, with its Crystal Compass Award, given by the Women's Franchise Committee. This award is given to an individual who has made significant contributions through leadership within their franchise organization, the franchise community, or the community in which they live. The Little Gym is the world's premier enrichment and physical development center for children ages four months through 12, and is part of the children's franchise growth-focused platform Unleashed Brands. Bigley was named CEO and Brand President of The Little Gym last October to focus on growing the brand and give more opportunities to families for their kids to learn, play and grow. "Nancy has made an incredible mark on franchising, and her leadership is taking the industry to new levels," said Matthew Haller, President and CEO of the International Franchise Association. "With over 25 years' experience in franchising across a variety of brands and sectors, Nancy understands the value of the franchise business model and the positive impact it can have on the lives it touches." The Crystal Compass Award was established in 2001 and presented at the Annual Leadership Conference at IFA's 62nd Annual Convention in San Diego. The Award was established to recognize women and men for extraordinary leadership in franchising within their companies, the franchising industry, or their own communities. "I am beyond grateful to receive such a prestigious honor amongst my well-respected peers," said Bigley. "This award signifies the culmination of my hard work and dedicated journey in the world of franchising. Success is never achieved alone. Thus, I'd like to thank everyone who has been a part of my career journey and helped me along the way, including the IFA. I am also thankful to the Women's Franchise Committee for acknowledging me for this very special recognition." Prior to joining The Little Gym, Bigley led Twist Brands, which includes Painting with a Twist, Color Me Mine and Chesapeake Ceramics. She joined the company in 2018 after Painting with a Twist acquired competitor Bottle & Bottega, the company she co-founded and grew to 27 studios. A veteran of the franchise industry for 25+ years, Bigley has a strong background in franchise operations and executive leadership having worked with Dunkin' Brands, American Leak Detection and The Dwyer Group prior to her time in the paint and sip industry of franchising. About the International Franchise Association: Celebrating over 60 years of excellence, education, and advocacy, the International Franchise Association (IFA) is the world's oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations, and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the approximately 775,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 8.2 million direct jobs, $787.7 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy, and almost 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees, and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology, and business development. About The Little Gym International The Little Gym International is an internationally recognized program that helps children build the developmental skills and confidence needed at each stage of childhood. The very first location was established in 1976 by Robin Wes, an innovative educator with a genuine love for children. The Little Gym International, Inc., headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., was formed in 1992 to franchise The Little Gym concept. Today, The Little Gym International has nearly 400 locations in over 31 countries including the U.S., Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Thailand and more. For more information, visit The Little Gym at www.TheLittleGym.com . About Unleashed Brands Unleashed Brands, currently includes portfolio brands Urban Air, Snapology , The Little Gym and Premier Martial Arts and was founded to curate and grow a portfolio of the most innovative and profitable brands that help kids learn, play and grow. Over the last 10 years, the team at Unleashed Brands has built a proven platform and know-how for scaling businesses focused on serving families. Its mission is to impact the lives of every kid by providing fun, engaging and inspiring experiences that help them become who they are destined to be. For more information, visit www.UnleashedBrands.com . SOURCE The Little Gym International, Inc. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National AIDS Memorial is honoring the legacy of AIDS educator and activist Pedro Zamora on what would have been his 50th birthday by formally announcing the latest recipients of the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship. Eleven scholars have been selected from ten universities and academic institutions across the country, each receiving $5,000 in financial support for their academic studies. "Much like Pedro himself, this scholarship supports young students who embody their work within the community and activism in ways inspired by their own passions, insights, originality, and conviction," said National AIDS Memorial CEO John Cunningham. "These students shine an important light on the issues and struggles in their own communities, bringing a sense of optimism, hope and action to make a difference." Dedicated to continuing the legacy of Zamora, the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship supports the academic efforts of young activists working in their communities today. Using the HIV/AIDS activism movement as an example, the scholarship supports those taking up social justice work in its many forms and working at the intersection of these movements with their communities to drive progress. The 2021/2022 scholars include: Liggera Edmonds-Allen, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania; Olivia Freidenreich, University of California, Berkeley; Evan Gates, Miami University, Ohio; Treasure Joiner, Tulane University, Louisiana; Espoir Ledieu, W.P Carey School of Business at Arizona State University; Craig McFarland, Harvard College, Massachusetts; Leo Parrott, University of San Francisco, California; Peter Pham, University of California Berkeley; Aisha Tipnis; Brown University, Rhode Island; Andrea Volcan, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; and, Jashui Zarate Torres, Dominican University, Illinois. As part of the application process, candidates must demonstrate how they are providing service and/or leadership in efforts to end HIV (or help those living with it), and/or the fight against stigma, denial, and hate, and how their studies, career plans, or public service will contribute to those efforts. This year's recipients are making a difference as young leaders working on issues ranging from HIV/AIDS, transgender activism, and community reinvestment, to marginalization, health access, immigrant rights, and environmental justice. A summary of their biographies can be viewed here. "This class of scholars is so impressive, all of whom are making a tremendous impact and helping carry Pedro's torch forward for a better future," said Gilead Sciences Senior Vice President, Alex Kalomparis. "We are proud to support this important program that is inspiring the next generation of leaders to continue the fight for health and social justice and end HIV/AIDS." Gilead Sciences is a major funder of the scholarship program, which has provided $410,000 in financial support to 112 young leaders since its inception in 2009. The National AIDS Memorial was able to expand the program in 2021 to include its largest group of recipients ever and will be creating a fellowship program in 2022 through a grant provided by Gilead. Interested students can learn more and apply online by visiting www.aidsmemorial.org/scholarships . SOURCE National AIDS Memorial NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman High Yield Strategies Fund Inc. (NYSE American: NHS) (the "Fund") has announced a distribution declaration of $0.0905 per share of common stock. The distribution announced today is payable on March 31, 2022, has a record date of March 15, 2022 and has an ex-date of March 14, 2022. Under its level distribution policy, the Fund anticipates that it will make regular monthly distributions, subject to market conditions, of $0.0905 per share of common stock, unless further action is taken to determine another amount. The Fund's ability to maintain its current distribution rate will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and stability of income received from its investments, the cost of leverage and the level of other Fund fees and expenses. There is no assurance that the Fund will always be able to pay a distribution of any particular amount or that a distribution will consist only of net investment income. Due to an effort to maintain a stable distribution amount, the distribution announced today, as well as future distributions, may consist of net investment income, net realized capital gains and return of capital. In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2022 will be made after the end of the year. About Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 25 countries, Neuberger Berman's diverse team has over 2,400 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $460 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2021. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com. Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund's performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund's investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations. Contact: Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC Investor Information (877) 461-1899 SOURCE Neuberger Berman NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman Next Generation Connectivity Fund Inc. (NYSE: NBXG) (the "Fund") has announced a distribution declaration of $0.10 per share of common stock. The distribution announced today is payable on March 31, 2022, has a record date of March 15, 2022 and has an ex-date of March 14, 2022. Under its level distribution policy, the Fund anticipates that it will make regular monthly distributions, subject to market conditions, of $0.10 per share of common stock, unless further action is taken to determine another amount. The Fund's ability to maintain its current distribution rate will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and stability of income received from its investments, availability of capital gains, and the level of other Fund fees and expenses. There is no assurance that the Fund will always be able to pay a distribution of any particular amount or that a distribution will consist of only net investment income. Due to an effort to maintain a stable distribution amount, the distribution announced today, as well as future distributions, may consist of net investment income, net realized capital gains and return of capital. In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2022 will be made after the end of the year. About Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 25 countries, Neuberger Berman's diverse team has over 2,400 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $460 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2021. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com. Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund's performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund's investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations. Contact: Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC Investor Information (877) 461-1899 SOURCE Neuberger Berman PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oriental Bank Plc., a new bank in Cambodia with a digital-first strategy, today announced that it has chosen global payment provider BPC to power its digital banking experiences. Cambodia has over $22 billion in currency circulation and digital literacy is on the rise. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific reports that 15.6 per cent of the population made or received digital payments during 2019, demonstrating the rapid increase in demands for digital infrastructure. The Southeast Asian nation's newest commercial bank aims to capture a sizeable market share of tech-savvy consumers as well as those who prefer brick-and-mortar banking experiences. This strategy will see Oriental Bank Plc. engaging in a 60 per cent digital 40 per cent conventional banking approach. BPC SmartVista's platform will be used to power the digital banking experience from Know Your Customer onboarding, deposit account opening, and funds transfers. It will also be used to power seamless and secure end-to-end payment experiences, including QR codes, card issuing, digital loan applications, and other self-service banking channels such as ATM Driving Services. Datuk Phan Ying Tong, the Founder and MD of Oriental Bank Plc., said: "Oriental Bank is blending technology and the human touch to ensure that we can reach out to customers no matter what touchpoint they use. We selected BPC for their extensive understanding of the local market and their competitive speed in delivering a new bank from the ground up. With BPC, we are relying on a strong local partner that will embrace growth and help us scale." With the aim of delivering highly reliable, customer-centric financial products to Cambodia, Oriental Bank Plc. was attracted to the ease of partnering with BPC's next-generation P2P services that form part of the bank's ecosystem, including API connections to third parties for instant payment. It was also attracted to BPC's capability to extend the ecosystem further with added value services as the bank grows. Terry Paleologos, Managing Director APAC at BPC, commented: "BPC has a strong market share and presence in Cambodia with an established local team who are fully equipped to support clients and partners. The demand for a digital lifestyle is palpable; hence we see major transformation projects. However, building a neobank from the ground up is an even more exciting initiative as the foundation will bring digital-first experience to clients who demand it." He also added: "We are confident that with this partnership, both Oriental Bank and BPC are paving the path towards greatness, together." For over 25 years, BPC has been at the forefront of the digital revolution, enabling over 350 financial institutions in over 100 countries with state-of-the-art banking and payment solutions. Oriental Bank Plc. is Cambodia's newest commercial bank, aiming to fast-track the Cambodian financial service-scape into the digital era. SOURCE BPC The company's automated inspection processes take seconds to complete and are significantly more accurate than time-consuming manual checks performed at most dealerships, notes Amir Hever, the UVeye's CEO. Four break-through vehicle-inspection systems will be on display at UVeye's 1,000-square-foot NADA exhibit (Booth 4901W) in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center: Atlas and Atlas Lite Two 360-degree exterior inspection systems to scan sheet metal and other exterior components for paint chips, dents and other issues. Atlas scanners are best suited for high-volume service facilities, fleet operations and assembly lines. Atlas Lite is specially designed for dealership use. Artemis The industry's first tire-inspection system able to detect sidewall damage and tread depth, as well as tire air pressure, age and brand. Helios An underbody scanner able to detect a wide variety of potential safety issues, including fluid leaks and frame damage, as well as brake and exhaust system problems. UVeye's Atlas Lite inspection system for dealerships will be shown for the first time publicly at NADA 2022. "Our new technology helps new- and used-car dealership service technicians quickly identify problems and expedite maintenance and repair work," says Hever. "UVeye systems also create digital vehicle-condition reports with photos that can be shared with dealership customers." UVeye is exhibiting at NADA for the first time this year. Since introduction in 2021, Atlas, Artemis and Helios systems have been installed at nearly 100 U.S. dealerships. The number is expected to more than triple over the next 10 months. UVeye senior management from around the world will be on hand to discuss how dealerships in the U.S., as well as customers in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, have successfully introduced the company's technology. Special introductory plans will be available for dealers attending NADA. Private meetings with UVeye executives at the show can be scheduled online at www.uveye.com/nada-2022/. UVeye currently has facilities in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, including offices in Israel, Japan, Germany and the United States. The company has raised more than $90 million and formed strategic partnerships with numerous dealership groups, used car auctions and vehicle fleets since it was founded in 2016. Volvo Cars, Hyundai Motors, Toyota Tsusho, W.R. Berkley Corporation, F.I.T. Ventures and CarMax, the largest used-car retailer in the U.S., are all members of the company's investor group. UVeye's scanning processes complete within a matter of seconds and can be used throughout a vehicle's lifecycle. Its technology originally was developed for the security industry to detect weapons and contraband. Additional information is available at www.uveye.com . SOURCE UVeye President Joe Biden speaks about the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the White House on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times) As President Biden spoke to the nation and the world, he seemed to take for granted that all Americans appreciate why the fate of Ukraine matters to the United States. If only it were true. More than half 52% say the U.S. should play only a minor role in the conflict, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Another 20% said we should take no part at all, despite the president having emphasized that the U.S. would not send troops there. Advertisement What the doubters dismiss is that dictatorship anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere. To thugs like Vladimir Putin, democracy anywhere is a threat to tyranny everywhere. Thats why Putin invested in electing Donald Trump and why hes trying to crush Ukraine. But Putin did not count on the heroic and stubborn resistance being mounted by Ukraines proud citizens and its military, by old and young, men and women. Advertisement To anyone who doubts what democracy and freedom truly mean, let them go to Ukraine. A people that brave, beset by an enemy so evil, deserves the support and admiration of all freedom-loving nations. And yet, the same isolationist instinct that would have conceded the world to Hitler eight decades ago is grasping for control of one of our two political parties and ultimately for the soul of America. It runs much deeper than just Trump and Tucker Carlson, Putins other American bootlicker. Putins Russia is the new symbol of the evil empire that President Ronald Reagan so forcefully and rightfully deplored. Although it is now a capitalist kleptocracy rather than a communist economy, it is once again a dictatorship and just as great a danger to democracies everywhere, including our own. Mitt Romney was right a decade ago when he said Russia is our No. 1 geopolitical foe. Democracy terrifies dictators because it offers hope, inspiration and examples to captive peoples. That was true of East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and everyone imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain, even the Russian people themselves. The examples of Western liberties and NATOs unity brought down the Iron Curtain and dissolved the Soviet Union that Putin is hell-bent to restore. To Tsar Vladimir, Ukraine is only one step. He already has Belarus in his pocket. The Baltic republics were prudent to join NATO. Now, even Finland and Sweden are reconsidering their neutrality, prompting vicious threats from Putin should they too join the Atlantic alliance. It should not be overlooked that neither democracy nor republican forms of government have been the natural order of events throughout human history. Romney, now a Republican senator from Utah, made that point in an interview with The Atlantic. Advertisement The default setting in world history is authoritarianism, he said. Freedom is a rare appearance on the historical map of the world, and requires extraordinary, extraordinary vigilance and effort to preserve it. And when I see leaders here or elsewhere moving toward authoritarianism, it sets off alarm bells. Because I do read history. The history of the world is strongmen lying to people, gaining power over them through the use of force, and oppressing others for centuries. Trump owed his 2016 election in large part to Putins interference, an offense incontrovertibly established as sweeping and systemic by the Mueller Report. Putin counted on Trump to weaken NATO and erase the United States as a beacon of democracy. Hes still getting what he bargained for in Trumps fraudulent campaign to delegitimize Bidens presidency. As innocent people were dying in Ukraine, Trump claimed on Fox that it all happened because of a rigged election. U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster, a suburban Orlando Republican, reminded the nation of our moral obligation to Ukraine. Like it or not, he said on his Facebook page, the U.S. is a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum in which we, along with the U.K. and Russia, provided security assurances to Ukraine in exchange for giving up their nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Failing to match words with action will not only fail to deter Russia from further action but will send the signal of another broken promise and a weakened U.S. on the global stage after the disastrous consequences of our broken promises in Afghanistan. Our adversaries across the globe, including China and Iran, are watching, Webster said. Advertisement The Budapest Memorandum, signed in 1994, committed the U.S., Britain and Russia to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine and refrain from the threat or use of force against that country. Russia, respecting none of those assurances, annexed Crimea in 2014 and has been waging a proxy war in Ukraines Donbass region for more than five years. Technically speaking, the U.S. and Britain did not guarantee Ukraines sovereignty. But we have a moral responsibility nonetheless. This moment is to the free world as Hitlers dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and Poland were more than 80 short years ago. Whatever economic pain may come with completely sanctioning and isolating Russia now is a smaller price to pay than the cost of indulging a new tyrants insatiable appetite for domination. Whatever it costs to equip Ukraine with the means to defend itself is an essential investment in democracy. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com. VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Numinus Wellness Inc. ("Numinus" or the "Company") (TSX: NUMI) (OTCQX: NUMIF), a mental health care company advancing innovative treatments and safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies, is pleased to announce the voting results from its Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting"), held earlier today. A total of 26,215,003 common shares, or 12.73% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company as at the record date of January 24, 2022, were represented either in person or by proxy at the Meeting. The following five nominees proposed by the Company were elected as Directors of Numinus to serve until the Company's next Annual Meeting of Shareholders, or until their successors are elected or appointed. Below is a summary of the voting results for the Directors elected: DIRECTOR FOR % WITHHELD % Payton Nyquvest 7,718,292 78.65 2,094,581 21.35 Allen Morishita 7,288,166 74.27 2,524,707 25.73 Larry Timlick 9,484,440 96.65 328,433 3.35 Michael Tan 7,717,434 78.65 2,095,439 21.35 Edwin Garner 9,483,307 96.64 329,566 3.36 In addition to the election of all nominees listed as Directors in the Management Information Circular, dated January 24, 2022, Numinus shareholders approved all other resolutions placed before the Meeting, including setting the number of directors of the Company at five, the appointment of Davidson & Company LLP as auditors for the Company for the ensuing year and approval of the Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. More information about the resolutions voted on at today's Meeting of Shareholders is available in Numinus' Management Information Circular, which can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Final voting results on all matters voted on at the Meeting will also be filed on SEDAR. About Numinus Numinus Wellness (TSX: NUMI;OTCQX: NUMIF) helps people to heal and be well through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care and access to safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. The Numinus model - including psychedelic production, research and clinic care - is at the forefront of a transformation aimed at healing rather than managing symptoms for depression, anxiety, trauma, pain and substance use. At Numinus, we are leading the integration of psychedelic-assisted therapies into mainstream clinical practice and building the foundation for a healthier society. Learn more at www.numinus.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Forward-looking statements No securities exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs regarding future performance are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "expects", "does not expect", "is expected", "believes", "intends", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes" or variations of these words, expressions or statements, that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, will occur or will be realized. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual results, events or developments to differ materially from the results, events or developments expected and expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including the acquisition and renewal of federal, provincial, municipal, local or other licenses, and any inability to obtain all necessary government authorizations, licenses and permits to operate and expand the Company's facilities; regulatory or policy changes such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including federal and provincial legalization, due to fluctuations in public opinion, industry perception of integrative mental health, including the use of psychedelic-assisted therapy, delays or inefficiencies or any other reason; any other factor or development likely to hamper the growth of the market; the Company's limited operating and profitability track record; dependence on management; the Company's need for additional financing and the effects of financial market conditions and other factors on the availability of capital; competition, including that of more established and better funded competitors; the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; and the need to build and maintain alliances and partnerships, including with research and development companies, customers and suppliers. These factors should be carefully considered, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Despite the Company's efforts to identify the main risk factors that could cause actual measures, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, other risk factors may cause measures, events or developments to materially differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. 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 forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to revise forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new facts or any other reason, except as required by applicable laws. SOURCE Numinus Wellness Inc. NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Onassis Holding Corp (OTC: ONSS), a holding company specializing in wellness, healthcare, and the distribution of nutraceuticals and herbal-based medications, is pleased to announce it has launched a Regulation A+ financing round for expansion of their operations, management, marketing and R&D. Reg A+ allows companies to raise up to $75 million per year from the general public in a more streamlined process than what is required for publicly reporting companies. Dalmore Group specializes in helping companies raise capital online at scale through Regulations A+, CF and D, and has onboarded over 175 Reg A+ issuers since 2019. In retaining Dalmore Group, Onassis positions their Reg A+ financing to capitalize on the strengths and successes that Dalmore Group has established as being an industry leading broker-dealer in Reg A+ financing services. Dalmore Group, with more than 16 years' experience as a full-service investment bank with deep institutional, private equity, venture capital and family office relationships in multiple financial markets, is considered the US industry leading broker-dealer for Reg A+ offerings having onboarded over 175 Reg A+ issuers since 2019. Dalmore services include strategic partnerships with industry experts in marketing and PR, distribution and syndication-partnerships with multiple Reg A+ marketplace platform distribution partners, and secondary trading solutions for their Reg A+ issuers, thereby enabling issuers to offer ongoing liquidity solutions to their investors. Etan Butler, Chairman of Dalmore Group, states: "Having onboarded over 175 Reg A+ issuers since 2019, we are now seeing a rapid increase of OTC companies utilizing the Reg A+ exemption as a means to raise capital for their businesses." Additionally, Mr. Butler explains: "Dalmore has onboarded over 20 publicly traded Reg A+ issuers. With our expanding list of institutional investors seeking to invest in OTC companies through Reg A+, and our relationships with syndicate broker dealers and their retail investor bases, Dalmore is seeing a trend of OTC companies choosing the Reg A+ path to finance their capital raising needs." Notable Dalmore Reg A+ deals include: Gage Cannabis $50M, Flora Growth $29.5M+, Emerald Health Pharmaceuticals $45M+, Juva Life $18M, Draganfly 19M+ and WINC Inc. $11.5M+. And within Dalmore's active pipeline it supports Ei Ventures with $20M+, Miso Robotics $35M+, Cloudastructure $30M+, Aptera Motors $26M+, Schackelford Pharma $10M+, Legion Works $10M+, Brazil Potash $34M+, and many others. (As stated in Dalmore Group's December 30, 2021 press release.) About Onassis Holdings Corp A wellness holding company specializing in healthcare, technology and the distribution of nutraceuticals and herbal-based medications. The Company is currently focused on distribution of nutraceuticals and herbal-based medications in the wellness sector, along with future plans for manufacturing new products for this market. Onassis has begun working with the world's top nutrition experts for innovative manufacturing and marketing collaboration. The Company has selected products that passed in-vitro and in-vivo clinical studies of herbal and marine formulations utilized and documented by traditional and natural medicine in over thousand years to ensure that our ingredients are effective. Our herbs are hand-selected and reasonably sourced only from authentic medicinal material cultivation areas, designed to be fully traceable from harvest to extract. Onassis Holdings is headquartered in New York City, with its warehouse and fulfillment offices located in Long Island, New York. Onassis originally incorporated in 2004 in the State of Nevada. Products: CimetrA- IMP -Investigational Medicinal Product under urgent registration process in the US to treat Covid-19 Corona Virus. Co-Blox - Food supplement capsule to boost the immune system. Majestix - Syrup made of 15 plant extracts Majestix Post- Syrup made of 15 plant extracts, Vitamins and Fungus. ArtemiC Rescue - This is a food supplement intended to support the immune system, containing four ingredients consisting of artemisinin, Curcuma longa L. Rhizome extract, Boswellia serrata oleo resin, and L-ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Extrax- Vapes Disclaimer: Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to statements which explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms "believes," "should," "intends," "will," or "plans" to be uncertain and forward-looking. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1708529/Onassis_Holdings_Corp_Logo.jpg For more information about Onassis: Onassis Holdings Corp. +1-929-229-9864 [email protected] www.onassis-holdings.com SOURCE Onassis Holdings Corp SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Ownit announced it has launched its core product, Ownit Connected Checkout links, to help brands drive sales conversion. This checkout experience allows brands to easily sell products with one tap at the point of discovery. Whether from a social media post, email, text message, or an online ad, when a shopper clicks an Ownit Connected Checkout link, they are instantly delivered their best recommended buying options based on price, shipping cost, delivery time, promotions, loyalty programs, and return policies. This frictionless checkout experience helps shoppers quickly make the best purchase decision without manually researching and comparing all available shopping options. Ownit Connected Checkout To make it all happen, Ownit brings together some of the biggest companies that generally do not work together. Ownit integrates with commerce platforms including Shopify and Amazon, payment gateways Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay and PayPal to allow direct-to-consumer brands to grow their business on social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. "It has never been easier to start an ecommerce brand, but it's never been harder to grow one," said Co-Founder and CEO Payman Nejati. "Brands are increasingly having to spend more to bring customers to a leaky funnel with cart abandonment rates north of 75%. Checkout is proving to be the ultimate battleground with over $3B investments in the past 18 months. A lot of great companies are focusing their efforts on checkout at the point of purchase. We believe the next frontier is checkout at the point of discovery, and Ownit Connected Checkout links are our first product to pioneer this vision." Founded in 2021 by ecommerce veterans Payman Nejati (CEO), Evan Shiue (CFO/COO) and Joel Tan (CTO), the company's founders bring 50 years of combined experience creating the world's most innovative checkout experiences, including at Amazon, Walmart, Standard Cognition, and Anycart. Brought together by a shared obsession with creating the most frictionless online checkout experience for both brands and shoppers, Ownit's founding team has created a product that doubles sales conversion. The company also announced it has raised $8M in seed financing from Caffeinated Capital, SciFi VC, GGV Capital, Abstract Ventures, and angel investors that include founders and executives of companies including Meta, Pinterest, Honey, Product Hunt, Standard Cognition, and Anycart. With this round of investment, the company is accelerating hiring, brand onboarding, and is deepening its social, commerce, and payment platform relationships. "We were early investors in leading social and commerce platforms. There's no question that the next step is to bridge these two platforms together and we believe Ownit is the company to make this a reality," said Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. "Payman, Evan, and Joel bring unique expertise in the sector, have a shared vision around commerce at the point of discovery, and have assembled an amazing team to relentlessly pursue that vision." We at Ownit are very encouraged by the conversion performance we're seeing with our beta customers and how they see our vision helping grow their business in their own words. "We really like the Ownit product because they've created a streamlined way for customers to select the best purchase option for them, without leaving your DTC site. This leads to higher conversions and, in our case, a greater likelihood of repeat purchases." said Sean Busch, Co-Founder & CEO of Puracy. "The product Ownit has built has the potential to be a meaningful value add for DTC brands," said Colin Darretta, CEO & Co-Founder at Innovation Department and its portfolio company Finn. "The results so far with email and SMS are really promising and have us excited to expand our efforts into paid ads with Ownit." "As a DTC brand, finding the right external partners that can actually deliver on the results they promise is a dream come true. Ownit's team is absolutely the real deal, and their Connected Checkout links have performed well beyond our expectations," said Julian Cheng, Co-Founder & CEO at kitavaMD. "The checkout flow is now a breeze, conversions are up triple digits, and our decreased CAC allows us to offer better deals to our customers. It's a no-brainer for any DTC multi-channel brand." "As a family-owned brand that has been reviving leather since 1968, we constantly strive to provide customers with premium leather care products at reasonable prices. But the increasingly high cost of customer acquisition has made that goal harder," said Shawn McGowen, CEO at Leather Honey. "We're thrilled that Ownit is reinventing the checkout experience by removing purchase decision friction and making it easier for customers to one-tap buy. This is a big win for an omni-channel brand like ours." About Ownit Ownit's mission is to make commerce at the point of discovery work for brands, creators, and shoppers. Ownit's Connected Checkout links increase conversion for direct-to-consumer brands by enabling a one-tap purchase of any product on social media, email, text, and online ads. Ownit's frictionless checkout experience helps shoppers quickly make the best purchase decision by showing pricing and purchase options all in one place. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ownit is expanding its team and onboarding new brands. For more information and to join the brand launch waitlist, visit www.ownit.co . Media Contact Erin First, Brick Lane Public Relations [email protected] 415-902-5308 SOURCE Ownit ALBUQUERQUE, N..M., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) management will meet with analysts and investors this week in Boston. During the meetings, management is expected to affirm the company's 2022 and 2023 consolidated earnings guidance of $2.50 to $2.60 per diluted share and $2.60 to $2.75 per diluted share, respectively. Presentation materials are available on the company's website at http://www.pnmresources.com/investors/events.cfm. Background: PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) is an energy holding company based in Albuquerque, N.M., with preliminary 2021 consolidated operating revenues of $1.8 billion. Through its regulated utilities, PNM and TNMP, PNM Resources provides electricity to approximately 800,000 homes and businesses in New Mexico and Texas. PNM serves its customers with a diverse mix of generation and purchased power resources totaling 3.1 gigawatts of capacity, with a goal to achieve 100% emissions-free energy by 2040. For more information, visit the company's website at www.PNMResources.com . PNM Resources to Meet with Investors Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 Statements made in this news release for PNM Resources, Inc. ("PNMR"), Public Service Company of New Mexico ("PNM"), or Texas-New Mexico Power Company ("TNMP") (collectively, the "Company") that relate to future events or expectations, projections, estimates, intentions, goals, targets, and strategies, including the preliminary unaudited financial results and earnings guidance, are made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and estimates and apply only as of the date of this report. PNMR, PNM, and TNMP assume no obligation to update this information. Because actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, PNMR, PNM, and TNMP caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. PNMR's, PNM's, and TNMP's business, financial condition, cash flow, and operating results are influenced by many factors, which are often beyond their control, that can cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Additionally, there are risks and uncertainties in connection with the proposed acquisition of us by AVANGRID which may adversely affect our business, future opportunities, employees and common stock, including without limitation, (i) the expected timing and likelihood of completion of the pending Merger, including the timing, receipt and terms and conditions of any remaining required governmental and regulatory approvals of the pending Merger that could reduce anticipated benefits or cause the parties to abandon the transaction, (ii) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement, (iii) the risk that the parties may not be able to satisfy the conditions to the proposed Merger in a timely manner or at all, and (iv) the risk that the proposed transaction could have an adverse effect on the ability of PNMR to retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with its customers and suppliers, and on its operating results and businesses generally. For a discussion of risk factors and other important factors affecting forward-looking statements, please see the Company's Form 10-K, Form 10-Q filings and the information included in the Company's Forms 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which factors are specifically incorporated by reference herein. Non-GAAP Financial Measures GAAP refers to generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. Ongoing earnings is a non-GAAP financial measure that excludes the impact of net unrealized mark-to-market gains and losses on economic hedges, the net change in unrealized gains and losses on investment securities, pension expense related to previously disposed of gas distribution business, and certain non-recurring, infrequent, and other items that are not indicative of fundamental changes in the earnings capacity of the Company's operations. The Company uses ongoing earnings and ongoing earnings per diluted share to evaluate the operations of the Company and to establish goals, including those used for certain aspects of incentive compensation, for management and employees. While the Company believes these financial measures are appropriate and useful for investors, they are not measures presented in accordance with GAAP. The Company does not intend for these measures, or any piece of these measures, to represent any financial measure as defined by GAAP. Furthermore, the Company's calculations of these measures as presented may or may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. The Company uses ongoing earnings guidance to provide investors with management's expectations of ongoing financial performance over the period presented. While the Company believes ongoing earnings guidance is an appropriate measure, it is not a measure presented in accordance with GAAP. The Company does not intend for ongoing earnings guidance to represent an expectation of net earnings as defined by GAAP. Since the future differences between GAAP and ongoing earnings are frequently outside the control of the Company, management is generally not able to estimate the impact of the reconciling items between forecasted GAAP net earnings and ongoing earnings guidance, nor their probable impact on GAAP net earnings without unreasonable effort, therefore, management is generally not able to provide a corresponding GAAP equivalent for ongoing earnings guidance. CONTACTS: Analysts Lisa Goodman (505) 241-2160 Media Ray Sandoval (505) 241-2782 SOURCE PNM Resources, Inc. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) today announced the results of its national survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, which found Americans across party lines overwhelmingly support "commonsense" policies to reduce emissions that cause climate changeranging from tax incentives, to reducing regulatory red tape, to holding foreign countries to their climate commitments. Further, voters continue to support the federal government taking more action to address climate change60 percentwhich includes accelerating the development and use of clean energy70 percent. "Voters want realistic climate solutions and support energy and climate policies authored and championed by many Republicans in Congress. Alternatively, our data show Republican and independent voters oppose heavy-handed policies typically backed by Democrats such as higher fossil fuel taxes and the elimination of natural gas from our energy mix," said Heather Reams, President of CRES. "60 percent of votersincluding 37 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of independentssay the U.S. government should be doing more to address climate change," said Neil Newhouse, co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, who conducted the poll. "The data clearly shows that voters are more likely to support a candidate who endorses 'commonsense' policies addressing climate change and clean energy; that's especially the case for key swing 2022 constituencies." Policies supported by at least 80% of all voters include: Providing tax credits to homeowners to replace home appliances and windows with more energy efficient models. Holding foreign countries, such as China , responsible for their emission-reduction pledges so that they are comparable to U.S. efforts. Providing tax credits for individuals and companies that invest in clean energy generation in the U.S. Reducing regulatory and bureaucratic obstacles to build clean energy infrastructure. Providing tax incentives to businesses to capture carbon emissions. Increasing federal government investing in research & development to accelerate the use of battery storage. "Natural gas stood out as one of the key solutions voters believe can help the U.S. transition to a cleaner economy," Reams continued. "Most Americans say natural gas is affordable, plentiful, reliable, clean and will be an important part of building an energy-independent, all-of-the-above energy mix for decades to come. More than half of Americans oppose banning natural gas for cooking or heating uses in the construction of new family homes. When voters are informed that a natural gas ban 'would result in energy shortages and rising prices,' opposition to the ban surges to 71 percent. "The CRES poll shows a staggering increase in voterseven Republicanswho say their lives have been impacted by climate changea 14 percent increase overall from just one year ago," Reams continued. "And, older Americans say they see the impact, tooa 22 percent jump in 5564-year-olds and 17 percent increase for those 65 and older. Additionally, 82 percent of Americans believe human-caused pollution contributes to climate changeindependents overwhelmingly do at 84 percent, and Republicans at 69 percent. "Finally, our poll reveals 'energy' is the least partisan issue for voters and environmental issues such as climate change is the most partisan issue. The economy remains the top priority for voters. These are significant findings as we approach midterm elections: Republicans who tout commonsense climate solutions, especially those with economic and energy lens, will attract independent voters and not alienate their base," Reams concluded. Find the polling results here. Methodology: These findings are based on results from a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies from February 4-8, 2022. This poll was fielded among 1,000 registered voters nationwide and has a margin of error of +3.53%. Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) engages Republican policymakers and the public about responsible, conservative solutions to address our nation's energy, economic, and environmental security while increasing America's competitive edge. For more information, visit www.CRESenergy.com. SOURCE Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions The market structure is expected to remain fragmented during the forecast period. Vendors are deploying different organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. Various players in the market are engaging in strategic partnerships and joint ventures coupled with launching differentiated products to up their game in the Sarcoma Therapeutics industry. Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, Advenchen Laboratories LLC, Agenus Inc., Agios Inc., Bayer AG, Bristol Myers Squibb Co., CytRx Corp., Eisai Co. Ltd., Epizyme Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Johnson and Johnson Inc., Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc., Mirati Therapeutics Inc., Novartis AG, PharmaMar SA among others are some of the few key vendors competing to maintain their market position in the market. View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings. Key Market Segmentation Segmentation by Type: Soft tissue sarcoma Soft tissue sarcoma therapies account for the majority of the global sarcoma therapeutics market. This is due to the recent introduction of innovative medicines in major markets. In 2020, Novartis' GLEEVEC accounted for around 25% of the market. These medications' strong efficacy and safety characteristics have resulted in growing demand. Clinical investigations have demonstrated that these medications have a high level of efficacy. As a result, the market is seeing an increase in the acceptance of these drugs, which is helping to drive market expansion. Osteosarcoma Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments. Regional Market Outlook North America will contribute to 37% of the market growth during the forecast period. The growth of this region can be attributed to the exponential growth of the sarcoma therapeutics industry owing to the rapidly progressive nature and the severity of the indication. Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, the US, Canada, China, Germany, and the UK will contribute to the highest market growth. Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries. Latest Trends, Driving the Global Home Textile Retail Market Market Driver: Patient assistance programs: In recent years, the number of patient assistance programmers in the worldwide oncology medicines market has increased dramatically. This is attributed to rising therapy costs for various oncology reasons. Because pharmaceuticals account for a considerable portion of the cost structure, the high cost of therapeutics for cancer indications is a big concern for patients. To address this issue and minimize the financial burden on patients, governments and pharmaceutical companies are launching a number of patient assistance programmers. Market Challenge: High treatment costs: Smaller particular markets present a difficulty for vendors, owing to limited distribution methods and a lack of knowledge of local markets in these regions. As a result, global players are forming strategic agreements with small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies that dominate the market in these areas in order to expand medicine availability in local markets. Companies are also forming strategic collaborations to help with the development of novel therapeutics in the clinical stages, as well as the transfer of technology and the regional approval procedure. The high cost, on the other hand, is likely to hamper the market's expansion in the forecast term. Find additional information about various other market drivers & trends mentioned in our FREE sample report . Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report? Want to understand more about the various research methodology? Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players Analyze market regulations Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now ! Related Reports: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Treatment Market in APAC by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Drugs Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Sarcoma Therapeutics Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 9% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 1.18 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 7.8 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 37% Key consumer countries US, Canada, China, Germany, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, Advenchen Laboratories LLC, Agenus Inc., Agios Inc., Bayer AG, Bristol Myers Squibb Co., CytRx Corp., Eisai Co. Ltd., Epizyme Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Johnson and Johnson Inc., Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc., Mirati Therapeutics Inc., Novartis AG, PharmaMar SA, SillaJen Co. Ltd., Athenex Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., and Pfizer Inc. 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 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Market overview Exhibit 01: Executive Summary Chart on Market Overview Exhibit 02: Executive Summary Data Table on Market Overview Exhibit 03: Executive Summary Chart on Global Market Characteristics Exhibit 04: Executive Summary Chart on Market by Geography Exhibit 05: Executive Summary Chart on Market Segmentation by Type Exhibit 06: Executive Summary Chart on Incremental Growth Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 09: Parent market Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 18: Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by Type 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Type Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Type Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Type 5.3 Soft tissue sarcoma - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Soft tissue sarcoma - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Soft tissue sarcoma - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Chart on Soft tissue sarcoma - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Soft tissue sarcoma - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Osteosarcoma - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Osteosarcoma - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Osteosarcoma - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Chart on Osteosarcoma - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Osteosarcoma - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Market opportunity by Type Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by Type ($ million) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 37: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 38: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 40: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 41: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 42: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 43: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 44: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 45: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 47: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 48: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 51: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 52: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 63: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 64: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 67: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 68: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 71: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 72: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 75: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 76: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 78: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 79: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 80: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 81: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 82: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 83: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 84: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 Agios Inc. Exhibit 85: Agios Inc. - Overview Exhibit 86: Agios Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 87: Agios Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 88: Agios Inc. - Segment focus 10.4 Athenex Inc. Exhibit 89: Athenex Inc. - Overview Exhibit 90: Athenex Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 91: Athenex Inc. - Key offerings 10.5 Bayer AG Exhibit 92: Bayer AG - Overview Exhibit 93: Bayer AG - Business segments Exhibit 94: Bayer AG - Key news Exhibit 95: Bayer AG - Key offerings Exhibit 96: Bayer AG - Segment focus 10.6 Eisai Co. Ltd. Exhibit 97: Eisai Co. Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 98: Eisai Co. Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 99: Eisai Co. Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 100: Eisai Co. Ltd. - Segment focus 10.7 Epizyme Inc. Exhibit 101: Epizyme Inc. - Overview Exhibit 102: Epizyme Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 103: Epizyme Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 104: Epizyme Inc. - Segment focus 10.8 GlaxoSmithKline Plc Exhibit 105: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Overview Exhibit 106: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Business segments Exhibit 107: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Key news Exhibit 108: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Key offerings Exhibit 109: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Segment focus 10.9 Johnson and Johnson Inc. Exhibit 110: Johnson and Johnson Inc. - Overview Exhibit 111: Johnson and Johnson Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 112: Johnson and Johnson Inc. - Key news Exhibit 113: Johnson and Johnson Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 114: Johnson and Johnson Inc. - Segment focus 10.10 Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. Exhibit 115: Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. - Overview Exhibit 116: Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. - Key offerings 10.11 Novartis AG Exhibit 117: Novartis AG - Overview Exhibit 118: Novartis AG - Business segments Exhibit 119: Novartis AG - Key offerings Exhibit 120: Novartis AG - Segment focus 10.12 PharmaMar SA Exhibit 121: PharmaMar SA - Overview Exhibit 122: PharmaMar SA - Business segments Exhibit 123: PharmaMar SA - Key news Exhibit 124: PharmaMar SA - Key offerings Exhibit 125: PharmaMar SA - Segment focus 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 126: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 127: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 128: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 129: Research methodology Exhibit 130: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 131: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 132: 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 CANTON, Mass., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- School of Rock , the leader in performance-based music education, is the winner of the 2022 Global Franchise Award for Best Children's Service and Education Franchise for the second year in a row. The Global Franchise Awards also added a new category in 2022, Regional Champions, which was awarded to School of Rock for the Americas Region. "We are proud to be recognized again for our global leadership in child enrichment. Being additionally singled out as the Americas Regional Champion amongst the thousands of concepts in our home region speaks to the power of purpose driving profit," said Rob Price, CEO of School of Rock. "Our extraordinary franchisees, school teams, and corporate support staff remain focused on bringing the transformational experience of performance-based music education and our compelling business model to markets throughout the globe." The Global Franchise Awards, now in its fifth year, seek to honor the most exceptional franchise brands and spread awareness about franchising. The awards School of Rock accepted highlight the brand's highly differentiated model, track record of success and additional global scalability. The multi-award-winning brand currently serves over 52,000 students in 301 School of Rock locations operating in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, South Africa, Australia, Philippines, Paraguay, Colombia, Taiwan and Spain. Additional outlets will open in the coming months in Ireland and Portugal. School of Rock provides revolutionary music education for students of all ages, skill levels, and musical aspirations with patented programs of combined one-on-one lessons and group band practices. The School of Rock program creates an exciting and supportive learning environment for taking various music lessons , music theory classes, and on-stage performances to help students feel comfortable and confident in developing new music techniques. For more information on School of Rock visit www.SchoolofRock.com or call 866-695-5515. To learn more about School of Rock franchise opportunities head to http://franchising.schoolofrock.com/ About School of Rock School of Rock helps aspiring musicians master skills, unleash creativity, and develop tools they need to thrive in life. Founded as a single school in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1998, School of Rock has become a rapidly growing international franchise with over 500 schools open and in development across 15 global markets. Since 2009, School of Rock has grown its student count from 4,000 to 50,000. School of Rock offers a wide variety of music lessons , including guitar lessons , singing lessons and piano lessons . The company also sells musical instruments and music gear through its GearSelect program. School of Rock was awarded US Patent 10,891,872 in 2021 for its innovative music education method. School of Rock also has garnered the following industry awards: 2021 Franchise Innovation Award for Most Innovative Use of Customer-Facing Digital Tools; 2021 Global Franchise's Awards Best Children's Service and Education Franchise; 2022 Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500 Top Children's Music Enrichment Brand; Franchise Business Review's 2021 Top 200 Franchises and Culture 100 list; 2020 Entrepreneur Magazine's Top 200 Franchise and the #1 Child Enrichment Franchise; and 2018 Forbes # 2 Best Franchise Medium-Level Investment Award and the #1 Music Franchise in America. Follow School of Rock on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SchoolofRockUSA and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SchoolofRockUSA . For more information on School of Rock visit www.SchoolofRock.com or call 866-695-5515. To learn more about School of Rock franchise opportunities head to http://franchising.schoolofrock.com/ SOURCE School of Rock PARIS, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS) announced that its Monarch 2 LTE-M/NB-IoT GM02S module, based on the Monarch 2 (SQN3430) chip, has been certified by Deutsche Telekom. Monarch 2 is Sequans' second-generation LTE-M/NB-IoT technology and is designed to support massive IoT applications such as meters, trackers, sensors, and wearables. The Monarch 2 GM02S module delivers ultra-low power consumption, an integrated MCU and application SDK, and a Single-SKU RF front end that supports deployment in any band worldwide. It is fully backwards compatible with Sequans' first-generation Monarch platform. "The certification of Monarch 2 GM02S module supports Deutsche Telekom's commitment to offering world-class connectivity, assuring their IoT customers of high performance and successful business cases," said Didier Dutronc, EVP and head of Sequans massive IoT division. "This new certification expands the reach of our Monarch 2 GM02S module in Europe and adds to the growing list of approvals by network operators around the world." "We are pleased to complete the certification of Sequans' Monarch 2 GM02S module, one of the most advanced cellular IoT connectivity modules available today," said Miguel Rodriguez, Sr. Manager IoT Integration & Validation, Deutsche Telekom. "The GM02S brings future-proof technology which interoperates seamlessly with our 5G massive IoT networks, coupled with differentiations that greatly optimize power consumption." Monarch 2 GM02S Module Product Description Monarch 2 GM02S is the industry's most advanced LTE Cat M1/NB1/NB2 connectivity solution. It is based on Sequans' second-generation Monarch 2 chip platform, which is designed and optimized to support 5G massive IoT. Monarch 2 provides significant improvements in performance and power consumption, while providing seamless migration for Monarch 1 customers because it is based on Sequans' existing LTE-M/NB-IoT protocol stackone of the most mature and proven in the entire LTE ecosystem. Monarch 2 GM02S is the world's first Common Criteria EAL5+ certified cellular IoT platform for integrated SIM (iUICC), providing best-in-class security. Monarch 2 GM02S also includes Sequans' Single-SKU RF front end, supporting deployment in any band worldwide, for true global deployment capability. A low-power application MCU allows customers to port their own code into the module via a feature rich SDK. On top of its ultra-low power consumption, Monarch 2 GM02S utilizes a single rail power supply starting at 2.2 V, the lowest voltage supported by any LTE-M/NB-IoT module in the industry today. See Monarch 2 GM02S and Sequans at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, February 28 March 1, hall 5, stand 5H40. About Sequans Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS) is a leading developer and supplier of cellular IoT connectivity solutions, providing chips and modules for 5G/4G massive and broadband IoT. For 5G/4G massive IoT applications, Sequans provides a comprehensive product portfolio based on its flagship Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT and Calliope Cat 1 chip platforms, featuring industry-leading low power consumption, a large set of integrated functionalities, and global deployment capability. For 5G/4G broadband IoT applications, Sequans offers a product portfolio based on its Cassiopeia Cat 4/Cat 6 4G and high-end Taurus 5G chip platforms, optimized for low-cost residential, enterprise, and industrial applications. Founded in 2003, Sequans is based in Paris, France with additional offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Finland, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Visit Sequans online at www.sequans.com, and follow us on Twitter and Linked-In Sequans media relations: Kimberly Tassin (USA), +1.425.736.0569, [email protected] Sequans investor relations: Kim Rogers (USA), +1 385.831.7337, [email protected] SOURCE Sequans Communications MILWAUKEE, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ademi LLP is investigating First Horizon (NYSE: FHN) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law in its transaction with TD Bank. Click here to learn how to join the action: https://www.ademilaw.com/case/first-horizon-corporation or call Guri Ademi toll-free at 866-264-3995. There is no cost or obligation to you. Ademi LLP alleges First Horizon's financial outlook and prospects are excellent and yet First Horizon shareholders will receive only $25.00 for each common share of First Horizon, representing a total value of approximately $13.4 billion. The merger agreement unreasonably limits competing bids for First Horizon by prohibiting solicitation of further bids, and imposing a significant penalty if First Horizon accepts a superior bid. First Horizon insiders will receive substantial benefits as part of change of control arrangements. We are investigating the conduct of First Horizon's board of directors, and whether they are (i) fulfilling their fiduciary duties to all shareholders, and (ii) obtaining a fair and reasonable price for First Horizon. If you own First Horizon common stock and wish to obtain additional information, please contact Guri Ademi either at [email protected] or toll-free: 866-264-3995, or https://www.ademilaw.com/case/first-horizon-corporation. We specialize in shareholder litigation involving buyouts, mergers, and individual shareholder rights throughout the country. For more information, please feel free to call us. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Contacts Ademi LLP Guri Ademi Toll Free: (866) 264-3995 Fax: (414) 482-8001 SOURCE Ademi LLP MILWAUKEE, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ademi LLP is investigating Healthcare Trust (NYSE: HTA) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law in its transaction with Healthcare Realty. Click here to learn how to join the action: https://www.ademilaw.com/case/healthcare-trust-america-inc or call Guri Ademi toll-free at 866-264-3995. There is no cost or obligation to you. Ademi LLP alleges Healthcare Trust's financial outlook and prospects are excellent and yet Healthcare Trust shareholders will receive only a total implied value of $35.08 per share comprised of a special cash dividend of $4.82 per share and a transaction exchange ratio of 1:1 based on Healthcare Realty's unaffected price of $30.26 on February 24, 2022. The merger agreement unreasonably limits competing bids for Healthcare Trust by prohibiting solicitation of further bids, and imposing a significant penalty if Healthcare Trust accepts a superior bid. Healthcare Trust insiders will receive substantial benefits as part of change of control arrangements. We are investigating the conduct of Healthcare Trust's board of directors, and whether they are (i) fulfilling their fiduciary duties to all shareholders, and (ii) obtaining a fair and reasonable price for Healthcare Trust. If you own Healthcare Trust common stock and wish to obtain additional information, please contact Guri Ademi either at [email protected] or toll-free: 866-264-3995, or https://www.ademilaw.com/case/healthcare-trust-america-inc. We specialize in shareholder litigation involving buyouts, mergers, and individual shareholder rights throughout the country. For more information, please feel free to call us. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Contacts Ademi LLP Guri Ademi Toll Free: (866) 264-3995 Fax: (414) 482-8001 SOURCE Ademi LLP Blackshear, GA (31516) Today Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 91F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. "Creating this role is a meaningful milestone on our diversity and inclusion journey." --Hugh R. Frater, CEO, Fannie Mae Tweet this As one of the largest financial institutions in the world, Fannie Mae has the ability and responsibility to promote a fairer housing system and to combat discriminatory housing policies. With nearly two decades of professional experience in housing, Anderson will lead Fannie Mae's ongoing efforts to create measurable, positive diversity and inclusion outcomes across the enterprise and with Fannie Mae's suppliers, business partners, and the people and communities it serves. "I was proud to work at Fannie Mae early in my career journey, and I am honored and energized to be returning to the company during this pivotal time in the housing industry," said Sharifa A. Anderson. "I look forward to working alongside Fannie Mae's leadership team to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce, and a housing industry that shares Fannie Mae's mission to facilitate equitable and sustainable access to homeownership and rental housing across the country." Prior to Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, Anderson worked as an attorney at Relman Colfax in Fair Lending Counseling and Compliance, at Ballard Spahr in Public Finance and Housing, and in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Office of General Counsel, Finance Division. Earlier in her career, she worked at Fannie Mae as a Senior Business Manager responsible for a variety of affordable housing and community development matters. Anderson holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a Master of Arts in Public Policy from Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Law and Society from Hood College. She is active with the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, where she has served on the Board of Directors and the association's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Group. About Fannie Mae Fannie Mae advances equitable and sustainable access to homeownership and quality, affordable rental housing for millions of people across America. We enable the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and drive responsible innovation to make homebuying and renting easier, fairer, and more accessible. To learn more, visit: fanniemae.com | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Blog Fannie Mae Newsroom https://www.fanniemae.com/news Photo of Fannie Mae https://www.fanniemae.com/resources/img/about-fm/fm-building.tif Fannie Mae Resource Center 1-800-2FANNIE (800-232-6643) SOURCE Fannie Mae NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Shoptalk, the leading U.S. event for retail and ecommerce, announced today that it is on pace to host its biggest event in its 7-year history. Scheduled to take place in just four weeks on March 27-30 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Shoptalk is pacing to exceed 2019 pre-pandemic levels. The record-setting attendance coming out of the pandemic indicates the events industry has rebounded as corporate travel bans are lifted and the retail industry resumes key business travel. More than 600 sponsors and exhibitors have already signed up, and more than 2,500 retailers and brands from 42 countries are already registered to attend. "We are looking forward to welcoming more than 10,000 attendees to `Retail's Big Reunion' at Shoptalk this year," said Rebecca Sausner, General Manager, Shoptalk. "With sponsors like Microsoft, Google, Meta, Salesforce, Amazon, FedEx, Klarna, Shipt, Criteo, Synchrony and other national and enterprise partners eager to return, our mission of connecting the leading retail brands with the knowledge and partners they need is on track to create the biggest, and best, Shoptalk ever," said Katie Dominesey, SVP, Commercial, Shoptalk. A list of all sponsors can be found here . Shoptalk is renowned for bringing the industry's greatest leaders to the keynote stage. Speakers this year include Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber; Fidji Simo, CEO, Instacart; Kath McLay, CEO, Sam's Club; Jamie Salter, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Authentic Brands Group; David Gilboa, co-founder and co-CEO, Warby Parker; Alicia Boler Davis, SVP, Global Customer Fulfillment, Amazon. A list of all speakers can be found here . Shoptalk's signature Hosted Meetings Program, which connects buyers and sellers for double-opt-in 15-minute meetings, will hold more than 9,000 onsite meetings at the event, including more than 1,500 individuals participating from retailers and brands. "I have been going to Shoptalk since its inception and have brought 20+ members of our team every year," said Charlie Cole, CEO of FTD, who is speaking at the event. "There is no other event that creates collisions in an authentic, communal way and for that reason I believe there is no better place to bring your larger team and share in the experience." In addition to the 275+ speakers and 90 content sessions, Shoptalk is renowned for its networking events. This year's roster includes an opening night "Party at the Park;" two exhibit hall receptions; 12+ invitation-only dinners for executives from retailers and brands; ShopHop, a pub-hop experience for retailers and brands; and the finale "White Out Beach Party" headlined by legendary hip-hop artist Flo Rida. Tickets to Shoptalk are available at https://shoptalk.com/us/register. Shoptalk Europe Shoptalk Europe follows Shoptalk taking place just 68 days later on June 6-8 at ExCeL London and is on track to continue Shoptalk's phenomenal trajectory. With 2,500+ attendees, 200+ speakers and 200+ sponsors, Shoptalk Europe is set to be the most important meeting place for the European retail ecosystem. Tickets to Shoptalk Europe are available at https://www.shoptalkeurope.com/register About Shoptalk A Hyve Group plc (LSE: HYVE:LN) event, Shoptalk is widely known for organizing retail's best and fastest growing events, and bringing together thousands of industry changemakers to collaborate at unparalleled scale across a broad range of online and offline use cases and innovative new formats, including Tabletalks, Hosted Meetings and Meetups. Since 2016, Shoptalk has defined the retail industry's community of innovators by bringing established retailers and brands together with direct-to-consumer and tech startups, large tech and Internet companies, venture capital investors, real estate developers, equity analysts, media and others. For more information, visit www.shoptalk.com . SOURCE Shoptalk The market structure is expected to remain fragmented during the forecast period. Vendors are deploying different organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. Various players in the market are engaging in strategic partnerships and joint ventures coupled with launching differentiated products to up their game in the Shunt Reactor Market in APAC. ABB Ltd., ALSTOM SA, Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., Hyundai Motor Group, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Siemens AG, Toshiba Corp., and TSEA among others are some of the few key vendors competing to maintain their market position in the market. View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings. Key Market Segmentation Segmentation by End-User: Power utilities During the projected period, the power utilities segment's shunt reactor market share will expand significantly in APAC. Vendors provide a diverse choice of items in order to broaden the customer base. The design goal for the Hitachi gapped core shunt reactor, for example, is to reduce losses, sound, and vibration. Exceptional and proven field reliability is ensured by robust design and production excellence. During the foreseeable period, such factors will increase the deployment of shunt reactors. Industrials Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments. Regional Market Outlook China will contribute to 36% of the market growth during the forecast period. The market in this region will grow at a slower pace than the markets in India and the rest of APAC. Over the forecast period, the growing demand for shunt reactors across industries such as automotive and manufacturing, as well as power utilities, would aid the shunt reactor market expansion in China. Apart from regions, if we look at the country-wise market growth, China, India, Japan, and the Rest of APAC will contribute to the highest market growth. Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries. Latest Trends, Driving the Global Home Textile Retail Market Market Driver: The increasing industrialization of the developing nations.: Due to significant development potential and inexpensive labor, developing countries such as India, China, and Vietnam are likely to see a surge in the number of industries in the next years. The use of shunt reactors in the region has increased due to increased building and investments in the manufacturing sector in developing countries. For example, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) promised in 2020 that it will spend $1.4 trillion on public digital infrastructure spending programs. Market Challenge: Increasing energy efficiency in varying load-lines: The capacitance between the wires and the earth generates reactive power over long transmission lines. Reactive power can't be used for anything and needs to be balanced to avoid energy losses. Shunt reactors absorb reactive power, boosting the system's energy efficiency. The voltage along the transmission line rises when the load is low. A shunt reactor lowers the voltage growth, keeps it within acceptable limits, and contributes to the system's voltage stability. During the forecast period, such advantages will propel the market forward. Find additional information about various other market drivers & trends mentioned in our FREE sample report . Need More? Are You Looking for Information Not Covered in This Report? Want to understand more about the various research methodology? Evaluate a specific segment or region in detail Identify key suppliers, customers, or other market players Analyze market regulations Tailor this report according to your needs. Get it done with our $1000 worth of free customization. Speak to Our Analyst Now ! Related Reports: Industrial Control Systems Market in Europe by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Power Battery Management System Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Shunt Reactor Market Scope in APAC Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 3.36% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 196.95 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.80 Regional analysis APAC Performing market contribution China at 36% Key consumer countries China, India, Japan, and Rest of APAC Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled ABB Ltd., ALSTOM SA, Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., Hyundai Motor Group, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Siemens AG, Toshiba Corp., TSEA, and Zaporozhtransformator PrJSC 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 1. Executive Summary 1.1 Market Overview Exhibit 01: Key Finding 1 Exhibit 02: Key Finding 2 Exhibit 03: Key Finding 3 Exhibit 04: Key Finding 5 Exhibit 05: Key Finding 6 Exhibit 06: Key Finding 7 2. Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 07: Parent market Exhibit 08: Market Characteristics 2.2 Value Chain Analysis Exhibit 09: Value chain analysis: Electrical components and equipment 2.2.1 Inputs 2.2.2 Inbound logistics 2.2.3 Operations 2.2.4 Outbound logistics 2.2.5 Marketing and sales 2.2.6 Aftermarket and service 2.2.7 Industry innovations 3. Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 10: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 11: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2020 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025 3.4.1Estimating growth rates for emerging and high-growth markets 3.4.2 Estimating growth rates for mature markets Exhibit 12: Global - Market size and forecast 2021 - 2026 (million $) Exhibit 13: Global market: Year-over-year growth 2021 - 2026 (%) 4. Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five Forces Summary 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 14: Bargaining power of the buyer 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 15: Bargaining power of the supplier 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 16: Threat of new entrants 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 17: Threat of substitutes 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 18: Threat of rivalry 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 19: Market condition - Five forces 2021 5. Market Segmentation by End-user 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 20: End-user- Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by End-user Exhibit 21: Comparison by End-user 5.3 Power utilities - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 22: Power utilities- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 23: Power utilities- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Industrials - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 24: Industrials - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 25: Industrials- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Market opportunity by End-user Exhibit 26: Market opportunity by End-user 6. Customer landscape Technavio's customer landscape matrix comparing Drivers or price sensitivity, Adoption lifecycle, importance in customer price basket, Adoption rate and Key purchase criteria Exhibit 27: Customer landscape 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 28: Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 29: Geographic comparison 7.3 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 30: China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 31: China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 34: Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 35: Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Rest of APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: Rest of APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: Rest of APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 38: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8. Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.1.1 Increased industrialization of the developing nations 8.1.2 Expansion and up-gradation of its existing transmission and distribution network 8.1.3 Increasing the energy efficiency of the system 8.2 Market challenges 8.2.1 High initial investment 8.2.2 Mechanical complexity associated with shunt reactor 8.2.3 Overvoltage limitation Exhibit 39: Impact of drivers and challenges 8.3 Market trends 8.3.1 Increasing energy efficiency in varying load lines 8.3.2 Rising investment in renewables energy resources 8.3.3 Evolution of IoT and smart grid projects 9. Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview Exhibit 40: Vendor landscape 9.2 Landscape disruption Exhibit 41: Landscape disruption Exhibit 42: Industry Risk 9.3 Competitive Scenario 10. Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors Covered Exhibit 43: Vendor Landscape 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 44: Market positioning of vendors 10.3 ABB Ltd. Exhibit 45: ABB Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 46: ABB Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 47: ABB Ltd. - Key news Exhibit 48: ABB Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 49: ABB Ltd. - Segment focus 10.4 ALSTOM SA Exhibit 50: ALSTOM SA - Overview Exhibit 51: ALSTOM SA - Business segments Exhibit 52: ALSTOM SA Key news Exhibit 53: ALSTOM SA - Key offerings Exhibit 54: ALSTOM SA - Segment focus 10.5 Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. Exhibit 55: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 56: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 57: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 58: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Segment focus 10.6 Hitachi Ltd. Exhibit 59: Hitachi Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 60: Hitachi Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 61: Hitachi Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 62: Hitachi Ltd. - Segment focus 10.7 Hyundai Motor Group Exhibit 63: Hyundai Motor Group - Overview Exhibit 64: Hyundai Motor Group - Business segments Exhibit 65: Hyundai Motor Group - Key offerings Exhibit 66: Hyundai Motor Group - Segment focus 10.8 Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Exhibit 67: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Overview Exhibit 68: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 69: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 70: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Segment focus 10.9 Siemens AG Exhibit 71: Siemens AG - Overview Exhibit 72: Siemens AG - Business segments Exhibit 73: Siemens AG Key news Exhibit 74: Siemens AG - Key offerings Exhibit 75: Siemens AG - Segment focus 10.10 Toshiba Corp. Exhibit 76: Toshiba Corp. - Overview Exhibit 77: Toshiba Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 78: Toshiba Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 79: Toshiba Corp. - Segment focus 10.11 TSEA Exhibit 80: TSEA - Overview] Exhibit 81: TSEA - Product and service Exhibit 82: TSEA - Key offerings 10.12 Zaporozhtransformator PrJSC Exhibit 83: Zaporozhtransformator PrJSC - Overview Exhibit 84: Zaporozhtransformator PrJSC - Product and service Exhibit 85: Zaporozhtransformator PrJSC - Key offerings 11. Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.1.1 Market definition 11.1.2 Objectives 11.1.3 Notes and caveats 11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 86: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.3 Research Methodology Exhibit 87: Research Methodology Exhibit 88: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 89: Information sources 11.4 List of abbreviations Exhibit 90: 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 MONACO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- View and download images and videos from Silver Origin's naming ceremony. @Silversea officially welcomes #SilverOrigin to the fleet with an expedition-inspired naming ceremony in the Galapagos. Galapagos resident @JoyCarrion was named Godmother of Silver Origin due to her commitment to sustainability. Tweet this Silver Origin's naming ceremony in the Galapagos Securing the future of Galapagos through education rbara Muckermann speaks with Johanna Carrion, Silver Origin's Godmother The importance of conservation in the Galapagos A bottle smashes against Silver Origin's hull during the naming ceremony Silver Origin in the Galapagos Islands Johanna Carrion raises a glass with Captain Karin Chacon Leading ultra-luxury cruise line, Silversea Cruises, christened Silver Origin on February 25, 2022, during an expedition-inspired ceremony in San Cristobal, the Galapagos Islands. Guests took to the water on Silver Origin's Zodiacs, raising a glass as Silversea officially welcomed the ship to its fleet of 10, before Johanna Carrion, esteemed conservationist and permanent resident of the Galapagos Islands, was unveiled as the ship's Godmothera selection that underpins Silversea's long-term commitment to sustainability. Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8948651-silversea-christens-silver-origin-with-expedition-inspired-ceremony-in-galapagos-islands/ A tradition of Royal Caribbean Group, a bagpipe performance initiated the intimate naming ceremony, which marked Jason Liberty's first ship christening as the new President and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group. Liberty co-hosted the event with Roberto Martinoli, President and CEO, Silversea Cruises; Barbara Muckermann, Chief Commercial Officer, Silversea Cruises; and Fernando Delgado, Vice President, Silversea Cruises Ecuador. Escorted by Captain Karin Chacon, Johanna Carrion made her first address to Silver Origin's guests as the ship's Godmother, before Bishop Patricio Bonilla blessed the vessel. "My heartfelt congratulations to the Silversea team on this milestone," said Jason Liberty, President & CEO of the Royal Caribbean Group. "Silversea's efforts to support long-term conservation here in the Galapagos Islands speak to our commitment to the environment. Our approach is built on the mantra that 'respect for the oceans is not a choice, it's a way of life.'" "It was a very proud moment to officially welcome Silver Origin to our fleet," says Roberto Martinoli. "Beyond just visiting the most beautiful corners of our planet, Silversea aims to enrich each destination. This is especially true in the Galapagos Islands. Silver Origin is our strongest means to inspire travellers to safeguard the wellbeing of this beautiful archipelago for future generations. I would like to thank Jason Liberty for joining us as we celebrate this momentous occasion and our colleagues at Royal Caribbean Group for their invaluable support. We are honoured to welcome Johanna Carrion to the extended family as the official Godmother of Silver Origin. Johanna's tireless efforts to champion conservation in the Galapagos make her the perfect ambassador for our cruise line." JOHANNA CARRION: GODMOTHER OF SILVER ORIGIN Raised in the Galapagos Islands and a permanent resident of the archipelago, Johanna Carrion is the Executive Director and CEO of the Scalesia Foundationan educational foundation, supported by Silversea Cruises, that champions the long-term conservation of the Galapagos through education. Silversea selected Carrion for the role of Silver Origin's Godmother due to her unwavering commitment to sustainability and her passion for benefiting future generations with hands-on, conservation-focused education in the Galapagos. Her ethos perfectly aligns with that of Silverseaboth strive to safeguard this treasured destination and its communities. "It is a great honour to be selected as the Godmother of Silver Origin," says Carrion. "Silversea's support for the Scalesia Foundation helps to safeguard the wellbeing of the Galapagos Islands for generations to come. I look forward to strengthening the collaboration between Silversea Cruises and the Scalesia Foundation, as we continue to foster long-term conservation through education on sustainability." THE SILVERSEA FUND FOR THE GALAPAGOS With the long-term aim of safeguarding the Galapagos Islands' fragile ecosystem for future generations, Silversea Cruises launched the Silversea Fund for the Galapagos to support a diverse selection of educational projects each year. The fund strengthens the balance between humans and nature in the Galapagos, as part of a long-term sustainability strategy. In addition to benefiting regional conservation efforts and enhancing their connection with this unique destination, the fund's donors enjoy savings on Silversea's voyages, as the cruise line matches guests' contributions in the form of a Future Cruise Credit. The Scalesia Foundation also receives support from Silversea Cruises. A recent donation from the cruise line will cover 50% of the scholarships for 30 students at the Tomas de Berlanga School, which, operated by the Scalesia Foundation, offers education to inhabitants of the Galapagos Islands with a focus on sustainability principles, teaching students to appreciate and care for the environment in which they live. SILVER ORIGIN: BUILT WITH THE ENVIRONMENT IN MIND Silversea's first destination-specific ship, the 100-guest Silver Origin was built with the environment in mind to unlock immersive experiences for guests in the Galapagos Archipelago, inspiring travellers to form meaningful connections with the destination. Designed with a focus on the pillars of sustainability, destination on board, expedition experience, authentic local culture, and comfort and service, the all-suite, all-balcony Silver Origin welcomes travellers year-round in the unique archipelago. The ship provides guests with the ultimate destination experience, inspired by Silversea's accrued expertise and founded on a deep respect for the fragility of the natural environment, while maintaining the cruise line's trademark quality of service. Silver Origin incorporates state-of-the-art technology, including a dynamic positioning system that protects the delicate seabed and an advanced propulsion system. All suites feature a freshwater purification system that significantly reduce plastic bottle usage. Silversea also offers reef-safe sun block to guests. Watch a video of the Silver Origin naming ceremony: https://youtu.be/ieDO4m43rZghttps://youtu.be/YkxbDCawxU8 Silver Origin media kit: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1c5nkcwudk27ofh/AAAc8oI08RXOFvnJxddK4Duya?dl=0 Read an interview with Silver Origin's Godmother, Johanna Carrion: https://discover.silversea.com/ships/silver-origin/johanna-carrion-godmother/ About Silversea Cruises Silversea Cruises is recognized as an innovator in the ultra-luxury cruise industry, offering guests large-ship amenities aboard its intimate, all-suite vessels: Silver DawnSM, Silver Shadow, Silver Whisper, Silver Spirit, Silver Muse and Silver MoonSM all designed to offer an atmosphere of conviviality and casual elegance. With the inclusion of the expedition ships Silver Origin, Silver Wind, Silver Explorer, and Silver Cloud, Silversea's itineraries encompass all seven continents and feature worldwide luxury cruises to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Galapagos, both Polar Regions, and hundreds of fascinating destinations in between. Silversea is also looking forward to the launch of two new ultra-luxury Nova class ships. Browse Silversea's blog, Discover, and subscribe to receive the latest content directly into your inbox. Silversea Cruises is one of five cruise brands owned by global cruise company Royal Caribbean Group. (NYSE: RCL) About Royal Caribbean Group Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL) is one of the leading cruise companies in the world with a global fleet of 61 ships traveling to more than 800 destinations around the world. Royal Caribbean Group is the owner and operator of three award winning cruise brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises, and it is also a 50% owner of a joint venture that operates TUI Cruises and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. Together, the brands have an additional 12 ships on order as of December 31, 2021. Learn more at www.royalcaribbeangroup.com or www.rclinvestor.com. SOURCE Silversea Cruises LADERA RANCH, Calif., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartStop Asset Management, LLC ("SAM") announced today the portfolio sale of two Class A student housing properties, [email protected] Arbor, located three blocks from the University of Michigan, and [email protected], located two blocks from the University of South Carolina. SAM, through its subsidiary that serves as asset manager, facilitated the $140 million sale of the properties on behalf of the Power 5 Conference Student Housing I DST, a Delaware statutory trust that is one of SAM's investment programs. The sale resulted in a total return of 141% to its DST investors, which was calculated based on the aggregate amount of original capital invested in the property. "We acquired both properties with the intention to implement modest common area upgrades and rebrand the communities to YOUnion Student Living," said SAM Chief Investment Officer John Strockis. "Our team made value-add upgrades that included high-speed Wi-Fi, security cameras, Amazon Hub Lockers and new study rooms in common areas that greatly appealed to our resident base. Both communities averaged 99% occupancy over the hold period. The result of these upgrades and rebranding contributed to the 141% total return to our investors." The 97-unit, 345-bed [email protected] Arbor property is located at 411 E. Washington St. in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The 400-unit, 760-bed [email protected] property is located at 1000 Whaley St. in Columbia, South Carolina. The properties were marketed for sale by Raymond James Investment Banking Group, and were sold to an institutional investor as a portfolio. About SmartStop Asset Management, LLC SmartStop Asset Management, LLC ("SAM") and its affiliates have transacted more than $5.5 billion in office, industrial, retail, self storage, and senior and student housing throughout North America. Contact Julie Leber Spotlight Marketing Communications 949.427.1391 [email protected] SOURCE SmartStop Asset Management, LLC HOUSTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As the conflict in Ukraine continues, and hundreds of thousands flee the country, Sewa International in the USA has started a helpline to assist international students stranded in the country, arranging transportation to the nearest border post, and providing food and shelter during their journey. So far, over 4,000 students have already registered on Sewa International's helpline and the Sewa volunteers are in touch with another 400 people to help them evacuate. Sewa In Action Proposed Evacuation Kit Sewa Europe, an independent partner organization, and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) are working on the ground in ten Ukrainian cities to assist people affected by the war. On February 26, Sewa Europe helped a group of 150 students to travel from Vinnitsa to Chernovtsy by bus. At Chernovtsy Sewa provided them shelter, food, and transport for their onward journey to the Romanian border. "Sewa International is immediately releasing $10,000 for the Ukrainian relief efforts and started a Facebook fundraising campaign to help people who are threatened by this humanitarian crisis. The messages and videos we are getting from the war zone show the fear, anxiety, and danger people are facing as they run to safety. As the global Sewa network rises to face this challenge, I request people to support Sewa International in this rescue effort," Arun Kankani, President, Sewa International, USA said. "The war between Russia and Ukraine has affected all people in the region and caused serious distress in a world that is still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Sewa International in the USA, and, HSS volunteers in Europe, the US, and India are receiving hundreds of messages seeking help from people who are stuck in the war zone," he said. Sewa Europe has released an evacuation checklist to advise people about the most essential items to carry. It lists passport and visa documents, flashlight, five liters of drinking water, match box, winter jacket, sleeping bag, dry fruits and snacks, and COVID-19 vaccine certificates. To register for assistance, Sewa is asking people to fill in the online form at -- https://bit.ly/SewaUkraineHelpline -- and more information related to Sewa's Ukraine relief efforts directing people to their https://linktr.ee/sewaeurope, https://www.facebook.com/SewaEuropeOfficial or https://www.instagram.com/sewaeurope/. According to official estimates, about 18,000 Indian students are studying in universities across Ukraine. Due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, they are currently stranded, facing a severe shortage of food, and are in dire need of transport and shelter. The Indian Embassy in Kyiv is advising these students on how to reach country's western borders to reach Poland, Romania, or Hungary from where they can board Air India flights specially operated by the Indian Government to reach India. About Sewa International Sewa International (www.sewausa.org) is a 501 (c)(3) Hindu faith-based charitable nonprofit that works in the areas of disaster recovery, education, and development. Sewa has 43 Chapters across the USA and serves regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin. CONTACT: Vidyasagar Tontalapur 1 - 720-526-9939 Viswanath Koppaka 1- 404-304-0563 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.sewausa.org SOURCE Sewa International HOUSTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: SMLP) (the "Partnership") announced today that Rommel M. Oates has been appointed to the Board of Directors of its general partner, Summit Midstream GP, LLC (the "Board"). Mr. Oates was appointed on February 28, 2022 as a Class III Director. Mr. Oates is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Oates Energy Solutions LLC and Refinery Calculator Inc. Since 1999, Mr. Oates has been a leading pioneer in helping the world transition to a sustainable future by using hydrogen as its main energy carrier. Mr. Oates has produced 18 patents in the field of hydrogen and is considered by many to be an expert in the area of hydrogen storage. Since 2014, Mr. Oates has served as a board member for the International Association of Hydrogen Energy. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Oates served True North Venture Partners (an Ahearn, Walton, Cox family limited partnership entity) in several capacities. From 2015 to 2016, Mr. Oates held the role of Senior Director of Commercial Development for True North's Management Partners team. Then, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Oates held executive leadership roles in sales, marketing and commercial development for TNVP's portfolio company Aquahydrex Pty Ltd. From 2003 to 2015, Mr. Oates served in various capacities of increasing responsibility with Praxair Inc. (now Linde) including service as Director of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide Product Management, Sr. Account Director for Pipeline and On-Sites, General Business Manager of Praxair Electronics Houston and several Operations and Engineering roles. In addition, Mr. Oates holds an MBA and Master of Finance Degrees from Tulane University as well as a Bachelor of Science Degree (Pi Tau Sigma Honors) and Master's of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Miami, Florida. Heath Deneke, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, commented, "I'm excited to welcome Rommel Oates as the newest Director on Summit's Board. Rommel has an extensive background in clean energy technology and brings a unique perspective to the Board, which will be valuable as we continue to refine our ESG approach, increase engagement in energy transition initiatives and develop our inaugural sustainability report, which will be published later this year. Rommel has a successful track record of using his expertise and creativity to create impactful solutions and I look forward to working with him in his new role to create long-term value for our stakeholders." About Summit Midstream Partners, LP SMLP is a value-driven limited partnership focused on developing, owning and operating midstream energy infrastructure assets that are strategically located in the core producing areas of unconventional resource basins, primarily shale formations, in the continental United States. SMLP provides natural gas, crude oil and produced water gathering, processing and transportation services pursuant to primarily long-term, fee-based agreements with customers and counterparties in six unconventional resource basins: (i) the Appalachian Basin, which includes the Utica and Marcellus shale formations in Ohio and West Virginia; (ii) the Williston Basin, which includes the Bakken and Three Forks shale formations in North Dakota; (iii) the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which includes the Niobrara and Codell shale formations in Colorado and Wyoming; (iv) the Permian Basin, which includes the Bone Spring and Wolfcamp formations in New Mexico; (v) the Fort Worth Basin, which includes the Barnett Shale formation in Texas; and (vi) the Piceance Basin, which includes the Mesaverde formation as well as the Mancos and Niobrara shale formations in Colorado. SMLP has an equity method investment in Double E Pipeline, LLC, which provides interstate natural gas transportation service from multiple receipt points in the Delaware Basin to various delivery points in and around the Waha Hub in Texas. SMLP also has an equity method investment in Ohio Gathering, which operates extensive natural gas gathering and condensate stabilization infrastructure in the Utica Shale in Ohio. SMLP is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes certain statements concerning expectations for the future that are forward-looking within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may project, indicate or imply future results, events, performance or achievements and may contain the words "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions, or future conditional verbs such as "may," "will," "should," "would," and "could." In addition, any statement concerning future financial performance (including future revenues, earnings or growth rates), ongoing business strategies and possible actions taken by us or our subsidiaries are also forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements also contain known and unknown risks and uncertainties (many of which are difficult to predict and beyond management's control) that may cause SMLP's actual results in future periods to differ materially from anticipated or projected results. An extensive list of specific material risks and uncertainties affecting SMLP is contained in its 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 28, 2022, as amended and updated from time to time. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and SMLP undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information or events. SOURCE Summit Midstream Partners, LP CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE: TDS) and United States Cellular Corporation (NYSE: USM) are attending the following conferences. Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference Webcast on March 7, 2022 at 4:15 pm ET LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr., TDS President and CEO and Jane W. McCahon, TDS Senior Vice President-Corporate Relations, will attend. The presentation will be webcast both live and on-demand. Raymond James 43rd Annual Institutional Investors Conference Webcast on March 7, 2022 at 3:25 ET James W. Butman, TDS Telecom President and CEO, Douglas W. Chambers, UScellular Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, and Colleen Thompson, TDS Vice President-Corporate Relations, will attend. The presentation will be webcast both live and on demand. Deutsche Bank 30th Annual Media, Internet & Telecom Conference March 14, 2022 Vicki L. Villacrez, TDS' Incoming Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Eric Jagher, UScellular Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, and Colleen Thompson, TDS Vice President-Corporate Relations, will attend. The companies will be holding a series of meetings on March 14, 2022. To listen to all presentations, please visit the events and presentations pages of investors.tdsinc.com or investors.uscellular.com. The presentation will be webcast both live and on-demand. It is recommended that you register at least 15 minutes before the start of the presentation to register, download and install any necessary multimedia streaming software. About TDS Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (TDS), a Fortune 1000 company, provides wireless; cable and wireline broadband, video and voice; and hosted and managed services to approximately 6 million connections nationwide through its businesses, UScellular, TDS Telecom, BendBroadband and OneNeck IT Solutions. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, TDS employed 8,800 people as of December 31, 2021. For more information about TDS and its subsidiaries, visit: TDS: www.tdsinc.com UScellular: www.uscellular.com TDS Telecom: www.tdstelecom.com OneNeck IT Solutions: www.oneneck.com SOURCE Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. and United States Cellular Corporation In recent years, the aviation industry has experienced substantial growth. Growing job mobility, business meetings, improved global economic conditions, migration, and increased tourism have significantly contributed to the growth of the aviation industry. Air travel is the fastest means of transit and low-cost carriers have made it more economical. Moreover, escalating demand for air cargo owing to its fast delivery time and excellent global connectivity is likely to boost product adoption through the forecast period. Request for Sample Report: https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/4618 Business jets are witnessing an upsurge in demand on account of rising number of private jet fleets worldwide and increasing globalization. Tubeless tires are commonly used in business jets because they are more reliable than tube-type tires. These tires, on the other hand, can be employed by both biased and radial tires to suit the requirements of business jet manufacturers. Owing to these factors, the business aircraft segment is projected to see robust expansion at a CAGR of around 5.4% through the assessment timeline. From the end-user perspective, the aftermarket segment is set to account for a staggering share of about 99% in the global aircraft tires market by the end of 2028 due to the short landing cycle of most commercial aircraft. MRO for aviation tires makes up for the majority of the aftermarket industry. It covers aircraft tire replacement and retreading. When compared to replacing aircraft tires with new ones, retreading is more cost-effective, which is estimated to boost product uptake. Key reasons for aircraft tires market growth: Prevalent application in commercial and business jets. Recent technological advancements in aircraft tires. High importance in aircraft maintenance & repair. Proliferating aircraft tires sector in Asia Pacific . 2028 forecasts show the 'tubeless tires' segment retaining its dominance: Based on product, the tubeless tires segment held the largest share in the global aircraft tires market and is slated to progress at a CAGR of more than 3.4% over the study period. Extensive application of tubeless tires in business jets is set to fuel product demand in the forthcoming years. Asia Pacific to continue its top status in terms of revenue: Based on region, the Asia Pacific aircraft tires industry is set to progress at around 3.9% CAGR over the forecast period on account of rising aircraft deliveries across major countries in the region. Increasing number of low-cost aircraft carriers in China, South Korea, India, and Indonesia would accelerate the demand for aircraft tires in these nations, which is likely to further support regional market growth in the upcoming years. Impact of COVID-19 on the aircraft tires market: The aviation industry witnessed a steep drop in demand for passenger air travel owing to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown measures. Moreover, considerable drop in business travel amidst the pandemic adversely affected the industry. However, the industry has showcased robust recovery and is gradually reaching pre-pandemic demand levels. Additionally, ongoing easing of domestic and international travel restrictions across the world has also been favorable for the growth of the aircraft tires industry. Request for the customization of this report: https://www.gminsights.com/roc/4618 Leading market players: Key players operating in the aircraft tires market include Sentury Tire Co., Ltd., Goodyear, Wilkerson Company, Inc., Desser Holdings LLC., Petlas, Dunlop, Michelin, Bridgestone, Aviation Tires & Treads LLC., and Specialty Tires of America, among others. Related Report: Air Defense System Market Statistics and Revenue Impact Analysis - 2027 Satellite Launch Vehicle Market Statistics and Revenue Impact Analysis - 2027 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, growth consulting and business intelligence services, Global Market Insights Inc. aims to help clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data that aid in strategic decision making. Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights Inc. Phone: +1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.gminsights.com SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc. The new 25,000 sq. ft. clinic located in Chicago's West Loop will offer patients access to the latest dental care technology. The TAG Oral Care Center will be operated by a team of dentists and dental support staff who will serve an estimated 2,500 qualifying patients each year. The free services provided to qualifying patients at the TAG Oral Care Center will include comprehensive dental procedures. "Our mission has always been to break down barriers to health care and bring better care to more people," said Bob Fontana, chairman and CEO of TAG. "When we moved our headquarters to Chicago in 2018, we knew we wanted to bring that same care to the underserved communities here as well and we are confident the service provided at the TAG Oral Care Center will help change people's lives and serve those who, for far too long, haven't had access to quality dental care." New Executive Director Appointed to Lead TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence Newly appointed executive director Julie Frantsve-Hawley, Ph.D., CAE, will be part of the expert team tasked with advancing the new TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence. Dr. Frantsve-Hawley trained at Harvard University and has more than 20 years of extensive experience in public health dentistry and research. Prior to leading the Center, she served as director of analytics and evaluation for the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, and previously, she served as the executive director of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry. She is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Temple University's Kornberg School of Dentistry. "Oral care is essential to overall health, but the reality is many people struggle to access routine dental services, allowing potentially dangerous conditions to remain untreated," said Dr. Frantsve-Hawley. "The TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence will fill this critical gap for thousands of underserved patients in Illinois, and I am certain our work will give both our patients and the providers who we support something to smile about." Under Dr. Frantsve-Hawley's leadership, and in conjunction with a clinical faculty of dentists and dental specialists, the TAG Oral Care Center will educate hundreds of licensed dentists from independently owned Aspen Dental and ClearChoice Dental Implant practices across the U.S. in the most advanced dental technologies and clinical procedures. Illinois Legislators Support Expanded Access to Oral Health In 2021, the state passed a new law that expanded the opportunity for licensed dentists to provide free care to underserved Illinois residents through education and training programs. Chief sponsors of the new law were Representative Lakesia Collins (D-Chicago) and Senator Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago), the Senate's Majority Caucus Chair. "I was honored to sign on as lead House sponsor for this important legislation to put an Oral Care Center in my district," said Rep. Collins. "This clinic will help fill a massive need on Chicago's West Side for many veterans and other residents who struggle to access quality dental care." "A key pillar of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is health care," said Sen. Hunter. "Studies show lack of dental care in underserved neighborhoods is associated with problems with people's overall health. More services in the community, like the TAG Oral Care Center, will help meet the Caucus' goal of equitable access to medical treatment for everyone." A Long History of Giving Back to Communities TAG has a long, proud history of breaking down barriers to accessing quality, affordable dental care in local communities and around the world. This includes the company's Day of Service which makes free dental care available to U.S. veterans who are otherwise ineligible for dental benefits from the Veterans Administration unless they are 100% disabled, have a service-related mouth injury, or were a prisoner of war. Since 2014, through the company's Health Mouth Movement and Day of Service, independent doctors and their dental care teams from Aspen Dental offices across the country have donated more than $23 million in dental care to more than 30,000 veterans and people in need. In addition, the company hosts an annual Overseas Outreach trip, which brings quality dental care to underserved countries around the world through the volunteer services of Aspen Dental doctors and dental care teams across the nation. "Through the Healthy Mouth Movement, our annual Day of Service, and our Overseas Outreach program, independent Aspen Dental doctors and care teams have provided comprehensive dental care to patients and communities across the country and around the world for nearly a decade," said Arwinder Judge, DDS, chief clinical officer for Aspen Dental. "Providing better care to more people has been our mission from the start, and the TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence brings that mission to life in a meaningful way, in the heart of Chicago." About TAG - The Aspen Group TAG was built on the simple idea of bringing better health care to more people. TAG and the independent health care practices it supports operate more than 1,100 locations in 45 states through its four healthcare support companies: Aspen Dental, ClearChoice, WellNow and ChapterSM. Combined, the companies serve more than 35,000 patients a day and more than 8 million patients each year. TAG is headquartered at 800 W. Fulton Market in Chicago. For more information, visit teamtag.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. SOURCE TAG - The Aspen Group Thinking Thoughts In my thinking thoughts, I painfully digested news of the passing of Professor Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer, and how the West African nation of Liberia would soon be gathered to reminisce and cement the legacy of an erudite astute statesman. But the thought which rudely awakened me was three of few encounters with Dr. Sawyer which united both of us via the 7th stanza of Isaac Watts great 17th Century Gospel hymn, O God our help in Ages Past Our Hope for Years to Come, which states: 7 Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opning day You see, I had never gotten closer to President Dr. Sawyer until he began to fly SN Brussels as a private citizen less the heavy security and detailed diplomatic protocols. The three encounters with the Professor left indelible marks on my heart regarding the true chemistry of a true down-to-earth leader and proven advocate for equality and social justice. Our first flight from Brussels to Liberia was canceled because the pilots declared one of the cockpit windshields defective. It was while waiting for the announcement that I got acquainted with Dr. sawyer. I have heard the name Blonkanjay Jackson but was unable to match this face with it. Guess you are from Rivercess Yes, I responded wondering how he knew. Now I am satisfied that I have met you after reading and thinking about your thinking thoughts articles. He smiled and spoke as I were an important person. As we parted ways to our separate hotels I was amazed by the humility from a whole President to afford somebody like me at my little level, an opportunity to chat with him. Lord have mercy! Our second coincidental meeting in Brussels was episodic. A few hours after the plane took flight, the pilot announced that one of the engines was leaking fuel and he was diverting to Toulouse, France, for an emergency landing. Blood of Jesus! Albeit, amidst the melee and fear, a passenger garnered strength and raised a hymn that reverberated all over the plane including the First Class cabin: O God our Help in Ages Past, Our Hope for Years to Come. The seventh stanza, Time like a rolling stream soon bears all its sons away, gave everybody a serious face and we sang that stanza with so much zeal, solemnity, and reverence that had Jesus arrived that day, scores of edified souls would have been saved. Dr. Sawyer must have sung along as well. When the plane eventually got repaired and landed in Liberia the next day, Dr. Sawyer said to me, Blonkanjay, I will not fly with you again, Me too, I said, and we both burst out laughing, shook hands, and said our goodbyes. A year later when we met on President Sirleafs farm for a cabinet retreat: Blonkanjay, you are Assistant Minister in this Government?, as if the position was too small for me. Yes oh, Prof. I am here Next question, when are you flying? I knew what he wanted to say, so I simply replied Soon, but I will not tell you, Prof. We burst out laughing again as other government officials looked on wondering what was so funny that a highly prestigious ex-president would be mingling with a petit Assistant Minister from the notoriously underdeveloped Rivercess county. You see, fellow Liberians, when Time bears its best and brightest away, it leaves us empty, confused, distraught, and woeful. At times, it bears away the most famous leaders, leaving the haughty, notorious brats; it often bears away the true advocates for social and political justice and leaves the fake political chauvinists and bigots. Time usually bears away the breadwinner of a family and leaves the corrupt bread consumers. Whatever way time decides, it will eventually bear us all away someday, somehow. Now, note that Time, like a rolling stream did not bear any of its sons away on that SN Brussels flight at that moment, but it returned years later and has borne away one of Africas brightest and Liberias foremost sons, the Ex-President, Professor Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer. Time has borne away, a proven lifelong advocate for political and social justice; an astute statesman, an exemplary humble leader; an ecumenical mentor whose counsel knows no bound; a man, calm in demeanor but deep in action, and sagacious in decision-making; a scholar, an architect of intelligence; the greatest politician of our time. As I search my imperfect human agency, I am not sure if Dr. Sawyer responded to Master Jesus final call with reluctance or gladly packed up and joined the throng waiting at the foot of the cross to be conveyed to the celestial shores. I am not sure if Dr. Sawyer would have loved to part ways with his fellow progressives and advocates for social justice such as Comrades Dr. Togbah Nah Tipoteh, Dr. Togar McCintosh Gayewea, Dr. Dogbeh Nyan, Alaric Tokpa, Anthony Kesselly, Dusty Wollokollie, Samuel Jackson, Kofi Woods, and Tiawon Gongloe. I am not sure if Dr. Sawyer chose to depart at a time when a nation shakes at its foundations over gubernatorial confusion. A country where poverty is rife; where the political actors demonstrate gross immaturity each day; a nation where disgruntled citizens frequently launch protests, immolate themselves, threaten suicide by prostrating under vehicles for justifiable entitlements; a nation where the alternatives for diluting protests is via the sting of police tear gas; a nation where allegations of rampant corruption in high places with impunity is a tradition. I am not sure if Dr. Sawyer chose to take flight while the inauguration of the next President of the Republic is only months away; I am not sure if Dr. Sawyer chose to leave the stage as student groups are gearing up and perched to make their presence felt in the next political dispensation when masses-cracy would be the mantra of the day. Ah yes, death! Now, suffice it to say Prof Sawyer chose to depart with acquiescence. Maybe it was to join ranks with his fellow advocates who earlier departed: Comrades Wuo Garbbie Tappia, Weewee Debbah, Gabriel Baccus Matthews, Thomas Youcontee Woewiyou, Oscar Quiah, et al., to embolden their successors, or maybe it was to simply move from labor to rest at the Saviors feet to intercede for a nation bridled otherwise. Fellow compatriots, as one of Africa and Liberias best and brightest, is being borne away by time, with extreme sadness at heart, but with victorious dispositions and spirits, we say well-done Professor, you won. Yes, you won the battle, Prof Sawyer. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55 -57). Professor Sawyer, your fight as a progressive, was daunting yet productive. We salute you, Prof, as a Freedom Fighter in the true sense of the word. We honor you as the foremost exemplary shepherd. We pray that the Compassionate Savior will open his arms and say well done my good and faithful servant for you were truly a servant of Gods people. Albeit Doc, Good night. Sleep well shepherd, your flock will forever celebrate your legacy and concomitantly miss you. But wait a minute Prof. As you approach the first heavenly gate, do not forget to raise the powerful hymn we sang on that episodic SN Brussels flight the day we connected, noting the 7th stanza, Time Like a Rolling Stream Bears Its Sons away My people please join Dr. Sawyer in singing the hymn as he embarks upon his last journey. O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home. Under the shadow of Thy throne Thy saints have dwelt secure; Sufficient is Thine arm alone, And our defense is sure. Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame, From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same. Thy Word commands our flesh to dust, Return, ye sons of men: All nations rose from earth at first, And turn to earth again. A thousand ages in Thy sight Are like an evening gone; Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun. The busy tribes of flesh and blood, With all their lives and cares, Are carried downwards by the flood, And lost in follwing years. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opning day. Like flowry fields the nations stand Pleased with the morning light; The flowrs beneath the mowers hand Lie withring ere tis night. O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Be Thou our guard while troubles last, And our eternal home. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Congressman G.K. Butterfield (NC-1), a Co-Chair of the Rare Disease Congressional Caucus and 24th Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, introduced a resolution recognizing the extraordinary challenges faced by patients of color with rare diseases and the need to identify and promote evidence-based solutions to alleviate the disproportionate burden of rare diseases on these communities, as well as supporting Rare Disease Day. Congressman Bobby Rush (IL-1) also expressed support for the advocates, medical professionals, and caregivers who dedicate their lives to providing resources to those diagnosed with rare diseases and recognized the Rare Disease Diversity Coalition (RDDC) for their efforts. Both Congressmen are poised to read statements into the Congressional Record on Rare Disease Day bringing to light the specific challenges faced by persons of color living with rare disease. Rare Disease Diversity Coalition The goal of Rare Disease Day is to raise public awareness about the estimated 25-30 million Americans who have been diagnosed with rare diseases. A disease is considered rare when it affects fewer than 200,000 people. It is estimated that the rare disease community is comprised of over 7,000 individual diseases, and rare disease patients of color, in particular, experience profound effects from health inequities. The global observance takes place on the last day of February each year. In observance of Rare Disease Day, the RDDC will host a series of virtual conversations consisting of two panels on February 28th beginning at 12:00 noon (EST). The first panel, "Knowledge is Power", features a conversation with famed brothers Lahmard, Larenz, and Larron Tate on sickle cell and other rare diseases. The second panel "How to Advocate for Your Health as a BIPOC Patient", will focus on how to get access to early detection and treatment options for rare diseases. These virtual conversations will be publicly available here. "The Black Women's Health Imperative and RDDC applaud Congressmen Butterfield and Rush as they join us in supporting Rare Disease Day. We will continue fighting to ensure that rare disease patients of color have access to the quality care and resources they need," said Tammy Boyd, JD, MPH, leader of the RDDC initiative and Black Women's Health Imperative's Chief Policy Officer & Counsel. About the Rare Disease Diversity Coalition An estimated 25-30 million -- nearly 1 in 10 -- Americans have a rare disease. For rare disease patients of color, racial disparities have caused a crisis. Launched in May 2020 by the Black Women's Health Imperative, the RDDC was formed to identify and advocate for evidence-based solutions to alleviate the disproportionate burden a rare disease places on communities of color. For more information on the RDDC's work visit: https://www.rarediseasediversity.org . About the Black Women's Health Imperative The Black Women's Health Imperative is the first and only national non-profit organization created for and by Black women dedicated to improving the health and wellness of our nation's 22 million Black women and girls -- physically, emotionally, and financially. Our core mission is advancing health equity and social justice for Black women, across the lifespan, through policy, advocacy, education, research, and leadership development. For more information on Black Women's Health Imperative visit: https://bwhi.org/ For Media Inquiries: Zach Sentementes Rare Disease Diversity Coalition [email protected] (202) 909-5653 SOURCE Rare Disease Diversity Coalition DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Cap Applicator Market Size, Trends & Growth Opportunity, By Machine Type, By Cap Type, By End Use, By Region and Forecast till 2027." report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Cap Applicator Market was valued at USD 1.6 billion in 2020 which expected to reach at USD 2.5 billion by 2027 at a CAGR 5.6% from 2020-2027. A cap applicator is defined as closing equipment that is used to seal different types of packages such as bottles & other containers. Different cap applicators are available in the market for different closures with different designs & sizes. They are mainly used to seal bottles filled with dairy/ liquid products. The capping equipment can be classified into three categories which include, semi-automatic capping machines, automatic capping machines, and handheld capping machines. Food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, personal care, consumer products, and others are some of the major end-users of the cap applicator. Market Drivers The increase in food & beverage industry with the growing demand for packaged food products is expected to boost the global cap applicator market over the forecast period. Cap applicator is used to packaged beverages & other food products in order to maintain the freshness until the time of opening. For instance, as per the information provided by the India Brand Equity Foundation, the Indian food processing industry accounts for 32% of the country's total food market, one of the largest industries in India & is ranked 5th in terms of production, consumption, export and expected growth. The booming packaging industry, especially across developing nations, is expected to augment the market growth of the cap applicator during the forecast timeframe. In addition, due to the technological advancements in the food & beverage industry, such as in packaging machinery which includes combo-machines of rinsing, liquid fillers, and capping, the cap applicators market is highly influenced in terms of growth & demand for these applicators. Thus, the food & beverage industry will act as the major growth driver in the cap applicators market in the near future. Market Restraints Long-life cycle and low replacement rate for cap applicators is expected to impact the profitability of the manufacturer resulting in lower sales volume for packaging manufacturers, which expected to hinder the overall sales of cap applicators, in the long run, thereby hindering the growth of the global cap applicator market over the forecast period. Market Segmentation The Global Cap Applicator Market is segmented into machine type such as Automatic Capping Machine, Semi-automatic Capping Machine, Hand-held Capping Machines, by cap type such as Roll On Pilfers Proof (ROPP), Screw Caps, Snap-on Caps, Crown Caps, and Corks. Further, market is segmented into application such as Food & Beverages, Pharmaceutical, Personal Care, Consumer Products, and Others. Regional Analysis Also, the Global Cap Applicator Market is segmented into five regions such as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa. APAC region dominated the global cap applicators market in 2020 due to the growing applications of cap applicator packaging in various industries such as food and beverages, pharmaceutical and home care in this region. Key Players Crown Holdings, Closure System International, Krones AG, Tecnocap Group, Federal Mfg. Co., E-PAK Machine Type, Inc., Bosch Packaging Technology, Accutek Packaging Equipment Companies, Inc., IC FILLING SYSTEMS Ltd., etc. Key Questions Addressed by the Report What are the Key Opportunities in Global Cap Applicator Market? What will be the growth rate from 2020 to 2027? Which segment/region will have highest growth? What are the factors that will impact/drive the Market? What is the competitive Landscape in the Industry? What is the role of key players in the value chain? Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Global Cap Applicator Market Outlook 4.1 Overview 4.2 Market Dynamics 4.2.1 Drivers 4.2.2 Restraints 4.2.3 Opportunities 4.3 Porters Five Force Model 4.4 Value Chain Analysis 5 Global Cap Applicator Market, By Machine Type 5.1 Y-o-Y Growth Comparison, By Machine Type 5.2 Global Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Machine Type 5.3 Global Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Machine Type 5.3.1 Automatic Capping Machine 5.3.2. Semi-automatic Capping Machine 5.3.3. Hand-held Capping Machines 6 Global Cap Applicator Market, By Cap Type 6.1 Y-o-Y Growth Comparison, By Cap Type 6.2 Global Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Cap Type 6.3 Global Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Cap Type 6.3.1 Roll On Pilfer Proof (ROPP) Caps 6.3.2 Screw Caps 6.3.3. Snap-On Caps 6.3.4. Crown Caps 7 Global Cap Applicator Market, By End User 7.1 Y-o-Y Growth Comparison, By End User 7.2 Global Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By End User 7.3 Global Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By End User 7.3. 1 Food & Beverages 7.3.2. Pharmaceutical 7.3.3. Personal Care 7.3.4. Consumer Products 7.3.5 Others 8 Global Cap Applicator Market, By Region 8.1 Global Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Region 8.2 Global Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Region 8.3 Global Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Region 9 North America Cap Applicator Market Analysis and Forecast (2021-2027) 9.1 Introduction 9.2 North America Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Machine Type 9.3 North America Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Cap Type 9.4 North America Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By End User 9.5 North America Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Country 9.5.1 U.S. 9.5.2 Canada 9.5.3 Mexico 10 Europe Cap Applicator Market Analysis and Forecast (2021-2027) 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Europe Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Machine Type 10.3 Europe Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Cap Type 10.4 Europe Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By End User 10.5 Europe Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Country 10.5.1 Germany 10.5.2 France 10.5.3 UK 10.54. Rest of Europe 11 Asia Pacific Cap Applicator Market Analysis and Forecast (2021-2027) 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Asia Pacific Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Machine Type 11.3 Asia Pacific Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Cap Type 11.4 Asia Pacific Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By End User 11.5 Asia Pacific Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Country 11.5.1 China 11.5.2 Japan 11.5.3 India 11.5.4. Rest of Asia Pacific 12 Latin America Cap Applicator Market Analysis and Forecast (2021-2027) 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Latin America Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Machine Type 12.3 Latin America Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Cap Type 12.4 Latin America Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By End User 12.5 Latin America Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, Country 12.5.1. Brazil 12.5.2. Rest of Latin America 13 Middle East Cap Applicator Market Analysis and Forecast (2021-2027) 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Middle East Cap Applicator Market Share Analysis, By Machine Type 13.3 Middle East Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Cap Type 13.4 Middle East Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By End User 13.5 Middle East Cap Applicator Market Size and Forecast, By Country 13.5.1. Saudi Arabia 13.5.2. UAE 13.5.3. Egypt 13.5.4. Kuwait 13.5.5. South Africa 14 Competitive Analysis 14.1 Competition Dashboard 14.2 Market share Analysis of Top Vendors 14.3 Key Development Strategies 15 Company Profiles 15.1 Crown Holdings 15.1.1 Overview 15.1.2 Offerings 15.1.3 Key Financials 15.1.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.1.5 Key Market Developments 15.1.6 Key Strategies 15.2. Closure System International 15.2.1 Overview 15.2.2 Offerings 15.2.3 Key Financials 15.2.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.2.5 Key Market Developments 15.2.6 Key Strategies 15.3. Krones AG 15.3.1 Overview 15.3.2 Offerings 15.3.3 Key Financials 15.3.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.3.5 Key Market Developments 15.3.6 Key Strategies 15.4 Tecnocap Group 15.4.1 Overview 15.4.2 Offerings 15.4.3 Key Financials 15.4.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.4.5 Key Market Developments 15.4.6 Key Strategies 15.5 Federal Mfg. Co 15.5.1 Overview 15.5.2 Offerings 15.5.3 Key Financials 15.5.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.5.5 Key Market Developments 15.5.6 Key Strategies 15.6 E-PAK Machine Type, Inc 15.6.1 Overview 15.6.2 Offerings 15.6.3 Key Financials 15.6.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.6.5 Key Market Developments 15.6.6 Key Strategies 15.7 Bosch Packaging Technology 15.7.1 Overview 15.7.2 Offerings 15.7.3 Key Financials 15.7.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.7.5 Key Market Developments 15.7.6 Key Strategies 15.8 Accutek Packaging Equipment Companies, Inc 15.8.1 Overview 15.8.2 Offerings 15.8.3 Key Financials 15.8.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.8.5 Key Market Developments 15.8.6 Key Strategies 15.9 IC FILLING SYSTEMS Ltd 15.9.1 Overview 15.9.2 Offerings 15.9.3 Key Financials 15.9.4 Business Segment & Geographic Overview 15.9.5 Key Market Developments 15.9.6 Key Strategies For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4l7zqq 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 DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Potato Starch Market by Type (Native, Modified), End-User (Food & Beverages, Feed, and Industrial), Nature (Conventional, Organic), and Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Rest of the World) - Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global potato starch market is estimated to be valued at USD 4.3 billion in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 5.2 billion by 2027, recording a CAGR of 3.7% during the forecast period. Starch is a polymeric carbohydrate that consists of a large number of glucose units. Potato starch has larger (oval and spherical) starch granules than the other major starches. Potato starch starts to bind water at a lower temperature compared to other starches. Potato starch helps normalize blood sugar. A scientific study published in the journal of Diabetic Medicine in 2010 investigated whether or not the consumption of resistant starch could help people struggling with metabolic syndrome. However, potato starch does not contain significant amounts of vitamins or minerals. In terms of essential nutrients, it only contains one essential nutrient, which is carbohydrates. Asia Pacific is projected to witness a growth of 4.73% during the forecast period The potato starch market in Asia Pacific is growing at a CAGR of 4.6% due to the rising demand in large economies, such as China, India, Japan, and other Southeast Asian countries. The industrial organization and technology of starch processing are changing rapidly in Asia Pacific. Unlike other regions where starch is processed almost entirely by large companies, in Asia Pacific, starch processing is done by small and medium-sized firms. Historically, native starch has been largely used for food products in the Asia Pacific region. The industrial applications and technologies involved in starch processing are changing rapidly in the Asia Pacific countries. Potato starch is increasingly being demanded by various industries in the region and these industries are incorporating modified potato starches in their manufacturing processes and products. The conventional potato starch dominates the market with 83.4% of total market share in terms of value Conventional potato starch dominates the market with 83.4% of the total market share in terms of value. As of the FDA's 2017 annual summary report, in conventional agriculture within the US, antibiotic use is on the decline: the use of medically necessary antimicrobials in food-producing animals had dropped 43% from its peak in 2015 when about 80% of antibiotics sold in the US were intended for use in animal agriculture. Organic potato starch is costly; it includes genetically modified organisms, conventional pesticides, herbicides, petroleum-based and sewage-sludge-based fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones, and irradiation, which results in the growth of conventional products. The flourishing textile & paper industry is expected to fuel the conventional segment. Modified starches are used to remove the constraints of food applications In food, the aim of modified starches is to remove the constraints of food applications (for example, in cooking, freezing/thawing, canning, or sterilization) and make the ingredients compatible with modern food processing. Modified starches are used, for example in food products that need to be microwaved, freeze-dried, cooked at high temperatures, or baked and fried so that the texture of such foods does not change during the cooking process. Modified potato starches are used in chips, canned soups, cheese sauces, powder-coated foods (cocoa-dusted almonds), and candies. Starch is a binder used especially for sauces or soups, but it is not stable and releases water after long storage in the fridge. The common objective of most of these transformations is to limit the natural tendency of the starch to remove the water. During the cooking of soup, for example, the native starch is hydrated in contact with water. The starch granules expand and the viscosity of the solution increases, giving it a particular texture. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 4.1 Attractive Opportunities in the Potato Starch Market 4.2 Potato Starch Market: Major Regional Submarkets 4.3 Asia-Pacific: Potato Starch Market, by Key Application & Country 4.4 Potato Starch Market, by End-user Sub-Segments 4.5 Potato Starch Market, by End-user 4.6 Potato Starch Market, by Nature 5 Market Overview 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Market Dynamics 5.2.1 Drivers 5.2.1.1 Rising Demand for Processed and Convenience Foods 5.2.1.2 Growing Demand for Adhesives in a Range of Industrial Applications 5.2.1.3 Investments in Research and Development and Increasing Production Capacities Accelerating the Potato Starch Market 5.2.2 Restraints 5.2.2.1 Availability of a Range of Alternatives to Potato Starch 5.2.2.2 Lack of Potato Starch Processing Equipment and Technologies in Developing Countries 5.2.3 Opportunities 5.2.3.1 Strong Market Potential for Potato Starch-Based Bioplastics 5.2.3.2 Untapped Potential of Potato Starch in the Cosmetic Industry 5.2.4 Challenges 5.2.4.1 Operational Challenges Associated with Modern Potato Starch Production Processes 5.2.4.2 Regulatory Policies Impacting the Overall Potato Starch Industry 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 on Market Dynamics 6 Industry Trends 6.1 Introduction 6.2 COVID-19 Impact on the Potato Starch Market 6.3 Value Chain 6.3.1 Research & Development 6.3.2 Sourcing of Raw Materials 6.3.3 Production & Processing 6.3.4 Distribution, Marketing, & Sales 6.4 Supply Chain 6.5 Technology Analysis 6.5.1 Potato Starch Modification Using Ozone Technology 6.5.2 Predicting Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastic Starch Films Using Ai 6.6 Pricing Analysis: Potato Starch Market, by Region 6.7 Ecosystem 6.8 Trends/Disruptions Impacting Customers' Business 6.9 Patent Analysis 6.10 Trade Analysis 6.11 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 6.11.1 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry 6.11.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 6.11.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers 6.11.4 Threat of New Entrants 6.11.5 Threat of Substitutes 6.12 Case Studies Analysis 6.12.1 Use Case 1: Ingredion Incorporated Uses Potato Starch to Maintain the Pulpy Goodness 7 Regulatory Framework 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Potato Starch Regulations in the Us 21 Cfr 173 7.3 Potato Starch Regulations in Europe 7.4 Potato Starch Regulations in Asia-Pacific 8 Potato Starch Market, by Nature 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Organic 8.3 Conventional 9 Potato Starch Market, by Type 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Native 9.2.1 Native Potato Starch Can Also be Produced as a Side Stream Product 9.3 Modified 9.3.1 Modified Starches are Used to Remove the Constraints of Food Applications 10 Potato Starch Market, by End-user 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Food & Beverages 10.2.1 Bakery & Confectionery Products 10.2.1.1 Potato Starch Improves the Texture and Quality of Bakery Products 10.2.2 Beverages 10.2.2.1 Starches Stabilizing Beverages and Providing Them with Viscosity for Mouthfeel 10.2.3 Processed Foods 10.2.3.1 Potato Starch Acts as a Stabilizer and Provide the Freeze-Thaw Ability to Processed Foods 10.2.4 Other Food & Beverages Applications 10.2.4.1 They Provide Crispiness to Snacks and Cereals 10.2.4.2 Noodles 10.2.4.3 Rte Snacks 10.3 Feed 10.4 Industrial 10.4.1 Paper Industry 10.4.1.1 Modified Starch Provides Internal Strength to Paper 10.4.2 Pharmaceuticals 10.4.2.1 Potato Starch Performs Crucial Functions in Various Pharmaceutical Applications 10.4.3 Cosmetics 10.4.3.1 Potato Starch Provides Smoothness to Cosmetics 10.4.4 Biodegradable Plastics 10.4.4.1 Starch Constitutes a Rich Resource of Fermen Table Sugars 10.4.5 Other Industrial Applications 10.4.5.1 Potato Starch is Primarily Used for Textile Sizing in the Textile Industry 11 Potato Starch Market, by Region 12 Competitive Landscape 12.1 Overview 12.2 Market Share Analysis, 2020 12.3 Key Player Strategies 12.4 Revenue Analysis of Key Players, 2018-2020 12.5 Company Evaluation Quadrant (Key Players) 12.5.1 Stars 12.5.2 Pervasive Players 12.5.3 Emerging Leaders 12.5.4 Participants 12.5.5 Product Footprint 12.6 Potato Starch Market, Startup/Sme Evaluation Quadrant, 2020 12.6.1 Progressive Companies 12.6.2 Starting Blocks 12.6.3 Responsive Companies 12.6.4 Dynamic Companies 12.7 New Product Launches and Deals 12.7.1 New Product Launches 12.7.2 Deals 13 Company Profiles 13.1 Key Players 13.1.1 Pepees S.A. 13.1.2 Agrana Beteiligungs-Ag 13.1.3 Kmc 13.1.4 Tate & Lyle 13.1.5 Vimal Ppce 13.1.6 Avebe 13.1.7 Tereos 13.1.8 Lyckeby 13.1.9 Radchen Usa Inc 13.1.10 Royal Ingredients Group 13.1.11 Roquette Freres 13.1.12 Emsland Group 13.1.13 Sudstarke GmbH 13.1.14 Ingredion Incorporated 13.1.15 Akv Langholt Amba 14 Adjacent & Related Markets 15 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8w9m42 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 CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest data from ShowingTime, a residential real estate industry leading technology provider of showing management and market stats, shows a surge in home buyer demand in January, with the average number of showings per listing at double digits in 83 markets nationwide. This enormous activity occurred in a month when buyer activity typically slows and followed a historic 2021, where buyer demand across the country was extraordinarily strong. In January, the entire country experienced a 7.7% year-over-year uptick nationally in home tours, according to the latest data from the ShowingTime Showing Index. The top 25 markets were up an average of 14% compared with the heavy traffic numbers recorded last January. As was the case in much of last year, Seattle*and Denver recorded the highest claimed the first and second spots for showings per listing in January, with 26 and 25, respectively. Of note, Seattle showed a 2 percent drop in showing year-over-year, due to phenomenal activity in January 2021. Numbers of showings outperformed all other markets nationwide, regardless. Next, Salt Lake City; Boulder, Colo.; and Manchester, N.H. trailed Seattle and Denver, all averaged 17 showings per listing, while Orlando, Fla. and Dallas each had 16 showings per listing to begin the year. "Given last year's historic flurry of activity, it's not surprising that buyers were motivated to meet their home ownership goals so shortly after the holidays," said ShowingTime Vice President and General Manager Michael Lane. "With buyer demand showing no sign of letting up, we remain committed to helping busy real estate professionals handle the ensuing surge in business, just as we did throughout last year." Regionally, the South led the country with a 12.3% year-over-year jump in showing traffic in January, with Dallas and the Florida cities of Orlando, Sarasota and Miami having enormous home touring action. The Midwest's 8.2% climb and Northeast's 7% bump in activity closely followed, while the West - despite very active traffic in Seattle and Denver - saw a 4.5% dip in showings compared to its historic January 2021 numbers. The ShowingTime Showing Index is compiled using data from more than six million property showings scheduled across the country each month on listings using ShowingTime products and services. It tracks the average number of appointments received on active listings during the month. *Note: Seattle shows a -2% in the Y-O-Y chart below, due to a phenomenal January 2021. Numbers of showings outperformed all other markets nationwide, regardless. Metropolitan Area January 2022 Ratio of Showings to Listings Year-Over-Year Change Month-Over-Month Change U.S. 12.73 13% 45% Seattle, WA 26.20 -2% 68% Denver, CO 25.15 7% 71% Salt Lake City, UT 17.72 -4% 65% Boulder, CO 17.33 32% 87% Manchester, NH 17.05 4% 53% Dallas, TX 16.35 21% 45% Orlando, FL 16.23 56% 38% Olympia, WA 15.45 -12% 45% Colorado Springs, CO 15.32 -13% 40% Richmond, VA 15.31 16% 50% Ogden, UT 15.24 -8% 55% Portland, OR 15.01 10% 50% Bremerton, WA 14.55 -13% 54% Sarasota, FL 14.46 47% 43% Tampa, FL 14.45 31% 41% Grand Rapids, MI 14.26 0% 36% Washington, DC 14.14 -1% 45% Boston, MA 14.06 -1% 48% Bakersfield, CA 14.03 26% 37% Virginia Beach, VA 13.94 20% 38% Miami, FL 13.72 59% 36% Bridgeport, CT 13.52 22% 41% Rochester, NY 13.48 9% 60% Trenton, NJ 13.35 13% 59% Albuquerque, NM 13.28 22% 39% About ShowingTime ShowingTime is the industry leader in home touring technology and a proud affiliate of Zillow Group, Inc. ShowingTime's technology and services simplify the tour scheduling process for buyers, sellers and agents across the industry. ShowingTime products are used in hundreds of MLSs representing more than one million real estate professionals across the U.S. and Canada. CONTACT: Barbara Wagner Elana Bodow Barbara Wagner Communications Barbara Wagner Communications (917) 751-4387 (315) 440-7554 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE ShowingTime ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- United States Senate Federal Credit Union (USSFCU), one of Virginia's leading Credit Unions, has been awarded a 2021 VMware ACE Award for outstanding achievements in business through technology innovation and adaptation. This distinct honor demonstrates USSFCU's long-term commitment to continuously evolving best practices and enhancing performance to achieve member experience excellence. USSFCU's 2021 VMware ACE Award Now in its 17th year, the VMware ACE (Achievement in Customer Excellence) Awards program honors select partners for their outstanding achievements in solving business problems using VMware technology. Nominations come from VMware's Technical Account Managers representing over 20 countries. Nominations are scored by a global committee based on criteria that mirrors VMware EPIC2 and Leadership Code values. USSFCU is recognized for its impact across four categories: Adoption, Execution, Vision and Grit. "This recognition is a huge honor to the Credit Union, especially our IT team. Our partnership with VMware has allowed us to modernize our infrastructure and adapt to the remote work needs of a modern business, leading to the best possible experience for both members and colleagues." Mark Fournier Chief Information Officer, United States Senate Federal Credit Union VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to being a force for good, from its breakthrough technology innovations to its global impact. For more information visit www.vmware.com. About USSFCU Since 1935, USSFCU has provided the U.S. Senate and Capitol Hill communities with world-class financial stability, security, and service. Now a $1.2 billion credit union with 100 plus paths to membership, almost everyone has the opportunity to experience the USSFCU difference. Learn more at www.ussfcu.org. View this and other press releases from USSFCU at ussfcu.org/press. SOURCE US Senate Federal Credit Union TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vertical Street Ventures (VSV) announces the acquisition of Redondo Tower, a downtown High Rise apartment building, in Tucson, AZ. VSV teamed up with Ral West and John Hardwick of Hardwick Apartment Homes, Ashok Patil and Mohit Bansal of Prime Investment LLC, and Louie Caumban and Rosalind Caumban of Fastpath Capital Group LLC. Redondo Tower This marks VSV's 5th property purchased in the Tucson, AZ market and 12th property acquired in the Arizona Market. Arbor Realty Trust provided the debt on the project. MEB Management will manage the property. Design and Construction will be managed by Gia Venturi. "When we discovered Redondo Tower was available for purchase, we immediately jumped on the opportunity," said Ronnie Gou, a Managing Partner for VSV. "We've invested in Tucson for several years now and Redondo Tower has always been a fixture in the downtown area. We're thrilled and honored to take on this project for the City of Tucson. We'll take it through a major renovation and add to the fabric of downtown's revitalization." A 96-unit high rise apartment building, Redondo Tower is a key part of downtown Tucson, which will be rebranded Vertical Heights. Residents of the property will enjoy many new amenities, including adding a new rooftop lounge, a new gym and yoga studio, a state-of-the-art co-working lounge, and modernizing the existing pool. Its interior units will undergo extension renovation with brand new kitchens, bathrooms, and newly added Washer/Dryers in each unit. Located centrally right off the 10 freeway, a 5-minute walk to anywhere downtown, and a 10 minute drive to the University of Arizona campus, this is a prime location for many job sectors. With Tucson market vacancy at 4%, Tucson residents continue to look for great places to live. VSV will continue its strategy of finding communities to improve in high growth markets residing in excellent locations throughout the Arizona and Texas Markets. About Vertical Street Ventures Vertical Street Ventures (also known as VSV) is a commercial real estate private equity firm, led by Managing Partners Steven Louie, Jenny Gou, Kyle Mitchell, and Ronnie Gou. With a mission to improve communities nationally, VSV has grown substantially in the last year, growing its current portfolio of assets to $182 Million this year across the Arizona and Texas markets. VSV helps busy professionals build passive income through investing in real estate syndications. Learn more at https://www.verticalstreetventures.com Or contact [email protected] About Hardwick Apartment Homes Hardwick Apartment Homes LLC (HAH) was created in 2021 for the purpose of investing in and syndicating multi-family properties in key markets in the US. Founded by Ral West and John Hardwick, HAH has embraced the amazing growth opportunities in the multi-family space, as well as the ability to help our own family and others achieve financial independence and build family wealth legacies for the long term. HAH is focused on key markets in the SunBelt states, such as Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia. So far, HAH has invested in over 4000 units across these 5 states, as both Limited Partners and co-General Partners. About FastPath Capital Group FastPath Capital Group (FCG) is a real estate investment firm based in Phoenix, acquiring value-add properties in Arizona and Texas markets. Founded by the Managing Partners, Louie Caumban and Rosalind Caumban, FCG has invested in multifamily apartments with over 2,100 units. Its mission is to provide investors an option and opportunity to invest in multifamily apartment properties in the best market. FCG also strives to have a positive impact to the community where it serves with the highest level of integrity and commitment. To learn more about FCG: https://www.fastpathcapital.com Or contact: [email protected] About Prime Investment LLC Prime Investment is a commercial real estate company that focuses investments in multifamily apartment buildings. Prime Investment's founders are Ashok Patil and Mohit Bansal. They have established General Partnership in over 1,200 units in 2021 in several states- AZ, TX, GA, OH, IN. They are looking to grow their business this year while providing busy professionals means to build passive income via investing in multifamily real estate investments. To learn more about Prime Investment, please go to: https://www.primeinvestmentllc.com Contact: Ronnie Gou (657) 366-1770 [email protected] SOURCE Vertical Street Ventures BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it closed on the previously announced acquisition of GeoPhy, a leading commercial real estate technology company. Aaron Perlis, Walker & Dunlop Chief Information Officer stated, "We are excited to officially welcome GeoPhy founder and CEO, Teun van den Dries, and his entire team to Walker & Dunlop. GeoPhy's technology capabilities will allow us to dramatically accelerate the growth of our digitally driven businesses, including Apprise, our tech-enabled appraisal business, and our small balance lending (SBL) platform as we continue to differentiate the Walker & Dunlop platform through our people, brand, and technology." Walker & Dunlop acquired GeoPhy for $85 million in cash paid at closing with an additional $205 million of cash earn-out potential structured to directly align with Walker & Dunlop's Drive to '25 goals surrounding growth in appraisal revenues, SBL volumes, and mortgage banking gains. 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. Forward Looking Statements The statements relating to the growth of our emerging businesses and our SBL platform may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. The forward-looking statements reflect our current views about future events and are subject to numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and changes in circumstances that may cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed or contemplated in any forward-looking statement. While the forward-looking statements reflect our good faith projections, assumptions and expectations, they are not guarantees of future results. Furthermore, we disclaim any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, data or methods, future events or other changes, except as required by applicable law. Factors that could cause our results to differ materially include, but are not limited to (1) general economic conditions and multifamily commercial real estate market conditions, and (2) our ability to successfully integrate GeoPhy's operations into our current business, including the retention of their employees, and achieve the expected benefits from the acquisition. For a further discussion of these and other factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or contemplated in any forward-looking statements, see the section titled ''Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as it may be updated or supplemented by our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the SEC. Such filings are available publicly on our Investor Relations web page at www.walkerdunlop.com. SOURCE Walker & Dunlop, Inc. "Eric has successfully led the company since 2015, while advancing the Company's mission and increasing shareholder value," said Patrick Zenner, Chair of the Board, West. "I am confident that Eric will lead the Board with the collaborative style and strategic, operating mindset demonstrated over his tenure as CEO. He has effectively navigated the organization to meet the ongoing challenges of the pandemic while advancing the focus on innovative, high-quality products and solutions to meet customer demand. Moreover, he continues to pursue sustainable and responsible business practices that serve all our stakeholders in the healthcare industry." In addition to Mr. Green's appointment, West has also announced that Paolo Pucci will serve as the Lead Independent Director for the Board, effective at the 2022 Annual Shareholders' Meeting. Aligned to West's corporate governance principles, when the Chair and role of CEO are combined, the Board will appoint a Lead Independent Director. Mr. Pucci will be the primary liaison between Mr. Green and the Board with ability to call and lead independent sessions with the Board. "Pat has been an instrumental member of our Board of Directors for the past 20 years and in that time has been an outstanding leader, visionary and champion for West and our communities across the globe," commented Eric M. Green, President and CEO. "We would like to extend our appreciation to Pat for his long-standing commitment and unrelenting dedication as Chair to our Board and West. At the same time, I congratulate Paolo on his new role as I am honored to extend my executive responsibilities and serve as Chair of the Board of Directors." About Eric M. Green Mr. Green has served as West's President and Chief Executive Officer since April 2015. As CEO, Mr. Green leads approximately 10,000 team members focused on the mission to contain and deliver injectable therapies that improve patients' lives. Prior to joining West, Mr. Green served as Executive Vice President and President for the Research Markets business unit for Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, where he gained extensive international experience, serving in a number of regional, commercial and operational leadership roles over his more than 20-year career. About Paolo Pucci Mr. Pucci is the retired Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of ArQule, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development of targeted therapeutics. Before joining ArQule in 2008, Mr. Pucci worked at Bayer A.G., where he served in a number of leadership capacities including Senior Vice President of the Global Specialty Medicine Business Unit and was a member of the Bayer Pharmaceuticals Global Management Committee. Before Bayer, Mr. Pucci held positions of increasing responsibility with Eli Lilly and Company, culminating with his appointment as Managing Director, Eli Lilly Sweden AB. Mr. Pucci previously served on the Board of Directors for Dyax Inc., Algeta ASA, New Link Genetics Inc. and was also Lead Independent Director at Trillium Therapeutics Inc. until it was acquired by Pfizer Inc. in November 2021. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of publicly held life sciences companies Merus N.V. and Replimune Group Inc. as well as privately held Tarus Therapeutics Inc.. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "should," "could," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," or "potential" or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases, which are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and which do not relate solely to historical matters. Examples of these forward-looking statements include (but are not limited to) statements with respect to future business results. While forward-looking statements reflect West's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, they are not guarantees of future performance. Furthermore, except as required by law, West disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions, new information or other changes. Known material risks, uncertainties and other factors that can affect future results are discussed or incorporated by reference in periodic reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, filed by West from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About West West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. is a leading provider of innovative, high-quality injectable solutions and services. As a trusted partner to established and emerging drug developers, West helps ensure the safe, effective containment and delivery of life-saving and life-enhancing medicines for patients. With approximately 10,000 team members across 50 sites worldwide, West helps support our customers by delivering over 45 billion components and devices each year. Headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, and in business for nearly a century, West in its fiscal year 2021 generated $2.83 billion in net sales. West is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: WST) and is included on the Standard & Poor's 500 index. For more information, visit www.westpharma.com . All trademarks and registered trademarks used in this release are the property of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. or its subsidiaries, in the United States and other jurisdictions, unless otherwise noted. SOURCE West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Digital OOH Advertising Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global digital-out-of-home advertising market reached a value of US$ 14.8 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 33 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 13.41% during 2022-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use industries. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor. Digital out-of-home (OOH) advertisement refers to a dynamic communication medium displayed on digital signage. These advertisements are generally installed at airports, railway stations, bus shelters, medical waiting rooms, shopping malls, retail stores, movie theatres, and on major roadways. With the growing internet penetration, advertisers are using virtual screens, projectors, motion graphics and video content for targeting specific demographics. This has led to the expansion of digital and internet-based advertising platforms across the globe. As a result, these ads are increasingly being adopted by manufacturers to promote their products in the market. In recent years, advancements in technology, such as improved IoT connectivity, near field communication, artificial intelligence (AI), and beacons, have encouraged creativity in the DOOH industry. Advertisers can now focus on developing screens that deliver contextually relevant, intelligent and real-time content. With the development of infrastructure and a growing number of shopping complexes and malls, there has been a rise in the number of people who spend time outdoors. As a result, companies are focusing on adopting digital OOH advertising as an advertising platform to help them reach a wider audience. Moreover, the popularity of digital billboards has also been on the rise catalysed by their ability to engage audience effectively. Additionally, the cost of digital advertisements has also declined over the past few years, increasing their affordability across organisations of all sizes. Competitive Landscape: The report has also analysed the competitive landscape of the market with some of the key players being APG - SGA, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc., Global Media, JCDecaux, Lamar Advertising Company, oOh!media Limited, Outfront Media Inc., Stroer, etc. Key Questions Answered in this Report 1. What is the impact of COVID-19 on the global digital OOH advertising market? 2. What will be the digital OOH advertising market outlook during the forecast period (2022-2027)? 3. What are the major global digital OOH advertising market drivers? 4. What are the major trends in the global digital OOH advertising market? 5. What is the global digital OOH advertising market breakup by format type? 6. What is the global digital OOH advertising market breakup by application? 7. What is the global digital OOH advertising market breakup by end user? 8. What are the major regions in the global digital OOH advertising market? 9. Who are the leading digital OOH advertising industry players? Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Digital OOH Advertising Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Breakup by Format Type 5.5 Market Breakup by Application 5.6 Market Breakup by End-User 5.7 Market Breakup by Region 5.8 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Format Type 6.1 Digital Billboards 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 Video Advertising 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 6.3 Ambient Advertising 6.3.1 Market Trends 6.3.2 Market Forecast 6.4 Others 6.4.1 Market Trends 6.4.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Application 7.1 Outdoor 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Indoor 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 8 Market Breakup by End-User 8.1 Retail 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Recreation 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 8.3 Banking 8.3.1 Market Trends 8.3.2 Market Forecast 8.4 Transportation 8.4.1 Market Trends 8.4.2 Market Forecast 8.5 Education 8.5.1 Market Trends 8.5.2 Market Forecast 8.6 Others 8.6.1 Market Trends 8.6.2 Market Forecast 9 Market Breakup by Region 10 SWOT Analysis 11 Value Chain Analysis 12 Porters Five Forces Analysis 13 Price Analysis 14 Competitive Landscape 14.1 Market Structure 14.2 Key Players 14.3 Profiles of Key Players 14.3.1 APG - SGA 14.3.2 Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. 14.3.3 Global Media 14.3.4 JCDecaux 14.3.5 Lamar Advertising Company 14.3.6 oOh!media Limited 14.3.7 Outfront Media Inc. 14.3.8 Stroer For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lfltw1 Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Hard Seltzer Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global hard seltzer market reached a value of US$ 5.5 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 11.9 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 13.6% during 2022-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor. Hard seltzer is a carbonated or sparkling beverage similar to beer, with almost 5% alcohol by volume. It is made from brewed cane sugar or malted rice, along with soda water and flavorings. Nowadays, hard seltzer is available in various flavors such as lemon, watermelon, lime, strawberry, passionfruit, pomegranate, and tangerine. It is considered a healthy alternative to regular alcoholic drinks as it is gluten-free with a low calorie, carbohydrate and sugar content. As a result, it is gaining popularity among health-conscious consumers and people suffering from allergies, and celiac, inflammatory and auto-immune diseases. The global hard seltzer market is primarily driven by the shifting consumer preferences toward beverages with a low alcohol by volume (ABV) content. The growing popularity of flavored alcoholic beverages and healthier alternatives has resulted in high demand for ready-to-drink sparkling beverages, such as hard seltzer, across the globe. Besides this, several manufacturers are introducing innovative product variants to expand their existing portfolio. For instance, Sudwerk Brewing Co., a California-based company, launched Life Is Hard Seltzer in May 2020 in black cherry, grapefruit and passionfruit flavors. It is fermented using sugar and yeast and then flavored with natural fruit concentrates. The leading alcohol companies are also developing 100% natural hard seltzer free from artificial preservatives, flavorings, or sweeteners. Furthermore, with the rising environmental concerns, manufacturers are launching new packaging designs that are portable and recyclable. Competitive Landscape: The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Anheuser-Busch InBev, Barefoot Cellars (E. & J. Gallo Winery), Blue Marble Cocktails Inc., Ficks & Co, Future Proof Brands LLC, Hard Seltzer Beverage Company LLC (The Boston Beer Company Inc), Lift Bridge Brewing Co., Oskar Blues Brewery and White Claw Hard Seltzer. Key Questions Answered in this Report: How has the global hard seltzer market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global hard seltzer market? What are the key regional markets? What is the breakup of the market based on the ABV content? What is the breakup of the market based on the packaging material? What is the breakup of the market based on the distribution channel? What is the breakup of the market based on the flavour? What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry? What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry? What is the structure of the global hard seltzer market and who are the key players? What is the degree of competition in the industry? Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Hard Seltzer Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by ABV Content 6.1 1% to 4.9% 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 5% to 6.9% 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 6.3 7% and Above 6.3.1 Market Trends 6.3.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Packaging Material 7.1 Cans 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Glass 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 7.3 Others 7.3.1 Market Trends 7.3.2 Market Forecast 8 Market Breakup by Distribution Channel 8.1 Supermarkets and Hypermarkets 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Online Stores 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 8.3 Others 8.3.1 Market Trends 8.3.2 Market Forecast 9 Market Breakup by Flavour 9.1 Cherry 9.1.1 Market Trends 9.1.2 Market Forecast 9.2 Grapefruit 9.2.1 Market Trends 9.2.2 Market Forecast 9.3 Mango 9.3.1 Market Trends 9.3.2 Market Forecast 9.4 Lime 9.4.1 Market Trends 9.4.2 Market Forecast 9.5 Others 9.5.1 Market Trends 9.5.2 Market Forecast 10 Market Breakup by Region 11 SWOT Analysis 12 Value Chain Analysis 13 Porters Five Forces Analysis 14 Price Analysis 15 Competitive Landscape 15.1 Market Structure 15.2 Key Players 15.3 Profiles of Key Players 15.3.1 Anheuser-Busch InBev 15.3.1.1 Company Overview 15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.1.3 Financials 15.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.2 Barefoot Cellars (E. & J. Gallo Winery) 15.3.2.1 Company Overview 15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.3 Blue Marble Cocktails Inc. 15.3.3.1 Company Overview 15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.4 Ficks & Co 15.3.4.1 Company Overview 15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.5 Future Proof Brands LLC 15.3.5.1 Company Overview 15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.6 Hard Seltzer Beverage Company LLC (The Boston Beer Company Inc) 15.3.6.1 Company Overview 15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.7 Lift Bridge Brewing Co. 15.3.7.1 Company Overview 15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.8 Oskar Blues Brewery 15.3.8.1 Company Overview 15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.9 White Claw Hard Seltzer 15.3.9.1 Company Overview 15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rd0xkp 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 It is Sunday morning, Liberias exploited and forgotten young people are crawling out of hollowed-out graves from cemeteries scattered all over this shantytown of a city called Monrovia. They stretch and yawn, rubbing their eyes like zombies coming back to life and preparing for their usual biddings. These street hustlers have added to their filthy body odor because they have become allergic to soap and water and are once again ready to mingle with the general public by snatching purses and cell phones, panhandling, prostituting, using profanities that will make a sailor salute in admiration of his superiors in the art, stopping the flow of traffic in this already confused concoction of disorder that is the capital city of Liberia. Zogoes rule this city; from the Executive Mansion surrounded by open sewers to the beaches in West Point where open defecation is a religion! The exploited are everywhere yet they are barely noticed by future zogoes attired in cheap, polyester suits paid for with stolen government money! The hustle has begun. Zogoes have got to eat too. They demand money from largely unemployed pedestrians and insult you when you refuse to give it to them. They terrorize the city with their crimes even the national security forces are afraid of them! At night, these daytime purse-snatchers turn into armed robbers, roaming the city unchallenged! Regular citizens across the city are forced to barricade themselves behind prison-styled iron bars to feel a sense of security. There are almost no police at night it feels like a purge where anybody who is walking at night in an unknown neighborhood could be taken for a robber and greeted with a barbaric form of mob justice the remains of the murdered are thrown in the streets as a clear message from the neighborhood for strangers to stay away. The government does almost nothing to investigate these crimes! It is not unusual to see bodies littered the streets of Monrovia regularly. This has become so frequent that it is almost normal! The one hundred and three future zogoes in the legislature care only about one thing: stealing! It wont be too long before theyre waking up next to their counterparts (think former Justice Minister Jenkins Scott, countless former government officials who openly do drugs in Monrovias many ghettoes) in Palm Groves Cemetery as soon as their stolen government loots run out, and it runs out frequently. These senior zogoes refuse to realize that equal fate awaits them if they continue to not do their jobs of adequate oversight, responsible law-making, building government institutions for the protection of the people, and keeping the country lawful. Most have no idea what governance is, and those who do take full advantage of the peoples gullibility and exploit them further without any consequences! This further exacerbates the zogorization of the country. Under the Liberian arrangement, the government is not instituted for the usual expectation of serving the people, building governmental systems and infrastructure to develop the country for the benefit of all but rather how the caretakers can use their privileged positions to amass ill-gotten loot to the detriment of the entire population! Unlike their rag-wearing counterparts who must beg and steal for sustenance, these clean clothes zogoes who run the country simply walk into the national treasury with duffle bags and take as much as they want; nobody questions them! This is the direct cause of the systemic breakdown that is so widespread in Liberia. The lack of infrastructure, the absence of governing institutions, and the collapse of the family unit we see throughout the country are all a direct result of the looting of the treasury by vain men who have been charged with protecting that very treasury. Consequently, there are real society penalties facing the country given how the government has neglected its constitutional responsibilities, the issue of drugs and how it affects our at-risk population and society at large, chronic unemployment, uncontrolled corruption, the breakup of the family unit, and the proliferation of churches headed by mostly hustling zogoes who use the opportunities to milk their congregants and enrich themselves. Our entire society has broken apart with diminishing morality; there is no direction, even the institutions that help shape our moral compass are headed by zogoes masquerading as pastors! The executive branch of government, on the other hand, sees the increase of zogo numbers as an opportunity to get guaranteed votes because they can easily take advantage of their vulnerabilities! What these wicked and corrupt officials forget to realize is that their temporary benefit of zogo votes has long-lasting real-world, economic, political, and social consequences that are far-reaching and affects nearly everything in the country. Increased zogo presence diminishes local investments and by extension local taxes and opportunities; turn real investors away because this environment poses serious risks to their investments, it increases unemployment rates and the quality of life for the larger population; it forces your best and brightest your producers to migrate farther away thus further reducing the human capital of the country. The increased presence of uncontrolled zogoes robs society of its value, its dreams, and the opportunity for a viable future! The zogo problem is not just a community risk issue; it is a sovereignty risk issue; a national security risk issue a health issue, a quality-of-life issue, but above all a national survival issue. Arguably, it is one of the singular issues that could destroy us all! Moreover, there are reports that the people who are bringing the drugs in are the very officials charged with stopping the inflows of illicit drugs into the country. Other officials are turning a blind eye for kickbacks from drug importers! These officials are using mostly foreign connections and foreign agents under the protection of top-level officials to inundate our country with these drugs that are destroying Liberias future. The government is making near-zero effects to fight back against drug-related crimes, increase zogorization, prostitution, etc. Less than $50K was allocated for the rehabilitation of almost a hundred thousand affected Liberians across the country a small sum of about 5% of this money goes directly toward real rehabilitation! These government criminals are protected by Black Robe Zogoes who flout the law and get paid bribes to maintain and expand this Zogodom that is Liberia! One wonders whether the national government cares about such grave national security concerns. Nearly every single person in the country is one mishap away from being labeled a zogo look up some of your former legislators! They can barely feed themselves. It does not matter whether you are educated or illiterate, has a marketable skill or not there is near zero opportunity in the country nor is there a degree of urgency from the administrators to create opportunities or the enabling environment so these opportunities can be created. Sitting government officials see enterprising Liberians such as entrepreneurs and business people as a threat; they do everything to strangulate them especially if they perceive these Liberians as direct competitors to their unearned government positions! These officials use chaos, targeted and extreme poverty, and the desperation of the people to control them and maintain their positions. The negative effects on the country do not bother these kleptocrats as long as they remain in their cushioned government positions! These self-destructive actions have made Liberia a dreamless country, a place at the bottom of almost every developmental indicator, a place of pity and despair a promising Liberian cannot self-actualize here; he must move away to possibly see his dreams come to life! How can we ever build a viable society under these circumstances? Despite all this, there is still hope. With the proper leadership (Google A Guide to Picking Liberias Next President to know exactly the kind of leader with the proper pedigree to change all of this), we can turn our country around in 20 years and begin to build a society we all can be proud of. Liberians must now ask themselves this singular question: When are we going to be willing to vote for responsible leadership that can deliver and hold up the rule of law and not for those from your tribes, religion, or connections? The time is now. Vote right or prepare to be totally zogorized! VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Zacatecas Silver Corp. ("Zacatecas Silver" or the "Company"), (TSX Venture: ZAC) (OTC Markets: ZCTSF) (Frankfurt: 7TV) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a share purchase agreement dated February 28, 2022 (the "Share Purchase Agreement") with Minas De Oro Nacional, S.A. De C.V. ("Minas De Oro"), a subsidiary of Alamos Gold Inc. ("Alamos"), to acquire the advanced stage Esperanza Gold Project, located in Morelos State, Mexico (the "Transaction"). Highlights: Esperanza Gold Project is a high-grade oxide gold deposit with scalable upside. Historic measured and indicated resource of 34,352,000 tonnes at 0.98 g/t gold and 8.09 g/t silver for 1,084,000 ounces of gold and 8,936,000 ounces of silver and inferred resource of 718,000 tonnes at 0.80 g/t gold and 15.04 g/t silver for 18,000 ounces of gold and 347,000 ounces of silver (see below for details). Priority to prepare an updated resource estimate in 2022 and complete a current economic study on the Esperanza Gold Project based on the updated resource estimate. To date, significant core and reverse circulation drilling has occurred at the Esperanza Gold Project resulting in a total of 389 drill holes for 69,716 metres of drilling. Alamos becomes significant cornerstone shareholder of Zacatecas Silver. The Esperanza Gold Project as an attractive low-cost, low capital intensity, and low technical risk growth project located in Morelos State, Mexico. Alamos has advanced the project through advanced engineering, including metallurgical work, while also focussing on stakeholder engagement including building community relations. Through the completion of this transaction, the Esperanza Gold Project will receive the full focus and attention of a proven team of mine builders and financiers while also providing Alamos significant potential upside as the Project is developed with Alamos being a large shareholder of Zacatecas Silver. The total consideration of the transaction is approximately USD $60 million with most of the payments not made until significant steps towards commercial production are achieved. The initial consideration consists of USD $5 million in cash, USD $10 million in Zacatecas Silver shares and a silver stream in favour of Alamos valued at USD $6 million. Bryan Slusarchuk, Chief Executive Officer of Zacatecas Silver comments, "This is a transformational transaction for our company. Prior to entering into this agreement with Alamos, we have been advancing an excellent silver project with a current resource and significant exploration upside. Zacatecas has a great shareholder base and an excellent share structure with just 53 million shares issued and outstanding. Emerging from this transaction with Alamos, we maintain ownership of our current silver projects but will now also have an advanced stage, high-grade, low cost gold project with a clear path to permits and production. This is among the highest grade oxide gold development stage projects in the world of this size, and we look forward to working with all stakeholders to advance the project into production. We are also exceptionally pleased that Alamos has expressed confidence in the project and the technical team via their share ownership in Zacatecas Silver. I've been fortunate to have been involved transacting with large gold companies in the past on divestitures and this has created some outstanding wins for shareholders. In this case, we appreciate the fact that Alamos will become an important shareholder of the Company as we move the project forward." In conjunction with this transaction, Zacatecas Silver has arranged a CAD $15 million private placement financing to increase the size of our treasury as we satisfy the initial USD $5 million cash consideration, begin advancing Esperanza towards production, fund the ongoing drill program at the Company's existing silver project and general working capital. Dr. Chris Wilson, Chief Operating Officer and a Director of Zacatecas Silver comments, "Our acquisition of the Esperanza Gold Project is a tremendous step in moving Zacatecas Silver towards becoming a serious precious metals producer. The Esperanza Gold Project represents one of the best undeveloped open pit deposits in Mexico and will complement our high-grade silver resource Zacatecas Properties. This is extremely exciting for a technical team and all shareholders of Zacatecas Silver." Esperanza Gold Project The Esperanza Gold Project is an advanced stage, low technical risk growth project located in Morelos State, Mexico. Alamos has reported a resource estimate of a measured and indicated resource of 34,352,000 tonnes at 0.98 g/t gold and 8.09 g/t silver for 1,084,000 ounces of gold and 8,936,000 ounces of silver and inferred resource of 718,000 tonnes at 0.80 g/t gold and 15.04 g/t silver for 18,000 ounces of gold and 347,000 ounces of silver. The Company has not independently verified this resource estimate and is not treating this resource estimate as a current resource. See below for further details. To date, significant core and reverse circulation drilling has occurred at the Esperanza Gold Project resulting in a total of 389 drill holes for 69,716 metres. Four targets adjacent to or close to the historical resource were identified to expand the historical resource. The project also hosts seven regional targets that also merit drill testing. Mineralization at the Esperanza Gold Project is associated with the intrusion of a stock of Granodiorite composition into the carbonate rocks of Guerrero-Morelos Platform, specifically the rocks of Xochicalco Formation. Spatially related to the intrusive contact with the carbonate rocks are varying degrees of skarn and marble development. Intruded by the granodioritic stock are the limestone of the Xochicalco Formation of Aptian age (early Cretaceous), that have beds of varying thickness from very thin to medium. Primary mineralization consists of gold, and to a lesser extent silver, associated with the skarn zones spatially related to the intrusive. Based on previous preliminary assessments completed by previous owners, the Company anticipates that the project would be amenable to a conventional open pit, heap leach operation with two-stage crushing. Crushed material would be conveyed to the leach pad and irrigated with dilute cyanide solution. Gold will be recovered from pregnant solutions utilizing carbon adsorption, subsequent electrowinning and on-site smelting to produce gold and silver dore bars. The Company plans to carry out an extensive work program to prepare an updated resource estimate, undertake economic studies on the project, and conduct an infill drill program on the deposit as well as drilling on nearby exploration targets. Terms of the Transaction Under the terms of the Share Purchase Agreement, Zacatecas Silver has agreed to acquire all the issued and outstanding shares of Esperanza Silver de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. ("Esperanza Mexico"), which holds title to the Esperanza Gold Project In consideration of Esperanza Mexico, Zacatecas has agreed to pay Minas de Oro US $5,000,000 and issue a total of 12,140,000 common shares of Zacatecas Silver at a price of $1.05 per share for a deemed value of US $10,000,000 (the "Consideration Shares") on closing of the Transaction. Upon satisfaction of these payments and entering into the silver stream agreement, Zacatecas Silver will be transferred 100% ownership of Esperanza Mexico. The Share Purchase Agreement further provides that Zacatecas Silver will make certain contingency payments (the "Contingent Payments") upon key milestones being accomplished in developing the Esperanza Gold Project. (a) pay US $5,000,000 within sixty (60) days after approval of an Environmental Impact Assessment Report by the applicable governmental authorities (the "EIA Payment") (b) Pay US $14,000,000 within 60 days of the earlier of (i) completion of a feasibility study on the Esperanza Gold Project or (ii) Zacatecas Silver announcing its decision to commence construction of a mine on the Esperanza Gold Project (the "FS Payment") (c) Pay US $20,000,000 within 180 days after commencement of commercial production on the Esperanza Gold Project (the "Production Payment"). Zacatecas Silver may, at its sole election, satisfy up to 50% of the Contingent Payments by issuing shares at a price equal to the 10 day VWAP prior to the issuance of such shares provided that such share issuance does not cause Alamos to exceed 19.99% of the issued and outstanding shares of Zacatecas Silver (on a partially diluted basis). Zacatecas Silver has also agreed to incur US $7,500,000 in expenditures to advance the Esperanza Gold Project over the next three years, excluding G&A (the "Expenditure Commitment"). If Zacatecas Silver fails to meet the Expenditure Commitment, an amount equal to the shortfall will be added to the next Contingent Payment. On closing of the Transaction, the parties will also enter into a stream agreement that will provide that Alamos may purchase up to 20% of any silver produced from the Esperanza Gold Project with a transfer price of 20% of the market price payable to Zacatecas Silver. The silver stream is limited to 500,000 ounces of silver. The stream agreement contemplates an amount of US $6,000,000 that will be credited to the purchase price under the Share Purchase Agreement. In recognition of Alamos being a significant shareholder of Zacatecas Silver, Alamos and Zacatecas Silver will enter into an investor rights agreement that will provide, among other things, a board position to Zacatecas Silver and a right of first refusal to maintain its share position on any future financings. Pursuant to the terms of the investor rights agreement that will be entered into on the closing of the Transaction, the Consideration Shares will be subject to the following voluntary restrictions on resale: (i) 33% will be restricted for a period of six months from closing of the Transaction, (ii) an additional 33% will be restricted for a period of twelve months from closing of the Transaction, and (iii) 34% will be restricted for a period of eighteen months from closing of the Transaction. Zacatecas Silver will also pay a finder's fee of US $500,000 on closing of the Transaction. The Share Purchase Agreement and the transactions contemplated therein are subject to customary conditions for transactions of similar size, completion of the Financing by Zacatecas Silver and approval of the TSXV Venture Exchange. Private Placement Financing As part of the Transaction, Zacatecas Silver will complete a brokered private placement of up to 13,636,364 subscription receipts (a "Subscription Receipt") at a price of $1.10 per Subscription Receipt for total proceeds of up to $15,000,000 (the "Offering"). The Subscription Receipts will be convertible into units (each a "Unit") upon satisfaction of the closing conditions of the Transaction. Each Unit will consist of: (i) one common share (each a "Common Share"), and (ii) one-half of one common share purchase warrant (the "Warrants"), Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder purchase a Common Share at an exercise price of $1.50 for a period of 24 months following closing of the Offering. The lead agent will be announced by the Company in a subsequent news release. Zacatecas Silver intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for the acquisition, exploration and development of the Esperanza Gold Project, exploration of the Zacatecas Properties and for general working capital purposes. Closing of the Offering is subject to regulatory approval including that of the TSX Venture Exchange. The securities being offered have not, nor will they be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons in the absence of U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities in the United States. Qualified Person The contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Chris Wilson, B.Sc. (Hons), PhD, FAusIMM (CP), FSEG, Chief Operating Officer of Zacatecas Silver. Dr. Wilson is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and is responsible for all technical information in this news release. Alamos Resource Estimate Alamos reported in its most recent annual information form a resource estimate of a measured and indicated resource of 34,352,000 tonnes at 0.98 g/t gold and 8.09 g/t silver for 1,083,366 ounces of gold and 8,936,201 ounces of silver and inferred resource of 718,000 tonnes at 0.80 g/t gold and 15.04 g/t silver for 18,375 ounces of gold and 347,192 ounces of silver. The Company considers this to be an historical resource for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101. Resource blocks were defined using with dimensions of 10 x 10 x 5 m. The estimation of grades was performed with the ordinary kriging method on capped composites. An added step in the estimation strategy was the utilization of the dynamic anisotropy technique in Vulcan's unfolding options. This added capability allows for a more realistic outcome of the estimated grade's spatial distribution as it follows the folded shape of the deposit. Assumptions used in the resource include the following metal prices: gold price of US $1,400/oz and silver price of US $22/oz. The resource assumed the following economic assumptions: recovery of 60.4% at 0.2 g/t to 71.9% at 1.6 g/t for gold, 25% for silver, $2.60/t mining costs, $0.64/t General and Administrative costs, $4.20/t milling costs and a pit slope of 45 degrees. The Company considers the resource relevant due to its identification and modelling of the Esperanza deposit. The Company has not done sufficient work to classify the resource as a current mineral resource or mineral reserves, and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Although the resource estimate is considered reliable, the Company will re-sample a portion of the drill core for the purpose of carrying out a new resource estimate. Further, additional data verification including resurveying of select diamond drill holes collars; review of graphic drill core logs, comparison of these logs with remaining half-cut core, and a cross-check of select geological logs agonist database entries; and a check of original assay certificates against the assays and drill hole database. Advisors Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is acting as legal advisor to Zacatecas Silver. Haywood Securities Inc. is acting as financial advisor to Alamos, with Torys LLP acting as legal advisor to Alamos. About Zacatecas Silver Corp. The Zacatecas Silver property is in Zacatecas State, Mexico, within the highly prospective Fresnillo Silver Belt, which has produced over 6.2 billion ounces of silver. The company holds 7,826 ha (19,338 acres) of ground that is highly prospective for low and intermediate sulphidation silver-base metal mineralization and potentially low sulphidation gold-dominant mineralization. On December 15, 2021, Zacatecas announced a mineral resource estimate at the Panuco Deposit consisting of 2.7 million tonnes at 187 g/t AgEq (171 g/t Ag and 0.17 g/t Au) for 16.4 million ounces AgEq (15 million ounces silver and 15 thousand ounces gold) (see news release dated December 15, 2021). The property is 25 km south-east of MAG Silver Corp.'s Juanicipio Mine and Fresnillo PLC's Fresnillo Mine. The property shares common boundaries with Pan American Silver Corp. claims and El Orito which is owned by Endeavour Silver. There are four main high-grade silver target areas within the Zacatecas concessions: the Panuco Deposit, Muleros, El Cristo and San Manuel-San Gill. The Property also includes El Oro, El Orito, La Cantera, Monserrat, El Penon, San Judas and San Juan silver-base metal vein targets. These targets are relatively unexplored and will be the focus of rapid reconnaissance. About Alamos Gold Inc. Alamos is a Canadian-based intermediate gold producer with diversified production from three operating mines in North America. This includes the Young-Davidson and Island Gold mines in northern Ontario, Canada and the Mulatos mine in Sonora State, Mexico. Additionally, the Company has a significant portfolio of development stage projects in Canada, Mexico, Turkey, and the United States. Alamos employs more than 1,700 people and is committed to the highest standards of sustainable development. The Company's shares are traded on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol "AGI". On behalf of the Company Bryan Slusarchuk Chief Executive Officer and Director Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Zacatecas Silver cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by many material factors, many of which are beyond their respective control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Zacatecas Silver's limited operating history, its proposed exploration and development activities on is Zacatecas Properties and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Zacatecas Silver does not undertake to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Zacatecas Silver Corp. Completed camp setup for exploration at the Yandal and Earaheedy projects. Strickland Metals Ltd (ASX:STK) has highlighted a zinc-lead feeder zone from its soil sampling program at Iroquois discovery in the Earaheedy Basin of Western Australia. The soil sampling demonstrated copper anomalism and mapped the interpreted feeder zone structure to zinc-lead mineralisation exceptionally well at Iroquois. Looking ahead, Strickland is planning further soil sampling to define the extent of the existing copper soil anomalism. Elevated copper anomalism Strickland CEO Andrew Bray said: After announcing our exciting zinc-lead discovery at Iroquois last October, weve spent considerable time trying to understand the geology and mineralisation to assist with followup drill plan design. While the soil sampling program generated broad multi-element anomalies, the elevated copper anomalism maps the structure incredibly accurately. We believe these are the feeder zones for the mineralised fluids. This is a big step forward not only for effectively drilling the existing zinc-lead mineralisation, but also for locating further feeder zones throughout the wider prospect. Soil sampling program Strickland collected a total of 1,565 soil samples at 25-metre spacings (north-south) and 100 metres (east-west) and these were submitted to LabWest for gold and a full suite of multi-element analysis. Notably, the results of this work have expanded a broad, coherent soil multi-element anomaly (copper-silver-lead-antimony-tungsten-zinc) to more than 1.5 kilometres in length. The sampling also identified a separate potential feeder structure to the southeast where the same geochemical signature was observed directly along the fault structure. Moving forward, Stricklands growing understanding of the mineralisation and geological structures will greatly assist with further drill program design. Second feeder zone. Bray adds: "In light of this interpretation, it is evident that the drilling weve completed to date (including the discovery holes) is predominantly on the western edge of the main structure. Further programs will target the north-east extensions and also drill on the eastern side of the feeder zone, where we expect to intersect similar mineralisation to what weve seen on the western side. The same elevated copper anomalism and geochemical signature was observed southeast of the Iroquois mineralisation, representing potentially a second feeder zone. Interestingly, this anomalism is located directly along a fault structure from the previously intersected mineralisation. Native title heritage surveys Strickland has scheduled a heritage survey to occur in early April 2022 over the Iroquois prospect and surrounding areas. Upon receipt of the Heritage Clearance report, the company plans for follow-up RC drilling to begin possibly as early as April 2022. Bray adds: Native Title Heritage Surveys are scheduled to take place in early April 2022. Depending on confirmation of cleared areas, we are in the fortunate position of being able to expedite any drilling given that the company has an RC rig and diamond rig on site for the remainder of 2022. Additional rigs will also be added during the year, providing the company with further flexibility around Iroquois programs. Forward plan Rigs are positioned fulltime on site for the remainder of 2022, providing flexibility around further programs at Iroquois and the surrounding areas. Given how effective soil copper anomalism appears to be at mapping the interpreted zinc-lead feeder structure, Strickland is planning for substantial soil programs in the immediate proximal areas to the known mineralisation. Furthermore, the company is considering a ground-based induced-polarisation (IP) geophysical program to further assist with targeting. FTSE 100 loses 31 points Russian stocks under the hammer (& sickle) Sanctions have teeth 4:50pm: FTSE loses ground amid market turbulence The UK blue chip index closed 31.21 points or 0.42% lower at 7,458.25 on Monday despite a midday rally. IG's Chris Beauchamp believes a more difficult period for the FTSE 100 seems to beckon. "After weeks of holding up better thanks to banks and commodity firms, these sectors are prompting a more durable decline," Beauchamp noted. "BPs losses are temporary, and at least the losses in firms associated with Russia will result in a more interesting quarterly shakeup. But a potentially softer outlook for monetary policy means financial stocks might continue to give back some of their recent gains. 4:10pm: FTSE 100 plays Russian roulette with five bullets in the chamber Polymetal International PLC (LSE:POLY) remains comfortably the worst blue-chip performer today after the momentous events of the weekend. The mining company has, however, recovered to 341.3p, down 57% in the day, after slumping to 290p at one point from Fridays closing price of 798.4p. If this Government is serious about cutting off the supply lines to Russian companies in the UK, perhaps start by removing Evraz and Polymetal from the FTSE 100 index. Both companies hindered the absolute performance of the index. Evraz just paid the Chelski owner 156m. What TF! Robert Mohamed (@robmo1961) February 27, 2022 The collapse of the ruble today after a ban from the SWIFT financial system for several Russian banks has made Russian stocks the lepers of the London stock exchange, except most people have sympathy for lepers. #URGENTE | Cotizaciones en vivo - Las acciones Rusas del Banco mas grande de Moscu, Gazprom y Polymetal estan todos en Negativo pic.twitter.com/QW4EmeIT6y Alertas Mundiales ???? (@AlertasMundial) February 28, 2022 We're seeing widespread risk aversion once more on Monday after new severe sanctions were levied against Russia over the weekend," said OANDAs Craig Erlam. The response to previous sanctions was underwhelming, to say the least, but the latest batch undoubtedly has the teeth that the others lacked. That's been most clearly evident in the FX markets, where the rouble plunged more than 30% to record lows and that could have been much worse but for swift action by the central bank. An emergency rate hike - raising the key rate from 9.5% to 20% - alongside other measures, has enabled the rouble to pare those initial losses but the currency remains under severe pressure. The latest sanctions are hard-hitting and will weigh heavily on the economy and that's before we see the second-round effects, he added. Entering the last half-hour of trading, the FTSE 100 was down 66 points (0.9%) at 7,423. 3.45pm: It all kicks off in the world of football Shares in travel firm TUI AG (LSE:TUI) were down 5.9% at 237.5p on Monday afternoon and not just because of unease caused by events in Ukraine. The companys chief executive has written to staff assuring them that management is happy having Putin supporter Alexey Mordashov as its biggest shareholder. Tui chief exec writes to staff and responds to questions around Alexei Mordashov, the company's biggest shareholder, and his links to Putin's regime pic.twitter.com/MERQz732oJ Jamie Nimmo (@JamieNimmo63) February 28, 2022 News agency reports indicate the European Union has been mulling sanctions against Mordashov. Meanwhile, Roman Abramovich has followed up his gesture in handing over stewardship of Chelsea football club to the trustees of the clubs charitable foundation by offering to act as peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine. Apparently the trustees of Chelseas charitable foundation have not yet agreed to Roman Abramovichs idea to hand them stewardship of the club because they have major unanswered questions and do not want to act or be seen as a front. Very wise Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) February 27, 2022 What about Fifa? The most corrupt organisation in the sporting world for decades just cant rid itself of dodge-pot leaders ???? Gary Neville (@GNev2) February 28, 2022 Following today's public sale, tickets for our FIFA World Cup play-off Semi-Final against Ukraine have now sold out. pic.twitter.com/lSK1bq056B Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) February 28, 2022 Apparently FIFA is still going to allow Russia to compete in the World Cup and other major competitions by changing the name of the team! This is appalling, but all it needs is for every other team to refuse to play them. FIFA would then be forced to exclude them. Mal Harrison (@Mal_DuBois) February 28, 2022 The FTSE 100 was down 98 points (1.3%) at 7,391. 2.50pm: US markets open lower US markets have opened lower with the Nasdaq faring best of the three main indices. The Nasdaq Composite was down 110 points (0.8%) at 13,584 as US investors reacted to the weekends events in eastern Europe and the Wests response to them. The Dow Jones 30-share index was down 392 points (1.2%) at 33,661 while the broader-based S&P 500 was 44 points (1.0%) at 4,341. In London, the FTSE 100 is rallying again and has pared its loss to less than 100 points; the index is down 95 points (1.3%) at 7,395. Associated British Foods PLC (LSE:ABF) was falling harder than most blue-chips after its pre-close period trading update. The shares shed 3.3% at 1,894p despite the foods and clothing group saying sales and underlying profit at the halfway point of its financial year are expected to be ahead of pre-Covid levels and strongly ahead of last year. A strong showing by Primark helped ABF guide for improved sales and operating profits at the half-year mark. The groups been bogged down by inflation across all of its businesses, but cost-saving efforts at its retail arm were enough to keep rising prices from denting performance significantly, said Laura Hoy at Hargreaves Lansdown. Primark will feel the sting of inflation in the second half, but at that point price hikes in other parts of the business will be filtering through. The result is managements unchanged optimism for significant progress in underlying profit growth for the full year. Therein lies the benefit of such a highly diverse business. ABF is best known as Primarks parent, but the groups also in charge of several other food-related businesses. The structure is a big part of the reason the group was able to come out of the pandemic with very few scars and is a strength that should carry it through the current inflationary environment as well, she added. 2.00pm: Rally runs out of steam The lunchtime rally has fizzled out and the Footsie is back to sporting a triple-digit fall. Londons index of heavyweight shares was down 125 points (1.7%) at 7,364, just a couple of points above its low point for the day. Its not all about Ukraine today, however, and logistics firm Bunzl PLC (LSE:BNZL) is one of those making headway, advancing 7.1% to 2,955p after it released full-year results this morning. The main feature of trading in 2021 were the recovery in underlying sales as retail and hospitality venues reopened, offset by declining sales of Covid 19 related products. It also benefitted from product cost inflation that it was able to pass on in most cases. Base business sales were broadly in line with 2019 levels, driven in particular by North America and Latin America. The acquisitions made this year and last added c4% to revenue, said Edison Groups Andy Murphy. 2022 has started well and the company is upgrading guidance from that given at the last pre-close statement, despite some uncertainties relating to product and operating cost inflation. It also expects the margin to be slightly higher than the historical levels as the mix of sector and product sales transitions. Ahead of the consensus upgrade, Bunzl trades on a PER of 17.8x in the current year and yields 2.1%. It is probably worth noting that the dividend has been raised every year of the last 24 years reflecting the underlying strength of the business, Murphy said. 12.50pm: Investors turn to gold (not literally) With equities in retreat and foreign exchange markets in turmoil, investors have predictably turned to gold as a haven investment. The yellow metal has risen to US$1,909.10, up US$21.40 (1.1%) on the day, although it remains below the high point of last week, which occurred on a Wednesday. "Gold hit a 20 month high on Wednesday of US$1940, driven mainly by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There has been significant volatility since but gold is hovering around the US$1,900 mark," said Hector McNeil, co-chief executive officer and co-Founder of HANetf. "The price of gold often rallies during times of geopolitical uncertainty. For instance, following the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in early 2020, the price of gold hit levels it had not seen since 2013. The war in Ukraine, however, has the potential to be much more destabilising to financial markets. "The conflict is potentially escalating and so too are the severity of sanctions placed on Russia. One economic historian has described the sanctions on Russia as a declaration of all-out financial warfare against Russia". Therefore it is expected that conflict will continue to exert significant uncertainty on the equity and bond markets. As an insurance asset, gold comes into its own in periods of uncertainty such as this. "There is also pressure on energy markets and the likelihood of disruptions to supply. Higher energy prices were already the principal driver of inflation in Europe prior to the outbreak of the war. Energy prices have a significant weight of almost 10% in the European Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP). Therefore higher energy prices will likely result in higher short and medium-term inflation," McNeil continued. "There is also the risk of higher inflation through agricultural prices. Russia and Ukraine combined make up 27.9% of global wheat exports. If there are supply disruptions, this would have an impact on prices and consequently on inflation. Together with the impact from energy prices, this could lead to significant inflationary pressure. This plays into the historic uses for gold as a hedge for inflation and also market uncertainty. "A final way potential impact is on the supply of gold itself. Russia was the worlds second-largest supplier of gold in 2021. Should they be unable or unwilling to export gold, this could have a negative impact on available supply and potentially impact gold prices. "The Royal Mint Physical Gold ETC RMAU is a potential way to implement a gold investment. It has arguably the most secure way to hold physical gold as it is held by a sovereign mint versus similar Gold ETCs where the gold is held in custody at banks in London and New York," McNeil concluded. The FTSE 100 was down 59 points (0.8%) at 7,430. 12.10pm: US stocks to open mixed US stocks are expected to open mixed as officials from Ukraine and Russia meet in neighbouring Belarus to try to reach an agreement to end the conflict that escalated over the weekend as Russias offensive on Ukraine was met with fierce resistance. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.25% in Monday pre-market trading, while those for the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.79% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.13%. The Russian ruble plunged by almost 30% to trade at a new record low of 106 rubles per dollar after Western countries blocked a list of Russian banks from the Swift global payment system. Fears that oil supplies could be disrupted sent Brent crude 5% higher and European gas futures rose by more than 60%. Haven gold moved back above US$1,900. US markets ended with significant gains on Friday as Russia agreed to talk to Ukrainian diplomats amid the geopolitical crisis. The Dow Jones ended 2.51% higher at 34,059, while the S&P 500 added 2.24% at 4,385 and the Nasdaq Composite rallied with gains of 1.64%, ending at 13,695. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 90 points (1.2%) at 7,400. 11.20am: Ceasefire talks begin in Belarus Talks between Ukraine and Russia have begun in Belarus, according to reports. Ukraine has apparently asked for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kyiv. Ukraine ceasefire talks begin; Russia takes two small cities https://t.co/o4V7KBEGf7 News Room (@newsroomgy) February 28, 2022 The FTSE 100 has trimmed some of its earlier losses and is down 89 points (1.2%) at 7,401. I think a ceasefire would be a mistake for Ukrainians. Its only going to give Putin a chance to regroup and plot. Im just not sure anything should be agreed unless all troops go back many hundred miles. A really crucial time right now. Nadia (@confidencenac) February 28, 2022 Proving its an ill wind that blows nobody any good, BAE Systems PLC (LSE:BA.), up 14% at 741.6p, is the best blue-chip performer. The defence firm is expected to benefit from an increased emphasis on rearmament after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 10.50am: Russian stock market not open today To no ones great surprise, the Russian stock market is shut today. Meanwhile, stocks with Russian connections continue to get the works in London. Outside of the FTSE 100, Petrapavlovsk PLC, the Russian gold miner, is off 26% at 7p; Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ), the airline that serves eastern European destinations (including Ukraine) is down 11% at 3,199p. The FTSE 100 was down 105 points (1.4%) at 7,384, the same as it was 40 minutes earlier so equity prices appear to be stabilising. There are some massive losers on the FTSE 100 headed by companies with strong Russian connections, while banks are also getting a kicking. Londons index of heavyweight shares is down 105 points (1.4%) at 7,384. Polymetal International PLC (LSE:POLY) has plummeted 54% to 367.5p and Evraz PLC (LSE:EVR) has plunged 26% to 150.7p as the rouble plunges following the imposition of sanctions over the weekend. The Russian ruble plunged by almost 30% to trade at a new record low of 106 ruble per dollar after Western countries blocked a list of Russian banks from the SWIFT global payment system, observed Hussein Sayed, the chief market strategist at Exinity. European banks are tanking after the West oxymoronically stopped dragging its feet on expelling Russian banks from the SWIFT system. In London, HSBC PLC (LSE:HSBA) is down 4.9% at 511.4p, Natwest Group PLC is 4.5% lower at 225.1p, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) is off 4.1% at 47.65p and Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) is 4.3% weaker at 180.78p. Fears that oil supplies could be disrupted sent Brent crude 5% higher and European gas futures rose by more than 60%. The decision to cut Russia from the global payment system could possibly halt gas supplies to Europe and lead to dangerous economic consequences on the continent and the rest of the world, Sayed added. Victoria Scholar, the head of investment at interactive investor, noted that BP PLC (LSE:BP.) has shed 7% after announcing plans to divest its 19.75% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft (AIM:ROSN), costing the British oil giant up to US$25 billion as the companys chief executive officer (CEO) Bernard Looney steps down from Rosneft (AIM:ROSN)s board. I know there is a lot of cheering the financial collapse in the Russian market and the rouble crashing more than 40%, but be forewarned: Brent crude futures up $4.21, or 4.3%, to $102.14 per barrel, and when the NYSE opens Dow Futures will be down 500 points. Floss Obama???????? (@FlossObama) February 28, 2022 BPs potential US$25 billion from exiting Rosneft (AIM:ROSN) highlights the stress facing companies with heavy exposure to Russia. It is becoming clear that attempts by the US and Europe to disentangle itself from Russia and freeze out its economy will have significant consequences for Western companies and economies too; however the downside for BP was capped by sharp gains in oil prices, which should continue to support its bottom line if Brent continues its upward trajectory, she noted. The price of Brent crude is currently US$4.94 (5.2%) higher at US$99.04 a barrel. Feel free to nip out and fill up the tank (unless you have an electric vehicle) after reading this update. 8.20am: Could've been worse (for the markets) It was a sharp fall at the open, but not quite the decline predicted. The FTSE 100 started 70 points in the hole at 7,422.55 after a weekend of further conflict in Ukraine that was coupled with some Putin sabre rattling as Russia put its nuclear forces on high alert. All this could be moot if border talks between delegates from Moscow and Kyiv yield some sort of ceasefire. Ramped up sanctions have heavily hit the rouble, while Russia has more than doubled its interest rates. The countrys effective expulsion from the banking communications system Swift has the potential to hit it hard financially too. On the market, BP shares were 4% lower in the opening exchanges after the oil giant said it would be getting rid of its 20% stake in the Russian state-owned oiler Rosneft (AIM:ROSN). 6.55 am: Nuclear wobbles predicted The FTSE 100 looks set to open sharply lower after Russia's Vladimir Putin put the countrys nuclear deterrent force on high alert. This was the latest worrying twist in the Ukraine conflict with blasts heard in the country's capital Kyiv and second city Kharkiv overnight. The powder keg atmosphere is unlikely to lend itself to a constructive exchange between delegates from Russia and Ukraine, who are expected to meet on the northern border with Belarus later today. With new sanctions imposed, including Russias removal from the Swift secure messaging system for banking, the rouble has crashed to a record low of one US cent, while Brent crude remained above US$100 a barrel. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) warned over the weekend oil prices could hit US$125. BP, meanwhile, has said it will offload its near 20% stake in Russias state-owned oil giant Rosneft (AIM:ROSN). There are no good outcomes to this crisis, warned Neil Wilson, analyst at Markets.com. Either Russia wins what would now be a very bloody war (as opposed to the quick Blitzkrieg), and Russian tanks are parked on Natos eastern flank with Putin emboldened. Or, we need to think of the consequences of Russia losing this war; Putin chased back to his dacha, badly beaten? What does the cornered bear do then? We are in uncharted territory with a hot war in Europe where one of the protagonists has nuclear weapons. We pin our hopes on talks leading to an end to the bloodshed on both sidesbut the geopolitical order is becoming more spiky. Around the markets Pound US$1.3361 (-0.36%) Bitcoin US$37,761.40 (+0.12%) Gold US$1,911.90 (+1.29%) Brent crude US$102.62 (+4.79%) 6.50am: Early Markets - Asia / Australia Asia Pacific markets were mixed on Monday as the U.S. and Western allies announced fresh sanctions on Russia, prompting fears that energy supplies will be affected. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, gained about 5% to trade at US$105 per barrel. The Russian rouble dropped to as low as 119 per US dollar in early trading, tumbling beyond its previous low of 90 roubles per US dollar. It was last trading at 105. Japans Nikkei 225 gained 0.19% and South Koreas Kospi rose 0.84%. The Shanghai Composite in China lifted 0.13% while Hong Kongs Hang Seng index dipped 0.87%. Australias S&P/ASX200 ended the day 0.7% higher and ended the month up 1.1% after interim earnings showed the resilience of the traditional pillars of the economy mining, resources and banking. READ OUR ASX REPORT HERE Oncimmune Holdings PLC (AIM:ONC) said it has signed a commercial collaboration deal with a health company owned by Googles parent, Alphabet. The AIM-listed immunodiagnostics firm is teaming up with Verily Life Sciences to assess long Covid data. Specifically, the teams will use autoantibody profiling of patients to see if the markers present early in the infection are associated with persistent symptoms and after-effects and remain present after the initial illness. Oncimmune said it will utilise its recently validated infectious disease panel developed under the IMmunity Profiling of pAtients with COVID-19 for Therapy and Triage, or IMPACTT programme. Should this discovery phase prove successful, Verily and Oncimmune have rights to commercialise their findings, which may include the development of a companion diagnostic. "The real impact on society of long COVID is only beginning to be understood, said Oncimmune chief executive, Dr Adam Hill. Oncimmune is a leader in infectious disease serological antibody profiling, and therefore this partnership with Verily, utilising Oncimmune's validated infectious disease panel, will seek to identify autoantibodies which are indicators for Long COVID. It is yet another exemplar of Oncimmune's leading position in autoimmune profiling. "As is typical with Oncimmune's contracts, there is potential for the initial discovery work in autoantibodies to progress onto the identification of intellectual property rights, and to the development of viable commercial companion diagnostic devices." BP PLC (LSE:BP.) will give up its 19.75% stake and its two board positions in Russian state-backed oil company Rosneft (AIM:ROSN) following pressure from the UK government. On Friday, it was reported by the Financial Times that UK business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had called on BP to explain their holdings in Rosneft (AIM:ROSN), which BP has held a stake in since 2013. BP chair Helge Lund said that BP had worked in Russia for over 30 years with brilliant Russian colleagues. However, this military action represents a fundamental change. It has led the bp board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue, Lund said. Rosneft shares fell off a cliff following Russias invasion of Ukraine, losing more than half its value in the week by close last Friday, hitting 307.95 in a wider selloff of Russian shares. The company accounted for around 20% of BPs profits in 2021, equivalent to 2bn. BP will pay a US$11bn charge of foreign exchange losses accumulated in recent years and a non-cash adjusting item charge, which is the difference between the fair value of the Rosneft shareholding at the end of March 2022 and the carrying value of the asset: US$14bn at the end of 2021. It also means Rosneft will no longer factor into BPs dividend payments, though BP maintained previous guidance on annual EBIDA per share growth of 7-9%. BP chief executive Bernard Looney has resigned "with immediate effect" from the Rosneft board, along with BP-nominated director Bob Dudley. Like so many, I have been deeply shocked and saddened by the situation unfolding in Ukraine and my heart goes out to everyone affected, said Looney. It has caused us to fundamentally rethink bps position with Rosneft. I am convinced that the decisions we have taken as a board are not only the right thing to do, but are also in the long-term interests of bp. Kwarteng welcomed BPs decision in a warning to other Russian-affiliated UK companies. I welcome BPs decision to exit its shareholding in Rosneft oil company, Kwarteng tweeted. Russias unprovoked invasion of Ukraine must be a wake up call for British businesses with commercial interests in Putins Russia. BPs share price is down 9% from February highs of 417.2p, closing on Friday at 378.5p. Ferrexpo PLC (LSE:FXPO) climbed 9.1% to 166.9p after a corporate and logistics update. The world's 3rd largest exporter of high grade iron ore pellets to the global steel industry said it has decided to delay the publication date of its full year results, which were previously scheduled for publication on 16 March 2022. This decision has been made due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which is requiring significant management attention and therefore impacting on the usual internal processes for preparing the group's full year results. The additional time provided by this delay will allow the group to consider the full impact of these events on the accounts, and will provide more time for the group's independent auditor to carry out its own audit procedures, some of which will be affected by the current situation in Ukraine. 2.35p: Oxford Instruments confirms bid approach from Spectris Oxford Instruments PLC (AIM:OXIG) shares soared this afternoon following a cash and shares takeover proposal from Spectris PLC (LSE:SXS). Shares in the technology products and services company were up 33.42% to 2,659p on news of the 1.79bn proposal. The 3,100p per share offer would consist of 1,950p in cash and 1,150p in Spectris shares, marking a sizeable premium on yesterdays closing price of 2,015p. 1.40pm: Kaspikz JSC rises as it stresses it has minimal exposure to Russia Kaspikz JSC rose 5.4% to 62.2p after it said it had meaningful exposure to sanctioned Russian financial institutions. The company, which operates the Kaspi.kz Super App, Kazakhstan's leading mobile Super App (whatever one of those is), said average monthly transactions on its platform per active consumer was up 81% year-over-year to 50.6. Consumer and merchant trends since the start of the year have been strong, with consistently improving momentum, the company said. 12.45pm: Polymetal plummets Polymetal International PLC (LSE:POLY), the precious metals mining group operating in Russia, Kazakhstan and Armenia, took a bath on Monday after the sanctions imposed on Russia over the weekend. The company issues interims on Wednesday and shareholders will be interested in any commentary on how the collapse in the value of the ruble will affect the company. 11.50am: Fix Price Group ins a fix Fix Price Group Ltd (LSE:FIXP), down 73%, was Londons worst-performing stock on Monday despite some heavy competition from other Russia-related companies. The company, one of the leading variety value retailers globally and the largest in Russia, has terminated its agreement with JSC VTB Capital, the bank that was managing the purchases under Fix Price's previously announced buyback programme. Its board of directors is asking shareholders to vote on a proposal to change the company's jurisdiction of incorporation from the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to the Republic of Cyprus as a public limited liability company. 10.55am: BP battered as it bows to pressure to sell its Rosneft (AIM:ROSN) stake BP PLC (LSE:BP.) tumbled 5.6% to 357.25p after it said it will give up its 19.75% stake and its two board positions in Russian state-backed oil company Rosneft (AIM:ROSN) following pressure from the UK government. On Friday, it was reported by the Financial Times that UK business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had called on BP to explain their holdings in Rosneft (AIM:ROSN) (Rosneft (AIM:ROSN)), which BP has held a stake in since 2013. The company accounted for around 20% of BPs profits in 2021, equivalent to 2bn. 10.00am: McColl's Retail plummets on profit warning McColl's Retail Group (LSE:MCLS) lost 60% of its value this morning after a profit warning - and it does not even have any shops in Russia. The group responded to media speculation by confirming its remains in ongoing discussions with its lending banks towards a longer-term agreement in relation to the balance of the facility. The group has received the necessary agreement to roll forward its financial covenant test periodically and continues to receive credit support from its key commercial partner to enable these discussions. The shares slumped after the community retailer said that since the start of the new financial year, there has been a tangible improvement of product availability in stores but the business saw a material step-down in footfall due to the surge in COVID-19 cases relating to Omicron, particularly over the Christmas period. While demand has since picked up, revenues in the first quarter are behind expectations. 9.10am: Infrastructure India jumps after agreeing to sell wind farm assets Infrastructure India PLC saw its market value increase by around a third after an asset sale. The company said an agreement has been signed for the conditional sale of Indian Energy (Mauritius) Limited's assets for roughly 5.45mln. Indian Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infrastructure India and is an independent power producer that owns and operates wind farms at two sites in the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with 41.3 megawatts of installed capacity. Nostra Terra Oil and Gas Company PLC (AIM:NTOG) jumped 4.4% to 0.48p after announcing success at the Fouke 2 well, at the Company's Pine Mills oil field in east Texas. Fouke 2 encountered 23 feet of excellent quality pay sand in two intervals, significantly exceeding management expectations. The upper pay interval is 17 feet thick and located within the same reservoir horizon as the offset Fouke 1 but with a thicker, better quality (higher porosity) pay section that is located structurally higher. The lower pay section is 6 ft thick and situated in the Dexter interval of the Woodbine which was wet in the Fouke 1. British Airways is in the midst of the fourth day of disruption that adds to a laundry list of IT problems for the airline. BA has seen more than 600 flights disrupted over the last three days, having initially encountered issues last Tuesday. The airline denied being the victim of a cyberattack, saying the glitch affected its check-in desk. We know this is an unforgivable situation and apologies dont go far enough to express our regret, the airline said in a letter to passengers left at Heathrow, its main base of operation. BA will rue the latest speed bump as the airline sector battles to reach pre-pandemic passenger levels. Last week Heathrow airport, BAs main base of operations, reported the lowest passenger number in nearly 50 years over 2021, while the latest figures shows BA passenger figures at around a third of 2019 levels. BA can expect another hefty cost in the latest of a litany of IT outages and disruptions in recent years. Around 500,000 customers had their data compromised in 2018, later costing BA 20mln in a data breach fine. In 2017, the cancellation of 726 flights, stranding 75,000 May bank holiday travellers, cost BAs owners International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE:IAG) nearly 80mln. UBS downgraded its price target for BA-owners IAG to 215p from a previous target of 220p, but the group is still considered a buy. The European airlines under our coverage are facing unprecedented challenges which include in our view a structural decline in business travel, lack of forward visibility as cases of COVID-19 evolve and travel restrictions apply and ability to restructure against this backdrop, UBS said. Furthermore, the industry is challenged by a cyclical downturn with traffic volumes unlikely to return to 2019 levels for several years. Against this backdrop we see IAG as a relative winner compared to other European flag operators. IAGs share price was down 3.86% to 148.56p by 11:21 GMT this morning, against Fridays closing value of 152.78p. Shares in defence companies soared today as a leading US broker said Russias attack on Ukraine had changed the landscape for the weapons makers. BAe Systems PLC led the risers today, gaining 14% following an upgrade on Friday for the aircraft, warship and cybersecurity group by JP Morgan, with the broker upgrading others across the sector today. Describing it as a new era for defence spending, the US broker raised its view on Qinetiq to neutral while retaining its overweight stance of Babcock. JPM said Russias actions have fundamentally changed the background for defence spending, which is now going to be much higher than previously expected. Germany, for example, made three game-changing announcements at the weekend, says the broker. It will increase its defence spending to a minimum of 2% of GDP going forward, compared to 1.3% in 2021; will invest 100bn to modernise its military through a special fund and will send weapons to Ukraine and reversing a policy of banning sales to conflict zones. Other countries are likely to follow suit, suggests JPM, which expects every European to reassess its needs and especially in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. President Joe Biden is also likely to ask for a minimum of a 5% rise in US defence spending, but could go for more suggests JP Morgan. JP Morgan also expects some easing of the sectors ESG pressure as more investors accept that defence is needed to preserve peace and democracy. Price targets across the sector have been increased by an average of 25% by JPM with meaningful earnings upgrades ahead. Shares in BAe today jumped 14% to 742.2p, Qinetiq by 12% to 293.8p and Babcock by 7% to 328.1p. Alien Metals' Bill Brodie Good joins Proactive London to talk about receiving a 'no objection' letter from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board. This is in relation to the company's acquisition of a 100% interest in the Munni Munni platinum group metals and gold project in the West Pilbara, Western Australia. The Munni Munni project is currently subject to a joint venture between Artemis Resources Limited and Platina Resources Limited (Platina Resources Ltd (ASX:PGM) (Platina Resources Ltd (ASX:PGM)). South Africa: Technical report on critical skills list published Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, has published a technical report on the Critical Skills List of the Department of Home Affairs. The Critical Skills List technical report provides details of all the processes undertaken in the development of the Critical Skills List, and the actual list gazetted by Home Affairs Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, on 2 February 2022. The report follows a Memorandum of Agreement signed by the Higher Education and Training and Home Affairs Departments in January 2020 to facilitate the development of the Critical Skills List. In terms of the MOA, the Department of Higher Education and Training was mandated to undertake research and produce the technical report which includes the methodology and consultation processes involved in the evidence-based Critical Skills List. The department handed the list to the Department of Home Affairs for consideration. Nzimande said the Department of Higher Education and Training undertook the research and produced the technical report, titled Finalisation of the Critical Skills List, through a major research programme on Labour Market Intelligence. The Minister said that South Africans live in a globalised economy, where countries often source workers from all over the world to fill gaps in their local economies, and it is therefore, not surprising that many countries, especially Western countries, regularly compile and publish lists of occupational shortages. The Migration Advisory Committee in the UK publishes a Skilled Occupation List, which is used by immigration authorities to grant special skills visas for potential immigrants. The Australian government also publishes a Skilled Occupation List regularly to draw skilled people into the country. Similarly, Canada regularly publishes a list of Occupations of Demand, which it uses to apply its skilled worker visa. In South Africa, the Critical Skills List forms the basis to offer suitably skilled foreign nationals a Critical Skills visa in occupational areas where there is a dire domestic shortage, Nzimande said. Nzimande explained that the development of the new list required extensive collaboration between Higher Education and Training, through the Labour Market Intelligence partnership programme, Home Affairs, a host of other government departments, and representatives from business, labour, community and the broader public. The technical report can be accessed on the departments Labour Market Intelligence website: https://lmi-research.org.za and the Department of Higher Education and Training website: https://www.dhet.gov.za SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. China welcomes semiconductor companies 15:45, February 28, 2022 By Ma Si ( Chinadaily.com.cn A staff member works on the production line of a semiconductor manufacturer in Binzhou, Shandong province. [Photo by Chu Baorui/For China Daily] China welcomes global semiconductor companies to invest in the nation and carry out cooperation with local companies, and jointly contribute to the stabilization of the global integrated circuit supply chain, the nation's top industry regulator said on Monday. Tian Yulong, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said, "We will continue providing good policies and market environment for domestic and foreign integrated circuit companies, treat all market players equally, as well as give equal treatment to domestic and foreign investment in accordance with the laws." According to Tian, more efforts will be made to strengthen the protection of intellectual properties and jointly promote the innovative development of the integrated circuit industry. The ministry forecast that the shortage of auto chips has gradually been eased, and it predicted the situation will further improve this year, considering that the world's major chip companies have beefed up production, and the supply capacity of domestic chip companies is also growing. More efforts will be made to encourage auto makers and components companies to optimize the layout of supply chains, rationally schedule production, improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and minimize the impact of chip shortages, the ministry added. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) MBABANE Drama unfolded when a female police officer reportedly paid a surprise visit to a High Court official, Nelisiwe Mkhonta in her house in search of Eswatini Television Authority (ETVA) employee whom they are allegedly both dating. So serious was the dispute over the TV man, Lington (though spelt Linton in the police statement) Gule that Mkhonta, who is an Assistant Registrar of the High Court has reported the matter to the police and further approached the Mbabane Magistrates Court for a peace binding order between her and the police officer, Hloniphile Tsabedze and her friend, one Zinhle. The court has since issued an interim order, wherein the police officer has been restrained from harassing, threatening and further going to Mkhontas house pending deliberation on March 10, 2022. According to the statement recorded by Mkhonta at the Mbabane Police Station, the police officer arrived in her house situated at Thembelihle at around 7:45pm towards the end of January 2022. She alleged that she opened the door only to discover that it was her love rival accompanied her friend, Zinhle. The statement pointed out that Mkhonta accommodated the duo in her house. Boyfriend Zinhle told me that she had accompanied Hloniphile who missed her boyfriend Lington Gule. At the time, it was 7:45pm and Gule was at the Galp Filling Station. Linton Gule arrived shortly, reads the statement. Mkhonta stated that Tsabedze greeted Gule and further told him that she had come to him because he (Gule) neither answered nor returned her calls. Mkhonta mentioned in her statement that Hloniphile made it clear to Gule that she wanted to speak to him him so that they could sort out their love related issues. She mentioned that Gule refused to give Hloniphile privacy. Hloniphile then stood up and shouted at Gule saying; ungangenti njena, bengingekho mine nawusoma. Cela ungangidvwaleli ngoba utohlupheka uze uyofa, reads the statement loosely translating to: do not make me a fool; I was not present when you proposed love. Please do not ignore me, otherwise you will suffer until you die. Mkhonta stated that looking at the situation; she contacted Mbabane Magistrate Sifiso Vilakati, who is her neighbour. Rescue She stated that Vilakati promised to come to her rescue. She mentioned that when Vilakati arrived, she then went outside to attend to him, to which he allegedly advised her to chase Hloniphile and her friend away as they were making noise at the compound. Mkhonta stated that upon returning to her house, the duo left, leaving her and Gule in the house. She mentioned that she had been in a steady relationship with Gule since 2015. She alleged that in the first week of February 2022, she received a call from Gules sister, Goodness, whom she referred to as sister- in-law. She claimed that Goodness informed her that she received threats from the police officer that she would come and collect Lingtons clothes. She alleged that the police officer told Goodness that if she refused with the clothes, she would come with a gun and shoot her. She stated that she then pleaded with the Mbabane Magistrates Court to protect her in anyway and further restrain Hloniphile from going to her residence because she felt unsafe. However, the veracity of the allegations contained in the statement is yet to be tested in court. Gule declined to comment, stating that he acts as opposed to talking. He warned this reporter to handle the story with care before he (reporter) finds himself in trouble. He stated that he would get time to state what he meant by acting as opposed to talking when asked about the context of his words. Gule was called as his cellphone number is contained in the statement. Britain will not turn to fracking as a possible answer to its energy crisis and will continue to focus on renewables and nuclear, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said today. In a tweet, Kwarteng said that turning to the UKs shale gas reserves would do little to bring down the price in the long term and that an alternative to gas was the answer to the countrys energy needs. Energy prices have soared by more than 400% over the past six months due to problems supply issues with the reliance of Europe on gas from Russia only like to add to the problems, experts predict. Heating bills in the UK are set to rise by 54% to an average of 1,971 at the start of April when the new price cap comes into place to reflect those rises. Supporters of fracking have slammed the governments stance, saying that concerns about the possibility of earthquakes have been overstated and that tapping into the rocks under the UK to release gas trapped there would solve any supply issues for the country. Kwarteng said most of the gas used in the UK currently comes from the North Sea through companies such as Shell or from Norway and the issue is not one of supply but of price. Additional UK production wont materially affect the wholesale market price. This includes fracking UK producers wont sell shale gas to UK consumers below the market price. Theyre not charities. The long-term solution is obvious: gas is more expensive than renewable energy, so we need to move away from gas. Oil and gas account for about 75% of the UKs energy supply currently. Perpetual Resources Ltd (ASX:PEC) has signed a Joint Collaboration Agreement with Mid West Ports Authority (MWPA) to investigate the potential for annual export of 1.5 million tonnes of high-grade silica sand from the Beharra Project in Western Australia. The terms and conditions of the agreement will see both parties cooperate and work together to investigate how silica sand exports may be received, handled, loaded and shipped for export from Geraldton Port. Framework for discussions This is an interim agreement and does not guarantee Perpetual access to port capacity but provides a framework for constructive discussions which will take place over an initial 12-month period that is extendable by mutual consent. Any capacity that is allocated to Perpetual remains subject to agreement by the respective boards of MWPA and Perpetual. Export growth potential MWPA acting CEO Damian Tully said, We look forward to working with Perpetual to explore the potential capacity required to facilitate the Beharra high-grade silica sand project. "This project is one of many which identifies significant export growth potential of planned projects in the Mid West region. The Port of Geraldton is an established bulk material handling facility and is utilised for the export of bulk materials, minerals, grain and concentrates. Commodities exported via Geraldton Port include grains, copper concentrates, zinc concentrates, nickel concentrates, mineral sands, talc and iron ore. Potential export industry Perpetual executive chairman Julian Babarczy said, We thank Mid West Ports for their professionalism and commitment to exploring ways to facilitate additional export tonnes from Geraldton Port. "We see Beharra as ideally positioned to play a pivotal role in an exciting new potential export industry for Western Australia and the Mid West Region. Perpetual Resources is a focused explorer of silica sands, aiming to produce high purity silica for export to the high growth Asian markets. Its flagship asset, the the Beharra Project, is 300 kilometres north of Perth and 96 kilometres south of the port town of Geraldton. Access to the project from Geraldton to the north and Perth to the south is via the sealed Brand Highway and then about 8.5 kilometres east on the Mt Adams unsealed road providing access to the centre of the tenure. About Beharra Project Beharra comprises a granted mining lease, M70/1406, covering an effective area of 10.4 square kilometres, and a granted exploration licence, E70/5221, covering an effective land area of 56.8 square kilometres. Extensive heavy mineral sands mining occurs to the south of Beharra, lime sands mining to the west and natural gas production to the south of the project area. Auger and aircore drilling has confirmed the presence of extensive, high purity silica sands, with a maiden mineral resource estimate completed in July 2020. A detailed pre-feasibility study demonstrating compelling project economics for Beharra was released to the ASX in March 2021, along with a maiden ore reserve. Subsequent rounds of bulk metallurgical testing have further improved the potential final product specifications at Beharra. Silica sands market Silica sands have an extensive range of uses, with lower purity (<99.5% SiO2) and lower priced applications including construction sand, proppant sand used in well fracturing, and foundry sand. With increasing purity (>99.5% SiO2) and price, uses include glass making including ultra-clear glass, with a main determinant of the sands suitability for specific applications and pricing being the level of the key impurity iron oxide (Fe2O3). Expansion of solar PV cell manufacturing capacity globally is driving demand for silica sand with Fe2O3 content of <200ppm and lower, which is a key focus market for Beharra. Independent market assessments have calculated a 40 million tonnes per annum incremental market growth opportunity for the high growth Asian markets through to 2026. Arrow Minerals Ltd (ASX:AMD) has completed a corporate restructure as part of its established succession plan. Howard Golden has stepped down from his role as managing director and from the Arrow Minerals' Board of Directors to make way for technical director Hugh Bresser. Golden will stay on in a business development role until May 30, 2022, at which point he will move away from the company to pursue other professional and personal interests. Bresser, who has been Arrows technical director since July 5, 2021, will assume the position of managing director effective from March 1, 2022, with the term to end on June 30, 2025. Growth phase of discovery On behalf of my fellow directors I would like to sincerely thank Howard for his outstanding contribution to Arrow Minerals over the past three years, Arrow chairman Frazer Tabeart said. During his tenure Howard led Arrow through the consolidation of a significant land position in Burkina Faso and advanced the resulting gold exploration programs. "Howard is leaving the company in good standing with a strong portfolio and a roadmap to discovery of an economic gold resource. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. I congratulate Mr Bresser and have great confidence in Hughs ability to steer the company through the next important growth phase of discovery and resource development. "We are pleased that Hugh has agreed to terms under which a significant proportion of his remuneration will be success-based, with targets which will be specifically aligned to tangible growth and shareholder value. Creso Pharma Ltd (ASX:CPH, OTCQB:COPHF)s wholly-owned, Canadian-based psychedelics company Halucenex Life Sciences Inc. has secured Clinical Trial Authorisation (CTA) with Health Canada. The CTA positions Halucenex as one of the few companies in Canada with clearance to begin a clinical trial utilising psychedelic substances. Halucenex will now be able to progress the final steps towards the start of its planned phase II clinical trial to test the efficacy of psilocybin on treatment resistant Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This is a major milestone for the Canadian company, which outlined its proposed trials objectives, design protocols and supporting data to Health Canada in January this year. The January submission was subject to a 30-day review process by the regulator, prior to approval being granted. Read: Creso Pharma psychedelics subsidiary Halucenex lodges CTA to test efficacy of psilocybin on treatment-resistant PTSD Recruitment objectives to start immediately Halucenex will begin its patient recruitment objectives and leverage its established relationships with veterans affairs groups across Canada. The company will look to expedite the process, while continuing additional work with Acadia University towards clinical trial design and ethics approval. Halucenex anticipates that the planned clinical trial will begin in Q2 CY2022. Trials will involve 18 to 20 individuals (over 19 years old) that suffer from treatment resistant PTSD. Creso Pharma believes the trial has the potential to unlock major market opportunity within the PTSD therapeutics sector, which is expected to grow to US$10.5 billion in value by 2025. Culmination of over a year of hard work Success in the clinical trial would allow Halucenex to progress several near-term opportunities including potential joint venture, licensing, product development and ongoing R&D initiatives. Securing Clinical Trial Authorisation solidifies over 16 months of hard work and dedication from our team and positions Halucenex as one of very few Canadian companies with approval to commence a clinical trial utilising psychedelic substances on mental health conditions, Halucenex president, CEO and founder Bill Fleming said. We will immediately commence the formal patient recruitment process. Given our longstanding relationships with a number of veterans affairs groups and the prevalence of treatment resistant PTSD across North America, we anticipate that this will be a seamless process. We look forward to providing additional updates to shareholders as we continue our rapid progress. Australian Potash Ltd (ASX:APC) has received a $250,000 Regional Economic Development (RED) grant from the Western Australian Government for its Laverton Training Centre (LTC), which has been recognised as one of the Goldfields' leading community development initiatives. The company says the LTC reflects its commitment to serving and developing the Laverton community. APC's training centre is now pursuing charitable status registration to support its efforts to produce a multi-generational impact, with the aim of improving economic capacity within Aboriginal communities. Not just a box-ticking exercise The LTC is based on the successful training program piloted at Wiluna over four years, which is centred on working with local families to support people transitioning into training and employment, while maintaining cultural and family priorities and obligations, Australian Potash managing director and CEO Matt Shackleton said. This is not just a box-ticking exercise for APC. We are genuinely committed to having a positive social impact in our communities through authentic and effective environmental, social and corporate governance. Our local Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer Sarah Sullivan has been working with families to find out what trainees need to transition into training programs and what ongoing support they require to successfully complete their training programs. Combining strong social responsiveness and high levels of consultation with industry and local employers has helped us to create a network of support for the training programs. The RED grant will fund the improvement of key facilities at the LTC and will also be applied to purchase vehicles to provide transport for trainees. Laverton Training Centre is an adult vocational training hub that will be run in conjunction with Central Regional TAFE Kalgoorlie campus, with the goal of assisting Aboriginal people in overcoming the hurdles to accessing formal training and providing them with valuable qualifications. Nurturing tomorrows workforce A well-trained and committed local Aboriginal workforce will be a huge asset to Ranger programs in the Goldfields and local employers such as APC, and surrounding gold, nickel and rare earths producers, and bring enormous economic benefit to remote communities, Shackleton continued. It is gratifying to see our efforts recognised and supported by the Ministers Department of Regional Development and the Goldfields Esperance Development Commission. We are thankful for their early encouragement and of course, generous ongoing support through the RED grant. The LTC will start training its first cohort of students today, Monday, February 28, 2022, with two classes of 12 students, at full capacity. Students will undertake units in Certificate II Rural Operations. Skills learnt through the LTC are applicable to the Aboriginal Ranger program overseen by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. About Australian Potash Australian Potash holds a 100% interest in the Lake Wells Sulphate of Potash, which is about 500 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields. The Lake Wells Project will be a long life, low capital, and high margin sulphate of potash (SOP) producer. K-Brite is a registered trademark brand of the company, representing the premium SOP to be produced from Lake Wells. Signing the joint statement, from left Xavier Simonet (CEO - Austrade), Mark Southey (chairman - Arafura), Kyu-Yearn Hwang (president - KOMIR), Kiyoung Park (Vice Minister - Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy). Arafura Resources Ltd (ASX:ARU) has signed a Joint Statement of Cooperation with Korean government agency Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation (KOMIR) to support the development of Arafuras Nolans Project and assist in the export of product from Nolans to the Republic of Korea. The agreement focuses on expanding cooperation in several areas, including information sharing on the development of the Nolans project for Korean investors, the import of rare earth products into Korea and the use of strategic stockpiling. Rare earth magnets Nolans will produce neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide a product integral to the production of rare earth magnets used in emerging industries such as the electric vehicle market. Cooperation between Arafura and KOMIR recognises the strategic importance of a secure supply of critical minerals, including NdPr, to the Korean market. Arafura chairman Mark Southey welcomed the opportunity to strengthen its relationships in Korea. The Arafura Board of Directors and our management team welcome this recognition of our relationship with Korea and the opportunities it will facilitate to deliver supply of NdPr from the Nolans Project to the Korean market, he said. Secure supply of critical product This is another milestone that indicates the global significance of Nolans, and international interest in the projects capacity to provide a reliable, secure supply of what is a critical product, Southey said. Managing director Gavin Lockyer added that the companys relationship with KOMIR reaffirmed the importance of Nolans to prospective customers and Australias key trading partners. Nolans has the capacity to meet demand for rare earths in a number of major international markets, he said. The coming 12 months is a particularly significant period as we continue to work toward a final investment decision for Nolans in the second half of 2022, while simultaneously progressing advanced negotiations on senior debt facilities and offtake agreements. Alien Metals Ltd (AIM:UFO, OTC:ASLRF) has received a 'no objection' letter from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board in relation to the company's acquisition of a 100% interest in the Munni Munni platinum group metals and gold project in the West Pilbara, Western Australia. The Munni Munni project is currently subject to a joint venture between Artemis Resources Limited and Platina Resources Limited (Platina Resources Ltd (ASX:PGM)). The 'no objection' from FIRB was one of the key conditions precedent to the acquisition, as referenced in Aliens announcement of 21 January 2022. The company plans to satisfy the remaining conditions in the coming weeks. "Receiving FIRB approval from the Australian government for the acquisition of the Munni Munni Project satisfies one of the most significant regulatory conditions precedent to the transaction, said Bill Brodie Good, Aliens chief executive. We are now working on finalising the outstanding aspects to the conditions precedent to be able to complete soonest and start working in earnest on this very exciting project. The Munni Munni project hosts the largest ultramafic intrusion in the West Pilbara and is one of the biggest undeveloped primary platinum group elements resources in Australia. Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX:BGL) has appointed former Northern Star Resources senior finance professional, Guy Moore, as its chief financial officer, effective in early April. Moore is a chartered accountant with more than 20 years experience in financial management, treasury activities, cost reporting and mergers and acquisitions. Most recently, Moore held the position of general manager of finance at Northern Star, where he led a team of approximately 40 people. In this role Moore was instrumental in post-acquisition and divestment activities involved in the companys 50% acquisition of KCGM, its merger with Saracen Mineral Holdings, the acquisition of Newmonts Kalgoorlie Power business and divestment of Northern Stars Kundana assets. Transitioning into carbon-neutral gold Bellevue managing director Steve Parsons said Moore brought a wealth of skills and experience to the company. With development of our Bellevue project underway, Guys extensive experience in financial management and reporting will be highly valuable, Parsons said. His thorough knowledge of the ASX-listed gold sector will also be particularly relevant as we move towards production and cashflow and his understanding of bullion products will enable him to play a central role in helping us achieve our goal of producing and marketing carbon-neutral gold. As previously announced, executive director and CFO Michael Naylor will transition to a non-executive director role. Read: Bellevue Gold on hunt for new chief financial officer as Michael Naylor transitions to non-executive director Bellevue non-executive chair Kevin Tomlinson thanked Naylor for his service to the company. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Mike for the vital role he played in Bellevues rapid growth from a small explorer to an emerging Western Australian gold producer, Tomlinson said. We are delighted that the company will continue to benefit from his experience and in-depth knowledge of our project as he moves into a non-executive director role. About Bellevue Gold Bellevue Gold is advancing the historical Bellevue Gold Mine in Western Australia, a site that was once one of Australias highest-grade gold mines, producing 800,000 ounces at 15 g/t gold from 1986 to 1997. The company has a resource of 3 million ounces at 9.9 g/t gold, including an indicated resource of 1.4 million ounces at 11 g/t, making it one of the highest-grade undeveloped gold discoveries in the world. Bellevue hopes to join Australia's fleet of gold producers in 2022. Blackstone Minerals Ltd (ASX:BSX, OTCQX:BLSTF) has completed the pre-feasibility study (PFS) for its 90%-owned Ta Khoa Nickel Project (TKNP) in northern Vietnam. The PFS confirms that an expanded Ta Khoa project will provide a secure, sustainable and economic supply of nickel for Blackstone to produce, through its refinery arm, the Ta Khoa Refinery Project (TKR), a nickel:cobalt:manganese (NCM) precursor for the lithium-ion battery industry. Integration with downstream operations The Ta Khoa Project represents an innovative and globally significant vertically integrated business strategy to deliver battery-grade NCM Precursor products into the burgeoning lithium-ion battery industry. BSX believes it has the potential to transform Vietnams role in the movement towards the electrification of transportation and will generate significant socioeconomic benefits for the communities in which the company operates. The primary objective of the TKNP is to provide high levels of reliability and security of nickel supply for Blackstones downstream TKR. To achieve this objective, the PFS identifies Blackstones need for a larger beneficiation plant to capture a higher proportion of its flagship Ban Phuc disseminated sulphide (DSS) deposit. The TKNP beneficiation plant will then be supplemented with feed from the Ban Chang and King Snake underground massive sulfide vein (MSV) deposits. Increased production What this means for the mine is production of 64.5 million tonnes at a grade of 0.41% nickel for 264,000 tonnes of nickel and Ban Phuc probable mining reserve of 48.7 million tonnes at a grade of 0.43% nickel for 210,000 tonnes of nickel, with 76% of mill feed over the life-of-mine in the probable reserve category (from the indicated resource category). This is a 60% increase in contained nickel metal compared to the scoping study base case released in October 2020 and represents an increase in processing life from 8.5 years to 9.2 years and a 39% increase in nickel in concentrate production. Around 50% of the TKR feed will be provided by the TKNP. Base case economics The company has based its valuation maths on an average nickel metal price and NCM 811 precursor price of US$20,000/tonne nickel and US$17,670/tonne NCM 811 respectively, though these are both well below spot prices as at the date of publication. Blackstone believes the true value of the project is inextricably linked to the reliability and security of supply provided to the TKR and the significant value proposition of the TKNP and TKR combined. Benchmark Minerals Intelligence estimates that the supply available for battery related nickel demand will enter a supply shortage from 2026. TKNP has pre-production capital in the vicinity of US$854 million, with a maximum cash drawdown of US$771 million expected in 2025. The payback period is expected to be 1.8 years from the first production, and the average annual operating cash flow will be US$533 million, with a post-tax net present value (NPV8) of US$1.99 billion and an internal rate of return of 47%. Expanded processing throughput The expanded processing throughput design of 8 million tonnes per annum for the TKNP reflects the resource growth achieved by the company over the past 12 months, reported in December last year. The TKNP, underpinned by a base load feed from the Ban Phuc DSS deposit, demonstrates a clear pathway for Blackstone to secure a significant proportion of the overall nickel supply intended for the TKR Refinery. Sustainability woven in Blackstones development strategy is founded on the principles of sustainability and the company says the PFS demonstrates its commitment to sustainable mining. The PFS includes a fully electrified haulage fleet for open-pit mining operations and an integrated waste land reform strategy based on the co-disposal tailings methodology, which are just some of the early initiatives the company is undertaking to move towards zero carbon. Controlling interest in resource attractive Blackstone considers its controlling interest in the TKNP resource base as a major incentive for players in the lithium-ion battery industry to collaborate with the company on its downstream ambitions. The exploration potential of the Ta Khoa nickel sulphide district is largely untested. Blackstone is committed to ongoing exploration programs and further resource definition, and any future success will have the potential to increase the proportion of concentrate feedstock provided by the TKNP to the TKR. The company is immediately progressing approval to commence definitive feasibility studies for the TKNP. Importantly, following the successful capital raising of A$60 million in November, BSX is well-capitalised to continue to de-risk the TKNP. SenSen Networks Ltd (ASX:SNS, OTCQB:SNNSF) has tabled record revenue in FY22s first half, a result it believes demonstrates considerable growth momentum. The sensor artificial intelligence (AI) software and solutions provider unveiled its interim financials on Monday, notching A$3 million in revenue in a 19% improvement on the previous corresponding period. SenSens monthly recurring revenue was also a record figure, with roughly A$450,000 brought in each month over the period, leading to annual recurring revenue of around A$5.3 million. Looking ahead, the tech stock is on track to achieve FY22 revenue of roughly A$11 million and grow monthly recurring revenue to around A$650,000, representing an annual recurring revenue of roughly A8 million, by the end of the financial year. SenSen by the numbers SNS posted an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) loss of A$6.9 million over FY22s first half, up markedly from the A$500,000 loss recorded in the previous corresponding period. SenSen says this result reflects a deeper investment in sales and research and development as it works to accelerate growth and expand into new market segments. The company reported an underlying EBIT of A$4.8 million excluding an non-cash share-based payments expense which is in line with the previously reported net cash used in operations over the financial years first half. Activities wise, the period shaped up as a busy one for the SenSen Networks team. The tech stock raised a A$10 million war chest over November and December through two placements and a share purchase plan to fund its growth momentum. SenSen also acquired Scancam Industries, a provider of AI anti-fuel-theft solutions, in July for A$6.5 million. Whats more, the company has since nabbed eight new contract wins with a minimum value of A$4.782 million over the next two to three years in each of its key market segments including the smart cities, casinos and smart retail brackets. SenSen ended the half with A$8.2 million in the bank to see it through the rest of FY22 up from the A$5.2 million in reserves at the end of FY21. Never been more excited Speaking to the companys interim financials, SenSen CEO Dr Subhash Challa said: Our solutions are gaining strong sales momentum in each of our key market segments as evidenced by eight new contract wins in the second quarter of 2022. The sales pipeline is continuing to build and is expected to lead to further customer contracts in the near future. This is due to investments made in the new sales teams across the globe and the successful trials of our award-winning data fusion AI software that we have been developing over the past 15 years. The acquisition of Scancam, along with eight contract wins in the second quarter of FY22, 120% net customer retention rate and a strong pipeline of opportunities in existing and new market segments positions us well to achieve the growth needed to achieve FY22 revenue of roughly $11 million by the end of FY22. The recent capital raisings will support our plans to grow market share in our target verticals and geographies with further investments planned in sales, marketing, product innovations and product delivery. We have never been more excited about the growth prospects for SenSen and look forward to providing updates on our progress. MBABANE Five people lost their lives, mainly due to stabbing over the weekend. In the first incident, a 29-year-old man of Ngcushulweni was found dead with multiple injuries while at Mlindazwe in Ezulwini. The discovery was made in the early hours of Saturday. At Mfutseni, a 36-year-old man of Mozambique died after he was stabbed with a knife once in the neck. A suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder. Hlatikhulu police arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of a 21-year-old man who died after he was stabbed with a sharp object while at Mbelebeleni. On other incidents which occurred in Nhlangano, a 40-year-old man of Makhwelela in Nhlangano was found dead with a stab wound in the chest while in the area. In the same area, a 32-year-old woman was found dead in a field. Investigations into the death of the woman are ongoing. Under road traffic incidents, there was one fatal accident reported over the weekend. It was the death of a 20-year-old man of Makhonza who died after being knocked down by a Toyota kombi that was driven by a 34-year-old man of Hhotela. Injuries The pedestrian sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Nhlangano Health Centre where he died while undergoing treatment. Police also arrested 26 motorists for driving on the public roads while under the influence of alcohol. The motorists will appear in court today. Meanwhile, Lobamba Police arrested and charged a 25-year-old man of Manzini Woodmaster for being found in possession of a 38 spiral revolver without a licence or permit while in Ezulwini. The man was arrested last Friday and is expected to appear in court today. KEFI Gold and Copper PLC (AIM:KEFI, OTC:KFFLF) said rapid progress has continued to be made at the Hawiah copper-gold project and the contiguous Al Godeyer exploration licences in Saudi Arabia by its Gold & Minerals Ltd (G&M) joint venture. Development of G&M's projects in due course is intended to be partly funded by shareholders (25%) with the rest coming from project debt-funding. KEFI has a 30% stake in G&M and is the operator, while local Saudi partner, ARTAR, holds the remaining interest. G&M's projects look likely to be developed following construction of KEFIs Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia, the full launch of which is targeted by mid-2022, said AIM-traded KEFI. "Our 2022 projects in Saudi Arabia took off two months ago, with the reporting of a significantly expanded and upgraded mineral resource estimate at Hawiah, the granting of the Al Godeyer exploration licences and the informal indications from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Mineral Resources that our Jibal Qutman gold project will have its mining licence application processed this year, said KEFI chairman Harry Anagnostaras-Adams. KEFI said its key 2022 objectives in Saudi Arabia are completing a pre-feasibility study at Hawiah; updating Jibal Qutman's development plans; and rapidly hitting the ground at Al Godeyer, where early results indicate significant Volcanic Massive Sulphide (VMS) potential, similar to the copper-gold deposits at Hawiah. Success at Al Godeyer would potentially add substantial value to the development of the Hawiah project, said Anagnostaras-Adams. Conroy Gold and Natural Resources PLC (AIM:CGNR, OTC:CGDNF) reported narrower interim losses as it continues to make progress on its gold projects in Ireland. Losses for the exploration company narrowed to 278,699 (233,000) in the six months to end November 2021 from 703,294 in the year-earlier period. Since the reporting period, AIM-traded Conroy has entered into a joint venture with Turkish mining company Demir Export AS to bring its projects into development. The initial focus will be on the existing gold deposit within the Clontibret licence. Excellent technical results continued to be reported and just after the period end a joint venture partnership agreement with Demir Export AS, a large established mining company, was signed, said chairman Professor Richard Conroy. I look forward to us working together on the accelerated development and exploration programmes along the 65Km gold trend the company has discovered, with the objective of bringing into operation a gold mine, initially at Clontibret." Chariot Limited's (Chariot Ltd (AIM:CHAR, OTC:OIGLF)) Julian Maurice-Williams talks to Proactive London after being formally awarded the Rissana offshore license in Morocco, after agreeing on key terms in December 2020. The company has won a 75% interest and operatorship of the Rissana license in partnership with the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines ("ONHYM") which will hold a 25% interest. Williams also talks through their recent successful drilling campaign at Anchois along with the Lixus Offshore License and their goals for 2022. GlobalBlock UK will remain under the Temporary Registration Regime and will be able to continue operating while it responds to the FCA, and until a final decision is made GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Ltd (TSX-V:BLOK, OTC:BLVDF) has provided an update on the application by its wholly-owned subsidiary for registration as a crypto asset business with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom in accordance with anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing regulations. The application was filed on June 30, 2020, and the company has been operating since then under the provisions of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs), and the Temporary Registration Regime established by the FCA. The Temporary Registration Regime is scheduled to expire on March 31, 2022. READ: GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading says subsidiary strikes partnership with Premier Sports Network After nearly 20 months of limited feedback from the FCA regarding the application, the company said GlobalBlock UK has now received a warning notice from the FCA indicating that it is minded to refuse the application. While the company continues to analyse the reasons set forth by the FCA in its warning, the FCA reasoning appears to be that based on its review of a limited number of transactions that took place prior to the company acquiring GlobalBlock UK in July 2021. The firm said that because of that review the FCA suspects that GlobalBlock UK will fail to comply with its obligations under the MLRs. The company said it strongly disagrees with the concerns and conclusions raised by the FCA and firmly asserts that its procedures are in line with the MLRs. GlobalBlock UK has until March 23, 2022, to respond to the warning notice. It is taking advice from top experts and will present a rigorous and fulsome response to the FCA, said the company. If the FCA, having considered GlobalBlock UK's representations, decides to turn down the application, GlobalBlock UK has the right of appeal. Meanwhile, GlobalBlock UK will remain under the Temporary Registration Regime and will be able to continue to operate while it responds to the FCA, and until a final decision is made by the FCA regarding its application. In a statement, GlobalBlock CEO Rufus Round said: "Assets traded on crypto rails are on all counts inherently reflective of a higher standard than traditional finance. Not only are transactions eminently more traceable, but they are also subject to rules that are defined and verified by cryptographic processes and therefore resistant to human operational failings. He added: GlobalBlock UK has engineered FCA compliance into its DNA. Our processes are identical to those that a traditional FCA regulated business would incorporate, save for the fact that the superior features of blockchain technology enhance our controls and procedures to the higher standard of crypto. With this is mind we are naturally disappointed with the FCA process as it is being currently applied. Round noted that the company is confident that on reviewing its operations in detail, the robustness of our processes will become clear to the FCA and that their misgivings will be allayed. We also acknowledge that the FCA has enormous pressure upon it to administer to the Temporary Registration Regime and make decisions relating to a large number of firms ahead of its self-imposed deadline, added Round. As a precaution, the company is analysing all options and considering other jurisdictions that would enable our trading to continue with minimal friction and that also provide greater optionality with regard to the ever-evolving regulatory landscape." The company said it will issue additional information regarding the matters as it progresses the process with the FCA. GlobalBlock, is a UK-based digital asset broker that provides a personalised telephone brokerage service, trading platform and mobile app. The firm's business alleviates the stress and worry from crypto trading by providing a secure platform to buy and sell over 80 different digital assets. Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive GR Silver revealed that this year's exploration plans for the Plomosas project are crystallizing with the primary focus on the expansion of the high-grade, silver-dominant depth extension at San Marcial GR Silver Mining (TSX-V:GRSL) Ltd has announced that effective immediately, company founder Marcio Fonseca will become its president and chief operating officer and Eric Zaunscherb will assume the role of CEO in addition to his position as chairman of the board. The explorer noted that Fonseca founded the company in 2018 and implemented his vision of creating a silver and gold mining company controlling the most important assets in the historic mining district of Rosario in Sinaloa, Mexico upon completion of a district consolidation. Under his leadership, it said it has delivered on several key milestones including acquiring the Plomosas, La Trinidad and San Marcial properties and providing resource growth from 18 million ounces (Moz) silver (indicated) and 4.4 Moz ounces silver (inferred) in 2018, to 32.4 Moz silver (indicated) and 18.6 Moz silver (inferred) in 2021. "Marcio Fonseca has done an excellent job building GR Silver from the initial recognition of the potential of the historic Rosario Mining District, through execution of a plan to achieve low-cost acquisitions and consolidation of key assets under a single ownership, to the compilation of a bounty of exploration data and continuous resource growth, Zaunscherb said in a statement. He has been instrumental in generating a modern, effective exploration model that has already proven successful in discovering the high-grade San Marcial depth extensions. GR Silver said Fonseca's experience in Mexico, combined with his background in exploration, resource estimation, project evaluation and development, together with a successful career as an investment banker has made GR Silver one of the most compelling Mexican stories at the exploration and development stage. His extensive experience combined with a track record of delivering value growth based on recent successful transactions in Mexico will continue to support GR Silver's corporate strategy, it added. We have passed an important threshold, deploying the successful exploration model and our stellar Mexican geological team to focus on high-grade precious metal mineralization, Zaunscherb continued. As president and COO, GR Silver will benefit enormously from Marcio's over-30 years of global experience in the mining industry, creativity and expertise concentrated on the Plomosas Project. In my position as CEO, I look forward to communicating the exciting GR Silver vision and ensuring that Marcio and our entire team have the resources they require to execute that vision. We will also be formalizing and recognizing the important work being done with our neighbourhood communities in Sinaloa, from an environmental and social perspective." Zaunscherb joined GR Silvers board of directors in April 2020, bringing over 32 years of mining equity analysis and capital markets experience. In June 2021, he was appointed the non-executive chairman, reflecting his important contribution to the company, said Fonseca. I am pleased to welcome Eric to his new position and look forward to working together with him to realize the full potential of our Plomosas project, he added. GR Silver also announced the appointment of Trevor Woolfe as vice president for exploration and corporate development. He will be responsible for overseeing the company's efforts in capturing value for non-core assets on behalf of shareholders, as well as managing core exploration efforts going forward. Woolfe joined GR Silver in August 2018 bringing with him over 25 years of exploration, mining, and public company management experience. As a highly qualified Latin American specialist, the company noted he is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. "We thank departing VP exploration, Honza Catchpole, for his contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavours, the company said. Meanwhile, GR Silver revealed that this year's exploration plans for the Plomosas project are crystallizing with the primary focus on the expansion of the high-grade, silver-dominant depth extension at San Marcial. Assay results from the first four drill holes have been released and the remaining results are anticipated in March, it added. Results to date have extended the zone from an initial 250 metres (m) to approximately 420m down-dip from the surface, discovering wide high-grade silver mineralization below the existing NI 43-101 resource estimate. Follow-up drill programs are being contemplated, aiming to expand the resource potential below the current NI 43-101 resource estimate and generate an updated, combined underground and open-pit amenable, silver-dominant resource estimate for the San Marcial area within one year, the company said. GR Silver said it is active at the Plomosas mine area, with both surface and underground drilling programs in progress as part of a surgical infill drill program. As announced previously, the Plomosas mine area initial resource estimate included significant volumes within mineralized zones that were conservatively assigned zero values for resource estimation. Reasons included selective or incomplete historical drill hole sampling procedures or the unavailability of historical core or documentation. Conceptually, it said the inclusion of non-zero grades may have had a significant negative impact on the resource estimate average grade and the current Plomosas mine area infill drill program is designed to address this theory. It said management intends to incorporate new data and provide a resource estimate update for the Plomosas mine area within one year. Historical Plomosas mine area production records specify extraction of 2.5 million tonnes averaging 190 grams per ton (g/t) silver, 0.92 g/t gold, 2.02% zinc, and 2.38% lead between 1986 and 2000. GR Silver Mining (TSX-V:GRSL) is a Canada-based, Mexico-focused junior mineral exploration company engaged in cost-effective silver-gold resource expansion on its 100%-owned assets, located on the eastern edge of the Rosario Mining District, in the southeast of Sinaloa State, Mexico. Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com Much of Maverix Metals growth in 2022 is to be driven by acquisitions completed in the second half of 2021, CEO Dan OFlaherty said Maverix Metals Inc (TSX:MMX) has set its 2022 outlook at between 32,000 to 35,000 attributable gold equivalent ounces from its portfolio of royalty assets. The Vancouver-based firm said it expects gross cash margins of 90%, with nearly 99% of expected revenue anticipated to come from gold and silver. Earlier this month, Maverix announced that it had delivered 32,000 ounces of attributable gold in 2021, topping its already-increased annual guidance by nearly 1,000 ounces. Much of the companys growth in 2022 is to be driven by acquisitions completed in the second half of 2021, CEO Dan OFlaherty said in a statement. READ: Maverix Metals beats annual FY2021 guidance with record 9,000 gold equivalent ounces in 4Q 2021 Maverix also gave an update on some developments within its wider portfolio. At the Camino Rojo project, where Maverix owns a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty, the company said that project owner and operator Orla Mining Ltd has mostly completed commissioning activities and poured its first gold in December 2021. Orla is targeting commercial production in 1Q 2022, and the mine is expected to produce an average of 120,000 gold ounces annually over the first five years of operation. Over at the Beta Hunt operation, Maverix said that owner Karora Resources is zeroing in on the nickel potential at the gold-weighted operation, committing 16,000 metres to test and upgrade nickel targets in 2022. Maverix owns a 4.75% gold royalty and a 1.5% nickel royalty on the project. Maverix also said it is seeing encouraging developments at its Gemfield, Kone, Cerro Blanco, South Railroad, DeLamar, Silvertip, Hope Bay, Mother Lode and El Mochito assets. We are excited about the organic growth within our portfolio from our 2% royalty interest at the newly commissioned Camino Rojo mine and the recent announcement by Centerra Gold of its acquisition of the Goldfield project where Maverix owns a 5% royalty on the Gemfield deposit, CEO OFlaherty added. Our team also continues to focus on pursuing new opportunities to grow our portfolio and increase shareholder value." Maverix owns a globally diverse portfolio of over 120 assets. Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas Altiplano has generated over US$7.98 million from the recovery and sale of 3.86 million pounds of copper with an average grade of 1.74% Cu Altiplano Metals Inc (TSX-V:APN, OTC:ALTPF) said it has started a surface and underground delineation and exploration diamond drill program, and provided an update about its Maria Luisa project, located 100 kilometers north of La Serena within the Atacama Region in Incahuasi, Chile. The NE-SW trending Maria Luisa decline has advanced a total of 115 meters, the company noted. The south orientation crosscut has intersected the first of the two vein systems. The intersection of the second vein system is expected in a few meters. Two drill holes designed to test the newly intersected north-south vein system encountered in the upper portion of the decline produced strong results, including 2.50 meters of 1.44 gram per tonne gold (Au) and 4.65% copper (Cu) and 2.52m of 1.17 g/t Au and 0.93% Cu, respectively. "The intersection of new vein systems with the presence of high-grade gold and copper are very encouraging, CEO Alastair McIntyre said. The new drill plan at Maria Luisa is designed to provide important geological information and mining control for the current decline operations and future mining potential. He noted that this work supports the companys primary goal at Altiplano of rapidly advancing projects through exploration, development, and ultimately extracting material for sale. Channel sampling results, underground mapping, and decline progress at Maria Luisa Results from the first 38 tonnes of a 70-tonne bulk sample from a secondary vein system within the decline returned a grade of 1.54% Cu, the company noted. An additional 177 tonnes of material have been shipped for processing and analysis. A surface and underground diamond drill program has commenced to delineate the Au-Cu vein systems at depth and guide future development. Drilling has begun at another station, where a series of short holes will be drilled to support the current decline operations. Additional drill stations are planned where a series of short holes will be drilled to identify the mineralogy, orientation, and structure of the vein systems, which have been poorly understood and not mined historically but appear to have significant potential upside, the company said. Altiplano has generated over US$7.98 million from the recovery and sale of 3.86 million pounds of copper with an average grade of 1.74% Cu (2018 Q1-2021 Q4). Cash flow has been re-invested into equipment, underground drilling, expanding underground development at Farellon, enhancing ventilation to increase productivity and capacity, new underground development and exploration at Maria Luisa, and the commencement of the permitted El Penon fit-for-purpose mill and flotation plant located 15 km from the Farellon site. Altiplano Metals is a growing gold, silver, and copper company focused on the Americas. The company has a diversified portfolio of assets that include an operating copper or gold or iron mine, development near term producing gold/copper projects, and exploration land packages with district-scale potential.a Contact Ritika at ritika@proactiveinvestors.com Paris, Feb 28 : Due to the closure of European Union airspace to Russia, French Foreign Affairs Ministry has asked its nationals to immediately leave Russia. "Due to the increasing restrictions on air traffic between Russia and Europe, it is strongly recommended that non-resident French nationals in Russia make arrangements to leave the country without delay by existing air links," the French Ministry on Sunday said in the latest travelling notice. According to the Ministry, most European companies, including Air France, have suspended from this Sunday evening flights in and out of Russia after the European Union has decided to close its airspace to Russia, Xinhua news agency reported. In a second travelling notice concerning Belarus, the Ministry also asked its nationals to leave immediately Belarus though land borders. "The French in Belarus are invited to leave the country without delay by road, through the border crossing points with Lithuania, Poland or Latvia," it said. European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen announced on Sunday that the EU would shut its airspace to Russian airlines in response to Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine since early Thursday. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Brussels, Feb 28 : European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that the EU would shut its airspace to Russian airlines in response to its "special military operation" in Ukraine since early Thursday. "We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians," Von der Leyen said in a statement on Sunday, "We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, registered or controlled aircraft." "These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU," she said, adding that the ban would "apply to any plane owned, chartered or otherwise controlled by a Russian legal or natural person." "So let me be very clear. Our airspace will be closed to every Russian plane -- and that includes the private jets of oligarchs," she stressed. Earlier on Sunday, France also said it would shut down its airspace to Russian airlines and Russian registered aircraft, French national airline Air France announced on its website to suspend flights to and from Russia, effective from Sunday until further notice, Xinhua news agency reported. The airline also said the flights between France and China, South Korea and Japan would also be temporarily suspended in order to study flight plan options enabling to avoid Russian airspace. It has prolonged the suspension of flights to Ukraine's capital Kiev until further notice, "following the shutdown of Ukrainian airspace." Mogadishu, Feb 28 : Somali National Army (SNA) has said its forces killed five al-Shabab terrorists during a security operation conducted within the vicinity of Balad and Afgoye districts located northeast and southwest of Mogadishu respectively. The SNA Commander, who led the operation told Radio Mogadishu on Sunday that several of the militants' hideouts in the farmlands, were also destroyed during the sting operation, Xinhua news agency reported. "Somali National Army killed five al-Shabab terrorists and destroyed their hideouts in the farmlands between Balad and Afgoye districts in a planned security operation on Sunday," the State-owned radio reported. The government forces have intensified operations against al-Shabab in central and southern regions in the recent past, but the militants are still in control of strongholds in the rural areas of those regions, conducting ambushes and planting landmines. MANZINI A total 32 624 workers were directly affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 in the past two years as 2 645 were retrenched and 29 979 laid off. This is according to the office of the Labour Commissioner, which is under the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. In terms of statistics, Deputy Labour Commissioner, Kingdom Mamba, said between March 2020, when the country was hit by the outbreak of COVID-19, and December 31, 2021, 29 979 employees have been formally laid off from 261 companies that have received approval from the office of the Labour Commissioner. Mamba said six of the approved companies had twice applied for extensions and they were counted once in the total number of employees affected. He added that eight of the approved companies had applied for amendment of their initial layoff applications due to various reasons including omission of some employees and reductions of the number of workers, to mention a few. Applications He said 13 companies that applied had their applications denied and were advised to invoke other options as provided for by both the guidelines on employment contingency measures and the Disaster Management. 10 companies were denied in favour of shift work, while three were denied in favour of short time, he said. Furthermore, Mamba said eight of the companies were advised to apply for layoffs in terms of their Wages Regulation Order, since the layoffs were applicable in cases such as lack of orders and raw materials. As a result, he said 234 applications were processed and approved by December 31, 2021. In terms of the layoffs, he explained that employers were compelled to refuse employment under certain circumstances; shortage of raw materials, power and finance issues were arising temporarily in the industries. He said all of the laid off employees were to be taken back in their usual posts, as soon as the layoff was lifted out. On the other hand, he said 2 645 employees out of 88 establishments were made redundant within the same period (between March 2020 and December 2021). Terminations He added that in 2020 a total of 889 employees were retrenched and these included cases of mutual terminations and sale of business/takeover under Section 33 of the Employment Act, No.5 of 1980. On another note, the deputy labour commissioner said government had challenges regarding the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, as it exposed the country on how ill-prepared it was to deal with contingencies such as the pandemic, especially in two areas. He said one of the arears was that there was no legal framework to manage labour space during pandemics. There was also lack of funds to cater for contingencies brought about by pandemics, Mamba said. As a result of the above identified areas, he said government was in the process of finalising the Unemployment Benefits Fund Bill (UBF) aimed at providing social security benefits to employees when exposed to unemployment contingencies. Again, he said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) had provided technical and financial assistance respectively to the development of the Unemployment Benefit Schemes, which would be governed and regulated by the Unemployment Benefit Fund Act (currently at Bill stage). On a positive note, Mamba said the county had recorded some successes. He said this was because the country managed to prevent major job losses in favour of loss of earnings. He said this was done by deferring retrenchments in some companies which would have resulted in a large number of permanent loss of employment of emaSwati employees. Instead, we contained the joblessness to only 88 companies which retrenched 2 645 employees from January 2020 to December 31, 2021, he added. He said within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region, Eswatini was the only country which successfully prevented permanent job losses in favour of loss of earnings in some companies. Security In addition, he said as a country, they had realised that their bond of security of wages equivalent to one-month salary in terms of Section 62 of the Employment Act, No.5 of 1980 was not enough to cater for contingencies such as COVID-19, hence, they were about to establish Unemployment Benefit Fund schemes to cater for unemployment contingencies. He said the lack of legislation to deal with the pandemic, the country was found wanting and they were in a process to enact a law which would deal with it. Kabul, Feb 28 : The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan called the recent house-to-house searches "constructive," saying that many weapons and ammunition were captured. Also several Daesh fighters, robbers and kidnappers were captured in the so-called clearing operation. Talking at a press conference in Kabul on Sunday, Islamic Emirate Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said recent house clearings were intended to catch criminals, some of whom were released from prison during the change of government. According to Mujahid, women were among the Islamic Emirate forces searching homes, and only "suspected areas" were searched, TOLOnews reported. "Nine kidnappers, six affiliated with Daesh, and 53 robbers were detained," he added. Some residents of Kabul said their houses were raided by Islamic Emirate forces. "They said that the family should remain inside the house -- they looked everywhere except one room where women were," said Ali Yasar, a resident of Kabul. "On Sunday around 10:30 a.m, they (Islamic Emirate Forces) came. There was a woman among them, they entered the houses and conducted the searches in a good way," said Mohammad Rafi, a resident of Kabul. Residents of the capital earlier complained about the house-to-house searching by the Islamic Emirate. Mujahid said two girls who were chained up at a residence in Kabul were found during the operation. He said that an investigation is underway to find information about the situation. At the press conference, the Islamic Emirate Spokesman also welcomed the new US license allowing financial activity and called for more restrictions to be lifted and for the expansion of diplomatic efforts. The Islamic Emirate is against those who are leaving the country with their families "without any excuse," because Afghans living in camps abroad face severe problems, Mujahid said. "Based on Islamic values women are not allowed to travel without an accompanying male," he said, adding that the fate of female students who are studying abroad is being considered in light of this requirement. When asked about women protestors who are detained, Mujahid said there is no fresh information regarding that and the Attorney General's Office is investigating the case. Mujahid, who is also Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, downplayed the recent clashes at Spin Boldak crossing along the Durand Line, calling them a local dispute, saying that the Islamic Emirate is not willing to engage in disputes with the neighbours. Washington, Feb 28 : The US is seeking to help the Afghan economy to function through the resumption of regular commercial activities inside Afghanistan and with the injection of liquidity into the Afghan economy, senior US officials said. A transcript of a teleconference with US "senior administrative officials" released by the White House on Saturday indicated that the Biden administration is focused on making sure the Afghan economy is functioning, Xinhua news agency reported. "Over the course of the last several months, one area of focus for the Biden administration has been ensuring that the Afghan people have access not only to humanitarian assistance but also to the ability to conduct regular commercial activity," one of the officials said. According to the officials, the new general license was issued to avoid the deepening of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and also to expand authorisation for commercial and financial transactions in Afghanistan, including Afghanistan's governing institutions. On Friday, the US Treasury Department announced a general license aimed to facilitate commercial activities in Afghanistan. "Today's action facilitates private companies and aid organisations working with Afghan governing institutions and paying customs, duties, fees and taxes, including institutions that are headed by sanctioned individuals," the Treasury Department said in a statement. The officials said the new license shows the US commitment to the people of Afghanistan, stressing it will "ensure US sanctions do not stand in the way of transactions and activities needed to provide aid and support the basic human needs of the people of Afghanistan." This is the seventh general license the US has announced so far. The officials added that the license was announced "in full recognition of the challenging economic reality on the ground". "Our goal here is to make sure that we do everything we can to make sure that money is flowing to the Afghan people to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis that they face, but also to allow the commercial activity in Afghanistan to happen in order to build a (inaudible) cycle that will reinforce the livelihoods of the Afghan people," one of the officials said. According to the officials, the US Treasury Department and other US interagency partners are working with multilateral development banks, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, to provide substantial economic assistance to the people of Afghanistan. Kabul, Feb 28 : Zarifa Ghafari, the former Mayor of Maidan Shahr in Maidan Wardak province of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has returned to the country. Ghafari told TOLOnews on Sunday that considering the deteriorating humanitarian situation of Afghanistan, she could not stop herself from coming back. She said she would attempt to help the people and would do so without political interests. The former Mayor, who won the International Women of Courage (IWOC) award, announced her return to the country on Twitter, TOLOnews reported. Ghafari was appointed Mayor of Maidan Wardak by former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in 2018. She has worked in many government positions. "I came here to help -- and, if I am able to build trust between the people of Afghanistan and the international community," she said. She added that she is not expecting any government position. "I have no expectation of someone giving me position relevant to the government or politics," she said. The former Mayor urged the Afghan leaders to sit for talks and solve their differences through negotiations. "(They) should sit together. All of them. Right, left, good and bad, members of the republic, communists and (Islamic) Emirate -- talk and use your logic and don't widow the Afghan women anymore," she added. Ghafari has returned to Afghanistan while dozens of female activists have recently been arrested. United Nations, Feb 28 : The UN Security Council (UNSC) has adopted Resolution 2623 that calls for an "emergency special session" of the UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the Ukraine crisis. It is the first such a resolution that the council has adopted in four decades, according to the Security Council Report on Sunday. The UNSC on Friday failed to adopt a draft resolution on Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported. Los Angeles, Feb 28 : The 28th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards have officially begun with stars arriving at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California, for Sunday's ceremony. The SAG awards provide an opportunity for the year's top performers to be honoured by their peers, the ceremony gathers together stars from across film and television. The Red carpet saw some of the greatest fashion flaunted by personalities such as Lady Gaga, Helen Mirren, Will Smith and Jessica Chastain, to name a few. The SAG honours the best performances from the past calendar year, selecting winners across 13 categories. On the film side, "House of Gucci" and "The Power of the Dog" lead this year's competition with three nominees apiece. For television, "Succession" and "Ted Lasso" both earned five nominations, while "Mare of Easttown", "The Morning Show" and "Squid Game" each garnered four, reports variety.com. The SAG Awards also serve as a key bellwether of the year's Oscar race, providing an opportunity for both individual performers and productions to gain momentum in acting categories and best picture, respectively. Of this year's best ensemble nominees at SAG, "Belfast", "CODA" and "Don't Look Up" are all nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. The guild has also selected Helen Mirren as this year's recipient of the SAG lifetime achievement award, which will be presented to her by actress Kate Winslet. Mirren has received 13 SAG nominations across her career, emerging victorious five times. The "Squid Game" cast reunited ahead of the evening's ceremony. All five are SAG-nominated under the series' nomination for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series. The "White Lotus" star Alexandra Daddario stunned in a cream V-neck dress with a slit to the evening's ceremony. "The Morning Show" actress Julianna Margulies wore a fuchsia gown along with a matching black bag and shoulder straps. "13 Reasons Why" star Ross Butler looked dapper in a black suit outlined by rivers of shimmering silver along the shoulders. The "Succession" actress J. Smith-Cameron walked on the red carpet in a off-the-shoulder green dress with a complementary pink snap bag. Lavern Cox of the currently much-talked about show "Inventing Anna" wore a silver and black with a matching handbag and a feathered cape. Los Angeles, Feb 28 : Screen legend Helen Mirren is set to receive the Life Achievement Award at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The veteran star on the red carpet hilariously shared as to why she's not necessarily thrilled with one hilariously cheeky aspect of the honour. "I'm very excited to be here, it's a very special evening for me," the 76-year-old actress exclusively told eonline.com. "I just wish my guild wasn't called SAG. At my age, it's kind of, you know..." Continuing to joke about the award's dual meaning, Mirren added that perhaps she'll just embrace the honour. "SAG Achievement Award? Yes, maybe I do deserve that." The star is being recognised for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. To date, she's one of the most decorated recipients of the award with a total of 13 SAG Award nominations and five SAG Award wins. Looking back on her impressive journey as an actress, Mirren told eonline.com that if she could offer her younger self any advice, it'd be to worry less because "it will all work out". That, and "be yourself". "Be true to yourself," Mirren added, "because in the end, that's all you have is who you are, in the most truthful way. Don't fight it, just be true to yourself." New Delhi, Feb 28 : The prolonged Ukraine- Russia conflict resulting in President Putin ordering military action against the neighbouring country, has to be seen in the backdrop of three paradigm shifts that affected the US- Russia relations after the advent of Biden Presidency. The new US President reached out to NATO in a declared policy of reviving and banking on the strategic bonds with allies across the Atlantic whereas Donald Trump had de-emphasised EU, generally decried the tendency of the friendly countries to put the entire burden of security on America and welcomed Brexit as an event that enabled the UK to 'get back the country'. Secondly, Biden on assuming office put both China and Russia on notice as authoritarian states and warned them against indulging in any acts of aggression. His predecessor President Trump did not seem to have any issues with Putin notwithstanding the fact that Russia was sitting pretty on annexation of Crimea from Ukraine since 2014. Under President Trump a policy of strategic adjustment with Russia seemed to be in place with America focusing on China as the principal rival and adversary. Finally, the upswing in the activity of NATO to induct Ukraine into that military alliance, added to the economic and security concerns of President Putin who perhaps expected the world to recognise the need for him to ensure that the former Soviet states in its vicinity did not become hostile to Russia. The ongoing tension between Ukraine -- that leaned towards Europe under President Zelenskyy -- and Russia that had already tasted success on Crimean issue, led Putin to first militarily move -- in a projected 'defensive' stand -- in Donetsk and Donbas in the eastern provinces of Ukraine predominantly inhabited by Russian speaking population, to counter the 'suppression' inflicted by Ukraine government. Putin talked of 'peacekeeping' in these areas and then -- as President Zelenskyy pursued the objective of securing NATO membership to strengthen his hands -- declared his intention of extending military operations to the mainland of Ukraine. In what looked like a 'salami slicing' strategy -- China, a friend of Russia, has practised that in its own theatres of conflict -- Putin gave the impression of favouring the option of a satisfactory mediation in the midst of Russian military offensive in Ukraine. He had watched the US and its European allies threatening to put severe economic sanctions to get Russia to keep its hands off Ukraine -- these warnings did not unduly unsettle an astute observer of the current geopolitics like Putin who sensed that there was little likelihood of US sending its soldiers to Ukraine so soon after the messy withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and that the international community itself was against any 'war'. Putin must have assessed that he could extend military operations to the mainland of Ukraine to take swift control of Kyiv and achieve the objective of bringing about a regime change before withdrawing from there. The pattern of Russian intervention suggested targeting Ukraine's military assets to weaken Zelenskyy-Putin however, might be underestimating the Ukrainian will to resist the Russian onslaught. The armed conflict was getting protracted and its outcome was still unclear particularly after the move of US and its NATO allies to rush arms to Ukraine -- no commitment of boots on the ground had been made yet. (The writer is a former Director of Intelligence Bureau. The views expressed are personal) Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Los Angeles, Feb 28 : Actors Will Smith, Jessica Chastain and the film 'CODA' took home the highest honours at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards held this year at the Santa Monica Barker Hangar. In compliance with California Covid protocols, all attendees of the SAG Awards were required to show proof of vaccination to attend the ceremony. As a result, "Yellowstone" star Forrie J. Smith, who was nominated along with his cast in the television drama ensemble category, announced last week that he would skip out on the ceremony, reports variety.com. The television categories were led by 'Succession' and 'Ted Lasso', both of which garnered five nominations in the respective drama and comedy categories, including best ensemble. Korean hit "Squid Game" made history with its nomination in the ensemble category as the first non-English show to be recognised by the Guild. On the film side, 'The Power of the Dog' led individual acting categories with three nominations, but the Jane Campion-directed movie didn't crack the ensemble category. The most recognised of the ensemble nominees was 'House of Gucci', which scored individual nominations for Lady Gaga and Jared Leto. Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant and Marlee Matlin of 'CODA' are the first deaf actors to be recognised in the motion picture ensemble category, and Kotsur is the first deaf performer to land an individual acting nomination. During the ceremony, Kate Winslet presented cine-icon Helen Mirren with the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award. 'CODA' took home the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. It was competing against movies such as 'Belfast', 'Don't Look Up', 'House Of Gucci' and 'King Richard'. Will Smith and Jessica Chastain were named in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for 'King Richard' and 'The Eyes Of Tammy Faye' respectively. For the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series, actor Michael Keaton's performance for 'Dopesick' was recognised. While Kate Winslet bagged the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series for 'Mare of Easttown'. 'Succeession' beat 'The Handmaid's Tale', 'The Morning Show', 'Squid Game' and 'Yellowstone' in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category. 'Squid Game' stars Jung Ho-yeon and Lee Jung-Jae were named in the Outstanding Performance by a Female and Male Actor in a Drama Series section. Sports comedy drama show 'Ted Lasso' took home the award for best comedy series ensemble at the 2022 SAG Awards on Sunday. It's main lead Jason Sudeikis was named Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor in a Comedy Series For the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, Jean Smart for 'Hacks' took home the honour, beating names such as Elle Fanning, Sandra Oh, Juno Temple and Hannah Waddingham. Hollywood actress Ariana DeBose took home the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role for 'West Side Story' at the 2022 SAG Awards. She was nominated alongside Caitriona Balfe, Cate Blanchett, Kirsten Dunst and Ruth Negga. The award marked DeBose's first nomination and win. 'CODA' star Troy Kotsur made history at Sunday's SAG Awards, becoming the first deaf actor in the history of the award show to be feted with an individual prize. He prevailed in the category of Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, besting the likes of Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto and Kodi Smit-McPhee, also winning out tonight as part of the film's ensemble, when it scored its own historic prize Daniel Craig-starrer 'No Time To Die' was feted with the Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture. It was nominated alongside 'Black Widow', 'Dune', 'The Matrix Resurrections', and 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'. Contending alongside shows such as 'Cobra Kai', 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier', 'Loki' and 'Mare of Easttown', Netflix's 'Squid Game' won the Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series. Kiev, Feb 28 : Ukraine has mobilised about 1,00,000 troops amid the conflict with Russia, Valery Zaluzhny, chief commander of the armed forces of Ukraine, said on Facebook. About half of the mobilised forces belong to the Territorial Defence Forces of the armed forces of Ukraine, Zaluzhny said on Sunday. The country agreed to hold talks with Russia at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border near the Pripyat River, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday via social media, Xinhua news agency reported. The decision to hold talks was reached through a phone call between Zelensky and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Earlier on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's deterrence forces to be placed on a "special mode of combat duty" during a meeting with top defence officials, accusing Western countries of imposing "illegitimate sanctions" against Russia's economy. Seoul, Feb 28 : South Korea on Monday granted Ukrainians in the country stay extensions on humanitarian grounds in the wake of Russia's invasion of the Eastern European nation, the Justice Ministry said. The measure will apply to 3,843 registered Ukrainian nationals, and if they wish to remain in South Korea after the expiration of their stay, the government will issue them temporary stay permits and allow them to get jobs, Yonhap news agency reported citing South Korea's Justice Ministry. The government will also allow those whose stay period has already expired to leave the country after the situation stabilises. In March of last year, South Korea granted similar stay extension permits to Myanmar nationals after the military coup in the Southeast Asian country. South Korea also airlifted more than 390 Afghan co-workers and their family members in August last year under a military mission, as the evacuees faced possible Taliban retaliation for having supported foreign operations. On Sunday, around 300 Ukrainians in South Korea and local supporters held a protest against Russia's invasion in front of the Russian Embassy in Seoul. The Ukrainian community here plans to stage a rally every week until Moscow stops its military actions. MANZINI All police officers who are currently on leave have been recalled due to the spate of arson attacks in the country and other violent activities, it has been gathered. Impeccable sources within the police service claimed that they were recalled from their annual leave last week to engage in raids within certain areas that have been identified as hot spots for the current spate of petrol-bombings and violence. The sources said there were growing concerns within the security cluster in light of their personnel being targets of shootings. It was gathered that the concerns were that there were illegal firearms which had been brought into the country and were being used to target them. One of the fatal shootings directed at a member of the security forces left Bheki Maziya, who was a member of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) dead, Maziya died on the spot after being shot while four people who were with him were rushed to hospital. His murder has not been linked to political-related violence. Shooting This was subsequent to a shooting of a vehicle belonging to His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) at Kwaluseni OK Foods last Saturday night. During the shooting, three people were shot, including a minor by the unknown man. It was said the gunmen had targeted the Correctional officers, whom they acuused of being behind the ill- treatment of their MPs. It was gathered that during the raids that had been conducted by the police, some of the places that were visited included Siphofaneni, Kwaluseni, New Village and Mathangeni. The police were said to be looking for weapons and other items that could be used in the commission of criminal acts. According to impeccable sources, the police were in groups of 10. Upon arrival at the residences that they were targeting, the police were said to have presented to the residents what their mission was, with supporting documents, which were said to be stating that they were engaging in routine searches for items that could be linked to criminal acts and or could be exhibits of heinous criminal acts. Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni could not commit on whether police officers were recalled from their leave to engage in raids targeting people behind the spate of arson attacks and shootings. Instead, she said such information was operational. However, she confirmed that police were engaging in raids as part of their routine operations. The raids are not specifically directed at certain events, but they are frequently done as means to find and apprehend wanted criminals while also seeking to get evidence through exhibits of stolen items used in the commission of criminal acts, Mnguni said. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that in recent weeks, the spate of arson attacks have increased with property estimated to be over E3 million being set alight. Firearms There have also been allegations of illegal firearms being used when engaging in these attacks. On the morning of February 2, 2022, there were two arson attacks resulting in E2.2 million damages. The arson attacks targeted a construction site belonging to Inyatsi Construction at Hhelehhele, where heavy plant machinery belonging to sub-contractors was set alight. The heavy plant machinery that was destroyed was a tractor loader backhoe (TLB), a grader, tractor and trailer. The heavy plant machinery at Inyatsi Construction was reportedly set alight at about 4am. In the same morning, six vehicles were extensively damaged while five were partially destroyed following an arson attack at the Swaziland Association of Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders (SACRO) premises, where workshops are leased to small, medium enterprices (SMEs). Rifles The arsonists were reported to be carrying assault rifles when they descended at the compound. Since the beginning of the month, security has been on high alert subsequent to threats to bomb aircraft at the King Mswati III (KMIII) International Airport. This resulted in the National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police, William Dlamini, disclosing that those who would be behind that mission should know that they would be taking a high risk as the police were ready and dangerously armed to ensure safety. It was reported that a contigent of police officers from the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU), as well as members of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF), had been added to the existing security personnel based at the international airport. Also, in the wee hours of February 22, 2022, which was the second week of the ongoing Junior Certificate (JC) examinations, three schools experience arson attacks. These schools were Nkiliji, Mcozini and Malindza High and they were invaded by unknown men, who petrol-bombed some of the buildings and inscribed messages suggesting that they would soon return. On the same day, teachers at Mpaka High School were warned through graffiti to stop teaching or else face the unknown. A day later, ardent readers of this publication, under Kukhanyeni Constituency in the Manzini Region, missed an opportunity to be informed as two men set alight a delivery van belonging to the company. They set alight the delivery van at about 6am after having intimidated the driver with a firearm. On February 23, 2022, this publication reported the burning of four hectares of sugar cane fields, equivalent to 400 tonnes at Mhlume. Hyderabad, Feb 28 : Vice-chairman of a municipal body in Telangana's Nirmal district has been booked for allegedly raping a minor. Nirmal Municipal Council vice-chairman Sajid Khan, a leader of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) went into hiding, after police booked a case against him under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). Nirmal district superintendent of police Praveen Kumar said the police have constituted four teams to apprehend him. Police launched a search for the accused in Nirmal, Adilabad, Bhainsa and other towns. He was confident that the accused would be arrested soon. Khan allegedly raped the 15-year-old girl in Hyderabad last month. The victim told police that the accused took her there along with the help of a woman, who is the owner of the house where the girl's family resides. The victim, a class 8 student, had approached a child helpline and through them lodged a complaint against the municipal vice chairman. DSP Upendra Reddy said after medical examination of the victim and preliminary investigation, a case under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of POCSO was booked against him. The house owner and car driver were also booked in the case. The victim told the police that she was taken to Hyderabad on the pretext of a function and the accused perpetrated the crime at a hotel. The girl later revealed this to her parents, who approached the child helpline and subsequently the police to lodge a complaint. Bareilly : , Feb 28 (IANS) Three persons have been arrested for shooting a surgeon De Keshav Agarwal, who is also the director of a private medical college in Bareilly. The assailants said that they were trying to threaten Agarwal to compromise in a land dispute case. The doctor was shot at after his SUV was intercepted by four men on bikes at a railway crossing in Baradari area of the city on Saturday night. The bullet passed through his jaws. He has been hospitalised and his condition is stated to be stable. SSP Rohit Singh told reporters: "Dr Agarwal had purchased a land from one Anees Ali near his medical college in 2017. Later, he found that Anees had sold the same plot to someone else. The latter was booked for cheating at that time and sent to jail. In 2019, Anees allegedly attempted to extort money from Agarwal and another FIR was lodged against him. Then, Anees hired three men to threaten the doctor." Mumbai, Feb 28 : Actress Vaani Kapoor, who is gearing up for the release of her upcoming film 'Shamshera', has talked about her pairing with actor Ranbir Kapoor in the film. She says that the two actors have been told that they share a great on-screen chemistry. Vaani said: "Ranbir Kapoor is a pleasure to work with because he brings so much work ethic to the table. He is also a selfless actor who wants to creatively collaborate in a way that each scene turns out to be the best." "I had so much fun working and exchanging notes with him. I think Ranbir and I have given our best for Shamshera. We are definitely a fresh pairing on screen and I hope people love watching us together." Vaani hopes that her chemistry with Ranbir will be talked about. She added: "We have been told that we have great chemistry but I hope that audiences too feel the same when they see us. It's a film that everyone's waiting for. Have worked really hard to bring something new to the table and as actors, we only want to entertain everyone to the fullest with Shamshera." The film also stars Sanjay Dutt as Ranbir's arch enemy. Sanjay will play the ruthless, merciless villain and his showdown. Vaani essays the role of a gorgeous, most sought after traveling performer of the country. Yash Raj Films 'Shamshera' is set to release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu on July 22. Gurugram, Feb 28 : Three employees, including a manager of a CNG station in sector 31 of Gurugram, were stabbed to death in the early hours of Monday, the police said. According to the police, an unknown accused used a sharp knife to kill the three. The station is located near the Jharsa Chowk at Delhi-Gurugram Expressway. "Three staff members of a CNG pump were found dead. No cash was found missing. Investigations are underway," said a senior police officer. Two bodies were found in the room of the pump station, while the third was found outside, the police said. The deceased have been identified as Pushpendra, Bhupinder and Naresh, residents of Uttar Pradesh. The bodies have been sent for an autopsy and CCTV camera footage of the is being scanned. Police suspect that the killing was done with intent to rob. However, other angles are also being probed. An FIR is yet to be registered in the matter. Other CNG station employees told the police that they do not suspect anyone. A team of forensic science lab (FSL) and a dog squad has reached the spot along with police crime branch teams. Commissioner of Police Kala Ramachandran also visited the site of the incident. New Delhi/Kiev, Feb 28 : Facing massive cyber-attacks from Russia-sponsored threat actors, Ukraine has now assembled an 'IT army' tasked with specific cyber challenges, which reached nearly 2 lakh users on Telegram on Monday. Called the 'IT Army of Ukraine', it is also using the Telegram account to reach out to technology leaders to help the country fight Russian cyber-attacks and shut down Russian sites and their agents. "A call out on the channel to shut down the API for Sberbank, one of Russia's major banks, appears to have come into play, with the site currently offline," reports TechCrunch. The Ukrainian government officials are also endorsing the 'IT Army', tweeting out the Telegram link. "We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents. There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front. The first task is on the channel for cyber specialists," tweeted Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation. The cyber war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified, with Russia using a new destructive malware to permanently destroy data on systems belonging to Ukrainian organisations. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to hacking groups increasing their activities globally. While Russia-backed hackers have already hit several Ukrainian government websites and banks, a leading hacking group, Anonymous, has declared itself aligned with "Western allies", targeting operations in Russia. "The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government," the group tweeted. According to the IBM Security X-Force team, they have obtained a sample of the new and destructive 'HermeticWiper' malware being deleted on Ukrainian systems. Belarusian state-sponsored hackers are also targeting the private email addresses of Ukrainian military personnel amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) said in a Facebook post that a mass phishing campaign is targeting the private accounts belonging to Ukrainian military personnel. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Bengaluru, Feb 28 : Karnataka High Court has upheld a 2016 judgement of a lower court that handed down 10 years imprisonment to a man for sexually assaulting his then 13-year-old daughter. The court has also dismissed the accused father's appeal. A bench headed by Justice K.S. Mudagal, in a recent judgment, did not consider the argument of the accused father that the FIR filed by his daughter's aunt had many shortcomings and contradictions. It observed that the delay in filing of FIR does not rule out the offence, adding that the victim's mother was totally bed ridden and grandmother died soon after. The family comes from a poor background and father himself was the abuser. Considering all these factors, the bench gave the verdict. The incident took place on September 27, 2014 in the limits of HAL police station. An FIR in this regard was lodged by the victim's aunt on September 29, 2014. A charge sheet against the accused was submitted and a trial court convicted the accused under IPC sections 376, POCSO Act and awarded him 10 years of imprisonment on September 16, 2022. The accused had challenged the verdict claiming that there is a delay of two days in filing the complaint which is inordinate. He also claimed that the victim's statements and witness statements issued before the magistrate and investigation officer were contradictory. The accused also claimed that the mother and grandmother, who were there at the house, were not questioned by the investigating office regarding the incident. He also contended that the FIR lacked specifics of the case. Appearing for the victim, the counsel said that the girl had spoken about her father. The victim's aunt and maternal uncle have also corroborated her evidence and statements. The medical proof is also against the accused. The victim's mother died on the ninth day after filing the complaint. In such cases, delay won't demolish the case. The bench observed that the absence of details of the acts of the accused do not falsify the case. It also observed that the mother was in a vegetative state and the victim lost her grandmother soon after. The father is the main accused in the case. Hence, the argument of delay in filing of FIR is unacceptable. Gandhinagar, Feb 28 : Around hundred Gujarat students have returned home from war-hit Ukraine by a special flight to Mumbai and then by GSRTC buses arranged by the Gujarat government. A total 44 Gujarat students on Saturday returned safely to Mumbai by special Air India flight arranged by the central government. From there, the students were brought to Gujarat by Volvo buses of the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) arranged by the state government. Another set of Gujarat students arrived early on Sunday morning in Delhi by another special flight. The State government made arrangements for their return journey to Gujarat from Delhi as well. The state government spokesperson Jitubhai Vaghani said, "The Gujarat government has information of 584 persons from the state who are stuck in Ukraine. The state government is in constant touch with India's ministry of external affairs and embassy. The state government has also launched a helpline number 079-232-38278 which will function between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m." Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Vaghani welcomed around twenty seven students who returned from Ukraine at the Gandhinagar Circuit House on Monday. "I thank our PM Narendra Modi for the arrangements made for the return of about 100 students from Gujarat stranded in the war-torn areas of Ukraine. The government of India has arranged a special plane to bring back 100 Gujarat students from war-hit Ukraine." The Chief Minister Office (CMO) stated in a tweet that the state government had made arrangements to bring the students back to Gujarat. Moscow, Feb 28 : The Ukrainian delegation for talks with Russia is now in Belarus, Sputnik reported on Monday. President Volodymyr Zelensky informed through social media that the country has agreed to hold talks with Russia at Belarusian-Ukrainian border. Earlier Volodymyr Zelensky had rejected Russia's offer to hold negotiations in Belarus, suggesting alternative cities, including Budapest and Warsaw for talks, Xinhua news agency reported. He made the remarks in a video address posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday shortly after the Kremlin announced that a Russian delegation has arrived in Belarus and will be ready to negotiate with Ukraine in the city of Gomel. He said Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but Belarus is not an option because Russia has been carrying out some of its attacks from Belarus. "We're saying no to Minsk. Other cities can be a place to meet," he said. "We want peace, we want to meet, we want the end of the war... Any other city would suit us, any country, from whose territory missiles are not launched at us," Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine has proposed meeting in other countries such as Poland, Hungary, Turkey and Azerbaijan, but Russia has so far refused. Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a delegation, including representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry and other government agencies has arrived in Belarus. Peskov said Russia warned Ukraine that it would not suspend military operations during any potential talks. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Russian government has announced that it is working on a plan to evacuate its citizens from Europe, after an array of European countries closed their airspace to all Russian airlines amid Moscow's military conflict with Kiev, RT reported. Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency and Federal Tourism Agency revealed on Sunday that they were working with the Russian Foreign Ministry to evacuate Russians from European nations as they continue to impose sanctions on Russia, cutting off Russian aircraft from their airspaces. "The work to organise the evacuation of Russian citizens from the European countries is being carried out by the Federal Air Transport Agency together with the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Federal Tourism Agency. After clarifying the required carrying capacities, a schedule will be formed," the statement said. "Russian airlines are ready to fulfill their obligations to passengers and deliver them home, subject to flexible approaches and constructive decisions of the aviation authorities of European countries on this issue," it continued. The agencies advised Russians in Europe to register in the Russian Foreign Ministry's Foreign Assistant smartphone app, RT reported. As most European countries currently prohibit Russian aircraft from entering their airspaces, Russians in Europe might be evacuated home through Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt, among other countries still open to Russian aircraft, Dmitry Gorin, the vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (PCT), told RIA Novosti on Sunday. He noted that tour operators were working to transport "400 independent and organised tourists from Budapest, Hungary, 500 organised tourists from Bulgaria and about 200 from Portuguese Madeira" back to Russia. New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Noida authority has informed the Supreme Court that Supertech 40-story twin towers will be demolished on May 22. In its August 31 judgment, last year, the Supreme Court had ordered for the demolition of twin towers in Noida. A bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant said that all authorities should strictly comply with the timeline given in the Noida authority affidavit. Senior advocate Ravindra Kumar, representing the Noida authority, submitted before the bench that the demolition process has commenced, and the twin towers will be completely demolished on May 22. The top court was informed that the entire debris will be removed by August 22. Kumar submitted before the bench that a meeting of all stakeholders was held on February 9, and the timeline for the demolition of Supertech twin towers was decided. The Noida authority submitted that NOC from GAIL has also been received, along with NOCs from other authorities. On February 7, the top court was informed that GAIL's NOC was required as there is a high pressure underground natural gas pipeline, which is passing at a distance of 15 metres and depth of 3 meters. On January 17, Kumar had informed the top court that a demolition agency, Edifice Engineering, has been finalized to carry out the demolition of towers. The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on May 17. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) has opened its new offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. This comes in line with PIFs global expansion strategy and will be instrumental in its future international growth. PIF is an active investor in some of the worlds most innovative and transformational industries and businesses - including in the UK, Europe, US, Asia and South America. The new subsidiary companies offices will further enable PIF to continue to work with its partners across regions globally while helping to transform global economies and drive the economic transformation of Saudi Arabia. The PIF move reflects its commitment to global partnerships and in investing in sectors, industries and companies that will shape the economies of the future. As part of its five-year growth plan, PIF aims to boost its assets under management to $1.07 trillion by the end of 2025 while continuing to create new sectors, companies and jobs. A key element of PIFs success has been the strategic economic partnerships it has developed with many of the worlds leading investors and businesses.-TradeArabia News Service New Delhi, Feb 28 : Russia's central bank says it has ordered brokers to suspend the execution of all orders by foreign legal entities and persons who want to sell off their Russian investments, such as stocks and shares, BBC reported. The Bank of Russia also said it had yet to decide whether to open the Moscow Exchange, other than the forex and money market, on Monday. The opening time has already been pushed a few times in the last few hours. It comes as the rouble plunged to a new record low after Western nations announced new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, BBC reported. Earlier, Russia's central bank appealed for calm amid fears that new financial sanctions could spark a run on its banks - that is, too many people trying to withdraw money, BBC reported. In a statement, it said: "The Bank of Russia has the necessary resources and tools to maintain financial stability and ensure the operational continuity of the financial sector." On Saturday, Europe, the US, the UK and Canada announced that the assets of Russia's central bank will be frozen. It has reserves of around $630 bn. The sanctions against the Bank of Russia would stop it from selling assets overseas to support its own banks and companies, BBC reported. Europe, the US and its allies have also announced that a number of Russian banks will be removed from Swift, the international payment system which is pivotal for the smooth transaction of money worldwide. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War New Delhi, Feb 28 : Amid the ongoing market volatility, the brokerage house ICICI Securities has recommended State Bank of India, Mindtree, Ambuja Cement, Balkrishna Industries, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail, Indian Energy Exchange, Grindwell Norton, and Balrampur Chini shares as its 'top picks'. The brokerage sees 11-15 per cent upside in share price for these stocks. "Fundamentally, the medium to long term constructive thesis on Indian equities remains intact amid economic recovery as reflected by key macroeconomic indicators, strong capex spends and robust corporate earnings," the brokerage said in a report. The brokerage sees the current correction in the equity segment as an opportunity for investors to add companies with sustainable growth visibility. "PSU banking indices have recently witnessed a structural turnaround. State Bank of India has been an outperformer within the PSU banking space maintaining higher peak and higher trough in long term chart. We expect it to continue its outperformance," it said. For SBI, the target price is kept at Rs 545, as against the current price of Rs 481. For global technology consulting and services company Mindtree, the target price is kept at Rs 4,148, as against the current price of Rs 3,810. New Delhi, Feb 28 : A 64-year-old man was arrested in the national capital for duping 60 Public Sector Undertakings employees, including general public, of over Rs 14 crore, an official said Monday. The accused was identified as Diwakar Sharma, a resident of Akshardham Village, Delhi. Furnishing details, Joint Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing) Chhaya Sharma said the case was registered on the complaint of one Gulshan Sethi in July, 2016 against Shubhkamna Buildtech Pvt. Ltd. (SBPL) and its two Directors namely Piyush Tiwari and Diwakar Sharma for their project "Shubhkamna City" in July-September 2013 to be developed in Greater Noida, UP. "The alleged assured the complainants that they would deliver the project within two years from the date of issuance of allotment letter but they failed to deliver the project till date," the Jt CP said. Subsequently, the police registered a case under sections 406, 409, 420 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and initiated an investigation. "More than 60 complaints have been clubbed with the present FIR and a total amount of more than Rs 14 crore have been embezzled by accused persons," the senior official informed. During the course of investigation, documents were obtained from the concerned authorities and it revealed that booking of flats was done prior to the approval of statutory approvals. Flats were booked by GAPSEWHO and Shubhkamna Buildtech Pvt. Ltd. (SBPL). "The accused Diwakar Sharma played an active role in affairs of the accused company alongwith his accomplice Piyush Tiwari. It was also revealed during investigation that accused Piyush Tiwari had made multiple allotments of flats in the project," said the official. It was found that the accused previously worked as Secretary of GAPSEWHO and later he established the company Shubhkamna Buildtech Private Limited in 2006 to enter into the real estate sector with the intention to cheat people. The co-accused Piyush Tiwari became Director of this company in 2011 and both hatched conspiracy and allegedly induced the complainant of this case and other gullible customers. "The accused induced Govt. & PSU's employees including general public through advertisements and agents of Shubhkamna Buildtech Pvt. Ltd. in connivance with a society named Government and Public Sector Employees Welfare Housing Organization (GAPSEWHO) to invest in their housing project. GAPSEWHO gave advertisement that the project is made for Govt. and Public Sector Employees and it will be constructed on No Profit No Loss Basis and possession of the flats was delivered within schedule time frame," Sharma said. The senior official further said on the assurance of GAPSEWHO office-bearers who were retired officials of Govt./PSUs/Banking Sectors, a large number of serving employees of these sectors including the general public got attracted to their housing project and invested their money and retirement benefits. Later on, accused persons and GAPSEWHO left the project unattended. The Jt CP said that another Director Piyush Tiwari is still absconding and a non-bailable warrant has been issued against him. "Further probe is on," she added. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Ukrainian intelligence suggests Belarus is showing "readiness to maybe participate directly" in Russia's invasion, "in addition to allowing Russians to use their territory as well as letting them cross the border" into Ukraine, a Ukrainian government official told CNN. A second source close to the Ukrainian government told CNN that in addition to the Ukrainian intel, the Biden administration has also conveyed to Kiev that Belarus is preparing to invade. The Washington Post first reported that Belarus was preparing to send soldiers into Ukraine, citing a US administration official. The intelligence comes as talks are set for Monday between Russia and Ukraine near the Belarusian border. Belarus is an ally of Russia and is being used as a launch point for Russian troops into Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko called his Ukrainian counterpart on Sunday. Lukashenko said last week that Belarusian troops could join the invasion "if it becomes necessary." "Our troops are not participating in any way in this operation. We're not going to justify ourselves here about our participation or non-participation in this conflict. I repeat once again. Our troops are not there but if it becomes necessary, if Belarus and Russia need them, they will be there," Lukashenko said, CNN reported. New Delhi, Feb 28 : PRAHAR, an NGO has urged the government to block the Chinese gaming app BGMI-PUBG and add it to the list of 54 Chinese apps banned on February 14, 2022 saying its omission in the list is a "clear lapse in judgement on part of the Government". The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch has supported this initiative by Prahar and has called for an investigation into the antecedents and China influence of BGMI-PUBG. PUBG mobile was banned by the Government of India on September 2, 2020. Within ten months, it was relaunched as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI). BGMI is the biggest among the chinese apps that relaunched and rebranded with the same features and have managed to circumvent scrutiny. Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-Convener, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch said, "We congratulate the Government on their decision to ban another 54 Chinese apps in India recently. This is in line with the ongoing demand from people of India to boycott all kinds of Chinese goods. Also, in today's data centric world, maintaining technology integrity is extremely important to protect the sovereignty of India, security of the state and defence of India. We urge the Government to thoroughly investigate the antecedents and China influence of the BGMI-PUBG app and take immediate action if found in violation". The letter written by Abhay Mishra, National Convenor and President, PRAHAR, said, "Tencent Holdings Limited had launched PUBG in India, and it was one of the most downloaded games at the time of its ban in 2020. In less than a year, PUBG was re-introduced in India by a front company of Tencent - Krafton under the new name BGMI - a move that was clearly meant to circumvent the Indian policymakers." It further added "On paper, Tencent is the second largest shareholder of Krafton with 15.5 per cent stocks. However, it is said that Tencent holds additional interests in promoter's various businesses, through private deals hidden from the public, giving them extraordinary control on Krafton. Most global media also refer to Krafton as "Tencent backed Krafton". In its IPO prospectus too, Krafton acknowledged its strategic partnership with Tencent, and the two companies together fought and won lawsuits in federal courts in the US and Germany in January 2022." The letter continues "Free Fire was another gaming app that was banned on February 14. Since Tencent also holds 18.7 per cent share in Free Fire, it raises a basic question: if Free Fire was banned, why was BGMI PUBG exempted?" The letter concludes: "Since the government does not have a mechanism or the machinery to closely track the movements of companies like Tencent, banning apps like Chinese BGMI PUBG is in the interest of both the country and its people. We therefore request your ministry to include Chinese app BGMI-PUBG among the list of banned apps in India under Section the IT Act in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, and public order and save millions of unsuspecting players from falling prey into the Chinese trap." New Delhi, Feb 28 : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that "the next 24 hours" would be a "crucial period" for Ukraine as its conflict with Russia continues, RT reported. Downing Street revealed in a statement that Zelensky told the prime minister he "believed the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine," while Johnson "said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine." Johnson also "praised" Zelensky's "leadership" and said "the resistance of the Ukrainian people was heroic," before the two "agreed to continue to stay in close contact", RT reported. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned on Sunday that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could also turn into a conflict between Russia and NATO if Western countries "don't stand up to Putin now." On the same day, Truss gave her blessing to Brits to go to Ukraine to fight against Russia - despite being warned that such action would be illegal and dangerous - and said the UK government had "compiled a hit list" of Russian "oligarchs" to sanction. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Los Angeles, Feb 28 : Hollywood star couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively will match up to $1 million in aid to displaced Ukrainians. As of Sunday, roughly 368,000 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, reports deadline.com. Reynolds and Lively tweeted a promise to match donations made to "USA for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees." "In 48 hours, countless Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes to neighboring countries. They need protection. When you donate, we'll match it up to $1,000,000, creating double the support," Reynolds said in a retweet of the USA for UNHCR account. On Instagram, Lively shared a similar message. "@usaforunhcr is providing life saving aid, and also working with neighboring countries to ensure protection for these families," Lively wrote on Instagram. Ramnagar, : Feb 28 (IANS) Prominent Lingayat seer Murugharajendra Swamiji on Monday extended his support and joined the Mekedatu padayatra organised by the Karnataka Congress demanding speedy implementation of the project for providing drinking water facility to Bengaluru and surrounding areas. Welcoming him, state Congress President D.K. Shivakumar said that the movement for Mekedatu has got strengthened with the support and participation of Murugharajendra seer. "Murugharajendra seer has come down to the road to take part in a protest march with us. I extend my hearty welcome," he said. The seer hailed Shivakumar for taking up the endeavour. As the padayatra entered its second day on Monday, the leaders started a protest march from Banandur village in Ramnagar district of Karnataka, which is known as the birth place of Late Vokkaliga seer Balagangadharnath Swamiji. The Congress leaders were received with floral tributes by the people as they entered villages. The protest march would reach Basavanagudi National College Grounds in Bengaluru on March 3 where a massive convention would be organised. The padayatra has been reduced to three days from the proposed five days in view of the budget session, he said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stated that Congress has taken out Mekedatu Padayatra for political gains. Replying to a question from mediapersons in Hubballi he said, there is no need to give any importance to it. CM Bommai further stated that though the party leaders are aware of the reality about the project, they are out on a padayatra for political gains. Congress leaders had failed to prepare even the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the project when they were in power. People are asking as to what was the contribution of Congress leaders for the Mekedatu project, Bommai said. The state government would take necessary decisions to enable the people of the state to get the benefit of Mekedatu and Kalasa Banduri projects. There should be no politics over this, Bommai said. He further stated that lessons on brave women of the state like Belavadi Mallamma, Kitturu Rani Chennamma and Rani Abbakka would be included in the syllabus to enable the coming generations to know about their valor. "Initiatives would be taken for comprehensive development of Belavadi. Yesterday we celebrated the 350th anniversary of Keladi Chennamma's Coronation. Women's contribution for Karnataka's glory is immense. The younger generation should know about it. We should make the coming generations learn about brave women of our State like Kitturu Chennamma. Mega events would be organised in Belavadi next year as part of the celebrations," Bommai said. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Meta has taken down a network for targeting people in Ukraine who posed as news editors, aviation engineers and authors to spread misinformation around the Russian invasion across social media platforms. The people ran websites posing as independent news entities and created fake personas across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and also Russian Odnoklassniki and VK apps, the company said late on Sunday. "In the last 48 hours, we uncovered a relatively small network of about 40 accounts, Pages and Groups on Facebook and Instagram. They were operated from Russia and Ukraine and targeted people in Ukraine across multiple social media platforms and through their own websites," said Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Security Policy at Meta. Meta took down this operation, blocked their domains from being shared on its platform, and shared information with other tech platforms, researchers and governments. "When we disrupted this network on our platform, it had fewer than 4,000 Facebook accounts following one or more of its Pages and fewer than 500 accounts following one or more of its Instagram accounts," Gleicher said. This network used fake accounts and operated fictitious personas and brands across the internet -- including on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Odnoklassniki and VK -- to appear more authentic in an apparent attempt to withstand scrutiny by platforms and researchers. These fictitious personas used profile pictures likely generated using artificial intelligence techniques like generative adversarial networks (GAN). They claimed to be based in Kiev and posed as news editors, a former aviation engineer, and an author of a scientific publication on hydrography -- the science of mapping water. This operation ran a handful of websites masquerading as independent news outlets, publishing claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state. Meta also announced a 'Lock Your Profile' tool that allows people to lock their Facebook profile in one step. "When someone's profile is locked, people who aren't their friends can't download, enlarge or share their profile photo, nor can they see posts or other photos on someone's profile, regardless of when they posted it," the company said. Hyderabad, Feb 28 : Actor Prakash Raj has questioned the Andhra Pradesh government about the alleged misuse of power and domination towards the Telugu film industry, especially in the case of Pawan Kalyan's latest release 'Bheemla Nayak'. As the actor tweeted regarding the same on Sunday, he asked the government to put an end to their unwanted domination. Prakash Raj has called out the government of Andhra Pradesh, regarding the restrictions it has implemented in the state on movies, as in the case of Pawan Kalyan's 'Bheemla Nayak'. In his hard-hitting note, the actor wrote, "#BheemlaNayak .. #GovtofAndhrapradesh please put an end to this onslaught..let cinema thrive #JustAsking". The multifaceted film personality also questioned the misuse of power by the Jagan government. Prakash Raj also mentioned that no one can stop audiences' love towards their favourite hero and movies. In the wake of Pawan Kalyan's 'Bheemla Nayak' release, the Andhra government had appointed special officer forces at the theaters, leaving everyone to turn their heads at the deeds of the ruling party. Special Government Orders were brought in Andhra Pradesh, only to stop the movie from releasing earlier. Even after the court opposed bringing in, the Government Order related to ticket prices in the state, the government has turned a deaf ear to it. The whole movie industry had suffered losses at the time of the first two waves of the pandemic. While the Telangana government assures to provide help in the favour of the industry, Andhra Pradesh's attitude only to hit at an actor-turned-politician, has become one of the hot topics in the Telugu states. On the other hand, the Pawan and Rana-starrer 'Bheemla Nayak' is reported to have broken even in the US. Running successfully, the movie is screening for the lowest available prices in Andhra Pradesh. The Tanzania Energy Symposium at Expo 2020 Dubai presented opportunities and spearheaded discussions on investment, financing and strategy in upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas projects. It also discussed petroleum supply and storage infrastructure, electricity generation, transmission and distribution, rural electrification and renewable energy. Inaugurated by Tanzania President, Samia Suluhu Hassan on February 27 as part of the countrys national day celebration, the symposium was held on the theme Promoting Tanzania as East Africas Energy Hub. Hosted by The Tanzania Ministry of Energy, it brought together NOCs, IOCs, investors, financiers, traders, EPC+F, developers, governments, and agencies, for a showcase of investment opportunities in the fast-growing nation. Ahead of the Symposium, January Y. Makamba, the Tanzanian Minister of Energy, said: Tanzania is strategically located to serve East and Central Africa, and we are determined to make this desire a reality. One way of doing so is by attracting high calibre investors in the energy sector, where we have potential to meet the growing energy demand within the region and abroad, through projects such as LNG. The symposium culminated with Tanzanias national day weekend festivities in and around the countrys pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, which staged a special celebration February 26. The Tanzania pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai is themed around building a favourable environment for industries to thrive, including how the country aims to achieve its vision of becoming a trading hub that connects Africa to the world.-- TradeArabia News Service Imphal, Feb 28 : Stray incidents of violence occurred in the first phase of elections to 38 Assembly constituencies in Manipur on Monday even as 49 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 1 p.m. election officials said. Police officials in Imphal said that at least one person was injured in a clash between the workers of two rival political parties in Churachandpur district. An Electronic Voting Machine was damaged by some people at Singhat and it was later replaced. Congress workers allegedly damaged a BJP polling booth in Kakwa area in Langthabal constituency in Imphal West district, while a vehicle of a National People's Party candidate was damaged by workers by the members of the rival group in Keirao seat, though none was injured in the incident. The officials said that there is an incident of firing by some miscreants at Phunal Maring Polling Station. However, details of the incident are awaited. Men and women, including the young voters in large numbers queued up in front of the polling stations much before the voting started at 7 a.m. Polling will continue till 4 p.m. without any break. Manipur Governor La Ganesan, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar, Speaker Y Khemchand, state Congress President N. Loken were among those who at the early hours at their respective polling stations. A total of 12,09,439 voters, including 6,28,657 females and 175 transgenders, are eligible to cast their votes across 1,721 polling stations in five districts -- Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Churachandpur and Kangpokpi. Monday's first phase of polling will decide the fate of 173 candidates, including 15 women contestants. The aspirants include Chief Minister and BJP candidate N.Biren Singh, his cabinet colleague Thongam Biswajit Singh, NPP candidate and Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar Singh, senior BJP leader Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, Congress' Ratankumar Singh, Lokeshwar Singh, Saratchandra Singh, sitting party MLA Akoijam Mirabai Devi are at stake. Firebrand women leader and Janata Dal (United) candidate Thounaojam Brinda, who was the Additional Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), also is contesting in the first phase of polling from the Yaiskul constituency. Covid-19 protocols for the polling personnel and voters including, use of face masks, sanitiser, social distancing and thermal screening are being maintained. A senior Election Commission official said that there are 10,041 physically challenged electors (PwD) and 251 centenarian voters in these 38 Assembly constituencies. The official said that 381 polling stations are being fully manned by all women polling personnel and all polling stations in four Assembly constituencies -- Singjamei, Yaiskul, Wangkhei and Churachandpur -- are being manned by all women polling teams. One polling station in Saikot Assembly constituency is being manned completely by physically challenged polling personnel. Of the 173 candidates, 39 candidates have criminal antecedents, the officials said. Of the 173 candidates, the ruling BJP has fielded 38 candidates, followed by the main opposition Congress 35 and its ally CPI one while BJP's estranged ally National People's Party put up 27 candidates, Janata Dal (United) 28, Nationalist Congress Party six, Shiv Sena seven, RPI (Athawale) six and remaining by various other parties. During the over two-month long campaign, development, militancy, illegal trade of drugs, repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), women empowerment, rising unemployment and corruption were the main issues highlighted by the political parties in their campaign. The BJP had secured 21 seats in the 60-member Assembly in the last Assembly polls in 2017 and wrested the power for the first time, stitching together a coalition government with the support of four NPP MLAs, four Naga People's Front (NPF) members, the lone Trinamool Congress MLA and an Independent member. However, this time the BJP, NPP and the NPF are contesting separately and have put-up candidates against each other. The NPP, the dominant party of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, has been an ally of the BJP in both the northeastern states (Meghalaya and Manipur) since 2017. The Congress, which governed the state for 15 consecutive years (2002-2017) and emerged as the single largest party by securing 28 seats in 2017 poll, this time formed a Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance (MPSA) after forging a pre-poll alliance with four Left parties and Janata Dal-Secular. The second phase of polling will be held in 22 seats on March 5. Votes will be counted on March 10. Patna, Feb 28 : Bihar Finance Minister Tarkishore Prasad will present the second budget of Nitish Kumar government on Monday afternoon. Sources have said that the size of the budget could be 10 per cent more in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22. In 2021-22, Bihar government had allocated of Rs 2.16 lakh crore for the annual budget including Rs 38,035.93 crore in the education, followed by Rs 16,835.67 crore for rural development, Rs 15,227.74 crore for roads infrastructures, Rs 13,264.87 crore for health and Rs 8,560 crore for energy sector. The finance ministry has recorded a 2.5 per cent economic development rate during the economic survey of 2021-22. The central government has given additional sharing in the central taxes. Besides, the revenue generation due to state taxes also increased and benefitted Bihar. Sources have said that Tarkishore Prasad, also the Deputy chief minister, will focus on technical education, skill development and job creation. There is a possibility of a new department being announced for ITI and polytechnic courses. For existing polytechnic colleges, the state government is also looking to develop them as center for excellence. The state government will allocate funds on Nitish Kumar pet project Saat Nishchay Yojana, Agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries, chemical and fertilizers, and road infrastructures as well. Street lights and CCTV installation in rural and urban areas could be a priority for the finance minister. The proceedings of the Assembly was scheduled at start at 11 a.m with the Question Hour followed by Zero Hour. Tarkishore Prasad will be expected to present the annual budget 2022-23 in the afternoon session after lunch break. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New York, Feb 28 : Antibiotic azithromycin does not prevent recurrent wheezing among infants hospitalised with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rather may prove to be harmful, researchers warned. Azithromycin is known to have anti-inflammatory properties that can be beneficial in some chronic lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis. However, among infants hospitalised with RSV, there was no difference in the amount of wheezing in babies treated with azithromycin versus those who received a placebo, according to researchers at Universities of Washington and Vanderbilt. "Azithromycin and antibiotics in general have no benefit in preventing recurrent wheeze, and there is a possibility they are harmful," said first author Avraham Beigelman, Associate Professor of paediatrics at Washington's School of Medicine. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in Phoenix and also published in The New England Journal of Medicine - Evidence. In infants and young children, RSV can cause bronchiolitis, an infection of the small airways in the lungs. Nearly all children contract RSV at some point in early childhood, and a small percentage develop bronchiolitis severe enough to be hospitalised. Infants hospitalised with RSV bronchiolitis are at an increased risk of developing asthma by age 7. The trial confirmed, as anticipated, that azithromycin lowers a marker of airway inflammation called IL-8. Infants treated with azithromycin had lower levels of IL-8 in their noses than infants who received a placebo, confirming anti-inflammatory effects of azithromycin. But, azithromycin-treated patients did not have reduced risk of developing recurrent wheezing compared with the placebo group. While the difference did not reach statistical significance, the data actually leaned toward azithromycin increasing risk of wheezing, with 47 per cent of patients who had received azithromycin experiencing recurrent wheezing versus 36 per cent of the placebo group. Recurrent wheezing was defined as three episodes of wheezing during the two to four years of follow up. "There may be an increase in risk of recurrent wheezing with any antibiotic use," Beigelman said. He added that the findings are important and must be communicated to pediatricians, "since antibiotics are frequently given to patients with RSV bronchiolitis despite the fact that this practice is not supported by clinical guidelines". Hardoi : , Feb 28 (IANS) A woman and her daughter were badly beaten up by a dog owner when they tried to shoo away the dog who was defecating on their boundary wall. According to reports, the victim Bina Pandey and her daughter Kaushiki were on a walk after dinner on Sunday night when they saw their neighbour, Sanjeev Pandey's dog defecating on their boundary wall. The two tried to shoo away the dog but this enraged the neighbour who came out with his family and started abusing the two. When Bina Pandey objected to the foul language, Pandey and his family caught the mother and daughter by their hair and flung them on to the ground. The incident was caught on the CCTV cameras and is now going viral on the social media. The police spokesman said that the victim had lodged a complaint and a case had been registered against the accused family. New Delhi, Feb 28 : A 28-year-old man was shot dead in the national capital in the wee hours of Monday by another man who was out on bail due to Covid related guidelines, an official said here. Sharing details, DCP (south) Benita Mary Jaiker informed that at around 3 a.m., a PCR call was received regarding an incident of firing in Gautam Nagar area of south Delhi. The deceased was identified as Shivam Pandey. "The accused was previously involved in a murder case in 2016 and was in jail from 2016 till 2021. He came out on interim bail due to Covid related guidelines," the DCP said. The official further informed that personal rivalry is suspected to be the motive behind the murder. "We are probing from all angles," she said. As per latest information, the accused is still at large and the police have constituted and deployed multiple teams to nab him. This is the second incident that has come to the light in past 15 days when a man on parole or a bail has committed a gruesome murder. On January 16, the Special Cell of Delhi Police said it has arrested a 24-year-old murder convict man, out on parole for marriage, for committing another gruesome murder in the national capital and jumping his parole period. The accused was already serving a life sentence for a murder that he had committed in 2017 and was also carrying a cash reward of Rs 30,000 on his arrest. Moscow, Feb 28 : Talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations are expected to start later on Monday, the head of the Russian delegation was quoted by Sputnik as saying. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had rejected Russia's offer to hold negotiations in Belarus, suggesting alternative cities including Budapest and Warsaw for talks. Zelensky made the remarks in a video address posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday shortly after the Kremlin announced that a Russian delegation has arrived in Belarus and will be ready to negotiate with Ukraine in the city of Gomel. The president said Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but Belarus is not an option because Russia has been carrying out some of its attacks from Belarus. "We're saying no to Minsk. Other cities can be a place to meet," he said. Chennai, Feb 28 : Actor Sundeep Kishan, who is a part of the Tamil and Telugu film industries, has been left shaken by a video clip on Twitter in which a group of four Indian students, who are stuck in Ukraine, are seen appealing for help. The actor, quoting the tweet with the video clip, said, "This really shook me up...sending prayers for their safety." In the video clip, four students from Tamil Nadu who are stuck in Kharkiv are seen appealing for help to get out of the war-ravaged country and get back home. Speaking in Tamil, one of the students says, "We are not blaming anyone. We are not in a position to blame anyone. We don't have the courage nor the qualification to blame anybody. We are just asking for your help. We are on our knees and asking you for your help." Another student says, "From the morning, we can only hear bombs go off." A third student adds, "They have closed all the places around." The first student then says, "We are holding on to our dear lives every minute and continuing to do our work. Not just us. There are around 5,000 students in metros around the country. They are like us in bunkers under their houses without food and water. Please help us." The video clip, which has been doing the rounds on social media, has now begun to garner attention. Lucknow, Feb 28 : Lucknow University has launched a new initiative in line with the New Education Policy (NEP), called the 'Karmoday' scheme to ensure an engaging and supportive environment for students and provide an opportunity for experimental learning. The scheme is student-centric and lays emphasis on development of capabilities in students in higher education. "Karmoday is set with an objective to create an environment that builds students' capabilities. It is an unpaid scheme that provides a hands-on approach to learning," said Prof Poonam Tandon, Dean, students' welfare. The university encourages students to take up this in-house internship to experience real workplaces, apply their knowledge and skills to perform, she said. This scheme will channel the youthful energy of the students and make them sensitive to their environment. It helps to inculcate citizenship behaviour through active participation, she added. The 'Karmoday' scheme is open for all the students of the university and there will not be any exclusion of students based on family income or being the recipient of any other fellowship or scholarship. This internship programme will benefit students' resumes, and on completion of the internship, a student would be provided experience certificates stating the work accomplished. The programme is designed on the demand of university students, who are not eligible to apply for the 'Karmyogi' scheme. The 'Karmyogi' scheme was launched for those students whose family income was less than Rs 3 lakh per annum, and he/she is not currently receiving any kind of financial assistance, including fellowship or scholarship from any other resource. Since its inception, this scheme has become very popular among students who may earn up to Rs 15,000 in an academic year by doing work on the university campus. In the 'Karmoday' scheme, the minimum internship duration is 50 days in an academic session. The working hours for all categories of assistants shall be evenly distributed over a period of two months (maximum 2 hours a day). The maximum internship duration is one semester. A student would be eligible for these schemes if he/she is a student in the final or pre-final year of bachelor's or masters' courses in the University. He should be enrolled for the regular or self-finance courses of the university and has passed with a minimum of 60 per cent marks in the previous examination. A student should have at least 75 per cent attendance in the previous academic semester/year. Gorakhpur : , Feb 28 (IANS) The legendary Thakur-Brahmin war in eastern Uttar Pradesh has come into full play in Chillupar assembly seat of Gorakhpur. Chillupar is the stronghold of erstwhile mafia don and former minister Hari Shankar Tiwari. Though Tiwari, 86, has retired from active politics, he has handed over the baton to his sons -- Bhisham Shankar Tiwari, former MP, and Vinay Shankar Tiwari, a legislator. Vinay Shankar Tiwari, who quit BSP to join SP, is now a candidate from Chillupar. The hostility between the Tiwari family and Yogi Adityanath is an extension of the Thakur-Brahmin divide which widened further when, after coming to power, Yogi Adityanath's police raided the home of Hari Shankar Tiwari, ostensibly to look for an accused in a theft case. The incident intensified the caste war that has been strongly simmering in the region for the past five years. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said in Chillupar, "In the five years of BJP rule, a new Uttar Pradesh has emerged, where there is no place for mafia and criminals." The reference was obviously to the Tiwari family. He further said criminals running organised gangs were on the run and people in rural and urban areas of the state were living without any fear. He said that the mafia had sullied the image of Gorakhpur. "Earlier, youths from Gorakhpur were not given jobs. The mafia misguided them and lured them into their gangs. The BJP government checked the trend by launching a drive against criminal gangs. The people of the region also busted the myth that mafia cannot be defeated in the elections," he said. The BJP candidate in Chillupar is Rajesh Tripathi, who had defeated Tiwari in 2007 and 2012 assembly elections. Among Brahmins, the Tiwari family is the most respected in Purvanchal and local people claim that Brahmin candidates in the region continue to take the blessings of Hari Shankar Tiwari to win elections. "Yogi Adityanath proudly claims to be a Thakur and represents the Thakur lobby in the region. This time, the elections have divided the two communities and their leaders are making no bones about supporting candidates from their communities," says Rishu Singh, a local journalist. Before the emergence of Yogi, it was gangster turned politician Virendra Pratap Shahi, who belonged to the Thakur community, who had challenged the might of Tiwari. Later, the two called for truce and Shahi was murdered in 1997. After brutal murder of Shahi, the Thakur community members rallied behind young Yogi Adityanath, whom then was designated as successor to Mahant Avaidyanath. Yogi Adityanath launched the 'Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV)' to win support of the upper caste, backwards and Dalits and counter the muscle power of Tiwari and other political rivals. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Budget carrier SpiceJet will operate a special flight to Budapest, Hungary to evacuate stranded Indians. The airline will operate a special evacuation flight to bring back stranded Indians, who managed to find their way out of the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Hungary shares a land border with Ukraine, many Indian nationals, including students have made their way to the border. The airline will use its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for this special flight. "The aircraft will fly to Budapest from Delhi and the return fight will operate via Kutaisi, Georgia," the airline said in a statement. "SpiceJet is planning to operate more evacuation flights and is in discussion with concerned authorities." Till now, Tata Group-led Air India has been operating flights to Bucharest, Romania and Budapest, Hungary. These flights being are operated as special government charters to bring back stranded Indians. Earlier, Air India operated direct special flights to Kiev but it had to stop these operations due to a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) issued over the closure of Ukrainian air space. One of Air India's flight bound for Kiev from New Delhi returned to the national capital's IGI Airport after NOTAM was announced at Kiev airport on last Thursday. Last Tuesday, the airline had carried out the first of its special flight operations ferrying Indian citizens from Ukraine. The Riyadh Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Gulf Region (Riyadh MoU) has agreed to standardize vessel inspection codes across the GCC to mirror those of other international agreements in addition to unveiling its new brand identity on its Android and iOS mobile apps, which features a service that enables real time data entry of inspected ships. Riyadh MOU is an agreement signed at a meeting in Riyadh by all the 6 Gulf countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE - to achieve safe, secure and efficient shipping in the maritime jurisdictions in the region. The Riyadh MoU is one of several regional agreements on Port State Control that have been signed by maritime authorities under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization. PSC governs the inspection of foreign ships in national ports to verify that the condition of the ship and its equipment comply with the requirements of international regulations and that the ship is manned and operated in compliance with convention standards. Based in Muscat, the 18-year-old organization Riyadh MoU enjoys financial and administrative autonomy. It regulates vessel control across the GCC, streamlines data sharing among member states, and ensures compliance with international agreements and laws that govern maritime and marine environment safety. The latest announcements were made during the 19th annual meeting of the Riyadh MoU Committee held in the Saudi capital. Across three days, the committee members discussed inspection activities of vessels calling at GCC ports and endorsed unified measures to target ships that violate maritime safety standards. Participants also agreed on sharing data through the organizations dedicated datacenter. The meeting reviewed Riyadh MoUs 2021 annual report, which summarized the years key outcomes, achievements, and projects. With the approval of this years budget, major projects were also greenlighted which will see the adoption of digital transformation and artificial intelligence besides entrusting the organizations secretariat and data center the task of developing comprehensive quality standards for vessel inspection and embracing global benchmarks. The remote training schedule for vessel inspection officers in partnership with the Paris MoU, Tokyo MoU, and the European Union was finalized for this year. The meeting also decided on requests received from other countries to join Riyadh MoU as members and observers. "The Riyadh MoU has recorded major achievements that have bolstered vessel inspection in the GCC," remarked Omar Hariri, President of the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani). "The MoU and its secretariat have spared no efforts in cracking down on vessels that dont comply with maritime safety standards and agreements, thereby reducing the number of violating ships in the regional marine territory," he added. He praised the MoUs role in honing the skills of local talent through exposure and training at the hands of international vessel inspection experts, urging member states to maintain this important learning and development strategy. Hariri said the MoU had helped build an extensive database of all vessels sailing in GCC waters. The Riyadh MoU is one of only nine agreements signed under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, the UN body that regulates global shipping. Mawani had recently unveiled its strategy that aims to create a sustainable maritime industry in a bid to position the Kingdom as a global logistics hub and fulfill the nations socio-economic ambitions. The Authority eyes the strengthening of the maritime sector by transforming Saudi ports into investment hotspots that boost trade and economic development in line with the objectives of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030. Beijing, Feb 28 : Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has signed a State Council decree to promulgate the revised regulations on the protection of underwater cultural relics. The regulations will take effect on April 1 and lay down requirements to strengthen the conservation and management of underwater cultural relics given new circumstances in recent years, Xinhua new agency reported. The regulations focus on establishing a clearly defined management system and law enforcement mechanism to protect underwater cultural relics while fine-tuning related measures to address salient problems in practice. All individuals and units must protect underwater cultural relics as per the law, and various sectors should pool efforts to forge better synergy in this regard, says the document. Kabul, Feb 28 : At least one kidnapper was killed and four arrested after intelligence personnel of the Afghan caretaker government busted a group of criminals on the western outskirts of Kabul, the government confirmed on Monday. "The Kabul department of General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) rescued Abdul Ghafar from the kidnappers in Qargha area of Paghman district in a special operation on Monday," the government said in a statement, Xinhua news agency reported. The statement came as security forces arrested nine kidnappers, six Islamic State (IS) militants and 35 robbers, and seized a huge amount of weapons and ammunition in clearance operations in Kabul and surrounding provinces since Friday, according to government sources. The Taliban-run administration has vowed to crack down on criminals to ensure law and order in war-torn Afghanistan. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Copenhagen has revealed it will allow Danish nationals to join the international military force as Kiev plans to set up to aid its own military in the conflict with Russia, RT reported. "It's a choice that anyone can make. This goes for all Ukrainians who live here, but also for others who think they can contribute directly to the conflict," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sasid. "There is nothing at first sight that would legally prevent someone from going to Ukraine to participate in the conflict, on the Ukrainian side," Frederiksen added. Earlier, the Danish PM took part in a massive protest against Moscow's operation in front of the Russian embassy in Copenhagen, telling the crowd that "it is all of you and all of Europe who are threatened by Russia." The Danish prime minister is not the first to support the idea. Earlier on Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also said she would "absolutely" support Brits who want to join the military action on the side of Ukraine, RT reported. Moscow, Feb 28 : A Ukrainian delegation arrived for talks with the Russian side in the Gomel region of Belarus on Monday, Sputnik reported. Ukraine agreed to hold talks with Russia at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border as informed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday via social media. Zelensky had earlier rejected Russia's offer to hold negotiations in Belarus, suggesting alternative cities including Budapest and Warsaw for talks. He said Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but Belarus is not an option because Russia has been carrying out some of its attacks from Belarus. "We're saying no to Minsk. Other cities can be a place to meet. "We want peace, we want to meet, we want the end of the war ... Any other city would suit us, any country, from whose territory missiles are not launched at us." He added that Ukraine proposed meeting in other countries such as Poland, Hungary, Turkey and Azerbaijan, but Russia had refused. Kiev, Feb 28 : The next 24 hours will be crucial for Ukraine's fight with Russia, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday during a phone conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from Britain and other allies reached Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported citing the National News Agency of Ukraine (Ukrinform). Meanwhile, the regional government said that the city Berdyansk in southern Ukraine had been seized by Russian troops on Monday morning. The Ukrainian army on Monday informed that the situation in Kiev was still under its control. According to the latest development, a Ukrainian delegation arrived at the place for talks with the Russian side in the Gomel region in Belarus on Monday, Sputnik reported. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Indian nationals being evacuated from Ukraine have been exempted from the mandatory Covid requirements for international arrivals, it was announced on Monday. The Union Health Ministry on Monday revised the International Travel Guidelines, in collaboration with the Ministries of External Affairs, Civil Aviation, and Home to lend support in evacuating Indians from Ukraine. Indian nationals not fulfilling either of the mandatory requirements of pre-boarding negative RT-PCR test report or fully vaccinated certificate as laid down in the present 'Guidelines for International Arrivals' have been exempted from uploading these documents on Air-Suvidha Portal before departure to India. Further, the ministry has allowed individuals who have completed their Covid-19 vaccination, irrespective of the country of departure/vaccination, to exit the arrival airport in India with the advice to self-monitor their health for the next 14 days. In case a traveller is not able to submit a pre arrival RT-PCR test or who has not completed their Covid-19 vaccination, they have been allowed to submit their samples on arrival with the advice to continue to self-monitor their health for 14 days after arrival in India. If tested positive, they shall be clinically managed as per laid down protocol. As on February 28, total five flights - one in Mumbai and four in Delhi - carrying Indians from Ukraine arrived in India carrying a total of 1,156 passengers with none of the passengers being kept under isolation so far, said the ministry in a statement. New Delhi, Feb 28 : India is home to nearly 70 million rare disease patients, but the country lacks significantly in terms of research, treatment as well as government policies, experts said here on Monday. February 28 is globally observed as Rare Disease Day. It was set up by the European Organisation for rare diseases and was first observed in 2008. Rare diseases include genetic diseases, rare cancers, infectious tropical diseases, and degenerative diseases. About 80 per cent of rare diseases are genetic in origin and hence, disproportionately impact children. "As per data that is available in India, there are around 70 million rare disease patients. However, the number could be much higher than that and that is difficult to gauge," Prof Alok Bhattacharya, Professor of Biology and Head of Department at Ashoka University, told IANS. "It is because unfortunately neither the epidemiological studies have been done in India nor we have any idea about how many patients are there partly because there are only few centres where real diagnosis and management of these diseases happen," he lamented. Further, Bhattacharya said that research on rare diseases has been "very rare" in India. But there has been some improvement in the diagnosis of the disease due to private DNA sequencing sectors that are necessary for confirmative diagnosis of many of the diseases, he noted. "But, there isn't much real research undergoing to understand therapy or the biology behind the rare diseases," he said. In 2017, the government came up with a National Policy for Treatment of Rare diseases. It earmarked a financial allocation of Rs 100 crore. "It did not talk about rare diseases per say, and the allocation of Rs 100 crore for a country like this where some of the treatments can be very very expensive can treat only a few," Bhattacharya said. It was revised on the suggestions of the law courts, state governments and patient advocacy groups. A new policy was then formulated by January 2020 and was released by the government on March 31, 2021. According to Dr. Anjali Taneja, there have been some positive and welcoming changes. Yet, the government could have considered more of a uniform financial allocation mechanism, she said. It is because "for about 95 per cent of the rare diseases, there are no therapies and treatments in India," Taneja told IANS. The new policy does not mention what should be done for those 95 per cent of the rare diseases, she added. Taneja recommended a re-look of the policy more importantly in the implementation aspect of the policy and also the financial allocation, the accessibility especially to the rare disease patients who are staying in the remote areas. Accessibility and affordability is a major issue because the cost of the treatment is exorbitantly high, she said. "There has been no effort by the government to address the primary issue that is from where the drugs are going to come, how can we make the drugs accessible to people," Bhattacharya said. Rare disease patients in India are being left at the mercy of crowdfunding platforms for their treatment, he lamented. Bhattacharya said that in India, crowdfunding will not work really well. The amount garnered via crowdfunding "will not do for even a single day". "One thing you have to realise is that a lot of these treatments are not single, you have to take it for a lifetime and every dose costs lakhs of rupees. "Per year costs remain very high, so Rs 60,000-80,000 will not cover for even a single dose, for two weeks." To top it there are hundreds of diseases for which there is absolutely no treatment. "What do you tell those patients? Is it bad luck that they have that disease for which there is no treatment? So I think in those terms the rare disease policy does not really answer any questions or any issues related to rare disease patients," he said. "People living with rare diseases see no hope today. Hope can only come if the government can spend a few hundred crores on developing platforms like gene therapy, gene editing platforms," Bhattacharya added. The best treatment for rare diseases would be to come up with a vaccine just like India did for Covid. It is the only way we can make treatment cheaper and accessible to everyone. (Rachel V. Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in) New Delhi, Feb 28 : External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday said that the sixth flight from Budapest has departed for New Delhi with 240 Indian passengers onboard under 'Operation Ganga'. Taking to Twitter, he said, "Sixth #OperationGanga flight from Budapest. To Delhi with 240 Indian nationals." The officials in the government said that over 1,137 students have so far been evacuated from war torn Ukraine and arrived in India. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday reviewed the progress of evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine and decided to send four Union Ministers as Special Envoy to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to oversee the evacuation mission under Operation Ganga. According to officials, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will be going to Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju to Slovakia, Hardeep Singh Puri to Hungary and Gen V.K. Singh (Retd) to Poland. The Indian Embassy in Kiev on Monday said that the weekend curfew has been lifted and all students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journeys to the western parts. They also said that the Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuation and the Indian students will not have to pay anything for the journey as it is free of cost for them. The Indian embassy in Kiev also said that the curfew has been lifted so that Indian students can reach the exit points on the Ukrainian border to make entry to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Sources said that the Ukrainian government lifted curfew after Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla spoke to the Ambassador of Ukraine to India on Sunday and expressed concerns for the safety and security of Indian students and also asked him to arrange transport to take them to the western borders. Patna, Feb 28 : The Bihar Assembly on Monday witnessed a ruckus with opposition members demanding strict action against BJP MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur over his remark against the Muslim community. Recently, Hari Bhushan Thakur had asked the government to withdraw the voting rights of Muslim community and to treat Muslims as second class citizens of the country. Thakur, however, clarified that the statement was targetted at leaders who have objected to singing national song 'Vande Mataram'. "My statement was not against the entire community but only against those who have objections in singing national song 'Vande Mataram'. It was for people who earn their livelihood here and show loyal to other countries. I truly respect Abdul Kalam, Abdul Hamid and Bismillah Khan," Thakur said. Reacting strongly to the statement, leaders of RJD, Congress and left parties created a furore during Question Hour. They rushed to the Well, seeking action against the BJP leader. Distancing the party from the remark, state industry minister S. Shahanaz Hussein said: "Thakur's statement is his personal opinion and not the party's. BJP believes in keeping our socialist value intact. Our party follows the ideologies of Syama Prasad Mukherjee and Pundit Deen Dayal Upadhyay. Once a person has achieved voting right in the country, no one has the power to withdraw it." Parliamentary Affairs Minister and JDU leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said: "No one is powerful enough in Nitish Kumar government to take back voting rights of any individual in Bihar." Seoul, Feb 28 : Civic activists and ordinary citizens in South Korea held a rally in front of the Russian Embassy in central Seoul on Monday to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and to call for a peaceful resolution of the situation. Activists representing about 400 civic groups, including People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, urged Moscow to stop its attack on Ukraine and the international community to swiftly provide humanitarian support to Ukrainians, Yonhap news agency reported. Also in attendance were about 100 Ukrainians and South Korean citizens, including those who used to live in Ukraine. They held up signs reading "Stop War," "Give Peace a Chance" and "Withdraw Russian Troops Now," along with Ukrainian flags. "Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an act disregarding the international society's years long effort to resolve the conflict between two countries in a peaceful manner," they said. "All conflict of interest related to national security must be peacefully resolved through democracy." The civic groups delivered a statement calling for peace in Kiev, written in Korean, English and Russian, to the Russian Embassy after the news conference. Civic groups in the southwestern city of Gwangju also denounced Russia's invasion and urged the South Korean government to take all possible diplomatic measures to help bring peace to Ukraine. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War The Economic Development Board (EDB) Mauritius hosted a dedicated event during Expo 2020 Dubai to showcase the Mauritius Freeports world-class infrastructure and highlight its potential as a regional trade hub. The Freeport and Logistics event took place from 21-25 February at the One and Only, Royal Mirage, Dubai, led by Soodesh Callichurn, Minister of Labour, Human Resource Development, Training and Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection. The Mauritius Freeport was recently ranked runner-up worldwide, surpassed only by Dubai Multi Commodity Centre (DMCC), and number one across Africa at the prestigious Annual Global Free Zones of the Year 2021 awards. The world-renowned accolades were awarded in October 2021 by fDi intelligence magazine, recognising freezones abilities to navigate the global Covid-19 pandemic. Showkutally Soodhun (GCSK), Ambassador of the Republic of Mauritius to the UAE and Deputy Commissioner General for the Mauritius Pavilion, said: The Mauritius Freeport has come a long way since its humble beginnings, and following years of progressive development, is well-positioned to serve as a key logistics hub connecting Asia to Africa. Our award-winning infrastructure, state-of-the-art facilities and adherence to international best practices have resulted in a robust freezone located in the heart of Africa that has proven to be resilient amid the global challenges presented by Covid-19. Our presence at Expo 2020 provided the perfect backdrop against which to celebrate both our 30th anniversary and our recent highly acclaimed awards alongside our strategic partners in the region. Themed Roots of the Future, the Mauritius Pavilion depicts the intrinsic values of the idyllic Island as it transforms into a conflict-free and resourceful nation that is continuously re-inventing its socio-economic landscape. Through our delegation, we hope to have provided a glimpse into what our Freeport has to offer businesses and investors in the region, and demonstrated the pivotal role that Mauritius can play in strengthening trade ties between Asia and Africa. The superior and modern logistics infrastructure is a major element in Mauritius proposition as a value-adding distribution platform. Freeport facilities include dry warehouses, cold rooms, processing units and integrated office facilities. As an active member of the World Free Zones Organisation (WFZO) and Africa Economic Zones Organisation (AEZO), Mauritius Freeport members can benefit from business trade support, industrial investment stimulation, international marketing benchmarking, and business alliances and partnerships between other member states. Mauritius offers market access to 68 percent of the worlds population following several global agreements that offer compelling advantages to businesses. Trade in the Mauritius Freeport has increased in value and volume from MUR23 billion ($511 million) and 347,000 tons in 2013 to MUR29 billion and 517,000 tons in 2019. The built-up space in terms of cold and dry warehouses, processing units, open-air storage facilities and offices have also increased from 5,000 sq m in 1993 to 300,000 sq m in 2019. The Mauritius Freeport contributes around 0.6% to Mauritius GDP and employs 3,500 workers across 17 declared free zones and 220 active operators. TradeArabia News Service Seoul, Feb 28 : South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for a powerful defence posture on Monday, saying that peace can be achieved only based on strong defence, as the world is reeling from Russia's shocking invasion of Ukraine. "The peace and prosperity we enjoy have been achieved on the foundation of strong security," Moon told a commencement and commissioning ceremony for the Korea Army Academy in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, Yonhap news agency reported. Based on strong defence capabilities, South Korea has pushed for peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula and turned North Korea's nuclear crisis into a mode of dialogue, Moon said. North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, marking the North's eighth show of force this year. "Recently, North Korea has been test-firing missiles one after another," Moon said. "We have superb missile capabilities and defence capabilities that will thoroughly prevent any threats." New Delhi, Feb 28 : European Commission Presidentd, Ursula von der Leyen, has acknowledged that the sweeping sanctions the bloc has imposed on Russia in recent days over Moscow's military operation in Ukraine will have a negative impact on Europeans, too, RT reported. Responding to a Euronews correspondent's remark on Sunday that "of course Europeans and Europe will have to pay a price for these measures", von der Leyen replied in the affirmative, saying that "every war comes at a cost". However, according to the official, Brussels is not daunted by the possible economic blowback from the Russia sanctions, and will continue to prop up Ukraine with a "strong solidarity", RT reported. The EU boss listed the bloc's willingness to take in Ukrainian refugees, the "financial support", as well as the "military equipment support" as proof that the EU is committed to backing Kiev. The European Commission President also opined that Ukraine shares "EU values" and is defending its "principles". On Friday, Paschal Donohoe, the Irish Minister for Finance and President of the Eurogroup - a body that is comprised of Finance Ministers of the Euro area - also stated that "there will be economic costs" for Europe which "will emerge over the coming weeks and months". He added that the "impact will be different for different member states". New Delhi, Feb 28 : Russian forces have taken over the area around the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant, the Ministry of Defense announced on Monday. Last week, Moscow took control of the Chernobyl facility, RT reported. "Russian Forces have taken control over the cities of Berdyansk, Energodar. Russian troops have complete control and are protecting the territory around the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant," spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov said. "The station staff keeps working to maintain the facility and control the nuclear environment in normal mode. The radiation levels are normal", RT reported. A two-minute video has been released by the ministry, showing the area around the Chernobyl power plant with people armed with assault rifles, as well as two men in military uniform, one with a Ukrainian flag on his arm, watching the security cameras and motion detectors in the area. It is reported that the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the site of the worst nuclear catastrophe in history, is stable, with radiation levels being monitored at least six times a day, the report said. Earlier, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has placed the country's nuclear deterrent forces on "special" alert on Sunday, RT reported. The move was announced during Putin's meeting with Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. "Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area. I'm speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of. However, the top officials of the leading NATO countries also make aggressive statements against our country as well," Putin stated. The move comes in response to 'hostile' rhetoric by top NATO officials, Russia's president has explained, RT reported. Srinagar/New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Border Security Force (BSF) on Monday said that it airlifted three patients from snowbound Tangdhar sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara to Srinagar for medical attention amid the closure of the only road, which passes through Sadhna Top. The BSF officials said that the airlift was carried out on request of district administration Kupwara. The evacuated patients include two men, and a child from Tangdhar. Tangdhar (Karnah) sector remains non-motorable for days altogether during winters due to snowfall and mud slides that block the road. The BSF IG in Kashmir Sector Raja Babu Singh said, "We are always there to serve the people of Kashmir, ensuring their wellbeing is our first and foremost priority. We are here to win the hearts and minds of the local populace through our benevolent and compassionate deeds." On January 9, the BSF had also airlifted three patients from the snow-bound Tangdhar sector in Kupwara district amid closure of the road, and were taken to the district headquarters as they needed medical care. BSF apart from its primary border guarding duty, takes care of the local population under its civic action programme and frequently organises medical camps on the remote village especially in winters when the areas remain cut off from the district headquarter. New Delhi, Feb 28 : After recovering during the afternoon session, India's key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- on Monday managed to extend its gains to settle in the green. The indices opened sharply lower on Monday to later recover its entire losses to trade in the green during the closing hours, riding on the reports that Russia and Ukraine are likely to hold peace talks. Accordingly, Sensex settled 0.7 per cent up or 389 points at 56,247, whereas Nifty 0.8 per cent or 136 points up at 16,793 points. On the stocks front, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Power Grid Corporation of India, JSW Steel, and BPCL were the top five gainers among the Nifty 50 companies, rising 7.2 per cent, 6.3 per cent, 5.6 per cent, 4.6 per cent, and 3.9 per cent, respectively, NSE data showed. On the other hand, HDFC Life, Dr Reddy's, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, and HDFC Bank were the top five losers. On the sectoral indices front, Nifty metal, and oil and gas were the top movers, with Nifty metal rising 5 per cent. "Despite opening on a negative tone, domestic indices staged a strong recovery lifted by metal stocks and positive Asian markets. Metal stocks rallied on hopes that curtailing Russian exports would help Indian steelmakers to capture the export market share," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. For fresh cues, domestic investors are keenly awaiting the release of the Q3FY22 GDP data, which is expected to be released later on Monday, Nair said. Hyderabad, Feb 28 : Police in Hyderabad detained BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao and other party leaders and workers on Monday as they were trying to stage protest over alleged attack on "gau rakshaks" here last week. The MLA from Dubbak was detained at LB Nagar as he was heading to Karmanghat area to lead the sit-in. Police also stopped and detained other BJP functionaries when they were proceeding towards Karmanghat. Holding BJP flags and raising slogans against the Chief Minister, they tried to resist the police action. The protestors alleged that the police booked false cases against "gau rakshaks". Two groups had clashed in Karmanghat on February 22 after some youth claiming to be "gau rakshaks" stopped a vehicle transporting cattle. The driver of the vehicle was injured in the attack by cow vigilantes. Two other men who were in the vehicle called others and they chased and attacked cow vigilantes who took shelter in nearby temple. The incident had triggered tension in the area and led to protests by a mob which pelted stones on police and damaged police vehicles. Rachakonda police on Wednesday booked five cases in connection with the incidents. A case was registered against seven persons for illegally transporting cattle and attacking cow vigilantes. On a complaint by a cow vigilante, they were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Four cases were registered against cow vigilantes for assaulting the driver of a cattle transport vehicle, damaging three police vehicles and injuring a sub inspector of police in stone pelting. Meanwhile, BJYM workers in Kukatpally area in the city tried to take out a rally to condemn murder of a Bajrang Dal activist in Karnataka. Police stopped the protestors as there was no permission for the rally. An argument that ensued lead to tension and police arrested the protestors. Hyderabad, Feb 28 : Ahead of its worldwide release, the Prabhas and Pooja Hegde- starrer 'Radhe Shyam' gears up for promotions. The makers who have rustled up non-stop promotions, announced a special trailer for the movie. 'Radhe Shyam' producers took to their social media to release an interesting poster, featuring Prabhas. Along with the poster, comes an interesting announcement that the second trailer for the movie will be out on March 2. Prabhas and Pooja Hegde have come together under the direction of Radha Krishna Kumar for this epic saga, which is slated for its worldwide release on March 11. The stakes are high for this visual splendor, 'Radhe Shyam'. It is also reported that Prabhas, despite his busy schedule, has agreed to promote the movie, as per the campaign planned by the makers. Prabhas, along with team 'Radhe Shyam', will be extensively touring major cities across India - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, and others. It is apparently part of the film's pre-release promotional tour, which starts on March 2. Music by Justin Prabhakaran on T-Series, 'Radhe Shyam' will have sound design by Resul Pookutty. Presented by Krishnam Raju under Gopi Krishna Movies, 'Radhe Shyam' is produced by UV Creations and T-Series. 'Radhe Shyam' will be released globally in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Chinese and Japanese. Chennai, Feb 28 : AIADMK coordinator and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu K.Palaniswami has alleged that the ruling DMK won the recent urban local body elections due to massive malpractices in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs). He was addressing the party workers at Salem denouncing the arrest of former Tamil Nadu fisheries minister and party leader D. Jayakumar on Monday. When the voters pressed any button in the EVMs, the votes went to the DMK candidate, he said and alleged that the DMK victory was not democratic. The allegations are likely to create a major political controversy in Tamil Nadu with the DMK retaliating strongly. The NDA had earlier dismissed the allegations of EVM malpractices and stuck to the stand that EVMs could not be manipulated. Since the AIADMK is the electoral alliance partner of the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections as well as Assembly elections, such a statement from its ally will lead to the BJP coming out in defence of its political stand. February 28 : Honey Trehan, who debuted into film direction with the Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte starrer Raat Akeli Hai in 2020, has reportedly started filming on his second movie. Honeys debut film had received accolades for his direction. His next will star Diljit Dosanjh and Arjun Rampal in the lead roles. The film, which is yet to be titled, has already gone on floors. It is currently being shot at real locations in Amritsar. The film is bankrolled by Ronnie Screwvala of RSVP Movies, Trehan and Abhishek Chaubeys banner, MacGuffin Picture. The film marks the third collaboration between the filmmakers after Sonchiriya and Raat Akeli Hai. The film has been reportedly set during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and will see Diljit Dosanjh playing an activist while Arjun Rampal will play the parallel lead. Arjun's character has been kept under wraps. The story revolves around an activist who fights for the victims of the 1984 riots. The project will also highlight on several revelations of the mass killings and their aftermath. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots took place after the assassination of the then prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone and 3,350 nationwide, while independent sources claim the number of deaths to be much higher. Many films have been made based on the 1984 riots, including Shonali Boses Amu in 2005, Shashi Kumars Kaya Taran in 2004, Vir Dass 31st October and 2021 critically-acclaimed Disney+Hotstar series, Grahan. Meanwhile, on the work front, Diljit has previously starred in Anurag Singhs superhit Punjabi film Punjab 1984 in 2014, which is based on the anti-Sikh riots. He is also doing a film with Ali Abbas Zafar, which is also set in Delhi with the riots as the backdrop. Honey Trehans film will mark Diljits tenth Hindi film since he made his debut in Bollywood with Abhishek Chaubeys Udta Punjab in 2014. The actor also has a crime-comedy, Detective Sherdil, lined up for release this year. Helmed by Ravi Chhabriya, Diljit plays a spy alongside Sumeet Vyas, Boman Irani, and Banita Sandhu. Arjun Rampal, on the other hand, has several films in the pipeline, including Aparna Sens The Rapist with Konkona Sen Sharma, Abbas-Mustans Netflix film Penthouse with Bobby Deol, Lovers with Vidya Balan, and a period drama based on the battle of Bhima Koregaon. His film Dhaakad will hit the big screen on May 27. New Delhi, Feb 28 : As BharatPe saga takes dramatic twists and turns like an intense OTT streaming series, questions are now being raised whether Madhuri Jain, former head of controls at BharatPe, allegedly used the company funds for expensive foreign travel, skincare treatment and purchasing costly electronic items, among others. Sources close to the development said that the ongoing governance review at the fintech platform, scheduled to be submitted this week, has found financial irregularities to the tune of over Rs 50 crore during the tenure of Madhuri Jain -- -- the wife of BharatPe Co-founder and Managing Director Ashneer Grover. The company funds were allegedly used by Madhuri Jain for her personal use throughout her stay at the company, the sources added. The governance review by Alvarez and Marsel (A&M), a leading management consultant and risk advisory firm, has reportedly found that Jain spent over Rs 1 crore on overseas travel. The BharatPe board has also raised questions on the Grover couple allegedly purchasing properties worth Rs 20 crore in 2021. Madhuri Jain got her undergraduate degree from NIFT Delhi and started her career with big fashion brands before joining BharatPe, with handling the Operations and Functionality department, Grover and Shashvat Nakrani founded BharatPe in 2018 and Madhuri Jain joined as the head of operations. While the decision on Grover fate in the company is yet to be decided, the fintech platform last week sacked his wife over alleged financial irregularities during her tenure. She later escalated the battle against BharatPe via social media, posting questions over the board's handling of the situation. Madhuri Jain said law firms Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Alvarez & Marsel (A&M) did not present any documents regarding the governance review. "@AMS_Shardul and A&M never presented a single document to me when I was called. They did not present any proof for me to address. Where is the concept of natural justice? I have learned of allegations from the media. A&M has not till date been able to explain how their report leaked," she argued via Twitter. APM Terminals Bahrain, in partnership with the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) and Port and Maritime Affairs, hosted a high-level delegation led by Eitan Na'eh, Ambassador of Israel to Bahrain at Khalifa Bin Salman Port (KBSP). The Israeli Ambassadors first visit to Bahrains only commercial port, operated by APM Terminals Bahrain, provided the visitors an overview of the KBSP, its history, latest operational developments, and achievements, including the newly created Sea to Air corridor. Moreover, the delegation was briefed on KBSP state-of-the-art infrastructure, high connectivity, ease of doing business, data-driven approach, and capabilities to handle Sea-Air trade logistics to help expand Israel-Bahrain collaborative trade opportunities. This, with 200+ uniquely identifiable Beneficial Cargo Owners (BCOs), positions Bahrain as an ideal trade partner for Israeli companies. The Ambassador was accompanied by representatives from Bahrain EDB - Mohammed Al Madani and Ishaq Abdulla; Port & Maritime Affairs - Mohammed Alhameedi and Fatema Mahmood; Customs Affairs, Ministry of Interior - Azzam Al Mahmeed and Rashid Al Bakir. The senior management team from APM Terminals Bahrain included Maureen Bannerman, Managing Director; Isa Al-Qetami, Chief, Government & Security Affairs; and Mahesh Manikoth, GM, Business Development & Projects. The visit at the port has further impressed upon me the growing importance of hybrid trade routes and the efficiency achieved by the port authorities and all respective parties involved in the delivery of goods from sea to air. The State of Israel sees the Kingdom of Bahrain as an essential player in the emerging trade between East and West, Na'eh said. Bannerman said: It was a great pleasure to welcome HE Eitan Na'eh, Ambassador of Israel to the Kingdom of Bahrain to Khalifa Bin Salman Port. The visit allowed us the opportunity to highlight how APM Terminals Bahrain continues to achieve greater efficiency for customers and stakeholders as well as the ways we can contribute towards strengthening investment relations between the two countries and further develop the trade corridor. Working closely with the Bahrain Economic Development Board and the Port and Maritime Affairs, APM Terminals Bahrain has been highlighting the Kingdoms strategic location in the GCC to explore business and trade opportunities further ad attract and retain new investors to Bahrain. The KBSP, with its world-class operational facilities, high productivity, efficiency, and favourable customer-centric approach combined with competitive port costs, is a major regional hub for trade and transportation, enhancing access to key markets such as Saudi Arabia the northern Arabian Gulf, said the statement. TradeArabia News Service Bengaluru, Feb 28 : The satellite design and launching project by government school students has been named after late Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar and is called the Puneeth Rajkumar Student Satellite Project. It will be launched by September 2022. Presiding over a function held at the government pre-university college in Malleshwara on the occasion of National Science Day and inauguration of the Karnataka Government School Students' Satellite Project (KGS3Sat) C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Science and Technology, made this announcement on Monday. An MoU inked between the Karnataka Science and Technology Promotion Society (KSTePS) and the Indian Technological Congress Association (ITCA) for the implementation of the project was exchanged on the occasion. This is one of the 75 satellites to be launched in the country to celebrate 75 years of independence. The ground station of the project will be set up in the premises of the college and 100 students from 20 government schools have been selected based on their performance in various competitions and tests, Narayan stated. The proposed satellite will weigh 1.5 kg, he added. A few years back, any satellite would have weighed a minimum of 50 kgs and the project would have cost about Rs 50-Rs 60 crore. But the development of technology has made it possible to reduce the satellite weight to just 1.5 kg while the project cost has been reduced to Rs 1.90 crore. Introductory programmes both Online & Offline, hands-on learning, and tutorial models in Kannada and English languages will be part of this project. The web links of the required content will be provided to students and classes related to this will commence from April 22, Narayan informed. Knowledge of satellite payload, introduction to nano satellites, visiting scientific institutions located in Bengaluru, visiting Sriharikota during the launch of the satellite, interaction with scientists, training at the ground station, publication of required books, and other activities will be part of the project. In his inaugural speech, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, MP, Bengaluru North, said the way to social empowerment lies in scientific research and innovation. Curiosity should be created in students right from the beginning and it needs to be sustained constantly, he added. Prof S. Ayyappan, Padma Shri awardee and Chairman, Karnataka Science and Technological Academy, said at present there are not more than 5 lakh researchers in the entire country. He added that their number needs to increase drastically to take the country on the path of progress. San Francisco, Feb 28 : Tech giant Google has temporarily disabled its Maps' live traffic data in Ukraine to protect users as the country faces Russian invasion, media reports said on Monday. It is not known when exactly Google disabled the Maps live traffic data and what prompted the move, VICE World News reported. It's also not clear whether Google has ever disabled these features during previous conflicts or wars. "Google said only that it had taken the action for the safety of local Ukrainian communities following consultations with sources including regional authorities," the report said. However, the move seems to come after reports claimed that people around the world were using the service to track the movements of troops and civilians during the Russian invasion. The data works by incorporating location and speed information from smartphones with the app, then using it to show in real-time how dense traffic conditions are in certain places, or how busy those areas are overall. Google's announcement came just a day after the Ukrainian government called on "all road organisations, territorial communities, (and) local authorities to immediately start dismantling road signs nearby". "Dismantling road signs on all roads of the country. Priority #1 - indicators, names of settlements. Collected signs are handed over to local authorities and roadmen," Ukravtodor, the government agency responsible for Ukraine's national road system, wrote in a Facebook post. "The enemy has a pathetic connection, they don't orientate the area. Let's help them go straight to hell." Experts had previously flagged the potential for Google's data to be exploited by invading Russian forces, who could theoretically use the Maps traffic function to monitor Ukrainian troops and notice when they're on the move, the report said. Several social media platforms have blocked Russian media after President Vladimir Putin launched an attack into Ukraine last week. Last weekend, Meta (formerly Facebook) had prohibited Russian state media from running ads or monetising on its platform anywhere in the world. The company has also blocked access to several Russian state-controlled accounts in Ukraine. Google-owned YouTube has also announced it is temporarily halting the ability of a number of Russian channels, including state-sponsored RT, to monetise their content on the platform. Earlier, Russia also blocked Twitter to stifle the flow of information as its invasion of Ukraine escalates. Bhubaneswar, Feb 28 : The Odisha government has said it is working hard for safe return of students and other people stuck in war-hit Ukraine, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday. While seven students have landed in New Delhi from Ukraine, about another 500 students from Odisha are still stuck there, officials said. The Chief Minister interacted with the Ukraine returnees through video conferencing. Welcoming the students on their return to India, Patnaik said, "We are so relieved. We are also working for the safe return of other students from Odisha as soon as possible." The students briefed the CM about how they were evacuated from the war torn country and requested him for the safe evacuation of other Odia students stuck in very difficult situation in the Kharkiv region. "Most of the Odia students are stuck in the Kharkiv area, which has now turned into a war zone," a returnee told the Chief Minister. "We are working hard to see that they return to India as soon as possible. I have already spoken to the Home Minister and the External Affairs Minister to help us as soon as possible. I will speak to them again," assured Patnaik. The Chief Minister has directed concerned officials to open a help desk in Mumbai. He also asked to make arrangements for transportation of the returned Odisha students from Bhubaneswar to their native place through government-run OSRTC buses. Speaking to media persons from Odisha in New Delhi, Resident Commissioner and nodal officer appointed for this purpose, Ravi Kant said seven students from the state, who were stranded in different parts of Ukraine, have reached Delhi. Stating that about 500 students are still stuck there, Kant said, "Our 24/7 control room is in operation. We are contacting all who are in distress, collecting their feedback and addressing their issues related to food and transportation." "We are in touch with the students. Our teams are working in close coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation for evacuation of the students," he said. The nodal officer said he is hopeful that at least 25 per cent of the Odia people stranded in Ukraine will return to India in a couple of days. The Customs Department on Saturday served a notice to former Kerala CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's wife Vinodhini asking her to appear before it on March 10. (Twitter) Image Source: IANS News Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 28 : Kerala's state CPI-M Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday ruled out speculation that he is going to join the Pinarayi Vijayan ministry. There has been wide-ranging speculation in the media for a while now and this gathered steam on the eve of the 23rd state CPI-M Conference that begins at Kochi from Tuesday and goes on four days. "There have been no such talks at all and it's just speculation by some people, which has no merit. The present government is functioning well and so are all the ministers and it is only a figment of imagination that's been let loose," said Balakrishnan, denying an impending reshuffle of portfolios. Balakrishnan has been at the helm of party affairs since 2014, when he took over from Vijayan and is all set to get a third and final term. He was the powerful Home Minister and the number 2 in the V.S. Achuthanandan ministry(2006-11) and it was during that period he was inducted into the party Politburo. "My role continues to see that the party will be giving its full support to the government. If there are going to be any criticism against the government during the conference, it will be one which will improve the performance and seen in a positive light," he added. Incidentally, there has been a buzz going around for a while that Balakrishnan will become a state minister and State Tourism and Public Works Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas, who is the son-in-law of Vijayan, will become the new state party Secretary. New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Indian Embassy has advised the country's nationals in Ukraine to remain calm and not to exhibit aggressive behaviour at the railway stations. "We expect delays in trains' schedules, even cancellation at times and long queues. Indian students are requested to carry their passport, sufficient cash, ready to eat meals, and easy accessible winter clothing and only essential items to ensure easy mobility," the Embassy said in the second advisory of the day. The advisory comes as the weekend curfew was lifted in the Ukraine capital paving the way for the stranded Indian nationals to move to safe and secure locations amidst intense fighting between the Russian and Ukrainian armies for the past five days. "All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts," the advisory read. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine intensified in the early hours of Thursday after Russian forces launched a major assault on Ukraine, firing missiles on cities and military installations and posing a serious threat to the Indian citizens residing there. Since then, India has begun evacuating its citizens from the war-torn region. The Embassy said that both the civilians and the authorities in Ukraine have been remarkably supportive in facilitating evacuation efforts of Indian citizens, especially considering the critical and dangerous times. "You are all requested to respect these sentiments," the advisory read. Earlier on Sunday, Indian citizens in the war-torn country's areas where curfew has been imposed, were advised not to venture towards railway stations until and unless the curfew is lifted. As the weekend curfew was lifted on Monday, a huge rush of people could be seen at railway stations as everyone tried to move to safer areas. The Embassy informed that Ukrainian Railways is also operating special trains for the evacuation of people free of charge, on a first come first serve basis at the railway stations and for which tickets are not required. The Embassy added that it is closely monitoring the developing situation especially in the eastern regions of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine has agreed to hold talks with Russia at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border near the Pripyat river. As per the latest reports, talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations are currently underway. Bhopal, Feb 28 : Madhya Pradesh police has booked seven people and arrested two persons for allegedly beating up a Dalit activist and forcing him to drink urine in Gwalior district. The victim, who has been identified as Shashikant Jatav, is a Right to Information (RTI) activist. The Police said the incident occurred on February 23, however, it came to light on Sunday after an FIR was lodged which alleged that seven people beat up a Dalit activist brutally and forced the victim to drink urine. Local police (Gwalior district) said two persons have been arrested and there is a hunt to nab other five accused. According to the police, Jatav is a local RTI activist and had sought information about mismanagement of funds in Gram Panchayat in Gwalior district. This did not go down well with some people associated with panchayat representative and decided to teach him a lesson. With severe injuries, the victim was admitted in a local hospital on February 24 and now has been shifted to AIIMS, Delhi for further treatment, police said. "A case has been registered and a total seven persons have been booked for attempt to murder. They have also been booked under provisions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of atrocities) Act," a senior police official said. New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Delhi Gymkhana Club members have moved an application in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre's appointed club Administrator, to conduct elections. The club members have cited the apex court order, passed on September 30 last year, directing the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to decide the entire matter afresh within 4 months' time, and if not decided within this period, then the Administrator should conduct elections to install a duly elected Committee. The application, filed by Major Atul Dev (retd) and others, said: "Following the directions passed by this court vide order dated September 30, 2021, the appellants vide email dated February 4, 2022, had also written to the Administrator, Delhi Gymkhana Club to take appropriate steps for reinstituting the elected committee by elections." The application contended that a period of four months has lapsed since the passing of the order and no steps have even been initiated towards the holding of elections. "The applicant vide the instant application requests this court to direct the administrator to take necessary steps for conducting elections without any further delay as the club requires the same for efficient functioning and to restore normalcy," added the application. The club members emphasised it is a clear violation of the top court order and also defeats the intention behind the order,which was passed last year. "That further, the applicants had on February 4, written a letter to the Administrator, Om Pathak, and requested that necessary steps be taken for installing a duly elected Committee by conducting elections as was directed by this court. However, till date, the applicants have not received a reply to the said letter," added the application. This application has not been listed for hearing so far in the top court. The Supreme Court, in its order on September 30, had said: "Considering the nature controversy, it is appropriate that the main proceedings pending before the National Company Law Tribunal are disposed of expeditiously. The NCLT may endeavour to finally dispose of the main proceedings within 4 (four) months from receipt of copy of this order. The parties through learned counsel have assured to extend full cooperation to the NCLT for early disposal of the case." The apex court further added, "if the NCLT is not in a position to dispose of the main proceedings in the timeline specified in this order, the administrator be directed to take necessary steps for installing the duly elected committee by conducting elections after 4(four) months". The NCLAT, on February 15 last year, dissolved the club's General Committee and directed the Centre to appoint an administrator to manage its affairs, after the Ministry of Corporate Affairs moved the tribunal alleging corruption, mismanagement, and nepotism in the club. On September 30, in a major relief for the former general committee of the club, the Supreme Court, while hearing the appeals filed against the NCLAT, remanded the matter back to the NCLT and asked it to settle it within four months. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in rocket strikes by Russian forces on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, the Ukrainian interior ministry has said, The Guardian reported. Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said in a post on Facebook: Kharkiv has just been massively fired upon by grads (rockets). Dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded, The Guardian reported. As per earlier reports on Sunday, Ukrainian forces said they have repelled an attack on the country's second largest city Kharkiv after fierce clashes with Russian forces, BBC reported. Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said the city was now rid of Russian troops - after street-to-street fighting overnight, BBC reported. Residents described intense shelling, with one woman saying it was "something like Star Wars above your head". A nine-storey residential tower was hit, emergency services said, the report said. The building was severely damaged and an elderly woman was killed, according to emergency services. Rescuers said about 60 people were spared injury as they had taken refuge in the basement. "I can't describe the sounds that woke us up," one Kharkiv resident said about the fighting overnight. Another resident, university professor Dmitry Shabanov, said his family was fortunate to still have running water, BBC reported. Kathmandu, Feb 28 : India and Nepal on Monday concluded an MoU for long-term supply of urea and DAP fertilisers from India to Nepal under a government to government arrangement. The MoU was signed by India's Secretary, Chemicals and Fertilisers, Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi, and Nepal's Secretary, Agriculture and Livestock Development, Dr Govinda Prasad Sharma. The virtual ceremony to sign and exchange the MoU was held on Monday in presence of Nepal's Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister, Mahindra Ray Yadav, and India's Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra, and officials of the ministries and embassies of both India and Nepal. Nepal has been looking for supplies of chemical fertiliser from India since long but this could not materialise so far due to some technical reasons. The life of the agreement is five years, and under it, India will supply 150,00 metric tons of chemical fertiliser by the end of June, out of which 60 per cent would be urea and 40 per cent would be DAP. In his remarks, Chaturvedi highlighted the close and multi-faceted nature of India-Nepal ties and hoped that the MoU will further boost bilateral cooperation in the agriculture sector by supporting Nepal's economy and food security, according to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu. The signing of this MoU is expected to help address the recurring fertiliser shortages in Nepal and enable to improve agricultural productivity for the direct benefit of Nepali farmers, the embassy said. "The MoU is yet another milestone in the bilateral economic cooperation and also an important reflection of the priority attached by India to its partnership with Nepal." As per the agreement, Nepal will procure 150,000 metric tons of chemical fertiliser from India for four years which will fulfil 30 per cent of its fertiliser needs. In the fifth year, Nepal will procure 200,000 metric tons, as per the pact. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Ukrainian envoy to India Igor Polikha on Monday claimed that 16 children have been killed so far due to "explosions, bombings, and shelling" by Russian forces. The Ukrainian envoy said: "We are suffering a lot of civilian casualties. According to official information of our Ministry, already 16 children have been killed in bombings, shelling as a result of Russian peace-fighting operation". The biggest transport plane Mriya was destroyed by the Russian forces. It is very difficult to rebuild this kind of plane, he added further while addressing the media. While requesting foreign partners to exert pressure on the Russian President to stop the war, Polikha said that air space of Europe was closed for the Russian airplanes. The Russian economy is going down every day. Russia is having absolutely unprecedented casualties. Approximately 5,300 Russian soldiers have lost their lives in the ongoing tussle, he claimed. "Today, our delegation went to hold the first round of peace talks. Continuous shelling, bombing took place even during the peace talks", said Igor Polikha. He said that the number of Ukrainian refugees has exceeded 4 lakh. If the war is not stopped, the number can reach up to 7 million. There are long queues on the border. Lakhs of Ukrainians are standing in queues, trying to cross the border, said the Ukrainian ambassador. He also said that he has the same information which Indian officials have on the question of the evacuation of students, adding that he is in regular contact with them there. Omans Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has signed here 11 agreements with various companies and private establishments to the tune of RO20 million ($51.8 million). Five of the agreements were inked within the framework of the Food Security Lab, while the other 6 are land usufruct agreements to set up agricultural projects, reported Oman News Agency (ONA). Those projects will provide the agricultural needs of the Sultanate of Oman in a scientific, modern and innovative manner that complies with food security regulations. The signed projects vary between the production of white and red meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits, hydroponic products and moringa oil, among other products. Those projects will be set up in the Governorates of North Al Batinah, South Al Batinah, North ASharqiyah, South ASharqiyah, ADhahirah and Musandam. The agreements were signed by Dr Khalfan Said Al Shuaili, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning and representatives of the companies implementing the projects, in the presence of Dr Saud Hamoud Al Habsi, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources. Dr Al Habsi said that those projects cover the fields of agriculture and livestock. He affirmed that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources is pressing ahead in setting up new projects in the field of food security. Dr Al Habsi added that the projects are considered as the fourth package of projects signed by the ministry to achieve food security in Oman. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Globally human-induced heat and humidity will create conditions beyond human tolerance if emissions are not rapidly eliminated. India is among the places that will experience these intolerable conditions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body, said on Monday. The landmark report refers to wet-bulb temperatures, a measure that combines heat and humidity. A wet-bulb temperature of 31 degrees Celsius is extremely dangerous for humans, while a value of 35 degrees is unsurvivable for more than about six hours, even for fit and healthy adults resting in the shade. Even below these levels the heat can be deadly, especially for old or young people or those doing hard physical work. Currently, wet-bulb temperatures in India rarely exceed 31 degrees, with most of the country experiencing maximum wet-bulb temperatures of 25-30 degrees, according to a study cited by the UN body in its report that is the summary for policymakers of the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report. The Working Group II report is titled "Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability". It notes that if emissions are cut, but only by the levels currently promised, many parts of northern and coastal India would reach extremely dangerous wet-bulb temperatures of over 31 degrees towards the end of the century; if emissions continue to rise, wet-bulb temperatures will approach or exceed the unsurvivable limit of 35 degrees over much of India, with the majority of the country reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 31 degrees or more. The study also mentions that under RCP8.5 (high emissions scenario), at the end of the century, Lucknow and Patna are among the cities predicted to reach wet-bulb temperatures of 35 degrees if emissions continue to rise, while Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore and Ahmedabad are all identified as at risk of reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 32-34 degrees with continued emissions. Overall, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will be the most severely affected, but if emissions continue to increase, all Indian states will have regions that experience wet-bulb 30 degrees or more by the end of the century. In South Asia particularly, intense heat waves of longer duration and higher frequency are projected with medium confidence over India. At the city-level, these projections could translate into significant impacts: at 1.5 degrees, on average, Kolkata will experience heat equivalent to the 2015 record heat waves every year and under two degrees warming, it could expect such heat annually. Critically, the impact of extreme heat is experienced disproportionately within cities with the poorest populations and those with lower access to green spaces are affected the most. The sea-level rise will threaten people, land use patterns and infrastructure in India. The global sea levels will likely rise 44cm-76cm this century if governments meet their current emission-cutting pledges. With faster emission cuts, the increase could be limited to 28cm-55cm. But with higher emissions, and if ice sheets collapse more quickly than expected, sea levels could rise as much as two metres this century. As sea levels rise, more land will be submerged, flooded regularly, eroded, or become unsuitable for agriculture due to saltwater intrusion. India is one of the most vulnerable countries globally in terms of the population that will be affected by sea-level rise. By the middle of the century, around 35 million people in India could face annual coastal flooding, with 45-50 million at risk by the end of the century if emissions are high -- with far fewer at risk if emissions are lower, according to a study cited by the IPCC report. The economic costs of sea-level rise and river flooding for India would also be among the highest in the world. Direct damage is estimated at between $24 billion if emissions are cut only about as rapidly as currently promised, and $36 billion, if emissions are high and ice sheets are unstable, according to another study cited by the report. This might in fact be a large underestimation; the report cites another study that found that damage from sea-level rise in Mumbai alone could amount to up to $162 billion a year by 2050 if emissions continue to rise. So food production and food security will be hit by the climate change. Globally, high temperatures and extreme weather events, such as droughts, extreme rainfall events, heatwaves and floods, are damaging crops and will increasingly limit crop production if temperatures continue to rise. Climate change and rising demand mean that about 40 per cent of the people in India will live with water scarcity by 2050 compared with about 33 per cent now, according to a study cited by the IPCC report. Both the Ganga and the Brahmaputra river basins will also see increased flooding as a result of climate change, particularly if warming passes 1.5 degrees. These factors, along with saltwater intrusion from sea-level rise, will harm agriculture in India, which is considered by the report as the most vulnerable country in terms of crop production. Rice, wheat, pulses, coarse and cereal yields could fall almost nine per cent by 2050. In South India, maize production could decrease 17 per cent if emissions are high. These disruptions to crop production are expected to cause price spikes in India, threatening food affordability, food security and economic growth. India will also face severe economic damage without emission cuts. India's GDP per capita is already 16 per cent lower than it would have been without human-caused warming since 1991, according to a study cited by the IPCC report. India is the country that is economically harmed the most by climate change, with every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted globally costing the country around $86, according to a separate study cited by the report. In 2021 the world emitted 36.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Continued warming will further damage India's economy, particularly if emissions are not rapidly eliminated. Heat will reduce labour capacity, particularly in agriculture: A study cited by the IPCC report projects that agricultural labour capacity in India would fall 17 per cent if warming continues to 3 degrees -- only a little more than current planned emissions would lead to -- or 11 per cent if emission cuts are accelerated. Chennai, Feb 28 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government is worried about the impact of war between Russia and Ukraine on India's exim trade. Interacting with the industrialists and businessmen here, she said that the Centre is closing monitoring the situation as it is worried about the impact of the war on Indian exports and imports. Sitharaman said she would be in a position to comment only after a complete assessment of the situation is made by different ministries. She also said the government is aware that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine may have an impact on imports of edible oil and other items. At the post budget conclave, she said the Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been taking various measures to empower women since 2014. "We wanted to free women from the hardships of kitchen, hence we launched free LPG scheme, we wanted to ease their burden of bringing water from far-away places, hence we launched Jal Jeevan scheme with assured supply, we wanted to protect their dignity and improve their health, hence we launched toilets at all houses scheme," she said. Sitharaman said last year's budget was aimed at coming out of the impact of the pandemic. "There were Covid cases then and vaccination had just started. We didn't know the second wave was coming. But still, we had necessary announcements in last year's budget," she said. According to her, the government is focusing on the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal, when India celebrates its 100th year of independence. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Imphal, Feb 28 : A Manipur police Havildar, Naorem Ibochouba Singh, died on Monday in suspected accidental firing from his service weapon in Kakching district, election officials said. Officials said that Singh was on election duty in the Tipaimukh Assembly constituency where polling was held on Monday. Both the election authority and the police department have ordered a probe into the incident. The body of Singh was brought to Imphal by helicopter and deposited at the morgue of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Science. Manipur Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agrawal has expressed his condolences over the demise of the police personnel. The first phase of Manipur Assembly polls was held on Monday amid tight security in 38 of the 60 constituencies. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Shapoorji Pallonji group head Cyrus Mistry has moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to expunge adverse remarks made against him in the judgment passed by the apex court in March last year, setting aside the NCLAT order, which restored him as Executive Chairman of the Tata conglomerate. On Monday, senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, representing Mistry, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana that his client has filed an application seeking to expunge certain remarks which affect his reputation and character. The bench, also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said the court will hear the matter after 10 days. Tata Sons was represented by senior advocates Harish N. Salve and A.M. Singhvi, along with a team of advocates from Karanjawala & Co. Recently, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ramana and comprising Justices Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian considered the review petition filed by Mistry. The top court, in its February 15 order, with which Justice Ramasubramanian dissented, said: "Applications seeking exemption from filing affidavits are allowed. Applications seeking oral hearing of the Review Petitions are allowed. List the Review Petitions on Wednesday, the 9th March, 2022." Justice Ramasubramanian, in his dissenting opinion, said: "With utmost respect, I regret my inability to agree with the order. I have carefully gone through the Review Petitions and I do not find any valid ground to review the judgment. The grounds raised in the Review Petitions do not fall within the parameters of a review and hence the applications seeking oral hearing deserve to be dismissed." In the verdict passed on March 26 last year, the top court said: "We find all the questions of law are liable to be answered in favour of the appellants (Tata Group) and the appeals filed by the Tata Group are liable to be allowed and Shapoorji Pallonji group is liable to be dismissed." It also said the value of SP Group shares will depend on the valuation by Tata Sons equities and the court will not determine the fair value. In December 2019, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had ruled that the proceedings of the Board meeting of Tata Sons held on October 24, 2016 removing Mistry as Chairperson was illegal. Kochi, Feb 28 : The chief coordinator of Kerala political outfit Twenty 20, and known industrialist Sabu M. Jacob who has called for a CBI probe into the death of Dalit party activist Deepu, on Monday said the cause of death as propagated by the CPI-M was not liver cirrhosis but being beaten up by CPI-M workers. The police had earlier this month arrested four CPI-M workers and charged them with the attack on Deepu. "The truth which was known to all has now been established by the autopsy report which says the cause of death of Deepu is being beaten on his head and not due to liver cirrhosis. Full credit goes to the medical professional who has done a clean job," said Jacob. He added that there was a conspiracy by the CPI-M to see that this case was swept under the carpet but now the autopsy report clearly reveals the truth. The autopsy report points out two big injuries at the back of Deepu's head. Deepu succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital in Kochi on February 18 after allegedly being attacked by CPI-M workers, a week before that. Twenty 20 has been consistently alleging that the CPI-M leader and Kizhakkambalam MLA, P.V. Sreenijan was behind the murder and called upon the police to issue a chargesheet with Sreenijan as the first accused. Sreenijan reacted on Monday, saying let the probe go forward while he is yet to see the autopsy report. Twenty 20 is a political outfit floated by industrialist Jacob of the Kitex group and rules four village councils in Ernakulam district including Kizhakkamabalam. The deceased Deepu's father Kunjayan said that his son was under threat from CPM men who had said that they would kill him. Imphal, Feb 28 : Despite heavy security arrangements and sporadic incidents of violence, Manipur in the first phase of elections to 38 of the 60 Assembly seats reported 78.03 per cent voter turnout, election officials said. Of the five districts, where the first phase of elections were held, highest percentage of 82.19 per cent voters cast their votes in Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts followed by 76.64 per cent in Imphal East, 74.45 per cent in Churachandpur and 73.44 per cent in Bishnupur district. Police officials in Imphal said that at least one person was injured in a clash between the workers of two rival political parties in Churachandpur district. Clashes and attacks were also reported in different places of Imphal East, Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts, but the security forces swiftly tackled the situation by mobilising additional forces. An EVM was damaged by some people at Singhat and it was later replaced. Congress workers allegedly damaged a polling booth in Kakwa area in Langthabal constituency in Imphal West district, while a vehicle of a National People's Party candidate was damaged by workers by the members of the rival group in Keirao seat, though none was injured in the incident. Congress and BJP candidates and leaders made allegations and counter allegations of intimidation and vandalisation of party election booths and resorting to violence. The officials said that there was an incident of firing by some miscreants at Phunal Maring Polling Station. However, details of the incident are still awaited. Election officials said that a Manipur police Havildar Naorem Ibochouba Singh died due to suspected accidental firing from his service weapon in Kakching District. Amidst the favourable weather, men and women, including the young voters in large numbers queued up in front of the polling stations much before the scheduled voting time of 7 a.m. Polling continued till 4 p.m. without any break and in a few polling stations, voters were seen in queues even as the official hours ended. Manipur Governor La Ganesan, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Y. Joykumar, Speaker Y. Khemchand, state Congress President N. Loken were among those who cast their votes at the early hours at their respective polling stations. Singh, who is contesting from the Heingang assembly constituency against Congress nominee Pangeijam Saratchandra Singh, said that the BJP would secure 30 plus seat in the first phase of elections. Monday's first phase of polling decided the fate of 173 candidates, including 15 women contestants. The aspirants include Chief Minister and BJP candidate N. Biren Singh, his cabinet colleague Thongam Biswajit Singh, NPP candidate and Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar Singh, senior BJP leader Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, Congress' Ratankumar Singh, Lokeshwar Singh, Saratchandra Singh, sitting party MLA Akoijam Mirabai Devi. Firebrand women leader and Janata Dal (United) candidate Thounaojam Brinda, who was the Additional Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), is also contesting from the Yaiskul constituency. Covid-19 protocols for the polling personnel and voters including, use of face masks, sanitiser, social distancing and thermal screening were duly followed. A senior Election Commission official said that there are 10,041 physically challenged electors (PwD) and 251 centenarian voters were in these 38 Assembly constituencies. The official said that 381 polling stations were fully managed by all women polling personnel. Chennai, Feb 28 : The Hindu Munnani, a right-wing organisation, of Tamil Nadu has condemned and slammed the state forest department for "collecting an entry fee of Rs 100" from the devotees who visit the Velliangiri Andavar temple in Velliangiri mountains near Coimbatore. The forest department, however, has denied the charges that they were "forcing" the devotees to pay entry fees. The department has clarified that it is not compulsory for everyone and being collected only from those who are "willing" to pay. The hill shrine, which has a trek of 5 km to reach the temple, remains open for the devotees between March and May. With the temple set to open on March 1, the Hindu Munnani staged protests against the "decision of the state forest department to collect an entry fee of Rs 100 from devotees". M.R. Mayilvahanan, a devotee from Coimbatore and a district level functionary of Hindu Munnani said, "The collection of Rs 100 as entry fee at the Velliangiri Andavar temple is inappropriate. The forest department in connivance with the state government authorities are trying to milk the Hindu community and we will not allow this." Sivaraman, a forest range officer of Boluvampatti range, under whose jurisdiction the Velliangiri Andavar temple comes, told IANS, "The department forcing people to pay money is a lie. We have not yet forced anyone to pay money. The devotees pay voluntarily. He also said that the amount collected from the devotees is "deposited in the forest department agency account and the money accumulated is used to pay the salary of eco -watchers appointed to prevent devotees from littering and prevent them from taking plastic bottles and other things during the night". Meanwhile, the Hindu Makkal Katchi - that works for Hindu tribals - has opposed the posting of private agencies to clean the path to reach the Velliangiri temple situated on top of the hill. The organization also said that instead of allowing private players, it should be given to the tribal people in the locality which will help them gain some money. India sets up camps on Ukraine's borders with Poland, Romania, Hungary; asks stranded nationals to move Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Indian Embassy in Ukraine on Monday informed the stranded nationals that weekend curfew has been lifted in Kiev, and advised them to move towards railway stations. "All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts," the Embassy said in a statement, adding that for students stranded on the left side of Dnipro, there are metros and buses functioning which can be used to move towards the train station for onward movement. Ukraine Railways is running special trains for evacuation. "We sincerely request all Indian nationals/students to remain calm, peaceful and united," the Embassy stated. A large crowd can be expected at the railway stations, therefore, it is advised that all Indian students remain patient, composed and not exhibit aggressive behaviour while at the railway stations. The Embassy stated that the stranded citizens could expect delays in train schedule, even cancellation at times and long queues. The Indian students have been requested to carry their passport, sufficient cash, ready-to-eat meals, easy accessible winter clothing and only essential items to ensure easy mobility. "Be mindful of your belongings at all times," the Embassy stated. It also stated that Ukrainians, both civilians and authorities, have been remarkably supportive in facilitating evacuation efforts of Indian citizens, especially considering the critical and dangerous times. "You are all requested to respect this sentiment," the Embassy stated. On Sunday, the Embassy had advised the Indian nationals to remain wherever they are. The Embassy said that as per latest inputs, intense fighting is underway in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kiev. Jammu, Feb 28 : Indian army on Monday apprehended a man from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in Mankote sector of the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K's Poonch district, defence sources said. Defence sources said that he was identified as Dilshan, 27, resident of Hajira in PoK. "He was detained from Nangi Takri area of Mankote," a source said adding that he is being questioned. Belagavi, : Feb 28 (IANS) Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Mining Pralhad Joshi stated on Monday that the rescue operation launched by the Indian government to bring back Indian students from war-torn Ukraine is a big challenge. Speaking to reporters at Belagavi Sambre Airport, he stated there is confusion about the existing situation in Ukraine. It is not verified that the videos that are coming from Ukraine are real or fake. "We have started the process of evacuation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said. In this critical situation aircraft evacuating students from Ukraine came back on Sunday. "We have spoken with the countries neighbouring Ukraine. Out attempts are on, we will get the cooperation from the neighbouring states of Ukraine to pursue our goal," he stated. "The Indian government will bear the cost of evacuation and students are required to choose between Mumbai and New Delhi cities. I am in touch with the Union External Affairs Minister as well as Union State Minister for Foreign Affairs. Since, the situation is complex, we will also need to talk to Russia as well as Ukraine," he said. "Our priority is to bring back our nationals and indeed it is a big challenge for us. The evacuation operation was successfully carried out from Iraq and Afghanistan earlier where there was a crisis situation," he said. The war erupted suddenly leading to the crisis situation. Geographically Ukraine is big country. The aircraft carrying students from Ukraine are arriving in India on Monday also. The Indian government is working sensibly in this regard, he explained. As many as 406 students from Karnataka have enrolled for evacuation from Ukraine through the helpline established by the state government. So far 42 students have come back to the state. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War There remains large room for Vietnams shrimp industry to strive for greater export growth in the next few years, said the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). According to a recent report of the VASEP, Vietnams shrimp export turnover is likely to expand annually by 9 percent in the 2022-2025 period, hitting 5.6 billion USD by 2025. Regarding seafood export opportunities in 2022, VASEP General Secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said seafood exports in 2022 will continue to grow as the global demand for shrimp is rising by around 5 percent a year. If the seafood industry can expand its market share in the global market, and at the same time continues to promote processing of value-added products, it will be able to maintain growth in the coming time, he said, adding that the shrimp industry continues to be expected to be a key contributor to the countrys seafood export turnover. From a market perspective, Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company said Vietnamese processed or fresh shrimp products are popular due to their more beautiful packaging and stable quality compared to other competitors. Vietnam has quickly seized this opportunity to increase its seafood market share in major markets. - Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) The US remains the largest importer of Vietnams shrimp products at present, accounting for 28 percent of Vietnam's total exports, followed by Europe and Japan, which made up 21.8 percent and 14.9 percent of the market share, respectively. The US would continue to be the key market for many Vietnamese seafood products such as shrimp, pangasius and others, he said. Vietnamese exporters would have more opportunities to export to the US since India, the largest shrimp supplier to the market, was facing production difficulties due to the pandemic, he added. Vietnam ranks fifth among shrimp exporters to the US. Although not accounting for large proportions in Vietnams shrimp export, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Canada, and Australia have still maintained fairly stable growth. Notably, Vietnamese shrimp have gained the top positions in the RoK and and Australia, Luc said. Sharing the same view, Tran Van Linh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thuan Phuoc Seafood and Trading Corporation, said that the COVID-19 outbreak in the past two years has disrupted the global supply chain, and competitors of Vietnam's seafood were "stuck" and have not yet recovered yet. Vietnam has quickly seized this opportunity to increase its seafood market share in major markets such as the US and Europe, he noted. According to experts, Vietnam's shrimp farming process has been improved remarkably, while supply chains have been also expanded continuously, contributing to increasing productivity. They underlined the need to better production lines, reduce dependence on labourer, and ensure regulations on food hygiene and safety. Luc said attention should be also paid to projects to call for investment in shrimp farming, stressing that that only large-scale farming facilities can bring practical efficiency through investment and application of new scientific-technological achievements in shrimp farming. Localities with favourable conditions and strengths to develop shrimp farming should quickly build planning of farming areas in the direction of green and sustainable development, experts said, adding that this is a big solution to the shrimp industrys development strategy by 2030./. VNA In a high-profile celebration of resilient leadership in the post-pandemic era, top global leaders and 180 dignitaries from around Asia will come together at Expo 2020 Dubai for the prestigious ABLF Awards on March 1. The leaders include Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka; Shamma Al Mazrui, UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs; Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and the Environment; Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, CEO, Emirates Group; Kamal Nath, former Chief Minister, State of Madhya Pradesh, India; and Indian media magnate Aroon Purie. Held under the patronage of Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, UAE Cabinet Member and Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, and in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Economy, the 16th edition of the legacy award series Gala returns as an in-person event after a gap of two years and will be co-hosted by Dubai Cares, a UAE-based global philanthropic organization, under the theme, Resilience Rising: The Great Reset. Around 20 iconic stalwarts from industry, technology, policy, social enterprise and art will be honoured with the coveted diamond-studded ABLF Trophy in recognition of their success in steering their countries, communities and companies towards stability and growth amidst the turbulence caused by the pandemic. With the strengthening of UAE-Israel ties in the last two years, the country will garner a strong representation at the ABLF Awards 2022 with the presence and felicitation of Dr Ron Malka, Director-General, Israels Ministry of Economy and Industry, furthering the narrative of the ABLF to foster deeper and more meaningful intra-Asia relations. Another noteworthy Israeli achiever who will be featured at the event is YouTube Superstar and Founder-CEO of Nas Daily and Nas Academy, Nuseir Yassin. Some of the other notable attendees include Zayed R Alzayani, Bahrain Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism; Matia Kasaija, Minister of Finance, Government of Uganda; and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Indian Sustainability Activist and Global Designer. In line with the theme of resilience, the ABLF Awards Gala will also feature an exclusive High-Level Panel Discussion on the crucial socio-economic narratives that currently prevail in the wake of the pandemic. Key members of the panel include Ban Ki-Moon, Dr Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman of Dubai Cares and Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri along with other influential leaders from industry and government. The panel will feature a compelling conversation amongst the leaders serving as an elegant prelude to the grand Awards ceremony. Additionally, the Gala will witness the launch of a unique initiative by the ABLF and Dubai Cares in association with luxury partner Dhamani 1969 for the auction of an exclusive custom-created diamond-studded ABLF Trophy with the entire proceeds to be donated towards Dubai Cares initiatives for education of underserved children around the world. The ABLF Awards showcases a powerful partner profile with the Aditya Birla Group (a $48 billion global conglomerate headquartered in India), Zand (UAE's first digital bank to provide both retail and corporate banking), the Etisalat Group (Among the worlds leading telecom groups in emerging markets), UNICEF and FICCI (the largest, oldest and apex business organisation in India) and the ABLF Luxury Partner, Dhamani 1969.-- TradeArabia News Service New Delhi, Feb 28 : New-age technology companies world over invest a considerable sum in hiring and retaining valuable talent with ESOPs being the most preferred route. ESOPs are granted to key employees in order to reward and retain them and to create a sense of ownership and participation amongst them. Recently listed Paytm, India's leading digital payments and financial services company, has created one of the largest ESOP pools in the country - a diluted share count of about 695 mn shares, including a granted ESOP pool of 31 mn options. The company had recently held a postal ballot for the approval of its Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). The company witnessed 92 per cent votes in favour of the resolution. Nearly 99 per cent of votes from Paytm's shareholders categorised as public non-institutions were in favour of the ESOPs, while 67 per cent of those from its public institutional investors were against the same. Recently, in the case of newly-listed stocks like Zomato, a majority of institutional investors had similarly voted against ESOPs schemes. The resolutions passed were - Amendment and Ratification of One 97 Employees Stock Option Scheme 2019, Approval to extend the benefits under One 97 Employees Stock Option Scheme 2019 to the employees of subsidiary companies of the company, and Approval to extend the benefits under One 97 Employees Stock Option Scheme 2019 to the employees of group companies of the company. Paytm had also recently released its Q3 earnings results. During the October-December quarter, the company saw its revenues jump by 89 per cent YoY to Rs 1,456 crore. A major part of the company's Q3 results was seen in its financial services play ramping up. The company disbursed 4.4 million loans (401 per cent YoY growth) aggregating to a total value of ?2,181 crore (366 per cent YOY growth). Meanwhile, the contribution profit for Q3 FY 2022 at Rs 454 crore represents a 560 per cent YoY growth. In an exchange filing with its updated business numbers for January 2022, the company saw highest ever growth in average monthly transacting users (MTU) at 68.9 million, up 40 per cent YoY. Recently, Goldman Sachs in a report dated February 7 had noted that Paytm's Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) costs will reduce gradually and is currently at par with other listed tech companies in India as well as globally. "We forecast ESOP charge for Paytm to be highest (at c Rs 3.9 bn per quarter) for first two years (when the first tranche vests, per Paytm), and then gradually reduce over the next 3 years. Paytm also has about 15 mn un-granted options and per our estimate, the total share count could increase by c.46 mn (or 7 per cent of current outstanding), if all options were to be vested/granted," said the Goldman Sachs note. "We note that as a proportion of total operating expenses, Paytm's ESOP cost is not significantly different vs other global platforms such as Airbnb and Doordash, as well as recently listed India internet peers such as Zomato and PB Fintech," it added. New Delhi, Feb 28 : As Russia fails to inflict quick defeat upon Ukraine after four days of fierce hostilities, President Vladimir Putin is about to pull his Belarusian ally, dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko, into his war of occupation, The Kyiv Independent reported. Amid many speculations, multiple sources said the decision has been made, and as soon as on Monday, the first Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft is very likely to take off carrying Belarusian paratroopers to be deployed against Ukraine. Rumours regarding the official Belarusian involvement in the war started circulating on Sunday, the fourth day of Russia's all-out war on Ukraine, following a report presented to diplomatic circles by unnamed Belarusian opposition journalists, the report said. The message suggested that Belarusian troops might be deployed in Kyiv or the Zhytomyr areas in assistance to the Russian invading force. The report couldn't be verified, but there have been other indications of Belarusian military activity. A media campaign was launched, particularly by Belarusian opposition media, to warn off the Belarusian involvement. As part of the endeavour, former high-ranking Belarusian airborne commander Valeriy Sakhashik, in a video address, urged all Belarusian paratroopers not to obey unlawful orders that would throw them into a war against a friendly nation, The Kyiv Independent reported. Several thousand Belarusian citizens rallied against the war across the country on Sunday. Besides, as Ukraine's presidential advisor, Oleksiy Arestovych, said on Sunday, numerous indications suggested that the Belarusian military was being put on alert. It is known from Belarusian media that the country's armed forces include nearly 45,000 military personnel and 20,000 civilian employees. In Arestovych's opinion, just 17,000 Belarusian military personnel are of considerable combat efficacy, so their involvement would likely not be that significant for Russia, which amassed at least 150,000 troops for the invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, Lukashenko said that Belarusians started facing violence in Ukraine and that Kyiv is threatening Belarus with terror activities. It echoed the pretext that Putin gave for launching the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. However, according to former Ukrainian Defence Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk, in reality, the Belarusian dictator, whose existence highly depends on Putin, has no choice other than to join, The Kyiv Independent reported. From the expert's perspective, Belarus' involvement would be an escalating factor, though it would not have a dramatic escalation effect in the war. In particular, Lukashenko might invade Ukraine's northwestern regions on which Russia is not currently focused. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Barcelona, Feb 28 : Global technology brand OPPO on Monday showcased a lineup of new technologies, including 150W SUPERVOOC flash charge with battery health engine that doubles battery lifespan, 240W SUPERVOOC flash charge and OPPO Find X5 series devices at the 'Mobile World Congress' (MWC) 2022 here. The 240W SUPERVOOC flash charge technology marks the latest technological breakthrough in the mobile phone industry. Likely to charge a 4,500mAh battery from 1 per cent to 100 per cent in about 9 minutes, the 240W SUPERVOOC kicks off a new era of safe and efficient flash charging, the company said. "Despite the many challenges we've faced over the past years, the telecommunications industry has still seen positive development, and we at OPPO have seen a steady growth. Technologies like the 240W SUPERVOOC flash charge demonstrate our leadership in innovation," Billy Zhang, Vice President of Overseas Sales and Service of OPPO, told IANS. The 150W SUPERVOOC can charge a 4500mAh battery from 1 per cent to 50 per cent in 5 minutes, and all the way to 100 per cent in 15 minutes. In addition, the adapter for 150W SUPERVOOC with BHE leverages gallium nitride (GaN) to reduce the size of the adapter to nearly the same size as the previous generation 65W SUPERVOOC adapter. "Through our new brand proposition, 'Inspiration Ahead', OPPO uses innovation and collaboration to collectively overcome challenges with our partners, bringing human-centric and inspiring technology experiences to users around the world," Zhang added. OPPO has maintained its position as the world's fourth largest smartphone brand in 2021, with YoY growth of 22 per cent and a market share of 11 per cent, according to Canalys. The shipments of the OPPO Find X3 Series have increased by 140 per cent compared with the previous generation. The company has ranked as the world's second largest Android 5G smartphone brand for the two consecutive years. OPPO also detailed its efforts in environmental protection, youth empowerment, digital inclusion and health and wellbeing in the '2021 OPPO Sustainability Report'. (Md Waquar Haider can be reached at waquar.h@ians.in) New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain bail pleas of a retired engineer and others, including members of Social Democratic Party of India and Popular Front of India, facing charges under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), for their alleged involvement in the Bengaluru 2020 riots. Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, representing 68-year-old retired engineer Mohammed Kaleem Ahmed, submitted before a bench comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Vikram Nath, that his client was not named in the original FIR but was made an accused after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took the charge of the investigation. Luthra added that he has already been in custody for 14 months and pointed out that there were 154 witnesses in the case. The bench said it has gone through the case details and pointed out that the high court has passed a detailed order. It added that there were charges under the UAPA, along with other penal provisions. Luthra argued that his client was charged under the UAPA for burning a vehicle and he was named by a policeman because his pharmaceutical shop was nearby. After hearing arguments in the matter, the bench said the trial was still pending, and it is not inclined to grant any relief to Ahmed and others. It refused to interfere with the Karnataka High Court order, which dismissed their bail plea. "We can't have a society like this," the bench said, adding that public properties were damaged and there is also a UAPA charge. Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, representing other accused, contended his clients were in jail for the past 16 months and added that UAPA was invoked against them for allegedly burning bikes. In August 2020, violence took place in Bengaluru, where four people lost their lives. The offences were registered under the UAPA, the IPC, as well as the Karnataka Prevention of Destruction and Loss of Property Act, 1981, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Law enforcement officers in two Ukrainian towns have been authorised to shoot looters "on the spot", the mayors have announced, RT reported. A significant number of looting incidents have been reported across the country since the beginning of Russia's military operation. Zhytomyr's mayor Sergey Sukhomlyn in a Facebook video address mentioned an attempted robbery of a store in one area of the city, RT reported. "I am warning everyone: the police, the National Guard, the territorial defense units - they all received orders not to detain, they can just shoot on the spot. There will be no looting in the city," Sukhomlyn said. The head of Okhtyrka territorial community, Pavel Kuzmenko, issued a similar warning. Saying that looting had spread in the town's "private sector", he called on people to immediately report any suspicious incidents, RT reported. "Looting results in shooting on the spot," Kuzmenko said in his Facebook video. He also underlined that store owners increasing food prices would also be considered looting. "Chechens will come and you will make a profit from them," he said, supposedly referring to the announcement by Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov about thousands of men from Chechnya being prepared to offer assistance to Russia's armed forces in Ukraine, RT reported. Some clips and photos on social media allegedly show the looting suspects being tied to poles in Ukrainian cities for the public to see. Other social media channels post videos which they claim demonstrate store robberies by the "Russian occupiers". In a bid to strengthen their armed forces, Ukrainian authorities, among other measures, decided to release inmates and criminal suspects with military backgrounds. New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Indian Embassy in Romania has urged the students to do not pay money to anyone for taking them from Romania's border to Bucharest, the country's capital. In a tweet, the embassy said that it has been brought to their notice that some people are charging money to transfer Indian students from the Romanian border to Bucharest. Urging the Indian students to refrain from paying money to anyone, the embassy said that all services provided by them are free, including transport to Bucharest. "Pl. note that all services provided by the Embassy are free, including transport to Bucharest. Please do not pay money to anyone," reads the tweet. Meanwhile, Arindam Bagchi, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson, in a media briefing said that over 8,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since the first advisory was issued by the government. "Six evacuation flights have landed in India bringing back 1,396 students and Indian citizens. These are four flights from Bucharest and two from Budapest," Bagchi said. He also said that over the next 24 hours, three more flights are scheduled to land in India bringing back its citizens. "Two among them will be from Bucharest -- one to Delhi and one to Mumbai -- and the third flight will come from Budapest," he said. Meanwhile, an Air India Express aircraft left India on Monday afternoon from Mumbai. It is scheduled to bring back 182 stranded nationals from Romania's capital Bucharest. Srinagar, Feb 28 : A J&K Police Inspector was shot and injured by militants in Srinagar city on Monday, police said. Police said militants fired at Inspector Sheikh Firdous, posted with the Anti-Corruption Bureau, in Dhobi Mohalla locality of Batmaloo area in Srinagar, outside the local mosque. Doctors at the S.M.H.S hospital in Srinagar, where the injured police officer was shifted, said he has suffered a bullet injury in the neck. Security forces have surrounded the area for searches. Colombo, Feb 28 : A highly-advanced diving support ship of the Indian Navy, 'Nireekshak', arrived at the port of Trincomalee on Monday for facilitating mixed gas diving training for the Sri Lanka Navy. Commanding Officer of the Indian Naval ship, Commander Mohammad Ikram, was welcomed by Commander of Eastern Naval Area, Rear Admiral P.D.S. Dias. The two naval officers discussed on furthering training in diving during the 10-day deployment, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement. 'Nireekshak' (A-15) is equipped with two six-man recompression chambers and one three-man diving bell. The ship is fully capable to undertake rescue operations from a submarine in distress and training of saturation divers. The ship had earlier visited Trincomalee in September 2019 for a similar training deployment for SLN divers. "Such continued engagement of Indian Naval ships with the Sri Lanka Navy is in keeping with government of India's capacity building initiative as part of its 'Neighborhood First' policy," the High Commission noted. Puducherry, Feb 28 : Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy has written to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, appealing to the government of India to airlift students from the Union Territory who are stranded in war-torn Ukraine. In the letter, the Chief Minister said that 23 students from Puducherry are stranded in Ukraine, as he requested the Centre to evacuate them at the earliest. Rangasamy also urged the External Affairs Minister to arrange for food and other basic amenities through the Indian Embassy in Ukraine until the students are safely airlifted back to their motherland. The Chief Minister furnished the names and contact details of the students from the UT who are stranded in Ukraine. AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O. Panneerselvam, also appealed to the Centre to evacuate the students from Puducherry who are stranded in Ukraine. In a letter to Jaishankar, the AIADMK leader said, "The students from Puducherry who are in Ukraine are in a state of panic. They are short of food and drinking water." He also said that the students are staying in an unsafe place in war-torn Ukraine and requested the government of India to coordinate with the Indian Embassy in Kiev for the speedy evacuation of the students from that country. London, Feb 28 : Roman Abramovich is involved in the attempts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Chelsea owner's spokesperson claimed on Monday. The Russian billionaire handed "stewardship" of Chelsea to the club foundation's trustees on Saturday amid the ongoing crisis between Russian and Ukraine, in a move aimed to protect the Stamford Bridge club. However, it has now emerged that Abramovich is attempting to help bring about an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "I can confirm that Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution and that he has been trying to help ever since. Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement. Thank you," Abramovich's spokesperson was quoted as saying by Skysports. Ukrainian film director and producer Alexander Rodnyansky also confirmed that Abramovich is involved due to his connections with both the Russian and Ukrainian Jewish communities. "I can confirm that the Ukrainian side has been trying to find someone in Russia willing to help them in finding a peaceful resolution," said Rodnyansky. "They are connected to Roman Abramovich through the Jewish community and reached out to him for help. On Sunday, the Blues owner handed "stewardship" of Chelsea to the club foundation's trustees. However, in Abramovich's statement, there was no mention or condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich had said his decision was in the best interest of the club. "During my nearly 20-year ownership of Chelsea FC, I have always viewed my role as a custodian of the Club, whose job it is ensuring that we are as successful as we can be today, as well as build for the future, while also playing a positive role in our communities," said Abramovich in an official statement on Sunday. "I have always taken decisions with the Club's best interest at heart. I remain committed to these values. That is why I am today giving trustees of Chelsea's charitable Foundation the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC. I believe that currently, they are in the best position to look after the interests of the Club, players, staff, and fans." Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea filed against an Army official and imposed cost on the petitioner, who has also alleged an employment fraud in the Indian Army. Noting the plea was filed in the garb of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the division bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna termed it as "revenge taking type of petition" against the Army official, who joined the force in 2015. In the plea, the petitioner alleged that the army official had produced false certificates for securing employment, and sought that his appointment to be cancelled. The bench, after hearing his argument, pointed out the gross and unexplained delay of seven years as his allegations date back to 2015. Pointing out that the accused official is not joined as a party in the writ petition, the court said that no writ petition can be allowed in the absence of a candidate or an employee whose appointment is sought to be terminated, saying he should be heard by the court. Accordingly, the plea has been dismissed and a cost of Rs 25,000 was imposed on the petitioner. Gandhinagar Feb 28 : Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani on Monday said that he had slapped legal notices on Gujarat Congress leaders who had alleged a Rs 500 crore scam was committed through him by helping a private real estate development company and converting the use of land parcels in two villages under the Rajkot Urban Development Authority (RUDA). "After discussing the matter with my lawyer, I have sent legal notices to the Congress Leader of Opposition Party (LOP), Sukhram Rathwa and MLAs CJ Chavda and Shailesh Parmar, seeking their apologies within 15 days or else I would move the court with a defamation suit," Rupani told reporters on Monday. Last week, Rathwa had claimed that the land use of parcels in two villages, originally meant for a private company to build a township, was changed. The RUDA passed a resolution for zone change of the land, acting on a request from company officials. The opposition Congress alleged that during the tenure of Vijay Rupani as chief minister, the proposal was approved by the state urban development department, allowing the company to use the land for other purposes as well. The Congress had demanded a CBI probe into the matter and the cancellation of the land use order. At the time of the Congress' allegations, Rupani had said, "There has been a conspiracy going on for some time to defame my political career. The land in question is worth Rs 75 crore, then how come a Rs 500 crore scam can take place? Rupani had earlier said that the scope for a scam exists when an industrial or agriculture zone is converted into a residential zone but not vice versa. He said he had approved conversion of the residential zone into an industrial zone in Nava Maliyasan which would actually reduce the price of the land and therefore there was no scope for a scam. He had said each government makes changes in zones as per the demand of the situation for the development of a city. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Russias ground units, equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as vessels from the Northern and Pacific Fleets, have been placed on high combat alert, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed on Monday. The Russian Navy includes submarines armed with nuclear missiles, RT reported. The ministry said the move was made in accordance with the order issued by President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, RT reported. Putin cited "illegitimate sanctions" against Russia and "aggressive statements" by Western officials, without elaborating. Many countries, including the US, the UK and EU member states, have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in response to its military operation in Ukraine. Earlier, Putin had placed the country's nuclear deterrent forces on "special" alert on Sunday, RT reported. The move was announced during Putin's meeting with Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. "Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area. I'm speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of. However, the top officials of the leading NATO countries also make aggressive statements against our country as well," Putin stated. The move comes in response to 'hostile' rhetoric by top NATO officials, Putin said, RT reported. Bengaluru, Feb 28 : As the Ukraine-Russian conflict rages, volunteers of The Art of Living in Europe have reached out to the starnded Indian students in Ukraine, who trying to cross the borders into various other European countries, with basic amenities like food and water. "At this hour of crisis, I appeal to the students and their families to not give up hope," said Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, adding: "All help is being made available and our volunteers from all across Europe are there by your side, who will provide you with food, water and other essential items." The Art of Living volunteers in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Germany have moved into action to provide all the support to those who are fleeing the war-hit country, including thousands of Indian students. In Hungary, The Art of Living has arranged shelters for more than 150 people, while more than 500 beds have been arranged in Poland. "Our volunteers on the Poland border are providing assistance to the people arriving there. There are families with children who are as young as two months old. All essential supplies have been stocked up by our team," he said. Refugee centres are operational in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Western European countries like Germany. The Art of Living also has a large volunteer base in Ukraine, who are helping the Indian community. The Art of Living centres across Europe are open for Ukrainian refugees -- in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Germany -- and people can contact the helpline number +31631975328 for assistance, an official statement said. Mumbai, Feb 28 : Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari kicked up a major row with his statements on the Maratha warrior-king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the saint-poet Swami Samarth Ramdas with politicians, cutting across party lines, slamming him and demanding an apology. At an event in Aurangabad on Sunday, Koshyari referred to Swami Samarth Ramdas as the 'guru' of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj while talking on how 'gurus' are important in Indian culture. The development came a few days ahead of the Budget Session of the Legislature, starting here on Thursday, and charged up the political atmosphere. Leaders from across the political spectrum - including the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its Rajya Sabha MP Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale of Satara - a direct descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj - attacked the Governor for his lack of knowledge and history. Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut asked the BJP to take a stand and clarify on the issue immediately. "There is huge resentment in Maharashtra over the Governor's statements. The BJP should clarify or take a stand," Raut demanded. Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule - daughter of NCP President Sharad Pawar - said there is no historical evidence to prove that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Swami Samarth Ramdas had a 'guru-shishya' relationship. She cited a judgement of Bombay High Court's Aurangabad Bench of July 2018, when the then state government had submitted that "no record was available to show that Shivaji Maharaj had occasion to meet Swami Samarth Ramdas" or that he treated the latter as his 'guru'. She referred to a speech of Pawar wherein he had stated that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's 'guru' was never Swami Samarth Ramdas, but his own mother, Rajmata Jijabai. State Congress President Nana Patole said that Governor Koshyari has insulted Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the people of Maharashtra and should immediately tender an apology for his remarks, and wondered why the BJP "is silent". "The people of Maharashtra will not tolerate this slur by Koshyari and his trying to contort history. He has lost the moral right to continue as Governor and the Centre should recall him," he demanded. The Governor, while speaking on the significance of 'gurus', mentioned how the great political strategist Chanakya had a big influence on the life of the legendary Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, the founder-ruler of one of the biggest empires in the subcontinent, and asked "who would have spoken about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had there been no Samarth (Ramdas)". NCP MLA Rohit Pawar said if the Governor's statement was intended to push an "agenda" with false history without understanding the true version, that it must be condemned and the Governor should tender an apology. "RashtraMata Jijabai was the actual 'guru' of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja Sant Ramdas was never his 'guru', that is the real history. Yet, Governor Koshyari has cited incorrect history in this regard," said Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale. When contacted by media for his reactions, BJP state President Chandrakant Patil diplomatically stated: "No comments." Panaji, Feb 28 : Congress's Goa state executive committee on Monday passed a resolution to challenge last week's order by the Bombay High Court bench in Goa, which last week dismissed a petition challenging Speaker Rajesh Patnekar's order in 2021 upholding the merger of 10 Congress MLAs into the BJP. "We have taken a resolution during the meeting to challenge the High Court's order... Former Advocate General and Chairman of our legal cell Carlos Ferreira moved a resolution that this needs to be challenged in the Supreme Court and the resolution has been unanimously passed," state unit chief Girish Chodankar said, after a meeting of the state executive committee. "The Pradesh Congress Committee had previously taken a resolution to file a disqualification against the 10 defectors. We briefed the PCC about the verdict of the High Court and all the members were of the opinion that if the order is allowed to stand then it will be dangerous for democracy and for the election process and questions the very existence of political parties," he said. Chodankar had filed a disqualification petition with the Goa Speaker's office in 2019 and argued the split by the 10 Congress MLAs (in the same year) and their subsequent merger into the BJP was illegal and violative of the provisions of Schedule 10 of the Indian Constitution. The Goa Speaker in his order in April last year had upheld the merger of the breakaway Congress unit into the BJP. Hyderabad, Feb 28 : Following the footsteps of his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to hold the state Legislature's Budget session without the customary address by the Governor. The session will begin on March 7 and the same day, the budget for 2022-23 will be presented. Earlier this month, West Bengal's budget session began without the Governor's address, evoking strong protest from opposition BJP. Chandrasekhar Rao, at a meeting with some of his cabinet colleagues and senior officials, decided to hold budget session from March 7. According to the CMO, the Chief Minister decided to convene state cabinet meeting on March 6 to approve the budget for 2022-23. Finance Minister T. Harish Rao will present the budget in the Assembly on March 7. The Business Advisory Committee would decide about the duration of the session, the CMO said. This is the first time in Telangana that the Budget session will begin without the Governor's address. Every year, the Budget session begins with the Governor's address to the joint sitting of both the houses. In the combined Andhra Pradesh, budget session had commenced twice without the Governor's speech. In 1970 and 2014, the budget sessions had started without customary address by the Governor due to extraordinary situation prevailing then. This time, no reason was cited officially but apparently the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government took the decision to send a signal to the BJP-led government at the Centre. The decision comes in the wake of renewed attempts by KCR to forge a front against BJP. He has been criticising Narendra Modi government for missing the office of the Governor. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Russia has called out Indian media coverage of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to be "biased and misleading" and urged it to be "objective in information". The Russian Embassy in India in a tweet stated: "With regard to the crisis in Ukraine, the Indian media is requested to be accurate so that Indian public receives objective information." It pointed out Indian media reports about negotiation with Ukraine, nuclear sites in Ukraine are said to be unsafe. The Embassy said that "Russia repeatedly initiated and indicated its readiness for dialogue and negotiations." Russia also stated that nuclear sites in Ukraine are safe and secured as confirmed by the IAEA. India media had purportedly reported attacks on radioactive waste-disposal site in Kyiv, and Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Even IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi commented over this, saying such incidents highlight the very real risk that facilities with radioactive material will suffer damage during the conflict, with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Russia said such reports are "biased and misleading". In the meantime, Russia has so far not allowed any media organisation to visit the country to cover the ongoing conflict which started on February 24 when Russian troops started entering Ukrainian territory. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War New Delhi, Feb 28 : With 707.24 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy procured from 96.41 lakh farmers up to Sunday, the paddy procurement is progressing smoothly in this Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22 at minimum support price from farmers, as was done in previous years, an official statement said on Monday. The paddy has been procured from states/UTs of Chandigarh, Gujarat, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, a Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ministry statement said. Till now, about 96.41 lakh farmers have been benefitted with an MSP value of Rs 1,38,619.58 crore, the release said. Punjab, with 1,86,85,532 MT, leads the list of states from where maximum procurement has been done followed by Chhattisgarh (92,01,000) and Telangana (70,22,000 MT). New Delhi, Feb 28: Controversial global financier George Soros has jumped in the fray, slamming Russias military invasion of Ukraine and exhorting the world to stand by Kiev. In a blog posting, Soros, known for his backing of colour revolutions and running his controversial network of Open Society Institutes praised Ukrainians for bravely standing "on the frontline and risking their lives" against the Russian onslaught. Soros, incidentally, was a key supporter of the 2014 Maidan Square "revolution" in Ukraine, which toppled the elected government of Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych. Following the "regime change" in Ukraine, Russia annexed Crimea, which not only had a majority ethnic Russian population but more importantly, Sevastopol--the Russian naval base that provided critical access to the Black Sea. With a hostile pro-western government implanted in Ukraine-a pivotal state-it was plain to Moscow that a militarised Kiev would pose a serious security threat to its western flank. Without referring to the bigger and deeper geopolitical tussle over Ukraine between Russia and the West, Soros wrote in his blog in 2014 that, "In order for Ukrainians to realize that future, the spirit of the Maidan must be preserved. They will need international support... And my foundation is working with experts in Ukraine to create a strategy for keeping the spirit of the Maidan alive." It is evident that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a sequel to the Maidan square uprising. Moscow wants to achieve two clear strategic objectives, which have their roots in the 2014 events. First, having secured Sevastopol base in Crimea, the Russians want to create a pro-Russian buffer zone through Donetsk and Luhansk-territories, which also have majority ethnic Russian populations, to limit the west's geopolitical reach towards their borders. Second, Russian President Vladimir wants to achieve a more ambitious goal-of engineering a reverse "regime change," by installing a pro-Moscow government in Kiev that shuns NATO. Putin's remarks that he wants to "de-Nazify" Ukraine spotlights his goal of toppling the existing government, and replacing it with a Russia-friendly one. Moscow has maintained since 2014 that neo-Nazis have taken over Kiev following the success of the Maidan Square uprising. In his latest blog Soros inadvertently compares the Ukrainian resistance to the "siege of Budapest in 1944". In doing so he has equated the leadership in Kiev to the Nazis, for it was the Soviet Red Army, then an ally of the west, which had besieged the Nazis in Budapest, a year before World War II ended. Soros adds: "It is important that both the transatlantic alliance (the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom) but also other nations do whatever is in their power to support Ukraine in its time of existential threat. Putin's actions are a direct attack on the sovereignty of all States that were once in the Soviet Union, and beyond." Incidentally, apart from Putin, former US President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping, Soros has also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of forming a "Hindu nationalist" state and threatening to strip Muslims of their citizenship. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020, Soros said that "Nationalism, far from being reversed, made further headway". He added that the biggest and "most frightening setback" was in India, where he accused PM Modi of "creating a Hindu nationalist state." "...A democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship," the Hungarian-born billionaire had said. He had slammed Trump at the forum as a "conman and the ultimate narcissist". (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Ellbogen Foundation Supports Faculty of UW Leadership and Ethics Center UW Associate Professor Chase Thiel is one of the founders of the Center for Principle-Based Leadership and Ethics, which has received a $600,000 gift from the John P. Ellbogen Foundation. (UW Photo) A $600,000 gift from the John P. Ellbogen Foundation will support the Center for Principle-Based Leadership and Ethics at the University of Wyoming. The Ellbogen Foundation is excited to support the students of Wyoming through the mission of the Center for Principle-Based Leadership and Ethics, says Ellbogen Foundation President Mary Ellbogen Garland. Promoting and developing strong leadership and ethics have far-reaching impacts for not only University of Wyoming students, but also the communities they serve. It will set the stage for success in their future careers. The work being done by the center aligns with the Ellbogen Foundations commitment to the people of Wyoming. The Center for Principle-Based Leadership and Ethics (CPBLE), which will reside in UWs College of Business, will be the universitys central source for supporting and connecting leadership and ethics efforts on campus and throughout the state. Specifically, the gift will be used for the recruitment and retention of two positions within the center -- a faculty position and a director position. CPBLEs objective is to contribute to a broad foundation of principle-based ethical leadership and decision-making in Wyoming and beyond by creating a transformative experience for students and other stakeholders. The generous support of the John P. Ellbogen Foundation will help CPBLE realize this vision by making possible unique programming for the development of principle-based, ethical leaders. At a time when it is increasingly needed, CPBLE will help UW graduate ethical leaders and support regional institutions in their development of ethical leadership, says Chase Thiel, a UW associate professor and CPBLE founding faculty member. I am confident that, through the planned initiatives of CPBLE and other ongoing campus programming, UW will be an exemplar to other institutions looking to rethink the concept of developing the whole individual and hoping to prepare students to be model citizens. Considering their mission, I am not surprised that the John P. Ellbogen Foundation believes in CPBLEs vision, and we are incredibly grateful for their generous support. Through the center, students will use a principle-based framework for organizational decision-making and learn foundational leadership skills and tenets -- including earning their ethical leadership certification through the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. The program also will provide Wyoming students with a broad range of experiential learning opportunities. Learning objectives include developing self-knowledge and a personal leadership style; understanding ethical principles; adopting a stakeholder perspective; building an ethical culture; and identifying a higher purpose for an organization. The John P. Ellbogen Foundation empowers the people of Wyoming to lead healthy lives in thriving communities. The foundations benefactor, John P. Jack Ellbogen, was a Wyoming native, born and raised in Worland. He had a great love for and commitment to his home state. Ellbogen attended UW and earned a bachelors degree in history, a law degree and an honorary doctorate from the College of Business. He started his career as a landman for Carter Oil Co. (Exxon) and went on to become an independent oil producer, forming several oil and gas companies. He attributed his success in business to his education and the outstanding teachers who encouraged him to work to his fullest potential. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Delhi on Monday reported a considerable decline of 46 per cent in daily Covid cases, at 258, while there was no Covid death for the first time after December 31, as per the Health Department bulletin. The fresh Covid infections has pushed the tally to 18,59,892 in the city, while the death toll continues to be 26,122. The infection rate in the city has come down to 0.71 per cent, while the number of active cases stands at 1,845, as per the bulletin. With the Covid recovery rate climbing to 98.49 per cent, the death rate stands at 1.40 per cent, and the active case rate continues at 0.09 per cent. With 499 patients recovering in the last 24 hours, the total number of recoveries has gone to 18,31,925. A total of 1,471 Covid patients are being treated in home isolation at present. The number of Covid containment zones has also declined to 4626 in the city. Meanwhile, a total of 36,584 new tests -- 33,269 RT-PCR and 3,315 Rapid Antigen - were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 3,63,79,943. Out of 7,563 vaccines administered in the last 24 hours, 918 were first doses and 6,341 second doses. Meanwhile, 304 precaution doses were also administered. The total number of cumulative beneficiaries vaccinated so far stands at 3,13,48,361 according to the health bulletin. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Many civilians have been killed by Russian shelling on residential areas of Kharkiv. Head of the Kharkiv Region Military Administration, Oleg Synehubov said, "What is happening in Kharkiv is an utter war crime! It's genocide of the Ukrainian people," Ukrainska Pravda reported. He added, "Tens of peaceful civilians are dying. This is happening during daytime, when people have gone outside to get medication, food, drinking water. It's a crime. Russia is using heavy artillery weapons." According to the Regional Military Administration, the Russian invaders are shelling residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no strategic or military infrastructure that could be targeted by armed forces. Shelling is currently ongoing in the neighbourhoods. As a result, local authorities are unable to provide emergency services and eliminate the consequences of shelling on time, the report said. According to Synehubov, 11 civilians have been killed and tens wounded. Dozens of victims have been reported in Kharkiv after mass fire from Grad multiple rocket launchers on Monday, said the Advisor to Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko. Gerashchenko said, ""Kharkiv has just been shelled by Grads. Dozens were killed, and hundreds were injured." The exact number of dead and injured is currently unknown, according to the Ukrainska Pravda. New Delhi, Feb 28 : The ban on Chinese apps by the Indian government might appear out of sync with increasing bilateral trade ties. But India has its own reasons to do so. No country would remain indifferent when it suspects breach of national security and citizen's data privacy. The Chinese companies are globally seen with suspicion in this regard. In view of safeguarding national security and concerns related to data privacy of Indian citizens, the government of India under Section 69-A of the Information Technology Act 2000 recently banned operations of 54 Chinese apps in the country. The banned apps include Dual Space, Badlanders, Wink, and even the popular Free Fire game. Citing the reasons, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) noted that these apps belong to large Chinese tech firms such as Tencent, Alibaba and NetEase, and are re-branded versions of apps already banned by India in 2020. Further, there were complaints that these apps were 'stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data' in an unauthorised manner to servers located outside India and that the compilation of this data, it's mining and profiling 'by elements hostile to the national security and defence of India' ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India. Meanwhile, trade ties between India and China remain robust with China becoming India's second largest trading partner in 2020-21, right behind the United States, and is the largest exporter to India, especially in pharma, electronics and IT hardware. Indian tech startups, telecom infrastructure and manufacturing businesses have attracted significant Chinese investment over the past few years. Earlier, in November 2020, the Indian government blocked access to 43 mobile apps based on the inputs that these apps were engaged in activities that were prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order. The Indian government's move is to ensure security, sovereignty and safety of the Indian cyberspace and needs to be seen in the perspective of India's vision of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' aimed at reducing the country's dependence on imports for products that it could indigenously manufacture. The present ban on Chinese apps also fits in with Indian governments focus on development of indigenous entrepreneurship and promotion of startup culture in the country. Further, Indians can develop their own applications that will not only generate domestic revenue, but will also create employment for local techies. India has emerged as the third largest startup ecosystem after the US and China and ahead of the UK (32) and Germany (18). It could be well imagined that with the improving startup environment in India, the country would attract more investments in India's startups as seen in 2021. In 2021, there were 90 unicorns in India and 4 decacorns which attracted $42 billion of investment. As India further pursues its Startup India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat programmes, many of the production lines in both goods and services sectors will be created within the country. Howsoever inconvenient this is for the foreign suppliers, India is well within its right to safeguard its national security and privacy of its citizens, besides developing its own brands. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Monday said that the Union government is committed towards the development of northeast and its impact is visible in the lives of the people of the region. In his address to a regional conference of ministers of the northeastern region on Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) at Guwahati, he said that the states must emphasise quantity, quality, and sustainability be maintained while implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission in the region, while appreciating the efforts for implementation in their region. He said that Manipur, Meghalaya, and Sikkim aim to achieve Har Ghar Jal in 2022 only, while the deadline set by Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura, and Nagaland is 2023, and Assam aims to meet the goal in 2024. "Under Jal Jeevan Mission, the idea is not just to install a tap in every rural household but to ensure the service delivery and long term sustainability and it is the duty of the authorities to continuously monitor and ensure it," Shekhawat said. Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Vini Mahajan said that the Ministry is working towards ensuring that every rural household in every village of the country receives clean tap water supply by the end of 2024. The Jal Shakti Ministry claimed that since the announcement of Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15 2019, significant progress is made across the country and as on date more than nine crore rural households are provided with tap water connections. The regional conference focusing on important issues pertaining to implementation of the programmes saw senior officials from the Central and state governments participating. New Delhi, Feb 28 : India is sending humanitarian aid, including medicines, to war-hit Ukraine at the request of Ukraine's Ambassador to India, Igor Polikha, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday. Briefing mediapersons here, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "India is sending humanitarian aid (to Ukraine." He also said that India has decided to send four Union ministers to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to help evacuate Indian citizens stuck at various border areas. Bagchi said: "Four Union ministers are going to four countries near Ukraine to help in the evacuation of the Indian students who are stuck there." According to the spokesperson, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will travel to Romania and Moldova; Kiren Rijiju will be at the border with Slovakia; Hardeep Singh Puri will be at the Hungary border; while former Army chief General V.K. Singh will be in Poland. They are going as special envoys of Indians to help evacuate those who are stuck on various borders. Under 'Operation Ganga', India is bringing back students who are stuck in the conflict zones as well as in non-conflict zones in Ukraine. The decision to send four ministers to oversee smooth evacuation was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narender Modi. Replying to a query over students being asked to pay exorbitant amounts for evacuation, the spokesperson dismissed it as rumour and said: "No one is paying any money for these evacuation flights. The government is not changing any money to bring them back." He also stated that till now, six evacuation flights have landed in India with almost 1,386 Indian nationals. A flight from Budapest landed earlier on Monday with 240 Indians. It is estimated that when Operation Ganga was launched, around 15,000 Indians were left in Ukraine. After Ukraine closed its airspace, India identified four land evacuation points through Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Talking about military help in evacuation like what happened in Afghanistan, Bagchi said the situation is different in Ukraine as compared to Afghanistan when India had sent military aircraft to evacuate Indians after Afghanistan was taken over by Taliban forces in August last year. "We are evacuating through commercial flights and we are open to using military aircraft if the need arises. Sending military aircraft there involves more countries," he added. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed London, Feb 28 : Ukraine's motorsports federation has called for Russians to be prohibited from FIA-sanctioned competitions following the outbreak of war between the two countries. If the request is accepted, it would prevent Russian driver Nikita Mazepin from racing for Haas in F1. Ukrainian cities have been under assault from Russian troops on the directive of Putin, prompting widespread condemnation, and sanctions from the global community. Motorsports governing body responded to the situation last week by cancelling the Russian Grand Prix, due to be held in September in Sochi, while Haas removed Uralkali branding from its VF-22 on the final day of testing. Further talks are set to take place between Haas and Uralkali, which is controlled by Nikita Mazepin's father Dmitry, a close ally of Putin. Uralkali joined Haas as its title sponsor on a multi-year deal ahead of the 2021 season, following on from Mazepin's recruitment. In the wake of the crisis between the two countries, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem wrote to the president of the Automobile Federation of Ukraine (FAU) promising his full support. In response, FAU president Leonid Kostyuchenko requested that Russia, and its complicit neighbour Belarus, be suspended from competition. "Given the current situation, the FAU is preparing a proposal for possible measures of support from the FIA for the post-war period, when all state resources will be directed to recovery," wrote Kostyuchenko. "At the request of FAU members, we ask you to: prohibit the use of state symbols of the aggressor countries of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus during the FIA and FIA-sanctioned competitions," he said. "Prohibit the holding of FIA and FIA-authorised competitions on the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. Prohibit RAF [Russian Automobile Federation] and RAF-sanctioned competitions in the occupied territories of Ukraine," he added. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Swedish truck maker AB Volvo has stopped all production and sales in Russia due to sanctions over Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, the company announced on Monday, RT reported. Spokesman Klaas Eliasson told Swedish state broadcaster SVT that the company does not "have conditions for work in Russia, taking into account the imposed sanctions". He noted that "there is no boycott of Russia as a nation". The measure becomes effective immediately and applies to all deliveries of materials and components to Russia. The decision to stop production in Russia comes after one of AB Volvo's major component subcontractors, Nordiq, decided last week to stop deliveries to the country, the report said. Volvo Group generates roughly 3 per cent of its sales in Russia and has one factory in the country. On Monday, German carmaker Volkswagen temporarily halted deliveries of cars already in Russia to local dealerships, media reported, citing the company's statement. The automaker was also forced to suspend production at two of its German factories this week due to a delay in parts deliveries from Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian media reports that at least 20 carmakers have raised prices for cars in the country in February - eight of them within the past week, following the decline of the Russian rouble in the face of Ukraine-related sanctions. The price increase affected Citroen, Mazda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, and Mercedes-Benz. The head of the Avtostat analytical agency, Sergey Tselikov, recently warned that a number of brands would soon disappear from Russia entirely, while "the car market will be reoriented towards China and Korea", RT reported. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War New Delhi, Feb 28 : A convoy of Belarusian tanks and troop carriers were seen queueing near the Ukrainian border today as officials from Moscow and Kyiv started peace talks, Daily Mail reported. Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky admitted he was not confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage, the report said. He had been reticent to agree to talks in Belarus, a country used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion and which is now poised to join the war, offering instead to meet in Istanbul, Warsaw, or Baku. Ukraine has indicated it will request a ceasefire and full withdrawal of Russian forces but Moscow has remained tight lipped over what the negotiations, held at noon in Gomel in southeastern Belarus, could entail. But columns of Belarusian military vehicles were spotted today heading east from the southwestern corner of the country in what appeared to be preparations to join the invasion of Ukraine, Daily Mail reported. Meanwhile, observers have warned the talks could be a pretext for Moscow to ramp up its attacks on Ukraine if Kyiv's officials refuse Russian demands. Among those present at the talks were the Ukrainian Defence Minister, a lead advisor to the President's office and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. But while Ukraine sent its Defence Minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putin's Adviser on Culture - an unlikely envoy for ending the war and perhaps a sign of how Moscow views the talks, the report said. New Delhi, Feb 28 : A 25-year-old man was killed in the national capital after he objected to a child playing tip-cat ('Gilli Danda') and thrashed him, angering the child's elder nephew, who along with his associates hacked the man to death, an official said here on Monday. The police have arrested the accused identified as Irfan and one minor boy, while his other associates are still at large. Furnishing the details, DCP (Southeast District) Esha Pandey said that on February 25, PCR calls were received at Jamia Nagar police station regarding a fight between two groups of people after which the police rushed to the spot. However, no one was found there. During the course of enquiry, an information was received that one of the persons, identified as Talib Khan, was grievously injured in the incident and was admitted to a nearby hospital. "His MLC was also received and the statement of eyewitness Babu Khan (Talib's father) was recorded as the injured man was unfit for giving a statement," the DCP said. While the police were probing the matter, Talib Khan, who was admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital, succumbed to his injuries. The father of the deceased alleged the involvement of one person and his associates in the incident after which a police team nabbed Irfan and one minor boy. During their interrogation, it was revealed that Talib Khan had thrashed the nephew of Irfan for playing tip-cat near his house. In retaliation, Irfan along with his associates brutally thrashed Talib, resulting in his death. The police have recovered one iron spade which was the weapon of offence. Chennai, Feb 28 : With the indirect elections for Mayors in Tamil Nadu to take place on March 4, the tussle for the coveted post is on in Madurai. The seat is reserved for women and senior DMK leaders have thrown their weight behind the favoured candidates. The DMK-led alliance had won 80 of 100 seats in Madurai. The DMK alone captured 67 seats, while the Congress got 5, the CPI-M 4, the MDMK 3, and VCK 1. The AIADMK won in 15 seats while BJP won in one seat. Four women are in the fray for Mayor's post with all of them getting support from the DMK heavyweights. The contenders are Rohini Bomma Thevan, Vijaya Moushumi Sethuramalingam, Vasuki Sasikumar, and Indrani Pon Vasanth, and they are getting support from either Taxes Minister, E.V. Velu, or Finance Minister P.T.R. Thiaga Rajan. Former minister and senior DMK leader, Pon Muthuramalingam has thrown his weight behind his daughter-in-law, Vijaya Moushami. Sources in DMK told IANS that he is trying to convince Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin for the coveted post. Bomma Thevan and Sasikumar are wives of close aides of Velu while Indrani Pon Vasanth's family is close to Thiaga Rajan. DMK sources told IANS that the chances of Indrani Pon Vasanth getting the nod are higher as the Finance Minister enjoys special rapport with Stalin given his performance. With intense lobbying by all four aspirants taking place, the focus has shifted to Chennai. Gandhinagar, Feb 28 : The Gujarati community along with others, residing in Poland, have come forward to help the Indians, fleeing from the war hit Ukraine. The community members are offering food and shelter to the Indians reaching to Poland from Ukraine. Talking to the IANS, Gruhang Patel, residing in Warsaw, said, "Looking at the current situation in Ukraine, me and my friends decided to help the Indian students from Ukraine, who are entering into the Polland. We helped around 25 to 30 such students. Thereafter, throughout the entire day, we recieved good response from the Gujarati community in taking forward our initiative." "The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan (BAPS) institute and the Sindhi community as well as the Gurudwara in Poland have come forward to help the stranded students as well as Indians evacuated from Ukraine," Patel said. "We have set aside two warehouses in Warsaw, where we can accommodate around 250 to 300 persons. Besides that, many Gujarati families have opened up their doors for help. The BAPS institution's centres in Poland do not have cooking facilities, so a special Food Van has been called from the BAPS in Paris to provide food to the people," he said. "The Sindhi community in the country has also come forward and assured of providing food and shelter to around 150 people. Similarly, the Gurudwara here has also made arrangements for providing food and accommodation to 50. In all, we can accommodate around 750 persons," added Patel. "Right now, throughout the day, after I shared a video on social media, around hundred people, coming from Ukraine, contacted me and of them 8 to 15 people are on their way. Our team members are there on the Polish-Ukrainian border to assist the Indians who are entering Poland and they will provide them all the necessary help," he said. "I urge to those who are on the way to Poland, please be assured that you will be taken care of and not to worry about anything," Patel asserted. "The Gujarati are a global community and has a very strong presence in Poland. Whenever such kind of need arises, the Gujarati community always comes forward to help," said Divyang Gandhi, of the Divya group of companies. Gruhang Patel, Warsaw can be contacted on +48729663296. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening chaired a high-level meeting to review the progress of the evacuation of Indians stranded in Ukraine under 'Operation Ganga', officials said here. It was the third review meeting held in the last 24 hours on the situation in Ukraine. According to sources, the Prime Minister was briefed that around 1,400 Indian nationals have arrived from Ukraine so far by the six flights from Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania), while 182 more will reach Mumbai early on Tuesday morning. Modi was also briefed that a new route to exit through Moldova has been identified and to facilitate the entry of the Indians into this country, proper arrangements are being made by the Indian Embassy staff in Romania. Modi directed the MEA officials to make proper arrangements for the students who are moving to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania till they depart for India. Union Ministers S. Jaishankar, Hardeep Singh Puri, General (Retd) V.K. Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Piyush Goyal, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P.K. Mishra, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and other officials were present in the meeting. On Monday morning, Modi chaired a high-level meeting where he was updated about the progress of the evacuation mission under 'Operation Ganga', wherein it was decided that four Union ministers will go as special envoys to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to oversee the evacuation process. According to the officials, Jyotiraditya Scindia will be going to Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju to Slovakia, Hardeep Singh Puri to Hungary and V.K. Singh will be going to Poland. Mumbai, Feb 28 : The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has cracked a human trafficking racket involving Bangladeshis immigrants entering India illegally and going to Mumbai or other cities with the help of forged travel and other official documents, officials said here on Monday. The ATS has arrested four persons, including one from Mumbai, in connection with the human trafficking racket, but the kingpin based in West Bengal is reported to be absconding. With tentacles spread across India and Bangladesh, the racket's modus operandi involved sneaking Bangladeshi nationals on foot through the porous borders and providing them with fake Aadhaar cards in their names from a UIDAI Centre in Bangaon, North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Armed with the forged Aadhaar cards, the illegal entrants reached various cities like Mumbai and with help of local agents, obtained more fraudulent documents like Indian birth certificates, school leaving certificate (SLCs) or even passports. "We have arrested one Indian agent, Santosh Varne of Mumbai, besides three other Bangladeshis, including a 17-year-old girl, and Kajal Shaikh, 28, who managed to get an Indian passport based on the fake documents," said an ATS official. The other two arrested persons, including the minor girl, were in the process of obtaining their Indian passports when the ATS nabbed them. Varne, 52, is a passport agent for the past over 8 years and also arranged forged BMC papers, birth certificates, SLCs, etc for the illegal entrants to help them get an Indian passport. During its swoop on Varne, the ATS recovered 100 blank generic SLCs forms with the name 'Bombay' instead of Mumbai printed on them to avoid detection or confirmation. "The name of the school was stamped on these generic SLCs and the relevant details of the illegal immigrants were filled up, and then used for creating more fake documents," said the official. The ATS probe led them to the 'kingpin of the racket', Sardar Shaikh, alias Monjil Mondal of Sindhrani village in Bangaon, who had brought the arrested trio and other Bangladeshi nationals to India via the borders, and facilitated the fake Aadhaar cards for them. A history-sheeter, Shaikh boasts of a criminal record with Bagdah Police Station under various offences, including cutting the border fencing and runnning a cross-border human trafficking racket. The Maharashtra ATS visited West Bengal to arrest him, but he is absconding and efforts are on to trace and nab him, said the official. Srinagar, Feb 28 : Jammu and Kashmir Police have booked 21 drug peddlers under Public Safety Act (PSA) and have detained 69 other drug peddlers under various provisions of the CrPC in Srinagar, officials said on Monday. Many localities, during the crackdown on Monday, were raided by teams of Srinagar district administration and the police - led by DC Aijaz Assad and SSP Rakesh Balwal. "These localities are where drug peddling activities are being reported by many vigilant citizens. These raids led to arrest of many accused and recovery of large quantity of narcotics and proceeds of drugs," police said. In a statement, the district administration and the police have assured "all citizens of Srinagar that action against narcotics and drugs will continue till this menace is completely eradicated from Srinagar". A dedicated narcotics related control room has been started in the DC office with representatives of district administration, police, social welfare, health and medical department with telephone number 01942483651. "This control room will also have social media handles for better public interface and will be functional from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday," officials said. "Srinagar police has already activated a narcotic helpline number 9596770550, which is operational 24x7." United Nations, Feb 28 : UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday said that Russia putting nuclear forces on high alert is a "chilling development" amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "Nothing can justify the use of nuclear weapons," he said at the emergency session of the General Assembly on Ukraine. "Yesterday, Russian nuclear forces were put on high alert. This is a chilling development. The mere idea of a nuclear conflict is simply inconceivable." The Assembly met in its 11th emergency session following a Security Council resolution on Sunday to refer the Ukraine crisis to it after the Council was deadlocked on the issue because of the Russian veto. India had abstained on the resolution, along with the other two Asian countries on the Council, China and the United Arab Emirates. General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid said: "The convening of this 11th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly, rooted in the Charter and mandated in resolution 377 A (V) entitled 'Uniting for peace', is a new opportunity to ensure that the leadership of the United Nations is up to the expectation of the people we serve on matters related to peace and security." The "United for Peace" resolution was adopted by the Assembly in 1950 in response to the Soviet Union's vetoes of resolutions on the Korean crisis and it forms the basis for the Assembly to act when the Council is deadlocked, although its resolutions are not binding. Calling for an immediate ceasefire and a return to diplomacy, Shahid said: "The military offensive by the Russian Federation is a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and is inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations." Shahid also said the session should not become a forum for war rhetoric. "The strength of this Assembly is rooted in its moral authority. Let's demonstrate that moral courage and use today's debate not to whip up war rhetoric, but to give peace a chance. Let's ignite the fire of love, humanity and compassion," he said. The Council resolution that Russia vetoed - on which India had also abstained - sought to condemn Russia's invasion and demand an immedate ceasefire. "Enough is enough," Guterres declared, "the fighting in Ukraine must stop". He said that the UN has "credible accounts of residential buildings, critical civilian infrastructure and other non-military targets sustaining heavy damage. This escalating violence -- which is resulting in civilian deaths, including children - is totally unacceptable". Ukraine's Permanent Representative Sergiy Kyslytsya made a direct appeal to Russian soldiers and their families, while making a plea to the international community for saving his country. He also questioned the legitimacy of Russia as a successor state to the Soviet Union to be able to exercise the veto power. Russia's Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenza asserted that the resolution in the Council was one-sided and did not take into account the Ukrainian action against its minorities. A resolution similar to the one vetoed by Russia in Council is expected to be taken up by the Assembly. Later on Monday, the Council is scheduled to meet at the request of France's President Emmanuel Macron to consider a resolution calling for unfettered access for humanitarian and relief activities in Ukraine. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis) Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Imphal, Feb 28 : Amid stray incidents of violence, Manipur on Monday recorded 78.03 per cent voter turnout in the first phase of Assembly elections in which 38 out of the 60 Assembly seats are being contested, election officials said. Of the five districts where the first phase of elections were held, highest turnout of 82.19 per cent was recorded in Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts, followed by 76.64 per cent in Imphal East, 74.45 per cent in Churachandpur and 73.44 per cent in Bishnupur district. The police said that at least one person was injured in a clash between the workers of two rival parties in Churachandpur district. Clashes were also reported from different parts of Imphal East, Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts, but the security personnel tackled the situation by mobilising additional forces. Manipur Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agrawal said that the final polling percentage would be available after the return of all the polling parties. He said that incidents of damaging EVMs by unknown miscreants were reported from seven polling stations under five Assembly constituencies -- Saikul, Saitu, Singhat, Henglep and Thanlon. FIRs were registered in all these cases and voting in these polling stations was completed with new sets of EVMs, the CEO said, adding that preventive firing (in the air) by security personnel was reported from some polling stations under Saitu, Henglep and Singhat Assembly constituencies. The other officials said that there was an incident of firing at Phunal Maring polling station. However, details of the incident are still awaited. Election officials said that a Manipur police havildar, Naorem Ibochouba Singh, died due to suspected accidental firing from his service weapon in Kakching district. Meanwhile, Congress and BJP candidates and leaders made allegations and counter-allegations of intimidation and vandalisation of polling booths. Amid favourable weather, men and women, including young voters, queued up in front of the polling stations in large numbers much before the scheduled voting time of 7 a.m. Polling continued till 4 p.m. without any break and in a few polling stations, voters were seen in queues even as the official hours ended. Manipur Governor La Ganesan, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Y. Joykumar, Speaker Y. Khemchand, state Congress President N. Loken were among those who cast their votes in the early hours of polling. Singh, who is contesting from the Heingang Assembly constituency against Congress nominee Pangeijam Saratchandra Singh, said that the BJP would secure 30-plus seats in the first phase of elections. Monday's first phase of polling will decide the fate of 173 candidates, including 15 women contestants. The aspirants include Chief Minister Singh, his cabinet colleague Thongam Biswajit Singh, NPP candidate and Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar Singh, senior BJP leader Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, Congress' Ratankumar Singh, Lokeshwar Singh, Saratchandra Singh, and sitting party MLA Akoijam Mirabai Devi, among others. Firebrand woman leader and Janata Dal (United) candidate Thounaojam Brinda, who was the Additional Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), is also contesting from the Yaiskul constituency. A senior Election Commission official said that there were 10,041 physically challenged electorate (PwD) and 251 centenarian voters in these 38 Assembly constituencies. The official said that 381 polling stations were fully managed by women polling staff. The second phase of polling will be held in 22 seats on March 5. Votes will be counted on March 10. New Delhi, Feb 28 : As thousands flee crisis-hit Ukraine, Nigeria has condemned reports that its citizens, and those from other African countries, are being prevented from leaving the war-torn country, BBC reported. Isaac, a Nigerian national living in Ukraine, who has been trying to gain entry into Poland, said that border staff told him they were "not tending to Africans". On Sunday, Nigeria's Foreign Minister Geofrey Onyeama said he had spoken with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and had been assured that Ukrainian border guards had been given an order to allow all foreigners leaving Ukraine to pass without restrictions. There have also been numerous reports of Ukrainian security officials preventing Africans from catching buses and trains going to the borders, BBC reported. Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said there are about 4,000 Nigerians in Ukraine, mostly students. He said one group had repeatedly been refused entry to Poland so they travelled back into Ukraine to head for Hungary instead. "All who flee a conflict situation have the same right to safe passage under the UN Convention, and the colour of their passport or their skin should make no difference," Buhari tweeted. New Delhi, Feb 28 : India's domestic airlines will operate special flights to Romania and Hungary to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in war-hit Ukraine. SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India Express will operate these special flights to bring back stranded Indians, who manage to find their way out of the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Romania and Hungary share land borders with Ukraine, and many Indian nationals, including students, have made their way to these countries. Till now, Tata Group-led Air India has been operating flights to Bucharest (Romania) and Budapest (Hungary). Earlier, Air India operated direct special flights to Kiev but it had to stop these operations due to a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) issued over the closure of Ukrainian airspace. One of Air India's flight bound for Kiev from New Delhi returned to the national capital's IGI Airport after NOTAM was announced at Kiev airport last Thursday. Last Tuesday, the airline had carried out the first of its special flight operations ferrying Indian citizens from Ukraine. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, over phone and discussed the evacuation of Indian nationals starnded in war-torn Ukraine. Modi thanked Heger for the assistance provided by Slovakia in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine, and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. He asked for Slovakia's continued assistance in the next few days with India undertaking a mission to evacuate other citizens from conflict zones. Modi also informed Heger about the deployment of Union minister Kiren Rijiju as India's special envoy to oversee the evacuation efforts in Slovakia. The Prime Minister also expressed his anguish at the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and reiterated India's consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue. Modi stressed upon the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while chairing the third high-level meeting on the Ukraine situation on Monday evening, pointed out that the visit of four senior ministers as the government's special envoys to various nations will energise the evacuation efforts. The move is reflective of the priority the government attaches to this matter, Modi said. Also, guided by India's motto of the world being one family, the Prime Minister said that India will help people from neighbouring countries and developing nations who are stranded in Ukraine, seeking assistance. Chairing the high-level meeting, his second of the day, to review the ongoing efforts under 'Operation Ganga' to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine, Modi said that the entire government machinery has been working round-the-clock to ensure that all Indian nationals are safe and secure in Ukraine. The Prime Minister further noted that the first consignment of relief supplies to Ukraine to deal with the humanitarian crisis there would be despatched on Tuesday. This was the third review meeting in the last 24 hours on the situation in Ukraine. The Prime Minister was briefed that around 1,400 Indian nationals have arrived from Ukraine so far by six flights from Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania), while 182 more will reach Mumbai early on Tuesday morning. Modi was also briefed that a new route to exit through Moldova has been identified and to facilitate the entry of the Indians into this country, proper arrangements are being made by the Indian Embassy staff in Romania. Modi directed the MEA officials to make proper arrangements for the students who are moving to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania till they depart for India. Union Ministers S. Jaishankar, Hardeep Singh Puri, General (Retd) V.K. Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Piyush Goyal, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P.K. Mishra, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and other officials were present in the meeting. On Monday morning, Modi chaired a high-level meeting where he was updated about the progress of the evacuation mission under 'Operation Ganga', wherein it was decided that four Union ministers will go as special envoys to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to oversee the evacuation process. According to the officials, Jyotiraditya Scindia will be going to Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju to Slovakia, Hardeep Singh Puri to Hungary and V.K. Singh will be going to Poland. Ama Dennis demonstrates the interactive display monitor explaining each of the surrounding photographic images at The Creative Native Gallery and Studio in downtown Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. Nairobi, Feb 28 : Nearly half of the global population is now highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. That includes everything from rising sea levels, drought and more frequent and more intense weather events that threaten lives, livelihoods, and homes. "Crucially, we must now recognise the worsening symptoms of our warming, faltering planet -- and react immediately by helping countries to adapt to the increasingly devastating effects of climate change," said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Achim Steiner on Monday. "This need for rapid action is amongst the key conclusions of a landmark new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations (UN) body for assessing the science related to climate change." The IPCC report, entitled 'Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability', argues that continuing to ignore the science will put people and planet in peril like never before. Yet it also offers solutions. Climate adaptation -- measures to protect lives and livelihoods, and biodiversity -- must be elevated and placed at the very core of global climate action efforts. The commitment at COP26 in Glasgow to double adaptation finance -- from $20 billion to at least $40 billion per year -- is an urgent priority and a good first step, but more concerted efforts will be needed. In particular, UN Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres has been "pushing to get to 50 per cent of all climate finance for adaptation". Investment in climate resilient development is needed more than ever and at a greater scale. "UNDP is committed to continue using the IPCC findings as the scientific basis for our climate action. Our programmes will carefully build on the data provided by the report so that our support to countries on adaptation can evolve, shift and grow as needed," Steiner said in a statement. "Over 96 per cent of the 120 developing countries that UNDP has supported with its Climate Promise have enhanced their adaptation ambitions in their Paris Agreement pledges. The Climate Promise is part of wide-ranging efforts by the organisation to provide more support to vulnerable communities who are living on the frontlines of climate change. "Over the past two decades, UNDP has supported developing countries, including Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, to implement their adaptation priorities -- from enhancing food security to increasing the protection of ecosystems to rolling-out vital early warning systems," he said. "I echo the call by the UN Secretary General that every country must honour the Glasgow pledge to increase their climate ambition to align with the objectives set by the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels," Steiner added. The "Africa COP" in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November will be a key moment to accelerate climate action. "However, we cannot wait that long to instigate the level of change necessary. We need governments, particularly in developed countries, to rapidly curb their emissions and scale up support for climate adaptation; and for citizens to demand climate action now from their governments. We also need the international community to equitably deliver the level of climate finance that has been agreed upon but not yet fulfilled," he added. (Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) New Delhi, Feb 28 : India's GDP per capita is already 16 per cent lower than it would have been without human-caused warming since 1991, according to a new report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "India is the country that is economically harmed the most by climate change, with every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted globally costing the country around $86," according to a study cited by the IPCC report. To put it in context, in 2021, the world emitted 36.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Continued warming will further damage India's economy, particularly if emissions are not rapidly eliminated, the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group II (WRG II) report - titled IPCC AR6 WGII aClimate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability - pointed out. It mentions, among other things, the range of impacts India is vulnerable to heat stress, which can increase beyond the threshold of human survivability, impacts on food production due to climate change, which includes food crops, fisheries, compounding disasters, and disasters elsewhere that will impact international supply chains, markets, trade, and result in economic shocks. Heat will reduce labour capacity, particularly in agriculture, states a study cited by the IPCC report, which projects that agricultural labour capacity in India will fall 17 per cent if warming continues to 3 degrees Celsius - only a little more than current planned emissions would lead to - or 11 per cent if emission cuts are accelerated. The emission cuts are promised by world governments to restrict overall global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial era. "The overall effect of continued high emissions could be to reduce average global incomes 23 per cent, with average incomes in India 92 per cent lower in 2100 than they would have been without climate change," the IPCC report said. Dr Manu Gupta, Co-Founder, Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) said: "The IPCC WG2 report has made the socio-economic impacts of the climate crisis abundantly clear. While it calls for collaborative action at a macro-level in mitigating future risks, there's an increasing need for working with affected communities to help them adapt to the harsh realities of the present." In August 2021, the IPCC had released the report of the Working Group I while the Working Group III will be brought out in April this year, followed by the Synthesis Report further in September 2022. New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s report on Monday said that globally, high temperatures and extreme weather events, such as droughts, extreme rainfall events, heatwaves and floods, are damaging crops and will increasingly limit crop production if temperatures continue to rise. These factors, along with saltwater intrusion from sea-level rise, will harm agriculture in India, which is considered by the report as the most vulnerable country in terms of crop production. Rice, wheat, pulses, and coarse cereal yields could fall almost 9 per cent by 2050 while in south India, maize production could decrease 17 per cent if emissions are high (meaning, the global temperature rise continues at higher rate). "These disruptions to crop production are expected to cause price spikes in India, threatening food affordability, food security and economic growth," the report said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group II (WRG II) report - titled IPCC AR6 WGII 'Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability' - has pointed out the range of impacts India is vulnerable to: heat stress, which can increase beyond the threshold of human survivability, impacts on food production due to climate change, which includes food crops, fisheries, compounding disasters, and disasters elsewhere that will impact international supply chains, markets, trade, and result in economic shocks, among others. Continued climate change will also cause declines in India's fisheries as key commercial species, such as hilsa, shad and Bombay duck, are projected to decline dramatically if temperatures continue to rise. The energy harnessed by marine plants and algae - crucial for strong fisheries - in the western Indian Ocean has already declined 20 per cent in the last 60 years due to climate change reducing the nutrient mixing between ocean levels. Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid Association said: "We need a pro-poor and inclusive approach to climate change action. More than just social imagery of sustainable life, we need a participatory, decentralised, futuristic and technology-enabled action on planning, building, and managing rural and urban life." "With India's immense cultural, ecological and landscape diversity, this constitutes the way forward. Ignoring the science as represented, albeit in an understated manner by the IPCC reports, would be akin to choosing extinction over survival. Let us not choose extinction," he warned. Chennai, Feb 28 : A Coimbatore couple, who had posted an advertisement for renting out their house, lost Rs 5.8 lakh to a fraudster. S. Kalaiselvi from Madukkarai, Coimbatore, said in a complaint to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP) that she had posted an advertisement to rent out their home in an online portal in January. On January 22, a person contacted her husband Selvaraj, saying that he was an officer with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and that he wanted to take the house on rent and move in as early as possible. Selvaraj informed him that they would take six months' rent amount as security deposit following which the caller sent a link, claiming that it was the link to transfer the money. When Selvaraj clicked the link and entered his bank account details, he lost Rs 99,500. The family was shocked and Kalaisevli immediately called the person, who said that it must have been a technical error and sent another link, stating that he would send six months' rent as well as the money 'accidentally' transferred to Selvaraj's account. The woman in the complaint stated that the caller asked them to install an app and then enter an OTP and when the couple did so, they lost Rs 4.99 lakh from Selvaraj's account in several installments. After that, the caller disappeared. The police are investigating the matter after registering a case under Section 420 of IPC and 66D of the IT Act. The police also appealed to the people not to share their bank account details, PIN number, or OTP with anyone to prevent such frauds. Imphal, Feb 28 : Congress candidate in Manipur's Saitu Assembly constituency candidate Dr Lamtinthang Haokip was arrested "without any reason", party leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Monday night. The FIR was filed in the New Keithelmanbi Polling Station in Kangpokpi district against the Congress candidate who was charged with assault of a public servant from discharge of his duty. Taking on Twitter Ramesh wrote : "INC Candidate from 51-Saitu Dr Lamtinthang Hk was arrested unjustly when he went to New Keithelmanbi Polling stn to ensure free and fair elections, to stop BJP from malpractices. We demand his unconditional and immediate release ! This is murder of democracy by Union Home Minister and CM." However, election officials and the police refused to make any comments saying that the probe is on. Haokip's chief agent Andrew Gangmei in a letter to Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agrawal said that the BJP candidate (Ngamthang Haokip), along with his henchmen, were indulging in booth capturing and proxy voting in front of the presiding officer and the returning officer at New Keithelmanbi Polling Station. The Congress candidate, on hearing of the malpractices, immediately rushed to the spot. "During a scuffle somebody smashed the Electronic Voting Machine. The polling officials instead of trying to control the situation aggravated it by instigating some of the BJP supporters that led to a melee. The polling officials were found to be biased for reasons best known to them, in favour of the BJP candidate which is unbecoming of a polling official. That, the polling officials at the behest of the BJP Candidate filed an FIR against our Candidate," Gangmei said in his letter and demanded release of Haokip. New Feb 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on phone on Friday with his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ionel Ciuca and thanked for his country's assistance in evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine over the past few days. He particularly appreciated Romania's gesture in allowing Indian citizens to enter Romania without visas, and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. The Prime Minister also informed Ciuca about the deployment of Indian Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia as his special envoy to oversee the evacuation efforts of Indian citizens over the next few days in coordination with the local authorities. He also expressed his anguish at the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and reiterated India's consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue. He also stressed upon the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. Hyderabad, Feb 28 : Intensifying his efforts to bring together like-minded parties for a anti-BJP front, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao reached Delhi on Monday night to meet leaders of various parties over next couple of days. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief left for the national capital in a special aircraft. According to Chief Minister's Office (CMO) late Monday night, KCR, as Rao is popularly known, was accompanied by some cabinet colleagues and senior leaders of his TRS. The TRS chief is likely to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday. He is also likely to call on leaders of other national parties. KCR's visit to the national capital came eight days after his visit to Mumbai, where he met Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on February 20. New Delhi, Feb 28 : Moscow and Kiev have found certain points that could be agreed upon during the ceasefire talks hosted by Belarus, and will return for consultations before the next round, both delegations told reporters after the talks ended on Monday, RT reported. The main purpose of the talks was to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine, said Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The two sides have identified a number of priority topics, on which "certain solutions have been outlined", he added. The two delegations found points on which common positions could be reached, confirmed Vladimir Medinsky, aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, RT reported. Monday's talks, which lasted for nearly five hours, took place in Belarus near the Russian and the Ukrainian borders. The next round will take place on the border between Belarus and Poland in the coming days, Medinsky said. Ukraine's delegation was led by Defence Minister Alexey Reznikov, and its main demand was an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of all Russian troops from the country. Zelensky said on Sunday that he didn't really believe the negotiations would succeed, but thought they held "a chance, however small, to de-escalate the situation." While the talks were ongoing, Zelensky sent a formal request for Ukraine's EU membership to Brussels. Meanwhile, Russia has put its nuclear deterrent forces on highest alert amid NATO moves to send weapons to Kiev. Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 28 : With the money-spinning tourism industry in Kerala suffering its worst ever setback on account of the Covid pandemic, it is now all set to launch an aggressive promotional campaign. Kerala Tourism's campaign across the country is meant to target the diverse segments ranging from family holidayers to working professionals, from adventure-seeking backpackers to honeymooners. The campaigns to ramp up the state's tourism and hospitality industry will be based on a variety of themes such as long stays, home stays, drive holidays and 'Change of Air' besides new products like caravan holidays. These promotional initiatives will be bolstered by a series of travel trade networking activities, including participation in trade fairs, organising B2B Partnership Meets and road shows, and promoting products and events through various media such as print, TV, radio, digital, OTT, and theatre. During the next three months (March-May), Kerala Tourism will participate in the 28th International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) at Tel Aviv (Israel) and at BIT Milan (Italy) and also organise B2B Meets in Madrid and Milan. As for the domestic events, it will attend trade fairs like OTM Mumbai, TTF Chennai and South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE), New Delhi. In addition, partnership meets will be held in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad, and Bengaluru. Kerala Tourism Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas said the pandemic had tapered off considerably across the globe, resulting in lifting of travel restrictions. "This augurs well for Kerala's tourism and hospitality industry. We are in a resurgent mode now. Tourists from inside the country have always played a major role in making Kerala's tourism a throbbing enterprise. In the post-Covid world also, their role will be paramount. It is this belief that forms the essence of our pan-India promotional campaigns," said Riyas, son in law of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism, V. Venu said some of the new projects, like the biodiversity circuit, and Caravan Holidays, in particular, will take the travellers to Kerala's unexplored areas while observing all the pandemic protocols, thus helping the state go beyond established destinations. During the pandemic, majority of the classified home stays in Kerala were either closed or empty. The reopening of tourism activities is expected to revive the languishing business of the home stay entrepreneurs. New Delhi, Feb 28 : A set of mysterious symbols have emerged on various buildings in Kyiv, sparking fears that Russian saboteurs may be marking out targets for a major aerial assault, Daily Mail reported. Images of the symbols circulated on social media after Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (DSSZZI) posted a warning on social media encouraging residents to cover them up. Red and orange crosshairs have been painted onto various structures in the capital, including several high-rise buildings, with certain symbols only visible under UV light, the report said. "City officials are asking residents of high-rise buildings who have access to the roof to urgently check the rooftops for symbols," the post read. "If any symbols are found, please cover them up with dirt or something else." Fears that the symbols could in fact be target indicators were confirmed over the weekend when Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko declared: "City officials are urging citizens to immediately report tagged locations, submit photos to law enforcement, and report suspects who may be involved in tagging." "Labels are placed to adjust the fire of the occupying forces of the Russian Federation." It comes amid rising concerns that Kyiv could soon come under heavy attack, after the Kremlin this morning warned civilians to leave the city via a "safe highway" to the southwest. Russia used similar tactics during its intervention in Syria, in which military leaders told civilians to leave cities along a safe route before conducting heavy bombing campaigns while fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad. The use of target indicators (TIs) for aerial assaults was pioneered primarily by the RAF and the German Luftwaffe in World War II, Daily Mail reported. Now, the Ukrainian military has reportedly seized several silent, light-emitting beacons from several positions around the capital, which are believed to be TIs for Russian aircraft or missiles. These lights can be used as TIs to lead missiles to their targets with pinpoint accuracy and help them to avoid obstacles or enemy fire. The painted crosshairs meanwhile represent a more old-fashioned approach to target indication - though they are less susceptible to sabotage, jamming and hacking unlike more technologically advanced methods, Daily Mail reported. A video shared on Twitter purported to show one of the transmitting devices captured by Ukrainian forces, which flashed intermittently with a sharp green light. New Delhi, Feb 28 : President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed Ukraines European Union membership application. Deputy Head of the President's Office, Andriy Sybiga, said that Zelenskyy has just signed a historically significant document: Ukraine's European Union membership application, Ukrainska Pravda reported. He also signed a joint request with the head of the Verkhovna Rada [Parliament] of Ukraine and Prime Minister Dmytro Shmygal. The documents are already on their way to Brussels. Zelenskyy said: "I have signed Ukraine's European Union membership application. I am sure that we can achieve this." According to EU procedure, the membership application has to be submitted to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Council is currently headed by France. Ukraine's application may be important for Zelenskyy, given that this issue could potentially be used in the talks with Russia, because the European Union is a project built around peace and using dialogue to resolve conflict, Ukrainska Pravd reported. On Monday morning, Zelenskyy addressed the European Union regarding Ukraine's accession under a special procedure. According to Zelenskyy, Ukrainians deserve EU membership. After Russia's invasion, several EU countries called upon the EU to give Ukraine a pathway to membership, and Slovakia proposed a special procedure for Ukraine's accession to the EU. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Patna, March 1 : The Bihar government on Monday announced it has decided not to arrest liquor consumers if they reveal the name of sellers. Commissioner, Liquor Prohibition, Krishna Kumar, said that the fresh initiative is effective from now onwards. "We have amended the current law that comes under liquor prohibition law with the actual idea to initiate a crackdown on the big fish (liquor mafia). We want to crack the nexus of illegal manufacturers, smugglers, transporters, and traders of liquor in Bihar. "Consuming liquor is a social evil and the individual violator should be given a chance to rectify his/her bad habits," Krishna Kumar said. "The liquor prohibition law came into effect in April 2016 and we have witnessed a large number of persons being arrested in a drunken state in Bihar. At present, over 4.5 lakh people lodged in jail for over 4 years only for consuming liquor," he added. The Bihar government is facing criticism of ill-planned implementation of its liquor ban. Even Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana criticised the Nitish Kumar government for implementing the same without considering a ground study and its aftermath. He said that the decisions like liquor ban in 2016 "put a huge burden on courts. It was a short-sighted decision of the Bihar government". Ramana pointed out that every policy needs to be addressed with futuristic planning, its evaluation, and constitutionality before its implementation on ground. Due to the liquor ban decision of Nitish Kumar government in 2016, a large number of cases are pending in the courts, and even a bail hearing in simple cases is taking one year time in the courts, he had said. Bihar government officials admit that due to the arrest of liquor drinkers in large numbers, the jails of the state are becoming overcrowded. Sources have said that the officials of Bihar are under huge pressure from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is currently carrying out his "Samaj Sudhar Abhiyan (Social Reform Campaign)" in Bihar. The new condition-based initiative is a prime example of it as officials are working in desperation to make this ambitious liquor ban policy of Nitish Kumar to get successful on the ground at any cost. "After an individual drunk violator is caught, if he/she reveals the name of the seller, he should not be arrested by police. In case, the seller is not arrested with liquor or the charge levelled by the consumer would not be proved, the individual customers would have to go to jail," Krishna Kumar said. However, such a condition-based initiative may not be successful as threat always looms on the head of that consumer if he reveals the name of liquor mafia. The other loophole of the initiative is police on the ground. In many cases, police are either suspended, sent on line or even terminated for the jobs after their alleged links established with the liquor mafia. Hence, if a consumer reveals the name of the mafia before police, the chances of passing the information from the police station to liquor mafia cannot be ruled out. In that case, if the liquor mafia flees the spot or shifts the liquor to somewhere else before the arrival of police, it would be life-threatening to the consumers. Bengaluru, March 1 : Out of 37 families, who lost members due to reported oxygen shortage at Karnataka's Chamarajanagar District Covid Hospital during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, 13 are yet to receive compensation. The Chamarajanagar tragedy was reported in the midnight of May 2, 2021. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the report of B.A. Patil, the Chairman of the government-appointed "unanimous" commission, has also not been disclosed till date. Nine months have passed since due to oxygen shortage during the peak of the second Covid wave. Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) President Abdul Majeed met the families of the victims in Bengaluru in this regard on Monday. Later, he also submitted a memorandum to Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot, seeking Rs 50 lakh compensation for the victims' families and government job to one of the family members of the deceased. Majeed also demanded action against "negligent" officers responsible for the tragedy. "Out of the 37 families, who lost members due to Oxygen shortage during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, relief has been provided only to 24. The 13 families are outraged that they have not received any compensation," he stated. "More than 50 per cent of the victims belong to SC/ST communities. They are community workers. These poor families are worried about the education and future of their children. It is ironic that the ruling BJP government is irresponsible towards the victims," he added. Majeed said, "The struggle will be continued until justice is provided." Abear Ahmed, SDPI Chamarajanagar District president, National Secretary Alfonso Franco, State General Secretary Bhaskar Prasad, Afsar Kodlipete also met the victims' families. A committee constituted by the Karnataka High Court had found that 36 patients died in Chamarajanagar District Hospital due to a lack of oxygen during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. However, then Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan denied finding the report. He maintained that the logistical issues and negligence of the hospital cannot be reflected as Oxygen shortage. Report of the state-level committee of Karnataka State Legal Services Authority constituted by Karnataka HC showed that out of 62 deaths declared by the Chamarajanagar District Hospital between May 4 and May 10, 36 patients died due to non-availability of oxygen on the intervening nights of May 2 and May 3. The incident had created outrage all over the state and shocked the country. It was also widely discussed in the Parliament. Brussels, March 1 : The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies have boosted support to Ukraine with military equipment, financial assistance and humanitarian aid, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. "NATO Allies are stepping up support with air-defence missiles, anti-tank weapons, as well as humanitarian and financial aid," Stoltenberg tweeted, Xinhua news agency reported. NATO said in a press release on Sunday that Ukraine has received "critical weapons," including Javelin missiles and anti-aircraft missiles. "Millions of euros" worth of financial assistance and humanitarian aid have also been sent to the Ukrainian forces, NATO added. Russia launched a military operation against Ukraine on February 24. After a seesaw struggle between the two sides, a ray of hope emerged as the Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border for talks on Monday. Bengaluru, March 1 : The BJP government in Karnataka has slapped cases on 37 people for violating Covid guidelines during Mekedatu padayatra on Monday. Congress State President D.K. Shivakumar, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah, MP D.K. Suresh and MLC Ravi and others were named as accused. Ramnagar Tehsildar has lodged a complaint in this regard in Aijur police station. Though most of the Covid restrictions are lifted, the state government has not provided relaxations on processions, rallies and protests. Reacting to the FIR, Shivakumar stated that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai knew about the padayatra and officials also had prior information. "FIR has been lodged with political hatred. We have been booked for taking up pro-people agitation. Let them lodge cases, we will go to jail by walking only," he said. "Why is there no case against ruling BJP minister, MP Raghavendra for taking part in the procession of dead body (slain Bajrang Dal activist Harsha) and why there is no case against Chief Minister for taking part in public functions?" Shivakumar asked. "We don't fear FIRs and cases," he added. The Congress Padayatra reached Bengaluru city on Monday night. Police Commissioner Bengaluru stated that, padayatra has reached the outskirts of the city. Jurisdictional DCP's have been asked to arrange proper security to avoid any untoward incidents. 40 KSRP and 30 platoons will be deputed in the city to maintain law and order situation in the city. He had also requested the vehicle riders for traffic guidelines on the police department website. The Karnataka Congress had kickstarted Mekedatu padayatra (protest march) on Sunday by beating drums and reciting Vande Mataram song in Ramnagar district of the state. The padayatra is being organised demanding commencement of Mekedatu reservoir work to provide drinking water to Bengaluru and surrounding areas. Mekedatu padayatra has been taken out under 'Walk for Water' slogan and will cover 79.8 km from Ramnagar to Bengaluru. The protest march would culminate in the Basavanagudi National College Grounds on March 3. The party had earlier launched a 10-day Mekedatu padayatra on January 9 at the peak of third Covid wave. After the intervention of the High Court, the padayatra was stopped after four days. The police department has also lodged a slew of cases against Congress leaders then. I am excited to step into this new role and help guide Influx in its ongoing mission to elevate the standard of digital marketing services for private aesthetic practices. Erica Crawford Leading healthcare marketing agency, Influx Marketing, announced today that it has appointed Erica Crawford as its new President. The first to fill this position for Influx, Crawford will dedicate her time to overseeing the agencys industry and KOL relations, as well as developing strategic partnerships. I am excited to step into this new role and help guide Influx in its ongoing mission to elevate the standard of digital marketing services for private aesthetic practices, said Crawford. Im equally excited at the opportunity to positively impact and inspire other women leaders throughout the industry. Influx CEO, Adam Daniells, welcomed Crawford to her new position, noting her experience in public relations and business development. We are thrilled with what Erica brings to Influx as a leader. She has been an instrumental member of the Influx team, and we are confident that she will have an even bigger impact in this new capacity. About Influx Marketing Influx is a digital marketing agency focused on plastic surgery and aesthetic medicine. With a clientele that includes some of the top surgeons and medical spas in the nation, the company has built a name for its industry-leading web design and proven patient acquisition strategies. Influx also produces the popular aesthetics industry podcast The Technology of Beauty, hosted by Dr. Grant Stevens. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in Los Angeles and Tampa. Kim Thornton, MD "The election of Dr. Kim Thornton to the ASRM board is a testament to her passion for driving innovative reproductive healthcare enhancements across the USA, David Stern, MBA Chief Executive Officer, Boston IVF Boston IVF, a pioneer in reproductive healthcare and innovative research, is pleased to announce the election of staff reproductive endocrinologist Kim Thornton, MD to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Board of Directors. Dr. Thornton brings to the ASRM Board wide-ranging knowledge and leadership in all facets of fertility care, scientific research, industry policymaking, and addressing disparities in health care. She will serve alongside fellow board members to support the organizations mission of advancing reproductive medicine, its scientific standards, patient advocacy, education, and ethics across the United States. Along with her new role, Dr. Thornton will continue to serve as a member of the ASRM Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Task Force, which brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts in reproductive medicine to create actionable recommendations that aim to decrease barriers preventing women of color from accessing reproductive care. We are thrilled to have a leader of Dr. Thorntons caliber join our board. It is an exciting time for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and we look forward the many contributions she will make as we work to move the organization and the field forward, said Marcelle Cedars, MD President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Dr. Thornton, who joined Boston IVF as a reproductive endocrinologist in 1998, is also the Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. The election of Dr. Kim Thornton to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Board of Directors is a testament to her clinical leadership, skill, and passion for driving meaningful and innovative reproductive healthcare enhancements throughout the United States, said David Stern, MBA Chief Executive Officer of Boston IVF. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a highly-skilled expert like Dr. Thornton at Boston IVF and I have no doubt that ASRM will also benefit greatly from her valuable insights and experience as a board member. ABOUT BOSTON IVF Boston IVF is one of the largest and most experienced fertility networks in the United States, with more than 125,000 babies born since 1986. Founded as one of the nation's first private practice IVF centers, the Boston IVF network has grown to include over 30 reproductive endocrinologists across 30+ centers throughout Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, New York, Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, and Utah. A renowned innovator of reproductive technologies, advanced protocols, and cutting-edge research, Boston IVF has achieved numerous "firsts" in the field of reproductive care. Boston IVF's scientific and research arm continues to pave the way for breakthroughs in fertility care and its accredited REI Fellowship Program has graduated numerous reproductive endocrinologists as part of its mission to train the next generation of fertility experts. In 2019, this leading provider of fertility services in the United States was acquired by Eugin, one of the largest IVF networks in the world, with centers throughout Europe and South America. For more information, please visit http://www.bostonivf.com Noel McCullar, Head of People Operations at Chooch Computer Vision Platform Chooch, is pleased to announce that it is possible to create a diverse yet culturally-connected remote workforce even if your company is a hyper-growth software startup with employees living and working all over the world. Tools like Slack and Zoom were important. But the ultimate key to success in connecting remote workers was less about technology and more about people. This year when Chooch promoted Noel McCullar to Head of People Operations, everything started to come together. This unique role was created because the company believes in diversity and the power of hiring and promoting the best people anywhere in the world. Plus, the role was needed because the number of remote workers most of whom live and work outside of Silicon Valley and some of whom even live and work outside of the United States - tripled from 20 to 60, creating urgency to connect remote employees culturally. Noel McCullar was the ideal choice for the new Head of People Operations role. He had previously managed customer success at Google, Apple, and ZenDesk. And, Noel exemplified the company culture because he was one of the first employees at Chooch, where he wore several different hats before being tapped for his number one strength people. Noel put his people skills to use immediately and launched Friday Morning Weekly StandUps from 8-9am pacific time via Zoom. After fun exchanges, the Weekly StandUps begin with an update from the CEO on key achievements for the week. And, then Noel tees up the cultural topic for the rest of the meeting. Examples of this Months Culture-Building Weekly StandUps February is a culture-rich month and Choochs People Operations Leader helped the entire team learn and have fun about different cultures. For instance, to celebrate Black History Month, Noel hosted a Weekly StandUp to discuss Martin Luther Kings I have a Dream speech and talk about how to make that dream a reality. This month, Noel also hosted a 7-question competition on who knows the most about Chinese New Years traditions. Not surprisingly, an American-born Chinese employee won and did her culture proud. But the team learned a lot and had some fun competing. And, another Weekly Standup featured a short leadership video by Simon Sinek. Afterwards, participants were broken into smaller online groups to discuss what leadership was. Then, someone from each smaller team volunteered to share their findings with the whole team. Noel captured the discussion, which included several creative ways to celebrate leadership at all levels of the company including a monthly employee leadership award and using future Weekly StandUps to give shoutouts to people who exemplified leadership that week. Finally, Noel sent out an electronic recap so that all employees who were not able to attend receive the update. We believe in the potential power of every individual, said Emrah Gultekin, CEO and co-founder of Chooch. It takes a good environment to bring out individual contributions. We are pleased to be able to hire and promote talents like Noel, helping Chooch crack the code on culturally connecting our remote workers. About Chooch Chooch is the worlds leading full-lifecycle computer vision software platform that enables enterprises and ecosystem partners to replicate human visual tasks in any industry and deploy them anywhere accurately and rapidly. Choochs unique no-code, enterprise-ready computer vision software platform has been deployed at scale on-premise, in the cloud and on edge devices in multiple industries including manufacturing, logistics and warehousing, oil and gas, healthcare, public sector, workplace safety, media, and retail. Applications range widely from preventing workplace accidents to mask detection and social distancing compliance, safety equipment assurance, preventive maintenance of remote equipment, engaged buyer alerts, defect detection, facial authentication, and image quality control. MEDIA CONTACT: For more information or a technology demonstration, please visit http://www.chooch.ai or email press@chooch.ai. Ghirardelli Launches First-Ever Golden Square Campaign To celebrate its newly remodeled retail store at its headquarters, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, a leading manufacturer of premium chocolate products since 1852, is launching its first-ever Golden Square campaign which will award five winners and their guests an exclusive tour of the Ghirardelli chocolate manufacturing facility, which is not open and available to the public. As one of the few chocolate companies in the United States to control every aspect of its chocolate manufacturing process, winners of the sweepstakes will become immersed in the magical world of bean-to-bar chocolate on the exclusive tour. The winners will tour the factory, as chocolatiers provide a thorough education on how Ghirardellis famous chocolate is made, including the premium ingredients used and the type of equipment utilized. And finally, they will be treated to tasty samples and a supply of chocolate ($250 retail value per winner). Customers who visit the store, located at 1111 139th Avenue in San Leandro, California, will receive a Ghirardelli Square and details on how to enter the sweepstakes. The Golden Square Sweepstakes will run until May 22. For more information, visit https://www.ghirardelli.com/StoreLocations-SanLeandro The newly remodeled store now offers a full menu of soda fountain classics such as real ice cream shakes, traditional malts, and hot cocoas, as well as an assortment of ice cream sundaes topped with handmade hot fudge, and irresistible chocolate treats including chocolate chip cookies, decadent brownies, and dipped strawberries. Chocolate lovers can enjoy the full line of Ghirardelli baking bars, chips, and cocoas, and enjoy an exclusive selection of Ghirardelli chocolate gifts and limited edition packaging not available anywhere else, including several San Francisco inspired gifts. *Terms and Conditions apply. About The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company Ghirardelli is passionate about quality bean to bar chocolate, and all of the ways our fans enjoy it. Founded in San Francisco in 1852, we take pride in producing premium chocolate products with the highest quality ingredients. Ghirardelli is one of the few companies in America that controls the entire chocolate manufacturing process, from cocoa bean to finished product. This oversight of the manufacturing process combined with Ghirardelli's proprietary bean blend and unique methods of roasting and processing, ensures that you are rewarded with the highest quality and richest products. Ghirardelli makes life a bite better! For more information, visit http://www.ghirardelli.com/. ### Jeremys experience in building web and mobile platforms, especially in Fintech environments, was an immediate reason to get him to join,'' said David Sperau, co-founder and Autosleds Chief Revenue Officer. Autosled, the modern automotive digital retail logistics marketplace, announced the second in a series of strategic hires this week with the addition of Jeremy Wood to its leadership team. Wood joins Autosled as its Chief Technology Officer, as the company prepares for massive growth in its tech enabled auto logistics marketplace. In this role, he spearheads Autosleds product roadmap, strategic technology innovations and product development. Wood brings to Autosled over fifteen years of enterprise technology leadership with a significant focus on innovation, product growth strategy and technological transformation. He is an architect of cloud migration and modernization efforts - accomplished through adoption-driven process/workflow analysis and a rapid, iterative approach to integrated solutions. As an experienced builder of SaaS solutions for Financial Services and Healthcare, Wood brings a proven ability to quickly scale operations and product integration. Building on his experience as an infrastructure leader for BBVA bank, Jeremy spearheaded the expansion and diversification of digital services as the Chief Technology Officer for HC3, additionally leading organization-wide transformation to prepare for rapid scale. Most recently Jeremy has served through Stratiform Inc. as a fractional CIO/CTO for a number of startups and consulted as an AWS Partner Network member on cloud architecture projects for Seneca Resources and the United States Air Force. He also leads a nonprofit network of cloud technology groups focused on community-building and technology education initiatives. Jeremys experience in building web and mobile platforms, especially in Fintech environments, was an immediate reason to get him to join,'' said David Sperau, co-founder and Autosleds Chief Revenue Officer. His ability to build structure and processes will create a collaborative and effective culture for Autosled to revolutionize automotive logistics. About Autosled Autosled provides seamless digital vehicle shipment options for dealers, transporters, auctioneers, brokers, and individuals. As a tech first company, Autosleds web and phone platforms create a marketplace between shippers and transporters that are faster, cheaper and more reliable. Services include custom price quotes, secure online payments, electronic accounting and invoicing, online vehicle shipment scheduling, verified transporter insurance and a vetted network. Vehicles delivered through Autosled are trackable, with real-time GPS and communication with transporters throughout the process. For more information, visit: http://www.autosled.com/ Every single person it doesn't matter who you are, what you look like, what your name is should have access to the best possible services so that they can take their economic situation into their own hands and build a better future. -- NorthOne CEO and Co-Founder Eytan Bensoussan Black Connect, the only national, membership-based organization focused solely on eliminating the racial wealth gap through business ownership, announced that NorthOne, one of Americas leading banking apps for small business, has been awarded Corporate Partner of the Year during their 2022 Alliance Awards. The virtual event celebrated some of the biggest champions of racial justice and economic inclusion that supported the organization in 2021. NorthOne and Black Connect partnered in 2021 to provide more tools and resources built for Black entrepreneurs. The companies quickly found strong mission alignment in encouraging and supporting business ownership as a powerful driver for social and economic mobility. Beyond providing our entrepreneur and small business members with access to NorthOnes banking platform, said Angela Majette, Co-Founder and President of Black Connect, NorthOne has offered a variety of resources to the organization that have increased our capacity to assist more Black business owners around the country. Our members rave about the ease of NorthOnes sign up process and they are taking full advantage of NorthOnes Envelopes feature to better manage their money. Im so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate the team at NorthOne for going the extra mile to support Black Connect and our members. Eytan Bensoussan, Co-Founder and CEO of NorthOne, also shared his gratitude and appreciation for the award: I couldnt be prouder. Black Connect is such a mission aligned organization with our own. Every single person across America it doesn't matter who you are, what you look like, what your name is should have access to the best possible services so that they can take their economic situation into their own hands and build a better future. Black Connect is a critical piece of that puzzle, and it is a privilege to be working alongside them to empower entrepreneurs from the Black community across America. NorthOne is a technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank; Member FDIC. Black Connect members can join NorthOne and get $50 cash back when their account is opened and funded at https://blackconnect.org/northone. Join Black Connect at https://blackconnect.org/join. About NorthOne NorthOne provides American small businesses with a powerfully simple way to do their banking through NorthOnes app and website. Launched in 2019, NorthOne serves more than 320,000 small businesses across the U.S. and is backed by Battery Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, and Tom Williams. The companys headquarters are in New York with additional offices in San Francisco, Portland and Toronto. To learn more, visit northone.com. NorthOne is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank, Member FDIC. About Black Connect Blackconnect.org is proud to be the only national 501(c)(3) membership and chapter-based organization dedicated solely to eliminating the racial wealth gap in America by increasing the number and success rate of Black-owned businesses. Membership is open to any individual or entity that supports the mission. In addition to programs and services, we partner with Blackconnect.com to provide our members with a tools-based business and social network that enables entrepreneurial activities and promotes the socioeconomic growth and empowerment of the Black community. Download the Black Connect mobile app for Android in Google Play and IOS in the App Store. For more information contact press@northone.com Douglas Sweets has achieved a major milestone this month: the women-owned Scottish shortbread company is celebrating ten years in business. Founded in the Green Mountains of Vermont by Debra Townsend, Douglas Sweets started in Townsends home kitchen, distributing to local co-ops and independent markets. Today Douglas Sweets operates out of a 1,200 square foot bakery facility and distributes to shortbread fans across the country. The traditional Scottish shortbread cookies are sold in more than 200 stores nationwide in addition to Douglas Sweets online store that ships throughout the United States. The past ten years have been filled with both challenges and successes for our small business, and we are forever grateful for the continued support we see each day, said Townsend. We are shamelessly proud of our product and intentionally deliberate with all of our choices from our ingredients to our packaging to our retailers. In 2021 we achieved our longtime goal of going nationwide through our retailers and our online store, which wouldnt have been possible without all of the shortbread lovers out there who support our business. We cant wait to see what 2022 has in store for us! Over the past decade, Douglas Sweets has grown leaps and bounds as a company: In order to keep up with product demand, the business scaled up from an at-home bakery to a state-of-the-art commercial bakery facility in Shelburne, Vermont where it operates today. Expanded its online store to ship more than 25 products anywhere in the United States, and expanded its retail distribution to include over 200 stores in 41 states across the country. Tested hundreds of new recipes and launched a new product line featuring a more buttery, crisp shortbread texture reflective of traditional Scottish shortbread and seven new shortbread flavors. Introduced a new logo and new packaging designed by young female artist Leyre San Miguel. The intent of the rebrand was to celebrate Douglas Sweets evolution as a company and convey the origins, core value and identity of the business. Each flavor of shortbread features resealable packaging with a unique color and original artwork. The idea for Douglas Sweets was sparked in 2010 when Townsend put her cherished family shortbread recipe to work to create homemade Christmas gifts for friends and family. For the first few years, Townsend worked out of her home kitchen to distribute shortbread to local co-ops and independent markets in her county. In 2016, Townsends daughter, Hannah Townsend Allain, joined the business as co-owner and the pair worked tirelessly to move the business into a brand new bakery facility. Since then, the small but mighty team has focused on scaling up their baking process, creating unique and delicious products and taking on new retail customers across the country. To learn more about Douglas Sweets or to find out where its products are sold near you, visit DouglasSweets.com. About Douglas Sweets Founded in 2012, Douglas Sweets is a Scottish shortbread company based in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The women-owned business made up of a mother-daughter duo has introduced traditional Scottish shortbread with a unique twist of chocolate, spice and exciting flavors. Using a family recipe perfected in the 1950s paired with high-grade local ingredients, Douglas Sweets creates delicious products intended to be enjoyed with friends and family. http://www.douglassweets.com @douglassweets ### Megan Thee Stallion and AmazeVR are announcing Enter Thee Hottieverse, a 10-city VR Concert Tour My hotties will get to watch me perform in a completely different and unique way and I appreciate the AmazeVR team for helping me to bring this VR vision to life. I cant wait to see the Hotties show up to the tour. Today, AmazeVR and Megan Thee Stallion announced Enter Thee Hottieverse, the first-ever virtual reality concert tour that will take place in 10 cities across the United States between April and July 2022. Upon purchasing tickets at AmazeVR.com, fans will be able to go to their local movie theater, put on the provided Hottie Mounted Displays (VR headsets), settle in, and hang out in the VR Hottieverse lobby before watching Megan. The VR concert performance will feature a multi-song set that moves through a series of environments as well as hot custom wardrobes designed just for the show. Virtual reality has always been an interest of mine and Im glad that well be able to make history with this experience, Megan said. My hotties will get to watch me perform in a completely different and unique way and I appreciate the AmazeVR team for helping me to bring this VR vision to life. I cant wait to see the Hotties show up to the tour. We are thrilled to work with Megan to launch AmazeVRs very first VR Concert Tour, says Ernest Lee, Amaze VR co-CEO. Shes an artist who has incredible stage presence and can create iconic moments that will make the most of the VR technology were developing. If anyone could push the notion of how captivating a VR concert can be, its Megan. AmazeVR has spent years reimagining music experiences for VR. Their approach incorporates high-definition, hyper-real 3D live-action capture of mesmerizing artists like Megan, with sophisticated computer-generated worlds that spring to life in VR. Its not a concert film via headset or a cartoonish avatar playing music. Its the perfect balance between reality and imagination fans will love. To make sure every Hottie has access to a high-quality, shared experience, AmazeVR is working with movie theaters to bring VR to fans, providing everything they need to enjoy this VR concert safely. The AmazeVR staff will uphold the highest preventative standards to ensure the safety of guests and fellow staff members and comply fully with all local COVID regulations. Headsets and the theater will be sanitized thoroughly before and after every showing. Not everyone owns a headset, and not everyone can make it to their favorite artists live show, says Lee. A VR Concert by AmazeVR opens up the possibilities for fans to encounter artists in a completely new way, while knocking down all the barriers to entry that have made it hard to access the amazing experiences VR can provide. AmazeVR will be showcasing a preview of the tour next month at SXSW as an official selection. For more information on ticketing, cinema locations and more, please visit AmazeVR.com. Enter Thee Hottieverse US Tour 2022 Los Angeles April 5-10 San Francisco April 21-24 Chicago May 5-8 Dallas May 12-15 Houston May 19-22 Atlanta May 26-29 Miami June 2-5 Charlotte June 16-19 Washington DC June 23-26 New York June 30-July 3 About AmazeVR AmazeVR is a VR concert platform company that brings fans closer to artists than ever before. Headquartered in LA with offices in Seoul, AmazeVR creates experiences with renowned, bold artists, featuring crystal clarity and unprecedented proximity through live-action 3D footage combined with environments using a proprietary Unreal Engine-based VFX pipeline. AmazeVR creates VR concerts in fantastical new worlds that are widely accessible to fans, distributing through movie theaters and eventually at-home VR. For more information, visit AmazeVR.com. MAP (Member Access Processing) MAP, a credit union-owned issuer and processor, produces the Happiness Payment Report annually. The report measures how credit union executives feel about their credit and debit programs and how important those programs are to their institutions success. 2021 MAP Happiness Payment Report from Member Access Processing (MAP), the nations leading provider of the Visa DPS Debit, Credit, ATM, Prepaid, and Mobile Processing platform, showed a significant drop in Happiness with card processing providers. While a majority of respondents stated they were Very Happy with their debit (50.94%) and credit (50.94%) programs, the credit unions Happiness with their processor dropped 10 points for debit and nearly 12-points for credit from 2020. MAP, a credit union-owned issuer and processor, produces the Happiness Payment Report annually. The report measures how credit union executives feel about their credit and debit programs and how important those programs are to their institutions success. The ability to adjust and respond to credit unions is vitally important to helping credit unions meet the needs of their members, said Cyndie Martini, President and CEO of MAP. The true value of a solid card processing relationship reveals itself during a crisis. MAPs enduring relationship with our clients comes from our commitment to serving the credit union staff as they would serve their members. The reasons for the drop in Happiness with card processing providers is observable in a drop in engagement and the ease with which a credit union can talk to a provider via phone or email. In 2021, more than half of the respondents stated that their processing provider was Very Engaged towards the success of their programs, debit (54.25%) and credit (51.42%), signifying a 10-point drop for debit and a seven-point drop for credit from the prior year. The challenge for credit unions to gain access to their providers was also substantially lower in 2021. For the first time, the majority of respondents found it only Somewhat easy to talk to their provider via phone or email for debit (47.64%) and for credit (48.11%). This represented a nine-point drop from Very easy to Somewhat easy for debit and a 12-point drop from Very easy to Somewhat easy for credit. During the month of December 2021, the MAP Happiness Payment Report surveyed 223 credit union executives in the U.S. about their debit and credit payment providers. Respondents were executives and department directors in the areas of credit union operations, card management, risk management, Lending, Finance, and IT. To view the studys full report, please click here. # # # About Member Access Processing (MAP) Member Access Processing (MAP) is the nations only card processing aggregator of the Visa Debit Processing Service platform for credit unions. MAPs special role in the marketplace provides our client credit unions the unique opportunity to leverage the technology, security, and service of Visa for their members. MAP is a subsidiary of Currence Payment Solutions, a Credit Union Service Organization, with an unrivaled commitment to the credit union movement, where credit union are valued first and foremost. Working directly with Visa, MAP offers customized, turn-key Debit, Credit, ATM, Mobile, Prepaid-Reloadable, and Gift solutions all supported by MAPs five-star training, support and service. LeRoy Parker has completed his new book King: The Beginning of a Movement: an intricate account of Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs story the fight for integration and civil rights as told through the voice of Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis, who recounts his tale to his granddaughter for a school project. As Parker writes, Johns granddaughter asks Grandpa Louie what made him decided to get involved in the movement. John tells her that at a young age, he had a calling to fight for the equal rights of all people. It started in 1955, when for the first time, he heard Dr. King on the radio and he knew Dr. King was speaking the truth about freedom and equality for all. I was eighteen when I first met Dr. King. I believed in his message and wanted to follow him, John says. John asks his grandbaby if she knows whats special about today. Its Martin Luther King Jr.s birthday, but I really dont know a lot about Martin Luther King Jr., Tamika says sadly. What a great man. Dr. King and I stood together in solidarity for equal rights for all people. We got into good trouble. Published by Page Publishing, LeRoy Parkers irreverent tale highlights the personal aspects of the Civil Rights Movements, painting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott as both activists and people with complex lives and emotions. Readers will come to better understand the fight Black Americans undertook to fight against injustices which still continues to this day. Readers who wish to experience this inspiring work can purchase King: The Beginning of a Movement at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. When we make these small yeses into habitual yeses, we surrender the three faculties of our souls to God. Author Deacon Francis G. King, Ph.D., has published his first book, Indescribable: In Your Will is Our Peace, which teaches Catholics and other Christians about Gods truth: His goodness and His love, through quotes from Scripture and teachings of the church and saints. King explains all of this to readers in an easily approachable manner, through ordinary experiences in life, while challenging them at the end of each chapter to surrender to God. For the first 50 years of his life, King lived as if God was nowhere. However, he felt God telling him to write this book in 2008, after experiencing divine peace at Medjugorje, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina known as a place of Catholic pilgrimage since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared in 1981. King, prompted by the Holy Spirit, was able to identify and focus on what he felt compelled to write. We must learn to listen, trust and obey God, King said, while describing his journey to Medjugorje and the Apparition Hill. Then we can say yes in our mind to Gods love and goodness, one decision at a time; in our will to completely trust him, one action at a time; and in our heart to make him number one in our lives, one incident at a time. When we make these small yeses into habitual yeses, we surrender the three faculties of our souls to God. Indescribable: In Your Will is Our Peace By Deacon Francis G. King Ph.D. ISBN: 978-1-6642-2456-8 (softcover); 978-1-6642-2457-5 (e-book) Available through West Bow Press, Barnes & Noble and Amazon About the author Francis King received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976. He later obtained a Master of Theology and Master of Pastoral Studies degrees at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, Michigan, in 2012. He is a Deacon at St. Regis Catholic Parish in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, ordained in 2012. He has pursued several career paths throughout his lifetime, including working in the automotive industry at Ford Motor Company, where he worked in automated test equipment, robotics and assembly engineering. He was an assistant professor of Mathematics at Fordham University and holds seven patents. He co-authored Process Improvement Simplified, and published articles in the Encyclopedia of Robotics at NATOs Advanced Science Institute Series. He has a loving wife, Lucy, and the couple shares two children, Anthony and Rebecca, and five grandchildren. General Inquiries, Review Copies & Interview Requests: LAVIDGE Lindsey Gobel 317.435.2116 | lgobel@lavidge.com BrightStar Care a nationwide home care and medical staffing franchise known for providing a higher standard of in-home care, announced today that Pete First has been promoted to Chief Development Officer. After serving as BrightStar Cares Senior Vice President Franchise Development since 2018, where he grew the number of locations to 365, he is now taking the next step in his career entering the C-Suite. As Chief Development Officer, First will be responsible for recruiting new franchise owners for all three brands under the BrightStar Group Holdings umbrella: BrightStar Care, BrightStar Senior Living, and BrightStar Care Homes and will lead operations for start-up brands, BrightStar Senior Living, and BrightStar Care Homes. First will also support the brand's expansion into new markets and territories, bringing opportunities for better experiences for clients in our communities. Firsts promotion comes after taking on an expanded role over sales and operations for the BrightStar Senior Living brand and most recently for expanding the BrightStar Care Homes program. In addition, Firsts promotion also comes on heels of his stellar franchise development track record for BrightStar Care overall. "Im excited to be stepping into the role of Chief Development Officer of BrightStar Care. For the past four years, the BrightStar Care franchise development team has worked incredibly hard to grow the brands national presence, Im ready to continue leading this team with resiliency and passion," said Pete First, Chief Development Officer of BrightStar Care. Ive witnessed firsthand the tremendous company growth over the years and especially throughout the pandemic, and I am prepared to continue that trajectory in my new role." As we celebrate 20 years of BrightStar Care, were so excited to name Pete First as Chief Development Officer. Pete came to BrightStar Care with more than two decades of franchise experience under his belt and he quickly took the brand to new heights, said Shelly Sun, founder and CEO and of BrightStar Care. I am thrilled to be welcoming Pete to the C-Suite, and no one is more qualified and equipped to run our franchise development team and efforts and continue the growth of our two newest brands, BrightStar Senior Living and BrightStar Care Homes, than he is. Under Firsts leadership, BrightStar Care has implemented innovative systems to successfully attract new franchisees and expanded operations into underserved markets and new untapped territories. In 2021 BrightStar Care grew from 340 nationwide locations to more than 365 locations and in 2022 the brand ranked on Entrepreneur Magazines Franchise 500 list for the twelfth consecutive year. First also led the brand to be named Top Franchise by Franchise Business Review, rank on Forbes Top Ten Franchises Under $150,000 Initial Investment and hes led the brand to consistently rank on Franchise Times Top 400 list. Prior to joining BrightStar Care, First spent 14 years at Winmark Corporation. During his tenure at Winmark, the system grew to more than 1,200 locations across North America. First has extensive experience and knowledge about navigating the franchise landscape and executing strategic franchise development campaigns. Moving into this new role he will embrace technology and leverage data to sustainably grow BrightStar Cares operations and ensure current markets receive high-level support and continue to thrive. About BrightStar Care (Franchise): BrightStar Care is a national home care and medical staffing franchise headquartered in Chicago with more than 365 locations nationwide which provide medical and non-medical services to clients in their homes, as well as supplemental care staff to corporate clients. BrightStar Care operates with five separate revenue streams allowing franchisees uncapped earning potential. Over the last 20 years, Founder and CEO Shelly Sun has built BrightStar Care from a local business into a $639 million nationally recognized brand using a franchise model built for sustainable growth. In addition, BrightStar Care is the only national home care franchise to receive The Joint Commission's Enterprise Champion for Quality award every year since the award's inception. Other prestigious BrightStar Care accolades include making Entrepreneurs Franchise 500 list for eleven consecutive years, ranking on Franchise Business Review's Top Franchise for 2021 list, and Franchise Times Top 400 list for 2021. For more information on BrightStar Care please visit http://www.brightstarfranchising.com Introduced by our company in 2018, the Beacon Scholarship supports the American dream that every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through diligence, perseverance and initiative, even if there are limitations due to the cost of education. The Fall 2022 Beacon Scholarship awarded two students $1,000 each. Graduating high school seniors, current college students and adult learners with a GPA of 3.0 or higher who planned to enroll in an accredited college program applied. Applicants were required to reside in a rural area, meet low-income criteria and provide an essay about how they showed patriotism through their community involvement. It was important to Carrot-Top Industries that the winners met all of the requirements mentioned above while also showing they have clear goals for their future education and community involvement. Each applicant had their own unique way of showing patriotism through their community activities, but they were all aware that their individual acts of kindness and selflessness were for the greater good of their community as well as their nation. We are excited to help rural, low-income students meet their educational goals, so they can make a positive contribution to Americas future. The Beacon Scholarship celebrates the American dream of individuality, equal opportunity, hard work and determination, said Liz Morris, Carrot-Top Industries CEO. Meet The Winners! We are pleased to announce the two winners of our Spring 2022 Beacon Scholarship for Rural America Maria Pytlik of Brainard, Neb., and Payton Deichler of Utopia, Texas. Both Pytlik and Deichler are shining examples of patriotism and the belief in the American dream that continues to thrive in rural communities today. Meet Maria Pytlik Maria Pytliks hometown of Brainard, Neb., is a village of less than 500 residents. An average size village in that area of rural Nebraska, Brainard has no grocery store and no gas station apart from two pumps supplied by a local cooperative. The closest grocery store is 15 to 20 minutes away in David City, Neb. Ptyliks high school was also a 20-minute drive away. Pytlik is a sophomore at Hastings College in Hastings, Neb. She is majoring in music education and trumpet performance. After completing her bachelors degree, she plans to continue her education in music in order to achieve her dream of being a professional orchestral trumpet player with her own teaching studio. Music is my passion and I love being able to spread joy and help others through my music, Pytlik said. I plan on continuing to reach out and help others by working on searching for and finding new ways to serve the community with my music. Pytlik wants to pass along to others the encouragement she receives to keep her motivated for pursuing her dream. I am always willing to reach out a helping hand to those that need it and do what it takes to motivate them to keep going and keep trying even though it might seem impossible at the moment, she said. I hope in doing so they feel inspired to do the same and continue the spread of positivity. Here are excerpts from Ptyliks essay on showing patriotism through community involvement: Giving back to my community and my country has always been something Ive striven to do in my life and have always deeply cared about. I have many family members that are veterans in the military which has inspired me to find my own way to serve my country and given me a passion for community service. Most of my service work has been geared towards helping and giving back to veterans since they have given so much to me and my country. Ive done this by playing taps for military funerals and bugle calls for military services, free of charge. Ive played at over 50 military ceremonies, including retirement ceremonies, tractor pulls, Veterans Day services, funerals, Memorial Day services, etc. I believe that one of the core values of community service is to serve out of the goodness of your heart and a passion for others, while expecting nothing in exchange. I will be forever grateful to veterans for the service theyve done. It inspires me to serve my community and country in my own way. This is why I will continue, for as long as I am able, to offer my services and talent to veterans and the community in order to thank them for all theyve given and their own impressive patriotism. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. Meet Payton Deichler Payton Deichlers hometown of Utopia, Texas, is a small rural community on the edge of the Texas Hill Country. Its population is less than 300. What makes my community unique and interesting is that the name of the town really does represent what the area is like, Deichler said. I truly live in paradise, surrounded by majestic hills in every direction and with the crystal-clear waters of the Sabinal River running through the middle of it. In Fall 2022, Deichler will be attending Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas, where he will double major in finance and Spanish. He will participate in the Pre-Law Scholars and Hilltop Scholars Honors programs. After completing his bachelors degree, he plans to attend law school. Whenever I see an opportunity to make someone's life better and more enjoyable, I will take it, Deichler said. I am an initiative-taker, and I will not only work hard to achieve my dreams but will also work hard for others to be able to accomplish theirs. Making his community a better place motivates Deichler to pursue his goals and dreams, a value he hopes to instill in those younger than him. I hope I have been able to inspire others to do the same by organizing and leading food drives and by taking a deep interest in the needs of those in my community and speaking out for them, he said. Deichler shows patriotism in his community by his demonstration of loyalty and dedication through such acts as: Paytons Snack Shack providing free nutritious snacks to any student who wants or needs them Utopia Holiday Food Drive Keep Utopia Beautiful projects Wounded Warrior Project, Wreaths Across America and other projects benefiting veterans Tutoring students Here are excerpts from Deichlers essay on showing patriotism through community involvement: To be patriotic and respect the military has been reinforced in my community and by my family, since I was young. This is an integral part of who I am today. Patriotism is loosely defined as the intense attachment to ones homeland and the overwhelming pride and respect that one has for those who have served it. Patriotism is a duty that should be conducted in respect for the nation and those who have fallen in service of this nation. Each year I participate in organizations and events that help spread my love of my country and the appreciation for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in protection of it. Patriotism is the love that one shows for its country and the respect for those who have served and died in the name of the nation. I genuinely believe that it is the duty of every American to understand what has been given, on our behalf, in the name of freedom for our nation, and to know just how much has been sacrificed for the country that we live in. Both Pytlik and Deichler appreciate how much the Beacon Scholarship will help them with their education. I am the oldest of six children in my family and am completely financially responsible for funding my education, Pytlik said. This scholarship will help me afford to continue my education as I pursue a bachelors degree in music education and trumpet performance and my dream of one day becoming a professional orchestral musician. Deichler commented, This scholarship will help pave the way for my dreams and has not only greatly benefited me but also my community. If you know of any deserving students who would qualify for our Beacon Scholarship for Rural America, have them send an email to scholarship at carrot-top.com to apply. Upcoming application deadlines for the 2021-2022 Beacon Scholarship for Rural America are: Fall 2022 Scholarships: June 30, 2022 Spring 2023 Scholarship: November 30, 2022 James Magid, vice president, FirstService Residential We are thrilled that Jims efforts in support of CAI-NJ are being recognized, said Michael Mendillo, president, FirstService Residential. Jim is an incredible representation of our company as he embraces our culture, core values and commitment to excellence for the communities we serve. FirstService Residential, the leading property management company in North America, announced that the companys vice president, James Magid, CMCA, PCAM is the recipient of the 2022 Hall of Fame Award from the New Jersey chapter of the Community Associations Institute (CAI-NJ). The award recognized his industry excellence and outstanding dedication to the chapter and was presented at the chapters annual awards celebration on February 24. We are thrilled that Jims tremendous efforts in support of New Jerseys CAI chapter are being recognized and celebrated, said Michael Mendillo, president, FirstService Residential. Jim is an incredible representation of FirstService Residential as he embraces our culture, core values and commitment to excellence for the communities we serve. Magid has been with FirstService Residential for over 25 years has over 35 years of property management experience. He is responsible for the executive-level oversight of the team that serves condo/homeowner associations throughout New Jersey. Over the past 35 years, Magid has served on several NJ chapter committees and as its Chapter President in 2005. In addition, Magid has sat on the NJ Chapter of the CAI National Legislative Action Committee (LAC) for 10 years. The LAC is a volunteer committee consisting of homeowners and professionals serving community associations and advocates to identify community associations issues, monitor pending legislation and set legislative priorities. In addition, the committee builds relationships with and educates state legislators, providing invaluable advice when community association issues arise. Magid and his fellow committee members were also honored with the Committee of the Year award at this event. Further, Magid served on the CAI National Association of Professional Community Managers (APCM) Board for a three-year term and is currently serving a second two-year term on the Community Association Managers International Board of Commissioners (CAMICB). This international organization administers the CMCA designation. We are ecstatic that CAI recognized Jim for his endless dedication to the industry through his involvement with the organization, said Donna Fiore, senior vice president, Condo/HOA, FirstService Residential. Congratulations to Jim on this well-deserved honor. The first Hall of Fame Award was presented to Samuel Hager in 1988, 10 years after the NJ chapter was incorporated. For the past 24 years, they have honored members who served the chapter over an extended period of years and consistently serve and value the chapter and its leaders. http://www.fsresidential.com About FirstService Residential FirstService Residential is North Americas property management leader, partnering with more than 8,500 communities across the U.S. and Canada, including low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives; single-family communities; master-planned, lifestyle and active-adult communities; and mixed-use and rental properties. HOAs, community associations and condos rely on their extensive experience, resources and local expertise to maximize property values and enhance their residents lifestyles. Dedicated to making a difference, every day, FirstService Residential goes above and beyond to deliver exceptional service. FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (FSV), a North American leader in the property services sector. Visit http://www.fsresidential.com. The nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) the nations leading source on parasitic diseases that threaten the health of pets and people released its annual 2022 Pet Parasite Forecast. CAPCs 2022 Pet Parasite Forecast is critical to alerting pet owners to the risks this year and reinforcing CAPCs recommendation that all pets need to be annually tested and protected year-round. The nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) the nations leading source on parasitic diseases that threaten the health of pets and people today released its annual 2022 Pet Parasite Forecast. CAPCs 2022 forecast warns that vector-borne diseases heartworm, Lyme, ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis will all pose higher-than-average risks across much of the country this year. Recognized as the global expert in forecasting vector-borne diseases of U.S. companion animals, CAPC also publishes corresponding 30-day Pet Parasite Forecast Maps to complement the annual forecast and to alert pet owners of impending outbreaks on a monthly basis in every county across the United States. In its 2022 annual forecast, CAPC reports that heartworm disease, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, and tick-borne diseases Lyme, ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis, continue to spread throughout the United States. Risks have increased due to rehoming of pets, as well as changes in: Distribution and prevalence of vector (mosquito and tick) populations; Shifting wildlife populations and their incursion into newly developed and reclaimed areas Short- and long-term changes in climatic conditions Changes in habitat due to natural or human-induced processes The 2022 forecasts supported by ongoing research by parasitologists and statisticians in leading academic institutions across the United States highlight areas where more should be done to lower the risk of companion animals exposure to disease vectors, such as mosquito and ticks. The foundation of these prevention strategies are recommendations that veterinarians and pet owners test their pets annually for disease and protect their pets with products that kill/or repel mosquitos and ticks, as well as year-round heartworm prevention. Because of the zoonotic potential of parasites, we started providing our annual forecasts to alert communities to the risk they pose to people and pets locally, says Dr. Christopher Carpenter, DVM and Chief Executive Officer of CAPC. Over the years, weve seen the risk for parasitic diseases increase and expand into areas that have had historically lower prevalence. CAPCs 2022 Pet Parasite Forecast is critical to alerting pet owners to the risks this year and reinforcing CAPCs recommendation that all pets need to be annually tested and protected year-round. For 2022, CAPCs 2022 Pet Parasite Forecast predicts the following risk areas for parasite-related diseases: Heartworm Forecast 2022: According to CAPC, the risk of acquiring heartworm disease in 2022 is very real due to the expansive nature of the disease. Mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of the parasite that causes heartworm disease, which can be deadly to pets. This increase in heartworm prevalence can be attributed to several factors including warmer and humid weather patterns that create ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes; transportation of companion animals from one area of the country to another; and pet owners who dont administer parasite preventatives 12 months of the year. Infection with heartworm, which causes a potentially fatal disease, is expected to be higher than average along the Mississippi river, throughout the southern portions of the Midwest, and along the Atlantic coast north into Virginia and southern New Jersey. The prevalence of heartworm continues to increase in the mid-Atlantic region, pushing northward into the densely populated regions of the northeast. The number and diversity of mosquitoes teamed with the population densities of the region support that heartworm infections are more likely to affect the health of increasing numbers of dogs in those areas. Additional areas likely to experience increased risk include the southwest (New Mexico and southern Arizona), large portions of Colorado and Kansas, and the northern Great Plains. As reported last year, forecast of increased risk continues in northern California, Idaho and eastern Montana. Much of the upper Midwest and the Northeast will have little change, perhaps indicating that increased emphasis on vector control and compliant heartworm prevention are having an impact in these regions. Its important to remember that areas of increased risk are likely to remain in some areas within these regions. Veterinarians and pet owners in states with historically lower prevalence are cautioned about the increasing risk of heartworm infection. This is particularly important in Indiana, central and northern Illinois, southern Iowa, and lower Michigan and Ohio in the Great Lakes region. The intriguing increase in risk reported last year in much of central and southern Florida remains. The pandemic of 2020 may have affected pet disease prevention strategies such as veterinary visits and testing in Florida and other regions of emerging risk. Very few regions are expected to have lower-than-average prevalence. It is important to remember that changes in local environments could create risks that might not be evident in the broader regional forecasts. Annual testing and year-round use of preventive products remains the best means of providing comprehensive internal and external parasite control. Lyme Forecast 2022: CAPC also predicts that Lyme disease, a potentially fatal disease for pets, is expanding quickly. Transmitted by ticks, Lyme disease is spreading due to the expansion of tick host habitat range, primarily deer and rodents, and migratory birds carrying ticks to new areas. Warmer weather and longer seasons for tick reproduction is also a factor. Veterinarians and pet owners should test pets annually and use tick preventatives year-round. A vaccination for Lyme disease should always be considered for pets in high-risk areas. The geographic prevalence of Lyme disease continues to expand southward and westward. CAPC expects increases beyond last years forecasts in eastern Kentucky, northeastern Tennessee, western Michigan, and Ohio. High-risk hot-spots are again predicted in northern and western lower Michigan, and southern and northeastern Ohio. High risks of Lyme disease persist in all portions of the Northeast, the upper mid-western states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and the upper peninsula of Michigan. A higher-than-normal risk continues in North Dakota, northeastern South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and eastern Kentucky. The southward movement of Lyme disease is also evident in the increasing risk in the Carolinas and Tennessee. Higher risk areas in east central South Carolina and most of coastal North Carolina appear for the first time in the 2022 forecast. These emerging threats validate and emphasize CAPC reminders that pets and pet owners do not have to travel to the traditional endemic areas of the Northeast to encounter substantial Lyme disease risks. Ehrlichiosis Forecast 2022 Ehrlichiosis, transmitted by ticks, is expected to be above normal for the majority of the United States, with some interesting emerging risk areas. The forecasted risks of Ehrlichiosis remain high throughout the coastal Atlantic states, as well as in central California, northern Idaho and western Montana. Risks also continue in Colorado and Wyoming. Emerging new species of Ehrlichia have complicated the prevalence maps in parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and should emphasize the need for testing and prevention in these areas. Considering the widespread prevalence of Ehrlichia throughout the U.S., the continued use of acaricides, routine examination of pets for the presence of ticks, with prompt removal, remains imperative. Testing of symptomatic pets can help monitor the prevalence of ehrlichiosis and also reinforce the use of tick-control products. Anaplasmosis Forecast 2022 Anaplasmosis, also transmitted by ticks, poses major risks for pets in the Northeast and upper Midwest. Higher-than-average risk continues in portions of Virginia, West Virginia, and Texas. These areas have historically had a lower risk of exposure, so veterinarians and pet owners should remain vigilant. Like Ehrlichia, the presence of more than one species of Anaplasma in some areas can create confusion, particularly in asymptomatic pets. Aggressive and compliant tick control can help eliminate some of the confusion. Veterinarians in these regions should reinforce year-round use of tick preventives and pet owners should regularly check their dogs for ticks. Annual testing can aid in assessing risk for dogs in high-risk areas. Pet owners and veterinarians who want to monitor parasitic disease risk in their county throughout the year now have access to 30-Day Pet Parasite Forecast Maps at http://www.petdiseasealerts.org. These maps, developed exclusively by CAPC, provide a local forecast for every county in the continental United States and are updated on a monthly basis. This free service informs pet owners about the continuous risk in their local communities reminds them about the importance of annual parasite testing and year-round parasite protection. In addition, CAPC is the first and only organization to forecast flea activity across the United States. Updated daily, the Flea Forecast Maps display flea activity nationally based on environmental conditions. The Flea Forecasts also offer a unique look at the historical movement of fleas in a rolling 12-month time-lapse video. This compelling video shows changes in flea activity over the previous 12-month period. One of the most common external parasites of dogs and cats, fleas cause discomfort, allergic reactions in pets and are a source of disease in humans. The Flea Forecasts are a strong reminder to pet owners to protect pets year-round with flea control products, limiting infestations on pets and preventing establishment of flea populations in the home. For more information about the Companion Animal Parasite Council visit http://www.capcvet.org. To view local 30-Day Pet Parasite Forecast Maps and the daily Flea Forecast, visit http://www.petdiseasealerts.org. How the forecasts are created The annual CAPC Pet Parasite Forecasts are a collaborative effort from parasitologists and statisticians in leading academic institutions across the United States who engage in ongoing research and data interpretation to better understand and monitor vector-borne disease agent transmission and changing life cycles of parasites. The forecasts are based on many factors including temperature, precipitation, and population density. About the Companion Animal Parasite Council The Companion Animal Parasite Council (http://www.capcvet.org) is an independent not-for-profit foundation comprised of parasitologists, veterinarians, medical, public health and other professionals that provides information for the optimal control of internal and external parasites that threaten the health of pets and people. Formed in 2002, CAPC works to help veterinary professionals and pet owners develop the best practices in parasite management that protect pets from parasitic infections and reduce the risk of zoonotic parasite transmission. Curtis Parris has completed his new book As The Wayward Wind Blows, an enthralling volume of well-versed poetry that will surely speak to its readers. Parris is gifted with the ability to convey a variety of human emotions, cleverly using ordinary words to create poems that feed ones soul. This passionate poetry compilation displays Parris ability to carefully craft poetic phrases. His way of giving life to words is both a blessing and a curse. As he ventures around the universe within his own mind, Parris makes observations on love, life, belonging, existence, loss, sorrow, and demise. A retired firefighter, EMT, husband, father, and devout evangelical Christian born into a poor family of sharecroppers in rural Alabama, Parris shares his real-world experiences of living through eight culturally-defining decades. Parris also suffers from anxiety and depression; thus, the compelling need to let out his internal struggles through poetry. This incredible collection is truly a remarkable experience. From the liner notes: This book marks the first time the poetry of Curtis Wayne Parris appears in print. The poems were selected to showcase Parris mastery of verse and provide readers with a broad range of poetic styles from Parris diverse catalog. Readers should be advised and forewarned that they are about to enter into a world of hauntingly beautiful prose and verse that spans the spectrum of human emotion, from zeniths of bliss to nadirs of sorrow. In his cosmic meanderings, Parris wanders through psychedelic dreamscapes of sublime beauty but also descends into the deepest gorges of despair. Through linguistic alchemy, Parris skillfully blends subject, sound, syntax, and syncopation to create naturally rhythmic poems charged with pure emotion. Blessed with a gift for alliteration and cadence, Parris uses simple, everyday words to convey the most intimate and horrifying details of his life. Parris does not seek exposure nor notoriety, for he lives in a world of night, of moonscapes and shadows. Instead, Parris writes because he has a tempest inside. Parris injects metaphysical concepts into his poems, frequently traveling through time, space, and other dimensions as he explores the mysterious universe within his mind. In these respects, his poems can touch upon ancient nerves; for we are all, to some degree or another, just fellow travelers in time, journeying through life, seeking solace, and awaiting final destinations. Into this abstract poetic tapestry, Parris weaves his observations on life, death, religion, and politics. Come along and take a journey through the land of dreams. Readers who wish to experience this sweeping work can purchase As The Wayward Wind Blows at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. 2022 Nissan Sentra The finance team of Glendale Nissan will work with various banks and lending institutions to tailor a loan package that is just right for the customers In the form, customers are required to mention their names, phone numbers, email and address. After that, they will have to mention the details about the type of vehicle they wish to buy. They have to provide the dealership with the make, model, year, trim level of their choice of vehicle. Once that is done, the customers have to mention further details about their home address, home-ownership status, etc. Buyers can also include a co-applicant, who has to provide relevant details about him/her as well. After the form is filled out, customers can just hit send. One of the team members of the dealership will come into contact with the customers to take the loan application process forward. The finance team of Glendale Nissan will work with various banks and lending institutions to tailor a loan package that is just right for the customers. Furthermore, they also have the option of trading in their old vehicle and using the cash to offset the loan amount. Customers are at liberty to choose any vehicle that is available in the dealerships inventory. Therefore, all parties are requested to visit https://www.glendalenissan.com/ or call 630-469-6100 for more information. They can also visit the dealership in person at 484 E North Avenue Glendale Heights, IL 60139. Bullying affects all youth, including those who are bullied, those who bully others and those who witness bullying... Childrens author Lesley Millard Zafran, along with expert collaborators Tara Kellogg, LMFT, and Dr. Cinda Kane, announced the latest installment of their Fantastic Florence Its Not Your Fault! book series, featuring stories for children experiencing different traumatic experiences. Bullying affects all youth, including those who are bullied, those who bully others and those who witness bullying, trauma specialist Tara Kellogg commented. We are excited to introduce Florence to children, Zafran added. They will love her magical powers and ideas, as she helps the heroine manage a situation they have all seen or faced themselves. This latest installment in the Fantastic Florence series provides parents, caregivers, teachers and mental health professionals with a tool to initiate conversations with children and help them identify and process their experiences. Florence validates childrens feelings, and offers easy-to-understand strategies by displaying messages to provide comfort and reassurance. She suggests ways to handle difficult situations, and always encourages children to confide in a trusted adult. We want our stories to open the door to the hard conversations that children need to have to begin the healing process, Dr. Cinda Kane said. We all share a life-long commitment to helping children thrive. Fantastic Florence Its Not Your Fault! By Lesley Millard Zafran with Tara Kellogg, LMFT, and Dr. Cinda Kane ISBN: 978-1-6655-3969-2 Available at the AuthorHouse Online Bookstore, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble About the authors Lesley Millard Zafran began writing stories and poetry as a young girl, growing up in London, U.K. and Miami, Fla. Her passion led to a career in educational publishing and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of London. She has worked as a consultant for schools and nonprofits for over 20 years. As a mother of two, who struggled through her own childhood, Zafran believes each child needs love, support and encouragement to feel brave and confident. Thus, she created the Florence series. She is also the author of Fantastic Florence Its Not Your Fault!: Her Adventures Begin and Fantastic Florence Its Not Your Fault!: A Story about Abandonment. For more about the author or this series, please visit: https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/816761-fantastic-florence-its-not-your-fault-a-story-about-bullying. Tara Kellogg, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist with over 25 years of clinical experience. She received her bachelors degree from Castleton State University, Vt., and her masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Nova Southeastern University, Fla. Kellogg specializes in individual and family counseling, focusing on family preservation and trauma-related stressors disorders. She is a nationally certified therapist for Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT) and a Qualified Florida State Supervisor. Dr. Cinda Kane received her bachelors degree in Journalism from Penn State University, a masters in Education and Curriculum from Castleton State University, Vt., and a doctoral degree from Nova Southeastern University, Fla., in Higher Education Administration. She has worked in public education for more than 27 years and is the Dean of Students at The College Academy at Broward College, in Davie, Fla. She has authored, co-authored and edited several professional articles and academic books. ### General Inquiries: LAVIDGE Lindsey Gobel 317.435.2116 lgobel@Lavidge.com 2022 Toyota Camry Front Right-quarter view Cecil Atkission Toyota located in Orange, Texas, has a limited time-period financing offer for the 2022 Toyota Camry. The 2022 Toyota Camry can be financed at 2.49% APR interest for 60 months. Only qualified customers can take advantage of this offer. For those who do not qualify, the amount and percentage of any down payment may vary depending on the individuals credit qualifications. Also, this offer is not valid for the 2022 Camry TRD 2WD V6 eight-speed automatic transmission variant. Cecil Atkission Toyota also has finance offers for other vehicles like the Corolla, RAV4, Highlander, and Tundra. The Corolla, RAV4, Highlander, and Tundra can all be financed at 2.49% APR for 60 months. These finance offers are also limited to qualified customers. To learn more, interested customers can visit Cecil Atkission Toyota located at 2500 IH-10 West, Orange, Texas. They can also contact the dealership on 833-378-1225 or visit the website - https://www.ceciltoyota.com/new-car-incentives-and-rebates-orange-tx?utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=press+release&utm_campaign=2022feb28 2022 Chevy Equinox The key to making an informed buying decision when shopping for a new crossover SUV is to learn as much as possible about the top choices. With several vehicles to choose from when shopping for a new crossover or SUV, a driver can have a difficult time trying to decide which model is the best vehicle for their driving needs. The key to making an informed buying decision when shopping for a new crossover SUV is to learn as much as possible about the top choices. Carl Black Orlando is helping shoppers do just that by adding detailed information about the new 2022 Chevy Equinox and 2022 Chevy Traverse to its website in the form of model research pages. The 2022 Chevy Equinox model research page that is now available on the Carl Black Orlando website offers valuable information and specific details regarding the two-row crossover SUV that drivers want to learn more about. Some of this information includes the technology and comfort features that are available in the 2022 Chevy Equinox. Highlighted features include Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, a Wi-Fi hotspot, dual-zone automatic climate control, a touchscreen infotainment system, leather seats, heated and ventilated front seats and much more. The 2022 Chevy Traverse research page that is now available on the Chevy dealerships website offers a closer and more detailed look at the offerings of the three-row crossover SUV that can seat up to eight people. Information available when visiting the 2022 Chevy Traverse research page includes this SUVs engine specifications, tow rating and its available technology and comfort features. To learn more about the new 2022 Chevy Equinox and 2022 Chevy Traverse, crossover SUV shoppers can visit the Florida dealerships website by going to http://www.carlblackorlando.com. Drivers may also contact the dealership to ask for more information or to learn about current sales and incentives by calling the sales department at 888-502-0763 or by driving to 11500 E Colonial. New Christies International Real Estate Sereno agents (L. to R) Charlene Cogan, Samira Amid-Hozour, Kristin Cashin and Nathalie de Saint Andrieu will open the firms office in Menlo Park. Two weeks after announcing a new partnership to bring the Christies International Real Estate brand to Northern California, the newly named Christies International Real Estate Sereno is expanding with a new office in downtown Menlo Park. According to company co-founders Chris Trapani and Ryan Iwanaga, the office will establish a gateway for Christies International Real Estate Sereno, the regions largest independent brokerage firm, to serve some of the highest-priced residential markets in the United States, including Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Woodside, and Atherton. Atherton tops the list of the nations most expensive zip codes with a median home price of $7 million. The office will initially house a group of veteran luxury agents who collectively achieved nearly $250 million in sales in 2021. They are Kristin Cashin, Nathalie de Saint Andrieu, Charlene Cogan and Samira Amid-Hozour. All four are joining Christies International Real Estate Sereno from Compass. We have served Menlo Park and the surrounding towns for many years and have always wanted to open an office here. This is finally the right time, right place, and right group of agents to establish a bricks and mortar presence where we can offer tremendous value to our clients and the community, said Trapani. The 1,700-square-foot office will officially open this spring at 1158-A Chestnut Street. It will feature a unique concept focused on collaboration and community, with a gallery-like area in front and open workspace in the back, allowing agents to interact with clients in an inviting environment. Trapani said the firm will partner with local vendors on exhibitions within the gallery space. With Serenos new Christie's International Real Estate affiliation, the office and its agents will also have access to a worldwide network of nearly 100 luxury real estate firms in almost 50 countries and territories, plus maximum exposure for luxury listings through exclusive advertising partnerships and PR opportunities, and special access to auction, private sale, and appraisal services through Christies, the world-leading art and luxury business. Our commitment to preserving the spirit of the independent brokerage, while delivering the tangible benefits of a global luxury brand will help us better serve our agents, clients, and communities. We have never been more excited about our business, said Iwanaga. This marks the second time in less than a year that Christies International Real Estate Sereno has attracted a group of top-producing agents from Compass. Last year, 25 former Compass agents joined the firms Burlingame office bringing over $200 million in sales volume. That followed a merger with Dwell Realtors, the #1 brokerage firm in San Carlos. All told, Christies International Real Estate Sereno has added more than $1 billion in agent production over the past year. The concept of agent choice is very important, and we feel fortunate that agents are choosing us, Trapani said. Earlier this month, Christies International Real Estate Sereno announced it was entering into a partnership with Chicago-based real estate brokerage and technology firm @properties. @properties owns the Christies International Real Estate brand and has also developed a proprietary suite of brokerage-tech applications, known as pl@tform, which helps agents digitally manage their business and real estate transactions. About Christies International Real Estate Sereno Founded in 2006, Christies International Real Estate Sereno is the largest locally owned and operated independent real estate company in Northern California with 17 offices and 580 agents in Silicon Valley, the SF peninsula, Santa Cruz, the East Bay, Lake Tahoe, and Sierra Foothills, producing nearly $7 Billion in annual sales volume. Christies International Real Estate Sereno is ranked among the top five brokerages in the nation for both per-agent productivity and highest average sales price. The company offers a highly curated support platform and provides agents with concierge services to strengthen client relationships, as well as world-class technology for well-executed transactions. Its agent-driven Sereno 1% For Good Charitable Foundation is changing lives in local communities, and to date, has generated over $4.2 million in charitable donations given to 300 local organizations. The Global Disability Summit 2022 in numbers Everyone, everywhere must be free to go to school, to access health care, to start a family, have decent work and participate fully in all spheres of economic, social, cultural, and political life, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Hosted by the Governments of Norway and Ghana along with the International Disability Alliance (IDA), the two-day Summit was the worlds biggest gathering of global leaders and disability groups dedicated to commit to change for people with disabilities. It also included the first Youth Summit, Civil Society Forum, Regional Summits, Thematic Workshops, Roundtables and 92 side events. This is the second-ever global Summit on strengthening the inclusion of people with disabilities and it built on the progress made at the first Global Disability Summit in London in 2018. On the second day of the Summit, the Governments of Germany and Jordan were announced as the co-hosts of the third Global Disability Summit, which will take place in Berlin, Germany in 2025. The virtual two-day Summit saw more than 7112 participants. Highlights included: By the end of the Summit, 1394 commitments to disability rights were made. Commitments were made by some governments for the first time, including the United States, Spain, and Denmark. Speakers pledged to do more to work directly with organisations of persons with disabilities and engage people with disabilities in decision making. It was attended by high-level representatives from some of the worlds most prominent development organisations, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, along with private companies like Microsoft, who all made commitments. Commitments were announced by a range of governments and organisations on areas covering education, employment, health, climate change, gender equality, humanitarian crisis and the post-COVID-19 response. There were also pledges to ensure the participation of organisations of people with disabilities, and that there was meaningful consultation with them when vital decisions were taken. For example: The USA made 23 commitments on disability rights, including $25 million on assistive technology. This is the first time the country has made commitments at the summit. USAID Administrator, Samantha Power said, "As we continue to build back better, we will ensure that we deal everybody in and bring everyone along". Host country Norway launched its first disability inclusion strategy which includes increasing opportunities for people with disabilities in the job market and including their needs in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption. It also pledged to include disability legislation in its domestic law. Future host country, Jordan, pledged to continue strengthening and improving the effectiveness of non-discrimination and affirmative action policies and legislation. The United Kingdom announced 18 new commitments including a new disability inclusion strategy up to 2030 which focuses on issues including climate change, womens sexual health and violence towards women and girls. They will also fund the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) Network, a coalition of bilateral and multilateral agencies, public and private foundations as well as key coalitions of the disability movement with a common interest in achieving inclusive international development and humanitarian action. The World Health Organization made commitments to address disability discrimination in the health sector and crisis response with a focus on climate change, and to improve the collection and use of data on disability. Australia pledged to develop a policy to protect the rights of people with disabilities worldwide. Malawi committed to adopt a Zero Rejection Policy at all levels of education in-line with provisions of the Disability Act, the Malawi Constitution and the UN The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by 2022. Denmark will work to combat gender-based violence in crises. As the global lead of Call to Action on Protection Against Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies 2021-2022, Denmark is committed to advocating for the inclusion of people with disabilities in efforts against gender-based violence in humanitarian contexts. Kenya committed to providing funding for organisations of persons with disabilities. The European Commission promised 5 million to the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD). Microsoft pledged to develop and implement accessible technology globally. Spain made commitments to increase meaningful participation of OPDs in climate change action, along with promoting partnerships that aim to address the digital divide. Sweden pledged to raise awareness of disability with their partners working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Uganda committed to increase government spending on special grants in empowerment for people with disabilities and to focus on mental health policy. Germany has committed to host the next Global Disability Summit in 2025. Save the Children made 12 new commitments, including using their leverage to support children with disabilities. The Right Honorable Gordon Brown, as UN Envoy for Global Education, called for all education funders to do more to include children with disabilities and make classrooms more accessible. In his opening speech UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, called for global financial investment in disability inclusion and said, Everyone, everywhere must be free to go to school, to access health care, to start a family, have decent work and participate fully in all spheres of economic, social, cultural, and political life. More information can be found on the Global Disability Summit website, where a full list of the commitments has been made public: http://www.globaldisabilitysummit.org. For updates and announcements follow us on Twitter at: @GDS_Disability Recent college graduates in Janesville, Wisconsin, who plan to buy a new Toyota vehicle can save money at a local dealership, Hesser Toyota Recent college graduates in Janesville, Wisconsin, who plan to buy a new Toyota vehicle can save money at a local dealership, Hesser Toyota. The dealership encourages its customers to check out the College Graduate program and get a $500 rebate on new Toyota vehicles if they have recently graduated or are about to graduate. This program is available for lease or finance on all new and unlicensed Toyota vehicles. Toyota Certified Used Vehicles (TCUVs) and Scion Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles are not eligible for the Rebate Program. To qualify for this program, a candidate has to provide proof of graduation within the two calendar years, as well as proof of current employment. Eligible sources of proof of graduation must have a copy of the customer's diploma, a letter from the college, university or trade school registrar's office with graduation date and type of degree earned. The final transcript's copy confirming graduation date and type of degree earned or a copy of the current transcript confirmed current enrollment in a graduate program. To confirm graduation date and employment, customers must finance or lease through Hesser Toyota and Toyota Financial Services (TFS). Customers are also suggested to ask about optional programs from Toyota Financial Services (TFS) that can be helpful for vehicle maintenance. As soon as the application process is completed, the student will receive a $500 credit to use on a new Toyota model. Customers who have questions about the Toyota College Grad Rebate can contact the Hesser Toyota sales team directly at 608-754-7754. Those interested in learning more about Hesser Toyota inventory can do so online at https://www.hessertoyota.com/new-toyota-janesville-wi?utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=press_release&utm_campaign=2022Feb28 or can visit the dealership at 1811 Humes Road Janesville, Wisconsin. Kendra Scott inspires hope with Inheritance of Hope On March 4-7, Inheritance of Hope and Kendra Scott will welcome 42 young families facing the loss of a parent on a life-changing Legacy Retreat in Orlando, Florida. Inheritance of Hope Legacy Retreats are designed for any family with children aged 18 and under who are struggling with the terminal illness of a parent. Diagnosed parents, their caregivers, and children will create lasting memories, learn strategies to help manage the difficulties they face, and form a community with others who truly understand. Highlights include trips to Disneys Magic Kingdom and Universal Orlando, a kickoff dinner full of surprises, and plenty of time to relax and recharge at a beautiful resort. Kendra Scott first teamed up with Inheritance of Hope (IoH) in 2018 by sponsoring an IoH Legacy Retreat, and since then, the two organizations have partnered on several more events for young families facing the loss of a parent. Recently, Kendra Scott opened a new retail store at Disney Springs featuring an inside look at the unique mission of Inheritance of Hope. A custom installation focuses on how Kendra Scott works to do good alongside Inheritance of Hope. Following their Legacy Retreat, new IoH families will continue to receive support from the organization. With on-site, online, and on-going opportunities, Inheritance of Hope meets families wherever they are and in their greatest need. About Inheritance of Hope IoH was founded in 2007 by Kristen and Deric Milligan as a result of coping with the challenges of raising three young children amidst Kristens terminal cancer diagnosis. When she was diagnosed in 2003, Kristen and Derics children were just four years old, two years old, and seven months old. Kristen searched for resources for her family, yet surprisingly found none. Kristen wrote her first book, A Trains Rust, A Toymakers Love, to remedy the situation, but she and Deric soon realized families like theirs needed much more. They eventually launched Inheritance of Hope, a 501(c)3 charity devoted to inspiring hope in young families facing the loss of a parent. Kristen passed away in 2012, but her passion remains as the organization serves families just like hers in a variety of ways. Through Legacy Retreats, Hope@Home Groups and Weekends, literature, and more, IoH provides an opportunity for distressed families to shape their legacy and offers practical tools to help each member of the family successfully navigate this difficult period in their lives. IoH believes that Every Family Deserves a Legacy. About Kendra Scott Kendra Scott is a leading fashion accessories brand inspired by the personal experiences, travel, and sense of community of its founder and designer, Kendra Scott. With over 2,000 employees, Kendra Scott has over 100 standalone stores across the US and is sold in premiere retailers including Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and 600 specialty boutiques worldwide and boasts a thriving web business. Kendra Scott is known for its kaleidoscope of beautiful accessories as well as the innovative and customizable Color Bar experience. As the brand continues to grow, the company remains true to its founding philosophy of "Family, Fashion, Philanthropy" and since 2010, the company has given back well over $40 million to local, national, and international causes. Learn more about how Kendra Scott gives back and how Inheritance of Hope inspires hope in families facing the loss of a parent. With the many hurdles the pandemic has brought to schools in Arizona, we couldnt be prouder to offer this product to the states districts to help them save time to dedicate more time and energy to supporting students," said Krista Endsley, CEO of LINQ. The Arizona Department of Administration has awarded LINQ a contract to implement Script, LINQs flagship automation cloud solution, across K-12 districts statewide. The powerful digital workflow and online forms solution, funded by the state, will be at no cost to districts for the first year. Script was selected by the state through a competitive bidding process, adhering to the Arizona Procurement Code. Script has been proven to save more than $83,000 per school by reducing some of the districts largest expenses, said Krista Endsley, CEO of LINQ. With the many hurdles the pandemic has brought to schools in Arizona, we couldnt be prouder to offer this product to the states districts to help them save time to dedicate more time and energy to supporting students. Script is a 100% cloud and browser-based workflow automation solution built exclusively for K-12 schools and districts. Districts can convert paper forms to digital forms with the platform, reducing their labor and materials costs. In addition, workflow automation helps education administrators work across departments with ease and helps eliminate piles of paperwork for good. Arizona School Districts will have access to the full range of features offered by Script, including unlimited access to forms for students, HR, Finance, IT and more. Also included with the solution are unlimited on-demand training courses and customized and hands-on implementation services. In addition, Arizona districts gain full access to LINQ Academy, a self-paced online training platform that features video courses. We have been searching for an application to help manage our paperwork and workflow for some time, said Lane Blake, Director of IT at Fowler Elementary School District. We are excited to be able to use the prepared forms and have the ability to create our own. Collecting signatures electronically will be very helpful as well. Other benefits of Script: Districts dont have to worry about forms making it home. Going paperless and putting all school forms in one place online allows parents quick access and eliminates the possibility of documents getting misplaced or damaged. Reduces carbon footprint. The average school uses about 360,000 sheets of paper per year, and paper costs an astounding amount of trees. Online forms eliminate errors. If parents fill out a paper form incorrectly, it may need to be sent back home for them to fill it out again. Paperless forms will not be sent if all fields are not filled incorrectly. The Arizona Department of Administration is funding the first year of Script at no cost to the district. Funding is limited; districts can secure funding on a first-come, first-served basis. To learn more about Script, visit this link. To learn more about LINQ, visit https://www.linq.com/. About LINQ For over 25 years, our mission has been to empower the everyday heroes who make K-12 districts and schools stronger. Combining best-in-class technology with industry-leading expertise, we help school administrators rise to the challenges of today, while building the foundation for a better tomorrow. Improving efficiency, optimizing performance, and managing compliance through our suite of administrative, financial, and nutritional solutions to help you make a bigger impact for your staff, students and communities. To find out more about LINQs integrated suite, visit LINQ.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. By reading this book, Muslims will find clarity in their history and religion and will be able to follow the right path of worship, Khan said. The truth always comes to light, and it is revealed in these pages. Author Mohammed Alal Khan has published The Unveiling Origin of Mecca: Rise of Ancient Islam in North Arabia, which educates readers and gives them an accurate understanding of the tenets of Islam. The author explains how the earth was created in six days and details what was created during each day. Khan accredits all his information to the Quran. The audience is informed that, during the time of Jared, son of Mahalalel, Pagan worship began to spread. It continued to spread so greatly that a very little amount of people worshiped the true God. The author emphasizes the difference between the real and fake Kaba, a building in the center of Islams most important mosque, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Throughout the book, Khan narrates several stories from the bible and details the geographical locations of many ancient and significant places and routes in the Islamic world, including The Kings Highway, a biblical trading route that existed east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. By reading this book, Muslims will find clarity in their history and religion and will be able to follow the right path of worship, Khan said. The truth always comes to light, and it is revealed in these pages. Khan maintains a tone of objectivity throughout the book. Even though he is a Muslim scholar, he provides information from several sources besides Islamic. Ultimately, The Unveiling Origin of Mecca is a detailed exposition of the origin, history and tenets of Islam that touches on all the relevant aspects of the religion. The Unveiling Origin of Mecca: Rise of Ancient Islam in North Arabia By Mohammed Alal Khan ISBN: 978-1-665-528-108 (softcover); 978-1-665-528-092 (e-book) Available through Author House, Barnes & Noble & Amazon About the author Mohammed Alal Khan is a researcher, inventor and columnist. He is a former member of the European Hair Research Society in Germany. His contribution to scientific research has been recognized by the social organization of Bangladesh where he was awarded the World Anti-Drug Day award in 1992 and Gold Medal in 1994. In his 15 years of personal investigation, Khan found many discrepancies of Mecca in Saudi Arabia between Quran, Bible Hadiths and ancient history and geography. For more information, please visit the authors website: http://www.meccasuperseded.net. General Inquiries, Review Copies & Interview Requests: LAVIDGE Phoenix 480-998-2600 | helmore@lavidge.com These new episodes delve into a wide variety of sustainability issues on the land, in our waters and in our very own backyards from wildfires in New Mexico to the decline of the manatees sea grass salad bar to bats and blooms. EcoSense offers this information in interesting and manageable bites. EcoSense for Living is back with a brand-new season of four episodes slated to premiere nationwide, during April for Earth Month about sharks and right whales, manatees staving from lack of sea grass, wildfires, alligators and the Okefenokee, bats, and toxic blooms on land and in the ocean. The new episodes will air on PBS stations nationwide - including in Atlanta (Georgia Public Broadcasting), South Bend, Ind. (WNIT-TV), Kentucky (KET), Las Vegas (KLVX-TV), Portland (Oregon Public Broadcasting), Indianapolis (WFYI-TV), Syracuse, N.Y. (WCNY-TV) and Reno, Nev. - and will feature research and fresh interviews with conservation scientists and innovators from New Mexico to South Georgia and from Zoo Miami to New England. Through her ongoing work producing the Emmy-nominated PBS series, host and Atlanta-native Jennie Turner Garlington has been raising awareness, spurring discussion and offering tips for everyday ways to save the environment since EcoSense for Living launched in 2005. These four new episodes premiering for Earth Month delve into a wide variety of sustainability issues on the land, in our waters and in our very own backyards, said Jennie Turner Garlington, EcoSense for Living series founder, producer and host. Our programming reinforces the vital truth that theres an action every single person can take to help our planets sustainability and education is up to all of us. From examining wildfires in New Mexico to the decline of the manatees salad bar of sea grass, EcoSense offers information in interesting and manageable bites. The new season will begin airing coast to coast during April 2022, Earth Month. Atlantas GPB will broadcast the episodes in prime-time Wednesdays at 7 and 7:30 p.m. on April 13 and April 20. In South Bend, Ind. near Chicago, WNIT-TV will also air in prime-time Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. beginning April 7. Kentucky Educational Television (KET), an EcoSense for Living sponsor, will air episodes at 3 p.m. Sundays beginning April 3. KLVX-TV in Las Vegas will air the premieres Thursdays, April 14 and April 21 at 4 and 4:30 p.m., and Portlands Oregon Public Broadcasting will begin showing the new episodes Fridays at 11:30 a.m. on April 8. KNPB-TV in Reno, Nev. will air the episodes at 8:30 a.m. beginning April 10. Beginning May 1, Indianapolis WFYI-TV will air the episodes Sundays at 9 a.m. and WCNY-TV in Syracuse, N.Y. will premiere Sundays at 10 a.m. More stations and public television networks subscribe each week, so check local listings for a complete schedule. Episode 601, Marine Life Impact, contains three segments: a profile of the dangers faced by many North Atlantic right whales, now numbering less than 350, as these few females travel a treacherous journey to calve off the Georgia and Florida coasts; a trip to the Florida Oceanographic Center reveals how dying sea grass is causing a crisis for manatees; and report on the illegal practice of shark finning and how the U.S. may need to pass more laws to protect shark populations. Episode 602, The Future of Fire, takes a thorough look at the history and future of wildfires. From Santa Fe and Albuquerque, N.M. to Tallahassee, Fla., high tech management, climatologists and computer experts are helping to not only restore land damaged from catastrophic wildfires but prevent other events from forever changing the landscape. Episode 603, Okefenokees Destiny, looks at the largest intact blackwater wetland in an economically challenged region. Experts from the University of Georgia alligator research team share fascinating facts like the maternal instincts of alligators, how they decide where to nest, and how alligators are both predator and prey. In the third segment of 603, EcoSense for Living contrasts The Everglades, a UNESCO World Heritage site that has suffered enormous damage from manmade development with the Okefenokee, in hopes of learning from past mistakes to save the blackwater wetland before its too late. The new series concludes with From Bats to Blooms, episode 604, containing perhaps the most diverse content of this seasons new topics. Opening with how the rare Bonnet Eared Bat has adapted to survival in the city with assistance from Zoo Miami biologists, the episode goes on to examine red tide and toxic, harmful algae blooms (HABs) along Floridas coastline. From Bats to Blooms concludes with a look at bad actor intruder plants lurking in our backyards, crowding out native flora that nourish native butterflies, birds, and bees. The four new episodes will be available in April streaming on PBS along with previous episodes of EcoSense for Living. Additionally, since 2020, EcoSense for Living has been available on the PBS LearningMedia platform through a partnership with KET (Kentucky Educational Television). Just in time for pandemic remote learning, the environmental curriculum launched virtually, a welcome addition to the platforms online resources for middle and high school students to explore science-based environmental challenges, solutions and conservation topics. The EcoSense for Living team worked with educational experts to design discussion questions, vocabulary guides, hands-on exercises and other materials for teachers that accompanied the full video content so students could access an environmental curriculum in a way thats fresh, entertaining, and readily available. About EcoSense for Living As an environmental media champion, former CNN producer, mother and concerned citizen, Jennie fervently embraces the sustainability views of her father, Ted Turner. She developed a PSA series called EcoSense for Living in 2005 that received high acclaim and she quickly expanded it into a 30-minute episode of the same name. That first show, featuring Clark Howard, offered environmentally friendly ways to save money daily around the house and led to more than 30 half-hour episodes over the last 17 years. They are available for streaming on PBS. To date, the EcoSense for Living series has aired thousands of times in top markets nationwide including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Austin, Nashville, Seattle and many more. Each episode is produced by Picture Window Productions and made available to PBS stations across the United States via NETA, an internal network/satellite service. View full episodes live streamed at https://www.pbs.org/show/ecosense-living/episodes/. View the educational segments on PBS LearningMedia at pbslearningmedia.org/collection/ecosense-for-living. Visit http://www.EcoSenseForLiving.com or Facebook (EcosenseForLiving) for more information. Paul R. Strickler, a new author from Michigan, has completed his new book Expedition of Equality ": a riveting story about how five years after scientists travel to a new star system, a group of colonists pay their life savings to join these scientists in the Einstein star system and get the shock of a lifetime when they arrive five hundred years later. The star system is now teeming with life and new genetically engineered species. Strickler writes, Dolly continued. Thats right. Whenever mankind is suffering with no hope of change, salvation, or survival, thats when your godfather or one of his clones somehow shows up, raining down death and destruction to bring hope back for the future of humanity. Even your namesake, Jake, didnt know whether to trust him or arrest him when they first met. Published by Page Publishing, Paul R. Stricklers intriguing work follows the exploits of the spaceship Equality and its crew as they explore this strange new star system while attempting to put an end to a new threat of space pirates, space pirates they believe are being led by one Captain Spike. After an assassination attempt on their new captain, doubts arise. More mystery builds when they meet a clone of a notorious murderer, a clone who has just murdered his parents in their sleep. Readers who wish to experience this beautiful book can purchase Expedition of Equality" at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. Prevent Blindness declares March as Workplace Eye Wellness Month, offering free resources on how to protect eyes and vision at work. March is Workplace Eye Wellness Month at Prevent Blindness, the nation's oldest eye health and safety nonprofit organization. The group provides free resources, including an overview of proper eye protection and safety glasses for various industries, and information on the effects of extended digital screen use. According to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 15,730 eye injuries involving days away from work in 2020. Proper eye protection minimizes the risk of significant eye injury. Prevent Blindness recommends that the type of eye protection that should be used depends on the hazards in the workplace. For example, someone working in an area that has particles, flying objects, or dust, should wear safety glasses with side protection (side shields). If working near hazardous radiation (welding, lasers, or fiber optics) special-purpose safety glasses, goggles, face shields, or helmets designed for that task should be worn. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to ensure the safety of all employees in the work environment. Eye and face protection must be provided whenever necessary to protect against chemical, environmental, radiological or mechanical irritants and hazards. OSHA also requires that employers provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to their workers, and ensure its proper use. Additionally, employers are also required to train each worker required to use PPE. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends eye protection for a variety of potential exposure settings where workers may be at risk of acquiring infectious diseases via ocular exposure. According to the CDC, infectious diseases can be transmitted through various mechanisms, among which are infections that can be introduced through the mucous membranes of the eye (conjunctiva). These include viruses and bacteria than can cause conjunctivitis, and viruses that can cause systemic infections, including bloodborne viruses, herpes viruses, and rhinoviruses. For those in an office setting, the average American worker spends seven hours a day on the computer either in the office or working from home, according to the American Optometric Association. Employees who work primarily using digital screens, such as computer monitors, tablets and smart phones, are at increased risk of digital eye strain. Symptoms of eye strain include sore or irritated eyes, blurred vision and headaches. Prevent Blindness recommends the following: Screen time: Try to decrease the amount of time spent in front of these screens and/or take frequent breaks to give your eyes a rest. Filters: Screen filters are available for smart phones, tablets, and computer screens. They decrease the amount of blue light given off from these devices that could reach the retina in the eyes. Anti-reflective lenses: Anti-reflective lenses reduce glare and increase contrast and also block blue light from the sun and digital devices. Intraocular lens (IOL): After cataract surgery, the cloudy lens will be replaced with an intraocular lens (IOL). The lens naturally protects the eye from almost all ultraviolet light and some blue light. There are types of IOL that can protect the eye and retina from blue light. Practicing eye healthy habits in the workplace today, like wearing proper eye protection, and decreasing the amount of screen time whenever possible, can help save our sight now and for years to come, said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. For more information about workplace eye health topics, including the effects of prolonged digital screen use, and eye injuries, please visit preventblindness.org. About Prevent Blindness Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening and training, community and patient service programs and research. These services are made possible through the generous support of the American public. Together with a network of affiliates, Prevent Blindness is committed to eliminating preventable blindness in America. For more information, visit us at preventblindness.org, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Adding a G.A. Rogers & Associates division was the perfect way to combine our hospitality background with one of the nation's most successful recruiting infrastructures to become a go-to resource for our colleagues and friends in the hospitality industry. To meet the growing talent needs of area employers during a time of critical candidate shortages, PrideStaff is pleased to announce that their Morristown-Parsippany office has added a G.A. Rogers & Associates division to its existing operations. A natural extension of PrideStaff's recruiting and placement franchise, G.A. Rogers & Associates addresses clients' direct hire needs for executive, managerial and supervisory roles in PrideStaff's core areas of focus. Building on the tremendous success of the award-winning Morristown-Parsippany office, Owners/Strategic-Partners, Dino and Giselle Bavaro are combining two of their passions to head their office's new executive and professional recruiting division. "Giselle and I each have extensive professional experience in the hospitality industry, and in recent months more clients have approached us to assist them with direct-hire recruiting opportunities," stated Bavaro. "Adding a G.A. Rogers & Associates division was the perfect way to combine our hospitality background with one of the nation's most successful recruiting infrastructures to become a go-to resource for our colleagues and friends in the hospitality industry. We're excited to expand our capabilities and offer an even wider range of solutions and job opportunities." When interviewed, G.A. Rogers & Associates Vice President, Karen Cowan cited several factors fueling this exciting expansion. "With candidate shortages reaching critical levels in New Jersey and across the nation, competition for great leaders, professionals and managers is fierce," stated Cowan. "The Bavaros launched their G.A. Rogers & Associates division to help clients direct-recruit high performers who may not be actively searching for a job. "Led by industry veterans, our team brings more than 40 years of executive and professional recruiting experience to every search," continued Cowan. "Working with knowledgeable, specialized search consultants like ours to proactively source top talent allows organizations to hire faster, create better matches and gain a decided advantage over their competitors." For job seekers throughout Morristown-Parsippany and surrounding areas, working with G.A. Rogers & Associates means access to higher level positions across the country, many of which won't be advertised elsewhere. Experienced managers, supervisors, business professionals and executives are encouraged to explore and apply to job opportunities on our website. About G.A. Rogers & Associates A division of PrideStaff, G.A. Rogers & Associates specializes in executive and professional recruiting. The parent company was founded in the 1970s as 100% company-owned units and began staffing franchising in 1995. They operate over 85 offices in North America to serve more than 5,000 clients. With 40 plus years in the staffing business, headquartered in Fresno, CA, all PrideStaff brands offer the resources and expertise of a national firm with the spirit, dedication and personal service of smaller, entrepreneurial firms. For more information on G.A. Rogers & Associates services, visit our website. PrideStaff and G.A. Rogers & Associates shared Mission: Consistently provide client experiences focused on what they value most. The featured speaker will discuss how the BCID panels helped to reduce healthcare worker time and increased their safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers across many functions have struggled to keep up with managing patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, those in the medical and scientific community know that there were many untreated medical conditions that persisted from before the start of the pandemic through to present day. Professor Breida Boyle, Consultant Microbiologist at St. Jamess Hospital in the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin, has been managing patients with bloodstream infections both before and during the pandemic. With the ePlex Blood Culture Identification (BCID) panels, she performed a study looking at how well the panels compared to their standard of care using conventional microbiology methods. Prof. Boyle also looked at how the panels could help enhance antimicrobial and antifungal prescribing along with assessing cost savings associated with running the panels. Fast forward to present day where Prof. Boyle, alongside her laboratory, have implemented the BCID panels and assessed how they have assisted St. Jamess Hospital during the pandemic, including how the panels can improve outcomes while also resulting in healthcare worker time savings and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about the BCID panels, join Prof. Boyle in a live webinar on Monday, March 21, 2022, at 2pm EDT (6pm GMT/UK). For more information, or to register for this event, visit Rapid BCID Saved Costs and Reduced Healthcare Worker-Patient Interaction Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic. ABOUT XTALKS Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year, thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers. To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/ Revive Church Kansas City Announces Rebranding, New Logo and Launch of New Website We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the presence of God, so we provide practical tools to help all people experience God in their daily lives. Revive Church KC recently announced the launch of a new website, new logo, and creative rebranding to better highlight their sacred mission to bring people to Jesus and disciple believers in their walk with God. The new website and rebranding initiative highlight the exceptional pastoral staff and leadership team at Revive Church. The website also publishes the schedule of Services and many events hosted throughout the year, and a diverse variety of programs for children, including Revive Kids, a ministry for children through Grade 5; Revive Middle School which serves youth between the 6th and 8th grade; and Revive Youth, a dynamic and inspiring high school youth ministry. The new Revive Church Kansas City web site also offers new and innovative ways for people to connect, give to others, and discover the power of prayer. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the presence of God, so we provide practical tools to help all people experience God in their daily lives, explains Senior Pastors Steve and Kathy Gray. We get together for Biblical teaching and preaching, powerful worship, small groups, and classes for all ages. Revive Church is a great place to connect with friendly believers, learn more about the promises of God, experience His presence, and get equipped for successful victorious living. Revive Church KC meets three times weekly -- on Wednesday with Worship & Teaching from 7pm to 8:30pm, Friday with Worship & Prayer from 7pm to 8:30pm, and Sunday with Worship & Word from 10am to 12pm. At Revive Church there is a thriving community of people who love God and each other. When people arrive, they should expect to be welcomed by warm and friendly greeters. Services consist of heartfelt worship and powerful preaching of the Bible, followed by prayer ministry. For families with children, they are welcome to participate in Revive Churchs childrens ministry or join their parents during the service. Revive Church is a place where people from all walks of life come to fellowship and love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, said staff Pastors James and Jill Koppang, we are very excited to share our faith-filled Church with other families in the Lee's Summit and Kansas City area. About Revive Church KC Revive Church KC is a growing, multicultural church, with ministries for all ages developed to help you experience the life-changing presence of God. Revive Church in Kansas City, Missouri, has spread its message to hundreds of thousands of people from the far corners of the world. Since 2001, the ministry of Pastor Steve and Kathy Gray has grown to comprise Revive Church KC; Libby Lane Early Childhood Center, a quality provider of progressive early learning and childcare services for families in the Lee's Summit and Kansas City area; Lee's Summit Academy, a K-12 academy located at 601 NW Libby Lane in Lee's Summit, Missouri; and Revive Chicago, a new church plant with a mission to bring revival to the Chicago area. Revive Church KC is located at 9900 View High Drive, Kansas City, Missouri. To learn more visit: https://www.revivekc.church/ or call (816) 763-0708. Connect with Revive Church KC: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revivechurch_kc/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/revivechurchkc Twitter: https://twitter.com/revivechurchkc SmartTab will present the latest progress of the InjectTab oral biologic delivery capsule. SmartTab will present on the Health Transformer Stage among the top startups focused on solving the worlds biggest health challenges. ViVE is bringing together C-suite executives, senior digital health leaders and buyers, health startups and investors, government and solution providers to advance healthcare. SmartTab will be interviewed for Startup Health TV and on the Startup Health stage over the four days. Sacha Francois Heppell, Chief Marketing Officer of SmartTab will be speaking on Tuesday, March 8, 1-2pm highlighting SmartTabs story and the latest progress of the InjectTab oral biologic delivery capsule. The conference will rally a global group of Health Transformers who are reimagining the future of health. One-to-one meetings will take place with investors and pharmaceutical partners. SmartTab has participated in the Startup Health Festival since 2017. Most recently, Robert Niichel, Founder//CEO of SmartTab presented at the Startup Health Festival at J.P. Morgan Conference in 2020. The ViVE conference combines CHIMEs leadership with the digital marketplace of HLTH to create a technology event focused on the business of transformation in healthcare. ViVE will provide a fresh, curated education and networking experience for digital health leaders, disruptors and influencers. About SmartTab Veloce Corporation (dba SmartTab or the Company) is currently engaged in the design, development and validation of next generation ingestible capsule drug delivery systems. InjectTab is a microneedle capsule with sensors and microprocessor that confirm ideal positioning of the capsule and deliver life saving biologic medication through an oral route of administration. Based in Denver, Colorado, it operates from their world-class innovation center for patient-centered delivery systems. https://www.smarttab.co/ About Startup Health Festival Since 2011, the StartUp Health Festival has gathered thousands of CEOs, investors, world leaders and entrepreneurs to focus on solving the worlds biggest health challenges. For the first time, the StartUp Health Festival will take place alongside the industrys new health information technology event, ViVE, from March 6-9, 2022. Two stages will feature a roster of speakers, including StartUp Healths Health Transformers: https://www.startuphealth.com/portfolio About ViVE Developed by healthcare transformation leaders HLTH and CHIME, ViVE is an annual event intentionally designed for progressive digital health leaders innovating across the spectrum of health and care. ViVE offers an immersive environment for gaining insight into and networking with digital health's disruptors and influencers. With its emphasis on community, creativity, productivity, flexibility, and new ideas, ViVE is where the digital health community will come together to impact the transformation of health and care. ViVE's inaugural event will be held March 6-9, 2022 in Miami Beach, Florida. Viveevent.com About CHIME The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 5,000 members in 56 countries plus two U.S. territories and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME and its three associations provide a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate, exchange best practices, address professional development needs and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org We look forward to the many expanded opportunities our combined resources, experience and strength will bring for the benefit of our customers and employees. TECHPRO POWER GROUP INC., the parent company of Potomac Testing and Technical Diagnostic Services LLC (TDS), today announced the acquisition of Sentinel Power Services, Inc., including its subsidiaries Pencore Engineering & Consultants, LLC and Sentinel Field Services, LLC, a NETA accredited independent third-party electrical equipment testing, commissioning, and troubleshooting services provider. Commenting on the announcement, Leah Clark, Executive Vice President of Sentinel Power Services, said: TechPro Power Group is a strong partner that can help ensure Sentinel continues to grow, thrive and succeed in our industry for the long-term. We look forward to the many expanded opportunities our combined resources, experience and strength will bring for the benefit of our customers and employees. Mr. Michael Kilpatrick, Chief Executive Officer of TechPro Power Group Inc., said: Together with the Sentinel team, we wish to thank Greg Ellis, CEO of Sentinel Power Services, for his leadership and vision in helping to build a great company as well as his many decades of contribution to our industry. Sentinels mission and core values are closely aligned with ours and we both pride ourselves on attracting, training, and developing the best engineers and technicians in the business. We wish Greg the best in his retirement and welcome Sentinel into our family of companies. Sentinel Power Services, Inc. will continue to operate under the existing leadership of Leah Clark and her management team. Its company headquarters will remain in Tulsa, OK. ABOUT SENTINEL POWER SERVICES Sentinel Power Services, Inc. was founded in December 1998 as a switchgear repair and maintenance facility for industrial clients in the greater Tulsa, Oklahoma area. Sentinel transitioned to being a NETA accredited electrical equipment testing, commissioning, and troubleshooting services provider, as well as supporting its clients with large motor expertise. As the company expanded, engineering capabilities were added to address its clients need for power systems analysis and P&C engineering. Sentinel has developed into a multi-discipline design engineering firm offering a complete suite of solutions and services with hands-on experience and field expertise. Sentinel is now an EPC company and field service firm capable of handling front-end engineering, design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and lifecycle maintenance and testing solutions. The suit of service offerings gives Sentinel the capability to be a turnkey solutions provider. For more information, please visit http://www.sentinelpowerservices.com. ABOUT TECHPRO POWER GROUP Established in 2017, TechPro Power Group Inc. is a family of best-in-class companies providing electrical, instrumentation and control testing and start-up and commissioning services as well as electrical test equipment rental, sales, calibration and repair to the power, oil & gas, process industries and other industrial end markets. Its holdings include Potomac Testing and Technical Diagnostic Services, LLC (TDS). For more information, please visit http://www.techpropowergroup.com. The United States Navy Memorial will honor James Rex Barker, Coast Guard veteran and currently Chairman of The Interlake Steamship Company, with the 2022 Lone Sailor Award. The Lone Sailor Award is given to Sea Service veterans who have excelled with distinction in their respective careers during or after their service. The award will be presented at the Lone Sailor Awards Dinner on September 22, 2022. The Lone Sailor Awards Program will air online on September 27, 2022. Jim Barker is the epitome of the American story, said Rear Admiral Frank Thorp, USN (Ret), President and CEO of the U.S. Navy Memorial. His patriotism, civic-mindedness and character came through very clearly in Coast Guard District Nine Commanders nomination for Mr. Barker to receive the Lone Sailor Award. A man synonymous with the maritime industry for more than five decades, James Rex Barkers destiny was charted at 9 months old when he took his first ride on an ore boat. Deeply respected in the industry, Barker was universally regarded as a first-class businessman. He remained humble, approachable, and fiercely dedicated to taking care of employees he considered family. Barker grew up in a family where men served on the Great Lakes. His grandfather was the butcher and his Uncle Adolf was the captain on the supply boat at Sault Sainte Marie which supplied the fleet that he eventually bought. He later became chairman and president of The Interlake Steamship Company, which today is the largest privately held U.S.-flagged fleet on the Great Lakes operating nine vessels including a 1,004-foot bulk carrier christened the M/V James R. Barker. Born on August 3, 1935 to parents William Wardel Barker and Ranghild Elizabeth Barker in Cleveland, Ohio, Barker graduated from Lakewood High School in 1953. Ranked scholastically, he was awarded a four-year scholarship to Columbia University. After graduating in 1957, he returned to Lakewood to marry his childhood sweetheart, Kaye. Shortly afterwards, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and attended the officers training school in New London, Connecticut. He was commissioned as an Ensign in April 1958. He was assigned to the USCG base Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as the executive officer under legendary Commander Elmer Bodenlos, overseeing commercial shipping and search and rescue operations. After two more years in Cape May, New Jersey, the now Lieutenant Junior Grade Barker applied to Harvard Business School noting his sole objective was to return to Cleveland and work for The Interlake Steamship Company. He entered the MBA program at Harvard Business School majoring in transportation and finance and graduated with distinction in 1963. He returned to Cleveland and joined the Pickands Mather Marine Department, which operated Interlake. He devoted the next four years to the nuts and bolts of Great Lakes shipping. In 1967, Barker took a position as a consultant for Harbridge House in the transportation group. His clients included American Mail Line, American President Line, Delta and others, as well as railroads and airlines. He was promoted to Vice President of Transportation in 1968. In 1969, Barker co-founded Temple, Barker and Sloane, an economic consulting firm, with Peter Temple, Carl Sloane and Paul Cherington, who at the time was Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Nixon Administration. He was asked to become Chairman, President and CEO, which made him one of the youngest CEOs to head a public company. In April 1971, he was elected Chairman, President and CEO of Moore McCormack. He was joined by a Harvard Business School classmate, Paul R. Tregurtha, who helped him grow Moore McCormack into a resources/water transportation company. In 1976, because of his lobbying in Washington D.C. on behalf of Great Lakes shipping, he was honored as Great Lakes Marine Man of the Year by Le Sault de Sainte Marie Historical Sites and installed in the Great Lakes Hall of Fame. During the Reagan Administration, Mr. Barker served as a member of the Services Policy Advisory Committee of the United States Trade Representative. He also served on the Business Advisory Committee of the Transportation Center at Northwestern University, on the Board of Visitors of Columbia College, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Harvard Business School from 1982 to 1992. Mr. Barker has served on various Boards of Directors, including the boards of GTE (1976-2000), Verizon (2000-2007) and Brinks (2000-2007). In 1982, a nationwide recession suddenly struck. It was a cloud whose silver lining provided Barker the opportunity in 1987 to purchase Interlake. In 1994, the Barker and the Tregurtha families purchased Moran Towing Company, the oldest and largest tugboat company on the East and Gulf Coasts. In 1995, the non-profit United Seamens Service (USS) presented Barker with its prestigious Admiral of the Ocean Sea Award for his dedication the U.S. Maritime industry. In 2006, Stamford Hospital in Connecticut presented him with its Leadership Award for his efforts to help lead the hospital into the 21st century. He served on Stamford Hospitals board for 26 years and was chairman twice. Along with the love of his life, Kaye, he has three children James A. of Darien, CT, Karen Marcou of Washington, D.C., and Mark Barker of Rocky River, Ohio, and seven grandchildren. He will join an impressive list of men and women who have distinguished themselves by drawing upon their military experience to become successful in their subsequent careers and lives while exemplifying the core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment. For more information concerning the Lone Sailor Awards Dinner previous award recipients or sponsorship opportunities, contact Erin Harroun at EHarroun@NavyMemorial.org or visit http://www.NavyMemorial.org. The US Navy Memorial is a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to Honor, Recognize and Celebrate the men and women of the Sea Services, past, present and future, and to Inform the public about their service. The Navy Memorial is located at 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. Now, with what weve learned and the addition of John and his federal and state expertise, we are able to connect the dots for our clients to ensure they leverage the full value of this funding. Woolpert has hired veteran geopolitical strategist John Konkus as its director of government affairs. Konkus has spent the last two decades developing and implementing political and communications campaigns, advancing regulatory and legislative actions, and managing strategic initiatives to effect constructive change. Konkus previously worked as a senior manager for government affairs and strategic development for a Fortune 500 company and global engineering consulting firm. Prior to that, he served as deputy associate administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. Konkus also served on the 2016-2017 presidential transition team in Washington, D.C., and held multiple leadership positions in the office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Konkus began his career working for U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert of New York during his tenure as chairman of the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee and then as chairman of the House Science Committee. In 2008, while serving as the top district aid to Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns, Konkus was awarded the Congressional Staffer of the Year honor by the Florida Air Force Association for his service and dedication to veterans. Due to his legislative acumen and proven track record, Konkus was hired by Woolpert to run the firms government affairs operations, with an initial focus on ensuring Woolpert clients have access to and derive the most value from the American Rescue Plan Act and infrastructure stimulus bill funding. The legislation has allocated trillions of dollars to fund eligible infrastructure projects, which must be addressed within a narrow time frame. According to an Associated Press analysis, seven months after initial ARPA funds were allotted, which equated to 20% of the spending period, states had spent just 2.5% and large cities had spent 8.5% of those funds. Right now, many state and local governments are overwhelmed by the volume of funding and the short timeline in which they have to spend it, Konkus said. Most are accustomed to stretching very limited dollars to address their most urgent needs. Now they have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make real, substantive improvements that will benefit their communities and keep them competitive for years to come. Many just need to know where to start, how to ensure they are compliant and, most importantly, how their specific needs align with this funding. Woolpert Senior Vice President Shane Imwalle said he and Konkus have implemented a structure to help Woolpert clients think holistically, select the packages and services that work best for them, and initiate projects to ensure they reap the full value due to them through this funding. He said Woolpert also has forged partnerships with complementary firms like AECOM and Trimble to comprehensively support all client needs. We know and value our clients, we know how their budgets work and we fully grasp the scope of services and applications that qualify under these billswater management, transportation, supply chain support, coastal resilience, asset management and so on, Imwalle said. We also know that these opportunities are rare. The last infrastructure bill was passed in 2004, and those funds dried up quickly. Now, with what weve learned and the addition of John and his federal and state expertise, we are able to connect the dots for our clients to ensure they leverage the full value of this funding. Were excited to be able to provide this 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. SBVWCD restored Plunge Creek back to a naturally braided stream system, removed invasive grasses, and increased habitat for endangered species. Photo Credit: Stephen Readmond. One of our biggest strengths has been our ability to make the most of local conditions to enhance groundwater storage for the region. The past 22 years in the West have been dryer than any period in the last 1,200 years. And while human impact on the environment through climate change has made the situation worse local collaboration has helped to lessen these impacts with innovative water storage techniques that benefit both nature and community. Recent projects to enhance the capture and percolation of water into the basin have dramatically improved the regions ability to weather the drought a fact of growing importance given severe restrictions on State Water Project water to the area, and local precipitation levels at just 56% of normal so far this year. These projects include: 2018: The formation of the San Bernardino Basin Groundwater Council, which encourages collaboration among agencies to manage water levels within the local basin. 2019: Completion of Phase 1 of an Enhanced Recharge Project, designed and built by San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District to capture and recharge storm water under the eventual ownership and management of the Conservation District. 2020: Approval of the Upper Santa Ana River Wash Habitat Conservation Plan, which manages land uses within the wash to protect groundwater replenishment, native habitat for threatened species, along with industry and recreational uses for the community. 2020-2022: Establishment of the Plunge Creek Conservation Project, which restored the creek back to a naturally braided stream to significantly improve groundwater storage while increasing habitat for the endangered San Bernardino Kangaroo Rat and other sensitive species. By January 2022, the project created 11.7 acres of new wetted area to recharge the aquifer, including 2.3 acres of constructed channels and 9.4 acres of new recharge areas formed from flows. Moving forward, the District will continue to enhance the capacity for water storage in the valley. Most recently, it has been partnering with the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District to implement several new projects, continuing the work of the Groundwater Council, and implementing plans to leverage existing infrastructure to serve as the next generation of multiple benefit facilities to help the region make the most of its local water sources. Three engineering studies are underway to evaluate the practical, environmental, and financial feasibility of using flood management facilities for both water recharge and improved protection of life and property. One of our biggest strengths has been our ability to make the most of local conditions to enhance groundwater storage for the region, said General Manager Daniel Cozad. We believe in working with others, and are astonishingly frugal finding practical, low-cost solutions that work for the long haul. True to our motto, we help nature store our water, and that approach benefits everyone. About the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District: For nearly a century, the SBVWCD has stewarded the San Bernardino Valley water basin and the native species of the Upper Santa Ana River Wash. Its collaborative approach to project management assures high-quality local water supplies for people, agriculture, and the environment. This includes groundwater recharge and oversight, and protection of habitat and native species in the Wash. Visit http://www.sbvwcd.org. A brief history of water management in the valley: On Sunday, book organizations of the Baltic states, representing book authors, publishers, and other professionals, from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, issued an open letter to the Bologna, London and Frankfurt book fairs to show support for Ukraine by severing contacts with institutions of the Russian Federation. The letter was signed by the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the Latvian Literature/the International Writers and Translators House, the Estonian Literature Centre, the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian sections of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), and the Estonian Childrens Literature Centre. Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, issued a statement today, saying: The organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair strongly condemn Russias attack on Ukraine ordered by President Putin. Against the backdrop of the Russian Federations invasion of Ukraine, a violation of international law, the Frankfurt Book Fair is suspending cooperation with the Russian state institutions in charge of organizing the Russian collective stand at Frankfurter Buchmesse. The Frankfurt Book Fair assures the Ukrainian publishers associations of its full support. For its part, the Bologna Children's Book Fair posted on the Publishers Without Borders Facebook page: "BCBF, Bolognabookplus and BLTF are following current events in Ukraine very closely and extend sympathy and support to everyone affected in our industry. As always, our mission is to build bridges between cultures and people, within peaceful and harmonious conditions. Along with all those in the global book industry, our thoughts are with the publishers, writers, and all those who work with books, in Ukraine, and also our book industry colleagues in Russia, who find themselves in a difficult and painful position today." International Publishers Association Responds Today, Jose Borghino, secretary general of the International Publishers Association, published a letter responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and request from the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association's request for support. Borghino wrote, "We condemn this criminal Russian invasion in the strongest possible terms. The IPA was founded with the intention of supporting peace. Our first President, Georges Masson, stated at our inaugural Congress in 1896 that the first International Publishers Congress is one of many gatherings whose purpose is to multiply peaceful relations between nations, in encouraging the visible tendency of peoples to join more and more through a community of interests. Nothing in the intervening 125 years has changed that stance." Bodour Al Qasimi, current IPA president, added, The IPA stands in solidarity with publishers in peril all around the world and, especially at this moment, with our member in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association. We are following developments and discussing how IPA can be of most assistance to our member. In times of peace, books have a powerful uniting force. In times of conflict, books are even more important in fostering hope, supporting reconciliation, and cementing peace. Initiatives to help With many Ukrainian publishers unable to communicate, TAULT - The Tompkins Agency for Ukrainian Literature in Translation - is currently collecting English-language catalogs of Ukrainian presses to post on its website. If you have access to a computer, please email catalogs to zenia@tault.org And in solidarity with Ukraine, there is a social media movement asking publishers worldwide to post pictures of Ukrainian titles they have translated and published. Numerous publishers in neighboring countries of Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia are offering to pick up refugees at the border and assist them in finding shelter and support. You can find postings about this at the Publishers Without Borders Facebook page. The Ukrainian Library Association has also called on libraries in Europe and around the world to combat disinformation. The European Union is considering putting a ban on RT -- Russia Today -- the state-sponsored English-language media service, which is also available on U.S. television networks. As with most of Pam Munoz Ryans books, the writing of her latest middle grade novel, Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs (out now), was something of a journey. Ryan began thinking about the book eight years ago. At the time, Samantha McFerrin at Disney Publishing Worldwide was interested in teaming up with Ryan on a book about a Latina heroine with a unique vision. And, over the next few years, Ryan and McFerrin brainstormed various story lines for the novel. I had a few false starts, Ryan says, but Samantha and I ultimately agreed on Solimars story line. But it wasnt until late 2018, after she had completed Mananaland (published in 2020), that Ryan was able to dedicate herself entirely to Solimar. For the next two years, she would develop a character named Solimar Guadalupea soon-to-be 15-year-old Mexican royal on the brink of her quinceanera and official coronation. The result is a book about Solimar, a rough-and-tumble princess who discovers that she can predict the near future and has been given a critical task: protecting young, weak monarch butterflies until they can fly. If that werent enough, the young girl is also tasked with protecting her family and her kingdom full of rich natural resources from a greedy and dangerous king. Like her two previous novelsMananaland and Echo (2015)Solimar is a work of magical realism. Not surprisingly, Ryan enjoys weaving together fantasy and fact. I love the idea that otherworldly forces are at work in my characters everyday livesenchantment, self-fulfilling prophecies, the deeply rooted acceptance of legends and myths, she says. Magical realism takes the imagination one step further, often giving the reader permission to suspend disbelief and wholeheartedly escape. In addition to magical realism, Ryan likes to create characters who, like Solimar, are empowered. Its important to me that all of my characters have or develop inner strength, she says. In the beginning of Solimar, she is caught in an antiquated monarchy that has made her feel powerless. But she is curious and outspoken, and when she sees inequality, she speaks up and is persistent. Central to the Solimar story line are monarch butterflies. In Solimars Mexican village, people believe that the ancestors of monarch butterflies inhabit the kingdoms oyamel forest. Their inclusion in the novel was inspired by Ryans upbringing in Southern California. I often visited the Central Coast, one of the monarch butterfly overwintering areas, Ryan says. The monarch migration is remarkable, their transformation is mesmerizing, and as pollinators, their importance to the natural world is profound. Beyond all those good things are the myths and legends about the monarchs that many cultures hold close to their hearts. While Solimar is aimed at middle grade readers, Ryan is hopeful that her novel tells stories that people of any age can embrace. I try to tap into a commonality of emotions that everyone experiences at one time or another, she says. I treat my characters, no matter their age or the likely age of the reader, as complex human beings who are trying to get through their particular circumstances. Ryan has written more than 40 booksa mix of novels, picture books, and early readersand is a Newbery Honor winner. But despite the accolades she has garnered, writing Solimar proved just as challenging as writing her first book. Writing doesnt get easier for me, Ryan says. Im not sure why. Maybe its the pressure I put on myself, thinking that everything should be as good as or better than what came before. Or the imaginary editors and reviewers who peek over my shoulder no matter how I try to brush them aside. Whether I succeed or not, I want the story to compel the reader to turn the page, and thats a challenge and hard work. Writing continues to be, like many jobs, multifacetedsometimes difficult, often frustrating, and fraught with do-overs and rewriting. It is satisfying and joyous, too. But not easier. While the author typically knows where her stories will begin and how they will end, she doesnt always know how she will get from the first sentence to the last sentence of a story. I tend to be a recursive writer, Ryan says. I begin in the opening scene. The next time I sit down to work, I read what I have written, rewriting as I go along, and then I continue writing more to build the story. The next day, I start at the beginning againreading, rewriting, and inching the story forward. On and on. For me, writing is more an evolution than a process. By the time Ryans editors see a draft of her work, she has rewritten the novel more than a dozen times. After feedback from her editors, she begins rewriting again. Then there are the cold readers, sensitivity readers, and copy editors who weigh in, and more must be considered, addressed, and rewritten, says Ryan. For me, rewriting is a constant. American Booksellers Association board president Christine Onorati and co-v-ps Kelly Estep and Angela Maria Spring have laid out the organization's priorities and goals and committed to board transparency and accessibility in a new letter to ABA membership sent Friday. Onorati, of WORD Bookstores, became president at the beginning of February following the resignation of Bradley Graham. Estep had been v-p, and was joined in that position earlier this month by Spring. The full text of the letter is below. Dear Fellow Booksellers, Were honored to formally introduce ourselves as your new ABA Board officers, President Christine Onorati and Co-Vice Presidents Kelly Estep and Angela Maria Spring. Christine is new to her role, Kelly is continuing in her current role as co-VP/Secretary, and Angela now joins her in Christines vacant spot. We are proud to have Angela serve in a leadership role on the ABA Board, representing both non-traditional store models as well as the Latinx community. The Board knows it is important for leadership to reflect ABAs commitment to antiracism, equity, access, and representation, and while this is a good step in that direction, we continue to work toward achieving equity in all of our board representation. Board Priorities and Goals As always, the success of bookstores is the Boards priority. We are having important discussions about the evolution of how we work; changing consumer trends, and antitrust; and supporting the ABA staff in their work to achieve the Ends Policies set by the Board. We regularly review the Ends Policies, in accordance with ABAs Governance Policy, and that process is informed by the input we receive from members in forums like last weeks Town Hall and board office hours, as well as ongoing board education relevant to the future of bookselling. We are looking at the work of the organization through the lens of equity in various ways, including equity amongst ourselves as booksellers, equity with publishers, and the equity of the book ecosystem in regard to Amazon and other threats to independent bookselling. It is part of our job as a Board to build upon the work of previous Boards to ensure continuity, which includes our commitment to equity and antiracism. This work continues to evolve as we gain more information, education, and feedback from membership and others, ensuring we offer the best tools and resources for member bookstores. Together we are building a stronger, more resilient ABA and independent bookstore industry. Board Transparency and Accessibility As mentioned, forums such as Town Hall are important for us to hear from you all and take action based on your feedback. Our goal is to be transparent and accessible. We hope you were able to tune into last weeks Town Hall to hear more about our reinforced commitment to equity, as well as ABAs antitrust work, freedom of expression, and other topics. If you missed it, the link to the recording is available on Bookweb. We have also committed to the following: Creating an FAQ resource to share the thinking behind the decision to change the Ends Policies regarding free expression. We have heard from members who support the decision and from those who have concerns about the decision or are opposed to it. We have read and discussed your emails, and heard that some feel your views have been dismissed. We understand how difficult that must feel. We hear your concerns, and are still secure in our stance. We have had lengthy conversations amongst our Board over these many months, some of them moderated by outside professionals. We have listened to our members, including those on the DEI and BAC committees, and we have made decisions based on these discussions and your feedback. We will be posting Board meeting recaps, effective immediately, in both BTW and on Bookweb. These will include the minutes plus more detail. A recap of our February meeting is now available. We have created a Board-only email address so correspondence can be sent directly to all Board members with one address. The address is ababookboard@gmail.com. We commit to responding to every email we receive. The Board will communicate with members via BTW, including regular Board letters and meeting recaps. Look for a special Board Edition of BTW on February 25, 2022. We will rotate Board letters amongst all of the Board directors on a bimonthly basis so you can hear from all of us and not just the President. Finally, weve been hosting board office hours for the past year and wed love to see you at an upcoming one: Tuesday, March 29, 4 pm 5 pm ET; Tuesday, April 19, 6 pm 7 pm ET; and Wednesday, June 15, 7 pm 8 pm ET. Theres also the next ABA Annual Meeting and Town Hall on Thursday, May 26, 2 pm 3:30 pm ET, and the Board will have a space at Ci10 in Phoenix, Arizona, June 2022. We welcome discussion and feedback this is part of how well build a more powerful, effective, and equitable organization. We rely on your engagement and hope you will meet us in that request. We look forward to hearing from you, as well as continuing our mission to secure a strong future for ABA and independent bookstores. Christine Onorati President, American Booksellers Association WORD Bookstores Brooklyn, NY & Jersey City, NJ Kelly Estep, Co-Vice President, American Booksellers Association Carmichaels Bookstore & Carmichaels Kids Louisville, KY Angela Maria Spring Co-Vice President, American Booksellers Association Duende District Albuquerque, NM & Washington, DC In Amelia Morriss sparkling debut novel, Wildcat, writer and new mother Leanne Hazelton launches a slow campaign to discredit her best friend, East Los Angeles influencer and anti-vaxxer Regina Mark. While nursing the grudge, Leanne prepares for the launch of her cookbook memoir; grapples with the recent death of her father (she keeps hearing his voice); and struggles to manage a student in the writing class she teaches out of her house. A local measles outbreak ramps up Leannes annoyance at Regina, though her attempted sabotage gains little traction until she teams up with new friend and literary phenomenon Maxine Hunter for a large-scale prank. Morriss arresting, concise observations perfectly capture the false intimacy of social media and how confusing its connections can be. For our purposes, suffice it to say that centuries of limited access to power have made [women] experts in relationship-building. These are lines from Esther Perels landmark book, Mating in Captivity, but you could almost imagine them opening a Jane Austen novel. For one, Perels cadence calls to mind Austens It is a truth universally acknowledged but also: Austens heroines are largely at the mercy of the landholding male characters, and indeed, if they are to wield any influence at all, they mustat the very leastlearn to play nicely with others. I was thinking a lot about this directive to play nice, as well as Austens books, when I was writing Wildcata novel propelled via the dynamic of two friends who fall out with one another. The word frenemy didnt exist during Austens day, but Im sure she would have understood the concept instantly. Its not as if men dont have frenemiesIm including one sort-of example belowits just that historically, they havent needed a friend as much as women have. And here, I think, is where things become even more interesting. Because sometimes the fact that we need a friend to access a, b, or c, is enough in itself to harbor resentment. But then other times, I think a frenemy can be born out of a true, deep connection with another human. You love this person although its not romantic. And then when this person hurts you, either intentionally or otherwise, us modern day humans havent quite figured out the protocol. There is no Frenemies section in the greeting card aisle at CVS. But here are 10 novels that can maybe make us feel a bit more understood. 1. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney Lets start lightly. In Rooneys first book, we watch the tension unfold as our narrator, Frances, navigates both a fake friendship with an older, richer, much more professionally established woman with a hot, neglected husband as well as a dear friendship with a woman named Bobbi, who is also an ex-lover. 2. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi I loved this prickly, confusing book. Are Sarah and Karen frenemies or are they the same person, split into two different characters? I dont know! But the book is worth mentioning here for one of the best lines about the danger of letting someone in close; when Karen and Sarah lock eyes early in the morning before school, Choi writes: And right away her gaze went hard with the anger we always feel at the person who spoils our idea of ourself. Oof. 3. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Written in 1905, this book felt as fresh as ever when I read it in 2021. The stakes couldnt be higher for our protagonist, Lily Bart, especially in terms of navigating ones female friendships. Without financial independence, Lily needs to marry well to survive. Or at the very least, she needs to not piss off the rich women in her social circle. 4. Swing Time by Zadie Smith To call the narrators childhood friend, Tracey, a frenemy feels like a slight, but at the same time, the sprawling friendship begs the question: when you know someone for long enough, arent they bound to become an enemy at some point or another? The girls first meet in a dance class and are drawn to each other immediately, only our narrator quickly realizes that Tracey is talented and she is not. Decades later, Tracey is harassing the narrators dying mother, and while contemplating a response, our narrator declares: The power she has over me is the same as it has always been, judgment, and it goes beyond words. 5. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante Similarly to Swing Time, it feels almost wrong to refer to the deep, long-suffering friendship between Ferrantes Lenu and Lila as one of frenemies, but I blame this more on our cultures way of flattening complicated relationships. Lenu and Lila love each other, hurt each other, and push each other to be better people than they would have been on their own. 6. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Just thinking about the arc of the relationship between Ishiguros Kathy and Ruth makes my heart ache. Ruth is essentially a classic mean girl, and yet because of the position shes put in (I wont spoil anything in case you havent read it), shes also incredibly vulnerable and needy. She needs her best friend, Kathy, and Kathy, even though Ruth is not a great friend, needs her back. 7. Old School by Tobias Wolff Maybe one definition of a frenemy could be: friends who compete against one another. Though theres seemingly less emotional turmoil between these male characters than the female ones in the previous books mentioned, Wolffs male narrator feels pretty uncomfortable when his story is chosen as a winner in a contest over his roommates. Our balance was fragile enough anyway, with so many complications of ambition and envy and pretense. 8. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Though the story is set in the early 1800s, the way that Caroline Bingley tacitly weaponizes her higher social status against our heroine Elizabeth Bennet feels timeless. And maybe we cant even say that Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a friend of Elizabeths, but she does have her over to dinner before completely eviscerating her at a later date when she hears the rumor that Darcy is itching to propose (again). Ah, so good it hurts! 9. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster Can you be frenemies and also relatives? I think so, and will use Forsters Lucy Honeychurch and her older, often flabbergasted spinster cousin, Charlotte Bartlett, as an example. Its one thing when Charlotte busts up Lucys kiss with George in an Italian meadow of violets, but then she gossips about it to a novelist, who puts the scene in her book! The American Booksellers Associations Snow Days event was originally planned to give booksellers who couldnt attend Winter Institute 17 in Cincinnati in mid-February a chance to virtually sample some of the programming, and a few add-ons. But Snow Days has taken on a bigger role since the omicron wave forced the cancellation of WI in December. In the intervening months, ABA has transformed what was to have been a two-day event into a full-fledged virtual conference that fits neatly into the bookselling calendar just ahead of Aprils spring regional shows and Independent Bookstore Day. The inaugural Snow Days: A Virtual Bookselling Retreat, now set for TuesdayThursday, March 810, has expanded from two days to three. It will feature livestreamed and prerecorded appearances by close to 70 authors, including MacArthur genius grant fellow Hanif Abdurraqib, poet Elizabeth Acevedo, Crime Writers of Color cofounder Kellye Garrett, romance novelist Jasmine Guillory, Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart, and Penobscot Indian Nation citizen Morgan Talty. Each day kicks off with a morning keynote, beginning March 8 with futurist Jane McGonigal, who will address a question on the minds of many in the book business during the pandemic: How to Imagine the Future of Bookselling. Its a theme that particularly resonates with ABA CEO Allison Hill, who wrote in a recent letter to members that, after this extreme and extended period of disruption, shes concerned about planning for the future. She questions what ABA and booksellers should be paying attention to as they move forward: Whats about to take flight? And how can we be prepared for the ride? Other Snow Days talks are all about the books, including a lunchtime event on Thursday afternoon featuring Grammy Awardwinning recording artist Alicia Keys, who will discuss her graphic novel, Girl on Fire (cowritten with Andrew Weiner and illustrated by Brittney Williams), in conversation with bookseller Donya Craddock, co-owner of the Dock Bookshop in Fort Worth, Tex. Novelist Emma Straub, co-owner of Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, N.Y., will moderate a keynote panel entitled Storytelling in the Cultural Moment, while writer and poet Danny Caine, owner of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kans., will lead a keynote panel entitled Poets Take the Stage. Poetry interludes are also woven throughout all three days. In addition, Snow Days attendees will have an opportunity to participate in roundtable conversations with other booksellers on a variety of subjects, including running microstores, mobile bookstores, nonprofits, and employee-owned co-ops, as well as business changes made during the pandemic that are worth keeping. Other sessions offer candid conversations about the advantages and disadvantages of unionizing bookstores and prioritizing community engagement for social change. In a panel entitled Black Female Entrepreneurship: Bookselling and Literacy as Resistance, booksellers will look at the intersection of race and literature. Rep picks, a key component of Winter Institute, will take place both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, as will hourlong author receptions, which offer chances to mingle virtually with writers from small and large presses. Several affinity groups will also meet during the retreat, though Snow Days registration wont be required. Among them are groups for BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQ, and neurodiverse communities. Below, more on Snow Days: Snow Days 2022: Adult Authors to Meet Dozens of writers will gather virtually for ABAs debut Snow Days. Here is a selection, from large houses and small. Snow Days 2022: Jane McGonigal Wants You to Think Like a Futurist An excerpt from the introduction of the world-renowned alternate reality game designer and humanitarian's new book, 'Imaginable' (Spiegel & Grau, Mar.). Snow Days 2022: Children's Authors to Meet Dozens of writers will gather virtually for ABAs debut Snow Days. Here is a selection, from large houses and small. Cincinnati Bookstores Enjoy a Renaissance Indie booksellers everywhere were disappointed when the American Booksellers Association called off this year's Winter Institute in Cincinnati, but local booksellers were even more disappointed: they had been looking forward to showing off their citys rich literary offerings. Purdue is celebrating 20 years of excellence in university engagement with community partners. Founded in 2001 by President Martin Jischke, the Office of Engagement supports Purdues land-grant university engagement pillar. Engagement connects the University and external partners in trailblazing work developing the next generation of leaders and innovators, tackling critical public and social challenges, and promoting economic vitality and enhanced quality of life, at home and across the globe. Engagement is the distinguishing feature of a land-grant institution, says Jay Akridge, provost and executive vice president of academic affairs and diversity. This mandate to establish productive relationships with our myriad of stakeholders and communities is a true point of difference and makes us better in delivering on our discovery and learning missions. Recognition for accomplishment and scholarship With the founding of the Office of Engagement, Purdue established itself as a leader among engaged universities. Today, Purdue is one of a select group of universities to hold the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification and the Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Purdue also holds the second-highest number of Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Awards for outstanding community-university engagement work. Steve Abel, associate provost for engagement, says, Purdue Engagement is among the most well-recognized and respected engagement programs in the nation, if not world. We have been very visible nationally over the past 20 years and our work relative to faculty advancement based on the scholarship of engagement is pretty much unparalleled. We are proud to advance Purdue and improve the lives of people throughout Indiana and beyond, doing our part in Purdues mission of engagement. Across Purdues campuses, the Office of Engagement champions the scholarship of engagement as a mechanism for faculty promotion and/or tenure. Since 2015, Purdue has promoted and/or tenured 89 faculty fully or partially on the basis of the scholarship of engagement. To support the development of these engaged faculty and staff members, the office operates three signature programs: To foster communication and excellence among engaged Purdue units and individuals, the office established the Engagement Associate Deans and Engagement Council advisory groups. The office also has recognized more than 100 faculty, staff, and teams for exemplary engagement scholarship and activity. Thirteen Purdue faculty and staff members have been honored with the prestigious Jefferson Award through affiliation with Multiplying Good; two Purdue honorees have received national recognition. Engagement with students and communities The Purdue Office of Engagement enables student-led engagement through its nationally recognized student service-learning grant program , which has engaged over 350 partners through more than 1,700 student-led projects since 2015. The office is also home to Purdue United Way, Purdue Conferences, and the Wabash Area Lifetime Learning Association (WALLA). Externally, Purdue Engagement stewards relationships and collaborations with more than 3,000 community partners not only from its hub at the West Lafayette campus but also through regional engagement offices located throughout the state of Indiana and through the Purdue Northwest and Purdue Fort Wayne campuses. Anchored by Extension, Purdues oldest engagement program, Purdue engages at the county level to serve all 92 Indiana counties. Through the Purdue Center for Regional Development, launched by the office in 2005, Purdue engages at the regional level to promote regional prosperity and economic vitality. Twenty years after its founding, Purdue Engagement continues to be a force of change to make the world a more resilient, prosperous, and equitable place for all. For more information, visit the Purdue Office of Engagements online home at purdue.edu/engagement. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Jon Harbor has been described by colleagues as a true ambassador for the discipline of geography and for the contributions that geomorphology can make to scholarship and to society. On Friday (Feb. 25), the Geomorphology Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers honored Harbor with its Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award for 2022. Harbor, who serves as provost of Purdue University Global, is an emeritus professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue West Lafayette. The associations highest award in the field of geomorphology is presented annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to geomorphology over their career. Harbors research has contributed to a deeper basic understanding of geomorphic processes, along with an elaborate applied contribution to environmental management. His work presents an extraordinary methodological and spatial breadth with field sites ranging from the Rockies to the Alps, and from the Arctic to Tibet-Himalayas, and to Antarctica, colleagues noted. Harbors career at Purdue began in 1994, and he assumed his current position with Purdue Global in 2020. He served as head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from 2010-13 and as executive director of digital education and associate vice provost for teaching and learning from 2015-18. His publication record includes three books and over 170 papers published in scientific and educational journals, and he is an elected Fellow of the American Association of Geographers and the Royal Geographical Society. It is particularly humbling that the nomination for this award was made by a large group of former Purdue students, Harbor said. In his acceptance remarks, Harbor highlighted the importance of Purdues support for interdisciplinary collaboration and the critical role of students and visiting scholars in research. Coming with a dizzying array of disciplinary backgrounds, national origins, lived experiences and interests, they taught and supported each other, and often dreamed up new directions and places for us to push the boundaries of knowledge, Harbor said. It has been a joy to watch them develop their lives and careers, making a difference in local, state and federal agencies; in consulting; at national labs; in international organizations; in K-12 education; and at colleges and universities of every type. 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. Media Contact: Tom Schott, tschott@purdue.edu Source: Jon Harbor WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue University will further research and development in critical areas of national security as a lead academic partner of a new pilot initiative with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Purdue was selected as the lead academic partner and headquarters for the AFRL Regional Research Hub Midwest and will be involved in the development of a science and technology ecosystem across a wide area of 15 states from Ohio, west to Kansas and Nebraska, and north to North Dakota. Included in the development of that ecosystem is the integration of additional partners, anticipated to span more than a dozen academic and 50 industrial partners from across the region and beyond. Cornell University is the academic lead and headquarters for the other hub in the pilot initiative, the AFRL Regional Research Hub Mid-Atlantic. Connectivity between these hubs will further the aims of the pilot initiative to advance technologies benefitting both defense and commercial markets, support innovative research and education, and aid in expanding collaboration and investment opportunities. The pilot initiative is funded for at least three years. Purdues selection to lead the new AFRL regional hub is a tribute to our faculty and researchers, Daniels said. Their scholarship and commitment to excellence make possible the universitys numerous partnerships in creating future technologies and protecting the national security. Purdue already has established excellence in key research areas considered critical to national security, including hypersonics and space systems, energetic materials and secure microelectronics. The areas, which are of interest to the Department of Defense, are among the critical topics under two of Purdues Next Moves, recently announced strategic initiatives that will advance the universitys competitive advantage. Earlier this month, Purdue announced the first Department of Defense contract for the new Purdue Applied Research Institute LLC, the applied research arm of the university. The contract establishes the Hypersonics Advanced Manufacturing Test Center, a single location at Purdue for industry partners to work with university researchers on developing high-temperature materials and creating new manufacturing processes to build and join these materials. This work will extend the capabilities of hypersonic vehicles, which is critical to U.S. leadership in the field. Theresa Mayer, executive vice president for research and partnerships at Purdue, said that Purdues recent commitments to, and robust portfolio of, national security-related research and unique facilities and capabilities have made the university an attractive partner to the federal government, academic institutions, large and small businesses and investors. Purdue is increasingly working hand-in-hand with government, academic, and industry leaders to develop technologies, materials and solutions necessary to advance U.S. national security and competitiveness, Mayer said. We are eager to leverage those connections and our unique facilities and capabilities to drive technological innovation with AFRL. Purdue and AFRL officials are working to identify priority areas for research collaborations through the pilot program. Jeffrey Rhoads, director of Herrick Labs and Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, said that Purdue and AFRL are treating the hub like a startup. With fresh, synergistic thinking and joint action with our partners across academia, industry and government, we will create an agile ecosystem that builds upon recent advancements and can respond at speed and scale to the increasingly complex national security landscape, Rhoads said. By having all partners in the technology supply chain from the onset, we have the ability to more rapidly transition critical technologies to the United States Air Force and Space Force, as well as commercial markets. Workforce development is an expected benefit of the pilot program, with AFRL expected to share technology innovations with students and faculty. That experience can bolster workforce opportunities at AFRL, partners within the hub collaborations and elsewhere. Expansion of workforce opportunities aligns with existing projects, such as Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement (SCALE), a workforce development program led by Purdue and funded by the Department of Defense that engages more than 70 academic, industrial, and governmental partners and is training students to be future experts in microelectronics areas. The hub also will provide workforce development opportunities for AFRL scientists and engineers who may spend up to six months with regional partners working in technology problem spaces. About Purdue University Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://purdue.edu/. Writer, Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu Sources: Mitch Daniels Theresa Mayer Jeffrey Rhoads The market will continue to move sideways this week with low liquidity to gradually form a strong enough accumulation base before returning to the uptrend, analysts said. The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) gained 0.27 per cent to close Friday at 1,498.89 points. Although the VN-Index lost the psychological threshold of 1,500 points, it still ended last week above the support area of 1,485-1,490 points, showing that the uptrend is slightly affected, but is still not a major concern, said Saigon-Hanoi Securities Joint Stock Company (SHS). Therefore, in the next trading week from February 28 to March 4, VN-Index may struggle and move sideways around the psychological threshold of 1,500 points to wait for a chance to go up again, it said. "Investors who bought in the sessions of January 12, January 18 and January 24 can continue to hold the current portfolio. The resistance area of 1,530-1,550 points can be reached in the next few days. In the negative scenario, if the VN-Index falls to the range of 1,425-1,450 points, investors may consider increasing the proportion of stocks in the portfolio," SHS recommended. The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam (Vietcombank) said cash flow would return to the group of large-cap stocks, which had had a rather deep decline last week. "With such developments, short-term investors can disburse a small proportion in the group of large-cap stocks leading the market, while mid- and long-term investors should still wait for more stable trading before considering disbursement," VCBS recommended. According to VCBS, short-term profit-taking force is still quite large around 1,520 points, so the index is still tending to move sideways around 1,500 points since the beginning of February. Besides, developments related to Russia-Ukraine tensions also raised concerns about the short-term market outlook. The bottom-fishing demand in the past week remained, but it was not strong enough to make VN-Index go against the general trend of the world market. Phu Hung Securities Joint Stock Company (PHS) stated that the market reversed and gained again in the last session of last week when investors seemed to have eased their worries about the tension between Russia and Ukraine. In technical terms, the VN-Index gained again. The trading volume decreased compared to the previous session but was still above the 20-session average, meaning that the cash flow in the market has not changed significantly. Technical indicators showed mixed signals, showing that the index is moving in a narrow range, with support area around 1,470 - 1,480 points and resistance around 1,520 - 1,530 points, it said. For the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, HNX Index is experiencing a similar situation. The index is also struggling in a narrow range, with support around 425 points and resistance around 425-443 points. Investors should keep their portfolios in balance, with priority given to stocks with good fundamentals, positive business expectations in 2022 and is attracting strong cash flow," it recommended. According to statistics of Saigon-Hanoi Securities Joint Stock Company (SHS), the tension between Russia and Ukraine has caused world oil prices to continue to climb. This helped the oil and gas group to perform best last week. They included Binh Son Refinery (BSR), up 4.2 per cent, Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), up 4.3 per cent, Petrovietnam Transportation Corporation (PVT) up 6.1 per cent, PV Oil (OIL) up 10.6 per cent, PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD) up 10.9 per cent, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) up 16.6 per cent, PetroViet Nam Coating JSC (PVB) up 24.3 per cent and PetroVietNam Chemical And Services Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) up by 31.6 per cent. Pharmaceutical and medical groups also had a positive trading week in the context that the number of COVID-19 infections nationwide continuously peaked, with key gainers being Lam ong Pharmaceutical JSC (LDP) up by 2.8 per cent, Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation - JSC (DVN) and DHG Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG) both up 4.5 per cent, Japan Vietnam Medical Instrument Joint Stock Company (JVC) up 5.1 per cent, Thai Nguyen International Hospital JSC (TNH) up 6.2 per cent and Mekophar Chemical Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (MKP) up 33.1 per cent. On the other hand, some industry groups dropped slightly such as consumer goods, finance, community utilities, industrial information technology and banking. VNS World Book Day 2022 Gibraltar Cultural Services will be commemorating this years World Book Day by celebrating the author Roald Dahl, in particular his book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. World Book Day marks its 25th anniversary this year, on Thursday the 3rd of March, with the message to all children you are a reader. This year GCS on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, is marking the occasion by hosting school groups and running different educational activities around the theme. The students will be exploring Roald Dahls work through art, drama and of course storytelling. Zoe Bishop from The Movement Collective will be hosting a short drama/ movement workshop, artist Monica Popham will allow the children to be creative by designing their own Willy Wonka inspired chocolate bar. Our committed Storytellers Kationa, Monica, Tanya and Denise will delve into different chapters of the book to take the children on a fun and imaginative literary journey. Parts of The John Mackintosh Hall will be decorated in true Chocolate Factory Style, accompanied by Oompa Loompas, Golden Tickets and of course Willy Wonka himself. Celebrations will take place throughout the week of World Book Day, highlighting our local childrens authors and the importance of reading. Karim Vatvani and Corinne Massetti will both be hosting storytelling sessions at the library, inspiring young people to read. A special British Sign Language storytelling session has been organised together with GHITA, which has been recorded and will be shared on social media. 'We will also be celebrating local literature with new publications launched around the event. Online, we will be sharing recommended reads by a selection of our library members and pupils from Westside Comprehensive School.' Friends, family and community members came together to celebrate the life of former Black Cultural Center director and jazz musician Tony Zamora. The concert was presented by the Jazz Club of Greater Lafayette and held at the Wells Cultural Center on Sunday evening. Four musicians, pianist Michael Stryker, guitarist Steven Weakley, bassist Lynn Colwell and percussionist Lawrence Clark, who performed alongside Zamora in the 80s and 90s, reunited after roughly three decades to play straight ahead jazz, a style influenced by the historical traditions of jazz. We love each other and havent seen each other for years and its like we were never apart. Its like we were playing yesterday, Stryker said. Some of the songs played at the concert included Tokyo Blues by Horace Silver and a ballad titled Body and Soul. The four musicians selected songs they remembered playing with Zamora in the Tony Zamora Jazz Ensemble. The musicians said they felt Zamora saw something in them and nurtured their talent. Tony was just a really special human being, and he was about preserving jazz and bringing it to the people, Stryker said. He played the hell out of the tenor saxophone, knew how to put musicians together and knew how to nurture talent. Tony just kept nurturing, it was his grace, Colwell said. I wouldnt be a musician had it not been for him. I wouldve bagged it up and kept it as a hobby here and there, but hes the one that fostered it, and Im speaking for a lot of people thats the impact hes had on a couple of generations. Others said Zamora was a mentor figure to them. Clark said Zamora was like a big brother to him and was one of the few people he played with who had the ability to open up and allow musicians to express themselves. We had to come together for Tony, because hes here, Clark said. He was my mentor, and like a second father. I became very close with him and his wife Betty over the years, said Brent Ladlier, chair for the Tony Zamora scholarship. I met him for the first time to do some minor repairs on his instruments. Over the years he had me start doing more and more for him, and I became the only repairman that touched any of his instruments. Zamora was the director of the BCC from 1973 to 1995. He passed away in July of 2020, after fighting a 14 year battle against Parkinsons disease. Those who worked and performed with Zamora said he helped develop the jazz scene for the Lafayette area and played jazz for the joy of the music. He was a very talented musician, who played for the joy of the music, and the jazz scene that he helped develop and support in the Lafayette area, while he was active, is just legendary, Ladlier said. Audience members, including the program advisor for the BCC, Juanita Crider, said they came out to pay tribute to Zamoras legacy. Crider said when she met Zamora, he was retired but still involved in attending events. He left the impact of how you could use the arts to teach about Black history, Black culture and Black thought, Crider said. The impact hes left on the jazz community is far reaching. Im always running into someone in the community who is connected to him through his love of music and his skill as a performer. Crider said she was invited to attend the concert by Zamoras wife, Betty Zamora. It was a beautiful, beautiful journey of almost 61 years and this is part of my healing process, Betty Zamora said This is something we truly need with COVID just to get out and hear some live music and I urge you wherever you go to keep on supporting the arts whatever genre it is: poetry, music, jazz, opera, classical music. Its a part of surviving and whats going on in this world today. Sasha Marcones grandparents left their home at 8 a.m. Friday Ukraine time for a bomb shelter in Kyiv. The President Must Address How He Will Bring Public Schools Into the 21st Century President Bidens ambitious policy agenda for Building Back Better is missing a key element bringing Americas outdated public school bureaucracies into the 21st Century. As the politics of education heats up around the country, he needs to fill the vacuum for a progressive vision for modernizing public schools. Education is mostly a local responsibility, but its fast becoming a national issue. Many U.S. parents are dissatisfied with the way their children's public schools performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are frustrated by lengthy shutdowns and learning losses, by political wrangling over vaccines and mask mandates, and by opaque central school bureaucracies that did not seem to listen to their concerns. Right-wing populists also are trying to make our K-12 schools battlegrounds in Americas culture wars. Controversies are erupting over efforts by conservative state legislators to ban books and discussions of gender, as well as the extent to which parents should control what their children are taught about the nations racial history and other fraught subjects. Following last years victory in Virginia, Republicans are planning to run campaigns in this years midterm elections around the theme of parent power. Conspicuously absent from the Republican cultural offensive is a commitment to raising school quality and student performance. Yet thats a growing concern for U.S. voters. In a Pew Research Center survey conducted this month, 58% said improving education should be a top priority for the President and Congress this year. It was the fourth-most pressing priority, ahead even of concern about crime. Unfortunately, Democrats seem ill-prepared for the intensifying debate on education. National party leaders in recent years have largely abandoned the fight to give parents better school choices for their children and hold schools accountable for improving the performance of all students. As a result, the public is apt to default to the view that Democrats are defending a status quo urgently in need of change. We urge President Biden in his State of the Union speech to pick up the discarded mantle of K-12 reform and modernization. Taking up where Barack Obama and Bill Clinton left off, he should offer a radically pragmatic vision for bringing Americas outdated model for organizing public education into the 21st Century. Here are the key elements of a new progressive vision for the 21st Century public: (1) schools organized around expanded parental choice; (2) shifting decisions from central bureaucracies to autonomous schools; (3) measuring outcomes and closing schools that fail their students; and (4) offering personalized learning rather than one-size-fits-all instruction. Here are three concrete steps the President can take to seize the initiative in making sweeping changes in Americas K-12 schools: First, challenge the states to dramatically accelerate progress toward the 21st Century School model. The federal government should create new incentives to states to follow the example of New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Camden, and other cities where public charter schools are achieving critical mass. As the Progressive Policy Institute has documented, charter schools and networks with strong oversight are outperforming traditional district schools and narrowing racial and ethnic achievement gaps. Also promising is the partnership school model under development in states as dissimilar as Massachusetts, Tennessee, Colorado, Indiana, Texas, New Jersey, and South Carolina. Known variously as innovation, renaissance, zone, 1882, and other names, the partnership model grants schools varying degrees of autonomy from central district micromanagement and restrictive union rules. They usually operate under performance contracts and can be closed or returned to district control if they fail to meet specific accountability targets. During the pandemic, performance and public charter schools often proved more flexible and responsive to nimble than district schools. They pivoted to remote learning quickly when schools closed and worked closely with parents to maintain student engagement. A new survey of more than 500 charter schools by Stanford Universitys Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that, on average, those charter leaders reported an interval of just 3.5 days between closing their physical campuses in March 2020 and reopening for online instruction. By contrast, at least one contemporaneous account discovered that only 30% of teachers in district schools were in daily contact with their students as late as May 2020. Not surprisingly, in June 2021, the U.S. Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics reported that enrollment in public schools fell by its largest margin in at least two decades. Enrollment dropped three percent, or about 1.4 million students. According to a study by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, during the same period, public charter schools added nearly a quarter of a million students, doubling their year-over-year enrollment increase. Second, make closing the international achievement gap a national priority. President Biden says America is locked in a strategic competition with China for economic and technological leadership. We cant win that contest if our students dont receive education of comparable rigor and quality to their peers in China and elsewhere. Unfortunately, evidence from international tests shows that U.S. students are lagging far behind in mastering reading, math, and science. For example, the latest Program for International Assessment (PISA) tests show that U.S. students ranked 37th in math, 18th in science, and 13th in reading. Chinese students were the top performers in all three subjects. President Biden should announce a new federal initiative that links unspent education funds from the American Rescue Plan to efforts by states to harmonize their standards and tests with PISA and other international assessments. Third, raise public and political awareness of the need to link Americas K-12 schools to the world of work. Whether or not they are bound for college, U.S. students should learn about how job markets work and have opportunities for apprenticeships with local employers before they graduate from high school. Investing in young workers has high economic returns, yet research shows that employers are less likely to hire workers with little to no experience for the first jobs that many younger workers rely on to build their skills and credentials. Without those first jobs, many will face fewer paths to enter the workforce. As part of his Build Back Better plan, President Biden has called for grants to states to accelerate students attainment of quality credentials, degrees, and opportunities in job training programs. To help the non-college-bound, our education system needs to connect them with multiple pathways to skills and careers. For decades Democrats led on education. We spearheaded the drive to raise school standards, test new models for closing achievement gaps, and hold schools accountable for educating all students. In the last several years, however, the party has outsourced its education agenda to change-averse unions and left-wing activists. The State of the Union offers Biden an opportunity to spur the party to make a course correction. With a challenging midterm election looming, he should seize it and put Democrats back on the side of progressive school reform. On 24 and 25 February the WCO Secretariat organized a Conference at WCO headquarters within the framework of the Asia Pacific Plastic Waste (APPW) Project on the topic of plastic waste control and the implementation of the Basel Convention in the Asia Pacific region. The Conference was hosted by the APPW Project, which cooperated with the Customs administrations and environmental authorities of Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam in order to present the activities they organized and the results they obtained. In his opening remarks, WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya thanked the government of Japan, represented by H.E. Makita Shimokawa, the Ambassador of Japan to Belgium and to NATO, for having started and financially supported this initiative. Dr. Mikuriya highlighted that Customs administrations are more and more aware of the environmental concerns related to the plastic waste trade. The Asia Pacific Plastic Waste Project demonstrated the commitment of the administrations participating in the Project to take actions against illegal shipments of plastic waste and to promote procedures to facilitate legal trade. We look forward to continuing this effort by opening up the Project to more administrations and with the help of our international and regional stakeholders. We have to make sure that Customs can fully play its role in fostering sustainable supply chains, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya said. Presentations on the Green Customs initiative and on the activities concerning plastic waste undertaken at the WCO, as well as the speeches by the representatives from the participating administrations allowed to lay out the scene of plastic waste trade in the Asia Pacific and highlighted the challenges encountered by the administrations in dealing with imports of plastic waste. The APPW Project achieved several deliverables, including the development of a self-assessment tool to allow Customs administrations to assess their ability to enforce the Basel Convention provisions and to build capacity step by step to enhance fraud detection and efficient risk management. The Frontline Customs Officers Guide to Key Multilateral Environmental Agreements was amended to align itself with the Basel Convention and its recent amendments. A dedicated section on the Basel Convention and plastic waste was developed to be included in the Coordinated Border Management (CBM) Compendium. During the Conference, participants discussed the international and regional dimensions of plastic waste trade and related ongoing interventions, policies, challenges, priorities and opportunities for cooperation among the different actors involved. They also discussed the role of regional organizations and environmental authorities in supporting Customs administrations in the fight against plastic waste trafficking and in promoting legal waste trade. These discussions were summarized in a Conference Statement. The government of Japan kindly offered a 15-month extension of the project to continue working on building capacity at the Customs Administrations and expand the participating countries. Illicit plastic waste management has been recognized as a new global challenge, as highlighted in the Osaka Blue Ocean Vision. Japan is therefore pleased to provide financial support for the WCO's Asia Pacific Plastic Waste Project under the "MARINE Initiative" to help Customs administrations in their role to minimize and eventually eliminate the destructive impact of illegal plastic waste on the environment. Japan appreciates the WCO's efforts and look forward to a fruitful implementation of this project, said H.E. Makita Shimokawa during his opening speech. The inclusion of new countries will help to identify further aspects to be taken into account in the development of a regional approach to plastic waste trade, to apply the newly drafted deliverables in a regional context and to fine-tune future regional recommendations regarding plastic waste trade. In his closing remarks Mr. Ricardo Trevino Chapa, Deputy Secretary General of the WCO, highlighted the wish to develop a regional approach towards the plastic waste trade and to strengthen international cooperation so as to ensure the protection of the environment from the effects of the improper management of plastic waste. Customs is one of the key players. The WCO Secretariat will therefore continue to raise awareness among ithe members on the importance of sustainable waste trade. Mr. Trevino Chapa further announced that WCO is planning to host a Green Customs Global Conference on 27-28 June 2022, drawing together a diversity of stakeholders to discuss some of the key aspects to strengthen Customs role in sustainable and a greener supply chain to protect the environment through trade. People gathered in Harmony Parking lot in Brattleboro on Friday, April 22nd for a street festival and parade in celebration of Earth Day. According to Nancy Braus of 350 Brattleboro, the goal was to celebrate the ways in which the community is working towards climate justice and to empower If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit You are the owner of this article. Gary Fox chips away the old paint as volunteers spruce up the Bellows Falls Train Station on July 15, 2021, to prepare for the return of Amtrak passenger trains. A Ukrainian flag greets shoppers at Manchester Discount Beverage. Gov. Phil Scott has directed the Liquor and Lottery Commission to remove Russian-owned liquor brands from its 802 Spirits agency stores. Five Chinese historians have published an open letter condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in a move that breaks ranks with the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s ban on criticism of the move by Putin. "As a country that was once also ravaged by war ... we sympathize with the suffering of the Ukrainian people," the letter, signed by history professors at five top Chinese universities, said. "The ruins of buildings, the sound of artillery fire, and the wounds of refugees in Ukraine have injured us deeply." Calling the invasion a "war that began in the dark," Nanjing University professor Sun Jiang, Peking University professor Wang Lixin, Hong Kong University professor Xu Guoqi, Tsinghua historian Zhong Weimin and Fudan University's Chen Yan call for an immediate end to the fighting. "We emphatically call on the Russian government and President Putin to stop the war and resolve any dispute through negotiations," it said. It warned that the conflict could spark a "massive, global war." "In the midst of all the noise, we felt the need to make our voices heard," the letter said. "We are concerned that Russian military action will lead to turmoil in Europe and the entire world, and trigger wider humanitarian disaster." A senior Chinese journalist who gave only the surname Gao said many in China were taken by surprised at the strength of the Ukrainian resistance. "The capability and determination of the Ukrainians really surprised us, and we really admire it," Gao said. "We think ... Russia will likely be removed from its seat as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council." Independent political commentator Wu Qiang said China's current position of tacit support for the Kremlin is currently something of a marriage of convenience, however. "They have uses for each other, but this alliance is very unstable, because they lack a common ideology or set of values," Wu told RFA. "China can appreciate the insistence that Russia and Ukraine are part of a single entity, which we saw in Putin's speech." "But the way Russia has reconstructed its Orthodox Christian traditions from an anti-communist perspective actually runs counter to the CCP's current ideology," he said. Journalist Li Ming said Beijing had likely expected the military operation to be over within 24 hours. "They didn't expect Ukraine to fight back from day one, and now they're thinking maybe Russia's military offensive isn't as intense as they thought it would be, three or four days in," Li said. "Europe and the U.S. are now fighting back [with arms supplies and sanctions]." "So now China is panicking, and it wants to shift the tide of public opinion [away from support for Russia], [because] most countries in the world think Russia is in the wrong," he said. A former international news editor surnamed Li said around 90 percent of Chinese citizens had supported the Kremlin until now. "The CCP was created by the former Soviet Union, which had a decades-long relationship with China until the collapse of the Soviet era," Li said. "So it's the result of brainwashing." "There is also another factor involved here, which is the tendency of the Chinese public to support the stronger party," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photograph during their meeting in Beijing, Feb. 4, 2022. AFP Keeping a low profile State news agency Xinhua reported on Friday that CCP leader Xi Jinping spoke with Putin by phone on Friday, during which he advised against "a Cold-War mentality," and called for dialogue to resolve the situation. Ye Yaoyuan, chair of the department of international studies and contemporary linguistics at the University of St. Thomas, said Chinese leaders are learning to keep a low profile when faced with complex geopolitical issues. "China really can't say much about this war, otherwise it looks like the 'big bad guy' to the rest of the world," Ye told RFA. "It's hard to justify supporting a country that is trampling over the sovereignty of another country." Historian Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the Trump administration, said Xi has been wrong-footed by the comprehensive cooperation pact he signed with Putin ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. "China is an opportunistic country, and has made a pact with Putin ... an unbreakable strategic partnership," Yu told RFA. "But they knew they couldn't deliver even then, because China and Ukraine have also signed several treaties including nuclear protection treaties and other commitments." "The CCP knows that it has a very bad reputation now ... but even worse, it is sitting on the fence, and doesn't know which way to jump," he said. "China's international strategy ... has basically been limited to condemnation or praise, with no more flexible options in between." "That's why the CCP has very few real friends in the world ... they signed so many treaties with Ukraine, and when the critical moment came, it was as if they never existed," Yu said. 'Today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan' International affairs commentator Wang Hao said Beijing likely sees parallels with Putin's claim on Ukraine and its own threats to invade the democratic island of Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China. "Putin's entire playbook for Ukraine was, firstly, to say that Ukraine is a part of Russia, and to incite a group of pro-Russian Ukrainians in Ukraine to engage in separatism in Ukraine," Wang said. "Then they used it as an excuse to send in the troops, to invade and overthrow the legitimate government of Ukraine and engage in a full-scale military occupation," he said. "It's very similar to what Xi Jinping wants to do in Taiwan ... so the slogan 'today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan' makes a lot of sense," he said. U.S. President Joe Biden is to send a delegation of former senior defense and security officials to Taiwan on Monday in a sign of support for the island claimed by China after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. Taiwan has stepped up its alert level, wary of China taking advantage of the global focus on Ukraine. Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen used the anniversary of a bloody crackdown by Kuomintang troops on the island's residents in 1947 under the authoritarian rule of Chiang Kai-shek to reaffirm her government's support for Ukraine. "They are determined to defend their national sovereignty, freedom and democracy," Tsai said. "Only a united country can deal with change and overcome challenges." "As president, it's my responsibility to unite Taiwan and defend democracy," she said, recalling Taiwan's authoritarian past, and warning people not to take its current freedoms and democratic way of life for granted. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. The U.S. sailing took place amid rising international tensions as Ukraine resists an invasion by Russia. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson in the South China Sea on Feb. 14, 2022. China has launched military training on Hainan island, its most southerly province, a day after the U.S. 7th Fleet announced that one of its destroyers transited the Taiwan Strait. The Hainan Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning saying military training would take place from Sunday to Tuesday close to the sea and that entering the area within a six-mile radius was prohibited. A navigation warning is a public advisory notice to mariners about changes to navigational aids and current marine activities or hazards including fishing zones and military exercises. The warning did not specify what kind of military training but the provided coordinates indicated the location is near Chinas Wenchang Rocket Launch Site. On Saturday, the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet said in a statement that its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson was conducting a routine Taiwan Strait transit. The statement said the transit was conducted through international waters in accordance with international law and through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State. Before this and most recently, the USS Dewey made a similar transit on Jan. 22, 2022, and the USS Chaffe on Dec. 15, 2021. But those two ships did not turn on their automatic identification system (AIS), whereas the USS Ralph Johnson did, effectively advertizing its mission. The 7th Fleet said the USS Ralph Johnsons transit demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. A MH-60R helicopter during flight operations aboard guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson on Feb.14, 2022. Credit: U.S. Navy Taiwans security The move was heavily criticized by China. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command spokesman, Sr. Col. Shi Yi, was quoted by Chinese state media as saying that such an action is provocative and aims to embolden Taiwan separatist forces. Shi also called the U.S. action "hypocritical and futile" and said the PLA tracked and monitored the destroyers movements. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and vows to take it back, by force if necessary. While its not unusual for the U.S. navy to sail through the Taiwan Strait, Saturdays mission took place against a tense international backdrop, as fighting intensifies in Ukraine after an invasion by Russian forces. There has been speculation that China could exploit a situation in which Washington was preoccupied by Ukraine by taking action against Taiwan or in the South China Sea. Beijing has rejected that suggestion, but the Ukraine conflict has at the very least highlighted the diplomatic gulf between Washington and Beijing, as China avoids direct criticism of Russias conduct. The hawkish Chinese tabloid Global Times said while the ongoing Ukraine-Russia tussle is intensifying, the U.S. military is attempting to demonstrate its capabilities to stir up trouble in both Europe and Asia. The same newspaper in an editorial last week warned Taiwan that the Ukrainian crisis proved that Washington is not reliable and there is only one option for the islands future - to achieve reunification with the mainland. The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense on Monday said in response to the development of the Ukrainian-Russian military conflict, Taiwans army continues to maintain a high degree of vigilance and closely monitors the military dynamics around the Taiwan Strait to ensure national security. One lesson that China can learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Alexander Vuving, a professor with the Hawaii-based Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, is that a unilateral decision to take over a smaller country wont be acceptable in modern times. I think China is not yet ready to launch an invasion of Taiwan, Vuving said, adding: But China will intensify its testing action to test the capabilities and resolve of its opponents across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea. Thousands of Chinese nationals remain stranded in Ukraine, nearly four days after the Russian invasion, despite official promises to evacuate them. The Chinese embassy in Kyiv told Chinese citizens in Ukraine to make preparations to evacuate the country on , warning of a "high security risk," and calling on them to register with the authorities to take charter flights out of the country. But by , no more had been heard from officials on the evacuation plan, according to a volunteer in touch with Chinese nationals in Kyiv. "As far as I know, there are a lot of them down in subway stations in urban areas," the volunteer, surnamed Wen, told RFA. "[The evacuation plan] simply wasn't going to work because so many of the bridges have been blown up." "They said they would charter flights, and several of my friends registered, but there has been no next step," she said. A Chinese national who escaped across the border to Moldova said many other Chinese nationals are hoping to follow him. "A lot of Chinese nationals who want to leave Ukraine are contacting me right now," the man said. "I am telling them how to do it." Chinese music student Tian Runnong stands outside Lviv railway station on Feb. 28, 2022, in western Ukraine. The sign on his guitar case reads, "I'm a musician. This is my guitar." (Associated Press) Unconfirmed social media posts said the Chinese ambassador has been evacuated to Russia, alongside employees of China's Huawei telecoms giant, leaving regular Chinese citizens behind to fend for themselves. State news agency Xinhua published a report on saying ambassador Fan Rong was still in Ukraine, however. Nationals of democratic Taiwan had been picked up by cars sent by their embassy and driven all the way to Poland, while group chat participants on WeChat were unable to discuss concrete arrangements for fear of getting their accounts shut down by Chinese censors. Repeated calls to the Chinese embassy in Ukraine rang unanswered during office hours on , as did calls to the consulate in Odessa. Narrative vs. reality Meanwhile, Chinese nationals trapped in Ukraine have been attacked and harassed by Ukrainians angered by their government's support for Putin, according to social media reports. Images taken from video released Feb. 27, 2022, show a drone strike on what are reportedly Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile system vehicles on a road near Malyn, Zhytomyr Region, Ukraine. (Handout via Reuters) Former Southern Metropolis Daily editor Cheng Yizhong said ties between Beijing and the Kremlin had warmed considerably since CCP leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012. "Xi Jinping has elevated the relationship with Russia since he came to power ... so the Propaganda Department has an overreaching narrative, which is to avoid criticizing Russia," Cheng told RFA. "It's all about prioritizing politics, without taking into account that things aren't the way Putin says they are." Any Chinese nationals stuck in Ukrainian cities faces overnight bombing raids and shelling, according to Ukrainian Arthur Kharytonov, a member of the Ukraine-based Free Hong Kong Center, which has campaigned for greater solidarity with Hong Kong amid a national security crackdown on dissent and political opposition under the CCP. "I'm right now in the very city center of Kyiv because the fight is here," Kharytonov told RFA. "It's difficult, very difficult because ... Russia is attacking only at night. was very hard. It was a lot of bombing attacks in Kyiv ... and a lot of gunfire all around the city." "And this night will be the same. So of course, I'm quite scared," he said. "It's very terrible to know that you could be killed, right now." Kharytonov said he had decided to stay because Kyiv was better defended than most of the country. "We have no secure place here in Ukraine; every city is under attack," he said. "So even to travel is quite dangerous." An interior view shows a destroyed Russian army Tigr-M infantry vehicle in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022. (Reuters) He welcomed moves to exclude Russia from SWIFT international payments network. "Russian money [is] Putin's money. So if Russia is losing money, Putin loses his money," Kharytonov said. "We hope that it will provoke huge protests [that] will attack Putin, and to make him stop the war." "We just want them to [go] back to Russia, to liberate all our territories, including Crimea and Donbas. And let them leave how they want, but we don't need them in Ukraine," he said. Tasteless jokes cause trouble The renewed attacks on Ukrainian cities came as Chinese nationals stranded in the country called on Chinese social media commentators to stop joking about getting Ukrainian women as a result of the war, as the popular joke was making them a target of suspicion and hostility among Ukrainians. "These comments have been translated by the Ukrainian media, so basically everyone knows about it now," one student said in a video clip circulating on Twitter. "Now, old ladies and young people alike are questioning Chinese students in the bomb shelters in Kyiv [about this]." KHARTOUM, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Monday rejected what it described as "unilateral step" by Ethiopia the start of electricity production from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). "Ethiopia's decision to unilaterally begin operation of the GERD constitutes a violation to the Declaration of Principles signed by the three parties," Sudan's acting Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Daw Al-Bait Abdul-Rahman said in a statement. "Before the move, the Ethiopian side should have provided the other parties with enough information, such as the volume of water expected to exit from behind the dam, to know if the Sudanese reservoirs would be able to absorb it to adopt the necessary precautions," he said. Abdul-Rahman stressed that Ethiopia had never informed Sudan of the beginning of electricity production, saying that "this has been done unilaterally, and therefore it is an unacceptable move, regardless of its justifications." The Sudanese minister stressed the need for all parties to sit together to reach a unified vision on the GERD file, saying "Sudan's interest is a red line." On Sunday, the Ethiopian government announced its grand hydroelectric dam has started generating electricity, where the country's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially inaugurated the first power generation of the GERD, which is set to be the largest hydroelectric plant in Africa. Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have been negotiating under the African Union over technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD. Sudan proposed a mediation quartet of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the African Union regarding the GERD issue, while Ethiopia rejected the proposal. Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the project, while Egypt and Sudan, downstream Nile Basin countries that rely on the river for its fresh water, are concerned that the dam might affect their water resources. For soldiers exhausted from training, the new program is no cause for celebration. North Korean female soldiers prepare to take a commemorative photograph in front of a flower exhibition featuring North Korea's late founder Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, in this file photo taken by Kyodo. North Korean soldiers must complete an educational course lionizing the countrys previous leaders ahead of the national founders birthday celebration, prompting complaints from some military members already exhausted by extensive winter training, sources in the military told RFA. Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, was born on April 15, a major holiday now known as the Day of the Sun. His son and successor, Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), was born on Feb. 16, the Day of the Shining Star. The two holidays solidify the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family, which has now ruled North Korea for three generations. RFA reported in late January that citizens nationwide were forced to attend propaganda lectures ahead of the 80th Day of the Shining Star this year. Ahead of the 110th Day of the Sun, the focus is on solidifying loyalty among members of the armed forces, but the soldiers are complaining that they are overworked and need food and rest. The new educational plan is the brainchild of the General Political Bureau. It seeks to underscore the achievements of the two late leaders, as well as draw upon them for martial inspiration, a military source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFAs Korean Service Feb. 23. The timing of the project will differ slightly depending on the circumstances of each unit but starting from the end of February until the Day of the Sun, lecture sessions, presentation sessions, exhibitions of publications and documentary film study sessions will be conducted in every unit with the aim of recognizing the greatness and immortal achievements of the predecessors, said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. In addition, various idolization books such as The Great Appearance of General Kim Il Sung, Great Steps, and Anecdote of Military-First Revolution were distributed to each unit, he said. The soldiers will also be made to update statues and portrait shrines dedicated to the two late leaders in each unit. A project to replace the figures of the Sun with new statues and portraits, and to replace older revolutionary history catalogs with newer ones must be displayed before the Day of the Sun in the education room in each battalion and company, the source said. The soldiers are really unhappy with this new ideological education plan. They say that what they desperately need right now is not a new catalog of revolutionary history or education about the previous leaders greatness. They need to eat well and have a day of rest, he said. The education plan asks the entire army to throw away illusions of peace and be ready for battle at any time, a military-related source in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA. They instructed the soldiers to welcome the Day of the Sun while successfully completing their ongoing winter training and preparing for battle mobilization, said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. The soldiers have been suffering from nonstop training without proper rest since the start of the year. They have been forced to participate in various events since the beginning of the year for the Day of the Shining Star, so the officers and soldiers are exhausted, he said. The soldiers want to get through the Day of the Sun events quickly and hopefully rest for the remainder of the day, the second source said. Perhaps because this year marks the 110th anniversary of the Day of the Sun, [the authorities] are strongly pushing forward the political ideology education project. The soldiers are complaining of fatigue as they are pushing the officers and soldiers to prepare in advance. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Ukraine's interior minister said there were dozens of civilian deaths after the country's second largest city, Kharkiv, was shelled on February 28. The northeastern city has become one of the major battlegrounds since Russia's military invaded Ukraine. Security analyst Ruslan Leviyev told Current Time that Russian forces were intensifying rocket attacks after their ground offensive stalled. (WARNING: Viewers may find the content of this video disturbing.) In April 2014, after Russia seized Crimea and as a deadly war erupted in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow incited separatism and backed anti-Kyiv forces, opposition politician Boris Nemtsov used a crude epithet to suggest that President Vladimir Putin was mentally unbalanced. Nemtsov, who vocally opposed the Russian aggression against Ukraine at the time, was shot dead near the Kremlin the following February. Seven years later, Putin has launched a massive and unprovoked escalation of the war in Ukraine. His words and actions in the weeks before the invasion, and in the days since Russia unleashed the first missiles on February 24, have raised an unpleasant and increasingly unavoidable question: Is he behaving rationally? Live Briefing: Russia Invades 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. For many, the very fact of the invasion suggests that -- rational or not -- he is making decisions based on some volatile mix of emotion and misinterpretation of the facts on hand that has caused unnecessary bloodshed and will certainly cause more. It is now clear he is truly divorced from reality. This is a tragedy, Mark Galeotti, an author and expert on Russia, wrote of Putin shortly after the invasion began. Putin has long been seen as pragmatic, usually acting on the basis of a cold calculus of what he can do to achieve his goals -- and what he can get away with. But the invasion and war may suggest otherwise. If nothing else, his laser focus on regaining control of Ukraine three decades after the Soviet collapse seems to have caused him to lose sight -- or to turn his eyes away from -- the good of his own country. For now, only one thing is clear: Putin prioritized his personal obsession above Russias interests, Kadri Liik, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in the February 25 article War Of Obsession: Why Putin Is Risking Russias Future. Putins decision to launch a major military offensive against a country whose people he has said are one with Russians may seem like the height of irrationality. Another possible explanation is that Putin came to see an assault as the best way to achieve his goals -- that he was acting rationally, in a way, but based on a deeply flawed set of claims, beliefs, or assumptions. For years, Putin has signaled his desire to bring Ukraine under Moscows control. And he put plans for the invasion in motion as early as last spring, increasing troop levels near Ukraines borders and then ramping those numbers up steadily since autumn. 'He Sounds Unhinged' As the world watched with trepidation and the United States warned that an invasion could come any day, many people who have watched Putin for years were among those who believed he was likely to hold back -- until a stunning speech last week badly undermined that belief. In the February 21 address, Putin doubled down on his previous efforts to portray Ukraine as an illegitimate state that does not deserve sovereignty and should not exist unless it is roped to Russia. He also repeated his false claim that the government is committing genocide in the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists whose war against Kyiv has led to more than 13,200 deaths since 2014 control parts of two provinces. Since then, Putin has piled on more remarks that have fueled concerns about his rationality. On February 25, a day after the invasion began, he baselessly and bizarrely described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiys government as a band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis. More tellingly, perhaps, he urged the Ukrainian military to seize power -- an exhortation that seemed to show a stark misunderstanding of the level of morale and the prevailing attitudes toward Russia in Ukraine, where eight years of aggression set in motion by Putin have deepened the animus against the Kremlin and pushed the nation further from Moscows orbit. To people who have studied Putin or dealt with him personally, his recent words and actions suggest a startling shift. Ive watched and listened to Putin for over 30 years. He has changed, Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia in 2012-14 and a professor at Stanford University, tweeted on February 26. He sounds completely disconnected from reality. He sounds unhinged. Even after the seizure of Crimea in 2014 and other actions he has taken since then, Putin had always seemed an extremely pragmatic leader to me, Tatyana Stanovaya, an expert on the Kremlin and founder of the political analysis outfit R.Politik, was quoted as saying in a February 25 article in The Guardian. But now when hes gone into this war against Ukraine, the logic in the decision is all about emotions, its not rational. Marco Rubio, a Republican U.S. senator from Florida and deputy chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, seemed to suggest in a February 26 tweet that he had classified information from U.S. intelligence agencies about Putins state of mind. I wish I could share more, but for now I can say its pretty obvious to many that something is off with Putin, he wrote. Dovetailing with the questions about Putins rationality is the evidence that, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he is operating largely within a small circle of advisers, most of them hawkish. This could mean that decisions are made with a drastically limited amount of input and on the basis of information that may be incomplete, inaccurate, or filtered through the biases of his closest associates. 'Very Basic Mistakes' Beyond that inner circle, Putin may also be susceptible to encouragement by sycophantic officials, lawmakers, and state media outlets that are tasked with issuing propaganda which the president, in turn, consumes -- a vicious circle that may have helped shape his decisions on Ukraine. Many observers have said the Russian military campaign appears to have advanced more slowly than Putin may have planned. Footage of wrecked Russian vehicles and soldiers killed or captured in Ukraine has augmented that impression. Obviously, we can only make tentative conclusions so far, but the Russian military is committing some very basic mistakes from the strategic to tactical levels, Rob Lee, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and war policy researcher at King's College London, wrote on Twitter on February 28. Putin also put his military into a very bad situation with unrealistic goals and without giving them much warning. The Russian military campaign looks terrible because the assumptions behind it were nuts, Michael Kofman, director of Russia Studies at CNA, a U.S.-based think tank, tweeted on February 27. A lack of accurate information, and cheerleading squads in the state media and parliament echoing his outlandish depictions of the situation in Ukraine may have affected Putins ability to gauge the situation there and to plan effectively for the invasion. He tried to conduct a short operation in the hope that the Ukrainian side would collapse -- from the top leadership to privates on the battlefield. Its possible that the madman was seriously counting on holding the psychological and moral advantage, Maksim Trudolyubov, editor in chief of the Russia File, a blog published by the U.S.-based Kennan Institute think tank, wrote on Facebook on February 27. Putin refused to understand that this entire advantage was dreamed up by his own television channels. For many years, his television and press have had one customer and one real viewer -- himself, Trudolyubov wrote. He has been poisoned by his own lies. The European Union has unveiled a proposal to ban Russian oil imports by the end of the year, impose more banking sanctions against Moscow, and cut off some Russian broadcasters in Europe saying that the Kremlin has to pay dearly for its aggression Ukraine. With Russia intensifying its attacks on eastern Ukraine on May 4, the EU said that its sixth round of sanctions against Moscow will comprise phasing out the importation of Russian crude and refined oil products by the end of the year despite pushback from some of the bloc's members, including Slovakia and Hungary. "We will phase out Russian supply of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year," the head of the bloc's executive European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the major developments on Russia's invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. "This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil, seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined," she said, adding that "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin must pay a high price for his brutal aggression." Von der Leyen, however, conceded that getting unanimity on oil sanctions will not be easy. The commission chief, however, conceded that getting unanimity on oil sanctions will not be easy. The measures require approval from all 27 EU countries to take effect and soon after von der Leyen's announcement, Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria announced that they would seek exemptions from the embargo voicing concerns about energy security. Hungary and Slovakia are heavily dependent on Russian energy imports. The Czech Republic, meanwhile, said it would seek a temporary exemption period of two or three years in order for pipeline capacities to be increased. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said EU countries blocking an oil embargo would be "complicit" in Russia's crimes in Ukraine. Whatever their arguments are, if they oppose (the) oil embargo, it means one thing: they play on the Russian side. They share responsibility for everything Russia does in Ukraine, full stop, Kuleba said in a video posted on Twitter. Von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russias largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system. The EU will also ban three Russian state-owned broadcasters, she said, without naming the channels directly. "They will not be allowed to distribute their content anymore in the European Union, in whatever shape or form, be it on cable, via satellite, on the Internet or via smartphone apps," von der Leyen told EU lawmakers. According to a document seen by RFE/RL, the package also contains a list of 58 individuals sanctioned over Russia's military action in Ukraine that includes the Patriarch of Russia's Orthodox Church, a close ally of Putin's. Von der Leyen also proposed launching a recovery package for Ukraine to help it rebuild after the war. "This package should bring massive investment to meet the needs and the necessary reforms," von der Leyen said. "Eventually, it will pave the way for Ukraine's future inside the European Union." The European Union accounts for nearly a half of Russia's crude and refined oil products. But the Kremlin, in a first reaction to Brussels' announcement, put on a brave face, warning that the embargo is a "double-edged sword" and that EU consumers will pay the price. "The cost of these sanctions to the citizens of Europe will grow by the day," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 4. Peskov said the Kremlin was looking at "various options" for its response to the new sanctions. In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said he was "open" to imposing more sanctions on Russia and would be discussing measures with allies from the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations in the coming days. On the battlefront, Moscow deployed 22 battalions near Izyum, an eastern city, in a bid to push into the Donbas region, the British Defense Ministry said in its daily bulletin on May 4, adding that Russia's apparent goal is capturing the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk in the east, "despite struggling to break through Ukrainian defenses." A Russian battalion usually consists of 700-800 soldiers. According to the British intelligence bulletin, capturing the two cities "would consolidate Russian military control" of northeastern Ukraine. In neighboring Belarus, the armed forces began "surprise" large-scale drills on May 4 to test their combat readiness, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said there was "heavy fighting" at the Azovstal plant on May 4 and said city officials had lost contact with Ukrainian forces inside. Boychenko told Ukrainian television that Russian forces were attacking with heavy artillery, tanks, and warplanes, and said warships off the coast were also involved. Russian troops are on the territory of the plant, according to David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation that has held now-stalled peace talks with Russia. "Attempts to storm the plant continue for the second day. Russian troops are already on the territory of Azovstal," Arakhamia said, citing the commander of the Azov Regiment, which is defending the plant with other Ukrainian troops. He contradicted Boychenko, saying Ukrainian authorities have contact with the defenders at the plant. The commander announced the storming of the plant by Russian troops the day before and called again for the evacuation of civilians. Boychenko said on May 3 that more than 200 civilians were still holed up with fighters in the sprawling plant. In his video address, Kuleba denied that Azovstal was under Russian control. On May 4, Peskov denied Ukrainian reports that Russian troops had stormed the Avozstal steel plant soon after the latest group of civilians made it out of the sprawling complex. "There is no storming," Peskov told reporters, contradicting claims by Ukrainian soldiers inside the steelworks. "The order was publicly given by the supreme commander-in-chief to cancel the assault," Peskov said, referring to a statement Putin made on April 21 that called off a direct assault on Azovstal because it would result in too many Russian casualties. Instead, forces should seal off Azovstal so tightly that "even a fly can't get out," Putin said. With reporting by RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak, Reuters, AP, and AFP Russia's large-scale military attack on Ukraine is viewed by many governments and legal scholars as a clear violation of international law. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has twisted the language of the law to defend his actions, asserting that Russias February 24 invasion is justified due to an unsupported claim that Kyiv is committing genocide in Ukraine's Donbas region against ethnic Russians. Ukraine has responded by filing a suit against Russia on February 27 at the UN's highest court, rejecting Moscow's charge of genocide as absurd and asking judges to order an immediate halt to Russian military operations. In seeking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to dismiss the Russian allegation, Kyiv is arguing that Ukraine and Russia have a dispute over the meaning of the 1948 Genocide Convention, a treaty they have both signed. But what can such a move achieve? What other avenues can Kyiv take in the international system to hold Moscow accountable? And can the complicated world of international law actually deliver justice? To answer these questions, RFE/RL spoke with Anthony Dworkin, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on international law. RFE/RL: What is the legality of Russia's war in Ukraine and how is it categorized under international law? Anthony Dworkin: The first thing to say is that the UN Charter as one of its central articles prohibits the threat or the use of force by one state against another and this invasion by Russia in Ukraine appears to be a clear violation of that prohibition. Not only on this formal article of the UN Charter, but it's generally regarded as being essentially the foundation of modern international law, the cornerstone of the international legal order that was set up after World War II. So, for one country to invade another without any justification, which is what we're seeing in this case, is a core violation of a central principle of international law. RFE/RL: What kind of legal avenues does Ukraine actually have? We saw that the Ukrainians announced that they're going to try to take Russia to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), so how can a country be held accountable if it has violated international law? Dworkin: Before I answer that, maybe it's worth making clear as an addendum to my last answer that under the UN Charter states do have the right to use force if its self-defense and it's worth noting that Russian President [Vladimir] Putin in his speech announcing the attack for what he called a special military operation, did invoke the UN Charter and claimed that this was a legitimate act of self-defense by Russia. He made the point that Russia was defending itself against what he said was the threat of an attack from Ukraine against Russia, and an ongoing attack from Ukraine against the separatist enclaves in the Donbas. So, there is a kind of presumptive legal argument there, but those legal arguments really have no validity because there is no attack from Ukraine against Russia. It has to be either imminent or already ongoing and those supposed attacks against the enclaves are not happening and, if anything, violence is being used from the enclaves outwards, rather than the other way around. There are a number of ways that the international legal order tries to uphold the UN Charter. One of them is essentially through the operations of the [UN] Security Council and the Security Council is charged under the UN Charter with maintaining international peace and security. However, as we know, Russia is a permanent member, and it has the power of veto on the Security Council. Russia was able to veto the resolution that was introduced a few days ago. Therefore, that avenue essentially is blocked. In terms of legal bodies, there is the [ICJ], which is the body in the international legal system that rules on disputes between states. Live Briefing: Russia Invades 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. The jurisdiction at the [ICJ] is a little bit constrained, so it can only deal with disputes between states in cases where both states have accepted the jurisdiction of the court and a number of states have said that they'll accept the jurisdiction in all cases arising -- compulsory jurisdiction as that's called -- but Russia hasn't done this. So, the only way that Ukraine could bring a case is by appealing to conventions that have a clause in them that allows disputes about the interpretation of the convention to be referred to the [ICJ] and that is what Ukraine is doing with the Genocide Convention. But it's also worth noting that not only is a threat or the use of force a violation of the UN Charter, but aggression is also a crime under international criminal law. Individuals can be, in theory, held accountable for ordering or supervising an act of aggression against another state, but there are also some limitations about how likely that is to actually find a forum in which it's going to be heard. In theory, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over aggression, but the jurisdiction in that case also is quite limited and wouldn't reach to the case of Russia and Ukraine at this stage. RFE/RL: Keeping that all in mind, how likely -- and how difficult -- is it to actually achieve justice in the international system and how can it be approached here with Ukraine and Russia? Dworkin: Its difficult, but not impossible. I would also say that we shouldn't just look at it in terms of having a legal proceeding that is going to rule against Russia, its not the only point of the law. It also is providing a standard and a point of reference for those countries that are rallying against Russia's invasion, such as the widespread use of sanctions that we see from the United States, the European Union, and others. That is premised on the fact that Russia is violating international law. So, the legal standards do have significance. Beyond that, there are a number of other ways where legal proceedings could be relevant. There is the case before the [ICJ] under the Genocide Convention. I would say this is a narrow case and an example of imaginative lawyering from the Ukrainian side because what they're charging is not anything saying that Russia is committing genocide, because genocide is quite the specific crime and there really is no evidence that Russia is doing that. Instead, what they're saying is that Russia is abusing the concept of genocide as a false justification for their invasion. What they're essentially looking for is a ruling from the court saying that when Putin says that there is genocide taking place against the Russian speakers in the Donbas, that that's a completely unfounded claim and it doesn't provide any basis for Russia's aggressive actions. RFE/RL: So youre saying that these kinds of legal cases can hold great symbolic value, if nothing else? Dworkin: I think one of the things that the countries who are opposing Russia's actions are basing their decisions on is not only to defend Ukraine, but to defend a whole vision of how the international order should function -- and to defend the principle that states that countries cant simply invade another country without justification. Of course, it happens and it has happened, but in this case, we are seeing a strong reaction against it and [that] direction is based around the illegal status of the action. RFE/RL: What can past examples of similar scenarios tell us? The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 is an example that comes to mind, but there are plenty of others. How instructive can these past cases be for Ukraine and Russia today? Dworkin: There is limited precedent for having leaders being held criminally accountable for acts of aggression. That did happen after the second World War in Nuremberg and at the Tokyo trials, but those trials had their limitations. For instance, they were staged by the victorious side and only the losing side was put on trial. Also, the Soviet Union, which had committed aggression during World War II, was also allowed to occupy the judges' seats. But if you look at the acts of aggression that have taken place, you can see that they have affected the political reputation of countries. I think the United States did suffer internationally for its invasion of Iraq. I think it damaged the U.S. reputation around the world. In recent decades weve also seen very important trials of military and political leaders, such as [Yugoslavias] Slobodan Milosevic facing trial for overseeing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. That is also something that has to be borne in mind here [with Ukraine and Russia] and the [ICC] does have jurisdiction here, because Ukraine has accepted the jurisdiction of the court. That means that any war crimes that are committed by Russian forces could potentially be prosecuted. Under the principle of command responsibility, senior leaders of Russia could be prosecuted if it can be shown that they ordered, planned, or supervised war crimes. Now, how likely is it in the short term for any successful cases to be brought or any Russian military leaders or others to appear before the court? That is an unlikely prospect in the short term, but in the longer term we've seen that political conditions change and individuals who seemed beyond the reach of the law suddenly find themselves appearing in front of the courts. I think that is worth bearing in mind and it seems to me very important that anyone who's in a position to do so should be gathering evidence of any crimes that may be committed during the course of this conflict and keeping that evidence filed away. If at any point there is a possibility of bringing forward a case, then the evidence is there and there are witnesses ready to develop a legal case. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity The United States has announced new sanctions that block Americans from executing any transactions with Russia's central bank to punish Moscow for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, adding to a wave of measures that sent the ruble into a free fall and prompted Bank Rossia to more than double its key interest rate to 20 percent. The fierce economic sanctions imposed by Washington on February 28 also bar transactions with Russia's Finance Ministry and national wealth fund, according to a U.S. official, while the U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on a key Russian sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, its management company, and its chief executive, Kirill Dmitriev, who is considered a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. "By further restricting these persons and entities from the U.S. financial system, the United States continues to demonstrate its unwavering commitment to support Ukraine, impose costs on Putins inner circle or those connected to Putin and his war of choice, and to prevent Putins regime from raising capital to fund its invasion of Ukraine and other priorities," the Treasury said in a statement. Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24, sparking outrage around the globe over the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two. In reaction, the United States and many of its allies have launched financial sanctions to isolate Russia and cripple its economy. The measures saw the ruble touch record lows in trading on February 28, while the central bank in Moscow shut the trading of Russian stocks to prevent wild swings. Russian stocks that trade in London plummeted by double digits. The Kremlin defended the actions of its central bank and said Putin would meet with the finance minister and central bank governor to discuss ways to support the economy and currency. The sanctions hinder the central banks ability to protect the ruble by selling its reserves denominated in G7 currencies. They also cut off select Russian financial institutions from the main global banking messaging system. The ruble fell to as low as 118 to the U.S. dollar on February 28 from 83.7 on the previous trading day, according to Bloomberg data. It was trading at 105 as of 3 p.m. Central European Time. Commercial banks were offering much lower rates online between 120 and 140 rubles to the dollar, according to Banki.ru. The ruble has lost about 40 percent of its value since late October when Russia began to mass troops on Ukraines border. Russian stocks trading in London and New York fell by as much as 68 percent. Putin has focused on building up Russias foreign exchange and gold reserves to protect the economy ever since the West first began imposing sanctions in 2014 after his first invasion of Ukraine which saw him annex the Crimean Peninsula. Russias central bank reserves stood at around $630 billion in February, vying with India for the fourth-largest stockpile in the world and giving rise to the expression fortress Russia. The growth in reserves came at the expense of improving living standards, which have stagnated over the past eight years. Russia had about 50 percent of its reserves denominated in the currencies of G7 countries as of last year with the remaining largely in gold and yuan-denominated assets. The actions by the G7 nations will essentially freeze the assets of Russias central bank in those currencies wherever they are held, hampering its ability to defend the ruble and support banks, a senior U.S. administration official said. No country is sanctions proof, the official said. Fortress Russia will be exposed as a myth. A weaker ruble drives up the cost of imported goods -- including food, clothing, computers and phones -- leading to a spike in inflation and interest rates. The announcement of the sanctions sparked fear over the weekend among Russians, who began lining up to withdraw money from ATMs and exchange rubles. The central bank spent more than $1 billion last week to protect the ruble. The RDIF is a sovereign wealth fund set up in 2011 to manage billions of dollars. It sought to co-invest in projects in Russia with international investors. In sanctioning RDIF, the United States said it is widely considered a slush fund for Putin and is emblematic of Russias broader kleptocracy. Talks between Kyiv and Moscow have ended without a breakthrough as Russian troops closed in on the Ukrainian capital and other major cities in the face of deepening international isolation over the Kremlins unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last week. Reports that Russian artillery on February 28 had bombarded residential districts of Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, tempered most of the optimism generated by an agreement between the two sides to hold a second round of talks in the coming days. Five days into Russias invasion of its neighbor, the Ukrainian side headed into the meeting pressing for an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian troops. But after nearly five hours of talks, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said the two sides "agreed to keep the negotiations going," adding that the new meeting will take place on the Polish-Belarusian border. WATCH: Witnesses say a rocket blast set a building ablaze in the early morning hours of February 28 in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, near the border with Belarus. Shortly before the talks broke up, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out his prerequisites for ending the war in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron. Putin told Macron that a settlement was possible only if Kyiv was neutral and if Russian control over Crimea was formally recognized -- demands that Kyiv has previously dismissed. Live Briefing: Russia Invades 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. The talks took place as European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the Russian military campaign "is becoming more and more ruthless." Satellite imagery from the Maxar company appeared to showed a 25-kilometer convoy consisting of hundreds of Russian armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and support vehicles a mere 25 kilometers from the center of Kyiv. Borrell told journalists that Ukrainian armed forces were fighting back with courage, but said there were a lot of civilian casualties and "the flow of people looking for shelter, escaping the war is increasing." "In this situation, our support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is crucial," Borrell said at a press conference in Brussels after a meeting of EU defense ministers, who discussed supplying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military aid to Ukraine. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Russian soldiers have encountered resistance they did not expect, putting them "behind schedule" in their attack, but he said Russia has not yet sent all its forces into the country. In a fresh address on February 28, Zelenskiy issued an appeal to invading Russian soldiers to lay down their arms. "Abandon your equipment. Get out of here. Don't believe your commanders. Don't believe your propagandists. Just save your lives," Zelenskiy said in the address, adding that more than 4,500 Russian soldiers had already lost their lives during the Kremlin's assault. There have been no independent confirmed numbers of casualties, but Russia's army on February 27 admitted for the first time that some of its soldiers had been "killed and injured," but did not give any figures or further details. Zelenskiy also said it was time to consider imposing a no-fly zone for Russian missiles, planes, and helicopters in response to Russian shelling of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. In a video address, Zelenskiy did not specify how and by whom a no-fly zone would be enforced. He said Russia had launched 56 rocket strikes and fired 113 cruise missiles against Ukraine in the past five days. Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said dozens of people were killed in rocket strikes by Russian forces on Kharkiv on February 28. "Kharkiv has just been massively fired upon by grads (rockets). Dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded," he said in a post on Facebook that showed a series of explosions in the town. Elsewhere, witnesses said a rocket blast set a building ablaze in the early morning hours of February 28 in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, near the border with Belarus. Locals blamed the Russian military for the attack. With fighting on the ground escalating, Western allies have ramped up efforts to punish Russia by closing airspace to Russian aircraft, shutting out some banks from the SWIFT financial network, and limiting Moscow's ability to deploy its $630 billion foreign reserves, all measures that are expected to hammer the economy. On February 28, Washington adopted further measures, saying it would start blocking Americans from executing any transactions with Russia's central bank, which more than doubled its key interest rate to 20 percent as it scrambles to access currency with the ruble in a free fall. The new sanctions also bar transactions with Russia's Finance Ministry and national wealth fund, according to a U.S. official, while the U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on a key Russian sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, its management company and its chief executive, Kirill Dmitriev, who is considered a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. To keep up the diplomatic pressure, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted a call with allies and partners on February 28 to further coordinate a united response, the White House said. In Ankara, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was using its legal right to apply the Montreux Convention, blocking warships from passing through the key Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and into the Black Sea. He said he hoped the move would keep the situation from escalating further. With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, RIA Novosti, and TASS The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. A resident of Bucha, a city some 20 kilometers from Kyiv, filmed destroyed military vehicles near his house on February 27, after Ukrainian forces stopped the Russian advance through his town. In this combo photo, the upper part provided by the authority of Oroqen Autonomous Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, shows a small-sized train hauling timbers through the forest in 1960; and the lower part taken by Lian Zhen on Aug. 6, 2021 shows forests near Ali River Township in Oroqen Autonomous Banner. The forest vegetation in the Greater Hinggan Mountains has been effectively restored since 2015. (Xinhua) BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Despite being almost a year ago, a conversation with President Xi Jinping still reverberates in the mind of Zhou Yizhe, a national lawmaker from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China. "Your identity shift from a logger to a forest ranger epitomizes our country's transformation in industrial structures," Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, told Zhou during deliberations with fellow lawmakers from Inner Mongolia during the annual national legislative session in early March last year. Ecological conservation, as Zhou recalled, was the main topic of discussion with the president. Xi sets great store by ecological conservation. "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," he has said, stressing protecting ecological environment and pushing sustainable development. Photo taken on June 10, 2021 shows the summer scenery of the forest and grassland along the No. 332 national highway in Hulun Buir, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen) Boasting over 100,000 square km of state-owned forestry zones, Inner Mongolia is deemed a shield for the country's ecological security. It used to be a major timber-production base. Now, it is highlighted by Xi as China's "green Great Wall." During the annual national legislative session last year, Zhou raised proposals for beefing up firebreaks and improving telecommunication networks in forests. "In case of a fire, one more forest would be reserved if we build one more kilometer of firebreak," Zhou said. Following the discussion, Zhou and other national lawmakers were reached by officials from relevant ministries to detail their suggestions. Later, on-site visits were also conducted to ensure ideas were not just restricted to paper. Zhou has noted two major changes in the Greater Hinggan Mountains, where he works, over the past year. "More firebreaks and roads to and within the forest area have been built, making travel and forest management easier. Mobile network coverage has been significantly expanded, allowing us to contact families more easily and has markedly boosted ecotourism," Zhou said. Official data shows that about half of the Greater Hinggan Mountains forest area is now covered by telecom networks, up from just 10 percent. A total of 10 4G base stations had been built by the end of 2021. "We've seen deserts turn into oases and our lives are getting better thanks to policies to fight desertification and conserve forests," said Zhou. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Witnesses say a rocket blast set a building ablaze in the early morning hours of February 28 in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, near the border with Belarus. Locals blame the Russian military for the attack. According to Ukraine's emergency services, one woman sustained minor injuries. The United Nations Security Council votes on a draft resolution requesting a UN General Assembly emergency session on Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 27, 2022. The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday adopted Resolution 2623 that calls for an "emergency special session" of the UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the Ukraine crisis. (Xinhua/Xie E) UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday adopted Resolution 2623 that calls for an "emergency special session" of the UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the Ukraine crisis. It is the first such a resolution that the council has adopted in four decades, according to the Security Council Report. The UNSC on Friday failed to adopt a draft resolution on Ukraine. Roanoke Rapids, NC (27870) Today Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 85F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 59F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a speech on Monday calling on the international community to uphold equity and justice to promote the sound development of the global human rights cause. Wang issued his call at the high-level segment of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which he attended via video link. He said that ensuring the full enjoyment of human rights by all is an unremitting pursuit of humanity, while protecting human rights is the shared cause of all countries. China believes that all parties should act as true practitioners of human rights, staunch guardians of people's interests, positive contributors to common development, and firm defenders of equity and justice, said Wang. Wang noted that respecting and protecting human rights is the unremitting pursuit of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and China will continue to steadfastly pursue a human rights development path that meets the trend of the times and suits its national conditions. "We will continue to uphold a human rights philosophy that puts people front and center, develop the whole-process people's democracy, promote common prosperity for all, and safeguard the human rights of the Chinese people at a higher level," said Wang. China will continue to take an active part in UN human rights endeavors by making China's voice heard and contributing China's part to this worthy cause, he added. Wang refuted false information about the affairs of China's Xinjiang and Hong Kong, saying they had been hyped up with ulterior motives, and adding that China is ready to engage in human rights exchanges and cooperation with all countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect. "We do not accept self-styled 'lecturers' on human rights and reject stoking bloc confrontation in the name of human rights," said the foreign minister. BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States creates migrant crisis against humanity, said a report issued by China's State Council Information Office on Monday. The U.S. government has often interfered in other countries' internal affairs by wielding the club of "human rights." However, its policy of separating migrant children from their families has severely endangered the migrants' lives, dignity, freedom and other human rights, according to the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. The report pointed out that asylum seekers are subject to police brutality, and immigrant children face prolonged detention and abuse in the United States. U.S. authorities detained more than 1.7 million migrants along the Mexico border during the 2021 fiscal year that ended in September. Among them, up to 80 percent are held in private detention facilities, including 45,000 children. LVOV, Ukraine, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- On the first night after crossing into Ukraine, two Xinhua journalists had to take refuge in a hotel bomb shelter for about half an hour. #GLOBALink Produced by Xinhua Global Service Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, use of the CalFresh food-assistance program in the Bay Area remains much higher than it was before, and shows no signs of declining even as the rest of the economy continues to recover from the pandemics early days. Affluent counties that had the lowest share of CalFresh users before the pandemic are seeing the biggest increases in food stamp use, according to a Chronicle analysis. CalFresh is the California version of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once known as food stamps. The program provides low-income individuals with financial assistance to purchase non-prepared food items. The number of San Francisco CalFresh recipients rose 42% from about 64,800 in November 2019 to more than 92,000 in November 2021, the last month for which the state reports data. That means there were 74 CalFresh recipients per 1,000 residents in San Francisco in November. Historically, the Bay Area had generally low CalFresh participation rates. San Mateo County had the lowest per person rate of CalFresh recipients in California in 2019. Their CalFresh numbers rose 45% from November 2019 to November 2021 a higher increase than any other county in the state. Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties rates are all up more than 30%. It doesnt appear CalFresh use is declining in the region, despite the decline in social and economic pandemic restrictions. Cassidie Bates, government and public affairs manager of the Food Bank of Contra Costa, said she anticipates CalFresh numbers staying high even after we emerge from the pandemic. She said the spike in food insecurity is reminiscent of the 2008 recession, when their data showed CalFresh participation remained heightened well into 2012. Increased CalFresh participation rates may also be related to its expanded accessibility during the pandemic. The state eliminated or streamlined many aspects of applying for benefits, such as allowing people to apply without an in-person meeting and sign up for CalFresh with an over-the-phone signature. Meg Davidson, director of policy and advocacy at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, added that for many people, the pandemic made the CalFresh program more worthwhile. Prior to the pandemic, you could be getting a really small amount of money if you were a household of one. You could go through the whole process, the whole rigmarole, make the application, go to the county office and then you get, you know, 15, 20 bucks, Davidson said. Now, as a result of the pandemic, there is an emergency allotment. Every single month, every person who is on CalFresh will get the maximum amount their household can get. The unusually large increase in CalFresh participation in the Bay Area is likely because of its low starting point. CalFresh use is generally lowest in higher-income counties, like those in the Bay Area. The Chronicles analysis shows that, across California, the places with the largest increases in CalFresh participation from November 2019 to November 2021 were places that had the lowest use at the start. In contrast, counties such as Fresno, where CalFresh participation was already three times higher than San Francisco in 2019, barely had an increase. Our analysis includes counties in California that had more than 10,000 CalFresh recipients in November 2019. 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. While the CalFresh data provides a window into Californians struggles with food insecurity, it does not capture the whole picture, according to local food bank directors. Many residents struggling with food insecurity are unaware of their eligibility for the program, and many undocumented immigrants do not have access to CalFresh benefits. Food banks across the Bay Area are fighting to make these pandemic-era policies last. Both the San Francisco-Marin and Contra Costa-Solano county food banks reported spikes in their CalFresh and food bank numbers when policies like the Extended Child Tax Credit or the increased unemployment benefits expired. Looking forward, Bates said continued advocacy is crucial. A lot of COVID-era legislation is starting to sunset, Bates said. I dont think its necessarily targeted, but I think we can continue to do more to really advocate and ensure that our elected officials understand just how many people are still experiencing food insecurity, even though were seeing what appears to be COVID sort of winding down. Amy Coval is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: amy.coval@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @amy_coval This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Two years into the pandemic, Californias housing market is still red hot. Many parts of the state have seen a continued explosion of growth as potential buyers search for more space and want to take advantage of lower interest rates that are expected to rise soon. The Chronicle analyzed home value data from real estate listings company Zillow to see what ZIP codes across California had the fastest average growth in typical home values from January 2020 to January 2022. We took only ZIP codes with populations of 500 or more into account, based on U.S. census data. The results show the ongoing trend during the pandemic of people fleeing city centers to generally more affordable areas with perks including more square footage, bigger lots and outdoor attractions. We also found that areas traditionally known as vacation destinations became bigger draws during the pandemic for buyers who want to work remotely in a scenic setting, or are looking for a second home. The High Desert Southern Californias High Desert was overwhelmingly represented in the top 10. Landers, a small, unique community that features the Integratron dome built by ufologist George Van Tassel, took the top spot: Home values there soared 84% in the past two years. The typical home value in January 2020 was $160,133, and jumped to $294,850 in January 2022. In second place was nearby Joshua Tree, known for its eponymous national park, which saw home values grow 69% during the pandemic from $244,942 to $414,172. In third place was Twentynine Palms, just east of Joshua Tree, where home values rose 63% from $152,148 to $248,453. Lynee LaVoie, a realtor with Cherie Miller and Associates in Yucca Valley, said interest in buying High Desert properties started before the pandemic, but got crazier after it hit. She said 90% of her business is people looking for a vacation home. A lot of people working from homewho were renting in the L.A. area and Orange County cant afford to buy a primary residence for themselves, she said, noting that the pandemic drove people to look for more space and get away from other people. We are really an ideal location for a lot of city dwellers. San Joaquin County In Northern California, San Joaquin County showed up several times near the top of the highest home value growth list. The 95391 ZIP code includes a planned community called Mountain House just outside Tracy, which saw 58% home value growth during the pandemic. Average home values went from $656,011 in 2020 to $1,036,579 in 2022. Like many other areas that became popular relocation spots during the pandemic, Mountain House was a draw for Bay Area residents who could work from home and wanted more bang for their buck. Andrew Jacobsen, a real estate broker in Mountain House, said interest was driven by its proximity to the Bay Area and good schools. There are bigger houses, newer houses for considerably less, he said. People are moving here mostly from Fremont, San Jose and Cupertino, and selling their houses in that area. According to Jacobsen, Mountain House is a big family community where a majority of residents are employed in the tech sector and work remotely. He said the oldest house was built in 2003, and homes range from 1,400 to 4,400 square feet. While Tracy is very close, Jacobsen said, upcoming development in the area includes a Safeway that should make the community self-sufficient very soon. The Bay Area In the Bay Area, Sea Ranch in coastal Sonoma County had a 58% increase in typical home values, and home values on Bethel Island in Contra Costa County jumped 52% during the pandemic. They were included in a previous data analysis from The Chronicle showing increasing home values during 2021. Both communities have access to water: Sea Ranch offers unique architecture and dozens of trails, while Bethel Island is a tiny waterfront community just east of Antioch. The real estate boom there has factored into an eviction battle at Anchor Marina, a boat launch and campground not legally permitted for housing Only those two Bay Area ZIP codes are in the top 100. Kreamer thinks thats because prices are already so high here. The Bay Area seemed to be hitting a price ceiling in 2019 before the pandemic hit, and it heated back up, Kreamer said. I hesitate to say that there isnt much room to go higher because were breaking home price records every month these days. But it is the most expensive market in the country, and also the most unaffordable in terms of housing costs compared with income. 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. South Lake Tahoe South Lake Tahoe has been a hot market for a while now, especially during the pandemic. Brooke Hernandez, a Compass realtor in the South Lake Tahoe area, said things started to pick up in June 2020 and have been pretty nonstop ever since. For one property to have 29 offers on it is a common thing in the Bay Area, but for our area its not, she said. That is driving prices upward. Lack of inventory is another thing. She said that as of Thursday morning, 30 homes were available in South Lake Tahoe. In a typical pre-pandemic year at this time, there would be about 300 homes on the market. The devastating Caldor Fire, which burned more than 200,000 acres last fall, put a freeze on home buying for a couple months and led some potential home buyers to cancel contracts. But Hernandez said it picked right back up again when things settled. A lot of buyers are second homeowners from the Bay Area, El Dorado Hills and Sacramento who can travel to the area and work remotely, Hernandez said. But like the High Desert, many locals are getting pushed out of the market as home prices have soared. Kreamer said vacation spots in rural areas have far fewer transactions than larger areas, so a few sales can take a big swing one way or another, making it hard generalize about them. Vacation areas are definitely hotter during the pandemic, and its probably a blend of remote workers moving there full time and people buying second homes, Kreamer said. Vacation areas - whether its in the mountains or along the coast - have always been hot, and are hotter than ever. Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order to terminate dozens of outstanding emergency actions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but will keep a state of emergency in place. Studies show that the new stealth BA.2 omicron subvariant is 30% more transmissible than the original omicron, but may not be more severe. Latest updates: Oakland weighs keeping parklets: Oakland is considering making outdoor parklets and sidewalk cafes permanent a pandemic-era feature thats helped boost economic activity. The City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to extend a program that has allowed many restaurants and businesses to use outdoor spaces without having to go through an extensive application and permitting process. Otherwise, the program would expire at the end of March. Read the full story. White House says 4 in 10 free tests went to low income areas: The White House says that 40% of the free at-home COVID-19 tests it offered through online ordering went to Americans in distressed areas, the Associated Press reports. The Biden administration earlier this year made available 500 million free COVID tests, to be home delivered, to anyone who wanted one. Officials placed a special focus on reaching low-income Americans. Despite a crush of orders when the program launched in January, demand has fallen off as omicron cases plummet and people feel less urgency to test. New COVID vaccinations hit all-time low: The number of new people getting vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States is at its lowest level since the shots became available to a limited portion of the population in December 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Friday, the seven-day average number of daily administered vaccine doses was 80,472, a 17.8% decrease from the previous week. The number is expected drop more as more government leaders lift vaccination requirements. Fewer than 65% of Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and less than 44% of those who are vaccinated have received booster shots critical to preventing infection from the omicron variant. S.F. schools not ready to drop masking: When many kids across California walk into school without a mask after March 12, San Francisco public school students wont be among them. San Francisco has strong vaccination rates and low coronavirus transmission; but school officials said Monday that they are not now changing masking protocols. Read the full story here. White House lifts mask mandate for vaccinated workers: White House employees who are fully vaccinated, including those who are in close proximity to President Biden, will no longer be required to wear masks at work, news accounts say. As we have over the course of the past year, we will continue to update and adjust our COVID-19 campus protocols in response to the public health landscape and in consultation with public health experts and medical advisors, and we will circulate updated guidance as appropriate, said an email obtained by NBC. The change came following an announcement Sunday that masks would not be required at Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday. Pfizer vaccine less effective against omicron in kids 5-11 than in teens: New data published Monday amid announcements about lifting of school mask mandates show Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is far less effective against the omicron variant in children ages 5-11 than in other age groups. The study by New York public health scientists, not yet peer reviewed, looked at COVID-19 case and hospitalization rates from mid-December through January during the omicron surge compared to pre-omicron protection, among more than 850,000 fully vaccinated children ages 12-17 and more than 365,000 ages 5-11. Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization dipped from 85% to 73% for the older age group while falling from 100% to 48% for the younger group. The vaccine offered less protection against infection in general: effectiveness against testing positive decreased from 66% to 51% for kids 12-17; and 68% to 12% for children 5-11. The results "highlight the continued importance" of mask wearing, the scientists concluded. Children accounted for more than 26% of all COVID-19 cases in U.S. last week: There were 126,774 child COVID-19 cases reported in the United States from Feb. 17 to Thursday, with children representing more than 26.2% of all new cases nationwide, according to data published Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association. The latest count marks a drop from the nearly 174,000 pediatric cases the previous week, following nationwide declining trends for adults following the winter omicron surge, but remains significantly higher than the low of 8,447 weekly cases reported last summer. Vaccination holdouts no longer have to mask up indoors: California will no longer require unvaccinated residents to wear masks in most indoor public settings starting Tuesday, removing one of the last COVID-19 restrictions on face coverings for the nations most populous state. The state had dropped its universal indoor mask mandate on Feb. 16, for unvaccinated people, but the unvaccinated were not included in that easing, and still had to wear masks in post indoor public settings. Read the full story. California school mask madate to die March 12: California will stop requiring masks in K-12 schools as of March 12, leaving it up to counties and school districts to keep or ditch the pandemic mandate as tension mounts among parents, who are divided over whether or not face coverings should stay on kids. California will join Oregon and Washington in lifting the mandate, officials announced Monday. Read the full story. New York to lift school mask mandate: Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans on Sunday to lift the mask mandate at schools, effective Wednesday. She said she made the decision affecting nearly 2.7 million schoolchildren, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday shifted its metrics for calculating virus risk. New York City Mayor Eric Adams also said his administration would lift the vaccination mandate for indoor restaurants, bars, theaters, music venues, and other public spaces on March 7. "This will give business owners the time to adapt and will allow us to ensure we are making the best public health decisions for the people of New York," Adams said. Hong Kong mortuaries at capacity: Facilities for storing dead bodies at hospitals and public mortuaries in Hong Kong are at maximum capacity due to record COVID-19 fatalities, the Hospital Authority said on Monday, Reuters reports. The region reported a daily record high of 34,466 new coronavirus infections and 87 deaths on Monday. Dozens of bodies are waiting in hospital accident and emergency rooms to be transported to mortuaries, officials said, because of manpower and storage capacity shortages. 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. Nearly 250 million free test kits from White House unclaimed; About half of the 500 million free at-home coronavirus tests the Biden administration made available to the public in January still have not been claimed, according to the Associated Press. The White House reportedly received 45 million orders on the first day that the giveaway on COVIDtests.gov opened. As the omicron surge has waned and many employers and public leaders have eased coronavirus restrictions, officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in. People can get four free rapid tests per household. Mayor Breed wants office workers to return to S.F., but not everyone is on board: Despite indoor mask rules being lifted this month, office workers are not rushing back to their high rises downtown, and that has huge implications for businesses small and large. Its also a big concern for the citys long term tax revenue, some of which has been offset by remote workers no longer commuting into the city. Read the full story. New York poised to roll back most pandemic restrictions, including school mask mandates: New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city was preparing to lift a host of COVID-19 health measures, provided that numbers of new cases and hospitalizations remain low, the New York Times reported. School mask mandates, along with vaccine requirements for gyms, theaters, restaurants and other public spaces, could lift as soon as March 7. The California ZIP codes where home prices rose the most in the pandemic: Many parts of the state have seen a continued explosion of growth as potential buyers search for more space and want to take advantage of lower interest rates that are expected to rise soon. The Chronicle analyzed home value data from real estate listings company Zillow to see what ZIP codes across California had the fastest average growth in typical home values from January 2020 to January 2022. Read the full story. California to announce date to lift school mask mandate: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday revised its guidance for masks in schools, recommending them only in places now defined as having high levels of disease. California still requires masking in all K-12 schools, but is scheduled Monday to announce a date for lifting the mandate. It is not yet known if the CDCs new guidance will factor into the states school masking decision. Parents rally against school masks at S.F.s Golden Gate Park: About 200 parents and children gathered Sunday in the noonday sun at Golden Gate Park, at a rally that drew supporters from Berkeley, Marin County and elsewhere. It was organized as a final push ahead of Monday when the state is expected to announce the date on which schools can remove mask requirements. The expectation among the protesters was that the San Francisco Unified and other large school districts will continue to mandate masks inside all school buildings, and that independent schools will follow the guidelines established in the public schools as many have been doing, the parents said. Read the full story. Chinese ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong said in Kyiv on Saturday local time that he was still in the Ukrainian capital to face the difficult time with his compatriots in the country. Refuting rumors that he had left Kyiv, Fan said in a nine-minute video it would be impossible for him to abandon his compatriots. "I ask everyone to have confidence that the Chinese embassy will never leave Chinese citizens behind." Fan asked Chinese nationals in Ukraine to stay safe, help each other out and wait for evacuation when the security conditions are met. In a notice posted on its official WeChat account on Friday, the embassy said Chinese nationals could register for chartered flights to leave the eastern European country. According to the embassy, there are about 6,000 Chinese nationals in Ukraine. In his message addressed to them on Saturday, Fan also reiterated that China's policy towards Ukraine has always been friendly. "We respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said. "We hope that Ukraine can maintain peace and stability, and that the current crisis will be resolved through political negotiations." Photo provided by Belarusian Foreign Ministry shows the prepared room for the talks between Russia and Ukraine. (Belarusian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Xinhua) Key issues of the talks would be an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the Ukrainian President's Office said. KIEV/MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border for talks on Monday. Key issues of the talks would be an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the Ukrainian President's Office said Monday on its Telegram page. The Ukrainian delegation includes David Arakhamia, head of the Party of Servant of the People; Oleksiy Reznikov, minister of defense and Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the Head of the President's Office, the office said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that a delegation including representatives of the foreign ministry, the defense ministry and other government agencies has arrived in Belarus. After a seesaw struggle between the two sides, a ray of hope emerged as Russia and Ukraine agreed to meet for talks. Russia launched a military operation against Ukraine on Feb. 24. A young woman was flung off the horse she was riding and suffered injuries when a car hit her in downtown Oakland after she rode in a Sunday afternoon parade. The victim had ridden in the annual Black Joy Parade as part of an independent horse riding group. Shortly after the parade, her horse and another horse bolted down Broadway toward the 12th Street intersection. Stop! the victim screamed. As the horses reached the intersection, the victim and her horse were hit by a black Toyota Camry, sending her flying from the horse onto the pavement. The second horse dodged oncoming traffic and kept running down Broadway until it was caught. A Chronicle reporter witnessed the events. The victim appeared unconscious in the street, as spectators leaving the parade and police rushed to provide aid. Her horse, which was caught minutes later, was bleeding from its leg. Paramedics and firefighters arrived and placed a neck brace on the victim, put her on a stretcher, and sent her to a local hospital. Authorities did not release her identity or condition Sunday. Oakland police declined to comment except to say it was an ongoing investigation. The woman driving the Toyota pulled over and remained at the scene talking to officers. 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. It is always our intent to provide a space for all parade contingents to feel safe, said Elycia Thomas Knight, who helped organize the parade. Unfortunately, the incident happened once the streets opened to regular vehicle traffic and outside of the parade footprint. We express heartfelt concern for the young lady that was injured and hope that she makes a fast recovery, she said. Ryce Stoughtenborough is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ryce.stoughtenborough@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rstoughts A U.S. appeals court reinstated a lawsuit Monday by an inmate at a federal prison in California who said he was beaten by another prisoner after a guard called the inmate a snitch and offered a bounty to anyone who attacked him. Marcellas Hoffman was working as a cook at Atwater Federal Prison south of Modesto and said he proposed a plan to cut food waste, which prison officials approved. Hoffman said the guard, Timothy Preston, was angered by the plan and told another guard and inmates, in Hoffmans presence, that Hoffman was reporting guards and inmates who were not paying for their meals. Hoffman said he denied being a snitch, and Preston swore at him, put him in a holding cell, and later had him disciplined for insolence. He said the guard repeated his accusations in the following weeks and offered to pay anyone who beat Hoffman. In May 2016, Hoffman said, a fellow inmate punched him in the face, kicked him in the stomach and smashed his head into a locker. Hoffman has been transferred to a federal prison in Virginia but said he still gets threats from other inmates and staff. He sued Preston for $100,000 in damages under the Supreme Courts 1971 Bivens ruling, which allowed private citizens to sue federal officers for violating their rights. Government lawyers, in court filings, did not dispute Hoffmans factual allegations or indicate that any action had been taken against Preston, but argued that rights under the ruling were limited and did not include a guards failure to protect a prisoner. A federal judge in Fresno agreed and dismissed the suit. But in a 2-1 ruling Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Hoffman was not merely accusing Preston of failing to protect him but was claiming the guard deliberately targeted him for harm, violating his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by an agent of the government. Hoffman is not trying to change prison policies, but seeks damages for the harm caused to him by the targeted actions of one rogue prison official, a claim within the scope of the rights protected by Bivens, the court majority said. It cited the Supreme Courts 1980 ruling allowing the family of a prisoner with severe asthma to sue guards who gave the inmate the wrong treatments and failed to provide adequate medical supervision, leading to his death. The ruling was written by Lee Rosenthal, a U.S. District Court judge from Texas temporarily assigned to the appeals court, and joined by Judge Kim Wardlaw. In dissent, Judge Carlos Bea said the majority was expanding rights that the Supreme Court, in recent decisions, is seeking to restrict. Citing the high courts refusal in 2020 to allow a suit against a federal officer who fatally shot a youth across the Mexican border, Bea said, The Supreme Court has made crystal clear that the days of freely implying damages remedies against individual federal officials under Bivens are at an end. Mondays ruling, like the Bivens decision itself, usurps the legislative power to authorize private lawsuits, he said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Laura Dolbow, a lawyer for Hoffman, said the ruling provides important protection for federal prisoners. Under the judges decision that was overturned Monday, she said, incarcerated people who are beaten in prison with the acquiescence or even encouragement of prison staff would have no way to hold the prison staff accountable. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate On the fourth day of Russias military action in Ukraine, hundreds of people from across the Bay Area gathered inside a Berkeley church and outside San Francisco City Hall to decry the invasion and urge harsher measures against Russia. The Ukrainian consul general in San Francisco, Dmytro Kushneruk, urged Californians to pressure Silicon Valley companies and Gov. Gavin Newsom to stop doing business with Russia. At the afternoon rally in San Francisco, he called on the businesses and the state to cut off contracts and trade with the country. We need the political will, he said. We have to pray for peace, the Rev. Edward Henderson told parishioners across the bay at Saint John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Church in Berkeley on Sunday morning. We have to listen to what everyones saying. We have to not make assumptions about people. Many of the parishioners come from Ukraine and Russia, and have family and friends still in Ukraine, Henderson said. He urged the congregation to offer love, support, and to pray for peace in Ukraine. It is our responsibility, we must also keep peace in this world, he said. We mustnt initiate wars, we mustnt invade other countries. After the service, over pancakes, caviar and smoked salmon in the parish hall, many attendees echoed their pastors call for peace. Both sides are responsible, said Ismail Agayev, a retired professor who lives in Concord. He grew up in Azerbaijan, taught for years in Russia before moving to the United States, and culturally considers himself Russian, he said. Ive been both here and there and ... it is incredibly, incredibly tragic, he said of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Its horrible. Its just false on both sides. I dont like what this country is doing towards Ukraine. He added that the two countries have been provoking each other for years. It is absolutely the fault of Putin, he said. He has numerous mental issues and so forth, but the Ukrainian part is also at fault. Valentin Slepukhin, 29, whose entire family is still in Russia, is a visiting scholar in Berkeley. He said as a Russian, he felt a moral responsibility to support his Ukrainian friends, donate money to Ukrainian charities, and attend the pro-Ukraine rally later in San Francisco. He said he never had supported the Russian government, and now its white and black without any shadows. President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces on high alert Sunday, while Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the two sides would meet on the Belarusian border. European Union officials outlined plans to close their airspace to Russian airlines and fund weapons purchases for Ukraine. Protesters around the world, including in the Bay Area, have decried the invasion and urged harsher measures against Russia.Western nations have imposed a raft of hard-hitting financial sanctions against Putin and his country. Hundreds of people gathered at Sundays San Francisco rally to show unity over the conflict unfolding overseas 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. Many were of Ukrainian descent, mostly dressed in yellow and blue. Some wrapped themselves in Ukrainian flags and waved signs that said Stand with Ukraine and Dont let Ukraine suffer alone. Kushneruk, the consul general, called upon on his fellow Ukrainians to rally around Zelenskyy because he is a hero. He also said there is such solidarity among Ukrainians that Putin doesnt know what hes up against, I really appreciate seeing so many folks here today, he said. We have a very important mission together. We have to save Ukraine. We have to save Ukraine together. In the crowd, Igor Keller, 54, said he was feeling double pain as someone proud to have grown up in both Ukraine and Russia. People feel pain and compassion, and its hugely unfair for Ukraine, he said. Kellie Hwang and Trisha Thadani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com tthadani@sfchronicle.com, @KellieHwang This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate San Francisco financier Richard Charles Blum, whose extraordinary life took him from the halls of power in Washington as the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to the mountains of Nepal and Tibet as a philanthropist, died Sunday night at his home. He was 86 years old. Blum was chairman and president of Blum Capital Partners in San Francisco, an investment company he founded in 1975. A friend of the Dalai Lama, Blum wrangled with Chinese leaders over their human-rights abuses in Tibet. He chatted at Everest base camp with his friend Sir Edmund Hillary before attempting a mountain route not even the Everest pioneer had tried. In a statement announcing the passing of her husband, Feinstein called Blum a devoted family man of enormous generosity who strove to make the world a better place. My heart is broken today, Feinstein said. My husband was my partner and best friend for more than 40 years. He was by my side for the good times and for the challenges. I am going to miss him terribly. Blum died after a long battle with cancer. In recent months, Feinstein spent considerable time away from her Senate schedule in Washington to be with him. Tributes for Blum poured in from some of the most powerful politicians in the country Monday. President Biden called Blum a friend and a proud son of California who dedicated much of his public life to fighting poverty around the globe. At the same time, the president said, Dick bled Berkeley blue and was fiercely loyal to the University of California he graduated from and helped lead as a regent since 2002. Vice President Kamala Harris said the philanthropist believed we could build a world that respected the rights and essential dignity of all people, and dedicated his life to that aim. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Blum a powerful force for good in San Francisco, the city she represents, whether as a patron of our arts, a donor to our food banks or a benefactor to our efforts to end homelessness. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he left this world better than he found it. Blum, tall at 6-foot-4, with dark, unruly hair, was best known throughout the state for his role as a UC regent. There he earned a reputation as a no-nonsense chairperson of the board for nearly three years and got things done: reining in UCs high-spending Office of the President in the mid-2000s, easing out that eras ineffective president and, in 2008, tapping a new president, Mark Yudof, whose five-year tenure was seen by many as beneficial for the university system. Richard Blum never feared to speak the truth the man has guts whether to governors, fellow regents, students, staff, faculty or media, Yudof said in the foreword to Blums oral history, recorded during more than 20 hours from 2009 to 2014 by three interviewers and stored at the Bancroft Library of UC Berkeley. He has advised Presidents Obama, Clinton and Carter on economic policy, Yudof said, noting that Blum was especially proud of Feinstein, Californias senior senator, the first woman to chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and his wife of 42 years. He never tires of telling people that, when they married, he decided to keep his maiden name, Yudof quipped. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., honored Blum on the Senate floor on Monday, calling Blum a friend and adviser to many senators who truly led a remarkable life. Every now and then he would call me with his frequently insightful, often brilliant ideas, Schumer said. The only problem was his enthusiasm was so intense it was sometimes hard to get him off the phone. He was a force of nature. Cecilia Estolano, the regents current chairperson, called Blum a deeply generous man who long served on the Board of Regents with distinction and profound impact. Regent Sherry Lansing, who served alongside Blum for 20 years, praised his devotion to the university and said she will miss him greatly. Dick was more than a friend, Lansing said. He was like a brother to me. The self-made multimillionaire helped shape UC, much as he transformed troubled corporations early in his career including, at one point, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Blum was 23 and fresh out of UC Berkeley with two business degrees in 1959 when he joined Sutro & Co., an investment brokerage firm that would make him a partner before he turned 30. There he gathered investors who bought the venerable big top for $8 million in 1968. Four years later, he sold the circus to Mattel for $40 million and was set. Boredom has never worked for me, Blum told an interviewer for the oral history, explaining why he chose investments over the shirt trade or fruit-packing, both early options. No, the worst thing for me is boredom until catastrophe hits, he said. Then you wish you were bored. To say that Blum was imaginative in his attempts to avoid boredom would be an understatement. The Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 was barely a year old when Blum picked a fight with the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, Jiang Zemin, who had invited him and Feinstein, San Franciscos former mayor, to discuss Tibet over dinner. I kind of blew my fuse, Blum said, recalling how, shaking with anger, he detailed to Zemin what he knew of the beatings and cattle-prod torture inflicted by the Chinese on a young Tibetan nun for wishing the Dalai Lama a long life. She couldve been your daughter she couldve been my daughter, Blum seethed at Zemin as he waved a cloth bracelet the nun had made in prison and had given him after he financed her immigration to Switzerland. My wife was not particularly pleased, to put it mildly, Blum said. Nevertheless, he and Feinstein acted as intermediaries through the years between the Chinese leadership and the Dalai Lama. Blum and the Dalai Lama met in Dharamshala in 1972 and became fast friends, snapping photos of themselves and joking about their past lives. It was on his first trek in Nepal in 1968 that Blum grew interested in the breathtaking terrain and compassionate cultures of the Himalayan region. Not yet having made his fortune, he began giving families small amounts of money through what he called the Sherpa Scholarship Fund. In 1981, he transformed the effort into the American Himalayan Foundation, which Yudof summed up as a brilliantly conceived effort to provide on-the-ground assistance to impoverished peoples in the region, to build real and metaphorical bridges, to rescue young women from childhood slavery and prostitution to do concrete things for real people on the ground. Among its many projects, the foundation diverted some 6,000 girls in West Nepal from possible sex slavery to school, Blum told an oral history interviewer in 2009. In her statement upon his passing, Feinstein in particular noted the foundation as one of her husbands most significant accomplishments. As a role model, Dick was second to none, and I think his compassion and devotion to the people of the Himalayan region may prove to be his most enduring legacy, Feinstein said. His friendship with the Dalai Lama helped shape us, and his creation of the American Himalayan Foundation was one of his proudest achievements. In 2006, the financier opened the Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley so students could learn to address urgent problems around the world. Today, the center offers a popular minor on campus, Global Poverty & Practice, and serves as an incubator of ideas for social change. When the centers new building broke ground in 2009, a glittering array of political celebrities among them former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, who became a center trustee; and former Vice President Al Gore heaped praise on the project, and on Blum. Dick Blum shares my belief that we all need to make a lifelong commitment to poverty alleviation, Clinton said at the time. Blum Centers have since opened at all nine of UC undergraduate campuses, focusing not only on global poverty but also on low-income regions of California and Mexico. Even so, Blum has been a favorite target of UC workers who have criticized his votes to cut the UC budget, which have led to layoffs, higher tuition and increasing dependence on out-of-state tuition. In July 2016, workers and students protested at several Blum Centers after the regent supported changes to UCs pension plan they said benefited executives at the expense of lower-paid employees. A 2020 state audit accused a regent, who turned out to be Blum, of improperly using his clout to help an applicant get into the elite public system. He then told The Chronicle: I did it a bunch of times, adding that he never considered it a problem to write recommendation letters directly to chancellors and bypassing the traditional admissions process. Blums revelation triggered a UC investigation in Sept. 2020 aimed at determining whether he had violated a long-standing regents policy prohibiting such influence and, if so, what to do about it. More than a year later, although the report is complete, it hasnt been made public because the regents have still not reviewed it, university officials said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. As for Carter, he and Blum served on each others boards, although Carters role with the Blum Center has been honorary, as has the Dalai Lamas. Blum escorted Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, to Nepal and Myanmar in 2013, shortly after the former president turned 89. About 2 in the afternoon, Id doze off for a while, Blum recalled. But hed keep going. Hes great. Even as he tackled the Himalayan regions social justice challenges, Blum took joy in the physical challenges presented by the worlds tallest peaks and did so in a manner befitting the spectacular extremes of that place. The last time Ed Hillary was on Everest was with the expedition I led in 1981 through Tibet, said Blum, who befriended not only Hillary, but also the sons of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa mountaineer who, with Hillary, was the first to summit Mount Everest in 1953. Blum never reached the top of the fabled mountain. But he accompanied climbers across a glacier to the never-tackled Tibetan side. When he and the group touched its slopes, he said, We were all in tears because, as far as we know, no human being had ever done that before. He proposed attempting Everests summit in 1983, but Blums new wife said: You are not going. And he didnt, as the prospect of losing Blum down a frozen crevasse might have broken Feinstein at that time. Just five years had passed since the period Feinstein had called the most traumatic of my life. She was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 when she lost her husband of 16 years, neurosurgeon Bertram Feinstein, to cancer. Months later, former Supervisor Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, propelling Feinstein to the citys top spot. In the middle of it all she met Blum, chairman of the mayors Fiscal Advisory Committee, which the investment banker had created. The attraction was instant and mutual, Feinstein wrote. They married in 1980. Blums parents had met in 1933. His mother, Louise Hirsch, was born in El Paso, Texas and grew up in San Francisco. His father, Herbert Blum of New York City, sold robes and raincoats, and moved to San Francisco after winning the Western sales territory. Blums father built a home in the citys Ingleside Terraces neighborhood and, with younger brother Robert, the family moved in. Blum was 10 when his father died of breast cancer. The Blum boys were sent for two years to a military academy in San Rafael where they met another future financier, Warren Hellman. He and Blum would graduate from San Franciscos academically elite public high school, Lowell. Blum entered UC Berkeley in 1953, spent a year studying in Vienna, and completed his MBA at Berkeleys Haas School of Business. He served for many years on the Haas Schools advisory board, and in 1994 was named alumnus of the year. Blum has three daughters from a first marriage: Annette Blum of Santa Monica, Heidi Blum of Switzerland, and Eileen Blum Bourgade of San Francisco. He published his memoir in 2016, An Accident of Geography: Compassion, Innovation and the Fight Against Poverty. In it, he says he was thrilled to learn in 1953 that people had reached the top of Mount Everest for the first time but also felt jealous. When you carry a deep passion, what might seem like magical thinking can lead to something very real, he wrote, noting that, inspired by the Everest triumph, his passion evolved into finding ways to help the people of Nepal, Tibet and elsewhere in those mountain ranges improve their lives. The same year his book came out, Blum learned he had lung cancer. In his oral history, Blum recounts how he joked with his old friend, the Dalai Lama, about what a terrific dalai lama His Holiness was in his last life, but what we dont know is who I was in my last life. The question often prompted speculation among whichever monks were in attendance, until one day Blum concluded that he had to have been a yak. In this life, he said, all Im trying to do is return to my pasture. A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 4, at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. A private interment will follow. Washington correspondent Tal Kopan contributed to this report. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov The storms that frosted the Sierra Nevada with a healthy layer of snow in December soon gave way to dry weather, and the snowpack is showing it. Satellite images from NASA show a big difference even between January and February. Images from Jan. 9 showed a blanket of snow over the Sierra Nevada and their foothills, with clouds overshadowing parts of the Bay Area and Central Valley. Five weeks later on Feb. 17, the snowpack appeared to shrink, no longer the opaque white layer on top of some of the states tallest mountains. In one part of the foothills just east of Chico, the snow has almost completely disappeared, now a dark forest green. That snowpack has started to melt and its fallen below average now, said Cory Mueller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. California officials who conducted a snow survey in January found that snowpack in the states mountains measured about 92% of average for that time of year - better than previous years, but less than half of the 160% of average recorded in December. As of Friday, that number was closer to 65% of average for this time of year, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The Sierra snowpack is critical to the states water supply. As it melts in the warmer months, reservoirs collect the runoff for use for drinking water and agricultural irrigation. A storm system arriving in Northern California during the first days of March may offer a brief respite. Wet weather is expected to start Wednesday night and continue into Thursday, with light snow over the Sierra and rain in the Sacramento area, according to the National Weather Service. 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. Most snowfall is expected above 5,500 feet, though snow showers may make it down as low as 4,000 feet, Mueller said. Some spots could receive as much as 10 inches of snow. We are getting into the time of year where were going to see higher snow levels with spring coming in, he said. Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com UPDATE: California will stop requiring masks in K-12 schools as of March 12, but San Francisco public school officials said that there will be no change to masking protocols. When California officials lifted the states mask requirement for vaccinated individuals in public indoor spaces a week and a half ago, they retained the mask mandate for K-12 schools, promising to announce a plan and schedule on Monday, Feb. 28 for eliminating it. The reason cited for the delay was needing more time to gather data on cases and vaccination rates. Now the day has arrived, and its still unclear what the state will recommend. Public health officials havent said exactly what criteria theyre examining, but Dr. Mark Ghaly, Californias top public health officer, said last week that officials anticipate being able to share what the next period of time will look like, and with some specificity give a date when the masking requirement will move to a recommendation. He cautioned that no change is likely to occur effective Feb. 28, as it will take time for schools and leaders and public health leaders to prepare, for families to prepare. Instead, he expects that officials will be setting a timetable for an evolution in the mask requirement. Since the indoor mandate for vaccinated adults was lifted, government leaders have been under mounting pressure to reevaluate masking in schools. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions new mask guidance issued Friday only added fuel to the debate: It revised federal guidance for masks in schools, recommending them now only in places with high levels of disease, as determined by hospital admissions for COVID, the percentage of hospital beds being used for COVID patients, and community case rates. Under the CDCs new metrics, six of the nine Bay Area counties are now in the lowest risk tier, while Santa Clara County falls in the medium level. Two counties Napa and Solano are still in the high-risk category. It is unknown how or whether the CDCs new guidance will affect the California health departments Feb. 28 announcement. Parents, teachers unions, district officials and public health experts are increasingly divided on the issue. Though a new poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that more than 60% of California parents still support masking in schools and an even higher 74% in the Bay Area recent weeks have brought protests and petitions on both sides of the issue, as well as outright defiance of the school mask mandate in some districts. Supporters of masking in schools say that face coverings are an easy, effective way to minimize spread of the virus in schools, where infected children could either come down with serious disease themselves or bring the virus home to vulnerable family members. Those opposed argue that children are less vulnerable to COVID-19 and that dropping masks is an important part of helping them return to normal after a stressful, anxiety-inducing two years. Many health experts predict that California on Monday will simply pick a date, possibly within a week or two of Feb. 28, to lift the statewide mandate leaving it up to counties or school districts to decide if theyll continue to require masking. Experts agree that no decision will make everyone happy. Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease expert at Stanford, speculates that pressure to announce a clear plan for schools mounted after the states decision to drop its universal mask mandate on Feb. 15. If there wasnt a lot of pressure to give a finite date, wed kind of continue to wait and see what the data shows, Karan said. Whats upsetting people is, why are they keeping it in schools but theyre letting adults do whatever they want? And I think thats a fair point. Karan said hed prefer if the school mandate remained in place until the states positive test rate dropped further ideally at or below 1%. As of Friday it was still about 4%. Dr. Jeanne Noble, an emergency room physician at UCSF who has argued for lifting the schools mandate, said she thinks the state may reveal new metrics for gauging when districts or counties can stop requiring masks in schools. What I would like to see happen is that we get an announcement that we are at a place now with COVID numbers, hospitalization rates, vaccination rates whatever Dr. Ghaly and Gov. Newsom decide is the metric theyre going to use that kids can finally unmask, Noble said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. While she would prefer that the requirement be lifted immediately, she expects the most likely metric for unmasking will be the student vaccination rate. Currently, those levels vary hugely across the state, with more than 80% of students vaccinated in some districts and fewer than a third in others. Noble added that even if the state were to immediately lift the mask requirement, she figures many Bay Area districts would still require students to wear masks, as local jurisdictions can have more restrictive rules than the state, but not less. Whatever happens, she said, well keep mask mandates in L.A. and in San Francisco, well keep them in our largest urban districts. Even though the state lifts the mask mandate, it doesnt change anything for the majority of California students. Chronicle staff writer Erin Allday contributed to this report. Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com In the months leading up to the recall of San Francisco school board Commissioners Alison Collins, Gabriela Lopez and Faauuga Moliga, we heard a lot about what school boards shouldnt do. We heard far less about what a school board should do. Or even what a school board is and what it does. As a three-term member of the San Francisco Board of Education and a parent of two city school district graduates, I can honestly say that most people in San Francisco dont really know what our board is supposed to do or how to evaluate its performance. So allow me to explain how things work (at least how theyre supposed to work) because a functional board will prevent future expensive and divisive recalls. School boards exist to ensure that public schools are responsive to the values, beliefs and priorities of their local communities. San Francisco Board of Education commissioners are responsible for adopting the school districts budget, curriculum and policies, and ensuring compliance with the California Education Code. They also hire and monitor a superintendent, whose job it is to manage the school system on a day-to-day basis. This is the boards sole employee; all other district staff report to the superintendent. Commissioners receive a small stipend of $500 per month for this role, plus reimbursements for expenses like travel and health insurance. So how do you know if a board is doing a good or bad job? There is really no substitute for paying attention to what the commissioners are talking about, which in recent years has unfortunately meant sitting through some very long and angry meetings. In one notorious meeting last year, parents who wanted to weigh in on the impact of school closures had to wait for two hours as the board argued about whether a white gay dad should volunteer on the districts Parent Advisory Council. It doesnt have to be that way! And, moving forward, it shouldnt be. Meetings get long when the board piles on too many agenda items. They drag on even further when board members dont bother to research agenda materials in advance, or when they make long speeches about their views on a particular topic. When the board fails to adequately engage the public on proposed policies as happened with changes to Lowell Highs admissions policy or does not give community members space to be heard on things they care about, hours of angry public comment ensue. An effective board does not spring things on the public in meetings. It sets clear priorities from the outset and works with its superintendent to achieve those objectives. Crucially, it narrows down its expectations to all but a few high-impact goals. Focus and results suffer when it doesnt. If everything is a priority, then nothing is. In 2010, my second year on the board, we set 13 priorities for then-Superintendent Carlos Garcia, even though we knew the district didnt have the fiscal or organizational capacity to tackle them all. We just couldnt make the tough decisions about which ones could be deferred. Superintendent Garcia rightly complained about our lack of focus. Ideally, a board and superintendent should agree to five or six high-priority goals each year and then follow through. Once those goals and priorities are set, the boards job is to then monitor the superintendents progress in advancing that agenda. That is what board meetings are for! Lets say, for example, that the board and superintendent agree that reading proficiency by third grade is a key indicator of future achievement and that it should be a district priority to raise reading scores for all third-graders . They would mutually agree upon quantifiable targets for the district to meet (hopefully including a focus on raising achievement for specific groups of students who are most behind). The board would then ask the superintendent to identify high impact actions like changes in curriculum to help meet those targets. Commissioners would convene public meetings to get input about the superintendents proposed actions. It would use this input to set priorities and allot funding, and it would handle any labor negotiations that might arise from implementing the plans. Throughout the school year, the board asks the superintendent for progress reports to evaluate whether targets are being met. At the end of the year, tough conversations are necessary if goals arent reached. Sounds simple enough. Unfortunately, failing to stick to agreed-upon priorities and piling on new policies and budget investments happens frequently. This forces the superintendent and staff to shift precious time and budget resources toward these new and unexpected priorities. Sometimes these pivots are necessary like when trying to adapt schools to a changing COVID environment. Most often theyre not. Every superintendent Ive worked with has pleaded with the board to limit new resolutions. Last year, however, the board took these diversions to another level. Superintendent Vincent Matthews had to take the highly unusual step of renegotiating his contract to force commissioners to stick to only the most important priorities. New resolutions kept coming anyway. When a board sets clear priorities and stays focused on outcomes, it empowers the superintendent to tackle only the most essential work. Crucially, the board must also provide the superintendent with reasonable support and resources. When that doesnt happen, the effects can be disastrous. In mid-2020, for example, the board directed Matthews to focus on safely reopening schools from COVID closures. Matthews thought the district needed outside help, so he asked to hire a consultant (paid for entirely by private grant funding) to assist in developing a reopening strategy. But the board voted 5-2 to deny the contract because the consultant had ties to charter schools. Ultimately, school reopenings were delayed for months. Some board members also abused their authority by attempting to direct staff work. Thats the superintendents job, not theirs. Board members have a difficult but essential job. They educate the public on educational issues, decisions and policies, and use their platforms as elected officials to build community bridges, showcase progress and attract state, federal and private resources. Whether or not you agreed with the decision to recall the three school board members, the reality is that the districts budget is awash in red ink and student enrollment is declining. It is safe to say that the board could improve on its management style and efforts to build local support. In the coming weeks, the four remaining board members and the three new appointees Mayor London Breed will select to replace the recalled commissioners will have an opportunity to make a fresh start. They will pic k a new superintendent to replace Matthews, and can, if they choose, renew the boards commitment to governance. Doing so is far less likely than political grandstanding to get them media attention or name recognition. Yet that is the job. The board is elected to be accountable for the performance of public schools. This requires regularly monitoring the educational, administrative and financial performance of the district. Voters, parents and other stakeholders should pay close attention to their actions, and the priorities they set for the school district. Continued governance failures will have a devastating effect on the districts functioning and on our childrens futures. Rachel Norton was elected to three terms on the San Francisco Board of Education, serving as vice president and president and chairing the rules, budget and student assignment committees at various times. She left office in January 2021. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A top official in San Franciscos teachers union landed in the center of a corrosive political divide in the city after sharing a social media post that blamed the U.S. and NATO for Russias invasion of Ukraine. While we do not support the Russian invasion, we reserve our strongest condemnation for the U.S. government, which rejected Russias legitimate security concerns in the region, with total intransigence that they knew could provoke such a war, read the post by Leela Anand of the U.S. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Frank Lara, executive vice president of the United Educators of San Francisco, amplified the statement by sharing it on his Facebook page on Feb. 24. This is the consequence of decades of U.S.-NATO bullying and humiliating Russia, Anands post continued. Lara declined to comment Monday morning. Such comments angered state Sen. Scott Wiener, who accused Lara of promoting Russian propaganda in a tweet Sunday that became a salvo in a quickly-escalating battle mostly waged on Twitter. Some excoriated Lara and urged him to resign, while others lashed out at Wiener, characterizing Laras re-share post as anti-imperialist. The following day, the union released a statement defending Lara and calling the criticism a cynical effort by some in San Francisco to use the politics of fear and division to delegitimize him. This is 1950s McCarthyite red-baiting rearing its ugly head in 2022, read the statement from the United Educators of San Francisco, which ascribed a motive to the attack on Lara, deeming it an attempt to undermine the results of the unions internal democratic election last spring. Wiener could not immediately be reached for comment, and a spokesperson for United Educators of San Francisco was not available as of noon on Monday. While the online discourse grew fierce, it could still be viewed as signifying a healthy free speech ecosystem, said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition in San Rafael. One basic tenet of free speech is that the best way to oppose speech that you disagree with is to engage in more speech, by calling the person out or saying I dont think you should be in office, Snyder said. Cyn Wang, parent of a second-grader at Jefferson Elementary School and a member of the citys Entertainment Commission, said she was shocked by Laras post and said someone with views this extreme, this radical, should not be heading up one of our largest unions. Especially one that has oversight over our educators and what children are learning. 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. Wang is also a member of SF Parent Action, a group that advocates for San Francisco public school students, though she said she is not authorized to speak on the groups behalf. She did not see the tussling over Laras post as emblematic of a split in local politics, and said she hopes San Francisco can unify to decry the invasion of Ukraine. But another parent, Naomi Schoenfeld, praised Lara and said his Facebook post didnt warrant such a vigorous public rebuke. Schoenfelds daughter was a student in Laras fifth-grade class at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in the Mission District, and Schoenfeld regularly volunteered in the class and helped chaperone field trips. She described Lara as a creative teacher who is so incredibly thoughtful of the students intelligence and humanity. Its so classic San Francisco, going through and nitpicking somebodys Facebook, Schoenfeld said. Its not fair. ... This to me does not rise to the level of being held accountable. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan All five members of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors are facing recall efforts over what recall organizers call crimes against humanity committed during the COVID-19 pandemic. What, exactly, constitutes a crime against humanity? Recall organizer Calvin Clark explained to SFGATE that prescribing remdesivir is a crime against humanity because patients are not given an option thats worked for years in ivermectin. (Remdesivir is an antiviral drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19; ivermectin is an anti-parasite drug that has repeatedly been disproven as a treatment for the virus, including in a recent large-scale study.) Amid the recall campaign, death threats are flying, and county buildings have implemented additional security measures as a result. Profane outbursts at county officials during recall organizer press conferences have been captured during livestreams, and county elections officials say publicly theyre more worried than theyve ever been. If it all sounds familiar, its because Nevada County is the second Northern California county where conservatives, angry about COVID-19 restrictions, have tried to recall county board of supervisors members. Earlier this month, Shasta County Supervisor Leonard Moty was recalled after being deemed not sufficiently opposed to COVID-19 restrictions. Motys board of supervisors colleague Patrick Jones, who campaigned for the recall, told SFGATE that what happened in Shasta could serve as a blueprint for conservatives in other rural California counties. (Opponents of both recall campaigns have pointed out that state and county health departments, not supervisors, set most of the policies under debate.) But there are critical differences between Shasta and Nevada counties, which make it possible if not likely that the recall effort in Nevada County will not only fail but backfire spectacularly. Most importantly, Nevada County is much more liberal than Shasta County: President Joe Biden won the former 56.2% to 41.1% in 2020, while former President Donald Trump won the latter 65.4% to 32.3%. Furthermore, the most prominent recall organizers in Nevada County are further to the right than the ones in Shasta County. Jones, who fought for the recall in Shasta, told SFGATE that while hes not vaccinated against COVID-19, he does believe in other vaccines and thinks everyone should be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they want it. Clark told SFGATE that his son was vaccine-injured by routine childhood vaccinations and that COVID-19 could be a repeat of when they created HIV in a lab and the [World Health Organization] and [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] used it to promote the tainted smallpox vaccine in Zaire. (While it is possible COVID-19 leaked from a laboratory, most experts do not think that its likely. Claims that HIV came from a lab have been debunked, as have conspiracy theories related to the smallpox vaccine.) We hear everything you can imagine, from Plandemic, to vaccines kill, to theres a conspiracy of pedophiles in the county, to this is a global takeover, to the county is being bought off to make the vote results what they are, Nevada County District 1 Supervisor Heidi Hall told SFGATE. Theres not a conspiracy theory they dont love. Tylor Wolfe/Nevada County Hall is one of two Democrats on the five-person Nevada County Board of Supervisors. While the positions are technically nonpartisan, she and District 5 Supervisor Hardy Bullock consider themselves to be the two more liberal members of the board, while Supervisors Ed Scofield (District 2), Dan Miller (District 3) and Sue Hoek (District 4) consider themselves to be more conservative. The five board members have agreed to present a united front against the recall attempts. While some members are more conservative and some are more liberal, all five of us are highly aligned when it comes to making the right choices for citizens, Bullock said. We work really well together, and the whole goal of the board is to transcend partisan politics and serve the people we represent. Were committed to serving our people and not seeing anyone get recalled. Hoek, one of the more conservative supervisors, doesnt disagree with everything the recall organizers have to say. But she does think theyre putting the blame in the wrong place. I actually think they bring some valid points, she told SFGATE. Im not saying all of their concerns are coming out of thin air, but lots of what theyre complaining about is a state and federal issue. Were required to follow the state guidelines. I dont like wearing a mask all the time, but Im not in charge of school COVID rules or other things theyre complaining about. Recall organizers are still in the early stages of gathering signatures, but three have already managed to land a temporary restraining order against going near the county election staff. Assistant Clerk-Recorder Natalie Adona told SFGATE that shortly after submitting paperwork to start the recall efforts, the organizers forced their way through a locked door into the clerks office, pushing the door hard enough that it hit a staff member. Organizers have until May 31 to gather valid signatures from 15% of registered voters in each district. A look at voter registration data from the California Secretary of States office suggests that signature gathering as well as any potential recall election will be an uphill battle in most, if not all, of the districts. (Voters can only sign a petition or vote in a recall election of their own district supervisor.) Scofield, who appears to be in the most immediate danger, declined to be interviewed for this story. Hall and Bullock both said that, even if organizers somehow gather enough signatures to force recall elections in their districts, they feel good about their chances. Bullock said hes received a huge outpouring of support from voters in response to news reports that the county had to assign supervisors additional security and install security cameras at the homes of county health officials in response to death threats. Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at Wagner Colleges Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform and author of Recall Elections: From Alexander Hamilton to Gavin Newsom, told SFGATE theres a good chance the recall efforts in Nevada County will drive what he refers to as a recall boomerang. Recalls very frequently boomerang on people when they dont work, he explained. [Former state Sen.] Jeff Denham faced a recall in 2008 but easily survived and was soon after elected to Congress. I think well see in 2022 in California that even if theres a serious effort to run a Republican against Gavin Newsom, it may have been sabotaged by the recall. The failed recall gave Newsom a very good weapon to beat Republicans with where he can say, Hey they wasted all this money on the recall. Spivak believes the increase in prominent recall attempts is largely a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID was one of the biggest, if not the biggest policy change in peoples lives, he said. Lockdowns, business interruptions, mask and vaccine mandates and school shutdowns are all things you would think people would want a say in. COVID really got people active and agitated. While Bullock, Hall and Hoek are not overly worried about their political futures, theyre still concerned about the political atmosphere in their county. Hall said shes been the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, and all three recall targets have received death threats. Adona said her office is bracing for Stop the Steal conspiracy theories if recall efforts fail. The incident at the clerks office, in particular, has her on high alert. Liberal supervisors Hall and Bullock say they find it frustrating that the recall is taking focus away from the work of running the county. The individuals behind this are always upset about anything and everything we do, Bullock told SFGATE. If its a relief fund for COVID victims or a relief fund for small business owners, they think its inappropriate. They dont point to solutions; theyre just here to disrupt the public process. I listen to them and treat them with dignity and respect, but theyre a small group, and theres another 99,000 people in this county counting on their representatives to do the right thing. Hall agrees with the sentiment. This is a small, crazy faction, and I dont want them to taint the fact that we have an incredibly beautiful area and an exceptionally well-functioning board, which is kind of rare, she told SFGATE. At the end of the day, were an amazing county. Editor's note: A previous version of this story had an incorrect photo caption. TOKYO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday said it is completely "unacceptable" for Japan to make a nuclear sharing deal with the United States, spurning the notion of Japan hosting U.S. nuclear weapons. After a call by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a day earlier to discuss the option of nuclear sharing, Kishida said in parliament, "it is unacceptable given our country's stance of maintaining the three non-nuclear principles." Japan has abided by its three principles of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear arms on its territory, with the principles inspired by the devastating atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Kishida, whose constituency is in Hiroshima, is a proponent of non-nuclear proliferation and has vocally made his hope for a world free of nuclear weapons known. On a TV program on Sunday about Japan's security environment as it relates to Russia's military moves in Ukraine, Abe was quoted as saying that "it is necessary to understand how the world's security is maintained. We should not put a taboo on discussions about the reality we face." The former prime minister, who heads the largest faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, added, "as a country that experienced atomic bombings, we must uphold the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons." Under their nuclear sharing arrangements, some non-nuclear members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization host U.S. nuclear weapons. Airbnb is mobilizing its network of renters to offer free, short-term stays to up to 100,000 refugees who are fleeing Ukraine during Russia's invasion of the Eastern European country, the company announced Monday. The effort runs through an affiliated nonprofit, Airbnb.org, which formed to provide temporary housing for crises dating back to Hurricane Sandy in New York. Ukraine has continued to see traffic jams near the border as residents flee the country. More than 500,000 people have now crossed into neighboring countries, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees said Monday. Over half have gone to Poland, according to the refugee agency, and people also are traveling to Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. Marilyn Nieves/Getty Image LOS ANGELES The State Bar of California is investigating a possible data breach after learning that a website published confidential information about 260,000 attorney discipline cases in California and other jurisdictions. State Bar officials learned about the posted records on Feb. 24. As of Saturday night, all the confidential information that had been published on the website judyrecords.com which included case numbers, file dates, information about the types of cases and their statuses, respondent and complaining witnesses names had been removed, officials said. JERUSALEM, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Industries Association of Israel (MAI), the country's largest employers' organization, formed a special operations room on Sunday to assist Israeli manufacturers who rely on Ukraine for essential raw materials. The operations room will help Israeli manufacturers to deal with the decline of raw materials supply from Ukraine, such as wheat and eggs, MAI said in a statement. In 2021, the trade volume between Israel and Ukraine totaled 400 million U.S. dollars, with tens of millions of dollars in indirect trade through other countries, the statement said. Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukrainian businessmen have reported to MAI a decline in their products and services, according to the statement. The association is also seeking solutions to ensure the continuity of Israeli business operation in Ukraine, it said. Israeli economic activity in Ukraine focuses on the operation of programming and R&D facilities for Israeli software companies, which employ more than 20,000 programmers, engineers, and other high-tech workers, it added. One of the solutions being considered is to relocate the employees to neighboring countries or to Israel, according to the statement. Efrem Lukatsky/AP Ukrainian officials Monday accused Russian forces of launching a barrage of rockets on a residential neighborhood in Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, killing dozens of civilians, just as Ukrainian and Russian officials were preparing to meet for talks in Belarus. Kharkiv has been subjected to massive Grad shelling, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraines interior minister, wrote in a text message, referring to a type of rocket attack. There were dozens of victims, he added, but the number of casualties could not be independently confirmed. by Xinhua writer Zhang Xin BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Correctional institutions are meant to uphold justice. However, in the United States, the suffering of those in for-profit jails makes them a testament to the country's long track record of human rights violations. Appalling records of what has happened and is happening in hundreds of private prisons across the United States have revealed a corrupt judicial system and national government, which can hardly be corrected. Private prisons were founded in the 1980s to make up for bed shortages in federal and state prisons. Profit-oriented companies soon found loopholes to turn the facilities into a cash cow. In the past 40 years, these prisons were notorious for a kids-for-cash scandal, pay-to-stay program, political donations, uncontrollable violence and exploitation of prison labor, and have been denounced as "an absolute hellhole." In 2011, a Pennsylvania judge was convicted of throwing out thousands of juvenile convictions while taking kickbacks from owners and builders of private prisons. That kids-for-cash scandal involved over 2,000 juveniles. Compared with federal and state prisons, private ones are more violent and dangerous. U.S. reporter Shane Bauer has unveiled such untold darkness in his book American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment. A fact rarely known to the public is that incarcerated labor is often exploited. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, prison laborers in over 40 states have been used to make hand sanitizer and protective equipment with hourly wages far below a minimum level, and even without their own protective equipment to reduce infectious risks in prison lockdowns. "That's how you treated slaves," said a prisoner in an audio link posted on Twitter and shared by Restore Justice, a criminal justice reform organization. "We have tacitly agreed to slave labor, upon which we all benefit," said Megan French-Marcelin, director of campaigns at Worth Rises, which works to end profiteering in the prison system. Yet despite the scandals, private prisons continue to be lucrative. The main three companies running over 200 private prisons in America, namely CoreCivic, the Geo Group and Management and Training Corporation, have reported a total annual profit of close to 5 billion U.S. dollars. As an old saying goes, "when money talks, there are few interruptions." Both U.S. judges and politicians at federal and state levels may have facilitated prison profits. The name list of those receiving funds from private prison companies includes both Republicans and Democrats. The prison bed profiteers have blurred the function of jails as a means of rehabilitation. Instead, they are inclined to hold prisoners longer behind bars and even throw the innocent inside in a brazen violation of human rights. When the Joe Biden administration moved to close problematic private prisons, the companies created a new market out of immigrants. Winning contracts from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and state governments provide a windfall to keep detention centers open. According to a CNN report released in November 2021, since Biden took office, the White House has approved over 888 million dollars in direct payments to CoreCivic, the GEO Group and their subsidiaries. Most of the spending came from ICE. Why are private prison companies so powerful? The Justice Policy Institute has revealed in a report that for-profit prison companies primarily use three strategies to influence policy: lobbying, direct campaign contributions, and building relationships, networks, and associations. These strategies are in fact habitual tricks that businesses use to collude with politicians in the United States and epitomize U.S. money politics, an incurable systematic defect. As long as that defect persists, the slave-like conditions in U.S. private prisons will endure. BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China has maintained its position as the world's largest manufacturing hub for 12 straight years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday. The value-added output of the manufacturing sector in 2021 increased 9.8 percent year on year to 31.4 trillion yuan (about 4.97 trillion U.S. dollars), accounting for 27.4 percent of the country's GDP, MIIT Minister Xiao Yaqing told a press conference. Specifically, the output of the high-tech manufacturing industry went up 18.2 percent year on year, while that of equipment manufacturing increased 12.9 percent, while digitalization and green development of the sector also picked up paces, Xiao said. Meanwhile, China now has more than 4,700 national-level "little giant" firms, or small enterprises that are still in the early stage of development and focus on the new generations of information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, biomedicine and other high-end fields. In terms of 5G development, the country has built a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations by the end of last year, with the number of mobile terminals connected to the network exceeding 520 million, Xiao said. The ministry will further stimulate investment in the manufacturing sector, encourage enterprises to level up their manufacturing technologies and speed up the establishment of 5G services and gigabit fiber-optic networks, said the minister. Scientists released a pair of extensive studies over the weekend that point to a large food and live animal market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. Analyzing a wide range of data, including virus genes, maps of market stalls and the social media activity of early COVID-19 patients across Wuhan, the scientists concluded that the coronavirus was very likely present in live mammals sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in late 2019 and suggested that the virus spilled over into people working or shopping there on two separate occasions. The studies, which together span 150 pages, are a significant salvo in the debate over the beginnings of a pandemic that has killed nearly 6 million people across the world. The question of whether the outbreak began with a spillover from wildlife sold at the market, a leak from a Wuhan virology lab or some other event has given rise to pitched debates over how best to stop the next pandemic. When you look at all of the evidence together, its an extraordinarily clear picture that the pandemic started at the Huanan market, said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and a co-author of both new studies. Several independent scientists said that the studies, which have not yet been published in a scientific journal, presented a compelling and rigorous new analysis of available data. Its very convincing, said Dr. Thea Fischer, a public health researcher at the University of Copenhagen, who was not involved in the new studies. The question of whether the virus spilled over from animals has now been settled with a very high degree of evidence, and thus confidence. But others pointed to some gaps that still remained. The new papers did not, for example, identify an animal at the market that spread the virus to humans. I think what theyre arguing could be true, said Jesse Bloom, a virus expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. But I dont think the quality of the data is sufficient to say that any of these scenarios are true with confidence. In a separate study published online Friday, scientists at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed genetic traces of the earliest environmental samples collected at the market, in January 2020. By the time Chinese researchers arrived to collect these samples, police had shut down and disinfected the market because a number of people linked to it had become sick with what would later be recognized as COVID. No live market animals were left. The researchers swabbed walls, floors and other surfaces inside the market, as well as meat still in freezers and refrigerators. They also caught mice and stray cats and dogs around the market to test them, while also testing the contents of the sewers outside. The researchers then analyzed the samples for genetic traces of coronaviruses that may have been shed by people or animals. Although the Chinese researchers conducted their study over two years ago, it was not until Fridays report that they publicly shared their results. They reported that the Huanan market samples included two evolutionary branches of the virus, known as lineages A and B, both of which had been circulating in early COVID cases in China. These findings came as a surprise. In the early days of the pandemic in China, the only COVID cases linked to the market appeared to be Lineage B. And because Lineage B seemed to have evolved after Lineage A, some researchers suggested that the virus arrived at the market only after spreading around Wuhan. But that logic is upended by the new Chinese study, which finds both lineages in market samples. The findings are consistent with the scenario that Worobey and his colleagues put forward, in which at least two spillover events occurred at the market. The beauty of it is how simply it all adds up now, said Jeremy Kamil, a virus expert at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport, who was not involved in the new studies. Mapping Cases Although the Huanan market was an early object of suspicion, by the spring of 2020 senior members of the Trump administration were promoting the idea that the new coronavirus had escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a coronavirus laboratory located 8 miles away on the other side of the Yangtze River. Theres no direct evidence that the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was present at the lab before the pandemic. Researchers there have denied claims of a lab leak. But the Chinese government has come under fire for not being forthcoming about the early days of the pandemic. The report from the Chinese CDC about the Huanan markets samples, for example, had remained hidden. Starting in June 2020, two newspapers, The South China Morning Post and The Epoch Times, reported on what they claimed were leaked copies of the report. In January 2021, a team of experts chosen by the World Health Organization traveled to China to investigate. Collaborating with Chinese experts, the group released a report in March 2021 that contained previously undisclosed details about the market. They noted, for example, that 10 stalls in the southwest corner of the market sold live animals. The report also noted that 69 environmental samples collected from the market by the Chinese CDC had turned up positive for SARS-CoV-2. But the frozen meat and live animals had all tested negative. Still, the WHO left many researchers dissatisfied. Worobey and Bloom signed a letter, along with 16 other scientists in May 2021, calling for more investigation into the origins of COVID including the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 had escaped from a lab. The WHO experts had identified 164 cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan over the course of December 2019. Unfortunately, the cases were marked by fuzzy dots scattered across a nearly featureless map of Wuhan. Worobey and his colleagues used mapping tools to estimate the longitude and latitude locations of 156 of those cases. The highest density of December cases centered around the market a relatively tiny spot in a city of 11 million people. Those cases included not just people who were initially linked to the market, but others who lived in the surrounding neighborhood. The researchers then mapped cases from January and February of 2020. They drew upon data collected by Chinese researchers from Weibo, a social media app that created a channel for people with COVID to seek medical help. The 737 cases pulled from Weibo were concentrated away from the market, in other parts of central Wuhan with high populations of elderly residents, the study found. These patterns pointed to the market as the origin of the outbreak, Worobey and his colleagues concluded. The researchers ran tests that showed it was extremely unlikely that such a pattern could be produced merely by chance. Its very strong statistical evidence that this is no coincidence, Worobey said. But David Relman, a microbiologist at Stanford University, raised the possibility that these patterns might be just evidence that the market boosted the epidemic after the virus started spreading in humans somewhere else. The virus would have arrived in a person, who then infected other people, he said. And the neighborhood of the market, or the market itself, became a kind of a sustained superspreader event. Multiple Spillovers Worobey and his colleagues argue against that possibility, pointing to signs of spillovers within the market itself. The researchers reconstructed the floor plan of the Huanan market based on the WHO report, the leaked Chinese CDC study and other sources. They then mapped the locations of positive environmental samples, finding that they clustered in the area where live animals were sold. Strikingly, five of the samples came from a single stall. That stall had been visited in 2014 by one of the co-authors of the new studies, Edward Holmes, a virus expert at the University of Sydney. On that trip, he had taken a photograph of a cage of raccoon dogs for sale at the time. Another co-author, Chris Newman, a wildlife biologist at the University of Oxford, was part of a research team that documented a number of live, wild mammals for sale at the Huanan market in November and December of 2019, including raccoon dogs. Worobey and his colleagues also carried out a new analysis of more than 800 coronaviruses sampled from early COVID cases. They found that both Lineage A and Lineage B underwent separate bursts of explosive growth. The most likely explanation for their results, they concluded, is that Lineage A and Lineage B each jumped on their own from an animal into different people, likely in November. Both jumps, they said, could have happened at the Huanan market. In their analysis, Worobey and his colleagues found that the two earliest cases of Lineage A involved people who lived close to the market. The Chinese CDC study published Friday revealed a Lineage A coronavirus on a glove collected when the market shut down. I think weve cracked this case, said Joel Wertheim, a virus expert at the University of California, San Diego, and a co-author of the new studies. Bloom, however, questioned the idea that there had been two separate spillovers. He noted that the Lineage A glove sample from the market was collected some time after the virus had begun spreading in humans, raising the possibility that it had been brought into the market. I am especially unconvinced by the conclusion that there must have necessarily been two different spillovers in the Huanan Seafood Market, Bloom said. New evidence could still emerge. The Chinese government, for example, could release samples taken from Wuhan patients who came down with pneumonia in November 2019, noted Relman of Stanford. Researchers could also learn more by looking at the genetic samples collected by the Chinese researchers. Its possible that the samples included genetic material not just from viruses, but from animals at the market. Sharing the raw data could enable other scientists to investigate the potential spillover in more detail. Kristian Andersen, a virus expert at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and a co-author of the new studies, said it was important to figure out where the wild mammals for sale at Huanan came from, and to look for evidence of past outbreaks in those places. Its possible, for example, that villagers at the sources of that wildlife still carry antibodies from exposures to coronaviruses. If I had to say what would be most helpful to do now, it would be those types of studies, he said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Wang Yan poses for a photo aboard a bus in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan seeks suggestions on the application of charging piles in bus terminals from a representative of the State Grid Electric Vehicles Service's Tianjin branch at a bus service office in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan (R) checks a passenger's health code and body temperature aboard a bus in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan (R) talks about the application of charging piles in bus terminals with a representative of the State Grid Electric Vehicles Service's Tianjin branch at a meeting room of a bus service office in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan checks her blood pressure before starting her shift at a bus service office in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan poses for a photo aboard a bus in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan (R) talks with her apprentice Liu Bin aboard a bus in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan poses for a photo at a bus stop in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan (1st L) talks with colleagues at a bus service office in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Wang Yan checks the batteries of her bus at a bus stop in north China's Tianjin, Feb. 24, 2022. Tianjin bus driver Wang Yan is a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy. Since taking on her duties in 2018, Wang has continued to submit suggestions to the NPC, covering a variety of areas, such as transportation and health care. As a bus driver, she makes the most of her job, listening to her passengers' opinions, while formulating suggestions that can have an influence on government policies. This year is the last year of her term of NPC deputy, Wang will put forward a suggestion on boosting electric vehicle charging services in expressway service areas. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Even as he puts his nuclear forces on high alert and his troops close in on Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin has reason to worry: His war on Ukraine appears to be backfiring. Unmasked as an unpredictable, even existential threat in the view of governments around the world, Putin has emerged as a dangerous symbol of tyranny, stoking the biggest European defense reassessment in decades. A reinvigorated NATO is emerging. Resurgent Western unity - wounded under former president Donald Trump - has enabled sanctions on Moscow that are some of the harshest ever imposed. With Germany suddenly off the fence in what is shaping up to be a historic realignment against Moscow, Putin faces new, as opposed to neutralized, security challenges in Russia's backyard. Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has called Putin his "best friend," welcomed him to Beijing. But reportedly taken aback by the speed, scope and force of Russia's assault on Ukraine, Beijing is proving a more reluctant ally than Putin might have hoped, with Xi urging Putin to settle the conflict at the negotiating table. Delegations from Russia and Ukraine will meet near the Belarus border for their first talks since Russia launched its invasion Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Putin's supportive oligarchs live in a shrinking world - their foreign mansions, super yachts and billions under threat of seizure. "Russian-owned, Russian-registered or Russian-controlled aircraft" are banned from E.U. airspace. Amid stirring images of the Russian bombardment - and the rise of Zelensky as a global cause celebre - foreign leaders who'd cozied up to Putin before the invasion are suffering repercussions at home. In the United States, several senior Republican lawmakers typically quick to back Trump have danced sidesteps after he praised Putin's "genius." Even some of Moscow's closest international allies, including Venezuela and Cuba, are offering nuanced responses, betraying unease with the modern precedent set by Russia's violation of Ukrainian sovereignty. "Putin wants to establish a Russian empire," a newly steeled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared Sunday in parliament. The question is, he continued, "whether we can summon the strength to set boundaries to warmongers like Putin." Nowhere is the about-face on Russia more full than in Germany, where the rumbling of Putin's tanks and the toll of his missiles on Ukrainian cities is jolting awake a sleeping giant. Since reunification, Germany has shrunk from geopolitical confrontation and sought a careful relationship with Moscow based on post-World War II penance and energy security through Russian gas. On Saturday, the normally reluctant Germans agreed to target a number of Russian banks, cutting them off the vital SWIFT global network that allows international movement of funds. But as an outpouring of 100,000 demonstrators fanned out from Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to decry the Russian invasion on Sunday, Scholz went far further, unveiling a previously unthinkable surge in defense spending. As part of a remarkable security rethink, German military spending will get a one-off spike of $110 billion, about twice last year's defense budget. Scholz also pledged Germany's annual military spending would immediately begin to exceed a 2% of gross domestic product target for NATO nations - a level Berlin was not projected to reach until 2024. It shows how the Russian threat seems to have crystallized for Germans more over the last four days than in the last two decades combined. Over the weekend, Berlin also cut through its long-standing resistance to sending weapons to conflict zones, authorizing the dispatch of 1,000 shoulder-launched antitank rockets and 500 surface-to-air Stinger missiles to Ukraine. This from a country ridiculed only last month for a muted response involving a gift of helmets to Ukrainian forces. "There has been an awakening, not just by the political class, but also by ordinary voters," Marcel Dirsus, a German political scientist and fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel, told my colleagues. In Beijing, where earlier this month Putin and Xi issued a 5,300-word joint statement outlining a Russian-Chinese effort to counter Washington's reach, "many Chinese officials seemed startled that Russian President Vladimir Putin would move so far so fast - and so forcefully," Melinda Liu wrote in Foreign Policy. "Beijing's rhetoric has become less overtly supportive of Putin," she noted. A senior Biden administration official pointed my colleagues to media reports this week stating that China had also restricted financing for Russian commodity purchases, suggesting limits to Beijing's support. Building on historic ties to authoritarian regimes and more recent vaccine diplomacy, Russia accelerated its courting of Latin America in recent weeks - seeing economic and military cooperation there as strategic warning to Washington. This month, leaders of South America's two largest nations, Brazil and Argentina, held lovefests with Putin in Moscow. Now, both of them - along with other global Putin cheerleaders - are facing awkward moments, with signs of at least some diplomatic backtracking. "We are in solidarity with Russia," Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro declared in Moscow during a meeting with Putin just eight days before the invasion. After Thursday's invasion, Bolsonaro's vice president, Hamilton Mourao, seemed to indirectly call out his boss. Saying the "Western world" was repeating the 1938 mistake of giving space to Adolf Hitler, the former Brazilian army general called for more than sanctions. "The use of force is needed, a support for Ukraine," he said. "That's my view. If the Western world just lets Ukraine fall, Bulgaria will be next, then the Baltic States, and so on. Just as Hitler's Germany did in the 1930s." Bolsonaro publicly rebuked his No. 2. But despite a certain tiptoeing around Russian aggression from Brazil's Foreign Ministry, the country still stood with the 11 members of the U.N. Security Council that voted in favor of a resolution to denounce the Russian invasion - a measure that Moscow vetoed. On Feb. 3, Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez, also meeting with Putin in Moscow, heralded a future with Russia as an antidote to U.S. power. But, as images of fleeing Ukrainian refugees and Russian missile strikes began rippling across social media Thursday, Fernandez called for Moscow to "end" action in Ukraine. His reluctance to say much more sparked an influential group of opposition politicians and intellectuals to demand he make "a clear and forceful condemnation" and show "the immediate alignment of our country with the West." "I think this invasion, and all the images that are just so egregious, are going to cost these leaders, and that's why they've backtracked a little bit," Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, told me. "Any kind of sympathy with Russia is not sustainable with the public opinions in Brazil or Argentina right now." Putin also sought to boost long-standing strategic ties to communist Cuba and the left-wing authoritarian states of Venezuela and Nicaragua. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, after meeting with senior Russian officials two weeks ago, pledged new and powerful "military cooperation" with Moscow. Maduro has blamed NATO for Putin's woes and criticized Western sanctions. But a government statement Thursday ventured close to suggesting cooler heads were needed on both sides, calling for a "peaceful resolution" to the conflict and "a return" to diplomacy to "avoid escalation." Even communist Cuba seemed to hide a nugget of criticism inside a lengthy statement blaming Washington and NATO for Putin's "use of force." Havana's Foreign Ministry still described the Russian action as "the nonobservance of legal principles and international norms." "You're not going to see Venezuela or Nicaragua break with Russia over this, but I think they are sensitive to the violation of principles they hold dear, of national sovereignty and non interference," Shifter said. "They have the U.S. in mind. The theory that this gives the United States free rein to do what it wants in its own backyard in Latin America." Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi holds a video meeting with the Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong on Feb. 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Monday held a video meeting with the Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong. Noting this year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the ROK, Wang said China and the ROK should uphold and revisit the original aspiration of establishing diplomatic ties and jointly plan for the future development of bilateral relations. China wishes the general election of the ROK to go smoothly and hopes that the relations between the two countries will achieve a steady transition after the election and continuously advance to a higher level, Wang said. China appreciates the efforts made by the ROK to promote the peace process on the Korean Peninsula and is willing to continue to provide assistance within its capacity, Wang said. Wang added China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with the ROK on the Korean Peninsula affairs. Chung Eui-yong said the ROK appreciates and believes that China will continue to play a significant and constructive role on the Korean Peninsula issue. The two sides also exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine. CHICAGO - Alexander Spektor didn't immediately recognize the number on the video call that came through on his phone Thursday. For the past week, Spektor, 46, and his partner Irma Nunez, 48, have been glued to their devices, waking at 5 a.m. each day to immerse themselves in the latest news from Ukraine and digest the stream of messages flooding their phones from 5,000 miles away. In Kyiv, their surrogate was carrying twins for the couple, and she and the babies had endured weeks of terrifying health complications. There were seven more weeks until the due date, and now Russian forces were bearing down on the capital city. "I get a video call from this beautiful young woman, who appears a little bit drunk, and I'm like, 'I'm sorry, who are you?'" Spektor recalled. "And she says, 'You have two beautiful sons.'" Born premature but weighing more than four pounds each, and with full heads of hair, twins Lenny and Moishe brought new life during wartime. "It feels like a schizophrenic experience," Spektor told The Washington Post late Saturday. Nunez agreed: "This has been the longest weeks of our lives." Nunez and Spektor now face the same challenge as a number of other families who are trying to bring home adopted children and babies born to Ukrainian surrogates as embassies shutter, military vehicles clog the roadways, ambulances are diverted to the war effort, and Russia launches missiles and airstrikes. As preemies, Lenny and Moishe require intensive care and need a special medical transport. Doctors in Kyiv told the parents the babies need to stay in the hospital for at least another four days before they can be transferred to another regional clinic farther from the most intense fighting, Nunez said. "They don't want them to make the journey now without IV solution, proper care, whatever they need to have if a situation comes up," Nunez said. The ultimate goal is to get the twins to Poland or a more stable city in western Ukraine, like Lviv - a trip that will also require medical transport. Thus far, the couple say the State Department has been unable to help and they've reached out to their representatives in Congress, including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. The Ukraine-based staff for the international surrogacy agency that was part of the coordinating plan have fled. If the fighting intensifies, Nunez and Spektor understand that time is against them. Under protocols set by the surrogacy agency, Adonis Fertility International, the surrogate mother is not supposed to contact the intended parents or get attached to the babies, the couple said. But now that the protocols have eroded, their surrogate Katya - whose last name they withheld for privacy reasons - is their only point of contact for their sons. Her video call to Spektor was the only time the couple had seen her face, without a mask, outside of a photo. "In our mind, the surrogate, she gave birth to our children, but she's not beholden to them," Nunez said. "What if she decides she needs to be with her family and save herself? We need to find someone who can take care of the babies." Representatives for Adonis did not respond to request for comment Sunday. The couple is searching for anyone who can help bring their children to safety, and is looking for transport for not only Lenny and Moishe, but Katya, her 6-year-old son Nikita, and two other babies born to American families via surrogate. "We're in a position where we need to help not only our babies, but other babies," Nunez said. While the couple has received supportive offers from individuals in Poland and Ukraine who have learned of their plight - far-flung connections and even strangers offering a room to stay, or a ride - the specialized medical transport to move the twins from Kyiv to western Ukraine or the Polish border remains elusive. As of Sunday, the babies and Katya were sheltering in the basement in the hospital in Kyiv. The parents have seen glimpses of the conditions there: Katya in a paper gown, the twins in a makeshift newborn intensive care unit. Spektor described it as looking like a scene from a horror film. Martha Bayne, one of Nunez's longtime friends who helped launch a GoFundMe campaign for the twins transport, said she has been struck by how the new parents have managed to stay calm. "This is a truly remarkable and mind-boggling situation to find themselves in. It's something that's so happy - Irma keeps sending me videos of the babies that they're getting from the surrogate - and she's saying, 'This is what's keeping us going.'" The intensity of the past week with the war in Ukraine is part of a longer, difficult road to parenthood for the couple, particularly Nunez. "I had a really painful experience trying to have babies in the past. And sharing the news, where it didn't work out? It was hard to deal with the grief," Nunez said. "And this time I didn't want to do that. I felt incredibly private about the situation. I didn't want to share it with anybody until it felt safe, until it felt like it was going to be good." Up until the birth of the twins, the couple had kept news of their babies intensely private, even from close friends, until their premature birth and outbreak of war prompted them to suddenly go public. "Irma - who has a ton of friends - the first time they heard about it was, 'We want to share this great news: We just had twins . . . and they're in Kyiv,'" Spektor said. Nunez admitted that even plans for the nursery in their Chicago apartment were incomplete; the couple didn't want to jinx what felt like it could finally be their stroke of good luck. Much of the baby clothing they acquired has been cautiously stashed in their storage unit until the twins make it home. "We didn't think we'd need any for two more months," Nunez said. "We wanted to wait until we crossed this hurdle and we know the babies are fine." For many couples who pursue surrogacy, Ukraine is an attractive option for its relative affordability. U.S.-based surrogacy can cost upward of $100,000, while surrogacy in Ukraine is often less than half that. For Nunez and Spektor, Ukraine offered a powerful personal connection. "There was this notion that, we can't have our own kids, but there's something symbolic in having our kids born where I was born," said Spektor, who was born in Kyiv. The twins' journey into the world has been fraught, even before Russian forces began shelling eastern parts of Ukraine. Roughly halfway through the pregnancy, Katya developed an Rh-incompatibility with the twins, meaning her blood was Rh-negative while theirs was positive. The doctors suggested they may have to induce labor at 27 weeks. "Her body began to attack the babies," Spektor said. "We were losing our minds on what to do, but then two days later things would stabilize. Then they'd get another bad ultrasound and it would go into a logistical nightmare." When Katya went into labor last week, she was transferred by ambulance to a clinic outside of Kyiv. When an ultrasound showed one of the twins had a severe oxygen deficiency, Katya was transferred back to Kyiv, where the hospital options were better, Spektor said. Instead of the ambulance ride taking 20 minutes, it took three hours because of traffic from military vehicles, Katya later told the couple. "For those three hours, it was agony. We're thinking, 'Is this three hours going to be the end of our babies?'" Spektor said. But the babies survived their tumultuous birth. Katya later sent a video where she is heard saying of the twins, "These are Ukrainian heroes." The babies were named for Jewish and Mexican relatives of the couple: Lenny and Moishe are Jewish names derived from Leonid and Misha from Spektor's side, and the middle names Carlos and Rosario from Nunez's. Spektor joked he picked the name "Moishe" to saddle his family with "a very provincial Jewish name" ("They think they're so sophisticated," he said, smiling) and they settled on "Lenny" because of composer Leonard Bernstein, who was born to Ukrainian-Jewish parents - and comedian Lenny Bruce. The couple plans to travel to Poland, but have yet to come to an agreement on whether Spektor will attempt to travel into Ukraine. In the meantime, they continue to replay the videos they have of their sons - their "heroes of Ukraine." "We have these two lives born," Spektor said. "And their own journey into this world was so difficult, and all of a sudden to have them born in a war zone - among all this devastation - feels incredibly hopeful." "I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars. There would be no NATO if I didn't act strongly and swiftly. Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective antitank busters (Javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets. Let History so note!" - Former president Donald Trump, in a statement, Feb. 28 - - - Only days ago Trump lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin as "very savvy" for making a "genius" move by declaring two regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states and dispatching Russian armed forces to seize them. "Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful," Trump said Feb. 22 on the "Clay Travis and Buck Sexton" show, referring to the troops as "the strongest peace force I've ever seen." Of course, it turns out Putin launched an invasion of all of Ukraine. With Ukraine putting up a gallant fight and the United States and its allies imposing harsh sanctions on Russia, Trump on Monday issued a defensive statement repeating falsehoods he regularly made during his presidency. With Trump, it's hard to know if he's willfully ignorant or if he has simply swallowed his own spin. Far from being a savior of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, he frequently sought to undermine it. Here's a quick guide to what's wrong or misleading in his statement. "It was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars." During the 2016 presidential election, Trump consistently inflated the U.S. contribution to NATO. Once he became president, his inaccuracy persisted, but with a twist. Nearly 150 times during his presidency, he claimed that "hundreds of billions" of dollars have come into NATO because of his complaints. Sometimes, as president, he even suggested this money might be coming directly to the United States. This is all poppycock. There are two types of funding for NATO: direct funding and indirect funding. The amount of direct funding provided by each NATO member, for military-related operations, maintenance and headquarters activity, generally is based on gross national income - the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country - and adjusted regularly. The United States and Germany each underwrite 16.34 percent of direct spending; the U.S. share had previously been slightly higher, as it had the biggest economy, but its share was reduced under Trump at his insistence. A significant portion of the U.S. share is operating the Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet operations, according to the Congressional Research Service. The United States contributed about $406 million in Trump's last year, though President Biden sought to boost that to $482 million in fiscal year 2022. Those numbers are a rounding error in the Pentagon's $700 billion budget. What Trump is really referring to is indirect spending - what NATO members spend on their own defense. Trump claimed NATO members were "delinquent" but that was not the case. NATO members are supposed to meet a guideline of spending at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024 - a process that had started before Trump became president. He also often asserted NATO spending was at a low point when he came into office, but that's also not true. It had fallen after the end of the Cold War but had started rising sharply after 2014, after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine. NATO estimates that European NATO members and Canada added $130 billion in cumulative defense spending through 2020, in 2015 dollars, as an increase over 2016 spending. NATO also estimates the cumulative figure will rise to $400 billion through 2024. "There would be no NATO if I didn't act strongly and swiftly." In reality, Trump repeatedly told aides he wanted to leave NATO. "Trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the United States," the New York Times reported in 2019. That reporting was confirmed when Trump's former national security adviser John R. Bolton published a memoir in 2020 that described Trump as repeatedly saying he wanted to quit the alliance, saying at one point "I don't give a s--- about NATO." In 2018, Bolton said, he had to convince Trump not to quit NATO in the middle of the 2018 summit. Trump's former chief of staff John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, was also quoted as saying that "one of the most difficult tasks he faced with Trump was trying to stop him from pulling out of NATO." When Trump ran for reelection, it was generally feared he would pull out of the alliance if he was reelected. In a fit of pique at Germany, Trump in 2020 ordered the withdrawal of 12,000 U.S. troops, about one-third of the force based there. When Biden became president, he quickly reversed the plan and kept the troops there. "Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective antitank busters (Javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets." Trump yet again exaggerates the material provided to Ukraine by Barack Obama's administration. While the Obama administration did not send lethal aid, it in 2015 provided Ukraine more than $120 million in security assistance and had pledged an additional $75 million worth of equipment including UAVs, armored Humvee vehicles, counter-mortar radars, night vision devices and medical supplies, according to the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Many of these same items were provided by the Trump administration but in March 2018; the White House also approved the sale of Javelin missiles, a shoulder-fired precision missile system designed to destroy tanks, other armored vehicles and helicopters. One issue the Obama administration faced is that some U.S. officials were concerned the Ukrainian military did not have the capability to handle weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles, but it achieved that capability by the time Trump became president. Ironically, Foreign Policy magazine reported, Trump initially did not want to provide Javelins to Ukraine, but eventually aides convinced him that it could be good for U.S. business. Nevertheless, the sale was mostly symbolic. The Trump administration insisted that Javelins could not be deployed in a conflict zone, so they are stored in western Ukraine, far from the front lines of the ongoing conflict against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. In a call on July 25, 2019, Trump asked for "a favor" after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to buy more Javelins. That favor involved launching an investigation of Joe Biden - which led to Trump's first impeachment. As part of his effort to pressure Zelensky, Trump placed a hold on aid to Ukraine - $250 million in aid through the Defense Department or $141 million in aid through the State Department - that had already been appropriated. U.S. officials became increasingly frantic about the Ukraine aid freeze because the 2019 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, after which the appropriation would expire. The hold was finally lifted in mid-September, only after intense pressure from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, but it takes time for the U.S. government to transfer such funds. It turned out that about $35 million of the aid could not be disbursed by the Sept. 30 deadline. For the money to go through, Congress had to pass a law extending the deadline to the fiscal 2020 year. MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin on Monday that the country's nuclear deterrence forces have begun combat duty with reinforced staff. Shoigu informed Putin that "the duty shifts of control units of the strategic rocket forces, the Northern and Pacific fleets, and the long-range aviation command have started to carry out the combat duty with increased capacity," Russia's RIA Novosti news agency cited the ministry as reporting. Putin ordered the country's deterrence forces to be placed on "a special mode of combat duty" in a Sunday meeting with top defense officials. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine urged the European Union on Monday to grant his country immediate accession to the bloc in response to Russias invasion. In a passionate speech aimed at rallying Ukrainians to continue to defend their country and encouraging further international support, he thanked EU countries that have decided to supply arms to Ukraine over the past few days and said he had spoken to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, to urge her to take even stronger steps. We appeal to the European Union for Ukraines immediate accession under a new special procedure, Zelenskyy said in a video broadcast from the capital, Kyiv. Our goal is to stand alongside all Europeans and, most importantly, to stand on their level. The EU wants Ukraine to join the bloc over time, von der Leyen said in an interview with Euronews on Saturday, although she gave no indication of timing. Ukraine took a first step to joining the EU in early 2014, but progress toward accession has been slow. Kyivs turn toward the EU and the West has angered President Vladimir Putin of Russia and has helped fuel a conflict involving Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Zelenskyy also said that 4,500 Russian soldiers had died since the country invaded last Thursday, although the claim could not be independently verified. Ukrainian children were among the victims of Russian shelling, he said, with 16 killed and 45 wounded. But he added that the fighting had shown the strength of Ukraines people, who had experienced as much carnage in the last few days as other nations have seen in decades. We stand firm, Zelenskyy said. Europeans are aware that our soldiers are fighting for our country and, consequently, for the whole of Europe. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Richard Blum, a longtime member of the University of California Board of Regents and husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, died Sunday evening after a long battle with cancer. He was 86. Blum died at the family home, Feinstein announced Monday morning. "My heart is broken today. My husband was my partner and best friend for more than 40 years," Feinstein said. "He was by my side for the good times and for the challenges. I am going to miss him terribly." Blum, who was chairman of Blum Capital Partners, an equity investment management firm, was a longtime friend of the Dalai Lama. For decades, he focused much of his time on the people of the Himalayas, and founded the American Himalayan Foundation. His work centered on ending human trafficking, improving health care, providing elder and child care and promoting the region's vibrant culture, according to a release from Feinstein. He also founded the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley, that supports students in learning how to combat global poverty. That center was a model for Blum Centers at other UC campuses. Blum served for nearly two decades on the University of California Board of Regents and was chairman emeritus of the board. He also served as co-chairman of the World Conference on Religion and Peace; was a founding member of National Geographic's International Council of Advisors; was a trustee of the executive committee of The Carter Center; and sat on several boards including the World Wildlife Fund, the Wilderness Society, the Brookings Institution, the California Academy of Sciences and the Glide Foundation. Blum was "incredibly devoted" to his family, Feinstein said. "He was the type of man who really replaced his divot in life, who left things better than he found them. His enormous generosity is an inspiration for so many of us." In addition to Feinstein, Richard Blum is survived by his brother Robert; daughters Annette, Heidi and Eileen; stepdaughter Katherine and her husband Rick Mariano; and grandchildren Mitchell and Spencer Riley, Lea, Tristan, Julien and Benjamin Bourgade, and Eileen Mariano. Copyright 2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area. Copyright 2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. By Nick Marnell Bay City News Foundation One of the more head-scratching aspects of the criminal justice system is the ramification to a defendant of a failure to appear for a court mandated appointment. "The person will end up in jail for missing their appearance," said Blanca Hernandez, Contra Costa County deputy public defender. "Even if proven guilty of the original charge, they may not have spent a day in jail." The county has contracted with Uptrust, a private technology company, to help stop this inequity -- and save taxpayer money as a result. Jacob Sills cofounded Uptrust in order to help people stay out of jail who shouldn't be there, per his company's mission statement. Sills, the chief executive officer, saw that too many defendants missed their court appointments because of financial problems, transportation issues or simply no communication from the court. "When people mess up on probation, they end up in prison," Sills said in a phone interview. "The issues largely stem around poverty. That's why they violate their probation. We are helping the system stay engaged with their clients." Sills uses the word "client" when speaking of those negatively impacted by the criminal justice system. Uptrust developed an app that connects defendants to their probation officer or the public defender's office, allowing for direct, rapid communication between the parties to allay reporting problems, including bench warrants and jail time. Sills said that his company provides cost savings to the government, helps clients be successful and improves the quality of life for government staff, who benefit from less paperwork and less administrative hassle. "Our job is to make everyone's life easier," said Sills, who added that clients do not pay a penny for his service, which is available to all arraigned defendants. Contra Costa County has annual contracts with Uptrust through September totaling $65,000, according to Ellen McDonnell, county public defender. Sills said that McDonnell was the first Bay Area adopter of his company, with Alameda County and Marin County recently signing on. "In 2021 there were 1,940 misdemeanor failure to appears," Hernandez said, out of 5,667 total arraignments. The cost to the county for one failure to appear is $847, she said, which includes court time, three hours of arrest and booking time for the officer and an average of three nights in jail for the defendant. Hernandez noted that the county had no way to track the number of defendants who benefited from Uptrust, but if only 77 of the arraigned defendants who otherwise would have slipped through the cracks made their appointments thanks to the company, the contract would have paid for itself. Uptrust is one of three Bay Area organizations that received a total of $650,000 in grants from the Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, sponsored by the American Heart Association. "This grant funding gives significant money each year to organizations that show us they are doing measurable work toward making an impact addressing those underlying factors that make good health nearly impossible to achieve in some of our Bay Area communities," said AHA spokesperson Donna Kato. Also receiving 2022 Tyson grant funding were Youth Alive!, an Oakland community organization that employs young people to help reduce violence in the city, and Cognitive ToyBox, a New York-based company that has created an objective approach to measuring early childhood learning abilities. The chance to obtain grant funding is available to community groups that apply and fit the AHA search criteria, said Valerie Dao, portfolio manager of the AHA social impact funds. "We put out a request to local organizations, hold town halls, we narrow the list down and our investment governing committee makes the final decision," she said. The search criteria for AHA includes evidence-based and sustainable solutions to reducing health and funding inequities. The next Tyson social impact fund window will open in early summer for the Bay Area. Learn more -Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund: https://www.heart.org/en/bernard-j-tyson-fund -Uptrust: https://uptrust.co/ -Youth Alive!: https://www.youthalive.org/ -Cognitive ToyBox: https://www.cognitivetoybox.com/ Copyright 2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area. Copyright 2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. As February comes to a rapid end, more restaurants bid adieu with additional closures around the Bay Area. San Diego-based brewery Modern Times announced it would shutter several outposts, including its only Bay Area site in Oakland. According to a statement on its website, Modern Times shared that the companys current financial state was in peril. As of the end of this week, we will be closing our Portland, Oakland, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles locations, the statement read. We truly wish that there were another way to resolve the financial issues we now face, but we have been put in a position ... from which this tremendously difficult path is the only way forward for us. Modern Times added that the pandemic only exacerbated the strain to operate smoothly. By and large, Bay Area business owners shared that the reasons behind its restaurant closures was due to the financial losses wrought on by the pandemic. The owners of Hobees, a diner-style restaurant best known for its blueberry coffee cake, likewise announced the closure of its North San Jose location while naming remote work during COVID as one of the probable reasons for less foot traffic. See the list of other notable Bay Area closures in February below. For a list of January closures, see SFGATE'S roundup. Dianna W. on Yelp Community Foods Market The West Oakland grocery store closed its doors Feb. 13 after three short years. On Instagram, Community Foods Market shared that it faced a shaky foundation having just opened eight months before the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Hobees In a lengthy Facebook post, owners Camille and Daniel Chijate said they would shutter their North San Jose outpost at 680 River Oaks Parkway after 28 years in service. The owners cited reduced foot traffic throughout the work week and that signing another 5-year lease option here would have been an unwise business decision. Its not a final farewell, however. As the Mercury News points out, the other four Bay Area stores remain open. Modern Times Beer The San Diego-based brewery closed its only Bay Area outpost in Oakland along with locations in Portland, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles this month after it faced financial issues amid the pandemic. In a statement, Modern Times Beer added that four years of rapid, costly expansion followed by the impact of the pandemic resulted in the closures. The brewery continues to have a Southern California presence. Rock Wall Wine Company The urban winery forever closed Feb. 27 after 14 years in Alameda. In her goodbye message, owner and winemaker Shauna Rosenblum shared that the rising cost of doing business in the Bay Area and the lasting financial implications of COVID had been a factor in her decision to close. Thailand Restaurant The longstanding Thai restaurant shuttered after 30 years in the Castro, as first reported by Hoodline. Former manager Angeli Wirattigowit told SFGATE that the business had difficulty maintaining momentum during the pandemic. SHELTON The city continued to flex its economic muscle last year, with the tax assessors office reporting a 22.45 percent jump in its grand list from 2020 to 2021. The 2021 net grand list sits at $5.99 billion in total assessments, which is 70 percent of market value, an increase of just over $1 billion over 2020, according to Assessor William H. Gaffney III, who submitted the annual report to the mayors office this month. The increase comes one year after the percentage increased 1.49 percent from 2019 to 2020. Gaffney said the recently completed property revaluations played a major role in the significant jump in the grand list this past year. The last two years property values have increased dramatically nationwide, Gaffney said. Mayor Mark Lauretti recently stated that the upward adjustment in property values would lead to a reduction in the mill rate which presently sits at 22.03 in the coming fiscal years budget. The 2022-23 budget process is underway, so no numbers are close to being finalized, but Lauretti said residents should expect a mill rate decrease. Based on past performance, past history, the mill rate may end up about 18, Lauretti previously stated. But I can see it somewhere between 16 and 17. Its been that low before. Property assessments are done every five years according to state law. The revaluations allow for all 169 municipalities in Connecticut to set the value of all property within their borders. More than 85 percent of the grand list is comprised of real estate, which lists at $5.14 billion, a 25.27 percent increase from the previous year. Personal property dropped 8 percent, or just under $34 million, to $382.8 million. Motor vehicle assessments were at $465,355,110, an increase of just under $95 million, a 25.59 percent spike from 2020. The assessors office also released the total assessments for the citys top taxpayers for the 2021 grand list. Once again developer Robert Scinto led the way, with total assessments of $242.6 million. Scinto was followed by Aquarion Water Co. at $51.5 million; United Illuminating Co. at $45.5 million; Merion Shelton LLC at $44.1 million; and Shelton Properties LLC Trustee at $37.9 million. brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com Cade Martin / Getty Images/Uppercut RF SHELTON The Shelton High boys lacrosse booster club is holding a clothing drive Saturday The drive will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Shelton Community Center, 41 Church St. The clothes will be donated and recycled to local donation sites. The money raised will help cover the cost of scholarships, senior night and the teams banquet. Despite the monumental silence from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it shouldn't come as any surprise to those of you who have picked up a newspaper or turned on the television in the last year or so that Connecticut is facing a serious crime problem. Within the past week alone, a 71-year-old woman was carjacked in broad daylight in West Hartford and yet another car was stolen in Hartford, this time with a 6-year-old girl inside. Homeowners being shot at, cars being ransacked, and garages broken into has Connecticut's residents terrified, frustrated, and living on edge. Many afraid their next visit to the grocery store or gas station could put them into a position where they could be next. The nature of these types of crimes has increased with those committing them more brazen and less afraid of consequences and law enforcement. Those who would commit these crimes don't discriminate based on zip code. The people who have been affected span all corners of our state. In and around Shelton, we are experiencing these same levels of crime. The one thing I hear from law enforcement officers in Shelton and surrounding towns is that the juvenile justice system is broken. Police officers hands are tied and the criminals know it. My Republican colleagues have made several attempts to address this issue by offering real workable solutions. Among our priorities are extending sentences for carjackings committed with a firearm, allowing arresting officers to detain juvenile offenders for longer periods of time, transferring juveniles to the regular criminal docket for certain crimes, and providing immunity protections for our police officers who act reasonably while performing their duties. Unfortunately, they've largely been ignored by Democrats in Hartford who are not at all interested in fixing this problem. Something needs to be done today. With each passing day, the general public's safety is put in jeopardy. This issue is not going to resolve itself. The residents of Connecticut deserve better from their elected officials. It's time to come together to enact meaningful changes in order to keep our residents safe. Jason Perillo represents Shelton and is Deputy Republican Leader in the House of Representatives. Try out LudingtonDailyNews.com for only 99 per month for the first 3 months, $9.99 a month after. Unlimited website access 24/7 Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more! With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-Edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. National Science Day is celebrated every year to honour the birth anniversary of Indian scientist Dr. Sir CV Raman. Let's remember the great physicist and Bharat Ratna Sir CV Raman and his discovery of the Raman Effect & monumental contributions to the science. CV Raman Sir's earliest researches were in optics and acoustics, where he dedicated his entire career being a student on these two fields. Since, at that time, a scientific job did not seem to present the best possibilities, Raman entered the Indian Finance Department in 1907. However, the duties of his office took most of his time. CV Raman Sir found opportunities to carry on experimental analysis in the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science laboratory at Calcutta, where he became Honorary Secretary in 1919. In 1917 he was offered the newly endowed Palit Chair of Physics at Calcutta University and accepted it. After 15 years at Calcutta, he evolved a Professor at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore (1933-1948). Since 1948 he has been Director of the Raman Institute of Research at Bangalore, founded and endowed by him. He also established the Indian Journal of Physics in 1926, of which he is the Editor. Since its inception, Raman sponsored the Indian Academy of Sciences establishment and has acted as president. He also initiated the proceedings of that academy, in which most of his work has been printed. Some of Sir CV Raman's early biographies appeared as bulletins of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (Bull. 6 and 11, dealing with the "Maintenance of Vibrations"; Bull. 15, 1918, dealing with the theory of the musical instruments of the violin family). He contributed an article on musical instruments to the 8th Volume of the Handbuch der Physik, 1928. In 1922 he published his work on the "Molecular Diffraction of Light," the first of a series of investigations with his collaborators which ultimately led to his discovery, on February 28, 1928, of the radiation effect which takes his name ("A new radiation," Indian J. Phys., 2 (1928) 387), and which achieved him the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics. Other investigations taken out by Raman were his experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies published in 1934-1942 and those on the effects created by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light. In 1948 Raman, through analysing the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, then come fundamental problems of crystal dynamics in a new manner. His laboratory has been dealing with the structure and properties of the diamond the structure and optical behaviour of numerous iridescent substances (labradorite, pearly felspar, agate, opal, and pearls). Along with Dr. Sir CV Raman, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha have equally contributed to the world of science and need to be remembered today. Contribution of "Rocket Boys" In recent days, the phrase "Rocket Boys" has been synonymous with the mega-hit web series that tells the story of Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, who is deemed the architect of India's nuclear energy programmes, and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, who is considered the father of India's space programme. They both contributed in making science a topic of drawing-room conversation. The two highly respected and self-motivated men joined forces to formulate India's space program. On National Science Day, here is a look at India's original 'Rocket Boys' lives. Born into a prominent Parsi family in Mumbai, Dr. Homi J Bhabha is the "Father of India's Nuclear Science Programme." He established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai in 1945. Three years later, he proposed forming the Atomic Energy Commission in India. With a go-ahead from then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the body was set up, and Dr. Bhabha was made chairman. For his contribution to science and engineering, he was awarded the country's highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan, in 1954. He also presided over the first United Nations Conference on the peaceful uses of Atomic Energy. He died in an air crash in Switzerland in 1966. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai is the award-winning physicist, who established Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The premier institute was initially called the Indian National Committee for Space Research when it was started in 1962 and later renamed ISRO. He received tremendous help and support from Dr. Bhabha in his endeavors. Dr. Bhabha assisted Sarabhai in setting up the country's first rocket launching station near Thiruvananthapuram, with advanced infrastructure, skilled staff, and launch pads. Its first flight took off on November 21, 1963. Dr. Sarabhai was born in an affluent family of industrialists on August 12, 1919, in Gujarat's Ahmedabad. He joined the Gujarat Arts and Science College before graduating from Cambridge University with a doctorate. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966. Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award was granted in 1972 after his death. Governments Initiatives on National Science Day The Government is organizing a Science Week, Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate, as a preamble to National Science Day. The programme appears to have been designed to make the youth proud of Indias scientific achievements. Using this opportunity as the nationalist mission is rather unfortunate. On the contrary, this event must be celebrated in the true spirit of science that defies all types of intellectual curtailments, thus promoting critical thinking in academic centers. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, presides over the closing meeting of the 33rd session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, concluded its 33rd session Monday in Beijing. At the closing meeting, lawmakers voted to adopt the decision on the ranks for active-duty soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, and the decision to remove Li Jiheng from the post of the minister of civil affairs and appoint Tang Dengjie as the new minister. President Xi Jinping signed two presidential orders to promulgate the above decisions. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the closing meeting. Lawmakers also voted to adopt a decision to establish the Chengdu-Chongqing financial court. Lawmakers approved in principle the work report of the NPC Standing Committee and entrusted Li Zhanshu to deliver the report to the fifth annual session of the 13th NPC on behalf of the NPC Standing Committee. Lawmakers also approved a report on deputy qualifications and personnel-related bills. The meeting approved the draft agenda for the NPC annual session to be opened on March 5 and the draft name list of the session's presidium and secretary-general, and decided to submit the drafts to the preparatory meeting of NPC session for deliberation. A name list of members invited to sit in on the NPC session as non-voting participants was also passed at the meeting. Addressing the closing meeting after the vote, Li Zhanshu called for well-thought and meticulous efforts in preparing for the NPC annual session to greet the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. For the NPC session, Li called for thoroughly promoting whole-process people's democracy and creating an atmosphere in which people can freely express themselves and talk pragmatically to reflect their voices and demands. Li also chaired a meeting of the Council of Chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee before the closing meeting and presided over a lecture for lawmakers after the meeting. Sudha Setty will be the First Person of South Asian Descent to Lead a CUNY School. Known as an exceptional legal educator, collaborative leader, and successful litigator FREMONT CA: Sudha Setty, an exceptional scholar, and experienced and collaborative legal leader, has been named dean of the CUNY School of Law, the nation's leading public interest law school and New York City's only publicly funded law school, by the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York. She is the first woman of South Asian ancestry to lead a CUNY institution. Since 2018, Setty has served as dean of the Western New England University School of Law, making her the first woman of South Asian descent to lead an American Bar Association-accredited law school in the United States. She was previously the associate dean for faculty development and intellectual life at the school. She has been a member of the faculty at the school since 2006, and she has been named Professor of the Year three times: in 2009, 2016, and 2018. Eduardo R.C. Capulong, who has served in an interim capacity since March 2021, is succeeded by Setty. The appointment will begin on July 1, 2022, and last for two years. Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodrguez said, "Dean Setty brings to CUNY a demonstrated ability to combine visionary goal-setting with deft governance, as well as to construct, fund, and sustain the programs that realize those goals." Her breadth of experience and commitment to using legal education to advance social justice will help the Law School maintain its position as the nation's top public-interest law school. She is a valuable asset to CUNY. Setty's deanship at Western New England University School of Law has focused on enhancing the school's social justice work and commitment to racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. In 2019, she oversaw the establishment of the Center for Social Justice. The Center serves as a framework for faculty and student work in social justice law, including economic justice, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, access to justice, and other areas of social justice law, with funding from foundations, alumni, and individual donors. She expanded racial justice programming and student support, and she led the faculty in making racial justice coursework a graduation requirement. Dean Setty co-hosted the first Workshop for Asian-American Women in Legal Academia in 2021, attracting over 100 participants to engage in professional development, scholarship support, and community building. Daleep Singh, an Indian-American financial advisor, leads the Biden administration's efforts to impose punitive sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine FREMONT CA: Daleep Singh, an Indian-American economist, leads the Biden administration's efforts to impose punitive sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on Monday declaring the "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics" of Ukraine "independent," escalating regional tensions and raising fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also sent Russian troops into eastern Ukraine for a "peacekeeping" mission in the Moscow-backed regions, according to the Kremlin. The Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs and the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Singh, was in the White House Press Room for the second time within a few days. Given Singh's central role in the administration's Russia policy, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said he is "back by popular demand." Russia's long-awaited invasion of Ukraine has begun, and our response has also begun. Today, the president (Joe Biden) acted quickly and cooperatively with allies and partners. The coordination and speed were unprecedented... It took weeks and months for a decisive response to be mounted, remarked Singh. After overnight consultations with Germany, Singh announced that Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline would not be operational. That is a USD 11 billion investment in a prized Russian-controlled gas pipeline that will now be squandered, he stated, and it sacrifices what would have been a cash cow for Russia's coffers. This decision will relieve Russia's geostrategic chokehold on Europe through its gas supply, and it will mark a major turning point in the world's energy independence from Russia. Moreover, they have demonstrated the effectiveness of our financial sanctions, and make no mistake: this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the pain they can inflict. They have cut off the Russian government, the Russian Central Bank, and Russian Sovereign Wealth Funds from new financing from the US and Europe, working with our allies. The Kremlin can no longer borrow money from the United States or Europe, and its new debt cannot be traded on the US or European financial market. The United States has fully sanctioned a group of Russian elites and their families. These people profited from the Kremlin's corruption, and now they will suffer the consequences, according to Singh. The twenty-five-member Commission co-chaired by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and the U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai will advise President Biden FREMONT, CA: Smita N. Shah, Ajay Bhutoria, Sonal Shah, and Kamal Kalsi were among the Indian-Americans sworn into the White House Advisory Commission on Asian Americans office by VP Kamala Harris earlier this month. President Joe Bidens Executive Order 14031 permitted the founding of the Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The twenty-five-member Commission co-chaired by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and the U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai will advise President Biden on methods that enable public, private, and non-profit organizations to work together to improve equity, justice, and opportunity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities living in the U.S. Smita N. Shah, an engineer, entrepreneur, and civic leader, who is serving as President and CEO of a Chicago-based multi-disciplinary company, is an expert in public and private infrastructure domains such as transportation, aviation, and facilities. Smita Shah currently serves in numerous roles with the Chicago Plan Commission, Delhi Chicago Sister Cities Program, and the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Ajay Bhutoria, a Silicon Valley executive, community leader, speaker, and author, is a passionate supporter of the South-Asian and AAPI communities with regards to small businesses, educational possibilities, immigration problems, and technological improvement. Sonal Shah will be the chief commissioner and has founded and led the Asian-American Foundation and the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation. During the Obama administration, Shah founded the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and led social impact programs at Goldman Sachs and Google. Dr. Kamal Singh Kalsi, an emergency physician from New Jersey, has served in the U.S. Army for two decades and was awarded a Bronze Star medal for taking care of hundreds of combat casualties in Afghanistan. Dr. Kalsi founded the Sikh American Veterans Alliance to encourage diversity and religious freedom. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Two years from now, 14,400 souls will be projected giant-sized onto the dome of Hamer Hall for one minute each across 10 days. Described by conceptual artist and director Robert Walton as a probe were sending into the future, this holographic work, Child of Now, will be scanned from a diverse array of contributors and depict the life cycle of a 101-year-old. Its not just an archive of what people look like and how they move, Walton says. Its an archive of peoples visions, hopes, dreams, and apologies to the future. The Child of Now prototype at the Arts Centre Melbourne. Credit:Gregory Lorenzutti This big dream began in a tiny room in the belly of the Arts Centre, where Walton sat down with First Nations consultant and co-writer Claire G. Coleman, the author of speculative fiction novel Terra Nullius. I tend to think of the world in dystopian terms, Coleman says. She describes herself as a pessimistic optimist: I expect the worst is going to happen, but I always hope that someone will stop it. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size There are plenty of new releases heading to bookshops this month, so theres bound to be something to suit your taste. Two Prime Ministers Literary Award winners have new books out. For Steven Carroll, its the final in his quartet revolving around the life of T.S. Eliot. For poet Omar Sakr, its his first prose fiction work. Non-fiction enthusiasts can relish offerings from Julianne Schultz and Troy Bramston. And there is more crime fiction, debut fiction and poetry than can be mentioned here. The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday. Credit: The Idea of Australia, Julianne Schultz Allen & Unwin, $34.99, March 1 Advertisement The founding editor of Griffith Review investigates the nature, reality and myths of this country. As she puts it early on: I wanted to understand how, for all her material success, and with more natural and institutional advantages than almost any other nation, many feel Australia has lost her moorings, morally and strategically. How we forgot our ambition to show the world what an inclusive, compassionate and human society might achieve. An ambitious, readable and stimulating work. Credit: Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight, Steven Carroll Fourth Estate, $29.99, March 2 Vivienne is the first, tragic wife of T.S. Eliot, who was committed to a London asylum a few years after their marriage ended. Miles Franklin-winning novelist Steven Carrolls final book in his Eliot quartet imagines a different fate for Vivienne and is predicated on her belief that if only she could escape incarceration and prove she could look after herself, things would be very different. Credit: Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny, Troy Bramston Advertisement Viking, $49.99, March 1 Promising a portrait of the real Bob Hawke, journalist Troy Bramston delves into the public and private life of Australias 23rd Prime Minister. Bramston, a biographer of Keating and Menzies, has spoken to friends and foes, family, and political colleagues from here and overseas. Hes also delved into the archives for this all-encompassing, warts-and-all picture of the Silver Bodgie. Credit: The Fish, Lloyd Jones Text, $32.99, March 1 The great thing about New Zealander Lloyd Jones fiction is how different each book is. There was the poetic Book of Fame, an imaginative account of the All Blacks 1905 your of Britain and Europe, the Booker shortlisted Mister Pip, the more recent Hand Me Down World and his previous novel The Cage, which our reviewer called a bold and austerely compassionate book. Now comes The Fish, a story of a family, its tragedies and triumphs. Credit: Advertisement Those Who Perish, Emma Viskic Bonnier Echo, $29.99, March 1 Crime fiction fans will relish the return of Emma Viskics entrancing Caleb Zelic for what is said to be the final in her series about the deaf private investigator. His brother Anton is in dire straights - again - and only Caleb can save him. Viskic has said she was originally reluctant to write a deaf character as dialogue was crucial to the way she worked. But Zelic remains a brilliant creation and her previous three books have delighted readers and award judges alike. Credit: Booth, Karen Joy Fowler Serpents Tail, $32.99, March 8 The author of The Jane Austen Book Club and the wonderful We Are Completely Beside Ourselves returns with a historical novel set in 19th century America. Paterfamilias of the extraordinary Booth family was Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth, whose 10 children included actors, poets, writers and, most notoriously, John Wilkes Booth, killer of President Abraham Lincoln. Advertisement Credit: Son of Sin, Omar Sakr Affirm Press, $29.99, February 22 Teen Jamal Smith is a queer Muslim struggling to find his way past homophobia, racism and the secrets of his family in award-winning poet Omar Sakrs powerful, moving and confronting debut novel. Its fiction of great imagination that is grounded, one suspects, in an element of lived experience but transposed into the sort of work that tells us much about Australia since the 2005 Cronulla riots. Credit: Sadvertisinig, Ennis Cehic Vintage, $32.99, March 1 Advertisement In the late 1970s and early 80s, a ripple of momentum in Geelong was building into wave after wave of action. Bored teenagers were expressing themselves in live bands and Maree Robertson found herself at the heart of this sweaty, raucous and captivating musical maelstrom. Now with teenagers of her own at home, Robertson found time in the past two years to turn a dream of documenting Geelongs world-renowned music scene into reality. Dave Thomas on stage with Bored! and, right, a flyer for a live gig in Geelong featuring the band. Credit:Ron McPherson Bored! This Was Geelong is a 680-page book filled with Robertsons treasure trove of photographs, band flyers, letters, posters, newspaper clippings and first-hand accounts from the bands and fans who lived and breathed the scene. The number of contributions from people sharing their memories was enormous, Robertson writes in the books introduction. This a book thats full of love and focused on a time that was ours. BEIJING, Feb. 28 -- Recently, the Menaka detachment of the 9th batch of Chinese peacekeeping engineering contingent to Mali completed the task of rebuilding the air defense bunker in the Togolese police camp. It is learnt that, some of the old air defense bunkers in the camp were severely damaged and had basically lost the defense functions. In response, the Chinese peacekeepers reconstructed ten air defense bunkers within 70 working days, contributing to the overall security capability of the Togolese police camp. PARIS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Due to the closure of European Union airspace to Russia, French Foreign Affairs Ministry asked on Sunday its nationals to leave immediately Russia. "Due to the increasing restrictions on air traffic between Russia and Europe, it is strongly recommended that non-resident French nationals in Russia make arrangements to leave the country without delay by existing air links," the French ministry said in the latest travelling notice. According to the ministry, most European companies, including Air France, have suspended from this Sunday evening flights in and out of Russia after the European Union has decided to close its airspace to Russia. In a second travelling notice concerning Belarus, the ministry also asked its nationals to leave immediately Belarus though land borders. "The French in Belarus are invited to leave the country without delay by road, via the border crossing points with Lithuania, Poland or Latvia," it said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Sunday that the EU would shut its airspace to Russian airlines in response to Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine since early Thursday. GUARDS AT THE TAJ Lennox Theatre, Parramatta. February 26 We never see it, but it explodes in our imaginations: a glistening white vision unveiled at dawn on the day the play begins. Its 1648, and the Taj Mahal, supposedly the worlds most beautiful edifice, is finally to be revealed after 16 years of secretive construction. Our protagonists two imperial guards cant help but steal an early look. Rajiv Josephs 2015 play winds beauty and suffering around each other, so the former is both the cause of the latter and its only balm. Imagine the black-humoured banter of Waiting for Godot dressing the bloodiest deeds of Greek tragedy, and you are near the mark of this deeply disturbing and yet engrossing play, stunningly realised in a National Theatre of Parramatta production by first-time professional director Bali Padda. Guards at the Taj is both deeply disturbing and totally engrossing. Credit:Noni Carroll Babur (Akkshey Caplash) and Humayun (Idam Sondhi) stand guard outside the Taj on the graveyard shift the only shift they know. Humayuns father may be a senior military figure, but, scorning his son, hes disinclined to promote his cause in the service. As with the Taj, we dont see the father, but he permeates Humayuns perspective and motivations, and therefore the tragedy that unfolds. Josephs story is probably a myth: the emperor Shah Jahan decrees the beauty of the Taj (built as a tomb for his favourite wife) must never be equalled, and therefore the hands of its 20,000 makers must be lopped off. Babur and Humayun, friends since boyhood, are given the grim task, the former chopping and the latter cauterising. Scarred to his soft core by the experience, Babur suggests a form of revenge that staunch Humayun cant abide. Loading He said oil and gas giants were also on notice, saying organisations could not claim to be green while having plans and projects that would undermine 2050 net zero targets and that ignored the major emission cuts that must occur in the next decades. The key risks for Australia Australia is already at the forefront of extinctions likely attributable to climate change, having lost the Bramble Cay Melomys from its Torres Strait Island home due to sea-level rise in 2016 and a white sub-species of the lemuroid ringtail possum from Queensland, which disappeared after heat waves in 2005. Should temperatures rise between 1.5 and 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels the frequency of heatwaves will increase by 85 per cent. Heatwaves will rise fourfold if the planet warms by 3C. Under this scenario some parts of northern Australia would become virtually unlivable by the end if the century, says the report. Deaths caused by heat in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will increase from 142 per year recently to 600 per year over the coming decades if emissions are high, though this could reduce by half on a lower emissions pathway. The disappearance of the Bramble Cay melomys is the first known mammal extinction to be directly linked to climate change. Credit:State of Queensland The frequency and severity of fires will increase, with up to 70 per cent more fire weather days by 2050 in some regions if emissions are not cut, along with the replacement or collapse of alpine ash, snowgum woodland, pencil pine and northern jarrah forests. Not only would Australia experience even more flooding, but it would be hit by the economic shock of supply chains being disrupted internationally by floods overseas. These are among the findings of Working Group II of the UN lead climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has just published its sixth assessment of climate change impacts, the largest study of its kind since 2014, focussing on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Professor Mark Howden, vice chair of the working group and director of Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University, said the report confirms that climate change impacts are continuing to accelerate. While Australian and international governments have stepped up their adaptation efforts, they are not keeping pace with the shifting climate, he said. Commitments made during the Glasgow climate talks put the world on a warming trajectory of between 2 and 3 degrees, though various reports show we have the capacity to reduce that far more, Professor Howden said. Firefighters at the scene of the blaze near Margaret River in Western Australia in December. Credit:DFES The report draws on the work of hundreds of authors and cites over 34,000 published papers, and says that the rise in weather and climate extremes has already led to some irreversible impacts as natural and human systems are pushed beyond their ability to adapt. Increased heatwaves, droughts and floods are already exceeding plants and animals tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species such as trees and corals, said a statement from the IPCC secretariat. These weather extremes are occurring simultaneously, causing complex and cascading impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage and have already exposed millions of people to acute food and water insecurity, it said. Key risks identified for Australia 1. Loss and degradation of coral reefs and associated biodiversity and ecosystem service values in Australia due to ocean warming and marine heatwaves (very high confidence) 2. Loss of alpine biodiversity in Australia due to less snow (high confidence) 3. Transition or collapse of alpine ash, snowgum woodland, pencil pine and northern jarrah forests in southern Australia due to hotter and drier conditions with more fires (high confidence) 4. Loss of kelp forests in southern Australia and southeast New Zealand due to ocean warming, marine heatwaves and overgrazing by climate-driven range extensions of herbivore fish and urchins (high confidence) 5. Loss of natural and human systems in low-lying coastal areas due to sea-level rise (high confidence) 6. Disruption and decline in agricultural production and increased stress in rural communities in south-western, southern and eastern mainland Australia due to hotter and drier conditions (high confidence) 7. Increase in heat-related mortality and morbidity for people and wildlife in Australia due to heatwaves (high confidence) 8. Cascading, compounding and aggregate impacts on cities, settlements, infrastructure, supply-chains and services due to wildfires, floods, droughts, heatwaves, storms and sea-level rise (high confidence) 9. Inability of institutions and governance systems to manage climate risks (high confidence) Loading The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future, said Hans-Otto Portner, Working Group IIs co-chair. Climate Envoy of the Marshall Islands Tina Stege, a leading voice in global climate diplomacy, said the science of the crisis was now even more clear. A spokesman would not say if the state government would seek to add the gulf to the heritage listing or not. Ningaloo Reef is a biodiversity hotspot. Credit:Alex Kydd There are also still private plans in motion to build a deep water port in the gulf and salt projects near mangrove systems on the eastern side of the water body. But Winton said there was a greater long-term threat to Exmouth than industrialisation which also imperilled the world the fossil fuel industry which he said encircled Ningaloo physically and politically. And that, my friends, is the smouldering dumpster fire of business as usual in this country. If we genuinely care about preserving the conditions of life on this planet weve got to put it out and we must do it now. And Im afraid that means that all of us might have to hold a hose, mate, he said. We cant keep averting our gaze and pretending that this isnt happening. Our leaders cant keep appeasing the empire thats still trying to tell us that theres nothing to worry about, that its the solution, not part of the problem. So lets be clear. Theres no greater threat to life on this planet than global heating. Loading Winton singled out gas in particular, which had been sold as a vital part of the energy transition as long as that transition lasts another 50, 80, 100 years. Our democracy has been so bewitched and so thoroughly gas lit that the nation is now terrified at the prospect of leaving what clearly constitutes a toxic relationship, he said. Winton also described a colonisation of the public conscience by the resources sector. Before they can become lifesavers, our kids need to be Woodside nippers first, he said. The branding is ubiquitous. The colonisation is complete and it goes almost entirely unremarked and I find that remarkable. The author said he took it personally and found most disheartening that his own industry was being co-opted by the oil and gas industry. Woodsides Pluto LNG plant near Karratha in WA. With everything that we know about the climate emergency, its still possible in this town without even batting an eye, to present a significant musical event, inspired by the tragic fate of our oceans in the age of global heating and have it proudly funded in part by Woodside, he said. Falling for this old soft power ploy, it doesnt make us bad people. It does make us chumps. All around us every day financial institutions, super funds, shareholder groups and banks are withdrawing their patronage of the fossil fuel industry, because its seen increasingly as a bad bet with looming stranded assets and in their view, it no longer passes the ethics test. So how is it that we in the arts community should show less creativity and moral imagination than bankers? No boycotts were called for by Winton, but the author did say he was disappointed the Perth Festival was still sponsored by Chevron while WAYO and WASO, which was putting on the show Become Ocean that is about climate change, took money from Woodside. I do want us to acknowledge how things still work here. How captive we are. I suspect that to some of the folks who were involved in decisions around that [WAYO and WASO] production ... Im sure, the dissonance just wasnt audible, he said. And that just shows you how normal it is, how safe the fossil giants still feel here in the wild west. Loading For who else in the corporate world, sailing so close to reputation oblivion, could feel that safe and so confident? You reckon a brewery would put itself forward for a show about fetal alcohol syndrome? How about the tobacco industry sponsoring ventilators for lung patients? Responding to the speech, Perth Festival executive director Nathan Bennett said taking sponsorships from a wide range of partners meant it could make arts accessible to as many people as possible. The Festival has always been a platform for many art forms, voices and perspectives to be heard. Artistic freedom of expression is paramount, he said. Become Ocean is a major work involving two orchestras also at the heart of our culture in WA. The Festival is proud to showcase and support local companies in our 2022 program. We receive support from a wide range of partners including corporate sponsors, government supporters and philanthropists that represent the scope of the Western Australian business sector. This support allows us to provide hundreds of thousands of Western Australians with world-class cultural experiences that otherwise would not happen. A Woodside spokeswoman said the company had been a committed supporter of young musicians since 1991 and its support of productions like Become Ocean was helping develop local talent. Our 30-year relationship with the Western Australian Youth Orchestras reached new heights in 2021 with the addition of a new partnership, connecting WAYO with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, she said. Through the partnership, WAYO musicians are provided with unique opportunities to learn from Western Australias professional state orchestra. Woodside committed late last year to developing the Scarborough field off the Pilbara coast and pipe gas 430 kilometres to an expanded Pluto LNG plant at a cost of $US12 billion. Loading Construction of Scarborough and the additional LNG train at Pluto is expected to create 3200 jobs in WA, according to the state government. Another 2000 workers will be needed if the privately owned Perdaman project goes ahead with a nearby urea plant that will use gas from Scarborough. There has been vocal protest against Scarborough and court challenges to its environmental approvals by climate advocacy groups and the International Energy Agency has also declared new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. A Chevron spokesman said Winton was a cherished Australian author and had the right to express his opinions. Loading Chevron prides itself on building meaningful relationships with the communities where we live and work and we welcome open and transparent engagement with all stakeholders regarding our operations, he said. The arts community has experienced particular challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic due to the postponement and cancellation of events. At this difficult time, we are pleased to support Perth Festival, which provides an important opportunity for Australian artists to showcase their talents. Towards the end of his speech, Winton said it was not too late to limit warming. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just updated its assessment of the existing and future impacts of climate change. Brace yourselves because what were about to tell you about how Australia is and will fare is going to be a tough read. The IPCC report is predicting a drastic rise in severe fire weather conditions. A firefighter takes a moment amid raging bushfires in WA last month. Credit:AAP The consequences for Australia include irreversible loss of coral reefs, loss of alpine species, collapse of forests in southern Australia, loss of kelp forests, a drastic rise in severe fire weather conditions, sea-level rise and a dramatic increase in fatal heatwaves. Australia is one of the most vulnerable developed countries in the world. Right now, rainfall and flood records are being obliterated in south-east Queensland and Northern NSW. These communities have hardly had time to recover from past disasters and again theyre facing profound heartbreak and loss. While many mere mortals returned to the office after months of casual Mondays to Fridays working from home, Hollywood stars clocked on at the SAG Awards in their most glamorous attire for the Oscars lead-up event. With real drama unfolding in Ukraine, Lady Gaga, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman understood their roles in providing cinched distractions from the events in Europe. Hair falling in waves below powdered shoulders, clinging hourglass silhouettes and ample servings of decolletages were escapist ammunition as the actresses channelled the World War II style spirit of faded stars Veronica Lake, Carole Lombard and Dorothy Dandridge. The Australian glam trio of Nicole Kidman in Saint Laurent, Naomi Watts in Fendi and Cate Blanchett in Armani Prive. Pure old Hollywood glamour reviving the spirits of Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy and Lauren Bacall. Credit:AP The nostalgic tone was emphasised by a preference for silver age black and white. In a black sequinned Fendi haute couture dress, with extraneous straps replacing traditional fringing, Naomi Watts was a smiling femme fatale on the arm of nominee Billy Cudrup. BFF Nicole Kidman was sartorially sardonic in an austere Saint Laurent gown with a clownish white bow at the collar, nodding to the black humour in her recent portrayal of comedienne Lucille Ball. Completing the austere Australian assault was Cate Blanchett in custom Armani Prive, with hair parted like a young Lauren Bacall ready to learn how to whistle in To Have and Have Not from 1944. In the forties the plunging neckline might have attracted whistles, but onlookers now know better, since the departure of Harvey Weinstein from Hollywood boardrooms and bedrooms. Volodomyr Zelensky is addressing the European parliament, one day after formally signing documents requesting emergency accession to the bloc. Roberta Mesola, the European Parliaments first female President, told MEPs that Europe must apply a whatever it takes approach to helping Ukraine. The Ukrainian President said while he was happy to be addressing the EU Parliament, he did not realise that the privilege, when it came, would be at such a high price - the invasion of his country. I believe that today, were giving lives for values, for rights, to be equal as much as you are, he said, according to an English translation. Zelenensky said that the two Cruze missiles that hit the city of Kharkiv today was the price of freedom for his country. He urged MEPs to show their support by granting Ukraine accession to the EU. Do prove that you will not let us go, and then light will live over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine, he said. His speech was met with thunderous applause and a huge standing ovation. MMEPs held up Ukrainian flags. Many also draped themselves in the blue and yellow flag. After almost two years of uncertainty and volatility, Australian universities and students are looking forward to a fresh start this year. We all know that universities in 2022 will not be exactly the same as universities in 2019. However, this week when most universities across Australia are starting the first week of the semester, we are cautiously optimistic. Australian universities and students are looking forward to a fresh start this year. Credit:Wayne Taylor This pandemic has taken so much but has taught us important lessons like thinking outside the box, accepting that change is the only constant reality, and realising the importance of supporting each other and creating a sense of community. As the new semester has just kicked off, here are some useful advice for university students to help you get the most out of your university experiences, whether you are just starting or returning to campus. 2022 is looking to be the year of reinvigoration and reconnection. So, it is important to remember the lessons we have learnt and be mindful of the things we have missed over the last two years as we move forward into the new normal. Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience Stephanie Cooke said the flooding that Lismore and surrounding areas were experiencing is a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions. The minister announced that there were four aircraft that are very keen to get up in the air and start down-the-wire rescues once conditions eased. The flooding in NSWs north came as Queenslands floods claimed the lives of eight people, after a man and his dog were found dead in a submerged vehicle on the Gold Coast on Monday. Residents try to evacuate the areas around Lismore as the flood begins to rise on Monday morning. Credit:Elise Derwin Meanwhile, a man is feared dead in Lismore after NSW Police officers on Sunday saw him calling for help but quickly lost sight of him, fearing he may have been washed down a drain. Lismore residents were forced to leave their homes after the NSW State Emergency Service ordered all citizens to evacuate before 5am on Monday morning due to extremely dangerous floods. For the safety of YOU and your FAMILY please evacuate the township NOW! the Richmond police district said on its social media pages. Residents woke to the sounds of sirens as Lismores levee was breached after being hit with 406mm of rain between 9am on Sunday and 4am on Monday. Evacuation orders remain in place for several areas across northern NSW, including parts of South Murwillumbah, Kyogle, Mullumbimby and Coraki, with the town of Casino also told to prepare for evacuation. NSW Police also declared Lismore CBD off-limits to all pedestrians and vehicles after being inundated with water. The floods in the region were unprecedented, the weather bureaus senior meteorologist Jackson Browne said, with rainfall on Monday breaking the towns weather records. By noon on Monday, the Wilsons River at Lismore had reached 14.2 metres almost two metres above the previous 1954 record of 12.27 metres, according to Weatherzone forecaster Ben Domensino. Nobody gets left behind: residents and their pets are taken to Lismores evacuation centres. Credit:Elise Derwin Meanwhile, a rain gauge to the north of Lismore recorded the second-highest daily rainfall total on record in NSW. Dunoon, a small village located roughly 20 kilometres north of Lismore, registered 775mm of rain during the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, Weatherzone said, adding that the observation would need to be quality controlled by the Bureau of Meteorology before it could be confirmed. The deluge was the second-highest daily rainfall total ever officially observed in NSW, beaten only by 809.2 mm at Dorrigo in February 1954. The Bureau of Meteorologys Mr Browne said the floods in northern NSW and in south-east Queensland were biblical in nature. Lismore recorded 181mm of rain in 30 minutes to 9.15am alone. Its just a massive amount of water thats just come through, he said. Theres nothing in the record books like it. The silver lining was the fact the weather system creating the floods was set to move off the coast in the coming days, Mr Browne said. We might still have some lingering impact after that, showers and storms but nothing biblical in nature like what weve seen. A tragedy unfolding in front of our eyes Driving in his car after assisting residents out of the water, Cr Krieg described the situation to the Herald as a tragedy unfolding in front of our eyes. Cr Krieg said the towns limited resources meant residents were relying on civilian boats to be rescued from the dangerous conditions and just two SES boats were available. It is unbelievable, he said. You just cant picture what we are seeing here. This is seriously life-threatening. There are hundreds of people trapped. Loading Cr Krieg said has been inundated with calls from residents desperate to be rescued. Emergency calls go unanswered The sheer number of calls being made to the NSW State Emergency Service meant some were going unanswered, he said. On the Lismore SES Facebook page on Monday morning, multiple people said they were trapped and were pleading to be rescued. Loading One person said they were on a rooftop in North Lismore, 3 people and a dog. Cant get thru on phone. We are in the roof ... it has a window onto the roof. Another person posted that a family needed help in South Lismore. Theyre on their roof gable with two little girls and dog. They are running out of roof very fast. Another woman posted that her dad was in chest deep water in his house ... and cant get out of his house. Please Help. Lismore resident Lucy Vader took to her Facebook page in a desperate plea as she waits on her roof for assistance. As the situation continues to worsen in the area, the Northern Rivers NSW State Emergency Service issued a plea for patience when it came to the surge of requests on Monday morning. If you drop out, please try again and if the situation is life-threatening, hang up and dial 000, the local SES wrote on its Facebook page. The situation in Lismore and surrounds is extremely dangerous and rapidly evolving. NSW SES continues to receive requests from residents to assist with evacuations. The water is still rising, my dog is stuck inside the house, she says in a video posted to Facebook. Im on a steep roof thats slimy. Crelleain Robertson, another Lismore resident, also took to social media in a desperate plea for her two neighbours who were trapped inside their home. No roof access and tin roof, and they have stopped responding, she wrote. Anyone with a boat can you please go check. A number of residents with boats were coming to the aid of others who were trapped by flooding. Lismore resident Donna Walker and her family of five evacuated their home at 10.30pm on Sunday, taking only their camping gear as they headed for the Southern Cross University evacuation centre. We lost everything. But all the family is out that is really important, all possessions can be replaced, she said. The centre is housing about 500 people at the moment, along with cats, birds and dogs. The power has been cut off at the centre, so evacuees have been trying to fill the time however they can. Manager of Lismores paint centre, Laura Durheim, said she was in awe of her community after strangers along with the local rugby club turned up in droves to assist the shop to move hundreds of paint buckets out of it on Sunday night. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk compared the floods in her state to ex-cyclone Oswald in 2013 and ex-tropical cyclone Debbie in 2017. Two people are now missing in the floods in Queensland a man who fell in the Brisbane River last week and a man who went missing near Esk, about 114 kilometres from Brisbane. What were seeing is the system pushing south to Logan, the Gold Coast and seeing some tragedies unfolding in NSW, she said.Weve been through a lot together. Weve been through a pandemic of two years and yet another flood. No one has seen this amount of rain in such a short time in our entire south-east catchment zone. The Queensland Premier said the Brisbane River peaked just below four metres on Monday morning at 3.85 metres. The peak in 2011 was 4.46 metres. There were 2200 requests for assistance and 113 water rescues around the Gold Coast, Beenleigh and Brisbane areas. More than 1500 people were in evacuation centres. There are 15,000 houses affected in Brisbane and 3600 in Gympie. Freedom convoy spotted on the Gold Coast. In what seems rather excessive, Clive Palmer summoned three ambulances when he and his wife experienced COVID-like symptoms, notes Joan Brown of Orange. Given an ambulance for each of them, I can only surmise the third one was to transport Clives bruised ego. I would like to ask just two questions of the cleaners with the classic car collection (C8), writes Peter Mohacsi of Bowral. Are the cars company tax-deductible, and could I please have the name of your accountant? While visiting Melbourne last week, Norm Pilbeam of North Rocks says my hosts provided a carton of Coles Australian Lite Milk for my cereal. Browsing the nutritional information I see, in bold type, ALLERGY ADVICE. CONTAINS MILK. I found this reassuring. Imagine if Australia were invaded. We would have to surrender after one day as we would run out of toilet paper, reckons Paul Stubbs of Longueville. Marjie Williamson of Blaxland just read about two alpacas taken to visit elderly residents in a Welsh care home and the joy their visit gave. A visit like this would be an extra stimulus to the usual cat, dog, rabbit visits. As long as they maintained spitting distance. The NSW corruption watchdog has found former Labor MP Ernest Wong engaged in serious corrupt conduct as part of a scheme to circumvent the states donation laws with cash from a Chinese billionaires casino junket account. The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption on Monday announced its finding in a 2019 inquiry into the state Labor Party. The inquiry heard extraordinary claims including one of an Aldi bag containing $100,000 in cash being dropped off at the partys Sussex Street headquarters. Then federal and state Labor leaders Bill Shorten and Luke Foley attend a fundraiser, along with Mr Huang (second from right) and former Labor MP Ernest Wong (second from left). The ICAC report says Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo was the true source of that $100,000, with the cash having been drawn from his junket account at The Star Sydney casino. The report found Mr Huang delivered the cash to the NSW Labor head office in April 2017. The commission is now considering seeking advice from the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions on whether any prosecution should be commenced against Mr Wong, and more than a dozen other people, including Mr Huang. KIEV, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine has mobilized about 100,000 troops amid the conflict with Russia, Valery Zaluzhny, chief commander of the armed forces of Ukraine, said Sunday on Facebook. About half of the mobilized forces belong to the Territorial Defense Forces of the armed forces of Ukraine, Zaluzhny said. Ukraine agreed to hold talks with Russia at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border near the Pripyat River, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday via social media. The agreement to hold the talks was reached during a phone call between Zelensky and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Earlier Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's deterrence forces to be placed on "a special mode of combat duty" in a meeting with top defense officials, accusing Western countries of imposing "illegitimate sanctions" against Russia's economy. Two police officers have told a jury of the moment they arrived to find a motorbike rider unresponsive with his body half in, half out beneath their sergeants car before they dragged him out to perform CPR. The senior constables were responding to a radio broadcast from Sergeant Matthew James Kelly on the NSW Central Coast, in the early hours of April 16, 2020. Matthew James Kelly outside Downing Centre District Court on Monday. Credit:Brook Mitchell They each told the NSW District Court on Monday they could tell from their usually calm supervisors voice that something was wrong as he requested an ambulance attend the scene. Jack Roberts, 28, died when the fully marked Kia Sorento hit the back of his Honda trail bike while in pursuit at Blue Haven. The torrent of white-splaining in response to Cat Thao Nguyens piece (Ping, Pong, Pang: how the opera perpetuates racism, February 26) would seem to confirm her point. It seems that any ability to empathise with her experience is simply beyond some. - Tom McGinness, Randwick Those defending Opera Australia and racism dont realise they are a large part of the problem. - Tony Doyle, Fairy Meadow As a person of Asian heritage I find the term yellowface offensive (Opera under fire for using yellowface, February 26). Asian skin is not yellow, and Im surprised that anyone uses the term. To try to draw a parallel with blackface, where people actually painted their faces black, is absurd. Cultural appropriation may be applicable but theatres all over the world would be impoverished if all cultural references were removed and historical costume design banished. Its true that Puccini, who composed Turandot, didnt go to China, but Shakespeare didnt go to Italy and both had research materials, imagination and genius. - Stephanie Lee, Willoughby Perhaps Opera Australia should add a prologue to Turandot, sung by Liu (the slave girl) and an epilogue sung by the emperor, explaining that the production is making fun of stereotypes, not adopting them. - Martin Bibby, Beecroft I believe that Opera Australia should employ the BBCs take on showing their comedy shows of the 60s and 70s. The surtitles at the beginning should state: This is a classic opera which reflects the operatic standards, language and attitudes of its time, including costumes and make-up. Some members of the audience may find this offensive. Otherwise, we may find ourselves deprived of the many casually racist gems of the past, including Turandot along with operas greatest hit, The Mikado, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice. - Robert Hosking, Paddington I recall the comic presentation of Con the Fruiterer on our TV screens in the late 80s by an Anglo actor blacking his hair, putting on artificial chest hair and speaking with an overemphasised Greek migrant accent. He was one of the most popular characters ever introduced to TV not only loved by Aussies but he was and still is popular among most Greeks. Luckily though, those days of having just Anglos impersonate migrants in such a fashion are long gone. However, we didnt see it as racist. - Con Vaitsas, Ashbury I am sorry Nguyens limited life experiences did not allow her to appreciate the artistic genius of both the designer Kristian Fredrikson and the choreographer Graeme Murphy, a collaboration so brilliantly portrayed in the Pong, Pang, Ping segment. This particular segment has delighted audiences of all races and skin colours for over three decades. I had the privilege of working on the original production. Nguyen also complains that Puccini, the composer, had never been to China. If the writer had had a broader experience of the arts she would know that many theatrical productions are set not only in a different country from the original but also in a different period. Baz Lurhman and Catherine Martins amazing production of Shakespeares Midsummer Nights Dream was indeed an example of this, moved from both the period and the original city (Athens) to the Raj period in India. I doubt that anyone of Indian or British descent felt similarly offended! A broader perspective is needed. Lets all work on inclusion, not seek to find differences. - Diana Bilderbeck-Frost, Manly Vale Your correspondent supports a previous article by stating the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado uses stereotypes to mock the Japanese (Letters, February 28). The only stereotypes mocked in The Mikado are English. The writers of this piece used what was then an extremely exotic setting to lampoon English society, in the same way Jacques Offenbach used ancient myths and legends to mock Parisian society. If only Gilbert and Sullivan too had realised that the 21st century was no place for satire, theyd probably have stuck to mythology as well. - Marie-Louise Dreux, Dulwich Hill I can readily understand why Nguyen and her husband were offended. But then she herself goes completely off the rails with her outrageous comment that people like her who grew up in non-white, low-income families far from the city centre were not welcome in Australias prestigious cultural venues. What poppycock. - Peter Bridgwood, Leichhardt I feel depressed and discouraged that any audience member could find anything offensive in a production whose only crime was to have onstage three buffoons with highly stylised face paint (in the tradition of the commedia dell arte). But that wont stop someone who wishes to make everything about race from making the rest of us feel guilty. I have many Asian female friends and none of them has ever complained about being exoticised. We all need to be culturally aware but not woke to the extent of making everything a catastrophe. That potentially separates all of us. - Liz Polednik, Sydney Worlds we prefer not to see Sean Kelly ponders why traumatic happenings come as a surprise to many people and how quickly they forget what theyve learnt from them (When the unimaginable happens, February 28). No doubt there are numerous answers and reasons, some easy to identify. Those who are suffering under modern-world pressures, including not being able to make ends meet financially, are probably consumed by their problems. When we add the relaxed and comfortable cohort who are normally preoccupied with their own small worlds, it is not difficult to see why they are suddenly disturbed at news such as the Ukraine invasion. Being more aware of the wider world, together with its poverty and persecution, would lead to less surprise and more understanding. - Harry Polley, Dural Sean Kelly has made me consider my misconceptions. When Obama was elected, I was delighted that the US had accepted its past and had moved forward into the real world. Of course all it did was to contribute to the political rise of white supremacists and ultimately the election of Trump. When Biden was elected, I assumed that the US would sigh with relief and settle into a comfortable old jacket and slippers. Again I did not see the persistent virulence of Trumpism. When Julia Gillard was PM, I assumed that the viciousness towards her from Tony Abbott and his sycophants would be restrained or even stopped by other members of his party or public outcry, but again I was wrong. We rewarded him by electing him prime minister. It seems I have reached my level of incompetence in political thinking. - Valerie Craig, Orange Remember the ill Jordan Baker tells us that the number of cases (in schools) is proportionally tiny (Learning our lessons: Vaccination and expert advice reduce COVID-19 chaos on school return, February 28). I suggest that the third of my grandsons class at their inner west year 4 class is more accurately proportionally high. My grandson is quite unwell. I am angry and frustrated by the dismissive attitude to children contracting COVID-19. NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell trumpets success in managing COVID-19 in schools. It doesnt look or feel like success from where my family stands. - Ann Robinson, Annandale E-scooter dangers Sue Williams must live in an alternate world (Dont kill the joy of e-scooter easyriders, February 28). Where the rest of us live, e-scooter riders usually dont wear helmets, go as fast as possible and dangerously weave around pedestrians who can neither hear them approaching from behind nor have any idea which way they may swerve if coming head on. Sue can stop worrying about possible regulation by re-joining the selfless and healthy: walk instead. - Andrew Scott, Pymble What an excellent and thought-provoking article on e-scooters. Ive hardly used mine since a NSW Police social media campaign just before Christmas threatened fines of $704 for riding one in public. This is almost double the fine for running a red light in a motor vehicle. The nanny state definitely needs to get its priorities in order and give some freedom back to its citizens. - Johannes Smit, Banora Point Timely visa intervention Your article about Arifa Hakimi, a young woman from Afghanistan being accepted by Australia, is hopeful and happy (Perilous path to freedom, Sun-Herald, Febraury 27). In the tense hours after Arifa was turned back at Kabul airport, I asked former Labor minister Graham Richardson for help. He rang the Prime Ministers chief of staff, and he had Arifas visa application placed on the desk of Immigration Minister Alex Hawke. It was a decisive intervention at the crucial moment from a political veteran able to reach across the aisle and make a good thing happen. - Bob Carr, Maroubra Green gambit The $8 billion takeover bid for AGL by Mike Cannon Brookes and Brookfield is, in chess parlance, a violent forced move. The reaction of AGL is perfectly described in the Nick Toscanos piece (Investors not happy with coal exit plan, February 28). While pretending that they are still in control, the board and many investors are suddenly alert and fear they may be vulnerable. Chess players know the feeling. On the very same page, Dr Andrew Forrest stresses that leadership is the greatest resource in the green energy revolution (Forrest says war highlights energy independence need, February 28). The leadership of AGL is only a couple of moves from checkmate. - Jim Lavis, New Lambton Cutting-edge post So good to see Rachel Farrelly achieve so much, becoming the first Indigenous female surgeon (Gunu woman will be first Indigenous female surgeon, February 28). No doubt she had to contend with a male bias in the field and persevered with hard work. All Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, should be proud of her achievement. Well done. - Greg Lilly, Kincumber Flooded with evidence Paging the Prime Minister! Extreme temperatures and catastrophic bushfires have continued across the nation (Man is swept away as NSW braces for more rain, February 28). We are enduring relentless rainstorms and devastating floods. The climate has changed, Mr Morrison. Its time to end your love affair with fossil fuels. It may even help you electorally and be more impressive than crowdfunding for flood victims. - Sue Martin, Avalon Beach Bridging the gap At last, a light show on both sides of the bridge (Plans to celebrate Sydney icons big 9-0, February 28). For far too long, its western side has been sadly neglected if not totally ignored and the eastern side has enjoyed all the limelight: witness NYEs fireworks and past Vivid events. Bridge event organisers need to be sternly reminded that the vast areas west of the bridge are actually inhabited. - Edward Loong, Milsons Point Ice-cold in Lahore Mark Taylor reflects on how difficult it was to get a beer in Pakistan in 1998 (I didnt mean to stop at The Dons 334, February 28). In the early 1970s, my now wife and I were in a restaurant in Lahore. When I asked if we could have beer with our meal, the waiter replied, sadly alcohol is not permitted in Pakistan, sir. He then said, however, we do have some excellent tea, and slyly winked. He duly returned with a very nice teapot, filled with tea, along with two matching cups and saucers. The tea was indeed excellent! - Clive Finemore, Narraweena Warning: distressing content. Social worker and Wiradjuri and Noongar woman Lee-Anne Carter is seeing it more and more: Victorian Aboriginal people being arrested when suffering from serious mental distress. Lee-Anne Carter says more support is needed to help Indigenous prisoners. Credit:Chris Hopkins More ambulances called by police, more Aboriginal people spending longer in prison, and more self-harm. We started noticing an increase in people coming into the cells self-harming, indicating theyre really unwell ... we were noticing Ambulance Victoria attending police stations more, Ms Carter said. A lawyer for Terence Kelly, who abducted four-year-old Cleo Smith from a campsite near Carnarvon last year, has indicated her client will enter a guilty plea for assaulting a police officer while in custody. Kelly, 36, appeared in Carnarvon Magistrates Court on Monday by video link to face the charge that he allegedly assaulted the officer in the Carnarvon watchhouse a day after his arrest. Terence Kelly was not home when detectives found Cleo. Credit:Nine His next court appearance for the charge will be on April 1. During a previous appearance in January, Kelly pleaded guilty to child abduction via video link from prison. The Pharmacy Guild of Western Australia has warned that child-sized masks are more difficult to find even for hospitals, potentially complicating new West Australian restrictions. In less than two days Perth children in Years 3 to 6 will be expected to wear masks in a bid to slow down Omicron and the disruption to schools across the state. Masks will be introduced to WA primary schools, for children as young as seven. WA pharmacy guild director Matthew Tweedie said there appeared to be a few private manufacturers of child-sized masks and people were sourcing them from wherever they could find them. Hospital CEOs I spoke to yesterday said they were having problems accessing small face masks, he said. The resilience of Australians is being seriously tested again. This time by flood waters. The black summer bushfires destroyed homes and stole more than 30 lives (hundreds more if you count the cost from smoke inhalation) in 2019 and 2020. With little reprieve, the coronavirus pandemic hit, taking thousands of more lives in NSW and other states. Severe flooding hits Lismore in northern NSW in the worst flood ever recorded. Credit:Elise Derwin This year, La Nina not only robbed us of a long Sydney summer, it led to a deluge of rainfall over Queensland and northern NSW which has taken at least eight lives. These natural disasters along with threats to international security from Russia and China are testing our resilience. While Premier Dominic Perrottet is confident we will get through the current crisis, his government needs to ensure that the state is prepared and services are resourced to endure similar events in the future. The weather system has travelled south from Queensland, where thousands of homes have been destroyed and at least eight people have died. The rain fell in record numbers in northern NSW in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, with 775mm of rain in Dunoon, 537mm in Nimbin, 520mm in Mullumbimby and in Lismore, 467mm. The biggest climate driver of the wet summer has been a La Nina event which has brought above-average rainfall, marine heatwaves and humid nights. While La Nina is beginning to weaken, it is likely conditions will remain wetter than average for a few more weeks. Rescue crews on Monday night were still responding to more than 400 calls from people trapped by rising floodwaters inside the Lismore CBD. A flotilla of State Emergency Services (SES) craft, privately owned fishing boats and jet-skis raked across the submerged city, retrieving people from the tops of houses and commercial buildings, and trying to identify those trapped inside roof cavities. Lismore resident Tim Somerville was out in a tinnie from 5am to help rescue at least 20 people trapped on roofs and he feared there were many he had been unable to reach. This isnt an extreme event, this is worse. Its completely off the scale. You cant make a flood plan for a 15-metre flood, he said. Loading In the 24 hours to Monday afternoon, the SES made more than 500 flood rescues, with 927 requests for assistance. Four emergency aircraft were unable to fly due to the severe conditions on Monday afternoon. Many residents could not wait, including state Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin, who was forced to cling to a tyre while swimming to safety when her friends home was inundated. Ms Saffin left her home on the Wilsons River at the weekend to stay with a friend on higher ground. But around 6.30am on Monday, she said it was clearly no match for the rising flood. We were up on chairs on the table, but we were sitting ducks there. So we went to the verandah, hanging on to the rafters, she said. Eventually it was at the point of no return and we looked at each other and said right, were swimming. There was a whole tyre under a tree and we hung onto it and kept going up the street. Ms Saffin said the damage to the community had been catastrophic, adding she was working with her parliamentary colleagues to get food and medical supplies to evacuation centres. The last record flood along the Wilsons River at Lismore was in 1954, when it peaked at 12.27 metres. Loading Mr Krieg said it was unclear when the waters would stop rising, with water entering the downhill areas of the Lismore Base Hospital precinct, Lismore Shopping Square and St Carthages Cathedral. Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience Stephanie Cooke said about 200 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel were on the ground assisting with sandbagging and other logistical operations, with more members on the way. Ms Cooke said the governments sole priority was saving lives, urging affected communities to be more alert than ever. This is entirely unprecedented for this region these conditions are different to anything you will have experienced before, she said. There is no gilding the lily here. This is a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions for this region. She urged all residents who were subject to an evacuation warning to prepare to leave at very short notice by packing an emergency kit of dry clothes, medication, important documents and phone chargers. SES Commissioner Carlene York is leading the multi-agency response to the crisis, combining resources of the NSW SES, Rural Fire Service, NSW Police and the ADF. Commissioner York said weather conditions on Monday made it difficult to get rescue helicopters into the air and boats into the water, urging people not to use their own boats but to wait for SES volunteers. If my expert flood rescue technicians find the waters dangerous, and we are holding them back so that we dont put their lives in danger, then community members should take heed. Residents rescued by a group of Fijian abattoir workers. Credit:Elise Derwin Senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology Grahame Reader said while the unprecedented rainfall in the states north-east would start to ease, the weather event was moving south. From Wednesday, he said an east coast low would bring severe weather warnings, damaging winds, significant sea swells and flooding through the southern part of NSW probably from the Hunter region down. Loading Asked if forecasters had been prepared for the deluge, Mr Reader said the system had been slower than expected, meaning some of the peak falls were a little higher than expected. Hospital emergency departments in the region will remain open, however non-urgent surgery, coronavirus testing and vaccination services have been suspended. A state Labor MP has waded into the industrial dispute between WA Newspapers and its printing workforce, urging the company to end its employee lock-out and return to the bargaining table. About 102 employees at WA Newspapers Osborne Park print works, where The West Australian, Sunday Times and PerthNow newspapers are printed, have been locked out of the facility since February 4. WA Newspapers printing staff Dale, Jim and Gabriel protesting the company outside one of its major advertisers JB HiFI. Credit:AMWU WA/Facebook The workers have staged several walkouts since negotiations broke down in November and have twice rejected proposed employment agreement changes the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said would slash redundancy packages and take-home pay. In Parliament last Thursday, Cockburn MP David Scaife voiced his support for the employees and the AMWU, which is leading the action. BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- "Your experience is just like your name," President Xi Jinping told Mi Xuemei after hearing her story at an annual session of China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), to which they are both deputies. "Xuemei," Mi's given name, is a literal translation of the two characters for "snow and plum." If Chinese people hear this combination, it immediately conjures up images of plum blossoms, blooming in the snow. The hardy fruit is renowned for flowering amid the bitter winter months. Throughout her life, Mi has been as resilient as her namesake flower. She came from a poor rural family in northwest China. At 22, Mi joined the country's hundreds of millions of migrant workers who leave the countryside behind for jobs in the city. Her destination of choice was Guangdong Province, an industrial hub in south China. Initially employed as a security guard, over 20 years, she worked her way up to department director at an enterprise in the city of Zhongshan. There, she was elected an NPC deputy. Despite her achievements over the years, Mi still remembers where she came from. "I was especially touched by one sentence in particular in your New Year Address -- happiness is achieved through hard work," Mi said to Xi when he joined deputies from Guangdong at the NPC session in 2018. In response, the president quoted a classic Chinese verse, "Fragrant plum blossoms in the bitter cold," to summarise Mi's journey. Mi might be happily settled in Zhongshan with her family, but she still thinks of herself as a migrant worker and prides herself on understanding dreams and struggles of migrant workers. In her role as an NPC deputy, she has dedicated herself to representing the rights and beliefs of this social group of over 200 million people. In particular, Mi raised issues such as better access to education for migrant workers' children. "The issue of education for migrant workers' children, which Mi just brought up, is quite common," Xi told the NPC group deliberation attendees. "While pushing ahead with urbanization construction, we should make every effort to help migrant workers have stable lives -- with their children." He also stressed that rural areas should not be left behind as urbanization gains momentum. Over the years, Xi has been paying very close attention to the well-being of migrant workers. He wrote to them, visited their workplaces and chatted with them when there was an opportunity. "When formulating policies, we should put ourselves in the shoes of migrant workers and focus on issues that need our attention and support the most," Xi once said. China has unveiled its "No. 1 central document" for 2022, outlining essential tasks to comprehensively push forward rural vitalization this year. Dedicating a part to rural migrant workers, the document called for implementing a package of pro-job policies to help migrant workers stabilize employment and integrate into cities. It also urged the creation of more jobs in the fields of home services, delivery, elderly care and nursery. More job training was emphasized, as well as better healthcare and pension coverage for migrant workers. Kyiv, Ukraine: Belarusians have cleared the way for the return of nuclear weaponry on their homeland for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, days after ushering Russian troops into Ukraine for a hostile invasion. The referendum in Belarus at the weekend also gives President Alexander Lukashenko the option of extending his 27-year grip on power by a further 13 years to 2035. In an unsurprising result given how tightly Lukashenko rules the eastern European nation, the Belarus central elections commission said 65.2 per cent of those who voted supported the new constitution. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko votes in the referendum on constitutional amendments. Credit:Belta It means the country will ditch its non-nuclear status, and shed its neutral standing, opening the possibility of stronger military co-operation with Russia, which deployed forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of the invasion that began Thursday. Theres not a shadow of a doubt that in invading Ukraine, Russia has flagrantly violated international law. It seems to be increasingly popular to claim that Russia has also dealt international law a death blow. Putins actions demonstrate the consequences of allowing a thug to get away with earlier violations of the law. The heartbreaking images of Ukrainians trying to defend their lives and their land makes plain the failure of collective security. An armoured vehicle outside Mykolaivka in Donetsk region, the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants, in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. Credit:AP Photo National buildings lit up in the blue and yellow of Ukraines flag readily illustrate the paucity of levers available when a military response is off the table because it is either calculated as likely to lead to World War III, or simply lacks the necessary political will. But it does not signal the death of international law. International law is about much more than the prohibition of the use of force found in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter although it is true that it is international laws keystone. Its also true that exceptions to that prohibition are hotly contested. As Russian forces continue their assault upon Ukraine, the immediate tasks of responding to this crisis naturally take priority. Military and material support to Ukraines armed forces is critical right now, and it is important that Australia is supporting NATO efforts. Diplomatic efforts to build a chorus of global condemnation of Russian aggression, and to isolate Putins regime internationally, must be pursued. Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists take control of the village of Nikolaevka in the Donetsk region on Tuesday. Credit:Getty Images If they could be persuaded or shamed into activity, China and Turkey in particular could complicate Putins strategy. China because of its veto on the UN Security Council. Turkey because of its ability to close the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits to Russian warships transiting to the Black Sea. Humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine and help in managing the likely large number of displaced persons is also front-of-mind. Ukraine has not yet perished, nor has its glory, nor has its freedom, Luck will still smile on us brother-Ukrainians. Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine, and we, too, brothers, well live happily in our land. Well not spare either our souls or bodies to get freedom. Ukrainians and those from many countries have declared Ukraines 1932-33 famine an act of genocide by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Among the most enduring memories within the Ukraine story is the Holodomor, also known as the Terror-Famine, that killed perhaps 5 million Ukrainians from 1932 to 1933. Ukraine and many other countries officially declare it a genocide imposed from Moscow by Joseph Stalin, either as a deliberate effort to crush Ukraines independence movement or as a result of Stalins Soviet industrialisation and collectivisation policies. The story is told and retold within Ukrainian families across the diaspora. Liana Slipotsky, a Prahran woman born in Australia whose life has been embedded in Ukrainian culture to the point she did not speak English when she first went to school, retains a transcript of a story of the Holodomor told to her by her mother, Tania Slipeckyj, who witnessed the horror walking to school as a child. In the ditches along the main road lay starving people with swollen bellies. Those people did not look like humans their skin was taut and swollen as if someone had poured water under the skin, and it was very shiny; also their faces, arms and legs, what we could see of them. Ukrainian troops ride on an APC with a Ukrainian flag in a field with sunflowers in Kryva Luka, eastern Ukraine, on July 5, 2014. Credit:AP They sat slouched in the ditches and many of them died. Lianas mother remembered vividly, too, when the Bolsheviks organised brigades to go house to house, seizing all food stored away for the winter. A neighbour revealed to the brigade where her father had sealed off a woodbox to hide a store of wheat. Together with my sister, we watched as the grain that my father had stored for us to survive the winter, scattered. This tragedy has remained in my memory my entire life, recounted Lianas mother. Liana, who is the Noble Park branch president of the Association of Ukrainians in Victoria, is currently giving away her material possessions and preparing to return to Ukraine to help the freedom effort. She is not planning to take up a gun, but to use a wooden spoon, maybe to make our national dish borscht, a beetroot soup, in an effort to help restore her people. Every Ukrainian is born with this inherent fight in them, this need for freedom and to be allowed to live in peace, she says. Life has no meaning without a free Ukraine. Her friend Teresa Lachowicz, whose own parents were toddlers when they fled with their parents from Stalins horrors in the 1940s, says she had taken leave from her work as a business consultant to do anything possible to rally support for Ukraine. She had been in contact with a friend in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, who had told her the days are hard, but the nights are torture. Her friend had chosen not to flee, but to use her time making Molotov cocktails known as welcome cocktails and camouflage nets. In the city of Lviv, she had been told a popular cafe, the Pravda, had switched from brewing beer to brewing Molotov cocktails. Loading This fight has been going on since the days of Stalin, Teresa says. If Putin thought he was going to rob Ukrainian people of their identity, he has managed to achieve exactly the opposite. This has brought us closer together, all across the world. Ukraines very geographic location, which gives the country its name, has meant from the beginning that it would suffer invasion after invasion. Ukraine, most scholars agree, means borderland. To the west lies Europe; to the east the vast steppes of Russia and beyond, Asia. Armies of the empires, thus, have crisscrossed this borderland as far back in history as you might wish to venture, with all the consequent suffering that accompany armies and the lust of empires. In World War I, Ukrainians found themselves split by the opposing empires of Russia and Austria-Hungary. Villages were destroyed as the two empires clashed, some Ukrainians found themselves fighting for the Austro-Hungarian Empire and others for the Tsar. When the fighting was done, Ukrainians from both sides were accused of collaborating with the other and placed in concentration camps or shot. Towards the end of the world war, Ukrainians found themselves shunted to and fro in the brutal Russian Revolution, which led to Russia wiping out its monarchy and adopting a Bolshevik government. Much of the fighting during the initial civil war occurred in the Ukrainian provinces, where numerous atrocities took place as the various armies swept through. Through all of this, the name Ukraine was attached to the geographic area, but not given internationally recognised national status. Loading After its own civil war, however, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic emerged to become one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union on December 30, 1922. Ukrainian nationalists, however, had to wait until 1991 for the independence that came with the break-up of the Soviet Union. Finally, Ukraine was an independent nation, no longer called the Ukraine, which had always implied it was a province of another nation. In 1991, we exhaled with relief, says Liana Slipotsky. And now, in 2022, we look with incredulity at the injustice of what Putin is trying, and we cannot and will not allow it to happen. Canadas largest television providers are removing Russia Today from their services after one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus ministers said he opposed the state-owned Russian broadcasters presence on the nations airwaves. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as he attends an exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of RT (Russia Today) 24-hour English-language TV news channel in Moscow, Russia in 2015. Credit:AP Rogers Communications, BCE and Telus said late Sunday that RT will no longer be available to their customers. The moves came one day after Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said the government would look at all options for eliminating the Kremlin-controlled channel from the Canadian broadcasting system, amid widespread fury over Russias invasion of Ukraine. A spokesperson for Rogers said RT will be turned off on Monday. A BCE spokesperson said the network is no longer available on Bells channel lineup as of Sunday night. PHILIPSBURG:--- The Committee of Justice of Parliament will meet on February 28, 2022. The Committee meeting, which was adjourned on February 3, 2022, , will be reconvened on Monday at 14.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg. The Minister of Justice will be present. The agenda points are: 1. Update work visit to the Netherlands 2. Developments in our detention system 3. Progress with the Function Book of the Ministry of Justice 4. Update immigration data from the Immigration and Border Protection Services (IS/131/2021-2022 dated October 14, 2021) Due to measures taken to mitigate the coronavirus (COVID-19), the House of Parliament is only allowing persons with an appointment to enter the Parliament building. The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on TV 15, SXM Bulletin (Cable TV 120), via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, and www.pearlfmradio.sx SABA:--- The Saba Business Association (SBA) had a meeting with Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations and Digitization Alexandra van Huffelen during her visit to Saba last week. Many topics were on the agenda and most were addressed during the short 45-minute meeting which was held at the Tourist Bureau in Windwardside. The SBA told the State Secretary and her delegation that it shared the view of the Saba Government for Saba to be resilient, self-sufficient, and sustainable. In this view, the bottlenecks that the SBA addressed are all connected and a solution is imperative to guarantee a sound business environment on our small island, the SBA stated in a press release. The banking situation was addressed as this is first and foremost a thorn in the eye of many businesses and the situation seems to be deteriorating. According to the SBA, it is unacceptable that Saba only has one bank, which is not conducive to doing business. It is hard to send and receive funds, the banking costs are very high, the service is poor and it takes very long to open a bank account, the SBA pointed out. We feel that we are a century behind with the banking services that we have now, said SBA President Alida Heilbron. We are stuck in the 90ies in a competitive, digital world, said SBA Secretary Jarno Knijff. The SBA asked what the follow-up is being given to the Overview of Sabas Banking Situation, a document written last July by Matthijs Malkus who at the time worked for the Public Entity Saba as a policy advisor. Unfortunately, Mrs. van Huffelen was not aware of such a document and was promised that it would be forwarded to her, stated the SBA. This document described the current challenges and included some solutions for both the short and the long term. Since this issue was also a topic at the meeting with the Island Council Members, the SBA is hopeful that finally serious attention will be given to the ongoing deteriorating situation were banking on Saba is concerned. It is certainly hampering doing business on Saba. The issues with the Immigration and Naturalization Department IND and the unit of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor SZW were touched on as the tedious and lengthy processes at these departments not only hamper establishing a business on Saba but certainly have a negative effect on the continuation of existing businesses on Saba. The SBA feels that such organizations should have a more human customer-based approach with less bureaucracy and paperwork involved. There are so many rules and regulations that are keeping us from doing business. We need things to become easier to do business, also to get investors. Its detrimental to our economy and it deters people from coming to Saba to work and to invest, said Heilbron. The SBA addressed the matter of the absence of a specific postal code for Saba. Having a postal code per island in the Dutch Caribbean would help a lot in improving this irregular and tedious service. The postal service should be reliable, consistent, and affordable, the SBA pointed out. Regarding a proper internet service, the SBA made clear that this is not only a service that it just wants to have, but that this is a much-needed service on the island. Other services such as electricity too should be qualitatively good, reliable and certainly affordable. Many steps were made in the area of sustainable energy, but the electricity price is still very high, said Knijff. The SBA further mentioned the high cost of living, the high price and limited liability of the internet, the high airfares, and the high cost of food. The SBA said it looked forward to a follow-up regarding all points brought forward. PHILIPSBURG:--- As a developing country, Sint Maarten must continue to acknowledge the contributions of its local pioneers, past and present, that have laid the foundation on which we stand today. I would like to thank all persons involved from the Ministry of Education Culture Youth and Sport (MECYS) who have presented these important features thus far under the banner, We Story The Collection, said Minister of Education Culture Youth & Sport, the Honorable drs. Rodolphe Samuel. As Black History Month concludes the Ministry of Education Culture Youth and Sport (MECYS) continues its We Story The Collection, focusing on Mrs. Elaine Gumbs-Vlaun, who is an outstanding pioneer in the areas of sport, politics, social work, and civil service while contributing to the community of Sint Maarten. Minister Samuel took some time from his busy schedule to visit Mrs. Gumbs-Vlaun at her home to learn about her outstanding contributions. Specifically in the sport of Volleyball in the 1970s Mrs. Elaine Gumbs-Vlaun contributed as a player on the champions team, the national team, and made world history in volleyball as the first female International Volleyball Referee Candidate after successfully completing the course at the Ohio State University. Mrs. Gumbs-Vlaun played with the Super Six female volleyball team who were consistent champions during that era and with her teams success, she was able to represent Sint Maarten regionally. Whilst in the Netherlands, Mrs. Gumbs-Vlaun played A Division volleyball for two years prior to returning to the island. Mrs. Gumbs-Vlaun also played a pivotal role in keeping volleyball alive on Sint Maarten and advises all persons within the sport to be disciplined and dedicated to their sport. Along with her contribution to the sporting world, Gumbs-Vlaun also pioneered in the political arena on Sint Maarten as the 1st Female Island Council Member. When the SPM appeared on the political scene in 1979 Gumbs-Vlaun made her entry into politics as the partys third candidate. She picked up 141 votes in that Island Council election. However, it would not be until 1983, that Gumbs-Vlaun would be elected to the Island Council, making her the first woman to hold this post in Sint Maarten. She received 507 votes a hearty 35% of the party's total. In 1985 counselor Gumbs-Vlaun's debut in the parliamentary elections earned her 469 votes 28.5% of SPMs 1646 votes. Gumbs-Vlaun participated in the elections of 1991 (211 votes), 1994 (188 votes), and 1995 (287 votes). In 1994, Councillor Gumbs-Vlaun, a member of the SPA since 1990, was appointed to the Executive Council by the second SPA/PDP coalition government. In November 1995, she was put in charge of the Central Committee. - (Book: Know Your Political History) As an outstanding pioneer, Mrs. Gumbs-Vlaun was Sint Maartens first local social worker and she was instrumental in the start-up of the Department of Social Services. With more firsts under her belt, Mrs. Elaine Gumbs Vlaun was also the 1st local to Head the Court of Guardianship and the 1st Sint Maartener to become Assistant Director of Huize St. Josef in Curacao. Huize St. Josef was set up as a home for abused and neglected youth for the islands of the Netherlands Antilles. Additionally, her pioneering work extended to other areas, which led her to become one of the founding members of Safe Haven and the Mental Health Foundation. Along with Elsje Bosch she was instrumental in organizing a geriatric course geared towards persons working in the St. Martins Home for the elderly on Sint Maarten. In conclusion, Minister Samuel stated, Moving forward it is my goal to continue bringing about more awareness and increasing the visibility of the many facets of Sint Maartens rich and diverse heritage with We Story The Collection. As more feature stories are written they will be placed on the website of the Government of Sint Maarten at www.sintmaaten.gov/westory where all persons will have full access. PHILIPSBURG:--- The Nature Foundation St. Maarten with the support of the Ministry of VROMI will be placing sixteen sea turtle nesting information signs on the main nesting beaches: Mullet Bay, Simpson Bay, Guana Bay, Gibbs Bay, and Dawn Beach, over the course of the next few weeks. Last Thursday, the first sign was placed on Mullet Bay Beach with assistance and support from the Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure (VROMI), Egbert Doran. I encourage awareness to the sea turtle nesting, placing these signs will help do so. The nests are very delicate, and there are a variety of precautions that should be taken while visiting beaches that are visited by nesting turtles. I further encourage a commitment to environmental responsibility. Minister Egbert Doran of VROMI said. The sea turtle nesting signs contain important information about nesting on St. Maarten and which actions can cause harm to the survival of eggs and hatchlings. The signs contain information about the protected status of sea turtles on St Maarten and warn for any violations, which are also supported by the Prosecutor Office and Ministry of Justice. We are very worried about the decrease of our sea turtle population and the amount of threats sea turtles face. Therefore, we are very pleased with the possibility of placing these signs along the important sea turtle nesting beaches of Sint Maarten. Education is key and we hope that the signs will contribute to a decrease in beach driving, harassment of sea turtle nests, bonfires, and decline of artificial lightning on beaches. Together we can protect these significant species and ensure their survival to still have nesting sea turtles on our beaches in the future explained Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern, Manager of the Nature Foundation St. Maarten. On Sint Maarten four endangered sea turtle species can be found foraging, three of these species also nest. Green, hawksbill, and Leatherback Sea turtles typically nest on the beaches during the months of April through December each year. Humans are the primary source of many of the threats these animals face which result in only 1 in 1000 hatchlings surviving to adulthood. Despite their endangered status, sea turtles are still being killed for their meat and shells around the world. Habitat destruction has been an increasing problem as the coastlines are being overdeveloped since the 1990s. This results in limited space available for natural beaches, which are necessary for sea turtles to nest. Poaching of eggs, fishery bycatch and trash pollution of the oceans are all also threats sea turtles are facing and causing their populations to become endangered. Besides all these major threats, boat strikes are also a significant cause of a decreasing sea turtle population around St. Maarten. In 2021 four sea turtles died due to boat strikes and another five turtles died in 2020. Sea turtles surface to breathe as they have lungs and breathe air. During this time, the turtles are exposed to boats and especially their propellers, when boats are traveling at high speeds turtles are easily struck. The Foundation urges all boaters to lower their speed in coastal and lagoon areas and to actively look out for sea turtles when driving a boat, at all times! All sea turtles species are locally and internationally protected by the SPAW Protocol, CITES Convention, Bonn Convention, and the Nature Conservation Ordinance St. Maarten Articles 16 and 17. This means it is illegal to kill, wound, capture or pick up sea turtles. It is also illegal to disturb their environment resulting directly or indirectly in a physical threat or damage or to commit other acts which result in disturbance of the animal. It is forbidden to disturb, damage or destroy sea turtle nests, lairs or breeding places. Also, it is forbidden, by the same law, to pick up or to destroy the eggs of any species of sea turtle. In short, it is illegal to disturb or damage the turtles, their eggs or their habitat in any way. The Nature Foundation asks everyone to be mindful of the threats sea turtles face and try to mitigate them, especially on nesting beaches. Never drive on our beaches with any type of vehicle, keep distance from nesting and hatching turtles, minimize your use of single-use plastics and remove all trash, slow down your boat when traveling in the lagoon or coastal areas, request permits for bonfires, and limit beach lighting during nesting season, which is from April until December. If an injured sea turtle or any sea turtle nesting activity on the beach is encountered, please alert the Nature Foundation immediately. PHILIPSBURG:--- Sint Maarten Youth Parliament and IslandGalTing will be hosting the first-ever Mid-Term Parliamentary Debate on Friday 25th March 2022 at 7 pm. The event will be virtual and live-streamed on Youtube. The Mid-Term Parliamentary Debate will feature five members of the Parliament of Sint Maarten, each representing a faction. Our participants are MP Ludmilla Duncan of the National Alliance Faction, MP Rolando Brison of the United People's Party Faction, MP Sarah Wescot-Williams of the United Democrats Faction, MP Melissa Gumbs of the Party for Progress Faction, and MP Chanel Brownbill of the United St. Maarten Party. Citizens should tune in to the parliamentary debate as it is a means to hear the stances of the political parties long before elections are due, as well as a means for the MPs as members of government to answer the questions that have been weighing on the minds of its citizens. President of the Sint Maarten Youth Parliament Jermiah Richardson states. The St.Maarten Youth Parliament is extremely grateful for the opportunity to help host and organize such an event as it allows us to work with MPs and political leaders. We at the St.Maarten Youth Parliament look forward to the debate with great anticipation. "This event allows us to see and understand the position of the elected officials and their plans for the rest of their term. We believe that everyone should tune in. You can also rewatch the stream at a later date." Creative Director for IslandGalTing Kamilah Gumbs states. Members of the panel will answer a set of questions created by the team and answer a few audience questions. Each person will have three minutes to convey their message to the audience. IslandGalTing and the Sint Maarten Youth Parliament ask viewers to follow their social media @islandgalting or @sxm_youthparliament for all updates and rules. The Sint Maarten Youth Parliament also invites you to their Open House on Saturday 19th March 2022 from 11 am to 1 pm at the Rupert I. Maynard Youth Community Center to learn more about the organization and ask questions about the debate! Mid-Term Parliamentary Debate, 25th March 2022 7 pm AST live on IslandGalTing YouTube Channel. BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States abused force and sanctions, violating human rights in other countries, according to the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021, which was released on Monday. The U.S. has always pursued hegemonism, unilateralism and interventionism. The country frequently used force, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties, said the report released by the State Council Information Office. The U.S. war on terror has killed millions of people. Since the 21st century, the United States has launched a series of global foreign military operations in the name of anti-terrorism, resulting in nearly one million deaths. According to the "costs of war" study by Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs of Brown University, the so-called anti-terrorism war launched by the United States in the past 20 years has claimed the lives of more than 929,000 people. The 20-year U.S. military operations in Afghanistan have killed 174,000 people, including more than 30,000 civilians, and injured more than 60,000 people. Noting that the Guantanamo Bay prison has been the scene of repeated torture scandals, the report said the independent panel of experts on human rights appointed by the UN Human Rights Council issued a statement on Jan. 10, 2022, saying that two decades of practicing arbitrary detention without trial accompanied by torture or ill treatment violates international human right laws, and is "a stain on the U.S. Government's commitment to the rule of law." PHILIPSBURG:--- The General Audit Chamber presented the 2021 Annual Report to the Governor and Parliament on February 28th, 2022. By law, this report must be presented prior to July 1st, well ahead of schedule. In the annual report, the Audit Chamber acknowledges that the financial impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic was a dominant factor for both Government as well as the institution. Governments recovery was supported in 2021 by financial support from the Netherlands, which is conditional on implementing reform as stipulated in the Country packages. Improvement of Governments operations is existent, but still, much improvement is needed. The Audit Chamber references in this regard the long-existing backlog in the Governments financial statements which was reduced in 2021, though the financial statements of 2019 and 2020 remain pending. Financial statements of the Government are required to be presented within 9 months after the end of a fiscal year. In terms of its performance, the Audit Chamber produced a total of 12 reports on a variety of topics in 2021. Three of the reports were confidential and as such, not publicly available. Each report is described in the annual report. In addition, the Audit Chamber reports that it worked in 2021 to further enhance internal policies. The annual report provides details regarding the budget realization for the fiscal year 2021 and contains information about the institutions communication performance including several social media KPIs. The report is published in both English and Dutch and is available on the website of the General Audit Chamber (www.arsxm.org) and via links on their social media platforms Facebook and LinkedIn. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE REPORT. Edith (Edi) Marie Smith, daughter of the late Glen Lester and Dorothy Jane Allison, was born in Youngstown, OH on Friday, October 11th, 1963, and she departed this life on Saturday, April 30th, 2022, having attained the age of 59 years. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death b This image grabbed from a screen shows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaking via a video at the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. The ongoing 49th session of the UNHRC has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. (Xinhua) GENEVA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. The decision was made following a roll-call vote of 29 votes in favor, five against and 13 abstentions. At the opening of the session, Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), said via video link that the escalation of "military operations" by Russia in Ukraine was leading to escalating human rights violations. The Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine is continuing its work and UN humanitarian agencies will step up their operations in the country, said the UN chief. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the session that during the period from Thursday morning to Sunday night, her office had recorded 406 civilian casualties, namely 102 deaths and 304 injured. The 49th session of the UNHRC, which kicked off on Monday, will last until April 1. This image grabbed from a screen shows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaking via a video at the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. The ongoing 49th session of the UNHRC has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. (Xinhua) This image grabbed from a screen shows Yevheniia Filipenko, permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Office in Geneva, speaking at the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. The ongoing 49th session of the UNHRC has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. (Xinhua) This image grabbed from a screen shows Federico Villegas, president of UN Human Rights Council, announcing the voting results on an emergency debate at the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. The ongoing 49th session of the UNHRC has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. (Xinhua) This image grabbed from a screen shows Gennady Gatilov, Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, speaking at the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. The ongoing 49th session of the UNHRC has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. (Xinhua) This image grabbed from a screen shows UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet speaking at the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. The ongoing 49th session of the UNHRC has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. (Xinhua) This image grabbed from a screen shows delegates attending the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. The ongoing 49th session of the UNHRC has decided to hold an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine later this week. (Xinhua) The moon is Earth 's closest celestial neighbor, but the two bodies are worlds apart in terms of temperature. The moon's temperature can reach a boiling 250 Fahrenheit (120 Celsius or 400 Kelvin) during lunar daytime at the moon's equator, according to NASA . Lunar daytime is roughly two Earth-weeks long, since the moon takes a little less than one month about 27.3 days to complete one of its days, according to a study published in August 2019 by the Journal of Geophysical Research . Lunar night time is also about two weeks long, during which the moon's temperature plummets to -208 degrees F (-130 C, 140 K) according to NASA. In certain spots near the moon's poles temperatures can drop even further, reaching - 424 F (- 253C or 20 K). The Wide Angle Camera on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured 983 images that make up this mosaic of the moon's north pole. Since these images were taken when the north pole was best illuminated, the shadowy places seen here are likely permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). (Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University) One reason for these dramatic extremes is that the moon has no atmosphere to insulate heat. Its lack of a gaseous blanket also means that craters and major dramatic landmarks do not erode the way they do on Earth, leaving perpetual pockets of darkness near the moon's poles that host the moon's most frigid temperatures. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ( LRO ) provides the best knowledge about the moon's temperature. The mission launched in 2009 and one instrument in particular the Diviner Lunar Radiometer has been crucial to understanding the lunar climate. Knowing the moon's temperature at any given spot has different benefits. For instance, astronomers hoping to better understand its topography can glean a lot about the quantity of rocks present across the moon's different regions by knowing an area's temperature. This is because lunar rocks take longer to heat up and cool down than lunar soil, or regolith, which allows scientists to identify especially-rocky areas, according to NASA. This happens after other factors that influence lunar temperature are factored out of the equation, such as latitude and elevation. Latitude plays an important role because the moon's axis is oriented in such a way that sunlight just grazes over the lunar poles. The lunar topography at the poles is populated by non-eroding craters and crevices that produce permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). The lack of sunlight promotes exceptionally frigid temperatures here. This brings up another big reason why the moon's temperature is interesting to researchers: the ambitious reactivation of crewed moon missions through NASA's Artemis Program . The idea is to return astronauts to the lunar surface and to develop an ongoing presence there. Rather than short visits, current concepts for Artemis missions are leaning more towards models where astronauts would spend more time on the moon than they did during the Apollo program . This would be supported by an outpost on or in-orbit around the moon. For this reason, NASA and other space agencies have been curious about where the resources to supply these longer-duration missions could come from, and one idea is to use lunar ice for fuel or even drinking water. NASA's upcoming Volatiles Investigation Polar Exploration Rover ( VIPER) mission will help the agency assess those possibilities. The Wide Angle Camera (WAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft took this image of the Earth and the moon on May 6, 2010. MESSENGER was 114 million miles (183 million kilometers) from Earth at the time, which is farther than Earth's average distance to the sun. (Image credit: MESSENGER/NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) "PSRs often possess temperatures low enough to cold-trap water ice," according to the Journal of Geophysical Research. Researchers also noted that temperatures are cold enough at the poles that water remains frozen over billions of years. Even at these long time scales the ice goes through very little sublimation, or the process by which water turns from ice into vapor without first melting. There is still a lot left to learn about the lunar environment, and a comprehensive picture of lunar temperature will require more years of research, according to the study's authors. That's because LRO's Diviner instrument "does not continuously sample all local times at all seasons, but rather obtains data from high-resolution orbit tracks that migrate around the poles." That said, LRO has already amassed more than a decade's worth of data that gives researchers a strong start at grasping the peculiarities of the moon's temperature. Additional Resources For the latest news about NASA's LRO mission, visit the space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter page . Also check out the Artemis Program portal on the NASA website for more information about the projects related to the endeavor. Bibliography "Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: Temperature Variation on the Moon." National Aeronautics and Space Administration, May 14 2014. https://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/lithos/LROlitho7temperaturevariation27May2014.pdf The Harvest Moon will be full on Saturday Sept. 10 at 5:59 a.m. Eastern Time (0959 Universal Time), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory two days after making a close approach to Saturn. From New York City, the officially full moon will be visible just before it sets at 6:29 a.m. and rise that evening at 7:45 p.m., according to timeanddate.com . The moon will be in the constellation Pisces. A full moon is when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun. The moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees from the plane of the Earth's orbit, so though the moon is "behind" the Earth, it isn't in the Earth's shadow each time it circles our planet. The occasions when it does fall into the Earths shadow we see a lunar eclipse, but that isnt the case this time (the next lunar eclipse isnt until November 8). Observers in mid-northern latitudes will see the moon higher in the sky compared to the summertime from New York City it will be 40 degrees above the southeastern horizon at exactly midnight . On the night of Sept 10-11. The full moon of August was a full 10 degrees lower. As the year progresses the moon (for Northern Hemisphere observers) appears to get higher in the sky, corresponding to the sun getting lower at local noon. The reverse happens in the Southern Hemisphere. What is the Harvest Moon? The name of the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox , "Harvest Moon," of course reflects that September was the beginning of the harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Europe. Native people in North America had a number of different associations and names for the September lunation and full moon. According to the Ontario Native Literacy project, the Cree peoples called it the Rutting Moon, because elk in September start to rub the velvet off of their antlers ahead of the mating season, while the Ojibwe called it the Falling Leaves Moon. The Cherokee called it the Nut Moon, for when many trees start bearing them. In the Pacific Northwest the Tlingit called the lunation of September the Young Animals Moon, while the Haida called the month "Cedar Bark for Hats and Baskets." In the Southern Hemisphere September is in the spring, with the days getting warmer, it's no surprise that the Maori of New Zealand described the lunar months in August to September as Mahuru: "The Earth has now acquired warmth, as well as vegetation and trees," according to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. For Abrahamic traditions the full moon of September can be important, as for Jewish people it's the one that precedes the High Holy Day of Rosh Hashonah which starts on Sept. 25. Muslims use a lunar calendar, so the full moon is in the middle of the month (in this case, called Safar). One peculiarity of the Islamic calendar is that the months migrate through the year, relative to Gregorian dates, because the lunar month is shorter than the 30-day month used in solar calendars. In China, the full moon of September will mark the mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the mooncake festival (for the eponymous food). It is a three-day public holiday (from Sept. 10-12) when families traditionally gather; the festival celebrates the harvest and light lanterns to wish for future prosperity. The festival is also popular in Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. In this photo by Stuart McNair, the rising Harvest Moon illuminates farmland during sunset on Sept. 15, 2016, north of Toronto, Canada. (Image credit: Stuart McNair) Visible Planets On Sept. 8 the moon makes a close pass to Saturn, with the two in conjunction having the same celestial longitude at 6:31 a.m. Eastern Time . Thats just after sunrise in New York City, which is at 6:29 a.m. The pair becomes visible again after sunset (which is at 7:16 p.m.) The closest approach the two bodies will make is about 3 43, or about seven and a half lunar diameters. By the time they rise (for Eastern Seaboard sky watchers) they will be a bit further apart, as the moon moves approximately one of its own diameters every hour. That said, the moon and Saturn will be in Capricornus, a faint constellation that can get largely washed out by the light of the moon itself, so if you are looking to the southeast on Sept. 8, Saturn will likely be among the first stars you see above and to the right of the moon. On the night of the full moon, Venus will be a morning star, rising in New York at about 5:36 a.m. Eastern Time. That leaves jut under an hour before sunrise (6:31 a.m. on Sept. 10) so the planet will still be quite low about 4.5 degrees above the horizon when the sky starts to get lighter. Mars, meanwhile, rises at 10:58 p.m. in New York on Sept. 10, and is in the constellation Taurus. By about midnight both the planet and the brightest star in Taurus, Aldebaran, will be in the east-northeast with Mars to the left (north) of Aldebaran. Mars gets quite high in the sky 70 degrees by the time the sun comes up on Sept. 11. Jupiter, meanwhile, rises at 7:56 p.m. and is visible throughout the night, appearing to the left of the full moon. The constellations visible in late September are still largely those of summer; early in the evening the Summer Triangle asterism (or star pattern) is still visible near the zenith and Scorpius and Sagittarius will be in the south. As the night of Sept. 10 progresses one will see the summer stars set and the fall stars rise; by midnight Scorpius and Sagittarius have set and the Summer Triangle is above the southwestern horizon. Meanwhile high in the sky to the south is Pegasus, the winged horse, Andromeda and Cetus, the whale. Editor's Note: If you take an amazing photo of the Harvest Moon that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com . Additional resources For more information about the observing the moon, check out "Moongazing: Beginners guide to exploring the Moon" by the Royal Observatory Greenwich and "The Moon: A Beginner's Guide to Lunar Features and Photography" by James Harrop. Algiers, 28 February 2022 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has received a message of congratulations from his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), in which he reiterated Algerias continued support to the Sahrawi cause. I am pleased, on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the celebration of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), to extend to you and to the Command of the Polisario Front my warmest congratulations, President Tebboune wrote in his message. The foundation of SADR on 27 February 1976 was an important stage in the path of the struggle of the valiant Sahrawi people, in search of recovering their legitimate national rights. The Sahrawi people were able to snatch broad support at the international level by insisting on the struggle for self-determination and recovery of their sovereignty. I would like, on this happy event, to reiterate Algerias full solidarity with your cause as well as its unfailing support to the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence, while reaffirming our willingness to work together to further strengthen the fraternal relations and cooperation between our two brotherly countries, he added. 062 Shahid Al Hafed, 28 February 2022 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, received Sunday the credentials of the Ambassador of Angola to the Sahrawi Republic, Toko Diakenda Serao. During an audience granted to him, Mr. Toko Diakenda Serao, as the first Ambassador of Angola to the Sahrawi Republic, conveyed to the President of the Republic the greetings of the Angolan President and his wishes to him and the Sahrawi people further prosperity and progress. Relations, fields of cooperation and ways to enhance them between the Sahrawi Republic and Angola were also discussed. The Angolan ambassador had presented, Saturday, a copy of his credentials as the first ambassador of his country to the Sahrawi Republic to the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Salek Saghiar. 062 MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Russian air forces have gained air supremacy over the entire territory of Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry was quoted by local media as saying on Monday. The news has yet to be confirmed from the Ukrainian side. Norway says its massive sovereign wealth fund the world's largest will dump its Russian investments after Russia invaded Ukraine. "We have decided to freeze the fund's investments and have begun a process of selling out" of Russia, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre told a news conference Sunday, per Reuters. The Norges Bank Investment Management is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, according to the data provider Global SWF. At the end of 2021, it held a portfolio of more than 9,000 stocks worth $1.3 trillion, including 47 Russian companies and government bonds, Reuters reported, citing the Norwegian government. The NBIM had 27 billion Norwegian crowns, or about $3 billion, invested in Russian equities at the end of 2021 equivalent to 0.2% of the fund, it told Insider. Related: Bitcoin Plummets Below $40,000 as Tensions Between Russia, Ukraine Escalate "Russia's attack on Ukraine has challenged Europe's security in a way we have not seen since the Second World War," Stre said in a Sunday statement expressing support for Ukraine. "It challenges our norms, our values, and the principles that our democratic society is based on," Stre added, according to a Financial Times translation. The NBIM said it would freeze the fund's investment in Russia, halting any purchase or sale of assets. "Together with the Ministry of Finance, we will prepare a plan to divest from the Russian market," the sovereign wealth fund told Insider. Western countries and companies are intensifying their economic isolation of Russia, including the removal of selected banks from the international SWIFT banking system. The British oil giant BP has said it's dumping its 20% stake in the Russian state-backed oil giant Rosneft. BP's chair, Helge Lund, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the "fundamental change" that put an end to the two energy giants' 30-year business partnership, according to a statement. Norway's decision came just days after the sovereign wealth fund's chief executive, Nicolai Tangen, talked about the difficulties of selling its Russian holdings, the media outlet Borsen reported. The Russian stock market has plunged, with the MOEX Russia Index down 35% this year. "This is obviously a dilemma, but selling out of a market is not black or white," Tangen told the Danish media outlet, per a Financial Times translation. "The Moscow stock exchange has fallen markedly in recent days, and if we sell our stocks now, Russian oligarchs would be able to buy these on the cheap." NBIM's most valuable stake in an individual Russian company at the end of 2020 was in the state-owned Sberbank, followed by the energy companies Gazprom and Lukoil, according to Reuters, citing Refinitiv Eikon data. Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEW HAVEN - Gov. Ned Lamont and lawmakers stood in solidarity with Ukraine Sunday, gathering with an impassioned group of parishioners at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church as they called for boycotting Russian products, imposing tough economic sanctions and increasing the supply of weapons from the United States. To those gathered Sunday, Lamont stressed boycotting oil from Russia and all other products and imports not just vodka. When you see evil, you confront it, Lamont said with the fervor of one at a Sunday pulpit. He said when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, happened, We were all American, and now, in this situation, Were all Ukrainian. We stand up for Ukraine, we stand up for freedom, we stand up for human rights, Lamont said. I guarantee you this is going to be a victory. It was unclear Sunday if the state had taken any formal steps to stop the importing of Russian products. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, who attended the prayer service, said she looked up at one point and there was a stained glass window depicting St. Michael Archangel in a battle with Lucifer. Thats what were in a battle with Lucifer, she said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lucifer is a Biblical reference to the devil. The world is going to fight for Ukraine. The message that came across strongest Sunday morning is that New Haven, Connecticut and the world are in solidarity with Ukraine, a peaceful, sovereign nation invaded days ago without provocation by Russian troops on Putins orders. On a day like this were all Ukrainian, said Myron Melnyk, church member, activist and member of Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. Without the American leadership of today, Ukraine would be in much worse shape. I want to thank the president and Congress for the sanctions. He said the sanctions have been increased in recent days. At St. Michaels after the service, parishioners, some draped in the yellow and blue Ukrainian flag, displayed signs that read: Stop Putin, Putin is a criminal, Peace and Freedom, and Stand with Ukraine. One sign showed a close up photograph of Putins face with a bloody handprint and read, Bloody Killer. Many parishioners wore buttons of yellow with blue lettering that read: Im proud to be Ukrainian. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a longtime friend to the church and advocate for freedom of Ukraine, has been trying to fight Putins aggressive moves there for at least eight years. Blumenthal called this a hybrid war that includes fighting and cyberattacks. He said Putin has succeeded in turning the world against him, and now theyre cracking down on his wealth with strong sanctions. Hes a KGB thug. He understands only force - economic and military. Blumenthal called for even stronger sanctions and the boycott of Russian goods and imports to make Russia a pariah in the world economy. He has no moral high ground, which is why hes put his nuclear operations on high alert, Blumenthal said. Blumenthal said he visited Ukraine about six weeks ago and the people met there are now probably cowering in the basements of their homes. He said Putin has underestimated the Ukrainian people, failing to recognize how resolute they are. What we need to do is move forward, Blumenthal said, calling Putin a criminal who should be held accountable. Everyone should know your solidarity is making a difference. The Sunday gathering of lawmakers came togehter after DeLauro called to say she wanted to come and pray with parishioners, Melnyk said. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, who attended a prayer service at St. Michaels during the week, joined DeLauro in the sanctuary for prayer on Sunday. Elicker said he only understood one word of a prayer service Sunday morning, but it didnt matter because he understood the feeling of sorrow. Elicker said when a dictator seeking power takes one step, that step will be followed by another and another. He said we need to combat that together as a nation. He said the Ukrainian flag will soon be raised on the New Haven Green to underscore support. Elicker said the nation needs to show our willingness to come together because if we dont sacrifice now that dictator will take another step. DeLauro, chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, said shes pressed for the weapons Ukraine will need. She has also stressed economic sanctions. We must cripple the Russian economy, she said. She added: The world is going to fight for Ukraine. Oleksii Antoniuk, a Yale University student whose family is still in Ukraine, said Its incredible, the international solidarity is so strong, Antoniuk said. Parishioner Christine Gawron said the attack on Ukraine is devastating she has the highest respect for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's handling of the situation. God Bless him. Hes truly rallying every body in the entire country and world, Gawron said. Her sister, Marybeth Gawron, called the sanctions imposed on Russia as weak, useless. But, she said, Its very heartwarming to see so much support from non-Ukrainian Americans. Parishioner Barbara Ellis said shes enthusiastic about how the world has come together for Ukraine. Thats so heartwarming, Ellis said. She said even countries who dont like us, are taking strangers from Ukraine into there homes. Who does that? Ellis said. Parishioners referred to Putin as evil and a madman. Barbara Schwartz, a member of the church for 87 years, said she has no relatives left in Ukraine, but, I pray for the people who are there. I just feel so heartbroken for those people, Schwartz said. Its so sad to see millions and millions of people trying to run out of the country. Here, all we can do is pray. A series of crashes on state highways and local roads killed eight people within two days over the weekend. According to investigators, the first two crashes involved drivers heading the wrong way on major highways less than an hour apart during the overnight hours early Saturday morning. The issue of wrong-way drivers is one that is not unique to our state, Connecticut State Police said in a statement. It is a battle that is faced nationwide, and unfortunately, is not something new. When calls are received reporting wrong way drivers, State Police respond swiftly as we fully recognize the imminent danger involved. State police said factors influencing wrong-way driving tend to involve those experiencing mental health issues, those who are driving while impaired and inclement weather. Officials have not said whether the third weekend crash involved a wrong-way driver. Here is what we know about each of the accidents: I-91 northbound in Meriden State troopers were called to Interstate-91 northbound in Meriden around 2:26 a.m. Saturday on reports of a crash. When they arrived, they found the Toyota Camry driven by Charde Monet Spates, 21, of New Haven, was heading southbound in the left-most of the northbound lanes when it collided with BMW X5 that was heading the correct direction on the highway between exits 17 and 18, a state police report showed. Spates was killed in the crash. The driver of the BMW X5, identified as 50-year-old Judith Melvin-Levy of Windsor, was also killed in the crash, state police said. A passenger in the BMW suffered suspected minor injures, according to state police. State police are asking any witnesses to the crash to contact Trooper David Pelletier, of Troop I, at 203-393-4200 or david.pelletier2@ct.gov. I-84 eastbound in Hartford Troopers were dispatched to Interstate-84 eastbound in Hartford around 2:46 a.m. Saturday for a wrong-way driver crash. Troopers found that a Chevrolet Equinox traveling westbound in the left of four eastbound lanes crashed into a tractor-trailer truck that was heading eastbound in the left-most lane, according to a state police report. All four people in the Chevrolet Equinox were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, state police said. The driver of the tractor-trailer truck was taken to Hartford Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, according to state police. On Monday, state police identified two of the individuals in the Equinox as Natachia Izekia Rivera-Hall, 40, of Bedford Street in Hartford, and April Slade, 40, of Seyms Street in Hartford. State police said Monday they were still working to identify the other two people in the vehicle. State police are asking anyone with information to contact Trooper John Wilson of Troop H at 860-534-1098 or john.wilson@ct.gov. East Cedar Street in Newington Newington police were called to a crash on East Cedar Street near Route 175 around 9:30 a.m. Sunday for a reported crash. Police said two people were killed in the multi-vehicle crash. On Monday, they identified the two people killed in the crash as Mark Steiner, 61, of East Hampton, and Alexis Soto, 29, of Wethersfield. The Midstate Accident Reconstruction Team, a regional group of police officers, were investigating the accident. STAMFORD Superintendent Tamu Lucero announced last week that the school district would consider allowing students and staff to go mask-less inside school buildings as early as this Wednesday, and on Monday, she said that would also apply to masks on school buses. The Stamford Board of Education is expected to weigh in on whether or not masks should be optional inside city schools and buses at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday night. In her weekly letter to the community, posted last Friday, Lucero wrote that the bus policy will remain in place due to federal regulations that dictate mask wearing on public modes of transportation. But on Monday, in an email to staff and families, Lucero wrote that the mandate would also be lifted for buses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently updated its guidance, no longer calling for masks on school buses. State officials acknowledged this latest development on Friday. With this framework in mind, CDC experts are working now to update guidance for K-12 schools, early childhood education facilities, and institutes of higher education, DPH said in a statement. The states mask mandate for schools was lifted Monday due to decreasing numbers of COVID-19 cases across the state. That means local school boards now have the authority to decide if they want to continue the mandate or not. Many school districts opted to shift to optional masking starting Monday. Initially, Stamford Director of Health Jody Bishop-Pullan had proposed March 15 as the end of the mask mandate. A number of factors including the decreased spread of the COVID-19 virus, and lower hospitalization and death rates have led city school officials to consider eliminating the mandate sooner. However, the school district and city Department of Health will recommend that staff and students continue to wear masks. Tuesdays Stamford Board of Education meeting, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., includes two agenda items: an update from local health officials and a potential vote on repealing the school districts mask mandate policy. In the past, some members have expressed hesitancy toward supporting the repeal, arguing that they would prefer the policy remain on the books, in the event Lucero or a future superintendent would want to quickly restore the policy. In recent weeks, the mask debate has heated up in Stamford. Parents and students protested the mandate outside Stamford Government Center, while Board of Education members seemed open to ending the practice. Many of the parents at the protest said children are less likely to become severely ill if they contract COVID-19, and said students are suffering emotionally by the mask requirement during the school day. Includes prior reporting by staff writer Nicholas Rondinone. ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com Milton, PA (17847) Today Rain showers this evening with clearing overnight. Low 48F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Rain showers this evening with clearing overnight. Low 48F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government never rethinks its response measures and still lacks effective anti-epidemic plans, according to China's latest report on U.S. human rights violations in 2021. China's State Council Information Office on Monday issued the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. Despite having the world's most advanced medical equipment and technology, the United States has the biggest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths globally, it said. The report noted that the U.S. government stoked the tracing of the origins of COVID-19, and has been keen on passing the buck, shifting the blame, and political manipulation. The United States has disregarded its people's rights to life and health, said the report. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the epidemic prevention and control in the United States has become a tool and a bargaining chip for Republicans and Democrats to attack, reject and confront each other, it added. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, by late February 2022, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States had exceeded 78 million and the death toll surpassed 940,000. Its number of COVID-19 deaths recorded in 2021 has far surpassed the total for 2020. Meanwhile, the mental health of U.S. people has deteriorated due to the uncontrolled outbreak. The country has logged a staggering number of the homeless and the elderly' rights to life have been flagrantly violated, the report noted. Automation has become more common in Northeast Pennsylvania and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of these technologies. Area residents see more self-checkouts. They can order food from kiosks. Customers dining at Dennys restaurants in Wilkes-Barre and Dickson City are now greeted by robot servers that bring their pancakes, bacon and eggs. Many technologies perform tasks that humans used to do. A new study from Commodity.com looks at the transition to automated work in the U.S. and it found that 46.8% of workers in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton metro area are at high risk of becoming automated. Of all midsize U.S. metropolitan areas, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton area has the 11th highest percentage of workers at high risk of having their jobs become automated. While some jobs and tasks, especially those that require creativity and interpersonal skills, are not conducive to automation, many others are. Throughout Northeast Pennsylvania, the use of robotics and automation has been on the rise in the manufacturing industry. Inside Cardinal Glass in the Crestwood Industrial Park in Wright Twp., automated equipment brings a sheet of glass from a rack to a cutting machine. Two robots sand glass edges while another robot packs glass. It takes the physical work out of what employees would be doing and it reduces the risk of them being cut by glass, said David Bunce, plant manager at Cardinal Glass, who recently led a tour of the facility that manufactures glass for windows and doors. Cardinal Glass, which has 45 locations throughout the U.S., makes and customizes its own robotics systems, Bunce said. He said using robotics makes the business more efficient but they still need people to monitor machines. If someone calls off work, however, he said its easy to operate with robotics. Cardinal Glass employs about 200 people in Mountain Top and using robotics frees them up to work on other tasks, Bunce said. The manufacturer is trying to hire about 15 additional workers, he said. Bunce expects Cardinal Glass will add more robots in the future because he said they help increase both safety and quality. In Duryea, international specialty glass manufacturer Schott is adding semi-automated equipment to its plant. Rob Gomeau, site manager at the Schott North America Advanced Optics facility in Duryea, said the Mainz, Germany-based company will invest $1.5 million this year for an improved layout design in Duryea to increase efficiency. The investment involves replacing aging, outdated equipment with faster equipment that is being custom-made by a manufacturer in Germany. While the new equipment will be semi-automated, Gomeau said its not Schott officials plan to replace jobs but they want to maintain the workforce and hire additional employees this year. The hope is we become much more competitive, Gomeau said. There will be reduced costs and a much faster process but we will still need humans. About 140 skilled employees now work in high-paying jobs at the Duryea facility, he said. The plant is home to Schotts U.S. Innovation and Technology Hub which brings to life world-changing solutions for the defense, aerospace and medical markets as well as basic research. John Augustine, president and CEO of regional economic development marketing agency Penns Northeast, said there is no question the pandemic accelerated the push towards automation throughout all industries. We see it daily in fast food restaurants, self-checkouts in stores and robots in manufacturing facilities and distribution centers, he said. While this trend is no surprise, it is moving quicker than expected. Augustine said the trend comes after the COVID-19 pandemic completely disrupted the global supply chain and the workforce as we know it. Difficulty getting workers happened for a few reasons but mainly because employees were getting paid more money to stay home, he said. If there are no new stimulus programs offered, February and March will be the first time in two years that we will have an accurate job report. Augustine said the reason that businesses have accelerated automation is simple: Robots dont get sick and robots dont call off work. Many positions in warehouses, distribution centers and other industries that are repetitive are at risk of being automated, he said. When implemented correctly, he said robotics, automation and machine learning will increase a companys bottom line. While I expect the trend of automation to continue, I do not expect that it will replace people completely but it will free them from performing mundane and repetitive tasks, he said. Augustine said he also believes that the days of employing more than 1,000 people in a warehouse or distribution center is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Automation will force workers to reinvent themselves, to upgrade their skills and qualifications and open new opportunities with the goal that they will earn more, he said. 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 of construction 2022, February Published: 28 February 2022 Preliminary data: Turnover of construction enterprises grew in January According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, the working day adjusted turnover of construction enterprises grew by 9.5 per cent in January 2022 compared with January 2021. Annual change in working day adjusted turnover of construction, % (TOL 2008) Turnover increased compared with the previous month According to the preliminary data, seasonally adjusted turnover in construction increased by 0.9 percent in January 2022 from December 2021. In December, seasonally adjusted turnover decreased by 0.6 per cent and in November increased by 1.8 per cent from one month ago. Change in seasonally adjusted turnover of construction from the previous month, % (TOL 2008) The calculation of indices of turnover of construction is based on the Tax Administrations data on self-assessed taxes, which are supplemented with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The monthly turnover of construction enterprises can have even large variations due to invoicing practices. The final invoice for major projects may be recorded in the sales of one month, even if the project 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 four weeks. The data may become significantly revised particularly in coming months. Source: Index of turnover of construction, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Toni Kellinsalmi 029 551 3801, Lauri Pullinen 029 551 3043, rakennus.suhdanne@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja Publication in pdf-format (239.3 kB) Updated 28.2.2022 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Index of turnover of construction [e-publication]. ISSN=1798-5935. January 2022. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 4.5.2022]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/rlv/2022/01/rlv_2022_01_2022-02-28_tie_001_en.html Most Romanians say that in the event of an attack on another NATO member state, Romania should participate in the defense thereof, an INSCOP poll found. The poll revealed that 70 percent of Romanians agree with their country's involvement in defending another North Atlantic Alliance state if the latter were attacked, on ground that "according to the NATO treaty, an armed attack against one or several of the Alliance's European or North American members shall be considered an attack on all members." Conversely, 25 percent of the respondents believe that Romania should not get involved, and 5 percent of the total respondents do not know or did not want to answer. Asked if they agree or disagree with Romanian troops being deployed to NATO ally countries to help deter Russia's recent threats, 60 percent of the polled were in favor of such a move, 36 percent said they are against and 3.9 percent do not know or refrained from answering. According to a comparative survey conducted by The Bullfinch Group in the U.S., most Americans support sending U.S. troops to Romania and Poland to help deter Russia's threats, with 57 percent of the respondents agreeing with this, while 27 percent are against and 16 percent are undecided. Considering that "according to the NATO treaty, an armed attack against one or several of the Alliance's European or North American members shall be considered an attack on all its members", 57 percent of the respondents believe that as a NATO member state, the U.S. should get involved in the defense of another NATO member, should the latter be attacked, 15 percent believe that the U.S. should not step in, and 28 percent of the total sample are undecided, Agerpres.ro informs. The U.S. national opinion poll was conducted by The Bullfinch Group in partnership with INSCOP Research as part of a research project supported by the Strategic Thinking Group think tank over February 19-23 through telephone interviews on 1,044 registered voters. The Romanian national opinion poll was conducted over February 21-25 by INSCOP Research in partnership with Verifield, as part of a research project supported by the Strategic Thinking Group. The data was collected by computer-assisted phone interview on a multi-tier sample of 1,050 respondents representative for the significant social and demographic categories of Romania's non-institutionalized population aged 18 and over. Aircraft construction, repair and upgrading company Aerostar posted a 2021 net profit of 59.94 million RON, by 56 percent higher than the year before, show the preliminary financial results sent on Monday to the Bucharest Stock Exchange. ( 1 EUR=4.9480 RON) The company's 376.434 million RON turnover was 27.6 percent higher than in 2020, and export sales amounted to 242.823 million RON, Agerpres.ro informs. The Bacau-based company, which also specializes in the manufacturing and integration of air and ground systems with civil or defense and security applications, has a strong industrial base, modern production facilities spanning over 45 hectares, and employs over 1,850 people. It has been traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since 1998 and is 100 percent privately owned since 2000. The National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) has issued fines worth 1.4 million RON to economic operators that own Lukoil and Gazprom gas stations, as well as the Berezka store chain, following controls done on Monday. "The horrible situation that mankind is going through at the moment, makes us all contribute to any form of stabilizing peace. In the few days since the conflict launched in neighboring country, we elaborated a plan, in order to conduct control actions for economic operators that have even the slighest connection with what we are living now. Starting today, we are analyzing the activity of Gazprom, Lukoil and shops that market products imported from Russia. We will conclude the action when each point of work will be placed in order and will be sanctioned where the situation demands it. We have already noticed that we are also leading a war regarding the misconduct from legal norms as well as common sense," the chairman of ANPC, Horia Constantinescu, declared, according to a press release sent to AGERPRES. the ANPC commissioners have also identified irregularities in all 8 regions of the country, and until this time there have been 104 fines applied, with a total value of 1.4 million RON, to which the following complementary measures were applied: definitive halt of marketing of some products with a total value of 58,000 RON, temporarily stopping marketing of products worth 128,000 RON, temporary halting of services rendered, for a number of 35 work points, proposal for stopping unfair commercial practice, proposal of closing a unit to up to 6 months, for 5 units, Agerpres.ro informs. According to ANPC, the most important deficiencies identified by control teams were marketing some products outside the minimal durability date, deficiencies of product tags or aisles, regarding elements of identification-characterization of merchandise or at the date of minimal durability or the unitary price, ice machines and ice cream machines with visible ice cluttering, as a result of shutting down, with traces of leaked and frozen products. Furthermore, the windows of ice coolers were dirty and unhygienic, full of dust, dirt and dead insects, fuel pumps with visible fuel stains both in the island area, as well as in the pavement in the supplying area, tanks exposed to marketing which were rusty at the base, with chipped paint. His Eminence Archbishop Juraj de Michalovce and Kosice (Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia) celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Romanian Monastery in Bivongi, Calabria, Italy, on Sunday. His Grace Assistant Bishop Atanasie of Bogdania (Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy) was concelebrant for the Divine Liturgy. Last Sunday was an anticipatory celebration of the monasterys patronal feast. The founder and spiritual protector of the monastic settlement is St. John the Harvester of Calabria, commemorated on February 23, according to basilica.ro. It is a great spiritual joy to celebrate today, in advance, St. John the Harvester, referring not only to the 14th patronal feast since this wonderful monastery is under the auspices of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy but to the over 1000 years of Orthodox tradition in the Stilaro Valley, a monastic complex of Byzantine tradition, which has its roots in the authentic Athonite monastic life, Assistant Bishop Atanasie of Bogdania said February 21. The Archbishop of Michalovce and Kosice expressed his appreciation for the entire activity carried out by the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy and, especially, for the monastic life on the Stilaro Valley. His Eminence Archbishop Juraj thanked the Patriarch of Romania and Bishop Siluan of Italy for offering the blessing to serve at the monastery on this occasion. At the end, Assistant Bishop Atanasie of Bogdania offered a prayer for the newly appointed Dean of the Missionary Deanery of Calabria, Fr Ivan Dobrotchi, parish priest at Catanzaro-Crotone. Bivongi Monastery was part of an ancient Byzantine monastic complex in Calabria, Italy, and was founded by St. John the Harvester in the 10th century. Abandoned in 1622 following numerous pirate attacks, the monastery was re-established 25 years ago by Athonite monks. Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), speaks in a video speech in south China's Hong Kong, Feb. 28, 2022. Lam said that Hong Kong will undoubtedly win the battle against the epidemic and resume normal under the staunch support from the country. (Information Services Department of the Government of the HKSAR/Handout via Xinhua) HONG KONG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The construction of a community isolation facility (CIF) located in Tsing Yi, Hong Kong, was completed on Monday with the support of the Chinese mainland in one week's time. Commenced on Feb. 22, the construction of the CIF is the first one to be completed since the fifth wave of the epidemic, able to accommodate over 3,900 patients after being put into use. The CIF is a combination of modular cubicles, with basic furniture and bedding, air conditioner, smoke detector and fire extinguisher included in each room. "The construction team has created a miracle for Hong Kong within seven days," said Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), during her visit to the CIF on Monday afternoon. "The construction of the CIF is a test to our team in terms of resource deployment and rapid construction capability," said Zhang Ming, assistant president of China State Construction International Holdings Ltd., the construction contractor that is building the temporary facilities. Zhang said that they have mobilized all possible resources to Hong Kong for the construction project, including sending 150 engineers and various construction supplies from the Chinese mainland. Zhang pledged that the team will pay full effort in the construction of the remaining seven community isolation facilities in Hong Kong under the support of the central authorities. Lam, the HKSAR chief executive, said in a video speech earlier on Monday that Hong Kong will undoubtedly win the battle against the epidemic and resume normal under the staunch support from the country. According to Lam, the HKSAR government will step up existing anti-epidemic efforts and are currently refining the details of the compulsory universal testing to be launched within March, in order to cut COVID-19 virus transmission chains in a thorough, speedy, orderly and effective manner. The central government has also assigned a mainland construction team to build a hospital for contingency use in the Lok Ma Chau Loop area to enhance Hong Kong's treatment capability, Lam added. "The HKSAR government will continue to mobilize all available manpower and resources, and adopt all necessary measures to fight the epidemic," she said. Aerial photo taken on Feb. 26, 2022 shows the construction site of the community isolation facility (CIF) in Tsing Yi, south China's Hong Kong. The construction was completed on Monday with the support of the Chinese mainland in one week's time. Commenced on Feb. 22, the construction of the CIF is the first one to be completed since the fifth wave of the epidemic, able to accommodate over 3,900 patients after being put into use. (Xinhua) Aerial photo taken on Feb. 26, 2022 shows the construction site of the community isolation facility (CIF) in Tsing Yi, south China's Hong Kong. The construction was completed on Monday with the support of the Chinese mainland in one week's time. Commenced on Feb. 22, the construction of the CIF is the first one to be completed since the fifth wave of the epidemic, able to accommodate over 3,900 patients after being put into use. (Xinhua) The Minister of National Defence, Vasile Dincu, highlighted on Monday the Government's decision of donating ammunition, fuel, protective military equipment, but also food, water and sanitary materials, which are added to the contributions sent prior, as a response to Ukraine's request, through the means of the European Mechanism for Civil Protection. According to a press release sent by the Ministry of National Defence (MApN), Minister Dincu, who took part in the extraordinary sitting of Ministers of Defence of member states of the European Union, via video-conference, also mentioned about the decision which targets ensuring medical treatment for injured Ukrainian soldiers in military and civilian hospitals in Romania, as well as the blood donation campaign initiated for their benefit. Furthermore, the Romanian official appreciated the outreach of the civil society in supporting Ukrainian refugees. Minister Dincu congratulated the European unity and solidarity, especially the recently adopted decisions at the level of the European Union in order to support Ukraine through the instrument of European Facility for Peace and highlighted the necessity of supporting the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, in order to consolidate their own resilience, Agerpres.ro informs. Minister Dincu also congratulated the activation of the intermediary reserve of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which Romania contributes with an infantry company to. In this sense, he highlighted the importance of deterring any action that tries to destabilize the security situation at an European level. The Minister for Environment, Waters and Forests, Barna Tanczos, believes that an important result of the UN Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEA) is the launching of an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in view of a global binding agreement regarding plastic materials, which would include their entire life cycle, including micro-plastics. "Romania believes that multilateral environment efforts are the key to catalyze the commitment of the country towards the global environment challenge, especially in the case of plastic pollution, which requires global solutions, coordination, joint responsibility and common involvement. I hope that one of the main results of UNEA 5.2 will be the launching of an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in view of a global binding agreement regarding plastic materials, which would comprise the entire life cycle of plastic materials, including micro-plastics," said Barna Tanczos, at the fifth session of UNEA 5.2, in Nairobi, Kenya. He added that UNEA should approach critical issues, including the loss of biodiversity, chemical waste, nitrogen management and a better management of resources and minerals, Agerpres.ro informs. According to a press release of the Ministry for Environment, Waters and Forests, sent on Monday to AGERPRES, the Romanian official drew attention to Romania's National Strategy for Durable Development, which defines the national framework for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, by which "Romania promoted legislative restrictions for certain plastic products, especially single-use plastics, and established targets to reduce the consumption of other single-use plastic products, promoting at the same time ecological alternatives." The first transport with humanitarian aid for Ukraine, collected together with the civil society, left Bucharest for Siret Customs, informs, on Sunday evening, the Romanian Government. "In order to help the Ukrainian people severely affected by the Russian military aggression, the Romanian Government together with the civil society has started joint actions for the supply of medical and subsistence products to the Ukrainian citizens. A first convoy, consisting of three trucks equipped by IGSU [Romania's General Emergency Management Inspectorate], is on its way to the Siret Customs, in Suceava County, to provide the Ukrainian authorities with medicines and medical equipment (hospital beds, medical devices)," reads a press release sent by the Government.The same source states that the next shipment will be made on Monday and will contain staple products and food."The Romanian government supports the efforts of civil society and will continue to get involved in facilitating the transportation of all mobilized aid to the Ukrainian people," the release further mentions. PM Nicolae Ciuca had a phone call with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and during talks the latter announced that India wishes to participate in the effort of supporting Ukrainian refugees in Romania. According to a press release sent by the Government, the two sides mostly discussed about the aggression of the Russian military against Ukraine. "Furthermore, the security situation created by the humanitarian crisis was tackled, which accompanies Russia's large-scale war against its neighbor, a sovereign state, member of the UN," the press release reads. In context, the Indian Prime Minister thanked PM Nicolae Ciuca, Romania and the Romanian people for the support granted to the over 3,300 Indian citizens that safely crossed the Romanian-Ukrainian border after the conflict started, Agerpres.ro informs. "Accepting students and Indian citizens and granting quick visas in order to get home were welcomed by the Indian side, which thanked the way in which its citizens were treated, in line with the excellent Romanian-Indian relations. On this scale, India announced that it wishes to take part in the effort of supporting Ukrainian citizens in our country," the press release also mentions. President Klaus Iohannis took part on Monday, on the invitation of the president of the United States of America, Joe Biden, to a new round of consultations in a tight format with allied global leaders and multilateral institutions, in the context of the Russian Federation's unjustified and illegal aggression against Ukraine. According to a press release sent by the Presidential Administration to AGERPRES, Klaus Iohannis mentioned the concrete measures taken by our country in the support of Ukraine, with reference to the aid worth over 3 million Euro, which consists of donating protective equipment, fuel, food, water and medicine. In this context, president Klaus Iohannis expressed his availability for Romania to serve as a distribution hub of humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, capitalizing its position as neighboring state, with the longest border with Ukraine, availability which was appreciated by the present leaders, Agerpres.ro informs. "The president of Romania highlighted that for the efforts made by our country we also add facilitating the stream of Ukrainian citizens at the border, as well as ensuring safe transit to a large number of citizens of other states and members of diplomatic missions in Ukraine. President Klaus Iohannis also emphasized on the necessity of supporting the efforts of the Republic of Moldova regarding managing Ukrainian refugees and also in the event of an energy crisis. Furthermore, in context, the president of Romania made an appeal to decisive and coordinated actions to eliminate energy as a political instrument for pressure and blackmail," the Presidential Administration shows. Romania has signed on Monday an assistance contract with the World Bank for improving the public pension system, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection, Marius Budai, announced on Facebook. "I signed today an assistance contract with the World Bank, a milestone in Romania's National Recovery and Resilience plan (PNRR), in order to offer consulting on improving Law 127/2019 regarding the Romanian public pension system. Just as I promised, the Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity is involved in PNRR and at the same time, their best efforts, on top of the European officials, in order to adjust certain provisions of PNRR, which encloses eliminating identified inequalities, which are currently being practiced, because Law 127/2019 was not fully applied," Budai specified, Agerpres.ro informs. According to the Minister, the value of the contract concluded with the World Bank is 1.5 million Euro, "which means that the rest of the 2.5 million Euro, among the 4 million provided in PNRR for pension consulting, remain at Romania's disposal". Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, who received Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, at the Victoria Palace on Monday, insisted on the importance of the solidarity and unity of the EU and NATO in the context of the crisis generated in Ukraine. According to a government release, the visit of the European commissioner to Romania was occasioned by the flow of refugees from Ukraine and by the European Commission's desire to send a double message of solidarity: with the citizens fleeing from the military aggression, respectively with the Romanian authorities that manage the refugees. "Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca insisted on the importance of EU and NATO solidarity and unity in the context of the crisis generated in Ukraine, stressing that Romania condemns Russia's aggression on Ukraine, a neighbouring sovereign state. He appreciated the strong response of the EU, of the Allies, showing that Romania today supports the most consistent sanctions against Russia, demanding a ceasefire and a return to the dialogue table," the release reads, Agerpres.ro informs. At the same time, the Government's top official appreciated the visit of the European commissioner and referred to the measures adopted so far by the Romanian authorities for the management of refugees, both at the border crossing points and for assisting them in entering Romania. "The Prime minister pointed out that the governmental effort is supported by civil society, non-governmental organizations, private sector actors, for the coordination of these efforts being created the platform of the Romanian Government "Ukraine - together we help more". The Prime minister said that the government supports the coordinated efforts at European level, and concrete measures are needed to show solidarity with the member states that manage the flows of Ukrainian refugees," the release says. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca spoke on Monday on the phone with his Moldovan counterpart Natalia Gavrilita, with the two heads of government discussing measures to streamline border traffic amid the high flow of Ukrainian refugees seeking shelter abroad, the government said. According to the cited release, the sides discussed developments in the flow of Ukrainian citizens at the border between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, measures to streamline border traffic and the enforcement of the procedures of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, Agerpres.ro informs. Prime minister Nicolae Ciuca on Monday attended a meeting with representatives of the civil society on the coordination of "Ukraine - together we help more" campaign. "The Prime Minister of the Romanian Government and the representatives of the associations pleaded for maintaining a permanent dialogue for the coordination of the actions in the humanitarian assistance area, such meetings being carried out regularly, on priority topics," reads a release sent by the Government. The prime minister thanked the non-governmental sector and citizens for their involvement in the management of the humanitarian situation generated by the conflict in Ukraine. He presented the actions the Government has carried out in recent days, such as: providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine, launching the government platform "Ukraine - together we help more" and the set of medium and long-term government measures, Agerpres.ro informs. The representatives of the civil society revealed the activity undertaken, but also drew attention to aspects such as: protecting the Ukrainian citizens who could become the targets of illegal acts, a better coordination with the responsible local authorities, providing support to the Ukrainians who did not leave their country, providing social and psychological assistance services, identifying solutions for people with disabilities and streamlining the communication. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday thanked Romania for its aid to his country, which has been facing a major Russian military invasion for several days. "I am grateful to Romania for its significant contribution to our country's defence capabilities. I am grateful to @KlausIohannis for supporting Ukraine's accession to the European Union. We feel the political and defence support of our partners," the head of the Ukrainian state wrote on his Twitter account, @ZelenskyyUa. European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson also thanked the Romanian authorities and citizens for the way they came to the aid of the Ukrainian refugees, Agerpres.ro informs. My most important message is: thank you, Romania. (...) The weather is very cold, but the welcome is warm. In these very difficult times, when we see war again in Europe, when we see Putin's aggression on a neighbour, sovereign country, to see how the citizens of Suceava County, Romanians from all over the country, the civil society, the authorities warmly welcome the refugees is emotional. By showing solidarity, we are showing that we rely on values other than Putin's, and we are putting those values into practice. In the past few days, we have seen unity, a firm action (...) on the part of the European Union, as we have never seen before, because it is necessary," said Ylva Johansson on Monday, at the end of a visit to the refugee camp in the area of the Siret Border Crossing Point. She said she was impressed with the way the Romanian authorities and citizens acted, but underscored the need for the European Union's involvement in providing financial, material and human resources support. Romania decided on Sunday to send to Ukraine a second tranche of aid totaling 3 million euros, in the form of fuel, bulletproof vests, helmets, ammunition and military equipment, food, water and medicine. At the same time, the executive in Bucharest announced its readiness to take over injured Ukrainians in the Romanian health network. According to UN estimates, four million Ukrainians are expected to leave their country as refugees. Most of them are women and children, given that Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are required to remain in the country under the state of emergency. UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and partners are preparing to scale up humanitarian operations in Ukraine once the security situation permits, a UN spokesman said on Monday. Local civil society organizations and volunteers are on the front lines providing support to everyone in need, including internally displaced people, those impacted by the violence and the people trying to cross borders, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "Our colleagues are telling us that days of intense clashes across parts of Ukraine have caused civilian casualties and damage to critical infrastructure, with severe humanitarian consequences," he said. "Road damage and insecurity have disrupted local supply chains and access to food and other basic items." The spokesman said the UN Refugee Agency reported that more than half a million people have already crossed international borders, primarily toward Poland. At least 160,000 were internally displaced. "Our humanitarian colleagues are also warning that the increasingly intense conflict threatens to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine and in neighboring countries," said Dujarric. He said the World Food Programme (WFP) is launching a three-month emergency operation in Ukraine to provide food assistance for people fleeing the conflict. The WFP is on standby to assist refugees in neighboring countries, as requested. WFP teams are on the ground in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and in a number of neighboring countries, leading the emergency telecommunications and logistics clusters on behalf of the UN's humanitarian community, he said. The WFP also warns that the Black Sea basin is one of the world's most important areas for grain and agricultural production and that the conflict's impact on food security will likely be felt beyond Ukraine's borders, Dujarric said. National chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in the ruling coalition Marcel Ciolacu said on Monday that there must be a "total blockade" in Romania on "any Russian companies and any Russian business people." Ciolacu mentioned at the PSD headquarters that he will meet the Social Democrat ministers later in the day to discuss how the Ukrainian government can be helped, after which a meeting of the party's Standing National Bureau will be held with "colleagues from local chapters that have been involved in border areas.""I have spoken with Chairman Florin Citu and we convened a joint plenary session for a statement by the Romanian Parliament regarding the events in Ukraine. In the statement, we will include the elements of the sanctions decided at the EU level and we want to be very well understood: what is happening in Ukraine in 2022 is beyond any acceptance, as a sovereign state is under attack, and right now everyone is just sitting and watching without firmer intervention," he said.Ciolacu was asked if he was satisfied with the way the Romanian government handles the refugee crisis. "I talked last night with the interior minister. I understood that there is blockage on the Ukrainian side, there is a lack of staff. Today, the customs staff has doubled to cut the waiting times at the Romanian customs. (...) We can see that many Ukrainians do not remain in Romania, and solutions have been found for those who have remained. Let's see how it works today," said the PSD leader. The Parliament in Bucharest has adopted, on Monday, in a joint session, with a majority of votes, a statement by which it condemns the aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukraine, demands the withdrawal of Russian forces and emphasizes the "strong support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and for its legitimate aspirations to join NATO and the EU." There were 339 votes for, one against and two abstentions. We are publishing the full text of the declaration below: "The declaration of the Parliament of Romania regarding the situation in Ukraine The Parliament of Romania firmly condemns the massive armed aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukraine, preceded by the recognition by the Russian Federation of the 'independence' of the self-proclaimed separatist entities in Donetsk and Lugansk, component parts of Ukraine, Agerpres.ro informs. We staunchly reject such an irresponsible behaviour that undermines the basis of international relations and the current order of international law and we request the immediate, integral and unconditional cessation of military aggression and the withdrawal of all Russian forces in Ukraine. The launching of the Russian invasion on the night between February 23 and 24, 2022 is an attempt on the lives and destinies of Ukrainian citizens who desired to be able to exercise a fundamental right in any democracy, namely the right to choose their own path. The Ukrainian people, the victims of this aggression that is unimaginable in the 21st century, has sovereignly chosen a path towards Europe, towards the community of European and Euro-Atlantic values and has mandated for this task the legitimately and democratically elected Ukrainian authorities. Ukraine is punished these days for its sovereign choice. Romania has constantly and firmly supported the choices of the Ukrainian people - the decision of the NATO Summit in Bucharest in 2008 and the fact that the Parliament of Romania was the first in the EU to ratify the European Union - Ukraine Association agreement being only two telling examples of the many demarches of support from our country for these choices of Ukraine. The Russian aggression throws Europe into an era that should have never been experienced by current generations. The Russian Federation desires the rewriting of history and the redivision of the world into spheres of influence. We believe this act of brazen aggression represents a flagrant and grave infringement of the principles of international law and the international commitments assumed by the Russian Federation, provided also in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the Paris Charter for a New Europe, the Budapest Memorandum and the NATO-Russia Founding Act. We draw attention to the fact that, again, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the inviolability of the borders of this state were infringed, as well as the principle of not resorting to force in international relations. We recall the fact that in this period there will be eight years since the illegal annexation of the Crimean Autonomous Republic and the city of Sevastopol, and the Russian Federation still continues the series of unprovoked and unjustified acts of aggression, thus brutally infringing the fundamental principles of international law. We believe the Russian Federation should support the consequences of this profoundly illegal act. We request the President of Romania and the Government of Romania continue to firmly support in international forums, including the European Union and NATO, the adoption of sanctions with major impact on the Russian Federation. The Parliament of Romania reaffirms full solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people confronted with the aggression of the Russian Federation and expresses its support for the granting of humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian citizens, including persons that choose to take refuge on Romanian territory. The Parliament of Romania reaffirms in this context the powerful support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and its legitimate aspirations to integrate in NATO and the EU. The orientation desired by Ukraine is the result of the decisions of authorities legitimately and democratically elected and enjoys a wide and durable popular support, and Romania has constantly supported the efforts of Ukraine to consolidate an inclusive and diverse society, with the contribution of all Ukrainian citizens. We recall the fact that in Ukraine there is a numerous Romanian ethnic community, which contributes to the wealth and diversity of Ukrainian society and represents a solid bridge between our countries. The members of the Romanian ethnic community were and are loyal and faithful citizens of Ukraine, which understand the obligations that are required of them through this status. In equal measure, as all the other citizens of Ukraine, they have natural and legitimate expectations for their rights to be fully respected. The Parliament of Romania expresses its conviction that advancing Ukraine on the path of democratic reform, of rule of law and of closeness to Europe will facilitate the plenary fulfillment of all these desiderata. In this context, the Parliament of Romania reaffirms its firm support for the European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine." At a ceremony last Sunday, the Romanian Ambassador to Cyprus, Dan Mihalache, presented the Order of Cultural Merit to Fr Petre Matei, the representative of the Romanian Patriarchate to Cyprus. The President of Romania signed the decoration decree for the Rev. Stavrophore Fr. Matei Petre on January 6 as a sign of appreciation for the dedication with which he was involved in preserving the identity of Romanian communities abroad, the Presidential Administration announced. The Order was bestowed at the Romanian Church in Nicosia in the presence of Bishop Gregorios of Mesaoria (Orthodox Church of Cyprus), Mr Kostas Petrou, Mayor of Agios Dometios, and Mrs Christina Christodoulou, President of the Union of Romanians in Cyprus, according to basilica.ro. In his speech at the end, Fr Petre Matei expressed his appreciation to the Romanian Embassy in Cyprus for all the help offered and thanked the Orthodox Church of Cyprus for the goodwill shown. My words can only be of gratitude for the decisive factors that led to what we have here in Cyprus today. First of all, we must say that we are here thanks to the Romanian Embassy in Cyprus and the Romanian state. I confess that we are privileged in Cyprus because the Orthodox Church of Cyprus has allowed us to have a community and has fully supported us. Being in an Orthodox country, it is not necessary to have a priest from another Orthodox country to perform services in his language. But it is the merit of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus to allow us to perform services in our language, Fr Petre Matei noted. During the ceremony on February 21, His Excellency Dan Mihalache, the Ambassador of Romania to Cyprus, underlined Fr Petre Mateis role in the formation of the Romanian community in Nicosia. The growth of this community would not have been possible without your effort and diligence. As a result, today we are a strong Orthodox community in Cyprus also thanks to you, Romanias Ambassador to Cyprus Dan Mihalache said. Father Petre Matei, a former professor at the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Buzau, has been in the Romanian Orthodox community in Nicosia since 1995. President Klaus Iohannis welcomed on Monday at the Cotroceni Palace the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, the discussions of the two high officials focusing on the security situation in Ukraine, as well as on solidarity and coordination in the management of refugee flows from Ukraine, forced to leave their country subjected to unprecedented aggression from Russia, according to the Presidential Administration. "The President of Romania expressed appreciation for the active involvement of the European Commission in the management of the current crisis in Ukraine, both on the sanctions component and on the one of direct support to Ukraine and its population. President Klaus Iohannis also welcomed the support and openness of the European Commission and the European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson to work with Romania and other states in the region to manage refugee flows," the source said. The Presidential Administration specifies that President Klaus Iohannis has presented Romania's support efforts for Ukraine, which focuses on several levels: political, security and humanitarian, stressing that our country supports the Ukrainian state, both within the European Union, through consistent and comprehensive decisions made at European level and at bilateral level, by providing humanitarian, but also military support. The head of the state presented the situation of the Ukrainian refugees in Romania and the measures taken so far by the authorities, together with the collective effort, together with the population and the civil society, to help the refugees from Ukraine. President Klaus Iohannis also discussed the concrete ways of European assistance for situation management, namely the use of European instruments such as the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund or the Fund for Border Management and Visa. The head of the state called for consistent European support to the Republic of Moldova, which is also facing an important influx of refugees from Ukraine. President Klaus Iohannis thanked the European Commission and the European Commissioner for their support in Romania's bid to join the Schengen Area, noting that Romania is already acting de facto as a member of Schengen. The Presidential Administration says that Ylva Johansson expressed appreciation for the strong solidarity shown by Romania in providing support to refugees in Ukraine and for preparing national measures to receive refugees and their protection, Agerpres.ro informs. In this context, the European Commissioner noted that EU member states must continue to be prepared for the reception of an even greater number of refugees from Ukraine, stressing the importance of coordination and solidarity of member states. The European official expressed support for Romania's use of European instruments and funds and openness and for supporting the Republic of Moldova in managing the current situation. The European Commissioner for Home Affairs reiterated the European Commission's support for Romania's accession to the Schengen area. Telekom Romania Communications will become Orange Romania Communications, starting with March 28, 2022, and Telekom shops will gradually become Orange shops, with the same elements and brand material. "Orange and the fixed service operator, Telekom Romania Communications, have gone through important stages starting with September 30, 2021, in order to ensure clients and partners a unitary experience. Thus, the company is announcing to change the name of Telekom Romania Communications and as of March 28, 2022, unifying the main contact channels for the clients of both companies. These modifications have no impact in the clients' offer, which remains unchanged. The Telekom Romania Communications will be renamed Orange Romania Communications, as a result of the shareholders' meeting on February 10, 2022. This comes after on January 1, 2022, the company's social headquarters was established on Calea Victoriei no. 35, 010061, Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania," Orange Romania announced, in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Monday. According to the quoted source, Orange Romania Communications will continue to function separately, as a subsidiary of Orange Romania, and this modification brings changes, gradually, in the clients' bills form of presentation and details tied to the name of products, which will no longer contain the "Telekom" brand, Agerpres.ro informs. On September 2021, Orange Romania announced that a transaction was concluded, through which it acquired the majority package of 54% of shares from Telekom Romania Communications from OTE, while the Romanian state owns the rest of 46%. Government spokesman Dan Carbunaru announced on Monday that several sites that "were spreading fake news in the context of the crisis in Ukraine "have been shut down or are about to be shut down." "There are a number of measures that the Romanian authorities have taken during this period to block certain sources identified as propagating fake news, in the context of the crisis in Ukraine. (...) Some of them have already been closed, others are to be closed, with proceedings ongoing," Carbunaru said in a statement issued at the Victoria Palace.He also mentioned that, as of Monday evening, no Russia Today broadcasting operator in Romania will have this channel active."As of tonight, no Russian Today broadcasting operator in Romania will have this channel active. (...) Measures have already been announced at the European level to block the rebroadcast of both Russia Today and Sputnik content,"said Carbunaru.According to the government, the list of "fake news" sites in the context of the Ukraine-Russia crisis is as follows:? https://bitinitiators.com/blog.html - unavailable at this time;? https://profitsmall.com/?domain=https://bitinitiators.com/blog - unavailable at this time;? https://yourincome.site/LP/lp_RO_RO_connera_XfZdkl_Av0VP/?domain=newsmoney.work&uclick=q5fnx99 z & uclickhash = q5fnx99z-q5fnx99z-qn-0-ydi4-cig5-us1;? https://ru.md.sputniknews.com/ - active at the moment;? https://md.sputniknews.com/ - active at the moment;? https://ro.md.sputniknews.com/ - active at the moment;? https://citestesitu.com - active at the moment;? https://rtnews.ro - active at the moment;? https://cloudx.ro - not available at this time. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force, in partnership with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion hosted Lindenwood Universitys annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award Ceremony, and celebrated the rededication of the Center of Diversity and Inclusion with a ribbon cutting last week at the Spellmann Center. Pictured are: St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, DEI Task Force Co-Chair Dr. Amanda Harrod, Chief Diversity Officer Emily Pitts, Lindenwood President Dr. John Porter, Black Student Union President Joseph Oliverires, Lindenwood Student Government President Robby X Hamilton, and DEI Task Force Co-Chair Myron Burr. MARYLAND HEIGHTS Schnuck Markets Inc. on Monday said it would no longer require masks in a majority of its stores, including those in St. Louis County, citing new guidance from the federal government. The Maryland Heights-based grocer said customers, employees and vendors will still have to mask up inside stores in St. Louis, where a mask mandate is in effect until at least March 6. Employees and vendors will also have to wear masks in stores in "high" risk areas, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the Carbondale store, at 915 West Main Street, and six stores in Indiana. MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Completely asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection seems to be less common than has been reported, according to a study published online Feb. 14 in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Emilie Goguet, Ph.D., from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues examined the frequency of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections in a prospective cohort of health care workers. A total of 263 participants, enrolled between Aug. 25 and Dec. 31, 2020, were assessed for SARS-CoV-2 infection by a monthly analysis of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and referral for polymerase chain reaction testing if they exhibited symptoms of COVID-19. In addition, they completed a symptom questionnaire scoring viral respiratory disease symptom intensity and frequency at least twice monthly during baseline periods of health and each day that they experienced symptoms. The researchers found that 12 of the participants were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection through Feb. 28, 2021. All 12 had at least mild symptoms of COVID-19 near or at the time of infection compared with baseline health. "We suspect that we observed a higher rate of symptomatic infection than what has been reported by most other studies because of attentiveness to symptoms by study participants as well as the prospective design of our study in which symptoms were collected throughout the fall and winter season every day a person felt they had any symptoms different from their baseline health," Goguet said in a statement. Several authors disclosed financial ties to AstraZeneca. Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Who hasn't had the urge to trace their roots by buying consumer genetic testing kits? But in a new report, researchers warn that you may come across some unexpected, and potentially troubling, information if you discover relatives this way. "If you're going to participate in one of these services, you should be ready to learn something about your family that you werent necessarily expecting to learn," said study author Christi Guerrini, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy in Houston. In their research, Guerrini and her colleagues surveyed more than 23,000 people who used genetic testing services such as AncestryDNA and FamilyTreeDNA and found that 46% said they were motivated by general curiosity, not a specific intention to find a relative. However, 82% of the survey respondents said they learned the identity of at least one genetic relative, and 61% said they found out something new about themselves or their relatives, including potentially unsettling information, such as the revelation they were adopted or donor conceived. The study also showed that 3% of respondents learned that a person they thought was their biological parent was not, while 5% discovered they had previously unknown full or half siblings, according to the study published Feb. 24 in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Still, the vast majority of respondents reported either no impact or positive or neutral outcomes of testing, and most did not regret their decision to participate in testing. Some respondents even said they made positive changes in their lives, such as taking steps to improve their health or embracing new cultural activities. However, a small percentage of respondents said their findings had a harmful effect on their lives and their sense of self. Negative consequences and regrets about doing the testing were more likely among people who found out that a person they believed was their biological parent was not. "The outcome of learning about a relative may depend on a number of factors -- for example, whether newly discovered family members are receptive or whether the discovery leads to estrangement with known family," Guerrini said in a Baylor news release. "Looking ahead, it's really important that mental health and social support resources are available to help individuals cope with their experiences." Study senior author Amy McGuire is director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. "As the popularity of direct-to-consumer testing continues to grow, it's crucial that we understand the experiences of people using these products and provide support as they explore the most basic questions of their existence: who they are, and where they come from," she said in the release. More information For more on direct-to-consumer genetic testing, go to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. SOURCE: Baylor College of Medicine, news release, Feb. 24, 2022 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Black women who often encountered racism before age 20 have an increased risk of depression, new research shows. Of the 1,600 Black women in Detroit, aged 25 to 35, who took part in the study, nearly two-thirds said they'd been subjected to some form of racism during adolescence, and more than one-third had symptoms of depression. "Looking across the life course from adolescence through the 20s, Black women with persistently high frequency and high stress related to racism had the highest risk for depressive symptoms in adulthood than those with persistently low frequency," said study co-author Anissa Vines. She is assistant professor of epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vines said the findings recently published in the Journal of Urban Health show how damaging racism is to the mental health of young people, and "echo what other researchers have been reporting on the implications of adverse childhood experiences on health in later life." Her team also examined whether the amount of social support that the study participants received in childhood and adulthood affected the link between racism and depression. "Though we hypothesized the social support would buffer the effects of racism, we did not find evidence to support this," Vines said in a university news release. The data used in the study were collected between 2010 and 2012 before more recent events that have brought overt acts of racism to the forefront of national attention in the United States. The researchers also pointed out that the women faced a number of challenges, from Detroit's eroding economy to high poverty rates and low educational attainment. "The health of women living in Detroit cannot be separated from the erosion of their physical, emotional, social, economic and political environments," the study authors explained. Even so, they added, "the importance of early-life racism seen in this single geographic area may be broadly generalizable to young Black women in other geographical settings." The findings further highlight that racism is a public health crisis that requires urgent intervention, because it can cause lasting damage to the well-being of people of color, the study team concluded. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about racism and health. SOURCE: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, news release, Feb. 25, 2022 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. Long before Samantha Jones became a news anchor at KMOV (Channel 4), colleagues knew that she had what it takes to succeed in television. Jones, who started out on weekend mornings in December 2018, was promoted just a year later to evening anchor on weeknights. And in the last year, she also became a single mom. In a professional career that started less than a decade ago, Jones had several jobs in TV news before coming to KMOV from Abilene, Texas, and eventually replacing Courtney Bryant on the evening news program. I really like St. Louis, Jones says. Ive worked at a lot of stations, and my biggest thing has always been liking my co-workers and liking where I work. And once you find those two things, I feel like you can figure everything else out. Once you find somewhere that you like, its really hard to want to leave it. Larry Foley, a professor of journalism at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, recalls that as a student there Jones talent and potential were obvious. She has a friendly way of communicating with the camera that makes you feel comfortable when youre watching her, Foley says. At the same time, you look at Samantha reading the news, and you think: She knows what shes talking about. And thats a gift that not everybody has. Tevin Wooten, a meteorologist with the Weather Channel who knew Jones as a student and later as a colleague at Fayettevilles KNWA (Fox 24), says Jones has it. She was always that shining star, Wooten says. The student that the teacher calls on, or looks to as the example of what things should be like. That was Samantha in a nutshell always great and always a professional. Discovering journalism Life in TV news wasnt Jones first career choice. I went to college (at the University of Arkansas) thinking that I wanted to be a nurse, but I couldnt pass chemistry, Jones says. I took it twice and I failed it worse the second time than I did the first time. Then inspiration hit. I always thought Erin Andrews from ESPN had a really fun job, Jones says. And it looked like she enjoyed her job. So I thought, why not try journalism and see where that goes? So in her junior year, she switched her major to journalism. I remember walking into that first fundamentals of journalism class, she says, and having just this epiphany moment of, what was I doing for the last two or three years? This comes so naturally and makes so much sense. I loved it, and I never looked back. Jones graduated in 2014 with a bachelors degree in broadcast journalism. In March of the following year, she began working as an anchor and reporter at KSWO in Lawton, Oklahoma. Her experience there, she says, provided a really good basis for all of my skills in the business. I was a reporter, and I covered a lot of city council meetings, she says. I also got a good feel for editing stories, especially on a deadline. And its the place where I learned to produce (compile all the elements of a newscast into a cohesive show). In November 2015, Jones returned to Fayetteville to work as a multimedia journalist at KNWA (Fox 24). Her duties at the station also included filling in as an anchor and producer. I had originally applied to work at the station before I graduated, she says. But they had just hired a bunch of people from my class. Being able to circle back and work there, Jones says, was a pretty lucky break that gave her the experience to be successful at her next job, as evening anchor/producer at KRBC, an NBC affiliate in Abilene, Texas. Jones was born in Tucson, Arizona, in 1992 but didnt grow up there. To paraphrase the old Beach Boys song, she got around. I was only in Tucson for six weeks, she says. My dad was in the Air Force, so then we moved to Japan. We were there for four years. But she didnt really pick up the language during her time in Okinawa beyond the regular hello and thank you and that kind of stuff. The family moved back to the United States in 1996 to Amarillo, Texas just in time for her to attend kindergarten. As a child, she also lived in Seattle and Medford, Oregon, before spending her high school years in San Antonio. Aside from St. Louis, Jones says, I claim San Antonio as home, because my mom and brother are still there. Motherhood transformation With her infant daughter, Stella, Jones lives in an apartment in downtown St. Louis. Becoming a parent 6 months ago has significantly altered her work-life balance, she says. I feel transformative, in a way, in the last year since having the baby, Jones says. Because it used to be that I could just go to work, and that was what it was. That was my main focus. I love my job, and Im super-passionate about it, she says. I think its important that I continue to be myself at work. But at home, Im a mom. Its still all so fresh and so new. And its a lot of responsibility to juggle. It helps that her home isnt far from the KMOV studios at the Gateway Tower on Memorial Drive. Ive just liked being that close to work, even before the baby, she says. Its easy to have a five-minute commute. Because when I started (at KMOV) I was working mornings, and I definitely didnt want to have a 20- or 25-minute drive cut into my free time. Jones, 29, describes her weekdays as pretty busy. It obviously starts in the morning, being a mom, she says. And then I go into work, at about 2 oclock. She anchors the 4 p.m. broadcast solo, and co-anchors the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. news programs with Cory Stark. Her other duties include creating the teases that promote upcoming news stories. Jones says she has time between the 6 and 10 p.m. broadcasts to come home and take care of the baby a little bit. To cover her time at work, Stella has a nanny. As a television anchor, Jones is a public figure and subject to being recognized. But she takes it all in stride. I was going to brunch one morning this was at the height of the pandemic, I think, she says. And I had my mask on, I had glasses on, I had my hair up, and was just passing this woman in a doorway. And she and I made eye contact for two seconds. And she goes, Ohmigod, youre Samantha Jones from the news. I couldnt have looked any more not like me on TV, and she still nailed it. And does anyone ever mention that she shares a name with a Sex and the City character? All the time, Jones says, laughing. Samantha Jones Home Downtown Family Daughter Stella, 6 months old, and pet felines Tink, ToeJoe and Little Cat Career Anchor at KMOV, where she's worked since 2018. Past stints in Lawton, Oklahoma; Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Abilene, Texas. Extended family Mother, Bobbi Jones, 56; brother, Blake Jones, 26. Both live in San Antonio, Texas. Future plans To balance her career and motherhood, while continuing to inspire and offer representation in the community. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. UPDATED with name of woman who died ST. LOUIS Prosecutors have charged a woman with murdering her girlfriend Friday in the city's Kingsway West neighborhood. Claytiana L. Bolar, 21, was charged Saturday with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of a woman in the 5100 block of Greer Avenue. The St. Louis medical examiner's office identified the dead woman as 24-year-old Brittany Gregory. Gregory was shot dead about 3:20 p.m. Friday in the driver's seat of a 2010 Nissan Rogue parked on Greer. Police found four shell casings on the ground next to the SUV's passenger side. That block of Greer is west of North Kingshighway and south of Natural Bridge Avenue. Police arrested Bolar after she returned to the scene and was "waiting for officers," St. Louis police Detective Jeffrey Stege said in court documents. Bolar told detectives that she and Gregory were in an on-again, off-again romantic relationship. She said she shot Gregory in a quarrel and that she took the gun to her stepmother's house on St. Louis Avenue after the killing, Stege said. Police went to the stepmother's house and found a gun in Bolar's bedroom. Bolar was being held without bail Monday. Court records list Bolar's home address as the 5100 block of St. Louis Avenue. Staff writer Kim Bell can be reached at kbell@post-dispatch.com Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ST. LOUIS A woman was shot in the back late Sunday when a fight at the Pin-Up Bowl in the Delmar Loop spilled onto the street. The 27-year-old victim survived the shooting and was being treated at a hospital, where police said she was stable. Several vehicles and nearby businesses also were hit by bullets, police said. The gunmen scattered after the shooting. Police have made no arrests. The shooting was just before midnight outside the Pin-Up Bowl, a bowling alley and martini lounge at 6191 Delmar Boulevard. Police said a fight started inside the Pin-Up and shifted outside. People in the fight began shooting at each other on the street. The gunmen then took off in cars, police said. Authorities have not released descriptions of the suspects nor the vehicles they left in. Police also have not said how many people were involved. The gunshot victim showed up at a hospital and told police she was hurt outside the Pin-Up. The bowling alley was not open on Monday morning and no one from management had returned a call seeking comment. Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, warned conservatives Sunday that the Left is trying to replace the Declaration of Independence with The Communist Manifesto and wants to remake America in the image of Karl Marx, co-author of the 1848 political tract. If the Left wants to remake America, theyre going to have to take it from our cold, dead hands, Schmitt told the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservatives held this year in Orlando, Florida. The attorney general didnt explain Sunday how Marx, a German philosopher who died in 1883, is influencing contemporary U.S. politics, but he has frequently warned about socialism and communism on his social media accounts. Schmitt is known more in Missouri for filing dozens of lawsuits than fighting Marxists. For example, hes sued to block the Biden administration from requiring vaccinations and local school boards from enforcing mask mandates. Schmitt, during his speech, pointed to those lawsuits as an example of his willingness to fight for Americans freedoms. Other than garnering headlines, the results have been mixed, and former employees of the attorney generals office told the Post-Dispatch some of the lawsuits are uncharted territory. Schmitt closed his speech with Lets go fight. Lets go win. Lets go, Brandon. The Lets go, Brandon phrase is a political slogan the originated at a NASCAR race where some in the crowd chanted [expletive] Joe Biden and an NBC reporter told viewers they were saying Lets go, Brandon, referring to Brandon Brown, the driver who was being interviewed. Schmitt, so far, has won the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a former presidential candidate. But U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who preceded Schmitt as attorney general and will be Missouris senior senator beginning in 2023, has thrown his support to U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville. Schmitt was one of two Missouri Senate candidates to score a coveted speaking appearance at CPAC. Eric Greitens, the former Missouri governor who resigned from office in disgrace in 2018, spoke on Thursday. The Republican contest has attracted more than a dozen candidates. In addition to Greitens, Hartzler and Schmitt, other major candidates, based on polling and fundraising, include U.S. Rep. Billy Long, Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, and St. Louis lawyer Mark McCloskey. In his Thursday CPAC appearance, Greitens also was sharply critical of both RINOs Republicans in name only and the Left, which he described as the enemy ... actively trying to destroy our country. Greitens, based on recent polling, continues to lead the GOP field of Senate candidates. Former President Donald Trump spoke Saturday night at the popular conservative gathering. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JEFFERSON CITY More than 18,000 Missouri businesses fell victim to a computer glitch at the states main tax processing agency. The Missouri Department of Revenue said Monday that the agencys tax processing portal failed to process some tax payments between Dec. 30 and Jan. 19 due to a technical error. The error has been corrected. However, out of caution, we did not try to reprocess those payments as we were concerned that an attempt to reprocess the payment may actually pull multiple payments from customer accounts, said Revenue spokeswoman Anne Marie Moy. Beginning on Jan. 21, the department sent emails related to the incident to the businesses saying they needed to resubmit their payments. The department recognizes these business did nothing wrong and will work to ensure penalties are not assessed if they made a good faith attempt to resubmit payment, Moy said. Among the taxes affected were sales tax, use tax, withholding taxes and tire and battery returns, she added. Moy said the problems were caused by a system upgrade that inadvertently undid a key element of system functionality. The problems are among a growing litany of computer-related shortfalls dogging Gov. Mike Parsons administration, including data vulnerabilities uncovered by the Post-Dispatch. An 11-year-old flaw on a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website was discovered by a Post-Dispatch reporter, who found that the Social Security numbers of school teachers, administrators and counselors across Missouri were vulnerable to public exposure due to programming shortcomings. The states computer woes also affected the launch of an expanded Medicaid program last year. After being forced to begin the long-sought program via a lawsuit, officials at the Department of Social Services said it would take two months to program their computers to allow for an additional 275,000 low-income Missourians to be enrolled. In the states proposed budget, the Office of Administration is seeking at least $26 million to replace the states 21-year-old main computer that is written in a code created 60 years ago. In November, a state office building in Jefferson City housing computers used by child welfare workers and computer programmers caught fire and burned down. According to budget officials, a true overhaul of the states computer systems will cost an estimated $83.5 million. That cost would also finance a new portal for residents to access various state services. Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, is championing the use of $2.8 billion in federal relief funds to pay for the information technology upgrades, which could take as long as six years. Moy suggested that more businesses may have been affected by the Department of Revenue problem. The department is in the process of evaluating all the remaining periods that still have outstanding liabilities and we will take additional actions to notify those businesses this week, she said. (T)he department is working to get these accounts current, with full recognition that these customers were not at fault and therefore will not incur penalties, added Moy. Originally posted at 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. By Lin Feng and Zhang Tingge Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, commenting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict on a Fuji TV program, once again mentioned the issue of so-called nuclear sharing with the United States, and also called on the United States to abandon its strategic ambiguity on the Taiwan question. According to news from Japans Sankei Shinbun on February 27, Abe advocated in the program that Japan should break through the existing taboo, and explore with the United States on "nuclear sharing" related issues. And referring to the "strategic ambiguity" adopted by the US about Taiwan island, he called on the US to expressly state the so-called determination to defend Taiwan. This wasnt the first time that Abe linked the escalated Russia-Ukraine conflict with the Taiwan question. At a meeting of the House of Representatives on February 25th, he had said that this is a critical moment for Japan as it reminds us of what China will do concerning Taiwan. Hu Jiping, vice president and research fellow at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, analyzed on February 27 that Japan, the only country that was subject to nuclear attacks and a contracting party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons(NPT), allegedly studied in secret the possibility of possessing nuclear weapons back in the Cold War period, but gave it up because it concluded that would be too politically and diplomatically costly. After the Cold War, certain Japanese politicians publicly proposed to re-discuss the possibility and develop small nuclear weapons on the ground of self-defense, but that hit a wall due to the international political reality and domestic objection. Besides, even if Washington was to provide nuclear protection for Tokyo, it didnt have to deploy the weapons in Japan which instead would cause a new strategic imbalance. Therefore, when talking about nuclear weapons, Abe was either truly ignorant of the facts and factors or he was trying to ride the wave of the current hot-spot in a bid to hype up threats from other countries. Moreover, Hu believes Abes linking the Taiwan question with the current Russia-Ukraine conflict is ill-intended. Taiwan is an inherent part of China and the Taiwan question is Chinas internal affair, whereas the Ukraine issue is completely different, not to mention Japans claim to abide by the One-China principle. Abe and other right-wingers in Japan may expect the US to be more unambiguous on the Taiwan question to deter the Chinese mainland and sabotage Chinas reunification process by keeping the mainland and the island permanently apart. Yet on Americas part, giving up the ambiguity would be a professed violation of its diplomatic commitment, which might embolden the Taiwan independence forces and trigger conflicts across the Taiwan Strait, and that is not in Americas best interests. Therefore, the US wont change its stance easily. Hu added that one of the reasons why Abe brought up the Taiwan question in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is to continue hyping up the so-called China threat and arouse the sense of crisis among the Japanese public. He wanted to sway the domestic debate over the development of basic attack capabilities against enemies and further clear the way for revising relevant strategic documents and laws, breaking away from security restrictions, and developing military strengths. Editor's note: This article is originally published on www.huanqiu.com, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2022 shows a child in Siret, Romania. Recently, a large number of Ukrainian people have arrived at the borders with Romania. (Xinhua/Lin Huifen) The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Monday that more than half a million people have already fled Ukraine to Poland, Romania, Hungary and other neighboring countries. BRUSSELS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalates and intensifies, Ukrainians are fleeing in increasing numbers to neighboring countries. Governments across Europe are opening up humanitarian channels to facilitate an orderly evacuation of refugees and their settlements. REFUGEES FLOOD ACROSS BORDERS The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Monday that more than half a million people have already fled Ukraine to Poland, Romania, Hungary and other neighboring countries. Poland currently appears to be the destination of choice for most of them. The Polish Border Guard reported over 115,000 arrivals since Feb. 24. Romanian government spokesman Dan Carbunaru said on Sunday that since last Thursday, more than 47,000 Ukrainian citizens had entered Romania. Of them, 22,785 left for Schengen countries shortly after entry. There were also 102 applications for refugee status. The Romanian government department has said that Ukrainian citizens entering Romania would be exempted from COVID-19 quarantine. By Saturday midnight, more than 62,000 Ukrainian refugees had entered Hungary, the country's police said. Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that his country will play a role in mitigating the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine. Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2022 shows Ukrainian people at a railway station in Zahony, Hungary. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua) NEW POLICIES FOR HELP Poland has set up a hotline and eight reception centers along its border with Ukraine. "A hot meal, a drink, basic medical assistance and a place to rest" are provided there, according to the government. Raed Arafat, head of the Department of Emergency Situations of Romania's Ministry of Internal Affairs, said on Sunday that his country can accept 400,000 refugees, but the number of asylum seekers remains low for now. Hungary will also open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian and third-country citizens. "We are going to let them enter without a visa and take them to the nearest international airport," Szijjarto said. Last Thursday, Hungary's government adopted a decree according to which refugees from Ukraine would receive temporary protection. Slovakia will support people who shelter refugees from Ukraine with financial aid to help accommodate the thousands fleeing their country, Finance Minister Igor Matovic said on Saturday. Slovak households and institutions will receive 200 euros (225 U.S. dollars) a month for an adult and 100 euros (112 dollars) a month for a child they accommodate. He also said that the country will provide temporary refugee status with a work permit, health insurance and entitlement to benefits in material need. Croatia will receive as many Ukrainian refugees as needed, said Damir Trut, director of the Civil Protection Directorate at the country's Interior Ministry, on Sunday. He said that to date 63 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in Croatia, adding that his country had already prepared about 2,000 beds for them, but more will be added if needed. Austria, which has traditionally been reluctant to accept refugees, said that Ukrainian citizens will now be allowed to stay in Austria for 180 days without a visa. A fainted woman receives help at the Przemysl railway station in Przemysl, Poland, Feb. 27, 2022. Recently, a large number of Ukrainian people arrived in Przemysl by train. (Xinhua/Meng Dingbo) REGIONAL AND GLOBAL COORDINATION The member states of the European Union (EU) are already hosting over 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Sunday, adding that the 27-member bloc should "prepare for millions." The United Nations said that more than 160,000 people have reportedly been internally displaced in Ukraine. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed Amin Awad of Sudan as assistant secretary general to serve as UN crisis coordinator for Ukraine. Martin Griffiths, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said on Friday that his organization planned to raise more than one billion U.S. dollars in the next three months for humanitarian relief in Ukraine. In the U.S., the administration of President Joe Biden is also facing calls to take in Ukrainian refugees. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the president was "certainly prepared" to do so, but Washington believes that many refugees would want to go to European countries. Photo taken on Feb. 24, 2022 shows long lines of vehicles heading out of the city in Kiev, Ukraine. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua) She did not answer when asked by reporters whether the U.S. administration would offer Ukrainian students, workers and others currently staying in the U.S. temporary residency protection to ensure that they would not be deported when their visas expire. Regarding Ukraines capital under threat as Russia presses invasion (Feb. 25): The whole world is in an outcry because of Russia invading Ukraine, even though many people of Russian descent live in parts of Ukraine. The U.S. has imposed sanctions and condemned Russian actions, but in my opinion, it has made minimal effort to search for peace. Russia could very well be concerned about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at its back door. Weve done a good job of ensuring Eastern Europe is ready to fight Russia at any time, and yet we blame Russia for being concerned. FILE PHOTO: Biance app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration By Tom Wilson LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Crypto exchange Binance is blocking the accounts of any Russian clients targeted by sanctions, it told Reuters on Monday, but will not freeze the accounts of others after Ukraine called for a block on Russian users at major digital currency platforms. "We're blocking accounts of those on the sanctions list (if they have Binance accounts) and ensuring that all sanctions are met in full," a spokesperson for the company said on Monday, declining to give further details. The United States, Britain, Europe and Canada announced new sanctions on Russia on Saturday, including blocking certain lenders' access to the SWIFT international payment system, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Sunday he had requested major crypto exchanges to block the digital wallet addresses of Russian users, which allow transactions in crypto coins. Fedorov, who is also minister of digital transformation, had on Saturday offered a "generous reward" for information on digital wallets held by Russian and Belarusian politicians. "It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users," he wrote. A separate Binance representative told Reuters: "We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users' accounts. Crypto was meant to provide greater financial freedom for people across the globe." Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said last month it wanted to expand in Russia and neighbouring states. Russia is a major market for Binance, with over 113,000 members of its Russian-language Telegram channel. Since 2019, Binance has allowed users to deposit and withdraw Russian roubles via payments company Advcash. Advcash, which is headquartered in Belize, told Reuters that users would be able to continue to make instant deposits and withdrawals on Binance via its digital wallets. "On our platform, some users may experience limitations arising from sanctions imposed on specific banks," it added. "Making sure our services are transparent, fully regulated and provided in accordance with all applicable laws is and has always been our top priority." (Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Reuters in Moscow; Editing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan) FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny takes part in a rally to mark the 5th anniversary of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov's murder and to protest against proposed amendments to the country's constitution, in Moscow, Russia February (Reuters) -The movement of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on Monday for a campaign of civil disobedience to protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "Putin declared war on Ukraine and is trying to make everyone think that Ukraine was attacked by Russia, that is, by all of us. But that's not right," the Navalny team wrote on its Twitter account. "We must show that we do not support the war. We call on Russians to show civil disobedience. Do not be silent." Navalny, the most prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was jailed last year when he returned to Russia from Germany after recovering from what Western laboratory tests established was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia. Russia denied carrying out such an attack. Since then, authorities have clamped down even more tightly on his movement, and key figures have fled into exile after being designated by the authorities as "foreign agents". The OVD-Info group which monitors protests and arrests in Russia said 6,006 people had so far been arrested for anti-war demonstrations since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb.27 in what Putin said was a special operation to demilitarise and "denazify" the country. Ukraine and the West have dismissed that justification as baseless propaganda. (Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Mark Heinrich) FILE PHOTO: Members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces are seen, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, at a check point in the city of Zhytomyr, Ukraine February 27, 2022. REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi (Reuters) - A Ukrainian presidential adviser on Monday called for the retreat of all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory, including from the Crimea and Donbass regions, Ukraine news media reported. The report came as Russia and Ukraine began ceasefire talks on the Belarusian border. Ukrainian media later clarified that the reported comments were the personal opinion of the adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, who is not a member of the Ukrainian delegation. (Reporting by Reuters) Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. (Tribune News Service) A federal judge has granted an Air Force officer assigned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the Air Force over the service's rejection of a request for a religious exemption from the military's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Michael Poffenbarger, a second lieutenant assigned to the 455th Operational Support Squadron at Wright-Patterson, sued in January over what he said was the "perfunctory" denial of a request for a religious exemption. The suit filed last month sought and now has been granted a preliminary injunction against the Air Force from taking "punitive action" against Poffenbarger. U.S. District Judge Thomas Rose granted what he called a "relatively limited preliminary injunction" that "essentially preserves the status quo during the pendency of this matter to prevent defendants from imposing any further adverse action against Poffenbarger (only) for his refusal to comply with an order requiring him to receive a COVID-19 vaccine." "The court finds that, at this stage of the litigation and based on what has been presented, Poffenbarger has shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits of his claims," Rose wrote in the filing, which was issued Monday. According to background presented in the filing, Poffenbarger enlisted in the Air Force in 2005, serving two overseas deployments. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve in the fall of 2021. The Air Force does not permit unvaccinated members to attend an "intelligence technical school" where Rose said Poffenbarger must be trained. Last September, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, a defendant in the lawsuit, mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for Air Force members. One argument by Poffenbarger is that Kendall, while allowing medical and administrative exemptions to the vaccine mandate, "gave directives to commanders, through official and/or unofficial channels, that religious accommodations were not to be granted to the COVID-19 vaccination policy." Rose cites Air Force data from early February, saying the service had granted 1,513 temporary medical exemptions and 2,314 total administrative exemptions from the mandate but nine religious exemptions. The Air Force announced those exemptions after Poffenbarger filed his lawsuit in Cincinnati in January. Rose wrote that the Air Force denied Poffenbarger's request for an exemption, saying the "denial acknowledged the sincerity of his religious beliefs, but stated that mission readiness required Poffenbarger to receive COVID-19 vaccination." In a similar lawsuit also filed in Cincinnati's federal court in mid-February, Poffenbarger's attorney, Kentucky lawyer Chris Wiest, also represents at least 18 plaintiffs, of whom at least 10 officers and one enlisted Airman are said to serve, or recently have served, at Wright-Patterson. An Air Force spokeswoman recently told the Dayton Daily News that the service does not comment on litigation. But in an earlier filing with the court, the Air Force said vaccinations have "promoted readiness by reducing the risk of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths of service members." "An (COVID) outbreak at the secured facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base would likewise affect readiness," the Air Force said in a Jan. 31 filing. "The intelligence work performed by plaintiff's unit supports the work of aircrews at the base, including providing vital intelligence on 'current threat assessments, regional geopolitical trends, and a myriad of other classified topics based on the specific itinerary of the aircrew,' as well as 'receiv[ing] debriefs from returning aircrews to ensure the Intelligence section is providing the most up to date information and reports.'" (c)2022 Springfield News-Sun, Ohio Visit Springfield News-Sun, Ohio at www.springfieldnewssun.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday urged efforts to speed up fostering world-class enterprises and strengthen the cultivation of talents in basic academic disciplines. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while chairing the 24th meeting of the central commission for deepening overall reform. The meeting reviewed and adopted several guidelines on the above-mentioned issues, along with other suggestions on advancing high-quality development of inclusive finance and enhancing state-owned enterprises' (SOE) capabilities of developing original technology. China will accelerate the building of world-class enterprises with outstanding products and brands, leading innovation, and modern governance, said Xi, also head of the central commission for deepening overall reform. The country will promote high-quality development of inclusive finance and build a sound financial system, which is highly adaptable, competitive, and inclusive, to better meet diversified financial needs of the people and the real economy, said Xi. Xi also stressed efforts to train a large number of basic research talents urgently needed for China's innovation-driven development, and encouraged state-owned enterprises to improve their innovation systems and develop sources of original technologies, Xi noted. Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng, who are members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy heads of the central commission for deepening overall reform, attended the meeting. The meeting called for support and guidance for industry-leading enterprises and those possessing key technologies in deepening reform and strengthening innovation, and urged efforts to support enterprises in transforming the advantages of China's super-large market into a global competitive edge. In terms of pursuing the high-quality development of inclusive finance, the meeting stressed deepening supply-side structural reform in the financial sector to distribute more resources to key areas and weak links, preventing financial risks and strengthening financial regulations. The country should expedite the construction of a system for cultivating talents in basic academic disciplines with a long-term vision, and let higher-education institutions play their leading role in nurturing researchers in these disciplines, said the meeting. To promote the SOEs to establish cradles for original technologies, the meeting said efforts should be focused on core competitiveness of industries, supply of original technologies, and plan in advance for exploring cutting-edge and disruptive technologies. Potential U.S. Army enlistees will find a new deal on the table at recruiting offices nationwide. New active-duty recruits now have the option of selecting their first duty assignment following basic training, U.S. Army Recruiting Command announced in a statement Friday. The duty station of choice enlisted program is available at select bases in eight states and features 5,600 vacancies in 17 different career fields including infantry, cavalry, aviation and information technology. The program allows new soldiers to choose a station depending on personal preference, job compatibility and needs of the Army. The Army understands that having the option to stay closer to home and loved ones is a big deal, and its taking steps to make the decision easier on applicants, said Brig. Gen. John Cushing, the deputy commanding general for operations at U.S. Army Recruiting Command, in the statement. Available bases include Fort Carson, Colo.; Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Wash.; Fort Bliss and Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Polk, La.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; Fort Drum, N.Y.; and installations in Alaska. The list is subject to change based on the needs of the Army and the program does not apply to overseas locations, a spokesman for Army Recruiting told Stars and Stripes. The offer comes a month after the Army announced shorter two-year enlistment terms for 84 different career fields and larger cash sign-up bonuses in January. Depending on the military specialties they select, qualified people can receive up to a combined total of $50,000 in bonuses when they sign up for a six-year enlistment. The bonuses target career fields with large personnel needs, like the infantry, and fields with high attrition, such as Special Forces and Ranger school, which beckon recruits with up to $20,000. Other hard-to-fill jobs include radar repairers, truck drivers and missile defense crew members, the Army said. Active-duty recruiters finished 2021 with 106 more recruits than their goal of 57,500 new members, while the Army Reserve did not meet its goal for the fiscal year ending in September, according to the Army Recruiting Command. Incentives are intended to keep pace with the private sector, Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, who leads the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said in the Army statement. We want to promote the value in serving your country, but at the same time, were not oblivious to the compensation piece, Vereen said. Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. One by one, Hong Kong's government is being forced to move away from key pillars of its strict COVID Zero strategy as a surge in new cases overwhelms the under-prepared health-care system. Patients with mild cases are no longer sent to hospital or isolation facilities as there's no space; instead they're asked to stay home until they test negative with rapid antigen tests which people often need to buy themselves. Close contacts, no longer identified by the city's elaborate contact tracing process, are moving around freely though they're technically supposed to home quarantine for at least a week. The app used to flag locations with confirmed cases has suspended risk alerts. Gold-standard lab tests have been largely dropped, with at-home rapid tests taking their place. This rapid erosion of core COVID Zero practices shows the difficulty of maintaining an approach that seeks to wipe out the virus when faced with more infectious strains like omicron. Hong Kong reported a record 34,466 new cases on Monday and 87 deaths, making the outbreak much bigger than any the zero-tolerance approach pioneered by China has ever quelled. Hospitals are inundated and the city's morgues are nearly full, with bodies of those who died from COVID left in emergency wards and hallways. Deaths are climbing because the elderly lack protection via vaccines. Less than a third of those aged 80 or above have had two doses. In another concession, the government said Monday that international schools would be able to maintain their original academic schedule. Officials last week announced plans to bring forward summer holidays as they seek to use school campuses as testing sites. Officials maintain that the recent relaxations are just temporary, until isolation and testing capacities are beefed up with China's help. Beijing is sending in Liang Wannian, the leader of its pandemic response since the first outbreak in Wuhan. It's also funding the swift construction of makeshift hospitals and quarantine centers. Compulsory mass testing, essential to rooting out cases on the mainland, gets underway next month. But it remains to be seen whether these measures can eliminate a surge of this magnitude. Publicly, Hong Kong is steadfastly committed to COVID Zero, or the "dynamic zero" strategy, as Beijing has started calling it. Border restrictions and mandatory traveler quarantines the most obvious hallmarks of the policy remain firmly in place, isolating the financial hub from the rest of the world even though just seven of Sunday's infections were imported cases. Flight bans on nine countries, including the U.S. and U.K., have been extended until late April. Under the latest government guidelines, newly infected people are free to leave their homes once they test negative twice, provided they've received at least two doses of a COVID vaccine. That can be as soon as a week after first testing positive. There is currently no way for infected people to report results using rapid tests to the government, although officials are working to roll out an online reporting system this week. Measures like electronic tracking bracelets may be introduced, according to local media reports. The government's pandemic adviser David Hui urged residents to stock up on medical supplies such as Panadol and rapid test kits, the South China Morning Post reported. Yet pharmacies are running out of flu and cold medicines. In many ways, Hong Kong is living with the virus in the same way ex-COVID Zero adherents Singapore, Australia and now New Zealand are based on the case numbers and the way tracking methods are being relinquished. The difference is those places made a concerted and well-telegraphed pivot to the endemic path, one that Beijing has so far refused to do. Torrejon Air Base, Spain, May 1964: Ann-Margret poses next to a plane from the 497th Fighter Interceptor Squadron on the flight line at Torrejon. The actress who would visit many more military facilities over the years on USO tours and become a favorite of servicemembers was in Spain for the filming of "The Pleasure Seekers," which also starred Carol Lynley and Pamela Tiffin. Her most recent release was the Elvis Presley film, "Viva Las Vegas." CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea North Korea conducted an important test of a reconnaissance satellite to verify the capabilities of its high-definition photographing and data-transmission systems, its state-run news agency said Monday. The countrys aerospace and military science organizations conducted the test, according to the Korean Central News Agency. KCNAs report did not include photographs of the launch but had pictures of Earth from space that it said were taken by cameras loaded on the reconnaissance satellite. The test is of great significance in developing the reconnaissance satellite, KCNA claimed in its report. The communist regime on Sunday launched what South Koreas military believes was a ballistic missile off its eastern coast around 7:52 a.m. The missile, according to the Souths military, flew about 186 miles at a peak altitude of 385 miles. The Japan Coast Guard also confirmed the launch and its specifications. South Koreas Ministry of Unification in a statement Saturday expressed deep concern for the launch, which comes at a time when peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula are paramount. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command released a statement Sunday condemning the launch and assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies. Pyongyang in recent years has tested several rockets it claimed to be part of its satellite program. The programs stated purpose is to observe and collect data while in orbit, as well as transmit the hymns of North Korean leaders, according to analysts at 38 North, a North Korea-monitoring website run by the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. Several countries, including the United States, have assessed that North Korea uses its space launches as cover for ballistic missile tests. The U.N. Security Council sanctions North Korea and bans it from test-firing such weapons. Following a satellite launch attempt in 2012, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement described the move as deplorable. North Korea conducted seven rounds of missile tests so far this year, including the Jan. 30 launch of a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam. NAHA, Okinawa A U.S. Marine received a 2 -year suspended sentence Monday in a Japanese court after pleading guilty to attempting to smuggle cannabis liquid into the country last summer. Lance Cpl. Scott Drebsky, 21, admitted violating Japans Cannabis Control Act and Customs Law in his first appearance in Naha District Court. He apologized for not respecting Japanese law and tradition. At that time, I was not thinking clearly, and I made a mistake, he told sentencing Judge Tatsuto Sakamoto. His attorney argued that Drebsky wanted the cannabis for his personal use only. On Aug. 20, customs officials at the Camp Kinser post office intercepted a package with a quarter-ounce of liquid cannabis meant for Drebsky, a spokeswoman for Naha District Public Prosecutors Office told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday. Drebsky had a gram of the liquid on him Aug. 27 when authorities confronted him at Camp Schwab, the spokeswoman said. Drebsky was indicted Dec. 2. Japanese government spokespeople customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity. Sakamoto sentenced Drebsky to 2 years with hard labor but suspended the sentence for four years. He likely will not serve jail time unless convicted again in Japan. Prosecutors asked for strict punishment for Drebsky importing the cannabis liquid, which was sent from Illinois on Aug. 10 by unidentified individuals. The package arrived at Kadena Air Base on Aug. 19. Drebsky is the fourth Marine to appear in Japanese courts on Okinawa in February on cannabis-smuggling charges. Cpl. Nicholas Garner, of Camp Foster, received two years in prison with hard labor and a $4,344 fine in Naha District Court on Feb. 18 after pleading guilty to having a half-gallon of cannabis liquid mailed to him in June. In a separate case, Cpl. Deshane Fox and Lance Cpl. Alfred Johnson pleaded guilty Feb. 17 to attempting to import just over a quarter-pound of marijuana and about 4 grams of cannabis liquid through the mail in April. They are scheduled for sentencing on March 8. CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa Guam residents are no longer required to show vaccination proof at restaurants, bars and many other establishments as the number of COVID-19 cases on the U.S. island territory continues to fall. Gov. Lou Leon Guerreros order lifting the proof-of-vaccination mandate for covered establishments on the U.S. territory took effect at 6 a.m. Saturday. Guerrero cited Guams high vaccination rates and the downward trend in cases in her decision to lift the mandate, her spokeswoman, Krystal Paco-San Agustin, told Stars and Stripes by email Monday. This is a huge step for Guam and really messages to our people that we're making a slow and gradual return to normalcy, Paco-San Agustin said. The order also applies to food courts, movie theaters, fitness centers, concerts, boat cruises and participation in organized sports. However, some measures, including social distancing, remain in effect. Anyone age 2 and older must wear a mask outdoors in public; venues must limit occupancy to 25 people indoors and 100 outdoors, according to a memo Friday from the islands Department of Public Health and Social Services. While we have not been given the all clear from the ongoing Omicron surge, our latest data is very promising, Guerrero said in her statement. This is because of you, your family and our collective commitment to stopping this virus. More than 95% of Guams eligible population is vaccinated and 52% is boosted, the governor said. The situation on Guam is improving overall, Paco-San Agustin wrote in her email. She said the governor is cautiously optimistic that omicron could be on the decline. New COVID-19 cases are down, and hospital admissions are stable at 30 to 33. Guam has recorded 462 new cases since Saturday and 33 hospitalizations, according to data Monday from the islands Joint Information Center. There were six deaths reported between Wednesday and Sunday. Guam has confirmed 45,573 cases and 328 deaths so far during the pandemic, the information center reported. There are 3,112 people in quarantine and one on a ventilator. U.S. Naval Hospital Guam has two hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the information center. Fifty-three of the cases reported Monday stem from the Department of Defense. Guerreros priority throughout the pandemic has been protecting the island territorys hospitals, Paco-San Agustin said. She said hospital officials report the situation remains manageable. Guam continues to offer testing and vaccination clinics across the island and has targeted homeless and vulnerable populations for medical care, Paco-San Agustin said. If the downward trend continues, Guerrero could lift additional restrictions soon. Do not let your guards down, Guerrero said in her statement. If we sustain our downward trend, we can look forward to returning, gradually and safely, to our way of life. TOKYO The coronavirus mounted a comeback Monday in Japans capital city, accounting for more than 800 new cases than it did one week prior, according to metropolitan government data and public broadcaster NHK. Tokyo confirmed another 9,632 infections on Monday, according to NHK and metro data. New cases Saturday and Sunday totaled 21,883; daily numbers were lower than the previous week, metro data show. Japan reported 63,623 new cases and 144 deaths on Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The countrys new case numbers have fallen steadily from 101,084 on Feb. 8. U.S. Forces Japan on Friday reported 102 new COVID-19 cases, including nine individuals awaiting confirmation, at 16 installations. The command last reported 90 new cases on Feb. 18. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, south of Hiroshima, accounted for 15 cases, the lions share of Fridays roundup. On Monday, the air station reported 17 individuals tested positive for the coronavirus respiratory disease between Friday and Sunday, according to a news release. Yokosuka Naval Base, the 7th Fleets homeport south of Tokyo, reported 13, according to USFJ. Kadena Air Base on Okinawa had 12, according to USFJ. The base reported 71 active cases on its website Monday. Okinawa prefecture reported 422 new cases Monday, 586 on Sunday and 854 on Saturday, according to the prefectural Department of Public Health and Medical Care. Another 116 people in the U.S. military population on Okinawa also tested positive between Saturday and Monday, according to the department. Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributed to this report. With petitions, poetry and one-man protests, a small but increasingly bold contingent of Chinese residents has spoken out against Moscow's incursions against Ukraine directly contradicting their own government's firm support of its Russian partner. While such voices have been nearly drowned out by a deafening chorus of pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment, their opinions show opposition to China's new tilt toward Russia as it seeks to shore up the alliance to counter Western influence. Local media reported on Monday that a man in Hangzhou held up a sign that read: "Stop War" in English. In Chinese, he wrote, "Please do not support war in Ukraine." On WeChat, Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua published a new poem, titled "I pray a poem can stop a tank." In an open letter published on Saturday, a group of professors from universities in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao called on Russia to stop the war. "As a country that was once ravaged by war, where families were destroyed where everywhere people were dying of starvation ... We sympathize with the pain of the Ukrainian people," it said. On Monday, a petition condemning the invasion of Ukraine was signed by 121 alumni from several of China's top universities, according to a copy provided by one of its organizers. The petition called on the Chinese government to honor commitments made to Ukraine under U.N. Resolution 984, which gave security assurances to countries without nuclear weapons. "We resolutely support the righteous fight of the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression. We demand that the international community maintain and respect the territorial integrity, the national dignity, and the sovereignty of Ukraine," the statement said. In the days since the invasion, Chinese social media has been dominated by a flood of nationalistic voices following the official line blaming the United States and its Western allies for the crisis. The overwhelming pro-Russia sentiment, as well as the few pro-Ukrainian voices, underline the delicate position that Chinese leaders are in as they try to navigate a geopolitical landscape where Beijing has little experience. China has been walking a fine line between maintaining solidarity with Moscow while not directly endorsing the attack an approach that has earned it criticism from other countries as well as Chinese citizens. State media have refrained from characterizing Russia's measures as an invasion. Over the weekend, state broadcaster CCTV repeated Russian misinformation reporting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had fled the country. The broadcaster later updated its report to say the source of the information had not been verified. While the anti-American sentiment online broadly agrees with the official Chinese position, some of the postings have become too extreme for official appetites, not the least because of fears it could exacerbate anti-Chinese views in Ukraine where thousands of Chinese nationals await evacuation. Since Friday, WeChat, Weibo and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok have all said they have started cracking down on "inappropriate content" while China's official People's Daily implored Internet users to "speak rationally." Chinese Internet users have praised the speed and capability of the Russian military apparently working off the Moscow's characterizations of the fighting and hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin for standing up to the West. Putin's long, angry speech ordering military action trended on the microblog Weibo last week after it was promoted by the nationalist Global Times. In vulgar posts later censored, many users called for Ukrainian women to be sent to China for safety while others jokingly called for joining the war effort to "get more academic credit." On Weibo, users expressed surprise that when they learned that some of their Russian counterparts actually opposed the war. "This is the brainwashing of Western color revolutions," one user wrote, referring to the official Russian and increasingly Chinese view that the popular revolutions in Eastern Europe against pro-Moscow regimes in the 2000s were orchestrated by the West. "These people don't realize how good they have it," another said. Wang Di, chair professor at the department of history at the University of Macao who signed the statement by academics released on Saturday, said the volume of such warmongering views had motivated him to sign. "There's a worry that the international community may be misled into thinking there is only one voice in China," he said. "Many people admire Putin because of nationalism or belief in 'strong men' leaders, and this is what is most scary. If China one day is faced with a choice, will it choose peace or war?" Antiwar views have been met with derision online, with critics referring to such peace proponents as sanctimonious "Virgin Marys" or as hypocrites that oppose all wars except those launched by the United States. "What I am against is aggression. Ordinary people participate in war and their lives are ruined by war. War consumes real human lives," said Huang, 25, working in biomedicine in Quzhou in Zhejiang province, who gave only her surname out of concern for security. Sun Jiang, professor of history and political science at Nanjing University, who helped draft the open letter signed by professors, said that China must oppose the war or else it will be going against its own principles as well as that of the international system. "Regardless of Russia's thousands of excuses, the use of force to invade a sovereign country is a violation of the norms of international relations," he said. The letter he signed concludes with the line, "peace begins with the desire in one's heart. We oppose unjust war." Censors appear worried about pro-peace views as well. Posts about antiwar protests in Russia have disappeared from WeChat and videos originally published on the news aggregator Toutiao appear to have been removed. The statement Sun drafted has been removed and the account that posted it has been closed for "violating regulations." The Washington Post's Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei and Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report. Photo taken on Feb. 25, 2022 shows the main building of Bank of Russia in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn) The Treasury Department said that the U.S. government has banned transactions by U.S. persons with the Russian central bank, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation and the Russian Ministry of Finance. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday announced a fresh round of sanctions targeting Russia's central bank, the country's financial tools as well as a relevant individual, in response to Moscow's ongoing military operations in Ukraine. The Treasury Department said in a statement that the U.S. government has banned transactions by U.S. persons with the Russian central bank, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation and the Russian Ministry of Finance. "This action effectively immobilizes any assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation held in the United States or by U.S. persons, wherever located," read the statement, according to which certain energy-related transactions will be exempted from the just-announced sanctions. Those business dealings are still being allowed via a forthcoming general license. In addition, Treasury also sanctioned the Russian Direct Investment Fund -- a key Russian sovereign wealth fund -- its management company, and one of the managing company's subsidiaries. Also on the sanction list is the managing company's chief executive officer, Kirill Dmitriev, who the department said is a "known ally" of President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The measures will further restrict "these persons and entities from the U.S. financial system," the statement said. Photo taken on Feb. 25, 2022 shows the main building of Bank of Russia in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn) The United States, together with its European and other allies, on Saturday announced one of the stiffest economic sanctions against Russia since it launched the military operations in Ukraine, removing certain "selected" Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system that most financial institutions worldwide rely on to make international transactions. Elvira Nabiullina, the Russian central bank chief, said Monday that Russia has developed its own financial messaging system, known as SPFS, to replace SWIFT, so that the Russian financial infrastructure will run smoothly in the current environment, according to reports by Russia's TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies. Nabiullina said the central bank will take all necessary measures to support domestic banks and ensure financial and price stability in Russia. She said international payment cards issued by sanctioned Russian banks will continue to operate as usual inside Russia. Spouses of American service members and civilians in Europe are stepping up efforts to help Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion, while helping some in their communities cope with fears for their loved ones in Ukraine. In Belgium, a spouses group formed on Facebook will collect clothes, blankets and other donations every Thursday from 4-7 p.m. at the gym at U.S. Army Garrison Benelux in Chievres, said Claire Carter, who is helping to organize the effort. Volunteers will transport the supplies to the Ukrainian Embassy in Brussels, about 35 miles away, every Friday to be delivered, she said. On its Facebook page, the embassy posted a list of useful donation items including clothes, generators, various medicines and medical supplies. The spouses group is also trying to get solar battery chargers for cellphones to Ukraine so that soldiers can communicate with each other and with their family members. We are in touch with families who have fled Lviv (in western Ukraine) and are now in Poland, but they cant keep in touch with their husbands and they are pleading for solar chargers, Carter said. Group members have been writing to companies like Amazon and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service to ask for chargers, but as of Monday had no confirmed donations from them. The spouses have purchased 15, but each device costs $70 and we need hundreds, Carter said. Meanwhile, at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, two Ukrainian women married to Americans are spearheading a separate donation drive. They will collect donations Friday at 4 p.m. in the parking lot outside the bases west gate, by the Ramstein air show disaster memorial. Evgeniya Cole, 38, and Anya Douglas, 37, are asking for items that friends and family in Ukraine say are desperately needed. They need bandages, rubbing alcohol and other disinfectants, over-the-counter painkillers, cotton balls, sanitary pads, thermometers, medical gloves, diapers and baby wipes, batteries, blankets, gloves and nonperishable snacks. They also are supplying medical and hygienic supplies for combatants, along with flashlights and binoculars. In Dubno, where Coles parents live in western Ukraine, the electricity is turned off at night and the soldiers cannot see, she said. A Ukrainian friend of Coles who lives in Poznan, Poland, has offered to pick up the donations Saturday in her construction companys van and drive them to the Ukraine border, where volunteers will distribute them in Ukraine with buses, Cole said. Shes trying to arrange additional transportation in case of an overflow of donations. Hundreds of people expressed interest to help after Cole posted a request for donations on a local spouses Facebook page over the weekend. The needs are pressing, despite the millions in money and supplies being donated by other countries to Ukraine, Douglas said. My mom was in Kyiv in a bomb shelter freezing for three days because there were no blankets, she said. Douglas mom and her 85-year-old grandmother returned to their apartment Monday in the countrys capital to shower and gather their belongings. They had been hiding in a subway converted into a bomb shelter since Saturday night, Douglas said. Im still in disbelief that this happened. We have not used the word bomb shelter for how many years? she said. Douglas plans to drive from Ramstein to pick up her mother and grandmother if they can get to the border by train. The organized donation drive by spouses in Belgium follows an ad hoc collection by Americans at the Benelux garrison and the surrounding NATO community, which resulted in several busloads of aid leaving for Ukraine on Sunday. With the recent influx of refugees from Afghanistan to Ramstein Air Base, we had some experience with the collecting for refugees and anticipating their needs, said Valerie Avella, one of the groups organizers, whose great-grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine and who still has family in the country. The Ukrainian militarys needs are much more significant and pressing. Members across NATOs Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, or SHAPE, community participated in this weekends donation drive, in which supplies were bused to Ukraine independently with the help of a local Ukrainian church near the Belgian city of Mons. The church, Chapelle Ukrainienne de la Protection de la Vierge Marie, will continue to collect donations. Members of the spouses group said any help at their Thursday donation drive would be appreciated. People are also welcome to come out for support. When the invasion first happened, there were a lot of tears from the ladies, Carter said. A lot were worried. Whats going to happen to Europe? Is it going to escalate? So we are going to collect donations on Thursdays, and we are also going to sit and have coffee and talk and reassure anyone who is worried. We are making sure the spouses are taken care of because its a worrying time for everybody. (Tribune News Service) Defiant defenders of Ukraines Snake Island who told a Russian warship to go ---- yourself are alive after reports of their deaths, the Ukrainian navy says. The 13 Snake Island soldiers were taken captive by Russian occupiers, Ukraine confirmed on Monday, Feb. 28. This comes four days after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on three fronts early Thursday, Feb. 24, bombarding cities, towns and villages. We are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive and well, the Ukrainian navy wrote of its marines and border guards stationed on the island, also known as the island of Zmiinyi. Initially, they were believed to have been killed by Russian forces on Feb. 24, Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, according to CNN. However, connection with the island was cut off since the invading Russians completely destroyed the islands infrastructure: lighthouse, carnations, antennas, etc., the Ukrainian navy said, and attempts to contact those on the island were futile. Russian propaganda tries to twist the news about the fact that the Ukrainian authorities forgotten, buried their fellows, the navy added. The audio of the exchange between the Russian warship and the soldiers on Snake Island made headlines worldwide. Snake Island, I am a Russian warship. I suggest you lay down your arms and surrender. Otherwise, you will be hit. Do you copy?, Russian forces are heard saying, according to the audio shared by The Guardian and other outlets. Well, this is it, a Ukrainian soldier is heard speaking to his comrades. Should I tell him to go ---- himself? Just in case, another soldier responds. Russian warship, go ---- yourself, the soldier tells the Russians in defiance. Ukraines navy said in its statement that the sailors bravely rebuked twice the attacks of the Russian invaders. We are looking forward to our brothers and with all our soul. Snake Island is in the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine and Romania. On Feb. 28, Russias invasion of Ukraine continued as Ukrainian forces stalled Russian troops encroaching on its major cities, such as its capital Kyiv, The Associated Press reported. Officials from both nations sat down with each other at the border with neighboring nation Belarus, according to the outlet, after Belarus showed support for Russias invasion, McClatchy News reported. At least 352 Ukrainian citizens have died in the conflict as of Feb. 27, McClatchy News reported. Russias President Vladimir Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering, President Joe Biden said on Feb. 23. 2022 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. KORCZOWA, Poland Raymond Heckard, an Oklahoma City native who calls Ukraine home, stepped off a bus packed with refugees, dazed and exhausted after days of travel to reach the Polish border. Im looking for a welcome center for Americans, the 58-year-old said aloud, looking for direction from anyone within earshot amid the chaotic swarm of people. Heckard, an English teacher who arrived at the border crossing in Korczowa, Poland, on Sunday afternoon with his Ukrainian wife and daughter, made the 200-mile trip from Khmelnytskyi, a city in western Ukraine roughly halfway between Lviv and Kyiv. The trip was a stop-and-go journey of multiple hitched rides, traffic jams and roadside campfires at night to stay warm, they said. But with what is going on, we felt it was better to leave now (rather) than later, he said. If the Russians dont stop, theres going to be nothing to go back to. Heckard was among the tens of thousands of evacuees from Ukraine following Russias invasion, which also has prompted the Pentagon to send thousands of extra troops to Poland to be available to assist with an influx of refugees if called upon. Since the full-scale invasion started Thursday, more than 500,000 people have left Ukraine, according to the United Nations, with nearly half crossing into Poland. Others have sought refuge in Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Polish officials have said the country could take in up to 1 million people if needed. Heckards daughter, Maria, teared up as she spoke about the life she was leaving behind in Kyiv, possibly for good. When explosions rocked Ukraines capital last week, she and a friend raced out of Kyiv by car, heading for her hometown like thousands of others who fled the city as fighting intensified. The feeling was shock and panic, said Maria, 20. At the Korczowa border crossing, refugees board buses and are taken to a nearby industrial area, which has been transformed into a site where some people link up with waiting family members. Mixed in with the flood of people have been a smattering of American expatriates like Heckard. In anticipation that some Americans could be lost in the confusion of the unfolding crisis, the U.S. Embassy in Poland set up a small welcome center at the SPA Hotel Gloria in Przemysl, not far from the Ukrainian border. After arriving at the border crossing, the Heckards were going to make the U.S. welcome center their next stop, which meant 20 miles more to go. Stars and Stripes reporters who overheard Raymond Heckard asking for help gave the family a ride. At the embassy center, Americans in transit can get refreshments and help with planning their next steps. For the Heckards, the plan was to take a 3-hour train ride to Krakow and search for a hotel there, because rooms are hard to come by near the border. His wife, Irina, said the family isnt sure where to go next. Since she doesnt have a U.S. visa, they could move to Israel, where she has family, if going back to Ukraine isnt a viable option, she said. Everything they could carry from their lives in Kyiv and Khmelnytskyi was packed into four suitcases. The family cat, named Romeo, was carried along too. The breakneck speed of global warming exceeds the pace of efforts to protect billions of vulnerable people, according to a new report released Monday by the world's top climate scientists. The report warns of a growing mismatch between rising temperatures and slow, fragmented efforts to adapt, leaving little time for catching up before "a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity" is sealed shut. "With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, calling the 3,500-page document "an atlas of human suffering" and an indictment of a "criminal" "abdication of leadership." To underscore the challenges to global cooperation, Russia's military invasion of Ukraine will likely overshadow the first major report in nearly eight years on climate vulnerability. This is the second doorstop document released in less than six months from the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with two additional reports expected before the end of the year. Researchers in the latest volume focused on the unpreparedness of nations to cope with climate instability and compounding stressors from higher temperatures, now at 1.1 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Among the findings in the new report: The effects of melting glaciers and thawing permafrost in some areas are "approaching irreversibility." Half the world is already living with "severe water scarcity" during part of the year. A worldwide rise in heat-related illness and death, with more food-borne and infectious disease, can be expected without adaptation. Agricultural productivity growth has slowed, and weather extremes have put millions of people's food security at risk. In land ecosystems as many as 14% of animal species studied will likely face a "very high" risk of extinction at a warming level of 1.5 C. Choices made in the next decade will determine how much hardship we can avoid. Warming beyond that level "would cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards," the authors write. Clawing temperatures back down after passing 1.5 C an extremely tall task would still leave potentially irreversible damage. A group of more than 270 scientists and 675 contributors from around the world examined every major natural and human domain, including freshwater, coasts, cities, agriculture, health, and poverty. Their consensus findings, approved in a 36-page summary by delegates from 195 countries, assert that severe consequences of climate change are already visible across the board in unprecedented heat waves, rising sea levels, and record-breaking wildfires. They also show that strategic adaptation can save lives. A substantial change since the last version of this report, released in 2014, is that many projections about how climate change will unfold have been subsumed by observations about how it already has. "We are so used to talking of climate change in the future tense," said Aditi Mukherji, principal researcher at the International Water Management Institute and co-chief author of the IPCC's chapter on water. "All of us need to stop talking of climate change in a future tense. You have to say climate change has happened." New research published over the past several years has allowed the IPCC in this report to better understand how the fundamental health of societies can impede or enhance climate adaptation. Taken together, non-climate factors like consistent laws and policies, economic conditions, finance and people's access to basic resources are likely to play as critical a role in the impact of climate change as the direct effects of warming itself. That's because the same amount of warming will have different consequences depending on how well prepared people are to face it. What might the world look like after 2 C of warming above pre-industrial levels, the higher limit that nations agreed to in the Paris Agreement? "I say, it depends," said Brian O'Neill, director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute in Maryland and a chief author of the IPCC's chapter on future risks. "That question can't be answered unless you also tell me, well, what are we assuming about the condition of society?" Current national policies put the world on track for an average estimate of 2.7 C warming by 2100, according to Climate Impact Tracker. That projection goes down to 2.4 C if countries meet their official goals and even lower but still too high if pledges to zero out emissions by mid-century are met. But those climate outcomes will be shaped by the ability of leaders to implement agreements. If the world is awash in nationalism and military conflict, or racked with poverty and inequality, "that's a big problem," O'Neill said. "And if we're doing really well in all those aspects of development, then the risks are a lot lower." Finance, business and trade enriched the industrialized world and continue to lift millions from poverty. But without transformation at a scale never before seen, the engines of economic growth will also drive ever-more dangerous global heating, eroding many decades of gains. The scientists are newly confident that an increase of more than 1.5 C would undercut the potential for many kinds of successful adaptation, and open up a new world of risk for every fraction of a degree beyond it. To avoid what the IPCC terms "cascading and compounding" damages to human and natural systems, the world must move from sluggish, piecemeal adaptation measures to a sweeping program of anticipatory, resilient planning and development. This requires cooperation across sectors of society and at every level of governance and very quickly, before the world exceeds temperature limits. In the near term, the report stated, climate risks are more closely tied to vulnerabilities built into social systems than to what emissions trajectory the world follows. Further delays to both cutting emissions and adaptation will become increasingly costly, for physical and economic reasons. Scientists have a word that describes what happens if nations miss their pollution limits and the world heats up past 1.5 C: "overshoot." Implicit in this idea is that by using nature or technology to draw down greenhouse-gas levels, people can return the temperature back below the limit. The new IPCC report warns even if nations are able to do that a big if there will still be "additional severe risks," some of which are "irreversible" compared to scenarios without overshoot. This fact informs the physical limitation to climate adaptation and shapes the IPCC's guidance to reduce emissions as quickly as possible. Cuts today are much more valuable than the same cuts in five or 10 years. It also takes less money to prevent damage than to recover from it. Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Netherlands-based Global Center on Adaptation, estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa will require agriculture and food system adaptation that costs $15 billion a year. But damage from not adapting to worsening conditions there could run more than $200 billion a year. Questions of injustice and inequality are prominent in the report, with particular focus on people disadvantaged by what the IPCC describes as "historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism, especially for many Indigenous Peoples and local communities." The latest IPCC report looks at kinds of climate research that can be fuzzier than the physics-heavy first installment. It's one thing to state how much of a heat wave is attributable to climate change; the answer depends on historical weather data and atmospheric physics. It's another to estimate how many people may have died as a result of a heat wave because so many non-climatic factors that play a role: urban design, air-conditioning penetration, the health of the population. While humans are adapting to warmer conditions, it's not happening fast enough. One big problem is lack of funding, particularly for poorer countries. Rich nations have repeatedly failed to meet their pledge of $100 billion a year in climate aid. But the report also pointed out the further challenge of putting resources into smart adaptations. The report flagged well-intentioned projects, such as sea walls meant to protect against rising oceans that may increase exposure to hazards in the long term. Irrigation meant to counteract drought manages to keep food growing while sometimes depleting precious groundwater. Where adaptation has occurred, the report noted, projects are often either short-sighted or closer to development than deployment. The report classifies the lack of adaptation finance as a "soft" limit; physical roadblocks such as how fast shorelines encroach on cities or the availability of freshwater are "hard" limits. For instance, smallholder farmers in many regions of the world have already reached the "soft" limits of adaptation, meaning they're out of available options. "Adaptation isn't happening at the pace it needs to happen, and finance is the main reason," Mukherji said. Harder limits to adaptation will grow more pronounced the longer nations wait to begin. Controversial emergency measures, such as reflecting solar energy by seeding the upper atmosphere with chemicals, are still too poorly understood to be relied on and would not address the causes of warming, according to the scientists. That and a world of other solutions await their own comprehensive analysis when the IPCC's next group reports in just over a month. ANKARA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkey warned on Monday warships of both Black Sea and non-Black Sea countries not to pass through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits in line with the Montreux Convention. "We have alerted all riparian and non-riparian countries against having their warships pass through the straits," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters after a cabinet meeting. "We implemented what Montreux says, and we will do so from now on. There has been no passage or a request for passage through the straits until today," he said. However, if the warship is returning to its base in the Black Sea, the passage can not be blocked, the Turkish minister noted. Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Turkey has control over the naval transit through Bosporus and Dardanelles connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The accord allows Turkey to cut off transit of military vessels through the straits during wartime, except for those that return to their bases. LOS ANGELES Teams of Department of Veterans Affairs employees, wearing reflective vests and carrying flashlights, assembled at each corner of the VA campus in West Los Angeles on Wednesday night with the mission to find and count every homeless veteran within the 388-acre site. Dressed in coats, gloves and hats on what was an abnormally cold night for Southern California, about 50 people trekked through wooded areas, parking lots and along stretches of grass abutting Interstate 405. The teams dodged holes left in the dirt by ground squirrels and gophers as they searched crevices between buildings and behind heating and air-conditioning units. It was their responsibility to lay eyes on every square foot of their zone, looking for tents or other makeshift dwellings where veterans could be. One group of seven logged nine veterans. They were assigned to the south side of campus surrounding the main hospital, and all the veterans in their zone were staying inside their vehicles in a safe parking lot, where theyre allowed to sleep overnight and are provided restrooms and security. Los Angeles County estimates roughly 15,700 people about 25% of the areas homeless population sleep in their vehicles nightly. Safe Parking LA operates nine lots in the greater Los Angeles area, including one on the VA campus. About 220 people stay on their lots every night. By you going out in this area where theres a lot of concentration of veteran homelessness, it helps us to paint this picture of what were trying to do, Steven Braverman, director of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, told the teams before they scattered across the campus. It helps us to set goals, it helps us to get funding, it helps us to know where we need to go in order to ultimately eliminate veteran homelessness. The effort, known as the point-in-time count, is typically held every year but was on hiatus after the coronavirus pandemic began nearly two years ago. The endeavor resumed this year, and thousands of volunteers combed the nation in January and February to count the countrys homeless population. Information from the count will be shared with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and used as the basis for federal, state and local governments to allocate funding and other resources to fight homelessness. Veterans experience homelessness at a disproportionately high rate compared with the rest of the population. Two years ago, the count showed 10% of all homeless veterans in the U.S. resided in Los Angeles County. During the past four months, VA Secretary Denis McDonough has put more focus toward housing veterans in Los Angeles, hoping any progress there would create momentum to end veteran homelessness nationwide. Before scattering across the West Los Angeles VA Campus on Wednesday night, employees congregated in an administrative building, where they were assigned to zones and taught how to upload their counts into a mobile app, which would automatically be shared with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The secretary of the VA has made it very clear that from his perspective, were the center of the veteran homelessness universe, Braverman told the group. We have the most homeless veterans of any other community. ... If we can succeed here, the VA can succeed anywhere. Los Angeles is expected to release their results in May or June, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will issue a full report, with veteran-specific data, this fall. McDonough started his efforts in Los Angeles by promising to get all homeless veterans living in the area known as veterans row into housing by Nov. 1, 2021. About 40 people were living along veterans row, a homeless encampment just outside the West Los Angeles campus, when McDonough visited the facility in October. In addition to eliminating veterans row, he urged local VA officials to house another 500 homeless veterans in Los Angeles in time for the holidays. The VA surpassed those goals and got more than 700 veterans into temporary or permanent housing by the end of 2021. Some individuals living along veterans row moved inside VA grounds, where they now sleep in 8-by-8-foot shelters. McDonough traveled to Los Angeles last week to see the progress and build a greater sense of urgency for homelessness efforts at the campus. I feel like our team is doing very important work, but that doesnt mean theres not work left to be done there is, he said. What remains is for us to underscore that we will not tolerate the idea that theres a homeless veteran in this country. When we internalize that and we apply urgency we have all the other ingredients to get it done. In Los Angeles County, where there were about 67,000 homeless people in 2020, the point-in-time count was a three-day effort. McDonough joined Thursday and counted encampments in Skid Row, a neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles. Within the neighborhoods five city blocks is one of the largest communities of homeless people in the country. McDonough was part of a group that included Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. They crisscrossed through a section of Skid Row while staff of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority tallied the number of people they came across. Some individuals in Skid Row huddled around small fires, rested against buildings or slept on flattened cardboard. In a few shelters, televisions played or music blasted. McDonoughs group, which totaled a dozen people followed by three security vehicles, drew attention from some of the people settling in there for the night. They yelled a greeting or inquired about what was happening, looking wary. After about two hours, the group had counted about 100 tents, campervans and other makeshift shelters. McDonough said Thursday that he didnt want to speculate about what the count might reveal about the number of homeless veterans in and around Los Angeles. As of January 2020 the time of the last complete count 3,681 homeless veterans were living in Los Angeles County, a slight increase from 2019. Los Angeles didnt conduct a full point-in-time count in 2021 because of the pandemic. However, the Department of Housing and Urban Development released results of a limited count, which logged only people living in emergency shelters or temporary lodging. The results of that count, which were released earlier this month, showed a 10% drop in the number of veterans in homeless shelters. On a single night in January 2021, 19,750 veterans were staying in emergency shelters or temporary housing, down from 22,048 in 2020. However, HUD emphasized the limited scope of last years count meant its findings werent completely reliable and didnt reflect the full impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of homelessness. The numbers could be even more unreliable for determining the scope of veteran homelessness in Los Angeles, where 76% of the homeless veterans counted in 2020 were living on the street. Given the gaps in data since 2020, the information collected last week is vital for the VAs policymaking, McDonough said. By being here on the street, carrying out these counts, we want to demonstrate that were very serious about this, he said. We take very seriously not only the challenge, but the stewardship of the resources the American people have given us to dedicate to this challenge. In its 2022 budget request last year, the VA asked Congress for $2.2 billion for homelessness programs, a 16% increase from 2021. Congress, however, has yet to pass a full budget for 2022 and has instead approved multiple continuing resolutions, which keep the government operating at last years funding amounts. While Congress is set to reconsider a 2022 budget in March, federal agencies, including the VA, are preparing to release their 2023 priorities and funding requests. Federated Farmers has welcomed a practical approach taken in changes to firearms legislation. On February 1, the Arms Amendment Regulations 2021 came into force to improve firearms safety and keep the public safe from firearms harm. Police say this update on earlier legislation will assist those with a firearms licence understand their compliance requirements by giving greater transparency to the licence holders legal obligations. The regulations have introduced further changes to firearms transport and storage requirements, potentially affecting farmers and hunters. Federated Farmers say they are pleased with the consultation process run by Police and their willingness to work with the rural community to ensure that the regulations achieved safer firearms use. But it was still practical, says Matamata Federated Farmers sharemilkers representative Matthew Zonderop. The original proposal was quite impractical in places. For the storage of ammunition, police proposed for ammunition to be kept in its own locked storage metal/steel container. Matthew says Federated Farmers had this expanded to include stout cupboards or storage rooms or other secure approved places. This was largely to allow for farmers who store large amounts of bulky shotgun for bird scaring or rabbit control. For transportation of firearms in vehicles, police proposed that the firearm had to be secured to an anchor point in the vehicle or a locked container secured/bolted to structural parts of the vehicle or in a locked compartment within the vehicle. Matthew says Federated Farmers had pointed out how impractical this was and had made the following recommendation firearms should instead be concealed, inoperable (take the bolt out) and stored separately from any ammunition. Police similarly recommended any ammunition transported in a vehicle had to be in a locked box, Federated Farmers had recommended it be stored out of sight, separately from any firearms and in a locked glove box or similar storage area only if practicable. It was previously illegal to leave a firearm unattended in a vehicle. Matthew says Federated Farmers had submitted for this to be firearms left in locked vehicles out of sight for a period up to an hour with people in the immediate area. This allows people to stop at service stations, have dinner, rest breaks etc. In the original proposal, he says vehicles had to have immobilisers or alarms. Federated Farmers had pointed out the impracticality of that. Matthew says Federated Farmers had also ensured that there were exemptions from all of these transport requirements while firearms were being used for farming, hunting or pest control. Farmers are still captured by the transportation requirements but only when transporting firearms to places such as the gunsmith, between properties, or taking them away from their property for recreational hunting trips or similar. Federated Farmers national firearms spokesperson Andrew Hoggard says the original proposed legislation went too far. We need to get this right because use of firearms is essential in our rural communities, both as a tool on farms and for hunting. Andrew says farmers are the largest commercial users of firearms in New Zealand by far, as they are integral for both pest management and animal welfare. In a survey of Federated Farmers members in 2019, 92 per cent reported having firearms in their household or business. New Zealander Gemma New, in demand by orchestras around the world, has been appointed Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Te Tira Puoro o Aotearoa. Her title takes immediate effect with the start of the 2022 season and lasts for three years, through the 2024 season. New, 35, hailed as a rising star in North America and Europe, is Music Director of Canadas Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Last year she was profiled in The New York Times as one of a select group of conductors to watch. She made her NZSO debut in 2020 to critical acclaim. The New Zealand Herald said the audience were on the edge of their seats, captivated by her exquisitely finessed conducting. When New returned in 2021 for several NZSO concerts, including Matariki, The Dominion Post declared: News conducting was again magnificent, her dynamic and rhythmic control immaculate and even the warmest, most indulgent moments shaped with absolute clarity. As a senior member of the NZSOs artistic team, New will conduct a wide range of programmes with the Orchestra, perform in several New Zealand centres, advise closely on the direction of programming, projects, collaborations and contribute to other artistic matters for the Orchestra. She joins NZSO Principal Conductor-in-Residence Hamish McKeich, Honorary Conductor Pietari Inkinen and Music Director Emeritus James Judd in furthering the NZSOs artistic excellence and reaching new audiences. It has been a joy to collaborate with the NZSO these past few seasons, and I am thrilled to be joining this exceptional team that so valuably contributes to the vibrant music scene in Aotearoa, New Zealand, says New. During each and every programme we have performed together, I have been deeply impressed and inspired by the excellence, passion, dedication and inventiveness of the musicians and staff, and uplifted by the audiences enthusiastic reception of our performances. I look forward to working with the NZSO in this new role and celebrating new heights together. NZSO Chief Executive Peter Biggs says News appointment is a coup for both the Orchestra, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2022, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Gemma New conducting the NZSO. Photo: Latitude Creative. As a conductor Gemma New is astonishing, which is why she is in such demand around the world. Were delighted that, even with her many international commitments, Gemma is determined to take up this exciting new role with the NZSO. Her knowledge and experience with some of the worlds best orchestras, along with her close ties with New Zealand orchestras, makes her invaluable in her new role with the NZSO. Gemma will mesmerise audiences in concert with the Orchestra and make a significant contribution to what we play and do over the next three years. Were also honoured to have Gemma join us during our 75th anniversary year, as we celebrate the innovations the NZSO has made to engage with even more New Zealanders. Over 2020 and 2021 New conducted seven programmes with the NZSO, which included some of the greatest works of the classical canon: Stravinskys The Rite of Spring, Shostakovichs Leningrad Symphony and Handels Messiah. She also conducted works by New Zealand composers Gareth Farr, Maria Grenfell, Ihlara McIndoe, Anthony Ritchie and Robin Toan, and also recorded with the NZSO performances of Ravels La mere IOye and Elgars Serenade for Strings. In 2022 New conducts in Wellington and Auckland three back-to-back concerts with multi-Grammy Award-winning American violinist Hilary Hahn as part of the NZSOs winter festival in August, followed in November by Mozarts monumental Requiem in a programme also featuring New Zealand composer John Psathas Seikilos. In 2023, she will lead the NZSO in Auckland, Wellington and other centres, including Christchurch, Napier and Tauranga. New is sought-after by many leading orchestras around the world. This season she guest conducts WDR Symphonie-Orchestra Koln and the Orchestra National de lIle de Paris. Recent guest engagements have included Montreal Symphony and Toronto Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and Halle Orchestra, among others. She is a former Conducting Fellow under the mentorship of Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. This past year New was granted Americas prestigious Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award. A proud Kiwi, New grew up in Wellington and it was as a member of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra where she had one of her first experiences conducting. New is a strong advocate for performing music by New Zealand composers both locally and internationally, and she brings a passion and commitment to encouraging the younger generations of New Zealand musicians and music-lovers. View Gemma New conducting the NZSO in 2021 at live.nzso.co.nz The ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey published today shows New Zealand's daily youth smoking rates continue to decline across all ethnicities. Overall rates have fallen to an all-time low from about 2 per cent between 2015-19 to 1.3 per cent in 2021. Daily smoking rates for Maori students saw a substantial decrease for the first time since 2015, from about 5-6 per cent between 2015-2019 to 3.4 per cent in 2021, with Maori girls showing the biggest drop in daily smoking of any group (6.8% in 2019 to 3.7 per cent in 2021), echoing the results of the NZ Health Survey published in December. "Youth are the future of Aotearoa and we want to continue empowering them to lead smokefree lives and make decisions that are in the best interest of their health and wellbeing," says Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. "The ASH Survey gives us robust and encouraging evidence that we are heading in the right direction, with more mahi to be done through the recently launched Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan." While the survey shows daily vaping rates among those who had never smoked remain relatively low at 3 per cent, it also shows there has been an increase in daily vaping across all ethnicities (3.1 per cent in 2019 to 9.6 per cent in 2021), particularly amongst Maori boys and girls and Pacific girls the population groups that showed significant decreases in their daily smoking rates. The most common reason given by youth for vaping was just to give it a try with daily vapers saying their most common source of vapes was their friends. Recent amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 have introduced a range of rules to support youth to lead vape free lives by reducing the appeal of vaping products and restricting their access and exposure to them. Dr Ashley Bloomfield. "Last year, new vaping regulations were added to existing laws to do more to protect youth. Vaping products cannot be sold to under-18s and Specialist Vape Retailers must take all practicable steps to stop youth under 18 from entering their premises. "Retailers must also display R18 notices with health warnings at every point-of-sale. "Vaping advertising and sponsorship are banned and so are colouring substances to reduce the appeal of vaping products. Vaping like smoking is banned in schools and in most vehicles carrying under 18s. "General retailers (like dairies, supermarkets, and service stations) can no longer sell vaping or smokeless tobacco products that contain flavours other than tobacco, mint, and menthol. Only approved Specialist Vape Retailers may continue to sell any flavour. "The Ministry of Health is also overseeing the co-design of a new youth campaign that supports rangatahi to make the decision to stay vape free and to help them understand that the best choice for their health is to say no to vaping." The Smokefree Schools website and Vapefree Schools website offer information, guidance and support for schools concerned about smoking and vaping. The Ministry of Health is reporting 14,633 new community case in New Zealand today. In it's daily 1pm update, the MOH says there are currently 344 people hospital with Covid-19, five of who are in ICU. Of the cases announced today, 3821 have been identified through PCR testing and 10,812 have been through RAT. The Ministry reports there are 762 new community cases in the BOP and 265 cases in the Lakes DHB district. Eleven people are in Tauranga Hospital with Covid-19, says an MOH spokesperson. See below for a full breakdown of today's numbers. Vaccination and Covid-19 hospitalisations "As the number of Covid-19 cases increases, we are continuing to see a disproportionate number of unvaccinated cases requiring hospital care. "Just three per cent of eligible people aged 12 and over in New Zealand have had no doses of the vaccine, however, of the eligible people in Northland and Auckland hospitals with Covid-19, 12 per cent have had no doses of the vaccine. "Even this early in the Omicron outbreak, the figures show that, based on the data available, unvaccinated people are four times over-represented in the current hospitalisation data." The MOH says the numbers send a clear message: "getting vaccinated will help to keep you out of hospital if you catch Covid-19, and could save your life". "We know getting a booster dose provides a high level of protection against Omicron. With Omicron spreading quickly, were continuing to encourage every remaining eligible person to get boosted as soon as possible." If you had your second vaccination at least 3 months ago and youre 18 and over, you can book online at www.BookMyVaccine.nz or visit a walk-in or drive-thru vaccination clinic. For a list of vaccinations centres visit Healthpoint. Protest update The Ministry of Health remains concerned about the spread of Covid-19 at the protest at Parliament. There are now 17 people identified as having tested positive who were at the protest. "Due to reluctance by protestors to get a Covid-19 test, the true number of cases linked to the protest is likely to be much higher," says the MOH. "We advise all those currently at the protest, or who have been at the protest, who are displaying cold and flu symptoms to get a test and isolate until they receive their result." Covid-19 vaccine update Vaccinations administered in New Zealand Vaccines administered to date: 4,019,345 first doses; 3,959,359 second doses; 33,421 third primary doses; 2,347,710 booster doses: 240,354 paediatric first doses and 3,269 paediatric second doses Vaccines administered yesterday: 176 first doses; 423 second doses; 7 third primary doses; 13,707 booster doses; 1,175 paediatric first doses and 197 paediatric second doses People vaccinated (including those vaccinated overseas)* All Ethnicities (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 4,062,314 first dose (96.5%); 3,999,932 second dose (95%), 2,306,762 boosted (69.5% of those eligible)* Maori (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 518,899 first dose (90.9%); 498,008 second dose (87.2%), 194,470 boosted (58.5% of those eligible) Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 280,531 first dose (97.9%); 274,384 second dose (95.7%), 116,338 boosted (56.3% of those eligible) 5 to 11-year-olds all ethnicities: 236,202 first dose (49.6%); 2,712 second dose (0.6%) 5 to 11-year-olds - Maori: 34,530 first dose (29.9%); 441 second dose (0.4%) 5 to 11-year-olds - Pacific Peoples: 20,520 first dose (41.5%); 371 second dose (0.8%) *Note, that the number for people vaccinated differs slightly from vaccines administered as it includes those that have been vaccinated overseas. Vaccination rates for all DHBs (percentage of eligible people aged 12 +)** Northland DHB: first dose (90.3%); second dose (87.8%); boosted (68.2%) Auckland Metro DHB: first dose (97.3%); second dose (96.1%); boosted (66.4%) Waikato DHB: first dose (95.3%); second dose (93.5%); boosted (65.9%) Bay of Plenty DHB: first dose (95.3%); second dose (93.3%); boosted (66.7%) Lakes DHB: first dose (93.6%); second dose (91.4%); boosted (67.3%) MidCentral DHB: first dose (96.8%); second dose (95.1%); boosted (72.1%) Tairawhiti DHB: first dose (93.4%); second dose (90.7%); boosted (67.9%) Whanganui DHB: first dose (92.4%); second dose (90.4%); boosted (72.7%) Hawkes Bay DHB: first dose (97.2%); second dose (95.1%); boosted (70.4%) Taranaki DHB: first dose (94.8%); second dose (93.1%); boosted (67%) Wairarapa DHB: first dose (96.7%); second dose (95%); boosted (74.2%) Capital & Coast DHB: first dose (98.7%); second dose (97.8%); boosted (77.2%) Hutt Valley DHB: first dose (96.9%); second dose (95.6%); boosted (73.9%) Nelson Marlborough DHB: first dose (96.8%); second dose (95.3%); boosted (75.6%) West Coast DHB: first dose (93.1%); second dose (91.1%); boosted (73.3%) Canterbury DHB: first dose (99.8%); second dose (98.6%); boosted (71.5%) South Canterbury DHB: first dose (95.4%); second dose (94.1%); boosted (74.5%) Southern DHB: first dose (97.9%); second dose (96.6%); boosted (73.9%) **First and second dose percentages are for those 12+. Booster dose percentages are for 18+ who have become eligible three months after having their second dose. Hospitalisations Cases in hospital: total number 344: Northland: 5; North Shore: 53; Middlemore: 128; Auckland: 100; Tauranga: 11; Taranaki: 1; Waikato: 28; Canterbury: 4; Southern: 4; Hutt Valley: 6; Capital and Coast: 3; Tairawhiti: 1. Average age of current hospitalisations: 53 Cases in ICU or HDU: 5 Vaccination status of current hospitalisations (Northern Region only, excluding Emergency Departments): Unvaccinated or not eligible (36 cases / 14.3%); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (6 cases / 2.4%); fully vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (110 cases / 43.7%); unknown (61 cases / 24.2%) Cases Seven day rolling average of community cases (PCR): 8,398 Number of new community cases: 14,633 Number of new community cases (PCR): 3,821 Number of new community cases (RAT): 10,812 Location of new community cases (PCR & RAT): Northland (208), Auckland (9,305), Waikato (1,530), Bay of Plenty (762), Lakes (265), Hawkes Bay (138), MidCentral (175), Whanganui (30), Taranaki (67), Tairawhiti (60), Wairarapa (52), Capital and Coast (604), Hutt Valley (281), Nelson Marlborough (178), Canterbury (573), South Canterbury (24), Southern (372), West Coast (3); Unknown (6) Number of new cases identified at the border: 23 Number of active community cases (total): 82,105 (cases identified in the past 21 days and not yet classified as recovered) Confirmed cases (total): 100,352 Please note, the Ministry of Healths daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a DHB or local public health unit level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO. Tests Contingency plans are in place at Bay of Plenty hospitals to help minimise disruption for patients during this weeks Public Services Association union strike. The PSA has issued a strike notice on behalf of its members for a 24-hour strike starting on Friday, March 4. The nature of the strike is a total withdrawal of labour. It will commence at 6am on Friday, March 4, and will end at 6am on Saturday, March 5. PSA members nationwide, including more than 400 Bay of Plenty District Health Board workers, will be taking part. The action relates to those staff employed under the Allied, Public Health and Technical MECA (multi-employer collective agreement) only. The BOPDHB is involved in contingency planning to mitigate the impact of this industrial action and has finalised the Life Preserving Services (i.e. those services which are defined as providing care for the preservation of life and the prevention of disability), says BOPDHB Executive Director Allied Health, Scientific and Technical and Contingency Planner Sarah Mitchell. Ensuring the safety of our patients and staff is paramount throughout this period of industrial action and all affected services have contingency plans in place for it. The BOPDHB accepts the right of individuals and organisations to take industrial action, however we do regret any inconvenience which may be caused to the people we serve. What does this mean for patients and the public? The LPS (Life Preserving Services) agreement ensures the BOPDHBs emergency theatres will be operating throughout the period of the industrial action. There will be no planned care in the BOPDHBs theatres for this 24-hour period. Any non-medical outpatient appointments planned for this period will also be rescheduled. Affected patients are in the process of being notified or have already been notified. Toi Te Ora Public Health Service is required to have a 24-hour, 7-day a week on-call service for notification of reportable communicable diseases and for the management of border issues related to the Port of Tauranga. An on-call service remains in place during the period of the strike. Which services are affected? Around 20 services are affected and include: Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Dietetics, Audiology, Pharmacy, Addiction Services, Speech and Language Therapy, Newborn Hearing Screening, Vision Hearing, Podiatry, Cardiology services, Clinical Engineering, Toi Te Ora Public Health, Dental Services, Community Care Co-ordination and Support Net, Anaesthetic Technicians and Sterile Services Technicians, Mental Health, Te Pare Toi Te Pou Kokiri staff, Counselling Services, Community Health and Medical Day Stay. Please go to the new Special Collections Website at The Keep This page is no longer updated. Please visit our new pages at The Keep: http://www.thekeep.info/. These pages may contain out of date information. Links to these pages may no longer work in the future. Poster from the Commune Collection Introduction The Eugene W Schulkind Paris Commune Collection is the only one of its kind in the United Kingdom, and one of the four strongest on its subject in the world. It documents in extraordinary detail (there are around 2,500 items) the events of 1871 when Republican Paris, at odds with Thierss government for ratifying a humiliating peace treaty with Bismarck, found itself autonomous for 73 days after the governments retreat to Versailles. Thiers had plans to restore order by force, however, and the month of May culminated in the horrific scenes of the Semaine Sanglante when over 20,000 Communards were killed by government troops. MOSCOW/PARIS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- All Moscow's security concerns must be taken into account for settlement in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday during a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron. Putin reiterated that a settlement would only be possible if Russia's security concerns were taken into account, including "Russia's sovereignty over Crimea," as well as the country's commitment to solving the tasks of Ukraine's demilitarization and denazification, and the issue of Ukraine's neutral status, the Kremlin said in a statement. Putin said Russia is open to negotiations with Ukraine and expressed hope they would lead to the desired result. "The French side expressed its well-known views on Russia's special military operation... and expressed hope for a quick settlement of the conflict through dialogue," the Kremlin said. Putin said that Russia's armed forces are not striking civilian objects, and do not pose a threat to civilians. "Ukrainian nationalists, who have been using their civilian population 'as a human shield,' are a threat," Putin said. According to the Elysee, Macron asked Russia to respect international law and protect the civil population. "The French President reaffirmed the necessity to implement an immediate ceasefire," the Elysee said. Putin and Macron agreed to hold further contacts. Thank you for Reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and Purchase a Subscription to continue reading. Rajeevraj Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Bangalore Posts: 4,182 Thanked: 14,146 Times re: Bangalore-Mysore Expressway status & updates thread journey was from Mysore towards Bangalore. So the updates start from Mysore and move towards Bangalore. Mysore(Columbia Asia)-Srirangapatna: As you exit Columbia Asia signal, you can see good progress. The roadworks are completed and opened for 2-3 kilometers. Beyond that, there are a lot of diversions, but you can see work happening at a fast pace till you are 2-3km from Srirangapatna. I did not notice the Srirangapatna Bypass and it may have not landed at the main road. From the point where the KRS road takes off and a few km past Srirangapatna, there are no signs of work. I attribute it to the bypass which is not visible yet. Starting from Columbia Asia An opened section just after Columbia Asia A typical diversion. All diversions are well marked and well tarred. No signs of work in and around Srirangapatna Starting from Columbia AsiaAn opened section just after Columbia AsiaA typical diversion. All diversions are well marked and well tarred.No signs of work in and around Srirangapatna Srirangapatna-Mandya: In this stretch there are several open sections and work on in full swing, as seen in the pics below. The toll-booth is also located here and you can see the structure in the picture below along with the approach from the Bangalore side. A typical section. 6 lanes fenced on both sides. 2 service roads Toll booth structure seen on the right Approach towards toll booth from Bangalore side Opened sections between Srirangapatna and Mandya A typical section. 6 lanes fenced on both sides. 2 service roadsToll booth structure seen on the rightApproach towards toll booth from Bangalore sideOpened sections between Srirangapatna and Mandya Mandya Bypass: In my view the 2nd most important section of road in this project. A completely greenfield road that bypasses Mandya. While the exact status is unclear, considering we can see the bypass entry and exit leads me to believe that the work on the stretch is happening in full swing. For any travel time reduction to be noticed, this bypass must open Mandya Bypass takes off and connects back. Mandya Bypass takes off and connects back. Mandya-Maddur: Here the alignment is interesting. Instead of just a bypass, there is a significant elevated section that goes over Maddur before moving away as a bypass and connecting back after Maddur. Here also the work seems to be in advanced stages. Elevated section starts before Maddur End of the Maddur Bypass Elevated section starts before MaddurEnd of the Maddur Bypass Maddur-Channapatna-Ramanagara: Maddur to Channapatna a lot of the roadwork is done and/or in final stages. As you approach Channapatna, you see what is arguably the most important stretch of road, the greenfield section that takes off before Channapatna and completely bypasses both Channapatna and Ramanagara. These are 2 of the most congested towns on the current highway and this double bypass is going to help significantly. From the entry and exit pictures, it definitely looks to be in advanced stages of work. The big one. Channapatna-Ramanagara Bypass The big one. Channapatna-Ramanagara Bypass Ramanagara-Bidadi: In this section also roadworks are in the final stages and you even see a stretch with some lane markings. Bidadi is also bypassed Bidadi Bypass start Bidadi Bypass start Bidadi-Kengeri: Post the Bidadi bypass exit, you come across the toll booths, unlike the one on the Mysore side which is one big toll, on the Bangalore side, it is split into 2 probably a km apart for each direction Tollbooths Tollbooths Toll booth-Expressway End at NICE: Post the toll, an elevated section takes off towards Bangalore and remains an elevated road until it lands close to the NICE Road Entry Exit which is where the expressway ends (or starts when coming from Bangalore) Below status updates are based on the screen grabs from my dashcam. Please note the: As you exit Columbia Asia signal, you can see good progress. The roadworks are completed and opened for 2-3 kilometers. Beyond that, there are a lot of diversions, but you can see work happening at a fast pace till you are 2-3km from Srirangapatna. I did not notice the Srirangapatna Bypass and it may have not landed at the main road. From the point where the KRS road takes off and a few km past Srirangapatna, there are no signs of work. I attribute it to the bypass which is not visible yet.In this stretch there are several open sections and work on in full swing, as seen in the pics below. The toll-booth is also located here and you can see the structure in the picture below along with the approach from the Bangalore side.Mandya Bypass: In my view the 2nd most important section of road in this project. A completely greenfield road that bypasses Mandya. While the exact status is unclear, considering we can see the bypass entry and exit leads me to believe that the work on the stretch is happening in full swing. For any travel time reduction to be noticed, this bypass must openHere the alignment is interesting. Instead of just a bypass, there is a significant elevated section that goes over Maddur before moving away as a bypass and connecting back after Maddur. Here also the work seems to be in advanced stages.: Maddur to Channapatna a lot of the roadwork is done and/or in final stages. As you approach Channapatna, you see what is arguably the most important stretch of road, the greenfield section that takes off before Channapatna and completely bypasses both Channapatna and Ramanagara. These are 2 of the most congested towns on the current highway and this double bypass is going to help significantly. From the entry and exit pictures, it definitely looks to be in advanced stages of work.In this section also roadworks are in the final stages and you even see a stretch with some lane markings. Bidadi is also bypassedPost the Bidadi bypass exit, you come across the toll booths, unlike the one on the Mysore side which is one big toll, on the Bangalore side, it is split into 2 probably a km apart for each direction: Post the toll, an elevated section takes off towards Bangalore and remains an elevated road until it lands close to the NICE Road Entry Exit which is where the expressway ends (or starts when coming from Bangalore) Last edited by Rajeevraj : 27th February 2022 at 15:38 . V.Narayan Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Delhi-NCR Posts: 3,188 Thanked: 41,148 Times Re: Impact of the Russia-Ukraine war All of us including me have become experts on geo-politics. Till yesterday I was an expert on pandemics. As some one who has lost an immediate family member to a war (1971) I do not glamourize it. To that extent my sympathies go out to the helpless ordinary Ukrainians who will lose their loved ones and homes as it does to Russian mothers, wives and children who will lose their loved ones. Having made my opening preamble a few thoughts... The Western media is a master at creating the narrative that suits their society/Government and at least some of us on Team BHP believe it. In Geo-politics you have the stand you take in the public eye. Then there is the more subtle positioning you take with friends who will understand (France in our case here). Then there is the stand you take with the adversary behind six closed doors where both sides show some but not all their cards and say ok here's the deal if...then this...but if...then this etc. Our EAM has walked the thin edge with great tact. It is not for us to fall for Western bullying or threatening of the calamities that might befall us if we don't toe the line {sanctions, exports, CATSA}. You don't win with bullies by giving in to them whether the bully is USA or China or Russia. An identical situation from recent history -- In December 1979 USSR put enormous pressure on us to vote in their favour at the UN over their dastardly invasion of Afghanistan. We had an even more thin line to walk then. The US threatened us with calamitous sanctions if we voted for USSR. We abstained with reasoning that kept both sides satisfied. That is what geo-politics is - always your own interests first. We don't know what back channel discussions are going on between Russia & USA, between USA and India/China as neutral arbiters and Russia. So what we read in the media is a tip of the iceberg. For example in February 1980, two months after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, USA accepted that a neutral India served its interests better to keep one more channel of communication open to Brezhnev. In private Mrs. Indira Gandhi expressed utter her horror to Andrei Gromyko {Soviet Foreign Minister} of the atrocities the Soviets were committing in Afghanistan {they had gunned down school girls protesting the invasion} and that this would affect India's stand with them in private. So we as ordinary consumers of the press really don't know what happens behind the scenes. My uneducated take, like others on this thread have stated, is that Putin will install a regime more favourable to Russia and withdraw. And in 6 weeks another headline will take centre stage. Just because the West is putting pressure on us is no reason to line up with them. Sometimes we line up {Iran} sometimes we don't {Ukraine}. With Russia & earlier USSR what is also at stake is a 69-year old relationship of unbroken trust - trust is a rare gem in geo-politics. It is not to be thrown away just because Biden threatens. Even China is not always our enemy though on most counts it is. There are issues, like climate change, where we will find ourselves on the same side, matters such as Hong Kong where we will stay neutral and others well known where we will oppose then with vigour. The first small subtle step of de-dollarization of world trade will be the outcome here. It won't happen dramatically but by osmosis over 10 to 15 years. When you use a weapon too often it loses its edge. Last edited by V.Narayan : 27th February 2022 at 10:02 . ajitem Newbie Join Date: Sep 2020 Location: Nagpur Posts: 3 Thanked: 19 Times Ashtavinayak Trip | Temple Drive The traditional route for the trip is as follows: Shree Mayureshwar - Morgaon Shree Siddhivinayak - Siddhatek Shree Ballaleshwar - Pali Shree Varad Vinayak - Mahad Shree Chintamani Vinayak - Theur Shree Girijatmaj - Lenyadri Shree Vighanahar - Ozar Shree Mahaganpati - Ranjangaon Once you visit all the temples, you have to visit the Morgaon temple once again to finish the yatra. I was travelling with my wife and my 2 year old son. I decided to cover four temples in one day and complete the whole yatra in 3 days. I chose the Novotel Hotel on Nagar Road as my base for the whole trip. Day 1 - 18th Feb 2022 Start ODO - 32239 1. Shree Mayureshwar - Morgaon Route Taken: Nagar Road - Kharadi Bypass - Magarpatta - Hadapsar Gadital - Loni Kalbhor - Uruli Kanchan - Yavat - Kedgaon (Chaufala) - Supe - Morgaon ODO - 32324 We left the hotel early at about 5.30am and stopped for a cup of tea at the Amrittulya Outlet on Kharadi Bypass Square. After spending about 20 minutes there we headed straight for Morgao and reached there at 7.08am. The road quality was good. Due to the early morning time, we could escape the Pune traffic and travel very efficiently. There are two parking spots available here. One is immediately opposite the temple although this one is closed and reserved for two wheelers during rush hour. The other one is across the street. The parking charge here 40. There was no rush at the temple. We left Morgaon at 7.30am after a quick but very satisfying darshan. 2. Shree Siddhivinayak - Siddhatek Route Taken: Morgaon - Supe - Kedgaon (Chaufala) - Patas - Kurukumbh - Daund - Khorodi - Alegaon - Devalgaon - Siddhatek ODO - 32392 The road from Morgaon until Daund is good. Daund onwards there are sections where road resurfacing and maintenance work was in progress and this impacted our speed. We finally managed to reach Siddhatek at 8.37am. There is parking available here which is a bit away from the temple location. Due to less rush in the morning, we were able to park our car on the street side and go inside for darshan. Just like at Morgaon, we could get a quick darshan and return to resume our journey. We departed for Pali at about 10.43am. 3. Shree Ballaleshwar - Pali Route Taken: Siddhatek - Devalgaon - Khorodi - Daund - Virobawadi - Patas - Kedgaon (Chaufala) - Yavat - Uruli Kanchan - Loni Kalbhor - Hadapsar - Bhairoba Nala - Alankar Chowk - Pune RTO - Sancheti Hospital - Shivajinagar - Aundh - via Aundh-Ravet Road - Expressway - exit Expressway at Khalapur - via Imagica (its now become Novotel Imagica) - Durshet - Parali - Bhaigul - Pali. ODO - 32623 This was the most arduous and time consuming part of the journey. The 200km distance is the longest between any two consecutive temples and to add to the difficulty, you need to cross Pune city as a part of this journey. Not a fun prospect. Enroute to Pali, we stopped at Jogeshwari Misal to have some breakfast. I found a lot of these and similar outlets dotted across the Pune Metropolitan Area and are good options to have tasty misal and some much deserved rest. To add to our misery of crossing Pune, the Solapur Road Flyover near Magarpatta was closed for traffic due to maintenance work. This led to a huge congestion. Apart from that the journey was smooth. After exiting the expressway, the roads are not very good. They are unsurfaced for the most part and riddled with potholes. Although maintenance work is underway, this section has a serious impact on speed and overall fatigue. We managed to reach Pali at about 3.31pm. There is a parking space available on the opposite side of the temple. The family who owns the place also sells locally made food stuff and the head of the family is a priest at the temple. They offer various kinds of pooja related services there. The parking charge is 40. According to tradition, there is another temple called as Dhundi Vinayak temple behind the Ballaleshwar Temple. This temple needs to be visited before visiting the main temple. It took us about 30 minutes to get darshan here. We left for Mahad at about 4.05pm 4. Shree Varad Vinayak - Mahad Route Taken: Pali - Bhaigul - Parali - Durshet - Imagica - Niphan - Mahad ODO - 32662 We reached at the temple at 5.08pm. The journey isn't long but due to the road quality takes time. Most of the road is the same one that we took to reach Pali. Mahad is a small and quiet town with a lot of parking options both free and paid close to the temple. After getting the darshan and relaxing for a while, we left for Pune at 5.45pm. End of Day 1 The return journey was a bit hectic. We encountered some congestion on the expressway and after getting through it, we then had to battle the Pune traffic to get back to our hotel at Nagar Road. We were back home by 8pm. ODO 32759 Day 2 - 19th Feb 2022 Start ODO - 32759 5. Shree Chintamani Vinayak - Theur Route Taken: Nagar Road - Wagholi - Kesnand - Theur ODO - 32782 We left the hotel early in the morning like on the first day at 5.30am and then reached Theur around 6.13am. The road was good and due to the early hour there was no traffic. The atmosphere when we reached there was nothing short of awesome. There is a lot of parking space available just in front of the temple. The parking is free. After a quick darshan, we departed for Lenyadri at 6.30am. 6. Shree Girijatmaj - Lenyadri Route Taken: Theur - Kesnand - Lonikand - Koregaon Bhima - Sanaswadi - Shikrapur - Pabal - Wafgaon - Manchar - Kalamb - Narayangaon - Lenyadri. ODO - 32895 The route until Pabal is good. Pabal - Wafgaon - Manchar is bad with maintenance work in progress. Manchar onwards the road is decent. We reached Lenyadri at around 9.14am. It helps to reach this spot as early as possible to avoid climbing in the sun. The greatest doubt we had in our mind when visiting Lenyadri was to be able to carry our son all the way up but due to God's grace we managed that together. It was a cool, breezy day. There are a lot of spots on the way up the stairs where one can take a breather. People also carry snacks/water bottles along with themselves. I would not advice carrying a lot of snacks as there are a lot of monkeys who will try to snatch your belongings. It took us a total of 40 minutes to climb up and down and around 20 minutes in the temple. The entire visit was completed in an hour and 10 minutes including snack break. The parking charge is 30. The entry charge is 25 per person and entry is free for children under 15. For more information and online booking visit ASI site - 7. Shree Vighanahar - Ozar Route Taken: Lenyadri - Junnar - Shiroli - Ozar ODO - 32911 This was the shortest drive we had in the entire trip in between temples. We departed Lenyadri at 10.24am and reached Ozar at 10.50am. The road is decent. There is a lot of parking available beside the temple. After getting darshan, we departed for Ranjangaon at 11.30am. 8. Shree Mahaganpati - Ranjangaon Route Taken: Ozar - Narayangaon - Manjarwadi - Nagapur - Paragaon Shingave - Kavathe - Malthan - Ranjangaon ODO - 32980 We reached Ranjangaon at about 1.42pm. The road was not very good. We got the most rush here. There is a lot of parking space and eatery options at this place. The parking charge is 40. After Darshan, we left for our hotel at 3.15pm. End of Day 2 The return journey was uneventful with some traffic on the way. We reached our hotel at 4.30pm. Day 3 - 20th Feb 2022 We again started a little later than the previous two days at 8.30 am and reached Morgaon at 10.30am. As it was a Chaturthi, there was a huge crowd at the temple. This time around we needed 3 hours to get the darshan. After getting the darshan, we completed our Ashtavinayak Yatra successfully and as per the tradition. The highlight of the trip was the best fuel efficiency delivered by my car in my almost 1.5 years of ownership. I managed to cover a distance of 794km (Nagpur-Shirdi-Pune) in one full tank of diesel. I got the best ever mileage of 17.76kmpl on my car. I had been planning to do the Ashtavinayak trip for a while now and owing to COVID I had to keep postponing it. Finally after a lot of planning I decided to do the trip during 18-20 Feb 2022. I chose Pune as my base for the trip as I wanted to do the trip as defined by the tradition.The traditional route for the trip is as follows:Once you visit all the temples, you have to visit the Morgaon temple once again to finish theI was travelling with my wife and my 2 year old son. I decided to cover four temples in one day and complete the wholein 3 days. I chose the Novotel Hotel on Nagar Road as my base for the whole trip.Start ODO - 322391.: Nagar Road - Kharadi Bypass - Magarpatta - Hadapsar Gadital - Loni Kalbhor - Uruli Kanchan - Yavat - Kedgaon (Chaufala) - Supe - MorgaonODO - 32324We left the hotel early at about 5.30am and stopped for a cup of tea at the Amrittulya Outlet on Kharadi Bypass Square. After spending about 20 minutes there we headed straight for Morgao and reached there at 7.08am. The road quality was good. Due to the early morning time, we could escape the Pune traffic and travel very efficiently.There are two parking spots available here. One is immediately opposite the temple although this one is closed and reserved for two wheelers during rush hour. The other one is across the street. The parking charge here 40.There was no rush at the temple. We left Morgaon at 7.30am after a quick but very satisfying darshan.2.: Morgaon - Supe - Kedgaon (Chaufala) - Patas - Kurukumbh - Daund - Khorodi - Alegaon - Devalgaon - SiddhatekODO - 32392The road from Morgaon until Daund is good. Daund onwards there are sections where road resurfacing and maintenance work was in progress and this impacted our speed. We finally managed to reach Siddhatek at 8.37am. There is parking available here which is a bit away from the temple location. Due to less rush in the morning, we were able to park our car on the street side and go inside for darshan. Just like at Morgaon, we could get a quick darshan and return to resume our journey. We departed for Pali at about 10.43am.3.: Siddhatek - Devalgaon - Khorodi - Daund - Virobawadi - Patas - Kedgaon (Chaufala) - Yavat - Uruli Kanchan - Loni Kalbhor - Hadapsar - Bhairoba Nala - Alankar Chowk - Pune RTO - Sancheti Hospital - Shivajinagar - Aundh - via Aundh-Ravet Road - Expressway - exit Expressway at Khalapur - via Imagica (its now become Novotel Imagica) - Durshet - Parali - Bhaigul - Pali.ODO - 32623This was the most arduous and time consuming part of the journey. The 200km distance is the longest between any two consecutive temples and to add to the difficulty, you need to cross Pune city as a part of this journey. Not a fun prospect. Enroute to Pali, we stopped at Jogeshwari Misal to have some breakfast. I found a lot of these and similar outlets dotted across the Pune Metropolitan Area and are good options to have tasty misal and some much deserved rest. To add to our misery of crossing Pune, the Solapur Road Flyover near Magarpatta was closed for traffic due to maintenance work. This led to a huge congestion. Apart from that the journey was smooth. After exiting the expressway, the roads are not very good. They are unsurfaced for the most part and riddled with potholes. Although maintenance work is underway, this section has a serious impact on speed and overall fatigue. We managed to reach Pali at about 3.31pm.There is a parking space available on the opposite side of the temple. The family who owns the place also sells locally made food stuff and the head of the family is a priest at the temple. They offer various kinds of pooja related services there. The parking charge is 40. According to tradition, there is another temple called as Dhundi Vinayak temple behind the Ballaleshwar Temple. This temple needs to be visited before visiting the main temple. It took us about 30 minutes to get darshan here. We left for Mahad at about 4.05pm4.: Pali - Bhaigul - Parali - Durshet - Imagica - Niphan - MahadODO - 32662We reached at the temple at 5.08pm. The journey isn't long but due to the road quality takes time. Most of the road is the same one that we took to reach Pali. Mahad is a small and quiet town with a lot of parking options both free and paid close to the temple. After getting the darshan and relaxing for a while, we left for Pune at 5.45pm.The return journey was a bit hectic. We encountered some congestion on the expressway and after getting through it, we then had to battle the Pune traffic to get back to our hotel at Nagar Road. We were back home by 8pm.ODO 32759Start ODO - 327595.: Nagar Road - Wagholi - Kesnand - TheurODO - 32782We left the hotel early in the morning like on the first day at 5.30am and then reached Theur around 6.13am. The road was good and due to the early hour there was no traffic. The atmosphere when we reached there was nothing short of awesome. There is a lot of parking space available just in front of the temple. The parking is free. After a quick darshan, we departed for Lenyadri at 6.30am.6.: Theur - Kesnand - Lonikand - Koregaon Bhima - Sanaswadi - Shikrapur - Pabal - Wafgaon - Manchar - Kalamb - Narayangaon - Lenyadri.ODO - 32895The route until Pabal is good. Pabal - Wafgaon - Manchar is bad with maintenance work in progress. Manchar onwards the road is decent. We reached Lenyadri at around 9.14am. It helps to reach this spot as early as possible to avoid climbing in the sun. The greatest doubt we had in our mind when visiting Lenyadri was to be able to carry our son all the way up but due to God's grace we managed that together. It was a cool, breezy day. There are a lot of spots on the way up the stairs where one can take a breather. People also carry snacks/water bottles along with themselves. I would not advice carrying a lot of snacks as there are a lot of monkeys who will try to snatch your belongings. It took us a total of 40 minutes to climb up and down and around 20 minutes in the temple. The entire visit was completed in an hour and 10 minutes including snack break.The parking charge is 30. The entry charge is 25 per person and entry is free for children under 15. For more information and online booking visit ASI site - https://asi.payumoney.com/ There are a lot of options for snacks around the place.7.: Lenyadri - Junnar - Shiroli - OzarODO - 32911This was the shortest drive we had in the entire trip in between temples. We departed Lenyadri at 10.24am and reached Ozar at 10.50am. The road is decent. There is a lot of parking available beside the temple. After getting darshan, we departed for Ranjangaon at 11.30am.8.: Ozar - Narayangaon - Manjarwadi - Nagapur - Paragaon Shingave - Kavathe - Malthan - RanjangaonODO - 32980We reached Ranjangaon at about 1.42pm. The road was not very good. We got the most rush here. There is a lot of parking space and eatery options at this place. The parking charge is 40. After Darshan, we left for our hotel at 3.15pm.The return journey was uneventful with some traffic on the way. We reached our hotel at 4.30pm.We again started a little later than the previous two days at 8.30 am and reached Morgaon at 10.30am. As it was a Chaturthi, there was a huge crowd at the temple. This time around we needed 3 hours to get the darshan. After getting the darshan, we completed our Ashtavinayak Yatra successfully and as per the tradition.The highlight of the trip was the best fuel efficiency delivered by my car in my almost 1.5 years of ownership. I managed to cover a distance of 794km (Nagpur-Shirdi-Pune) in one full tank of diesel. I got the best ever mileage of 17.76kmpl on my car. MOGADISHU, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Somali National Army (SNA) said Sunday its forces killed five al-Shabab terrorists during a security operation conducted within the vicinity of Balad and Afgoye districts located northeast and southwest of Mogadishu respectively. The SNA commander who led the operation told Radio Mogadishu that several of the militants' hideouts in the farmlands were also destroyed during the sting operation. "Somali National Army killed five al-Shabab terrorists and destroyed their hideouts in the farmlands between Balad and Afgoye districts in a planned security operation, on Sunday," the State-owned radio reported. The government forces have intensified operations against al-Shabab in central and southern regions in the recent past, but the militants are still in control of strongholds in the rural areas of those regions, conducting ambushes and planting landmines. The big picture: OnePlus shipped a record 11 million phones globally in 2021, and it has even bigger ambitions for the future. OxygenOS will remain a separate OS experience to Oppo's ColorOS, even as the two operating systems share the same codebase. And if you want faster charging, the company is working on a new technology that will allow you to go from 0 to 100 percent in just 17 minutes. When OnePlus revealed the OnePlus 10 Pro earlier this year, there was no word on availability outside the Chinese market. At MWC 2022, the company made several announcements related to the future of the OnePlus brand and confirmed the global release path for the OnePlus 10 Pro. The new flagship phone is set to arrive in the North American, European, and Indian markets in March. OnePlus founder and CEO Pete Lau says the decision to roll out the OnePlus 10 Pro in China first doesn't mean that Oppo's independent sub-brand has lost interest in the US and global markets. The company shipped no less than 11 million phones globally in 2021---four times more than in 2016. The mid-range Nord lineup played a significant role in that growth story, with 10 million units sold in the past two years. Interestingly, OnePlus won't be going ahead with a unified mobile ColorOS/OxygenOS operating system for its phones. The codebases will remain merged to allow faster development moving forward, but the two brands will remain separate and continue to offer distinct experiences that cater to their respective fans. Lau also revealed that OxygenOS 13 is well underway but didn't share any information on when the update will become available to users. As for SuperVOOC fast charging---a staple in the Oppo ecosystem---it, too, will receive an upgrade soon. OnePlus is working on a new 150-watt VOOC fast-charging spec that will come later this year. For reference, the OnePlus 10 Pro supports charging at up to 80 watts, which is already higher than most Oppo and OnePlus phones. This boost allows you to get from zero to close to a full charge in less than 30 minutes, which is insanely fast. OnePlus believes that's still too slow. An unnamed upcoming OnePlus phone equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery will come bundled with a 150-watt charger. The company will go from zero to a full charge in around 17 minutes. We're speeding up fast charging. OPPO 240W #SUPERVOOC Flash Charge delivers 100% battery in just 9 minutes, for record-breaking, industry-leading speed. #OPPOxMWC22 pic.twitter.com/gPDurHh1Qg --- OPPO (@oppo) February 28, 2022 If that doesn't sound like a fire hazard waiting to happen, parent company Oppo is already testing a beefier, 240-watt SuperVOOC charging technology that can fully charge a 4,500 mAh battery in around nine minutes. In brief: Samsung has officially put the Galaxy Note brand out to pasture. Roh Tae-moon, head of Samsung's smartphone division, told reporters at Mobile World Congress 2022 that the Galaxy Note will henceforth be released as "Ultra." Tae-moon is of course referring to the Ultra version of the Galaxy S, the most recent of which debuted as the Galaxy S22 Ultra earlier this month. The admission isn't all that surprising given the rapidly evolving landscape of the smartphone industry. Samsung introduced the original Galaxy Note at IFA Berlin in 2011. The handset featured a massive (for the time) 5.3-inch display and came bundled with a stylus that Samsung referred to as the S Pen. Some questioned why Samsung would make a smartphone with such a large screen, but the doubters were soon quieted as consumers proved that excess was in. Less than two months after launch, Samsung announced it had shipped more than a million Note devices. The Note proved to be a commercial success that paved the way for modern handsets with even larger screens. A smartphone with a 5.3-inch display is considered small by today's standards. Rumors of the Note's demise surfaced in mid-2020, with some saying Samsung wanted to shift its focus to foldable smartphones. It was all but confirmed last August when Samsung said there would be no Galaxy Note device at its next launch event. A month later, someone noticed Samsung hadn't renewed its trademark for the Note line. Binance, one of the world's largest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, has just announced that it will be donating a whopping $10 million to Ukraine. With the surge in cryptocurrency donations, Binance has decided to join in and give a significant donation to the country while Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's founder, announced UkraineDAO. Binance Announces $10 Million Donation to Ukraine According to the story by KoinAlert, the world's "largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume" has just announced that it will be donating $10 million to Ukraine. As per the article, the donations are directed towards helping Ukraine's crisis is reportedly still ongoing. As per Binance's official Twitter account, the company announced that they would be donating $10 million to help "the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The company announced that its focus is directed to providing charity & collaboration as support on the ground. Launch of the Official 'Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund' Binance has officially launched the "Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund" for them to be able to "provide emergency relief" directly through crypto crowdfunding. In addition, should anyone be interested in donating towards the fund, Binance pointed them towards the company's official website. As per Binance's official post, $10 million USD donations will reportedly be given to major "Intergovernmental Organizations and local NGOs." With that, the fund is expected to help by giving emergency relief to the children and refugees to support on-the-ground logistics, including fuel, food, and supplies directly towards refugees in particular companies that are currently bordering with Ukraine. UN Currently Reports 120,000 People Fleeing from Their Homes As per the official Binance website, since Russia launched a "full-scale military invasion on Ukraine," the particular conflict was said to turn into a humanitarian catastrophe potentially. 48 hours after the stated "invasion," the UN currently reports 120,000 people that have "already fled their homes." Certain neighboring countries, just like Poland, for example, estimated that it would be receiving up to a million refugees. With that, Binance announced that it would be donating the $10 million while inviting others to donate crypto to Ukraine through the website. Read Also: 163,126 Traders Liquidated Amidst Russia and Ukraine Tension: ETH, Doge, ADA, and More Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Announces UkraineDAO The founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin also shared a tweet of UkraineDAO stating that it was an "opportunity to support Ukrainians here" and that all of the proceeds that the DAO receives will be going directly towards "civilian efforts" when it comes to helping Ukrainians that are suffering. Others shared an official tweet where BTC, ETH, and USDT are accepted in reply to the tweet. As of the moment, Binance's official website notes that $0 has been donated to their charity which aims to raise a whopping $19,985,003.70 in donations. Related Article: Cybersecurity Experts Advice US Businesses, Organizations to Brace for Cyberattacks Amidst Russia's Attack on Ukraine This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Urian B. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Elon Musk's SpaceX might be helpful if ever Roscosmos really make its threats against the International Space Station a reality. Recently, the Russian space agency said that the sanctions imposed by the United States would affect the ongoing collaboration of Roscosmos and the U.S. government in space. Dimitry Rogozin, the current director-general of Roscosmos, was the one who explained what might happen if the sanctions against Russia continue. "There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect?," said the Roscosmos official. Elon Musk To Help ISS Against Russia? According to Futurism's latest report, Elon Musk replied to the tweet of Rogozin. Although he didn't actually say how he would help the ISS, his reply already shows his answer: SpaceX. Also Read: Elon Musk Praises SEC Move Towards Short Position Disclosure, CAT Reporting-Lawsuit Still Continues On the other hand, a Twitter user wanted to clarify if Musk is really going to help the International Space Station if there is sabotage. He said that he thinks the billionaire is actually saying that SpaceX will save ISS if there is an uncontrolled deorbit. Yes Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2022 Of course, Elon responded in a simple way, saying "yes." Although it's just one word, the reply of SpaceX's CEO already generated more than 18,000 likes. But, how will Elon Musk actually use SpaceX to save ISS from Russia? ISS Explains How SpaceX Can Help It Pete Harding, the International Space Station Editor for NASA Spaceflight, provided a Twitter thread that explains how SpaceX can help ISS. He even provided renderings to show what would happen. He said that the place of the Russian Segment could be replaced by a SpaceX Dragon, a reusable cargo rocket. Harding claimed that SpaceX Dragon can be modified to carry an additional engine, which can assist ISS to maintain its orbit if ever Russia's space module detaches from it. You can view the Twitter posts below to see more information about Pete's explanation. Dragon could also potentially be modified to carry an additional engine & fuel in the Trunk. One thing Russia ought to have learned over the last few years is not to underestimate the innovation of the US commercial space sector. ISS could survive without them. @Rogozin @elonmusk Pete (@Space_Pete) February 25, 2022 In other news, the recent SpaceX Starlink launch was able to send 50 internet satellites in orbit. On the other hand, NASA will fund some futuristic space technologies. For more news updates about Elon Musk, ISS, and other space topics, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Elon Musk Confirms SpaceX Will Send More Terminals to Ukraine for Internet Connection This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Biden's free COVID-19 rapid tests kits are still available. This is because more than 200 million units are still available for U.S. residents. The United States is one nation that is still affected by the ongoing pandemic. Since new strains that are more infectious than the previous ones are being discovered, government officials need to make extra efforts to prevent further infections. One of the anti-COVID-19 plans of U.S. President Joe Biden is to offer more than 500 million rapid test kits for free. However, COVID19tests.gov only received less than 100,000 orders per day. Biden's Free COVID-19 Rapid Test Kits are Still Available According to AP News' latest report, around 46% of Biden's free COVID-19 rapid test kits are still available for orders. But, the former Baltimore health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen, said that Americans really need to get these free rapid tests. Also Read: COVID-19 Face Mask's Titanium Dioxide Particles Cause Cancer? Experts Say They Should Be Regulated "If infection control is still our priority, testing is central," she explained. Wen added that four units per household, the current limit of Biden's free COVID-19 test kit program, will only allow U.S. residents to test once. She further explained that the remaining COVID-19 kits are more than enough to allow families to test themselves twice a week. Now, private insurers are now required by the U.S. government to provide up to eight COVID-19 test kits per household every month. If you still haven't gotten yours yet, you can visit COVID19tests.gov to claim your free COVID-19 test kits. Biden Removing COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate? CNET reported that the U.S. government decided to remove COVID-19 vaccine requirements for employees. The Biden administration announced that they withdrew the mandate from more than 100 companies. However, it will still depend on the company owners if they will also allow their employees to go to work without getting vaccinated. In other news, COVID-19 swab tests recently led to some DNA privacy concerns after CDC announced that 10% of the results are sent to genome sequencing labs. Meanwhile, Google's COVID-19 vaccine requirement was also removed. For more news updates about COVID-19 and other health topics, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: COVID-19 Pill: Asks for More Payment, Threatens Access-Does it Mean it Will be More Expensive? This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Instagram iPad app has yet to be launched, but IG boss, Adam Mosseri, says it is still not a priority. Instagram iPad App As per a news story by 9to5Mac, the social media network, which started as a photo-sharing app, is known for its lack of an official iPad app since it first debuted. As such, IG users are instead installing its mobile phone app for the tablet, while some opt to use its web interface. The head of Instagram, Mosseri, previously acknowledged that producing an Instagram app for iPads would be "nice." However, he noted that the dedicated app for the Apple tablet did not see the light of day as the team behind the social media platform has "a lot to do." Mosseri has been consistent with his answer from 2020 to 2021, saying that their hands are full to even have time to develop an iPad app for Insta. Basically, the previous explanations of the IG boss only go to show that creating an iPad app is not included in their list of priorities. Read Also: Meta To Remove Facebook, Instagram From Europe-Saying Data Sharing is Needed for Services To Continue Instagam App on iPad in 2022 Now that we are welcoming another year, 2022, the tech content creator, Marques Brownlee, tweeted what most iPad users might have been thinking. Brownlee said on his official Twitter account that it's already 2022 "and there's still no proper Instagram app for iPad." The Insta head went on to respond to the tweet of the famous tech YouTuber, admitting that they "get this one a lot." Mosseri then explained that iPad users are "still just not a big enough group of people." Thus, the tech exec said that it is still not a priority. However, the IG boss still gave users of the Apple iPad that a dedicated app could release soon when he said that he hoped to "get to it at some point." For now, the tech exec is focusing on doing other things for Instagram, and the iPad app has to wait. Mosseri further added that Insta currently supports Android, iOS, and web, as well as a Lite version for the social media platform. He noted that Android is the largest of them all. On top of that, the IG head also acknowledged that another social media network, TikTok, and the video-sharing site, YouTube are massive. 9to5Mac noted in the same report that analyst data suggests that there are tons of iPads users out there. In 2021 alone, the Apple tablet reportedly shipped more than 51 million units, which is a large number for sure. Related Article: Instagram Professional Dashboard 2022: How to Switch into Professional Account, Access Insights, and More This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg want external help building the metaverse for its future development, particularly with the network needed for the virtual world. Meta, formerly Facebook, previously said that it would develop the metaverse, and it did so without any help from other companies until it announced that it would stop the development of its AR/VR for the new platform. Meta, Mark Zuckerberg Asks Help for Building the Metaverse The metaverse needs help, and it requires a new network that will help make it available to many users for when it releases to the public when it is ready. According to CNET's report, Meta is asking for help, and the company brought this up at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, to which it announced a partner bid for the metaverse. The focus now is to bring a metaverse network that will handle more users and its availability to different parts of the world, ensuring connectivity to those who want to use it. It may be something that Meta needs to do alone, but the company is already opening up stakes to different tech companies regarding the new platform. Read Also: Meta: Russian State Media Have No More Access to Facebook in Ukraine, Some Accounts Demonitized Metaverse Network: Meta and Zuck's Need Right Now MWC's showcase started earlier, and it focuses on giving the world a showcase for different technologies and companies to give the world. The trade show will indeed have its fill of the metaverse, to which it would bring plenty of contributions and advancements to the platform. However, note that the metaverse is only one of the many features here, particularly as many companies continue to showcase their technology in the event. Meta's Metaverse Development Ever since the Facebook company's name changed to Meta, its world changed towards the virtual and augmented reality that could share and keep people away. The first gate to the metaverse is the company's take on "Horizon Worlds," It is already seeing a massive rush of users experiencing a different frontier. The social media company extensively focused on its take on the metaverse, even bringing a feature for users to avoid getting harassment from other users lurking in the shared space. Meta's development dramatically focuses on the availability and freedom it will give users, which will soon launch when it releases publicly. "Horizon Worlds" is the first step to the metaverse from the company, and it promised to bring more in the future when it develops the feature. It may be slow in development and currently faces an issue, but it will still aspire to bring the shared world for people to enjoy and explore when the time comes, paired with the right networks to make it happen. Related Article: Meta's Metaverse To Offer AI Assistants Better Than Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant? What Will Mark Zuckerberg Offer? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isaiah Richard 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Microsoft is planning to use its partner, AT&T's, 5G equipment in order for them to be able to make Azure cloud faster. While mobile carriers are now starting to build out the upcoming 5G network, Microsoft also wants to make that particular equipment a part of the company's very own Azure cloud. Microsoft is Planning to Use AT&T's 5G Equipment to Help Improve Its Azure Cloud Products According to the story by Bloomberg, Microsoft wants to use the equipment in order to speed up delivery of certain services towards nearby customers. To add, the publication also explained how the partnership will work. Microsoft, as of press time, already "built a massive network" which amounts to more than 60 data center regions all around the world. Through this network, customers are able to rent storage and computing power. Microsoft Plans to Provide Power Closer to Customers Over the course of the past few years, however, the company has also started selling certain services that allow customers to be able to crunch data or even perform certain tasks on devices that are located directly on the client's site. As of writing, Microsoft is looking to use 5G equipment coming from partners just like AT&T in order to provide certain processing power that is reportedly located much closer towards a number of customers. This distance is in comparison to certain regional datacenters since it is believed that the closer they are, the faster the speed will be. Azure for Operators Strategy Update Microsoft's Executive Vice President for Strategic Missions and Tech, Jason Zander, noted that 5G is "amazing technology" especially when it comes to particular scenarios. However, Zander has also noted that not everything can just be stuck in a cloud. Microsoft is expected to update its very own Azure for Operations strategy and products at the Mobile World Congress, which is taking in Barcelona until March 3. Microsoft to Use Mobile Phone Networks to be Closer to Customers For context, Microsoft makes money through the sale of Azure products directly to mobile operators. Mobile operators then use the company's tools in order to create their very own service they are to sell to certain mobile phone users. In addition to this, being able to use mobile phone networks will then allow Microsoft to offer customers a process that is described as much "closer to them." The closer locations will include factories as well as stores. On the other hand, Amazon, one of Microsoft's larger rivals, has also been looking into certain similar ideas over the course of the past years in order for the company to use its Outposts products. Read Also: NVIDIA Hackers Was Allegedly Hacked Back by NVIDIA: Data 'Un-Stolen?' AT&T Looks to Bring 5G Network Through Microsoft's Technologies Microsoft is announcing numerous things including AT&T looking at bringing private 5G wireless networks to certain businesses, the public sector, and even universities. This is said to be through the use of the ech giant's technologies. Microsoft will reportedly be offering its very own private 5G for business customers as well. Related Article: Google Chrome to Kill Lite Mode as Data Gets More Affordable This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Urian B. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Monday launched its regional counterterrorism center in Tanzania's commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. The center aims to strengthen partnerships and commitment by the 16 SADC member states in dealing with security challenges, especially the threat of terrorism and violent extremism in the SADC region. Elias Magosi, the SADC executive secretary, said the center's responsibilities included advising SADC on counterterrorism and prevention of violent extremism policies, programs and deployments within the SADC region. The center will also be tasked with research, assessment, analysis and timely dissemination of information to national counterterrorism and prevention of violent extremism agencies and other relevant stakeholders, including the African Union and international partners. "This is the most important of all because failure to disseminate information timely could have unintended catastrophic results for the SADC member states and the region," said Magosi. Machana Ronald Shamukuni, the Botswanan minister for Employment, Labor Productivity and Skills Development, said the center, the first of its kind in Africa, will serve as a coordinating hub to advance the regional counterterrorism capacity-building efforts. "It will also advise SADC member states on effective counterterrorism policies and programs on the prevention of violent extremism and radicalization," said Shamukuni. The SADC was established in 1992 to address regional integration and poverty eradication within southern Africa through economic development and ensuring peace and security. (Photo : Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Due to ongoing concerns in the middle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google has shut off its Maps live traffic features to keep Ukrainian citizens safe. Google's Maps data can be utilized in a ton of different nefarious ways by Russia and other actors. These live service features are used to form a baseline for road traffic concerns and impending delays via anonymous location tracking on Android phones. Outside sources can leverage the data to follow the Russian invasion in Ukraine as it proceeds. According to Reuters, Google took these steps in order to keep Ukrainian citizens safe following consultations with local authorities. Various tech companies are pulling their weight in support of Ukraine as Russia continues its so-called "special operation" within the area. To be clear, live traffic information will remain available to those needing it within the country, Google relays. This will allow Ukrainian citizens still to use such tools as turn-by-turn navigation in their travels. The live service features embedded in Google Maps data have been disabled from global access, ensuring Ukraine remains secure in its time of conflict. Related Article: Google Chrome to Kill Lite Mode as Data Gets More Affordable There is no available data on whether Google has done something like this in the past amid any other ongoing wars of this nature. The outpouring of support can be felt across the industry, made manifest in social media outlets that utilize specific tools to aid the country in any way possible. Professor Jerry Lewis, an Open-source intelligence (OSINT) expert at Middlebury Institute, explains to Motherboard: "I think big data companies often don't want to face squarely how useful their data can be. I mean, it's cool when we do it, right? It's maybe less cool if the Russians were able to do something similar to, you know, spotting an offensive from Ukranians." As previously mentioned, online map data can be leveraged for a variety of different needs, not merely traffic backups and road closures. In 2017, as one example, a new fitness application called Strava unintentionally revealed where various US military bases were on the map as US soldiers were running laps in those specific areas. Like Twitter and Instagram, social media platforms have also been largely helpful in these conflicting times. Snapchat was a vital tool amid the Iraqi war, as users were utilizing the geolocation tools on photos and videos taken on the frontline to bolster information and technique in approaching the conflict. While the Google Maps live service features certainly is a helpful tool, it isn't alone the best piece of information. OSINT investigators and frontline journalists will often leverage the intel gathered from these specific places in combination with other forms of information gathering, allowing for a more holistic picture of the ongoing event, in this case, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Google gave no word on when or if said Maps data would ever be brought back online, though it's clear the company has the best interests of the Ukrainian people in mind with their decision. Read Also: Google Chrome Share Password Feature To Arrive! But, Will This Lead To Security Issues? 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The arrested citizens are suspected of belonging to a transnational network that launders assets in Paraguay and traffics cocaine to Europe and Africa. On Friday, Judge Rosarito Montania issued an arrest warrant for seven people investigated by "A Ultranza PY", an international operation against money laundering from drug trafficking. They are suspected of taking part in a network that launders assets in Paraguay and traffics cocaine to Europe and Africa. Their leader would be the Uruguayan Sebastian Marset, who was arrested in his country using a false passport. The "A ULtranza PY" is an operation that the local authorities carry out with the support of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Europol, and the Uruguayan Directorate for the Suppression of Illicit Drug Trafficking. So far, this operation has managed to seize assets for the equivalent of US$100 million. The investigations have revealed names of possible criminals linked to political figures. Lawmaker Celeste Amarilla, for example, holds that Paraguayan President Mario Abdo received financing from drug traffickers for his political campaign.". Meanwhile in Paraguay, a sweeping drug trafficking bust shakes the government https://t.co/dPnuxO8nY5 via @Ken__Parks @bpolitics JP Spinetto (@JPSpinetto) February 25, 2022 The Paraguayan presidency dismissed the National Emergency Secretary Joaquin Roa after the seizure of a yacht he owned, which was linked to money laundering and drug trafficking. The Abdo administration also removed Interior Minister Arnaldo Guizzio, who is suspected of having ties to Brazilian drug trafficker Marcus Espindola (aka Marques de Padua).. Youth in their 20s who have fallen into the swamp of preventing the return of Corona and poverty DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people have been reported missing after a light aircraft registered in Tanzania and owned by a firm based in Zanzibar crashed off the Comoros Saturday. Tanzania's local media reported Monday that the 14 people went missing after a Cessna Caravan crashed into the Indian Ocean while it was flying in the Islands nation. Mohammed Mazrui, whose firm -- Fly Zanzibar Limited -- owns the fateful aircraft, said the aircraft was leased to a Comorian carrier and was flying from the capital of Moroni to the city of Fomboni when the accident occurred. The aircraft had 12 passengers and two crew on board, with the Comorian government saying all the passengers were Comorian and the two pilots were Tanzanian. The plane disappeared from radar about 2.5 km from its destination, with the cause of the accident still unknown, said Mazrui. The Comorian transport ministry said debris believed to be of the aircraft had been found, adding that an operation was being conducted to recover the debris from the ocean. Senior police officer Abdel-Kader Mohamed told the media in Moroni that three speedboats had been sent to the crash site to search for survivors and collect debris and items belonging to passengers. Donaldsonville marches against gun violence: 'We're sick and tired of being sick and tired' COLOMBO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga on Monday requested the police to ensure the safety of foreign tourists visiting the South Asian country. In a letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the minister asked the head of the police force to take immediate action against anyone harassing or inconveniencing tourists. Noting the widely circulated social media posts about tourists facing harassment, Ranatunga said these incidents could harm tourism at a time when arrivals were picking up again since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. "We must ensure the safety of all tourists by taking immediate action against anyone harassing them," the minister said. According to figures from the Tourism Development Authority, 175,909 tourists have arrived till Feb. 27 this year, of whom 28,392 tourists have arrived from Russia, 24,141 from India, 17,749 from Britain, 13,039 from Ukraine and 12,779 from Germany. Workers with AAA Signs install the new First Horizon sign on the Iberia Bank Tower Tuesday, February 15, 2022, in Lafayette, La. First Horizon Bank, which acquired IberiaBank in 2020 and recently finished rebranding its local branches, is set to be acquired by TD Bank Group. Toronto-based TD Bank said Monday it will acquire First Horizon in a $13.4 billion deal or for $25 a share. LSU and other public colleges and universities are set to get $268 million from the latest federal stimulus bill, up 82% from what schools got earlier this year, officials said Wednesday. The money represents Louisiana's share of higher education dollars contained in the legislation, which won final congressional approval earlier this week after months of political wrangling. A new issue surfaced Tuesday when President Donald Trump said he wants changes in the measure, including $2,000 checks for most citizens rather than the $600 included in the bill. Trump has until Monday to act on the legislation. A total of $23 billion was allocated for higher education and $54 billion for public schools. The plan is called the Bipartisan Emergency COVID Relief Act of 2020. The Board of Regents, which oversees colleges and universities and made the announcement, said the $268 million is an estimate. It would be $121 million more than colleges got earlier this year from the $2.2 trillion federal CARES Act. $147.1M heading to Louisiana colleges as part of coronavirus stimulus bill; LSU gets $19M LSU is in line to get at least $19 million as part of the $2.2 trillion federal stimulus bill aimed at easing the impact of the coronavirus, o Louisiana's higher education system includes 14 two-year schools, 14 four-year schools and two medical schools. Enrollment totals about 214,000 students. Private colleges in Louisiana and elsewhere are set to get aid from a separate pot of money. Exactly how the $268 million would be used is unclear. State officials are waiting for guidance from the U.S. Department of Education. The key criteria in the first round of federal aid announced in April was the number of students who qualified for federal Pell Grants, which are based on financial need. Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed said earlier this week that officials are "always grateful" for dollars that aid Pell Grant recipients and to expand the infrastructure needed for students to take classes online, especially in rural areas. Jim Henderson, president of the University of Louisiana System, also cited student aid as as priority. Henderson noted that, in the past decade, the state has shifted much of the costs to attend college from the state to students. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up "Students are still financially impacted by the virus," Henderson said. "It is vitally important that they have the resources needed to continue their education." Henderson's system oversees 92,000 students at nine colleges, including the University of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Colleges just finished their fall semester, which included a large percentage of classes held online. Students at many schools did not return to campus after Thanksgiving, and took final exams online, to help stem the spread of the coronavirus. Henderson and Reed also said there is need for dollars to help finance testing for the virus during the spring semester. "For us to get ahead of this we will have to do widespread, continual testing," Henderson said. "To identify the cases and then to isolate and treat them in an effective way." Weekly testing of students is recommended by federal officials. How much LSU can expect from the $268 million is unclear. LSU, Louisiana schools refunding $24 million to students because of coronavirus shutdown Louisiana colleges and universities are refunding at least $24 million to students because the academic year was interrupted by the coronaviru The school got $19 million from the first round of aid. If LSU got the same percentage this time it would total about $35 million. Regents also said the state can expect $22 million for both colleges and universities and public schools through the Governor's Emergency Education Relief. That bucket of money totaled $50 million earlier this year and, like this time, was left to Gov. John Bel Edwards on how it was spent. Computers, internet access key targets of federal aid under governor's control Gov. John Bel Edwards has decided to use $32 million of $50 million in discretionary federal dollars for computers and improved internet acces Colleges got $15.5 million of that allocation, with $10 million used to retrain 5,000 men and women who lost their jobs during the pandemic. The rest of the money went to public schools for computers and improved internet access. Monty Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, said earlier this week workforce training remains the top priority of the LCTCS amid heavy demand. Sullivan said the latest assistance can also help with day-to-day operations amid a 12% drop in enrollment. "A large part of that is people saying 'I don't know what life is going to look like,'" he said of the decline. Officials of the state Department of Education are still calculating what Louisiana public schools would get from the relief act. The ASX increased for a third session in a row despite devastating flooding in north-eastern Australia and rising concerns about the impact of Russias invasion of Ukraine on the global economy and financial markets. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 gained 47.4 points to 7,096.5 points on Tuesday, a rise of 0.7 per cent. The Reserve Banks monthly meeting was unsurprising with rates kept on hold, but traders still expected to see the US Federal Reserve lifting rates later this month. Chairman Jerome Powell was due to provide more details in a speech to Congress overnight. But the pressure to lift rates prompted MSCI Researchs Daniel Szabo and Thomas Verbraken to warn global economies could be at risk of stagflation - where prices rise but demand falls. Floods havent stopped the ASX from recording its third consecutive day of gains. In addition to the growing human toll, which is all too real, Russias invasion of Ukraine could significantly impact economies and financial markets worldwide, they wrote in a blog post this week. MSCI revealed it was considering removing Russia from its Emerging Markets ETF, which would see huge amounts of capital pulled out of listed Russian companies. Mr Szabo and Verbrakens worst-case scenario has central banks unable to postpone monetary tightening because of rising inflation caused by an energy shortage. Equities plunge, credit spreads rise and the U.S. dollar gains versus the euro, they predict. Amid the economic recovery from COVID-19 and high-inflation environment, the U.S. and European economies are vulnerable; anda diversified portfolio of global equities, bonds and real estate could lose 13 per cent under a scenario where stagflationary pressures take the upper hand. Locally, the Commonwealth Bank gained 1.5 per cent after announcing it would sell a $1.8 billion stake Chinese lender Bank of Hangzhou, with NAB, ANZ, Westpac and Macquarie Group also closing higher. GrainCorp gained 1.4 per cent, Elders gained 0.7 per cent, and Nufarm gained 1.3 per cent after official estimates the national harvest would peak at $81 billion in 2021-22. Virtus Health jumped 4.7 per cent to new highs of $7.80 as a bidding war saw CapVest increase its offer. ASX-listed depository receipts in Block Inc gained 12.8 per cent after its Nasdaq listed shares reached a four-week high. Insurer IAG was flat after receiving 6700 claims so far from flooded areas. Suncorp pared losses with a 1.2 per cent rise. And Crown Resorts fell 1 to $12.37 after the financial crimes regulator launched court action alleging innumerable breaches of anti-money laundering laws over the past six years. Sandfire Resources dropped 11.6 per cent after Royal Bank of Canada analysts said half-year results missed expectations Zip Co dropped 6.3 per cent to 22-month lows of $2.07 as detailed an all-scrip acquisition of US-based Sezzle, which ended the day 9.9 per cent higher. In an upset, the deaf family drama CODA took top honours at a very unpredictable 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards that also saw wins for the leads of Squid Game, the cast of Ted Lasso and Will Smith. The ceremony, held in California on Sunday (US time), was notably border-breaking, with historic wins for deaf actors, Korean stars and some of Hollywoods biggest names. It culminated with CODA, Sian Heders heartwarming Apple TV+ coming-of-age film and Sundance Film Festival sensation, winning best ensemble. The cast of CODA accepts the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture and signs I love you at the SAG Awards. Credit:AP This validates the fact that we, deaf actors, can work just like anybody else. We look forward to more opportunities for deaf actors, signed Marlee Matlin on stage before teaching the crowd sign language for I love you. Matlin is the only deaf actor to win an Oscar, but her CODA co-star, Troy Kotsur, may be in line to join her. Kotsur won best supporting actor, becoming the first deaf actor win an individual SAG award. The 53-year-old veteran actor plunged his head into his hands when his name was read. On stage, he thanked his wife for reminding me to check my fly before walking the red carpet. DHAKA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua)-- The new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and four election commissioners of Bangladesh took their oath on Sunday, forming the new Election Commission (EC) of the South Asian country. Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique administered the oath to Kazi Habibul Awal as the new CEC at a ceremony at the Supreme Court. Judges from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, senior officials and journalists, among others, attended the swearing-in ceremony. On Saturday, Bangladeshi President Md Abdul Hamid appointed Awal, a former senior secretary of the government, as the CEC and four other people as the election commissioners. The five-year tenure of the last five-member Election Commission of Bangladesh ended on Feb. 14. Like many Sydneysiders, Caitlyn Bellis and Emily Wood headed back to the office for the first time in months on Monday. Ms Wood found the commute from Coogee and the earlier start a bit rough but both were happy to be back and celebrated with a felafel lunch. One of my mates said that work has become quite personal now people want to do it in their own time and in their own space instead of coming into a shared office, said Ms Bellis. But I disagree, I like coming in. I like a mix. Back in the office: law firm workers Caitlyn Bellis and Emily Wood reunited in the CBD with a lunch break felafel. Credit:Michael Koziol After the government ended its recommendation for people to work from home where practical, many companies set February 28 or March 1 as their official return to the office date not necessarily full-time but generally at least three days a week. With masks no longer needed in the office and trains running to their normal weekday timetable, conditions were ripe for office workers to swarm back to the CBD. But it was a slow burn rather than a huge rush Mondays tend to be quieter in the city than the middle of the week and the inclement weather remains an incentive to stay at home. The Andrews government has issued an ultimatum to developers: support a tax on new dwellings to help pay for social housing or lose a broader package that includes the streamlining of planning laws which will enhance industry profits. In a meeting with interest groups on Monday, Treasurer Tim Pallas, said it was prepared to bin its entire package if property industry bodies continue to run a scare campaign on housing affordability and oppose the plan to tax developers $800 million a year to build social housing. Mr Pallas attended the Monday meeting with Planning Minister Richard Wynne. Credit:Luis Ascui On February 18, the government announced a 1.75 per cent tax on builds with more than three dwellings affecting almost every major residential project but the proposal was suspended last week when Premier Daniel Andrews accused the Property Council of not honouring an agreement to support the tax. The Age reported on Saturday that the Andrews government faced resistance to the proposal from a key Labor-affiliated union and some government MPs who were worried about a rise in house prices if developers increased prices to offset the financial hit of the tax. Investigations have commenced into a riot at Acacia Prison outside Perth on Sunday night, where guards lost control of prisoners and were forced to call police as inmates climbed onto the roof, lit fires, smashed TVs and refused to return to cells. WA Police is likely to lay criminal charges over the riot involving 100 out of 1462 prisoners across two of the prisons blocks and the government on Monday retorted to union claims that prisomners got one fence from freedom, saying there was no threat of a perimeter breach. Acacia. Credit:Ashtyn Hiron Authorities also clarified injuries, saying three Acacia staff were treated for minor injuries and one prisoner had a medical episode and was also treated for smoke inhalation. The prison remains in lockdown. Australians trying to follow Russias invasion of Ukraine on social media are being enveloped in a blizzard of misleading and false content, with a deluge of videos and images posted by social media users hungry for followers or seeded by state-backed actors fighting an information war. Some of the most shared moments of the conflict so far have been revealed to be misconstrued, with the sheer volume and speed of the misinformation sparking renewed calls from experts for caution from social media users, and for transparency from tech platforms. Misinformation has suffused Russias invasion of Ukraine, such as these three pictures that went viral despite being wildly out of context. Credit:Twitter / AFP / Reuters In one example, a video that purported to show the Ukrainian air force shooting down a Russian fighter jet was revealed to be footage from the video game Digital Combat Simulator. In another example, a live stream of the conflict turned out to be camera footage on a loop. Footage of explosions depicted as from the current conflict were actually from conflicts long ago and in other countries. And a widely shared image of two small children saluting Ukrainian armoured vehicles that some captions suggest are off to fight the invasion has actually been circulating since 2016. Action was joined at extreme range almost at once. One of the Japanese destroyer flotillas launched an attack, but this was driven off by the fire of the Allied cruisers, and one of the enemy destroyers was seen to be hit by shells from H.M.A.S. Perth. Soon afterwards the other Japanese destroyer flotilla delivered a torpedo attack. Captain Hector Waller aboard HMAS Perth in Sydney. Credit:Gordon Short While action was being taken to avoid these torpedoes, H.M.S. Exeter was hit by an 8-inch shell in the boiler room. This reduced her speed, and forced her to drop out of line. Only one of the torpedoes launched in this attack too effect; this hit the Dutch destroyer Kortenaer, and she sank. The three British destroyers were ordered to counterattack the Japanese destroyers, who were retiring under cover of a smoke screen, but very little information is available about the result of this counterattack. H.M.A.S. Electra was not seen after she had disappeared into a smoke screen, and it is presumed she was sunk. ENEMY CRUISER HIT As soon as the Allied cruisers, except the Exeter, which was unable to keep up, drew clear of the smoke they again engaged the enemy, this time at shorter range. Less than half an hour later the enemy cruisers turned away under cover of a smoke screen. It was seen that one of the enemy heavy 8-inch gun cruisers had been hit aft, and was burning fiercely. Admiral Doorman, who commanded the Allied ships, led his force round and chased the enemy to the northeast, but failed to regain touch with the enemy in the fading light. Loading After nightfall the Allied cruisers sighted four enemy ships to the west, and engaged them, with what results are not known. Later, as the Allied force was sweeping westward along the Java coast, in an attempt to intercept invasion convoys, H.M.S. Jupiter was disabled by an underwater explosion, and sank four hours later. The Jupiter was not far from the mainland of Java, and a number of survivors have already reached Australia. At 11.30 p.m., when the Allied cruisers were about twelve miles north of Rembang, two enemy cruisers were sighted. They were at once engaged, and a number of hits were obtained on the enemy. The de Ruyter was hit by a shell, and shortly afterwards, as the de Ruyter was apparently taking action to avoid enemy torpedos, explosions occurred simultaneously in the de Ruyter and the Java. Both these Dutch cruisers blew up and sank at once. It is impossible to assess with accuracy the damage inflicted on the enemy during the actions on February 27. Observers in H.M.A.S. Perth considered that one Japanese 8-inch gun cruiser had been sunk, a second 8-inch gun cruiser damaged and a destroyer sunk. It has also been reported that a Japanese cruiser of the Mogami class (8500 tons, 15 6.1-inch guns) was set on fire, and that three destroyers were seriously damaged and left on fire or sinking. PERTHS LAST ACTION Loading H.M.A.S. Perth, which had received some damage, reached Tanjong Priok at 7 a.m. on February 28. With the enemy in command of the sea and air north of Java, in overwhelming force, the Allied command was faced with the problem of extricating the remaining Allied ships from a very dangerous situation. The way to Australia was barred by the 600-mile-long Island of Java, with the straits at either end under enemy control. After dark on February 28 H.M.A.S. Perth left Tanjong Priok with the intention of passing through the Sunda Strait during the night. During the night a report from the Perth was received, indicating that she had come into contact with a force of Japanese ships off St. Nicholas Point, at about 11.30 p.m. CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia reported more than 15,000 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths on Monday, including six in New South Wales (NSW), three in Victoria and one each in Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and South Australia. According to Department of Health data, there were 1,995 COVID-19 cases in Australia being treated in hospitals on Sunday, including 137 in intensive care units. Over the past week, there have been an average of 23,082 new cases reported each day. The ACT reported fewer than 500 new cases for the third consecutive day, prompting authorities to declare that an outbreak linked to Australian National University (ANU) has stabilized. A spokesperson for the university told The Canberra Times that the number of students testing positive has dropped to single figures from a peak of hundreds. "At the same time, a very significant number of our students who tested positive for COVID-19 have been cleared and come out of self-isolation," the spokesman said. "We continue to provide a wide range of support and care for any of our students living on campus who are self-isolating due to COVID-19." In the Northern Territory, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the mask mandate will be lifted within days in line with easing restrictions in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. London: Vladimir Putins troops and tanks will march towards Ukraines capital Kyiv with the backing of Belarus reinforcements as the Russian-ally passed a referendum paving the way for it to host nuclear weapons and Moscows military forces permanently. The Russian President also put his nations nuclear arsenal on standby, raising fears he could deploy weapons of mass destruction to avoid the humiliation of defeat in Ukraine in the face of fierce resistance as the United Nations scrambled to schedule emergency talks of both its General Assembly and Security Council in New York. People trying to flee Ukraine sleep inside a crowded Lviv railway station on Monday, February 28, as Russias military assault entered its fifth day. Credit:AP Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky, revealed to be the target of an assassination plot by Russian-backed mercenaries, told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone call on Monday that the next 24 hours were crucial for the future of his country. The European Union has for the first time in its history agreed to supply weapons to a country at war, with fighter jets expected to arrive in the coming days. Ukrainian forces have so far brought down Russian warplanes and military transport aircraft, blown up dozens of tanks and hundreds of armoured vehicles and brought down cruise missiles, surpassing expectations by preventing Russia from gaining control of the skies and denying Putin his initial strategic objectives. Opinion: Staying silent: How A&M silenced my assault Opinion writer Abbie Beckley remembers the aftermath of her assault and all the university didnt do to help Van Buren, AR (72956) Today Thunderstorms likely. High 68F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely. Rainfall will be locally heavy at times. A few storms may be severe. Low 63F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 3 to 5 inches of rain expected. People gather during a protest against the invasion of Ukraine Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, outside the State Capitol in Denver. Naugle: Maryland lagging behind the 18 states that have legalized cannabis use CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A health warning has been issued in South Australia (SA) over a potentially deadly mosquito-borne virus. The state's Department for Health and Wellbeing recently told the community to avoid exposure to mosquitoes after seven cases of acute encephalitis were identified in SA over the last month. Acute encephalitis is inflammation of the brain that is most commonly caused by viral or bacterial infection. All seven cases in SA have required treatment in hospital. Chris Lease, executive director of Health Protection and Licensing Services in the department, said authorities were investigating the confirmed cases for flavivirus, a mosquito-borne disease that can develop into encephalitis. "All of these people required hospitalisation with four people currently still in hospital, and one person having sadly passed away," he said in a media release on Sunday, adding that the south east of Australia currently experiencing a La Nina weather pattern increases the risk of mosquito-borne diseases. "Symptoms of encephalitis may include confusion, headaches, neck stiffness, tremors, drowsiness and seizures." In addition to the seven cases of acute encephalitis, there have also been 77 confirmed cases of the Ross River virus in SA so far in 2022, up from 48 at the same time in 2021. Ross River is not lethal but can cause joint pain, fever and rashes. The West Nile virus has been detected in New South Wales and mosquitoes carrying the Kokobera virus - a type of flavivirus - have been found in SA's Riverland region. "Most people who are infected with these viruses are asymptomatic or develop a mild febrile illness, but a small proportion of infected people, less than 1 percent. will develop encephalitis, which may be fatal or cause long-term neurological damage," Lease said. "To protect against mosquito borne diseases, we are encouraging people to 'fight the bite' and take precautions such as wearing long, loose-fitting, light coloured clothing and using a repellent which contains DEET or picaridin." Stolichnaya Vodka is being removed shelves in New Hampshire by order of the governor in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Five states, as of Monday morning, had pulled Russian vodka from state-run shelves. The 7,100-square-foot store operates Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It has a drive-up donation drop-off location. Photo courtesy of Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont Instant unlimited access to all of our E-Editions and content on thechronicleonline.com. The Chronicle E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street! This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers. (The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement) MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Armed Forces have hit 1,114 Ukrainian military infrastructure objects, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Monday. The military objects included "31 control points and communication centers," Konashenkov said, citing a statement published by the ministry. Russian air forces have gained air supremacy over the entire territory of Ukraine, and the armed forces have taken control of the Ukrainian cities of Berdiansk and Energodar, the spokesman added. The above is yet to be confirmed from Ukraine. Click the image to the left and log in to get your exclusive reader perks. An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek. Forest City, NC (28043) Today Some passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 56F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 56F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Amanda Bynes has filed a petition to end her 9-year long conservatorship. The 35-year-old Nickelodeon actress entered a conservatorship under her parents Lynn and Rick Bynes in 2013 while she was facing substance abuse issues, controversial Twitter rants, and legal troubles. The former child star was placed under a temporary psychiatric hold after reportedly starting a fire in someones driveway, at which point a judge put her under a temporary conservatorship that has been extended multiple times over the years. According to TMZ, her parents are in full support of ending her conservatorship, claiming she has made 'significant progress' in coping with bipolar disorder. Hollywood power couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are stepping up to assist refugees by pledging to match donations up to $1 million. The pair posted individually on social media announcing their committment to aid Ukrainian Refugees after Russia began a full scale invasion last Thursday. The Marvel actor posted to Twitter, retweeting a post from the United Nations Refugee Agency. A tourist bus headed for the Austrian Alps crashed on a local highway in Upper Bavaria Saturday morning, injuring 43 of the 61 people on board, Inzell, Germany on Feb. 26, 2022. (Hubert Hobmaier/ Fire Department Traunstein via AP) 43 Injured as Tourist Bus Veers Off Road in Bavaria VIENNAA tourist bus headed for the Austrian Alps crashed on a local highway in Upper Bavaria on Saturday, injuring 43 of the 61 people on board. Around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, the double-decker bus veered off the road and crashed near the town of Inzell, in the Traunstein district of Bavaria, according to Bavarian police. No other vehicles were involved in the crash. Police said seven people sustained serious injuries, while 36 others, including the driver, were more lightly injured. The bus was traveling from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to the Austrian ski resort of Kaprun, police said. Police said the road remained closed as of Saturday afternoon. A Decisive Time in World History Commentary What began a couple of months ago as another dismal, dishonest compromise with what had been long considered the fundamental principles of the West has suddenly turned into a thunderous sequence of earth-shaking events. The Chinese secrecy over the coronavirusas it did nothing to restrain its spread to the world and induced a self-inflicted economic and sociological shutdown disaster across the Westassisted in the removal of the most purposeful leader the West has had since Ronald Reagan, and led to a succession of terrible, self-administered humbling acts by the United States. America instantly ceased to be energy self-sufficient and, in homage to self-destructive green tyranny, it reduced energy production while preaching to the Chinese, the worlds greatest polluters, the virtues of fighting climate change. It begged Russia and Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to make up for what President Joe Biden had himself curtailed. When Russian hackers shut down gasoline distribution in the southeast, Biden meekly asked Putin to exempt a number of targets while approving large blackmail payments from the U.S. private sector. The green movement gained immense momentum when it was taken over by the international left after its defeat in the Cold War and has surged under Barack Obama and Biden. The United States is suffering skyrocketing energy costs while Russia is enjoying the fruits of $100-per-barrel oil, with Europe and America among their principal customers. In the frenzied election year, the Democrats effectively embraced American self-hate, and taught its schoolchildren, university students, and even the members of its Armed Forces that America was a slave-holding enterprise. The debacle in Afghanistan, in which America betrayed its allies, abandoned thousands of its own citizens, and left billions of dollars worth of military hardware behind for Islamist extremists, was followed by the de facto collapse of the puny ObamaBiden attempt to persuade Iran not to become a nuclear power, as China voided the long-promised crippling sanctions on that country. At the beginning of last week, all indications were that the West would contrive to inflict another colossal defeat on itself by responding very inadequately to the long-anticipated Russian assault on Ukraine. Instead of seriously arming Ukraine, the West wasted months importuning the Russians to confine themselves to a takeover of a few provinces of Ukraine. Biden prattled endlessly on about defend[ing] every inch of NATO territory. As none of it was under threat, this was just a euphemism for telling the Russians to do whatever they wanted in Ukraine. The United States offered to evacuate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his family; it was hopeless. Russia would crush the western option within Ukraine, and we would pat ourselves on the back that no NATO country had been attacked. The fact that France and Germany had guaranteed Ukrainian security when it gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994, and that Ukraine had been a Western ally in Afghanistan, were ignored. As Vladimir Putin publicly prepared his illegal strike on Ukraine, there was a crescendo of fatuous advice that Ukraine should be declared permanently inadmissible to NATO, and that we should have brought down sanctions before Putin had moved one soldier out of Russian territory. We were complacently going around in circles in a Putin-directed dog-show. All observers knew that Russias force of about 120,000 trigger-pullers could not occupy a country larger than Luxembourg unless it had sealed borders and a great many traitors within. It was assumed either that Putin would just take the eastern provinces, or that Russia would trample Ukraine underfoot with little difficulty. The Wests decline would become a fall. Suddenly came one of historys dramatic moments: The Ukrainians fought savagely. As Winston Churchill said of the Finns when they were attacked by Stalin in 1940, only Ukraine shows what free men can do. What a contrast they are from the vapid woke protesters of the West. Their resistance has been magnificent, and Zelensky, who began his career as a comedian and debuted on the world stage in the fatuous first impeachment of Trump, has emerged in just a few days as a Demosthenean national hero. As Russian difficulties became obvious, the Western powers scrambled to catch up with their own outraged domestic opinion. The United States and NATO abruptly increased the quantity of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles and other assistance to Ukraines 44 million patriotic defenders. The United States led the Alliance toward the substantial expulsion of Russia from the international banking systemhere, at last, was a severe penalty. The assumption that Ukraine had no chance of survival had led the Biden administration to pander to the Buchananite (Pat, not James) Fox News isolationists and pretend that it was an achievement that no NATO nation was attacked. It was soon obvious that Putin would either have to accept part of the loaf or gamble on mass attacks against urban civilians reducing Ukrainian resistance before NATO could sufficiently reinforce it. Russias GDP is smaller than Canadas, and it doesnt have the means to conduct a lengthy war on that scale. And provision to Ukraine of advanced weaponry was very possible. What had started as another important waystation in the decline of the West was suddenly starting to look like the overwhelming reassertion of the half-forgotten power of human freedom. On Sunday morning, the new ostensibly leftist government of Germany suddenly announced to almost unanimous agreement in the Bundestag a massive program to build German Armed Forces to the appropriate size for Europes greatest power; it was a 100-billion-euro defense build-up almost on a voice vote. This will change the correlation of forces in Central Europe dramatically. Bismarck united Germany in 1871, but since then, only the foolish Wilhelm II and the satanically evil Adolf Hitler have exercised Germanys full strength. Finally, it will be asserted responsibly and within the Western Alliance. Earth-shaking events are piling in on top of each other. Just 105 years after President Woodrow Wilson made World War I a war to make the world safe for democracy, theres a chance that the valor of Ukraine may produce a more promising attempt at the same project. In the next few days, it will be clear whether the United States can seize this strategic opportunity to reinforce Ukraine without getting into a direct exchange of fire with Russia, and transform this into a decisive victory for freedom: the resolution of the status of the former Soviet republics and the reassertion of the Western perimeter, including Taiwan. World War I rid us of the irresponsible hereditary monarchic despotisms and gave us the communists and Nazis in control of Great Powers. World War II rid us of Nazism; the Cold War rid us of the communists, but Chinese and Russian nationalists are trying to undo the Western victory. We can stop it now, or not. The sleeping giants awake in righteous wrath one after the next: Germany, and now must come the United States. Apart from the necessary increase in military assistance (without NATO personnel in combat roles), the logical next step is to throw out the fifth column of charlatans consciously or otherwise promoting totalitarian victory through renewable energy. Russian absorption of Ukraine would be a disaster. If an independent Ukraine survives, it confirms the dissolution of the Soviet Union and turns back the recent tide against the West. Ultimately, we must have Russia in a West that will stand from Vancouver eastward (and westward) to Vladivostok. Then it will be our challenge to bring China into the West also. This will be the apotheosis of democratic government. The appropriate end to the present Ukraine conflict will be the concession of the Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainian provinces to Russia and the acknowledgment of the complete liberty of the ethnically rationalized Ukraine that would remain to join NATO and the EU, as soon as it will have met their criteria for membership. What began as a virtual delayed reaction sequel to the suppressions in Budapest in 1956 and Prague in 1968 is beginning to look like one of the great revolutions for human and national liberty in modern history. If we can help save Ukraine, it will save the West. Its also the last chance for this appalling administration. We got to the crossroads: surrender or resurrection. Heroic resisters may be galvanizing unheroic leaders into heroic acts. These are memorable times. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A boy plays on a swing in front of a damaged residential block hit by an early morning missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Australia Commits Finance, Military Equipment to Ukraine The Australian government will commit an initial AU$4 million (US $2.87 million) to Ukraine for military assistance, which comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier promised to send lethal and non-lethal military equipment to the embattled country. Morrison told Radio 4BC that the government was working with NATO partners on the most effective way to ship the aid to Ukraine. Weve got an initial commitment into NATO this morning, which is providing non-lethal support, so that medical packages those sorts of things to assist in the conflict zone. But well be making further announcements about a broader humanitarian assistance support, the prime minister said on Feb. 28. Australias Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media to announce sanctions on top Russian officials following the invasion of eastern Ukraine, during a press conference in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 23, 2022. (Steven Saphore/AFP via Getty Images) The latest move comes after Australia, along with like-minded nations, imposed heavy sanctions on the Russian leadership targeting 350 oligarchs, MPs, and military commanders, as well as 13 Belarusian individuals including its defence minister, Viktor Khrenin. Australia, along with the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, have also rolled out extensive economic sanctions to essentially place immense pressure on the Russian financial system. The measures include the removal of Russian banks from the SWIFT global payments systemintegral for inter-country money transfers; restrictions stopping the Russian Central Bank from accessing its currency reserves located overseas; limiting golden passports for wealthy Russians connected to the authorities; and setting up a task force to identify and freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies. Together, these measures will impose severe costs on the Russian economy by disconnecting its key banks from the international financial system and disrupting Russian trade and investment flows, according to a press release. They will also paralyse Russias foreign reserves and prevent Russian officials and elites from accessing key financial systems. Meanwhile, mixed messages have emerged from the conflict, with Ukrainian officials agreeing to meet with their Russian counterparts near the Ukraine-Belarus border. However, in response to the sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his nuclear forces to be on high alert. Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area. Im speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of, Putin said on Feb. 27, according to state-backed Russian media. Fighting is ongoing with Ukraine capital, Kyiv, with Russian forces reportedly near the city. A man watches as the water level of the flooded Brisbane River rises at West End, Australia, on Feb. 27, 2022. (Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images) Australian Floods Claim 8th Life Floods in the Australian state of Queensland have claimed an eighth life as the Brisbane River peaked and emergency flood warnings move south towards New South Wales. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said further flash flooding will occur with some rivers yet to peak. More than 15,000 homes in CBD have been flooded after the Brisbane River peaked at 3.85 metres (12.6 feet) on Monday morning, lower than the 2011 flood peak of 4.5 metres. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said high levels of rainfall drenched the southeastern area, with some areas receiving a years worth of rainfall across the current weather event. Diana Eadie from the BOM said Mt Glorious had been inundated with 1.5 metres of rain in the past week when its average annual rainfall is 1.6 metres. The significance of this event cant be understated, how much rain has fallen over a large number of catchments across Southeast Queensland, Eadie said. In response to criticism of flood planning following previous flood events, Palaszczuk called the weather event an unpredictable rain bomb that even BOM was unable to see coming. This is mother nature. I cant control mother nature, she told reporters. All these emergency services people have been on the front line doing the best they possibly can. The usually busy Melbourne Street, South Brisbane. Closed to traffic on Feb.28, 2022. (The Epoch Times) The premier said she wanted Queenslanders to understand just how much rainfall occurred across the catchment zone. If it wasnt for [emergency services], there would have been a lot more loss of life, she said. We should be thanking them for everything they have been doing. Flooded areas in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, Australia, on Feb. 28, 2022. (AAP Image/Jono Searle) The Australian Defence Force (ADF) also responded to requests for assistance, with two Taipan helicopters deployed to help rescue efforts. In fact, three lives were saved yesterday as a direct result of their actions, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday. So the Defence Force are there to help with all of those thingswhether its recovery and support evacuation if necessary, particularly in quite extreme situations, because they have the training to undertake those tasks, Morrison later added. The Pacific Motorway (M1) and Bruce Highway are closed at multiple locations as the flood situation is escalating in the Gold Coast, Logan, and Scenic Rim areas. The Holman Street ferry terminal was destroyed, with videos showing the debris washing down the river. The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said Albert and Logan Rivers are expected to peak on Tuesday mornings. As the weather system moves southward, the town of Lismore in New South Wales is bracing for its worst flood on record. Australian State Poised to Dump $75M of Russian Assets The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) will divest all of its Russian assets in its investment funds, in a protest against President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine. The move will see at least $75 million of Russian assets acquired by the NSW Generations Fund sold. Putins illegal invasion has put at risk global security and he is personally responsible for the consequences of this war, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean said on Monday. My thoughts are with both the brave people of Ukraine and the Russian people protesting against Vladimir Putin notwithstanding the risk of arrest. A Polish border guard assists refugees from Ukraine as they arrive to Poland at the Korczowa border crossing, Poland, on Feb. 26, 2022. (Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo) It is important at this time for liberal democracies to stand with Ukraine and stand up for our values. NSW shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey welcomed the decision. Vladimir Putins debt should never have been in NSWs investment portfolio. Especially since he was using that money to build the army that is currently marching into Ukraine, Mookhey said. The move comes after the federal government said it would impose financial sanctions on eight Russian oligarchs and the government is also considering other measures that could be implemented globally. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on Russias attack on Ukraine, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Leah Millis Meanwhile, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg believes Russia could be kicked out of international forums like the G20. Photo taken with a mobile phone shows people selecting clothes donated by others in Medyka, Poland, Feb. 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Chen) MEDYKA, Poland, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- It is a freezing cold night in Medyka, a south-eastern Polish town on the border with Ukraine. There, traumatized Ukrainian refugees shiver as they queue to cross the border into Poland. Having fled their homes to escape the Russia-Ukraine conflict, They hope to find shelter and safety elsewhere. On the first day of Russia's military operation, Poland's border guard said 29,000 people came to Poland. This figure has now swelled to more than 100,000. Some are lucky. Dozens of cars and small buses wait in the parking lot at the border, to pick up Ukrainian friends and relatives. Others, however, are less fortunate: they pace around looking flustered, repeatedly asking for information. Even those who have a car don't know how far they will get. More than half of the gas stations along the road from Medyka to Przemysl, 10 km away, have sold their last drop of petrol for the day. Many of the refugees do not want to deal with journalists' cameras and microphones immediately after setting foot on Polish territory. However, Julia, who had just reunited with her husband, is willing to talk to Xinhua. Holding her one-year-old son with one arm, the 26-year-old is picking up convenience food from volunteers. Meanwhile, her older son plunges his head into a box full of plush toys, donated by local people. Julia's family lives in a small town in western Ukraine, while her husband works at a Skoda car factory in Prague, Czech Republic. After the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, she decided to go to her husband's place. Her father and brother drove her to the border area. They heard explosions along the way. She walked the last 20 km with her two sons to Poland, and was finally reunited with her husband who came to pick her up. "The journey was difficult and dangerous, but now we are finally safe!" said Julia, who does not want to give her full name. "What will happen in the future? I don't know." Like Julia, Yryna also crossed the border on Saturday. She got up at 4 a.m., planning to go to her cousin's home with her three children. Yryna left almost everything at her home in Truskavet, a city in Ukraine's Lviv Oblast near the border. Everyone warned her to leave as soon as she could. "It's not about my life, but I have three kids," she said, before bursting into tears. Her elder daughter Anna seems less worried, showing Xinhua her cat and rabbit, who are traveling with her. However, Anna said she wants to go home as her friends are there. Terebetskyy Volodumur, a 50-year-old Ukrainian businessman, is set to cross the border to his home in Kiev -- while most are traveling in the opposite direction. He explains that he drove to Italy on a business trip on Tuesday, and heard many Ukrainians were fleeing their homes. "It was fine when I left, but suddenly there was a war. I have three children at home, and I want to go back and stay with the children," he said. Photo taken with a mobile phone shows staff members distributing food to people from Ukraine in Medyka, Poland, Feb. 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Chen) Photo taken with a mobile phone shows a police officer maintaining order in Medyka, Poland, Feb. 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Chen) Photo taken with a mobile phone shows people queuing for hot water in Medyka, Poland, Feb. 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Chen) Stumbling on bird photography quite haphazardly after suffering a debilitating injury, Wisconsinite Andy Raupp was afforded a chance to immortalize an avian spectaclerecently capturing on camera a pair of female cardinals in a midair duel. One snowy day last January, Raupp, 28, was all set up in silent mode for wildlife shooting, in his photo blind in his backyard, and was getting some nice shots of a female cardinal on a cedar branchshocks of muted rose pastels of the birds beak and wings contrasting elegantly with the cool grays and dark greens of the overcast winter scenery. Then abruptly, another flash of red upset the tranquil moment, instantly stirring a fervor of ruffled feathers into the air. From out of nowhere, a second female cardinal flew in and initiated a fight, Raupp recounted to The Epoch Times. In a split second, the two birds flew into the air and in an instant it was over. After the altercation between the cardinals, I quickly looked through my photos on the back of my camera and was thrilled with the images that were captured! I thought it was really amazing to see this fast action frozen in time, which is one of the many reasons I enjoy bird photography. With his Sony A1, at 1/4000 of a second shutter speed, the photographer was able to snap no fewer than 40 shots during the split-second encounter, showing one rather miffed-looking lady bird doling out repayment to the other for the disturbance. Thankfully, Raupp was good enough to share these with the world by posting them on his Instagram, where he features many of his avian photographic encounters, including over 200 different species of birds. Fairly often when I photograph some of these birds, people comment and tell me they never even knew that this bird existed, he told the newspaper. So I have also found joy in not only photographing birds and wildlife but also sharing information and educating others about them. As for the two hotheaded red birds competing in his backyard, Raupp narrated the outcome of the feud in a caption in his Instagram post, where he shared his 10 favorite shots from the clash to paint a picture. Id say the bird that started the fight quickly regretted this decision and eventually retreated in defeat, he captioned, jokingly adding a emoji. 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 Beijing Eyes Unmarried Teens as Chinas Population Continues to Decline In the face of a sharp drop in Chinas birth rate, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities have introduced a number of policies to encourage childbirth, but so far, none has worked. The desire to have babies among people of childbearing age continues to decline. However, instead of reviewing and correcting the mistakes of its ever-shifting anti-humanity policies, the CCP continues to issue bizarre edicts that the outside world cannot understand. At the end of January, China Family Planning Association under the State Council issued China Family Planning Association 2022 Work Highlights (hereafter referred to as the Work Highlights), a document that triggered hot debates. The report said that in 2022, we will focus on addressing prominent reproductive health problems among adolescents, people of childbearing age, and other specific groups, and launch special campaigns to intervene in induced abortion among unmarried people, to reduce unwanted pregnancies and induced abortions among adolescents. The reference to intervene in induced abortion among unmarried people was particularly noticeable and became the top topic in internet searches. This is not the first time the Family Planning Association has used reproductive health as a reason for its work. In January 2021, the Associations 2021 Work Highlights outlined the implementation of reproductive health promotion activities and pointed out that the prominent reproductive health problems of adolescents, people of childbearing age, and other specific groups should be addressed. In August 2021, Wang Peian, Deputy Director of the Population Resources and Environment Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and Secretary of the Party Committee of the CCPs Family Planning Association, said the growing problem of reproductive health among teenagers posed a major threat to the countrys population security. After comparing the CCP Family Planning Associations Work Highlights from 2021 and 2022, The Epoch Times found that the Highlights in 2021 were generalized and said, address the outstanding problems of reproductive health among adolescents, people of childbearing age, and other specific groups of people, while the 2022 Highlights went further by saying to intervene in abortions among unmarried people and reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions among adolescents. This is no longer just policy propaganda, but aims to carry out special work for a designated group. Although the current intervention is still at the level of administrative instructions issued by Zhongnanhai to family planning departments at all levels, and has not been upgraded to a new state policy, the change has given the outside world a glimpse of the regimes barbarity in returning to mandatory family planning. What does the CCPs new statement on the population mean? Zhang Tianliang, a political commentator living in the United States, told The Epoch Times that the CCP wants its citizens to have more children as the country faces a demographic crisis now. Teenagers are more likely to get pregnant if they dont take necessary measures, and yet the policy is more about reducing the number of abortions so that the population can increase as soon as possible. Zheng Jie, a Japanese political commentator told The Epoch Times that the Work Highlights used reducing unwanted teenage pregnancies and abortions and improving the reproductive health of the public as a pretext. Given the serious imbalance in population ratios, this is a signal that the CCP wants to take coercive measures to change the status quo. It is reported that the 2022 Work Highlights have been distributed to family planning associations in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, cities with independent planning, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, various departments of the CCP Family Planning Association, and Life Magazine. Unmarried Pregnancies and High Abortion Rates Trouble CCP According to a 2021 article in the Chinese Journal of Practical Gynecology and Obstetrics, induced abortions in China are characterized by three traits: a large number, a high proportion of repeat abortions, and a large proportion of young unmarried women. The CCP Family Planning Association will intervene in abortions for unmarried women from four aspects: 1. Cooperate with relevant departments to involve schools, families, and society and train parents; 2. establish education, counseling, technical services and reproductive health service chains, carry out pre-abortion counseling and postpartum contraceptive guidance; 3. strengthen publicity and advocate all circles to pay attention to the problem of unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion; 4. conduct surveys and studies on reproductive health. Wu Shangchun, a researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said in 2014 that there are about 10 million induced abortions a year in China, up to 13 million at the peak, which is a huge number. Childless women account for nearly half of them. The person in charge of the Family Planning Association also said: A number of surveys have shown that the proportion of young, unmarried, and childless women in [having] induced abortion is increasing, and the proportion of high-risk abortions within the age of 20 and [the number of ] repeat abortions has increased significantly. The number of abortions among unmarried teenagers under the age of 24 accounts for more than 40 percent of all abortions in China each year, and 19 percent of them [the women] have had multiple abortions. Beijing Cultural Review, a Chinese academic journal, recently published an article titled To what Extent are Unmarried pregnancies spreading in China as Family Planning Associations Deliberately Clamp Down on Abortion? The byline shows Li Wenzhen, School of Sociology and Population, Renmin University of China. How far has the trend of unmarried pregnancy in China reached that it requires direct intervention by the relevant authorities? the author asked. A study of seven Chinese provinces and cities by scholar Xu Li found that 16.8 percent of premarital pregnancies took place between 1987 and 1991, the article said. In 2013, the percentage of pregnancies in unmarried women was as high as 30.5 percent among all migrant couples aged 15-59. A 2011 survey found that among the new generation of migrant workers born after 1980 who are married and have children, the proportion of premarital pregnancies for the first child was as high as 42.7 percent. People in big cities are more likely to get pregnant out of wedlock, the author added. Some studies believe that the peak age of unmarried pregnancy is about 20, while others believe that unmarried pregnancy has an obvious trend of occurring at lower ages. Out of 396,022 live births in China, 8.96 percent were out of wedlock. In addition, with the abortion rate rising every year, the authorities are tasting the consequences of decades of harsh family planning and forced abortionshundreds of millions of babies lost. Chinas aging population and declining fertility rate led the CCP to allow couples to have a second child in October 2015. In June 2021, it further implemented a three-child policy and introduced corresponding social services to encourage childbirth. Although the policy has changed 180 degrees from minimize the number of children to encourage more children, it has not changed peoples waning desire to have children. With regard to the focus on addressing prominent reproductive health problems of adolescents, people of childbearing age, and other specific groups of people mentioned in the Work Highlights, people can also see the seriousness of the situation from the so-called valuable experience of intervening in teenage abortions that the CCPs Family Planning Association recently presented to Chinese media. The Association claimed that its ways with Peers project, aimed at college and secondary school students, disseminates sexual health information among peers, says to avoid unprotected sex, and reduces unwanted pregnancy, induced abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases/AIDS infection. By February 2022, the project had covered more than 700 universities and 10,000 middle schools across China, with more than 7 million students participating each year, according to data provided by the Association. The evaluation of four universities in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province showed that the rate of knowledge about contraception among college students increased from 43.2 percent to 85.2 percent, and the knowledge rate about AIDS increased from 37.8 percent to 77.6 percent. Three years after the project began, the number of abortions among unmarried young women aged 17-24 in hospitals around the four universities dropped from 35 percent to 25 percent. In August, 2021, Wang Pei an, party secretary of the Family Planning Association, even talked about improving unmarried peoples access to contraceptives, induced abortion, and reproductive health counseling and technical services. Wide Range of Incentives According to official data, the number of newborns in China was only 17.28 million in 2017, and was expected to drop to 10.035 million in 2020, indicating that the declining birth rate is a trend. In August 2021, the CCPs rubber-stamp legislature, passed a decision to revise the family planning law and advocate the three-child policy. However, the total number of newborns that year was still 10 percent lower than in 2020, and some regions even saw a decrease of 30 percent. Faced with a severe decline in birth rate, various Chinese provinces revised their regulations in accordance with the new family planning law and introduced various incentives to encourage couples to have three children. As of Nov. 28, 2021, more than 20 provinces had initiated or completed amendments to the law, offering measures such as extending maternity leave, adding parental leave, and issuing subsidies, according to a Xinhua report in November last year. Because it does not involve government spending, increasing maternity leave to encourage childbirth has become mainstream. Zhejiang Province has made it clear that women who have one child will have 60 days of maternity leave, and 90 days of maternity leave when their second or third child is born. Shaanxi Province will give another half-year of award leave to female employees who have given birth to three children. Authorities in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang and other places stipulate that until a child turns 3, both husband and wife can take parental leave every year. Some cities are willing to pay subsidies, such as 1,000 yuan (about $158) per child per month, for families with second or third children. U.S.-based independent commentator Han Wu told The Epoch Times that these are still measures the CCP is taking to resolve its extremely low birth rate. They look humane on the surface, but in fact, the CCP does not respect an individuals wishes. Han also said that Chinas population growth and demographic structure are in a huge crisis. Although the entire world faces the problem of a low percentage of people in the workforce versus total population, this problem is more prominent in China. As a country with a large population, the CCP now actively implements new policies to encourage people to have children; yet Chinas birth rate continues to decrease year by year. In less than 10 or 20 years, the population problem will completely bring down the CCP. Therefore, the CCP is particularly anxious, and its new family planning policy is a major decision for the regime. Policies to Curb High Divorce Rate At the same time, different regions in China have reported record high divorce rates. Chinese authorities introduced a divorce cooling-off period that started on Jan. 1, 2021. If a couple does not go to the marriage registration authority to verify their divorce decision, their initial divorce application will be treated as withdrawn. However, this new measure has had little effect. On the Chinese forum Pincong.com, a netizen predicted that the CCP will continue to make divorce more difficult and will probably enact laws to ban abortion by the end of 2022. The CCP will adopt these methods to deal with the high divorce rate: increase the difficulty of [getting a] divorce, extend the procedural period, and increase the cost of divorce. Yet the authorities will turn a deaf ear to the real underlying social reasons for the high divorce rate, the author wrote. As for the causes of the low birth rate, the author agreed with many social media blogs that high housing prices and the cost of bringing up a child are the main reasons. But the CCP definitely will not try to lower housing prices or the cost of raising a child to increase the birth rate, he said. Japan-based commentator Zheng Jie said he was really worried about young people in China after reading the CCPs 2022 Work Highlights on family planning. This edict, first of all, emphasized that the CCPs comprehensive leadership over the work of the Family Planning Association must be strengthened. The CCP initiated the one-child policy more than 30 years ago, which caused many family tragedies, and now there is not even a word of apology. The world has never seen such an unconscionable government before. Ellen Wan contributed to this report. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a news conference following talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 9, 2021. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters) Belarus Set to Amend Non-Nuclear Constitution Amid Russia-Ukraine Conflict Belarus is set to make amendments to its non-nuclear constitution to allow for nuclear weapons after a referendum was held on Sunday amid Russias invasion of Ukraine. The Belarus Central Election Commission said that voter turnout stood at 78.61 percent, of which 65.2 percent voted in favor of the change. The amendments give Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko the option to bring nuclear weapons back on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union, raising the stakes at a time when Lukashenko has thrown his support behind Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military assault on Ukraine, citing the need to protect the rights of Russian-speaking groups living in the east of the country. They also allow Russian troops to remain permenantly on Belarusian soil. The West said that it would not recognize the results of the referendum taking place against the background of a sweeping crackdown on domestic opponents of the government. Speaking at a polling station on Sunday, Lukashenko said he would ask Russia to return nuclear weapons back to Belarus if the West moves to arm its neighboring NATO countries. If you (the West) transfer nuclear weapons to Poland or Lithuania, to our borders, then I will turn to Putin to return the nuclear weapons that I gave away without any conditions, he said. Belarus handed its nuclear weapons over to Russia as part of the Budapest Memorandum, in which Russia gave assurances to respect the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in exchange for nuclear disarmament. In a video message on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had a phone conversation with Lukashenko and explained to him the impossibility of our clash. The two leaders have not spoken in two years. I do not want missiles, planes, helicopters to fly to Ukraine from Belarus. I do not want troops to go to Ukraine from Belarus, and he assured me of that, he said. Zelensky said Sunday that Ukrainian officials will meet with their Russian counterparts for talks without prior conditions on the Ukraine-Belarus border. He said that Lukashenko have given guarantees that at the time of the departure, negotiations, and return of the Ukrainian delegation, all planes, helicopters, and missiles placed on the Belarusian territory will remain on the ground. The new constitution also give powers to the All-Belarusian Peoples Assembly, which was created by Lukashenko and populated by party loyalists, local councils, officials, and activists of pro-government organizations. It also gives lifetime immunity from prosecution to the president once he leaves office and the option to extended his rule for a maximum of 40 years if elected, until 2035. His current term expires in 2025. Rights activists claimed that the referendum sparked anti-war protests in several cities in Belarus, with at least 290 people detained. Mass protests had erupted in 2020 following a disputed election that opponents say Lukashenko rigged. More than 35,000 people had been arbitrarily detained for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, including victims of abuse, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said last year. Three opposition candidates were still behind bars, among the more than 530 people who Belarusian human rights activists considered to be imprisoned for their political views or activities, the rights group said. Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report. Biden Admin Freezes Russian Central Bank Assets Held by Americans The Biden administration placed new sanctions against Russias central bank, its National Wealth Fund, and its Ministry of Finance, the U.S. Department of Treasury said in a news release. The moves effectively prohibit Americans from doing any business with those Russian entities. Specifically, the Treasury said that the move, announced Monday, prohibits United States persons from engaging in transactions with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. This action effectively immobilizes any assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation held in the United States or by U.S. persons, wherever located, the release said. In response, the Central Bank of Russia suspended currency interventions in support of the ruble, the head of the regulator, Elvira Nabiullina, told state-run RT on Monday. Nabiullina said that the regulator cannot carry out such actions because of assets freeze by the EU and United States. Due to restrictions on the use of foreign exchange reserves in dollars and euros, we did not carry out any interventions today. The government has announced a decision to introduce the mandatory sale of 80 percent of export earnings, Nabiullina said. This measure will ensure an even supply of foreign currency on the domestic fx market to meet the needs of importers and citizens. At the same time we are taking a number of steps to limit export of capital by non-residents. A day after Russias invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden announced that he would place sanctions on more Russian banks, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, and Russian sovereign debt. At the same time, European Union states and other countries have imposed sanctions and economic penalties of their own against Russian assets. Over the weekend, the EU blocked all Russian planes from entering its airspace and barred RT and Sputnik News, two Russian state-backed media outlets, from broadcasting. The unprecedented action we are taking today will significantly limit Russias ability to use assets to finance its destabilizing activities, and target the funds Putin and his inner circle depend on to enable his invasion of Ukraine, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said. Today, in coordination with partners and allies, we are following through on key commitments to restrict Russias access to these valuable resources. In a call with reporters, a top Biden administration official said that Mondays sanctions against Russias Central Bank were done because Kremlin officials were attempting to move assets and there would be a great deal of asset flight starting on Monday morning from institutions around the world. While the sanctions will continually isolate Russia and Putin, its not clear how the Kremlin will respond. During an address on Sunday, Putin said he authorized the deployment of his countrys strategic defense forces, which oversees some of Russias vast arsenal of nuclear weapons. U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Nov. 15, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Biden Trusted China With American Intelligence on Russia China and Russia are de facto allies News Analysis When President Joe Biden came to Xi Jinping with American intelligence about an upcoming Russian invasion of Ukraine, begging Xi to do something about it, Xi must have thought Biden pretty naive. First, Xi almost certainly knew and approved Vladimir Putins horrific plan in advance. Putin needed a buyer of last resort for the sanctions he knew were coming, so he had to get guarantees from Xi first. Second, even if Xi didnt know, he would have approved. The Russian invasion, including war crimes like attacks on civilian apartments and power stations in Kyiv, take the spotlight off Beijings own human rights abuse and territorial aggression. Third, Russias invasion is turning it into a pariah state. The sanctions that resulted are forcing it into Chinas arms, just as with the coups in Burma (Myanmar) in 2021 and Thailand in 2014. China is playing the democracies, and their sanctions, like a fiddle. Xi must have had a good laugh, when he got off the Biden video call. (If Xi does in fact ever laugh, which is unclear. Perhaps he just smirked.) That would have been right before Xi called up his good buddy Putin and told him all about the American intelligence that Biden was sharing. That kind of double-cross builds trust between thieves, but lasts about as long as required for one of them to get their hands on the loot. The New York Times first reported the Biden administrations good-hearted but fumbling intelligence shares, on Feb. 25. They occurred over the course of three months and half a dozen meetings with the Chinese ambassador, foreign minister, and finally Xi himself. The idea to share the intelligence must have come when the more dovish in the administration thought, Aha! This will really be the issue on which we can finally cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party! The CCP isnt cooperating on the climate, trade, human rights, democracy, health, nonproliferation, or terrorism. But, hey, maybe a Russian invasion is the golden ticket! Instead, the administration just got stabbed in the back. The Chinese officials who spoke with Biden officials initially claimed that they did not think an invasion was really going to happen. That turned out to be a lie when the administration got intelligence that not only did the Chinese know about the plans, but they informed the Russians that they would not oppose them. According to Edward Wong at the Times, After one diplomatic exchange in December, U.S. officials got intelligence showing Beijing had shared the information with Moscow, telling the Russians that the United States was trying to sow discordand that China would not try to impede Russian plans and actions, the officials said. That must have really hurt. Biden was trusting Xi to do the right thing and Xi did the opposite. The administration must have felt like fools. They are in fact fools, because Xi and Putin are clearly on the same side of the Ukraine issue. On Feb. 4, the two signed a strategic statement that referred to a partnership between the countries that had no limits and no forbidden areas of cooperation. In the document, both took a stand against NATO expansion, and for their core interests, state sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is an affirmation, without saying so explicitly, of Russias claim to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Feb. 4, 2022. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) In turn, the Russian side explicitly supported the one China principle, and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan. The mutual recognition by the two dictators of their territorial claims over their common adjacent regions set Putin up in a de facto alliance for the support of his Ukraine invasion. Both Ukraine and Taiwan are territories, they believe, that once belonged to their respective countries. Both would like to join Western alliance systems. Both could go nuclear in order to defend themselves. While Xi has talked a lot about invading Taiwan, Putin tries to retain the element of surprise. This worked for Putin in the invasion of Crimea and Donbass in 2014. It didnt work so well more recently. Xi nevertheless doubled down for Russia. After the invasion, Beijing explicitly supported Russias legitimate security concerns and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. In the context of the Ukraine invasion, most Westerners might read that latter point as supportive of Ukraine. But Putin claims Ukraine as a part of Russia. So he can read Xis slyly-worded points as entirely supportive of Russias own territorial integrity, which includes all of the Ukraine. Xi knows this, and to underline his support for Russias war, Chinas foreign ministry regularly blames the United States, defense assistance to Ukraine, hyping up the possibility of warfare, and NATO expansion. Putin is off the hook, according to the CCP. Xi is leading Putin to believe, insulated as he is by the yes-men in the Kremlins group-think, that he will be victorious in not only Ukraine, but in keeping countries like Sweden and Finland out of NATO. Indeed, Russias foreign ministry spokesperson threatened these countries on Feb. 25 to stay out. Putin is obviously biting off more of Europe than he can chew. Russia is no longer the economically powerful Soviet Union. It currently has an economy about one-tenth the size of China or Europe. Nobody respects Cote dIvoire with nuclear weapons, which is how Russia is now described. Similar ideological insularity afflicts Xi, who believes that his authoritarian form of rule is superior to the messy chaos of democracy. He uses his COVID strategy as an example, locking down his entire country of 1.4 billion people to achieve low death rates. But his quasi-command economy also stifles innovation, and so Chinas vaccines dont work well. The country is still locked down, while the West is finally emerging back into normal human freedoms. Putin and Xi are telling each other that dictatorships are more efficient, and so they can easily take territory from unallied democracies like Ukraine or Taiwan. Ukraine is hopefully in the process of disabusing them of this authoritarian illusion. Time will tell. What should already be abundantly clear, however, is that democracies cannot trust Russia and China, who hold themselves as superior. But there is one silver lining. Neither can Putin and Xi trust each other. At the earliest, China will snatch Russias own sovereignty if given the opportunity. And vice versa. That makes them weak allies. Indeed, they have not even been able to say the word. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks about Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Washington on Feb. 24, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Biden Says Sanctions Not Immediate, Lays Out Only Other Option Against Russia President Joe Biden in an interview released over the weekend said sanctions dont take effect immediately and alleged only one alternative exists in dealing with Russia after the country invaded Ukraine. You have two options. Start a third world wargo to war with Russia physicallyor two, make sure that a country that acts so contrary to international law ends up paying a price for having done it, Biden said, speaking with political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen before he traveled to Delaware. And theres no sanction that is immediate. Its not like you can sanction someone and say, you no longer are going to be able to be the president of Russia. But I think these sanctions, I know these sanctions, are the broadest sanctions in history, the Democrat president added. The Biden administration has imposed a series of sanctions against Russian entities and persons in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The administration has also sent and is planning to send additional aid, including weapons, to Ukrainian fighters. Biden has refused, at least so far, to send troops to directly assist Ukraine, arguing that doing so would trigger a conflict. The moves have drawn criticism from some, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who on Sunday asserted sanctions announced against banks in Russia are riddled with loopholes. I know that they say they sanctioned 80 percent of the banks in Russiawell, Vladimir Putin controls 100 percent of the banks in Russia. He can use the other 20 percent to continue to finance his war machine. Its time to remove all Russian financial institutions from the international payment system. Its time to impose sanctions on his oil and gas exports, which he uses as his primary means of financial support, Cotton said on ABCs This Week. The senator also said the United States needs to rush weapons from a fresh round of funding Biden administration officials recently announced to Ukraine. It should have been done weeks ago. So, better late than never, but the Ukrainians have no time, he said. Early Monday, the administration imposed more sanctions against Russias central bank and several other Russian entities. Also over the weekend, Putin ordered Russias nuclear forces on high alert, a move the United States declined to match while the NATO alliance, which America is a part of but Ukraine is not, emphasized it would not directly help Ukrainian forces. This is another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all. We urge Russia to tone down its dangerous rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, said in New York. Canadian Foreign Minister Headed to the Polish-Ukraine Border OTTAWAForeign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says she is headed to the Polish-Ukraine border on Tuesday to make sure that Canadas latest supply of military aid flows into the war-ravaged country. Joly says she will also be meeting with her Polish counterparts in Warsaw to discuss the refugee crisis spawned by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Joly was speaking from Geneva on Monday, where she earlier told a United Nations panel that Russia lied to the world in the run-up to its invasion of Ukraine. Joly also called on Moscow to respect the rights of Russian people who have taken to the streets to protest their governments decision to invade Ukraine. Joly was in Geneva as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for talks earlier in the day in an attempt to defuse the biggest land conflict on the continent since the Second World War. Outmatched Ukrainian forces were holding off the onslaught of a land, air and sea attack by Russia as President Vladimir Putin raised the stakes further by placing his countrys nuclear forces on alert. Russia is the only one to blame for this crisis. It chose to resort to lies and violence and fabricate all the pieces of a crisis to try and undermine the rule of law and violate the rights of people, Joly told the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. Worse, theyre trying to justify their war by spreading a false rhetoric and attempting to manipulate the principles of human rights to support their illegal and illegitimate violence. Joly also condemned the arrests of Russian citizens who have protested the war in demonstrations across their country. We call on Russia to respect the human rights not only of Ukrainians, but also of its own citizens, who by thousands have taken to the streets in protest of this unjust war. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Monday an immediate ban on all Canadian financial institutions from conducting transactions with the Russian central bank. In addition to that prohibition, Canada is imposing an asset freeze and a dealings prohibition on Russian sovereign wealth funds. Canada and its allies continue to take concerted action to ensure that Russias invasion of Ukraine will be a strategic failure. This has never been done before at this scaletoday we are taking a historic step by directly censuring Russias central bank, Freeland said in a written statement. By Mike Blanchfield CCP Openly Recruiting Spies in the United States: Michigan State Senator The fear of someone informing on them to the Chinese Communist Party, and of the possible harm inflicted on family members in China, is so powerful and pervasive that some members of the Chinese-American community are ill-inclined even to speak to their elected representatives at public events, according to Michigan State Sen. Jim Runestad. The number one problem we have in this nation, I believe, in the future is going to be the Chinese communist government, Runestad told EpochTVs China Insider program at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 25. Theyre openly recruiting spies in the United States, and our own government seems not to care. Runestad, a Republican representing Michigans 15th district in the state senate, said that after taking office in January 2019, he began to make a strong effort to build ties with the Chinese-American community in his constituency by attending public meetings and gatherings. It quickly became apparent that some of the Chinese-Americans who attended the events were terrified that someone might see them interacting with a politician and might report on them to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. As a result, their family members in China might then be subject to intimidation, harassment, and detention. Runestad described how at meetings he attended before the pandemic shut down most public gatherings, a Chinese-American constituent would walk up to him and ask Runestad to avoid looking at him or her, and to pretend that they were not really talking. The person who had approached the senator said another member of the Chinese communitywho was sometimes also in the same roomhad approached them, claiming to know the names and addresses of their relatives in China, and attempted to recruit the person to start helping the Chinese regime. In one case, this lady [who approached me at an event] was a recent Chinese immigrant engineer, and she was literally almost in tears, and her hands were shaking. She was so scared that somebody was going to take a picture of her, and that her family was going to get in trouble at home, Runestad recalled. While Runestads constituency includes large numbers of people from the Indian, Nepalese, and Korean communities in Michigan, such concerns about possible espionage and informing were not evident in those groups. Yet such incidents involving constituents expressing fear about CCP harassment have happened about a dozen times with members of the Chinese community, the state senator noted. So its an organized effort that is happening in Michigan, and is probably happening everywhere in the nation, he said. Runestad said he contacted the FBI about the harassment and spying reported to him, only to be asked whether he had reported these matters to the police. I said, no, the local police cant break up an international spy ring. They write tickets and handle breaking and entering, that type of thing. So I was very disappointed in the response, Runestad recounted. Runestad said he was at a loss to understand the long-running assumption of both Republicans and Democrats that Beijing would play fair with the West. Over the past few decades, there was a widespread belief in the West that opening trade with China and inviting it into the international community would foster greater political freedoms in the communist state. That has not happened, he said. In fact, I think its even gotten worse. You look at whats happening, as different minorities who voice opposing opinions vanish. In Runestads view, the United States ongoing failure to recognize the nature of the Chinese regime is a major problem. On the issue of the CCPs harassment and espionage efforts in the country, state government officials who learn of such incidents should contact the FBI, whose job is to investigate such matters, he said. The Epoch Times has reached out to the FBI for comment. Michael Washburn China Reporter Follow Michael Washburn is a New York-based reporter who covers China-related topics. He has a background in legal and financial journalism, and also writes about arts and culture. Additionally, he is the host of the weekly podcast Reading the Globe. His books include The Uprooted and Other Stories, When We're Grownups, and Stranger, Stranger. Jean Charest speaks walks through the halls at the Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa on Nov. 13, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld) Charest to Be in Ottawa to Meet With Conservatives MPs to Discuss Party Leadership OTTAWAWhile the race to lead the Conservative Party of Canada may still only have one contender, its members of Parliament are being invited to meet with a potential second. Former Quebec premier Jean Charest will be in Ottawa this week to discuss the partys leadership with Conservative MPs at an event hosted by two who want him to run. Quebec MP Alain Rayes and Nova Scotias Rick Perkins were among the signatories of an open letter published last week saying they want the 63-year-old to enter the race. A copy of the invitation obtained by The Canadian Press invites Conservative MPs to meet with Charest Wednesday evening to discuss the partys top job. A spokesman for Rayes office confirms Charest will be in Ottawa on Wednesday and says over the past few weeks several MPs and senators have expressed an interest in speaking to him, which is why the event was arranged. So far only high-profile Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre has declared his intention to run for the partys top spot after a majority of MPs voted to oust former leader Erin OToole from the position last month. No date has yet been set for the race as the partys leadership election committee is still meeting and must decide how long the contest will last and what will be the criteria for entering. The Ministry of Finance says local governments have a debt balance of $4.81 trillion, but various sources suggest that the hidden debt of local governments may be more than that. (NTDTV/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) China Mired in a Debt Crisis Fueled by Borrowing at Local Government Levels Financial reporting organizations in China are tracking a mounting debt crisis that stems from excessive borrowing by local governments, often used to pay existing debts. This matter has not been monitored by Chinas central government because local governments are not required to report monies raised through local government financing vehicles (LGFV). Chinas Ministry of Finance has acknowledged that by the end of 2021, the local government debt balance had reached approximately $4.81 trillion. While this figure is within the approved limits posed by the Chinese government, it excludes the local unreported debts, mainly LGFV debts that include loans and bonds, which reached $6.91 trillion in mid-2020, according to a report by Kaiyuan Securities. Just how bad is Chinas debt crisis? Diana Choyleva, chief economist for Enodo Economics, provided her observations in an op-ed in Nikkei Asia She believes Chinas local government debt should be the real worry. During the first quarter of 2020, the collective debt had reached 275 percent of the GDP. This is in stark contrast to 2010 when Chinas debt was 178 percent of GDP. Bottom line, the greatest threat to the stability of Chinas economy is its mounting debt. LGFVs Explained The LGFVs were companies originally set up by city or provincial governments to finance building projects and public works, and circumvent Beijings ban on their Issuance of bonds. Bonds sold by the LGFVs are one of the ways local authorities borrow money to increase spending without including it on their official balance sheets. Yet, the debt carries an implicit government guarantee of repayment. LGFVs flourished following the 2008 global financial crisis as a way of funding Chinas infrastructure building spree, and were encouraged by the central government. As a result, Chinas debt has been swelling by about 20 percent a year since then, dwarfing nominal gross domestic product growth, Choyleva said. Implicit local government debts became a concern because there is no official data on the total debt sold by LGFVs, making it difficult to monitor. Chinese Cities Plagued by Excessive Debt Ratios Last October, Datapower and Tencent Finance jointly launched a City Debt Ratio Ranking report indicating the fiscal debt ratio was calculated by combining a local governments explicit and implicit debts, i.e. Debt balance + LGFV Bonds / Fiscal Revenue. According to international standards, the prevailing risk warning line for local government fiscal debt ratio is 80-120 percent. The survey sample included 86 first- and second-tier cities within China. As of 2020, 85 cities had debt ratios of more than 100 percent and 75 had doubled their debt ratios since 2019. Shanghai came in at 122 percent while Beijing and Guangzhou both reached over 200 percent. The city with the highest debt ratio was Guiyang at 929 percent. Shenzhen was the only city with a debt ratio below 20 percent. According to a report by Kaiyuan Securities, as of mid-2020, the implicit debt of local governments had reached $6.91 trillion, much higher than the explicit debt of $3.77 trillion, and the combined debt ratio of the two was nearly 250 percent, which is over two times the alert line. This alarming figure is consistent with the report by Moodys, a leading international rating agency. The report noted that while the Chinese government has never announced the overall implicit debt of LGFVs, it is feared the true local hidden debt has swelled to $7.1 trillion, which equates to 44 percent of Chinas GDP. In 2021, a study released by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics included a prediction of annual maturity if China takes into account the implicit debt arising from LGFV bond costs. Titled Analysis and Forecast of Chinas Macroeconomic Situation, the study suggested the annual maturity of the debt stock will be over $690 billion from 2021 to 2026. This included maturities of $920 billion in 2021 and $880 billion in both 2023 and 2024. The report said, At present, many local governments can only keep rolling over their debts by borrowing new money to repay old ones. Once the growth rate of the local economy and fiscal revenue declines and cannot match the growth rate of debt burden, the government debt risk will accumulate rapidly. According to Kaiyuan Securities Research Institute, in 2020, the proportion of LGFV bonds raised for borrowing new debt to repay the old is as high as 85 percent. Local Hidden Debt In January, the CCPs official media, Xinhua, estimated that within the first quarter of 2022, Chinas local governments are likely to issue special bonds totaling $230 billion. However, this estimate may be low. Chinas Economic Reference News provided the following quote from Mr. Tang LinMin, a researcher with the China International Futures Corporation. He said, At present, many places have issued plans for local bonds in 2022, and the proposed issuance scale in the first quarter is at least $110.4 billion, among which the scale of new special bonds is at least US$78.8 billion. Based on these figures, it is expected that the scale of local bond issuance in the first quarter could reach about US$270 billion, close to the situation in 2020. In an interview with the Epoch Times, Professor Zhang, a Chinese economist, said China was short of money on all fronts. The economy is in bad shape, the international situation is bad, and expenses are still huge. While issuing bonds is likely to provide relief, how effectively this will work is uncertain. Adding to this uncertainty is the CCPs lack of transparency on how it spends money. The Epoch Times also spoke about the CCPs reliance on bonds with Xia Yifan, a Japanese commentator. Xia said the credit guarantor of bonds is the CCP at the local government level. But local governments lack credit to provide to people. Nor do they have the sophistication to know what to do with their money, what they will achieve, how much they expect to earn, how they will repay, etc. Like Professor Zhang, Xia believes that issuing bonds is likely to provide relief to local governments, but this approach does not qualify as a reliable economic stimulant. Instead, this makes it possible for corrupt officials to worsen Chinas unfavorable debt ratio, without consequence. During a December 22 interview with Political and Economic Frontline, economist Cheng Xiaonong noted that since the real estate bubble burst, China began relying on debt to develop the economy. He said local government revenues from land sales have decreased while their debt continues to increase. These local entities may go bankrupt unless the central government provides more subsidies. But the CCP has no money in hand. Kane Zhang has contributed to the article. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russia has banned airlines from 36 countries from using the country's airspace, local media citing aviation authorities reported Monday. As a response to the ban of European states on Russian air carriers, a restriction has been introduced on the operation of flights by air carriers from 36 countries, according to aviation authorities. These restrictions will affect airlines from Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada and Portugal, among others. White House press secretary Jen Psaki holds a press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on Feb. 25, 2022. (Paul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) China Needs to Speak Up, Condemn Russias Invasion of Ukraine: White House The White House has called on the Chinese regime to publicly condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, as Moscow continues its military aggression against its neighbor. This is not a time to stand on the sidelines. This is a time to be vocal and condemn the actions of President Putin and Russia invading a sovereign country, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told MSNBC on Feb. 27. She noted that U.S. President Joe Biden hasnt spoken with Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently, but didnt rule out the two having talks in the future. Psaki also acknowledged that China has implemented some sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies against Russia. But she said China should do more. China has publicly spoken in favor of Ukrainian sovereignty. However, the communist regime abstained from voting on a United Nations Security Council draft resolution on Feb. 25 that demanded Moscow halt its attack on Ukraine and withdraw its troops immediately. Russia vetoed the resolution, while India and the United Arab Emirates also abstained. The remaining 11 nations voted in favor of the measure. This is really a moment for every country to decide what part of history they want to stand on, Psaki said. But theres also important steps for the Chinese leadership to look at themselves and really assess where they want to stand as the history books are written. Her comments came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his countrys nuclear forces to be on high alert. This is exactly the kind of manufactured threats that President Putin has been using since the beginning of this crisis to justify further aggressive action, Psaki said about Putins order. So this is just an escalatory attempt to justify further action on their part. We have the ability, of course, to defend ourselves, as does NATO. But I think we all need to be very clear-eyed and call this out for what it is. Biden took a veiled swipe against China on Feb. 24 after Beijing rejected calling Russias military move against Ukraine an invasion. Putin will be a pariah on the international stage. Any nation that countenances Russias naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association, Biden said, without naming China. China is Russias biggest trade partner for both imports and exports. In 2020, the communist regime bought a third of Russias crude oil exports. Chinas hawkish state-run media Global Times stated in a Feb. 27 article that China maintains a neutral stance over the situation in Ukraine. The outlet lashed out at unnamed Western countries for supplying arms to Ukraine, accusing them of further escalating and extending the conflict to leave Russia mired in the mud of Ukraine. Australia, the European Union, Germany, Sweden, and the United States have all committed to sending weapons to Ukraine. On Feb. 27, Ukraines health ministry stated that 352 civilians, among them 14 children, had been killed and 1,684 people had been wounded since the start of Russias invasion. Reuters contributed to this article. Chinese Americans rally at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, calling for global attention to China's 'chained mother,' a victim of human trafficking, in Los Angeles, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Han Bing/The Epoch Times) Chinas Chained Woman Fuels Outrage in Los Angeles Crowds of Chinese Americans held rallies in Los Angeles, calling for global attention to Chinas chained mother amid billions of views on the subject on Chinas social media platforms. On Feb. 19, demonstrators held SOS signs and handed out flyers at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, speaking up for an alleged victim of human trafficking in rural China, a mother of eight who had been chained up in a shack for more than 10 years. Organizers say this is an emergency support event that hopes to bring global attention to the victim, who is currently under the control of Chinese authorities, and to the issue of human trafficking in China. Chinese Americans rally at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, calling for global attention to Chinas chained mother, a victim of human trafficking, in Los Angeles, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Han Bing/The Epoch Times) This is totally against humanity and unacceptable, resident Ken Zheng said in an interview with NTD, a sister media of The Epoch Times. He said that what shocked him most was the top-down inaction of the Chinese communist regime in response to the tragic story. The government attempted to cover up the scandal at all, Zheng continued. Most probably, they operated in collusion [with human traffickers]. California-based practicing lawyer Liu Fenglan described the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as conniving in the practice of human trafficking, based on its inconsistent statements and suppression of posts following the scandal. Human trafficking feels like an industry chain that the whole government operates, Liu told NTD. The chain that trades women and children financially benefits government officials at all levels. The lawyer regarded the CCPs laws protecting women and children as a de facto cloak. You wouldnt even chain your pets, said Nancy Jiang. But she was chained with a lock and lived in a contemptible setting. The world should awaken to this event. On the following day, a similar protest played out in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles. Essentially, it is the Chinese communist regime that is responsible for such countless tragedies in China, said Jie Lijian, one of the organizers. Only the CCP is the source of all evils. Eye of Chinese Social Media Storm On Jan. 28, a video showing a chained, middle-aged woman went viral on Chinese social media, shaking up Chinese social media platforms. The woman, who allegedly gave birth to eight children, was spotted in Dongji Village, Huankou Town, Fengxian County, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Netizens suspected she had been trafficked and sexually abused, at the least, by the Party chief of the village and her so-called husband Dong Zhimin, his brother, and his father. On Feb. 14, China-based film director Wang Shengqiang confirmed on Chinese social media service Weibo that the woman was Li Ying, a young girl who was kidnapped at 13 and repeatedly trafficked, according to a local source. Most of the chained womans teeth had been pulled out with pliers due to her resistance when men attempted to rape her, said the source in a recording. Later, the director hinted on social media that the deletion of his posts was due to pressure from local officials. Chinese authorities have not yet confirmed that the chained woman is Li Ying. Nor do their inconsistent statements, which include alleged DNA test results, convince the public that she is the woman they have identified her as. Contrarily, internet users post evidence and analysis refuting the official narratives. As of Feb. 22, around 17:00 local time, views on the topic on Weibo hit more than 4.8 billion, and there were 3.7 million discussions. Tip of the Iceberg Indications on social media platforms show the case is far from isolated. Some internet users posted that they were born and raised in the same county and that human trafficking was common there due to Chinas previous one-child policy, rural poverty, and collusion between local officials, police officers, human traffickers, and potential buyers. More alarmingly, indications suggest the illegitimate practice is not unique to the province of Jiangsu. A netizen from Sichuan Province, who called herself KAICELIN, posted a similar story about her sister who disappeared together with two of her classmates (a male and a female) after they celebrated graduating from high school by eating in a local restaurant in 1988. Chinese internet user calling herself KAICELIN posts her sisters story of being trafficked to Baihe County, Shaanxi Province, and experiencing rape in 1988. (Chinese social media/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Her sister was found five years later in Lilong Village, Yueer Town, Baihe County, Shanxi Province, appeared to be mentally ill, and was a mother of four according to the post. Fortunately, she returned to normal after three years of medical care in Beijing. According to the survivor, local police beat her male classmate to death and threw his body into the Baihe River. She said his girlfriend died, too, from being repeatedly raped by local officials and enforcement officers, who discarded her corpse in the river right in front of her. Trafficked women are first raped by local officials and police officers and then be sold to wifeless, poverty-stricken, males in the countryside, the whistleblower said her sister had told her. Additionally, the whistleblower said her family had tried to petition higher authorities to seek justice for her sister for years but without success. Han Bing and Li Yun contributed to this report. Chinese Laser Incident a Feint to Test Australian-US Response: Diplomacy Expert The maritime incident involving a Chinese warship aiming a military-grade laser at an Australian surveillance aircraft was designed to test the response of allied forces in the region, according to a diplomacy expert. I always thought if China wanted to probe America in the South China Sea, or they wanted to probe the Australian-American connection, they would attack an Australian ship first, Joseph Siracusa, adjunct professor in international diplomacy at Curtin University, told The Epoch Times. For example, that might be a small sea battle in the South China Sea where a Chinese frigate takes on an Australian frigate, or a Chinese torpedo boat sinks an Australian frigate to test the alliance, he added. When I saw that laser [incident]thats really a challenge both to Australia and to the United States these mini-attacks on Australian assets, its really a feint or attempt to see how far they can go before big brother (the United States) comes along, he said. Siracusa has also warned that the response of Western nations to the invasion of Ukrainewhere sanctions were imposed after Russian troops were already on the ground in the countrydisplayed weakness. The real lesson for defence planners is that if they think alliances are ironclad, or if they think theyre in the company of people who will come to their aidthe Ukraine situation will be a cautionary tale for countries like Australia on how far the West and the United States will go for an individual country, he said. Meanwhile, on the Chinese laser incident occurred on Feb. 17, when two Peoples Liberation ArmyNavy (PLAN) vessels, a Luyang-class guided-missile destroyer and a Yuzhao-class amphibious transport dock vessel, were legally traversing the seas north of Australia within its exclusive economic zone. Read More Australian Defence Force Disputes Beijings Version of Laser Targeting Incident The Australian Defence Force (ADF) dispatched a P-8A Poseidon surveillance plane to monitor the two ships, also within the boundaries of international law. However, while the Chinese vessels were in the Arafura Sea, the Luyang-class ship aimed a military-grade laser at the planea move Prime Minister Scott Morrison called an act of intimidation. Laser pointing is often referred to as painting a target and precedes the firing of weapons by a split second. Such a move is recognised by military personnel as a hostile act. Australias defence officials have raised concerns and pursued a full investigation with the Chinese authorities, the embassy in Canberra, the foreign affairs office, and Chinas Ministry of National Defense. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a ceremony marking the start of the judicial year at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 22, 2021. (Matias Delacroix/AP Photo) CIA Invokes State Secrets Privilege in Narco-Terrorism Case The CIA is exercising its state-secrets privilege in an ongoing effort to conceal its connections to former Venezuelan Gen. Cliver Antonio Alcala Cordones, whos accused of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy with the countrys leader, Nicolas Maduro. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Cordones conspired with Maduro, other top Venezuelan regime officials, and members of Colombias Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) to ship cocaine to the United States. Cordones and the others did so for roughly two decades to fund their operations, as well as to undermine the health and well-being of our nation, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said when announcing the charges in March 2020. Cordones has vigorously disputed his involvement with the alleged narco-terrorist scheme. In fact, Cordones said he actively opposed Maduros socialist government. According to Cordones, the former general was one of the rebels who tried to overthrow Maduro in March 2018. The Venezuelan government learned of the coup and crushed it, leading Cordones to flee to Colombia, he said in a court filing. On the eve of a second coup attempt in 2020which also failedCordones said he was contacted in person by a U.S. law enforcement official, who informed him about the narco-terrorist indictment. The agent informed General Alcala Cordones that he could either board a private jet bound for New York, or be held in a Colombian jail, where he would no doubt be targeted by the Venezuelan intelligence services for assassination, the motion reads. Left with little choice, General Alcala Cordones agreed to accompany the agent back to the United States. To prove his claims, Cordones asked U.S. Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Jan. 29 for an order that would require the U.S. government to produce thousands of records about his anti-Maduro activities over the past several years. We have reason to believe that reports of General Alcala Cordones activities were communicated at the highest levels of a number of U.S. government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Treasury Department, the National Security Council, DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency], and DOJ, the motion reads. Such evidence casts doubt on the governments theory of prosecution and, to the extent the government is able to prove such a conspiracy, would support a defense of withdrawal from any such conspiracy. The DOJ opposed Cordones motion in a Feb. 8 filing, asking Hellerstein for a protective order that would keep any U.S. government documents about Cordones under wraps. The reason the government wants to keep this information secret isnt clear, as the DOJs arguments were filed under seal. Nevertheless, the judge granted DOJs request a day later. The head of the departments that have control of the classified information described in [governments motion], after actual personal consideration, have lodged the state secrets privilege with respect to that classified information. Disclosure of the classified materials to the defense or the public could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the national security, Hellerstein said on Feb. 9. Accordingly, it is ordered that the government motion is granted, and the classified materials need not be disclosed to the defense. Cordones defense attorneys protested the judges order, saying they never had the chance to respond to the DOJs request. Hellerstein agreed with the defense attorneys that they should be allowed to respond and vacated his order. Cordones responded on Feb. 25, urging the judge to schedule a hearing to review the CIAs records on the former general behind closed doors. In an in camera and ex parte conference, the defense would present to the Court detailed information about General Alcala Cordones interactions with the United States government, including with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other intelligence agencies that is relevant to the allegations in the indictment, the defense stated. General Alcala Cordones should be permitted to make a presentation to the Court as to the reasons why categories of potentially classified evidence may be relevant. An oral argument over the matter is scheduled for March 15. The DOJ and DEA declined to comment, while the CIA and Treasury Department didnt respond by press time to requests for comment. Petitions gathered by members of gun rights organizations were thrown into a trashcan By Florida State Rep. Chuck Brannan's legislative aide soon after being delivered to the office. (Courtesy of Luis Valdes) Florida State Reps Aide Caught Tossing Stack of Newly Delivered Constitutional Carry Petitions Into Trashcan 'The color literally drained from his face' Moments after delivering a stack of petitions to a Florida state representatives office, the people who gathered them returned to find the representatives aide had tossed them into a trashcan. On Tuesday, Feb. 22, members from Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC), Capitol City Young Republicans (CCYR), the Republican Hispanic Assembly of Florida (RHAFL), and Florida Gun Rights (FLGR) held an impromptu rally at the Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida, in support of House Bill 103, the constitutional carry bill currently stalled in the Florida House. During the rally, they collected over 100 petitions asking state Rep. Chuck Brannan to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. When the rally concluded, some of the rally attendees went to Brannans office to personally deliver the petitions, never expecting that the results of their day-long effort would wind up in the trashcan within 30 minutes. Luis Valdes, Florida State Director for Gun Owners of America, told The Epoch Times what happened. We met at the State Capitol to voice our issues with legislators on not advancing Second Amendment rights, Valdes recalled. At the end of this event, GOA and FLGR had collected petitions. One of the petitions was directed to Rep. Chuck Brannan, who is the committee chair of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Subcommittee, and that is currently where House Bill 103, the constitutional carry bill, resides. We went to his office to drop off the petitions and his legislative aide told us he had a meeting with another group and asked us what we were doing, and we stated we had petitions regarding constitutional carry that we would like to have presented to Rep. Brannan and asked if he could take them. He said yes, just put them on my desk. Then we went to go visit other lawmakers. About 2030 minutes later, when we finished meeting with the other lawmakers, we returned to Rep. Brannans office. Screenshot from Florida State Rep. Brannans profile page. (Florida House of Representatives website.) When they returned, the legislative aide wasnt there. However, someone saw that the petitions they had stacked on the desk were in the trashcan underneath it. It was then Valdes said the legislative aide rounded the corner. What happened from there was recorded on video by a member of FLGR. We asked him why they were in the trash, Valdes continued, and he made multiple statements, saying; he put them in there, he reviews them with Brannan, it was a mistake, he meant to put something else in the trash. He was befuddled and confused. The color literally drained from his face. He was caught and he was on the verge of tears. At no point were we aggressive. We simply asked why they were in the trash. As concerned citizens we find this offensive. In the video, the aide appears nervous, pacing, fidgeting, avoiding eye contact as he is encircled by people with cell phones. Screenshot from video showing the Aide to Florida State Rep. Chuck Brannan, surrounded by gun rights activists who want to know why he threw their petitions in the trash. (Courtesy of Matt Collins) Everything that comes through Ive told Rep. Brannan about your concerns, the aide stammers. Then enters Bob White, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida. Well great. In that case, Im sure youll be happy to present this induction certificate into the Oath Breakers Hall of Shame for 2022 for his position on gun rights, White says, handing the distraught aide the framed, full-color certificate. He took an oath of office. He raised his hand and swore that he would protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and now hes refusing to schedule constitutional carry to be heard. So, hes been inducted into the Oath Breakers Hall of Shame for 2022 by the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida, and we will be putting this out all over social media and we will be putting out press releases. So, congratulations. Pass that on. Screenshot from video showing legislative aide to Florida Rep. Chuck Brannan being handed a framed Oath Breakers Hall of Shame certificate by Republican Liberty Caucus leader Bob White. (Courtesy of Matt Collins) Okay, the distraught aide replies. He is then bombarded with a torrent of questions: Did he instruct you to throw the petitions in the trash? You did that on your own accord? Why are they in the trash? You said that you review everything with him. Right? Yeah, I do, the aide answers, escaping to the other side of his desk. So, he must have told you to throw them away. Is that right? someone else asks. That was my mistake, the aide answers, moving back to the front of his desk. He picks up the trash can, reaching in with his other hand to fidget with the petitions. I meant to put all the packets and stuff, but I will I will put that in his office for you. Screenshot from video of showing the aide for Republican Florida State Rep. Chuck Brannan digging through the petitions he had thrown in the trash. (Courtesy of Matt Collins) The aide then takes the trashcan full of petitions into Brannans office. Another video, recorded by Valdes of GOA, shows the aide placing the trash can of petitions on the floor in the representatives office and closing the door. White noted its important to remember that the representative was already in the chamber at that time because the House was in session. So, it was pretty obvious that his aide had found those petitions and instead of waiting and giving them to the representative, he just dumped them in the trash, which is absolutely appalling. You could tell he was freaked out over it because were standing there staring into his trashcan and he comes walking up and we start demanding to know what the deal is and why these petitions are in the trash can. He starts fumbling around and coming up with excuses. Hes agitated and nervous. White also clarified that the RLC is not in any way, shape or form officially connected to the Republican Party in Florida. Were not chartered by them. Were not approved by them. They dont hold any control over us or what we do, he asserted. We act independently of them. We try to encourage our members to be members of their local Republican executive committees in order to try of influence the party. We want to try to return the party back to its Jeffersonian roots. Personal liberty, limited government, and free markets. Those are the overriding principles that drive our decision-making. Were very active in Tallahassee. Today we are spending a lot of time working on constitutional carry because the Second Amendment fits right in with personal liberty principle we support as an organization. Constitutional carry is something were very supportive of. HB 103 that Anthony Sabatini introduced on the House side has gone nowhere on the House side because its being held up by the speaker of the Florida House, Chris Sprowls, who has basically told the chairman of the first committee to stop it. Screenshot from video showing aide to Republican Florida State Rep. Chuck Brannan fidgeting with the petitions he threw in the trash while surrounded by the people who gathered and delivered them to the office. (Courtesy of Matt Collins) While Matt Collins, legislative director for Florida Gun Rights, was angered to see the aide had dumped their petitions in the trash, he is incensed his boss has gone back on his word and is ultimately the one standing in the way of the bill. The reason why this is crucial is that his boss, Chuck Brannan, is the Criminal Justice & Public Safety Subcommittee Chairman, where the constitutional carry bill, HB 103, is in committee and has been introduced and has sat in committee the entire session, Collins asserted. We have two weeks of the session left, and Rep. Chuck Brannan refuses to allow the bill to have a hearing and a vote. Florida Gun Rights sent out candidate surveys and for two years in a row, Brannan filled out our survey saying he supports constitutional carry. Also, the destruction or improper disposal of petitions may be a possible violation of public records law. According to Brannans reelection campaign website, hes pro-life, pro-gun, and anti-tax. As I have done these last two years as your representative, I pledge to use common sense, be accessible, and to listen, reads the list of campaign promises. I will always fight to make sure we are heard in the State Capitol! Im not running to simply win office. Im running to advance a hopeful, positive, uplifting conservative agenda. I want to be trusted, I want to be your friend. Paul Glasco is the host of Legally Armed America, a television show out of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana, host of High-Capacity Podcast, and state director of Gun Owners of America in Louisiana. Screenshot of Paul Glasco from his YouTube video addressing the news that the aide to Florida Republican Rep. Chuck Brannan had thrown away petitions in support of a constitutional carry bill currently stalled in the Florida State House. (Courtesy of Paul Glasco) After hearing about what happened in Brannans office, Glasco put out a quick video, reiterating his long-held belief that Americans should not put their hopes falsely in the hands of those who are not true Second Amendment supporters, namely Republicans. Somehow along the way Republicans got graced with this magical thing that, just because they have an R behind their name that they just happen to be pro-Constitution and pro-Second Amendment. Theyre not. To Glasco, that the petitions were found dumped in a trashcanface up, in plain sight of anyone who came into the room, with a takeaway food container tossed on top of themdemonstrated that whoever ditched these didnt care about them. Of course, they quizzed him on whether or not he had gotten permission or direction to throw these away, and clearly, he probably hadnt, Glasco concluded. However, because he believes Brannans aide reflects the mood and approach of who he works for, the aide clearly felt like it was okay to throw these in the trash. So, whether Chuck Brannan had any hand in these winding up in the bottom of a trashcan or not, clearly, he had given off signals that made this gentleman feel like it was okay to throw them in the trash without looking at the signatures. In case they try to use the excuse, that these werent Brannans voters, Glasco noted, it doesnt matter if these people were in Brannans district or not. When you are committee chair, everybody in the state has a voice with you, not just the people in your district. This is not good optics for them, and I will tell you its going to be one of those things I think a lot of people are offended by. Glasco said a lot of people have already reached out to him about this and he reiterates to them the message he frequently makes on his show. Like I said in my video, a lot of people have a tendency to automatically assume that a particular Republican is a gun rights advocate and Second Amendment supporter when very few are, Glasco asserted. They run on those platforms. But they follow through with very little, unless its an election year for them and they need a feather in their cap. This is an opportunity, and I think Brannan showed this on his side, to see their true colors. This is a good peek into how they really feel and what theyre really planning to do. I feel like Brannan has a lot of work to do to try to fix this because this is not something thats just going to go away. Hes going to have to answer for this and make a public statement at some point. The Epoch Times reached out to Brannans office twice but received no response. Constitutional Rights Group to Sue Ottawa Over Abuse of Government Power in Invoking Emergencies Act A constitutional rights group says its suing Ottawa for invoking the Emergencies Act and freezing the financial accounts of several individuals who participated in the recent protests opposing the federal COVID-19 mandates. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) said in a Feb. 25 news release that it has filed a constitutional challenge (pdf) against the feds on behalf of four Canadians, including two decorated military veterans and a retired police officer. On Feb. 14, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau invoked the act to give the police sweeping additional powers to oust protesters from downtown Ottawa as well as demonstrators blockading several Canada-U.S. border crossings in solidarity with those at the national capital. Under the public order emergency declared on Feb. 15, financial institutions were also authorized to freeze the accounts of individuals and corporations suspected of being involved in the protest without requiring a court order. The JCCF said it will proceed with legal action against what its president, John Carpay, describes as one of the most egregious and disturbing, unnecessary, and unjustified power grabs by a democratic government in his lifetime. The freezing of bank accounts is a gross abuse of government power, used to punish those who supported a peaceful protest for the return of Charter rights and freedoms that were taken away from Canadians 23 months ago, Carpay said. The protest began as a truckers initiative, dubbed Freedom Convoy, that was opposed to the federal governments vaccine mandate requiring cross-border truck drivers re-entering Canada from the United States to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or face a 14-day quarantine. It soon expanded into a national movement as large truck convoys from different parts of the country made their way to Ottawa to stage a large-scale protest on Jan. 29, with many joining to call for an end to all COVID-19 measures and restrictions. On Feb. 21, the House of Commons voted to pass a motion to approve the emergency measures. But as the Senate began debating whether to follow suit, Trudeau revoked the act on Feb. 23. By that time, at least 206 accounts totalling $7.8 million had been frozen due to support of the Freedom Convoy, Isabelle Jacques, assistant deputy minister of finance, said at a parliamentary Finance Committee meeting on Feb. 22. The JCCF said it has engaged constitutional lawyers Brendan Miller of Foster LLP and Blair Ector of Ector Law to act on its behalf and on behalf of its clients. The centre will proceed with the court action as a matter of public interest, aiming to hold the government accountable for the decision to invoke the extraordinary powers that it said had infringed on Canadians charter rights and freedoms. The Justice Centres legal action will argue that the use of the Emergencies Act was unconstitutional and an excessive use of Executive Power, not authorized by the law in the circumstances, the JCCF said. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and the Canadian Constitution Foundation had each launched legal cases earlier to challenge Ottawas invocation of the emergency measures. Following Trudeaus revocation of the act on Feb. 23, all three said they would carry on with their court actions. Military Veteran: I Am Not a Terrorist The JCCF said two of its clients had their bank accounts frozen under the Emergencies Act without judicial authorization or a review process, using laws that normally only apply to terrorists and enemy nations. The JCCF news release provided details of the experience of Edward Cornell, 64, a retired Canadian Armed Forces warrant officer from New Brunswick who had gone to Ottawa to support the truckers protest on different occasions in January and February. I had zero beliefs or intentions about overthrowing the elected government of Canada my military record supports my belief in standing up for democracy and democratic rights all over the world, Cornell told the JCCF. Cornell was awarded a Medal of Bravery on June 15, 1987, in recognition of his heroism in hazardous circumstances during active duty in Cyprus, where he saved a man from drowning. He also served as an auxiliary officer with the Ontario Provincial Police from 2013 to 2015. In a sworn affidavit that will be filed with the Federal Court, Cornell said the protests in Ottawa were entirely peaceful and festive and friendly, with people of all different backgrounds, races, and ethnicities participating. During the protests, Cornell was asked to help liaise between the police and the protestors, yet his efforts resulted in his bank accounts and credit cards being frozen, the JCCF said. I was left in a very desperate situation and unable to pay any of my bills that were due during this time, Cornell said, adding that the experience of having his bank accounts seized has been traumatic. I broke no law, yet the government seized my accounts and froze my hard-earned money. I am not a criminal. I am not a terrorist. I am a retired Canadian military veteran who honourably served his country I feel betrayed by my own government, he said. The JCCF said the four applicants it is representing have asked the Federal Court to find Trudeaus declaration of a national emergency to be unconstitutional, unjustified, and unauthorized by law. It noted that in order to declare a public order emergency, the situation must amount to a threat to the security of Canada, which includes acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious, or ideological objective within Canada. This court action argues that there were no grounds or facts to support the existence of a real national security threat to Canada when the declaration was made, the JCCF said. Crypto Firm Founder Indicted for Alleged $2 Billion Fraud SAN DIEGOA grand jury indictment was returned Friday charging the founder of cryptocurrency company BitConnect with federal crimes for his role in allegedly defrauding investors out of more than $2 billion, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Diego. Satishkumar Kurjibhai Kumbhani, 36, of Surat, Gujarat, India, is accused in what the U.S. Attorneys Office said is believed to be the largest cryptocurrency fraud ever criminally charged. Prosecutors say BitConnect investors were misled by the companys claims that it used proprietary technologyknown as the BitConnect Trading Bot and Volatility Softwareto turn investors money into huge returns. In reality, BitConnect operated like a Ponzi scheme, which used investor funds to repay other BitConnect investors, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Kumbhani is also charged in a separate alleged scheme with artificially inflating the price of BitConnects digital currencycalled BitConnect Coin or BCCand through his promoters, create the appearance that there was an increased demand for BCC. Prosecutors also allege he operated an unlicensed money transmitting business and took part in an international money laundering conspiracy in which Bitcoin and BCC transfers with investors and cryptocurrency purchasers were made with proceeds of the fraud. Glenn Arcaro, who officials say was BitConnects top promoter in the United States, pleaded guilty to federal charges last year for his role in the scheme. He is scheduled to be sentenced in May. Ukraine's military servicemen sit in the back of military truck in the Donetsk region town of Avdiivka, on the eastern Ukraine front-line with Russian-backed separatists on Feb. 21, 2022. (Aleksey Filippov/AFP via Getty Images) Does NATO Bear Any Responsibility for the Ukrainian Tragedy? Commentary Feb. 24 was the day Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale military assault on neighboring Ukraine, and many lives have already been lost. In recent weeks, the U.S. and UK administrations had been warning that an attack was imminent, but was this situation avoidable? The seeds for it may have been planted in 2014, when then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who wished to strengthen ties with Russia, was overthrown and replaced by the pro-Western Petro Poroshenko. Many accused the European Union of having some involvement in that bloody uprising, which also suited NATOs eastward push. Putin referred to this incident when he addressed his citizens prior to the current Russian attack. We see that the forces that carried out a coup in Ukraine in 2014 seized power and are holding it through sham electoral procedures, he said. Or was it further back, in 1954, when then-leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev handed control of Crimea to Kyiv from Moscow? Sixty years later, when Putin sent his troops into the peninsula in 2014, he felt he was correcting a relatively recent act of administrative folly. He also felt he had no choice. I recently reported about why Crimea matters so much to Russia. Its port of Sevastopol isnt just home to Russias Black Sea Fleet, its also the only port that the largest country on Earth has access to that doesnt freeze over in the winter. Until 2014, it was having to rent it from its breakaway neighbor. After Ukraine gained independence from Russia in 1991, it took six years before the partition treaty was signed and negotiations for dividing military assets between them were completed. Russias Black Sea Fleet was allowed to operate from part of the then-Ukrainian-owned port under a lease deal that was supposed to last until 2017, when it was to have been renegotiated. However, in 2008, during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian government declared that the lease wouldnt be extended and that the Russian fleet would have to leave Sevastopol by 2017. Although an agreement was eventually hammered out, it highlighted the strategic vulnerability that Russia faced and may have influenced Putins eventual decision to take back control of Crimea. The West viewed the annexation as an indefensible act of expansionism, even though the Crimean parliament had already voted in March 2014 to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Russia saw it as a matter of national security. That was affirmed by Putin recently at a news conference in Moscow with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He said that as a future NATO member, Ukraine could once again feel emboldened to evict Russia from Crimea. He asked whether the West had considered the implications of such an action. Are we supposed to go to war with the NATO bloc? Putin said. Has anyone given that any thought? Apparently not. Theyre certainly giving it plenty of thought now. Putin told the Russian people in his pre-invasion speech, What I think is important to emphasize further is that the leading NATO countries, in order to achieve their own goals, support extreme nationalists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine, who, in turn, will never forgive the Crimean and Sevastopol residents for choosing reunification with Russia. The West rejects his accusations and firmly believes that Crimea should be returned to Ukrainian control. Russias action is still viewed as an illegal annexation of the peninsula, even though a referendum held shortly afterward purported to show that most of its citizens approved of the action. But asking Russia to return the territory back to Ukraine could be compared to asking the United States to hand back to Mexico the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, which were acquired through a war that started when the United States annexed Texas and ended with Mexico losing 55 percent of its territory. The Russian incursion may be fresher in memory, but the MexicanAmerican War of 1846 to 1848 cost the lives of tens of thousands of troops on both sides, while there were just six deaths in Crimea. Also, while the United States had no historic claim to those states, Russias claim on Crimea dates as far back as 1783, when it was annexed during the reign of Catherine the Great. None of this will comfort those caught up in the Ukrainian conflict, but its important to know how this juncture has been reached. There are many parallels with the five-day, 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, which is also situated on the Black Sea, after Russia claimed that the former Soviet republic was seeking to become a NATO member. Despite winning that conflict, Russia didnt maintain its presence in Georgia and still has no diplomatic relations with its neighbor. But it did deliver independence for the two separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia, as its now seeking to do with Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine. This time also, Putin has told his nation and the world that our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories, although he was almost certainly omitting its two breakaway regions mentioned above, as well as Crimea. That would be in keeping with what Putin has told Western leaders dating back to U.S. President George W. Bush, who promoted NATOs enlargement policy in the East up to the Russian border. A long-term occupation of Ukraine, therefore, would be an own goal, as its neighbors, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland, have all become NATO members. Just why he decided to invade at this time was made clearer when he told his fellow Russians: Now, they [Ukrainians] also claim to acquire nuclear weapons. We will not allow this to happen. Putin was referring to the speech that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave at the Munich security conference on Feb. 19, while standing alongside smiling U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Zelensky threatened to reverse the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which was the agreement that saw Ukraine give up what was then the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world after the breakup of the Soviet Union, in exchange for security guarantees. Today, we have neither weapons nor security, he told attendees in Germany. In response, Putin told his people, This is a real threat not just to our interests, but to the very existence of our state, its sovereigntythis is the very red line that has been talked about many times. They crossed it. Zelensky traveled to Munich to gain support for his beleaguered nation. But by threatening to give Ukraine nuclear strike capability once againand this time under the aegis of NATOhe probably sealed its fate. If so, it was a diplomatic disaster of the greatest magnitude. To understand the extreme reaction in Moscow to his threatening announcement, think back to 1963 and the horror felt in the United States when the Soviet Union tried to place medium and long-range nuclear missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy received huge praise for peacefully resolving what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, while Putin has chosen an invasion. However, English historian Paul Johnson noted that part of the deal that JFK made with Khrushchev was to allow the continuation of a communist regime in Cuba in open military alliance with Soviet Russia, which made it an American defeat, according to Johnson. The worst it had so far suffered in the Cold War, he said. It was an unnecessary concession, as then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk admitted. So long as we had the thumbscrews on Khrushchev, we should have given it another turn every day, Rusk said. But instead, over the ensuing years, JFKs compromise has resulted in an incalculably high number of deaths as Moscow used its new satellite in Havana to export Marxist revolutions across South America, Central America, and Africa with impunity. Why else were Cuban forces fighting wars as far away as Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Benin, Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali? Putin is only too aware of this and the similar dangers his administration might face if Ukraine joins NATOand not just of having nukes on his border. The ex-KGB man may also fear that NATO might use its new satellite nation as a base to sow revolutionary discontent across Russia. Rather than pressing so hard for Ukraine to join NATO, the situation might have been avoided if Western powers had recognized Russias historic claim to Crimea and kept Ukraine as a nuclear-free zone. Indeed, already in 1996, George F. Kennan, who was the architect of the initial U.S. Cold War policy, called NATOs expansion into former Soviet territory a strategic blunder of potentially epic proportions and the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold-War erapresumably eclipsing JFKs blunder and for which the Ukrainians are now paying a terrible price. NATO has thus far resisted calls to commit combat forces, as the alliance knows that such an escalation would only lead to more bloodshed, even at a conventional level. There are also no guarantees that it wouldnt escalate to the unthinkable. Especially if they keep poking the Russian bear, as Zelensky has done again by requesting Ukraines immediate membership in the EU. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A mounted police unit lines up behind public order units on foot to clear protesters in Ottawa on Feb. 18, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld) Freedom Convoy Protester Arrested a Week After End of Demonstrations A week after the protest in downtown Ottawa was cleared by law enforcement, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) announced on Feb. 27 the arrest of a participant located one hour east of the Canadian capital. The OPS said Steeve Charland, 48, of Grenville, Quebec, was arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in the Vankleek Hill area. Charland has been charged with mischief and counselling to commit the offence of mischief. He was due to appear in court on Feb. 27, said the OPS in a statement. Other individuals involved in the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa face similar charges and some have not been granted bail, including Tamara Lich and Pat King. Charland is a prominent figure in a group called Les Farfadaas which began as a satirical group often taking aim at government regulations, and later evolved into direct protests against pandemic mandates. Charland was previously associated with the Quebec group La Meute (The Pack), which defines itself as a citizen group that campaigns for the defense of freedom of expression and democracy and is known for taking stances against illegal immigration and radical Islam. Charland and his group had set up on the Gatineau side during the weeks-long protest in Ottawa, on an undeveloped section of the Zibi real estate project. While at first authorized to set up camp for two days by the landlord for the sum of $1,000 a day, the group then refused to leave until the Superior Court issued an eviction order on Feb. 17. Charland has had previous run-ins with the law for his activism opposing restrictive health measures in Quebec. He and others were charged with conspiracy and mischief under $5,000 for briefly blocking the lanes of the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine tunnel in Montreal in March 2021 as they demonstrated against Premier Francois Legault. The Freedom Convoy protest lasted three weeks in Ottawa until law enforcement cleared the city on Feb. 18 and 19 after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act. Some of the measures applied through the Act included designating no-go zones, streamlining the swearing-in process for out-of-jurisdiction police officers, compelling towing companies to remove trucks, and freezing bank accounts of protesters and supporters without a court order. The Liberal government held a vote on the motion to invoke the Act on Feb. 21, and then abruptly revoked the order on Feb. 23, saying the public order emergency had been resolved. German Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck speaks during an extraordinary session, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, at the lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, February 27, 2022. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi Germany Mulls Extending Nuclear Plants Life-Span: Economy Minister FRANKFURTGermany is weighing whether to extend the life-span of its remaining nuclear power plants as a way to secure the countrys energy supply in the face of uncertainty over Russian gas supplies, the countrys economy minister said. Asked by German broadcaster ARD whether he could imagine letting nuclear plants run longer than planned under Germanys exit plan, which foresees shutting down the countrys three remaining plans by the end of 2022, Robert Habeck (Greens) said: It is part of my ministrys tasks to answer this question. I would not reject it on ideological groundsbut the preliminary examination has shown that it does not help us. Isar 2, Emsland, and Neckarwestheim 2 remain the last nuclear plants that produce power in Germany after the country a decade ago decided to phase out the fuel in the wake of Japans Fukushima disaster. The three plants are owned by German energy firms E.ON, RWE and EnBW, respectively. Habeck said the three operators have pointed out that extending the life-spans would not help for the 2022/23 winter season. Because the preparations for the shutdowns are already so far advanced that the nuclear power plants could only continue to operate under the highest safety concerns and possibly with fuel supplies that have not yet been secured, Habeck said. And that is certainly not what we want. Meanwhile, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff (CDU), warned against a rapid exit from coal given Germanys energy security now being endangered by the Ukraine crisis. Haseloff said that while Germany remains disproportionately dependent on Russia for its energy supplies, with 55 percent of the natural gas in Germany and almost 100 percent in East Germany comes from Russia, its irresponsible to want to switch off German coal-fired power plants quickly in this situation, local media reported. Its still possible to get through this winter well, he said. BEREGSURANY, Hungary, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Hungarians living in rural villages came together to help people fleeing over the border with Ukraine as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues on Sunday. "We have been shocked by what happened in Ukraine, we never thought it could actually happen," Gusztav Furedi, a volunteer with the Hungarian charity Transcarpathian Coordination Office, told Xinhua. "What you see here is a response to all the difficulties, problems and fear that are present in Ukraine," he added. Reception points have been set up by volunteers, welcoming people from Ukraine with hot drinks and food, and organizing free ongoing transport. Furedi said that the majority of people coming from Ukraine belonged to the Hungarian ethnic minority of Transcarpathia, and spoke Hungarian, so there was no need to provide interpreters. The Transcarpathian Coordination Office is also ready to provide legal counsel to refugees hoping to apply for asylum in Hungary, Furedi added. The majority of the Ukrainians were taken to relatives or friends at the border station, but those traveling alone were taken in vans to Beregsurany's cultural center, which the city council has turned into a temporary shelter. Other villages such as Takos also participated in the effort, turning their gymnasiums or cultural centers into temporary shelters. Most of the refugees are reluctant to speak to the press, let alone give their names. These included a man who had crossed over the border with his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and three children. "Our journey took us about ten hours, and we also waited four to five hours at the border control," he said. Meanwhile, his wife told Xinhua that the family was going to stay with relatives in Csegod, a small Romanian village close to the border with Hungary. One young mother of three did not want to leave the welcome point at the border without her husband, fearing that he would be drafted for military service. She was later reunited with him at the village shelter, some eight km from the border. Ukraine imposed a ban on adult men leaving the country on Thursday night, meaning that the overwhelming majority of people crossing the border now are women and children. Lajos Csafit, a driver from Mezoladany, told Xinhua that he began driving people from the border station to the shelter in Mzeoladany three days ago. "We went to the store and bought the things women and children need, also food and beverages, and left them here at the cultural center," he said. Csafit pledged to provide accommodation for five families at his own home. "We will welcome them immediately if needed," he said. "When the armed conflict broke out in Ukraine, we went to the border immediately to ask people what they needed the most after crossing to Hungary," Istvan Herka, mayor of Beregsurany, told Xinhua. On the first day, the Ukrainians just passed through to Budapest or the surrounding area, and did not require shelter. However, from the second day onwards, some began arriving with no immediate place to go. "So we turned the cultural house into this shelter to keep them warm, where they typically spend three to five hours," Herka said. "In the next few days, we expect the number of people coming from Ukraine to increase, as there are more than 3,000 cars waiting now at the other side of the border, and according to the news, peace is still far away," he explained. Australia's seafood industry was significantly negatively impacted during the pandemic. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times) Government Beefs up Aussie Seafood Industry The Australian government has invested $1.275 million (US$915,000) to help the countrys seafood industry rebound from the severe disruptions caused by the CCP virus pandemic. By diversifying and expanding its export markets, minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud said the funding would allow Australia to expand exports in Asia the Americas, and Europe. Australian seafood is recognised among the best in the worldexpanding our markets will see demand for our premium product grow across the globe, Littleproud said. This grant will help implement the Australian Seafood Industry Export Market Strategic Plan, focusing on high priority sectors such as rock lobster and abalone, and provide greater access to markets for smaller producers. Australias live and fresh export products faced many shocks due to the uncertainty of the market surrounding the pandemic, according to a fisheries research and development report. Lobster and abalone exports declined by 45 percent while fresh seafood exports declined by 32 percent between January-June 2020, compared with the five-year average for the same period. Basket of live western rock lobsters in Fremantle in Western Australia. (Trevor Collens/Getty Images) Littleproud said funding is targeted at future-proofing Australias industry. The goal is to expand into new and emerging markets, double down on markets with high growth potential and consolidate our exports to existing markets, he said. The project will continue to promote the Great Australian Seafood brand, which was funded by the Australian Government under the $1 Billion COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Fund. Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonathan Duniam said the project will drive more demand for Australias premium product. The Great Australian Seafood brand will be developed and introduced internationally, including in established and emerging marketssuch as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, the US and the UK, Duniam said. Aussie seafood is sustainably caught, clean and safe, and we want to showcase that to the world. Seafood Industry Australia CEO Veronica Papacosta welcomed the support for the Australian seafood industry. With the knowledge gained through phase one, we are now better equipped with the information required to commit to a targeted export diversification program to address industry-identified needs, Papacosta said. This funding will underpin increased industry collaboration and practical approaches for building out diverse export markets for the Australian seafood industry well into the future. We thank the Coalition for their continued support for our great Australian seafood. Rapid at-home COVID-19 test kits are distributed by the GreenRoots environmental protection organization and Chelsea Community Connections in Chelsea, Mass., on Dec. 17, 2021. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images) Half of Bidens 500 Million Free COVID-19 Tests Unclaimed: Officials About half of the 500 million free COVID-19 tests that President Joe Biden recently made available havent been claimed, according to the White House. Biden administration officials told The Associated Press that Americans have placed 68 million orders for packages of tests, which contain four COVID-19 tests each. That leaves about 46 percent of the stock still available. We totally intend to sustain this market, Dr. Tom Inglesby, testing adviser to the White House COVID-19 response team, told AP about the unclaimed tests. We know the market is volatile and will come up and down with surges in variants. The shortfall in tests being claimed is likely because of a significant drop in COVID-19 cases across the United States, as well as an easing of restrictions such as vaccine or masking mandates in primarily Democrat-led states in recent weeks. There is no question some people found out they were positive from taking one of these tests and were able to keep other people from getting infected, Tim Manning, supply coordinator for the COVID-19 response team, told AP. On the first day that COVID-19 tests were made available in January, the COVIDtests.gov website received more than 45 million orders, officials told AP. Fewer than 100,000 orders per day are coming in now. About one month ago, the federal government said it would procure another 100 million COVID-19 tests via iHealth Labs. This effort supports the presidents plan to deliver 500 million free at-home COVID-19 tests to the nation in response to the Omicron variant, the Department of Defense said in a Jan. 29 statement. The procurement was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act to supply critical medical resources to the nation. Biden had announced the new testing measure after facing criticism that his administration has mainly focused on getting people vaccinated and that they havent done enough to encourage testing amid the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The White House didnt respond to a request for additional comment by press time. The National Poison Control Center and other poison control centers have issued warnings about rapid tests having a toxic chemical, sodium azide, which is a colorless and odorless powder that testers dip cotton swabs into. It is important to know that the extraction vial in many rapid antigen kits includes the chemical sodium azide as a preservative agent, the center stated. The BinaxNow, BD Veritor, Flowflex, and Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 rapid antigen kits all contain this chemical. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Hunter Biden attends a conference at Cobb Energy Center in Atlanta, Ga., on July 22, 2011. (Moses Robinson/Getty Images for Usher's New Look Foundation) Hunter Biden Associate Devon Archer Sentenced to 1 Year, 1 Day in Jail A longtime associate of President Joe Bidens son was sentenced on Feb. 28 to one year and one day in jail for defrauding a Native American tribe. Devon Archer was convicted for participating in a scheme to bilk the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of tens of millions of dollars. The tribe didnt answer a phone call on Monday. Archer was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, an Obama nominee who split the ground between prosecutorial and defense sentencing recommendations. Prosecutors asked for 30 months in prison, arguing for the same sentence as the one handed down to Bevan Cooney, a co-defendant. Prosecutors noted that there were 10 or more victims of the scheme, which caused a loss in excess of $25 million, and said guidelines would lead to a sentence of between 108 and 135 months, but decided not push for a longer sentence because of a need to avoid unwanted sentencing disparities. Matthew Schwartz, representing Archer, claimed his client was plainly kept in the dark about much of the scheme and himself lost a substantial amount of his own money while receiving nothing from the plot. Schwartz asked the court for no jail time. Abrams told the courtroom that the fraud was too serious for a sentence of no time behind bars but that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted her to give a shorter sentence than the one prosecutors sought, the New York Post reported. Abrams also ordered Archer to forfeit some $15.7 million and pay over $43 million in restitution. Abrams is the same judge that tossed Archers conviction in 2018, only for an appeals court to reinstate it in 2020. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Archer in late 2021. Archer has been linked with Hunter Biden, President Bidens son, for years. Archer and the others involved in the scheme used Hunter Bidens name in convincing the Native American tribe to invest assets, and emails show Hunter Biden was involved with Archers company. Hunter Biden was never charged in the defrauding operation, and his lawyer has told news outlets that those charged in the scheme invoked and used Hunters namewithout his knowledgeto lend their business venture more credibility. Hunter Biden is currently under investigation by federal prosecutors. All but one other defendant in the fraud scheme has been sentenced. Jason Galanis, who authorities said orchestrated the scheme, was sentenced to 189 months in prison; John Galanis was sentenced to 10 years in prison; Gary Hirst was sentenced to 8 years; and Michelle Morton was sentenced to 15 months. Abrams sentenced all of them, and Cooney. Hugh Dunkerley, the other defendant, recently successfully pushed his sentencing back to later this year. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives a COVID-19 update in the Blue Room at the Thompson Center in Chicago on Feb. 9, 2022. (Tyler LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP) Illinois Governor to End Mask Mandate for Schools Next Week SPRINGFIELD, Ill.Illinois will end its mask mandate for schools starting next week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday night. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer urging people to wear masks in most indoor settings, including schools, where COVID-19 poses a low or medium risk to the general public and the local health care system. That covers more than three-quarters of Illinois counties currently. Pritzker announced on Twitter that he would lift the state mandate effective Monday. An Illinois Supreme Court order issued late Friday found that a Springfield judges Feb. 4 order preventing statewide enforcement of the mask mandate should be vacated because a lower appellate court recently found the case to be moot. Pritzker had appealed a temporary restraining order issued by Sangamon County Circuit judge Raylene Grischow against scores of Illinois school districts, but the appellate court dismissed the appeal. The court found that because rules from the Illinois Department of Health requiring masking and other COVID-19 protocols had been allowed to expire, the appeal was moot. The governor then appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court. It wasnt clear whether schools could still impose their own mask mandates, but Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudeyyah said last week at the time of the appeal that Pritzker is encouraged that the court made it clear that school districts can continue to keep their own mitigations in place. The legal drama over masks in public schools has unfolded even as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have plunged after the omicron variants peak last month. Last week, Pritzker announced he would lift the statewide indoor mask mandate on Feb. 28but not for schools. The appellate court weighed in about two weeks after Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order invalidating the school mask mandate, as well as several other emergency orders, including vaccine requirements for school employees. Pritzker implemented the vaccine mandate at the beginning of the school year. Grischow agreed with teachers and students who had sued, arguing that schools couldnt be ordered to require masking without a public health quarantine order. She also said people cant be excluded from school who have had contact with the virus without a hearing. Before the appellate court could review Grischows opinion, the emergency rules expired. The Illinois Department of Public Health sought to extend them last week, but the bicameral, bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules declined. The unanimous vote indicated a spreading desire among lawmakers for more involvement in managing the pandemic. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation via his smartphone in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 26, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) In Praise of Courage in Ukraine Commentary We become brave by doing brave acts, observed Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics,by being habituated to despise things that are terrible and to stand our ground against them, we become brave, and it is when we have become so that we shall be most able to stand our ground against them. Thus began Chapter Six in William J. Bennetts Book of Virtues. The Reagan era U.S. Secretary of Education believed then, as now, that virtues and vices are fixed in our characters through practice. As Reagans point man for education, Bennett understood that people require a thorough appreciation of their cultural inheritance to steel their will for fitting action. Fitting action on the part of free nations requires the wisdom and the courage of natural leadership. History celebrates leaders as much for their courage in the face of overwhelming odds as it does for their ultimate victories. The iconic British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, gave his most memorable address in Britains darkest hour. He spoke on June 4, 1940, one year before the Nazi-Soviet alliance was broken by Hitler, and some six months before America entered the war. Churchill was inspiring, and eloquent to a flaw. He said: We shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alonewe shall never surrender he said. The rest is history. A Brutal Invasion On Feb. 24, in the wake of a brutal Russian invasion of his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comic who played an unlikely president in a television series before becoming one in real life, responded to claims by the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, that he had already fled his country. Standing in a recognizable location, outside the presidents office on Bankova Street in central Kyiv, flanked by his closest advisers, Zelensky spoke calmly into his phone. Good evening, everyone. he said. The leader of the party is here. The head of the presidential office is here. Then, after pointing out that his Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal and another adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak were also there, Zelensky brought the phone back to himself and said: The President is here. In an electrifying conclusion, Zelensky concluded: We are all here. Our soldiers are here. The citizens of our country are here. We are all here protecting our independence, our country, and it will continue to be this way. Glory to our defenders. Glory to our heroes. Glory to Ukraine. As courageous as Churchill surely was, he delivered his message to the people of the UK from a protected position in a fortified island nation. Zelensky had no such advantage. He spoke from a capital city under siege by a brutal Russian invader. The tenuousness of his security was matched only by the courage of his conviction. Two days on, still tenuously holding his ground, Zelensky said in reply to a U.S. offer to evacuate him from the war zone: I need ammunition, not a ride. Courage Is Infectious Ukrainian service members guarding a Black Sea island have been heralded throughout the free world for their defiant response to a Russian warship demanding their surrender. The Ukrainian forces were guarding Zmiinyi Island, which is about 30 miles east of the southern border between Ukraine and Romania, on the Black Sea. The incident was recorded and its authenticity confirmed by several news sources. This is a Russian warship, a Russian voice could be heard saying. I ask you to lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise, you will be bombed. In a few moments, a defiant response came from young Ukrainian voices: Russian warship. Go [expletive] yourself. It was reported that during a briefing in Washington, D.C., Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova confirmed all 13 of the defenders were killed in the fighting that followed. Zelensky announced they would posthumously be awarded the title Hero of Ukraine. From a wider moral perspective, they became heroes of the Free World. Up to now, Putins victims in Eastern Europe showed limited resistance. The West showed little interest in interrupting his ambitions. But, last weeks unprovoked invasion of Ukraine was a brazen challenge to freedom loving people around the world. Ukraine is bravely holding out at an enormously high cost in lives, social disruption, and property damage. The nations defense units have bravely resisted Russias advancing forces. Ukrainians are calling on us for help. Putin has demonstrated that the Bolshevik impulse can last a lifetime. Like all his post-war proteges, he has adopted the simplistic strategy of the post-modern revolutionary. Brand your opponents as Nazis and take every measure necessary to destroy them. Today, he alludes to the potential use of battlefield nuclear weapons if he cannot have his way. Vladimir Putin has been willfully delusional about the purpose of NATO and the alliances intent to strike Russia. Paranoia about the West serves his cynical political ambition to remain President of Russia for life. He is convinced that Ukraine can be turned into a willing participant in the resurrection of a Russian empire. But Ukrainians have other plans for their country, and the world has learned that they have the courage and determination to pay an enormous price for their independent national destiny. The clash of Zelensky and Putin is morally akin to the story of David and Goliath. It is about the dauntless courage of youth in opposition to the evil of a terrible giantthe use of a childs weaponry against a seemingly invincible opponent. But, as we all know, Goliath fell. Even among the Russian people, there is growing resistance to Vladimir Putins ambitions. The West cannot afford to stand idly by and permit a tyrannous domino effect to advance throughout the world. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Members of the Working Journalist of India (WJI) hold placards urging citizens to remove Chinese apps and stop using Chinese products during a demonstration against the Chinese newspaper Global Times, in New Delhi, on June 30, 2020. (Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images) Is This Chinese App Harvesting Your Data? Commentary India is no fan of China, and for good reason. In recent years, China has stolen thousands of acres of Indian land. China has also stolen the data of millions of its citizens. Theres little love between the two countries. In fact, theres none at all. On Feb. 14, the international day of love, Indias Ministry of Home Affairs recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications. One of the apps included in the recommendation was Shein, a leading online fashion retailer. With over 7 million monthly active users, Shein is now the worlds largest online-only fashion company. Rather worryingly, 40 percent of the companys customers are based in the United States. Why is Indias Ministry of Home Affairs looking to ban Shein, and why should the U.S. government take note? Its simple. This app, just like the other 53 apps, appears to have links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In India, the app has raised national security concerns. In the United States, the app should also raise similar concerns. Before getting into the ways in which the CCP uses data to further its nefarious agenda, its important to outline why Shein is such a shameless company. Founded in 2008 by Chris Xu, the Chinese company is renowned for its affordably priced clothing. However, its also known for trademark violations and human rights abuses. In 2018, Levi Strauss & Co. sued Shein for copying a trademarked jean stitching. Last year, AirWair International Limited, the company responsible for Dr. Martens boots, accused Shein of selling copies of their designs, ingeniously called Martins. Not only did Shein steal the design, it used photos of authentic Dr. Marten shoes to trick potential customers. Ralph Lauren has also accused the company of selling apparel that are substantially indistinguishable and/or confusingly similar to one or more of Ralph Laurens marks. Shein has also violated international labor standards. In Australia, rather worryingly, where the companys corporate head office is located, Shein has failed to submit a modern slavery statement. Moreover, scientists found that some of the Chinese retailers childrens clothing contain 20 times the recommended amount of lead. In the words of Miriam Diamond, an environmental chemist, people should be shocked, because Sheins clothing contains hazardous waste. Would you put it past this company to steal your data? Shein is owned by Nanjing Lingtian Information Technology Co., Ltd., a computer software company that very few people seem to know anything about. Concerned yet? If not, then maybe you should be. As the Daily Mail previously reported, the shadowy company appears to be spying on unsuspecting customers by using social media sites and apps, collecting inordinate amounts of data on what its customers view as well as their preferences. After sifting through the harvested data, Shein representatives then have its factories churn out copies at a lower cost than its competitors. These factories, it seems, are staffed by modern day slaves, with young children being forced to work like farm animals. This undated covert photo taken by China Labor Watch shows child workers sitting outside their factory in China. The sign above the entrance says: Enthusiastically Celebrate HEG Electronics (Huizhou) Limited Co. Opening a New Factory. (China Labor Watch) Tom Tugendhat, an expert in Chinese espionage, has accused Shein of essentially being an extension of the CCP, engaging in rampant acts of surveillance capitalisma pernicious system centered around the extraction and commodification of personal data. In the abovementioned Daily Mail piece, Tugendhat claimed that Shein was in possession of a data collection network to rival many of the worlds intelligence agencies, which could not and would not be permitted without the agreement of the authoritarian regime. Many of Sheins customers dont have a clue what they are giving away, he added. Tugendhats warnings should be heeded. According to Sheins privacy policy, the company tracks various data points, including the searched items that directed users to Sheins website. Yes. Let that settle in for a minute. In the United States, a line, albeit a very slim one, separates Big Tech and Big Government. In China, however, Big Tech is Big Government; the two are inextricably linked. Shein may very well be a fashion company, but its also a Big Tech company; it leverages artificial intelligence to manipulate and track its customers. As I have outlined elsewhere, there are plenty of reasons to believe that data collected by Big Tech companies in China is shared with the CCP. Remember, If data is the new oil, then China is the new Saudi Arabia. The CCP has already stolen the data of 80 percent of American adults, according to Bill Evanina, former director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center. Going forward, as tensions between the two countries escalate, the CCP will continue to steal Americans data, and it will continue to use apps like Shein to further its immoral agenda. If in doubt, let me point you in the direction of TikTok, another problematic Chinese app that I have discussed elsewhere. According to a new study carried out by URL Genius, TikTok is more likely than any other social media app to collect and share users personal data with unknown third parties. One of those unknown third parties may very well be the CCP. India has banned TikTok; now, it looks likely to ban Shein. The United States has banned neither. Worryingly, according to Reuters, Shein has plans for an initial public offering in New York later this year. The Biden administration must prevent this from occurring. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Matthew L. Perna spent 20 minutes in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He took his own life Feb. 25 after learning prosecutors will seek a longer jail term. (Left: @TaylerUSA/Twitter; U.S. Department of Justice/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Jan. 6 Defendant Takes His Own Life, Died of Broken Heart, Family Says Matthew Perna, 37, was prosecuted for his 20-minute walk through the US Capitol Matthew L. Perna, a Pennsylvania man prosecuted for his 20-minute walk through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, took his own life on Feb. 25 due to a broken heart and a justice system that killed his spirit and his zest for life, his family said. Perna, 37, of Sharpsville, was due to be sentenced on April 1 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in a plea agreement on charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, entering, and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. One charge is a felony and the others are misdemeanors. Perna learned that prosecutors would seek an even longer jail sentence based on domestic terrorism deterrence, Julie Kelly of American Greatness wrote on Twitter on Feb. 27. His community (which he loved), his country, and the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life, his online obituary reads. He didnt break, touch, or steal anything. He did not harm anyone, as he stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures, the obituary said. For this act, he has been persecuted by many members of his community, friends, relatives, and people who had never met him. His Spirit Died The constant delays in hearings and postponements dragged out for over a year, the obituary said. Because of this, Matts heart broke and his spirit died, and many people are responsible for the pain he endured. Matthew L. Perna, 37, took his own life Feb. 25 as his Jan. 6-related sentencing approached. (Perna Family/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Matt did not have a hateful bone in his body. He embraced people of all races, income brackets, and beliefs, never once berating anyone for having different views. Geri Perna, Matthew Pernas aunt, said the tragedy was beyond devastating. He was the kindest person you ever met, she told The Epoch Times. He was not like some of those rioters who went there acting obnoxious. No, that wasnt our Matthew. Geri said the family never understood why the U.S. Department of Justice filed a felony charge in the case. He didnt have a weapon. He didnt have an altercation with police officers. He didnt break anything or steal anything or take anything, she said. The prosecutors sentencing recommendations havent been posted online yet. Charging documents said Perna and Stephen Ayres entered the Capitol at 2:47 p.m., nearly 30 minutes after Congress adjourned due to rioting, and nearly an hour after Vice President Mike Pences motorcade was seen leaving the Capitol, court records show. Perna remained in the building for 20 minutes, filming with his phone. At one point during his time in the Capitol, according to a government statement of facts, on Jan. 18, 2021, Perna became frustrated and, using a metal pole, tapped on a window of the Capitol building. Court records dont allege that he damaged the window or any other property, or committed any violent or disruptive acts. Prosecutors wrote that Perna wore a red Make America Great Again sweatshirt and chanted USA! USA! USA! while filming with his phone. Perna later uploaded an 8-minute video to Facebook, in which he allegedly said, Its not over, trust me. The purpose of today was to expose Pence as a traitor. Jan. 6 defendant Matthew L. Perna, 37, of Sharpsville, Pa., died of a broken heart, his family said. (Twitter @TaylerUSA/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Two unnamed informants who said they were familiar with Perna called the FBI on Jan. 13, 2021, after recognizing him in videos posted online. One alleged that Perna purchased a handgun in the previous several months, court records show. There is no indication Perna had any type of weapon with him on Jan. 6, even if the informants allegation was true. The second informant believed he [Perna] was a conspiracy theorist and supported Q-Anon, the FBI said in court documents. Prosecutors described Q as a sprawling, discredited, anti-establishment conspiracy theory that says the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and child traffickers. Charging documents said the Q theory is a false belief. Perna approached the FBI on Jan. 14, 2021, as soon as he heard that his photo was posted as No. 73 on the FBIs Jan. 6 most-wanted list. He met with agents at his home the same day. He told them the Capitol doors were wide open when he approached the building, and that a group behind him and Ayres was pushing forward to get in. Matthew Perna went to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 to peacefully stand up for his beliefs, the obituary said. Matthew Lawrence Perna was born in March 1984 to Lawrence and Veronica Perna. He graduated from Sharpsville High School in 2002 and later earned a degree from Penn State University. He taught English to children in Thailand and South Korea, his obituary said. He traveled widely in Europe, Asia, South America, India, and around the United States. His mother, Veronica Roni Perna, 59, died in March 2015. Jan. 6 Takes a Grim Toll One prominent Jan. 6 defendant took to Twitter on Feb. 27 to say he understands the pressure that Perna must have felt with his case dragging on so long. I dont know Matthew Perna, havent studied his case or accusations against him. But hes killed himself & I understand why, wrote Brandon Straka, the founder of the WalkAway campaign that encourages liberals to leave the Democratic Party. I had the same thoughts many times this past year. The deafening silence of Republicans & conservative media for ppl dragged through this hell is unbearable. Straka was sentenced in January to three years of probation and fined $5,000 as part of a plea agreement on one count of engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building. Pernas suicide is a grim reminder of the ongoing toll from Jan. 6 and its aftermath. Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot and killed by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd just outside the Speakers Lobby. Rosanne Boyland, 34, was trapped under a stampede when police released some kind of gas in the Lower West Terrace tunnel and pushed rioters and protesters out, witnesses said. An unconscious Boyland was then beaten repeatedly with a walking stick by Metropolitan Police Department officer Lila Morris, video shows. One of the strikes to Boylands head caused her nose to bleed. Her family believes she was still alive when the beating occurred. Another strike caused the walking stick to break. She died on Jan. 6. Derrick Vargo, 32, alleges he was pushed off the landing between the upper and lower west terraces by a Capitol Police motorcycle officer. Video shows Vargo walking along a narrow ledge outside the balustrade when he was shoved off the wall by an officer and fell some 20 feet. He suffered severe foot and spinal injuries. Vargo plans a lawsuit against Capitol Police. Dozens of defendants charged with alleged Jan. 6 crimes have been held in jail for more than a year while awaiting trial. Inmates at the Central Detention Facility in DC have said they suffered beatings by guards, been denied food, made to march around the jail carrying their mattresses, punched for singing the National Anthem, and placed in solitary confinement for months. Correction: The date of Pernas sentencing was incorrectly reported. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Japan's Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference at the party headquarters in Tokyo, on Nov. 1, 2021. (Rodrigo Reyes Marin/Pool Photo via AP) Japans Prime Minister Rules out Nuclear Sharing Arrangement With US Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has ruled out the option of a nuclear sharing arrangement with the United States as a deterrence strategy, local media reported on Monday, despite security concerns amid the RussiaUkraine crisis. It is unacceptable given our countrys stance of maintaining the three non-nuclear principles, Kishida said in Parliament, Kyodo News reported. Kishidas remarks came after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for Japan to consider a nuclear sharing arrangement akin to the NATOs nuclear deterrent policy, which allows the United States to deploy its nuclear weapons in Europe under its custody. It is necessary to understand how the worlds security is maintained. We should not put a taboo on discussions about the reality we face, Abe said in a television program on Sunday. Abe was commenting on the security situation in Japan amid Russias recent invasion of Ukraine. While he acknowledged that Japan must uphold the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons, Abe said that the government should give consideration to various options, including a nuclear sharing arrangement, given the increasingly severe security environment. It is important to move toward that goal, but when it comes to how to protect the lives of Japanese citizens and the nation, I think we should conduct discussions by taking various options fully into consideration, he said. The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Japan has since committed to peace and enacted the three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, not producing, and not allowing nuclear weapons into the country. During a parliamentary lower house budget panel hearing this month, Japans defense minister Nobuo Kishi said that he would not rule out the option to conduct preemptive airstrikes on enemy bases because the country has reserved the right to do so. Kishi said that such attacks would fall within the scope of self-defense, although it would be the last resort to protect Japan from inbound missiles, Nikkei Asia reported. However, he noted that certain conditions must be met in order for an airstrike against enemy bases to be authorized under the self-defense policy, which includes limiting the use of force to only what is necessary to complete the mission. Kishi also noted that Japan will not possess military capabilities that by themselves would annihilate an opponent, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles or long-range strategic bombers. Workers install security fencing around the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol, ahead of the upcoming State of the Union with U.S. President Joe Biden on Feb. 27, 2022. (Al Drago/Reuters) Fencing Reinstalled Around US Capitol Building Ahead of Bidens Speech The fence put up around the U.S. Capitol in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach has been reinstalled about seven months after it was taken down. As trucker convoys make their way toward Washington, the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP), in conjunction with various partners, has solidified a security plan to prevent any disruption to the important work of Congress and in light of President Joe Bidens scheduled March 1 State of the Union Address, USCP Chief Tom Manger said in a statement. Out of an abundance of caution, and in conjunction with the United States Secret Service, a plan has been approved to put up the inner-perimeter fence around the Capitol building for the State of the Union Address. I have also requested support from outside law enforcement agencies as well as the National Guard to assist with our security precautions, he said. Workers reerected the fencing on Feb. 27. Another prong of the plan is the closing of multiple roads on March 1, but USCP officials said the same roads were closed in the past and are not related to the potential truck and vehicle convoys. A worker welds security fencing around the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 27, 2022, ahead of the upcoming State of the Union with U.S. President Joe Biden. (Al Drago/Reuters) Security fencing erected ahead of President Joe Bidens speech around the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 28, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) Trucks parked in Elk City, Okla., on Feb. 26, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times) Truckers with The Peoples Convoy drive past an overpass with supporters in Oklahoma on Feb. 27, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times) A major convoy is moving east after launching from California on Feb. 23. The group arrived in Big Cabin, Oklahoma, on Feb. 27 and is on track to reach Washington on March 5. Organizers created the group to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other actions from the Biden administration. USCPs previous statement on Feb. 18 said it and other agencies were aware that a series of convoys would be arriving in Washington around the time of Bidens speech. Officials said they would facilitate lawful First Amendment activity and that they hadnt yet decided on whether to reinstall the fencing. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said she understands security concerns related to the convoys that led to the reinstallation. However, I will ensure that the fencing comes down as soon as possible to restore freedom of movement for District of Columbia residents and the general public, Norton, who introduced a measure in 2021 that would bar permanent fencing at the Capitol complex, said in a statement. The fencing was taken down in July 2021, although it was put back up for a short period of time ahead of a rally in September 2021 for people still being held on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. About 400 people attended the rally, and the fencing was removed again after the event. Russia-Ukraine (Feb. 28): Russian Military Convoy North of Kyiv Stretches for 40 Miles: Maxar The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, Feb. 28. Click here for updates from Feb. 27. Russian Military Convoy North of Kyiv Stretches for 40 Miles: Maxar WASHINGTONSatellite images taken on Monday show a Russian military convoy north of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv that stretches for about 40 miles (64 km), substantially longer than the 17 miles (27 km) reported earlier in the day, a U.S. private company said. Maxar Technologies also said additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 20 miles (32 km) north of the Ukraine border. ___ Official: Artillery Kills 70 Ukraine Soldiers KYIV, UkraineMore than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the head of the region wrote on Telegram. Dmytro Zhyvytskyy posted photographs of the charred shell of a four-story building and rescuers searching rubble. In a later Facebook post, he said many Russian soldiers and some local residents also were killed during the fighting on Sunday. The report could not immediately be confirmed. ___ White House Responds to Proposal for No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine The Biden administration and NATO both rejected calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying that it would escalate the conflict. Over the past weekend, there were calls for the United States and NATO to set one up over Ukraine, as Russian jets have carried out bombing runs on Ukrainian targets. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) was one of those who called for such a move, which drew sharp criticism on social media. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on MSNBC Monday morning that setting up a no-fly zone would require enforcement, meaning that the United States and NATO would be shooting down Russian planes. That is definitely escalating and would potentially put us in a place in a military conflict with Russia. Thats something the president doesnt want to do, she remarked. Psaki said the White House and President Joe Biden have repeatedly said that American troops wont be fighting Russian soldiers unless Moscow decides to attack a NATO member in an Article 5 situation. ___ Hollywood Halts Releases in Russia, Including The Batman NEW YORKThree major Hollywood studios have moved to pause their upcoming theatrical releases in Russia, including rolling out The Batman in theaters there this week. Warner Bros., the Walt Disney Co., and Sony Pictures said Monday that they would pause the release of their films in Russia. Each studio has significant upcoming releases that had been set to debut internationally in the coming weeks. The Batman, one of the years more anticipated films, launches Friday in North America and many overseas territories. Warner Bros. move closely followed a similar decision Monday by the Walt Disney Co. The studio had planned to open the Pixar film Turning Red in Russia on March 10. That film is going straight to Disney+ in the United States. Sony followed suit, saying it would delay its release of the comic book film Morbius in Russia. Russia is not a leading market for Hollywood, but the country typically ranks in the top dozen countries globally in the box office. ___ Australia Commits $50 Million in Support for Ukraine CANBERRA, AustraliaAustralia will provide Ukraine with $50 million in missiles, ammunition, and other military hardware to fight Russian invaders. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday elaborated on his countrys plans after revealing a day earlier that his government would provide Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky with lethal military equipment. Morrison promised only non-lethal military equipment last week. President Zelenskyy said: Dont give me a ride, give me ammunition, and thats exactly what the Australian government has agreed to do, Morrison said. Australia had committed $50 million to provide both lethal and non-lethal defensive support for Ukraine through NATO, he said. The overwhelming majority of that will be in the lethal category, Morrison said. Were talking missiles, were talking ammunition, were talking supporting them in their defense of their own homeland in Ukraine and well be doing that in partnership with NATO, Morrison said. Im not going to go into the specifics of that because I dont plan to give the Russian government a heads up about whats coming their way, but I can assure them it is coming your way, he added. ___ Ukraine Says More Russia Shelling During Talks KYIV, UkraineUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian troops have intensified shelling of Ukraine, calling it an effort to force his government into making concessions during talks held Monday. In a video address late Monday, Zelensky says that the talks were taking place against the backdrop of bombing and shelling of our territory, our cities. Synchronizing of the shelling with the negotiating process was obvious. I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method. The president gave no details about the hours-long talks themselves. But he says Ukraine is not prepared to make concessions when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery. Zelensky says that Kyiv, the capital, remains a key goal for the Russians and that Russian forces have also shelled the city of Kharkiv with rocket artillery. ___ US Has Asked 12 Russian UN Diplomats to Leave the Country The United States has asked 12 Russian United Nations diplomats to leave the country due to their alleged engagement in activities that were not in accordance with their responsibilities and obligations as diplomats, Ambassador Richard Mills, Deputy Representative of the United States to the United Nations, said during a UN Security Council meeting Monday afternoon. The U.S. Mission to the UN also said in a statement that the 12 Russian diplomats were intelligence operatives who have abused their privileges of residency in the U.S. by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security. ___ Ukraine Releases Video of Drone Demolishing Russian Missile Systems A Ukrainian military official released footage on Feb. 27 that appears to show a missile system belonging to the Russian Armed Forces being destroyed by a Ukrainian drone. Valery Zaluzhny, the chief commander of the armed forces of Ukraine, said on social media that a Turkish-made Bayraktar drone was used to destroy the Russian machinery in the area around the city of Malyn in the Zhytomyr region. The Epoch Times could not independently verify the footage. Read the full article here ___ Finland Sends Weapons and Ammunition to Ukraine in Policy Shift Finland will send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Monday, in a shift of policy. The shipment will include 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 bullets, 1,500 anti-tank weapons and 70,000 food packages, Defence Minister Antti Kaikkonen added. The decision means a shift in policy for Finland which has maintained an image of a non-aligned country since the Soviet Union in 1956. ___ RussiaUkraine Ceasefire Talks End With No Agreement Negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials in a third country on Feb. 28 yielded no results, officials said after concluding. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told reporters after talks broke off, that the primary aim was to discuss a ceasefire. The parties have determined several priority topics on which certain decisions have been envisioned, Podolyak said. The parties are returning to their capitals to have the possibility to implement these decisions. The next meeting will take place in the coming days at the Polish-Belarusian border, Podolyak said. Read the full article here ___ Ukrainian President Signs Formal Request to Join EU A top adviser to Ukraines president says the first round of talks with Russia about ending the fighting in Ukraine has concluded, and more talks could happen soon. Meanwhile, Ukraines president has signed an application for his country to join the European Union, in a bid to solidify his countrys bond with the West. President Volodymyr Zelensky posted photos of himself signing the application, and his office says the paperwork is on its way to Brussels, where the 27-nation EU is headquartered. ___ Ukraine Not Ready to Surrender or Capitulate to Russia Ukraine vowed that it will not surrender to Russia amid talks between delegates from both countries along the border. Ukraine is ready to continue seeking a diplomatic solution, but Ukraine is not ready to surrender or capitulate, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC on Monday, coming several days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine. Kuleba told the news outlet that hes not sure whether the talks are going to be successful or not. On Sunday, Ukrainian officials confirmed there would be talks along the UkraineBelarus border. Im a diplomat, I have to believe in the success of talks, but at the same time my main goal as a diplomat now is to impose more sanctions on Russia, to bring more weapons to Ukraine, and to isolate Russia as much as we can in the international arena so Im focused on this part of diplomacy, he said, adding that we stand not only for ourselves but for the world order as we all know it. Read the full article here ___ RussiaUkraine Ceasefire Talks Begin Talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials began on the Belarusian border on Monday, as Russia faced deepening economic isolation four days after invading Ukraine in the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two. Russian forces seized two small cities in southeastern Ukraine and the area around a nuclear power plant, the Interfax news agency said on Monday, but ran into stiff resistance elsewhere. Talks began with the aim of an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces, the Ukrainian presidents office said, after a Russian advance that has gone more slowly than some expected. Russia has been cagier about the talks, with the Kremlin declining to comment on Moscows aim. It was not clear whether any progress could be achieved after President Vladimir Putin on Thursday launched the assault and put Russias nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday. The talks are being held on the border with strong Russian ally Belarus, where a referendum on Sunday approved a new constitution ditching the countrys non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launch pad for Russian troops invading Ukraine. ___ US Blocks Americans From Transactions With Russias Central Bank The United States on Monday blocked Americans from engaging in any transactions involving Russias central bank, dealing a crushing blow to the countrys economy in further punishment of Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The fierce economic sanctions imposed by the United States, which also bar transactions with Russias finance ministry and national wealth fund, are likely to jack up Russian inflation higher, cripple its purchasing power, and drive down investments, U.S. officials said on Monday as the new measures took effect. The move comes after the United States and its allies last week imposed several rounds of sanctions targeting Moscow, including against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russias largest lenders, after the countrys forces invaded Ukraine. Our objective is to make sure that the Russian economy goes backwards if President Putin decides to continue to go forward with an invasion in Ukraine, and we have the tools to continue to do that, a senior U.S. administration official said on Monday. ___ US Closes Embassy in Belarus The United States closed its embassy in the capital of Belarus, a neighbor of Ukraine, and all American staff have left the country, officials announced Feb. 28. Belarus shares borders with Ukraine and Russia but has been letting the Russian military send troops through its space to bring attacks from additional fronts against Ukrainian forces, U.S. officials say. ___ Russia Closes Its Airspace to 36 Nations Russia has closed its airspace to carriers from 36 nations, including European countries and Canada, responding in kind to their move to close their respective airspaces to all Russian aircraft. The move, announced Monday by the state aviation agency, follows a decision by the EU and Canada over the weekend to close their skies to the Russian planes in response to Moscows invasion of Ukraine. It added that planes from those countries could only enter Russias airspace with special permission. ___ UN Says Ukraine Radioactive Waste Site Struck The United Nations nuclear watchdog says missiles have hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, but there are no reports of damage to the buildings or indications of a release of radioactive material. In a statement late Sunday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said Ukrainian authorities informed his office about the overnight strike. He said his agency expects to soon receive the results of on-site radioactive monitoring. The report came a day after an electrical transformer at a similar disposal facility in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was damaged. Such facilities typically hold low-level radioactive materials such as waste from hospitals and industry, but Grossi said the two incidents highlight a very real risk. He said if the sites are damaged there could be potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. ___ New York Orders Russia Sanctions, Invites Ukrainian Refugees New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding her state from doing business with Russia, including cancelling its investments there. The governor also said New York will welcome Ukrainian refugees in response to Russias invasion, noting at a press conference in Albany that her state is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the United States. We have said well open up our hearts, our homes, our resources to the people of the Ukraine, to say, We stand with you, Hochul said. Federal estimates show that around 140,000 of the more than 1 million people in the United States who report Ukrainian ancestry live in New York. Hochul didnt immediately get into specifics regarding her states economic sanctions against Moscowincluding how much the state has invested in Russian entitiesbut pointed out that New Yorks economy is larger than that of Russia. ___ South Korea Bans Exports of Strategic Items to Russia, Joins SWIFT Sanctions South Korea will tighten export controls against Russia by banning exports of strategic items, and join Western countries moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system, Seouls foreign ministry said on Monday. The Korean government has also decided to promote the additional release of strategic oil reserves for stabilization of the international energy market and to further review other measures such as the resale of LNG to Europe, the ministry said in statement. The Korean government condemned Russias armed invasion of Ukraine and, as a responsible member of the international community, decided to actively participate in the international communitys efforts, including economic sanctions, for a peaceful resolution of the situation, the statement said. Among the strategic items that will be controlled are supplies of electronics, semiconductors, computers, information and communications, sensors and lasers, navigation and avionics, and marine and aerospace equipment. South Korea will boost humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the ministry added, saying its decisions have been officially notified to the U.S. government through diplomatic channels. ___ Facebook-Owner Meta Says Ukraines Military, Politicians Targeted in Hacking Campaign Meta Platforms said a hacking group used Facebook to target a handful of public figures in Ukraine, including prominent military officials, politicians, and a journalist, amid Russias ongoing invasion of the country. Meta said in the last 48 hours it had also separately removed a network of about 40 fake accounts, groups, and pages across Facebook and Instagram that operated from Russia and Ukraine targeting people in Ukraine, for violating its rules against coordinated inauthentic behavior. A Twitter spokesperson said it had also suspended more than a dozen accounts and blocked the sharing of several links for violating its rules against platform manipulation and spam. It said its ongoing investigation indicated the accounts originated in Russia and were attempting to disrupt the public conversation around the conflict in Ukraine. ___ Australia to Provide Lethal Military Equipment to Ukraine Australia will provide lethal military equipment to Ukraine to help the Ukrainians resist the Russian invasion. The Australian governments announcement Monday gave no details on what material it may be sending. The move follows an offer on Friday of non-lethal military equipment, medical supplies, and a $3 million contribution to a NATO trust fund for support of the besieged country. Australia has imposed sanctions on more than 350 Russian individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, since Thursday. Australia has also targeted with sanctions 13 individuals and entities in Belarus, including that countrys defense minister, Viktor Khrenin. Belarus is supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine. Zachary Stieber, Jack Phillips, Lorenz Duchamps, CNN, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report. KIEV, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian army said on Monday that the situation in Kiev was still under its control. As the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian army posted on Facebook, Ukrainian forces still had Kiev in control as it defeated the repeated attempts by Russian troops to storm into the outskirts of Kiev at night. Meanwhile, the Russian troops had failed to control any big regional cities and Ukrainian forces had repelled the Russians on all fronts last night, the local National News Agency of Ukraine cited Fedir Venislavsky, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, as saying. Although Russian troops have launched air raids on several cities including Kharkiv, Kiev and Chernihiv, Ukrainian air defense systems withstood the attacks, said the report. The news above has yet to be confirmed from the Russian side. According to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov on Sunday, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 975 Ukrainian military infrastructure objects since the start of operations. A man pays his respects at a roadside memorial in Portapique, Nova Scotia, Canada, on April 23, 2020. (The Canadian Press/via AP/Andrew Vaughan) Mass Shooting Inquiry in NS to Hear Disturbing Details Today Canadians are being warned to brace for the retelling of the countrys worst mass shooting in modern history at a public inquiry today. The mass casualty commission will provide a chronological description of the tragedy that claimed the lives of 22 people in rural Nova Scotia in April 2020. Barbara McLean, lead investigator for the federal-provincial inquiry, says the detailed account of the killings comes after more than a year of interviews with witnesses. She says the inquiry will reveal the events in a sequential way to help clarify how the gunman moved through the community. McLean says the information, particularly the frightened 911 calls of residents, will be disturbing to hear. Thirteen of the 22 victims were murdered in Portapique by a gunman driving a replica RCMP vehicle and wearing a police uniform; he went on to kill nine other people, including a pregnant woman and an RCMP officer, in Debert, Shubenacadie and Wentworth. Issues that have remained unclear since the killings include what was reported during the 911 calls and the shooters precise route. Some outstanding questions are expected to be dealt with in Mondays documents, while other details could emerge later this week. Supporters of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo) Media Protest Lack of Access at Trial of Jan. 6 Protester One pool reporter will be allowed in the courtroom for portions of the trial, judge rules just before jury selection Jury selection in the first of the Jan. 6-related criminal trials began on Feb. 28 in U.S. District Court in Washington, after a coalition of media organizations challenged Judge Dabney L. Friedrichs ruling that media wouldnt be allowed in the courtroom for the trial of Guy W. Reffitt. Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, is charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building while armed with a dangerous weapon, civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of U.S. Capitol Police officers, and obstruction of justice for allegedly threatening to shoot his children if they turned him in to the FBI. Reffitt is the first Jan. 6 defendant to go to trial, although many others have accepted plea deals with reduced charges. Reffitt has been held in federal detention since his arrest on Jan. 16, 2021. More than 750 people have faced charges since the FBI began a massive investigation just hours after the unrest at the Capitol. Guy Wesley Reffitt rinses his eyes after police doused him with pepper spray at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Department of Justice/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Prosecutors allege Reffitt carried a semiautomatic Smith & Wesson pistol onto Capitol grounds during the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Friedrich initially ruled that due to COVID-19 restrictions, including social distancing, there wouldnt be sufficient room for media seating. A coalition of 20 media organizations filed a motion on Feb. 27 challenging the restrictions. The next day, the judge ruled that a pool reporter would be allowed in the courtroom for opening statements and possibly for closing arguments, but not during the rest of the trial. Media will be able to monitor the trial via live-stream video in an adjacent overflow room that accommodates about 50 people, Friedrich said. Dial-in access to an audio feed from the courtroom wont be allowed as it was during pretrial hearings. Friedrich said she didnt want case witnesses to be able to listen and possibly shape their testimony to match that of other witnesses. The public interest in these proceedings could not be greater, media coalition attorneys from Ballard Spahr LLP wrote in the motion for courtroom access. The movants learned late on Friday, however, that the court plans to conduct this trial without a single member of the press or public in the courtroom. Despite livestream feeds in overflow courtrooms and the release of case exhibits as they are received into evidence, the First Amendment and clear Supreme Court precedent require public access to the trial courtroom itself, the motion said. The public is entitled by law to read and hear first-hand accounts as jurors observe the questioning of witnesses, arguments of counsel, and the rulings of the Court during this historic trial. Guy Wesley Reffitt is shown descending the Upper West Terrace stairs at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. On the ledge at left is Derrick Vargo, who says a police officer pushed him off the 20-foot-high wall. (U.S. Department of Justice/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) After ruling on the motion, Friedrich conducted general questioning of the first 47 juror candidates. She asked each about their knowledge of the Jan. 6 events at the Capitol, whether they knew Reffitt, the attorneys in the case, or the judge or her staff, and 25 other questions designed to gauge whether each can serve as a fair and impartial juror. She also asked if any of them would be uncomfortable if the judge or case attorneys removed their masks if they had to speak for an extended time. Candidates who answered yes to any question were asked to write that down on a note card that was later collected by court staff. The group then moved to another courtroom, where prosecutors Jeffrey Nestler and Risa Berkower, defense attorney William Welch III and Judge Friedrich were set to ask questions one on one. Reffitts wife, Nicole, posted on Twitter, We are doing this! Jury selection begins now! Lets bring Guy home. Jury selection will likely continue until late March 1, followed by opening statements. The trial is expected to stretch into next week, Friedrich said. Prosecutors plan to call 13 witnesses, including four current and former U.S. Capitol Police officials, three FBI agents, an FBI photographer, a Secret Service agent, the former counsel to the secretary of the U.S. Senate, Reffitts two children, and an informant from the Texas Three Percenters group who traveled with Reffitt to Washington from Texas. Reffitt was also a member of the Three Percenters, which the FBI calls an extremist group. That witness, described only as R.H. in court filings, was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Fred Rose and his family in an undated photo taken by his stepfather. (Bob Baker) Murderer on Death Row Commuted Under LA DA, Family Shocked and Seeking Justice SANTA CLARA, Calif.Thirty years ago, a Los Angeles man was sentenced to death for killing a father of three. Now the district attorney is planning to drop the murderers death sentence. In January 1992, 21-year-old Scott Forrest Collins was sentenced to death for robbing and shooting 41-year-old Fred Rose. However, in February this year, the victims family was told Collins would be resentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole, which means he would never leave prison but also would not be on death row. The district attorneys office notified them via voicemail. Heather Scott, Roses daughter, who was 12 when Rose died, told NTD Television they are against the decision and it feels like torture again. I really had to fight for answers and information. I requested for days to find out who had filed this motion, and they would not tell me, Scott said. She was told the decision to reduce the sentencing comes from factoring Collinss age at the time, his ADHD diagnosis, traumatic childhood, and good behavior in prison. She requested files to review herself but was deflected to a Zoom call for explanation. When she tried looking online for records of the case, she couldnt find them there anymore, as they had been removed. We were told we had months to review the documentation and respond before the DA filed their agreement to commute the sentence. They filed it a few days later without telling us. Thats concerning. We felt betrayed by that, Scott said. She said they were specifically requested not to get a hearing, but they want representation and justice. Its not about the death penalty. Its about where will this stop, Scott said. If they can commute the death sentence, they can commute Life Without the Possibility of Parole down the line. Scott said they went through therapy while growing up and learned to process grief after losing their father, but injustice can bring back a feeling, that pain, that hopelessness. When the system fails you like this, you do feel very alone, Scott said. They sought help from a private law firm. Fred Rose and his family shortly before his 1992 murder. (Bob Baker) In an emailed statement to NTD Television, Kathleen Cady, former prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office representing the victims family, said victims have a constitutional right to be heard at any sentencing hearing. It appears that [Los Angeles County District Attorney George] Gascons surrogate is violating the Constitution and deliberately attempting to silence Mr. Roses family and deprive them of their right to be heard regarding any resentencing because of Gascons policy against the death penalty. Gascon has been abandoned and is re-traumatizing Mr. Roses family. Since Gascon took office in December 2020, he has come up with many policies with a goal to remove the death sentence. This includes reviewing existing death sentences. We see our victims, and to not be able to say to your victim that Im going to get you justice, and Im not going to fight for you 100 percent and the fact that these victims have to go get their own lawyers to protect their interest, is deeply upsetting to most prosecutors, Eric Siddal, Vice President of LA Association of Deputy District Attorneys, told NTD Television. Siddal sees Gascons policies as a huge social experiment that needs to end. Scott said, Under his bail policies, those [felons with firearms] are getting released immediately, so by the time that the police officer writes the report, that defendant who had a gun, who puts everyones life in danger, that defendant is walking out of a police station. Gascons leniency toward criminals has fueled a movement to recall him. Nearly 98 percent of the LA prosecutors who participated in a vote support the recall of Gascon over his crime policies. Over 80 percent of the lawyers voted, the highest turnout the organization has ever seen. Siddal said this is the first time the association of district attorneys has tried to recall a district attorney. Swiss President Ignazio Cassis addresses a news conference after a meeting of the Swiss government Bundesrat in Bern, Switzerland, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters) Neutral Swiss Poised to Freeze Russian Assets: President GENEVASwiss President Ignazio Cassis said on Sunday that it was very probable that neutral Switzerland would follow the European Union (EU) on Monday in sanctioning Russia and freezing Russian assets in the Alpine country. Cassis, interviewed on French-language Swiss public television RTS, said that the seven-member Federal Council would meet on Monday and review recommendations by the departments of finance and economy. Asked whether Switzerlanda major financial centre and commodities trading hubwould follow the EU in freezing Russian assets, he said: It is very probable that the government will decide to do so tomorrow, but I cannot anticipate decisions not yet taken. Cassis said that Switzerlands neutrality must be preserved and it stood ready to offer its good offices for diplomacy if talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the Belarusian border do not succeed, for example by reaching an armistice. That does not prevent us from calling a spade a spade, he said. Switzerland has walked a tortuous line between showing solidarity with the West and maintaining its traditional neutrality that the government says could make it a potential mediator. But it faces growing pressure to side clearly with the West against Moscow and adopt punitive European Union sanctions. The government had so far said only that it will not let Switzerland be used as a platform to circumvent EU sanctions. In the biggest peace march in decades, around 20,000 people demonstrated in the capital Bern on Saturday to support Ukraine, some booing the government over its cautious policy. Cassis said on Sunday that Ukrainians fleeing the conflict would be welcome for a transitional period, which we hope will be as short a possible. Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said separately that Switzerland was ready to take in those who need protection and also to support the neighbouring countries affected. We will not leave people in the lurch, she said. The Swiss government last week amended its watchlist to include 363 individuals and four companies that the EU had put on its sanctions list to punish Moscow. Russians held nearly 10.4 billion Swiss francs ($11.24 billion) in Switzerland in 2020, Swiss National Bank data show. By Stephanie Nebehay New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during the New York State Democratic Convention in New York on Feb. 17, 2022. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo) New York Mayor to Scrap Private Business Vaccine Mandate, School Mask Rules New Yorks private business COVID-19 vaccine and school masking mandates will be lifted soon, the citys mayor has said. However, Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, still isnt rescinding the mandate that forces city workers to get vaccinated, as New York continues to be the most reluctant locale in the nation in rolling back rules imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said on Feb. 27 that the state is dropping its school mask mandate, citing how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has abruptly and drastically changed a key measure influencing mask mandates across the country. Given the decline in our rates, our hospitalizations, strong vaccination rates, and the CDC guidance, my friends, the day has come, Hochul told a briefing. Adams then issued a Feb. 27 statement saying that he would soon follow suit. If we see no unforeseen spikes and our numbers continue to show a low level of risk, New York City will remove the indoor mask mandate for public school children, effective next Monday, March 7, he said. The school systems outdoor mask mandate was rolled back on Feb. 28. The citys so-called Key to NYC program, which requires businesses to verify that customers have received a COVID-19 vaccine, will also end on March 7 as long as COVID indicators show a low level of risk and we see no surprises this week, according to Adams. Adams, a former police officer, inherited complex COVID-19 rules from his predecessor, Bill de Blasio. Thus far, he has kept virtually all of them in place. Teachers line up their students before entering P.S. 179 elementary school in New York in a file image. (Mark Lennihan/AP Photo) Adams said all other rules wouldnt be withdrawn, even if numbers remain low, claiming that they are and have been vital to protecting New Yorkers. Many of the rules in New York and elsewhere were imposed after data began emerging indicating that the COVID-19 vaccines dont prevent transmission and that vaccinated people can get infected. Since then, the Omicron coronavirus variant has displaced the Delta variant as the dominant strain in the United States. Data suggest that the vaccines perform the worst against Omicron, providing little to no protection against infection and not shielding as well against severe disease. Some 96 percent of adults in New York have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and all Americans aged 5 or older are eligible to get vaccinated. Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said removing proof of vaccination for indoor dining in NYC will be welcome news to many restaurants and bars, but noted that he wouldnt be surprised if some businesses want to voluntarily keep the requirements in place. Jack Phillips contributed to this report. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at the New York State Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Aug. 24, 2021. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) New York Governor Drops Mask Mandate for Schools New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced that the state will drop its statewide school mask mandate, becoming the latest Democrat to ease COVID-19-related rules. Hochul, who unveiled the development during a Feb. 27 press conference, cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) having eased its masking recommendations in most public settings for the rule change, which goes into effect on March 2. Child care centers also dont have to impose masking rules. However, she said individual counties and municipalities can keep their own mandates intact. Given the decline in our rates, our hospitalizations, strong vaccination rates, and the CDC guidance, my friends, the day has come, Hochul said. Today, we are going to be announcing that [we will] be lifting the statewide mask requirement in schools, and thatll be effective this Wednesday, March 2. Hochul also said New York is at its lowest point of pediatric cases since July 2021. We are in a much, much better place, she said. The statewide mask mandate still applies to nursing homes, correctional facilities, health care facilities, and homeless or domestic violence shelters, according to Hochul. Masks will also continue to be required at airports based in New York under federal guidelines. Two days before Hochuls announcement, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a briefing with reporters that nearly three-quarters of Americans dont need to wear masks because they live in areas with low or medium risk from COVID-19, the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. This updated approach focuses on directing our prevention efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe ailments and preventing hospitals and health care systems from being overwhelmed, Walensky said. New York state Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt issued a statement that he agreed with Hochuls decision, saying that additional steps should be taken. The unmasking of our school children is a long-overdue victory for kids and parents, educators, and common sense, Ortt said. It is time to put my resolution up for a vote, end the unnecessary statewide emergency, and end all Albany mandates. Critics of mask mandates, including some House Republicans, said forcing children to wear masks for hours at a time in class would ruin their development. There is no question, as we enter the third year of this pandemic, CDCs guidelines and policies have failed to factor inlet alone prioritizechildrens social, emotional, and educational development, Republican lawmakers wrote in a letter to the CDC in late January. With mask mandates teenagers and younger children are experiencing a mental health crisis of historic proportions, the letter states, citing a recent U.S. Surgeon General warning that suicide attempts have risen sharply for adolescents. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul greets supporters during the New York State Democratic Convention in New York City on Feb. 17, 2022. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo) New York Orders Russia Sanctions, Invites Ukrainian Refugees NEW YORKNew York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Sunday forbidding her state from doing business with Russia, including cancelling its investments there. The governor also said New York will welcome Ukrainian refugees in response to Russias invasion, noting at a press conference in Albany that her state is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the United States. We have said well open up our hearts, our homes, our resources to the people of the Ukraine, to say, We stand with you, Hochul said. Federal estimates show that around 140,000 of the more than 1 million people in the United States who report Ukrainian ancestry live in New York. If you need a place to stay, you want to come over here, we will help you become integrated into our community, she said, as we have been open so to so many other refugees in the past, including those from Afghanistan most recently. Hochul didnt immediately get into specifics regarding her states economic sanctions against Moscowincluding how much the state has invested in Russian entitiesbut pointed out that New Yorks economy is larger than that of Russia. The governors executive order means the state will not permit its own investment activity, whether directly or indirectly, to aid Russia as it commits these human rights violations and atrocities. Ukraine filed a case at the United Nations highest court accusing Russia of planning genocide. We strongly condemn the action of Putin and Russia for this unprovoked attack which is now leading to atrocities against innocent human beings, and that is not tolerable, Hochul said. New Yorks sanctions follow those issued by President Joe Biden last week targeting Russias financial system. Biden said the United States will block assets of large Russian banks, impose export controls aimed at the nations high-tech needs and sanction its business oligarchs. It was not immediately known how much money the sanctions could represent, but Hochul said she wants state agencies to review contracts and assets to be sure that taxpayer money isnt being used to indirectly fund Russias invasion of the Ukraine. Hochul ordered state agencies to divest money and assets from investments in companies or institutions determined to be a Russian or supporting entity. And she forbid the state from doing business with such entities. The executive order defined a supporting entity as any institution or company that is aiding Russia in its war against the Ukraine. By Bobby Caina Calvan Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) speaks about his opposition to S. 1, the "For The People Act" in Washington, on June 17, 2021. (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images) None of Us Should Ever Buy Another Product Made in Communist China: Sen. Scott on Holding CCP Accountable for Abuses Grappling with the extensive human rights abuses in China and with the Beijing regimes failure to abide by its treaty commitments requires decisive action on the economic, trade, diplomatic, legislative, and anti-espionage fronts, according to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). China has decided to be our adversary. And were in a new Cold War that they started, Scott told EpochTVs China Insider program at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 26. The government of communist China has decided to steal our technology, steal our jobs, put people in prison for their religion, take away the basic rights of Hong Kong citizens, militarize the South China Sea, [and] violate every agreement they ever touch. Scott called for wider attention to be paid to the ongoing human rights crisis in China and the myriad forms of malfeasance, deception, and repression practiced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He emphasized the need to talk about the atrocities in China, such as the CCPs theft of U.S. intellectual property, its persecution of religious groups, its clampdown in Hong Kong, and its intimidation of democratic Taiwan. Although many of these issues may seem like large and daunting geopolitical problems, Scott said, he emphasized actions that citizens can take on a day-to-day basis to bring pressure on the CCP. The first thing citizens should do is boycott goods from China to send a message about forced labor in the Xinjiang region and other abuses, the senator said. None of us should ever buy another product made in communist China. None, zero, no products. We should buy products made in America and made by our allies, Scott said. Every time you give money to a Chinese company, suppose that it goes to the Chinese government, which controls the whole economy. The second most urgent task is to hold the CCP accountable for its many violations of international agreements, especially the regimes failure to abide by the commitments it made upon entering the World Trade Organization in 2001, Scott said. Look at the latest [figures] on the trade deal. Theyre not in compliance with the deal, and we need to start holding them accountable for all their lies. And so our government needs to do its job, and every businessperson needs to do his or her job. But it starts with you not buying any products made in communist China, he said. Scott has been a vocal critic of Beijings failure to follow through on commitments made under the phase one trade deal signed in January 2020, namely a pledge to purchase at least $200 billion more in U.S. goods in 202021 than China imported in 2017. In December, the senator sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tsai demanding to know how the Biden administration planned to address this failure. Besides continuing much of the Trump administrations trade policy in relation to China, the Biden administration has yet to fully articulate a coherent approach to dealing with Beijings trade abuses. Part of the CCPs strategy in its Cold War against the United States involves infiltrating American society, the senator said. Communist China has done everything it can to try to infiltrate our country by hiring lobbyists and by having spies work in our universities, Scott said. The senator also drew a critical distinction between the CCP and the people of China, whom he described as wonderful. His quarrel is not with the Chinese people but with a regime that lies, cheats, and steals, Scott emphasized. He said hes in agreement with recently introduced legislation that would impose sanctions directly on CCP officials and their families and stop them from attending universities in the United States. I want to do everything I can to expose exactly what communism is, what socialism is, and what atrocities are going on every day, he said. No company, no individual in America, should ever do business with communist China. Michael Washburn China Reporter Follow Michael Washburn is a New York-based reporter who covers China-related topics. He has a background in legal and financial journalism, and also writes about arts and culture. Additionally, he is the host of the weekly podcast Reading the Globe. His books include The Uprooted and Other Stories, When We're Grownups, and Stranger, Stranger. Gov. Roy Cooper prepares to take off his mask before speaking during a briefing at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, N.C., on July 9, 2020. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP) North Carolina Governor Vetoes Bill Giving Authority to Parents on Masking Their Children in Public Schools North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed on Feb. 24 Senate Bill 173the Free the Smiles Actwhich would have given parents discernment on masking their children in K-12 public school. The decision comes a week after he encouraged local school boards to lift their mask mandates; however, Cooper said he wants the school boards to retain the authority to mandate masks in public schools if they choose. I have encouraged local boards to lift mask mandates and they are doing it across the state with the advice of health officials who see that COVID metrics are declining, and vaccinations are increasing, Cooper, a Democrat, said in a press release. The bipartisan law the legislature passed and I signed last year allows local boards to make these decisions for their own communities and that is still the right course. Passing laws for political purposes that encourage people to pick and choose which health rules they want to follow is dangerous and could tie the hands of public health officials in the future. The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 2817, with two Democrats voting in favor and no Republicans voting against the bill. In a Feb. 17 media briefing before the veto when he recommended school boards lift the mandate, Cooper said some of the General Assembly are very frantic about passing the Free the Smiles Act. From what I know about it, I have concerns that it is unwise and irresponsible, Cooper said. Are we going to let people pick and choose which public health rules they are going to follow? School Districts Shift to Optional Currently, out of the 115 school districts in North Carolina, 96 have gone mask optional, while 17 have remained mask required. Local governments across North Carolina have lifted their mask mandates, with school boards following their lead. Some parents have continued to speak out against mandates at local meetings, such as Liz Stankevich, who spoke at a contentious Mecklenburg County Commissioner meeting in February. Unfortunately, it has been our children who have paid the heaviest price for the governors endless state of emergency and ongoing mandates and restrictions, she said. In November 2021, Cooper vetoed a measure proposing to restore checks and balances to his executive powers that were extended amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. Cooper had declared a state of emergency in March 2020. As the mother of three boys, Stankevich said she could talk endlessly about the negative social, mental, and academic impacts the mask mandates in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system have had on them. But instead, Im going to choose to talk to you about the reality of COVID-19 today, she said. Today, Feb. 16, 2022, we are at a dramatically different spot than we were at two years ago. So, what have we learned in two years? What are the facts? Students are the lowest risk population for COVID-19, she said. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, she said, children have represented 0 to .2 percent of all COVID-19-related deaths. In other words, a total of 803 American children have died in the past two years from COVID-19, she said. This is significantly less than the number of total deaths from both the flu and RSV in a typical pre-pandemic year, she said. She said there continues to be very poor quality data on community masking, with cloth masks having shown to be ineffective in providing even the smallest amount of protection from Omicron, she said, which she called the most dominant COVID-19 variant, adding that most children only wear cloth masks. There are also parents such as Stacy Staggs, who spoke in the Mecklenburg County Commissioner meeting expressing concern for those who are immunocompromised, such as her own children, and stating that minority communities would be hurt as well. I want you all to consider who youre helping, and who youre hurting. Lifting the mask mandate adds risk and thus hurts children. It also hurts black and brown bodies in our community she said. On Feb. 25, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its mask guidance to say now nearly three-quarters of Americans dont need to wear masks because they live in areas with low or medium community risks from COVID-19. Parents at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg board of education meeting on Feb. 22. (Courtesy of Brooke Weiss) Health Decisions Belong to the Parents State House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, said hes disappointed that Cooper would veto what Moore called a common-sense bill. All healthcare decisions for our students belong with their parents, not with politicians or bureaucrats, Moore said. Actions speak louder than words, and the governor should do more than encourage schools to lift their mask mandates. Return this decision back to the parents. In a Feb. 17 statement after the House passed the Free the Smiles Act with a bipartisan vote of 7642, Moore said that young children have paid the heaviest price for ongoing mandates and restrictions that are simply not based on science or current data. In a Feb. 25 tweet after the veto, Moore said this isnt over, and that hes looking forward to overriding Coopers veto. The bill can be returned to the House where three-fifths of the members can vote to override the veto. If the House votes to override, the bill is then sent to the Senate where three-fifths of the members can also vote to override before the bill can become law. People watch a TV showing a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 30, 2022. (Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo) North Korea State Media Say Country Held Important Test for Spy Satellite Development The North Korean regime on Sunday conducted an important test for the development of a spy satellite, state-run media said, following claims that a ballistic missile was fired from the east coast of Pyongyang. The regime conducted vertical and oblique photographing of a specific area on earth with cameras loaded on the reconnaissance satellite on Feb. 27, state-run outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Monday. It noted that the test was to confirm the characteristics of the high-resolution camera system, data transmission system, and attitude-control devices. KCNA said the test is of great significance in developing the reconnaissance satellite and released photos of the Korean Peninsula that appeared to be taken from space. The report did not specify whether or not a missile was tested on Sunday, but Japan and South Korea claimed to have detected an apparent ballistic missile being launched from Pyongyangs east coast near Sunan. South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the missile flew to a maximum altitude of around 390 miles at a range of about 90 miles. Lee Jong-joo, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesperson, said that a detailed analysis of specifications is being conducted to assess the implications of the latest missile launch, which is North Koreas eighth missile launch this year. Lee noted that the South Korean government will thoroughly prepare for all possibilities down the road, local media outlet Yonhap News Agency reported. If their idea was to conduct this at an unguarded moment for the international community while it was responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we absolutely cannot condone this, Japans defense minister Nobuo Kishi said. Sung Kim, the United States special representative for North Korea, held calls with South Korean and Japanese diplomats on Sunday to discuss North Koreas latest missile launch, the State Department said in a statement. Kim underscored the United States readiness to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy with North Korea, and reaffirmed the shared goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan. A spy satellite is among an array of sophisticated weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed last year to develop under a five-year military modernization plan. It remains unclear whether North Korea has developed or secured sufficient levels of cameras to be put on a satellite and enable it to monitor South Korean and U.S. military activities. North Korea successfully launched its first satellite into orbit in 2012, followed by a second in 2016. The regime claimed that both are Earth observation satellites launched under its space development program. Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Koreas Science and Technology Policy Institute, said that Pyongyang developed both satellites to spy on its rivals. He said that while the second satellite is still in orbit, there is no evidence that it has relayed any imagery back to North Korea. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Visitors view newly-launched OPPO phones during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the MWC is held from Feb. 28 to March 3. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) BARCELONA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress opened its doors on Monday, for a four-day event that is expected to host between 40,000 and 60,000 people. The Congress will shine a spotlight on the future of the global telecommunications industry, presenting new technology and hardware. The metaverse is certain to be high on many visitors' agenda, with questions being asked over whether it really is the future, or merely hype. Advances in drones, as well as connected and driverless vehicles, the Internet of Things, and the 5G world discussed in 2019 are moving ever-closer to reality, and some industry figures are even casting their gaze towards 6G as the future. A total of 1,500 companies will be represented at the event, which is taking place at the FIRA Exhibition center in Barcelona. Industry heavyweights such as Samsung, Huawei, Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom, Google, Nokia, Qualcomm, and ZTE will attend, alongside giants such as Xiaomi, Meta, China Telecom and AT&T. The industry is looking at 2022 as the year in which the sector will be relaunched, following the cancellation of the 2020 MWC due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2021's scaled-down event. The optimism surrounding the 2022 MWC was highlighted by CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group Richard Yu, in a product launch held on the eve of the event. After the "hard winter" of COVID-19, Huawei is "looking forward to enjoying the warmth of the spring," Yu said. Huawei is among a host of companies unveiling new top-of-the-range smartphones and laptops, but the MWC will also present advances in connected industrial machinery using 5G networks. A visitor experiences a simulated driving device during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the MWC is held from Feb. 28 to March 3. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) Visitors attend the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the MWC is held from Feb. 28 to March 3. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) Visitors view an exhibited robot during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the MWC is held from Feb. 28 to March 3. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) Visitors view the exhibition area of China's Huawei during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the MWC is held from Feb. 28 to March 3. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) Visitors view the exhibition area of China's Huawei during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the MWC is held from Feb. 28 to March 3. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua) A visitor takes photos of ZTE's new cellphones during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress opened its doors on Monday, for a four-day event that is expected to host between 40,000 and 60,000 people. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua) A robotic bartender supported by 5G technology serves beer during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress opened its doors on Monday, for a four-day event that is expected to host between 40,000 and 60,000 people. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua) A man records a Xiaomi CyberDog during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress opened its doors on Monday, for a four-day event that is expected to host between 40,000 and 60,000 people. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) A man tries a Nubia's new Z40 series cellphone during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress opened its doors on Monday, for a four-day event that is expected to host between 40,000 and 60,000 people. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) Robots show customized cellphone service at Samsung's exhibition area during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress opened its doors on Monday, for a four-day event that is expected to host between 40,000 and 60,000 people. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) A man tries HaptX's haptic gloves for virtual reality and robotics during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. The 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress opened its doors on Monday, for a four-day event that is expected to host between 40,000 and 60,000 people. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson speaks during a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on Jan. 10, 2022. (Marko Saavala/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images) Nothing New: Finland, Sweden Dismiss Russian Warning of Military-Political Consequences If They Join NATO Finland and Sweden have dismissed warnings of serious military-political consequences from neighboring Russia if they were to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Both countries are part of the European Union but not NATO. However, they cooperate closely with the bloc and allow, among other things, for the alliances troops to exercise on their soil. While neither had previously expressed a strong interest in joining NATO, Russias invasion of Ukraine has sparked speculation that the two countries are now weighing up their options in regards to joining the alliance to defend against potential Russian aggression. However, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russias foreign minister, on Friday warned that both countries would face serious military and political repercussions if they were to do so. Finland and Sweden should not base their security on damaging the security of other countries and their accession to NATO can have detrimental consequences and face some military and political consequences, she said in a video clip. Russias ministry of foreign affairs also doubled down on the stance in a statement posted to Twitter on Friday. We regard the Finnish governments commitment to a military non-alignment policy as an important factor in ensuring security and stability in northern Europe. Finlands accession to NATO would have serious military and political repercussions, the post said. But Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Saturday brushed off the warnings, stating weve heard this before. We dont think that it calls for a military threat, Haavisto said in an interview with the Finnish public broadcaster YLE. Should Finland be NATOs external border, it rather means that Russia would certainly take that into account in its own defense planning. I dont see anything new as such, Haavisto said of Zakharovas comments. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto echoed Haavistos comments in a statement to Finnish media on Friday, saying that he doesnt view Zakharovas comments as a direct military threat from Moscow to Finland but instead countersteps that Russia would take if Finland were to join NATO. Niinisto noted that both Zakharova and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have made similar comments regarding Finlands possible membership in NATO in the past and that Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the issue with a similar tone in 2016 while visiting Finland. Meanwhile, Swedens Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson addressed Moscows statement in a joint news conference Friday with Swedens military commander Micael Byden. I want to be extremely clear. It is Sweden that itself and independently decides on our security policy line, Andersson said. Andersson also announced on Sunday that Sweden will be sending military aid to Ukraine, including 5,000 anti-tank weapons, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 body shields, and 135,000 field rations. Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Prior to the invasion, Moscow has asked the United States and its allies to deny Ukraine and other former Soviet nations membership into NATO and that NATO members scale back troop deployments in Central and Eastern Europe. On Friday, NATO activated its response force for the first time in history. We have deployed defensive land and air forces in the eastern part of the alliance, and maritime assets across the NATO area, the alliance said in a press release. We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, enabled by Belarus. We call on Russia to immediately cease its military assault, to withdraw all its forces from Ukraine and to turn back from the path of aggression it has chosen, NATO said. Under NATO rules, an attack against one of the members is considered an attack against all members. The Associated Press contributed to this report. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on June 8, 2021. (Jean-Francois Badias/Pool via Reuters) Over Time, Ukraine Belongs in EU: Ursula von Der Leyen European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Euronews in an interview on Sunday that over time, Ukraine belongs in the European Union and that the EU wants the country as a member. Von der Leyens comments came shortly after Brussels announced it would provide some 500 million in lethal weapons and other aid to the Ukrainian military, and would ban Russian-backed media in the EU as well as prohibit Russian aircraft from EU airspace. There is strong solidarity with Ukraine. They share our values, they defend our principles. They want to have a peaceful democracy and Russia is attacking that, von der Leyen told the France-based network. We have a process with Ukraine that is, for example, integrating the Ukrainian market into the single market. We have very close cooperation on the energy grid, for example. So many topics where we work very closely together and indeed, over time, they belong to us. They are one of us and we want them in, von der Leyen said. Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said on Twitter late Sunday night that he had had a phone call with von der Leyen where the two spoke about concrete decisions on strengthening Ukraines defense capabilities, macro-financial assistance and Ukraines membership in the EU. Kyiv-based news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported on Saturday that Zelensky pressed the EU, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), for a firm timeline regarding the prospect of Ukraines membership. Eight years ago, Ukrainians made their choice, many gave their lives for it. Is it really possible that eight years after that, Ukraine should constantly call for recognition of the European prospect? Zelensky said. Since 2014, the Russian Federation has been convincing that we have chosen the wrong path, and that no one is waiting for us in Europe. Shouldnt Europe constantly say and justify with actions that this is not true? Is it not the EU that should say today: our citizens have a positive attitude towards Ukraines entry into the union? Why do we avoid this question? Doesnt Ukraine deserve direct, honest answers? Zelensky said. This also applies to NATO. We are told the door is open. But for now, no outsiders are allowed in, the Ukrainian president added. EU chief von der Leyens comments will no doubt anger Russian President Vladimir Putin, who believes Russia has historical claims over the Eastern European country of Ukraine and has used this, in part, as a reason to invade the former Soviet nation. While some U.S. officials have said that Russias invasion does not appear to have gone as planned for the Kremlin, and its military advance has been slower than expected, the situation remains unclear. Ukrainian officials have in recent days called on Kyiv residents to make Molotov cocktails and distributed thousands of rifles to locals to protect the country against the Moscow-led invasion. Zelensky said on Facebook on Sunday that he would start peace talks with Russia, after previously denying Moscows proposals for peace talks after they invaded Ukraine. Zelensky said he had held a phone call with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, and agreed to send a delegation to the UkraineBelarus border without preconditions. We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the UkrainianBelarusian border, near the Pripyat River, Zelensky said. But con der Leyen on Sunday, referring to such peace talks, said trust in Putin is completely broken and eroded. Of course, it is important that the Ukrainian side agrees to the peace talks and that conditions are fine for the Ukrainian side. In general, it is always better to have peace talks than to have a fight. But the trust in President Putin is completely broken and eroded, von der Leyen said. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf touting better wages, paid sick leave, safe workplaces and quality jobs during a visit to Delaware County to outline his workforce plan, in Nether Providence Township, Penn., on Oct. 22, 2021. (Commonwealth Media Service) Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Instructs Russian-Made Products Be Pulled From State Stores Immediately The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) on Sunday instructed all Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores to remove Russian-made products from shelves in a sign of solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine. PLCBwhich regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in the statesaid in a statement that the products would no longer be sold or procured by the board, effective immediately. Given the evolving political-economic climate, its just the right thing to do, said board Chairman Tim Holden. However, the board noted that while some producers offer many Russian-themed and marketed products that consumers may associate with the country, only two products stocked in storesRussian Standard and Ustianochka 80-proof vodkas and around half-dozen Special Order brandsactually come from Russia. PLCB noted that it will not be restricting the sale of Russian-branded products that are not sourced from Russia as doing so would unfairly and adversely impact those brands. The order first came at the request of Gov. Tom Wolf on Feb. 27 who, in a letter to Holden, condemned Russias attacks on Ukraine. I urge you to remove Russian-sourced products from stores and cease selling them as quickly as possible as a small show of solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine, and an expression of our collective revulsion with the unprovoked actions of the Russian state, Wolf wrote. The move by PLCB comes as a handful of governors across the United States ordered government-run liquor stores to stop selling Russian-made products, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and the governors of New Hampshire and Ohio. However, it is unclear exactly what impact the move will have, given that just 1.3 percent of total U.S. vodka imports came from Russia in 2021, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 after President Vladimir Putin requested that the United States and its allies deny Ukraine and other former Soviet nations membership into NATO. Kyiv-based news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported on Saturday that Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky had requested a more definite timeline from NATO, as well as the EU, regarding the prospect of Ukraines membership. Eight years ago, Ukrainians made their choice, many gave their lives for it. Is it really possible that eight years after that, Ukraine should constantly call for recognition of the European prospect? Zelensky said. Is it not the EU that should say today: our citizens have a positive attitude towards Ukraines entry into the union? Why do we avoid this question? Doesnt Ukraine deserve direct, honest answers? Zelensky said, adding that this applies to NATO too. We are told the door is open. But for now, no outsiders are allowed in, the Ukrainian president added. On Sunday, Putin announced in a televised meeting with top ministers that he was putting Russias nuclear deterrence forces on high alert amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, claiming that Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area but that top officials of the leading NATO countries also make aggressive statements against our country as well. As a result, Putin said that he has ordered the minister of defense and the chief of the general staff [of the Russian armed forces] to transfer the deterrence forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty, although it is not exactly clear what special mode of combat duty means. Later on Sunday, Zelensky said he had held a phone call with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, and agreed to send a delegation to the UkraineBelarus border to start peace talks without preconditions. A 8 year-old child receives a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in Southfield, Mich., on Nov. 5, 2021. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images) Pfizers COVID-19 Vaccine Less Effective in Children 5 to 11: Study Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine was not effective in preventing infection among children aged 5 to 11, according to a new study. Researchers in New York also found indications that the vaccine effectiveness against severe disease plummeted. The researchers, with the New York State Department of Health and the University at Albany School of Public Health, examined outcomes among children using three state databases, including two systems that collect vaccination data. They assessed two outcomes: COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 hospital admissions, regardless of whether the patients were admitted for other reasons. Crunching the data, the researchers found Pfizers vaccine dropped from 68 percent in mid-December 2021 to just 12 percent in the last full week in January. The data also suggested the protection against severe disease plummeted, from 100 percent in mid-December to 48 percent in late January. In the Omicron era, the effectiveness against cases of BNT162b2 declined rapidly for children, particularly those 5-11 years, researchers wrote, referring to the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus which causes COVID-19. Omicron became the dominant virus strain in the United States late last year. Dr. Mary Bassett, New Yorks health commissioner, said in a statement that the findings are not surprising as the vaccine was developed in response to an earlier COVID-19 variant and reduced effectiveness of 2 doses against the Omicron variant has been seen to some degree with all vaccines and ages. BNT162b2 is the trade name for the vaccine Pfizer created with BioNTech. Syringes with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to children from 5-11 years old are seen at the Beaumont Health offices in Southfield, Mich., on Nov. 5, 2021. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images) Should such findings be replicated in other settings, review of the dosing schedule for children 5-11 years appears prudent, researchers wrote. Given rapid loss of protection against infections, these results highlight the continued importance of layered protections, including mask wearing, for children to prevent infection and transmission. Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine gained emergency use authorization for 5- to 11-year-olds in October 2021, and was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for virtually every child in the age group despite the population facing little risk from COVID-19. U.S. regulators relied on a technique called immunobridging, which compared the immune responses for children 5 to 11 with the responses seen in those aged 16 to 25. Pfizer said data from its clinical trials showed the vaccine was 91 percent effective at preventing infection in those 5 to 11 and that no serious safety concerns were identified. The Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) vaccine advisory panel voted to endorse the vaccine for the population, although one member abstained because he didnt feel the efficacy and safety data were adequate. Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine is the only one authorized for children under 18 in the United States. The dosage for 5- to 11-year-olds is one-third of that of those 12 and older. Pfizer told news outlets in a statement that it is confident in the protection and safety of our COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer is analyzing the impact of three doses of its vaccine in children from 6 months of age to 4 years after the two-dose regimen didnt trigger an adequate immune response in some in that group. Effectiveness against infections among 12- to 17-year-olds also plummeted, but protection against hospitalization remained at 73 percent as of the last full week in January, the New York researchers found. They said the difference may be the higher dosing level in the older group. The study was published before peer review. Because of the small number of hospitalizations among children aged 5 to 11, researchers reported broad confidence intervals, and they didnt include some forms of testing, including at-home tests, causing some to question the study. Small numbers, large confidence intervals, I think a selection bias associated with who gets tested at the Central Lab and who doesnt, I think makes this study not something one should count on, Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA panel, told The Epoch Times. I dont think much of this study. Both Offit and the researchers still recommend vaccination for young children. Putins Nuclear Alert Part of Russias Battle of Rhetoric: UK Defence Chief Russian President Vladimir Putin putting his nuclear forces on high alert is just a part of the Kremlins battle of rhetoric rather than a real threat, Britains Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said. Putin increased the readiness of Russias nuclear weapons on Feb. 27, citing aggressive statements from NATO and the financial sanctions imposed in response to his invasion of Ukraine. Talking to BBC Breakfast on Feb. 28, Wallace said that he understands the concerns about the warning, and revealed his own 12-year-old son was worried about the step. But he said: We dont see or recognise in the sort of phrase or the status he described as anything that is a change to what they have currently as their nuclear posture. This is predominantly about Putin putting it on the table just to remind people, remind the world, that he has a deterrent. He added: We will not do anything to escalate in that area, we will not do anything to feed any miscalculation, we take it very, very seriously. But at the moment this is a battle of rhetoric that President Putin is deploying, and we just have to make sure we manage it properly. Wallace warned that the Russian offensive in Ukraine is likely to become more violent. Although the Ukrainians were putting up a very strong fight, the reality was they were going up against the overwhelming scale of the Russian Federation Army, he said. He said the Russians are behind schedule, taking significant casualties, and are facing public protests inside their own country. But the Russian handbook is to then get more violent and commit more forces, he said, because in the Russian doctrine the lives of their own soldiers matter much less than in other armed forces. So we have to brace ourselves for what may come next, which could be ruthless, indiscriminate bombing of cities and propelling forward of soldiers and high casualty levels, and thats going to be horrific. Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat takes part in a meeting of a conservative research group in Westminster hall in London on April 9, 2019. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images) Tom Tugendhat, a senior Conservative MP who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Commons, said Russia could give an order to use battlefield nuclear weapons. He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The Russian military doctrine doesnt work in the same way as the NATO military doctrine. They do assume that they may use battlefield nuclear weapons and they see them as just a, if youll excuse the expression, a bigger bang. They dont treat fallout in the same way we do. He added that although the situation was concerning, it was not unprecedented for Russia to threaten nuclear action. This is not unusual but at the same time it is concerning and it is not impossible a Russian military order to use battlefield nuclear weapons could be given. PA Media contributed to this report. Russian state-owned television station RT logo is seen at the window of the company's office in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Shaw Remove Russia State Media Outlet RT From Channel Lineups Chinese state-controlled media CGTN and CCTV continue to broadcast on Canadian airwaves Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Shaw have removed Russian state media outlet Russia Today (RT) from their channel lineups after Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced Ottawa is looking at all options to drop the network from Canadas broadcasting system. I share the concerns of many Canadians about the presence of Russia Today in our broadcasting system. Were looking at all options, Rodriguez said on Twitter on Feb. 26. A day later Rogers Communications Inc. announced they would drop the channel, saying the company will no longer host RT starting Feb. 28. We have made the decision that effective tomorrow, Russia Today will no longer be available on our channel lineup, the Canadian telecom and media giant said on Twitter on Feb. 27. BCE Inc. took a similar move, according to Rodriguez. I commend Bell for removing RT, he said on Twitter on Feb. 27. Russia has been conducting warfare in Ukraine since 2014 and information warfare across the world. RT is the propaganda arm of Putins regime that spreads disinformation. It has no place here. According to its website, RT is a state-funded international news channel launched in 2005. Since its inception, the multi-language channel has expanded its broadcast to more than 100 countries covering news 24 hours a day. On Jan. 22, the U.S. Department of State described RT as a critical element in Russias disinformation and propaganda ecosystem that uses the guise of conventional international media outlets to inject pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda into the information environment. Telus Corp. and Shaw Communications likewise announced their plans to discontinue carrying the network in their channel lineups a day after Rodriguezs tweet. Rodriguez commended Shaw for removing RT from their network in a tweet on Feb. 28. We must all do our part to fight back against Russias propaganda, he said. A morning commuter walks in front of the China Central Television (CCTV) building in Beijing, China, on Dec. 2, 2015. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters) Chinese State-Controlled Media Remains in Canada Meanwhile, two Chinese state-owned broadcasters continue to air news on Canadian airwaves. As of Feb. 28, Chinese state-run media such as China Global Television Network (CGTN) and China Central Television (CCTV-4), both long reported by human rights advocates as propaganda outlets for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), remain in the channel lineups of Rogers and Bell. Telus continues to host CCTV-4 in its network. Last April, human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders called on TV providers around the worldincluding Canadas Rogersto stop airing forced televised confessions, often of political prisoners, on CCP-controlled CGTN and CCTV-4. The group also sent an open letter (pdf) to the TV providers jointly signed by 14 victims of forced confessions. Many of us suffered through this ordeal because of our work to defend basic human rights, values taken for granted in your country, the letter read. The Chinese government, and these Chinese TV stations, denied us the right to a fair trial, the right to see a lawyer, and the right not to be tortured. Instead, via threats to our family, to ourselves and through torture, we were paraded on camera in these forced confessions. Norwegian company Telia suspended CGTN and CCTV-4 upon receiving the open letter, according to Peter Dahlin, director of Safeguard Defenders. CGTN also lost its licence to air in the UK in February 2021 after UKs broadcast regulator Ofcom found that the media outlet violated the countrys broadcasting law. Previously known as CCTV, CGTN is an international English-language satellite news channel owned by the Chinese regime and directly controlled by the CCP. UK broadcasting laws do not allow licences for media controlled by political bodies. In March 2021, Australian public broadcaster SBS suspended CCTV and CGTN after receiving a complaint from Safeguard Defenders after the networks broadcasted at least 56 forced confessions from prisoners over a seven-year period. In December 2019, Safeguard Defenders filed a complaint to Canadas broadcast regulator Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission against CGTN and CCTV-4 for their systematic broadcast of the abusive content. It is still under review, according to the human rights group. Simon Veazey contributed to this report. Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council, via a video conference call in Sochi, Russia, on Sept. 28, 2020. (Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters) Russia Issues Warning to Countries Supplying Weapons to Ukraine Russias Foreign Ministry on Monday issued an apparent warning to European Union countries providing weapons to Ukrainian defense forces after Russias invasion last week. There will be a harsh response to the EU actions. Russia will continue to ensure the achievement of vital national interests irrespective of the sanctions or their threat. It is time Western nations realized that their complete dominance in the global economy is long gone, the Foreign Ministry told Interfax. It then warned that EU citizens and entities involved in the delivery of lethal weapons, fuel, and lubricants to Ukraine will bear responsibility for any consequences of such actions to manifest themselves during the ongoing special military operation. They cannot fail to understand how dangerous these consequences are, the ministry stated. It did not elaborate on what penalty or punishment Russia might try to inflict. Over the past weekend, EU policymakers agreed to send about $560 million worth of weapons, ammunition, and aid to Ukraines military as it battles a Russian invasion. For the first time ever, the EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a news conference. This is a watershed moment, she added. At the same time, the EU shut down its airspace to all Russian planes, including commercial jets and private aircraft. But NATO officials and White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday ruled out enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, arguing that such a move would put the United States and NATO in a direct confrontation with Russia. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, meanwhile, said that he rejects Russias assertions that Western countries are escalating the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the one escalating this and continues to do so, he told reporters in Washington. Were going to continue to stand by Ukrainian Armed Forces, as we have and other NATO countries have, and were going to continue to find ways to help them defend themselves. On Monday, the first round of talks aimed at stopping the fighting between Ukraine and Russia ended with no agreement except to keep talking. A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the talks lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen. He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days. On Monday, a 17-mile convoy consisting of hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and support vehicles was just 17 miles from the center of Kyiv, according to satellite imagery from the Maxar company. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov (4L), Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky (2R) and other members of the both delegations enter a hall for the talks in Belarus' Gomel region on Feb. 28, 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Sergei Kholodilin/AFP via Getty Images) RussiaUkraine Ceasefire Talks End With No Agreement Negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials in a third country on Feb. 28 yielded no results, officials said after the talks concluded. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent top officials as intermediaries as Russian and Ukrainian forces continued battling in Ukraine, including near major cities such as Kyiv. The negotiations were held in Belarus, which has allowed Russian forces to pass through during the war. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Zelensky, told reporters after talks broke off that the primary aim was to discuss a ceasefire. The parties have determined several priority topics on which certain decisions have been envisioned, Podolyak said. The parties are returning to their capitals to have the possibility to implement these decisions. The parties have discussed the possibility to hold in the nearest time a second round of negotiations where these issues will get to be practically developed. Podolyak later took to Twitter, writing: Negotiations are difficult. However, without any obligatory ultimatums already. Unfortunately, the Russian side is still extremely biased regarding the destructive processes it launched. Vladimir Medinsky, who headed the Russian delegation, said the five-hour talks included finding points of agreement on unspecified various agenda items and featured an agreement to continue negotiations. The next meeting will take place in the coming days at the PolishBelarusian border. There is already a relevant agreement. Before the meeting, both delegations, the leaders of both delegations, will consult with their countries leadership concerning their negotiation positions, Medinsky said. Head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky speaks to media after talks between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Belarus Gomel region on Feb. 28, 2022. (Sergei Kholodilin/AFP via Getty Images) Ukrainian negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak speaks to media after talks between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Belarus on Feb. 28, 2022. (Sergei Kholodilin/AFP via Getty Images) In Washington, Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said the United States supports Ukraine attempting to reach a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, but said it would be difficult to hammer out a pact while fighting was ongoing. Russian troops, on Putins orders, entered Ukraine on Feb. 24 and have moved toward Kyiv in the intervening days. Fighting has taken place around Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other major cities. As the negotiations took place, other officials appeared at the United Nations in New York. Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N., told the assembled representatives that the U.N.s General Assembly should be vocal in demanding from the Russian Federation to stop its offensive against Ukraine as an act of aggression against a sovereign and independent state. The assembly should demand Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine and reverse the recognition of portions of eastern Ukraine as independent, he said, as well as recognizing the treacherous role of Belarus in the conflict. Vassily Nebenzia, Russias ambassador to the U.N., later said the crisis was precipitated by the actions of Ukraine, including flouting obligations under the Minsk agreement reached in 2014. Our Western colleagues have shamelessly inundated the country with weapons, have sent to the country instructors and effectively incited Ukrainians, who are facing a 120,000 strong military contingent, and prompted them to engage in armed provocation against the Donbas, he said, referring to one of the regions, adding that Russias army does not pose a threat to the civilians of Ukraine, is not shelling civilian areas and areas and cities where Russian armed forces have taken control, and these areas are seeing citizens living their lives normally. Russian and Ukrainian officials take part in the talks in the Gomel region, Belarus, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Sergei Kholodilin/BelTA/Handout via Reuters) RussiaUkraine Peace Talks Begin; Kremlin Forces Seize 2 Ukrainian Cities Talks between representatives from Russia and Ukraine have begun near the Belarusian border as the war between Moscow and Kyiv entered the fifth day, with Russian forces capturing two Ukrainian cities. Earlier, the Ukrainian presidents office had stated that the goal of the talks was to achieve an immediate ceasefire and encourage the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. The meeting, which began just before 6 a.m. ET on Feb. 28, features the participation of multiple high-ranking Ukrainian officials. However, President Volodymyr Zelensky is not among them. He had warned that the next 24 hours would be crucial to the country. Russian military recently captured Berdyansk and Enerhodar, two small cities in Ukraines southeastern region. There have been reports that Russian forces have taken over the region around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian government has denied this. Before dawn, blasts were heard in Ukraines capital city of Kyiv. According to the UKs defense ministry, the majority of Russias ground forces are at least 19 miles (30 kilometers) away from the north of Kyiv. Blasts were also heard from another major Ukrainian city, Kharkiv. Dozens of people have died there due to mass rocket shelling, while hundreds have been wounded, according to Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko. The death toll among civilians in Ukraine is estimated to be 102, according to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, with 304 injured. The real numbers could be considerably higher, Bachelet said. On Sunday, Ukraines interior ministry had revealed a higher civilian death toll at 352. Russia is said to have fired over 350 missiles at targets in Ukraine. Over 500,000 Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries. Meanwhile, Russias invasion of Ukraine is said to be behind schedule. The advance of Russian ground forces has been slowed by Ukrainian forces defending Hostomel airfield, which was a key day-one objective of the Russian military, according to the UKs Ministry of Defense. The Russian militarys logistical failures as well as the staunch resistance from Ukrainians continue to frustrate Moscows advance, the Ministry of Defense said. Russian forces have admitted to suffering casualties for the first time. Zelensky has called on the European Union to quickly admit his country into the bloc. We appeal to the European Union for Ukraines immediate accession under a new special procedure, Zelensky said in an address. We are grateful to our partners for being with us. But our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. Im sure thats fair. I am sure we deserve it. I am sure that all this is possible. Russias Invasion of Ukraine a Warning to Canada to Get Serious About Defence Commentary For the second time in my adult life a major shock seems to have made people serious about defence. It remains to be seen how serious. But like 9/11, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has blown away any number of comforting illusions. So now what do we do? In the short run we seem to be doing more, faster, and better than I had feared. Im still not sure why selected Russian banks were turfed out of SWIFT and not the whole batch. There are times to ratchet up pressure and times to go all in so to speak. So to speak because Western nations are also providing Ukraine with lethal weapons. And those of us who lived through the Cold War, which many thought unlikely at the time, recall that everyone used to exercise extreme caution, even the Soviets sometimes, because shooting wars could spiral into nuclear ones. For instance, if shipments of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles seem likely to turn the tide, the Russians might target them before they cross the Ukrainian border. Do we shoot back? Im surprised how little people seem to be concerned about the possibility for escalation in that manner, even given habitual modern frivolity about what Kipling called the Gods of the Copybook Headings. Speaking of the Cold War, you might think 2022 is the third time people had gotten serious. But while Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were enormously successful, they operated in an environment where reputable opinion was largely convinced that Reagan was a senile warmonger and Thatcher a relic. Dont forget that the Gippers proposed ballistic missile defence, ridiculed as Star Wars, never really got off the ground because prevailing wisdom was that being able to shoot down incoming communist nuclear weapons was bad, and mentioning the similar Soviet program was vulgar. 9/11 was different. A few voices were raised in shrill opposition to vigorous action, and in denunciation of the West as the real terrorists, while the press predicted an Afghan quagmire. But by and large these were self-parody, and at least until the Iraq War went bad, we decided we had overwhelming military superiority but no real idea how to use it constructively so we should go back to sleep, and Afghanistan um turned into a quagmire. And gradually the seriousness ebbed away. Its back. For now, anyway. Even Germany, long very soft on Ostpolitik, is arming Ukraine openly and just pledged to double its defence budget and finally hit the long-promised 2 percent of GDP all NATO members are formally committed to, although everybody knew they were lying. Canada should too. Doubling is a minimum, in fact, because our spending has been so low for so long, and our procurement as inept in practice as idiotic in theory, basically a job creation program, that we are in a very deep hole. We need aircraft, warships and logistical ships, munitions, pistols, and soldiers. In short, everything. Including better cyberdefences. If you ask official Ottawa youll get the usual official guff. But if you look at what they say about what we can see, you realize reassuring nonsense is the only military asset we have stockpiled. And then theres ballistic missile defence. For many years it has been one of those things that is not debated on the merits. Rather, you are stricken from the social register for taking any interest in it. Thus, despite everything going on in the world, Canada has been militantly against being able to shoot down so much as a rogue North Korean or Iranian missile, even though a few well-placed EMP blasts could kill millions of us by shutting down all the infrastructure and most of the vehicles. No more, surely. Of course, to double defence spending means finding money. Not play money. Not borrowed money. Not quantitative easing. So we need to get serious about budgeting too, having blown the roof off spending while brushing Parliament aside so casually we didnt bother having a budget, even though Parliaments raison detre and modus operandi are both yanking on the purse strings. Which means we need to get serious about how we govern ourselves. And why. Is the primary function of the state to give us all free stuff, or to safeguard our lives, liberties, and property? Because it cant be both, and the ultimately fruitless attempt to do the former puts the latter in serious jeopardy. Over the long run for sure and increasingly in the short run in a world where a crisis like that in Ukraine can erupt suddenly. I know we were laughably unprepared for both world wars too, and the second seemed to unfold with terrifying rapidity. But it was nothing to the pace at which technology and machines can move today. So are we going to get serious? Well? Are we? Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the U.S. Capitol building, seen through a barrier fence, in Washington, D.C., the United States. Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. "A plan has been approved to put up the inner-perimeter fence around the Capitol building" for the speech, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement on Sunday. The measure, Manger said, was also taken in light of "the possibility of demonstrations in the next couple of weeks." "I have also requested support from outside law enforcement agencies as well as the National Guard to assist with our security precautions," he added. Truckers in the United States have reportedly planned protests similar to those in Canada around the time of Biden's State of the Union address. Several roads around the Capitol will be closed to traffic from Tuesday evening, according to another statement from Capitol Police on Sunday. The Pentagon has authorized the deployment of hundreds of unarmed National Guard members in Washington, D.C. to help police with traffic control. Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the U.S. Capitol building, seen through a barrier fence, in Washington, D.C., the United States. Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the U.S. Capitol building, seen through a barrier fence, in Washington, D.C., the United States. Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the U.S. Capitol building, seen through a barrier fence, in Washington, D.C., the United States. Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the U.S. Capitol building, seen through a barrier fence, in Washington, D.C., the United States. Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the U.S. Capitol building, seen through a barrier fence, in Washington, D.C., the United States. Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2022 shows the U.S. Capitol building, seen through a barrier fence, in Washington, D.C., the United States. Fencing has been reinstalled around the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Russias Only Financial Partner Is China Commentary Its clear that a new economic and political partnership has formed between Russia and China. While Russias tiny economic footprint is a little threat to the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putins ambitions are fueled by Chinas support, both financially and politically. According to official data from the World Bank, the gross domestic product (GDP) in Russia was worth 1483.50 billion (1.4 trillion) U.S. dollars in 2020, and the GDP value of Russia represents 1.3 percent of the world economy. That is roughly the size of the Netherlands and Belgium combined. Russia is in the midst of suffering serious financial ramifications from the international financial world. On Feb. 24, the U.S. Treasury took unprecedented actions against two prominent Russian financial institutions, Sberbank of Russia and VTB Bank, drastically altering their fundamental ability to operate. On a daily basis, Russian financial institutions conduct about $46 billion worth of foreign exchange transactions globally, 80 percent of which are in U.S. dollars. The vast majority of those transactions will now be disrupted. By cutting off Russias two largest bankswhich combined make up more than half of the total banking system in Russia by asset valuefrom processing payments through the U.S. financial system. Additional sanctions by the G-7 countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, and Germany) include banning certain Russian banks from using the SWIFT financial network. Banning Russian banks and Russian affiliates from using SWIFT is a major inconvenience. Commodities from oil to grain will be severely disrupted. SWIFTs service is international in nature and allows global banks and governments to communicate with each other (and transfer funds) with ease. The ripple effect from the G-7 sanctions will last for years. Russia has built up one of the worlds largest stockpiles of cash and gold, estimated to be over $600 billion. The SWIFT sanctions will severely limit Russias ability to utilize their stockpile internationally. While SWIFT is bipartisan, Russia was almost banned in 2014. According to the BBC, Russia was threatened with a SWIFT expulsion beforewhen it annexed Crimea. Russia said the move would be tantamount to a declaration of war. Western allies did not go ahead, but the threat did prompt Russia to develop its own, very fledgling, cross-border transfer system. To prepare for such a sanction, the Russian government created a National Payment Card System, known as Mir, to process card payments. However, few foreign countries currently use it. China has felt similar interbank pressures in years past and, in 2015, the Peoples Bank of China (Chinas central bank) debuted the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) to sidestep any future payment embargoes. However, much like Russias Mir, the CIPS platform has not been widely accepted. A report from the Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies stated, As of end-May [2021] 1,189 banks representing roughly 100 countries used CIPS. Of these banks, 569 operated in mainland China, 355 elsewhere in Asia. Many of the foreign bank branches are subsidiaries of Chinese banks. There is also growing evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shared intelligence from the United States with Russia, intelligence that supported U.S. claims Russia was planning to invade Ukraine. The CCP has been exposed as the only global power supporting Russia and the only superpower against sanctioning Russia. It will be impossible for the Kremlin to continue a state of normalcy without Chinas economic support going forward. Without the CCPs support it would be completely unaffordable for Putin to mount such an attack on Ukraine and to risk financial alienation from Western markets. The CCP is supporting the Kremlin to create a brutal axis of power in Eurasia, the Middle East, and throughout Asia. But the support is also to further the CCPs own aggressive territorial ambitions of seizing Taiwan and extending its reach throughout the Middle East with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road) infrastructure juggernaut. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Anna Zhavoronkova at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at the Eventim Apollo, in London, on Feb. 27, 2022. (NTD) LONDON, U.K.Ballet dancer and teacher Anna Zhavoronkova says the caliber of artistry in Shen Yun Performing Arts is just outstanding. The level of the skill is outstanding. Absolutely amazing choreography. The storylines were fabulous, Ms. Zhavoronkova, who owns the Skylark School of Dance in London, said after seeing Shen Yun on Feb. 27. Based in New York, Shen Yun presents classical Chinese dance and music. With its story-based dances, colorful costumes, an orchestra that combines classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments, and animated backdrops creating unique effects, Shen Yun tours the globe each year, reviving Chinas culture. The artistry [was] amazing. The costumes are so beautiful, really, really beautiful. Anna Zhavoronkova The artistry [was] amazing. The costumes are so beautiful, really, really beautiful. The overall presentation is just reallyIm quite speechless to be honest, Ms. Zhavoronkova said. Ms. Zhavoronkova started ballet at an early age in Russia, where she did her training, and has performed in Europe and Asia throughout her career. Since arriving in the UK, she has taught at some of the top ballet schools in London and Sussex, and now runs her own ballet school. Ms. Zhavoronkova said both her six-year-old son and her mother accompanied her to the performance, and she said all three of them enjoyed the performance. Pointing to the storylines in the dances, she said they were easy to follow for people of all ages, as all three of them enjoyed the stories. The storytelling was very accessible to all generations. We were able to relate to the stories. We were drawn into this fabulous presentation. I think it was really cleverly put together, she said. The music played by the orchestra to accompany the dances gave Ms. Zhavoronkova goosebumps, she said. Stunning music. I literally had goosebumps, like shivers, she said. Ms. Zhavoronkova also had praise for the values presented in Shen Yun. The message is so positive, [message of] compassion. I think its very valuable, she said. I thoroughly enjoyed [Shen Yun], and I would like to see it again in the future. I Learnt So Much From It Frances Carrington, a professional dancer who trained in ballet for over 10 years, said she has never seen a performance like Shen Yun. Its amazing. I mean, the training it takes to get to that point, they must have worked every day for multiple years. And the timinghow they all are completely together in syncthe jumps, the heightits absolutely wonderful, Ms. Carrington said. Frances Carrington at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at the Eventim Apollo, in London, on Feb. 27, 2022. (NTD) To be in that movement in the exact same pose, at the exact same time, and even when theyre doing the jumps, the exact same height is beyond what Ive ever seen in a theatreits amazing. The training and the technical difficulty and the hours put into rehearsalthis is hard; this is something that most high-level professionalsespecially ballet dancerscant even pull off. The way that they express the movement is just as crucial as the way they move the costumes and the props. It must take separate classes to learn even how to use those things. But besides the artistry in the performance, Ms. Carrington was also drawn in by the spiritual aspect of Shen Yun. They believe in the divine spirit and it was enriching, she said. I love it so much because I learned so much from it, and I can go away from this performance feeling like I can take some of what they taught me and put it into my own life. Ms. Carrington said she will be taking away different lessons from the performance, both as a dancer as well as a person. As a dancer, I took away their technique and their level of expression, I want to put into my own dancing. As a person, I took away happiness, she said. Im very glad I came. Its a must-see for everyone. Reporting NTD. The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006. The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen in Washington on Oct. 5, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Supreme Court Hears 19-State Challenge to EPAs Power Under Clean Air Act The Supreme Court questioned on Feb. 28 how much authority the Environmental Protection Agency should have to regulate and curb energy production in order to combat the effects of so-called climate change. The case is West Virginia v. EPA, court file 20-1530, which was consolidated with three other cases. The other cases are North American Coal Corp. v. EPA, Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC v. EPA, and North Dakota v. EPA. The court set aside 70 minutes for the hearing, but ran well over that time limit. West Virginia and 18 other states are challenging the authority the Clean Air Act provides the EPA. The challengers hope the high court resolves whether the U.S. Constitution gives Congress power to delegate regulatory authority to the EPA to limit so-called greenhouse gas emissions. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey told The Epoch Times in a recent interview that he hopes the Supreme Court will use the case to rein in the far-reaching powers of the EPA to shut down carbon dioxide-generating industries, without regard to the economic well-being of those affected. The problem is the EPA is trying to transform itself from an environmental regulator into a central energy planning authority, said Morrisey, a Republican. In 2016, the Supreme Court overturned the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), which expanded controls over industry. Next, the deregulation-minded Trump administrations Affordable Clean Energy Rule (ACE Rule), eased controls on industry. Then, on Jan. 19, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down the ACE Rule and restored some of the EPAs authority in a case known as American Lung Association v. EPA (pdf). The court held that the EPA, under Trump, had misconstrued section 7411(d) of the Clean Air Act. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom President Joe Biden nominated to the Supreme Court on Feb. 25, is a member of that influential appellate court, but she didnt join the court until five months after the ruling, replacing Merrick Garland who went on to become Bidens attorney general. During oral arguments on Feb. 28, West Virginia Solicitor General Lindsay See said Congress had directed EPA to partner with states to regulate on a source-specific level, which means identifying measures particular buildings can take to reduce their own emissions. But the D.C. Circuit went beyond that, giving the EPA much broader power to reshape the nations energy sector, or most any other industry for that matter, by choosing which sources should exist at all, and setting standards to make it happen. It did that even though electricity generation is within states traditional regulatory authority, See said. As a result, EPA can now regulate in ways that cost billions of dollars, affect thousands of businesses, and are designed to address an issue with worldwide effect, even though the Clean Air Act did not green-light this transformative power. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that the appeal should never have been brought because the case is not justiciable, meaning it is not the kind of case a court can hear. And even if it were justiciable, the petitioners are wrong on the merits in any event. The D.C. Circuits ruling means there is no EPA rule in effect. The agency action challenged was not about the Clean Power Plan, but instead was about the decision to replace it with the ACE Rule, she said. The D.C. Circuit vacated ACE but chose not to reinstate the CPP, so no federal regulation will occur until EPA completes its upcoming rulemaking, Prelogar said. The petitioners cannot show they were injured by the decision, which is the very definition of an advisory opinion, which the court should decline to issue. No one seriously defends the ACE Rules view that the statute restricts states and power plants to inside-the-fence-line measure[s], she said. Such a restriction is unprecedented and would threaten to disrupt an industry that has long relied on measures like trading and averaging to reduce emissions in the most cost-effective way. Chief Justice John Roberts told Prelogar that as far as the petitioners are concerned, just because there is no regulation in place that doesnt mean theyre happy with current EPA policies. They would like regulation according to their particular perspective. Theyd like good regulation, which they think they had with ACE, and now they dont have it. Again, why isnt that a justiciable harm? he said. Justice Brett Kavanaugh took aim at Prelogars arguments, saying that the Supreme Court has said that Congress must speak clearly if it wishes to assign an agency decisions of vast economic and political significance. The court is skeptical when agencies claim to have found in a long-extant statute an unheralded power to regulate a significant portion of the American economy. Justice Samuel Alito suggested Prelogars approach wouldnt impose any limits on EPAs authority. I really dont see what the concrete limitations are in any of what you said, Alito said. If you take the arguments about climate change seriously, and this is a matter of survival, so long as the system that you devise doesnt mean that there isnt going to be electricity, and so long as the costs are not absolutely crushing for the society, I dont know why EPA cant go even a lot further than it did in the CPP. The three liberal justicesStephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayorall seemed skeptical of the states efforts to curtail EPA, while conservatives Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett focused on the current regulatory regime. Gorsuch said the EPA had presented a strong argument that the states are not currently being harmed because there is no rule in place. Barrett said the EPA does currently have authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions so theres a match between the regulation and the agencys wheelhouse. Swiss President Ignazio Cassis delivers a speech at the opening of a session of the UN Human Rights Council on February 28, 2022 in Geneva. - The UN Human Rights Council voted to hold an urgent debate about Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine at Kyiv's request, amid widespread international condemnation of Moscow's attack. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images) Switzerland Sanctions Putin, Adopts EU Freeze on Russian Assets Switzerland on Feb. 28 chose to throw its weight behind sanctions the European Union imposed on Russia last week in a dramatic departure from the countrys neutral stance on conflicts between nations. The Swiss government adopted the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Feb. 23 and 25, freezing the assets of a number of people and companies, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The EU sanctions, now adopted by Switzerland, targeted members of the National Security Council of the Russian Federation and members of the Russian State Duma who supported the nations recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics. The EU also applied restrictions to paralyze Russian finance, energy, transport, and technology sectors. Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said the financial restrictions will be implemented with immediate effect. Finance Minister Ueli Maurer added that Switzerland supports the international decision to cut off Russian banks from the global SWIFT bank messaging system. Playing into the hands of an aggressor is not neutral, Cassis said. Russian assets held in Swiss banks account for $11.24 billion according to 2020 Swiss National Bank data. Cassis added that Russias invasion of Ukraine was an attack on a free countrys sovereignty, freedom, populations, and institutions. On Feb. 27, Cassis had announced a Federal Council meeting with seven members of the nations government that would review recommendations by the ministries of finance and economics before making a decision. The Minister of Justice Karin Keller-Sutter said that Switzerland also imposed travel bans on five oligarchs believed to belong to Putins entourage. Switzerland had until Feb. 28 held off on imposing sanctions on Russia, including during the controversial Crimea conflict in 2014. Over the past week, Russia has responded to U.S. and European economic penalties with aggressive language. On Feb. 23, the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said Americans would feel the consequences of President Joe Bidens restrictions. Responding to the sanctions the European Union (EU) imposed, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement the following day saying, No one authorized the EU to address the problems of war and peace in Europe. Moreover, the declaration promised tough response measures. Defence Minister Viola Amherd said Switzerland is preparing for retaliation from Russia. Specifically, were thinking of areas such as energy supply, refugee flows, and cyber-attacks. Russian threats aside, the Swiss government was undeterred in its decision. The defense of peace and security and respect for international law are values that Switzerland, as a democratic country, shares with its European neighbors, Cassis said. In addition to supporting EU economic sanctions, the Swiss president announced on Feb. 28 a shipment of 25 tons of relief supplies to be sent to Warsaw, Poland, over the next 48 hours to help with the escalating Ukraine refugee crisis in Eastern Europe. The shipment includes medical equipment and volunteers with the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit. The Axis of Authoritarianism Part 1 of the 3-part series 'The New Cold War' News Analysis The Chinese regime is determined to dominate the world economically, politically, and militarily by 2049, posing a greater threat than the USSR ever did. As alliances form around the globe, some analysts believe that a new cold war is already here, accelerated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. Department of Defense paper on Chinese military buildup states, Beijing seeks to reshape the international order to better align with its authoritarian system and national interests, as a vital component of its strategy to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. World domination in multiple spheres was never on the table during the Cold War with the USSR, which was confined to the military realm. In economic terms, it appears that China is on pace to overtake the United States. Chinas growth of 4.8 percent, while below the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) baseline target of 5 percent, is still considerably greater than U.S. growth. If it continues at this pace, Japanese researchers say that Chinas economy may eclipse the United States by 2033. Unlike the developing cold war with China, the Berlin Wall created a geographic delineation between East and West, containing the USSR behind the Iron Curtain. It also prevented communication and trade from reaching beyond the Soviet-controlled areas. By contrast, the United States is Chinas largest trading partner, with much of Chinas growth fueled by the influx of foreign capital. Foreign direct investment in China expanded by over 14 percent in 2021, and the United States is one of the top investors. Through the export of technology and a targeted program of economic coercion and social media disinformation, the CCP is able to project its ideas and influence around the world. The CCPs foreign policy is targeted at building a community of common destiny. Since 2019, the CCP has increasingly used its military as part of its foreign policy. In 2020, there was a shift toward building alliances by providing COVID relief; when this failed, Beijing returned to a trade and military-led strategy. Chinas economic expansion supports the CCPs military ambitions by providing money for investment, necessary for the modernization of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) as well as improving the countrys manufacturing and industrial base. The CCP Forms Alliances China has 14 land borders, including those with Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Burma (commonly known as Myanmar), Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam. Furthermore, China shares maritime borders with Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Beijing has had territorial disputes with most of these nations. The development of a regional pro-China block is not likely, as a result of the CCPs aggressive actions in the South China Sea, incursions in the Senkaku Islands, and territorial violations of Bhutan, as well as skirmishes with India, where Chinese troops fought, and were killed, for the first time in about 40 years. Rather than making China more secure, each of these actions simply drove allies closer to the United States. Western confidence in Chinese leader Xi Jinping is low, with many worrying that international organizationssuch as the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, and Interpolare coming under Chinas control. In the United Nations, China has voted against intervention in genocide, including the genocide against Uyghur Muslims being committed by the CCP. At the WHO, the CCP recommended the means to contain COVID-19, while selling the world the personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccines to implement the plan. Xi offered Chinese technology to help upgrade Interpols communications. He also claimed that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road), which will earn the CCP trillions in interest and construction contracts, is an international public good. Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya (C) fist bumps Ambassador Zhang Jun, the permanent representative of China to the U.N., as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield (L) and Permanent Representative of Norway to the U.N. Mona Juul (2nd L) look on during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Ukraine crisis, in New York, N.Y., on Feb. 21, 2022. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images) The CCP enjoys strong support. Consequently, Xi seems to be increasingly satisfied with obtaining allies through economic coercion rather than by winning friends through popular, soft power initiatives. Meanwhile, Russia remains the CCPs most powerful, potential ally. In the weeks leading up to Russias invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia formed a pact, in what may be the beginnings of two competing camps, allies, and opponents in a new cold war. The two nations have signed a 30-year gas contract. In the U.N., they have also united in voting down proposed sanctions on North Korea for missile testing. The CCP plans to forcibly annex Taiwan, a move that only 7 percent of Taiwanese approve of. A recent joint statement, issued by Putin and Xi, says Russia supports China in Taiwan, while the CCP supports Russia in Ukraine. Stephen J. Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush, calls the statement a manifesto for their global leadership. According to the statement, the CCP also supports Russia to oppose further enlargement of NATO. It did not specifically state that China would fight for Russia or vice versa, although the two nations are unified in opposing American norms and influence in the world. The statement explicitly declares that Russia and the CCP would build a coalition of like-minded countries, which Western observers are calling an axis of authoritarians. The second part of this series will explore which nations are being drawn into the axis of authoritarianism. Some nations are being sucked into the conflict unwittingly, simply by already being part of Chinas or Russias sphere of influence. Read part II here. Read part III here. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health "Notice of Closure" sign hangs on the door of a restaurant closed due to violations including "failure to comply with health officer order" amid increased Covid-19 restrictions on businesses, in Redondo Beach, Calif., on Jan. 22, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) The Feudal Symbolism of Restaurant Closures Commentary The restaurant hasnt always been with us. It was a product of the birth of the modern. It allowed talent and creativity to leave the confines of the castles and large estates that could afford them, and democratized access to cuisine for the multitudes. The restaurant allowed the highest and most fabulous delights of life to be in the reach of everyone. This also happened with painting, architecture, music, education, and all consumables but the point was especially prescient in the area of cuisine, which had long been seen as the proprietary reserve of the aristocracy. The invention of the public-access restaurant was a beautiful example of what Benjamin Constant called the difference in the liberty of the ancients and the moderns. In the ancient world, to be free meant to be legally privileged by birth, title, or position with access to power. You had some stake in the management of public life, some measure of control over the laws under which you lived. Everyone else was excluded from access: peasants, merchants, slaves, and commonersthe disempowered and disenfranchised 99 percent. That began to change in the late Middle Ages, as the plagues ended, feudalism gradually declined, commercial relationships became more decisive than political ones, and the masses of people found themselves with that seemingly impossible thing: opportunities to have a better life. They could earn money and keep it. The roads became safer so they could travel. They could start businesses and have hope for a better life. Im absolutely thrilled to report that there is a wonderful movie about how the restaurant figures into this great story. The movie is Delicious (2021). Its based on a legend on events in the 18th century. A brilliant chef who served a Duke was treated brutally by his master on grounds that he had invented a new dish, and was thus sent away. He went to his home in a rural area and busied himself with other tasks. A woman shows up seeking to become his apprentice. He is reluctant because he saw no future in cooking if it only meant obsequious deference to the pre-revolution French aristocracy. Eventually, the Duke seeks to bring him backno one else could cook as welland sends word that he would like to eat in the chefs home. When the day came, following weeks of preparation, the Duke and his entourage drove right by. Faced with another outrageous snub, he decides to forget cooking forever. His son and the apprentice have the idea of opening up a public house for serving farm-to-table food, where people can bring their own money and pay for what they consume. The result is what legend says is the first modern restaurant. Shortly thereafter came the political revolution, but the movie makes clear that the economic revolution came earlier. Commerce and business granted rights to commoners. The locally owned business unleashed talents and offered them democratically, potentially to all people regardless of class, language, social standing, and so on. The story is beautiful and so rarely told. It is how the birth of modernity was bound up with the classless ambitions of the commercial economy, which broke down castes, democratized the material privileges of the elites, and made the possibility of genuine progress operational in the lives of the multitudes. All of which points to an astonishingly grim reality of our time: in March 2020 and following, and in some places up to a year or even nearly two later, states around the world closed the restaurants! It never made sense even (the age and health stratification of COVID severity has always focused on the aged and unwell) though there were a thousand excuses. Even if the virus could spread in them, they could also spread in homes or really anywhere where people congregate. Regardless, isnt the whole idea of freedom that people can choose to accept the risk or not? None of the science matters here. What matters is the symbolism. Shutting the restaurants was a revanchist act, a return to a pre-modern age in which only the elites enjoyed access to the finer things. It was all part of fulfilling the Feb. 28, 2020, wish of The New York Times to go medieval on the virus. It was heavily emblematic of how COVID controls inaugurated a new feudalism. States were extremely reluctant to reopen them and, when they finally did, in many parts of the world, new protocols came to rule. There were capacity limits, as if the birdbrains in the bureaucracy know precisely how many people can be in a room before the virus sniffs out a chance to infect. Capacity limits necessarily privilege large restaurants over small ones. A small cafe that can only serve 25 could only serve 12, which isnt profitable. But a large chain restaurant that can serve 250 can still make a go of it serving 125. Another weird protocol demanded that patrons mask up when they come in but allowed them to unmask when seated. The servers, on the other hand, because they were standing and walking around (the virus presumably floats in the air 5 feet above the floor) had to stay masked up. The symbolism of this was utterly grotesque: a perfect picture of privilege versus servitude. Its a wonder anyone tolerated it because this flies in the face of the democratized ethos of the market, in which people with equal freedom and rights all serve each other with mutual respect. Thankfully, most of this nonsense is going away but it needs to stay permanently gone. We need to reflect on the deep ethos behind all these rules and why they came about. It was about going medieval and hence rejecting outright the emancipatory thematics of post-feudal commercial life. The tavern, the coffee house, and the restaurant had a huge role in spreading the idea of universal rights. People could gather in respectable public places. They could share ideas. They could indulge in delights once reserved only to the elites. But with lockdowns, the elites came back, and hence, the bars, restaurants, and coffee houses had to be shut down. It was necessary for control, not of the virus but of the people because the people dont deserve to sit at the table. It was necessary not to stop the spread of a virus, but the spread of ideas. It must never be allowed to happen again. These small businessesthe local restaurant in particularmust be ferociously defended by every lover of freedom, rights, equality, and democracy. There is a deep and profoundly important history here. Those who would shut down the restaurants are likely also intent on shutting down the revolutionary meaning of their birth and existence, throwing us back to a past in which only the elites enjoy the practice and fruits of freedom. From the Brownstone Institute Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Impact of a SWIFT Ban on Russia and the World Commentary SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is the global financial system that allows immediate and secure transfers of money across borders. Its the web that verifies all financial transactions, linking 11,000 banks and institutions in more than 200 countries, with 40 million messages per day. Using SWIFT ensures that transactions happen in seconds in a secure way. Around 1 percent of those messages involve Russian payments, according to the BBC. As part of the Wests sanctions against Russia, some of its banks have been banned from the SWIFT system. Additionally, the United States and the European Union have announced restrictions on the Russian central bank that block access to more than $600 billion in reserves. The Bank of Russia reports that only 22 percent of its international reserves are in U.S. dollars, while gold accounts for 23 percent. What does this mean? On the one hand, the move aims to block all options of the central bank to defend its currency from plummeting even more against the U.S. dollar or the euro. In recent years, the Russian central bank has been reducing its exposure to U.S. Treasurys and shifting from U.S. dollar reserves to the euro and the yuan, as well as gold. Access to those reserves is more difficult now, and in the case of the euro and yen, probably close to impossible. For Russian banks, the ban from the SWIFT system increases the risk of a bank run as citizens fear the loss of their deposits and a collapse in daily operations, even if they start to use alternatives. However, we cant forget theres an important impact on European banks as well. According to JPMorgan, European banks have up to $80 billion in claims with Russian banks. Being banned from SWIFT doesnt make these claims disappear, but if Russian banks fall into a de-capitalization process, the risk of defaults multiplies. Only three countries have been banned from SWIFT: Iran, since 2012, North Korea, and now Russia, albeit partially. Oil and gas exports as well as other key commodities remain in the system. Without SWIFT, Russian banks and the central bank are effectively blocked from operating on a global scale, which means an added risk of a domino of defaults from issuers and the impossibility to conduct the most basic international operations. However, Russian banks may bypass the SWIFT system and use other alternatives, mainly through a parallel system in China called CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System), which facilitates transactions in yuan. According to CIPS, at least 25 Russian banks conduct yuan transactions through the system. Using CIPS and other direct or indirect tools to bypass SWIFT has been an alternative for Iran and North Korea but doesnt solve the problem of access to reserves of the central bank nor does it truly mitigate the impossibility of conducting global transactions. The yuan is only used in 4 percent of global currency transactions, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Russian banks and the central bank may moderate the financial blow using alternative systems, but the negative impact cant be underestimated. There may be a backlash for the United States as well. If other countries find that theres a valid alternative to SWIFT, they might feel compelled to strengthen ties with China. Banning Russian banks from SWIFT may cripple many Latin American and Middle East economies that have deep financial connections with Russia, but theres a risk for the United States that the CIPS alternative, which is marginal at best today, will grow rapidly. The United States and Europe cant fully ban SWIFT due to the importance of Russian oil, gas, metals, and wheat exports, and this may create numerous challenges that significantly limit the so-called nuclear option. The Russian central banks large gold reserves are also a differentiating factor compared to other economies. No matter how we look at these sanctions, theres no doubt there are unintended cross-border effects, and there may be unexpected negative consequences for everyone involved. Theres no doubt the SWIFT ban is probably the most severe of financial sanctions possible and that there are no easy alternatives, but as time passes, its also clear that the widespread negative consequences of the Ukraine war will likely last for many years. Will this measure accelerate a global financial shift toward China? Probably not in the short term, given the relatively modest use of the yuan compared to the importance of China in the global economy, but the ramifications of this measure in the global financial world are yet to be fully understood. A global financial transaction system remains as the undisputed leader only if its truly global and far-reaching. The negative impact for Russia is unquestionable, but the long-term implications of this measure have yet to be seen. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Strategic Narcissism of Invoking the Emergencies Act Commentary An American three-star general and former national security advisor to President Trump has coined the term strategic narcissism to describe the ambitions and the failings undergirding Russias unopposed invasion of Ukraine. Here in strategically invisible Canada, where our foreign policy is played entirely for domestic consumption, H.R. McMasters telling phrase has tactical adaptability for explaining the recent solipsistic antics of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. As we all embarrassedly witnessed, the prime ministers handling of the occupation of Ottawa by a few hundred protesting knights of the road with big rigsnot to be confused with the real occupation of Ukraine by almost 200,000 Kremlin troopsgave the appearance of a man who arrives at the highest office in the land each morning in a convoy of clown cars. The most charitable reading suggested a man deeply out of his depth. His rationalization for forcing on Canadians the never-before-deployed Emergencies Act, then abruptly withdrawing it with a farcical Crisis? What crisis? flourish 36 hours later, was patently false. It was so obviously fraudulent only certain dupes and stooges in the Canadian media could be relied on to buy it. Even the liberal New York Times, never mind the rock-ribbed Republican Wall Street Journal, laughed up its cross-border sleeve at the gullibility of northern journalistic confreres swallowing it all. Its easy to see why. The PM claimed only the federal Emergencies Act afforded the necessary powers to free the parliamentary precinct and downtown Ottawa from the overwhelming force of truck-driving siege meisters. The premise was that neither municipal nor provincial laws gave sufficient authorization to pepper spray protesters in the eyes, use baton-wielding police to drive the miscreants off, seize their vehicles, and finally attack their bank accounts, chattels, mortgages, investments, etc. Only days before, however, Ottawas own chief of police lost his job because, it was claimed, he failed to exercise municipal powers available to him to stop the truckers protest. The prime ministers claim and the citys claim about the police chiefs ouster could not both be true. If the chief failed to exercise his powers, then he must have had the powers to begin with. If the powers were as non-existent as the prime minister claimed, the chief could not have lost his job for failing to exercise what he didnt have. (Note to Ottawa ambulance chasers who take on the chiefs wrongful dismissal suit: Add Justin Trudeau to the witness list.) Earlier minor skirmishes in Toronto and at Windsors Ambassador Bridge made it clear that Ontario law gave ample power for clearing operations. They were boots-on-the-ground proof that the prime minister, let us be polite, made the whole Emergencies Act thing up. H.R. McMasters coinage of strategic narcissism helps us understand why. It explains Trudeaus reluctance-cum-failure to simply go out on the first day of the truckers protest, meet with the gathering lads and lassies, and say: Lookit guys and gals (sorry, thats how scions of wealthy Westmount families think working class people talk), them goldurn mandates are droppin across our great and glorious land. We figure shell be done by mid-March, or round abouts. Head on home to your homesteads (Westmount scions think all rural folk in Canada live on a homestead, and all truck drivers are rural folk) and well get er done. Listen, Margaret Thatcher, using bureaucratic back channels, communicated with the Irish Republican Army to make peace. Justin Trudeau, even using Westmount scion speak, could have communicated quick reconciliation to Canadian truckers. The prime ministers own dissident MPs blame his addiction to low-ball wedge politics for his provocatively contrary approach. But theres a deeper answer to Justin Trudeaus shallowness. Without getting armchair Freudian, he is a man who, until recently, was strikingly physically handsome but had done nothing in life, indeed barely held a job, before inheriting his fathers old job. Maybe the conditions of his life, and his manifold actions in power, indicate a need to power past that Hamlets ghost of a prime ministerial father who, in the immortal words of Christina McCall, haunts us still. If it requires conjuring the kind of political emergency that would emerge nowhere but in Canada, tant pis. It can all be immediately waved away anyway. Crisis? What crisis? This is Canada, not Ukraine. Some of us go surfing. Some of us arrange ourselves strategically beside the pool. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) is seen at its headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Aug. 31, 2018. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) TSMC: The Worlds Most Sought After Company Advanced economies worldwide are inviting TSMC to join their local supply chains New Analysis The electronic chip shortage crisis has disrupted supply chain security and industrial activities worldwide. Amid a global semiconductor race, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the worlds top chipmaker, has become the company that is most invited to set up factories in many advanced economies. Since 2020, the semiconductor shortage has led to the reduced production of automobiles, smartphones, computers, and appliances, pushing chipmakers worldwide to rapidly expand their production capacity. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) recently announced that the global semiconductor industry sales totaled $555.9 billion last year, the highest-ever annual total and a 26.2 percent increase over the $440.4 billion in sales in 2020. The industry shipped a record 1.15 trillion semiconductor units in 2021. However, this record chip supply has yet to alleviate the shortages. Advanced economies in North America, Europe, and Asia are introducing new policies to support their semiconductor industries, hoping to quickly establish a secure supply chain and reduce dependence on chip imports. Worlds No. 1 Chip Foundry For the entire 2021, TSMC posted $56.8 billion in revenue, up 25 percent from $45.5 billion in 2020, according to its earnings report. In the foundry market, TSMC recorded the highest global market share of 59.5 percent in 2021. In second place, Samsung occupied 8.7 percent, while, in fifth place, Chinas SMIC, only occupied a 5.7 percent market share, according to DIGITIMES Asia. TSMCs immense market share is due to its advanced process technologies, which generate most of its revenue. In semiconductor fabrication, generally, the smaller the process technology, the more advanced the chip. The smaller the technology node, the higher the transistor density and the lower the chip power consumption, resulting in higher performance. However, the smaller manufacturing process requires more advanced material and production technology and a greater cost in R&D and production lines. Currently, only TSMC, Samsung, and Intel possess the most advanced manufacturing processes. Among them, TSMC has the highest production volume and yield rate in advanced chips. Yield is a quantitative measure of the quality of a semiconductor process; it reflects the amount of product that can be sold relative to the amount manufactured. According to TSMCs recent quarterly report (pdf), 5 nm and 7 nm advanced processes accounted for 50 percent of its total wafer revenue in 2021, up from 41 percent in 2020. In addition, TSMC recently announced its plans to spend $40 billion to $44 billion in capital expenditure for 2022 as part of its efforts in expanding production and upgrading technologies, according to Taiwans state-run Central News Agency (CNA). And 70 to 80 percent of the expenditure would be used to develop advanced 2 nm, 3 nm, 5 nm, and 7 nm processes, the companys chief financial officer Wendell Huang added. In response to the newly-unveiled European Chips Act, a director at Taiwan Industry Economics Services, Liu Peizhen, told CNA that most advanced economies want to establish a localized semiconductor supplier in response to the U.S.-China decoupling. On Feb. 9, the European Commission unveiled the European Chips Act, which aims to enable the European Union (EU) to work more closely with world leaders in the semiconductor industry, such as Taiwan. The Act neutralizes its strict rules governing state aid, to lure companies like Intel and TSMC to build more microprocessors in the region. Liu added that TSMCs global market share of advanced nodes below 10 nm is around 63 percent, the worlds largest. And its production capacity in mature nodes is also the largest globally, accounting for about 20 percent, and making it the most desirable company to invite to Europe. Taiwans Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Joanne Ou said her country welcomed the European Chips Act on Feb. 9 . The United States The U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 4 passed the America COMPETES Act, which includes a $52 billion allocation to support a localized semiconductor supplier. TSMC is the key to building a cutting-edge production line in the United States. After repeated invitations from the United States, TSMC announced in May 2020 that it would build a $12 billion factory in Arizona. The construction is expected to be completed by July and volume production is expected to start in 2024. TSMCs major customers are American companies, such as Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Nvidia. With the strong commitment and support from both the U.S. federal government and the Arizona state government, TSMCs new Arizona factory is under construction at full pace. The state-of-the-art 5-nanometer fab is said to come with a monthly production capacity of 20,000 wafers. Since then, TSMC has devised a plan for its Arizona plant to quickly replicate its plants in Taiwan. The move outlines TSMCs intention to mirror its comprehensive supply chain in Taiwan to the United States due to concerns over Beijings potential invasion. In addition to exporting talents from Taiwan, TSMC has arranged for more than 100 American engineers to go to its factories in Taiwan for on-site training. With its security at stake, TSMC aims to export its advanced 5 nm wafer processing plant and complex supply chain to the United States as quickly as possible. The 5 nm node is currently the most advanced chip manufacturing process that can be mass-produced. The European Union On Feb. 9, the European Commission unveiled the European Chips Act, aiming to significantly ramp up semiconductor production within the European Union (EU) and become a global leader in the industry. The Act is a multi-billion euro attempt to secure its supply chains, avert chip shortages, and promote investment in the sector. To achieve that, it will need to bring in key players in Asia and the United States, such as TSMC and Intel, to set up factories in the continent. Under the Act, the commission plans to allocate a total of $49 billion of public and private investment to expand the EUs global market share of semiconductors from the current 9 percent to 20 percent by 2030. The commission pointed out the EUs global market share of semiconductors currently sits at 9 percent and primarily relies on external supply. In the event of a supply chain disruption, chip inventory in parts of Europes industrial sectors could run out within weeks, and factories would be forced to slow or halt production. The Act underlines the EUs excessive dependence on imports of advanced chips below 7 nm nodes as most of its manufacturing capacity can only produce chips above 22 nm nodes. In addition, the EU also notes the need for partnerships with like-minded partners, such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Japan Last November, Japan successfully invited TSMC to set up a factory in Kumamoto, Japan. In a joint venture with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (SSS), TSMC announced it would provide foundry service with initial technology of 22 to 28-nanometer processes to address strong global market demand for specialty technologies. Although it is not an advanced process fab, TSMC recently announced additional investment in the plant to upgrade its process technology and increase its manufacturing capacity. In a press release on Feb. 15, TSMC said the new total capital expenditure of the Kumamoto factory would increase from the initial $7 billion to $8.6 billion and enhance its capabilities with 12 to 16-nanometer FinFET process technology. The planned monthly production capacity is also increased from 45,000 to 55,000 12-inch wafers. The fab is expected to directly create about 1,700 high-tech professional jobs. In addition, Denso, a supplier of Toyota Motors, plans to invest $350 million to acquire more than 10 percent stake in the new fab, becoming another minority stakeholder. Initially, SSS (Sony) had also provided $500 million to acquire a nearly 20 percent minority stake in the new plant, with TSMC holding the controlling share. The joint venture with Denso, a component supplier to the worlds largest automotive manufacturer, would mean a long-term and stable supply of semiconductor chips for the Japanese auto industry. Construction of the Japanese fab was scheduled to begin in 2022, with production starting by the end of 2024. The Japanese government plans to subsidize about half of the plants construction cost. India Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi set up a 20-year vision to make India a global leader in the semiconductor industry, and in December, the Indian government announced a $10 billion incentive plan to attract semiconductors and display manufacturers to the country. In a bid to boost the countrys semiconductor ecosystem, its senior officials are reportedly trying to rope in top chipmakers such as TSMC, Intel, AMD, United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), and Fujitsu, according to The Times of India. Experts in India estimate that more than a dozen chipmakers will set up factories in India in the coming two to three years. China The first country to invite TSMC onboard was China. In 2004, the Taiwanese government gave the green light for TSMC to relocate its low-tech eight-inch wafer facilities to Shanghai, which later became TSMCs first fab in China. In December 2015, Beijing persuaded TSMC to set up a 12-inch wafer fab in Nanjing, China. The factory was based on the 12 nm and 16 nm processesconsidered advanced at the timeand was completed in October 2018. However, the Trump administration placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in May 2019 over national security concerns, adding SMIC in December 2020 for the companys alleged links to the Chinese military. The U.S. sanctions barred China from importing the most advanced chip-making tools. As a result, TSMCs Nanjing plants production capability was significantly reduced, diminishing its supply to Chinese industries. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. U.S. warship USS Mount Whitney prepares to sail through the Bosporus Strait in Turkey toward the Black Sea on Nov. 4, 2021. (Reuters/Screenshot via NTD) Turkey to Block Russian Warships in Black Sea Turkey will restrict the transit of Russian warships through the Black Sea, according to Ankaras foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who also affirmed that Moscows invasion of Ukraine comes under the war category. Is this a conflict or a war? We decided on that. Article 19 of the Montreux Convention is very clear. This is a war, Cavusoglu said in an interview with CNN. The 1936 Montreux Convention allows Ankara to limit naval transit via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits that connect the Marmara, Aegean, and the Black Sea. Ships can pass through the straits after giving Turkey a diplomatic notification subject to certain restrictions on the weight of the ships, the arms they can carry, and whether the ships come from a Black Sea country such as Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Georgia, and Bulgaria. However, during times of war warships are only allowed to pass through if they are not from nations classified to be belligerent. If Turkey is part of the war or feels that it is threatened, it can block the transit of all warships whether they come from a Black Sea nation or not. But the country does not have the right to block civilian vessels, even under adverse conditions. Now this conflict has turned into a war, in this case, this is how we apply Montreux for the parties, Russia or Ukraine. Article 19 provides an exception, Cavusoglu said. If the ship of the war country will return to its port, an exception is made. We will implement all the provisions of Montreux with transparency. This will allow Russian warships to get back to their bases. The minister warned against nations abusing this exemption. Ukraine had earlier appealed to Turkey to block Russian ships from entering the Black Sea as Moscow launched an invasion of Ukraines southern coast from the region. Six warships and a submarine from Russia have passed through Turkeys straits for the month as of Feb. 27. Turkey has good relations with both Russia and Ukraine. Ankara has been cautious against acting strongly against Moscow as the country is dependent on Russia for energy imports as well as tourism and trade. Turkey has, however, called for an end to the war. On the fourth day of the Ukraine war, we repeat President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogans call for an immediate halt of Russian attacks and the start of ceasefire negotiations, Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesperson for the Turkish president, said in a Feb. 27 Twitter post. We will continue our efforts to help the people of Ukraine and end bloodshed in this unjust and unlawful war. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in London, UK, on Oct. 13, 2020. (Jonathan Brady/PA) UK Joins US, EU in Sanctioning Russias Central Bank, Aims to Devastate Economy, Target Putin and Sergey Lavrov The UK government has joined the European Union (EU) and the United States in announcing new sanctions against the Russian Central Bank in a bid to ramp up pressure against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The new sanctions are aimed at preventing the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR) from deploying foreign reserves to counter the impact of Western sanctions. It will also undercut the banks ability to engage in forex transactions aimed at supporting the Russian currency rouble, said the UK government. These measures demonstrate our determination to apply severe economic sanctions in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine, said Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. We are announcing this action in rapid coordination with our U.S. and European allies to move in lock step once more with our international partners, to demonstrate our steadfast resolve in imposing the highest costs on Russia and to cut her off from the international financial system so long as this conflict persists. According to the sanctions, UK citizens are banned from engaging in financial transactions with CBR, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, and the Russian National Wealth Fund. Restrictions are also placed against Russian financial institutions. Russian companies will be prohibited from issuing money market instruments and transferable securities in the UK. Designated banks will be blocked from accessing Sterling and clearing payments through the United Kingdom. As part of trade restrictions, the UK will ban the export of several high-end and critical tech components and equipment in multiple industries like aerospace, telecommunications, and electronics. The UK government claims that these sanctions will devastate Russias economy and [target] Vladimir Putin directly and his inner circle including Sergey Lavrov, Moscows minister of foreign affairs. More than 100 oligarchs and companies at the heart of Putins regime have been struck with sanctions worth hundreds of billions of pounds as well as travel bans and asset freezes. The UK has already hit Russias second-largest bank, VTB, with asset freezes worth 154 billion pounds ($206 billion). Russias defense giant Rostec, which exports $13 billion worth of arms annually, has also been hit with restrictions. Aeroflot, the largest airline of the Russian Federation, as well as other Russian private and commercial jets, have been banned from the UK airspace. Working with allies, we will cripple Russias economic development in both the short and long term. The UK and our allies are united and clear that nothing and no one is off the table, the government said. Moreover, the UK will enforce sanctions on individuals and organizations from Belarus that have lent support to the invasion. Leaders from Europe, the UK, and the United States had issued a joint statement on Feb. 26, outlining further restrictive economic measures against Russia, which includes removing selected Russian banks from the international payment service SWIFT. The move will make sure that Russian banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally. A man looks at damage from a residential apartment building that was hit by a missile in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 26, 2022. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Ukraine Not Ready to Surrender or Capitulate to Russia: Foreign Minister Ukraine vowed that it will not surrender to Russia amid talks between delegates from both countries along the border. Ukraine is ready to continue seeking a diplomatic solution, but Ukraine is not ready to surrender or capitulate, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC on Monday, coming several days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine. Kuleba told the news outlet that hes not sure whether the talks are going to be successful or not. On Sunday, Ukrainian officials confirmed there would be talks along the UkraineBelarus border. Im a diplomat, I have to believe in the success of talks, but at the same time my main goal as a diplomat now is to impose more sanctions on Russia, to bring more weapons to Ukraine, and to isolate Russia as much as we can in the international arena so Im focused on this part of diplomacy, he said, adding that we stand not only for ourselves but for the world order as we all know it. On social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys office said it would demand an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces. Some military analysts have said that Russias advance has been slowed by Ukrainian defense forces despite Russia having more tanks, armored vehicles, and planes. A tense calm reigned Monday in Kyiv, where people lined up to buy food and water after two nights trapped inside by curfew. Explosions and gunfire were heard in embattled cities in eastern Ukraine, and terrified families huddled overnight in shelters, basements, or corridors. Exact death tolls are unclear, but the U.N. human rights chief said 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded in five days of fightingwarning that figure was likely a vast undercountand Ukraines president said at least 16 children were among the dead. More than 500,000 people have fled the country since the invasion, another U.N. official said Mondayamong millions who have left their homes. After the fighting started, the United States and European Union hit Russia with far-reaching sanctions and other economic penalties. In response, on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he would ready the countrys strategic defense forces, which oversees the countrys vast arsenal of nuclear weapons. The United States, European Union, and the United Kingdom also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which facilitates moving money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Ukraine President Zelensky Signs Application to Join EU Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed an application formally requesting that Ukraine join the European Union, according to a photo posted by Ukrainian officials on Feb. 28. Zelensky urged the EU to allow the former Soviet republic to immediately join the bloc, saying that membership would put Ukrainians on an equal footing with other members. Im sure its fair, he said. Im sure its possible. Zelenskys social media accounts posted a photo of the signing on the Ukrainian parliaments Twitter account. The move to sign the application was made on the fifth day of the RussiaUkraine conflict, as delegations from both countries met at a location near the Belarusian border. We appeal to the European Union to urgently admit Ukraine using a new procedure, he said in a video message posted earlier on Feb. 28. We are grateful to partners for standing with us. But our goal is to be with all Europeans and to be equal to them. I am sure we deserve it. I am sure it is possible. Zelensky said he spoke with the presidents of Portugal, Lithuania, France, and Poland as well as the prime ministers of the UK, Belgium, and Spain on Feb. 27. Support of our anti-war coalition is unconditional and unprecedented, he said. At this stage, Ukraine is many years away from reaching the standards for achieving EU membership, and the 27-nation bloc is expansion-weary and unlikely to take on new members any time soon. Also, any addition to the EU must be approved unanimously, and some member states have complicated approval procedures. On Feb. 28, a top adviser to Ukraines president said the first round of talks with Russia had ended and that both delegations had returned home for consultations in their capitals. The negotiations on Feb. 28 were the first face-to-face talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials since the war began. The delegations met at a long table, with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag on one side and the Russian tricolor flag on the other. Zelenskys office previously said it would demand an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian troops. Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC in an interview that the Kyiv government is not ready to surrender or capitulate to Moscow. It wasnt immediately clear what Putin is seeking in the talks or from the invasion itself, although Western officials believe he wants to overthrow Ukraines government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscows Cold War-era influence. There have been reports suggesting that Russian forces are trying to hunt down and either capture or kill Zelensky, whose whereabouts arent known. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Ukraine's ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko speaks at the opening of a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, following the Russian invasion in Ukraine, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via Reuters) Ukraine Seeks UN Investigation Into Alleged Russia War Crimes; Russia, China Vote Against It The Chinese regime joined Russia on Feb. 28 in voting against the top U.N. human rights body holding an urgent debate on Russias invasion of Ukraine. Kyivs envoy requested on Feb. 24 to hold an urgent debate, alleging that some of Moscows military actions may amount to war crimes. But Ukraines request was accepted by the U.N. Human Rights Council, following a vote of 29 votes in favor, 5 against, and 13 abstentions. The council has only held six such urgent debates thus far. Russian forces attempt to sow panic among the population by specifically targeting kindergartens and orphanages, hospitals and mobile medical aid brigades, thus committing acts that may amount to war crimes, said Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraines ambassador to the U.N., in Geneva, Switzerland. It was not just an attack on Ukraine, it was an attack on every U.N. member state, on the United Nations, and on the principles that this organization was created to defend. China, which refuses to call Moscows assault in Ukraine an invasion, voted against the resolution, along with Russia, Cuba, Eritrea, and Venezuela. Beijings opposition follows its abstention at the Feb. 25 vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution to condemn Moscows invasion of Ukraine. The draft was vetoed by Russia. While the White House has called on Beijing to publicly condemn Russias aggression, the Chinese regime has repeatedly refused to denounce Moscows actions. A boy plays on a swing in front of a damaged residential block hit by an early morning missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) When asked if Beijing will maintain a neutral stance in the RussiaUkraine conflict, Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Feb. 28 that the regime and Russia are strategic partners of coordination and that its position on Ukraine is based on the merits of the matter itself. Since Russia declared a special military operation five days ago, at least 102 civilians, including seven children, have been killed in Ukraine, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Feb. 28, noting that the figure is likely an undercount. She said more than 420,000 people had fled the country, citing official figures from the U.N. refugee agency. A Ukrainian draft resolution will be considered at the urgent debate. If adopted, a commission of three independent experts would investigate all of the alleged violations of international law in Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since 2014, as well as in other areas of Ukraine since Russias invasion last week. The meeting is expected to be held on March 3, after three days of speeches delivered by officials from more than 140 countries, including China and Russia. The top U.N. human rights body began its annual five-week session on Feb. 28. Reuters contributed to this report. Zmiinyi (Snake) Island, a roughly 40-acre speck of land located south of the port of Odessa in the Black Sea. (Courtesy of Ukrainian Navy) Ukrainian Border Guards Feared to Have Died While Defending Island Are Alive, Navy Says More than a dozen Ukrainian border guards who were awarded the title Hero of Ukraine after they were believed to have died while defending a small island in the Black Sea from a Russian bomb attack are actually still alive, according to the Ukrainian Navy. We are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive and well, the Ukrainian Navy said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page, noting that the border guards were taken captive by Russian occupiers on Snake Island. Russian forces reportedly destroyed all the infrastructure, including lighthouses, towers, and antennas on Zmiinyi (Snake) Island, the statement added. Last week, a Ukrainian official said the military lost contact with its forces on the islanda roughly 40-acre speck of land located south of the port of Odessa. The official said at the time that 13 soldiers were killed in the bomb attack and an audio clip emerged that is purported to have captured an exchange between Ukrainian and Russian forces prior to the attack. This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you will be bombed, the Russians said, according to the audio obtained by local news agency Ukrainskaya Pravda. Russian warship, go [explicit] yourself, Ukrainian forces replied before Russia allegedly launched missiles towards the island. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his address to the nation after the first day of Russia launching its assault on the country that he would posthumously honor the group of Ukrainian border guards killed in the bombardment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) On our Zmiinyi Island, defending it to the last, all the border guards died heroically. But they did not give up. All of them will be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, Zelensky said in comments on his website. On Feb. 25, Russias defense ministry said 82 Ukrainian soldiers on the island had surrendered voluntarily as Russian paratroopers attempted to take control over the small island territorywhich has previously been the subject of a territorial dispute between the two countries. The island is located about 185 miles west of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Russia annexed in 2014. Russia had denied Ukraines allegations that its armed forces had killed 13 border guards on Snake Island. The Kremlins state-owned media later showed what it claimed was footage of the soldiers believed to have died. The Epoch Times could not independently verify the footage. Much inaccurate information has spread surrounding the chaos brought about by the Russia-Ukraine situation, including statements released by government officials. Reuters contributed to this report. From NTD News Numerous Ukrainian churches throughout northeast Ohio are hosting prayer services in support of the country under attack by Russia. On Feb. 25, 2022, a prayer service was held at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in the west Cleveland suburb Parma, Ohio, one of the largest Ukrainian communities in the United States. (Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times) Ukrainian Community in Cleveland Standing With Loved Ones in Under-Attack Homeland The sizeable tight-knit Ukrainian community and clergy in Cleveland, Ohio, have turned out in force with messages and prayers for loved ones back in their homeland. They also have messages for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, whose military began bombing and invading Ukraine, its southwestern neighbor on Feb. 24. So far more than 300 Ukrainians have been reportedly killed in the Russian attacks, with thousands more wounded. In addition to their prayers, the Ukrainian community is requesting President Joe Biden and the world help arm the country to keep the Russians from conquering it. Ukraine will do what it has to, to defend itself, the Rev. John Nakonachny of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in the west Cleveland suburb of Parma told the Epoch Times. Parma is home to the Ukrainian Village and one of the largest Ukrainian communities in the United States. Donations for humanitarian aid are being accepted at St. Andrew Memorial Ukrainian Orthodox Church in South Bound Brook, New Jersey. Nadya Reidy of Lakewood, Ohio, shows her support for Ukraine during a rally at Willard Park in downtown Cleveland on Feb. 26. Reidys family is active in northeast Ohios Ukrainian community and her grandparents emigrated to the United States from there. (Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times) As Putins military continues to battle for major cities, thousands of Americans of Ukrainian descent have been attending prayer services and protests over the weekend of Feb. 25 to Feb. 27. Ukraine is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and member countriessuch as the United Statesare unlikely to step in militarily and help unless they are attacked. However, the West and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky are not shy about what they wish for the Russian army or Putin. At St. Vladimir, about 200 people attended a prayer service on Feb. 25. The message they heard was forthright and with delivered resolve from Rev. John Nakonachny and the Very Rev. Michael Hontaruk. Vladimir Putin is not only fighting Ukraine; he is fighting democracy, Nakonachny told the parishioners. He is fighting freedom in the world, and what we stand for. Ukraine is a democratic country. In 30 years, we have had six elections and six presidents. Ukraine will defend itself. Give the government, military, and the people, the strength to defend themselves. The Rev. John Nakonachny of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma, Ohio on Feb. 26, 2022. (Michael Sakal/the Epoch Times) We have a psychopath in one man, and that is Putin, Nakonachny added. We hope that the rest of the world help provide them the arms needed to defend them against this sick man. Nakonachny, who described the situation as the toughest time for him to be a priest, went on to say, Were called here to love and to hate. If you love good, you will hate evil. Vladimir Putin is a sick man to do what he is doing to innocent people, and we hate that. On Feb. 28, Rev. Hontaruks 55-year-old brother-in-law, Oleh Bendasick, was due to join the Ukrainian army to held defend his homeland. Hontaruk told The Epoch Times he left the small village of Kimnata in western Ukraine to emigrate to the United States when Ukraine was a free country. He still has two sisters there and although people in western Ukraine believe they are safe, they still are afraid and stressed, Hontaruk said. More sanctions against Russia are being considered by the United States and other world leaders. The Rev. Michael Hontaruk of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma, Ohio, on Feb. 25. Here Hontaruk is pictured in the cathedral with his son, Peter, 4. (Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times) Sanctions are not enough, Hontaruk told The Epoch Times. Sanctions need actions. If nothing is done to stop Putin, there are going to be larger problems in the world. He used to be in the KGB. Putin needs to be taught the Ten Commandments, and to obey them. On Feb. 26 in downtown Cleveland, about 1,000 people of all ages converged at Willard Park next to City Hall for the We Stand for Ukraine rally and later at Public Square for the Cleveland for Ukraine. They voiced support for their country with hopes NATO would close the skies to avoid the situation from getting worse. Temperatures were in the teens and low 20s with the wind chill coming in off Lake Erie, but that didnt stop people from turning out to wave flags and chant on the steps of City Hall. A caravan of dozens of semi-trailers honked their horns as they passed the protestors along Lakeside Avenue. Shouting in support of their country and heritage: About 1,000 people turned out at rallies in downtown Cleveland on Feb. 26 to show support for Ukraine. (Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times) As the crowd gathered on the steps of City Hall, they chanted, Slava Ukraini! Heroyam Slava! (Glory to Ukraine!, Glory to Heroes!) Slavs Natsiyi! (Glory to the nation!) They also shouted a call to fight for Ukraines independence, one used since 1918: Ukaina Ponad Ooseh! (Ukraine above all!) Denis Motovilov holds up his son, Tais, 4, during a rally in front of Cleveland City Hall on Feb. 26 to show support for Ukraine. He and his wife, Elena, emigrated to the United States from Moscow and do not support the government in their native country. (Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times) Denis and Elena Motovilov were among those at the rally at Willard Park in front of City Hall. A young Russian couple, Denis, who works as a chemist in Solon, came from Moscow to the United States in 2016. His wife, Elena, came to the United States from Moscow in 2018. They have a 4-year-old son, Tais, who was clutching onto the sign while sitting atop his fathers shoulders. The sign said, Stop War. We do not like the Russian president or the government, so we came here, Denis Motovilov said. Whats going on in Ukraine is a problem for the world. We are ashamed. Larissa Reidy and her brother, Alex Pohuliaj, both of Lorain, Ohio, attended the prayer service at St. Vladimir and the two events in downtown Cleveland. Its devastating, Reidy told The Epoch Times of the situation. To think that Ukraine was a free country and now, being invaded by Russia again is heartbreaking. Ive been to Paris and Ukraine, and Ukraine is the most beautiful country Ive ever seen. We cant let this happen. The families of Richard and Larissa Reidy, and Alex Pohuliaj, all of Lorain, Ohio, are active in northeast Ohios Ukrainian community. They were among many families who turned out at rallies in Cleveland on Feb. 26 to show support for Ukraine. (Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times) Larissa Reidy and her husband Richard have three daughtersNatasha, Nadya, and Larissaand all attended Ukrainian School for 12 years in Cleveland at St. Vladimir. They learned to speak, read, and write the language, and about the culture of the country where their grandparents emigrated from. Reidy and Pohuliajs father, Konstantin, was from Donetsk and a slave dentist under Germany during World War II, and then, Russia. Konstantin left the country in 1952. Reidy said her father wasnt at home that day during World War II when the Communists took the rest of his family. She said all her fathers family was killed, but during a visit to his country in 1995, he still looked to see if he could find any of them, Natasha Daina told The Epoch Times. When we went to Ukraine, he was amazed that he was there during a time when the country was free, Daina of Avon, Ohio, said. He had pride in being in the country, but there was some sadness in him, too. He never knew if his five siblings were displaced or killed. Daina has been to Ukraine three timesin 1993, 1995, and 1996, the first time with her Hungarian paternal grandmother Betty Reidy Connors and her fathers family. Connors was from the Carpathian region. In 1996, Daina went to Ukraine with her maternal grandmother, Tamara Pohuliaj. All three trips she described as a dream come true. Of the current situation in Ukraine, Daina said, We are just begging for people and the world to open their eyes to what is going on. This is not only an attack on Ukraine, but on life as we know it, and our freedoms. If we let them put an end to freedom over there, it can be snuffed out here, too. One of Alex Pohuliajs daughters, Tania Skyba, lives in Schaumburg, Illinois, with her family. She held a protest on the town square there and attended a prayer service at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Bloomingdale, Illinois, on Feb. 24. Her three children. Nastia, 9, Dmytro, 7, and Zoriana, 4, are members of the Ukrainian Scouts there, a cultural group for the younger generation that teaches them to speak, read, and write in Ukrainian. Natasha and Eric Dainas two children, Orest, 7, and Nina, 4, also are in the Ukrainian Scouts. Dmytro Skyba (L), 7, and his sister, Zoriana (R), 4, each light a candle in support of Ukraine during a prayer service at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Bloomingdale, Ill. on Feb. 24. The Skybas are of Ukrainian descent, and are concerned about people they know living in the country. (Courtesy Tania Pohuliaj-Skyba) Alex Pohuliaj told The Epoch Times that if someone doesnt stop Putin, hell just keep going for other countries such as the Baltic States, and then Romania and Hungary. This is sad, Pohuliaj said. This couldve been avoided eight years ago. Putin isnt going to stop unless someone stops him. History has a way of repeating itself, and we should tell our neighbors about what is happening, and why it is happeningso it doesnt keep happening. One thing about the Ukrainian people, Pohuliaj said. They wont give up. Theyll keep fighting. An estimated 5,000 women and children are leaving western Ukraine to go into Hungary each day and gas is becoming hard to come by. Some people at the rallies suggested that Biden open up the Keystone Pipeline to free up oil for the United States and Europe. Many fear that gas prices will go up higher than they already are if the situation gets worse in Ukraine. On Feb. 27, Ohio governor Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran, attended church at St. Andrew Ukrainian Catholic Church to show their support and that Ohio stands with Ukraine as well. DeWine also declared Feb. 27 as a Day of Prayer for Ukraine in Ohio. The Ukraine flag also will fly at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus and the Governors residence in Bexley to further show support for those under Russian attack. Many people who were leaving the prayer service at St. Vladimir on Feb. 26 were crying and got emotional when they spoke. Oksana and Volodynr Logvynyuk, who emigrated to the United States in 2001 for more opportunities, have relatives in Ukraine. The Logvynyuks have three children, Christina, 19, Mykola, 16, and Anna 6. He works as a CNC operator. She is the secretary at St. Vladimirs Cultural Center and teaches Ukrainian folk dancing to the younger children. Oksana Logvynyuk cried when speaking about the situation. Its horrible there, she said. Russia is killing civilians. We need help. In Ukraine, they are ready to fight and defend their land. A woman holds up her sign during a rally in downtown Cleveland on Feb. 26, 2022, to show support for Ukraine. About 1,000 people turned out for a rally on Clevelands Public Square after the earlier one on the steps of Cleveland City Hall. (Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times) In a rare, delicate, and ultimately lifesaving surgery, an unborn baby was partially removed from his mothers womb at 26 weeks so that a tumor growing on his heart could be removed. He was then placed back in his moms womb for a further 10 weeks before being born at nearly full term. Doctors at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, said in a press release the baby is only the second person in the world to undergo this unique surgery, and survive. Today, he is thriving. Baby Rylan Harrison Drinnon was diagnosed in the spring of 2021 with intrapericardial teratoma with fetal hydrops in utero, an extremely rare condition leading to heart failure if left untreated, according to the statement. Dr. Hani Najm, who led the heart surgery team, inserts an IV line in the fetuss right arm to deliver fluids and medications as needed. (Courtesy of Cleveland Clinic) As far as we know, Cleveland Clinic is the second academic medical center in the world to have performed this fetal surgery successfully with continued pregnancy and delivery, said Dr. Darrell Cass, director of Cleveland Clinics Fetal Surgery and Fetal Care Center. In this case, time was of the essence. Shortly after the patient arrived at Cleveland Clinic, imaging tests showed that the tumor kept growing and the fetuss heart function was deteriorating. The malignant mass was compressing the left side of unborn baby Rylans heart, cutting off circulation and leading to an accumulation of fluid around his heart and other organs. Parents Sam and Dave Drinnon of Pittsburgh were referred to Cleveland for their expertise, said Cass. A multidisciplinary team from Cleveland Clinic and Childrens Clinic performed surgery in May 2021 to remove Rylans tumor. After making a Caesarean section-like incision to expose the mothers uterus, the team, led by Dr. Hani Najm, Cleveland Clinics chair of pediatric and congenital heart surgery, used ultrasound to locate the placenta and fetus. They opened the uterus and lifted out Rylans arms to expose his chest. Najm removed the tumor from the babys beating heart before placing him back in the uterus, in a surgery lasting 3 1/2 hours. As soon as the tumor was removed, the compression of the left atrium disappeared, and there was a nice blood flow that was almost back to normal, Najm reported. Baby Rylan Harrison Drinnon. (Courtesy of Cleveland Clinic) Both mom and baby recovered well, and Rylan was able to remain in the womb until near full term, according to the statement. Maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. Amanda Kalan, who attended the surgery, oversaw Sams aftercare and the delivery of her healthy baby boy by C-section on July 13, 10 weeks after the surgery. Cass expressed pride in his team for their massive success. This tumor was growing rapidly in the exact wrong spot, Cass explained. We needed to act quickly and decisively to rescue the fetus as far as we know, Cleveland Clinic is the second academic medical center in the world to have performed this fetal surgery successfully, with continued pregnancy and delivery. Only one previous incidence, said Cass, has ever been documented in the worlds medical literature. Najm claimed that such innovative fetal surgery provides hope to other families who may receive a similar devastating diagnosis. Looking to the future, Rylan will likely need surgery to reposition his sternum, which did not heal properly in the womb. Doctors will monitor his heart health as he grows to ensure the tumor does not reappear. The Drinnons are beyond grateful for the lifesaving intervention. Now they have this beautiful boy, Rylan, and they think hes going to be special, Cass, told Cleveland.com. Hes going to grow up to be a completely normal kid that just had a really unique odyssey to get to where he is now. Watch an animation of the fetal surgery below: (Courtesy of Cleveland Clinic) 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 United Parcel Service (UPS) sign is displayed outside of a UPS facility during a job fair in New York, on Nov. 1, 2019. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) UPS, FedEx Halting Shipments to Russia and Ukraine Until Further Notice Amid Moscow-Led Invasion Two of the worlds largest logistics companies, UPS and FedEx, have announced that they are pausing delivery service to Russia and Ukraine amid the Moscow-led invasion. Both of the U.S.-based shipping companies had earlier said that they were cutting off shipments to and from Ukraine until further notice. In a service update on UPSs website, the Atlanta-based company has now said it has suspended all international shipments to destination addresses in Russia effective from Feb. 25 until further notice. UPS had previously suspended all shipping services to, from, and within Ukraine impacting collections and deliveries until further notice on Feb. 24. Our focus is on the safety of our people, providing continued service and minimizing disruption to our customers, UPS said. UPS continues to closely monitor the situation and will re-establish service as soon as it is practical and safe to do so. The company said that packages already in transit to Russia that cannot be delivered will be returned free of charge to the sender where possible but it noted that a money-back guarantee does not apply to them when UPSs service is affected by circumstances outside of its control. FedEx issued a similar service alert on its website. We are closely monitoring the situation and have contingency plans in place, including temporarily suspending inbound and outbound services to Ukraine and inbound service to Russia until further notice, the alert reads. Meanwhile, the companys Money-Back Guarantee is currently suspended for all FedEx Express services in Europe until further notice. Elsewhere, German logistics company Deutsche Post DHL said it had temporarily suspended all transports between Denmark and Ukraine as well as bookings of new shipments. All DHL Freights current agreements regarding road transport between Denmark and Russia are suspended as of today. The already critical situation for border crossings to/from Russia has now deteriorated further in the light of the ongoing conflict, the company said. Bookings of new road freight shipments with DHL Freight to/from Russia are only accepted by prior arrangement. The announcements come as a number of flight companies, including Japan Airlines, and Emirates have also canceled or changed their flight routes to Russia amid the ongoing conflict, citing safety concerns. In the United Kingdom, Prime minister Boris Johnson has also banned all aircraft which is, owned, chartered or operated by a person connected with Russia, or which is registered in Russia from entering UK airspace, including State-owned Aeroflot. That announcement prompted swift retaliation from Moscow, which fired back with a ban on British flights from landing at its airports and from crossing its airspace, including transit flights, beginning Feb. 25. Russias civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, said the move was in response to unfriendly decisions by the UK aviation authorities. The European Union also announced a similar move on Sunday, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stating that the bloc is shutting down EU airspace to Russia-controlled, owned, or registered aircraft, including the private jets of oligarchs. The EU chief also told Euronews in an interview on Sunday that over time, Ukraine belongs in the European Union and that the EU wants the former Soviet country as a member. They are one of us and we want them in, von der Leyen said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a briefing in Washington in a file image. (Carolyn Kaster/Pool via Reuters) US Closes Embassy in Belarus, Accusing Country of Complicity in Russias War Against Ukraine The United States closed its embassy in the capital of Belarus, a neighbor of Ukraine, and all American staff have left the country, officials announced Feb. 28. Belarus shares borders with Ukraine and Russia and has been letting the Russian military send troops through its space to bring attacks from additional fronts against Ukrainian forces, U.S. officials say. The Russians are clearly moving what they need to move inside their own country and in Belarus as they see fit, a senior U.S. official told reporters over the weekend. Julie Fisher, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus, said the move to close the embassy in Minsk came in part because of Belaruss complicity in Russias war against Ukraine. Belarusian authorities have taken a series of hostile actions to limit [the embassys] ability to work with the Belarusian people and advance Americas interests, including forced staff reductions, closure of USAID Belarus and U.S. cultural center in Minsk, she said, adding that the United States is still committed to the people of Belarus and will provide support from other diplomatic posts. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, said the closure and allowing non-emergency employees and family members to leave the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and has streamed additional troops into the country since then. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed directly to Belarus on Sunday, reportedly saying in a message that Belarus allowing Russia to launch attacks from its territory was a de facto referendum for you, Belarusians. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said while voting Sunday that the war should be ended today that Belarus doesnt have a single soldier in Ukraine. Lukashenko will ensure that all troops stationed in his country will remain there for the duration of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials that started in Gomel on Monday. Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Zelensky are present. Vladimir Makei, the Belarusian foreign minister, told the officials who gathered that you may feel absolutely safe and that Lukashenko hopes that during these talks today you will manage to find the solutions to all crucial issues. A person walks past flags outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City on May 20, 2021. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) US Expels 12 Russian Diplomats to UN Over National Security Concerns The United States on Monday announced it will expel a dozen Russian diplomats to the United Nations over national security concerns. Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told Reuters that he and the diplomats were asked to leave the United States by March 7, adding that they would do so because its diplomatic practice. U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Richard Mills issued a statement, confirming the development. Those diplomats that have been asked to leave the United States were engaged in activities that were not in accordance with their responsibilities and obligations as diplomats, he said, without elaborating. They were asked to leave so they do not harm the national security of the host country, Mills said, adding that the decision was made in full accordance with the United Nations headquarters. Nebenzia spoke at a U.N. press conference earlier on Monday, saying that some footage and images of the war in Ukraine are incredible fakes, although he did not elaborate on what he believed were fakes. Some stories about the Ukraine conflict that went viral have not been confirmed. A boy plays on a swing in front of a damaged residential block hit by an early morning missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Ukraine might and will perhaps become a NATO member. That will move NATO to the Russian border. And that will be an existential threat for us, he also said Monday. Over the weekend and on Monday, the United States and the European Union hammered Russia with far-reaching sanctions, including penalties to Russias Central Bank. A top Kremlin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, meanwhile, said that talks between a Ukrainian delegation and Russia found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen, according to reports. The two agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days. As the talks wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, though few details were immediately known. Russian troops, while attacking on multiple fronts, continued to advance slowly on the capital city of nearly 3 million people. A 17-mile convoy consisting of hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and support vehicles was 17 miles from the center of Kyiv, according to satellite imagery from the Maxar company. Video from Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, showed residential areas being shelled, with apartment buildings shaken by repeated, powerful blasts. Flashes of fire could be seen along with gray plumes of smoke. The Epoch Times has contacted the State Department for comment. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The U.S. embassy building in Moscow, Russia in a file image. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images) US Tells American Citizens to Leave Russia Immediately as Flights Canceled The U.S. State Department on Feb. 27 said American citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately as airlines cancel flights from the country amid the RussiaUkraine war. An increasing number of airlines are cancelling flights into and out of Russia, and numerous countries have closed their airspace to Russian airlines, the agency said in a security alert. U.S. citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available, it added. The European Union (EU) on Sunday shut down EU airspace for all Russian-owned, Russian-registered, or Russian-controlled aircraft. These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU, the unions president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a statement. She said the move was a show of support for Ukraine against the aggressor in the war, Russia. The Russian airline Aeroflot soon after said it wouldnt fly to any European airports because of how various countries airspace was blocked. Russian President Vladimir Putin walks in Moscow, Russia on Feb. 27, 2022. (Sputnik/Sergey Guneev/Kremlin via Reuters) The United States had already urged Americans to leave Ukraine and closed its embassy in Kyiv about two weeks before Russian troops on Feb. 24 entered Ukraine. Americans still in Ukraine were urged to complete an online form so the State Department could communicate with them, and that border crossings into neighboring countries were open. On Sunday, the department said there were long waits at many of the crossings into Poland and Moldova, recommending people use crossings into Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. The U.S. Embassy urges U.S citizens in Ukraine to depart now using privately available transportation options if it is safe to do so. Careful consideration should be made to routes and the risks of travel because Ukraines roads are in many cases crowded, exposed to combat operations, and infrastructure such as bridges in some locations has been destroyed. Sheltering in place may remain the best option for some, the department said. Americans fleeing Ukraine should be prepared to wait for hours at crossings, taking with them extra clothes, food, and water, and hard copies of important documents such as birth certificates. American officials said Monday they had closed the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, Belarus because Belarus has been letting Russian forces go through the country to approach Kyiv from the north. The State Department additionally said non-emergency employees and family members at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow were being allowed to leave. US Trucker Convoy Swells as It Moves Across Country to DC ON THE HIGHWAY, Okla.The largest truck convoy in the United States has grown in size since departing California and is attracting thousands of supporters as it makes its way toward the East Coast. The Peoples Convoy started with around 150 vehicles and has grown to more than 250 as it made its way through Texas and Oklahoma over the weekend. More vehicles have joined for stretches of time. That, along with the length of the convoy, makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly how many participants it has. It varies. Lets just say there are like 50 truckers that know the convoy is coming through and might have been going through this area. Theyll stop at an exit and theyll wait for the convoy to come by, and then theyll join it. They might join it for 200 miles or 100 miles, and then they keep going wherever they were going because they were heading in the same direction as us, Maureen Steele, one of the convoys organizers, told The Epoch Times. And then there are cars that join and some of them go for 30 miles, some go for 100, some for 200, and then they drop off. Collin Walters joined the convoy for about 25 miles. This is a movement that everybody should be supporting. This is a national event; this is making history, Walters told The Epoch Times. Its pretty exciting. Kathy Walters, his aunt, said she opposes COVID-19 vaccine mandates such as the ones the federal government imposed. She sees them as violating Americans free will. Convoy organizers say theyre against vaccine mandates, the federal governments continuation of a national emergency declaration over COVID-19, and other actions by the Biden administration. Convoy supporters in Texas on Feb. 26, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times) Truckers that are part of The Peoples Convoy drive past an overpass with supporters in Oklahoma on Feb. 27, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times) Convoy supporters wave American flags by the side of the road in Oklahoma on Feb. 27, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times) Convoy supporters in Oklahoma on Feb. 27, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times) Convoy supporters in Oklahoma on Feb. 27, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times) Organizers have been sending drones up periodically to capture estimates of vehicles traveling with the group, which has drawn thousands of people to roadsides as the convoy passes by. Chuck Frantz showed up to display his support for the convoy in Weatherford, Oklahoma. This is getting peoples attention, Frantz told The Epoch Times on a highway overpass. He described the mandates, some of which have been struck down by courts, as unconstitutional. A spokesman for the Amarillo, Texas, Police Department, which worked to make sure the convoys passage was smooth, told The Epoch Times that there were no issues. KTUL-TV reported that several vehicles in the convoy were involved in a crash about 15 miles west of Big Cabin, Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which didnt respond to requests for comment, told the broadcaster that the cause of the crash is under investigation. The convoy stopped in Big Bend, Oklahoma, on the night of Feb. 27 and was prepared to travel to Missouri on Feb. 28. Its on track to arrive in Washington, where authorities are reinstalling fencing around the Capitol, on March 5. Enrico Trigoso Reporter Follow Enrico Trigoso is an Epoch Times reporter focusing on the NYC area. 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 Government Releases Report on Efforts to Combat Critical Race Theory in Public Schools Virginias Education Department has released a 30-day report on its actions to rescind programs, policies, and materials involving discriminatory and divisive concepts such as critical race theory (CRT). The concepts have become widespread in the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) and in Virginia school divisions and we will need to proactively review policies, practices, and pedagogies around the state to uphold the Civil Rights Act and comport with Executive Order One, the report (pdf) reads, referring to Gov. Glenn Youngkins executive order to address inherently divisive concepts in public education. The report lists eight steps that the Youngkin administration has taken or is taking to identify and address inherently divisive concepts in public education. The majority of those actions concerned EdEquityVA, a program established in 2021 by then-Gov. Ralph Northam with the goal of establishing concrete plans to dismantle any and all forms of systemic racism in Virginias public education system utilizing the principles of anti-racism. According to the report, numerous resources within EdEquityVA employ the concept that past discrimination needs to be addressed with new discrimination, maintaining that people should be treated differently based on their skin color. For example, the programs suggested that reading lists include pro-CRT authors such as Ibram X. Kendi, whose 2019 book How to Be an Antiracist states that the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The report also notes that under EdEquityVA, the term equity is redefined to mean that any difference in what students have or what they achieve is automatically a result of supposed systemic racism. In an effort to make K12 math education more equitable, the Northam administration proposed a widely criticized plan that would have limited student access to advanced math courses. The VDOE has rescinded all EdEquityVA resources. Its also removing resources promoting cultural competencethe idea that teachers should redress bias and focus on academic equity of outcomes, as opposed to equal opportunity for all studentsfrom its website. In January, the Youngkin administration launched an email tip line for parents to report public school teachers that they believe to be engaging in divisive practices, such as promoting CRT concepts. Were asking for folks to send us reports and observations that they have that will help us be aware of things like privilege bingo, be aware of their child being denied their rights that parents have in Virginia, and were going to make sure we catalog it all, Youngkin told conservative radio host John Fredericks on Jan. 24. What If San Francisco Doesnt Recover? Commentary San Francisco looks worse now than Ive ever seen it. Like any major city, San Francisco had bad areas before 2020those rough areas you knew to avoidbut you could go anywhere else basically unmolested. Today is something entirely different. The streets are dirty. Homeless encampments, trash, and excrement can be found all over. Car break-ins are so frequent that its basically become a non-government-imposed tax for people who come here. Of course, some areas are much worse than others, but almost all areas of the city are suffering from this decay, and its appalling. Every year, the city seems to find new ways to dig deeper and deeper toward ruin. But what happens to San Francisco if it really doesnt recover? What if the financial woes, homeless encampments, rising crime, and dwindling police force are the new normal for this once-great city? Whether or not the politicians want to admit it, San Francisco is in a very precarious situation. Big Tech is gone, and it isnt coming back. Of course, some companies will keep a building here or there, but tech has realized they can work anywhere. Why would anyone want to put up with onerous San Francisco regulations and taxes? Once you pay this high cost of entry, you still must deal with squalid conditions just to get to work. Instead, why not stay in your pajama bottoms and a nice shirt and fire up the Wi-Fi at home? The pandemic caused many offices to transition to working from home or some form of hybrid model. Now that many companies and their workers realize working from home can be effective, why wouldnt these companies keep it permanently? Why continue to pay a premium for San Francisco office space? If you go downtown during the day, you can see the difference. The office buildings are empty. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic arent half of what they used to be. But what other effect does that have on the city? Well, there are a lot of small businesses on the ground floors of those large buildings. These businesses have survived by servicing all the workers commuting to those buildings. As they start to realize the workers arent coming back, theyre forced to accept the new reality and close. The closing of those businesses will be the start of the economic death spiral. Closed businesses put up boards to secure the storefronts. The closed-up shops lead to more homeless encampments taking over the area. Urban blight and homeless encampments dont exactly inspire people to risk their savings, open a business, and try to clean up the area. That only exacerbates the problem and makes it increasingly harder to get out of the abyss. The encampments will spread like a virus to cover the entire area. Tourism Is the Citys Lifeblood In addition to those issues, the pandemic wrecked tourism, on which San Franciscos local economy survives. In 2019, tourists spent an estimated $10.3 billion in the city. But today, some hotels are still closed or have been converted into homeless housing. The hotels that have reopened arent near their full occupancy. Add that to the constant national stories of San Franciscos urban decay, and why would anybody want to travel here? The tourists who are brave enough to come get to experience all the things that arent printed on postcards: open drug dealing and drug use on the street, homeless encampments, filthy streets covered in human feces, and the high cost of just about everything. Even if tourists navigate through all that, they may get to become one of the many victims of our famous auto burglaries, in which they get to replace a rental car window and all of their luggage. Thats not exactly worth paying a premium to experience on a vacation. Who Will Pay the Citys Bills? San Francisco had tech and tourism. It doesnt have some other large industry that pays for city services. Also, its bloated budget is more than $13 billion a year for a city of fewer than 900,000 people. What happens when the money dries up? It happened last year, until the federal government bailed out the city. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle in March 2021, the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill paid off San Franciscos deficit, allowing the city to avoid painful cuts to services. The article states that the bill will erase the majority of San Franciscos projected $650 million budget deficit over the next two years. So instead of ushering in any sort of fiscal responsibility, the balance sheet goes back to zero and everything is business as usual. We still have a problem, Jeff Cretan, the mayors spokesman, said in the article. We just dont have a problem right now. Hes right. What happens when the federal government isnt there to pay our bills? Running the city like a first-year college student who maxed out their first credit card isnt sustainable. Mom and Dad wont always be there to pay off the bill. Eventually, Peter Pan has to grow up. Hopefully, the city finds a golden goose to lay golden eggs, because without that, there will need to be severe cuts in services on which the city prides itself. Add that to the police staffing crisis, and a city in decline may be the softest way to state it. San Francisco is in dire straits. Whether the powers that be want to admit it, her best days may be behind her. People have asked me, Do you really think it could all fall apart? Ill leave you with the same parting thought I give them: When looking at San Francisco right now, does our situation look more like Detroit when the auto industry left? Or is it more like when New York City cleaned itself up in the late 90s? Hey, but at least we have good weather. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. What Lessons Will Beijing Learn From Putins Ukrainian Fiasco? Commentary Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine isnt going as planned. On Feb. 24, Central European Time, Russian military forces attacked Ukraine across four axes from the north, east, and south. In a military operation right out of the Soviet Cold War playbook, massed Russian armor rolled across the Ukrainian frontier in a Russian version of shock and awe. Only the shock was to the Russian troops, who were surprised by the unexpected ferocity of the Ukrainian resistance, and to the rest of the world, who were appalled and disgusted by Russias brutal invasion of its smaller neighbor. As for the awe, that was reserved for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who rose to the occasion to rally his troops and Ukraine to resist the Russian attack. The United States and its allies, along with the European Union, imposed a tepid set of sanctions on Russia in response to the attack. Significantly, the sanctions did not affect Russias crucial energy sector, nor did they expel Russian banks from access to the SWIFT system that is used for interbank communications. U.S. President Joe Biden makes a statement from the East Room of the White House about Russias invasion of Ukraine in Washington, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) Initially dismissed as largely ineffectual, Western leaders, in the face of overwhelming public opposition to the invasion, have now stiffened the sanctions, proposing to freeze the overseas assets of Russias Central Bank, kicking many Russian banks off the SWIFT system, and levying sanctions against Putin and key members of his government personally. More significant, is a mushrooming consumer boycott of Russian goods around the world. Across North America and around the world, consumers, bars, restaurants, and liquor retailers moved to yank Russian-made vodka off the shelves. Will cratering Russian vodka sales change Putins behavior? No, at least not until it spreads to a consumer boycott of Russian energy, but it is a consequence that wont be lost on Beijing. China, which had initially supported Russian demands for a neutral Ukraine and for a rollback of NATOs expansion in Eastern Europe, noting that Russia had reasonable concerns, is now furiously backpedalingcalling on Moscow to seek a diplomatic solution. Thats a surprising turn from an ally that only a few weeks ago had declared, at the Xi-Putin summit in Beijing, that Friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no forbidden areas of cooperation. The Ukrainian war is the first European war fought in the age of social media. That means every citizen with a cell phone is a news crew. The war, its violence, and all its horror are being continuously uploaded in real time and go viral within minutes. The unceasing coverage, and in particular its human drama, has been an important factor in mobilizing the worlds public opinion against Russia and in pushing Western leaders to respond more forcefully to Russias aggression. Given Beijings increasingly aggressive threats to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force, what conclusions will Beijing likely draw from Putins Ukrainian fiasco? A Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet flies in an undisclosed location in a file photo. (Taiwan Ministry of Defense via AP) First, Russia failed to shut down Ukraines communications and internet access. Blocking communications and its related infrastructure, along with destroying air defense systems and command and control facilities, is widely seen by military strategists as a prerequisite for launching a successful ground assault. Its not clear whether the Kremlin tried to carry out an invasion on the cheap, was concerned about minimizing civilian casualties in order to curry support for a pro-Russian government, or if the Russian military simply wasnt up to the task. The number of Russian troops, while considerable, was not the overwhelming force that was needed to carry out a successful invasion. Second, Russias internet troll armies notwithstanding, Moscow quickly lost control of the narrative. Real-time coverage of events on the ground belied Russian claims that its troops were being greeted as liberators by Ukrainians or that the Russian attack was proceeding on schedule. Claims that Russia was invading Ukraine to denazify it or to end ethnic genocide were dismissed as deranged and only underscored how out of touch the Kremlin was with world public opinion. Accounts of Kalashnikov wielding grandmothers or impromptu Molotov cocktail factories, along with poignant accounts of Ukrainian soldiers sacrificing their lives to slow the Russian advance, both strengthened Ukrainian resolve to resist and mobilized world public opinion against Russia. Seizing the telephone exchange and broadcast facilities has long been a feature of third world coups. The spread of decentralized and satellite-based communication systems, however, makes attacks on communications infrastructure less effective, even when they are carried out successfully. Third, Newtons adageto every action there is an equal and opposite reactionproved prescriptive. Faced with Russian aggression, NATO rallied, declaring that it would strengthen its forces along its eastern periphery. Germany and Italy, both highly dependent on Russian gas, reversed their opposition to more extensive sanctions. More importantly, Germany scrapped its ban on supplying lethal armaments to Ukraine. It pledged to send 500 stinger missiles and 1,000 antitank missiles. It also gave permission for other NATO members to supply weapons that had been obtained from Germany or that incorporate German technology and materials. Even more significantly, Germany announced plans to commit 100 million Euros, 2 percent of GNP, to rebuilding its military. Sweden and Finland, also indicated their willingness to join NATO. Rather than weakening NATO, Putins actions have given it renewed life and purpose. More importantly, although half a world away, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has also galvanized support for Taiwan and a renewed resolve to resist Chinese aggression against that nation. Fourth, Putins attempts to leverage Europes dependence on Russian natural gas has once again underscored the national security implications of global supply chains that originate in, or include, adversaries. Global trade has not made the world more harmonious or reduced the threat of violence. Weaponizing trade, and in particular supply dependencies, has handed would-be aggressors a potent new set of weapons they can use. Talk of economic disengagement from China has, at least until now, been just thattalk. In light of the Russias invasion of Ukraine, the United States, its allies, and the EU are likely going to take more concrete steps toward reducing their dependence on critical goods and materials from China or any other would-be aggressor, even if that aggression is not directly targeted toward them. Beijings actions to punish Australia for what it saw as Canberras impertinence is a case in point that wont be forgotten soon. Finally, the prospect of a worldwide consumer boycott of Chinese goods should give Beijing pause. Russia is not a major supplier of consumer goods to the EU or the United States. Boycotting Russian vodka, caviar, or furs wont move the needle on Russias economy. China, however, is a different case. Its a major supplier of consumer goods, and those goods are a significant component of both Chinas exports and its domestic economy. This is one area where Chinas position is directly opposite Russias. Russia is primarily a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, the bulk of its exports are raw materials, principally oil and natural gas, and the bulk of its imports are mainly consumer goods, machinery, and technology. China is the opposite. Its primarily an exporter of consumer goods and an importer of raw materials. A worldwide boycott of Chinese consumer goods would cripple Beijing far faster and more effectively than a military response to defend Taiwan by the United States and its allies. Moreover, Chinas success at co-opting Western leaders is a strategy that works best in the shadows, away from the limelight. Faced with overwhelming public opposition, Western leaders will side with their constituencies rather than Beijing. What lesson will China draw from Putins Ukrainian fiasco? The obvious lesson would be to attack with overwhelming force, to seize or destroy Taiwans ability to communicate with the outside world, and control the narrative while leveraging its economic influence and trade dependencies to prevent a unified global response. But then again, thats what the Kremlin thought it was doing. Maybe the better lesson that Beijing should draw from Putins Ukrainian fiasco is to never start a war that you dont know how you can end, lest the sequel to Putins Ukrainian fiasco becomes Xis Taiwanese disaster. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. When you buy a French Chablis, it will be made only from Chardonnay grapes grown in a small district in France, because thats required under French law. Likewise, when you buy a Sancerre, it can only be a sauvignon blanc from the eastern Loire Valley. A Beaujolais can only be made from the Gamay Noir a Jus Blanc grape grown in a district of Burgundy. It has been about 15 years since the United States belatedly agreed to recognize such wine terms as protected place names because theyre actual regions in Europe. Its kind of like Parmigiano Reggiano, which can only be made in certain Italian districts, although parmesan is an Americanized version thats widely usedand one that gourmets usually hate. The controversy over place names still riles many Europeans, such as the many producers of cheddar cheese in the English village of Cheddar in Somersetwhere the cheese originatedusing a proprietary process. Today, the word cheddar is used around the world indiscriminately, much to the anger of Somersetians. One of the most interesting place name arguments involves Champagne, which can only come from that district in France. As such, it must be capitalized and cant be used by wineries for new U.S. wines. Yet its still used on wine labels of several U.S. wineries because of a curious series of historic events. The French have long claimed that several French place names had been unfairly usurped by U.S. wineries in the years before Prohibition and after, including Chablis and Burgundy. All of the U.S. wineries using that term use it for blended red wines. The French claim (rightly) that not one American Chablis or Burgundy was anything remotely close to their French antecedents. Champagne was also widely used on U.S. wine labels for anything that had bubbles, further angering the French. France tried to outlaw these practices by international treaty in 1891 and later with a special clause in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which dealt with the end of World War I. However, President Woodrow Wilsons controversial efforts to set up the League of Nations ended with the United States never signing that treaty, although other nations did. Besides, by that time, the United States was just entering a zero-alcohol period (Prohibition), so the matter became moot. When Prohibition was lifted on Dec. 5, 1933, the French again toyed with the idea of trying to get Champagne stricken from use in the United States, but by then the entire California wine business was in shambles, with only poor-quality grapes left in vineyards that had largely been left untended for 16 years. Moreover, only one Champagne was being made in California in the 1930sby winery owner Paul Masson, a French expatriate, who started making it in 1892. It wouldnt be until the 1960s that sparkling wine-making resumed in California. And the French had other things on their minds, such as the rebuilding of Europe after WWII, Communism, NATO, nuclear power. By contrast, California Champagne was too tiny a subject to worry about. It wasnt until 2006 that the French (and other European nations) resumed campaigns against the misuse of their place names. That led to a pact. The United States agreed to ban most French place names such as Champagne, Chablis, and Burgundy for all new winesbut it grandfathered in the use of those names for wineries that had long-established brands using the terms. Among them was Sonoma County sparkling wine producer Korbel, which still can call its bubblies California Champagne. Wine of the Week 2020 Laetitia Chardonnay, Arroyo Grande Valley, Estate Bottled ($22): The aroma is marked by citrus and delicate pear notes, a trace of oak aging, and an excellent mid-palate richness combined with good acidity for pairing with light fish dishes. Good value. Whistleblower Sues Delaware Over Election Laws That Unconstitutionally Extend Voting Time An election integrity group is representing a state government whistleblower who claims in a new lawsuit that Delaware is playing fast and loose with state election laws by enforcing statutes that violate the states constitution. The Delaware General Assembly approved a law in 2019 that allows early voting in person at least 10 days before the day of a general election. The Delaware State Constitution stipulates that the general election must be held on one specific day only. A Delaware statute also allows registrants to apply to the Department of Elections for something called permanent absentee status, even though the state constitution only allows absentee voting with strict restrictions on eligibility. This law violates the constitution because it grants an individual the eligibility to vote by absentee ballot in perpetuity, without consideration of the applicants eligibility in each subsequent election, according to Michael Mennella, an inspector of elections who says hes being forced to choose between enforcing the Constitution of Delaware or the unconstitutional statutes. Mennella, a registered voter and resident of Newark, has served as an inspector of elections for the Delaware Department of Elections in at least eight elections during the past five to six years, according to court documents. Mennella is responsible for overseeing the election at his assigned polling place and administering the election in accordance with the Delaware Constitution, statutes, and other laws, the documents read. Mr. Mennella plans to serve as an inspector of elections at the 2022 General Election and at other future elections. Mennella stated in court documents that when a Delaware statute conflicts with the Constitution of Delaware, the Constitution controls, citing case law from 1925. Having to enforce the constitutionally objectionable statutes would harm Plaintiff Mennella because they require him to violate the oath he must take as an inspector of elections, his duties, and the Constitution of Delaware, and risk severe penalties and even prison time. The legal complaint (pdf) in the case, Mennella v. Albence, court file 2022-0179, was filed on Feb. 24 with the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware. The lead defendant is Anthony Albence, whos being sued in his official capacity as the state election commissioner. Jane Brady of Brady Legal Group is serving as local counsel in the lawsuit. The early and absentee voting statutes clearly conflict with the state constitution, said J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF). Inspectors of elections are forced to choose between obeying the statutes or following the state constitution. States cannot pass election laws that conflict with their constitutions. We are confident that the court will uphold the rule of law and the states constitution. The Indianapolis-based PILF describes itself as the nations only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The nonprofit organization exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. PILF stated that it won a similar lawsuit in Virginia. In 2020, it represented Thomas Reed, a local electoral board member, to stop Department of Elections guidance that required accepting absentee ballots without postmarks. The guidance was found to contravene Virginia law. PILF also claimed victory in recent litigation in Pennsylvania aimed at making sure election law adheres to that states constitution. A court ruled that the states mail-in voting law was unconstitutional because the legislature didnt have the authority to modify voting laws without amending the constitution. The Office of the State Election Commissioner in Delaware didnt respond to a request for comment by press time. White House Responds to Proposal for No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine The Biden administration and NATO both rejected calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying that it would escalate the conflict. Over the past weekend, there were calls for the United States and NATO to set one up over Ukraine, as Russian jets have carried out bombing runs on Ukrainian targets. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) was one of those who called for such a move, which drew sharp criticism on social media. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on MSNBC Monday morning that setting up a no-fly zone would require enforcement, meaning that the United States and NATO would be shooting down Russian planes. That is definitely escalating and would potentially put us in a place in a military conflict with Russia. Thats something the president doesnt want to do, she remarked. Psaki said the White House and President Joe Biden have repeatedly said that American troops wont be fighting Russian soldiers unless Moscow decides to attack a NATO member in an Article 5 situation. The United States and its allies have opted to provide Ukraine with military equipment, including fighter planes, since last week. Those countries have also placed wide-ranging economic sanctions, including targeting the Russian Central Bank and President Vladimir Putin. The role of the president of the United States, any president, is to make an assessment about what is in the interest of the United States, our national security interests, the American people, and certainly weigh very heavily how were leading the global community, Psaki told reporters last week. It is not in our interest to be in a war with Russia. So no, we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also shot down the idea of implementing a no-fly zone, telling MSNBC that the alliance has no intentions of moving into Ukraine neither on the ground or in the airspace, noting that such a scenario could see the conflict spiral out of control that escalates even further into concern for full-fledged war in Europe involving NATO allies. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again requested a NATO no-fly zone over his country. If the West does this, Ukraine will defeat the aggressor with much less blood, Zelensky wrote in a statement posted online. The sanctions are heading in the right direction. In addition to disconnecting the Russian Central Bank from SWIFT and providing more Stingers and anti-tank weapons, we need the West to impose a no-fly zone over significant parts of Ukraine, he added. Ukraine can beat the aggressor. We are proving this to the world. But our allies must also do their part. 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 Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Feb. 10, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images) Will European Sanctions on the Russian Federation Bite? Commentary As expected, the European Union (EU), like Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, has imposed draconian sanctions on the Russian Federation to punish it for invading Ukraine. The sanctions, which cover the fields of finance, energy, transport, technology, and visa policy which targets Russian oligarchs, but not ordinary Russian citizens will have the effect of freezing Russian financial assets throughout the territory of the EU. While Russias access to Europes financial markets will be denied as part of what EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, described as the strongest, the harshest package ever considered. The financial sanctions even include the exclusion of selected Russian banks from access to SWIFT, the global interbank payment system; this will undoubtedly have significant consequences for the trading ability of Russia. The European Council also closed the European airspace to Russian planes. It has even been suggested that European Membership candidacy should be awarded to Ukraine, but there may be some pushback on that idea from within the EU itself. On Feb. 25, the European Council also decided to freeze the assets of Russias President Vladimir Putin and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov. Such a move is unusual because it might frustrate efforts to rekindle intergovernmental negotiations. Nevertheless, the Foreign Minister of Australia, Marise Payne, has indicated, on Feb. 26, that she too is seeking advice on the imposition of sanctions on Putin and Lavrov. The freezing of their assets is not likely to perturb these Russian oligarchs because they are very wealthy individuals and, in any event, might be driven by a perverse belief in the justice of their cause. In addition, the EU also imposed restrictive measures on the members of the National Security Council of the Russian Federation and members of the Duma, the Russian Parliament, who voted for the recognition of the breakaway republics in East Ukraine. Lawmakers applause during a speech of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a meeting of the German federal parliament, the Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, on Feb. 27, 2022. (Hannibal Hanschke/Getty Images) To understand what is happening in Ukraine, it is important to consider that, certainly since the integration of the Crimea and Sevastopol regions into the Russian Federation in 2014, the EU has intensified its efforts to entice Ukraine into the European family. The EU is strengthening its ties to Ukraine by assisting its government in the modernisation of the country. Specifically, the relationship between the two is governed by the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which includes a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). The Association Agreement, signed in 2014 and in force since 2017, is based on shared values and commitment to respect for democratic principles, the rule of law, good governance, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. The long-term aim of DCFTA is to facilitate the economic development of Ukraine and to strengthen its political ties with the EU. It provides the framework for economic development by opening up markets and harmonising laws, standards and regulations in various sectors which will facilitate the alignment of key sectors of the Ukrainian economy with EU standards. It is obvious then that this agreement benefits Ukraine because it offers its businesses stable and predictable preferential access to the EU market, the largest market in the world, with over 500 million consumers. At present, the EU is already the main trading partner of Ukraine, representing around 45 percent of its total trade, worth more than 40 billion Euros. At the same time, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is seeking to enlist Ukraine as a member. Ukraine, itself, has indicated a willingness to join this defence Alliance. Undoubtedly, a Western-dominated military presence at Russias doorstep would be considered by Putin as a threatening and hostile situation. Hence, Russia sought but did not receive, written guarantees that Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus would never become members of NATO. Of course, there is no doubt that the situation in Ukraine is grave. It is the second major war in Europe since World War II hostilities ended on May 8, 1945the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s was the first. It is difficult to see what else, bar direct military involvement, could have been done by the EU in response to the start of hostilities in Ukraine. A boy plays on a swing in front of a damaged residential block hit by an early morning missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) This conflict is extremely worrying because it could easily become an uncontrollable conflagration, involving more countries. NATO, the European Union, and the U.S. supply weapons to Ukraine; this could well be regarded by Russia as a provocation, which in turn might result in a widening of the conflict. It is doubtful that the European sanctions will have the desired impact. There are at least four reasons that support this view. First, sanctions, especially those of an economic nature, take a long time to become effective, and these would have been factored in by Putin before embarking on his calamitous military misadventure. Second, inevitably, the sanctions would result in tit-for-tat retaliation by the Russian Federation. Indeed, Russia would appropriate the EUs sizable investments in Ukraine. The volume of direct investment, including equity capital, into Ukraines economy from the EU countries at the end of Dec. 2018 already stood at $24.7 billion (A$34.3 billion). Third, Putin built an alliance with the Peoples Republic of China that would enable him to avoid the worst consequences of the boycotts and sanctions, using the offices of his newfound Chinese friends. But finally, dissensions within the ranks of the EU itself might manifest themselves over the next couple of months, revealing disagreements about how to deal with the Ukrainian crisis. If the EUs response to the crisis was to award EU candidacy status to Ukraine, as has already been suggested by the leaders of Poland and Lithuania, the present situation could soon become a wider war. Also, any attempt by NATO to offer membership of the defence organization to Ukraine would function as a red flag waved in front of a bull. Only a willingness to negotiate a ceasefire, followed by a rational discussion and consideration of the relevant issues at an intergovernmental conference might offer a way out of the nightmare that is unfolding in Ukraine. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. HONG KONG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The third team of mainland health experts and personnel arrived in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday to work with the HKSAR government in fighting the latest COVID-19 outbreak. The team consists of five experts, with Liang Wannian, head of the COVID-19 response expert panel under China's National Health Commission (NHC) as the team leader. The experts will give advice and share their experiences with clinical medical experts in Hong Kong on critical care of COVID-19 patients and ways to reduce the number of infections and mortality rate of the epidemic. Liang said that the team will maintain close contact with their Hong Kong counterparts and share their experiences in combating the epidemic. The expert delegation was welcomed by the HKSAR's Chief Executive Carrie Lam and officials of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR upon their arrival at the Shenzhen Bay Port on Monday afternoon. "I hope that macro-viewed advice from the new team of experts will build a solid foundation for Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work," Lam said, noting that suggestions from the previous two mainland medical teams have already been adopted in Hong Kong's daily anti-epidemic work. The first and second teams of medical experts from the mainland have arrived in Hong Kong on Feb. 17 and Feb. 19, respectively, to aid the HKSAR in curbing the COVID-19 epidemic. Hong Kong reported 34,466 new COVID-19 cases and 87 deaths on Monday, official data showed. Norwalk Police Department NORWALK A Norwalk man was charged Friday after he allegedly threatened to kill a person during a violent assault, police said. Cristian Flores-Martinez, 31, was charged with third-degree assault, second-degree threatening, risk of injury to a child and disorderly conduct, according to Norwalk Police Department arrest records and Sgt. Sofia Gulino. Michelle Troconiss attorney has filed an appeal of a judges decision to deny him access to a transcript from Jennifer and Fotis Dulos divorce proceedings. Jennifer Dulos disappeared on May 24, 2019, just days after a hearing was halted in her contentious two-year divorce from Fotis Dulos. Attorney Jon Schoenhorn was seeking a transcript of the proceeding in his defense of Troconis, one of two people charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the disappearance and death of Jennifer Dulos. Schoenhorn sued Melodie Moss, a state Judicial Branch court reporter, to get a copy of the transcript that he claims was improperly sealed without a hearing. The divorce hearing focused on a family court psychological evaluation report on the Dulos family. Schoenhorn contended in his lawsuit against Moss that the judge improperly sealed the proceedings, including the report and any transcripts without a hearing. Superior Court Judge David Sheriden dismissed Schoenhorns writ of mandamus, which sought to require Moss to provide a copy of the transcript in December. At the time, Sheriden called Schoenhorns request an impermissible collateral attack on the sealing order imposed by Family Court Judge Judge Donna Heller. Schoenhorn is now asking the state Appellate Court to consider whether Sheriden erred in his decision. Schoenhorn is also asking the Appellate Court to consider if Sheriden also was mistaken in his decision regarding a part of the transcript that was released in documents by the Office of the Attorney General, which represented Moss in the proceedings. Schoenhorn declined to comment on the appeal, which was filed Feb. 4. In court documents requesting the appeal, Schoenhorn pointed out the state Supreme Court has previously ruled that filing a writ of mandamus is the proper action to challenge the refusal of a court reporter to provide a transcript. As a matter of constitutional law and public policy, that (Sheridens ruling) appears to be an error that not only impacts the Supreme Courts previous ruling but also future efforts by trial judges to hide even unlawful conduct from public scrutiny, Schoenhorn said. Fotis Dulos, Troconis former boyfriend, died on Jan. 30, 2020, about three weeks after he was charged with the murder of his estranged wife. Troconis and Kent Mawhinney are the remaining defendants in the criminal case. Mawhinney, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, has opted to take his case to trial. Troconis, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges, is still in pretrial proceedings. Schoenhorn was given the report on the findings of a Dulos family psychological evaluation about a month after he requested the transcript in 2021, but pressed on with the related case on the grounds the transcripts should be public records. The findings of the family psychological report have never been publicly released and remain sealed during the criminal proceedings against Troconis and Mawhinney. Schoenhorn claimed in the writ that Heller improperly closed the courtroom to the public during a two-day hearing on the Dulos divorce that took place on May 14 and May 17, 2019 by not providing advance notice and a hearing on the closure. But the attorney generals office, representing Moss, contends that Heller, who was overseeing the Dulos divorce and child custody proceedings, verbally sealed the hearing that included the psychological report and any transcripts. Fotis and Jennifer Dulos were embroiled in a contentious two-year divorce and custody battle when she disappeared. In the months proceeding, Heller had required Fotis Dulos to see the couples five children during limited court supervised visits. The hearing on the psychological report was never completed after the psychiatrist who did the evaluation, Dr. Stephen Herman, refused to continue to testify. Police said they believe Fotis Dulos was lying in wait for his estranged wife to return home from dropping off their children at school the morning of May 24, 2019, according to arrest warrants. Police said Jennifer Dulos was attacked in her garage and is presumed dead based on the blood and other evidence they found, arrest warrants state. While her remains have never been found, the states chief medical examiner said she would not have survived the attack without immediate medical attention. The night of the disappearance, investigators said they believed Fotis Dulos and Troconis were captured on Hartford surveillance footage making a series of stops, the arrest warrant shows. Fotis Dulos was seen dumping bags, some of which were later recovered and contained his estranged wifes blood and clothing, investigators wrote in the warrant. Police said they also found Jennifer Dulos blood on the seat of a pickup truck, which belonged to one of Fotis Dulos employees, that they believe was used the day of the crime, the arrest warrants read. Troconis will appear during a virtual court date on March 29 in the criminal cases. No court date has been set for Schoenhorns appeal. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NORWALK Manresa Island neighbors and property owners are speaking out against the state Department of Transportations plan to use the island for the Walk Bridge project. The DOT first announced in June 2020 its plans to use the former power plant site, known informally as Manresa Island, to house Walk Bridge supplies and construct the lift ends of the new bridge before floating them up the Norwalk Harbor for installation. As part of the Walk Bridge replacement project, the island would be occupied by DOT for about five years. Manresa Island, located in the Harbor View neighborhood, was previously a coal-fired power plant, which was later converted to run on oil before it closed in 2013. Following the announcement of DOT plans to occupy Manresa Island, which is home to various wildlife but has polluted areas due to its previous use as a power plant, residents of the area formed the Manresa Neighborhood Coalition to express concerns over the islands use. Mark Smith, who represents the coalition, petitioned the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and DOT for a public hearing on for the island. The hearing came about because DOT needed DEEPs approval to use Manresa for a facility, Smith said. They tried to grant a permit without having public hearing. They needed someone to petition for a public hearing. I filed to become a petitioner as well as the Norwalk Harbor Commission. More than 100 people attended the remote public hearing last week and many of them spoke during the public comment portion that lasted over an hour. Smith spoke at the meeting on behalf of the coalition, which includes about 400 homes. We are opposing the use of Manresa for any reason. We are not in opposition to the project itself, Smith said at the meeting. The five concerns outlined by the Manresa Neighborhood Coalition are: the human impact on the island, preservation of the wildlife habitat, the fish and wildlife on the island, the noise level generated by the construction and the extra truck traffic, Smith said. DOTs original plan for the $1 billion bridge replacement project called for the new lift spans to be constructed at vacant properties at 68 and 90 Water St., and then transported via barge to the project site. When the plan was determined unfeasible, DOT shifted to Manresa Island. In documents acquired by the coalition through a Freedom of Information Act request the Cianbro/Middlesex JV, the consulting firm hired by DOT to oversee parts of the project, suggested four alternative spots for the lift construction and storage. A cost comparison of the five sites, including Manresa, found steel fabricator full offsite assembly would be more than $2.1 million cheaper than the estimated cost of about $27 million to use Manresa Island, according to the documents. Smith said DOT has yet to specify why Manresa Island was chosen over the other options, considering one was cheaper and two were $300,000 more. DOT did not respond to a request for comment. In addition to the Norwalk Harbor Commission and the Manresa Neighborhood Coalition, the company that owns the island and power plant property filed a petition on Feb. 18 to become an intervening party in DOTs application to use the land. Petition documents obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media Group through the coalition, Norwalk Power, claims the company did not consent to the proposed use of the land. A portion of the activities proposed by the permit that is the subject of this proceeding, a long-term construction project by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT), are proposed to occur on property owned by Norwalk Power and Norwalk Power has not consented to the proposed activities, the petition reads. The petition claims Norwalk Power was not included on DOTs application as a property owner and the company does not consent to the islands use. Norwalk Power did not respond to a request for comment. Although CTDOT acknowledges that it intends to acquire parcels through full and partial parcel acquisitions, as well as full or partial parcel construction easements, most of which will cease upon project completion, CTDOT identifies itself as the site owner of the Project site(s) in its Application and does not identify any other site owners on the Application Form, the petition reads. Furthermore, although the permit application requires applicants to provide documentation showing that third-party property owners consent to the proposed work, to this date, CTDOT has not provided any documentation, e.g., easements or written permissions, from the current site owners (including Norwalk Power) consenting to the use of their properties. Among the Norwalk residents who spoke against the states use of the island was Katherine Price Snedaker, who emphasized how the area has turned into a nature haven and is frequented by the neighborhood residents. Theres a lot going on in these neighborhoods, Price Snedaker said. Im concerned about traffic in general. There are beautiful animals. The only place Ive seen eagles is right outside the power plant. abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com File Photo/Getty Images The company i5Group from St. Louis is on track to conduct a housing study for the City of Edwardsville. The administration and community services (ACS) committee approved a professional services agreement with the group Thursday. This study is the next step, following last years housing presentation at the Wildey Theatre. The group cites three goals for the study: A Housing Needs Assessment to document housing supply and demand characteristics in town to create a shared understanding of housing needs Using the assessment results for future affordable housing strategies that set the tone for realistic, achievable goals to ensure a diverse mix of housing options, with special consideration for affordable and workforce housing Community engagement to build support and consensus around affordable housing strategies for Edwardsville and its future growth patterns "We were looking for someone who was able to show us that they understand what is going on in Edwardsville with our unique situation," said City Planner Emily Calderon on Monday. She said the company talked about its previous experience helping other cities of a similar size and character. First, a steering committee will form, with 15 to 20 members. They will be asked to act as a sounding board and as ambassadors for the study. Elected officials will be interviewed individually for insights into existing housing considerations. Next will come the focus groups. There will be two such forums. The first one will be a group meeting with representatives from the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce; Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; District 7 public schools; any local homebuilders association(s); Madison County Transit; the Edwardsville Chapter of the NAACP; the Community Housing Alliance and other community groups. The second meeting will cover employees who earn $10 to $15 per hour and will be subject to the availability and cooperation of employers and employees. Then there will be two to three small group resident listening sessions for anyone who doesnt fall into any of the classifications noted above. Each group would have 10-15 attendees, maximum. Later, the results of the housing needs assessment will be presented at a community open house, with data printed on boards at stations with the planning team available for discussions. There will be no formal presentation. Sometime during the next fiscal year, which starts May 1, 2023, the steering committee and city officials will draft a housing strategy, which will then be put on the citys website for resident review. This strategy will include the results of the needs assessment, best practices/housing strategies and implementation actions. The final housing strategy will be based on remarks received during review of the draft. The above hinges on the city council approving the same professional services agreement Tuesday at the aldermens first meeting in March, which starts at 7 p.m. in city hall, 118 Hillsboro Ave. If approved Tuesday, Calderon said the needs analysis portion should be complete by September or October. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine, at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 28, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for an immediate end to the military operations in Ukraine. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for an immediate end to the military operations in Ukraine. "The fighting in Ukraine must stop. It is raging across the country, from air, land and sea. It must stop now," he told an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine. "Enough is enough. Soldiers need to move back to their barracks. Leaders need to move to peace. Civilians must be protected. International humanitarian and human rights law must be upheld. The sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognized borders, must be respected," said Guterres. "We are facing a tragedy for Ukraine, but also a major regional crisis with potentially disastrous implications for us all," he warned. "Yesterday, Russian nuclear forces were put on high alert. This is a chilling development. The mere idea of a nuclear conflict is simply inconceivable. Nothing can justify the use of nuclear weapons." The only true solution is peace, said Guterres. "The guns are talking now, but the path of dialogue must always remain open. It is never too late to engage in good-faith negotiations and to address all issues peacefully." He expressed the hope that the direct talks now taking place between Ukrainian and Russian delegations will produce not only an immediate halt to the fighting, but also a path toward a diplomatic solution. "I welcome and encourage all peaceful efforts to end the bloodshed and halt this conflict. I thank the countries who have offered to host and facilitate negotiations. The United Nations is ready to support such efforts," he said. "War is not the answer. It is death, human suffering, senseless destruction and an immense distraction from the real challenges facing humanity," he said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (on the podium) speaks during an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine, at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 28, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for an immediate end to the military operations in Ukraine. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (on the podium) speaks during an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine, at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 28, 2022. Guterres on Monday called for an immediate end to the military operations in Ukraine. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) Faith leaders and community members gathered for a vigil yesterday in Sara D. Roosevelt park to honor the memory of the woman who was killed on Chrystie Street on February 13th. The event was organized in partnership with the New York Coalition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Churches (NYCAAPIC), which was created after the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings. A spree of Asian hate crimes and violence against AAPI people has continued throughout the pandemic, here in New York City, and in other cities across the country. Many women in particular, banded together, to plan and coordinate Saturdays event. The group wrote on instagram, the violence against AAPI women across our city grieves our hearts. Today we gathered together to mourn, reflect, breathe, speak, hug, & pray. Family and friends requested that the womans name not be used. Community organizers were on hand to offer remarks and support during the vigil. Resources, including counseling and mental health services were shared. An interactive chalk art project offered participants an opportunity to create messages of hope and healing in a communal mural. Grace Choi, one of the founders of NYCAAPIC, said in opening remarks, I remember after what happened in Times Square, how scared I was to take the subway and just walk around and feel safe on my own streetsI dont want to be afraid of our neighbors, I dont want to be afraid in our cityI needed my Asian sisters embraceit really has helped with the collective lament and pain and hope Another woman in attendance told The Lo-Down she used to live on Chrystie Street. The Grand Street subway stop was her stop, but that she had been too scared to get off at the stop or come back to the neighborhood since the murder happened, two weeks ago. She was grateful to be able to participate, and to help organize the event, because she hoped it would be a positive way for neighbors to come together and grieve with each other, in a way that would lift people up. Ondo state governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu would on Thursday, 17th March, 2022 be awarded "2021 Governor of the year" at Nigeria Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Lagos state by popular indigenous language newspaper, YORUBA TOOTO. At the award ceremony which would be the first of it's kind to be organised by a Yoruba newspaper in Nigeria would have Lagos state Governor, Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the host, All Progressive Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as a special guest of honour, former Ogun state Governors, Aremo Olusegun Osoba and Otunba Gbenga Daniel as special guest of honour, founder of Love Of Christ Generation Church (Cherubim & Seraphim) Rev Mother Esther Ajayi as a special guest, speaker, Lagos state house of assembly, Rt. Hon Mudashiru Obasa as a special guest, former NUPENG president, Alhaji Najeem Korodo as a special guest and others. Also expected at the glamorous event are first class monarchs, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, Alake of Egba land, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo Aremu, Deji of Akure, Oba Aladelusi Aladetoyinbo, Osemawe of Ondo, Oba Victor Kiladejo, Olowo of Owo, Oba Gbadegesin Ajibade and the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, Aare Gani Adams while the Editor-In-Chief, Vanguard newspaper, Mr Gbenga Adefaye would be the chief host. At the award ceremony, an historical Yoruba book titled "YORUBA NI TOOTO 2" which comprises the histories of Abeokuta, Ondo, Akure and Ijebu-Jesha would be unveiled to the public while presidential spokesperson, Mr Femi Adesina would review the book. Speaking about the event, publisher & editor- in-chief of YORUBA TOOTO newspaper, Mr Kunle Babarinde said "This would be the first time that a Governor would be awarded in the Yoruba language newspaper industry. Gov. Akeredolu has done extremely well for the Yoruba race in the past few years. "The impact of Gov Akeredolu in the formation of South West Security Network known as Amotekun blew our mind and that of many Yorubas. Also, as the chairman, south west Governor's forum, Gov Akeredolu has provided an impressive leadership without taking political affiliations into consideration. "One must not forget his role in the implementation of anti-grazing law as the chairman, southern Nigeria Governor's forum. "So, with all these, we believe Arakunrin should be well celebrated on the 17th of March. Also, the historical book to be unveiled would be dedicated to women who have been a source of pride to Yoruba land or who have given birth to children that has been a pride to Yoruba land. "At the event, a lecture about the progress of Yoruba land without political interference would be delivered by Afenifere chieftain, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo." Air Nigeria will begin operations before the end of President Muhammad Buharis administration, acting Director-General (I-G) of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Mr Michael Ohiani has. Ohiani told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, that the ICRC was now working round the clock to get it operational. Ohiani said that ICRC was working closely with the Ministry of Aviation, adding that a new presidential approval had just been given that would advance the process. The ICRC boss who did not give details of the approvals assured that the process would be moving to the next stage by the end of February. I want to assure the Nigerian public that we are working round the clock to get it operational. We are working with the Ministry of Aviation and we have just gotten presidential approval. We will get the concessionaire, once we have gotten the concessionaire which is a major step, the issue of operation will now follow. I can assure you that before the end of this administration, Air Nigeria will start flying, he said. NAN reports that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in Nov. 2021, gave approval for the commencement of processes to inaugurate the nations air carrier, Air Nigeria. The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika who at that time briefed newsmen, announced April 2022 as the effective date for the take-off. Sirika had also said that 49 per cent of the Nigeria Air project would be owned by strategic equity partners, 46 per cent by Nigerians while the Federal Government wound five per cent of the shares. In a related development, the ICRC acting D-G said that plans were ongoing for the establishment of six cargo agro airports in the six geo-political zones. (NAN) Suspected gunmen have killed no fewer than 22 persons in Benue, Kaduna and Niger states during the weekend. 10 persons were killed in Kaduna by the suspected terrorists in separate attacks in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State. We also learnt that unspecified number of people with large number of women were abducted in the communities during a banditry operation that lasted several hours. While the state Police Command is yet to react to the development, a local security source disclosed that the gunmen had initially attacked some villages in neighbouring Niger State where they abducted some persons, but on their way back to their hideout along Birnin Gwari, they were confronted by some local vigilantes at Ungwan Bula, Unguwar Dafillo and Ijinga villages in Randagi district of Birnin-Gwari. The gunmen however, in retaliation, returned to the communities on Saturday morning and killed 10 persons which include four villagers and six vigilante members. They also kidnapped an unspecified number of people during the operation. Similarly, in Benue State, another gang of bandits also killed a traditional ruler and eight other mourners during a burial ceremony. The bandits were suspected to be loyalists of the late Terwase Agwaza alias Gana at Imande Mbakenge, Mbache Council Ward of Katsina-Ala Local Government Government Area, LGA, of Benue State. We learnt that the brutal murder of the mourners came less than 48 hours after troops of the joint security/military operation in Benue State, codenamed Operation Whirl Stroke, OPWS, eliminated three militia leaders and loyalists of the late Gana in Katsina-Ala and Ukum LGAs. As reported, a source in the area informed us that the well-armed gunmen stormed the venue of the burial, Saturday morning, on motorbikes and opened fire on the mourners. According to him: It happened during the burial ceremony of Mr Atser Nor Agbev from Imande Mbakange, Mbache Council Ward in Katsina-Ala LGA. The group of well-armed young men just came on three motorcycles and immediately went straight to where the kindred head, named Zaki Isaac Gande, was seated and started molesting him. They searched him and took away some money from him after which they shot him and also opened fire at the other mourners, killing about eight and injuring several others. After the attack, they fled the scene and everyone is linking the attack to the operation carried out on Thursday and Friday by the troops of Operation Whirl Stroke during which they killed three militia leaders who were loyal to the late Gana. While confirming the incident, Chairman of Katsina-Ala LGA, Mr Alfred Atera disclosed that nine persons lost their lives in the attack, adding that the attack might be connected to the earlier operation carried out by troops of the OPWS in the LGA. In his words:Nine persons were killed at a burial on Saturday. It was a reprisal. You know that Janta was killed in the earlier operation by OPWS. So I strongly believe it was a reprisal. He further revealed that three other persons who were critically injured in the attack have been taken to an undisclosed hospital while only four of the murdered mourners were from Katsina-Ala. He said: Five of the victims, including the in-law of the deceased man came from Vandeikya to witness the burial of their in-law and got killed by the gunmen. Likewise, three persons have also been confirmed by Niger State Police Command to have been killed in Ebbo and Ndagbegi villages of Lavun Local Government Area of the state by suspected gunmen. Mr Monday Kuryas, the state Commissioner of Police confirmed this yesterday in Minna. He revealed that the incident happened on Sunday around 5am when the gunmen stormed the village. He said that a detachment of police tactical squad and the military have been deployed to the area and have launched a manhunt with a view to trailing and arresting the criminals. We appeal to residents to assist security personnel deployed with reliable information that could aid in apprehending the miscreants in their midst," he said. Russias assault on Ukraine threatens to become the largest European conflict in decades. A vigorous but judicious Western and global response is critical to limit the damage. The United Nations General Assembly will hold an Emergency Special Session on the war in Ukraine this week, beginning today. This is potentially a key moment for all members of the UN to condemn Russias aggression, call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and reaffirm Ukraines territorial integrity. The General Assembly must send a clear message in support of Ukraine, and African, Asian and Latin American members in particular should make their voices heard. This weeks General Assembly session follows Russias predictable decision to block a Security Council resolution deploring its actions last Friday. On Sunday 27 February, the Council passed a procedural resolution with eleven votes in favour, three abstentions and Russias no-vote (Russia could not veto the text under UN rules) requesting the General Assembly to meet in line with the long-established but rarely used Uniting for Peace formula. Created in 1950 during the Korean War, this allows the Assembly to make appropriate recommendations on collective responses to security crises in cases where the Security Council cannot act because of a lack of unanimity of the permanent members. Though still not legally binding, these recommendations carry more symbolic weight than normal General Assembly resolutions. The U.S. and its European allies have been prominent in calling for a General Assembly meeting. Yet non-Western countries predominate in the Assembly, and it is their votes that will spell the difference between diplomatic success and failure. There is some reason for hope. During last weeks Security Council debates, it was representatives from the Global South who offered the most compelling interventions. Non-Western states would do well to refer to the permanent representative of Kenyas statement to the Security Council on Monday 21 February, which drew parallels between Ukraines plight and the domination and oppression faced by African states from colonial powers. The permanent representative of Mexico, another elected Council member, also compared the situation to its own history of invasions by foreign powers. As Kenya and Mexico made clear and the other Council members, including Gabon, Ghana and Brazil, have affirmed in speeches over the last week the war in Ukraine is not solely a European security affair. Russias actions ride roughshod over two principles at the core of the UN Charter: the sovereign equality of its member states and the prohibition on the threat or use of force in international relations. As they have done elsewhere, Russian military operations also appear to have transgressed international humanitarian law, including its requirements for the protection of civilians, and the U.S. has sent the Human Rights Council what Washington says is evidence of Russian plans to imprison or kill Ukrainian leaders. The General Assembly can and should help to galvanise global pressure to reverse Russian aggression and aid its victims. In a number of crises, many of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at the UN, which comprises some 120 non-Western states, have accused the United States and its allies of using international humanitarian and human rights law to trump the basic norms of sovereignty and non-use of force. In this case, there is no such dichotomy. Russia is in clear breach of its obligations in all these areas, in addition to recklessly raising the spectre of nuclear weapons use in its rhetoric. Members of the NAM, and all members of the UN, should condemn Moscows actions against the rules and principles that underpin the organisation. The failure to do so can only weaken those rules and principles, embolden others who might follow in Russias footsteps elsewhere, and make the UNs efforts to contain such behaviour that much more difficult. Although the General Assembly lacks the Security Councils power to impose binding sanctions or other coercive measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, it nevertheless can and should help to galvanise global pressure to reverse Russian aggression and aid its victims by: Encouraging UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to offer any forms of diplomatic or technical expertise (potentially including the appointment of a special representative) necessary to advance ceasefire talks and humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas. Recommending that UN member states apply temporary and exceptional sanctions against Russia. Many members of the NAM are wary of sanctions, but the Assembly can mitigate some of these concerns if the resolution also: (i) proposes the creation of a register for states to record their sanctions against Russia, to boost transparency; and (ii) urges states to commit to ending such sanctions promptly if Russia ceases hostilities and verifiably withdraws its forces from Ukraine. Mandating a Commission of Inquiry to collate evidence of war crimes and other atrocities during the fighting, as a deterrent against battlefield atrocities and to counter misinformation and disinformation about the war. The Assembly would be wise, however, to steer clear of any reference to international criminal proceedings against Russian military or civilian leaders, an idea that could lead them to believe their personal stake in the conflict is existential, and make de-escalation more challenging. Requesting the president of the General Assembly to appoint a senior envoy such as a former head of state to act as the bodys representative on humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, in support of the work UN agencies are already undertaking. Calling for the safe, secure and orderly evacuation from Ukraine of foreign nationals, including African and Asian workers and students, seeking to leave. There have been reports of Ukrainian officials discriminating against African residents trying to get on buses and trains to flee. Calling on Russia to lower its nuclear alert level, and reminding all the P5 members of their January 2022 declaration to the UN that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. Reaffirming the basic principles of sovereignty and non-use of force in the UN Charter. None of these actions will end the war in its own right. Neither the General Assembly nor the UN system as a whole has the leverage to impose peace on Russia. But the Assembly can, through both its words and resolutions, make it clear that the majority of UN members reject what Moscow has done, will support peacemaking efforts and stand ready to help the victims of this tragic, needless and perilous war. Alleged gunman in Jimi Sandhu murder arrested in Canada BANGKOK: One of the suspects in the underworld murder of an Indian gangster in Phuket has been captured in Canada and an application has been filed for his extradition to Thailand. By Bangkok Post Monday 28 February 2022, 05:19PM A security camera image shows two men, one of them believed to be Matthew Dupre, after emerging from bushes and beginning their approach to Jimi Sandhu on Feb 4. Matthew Dupre was arrested in Edmonton, Alberta province, on Feb 20, Prayuth Petchkhun, the deputy spokesman of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), said on Monday (Feb 28), reports the Bangkok Post. Mr Dupre was being held in detention by the Alberta Court, pending the courts decision on Thailands extradition request. Mr Prayuth said the OAG was working on bringing him back to stand trial. Mr Dupree and an alleged accomplice Gene Karl Lahrkamp, who remains at large, face multiple charges in Thailand, including the premeditated murder of Jimi Slice Sandhu in the parking lot of his rented beachfront villa in Rawai of Phuket about 10:30pm on Feb 4. The two were identified from security camera recordings in and around the crime scene. The OAG on Monday did not provide details of the two suspects. But Phuket police chief Pol Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikhong has said previously the two were Canadian nationals, aged 37, and they left the resort island on Feb 6. Mr Prayuth confirmed on Monday that Mr Dupre left Phuket for Canada on Feb 6 and an arrest warrant was issued for him on Feb 11. The Royal Thai Police Office contacted the OAG seeking his extradition four days later and the Alberta Court issued an arrest warrant for him on Feb 17, leading to his detention. Phuket Town fake monk arrested PHUKET: Police have arrested the man who dressed in monks robes to solicit donations from people at a main fresh market in Phuket Town and charged him with impersonating a religious to deceive the public. crimereligionpolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Monday 28 February 2022, 01:53PM Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong announced the arrest through a statement issued this morning (Feb 28), but did not name the man. The search for the man began after police were alerted to a man dressed as a monk soliciting donations from people at the Phuket Town Fresh Market 2 on Ong Sim Phai Rd in Phuket Town on Saturday (Feb 26). The same man was later caught on video stripping naked in a field across the road from the main post office on Montri Rd in Phuket Town in order to change into laymans clothes. Phuket Provincial Police Chief Col Sarawut Chuprasit was tasked with leading the search for the man. Officers from Phuket City Police along with representatives of the Phuket branch of the National Office of Buddhism tracked down the man, who was unable to present his official identification to prove that he was a monk (Baht Sutthi Phra), Maj Gen Sermphan said. The man was taken to Wat Mongkhon Nimit (Wat Klang) in Phuket Town to meet with the abbot there, who also confirmed that the man was not a monk. He was also taken back to the field on Montri Rd to re-enact for police where he changed from monks robes into laymans clothes. The man has been charged under Section 208 of the Criminal Code, Maj Gen Sermphan confirmed. Section 208, under Offences Related to Religion, stipulates that it is a crime to wrongfully dressing or using the symbol manifesting that oneself to be Buddhist monk or novice, holy man or clergyman of any religion so as to make the other person to believe that oneself to be such person. The penalty is up to one year in jail or a fine of up to B20,000, Maj Gen Sermphan noted. The man will be prosecuted in accordance with the law, he said. Police nab bag snatchers PHUKET: Police took less than 12 hours to track down and arrest two men for a motorbike driver-by bag snatch in Wichit yesterday (Feb 27). crimepolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Monday 28 February 2022, 05:07PM Police were alerted to the bag snatch, in front of the fruit stall on Chao Fa West Rd in Moo 5, Wichit, at around 11:10am. The two men were last seen speeding off towards the Darasamut Intersection on a blue-grey motorbike. Of the two men, the passenger sitting in front of the driver, police noted in their report. Wichit Police and Phuket Provincial Police used CCTV to track down the perpetrators, and arrested a Mr Thanwa, 36, and a Mr Athip, 23 (last names not provided), at a house in Moo 3 Rassada at 10:05pm. In placing the two under arrest, officers also seized a Krabi-registered Honda Wave motorbike and seven other items of evidence, including the clothes, shoes and helmet, used in committing the drive-by snatch. The two were taken to Wichit Police Station and charged accordingly, noted the police report. The two are also facing charges for a similar bag snatch in the Chalong area on Feb 22, the report added. Raid nets five in Chalong for drugs, bullets PHUKET: Police have arrested five people for drug possession after a raid on a house in Chalong seized 1,281 meth pills (ya bah), 29.5 grammes of crystal meth (ya ice) and 74 rounds of ammunition. drugscrimepolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Monday 28 February 2022, 11:57AM Four of the five arrested in the raid in Chalong. Photo: Phuket Provincial Police Phuket Provincial Police revealed the arrests in their report for arrests made from Monday through Friday last week (Feb 21-25). Weerapat Maneesri was arrested at a house in Moo 7 Chalong, where he was found in illegal possession of 74 bullets: 19 9mm bullets, 45 .45-calibre bullets and 10 .38-calibre bullets. Also arrested were Bussaya Ja Yukunthorn, 20, of Moo 4 Rawai; Treewut Jay Wongchumphit, 25, of Moo 1 Wichit; Nat Rungrojchanakarn, 24, also of Moo 1 Wichit; and Kittinan Arm Pholying, 28, of Moo 2 Chalong. In total the five were found in possession of 1,281 meth pills (ya bah) and 29.5 grammes of crystal meth (ya ice). In placing the five under arrest, police seized digital weighing scales and drug-taking paraphernalia; Samsung Galaxy J7, Redmi A9, Huawei Y6P, Oppo F11 mobile phones; and a Honda PCX150 and a Yamaha Mio motorbike. Although the arrests were made by Phuket Provincial Police, all five were taken to Chalong Police Station, where they were all charged with illegal possession of a Category I narcotic with intent to sell. Weeraphat faced an additional charge of illegal possession of ammunition. The report also marked the arrest of wanted fugitive Yingsak Bird Nuplaek, 21, was arrested in Moo 9 Chalong on an outstanding warrant for jointly attempting to commit murder, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, carrying a firearm in a public area with permission and jointly causing the loss of property. Yingsak was taken into custody and handed over to Banpong Police in Ratchaburi to face the charges. Also included in the report were the arrests of two men, Pathomphong Max Sae-tin, 28, and Pathomphon Moss Sae-tin, both 28 years old, at a house in Nabon, off Chao Fa East Rd in Moo 3 Wichit. The two men are both registered as living at the same house in Moo 1 Wichit. Pathomphong was found with 163 meth pills (ya bah). The pills were in four bags: one containing 40 pills, two bags each containing 50 pills and one with 23 pills. Police seized Pathomphongs Vivo and iPhone 11 mobile phones and his Honda Super Cub motorbike. Pathomphon was found with the two bags containing dried cannabis, one weighing 3.9 grammes and the other 3.44g. Both were taken to Wichit Police Station, where Pathomphong was charged with illegal possession of a Category 1 drug and Pathomphon was charged with illegal possession of a Category 5 narcotic. Also reported as arrested was Jarayut Kid Muangman, 56, who was arrested at his house in Moo 8, Thepkrasattri, in Thalang, after he was found with with two pills of ya bah and one bag containing about 0.16g of crystal meth (ya ice). Jarayut was taken to Thalang Police Station, where he was charged with illegal possession of a Category 1 narcotic. Putin Threatening US With 'Nuclear Blackmail' By Eric Mack | Sunday, 27 February 2022 10:59 AM As NATO activates its response force for the first time in history, Russia's Vladimir Putin has put his "This particular decision is not in response to the situation in Ukraine, not even what is going on in Ukraine right now, but as a response to American readiness to apply to sanctions," Illarionov, now a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., told Sunday's " The move is "incomparable" to any nuclear threat the world has faced to date, and the U.S. and NATO must respond in kind immediately, Illarionov told co-host Amanda Brilhante. "If the United States will not respond with adequate reaction to this decision, it means not only Ukraine but the whole Europe and at some point the United States will be under nuclear threat, direct nuclear threat," Illarionov said in a dire warning. "That is why United States and NATO countries need to respond immediately, right now, to this nuclear blackmail of Putin." Brilhante asked what the response should look like. "That should be exactly the same," he said. "It should be putting all nuclear arsenal of the United States and NATO on the highest alert at least equal response to what Putin has done." Even that move, Illarionov lamented, will not "stop" Putin's aggression, but it will cause him to "think at little bit of possible consequences". "This absolutely changes the whole game," he said, adding Putin is steadfast in his designs to reconstitute the old Soviet Union. "His goal is not Ukraine," he continued. "His goal is the 1997 line in Europe, which means half of Europe will be under his sphere of influence. But to get this, he needs to humiliate the United States and NATO, and he's doing exactly that right now." Short of an immediate and reciprocal response from the U.S. and NATO, "Putin will proceed with his plan" and his next actions will be unable to "predict," he said. "I am sorry but all these sanctions, even closing the airspace, is already too late," Illarionov stressed with an urgency in his remarks. Putin launched an absolutely new level of the geopolitical game. It is absolutely a different quality." There is just no choice now, he warned. "If you don't use nuclear deterrent, Putin will use nuclear threat and nuclear blackmail against anyone, including the United States. He is already using against the United States this nuclear threat right now. https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/vladimirputin-invasion-nuclear-deterrent/2022/02/27/id/1058716/ (Newsmax/"Wake Up America")Sunday, 27 February 2022 10:59 AMAs NATO activates its response force for the first time in history, Russia's Vladimir Putin has put his nuclear deterrent forces on ready , leaving the world on the verge of a nuclear showdown, according to former Putin economic adviser Andrei Illarionov to Newsmax. "This particular decision is not in response to the situation in Ukraine, not even what is going on in Ukraine right now, but as a response to American readiness to apply to sanctions," Illarionov, now a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., told Sunday's " Wake Up America ." "The situation now is unbelievably grave."The move is "incomparable" to any nuclear threat the world has faced to date, and the U.S. and NATO must respond in kind immediately, Illarionov told co-host Amanda Brilhante."If the United States will not respond with adequate reaction to this decision, it means not only Ukraine but the whole Europe and at some point the United States will be under nuclear threat, direct nuclear threat," Illarionov said in a dire warning."That is why United States and NATO countries need to respond immediately, right now, to this nuclear blackmail of Putin."Brilhante asked what the response should look like."That should be exactly the same," he said. "It should be putting all nuclear arsenal of the United States and NATO on the highest alert at least equal response to what Putin has done."Even that move, Illarionov lamented, will not "stop" Putin's aggression, but it will cause him to "think at little bit of possible consequences"."This absolutely changes the whole game," he said, adding Putin is steadfast in his designs to reconstitute the old Soviet Union."His goal is not Ukraine," he continued. "His goal is the 1997 line in Europe, which means half of Europe will be under his sphere of influence. But to get this, he needs to humiliate the United States and NATO, and he's doing exactly that right now."Short of an immediate and reciprocal response from the U.S. and NATO, "Putin will proceed with his plan" and his next actions will be unable to "predict," he said."I am sorry but all these sanctions, even closing the airspace, is already too late," Illarionov stressed with an urgency in his remarks. Putin launched an absolutely new level of the geopolitical game. It is absolutely a different quality."There is just no choice now, he warned."If you don't use nuclear deterrent, Putin will use nuclear threat and nuclear blackmail against anyone, including the United States. He is already using against the United States this nuclear threat right now. Tags: 4, , , , Thais evacuated from Ukraine, rally in Bangkok BANGKOK: Forty-seven Thais arrived at the help centre in the Ukrainian city of Lviv with more on their way yesterday (Feb 27), according to the Thai embassy in Warsaw, the capital of neighbouring Poland. RussianmilitarySafetyUkraine By Bangkok Post Monday 28 February 2022, 08:58AM Ukranians hold up placards and national flags during a march from Lumpini Park to Benjakitti Park in central Bangkok yesterday (Feb 27). The demonstrators demanded an immediate end to Russias attack on Ukraine. Photo: Arnun Chonmahatrakool On its Facebook page, the embassy, which is making arrangements to evacuate Thais from a Ukraine currently under attack from Russian military forces, said 47 reached Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine yesterday. A help centre has been set up in the city from which a chartered bus will transport the Thais to Warsaw, reports the Bangkok Post. Thais at cities in other parts of the Ukraine have confirmed they are safe, the embassy reported. However, there are still around 100 Thais who remain confined to their homes or accommodation due to security lockdowns in a number of other cities, including Mykolayiv and Kharkiv, the embassy posted. In the capital, Kyiv, 102 of 148 of the Thais living there left already, with 43 having arrived at the centre in Lviv. About 40 Thais, mostly women married to Ukrainians, are choosing to remain in Kyiv with their families, although their husbands were being enlisted to fight in the war. The Thai embassy in Warsaw said it has devised two evacuation routes for Thais. The first, which began operating on yesterday, took 41 Thais to the city of Odessa in the south of the country, the embassy said. They were then escorted across the border into neighbouring Romania. From there, the group was bussed to Bucharest so they could catch commercial flights bound for Thailand tomorrow and Wednesday. Also yesterday, the 43 Thais who arrived in Lviv were bussed to Warsaw, with another group expected to make the same journey today. Commercial flights to Bangkok are being booked for this route home from Warsaw on March 1-4. Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed the Labour Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry to offer assistance to Thais trapped by the conflict and provide all necessary assistance to first get them to safety at the centre in Lviv. The Department of Employment has been in touch with the families of Thai workers in Ukraine to inform them of their right to financial assistance from the fund for overseas Thai workers. Meanwhile, in Bangkok yesterday, group of 50 mostly Ukrainians and Belarusians staged a symbolic walk in protest against the Russian attack on Ukraine from Lumpini Park to Benjakitti Park on Ratchadaphisek Road. Roman Rak, a Ukrainian who joined the march, said the demonstrators were adamant that Russia must immediately withdraw its troops and leave the country alone. Around 5pm, the group ended the peaceful demonstration after singing the Ukrainian national anthem. Ukrainians, Russians in Phuket call out for peace PHUKET: Ukrainians and Russians in Phuket today gathered in front of the Russian Consulate for Phuket, to protest the invasion of Russian forces into Ukraine and to call for the end of war. Ukraine By Eakkapop Thongtub Monday 28 February 2022, 06:21PM Military officers and police were on hand to oversee the demonstration. Photo: Phuket Tourist Police Ukrainians and Russians in Phuket held another peaceful protest for peace. Photo: Phuket Tourist Police Ukrainians and Russians in Phuket held another peaceful protest for peace. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Ukrainians and Russians in Phuket held another peaceful protest for peace. Photo: Phuket Tourist Police Ukrainians and Russians in Phuket held another peaceful protest for peace. Photo: Phuket Tourist Police Ukrainians and Russians in Phuket held another peaceful protest for peace. Photo: Phuket Tourist Police Ukrainians and Russians in Phuket held another peaceful protest for peace. Photo: Phuket Tourist Police The group numbered about 80 Ukrainians and Russians in total, holding placards and shouting chants including No War, among others. Irina Demidova led a group of about 20 protesters to hold their demonstration in front of the Russian Consulate Temporary Office at Royal Phuket Marina at 9:30am. By 10am they moved to join the larger group at the entrance to the marina, on Thepkrasattri Rd in Koh Kaew, calling for peace in Ukraine. The protesters said they had only two demands: to end the war in Ukraine; and to stop violence and the killing of innocents. Between chanting anti-war and pro-peace slogans, the group sang the Ukrainian national anthem. Present to ensure the demonstration proceeded peacefully were Phuket City Chief Lt Col Sarawut Chuprasit and Lt Col Ekachai Siri of the Phuket Tourist Police. Also present were officers from the Phuket branch of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), which serves as the political arm of the Thai military, Phuket Phuket Provincial Police Chief Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong and Phuket Vice Governor Anuphap Rodkwan Yodrabam. Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew had assigned the officers to oversee the demonstration and ensure that the protesters were careful to not break the law. The protesters peacefully disbanded at 10:30am. Of note, no Thais came out to protest and support the rally. Clearfield, PA (16830) Today Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 45F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 45F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. We can't say if it's a good watch, but if you're looking for a movie to put on, this new one might be worth checking out. Netflix has released 'The Hunt', a movie that was temporarily banned in the US. The violent comedy is a satire of the US' political state, with a group of 'deplorables' kidnapped to then be chased down for sport by the rich elites. "Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don't know where they are or how they got there." reads the description. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, ruthless elitists gather at a remote location to hunt humans for sport. "But their master plan is about to be derailed when one of the hunted, Crystal, turns the tables on her pursuers." Watch the full trailer below: THE SHORTHORN is accepting applications for summer & fall 2022 for: Writing and editing Photo and design Ad sales and marketing Web development Support staff Apply online & view job descriptions at: www.theshorthorn.com/jobs Current UTA students enrolled in at least six credit hours during the semester of employment and in good academic standing are eligible to apply for these paid positions. Some qualify for internship credit. From an office in the Press Corps of the Indiana Statehouse, 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 daily content for this website and 35 professional media partners around the state. alvarez/Getty Images According to updated guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the interval between first and second doses of mRNA vaccines, including Pfizer and Moderna, may be as long as eight weeks for some people. Previous guidance stated that the second doses should be administered three weeks after the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine or four weeks after the first shot of the Moderna vaccine, which is still recommended for some, including people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised, adults ages 65 years and older, and others who need rapid protection due to increased concern about community transmission or risk of severe disease. SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE It can be tough for a military spouse to transfer work licenses. But help has arrived. The military has a vested interest in the well-being of military spouses, said Monica Stouffer, flight chief at the Scott Air Force Base Airmen and Family Readiness Center. Spouses dont have a choice when they have to move from base to base," Stouffer told The Center Square. "We try to eliminate barriers and stressors for them." Approximately half of military members are married. Twenty percent are mil to mil, meaning they are married to other active duty military personnel. The other 30% are civilians many of whom want to work in their chosen fields when they move to a new base, Stouffer said. A 2019 law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker made it easier for people who work in fields that require state licenses to activate their licenses in Illinois when their military partner gets transferred. Not having the appropriate state license is a barrier to employment that the state and the military want to eliminate, Stouffer said. Illinois requires a specific person on the military base to be designated as a liaison who will help the spouses secure required Illinois licensing. Among the most popular licenses are medical. Nurses, therapists of all kinds and medical technicians all need specific licenses issued by the state of Illinois. Teachers and social workers also require specific state-issued licenses. Under the 2019 law, spouses and military personnel can start the Illinois licensing process up to six months before they move to the state. Serving in the military is really a family affair. It is not just a 9-to-5 job, Stouffer said. Military spouses want to move forward in their careers and contribute to the community, she said, and they want to be able to retire from a career. If those needs are not being met, sometimes that can result in dissatisfaction with being part of the military, Stouffer said. Besides help with licensing, Scott Air Force Base and other military posts in Illinois offer a host of services and support to help families make the transition to the state. Every base has a family support center. At Scott, it is known as the Airmen and Family Support Center. Military families can get help on the base with job training, job referral and employment assistance. The challenge is getting the word out to military families about the support and resources the base has to offer. The biggest challenge that we continue to face is making sure that military spouses know about the services that we have for them and the information that we have for them," Stouffer said. "Theres so much out there and we work hard to get it to the spouses who need it. ST. LOUIS Create TV is launching a national video contest designed to seek hosts for a digital lifestyle series on Nine PBS. This year the Create Cooking Challenge: My Familys Recipe is focused on the rich, diverse heritage of Americans and the foods families pass down through generations. The winners will be awarded cash prizes and production equipment to host a 10-episode web series on CreateTV.com. Sponsored by American Public Television, the Create Cooking Challenge: My Familys Recipe runs March 8 to April 5. The contest will be judged by Create staff and some of Nine PBSs most recognized hosts: Kevin Belton (Kevin Beltons Cookin Louisiana), Pati Jinich (Patis Mexican Table), Diane Kochilas (My Greek Table), Nick Stellino (Storytellers in the Kitchen) and Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook!). The panel will judge submissions based on an entrants demonstrated knowledge, ability to present ideas succinctly, overall telegenic appeal, uniqueness, and production values. The grand prize includes $4,000 cash and production equipment valued at $1,000 to complete a 10-episode web series for CreateTV.com. The second prize winner will receive $1,000 cash and the same production equipment valued at $1,000 to complete a three-episode digital series for CreateTV.com. A complete list of judging criteria, official rules and a preview copy of the submission form are available at CreateTV.com/challenge. New York Governor Kathy Hochul goes to greet supporters during the New York State Democratic Convention in New York, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Martin Gilbert's AssetCo has struck a deal to buy Edinburgh-based asset manager Revera for 2.8million. The move is the latest part of AssetCo's strategy to create the next major UK player in wealth and asset management. It follows the acquisition of equity stakes in four businesses over the past year, namely Rise ETF, Parmenion, Saracen Fund Managers and River and Mercantile. Acquisition: Martin Gilbert's AssetCo has agreed to buy fund management firm Revera Revera, an independent fund management business founded in 2003, has two funds, operating on the Smith & Williamson Fund Administration platform. S&W Revera UK Dynamic fund has approximately 108million of assets under management, while the Skye Trust manages funds worth around 10million. AssetCo chief executive Campbell Fleming said the deal was the next step in the fund manager's mission to 'establish an active equity platform as part of our overall strategy to build an asset and wealth management business that delivers for investors in the 21st century'. 'Revera is home to a couple of highly regarded and experienced fund managers in Glen Nimmo and Stephen Grant,' he said. 'The acquisition also demonstrates our commitment to a presence in Scotland, where there is a genuine breadth and depth of talent. 'We expect Edinburgh to be home to a sizeable and growing proportion of AssetCo's investment capabilities, adding new teams and businesses as opportunities arise.' Revera will work alongside fellow Scottish asset management firm Saracen, which AssetCo bought in July last year. The deal, which is still subject to the approval by the Financial Conduct Authority, is expected to be completed in May this year. AssetCo saw its pre-tax annual profit quadruple over the past year, and the takeover vehicle has now grown to around 9.6billion of assets under management. Pre-tax profit surged from 3.4million to 16.1million in the past year, in which time the group's share price jumped from around 4 to around 15 today. SPARKS [mdash] Mrs. Mattie L. Clements Martin, 93, of Sparks, Georgia, passed away at her granddaughter's home on April 25, 2022. Mrs. Martin was born on January 17, 1929 in Colquitt County to the late Ivey Lane Hart and Ola Gay Hart. She lived most of her life in Cook County and was of the remaining of SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Kingsport, TN (37660) Today Lots of sunshine. High 79F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low around 50F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Bio Box Mike Browder, 80, is retiring at year's end as head of Bristol Tennessee Essential Services, where he has worked since 1972 and has headed since 1977. Aside from distributing electricity from TVA, short for Tennessee Valley Authority, also provides internet, phone and television in its service area. He holds a doctorate of educational leadership and policy analysis from East Tennessee State University, a master's of administrative science degree from the University of Alabama Huntsville and a bachelor's of electrical engineering from Auburn University. He is a registered professional engineer in Tennessee and Alabama. The number of known people killed in Ukraine following the Russian invasion is 352 civilians, Ukraines Ministry of Interior said Sunday. At least 14 of those killed are children, according to the ministry. Another 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been injured. President Vladimir Putin put Russias nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday in the face of a barrage of Western reprisals for his war on Ukraine, which said it had repelled Russian ground forces attacking its biggest cities. The United States said Putin was escalating the war in a totally unacceptable way, amid signs that the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two was not producing rapid battlefield victories, but instead generating a far-reaching and concerted Western response. The Ukrainian presidents office said negotiations with Moscow without preconditions would be held at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try, so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The Kremlin said talks had started. As missiles fell on Ukrainian cities, nearly 400,000 Ukrainian civilians, mainly women and children, have fled into neighbouring countries. Hundreds were stranded in Kyiv on Sunday waiting for trains to take them west, away from the fighting. The capital remained in Ukrainian government hands, with Zelenskiy rallying his people daily despite Russian shelling of civilian infrastructure. The World Health Organization said medical oxygen was running low. But a doctor said a blood bank where donors had come under fire on Saturday was again packed. Only three days after it started, the invasion has triggered a Western political, strategic, economic and corporate response unprecedented in its extent and coordination. The 27-nation European Union decided for the first time in its history to supply weapons to a country at war, and a source told Reuters it would send 450 million euros ($507 million) of weaponry to its eastern neighbour. It also shut all Russian planes out of its airspace, as did Canada, and banned the Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik. read more Germany, which had already frozen a planned undersea gas pipeline from Russia, said it would increase defence spending massively, casting off decades of reluctance to match its economic power with military clout. British oil major BP announced it would give up its 19.75% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM), writing off up to $25 billion. read more World Bank President David Malpass said the Group of Seven economies would discuss Ukraine on Tuesday, and that the bank may be able to provide Ukraine with financial aid in days. NOT DETERRENCE BUT THREAT But Putin, who has called the invasion a special operation, thrust an alarming new element into play when he ordered Russias deterrence forces which wield nuclear weapons onto high alert. He cited aggressive statements by NATO leaders and the raft of economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the West. Not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well but also the top officials of leading NATO countries allow themselves to make aggressive statements with regards to our country, Putin said on state television. He previously referred to his nuclear arsenal in a speech announcing the start of the invasion on Thursday, saying Russias response to any country that stood in its way would be immediate and carry consequences that you have never encountered in your history. This is not deterrence on Putins part this is a threat, said Patricia Lewis, director of the Chatham House think-tanks international security programme. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said it was an attempt to pressure Kyiv during the talks, but that Ukraine would not be cowed. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CBS: President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable, and we have to continue to stem his actions in the strongest possible way. A U.S. defence official said Washington was trying to assess what Putins announcement meant in tangible terms, but that it increased the danger from any miscalculation. read more In the strongest economic sanctions yet, the United States and Europe said on Saturday they would banish big Russian banks from the main global payments system SWIFT and announced other measures to limit Moscows use of a $630 billion war chest. Rolling protests have been held around the world against the invasion, including in Russia, which has clamped down hard, detaining an additional 2,000 protesters on Sunday in 48 cities, bringing total arrests there to more than 4,000. read more Tens of thousands of people across Europe marched in protest against Russias invasion on Saturday, including more than 100,000 in Berlin. read more BATTLE FOR KHARKIV A Ukrainian state news agency said that, before daybreak, Russian troops blew up a natural gas pipeline in Kharkiv, Ukraines second largest city, sending a burning cloud up into the darkness. Soon after, Russian soldiers and armoured vehicles rolled into Kharkiv, in northwest Ukraine, and witnesses reported firing and explosions. But city authorities said the attack had been repelled. Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! The armed forces, the police, and the defence forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy, regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said. Reuters was unable to corroborate the information. Ukrainian forces were also holding off Russian troops advancing on Kyiv. We have withstood and are successfully repelling enemy attacks. The fighting goes on, Zelenskiy said in the latest of several video messages from the streets of Kyiv. He has declined to leave the city and has been marshalling combatants and civilians, many of whom have sought shelter in underground railway stations. A U.N relief agency said more than 368,000 refugees had crossed into neighbouring countries, clogging railways, roads and borders. At least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been killed in the invasion, Ukraines Health Ministry said. A United Nations agency reported 64 civilian deaths and a Ukrainian presidential adviser said 3,500 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. Reuters was not able to verify the numbers. The Russian Defence Ministry acknowledged that Russian soldiers had been killed and wounded, but said its losses were far lower than those suffered by Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported. It said Russian attacks had hit 1,067 Ukrainian military sites. Western officials say intelligence shows Russia suffering higher casualties than expected, but Moscow has not released figures. NO OTHER ANSWER Ignoring weeks of frantic diplomacy and sanctions threats by Western nations, Putin has justified the invasion by saying neo-Nazis rule Ukraine and threaten Russias security a charge Kyiv and Western governments say is baseless propaganda. Putin has said he must eliminate what he calls a serious threat to his country from its smaller neighbour, accusing it of genocide against Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine something Kyiv and its Western allies reject as a lie. Ukraine, a democratic nation of 44 million people, won independence from Moscow in 1991 at the fall of the Soviet Union and has pushed to join the NATO Western military alliance and the EU, goals Russia vehemently opposes. Germany, which is sending anti-tank weapons, surface-to-air missiles and ammunition to Ukraine, said on Sunday said it would boost defence spending to more than 2% of its economic output in response to the attack, ending its post-World War Two practice. There could be no other answer to Putins aggression, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers. SOURCE: REUTERS In 2013, Evan M. Cohen was living in Beacon and hustling to make ends meet as an artist: selling prints at farmers markets, painting signs for local shops, and, once, helping to demo someones house. John-Anthony Gargiulo was a bartender when they became friends, with aspirations to open a brewery one day. When the funding came through, and Hudson Valley Brewery became reality, Gargiulo remembered his friend and called on Cohen for the artwork. Since then Cohens distinctive aesthetic adorning the brewerys beer cans has become a driving force for the brand, as artist and brewery found success together. Theres a very symbiotic relationship, says Cohen, whose illustrations and comic book art are now featured in the New York Times and the New Yorker. Its been one of the largest collaborations Ive done. Thousands and thousands of cans with my art on it, which is crazy to think about. Ive been tagged in pictures from Israel, Europe, all over. Its really beautiful, and that would never have happened without the brewery. The cans are instantly recognizable on a shelf for their bright, expressive artwork that is often fairytale-like or highly geometric. His designs also appear on merchandise, from t-shirts and prints to skateboards and sticker sheets. While the collaboration speaks to the DIY spirit of so much of Hudson Valleys creative scene, Hudson Valley Brewery isnt alone in employing artists to lend their distinct style to a beer brand. From the emotive color-scapes on cans of Foreign Objects in Monroe to the loud, cartoonish art of Sloop Brewing in East Fishkill, the can has become more than a vehicle for branding; it has become a canvas. Recognizing the artist behind the label West Kill Brewing People have been wearing beer logos on t-shirts for decades, co-opting the iconic appeal of brands like Budweiser or PBR for their personal aesthetic. In recent years, however, breweries do more than simply hire a graphic designer; they promote the artist behind the label art. A lot more cans acknowledge the artist rather than saying its their proprietary brand, says Mike Barcone, co-founder and brewer at West Kill Brewing in the Catskills. Theres a lot more celebration of the artist. West Kill has worked with a handful of artists since it opened in 2017, but currently the labels are created by just two Steven Weinberg or Kelley Wills, depending on the brew. We really try to give as much license to the artist as possible, says Barcone. Kelleys work is very folk art driven, very Appalachian in its color scheme and style. It showcases the rustic feel of our beers. When you look Stevens painting, the art flows, its very soft those are for the soft palatable beers. Weinberg lives down the lane from the brewery with his wife, writer and designer Casey Scieszka, and together they run the Spruceton Inn. They were renovating the inn at the same time as Barcone and his wife and West Kill co-founder Colleen Kortendick were building the taproom; a collaboration was only natural. West Kill beers and merchandise are stocked in the bar at the Spruceton, and Weinberg has designed many of West Kills labels, including for longstanding favorite Kaaterskill IPA. Ive sold 400 or some of those prints, says Weinberg of the artwork that adorns IPA cans as well as peoples living room in frames. Its taken on a life of its own. The same as when someone buys a piece of art and wants to hang it on their wall, when I see someone holding up a can or tagging me in a post, Im flattered. The beer can as canvas offers a unique set of considerations and challenges for the artist from how well it translates onto merchandise to the complications of printing on metal. The process and production is always on my mind, says Weinberg, who also writes and illustrates childrens books. I think about the wrap. With the Kaaterskill it worked super well, being the tall boy, because you want a taller rectangle for the waterfall. It has a slightly metallic thing, too, so the white highlights really pop and catch the light. For Cohen, who has designed over 100 labels for Hudson Valley Brewery, the process is collaborative. I dont get to taste the beer, but Im given tasting notes, he says. Were matching color schemes, matching feelings. This is a light pilsner, so we want something light, fun and fresh, maybe a pattern that evokes playfulness; or its a dark stout and we want imagery with some intensity. I really appreciate how much freedom they let me have to bring in aspects of my personal work. Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter. Some HVB designs speak to grand concepts, like their trio of beers, The Three Unities, based on the Aristotelian principle outlined in the Greek philosophers book, Poetics. Each of the three beers in the series of Sour IPAs tells a different part of a narrative about a girl encountering the Tree of Knowledge, zooming out from her plucking the apple to the tree's place in the universe at large. It all becomes part of the experience. Theres a whole story were trying to tell, says Cohen. The art, the way you drink, the beer, the taste, the look of it." Art that stands out on the shelf West Kill Brewing The centrality of storytelling is part of why label art has evolved to be one of the most important elements of craft beer branding. Cans are more than just vessels for our neighborhood breweries, says Ann Obenchain, Marketing and Communications Director at the Brewers Association. Cans serve as a blank canvas for artistry, and discreet vehicle for marketing a craft brewerys personality, values, information, and competitive differentiators. There are more than 8,700 craft breweries in the U.S. all vying for shelf space and eyeballs, and label art can help differentiate a brand in a crowded market. Its also a conversation starter at a bar, and offers a reason to share an image on social media. With more small and independent craft beers available now than ever, says Obenchain, the paradox of choice is right at our fingertips and cans are an efficient way to build a brand and get consumers to reach for a specific product. For West Kill Brewing, merchandise represents upwards of 10 percent of their taproom sales. They spend anything from $250 to $2,000 on label art, with around 5 to 10 percent of their budget going toward promotional artwork and labels. But more than marketing, Barcone says the artwork speaks to the values of the brewery, and its those values which people who buy the prints or wear the t-shirts support. If you have great quality in the can, he says, you should have great quality outside the can as well. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBANY The man whose independent 2020 review found New York courts have a "second class system of justice" for people of color is endorsing Chief Judge Janet DiFiores plan to address the longstanding problem through an overhaul of the court systems antiquated structure. Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, whose report revealed what he called a "dehumanizing" and "demeaning" culture in New Yorks criminal, civil, family and housing courts, lauded DiFiores plan to consolidate New Yorks system of 11 trial courts the most in the country into a three-tiered system. DiFiore, who leads the state Court of Appeals, highlighted her plan in her recent State of the Judiciary address. The proposal would require an amendment to the state Constitution. It would need passage by two consecutively elected state Legislatures and approval from voters. In his endorsement, Johnson, who served as Homeland Security secretary under President Barack Obama, noted the need for support from state lawmakers and the governor. "All three branches of New York state government must commit to a major overhaul of our over-burdened, under-resourced, archaic and incomprehensibly complex court system," Johnson said in a statement. "The movement for court simplification, championed by Judge DiFiore and key leaders in the New York state Legislature, is an opportunity to address many of the inequities I noted in my report." Johnson's endorsement came as the chief judge named Albany County Family Court Judge Richard Rivera to co-chair of the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission, which promotes equal participation and justice for employees and litigants of color. Rivera is the first Latino elected to the bench in the Albany-based Third Judicial District. "Judge Rivera is a trailblazer who is widely recognized for his demonstrated commitment to the fair administration of justice and the eradication of systemic inequality," DiFiore said in a statement. Rivera will co-chair the commission with Manhattan Appellate Justice Troy Webber. Rivera, elected in 2014, replaces former co-chair, Associate Judge Shirley Troutman, who was recently appointed to the Court of Appeals. DiFiore, who first proposed the overhaul in 2019, commissioned Johnson to independently assess equality in New York's court system following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which led to nationwide conversations on inequities facing people of color in the justice system and other segments of society. Johnson's report, issued in October 2020, found that in the Third Judicial District (Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Columbia, Greene, Ulster and Sullivan counties) less than five percent of the districts judges were Black, even though the district's population was 10 percent Black. It found Latino judges comprised 1.6 percent of the judges in the district, where the Latino population was 8.3 percent. The district had no Asian judges, despite Asians comprising 4.1 percent of residents in the district. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. In the Schenectady-based Fourth Judicial District (Schenectady, Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Montgomery, Fulton, Clinton, Hamilton Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties), Black and Latino judges made up less than 2 percent of the district's judiciary in a district where the population was 4.6 percent Black and 4.5 percent Latino, the report said. Johnson, who is Black, is a 1982 graduate of Columbia Law School who sits on the university's board of trustees, is a partner at the Manhattan-based firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He has been a general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense, general counsel of the U.S. Air Force and a federal prosecutor in Manhattan. DiFiore's plan to overhaul the system is sponsored in legislation by state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Nassau County Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee in that chamber. The plan would turn all judges in county, family and surrogates courts, as well as the Court of Claims, into state Supreme Court justices on Jan. 1, 2025. Judges on the state's 61 upstate city court benches would join a new, statewide municipal court system that would include New York City civil and criminal courts and Long Island district courts in January 2030. Town and village courts would remain the same. DiFiore's plan faces opposition from the Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York, as well as the Supreme Court Justices of the City of New York.The organizations contend the plan would "centralize power over judges and courts" in the court system's administration. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBANY The phone rang shortly after 1 p.m. It was August 2014 and Cynthia Lanners was busy at home in Woodinville, Wash., wringing out the details of her daughter's upcoming wedding. She stopped what she was doing and answered the call. The man on the other end, a dean at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, sounded stressed, she remembered. "He said, Somethings happened to your son.'" Earlier that morning in Troy, Lanners son, 24-year-old Benjamin Llewellyn Lanners Ball, jumped off the roof of RPIs cafeteria building, clutching his driver's license and a business card for the universitys head of counseling services. By the time a campus worker found him, he had died, the dean told her. Lanners, who recalled almost calling her son the night before that, "lost it," she said. Suicide rates among 15-to-24 year olds have risen 51 percent over the last decade, according to the American College Health Association. A 2010 study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and University of South Carolina, found that roughly 1,100 students die by suicide every year. Last week, a report by the Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc., included an analysis revealing that there is no pending statewide legislation targeted at addressing mental health policies at colleges and universities. In a written statement, the association's CEO Glenn Liebman said, "The mental health crisis on college campuses has long been a pervasive issue, and it has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our study makes clear that more needs to be done at the state level to address this mounting problem affecting both public and private colleges and universities. Were urging New York state to take action and begin to develop a public policy response to provide the support and resources our college students need." Whats more, a review of state Assembly and Senate hearings on higher education indicated there havent been any hearings on the topic in over 10 years, the association noted. State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, who chairs the Senate higher education committee, disputed that information. "I held hearings in Albany, Stony Brook, Nassau Community College," she said. "At almost every hearing, students testified about mental health issues." Those meetings were open-ended in topic, the senator added. A finalized version of the state budget in 2021 granted $1 million each to CUNY and SUNY for mental health services. Stavisky said the amount was "totally inadequate" but called it "a start". Legislation amending university mental health policies, particularly forced leave of absences, which some schools have allegedly abused as a way to ban students from campus after they express thoughts of suicide, needs to be passed in the state budget, Stavisky said. "We certainly want to help the students," she said, noting its an issue lawmakers are discussing. The mental health association's report pointed to pertinent pieces of legislation that could pave the way for reform. A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, D-Manhattan, would establish a notice and consent form distributed to college students and guardians upon admission, authorizing universities to contact guardians of students identified as at-risk for suicide. Another would require teachers' colleges to provide instruction on mental health. But the report criticized those legislative items as barely enough, stating: "If there are discussions occurring around mental health on New Yorks college campuses, its not evident in the form of actively pending legislative initiatives." The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. Ball had previously graduated from RPI in 2012 with undergraduate degrees in physics and computer science. At the time of his death, he was on track to complete a PhD in computer science. Days before his death, a professor began to notice strange behavior. The studious Ball had stopped conducting research, prompting the professor to contact the school's counseling department to ask if they could check in on his student. When an official turned up at Balls apartment, they noticed he hadnt been bathing and had a disheveled appearance, tell-tale signs of depression. "They didnt feel that it was very serious," Lanners recounted. "Because theyve seen that kind of thing before." The official asked Ball to come into the counseling center. He signed himself up for an appointment shortly after. During his first session, a counselor asked Ball if he had any intention of harming himself. He said he did not and made arrangements to come back to the center. Days later, he died by suicide. From early childhood, it was obvious that Ball was born intellectually gifted, according to his family. In middle school, he decided to study Japanese, challenging himself to learn three different alphabets. In high school, he built a robot that could deliver a sandwich. As a college student, he was quiet and often kept to himself. He refrained from drinking alcohol or caffeine. He had to be forced into celebrating his 21st birthday, his mother said. After his death, his sister, Lia Ball, decided against postponing her wedding. Instead, shed asked his two best friends to be ushers in his place, escorting her best friend and maid-of-honor down the aisle. She placed a small photo of him in her bridal bouquet. Ball is buried in St. Paul, Minn., along with six generations of the Lanners family. In the years since, friends and family have gotten together to keep his memory alive, ensuring that he is remembered for much more than his death. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Viktoria Nikitchuk sought shelter with her two daughters in a basement in a hotel where she works in central Kyiv, with nowhere to flee, and Russian troops encircling the capital city of 2.8 million people. She is a 43-year-old divorced woman, trying her best to be a mother of courage for her daughters, Maria, 18, and Eugenia, 11. Im not sure my younger daughter understands the whole scope of the danger we are in. She spends her time reading and painting. My older daughter is aware of everything and is helping me work, Nikitchuk, 43, told me during a 25-minute phone conversation Sunday evening over WhatsApp. It was the fourth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began Thursday. They hauled mattresses and water and food to the basement. The dozen or so hotel employees and family members in hiding there are beginning to ration supplies. She figures they have enough to last a week. Only the cook goes upstairs for brief periods to prepare meals in the kitchen. Otherwise, they remain underground. We hear the bombing and know it is all around us. We are lucky it is not very close to our hotel yet, Nikitchuk said. Nikitchuk is a manager who evacuated guests on Thursday from another hotel that her company operates near the railway station in Kyiv. It was quite dangerous and we had to evacuate that hotel. Now we are stuck in this basement. We cannot leave. We cannot go outside. It is not safe, she said. They have not lost power and continue to have internet service, which allows them to keep in touch with loved ones and to monitor news about the war and the Russian Armys advance on Kyiv. She and her coworkers have three cars parked near the hotel. They originally planned to drive out of the capital and to join tens of thousands of refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine and crossed over into neighboring countries. We had enough room for everyone in the cars. We made a plan to leave together, but it is impossible now, she said. All roads out of Kyiv are blocked. I was connected to Nikitchuk by Viktoryia Baum, 39, of Albany, a state employee who works as a Russian linguist and translator. She and Nikitchuk were college classmates two decades ago in Poland, where Baum grew up. Viktoria is a remarkable person, Baum said. She is strong and resilient. She made her way from a remote village in Ukraine to study in Poland. That took courage. Baum has been busy trying to assist any way she can and to show solidarity for friends and former colleagues in Ukraine and Poland. More than 120,000 Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland, the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Saturday. I dont have the words to describe the situation, Baum said. It is quite a shock for so many people, here, there and everywhere. Nikitchuk derives strength from the others hunkered down in the basement with her. It helps to be in a group. We keep each other positive, she said. I am in contact with employees and friends who are staying at home alone. They are scared and in a panic. I think its worse to be by yourself. Nikitchuk and the others hiding in the basement are uplifted by messages of support and an outpouring of international support, along with economic sanctions imposed by many countries against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his unprovoked invasion against the sovereign nation of Ukraine. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. There is shock and anger over how this happened. No one could believe Russia would invade us, she said. Nobody believed we would fight back, either. We are so proud of what our Ukrainian Army is doing and how our citizens are resisting. Assistance in any form from the global community buoys her. To see what the Americans and Europeans and even Australians are doing for us means so much. It keeps us going, she said. As the eldest person in the basement and the senior manager at the hotel, Nikitchuk is rising to the occasion as a leader in a crisis in ways she never imagined. Still, she has fears she does not articulate to her daughters or the others. She worries about her elderly parents in central Ukraine. She worries about how long the limited supply of food and water will hold out. She worries about losing power and the internet connection. She worries about sustaining morale and her ability to boost spirits. We are holding on, but it has only been four days, she said. I hope the war will not last too long. It will be hard to keep people calm. Nikitchuks message to the outside world was simple. Please dont forget about us, she said. Keep supporting us. Stick with the sanctions. Keep fighting with us. Nikitchuk said their hotel is not fortified and they do not possess any weapons. We did nothing to start this war, she said. We just want it to end. Paul Grondahl is director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBANY The plaza in front of the state Capitol was a sea of blue and yellow on Sunday afternoon as demonstrators took to the streets to rally in support of Ukraine. Hundreds gathered in the foot-stomping chill to denounce Russian aggression and show support for the Ukrainian people, many of whom are taking up arms to defend their country. Like many other members of the Ukrainian community, Varvara and Andrey Meshkov of Niskayuna, have spent sleepless nights worrying about family members as the Russian military advances. Andrey said his 76-year-old father was recovering from surgery and is unable to hunker down in bomb shelters in Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. Ukrainians expected provocation, he said. But how the world is reacting (in solidarity) took us by surprise, Andrey said. It was a viewpoint echoed by multiple participants. Xrystya Szyjka pointed out the elected officials in attendance Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, state Assemblyman John T. McDonald and city Common Council member Owusu Anane among them and said their support was appreciated. That truly is important to us, Szyjka said. The crowd, many of them cloaked in Ukrainian flags, expressed a blend of outrage, patriotism and defiance as one speaker after another including clergy members and a retired U.S. Army colonel denounced the invasion and Russian President Vladimir Putin while holding signs that read #StandWithUkraine and Glory to the heroes. Tonko said lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are in the early stages of putting together an aid package for Ukraine. Last years package of $650 million in defense aid was historic, said Tonko, who called for the U.S. to set aside partisan differences and stand united. For example, Tonko's colleague, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, echoed what others in the GOP have done - denounced Russian's invasion, while also criticizing President Joe Biden's leadership. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. This is not a time for political difference, Tonko said. McDonald said Democratic lawmakers in the state Assembly are preparing to send a letter to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asking the state to immediately begin divesting from any company or individuals who are subject to economic sanctions by the federal government. The states Common Retirement Fund was invested in at least two Russian state-owned enterprises, Sberbank of Russia ($50.4 million) and Rosneft OJSC ($8.5 million), as of last March, according to materials provided by McDonald's office. Gov. Kathy Hochul also signed an executive order on Sunday halting state investments in Russia and related purchases. Roman Boyko, who was born in Ukraine, said sanctions are a worthy long-term solution. But he called for U.S. military support, contending the country is obligated to support the nation as a result of a 1994 agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum when Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear arsenal. The Russian cancer is going to keep spreading, Bokyo said. Whats so disappointing about Cambridge Central School Districts decision to go to court over its Indian mascot is what its not. Its not an investment in the communitys future. Cambridge taxpayers will be paying to fight the Department of Education in state Supreme Court. What else could that money have been put toward another teacher, a classroom aide, enhanced opportunities for students in music, the arts, science, civics? Its also not a goal to be proud of. Native American mascots and related imagery cause documented harm to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students alike. Either the school boards 3-2 majority chooses to reject that evidence, or they simply dont care. If the former, theyre living in a different reality. If the latter, theyre teaching their communitys children an ugly lesson. This isnt a noble cause or a David taking on Goliath. Its a defiant middle finger of identity politics. Just as its lost the moral high ground here, Cambridge will lose this fight in court and will have nothing to show for it. A check on health insurers Stethoscope, check. Exam gloves, check. Scissors for cutting through red tape? Health insurance procedures shouldnt interfere with the care doctors give their patients. A bill by state Sen. Neil Breslin would clear the path for doctors who have a good record of getting tests and procedures approved by insurance companies. Those doctors would get a Gold Star exemption that allows them to skip the prior authorization process and get their patients faster treatment. Insurers say prior authorization keeps medical costs down. But it can also adversely affect care. One-third of physicians in a recent American Medical Association survey said prior authorization led one of their patients to be hospitalized or permanently disabled or even contributed to the patients death. The procedure also saddles doctors with a load of paperwork, taking up time they could be using to care for the sick and injured. Were all for moving health care closer to what it should be: a consultation between a patient and their doctor not a patient, a doctor, and a health insurance claims adjuster. A laughable legal action Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter. Its hard to know what to make of the federal lawsuit recently filed by an Amsterdam ophthalmologist against the manager of a local butcher shop who asked him to put on a mask during a December visit except that its filing was good news indeed for those who say civil litigation has run amok. The suit filed by Dr. David Kwiat against Jason Houle of Primal: Your Local Butcher in Wilton appears to be nothing more than a long screed against mask mandates that would be better suited for a blog post to which the doctors friends and supporters could have pasted warm comments and emoji. But the minute he decided to put it in the form of a lawsuit seeking $250,000, his opinions become everyones problem. They are certainly a problem for Mr. Houle, whose employer deserves praise for covering the legal costs of what we expect will be a swift path to dismissal. Its up to a judge to decide whether Dr. Kwiat should face additional sanctions for filing a frivolous suit like picking up the tab for all concerned. While defending Confederate statues, Marjorie Taylor Greene said she is opposed to taking any down, even one of Hitler, because: Our history is our lessons and our lessons is how we learn to make our choices going forward. ... Its so that I could tell my children and teach others about who these people are, what they did and what they may be about. This may explain why Greene and so many others in my Republican Party have drawn ugly parallels relating to Hitler from mask mandates to the education of our children. Unfortunately, Greene and many of her congressional colleagues have either learned very little of Hitlers history or, worse yet, they choose to ignore it. They should be reminded that Hitler was a narcissistic demagogue who, when he lost a presidential election to Otto Von Hindenburg, claimed that he was stabbed in the back by a conspiracy of his political enemies and began a course of sedition and insurrection. Not long after Hitler lost the election, the Reichstag building, which housed the German congress, was burned to the ground. It was the Reichstag fire which gave Hitler and his Nazi Party the excuse they needed to take the power that the voters had denied him. His rationale for taking complete power was to bring security to the German people. The day after the fire, February 28, 1933, Hitler embarked on a course of enacting decrees and urging executive orders that eliminated all political opposition and began the merciless purge of his political enemies. The following month he opened his first concentration camp at Dachau, and in the years that followed he pursued his genocidal rampage. In Mein Kampf, Hitler spoke of the big lie ( Der groe Luge) the use of a lie so breathtaking that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Hitler used the big lie to not only blame Jews and communists for every ill, real or imaginary, that beset Germany including the Reichstag fire, but also as a device to frighten and divide the German people. Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter. You cannot reflect on this history without remembering the message delivered by George Washington in his farewell address. He warned of the demagogue who agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms to foment riot and insurrection. Our first president realized that this agitation and disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Our second president, John Adams, was also worried about the rise of a demagogue in this country. Shortly after the British burned down our Capitol building in 1814, Adams, responding to a letter that criticized him for not patriotically applauding the virtues of democracy, cautioned that vanity, pride, avarice or ambition were irresistible temptations to individuals that led to the subversion of democracy. In his words: Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy yet, that did not commit suicide. Sol Wachtler, a former chief judge of the New York state Court of Appeals, is a distinguished adjunct professor at Touro Law School. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBANY Nine women's organizations issued a statement Monday condemning an advertising blitz launched by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that seeks to cloud the conclusions of investigations that found he had sexually harassed or engaged in misconduct with multiple women. The groups said Cuomo, whose television ads are to begin appearing across New York this week, "is using campaign money to spread misinformation about the credibility of women who bravely came forward to report his abuses." Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, said the television ads his team dubbed "Politics vs. the Law" will point out that "five separate district attorneys rejected the findings of the (attorney general's) bogus report." But the district attorneys who declined to pursue criminal charges related to allegations that Cuomo had kissed, touched, groped or made inappropriate comments to women did not say they had "rejected the findings" of the Aug. 3 report by state Attorney General Letitia James' office. James released her report at a news conference during which she said that "multiple" state and federal laws had been violated. The prosecutors said the alleged victims' accounts were credible but that they did not support criminal charges under New York law. "We will continue to communicate the facts to New Yorkers: The (attorney general) knowingly and willfully ignored evidence of perjury, witness tampering and extortion, and hid exculpatory evidence when she misled the public last August," the statement issued by Azzopardi reads. The women's groups fired back, casting Cuomo as a serial sexual harasser they say continues to deny responsibility and has been waging a months-long campaign to discredit the women who came forward. "Multiple investigations have found the accounts of these women to be credible," the groups said in a statement. "The media should stop giving a platform to abusers like Cuomo. As evidenced by recent public polling, New Yorkers believe the women who bravely came forward about Cuomos abuse; they think Cuomo was right to leave office in disgrace. This attempt to claim exoneration wont work." The organizations signing the statement are: NY Birth Control Action Fund; Vote Mama; The Feminist Institute; WCLA - Choice Matters; Eleanors Legacy; NYC Black Women's Political Club; #VoteProChoice; Amplify Her and Women of Color for Progress. ALBANY New York Inspector General Lucy Lang, who has pledged to transform that office into a more transparent and independent entity, is appointing a lead counsel to a new position dedicated to coordinating investigations with the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Last year, nearly 60 percent of the complaints filed with the inspector general's office involved matters related to the corrections department, including incidents in prison facilities and matters involving parole supervision. "There is a tendency to respond to the complaints in front of us rather than looking at the whole universe," Lang said. "Given the working relationship, and given the internal talent, it seemed to me like there really was an opportunity to do something much bigger with our mandate to oversee corruption, fraud and abuse in DOCCS." In January, two months after Lang was appointed inspector general by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the office released a searing report that found drug tests in state prisons had been administered improperly, leading to the the potential improper discipline or extended sentences for roughly 1,600 inmates, including some who were placed in solitary confinement. The result was that there were "excessively punitive responses for people who it turns out, in fact, were not using drugs while they were incarcerated," Lang said. "That was the first investigation that I concluded when I came on as (inspector general). It reflected to me that ... we have actually a very strong working relationship with DOCCS, notwithstanding the fact that we are essentially their watchdog." Lang, a former longtime prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office, said leaders of DOCCS are embracing the establishment of the dedicated senior counsel position that will coordinate investigations, audits and compliance initiatives in the sprawling agency. DOCCS, with roughly 17,000 employees, operates 52 detention facilities holding more than 30,000 incarcerated individuals, and oversees the parole supervision of more than 31,000 former inmates. Last year, the inspectors general's office received more than 2,500 complaints related to DOCCS, ranging from cold food to excessive physical abuse. The complaints are filed by inmates, employees and others. "The appointment by the inspector general is expected to reinforce this historic working relationship, which has included regular information sharing, discussion of emerging issues and trends, and the promotion of best practices within the corrections system," the office said in a statement. Under the administration of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the inspector general's office had faced scrutiny for its lack of independence from the Executive Chamber, including allegations that the governor's office could preview and edit its reports before they were released. In addition, the office of the inspector general under Cuomo's administration routinely hid its investigations, including a 2019 probe of allegations that Cuomo had improperly received details on the private deliberations of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics The Times Union had reported that for years the inspector general's office had been selectively posting its final reports on a government website and shielding many others from the public even when the office substantiated allegations of serious misconduct by high-ranking state officials. The newspaper had also exposed that the inspector general's office had routinely summarized its findings of investigations in non-public letters sent directly to executive agencies, rather than issuing public reports. Lang has also been systematically posting many of those never-released reports and letters on the office's website, a process that is ongoing. "Since Ive taken office, when we put out letters we post them almost immediately. ... In my view, the distinction between letters and reports is not that its semantics, but were fulfilling a public mandate here," Lang said last week. "I dont subscribe to the notion that just because something is a letter it isnt something that warrants publication. ... We also are not intending to be in the business of seeking edits or clearing things through the Executive Chamber. I was appointed to be an independent inspector general." Members of the Ukrainian Community of Morgantown are scheduled to hold a protest of Russia's attack on their country today at 11 a.m. inside the Mouintainlair main lobby. Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Cynthia Schick (left), helped by Raven Edinger, collection technician, donated double red at the Community Blood Bank on Thursday at the Titusville YMCA. With a blood shortage, the Community Blood Bank is asking community members to donate twice this year. Gun rights advocates LOVE these kind of stories but the reality is that this kind of experience can be exceptionally traumatic and its often more complicated than they seem. However . . . Typically, justified homicides aren't reported to the FBI via UCR stats. Still, the uptick in Northland violence is worth considering . . . Here's the report . . . Homicide 3900 block of NW 85th Terrace This morning just after 9:30 AM, officers were dispatched on a disturbance in the 3800 block of NW. Barry Rd. As officers were arriving they were notified that there was a shooting in the 3800 block of NW. 85th Terrace. They immediately responded to the shooting which was in close proximity. Upon arrival they made contact with the homeowner who stated an armed intruder had broken into the residence and the homeowner shot the intruder. The officers observed the deceased victim, an adult male, inside of the residence. The homeowner is cooperating with Detectives. We do not believe there are any other suspects involved. Detectives and crime scene personnel have responded to the scene and are actively canvassing for witnesses and processing the scene for evidence. If you have any information please call the Homicide unit at 234-5043. If you wish to remain anonymous you can call the TIPS hotline at 474-TIPS. ############### Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . Armed intruder shot and killed by homeowner in KCMO KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- A man was shot and killed Sunday morning after a homeowner says they broke into their house. Police say there were called to a disturbance in the 3800 block of NW Barry Rd. around 9:30 Sunday morning. One dead in alleged home invasion near 85th Terrace KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City Police Department is investigating a shooting that killed one Sunday morning. Officers were dispatched to a shooting call in the block of 3800 block of NW. Terrace at Northland Heights apartment complex around 9:30 a.m. KCPD: Man kills alleged intruder at Northland apartment complex SOURCE: KMBC Kansas City, Missouri police say a man killed a person who he says was an armed intruder inside his Northland apartment Sunday morning. The apartments are on Northwest 85th Terrace off Northwest Barry Road and Green Hills Road. Developing . . . ravel agencies can be more user-friendly and take proactive steps to help travelers make flight changes or get travel credit or refunds. They can facilitate travelers resolve all of their flight queries and provide them with the best travel solutions, support, and services. (TRAVPR.COM) USA - February 25th, 2022 - With the Russia-Ukraine conflict started yesterday, the invasion will badly hit the tourism sector, which has already suffered huge setbacks or losses due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism to Ukraine has been affected badly with the airspace completely shut, and many airports like Kyiv Boryspil, Kherson, Kramatorsk, Mykolaiv, and others have been bombed by the Russian army. It has led to the cancelation of many international flights from the US, Britain, India, Canada, France, and Germany. Russia has also shut down some airspace to ensure security to its civil aviation. Besides, this may also be in a tit-for-tat against flight and economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the US, European countries, Japan and Australia. With this Ukraine crisis, the shadow of uncertainty and losses looms on summer travel demands of people for European locations for the 3rd year in a row after two years of the pandemic. The oil prices skyrocketed to reach a $100 barrel on Thursday, and travelers who will fly will have to pay a higher ticket price. What do Travelers need To Do At This Time? Travelers who have already booked tickets to European locations or Russia must remain updated on the latest news and events in Russia and Ukraine. They should avoid going to those places and cancel their flights. They must keep their travel plans on hold and avoid going to Crimea and Kyiv, Moldova, Belarus, or in Southern Russia. How can Travel Agencies deal with this crisis? Amid the escalating tensions between the two countries since 2014 that eventually led to this war, the tour and travel companies can reshape their marketing strategies and attract Russian travelers and others to visit their preferred destinations. In all crises, there lies hidden the golden seeds of opportunities that need to be carefully tapped for paving ones way to growth and success. Airlinetickworld https://www.airlineticketworld.com/ ### Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. Sponsored By: Dorsett Automotive Instant unlimited access to all of our content on triplicate.com. The Triplicate's E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street! This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers. (The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement) This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate During Black History Month, companies across Connecticut have touted their support of the African American community. But as many of the firms acknowledge, fulfilling those declarations requires year-round work. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of major firms have recognized they need to do more to tackle racial injustices and inequalities and make their organizations more diverse and inclusive. Initiatives such as a new fellowship program at hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates underscores the seriousness of those efforts, while colleges like the University of Connecticut said they are also working to diversify the pipeline of future professionals. In order to build that rich and deep understanding of the economies and markets, youve got to look at it from a wide variety of opinions and perspectives, Alan Bowser, Bridgewaters chief diversity officer, said in an interview. You need diversity of thought. Diversity is literally critical to the success of Bridgewater in our business mission. Taking action Westport-based Bridgewater, the worlds largest hedge fund, has recruited about 40 students for the inaugural class of its new Rising Fellows program. Black students account for the largest under-represented group in the cohort, while Bridgewater also sought applications from other students of color, women and students who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. All of them are first-year college students. The program comprises sessions held remotely on weekday evenings that started Feb. 14 and run until March 4. It aims to provide students an introduction to financial services, help them build skills to understand investing and the global economy, and allow them to apply their lessons through projects guided by Bridgewaters investment professionals. Subsequent opportunities for fellows will include invitations to Bridgewater events and speakers series. Fellows will also be eligible to participate in their sophomore year in the firms immersion program. This program is not a standalone within the suite of things Bridgewater does to build a talent pipeline, particularly a diverse talent pipeline, Bowser said. Its really designed to complement and work with the other things that we do. A number of other companies said they also see programs focused on college students as crucial to their diversity, equity and inclusion objectives. Our approach is multifaceted and includes developing relationships with student affinity groups, showcasing the advantages of a career at Xerox to students of color, investing in students from underrepresented segments through our partnership with (nonprofit) A Better Chance, partnering with a number of historically Black colleges and universities and leveraging our extensive alumni network within our current employee population, Justin Capella, a spokesperson for Norwalk-based information-technology provider Xerox, No. 415 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list, said in an email. In a highly competitive talent environment, it is essential to engage and cultivate relationships with minority students to build the next generation of leaders at the company. Corporate DEI programs have gained more attention since nationwide protests in 2020 in response to the killings of African Americans such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. A lot of companies are stepping up on the DEI front, Bob Day, associate dean for undergraduate programs, operations and information management in the University of Connecticuts School of Business, said in an interview. In the summer of 2020, a lot of people had a wake-up call on diversity. But it was kind of happening before then, too. Companies were asking us about access to talent in the diversity space and asking, Students from underrepresented groups, how do we get them recruited? Among other recently launched undertakings, Stamford-based Synchrony, No. 187 on the Fortune list and the countrys largest provider of private-label and store-brand credit cards, last May announced a $50 million initiative to support higher education, workforce training and financial literacy for its workforce and underserved communities. Our focus on equity, diversity, inclusion and citizenship (EDIC) has expanded exponentially to become business as usual across Synchrony, Michael Matthews, Synchronys chief diversity and corporate responsibility officer, said in an email. Its part of our culture, and its how we operate. We elevated EDIC to one of our key strategic imperatives, with board-level accountability. We enter 2022 even more committed to pursuing equality, diversity and inclusion. More work to be done Despite the increasing focus on DEI initiatives, many companies still have workforces that are more racially and ethnically homogeneous than the country as a whole. Nationwide, about 60 percent of the population were white alone and not Hispanic or Latino, 19 percent were Hispanic or Latino, 13 percent were Black or African American alone, 6 percent were Asian alone, 3 percent were two or more races and 1 percent were American Indian or Alaska native alone, according to 2021 U.S. Census Bureau data. In Bridgewaters current workforce, 27 percent identify as members of minority groups including 3.5 percent who are Black or African American employees, 7 percent who are Hispanic or Latinx, 15 percent who are Asian and 1.5 percent who are members of other minority groups, according to the firms data. We didnt get to the demographic profile of this industry overnight, and were not going to change it overnight, Bowser said. You have to build programs that are sustainable and that will build talent pools and impact hiring over the long term. And thats why we think programs like Rising Fellows are so important. Xerox reported that among its new hires in 2020 in the U.S., about 65 percent were white, 15 percent were Black, 11 percent were Hispanic or Latino and 6 percent were Asian. Among Synchronys U.S.-based employees, 43 percent are non-white including 20 percent who are Black, 12 percent who are Hispanic and 8 percent who are Asian, according to company data. Now more than ever, I believe both candidates and employees want to work for organizations that fully embrace equity, diversity and inclusion, Matthews said. Commitments are no longer enough. Businesses that take action to drive cultural and systemic change throughout their entire organizations will have a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent. At UConn, students who identify as members of minority groups comprise 38 percent of the student population at the universitys flagship campus in Storrs, according to university data. Officials in the universitys School of Business said they are committed to not only recruiting more students from racial and ethnic minority groups and other underrepresented groups, but also making sure those students feel included after they enroll. With every minority student who has registered and is coming into the School of Business, I call them personally and welcome them, Alfy Roby, interim director of the School of Business Office of Diversity Initiatives, said in an interview. The charge is not only to connect them, but also retain them through the connectivity of the activities and initiatives that we put together. I want people to say, I like the business school. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; Twitter: @paulschott This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TRUMBULL Though Monday represented a seismic shift in COVID-19 protocols at many schools, including those in Trumbull, Gary Kunschaft said it felt like any other day. Kunschaft is principal at Daniels Farm School, which, like all Trumbull Public Schools, went mask optional starting Monday. Trumbull Superintendent of Schools Martin Semmel confirmed the end of the mask mandate last week. Originally, students were supposed to still be required to wear masks on the school bus, but Semmel said, as of Monday morning, masks were optional on buses as well. Despite the new policy, Kunschaft said, things were business as usual in Daniels Farm on Monday. The first day without mandatory mask-wearing went very well, he said. One wouldnt know that there was a change, as students came into school as happy and prepared to learn as always. Families and staff were glad to have the option to wear or not wear a mask. Kunschaft wouldnt say what percentage of the school population opted to go maskless as it would potentially put pressure on the masked or un-masked. Semmel said school staff would not be counting the number of staff and students who chose to go maskless. At Daniels Farm, Kunschaft said, staff members were ready to help students who might experience anxiety due to the change but we did not find this necessary. Things also went smoothly at Hillcrest Middle School, said principal Bryan Rickert. There were no issues at all, he said. Kids, as they have been since March 2020, rose to the occasion. He said, anecdotally, it appeared that 35 to 45 percent of people at the school were wearing masks on Monday, and everyone seemed to treat each other with dignity, regardless of whether they wore a face covering. I made an announcement this morning to be respectful of each others mask choice, Rickert said. Officials have been hammering home the point of respecting other peoples decisions for a while. As part of his message confirming the lift of the mask mandate, Semmel said teachers and staff will reinforce that mask choice is a personal one and that mean-spirited behavior around those choices is not acceptable in our schools. Kunschaft emphasized respect at Daniels Farm as well. We will continue to teach students that individuals have the right to make choices that best suit their needs and beliefs, he said. We respect this ideal and treat each other kindly, as who we are on the inside is much more important than what we look like on the outside. Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine has already led to a significant influx of refugees to the EU countries neighboring Ukraine, with the European Union and its national governments doing everything possible to help these people. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said this at a press conference in Brussels on February 27 following an extraordinary meeting of the EU Council of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "We need to support people affected by the conflict and in need of humanitarian aid. [] In just a few days after Putin launched this aggressive invasion of Ukraine, more than 300,000 Ukrainians have left the EU. Most of them have biometric passports and can stay here for 90 days without visas, many people stayed with their relatives, a small number sought refuge. But this situation may change, and we must be prepared for the arrival of many more people," she said. She stressed that the European Commission is ready to provide targeted assistance to EU countries where mainly Ukrainian refugees go, including Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary. Fighter aircraft are flying to Ukraine from Belarus. According to Ukrinform, the State Special Communications Service reported this on Telegram. "Fighter aircraft from Belarus are now flying towards Ukraine," the statement said. The State Special Communications Service has published a video from Zhlobino (Gomel region), which shows the flight of the aircraft. Russian troops tried to build a pontoon crossing over the Irpin River near the village of Demydiv. The enemy's equipment was destroyed, and the attempt to capture the city of Irpin was repulsed, Ukrinform reports, with reference to the data of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "In Polissia, in the direction of Kyiv, the enemy is trying to resume the offensive by building a pontoon crossing over the Irpin River near Demydiv. Another attempt by the invaders to capture the city of Irpin was unsuccessful. The Ukrainian defense forces have destroyed the enemy's new enemy," the General Staff said. Ukrinform reported earlier that on February 27 in Irpin, Kyiv region, an attack by Russian troops was repulsed. On February 25, a bridge over the Irpin River was blown up in the village of Demydiv, Kyiv region. President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed Ukraine's membership in the European Union with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Also had a phone conversation with Ursula von der Leyen. Talked about concrete decisions on strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities, macro-financial assistance and Ukraine's membership in the EU, Zelensky posted on Twitter. Earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky agreed on further joint steps to counter the aggressor with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson and President of Poland Andrzej Duda. Russian president Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. ol The wounded were reported as the Russian aggressor has been firing on women and children who evacuate through humanitarian corridors. "Russia is firing on humanitarian corridors, in spite of everything, ignoring our requests to allow for the evacuation of women, children, orphans, and people with limited mobility. As a result, there are wounded civilians," Deputy Prime Minister Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said, the Ministrys press service informs. It is especially horrible as these people once considered Russians their brothers and sisters, said Vereshchuk. They are shocked by what is happening, by the way they come under ruthless and unashamed fire from Grad systems. I know what a wound it is for them, what a pain. We will go through all this together, and they understand that. And they really want to live in their country, have shelter, confidence in their safety, understand that they will never be killed by Russians or other enemies," said the minister. According to the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the enemy is destroying houses, hospitals, kindergartens, and schools with unprecedented brutality. In particular, a child was killed and four others (two children and two adults were injured) in the artillery shelling of the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv. A Russian sabotage-reconnaissance group shot a car on Olena Teliha Street in Kyiv, with a family with three children inside. The girl and her parents died, two other children are in critical condition in hospital. According to Commissioner Denisova, the enemy shelled an ambulance near Kherson, burning a driver and a wounded Ukrainian soldier. In the Okhtyrka district of Sumy region, Russian tanks shot down a bus with civilians. The Russian military do not let ambulances go. General practitioners walk to an outpatient clinic to provide medical care to the victims. Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Denisova also informed that Russian military fired on the car of a citizen journalist near the village of Zelenivka in Kherson region. As an artillery shell hit a high-rise building at 40a Buchma Street in Kharkiv, a woman was killed and 60 people in the basement were rescued by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. It is noted that a bus, which came under fire from the aggressor's troops near the village of Volokhiv Yar in Kharkiv region, 5 people were killed and 6 more were injured. After heavy artillery shelling, 47 civilians were taken to Mariupol hospitals, including 17 people in critical condition. In Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, the enemy fired on an orphanage. Russian president Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. ol The Government of Australia imposed personal sanctions on president and several members of the Russian government, as well as supported the removal of Russian banks from SWIFT. We are holding Russian President Vladimir Putin to account for his egregious unjustified war against Ukraine. From midnight last night, Australian targeted financial sanctions and travel bans came into effect on the Russian President and remaining permanent members of Russias Security Council: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, and Internal Affairs Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, reads the statement by PM of Australia. As noted, Australia also will work with NATO and our other partners to provide lethal as well as non-lethal military equipment, medical supplies, and financial assistance to support the people of Ukraine. As an immediate measure, Australia will contribute US$3 million to NATOs Trust Fund for Ukraine to support non-lethal military equipment and medical supplies. Details of Australias contribution of lethal military equipment are being worked through with our partners and will be announced soon. While we expect that the SWIFT measures as announced will be implemented at a global level, we will take complementary steps as required, the PM of Australia added. As reported, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with the people of Ukraine and announcing removal of a number of Russian banks from global payments messaging system, freeze of Russias Central Bank assets, etc. Personal sanctions against Russian president Vladimir Putin were also announced. Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. ol The enemy does not currently control any of the key regional centers in Ukraine. "The enemy does not control any cities that are key regional centers. We completely repel the enemy on all fronts. At night there were air raids, bombing attempts. Our air defense systems repelled all means of destruction that were flying towards Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, over Cherkasy. Mariupol was shelled. There were some attempts to aggravate the situation around Kherson, Mykolayiv, but our Armed Forces hold the line courageously," Fedir Venislavsky, Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence (Servant of the People faction) said on the air of Ukraine 24 TV channel, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. He noted that starting positions for negotiations with Russia, the arguments that the Ukrainian side has at its disposal are very important and make us stronger. According to him, Ukraine sets to destroy the enemy by all means if the negotiations yield negative results. As reported, following a conversation between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, it was agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with Russia without any preconditions on Ukraine-Belarus border near the Prypyat River. According to the press service of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Lukashenko took responsibility for the fact that "for the time of travel, negotiations and return of the Ukrainian delegation, all aircraft, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory will remain on the ground." Earlier, former minister of defense of Ukraine, head of the Center for Defense Strategies Andriy Zahorodniuk said that the self-proclaimed government of Belarus was most likely to decide on the participation of its armed forces in the war with Ukraine in the near future. Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the losses of the Russian army currently total about 4,500 people. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. ol Cyprus has closed its airspace to Russian aircraft. "NOTAM was issued at midnight on February 28 to close the airspace for Russian aircraft," Minister of Transport of Cyprus Yiannis Karousos posted on Twitter. The minister clarified that Cyprus had closed the sky to Russian aircraft in accordance with the EU decision. Nicosia agreed to this step subject to the closure of European airspace for Russian aircraft due to Russia's attack on Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the European Union was closing its airspace to all Russian aircraft, including private jets. Earlier, a number of European countries closed the skies for Russian airlines upon their own initiative. Russian president Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of all Ukrainian people, courageously resist the Russian aggression. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the losses of the Russian army currently total about 4,500 people. ol New Zealand will allocate $2 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine to support health facilities and provide food and hygiene items for the population. "It is deeply disturbing to hear reports of the growing numbers of deaths and injuries from this conflict. The harrowing and horrific images of displaced or suffering civilians in Ukraine speak volumes of this unfolding tragedy, and underlines the consequences of Russia's unprovoked aggression," Foreign Minister of New Zealand Nanaia Mahuta said, Ukrinform reports citing Radio New Zealand. As noted, the funding will go towards supporting health facilities on the ground and providing basic needs such as food and hygiene items. Mahuta repeated New Zealands call for Russia to cease military operations in Ukraine, immediately withdraw, and return to diplomatic negotiations to de-escalate the conflict. Russian president Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of all Ukrainian people, courageously resist the Russian aggression. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the losses of the Russian army currently total about 4,500 people. ol Facebook parent company Meta says it has uncovered Russian efforts to undermine trust in the Ukrainian government and a separate attempt to hack Ukrainian military officials and journalists using its platform, according to NPR. The company said that the two separate campaigns were both small in scale and caught in the early stages. The first campaign involved a network of about 40 accounts, pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram, operated in Russia and Ukraine. They used fake personas, including computer-generated profile pictures, to masquerade as independent news outlets and posted claims about Ukraine being a failed state. The focus of the efforts appeared to be driving traffic to the network's own websites, Meta said. The company said it had removed the accounts and blocked the associated websites. Separately, Meta said it has seen a surge in hacking attempts of Ukrainians in recent days. It tied some to a Belarusian-connected effort known in cybersecurity circles as "Ghostwriter," which has previously been blamed for cyberattacks in other European countries. Meta says Ghostwriter has been trying to hack the accounts of high-profile Ukrainians, including military officials, journalists and public figures, although it didn't identify any individuals. The company has alerted the "handful" of Ukrainians who have been targeted recently and is blocking the domains the hackers use in their phishing attempts. "It's a sign that while these actors are trying to run these types of influence operations, they're getting caught sooner and they're not reaching the audiences that they would have reached even a few years ago," said Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta's head of security policy. Russian terrorists have made an attempt at physically eliminating a number of Ukrainian government members, which has failed everyone is alive and continues performing their duties. Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence Fedir Venislavsky (Servant of the People faction) spoke about this on Russias Echo of Moscow Radio, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. Yes, there is such a goal (the assassination of the top leadership of Ukraine - ed.), it is known to us. The priority target for Russias specops forces is President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, No. 2 target is his family, and target No. 3 is all of Ukraines top leadership, including people's deputies and ministers. According to my information, there were attempts by Russian terrorists to physically eliminate our ministers, but everyone is alive, everyone is well, and everyone is working, Venislavsky said. He did not specify which ministers he was talking about and when he spoke about the assassination attempts. More than 400 mercenaries with the Wagner Private Military Company are reported to be operating in Kyiv, ordered by the Kremlin to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government and set stage for a Russian takeover, The Times earlier reported. As many as 16 children have been killed and 45 more have been wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a video address posted on Telegram on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. "Ukrainians have shown the world who we really are. Russia has shown what it has turned into. Just think, over the course of Russian invasion, 16 Ukrainian children were killed and 45 children were wounded in Russian shelling in just four days, the President said. He stressed that every crime and every shelling committed by the Russian troops against Ukrainians unites citizens of Ukraine and its international partners. Russia had not believe in such a solidary and powerful reaction, but the Ukrainians changed this history, Zelensky added. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine and launched a large-scale invasion. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. iy The Lithuanian government has decided to appeal to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court with the request to investigate crimes committed by Russia and Belarus in Ukraine. That's according to Delfi, Ukrinform reports. Lithuanian Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska said it had been proposed to contact the prosecutor to provide information so that the prosecutor could "check it" and launch an investigation. "The prosecutor's office received a notice with the request to investigate the situation in Ukraine regarding war crimes committed by Russia and Belarus under Article 8 of the Rome Statute and crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute. The International Criminal Court will raise the issue of the responsibility of specific decision-makers this is Putin and Lukashenko," she said. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of an invasion of Ukraine. Martial law was imposed in the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree declaring general mobilization. In response to the difficult situation in which Ukrainian citizens found themselves as a result of Russian aggression, the European Commission today announced the disbursement of another EUR 90 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to all those who need it. That's according to a statement published on the website of the European Commission on Monday, February 28, Ukrinform reports. "The Commission has announced an additional EUR 90 million for emergency aid programs to help civilians affected by the war in Ukraine, as part of an urgent aid appeal by the United Nations. The funding will help people inside Ukraine and in Moldova. This new EU humanitarian aid will provide food, water, health, shelter and help cover their basic needs," the statement said. At the same time, the European Commission is also coordinating the delivery of material assistance via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to Ukraine, with offers from currently 20 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands which includes 8 million essential medical care items and civil protection support. A first truck load from Slovenia arrived in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on February 27. Moldova has activated the Mechanism to support Ukrainians arriving to their country. Already Austria, France and the Netherlands offered emergency support such as shelter items and medical assistance to Moldova. According to the statement, the European Commission is in constant contact with other neighboring countries of Ukraine and stands ready to provide further assistance as requested. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion of the country. For the fourth day, Russian troops are shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities, with missiles hitting the homes of Ukrainians. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was declared. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of all the people, courageously resist aggression and inflict heavy losses on Russian invaders. The European Commission estimates that more than 300,000 refugees from Ukraine have already arrived in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Russian artillery fired on residential districts in Severodonetsk, killing a woman and injuring several other civilians. Head of the Luhansk Regional Military and Civil Administration Serhiy Haidai wrote on Facebook, Ukrinform reports. According to Haidai, a 54-year-old woman was killed as a Russian shell hit her apartment. Another woman suffered shrapnel wounds and was taken to the hospital, her health condition is moderate. A man with a shrapnel wound was also hospitalized in critical condition. Windows were broken in six building. The gas pipeline was damaged.In addition, there was a direct hit on the car. As reported, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine and launched a large-scale invasion. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced As reported, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. iy More than 300 high-ranking officers of the Russian army have been already killed in the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. Oleksiy Arestovych, a freelance adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President's Office, announced this on the Current Time TV channel, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. "According to information available to me, more than 300 high-ranking officers of the Russian army (majors, lieutenant colonels) were killed as of todays morning. This was due to our artillery and aircraft that had repeatedly hit the headquarters of units and subdivisions advancing here," he said. According to Arestovych, Russian troops are advancing in the area of Irpin along the Zhytomyr highway towards Kyiv. He said that he had received a photo showing more than a hundred burned vehicles of the Russian army targeted by the Ukrainian artillery. As reported, the total estimated losses of the enemy between February 24 and February 28 as of 06:00 are: aircraft - 29, helicopters - 29, tanks - 191, armored combat vehicles - 816, guns - 74, Buk air defense systems - 1, Grad multiple launch rocket systems - 21, vehicles - 291, tanks - 60, UAVs - 3, ships/boats - 2, air defense means - 5, personnel - about 5,300 (to be specified). iy The European Union wants to see Ukraine in, and this will happen over time. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a corresponding statement in an interview with Euronews. " We have a process with Ukraine that is, for example, integrating the Ukrainian market into the single market. We have very close cooperation on the energy grid, for example. So many topics where we work very closely together and indeed over time, they belong to us. They are one of us and we want them in," said von der Leyen, when asked whether Ukraine should be granted EU candidate status. The official also stressed that the European Union had extremely strong solidarity with Ukraine. If you look at the refugees who are accepted in the European Union, the financial support, and now the supply of military equipment, all this shows deep solidarity with Ukraine. They share our values. They defend our principles. Ukrainians want to live in a peaceful democracy, and Russia is attacking them. That is why they deserve our full solidarity, and they have it," von der Leyen said. President of the European Commission noted that the European Union imposed a series of harsh financial and economic sanctions on Russia, greenlighted arms supplies to Ukraine, and ban Russian propaganda channels Russia Today and Sputnik. In addition, the EU is also expanding sanctions against Belarus, she added. Earlier, President of Poland Andrzej Duda said at a joint press conference with the presidents of Ukraine and Lithuania that Ukraine deserved to receive the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union, and Poland and Lithuania would do everything possible for that. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the European Union was closing the airspace to all Russian aircraft, including private jets. Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure. Missiles hit residential buildings. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. ol Let me, first of all, thank all of you for your solidarity and your support. I would like to speak about the negative importance of illusions. And let me give you three eventual illusions, which are very clear for me. First of all, some people in the West overestimate the strength of Russia and underestimate the strength of Ukraine. Im afraid many politicians believe Ukraine will have to surrender. But, in this case, too many politicians will propose that the neutral status of Ukraine will be the best golden mean to put an end to the so-called Ukrainian crisis. But this is precisely what Putin officially demanded in the beginning. So, in this case, Putin will win. So, be aware of that. Another illusion is that Putin will stop at the Polish border. Yesterday, one friend, one German friend of mine told me that there is a presupposition among many Germans that Putin will stop at Polish borders. He indeed might stop the movement of Russian troops. However, he wont stop demanding that NATO returns to its position before 1989. He actually did that a few weeks ago. And then well be Europeans dreaming that Putins appetite will be satisfied when Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania will be back to the restored USSR. So, there is no end. Evil has to be stopped, because evil doesnt stop itself. The third illusion, there is an illusion, that a catastrophe will happen when the West helps Ukraine with all its means. Some people suggest that the Third World War will be close in this case. But the reality is opposite, the catastrophe would happen when Putins regimes manage to include Ukraine back to its empire. So again, this is illusion that Putin will be satisfied. So let me finish with citation, the famous citation of Benjamin Franklin. And I love this citation: Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. So let me change one word here: Those who are ready to give up essential values to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. So we are people of faith, and we know the importance of values. I cannot imagine Jesus saying: Look, Synedrion is very strong. We have to respect its interest, its fear of influence, and so on. It was Judas who insisted on that. But Jesus didnt sacrifice values even at his own expense as a sacrifice. So, please tell people in the West: Dont be like Judas! Source: Myroslav Marynovychs speech in Discussion about the current situation in Ukraine. The discussion took place within the Annual International Conference Series within a broad theme titled Integral Human Development in the Digital Age. About the author: Myroslav Marynovych is a vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, social activist, co-founder of Amnesty International Ukraine, and a founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. Former Soviet prisoner of conscience from Ukraine Ukraine welcomes the decision of the overwhelming majority of the UN Security Council members, according to which an extraordinary special session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's invasion of Ukraine will begin on February 28. According to Ukrinform, this was stated in the comments issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Ministry said that from February 28, all UN member states will be able to discuss in details the situation around a phenomenon thats unprecedented for the 21st century a full-scale war that Russian Federation has launched in central Europe. Read also: Ukraine convenes emergency special session of UN General Assembly "The first result of this important session for our country should be an adoption of UN General Assembly resolution with clear signals to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine and restore peace by ceasefire and withdrawal of troops from Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, as well as a number of other important signals, including in the humanitarian sphere," the Foreign Ministry said. Ukrainian diplomats noted that this step would no longer allow Russia, which has abused its veto power in the Security Council with impunity for years, to block the adoption of this important international document for Ukraine. "We are also looking forward to the next meeting of the UN Security Council on February 28, to discuss the humanitarian needs of the civilian population in Ukraine," the Foreign Ministry said. As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Sunday, the UN Security Council supported the decision to convene a special session of UN General Assembly on Monday to adopt a resolution on bringing Russia to justice for its aggression against Ukraine. During the vote in the Security Council, only the Russian delegation spoke against it. Hungary will not allow lethal weapons for Ukraine to transit its territory. According to Reuters, the relevant statement was made by Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. The reason for making this decision is that such deliveries might become targets of hostile military action and ... we have to ensure the security of Hungary ... that we are not getting involved in that war, Szijjarto said. He also mentioned that Hungary would send neither troops nor weapons to Ukraine. Earlier, the Government of Hungary transferred the first batch of humanitarian aid for Zakarpattia Region, consisting of 100 tonnes of fuel and 23 tonnes of food products. A reminder that, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting a war. mk | By Charles Schelle Youth REACH (Reach Out, Engage, Assist and Count to end Homelessness) MD is launching its fourth survey and census of youth and young adults who are on their own and experiencing homelessness and housing instability across the state. The survey helps identify the number of youth experiencing homelessness and seeks to understand both their experiences and the kind of support services they need. State and local agencies and service providers use the information gathered through the survey to develop and improve policies, services, and interventions to better meet the needs of young people, and to focus resources on ending and preventing youth homelessness in Maryland. Across Maryland, thousands of youth and young adults are living on their own and experiencing homelessness and housing instability, unsure of where they will sleep each night. Homelessness exists for a variety of reasons, including systemic and institutional barriers such as a lack of safe and affordable housing, poverty, and structural racism. Additionally, youth may experience homelessness after leaving an abusive or dangerous living situation, the incarceration or disability of a caregiver, or being rejected by family for their gender identity or sexual orientation. Some youth are particularly vulnerable to experiencing homelessness, including those who have been involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. Youth REACH MD is a partnership of community organizations in each participating region of the state that elevates the voices of youth experiencing housing instability, said Michelle Zabel, MSS, Associate Dean and Executive Director of The Institute for Innovation and Implementation. We need youth to know that their voices count because the most effective solutions for the challenges they face are the ones they help to create and implement. Youth REACH MD is an ongoing effort, funded by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) with the support of the Maryland General Assembly and coordinated by The Institute for Innovation and Implementation (the Institute) at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. A steering committee, with representation from all participating jurisdictions, guides the administration of the survey across the state. Within participating jurisdictions, community groups work closely with youth ambassadors to develop outreach methods to effectively identify youth. Youth REACH MD is gathering data across the state in order to develop solutions that can meet the needs of youth wherever they are in Maryland. These critical insights help our agency and our partners to develop effective strategies to prevent and end homelessness among youth and young adults, said Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Kenneth C. Holt. Youth REACH MD was one of the countrys first statewide surveys of youth experiencing homelessness. They undertook Marylands first-ever survey of youth experiencing homelessness in 2015, identifying almost 1,000 unaccompanied youth and young adults in six participating jurisdictions. With each successive count, more jurisdictions across Maryland have participated and the strategies employed to accurately identify and survey youth have been refined. Consistent, repeated surveying of youth experiencing homelessness provides federal, state, and local constituencies with an ongoing way to track their progress in meeting the needs of youth and young adults experiencing housing instability. The findings of Youth REACH MD have been consistent with other initiatives and studies: youth experiencing homelessness often attend school, earn income, and are resilient and resourceful, finding places to sleep by staying with friends, family, or acquaintances on a short-term basis and moving from place to place, known as couch-surfing. However, many of the youth identified through the Youth REACH MD count do not access traditional homeless services, making it challenging to identify and accurately assess the number, characteristics, and needs of youth experiencing homelessness. Youth REACH MD elevates the voices of youth and young adults who may not otherwise be counted through a traditional service delivery system. "In my work with young people over the past decade as a legislator, I have learned how important it is to put our youth at the center of the conversation and give them a voice, and that's what Youth REACH MD does. Their leadership on youth issues ensures critical public resources, programs, and policies for ending homelessness are coordinated across the state to best support those who need them most, said Senator Mary Washington, representing the 43rd District in Baltimore City. She has long been a vocal advocate for youth experiencing homelessness as the Co-Chair for both the Joint Committee on Ending Homelessness and the Joint Committee for Children Youth and Families. She was also the lead sponsor of the bill that both created and funded the Youth REACH MD count. The Continuum of Care in each of the participating jurisdictionsdesigned to provide community-wide support to ending homelessnessselects a two-week period between March 1, 2022 and April 30, 2022 in which to conduct the survey and coordinates the local effort. March 1-14: Anne Arundel County and Howard County March 7-20: Baltimore County and Harford County March 14-27: Mid-Shore (Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Annes, and Talbot Counties) March 21-April 3: Lower Shore (Wicomico, Worcester, and Somerset Counties), Southern Maryland (St. Marys, Calvert, and Charles Countys), and Washington County March 27-April 9: Montgomery County March 28-April 10: Baltimore City and Prince George's County April 3-16: Carroll County April 4-17 : Allegany County and Frederick County April 17-30: Cecil County and Garrett County Information on each of the counts, including local contact information and links to Youth REACH MDs Facebook page, can be found by visiting www.youthreachmd.com. After completion of the 2022 Youth REACH MD Youth Count, the Institute and DHCD will issue a report with findings and recommendations to address youth homelessness in Maryland. For more information, visit youthreachmd.com, and follow #YouthReachMD on Instagram. MEDIA: To link up with and interview community members and/or Youth Ambassadors who are administering the survey, please contact Senior Media Relations Specialist Charles Schelle at 443-717-2591 or email cschelle@umaryland.edu -END- The Institute for Innovation & Implementation (The Institute), founded in 2005, is a part of the University of Maryland School of Social Work. The Institute is committed to building research-based, innovative, sustainable, and transformative youth-and family-serving systems and services, and to develop the capacity of the workforce within these systems. We do this work in partnership with government agencies, health care providers, and community-based organizations in order to improve outcomes for and with youth and their families. For more information about The Institute, visit www.theinstitute.umaryland.edu. Founded in 1807, the University of Maryland, Baltimore is Marylands only public health, law, and human services university, dedicated to excellence in education, research, clinical care, and public service. UMB enrolls 6,500 students in six nationally ranked professional schools medicine, law, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, and social work and an interdisciplinary Graduate School. The university provides more than $40 million each year in uncompensated care to Maryland citizens, and receives more than $500 million in extramural research funding annually. For more information about the University of Maryland, Baltimore, visit www.umaryland.edu. Mr President, Greetings from Geneva. Today and in recent days, you have heard that the United Nations humanitarian organizations, together with their NGO partners, have remained in Ukraine. Let me start by saying how proud I am that we decided to do so, just like we did in Afghanistan a few months ago. But naturally, as we just heard, our colleagues on the ground like the rest of the civilian population are now caught up in this deadly conflict. Many of them were relocated and military attacks might force them to move again. Yet they are still striving to deliver help to people in need whenever a small window of relative security allows for humanitarian aid to be distributed working with partners, including, especially, national NGOs, often in extremely dangerous circumstances. But we know that we are not even scratching the surface to meet the needs of Ukrainians, including an unknown but surely very substantial number who have been forced to flee their homes over the past days. The situation is moving so quickly, and the levels of risk are so high by now, that it is impossible for humanitarians to distribute systematically the aid, the help that Ukrainians desperately need. I therefore echo as well the urgent call made by the Secretary-General, and just a few minutes ago by the Emergency Relief Coordinator and by others indeed: civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected and spared, and humanitarian access must be granted for those delivering aid to those impacted by war. A failure to do so will compound the already extraordinary levels of human suffering. Mr President, In addition to the grave situation inside Ukraine, and as Martin just told us, hundreds of thousands are seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. They need safety and protection, first and foremost, but also shelter, food, hygiene and other support; and they need it urgently. As we speak, there are 520,000 refugees from Ukraine in neighbouring countries. This figure has been rising exponentially, hour after hour, literally, since Thursday. I have worked in refugee crises for almost 40 years and I have rarely seen such an incredibly fast-rising exodus of people the largest, surely, within Europe, since the Balkan wars. Over 280,000 have fled to Poland. Another 94,000 to Hungary, nearly 40,000 are currently in Moldova; 34,000 in Romania, 30,000 in Slovakia; tens of thousands in other European countries. We are also aware that a sizeable number have gone to the Russian Federation. I want to commend the governments of receiving countries for allowing refugees access to their territory. The challenge to admit and register, to meet the needs and ensure the protection of those fleeing, are daunting, but so far they have been met, though I am seriously concerned about the likely, and further escalation in the number of arrivals. Mr President, we may have just seen the beginning. So my message today is one of gratitude to the governments of Ukraines neighbours, and also through them my heartfelt thanks to the citizens of those countries. Ordinary Poles, Hungarians, Moldovans, Romanians, Slovaks and citizens of other European countries have undertaken extraordinary acts of humanity and kindness. This is the humanitarian instinct that is so needed in times of crisis. I encourage governments to continue to maintain access to territory for all those fleeing: Ukrainians, of course, but also third-country nationals living in Ukraine people there to work and to study, and in some cases people that are in Ukraine as refugees and all of whom are now similarly forced to escape the violence. At this critical juncture there can be no discrimination against any person or any group. I am aware that the European Union, its member States and other governments have already provided countries receiving refugees from Ukraine with bilateral support, which I hope will continue. UNHCR, with its United Nations partner agencies, and national and international NGOs, is present in all these countries and we are scaling up. We encourage host countries to avail themselves of our support and expert advice as they address the situation and uphold their international obligations. We are helping and can do more in areas like protection and registration, organizing reception capacity, providing emergency relief and cash assistance, and in identifying and responding to the needs of the most vulnerable, many of them women and children, including a growing number of unaccompanied and separated children. Mr President, I regret to say that unless there is, as Martin said, an immediate halt to conflict, Ukrainians will simply continue to flee. We are currently planning repeat: planning for up to four million refugees in the coming days and weeks. Such a rapid increase would be a huge burden for receiving states and would no doubt stress reception systems and related resources. Like all countries hosting refugees around the world, they cannot be left alone to shoulder this responsibility. I therefore welcome the support expressed by many European States at yesterdays European Union Justice and Home Affairs Council, to activate the Temporary Protection Directive for people fleeing Ukraine. This would enable if activated immediate and temporary refuge in the European Union. It would also facilitate the sharing of responsibility for people fleeing Ukraine among European States. As Martin mentioned, we will launch the UN Humanitarian Appeal for Ukraine tomorrow for activities both inside and outside the country. Private citizens and companies from around the world have already offered extraordinary financial support through thousands of donations over US$40 million to UNHCR alone, in a couple of days and I am counting on governments to do the same and quickly. Ukrainians and countries hosting refugees from Ukraine cannot wait. Finally, Mr President, a reminder that Ukrainian refugees like all others (and please let us not forget the continuing plight of Afghans, of Syrians, of Ethiopians, of the Rohingya people from Myanmar, and of many others) all of them never wanted to be refugees. They never wanted to be forced to flee their homes, and they all hope to return to their country as quickly as possible. Mr President, Members of the Security Council, It is not very often that I get to brief the Security Council. Let me take this opportunity, therefore, to echo what I said to the Council the last time you invited me, a few months ago that humanitarian workers are courageous, resourceful and experienced, but they cannot keep the pace of conflicts constantly growing in numbers and gravity around the world. I speak to you as a sixth night of anguish falls over Europe, struck once again by war, and as millions of innocent Ukrainian civilians huddle in bunkers, scramble to board overcrowded trains, and think with trepidation about the future of their children. Let me say as an old humanitarian worker myself that the responsibility that you have to ensure that eventually peace and security for all prevails over power struggles and narrow national interests has never been as urgent, and as indispensable a task, as it is tonight. If you fail if we fail it might be too late for us all. Thank you. Syrian Kurdish refugees cross the border from Syria into Turkey after fleeing fighting between Kurdish forces and IS around the city of Kobani in North East Syria. UNHCR/Ivor Prickett UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announces the publication of People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge. People Forced to Flee draws on the lessons of history to probe how we can improve responses to forced displacement. Tracing the roots of asylum from early history to contemporary times, the book shows how the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees turned the centuries-old ideals of safety and solutions for refugees into global practice. It highlights the major achievements in protecting people forced to flee since then, while exploring serious setbacks along the way. Published at a time when over 84 million people in the world are forcibly displaced, it examines international responses to forced displacement within borders as well as beyond them, and the principles of protection that apply to both: reviewing where they have been used with consistency and success, and where they have not. At times, the strength and resolve of the international community seems strong, yet solutions and meaningful solidarity are often elusive. Most forced displacement is experienced in low- and middle-income countries and persists for generations. People forced to flee face barriers to improving their lives, contributing to the communities in which they live, and realising solutions. Responding better is not only a humanitarian necessity but a development imperative. The book shows how this work gained momentum with the international affirmation in December 2018 of the Global Compact on Refugees; and it illustrates how it is being supported by a growing group of partners encompassing forcibly displaced people, local communities and authorities, national governments, international agencies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector. People Forced to Flee also examines how increased development investments in education, health and economic inclusion are helping to improve socio-economic opportunities both for forcibly displaced people and their hosts. Alongside this are greater investments in data, evidence and analysis pointing to what works best. And it discusses the wide array of financing mechanisms that can support sustainable responses. Book cover of 'People Forced to Flee. History, change and challenge', published by UNHCR. UNHCR/Younghee Lee As noted by Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in his foreword, the book highlights with great clarity the enormous challenges to preventing, mitigating, and finding solutions to forced displacement. The drivers of displacement are unrelenting; the demands placed on humanitarian funding are growing, Grandi notes. Yet he adds that while the challenges are enormous, history has repeatedly demonstrated the potential for, and power of, positive change. Published by Oxford University Press, People Forced to Flee is available in paperback and hardback or in digital format via this microsite. Notes: People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge, takes up the mantle of a series of UNHCR publications, stretching back to 1993, that were previously entitled The State of the Worlds Refugees. This book was written by Ninette Kelley, who held a number of senior posts throughout her UNHCR career, including Representative in Lebanon. She has held various policy and consultative roles with international humanitarian agencies focusing on development, immigration and refugee issues, and in Canada served eight years on the Immigration and Refugee Board. She has published in the areas of human rights law, citizenship, refugee protection, gender-related persecution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. UNHCR received a large body of reference papers canvassing contemporary issues such as drivers of displacement; socioeconomic inclusion for forcibly displaced persons; improving data and evidence; unlocking more solutions; and engaging more broadly. These papers represent the perspectives of a broad array of partners in forced displacement responses and have helped inform the research for People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge. The reference papers reflect the personal views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of their associated institutions or UNHCR. UNHCR is greatly appreciative of these contributions and insights, which can be accessed via the books dedicated microsite. For more information on UNHCR, including news and stories, the latest data, reports, updates on emergency situations, and much more, please visit www.unhcr.org. For images, video and documents relating to the 70th anniversary of the Convention and of the UN Refugee Agency, please access Refugees Media (free to register). For more on the past 70 years of forced displacement around the world, listen to Forced To Flee, UNHCRs podcast, available on desktop and all the major platforms. For more information, please contact Barney Thompson ([email protected]) and Karolin Elisabeth Eberle ([email protected]). A protester waves a Ukrainian flag as he takes part in a demonstration outside a NATO leaders virtual summit on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The Pinnacles Trail leads along the John Day River through Cottonwood Canyon State Park in north-central Oregon. 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 Cars are stopped at a roadblock set by civil defensemen at a road leading to central Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. Explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the invasion began last week appeared to subside around Kyiv overnight, as Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday on Ukraines border with Belarus. It's unclear what, if anything, those talks would yield. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) February 28 2022 AS Homes and George Buchanan Architects have alighted on the site of the former St Mungo's Church in Garthamlock to deliver 26 homes. The 1.89-acre site to the east of Glasgow is accessed via Tillycairn Road and includes an active travel route to the north connecting to Cardowan Moss, part of the Seven Lochs Wetlands. Bounded by 1980s era suburban housing the design proposals call for a mix of terraced and semi-detached properties finished in multi-brick. In a statement, the applicant wrote: "Contemporary detailing such as ribbed brickwork panels and feature cills have been incorporated into the design. "The site benefits from an excellent location to the south of Cardowan Moss, offering extensive woodlands and wildlife habitats." Forming part of 'Greater Easterhouse' the area was first developed in the 1950s by Glasgow Corporation. SYDNEY, Feb. 28 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2022 ) :The state of Western Australia (WA) recorded its highest number of COVID-19 cases on Monday, while the state prepares to reopen its border. WA recorded 1,136 new local COVID-19 cases, the highest daily spike throughout the pandemic, which also marks the fourth day in a row the state has surpassed 1,000 daily cases. Monday's figures bring the state's total number of active COVID-19 cases to 5,540, and 11 cases are in hospitals. The state has remained relatively unscathed since the pandemic has begun, as it has maintained hard borders to the rest of the country. Only approved travelers can enter WA. However, it has started to gradually relax some of its border restrictions since last month. Already-enrolled international students are allowed to enter WA from Feb. 15, and the state plans to fully open its border from March 3. Meanwhile, one of the country's worst-hit states, Victoria, recorded a slight increase in its daily COVID-19 number and hospitalizations on Monday. Victoria recorded 5,852 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths on Monday, up from 5,052 daily infections on Sunday. The number of people in hospital has risen by nine from Sunday, with 283 infected people in hospital. Of them, 42 are in intensive care, and seven are on ventilation. The figures came as the state's work-from-home recommendation was removed from 11:59 p.m. local time last Friday. The mask mandate requirement in workplaces was also removed. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ISTANBUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2022 ) :The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday that nearly 5,300 Russian troops have been killed since the start of Russia's large-scale military intervention in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth day. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar shared information about the estimated losses of the Russian army from Feb. 24 to Feb. 28. Maliar claimed that the Ukrainian army killed around 5,300 Russian troops, destroyed 29 warplanes, 29 helicopters, 191 tanks, 816 armored combat vehicles, 74 guns, and two ships/motorboats. She added that Russian forces also lost a Buk anti-aircraft missile system, 21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, 291 vehicles, 60 cisterns, 5 AAD assets, and three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the country's Defense Ministry to place deterrent forces on high alert. Putin ordered the military intervention on Thursday, days after recognizing two separatist-held enclaves in eastern Ukraine. At least 368,000 Ukrainians have fled to Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and other countries since then, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Western powers have imposed harsh financial sanctions on Moscow and decided to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition. Archbishop of Canterbury and Head of the Church of England Justin Welby and British High Commissioner Doctor Christian Turner Monday called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa here at the General Headquarters RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2022 ) :Archbishop of Canterbury and Head of the Church of England Justin Welby and British High Commissioner Doctor Christian Turner Monday called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa here at the General Headquarters. During the meeting matters of mutual interest, religious and inter-faith harmony were discussed, said an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) news release. The COAS acknowledged the role of Christian brethren not only towards the creation of Pakistan but also for their contributions towards its progress. He appreciated role of various institutions in the fields of education, health and public welfare being managed by the Christian community across the country. He especially acknowledged their contributions in defence of the motherland as part of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Archbishop on the occasion acknowledged the Pakistan Army's efforts in combating terrorism and providing secure environment to the minorities in the country. He also pledged that the Christian community would contribute whole-heartedly towards public welfare. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2022 ) :Commander of the Air Force of Islamic Republic of Iran Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi Monday called on Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu and commended the professionalism of PAF and acknowledged its rising indigenous capacity in aviation industry. Earlier on his arrival here at the Air Headquarters, a smartly turned-out contingent of the PAF presented the guard of honour to the Iranian Commander. Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi also laid a wreath at the Martyrs' Monument to pay homage to the PAF's martyrs, , according to a PAF news release. . During the meeting, both the dignitaries discussed matters of professional and mutual interest. Speaking on the occasion, the Air Chief said, "Pakistan and Islamic Republic of Iran enjoy longstanding religious, cultural and historical bonds, which are manifested through strong ties between both air forces."He reiterated his resolve to further enhance the existing bilateral cooperation between the two brotherly countries. Belgium's King Philippe has postponed a historic visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's former colony, because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the royal palace announced Monday Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2022 ) :Belgium's King Philippe has postponed a historic visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's former colony, because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the royal palace announced Monday. The visit -- the monarch's first to the DRC since ascending the throne in 2013 -- has been showcased as a chance for reconciliation for atrocities and other abuses committed during colonial rule. The trip had originally been scheduled to take place in June 2020 to mark the DRC's 60th anniversary of independence, but was rescheduled to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The visit was set for March 6-10, but will now be "postponed to a later date because of the invasion of Ukraine and the crisis this is generating," the palace said in a statement. The decision was made "in close consultations" with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, it said. The trip, which would include King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, Prime Minister Alexandre De Croo and other ministers, may be rescheduled in the coming months. In a letter to Tshisekedi to mark the 2020 anniversary, King Philippe had expressed his "deepest regret for the wounds of the past.""Acts of violence and cruelty were committed, which still weigh on our collective memory," he wrote. India's growth rate slowed further in the last three months of 2021, the National Statistics Office said Monday as it cut its forecast for the current financial year in the face of higher oil prices and geopolitical tensions Mumbai, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2022 ) :India's growth rate slowed further in the last three months of 2021, the National Statistics Office said Monday as it cut its forecast for the current financial year in the face of higher oil prices and geopolitical tensions. Asia's third-largest economy grew 5.4 percent year-on-year in the October to December period, NSO data showed. That was a slowdown from a record 20.1 percent and 8. 4 percent in the two previous quarters as a pandemic-induced favourable base effect waned. The figure was "sorely below our expectations" of 6.2 percent, Aditi Nayar, chief economist of credit ratings agency ICRA, told AFP. The NSO also lowered its growth estimates for the ongoing financial year from 9.2 percent to 8.9 percent. But Nayar said the forecast looked "rather optimistic" given spiking commodity prices and an even larger base effect. At least 11 civilians have been killed in Russian shelling on Ukraine's second most populated city Kharkiv on Monday, the regional governor said, adding dozens more had been injured Kyiv, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2022 ) :At least 11 civilians have been killed in Russian shelling on Ukraine's second most populated city Kharkiv on Monday, the regional governor said, adding dozens more had been injured. "The Russian enemy is bombing residential areas," Oleg Sinegubov, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, saying that: "As a result of the bombardments that are ongoing, we cannot call on the emergency services... currently there are 11 dead and dozens wounded". GRACE PIZZINI is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Pizzini can be contacted at gepizzi@ilstu.edu. Follow Pizzini on Twitter at @gepizzini IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you. JACK ALKIRE is a Photographer for The Vidette. Alkire can be contacted at dbalkir@ilstu.edu. Follow Alkire on Twitter at d.jack_alkire IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you. Much of the world stands up behind Ukraine. International aid begins to flow to Ukraine. Global protests against Russias invasion. Far away family members try to help. Chinese phones grow in Africa. Conflict felt in space. Jim Stevenson hosts VOA Asia. The U.N. Security Council voted Sunday to hold an emergency special session of the wider membership in the General Assembly this week on Russias invasion of Ukraine, after Moscow blocked a draft resolution in the council deploring its aggression. Russia vetoed Fridays resolution, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield reminded council members. But as I have said before, Russia cannot veto our voices. Russia cannot veto the Ukrainian people. And Russia cannot veto the U.N. Charter. Russia cannot, and will not, veto accountability. Russia also voted against the move to the General Assembly, but as it was a procedural vote, no vetoes were in play. The vote broke down identically to Fridays failed resolution, with 11 of the 15 Security Council members supporting it and China, India and the UAE abstaining. Any attempt to circumvent the position of the Russian Federation, any attempt to disregard it, undermines the very bedrock of the U.N. Charter, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia told the council. Mondays meeting will be held under the General Assembly resolution known as Uniting for Peace. It allows for special meetings of the entire membership when the U.N. Security Council is deadlocked on an issue and cannot exercise its mandate to maintain or restore international peace and security. In this case, because of Russias veto. Uniting for Peace Although the council has been divided on many issues, Uniting for Peace has been invoked on less than a dozen occasions since it was adopted in 1950, according to Security Council Report, which tracks U.N. meetings. The last time was 40 years ago concerning Israel. These are issues that affect all member states, and now, in the General Assembly, they can all make their voices heard on Russias war of choice, Thomas-Greenfield said. We will then vote on a resolution that will hold Russia to account for its indefensible actions and for its violations of the U.N. Charter. She said that a vote on a draft resolution is not likely before at least Wednesday. The U.N. General Assembly emergency session is all about condemning an unprovoked war, it is all about upholding the U.N. Charter, it is about sending a clear and iron-strong message of what is acceptable and what is not, said Albanian U.N. envoy Ferit Hoxha, whose government co-sponsored the resolution with the United States. In addition to going to the General Assembly, Ukraines ambassador said his country is also seeking an emergency hearing and order against Russia at the International Court of Justice, alleging that Russia made false claims of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine to justify its invasion and is now planning genocidal acts elsewhere in Ukraine. Russia will have to answer for its behavior at the world court at The Hague, Sergiy Kyslytsya said. Switching from English to Russian, the Ukrainian ambassador directly addressed his Russian counterpart, telling Nebenzia that there are always choices in life. One can remain a human being, a person, or they can continue to defend evil. And this is a choice which lies with every individual, always, Kyslytsya said. Around 200 supporters of Ukraine rallied outside the United Nations during the Security Council meeting on Sunday. Growing humanitarian crisis Russias invasion has exacerbated the humanitarian situation in the country. Before Russias offensive, the United Nations and its aid partners were assisting nearly two million people in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on both sides of the line of contact between the government-controlled areas and the region held since 2014 by Russian-backed separatists. Now hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are on the move inside the country seeking safety, as well as crossing into neighboring countries, including Poland, Romania and Moldova. On Friday, the United Nations released $20 million from its emergency response fund to meet immediate needs. Later this week in Geneva it is set to launch an appeal for more than $1 billion to cover the next three months. The council will meet again Monday afternoon to discuss the growing humanitarian crisis, Frances ambassador said. The U.N. humanitarian chief and the high commissioner for refugees are both expected to deliver updates. France will, alongside Mexico, submit a draft resolution in order to guarantee unfettered humanitarian access to meet the urgent needs of the people in Ukraine, Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said. He told reporters later that it would likely be put to a vote on Tuesday. For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. For the latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EST: 11:30 p.m.: A top U.S. military general attended NATOs Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence virtual meeting Monday to discuss Russias invasion of Ukraine, which is undermining global security, a readout from Joint Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler said. The United States stands united with our Allies and partners to support Ukraine and to deter aggression against NATO. The United States commitment to defending NATO territory is ironclad and the United States will continue to bolster our posture to better defend our NATO Allies. 10:30 p.m.: Australia announced plans to send missiles to Ukraine in an effort to help it resist the Russian invasion. The missiles are part of a $50 million support package. Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the response comes after a call from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy asking for military support and thats exactly what were doing, Morrison said. He said the aid included lethal and non-lethal support for the Ukrainian effort. 9:30 p.m.: Disney announced it will pause the release of new films in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Given the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming 'Turning Red' from Pixar, a Disney spokesperson said in a statement on Monday. We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation. Warner Brothers also announced it would not release The Batman in Russia as had been planned. Disneys move affects films including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which was slated for release on May 5 and Pixar's Lightyear set to be released on June 16, CNN reported. 7:03 p.m.: Ukraines minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, told The Associated Press on Monday that equipment to use SpaceXs Starlink satellite internet service has arrived in his country. Starlink is a satellite-based internet system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world. It markets itself as ideally suited for areas where internet service is unreliable or unavailable, according to AP. 5:34 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said on Monday it was time for the West to consider imposing a no-fly zone for Russian missiles, planes and helicopters in response to Russian shelling of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to a Reuters report. 5:22 p.m.: The United States said Monday that it was expelling 12 Russian diplomats based at Moscow's U.N. mission in New York for engaging in espionage activities. 5:19 p.m.: Ukraine Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova said Monday that Russia used a thermobaric weapon (vacuum bomb) on Monday in its invasion of Ukraine. "They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva convention." 4:45 p.m.: VOAs Margaret Besheer reports that the ICC prosecutor opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine. 3:55 p.m.: Supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny called for a campaign of civil disobedience to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters. 3:50 p.m.: A nurse in Belarus says more Belarusian civilian hospitals, further away from the border, are being repurposed to receive Russian wounded suggesting those nearer the border might be overwhelmed. She spoke with VOA's Jamie Dettmer in Ukraine. 3:42 p.m.: U.S. Mission to the United Nations Spokesperson Olivia Dalton released more information about the expulsion of 12 Russian diplomats from the U.S. "The United States has informed the United Nations and the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations that we are beginning the process of expelling twelve intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security. We are taking this action in accordance with the U.N. Headquarters Agreement. This action has been in development for several months," she stated Monday. 3:30 p.m.: VOA's Margaret Besheer reports on a decision by the U.S. to initiate the expulsion of 12 Russian diplomats based in New York. 3:28 p.m.: This disturbing video is a segment from a live broadcast by Current Time in which Ukrainian doctors try frantically to save the life of a small girl after a Russian attack in Mariupol. Presenter Ksenia Sokolyanskaya warns viewers: "If you, like me, are not sure that you can control yourself, you had better not watch this video." Current Time is a Russian-language TV and digital network led by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in partnership with VOA. 3:00 p.m.: VOA's Heather Murdock in Kyiv says after a relatively quiet two days in the capital city, residents are locking down again Monday night in shelters as bombing resumes. 2:50 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed Monday for the European Union to immediately admit Ukraine to the bloc, as the country battled a Russian invasion, VOA News reported. Zelenskyy posted photographs of himself on social media signing an application to join the 27-member nation EU. In a video, he said, "We appeal to the European Union for the urgent accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure." VOA's Myroslava Gongadze shared this tweet from Business Ukraine magazine. 2:47 p.m.: UNHCR reports that more than 500,000 refugees have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries. 2:39 p.m.: VOA's U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer shared Mondays U.N. Humanitarian Update report on Ukraine with the latest facts and figures from the crisis. 2:36 p.m.: The Spectator Index reports that Moscows Stock Exchange will remain closed March 1. 2:28 p.m.: VOAs Nike Ching reports that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak virtually at the U.N. Human Rights Council on March 1. He is expected to spell out clearly "the threat posed by Russia" and the council's attention is "needed on an urgent basis" after Russia's invasion in Ukraine. 2:20 p.m.: The Maxar Satellite company is reporting a massive armored column stretching 24 kilometers approaching Kyiv. At this time it is approximately 48 kilometers from the city limits, according to VOA correspondent Jamie Dettmer in Ukraine. 2:04 p.m.: U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner spoke with the Washington Post Live Monday about the crisis in Ukraine. VOAs Jeff Seldin monitored the conversation and has these excerpts. 1:52 p.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, discussed further coordination and NATO unity in the context of Russias invasion of Ukraine. 1:41 p.m.: VOAs Jamie Dettmer, based in Ukraine, reports large explosions in Kyiv just hours after an initial round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian representatives ended. Ukrainian officials say they fear the tempo and intensity of bombardments on the capital will likely increase 1:23 p.m.: In photos: Russias invasion of Ukraine, February 28, 2022. 1:06 p.m.: Die or get paid -- VOAs Jeff Seldin reports that Ukraine is giving Russian soldiers a choice. 12:55 p.m.: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) posted a short video of the aftermath of a battle in Kyiv Monday. A bus riddled with bullet holes, burning vehicles, and corpses on the street -- these were the scenes filmed by RFE/RL Current Time reporters in Kyiv on February 28. Local people said the fighting occurred the night before, when a Russian military convoy tried to take up positions near the Syrets metro station, 7.7 kilometers from the Ukrainian presidents office. 12:49 p.m.: Footballs governing bodies FIFA and UEFA made the decision Monday to suspend Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions. 12:40 p.m.: VOAs Steve Herman reports that Twitter will now label all tweets that contain content from Russian state-affiliated websites. 11:54 a.m.: Russia and Ukraine have agreed to plans for a second round of conflict talks, according to a report by Agence France Presse (AFP). Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia will return to their capital cities for consultations and have plans for fresh talks, both sides announced Monday after meeting for their first talks since the outbreak of war last week." The delegations are returning to their capitals for consultations and have discussed the possibility of meeting for a second round of negotiations soon," Ukrainian negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak said. "We agreed to keep the negotiations going," the Russian delegation head, Vladimir Medinsky said. 11:25 a.m.: Ordinary Russians faced the prospect of higher prices and crimped foreign travel as Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine sent the ruble plummeting, leading uneasy people to line up at banks and ATMs on Monday in a country that has seen more than one currency disaster in the post-Soviet era. 11:15 a.m.: VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb quotes a senior U.S. defense official as saying there are indications that the private Russian military contracting agency Wagner Group could be involved in some places in Ukraine. 11:15 a.m.: According to VOAs Jeff Seldin, a Senior U.S. defense official confirmed that Russia is clearly hitting civilian targets but that its not clear yet whether such strikes are intentional. 10:52 a.m.: Map showing Russias invasion of Ukraine: 10:48 a.m.: Many Russian media outlets have been hacked, with anti-war messages being placed on their websites, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Twitter accounts historically associated with Anonymous, the amorphous online activist community that first grabbed global attention about a decade ago, claimed it was behind the hacker attack. 10:46 a.m.: Today VOAs Jamie Dettmer reports from Lviv, in western Ukraine, that U.S. intelligence officials expect Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to throw in his 48,000-strong army into the war raging in Ukraine in the next few hours or days to reinforce Russia in its faltering invasion of Ukraine. 10:42 a.m.: VOAs Jeff Seldin reports that Russia still has not established air superiority over Ukraine, according to U.S. officials. 10:30 a.m. : The fighting must stop. Now. VOAs Margaret Besheer reported UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres latest comments Monday, regarding the situation in Ukraine. 10:03 a.m.: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement Monday, saying Today the United States joins the UN Human Rights Council at the Councils 49th regular session. The U.S. return to that body fulfills a pledge made by President Biden and reflects the centrality of human rights to our nations foreign policy. The timing of this session could not be more appropriate. Since the opening moments of Russias premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine, reports of human rights abuses have been widespread. 10:00 a.m.: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet, opened the 49th session of the Human Rights Council Monday by appealing for strong leadership at a point of profound gravity. 9:57 a.m. : VOAs Munaza Shaheed, reporting for the Deewa Service, spoke with some Afghans who are currently stuck in Ukraine. She reports that a week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while the fighting continues in different parts of the country, hundreds of Afghans are stranded in Ukraine and trying to get out of the country. In August 2021, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, hundreds of Afghans were evacuated to Ukraine. Most of these Afghans had escaped war and are now reliving the trauma by being stuck in yet another war. 9:50 a.m.: Gallup released a report Monday stating that the influx of Ukrainians into neighboring states may test their neighbors hospitality, while surveying attitudes towards migrants in the region. 9:45 a.m. : Ukraine demanded an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian forces during talks with Russia. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the European Union to grant his country immediate membership in the bloc. 9:30 a.m. : The United Nations General Assembly will hold an emergency special session on the situation in Ukraine starting at 10 a.m. Monday. VOAs Margaret Besheer is following events and filed this preview. 9:15 a.m.: On Monday the International Olympic Committees Executive Board (IOC EB) reaffirmed its full solidarity with the Ukrainian Olympic Committee and moved to restrict Russia and Belarus from participation in sporting events. The statement said, in part, In order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants, the IOC EB recommends that International Sports Federations and sports events organizers not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions. 9:07 a.m.: The State Department updated its official Travel Advisories for Russia and Belarus on Monday to Level 4: Do Not Travel status for U.S. citizens. The Travel Advisory for Ukraine was updated to the same status on February 24. 8:44 a.m.: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Monday condemned Russias invasion of Ukraine and called on all parties to ensure the safety of its member states' citizens living in Ukraine. 8:38 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken provided details on Monday about additional measures taken against the Russian financial system. 8:10 a.m.: VOAs Heather Murdock reports from the train station in Kyiv Monday that crowds of people are trying to leave the city during a break from attacks, as delegations from Russia and Ukraine meet for talks today in Belarus. 8:08 a.m.: Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova told VOA News that Ukrainian diplomats are working "day and night" to mobilize the support of the transatlantic diaspora community and to make sure that the U.S. and its allies provide more military support to Ukraine and impose even stricter sanctions against Russia. "There are many more things that we're asking our partners to do. We believe that all state-owned companies in Russia should be sanctioned and that all those directly or indirectly involved in Russia's war against Ukraine must be held accountable," said Markarova. 7:50 a.m.: In its official statement, the U.S. Treasury said Monday that it will now prohibit transactions with the Central Bank of Russia and impose sanctions on key sources of Russias wealth. 7:44 a.m.: The U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions against Russia, according to VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell. 7:26 a.m.: The State Department said Monday it is suspending operations at the U.S. embassy in Minsk, and changing its status for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow: The U.S. Department of State has suspended operations at our Embassy in Minsk, Belarus and authorized the voluntary departure (authorized departure) of non-emergency employees and family members at our Embassy in Moscow, Russia. We took these steps due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine. The Department of State continually adjusts its posture at embassies and consulates throughout the world in line with its mission, the local security environment, and the health situation. We ultimately have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens, and that includes our U.S. government personnel and their dependents serving around the world. 7:01 a.m: VOAs Jamie Dettmer reports from Ukraine that even while talks in Belarus got underway Monday to explore ways to end the crisis, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv a massive Russian rocket strike hit a residential and shopping area of the city and many civilian casualties were reported. Ukraines interior ministry said dozens are dead and hundreds injured, prompting Ukrainians to say the talks underway are being conducted in bad faith by Russia. The Kharkiv attack followed other strikes on residential areas in other towns. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said, In violation of international humanitarian law, the occupiers insidiously launched a missile strike on residential buildings in the cities of Zhytomyr and Chernihiv. The strike seemed to confirm fears that Russia would start targeting civilian buildings as the Kremlin's frustration builds over its faltering invasion of Ukraine. 6:50 a.m.: Witnesses say a rocket blast set a building ablaze early Monday morning in the norther Ukrainian city of Chernihiv near the border with Belarus, according to a report on the website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which also shared amateur video from the scene. Locals blame the Russian military for the attack. According to Ukraines emergency services, one woman sustained minor injuries. 6:34 a.m.: According to VOAs Sabina Castelfranco in Rome, Pope Francis has launched efforts to mediate an end to the war in Ukraine. He has repeatedly voiced his concern about the developments in Ukraine. The pope called for Ash Wednesday this week to serve as a day of prayer and fasting for peace in that country. Last Friday, he visited the Russian ambassador to the Holy See, Alexander Avdeev, to express his concern about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His concern was voiced again on Sunday when he said his heart is broken and called for arms to fall silent. He made an impassioned appeal for authorities to open humanitarian corridors to help refugees leave Ukraine. The Holy See says it is prepared to assist in any negotiation aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. The Vaticans second-ranking official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said in interviews published Monday in Italian newspapers that the Vatican is offering to facilitate dialogue with Russia. He said there is always space for negotiation. 6:06 a.m.: Filippo Grandi, the U.N.s refugee chief, said Monday more than 500,000 refugees have fled Ukraine. 5:50 a.m.: The young tearfully saying goodbye to parents and grandparents who are too infirm or otherwise unconvinced to leave their homes. Some say they want to remain rooted in these uproarious times. A snapshot of war as VOAs Jamie Dettmer reports on what Ukraines war looks like from Lviv, Ukraine: 5:03 a.m.: Members of the Ukrainian delegation disembark from a helicopter as they arrive for talks with Russian representatives in the Gomel region, Belarus February 28, 2022. (Photo via Reuters) 3:44 a.m.: The presidents office confirmed Monday that the Ukrainian delegation have arrived at the Belarusian border to take part in peace negotiations with their Russian counterparts. 3:14 a.m.: India abstained from the U.N. Security Council resolution that deplored Russias aggression against Ukraine. That raises questions of how the countrys stance will impact its growing ties with the U.S. and Western countries to whom it has come closer in their mutual bid to counter China. Political analysts say India, which has a longstanding defense relationship with Russia, is walking a diplomatic tightrope as the current crisis unfolds. Read VOAs Anjana Pasricha report from Delhi here: 2:21 a.m.: Britains government said Monday that it is taking further measures against Russia to cut off Moscows major financial institutions from Western financial markets. The UK Government will immediately take all necessary steps to bring into effect restrictions to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the CBR, the Russian National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the government said. 1:15 a.m.: Belarus ministry of foreign affairs shared this tweet saying it is ready to host peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine scheduled for Monday, although it did not provide details on the location of the meeting. 12:56 a.m.: VOAs Jamie Dettmer reports from the ground in Ukraine. U.S. intelligence expects Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to order his army in the next few hours or days to participate fully with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Up to now, Belarus has been used as a staging ground for Russian forces and only a few Belarusian special forces are believed to have been involved in the fighting. The full participation of Belarus risks another front opening in the war with fears that Belarusian forces wont just reinforce the Russian siege of Kyiv but also strike more widely across Ukraines northwest, endangering Lviv. According to messages sent to NGOs and projects funded by the United States, Cities in the West are no longer regarded as safe. Those still inside Ukraine have been advised to seek shelter in border villages that may be safer from missiles, which will target cities and big towns. Some information in this report came from Reuters. Canada has closed its airspace to all Russian carriers in protest at the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ottawa announced Sunday. But the ban was quickly tested when, according to Canadian officials, a plane operated by Russian airline Aeroflot flew over the country. Aeroflot flight 111 had departed Miami, Florida, bound for Moscow. Announcing the measure earlier in the day, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said: "We will hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked attacks against Ukraine." The closure, effective immediately, aligned Canada with the vast majority of European countries. While there had been no direct flights between Canadian and Russian airports, the decision by the world's second-largest country Russia is the largest promised to seriously complicate flights by Aeroflot to or from the United States, as well as to other countries to the south. Any flight owned, chartered by or used by Russian interests including private flights was banned from Canadian skies, transport ministry spokeswoman Valerie Glazer told AFP in an email. However, the Aeroflot flight "violated the prohibition", according to a tweet by government agency Transport Canada. "We are launching a review of the conduct of Aeroflot and the independent air navigation service provider, NAVCAN, leading up to this violation," it said. "We will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action and other measures to prevent future violations." A growing list of European countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden have closed their airspace to Russian carriers in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Britain barred Aeroflot flights on Thursday. No flights from Russia appeared Sunday to be arriving at major US airports in Washington, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Delta Airlines on Friday suspended a code-sharing arrangement with Aeroflot. But the US Transportation Department has yet to announce a decision on banning Russian flights. An expert group of 270 climate scientists warns the dire impacts of climate change soon will be irreversible unless governments act decisively to tackle these imminent global threats. Hoesung Lee, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, does not mince words. He said the stakes of our planet have never been higher. Human activities have warmed the planet at a rate not seen in at least the past 2,000 years. We are on course to reaching global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next two decades and temperatures will continue to rise unless the world takes much bolder action, said Lee. He said the action governments take today will shape how people will be able to adapt to climate change and how nature will respond to increasing climate risks. Debra Roberts is co-chair of the IPCC Working Group II, which produced the report. She said the scientific evidence that climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet is unequivocal. Climate change combines with unsustainable use of natural resources. Habitat destruction, deforestation, and growing urbanization as well as inequity and marginalization 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in global hotspots of high vulnerability to climate change, said Roberts. These include parts of Africa, as well as South Asia, Central and South America, small islands, and the Arctic. The report warns that people living in these hotspots will likely experience severe food shortages, leading to malnutrition, should global temperatures rise by two degrees Celsius by 2050. Despite these dire predictions, scientists say the report presents a reality check on what has been done to stem global warming and what remains to be done. They say the report offers solutions on how to adapt to climate change and mitigate their worst effects. Scientists say some challenges can be addressed by creating a more equitable and sustainable world, by moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and by using indigenous knowledge to protect nature. These steps, along with adaptation and mitigation projects, can help create change, but poorer countries will need wealthier countries to help finance them. NEW DELHI The Ukraine crisis has presented India with its toughest diplomatic challenge in recent decades as New Delhi juggles ties with its old partner Russia and its growing relationship with the United States. India has abstained from two votes in recent days at the United Nations Security Council one deploring Russias aggression against Ukraine and another procedural vote calling for an emergency session of the U.N. General Assembly. Political analysts say Indias stance is influenced by its heavy reliance for weapons on Moscow at a time when tensions with China are running high and its unwillingness to abandon a partner that has stood by it in the past. But Indias need for Western partners to counter China could make it hard for New Delhi to stay on a neutral path as the crisis in Ukraine unfolds, according to political analysts. If Indias strategic challenge is China, the reality is that India needs both Russia and the West to counter Beijing. In the short term we are dependent on Russia for about 65% of our defense supplies and in the long term we need the West to take on China and manage its rise, says Harsh Pant, head of the Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. While the Biden administration had pressed India on the need for a strong collective response before the U.N. Security council vote on the resolution deploring Russias aggression, the Russian embassy in New Delhi welcomed Indias independent and balanced position, after it abstained. But even as it steered away from condemning Russia, New Delhi has voiced some implicit criticism of Moscow saying that there is no choice but to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue and that all U.N. members should honor principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Thursday called for an immediate cessation of violence and concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations. But in New Delhi, outright alienation of Russia is not an option. From T-90 tanks to MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets, an aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine leased to the Indian navy, Russian arms are the mainstay of its armed forces. The Russian envoy in New Delhi, Roman Babushkin, underlined the dependence as he called for Indias support. Russia is the only country which is sharing sophisticated technologies with India and defense cooperation between us is a strong factor for international peace and stability, he told reporters. New Delhi has other worries will the current crisis push Russia closer to China, making it even harder for India to counter Beijing? Washington has for the time being grudgingly accepted New Delhis position, say analysts. We share important interests with India. We share important values with India. And we know India has a relationship with Russia that is distinct from the relationship that we have with Russia. Of course, that is okay, U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price said Friday responding to a question on whether the Ukranian crisis has strained the relationship. But questions will be raised in the United States about Indias role in the Quad grouping the partnership formed between U.S., Australia, Japan and India to counter China in the Indo Pacific as India stands apart from the other three countries that have condemned Russia for its actions in Ukraine. As the negative sentiment about Russia gets accentuated, many in the U.S. will ask questions about what kind of a partnership can you have with India which has such close ties with Russia, says Pant. It will require a lot of hard work on Indias side to convince the U.S. Congress that without Russias help, India cannot stand up to China. Bilateral ties with the U.S. may not be a problem in the immediate term, but India will face pressure to cut back or even halt future arms imports from Russia. The bottom line is that the war in Ukraine has woken New Delhi and Washington up to the fact that the Russia issue has the potential down the road to become more than a mere nuisance in bilateral relations, according to Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the U.S.-based Wilson Center. While New Delhi is staying neutral for the time being, India's position could become untenable if the situation in Ukraine escalates, say analysts. Indias fence sitting is an especially big gamble in this current crisis, given that Russias aggression may be its most egregious since the end of the Cold War, and given that US-India relations have soared to new heights in recent years, says Kugelman. But I dont anticipate India changing its position, especially as the U.S. has accepted it, anytime soon. But he says an escalating war could prompt the fence on which India is sitting to collapse, obliging it to take a stronger position. The U.N. Human Rights Council has overwhelmingly approved a request to hold an urgent debate later this week on the crisis in Ukraine stemming from the Russian invasion of that country. The proposal was approved by 29 countries in the 47-member council. Thirteen countries abstained and five - China, Cuba, Eritrea, Russia and Venezuela, voted against the proposal. The vote took place after an impassioned plea by Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva. She called on the Council to hold Russia accountable for what she called an unprovoked, unjustified attack on her country. In just four days, she said the toll of destruction in Ukraine has become devastating. She said 352 people, including 16 children, have been killed, and some 1,700 people have been wounded, including 160 children. She said Russian bombing of civilian infrastructure, roads and bridges has left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity and water and cut off communities. Russian forces attempt to sow panic among the population by specifically targeting kindergartens and orphanages, hospitals, and mobile medical aid brigades, thus committing acts that may amount to war crimes. And Ukraine has filed the case against Russia in the International Court of Justice to bring Russia to account, said Filipenko. The Russian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, accused Ukraine of committing multiple atrocities against people living in Ukraines southeastern Donetsk and Lukansk regions. He speaks through an interpreter. Gatilov said, Before us we have nothing other than the usual attempt of Kyiv to distract attention, the attention of the international community away from what they have been doing for nearly eight years now, which is the targeted destruction of completely innocent people in Donetsk and Lukanskwomen, children and the elderly. Since 2014, more than 14,000 people in Donetsk and Luhansk have been killed in fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the two rebel republics a week ago. Western governments condemned this action. They said Putins decision to send so-called peacekeepers to safeguard the sovereignty and independence of this separatist region was a pretext to invade Ukraine. The Human Rights Council opened a five-week session Monday. It has decided to hold the urgent debate on the situation of human rights in Ukraine stemming from the Russian aggression on Thursday. This follows a three-day high-level segment with the participation of heads of state and other dignitaries from more than 140 countries. Las Vegas police searched Sunday for suspects a day after after 14 people were shot during a party at a hookah lounge, leaving one man dead and two others critically wounded. Detectives believe two suspects who they did not identify exchanged gunfire inside the hookah bar and fled before police arrived before dawn Saturday, police said. Dispatchers received calls at about 3:15 a.m. about multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds after an altercation at Manny's Glow Ultra Lounge & Restaurant. Police didn't immediately provide an update Sunday on a possible motive for the shooting, release new details or provide information about the suspects they were seeking. The injured people were taken to University Medical Center and Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, but officials on Sunday didn't immediately provide condition updates about the 13 remaining patients. While police had described the condition of two victims on Saturday as critical, they did not disclose details about the nature of their injuries. Authorities on Saturday characterized the shooting as an "isolated incident" and said there was no threat to the general public. Police Capt. Dori Koren said the fatally shot victim will be identified by the Clark County Coroner's Office. Investigators at the scene on Saturday interviewed victims, tried to get surveillance video from neighboring businesses and looked for stray bullets and other evidence, Koren said. Crime scene analysts were trying to determine the types of guns used used in the shooting. Hookahs are water pipes that are used to smoke specially made tobacco that comes in different flavors. Russias media regulator is warning independent news outlets to not report negatively on the war in Ukraine, including on troop causalities. The regulator, Roskomnadzor, issued letters to at least 10 media outlets, including Novaya Gazeta, run by Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov, and Current Time, a Russian-language digital news network led by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and VOA. On Monday, Russia blocked access to Current Time and RFE/RLs Crimea.Realities website, in an apparent response to them not complying with the order, RFE/RL confirmed to VOA. RFE/RL and VOA are independent networks under the taxpayer funded U.S. Agency for Global Media. Separately, police briefly detained several journalists covering anti-war protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and authorities limited access to social media platforms. From the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian authorities have tried to put a tight lid over independent reporting, media rights expert Gulnoza Said told VOA. Said is the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Regulator warnings Roskomnadzor issued a statement Friday warning that media should use only government sources when covering the war. Warnings were later issued to several news sites, who were told they could be fined or have websites blocked if they failed to remove content that Moscow deems false or that details troop movements. Media were told Russias actions in Ukraine should not be described as an assault, invasion or declaration of war. Several of the outlets reported on Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities and civilian causalities, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said. Some of those to receive warnings are listed by Moscow as foreign agents. Under that designation, media outlets are prohibited from reporting on troops to a foreign entity. Russias Ministry of Justice has labeled more than 40 news outlets and individual journalists as foreign agents. The move is an attempt to quell dissent and damage the credibility of independent media, analysts previously told VOA. Moscow strengthened the law in response to the U.S. in 2017 ordering Russian-backed media to register as foreign agents. RFE/RL president Jamie Fly has said on Twitter that Current Time will not comply with the regulators order. The Kremlins threats are a blatant attempt to whitewash the brutal facts about the human cost of [Russian President Vladimir] Putins illegal war against Ukraine, Fly said in a statement, adding, We will not succumb to this pressure to deprive [our audience] of the truth. VOA acting director Yolanda Lopez said Monday that the networks would continue to engage with audiences in Russia despite the censorship attempts by the Kremlin. The credibility of our journalism is what attracts the Russian audience, Lopez said in a statement. [The RFE/RL audience] deserves access to free press and open discussion, which the authoritarian regime in Moscow is trying to suppress. The OSCE, along with media watchdogs including CPJ and the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) have condemned Russias actions against media. We strongly oppose the attempts by the government and security forces to threaten media outlets into silence with fines or stifle independent journalism which threatens to puncture the Kremlins narrative, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said in a statement. Griffen described arrests of journalists in Moscow and St. Petersburg as a worrying sign of the increasing censorship likely to follow. State-media sanctions Roskomnadzor also signaled that it will limit access to social media. The announcement came after Facebook restricted the accounts of four Russian media sites and labelled content from state-run media. The OSCE media freedom representative Teresa Ribeiro on Sunday called on Russia to safeguard the free flow of information and media freedom in line with OSCE commitments and international obligations. The attempts to unduly interfere in the work of social networks, which enable individuals to communicate, access and disseminate information and ideas, are of serious concern, she said in a statement. The European Union on Sunday said it would ban Russian-backed media including RT, formerly Russia Today, and Sputnik. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU is developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation. Polands broadcasting council confirmed to VOA on Monday it has banned RT and other Russian state-backed media in response to the war in Ukraine. Some French politicians are calling for the networks license to be revoked and Britain has asked its media regulator to monitor the network for disinformation. Amid tensions earlier this month Germanys regulators on February 2 announced that RTs German programing did not have the required licensing to operate in the country. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan was cited as saying the EU is using Russias invasion as an excuse to close the network. Other Russian state news agencies have been targeted by hackers including the Tass news agency. A screenshot of the sites homepage, shared on social media Monday, displayed a message in Russian that read: We urge you to stop this madness. Do not send your sons and husbands to certain death. Reuters verified that the anti-war message appeared on the sites homepage. Part of the message read: Putin is forcing us to lie and is putting us in danger. Media push back In a show of solidarity with Ukraine, Novaya Gazeta on Friday published in Russian and Ukrainian. In a video, Nobel laureate and editor-in-chief Muratov said, We will never recognize Ukraine as an enemy and the Ukrainian language as the enemys language. Journalists from Novaya Gazeta are among 200 Russian media workers to sign an open letter opposing the war. War has never been and never will be a method of resolving conflicts, and there is no justification for it, the letter read. CPJs Said commended those independent media outlets that are brave to report on the invasion freely and condemn the war. In Ukraine, local and foreign journalists have not reported facing any restrictions, Said told VOA, adding, When the war started, we heard that the Ukrainian authorities canceled accreditation requirements for all journalists in Ukraine. The OSCEs Ribeiro also underscored the important role media is playing during conflict. She called on Moscow to refrain from undermining professional and courageous journalism, which importantly contributes through their objective and professional reporting to keeping the public informed. Some information is from Reuters, AP, and AFP. North Korea says its Sunday test was part of developing a reconnaissance satellite, calling it of "great significance" but providing little detail on what kind of delivery rocket it involved. The South Korean military said a projectile, believed to be a ballistic missile, was fired Sunday with a flight range of 300 kilometers and a maximum altitude of 620 kilometers. It left the North's Sunan area and landed in waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula. North Koreas state-run news agency said Monday the important test" conducted "vertical and inclined photographing of the specific area of the ground with cameras to be loaded on satellite." It also "confirmed the characteristics of the high-resolution camera system, data transmission system and attitude control devices and the correctness of their performance." Two images released following the launch included a satellite view of the Korean peninsula. North Korea says the test was conducted by the National Aerospace Development Administration and the Academy of Defense Sciences of North Korea. On Sunday, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command called on Pyongyang to "refrain from further destabilizing acts." Condemning the ballistic launch, it said it is closely consulting with South Korea, Japan and other regional partners. The development of military reconnaissance satellites was among the key goals unveiled at the 8th Party Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in January 2021, which leader Kim Jong Un said would be operable "in the near future." North Koreas last satellite launch in February 2016 was condemned by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a veiled test of a long-range missile as it involves similar technologies. Parents, relatives and friends of Nigerian students stranded in Ukraine chanted as they marched outside the Russian Embassy in Abuja on Monday, calling for peace in Ukraine and the students' immediate evacuation from the war-torn country. "We need peace because of our children," said protester Blessing Keri, whose relative is studying in Ukraine. "We don't want our children there or our sisters or our brothers to go there and perish. We want them to stay in peace and come back to Nigeria in peace." Nigerian authorities have been unable to evacuate thousands of nationals, including some 5,600 students who were in Ukraine when the crisis began. Airport and train service out of Ukraine has been shut down since Russian forces invaded last week. Some Nigerians have joined the exodus of people trying to flee Ukraine on foot into Poland and Romania. There have been reports that Africans are being blocked from entering Poland while Ukrainians are allowed to cross the border. On Sunday, an adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari said "it is paramount that everyone is treated with dignity" and "the color of their passport or their skin should make no difference." Poland has denied that Nigerians are being blocked from entering the country. Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria's minister of foreign affairs, spoke to the local Arise News station, saying Nigeria is making plans to evacuate the students and nationals willing to leave. "Our people are dispersed all over the country, so it has to be something that's well organized, getting people to go to the closest airports to where they are," he said. The ministry Sunday said some 256 Nigerians have safely passed into Poland. Meanwhile, a coalition of Nigerians in Poland are providing relief to their countrymen arriving at the borders and are gathering funds online to help resettle the displaced. "So these people that are coming in, we need to shelter them, we need to provide for them, we need to give them food, accommodation, even the transport to take them from the border to the accommodation we've provided," said Rawlings Onyi, one of the online campaigners in Poland. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has attracted criticism from around the globe, including the West African bloc ECOWAS, which has called for an end to the fighting and for all parties to ensure the safety of West Africans living in Ukraine. LVIV, UKRAINE U.S. intelligence expects Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to throw in his 48,000-strong army into the war raging in Ukraine in the next few hours or days to reinforce Russia in its faltering invasion of Ukraine. Up to now Belarus has been used as staging ground for Russian forces to strike at Kyiv from the north and only a few Belarusian special forces are believed to have participated in any fighting, but with Russias invasion encountering stronger resistance than the Kremlin might have been expecting, and with Kyiv still holding out, Russian leader Vladimir Putin appears to be turning to his longtime ally to boost the offensive. The full involvement of Belarus risks another frontline opening up in the war with fears that Belarusian forces will not only reinforce the Russian siege of the Ukraine capital but will also strike more widely across Ukraines northwest and center, endangering Lviv, where tens of thousands of evacuees are trapped and waiting up to two days to get across the border to Poland. Messages sent to NGOs and projects funded by the United States and drawing from the intelligence assessment warn: Cities in the West are no longer regarded as safe. NGO workers still inside Ukraine are being advised to seek shelter in border villages on the grounds that they are likely to be safer from missile strikes, which would likely target cities and bigger towns. The message-alerts note: borders are heavily congested but proximity to borders afford a safe zone from missiles strongly consider moving to border villages accommodation will be an issue please liaise with colleagues/project leadership to house-share along the Polish/Slovakian/Hungarian borders. Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenko has said previously his forces would not participate in any military action against Ukraine. On February 24 after a meeting with Putin, he announced had agreed to keep Russian troops stationed in Belarus. Since then, he has said Ukraine is losing the war and has offered to host peace talks. Talks Belarus said Monday that it has prepared a venue for talks between delegations from Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine has agreed to send representatives for the talks but was initially reluctant to engage because of the Belarusian role in the conflict allowing Russian forces to stage there and launch attacks towards Kyiv and north-east Ukraine. Ukraine has vowed to give no ground at the talks, which come on the fifth day of the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he was skeptical about the prospect of the talks in Belarus. I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting but let them try so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as President, tried to stop the war, when there was even a small, but still a chance, he said in a message posted on Telegram. U.S. officials told VOA that Lukashenko will likely bring push Belarus more deeply into the war depending on the outcome of talks between Russia and Ukraine. The American intelligence assessment chimes in with warnings issued Sunday by Belarusian opposition figures that Lukashenko was preparing to enter the war fully. On Sunday voters in Belarus approved a constitutional reform that will allow the country to host nuclear weapons and to host Russian ground forces permanently. The Belarusian election commission says that around 65% of those who cast a ballot voted in favor of the change, which would allow Russia to base nuclear weapons in the country. Belarusian opposition leaders have denounced the move as treasonous and say the vote was rigged. The greater involvement of Belarus raises the prospect of clashes and missile strikes occurring very close to the Polish border, with the chance of a spillover of ordnance into Poland, warn some military analysts. As the Russian assault on Ukraine continues, Russian shelling and missile strikes have landed disturbingly close to the Polish-Ukrainian border, notes Rob Dannenberg, a former chief of the CIAs Central Eurasia Division, told the intelligence news outlet Cipher Brief. The United Nations Security Council is set to vote Sunday for a rare emergency special session against the backdrop of Russias unprovoked war on Ukraine. The vote underscores White House claims of international unity in support of Ukraine and comes ahead of U.S. President Joe Bidens State of the Union speech Tuesday. VOAs Arash Arabasadi has more Moscow and Kyiv will hold a second round of peace talks, according to both governments, after Ukrainian delegates demanded an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of Russian forces during initial talks Monday on the border with Belarus. The peace talks lasted five hours, and no cease-fire was reached. At the start of the talks, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said dozens of civilians had been killed and hundreds wounded from Russian shelling in Kharkiv, near the border with Russia. U.S. officials expressed skepticism over Russia's intentions during the peace talks. "Diplomacy at the barrel of a gun, diplomacy at the turret of a tank that is not real diplomacy. We are ready and willing, just as our Ukrainian partners are, just as our European allies are, to engage in real, in substantive, in genuine diplomacy in order to see if we can find a way out of what is a needless, brutal conflict," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters Monday. On the other hand, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Monday that Russia's goal was to come to an agreement that was in the interest of both sides. Ukrainian resistance, coupled with the Russian military's logistical failures, has slowed Moscow's invasion into Ukraine. After five days of fighting, Russia's military has not taken a single major Ukrainian city, with its "main push" toward Kyiv about 25 kilometers outside the city center after advancing only a handful of kilometers Sunday, according to a senior U.S. defense official. "You've got to hand it to the Ukrainians, who have been fighting very hard for their country and making an impact and making a dent on Mr. Putin's abilities," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday. "But they will learn. The Russians will learn from this," he added. In a YouTube video, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson said that troops in Lugansk with Russian Federation backing have advanced 23 kilometers, taking control of the Novaya Astrakhan and Borovenki villages. He also said the Donetsk forces blocked Maruipol. "All settlements that have come under the control of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to live as usual. The life support facilities of the population are functioning, transport is working," the spokesperson said. A Russian convoy of hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks and logistics support vehicles was seen moving toward Kyiv from the north, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has now committed to the invasion nearly 75% of the combat power Russia pre-positioned around Ukraine's borders. But videos posted on social media show that lines of Russian tanks and armored vehicles have been wiped out. Warplanes and helicopters have been shot down, according to officials, and Russian troops have been stranded on roadsides after their vehicles ran out of fuel. "Airspace over Ukraine remains contested. Russians have not achieved air superiority over the whole country. Ukrainian air defenses remain intact and viable, both in terms of aircraft and missile defense systems," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Monday. The official added that it appeared Russian forces were trying to section off the eastern part of Ukraine by controlling land from Kharkiv to Mariupol in the south. Neither city had been broken by Russian advances, although Kharkiv has seen the "heaviest fighting," according to officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West on Friday to consider a Russian aircraft no-fly zone over Ukraine. "Fair negotiations can occur when one side does not hit the other side with rocket artillery at the very moment of negotiations," Zelenskyy said. In response to a question from Voice of America, the Pentagon said the United States was not considering such a measure. Ukraine seeks EU admittance Also Monday, Zelenskyy urged the European Union to grant his country immediate membership in the bloc. Zelenskyy signed an application Monday for Ukraine to join the EU, asking for a fast-track accession in a video message in which he also encouraged Russian troops to lay down their arms. "Our goal is to be together with all Europeans, and most importantly, to be on an equal footing," he said. "I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible." NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he had spoken with the Ukrainian leader by phone and "commended him for the bravery of the people and armed forces of Ukraine." "NATO allies are stepping up support with air-defense missiles, anti-tank weapons, as well as humanitarian and financial aid," Stoltenberg tweeted. Russia faced increased diplomatic and economic pressure Monday, the fifth day of its invasion, with Russia's currency plunging to a record low and the addition of new sanctions against the country's central bank. Switzerland on Monday announced it would forego its commitment to "Swiss neutrality" in favor of adopting sanctions against Russia. Swiss Confederation President Ignazio Cassis said that Switzerland's sanctions would be in line with those already adopted by the European Union. The European Union imposed sanctions on 26 more Russians Monday, bringing the total of people targeted in the country to 680. Russia announced Monday that it had closed it airspace to flights from 36 nations, including European countries, following a decision by the EU and other nations over the weekend to close their skies to Russian aircraft. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke via conference call with several allies Monday on their continued support to Ukraine and their coordinated efforts to impose severe costs and consequences to hold Russia accountable. A day after the EU said it was sending fighter jets to Ukraine, Australia on Monday committed to an unspecified delivery of lethal military equipment. Asked by VOA how the U.S. was helping to get international military aid to Ukrainians, the senior defense official told reporters, "I don't know of a single unified sort of body to pull that together. Right now, countries are doing what they can, when they can and where they can, and that includes the United States." Russian reaction Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the EU was engaging in hostile behavior toward Russia and that providing arms to Ukraine was an "extremely dangerous and destabilizing factor." Peskov also said that while sanctions imposed against Moscow were heavy, Russia had been planning for them and "has the potential to offset the harm." At least 350 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded last week, with 1,700 wounded, Ukraine said Sunday. There was no information about casualties among Ukrainian forces, and while Russia has acknowledged casualties among its troops, it has not publicly disclosed any count. "This is a war of choice, completely and totally unavoidable, and all the casualties are on his hands, all the blood is on Mr. Putin's hands," Kirby said Monday. More than 500,000 refugees have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries, according to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. Putin told his defense minister to put nuclear forces in a "special regime of combat duty" Sunday, saying that leading NATO powers had made "aggressive statements" and imposed financial sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Following a vote for a rare special session of the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield responded to Putin's nuclear alert, saying Russia "is under no threat from NATO, a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine. This is another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all. We urge Russia to tone down its dangerous rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons." "We think provocative rhetoric like this regarding nuclear weapons is dangerous, adds to the risk of miscalculation, should be avoided, and we will not indulge in it," White House press secretary Jen Psaki added on Monday. VOA's Jamie Dettmer, Heather Murdock, Anita Powell and Nike Ching contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. Many Russian media outlets have been hacked, with anti-war messages being placed on their websites, as Russia continues its massive, unprovoked attack on Ukraine. Twitter accounts historically associated with Anonymous, the amorphous online activist community that first grabbed global attention about a decade ago, claimed it was behind the hacker attack. Among the media outlets impacted were websites of such news agencies and newspapers as TASS, Kommersant, Izvestia, Fontanka, Forbes, and RBK. "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin forces you to lie and puts you in danger. Why do we need it? So that Putin was added to textbooks? This is not our war, let's stop him!" one of the messages read. "This statement will be removed, and some of us will be fired or even jailed. But we cannot stand it anymore," the statement signed by "Not indifferent journalists" said. The official website of the Kremlin was down on February 26, following reports of denial-of-service attacks on various other Russian government and state media websites. Anonymous also claimed it was behind that cyberattack as well. Asian aircraft lessor BOC Aviation said on Monday that EU sanctions requiring the termination of leases to Russian airlines by March 28 would affect most of its aircraft in Russia as the leasing industry began counting the cost of the rules. 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 in the mainly Ireland-based industry. BOC said it had 18 planes representing 4.5% of its owned fleet based in Russia, placed with Aeroflot subsidiary Pobeda as well as Ural Airlines, S7 Airlines and AirBridgeCargo Airlines. In addition, it has another aircraft in its managed fleet on lease to Rossiya Airlines. "Our policy is to fully comply with all laws applicable to our business," the lessor said in a statement. "The practical consequences of the new EU sanctions are complex and at the present time we are unable to provide further information." AerCap Holdings, the world's biggest leasing company, has the largest exposure globally to Russia and Ukraine with 152 planes, according to aviation consultancy IBA. AerCap has a total portfolio of more than 2,000 planes and Russian carriers Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Rossiya, Azur Air, Ural Airlines, Yamal Airlines and Yakutia Airlines are among its customers, the lessor's website says. Other non-Russian lessors with planes in the countries include SMBC Aviation Capital, Air Lease Corp and Aviation Capital Group, IBA said. Avolon, the world's second biggest leasing company, has fewer than 20 airplanes in Russia and one or two in Ukraine out of a total fleet of more than 550 aircraft, Chief Executive Domhnal Slattery told Reuters this month. He said at the time that Avolon was concerned that sanctions on international payment transfers through SWIFT could be disrupted, making it hard for airlines to pay their bills. Group of Seven (G7) leaders said on Sunday that Western allies had decided to cut off "certain Russian banks" from the SWIFT a secure messaging system to ensure rapid cross-border payments which has become the principal mechanism to financeinternational trade. Increased heat waves, droughts and floods, caused by human-induced climate change, are already exceeding the tolerance thresholds of plants and animals, according to a fresh warning issued Monday from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The current global warming trend is causing the first extinctions of species and mass mortality events in trees and mammals, according to ecologist Camille Parmesan, one of the authors of the latest IPCC report. We have an increased risk of irreversible impacts such as the species extinctions, said Parmesan, a University of Texas at Austin geological sciences adjunct professor, who briefed reporters a day prior to the reports release. The changes are appearing much faster, are more disruptive and more widespread than was expected 20 years ago, according to the IPCC. Any further delay in a concerted global action will miss the rapidly closing window to secure a livable and sustainable future for all, cautioned another report co-author, Edwin Castellanos of the University of the Valley of Guatemala, in the call with reporters. The IPCC also notes that millions of people are being exposed to acute food and water insecurity, especially in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, on small islands and in the Arctic. The region forecast to be hardest hit: sub-Saharan Africa, which is expected to be most severely affected among the predicted number of people suffering from hunger in 2050 ranging from 8 million to up to 80 million people. Under a higher level of warming scenario, up to 183 million additional people are projected to become undernourished in low-income countries due to climate change by 2050, according to the panel. Overall, the picture is stark for food systems. No one is left unaffected by climate change, said Adelle Thomas, one of the reports lead authors and a senior fellow at the University of the Bahamas. The more rapid we can take strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the less the severe impacts will be. And there are solutions out there, but right now, they're not there. There are not kind of transformative strategies being taken with regards to food systems to really ensure that we have a well-fed and nutritious human population and underlying ecosystem that can support food production, said Thomas on the Sunday briefing call for reporters. The IPCC report is considered a critically important one as world leaders are expected to rely on it to help form updated policies regarding carbon emissions and climate mitigation. John Kerry, who is U.S. President Joe Bidens climate envoy, characterized the report as a dire picture of the impacts already occurring because of a warmer world and the terrible risks to our planet if we continue to ignore science. Kerry, a former secretary of state, added in a statement: The question at this point is not whether we can altogether avoid the crisis it is whether we can avoid the worst consequences. Mondays document, compiled by 270 scientists from 67 countries, is the second chapter of the sixth assessment report by the IPCC and focuses on regional impacts of global warming and adaptation options for cities and coastal communities. It was approved Sunday by the 195 member governments of the IPCC, which was created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program. The first chapter, issued last August, was described by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as a Code Red for humanity. That study noted that the world is now 1.09 degrees (Celsius) warmer than it was during the period between 1850 and 1900. The IPCC scientists warn that fundamental societal shifts are required to overcome limits to adaptation, build resilience, reduce climate risk to tolerable levels, guarantee inclusive, equitable and just development, and achieve societal goals without leaving anyone behind. Asked by VOA what should be the top mitigation effort to attempt to counter the worst of the scenarios forecast, some of the scientists cautioned against looking for one single solution. There isn't a silver bullet that's going to solve our greenhouse gas emissions and it's important to understand that every action matters, replied Kristie Ebi, a global health professor at the University of Washington. Simple and highly publicized projects, such as planting a trillion trees to solve global warming, will not work, said Parmesan, of the University of Texas Austin. One of the reasons is that there are many areas that are naturally not forested -- grassland savanna areas, peatland bogs. And there have been projects that have tried to plant forests into these areas and they have overwhelmingly been disasters, she said. What is critical is moving society away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible and relying on renewable sources of energy, said Castellanos, of the University of the Valley of Guatemala. That is to be the topic of a report to be published by another IPCC working group next month. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the sanctions that followed, has pushed the price of oil to over $100 per barrel, the highest level in eight years. But, it's also opened an opportunity for African oil producers like Nigeria, Angola, Libya, and Algeria to cash in with more crude oil exports. But a lack of refineries in Africa means crude oil exporters will also have to pay more for imported fuels. The Brent crude oil prices hit $105 per barrel last week, it's highest mark since 2014 and up by 47% since December, amid fears that supplies from Russia may be impacted by crisis. Russia accounts for a significant amount of the world's total crude oil output between 25-30% making it the second highest producer globally. But experts say the crisis and sanctions slammed on Russia by Europe and America could significantly impact demand for Russian products and tip the odds in Africa's favor. "For Africa it's a gain, it's an opportunity, it presents that window of opportunity for African countries to see how they can increase their production capacity and meet the need of global demands of crude oil," says Isaac Botti, a public finance expert. However, Africa's production combined accounts for less than a tenth of total global output. Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of oil followed by Libya. Other notable producers are Algeria and Angola. Experts predict oil prices will rise further but worry Nigeria could be facing a backlash. "At the end of the day it's going to hit on our economy. We may think that we'll gain but remember we don't refine out crude oil," said economic analyst Paul Enyim. Nigerian refineries have been shut down for about one year. The country depends on imports to meet it's energy needs. Experts say prices paid for imported will also increase. Authorities are also grappling with huge subsidies to keep pump price of oil products within affordable limits. Last week Nigeria's minister of state for Petroleum said authorities were not comfortable with the surge in prices of crude oil. But this week, Algerian state-owned oil and gas giant said it would supply Europe if Russian exports dwindled as a result of the crisis. Botti says it's a good example for other African nations. "We need to develop our capacity to produce locally, we need to look at various trade agreements that are existing," he said. For years African oil producers including Nigeria have been struggling to meet required daily output levels. Experts however worry African producers may struggle to fit into the big market with increasing global demands for crude oil. For weeks, Nigeria has been battling to normalize fuel supply in the country after authorities recalled millions of liters of adulterated petrol from circulation causing a major shortage in West Africa's most populous nation. As the crises between Russia and Ukraine lingers, experts say the shifting focus on Africa could be both a blessing and a burden. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed Monday for the European Union to immediately admit Ukraine to the bloc, as the country battled a Russian invasion. Zelenskyy posted photographs of himself on social media signing an application to join the 27-member nation EU. In a video, he said, We appeal to the European Union for the urgent accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure. We are grateful to our partners for being with us, Zelenskyy said. But our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on equal footing. Im sure its fair. Im sure we earned it. Im sure its possible. It usually takes years for any country to officially join the EU, part of a multi-step process that often requires nations to make reforms to reach EU standards. The head of Zelenskyy's office, Andrii Sybiha, said on his official Facebook page that the documents requesting EU admission "are on the way to Brussels." The EU has condemned Russias invasion of Ukraine and has offered military assistance to Kyiv as well as imposed tough economic sanctions on Russia and blocked Russian planes from EU skies. Ukraines request comes after European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told Euronews in an interview Sunday of Ukraine: "They are one of us, and we want them in." However, Von der Leyen's spokesperson, Eric Mamer, clarified Monday that the EU chief did not mean that Ukraine could join immediately. He said Von der Leyen specified that there is a process (for joining the EU). And I think that this is the important point." The application for Ukraine to join the EU, even if largely symbolic, is likely to anger Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long accused the West of trying to bring Ukraine under its influence. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. Ukraine and Western states appealed to the international community Monday to support a draft resolution at the United Nations General Assembly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and calling for an immediate cease-fire as Moscow's forces stepped up their bombardment of the country's second-largest city, Kharkiv. "We are today at a crucial and historical moment," European Union Ambassador Olof Skoog told member states on behalf of the 27 EU members. "Too many times in the past the international community has been blind or too slow in front of unfolding tragedies. Entire generations in many places around the world have paid and are still paying the price of inaction. We can't make the same mistake again: We have to take action." The West and Ukraine framed the crisis before the body as an existential threat to the principles of the United Nations, the charter on which it was founded in 1945, and the international rules-based order. "Now it is time to act, time to help Ukraine, that is paying the ultimate price for freedom and security for itself and of the world," Ukraine envoy Sergiy Kyslytsya said. "If Ukraine does not survive, international peace will not survive. If Ukraine does not survive, the United Nations will not survive have no illusions. If Ukraine does not survive, we cannot be surprised if democracy fails next." Uniting for Peace resolution The General Assembly is meeting under what is known as the Uniting for Peace resolution. It allows special meetings of the entire membership to be called when the U.N. Security Council is deadlocked on an issue and cannot exercise its mandate to maintain or restore international peace and security in this case, because of Russia's veto. Although the council in practice has been divided on many issues, Uniting for Peace has been invoked fewer than a dozen times since it was adopted in 1950, according to the Security Council Report, which tracks U.N. meetings. The last time was 40 years ago, in 1982, concerning Israel. The debate is likely to continue through Wednesday, as more than 100 countries have asked to take the floor. The United States is scheduled to speak toward the end of the debate, closer to the introduction of a draft resolution strongly condemning the Russian invasion and calling for a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Moscow's troops. Its language mimics the one that Russia vetoed in the Security Council on Friday. A two-thirds majority of voting assembly members is needed to adopt the resolution. Russia Russia's envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, said Moscow's actions, which he said were made in self-defense, had been "distorted." He also tried to paint Moscow's invasion as a defense of the principles of the U.N. Charter. "We are protecting ourselves from a nationalist threat, but Russia is also seeking to uphold the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter on the soil of Donbas and Ukraine, ensuring that the main goal of the United Nations is upheld namely to prevent succeeding generations from a scourge of war," Nebenzia said. He denied that Russian troops were targeting civilians. "We constantly hear lies, fakes about indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities, hospitals, schools, kindergartens," Nebenzia said. "The Russian army does not pose a threat to the civilians of Ukraine, is not shelling civilian areas." China China was the only major Russian ally to speak Monday morning. The situation has evolved to a point that China does not wish to see, Ambassador Zhang Jun said. "The Cold War has long ended," he said. "The Cold War mentality based on bloc confrontation should be abandoned. Nothing can be gained from stirring up a new Cold War, but everyone will stand to lose." "It is our consistent and unequivocal position that all countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected, and that the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter should be upheld," the Chinese envoy added. Other Russian allies, including Syria, Belarus, Venezuela and North Korea, are scheduled to speak during the debate. Peace talks amid refugee exodus As delegates took to the podium, Russian and Ukrainian delegations were meeting in a border town in Belarus for the first direct talks to halt the fighting. "This offers a ray of hope," Abdulla Shahid, the president of the General Assembly, said. "We pray that these talks will calm down tempers and pave way to peace." The U.N.'s Human Rights Office said Monday that more than 400 civilian casualties have been reported, including more than 100 deaths. It said the real figure could be much higher as many reported casualties have yet to be confirmed. Meanwhile, civilians continue to flee to safety. The U.N. refugee agency says that the numbers are changing by the hour, but more than a half-million people have already crossed Ukraine's borders, mostly toward Poland. Some reports have emerged that non-white refugees have encountered discrimination at the Polish border and difficulty accessing transport to leave. Ambassador Krzysztof Szczerski said that was not true. "This is a complete lie and a terrible insult to us," he said. The Polish envoy said his government had organized trains to bring the elderly and mothers with children to Poland, sent aid convoys, and prepared hospital beds for the wounded and sick. In the past 24 hours, the first refugee babies had been born in Polish hospitals, he said. Humanitarian crisis Monday afternoon, the U.N. Security Council received virtual briefings on the growing humanitarian crisis from U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who were both in Geneva. Grandi said that while the numbers were changing hourly, so far at least 520,000 people had fled Ukraine, and they would continue unless there was an immediate halt to the conflict. "We are currently planning repeat: planning for up to 4 million refugees in the coming days and weeks," he said, adding that it is the fastest-rising exodus he has seen since the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. Humanitarian chief Griffiths said a cease-fire was urgently needed. "The lives of millions of civilians are simply at stake," he said. "We know from other recent conflicts how brutal, deadly and protracted urban warfare can be." He said emergency medical services were the most pressing need. France and Mexico are circulating a draft resolution calling for safe and unhindered humanitarian access, which may be put to a vote as soon as Tuesday. The U.S. Department of State Monday announced it has suspended operations at the U.S. embassy in Minsk, Belarus, and authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency employees and family members at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russias capital, Moscow. In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department took the steps due to security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine. He said the department continually adjusts its posture at embassies and consulates throughout the world based on the local security environment, and the health situation. Blinken said, We ultimately have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens, and that includes our U.S. government personnel and their dependents serving around the world. Separately, the United States updated its travel advisories for Belarus and Russia to Level 4-"Do Not Travel status, citing Russias military attack on Ukraine. Russia has held troop drills in Belarus, using it as a staging ground to target Ukraine from the north. Earlier in February, the U.S. embassy in Ukraines capital, Kyiv, relocated operations to the western city of Lviv amid the Russia-Ukraine tensions. Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Jamie Dettmer also contributed to this report. Pope Francis is suffering from acute knee pain and wont preside over this weeks Ash Wednesday celebrations after his doctor ordered him to rest. Despite his health issues, the pope has launched efforts to mediate an end to the war in Ukraine. Pope Francis will not be presiding over the customary mass for the start of Lent at the Basilica of Saint Sabina on Romes Aventine Hill this year. The popes knee ailment also forced him to cancel travel plans for the first time in his papacy. Francis was scheduled to celebrate mass Sunday in Florence for the closing of a meeting of bishops and mayors from the Mediterranean region. But knee pain has not stopped the Pope from repeatedly voicing his concern about the developments in Ukraine. On Friday, he visited the Russian ambassador to the Holy See, Alexander Avdeev, to express those concerns in person. The Pope has called for Ash Wednesday this week to serve as a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine. His worries were voiced again Sunday when he said his heart is broken and called for arms to fall silent. Referring to those in search of refuge as brothers and sisters, the pope made an impassioned appeal for humanitarian corridors to help refugees leave Ukraine. The Vatican has now said it is prepared to assist in any negotiation aimed at ending the war in the eastern European country. The Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said in interviews published in Italian newspapers Monday that the Vatican is offering to facilitate dialogue with Russia. He said there is always space for negotiation. Earlier, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, announced the pope would not travel after speaking to the Holy Father on the phone. Bassetti said the pope had given his strong backing to the Mediterranean, Frontier of Peace meeting in Florence and had wanted to attend but the doctor recommended that he take a period of greater rest for his leg. It remains unclear whether the popes current knee problem is linked to previous sciatica conditions that have forced him to cancel some of his public appearances in recent times and has also caused him to limp. Only last month, the 85-year-old pontiff complained of a pain in his leg, saying it was worse when he remained standing. Pope Francis underwent colon surgery in July in what was considered his most serious health issue since he was elected head of the Catholic Church in March 2013. After spending 10 days in a hospital, he appeared to recover well and soon returned to his daily activities. Ukraine demanded an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian forces as its delegation arrived Monday for talks with Russia, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the European Union to grant his country immediate membership in the bloc. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia began at the Ukraine-Belarus border, with Zelenskyys office saying the Ukrainian side included Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Zelenskyy asked for a fast-track EU accession in a video message in which he also encouraged Russian troops to lay down their arms. "Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing," he said. "I'm sure it's fair. I'm sure it's possible." NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he spoke with the Ukrainian leader by phone and "commended him for the bravery of the people and armed forces of Ukraine." "NATO allies are stepping up support with air-defense missiles, anti-tank weapons, as well as humanitarian and financial aid," Stoltenberg tweeted. Russia faced increased diplomatic and economic pressure Monday, the fifth day of its invasion, with the United Nations General Assembly due to hold an emergency session, Russia's currency plunging to a record low and the addition of new sanctions against the country's central bank. Britain's defense ministry said Monday that Russian troops remained more than 30 kilometers north of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, adding that "logistical failures and staunch Ukrainian resistance continue to frustrate the Russian advance." That matched an assessment from a senior U.S. defense official, who told reporters Sunday, "We have no indication that the Russian military has taken control of any city." Russian troops could soon be joined by forces from ally Belarus, according to U.S. officials who spoke to multiple news organizations. Among the new sanctions activity Monday, Britain prohibited British entities from conducting transactions with Russia's central bank, finance ministry and wealth fund, while Singapore announced a set of sanctions that include targeting bank transactions and export controls. A day after the European Union said it was sending fighter jets to Ukraine, Australia on Monday committed to an unspecified delivery of lethal military equipment. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the EU was engaging in hostile behavior toward Russia, and that providing arms to Ukraine was an "extremely dangerous and destabilizing factor." Peskov also said that while sanctions imposed against Russia are heavy, it has been planning for them and "has the potential to offset the harm." The White House said U.S. President Joe Biden would hold a call with several allies Monday to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine "and to coordinate our united response." At least 350 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded last week, with another 1,700 wounded, Ukraine said Sunday. There was no information about casualties among Ukrainian forces, and while Russia has acknowledged casualties among its troops, it has not publicly disclosed any count. Michelle Bachelet, the U.N.'s human rights chief, told a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council that at least 102 civilians have been killed, and that she feared the real toll is "considerably higher." "Most of these civilians were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and airstrikes," Bachelet said. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi tweeted Monday that more than 500,000 refugees have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin told his defense minister to put nuclear forces in a "special regime of combat duty" Sunday, saying that leading NATO powers had made "aggressive statements" and imposed financial sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Following a vote for a rare special session of the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield responded to Putin's nuclear alert, saying Russia "is under no threat from NATO, a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine. This is another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all. We urge Russia to tone down its dangerous rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons." A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Russia's decision to put its nuclear deterrent on high alert was "unnecessary" and "escalatory." "We are confident that we have the ability to defend the homeland and defend our allies and partners, and that includes through strategic deterrence," said the official while declining to discuss the United States' nuclear deterrent further. Russia voted against calling Monday's special session of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly but could not exercise veto power on the procedural vote. China, the United Arab Emirates and India abstained. Explaining China's abstention, U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said Beijing believes the top priority now is for all parties to exercise the necessary restraint to prevent the situation from getting worse. "Actions taken by the U.N. should help cool the situation and facilitate diplomatic solutions and restrain from aggravating tensions," Zhang said. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. Pro-democracy groups have expressed concern over the outbreak of political violence in Zimbabwe ahead of the March 26 council and parliamentary by-elections. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and Heal Zimbabwe say police should arrest all perpetrators of violence following the death of Mboneni Ncube of Kwekwe, who was stabbed to death on Sunday by suspected Zanu PF supporters while he was attending a rally convened by Nelson Chamisas Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). In a statement, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition noted with "huge concern", acts of political violence targeted at Zimbabwes major opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change. The statement read in part, It is regrettable that ahead of the March 26 by-elections, we continue to witness acts of political violence emanating from the unholy alliance between law enforcement agents and the ruling party, Zanu PF. Such a scenario has created an uneven playing ground ahead of the March 26 by-elections and the 2023 national elections. We deplore the partisan conduct of law enforcement agents and reiterate that law enforcement agents should be apolitical in their conduct of duty. In this regard, we implore law enforcement agents to investigate all acts of political violence and bring perpetrators to book. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said it will continue with engagements at local, regional and international level to ensure that the country will conduct credible polls and respect fundamental human rights. At the same time, Heal Zimbabwe also condemned in the strongest terms acts of violence targeting members of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) members by alleged ZANU PF supporters in Kwekwe during a rally on 27 February 2022. Heal Zimbabwe said the attack come barely a day after Vice President Constantine Chiwenga announced during a rally in Kwekwe that his party was ready to crush the CCC like lice and prevent its leader from winning the harmonized elections in 2023. Heal Zimbabwe notes that such reckless statements by the vice president incite hate and animosity among political players. Heal Zimbabwe is greatly concerned that while President Emmerson Mnangagwa have been on record calling for peace ahead of elections, his party on one hand has been on the offensive perpetrating violence against political opponents. It is against this background that Heal Zimbabwe calls on political parties to inculcate a new political culture among their supporters that underscores the need for peace and political tolerance. It is Heal Zimbabwes view that tolerance and pluralism are principles central to the attainment of peace and also form core pillars of democracy. Heal Zimbabwe urged the police to uphold the Constitution and enforce the law without fear, favour or bias in compliance with Section 219 and arrest all perpetrators of the Kwekwe violence. It implored political parties to reign in on errant supporters who perpetrate violence. Independent Commissions supporting democracy such as the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) that are funded through taxpayers money must fulfill their constitutional obligations and work to support and entrench human rights and democracy in compliance with Section 233 of the constitution. Addressing journalists in Harare today, Chamisa also condemned the political violence saying the violence was being perpetrated by Zanu PF, which wanted bloodshed. Chamisas remarks were dismissed by the ruling party as wishful thinking. Police reported that they have arrested 16 people in connection with the death of Mboneni Ncube, who was stabbed at the CCC rally in Kwekwe, Midlands. One of the suspects, Kennedy Simbi, is on the run. Woburn, MA (01801) Today Periods of rain. Expect mist and reduced visibilities at times. High near 55F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 48F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. Look around the streets of Taiwan and the popularity of bubble tea manufacturer, 50 Lan, will be obvious. The owner Mr. Ma founded a humble beverage and fruit stall in 1994 and with a growing culture of cold and hand-shaken tea, 50 Lan proved to be a thriving business. Today, the company has moved its headquarters to Tainan into a concrete building designed by renowned architect Mao Shen Chiang. Fittingly, the building houses a traditional tea room, testing rooms and a tea kitchen where employees like to experiment with new tea variants. A room in earthy tones In this modern lab, a simple earthy-colour scheme results from a material mix of concrete and wood serving as a pure and perfect frame for building a modern brand. The room, kept in earthy hues with wooden sliding doors and leather mats, welcomes guests with Taiwanese calligraphy on the walls. Text / images courtesy vipp Marinda Anderson, Rolonda Watts, and Brittany Bellizeare, in sandblasted. Photo: Carol Rosegg In Charly Evon Simpsons neoabsurdist comedy sandblasted, the playwright imagines that an unexplained leprosy has started to strike young Black women. Their skin just doesnt hold together like it used to. Limbs drop off without warning; even doing a salt scrub in the shower is a risk. This new plague (men are just starting to hear about it) makes the women shrink from any touch; even a caress could cost them a finger. In the intermittently powerful sandblasted, two of these women Angela (Brittany Bellizeare) and Odessa (Marinda Anderson) have begged for advice from an older celebrity guru named Adah (Rolonda Watts) who seems impervious to the disease. When the play begins, Adah has brought her two disciples into the desert (here West someplace), where she thinks the sand and blazing light might somehow bake them back into health. Adah is wise yet also sort of full of it, happy to proclaim the value of blueberries in the face of someone elses physical and mental collapse. Antioxidants! she sings operatically, Oprahishly. Designer Matt Saunders has built them a breathtaking desert-in-a-room set doorways and windows filled halfway with dunes and a nearly real sky overhead, dotted with three-dimensional cotton-ball clouds. (Stacey Derosiers lighting throbs at sunset intensity throughout.) The sandy expanse with trapped-but-cheerful women recalls Samuel Becketts Happy Days, but Simpsons emptiness isnt static. These women have come deliberately to the desert; they are also able to leave the desert. This is no existential Beckettian prison. For all the womens casual modernity, theyve traveled to the desert of medieval ascetics, of the Desert Fathers. This is the wilderness where you throw your weakest self away. In her satire, Simpson targets both a country hostile to Black womens well-being Andersons character refers to maternal death statistics and the industries that grow like rust on that hostility. Are you anxious? Sick? At risk of early death? Then there is a lifestyle influencer ready to sell you a wellness cure. Yet not everything Adah is offering comes in the form of pointless lotions and leafy greens. She does tell Odessa and Angela things they need to know (like how sweet it is to age), and when Odessa has a panic attack, she calms her. Youre on the ground, Adah says, as Odessa fizzes restlessly. Know you are on the ground. Is this hand-wavey or helpful? Kind of both. Some of what she says obeys Tricia Herseys Rest Is Resistance framework, which links racial and generational trauma and disrupted sleep. At Adahs direction, Angela and Odessa nap in the sand, and it does them real good. The show is a little dozy itself; its that dedicated to rest and recuperation. The sand of sandblasted is the plays main image, enough so that it stops being a setting and starts becoming the meaning and texture of the parable itself. It drifts and sifts and scatters, as does Simpsons story, which never coheres into a solid landscape. Scenes flash forward and backward in time (the friends first meeting with Adah comes quite late in the show), and the constant avowals of resilience and support start to seem exchangeable too. In her dialogue, which is laid out on the page as poetry but spoken as prose, Simpson likes a malleable vagueness that can contain opposites. Waiting is suffering, says Adah, though later Angela cries, in revelatory tones, Waiting can just be us, living! The difference, Simpson says, is in the womens togetherness waiting isnt so cruel if Black women link arms. But its not clear if they are talking about waiting for justice or waiting for a cure or waiting for the end of the world. After she builds a clever allegory about Black womens health, Simpsons sure touch slackens. Theres a vivid first scene, and then the play almost immediately begins to lose its urgency. The radical nature of self-care converts here into a message about relaxing and putting aside the need for answers. That kind of affirmational you are already thriving stuff may be salve for the soul, but it doesnt convert into theatrical excitement. The director, Summer L. Williams, therefore has to lean heavily on her cast for the shows electricity and they deliver. Both Bellizeare and Anderson crackle in their scenes with Angelas brother Jamal (Andy Lucien), who rolls up every now and then to shake his head at their desperation. At one point, Jamal leans flirtatiously over a bar toward Odessa, and her shrinking refusal is both a hilarious swerve and a heartbreaking reminder of what overtaxed women have decided is beyond their touch. The main thrill is Watts, though, who is superb, winking and laughing and so swaggeringly charismatic that youd follow her anywhere. (Shes been on New Yorkers televisions, doing news and talk and voice-overs, for a generation.) Her voice contains all the delicacy and warmth of the sand when she speaks, you can almost hear grains rustling down a dune. The play is ambivalent, in the end, about wellness claims. If something doesnt hurt, maybe it helps? Still, I wouldnt trust a crystal with my health. Wattss voice, though, is medicine; Ive tried it, and it works. Sandblasted is at the Vineyard Theatre through March 13. Former Springfield man pleads guilty to use of interstate facilities to attempt to transmit information about a minor Protests against Russian invasion of Ukraine held in Rome and Milan. The first buses of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their country arrived in northern Italy over the weekend, as Europe braces for a major humanitarian crisis. A bus with a Ukrainian licence plate carrying around 50 people, almost all women and children, crossed the Italian border at Fernetti, near Trieste, in the early hours of Sunday morning. Women on board the bus told Italian news agency ANSA that their husbands had stayed behind to fight the invading Russian forces. After crossing into Italy, the passengers made their way to the homes of friends or family, mainly in northern cities but also in Rome. Another bus carrying about 40 refugees from Ukraine, including a nine-month-old baby, arrived in Piacenza at the weekend, according to the newspaper Liberta. Janez Lenarcic, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management said on Sunday that Europe faces its biggest humanitarian crisis in "many, many years", estimating that the number of Ukrainians internally displaced by the conflict could reach more than seven million. PM Draghi: Italy gives its full backing to the measures against the Russian Federation presented today by the @EU_Commission. The aggression against #Ukraine is barbaric and a threat to the whole of Europe. The European Union must react with utmost determination Palazzo_Chigi (@Palazzo_Chigi) February 27, 2022 Meanwhile the last direct flight from Russia landed at Fiumicino airport just after midday on Sunday, coinciding with the government's decision to close airspace to Russian planes. About 60 people were on board, reports ANSA, including some Italians and Russian citizens, mostly living in Italy. Demonstrations against Russia's invasion of Ukraine were held over the weekend in Rome and Milan, amid calls for peace and chants of "Putin assassino". Milan mayor Beppe Sala said his city "will do its part to give support to those fleeing the war." Le immagini che arrivano dall'Ucraina scuotono le nostre coscienze, Milano fara la sua parte per dare un supporto a quanti sono in fuga dalla guerra. pic.twitter.com/spEpp8TCbG Beppe Sala (@BeppeSala) February 26, 2022 On Sunday the EU announced that plans are afoot for Ukrainian refugees to be welcomed into member countries for three years without applying for asylum, the BBC reported. Speaking on the popular Italian talk show Che tempo che fa last night, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said: "This war has a name and a surname: Vladimir Putin", adding: "Ukraine is Europe, the young people of Kyiv are like the young people of Paris, of Berlin, of Rome." Photo RAI News Vatican's top diplomat calls for end to violence, says "never too late" for talks. The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Holy See is ready to "facilitate dialogue" between Russia and Ukraine, saying it would be a "gigantic catastrophe" if the conflict spread to other European countries. Cardinal Parolin said there is "a need to avoid any escalation, stop the violence and negotiate", insisting "it is never too late" for talks. Parolin, who ranks second to Pope Francis in the Vatican hierarchy, said he is "convinced that there is always room for negotiation", despite "the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine." The cardinal made his remarks in an interview published in several Italian newspapers ahead of Monday's expected meeting between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border to discuss a ceasefire. During the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis said his "heart is broken" by the conflict in Ukraine, calling for humanitarian corridors to help refugees, reports Reuters. Francis spoke to Ukrainian president Zelensky on Saturday, offering his prayers for peace and expressing his "most profound pain for the tragic events" unfolding in the country. The phone call came the day after Francis broke Vatican protocol by visiting the Russian embassy to the Holy See to convey his concern over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Pope Francis, whose Pontifex Twitter account has posted anti-war messages in Ukrainian in recent days, has called for a day of fasting for peace on 2 March, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Christian calendar. Photo La Repubblica Placeholder while article actions load Excluding Russia from global bankings SWIFT messaging system was always seen as an extreme option to punish President Vladimir Putin for his actions in Ukraine. Some Western leaders were reluctant to impose it; Frances finance minister called it the financial nuclear weapon. Yet on Feb. 26, they put aside fears over the potential hit to their own economies and shut a group of Russian lenders out of the network. The move left bankers and diplomats racing to grasp the repercussions for everything from energy exports to debt and currency markets. 1. What is SWIFT? SWIFT -- the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication -- is the Gmail of global banking. It delivers secure messages among more than 11,000 financial institutions and companies in over 200 countries and territories, handling trillions of dollars in transactions. The message traffic -- 42 million a day on average last year -- includes orders and confirmations for payments, trades and currency exchanges. A member-owned cooperative, based just outside Brussels, SWIFT was founded in 1973 to end reliance on the telex system. Advertisement 2. Why is losing SWIFT access such a big deal? A country cut off from SWIFT can suffer significant economic pain. Thats what happened to Iran in 2012, when its banks lost access as part of European Union sanctions targeting the countrys nuclear program and its sources of finance. (Many of the banks were reconnected in 2016 after the EU took them off its sanctions list.) When Western nations threatened Russias access to SWIFT in 2014, Alexei Kudrin, a onetime finance minister close to Putin, estimated that it could reduce Russias gross domestic product by 5% in a year. 3. Whos been banned? The banks ordered cut off from SWIFT include five -- Sberbank, VTB, Otkritie, Novikom and Sovcom -- that were already laboring under other sanctions. Sberbank and VTB are among Russias most important financial institutions, collectively accounting for about half of the countrys banking assets. Sberbank holds the biggest share of Russian savings deposits and is the main creditor of the Russian economy, according to the U.S. Treasury. Advertisement 4. Why the initial reluctance to impose a SWIFT ban? U.S. President Joe Biden cited the lack of unity among European nations as a reason. Another was a fear among Western officials that banning countries from SWIFT would encourage development of alternative systems. Plus, theres the likelihood of collateral damage. The SWIFT move could result in missed payments and giant overdrafts within the international banking system, said Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar, who compared the situation to the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers and the pandemic-related market slump of March 2020. Europe uses SWIFT to send payments for Russian natural gas it needs to heat its homes and power factories, meaning a ban could threaten supplies in the midst of the winter heating period, adding to an already heightened cost of living crisis in the region. A German government spokeswoman said purchases of Russian gas were still possible using SWIFT, even after the ban. 5. Is there an alternative to SWIFT? Advertisement Not really, or at least not yet. Since 2014, the Bank of Russia has run its own financial messaging system for Russian and foreign banks. But that one has only about 400 users. The Peoples Bank of China in 2021 announced a joint venture with SWIFT that was seen in some quarters as an insurance policy against being cut off from the global financial system. Digital currencies and the underlying technology have also been touted as a threat to SWIFT for several years, but theyre nowhere close to replacing it. 6. How secure is the SWIFT system? There have been multiple attempts to rob financial institutions through fraudulent messaging on SWIFT, some of them successful. Bangladeshs central bank lost $81 million to hackers who breached it in 2016 and tricked the Federal Reserve Bank of New York into sending funds. SWIFT emphasized that its own network hadnt been breached, but it beefed up security in the wider industry with mandatory and advisory controls at member firms. Advertisement 7. Who regulates SWIFT? Since it doesnt hold deposits, SWIFT isnt regulated the way a bank is. Its overseen by the National Bank of Belgium and representatives from the U.S. Federal Reserve System, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and other major central banks. Generally speaking, SWIFT would cut off access only if the European Union passed sanctions against a particular entity or country. SWIFT suspended certain Iranian lenders in 2018 after the U.S. imposed a new round of sanctions, although it says that was an isolated event that was taken in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load The data that Google collects while were online underpins the $1.8 trillion valuation of its parent company, Alphabet Inc. Privacy campaigners have tried to limit its access to everything from search histories to user locations, yet its still able to monetize the digital profiles of billions of people. Now some U.S. states and consumer groups are trying to use the courts to force change. If the lawsuits succeed, it could help reshape the $300 billion digital-advertising industry and provide a template for restricting the power of giant technology companies. 1. How does Google make money from my data? When youre using its Chrome browser, search engine or Android operating system, Google tracks your activity to build a picture of your preferences and interests. The information is gold dust for brand marketers, who need it to target their ads at the consumers who are most likely to bite. Googles role as the middleman linking online advertisers to shoppers guarantees it a big cut of global ad budgets. The company also gathers data to protect against fraud and abuse, personalize content and maintain and improve its services. Critics say the troves of information amassed by Google, Meta Platforms Inc.s Facebook and other giant tech platforms give them an unassailable competitive advantage over any potential challengers. Advertisement 2. Whats in the lawsuits? Texas, Washington, Indiana and Washington, D.C. hit Google in January with separate suits accusing it of tricking consumers into disclosing location data for ad targeting. Two proposed class-action suits have also been filed on behalf of millions of Google users, claiming the company secretly scoops up data through its Chrome web browser. One says that Google tracks the most intimate and potentially embarrassing things you browse on the internet, even in Incognito mode -- which is supposed to keep browsing private. The other alleges that Google illegally collects data from Chrome users who have opted out of sharing their Web activity by choosing not to sync Google accounts with Chrome. The company denies claims in the suits that it violated California privacy and federal wiretapping laws, saying consumers misrepresented its features and privacy controls. 3. Whats at stake? Advertisement If the consumer privacy suits over Chrome win class-action status and proceed to trial, Google could face court-imposed limits on its ability to harvest data. It may end up paying tens of billions of dollars in damages in the suit over its Incognito mode, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Schettenhelm. The second suit by users, which claims Google built a $1 trillion business entirely on monetizing the value of Internet users data, is seeking damages of at least $1,000 per user. Rulings or verdicts against Google could spur action from regulators and lawmakers examining the companys data-gathering practices and even lead to a wider industry crackdown. Whether that would inflict serious damage on the tech giants isnt clear. Meta has paid out billions of dollars in penalties for privacy violations over the years, with little impact on its growth. A share price plunge that wiped $230 billion off its market value in February was driven by concerns over slowing user growth rather than the companys history of data harvesting. 4. Whats next? Plaintiffs in the Chrome sync feature lawsuit are waiting for a hearing set for May 31 to know if they will be granted class-action status so they can represent millions of other users. Those in the Incognito suit will seek class-action status at a hearing in September. Alphabets Chief Executive Officer, Sundar Pichai, has already been ordered to face questioning under oath in that case. Advertisement 5. What has Google done about privacy? Under pressure from privacy-conscious consumers and regulators, the company said in 2020 it would ban advertisers from using third-party cookies to track consumers in Chrome and target them with ads. The decision sparked a backlash from publishers, which rely on ads, and Google delayed the move until late 2023. Its been devising a cookie alternative that will allow digital marketers to reach consumers based on shared profiles rather than personal web browsing. In February, it proposed tools for its Android mobile operating system that would increase user privacy by banning data tracking across multiple applications and limiting how app makers share user information with third parties. Critics say the moves go only some way to address privacy concerns and could cement Googles dominance in digital ads. 6. Is anyone else going after Google? Advertisement Efforts to pass legislation in Congress to make it harder for big tech firms to access personal data have reached an impasse. However, pressure is building in Europe, where regulators are scrutinizing the mechanics of Googles online ad business. Germanys Federal Cartel Office is investigating its data processing terms after deciding it enjoys a strategic advantage from the information it collects that others cannot challenge. Frances data protection authority has fined Google twice over the way it manages tracking devices on its search engine. A U.K. watchdog is overseeing Googles ad-tracking overhaul as part of a pact that ended an antitrust probe there. And Irelands data protection authority is preparing a ruling that could make it harder for the tech giants to transfer swathes of user data to the U.S. 7. Is there a risk for rivals, like Meta? In a sign of how crucial the flow of personal data is to the big platforms, Meta told investors in February it would lose $10 billion in ad revenue in 2022 after Apple Inc. decided that apps on its iPhone and other devices must seek permission from users before tracking them. Any new limits on Googles information collecting are likely to have implications for other businesses that monetize personal data. If the courts agree that Googles practices violate state and federal laws, that could encourage regulators to raise the bar on privacy across the board. Advertisement A Bloomberg QuickTake on why Apple and Google Are Killing the (Ad) Cookie Googles 2021 blog post about delaying plans to phase out third-party cookies A September letter from Senate Democrats to FTC Chair Lina Khan over data privacy concerns Bloomberg article on how a judge was disturbed that Google tracks Incognito users Bloomberg Intelligence note on Googles private-browsing suit More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has shown no interest in resuming talks with the U.S. after agreeing in 2018 to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Instead, he has been busy making his nuclear-equipped arsenal bigger, deadlier and better able to strike South Korea, Japan, American forces in Asia -- and the U.S. mainland. 1. What is Kim working on? An array of ballistic missiles of various ranges as well as cruise missiles said to be able to hit Japan. (Ballistic missiles fly in an arched trajectory and are unpowered on descent. Cruise missiles can fly at low altitudes and are maneuverable, making them harder to detect and intercept.) Kim has rolled out new solid-fuel ballistic missiles that are easier to move, hide and fire than many liquid-fuel versions. Hes launched more than two dozen since May 2019, including nuclear-capable, super-fast KN-23 missiles that can strike all of South Korea -- and U.S. forces stationed there -- within a matter of minutes. He has also launched KN-25 short-range missiles designed to be fired in rapid succession from a single launcher to overwhelm interceptors. Advertisement The new ballistic Pukguksong-3 missile -- the biggest of the bunch tested in the past two years -- is designed to be fired from a submarine and has an estimated range of 1,900 kilometers, or 1,200 miles. It appeared to have test-fired a short-range, submarine-launched ballistic missile in October 2021 for the first time in two years. (As of late 2021, North Korea had deployed one submarine that is capable of firing missiles. A second one has been under construction for more than a year.) It tested hypersonic missiles in September 2021 and again in January 2022, which are designed to deploy a high-speed glide vehicle that can carry a warhead and maneuver past interceptors. The country also showed off last year, and again in January, what it said was a new delivery system to fire missiles off a train, making them harder for prying eyes to track. Advertisement 2. Could Kim really hit the U.S.? He appears to have acquired that capability after successfully testing an intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017. But one test may not be enough to ensure the reliability of the ICBM known as the Hwasong-15. A new ICBM -- displayed at a military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers Party in October 2020 -- is bigger and likely boasts more powerful engines. Weapons experts say its likely purpose is to deliver a multiple nuclear warhead payload that could overwhelm U.S. defenses, or a single, high-yield weapon. North Korea is also said to be developing an ICBM that uses solid-fuel technology, potentially giving the U.S. less warning of an imminent launch. Still, its unclear whether the countrys ICBMs could beat antimissile systems and are refined enough to strike their intended targets, as well as whether the warheads could survive reentry into the atmosphere. 3. How many nuclear devices does North Korea have? Advertisement Experts estimate that North Korea has assembled 30 to 40 nuclear warheads, the fewest among the nine nations with nuclear weapons. The country has conducted six atomic tests, with Kim responsible for the last four. The first detonation in 2006 measured less than one kiloton, leaving experts wondering whether it had been a partial failure. (A kiloton is equal to the force of 1,000 metric tons [1,102 tons] of TNT). In the most recent test, in September 2017, the estimated yield of 120 to 250 kilotons dwarfed the 15 to 20 kiloton U.S. bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. North Korea probably has developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into its ballistic missile warheads, according to the assessment of several countries cited in a 2020 United Nations report. 4. Where does Kims military get its fissile material? It has been self-sufficient for decades in fissile material, the main ingredient to create a nuclear chain reaction and explosion. The program today relies largely on enriched uranium and, according to weapons experts, produces enough annually for about six bombs. The consensus among experts is that the country probably has enough already for as many as 60 nuclear devices, although one estimate, from a 2021 study by the RAND Corp. and Asan Institute, put the number as high as 116. In addition, North Korea appeared in mid-2021 to have resumed plutonium-producing operations -- another means of creating fissile material -- at a nuclear reactor in its antiquated Yongbyon complex. Advertisement 5. What other surprises might be out there? North Korea may be working on ICBMs that carry multiple warheads and in-flight countermeasures to throw interceptors off the trail, according to Datayo, an open-source weapons research site. Kim has pushed to develop his fleet of submarines and is looking to deploy a new vessel soon that experts say could fire missiles. He may even try to revive the countrys satellite program, arguing that North Korea has the right as a sovereign state to develop a space program. North Korea said it held an important test for a reconnaissance satellite in February. Weapons experts say satellite launches could be used by North Korea to advance missile technology. 6. How can the country afford all this? The money needed is not huge in global terms. North Korea spent around $4 billion annually on its military, including one of the worlds largest armies, between 2007 and 2017, according to a 2019 CIA assessment. Thats roughly equivalent to two days U.S. military spending. Since North Korea is one of the worlds poorest countries, the outlay of around 23% of gross domestic product ranks among the highest globally, if not the most. Although international sanctions have hit the economy hard, North Korea evades some through methods such as clandestine transfers at sea of banned goods such as oil, and it generates cash by means that include ransomware attacks. Kims decade-old regime has already taken in as much as $2.3 billion through cybercrimes and is geared to rake in even more, U.S. and United Nations investigators have said. Advertisement 7. Wasnt Trump going to fix this? Former President Donald Trumps talks with Kim, beginning with Singapore in June 2018, turned the duo from insult-throwing enemies into dialogue partners. But their three meetings didnt produce any noticeable change, and North Korea has become what three decades of diplomacy had tried to prevent -- a state capable of developing, projecting and detonating atomic bombs. Kim has shown no interest in the President Joe Bidens call for him to return to nuclear talks. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load As U.S. president, Joe Biden has a rarely used but potentially powerful tool to make up for energy supply shortages or economically damaging price spikes: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR. Set up in the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s as a national energy safety net, its the worlds largest supply of emergency crude, stored in deep and heavily guarded underground salt caverns along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Biden administration is said to be considering tapping the SPR in coordination with allies to counter a surge in prices brought on by Russias moves against Ukraine. 1. How much oil is in reserve? The reserve stood at 580 million barrels as of Feb. 25. Thats about 81% of its maximum authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels and enough to replace more than half a years worth of U.S. crude net imports. Advertisement 2. In what circumstances can presidents release stockpiled oil? Its pretty much the presidents prerogative. But the 1975 law that established the reserve says a president can order a full drawdown in the event of a severe energy supply interruption that threatens national security or the economy. A limited drawdown (up to 30 million barrels) can be ordered in the event of a domestic or international energy supply shortage of significant scope or duration. 3. How have presidents tapped the reserve? Beyond ad hoc responses to localized oil disruptions, the U.S. has tapped its oil reserve only a handful of times. Biden did so late in 2021, authorizing the release of 50 million barrels as part of a coordinated multi-nation bid to lower surging fuel costs. In 2011, President Barack Obama released 30 million barrels as part of a joint effort with other nations to counter supply disruptions from Libya. In 2005, President George W. Bush released 11 million barrels in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And in 1991, under President George H.W. Bush, 17 million barrels were released during the first Gulf War. In 2017, the Energy Department authorized the release of 5 million barrels to Gulf Coast refineries when Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on the region. Such arrangements are designed to address short-term emergency needs, and the crude is repaid, in kind, at a future date. Test releases take place from time to time, as well as limited releases in the form of swaps. Advertisement 4. What does a release entail? The maximum drawdown capability is 4.4 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Departments website, and it takes 13 days for SPR oil to reach the open market after a presidential decision. But the mere announcement that the SPR is being deployed could have an immediate, if short-lived, effect on oil prices. 5. Which other countries have reserves? China, India, Japan and South Korea are among Asias major stockpilers of oil. Member states of the European Union held a combined 112.5 million tonnes (825 million barrels) of emergency oil stocks as of June 2021, according to Eurostat, the EUs statistical office. 6. Whats the outlook for the U.S. stockpile? The domestic shale boom has allowed the U.S. to join the ranks of the worlds biggest oil producers, lending weight to arguments that the emergency reserve is past its sell-by date. But U.S. crude production has only grown modestly in recent months, despite a big rally in prices, while demand has increased and imports have been trending upward. In the past the reserve has been used to pay government bills ranging from roads to deficit reduction and drugs, and current plans are for the stockpile to be cut almost in half over several years. But periodic use of the reserve after natural disasters may be the most effective rebuttal to the case for doing away with it. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Doing any kind of business with Russia, its companies or its oligarchs is now tainted by the invasion of Ukraine and the deterrent of not wanting to be associated with a pariah nation may prove as effective in bringing Vladimir Putin to heel as the sanctions piling up. While there are always routes around poorly drafted and rushed new restrictions, the fear of being held to account in the court of popular opinion may be the disinfecting sunlight that really does get into all the corners. Companies and institutions will need to accept financial pain as the price of taking concrete action to punish Russia. But that may prove cheaper than seeing their brands and reputations blackened by association with Putins invasion, and possibly being punished with penalties by regulators down the line. Nicolai Tangen, who oversees Norways sovereign wealth assets, said on Friday that the $1.3 trillion fund wouldnt offload its Russian holdings. If we sold out of Russia now, it would be a wrapped gift to the oligarchs who buy our shares, he told Bloomberg News. By Sunday, the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund had changed its mind, or had it changed by its government. We want to give a very clear and unequivocal response that the type of abuse we have seen in recent times cannot be accepted, Norwegian Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said. The $2.8 billion bloc of Russian equities the fund owned at the end of last year has been frozen and will be divested likely at a loss, given the collapse in Russias stock market. Advertisement It marks a political intervention by the fund, which is the kind of mission creep it has long avoided. That departure, along with the swiftness of the turnaround, shows how toxic being financially associated with Russian assets has rapidly become. A newfound unwillingness to suffer reputational damage has also prompted BP Plc to seek to offload its 20% stake in Rosneft PJSC, Russias largest oil producer. Our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue, BP Chairman Helge Lund said. The company warned that could result in a writedown of as much as $25 billion; with buyers likely to be few and far between, analysts reckon BP may have to take that hit. And Switzerland, long the destination of choice for money of dubious provenance, has banned its banks from opening new accounts for Russian companies or individuals that feature on the latest European Union sanctions list. The government has also asked finance companies to report their existing links with sanctioned entities, though ministers didnt detail what the outcome of that information gathering would be. Advertisement Theres more than reputational risk at stake. The U.S. Treasury laid down a marker in 2014 by fining BNP Paribas SA a record $9 billion for transactions conducted with countries on a sanctions list including Sudan, Iran and Cuba, in currencies other than dollars, and going back 10 years. The retrospective message was unmistakable: If a financial entity wants to conduct business in the U.S. or in dollars, then it must abide by the spirit as well as the letter of the law. With the entire democratic world united in condemnation of Russian aggression, executives need to align their corporate responsibilities with the direction of travel set by their governments. The threat of long-term stigma outweighs any consideration of the short-term balance sheet hit from disinvesting Russian assets. Death by a thousand corporate cuts may prove a more effective way of isolating Russia financially than the sweeping official efforts to exclude the country from the global financial system. Advertisement More From Bloomberg Opinion: All Is Not Quiet on Putins Home Front: Clara Ferreira Marques Europes Elite Reckons With Its Russian Ties: Lionel Laurent Competing Narratives in Ukraine Which Will Win?: John Authers This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Marcus Ashworth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European markets. He spent three decades in the banking industry, most recently as chief markets strategist at Haitong Securities in London. Mark Gilbert is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering asset management. He previously was the London bureau chief for Bloomberg News. He is also the author of Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Even now, on the fifth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv bracing for the worst, the West has continued purchasing the oil and gas that Moscow is desperate to sell pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars daily to subsidize its war machine.Washington and Brussels have carved out loopholes big enough for an oil tanker in their current sanctions policy, allowing the trade to continue. Western officials have also worked the phones, reassuring traders and their banks they can continue buying and paying for Russian oil and gas.But Kyiv is pleading for it to stop. We insist on a full embargo for Russian oil and gas, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted over the weekend. Buying them now means paying for the murder of Ukrainian men, women and children. As with every other action that only a few days ago seemed unpalatable and unlikely targeting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and SWIFT foreign-currency system, or supplying offensive armament the oil weapon is looming as an economic punishment that could provoke a dangerous military response.Russia exports about 8 million barrels a day of crude, refined petroleum products and other oil liquids, a significant chunk of global demand of about 100 million barrels a day. About two-thirds of the Russian supply goes to industrialized nations in Europe, North America and Asia.Germany is worried Europe wont have enough gas to make it until the spring, and blackouts may follow. The U.S. fears oil prices will jump to $150 or even $200 a barrel, just ahead of its midterm elections. In Washington and Berlin, the message is almost unanimous: Sanctioning Russian oil and gas will hurt the West more than Moscow, and its unlikely to deter Vladimir Putin. For now, it wont happen. John Arnold, a famed former commodity trader, summarized that school of thought: As much as the world is mad at Putin, that is not a price the West is willing to pay.Others appear open to the idea, however. U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss over the weekend floated the prospect of setting caps on purchases of Russian oil, progressively reducing them. Ironically, that sounds exactly like the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which set a 5% monthly output reduction. Other Western officials are asking, if not now, when? I cant see the status quo of the energy trade lasting forever. Unless the Ukrainian-Russian talks yield some quick results, the gruesome photographs and videos that will inevitably follow a Russian push into the biggest Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, will harden Western public opinion. If the war drags on, its a matter of when, rather than if, the energy trade gets sanctioned. Already some European refiners have stopped buying Russian crude, self-sanctioning Russian oil. Even with the White House encouraging oil traders to keep going, moving Russian petroleum, particularly seaborne flows, is increasingly difficult. Placeholder while article actions load A week before Russia began its unprovoked attack on Ukraine, the chief executive of the largest oil and gas producer in the U.S. Permian Basin was telling Bloomberg TV about his commitment to financial discipline: Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Whether its $150 oil, $200 oil or $100 oil, were not going to change our growth plans even if the president wants us to grow, I just dont think the industry can grow anyway. The apparent steadfastness of Scott Sheffield of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. makes sense in a sector rebuilding its reputation with investors after a decade of excess and loss. Yet Sheffields statement is odd in the details. By Pioneers own math, all else equal, a move from $90 oil to $150, annualized, would imply a free cash flow yield of almost 20%.(1) Which raises a rather troubling question. If investors really require a 20% yield from one of Americas biggest, best-capitalized shale operators before its allowed to drill some extra wells, isnt that business model broken? Advertisement I suspect Sheffield was erring on the side of performative restraint. Nonetheless, oil tested the air above $100 during the opening of Russias assault. It has eased back slightly below that level. But a mix of physical disruptions, sanctions and financiers shying away from Russia including even Chinese state banks could yet push it much higher. If so, that would present U.S. shale operators with a quandary. In addition to repairing relations with investors, maintaining discipline on spending helps repair balance sheets. That said, the latter have improved drastically already. Pioneers ratio of net debt-to-earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, for example, has fallen from more than six times to less than one in the space of four quarters, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company is forecast to have a net cash position within two years. Despite widening recently, the spread on high-yield energy bonds is at relatively tight levels similar to those that prevailed in late 2018. Given that, triple-digit oil prices resulting from a genuine supply disruption would normally be a clear signal to raise production; were talking Bat-Signal clarity here. Yet doing so would carry risks. Apart from potentially diluting the discipline mantra, high oil prices have a way of ultimately curing high oil prices by hurting demand, either via fuel conservation or plain old recession. In other words, producers might fall into the usual trap of chasing high near-term oil prices with more wells just ahead of a drop. Advertisement That said, the shale sectors ability to boost production and to scale back relatively quickly is its calling card. In addition, domestic barrels have strategic value amid this crisis, and one suspects that will be lasting given the scope of Russian President Vladimir Putins ambitions. Certainly, President Joe Biden on Thursday talked of sanctions hitting Russia for years to come. Given the risks that Biden and his fellow Democrats face from higher gasoline prices in the run-up to Novembers midterm elections, might the president seek to nudge exploration and production companies toward higher output? His comments on Thursday warning oil companies not to use the war as an excuse to gouge drivers suggest no. As an aside, trying to pin higher pump prices on profiteering rather than Putin seems like a glaring missed opportunity. Biden should resist calls to renew restrictions on oil exports; the cure for disruption is not more disruption. One left-field option would be to announce some sort of emergency support for drilling on federal lands, such as a temporary royalties holiday. It would add to Bidens drip-feed of signals that he feels voters pain without actually doing much more than throwing the ball back to exploration and production companies. Advertisement The narrative that this White House is strangling drilling may yet comport with reality in time. But the fact is that permits for onshore drilling were issued at a faster rate in Bidens first year than in his predecessors last one. As of November, producers held more than 9,000 unused permits for drilling on federal land. Their reluctance to use them owes more to the red ink of the past decade than any green agenda. It shouldnt require a nudge to change that if triple-digit oil is sustained. But proferring one would reveal whether shale really cant grow, even if the president wants it to. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: U.S. Energy Independence Will Provide Small Comfort: Justin Fox Chipmakers Need a Supply Chain That Avoids Ukraine: Tae Kim Putin May Win the Battle, But Not War: Clara Ferreira Marques Advertisement (1) As noted by Neal Shah, Pioneers CFO, on the latest earnings call:If you look at our hedge position now at 0% hedged on oil, if youre talking about a $90 price environment, every $5 change in oil now has an incremental $750 million of cash flow for us.Adding the $3.8 billion implied by a move to $150 oil to Pioneers guidance for operating cash flow in 2022 of >$10.5billion (at a forward oil-price strip of about $84 per barrel) and netting off the capital expenditure budget at the midpoint results in $10.8 billion of implied free cash flow. That is equivalent to a yield of 19% relative to the current enterprise value. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was editor of the Wall Street Journals Heard on the Street column and wrote for the Financial Times Lex column. He was also an investment banker. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Of Narratives, Counter-Narratives and Narrative Fallacy As of the end of last week, markets were in an emphatic risk-on phase. After the initial shock of Russias invasion of Ukraine, the S&P 500 had regained a stunning 6.6% in two days trading. I argued that the market was working on the assumption that Vladimir Putin would get what he wanted, and that the world could live with this. I also added the following: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Following this logic, these are the risks to worry about: Europe comes round to sanctions that really do hurt; Russias armed forces get bogged down and this turns into a long drawn-out conflict; Putin overplays his hand and invades a neighboring NATO member; Internal opposition brings down Putin and Russia lapses into chaos. The first two definitely appear to be happening. The third isnt, for which we can be thankful, but Putin does at present seem to have overplayed his hand and his invocation of the nuclear threat suggests a risk of his doing so even more. While it would still be wishful thinking to say that the fourth is going to happen, there is far more internal opposition than many had thought possible. So by the criteria I established last week, the gloomy but market-friendly narrative that held sway then now looks seriously flawed. This matters a lot. Advertisement Politics is very much the battle of narratives. A few days ago, a story built around NATO overreach in encircling Russia, a weak, non-democratic State Department client state Ukraine, and a need to understand the priorities of the strategic genius Putin appeared to have sway arguably even in the U.S., where it had a few prominent adherents in the media. Putin would end up getting what he wanted with very little damage along the way; there was nothing anyone could do about it. Stability would return thereafter, and it was all the Wests fault. For an explanation of how that narrative was nurtured and took hold, read this post from Ben Hunts Epsilon Theory, which now seems prescient. This tale stretched to include other baleful notions. Europe is divided, Germany depends on Russian energy, the growing ranks of the worlds autocrats will support Putin, the U.S. is intractably divided with a weak president and a substantial body of support for Putin and what he represents. All of this has some element of truth, of course. The point is how narratives feed on themselves so that all points that dont fit with them are ignored. They can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Markets also move on narratives. With the strength of the received wisdom at the time that the invasion started, and the headlines of the first few hours, it was easy for the narrative that fueled the rebound to take hold. As a swiftly victorious Putin who then went back to minding his own business would imply greater global stability, that imagined scenario swiftly became market-positive. Advertisement This whole story is now in shreds. The strength and success of the Ukrainian resistance to date, the brutality of the Russian assault, and the support for Ukraine in the rest of the world and even among Russians has seen to that. Now, two narratives are competing for primacy. One is that this proves to be The Great Turning Point. On this analysis, the European Union now gets its act together, the worlds other autocrats decide to toe the line, the mad pro-Russian strain within American conservatism is decisively defeated, giving the U.S. a credible center-right party once more while bringing the president a new lease of life. And maybe, just maybe, this is the moment when Russia turns on Putin. Liberalism at last wins the upper hand on authoritarian populism. Here are some of the talking points in favor: Germany has ended a policy of limited military involvement that had lasted for decades by sending weapons to Ukraine, and is unrolling a dramatic increase in defense spending; Advertisement Hungarys Viktor Orban, generally included with Putin on lists of the worlds worst autocrats, is supporting sanctions, even if he is not going along with pleas from his opposition to do more; Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan, another authoritarian friendly with Putin and a member of NATO, appears to be ready to block Russian forces from passing through Turkish waters in the Dardanelles; China seems to be distancing itself from Putin; Putin apologists in the U.S. are desperately trying to change their story; The EU is agreeing to much tougher financial sanctions, and acting with startling unity. The other narrative needs just one word: Chaos. Putin cannot turn back now. Like many invaders before, he will continue in the attempt to avoid humiliation. Russian military power is such that it cannot be denied (if, that is, Putin sees some point in taking a country he regards as Russian by destroying it.) Russian behavior in Syria provides an idea of what could happen; Advertisement The western financial upheaval, just to enforce Russias new pariah status, will be immense and painful; news that BP Plc will take a $25 billion hit to drop its stake in the huge Russian oil producer Rosneft, in a painful strategic blow, shows the scale of whats ahead; Sanctions are creating what looks like an incipient bank run in Russia, as people try to get access to foreign currency when theres still a chance, while the effects on bonds and the ruble could be profound; Transport bans across Europe threaten to reintroduce the kind of problems created by the pandemic; Putins rationality looks very questionable at this point, and hes been hinting at the use of nuclear weapons. Coverage, as far as I can gauge at present, is veering between these two narratives, with a whiff of premature triumphalism mixing with deepening alarm. In the long run, it matters hugely which one wins out; in the short run, the fact that Putin cant just take Ukraine leaving the West powerless to do anything about it means that the situation is much riskier than it appeared last week. Advertisement Many historical analogies are doing the rounds. I think the best might be with Red Monday, Aug. 19, 1991, when Mikhail Gorbachev was detained in his dacha and a group of Soviet hardliners declared a coup. The era of glasnost and perestroika was over; the world would have to get used to a Brezhnev-style Soviet Union once more. Markets sold off. Then Boris Yeltsin famously stood on top of a tank, the coup collapsed, and by the Friday, Yeltsin was thrusting a piece of paper in Gorbachevs face and demanding that he sign a law outlawing the Communist Party. Within five days, the narrative went from Back to Brezhnev to Russia is no longer communist. By the end of the year, the Soviet Union was over. Those were frighteningly swift developments, which re-echoed throughout the subsequent decades. Theyre having serious ramifications in Ukraine at this moment. The roles of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, both regarded as unambiguous heroes at one point, remain controversial. But the chances that we will come to see an analogy between Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his social media posts with Yeltsins speech from a tank look strong. And even if Putin finds himself in the Gorbachev role, which still seems unlikely, there is ample room for things to go right or wrong in the years that come. This time around, the narrative has spun from Putin can have what he wants with equally stunning swiftness. The lesson for investors is to be extremely cautious, and to remember that a short-term market-unfriendly outcome (more uncertainty) is a consummation devoutly to be wished for the long term. Advertisement Survival Tips Last week, as some noticed, I didnt include a Survival Tips section for the first time since the early days of the pandemic. I did write one, but it seemed in bad taste in such circumstances. Obviously, we should all hope (and those who pray should pray) for the survival of the many people whose lives are now in danger in Ukraine. Then, irony upon irony, on Friday morning I tested positive for Covid-19, for the first time. Just as soon as Putin had persuaded me to forget about the coronavirus, I at last succumbed. My survival is not in any danger, but as many of you already know, I can report that this is a thoroughly unpleasant experience. Even with the horrors in Ukraine, we cannot yet declare that were through with Covid, unfortunately. In the interests of karma, this is what I wrote last Thursday night: Advertisement And as Russia is so unpopular with so many at this juncture, let me offer a few reminders of the countrys great cultural contribution to the world. Two musical pieces that speak a lot to me about Russias experience in the first half of the 20th century, Prokofievs Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, written in 1937, and Shostakovichs Seventh Symphony (The Leningrad.) The first is a setting of the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin (and the music has always strongly suggested to me that Prokofiev didnt have total respect for these men, and was gambling successfully on Stalin being too much of a Philistine to understand the point he was making.) The second is a musical depiction of the siege of Leningrad. For more Russian works of musical genius, try Rachmaninovs Vespers (sung in this version by a Ukrainian choir), Stravinskys Rite of Spring, and Tchaikovskys Fifth Symphony. I also had the same beautiful suggestion from more than one reader. Chopins Revolutionary Etude, played by the Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz, and here by Georgian Khatia Buniatishvili. Its also known as the Etude on the Bombardment of Warsaw, written in response to a failed revolution against Russia. Its a powerful piece of music. And heres another: the Polish composers Military Polonaise, played here by the Russian-born Austrian concert pianist Anastasia Huppmann.With that, please try to have a good week everyone. Be safe.More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: Joe Biden Has Days to Avoid Being Jimmy Carter: Niall Ferguson Advertisement Ukraine Sees Bad Omens in Putins Assault on Syria: Ruth Pollard Putins Nuclear Threat Shatters a Security Shield: Stephen Mihm This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. John Authers is a senior editor for markets. Before Bloomberg, he spent 29 years with the Financial Times, where he was head of the Lex Column and chief markets commentator. He is the author of The Fearful Rise of Markets and other books. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load As diplomats and national leaders dallied over sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, digital defenders got straight to work. Within a day of tanks crossing the border and missiles striking targets, hacker collective Anonymous declared cyber war against the Russian government. Soon after, the amorphous online collective claimed to have taken down the website of Kremlin-backed TV channel RT and that of a Russian ministry. RTs website was still down the following morning, the Daily Mail reported. Both were operational at the time of writing. Over the weekend, the Kremlins official website as well as Russian television stations were apparently hacked as well. Ukraines government has also called for people to take up digital arms against Russia, with the nations hacker underground being enlisted in the fight, Reuters reported Friday. The cyber response comes after Ukrainian government, banking and media websites were taken offline in distributed denial of service attacks. This is not unfamiliar territory for the east European nation it has borne the brunt of Russian cyber aggression for years. Advertisement Unprecedented, though, is the prospect that a global collective of digital warriors may rally around Ukraine to help fend off Moscows belligerence. With the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the EU and even the U.S. declining to get involved in the military battle now being waged on Ukraine soil, hackers and digital supporters around the world could become a powerful and visible defender of Ukraine. Such an offensive could sting President Vladimir Putin far more than he may expect, and have the potential to be far more effective than economic sanctions. While Russian hackers are notoriously good at attacking foreign targets, including the 2020 SolarWinds breach, cyber defense is a lot harder. An offender need only be successful a few times to wreak havoc, but a defender needs to win pretty much all the time. And Russias defenses are surely not bullet proof. The cyber guerrillas for now are fighting fire with fire, knocking important Russian websites offline after Russia did the same to Ukrainian websites, employing a scattershot approach of digital harassment. Hacktivists with Anonymous typically dont have the same kind of expertise as state-backed cyber forces, who are trained and mobilized to plan incursions on web systems over many months. In contrast, hacktivists are often young and will jump into an online chat room in their spare time to discuss a so-called op, downloading free, do-it-yourself software tools to join with others to, for instance, help take a site offline. Advertisement It seems like a sticks and duct-tape exercise but hacktivists have the benefit of scale, particularly when a cause strikes a chord and becomes globally popular. In the past they have managed to cause millions of dollars worth of damage. For instance, when Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in 2010 and first threatened with extradition, thousands of people coalesced in chat channels as part of Operation Avenge Assange. They then followed instructions to download software that would help them attack the websites of large payments providers like PayPal and MasterCard; several participants were later arrested, but most went on with their lives. Russian digital warfare often aims to sow discord and confusion think back to Moscows disinformation campaign on social media during the 2016 U.S. elections. Anonymous has excelled at creating discord and confusion too, waging cultural battles online by spreading memes and carrying out viral stunts aimed at undermining authority. Having carried out hacks that poked fun at figures from Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology to Rupert Murdoch, Anonymouss greatest potential may be in subverting Putins standing as an authoritative figure in Russia, a critical issue for the extremely image-conscious leader. Years of exposure to cyber aggression has also bolstered Ukraines resilience, allowing it to get back up and running quickly after the recent incursions. Russias digital fortifications may not yet have been fully tested. And should attackers get through, the possibility of bringing down systems that control transport, telecoms, banking, energy and even mining could at the very least disrupt Moscow in the midst of a war, and at worst bring such operations to a halt. Advertisement Early signs of what collective action might achieve were seen last month when a Belarusian group called Cyber Partisans targeted state-owned Belarusian Railway in order to disrupt Russian troop movements through the country. Theres already been concerns floated that Russias cyber attacks against Ukraine could go global, with the U.S. a likely target. But the reverse is also true. Cyber warfare could be an effective strategy deployed by national agencies. Rather than put troops on the ground, Washington, through its United States Cyber Command, could get to work trying to knock out power and gas operations, and disrupting communications. Allied governments may choose to acknowledge such action, or deny any involvement. But with non-government actors like Anonymous, Cyber Partisans and the coalition being built by the Ukraine government also joining the fight, placing blame may not be so easy. And ultimately irrelevant. Advertisement Putin started this fight. Perhaps the worlds digital warriors can help end it. More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion: Russias Cyber Campaign of Chaos Should Fail: Parmy Olson Beware the Chinese Ransomware With No Ransom: Tim Culpan Ukraine Crisis Gave the EU Mojo. Will It Last?: Lionel Laurent 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. Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. She previously reported for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes and is the author of We Are Anonymous. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Vladimir Putin came to power on New Years Eve in 1999 after an economic meltdown, rampant corruption and political uncertainty had clouded Russias prospects. Putin brought the promise of equity and order to a country rocked by pell-mell privatizations of state-controlled companies, fears of domestic terrorism and a plunge in the value of its currency, the ruble. Putin, a former intelligence officer who also oversaw the transfer of state assets to the Russian Federation, fashioned himself a student of his countrys history and economy. Stung by the loss of standing that greeted the Soviet Unions dissolution, and understandably disgusted by the first generation of oligarchs thievery, he pursued policies informed by resentment, cold-blooded rationalism and his own sense of patriotism. So its remarkable that a man guided by realpolitik and thuggery has launched an invasion of Ukraine that is likely to re-create the same devastating economic dislocations in Russia that led to his rise and may now sow the seeds of his downfall. Whatever course Putins military predations follow, the basket of financial sanctions the West introduced over the weekend in particular its assault on Russias central bank are likely to unravel Russias economy. Advertisement There are other potent features of the new sanctions, including unplugging Russia from SWIFT, the messaging system that knits together global banking transactions, and an overdue willingness by the West to crack down on Putins freshly minted band of loyal oligarchs. But the central bank sanctions? Wow. Standard analyses of Putins ability to withstand sanctions (including my own) have highlighted as evidence the Kremlins fortress balance sheet and its huge $630 billion stockpile of reserves. Experience has taught Putin the merits of having lots of money in his central bank vaults. The value of a falling ruble can be stabilized only if the Kremlin has the financial wherewithal to intervene by regularly buying the currency. Crises that Russia encountered in 1998, 2008 and 2014 were magnified by its central banks inability to respond because of a shortage of reserves. The 2014 crisis came about after falling oil prices and milquetoast sanctions spurred by Putins annexation of Crimea buffeted Russias economy. Since then, Putin has gone about making sure he has ample cash and other liquid assets on hand, a meaningful portion of it in gold. Russia now has the fourth-largest stash of reserves in the world after China, Japan and Switzerland. Putin plays the long game, and he correctly saw those reserves as insulation should sanctions follow a Ukraine invasion that only he and perhaps some close advisers knew was inevitable. Advertisement But heres the rub: Most of Russias reserves are in institutions outside of the country. As my Bloomberg News colleagues have charted, 78% of that $630 billion is held in China, France, Japan, Germany, the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere. And the West just told Russia that it plans to block its central banks access to those funds. Think about that. The West is attempting to disarm Russia by crippling its financial autonomy. Its a move Putin may not have anticipated and should give him pause. I was a reporter in Moscow in 1998 when the ruble cratered. The savings of average Russians withered, and they were forced to buy closets full of hard goods to protect themselves from their rapidly eroding purchasing power. The price of trading overseas skyrocketed, sideswiping Russian companies. It was distressing to witness. Russians obviously havent forgotten how ugly things can get when the ruble is rocked. Over the weekend, long lines formed at ATM machines in Moscow, and some of them were reportedly emptied in less than an hour. Thats just one scenario Putin may have hoped to avoid by deploying his currency reserves to protect the ruble. And he still has wiggle room. China, which houses about 14% of Russias reserves, is likely to backstop him. But the West, finally dispensing with the magical thinking that has guided its policies toward Putin for too long, wont. Advertisement Bloomberg News estimates that in a worst-case scenario, Russia will retain access to only $230 billion of its $630 billion hoard. Does that give Putin enough firepower to continue waging financial warfare while he vandalizes and terrorizes Ukraine? Yes, it does, particularly as Russia continues to haul in revenue from oil and gas sales. But, at a minimum, it drastically shortens how long Putin can continue marauding without economic and political consequences at home. That presumes, of course, that Putin sympathizes with the hardships that average Russians are about to endure which he wont, if history is any guide. But the political advisers, corporate titans and military leaders who have bowed to him may soon be of a different mind, and that spells possible trouble for him. Putin hasnt been behaving like a rational actor, as his Ukraine war and nuclear threats illustrate. So predictions of what happens next are built on sand. How this plays out will also depend on the military and financial backbone the West is willing to demonstrate. Locking Russian banks out of SWIFT had been considered the financial equivalent of the nuclear option, especially given that its economic impact will also boomerang on Europe and the U.S. Yet SWIFTs doors are starting to close, a move Japan has also endorsed. Advertisement Banks hailing from financial capitals such as London, Frankfurt and New York, along with offshore money laundering havens, have long been averse to measures that would have made it more difficult for Russian oligarchs to pillage. Hard lessons over the years from scandals such as those involving the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the Bank of New York, Deutsche Bank and the Panama Papers came and went, with little appetite for joint actions that closed financial hideaways or simply expropriated ill-gotten gains. Yet the West is now cracking down. The obscenity of Putins invasion of Ukraine has set these changes in motion, and the mechanics of how the West will go about freezing out Russias central bank still have to materialize. But this has all the makings of a violent financial awakening for Putin, one he will have to be incredibly dexterous, ruthless and fortunate to recover from. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: Advertisement Putins Refugees Will Make or Break Europe: Andreas Kluth Putin Can Win the Battle in Kyiv But Not the War: Clara Ferreira Marques Putin Wont Sportswash His Way Out of Ukraine This Time: Bobby Ghosh This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Timothy L. OBrien is a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load It was a giant ad on the side of a double-decker bus that did it. I have finally succumbed to a barrage of publicity and started to watch The Gilded Age. I havent thought much of it so far. The HBO extravaganza has all the ingredients that made Downton Abbey a global hit a grand dame who is determined to keep out the riffraff, a ridiculously rich social climber who refuses to be kept out, and an array of liveried footmen, temperamental cooks and worldly wise butlers but they dont cohere properly: The social observations are too heavy-handed and the characters too wooden. I am nevertheless grateful to Julian Fellowes, the creative force behind both series, for putting the TV spotlight on the most extraordinary epoch of American history: the period between 1870 and 1900 that Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner dubbed the gilded age in their 1873 novel of that title, and that is forever synonymous with robber barons and octopus-like monopolies. That there are extraordinary parallels between our own age and the gilded one is hardly a new observation: The latest reminder is Jeff Bezoss $485 million yacht, which is so big that a section of a bridge in Rotterdam may have to be temporarily removed so that it can reach the sea. But so what? The interesting question is not whether parallels exist, but what we are to make of them. Advertisement The left is in no doubt about the answer to the question: the Gilded Age was a period of darkness that mercifully gave way to the light of the Progressive Era when great presidents such as Teddy Roosevelt and, later down the line, his distant cousin Franklin reasserted the power of the state. Any politician who shows a bit of spunk is immediately dubbed a worthy successor to Teddy (John McCain) or Franklin (Barack Obama). But was the Gilded Age really so dark (or gilded)? And were the solutions that America adopted to its presumed problems really the right ones? I think the answer is a lot more complicated and interesting than todays progressives believe. The Gilded Age was actually a period of extraordinary economic progress and not just for a handful of plutocrats but also for the bulk of the (rapidly expanding) population. The age saw the foundations of a modern economy constructed in the blink of Clios eye: railways to transport people across a vast continent; oil to power machines; electricity to light the darkness; skyscrapers to house an expanding managerial class. Fifty-three of the firms on the Fortune 500 list in 2000 were founded in the 1880s, 39 in the 1890s and 52 in the 1900s. The United States supplanted the United Kingdom as the worlds leading economy: From 1870 to 1910, its share of global manufacturing increased from 23.2% to 35.3% while Britains share fell from 31.8% to 14.7%. And Americans secured their position as the worlds richest workers, with a per capita income in 1914 of $346 compared with $244 in Britain, $184 in Germany and $108 in Italy. The old nations creep on at a snails pace, Andrew Carnegie pronounced. The Republic thunders past with the rush of an express. Advertisement The likes of Carnegie were instruments of progress rather than mere rent-seekers. They felt in their bones that the material basis of civilization was about to change that steel would replace iron and oil would replace wood and whale blubber and built giant organizations to hasten that change. Mammoth steel mills and oil refineries emerged from nowhere. Railways shrank geography and time. The unit costs of the basic inputs to the economy fell and with them the real price of consumer goods. It is hard to talk about an express train rushing past the rest of the world today, in the era of the rise of Asia in general and China in particular. America is nevertheless holding its own far better than the rest of the old world. In June 2021 the Economist calculated that 43 of the worlds firms that are worth more than $100 billion were set up from scratch in the past half-century: Twenty-seven of those were founded in the U.S., ten in China and only one in Europe, the continent that ambition forgot. The reason for the U.S.s relative success is the same as it was in the Gilded Age: its ability to mass-produce entrepreneurs who sense that the world is changing and then rapidly build gigantic organizations that bring that change into being. Todays entrepreneurs have most of the weird peccadillos of the robber barons who preceded them, such as a belief that they and they alone can save the worlds eternal problems: Andrew Carnegie wanted to introduce universal peace just as Peter Thiel wants to turn death from a fact of life to a problem to be solved. But they also possess the imperialism of the soul that allows them to transform the world. Advertisement The most important lesson to learn from the Gilded Age is that America needs to cherish the formula that allows it to mass-produce these flawed giants. This means a liberal immigration policy at least for the most talented and ambitious: Sergey Brin is the son of Russian immigrants just as Carnegie was the son of an impoverished Scottish textile worker. It means tolerating failure: One thing that Steve Jobs had in common with Henry Ford (and indeed R. H. Macy and H. J. Heinz) is that he went bankrupt. It means enabling entrepreneurs to found companies and take them public. So why only two cheers rather than a full-throated three? The reason is that the progressives are right about an important big thing: the dangers inherent in the transformation of a collection of entrepreneurs into a business aristocracy. The problem with the Gilded Age was not the creative destruction that Schumpeter celebrated, but the conspicuous consumption that Thorstein Veblen diagnosed in The Theory of the Leisure Class (and that Fellowes moons over in his TV series). The decade from 1895 to 1905 saw more than 1,800 manufacturing firms absorbed into giant consolidations as J. P. Morgan went around tidying up the economy and squeezing out unnecessary competition. Unit costs stopped falling in basic industries such as steel. And the robber barons gave way to their idle and extravagant children: One of William Vanderbilts sons, Cornelius, built a mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, the Breakers, that boasted 70 rooms; his other son, George, retaliated by building a house in North Carolina, the Biltmore, that had 250. Here the parallels with contemporary America become more uncomfortable. Economic concentration reached new heights in 2020, according to the Bank of America, which has tracked the problem in Russell 3000 firms since 1986. Oligopoly is almost as prevalent in the new economy of Silicon Valley as it is in the old economy of airlines with their lousy service and suspiciously high profits: Five new economy giants seem to be dividing the virtual world into separate spheres (though there are a few encouraging signs of skirmishes of late). Thiel channels the spirit of J. P. Morgan when he writes that all failed companies are the same. They failed to escape competition. Advertisement Americas plutocrats are transforming themselves into hereditary dynasties, thanks to a prolonged campaign against inheritance taxes (or death taxes as they have been ingeniously dubbed). The research firm Cerulli estimates that almost half of the estimated $72.6 trillion that will be transferred to the next generation between 2020 and 2045 will come from the richest 1.5% of households. Welcome to the world of trillion-dollar trust fund babies. The rise of such dynasties clashes with Americas fundamental belief in equal opportunity and upward mobility. It leads to social closure as the children of the privileged hoard positions at the top of society. It produces economic distortions as high IQ types get jobs as money butlers. (Chuck Collins, the author of The Wealth Hoarders, estimates that at least 90,000 people are employed in what he calls the wealth defense industry.) And it destroys the faith in upward mobility. Twain and Dudley Warner were summarizing everyday wisdom when they wrote in the preface to The Gilded Age that in America nearly every man has his dream, his pet scheme, whereby he is to advance himself socially or pecuniarily. Today the educated are losing their faith in upward mobility. Americas great challenge is to preserve the positive side of the Gilded Age (creative destruction) without institutionalizing the negative side (commercial dynasties). Here, todays self-described progressives are a poor guide. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has coined the phrase every billionaire is a policy failure. That is a recipe for economic stagnation. School administrators in New York, Boston and San Francisco have tried to abolish selective schools. That is a recipe for wasted talent and parental fury: Three members of the San Francisco school board have recently lost their seats by big margins in a recall vote. Progressives everywhere are obsessed by dividing America by ethnicity rather than uniting it by common aspirations. Advertisement The first generation of progressives are a much better guide. Teddy Roosevelt believed in breaking up the great trusts in order to restore competition to the heart of the economy and in imposing inheritance taxes to prevent the tyranny of plutocracy. Had Roosevelts inheritance tax remained in place, America would not be contemplating the arrival of the richest trustafarians in history. Woodrow Wilson believed in reforming government to promote the Best Men and render administration facile, well-ordered and effective. University reformers believed in providing more opportunities for upward mobility. Julian Fellowess extravaganza may not be worth bothering with. But the Gilded Age is always worth studying not only because it demonstrates so clearly what is so right about America, but also because it provides such a good lesson in using what is right about America its reverence for competition and dynamism to fix what is wrong.More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: Taxing the Rich Is an Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone: Stephen Mihm Advertisement Bidens Bold Plan to Bring Competition Back: Barry Ritholtz Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like the Gilded Age: Justin Fox This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously a writer at the Economist. His latest book is The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load The French call it retourner sa veste to turn ones coat to fit the changing political times. And with widespread international condemnation of Russia growing as its forces close in on Ukraines capital, there is a lot of coat-turning happening across Europe. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Traditionally pro-Putin political voices have been shifting from praise to condemnation since the invasion began, with both far-left and far-right politicians backing away from their past support of Russia. That includes Marine Le Pen, who met with Putin as a presidential candidate in 2017 and whose party got a 9 million-euro ($10.1 million) loan from a Russian firm in 2014. And Eric Zemmour, who once dreamed of France having a Putin of its own. Former government heads are now starting to ditch cushy jobs sitting on the boards of companies linked to Russia. Francois Fillon, ex-French Prime Minister who in 2020 was convicted along with his wife in a fake job scandal, announced on Sunday he would step down from the board of petrochemicals firm Sibur and energy firm Zarubezhneft, both headquartered in Moscow. Esko Aho, Finlands former premier, has stepped down from the board of Sberbank, Russias largest bank, according to the FT, while Italys Matteo Renzi stepped down from car-sharing service Delimobil. Advertisement State-controlled media Russia Today, once excoriated by French President Emmanuel Macron as lying propaganda, has seen Scotlands former First Minister Alex Salmond suspend his show. French host Frederic Taddei did the same, out of loyalty to France, a few days before the EU banned the station. This looks for now like convenience rather than conviction. Transactional ties with the Kremlin have clearly not delivered for either side. Le Pen seems no closer to the Elysee Palace than when she first met Putin, and supporting Moscow isnt going to be a vote-winner as elections loom. In the business world, once-lucrative Russian board seats look uncomfortable given the hit to stock prices and the rising pressure of economic sanctions. Putin is now so toxic that the priority for European elites in his network of influence is self-preservation, says Anton Shekhovtsov, author of a book on ties between Russia and Europes far-right. But this reshuffling of alliances doesnt mean an end to the story of influence-peddling and elite capture in Europe not least as holdouts like former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl cling to lucrative positions at Nord Stream (and potentially Gazprom) and Rosneft. Advertisement Its time to confront some hard truths about what these ties reveal about Western democratic and economic weakness. The Schroederization of Europe has undermined the credibility of the political elite throughout this crisis. When Fillon recently blamed the conflict in Ukraine on the West and NATOs provocations after intense shuttle diplomacy by Macron to deter Putin the subtext was: Your government is lying to you. When Schroeder called on the West to be careful in applying sanctions, it only added to the pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to bolster Germanys image as a serious and credible player. Given the Wests initial struggle to deliver shock-and-awe sanctions that might deter Russia from using the SWIFT banking network to squeezing the energy sector and its oligarchic beneficiaries Europe should do more to shine a light on elite ties instead of waiting for other coats to turn. This is not just an EU thing: the U.K. is under pressure to crack down on illicit money flows through the City of London. But if the political class of a country like Austria can be regularly picked off by Russian companies, its because there arent enough obstacles in the way. Low transparency, weak legal frameworks for access to information and high corporatism have bred corruption scandals and hurt European unity. A 2019 Russia-linked financing scandal ensnared former Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, and Germany warned against sharing intelligence with its neighbor. Advertisement These are systemic problems requiring systemic solutions. A draft report by a European Parliament committee on foreign interference in democracy has called for the beefing up of restrictions on revolving-door jobs (where officials easily move from the public to private sector), tougher rules on lobbying and more consistent EU rules on political donations. U.K. Member of Parliament Tom Tugendhat has also recommended bolstering ethical standards and cracking down harder on illicit money flows. These are encouraging proposals but the sooner governments turn up the heat, the better. A former German diplomat recently stepped down as supervisory board chairman of a Nord Stream 2 subsidiary after direct pressure from German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, according to Der Spiegel. This could be the first sign of a tougher approach, as Scholz eyes a historic bid to shift German defense policy. Golden parachutes for Western elites will always be tempting, but there are ways to make wearers think twice before strapping them on. Advertisement More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion: The Wests Embrace of Russian Influence Has to End: Martin Ivens A Trump-Style Election Playbook Falters In France: Lionel Laurent Putin Has Already Caused a Revolution in Germany: Andreas Kluth This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the European Union and France. He worked previously at Reuters and Forbes. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load The days when politics stopped at the waters edge are long gone. It seems quaint to think that U.S. foreign policy was once based on bipartisan consensus, shaped by a need to restrain Soviet Union-era communism. Even so, its jarring for Americans to see a former president calling his successor dumb at a time when the commander-in-chief is conducting sensitive negotiations for international sanctions to stop an aggressive Russian bear. Yet so it was when Donald Trump spoke Saturday night at the winter Conservative Political Action Committee. After a week in which he praised Vladimir Putin as smart and savvy for attacking Ukraine, Trump piled on in an even uglier manner, claiming that, This horrific attack would have never happened if the election wasnt rigged and I was still president. In so doing, Trump intertwined two Big Lies. His false stolen-election narrative, entering its third year, has now been augmented with the claim that only his strong foreign policy kept Vladimir Putin in check, rather than his erratic policy praising the Russian president to the heavens while doing everything possible to destabilize NATO. This is the reality to be confronted by anyone who wants to lay claim to leadership of the Republican Party from now until 2024. Advertisement Trump repeated his praise of Putin as very smart while condemning current administration leadership as so dumb. Would the attack have occurred if Trump were still in office? Perhaps not (as many Americans seemingly believe) but only because, reportedly, Trump planned to withdraw the United States from NATO. In such a scenario, Ukraine would already have been in a vastly weakened position (just as it would have been if Trump followed through with his 2019 threat to withhold arms if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy didnt provide dirt on Joe Biden). Post-CPAC, Trump was asked by Fox News what message he has for Putin. His answer: I have no message. Trump has refused to criticize Putin since he began his rise in the GOP. As a presidential candidate in 2015, he was asked why he accepted Putins de facto endorsement a man known to have killed journalists (among other political enemies). Trump responded, Well, I think that our country does plenty of killing, too. He repeated the sentiment in a 2017 interview with Bill OReilly: There are a lot of killers. Weve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our countrys so innocent? In his infamous public appearance in Helsinki in 2018, Trump tossed his own intelligence community aside to accept Putins word that Russia hadnt interfered in the U.S. 2016 election. Advertisement In the 1980s, Reagans former ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, referred to the Democrats as the Blame America First crowd. Now Trump has seized that role for himself. The Republican Party that once touted as its North Star a Ronald Reagan who denounced the Soviet Union as an evil empire is in thrall to a man who has smeared his own country as a murderous aggressor and now praises an actual killer who is invading a fellow democracy. Is the GOPs conservative base as manifested this week by CPAC truly going to jump on this merry-go-round again? In a new memoir, Trumps attorney general, William Barr, urges the party to move on from Trump, who he believes threw away the 2020 reelection because of his lack of self-restraint. Trumps praise of Putin as he invades another country seems like just the opportunity Republicans need to start backing away. Advertisement But the difficulty is readily apparent: Sunday morning, ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, an otherwise fiery hawk tight with the conservative base, to condemn Trumps praise of Putins savvy invasion of Ukraine. Three times Cotton was asked, Why cant you condemn Trumps praise of Putin? And three times he replied only, You should ask the former President; I dont criticize other politicians. Putin has cast a wide shadow over Trump for at least seven years. While the former president called federal probes into his 2016 campaign a Democratic hoax, a Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed the surreptitious role that Russian intelligence had in aiding Trumps electoral success. And now Trump has linked two fantastical, anti-American themes for 2022 and 2024 that Republicans must be held accountable for.In the coming weeks, Congresss Jan. 6th Committee will hold public hearings that lay out Trumps actions perpetuating the Big Lie and the insurrection they spawned. Republicans must be required to explain how they can align themselves with a man who sparked and continues to inflame a domestic crisis. And whether they now think Trumps inability to denounce Putin should disqualify him for continued leadership of the GOP. Advertisement If the media fails to extract real answers from Republicans on these questions, the Democrats had better be prepared to do the heavy lifting themselves. Trumps lies have weakened the United States domestically and that has had ramifications globally. He needs to be called out on this now and continuously. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: No, Republicans Arent the Party of Putin: Ramesh Ponnuru Phony Republican Scandals Harm Democracy: Jonathan Bernstein Ukraine Shows That U.S. Cannot Afford Culture Wars: Clive Crook This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Robert A. George writes editorials on education and other policy issues for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously a member of the editorial boards of the New York Daily News and New York Post. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load On a day when the worlds eyes are rightly focused on a brazen challenge to the post-Cold War international order, Americans can rightly celebrate a domestic change that should make us proud: the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black female justice of the Supreme Court. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Historically, the first justices (Jewish, Black, female and so forth) have each made a very substantial impact on the court and its constitutional jurisprudence. Jackson now has the opportunity to join their ranks and craft a body of work that combines her characteristic intelligence, precision, judgment, pragmatism and warmth. She deserves to be on the court on the basis of her own remarkable accomplishments and talents. And her presence as a justice would make a crucial symbolic difference to the shaky legitimacy of the body. To begin with a disclosure, I met Judge Jackson, then Ketanji Brown, on my first day of college, which was also her first day. We lived in the same small dorm, and I can still recall in some detail the impression she made. Even among all the excited and ambitious teenagers, each eager to distinguish themselves in some way, she stood out. She was engaging, charismatic, confident and intellectually confident in a way that made her different from those of us who came across as if we had something to prove and were prepared to disagree with anything and anyone at the drop of a hat. Advertisement On top of all that, she had the quality of personal warmth that enabled her to make anyone she was speaking to feel as if they were special. She certainly made me feel that way. I would be astonished if she remembered meeting me that day. Thats because Im pretty sure she made everybody feel as if we were distinctive and unique and worth meeting. And I know she was the only person I met that day who made that impression on me. I mention this moment because it goes to the ways a Justice Jackson could distinctively contribute to the court and the country. On its own, no single appointment can change the balance of this particular court at this particular moment. Unless things change radically, Jacksons career as a justice would begin with her on the dissenting side of most of the major cases that will be heard. Yet over the long run, any justice has the option of building a body of opinions including dissents that can be incorporated into eventual impact and change in our constitutional jurisprudence. Jacksons professional preparation to be a justice was specifically focused on an important, complicated, vexed and now almost moribund institution, the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Created by Congress, and unmentioned in the Constitution, the commission is technically part of the judicial branch of government. It promulgates sentencing guidelines for federal courts that were originally intended to be binding but were held by the Supreme Court to be only suggestive in an important 2005 decision. Advertisement The judicial name most closely associated with the commission is Justice Stephen Breyer, whom Jackson clerked for and whom she would replace. But Jacksons close ties to the commission point up the influence of another mentor who has arguably been more directly influential in her career, Judge Patti Saris, who chaired the commission from 2010 to 2017. Saris has long served as a judge on the federal District Court in Massachusetts, and was chief judge of that court for years. Like Jackson, Saris went to Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She is widely recognized throughout the federal judiciary as a legal thinker who can be trusted to make thoughtful, pragmatic and wise decisions on a wide range of issues. In all this, she is reminiscent of Jackson herself. Jackson clerked for Saris straight out of law school, before spending a year as a clerk to appellate judge Bruce Selya, clerking for Breyer at the Supreme Court and serving time in private practice. Then she spent 2003-05 as special counsel to the sentencing commission. Those were complex and important years for the commission, during which its task rationalizing criminal sentencing was under intense criticism from left and right. And those years culminated in the Supreme Court striking down the idea that the guidelines were binding on federal judges. Jackson had a front-row seat. Advertisement Remarkably, she returned to the commission as its vice chair in 2009, just four years after working as a lawyer on staff. Jackson got the chance to work as an equal alongside Saris, for whom she had been a law clerk. Serving on the commission then required balancing its remaining prestige with the practical need to make sure the guidelines still had meaning in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision. This was Jacksons breakthrough public service appointment, and it led to her being appointed to the federal District Court, again like Saris. As a judge, she was liberal but also a pragmatic centrist once more like Saris and Breyer. (Saris and Breyer have also been colleagues, incidentally.) As a justice, Jackson would be able to combine her pragmatic liberalism with her distinct warmth and vision. Great first justices like Thurgood Marshall, Sandra Day OConnor and Louis Brandeis managed to expand and shape the law in ways that were unquestionably connected to their distinct personal experiences and perspectives. They did not formally judge as Black or female or Jewish. They did interpret and apply the Constitution in the light of personal philosophies that were shaped by who they were. Advertisement Expect Jackson to do the same, if she is confirmed. Her experiences as an African-American woman and as someone who had an uncle imprisoned on a drug felony will matter as will her elite educational background and her career in which she worked as a federal public defender as well as a sentencing commission member and judge. Justices unique philosophies emerge from the interplay of intellect, belief, background and experience. Jackson should now have the chance to form her own. It is going to be important, for the court and the country. Related at Bloomberg Opinion: Every Supreme Court Nominee Deserves Firm Opposition: Ramesh Ponnuru Breyers Supreme Court Pragmatism Will Be Missed: Noah Feldman Conservative Justices Are Walking Into Their Own Trap: Noah Feldman Gorsuch Versus the Administrative State Is Really Heating Up: Noah Feldman Advertisement (Corrects spelling of Judge Patti Sariss name.) This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and host of the podcast Deep Background. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Russias invasion of Ukraine has kicked off perhaps the worst geopolitical crisis since World War II, with President Vladimir Putin making a veiled threat of using nuclear arms if the West intercedes. Western leaders responded with a wave of economic sanctions, including their own monetary nuclear option: cutting some of Russias largest banks off from the international financial system by excluding them from SWIFT, the messaging service that facilitates the vast majority of money transfers globally. Scary times, indeed, but theres at least one bit of good news, if there is any in this human tragedy: The plumbing of the financial markets looks as if its functioning just fine for now. One critical gauge of stress in the financial system overnight funding costs for banks naturally jumped on Monday, but nowhere near as much as might be expected. This measure rose 10.7 basis points to as high as 23.8 basis points before easing back to 18.5 basis points, or 0.185 percentage point, late in the day. Although that level is still the highest since September 2020, it reached 80.6 basis points during the early days of the pandemic in March 2020, when economies were being locked down. Its also below the average of about 22 basis points over the past five and 10 years. This is encouraging because the last thing anybody wants to see now is concern from banks about doing business with one another. Such a scenario would quickly escalate the current geopolitical crisis into a global financial one. Of course, its still early days, but the takeaway is that the financial markets are suggesting that Russias economy, which accounts for about 1.7% of the worlds gross domestic product, can be effectively ring-fenced without too much damaging financial fallout. Advertisement Sanctions announced on Russias central bank along with the decision to exclude Russian banks from SWIFT would knock only about 0.2 percentage point off global GDP this year, Jennifer McKeown, the head of global economics service at Capital Economics in London, wrote in a research note to clients Monday. The International Monetary Fund said in late January that it expected the global economy to expand 4.4% this year. Heres how McKeown summed it up: The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine has increased the risks posed to the global economy, but we still expect the broader effects to be relatively contained given limited trade and financial exposures to Russia. If more severe adverse consequences were to materialise, we think that they would be more likely to relate to trade and supply shortages than to financial market disruption. Such views are also echoed in the foreign-exchange market, where the cost to convert foreign cash flows into dollars with cross-currency basis swaps rose to the highest since March 20 but then eased back to more normal levels. At the same time, volatility in the $6.6 trillion-a-day currency market was little changed, holding at about 20% below the average in data going back to the start of 2021 as measured by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Advertisement Perhaps this is due to a bit of complacency in markets, but its not as if some sense of security is unwarranted. The financial system has become much safer since the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, thanks to reforms such as the Volcker Rule, the Dodd-Frank Act and Basel III. Also, central banks have flooded the financial system with cash over the years. The combined money supply of the U.S., China, euro zone, Japan and eight other developed economies surged by $20 trillion over 2020 and 2021 to a record $102.5 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount totaled less than $35 trillion in 2008. Its too soon to sound the all-clear signal. If weve learned anything from past crises is that theres always something that comes up that almost nobody considered. Putin on Monday banned all Russian residents from transferring hard currency abroad, including for servicing foreign loan contracts, which, according to Bloomberg News, potentially puts much of the countrys $478 billion of external debt at risk of default. Then consider that Russia has about $300 billion of foreign currency held offshore, enough to disrupt money markets, according to Credit Suisse Group AG strategist Zoltan Pozsar, who drew comparisons with the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the pandemic-related market seizures of March 2020. Exclusions from SWIFT will lead to missed payments and giant overdrafts similar to the missed payments and giant overdrafts that we saw in March 2020, banks inability to make payments due to their exclusion from SWIFT is the same as Lehmans inability to make payments due to its clearing banks unwillingness to send payments on its behalf. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Advertisement Here, again, the financial system is more equipped to handle such a disruption. The Federal Reserve in the wake of the financial crisis set up currency swap lines with other central banks to become a sort of lender of last resort of dollars to ease any crunch. The Fed in 2021 also established a repurchase agreement facility for foreign and international monetary authorities, known as FIMA, to help alleviate pressures in global dollar funding markets, according to Bloomberg News. No one can say for sure how the severe economic sanctions on Russia will ultimately stress the financial system, but the initial reaction of money markets is encouraging. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: Competing Narratives in Ukraine Which Will Win?: John Authers Pariah Status Will Exact a Toll on Russia: Ashworth & Gilbert Advertisement West Uses Russias Central Bank Against Putin: Timothy OBrien This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Robert Burgess is the executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the former global executive editor in charge of financial markets for Bloomberg News. As managing editor, he led the companys news coverage of credit markets during the global financial crisis. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel alert for Hong Kong by two levels, citing a high level of Covid-19 transmission. Hong Kong is being forced to move away from key pillars of its strict Covid Zero strategy as the surge overwhelms its under-prepared health-care system. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The Covid-19 response team leader of Chinas National Health Commission was set to arrive in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, airline bookings out of the city are surging as residents seek to leave after authorities unveiled measures to combat the surge. In the U.S., California, Oregon and Washington will no longer require masks in classrooms after the end of next week. Amazon.com Inc. said face coverings will be optional at its U.S. operations, regardless of vaccination status, starting on Tuesday. Key Developments: Advertisement Virus Tracker: Cases exceed 435 million; deaths top 5.9 million Vaccine Tracker: More than 10.7 billion doses administered Coronavirus Daily: Are you ready for normal life? Where are we in hunting for the coronaviruss origin?: QuickTake Hong Kongs Covid crackdown hits domestic helpers the hardest Three West Coast States End Mask Mandates (2 p.m. NY) California, Oregon and Washington will no longer require masks in classrooms after the end of next week, as plunging Covid case rates across the West Coast accelerate efforts to return to something like normal life. The three states will shift to recommending masks in schools and child-care facilities, rather than mandating them, after March 11, according to a statement Monday. Oregon and Washington will lift mask rules for most other indoor settings at that time as well. California had let its mask requirement for indoor public spaces expire earlier this month. Advertisement Pfizer Shot Seen Less Effective in Young Kids (1:45 p.m. NY) The vaccine made by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to a large new set of data collected by health officials in New York state, the New York times reported. The Pfizer vaccine still prevents severe illness in the children but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the omicron surge, suggest, according to the newspaper. The sharp drop in the vaccines performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said, according to the Times. Advertisement Amazon Makes Masks Optional for All (12:25 p.m. NY) Amazon.com Inc. said face coverings will be optional at its U.S. operations, regardless of vaccination status, starting on Tuesday. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant in a memo to employees recommended that unvaccinated workers wear masks and noted that federal, state and local laws may still require face coverings in some cases. The Information earlier reported the policy change. Amazon rescinded its masking guidance for vaccinated employees earlier this month and required employees to be fully vaccinated in order to receive paid time off if they became sick with Covid-19. Work From Home is Here to Stay (9:40 a.m. NY) About 75% of the increase in telework over the course of the Covid-19 crisis will likely stick, according to researchers at Arizona State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Dallas Federal Reserve. Advertisement Twice as many workers will be 100% remote as before the pandemic, and one in every five workdays will be from home, the economists predict. And while work-from-home rose for every major demographic group and industry, it did so especially among highly educated workers, the data found. Roche Cautions Pandemic Not Over (6:04 a.m. NY) Roche Holding AGs diagnostics chief said its too early to call an end to the pandemic even as omicrons spread ebbs, because a seasonal resurgence is possible later this year. Its important that we get prepared as we go into the next winter period and dont get surprised, said Thomas Schinecker, who heads the Covid test makers diagnostics unit In an interview, the Roche executive called on governments, the largest purchasers of rapid antigen tests, to be more proactive as they plan for bulk purchases ahead of a likely next wave of infections. Advertisement Hong Kong Numbers Rise (4:08 a.m. NY) Hong Kong reported 34,466 confirmed Covid-19 cases Monday, health official Albert Au said at a briefing. Covid deaths among people aged 51 to 100 years old stood at 87, according to the Hospital Authority, while 49 patients are in critical condition. Hong Kong Exempts Schools From Early Break (2:32 p.m. HK) Hong Kong will let international schools stick with their original holiday schedule, after educational institutions pushed back on a government announcement to bring forward the summer break. The schools will be allowed to continue with their regular school schedules, with most summer holidays taking place in July and August, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung said at a briefing on Monday. Australia False Positives (2:16 p.m. HK) Fifty-five cases of Covid-19 reported in two remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia state last week were false positives, according to Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson told reporters Monday. Advertisement Follow-up testing found that some of the cases were instead other respiratory illnesses like colds and the flu, she said. The machines provided by the Federal government which were used in the diagnoses are no longer in use, she added. Hong Kong Flight Bookings Surge (1:47 p.m. HK) Major airlines reported a surge in bookings from Hong Kong last week as the city saw a new pandemic-era record in net population outflow, as a deepening Covid-19 crisis pushes more residents to leave. Emirates Airlines said it is seeing weekly double-digit growth for advanced bookings until July, particularly to the U.K. and other European countries, a spokesman wrote in an email. Turkish Airlines is experiencing a double-digit increase in demand month-on-month and is closely watching if it is feasible to expand its schedule. Advertisement Airlines are seeing big jumps in bookings despite the shortage of flights and logistical difficulties of leaving Hong Kong, after authorities unveiled measures to combat the surge in Covid cases that include bringing forward school summer holidays to March and city-wide mandatory testing that could include a lockdown. South Korea Peak Seen (1:37 p.m. HK) The number of daily new coronavirus cases in South Korea may top 230,000 on March 9 while the number of critically-ill patients may rise to more than 1,200, Jeong Eun Kyeong, head of Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said in a briefing. Infections are forecast to reach a peak between early March to mid-March, while the number of daily new cases may range from 180,000 to 350,000, the official said. H.K. Moves Away From Covid Zero (12:57 p.m. HK) Advertisement Patients with mild cases in the city are no longer sent to hospital or isolation facilities as theres no space; instead theyre asked to stay home until they test negative with rapid antigen tests. Close contacts, no longer recorded by the citys elaborate contact tracing process, are moving around freely though theyre technically supposed to home quarantine for at least a week. The app used to flag locations with confirmed cases has suspended risk alerts. Thie quick erosion of core Covid Zero practices shows the difficulty of maintaining an approach that seeks to wipe out the virus when faced with more infectious strains like omicron. Hong Kong saw a record 26,026 new cases on Sunday and 83 deaths, making the outbreak much bigger than any the zero-tolerance approach pioneered by China has ever quelled. New Zealand Eases Entry Rules (1:36 p.m. HK) The country is removing the requirement for vaccinated travelers to self-isolate, a sign that the rapidly spreading omicron outbreak is making border restrictions pointless. From midnight on March 2, vaccinated New Zealanders arriving from Australia will no longer need to serve a week of self-isolation and will only have to return two negative rapid antigen tests. The government also brought forward the date from which New Zealanders in other countries can return home, to midnight March 4 from March 13. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also signaled she will speed up the phased reopening of the border, potentially allowing tourists from anywhere in the world to return much sooner than the current October start date. New China Clusters (9:29 a.m. HK) The Southern Chinese province of Guangdong is trying to contain a fresh cluster out of its key manufacturing hub Dongguan, home to factories churning out electronic devices, toys and clothing. Some 50 infections have been found since late last week, with most in the citys densely populated industrial park. Meanwhile, coastal city Tianjin is also weeding out infections stemming from the citys airport, leading to hundreds of flights being canceled. Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, is seeing its local outbreak worsening, as daily cases climbed to 30 on Monday. Overall, China reported 140 new cases on Monday. Huanan Market Draws Fresh Scrutiny (8:26 a.m. HK) Researchers tracing the emergence of Covid-19 say they found more evidence implicating the now-infamous Huanan seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Spatial analyses of early cases point to the sprawling market as the epicenter of the outbreaks emergence, according to research released ahead of peer-review and publication. A separate paper found the SARS-CoV-2 probably spilled over from animals on two separate occasions, spawning distinct lineages that spread from the market in late November 2019. A third paper by Chinese government scientists provides convincing evidence of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the market during the early stage of outbreak, where 10 stalls had been selling a menagerie of live, domesticated wildlife, including deer, badgers, rabbits, bamboo rats, porcupines, hedgehogs, salamanders and crocodiles. China Sending Team to H.K. for Testing Help (7:36 a.m. HK) China is preparing to send a team of about 9,000 people to help with Hong Kongs compulsory testing anytime, the Sing Tao Daily reported, citing an official from Chinas National Health Commission. Test samples, if needed, can also be sent to Guangdong which can process 1.2 million to 1.5 million tests a day, which is much higher than Hong Kongs daily capacity of 300,000, acccording to the report, which cited Li Dachuan, the commissions deputy director of the medical administration bureau. Hong Kong hasnt ruled out a lockdown during citywide mandatory Covid testing, Commercial Radio Hong Kong reported, citing Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan. Top China Covid Expert in Hong Kong (7:26 a.m. HK) The official, Liang Wannian, will advise the city in its fight against the virus, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified people. Hong Kong authorities are warning that cases havent peaked yet. The visit is a sign that China is treating the situation in Hong Kong as dire and requiring top-level guidance, the newspaper reported, adding that Hong Kongs first makeshift mobile cabin hospitals will begin operating Monday. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load The Covid-19 response team leader of Chinas National Health Commission arrives in Hong Kong Monday as the city reports a record number of infections and a rising death count, straining its health infrastructure and morgues. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight New York will lift the states mask mandate indoors in schools on March 2 due to lower infections and hospitalizations across the state and less strict guidance from U.S. health authorities, Governor Kathy Hochul announced. The Philippines Metro Manila region, plans to shift to the lowest alert level as infections stay low, while Indonesia will soon no longer require international passengers in Bali to isolate upon arrival. Key Developments: Virus Tracker: Cases pass 434.8 million; deaths top 5.9 million Vaccine Tracker: More than 10.7 billion doses administered Coronavirus Daily: Are you ready for normal life? Advertisement What we know about omicron and subvariant BA.2: QuickTake Hong Kongs Covid crackdown hits domestic helpers the hardest Top China Covid Expert in Hong Kong (7:26 a.m. HK) The official, Liang Wannian, will advise the city in its fight against the virus, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified people. Hong Kong authorities are warning that cases havent peaked yet. The visit is a sign that China is treating the situation in Hong Kong as dire and requiring top-level guidance, the newspaper reported, adding that Hong Kongs first makeshift mobile cabin hospitals will begin operating Monday. N.Y. Lifts Indoor Mask Mandate in Schools (4:49 p.m. NY) New York will lift the states mask mandate indoors in schools on March 2 due to lower infections and hospitalizations across the state and less strict guidance from U.S. health authorities, Governor Kathy Hochul announced in a Sunday press briefing in Albany. Advertisement Hochul added that individual counties will still be able to impose their own mask rules, and parents can decide whether their child is safe to attend school maskless. She said about a third of the state continues to have higher than a low to medium risk as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I want to send a loud message, she said. We will have no tolerance in our school system or anywhere else for any harassment or bullying against those who decide to continue to wear masks. Overall, she said, We are in a much, much better place. Quarantine-Free Arrivals in Bali (7:26 a.m. NY) Indonesia will no longer require international passengers in Bali to isolate upon arrival under a trial program that starts in March, with the intention to lift all quarantine requirements by April. Advertisement Arriving passengers will still have to take a PCR test and stay inside their pre-booked accommodation while waiting for the result, according to a briefing Sunday. Hong Kong Record New Cases (4:56 p.m. HK) Hong Kong has reported a record 26,026 new Covid-19 cases as the city struggles to contain its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic. Only seven of the infections were imported cases, health officials told a briefing on Sunday. There were 83 new deaths, with 67 of those coming in care homes. Manila Region to Shift to Lowest Alert (4:45 p.m. HK) The Philippines will further ease movement restrictions and remove capacity limits on most businesses in the capital region as daily coronavirus infections stay low. Metro Manila, which accounts for a third of economic output, will shift to the lowest alert level from March 1 to 15, according to a statement Sunday. Under Alert Level 1, businesses including restaurants and gyms can operate at full capacity. Advertisement Hong Kong Rental Assistance Calls (2:15 p.m. HK) Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and Financial Secretary Paul Chan renewed calls urging property developers to offer rental assistance to tenants impacted by the pandemic. Lam urged landlords to waive rents, RTHK reported, citing a social media post. Lam said the governments pandemic fund cant make up for losses incurred by a wide range of businesses that have been affected by mandatory closures that are in place until at least April 20, the news outlet reported. Chan also called on landlords to offer rental concessions to small- and medium-sized businesses. Chan is pushing for legislation that would allow rent payments to be postponed for up to six months. Hong Kong Trackers (1:45 p.m. HK) Hong Kong plans to use more than 100,000 electronic wristbands to monitor Covid-19 patients who are isolating at home, according to local media, who cited the technology minister. The wristbands, which would pair with a tracking app, will be given to patients who are in home self-isolation while awaiting admittance to hospitals. Advertisement The city is battling a surge in Omicron cases, reporting a record 17,063 Covid cases on Saturday. Thai Cases Hold Near Record High (8:40 a.m. HK) Thailands coronavirus daily cases held near an all-time high on Saturday, with 24,719 cases reported on Sunday. There were 42 new virus-related deaths reported. More than 25,600 infections were reported the day before. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraines president, was supposed to be a pushover for Russias ruthless leader, Vladimir Putin. The Russians felt they could bend the neophyte politician to their will, demanding concessions on Ukraines freedom to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, its relationship with the European Union, and the nations trade priorities. But it turns out that the former TV comedian is the one truly standing up for his nation and leading an intense resistance to an overwhelming Russian invasion force. So often, conflicts see new leaders take charge. Such was the case for the Union army in the U.S. Civil War, where President Abraham Lincoln had to go through a variety of parade-ground generals until he found Ulysses S. Grant. During World War II, the peacetime officers gave way to wartime leaders like General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Admiral Chester Nimitz. As Zelenskiy leads a desperate fight against an implacable foe, we are seeing a remarkable new war leader take the stage. What can the West do to help him? Advertisement Zelenskiy has been using every communication skill he learned as a performer to great effect. His ability to turn a one-liner into an inspirational quote is noteworthy. When NATO nations urged him to leave his capital city, Kyiv, in the days before the invasion, offering transport to the relative safety of Lviv in the far west of Ukraine, he said, I need ammunition, not a ride. When Moscows propaganda machine said the Ukrainian troops would throw down their weapons, Zelenskiy warned the Russian invaders, You will see our faces, not our backs. Ukraines friends should capitalize on his inspirational appearances, magnifying them on social media and contrasting his bold, truthful commentary with the lies coming out of Russia. In addition to his words, his physical presence has been key appearing in the media from locations in Kyiv to demonstrate that he isnt fleeing. Immediately after the invasion, he shed his business suits in favor of hunting-type gear, a powerful symbolic shift. Its an effective approach, although he must be careful to balance the reward in terms of morale with the risk of being captured or killed. The West should be providing him the highest-grade intelligence, cyber overwatch, high-tech communications gear and reliable ground transport to be able to stay on social media and ahead of the Russians. Advertisement Zelenskiy has also proved to be a quick learner of the logistics of war. NATO and the EU can best help by providing a tsunami of combat materiel. We should have sent far more over the past few years, but there is still time to get additional Javelin anti-armor and Stinger anti-air missiles into the hands of the Ukrainians. They will also need massive quantities of small- and medium-caliber ammunition, communications equipment, cold-weather tactical gear, medical supplies, fuel and military rations. Fortunately, Lviv is positioned on the border with Poland, a staunch NATO member with its own bad history with the Russian military. If Zelenskiy needs to make a tactical retreat with a government-in-exile, he can set up shop in Lviv with the option to bolt across the border, where thousands of U.S. and Polish troops will ensure no Russian assassination squads find target number one, as Zelenskiy has described himself. Zelenskiy also correctly sees the twin Achilles heels of the Russians logistics and combat losses. Advertisement Russia will have its hands full consolidating victory in this invasion, even with overwhelming air superiority. Trying to attack on four separate axes, as the Russians have done, has divided their forces and compromised their logistical support. An old military saying is that sometimes attacking everywhere means attacking nowhere. Another old saw is that amateurs study strategy, but professionals study logistics. In that sense, the Russian campaign plan looks a bit amateurish; fuel shortages are already a problem. Everything the West can do to complicate Russian logistics including crippling sanctions that will slow Russian economic options will improve Zelenskiys hand. Ukrainian resistance is stiffening, even in pro-Russian enclaves in the east, and the Ukrainians know they are fighting for their children, parents and spouses indeed, for freedom itself. According to Ukrainian accounts, over 4,000 Russians have been killed in action in just a few days a staggering number if even close to correct. In the entire 20 years of the Afghan War, the U.S. had just under 2,000 combat deaths. Advertisement If the Ukrainians can continue to inflict casualties at a high level, protests will grow in Russia, and the resolve of Moscows troops in Ukraine many of them reportedly conscripts and mercenaries will fade. Zelenskiy knows this is the key to persuading Putin to halt the attacks and come to the negotiating table. (Russia didnt seem to take seriously Mondays initial talks, sending only low-level officials including Putins former culture minister.) Volodymyr Zelenskiy is turning out to be a courageous, tenacious and innovative war leader of his battered nation. I would gladly go into combat at his side. But the West needs to do more to create the conditions for his unlikely resistance effort to succeed. More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion: Wests Cyber Appeasement Gave Putin Green Light: James Stavridis Advertisement Putins Refugees Will Make or Break Europe: Andreas Kluth Russian Aggression Puts Erdogan in a Bind: Bobby Ghosh This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also chair of the board of the Rockefeller Foundation and vice chairman of Global Affairs at the Carlyle Group. His latest book is 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Some 49 headstones were knocked over and damaged at the St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Dundalk last week just as Russias invasion of Ukraine was about to begin, church officials said Sunday. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Baltimore County Police are investigating the vandalism, said Sgt. Gladys L. Brown, a spokeswoman for the department. Brown could not say whether the incident is being investigated as a hate crime, but the timing is difficult to ignore, said cemetery administrator Stephen Humeniuk. He received a call from a neighbor of the cemetery Wednesday alerting him to the damage, just hours before Russia began attacking Ukraine. The first thing you think is a hate crime, but you cant prove it, Humeniuk said. There was no note, he added. There was no spray paint. Nothing to indicate that. It was just the timing of the incident and the crisis in Ukraine. Advertisement I thought to myself: What else could go wrong? said Humeniuk, who serves on the church council for St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church in Baltimore, which operates the cemetery. The damage was concentrated in a back corner of the cemetery, he said, relatively far from the road. Dozens of headstones were toppled, and some of them cracked as a result. Some adornments on the stones were shattered. To me, it was unprecedented and it was intentional and it was a hate crime Ill say it, church trustee John Wojtowycz said. On Sunday, family members surveyed the damage. We heard about the desecration of the cemetery earlier this week, and a number of us just wanted to go out there and see, said Bohdan Oleksiuk, whose parents and grandparents are buried there. Its just so many headstones. Advertisement His familys headstones were not damaged, but others werent so lucky. Dressed in a long black coat, Ola Kulnich stood near the cemetery fence, looking at her brothers headstone, which had toppled backward, severed from its base. Its been a tough week, Oleksiuk said. And its not going to get any easier. Loeblein Memorials, located close to the cemetery, has offered to repair the damaged stones at no cost. The company, a division of Tegeler Monument, placed many of the headstones in the cemetery, said company president Walter Tegeler. The families a lot of them are all gone, so theres no one to look after them, Tegeler said of the headstones. Most of them are going to be fixed relatively simply. But any headstones shattered into multiple pieces may be beyond repair, he said. The cemetery is not open to the public and is protected by a locked gate, Humeniuk said, but there was a hole in its fencing. Church officials had patched previous holes, which they believed were created by children aiming to cut through the cemetery on their way to a middle school close by. Now, the church is looking into installing security cameras on the premises, Humeniuk said. Advertisement Sunday morning, a Baltimore County police officer contacted Humeniuk to say that investigators planned to search for fingerprints on the stones, he said. Now, Humeniuk is trying to notify as many affected families as he can. Unfortunately, the cemeterys been there since the 1950s, and a lot of the headstones that were affected were some of the original headstones when the cemetery first opened, so the families are long gone, he said. Though his parents emigrated to the United States in the years following World War II, Humeniuk still has several cousins in Ukraine. The messages from one of his cousins in western Ukraine, recounting the familys experience, have been chilling. Thank God the bombs are not falling yet, one message read. But fear exists. People are scurrying into stores and banks in fear of whats to come. Advertisement You feel helpless, Humeniuk said. Huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday south of the capital, Kyiv, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces. Russia has said its attack is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighborhoods have been hit. Hundreds of Ukrainians and Russians have died, according to Ukrainian officials. Humeniuk said support from the community in Baltimore has provided a much-needed lift to the church, located just south of Patterson Park. As he lingered outside St. Michael on Sunday morning while a service was underway, several passersby approached him to offer support and asked where they could direct donations. The church plans to accept offerings through its website, Humeniuk said. The response to a recent fundraising pierogi sale was so overwhelming that many would-be customers were placed on a waitlist, according to the churchs Facebook page. Due to the overwhelming response and outpouring of support, we received an overabundance of orders and therefore cannot take anymore, the post read. Sunday morning at the church, after a supportive visit from William Lori, the Catholic archbishop of Baltimore, parishioners boarded a bus bound for a Washington rally in support of Ukraine. GiftOutline Gift Article Placeholder while article actions load Mayor and governor signal a shift on masks Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced Sunday that a dramatic drop in coronavirus infections could lead to the lifting of vaccine mandates on restaurants, bars and theaters as soon as March 7. His announcement came shortly after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced plans Sunday to lift the states mask mandate on schools, effective Wednesday. Adams said the city would also lift the mask mandate on about 1 million schoolchildren in the countrys largest school system. Adams said a decision wont come until Friday, after a full week of classes as students return from a vacation. Adams said if trends continue, he would also lift other measures, including proof of vaccination requirements at restaurants, bars and other indoor public places. The governors move follows new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says most Americans can safely take a break from wearing masks, including students in schools. Advertisement The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces arent binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules. Hochul said counties and cities could keep their own mandates in place, and parents could still choose to send their kids to school in masks. The new rules also apply to children 2 and older in child-care facilities. Masks are still required in some places, including public transit, homeless shelters, jails and prisons, adult care facilities and health-care settings. Associated Press Nearly half of free tests are unclaimed Nearly half of the 500 million free coronavirus tests the Biden administration recently made available to the public still have not been claimed as cases plummet and people feel less urgency to test. On the first day of the White House test giveaway in January, COVIDtests.gov received more than 45 million orders. Now officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in for the packages of four free rapid tests per household. Advertisement Still, the White House sees the program as a step toward a more elastic testing infrastructure that will accommodate demand surges and remain on standby when cases wane. The White House says Americans have placed 68 million orders for packages of tests, which leaves about 46 percent of the stock of tests still available to be ordered. Testing will become more important with mask requirements now easing, some independent experts said. Now that demand is way down, its unclear what will happen to the White House giveaway program. Allowing repeat orders is one possibility. Associated Press Calif. infant was in stolen car: Authorities searched Sunday for a 2-year-old boy who was inside a car when it was stolen in the Bay Area. Police said the car was taken while Jacob Jardine's mother was unloading groceries around 4 a.m. in Sunnyvale. There was no indication whether the thief or thieves knew the child was in the car, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. From news services GiftOutline Gift Article Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in North America, is seen last month, sandwiched between the James River and a swamp. (Julia Rendleman for The Post) Retropolis The Past, Rediscovered Placeholder while article actions load Tehran: No deadline on nuclear deal talks Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Iran said Sunday that it will not accept any deadline set by the West to revive its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and wants politically motivated claims by United Nations watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about Tehrans nuclear work to be dropped, Iranian state TV reported. We have answered the [IAEAs] questions or politically motivated claims . . . that we think were baseless. These dossiers should be closed, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said, according to the state TV website. Among sticking points in the indirect talks between Iran and the United States to revive the 2015 nuclear deal appear to be questions about uranium traces found by the IAEA at old but undeclared sites in Iran. Iran accepts no deadlines, Khatibzadeh said, in apparent reaction to media reports that the United States set a deadline for the nuclear talks in Vienna. Advertisement Irans chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, will return to Vienna on Sunday evening for the talks, the official IRNA news agency reported. Reuters Sumatra earthquake displaces thousands Search efforts continued Sunday in the hardest-hit areas of Indonesias Sumatra island after a strong earthquake there killed 10 people, injured nearly 400 and left thousands displaced, a disaster official said. Rescuers retrieved two more bodies late Saturday from the rubble of homes toppled by the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that shook West Sumatra province on Friday morning, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari. Six people died in Pasaman district and four in neighboring West Pasaman district, he said. Rescuers were still searching for four villagers believed to be buried under tons of mud that tumbled down from the surrounding hills. At least 388 people were injured by the quakes tremors, which were felt as far away as Malaysia and Singapore, and about 42 people were still receiving treatment for serious injuries, Muhari said. Advertisement More than 13,000 people fled to temporary shelters. More than 1,400 houses and buildings were damaged, Muhari said. Associated Press Sudan protesters release charter: The Sudanese groups leading protests against a military coup in October published a political charter for the first time Sunday, setting out key demands they hope will unify civilian factions. The charter announced by the Khartoum "resistance committees" lays out a two-year transition under a prime minister appointed by signatories to the document to serve as head of state and military commander in chief until a transitional legislature ratifies a constitution. Military and civilian leaders involved in the Oct. 25 takeover would be brought to justice, the charter says. It rejects any negotiation with the military. Seven killed in Australia floods: Parts of Australia's third-most populous city, Brisbane, were underwater Monday after heavy rain brought record flooding to some east coast areas and killed seven people. The flooding in Brisbane and its surrounds is the worst since 2011, when the city of 2.6 million people was inundated by what was described as a once-in-a-century event. From news services GiftOutline Gift Article Trusted local news has never been more important, but providing the information you need, information that can change sometimes minute-by-minute, requires a partnership with you, our readers. Please consider making a contribution today to support this vital resource that you and countless others depend on. Growing up in a remote part of central west NSW, Rachel Farrelly would spend two hours travelling by bus to get to school each morning. The daily routine was so gruelling that, by the time she was eight, her parents made a life-changing decision: they would ditch traditional school and teach their children from home, about 40 kilometres southwest of Orange. Rachel Farrelly, a Gunu Gunu woman who grew up an hour outside of Orange in central west NSW, is set to become Australias first Indigenous female surgeon. Credit:Janie Barrett I loved it. There was way more freedom, but it was still really tough, she says, crediting the discipline needed for home-schooling as the ideal training ground for what came next: more than a decade in medical school, including seven years specialising in orthopedic surgery. After sitting her fellowship exam later this year, Dr Farrelly, a Gunu woman who was raised on Wiradjuri country, is set to become Australias first Indigenous female surgeon. A crane stuck in the middle of Brisbane River is stable and the mud army is being reactivated for those affected by the floods, ahead of more wet weather this weekend. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the crane that caused an evacuation at Howard Smith Wharves on Monday remained in the river but engineers were working to remove it. She said about 300 homes were expected to be affected in Logan as they experienced its peak water levels on Tuesday. There were about 250 requests for help and 16 water rescues overnight. Maskless commuters returned to Melbournes CBD on Monday morning after rules were loosened, and many say the return to in-person work has begun in earnest. The mandate to wear masks in offices and other indoor environments was removed at 11.59pm on Friday, while the public health recommendation for Victorians to work from home was also scrapped. Masks are now only required in certain settings, including on public transport, in ride-share vehicles, in hospitals and indoor areas at care facilities. Those employed in hospitality, retail, courts, justice and correctional facilities and at events with more than 30,000 people must still wear masks. A major migration back to the office was expected on Monday, but most of the commuters travelling through Flinders Street Station said it was not the first day they had physically gone into work recently. The peak body for Australian universities has backed a push to strip the federal education minister of the power to veto research grants after the Coalition intervened to block six humanities grants worth about $1.4 million late last year. In a decision that has been widely criticised by academics, acting Education Minister Stuart Robert vetoed Australian Research Council (ARC) funding to the six projects for 2022 on Christmas Eve - the third time in four years the power has been used by the Coalition. Universities Australia, which represents the countrys 39 comprehensive universities, urged the Parliament to back a Greens bill proposed by Senator Mehreen Faruqi that would remove the Ministers right of veto under The Australian Research Council Act. The decision by acting Education Minister Stuart Robert to veto six research grants on Christmas Eve has been widely condemned by academics. Credit:Andrew Quilty In a submission to a Senate inquiry examining the bill, Universities Australia said ministerial intervention into the operations of the ARC threaten the integrity of the research system and Australias capacity to continue to be a significant contributor to the global research effort. Salisbury, MD (21801) Today A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 57F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 57F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Local top story hot 10 Questions Audrey McGraw Audrey McGraw 10 Questions JEFFERSON Audrey McGraw is another in a growing line of Jefferson County Clerks known for their vivacious personalities and professionalism. McGraw agreed to field the Daily Times 10 Questions recently and before doing so, talked a bit about her background in life and in her job. Im a life-er. I was born and raised right here, the 47-year-old said of her background in Jefferson. I have been married for over 20 years to my husband, Tremayne, and have three sons, Jalen, 27; Treven 20 and Braden, 18 and my precious grandson, Maddox, whos almost 4. McGraw has worked for Jefferson County in the clerks office for more than 21 years and has been the county clerk for three of those years. She succeeded the retired Barb Frank in the role. I am extremely blessed to have been able to work my way up, McGraw said. I like that I still do things that I always have done, but also participate in committee meetings, and clerk the county board meetings. Here is how McGraw handled her 10 Questions. 1. If you werent in your current job, what would you most likely be doing with your life to make a living? I like to think Id be a stylist for the stars. I love fashion and, of course, shopping. 2. What are your top three favorite TV shows of all time and why? Seinfeld. I love the mashup of all the different types of humor. The Facts of Life. It takes me back to my childhood, with such a diverse group of classmates. The idea of a boarding school was so far out there for me. Wheel of Fortune. I love competing with my husband. Im pretty good, if I dont say so myself. 3. What are your top three movies of all time and why? Any movie with Chevy Chase. My family has a talent or annoying habit of memorizing the lines and reciting them on cue. Very annoying to other people when we drop lines, if fitting to a situation, and they have no idea what were talking about. Mary Poppins. I adore Julie Andrews and her angelic voice. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Gene Wilder was so quirky and silly. I loved the singing, beautiful colors and, of course, all the candy. I mean who wouldnt love to drink out of a chocolate river? 4. Who are some of your favorite musicians and why? I love so many different genres, so this is hard. I grew up with so much music in my life. I love classic rock, like Van Halen. This takes me back to my younger years and being outside at softball tournaments, and 90s hair bands like Warrant and Poison, which take me to some of the best memories of high school. My mom was a huge Abba and Karen Carpenter fan, so that carried on to me, as well. My dad loved Tejano music, so if Im fortunate enough to be somewhere that has a live band, I simply cant sit. 5. What are your favorite sports? Basketball. I absolutely loved watching my kids play. Football. I was a football mom, as well. I love to watch curling. For some reason, I feel like Id be pretty good at it. I also love competitive cheer competitions. Those kids are simply amazing! 6. What three persons in history would you most like to meet and why? Princess Diana. She was such a presence, just as herself. She followed her own lead and did things her way whether it was regarding her children, her mental health, or even her fashion choices. She was dedicated to things that she had strong beliefs in. Shirley Temple. When I was in grade school, on Sunday afternoons, wed watch Shirley Temple movies. I adored her voice, her dancing and her curls. She was so adorable. Ferdinand C. Berg, my maternal grandfather. Although I knew him until sixth grade, I would love the chance to have him in my life now. He was a very quiet and private man. He was a WWII veteran. He had a very difficult personal life, but still managed his own business and provided for his kids and anyone they loved. He treated all people equally, regardless of color. Of all people, I admire him the most for being known for how hard he worked and how huge his heart was. 7. What are some of your favorite foods? Gummy bears or worms, homemade tamales and buttercream frosting. 8. Do you have any hobbies? I have taught myself how to knit, so Ive been working on that. 9. What outdoor activities do you enjoy? I love visiting wineries and breweries. My happy place is pool or beachside. I like to tinker in the garden a little, too. 10. What are some of your favorite travel destinations, both domestically and internationally? My favorite place is Florida. I had a trip to Europe and Mexico canceled due to COVID, but hopefully, one day, I will get to fulfill that dream. National Nurses Week is May 6 to May 12, an annual celebration that recognizes the critical role nurses perform in our hospitals and for our community. This year, we recognize our nurses for their continued commitment and unfailing dedication to our patients and their families, and for alway Today Rain ending this morning. Remaining cloudy through the afternoon with some late day peeks of sunshine. Tonight Turning out partly cloudy. Tomorrow Pleasant with times of clouds and sun. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. South Africa: 12 000 officers to beef up police ranks The South African Police Service (SAPS) is on a recruitment drive, which is expected to boost the service with at least 12 000 more officers by the end of the year. This was announced by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Thandi Modise, at a media briefing of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster on Sunday. The recruitment of 7 000 [officers] is in its final stages, while later in the year, the SAPS will recruit 5 000 to undergo training next year. The 7 000 are from the 2019/2020 intake, which was ready to embark on the Basic Police and Development Programme when the country was put under hard lockdown in March 2020. "The training of this 7 000, plus an additional 3 000 made up of SAPS reservists and public service administration members, will commence in the 2022/2023 financial year. According to Modise, SAPS is also on a drive to recruit Bachelor of Science graduates and those from other fields of study. This will increase the strength of SAPS in its mandate to prevent and fight crime in communities. We will continually assess the capacity levels within SAPS and recruit accordingly to ensure that we increase the strength of the police from 180 000 officers to service the countys population of more than 60 million people. The other specialist police areas are also being strengthened to fight crime within communities. [Units] like the Public Order Police, the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Investigating Unit, the frontline at police stations, as well as detectives will be beefed up with the apportionment of the new trainees to these much stretched units. Not only will the efforts of the police be bolstered to restore law and order in communities, but priority attention will also be given to the investigation of crimes against women, children, the elderly, and other vulnerable persons, Modise said. Intelligence Modise said the capacity and strength of the countrys intelligence services, led by the State Security Agency (SSA), is receiving attention. Ministers are also re-evaluating and assessing the capacity and strength of the intelligence services to undertake surveillance and monitoring of stability in the country. The Report of the Expert Panel on the 2021 July unrest pointed to shortcomings in this area of work. The SSA and Crime Intelligence will ensure that critical posts are filled, which were left vacant by suspensions, resignations, promotions and deaths, she said. Furthermore, Modise said a forensic investigation into all malfeasance in the agency is underway. The agency has recently dismissed about four members already, who have been found guilty of fraud and corruption. The agency has also made much progress in terms of working with the Investigative Directorate to ensure that the persons who were involved in criminality are prosecuted, she said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The winners of the 22nd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards have now been revealed. Speeding away (at 88mph) with the Best New Musical trophy was Back to the Future, which also picked up additional awards for Best Supporting Performer in a Male Identifying Role in a Musical (for Hugh Coles), Best Lighting Design (for Tim Lutkin) and Best Sound Design (for Gareth Owen). Not to be outdone, the West End premiere of Disney's Frozen took home the most awards from the ceremony with a grand total of seven, including Best Direction (for Michael Grandage), Best Musical Supervision (for Stephen Oremus), Best Choreography (for Rob Ashford), Best Video Design (for Finn Ross) and Best Graphic Design (for Bob King Creative). Christoper Oram was a double winner at the ceremony, seeing off the competition in both the Best Set Design and Best Costume Design categories. The universally acclaimed production of Anything Goes took home the Best Musical Revival gong and also saw standout cast member Carly Mercedes Dyer triumph in the Best Supporting Performer in a Female Identifying Role in a Musical category. The show is set to return for a UK tour this April ahead of a return engagement at the Barbican Theatre from 15 July. Eddie Redmayne's performance as The Emcee in Cabaret ensured his crowning as Best Performer in a Male Identifying Role in a Musical, while Carrie Hope Fletcher picked up her record-breaking fourth WhatsOnStage Award, this time in the titular role of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella, winning the highly competitive category of Best Performer in a Female Identifying Role in a Musical. As for the plays, it was a good night for 2:22 - A Ghost Story, which not only took home the coveted Best New Play prize, but also saw Lily Allen, who made her West End debut in the production, receive the nod for Best Performer in a Female Identifying Role in a Play and fellow castmate Jake Wood win in the Best Supporting Performer in a Male Identifying Role in a Play category. It was recently confirmed that the piece will return for a third West End engagement, beginning performances at the Criterion Theatre from 7 May. Stage and screen favourite James McAvoy also had a triumphant evening, being awarded the Best Performer in a Male Identifying Role in a Play prize for his celebrated turn in Cyrano de Bergerac, with Jamie Lloyd's production also being crowned Best Play Revival. Congratulations also go to Akiya Henry, who took home the Best Supporting Performer in a Female Identifying Role in a Play trophy for her turn as Lady Macduff in the Almeida Theatre's lauded production of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Away from the West End, Manchester's Hope Mill Theatre continued its Herculean rise with Rent receiving the nod for Best Regional Theatre Production and Rob Madge was able to triumph in the Best Off-West End Production category with their solo show My Son's A Queer But What Can You Do?. Finally, the queens of Six proved that their ongoing popularity isn't slowing down anytime soon, winning the Best West End Show award for a second year running and continuing their reign in Theatreland. You can find a full list of winners and nominees at this link. Last night the curtain rose for the 22nd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, celebrating both the resilience of the industry and the wealth of talent on stages across the country. A total of 24 awards were handed out all voted for by the theatregoing public and we were on hand to snap these exclusive shots of the winners, fresh off the stage. Enjoy! Loading... New budget forecast comes out Monday, could show an even greater budget surplus A private 60-acre island near Darien, CT, is on the marketagain. The price of the estate has also been cut again, yet remains a jaw-dropping $100 million. When the sprawling property known as Great Island initially landed on the market in 2016, it was listed for a whopping $175 million. At the time, it was one of the most expensive homes in the country. Two years later, the island's price was dropped to $120 million, but no buyer stepped forward to stake a claim. Now it is back at nearly half of its original asking price. Will a third price slice prove to be the charm for a buyer? According to the agent representing Great Island, it's impossible to top "the largest private island ever to be offered for sale on the East Coast." Exterior of home on Great Island, CT Realtor.com Aerial view Realtor.com Main manor Realtor.com Equestrian facility Realtor.com This is the largest piece of land being offered in the Northeastwith over a mile of shoreline on Long Island Sound, said the listing broker, Jennifer Leahy of Douglas Elliman. It is a beautiful piece of property with a world-class equestrian facility that has been owned by the same family for three generations," she adds. "They have enjoyed the property and are now ready to pass it on to the next family who will be stewards of the estate. Great Island is anchored by a 13,000-square foot ancestral manor that was built in 1905. It's currently owned by the descendants of William Ziegler, who made his fortune in the baking soda industry. Ziegler and his family used Great Island as their second home for decades. While a nine-digit price tag is certainly reserved for an elite pool of buyers, the asking price includes a number of additional structures on the fabled property. The sale includes a stone house manor, 19th-century white farmhouse with pool, rental units above the equestrian facility, a beachside cottage, seaside bungalow, and a boathouse, Leahy said. Located about 45 miles from New York City, the gated estate is accessed via a manmade bridge. It comes with its own private beach, as well as a deep-water dock. For horse aficionados, it also features a world-class equestrian facility featuring an 18-stall granite stable, indoor and outdoor rings, a polo field, paddocks, and riding trails. As for a new owner, Leahy has cast a global net for equestrians who would appreciate a waterfront estate. "It could also be a developer or just a family looking for some privacy," she notes. "We are seeing big trades for waterfront and equestrian properties and have had a lot of interest in the property from people all over the world. The post Private Island Price Cut: Once $175M, Connecticut's Great Island Is Now Available for $100M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. During a program in Clarke County on Friday, Christine Kriz (standing at right), director of the Lord Fairfax Small Business Development Center, discusses with area farmers and operators of agriculture-related businesses ways in which the center can help them. Winchester, VA (22601) Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 77F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 51F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. The impacts of climate change are piling up faster and faster, hurting people around the world and costing Canada billions of dollars in damages from wildfires in the West to reduced seafood harvests in the East, says a new report from the world's top global warming research body. The impacts of climate change are piling up faster and faster, hurting people around the world and costing Canada billions of dollars in damages from wildfires in the West to reduced seafood harvests in the East, says a new report from the world's top global warming research body. "It's happening way faster, more severely and more widespread," said Sherilee Harper of the University of Alberta, one of the 330 authors of the summary report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released Monday. "We know what needs to be done. We need to act now." The summary report, intended for policy-makers, makes for grim reading. "Climate change, caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, is driving widespread losses and damages to nature and people, which are exposing human societies and the natural world to intolerable and irreversible risks, including killing people, damaging food production, destroying nature and reducing economic growth," it says. The report concludes current emissions policies put the globe on track for up to 2.7 degrees of warming. That's beyond the Paris Agreement target of two degrees, the point at which Earth will be warmer than any time in history. That warming must be halted, the report says. "Adaptation also is not an alternative to emission cuts. If warming continues the world will increasingly face changes that cannot be adapted to." Canada, warming at a rate twice the world average, is no exception. The panel found climate change costs in Canada have risen to about $1.9 billion from about $400 million in 1983. Just fighting wildfires, a threat exacerbated by climate change, could reach $1 billion a year a figure already reached in six of the last 10 years. By 2080, the report predicts cumulative forestry losses from fire, pests and other climate-change factors could add up to $459 billion. Atlantic Canada will also suffer, experiencing above-average sea level rise. The report points out one Mi'kmaq community is already considering relocating. Fisheries will also suffer. Climate change has already nearly wiped out kelp beds off the Nova Scotia coast, an important habitat for fish. Ocean acidification caused by carbon dioxide will harm squid, cod and halibut. If emissions remain high, snow crab landings could decline up to 16 per cent and shellfish and lobster by up to 54 per cent. The Canadian heartland is at risk of drying out, says the report. While farmers could enjoy a longer growing season and warmer temperatures, by 2050 those benefits are likely to be outweighed by drought across parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories. In the North, melting permafrost and ice thaw will damage infrastructure and transportation networks, as has already happened with the rail line to Churchill, Man. Everywhere, there will be impacts on human health and well-being. Pest-born maladies such as Lyme disease or dengue fever are already on the increase, said Harper. "We've seen Lyme disease in places where it just didn't exist before." Fleeing wildfires and flooding caused by climate change imposes mental-health costs, Harper said. Those costs can also be indirect the toll on farmers, for example, of not knowing what to expect from the weather or what crops would grow best. "That's also being shown to increasingly impact their mental health," said Harper. Nor will Canada escape impacts in the rest of the world. Extreme weather worsened by climate change will disrupt international supply chains, markets, finance, and trade, reducing the availability of goods in Canada and increasing their price and damaging markets for Canadian exports. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said the report emphasizes how much has been learned since the panel began its work, as well as the need to move quickly. "The data and the modelling capacities that we had in those days gave us the impression that we had more time. Now, we need to accelerate the deployment of our preparedness strategy." Guilbeault said the current world crises, from the end of the COVID-19 pandemic to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, can't distract efforts to fight climate change. "Climate change isn't going away because of that crisis or any other crisis that's coming down the road in six months. We can't lose sight of climate change. We have to be steadfast." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2022. Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960 A new study that looked at more than 200 medical procedures in Canada found they were being used inappropriately almost one-third of the time. A new study that looked at more than 200 medical procedures in Canada found they were being used inappropriately almost one-third of the time. The finding, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, suggests that health-care resources aren't being used as effectively as they might be and that patient care in some cases might be suffering. "We're wasting scarce Canadian resources when we're prescribing treatments or diagnostics that are not needed," said lead author Janet Squires of the University of Ottawa. Squires and her colleagues analyzed 174 separate studies published between 2007 and 2021 that found problems with the use of clinical practices such as lab tests, referrals and imaging. The study compares how patients were actually assessed and treated with the established clinical guidelines in place at the time for 228 procedures. "We found, on average, 30 per cent of them were being used inappropriately at least some of the time," Squires said. Those procedures include: lab tests for diabetes, breast cancer and kidney stones; referrals for prostate cancer and alcoholism; assessments for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and, imaging for cardiovascular disease. Underuse was slightly more common than overuse, the study found. Squires suggested that's the result of campaigns within the medical profession to stop over-prescribing tests and other procedures. She cautioned that treatment that doesn't conform to standard practice doesn't necessarily mean a mistake. "There could be very valid reasons," said Squires. "Maybe somebody isn't getting a particular drug that's in the guideline because they're allergic. Maybe a patient doesn't want a particular practice." In some cases, doctors may not be aware clinical guidelines have changed. "Guidelines change so quickly sometimes," she said. As well, some of the practices her research included had only been examined in one study. There were 42 practices that were found to be misused by at least three studies. Squires emphasized that the findings don't necessarily point to medical mistakes that are harming patients. But in some cases, they could. "Different practices are going to have different outcomes. If you don't receive certain care, depending on the practice, it could have the potential to harm patients." Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Squires said she and her colleagues conducted the research to fill a gap in Canadian health information. Most other countries have data on how often prescribed medical procedures don't line up with current guidelines. Canada didn't. "Our goal was to increase awareness," she said. The paper does not look at all the practices currently used in Canada's health-care system, Squires said. She hopes the research will get doctors and other health-care professionals to think twice when they prescribe to ensure the measure conforms with the latest standards. "I hope people are going to use it to increase awareness. Inappropriate care does happen. We can do better." The Canadian Press EDMONTON - Even though Andrea Willows' grandparents fled Ukraine in the years leading up to the Second World War, she still maintains contact with family in the country and worries about their safety. EDMONTON - Even though Andrea Willows' grandparents fled Ukraine in the years leading up to the Second World War, she still maintains contact with family in the country and worries about their safety. Willows was among thousands of Canadians who marched in rallies across the country over the weekend to condemn Russias invasion of Ukraine, and to call for strong action against Russia and its president. "It makes me feel patriotic, that we're supporting something that's bigger than us, which is freedom," she said, speaking from the side of a busy downtown Edmonton thoroughfare where hundreds gathered on Sunday afternoon. THE CANADIAN PRESS Thousands of people rally in support of the Ukraine outside the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg Saturday, February 26, 2022. The group was rallying against the Russian invasion of The Ukraine. (John Woods / The Canadian Press) Many in the crowd, like Vitalii Haponiuk, were from Ukraine and have been calling friends and family every few hours. "I'm worried about my parents. They live in a small town, but even there they heard Russian planes, Russian bombs. It's very scary," said Haponiuk, who came to Canada as a student three years ago, adding that rallies like the one in Edmonton alert the world to what is happening. Similar scenes played out on Sunday in other cities across Canada, including Montreal, where an emotional Anya Dashe stood with her family and condemned Russias invasion. "I have my family who live there, my friends. Today I was called by my father who said goodbye and apologized for everything he thinks hes gonna die today because there are multiple bombs going over my city," the 17-year-old said. THE CANADIAN PRESS The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill is lit up with the colours of Ukraine's national flag in a show of support following Russia's invasion, in Ottawa, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) "My father told me today, theres just bodies everywhere in the streets. I would never think Russia could do what they did." In Toronto, Yonge-Dundas Square teemed with people. Among them was Eugenia Khvostova, who has been in Canada for two years. Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke of worry for her parents, brother and friends in Ukraine. "I can't sit normally on my couch at home because my heart is there," she said. "I can't sleep. I'm trying to support them as much as I can because this is my motherland and they gave me everything. Thats why I'm here, I'm alive." Khvostova said she hopes the Canadian government will offer more humanitarian and military support to Ukraine. THE CANADIAN PRESS People rally against Russias invasion of Ukraine during a protest outside City Hall in Ottawa, on Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) In Ottawa, Sunday's rally came as police continued with a heavy presence in the downtown core following a three-week occupation by a truck convoy protesting pandemic public-health restrictions. Among those in the crowd was Ottawa resident Jordyn Kiteley, who came out to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people and voice her opposition to Russia's actions. Kiteley said she was surprised by the number of people present. "I'm proud to be Canadian, especially after all the dumb convoy stuff we saw. This is just overpowering to watch and to see how people are feeling about it, and that I'm not alone with this." Winnipeg police estimate 2,000 people took part in a "Stand With Ukraine" rally at the Manitoba legislative grounds on Saturday evening, where Premier Heather Stefanson said she has told the federal government that her province will do everything it can to help Ukrainian refugees looking for a safe haven. THE CANADIAN PRESS People take part in a rally in support of Ukraine in Montreal, Sunday, February 27, 2022. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press) Stefanson said that will include working with Ottawa to expedite Ukrainian immigration applications to Manitoba's provincial nominee program. "Here on the legislative grounds there is a monument recognizing the 1932 Holodomor, Josef Stalin's forced famine that killed millions of Ukrainians by starvation," said Stafanson, who was wearing a light blue coat and yellow scarf, the colours of Ukraine's flag. "The Ukrainian people have suffered under the rule of an evil dictator before. Manitobans and all Canadians must do everything we can to make sure that never happens again." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, meanwhile, added his province to the list that's not accepting new stock of Russian-made liquor products and will not sell any current stock to retailers. Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and British Columbia made similar announcements last week. "Alberta stands in solidarity with the citizens of Ukraine and we will support those fighting against tyranny any way we can," Kenney said in a news release Sunday. "I encourage all Albertans to do what they can to support Ukraine by making a donation or supporting some of the many Ukrainian-Canadian-owned businesses in the province." with files by Allison Jones in Toronto and Virgine Ann in Montreal. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2022. HALIFAX When a gunman impersonating a Mountie started killing people in Portapique, N.S., on April 18, 2020, four children huddled in a home where they relayed key information about the killer as the tragedy unfolded around them. HALIFAX When a gunman impersonating a Mountie started killing people in Portapique, N.S., on April 18, 2020, four children huddled in a home where they relayed key information about the killer as the tragedy unfolded around them. Portions of a transcript of that disturbing 911 call were released today by an independent commission of inquiry investigating the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history, which claimed 22 lives over a 13-hour span. The phone conversation is recounted in a 90-page document that focuses on the first hour of the killer's rampage. It offers clear evidence that authorities were told about the shooter's identity and his replica police vehicle before he used a back road to evade a police blockade. Recordings of the 911 calls were not played during the hearings. However, the so-called foundational document provides grim, detailed descriptions of how 13 people were gunned down that night, including Gabriel Wortman's first victims: Greg and Jamie Blair, the parents of two young boys. Based on statements from residents and the gunman's common-law spouse, the commission has concluded that some time before 10 p.m., the perpetrator assaulted his spouse and set fire to his home and the building where he kept his mock police vehicle facts previously confirmed by the RCMP through the gradual release of search warrant applications. Then, at around 10 p.m., the killer approached the Blair home, where he killed Greg Blair on the front deck. Jamie Blair immediately called 911, telling the operator her husband had been shot. She also said there was an RCMP cruiser in her driveway. "It's decked and labelled RCMP ... but it's not a police officer," she told the operator. "The man is coming back up the deck with a big gun." At that point, the woman hustled her two boys ages 11 and 9 into the back bedroom, where the brothers hid on the floor behind a bed. Blair identified the killer as "Gabriel" to the 911 operator and she whispered into the phone that he was trying to get into the house. In a statement to police, the 11-year-old boy identified as AD said Wortman shot the family's cat and dog before firing multiple shots through the bedroom door, killing his mother. On Monday, commission counsel Roger Burrill presented a summary of what happened in Portapique, including the events in the Blair home. "It is essentially a contemporaneous report of murder," Burrill said, describing Jamie Blair's 911 call. "Jamie Blair was shot at this time through the door of her bedroom, protecting her children." The children remained hidden and do not believe that they were seen by the killer, the commission's report says. About 10 minutes later, the boys fled the home when they realized the killer had set fire to the house before leaving. They sprinted next door to the home of Lisa McCully, who had been fatally shot minutes earlier by the gunman as she walked to the edge of her property to find out what was going on. The boys did not see her as they made their way to their neighbour's house. Inside, the two Blair boys were met by McCully's children, identified as 12-year-old AB and 10-year-old AC. Blair's 11-year-old son called 911 at 10:16 p.m., telling the operator about his parents' death and the fact that the killer had driven away in a police car, carrying a "massive gun." CP Chief Sidney Peters, Mary Teed, Rev. Nicole Uzans, Ernest Asante Korankye and Alana Hirtle, left to right, discuss life in rural Nova Scotia at the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry into the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, in Halifax on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press files) "Just like ... a police car," he said, adding that the mother of the McCully children had left the house earlier and had not returned. At 10:21, the boy confirmed he could hear gunshots going off every thirty seconds. "The children referenced the perpetrator by his first name," the document says. "They (correctly) advised that he 'works in Halifax as a denture person' .... The children indicated that the perpetrator would blend in with the cops 'because he has a cop car.'" They also confirmed that the car, correctly identified as a Ford, had emergency lights and proper decals. At 10:39 p.m., the children reported seeing the replica cruiser on the move. "One of the children exclaimed, 'It's Gabriel!" the report says. As more shots rang out, the children were told to move to the basement, where they stayed until 12:20 a.m., when the Mounties decided it was safe for them to leave. Burrill told the hearing Monday that he had listened to the entire, two-hour 911 call. "The children are describing a horrific scene of fire and shooting and no parents," he said. "(But) the childrens poise, presence and capacity to engage with the 911 call taker is simply outstanding. They are calm. They are responsive. They are observant." According to the commission's research, the RCMP checked on the children three times before the house was evacuated. Some critics have suggested they should have been rescued earlier, given the fact that other residents had been removed for their safety. A separate report on the role of first responders will be released Tuesday. As for the other victims, the commission's report says all except one were fatally shot in their homes between 10:04 p.m. and 10:45 p.m., though the sequence of events is not always clear, given the lack of witnesses, phone calls and surveillance video. The report says it appears the last person killed in Portapique was Corrie Ellison, who was in the community that night with his brother to visit their father. It says Ellison had set off on foot to investigate the fire burning at Wortman's sprawling garage and was shot dead while he took photographs with his cellphone. The time of his last photo, a blurry image that shows nothing, was 10:40 p.m. Minutes later, Wortmans escape was spotted by Patricia Zimmerman as she stood outside her home on Portapique Crescent, looking at the eerie glow in the sky created by her neighbours burning houses. She would later tell police that at 10:45 p.m. she noticed a set of headlights travelling "like a bat out of hell" along a rough, private road that ran along the side of a blueberry field east of the rural enclave, toward Highway 2. Zimmerman said she and her sister thought the driver was probably a volunteer firefighter, which is why they didn't alert police. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Another resident, Harlan Rushton, told commission investigators that it was around midnight when he told police at the scene that the killer could have used a back road to escape. Harlan said he told police: "You know, theres another way out of there, right?" According to Harlan, the officer replied, "Yeah, we know. Just get out of here. Just go." The commission's report concludes with a summary of the horrific events in Portapique and a blurry photo from a surveillance camera showing the killer's car speeding past a gas station in nearby Great Village, N.S., at 10:51 p.m. Police say he later parked in an industrial park in Debert, N.S., where he spent the night. The next day, he fatally shot nine more people both acquaintances and strangers as he led police on a chase that spanned more than 100 kilometres. Wortman was shot dead later that morning by an RCMP officer who spotted him trying to refuel a stolen vehicle at a gas station north of Halifax. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2022. A man and a woman from Toronto have been arrested and charged with hundreds of offences related to alleged sexual and physical assaults spanning the last 17 years. A man and a woman from Toronto have been arrested and charged with hundreds of offences related to alleged sexual and physical assaults spanning the last 17 years. Toronto police say theyve laid charges related to 41 victims so far. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. They say the alleged assaults were committed against men, women and children. Police allege the offences took place in the east part of Toronto, in the area of Danforth Avenue and Dawes Road, and Danforth Road and Eglinton Avenue East. They say many of the assaults were taped and then uploaded to the internet. Investigators say they still have a number of unidentified victims. They say they are seeking assistance from the public in identifying the victims. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2022. REGINA Saskatchewan has become the first province in Canada to lift all COVID-19 restrictions as it moves to treat the virus-like a common respiratory illness. REGINA Saskatchewan has become the first province in Canada to lift all COVID-19 restrictions as it moves to treat the virus-like a common respiratory illness. The Saskatchewan Party government on Monday removed its two remaining pandemic health orders, which included mandatory masking in indoor public places and a requirement to self-isolate for five days if positive for the infection. The province scrapped its vaccine passports on Feb. 14. Dr. Saqib Shahab, chief medical health officer, told The Canadian Press residents should be optimistic, but added that people who have not had a vaccine booster shot should get one. "Booster shots are extremely protective against hospitalizations," Shahab said. "The best thing we can do for ourselves, and reduce pressure in the health-care system, is to get boosted." About half of Saskatchewan adults have received a booster. Dr. Alexander Wong, an infectious disease specialist in Regina, said people who had two doses of vaccine as of five months ago, but didnt get boosted, have no functional protection against the Omicron variant. But if people continue to wear masks in public places, and get boosted, "the likelihood of having a bad outcome from COVID or even getting COVID in the first place is truly minimal," Wong said. "You can just go about living day to day without having to worry about what everyone else is doing around you." The virus remains in communities throughout the province despite the Omicron wave peaking one to two weeks ago, said Shahab. He estimated that about 20 per cent of the population was exposed in the last wave about one out of every four households. Another 30 to 50 per cent of the population could be exposed over the next few weeks and months, he said. "Were not going back to 2019. Its just never going to happen, because COVID is not going to go away," Wong said. "Thats not fearmongering thats just the reality of where were at, so trying to find ways that we can all live together and do things in ways that are safe and responsible remains the most critically important." The latest data from the Ministry of Health shows COVID-19 hospitalizations have started to decline after peaking the week before last. As of last Wednesday, there were 372 people in hospital with the infection, including 27 in intensive care. "It will take four to six weeks to have hospitalizations come down to a really low level," Shahab said. Saskatchewans test positivity rate is 14 per cent, but Shahab said there is a chance of a resurgence in cases now that restrictions have been lifted. He emphasized that will depend on the rate of booster shots and the presence of the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, which is more transmissible but may not be more severe. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Results from PCR tests done in labs indicate about five to seven per cent of people have been positive for the subvariant, he said, but added its not a big concern at this time. Shahab is encouraging people to stick to what they have learned and to be considerate of those who are at high risk. The province prefers to protect people through vaccinations and treatment with antiviral drugs instead of broad public health measures that affect mental health and the economy, he said. "At least for the short term, (were) not relying so much on mandatory measures, but more on getting boosted, staying home if ill, self-testing if you have concerns or are gathering with those who are at high risk. "Those things are going to be more important for the next few weeks and months." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2022. OTTAWA - Internal government briefing notes warn Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that economic-based national security threats from espionage to cyberattacks pose "significant risks" to Canada's post-pandemic recovery, long-term prosperity and competitiveness. The notes prepared for the prime minister warn that the cyberthreat landscape is rapidly evolving, often outpacing governments' ability to adjust regulatory and policy frameworks. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files) OTTAWA - Internal government briefing notes warn Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that economic-based national security threats from espionage to cyberattacks pose "significant risks" to Canada's post-pandemic recovery, long-term prosperity and competitiveness. The notes, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, say Canada's ability to rebound from COVID-19, and its future economic growth, lie in the development of updated legislative and regulatory regimes, new tools, technologies and business models. The blunt assessment is included in material prepared for Trudeau immediately after the Liberal re-election victory last September and now released under the access law. The Trudeau government served notice early last year that it was pressing ahead with efforts to counter economic-based threats to national security, such as theft of valuable intellectual property and damage to critical energy and information networks. The internal notes point out that foreign investment and global trade are critical drivers of the Canadian economy and those of allies. Given Canada's population, geography, highly skilled workforce, world-leading scientific and academic institutions, and advanced economy, access to international markets and capital are critical for economic growth and recovery, the notes add. "Ensuring Canada has a modern and comprehensive framework to counter efforts by hostile actors to exploit Canada's economy is essential to ensuring Canada's long-term economic prosperity and national security, including rebuilding after COVID-19." Hostile tactics range from foreign direct investment in sensitive sectors, including critical infrastructure and emerging technology, to the theft of advanced research, the briefing notes say. Pilfering can occur through the hacking corporate networks or the transfer of sensitive technology with military and intelligence applications. National security concerns extend to the purchase of goods and services by all levels of government, the notes warn. For example, procurement activities can provide adversaries with access to sensitive sites or data, and products or services procured for critical infrastructure can open the door to espionage and disruption. Canadian academic and research institutions are targeted by hostile states who leverage their nationals, including students and visiting faculty, as well as foreign talent recruitment programs and research partnerships to gain access to sensitive knowledge and research, the briefing notes add. National security agencies have made efforts in recent years to raise awareness among potential target organizations and to provide advice on easing these threats. The government has also issued national security guidelines for research partnerships, and the Investment Canada Act national security review guidelines were updated with the aim of increasing transparency about the kind of investments that might prompt a security review. Public Safety Canada is examining "gaps in legislation, regulation and governance," the notes say. The federal department is also completing a review of Canada's cybersecurity strategy. The committee of MPs and senators that oversees federal security policy recently highlighted blind spots in Canada's cyberdefences that could leave many agencies vulnerable to state-sponsored hackers from China and Russia. The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians said while nation states are the most highly developed threats, any player with malicious intent and sophisticated capabilities puts the government's data and the integrity of its electronic infrastructure at risk. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The notes prepared for the prime minister warn that the cyberthreat landscape is rapidly evolving, often outpacing governments' ability to adjust regulatory and policy frameworks. As a result, governments are "increasingly being challenged" to both secure their networks and information holdings, manage the most pressing threats and help victims of cyberincidents. Cybersecurity "can no longer be seen as the sole responsibility of governments," the notes caution. Canada, in consultation with its like-minded partners, will need to continue to emphasize the need for international norms and the prevention of safe havens where cybercriminals "can operate without consequence." "Crime facilitated by the internet is the most significant risk to economic recovery, as it can impact everyone from individual Canadians to small and large enterprises, through to municipalities and critical infrastructure systems." The Canadian Press While the worlds focus is on the growing refugee crisis in Ukraine, Mennonite church leaders in Manitoba dont want the needs of Afghanistan refugees seeking safe haven in Canada to be forgotten. While the worlds focus is on the growing refugee crisis in Ukraine, Mennonite church leaders in Manitoba dont want the needs of Afghanistan refugees seeking safe haven in Canada to be forgotten. In particular, they are appealing to all denominations to help bring 100 Afghan Christian refugee families to Canada. The appeal comes from the Canadian Council of Anabaptist Leaders, which includes four Mennonite denominations based in the province. They are working with Mennonite Central Committee Canada, which has a refugee sponsorship agreement with the Canadian government. Tim Dyck, executive director of the Steinbach-based Evangelical Mennonite Conference, is helping to organize the appeal. Dyck noted the Canadian government has promised to bring as many as 40,000 vulnerable Afghan refugees to Canada. Afghan Christians are among those the government considers to be at risk, along with translators, educators, athletes, women and girls, lawyers, activists, and others. Unlike for the other groups, however, Dyck said: "Nobody is advocating for Afghan Christians. If Christians in Canada dont do it, nobody will." These people are all fairly new believers, he said of the tiny Christian minority in the south central Asia country. Many converted to Christianity during the time of freedom that followed the U.S. invasion in 2001. After the takeover by the Taliban in August 2021, many fled to other countries such as Pakistan, India or Saudi Arabia for safety. "They cant go home again, and some may not be safe where they are," Dyck said. "They are looking for a place to call a permanent home." The appeal for sponsors isnt limited to Mennonite congregations, Dyck said: "Every church is welcome to apply." The cost of sponsoring a refugee family is between $25,000 to $30,000 per family for a year, and includes helping them find a place to live, get settled, get the children into schools, and things such as English lessons, Dyck said. "This is a unique opportunity for Canadian Christians," he said. "Just as many churches responded to the needs of Syrian refugees and others, they are invited to respond to the needs of these Afghan Christians." National director of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches Elton DaSilva said the Winnipeg-based conference has started reaching out to churches in his denomination to sponsor a family; so far four churches, none in Manitoba, have expressed interest. "Mennonite Brethren remember when revolution and war caused their relatives to flee persecution, hunger and death and seek refuge," he said, referencing the time 100 years ago, and again after the Second World War, when Mennonites fled the former Soviet Union for safety in Canada. Shoaib Ebadi, executive director of Square One World Media in Winnipeg, grew up in Afghanistan. The member of a local Mennonite Brethren church is excited about the effort to bring Christian Afghan refugee families to Canada because "they are doubly vulnerable," he said. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. In addition to some belonging to high-risk groups, being Christian puts them at an additional risk now that the country is ruled by the Taliban. The Taliban follows a harsh version of Islam and has a strict interpretation of Islamic law, Ebadi said, noting Afghans who convert to Christianity can be at risk of persecution or even death. "Our duty as Christians in Canada is to help our brothers and sisters in need," he said, noting many are languishing in immigration limbo in other countries. The Canadian Council of Anabaptist Leaders includes the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, Evangelical Mennonite Conference, Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference, and Mennonite Church Canada, along with the Be In Christ Church of Canada (based in Ontario). Churches seeking to sponsor an Afghan Christian refugee family can e-mail afghanrefugees@mcccanada.ca or call 1-888-622-6337. faith@freepress.mb.ca Current students, staff, alumni and neighbours of Cecil Rhodes School in Winnipeg have until the end of the day Monday to submit a pitch for the elementary buildings future namesake. Current students, staff, alumni and neighbours of Cecil Rhodes School in Winnipeg have until the end of the day Monday to submit a pitch for the elementary buildings future namesake. The Winnipeg School Division is seeking potential titles that honour the theme of truth and reconciliation and do not belong to any historic figure or present-day person. In order for a submission to be considered, participants must include their personal information, their relationship to the school, and the rationale behind their idea via the divisions survey. The poll will close at the end of the month, after two weeks of circulating in the division community and on social media. "It is important to do this because I think the school name should deliver a sense of pride to students and staff, and the continued name of a white supremacist will hurt students," said Jennifer Chen, a trustee who started raising concerns about the name of the K-9 school on Elgin Avenue in Weston around 21 months ago. "Theres no pride in how much that hurts students and those who were impacted by apartheid." More than 1,700 people have signed an online petition, which was launched in June 2020 amid anti-Black racism protests across the world, in favour of renaming the school. Chen said it was around that time she started hearing from concerned community members who wanted the division to cut ties with Cecil Rhodes (1953-1902). Supporters argue WSD should not be honouring a former prime minister of what is now South Africa, whose ideas laid the groundwork for racist apartheid policies. Rhodes, a British-born South African businessman and imperialist, founded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Trustees approved a motion to start consulting with students, parents and community members on renaming the elementary school in October 2020. The division later launched a survey to gauge central Winnipeggers perspectives on the existing name. The poll yielded mixed results, with only a slight majority of 55 per cent favouring change while 45 per cent were in support of the status-quo. After reviewing the findings, the board of trustees overwhelmingly voted in May 2021 to officially start a lengthy renaming process that has led to the latest survey. A new name is expected to be in place before the 2022-23 academic year gets underway. "A name change is a great start. I think it signals an openness and a starting place to make even more important shifts inside schools and towards more sustainable and more equitable teaching practices," said Katya Adamov Ferguson, a PhD student at the University of Manitoba and educator in Winnipeg, who undertook a 2017 study on K-12 school names. In Adamov Fergusons thesis study, she found a theme among building names in WSD: they often pay tribute to white European colonialists, missionaries and explorers who were men who lived between the 18th and 20th centuries. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Many major events from the toppling of colonial statues to the discovery of unmarked graves belonging to Indigenous children have taken place since 2017, she said, noting there is a culture shift happening when it comes to analyzing names, language revitalization, representation and critical thinking about what stories are told versus those that are "untold." Canada-wide outrage about the memorialization of Egerton Ryerson (1803-82), a teacher and Methodist church leader who was influential in designing and implementing the residential school system, recently prompted the Pembina Trails School Division to rename one of its buildings. Following community consultations, the board in south Winnipeg unveiled the name Prairie Sunrise School. Also in recent months, the WSD board committed to undertaking a divisional analysis of all names across the division, a project not unlike the one Adamov Ferguson completed five years ago. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie An inner-city Winnipeg tutoring program is in search of a permanent home so it can scale-up homework help operations and provide in-person and virtual support to newcomer students learning amid COVID-19 disruptions. Grade 12 student Suzi Gebrezgabiher has made HEY part of her extended school day routine. The senior student speaks Tigrinya, Arabic and English. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) An inner-city Winnipeg tutoring program is in search of a permanent home so it can scale-up homework help operations and provide in-person and virtual support to newcomer students learning amid COVID-19 disruptions. The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba is expanding its Homework and Education Hub for Youth (better known as the HEY program, to those who access it) to patch pandemic learning gaps. Between translation issues, sibling babysitting duties, and limited access to both computers and quiet study spaces, there have been no shortage of barriers to quality remote learning, said Seeba Wahabi, the lone full-time employee who oversees HEY at present. "Our students, mostly new immigrants and refugees, all inner-city (residents), dont know fluent English or can communicate via emails very well or read well. It was a lot of challenge for them throughout the pandemic, until they were able to get some support," said the teacher and school liaison at IRCOM. Wahabi said IRCOM organized a tech library that has lent out some laptops to students, but many of the youth who access the free after-school program continue working to catch-up to their peers. The organization has secured $500,000 to enhance recovery learning resources for students through one-on-one and group study sessions over the next three years via the TD Ready Challenge. The TD Bank initiative supports community projects designed by not-for-profits and charities annually; the 2021 theme is about solutions to help address COVID-19 learning loss in math and reading, which has disproportionately affected certain groups of K-12 students, including newcomers, across North America. Wahabi said the new funding will allow HEY to hire more employees and provide operational stability. The program, which currently relies on part-time and volunteer educators, is temporarily operating out of the South Sudanese Community Centre in the downtown core. Classroom capacity is limited and has, in turn, prompted tutors to turn away participants in recent months. "We are hoping that once we get a (permanent) space and its a more blended program that means in-person as well as online, hopefully, well have more staff and increase the number of students we can help," Wahabi added. There are more than 170 students currently registered in the homework program. Learners can access tutoring for all subjects, ranging from pre-calculus to English Language Arts. Grade 12 student Suzi Gebrezgabiher has made HEY part of her extended school day routine. While Suzi noted many of her peers at Churchill High School can ask their parents to help them with course questions, she needs to seek support elsewhere because her mother doesnt speak English. "Not all of us is in the same level of understanding For me, its my third language," Suzi said. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The 17-year-olds family is originally from Eritrea, but she grew up in Sudan before moving to Canada six years ago. Her first two languages are Tigrinya and Arabic. "I cant stress this enough, how important (the HEY community) is. Once you move from a different country, its very difficult to make friends, make a new community. IRCOM has opened their arms," Suzi added, during a break from a recent virtual tutoring session. Wahabi, who was also on the video conference call, started to cry as Suzi described how important the tutoring program is in her high school life. The IRCOM staffer said she and her colleagues started yelling while doing "air hugs," jumping jacks, and Zumba dancing on a Zoom call when they learned their pitch to scale-up holistic, hands-on and tailored support to newcomer students had been selected for the 2021 TD Ready Challenge. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie OTTAWA Manitoba is about to drop requirements for both masks and proof of vaccination in the public spaces the province regulates, but Ottawa remains cautious about its turf. OTTAWA Manitoba is about to drop requirements for both masks and proof of vaccination in the public spaces the province regulates, but Ottawa remains cautious about its turf. That means Winnipeggers should take both a mask and their immunization card when visiting federal office buildings and the Royal Canadian Mint. In fact, masks should be the last COVID-19 measure that Canadians scrap, the nations top doctor said. "Even if there are no requirements, depending on the virus activity level, people should choose to wear a mask," Dr. Theresa Tam said Friday. "Its good for the prevention of not just COVID-19, but maybe other respiratory viruses as well," Tam said, in response to questions from the Free Press. The public service occupational health program, which provides guidance to federal government workplaces, says it still advises indoor workers in Manitoba and elsewhere to keep their masks on. "Based on the latest evidence, (Health Canada) recommends that masks are worn in federal workplaces, even if there is no longer a provincial mask mandate," wrote departmental spokeswoman Anne Genier. She noted that its still up to federal departments and agencies to craft rules that reflect their work settings, employee tasks and local COVID-19 trends. "Masks are an important public health measure that can help prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19," Genier wrote. Crown corporations set their own rules, and seem to be proceeding cautiously. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights will drop its vaccine-passport requirement alongside the province on March 1, but is still pondering whether it will require face masks when Manitoba scraps that rule on March 15. The Royal Canadian Mint says it will consider lifting some rules in the future. "For the time being, the Mint is maintaining the requirement for visitors to our facilities in Winnipeg and Ottawa to mask and provide proof of vaccination," wrote spokeswoman Michelle Richardson. The other major Crown corporation based in Winnipeg does not have many visitors; the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. processing plant in Transcona did not respond when asked whether it would maintain masking requirements. Private workplaces that Ottawa regulates such as banks, railways and grain elevators must set their own rules in compliance with a hazard-prevention code that aims to protect employees from COVID-19, as well as any other workplace risk. Those policies include whether employees and visitors need to mask up. "If the hazard identification and assessment determines that the most effective preventative measure is the provision of masks, employers must also provide training on the use, care, maintenance, and limitations of the equipment," wrote Saskia Rodenburg, a spokeswoman for Employment and Social Development Canada. For months, Ottawa had required COVID-19 vaccination or a valid exemption for all government employees, including in Crown corporations, the military and the RCMP. The federal government is still consulting on its aim to broaden that requirement to include the private workplaces it regulates. But whether visitors need a proof of vaccination to enter these spaces varies based on the sector. Tam said provinces are in an awkward phase of pivoting toward optional measures, which many Winnipeg workplaces and public spaces have opted to maintain. "Weve got to begin to move beyond requirements, and adapt our personal habits as well, to prevent virus infections," Tam said. She added that those at higher risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19 should be extra cautious, regardless of what their province is requiring. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "We need to do a better job of equipping individuals with the tools that they need to make those personal-based decisions," she said. People can decide whether to don a mask based on virus trends, the same way people dress for weather conditions, Tam added. "Masks remain one of the foundational levels of protection and it may be the last thing that you want to remove in your personal armamentarium of tools." Tams assistant, Dr. Howard Njoo, added that people should respect other people who opt to wear a mask in public. "We also want to make sure that we dont stigmatize and making it difficult for individuals, who choose or maybe want to wear a mask for lots of reasons," he said. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca For Winnipeg Mennonites who lead ministries serving seniors and other vulnerable people in southeastern Ukraine, it is an uncertain and troubling time. For Winnipeg Mennonites who lead ministries serving seniors and other vulnerable people in southeastern Ukraine, it is an uncertain and troubling time. "Everyone is in shock now," Alvin Suderman, chairman of the board of the Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine, said of local staff members in Molochansk, about 120 kilometres from the region of Donetsk. Russia has invaded Ukraine under the pretext of "liberating" separatist-held Donetsk and Luhansk. The Mennonite centres director, who is also Ukrainian, has fled to Poland with her family. "I could see the worry on her face when we talked," Suderman said of a FaceTime call with her Thursday. While there had been no fighting in Molochansk before Friday, residents heard explosions in the city of Melitopol, about 25 km away, and saw drones fly overhead. The centre, which is located in a former Mennonite girls school built in 1906, has received a request to use its basement as a bomb shelter if needed, Suderman said. "Its very uncertain time," he said last week, noting local staff members are safe and the centres programs to help seniors, orphans, poor families, local schools and people needing medical care are operating on a limited basis. If the war continues and grows worse, he fears there could be a flood of refugees that will need assistance. "We might have a new way to help people if that happens," Suderman said. But if Russia "decides it wants a land bridge from Crimea back to its own territory, it will go right through where the centre is," he said. "I dont know if Russia will tolerate an outside aid group like ours," Suderman said, adding he doesnt know if the most recent transfer of funds from Canada to the centre will go through Ukrainian banks. A similar story is told by Louie Sawatzky, who is project director for the Mennonite Family Centre operated by the Mennonite Benevolent Society of Manitoba. "Its not a good time for people in Ukraine and in the rest of the world," he said. Programs operated by the centre, located in Zaporizhzhia, about 100 km north of Molochansk, are closed. "They will stay closed until we know what is possible," Sawatzky said, noting local staff members provide programs for seniors, along with home care, respite and other services. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. A week ago, Sawatzky asked staff how they were doing, and all said they planned to stay. "They didnt think anything like this would take place," he said, noting they have been living with the threat of invasion for years and had almost "become numb to it." "Now, anything could happen. We dont know right now what we are going to do." Both centres were founded in the early 2000s after North American Mennonites on heritage tours to the former homeland in Ukraine saw the needs, especially for seniors. Funds for two centres comes from donors in Canada and the United States. Suderman and Sawatzky called on Canadians to pray for all Ukrainians. "Its the only thing we can do as Christians when confronted by something seen to be so evil," Sawatzky said. "The people we serve are so vulnerable." faith@freepress.mb.ca Sleep-deprived members of Manitobas Ukrainian community kept rallying, praying, and fundraising over the weekend to support their loved ones overseas as Russian forces continue to cause havoc in their home country. Sleep-deprived members of Manitobas Ukrainian community kept rallying, praying, and fundraising over the weekend to support their loved ones overseas as Russian forces continue to cause havoc in their home country. "Im safe, physically, but my mind and my heart is not," said Oksana Melnyk, outside Sts. Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sunday morning. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Iryna Chernysh said she hopes Russian people learn the war was no training exercise, as many had been led to believe. The North End cathedrals parking lot was packed with vehicles that had yellow and blue flags and decorations displayed in and around windows. Oksana and her husband, Igor Melynk attended a special service at the parish to pray for the citizens and soldiers defending Ukraine and pay tribute to all those who have already lost their lives in the wake of last weeks invasion. The duo moved to Winnipeg from Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine, "for a better life" in 2004. They both said Sunday they have not been able to get much rest since learning that the airport in the city, where many of their relatives remain, was bombed last week. Oksana flinched when an emergency vehicle sped down McGregor Street, horns blaring. "This is the sound my mom hears all day long," she said. "When I hear this, it makes me sick because I know (my 77-year-old mom) has a hard time moving around the house, let alone going to underground places where she can hide." The couple was among thousands of people who gathered on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building one night earlier to rally in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. They also took part in a similar rally at The Forks on Thursday. Premier Heather Stefanson spoke to the crowd at the Saturday vigil, giving an impassioned speech during which she confirmed Manitoba will take-in Ukrainians via the provincial nominee program. The Stefanson government which oversees the province with largest number of Ukrainians per capita in Canada has raised the eastern European countrys flag at 450 Broadway in a show of support against Russias attacks. Halyna Shtoyko, one of the event organizers, said she was extremely grateful so many people braved the cold to participate in the Saturday rally, but she indicated she felt numb once she went home. Last weekend, she was organizing playdates for her children. "And now the world is turned upside down," said Shtoyko, who immigrated to Winnipeg when she was a teenager in 2000. The Winnipegger said she has been devoting much of the last few days communicating with relatives in the capital of Kiev, raising awareness about the violence and destruction, and searching for ways to support Ukrainians on the ground. Several members of Manitobas Ukrainian community are collecting funds and donations to personally fly much-needed items, such as two-way radios, to Ukraine via flights to neighbouring countries in the coming weeks. "We are pushing and asking and pleading for the world to help and to understand that this is critical, because Ukraine is acting as the shield for the whole world right now. Nobody thought this could happen. Whats next?" she said. Following a weekend of continued chaos overseas, many local Ukrainian-Canadians echoed similar sentiments. Iryna Chernysh said she desperately wants to make sure the people of Russia understand that this is not a training program, as many have been led to believe, but rather an assault on Ukrainians. Chernysh said she has become increasingly frustrated listening to Russian media and messaging. "My father-in-law and brother-in-law are in Ukraine and they already registered themselves to fight for freedom They said: We are staying. If not we, then who?" she said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The Winnipeg mother of young children noted that her immediate family, who came to Winnipeg six years ago in response to Russias invasion of Crimea, has been forced to postpone their spring plans to move home because of the latest events. Chernysh showed up to a Sunday church service wearing a blue and yellow mask and two strings, each strand a different colour of her home countrys flag, tied onto her right arm. "I just want people to know that Im Ukrainian, and Im for Ukraine, and Ukraine is a beautiful country," she said, adding that despite being exhausted and afraid, she has faith in her country and her peoples resilience. with files from Katie May maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie The arrests of three suspects in the slaying of a 19-year-old man working at a city beer vendor two weeks ago may offer a shred of comfort to the people grieving his death, a family friend says. The arrests of three suspects in the slaying of a 19-year-old man working at a city beer vendor two weeks ago may offer a shred of comfort to the people grieving his death, a family friend says. John Lloyd Barrion was shot during a late-night robbery just after 3 a.m. Feb. 15 inside the beer store at the Travelodge by Wyndam Winnipeg hotel on Notre Dame Avenue. He later died in hospital. FACEBOOK John Lloyd Maaba Barrion died after he was found injured at a beer vendor attached to the Travelodge on Notre Dame Ave. in Winnipeg earlier this month. "At first, they were kind of hopeless, but after the vigil, (the family) felt that they had the full backing of the community," said Ponz Mapuyan, whose sons were close friends with the victim. "From then on, what they were wishing for was final closure, finding out what really caused his death and the perpetrators being caught." "We can never bring back his life, but somehow knowing the police did their job the community may have been responsible for pressing the authorities I think that really meant something to them." Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon announced the three arrests during a Monday afternoon news conference. STEVE LAMBERT / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Winnipeg Police Service Const. Dani McKinnon told the Free Press the robbery didnt appear to be different than any other armed holdup at a beer vendor until the assailants pulled the trigger. "This is a very tragic incident not to downplay any of the other homicides that we investigate but this one has been very public over the past week. The victim, John Barrion, was very beloved in his community and he was working," McKinnon said, adding the accused killers did not know the victim prior to the shooting. "This was an unexpected set of circumstances where this robbery took place. This was a random robbery." Because the matter is now before the courts she did not provide any further details. McKinnon later told the Free Press the robbery didnt appear to be different than any other armed holdup at a beer vendor until the assailants pulled the trigger. "I dont know why, and I think thats the hardest part I know thats one of the hardest parts that the community is dealing with is the why; why did you have to do that? and I dont have an answer," she said. I dont know why, and I think thats the hardest part I know thats one of the hardest parts that the community is dealing with is the why; why did you have to do that? and I dont have an answer." Const. Dani McKinnon The victims brother, John Emmanuel Barrion, previously told the Free Press he was found in a staff-only area behind a protective shield, which has an opening to allow transactions. John Lloyd Barrion immigrated to Winnipeg with his family from the Philippines when he was less than a year old and had dreams of becoming a chef. He started working at the vendor four months ago, and recently completed his training and probationary period. The Tec Voc High School graduate shared his earnings with his parents. DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS John Lloyd Barrions brother, John Emmanuel Barrion, previously told the Free Press he was found in a staff-only area behind a protective shield, which has an opening to allow transactions. The three suspects face a lengthy list of murder, manslaughter and armed-robbery charges. Robert Gordon Francis, 37, was arrested after a traffic stop Feb. 16. He has been charged with manslaughter, armed robbery, acting as an accessory after the fact to murder, conspiring to commit an indictable offence and unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle. McKinnon said the police dog unit tracked the suspect vehicle and its officers made the first arrest at Notre Dame Avenue and Isabel Street. "(The dog unit was) instrumental in having a domino effect in these arrests," she said. (The dog unit was) instrumental in having a domino effect in these arrests." Const. Dani McKinnon William Arthur Sampson, 51, was arrested Friday after a search warrant was executed at a Grant Park-area home. He has been charged with second-degree murder, armed robbery using a firearm and multiple weapons charges. Ryan Jeron Smith, 40, was arrested the same day after a brief vehicle chase in the William Whyte neighbourhood. He also faces second-degree murder, armed robbery and weapons charges, along with fleeing a peace officer, driving a conveyance when prohibited and failing to comply with two probation orders. All three men are in custody. "We believe the main people involved in this robbery and homicide have been arrested, however, just because an arrest has been made or a number of arrests have been made, it doesnt always mean the investigations concluded," McKinnon said. DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS John Lloyd Barrion immigrated to Winnipeg with his family from the Philippines when he was less than a year old and had dreams of becoming a chef. A Free Press review of court records shows Francis doesnt appear to have any prior criminal convictions. Smith was convicted of a 2019 theft and served 20 days. Sampson has a previous robbery conviction in 2020, for which he served 234 days and received two years probation. He was also convicted of possession of a weapon in 2015 and served 150 days. An assault charge in 2014 was stayed for a one-year peace bond. Mapuyan said the Filipino and wider community rallied to support the Barrion family a GoFundMe campaign has raised nearly $15,000 for the family. With files from Dean Pritchard and Malak Abas erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @erik_pindera Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Opinion Save us from the bitter fantasies of old men." That was the prayer that came to mind as I watched the first news reports of Russian missiles landing on Ukraine. Apart from Vladimir Putins fantasies of a new Russian Empire, there was no reason for the invasion. Yes, the situation tests the resolve of United States and the European Union to counter aggression against their allies. Perhaps soon, it will also be a test of the NATO alliance that was on the brink of dissolution because of its apparent irrelevance to life in the 21st century. So, as we wait for the fallout from this invasion and that is literally the case, given the number of nuclear facilities (along with the exclusion zone around Chernobyl) at risk there are some lessons to be learned already: First, we cant underestimate the self-destructive tendencies of the existing geopolitical/economic system and its current leadership. Always expecting sweet reason to prevail when it comes to making the major socio-economic changes that a sustainable future will require is dangerous, even delusional. There is a small minority of people who will always prefer destruction over creation, death over life, their current greed over anyone elses future need. Further, when these people have control of the reins of political, economic or military power, disaster inevitably follows on the heels of their stupid decisions. It is only a question of how soon, and how extensive, the damage will be. So, extremist elements of whatever political stripe must be sidelined and rendered irrelevant by the rest of us and not given any political power whatsoever, at any level of government. In a democracy, no one is compelled to vote for a fool though political debates across Canada during the #FreedomConvoy22 debacle make it clear that too many people have already done just that. Second, no government however tyrannical survives for long without the consent of the people. Even in a totalitarian regime (say, North Korea), there are not enough soldiers to coerce the people into obedience. Compliance is a choice; obeying the rule of law (whatever it is) is a choice. Supreme leader wannabes (such as Vladimir Putin) ignore this at their peril. Recall the recent helpless comments of the Ottawa chief of police, before he finally resigned: with tears in his eyes, he said he simply did not have enough police to end the occupation and subdue the blockaders. He was right. Yet, imagine how much worse things would have gotten, and how quickly, if the people of Ottawa had decided to handle the situation themselves. Using counter-insurgency calculations, there are not enough active-duty personnel of all ranks in the whole of the Canadian Armed Forces to subdue an insurrection in a city the size of Ottawa or Winnipeg. In every society, people either consent to the rule of law the same rule of law for everyone, whatever that law is or there will certainly soon be chaos. If the people of Ukraine do not submit to Russian occupation, there are not enough Russian troops to force them and the alternative of butchering or relocating 43 million Ukrainians would never be supported by the Russian people, who were not asked if they wanted a war in the first place. Third, it is always much easier to start a war than to predict how it will turn out. The last time the Russian Empire went to war was in 1914. That war ended a few years later with its defeat, the death of the Tsar and the Bolshevik revolution (soon taken over by Joseph Stalin). Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The Russian people thus already know how to make a revolution. They have also had a bitter lesson in what happens when elites hijack that revolution for their own purposes. A real, democratic Russian revolution has been brewing for a long time Putins adventurism, the greed of the Russian oligarchs and the invasion of Ukraine may finally make it happen. So, what can we do right now, in a world in which a global conflict would certainly doom the planet to climate disaster? Sanctions real ones are the only avenue. The problem, of course, is that sanctions by themselves are not enough to ensure regime change. After all, Saddam Hussein lived very well for a decade while the people of Iraq starved and died under the sanctions the rest of the world imposed, before the Americans and British invaded and (arguably) made things worse. With nuclear war as a lethal part of the equation, of course there will never, ever, be any invasion of Russia, despite Putins paranoid rants. But neither should there be any conflict with the Russian people themselves just with their self-destructive leaders. Sanctions will serve as a stark, inescapable reminder that the Russian people need to clean up their own house and soon, before events spiral further out of everyones control. The future of the children, on all sides, right now hangs in the balance. Peter Denton is adjunct associate professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada. Opinion The pandemic has exposed the tremendous weaknesses of the seemingly forever-teetering-on-the-brink Manitoba health-care system. The cuts and closures of several Winnipeg hospital emergency rooms imposed by the Pallister government before COVID-19, all in the name of centralization and cost efficiency, have instead wreaked havoc and caused undue stress. This, coupled with having to treat the thousands inflicted by the disease, essentially strangled the system. The need to free up beds for COVID-19 patients has led to the transferring of elderly patients from Winnipeg hospitals and away from their families to hospitals in rural and northern regions. And, worse, to a surgical and diagnostic testing backlog of more than 160,000 cases. By any measure, that number is untenable or, more accurately, "catastrophic," as physicians in Ontario have described that provinces estimated 300,000 surgery backlog. Last December, Saskatchewans health authority aimed to reduce the COVID-19-related surgical backlog to a three-month wait time by 2030. Unbelievably, that goal is considered acceptable. According to a study prepared last June by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the total backlog of surgeries across the country exceeded 550,000. The Canadian Medical Association estimated that dealing with this huge number for six key procedures coronary artery bypass graft surgery, hip and knee replacements, cataracts and MRI and CT scans will cost at least $1.3 billion. Where that money is going to come from is anyones guess. So far in Manitoba, health officials and members of the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force established to reduce the backlog have come up with a few recommendations, such as formalizing an agreement with Sanford Health in Fargo for specialty spine services. That still remains a work in progress. While each province has its own problems, Manitobas health-care system has perpetually struggled. Over many years, the province has had some of the longest wait times in Canada to see a doctor in hospital emergency departments. In September 2008, these issues led to a terrible tragedy when Brian Sinclair died in the HSC emergency room. He had been waiting to have his catheter changed for 34 hours. He was literally "ignored to death," as later media stories put it. Patient protocols were changed in hospital ERs after this, but the endless waiting has more or less remained the same. In April 1969, the head of the Manitoba Medical Association (MMA) warned the province was facing a shortage of doctors; in February 1973, it was a shortage of nurses; in early 1978 the anesthesia section of the MMA concluded Manitoba was "rapidly approaching a crisis in anesthesia manpower." In February 1983, there were unacceptable provincial government cost-cutting measures and expenditure guidelines; in June 1997, waiting times for ultrasound tests and MRI scans were growing daily; and in November 1998, it was overcrowded emergency rooms and a cancellation of too many surgeries. And, so on and so on. Indeed, a historical survey of the health-care system in Manitoba is the story on one hand of dedication, innovation and technological advancement; and on the other, of chronic shortages, underfunding, staffing problems and denial, denial, denial. The Free Press has occasionally run series of articles with such titles as "Hospitals in Crisis" (1983-84) and "Health Care Crunch" (1998-99), among others. And each time, the complaints and criticisms of provincial health care, as highlighted in these stories, were declared to be off-base and exaggerated by hospital administrators and health leaders. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The health care system was never "in crisis," but rather "evolving," as one spokesman from the Winnipeg Health Authority the predecessor to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) put it in 1998 in response to the "Health Care Crunch" series. Possibly the most honest statement ever made by a Manitoba health minster was uttered by Larry Desjardins, who served in that position in Howard Pawleys government from 1981 to 1985. In response to criticisms by doctors of insufficient funding, he wondered whether too many operations were being performed. "A few years ago there was no such thing as open-heart surgery," he said. "If God Almighty cant cope with all the people who are sick and so on, where in the heck can I make miracles?" That has not stopped Desjardins and the health ministers who succeeded him from trying to conjure miracles. Yet while each new infusion of money, announcement of new beds and restructuring of the system the establishment of the WRHA and the other regional health authorities in the late 1990s and the creation of Shared Health in 2018 has been implemented with great fanfare, this bureaucratic tinkering has never quite lived up to its potential. In Manitoba, health care has long been underfunded and unable to meet rising demand, and federal health-care transfer payments never seem to be adequate, as successive provincial governments have routinely complained. In addition, the tax base is too small to deal with the provinces various socioeconomic disparities and an ever-increasing elderly population. COVID-19 has merely magnified these problems tenfold. Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context. During the past month, Manitobans have been given a flurry of deadlines for the end of all provincial pandemic restrictions. Capacity limits were lifted for most businesses in mid-February, proof of vaccination requirements will be gone March 1, and mask mandates will be shown the door on March 15. Editorial During the past month, Manitobans have been given a flurry of deadlines for the end of all provincial pandemic restrictions. Capacity limits were lifted for most businesses in mid-February, proof of vaccination requirements will be gone March 1, and mask mandates will be shown the door on March 15. Whether Premier Heather Stefanson is following the guidance of public health experts or cowing to the demands of a disruptive minority, one thing is clear: our provincial leader has shown that she can, in fact, impose a hard timeline. Its a wonder then, why Ms. Stefanson still hasnt issued a specific schedule for addressing the massive surgical and diagnostic backlog created by the pandemic. Right now, more than 161,000 important surgeries, procedures and diagnostic tests have been delayed or cancelled, according to data from Doctors Manitoba. That means roughly one in 10 Manitobans are stuck living with chronic pain, life-threatening conditions and medical anxiety. The removal of mandates and the growing backlog are two sides of the same coin. If restrictions are lifting, it must mean that hospitals have rebounded from the Omicron wave and that our health-care system is ready to transition back to its pre-pandemic capacity. Except that it isnt. Last week, Manitoba still had more than 500 COVID-19 hospitalizations and a test-positivity rate of 14 per cent. Health-care workers are burnt out after two years of fighting a deadly, shape-shifting opponent and staffing shortages continue to plague the system. None of the provinces recent announcements has included details regarding how hospitals are going to be supported during this provincially directed drive toward reopening. Ms. Stefanson is well versed on the current state of our health-care system. She was health minister when Manitoba was forced to send COVID-19 patients out of province for care, and she was a cabinet minister during former premier Brian Pallisters austerity-driven sweeping overhaul of health services. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. On the leadership campaign trail, she acknowledged the tenuous state of the system, talking about a need to increase intensive-care capacity and make health-care salaries more competitive. So far, none of that has come to pass. Instead, we have a task force that has done little of apparent substance to help reschedule postponed procedures. The task force was created last December and, since then, the surgery and diagnostic backlog has increased by more than 7,000 cases. The task force has also been caught jumping the gun on arrangements to send spinal surgery patients to a health centre in North Dakota for care. Following the announcement in late January, it was quickly discovered that an agreement with the American clinic was far from finalized. It was a deja-vu-inducing blunder; last spring, Mr. Pallister made a similar premature claim that local teachers would be able to access vaccines south of the border. That Manitobas Progressive Conservative government continues to tout international medicine as a feasible option for citizens is a revelatory maneuver. The province is either unwilling or unable to address the issues festering in its own health-care system leaving residents with few choices other than to wait for the opportunity to take a medical roadtrip. Manitobans deserve hard timelines, and health-care workers deserve a concrete, clearly articulated plan for how they are expected to work through the mountain of cardiac surgeries, ultrasounds and mammograms that have fallen by the wayside amid the pandemic. If Ms. Stefanson is so eager for a return to normal, she needs to focus first on bringing the provinces health system back from the brink. OTTAWA Tyson George Billings of High Prairie, Alta., will remain in an Ottawa jail while waiting to answer to charges concerning his role in the three-week protest that debilitated the core of the national capital. OTTAWA Tyson George Billings of High Prairie, Alta., will remain in an Ottawa jail while waiting to answer to charges concerning his role in the three-week protest that debilitated the core of the national capital. Billings, 44, was arrested Feb. 19, on the second day of a large-scale police operation to disperse the protests that had created gridlock in downtown Ottawa. Demonstrators, protesting the Liberal government and COVID-19 restrictions, blocked roads, drove slowly down Ottawa highways, and blasted the core with noise from truck horns for days on end. Billings has been charged with mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to disobey a court order, obstructing police and counselling to obstruct police. Ontario Justice Donna Hackett issued a publication ban on the evidence and reasons for her ruling but said she was not satisfied that Billings should be released on bail. Billings, nicknamed "Freedom George" by fellow demonstrators in Ottawa, livestreamed his participation in the protests over several days. He sat in the courtroom wearing a black hoodie, the word "Freedom" printed on the chest, with his head in his hands at one point as Hackett delivered her decision. Hes the latest key organizer for the freedom convoy protest to be denied bail. Tamara Lich, who served as the public face of the convoy, was ordered to remain behind bars last week and have no contact with other main figures in the protest Pat King, Benjamin Dichter, Christopher Barber and Daniel Bulford. Lichs lawyers plan to appeal her denial of bail at a hearing Wednesday. King, a close associate of Billings, was denied bail on Friday, when Justice of the Peace Andrew Seymour said the evidence painted a portrait of an individual with clear intent to continue his protest. King was also ordered not to communicate with fellow organizers, including Billings. Barber was arrested and released on bail. As of Feb. 21, Ottawa police had charged more than 120 people with a combined 393 offences in connection with the protests. Meanwhile an Ontario court has extended to March 9 a freezing order on funds donated to the Ottawa protest, as a class-action civil suit against organizers continues. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Parties in the case have agreed to move some donated funds and cryptocurrency into escrow, which could be redistributed to affected Ottawa residents and business owners should the class action succeed. Norman Groot, a lawyer representing some convoy protest leaders, says Christopher Garrah, Benjamin Dichter and Nicholas St. Louis have agreed in principle to moving donated funds within their control to an escrow account. Groot notes the funds that Garrah, Dichter and St. Louis have agreed to move to escrow might not account for all the cryptocurrency that was donated, and he proposed parties meet next week to take stock of what has been transferred. An escrow agent will oversee the transferred funds, and will be permitted to change the passwords for cryptocurrency. The class-action lawsuit seeks a total of $306 million in damages related to the three-week anti-government convoy protest near Parliament Hill that snarled traffic, shut businesses and plagued residents with near-constant honking. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2022. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Belarusian authorities say more than half of the countrys voters approved constitutional reforms that would allow its authoritarian leader to stay in power until 2035 and open the way for stronger military cooperation with Russia, while the Belarusian opposition denounced the vote as a sham. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko casts his ballot at a polling station during the referendum on constitutional amendments in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. Belarusians vote at a referendum on constitutional amendments that could allow countrys strongman Alexander Lukashenko to further cement his grip on power until 2035. (BelTA pool photo via AP) KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Belarusian authorities say more than half of the countrys voters approved constitutional reforms that would allow its authoritarian leader to stay in power until 2035 and open the way for stronger military cooperation with Russia, while the Belarusian opposition denounced the vote as a sham. The referendum on the reforms took place Sunday, several days after Belarus closest ally Russia invaded its neighbor Ukraine. Moscow deployed forces to Belarusian territory weeks earlier under the pretext of joint military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of a devastating attack that began last Thursday. Belarus Central Election Commission said that 65.2% of voters supported the constitutional amendments. They bring back limits on presidential terms that had been abolished during President Alexander Lukashenkos tenure, allowing a president only two five-year terms in office. However, the restriction will only take effect once a "newly elected president" assumes office, which gives Lukashenko an opportunity to run for two more terms after his current one expires in 2025. The changes also shed Belarus neutral and non-nuclear status, paving the way for closer military ties with Russia. Lukashenko has previously said his country could host Russian nuclear weapons. According to election officials, only 10.1% voted against the amendments. The voter turnout was reported to be at 78.6%. Belarusian opposition charged that no one was counting the votes, it was a rigged election. "It is a betrayal of the country, betrayal of the nation," opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press from Lithuania, where she has been in exile since August 2020. "In order to hold on to power, Lukashenko held a fake referendum and offered our lands for the Russian troops to invade (Ukraine)." Tsikhanouskaya said that scraping the clauses about Belarus neutral and non-nuclear status was "a threat to all of Europe, because its the same as giving matches to a child." In 2020, Lukashenko relied on Moscows support to survive the largest and the most sustained wave of mass protests in the countrys history. Huge demonstrations rocked the country that year after he was awarded a sixth term in the August 2020 presidential election that the opposition and the West denounced as rigged. Protesters demanding a new election and Lukashenkos ouster faced a brutal crackdown from the authorities, with more than 35,000 arrested and thousands beaten. Key opposition figures, including Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenkos main contender in the election, left the country amid the clampdown, along with thousands of ordinary Belarusians. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Tsikhnaouskaya urged Belarusians to use the referendum as a pretext for more protests. "As long as hes keeping his grip on power with force, we will keep having threats such as foreign troops on our soil or nuclear weapons," she said. Hundreds of Belarusians took to the streets Sunday in 15 cities across the country, protesting Russias invasion of Ukraine in the biggest show of defiance in Belarus in two years. According to the Viasna human rights center, 726 people were detained over the demonstrations. Some of them were apprehended overnight in their homes. ___ Vladimir Isachenkov and Dasha Litvinova contributed to this report from Moscow. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Russian forces shelled Ukraines second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 17-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Russian forces shelled Ukraines second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 17-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking. The countrys embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions. "I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hourslong talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions "when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery." Amid ever-growing international condemnation, Russia found itself increasingly isolated five days into its invasion, while also facing unexpectedly fierce resistance on the ground in Ukraine and economic havoc at home. For the second day in a row, the Kremlin raised the specter of nuclear war, announcing that its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers had all been put on high alert, following President Vladimir Putins orders over the weekend. Emilio Morenatti/The associated Press A man walks past a building damaged by a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25. Stepping up his rhetoric, Putin denounced the U.S. and its allies as an "empire of lies." Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union a largely symbolic move for now, but one that is unlikely to sit well with Putin, who has long accused the U.S. of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscows orbit. A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first talks held between the two sides since the invasion lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys "found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen." He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days. As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the city, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies. People in Kyiv lined up for groceries after the end of a weekend curfew, standing beneath a building with a gaping hole blown in its side. Kyiv remained "a key goal" for the Russians, Zelenskyy said, noting that it was hit by three missile strikes on Monday and that hundreds of saboteurs were roaming the city. "They want to break our nationhood, thats why the capital is constantly under threat," Zelenskyy said. A smoke column rises after an explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. (Marcus Yam /Los Angeles Times / TNS) Messages aimed at the advancing Russian soldiers popped up on billboards, bus stops and electronic traffic signs across the capital. Some used profanity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity. "Russian soldier Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean conscience," one read. Video from Kharkiv, Ukraines second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, showed residential areas being shelled, with apartment buildings shaken by repeated, powerful blasts. Flashes of fire and gray plumes of smoke could be seen. Footage released by the government from Kharkiv depicted what appeared to be a home with water gushing from a pierced ceiling. What looked like an undetonated projectile was on the floor. Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They warned that casualties could be far higher. "They wanted to have a blitzkrieg, but it failed, so they act this way," said 83-year-old Valentin Petrovich, who watched the shelling from his downtown apartment and gave just his first name and his patronymic, a middle name derived from his fathers name, out of fear for his safety. The aftermath of a rocket strike to a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/TNS) The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals. Fighting raged in other towns and cities across the country. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is "hanging on," said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy. Despite its vast military strength, Russia still lacked control of Ukrainian airspace, a surprise that may help explain how Ukraine has so far prevented a rout. In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main square against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian national anthem. They described the soldiers as exhausted young conscripts. "Frightened kids, frightened looks. They want to eat," Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone. He said the soldiers went into a supermarket and grabbed canned meat, vodka and cigarettes. "They ate right in the store," he said. "It looked like they havent been fed in recent days." This picture shows Russian infantry mobility vehicles GAZ Tigr destroyed as a result of fight in Kharkiv, located some 50 km from Ukrainian-Russian border, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images/TNS) Across Ukraine, terrified families huddled overnight in shelters, basements or corridors. "I sit and pray for these negotiations to end successfully, so that they reach an agreement to end the slaughter," said Alexandra Mikhailova, weeping as she clutched her cat in a shelter in Mariupol. Around her, parents tried to console children and keep them warm. For many, Russias announcement of a nuclear high alert stirred fears that the West could be drawn into direct conflict with Russia. But a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had yet to see any appreciable change in Russias nuclear posture. As far-reaching Western sanctions on Russian banks and other institutions took hold, the ruble plummeted, and Russias Central Bank scrambled to shore it up, as did Putin, signing a decree restricting foreign currency. But that did little to calm Russian fears. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as the sanctions threatened to drive up prices and reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary Russians. In yet another blow to Russias economy, oil giant Shell said it is pulling out of the country because of the invasion. It announced it will withdraw from its joint ventures with state-owned gas company Gazprom and other entities and end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project between Russia and Europe. This photograph shows a view of a school destroyed as a result of fight not far from the center of Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, located some 50 km from Ukrainian-Russian border, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images/TNS) The economic sanctions, ordered by the U.S. and other allies, were just one contributor to Russias growing status as a pariah country. Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is restricted in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. On Monday, in a major blow to a soccer-mad nation, Russian teams were suspended from all international soccer. In other developments: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he will open an investigation soon into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Cyberattacks hit Ukrainian embassies around the world, and Russian media outlets. The United States announced it is expelling 12 members of Russias U.N. mission, accusing them of spying. Picture shows a crater caused by recent shelling in Kyiv outskirts on Feb. 28, 2022. - The UN human rights chief said on Feb. 28, 2022, that at least 102 civilians, including seven children, had been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion five days ago, warning the true numbers were likely far higher. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images/TNS) The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly opened its first emergency session in decades, with Assembly President Abdulla Shahid calling for an immediate cease-fire and "a full return to diplomacy and dialogue." The U.N. human rights chief said at least 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded warning that figure is probably a vast undercount and Ukraines president said at least 16 children were among the dead. More than a half-million people have fled the country since the invasion, another U.N. official said, many of them going to Poland, Romania and Hungary. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Among the refugees in Hungary was Maria Pavlushko, 24, an information technology project manager from a city west of Kyiv. She said her father stayed behind to fight the Russians. "I am proud about him," she said, adding that many of her friends were planning to fight too. The negotiators at Mondays talks met at a long table with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag on one side and the Russian tricolor on the other. But while Ukraine sent its defense minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putins adviser on culture an unlikely envoy for ending a war and perhaps a sign of how seriously Moscow took the talks. ___ Isachenkov and Litvinova reported from Moscow. Robert Burns and Eric Tucker in Washington; Francesca Ebel, Josef Federman and Andrew Drake in Kyiv; Lorne Cook in Brussels; and other AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report. MEDYKA, Poland (AP) While hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flee their country, some Ukrainian men and women are returning home from across Europe to help defend their homeland in the face of Russias invasion. MEDYKA, Poland (AP) While hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flee their country, some Ukrainian men and women are returning home from across Europe to help defend their homeland in the face of Russias invasion. Polands Border Guard said Sunday that some 22,000 people have crossed into Ukraine since Thursday, when Russia invaded the country. At the checkpoint in Medyka, in southeastern Poland, many stood in a line early Sunday to cross into Ukraine. "We have to defend our homeland. Who else if not us?" said a moustachioed man in front of a group of some 20 Ukrainian truck drivers walking to the checkpoint to enter Ukraine. They came from across Europe to return to Ukraine. Another man in the group said: "The Russians should be afraid. We are not afraid." Members of the group declined to give their names, or only gave only their first names, citing their security and that of their families. Denis, 28, who has spent six months working at construction sites in Poland, said he was returning to Ukraine where his "everything" is. "Im on my own here in Poland. Why should I be here? So I go, for the homeland," said Denis, with a small Ukrainian blue-and-yellow national flag on his winter jacket. "I want to go back to join the army, to fight. We will see, we hope we will win," he said. In the nearby city of Przemysl, Janiel, 27, was also preparing to return. An engineer by education, he has been working in construction in Wroclaw, Poland, but could not remain knowing his homeland was being attacked. "I talked to my parents and I cried. And I just decided to myself that I cant watch that and I cant just stay in Poland as Russians destroy our independence, destroy our cities, kill our citizens, kill our children, kill our elderly people," he told the AP in English. Before the recent exodus, there were at least 1 million Ukrainians in Poland, working or studying. The women often work as nannies and caretakers for the elderly across the European Union, and in many cases leave their children back in Ukraine with grandparents or other relatives. Lesa, 36, from Lviv, spoke to the AP just before entering the checkpoint building, following her brother into Ukraine. "I am afraid, but I am a mother and want to be with my children. What can you do? Its scary but I have to," she said. Another young woman, Alina, said she was returning to get her children and take them out of Ukraine. "We have to, we Ukrainians have to take our children away ... to allow our boys to fight," she said. On Ukraines side of the border, a man was directing those arriving to a place where cars and buses were waiting to take them onward. The Czech Republic, which borders Poland to the southwest, is planning to support Ukrainian families living in the country whose men decide to return home to fight. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is preparing bonuses to families who would lose income if "the men need to join the (Ukrainian) army," Minister Marian Jurecka said. There are about 200,000 Ukrainian workers in the Czech Republic, the majority of them men. Czech railways said Ukrainian men traveling back to Ukraine can take any train free of charge. They need to travel through Poland or Slovakia to reach Ukraine. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stayed in the capital, Kyiv, boosting the morale of Ukrainian fighters as Russian troops were closing in on the city and huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday. Zelenskyy has banned men of military age, 18 to 60, from leaving the country. Ukrainian authorities have also called on foreign volunteers to come and fight in Ukraines defense. In Israel, the media reported that the Ukrainian Embassy there had posted a call for anyone willing to join the fight against Russia to travel to Ukraine. The invitation, marked "Urgent" on embassy Facebook page, was later removed, the reports said. Israeli leaders are cautious in how they speak of Russias aggression against Ukraine. The country is home to hundreds of thousands of people with roots in Ukraine or Russia, or in both countries, and has sought good ties with both Moscow and Kyiv. At least 368,000 people have fled Ukraine into Poland and other neighboring countries in the wake of the Russian invasion, the U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR, said Sunday. Polands border Guard said some 156,000 people have entered from Ukraine since Thursday, when the invasion started, while some 22,000 have gone in the opposite direction. The Associated Press How does the world confront a Russian leader who is acting like Hitler? How should the United Nations deal with Russia, which has a veto in the Security Council but is led by a war criminal? After his massive attack on a sovereign Ukraine, Vladimir Putin cannot be treated as a normal leader. He must be branded an international pariah and condemned by the vast majority of nations as an outlaw. The U.N. General Assembly should suspend Russia from participation at the United Nations, as it did to apartheid South Africa in 1974. Some may scoff that this would be irrelevant since it wont save Ukrainians in the short term. Neither will harsh economic sanctions that will only play out over time. And its too late to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv for Ukrainian troops. Yet Putin clearly cares about his international image. Otherwise he wouldnt be so obsessed about justifying his invasion by promoting the foul narrative that Ukraines leaders are a bunch of Nazis threatening Moscow and bent on genocide against Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Maybe, locked in his COVID bunker, Putin really believes this nonsense. But the rest of the world has to demonstrate that it rejects his lies. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, plaintively asked, in a speech to the Russian people on the eve of the invasion, How could I be a Nazi? In reality, Putin is aping Adolf Hitler, claiming the neighboring state of Ukraine has no right to exist, because he wants to annex it to Russia. The Russian leader has also promised to carry out denazification in Ukraine, which means Russian forces will seek to kill or imprison Zelenskyy and a list of other government leaders, along with civilians who oppose the invasion. Since hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are likely to demonstrate against any puppet leader imposed by Moscow, this opens the door for massive civilian casualties and no one doubts Putin would be ready to inflict them. The Russian leader is already guilty of massive war crimes in Syria, where Russian planes deliberately bombed schools, hospitals, and markets in order to save the regime of Bashar Assad. So it is critically important for the U.N. General Assembly to demonstrate that a majority of members not just the West sees through Putins lies. As Ukraines ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said Thursday: Pretending now that the U.N. can work as if nothing happens will be immoral. That immorality was on full view at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday night, as Putin speaking in Moscow thumbed his nose at the world body, formally announcing the invasion was on, just as council members were discussing how to prevent it. Ironically, the meeting was being chaired by Russias U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, since Russia holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council at the moment. It was as if Saddam Hussein were chairing a council meeting discussing how to reverse the invasion and annexation of Kuwait. To add insult to injury, Nebenzia claimed: We are being aggressive not to the Ukrainian people, but to the junta that is in power in Kyiv. You cant get more cynical than that Kremlin doublespeak. Translated: A Russian dictator has the right to remove a president chosen by a free vote of the Ukrainian public and replace him with a Kremlin-controlled regime. And he can kill as many civilians as he needs to get the deed done. If the United Nations lets Putin get away with this claim, then the world body might as well declare itself dead. However, there are signs that a broad segment of the U.N.s member states understands that Putin must not be allowed to get away with murder. The Kenyan ambassador to the Security Council, Martin Kimani, was quite blunt in a Security Council speech challenging Putins dream of restoring the Russian empire. If that were acceptable behavior, Kimani said, then every African country would be at war with its neighbors trying to change borders drawn by former colonial powers. And other members have surely noted that Putin hinted he was willing to use nuclear weapons against any nation that tries to interfere with his invasion, saying this will lead to the kind of consequences you have never experienced in your entire history. Those are the words of a leader who could embroil the world in a nuclear war. So it is time for the introduction of a U.N. General Assembly resolution to suspend Russia until such time as Putin pulls back from Ukraine. Or maybe indefinitely. If enough U.N. members sign on, even China might recognize that its Russian ally is stabbing it in the back by undercutting Beijings sacred mantra that no country has the right to interfere in another countrys sovereign affairs. To paraphrase Ukraines Ambassador Kyslytsya on Wednesday: There should be no purgatory for war criminals. They should go straight to hell. Meanwhile, the U.N.s future is on the line, as is Ukraines and perhaps the worlds. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Winona, MN (55987) Today Sun and clouds mixed. High 61F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 42F. Winds light and variable. Students riding to schools around the area as well as students in the Columbus School District will no longer be required to wear masks while on the busses or in the buildings after the CDCs announcement Friday that most people no longer need to wear masks. A letter went out to Columbus School District parents over the weekend stating that due to Columbia, Dane and Dodge counties being in the low community level of COVID-19 spread and having been for two weeks, masks in the Columbus School District will be voluntary beginning this week. Students in Columbus have been required to wear masks the entire school year until Monday, while many districts in the area had students return without masks being required. Columbus was following the advice of the CDC. However on Friday, the CDC revised its COVID guidance to ease mask use for healthy people to no longer require use of the masks. As a high level overview, areas with a high COVID-19 community level (about 30% of the U.S. population), masks would still be recommended, according to the letter that went out to families. For the remaining 70% of communities, areas with low or medium community level, masks are no longer recommended for the general public. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the district has followed and created metrics based on the CDC, WI DHS, and county health departments, according to the letter. The metric created at the beginning of the year is now outdated based on these new guidelines. It is anticipated that the WI DHS and local health departments will follow the CDCs guidelines in the near future. Other area school districts anticipate a similar change for masking recommendations. I anticipate most districts, particularly in our region will follow the updated guidance and make the adjustment this week if they havent already, Beaver Dam Unified School District Superintendent Mark DiStefano said. Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JUNEAU A two-day trial has been scheduled for the case against a 31-year-old Beaver Dam man accused of the false imprisonment of his former girlfriend. Christopher French, currently residing in the Dodge County Jail, faces a felony charge of threats to injure with use of a dangerous weapon along with misdemeanor charges of battery and disorderly conduct. He could face up to 13 years in prison if convicted of all the charges. A telephone scheduling conference was held on Monday where the two day trial was scheduled to be held May 16 and 17 with a pre-trial conference to occur on May 2. According to the criminal complaint, the womans grandfather contacted police Dec. 3 for a check welfare on his granddaughter. The man said the woman was trying to leave a relationship with French. When police arrived, the woman was in the home that she shared with French. Family members who were helping her move out also were there. The woman said she had moved in with French in October. The two became engaged in mid-November. According to the criminal complaint, the woman said French had gotten upset at her when she was apprehensive about moving in with him and agreed to do so because she felt guilty about getting him upset. While living together, French became upset about messages on her phone and physically assaulted her while questioning her about the messages. According to the complaint, French put a knife to her throat at one point in late November before getting up and retrieving a revolver. The woman said French straddled her and pointed the gun at her left temple and said if she left him he would kill her. The woman said, he also said If I dont get a chance to kill you, I will hunt you for the rest of my life. The woman said she was too scared to get help because she thought French would kill her. The woman said she was not allowed to say no when French wanted sex, according to the complaint. Around Dec. 2, the woman said French hit her about 20 times. On Dec. 3, the womans grandfather told her to call the police, because if she waited another day it might be too late. According to the complaint, French displayed odd behavior including believing he was speaking directly to God and getting energy from God. He told the woman she could not see her grandmother because the grandmothers husband was Black. The woman said he insisted on having her social media password, because he allegedly considered her property. Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Divine Savior Healthcare Inc. requested a restraining order against a Portage doctor attempting to open her own practice Dr. Amy Doherty worked at Divine Savior starting in June 2016 and left in December. She planned on opening a direct primary care doctor office in January when her former employer filed an injunction against her. I was surprised when that happened, Doherty said. I received a call from my lawyer saying Divine Savior has filed a civil lawsuit against me that included the temporary restraining order. The restraining order filed by Divine Savior Healthcare Inc. Jan. 21 asks that Doherty shall be restrained from soliciting Divine Savior patients within thirty miles of Divine Savior Hospital. A 30-mile radius of Divine Savior Hospital, 2817 New Pinery Road, would stretch as far west as Reedsburg, east to Fox Lake, north to Westfield and as far south as the northern suburbs of Madison. Doherty said she wanted to start her own practice to put an emphasis on the doctor-patient relationship and to make services more affordable for patients. She said a thyroid test, if paid for by insurance companies, could cost up to $150. If I work with directly with Quest labs I can get the same test for $5, Doherty said. It is similar with x-rays. An x-ray could cost between $600 and $900. I could get that done for $65 for an x-ray. Dohertys Klar Care, 108 E. Cook St., is a direct primary care facility that will offer a subscription type of healthcare. Doherty said they will not work with insurance companies. Direct primary care is set to make healthcare more accessible as well as affordable, Doherty said. Patients are able to call or text their doctors and are able to get next-day access. Sometimes it takes up to six weeks for patients to see their primary physicians. Doherty said, This takes out surprise billing of patients and cuts out the third party insurance companies. Its not about the insurance companies, its about the doctor-patient relationship. Doherty has collected letters from patients asking for Doherty to be able to practice in Portage. These letters say this is my doctor, Im not going to someone else for this, Doherty said. These are letters Im collecting for the hearing in April. A motion hearing is set on April 6. Im hoping Ill be able to practice after the hearing, Doherty said. They dont have much of a case and we will be arguing the ownership change doesnt hold up against the non-compete clause. Doherty is represented by Attorney Daniel Icenogle. She said in an affidavit that as of Jan. 24, 18 people had interest in joining her new practice. An affidavit of Divine Savior Healthcare Inc. President Michael Decker filed by Divine Savior attorney Christopher Banaszak stated Doherty had no patients in the Portage area when she began working at the hospital in 2016 and had approximately 1,230 patients in December 2021. Decker stated a majority of Divine Savior patients live in the Portage area. The Daily Register reached out to Banaszak for comment on the lawsuit and received no response. Information filed by Banaszak alleges Doherty was operating her own practice within the last 12 months of her employment at Divine Savior which is count one of the complaint, breach of contract-specific performance. The second count of the complaint is breach of contract-damages alleging Doherty has violated the non-compete clause in her contract. Icenogle said in an interview there are a number of things wrong with the restrictive covenant in the Divine Savior contract. He said the main point is that if Divine Savior is sold the restrictive covenant cannot be enforced. Court documents show Icenogle argued the restrictive covenant cannot be enforced since Divine Savior Healthcare changed ownership in 2020 when it became part of Aspirus. He also argued the restrictive covenant is void under Wisconsin law because it is too vague. Another argument made by Icenogle is that the restrictive covenant does not apply to Doherty because her proposed new practice is not the same type of medical practice as Divine Savior. This is a small, intimate practice, which is different from what facilities like Divine Savior operate, Icenogle said. Icenogle said it is unclear what will happen at the April 6 motion hearing at the Columbia County Courthouse since it had been rescheduled and he is uncertain why. There were two separate hearings scheduled for the temporary restraining order or for a summary judgement, Icenogle said. Divine Savior would need to respond to that request, which they havent yet. He said Doherty submitted a request for summary judgment from the court. A summary judgement is when both sides agree on the facts of the case and instead of going to trial a judge makes a decision on the lawsuit. Icenogle filed a motion to lift the temporary restraining order against Doherty on Monday which remains in place. He said he is hoping on April 6 a judge will give a summary judgement on the lawsuit. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. VILLAGE OF HUSTISFORD A 42-year-old Kenilworth, Illinois, man was seriously injured after being ejected from his snowmobile that was traveling on Sinissippi Lake around midnight today. Around 12:15 a.m., the sheriffs office received a report of a snowmobile crash in which the snowmobile appeared to be traveling south on Sinissippi Lake when it struck an embankment ejecting the rider into the back yard of a nearby residence. The man, who was the lone occupant of the snowmobile, received serious injuries as a result of the crash and was flown by Flight for Life to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee. A conservative law firm on Monday sent a letter to Tony Evers questioning the Democratic governors allocation of more than $2 million in federal COVID-19 funds to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin claiming the grants were unlawful for failing to abide by state laws prohibiting funding for abortions. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sent the letter on behalf of anti-abortion groups Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin and seeks additional information on the roughly $2.4 million in federal stimulus funds allocated to Planned Parenthood through two grants in late 2020 and early 2022. Officials with WILL claim in the letter that the grant programs should have been created with statutory oversight and promulgated rules, but also that they violate state prohibitions on funding abortion and related services. We want to know exactly what legal authority Governor Evers thinks he has to create grant programs and ignore the rulemaking process, WILL deputy counsel Lucas Vebber said in a statement. Additionally, we want to know why he thinks he can ignore clear and explicit state law prohibitions on funding entities, like Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, that provide abortions and related services. Wisconsin has received more than $4.5 billion total in federal coronavirus stimulus funds over the course of the pandemic. As governor, Evers has sole discretion over the use of federal funds, but WILL has challenged that Evers cannot create new grant programs without approval from the Legislature. Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback in an email pointed to the many federal allocations Evers made over the last two years, including toward businesses, farmers and broadband expansion. Cudaback also took aim at Republicans who control the Legislature and did not meet for almost nine months in the early stretch of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Its no surprise Republicans and their allies are continuing to play politics while failing to support our states economic recovery and trying to obstruct efforts to get resources to folks across our state, Cudaback said. The latest challenge by WILL follows previous efforts by the group to prevent the state from allocating federal coronavirus funds based on factors such as race. The group in January challenged the administrations mortgage assistance program announced last year, claiming the programs intention to steer federal funds toward people of color was discriminatory. The Wisconsin Help for Homeowners program was announced in August and is set to provide about $92.7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to eligible homeowners across the state. The program is intended to help mitigate financial hardships associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by preventing mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures and loss of utilities and energy services. The federal government directs states to provide the grants to homeowners with incomes equal to or less than 100% of the area median income for their household size. However, states can extend eligibility to those earning 150% of the area median income if they are socially disadvantaged individuals defined by the federal government as Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Whats more, a handful of business owners last year successfully challenged the U.S. Small Business Administrations prioritization of businesses owned by women, veterans and socially disadvantaged individuals when allocating $28.6 billion in Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants. The business owners alleged in the lawsuits, one of which was filed by WILL, that the policy pushed white men to the back of the line for aid. A federal appeals court ultimately ruled in favor of WILL, issuing a 2-1 opinion that said the government cannot allocate limited coronavirus relief funds based on race and sex. As a result, SBA notified 2,965 business owners who had originally been approved for grants that those funds would now be denied and the application process shifted to a first-come, first-served basis. Another lawsuit brought forward last year by WILL on behalf of a handful of residents in several states including Wisconsin challenged President Joe Bidens plans to allocate $4 billion to more than 20,000 Wisconsin farmers. The lawsuit alleged the Biden administration was engaging in unconstitutional race discrimination through a provision in the American Rescue Plan to provide debt relief to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. A temporary restraining order was granted last June. Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gablemans GOP-ordered review of the 2020 election is set to be made public Tuesday, according to Gablemans team. Gablemans eight-month review of the 2020 election has been marred by a slew of legal challenges to multiple subpoenas issued by the former justice, who previously declared without evidence that the election had been stolen. The review, for which Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has allocated $676,000 in taxpayer money, was originally planned to be completed last fall but failed to meet several deadlines, which Republican leaders attributed to ongoing court battles. Gableman staffer Zak Niemierowicz told The Associated Press that the final report will be provided to Vos and the state Assemblys elections committee on Tuesday. A staffer for Rep. Janel Brandtjen, chairperson of the Assembly committee, said the report is expected to be released to the public. Vos office did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Vos spokesperson Angela Joyce told The Associated Press that Gableman, not Vos, would release the report. The Assemblys GOP-led Committee on Campaigns and Elections is scheduled to hear testimony from Gableman on Tuesday. The committee will also hear from Erick Kaardal, a Republican attorney for the conservative Thomas More Society who has challenged the use of private election grants provided to the states five largest cities to help administer last years election during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of Gablemans review has focused on election grants provided to Wisconsin cities by the Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to help administer the 2020 election. Republicans, including Gableman, have targeted CTCL funds as unfairly increasing turnout in the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha and Racine. Court rulings have found nothing illegal about the more than $10 million in grants CTCL distributed to about 214 municipalities in 39 of Wisconsins 72 counties, including many solidly won by Trump. Nor did CTCL turn down grant requests from any of the Wisconsin municipalities that made them. Legislative action The Republican-controlled Legislature last week sent a package of election bills to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is all but certain to veto most, if not all, of them. The proposals would give the Legislature more control over guidance issued by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, limit which absentee voters could claim indefinitely confined status and allow lawmakers to cut funding for the state Elections Commission when its deemed not to have complied with state election laws. Another bill added late in the Assemblys final session would allow election officials to begin counting absentee ballots on the Monday before an election, but Democratic lawmakers ultimately opposed the measure because it also shortened the window that clerks have to send out absentee ballots for federal races. Republicans have touted the measures as an effort to clean up election processes in the state following a report last year from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau that found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election but made several recommendations for improvements. President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump by close to 21,000 votes in the battleground state. Democratic legislators, Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul have lambasted the Gableman review as a waste of taxpayer dollars and an attempt to undermine faith in state elections. Republican scrutiny of the 2020 election continues to grow as part of a nationwide GOP effort to make changes to election procedures following baseless claims by some Republicans, including Trump, of widespread fraud in the presidential election. Vos had planned to use Gablemans report to craft election-related legislation leading up to the 2022 midterms, but the Assembly held its final session of the year last week. Vos said future bills will be drafted but that obstruction had slowed the election reviews progress. Subpoenas, lawsuits Gableman has previously demanded documents, interviews or both with the mayors of Wisconsins five largest cities, the states top elections official, the chair of the state Elections Commission and members of Evers administration, as well as two companies that make vote-counting systems, Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems. Attorneys for Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software told Gableman in January the organization would not comply with the subpoena, which they called a quintessential fishing expedition. In mid-February, Gableman withdrew his subpoena seeking emails and financial documents from immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera Action. He also called for several officials, including Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Wisconsin Elections Commission chair Ann Jacobs, to be jailed for refusing to sit for the behind-closed-doors interviews for which they have been subpoenaed. In December, Gableman demanded that Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway be jailed. He later rescinded the demand, only to reinstate the demand last week. There are also three pending lawsuits related to liberal watchdog group American Oversights public records requests to Vos and Gableman for documents related to the election review. Vos last week asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up one of the cases. Gableman made a baseless claim at a pro-Donald Trump rally in 2020 that the election in Wisconsin had been stolen by bureaucrats, and he has met with and hired people for his investigation who formerly worked for Trump and espoused conspiracy theories about the election. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A medical assistant at a University of Washington Medicine clinic prepares a dose of AstraZeneca's Evusheld on January 20, in Seattle. Police: Drunk suspect found passed out in car he stole from Old Forge bar More than 600 geographic sites across the US will be renamed, replacing a derogatory term for Indigenous women used for decades A journey of reckoning and discovery: Witney Schneidmans path to establishing the Lemon Scholarship Endowment Archaeological survey: A Civil War-era map shows the location of an archaeological survey conducted by William & Mary in 2015 on a tract of land that includes the historic Bright property. Image from NOAA's Office of Coast Survey Historical Map & Chart Collection Photo - of - Hide Caption In April 2019, Witney Schneidman made the long walk from the entrance of Swem Library to Special Collections with a pit in his stomach. What am I going to find? he thought. He asked to see the ledger of his ancestor, Samuel Francis Bright. The aging books were brought out with care by the Special Collections curator, and the cream-colored pages spread before him. He found that his ancestor, Samuel Bright, had owned enslaved people on the William & Mary property where he sat. This discovery sent him on a path that eventually led to establishing a scholarship for descendants of the enslaved. The Lemon Scholarship will provide need-based scholarship support for students who are descendants of enslaved persons in the U.S., or who have a demonstrated historic connection to slavery. Additionally, and to the extent possible, preference will be given to those with direct lineage to enslaved individuals who labored on former and current grounds and property controlled by W&M, including the Bright family farm. The scholarship is named for Lemon, a man who was once enslaved by William & Mary and who represents the many known and unknown African Americans who helped to build, maintain and move the university forward. Pages of names, pages of numbers While the Bright House is today best known as the historic portion of the W&M Alumni House, the Bright family has a long history with William & Mary. In approximately 1839, Samuel Bright bought a nearly 600-acre tract of land immediately to the west of William & Marys property. The farm was called New Hope, and it was used by Samuel to supplement the work done at his other property on the east side of town, Porto Bello. The Bright family also maintained a residence in the town of Williamsburg, located near the Powder Magazine in the center of town. Theres a lot of people in the records, says Sarah Thomas 08, M.A. 12, Ph.D. 18, associate director of the Lemon Project at William & Mary, a multifaceted and dynamic attempt to rectify wrongs perpetrated against African Americans by William & Mary through action or inaction. For example, in 1850, there were 14 enslaved individuals on Samuel Brights properties, and there are ages of the enslaved listed in the records as well. In the 1840s at New Hope, Bright constructed an icehouse, a corn house, rebuilt dwellings, built a negro quarter, a kitchen all of that is in the account books in Special Collections. In 1852, 44 slaves were present on the New Hope farm. According to Thomas, the people the Brights enslaved at New Hope may have performed leased labor for the university to help with woodcutting and other tasks, because the Bright property was close to the campus. William & Mary, as well as its students and faculty, both owned and relied on the leased labor of enslaved persons to operate until the abolition of slavery in 1865. However, Thomas and the Lemon Project team have not seen leasing records between Bright and William & Mary, but they plan to study the Bright records in the archives soon. After the Civil War, Samuel Brights son, Robert, inherited the lands owned by his father, including New Hope. In approximately 1871, he built a large brick house on the property, as evidenced by tax records. After the house was passed down through the family, it was sold to William & Mary in 1946 and would become the Alumni House in the decades that followed. The Bright family has an interesting history, Thomas says. They arent particularly well-known if this property wasnt bought by William & Mary, we wouldnt know much about them or the people they enslaved. But thankfully, they left behind an extensive documentary record for us to study. As Schneidman sat reading the account books of his ancestor, he was struck by the gravity of what he was reading. Just to see the names, it was so powerful: Mary Jane, 16 years old, slave worker called Washington, slave worker called Daniel, Amy, Anne, the list went on. There were no African names there. What does that say? People had just been ripped from their origins, from their identity, from their families, from their history. It was right there in black and white. This chapter of their past was something his family never discussed, he says. He left Swem in a mix of emotions, but one thing became certain in the weeks and months that followed. I asked myself, what are you going to do about it? Bridge to the past Schneidman is the senior policy advisor and head of the Africa practice for Covington & Burling, LLP. He has had a sweeping 50-year career connected to Africa. After graduating from boarding school in Massachusetts, he took a year off to travel to Israel and Europe in the early 1970s. His journey took a detour to Africa after meeting fellow travelers from the continent. This detour would prove to be life changing. While in Uganda, military dictator Idi Amin executed a coup detat, which Schneidman heard Amin himself announce over the radio. This was a transformative experience for him and awakened him to the world as it was, he says, not the world he had known in the United States. In university, he delved into the study of Africa, spurred on by that historical moment he witnessed. From the time I first visited Africa between high school and college, I knew what I wanted to do in my career I wanted to be a bridge of understanding between the United States and Africa, and maybe one day I could help shape U.S. policy toward Africa, says Schneidman. He later served as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President Clinton, as a member of the Africa advisory committees in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and at the U.S. Export-Import Bank. He also co-chaired the Africa Experts Group on Barack Obamas campaign for the presidency and was on the Presidential Transition team. Schneidman is the author of Engaging Africa: Washington and the Fall of Portugals Colonial Empire, which Foreign Affairs described as a a must-read for anyone interested in decolonization or Cold War diplomacy. In recent years, he decided to write his memoir in hopes of inspiring young people to become more involved in entrepreneurship and economic development on the continent, as he himself was inspired 50 years ago. He hoped to encourage them to work on bringing the United States and Africa closer together. One of the touchstones for me was to write the fullness and the truths of my experience and that led me to my familys story, he says. Schneidmans paternal grandfather was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania to Philadelphia. Schneidman was taught about the antisemitism his family faced because of their Jewish heritage. Even in the face of discrimination, though, his family succeeded in America; his great-aunt opened a successful fashion store in the city and his father later ran the store. He grew up knowing that his great-grandmother, Nannie, came from Williamsburg. A century later, in 2003, Schneidman and his mother came to Swem Special Collections for the first time to see correspondence of Nannie Bright. Several years ago, though, Schneidman began to think there was more to the story that he was missing. He was curious as to whether or not the ancestors he knew little about, well-to-do farmers in the 1800s, might have owned slaves. I emailed the librarian at Swem and asked if maybe there were enslaved workers on the Bright farm? And they told me, Without a doubt. They invited me to come look at the documents they had, he says. It was at that point, in spring 2019, that he first saw the ledger books from his ancestor, Samuel Bright, with the names of the enslaved individuals the Brights owned, carefully recorded in faded ink on the page, the years of their bondage climbing beside their names in each column 1828, 1835, 1848, 1852. From reckoning to action Over the next year, he told his family about what he learned to prevent, what he called, another generation of silence on this. They cared about what I had discovered, and we came together as a group to do something bigger than all of us, he says. In December 2020, Schneidman reached out to staff at the Lemon Project to learn more about the Brights and to discover ways he could give back. He wanted to, in some way, attempt to rectify the actions of his forebears and promote racial reconciliation. His goal, initially, was to support initiatives already underway at the university, either through the Lemon Project, other programs or other funds working to address William & Marys slaveholding past. Then, in May 2021, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill requiring five Virginia universities that benefited from and exploited slave labor, including W&M, to establish scholarships and programs specifically for descendants of the enslaved. When that happened, that proved to me that we are not alone as a family fighting to redress systemic racism, Schneidman says. There are people who care about this and are willing to invest of themselves. For me to be part of a larger effort to provide opportunities to descendants of enslaved individuals is incredibly affirmative. Its what I want to be associated with and a way for our gesture to be maximized. Schneidman, his sisters Liddy Lindsay and Margot Brownell, his son Sam and his niece Lela Beem have established the Lemon Scholarship Endowment as one of the scholarship funds consistent with the 2021 legislation, the second endowment of its kind at W&M. The first scholarship endowment for descendants of the enslaved was created in memory of the late Anne R. Willis, the wife of long-time W&M faculty member Dr. John H. Willis, Jr., by her children in early 2021. We have a long road to travel, and we are still on that road, working toward healing, reconciliation, diversity and inclusion there is more we can do to ensure our students feel like they belong, Thomas says. The Lemon Scholarship and scholarships along these lines are important. We need more scholarships like it what Mr. Schneidman is doing is a great model for people across Virginia and beyond as a way to reconcile the past and help others today. Schneidman knows there is still work to be done. He says his research showed him that history lives on in all of us today, in the stories we tell and the way we tell them. As anyone who has walked the brick pathways of William & Mary or through the streets of Williamsburg has experienced, history is ever-present even today. For Witney Schneidman and his family, engaging with that history is one way to ensure there isnt another generation of silence, but a generation of action. I hope this scholarship enables students to be able to realize their dreams, whatever those are, and that they will be equipped with the skill and knowledge to be the very best that they can be, he says. Throughout his own journey of reconciliation, he has felt fortunate to both have had this opportunity and has been able make this kind of contribution. Each of us in our own way has a role to play in this. Thats part of the challenge, to figure out what our role is and how can we contribute to make our country live up to its full value and potential. For more information or to contribute, please contact Suzie Armstrong 93, executive director of development for scholarships and special projects, at smarmstrong@wm.edu or 757-221-7647. A bird's view of Nyemo County [Xinhua] As a culturally rich county in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Nyemo is known for its three intangible heritage handicrafts: Tibetan incense, paper and hand-engraving. Now local villagers are embracing a better life with their expertise as they preserve and pass on the handicrafts. In the Tibet Autonomous Region, wherever you visit temples or homes, you immediately notice a special smell that fills every corner. This comes from Tibetan incense, the main raw material of which is from the cypress tree. This is ground into wood pulp in a water mill and after drying the pulp is formed into incense bricks. These in turn are ground into powder and mixed with saffron, musk, sandalwood and other medicinal herbs and spices, and then squeezed with ox horns. Pressed into strips and dried, it is the finished product ready for use. This technique has been handed down over a period spanning thousands of years. Nyemo is the hometown of Thonmi Sambhota, a Tibetan incense specialist. Figures of Kelsang Tenzin (R) and his father, an intangible heritage inheritor of the Tibetan papermaking, are reflected on the water of a pool in the process of papermaking. [Xinhua] Tibetan paper, too, owes its existence to exquisite and ancient craftsmanship. The transformation from the original raw material to a collection of books that carry the Tibetan historical memory for thousands of years, without any modern machinery being involved, is a generous gift of nature and its secret is also part of the wisdom of the Tibetan people. It has a history of more than 1,300 years and is still made in accordance with traditional handmade techniques. Because of its special raw material formula, the product has the characteristics of longevity. In Tibet, there are many classics of literature and history printed on Nyemo Tibetan paper, which have been preserved for more than a thousand years and are still fully intact. Nyemo Tibetan paper has silently recorded the history of Tibet and witnessed the progress of Tibet's civilization. Karma Chodrak works in his workshop. [Xinhua] The raw material for making Tibetan paper is wolf poisonous grass. Every year in July, this type of grass will see a bloom of beautiful flowers. But their beauty hides a lurking danger; they are highly toxic, and cattle and sheep will avoid it when they see it. But it is precisely because of this that the paper is "invulnerable to all insects". People in Nyemo call this grass, which grows in grasslands and alpine meadows, "paper clips". Nonflowering, this grass is inconspicuous in the bush, but once it blooms, it is easily recognized. The grass grows up to 1 meter and bears a cylindrical flower ball; the outer side is white, and the flower center is pink or purple. The papermaking process includes picking, soaking, washing, mashing, peeling, tearing, cooking, beating, pouring, drying, peeling and finally calendaring by squeezing the product through various sized rolls. Workers make Tibetan incense with traditional craftsmanship in a workshop in Nyemo. [Xinhua] The origins of the Pusum hand-engraving technique can be traced back to the seventh century. Legend says the 32 generation Songtsen Gampo of the Tubo Dynasty came to the Lhasa Valley to choose the location of the capital. When Songtsen Gampo bathed in the river, he saw the sun refracting the rock to reveal the six-character mantra, so he asked Nepalese craftsmen to engrave the Buddha statue on the rock, and then built the capital here. Since then, stone carving has become the most common form of artistic expression in Tibet, and Pusum hand-engraving evolved from it. At present, only Pusum township has completely preserved this ancient craft. Karma Chodrak works on a piece of wood in his workshop. [Xinhua] Pusum hand-engraving involves meticulous handwork, exquisite craftsmanship and complicated processes. From wood selection, production, carving, finishing and revision, and finally to high-quality woodblocks, there are more than 30 processes, all of which are done by hand. The carving knives are also particular. Each carver has its own set of special carving knives, usually more than 20. Pusum hand-engraving has various forms. Not only are there text and pattern carvings, but they are also widely used in the printing of prayer flags. Tsetop (R), an inheritor of the Tibetan papermaking, checks on a Tibetan paper product with his son. [Xinhua] The materials for making Tibetan incense in Nyemo. [Xinhua] Karma Chodrak, an intangible heritage inheritor of the Pusum hand-engraving, shows his works in his workshop in Nyemo County, Lhasa. [Xinhua] Tsetop (R) looks at his son Kelsang Tenzin while making Tibetan paper. [Xinhua] (Source: China Daily) BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) In a few days, China's national legislature and the country's top political advisory body will convene their annual sessions in Beijing, the third of its kind since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first was in 2020. The event, usually held in March every year, was postponed to late May that year due to the outbreak. Leaders, who are deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) themselves, cut short their participation in group deliberations with fellow national lawmakers. But President Xi Jinping said he must see and talk with one group of them in particular those from Hubei Province. And he did. Hubei and its provincial capital Wuhan in particular were where the epidemic took a heavy toll. To Xi, the NPC deputies from Hubei represent the province's nearly 60 million people. "The people of Hubei and Wuhan have made great contributions and sacrifices to ensure the epidemic was brought under control," Xi told the Hubei delegation when he joined them for deliberation on May 24, 2020. By then, Wuhan had gone through unprecedentedly rigorous quarantine measures. With the highest concentration of cases nationwide in early 2020, the city of 10 million was locked down for 76 days to stem the spread of the virus. The lockdown was lifted on April 8, 2020. "Wuhan is truly a heroic city, and the people of Hubei and Wuhan are truly heroes," Xi said. Before the lockdown was lifted, Xi visited Wuhan in March 2020, praising people there as "heroic people" and attributing the hard-won success of epidemic control measures to their sacrifice, devotion and perseverance. The people of Wuhan demonstrated the strength and spirit of China and the Chinese people's love for their family and nation in sticking together through thick and thin, Xi said. At the group deliberation of the NPC session, Xi conversed with Luo Jie, who was head of a hospital in Hubei. Xi said he was impressed by Luo's account that the hospital organized a 10-member team just to save an 87-year-old patient from COVID-19. Xi had earlier summed up the experience at Luo's hospital as a fitting embodiment of China's COVID-19 response principle putting people first and doing whatever it takes to save lives. In Hubei, more than 3,600 COVID-19 patients over 80 years old recovered, among whom the oldest was 108. Overall, this people-first principle and the quick and effective responses have become an essential part of the Chinese way to battle the virus, helping China to minimize deaths and infections while enabling it to reboot the economy as soon as possible. "The measures you have taken and the lessons learned are all invaluable experience in epidemic response. This is a major contribution of Hubei," Xi told the Hubei delegation at the NPC session. (Source: Xinhua) With words like "fascinating" and "straight out of a fairy tale" spreading like wildfire through the internet, New Hope, with its thriving arts culture, unique shops and restaurants, and eclectic nature, is the up-and-coming small town of Pennsylvania. While the residents know exactly why the town is getting so much hype, many tourists remain oblivious, having only heard references to its most popular attractions, the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad, or the Parry Mansion constructed in 1874 by Benjamin Parry, one of New Hope's founders. Rich with history that is reflected in its beautiful architecture, it is about time one learns why New Hope is the best small town in Pennsylvania. Geography And Climate Of New Hope Historic New Hope, Pennsylvania, across the Delaware River from Lambertville. Editorial credit: EQRoy / Shutterstock.com Set on a river along the former Old York Road that connected Philadelphia to New York City, the town serves as a pit-stop between the two. "York Road" is still used on the section of the U.S. Route 202 that carries the traffic between the two cities today. There are two bridges over the Delaware River, between New Hope and Lambertville, New Jersey, with the Lambertville Toll Bridge hosting the U.S. Highway 202. Surrounded by picturesque low, rolling hills with preserved forest and farmland, New Hope has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Set at the Delaware River's confluence, the town's total area is a mere 1.4 square miles or 3.6 km2, out of which 11.19% is water, mostly from the river. The Aquetong (Ingham) Creek ends near New Hope's former mill, the Bucks County Playhouse, in a scenic waterfall and a millpond. It starts its two-mile course at Ingham Springs, the most productive spring in Southeastern Pennsylvania, in the neighboring Solebury Township. History Of New Hope As a humble industrial town of the past, New Hope was known as Coryell's Ferry, in honor of the man who owned the town's ferry business. Not accidentally, "New Hope" was symbolized by the reconstruction of several mills that burned down in a 1790s fire. The mansion mentioned above was occupied by four generations of the Parrys' family until it got acquired by the New Hope Historical Society in 1966. Today, visitors can tour the 11 rooms, each showcasing a period, or representing 125 years of decorative changes the mansion has undergone. It is almost certain that George Washington stayed the night in town before his famous crossing of the Delaware River. Having destroyed the ferry as a precaution, upon Trenton and Princeton when the British swept the area with no response, they shelled the town as a gesture of discontent that the town supported the Colonial forces. It is rumored that some older structures in the town still have lodged unexploded British ordnance in their roofbeams. The North Pennsylvania Railroad The New Hope and Ivyland rail road. Editorial credit: EQRoy / Shutterstock.com The New Hope Branch of the railroad was finished in 1891, running under the Reading Railroad until 1952 when all passenger activity from Hatboro stopped, also marking the end for the electrified track, along with any foreseen future for New Hope. Only freight trains would enter the town from 1952 to 1966, thanks to the Union Camp Paper Corp. and James D. Morrissey Materials Co. that insisted on delivering paper pulp, sand, and gravel to stay in business. Worthy of its name, the installation of the 16 miles of track spanning from town's southwest to Ivyland in 1966, upon the formation of the New Hope & Ivyland was the same year that scenic tourist excursions have begun. In 1972, SEPTA took over the Reading Railroad's passenger operations, reinstated passenger service to town, and extended the route to Warminster. To this day, New Hope & Ivyland continues to provide scenic tourist excursion passenger rides between New Hope and Lahaska. Attractions In New Hope Peddler's Village shopping center in New Hope. Editorial credit: JWCohen / Shutterstock.com The town is home to the Bucks County Playhouse, known for its celebrity Broadway shows, musicals, and theater productions. Among many eclectic restaurants in town, the riverside-set, The Landing and Stella by Jose Garces serves some of the most delectable dishes in the region. A vintage train ride to the nearby Lahaska, along the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad, makes for a fun and scenic family pastime. The town also has a vibrant nightlife, while the area, having been known as a popular gay resort in the 1950s, retains a large, active gay community to this day. City dwellers come on weekends to get lost in the simple joys of strolling along the river and the Delaware Canal. One can also venture out on a self-guided tour, hitting some historical sights and cultural landmarks. Visiting the New Hope Arts Center, the local Nakashima Woodworkers, and the historic Parry Mansion, to wind down with a riverside picnic would comprise a day-full of adventure and discovery. Some of the historic buildings open to the public date back to the 1700s, while for splendid scenery, one must visit the Bowman's Hill Tower and the Washington Crossing Historic Park. Driven by tourism, the scenic small town of New Hope in the heart of Bucks County is just a short drive from Philadelphia and across the river from New Jersey. Travelers come to the picturesque town surrounded by deep woods for relaxation from the big city feel. The abundance of active pursuits and historical wonders are especially popular with tourists. Since culture is integral to the residents, it is no wonder that visitors also enjoy the Art and Culture factor when in town. Kevonte Williams, 20, has been charged with three counts of burglary and one count of evading arrest, according to Franklin police. He is on a bond set at $35,000. Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of Russian paralympic teams ahead of Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games via a teleconference call, in Moscow on February 21, 2022. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP) (Photo by ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) Less men in the region have come forward to get checked for prostate cancer due to pandemic, says local support group This article is old - Published: Monday, Feb 28th, 2022 Around 16,000 men in the UK could have undiagnosed prostate cancer and may be in need of urgent treatment, says the head of a local support group. Phil Jones, secretary of the Wrexham Prostate Support Group, said that the pandemic has meant that less men than ever have come forward to get checked for prostate cancer The illness is not always life threatening but the earlier it is detected it is more likely to be cured. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer found amongst men, with around one in eight receiving a diagnoses in their lifetime. Phil Jones is now urging those who have prostate cancer or suspect that they may have symptoms to access support. He said: There is growing evidence due to the pandemic, less men in the region than ever have come forward to get checked for prostate cancer. The condition becomes more pronounced and common with age. It is rare men under 50 are diagnosed but the condition becomes more pronounced and common with age and if your father or brother had it, you are at even a higher risk. Our local support group are leading a campaign to fight this deadly disease and we are encouraging those who have prostate cancer or suspect that they may think they have symptoms to get in touch. The next group meeting is on Wednesday 2nd March at the Trevor Arms Marford commencing at 7pm. For further details call their secretary Phil Jones on 07525-824-679 for more details. *Pictured: Phil Jones, secretary of the Wrexham Prostate Support Group We support Ukraines right to live in peace and freedom Wrexham sends message of support This article is old - Published: Monday, Feb 28th, 2022 Wrexham Council has sent a message of support to Ukraine, as the free world continues to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to call off his invasion. The Kremlins attack has been underway since Thursday, and has already caused tremendous suffering and upheaval in the region. The council plans to fly the Ukrainian flag from the Guildhall, and will light up the building in Ukrainian colours as a show of solidarity. Yesterday people gathered in Queens Square as part of a Stand with Ukraine rally, pictured above and below by Oliver Stephen. Flags on the square will now include the Ukraine flag shortly, and we understand other buildings will also see the flag fly in solidarity. Councillor Mark Pritchard, Leader of Wrexham Council, says: We fully support and stand in solidarity with Ukraine during this difficult and dark time. The courage and determination of the Ukrainian people has been incredible, and we all hope and pray that the Russian government will realise its actions are wrong. We would also like to express our support for Russians who have spoken out against Putin and who want to live in peace with their Ukrainian neighbours. It takes real courage to speak out against the government in Russia, and we shouldnt forget that many Russian people do not want this war and will be suffering as well. We are praying for Ukraine, and we are praying that peace and humanity will prevail. Councillor David A Bithell, Deputy Leader of the Council, says: We just want the Ukrainian people to know that were with them that we support their right to live their lives in peace and freedom. What the Russian government has done is wrong. Lives have been ruined, families torn apart and futures taken away in the blink of an eye. The events were seeing unfold are terrible, and our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who is suffering. Wrexham might only be a small county borough in North Wales, but like the rest of Wales and the UK, we stand in solidarity with Ukraine. Wrexham nightclub to host clothing collection for Ukraine This article is old - Published: Monday, Feb 28th, 2022 A nightclub in Wrexham is set to act as a drop off point for donations for those affected by the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlins attack has been underway since Thursday, and has already caused tremendous suffering and upheaval in the region. Hundreds of thousands of people have already fled the country in the last five days, with a growing humanitarian response. Atik, on Brook Street, has announced it will be holding a clothing collection for Ukraine on behalf of the Red Cross on Thursday 3 March from 2pm to 6pm. People are asked to bring items that are clean, in good condition and are securely packed in bags. At this moment in time the drop off will only be open to clothing donations. A spokesperson for the venue said that anything that has been in the nightclubs lost property box for over six weeks without being claimed will also be donated. This includes what is described as a large pile of lost property containing coats, jackets and jumpers. More information can be found below: Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. A Ukrainian government official tells CNN that Ukrainian intelligence indicates Belarusian "readiness to maybe participate directly" in the invasion of Ukraine, "in addition to allowing Russians to use their territory as well as letting them cross the border." The leak of 30,000 bank accounts belonging to Credit Suisse has revealed the enormous wealth of dictators, criminals, officials and business tycoons involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes. It confirms the financial parasitism, fraud and illegality that permeates the ruling elite in every capitalist country. The revelations cover only a small proportion of the banks 1.5 million private clients and includes personal, shared and corporate bank accounts worth $108 billion. Nearly 200 accounts are worth more than $108 million, with a dozen or more worth billions. Some were opened in the 1940s, but more than two-thirds were opened after 2000. Many have since closed. The investigation, known as Suisse Secrets, began with a leak by an anonymous whistleblower to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and was coordinated with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). It involved analyses by 160 journalists from media organisations around the world, including the Guardian, Le Monde, NDR, the Miami Herald and the New York Times. Credit Suisse, Paradeplatz in Zurich, Switzerland (Photo credit: Roland zh) Suisse Secrets shows that the bank allowed people to open accounts even after they had been convicted of serious crimes and failed to investigate or even ask about the source of many other clients wealth. It alleges that the bank knowingly managed hundreds of millions of dollars for suspected war criminals, corrupt autocrats and drug dealers. Credit Suisse denied this, saying it strongly rejects the allegations and inferences about the banks purported business practices. The worlds best-known banks are little more than machines for laundering the ill-gotten gains of the filthy rich and protecting their owners from tax demands or accountability so they can salt their loot away for future use. They are accomplices to the rampant criminality of a parasitic ruling class that plunders and exploits the worlds inhabitants to the tune of trillions of dollars a year, while dodging taxesvariously estimated at between $400 billion and $800 billion a yearon their income and wealth. According to the Guardian, the banks clients included a human trafficker in the Philippines, the former chair of the Hong Kong stock exchange who was jailed for bribery, a billionaire who ordered the murder of his Lebanese pop star girlfriend, executives who helped themselves to the revenues of Venezuelas state-owned oil company, an Italian accused of laundering funds for the infamous Ndrangheta criminal group, corrupt politicians and their families around the world, including in Egypt and Ukraine, and a Vatican-owned investment company currently involved in a criminal tribunal over an allegedly fraudulent 350 million investment in a London property. Others include the sons of an Azerbaijani strongman, who deposited millions of laundered dollars from shell companies, and key figures from Central Asias elites, including oligarchs who made their wealth from natural resource extraction, ministers, and other top officials, some of whom have been convicted of massive corruption, as well as the children of two former presidents, Kazakhstans Nursultan Nazarbayev and Uzbekistans Islam Karimov. People named in the investigation include: Helen Rivilla, a lawyer convicted in 1992 for helping to launder money for former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda, who creamed off $10 billion during the decades of his presidency. King Abdullah of Jordan had six Swiss accounts, including one that held more than $224 million in 2015, while his wife, Queen Rania, held more than $40 million in an account in 2013, all of which were closed in 2015 and 2016. Saad Kheir, who headed Jordans intelligence agency from 2000 to 2005 that worked with the US on covert operations and counterterrorism operations, interrogating terrorism suspects. He opened an account in 2003 that would hold $21.6 million before his death in 2009. Close relatives of Omar Suleiman, the long-time head of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubaraks intelligence services that served as the CIAs regional bureau, opened a joint account in 2003 that mushroomed to $52 million. Suleiman died in 2012 but the account wasnt closed until 2016. Mubaraks sons, Gamal and Alaa, held six accounts including a joint account that ballooned to about $196 million in 2003, while their fathers-in-law and other businessmen linked to the Mubarak family had accounts worth millions of dollars. Pavlo Lazarenko, the thoroughly corrupt prime minister of Ukraine between 1997 and 1998, is believed by Transparency International to have siphoned off $200 million from the public purse, demonstrating that Ukrainian politicians were no less corrupt than their Russian counterparts. One of his accounts was later valued at almost $8 million. In 2000, Lazarenko pleaded guilty to money laundering in Switzerland and was sentenced in 2006 to nine years in the US for bribery and corruption. Stephan Sederholm, a Swedish computer technician, was allowed to open an account in 2008 that was closed in 2013 after he was sentenced for life for human trafficking in the Philippines in 2011. Eduard Seidel, a German who headed Siemenss operations in Nigeria and was convicted of industrial-scale bribery of corrupt politicians in 2008. His accounts were left open for several years, with one holding $54 million, after he had left Siemens. Credit Suisse has long been known for providing services for the sons of Nigerias brutal dictator Sani Abacha, believed to have looted as much as $5 billion from the country in just six years. Credit Suisse, Switzerlands second largest bank, manages more than $1.6 trillion in assets and employs almost 50,000 staff, including 3,500 relationship managers who recruit and serve the super-rich across the world. Its employees are rewarded with bonuses linked to how much net new money they bring in. The largest accounts are kept so secret that only a few senior executives know who owns them. The OCCRP investigation confirms that the banks activities are shielded by the countrys notorious banking secrecy laws that have long made Switzerland a safe haven for kleptocrats illicit wealth. Article 47 of the Swiss banking laws effectively silences insiders or journalists trying to expose criminality, to the extent that the Swiss media group Tamedia was unable to take part in the Credit Suisse investigation for fear of criminal prosecution. The bank has been beset by numerous scandals. A leaked 2017 report by FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, revealed a culture where senior managers were prepared to whitewash and turn a blind eye to compliance failures when a star banker defrauded lucrative clients. The bank was involved in the collapse of Greensill Capital, the supply chain finance corporation, and the US hedge fund Archegos capital. In 2019, eight bank staff pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and defrauding US and UK investors in loans to Mozambique, resulting in $475 million fines for the bank and $200 million in debt forgiveness to Mozambique. The bank is currently facing trial in Switzerlands Federal Criminal Court over enabling Bulgarian cocaine smugglers to launder 146 million. Suisse Secrets follows numerous other scandals in the wider banking sector, including the 2008-09 crash precipitated by the criminality of leading financial institutions, for which no top executives were ever sanctioned. It comes after a chain of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposes: the LuxLeaks in 2014, Panama Papers in 2016, the Paradise Papers in 2017 and the Pandora Papers in 2021. These revealed the colossal extent of tax evasion and money laundering services provided by the worlds most well-known financial services companies, lawyers, registration agents and lobbyists via secretive trusts and off-shore tax-havens. Reports of financial criminality have become so routine that a day later Suisse Secrets was old news. They demonstrate that it is impossible to clean out the Augean filth of the global political, economic and financial system. Like the ICIJs previous exposes, the leaked accounts belong to the banks international clients, mostly in the middle and low-income countries, rather than in the US and Europe. US President Joe Biden has said he is committed to fighting corruption as a core national security interest, which is another way of saying that allegations of corruption will be used, like fighting terrorto justify political and economic intervention around the world, particularly in Central Asia, in pursuit of Washingtons imperialist interests. Switzerland, too, is in the frame, with demands from three of the largest groups in the European parliament and from the US, seeking to bolster the position of New York as the worlds premier financial centre, for Switzerland to be placed on the list of high-risk countries for money laundering and financial crime. The author of the Suisse Secrets investigation, the OCCRPa consortium of NGOs, media organisations and journalists operating in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Central Americais funded by, among others, the United States Agency for International Development, the US State Department, the Ford Foundation, the United Kingdoms Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the US National Endowment for Democracy and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. With full bipartisan support from the Labor Party opposition, Prime Minister Scott Morrison substantially escalated Australias involvement in the unfolding war crisis in Europe, announcing yesterday that his Liberal-National Coalition government will send lethal aid to Ukrainian military forces. Australia was already one of the most vociferous backers of the US-NATO attempts to exploit Russias reactionary invasion to intensify a longstanding confrontation with Moscow, and also China. With Morrisons announcement, the country is now directly involved in a conflict that threatens to spiral out of control and ignite a European-wide or even a world war. A Ukrainian soldier fires an NLAW anti-tank weapon during an exercise in the Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, February 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) The timing makes clear the extent to which the Australian political establishment is marching in lockstep with the US administration of President Joe Biden. Morrison confirmed the expanded Australian intervention after the US announced it would send an extra $US350 million worth of US armaments to Ukrainian forces, while its NATO partner Germany pledged 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. The flooding of the country with US-NATO arms is aimed at escalating the conflict. It is directed against any diplomatic resolution, ahead of talks between Russian and Ukrainian authorities in Belarus later today. On Friday, Morrison had stated that Australia would send medical supplies to Ukraine, together with non-lethal military aid. This was combined with a series of expanding sanctions on the Russian state, leading politicians and business people. As the WSWS noted, in a shooting war, there is no such thing as non-lethal military supplies, given that whatever is sent will contribute to active hostilities. However, Morrison did rule out sending weaponry. The turnaround, within the space of 72 hours, demonstrates the speed with which the US and its allies are intensifying their direct involvement in the conflict. It shows that Morrisons previous assertions that Australian troops would not be sent in the event of a NATO ground intervention could also be dispensed with overnight. As he stated, the military aid was a signal that nothing is off the table in terms of Australian involvement. The government has not released any details. Morrison did say that the weaponry would be provided through our NATO partners, particularly the US and the United Kingdom. In practice, this will mean the government handing over money to the American and British governments and their associated arms dealers. As is the case with all of the NATO military aid, at least some of the Australian war materiel will likely end up in the hands of Ukraines fascist militias. Since the US-instigated coup in 2014, directed against a Ukrainian government that leaned towards Russia, forces such as the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion have been directly integrated into the countrys armed forces and have been the beneficiaries of a flood of NATO weaponry. Morrison combined the announcement of military aid with direct sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin. The government has also not ruled out expelling the Russian ambassador from the country, stating only that it will follow the lead of its allies, i.e., the US. Morrison also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this morning. The Labor Party is not only extending its full support to every new announcement made by the government in relation to the Ukraine. It is effectively campaigning for even greater Australian involvement. Labors shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers this morning called for a step up. Whether that is support with weapons, on the cybersecurity front, whether it is tightening the screws on the Russian economy, all of these things should be stepped up if they can, he declared. Chalmers was one of a series of senior Labor MPs exposed in documents published by WikiLeaks to be a protected source of the US embassy, i.e., an informant for the American government. Notwithstanding its cynical references to the plight of Ukrainian civilians, Labor is exploiting the Ukraine crisis to burnish its national security and foreign policy credentials. It is seeking to turn the tide on a government campaign over the past month, alleging, without any basis, that Labor is soft on China and even an appeaser of its government. On Saturday, Labor leader Anthony Albanese gave an extended interview to the Australians Greg Sheridan, who has close ties to the Australian and US security establishments. Albanese stressed that there was not a skerrick of difference between Labor and the government on any foreign policy issue, including participation in the US-led campaigns against Russia and also China. Albanese emphasised Labors central role in the establishment last September of AUKUS, a military alliance of the US, Britain and Australia, explicitly directed towards preparing war with China. He criticised the government only for its bungles in defence procurement and invoked Labors record in leading the country during the Second World War, the first Gulf War and in 2011, when Australia aligned with a vast US military build-up directed against Beijing. Together with the government, Labor leaders are enthusiastically playing the role of a regional deputy sheriff for the US in the current crisis. They are exploiting it to ratchet up pressure on Beijing, denouncing the Chinese Communist Party government for its refusal to condemn the Russian invasion. Labor and Coalition MPs have explicitly linked the Ukraine crisis to the need for the democratic powers to combat both Russia and China, in line with the US strategy for maintaining American imperialist hegemony. The line-up extends beyond the major parties to the entire political and media establishment. Not a single critical voice has been raised, warning against Australian involvement, much less pointing to the hypocrisy of the US and its allies, who have themselves been at war for the past 30 years. The Greens, who postured as opponents of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, long ago dispensed with any pretense of opposition to imperialist war. They issued a statement on February 25, which said nothing about the US-NATO role in provoking the conflict, blaming it exclusively on Putin. We call upon our foreign minister to use Australias Autonomous Sanctions framework to respond to Russias actions, the Greens declared. The media, including the state-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is full of wall-to-wall denunciations of Putin as a new Hitler, a psychopath etc. As is the case in the US and elsewhere, the whipping up of a wartime atmosphere serves a domestic political function. It is aimed at diverting attention from the ongoing COVID crisis, resulting from bipartisan let it rip policies which unleashed an Omicron surge in December, as well as widespread anger over stagnant or declining wages and worsening workplace conditions amid a rising cost of living. The government and Labor are turning to militarism to try and offset a deep-going crisis of the parliamentary set-up in the lead up to a federal election in May. Morrisons ability to survive till then has been called into question by the Coalitions plummeting support, and public infighting within his Liberal Party. Labor goes into the election having lost any substantial base of support in the working class as a result of its decades-long enforcement of a corporate onslaught on working-class jobs and social conditions. Workers and young people must reject the war hysteria. The fight for social rights and an end to the homicidal pandemic policies is inseparable from the struggle against imperialist war. The alternative to the official warmongering is a turn to a socialist and internationalist perspective, aimed at unifying workers in the US, Russia, Ukraine, China, Australia and everywhere else to prevent the threat of a world war through the overthrow of the bankrupt profit system. Two conferences held over the weekend in Orlando, Floridathe Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC)demonstrated the fascist transformation of the Republican Party under Donald Trump. This years annual CPAC event, from Thursday through Sunday, was held against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine following a massive US-NATO military buildup on Russias borders, threatening a global nuclear conflagration. Former President Donald Trump, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) The war crisis, the most dangerous since the end of World War II, is driven above all by an intensified social, economic and political crisis of capitalist governments all over the world under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nowhere is this crisis more acute than in the United States, the epicenter of the pandemic. Coming less than 14 months after then President Donald Trump attempted to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election by means of a violent, fascist assault on the US Capitol, the CPAC event showed that would-be Fuhrer Trump retains his grip on the Republican Party, through which powerful sections of the ruling class continue to plot the establishment of a dictatorship to crush the mounting opposition of the working class. The several thousand mainly middle-class party activists in attendance cheered speeches by current and former Republican officials, far-right podcasters and others denouncing the Biden administration and the Democratic Party as the spearhead of a Marxist, socialist, communist assault on the American nation. This is allegedly embodied in partial and inadequate mitigation measures imposed to contain the spread of the deadly virus, which Biden and the Democrats are, in fact, in the process of lifting, despite the continuing loss of some 2,000 lives a day in the US and no end to the virus spread. The official theme of the conference was Awake but not woke, signaling its focus on the supposedly left character of Democratic Party identity politics. Its meaning, however, was shown in speech after speech that combined anti-communist hysteria and thinly disguised appeals to racism and anti-Semitism. Featured speakers included Republican lawmakers such as Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina (an admitted Hitler admirer ), who played leading roles in the plot that culminated in the January 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol and who now defend the attempted coup as legitimate political discourse, in the words of the Republican National Committee. Counterparts in the Senate who addressed the conference included Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri. Deepening tensions and fissures in the party were reflected in the absence of Trumps vice president, Mike Pence, and his UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, both of whom are considered possible challengers for the presidential nomination in 2024. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is considered Trumps most serious potential challenger for the 2024 nomination, gave the opening speech. DeSantis has been touring the country, speaking at exclusive fundraisers where he centers his pitch to wealthy corporate donors on his record of resolutely opposing any and all lockdowns, forcing schools to remain open and blocking all mandates on masks and other restrictions that could impinge on corporate profits. He has reportedly raised $122 million, ostensibly for his gubernatorial reelection campaign in November, but also for a potential run for president in 2024. DeSantis appeal is no less fascistic than Trumps. Welcoming CPAC to the free state of Florida, he boasted of preventing his state from descending into some type of Faucian dystopia and rejecting the bio-medical security state. He declared, We kept our schools open five days a week. We stood strong. He did not mention that his state has one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the country. He denounced Biden for dumping illegal aliens into Florida and pledged to reroute them to Delaware (Bidens home state) as well as Washington D.C. and Hollywood. He attacked anti-police-brutality protesters and touted his anti-riot bills targeting left-wing demonstrators and imposing harsh sentences. Promising to ban critical race theory, he said, The woke is the new religion of the left Wokeism is a form of cultural Marxism, falsely identifying racialist politics with socialism. Denouncing big tech, he declared that he would block the entry of Zuckerbucks into Florida, (an apparent reference to Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, but a dog whistle to anti-Semites). DeSantis has refused to condemn an attack on a Jewish student at the University of Central Florida last month by members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. The outbreak of war in Ukraine has sharpened fissures within the Republican Party, with a section of its fascist wing, represented by figures such as Tucker Carlson and Stephen Bannon, refusing to support the US-NATO campaign against Russia, largely on the basis that it is a distraction from the preparation for war against China and the war against immigrants on Americas southern border. Significantly, DeSantis made no mention of the war in Ukraine. He also said virtually nothing about the stolen election of 2020 and never uttered Trumps name. Matt Gaetz, who began his speech by saying, This is Donald Trumps party and Im a Donald Trump Republican, went on to declare, Why should Americans have to pay the cost of freedom elsewhere when our own leaders wont do it here? Im not for sending Americans to Ukraine. Like many other speakers, he accused Biden of ceding American sovereignty at the US/Mexico border. Trump gave the keynote speech on Saturday night. It was a typically rambling, 90-minute string of vile lies and incitements to violence against the left and Trumps political opponents. He began by making clear his intention to run for president in 2024, telling his ecstatic audience that the Republicans would win back Congress in this Novembers mid-term elections and capture the White House in 2024. We did it twice and well do it again, a third time, he declared. He spent a great deal of time reiterating his empty claims of a stolen election and demanding further restrictions on the right to vote. He called for a ban on critical race theory in the schools, falsely linking it to left-wing and socialist thought, the lifting of all COVID restrictions, the completion of his border wall to stop the invasion of our country by millions of illegal aliens rushing our borders, the breakup of big tech and forcing China to pay trillions of dollars for unleashing the virus on the world. He hailed the fascistic truckers convoy in Canada as a model to be followed in the US, and attacked the Supreme Court for caving in to the left. He defended the imprisoned January 6 insurrectionists as non-violent protesters and denounced the Biden administration for holding them without bail. Most ominous were his invocations of violent repression against his political opponents. He called the House Select Committee on January 6 a committee of thugs, denounced Hillary Clinton as a traitor for supposedly spying on his election campaign and declared, We are coming to break their grip on power forever. He alluded to his dictatorial aims when he said, Our country is being poisoned from within, and added, Our most dangerous people are the people from within. Trump made a point of denouncing Russias invasion of Ukraine, calling it an atrocity that never should have occurred. He then attributed it to Bidens weakness on the international stage, zeroing in on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and fall of the puppet government in Kabul to the Taliban. Toward the end of his speech, Trump invoked slogans of the neo-Nazi identitarian movement and repeated what he said on January 6, 2021 to incite his supporters to storm the Capitol: The radical left is trying to extinguish our very identity as Americans. We have got to fight like hell. We cant let them destroy our country. Following Trumps speech, the CPAC organizers held a straw poll showing that 59 percent of respondents favored Trump as the GOPs 2024 presidential candidate, an increase of 4 percent from last year. DeSantis came in second at 28 percent, an increase of 7 percent from last year. Concurrent with the CPAC event, the openly white supremacist and anti-Semitic America First Political Action Conference was held at a nearby venue in Orlando. The organizer, Nick Fuentes, advocates the establishment of a white Christian theocratic state in the US. Three current Republican office-holders addressed the conference: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a QAnon conspiracy advocate; Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, one of the organizers of the Stop the Steal protests that led up to the coup attempt; and Wendy Rogers, a Republican member of the Arizona Senate and self-proclaimed member of the Oath Keepers militia. The flyer for the meeting listed among the speakers Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys militia, and Baked Alaska, a.k.a. Tim Ginoet, who livestreamed from inside the Capitol on January 6. In her speech, Greene called on her audience to stop the Democrats, who are the Communist Party of the United States of America. Wendy Rogers told the crowd that we need to build more gallows to make an example of those traitors who betrayed our country. Greene went from the AFPAC on Friday to the CPAC conference on Saturday, where she made a speech and was among those Republicans given a shout-out by Trump. She was not the only fascist who moved between the two conferences. Rolling Stone reported that a number of members of Fuentes Groypers Army attended the CPAC conference as well as the AFPAC event. The response of the Democratic Party and the Democratic-aligned media has been to downplay the fascistic transformation of the Republican Party as underscored by this weekends conferences, and instead attack Trump and company for failing to support the US-NATO campaign against Russia over Ukraine with sufficient enthusiasm. This is in line with the Biden administrations attempt, with the full-throated support of the bulk of the corporate media, to fashion an artificial internal unity and alliance with sections of the Republican Party on the basis of anti-Russia hysteria and hypocritical support for the sovereignty of Washingtons far-right puppet government in Kiev. On Friday, the New York Times posted an article headlined From City Upon a Hill to Anti-Anti-Putin. The article lauded the legacy of Ronald Reagan and John McCain, who supported aggressive US intervention overseas, and bemoaned its supposed abandonment by the Trump-era GOP. The authors wrote that CPACs evolution from its intellectual roots to ardent populism continues to anger and sadden many on the right. On Sunday, former Bill Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos featured Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton as a guest on his ABC News interview program. Stephanopoulos did not mention Cottons call for a military takeover of the US to crush protests against the police murder of George Floyd in June 2020, days after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act for that purpose. Instead, he attacked Cotton for refusing to denounce Trump for having called Putin smart after the Russian leader invaded Ukraine. Join the fight against Hi Viz and government by injunction! Join the BNSF Workers Rank-and-File Committee by email bnsfwrfc@gmail.com. Railroad workers across the country are following with interest and solidarity the opposition by workers at BNSF to a punishing new Hi Viz attendance policy, which has thrown the exploitation of railroad workers into sharp relief. Conditions are little better for workers at other Class I railroad carriers, such as Union Pacific and CSX. Like the conductors and engineers at BNSF, workers at the other carriers have learned through experience that the law protects the companies rather than the employees. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) boasts that the US rail network is the largest, safest, and most cost-efficient freight system in the world. In fact, fatal accidents have been on the rise for years. After a slight decline in deaths in 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus shutdowns, 822 people died last year in rail accidents, according to the FRA. Each year over the past decade, between two and four train derailments have taken place in the US every day. A CSX train heads east out of the Chicago area (WSW Media) A former engineer for CSX contacted the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) to describe a critical incident that he endured on the job, the companys callous response and the long ordeal that followed. The engineer, who will be referred to by the pseudonym Jake, has not worked since the incident. He says that CSX broke the law in the way it responded to the event, and he continues to seek compensation. In 2017, Jake was driving a train from Buffalo, New York, to Syracuse, New York, when a pedestrian walked onto the tracks. Jake initiated an emergency stop and yelled to the conductor to alert him to what was happening. Tragically, there was not enough time to stop the train, and the pedestrian was killed. Jake and the conductor, who radioed the dispatcher, were shaken. When the dispatcher asked Jake whether he was okay, he replied that he was not. The conductor also notified the road foreman about the incident. Federal law requires Class I railroads, such as CSX, to adopt and comply with a critical incident stress plan to provide relief and support to workers after traumatic events such as this one. Under the plan that CSX adopted, Jake said, workers are to be removed from the train immediately and, if they do not obviously require medical attention, transported home. A new crew or recrew must be called up to drive the train to its destination. But when the road foreman arrived, he informed Jake and the conductor that no recrews were available. The train would have to be taken to Syracuse, he said. Jake replied, Its wrong for the company to be doing this to us. We need to be taken off this train, per policy and procedures. The road foreman made a perfunctory expression of sympathy but insisted on continuing the route. When he asked Jake whether he was able to drive the train, Jake responded, No, I am not okay to run the train. A field claims agent from CSX arrived shortly after the road foreman did. Neither the road foreman nor the field claims agent made any serious effort to check the crews mental or physical health, and the crew was forced to stay on the train while the road foreman drove it to Syracuse. From the Syracuse station, Jake and the conductor were driven to the Buffalo station. Jake had been having tremors since the incident happened. During his drive home, he had to pull over three times to get a hold of himself. He did a lot of crying that night, he said. When his union representative called that evening, he and his wife responded angrily that they would speak to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) about the incident. The day after the incident, Jake noticed pain in his jaw. After several visits to the dentist, to the emergency room and to a specialist, he found out that he had a cracked tooth and temporomandibular joint disorder. During the incident, Jake had clenched his teeth so hard that it had misaligned his jaw. Id never been in so much pain in my entire life, he said. He also began seeing a therapist, who said that Jake was in immediate need of anti-anxiety medication. Six days after the incident, Jake and his wife met the union rep at a supermarket. The union rep gave them a copy of the CSX critical incident stress plan and told them that the company had taken Jake out of service. The union rep advised Jake that he would need a lawyer and that he had made an appointment for Jake with a lawyer on the following morning. Jake filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Its kind of common sense, Jake told the WSWS. If you dont follow federal law, you really cant be a safe employer, can you? CSX had violated the law by violating its own policy, he added. Its a safety issue, so I went to OSHA and filed the complaint. But the OSHA investigator concluded that no wrongdoing had occurred and dismissed Jakes complaint. His lawyer, who had begun preparing a Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) lawsuit on Jakes behalf, appealed OSHAs decision to the U.S. Department of Labor. This appeal took approximately a year to complete. Although the road foreman and field claims agent testified at the hearing, neither the conductor nor the union representative appeared or testified in support of Jake. The appeal was denied, and Jake filed a further appeal to the Administrative Review Board. About a year later, the board affirmed the Labor Departments decision. The FRA also investigated the incident, but Jake described its investigation as smoke and mirrors. The FRA report repeated the road foremans claim that no recrew had been available that day. But later, when he obtained the company documents surrounding the accident, he discovered that a recrew had in fact been available. Furthermore, the FRA report was only nine pages long. Jake later obtained an FRA report on another incident that had not involved injuries or deaths which totaled 48 pages and included a wealth of documentation and detail. The FRA report about the incident in which Jake was involved is not real, plain and simple, he said. Railroad workers believe that the FRA does not do its job of regulating the companies, and the agency has earned a bad reputation, said Jake. The callous treatment that he has received at the hands of the company and the denial of any compensation may seem remarkable, he went on. If somebody were to tell me this, Id be like, Youre out of your mind. This sounds absolutely crazy, said Jake. But its the truth. When you go to individuals, when you go to agencies, you expect to have something done when wrong has been done to you. Up to this point in time, nobodys done anything. CSX, BNSF and the other railroads are able to operate in such a fashion with virtual impunity through a system of labor laws designed to benefit the companies. This includes the Railway Labor Act which is designed to all but eliminate strikes in the industry and tie up workers in endless rounds of mediation, lawsuits and arbitration. Even after a federal judge issued three consecutive rulings upholding injunctions at BNSF blocking workers from striking against the Hi Viz attendance policy, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation WorkersTransportation Division (SMART-TD) unions are counseling workers to simply sit on their hands and wait for this pro-corporate process to play itself out. But workers know that this will only lead, as it always has, to a victory on all counts for the company. Instead, a group of workers has founded the BNSF Workers Rank-and-File Committee to wage a fight independently of the union officialdom, as an alternative source of power against management, well-heeled union bureaucrats and government by injunction. To join the BNSF Workers Rank-and-File Committee, email bnsfwrfc@gmail.com. Deere & Company, the largest agriculture machinery company in the world, released its first quarter financial results on February 18, reporting nearly $1 billion in net income and increased sales. The companys global net sales and revenues increased by 5 percent to $9.569 billion compared to the same period a year ago. Net sales of equipment operations also increased to $8.531 billion for the quarter, compared to $8.051 billion in 2021. Deeres net income, i.e., profits from sales minus expenses, operations and payrolls, were $902 million, or $2.92 per share. The figures were a decrease when compared to net income of $1.224 billion, or $3.87 per share, for the first quarter last year. The company attributed its decline in net income primarily to supply chain issues caused by the pandemic and last years bitter five-week strike by 10,000 workers across the Midwest. John C. May, chairman and chief executive officer of Deere, addressing the first quarter company results, said, Deeres performance in the first quarter was impressive given production issues surrounding the delayed ratification of our UAW [United Auto Workers] contract in late November as well as persistent challenges posed by the supply chain and pandemic. Deere CEO John C May (Ford Media) Despite the decline, Deere is insistent it will reap increased profits in the months and years ahead. Looking ahead, we expect demand for farm and construction equipment to continue benefiting from positive fundamentals, including favorable crop prices, economic growth, and increased investment in infrastructure, May stated. Its net income forecast for the 2022 fiscal year increased to an estimated $6.7 billion and $7.1 billion, up from its previous forecast of $6.5 billion to $7.0 billion. Any of these amounts would easily exceed the companys previous record, set in 2021 at $5.9 billion (itself a massive increase from the earlier high point of $3.5 billion set in 2013). These continued gargantuan profits have meant a bonanza for the companys executives and shareholders. Deere CEO May received a total compensation package of $19.9 million in 2021, compared to $15.6 million in 2020. Meanwhile, shareholders have seen their payouts double in 10 years, with Deere increasing its shareholder dividend of $0.51 in 2012 to $1.06 per share today. Once again Deeres earnings and further projected increases in profit confirm that management and the union lied to workers when they told them there was no money to meet workers demands for substantial wage increases, the restoration of retiree health care, and other major improvements to their working conditions. On October 14, 2021, Deere workers walked out, launching their first strike in 35 years after rejecting by more than 90 percent a tentative agreement backed by the UAW. After workers voted down a second tentative agreement between the company and the union on November 2, the media and the company launched a propaganda blitz to paint workers as greedy and claim their demands were unachievable. The UAW joined this chorus against workers and warned them that they would be fired and replaced, the strike would fail and the offer on the tablewhich they absurdly presented as groundbreakingwas the best there would be. From early on in the struggle, workers sought to overcome the collusion between Deere and the UAW and break through their information blackout, forming the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee. The statements of the committeeanalyzing the company-UAW maneuvers, countering their propaganda and appealing for the mobilization of workers in the US and internationally in support of the strikewere widely read by workers, playing the decisive role in solidifying their opposition. Less than two weeks after workers rejected the second contract, the UAW announced that there would be a vote on the same deal, with only modest modifications. The union did everything it could to harass and intimidate workers into accepting the contract. Phil Gonterman, the UAW elections chair at Local 281 in Davenport, threatened workers who were planning to vote no with retaliation, while officials in Waterloo scorned workers planning to vote no, calling them losers, saying their votes wouldnt matter anyway. Under widespread voter intimidation and suspicions of ballot stuffing, the UAW announced that the contract was ratified in November 2021, with the union declaring 61 percent voting in favor. Despite the unions efforts to coerce workers into accepting the deal, however, there remained broad opposition and willingness to fight, with the largest local in Waterloo again voting against the final agreement. In an interview published Saturday with the Waterloo, Iowa-based Courier, Ron McInroy, UAWs 17-state Region 4 director in Ottawa, Illinois, gushed over the agreement while covering up the unions betrayal. All in all, if you look at the contract, if it is not the best, its one of the best, in all of the manufacturing world, in the United States anyway, McInroy said. The agreement today puts Deere back in the category where, its not just a job, its a career. ... Plus, its all tied to the success of the company. Tim Frickson, president of UAW Local 838 in Waterloo, said, I believe what we brought back, and what we have in place now, has separated Deere from some of the other employers in the area, adding, I believe it makes Deere the premier place to come and work in the Cedar Valley againwhere it used to be back in the 70s and 80s. Such words demonstrate the vast chasm that exists between the rhetoric and interests of the UAW bureaucracy and the reality confronting rank-and-file workers. A Deere worker in Ottumwa, Iowa, who had been on disability leave until recently, said, Deere still refuses to pay the $2,000 per year as per the contract to employees on Deere Long-Term Disability (over one year). They claim the union knew this by email before ratification. From what I understand, employees still havent received any printed contract books, as usual. Delay at the printer is the stated reason. Many say they [Deere and the UAW] still hadnt agreed to all issues a few weeks ago, perhaps the real reason? A worker from the Harvester Works plant in East Moline, Illinois, added, Things are slow. We cant get parts in. Its actually worse than last year in that sense. Now 45 percent of our workforce just at Harvester is new hires. They are having hiring events constantly. We have no say, no pull. Deere Harvester Works in East Moline (WSWS Media) The claims that there was no money to meet workers demands during the contract struggle were all lies, she said. The 2021 Deere strike, including its betrayal by the UAW, must be analyzed as an important battle and strategic experience by all workers, and lessons must be drawn. For workers to fight and win their needs, they must take the initiative and build the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee and expand rank-and-file committees throughout every plant and warehouse, connecting with workers at Volvo, Mack, Dana, BNSF, CSX and in the auto industry, in the US and internationally, in order to prepare a mass movement to fight for and secure workers rights and interests. To learn more about joining the John Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee and starting a committee at your workplace, Deere workers can email deerewrfc@gmail.com or text (484) 514-9797. Despite formally adhering to mainland Chinas zero-COVID policy, weaknesses in the Hong Kong governments pandemic policies have permitted the highly-transmissible Omicron variant to sweep through the territorys 7.4 million residents. On Friday, daily reported cases exceeded 10,000 for the first time and on Saturday they reached 17,000, with 66 deaths, including a teenager. Ho Pak-leung, an infectious diseases expert from the University of Hong Kong, told the media that he estimated that about 200,000 Hong Kong residents probably had been infected in the past four weeks. The cases that had been reported only accounted for a third of that figure. Pedestrians walk on a busy street in Hong Kong (Credit: Andrii Makukha/Wikimedia Commons) When the upsurge began in mid-January, the Hong Kong administration, which is sensitive to the demand of sections of the territorys business and financial elite, failed to implement the proactive mass testing and partial lockdowns that have succeeded in suppressing outbreaks in numbers of Chinese cities. Reflecting the criminal let it rip policies of governments around the world, the European Chamber of Commerce issued an unprecedented letter to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam last year stating that the strict quarantine measures then in place would lead many in the international community to question if they want to remain indefinitely trapped in Hong Kong when the rest of the world is moving on. In mid-February, however, as case numbers were spiralling out of control, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a directive to the Hong Kong government to suppress the spread of the virus in line with Beijings highly effective zero-Covid policy. Xis message, published in two of the citys newspapers, was that controlling the pandemic was the overriding task at present. He offered assistance to ease storages of food and other items as well as help in building treatment and isolation centres. While the Hong Kong administration has implemented some measures to suppress the virus, it is clearly concerned about big business profits. When asked last week if a full city lockdown would occur, Lam was cautious in her response, saying it depends on the citys particularities. One of the rationales given for the lack of shutdown measures was that the densely-populated territory lacked the mainlands community networks and social workers to ensure supplies of life necessities to households. As a result, Hong Kongs cumulative total of infections has surged from just under 13,000 at the beginning of the year to over 100,000. The territorys fifth wave began when two flight crew members reportedly flouted quarantine rules. However, local infections started getting out of control after a returning traveller returned a positive test during hotel quarantine. The spread occurred so fast that Hong Kongs contingency plans proved completely inadequate. The large numbers of patients have stretched hospital admissions beyond breaking point. Last week, hospital staff at the Caritas Medical Center in Sham Shui Po faced overwhelming conditions. They were left feeling helpless as the flood of patients broke capacity, limiting their ability to take care of each patient properly. Distressing scenes were captured by local media. Often elderly patients were lying on gurneys or beds in car parks and overcrowded tents outside hospitals. Medical staff across all other hospitals faced exhausting conditions due to understaffing and a lack of planning. Nurses said they are concerned about their own risk of infection. About 1,200 healthcare workers had been infected as of Wednesday, according to the Hospital Authority. Ambulance services are being overwhelmed as well. Emergency call times being met (responding within 12 minutes) have dropped from 92.5 percent last year to 23.3 percent. Only 185 out of 260 ambulances were operating at 5pm on Friday. Last week, the government belatedly ordered all residents to go through three rounds of mandatory coronavirus testing next month. Mainland medical workers and advisers began arriving last week, including critical care workers, as did 25 million KN95 masks and 10 million testing kits. The Beijing government is also building temporary hospital wards and isolation units, but these measures may be too late. Modelling predicts 180,000 infections and 100 deaths daily by mid-March. Long waits for COVID screening across many of Hong Kongs testing stations have also brought about concerns of increased infection. Many people waited for hours. In some cases, residents ended up catching public transport to other parts of Hong Kong to get tested, further increasing the risk of spreading the virus. Residents have complained about the poor communication and confusing testing arrangements, expressing a lack of confidence in the governments ability to stave off the spread. Vaccination rates remain below those of the mainland. About 77 percent of residents are double-vaccinated compared to near 90 percent on the mainland, and only about 25 percent are triple-vaccinated. School and university students have been learning from home since January. Last week, the government decided to shift the summer holidays forward several months to start in March and repurpose schools as testing, vaccination and isolation centres. Limited social distancing measures, including the closure of gyms, bars, and swimming pools, and no dine-in services at eateries after 6 pm, have been extended until April 20. A ban on flights from nine countriesincluding Australia, Canada, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, the UK, and the USwill be extended until April 21. The fifth wave is hitting vulnerable people hard, including migrant domestic workers. Philippines and Indonesian domestic workers who live with families as cleaners, cooks and childminders face homelessness if tested positive with COVID, because their employers refuse to allow them to stay in the house. So far, 70 domestic helpers have been forced to seek help with emergency housing and some have ended up sleeping on the street. Tiny subdivided flats are making it difficult for poor families to isolate from each other if testing positive. The Society for Community Organisation has received more than 500 calls from families living in tiny flats who were infected but had nowhere to quarantine. Hong Kong is a highly unequal society. Recent figures have shown 1 in 5 (1.65 million) people living in poverty, a 12-year high. Another recent study concluded that two-thirds of underprivileged families have at least one family member out of work due to the pandemic. Significantly, residents have willingly fought the battle against COVID-19. When the pandemic first emerged, working-class people implemented their own anti-COVID measures, long before the governments official response. Residents were already wearing masks and taking social distancing measures. Families and friends communicated with each other, reporting COVID cases through social media and Whatsapp groups. The people of Hong Kong are no strangers to epidemics, with the tragedy of the 2003 SARS outbreak still in the collective consciousness. People have supported government restrictions despite deep-seated distrust from two years of unrest and violent repression. The current crisis in Hong Kong is a reminder that the pandemic can end only through coordinated efforts on an international scale. The deadly live with the virus drive in other countries demonstrates the human cost when capitalist interests dominate over lives. The World Socialist Web Site spoke last week with Lidia Morawska, an acclaimed figure in the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on human health. Based in Brisbane, Australia, she is currently a Distinguished Professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at QUT. A long-standing collaborator and advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO), she co-chaired the group responsible for the WHO Air Quality Guidelines. Lidia Morawska [Source: Queensland University of Technology] Morawska is also co-director of the Australia-China Centre for Air Quality Science and Management, an Adjunct Professor at the Jinan University in China and a Vice-Chancellor fellow at the Global Centre for Clean Air Research at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. The recipient of numerous international awards for her scientific work, Morawska was included on Time magazines 2021 list of the 100 most influential people for the key role she played in highlighting the airborne spread of COVID-19 and assembling the data that convinced the WHO to change its previous position that coronavirus was not an airborne disease. The following is an edited version of the discussion with Professor Morawska. World Socialist Web Site: Could you speak about the school reopenings in Australia and elaborate on some of your concerns? Lidia Morawska: I was speaking not just about the school reopenings but the indoor air quality situation in schools. Were still in the pandemic right now and so the main focus is on infection control and other measures to minimise infection risk. Lets make a comparison with a leak from the ceiling during a storm. When this happens, you get a bucket to collect the water, but in the longer term you must fix the roof. Whatever we are doing now to stop the risk of infection in schools, we must realise that these are emergency measures and not a long-term solution. For example, Ive seen a media report today about the situation in schools in Western Australia. The temperatures are going to be close to 40 degrees Celsius and the kids are apparently on the verge of dehydration. The Department of Education is advising parents to give their kids bottles so they have water with them all the time, because to lower the risk of infections they advise the windows to be opened and to not use the air conditioners. The risk of infection is reduced, but the kids are suffocating from the heat. Unless this whole issue of indoor air quality in classrooms is addressed holistically, then we are targeting just one or another issue. There are many other examples. Lets take portable air cleaners that are based on HEPA filters. If the windows must be closedmaybe its too hot outsidean air purifier will do a good job if its an appropriate one in terms of size in relation to the size of the venue. It will clear the virus-laden particles, but because theres no ventilation, the carbon dioxide emitted by the kids will accumulate and theyll be sleepy and lethargic, which is not a perfect situation when we want them to learn and be sharp. These are just a few examples of the fact that the issue has to be approached holistically. WSWS: Whats your response to what has generally occurred in Australia and that there are different rules for different states? LM: Every state is its own kingdom and does different things, and they dont necessarily announce exactly what actions are taken. The first announcement came from the Victorian state in September with a package of close to $200 million for ventilation in schools. It sounded like a very comprehensive package, and they looked at the whole picture of air quality in schools, including ventilation monitoring using CO2 meters, air purifiers and other measures. But over time there were only bits and pieces of information from other states, often through the media from spokesmen for departments of education responding to questions from parents or the community in general. We werent really being given the whole picture. I know the Queensland Department of Education started doing something but can only comment on what I saw with the back-to-school announcement, which came about a week before the schools were to reopen. It was very general and didnt say anything much about the monitoring of CO2. One statement was about wearing masks when the kids were standing or walking, but not when sitting. This particular rule was introduced earlier by different jurisdictions or different organisations in Queensland and has no scientific background whatsoever. It is not whether you are standing or sitting, but whether you are vocal or not. The situation in our local church was that if people were standing and listening they put their masks on, but not when they were sitting and singing, which produces the highest emission rates. Theres very little science there. These are just examples. WSWS: Were now in the learn to live with it policy framework, with claims that Omicron is not as dangerous and therefore all sorts of basic health and safety measures are being lifted. What do you think of this and how does ventilation fit into this regime? LM: Firstly, the question of ventilation really hasnt yet entered any action level, so its not a question of lifting or changing regulations. We are lucky that Omicron doesnt have as severe consequences as the previous variants but whether it will disappear completely or not, we dont know. Maybe it will, as some predict, stay with us and be like many other respiratory infections, but how many times a year are we down with cold or flu and how many people die a year of flu? How much do respiratory infections cost Australia? Its a lot, and so its not just an issue of whats going to happen with Omicron, whether it disappears or not with this pandemic. We knew about the importance of ventilation before the pandemic and the need to remove viruses or pathogens from the air. But the lessons are hard learnt if we dont do anything about it now because well be back to where we were before. Instead of protecting people, we, meaning governments, are just putting our heads in the sand and pretending the issue doesnt exist. WSWS: Professor Guy Marks had a good term for this. He called it magical thinking. Acclaimed scientists like yourself and others have consistently pointed out that this approach is producing a disaster. If its not Omicron, then it will be another variant, because lifting basic health measures provides an opening for many more mutations. LM: Yes, but even if we are lucky and theres no worse variant than Omicron, what Im stressing is that we have respiratory infections all the time but nothing whatsoever is being done about it. We have the significant issue of inadequate indoor air quality without ventilation, which causes lots of health problems, and impacts on academic performance of children. Its not just this pandemic or particular variant, but that were not doing anything about issues that are severe risks for us as a society. WSWS: Yes, we have chronic lung diseases, CRPD, asthma bronchiectasis, and the trigger for people coming to hospital with serious lung infections can often be things like influenza, which is already a severe burden on hospitals. A few years ago, the hospital system in Queensland was almost completely overwhelmed by an influenza outbreak. In July 2020, you were the lead author of an open letter calling on the WHO to recognise SARS-CoV-2 as being a virus transmitted through the air. The WHO and other medical authorities had either denied or were very slow to accept this. What was the impact of this denial? LM: It was simply significantly more cases and significantly more deaths. Thats why, at the very end of March 2020, when I saw the tweet by the WHO director general saying that the virus is not airborne, that I decided to do something. This was not an academic discussion. Lets say, for example, that there is an academic discussion about gravitational waves, and I am by no means trying to undermine the significance of this, or any other area of research, but that particular issue could be discussed and resolved over a century. The misinformation, however, about SARS-CoV-2 not being an airborne virus has significant immediate implications and so this was the trigger for me to act. I remember it vividly. I was speaking in the evening with a colleague in Italy on the last Saturday of March, and Italy was the European epicentre of infections at that time. There were a significant number of deaths in Italy, including among medical professionals, nurses, doctors and so on. My colleague, who is from the engineering field, works closely with the medical community and he said these people were doing everything by the book. They know how to put on proper protection equipmentthey do what theyre told to do, and they do it properlyand yet theyre dying. They were dying because the virus is airborne. He suggested that we write to the Italian authorities and maybe theyd listen. I was very sceptical that they would listen to two lone scientists and suggested that theyd listen if it was the WHO and so we had to target it. That was on Saturday night and when I woke up on Sunday morning, I asked myself, do I really want to do this? I started realising how huge it would become. World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) declaring the coronavirus pandemic a Public Health emergency of International Concern [Credit: Fabrice Coffrini] Three days later our first letter was sent to WHO headquarters in Geneva, which started the conversation, but there was little action from them until that Open Letter was published at the beginning of July. WSWS: Thats a long period. LM: Yes. Its a very long period, and even after the WHO acknowledged that it is an airborne disease their statement left the door open for public health authorities, who didnt want to notice this, to not notice it. It was a very weak statement, and although it was slowly improved through subsequent briefings it was never the sufficiently strong public health message that it should have been and still isnt. WSWS: Why did WHO act in the manner that it did and has it similarly mis-characterised other diseases in recent times? LM: There are papers and books being written about this, and many answers. One is the existence of an old medical dogma which states that if youre an arms length from an infected person then you are safe. This goes back to some studies in the 1930s. Those studies did not, however, consider smaller particles emitted from respiratory activities, which are in the majority, but the misconception was somehow ingrained in the training of medical professionals. One could say it was a kind of medical dogma, but according to my experience most medical professionals do not believe in this dogma. After the open letter was published, I received thousands and thousands of emailsmany of them from medical expertsand not one of them questioned the issue of airborne transmission. So how come public health authorities, national or state, denied this? It seems somehow that those who believe in this old dogma, for whatever reason, are concentrated in public health authority circles and not generally among medical professionals. The WHO had advisors who had very strong positions against the airborne transmission. Why they didnt involve anybody else is a very good question. They would have realised that the advisors were saying this, but that a large part of the medical community was saying something different. The logical reaction would have been to involve other experts. Ive been working with the WHO for the past 25 years or so. We are a WHO collaborating centre and Ive been advisor on many projects. I was co-chair of the WHO air-quality guidelines that were released in September last year and which is the most important document in this field. Working with a group of experts like this from all the areas involved has always been the best and most rewarding of my professional experience. Science was always the key and there would sometimes be endless discussion to make sure that everybody was [scientifically] happy with what we decided. So why was the specific area of the WHO responsible for infection control operating differently and fuelling disbelief in the airborne nature of this virus? This was a big question in my mind. The WHOs position was that the virus was not airborne. This could have been rectified but that would have gone against what the director general had loudly announced. It would have been difficult making a U-turn from saying its not airborne, but the longer it went on the more difficult it became. This is my speculation. The WHO, of course, is not a government but offers advice and recommendations. Its not responsible for actions on the ground and doesnt have to pay for these actions. So, were talking about state or federal governments having to do something, and for them its easier to say its not airborne, wash your hands and stay at a distance, and therefore put responsibility on individuals. They dont have to do anything else; they dont need to worry about ventilation or issuing new guidance; the problem does not exist. WSWS: You and others have pointed out that N95 masks or similar types should really be the standard for all ages, including children. How critical is this in preventing infections for children, particularly at school but also other places? A registered nurse pulls on a new N95 mask as indentations remain from another she had just removed after leaving a COVID-19 patient room in the acute care unit of Harborview Medical Center, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022, in Seattle. Washington Gov. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) LM: One of the key elements is not just the mask material but how well the mask fits. You often see people wearing surgical or cloth masks where the air is not going through the mask but in the gaps around it. Some years ago, my colleagues and I published a paper about N95 masks and surgical masks used to prevent pseudomonas bacterial infections, with a particular focus on people with cystic fibrosis for whom Pseudomonas is a big problem. We built a sort of flow tunnel where we did the measurements. We showed that in terms of preventing release of these bacteria, which are bigger than the coronavirus and easier to contain, both types of masks were sufficiently good. The only difference was the surgical masks were more tolerable. But all this was in this experimental situation and then we fitted the masks to our volunteers. This meant that the masks were well fitted, and the volunteers were sitting down, not touching the mask and not doing anything else. The situation is different when people fit their own masks or dont do it properly, and if youre dealing with Omicron or Delta variants which are significantly more infectious than many other pathogens. So, when talking about very infectious viruses, a surgical mask doesnt provide the same level of protection in terms of airflow compared to an N95 mask. WSWS: Given that N95 masks are far superior and widely available, why havent they been mandated in schools? LM: This is another political question thats very difficult to answer. Maybe the government is worried that this wouldnt be popular with parents or that the government would be asked to subsidise these masks. Governments are presenting the view that things are back to normal, that there are no issues and no risks, and pretend that nothing is happening. It doesnt make sense but its part of the push to remove all restrictions. WSWS: To what extent have state or federal governments improved ventilation standards or even introduced ventilation mandates since the pandemic? LM: Have you heard anybody in the federal government use the word ventilation? I havent, despite directly trying to interact with it. The federal government relinquishes all of this to the states and doesnt have anything to do with these kind of mitigation measures. Theres never been any situation where politicians have mentioned ventilation. At least not that I have heard. So thats the situation. WSWS: Could you speak about China? Given its successful Zero-COVID policy, has the Chinese government addressed the question of ventilation? Is it a component of its coronavirus health response? LM: Its difficult to answer because I dont know exactly whats happening on the ground. I must say though that the very beginning of this journey with governments and public health authorities started with China. I work closely with many colleagues in China and Im a co-director of Australia-China Center for Air Quality Science and Management. In early February 2020 a colleague from China, Professor Junji Cao, contacted me as he was preoccupied about the Chinese government not stressing sufficiently the issue of airborne transmission. Together we published our first paper during the pandemic, and it was titled Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: The world should face the reality. So, it was China, or the initial lack of actions in China, that first motivated me. It was easy to implement the use of proper masks because the community there is used to wearing them. To what extent they focused on ventilation I dont really know. Its a very disciplined society and if there are regulations put in place and the population sees that they make sense, then its very easy to get support. WSWS: People are being told they need to get back to work and keep the economy and profits coming in. Borders are being opened without long-term measures being implemented and scientists are being marginalised in the mainstream media, which is providing little real information. Whats the next step for scientists? LM: Well, its basically to not give up. Last September I wrote a little commentary for Air Quality and Climate Change, which is the Clean Air Society journal of Australia and New Zealand. It was titled The age of anti-science and how to change this. The issue were discussing now applies to the other sciences, including climate change. We have all the knowledge and we have had it for a very long time. The problem is not going to miraculously disappear but is going to get worse. There is a movement from the grassroots for change, but the government is still not doing much. The only thing to do from my perspective, as well as my colleagues, is not to give up but to keep pushing and educating the community. If there is no awareness on the street, if people dont realise that there is a problem, then they wont push for something to be done. I show people a CO2 meter, which I carry with me all the time, and show people the levels and then start a discussion. I do not refuse any invitation to give presentations to all sorts of professional communities and havent refused any interviews. It is a question of talking to people and publishing more scientific papers. What else can I do as a scientist? WSWS: What do you think of the Global Workers Inquest into COVID-19 Pandemic initiated by the WSWS? Have you looked at any of the material or submissions and interviews that weve posted? LM: I had a very quick look among what you have presented. Its good and I agree with it. My plan is to explain what happened with our initial interaction with the WHO, because that story hasnt really been told. This is to make sure that we learn from it and that something good comes out of it. Sixty years after the Cuban Missile crisis, the war in Ukraine has brought the world to the point where the exchange of nuclear weapons is a real danger. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin took the unprecedented post-Cold War action of placing the countrys nuclear deterrent forces on alert. In televised comments delivered at a meeting with military officials in the Kremlin, Putin said that Russias nuclear weapons would be transferred to what he described as a special combat service regime. Explaining the decision, Putin said that Western countries arent only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding the country. Launch of Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, January 26, 2013 (Photo: MDA) The World Socialist Web Site denounces the nuclear brinkmanship of the Putin government. The disaster created by the breakup of the Soviet Union three decades ago cannot be reversed through increasingly reckless militarism. In an act that reflects the desperation and disorientation of the regime, Putin and his faction of the Russian oligarchy cling to the self-deluding hope that they can threaten the imperialist powers into shifting their policies and recognizing Russian security interests in Ukraine. Putins recklessness, however, does not alter the fact that principal responsibility for the present crisis and all its potentially catastrophic consequences lies with American imperialism and its NATO allies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki declared in response to Putins statement that it is part of a pattern weve seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that dont exist in order to justify further aggression. A senior White House official was quoted by CNN as saying that Russia was never under threat from Ukraine or from NATO, which is a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine. The claims that Moscows action is a response to merely manufactured threats to Russia are contradicted by the US/NATO powers, whose statements and actions over the past three days are seen unavoidably by Putin as an effort to destroy the Russian economy and overthrow his government. On Saturday evening, the White House, along with France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Canada, announced that it would expel some Russian banks from the SWIFT financial transaction network. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had earlier referred to removing Russian access to SWIFT as a financial nuclear weapon. He added, The fact remains that when you have a nuclear weapon in your hands, you think before you use it. He added provocatively that we are not reluctant to use all necessary weapons, without exception, against the Russia of Vladimir Putin. The statement of the US and European powers on Saturday also announced a commitment to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves. The Washington Post noted, The United States has never taken this step against any country with nuclear weapons or an economy as large as Russia. These acts of economic warfare are being implemented in the context of what has become de facto a war of NATO against Russia, with Ukraine serving only as the physical battleground. The war rhetoric coming out of Germany, unlike anything seen since the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War, is particularly incendiary. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Sunday that the German military will receive additional financing of $110 billion, nearly twice the amount of its annual budget, and that Germany will also be providing direct military aid to Ukraine. On Sunday, EU Commission President and former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced that the European Union, for the first time, will begin financing the purchase and delivery of weaponry to Ukraine, escalating its direct involvement in the war. Even the claim that NATO forces will not be directly involved in Ukraine was undermined by British Foreign Minister Liz Trusss declaration that she would encourage youth in Britain to join the fight against Russia. These statements follow the announcement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US would be sending an additional $350 million in military aid to the country, bringing the total over just the past year to more than $1 billion. On Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg activated, for the first time since it was created in 2003, NATOs 40,000-strong rapid reaction force in anticipation of a war with Russia. Top officials in all the major NATO countries are calling for even more aggressive actions. US Congressman Adam Kinzinger has called for the declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would involve NATO forces shooting down Russian aircraft. Putin is no doubt aware that the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya in 2011 was the initial step in a war that culminated in the overthrow of the Libyan government and the torture and murder of Muammar Gaddafi. Richard Haass, the president of the Council of Foreign Relations, tweeted Sunday morning that the conversation over the war in Ukraine has shifted to include the possibility of desired regime change in Russia. The threats directed against Russia have been accompanied by the promotion of vile anti-Russian propaganda in the media. While claiming that the US is not targeting the Russian people, it is encouraging punitive actions against Russian citizens, such as banning performances of Russian composers and musicians and canceling appearances of the Bolshoi ballet. Putins belief that American and European imperialism will be compelled to back down is a disastrous miscalculation. On the contrary, the US and its NATO allies have seized on the invasion of Ukraine to intensify their warmongering. One of the worst consequences of the invasion of Ukraine is the level of disorientation it has produced within significant sections of the population. Yesterday, 100,000 people participated in a demonstration in Berlin to oppose the Russian invasion. No doubt many who took part are motivated by humanitarian sentiments, though it must be noted that there have not been mass demonstrations against the brutal wars launched by the US and NATO during the last 15 years. In any case, the NATO powers are seeking to exploit popular confusion to press forward with their own reactionary militarist agenda. They also hope to use the campaign against Russia to distract attention from the intractable internal crises of all the major capitalist powers, above all the United States, which have been enormously intensified by the ruling class response to the pandemic. The international working class must adopt an independent position in response to the escalating crisis. It is necessary to oppose imperialism without adapting to Russian nationalism, and to oppose Russian nationalism without adapting to imperialism. At the international online webinar, Stop the Drive to World War III, hosted by the World Socialist Web Site on Saturday, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North explained, In determining ones attitude to a given war, there is no approach more politically and intellectually bankrupt than that which focuses and obsesses on the question, Who fired the first shot? This question abstracts a single incident from the vast complex of interacting economic, political, social and geostrategic interests and circumstances, with deep historical roots and operating on a global scale, that suddenly obtain the political equivalent of critical mass, and trigger the eruption of military violence. Accepting the narrative that the danger of a Third World War, waged with nuclear weapons, arises out of the actions of one individual, Putin, North noted, requires not only a suspension of all the faculties of critical thought, but also mass amnesia. Elements of this amnesia include forgetting the background to the conflict in Ukraine itself, including the 2014 US-backed coup that placed an anti-Russian government in power, and the relentless expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. And it requires that one forget that the United States took the lead in planning for the use of nuclear weapons by withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, stationing offensive missiles in Romania and Poland, and undertaking a multitrillion-dollar expansion of US nuclear forces. We encourage all of our readers to watch and share the recording of the online webinar, Fight Covid! Save Lives! Stop the Drive to World War III Are you an auto parts worker at Tower, Dakotta or Flex-N-Gate? Have you been affected by COVID? What are your working conditions like? Contact us and share your story today. Workers identities will be kept confidential. At the height of the Omicron surge over the last few months, auto parts workers at Tower Internationals Chicago factory, a supplier to Fords Chicago Assembly Plant, were penalized for following company safety protocols as COVID spread throughout the plant and across the region. Tower Automotive, located near Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant, in Chicago (Credit: WSWS) Management at the plant would use a widely hated attendance system to punish those who called off work because they were experiencing COVID symptoms but who subsequently tested negative, multiple workers told the WSWS. As a result, many would come to work feeling sick or having been recently exposed, the workers said, almost certainly exacerbating the spread of COVID in the plant. Managers and supervisors at Tower ignored even the limited official company policies and the weakened safety guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Late last December, the CDC cut down quarantine times from 10 to five days, a corporate-backed move that was widely seen by disease experts as unscientific and dangerous. Large signs inside the Tower Chicago facility stated that if workers have a fever of 100.4 or more, cough, shortness of breath (difficulty breathing or tightness in chest), or have been diagnosed with COVID-19; (or are waiting for test results) within the last 14 days, then they were not to enter the facility, and instead leave the plant, call the attendance hotline and await follow-up from Human Resources. Despite such guidelines, workers who exhibited symptoms were docked attendance points if their tests came back negative as they stayed home to quarantine during the Omicron surge. If an hourly employee needs to be quarantined, the employer will give the employee attendance point violations if the employees COVID results come back negative, one Tower employee told the World Socialist Web Site. This treatment has caused many COVID-infected coworkers not to inform the employer that they have COVID or have been exposed, he added. Many coworkers have been infected with the virus. The employers COVID rules are posted where one can see. We should not have to be afraid of losing our jobs just because we are following the employers and CDC guidelines. I was literally crying on the line while I was working, said another Tower worker, Isabella, in an extensive interview with the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter. Isabellas name has been changed to protect her identity. When Isabella decided to quarantine due to potential COVID exposure in her family, and as cases shot up exponentially across Chicago and the rest of the country, she said she was badgered and harassed by management to return to work. I was so stressed out and they kept harassing me. And I knew they were harassing me. I have everything documented and all conversations recorded. Every text is recorded. I recorded everything with the COVID testing harassment. Nobody should go through that. I told them, Youre not going to walk all over me. Towers business operations and conditions for workers Tower International is an original equipment manufacturer that supplies parts for multinational automotive companies. Tower workers produce chassis structures and full frame assemblies as well as other suspension components and systems that are used to build cars and sport utility vehicles. Currently headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, Tower has over 5,700 employees and took in over $1.6 billion in revenue in 2018. There are over 14 Tower manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Mexico and Brazil. Locations in the US include factories in Chicago, Illinois; Plymouth, Michigan; Clinton, Michigan; Elkton, Michigan; Bluffton, Ohio; and Bellevue, Ohio. Tower sold off its European operations in 2019 to shift back to North America, citing difficult conditions for business growth, Crains Detroit Business reported. According to Towers annual reports filed with US regulators in 2019, Ford Motor Company makes up nearly half of its business. Another 22 percent takes place with Stellantis and 12 percent with Nissan Motor Company. The company also works with Toyota, BMW, the Volkswagen Group and Honda Motor Company. In September 2019, Tower was acquired by Autokiniton US Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of the global private equity firm KPS Capital Partners, LP, which controls over $5 billion in assets. Workers at Tower plants face brutal sweatshop conditions, which the United Auto Workers (UAW) union has facilitated and enforced over decades in the auto and auto parts industries. A series of strikes by workers in the auto parts industry were betrayed by the UAW in the 1980s and 90s, which helped lower costs for the Big Three and the rest of the auto industry. By the 1990s, the Big Three companies increasingly outsourced manufacturing of their parts to third-party suppliers like Tower, which allowed them to impose extreme levels of exploitation, poverty wages and conditions of industrial slaverywith the collaboration of the UAW. Tower emerged as a major auto parts supplier in the 1990s through a wave of mergers and acquisitions, quickly expanding and moving to international markets. In 2005, however, Tower filed for bankruptcy, citing growing steel prices, and came under the ownership of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which would go on to sell its shares of the company for an $81.3 million initial public offering. When Tower restructured under bankruptcy protection in 2006, the UAW and the United Steel Workers (USW) unions helped impose cuts to wages and benefits, including higher health care costs, on Tower workers. Then-UAW president Bob King defended the companys interests during the restructuring, telling the press at the time, Our goal now is to help this company emerge from bankruptcy and return as a strong player in the U.S. auto industry. The UAWs concessions created dangerous working conditions for Tower workers. In 2014, a contractor was electrocuted at one of Towers facilities in the Detroit area. The UAW did not even bother to report the workers death on its site at the time. Currently, the UAW and USW negotiate separate contracts for each Tower factory, further isolating workers and facilitating the companys efforts to drive down wages and benefits. According to details obtained by the WSWS of the 2020-2023 contract agreement at the Chicago Tower facility, new hires in the most common job classifications only make Chicagos minimum wage of $15 an hour. A worker who started in 2019 before the pandemic only makes about $15.75 an hour, a poverty wage. The trade unions, including the UAW, have worked with the companies to impose cuts in real wages, as prices surge for food, gas and other items. The low wages and brutal conditions during the pandemic confronting Tower workers have become widespread in the auto parts industry, which have generated increasing anger and resistance among workers. In late 2020, workers at a Lear Seating plant in northwest Indiana, which also supplies Ford Chicago Assembly, conducted a wildcat work stoppage after they learned of potential COVID-19 cases at the plant. Last year, Dana auto parts workers, who work 80 hours a week or more, waged a courageous fight to oppose a UAW- and USW-backed concessions contract, voting down an initial union-backed agreement by 90 percent. In order to overcome the pro-company maneuvering of the unions, Dana workers organized their own independent rank-and-file committee, in an effort to unite workers across plants and to fight for major wage increases, a 40-hour work week and safe working conditions during the pandemic. Tower Automotive: Its slavery inside a box! Reviews by employees of the Chicago facility on the employment website Indeed.com highlight the extreme levels of exploitation Tower workers face. One worker noted recently, Work is very repetitive. Youre doing the same thing every day changing between 2-3 stations. They want you to get a high number every day, but no incentive to obtain the goal. Even if you hit your goal every day for a month or more they just expect you to keep getting it while they take all your coworkers that know the positions and give you new people that you have to train while producing the same workload. The worker added that there are only short breaks and no way to run to the bathroom in case of an emergency. Managers [also] mistreat you. Another worker said, If you love overtime this is the place to be. Management doesnt care about the employees and they make you work overtime every day without notice. They also changed your schedule without notice. You can be the best employee ever but as soon as you get hurt all that goes out the window they kick you to the curb and dont care about your well-being. Yes Master! Another hot day in the field, stated another worker sarcastically in September 2019. Its slavery inside a box! People have died working here. Gotten sick! And broke their bodies in this place. Just to be mistreated and disrespected. Tower workers in Chicago face Omicron surge During the recent surge of the Omicron variant, caseloads skyrocketed throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. There were over 13,000 cases a day in early January in Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is located, at the height of the surge. These figures, as with those nationally and internationally, were widely acknowledged by infectious disease experts to be underestimates. Tower sign on COVID guidelines (Credit: Tower worker) Many testing sites, meanwhile, were overwhelmed by the surge of cases. Workers at Fords Chicago Assembly Plant (CAP) on the citys Far South Side complained of not being able to use at-home test kits to obtain company-approved leave from work, even as they struggled to find PCR testing locations, a disaster out of their control. On January 13, Chicago Ford worker Caleb Mateo Dye died of COVID-19. The 32-year-old had been hospitalized with a COVID infection since December 10. His death prompted an outpouring of sympathy from his fellow Ford workers and as well as outrage among workers more broadly. The Omicron variant spread throughout Fords facility and among workers at its parts suppliers, including Tower workers nearby. I was double-vaccinated and got a booster, said one Tower employee. But I still got exposed to the virus. Youll get pointed if you test negative. Thats causing a lot of people to show up because theyre on their last points. The employers got the big sign saying dont come in if you have symptoms, colds, etc. Ive worked at Tower Automotive for 18 years, the worker added, speaking of his experience. Tower is located in southeast Chicago, right across from Chicago Assembly Plant. About 2003 is when they laid the groundwork. The manufacturing campus was originally designed to be on the same manufacturing campus as CAP, to save on costs. It was modeled after the Japanese supplier model, where they are across the street. Dakkota Integrated Systems is another company on the campus. Theres also a nonunion company called Flex-N-Gate. Theyre really having problems with COVID too. One person died from Dakkota Integrated Systems. There was a brother over there who caught the virus and died when the pandemic began. Tower makes the rear floor assembly for Chicago Assembly. Thats our only customer, Ford. We do stamping with the large presses. We make the rails. Tower makes the chassis. We have about 298 union workers there. Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant (Credit: WSWS) Tower doesnt follow their own safety policies with COVID. The same things I hear at Fords Chicago Assembly are going on at Tower. The union reps at Tower were bombarded weekly [during the surge] Somebody got tested positive, they would say. Workers would have symptoms and test positive. The employer wouldnt let them go and workers would say, But Im sick. Then, the company says you cant leave and if you come back with a negative test, you get an attendance point. Its a lot of pressure on people if you think you might be positive to come back. At the beginning of the pandemic, they said if you think you have any of the COVID symptoms, you should go get tested. Workers would go get tested. If they received negative results, theyd go back to work. Nobody was abusing it. Very few people would call off or say that they tested positive. Then they started threatening people when they tested negative, and management gave them points. Thats when the surge of COVID happened. They continued to work while they waited on test results because they didnt want to get attendance points. He added that workers at Tower have only been supplied with ineffective surgical masks. Despite being the most commonly used masks in many workplaces, repeated studies have shown that they do not provide adequate protection against the coronavirus, which can remain in the air for hours in aerosolized form. Im the only one with an N95 mask, the worker added. According to aerosol and infectious disease scientists, N95 masks are the most effective masks against COVID aerosols, along with other respirator masks. He concluded, noting the brutal working conditions, Its six days a week. Its 10-hour days. When we first started, we worked straight 12-hour days, seven days a week. We see coworkers more than we see our families. You come home, kiss your wife, eat dinner, go to sleep, go see the workers you work with, not your wife. Thats your life. Were giving Tower our lives, not just our work. These are human bodies. Are you an auto parts worker at Tower, Dakotta or Flex-N-Gate? What are your working conditions like? Contact us and share your story today. Workers identities will be kept confidential. When you look at all the evidence together, its an extraordinary clear picture that the pandemic started at the Huanan market! Dr. Michael Worobey, evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona. Over the weekend, three studies were released in pre-print form that offer additional compelling evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, spilled over from animals to humans, not once, but at least twice, in and around the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, within a short period of time in November and December 2019. The three studiesthe first from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and paired reports conducted by a distinguished international panel of scientists, virologists, and experts in their field, offer further compelling evidence against the bankrupt, politically reactionary, and fabricated construct that the coronavirus was manufactured by Chinese scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and then intentionally or accidentally released into the community. The paired studies were, in fact, rushed to pre-print by Dr. Michael Worobey, Dr. Kristian Andersen, and colleagues, shortly after the Chinese CDC posted their report online. This demonstrates that experts within China and outside it came to the same conclusions independently, each providing important corroboration for the other. And for both the Chinese authority and the international collaboration of these principled scientists against the political squalor that has been unleashed, it is adherence to scientific principles and the congruity of their data that vindicates both. It is noteworthy that Dr. Worobey had been one of several scientists in May 2021 calling for more investigations into the origins of COVID, including the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Chinese study is the first official public report on the hundreds of samples collected in and around Huanan market after it had been closed on January 1, 2020. Though none of the animal swabs covering 18 species picked up the coronavirus, 73 environmental samples tested positive by PCR with three successful live viruses isolated, which shared nucleotide identity with the early human isolates to within 99.98 to 99.993 percent. The number of samples breaks down as follows: 923 environmental samples collected, with 73 found positive, for a rate of 7.9 percent. Of the 828 samples inside the Huanan market, 64 samples were positive. Five of 14 samples in adjacent warehouses that belonged to the market were positive. Among 51 sewage wells in the surrounding area, three tested positive. Lastly, only one out of 30 environmental samples from other markets in Wuhan tested positive. Figure 1 The distribution of the positive environmental samples in Huanan Seafood Market. Chinese CDC report Of the 64 positive samples found at the market, 87.5 percent (56 out of 64) were collected in the western zone of the market. The study further narrowed the largest cluster to one area of the market as depicted in figure one. Additionally, all four sewage wells in the market tested positive, which indicates that the people in the market contaminated the sewage as opposed to the contaminated sewage being the source of the cluster. The Chinese CDC also reported results of testing approximately 20 percent of the vendors (134/678). Of 21 Huanan market vendors who tested positive, 19 of them were in the west zone, only two in the east zone. This data provides considerable epidemiologic evidence for Huanan market being a catalyst for the outbreak of infections. With respect to the paired studies, in discussion with Dr. Kristian G. Andersen, the Director of Infectious Disease Genomics at Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, who was one of the lead authors with Dr. Michael Worobey on the spatial-temporal analysis of infections surrounding the Huanan market, science reporter Amy Maxmen at Nature, wrote that: Their analyses add weight to original suspicions that the pandemic began at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which many of the people who were infected earliest with SARS-CoV-2 had visited. The preprints contain genetic analyses of coronavirus samples collected from the market from people infected in December 2019 and January 2020, as well as geolocation analyses connecting these samples to a section of the market where live animals were sold. Using maps provided by the WHOs mission report on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, they set out to pin the exact location and date of known COVID-19 cases from Wuhan with onset of symptoms in December 2019. Using this simple approach, they were able to create an infection density map that placed Huanan at its epicenter. Even when cases without links to the market were plotted, Huanan market remained the most plausible site for the start of the community transmission. Figure 2 Huanan Market, Wuhan, infection density map - panel A and B December 2019 & panel C and D January and February 2020. Source Dr. Michael Worobey Twitter feed. Dr. Worobey wrote, Striking contrast with cases from later in the epidemic, when the virus was more widespread in Wuhan. In early 2020, [Panel C and D, figure 2] you see cases all through central Wuhan, on both sides of the Yangtze. We found that cases in December were both nearer to, and more centered on, the Huanan market than could be expected given either the population density distribution of Wuhan, or the spatial distribution of COVID cases later in the epidemic. Its epicenter was at the market. [Also note the distance of the WIV (red circle) from Huanan market] As the authors of the study note, Multiple lines of evidence establish the Huanan Market in Wuhan as the site where the COVID-19 pandemic originated in late 2019: i. SARS-CoV-susceptible animals, including raccoon dogs, were sold at the market in November and December 2019 ii. Vendors known to have sold raccoon dogs in earlier yearsand known to have sold illegal live mammals in late 2019yielded a large number of SARS-CoV2 positive environmental samples, including several objects clearly associated with animals iii. Positive environmental samples in the market were concentrated in the Southwest corner of the western section of the market, the same area where most live mammals were traded iv. Most cases among vendors within the market occurred in the western section where live mammals were sold v. A large proportion of the earliest known cases were identifiable as individuals who worked at, visited, or were linked to somebody who visited the market vi. This epidemiological link to the Huanan market is genuine and not due to ascertainment bias caused by special focus on the market as a possible site of cases vii. Lineage A and not just lineage B (more on this later)viruses were circulating near to and centered on the Huanan market in the early stages of the outbreak, suggesting multiple spillovers may have occurred at the market viii. The spatial pattern of cases in December being so close to and centered on the Huanan market cannot be explained as arising by chance given population density patterns in Wuhan ix. This pattern holds when considering only cases that had no history of exposure at Huanan market, demonstrating that community transmission began in the direct vicinity of the market x. Only by January and February 2020 did the spatial pattern of cases reflect that of the population density patterns in Wuhan precluding an earlier period of general transmission xi. [And finally] In a city of 11 million people there are thousands of sites that would be at least as likely to be the site of the initial cluster of a respiratory disease as the western section of the Huanan market, which measures only about 150 meters by 70 meters, if the pandemic had not involved the trade in live mammals As the study notes, based on their epidemiological analyses, no other site in Wuhan was identified as even plausibly being linked to the December 2019 COVID cases, not even a nearby major transit hub, the Hankou Railway station, nor the Wuhan CDC which is close to the market. According to the World Health Organization, no storage nor laboratory activities on coronaviruses or other bat viruses preceding the outbreak were taking place at the site in December 2019 or preceding months. It should be added, neither was the Wuhan Institute of Virology implicated in these rigorous analyses as a possibility. Andersen noted, This is extremely strong evidence. The understated form in which the conclusions are reported by the US scientists is striking, In no way do the authors trumpet that these are ironclad results against the lab leak theory. The presentation takes the form of a courtroom case where the defense provides extremely strong circumstantial evidence that their client was not at the scene of the crime and could not have committed the murder. The authors of the current studies know full well how politically dangerous the issue has become. In a courageous and principled way, providing rigorous proof, they present the evidence succinctly, in a straightforward and detached manner. The second more complex study, also co-authored by Dr. Michael Worobey, the head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, finds that SARS-CoV-2 emerged as a result of at least two separate zoonotic events in November or December in close proximity in time to each other. During the original outbreak in Wuhan, there were two major lineages detected, denoted as A and B, with minor but detectable differences. Lineage B was more common, accounting for two-thirds of 700 complete genomic sequences in the early phase of the pandemic from December to February. Worobey writes that Dr. Jonathan Pekars simulations and molecular clock dating estimate put the earliest of the (at least) two successful introductions into humans in late November. The report concluded, based on a genetic evaluation, the two lineages are too different from one another to have evolved one from the other in humans during such a short time. Because lineage B came to dominate, they assumed it spilled over first and outcompeted lineage A. Given two separate jumps from animals to humans, the overwhelming likelihood is that this took place in the wet market, where many similar animals were in close proximity to many people, and not in the Wuhan lab. In the article in Nature, Maxmen writes, Taking all the new data together, and adding a degree of speculation, Andersen [the author of the proximal origin of SARS-Cov-2 ] suggests that raccoon dogs could have been infected on a farm that then sold animals at the markets in Wuhan in November or December 2019, and the virus might have jumped to people handling them, or to buyers. At least twice, those infections could have spread from an index case to other people, he says. On May 28, 2021, the World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board wrote about the bankrupt propaganda campaign launched by the Biden administration and US intelligence communities to resurrect the fabricated lie that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory. The WSWS wrote, This lie defies overwhelming scientific evidence and the findings of a World Health Organization (WHO) investigation released in late March. It will go down as one of the greatest falsehoods in human historya colossal untruth that eclipses even the Bush administrations perjured claims about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction. The promotion of the lab-origin theory is driven by political conditions and social interests. First, the lab lie campaign was used as a diversion for the failures of the US and other governments in implementing policies that have led to mass death. Second, it was used to incite nationalist hatred against China in support of the USs aim that will prepare for economic and potentially military conflict with China. The latest three studies function as an antidote against the ideological poison being pumped into American politics. Accordingly, attempts are already underway to dismiss these studies and attack their authors for purporting to find good faith efforts on the part of their Chinese counterparts. But science knows no nationality or borders. Workers must defend those scientists who stand on principle and advance the truth as critical allies in carrying forward the class struggle. Weather Alert ...The Flood Warning is extended for the following rivers in Indiana... White River at Edwardsport. White River at Elliston. Wabash River at Montezuma. .Multiple rounds of rain over the last few days will lead to minor flooding along lower portions of the White River and upper portions on the Wabash River. Additional rainfall later this week should keep portions of the White and Wabash above flood stage through Saturday. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov/ind. This statement will be updated within the next 12 to 24 hours. && ...FLOOD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL MONDAY EVENING... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Wabash River at Montezuma. * WHEN...Until Monday evening. * IMPACTS...At 18.0 feet, Montezuma agricultural levee is overtopped. Fourteen hundred acres of low bottomlands flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 10:45 AM EDT Wednesday the stage was 13.0 feet. - Forecast...The river will rise to 13.4 feet just after midnight tonight. It will then fall to 13.3 feet and begin rising again early tomorrow afternoon. It will rise above flood stage early Friday morning and continue to rise to 17.1 feet early Saturday afternoon. It will then fall below flood stage Monday morning. - Flood stage is 14.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood && The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King Jr. As Black History Month comes to a close, I am elated to celebrate just a few of the current Black leaders here in Bay County. This county has seen its share of African American groundbreakers in the past and today is no different. Presently, we have three Black city officials holding offices of distinction. I have the honor and privilege to highlight them today. Ashley Myatt Previous column: Bay County's Black community focused on youth, housing and economic growth | Guestview More: Black History Month: Bay County stands on the shoulders of many | Guestview Kenneth Brown currently occupies the seat for city commissioner Ward 2. Brown is a proud graduate of the historical Rosenwald High School Class of 1965. He then attended Rosenwald Junior College that later became Gulf Coast Community College. He graduated from Gulf Coast in 1967. Following his graduation, Brown joined the United States Navy where he served in Interior Communications as well as handled submarine watercrafts. After his service in the Navy, Brown moved back to Panama City and began working at WestRock Paper Mill where he completed his electrician apprenticeship. As a licensed electrician, Brown started his own business, Browns Electrical Service, offering his expertise to his community. While being an entrepreneur, Brown joined the Bay County Chamber of Commerce. As a member of the chamber, he was invited to join the Panama City Community Redevelopment Agency Board or CRA. Commissioner Brown stated during his time with the Chamber of Commerce he was asked to run for city commissioner when Commissioner Jonathan Wilson decided he would not run again. Brown said, If you dont go forth and try, you will not know if you will be successful or not. After his run, he was elected as city commissioner Ward II. Brown has stayed active in his community and has served with the Downtown North Design and Planning Committee, Downtown Improvement Board, Glenwood Working Partnership, the Better Business Bureau and the Home Builders Association. Commissioner Brown is married to Rose Marie Brown and has four sons of whom he is very proud. Story continues Vickie Gainer is one of Panama Citys phenomenal trailblazers. As a Panama City native, Gainer has a rich history of service and public works. In 1981, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Montevallo. She also earned her Master of Science Degree in 2004 from Florida State University. Since earning her degrees, Gainer has been a trailblazer in her community. She has worked as communications director at Florida State University Panama City, an assistant marketing director for Peoples First, and she worked as the regional business development and marketing director for Gatehouse Media. In 2017, Gainer was hired by the city of Lynn Haven. She served as deputy city clerk, human resources director, grants and contracts manager as well as director of administrative support services in 2018. She also served as public policy moderator through the Gulf Coast State College Citizen Leadership Program. Gainer was appointed as Lynn Haven's city manager on Nov. 15, 2019. With this appointment, she made history. She was the first woman and African American to hold this position. With the appointment as Lynn Haven city manager and her countless hours of service and dedication, Gainer is an inspiration to not only her community but to the Black youth in the area. Through her example of poise and grace, she makes her community proud. Gainer is married to retired educator Harry Gainer Jr., and has two children. Dr. Jesse Nelson, Lynn Havens mayor, is a prominent and dedicated member in our community. As a proud Alabama native, Nelson has made Panama City his home and has continued to make it a better place to live for all of its citizens. Nelson graduated from Selma University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He furthered his education at Alabama State University and Regents Park College of Oxford University. Since 2016, Nelson has been the senior pastor of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church of Panama City, where he put the mission in missionary. He prides himself in making certain the body of Macedonia is one that shows love and compassion throughout the city, country and world. Under his leadership, Macedonia served as a disaster relief location for those in need after Hurricane Michael. Amid COVID-19, Nelson supported testing and vaccine initiatives at his church. Nelsons compassionate hand reaches across international waters as he is a missionary to Haiti as well. He has a heart for children as shown with his community partnerships with the Bay Youth Summer Work Program, his board membership of Anchorage Childrens Home, local Girl Scouts and his mentorship at Mosley High School. With his love for people and service, Nelson ran for mayor and was elected in 2021. Nelson has made his community proud. With the love and support from his wife, Catesha Nelson, and their two children, Nelson continues to be a wonderful Black leader in our community. Ashley Myatt is a graduation coach at Rutherford High School and the secretary for Minority PC, a nonprofit organization. She is a resident of Panama City. This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Kenneth Brown, Vickie Gainer, Dr. Nelson: Bay County's Black groundbreakers College Hill School, 1886 In late 1870s, the Tennessee General Assembly decided to support separate public schools for black and white students. By the late 1880s, the Colored Public School, which became College Hill School, had moved from a temporary location, the Colored Orphan Building, to a new building on Bridge Street. In the 1890s, the schools established by the Freedmens Bureau and buildings erected for church and school purposes during and after reconstruction period, were still being used. However, the older buildings were badly in need of repair and more schools and teachers were desperately needed to educate the students in the rural communities. As the leaders in the rural communities worked to repair and replace the dilapidated schools and build new schools to handle the increase in the numbers of students, Colored Teachers Institutes were organized in many counties in the Southern states, including Maury County, to train and certify teachers. The first session of the Maury County Colored Teachers Institute was held at the College Hill School in 1896. The primary purpose of these annual 10-day sessions was to present methods in the art of teaching to those with less experience. Generally, more than 100 primary and secondary teachers attended the institute and were candidates for certification to teach in Maury County Schools. Turner Normal School, Feb. 13, 1895. Special attention was given to primary teachers in the areas of English Grammar, mathematics, orthography, primary physiology, Tennessee history, and U.S. History. Secondary teachers concentrated on algebra, geometry, physics, civil government, geology of Tennessee, rhetoric, elements of agriculture and physiology. The Conductor of the Institute was generally the principal of College Hill assisted by experienced educators and other subject matter experts. Included were the president of the State Normal School in Alabama; president of the Womens Christian Temperance Union of Nashville; J. W. Johnson, the professor of mathematics, Roger Williams University; R. G. Johnson, Principal of the New Decatur, AL Public School; and Drs. C. F. Crews and A. T. Braxton, Physician and Pharmacist, respectively, of Columbia. Story continues The County Superintendent of Schools conducted the examinations. Those students who passed the examination were assigned to teach in one of the schools in the rural communities. It should be noted that many of the teachers who received certifications from the Maury County Colored Teachers Institute continued their education, obtaining at least a Bachelors degree. Founder Mrs. Florence Armatage Thomas Turner established the Maury County Turner Normal and Industrial School in 1893, where she served as president and principal. By February 13, 1896, the school reported a daily average of 55 students in the classes. The most popular classes were carpentry for men, needlepoint, cooking and house work for women. In September 1896, the directors of Maury County Turner Normal and Industrial School re-chartered the school under the name of the Tennessee State Normal and Industrial School. The board of directors purchased property on High street, near White Spring. Teachers were hired and the school started operating as the Tennessee State Normal and Industrial School in September 1896. The charter members were as follows: M.C. Church, Chairman of Board of Directors; H. Morgan, P. F. Fleming, J. H. Kinzer, F. J. Webster, S. H. Howell, F. A. Turner, President and Principal, and James H. Turner, Secretary. Mrs. Turner, the daughter of Henry and Ellen Hayes, was born in Tennessee in 1868. She attended Mrs. Julia Thomas Private School, Fisk, and Walden Universities in Nashville, and the Hospital College of Medicine in Chicago, specializing in Chiropody. She married Rev. James Henry Turner, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, who served on the schools board of directors. Rev. James Henry Turner was born on a plantation in Virginia. He enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1864 in the 144th NY Regiment and two months later transferred by his request to the served with the 43rd United States Colored Troops, Company D. He attended Howard University in Washington, D.C.; Schofields Commercial College in Providence, Rhode Island; Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey; Central Tennessee College in Nashville and National Medical School of Chattanooga. He pastored several churches, including the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbia. Jo Ann McClellan is Maury County historian and president of the African American Heritage Society of Maury County. This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Black History Month: How education built a community in Maury County Managers at the Bridgestone-Firestone tire factory on Northwest Second Avenue just north of Des Moines sent workers home Sunday after learning that hackers may have compromised the international corporation's data systems. Emily Weaver, director of communications for Bridgestone Americas, said in a statement Monday morning that company officials are investigating the "information security incident." She said Bridgestone managers disconnected computers at many Latin American and North American factories, though she did not say which locations the company thinks were hacked. "Until we learn more from this investigation, we cannot determine with certainty the scope or nature of any potential incident, but we will continue to work diligently to address any potential issues that may affect our operations, our data, our teammates, and our customers," Weaver said in a statement. With about 1,300 workers in Des Moines, Bridgestone Corp. is one of the largest manufacturing employers in the metro. Workers at the factory produce almost all of the company's agricultural tires for U.S. and Canadian customers, as well as construction, forestry and off-road tires. Des Moines's Bridgestone agricultural tire plant. Workers there said shifts had been canceled Sunday following a cyber attack on the company. Local employees began posting on Facebook on Sunday morning that their managers had sent them home due to a hack. United Steelworkers Local 1155L, which represents Bridgestone employees at a truck and bus tire plant in Morrison, Tennessee, posted online that workers' Monday shifts there were canceled, as well. They could still come to work and perform maintenance work like painting and cleaning. More: Iowa officials approve $10.2 million in incentives for Buena Vista County soybean crush factory USW Local 310L President Tim Linn, whose union represents about 1,000 Des Moines workers, attended a meeting at the factory Monday morning. He did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. International hackers have targeted companies and hospitals around the world more frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The hacks have threatened supply of key products in the United States, including meat and oil. Story continues U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a September speech that hackers have increased ransomware attacks in the country by 300% over the previous year. The Justice Department established a task force, and President Joe Biden issued an executive order demanding that federal agencies and contractors change their cyber defenses. Reuters reported Sunday that the the U.S. financial sector was bracing for potential cyberattacks by Russian-linked hackers in the wake of Western sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. President Joe Biden has made a priority of defending against cyber attacks. Some high-profile hacks shut down production at Iowa factories last year. Brazilian meat conglomerate JBS, which produces about one-fifth of all U.S. meat, closed pork processing factories in Marshalltown and Ottumwa because of hacks last June. The Justice Department said the Russian-linked criminal hacking group REvil was behind the attack, for which JBS paid an $11 million ransom. Federal prosecutors say they clawed back some of that money. A group of Russian hackers known as Black Matter attacked a northwest and north-central Iowa grain cooperative in September. A spokesperson for the Fort Dodge-based NEW Cooperative told the Register two weeks later that employees had gotten about half of the group's computer processes running again. The spokesperson declined to comment on whether NEW Cooperative paid the hackers' $5.9 million ransom demand. Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on Twitter at @LetsJett. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Bridgestone tire factory in Des Moines cancels shifts amid cyberattack Former Attorney General Bill Barr says the 2020 presidential election was not stolen: 'Trump lost it' Former US Attorney General Bill Barr. Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images Bill Barr disavowed Donald Trump's claims of a stolen 2020 election, The Washington Post reported. "The election was not 'stolen,'" he wrote in his forthcoming book, per The Post. "Trump lost it." Barr reportedly wrote that the Justice Department couldn't substantiate Trump's claims of fraud. Former Attorney General Bill Barr in a forthcoming book unequivocally rejected former President Donald Trump's claims casting doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election, according to excerpts published Sunday in The Washington Post. Barr wrote in the book, "One Damn Thing After Another," that Trump didn't win the 2020 presidential race against Joe Biden. "The election was not 'stolen,'" the former attorney general wrote, per The Post. "Trump lost it." While Trump's interactions with Barr regarding the presidential election have been mentioned in other books, the attorney general's memoir is expected to detail some of the tensest moments between the two men as it related to Trump's unfounded voter-fraud claims. After Barr told an Associated Press reporter in December 2020 that there wasn't evidence of mass voter fraud, the attorney general met with Trump in the White House to discuss the interview, according to the book. Barr's statements, which had become part of the public record, threw cold water on Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate. "This is killing me killing me. This is pulling the rug right out from under me," the book says Trump told Barr, according to The Post. "He stopped for a moment and then said, 'You must hate Trump. You would only do this if you hate Trump.'" The former attorney general also wrote that he informed Trump of how he had "sacrificed a lot personally to come in to help you when I thought you were being wronged" but was adamant that the Department of Justice couldn't verify the debunked claims of fraud that many Republicans argued had tipped the election to favor Biden. Story continues Barr, who served as attorney general under Trump from February 2019 to December 2020, also called on conservatives to embrace "an impressive array of younger candidates" in 2024 whom he described as ideologically aligned with the former president but lacking his "erratic personal behavior," per the book. He did not identify any favored candidates by name. In the book, however, Barr is said to blast Trump for what he describes as the former president's lack of character. "Country and principle took second place," he remarked in the book, per The Post, recalling his personal revelations about Trump while navigating the last few months in his role. He added: "People are worthwhile to Trump only as means to his ends as utensils." Barr, who also served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush from November 1991 to January 1993, succeeded former Sen. Jeff Sessions, who had a tumultuous tenure in the administration after recusing himself from the Russia investigation and drawing the scorn of Trump. Barr's book is set to be released March 8. Read the original article on Business Insider Photo credit: Toyota Toyota announced Monday it will be suspending operations at all 14 of its production plants in Japan after a company that supplies the automaker with components was hit by a suspected cyberattack, according to Nikkei Asia and Reuters. The decision to pause production starting Tuesday affects a total of 28 production lines for Toyota. Subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu were also forced to halt some operations in Japan. Kojima Industries, the supplier hit with the attack, told Nikkei in a statement it was assessing the situation. It is true that we have been hit by some kind of cyberattack. We are still confirming the damage and we are hurrying to respond, with the top priority of resuming Toyota's production system as soon as possible. Toyota confirmed the production pause in an email sent to Road & Track, calling the cause a "system failure at a domestic supplier." The company estimates the impact to production in Japan to be approximately 13,000 vehicles, and says it "will continue to work with our suppliers to strengthen the supply chain and make every effort to deliver vehicles to our customers as soon as possible." It's unclear at this time who was behind the attack or their motives, but Toyota confirmed there's no impact to its production facilities in North America at this time. In a statement released Tuesday, the company confirmed it will resume operations on Wednesday. This isn't the first time Toyota has paused production in 2022. Chip shortages and COVID-related issues forced the company to halt operations at certain plants in both January and February, according to Automotive News. The company's North American operations were also disrupted in February due to protests along key trade routes between the U.S. and Canada. This article, originally published February 28, 2022, has been updated with a statement from Toyota confirming the restart of production in Japan. You Might Also Like FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan attend the official welcome ceremony in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 15, 2019. The UAE is hedging its positions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine to avoid angering a country crucial to its economy, abstaining a council vote condemning the invasion. Meanwhile, the United States, has lobbied the UAE to add its voice against Moscow. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The United Arab Emirates campaigned hard for a seat on the U.N. Security Council in the country's international push to highlight the 50-year anniversary of its formation. But it got more than it bargained for with Russia's war on Ukraine. The federation of sheikhdoms, home to Dubai's skyscrapers, abstained in a Security Council vote late last week condemning Moscow's invasion. The Emirates now carefully hedges its statements to avoid angering a country crucial to its economy as it tries to shake off the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the United States, whose military provides security guarantees to the Emirates amid tensions over the collapsing nuclear deal with Iran, has lobbied the UAE to add its voice against Moscow. That pressure on the UAE will only grow Monday as the U.N. prepares for only its 11th-ever emergency session of the General Assembly over the war. The Security Council will likely hold more votes as well seeking to condemn Russia. For the Emiratis, they face a major risk in upsetting Russia, which has become an important trade partner, a source of tourists to the UAE and a military power across the wider Middle East. Russia firmly rooted its presence in the region during the chaos of the civil war in Syria with its military backing of President Bashar Assad. Russian aircraft, along with Assad's air forces, attacked civilian neighborhoods, including crowded markets during the day, with explosive bombs with wide-area effects, killing and injuring civilians in attacks that amounted to war crimes, the U.N.'s Human Rights Council said in a report last year. Those strikes amounted to systematic failure to take any precautions to spare civilians from harm, the report added. But after opposing Assad for years, the UAE has re-established diplomatic and economic ties with Syria, with one Emirati official even praising Assad's wise leadership during a war that continues today. Story continues Israel, which diplomatically recognized the UAE in 2020, similarly has issued cautiously worded statements since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Israel does not want to disrupt its quiet understanding with Moscow that enables it to carry out airstrikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria. In Libya, despite a U.N. embargo, the UAE and Russia, along with other countries, have transported weapons to their common ally in the turmoil plaguing that country since the 2011 uprising and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, according to U.N. investigators. The UAE also may provide some financing for the Russian mercenary firm Wagner in Libya, a Pentagon inspector general report claimed in 2020, though the Emirates disputed the allegation. Russian influence extends beyond the battlefield into the hushed diplomatic meetings ongoing in Vienna over the Iranian nuclear deal. The collapse of the accord after then-President Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal of America has sparked years of attacks across the Mideast that have slowly drawn closer and closer to the Emirates. Since the start of this year, Abu Dhabi has faced a series of drone and missile attacks from Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, including one that killed three people and wounded six others at a state oil depot. The UAE, which has been part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, long has viewed Iran as an existential threat but has sought to cool tensions with Tehran amid the negotiations. The Emiratis' effort to avoid directly blaming Russia for the Ukraine war likely raised attention in Washington particularly since U.S. military forces fired Patriot missiles batteries in combat for the first time in nearly 20 years to defend Abu Dhabi from the recent attacks. Russias ambassador in Vienna has been a vocal proponent of restoring the nuclear deal. Iran's hardline president, meanwhile, has echoed Moscow's stance by repeatedly calling NATO expansion in Europe a serious threat, even as protesters recently braved security forces in Tehran to chant, Death to Putin! Those tensions can even be seen in the staid realm of government statements. In a call Thursday to Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about Russias premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified attack against Ukraine, according to Blinken's office. A later Emirati statement described the two as merely discussing bilateral strategic relations and ways of strengthening joint cooperation. There was no mention of Ukraine or Russia -- just like in another statement acknowledging a call between Sheikh Abdullah and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Sheikh Abdullah also had been scheduled to visit Lavrov on Monday in Moscow, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Emirati officials, however, did not acknowledge the scheduled meeting. Meanwhile Monday, the U.N. Security Council passed an Emirati proposal to put an expanded arms embargo on the Houthis. Emirati-Russian relations also focus largely on business as well, something visible in the Cyrillic signs dotting the UAE's cavernous malls and airport concourses. Russia led oil producers outside of OPEC into a production deal that propped up prices, to the benefit of the Emirates and neighboring Saudi Arabia. The UAE also is Russia's largest economic partner in the wider Gulf Cooperation Council, with total trade last year between the two countries estimated at $4 billion. Among the throngs flooding to Dubai's beaches and nightclubs amid the pandemic, Russians made up their third-largest source market for tourists in 2021. For the northern emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, Russians represented their No. 1 tourist market last year. Russia also remains an important buyer in Dubai's boom-and-bust real estate market which also has attracted the attention of those trying to subvert international sanctions. For now, though, the Emiratis appear to be like India in carefully abstaining from criticizing Russia. In explaining her country's abstention Thursday, Emirati Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh described the vote as a forgone conclusion, likely referring to Russia's veto power. However, her country campaigned for that Security Council seat they now hold. And it will continue to put them under pressure internationally as long as Russia's war in Ukraine rages on. ___ EDITORS NOTE Jon Gambrell, the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press, has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. EDITORS' PICKS Lashify/ InStyle Another month has come and gone. And while it seems like time is just flying by, we'd all be lying if we said we weren't counting down the days 'til spring. But until the new season is upon us, we've been testing out some of the best beauty products on the market for the past month. Now, we want to tell you all about the three we couldn't get enough of and we promise you'll love them, too. RELATED: 15 New Beauty Products to Get You Through the Mid-Winter Slump So without further ado, here are all the beauty products we swore by in February. Lashify Control Kit A wise woman once told me, "Lashes are life." And she certainly wasn't wrong. My cousin Kellye is the founder of Let Me Lash You! in Kingston, Jamaica, and she made me into a believer in late 2021 (seriously, if you're on the island, it's worth the trip and then some). I wasn't able to get a fill from her when I returned, but man, did Lashify come through to save the day. I used a mix of the B.10, B.12, and B.14 lashes to give myself a temporary fill. After a little application trial and error, you'd think I got my lashes done professionally and it only took around 10 minutes to do. Kayla Greaves, Executive Beauty Editor EDITORS' PICKS VIDEO: Dealing With Dry Natural Hair? These Products Are Ready to Flip the Script Sisley-Paris Phyto-Rouge Shine Refillable Lipstick I love a sheer, shiny lipstick I feel like it makes my lips look juicy, healthy, and more natural than highly-pigmented formulas. Another plus is that this product has more of a balm-like feel and gives my lips the kind of shine that makes it look like you just licked your lips. I also love that it's refillable, which is great for the environment, and my wallet. Pia Velasco, Senior Beauty Editor EDITORS' PICKS: Our Beauty Editors Swore By These 3 Products in February Apa Aesthetics Clean Sonic Toothbrush Upgrading from my manual toothbrush to this sonic one by Apa Aesthetics reminds me of when my family jumped from using Windows 95 to Windows 2000 on our desktop computer. The brush has three settings to clean, whiten, and massage teeth and gums, and timed intervals to ensure you brush for an ample amount of time. My teeth feel so much cleaner since I've started using this brush and it's easier to get to the hard-to-reach spots dental hygienists always nag me about during cleanings. What's more, the sleek design isn't an eyesore on my bathroom counter. I've never looked forward to brushing my teeth until now. Erin Lukas, Beauty Editor A South Dakota man has pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge after his mother unknowingly served his marijuana-laced brownies to a group of seniors at the Tabor Community Center. Michael Koranda, 46, appeared at the Bon Homme County Courthouse Tuesday where he waived his preliminary hearing and entered the plea. As part of a plea deal, both the prosecution and defense jointly recommended Koranda receive a suspended imposition of sentence, which would allow the judge to place him on probation for a period of time. A report from Bon Homme County Sheriffs Office says dispatchers received several calls about possible poisonings on Jan. 4. All the calls involved seniors who had earlier been at a community center card game. More Argus911: Former South Dakota guard pleads guilty to sex with inmate An investigation into the incident led authorities to believe the patients were all under the influence of THC, the compound in cannabis that produces the high sensation and that the THC came from a batch of brownies brought by a woman to the community center, the Yankton Press and Dakotan reported. Seniors who ate the brownies identified the woman who brought them. She said her son had baked the brownies she brought to the card game. The Yankton Press and Dakotan reported Koranda had made the brownies after he had been in Colorado the previous weekend and brought back products with marijuana, according to court documents. More Argus911: Burglar steals $1,400 worth of power tools from Ace Hardware in Sioux Falls, police say Koranda admitted to bringing one pound of THC butter back to Tabor with him from Colorado and using half of it to make brownies. He went to bed, and his mother unknowingly took the brownies to the card game, the Yankton Press and Dakotan reported. The plea agreement also calls for Koranda to pay any medical bills that aren't covered by insurance for those who ate the brownies. He would also pay any fines and court costs. Koranda is to be sentenced March 15. The drug charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota man pleads guilty after seniors ate his THC brownies PASSAIC U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. visited St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sunday, carrying a message of hope even as Ukraine battled a Russian invasion. You cannot scare people who have been put to the test too many times, the Paterson Democrat said to a congregation that filled the church. Some stood against the walls to listen to Pascrells message. We must help, and there cannot be any limits to that help, he told the crowd, adding later, "The world is not thousands of miles away, it is here. The U.S. and Europe announced a widening array of sanctions against Russia and Vladimir Putin over the weekend, though President Joe Biden has said he would not send U.S. troops to the conflict. Pascrell wasn't referring to direct U.S. military involvement, spokesman Mark Greenbaum said in an email Sunday. But the congressman wants Washington to provide "any resource, military equipment or economic aid Ukraine requires." Pascrell also backs "crippling sanctions by the U.S. on the Russian Federation, Putin personally, and his inner circle of business oligarchs and military and intelligence leaders," the spokesman said. Story continues below the gallery The Rev. Andriy Dudkevych said Ukraine needs the support and sympathy of our neighbors. He draped the sky-blue and yellow Ukrainian flag around Pascrell after his speech to the congregation. A woman leaving the church was visibly torn and tearfully voiced her devastation after the service. Lyubov Dzondza of Passaic, who has family in Ukraine, said she remains hopeful. For me, I dont want to give myself those depressive thoughts," Dzondza said. "I say my family and Ukraine, we will survive. Live updates: EU will close airspace to Russia, fund military equipment; US bashes Putin's nuclear move - live updates Her relatives do not want to leave Ukraine and instead stayed to support their country, she said. When the congressman says these powerful words, it gives you hope that everything will be OK because all the world supports us, she said. Story continues U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. spoke to those at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church where he told them he stands with the people of Ukraine. Sunday, February 27, 2022 But with this occasion, it is hard and very easy to give up mentally, Dzondza said. She checks in with her family every day, she said: I dont know whats going to happen and when [is] the next time Im going to talk to them. Maybe today Im talking to them the last day," Dzondza said. "This is the hardest part. Russias invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24. The country of 45 million people has faced bombings, and fighting continues. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said he had agreed to negotiations with Russia to take place at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. Putin, meanwhile, announced he had placed the country's nuclear forces on high alert. 'It's a war zone': New York rabbi in eastern Ukraine tries to keep up hope as bombs fall War in Ukraine and your 401(k): Don't take rash action amid short-term events, experts say Earlier in the day, a busload of 55 parishioners departed from the church for a Washington, D.C., rally in support of Ukraine. "We are here to support our brothers and sisters in Ukraine who fight for freedom," said Andriy Rivnyy of Clifton. George Oliarnyk of Mahwah is a second-generation Ukrainian American. His family is from Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine near the Polish border. Ukrainians get ready to board a bus headed towards Washington D.C. from St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, in Passaic. They were headed to the nation's capital for a rally to support those in Ukraine. Sunday, February 27, 2022 Not only am I rallying for Ukraine, with that vested interest for my family and heritage, but also for democracy, he said. "Ukraine is a beacon of democracy, a fledgling democracy, he said, and they need assistance. Oliarnyk wants the U.S. to provide immediate support before more lives are lost, he said. That includes more weapons and a no-fly zone over Ukraine as well as "more significant sanctions, more pressure put on Putin." Ukraine is putting up a valiant effort to defend their country pretty much in isolation, and they need more support, Oliarnyk said. Staff Photojournalist Kevin R. Wexler contributed to this article. Shaylah Brown is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Email: browns@northjersey.com Twitter: @shaylah_brown This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ukrainian Americans gather at NJ church as Pascrell vows support Vladimir Putin receives an honorary taekwondo black belt (AP) Vladimir Putin has been stripped of his honorary black belt in taekwondo in response to his invasion of Ukraine. The Russian president was awarded the black belt by the head of the World Taekwondo Federation, ChoueChung-won, and made a grandmaster of taekwondo during a visit to South Korea in November 2013. World Taekwondo also added that the anthems and flags of Russia and its ally Belarus would not be played or displayed at upcoming events. In a statement, World Taekwondo said it strongly condemns the brutal attacks on innocent lives in Ukraine, which go against the World Taekwondo vision of Peace is More Precious than Triumph and the World Taekwondo values of respect and tolerance. It added: In this regard, World Taekwondo has decided to withdraw the honorary 9th dan black belt conferred to Mr. Vladimir Putin in November 2013. In solidarity with the International Olympic Committee, no Russian or Belarusian national flags or anthems will be displayed or played at World Taekwondo events. World Taekwondo and the European Taekwondo Union will not organise or recognise Taekwondo events in Russia and Belarus. World Taekwondos thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and we hope for a peaceful and immediate end to this war. Previous honorary black belts have included US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, their South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak, and other leaders from Spain, Croatia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Honduras. WASHINGTON The U.S. for the first time has approved the direct delivery of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine as part of a package approved by the White House last week. During the Cold War, the CIA covertly supplied Stingers to Afghan guerrillas fighting Russian forces. Now Ukrainian forces locked in an intensifying fight to repel Russia will get more of the shoulder-fired weapon, which has a 4-kilometer range. With the Raytheon Technologies-made Stingers, Ukrainian forces gain a tool for fighting Russian helicopters being used to transport troops and as close-air support. They have relied on missile defenses and aircraft to, so far, keep Russian aircraft from completely dominating their skies. Once the Stingers employed, it has the ability to be a game changer, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Jim Dubik, now a senior fellow with the Institute for the Study of War. The Russians dont have air dominance, but they do have air superiority and the Stingers wont take that away, but itll be contested airspace, and that hurts the Russians ability to conduct operations and increases Ukraines ability to defend. Theres been a steady stream of new commitments from the European Union and western countries to send arms and other aid to Ukraine, which had asked for Stingers and Javelin missiles. The Associated Press was first to report the Stingers would be part of a $350 million tranche of supplies U.S. President Joe Biden authorized last week. Defense News confirmed the report with an administration official granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. The U.S. decision follows Germanys announcement it will send 500 Stinger missiles and 1,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, marking a reversal of Germanys long-standing policy of never sending lethal munitions to war zones. The Baltic states have also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get U.S. permission. While its unclear when this tranche of U.S. aid will arrive, the Pentagon says it has not seen any Russian efforts to interdict western aid to Ukraine or problems with previous tranches. Story continues The assistance continues to flow, and we are comfortable that is it getting into hands that need it, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday. Scholz proposes 100 billion euro defense fund, vows to exceed NATO spending goal Jim Townsend, who was the Pentagons top Europe and NATO policy official throughout the Obama administration, speculated that the previous U.S. reluctance to send Stinger missiles stemmed from a fear that, if Ukrainian forces did not mount as successful a fight as they have, the highly effective weapon could fall into Russian hands. But now its time for Ukraines western allies to make sure Ukraines supply lines dont run dry, and for Ukraine to get weapons and other gear it needs, Townsend said. Ukraine is great, but if they run out of ammunition, if their supply lines are cut, if Russians dominate the air, its going to be a different picture, he said. Weve got to keep resupply routes open, and weve got to hurry. ... We have Stingers in stock, and weve got to put them on trucks and get them the hell over there. This week, Russia has already targeted airfields and fuel facilities, in what appeared to be the next phase of an invasion slowed by fierce resistance. Ukraine Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of that nations defense intelligence agency, told Military Times Monday morning the Russians could use missile barrages to continue to destroy Ukrainian airfields. That in turn could be used to choke off Ukrainian supplies. Budanov said Ukraine could benefit from the U.S.-made Patriot, a sophisticated surface-to-air missile defense system that would take time for the U.S. to send. Meanwhile, Russia is getting close to air dominance, in spite of Ukraines anti-aircraft systems, bombers and other war planes. Adding another challenge for Kyivs defenders, the Russians have moved their Pantsir-S1 mobile air defense systems closer to the city, according to Budanov. The system can track up to 20 tactical aircraft-sized targets at a range of 32-36 km. They almost control the sky, Budanov said. Lindsey Black from Queen Creek, Arizona, watches the Telegraph Fire burn in the Tonto National Forest near Superior, Arizona, on June 5, 2021. She was stuck in traffic on the U.S. 60. Climate scientists working on the latest international assessment of rising threats to society say its imperative that communities adapt now. Their warning touches on several fields that Arizona and its neighbors in the Southwest are now attempting to tackle, from drought mitigation and wildfire management to the dangers of urban heat. As greenhouse gases continue trapping solar radiation and heating the planet, scientists with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say society faces two challenges: preparing humans and their surroundings for increasing dangers, and reducing emissions to levels that will allow the adaptations to succeed. In releasing their latest report, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, the scientists stressed the urgency in protecting against heat, wildfire, food and water insecurity, and more. The report is one in a series of intensive reviews of current scientific literature and knowledge about climate change, and it paints a dire situation today, let alone if the world does change course. People are now suffering and dying from climate change, said Kris Ebi, a University of Washington professor of public health who authored the reports chapter on community well-being. Arizona wildfires: These fires are bigger, hotter than ever. How will the land recover? So far, the scientists note, the world has warmed a little more than 1 degree Celsius from the pre-industrial era. Countries are working to curb fossil fuel emissions to prevent rising more than another half of a degree, at which point coping becomes much harder, Ebi and others report. As surrounding ecosystems struggle to keep up with rapid changes, communities face air and water pollution from fires, difficulties in food production, and economic supply chains strained by floods and other hazards. We need to remember that we are part of the nature that surrounds us, and not its owners, said Edwin Castellanos, who wrote the chapter about Latin American and directs the Sustainable Economic Observatory at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. Story continues Heres a look at several key adaptation areas in the report, and how Arizona is already facing them. Water scarcity likely to increase worldwide and in western U.S. The degree of warming will determine stresses on water supplies, according to fact sheets that the scientists provided journalists on Sunday. Globally, they wrote, 800 million to 3 billion people will experience chronic water scarcity from droughts at 2 degrees of warming this century, or up to 4 billion people at 4 degrees. For instance, they say, days of scarcity will increase in South America as glaciers and snowcaps in the Andes melt away. In North America, and especially in the western U.S. and northern Mexico, they conclude that heavy use and limited supplies have increased risks: Intensified droughts and earlier runoff from diminished snowpack will increase water scarcity during summer peak water demand period especially in regions with extensive irrigated agriculture. That would describe Arizona, which already has seen farm losses from mandated cutbacks. A flurry of scientific publications has linked warming to reduced flows in the Colorado River, University of Arizona climatologist Gregg Garfin said. The state has worked to adapt, especially by convincing water users to accept voluntary reductions through a 2018 Drought Contingency Plan. Water managers followed that with a plan that emerged last fall to compensate users to keep more of the Colorado River in Lake Mead. Ultimately the state will probably participate in a plan to desalinate water, using either the ocean or salty groundwater, said Garfin, who was not involved in writing the panel's report. A seawater desalting plant could provide water to Mexico or California, which would then share more Colorado River water with Arizona. That water will be expensive, though, and the region will still face water challenges, Garfin said. On the positive side, Arizona has long faced such challenges and understands the significance. Wildfire seasons to lengthen Warming and drying will continue to increase the length and severity of wildfire seasons, the scientists wrote. This compounds other problems, such as air and water pollution, and a reduction in the ability of forests to absorb carbon from the atmosphere to limit further warming. Simply planting trees, as with a push to plant a trillion worldwide, wont work when its done in areas not suitable for forests, said Camille Parmesan, a University of Plymouth ecologist who wrote the chapter on ecosystems. Still, she said, building resilience into forests and other carbon-absorbing landscapes is critical to arresting climate change. Emission reductions are not going to do it, Parmesan said. Its going to take carbon reduction as well. In Arizona, partners have worked for years to ramp up a major forest-thinning program in the high countrys ponderosa pine forests. The Four Forest Restoration Initiative seeks to use a re-emerging timber industry to reduce fuels that in this century have fed the states largest-ever fires. (Two fires, Rodeo-Chediski and Wallow, together burned about a million acres.) The thinning program has evolved more slowly than hoped, but this year is receiving support from the new federal infrastructure spending law. If it succeeds, Garfin said, it could protect old-growth pines from disappearing and possibly giving way to shrubbier landscapes. Besides attending to forest health, he said, the state needs better rules about where and how to build among trees and other fuels. We still dont have good policies about the wildland-urban interface, which increases the risk of people being in harms way, he said. But also, when structures burn, then you end up with basically a situation where thing can explode and you get embers shooting really far out, and that just spreads the fire. Wildfire expert and author Stephen Pyne, an emeritus professor at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences, agreed there's a need to change. "We can harden structures against embers, establish defensible space, create enough protection to prevent conflagrations racing through towns," Pyne said in an email. Margrieta Bell and Anthony Chambers hang out in Chambers' tent near a large homeless encampment just outside downtown Phoenix as temperatures exceed 105 degrees on July 12, 2021. Rising heat: Cooling centers and early warning systems can reduce deaths Today, according to the panel, 30% of the worlds population is exposed to potentially deadly heat stress. By 2100, that figure is expected to grow to between 48% and 76%, depending on how much warming occurs. In Europe, for instance, the scientists project that if emissions continue unabated and the planet warms by 3 degrees, the number of people at risk from heat stress would double or triple what would be expected from a 1.5-degree rise. The heat dome that settled over the Pacific Northwest and western Canada last summer would have been virtually impossible without climate change, Ebi said, and it is estimated to have killed more than 1,000 people. Communities that create cooling centers and early warning systems for extreme heat events can reduce deaths, said University of Alberta public health professor Sherilee Harper, who wrote the reports chapter on North America. But if warming accelerates, she said, These strategies will become less effective at protecting health. Maricopa County has been a center of heat-related deaths. The county logged 323 of them in 2020, which represented a 15-fold increase from 2001. Preliminary numbers from last year appear similar at the time of the countys last report, with 252 confirmed as being heat-related and 86 under investigation. Heat is especially problematic in Phoenix, where Arizona State University climatologist Erinanne Saffell said average warming of 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century has more than doubled the statewide average rise. Phoenix and Tucson have worked to manage this problem, Garfin said, noting that both have heat plans and cooling centers and that Phoenix hired one of the nations first heat officers last year. The panel's report emphasizes the need for trees and other cooling environments, which the cities have acknowledged must be priorities. Planners must ensure these investments are equitable, Garfin said, and may need to provide transportation to cooling centers. We still need to do better providing that green infrastructure to low-income areas, he said. Brandon Loomis covers environmental and climate issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Reach him at brandon.loomis@arizonarepublic.com or follow on Twitter @brandonloomis. Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Climate change requires action on water, heat, wildfires, panel finds Moms Demand Action - Alachua County was one of the 10 groups throughout Florida on Sunday to call on the Florida Legislature to take action on common sense gun safety measures. Dozens of residents gathered on the field at the Martin Luther King Center located at 1028 NE 14th St. to participate in the organizations "Florida Day of Advocacy." Normally groups within the Florida chapter will travel to Tallahassee but this year we decided to bring action to our supporters, said Moms Demand Action volunteer Catherine Cake. Moms Demand Action is a national grassroots volunteer network working to end gun violence. Alachua County Youth Activities Advisory: 15-member youth group created to help reduce gang, gun violence Trayvon Martins legacy: Push for social, criminal justice reform lives on 10 years after 17-year-olds death It is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization with over 8 million supporters and more than 375,000 donors. There is a Moms Demand Action chapter in every state and more than 700 local groups across the country. We are pro-gun safety and anti-gun violence, Cake said. We advocate for sensible gun laws. Our mission is to advance our common purpose to make Alachua County safer for all of our residents. Everytown Senior Survivor Fellow Susan Browder speaks Sunday during an advocacy event to call for common sense gun safety measures at Citizens Park in Gainesville. Browder held a picture of her daughter, Sarah Browder, who died of domestic gun violence. One of the speakers was Moms Demand Action volunteer Susan Browder, who discussed her reason for standing up against gun violence. Browder said she witnessed domestic violence with her parents and lost her daughter, Sarah Browder, at age 29 to gun violence when her partner shot her in her throat. Her daughter died five days after the shot while her partner died on the scene when he shot himself. I was in agony thinking about the gun bullet piercing her throat and the fear she had in her final moments, Browder said. She said she has no plans to stop the fight to end gun violence. This is not the time to get discouraged, Browder said. We must get the guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. Domestic violence affects all of us. Story continues Rebecca Darnell, Moms Demand Action legislative leader, said the group is currently focused on two bills: the Repeal Stand Your Ground in Florida (SB 888/HB 73) and Fund Community Violence Intervention and Prevention (SB 1188/HB 1465). February marks the anniversaries of the Trayvon Martin killing in Sanford in 2012 and the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland in 2018, which left 17 dead. We are not against the Second Amendment, Darnell said. We want to work to keep firearms out of the hands of the people that should not have them. Moms Demand Action - Alachua County group leader Helen Kirklin is a music teacher and said that a good class room environment is a peaceful one. A peaceful space for our students is where we learn best, Kirklin said. Gainesville police data showed that violent crime was up 14% in 2021. GPD found that on a national level, 77% of the crimes were committed with a gun. Last year all homicides in Gainesville involved a gun. Eighty-five percent of the offenders were Black and 15% of the offenders were white. Among victims, 71% were Black and 29% were white. Gainesville Interim Police Chief Lonnie Scott holds a shirt that was created 20 years ago in remembrance of his brother, who died of gun violence, as he speaks Sunday at Citizens Park in Gainesville. Interim Gainesville Police Chief Lonnie Scott was one of the speakers who discussed his experience with gun violence. A native of the Liberty City neighborhood in Miami, Scott said two of his brothers were shot and killed in Miami. He held a shirt that depicted one of his brothers memorialized that was created 20 years ago after his death. Seeing the mothers explosion of grief is something I cant forget, Scott said. Scotts mission is to continue advocating and enforcing more community policing. It is a privilege to help the community, Scott said. If you think the police will solve the problems, you are sadly mistaken. We must work together as one cohesive unit. We are one family. We are one community. All the kids want is our attention and our mentoring. One of the speakers was activist Chanae Jackson, who voiced her frustrations over the disconnect between the government and residents. Effective models are led by grassroots activists who are in collaboration with community partners who do this work, Jackson said. She also discussed how gun violence can affect people indirectly by changing their cognitive development. When someone hears gunshots it can create anger, they refuse to go to school, or they carry guns themselves for protection, Jackson said. Minority Business Listings CEO and founder Wayne Fields said the Childrens Trust of Alachua County will be funding programs to help the youth gain job training skills such as job application writing, interviews and banking. Fields said MBL will be opening slots soon to help young adults with the job process and can help them stay on the right track. Hopefully some kids will be able to decide to go to work instead of hanging out, Fields said. Lena Gillis, owner of Lena Gillis Enterprises, attended the event to show her support for Moms Demand Action and to encourage law enforcement and the community to work together. Its important for law enforcement to comprehend that the system needs to be reinvented to help society as a whole, Gillis said. More training needs to happen. For more information about Moms Demand Action, visit www.momsdemandaction.org This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Moms Demand Action in Alachua County stand up against gun violence MOSCOW (AP) It was a piece of fast-moving political theater in Moscow, a carefully orchestrated political announcement years in the making. Russian President Vladimir Putin moved quickly on Monday to recognize the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, framing his show of defiance against the West in a series of nationally televised appearances that came amid Western fears of Russian invasion in Ukraine. Immediately after the pro-Russian leaders of Ukraine's separatist people's republics were shown on Russian TV pleading with Putin to acknowledge them as independent states, Putin chaired a Kremlin meeting Monday in which a lineup of senior Russian officials all backed the move. Hours later, Putin spoke in an hour-long televised address to the nation and then was shown on TV signing the recognition decrees. The quick move by Putin represents a sharp change of course for the Kremlin, which in the past hoped to use a 2015 peace agreement brokered by France and Germany to have Ukraine's rebel regions gain more power inside the country to stymie its bid for NATO membership. The strategy didn't work, because most Ukrainians resented the deal as a betrayal of national interests and its implementation has stalled. During the Kremlin meeting on Monday, several top officials suggested that Putin wait for several days to recognize the separatist regions to give the West the last chance to persuade Ukraine to abide by its obligation under the deal to offer the rebels a broad self-rule. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other officials argued that it makes no sense to wait, saying that a delay wouldn't change the situation. The recognition of the rebel regions came as over 150,000 Russian troops have surrounded Ukraine from three sides in what the U.S. and its allies saw as a sign of an imminent invasion. The U.S. has warned that Moscow could try to create the pretext for attacking Ukraine with false-flag attacks in the volatile rebel east or other similar action. Story continues On Thursday, tensions spiked along the line of contact between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in the conflict that erupted in 2014 and has killed over 14,000 people. The rebels have charged than a sharp increase in skirmishes heralded Ukraine's intention to reclaim control of the region by force. Ukrainian authorities have rejected any such intentions, said they were not responding to increased shelling, and accused the rebels of provocation. In a fast-moving chain of events, rebel leaders announced massive evacuation in a video that was aired Friday but was recorded two days earlier, according to the data embedded in it a sign of a pre-arranged plot. They followed up Monday by asking Putin to recognize their regions' independence, setting stage for the Kremlin's political show. In a long ranting address to the nation before the signing ceremony, Putin described Ukraines bid to join NATO as an existential threat to Russia, brushing off Western assurances that the alliance doesnt threaten Russia. He described the prospective deployment of U.S. missiles in Ukraine as a knife to our throat, saying that they would be capable of reaching Moscow in just 4-5 minutes. Ukraines membership in NATO poses a direct threat to Russias security, he said. The Russian president spent a large part of his address denigrating Ukraine and trying to delegitimize the country as a creation of the Communist rulers of the Soviet Union. He said sarcastically that Ukraine could be named after Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, who had handed over wide swathes of Russias historic lands to it. Putin mocked Ukraines decommunization campaign that saw the destruction of Lenins monuments, saying: You want decommunization, it suits us well. We are ready to show you what the real decommunization would mean for Ukraine, Putin said in a stark warning that appeared to reflect a threat to take back the lands that he felt were robbed from Russia by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. ___ Follow all stories about the crisis in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. What started as a protest by Canadian truckers against public health mandates has emerged as a potential catalyst for U.S. cryptocurrency policy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus order to freeze bank accounts and crypto assets belonging to leaders of Canadas anti-vaccine mandate movement choked off support for demonstrations that paralyzed international commerce and clogged Ottawas downtown with big rigs. But while the crackdown brought the Freedom Convoy to heel, it also unleashed new efforts by Republicans in Washington to keep the government out of peoples digital wallets. At least one House GOP lawmaker has introduced a bill to prevent a similar government clampdown in the U.S. With Congress and U.S. regulators weighing new rules to govern the $1.6 trillion market, Republicans and crypto proponents are leaning on the Ottawa crisis to position the use of digital assets as a tool for promoting civil liberties because they're out of the government's reach. There is a reason these petty authoritarians around the world hate Bitcoin and crypto: They cant control it, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told POLITICO in a statement. The playbook of the modern radical left is that if you dont comply, theyre willing to destroy your reputation and your personal finances. While support for the Freedom Convoy truckers was hardly universal, Trudeaus use of emergency authority later extended by Canadas House of Commons has reignited debates around how anonymous digital transactions can simultaneously bankroll civil disobedience and embolden illegal activity. He revoked the emergency after crowds were dispersed from downtown Ottawa. Meanwhile, the blowback over Trudeaus response has sparked copycat convoys that are making their way to Washington. Hundreds assembled in Southern California, intending to drive cross-country to protest almost two years of U.S. lockdowns, mask mandates and other public health measures taken to combat Covid-19. Story continues Former President Donald Trump blistered the Canadian governments tactics at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday, telling a fired-up crowd that youre either with the peaceful truckers or you are with the left-wing fascists. Congressional Republicans are lobbing grenades as well. It's the Communist Party of China's strategy. It's really just concerning that it's come to the Western Hemisphere, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who co-chairs the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, said in an interview, referring to Trudeau's actions. When your central government can control your movement, your speech, everything about your freedom? That's not freedom. And this is really what's at stake. Privacy advocates and human rights groups have long considered digital assets a way to bypass payment systems that are overseen by traditional financial institutions and government agencies. That can be useful if youre directing aid to civil liberties groups operating under authoritarian regimes, said Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation, a group chaired by Russian pro-democracy advocate and chess champion Garry Kasparov. But Gladstein noted that the same tools can also embolden money launderers, drug traffickers and scammers. That's no small thing for governments concerned with the growing popularity of decentralized finance platforms, which allow individuals to conduct transactions without having to use banks or credit card services. Data firm Chainalysis estimates that cryptocurrency-based crime climbed by 79 percent to a record $15.8 billion in 2021 even as illicit activitys share of crypto's booming transaction volumes plummeted. Criminals also use conventional payment and financial systems for scams all the time, crypto lobbyists point out. Even so, with U.S. regulation of digital markets still in its infancy, members of Congress like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and federal agencies have raised alarms about the lack of visibility into the ownership of digital wallets that can be used to transfer crypto assets across borders outside traditional channels. Trudeaus emergency orders attempted to cut to the quick in that regard. After GoFundMe kicked a fundraiser for the Freedom Convoy off its platform, supporters soon flocked to another effort spurred by Bitcoin-focused social media influencers. The new push, hosted on the crowdfunding platform Tallycoin, soon amassed some $1 million in Bitcoin to cover truckers food, accommodations and other basic necessities as the protest dragged into its third week. Trudeau's emergency order sought to block the disbursement of those funds by targeting accounts held on virtual currency exchanges that require names and addresses to adhere to anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules. Leaders of major crypto exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase blanched at the order, urging their Twitter followers to consider decentralized services where they would have custody of their own crypto if they were concerned about any government freezing their accounts. Attempts to block transactions on decentralized services, including those that offer digital wallets without collecting personalized information, were met with derision. Even after the House of Commons voted to uphold the emergency orders and Ottawans who had their lives disrupted by the protests sued for relief, Trudeau's actions became common cause for crypto libertarians looking to avoid government oversight of their markets. The common argument for gun ownership is that we have guns as a last resort to protect ourselves in this country against a corrupt government [if it] turns against the people, said Kraken co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell, whose firm is currently seeking a master account with the Federal Reserve. Bitcoin can be one of those defense mechanisms as well. Crypto proponents on Capitol Hill are casting similar arguments albeit in less intense terms noting that Americans' growing reliance on electronic payments through bank accounts, credit cards and other online services provide the government more ways to surveil or crack down on transactions deemed illegal or problematic. Multiple sources said Canadas attempt to rein in digital assets to support protests underscored the need for maintaining some level of privacy protections around crypto transactions. Jerry Brito, executive director of the crypto think tank Coin Center, noted that lawmakers recently sought to extend the Treasurys authority to monitor and freeze accounts at financial institutions in a bid to curtail ransomware attacks, money laundering and other illegal activity. Blockchain Association Executive Director Kristin Smith, whose trade group counts Kraken and other exchanges among its members, said the Ottawa protests could be a teachable moment arguing that there would have been similar backlash had former President Donald Trump used such tactics to go after Black Lives Matter protests, for instance. Three days after Trudeau invoked emergency authorities, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) introduced legislation that would bar federal agencies from implementing any rules that might prevent Americans from using crypto in peer-to-peer transactions. Davidson said he had been considering introducing the bill for more than a year ever since then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin proposed rules to improve the federal governments oversight of decentralized finance. But the Canada protests highlighted that the privacy risks for not protecting this are great, he said in an interview. A lot of the same folks who really love the Patriot Act also hate crypto, he said. What looked like a thrilling offensive showcase from the Arizona Coyotes turned into a late struggle against the Winnipeg Jets. Holding a tight 3-2 lead after 40 minutes, the Coyotes (14-35-4) saw its lead disappear in a messy final period laden with mistakes and three goals from the Jets (23-21-9). The Jets won, 5-3. They dominated in all of the game in my opinion. We just had really good goaltending that kept us in the game and we didnt (perform) as good defensively as were used to doing. We did not play as heavy as we did last game," head coach Andre Tourigny said. The Coyotes showed strength in its third line as Nick Ritchie, Barrett Hayton, and Loui Eriksson all had a hand in the three goals scored, but fell behind on the relentless efforts from the Jets' top line. Ritchie, Hayton, and Eriksson all recorded two points, while Ritchie and Hayton had a goal and an assist. Eriksson had an assist Trading goals in the first period, both teams showcased a skills competition with each goal. Clayton Keller nearly had a highlight-worthy goal of his own as he attempted 'The Michigan," a lacrosse-style move, on Jets goaltender Eric Comrie, but hit the post as defenseman Dylan DeMelo got his stick on the attempt. The Jets then put the pressure on Coyotes goaltender Scott Wedgewood until center Adam Lowry redirected defenseman Nathan Beaulieu's shot from the upper faceoff circle to break open the game at 7:39. Efforts at the net continued for the Coyotes as defenseman Jakob Chychrun kept the puck from the zone and flexed a wrist shot that nearly escaped Comrie. Chychrun persisted in the next play and followed up with another long-range snipe to tie the game at 10:16. The Jets responded within 43 seconds when right wing Evgeny Svechnikov banked on a tip-in goal via Beaulieu's shot for a 2-1 lead. Hayton and Ritchie's connection flourished in the game, especially at 16:40 in the first period when Hayton zipped down the ice with the puck to deke three Jets defenders and finish off with a backhand into the net for a tied score. Story continues Ritchie kind of made a great bump back to me with a lot of speed. I think they were coming off a change and were a flat-footed and I was able to get the guy going to the left and pull it back and come into the goalie with some speed and make a move to the back end. It definitely felt good to get that one," Hayton said. Hayton, who played his fifth game since a six-week absence from injury, has been thriving on the third line with four points since his return. Hayton had six points in 26 games prior to his injury. "Ive been finding it the last three or four games and putting it together tonight. Ritchie and Lou, they made it pretty easy on me tonight, they opened up the ice a lot. I think it was a game where the looks were there, the reads were there, and I felt good," Hayton said. Ritchie, in his second game with the Coyotes, scored on a fake set up by Eriksson and Hayton behind the net that resulted in Ritchie poking in the puck behind an unsuspecting Comrie at 13:56 in the second period for a 3-2 lead. Wedgewood backed up Ritchies goal in the second period with a fantastic performance in net. Wedgewood managed 11 saves, including seven shots from Jets top-line duo left wing Kyle Connor and center Pierre-Luc Dubois in the period. But persistence at the net paid off for Connor in the third period as he backed two of the three goals scored in the final 20 minutes. Svechnikov drew Wedgewood out of his crease and flipped the puck to set up Connor for a one-timer for the eventual game-winner at 5:34. Connor stopped comeback efforts from the Coyotes in the final minutes with an empty netter at 18:52. Jets right wing Blake Wheeler scored the equalizer after benefiting from a giveaway in the Coyotes offensive zone at 3:17. The Coyotes will remain at home to face the Colorado Avalanche at 7 p.m. The Avalanche have won its last three games. Reach the reporter at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com or 602-647-4122. Follow her on Twitter @jennarortiz. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Coyotes surrender 3 goals in final period to lose to Winnipeg Jets Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway & Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty Jim Goodman graduated from high school in Camden County, Georgia, in the thick of the space race, in 1965. Ten years ago, he came home to a place not so different from the one he leftlargely rural, few career opportunities, sparse economic development. So, when the board of county commissioners formed a committee to build a commercial spaceporta facility to launch satellite-bearing rockets into orbit, which they said would create jobs, draw tourists, and create a new world of opportunity for residentsGoodman thought their plan was the greatest thing in the world. When the spaceport first was announced, I was so much in favor of itI would love to see an economic engine in Camden County, Goodman, now a city councilman in the countys only city, St. Marys, population 18,000, told The Daily Beast. But what I came to slowly realize is, little by little, they were chipping away at the size of the rocket they said they could launch, misrepresenting things, and spending all this money on consultants. They had carte blanche. After more than nine years and 11 million taxpayer dollars invested in the proposal for Spaceport Camden, the county has nothing tangible to show for it: no ground broken, no solid business plan, and no tenant secured. Meanwhile, Goodman said, the countys 911 responders are underpaid. The health department is run down. And despite being on the Georgia Coast, the county does not manage its own hurricane shelter and lacks an up-to-date emergency response plan. As a court-ordered public vote on the projects future approaches, his neighbors too are beginning to see that while the stars hold untold potential for economic development on Earth, they also hold potential for bad deals, half-baked plans, and business proposals that can spin wildly off course. Richard Branson Opens Spaceport Private Industry Surging While a spaceport might sound like a futuristic venture for a rural county of 54,000, the idea isnt so out there. At the time of this writing, the Union of Concerned Citizens Satellite Database tallies more than 4,800 satellites in Earths orbit, up from approximately 3,000 last year, and that number is about to skyrocket. SpaceX hopes to multiply it nearly 15 times over in the coming few years with Starlink, its satellite internet service. Amazon, OneWeb, and other companies are seeking to flood space with their own mega-constellations of orbital satellites. And as technological advances continue to shrink the cost of satellite manufacturing, launches, and operations, an increasing number of companies around the globe are gaining the ability to send send their own devices into space. Story continues To get satellites into orbit, cargo-bearing rocket ships must ferry them into place. This is the core business of the commercial space industry. Last year, the world saw a record-breaking 144 orbital rocket launches, some for defense, some for government-run monitoring, and some for commercial satellite transportation ventures, in the U.S., China, Russia, India, and elsewhere. More than 90 percent of these 144 missions were successful, doubling the total number of launches into the outer atmosphere worldwide since 2010. As this rocket renaissance unfurls, analysts project the industry could triple to $1.4 trillion in value within the decade. Considering this astronomical growth, its no wonder communities, in coastal Georgia and beyond, are angling to get in on the action. New spaceport proposalsfrom Michigan to Maine, Scotland to Sweden, Kenya to Indonesiaare in various stages of proposal or execution. WhiteKnightTwo, carrying SpaceShipTwo, sits on display outside the hangar facility at Spaceport America on October 17, 2011 in New Mexico. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images The U.S. is home to 15 federally licensed commercial and private spaceports, plus three government-operated facilities which are gradually branching out into commercial launches, too. Spaceport Camden is positioned to join this list: In December 2021, planners secured a hard-won site operation license from the Federal Aviation Administrationa key step toward making the dream a reality. But for years, the project was bogged down by a complex FAA licensing processand no small amount of controversy. Some residents are vehemently opposed to the fact that the proposed flight trajectory, unlike any other vertical launch spaceport in the U.S., crosses a barrier archipelago containing dozens of private homes, plus the Cumberland Island National Seashore (which contains about 8,000 acres of federally protected wilderness). These lands are all less than 10 miles from the toxic brownfield set to become the launch site. These obstacles narrow Spaceport Camdens potential launch range to just a single azimuth (100), compared to wide-open coastal launch locations like Cape Canaveral, Florida (with azimuths spanning from 35 to 120) or Kodiak Island, Alaska (59 to 110). This broader access to space means greater ability to deliver clients' satellite payloads to the right coordinates. An FAA site license didnt absolve Spaceport Camdens planners of this controversy. Shortly after the December decision, two residents, including Jim Goodman, sued Camden County on the grounds that the countys purchase of the proposed future spaceport site, currently owned by chemical corporation Union Carbide, would be unconstitutional without a public vote. In early February, a judge sided with the plaintiffs, and on March 8, the whole plan will be put to a public vote. Failure to Launch Ramon Lugo III, director of the Florida Space Institute at University of Central Florida, told The Daily Beast he doesnt have high hopes for the Camden County projects commercial viability. This is in part because of the sites serious limitations, but its also a matter of the market at large. They keep talking about this boom, Lugo said of the perceived spike in demand for commercial launch facilities. But, drawing on his experience as former head of NASAs Launch Services Program, where he coordinated third-party commercial launches for the agencys unmanned missions, he believes there is far more capacity at sprawling, established, well-positioned federally funded facilitiesKennedy Space Center, Vandenburg in California, Wallops Island in Virginiabefore new, private spaceports are ever needed. The argument is going to be made that launch sites dont get built overnight, he said. And I understand that, but I havent seen a business where somebody has got a bunch of customers booked and capacity appears to be a problem. Its also worth noting that much of the worlds record-breaking recent launch activity has been the product of just two tenacious main players: the Chinese military, and SpaceX. China, of course, has its own domestic launch facilities. But three-fifths of all U.S. launches in 202131 out of 51were SpaceX Falcon 9 missions. The company conducts all of its commercial launches from three launch sites (Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California). Soon, Musk hopes to add SpaceXs Boca Chica testing site, Starbase, to the list. In the meantime, those three sites have been responsible for all Starlink launches to date, and will continue to be the primary launch sites for the tens of thousands of other satellites that will build out the Starlink network. SpaceX has no reason to suddenly shift major operations to a new U.S. facility. And in launching their large-lift vehicles, theyre helping address demand more broadly, too. Often enough, third parties may be able to pay to glom onto these launches, sending their cargo up as secondary payloads instead of shelling out for their own rocket. More capacity may be needed as the industry grows, said Lugo. But right now, its hard to know how much more, as spaceports across the country sit under-utilizedor altogether dormant. Still Grounded While the biggest, best-funded coastal spaceports continue to ramp up activity, more than half of the dozen U.S. commercial spaceports-for-hire have never hosted any launches at all. Many of these are inland in locations like Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas. Instead of vertical launches, they are designed to send spacecraft into orbit with a horizontal runway launch that ramps up into the outer atmosphere like an airplane. (Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic is the best known company to take this approach.) In New Mexico, Virgin Galactics Spaceport America is outfitted for both vertical and horizontal launches. Constructed with $220 million in public funding, it consumes a $12.7-million state-appropriated operating budget annually and was recently blasted for improperly co-opting hundreds of thousands more in tax funds. The drain on resources has earned it the reputation of being a sad bet. SpaceX's first orbital Starship SN20 is stacked atop its massive Super Heavy Booster 4 at the company's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images Then theres Midland, Texas, where city officials are also waiting on their gamble to pay off. They obtained an FAA site license in 2014. Since then, taxpayers have watched upwards of $20 million disappear into the facility without seeing a single launch. In 2019, Midland city councilman Spencer Robnett entreated his colleagues to see the project for what he thinks it is: a forward-thinking plan that just didnt work. The longer we perpetuate the myth of being a town of a spaceport, the longer we continue to waste taxpayer dollars on it, he told the Midland city council. No matter how much money you put into this, it will never be a functioning commercial spaceport worth the taxpayers' time and money. Ad Astra? Come Camden Countys special election on March 8, Jim Goodman said hell be voting Yes on the referendum to repeal the countys power to purchase the proposed spaceport site, which would bring the plans to a halt. That is, if the special election is allowed to proceed; on February 24, the commissioners petitioned the court to block the election. Just days before the early voting period commenced, they sued the plaintiffs and the judge, demanding the court scrap the vote, out of concern that it would "waste the taxpayers money." Its just not a viable project, he said, citing the residential area and Cumberland Island National Seashore in the flightpath, disruption to marine traffic, risk to the delicate estuary ecosystem, and the untold and unknown contaminants the country will be responsible for cleaning up. If there was a pent-up demand and you absolutely needed to build a new spaceport, it doesn't change the fact that this is the worst possible location to put one. That doesnt seem to be a deterrent for the planners, according to Ray Lugo: Some of these projects started out with broad support, and a lot of financial investment, he said. And eventually theyve realized, Hey, this isnt going to pan out. But Camden County is really sticking with their prevailing hope, that If you build it, they will come. This story was updated 2/28/22 to include additional context for the Camden County special election. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Gov. Phil Scott announced Monday afternoon he is ordering Vermont liquor stores to remove Russian-owned liquor brands from their shelves. Today I directed the Commissioner of Liquor and Lottery to remove Russian-owned products from state agent store shelves and cease purchasing new stock from Russian-owned distilleries until further notice," Scott said in a press release. Later this week, I will issue an executive order detailing further action and state sanctions Vermont will pursue to respond to the illegal and heinous Putin invasion of Ukraine." The action comes after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday. Because the state controls the sale of liquor in Vermont, the government can choose what stores sell. What Russian-made liquor is sold in Vermont The two vodkas that will no longer be on Vermont shelves are Russian Standard Vodka and Hammer and Sickle. The governors of New Hampshire and several other states previously ordered stores to remove Russian-made liquor from store shelves. Bars and liquor stores across the country have been removing Russian-made and Russian-branded liquor from their shelves and promoting Ukrainian brands as an act of solidarity with Ukraine. The economy: How Russia's invasion of Ukraine contributes to Vermont's rising gas prices An opinion: 'NH stands with Ukraine': Gov. Sununu orders Russian liquor removed from state outlets Donating profits from Russian-made products to support Ukraine Beverage Warehouse in Winooski posted Sunday on Instagram that they would be donating a portion of their profits from Russian spirits to an organization raising money for medical aid and humanitarian relief in Ukraine. The store said they were waiting for direction from the state on whether to stop selling Russian liquor. "We also know they need to consider that those products benefit many stores, restaurants, bars in VT," the store wrote. Vermonters may want to do their research before pouring out their vodka. Some Russian brands, like Stolichnaya vodka, are not made in Russia. Stoli's website's homepage reads "Stoli Group stands for peace in Europe and in solidarity with the Ukrainian people." According to the website, Yuri Shefler, owner of the brand, was exiled from Russia two decades ago. Story continues Ditching vodka to protest Russia?: You might be surprised where that bottle is actually from. Contact Urban Change Reporter Lilly St. Angelo at lstangelo@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @lilly_st_ang This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Russian Boycott: Vodka, other liquors removed in Vermont by Gov. Scott Kodi Smit-McPhee has his girlfriend by his side. The Australian star of The Power of the Dog who is nominated for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for the Netflix drama brought his longtime girlfriend Rebecca Phillipou to the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. Smit-McPhee looked chic in an all-white suit paired with matching shoes while his girlfriend wore a black strapless gown with a tulle bottom and accessorized with strappy heels. The actor recently told Variety that he planned on having Phillipou with him throughout awards season, including as his plus-one to the Academy Awards in March. The 25-year-old is nominated for Best Supporting Actor there as well. "I'll definitely be bringing my girlfriend. She's been my rock and my absolute emotional support through every up and down throughout my career," he said. "I'm not even sure they'll be able to make it there, but in the same breath, my family." "I'm in Melbourne, Australia, where I watched the nominations with my mom in the house that I grew up in and my little brother," he said. "That was extremely special. And my dad had a really integral part in raising me and teaching me everything he knew about acting. I'd love them to be a part of the [Oscar ceremony] experience. But right now, I'm not getting too far ahead of myself." Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Kodi Smit-McPhee Frazer Harrison/Getty RELATED: SAG Awards 2022 See the Full List of Nominees Reacting to his SAG nomination in January, Smit-McPhee said in a statement, "This experience has been absolutely surreal. First off, my congratulations to all of my fellow nominees. There's no greater feeling than being recognized by your peers alongside such extraordinary talent. It is profoundly humbling and I'm incredibly proud to be a member of SAG-AFTRA." Story continues Speaking with W Magazine in January, the actor who has starred in movies like The Road, Let Me In and X-Men: Apocalypse joked about a lack of people sliding into his DM's on social media. "I don't know why, but I just don't really have that many people trying to reach out to me, whether it's social media or any of that stuff," he said. "I think I could be giving off a little bit of a scary vibe, but I don't know what it is." Fears of a devastating global war have grown after Vladimir Putin put Russias nuclear forces on high alert this weekend. The drastic moves comes as the Russian leaders invasion of Ukraine has left hundreds injured or killed so far, with questions raised about exactly how far he is prepared to go to take the country. It followed a chilling message from Putin last week when he announced the Ukraine attack, that anyone who tries to hinder Russia will see consequences you have never seen in your history. Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, but they are far from the only country with such deadly weapons at their command. Currently, the total number of global nuclear weapons is believed to be around 13,000. The heightened rhetoric during the Ukraine crisis has led many to fear what would happen if nuclear weapons were used in the event of a Third World War. From Russia to North Korea, we look at the countries with the biggest nuclear arsenals. Putin has moved his nuclear deterrent forces to high alert (Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) 1.Russia Estimates of exact numbers vary but it is widely agreed Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. According to the Stockholm Peace Institute, Putin had 6,255 nukes as of January 2021. Other organisations monitoring nuclear proliferation put the total between 5,977 and 6257. Either way, its a larger stockpile than the US and more than the next seven countries on the list combined. The current figure includes 1,760 warheads believed to be waiting dismantlement. Although a concerning number, Russias nuclear armaments have fallen significantly, as the country inherited 35,000 weapons when the USSR collapsed in 1991. Russia and the US both signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which is an arms control treaty that has been effective since 5 February 2011. The treaty limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and bombs to 1,550. Russia has never used its nuclear weapons in attack, but did test its first nuclear bomb in a remote area of Kazakhstan in 1949. Story continues A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launched during the exercise earlier this month (via REUTERS) 2.United States The US contains about 5,500 nuclear weapons, 1,800 of which are deployed which means they are placed on missiles or on bases with operational forces. To date the US is the only country to ever use an atomic bomb in war. On 6 August 1945, a uranium bomb was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan, which killed an estimated 140,000 people. They dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki which killed a further 74,000 people. 3.China After the US and Russia, the number of nuclear weapons per country drops off dramatically. China is third on the list with 350, less than a tenth of the American total. The country first developed nuclear weapons during the Cold War and is expected to continue expanding its nuclear arsenal, having added another 30 since 2020. Last November, a Pentagon report warned the Chinese nuclear force was expanding much faster than the US had predicted a year before. The US fears Beijing could have more than 1,000 weapons by 2030. Nuclear fallout at Hiroshima (EPA) 4.France Frances supply of nuclear weapons comes in fourth with 290 arms, the largest number in western Europe. Most of those weapons are based on submarines, with the remainder on air-launched cruiser missiles. The country first tested a nuclear strike capability in 1960. France claims it maintains a policy of strict sufficiency, keeping its nuclear arsenal at the lowest level possible, strategically. 5.United Kingdom The UK has approximately 225 nuclear weapons, and initiated its nuclear arms programme during the Second World War. Arms are sea-based and carried by Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles purchased from the US. Trident is operated by the Royal Navy and consists of four submarines, based at HMNB Clyde in Scotland. To date the country has carried out 45 nuclear weapons tests, most recently in 1991. Trident is a US made submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) (Getty) 6.Pakistan Pakistan has 165 nuclear weapons, as of 2021, with plans to create more. The countrys strained relationship with India heavily impacts its nuclear arms production rate. Pakistan first began testing nuclear weapons in 1988, claiming national security reasons. 7.India With 156 nuclear weapons, India has long been in an arms race with Pakistan. However, recent taut relations with China complicates nuclear weapon production. So, any move by India to modernise its nuclear weapons will be perceived as a threat by Pakistan, further inciting a nuclear arms race. North Korea has long paraded its military might 8.Israel Israel is believed to have 90 nuclear weapons, though it has never officially confirmed the existence of a nuclear programme. While it is believed to have held such arms since the 1960s the country has never demonstrated its nuclear capability with a test, unlike other countries on the list. 9.North Korea North Korea is thought to have the smallest number of nuclear weapons on the list with 50, but it is a notoriously secretive nation. The country agreed to a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile testing in 2018 but resumed long-range missile tests in 2020 Under leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea has frequently tested missiles over the Sea of Japan, raising concerns of attack. Kim has pledged to expand both his countrys military and its nuclear arsenal. In 2017, North Korea carried out its largest nuclear test to date, with an estimated yield of 100-370 kilotons. By comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was around 15 kilotons. Michael Keaton accepts the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series for A call of nature nearly came between Michael Keaton and his Screen Actors Guild Awards triumph on Sunday night. The Dopesick star prevailed in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series, besting the likes of Murray Bartlett in The White Lotus and Ewan McGregor in Halston. But Keaton left presenter Salma Hayek looking puzzled when he initially failed to show up after she announced him as the winner. Are you kidding me? I have stage fright, Hayek quipped to the crowd, as shown in the SAG video clip below. Come on, Michael! After an uncomfortably long pause, Keaton was seen darting across the room to the stage. Sorry quick trip to the mens room, the actor said once hed reached the podium. It is packed, by the way. .@MichaelKeaton receives Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series! #sagawardspic.twitter.com/oay0o96iX8 SAG Awards (@SAGawards) February 28, 2022 From there, Keatons speech took a more serious turn. Im so blessed to do what I do, and so fortunate, he said. I have a job ... that actually can spawn thought, conversation, actual change. Who gets to have that job? Seriously, how fortunate am I that good can come from something I do just because I wanted to become an actor? Later, Keaton gave a shout-out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who worked as an actor before entering public service and in recent days has been rallying his nation against invading Russian forces. Keaton became visibly emotional as he dedicated his award to his sister, Pamela Douglas, and his nephew, Michael, who died in 2016 after a battle with drug addiction. Story continues Released last fall, Dopesick explores the role of the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma in the opioid crisis and is based on Beth Macys 2018 book of the same name. Keaton plays Dr. Samuel Finnix, a Virginia physician who becomes addicted to OxyContin after being persuaded to prescribe it to his patients. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Once President Joe Biden leaves the podium after giving his first State of the Union Tuesday, two political leaders will deliver separate responses to the address: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for the Republican Party and Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Although a member of Biden's own party, Tlaib will speak on behalf of the independent Working Families Party. It is a first for the Michigan Democrat, who has come to represent the progressive movement on Capitol Hill along with several other female members of Congress. What else is there to know about Tlaib? What is the Working Families Party and what is expected from the speech? Here's what to know: Who is Rashida Tlaib? Tlaib represents the 13th Congressional District of Michigan, which encompasses Detroit and surrounding areas. The former attorney was the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan legislature. Tlaib also became one of the only Muslim members and first Palestinian American woman in Congress after winning the seat in 2018 and handily winning reelection in 2020. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. The progressive lawmaker along with fellow progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. is a member of the "Squad," a group of four women whom former President Donald Trump told in 2019 to "go back" to their respective countries. Tlaib serves on the House Committees on Financial Services and Oversight and Reform and is a member of several caucuses, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Black Maternal Healthcare Caucus and Democratic Women's Caucus. More: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will deliver Republicans' State of the Union response after President Joe Biden's speech What is the Working Families Party? The Working Families Party is a progressive political party independent of the main parties. The party has supported challengers to incumbent Democrats and has previously endorsed Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Story continues New York Attorney General Tish James, who is leading an investigation into the Trump Organization, is listed among candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party. Learn more: From Ukraine to historic Supreme Court nominee: 5 things to watch for in Biden's State of the Union address Is this the party's first State of the Union response? Tlaib will deliver the party's fifth response to a presidential address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday. Pressley, Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor and current Senate candidate Mandela Barnes and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., have all responded on behalf of the party before. Maurice Mitchell, national director for the Working Families Party, called Tlaib a "fearless progressive who wakes up every day to fight for working people." "Were thrilled for her to deliver the WFP State of the Union Response, Mitchell said in a statement. "Rashida will articulate a progressive vision for how we can meet the basic needs of the American people, and ensure all of us can thrive. Tlaib said she will elevate working-class voices and encourage Democrats to "move with a sense of urgency" during the speech. It should not be this hard to deliver on healthcare, climate, housing, child care, safety, voting rights, clean water and so much more," she said, according to the statement. "Democrats are in the majority and must set a new course that moves with a sense of urgency. Our communities deserve for us to act now. Contributing: Detroit Free Press Reach out to Chelsey Cox on Twitter at @therealco. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rep. Rashida Tlaib will deliver response to State of the Union Three former leaders of a North State American Indian tribe have been sentenced to prison for stealing millions of dollars from their tribe. The three leaders used the money they stole to live a lavish lifestyle that included buying homes, purchasing vehicles and taking luxury vacations, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento. John A. Crosby, 56, of Redding and two other former officials of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, Ines S. Crosby, 76, of Orland and Leslie A. Lohse, 67, of Glenn, pleaded guilty in 2019 of embezzling from the tribe. Between the three of them, they stole nearly $5 million from the tribe, which operates Rolling Hills Casino near Corning. The defendants lived a lavish lifestyle at the expense of the Paskenta Tribe of Nomlaki Indians and were undeterred by the damage their conduct would bring to the Tribe, whose members trusted them with most of their crucial operational positions, said U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert, whose office prosecuted the case in federal court. More: RPD: Mom accused in Little League embezzlement also took $6,400 from elderly woman John Crosby was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison, He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Ines Crosby was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison. Lohse was sentenced to three years and five months in prison. Lohse has paid $902,208 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. A hearing was scheduled for April 19, 2022, to determine how much restitution John and Ines Crosby will pay, officials said. The embezzlement happened between January 2009 and May 2014, with the defendants "taking advantage of their positions on the tribal council and in prominent leadership positions in the tribe," officials said. More: Officials: Redding man, others used tribal funds for koi pond, trips on private jets, more According to court documents, the defendants used the money they stole to buy a home, vehicles, trips to Africa, South America, Hawaii, a World Series game and the Dominican Republic. Story continues Some of the money also was used on private jets, family expenses, "precious metals" and more, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Per court documents, some of the expenses that used tribal money include: Over $838,000 for John Crosby to buy a house. Over $150,000 for John Crosby to buy gold coins and precious metals. About $85,000 for Ines Crosby to have a koi pond installed at her home. A $1,155 purse, $2,000 in beauty products and a car that cost over $93,000 for Ines Crosby. Trips on private jets worth over $100,000 each for both Ines and John Crosby. Over $30,000 in credit card payments from Lohse. More: Redding real estate agent accused of insurance fraud after Carr Fire "All three individuals then took a series of steps to attempt to conceal their actions: they created a written employment agreement in 2014 that appeared to be from 2001 and purported to authorize their use of Tribal funds, and then told federal investigators that the document was from 2001, knowing at the time that that was not true," officials said. This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Tribal leaders sentenced to prison for embezzlement Gov. Jay Inslee has pushed up the timeline for lifting Washingtons COVID-19 mask requirements for schools and businesses to March 12, after federal officials last week loosened public-health guidelines on face coverings. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee delivers his 2022 State of the State address Tuesday at the Capitol in Olympia. Trumps own words speak to where his loyalties lie To the editor Direct quote from former President Donald Trump: This is genius, he said of Russian President Vladimir Putins decision on Monday to officially recognize the breakaway provinces of Ukraine and authorize the use of Russian military personnel to assist them. So Putin is now saying its independent a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And hes gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. Thats the strongest peace force Ive ever seen. There were more army tanks than Ive ever seen. Theyre gonna keep peace, all right. A day later: Shortly before Putin signaled the start of a military operation in Ukraine, Trump continued to lavish praise on the Russian leader. Speaking at a political fundraiser held at his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump admired the Russian dictators strategic success. Another quote: I mean, hes taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions, Trump said. Id say thats pretty smart. Hes taking over a country literally a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in. Did I read that right? He said that they walked. JOAN HOEFT Yakima Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. VILLANOVA, Pa.Villanova University has been listed as a top producer of 2021-2022 Fulbright U.S. Studentsas recently announced by the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The Fulbright Program is the U.S. governments flagship international educational exchange program. Top-producing U.S. colleges and universities are highlighted annually in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Villanova had 11 students and alumni win Fulbright awards for the 2021-2022 academic year. For the full list of Top Fulbright Producers, click here. Villanova has a wonderful history of success in the Fulbright competition, which is a direct result of the impressive accomplishments of so many Villanovans, as well as the support that exists at the University to prepare these recipients, said the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, Villanova University President. The impact that our Villanova Fulbright recipients have had in communities around the world is remarkable, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them. The Fulbright competition is administered at Villanova through the Center for Research and Fellowships (CRF). In the current Fulbright cycle, 49 of Villanovas 73 applicants were named Semi-Finalists for the award and will be notified over the next three months if they are selected to go abroad during the 2022-2023 academic year. The Fulbright Program was established over 75 years ago to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Fulbright is the worlds largest and most diverse international educational exchange program. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its inception in 1946, over 400,000 people from all backgroundsrecent university graduates, teachers, scientists and researchers, artists, and morehave participated in the Fulbright Program and returned to their home countries with an expanded worldview, a deep appreciation for their host country and its people, and a new network of colleagues and friends. Fulbright is active in more than 160 countries worldwide and partners with participating governments, host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States. Many of these organizations also provide direct and indirect support. ECA sponsors the Fulbright program, and several non-profit, cooperative partners implement and support the program on the Bureaus behalf. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit eca.state.gov/fulbright. About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova Universitys Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six collegesthe College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Ranked among the nations top universities, Villanova supports its students intellectual growth and prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit www.villanova.edu. VILLANOVA, Pa.Villanova University has announced $13.5 million in leadership gifts towards the expansion of its College of Engineerings primary academic building, the Center for Engineering Education and Research. The University has received significant support for the project from Engineering alumni, including $5 million gifts from both John Jack G. Drosdick and Richard K. Faris and a $3.5 million gift from Nance K. Dicciani, PhD. "This project will further the Colleges capabilities to foster change through interdisciplinary research and innovative teaching and learning, said Michele Marcolongo, PhD, Drosdick Endowed Dean of the College of Engineering. The expansion will establish a hub for Villanovas College of Engineering, bringing all disciplines together into one facility, which will serve as a crossroads for collaboration and innovation. The following major gifts have been instrumental in bringing Villanovas Engineering building expansion to reality and creating momentum behind the project: $5 million gift from John Jack G. Drosdick, 65 College of Engineering , retired chairman and chief executive officer of Sunoco, Inc. and former chair of Villanovas Board of Trustees. In recognition of his gift, the University will establish the Drosdick Innovation Lab, featuring a state-of-the-art, two-floor maker space that will enable students to design and build prototypes. , retired chairman and chief executive officer of Sunoco, Inc. and former chair of Villanovas Board of Trustees. In recognition of his gift, the University will establish the Drosdick Innovation Lab, featuring a state-of-the-art, two-floor maker space that will enable students to design and build prototypes. $5 million gift from Richard K. Faris, 69 College of Engineering, 70 Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE) , retired Senior Vice President of Product Development of Oracle Corporations Primavera Global Business Unit. In recognition of his gift, the College of Engineerings structures lab was named the Richard K. Faris 69 CE, 70 MSCE Structural Engineering Teaching and Research Laboratory. , retired Senior Vice President of Product Development of Oracle Corporations Primavera Global Business Unit. In recognition of his gift, the College of Engineerings structures lab was named the Richard K. Faris 69 CE, 70 MSCE Structural Engineering Teaching and Research Laboratory. $3.5 million gift from Nance K. Dicciani, PhD, 69 College of Engineering, CEO and co-founder of RTM Vital Signs LLC, medical device startup company, and a former Villanova trustee. In recognition of her gift, the Biomaterials and Polymers Lab in the new space will be named the Nance K. Dicciani PhD '69 Biomaterials and Polymers Laboratory. A total of $35.5 million has now been raised for the project, including 15 seven-figure gifts from Villanova alumni, parents and friends. I am grateful to Jack, Dick and Nance for their vision and belief in this project and how it will transform the College of Engineering for future generations, said Mike ONeill, Senior Vice President for University Advancement. Their commitmentand the support of all our major donorshas provided the solid foundation necessary to make this expansion project a reality. About the Project In October 2021, the University unveiled plans for a 150,000 square-foot addition to its College of Engineerings primary academic building, the Center for Engineering Education and Research. This project will dramatically transform the facilitymore than doubling the existing 90,000 square foot facilityadding expanded research facilities and state-of-the-art instruction spaces for hands-on, problem-oriented and team-based learning. The addition will include 11 flexible laboratory spaces designed for multi-disciplinary teams to work together on topical areas of research; classrooms that can adapt to various teaching and lecture formats; and a two-story Innovation Lab, which will include workspaces, tools and equipment for building, and space to accommodate large-scale project work. The University will break ground on the $125 million project in Spring 2022, with the expansion scheduled to be completed by Fall 2024. The project was designed by BLTaA Perkins Eastman Studio and Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP. For more information on the building expansion project, visit villanova.edu/CEERexpansion. About Villanova University College of Engineering: Founded in 1905, Villanova University College of Engineering is committed to an educational program that emphasizes technical excellence, innovation, and a liberal arts education within the framework of the Universitys Augustinian Catholic tradition. The result is rigorously educated, socially grounded, conscientious thinkers and doers who are professionally prepared to make meaningful change in the world. About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova Universitys Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six collegesthe College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Ranked among the nations top universities, Villanova supports its students intellectual growth and prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit www.villanova.edu. The EUs Foreign Affairs Council has approved a strong and robust package of sanctions against Russia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Brussels on Friday. The EU showed unity in its decision, which Hungary was also a part of, the minister said after the meeting with his European counterparts. The package includes financial restrictions on Russian businesses and banks, Russias energy sector and the air transport sector, Szijjarto said. The businesses and banks being sanctioned will be blocked from EU financing, he said. They also include a ban on the export of dual-use goods and technologies and involve sanctions against a list of individuals, including a freeze on the assets of the Russian president and the foreign minister, he said. Szijjarto said Hungary considered it important that the sanctions did not endanger the supply of Russian energy and the ability to preserve the achievements of the governments scheme to keep household utility bills low. He added that it was good news that the package did not threaten Hungarys energy supply, as it did not include restrictions on natural gas imports or the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Meanwhile, Szijjarto criticised the lie originating from, it appears, the head of the European Peoples Party, who had said that certain EU countries, including Hungary, had blocked the move to cut Russia off from the SWIFT payment network. That did not happen; Hungary did not address that issue, the minister said. He said it was shocking that the leader of a major European political family is trying to gain political benefits even in a time of war. As regards the situation in Kyiv, Szijjarto said the staff at the Hungarian embassy had reported hearing gunfire and smelling gunpowder all day near the embassy. He said Hungary had decided to evacuate from the capital some embassy personnel and their family members along with the staff of the Kyiv offices of the OSCE and the Council of Europe in a joint operation. Unfortunately, certain Hungarian left-wing media outlets made the operation public in a critical phase, which could easily have endangered the health or lives of the Hungarian and non-Hungarian citizens involved in the operation, Szijjarto said. He added that the evacuation had successfully passed a part of the critical areas. Hungary has opened a humanitarian corridor for the citizens of third countries in Ukraine who will be allowed to enter without a visa, Szijjarto said. A decision has been made to allow swift and unimpeded passage for humanitarian aid to Ukraine, he said. Hungary is in constant contact with the governor of Transcarpathia, who has made certain requests for assistance which are now being reviewed, Szijjarto said. Hungary is helping the citizens of third countries leave Ukraine and enter Hungary, Szijjarto said, adding that 25 Czech diplomats and their family members were given assistance most recently. Hungary is also helping Israeli citizens and has received requests for help from Jordanians, Iranians, the minister said, adding that 15 Maldivian students will also soon be granted entry into the country. Photo courtesy: FM's Facebook page Every refugee arriving in Hungary from Ukraine must be assisted, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on Sunday evening. Refugees arriving from neighbouring Ukraine can be assured they will be welcomed by friends in Hungary, Orban said on news channel M1. Well feed them, shelter them and provide for their children, he added. He said assisting refugees from Ukraine is an elementary human, Christian instinct. Commenting on the show of support for the refugees by Hungarians, Orban said. Hungary is a good country, with good people. He said one doesnt have to be a rocket scientist to see the difference between masses arriving from Muslim regions in hope of a better life in Europe and helping Ukrainian refugees who have come to Hungary because of the war. The Hungarian Army has all of the weapons it needs to defend the countrys eastern border, if necessary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on Sunday evening. He noted that Hungary started to develop its defence industry several years earlier, but the factories are only now being built. Even if it wanted to, Hungary couldnt put military equipment at the disposal of others, but it doesnt want to, Orban said. He said Hungarys defence industry developments were launched in preparation for peace, adding that the coming decade would be about who can ensure security for their own country and the everyday lives of their own people. Orban said the interests of Hungary and Hungarians are the priority, even in time of war, adding that decisions are being weighed every hour that will serve the interests of Hungary and of Hungarians. He said these include ones that involve energy policy sanctions that could negatively impact Hungarians. He said a war of information is underway and cautioned against disinformation. Orban said the upgrade of Hungarys sole nuclear power plant at Paks and the matter of energy must be excluded from the issue of sanctions, otherwise well pay the price of the war, which nobody wants. Orban conceded that he is no believer in the benefit of sanctions, but said theres a war going on, and its not the time to be clever, but to be united. Whatever sanctions EU member states agree on, well back them, he said. Reports to the contrary are lies, he added. Orban warned that the longer the war drags on, the greater the risk that there will be targets in Transcarpathia, bringing the war closer to us. He said those people in Brussels cant be counted on to defend the EUs external borders, noting the lack of EU financial assistance for Hungarys defence of its southern border during migrant crisis. Thats why we need NATO, because if danger approaches Hungarys borderonly within the bonds of NATO can we ensure the full defence of Hungary, he said. Hungary 'Friendly Place' For Arrivals From Ukraine, Says PM Orban Hungary is a friendly place for people arriving from Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told journalists during an inspection of the border with Ukraine in Beregsurany on Saturday. Orban said the front line is far from Hungary for the time being, but stressed that military action in Transcarpathia, the westernmost region of Ukraine, bordering on Hungary, must also be anticipated. He said soldiers and mayors must step up their discipline as the front line moves closer to Hungary. He added that the coming weeks will require stronger composure, because we dont want to become involved in this armed conflict. Answering a question, Orban said speculation that Hungary was the only EU member state to oppose Russias exclusion from the SWIFT global interbank payments system was fake news and warned that disinformation is commonplace in war. Hungary made it clear at the EU summit on Thursday that it supports all sanctions on which there is consensus in the EU. Were not blocking anything, he said. Assessing the situation at the border, Orban said the willingness of local councils and authorities to help would see them through these difficult times. In spite of the severity of the situation, work is proceeding in a calm and organised manner, he added. Orban said Hungary is letting in everyone crossing the border from Ukraine, even those without travel documents and people from third countries, after the appropriate screening. Even though work is going smoothly, he warned that the hard part is yet to come. Orban acknowledged the hospitality and willingness to help of local residents. I see there is a Hungarian-Ukrainian friendship among those who live here that is now a tangible advantage to Ukrainians, he said. Answering further questions, Orban said he and a number of other European leaders, including the German chancellor and the French president, had put peace initiatives to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the past ten days. We did everything that was humanly possible to avoid war, but all efforts by the EU proved to be without success, he added. Now, he said, efforts should be focused on turning from war to peace. He added that Hungary has implemented EU sanctions. Asked whether Hungary would accept Ukrainian men escaping conscription, Orban said anybody who enters the territory of Hungary is under Hungarian authority, so well help everybody. The rule is that all refugees must be assisted. MTI Photo: PM's Press Office Zoltan Fischer The weeklies went to print before the Russian onslaught on Ukraine began in the early hours of Thursday, but they already offered comments on the prospect of a Russian invasion of at least part of Hungarys eastern neighbour. Heti Vilaggazdasags weekly lead story has the headline war-keepers paraphrasing the official announcement that Russia would send peacekeeping forces to eastern Ukraine. The author, Marton Gergely, warns that President Putin has a habit of moving ahead gradually with his plans in order to gauge the reaction of his adversaries and test their commitment. Occupying the breakaway areas of the Donbas, he suggests, was just one step in his strategy. In its editorial, Magyar Narancs predicts that Russia will try to occupy the whole of Ukraine. The editors deduce from early developments that there is no peace party within the walls of the Kremlin. They draw a parallel with the wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, when ruling Serbian politicians considered Croats, Bosnians and Kosovars traitors because they wanted to be independent. In the same way, they explain, Putin considers that Ukraine belongs to Russia. In a concluding remark, they ask who the next victim will be once Ukraine falls under Russian rule. Thats a big bite for the Bear, runs the headline in 168 ora. In the analysis which follows, Agoston Amosi expresses doubt that Russia will launch an all-out offensive. He concedes that the Russian military is capable of swift advances but cannot predict the intensity of the resistance they would face. On the other hand, he writes, a long-drawn-out war would raise logistical problems for the Russian side, which could not supply its troops with the required ammunition, spare parts, food and medicine without enrolling civilian vehicles, a step that might well prove politically catastrophic for the government. In Elet es Irodalom Janos Szeky vituperates against government supporters who, in his view, are daydreaming of recovering the Sub-Carpathian region from Ukraine. He mentions a recollection by former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski who said that in 2008, President Putin made an offer to then Prime Minister Tusk of Poland, to divide Ukraine between their two countries. There is no evidence that similar offers have been made to other neighbours of Ukraine, Szeky adds. He dismisses Prime Minister Orbans first statements in support of sanctions against Russia as insufficiently resolute and blames him for the pro-Russian mood he perceives on pro-government social media sites during the first days of the conflict. In Demokrata, one of the earliest weeklies to go to print, Gabor Stier predicts that no war will break out in Ukraine. Nevertheless, he finds the lack of intense diplomatic activity worrisome, and blames this on the Ukrainian side. As he sees it, President Zelenskys hands were tied, so he couldnt afford to acknowledge the autonomous status of the breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. He predicts ugly events, nevertheless evidence of a shift of the global balance of power that requires sobriety and cold bloodedness on the part of decision-makers. In Mandiner, Gabor Nevai writes that Hungarians are stretching out their hands in friendship to Ukraine in its hour of need. He suggests that under Soviet rule after the Second World War, as well as in an independent Ukraine for the past 30 years, the Hungarian minority has been losing ground. By now, Hungarians only represent one tenth of the population in the Sub-Carpathian region. Peace should be swiftly restored, he concludes, for the generations who until now believed that war is impossible in Europe. This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online. Click here to Share Your Story Photo courtesy: Northfoto.com Peter Szijjarto, Hungarys foreign minister, has offered Budapest as a venue of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Szijjarto said in a live stream on Facebook late on Friday that he had consulted with both Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys office chief Andriy Yermak to offer them Budapest as a safe venue for negotiations. Neither side has ruled out the possibility, he said. With this offer, Hungary hopes to contribute to restoring peace, in which it has a vested interest, Szijjarto said in Brussels before leaving for New York for talks with UN leaders on the conflict. Szijjarto noted that the major global powers had deployed almost all means of diplomacy to avert war in Ukraine, Hungarys neighbourhood. War is the worst-case scenario that claims human lives, he said, adding that Hungary would like to see peace and an end to hostilities in its neighbourhood as soon as possible. The sooner it ends the fewer human lives it claims, the minister said. Negotiations are a precondition for restoring peace but the previous sites offered for the purpose, namely Warsaw and Minsk, generated disagreement between the warring sides. This is what prompted Hungarys offer, he said. Hungary is a kind of reluctant ally of the West, although we officially support sanctions, we also want to remain on good terms with Russia; the war against Ukraine is the fault of both sides, but mainly of the West, and least of all of Putins personal responsibility. The best thing would be for the Ukrainians to give up resistance as soon as possible and for Russia to be punished as little as possible this is broadly the position that emerges from the way the Orban government has communicated the war in Ukraine to the domestic public through state-owned public broadcasting channels. In our previous story, we showed that some media outlets directly or indirectly linked to the Hungarian government were openly engaged in pro-Russian, pro-war propaganda about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. In the following, we will look at the public media and official statements, where statements reminiscent of Kremlin propaganda have also appeared, sometimes causing communication confusion on state channels. Appeal to the media authority While the Hungarian government says it supports all sanctions against Russia and condemns Putins aggression, the public media at the beginning of the war seemed to be subtly trying to antagonise public opinion against Ukraine and relativise Moscows responsibility. And Hungary was presented to the domestic public as a neutral party, as an outsider in NATO and the EU. In many cases, the messages simply serve to discredit the Hungarian opposition, who are portrayed as putting Hungary at risk by getting too involved in the conflict. But the public media did not stop there. Several of the talking heads on MTVA criticised the sanctions against Russia in general. In some broadcasts, Hungarian grievances against Ukraine were explicitly emphasised, and in the analyses, Ukrainian President Zelensky was singled out for criticism, while Russian President Vladimir Putin was barely mentioned. In a public Facebook post on Saturday, Gabor Polyak, associate professor, head of the oppositions press policy cabinet and founder of the Mertek Media Analysis Workshop, wrote to Andras Koltay, chairman of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority and the Media Council of the NMHH, that Hungarian state television is spreading Russian war propaganda. The state television is spreading Russian war propaganda with Spottele (sic), Nogradi and similar dangerous liars. wrote Andras Polyak, calling on Koltay to recall Daniel Papp, chairman of the Media Services Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). Ukraine has crossed the red line These security policy experts (who have been regular commentators on public media programmes for years, and are also frequent speakers at COF and Fidesz events) have given several interviews on the situation in Ukraine in recent days. Their analyses reveal a narrative, some elements of which are echoed in the statements of Hungarian politicians. Georg Spottle, an analyst at the pro-government Nezopont Institute, a former policeman who became known as a UFO researcher in the 1990s, blamed Ukraine for the outbreak of the war in a TV interview on 24 February. He claimed that Ukraine had crossed the red line, blowing Putins fuse by announcing that it was preparing to develop nuclear weapons. This false accusation was also made verbatim in Putins speech two days earlier announcing recognition of the breakaway republics. Kiev has not in fact announced the launch of a nuclear programme. In reality, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was talking about convening a meeting of the signatories to the Budapest Memorandum, the document on the basis of which, in 1994, the newly independent Ukraine disarmed its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from Russia and the other signatories. Since 2014, Ukraine has called three times for the same memorandum to be enforced and for its signatories to meet. Zelensky said that if the talks failed again, Ukraines position was that the treaty would be considered inoperative, but he did not claim that this would lead to attempts (or even the ability) to produce nuclear weapons. Russian soldiers: calm, Zelensky: Hitler Spottle also said that the Russian soldiers were very calm, as the Ukrainians were not showing any serious resistance. He also criticised Zelensky for arming civilian volunteers, saying that the last time Hitler committed such madness was in the last days of the war. Spottle speculated that the Ukrainian resistance would collapse like the Afghan army did when it attacked the Taliban for this reason he criticised Western arms supplies to Ukraine, saying that this would only put weapons in Russian hands. Finally, he said that sanctions against Russia could threaten Europes energy supply, but that Hungary is not threatened thanks to the pragmatic, excellent policy of our government. Putin not even named Security expert Gyorgy Nogradi also said on 24 November that the Russians are so superior that Ukrainian resistance is pointless. Like Spottli, he compared the Ukrainian armed forces to the Afghan army, which he said had fallen apart. He said the US should reconsider whether the export of democracy it has been promoting is appropriate. Finally, he also said that sanctions can be done, but there will be a corresponding Russian response, which will hurt Europe. He called the sanctions a US decision and a blunder. Two days later, in an interview on 24 February, Nogradi already admitted that there is Ukrainian resistance, but stressed that the Russian superiority is astonishing. He also said that Zelensky was saying different things every half hour and that he was contradicting himself by saying first that he was defending the country and then that he was ready to negotiate a ceasefire. Nogradi continued to criticize sanctions against Russia, pointing out that there is no realistic alternative to Russian gas imports in Europe. Interestingly, Nogradi did not mention Putins name once during the 10-minute interview. Nogradi was specific about Hungarys role, saying that Budapest is neutral on this issue, we are members of the EU and NATO, but we want to build good relations with both sides. He said that this is why Budapest would be a good venue for peace talks. I reject the attack, but In addition to invited guests, off-air public figures made statements relativizing Russian aggression. Balazs Nemeth, the MTVA presenter, wrote in a comment on his Facebook page on 24 November that the US was also to blame for the outbreak of the war. In another post, he said that although he condemned the Russian invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky has acted correctly, responsibly and wisely in the last four days? Is it the right decision to take the fight to him? Is he free to arm civilians, encourage them to make Molotov cocktails, send them into the streets with twitter videos? He also asked: And what would happen if Zelensky resigned? Wouldnt that be a wiser decision? (the ousting of the elected Ukrainian government is one of the Kremlins main aims in attacking him). The same presenter also rejected comparisons between the situation in Ukraine and the 1956 Hungarian uprising (an analogy used by President Janos Ader). Orban signalled approval of EU weapons shipments Meanwhile, almost all MTVA news programmes broadcast a campaign message attacking the opposition in Hungary, claiming that opposition politicians would send weapons to Ukraine, thereby allegedly endangering Hungarys security. This led to a grotesque show on 27 September, after Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Hungary had also voted to activate the European Peace Facility, i.e. to buy arms jointly for Ukraine. The news of the joint arms purchase, supported by Hungary, was soon followed by a clip on the news program Hirado that day, which strongly condemned how irresponsible it would be to send arms to Ukraine. At the same time, it cannot be said that the Hungarian public media are constructing a completely alternative reality about the situation in Ukraine to the same extent as, for example, the Kremlin media or some pro-government sites broadcasting concentrated Russian war propaganda on social media. In contrast, several MTVA news broadcasts and other speakers present the events in a way analogous to international news. Orban is not pro-sanctions In the confusion of communication in the public media, however, a narrative about Hungarys role is beginning to emerge, which can also be seen in the statements of government members: that although Hungary is unlikely to join the common policy, it is wiggling out of it and trying to soften its strong stance against Russia, in favor of Ukraine. Many have stressed that it is wrong to support the continuation of the war also known as the Ukrainians resistance to Russian aggression. For example, Fidesz communications director Istvan Hollik wrote in a statement that sending arms to Ukraine actually helps the continuation of the war. When it became certain that Hungary supports the activation of the European Peace Facility, Szijjarto could not stress enough that Hungary will not supply weapons on a national basis, it is only the EU as a whole that is sending them. On 25 February, Lajos Kosa, a member of the Hungarian parliaments defence committee, warned against attacking the Russians while expressing solidarity with the Ukrainians. In his answer, Kosa rejected the suggestion that the University of Debrecen (a city in the center of Kosas electoral constituency) should abolish Putins honorary doctorate, saying that Putins personal image is not important at the moment. Viktor Orban also said in an extraordinary interview on 27 February that he does not believe in the beneficial effect of sanctions, but that unity was needed and that the EUs common position was supported. Orban also made a reference there to the fact that Hungary should not supply weapons to Ukraine because those weapons might be used to shoot at Hungarian people. A quarter of Fidesz voters agree with Putin Recently, Pulzus Research conducted a survey on how Hungarians view the war. The answers revealed that there are huge differences in the perception of the war among supporters of different parties. When asked why the war broke out, 25 percent of Fidesz-KDNP supporters said that Russia had launched a justified war to protect the Russian minority in Ukraine. Fewer than half of governing party voters agreed that the attack on Ukraine was a show of great power aggression, with a strikingly large 26 percent saying they did not know why the war broke out a pollster said many governing party voters dont know what to think after Viktor Orban also condemned the Russian attack. Eighty-nine percent of opposition supporters see the conflict as a war of imperial aggression. Of the total population, 16 percent explicitly sympathize with Russia, while the majority, 52 percent, sympathize with Ukraine, according to the poll the remainder did not respond or do not know where to stand. A successful influence operation? The Orban governments double-dealing policy towards Moscow has only seemingly ended with the support of the EUs common positions, wrote investigative journalist Andras Dezso in a 28 February article. For the Kremlin, propaganda, and the division of the West, and especially of Europe is at least as important as physical attacks he wrote. The article recalls that for many years the Hungarian state media constructed an anti-West and anti-EU narrative modeled after Kremlin propaganda. Dezso also referred to a private meeting that took place at the Interior Ministry in 2014, where Viktor Orban allegedly said that the world was undergoing major transformations, that Russia would occupy Ukraine, which is a non-existent country, that China was rising, that the United States and the EU was weakening, and therefore we must adapt to the new world order. Orban then made generous gestures towards Moscow, while Hungarian intelligence services were told to overlook Russian operations. Some of the similarities in Hungarian government propaganda are certainly already the result of successful Russian intelligence interference, he wrote. A liberal correspondent believes that Russia intends to topple the Kiev government but will not attempt to keep Ukraine under military occupation. A business analyst weighs the risks for the Hungarian economy. As Russia launched an offensive against Ukraine on multiple fronts, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto declared that Hungary stands by Ukraine, along with her NATO allies. Minister of Defence Tibor Benko said Hungary must be ready to host tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. In a live report from Kiev on Klub Radio, Andras Nemeth, Heti Vilaggazdasags foreign policy expert, believed Russia will not stop short of toppling the government of Ukraine. He didnt think, however, that Russia will permanently occupy its western neighbour, as Russia, he suggested, is not strong enough to keep Ukraine under military occupation, given the constant losses it could expect to suffer in such a scenario. On Kossuth national public radio, business analyst Istvan Lorand Szakali said Russia will suffer sensitive economic losses as a result of Western sanctions. Hungarian businesses with high exposure to Russian markets, including OTP, the largest Hungarian bank and Richter, an important pharmaceutical firm will incur significant losses, he added. As for Russian natural gas supplies, Hungary has a long-term contract with Gazprom and the gas now reaches Hungary by-passing Ukraine. Opposition-leaning commentators squarely condemn Russia, while pro-government ones agree to sanctions on Moscow but lambast the opposition candidate for Prime Minister who suggested Hungary should send weapons and soldiers to help Ukraine (although only if NATO asked her to). In Nepszava, Gabor Horvath calls President Putin of Russia a military giant who is a dwarf as a statesman. The world will never be the same as it was on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine he writes. Russia, he explains, cannot be regarded anymore as being a civilised partner in international relations. Life will become harder, including for Hungary, Horvath predicts, adding that the blame must be unequivocally laid at Putins doorstep. On Valasz, Szabolcs Voros welcomes the governments statements on its alignment with NATO and EU sanctions in response to the Russian invasion but urges a more resolute condemnation of Russias brazen expansionism. Summoning the Russian ambassador, he continues, was the right thing to do, but more than that should be done. Not just because we are supposed to be a nation of freedom-fighters, but also out of elementary humane considerations, Voros concludes. In Magyar Nemzet, Levente Sitkei finds it natural for the government to side with Hungarys western allies over the war in Ukraine, while remarking, in an aside, that they couldnt care less for the complaints of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine over the past years. Meanwhile, he condemns opposition frontrunner Peter Marki-Zay who, addressing a protest rally in front of the Russian embassy on Thursday, used the dangerous conflict to call the Prime Minister a traitor on account of his recent visit to Moscow. Hungarys vital interests should prevail over partisan considerations, he warns. In Magyar Hirlap, Daniel Galsai calls Marki-Zays vision a nightmare. He refers, in particular, to the opposition frontrunners first reaction to the Russian invasion, in which he said Hungary should actively take part in the war on Ukraines side. Does he really want Hungary to confront the Russian war machine? he asks, concluding that the opposition is definitely out of its mind. This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online. Click here to Share Your Story Photo courtesy: Northfoto.com In a special interview to state broadcaster M1 Television, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that strategic calm was what was needed when warring conflicts break out. In this regard, we must be careful not to rush to take steps or make demands that have not been completely thought through, he warned. There is no need to urge Hungary to send weapons to the [warring] region, as we are in a neighboring country, and those with weapons may start shooting at Hungarians. After all, there are also Hungarians who live in the Transcarpathian region, and soldiers who come from there. - said the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, the EU has already started to supply weapons to Ukraine, and Germany, Greece, Portugal, and Slovakia are already providing military equipment to assist the Ukrainian resistance. Viktor Orban, however, said that the Hungarian army cannot give up any of its arms, and will need every single one of its weapons as it marches to the Eastern border and defend the countrys borders, if necessary. As the Prime Minister put it: Even if it wanted to, Hungary would not be able to make any of its military equipment available to others. He also claimed that one did not have to be a nuclear scientist to understand the difference between Ukrainian refugees and masses of people coming here from the faraway Muslim world in hopes of a better life. Those who come from neighboring countries have to be helped, according to Orban: So those who come from a long distance go through quite a few safe third countries. They should be cared and helped for there. But where can the poor Ukrainians go? We are their neighbours. Regarding sanctions, the Prime Minister said that he still didnt believe in their effectiveness. But now that a war is upon is, this is not the time to be smart but united, which is why the Hungarian government will support any sanctions agreed to by the countries of the EU. Any news to the contrary is disinformation, said Prime Minister Orban, as well as news of Hungary intending to block the exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT financial system. However, Orban said it made no sense to launch sanctions that make Hungary pay the price of war in the end. This means that energy issues and the Paks II nuclear power plant expansion project being carried out with Russian finance and expertise should not be subject to sanctions, believes the Prime Minister. Orban also said that the current sanctions package did not affect the gas agreement with Russia and the governments utility price cut policy. In addition, Viktor Orban complained that no aid was forthcoming from Brussels to care for the wave of refugees. He also had a few sharp words for the Hungarian left-wing, but never once uttered Vladimir Putins name. YORK Over the course of a few hours, several hundred people attended an informational open house regarding the proposed K-Solar project. The open house was held at Stone Creek Event Center in McCool Junction the proposed large solar project is being planned for west and south of McCool Junction. Many McCool area residents and landowners were in attendance, as were county commissioners and other officials, patrons and board members for the McCool School District and other interested York County residents. During the open house, representatives of EDF Renewables were on hand, at a number of different stations, to explain the project and answer questions. This was an opportunity for representatives to speak one-on-one regarding many different details of the project. The proposed project would be a 310 MWac solar field with the ability to generate enough power for 100,000 homes. The project is designed to need approximately 5,000 acres of land and the area of interest is a very large span of land west of McCool Junction stretching nearly to Lushton and then south to the county line. Company representatives said in an earlier presentation the project development timeline includes for land easements to be acquired in the years of 2021-22 (in other words, this is an ongoing process); for environmental analysis to take place in 2022 and 2023; and for the construction and interconnect with the McCool substation to happen in the time period of 2024-2026. Company representatives said the $300 million project will provide significant income to local government taxing entities (mostly school districts and the county) over the life of the project totaling about $43 million. And they said approximately $84 million would be paid to the participating landowners by the 35th year of the project. Some people at this open house and during an earlier county board meeting expressed their concerns about the removal of farming from that many prime acres. Some have also asked questions about whether the solar fields will create noise, glare or movement issues for the people who live in the vicinity of the proposed solar field. And others have asked, Why York County? for this particular project. The company pursuing the project is located in Houston, Texas. One specific information board addressed this very question. Why York? the companys information said. This location was selected for a few reasons: High demand for renewable energy from regional utilities, corporations and customers; interested landowners looking to diversify income and project real estate assets; great resource located near utility infrastructure; cost of solar energy continues to decrease making it highly competitive with traditional fossil fuels; near other projects owned and operated by EDF Renewables; power market opportunities; and favorable site and environmental characteristics. The company said last month it had acquired 65% of the land easements needed for the project an updated percentage hasnt been disclosed as of late. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Ive talked about trivia in several areas. Theres TV, movies, popular music to name a few. I havent talked about Nebraska history yet. I worked for Nebraska Tourism for many years. In that time, I came across many interesting bits of trivia. Now its time to share some of them with you. I grew up in Omaha so naturally I have several things to say about Omaha. For example, Peony Park amusement park was just a few blocks from where I grew up. One thing about the park is that some pretty big names performed at the park. Among them were Benny Goodman, Doris Day, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and yes, Frank Sinatra. Amazing, considering we are right in the middle of the country. Peony Park also boasted the largest hand-made swimming pool in the country at the time. Omaha has the largest independent furniture store in the country, one that was started by a woman who could barely speak English and eventually sold it on a handshake. The Nebraska Furniture Mart is still doing great all thanks to Mrs. B, also known as Rose Blumpkin. Omaha is the home to the Bnai Brith Youth Organizationa young mans Jewish Organization (also known by their initials AZA) which now has chapters all over the world. The reason I know this is because I was a member of AZA # 1 in high school. My sister was a founding member of her BNai Brith Girls Organization, MZ Yoshana. My dad was a member of AZA 100 when he was in high school. The Rueben sandwich was developed in the Blackstone Hotel in the 1920s. The worlds first TV dinner was invented here at Swansons in the 1950s. Some notable people have Omaha roots. Oscar winner Marlon Brando grew up in Omaha, as did Fred Astaire. Johnny Carson worked in TV (with my dad) in the early part of TV. We had a past-president of the United States born in Omaha, Gerald Ford, and one of the richest men in the world currently lives in Omaha, Warren Buffet. The only Oscar on display is at Boys Town. Oscar winner Spencer Tracey donated his second Oscar to Father Flannigan as he portrayed him in Boys Town. Lincoln has some interesting things. For example, Lincoln was not the original selection of our capitol. The original spot was Central High School in Omaha. There was a big argument in the Legislature on where to put the capitol. It all came down to the Platte River. Foes of Abraham Lincoln wanted it located north of the Platte River. The other side got their way locating the capitol on the south side of the Platte and then naming it Lincoln. Speaking of the capitol, the current building is considered one of the architectural wonders of the world. They built todays building around the old capitol, when they ran out of money, they stopped construction until the next year. It took 10 years to build but it was completely paid for when it opened. There are lots of great stories regarding the capitol building. It's as wide as it is tall. The Sower acts as a lightning rod for the city, and when it is hit by lightning, the current is carried through the building into the ground. There are tunnels under the capitol connecting the downtown, and the mosaic floors on the main floor were put together like giant jigsaw puzzles. If you were to look at the mosaic pieces underneath, you would find a number scrolled on it. One of the murals in the great hall is made of broken glass from old soda bottles. And the Legislature itself is unique, being the only one-house legislature in the country since the 1930s (The Unicameral). Other states have visited our Unicameral trying to decide if their state should go to a one-house system. The worlds largest swing porch is located in a city park in the town of Hebron, straight south of York. Some notable foods and drinks were started in Nebraska. The afore-mentioned Rueben Sandwich is from Omaha, and the Tin-Roof Sundae was developed in Potter. The Runza sandwich is from Lincoln and the most famous of them all, Kool-Aid was developed in Hastings. I worked for a while at the Hastings Museum and started, along with a few friends, Kool-Aid Days. Ive seen the original paperwork giving credit to Hastings. Did you know it was originally packaged in bottles called Fruit Smack? Because of shipping costs and breakage, Edwin Perkins came up with a way to take out all the water and leave you with a powdered drink mix we all know today. The original factory where it was made in downtown Hastings is now a converted museum. Actress, an Oscar winner, Sandy Dennis (Whos Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?) grew up In Hastings. And so did Neal Hefte. Hes the writer of TVs Batman theme song. The states only Big Foot Museum is also in Hastings. Chimney Rock, located near Bayar, is the single most documented monument in pioneer diaries, and there are more missile silos located in Kimball than any other place in the country. You can also see a de-commissioned one in their local park. One has been converted into a very unique bed and breakfast. The worlds-largest hamburger is from Harrison (and yes, I almost finished one), as is the largest buffalo kill-site in in western Nebraska. You can still see wagon ruts from the original Oregon Trail in near Ogallala and Fairbury in Nebraska. The first Homestead granted by the U.S. government is in Beatrice and more fruitcakes are produced in Beatrice than any other city of the country. Thats just a few trivia points in Nebraska. Ive got more too. Almost everything Ive mentioned has a place to see it in Nebraska. More to come. 'India-genous Travel' survey by Agoda found that 39 percent of Indians expect to travel internationally by 2022, and the top concern they have about travel is understanding the limitations and requirements for vaccination or quarantine. In recent months, many countries have taken tentative steps to reopen their borders, easing entry restrictions and allowing international tourists, including Indians, into their countries. A negative RT-PCR test is no longer required upon arrival at the airport for fully vaccinated travellers to these select countries. You might find these exciting destinations useful when planning your vacations. Read also: DIAL, IIT-Delhi sign agreement to improve operational efficiency at Delhi airport terminals Egypt The RT-PCR test is no longer required for travelers vaccinated with Covishield or AstraZeneca. Simply fill out a health declaration form and you're good to go. Visit the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Khan el-Khalili market while you're in the land of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Visitors can also visit Sahara el Beyda, Egypt's white desert national park, or go scuba diving in Hurghada - you can either take a submarine ride or choose to go scuba diving. In Cairo, you should definitely visit the Egyptian Museum if you want to learn more about the intricate culture of the country. Bahrain This island nation on the Persian Gulf now allows non-vaccinated tourists to enter without a pre-departure PCR test. Bahrain offers a great deal of attractions for tourists. Enjoy the rich history and civilization of this region by visiting Al Jasra House and Al Bahrain museum. Wander through Manama Souq for some delicious spices, souvenirs, and sweets. Try traditional Bahraini cuisines like Machboos, shredded meat or fish served with fragrant rice cooked in a spicy broth, or Muhammar sweet rice with dates. Visit Dive Bahrain for a dive into the largest underwater theme park in the world, and the Nurana Islands for kayaking and other water sports. Lebanon For travellers who have received their second vaccine at least six months before travelling to Lebanon, a pre-departure PCR test is not required. You just need to upload your vaccination certificate to the Ministry of Health's website. The historical and cultural diversity of Lebanon will captivate you with its mesmerizing panoramas, rich architecture, and delectable cuisine that make your stay a memorable one. Explore one of the best-preserved Greco-Roman temples, Baalbek - the temple of Bacchus, the famous cedars of Lebanon in the Chouf, on Mount Barouk, and the Beiteddine Palace that dates back to the eighteenth century. Go on a boat tour at Byblos to enjoy the sunset in the birthplace of the Phoenician civilization, hike the beautiful QADISHA valley to explore old churches and monasteries and separate yourself from the outside world. Don`t miss the Batara Gorge waterfall that drops 255 metres down into the Balaa Pothole, a cave of Jurassic limestone. France As of the 12th of February, France will no longer require travellers who have received a full vaccination to undergo a RT-PCR test. While visiting one of the most romantic destinations in the world, you will without a doubt visit the Eiffel Tower, go cruising down the Seine River, pilgrim to Mont-Saint-Michel, or wander around the Old Quarters of Paris. However, there is so much to experience in France beyond this. Run across the Lavender fields in Provence, take a helicopter ride over French Alps, take a stroll in Dijon - a walking city where cars are not allowed, explore vineyards in Burgundy, taste exquisite Champagne in Champagne, and explore Lyon city, recognised for its delightful cuisine. Turkey The Turkish government does not require RT-PCR testing for people who have been vaccinated across the globe. Travellers only need to fill out a health form 72 hours prior to their arrival. Turkey is the perfect destination to resume your travel post-pandemic. It has the right blend of cultural influences from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East paired with unforgettable natural wonders throughout the Turkish landscapes. Relax at the Thermal pools of Pamukkale lake, the pure white travertine terraces cascade down the slope looking like an out-of-place snowfield amid the green landscape; explore one of the oldest cities of the world, Konya, which has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC, and Kaymakli - an underground city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey; take a hot air balloon ride to experience the surreal, swooping rock valleys of Cappadocia; and unwind with a traditional Hamam (Turkish bath) experience. Norway In Norway, travellers who have been immunized within nine months of arriving do not need an RT-PCR test. Booster shots may be required if the final dose exceeds the period. If you`re planning a trip to Norway, chasing the Northern Lights and seeing the Arctic circle will definitely be at the top of your itinerary. Apart from this spectacular sight in the skies, this Scandinavian country houses majestic mountains, glaciers, museums, and a whole bunch of activities to do on your travel. Travellers can hike to Mount Floyen, a 399-meter summit which will get you the best view of the city, explore the Geirangerfjord region, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its icy Norwegian scenery, marvel at the beautiful architecture of the Arctic Cathedral, and even visit the world`s most powerful whirlpool, Saltstraumen Maelstrom. With inputs from IANS Live TV #mute New Delhi: The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2021-22 - Series- X or the tenth tranche will be open for subscription from today (Monday, February 28). The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2021-22 - Series- X will be open for subscription for for five days period February 28 to March 4. The issue price for Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2021-22 Series- IX has been fixed at Rs 5,109 per gram of gold. "The nominal value of the bond...Works out to Rs 5,109," the central bank said in a statement. The Government of India, in consultation with the RBI, has decided to offer a discount of Rs 50 per gram to those investors applying online and the payment against the application is made through digital mode. "For such investors, the issue price of Gold Bond will be Rs 5,059 per gram of gold," RBI said. The tenure of the bond will be for a period of eight years with an exit option after fifth year to be exercised on the next interest payment dates. The Minimum permissible investment is 1 gram of gold. The maximum limit of subscription shall be 4 kg for individual, 4 kg for HUF and 20 kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal (April-March). Know Your Customer (KYC) norms will be the same as that for the purchase of physical gold. The sovereign gold bond scheme was launched in November 2015, with an objective to reduce the demand for physical gold and shift a part of the domestic savings -- used for the purchase of gold -- into financial savings. News Agency Reuters has quoted RJO Futures senior market strategist Bob Haberkorn saying, "It`s more than what the market was anticipating". "If Russia in fact does take Kiev and the international community has an aggressive response, gold will trade up over $2,000 fairly quickly" and the least path of resistance is up because there are just so many unknowns right now, Haberkorn added. What is Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme? Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme are government securities denominated in grams of gold. They are substitutes for holding physical gold. Investors have to pay the issue price in cash and the bonds will be redeemed in cash on maturity. The Bond is issued by Reserve Bank on behalf of Government of India. How will the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme be sold? The bonds will be sold through scheduled commercial banks (except Small Finance Banks and Payment Banks), Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), designated post offices, and recognised stock exchanges viz., National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Bombay Stock Exchange Limited. Who can buy Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme? The Bonds will be restricted for sale to resident individuals, HUFs, Trusts, Universities and Charitable Institutions. Live TV #mute New Delhi: The auspicious occasion of Maha Shivratri will be celebrated this year on March 1. In some parts of the country such as in Jammu and Kashmir, Maha Shivratri preparations begin days prior to the festival. The day is a celebration of Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati's marriage ceremony. Devotees throng temples in huge numbers and offer their prayers. All the devotees observing a fast or vrat on Maha Shivratri can check the list of food items you can consume on this special day: 1. Milk-based dishes Milk-based dishes like curd, barfi, makhane ki kheer are some food items that you can relish today as you pray to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati for their abundant blessings. Also, if you like milk, try having it with a few dry fruits. 2. Fruits When on a fast, fruits are your best friends! You can consume any fruit you like or prepare a fruit chaat. However, it is to be kept in mind that salt is generally avoided during fast. 3. Dry Fruits One of the best ways to stay satiated throughout the day is having an ample amount of dry fruits. They are a quick and easy way to stop those hunger pangs! 4. Potatoes Potatoes are one of the best food items to consume during a Maha Shivratri fast as they keep you full for a long time. Simply boil the potatoes, chop them and eat them along with curd. 5. Sweets or Sabudana Home-made sweets you can try such as barfi etc to savour your taste buds a bit. Usually, one of the most commonly used food items during fast or vrat happens to be Sabudana or Sago. You can make many dishes with it such as Sabudana Khichdi - made of potato, sago pearls and peanuts, with a pinch of Sendha Namak (Rock Salt) which is used in all food preparations for vrat. Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Mahashivratri! Press Release February 28, 2022 De Lima prays for speedy recovery of Infanta mayor, urges PNP to swiftly investigate her ambush Re-electionist Senator Leila M. de Lima offered her prayers for the full and speedy recuperation of known opponent of the Kaliwa Dam Project and Infanta Mayor Filipina Grace America, who was recently hurt in an ambush in Quezon Province last Feb. 27. De Lima, a social justice and human rights champion, said the Philippine National Police (PNP) should urgently investigate the incident, which she called a matter of grave importance. "First and foremost, I pray for the speedy recovery of Mayor America. I also pray that this incident does not shake her resolve to fight the good fight for the indigenous peoples of Infanta, Quezon and the biodiversity of the Sierra Madre. "I hope that her will to resist this project is further strengthened as she continues to challenge the prevailing status quo in her municipality. May her courage and bravery to forge ahead in spite of the odds serve as an inspiration to human rights defenders and environmental advocates all over the country," she said. She added, "I call on the PNP to urgently investigate this matter of grave importance. It is a known fact that the activities of human rights defenders have suffered under this present regime." According to the police, America was on her way home from church when her black SUV was waylaid by still unidentified gunmen. She sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of her body and was rushed to a nearby hospital. Police reportedly disclosed that they recovered seven spent shells, though they have yet to determine the motive behind the attack. De Lima noted that this marks the second incident related to the Kaliwa Dam in a matter of weeks as the onerous and controversial project continues to rack up media mileage for all the wrong reasons. Earlier this month, several groups had sounded the alarm on the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) for the supposed railroading and manipulation of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes as required by law, to be obtained prior to the dam's construction. "Ilang insidente pa ba ang kailangang maganap bago ito bigyang pansin ng ating pamahalaan? Ilang buhay pa ba ang hahayaan nilang manganganib para sa kontrobersyal at kaduda-dudang proyektong ito?" she asked. De Lima said it is high time that the PNP reasserts its independence and integrity as an institution by ensuring that the rule of law always prevails. "Isa muli itong hamon sa PNP para muling maipakita sa sambayanang Pilipino na ang kapakanan at kaligtasan ng mamamayan pa rin ang tangi nilang pinagsisilbihan. Nawa'y huwag na kayong kukurap. Managot ang dapat managot. At panagutin ang dapat panagutin," she said. New Delhi: Hinduism teaches us the intricate realities of life through various stories. These stories high on moral values have profound meaning. One such story is that of Shiva and how he held the mighty Ganga in his matted locks. There are many legends associated with Shiva and Ganga. Heres taking a look at one of them: King Bhagiratha succeeded in pleasing Brahma after his great-grandfather Sagara angered Sage Kapila by accusing him of stealing the sacrificial horse meant for performing the Ashwamedha Yagya. The horse was actually stolen by Indra who feared Sagara would grow more powerful than him after performing the Yagya. Sage Kapila cursed Sagara and his descendants by saying they will never be able to attain Moksha until they bring the divine Ganga to earth from the heavens. Brahma, who gets pleased by Bhagirathas prayers, asks Ganga to descend to the earth. But Ganga takes offence to this and decides to destroy the earth with her mighty force. Brahma who knew of Gangas fury asked Bhagiratha to seek Lord Shivas help to combat Gangas rage. Lord Shiva agrees to help Bhagiratha. Ganga, who is oblivious of Shivas power, descended with tremendous force thinking she would wash him away. But Shiva, the lord of the lords that he is, held her tightly in his matted hair. Ganga realised Shiva was no ordinary being and calmed down. The underlying meaning: Only a stable, strong and invincible mind can control the temptations of the materialistic world. Nothing can lure him. Hence to attain the truth, one needs to be unshakable. Stability alone can bring in peace and happiness. To defeat arrogance, pride and ego, one needs to have a strong mind. In this case, (Gangas force) is arrogance and Shiva symbolises a strong mind. Since Shiva held Ganga, he is known as Gangadhar. New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government is worried about the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on India`s foreign trade, particularly farm sector exports. In a post-budget interaction with business and industry leaders in Tamil Nadu, Sitharaman said the government is closely monitoring the evolving situation in the Russia-Ukraine region and assessing the impact of the conflict on the country`s trade. "We are rightly worried about what comes from there but I am more worried about what is going to happen to our exporters who are doing very well, particularly the farm sector, to Ukraine and Russia," the Finance Minister said. "The government is already looking at the emergent situation. But I will have to have a complete assessment through the various concerned ministries and only then will I be in a position to comment on it," she said. The Finance Minister pointed out that Ukraine is a major supplier of sunflower oil seeds and fertilizers and the disruption in supply would impact essential commodities like edible oil. "But you can be assured that we are fairly seized of the matter in its granular form because it`s going to have an impact on the essentials which come," she said. Live TV #mute New Delhi: Indian exports worth $500 million to Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) have been hit by the Export Credit Guarantee Corps decision to withdraw cover for goods bound for the war-hit region. Sanctions on Russian banks and feared disruptions at Baltic ports following the Ukraine invasion have forced ECGC to come to this decision. However, this has left Indian exporters unhappy. According to official data, Indias mercantile exports to Russia in 2021 were worth $3.3 billion, and its imports were valued at $8.5 billion, including petroleum and petroleum products worth $4.5 billion. India exports pharmaceuticals, telecom equipment, marine products, automobile components and tea to Russia. (Also read: Russia-Ukraine War LIVE) India exports goods worth another $1.5 billion to CIS, according to industry figures. CIS comprises countries that broke away from the Soviet Union, and most of Indias exports to the region go through Russia. ECGC covers nearly 15 per cent of the shipments bound for the Baltic states. (Also read: Russian troops have slowed down pace of the offensive, claims Ukrainian military) Western sanctions have made transactions in dollars, pounds or euros uncertain for Indian traders. In such a scenario, trade in the Russian ruble or Indian rupee is the only way out. The US Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed sanctions on a number of Russian banks, but exports in pharma, which constitutes the biggest chunk of Indias exports to Russia, agriculture and energy, have been exempted. Spiralling energy costs is another grave concern for Indian exporters. The Ukraine conflict and subsequent sanctions on Russia have pushed up crude prices, for Moscow is one of the largest suppliers of oil and natural gas for the world. Traders also fear another spike in freight rates that had surged due to the pandemic-induced port closures. Container rates are 81 per cent higher than they were a year ago. Around 12 pm on February 28, Brent crude was trading at $102.50 per barrel, higher by 4.57 per cent from its previous close. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) increased 4.89 per cent to $96.48 per barrel. India is the third largest oil importer in the world and is dependent on imports to meet 85 per cent of its oil demand and 55 per cent of its natural gas requirements. India spent $62.71 billion on crude oil imports in FY21, $101.4 billion in FY20, and $111.9 billion in FY19. No wonder then, that it is monitoring the Ukraine conflict very closely. India is also studying the impact of western sanctions on its defense deals with Russia. It has recently signed a deal worth $5.4 billion for five regiments of S-400 air defense systems. Russia is one of the main suppliers of defense hardware and technology for India, while the latters energy firms have invested in Russian oil and gas blocks. ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation, Oil India and Bharat Petro Resources are estimated to have invested over $13.6 billion in Russian oil and gas projects. Live TV #mute The Residential Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Guidebook will be launched today to simplify and enable the adoption of EV charging in all types of residential areas in the city, an official statement said. The Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi, in collaboration with World Resources Institute, India will launch the guidebook. The document guides residential societies in understanding the importance of EV charging and details the processes involved in planning, installing, and managing EV charging stations in the parking space of the societies, the statement on February 27 said. The document also addresses some of the common concerns (such as lack of space, capital investment, power load management, etc.) and shares the best practices for RWAs, it added. On the occasion, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot will also inaugurate two EV chargers at Pockets B & C, Vasant Kunj, installed under the Delhi government's single-window facility. Also read: Z-Triton: An EV combined with bike, boat and RV The statement said that through the guidebook, the Delhi government seeks to encourage all residential societies, planned colonies, DDA flats, Cooperative Group Housing Societies, government housing societies, and employer housing to join hands with it in promoting electric vehicles by adopting EV charging in their residential societies. By launching this step-by-step guidebook, the Delhi government will become the first state government in India to make RWAs and residential areas an integral part of the EV movement. RWAs across Delhi have expressed their interest to the Delhi government in joining the EV revolution. This guidebook will facilitate that journey and enable the people of Delhi to access EV charging points in colonies all over Delhi, DDC vice-chairperson Jasmine Shah said in the statement. It also quoted executive director (integrated transport), WRI India, Amit Bhatt as saying, According to the US Department of Energy, over 80 percent of EV charging happens at home. Therefore, having home charging is a must for scaling up EV and with the launch of this guidebook, the Delhi government has closed the loop for developing the EV charging infrastructure for Delhi. Also read: Delhi Metro to run with 100 percent capacity from February 28 The Delhi government had announced the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy in August 2020, with a vision to promote the adoption of electric vehicles in the city and to make Delhi the EV capital of India. The policy aims to improve Delhi's air quality by driving the transition to electric vehicles so that they can reach 25 percent of all new vehicle registrations by 2024. In line with this vision, the government has taken several steps, including directing all residential institutions with a parking capacity of 100 or more vehicles to reserve 5 percent of their parking space for EVs with suitable EV chargers with a minimum output of 3.3KW, the statement said. The Delhi Government also provides a grant of 100 percent for the purchase of charging equipment up to Rs 6,000 per charging point for the first 30,000 charging points as well as a special EV tariff for EV charging, the statement said. Owing to these progressive decisions, Delhi is witnessing a rapid transition to electric vehicles. Between September and November 2021, EVs accounted for 9 percent of the vehicle sales in Delhi, while the national average was 1.6 percent, the statement said. With inputs from PTI Live TV #mute Business owner Vincent Yu of Richmond has spent the past four years converting his Rolls-Royce into an electric vehicle. According to Richmond News, in addition to the endless hours spent in the garage and basement, a lot of time was spent flying to the U.S., Japan and Germany from Canada to procure specialized parts. Moreover, Vincent Yu had to sell his house to finance the conversion, which resulted in his wife leaving him when she became tired of the project. The Canadian entrepreneur is quite proud of his EV converted Wraith, which according to him is capable of travelling 311 miles (500 km) per charge. Also, he said the cost of charging the battery of his Wraith is only CAD 8 (Rs 475 ), which is significantly less than the CAD 120 Rs (7,000) it costs to fill its tank with gasoline. Also read: Residential EV charging guidebook to launch today in Delhi, details HERE Aside from the Wraith EV, Yu also launched a business called Mars Power. With what he learned from the Wraith conversion project, he is converting other gasoline-powered cars into electric vehicles. Mars Power is located in Richmond, British Columbia. Mr. Yu explained that his oldest daughter suggested the idea of converting this car. Having complained about his driving habits one day, the girl suggested the idea of converting this car. "You shouldnt act like a wealthy douchebag by driving a stinky car around town and polluting the air," his daughter said, according to Yu. That's when he began the conversion with a small team of mechanics and machinists that he now works with at his new shop. SOURCE Live TV #mute Over the past two decades, the global market for electric vehicles has grown steadily since General Motors mass-produced the first modern electric car in 1996. In 2022, Tesla tops the charts in terms of global Google searches for electric vehicles based on the amount of publicity it receives and the fanaticism of its fans. In addition, four of its models are among the top four most searched electric vehicles worldwide. According to data compiled by partcatalog.com, Tesla's Model 3 is the most searched for electric vehicle in the world, appearing in searches 2,240,000 times a month. Tesla's Model S, Model Y and Model X are the next most searched for electric cars. Non-Tesla models that received the most Google searches are the Audi e-tron (over a million times per month since 2021), followed by the Porsche Taycan (also million times per month), then the Volkswagen ID.4 (823,700). Read also: Kim Kardashian spent Rs 75 lakh for painting three cars to match her mansion, check pics Volkswagen's brands didn't rank in the top 10 most searched. Among those, Tesla had the most monthly searches with 11,100,000, Rivian had one million, and NIO also had one million. Partcatalog.com examined data from the International Energy Agency to find out which nations purchased the most electric vehicles between 2010 and 2020. With more than four million electric vehicles sold in China, it was no surprise that it topped the list followed by the United Kingdom and Germany. SOURCE Live TV #mute Bengaluru: Schools and colleges in Karnatakas violence-hit Shivamogga district reopened amid prohibitory orders on Monday. The district administration had imposed curfew in the district and closed schools and colleges after the murder of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha on February 21. However, the district administration taking no chances with the law and order situation had extended prohibitory orders banning grouping of more than five people in the Shivamogga city till March 4. The business establishments will be allowed to operate from 6 AM to 7 PM from February 26 and the city is limping back to normalcy. Karnataka | Schools & colleges reopen in Shivamogga city after one week. The educational institutions were closed for a week following the murder of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha. Shivamogga district admn has extended the prohibitory orders under Sec 144 CrPC here, till March 4th pic.twitter.com/w8uMOH0n1E ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 The police have arrested 10 persons in connection with the murder of Harsha and the government has stated that it does not look like to be just a case of murder. "There seems to be a larger picture than what appears to the eye," Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stated. The police also blocked the Mangaluru Muslim page, on which posts celebrated the murder of Harsha. The police authorities are gathering information from Facebook about the page. Two policemen, who liked the page, were taken into custody and released later. Congress Opposition leader Siddaramaiah has urged to ban the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) if their role is established in the murder. Many BJP leaders and Hindutva activists have demanded that PFI, SDPI and the Campus Front of India (CFI) should be banned. CM Bommai has stated that the materials are being gathered for the same purpose and they will approach the government of India for the same. Meanwhile, the SDPI held a press conference and challenged the ruling BJP to establish the role of the party behind the murder. The SDPI leaders argued that BJP has made it a habit to blame the SDPI and Muslims whenever a Hindu activist is killed. They also alleged that there is a role of Sangh Parivar behind Harsha`s murder. Harsha was hacked to death by a gang of miscreants on February 20. Harsha, popularly known as Harsha Hindu, was in the forefront of Hindutva activities and questioned illegal transportation of cows. He used to present Hindutva messages on his social media accounts and also commented on the hijab issue. The murder led to widespread violence and threatened to spread all over the state. The police department had clamped curfew orders since last Monday. The ruling BJP is claiming that few organisations are trying to give a message through the murder. The opposition Congress maintained that as elections are nearing, the BJP wants to take political advantage of the murder. Meanwhile, the government is also probing on the connections of the murder with the hijab row that has turned into a crisis in the state. The larger bench has already completed the hearing of the case and posted the matter for judgment. Live TV New Delhi: The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Friday lifted all restrictions, including night curfew, in the national capital from Monday (February 28, 2022) as the Covid-19 situation improves. The decision was taken in a DDMA meeting chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with experts and other officials. Accordingly, the Covid-19 situation in Delhi has been reviewed in the DDMA meeting... and it was observed that cases and positivity rate have declined significantly. Also, bed occupancy in hospitals is low and the situation has vastly improved. Therefore, it has been decided to remove all restrictions in Delhi, the DDMA order said. The DDMA said that the step has been taken to help people facing hardships due to loss of jobs. Several other curbs like weekend curfew, half seating capacity in metro trains and buses, closure of multiplexes and cinemas, among others, were already lifted by the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in the recent past. Notably, the restrictions were put in place in December last year after the national capital witnessed an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases. Heres what Covid-19 curbs change in Delhi from today: No more night curfew in Capital DDMA has decided to withdraw all Covid curbs, including the night curfew from today. Delhi Disaster Management Authority withdraws all restrictions as the situation improves and people are facing hardships due to loss of jobs, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to say. Delhi CM also urged all citizens to continue following Covid-19 safety protocols. All should continue following Covid-appropriate behaviour. The government will keep a strict watch, Kejriwal wrote. No limit on sitting capacity inside restaurants, bars and theatres As the Covid-19 restrictions ease in the national capital, all kinds of shops, restaurants, bars and cinema halls can function with 100 per cent capacity from today. This step will help many people from losing their jobs and business activity will soon start picking up pace. Fine for not wearing face mask reduced The health and family welfare department also issued an order reducing the fine for not wearing masks in public places from Rs 2,000 to Rs 500 from Monday. The authorities, however, stressed that the citizens still need to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, including masking and distancing. Additionally, as per the Delhi government, people travelling in private cars will no longer be required to wear masks in private cars from today. No cap on number of Delhi Metro commuters The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will allow the metro to run with 100 per cent seating and standing capacity from today as the Covid-19 cases in the city drops significantly. Delhi metro also said that all gates of metro stations will remain open to facilitate passenger entry throughout the day. Resumption of physical classes in Delhi schools According to the DDMA guidelines, Delhi schools will function only in offline mode from April 1, 2022. Authorities also added that the hybrid mode (online as well as offline) can also be chosen for studying with the consent of parents for students up to Classes 9 and Class 11 till March 31, however, parental consent for students of Classes 10 and 12 will not be valid. Live TV India has started a mega mission to evacuate its 20,000 citizens from Ukraine. India is the only country in the world that is evacuating its citizen from Ukraine on government expenses. On the other hand, most of the nations have clearly asked their citizens to bear their own expenses and make personal efforts to exit Ukraine. However, expense is not the only way through which the Indian government is helping its citizen stranded in Ukraine. In today's DNA, Zee News Editor In Chief Sudhir Chaudhary analyses Indian government's unprecedented efforts through 'Operation Ganga' in order to evacuate its citizen from Ukraine. It's important to know that while India is making massive efforts, other nations - especially the developed ones - are not helping their citizens stranded in Ukraine. The United States stands first in this list - it has clearly told its 900 nationals in Ukraine to use their own means in order to exit the war-torn nation. China has its 6,000 nationals stuck in the country. However, the country has asked its citizen not to use their official flag, adding that exiting Ukraine could be very dangerous during this time. Britain has shifted its Embassy from Kiev to Lviv. The country has told its citizen to not to expect help from the Embassy in these times. PM Narendra Modi held hours-long meetings on Sunday and Monday on Ukraine situation. The Prime Minister even spoke to spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravishankar and Brahma Bihari Swami, asking them to seek help from their representatives in Ukraine. Watch DNA, to understand in detail India's effort to evacuate its citizen from Ukraine and other important development in the ongoing war. New Delhi: As the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic shows a declining trend in India, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) researchers have predicted that the fourth wave may set in around June 22 in the country. According to the research conducted by IIT-K researchers, India is likely to witness the fourth covid-19 wave in mid to late June, and the surge is to continue for about 4 months. However, the severity of the wave will depend on the emergence of new variants, vaccination status, and administration of booster doses. This research was led by Sabara Parshad Rajeshbhai, Subhra Sankar Dhar and Shalabh of IIT Kanpur's Mathametic department using a mixture of Gaussian distribution based on the data on Zimbabwe. This IIT-K study has been published as a pre-print in MedRxiv and is yet to be peer-reviewed. When will fourth Covid wave hit India? According to the researchers, the data indicates that the fourth wave of Covid-19 in India will arrive after 936 days from the initial data availability date, which is January 30, 2020. Therefore, the fourth wave starts from June 22, 2022, reaching its peak on August 23, 2022 and ends on October 24, 2022," they said. Moreover, the 99% confidence interval for the date, when the curve will reach the peak, is approximately from August 15, 2022 to August 31, 2022," the researchers added. How severe will be this wave? The study said that there is a good chance that a new variant of coronavirus may emerge and can have an intense impact on the whole analysis. The intensity of the impact will depend on various factors like infectibility, fatality etc, the authors said. The authors also highlighted that the effect of vaccinations - first, second or booster dosage can also play a significant role on the possibility of infection. How is the next variant likely to emerge? Other than the IIT-K study, another research has shown that the next Covid-19 variant can emerge in 2 different ways. The authors also emphasised that there is no guarantee that the new variant will be less severe than the previously identified ones, they pointed out. First, Omicron continues to evolve, creating some sort of Omicron-plus variant that is worse than BA. 1 or BA.2. The second possibility is that a new, unrelated variant appears, Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle told the scientific journal Nature. Live TV Kolkata: On a day when BJP called for a 12 hours bandh alleging widespread violence during the municipal polls in 108 municipalities across West Bengal, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar summoned state election commissioner Sourav Das to give a detailed report. However, the ruling Trinamool Congress accused the BJP of creating a disturbance in the state. "There has been widespread violence in the state and everybody is a witness to it. We would like to call for a 12-hour bandh - from 6 a.m. in the morning till 6 p.m. in the evening - on Monday. This is the first day of the week and I know it will cause hindrance to a lot of people but for the future of West Bengal and to save democracy I think people will understand," state BJP President Sukanta Majumdar said. There were reports of violence from several parts of the state including Bhatapara and Kankurgachi in North 24 Parganas, English Bazar in Malda district and Jalpaiguri district. Police have made preventive arrests of 786 people and arrested 51 people for indulging in violence. According to the state election commission, there were more than 1000 complaints and action has been taken on the basis of the complaints. However, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was not convinced with the action taken by the State Election Commission and has asked commissioner Sourav Das to report to him about the details of the election before 10 a.m. on Monday. "Today I have seen how democratic values have been throttled. I am hurt to find that West Bengal has turned out to be a gas chamber of democracy". "People are losing faith in the democratic process. I am aghast and cannot believe that the electoral process could be so polluted. It was a war where the entire administration and the police machinery was on the side along with the dispensation that is in power and the state election commission headed by the state election commissioner has abdicated its authority. I await his response and I expect that he will heed law and the constitution," the governor said. "This is not the time to look for alibis. This is not time to act smart. This is the time to discharge his constitutional obligations. I expect the state election commissioner to abide by his constitutional obligation so that the purity of the election process is maintained. It is my duty to protect the constitution and I shall do everything to discharge my duties," the governor added. Re:Election to Municipalities- Constitutional Bodies under Part IX A of Constitution. State Election Commissioner Shri Saurab Das has been called upon to to be fully updated on developments in the election process on February 27 that prima facie indicate failure of democracy. Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) February 27, 2022 BJP delegation @shishirkb @paulagnimitra1 and @BjpLokenath urged Guv Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar urgent intervention in view of massive violence, rigging in municipal elections with support of officialdom. Delegation asserted abdication of duty #SEC and called for exemplary action. pic.twitter.com/bo33bBmYWw Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) February 27, 2022 Meanwhile, speaking to media, state DGP Manoj Malviya said, "There have been sporadic incidents but there is no report of any widespread violence. The election has been conducted peacefully and the police and the administration have discharged their duties impartially". "The BJP was nowhere to be found all through the day and now they are calling for a bandh. This is only a ploy to create disturbance and stop the developmental work of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said. When asked about the bandh, the DGP said, "There has been a standard instruction from the Chief Minister that the state government is against bandh and we will not allow this in our state. There will be police all over the state and all kinds of transport, private and government offices will remain open. Anyone who tries to go against the law will be strongly dealt with". The state however recorded a polling percentage of little more than 76 till 5 p.m. East Midnapore recorded the highest polling percentage of 84.1 followed by Birbhum and Murshidabad with 83.2 and 83 per cent respectively. Apart from that Alipurduar Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Nadia South and North Dinajpur and East Burdwan recorded more than 80 per cent of polling till 5 p.m. in the evening. Darjeeling recorded the lowest polling percentage with only 54.1. Early visuals from the polling booths showed long queues as people turned up to exercise their franchise. The voting was held for 2,171 wards of the 108 municipalities and the counting of votes will take place on March 2. New Delhi: The compensation to the kin of hit-and-run victims will be increased sharply by eight-fold to Rs 2 lakh in case of death from April 1, according to a notification by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. The solatium to a person sustaining grievous injuries in a hit-and-run case will increase to Rs 50,000 from the current Rs 12,500. The ministry in the notification issued on February 25 said that the scheme may be called the 'Compensation to Victims of Hit and Run Motor Accidents Scheme', 2022 and it shall come into force with effect from April 1, 2022. A release by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Sunday stated that it has notified the scheme for compensation of victims of Hit & Run motor accidents vide notification dated 25th February 2022 to cater to enhanced compensation (from Rs 12,500 to Rs 50,000 for grievous hurt and from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2,00,000 for death). "This scheme will supersede the earlier Solatium Scheme, 1989 from April 1, 2022, onwards," the Road Transport and Highways Ministry said in a release. The process of applying for compensation and the release of payment to victims has also been made time-bound, the release stated. The ministry has also published rules on February 25 regarding creation, operation, sources of fund etc of the Motor Vehicles Accident Fund. "This fund shall be used for providing compensation in case of Hit &Run Accident, treatment for accident victims and any other purpose, as may be specified by the Central Government," the release stated. Under the scheme, the ministry has come up with the procedure for detailed investigations of road accidents, Detailed Accident Report (DAR) and its reporting along with timelines for different stakeholders for quick settlements of claims. Last year, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told Rajya Sabha that 536 persons were killed and 1,655 persons were injured in accidents categorised as 'hit and run' in the national capital in 2019. According to the latest government data, a total of 3,66,138 road accidents occurred in India during 2020, causing 1,31,714 deaths. Live TV New Delhi: Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam bagchi on Monday (February 28) urged the Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine to take shelter in the cities of western Ukraine and not rush to the borders. He also asked the stranded nationals not to panic and assured that arrangements to their evacuation are being made. "We request Indians to go to West Ukraine but don't reach the border directly as there's rush there, it'll take time. Go to nearby cities, seek shelter there. We're making arrangements there, our teams will help you. Don't panic, we have enough flights," said Bagchi. MEA also informed about the new route for the evacuation of Indian nationals from the war-hit country. "We have a new route through Moldova, it's operational now, our teams will assist you. They will assist in the evacuation of Indians through Romania, he said. About 8000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since the MEA issued the advisory. Live TV New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday (February 28) in a veiled attack on Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused him of playing selective caste and religion politics and said that he will work only for one caste and religion if he is voted to power. "Akhilesh Yadav has two spectacles. From one spectacle, he can see only one caste and from the other spectacle, he can see only one religion, which will not benefit me or you. If Samajwadi Party comes, it would work only for one caste, if BSP comes, it would work for another caste, ANI quoted Shah as saying in a rally in Siddharthnagar. Talking about his party, the home minister said, "If BJP comes to power, everyone would benefit as we believe in Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas." Shah, who was also confident of breaching the 300 seat mark in the ongoing Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, said that the people who have voted the party to a majority in the first five phases of the elections will now "have to vote in the sixth and seventh phases. "Highlighting the law and order situation in the state, Shah said that if Samajwadi Party is voted to power, Atique Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari will be out of jail. "Under the rule of SP-BSP, the mafia captured the land of the poor. Is any mafia seen today? Where is Atique Ahmed? Where is Mukhtar Ansari? Do you want them to be in jail or out on bail? If you vote them to power by mistake, all of them will be out and pester you. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has freed Uttar Pradesh from the mafia," he said. In the sixth phase, polling will be held in 57 assembly seats in 10 districts on March 3. The 2022 Assembly elections are being held in Uttar Pradesh from February 10 to March 7 in seven phases to elect 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on March 10, 2022. Live TV United Nations: India abstained from a procedural vote taken in the UN Security Council to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi welcomed Moscow and Kyiv's decision to hold talks at the Belarus border. The resolution was adopted with 11 votes in favour, paving the way for the General Assembly to meet on the crisis as soon as Monday. India, China and the UAE abstained, while Russia voted against the resolution. This will be only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950. The 15-nation Security Council met on Sunday afternoon to hold the vote on the emergency special session of the 193-member General Assembly on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This comes two days after the Russian veto blocked a UNSC resolution on its "aggression" against Ukraine. The vote calling for the UNGA session was procedural so none of the five permanent members of the Security Council - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US -- could exercise their vetoes. "It is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the Council last convened on this matter," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said in the explanation of Sunday's vote. He underlined that "there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue." "We welcome today's announcement by both sides to hold talks at the Belarus border," he said. Tirumurti said India continues to be deeply concerned about the safety and security of Indian nationals, including a large number of Indian students, who are still stranded in Ukraine. "Our evacuation efforts have been adversely impacted by the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings. It is important to maintain an uninterrupted and predictable movement of people. It is an urgent humanitarian necessity that must be immediately addressed," he said. "Taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances, we have decided to abstain," he said. President of the 76th session of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid, who was to attend the 49th regular session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, cancelled his trip "due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine and potential developments in the Security Council," for the vote. He also met with Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya on Saturday after the veto on the draft resolution in the Security Council. Kyslytsya briefed Shahid "on the security situation in Kyiv and the potential action he would be seeking in the General Assembly." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also cancelled his scheduled trip to Geneva for the Human Rights Council meeting "due to the aggravating situation in Ukraine." The Security Council on Friday evening failed to adopt the US-sponsored resolution that would have deplored Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine after Moscow used its veto. On Friday too, India, China and the UAE abstained from the resolution, while 11 members of the Council voted in favour. The UNSC resolution was expected to be blocked since Russia, a permanent member of the Council and President of the UN organ for the month of February, was certain to use its veto. Western nations said the resolution had sought to show Moscow's isolation on the global stage for its invasion and actions against Ukraine. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield had said after the failed UNSC vote that "we will be taking this matter to the General Assembly, where the Russian veto does not apply and the nations of the world will continue to hold Russia accountable." While a UNSC resolution would have been legally binding, General Assembly resolutions are not. A vote in the 193-member UN body is symbolic of world opinion. In the explanation of India's vote in the Security Council on Friday, Tirumurti had said New Delhi is "deeply disturbed" by the recent turn of developments in Ukraine and urges that all efforts be made for the immediate cessation of violence and hostilities. Tirumurti also said India is "deeply concerned" about the welfare and security of the Indian community, including a large number of Indian students, in Ukraine. "Dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes, however daunting that may appear at this moment. It is a matter of regret that the path of diplomacy was given up. We must return to it. For all these reasons, India has chosen to abstain on this resolution," he had said. In March 2014, after Russia's annexation of Crimea, the General Assembly had adopted a resolution that underscored the "invalidity" of the referendum held in "autonomous Crimea". By a recorded vote of 100 in favour to 11 against, with 58 abstentions, the Assembly had adopted a resolution titled 'Territorial Integrity of Ukraine', calling on States, international organisations and specialised agencies not to recognise any change in the status of Crimea or the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, and to refrain from actions or dealings that might be interpreted as such. India had abstained from the resolution. Under the resolution "Uniting for Peace", adopted by the General Assembly in November 1950, an emergency special session can be convened within 24 hours of such a meeting being requested. Live TV West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today wrote a letter to PM Narendra Modi, extending her support to the government of India on the issue of the recent Ukraine crisis. "We do this make sure that our dignity as a nation is unchallenged and unviolated," Mamata Banerjee wrote in her letter. "As a senior Chief Minister in our cooperative federal, and as a leader of a national party, I reiterate our adherence to this long-standing norm of our polity during the current international crisis of the Ukraine war," Banerjee said. "... In times of grave international crisis we keep aside our domestic disagreements to stand united as a nation. We do this to make sure that our dignity as a nation is unchallenged and unviolated. We do this to ensure that the principles on which we conduct our foreign affairs continue to be stable in the global arena," the letter said. Banerjee, who is the TMC supremo, said as a senior chief minister and as leader of a national political party "I reiterate our adherence to this long-standing norm of our polity during the current international crisis of the Ukraine War". Banerjee said concerns had been expressed on "our general stand on the war though." Since Independence India has been known for her commitment to international peace and non-aggression and rejection of trans-border invasion and interference. "I am sure that in steering our diplomatic affairs during the current crisis you will lead us on the basis of those abiding principles," she added. New Delhi: On the occasion of National Science Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (February 28, 2022) greeted scientists and science enthusiasts and called for reaffirming commitment towards leveraging the power of science for human progress. This day, notably, commemorates the discovery of the 'Raman effect', for which Indian physicist CV Raman had won the Nobel Prize. "National Science Day greetings to all scientists and science enthusiasts. Let us reaffirm our commitment towards fulfilling our collective scientific responsibility and leveraging the power of science for human progress," the prime minister tweeted. PM Modi also shared a clip from his 'Mann ki Baat' broadcast on Sunday in which he is heard talking about the National Science Day and urging families to make efforts to develop a scientific temperament in their children. "Friends, technology has secured an important place in our lives in the realm of ease and simplicity. Which technology is good and what is the better use of that technology, we are well acquainted with all these subjects. But, it is also true that the basis of that technology, the underlying science is something that we neglect in conveying to the children of our family. On this Science Day, I urge all the families to definitely start with small efforts to develop a scientific temperament in their children," he had said. National Science Day greetings to all scientists and science enthusiasts. Let us reaffirm our commitment towards fulfilling our collective scientific responsibility and leveraging the power of science for human progress. Here is what I had said during #MannKiBaat yesterday. pic.twitter.com/gEM2yFUSJI Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2022 "Now, for example poor vision... after wearing glasses, vision improves with clarity... children can easily be explained on the science behind it. Its not that one should restrict oneself to just looking at the glasses and enjoying," PM had said while addressing the nation through his monthly radio programme. Live TV New Delhi: NCP leader and Minister Nawab Malik was taken back to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office on Monday (February 28) after he was discharged from the JJ hospital, Mumbai. Malik was admitted to Mumbai`s JJ hospital on February 25 following a complaint of stomach ache. NCP leader has been remanded to ED custody till March 3 in connection with Dawood Ibrahim money laundering case. Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court on Monday (February 28) deferred hearing for one week on a plea filed by Dhyandev Wankhede, father of NCB's former Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, which sought contempt action against Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, while noting that the latter is already behind bars. Dhyandev Wankhede had claimed in his contempt plea filed earlier this year that despite an undertaking given to court in December 2021, to refrain from making defamatory public comments and social media posts against the Wankhede and his family, Malik continued doing so. A division bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and M N Jadhav had then issued a show cause notice to Malik. When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the bench noted that Malik is already in jail following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. Live TV New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday talked over the phone with External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and discussed evacuation of Indian students stuck in east Ukraine`s Kharkiv. Discussions included the possibility of the evacuation of students via Russia, through the town of Belgorod and the matter of aiding students stuck at the Romania-Poland border was also discussed. Kharkiv is one of the majorly affected cities in the ongoing conflict. Earlier today, Jaishankar said that two more flights under Operation Ganga left from Budapest for Delhi, carrying some 500 Indian students. This comes at a time when the Centre is evacuating Indian citizens from Ukraine under the evacuation plan titled `Operation Ganga`. On Sunday, in a high-level meeting chaired on the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accorded top priority to the evacuation of Indian students stranded in Ukraine. The Polish Embassy in India informed on Sunday that Poland is allowing entry of all the Indian nationals evacuating conflict-ridden Ukraine in its country without visas. However, a number of students are reported to be facing problems in crossing the border from the Ukrainian side. Amid the ongoing crisis, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv has advised Indian citizens against moving to any of the border checkpoints without prior coordination with government officials at border posts. In an advisory to Indian nationals on Saturday, the embassy stressed that the situation at various border checkpoints is sensitive and it is working continuously with Embassies in the neighbouring countries for coordinated evacuation of our citizens. Live TV New Delhi: Schools for classes 1 to 7 opened in Odisha on Monday (February 28, 2022) after nearly two years with a week-long rapport building exercise. "I am very excited because I met my friends and teachers after a long time. Online classes were conducted during the pandemic. I am carrying my mask and sanitizer along with me," said a student reading in Class 2 pic.twitter.com/QlGXPYMHsM ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 Faces of both the teacher and students were expressing happiness. Principal of Primary kids, SIA International School, Ramshi Pandey said, We are very excited to have children back to school almost after two years. To avoid crowding, the arrival time in two slots. Earlier, the Odisha government had announced that the schools would open from February 14, but various district collectors sought additional time for undertaking cleaning, bush cutting and minor repairs. Therefore, the department announced the students would attend physical classes from February 28. Teachers had to come to school from February 14 to ensure proper cleaning and sanitization. Meanwhile, India recorded 8,013 new Covid-19 cases, 119 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 5,13,843, according to the data released by the Ministry of Health on Monday. The active cases stand at 1,02,601. The country also recorded 16,765 recoveries today, taking the total number of recoveries to 4,23,07,686. Live TV Maharajganj: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (February 28) came down heavily against the family led Opposition parties, accusing them of being obstacles in the development path of the state. Addressing a public meeting in Maharajganj, the Prime Minister said, "Today India has given over 200 million vaccine doses free of cost to its citizens. This is the strength of a self-reliant and powerful India. But these `parivaarwaadis (family-led political parties)` do not want to see a strong India. They keep creating obstacles. That`s why they have to be defeated once again in this elections." Reiterating that the Centre is working hard for the development of the country, he said, "You all must remain watchful of these `family politicians. The more we are working hard for the development of the districts, the more they have pushed back the development due to their dynastic politics." He highlighted the importance of Kushinagar International Airport and said, "Maharajganj is an example of the development model. Today a network of roads is being laid till the Nepal border. Main roads are being converted into four lanes and highways. After the unveiling of an international airport in Kushinagar, now the number of tourists will also increase here." Pm Modi said, "In this budget, a special plan has been made for the development of the last villages adjacent to our borders, and not only we made promises, but also made provisions for funds. We have named it Vibrant Village Programme." Maharajganj will go to the polls in phase six of the elections. Polling will be held in 57 Assembly seats in 10 districts on March 3. PM flays Opposition for promoting vaccine hesitancy The Prime Minister also slammed Opposition for promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the country and said that the vaccination drive was successfully carried out despite several challenges. He said, "Those Indians who felt proud by knowing that vaccines were Made in India were incited by the Opposition not to take the doses. The Opposition tried to promote vaccine hesitancy by creating doubts in the minds of the poor," adding "Even the big countries of the world are far behind India in vaccination coverage today, as India has given 200 million vaccine doses free of cost to its citizens." In a veiled reference to the ongoing Ukraine crisis, he urged citizens to stay strong at this time, adding "The world is going through many challenges at this time. No one can remain untouched by these situations. It affects every citizen of the world in some way or the other. In such a situation, India should stay strong and it is the biggest need of the time." He further added, "From agriculture to the military, from sea to space, India has to become powerful in every field. Therefore, Uttar Pradesh being the biggest state of the country also has greater responsibility." Maharajganj will go to the polls in phase six of the Assembly elections in the state will witness voting in 57 Assembly seats of 10 districts on March 3. The 2022 Assembly elections are being held in Uttar Pradesh from February 10 to March 7 in seven phases to elect 403 members of the state Legislative Assembly. The counting of votes and the results will be declared on March 10. (With Agency Inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (February 28) concluded the third emergency meeting held on the Ukraine crisis in the last 24 hours. The prime minister announced that India will help citizens from neighbouring countries stranded in Ukraine, adding that the government is working round the clock to get Indians back in the country. The leader also added that the first consignment of relief supplies to Ukraine to deal with the humanitarian situation on its borders would be sent on Tuesday, said MEA. Modi also held phone talks with leaders of the Slovak Republic and Romania and expressed anguish over the violence happening in Ukraine. The leader assured humanitarian aid, including medicines to the war-torn country. "PM Modi today spoke on phone with Eduard Heger, PM of Slovak Republic & thanked him for the assistance provided by the Slovak Republic in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine; PM requested for Slovak Republics continued assistance in the next few days as well," ANI reported. PM also informed Heger about the deployment of Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Law and Justice as his special envoy to oversee the evacuation efforts of Indian citizens. Live TV NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a high-level meeting to discuss the situation and he safety of Indian nationals stranded in the war-hit eastern European nation. Sources said on Monday that Prime Minister Modi has called a high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis. Some Union Ministers may go to neighboring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuations of Indian nationals, they added. Top ministers including Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen V K Singh may travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students, they said. #WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls a high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis. Some Union Ministers may go to neighboring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuations.#RussiaUkraineCrisis pic.twitter.com/yqTFYwspxo ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 Prime Minister Modi had on Sunday said that the government will do whatever possible to bring back all the citizens stranded in Ukraine. Addressing a rally in Basti, PM Modi said, "By running Operation Ganga, we are bringing back thousands of Indians home. Our sons, daughters still stranded in Ukraine will be brought back. The government is working day and night for them...Wherever there is trouble, we left no stone unturned to bring our citizens back." The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has already activated a dedicated Twitter handle, "OpGanga Helpline" (@opganga), to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from war-torn Ukraine. The mission to evacuate the stranded Indians from Ukraine has been named "Operation Ganga". India has also set up round-the-clock "control centres" in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine through border-crossing points with these countries. Meanwhile, Air India's two evacuation flights, one from the Romanian capital Bucharest and another from Hungarian capital Budapest, carrying 490 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine landed at the Delhi airport on Sunday morning. India on Saturday began the evacuation of its stranded citizens amid the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, with the first evacuation flight, AI1944, bringing back 219 people from Bucharest to Mumbai in the evening. The second evacuation flight, AI1942, departed from Bucharest with 250 Indian citizens and landed at the Delhi airport around 2.45 am on Sunday, the officials said. Air India's third evacuation flight, AI1940, departed from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals and landed at the Delhi airport around 9.20 am on Sunday, the officials noted. An Air India spokesperson said the airline's fourth evacuation flight is expected to come from Bucharest to Delhi with evacuees on Sunday afternoon. The spokesperson said the carrier plans to send two more planes to Bucharest and Budapest on Sunday so that they can operate fifth and sixth evacuation flights but it is "all highly tentative". The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since February 24 morning when the Russian military offensive began. Therefore, the Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest. Indian nationals, who reached the Ukraine-Romania border and Ukraine-Hungary border, were taken to Bucharest and Budapest, respectively, by road with the assistance of Indian government officials so that they could be evacuated in these Air India flights. Live TV New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (February 28, 2022) paid homage to former Prime Minister Morarji Desai on his 126th birth anniversary, saying that he made extensive efforts to make India more prosperous. PM Modi also said that Desai always emphasised probity in public life. Desai was the first leader to head a non-Congress government at the Centre. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "I pay homage to our former PM Morarjibhai Desai. He is widely respected for his monumental contribution to nation-building. He made extensive efforts to make India more prosperous. He always emphasised probity in public life." I pay homage to our former PM Shri Morarjibhai Desai. He is widely respected for his monumental contribution to nation building. He made extensive efforts to make India more prosperous. He always emphasised on probity in public life. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2022 Born on February 29, 1896, Desai took part in the freedom struggle movement and served as the fourth Prime Minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. He died on April 10, 1995. Live TV New Delhi: Russia last week invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea and confirmed the West's worst fears with the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War II. Ukraine's health ministry said on Sunday (February 27) that 352 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Thursday. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded so far. Over the past few weeks, several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India have been trying to evacuate their nationals from the war-torn country. According to data from Ukraines Ministry of Education and Science, around 80,000 international students study in Ukraine with Indians making up about a quarter of the total foreign students. Students from Morocco, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Nigeria also turn up in large numbers. Here's a look at what US, UK, China and India are doing to evacuate their citizens from Ukraine UNITED STATES The US has issued an advisory for its citizens to depart using 'privately available transportation options if it is safe to do so' and have explicitly said that the government will not be able to evacuate them. The US Embassy released an online form on February 22 listing local (Ukraine) and international (US-based) phone numbers for communication. The list includes all the border crossings and phone numbers of embassy people at various borders and specific locations where US citizens can cross. They have encouraged their citizens to enrol in the STEP enrollment for security updates and easy communication in an emergency. On February 27, the Joe Biden government said that the US citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately on commercial flights, citing an increasing number of airlines cancelling flights and countries closing their airspace to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. "US citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available," said a security alert. It also asked US citizens to have "a contingency plan that does not rely on US government assistance." CHINA On February 24, China announced chartered flights for its 6,000 stranded nationals in Ukraine and requested its citizens leaving Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to display signs of identification, such as the Chinese flag. However, two days later, the Chinese embassy urged its citizens to refrain from displaying signs of identification. On February 27, the Chinese ambassador to Ukraine released a video message urging Chinese citizens to "not quarrel with locals", after a number of unverified social media claims of rising hostility towards Chinese citizens. China has now postponed their evacuation plans stating that the current conditions were 'too unsafe to evacuate'. They have also not issued any travel advisories or support mechanisms. UNITED KINGDOM The UK had issued its first advisory on February 17 and then updated it on February 27, in which, the Boris Johnson-led government stated that "Russias military action in Ukraine will severely affect the British Governments ability to provide consular assistance in Ukraine". The government further asserted that it will not be able to provide increased support to its citizens stranded in Ukraine. The UK government has released contact numbers of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and has also relocated the British Embassy office in Kyiv temporarily to Lviv. Britain has asked its nationals to follow the advice of Ukrainian authorities with no additional assistance. INDIA India has planned to send its four senior ministers to Ukraine's border nations to help in the rescue of thousands of its citizens who remain trapped more than four days after Russia's invasion of the country. Amid rising concerns about the safety of around 16,000 Indians still in Ukraine, most of them students, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met senior officials on February 28 to discuss evacuation efforts. Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation. Late on Sunday night, India's embassy in Poland had also issued an advisory, saying it had arranged for buses at the Shehyni border in Ukraine, for those stranded there, to cross over into Poland. Under Operation Ganga, the mission to evacuate the stranded Indians from Ukraine, as many as 1156 Indians have been brought back home from Ukraine. The Modi government has also revised its international travel advisory, providing various exemptions to Indians being evacuated from Ukraine. Indians being evacuated have been exempted from mandatory pre-boarding Covid-19 negative RTPCR test and vaccination certificate as well as uploading of documents before departure on Air-Suvidha Portal. In case a traveller is not able to submit a pre-arrival RTPCR test or has not completed their Covid-19 vaccination, they are allowed to submit their samples on arrival with the advice to self-monitor their health for 14 days after arrival in India. India has also set up round-the-clock "control centres" in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine through border-crossing points with these countries. The helpline numbers of the control room in Poland are: +48225400000, +48795850877 and +48792712511. Those requiring help can also write an email to controlroominwarsaw@gmail.com. The helpline numbers of the control room in Romania are: +40732124309, +40771632567, +40745161631 and +40741528123. The email address for contacting the control room in Romania is controlroombucharest@gmail.com. The helpline numbers of the control room in Hungary are: +36 308517373, +36 13257742 and +36 13257743. It also has a WhatsApp number: +36 308517373 for assistance. The helpline numbers of the control room in Slovakia are: +421 252631377, +421 252962916 and +421 951697560. The email address is hoc.Bratislava@mea.gov.in. India's evacuation programme Operation Ganga has been the most active among all nations which have their citizens in Ukraine. (With agency inputs) Live TV NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the Union Cabinet Secretary on Monday spoke to the Chief Secretary of States and directed them along with district collectors to contact the family members of the Indian students stranded in Ukraine and keep them posted about arrangements being made by the Centre. On PM Narendra Modi's direction, Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba spoke to the Chief Secretary of the States and briefed them about the steps taken by the Centre for the safe evacuation of Indian students from war-hit Ukraine. On PMs direction, Cabinet Secy speaks to Chief Secys of states & briefs them about Govt of Indias efforts to bring back students from Ukraine; requests Dist Collectors to contact family members of students & keep them informed of arrangements being made.#RussiaUkraineConflict pic.twitter.com/UMqz66pgp8 ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 The development came shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a high-level meeting to discuss the Russia-Ukraine situation and the safety of Indian nationals stranded in the war-hit eastern European nation. Some Union Ministers may go to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuations of Indian nationals, the sources said. Top ministers including Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen V K Singh may travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students, they said. PM Modi had on Sunday also chaired a high-level meeting with his cabinet ministers including Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Sunday to discuss the issue. The Prime Minister said that the government will do whatever possible to bring back all the citizens stranded in Ukraine. Addressing a rally in Basti, PM Modi said, "By running Operation Ganga, we are bringing back thousands of Indians home. Our sons, daughters still stranded in Ukraine will be brought back. The government is working day and night for them...Wherever there is trouble, we left no stone unturned to bring our citizens back." Meanwhile, Air India's two evacuation flights, one from the Romanian capital Bucharest and another from Hungarian capital Budapest, carrying 490 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine landed at the Delhi airport on Sunday morning. India on Saturday began the evacuation of its stranded citizens amid the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, with the first evacuation flight, AI1944, bringing back 219 people from Bucharest to Mumbai in the evening. The second evacuation flight, AI1942, departed from Bucharest with 250 Indian citizens and landed at the Delhi airport around 2.45 am on Sunday, the officials said. Air India's third evacuation flight, AI1940, departed from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals and landed at the Delhi airport around 9.20 am on Sunday, the officials noted. An Air India spokesperson said the airline's fourth evacuation flight is expected to come from Bucharest to Delhi with evacuees on Sunday afternoon. The spokesperson said the carrier plans to send two more planes to Bucharest and Budapest on Sunday so that they can operate fifth and sixth evacuation flights but it is "all highly tentative". The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since February 24 morning when the Russian military offensive began. Therefore, the Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest. Indian nationals, who reached the Ukraine-Romania border and Ukraine-Hungary border, were taken to Bucharest and Budapest, respectively, by road with the assistance of Indian government officials so that they could be evacuated in these Air India flights. Live TV Thiruvananthapuram: As the number of COVID-19 cases has declined in the state, the Kerala government has lifted certain restrictions and decided to allow 100 per cent occupancy in theatres. In an order issued on Sunday, the government allowed the bars, hotels, clubs, restaurants and eateries to also function with full occupancy. The order said the government, semi-governmental offices can hold meetings or trainings off-line if required. Kerala government issues more relaxations in #COVID19 guidelines as cases decrease in the state; 100% seating capacity allowed in hotels, bars, restaurants, & theatres. A maximum of 1,500 people, with one person in a 25 sq ft area, allowed for public functions: CMO ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 The restrictions at the district level on the basis of the number of people hospitalised are also lifted. The government had authorised the State Disaster Management Authority to divide the districts into three groups - A, B and C - based on the number of people admitted to hospitals and imposed restrictions accordingly. As the cases showed a dip, the State administration opened schools, colleges and creches. Today, the State recorded 2,524 fresh COVID-19 infections which raised the total to 64,97,204 till date. Live TV New Delhi: In a big jolt to BharatPe co-founder and Managing Director Ashneer Grover, he has lost an arbitration in Singapore he filed against the fintech platform for launching a probe against him. His arbitration failed to convince the emergency arbitrator (EA) to stop the ongoing governance review at BharatPe against him, sources told IANS. The Emergency Arbitrator has rejected all five grounds of his appeal. Grover had filed an arbitration plea with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). In his appeal, Grover pleaded that the investigation was illegal because it violated the shareholder agreement and articles of association. BharatPe did not immediately comment on the judgement. The road ahead for Grover is full of thorns as top investors in the fintech platform are not budging an inch to give Rs 4,000 crore sought by him for selling his 8.5 per cent stake and quitting the company. According to them, Grovers valuation does not hold ground as the company is not valued at $6 billion as being projected. At a $2.85 billion valuation and at the current dollar-rupee exchange rate, his stake would be around Rs 1,824 crore. The company's key investors are Sequoia Capital that has nearly 19.6 percent stake, Coatue has 12.4 percent stake, Ribbit Capital has 11 percent, and Beenext 9.6 percent stake, among others. While the decision on Grovers fate in the company is yet to be decided, the fintech platform BharatPe sacked his wife Madhuri Jain Grover over alleged financial irregularities during her tenure as head of controls that ran into crores. Alvarez and Marsal, a leading management consultant and risk advisory firm, is set to submit its report into financial irregularities at the firm during Grovers` time some time next week. Global audit firm PwC was also roped in auditing the functioning of the fintech platform during the Grovers` tenure. BharatPe currently has 8 million merchants on its platform. New Delhi: Actress Urvashi Rautela broke the internet with her latest pictures in a sizzling deep blue colour monokini. The former Miss Diva Universe shared a glimpse from her luxurious trip to the Maldives for her birthday while relaxing on the beach. I feel born again when I get out of the ocean #familyVacay, she captioned her post. In the photos uploaded by Urvashi, she turns out to be a mermaid, as she opted for the Mesh Spandex blue one-piece full sleeves monokini with a sexy cutout while flaunting her bikini-perfect curvaceous body. The actress also opted for minimal makeup with pink lipstick and neon green glares. She also accessorised herself with a fusion mask chain with bracelets around her hand. On the work front, Urvashi was last seen judging the Miss Universe Pageant 2021, where Indias Harnaaz Sandhu bagged the crown. The 28 years-old also featured in international song Versace Baby alongside Arab superstar Mohamed Ramadan. Urvashi will next be seen in the Jio studios web series Inspector Avinash opposite Randeep Hooda in a lead role. She will also play the lead role in a bilingual thriller Black Rose along with the Hindi remake of Thiruttu Payale 2. Urvashi will also be making a Tamil debut with The Legend opposite Saravana and has also signed a three-film contract with Jio Studios and T-Series. New Delhi: 7th pay commission --There have been various reports in the media regarding the update on the 18 months Dearness Allowance (DA) that the central government employees have been eagerly waiting for. While some reports say that the government would provide one time settlement of the pending DA arrears, some other say that the hopes of the central government employees could turn into dispair. A couple of days ago media reports said that the government does not seem to be committing for the payments of 18-months DA arrears to the central employees. The Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief of Central government employees and pensioners were restored to 31% from 17% from October 2021, however the arrears have not been deposited as yet. The bad news has been estimated based on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that she issued last year. The FM said that due to the spread of Covid-19 in the country, dearness allowance of these employees was stopped, so that the government could use the money to help the poor and needy. The above speculation is also coupled with media reports previously citing Shiv Gopal Mishra, Secretary (Staff Side) of the National Council of JCM. He had said that the council has placed its demand before the government however both sides could not arrive at any conclusion as yet. Media reports further said that talks have been held with the Cabinet Secretary, which still remains inconclusive. The Labour union has been constantly pressing demands for a one time settlement of dearness allowance arrears. A Zee Hindi report, quoting Shiv Gopal Mishra of the National Council of JCM, had also previously mentioned that the DA arrears of Level-1 employees range from Rs 11,880 to Rs 37,554. Whereas, for Level-13 (7th CPC basic pay scale Rs 1,23,100 to Rs 2,15,900) or Level-14 (pay scale), the DA arrears in the hands of an employee will be Rs 1,44,200-2,18,200 that will be paid, quoted the reports. According to the annual report of the Department of Expenditure, there are a total of 48 lakh central employees in the country and about 60 lakh pensioners. Live TV #mute New Delhi: According to the Reserve Bank of India's holiday schedule, banks will be closed for 13 days in the month of March 2022. Mahashivratri and Holi are two prominent festivities that will take place in March. Holi, one of India's major festivals, falls on March 18, 2022, and banks across the country will be closed, with certain exceptions. Banks will also be closed in various states on March 1, 2022, to commemorate Mahashivratri. Bank holidays are implemented in accordance with a schedule published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The number of vacations this month has been set at seven by the central bank, according to a list. The weekend leaves are the only ones left. This contains all of the month's Sundays, as well as the second and fourth Saturdays. On the first and third Saturdays of each month, banks remain open. The list of holidays provided by the RBI is divided into three groups. These are state-wide events, religious holidays, and festival celebrations. The RBI categorises holidays as either national or regional. On national holidays, all banks in India are closed, whereas, on regional holidays, branches in select states remain closed. It should be mentioned that the Reserve Bank of India categorises its holidays into three categories: 'Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act,' 'Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday,' and 'Banks' Closing of Accounts.' All bank branches, including the public and private sectors, foreign banks, cooperative banks, and regional banks, will be closed on these designated holidays. Check out the list of upcoming holidays in March 2022: March 1 (Tuesday): Banks in Gujarat will be closed on the occasion of Mahashivratri. March 3 (Thursday): Because Losar falls on this day, banks in Sikkim will be closed. March 4: (Friday): Banks in Mizoram will be closed due to Chapchar Kut. March 17: Thursday: Banks in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand will be closed to commemorate Holika Dahan. March 18: (Friday): Banks will be closed in Karnataka, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, and Tripura due to the Holi celebration. March 19: (Saturday): Due to Holi/Yaosang, banks in Orissa, Manipur, and Bihar will be closed. March 22: (Tuesday): Banks in Bihar will be closed to commemorate the Bihar Divas. Banks are also closed on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. And on every Sunday of the month. List of Saturdays and Sundays as Holidays: Sunday: March 6, 2022 Second Saturday: March 12, 2022 Sunday: March 13, 2022 Sunday: March 20, 2022 Fourth Saturday: March 26, 2022 Sunday: March 27, 2022 Meanwhile, banks in India were closed for 12 days in February 2022. Saraswati Puja/Shree Panchami/Basant Panchami and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's Jayanti were two major celebrations in the month. Bank customers should arrange their visits properly, as bank closures may affect customers who need to physically visit a branch; therefore, it is critical to be aware of the holiday dates in advance. During this time, ATMs and online banking services will remain operational. Live TV #mute New Delhi: Today is the last date for the policy holders of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India to link their PAN cards with the insurance behemoth. LIC has made it mandatory for policy holders to link PAN Card with LIC if they wish to subscribe to the LIC's upcoming IPO. (Also read: Can lapsed policy holders apply for the IPO? Know here) Here is the direct link, using which you can link your PAN Card with LIC policy online. https://linkpan.licindia.in/UIDSeedingWebApp/getPolicyPANStatus 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. (Also read: LIC IPO opening on THIS day? 10 important things to know) 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 February 28) Here is the process for updating your PAN details with the LIC online 1. Visit the Corporation website mentioned above. 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. LIC in February 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. 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. Live TV #mute New Delhi: HMD Global, the maker of Nokia phones, has unveiled three budget devices in its C-series with Android 11 Go. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022 that kicked off in Barcelona, Spain on Monday, HMD Global also expanded its range of Nokia-branded earbuds and headphones. The three affordable budget devices are the Nokia C21 Plus, Nokia C21, and Nokia C 2nd Edition. The 6.5-inch Nokia C21 Plus comes with a Unisoc SC9863A chipset, two rear cameras, splash/dust resistance and a microUSB connector (instead of USB Type-C). The device offers 2GB-4GB RAM, 32GB-64GB of internal storage and a battery capacity of 4,000 or 5,050mAh. It also comes with a headphone jack and FM radio. Nokia C21 has a 3,000mAh battery with a charging speed of just 5W. The Nokia C 2nd Edition has a smaller 5.7-inch display, 1GB-2GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a 2,400mAh battery. All new C-series phones are all 4G LTE devices running Android 11 (Go edition). Nokia C21 Plus will be available from a starting price of 119 euros, Nokia C21 from 99 euros and Nokia C2 2nd Edition from 79 euros in select markets from April. HMD also showcased Nokia Go Earbuds2 + that offers environmental noise cancellation, sweat and splash resistance and up to 24 hours of playtime. The Nokia Go Earbuds2 + come in black and white and are available now in select global markets at 39 euros. Live TV #mute New Delhi: WhatsApp, a Meta-owned messaging service, has offered a series of critical considerations that could assist its users in Ukraine and throughout the world in securing and defending their privacy during the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. "Our hearts go out to everyone touched by the conflict in Ukraine." "Here is some essential information for our users in Ukraine and throughout the world on how to preserve and safeguard your privacy," it posted on Twitter. "As always, your personal messages and calls are encrypted end-to-end by default, so they cannot be intercepted by any government," the Twitter thread said. This follows Russia's start of a "special military operation" into Ukraine, with attacks coming from several directions and aimed at multiple cities. Since then, Russian troops have captured territory and advanced on key cities such as Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. Meanwhile, both countries' cyberwarfare has already begun. In a statement, WhatsApp's parent company, Meta Platforms, said it has established a special operations centre staffed by experts from across the company, including native Russian and Ukrainian speakers, who are monitoring the platform around the clock, allowing the company to respond to issues in real time. "In Ukraine, we've added various safety features, such as the option for people to lock their Facebook profile, the removal of the ability to browse and search friends lists, and other tools on Messenger," Meta explained. According to the company, it is taking several steps to combat misinformation, including increasing third-party fact-checking capacity in Russian and Ukrainian, increasing transparency surrounding state-controlled media sites, prohibiting advertisements from Russian state media, and demonetizing their accounts. "We strongly urge everyone to implement two-step verification to defend against hackers who may try to lock you out of your account," WhatsApp warned. You can also enable the fingerprint scanner. When this option is selected, you will be required to use your fingerprint to access the app." "As a reminder, we have message forwarding limits, and we identify communications that did not originate with the sender, so consumers are aware that anything is information from a third party," it said. Meanwhile, Meta stated that, in addition to collaborating with third-party fact-checkers, the firm is taking steps to remove content that breaches its policy. "When they rate anything as untrue, we place this material lower in Feed so that fewer people see it," the company explained. Meta also stated that "we have extended our third-party fact-checking capability in Russian and Ukrainian across the region and are striving to provide more financial support to Ukrainian fact-checking partners." In addition to labels from Meta's fact-checking partners, the business is warning users in the region when they try to post some war-related photographs that the company's systems detect are more than a year old, so people are aware of outdated or misleading images that may be taken out of context. Furthermore, because it recognises the importance of breaking news events, it has made it easier for fact-checkers to access and grade articles regarding the war, according to Meta. Furthermore, the company stated that it uses "keyword detection" to collect relevant content in one location, making the duties of fact-checkers easier. "We're also providing users more information to select what to read, believe, and share by adding warning labels on content judged incorrect by third-party fact-checkers and applying labels to state-controlled media outlets," according to the business. "We remain sensitive to new patterns and are prepared to take extra action to fulfil the demands of this protracted struggle," the statement concluded. Live TV #mute Pratapgarh: Independent legislator, Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiyya has been booked for the alleged attack on Samajwadi Party candidate Gulshan Yadav during polling in Kunda on Sunday. A case has been registered against Raja Bhaiyya and 17 others at Kunda police station under sections of IPC and SC-ST Act. It may be recalled that Gulshan Yadav had alleged that Raja Bhaiyya and his men had attacked him near a polling station. Though he escaped unhurt, his car was damaged. A delegation of the Samajwadi Party later met the chief electoral officer in Lucknow and demanded action against Raja Bhaiyya. Raja Bhaiyya, an influential independent MLA from Kunda, has denied his involvement in the alleged attack on his rival. Raja Bhaiyya has, meanwhile, said that Akhilesh Yadav should clear his wrong notions as the Samajwadi Party is neither winning nor forming the government in Uttar Pradesh. Targeting the SP chief, Raja Bhaiyya said that everyone should contest elections in a democratic way. "Akhilesh is saying that SP will form the government after March 10. He should clear his doubts, neither is he forming a government, nor I will let them form one," he said. Raja Bhaiyya, who is known as kingmaker in UP politics, was talking to reporters on Monday, a day after he was blamed for an attack on the SP candidate from Kunda, Gulshan Yadav. Live TV New Delhi: The United Nations General Assembly on Monday (February 28) convened the 11th emergency special session on the ongoing Ukraine crisis against Russia. The meet comes a day after the 15-nation UN Security Council voted to refer the Russia-Ukraine crisis to an emergency session of the General Assembly, the most representative body of the UN. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, voicing hope that direct talks between Ukraine and Russia will produce an immediate halt to the fighting, expressed shock towards the nuclear threat by Russia. Here are key statements by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: We are facing a tragedy for Ukraine, but also a major regional crisis with potentially disastrous implications for us all. Yesterday, Russian nuclear forces were put on high alert. This is a chilling development, Guterres said. The mere idea of a nuclear conflict is simply inconceivable. Nothing can justify the use of nuclear weapons, he said. Humanitarian aid is vital, it's not a solution, the only solution is through peace... I have assured Ukraine's President that the UN will continue to assist, will not abandon them, will provide them with humanitarian assistance, added Guterres. Escalating violence is resulting in civilians' death. Enough is Enough, soldiers need to move back to barracks, civilians must be protected, said Guterres. "We need to focus on solving problems, not making them worse. In cities around the world, people are taking to the streets and demanding an end to war. People in Ukraine want and need peace. I believe people in the Russian Federation do too, he said. Notably, President of the 76th session of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid presided over the unprecedented session, only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950. With the adoption of the UNSC resolution on Sunday, it was for the first time in 40 years that the Council decided to call for an emergency special session in the General Assembly. Live TV Former Miss Ukraine Anastasiia Lenna has joined country's army to fight against Russia in the ongoing conflict. The top Ukraine model on Sunday posted pictures holding a gun in combat dress. The post went viral in no time as netizens praised Anastasia's spirit and courage to support her country in tough times. Anastassia also wrote a special message for the people. "Due current situation I want to talk! I am not a military, just a woman, just normal human," she wrote in the begining of a long Instagram post that is now viral. She furthe said that Ukrainian woman are extremely strong and have the courage to fight for their nation. "I dont do any propaganda except showing that our woman of Ukraine - strong, confident and powerful," Anastasiia Lenna wrote. "I appreciate all attention and support to my country, all people in Ukraine we fight every day against Russian aggression. We will win!" she wrote in her Instagram post. "I was born and live in Kyiv. This is my city. Ukraine is my country, On February 24 Russian federation step on our lands and begin to kill civil people, women, children. Ukrainian people have no guilt. Non of us have any guilt. We are on our lands! I speak to all people of the World! Stop war in Ukraine! No people should die! We can stop all this together. Share information about situation. Ask @nato to close sky! Help us Ukrainian people to stop Russian aggression." Anastasiia Lenna is extremely popular on Instagram. The model has appealed the NATO and other world powers to help Ukraine in the ongoing war. New Delhi: Amid the rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia, a Bulgarian national and clairvoyant mystic Baba Vangas old prediction about Russian President Vladimir Putin has been going viral. Baba Vanga, who left the world 26 years back, is still well known for her conspiracy theories. The Bulgarian national is said to have predicted major events like the 9/11 terror attacks and Brexit. According to several media reports, earlier Baba Vanga had told writer Valentin Sidorov that Russia would become the 'lord of the world' while Europe would become a 'wasteland'. "All will thaw, as if ice, only one remain untouched Vladimirs glory, the glory of Russia, Daily Mail had quoted Baba Vanga as saying. She had further added, "Too much it is brought in a victim. Nobody can stop Russia." The report also added that the psychic said, "All will be removed by her from the way and not only will be kept but also becomes lord of the world." Notably, the mystic named Vangelia Gushterova lost her vision at the age of 12 and at the same time claimed that she was bestowed by a gift from God to look into the future. Her claims about the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the September 11 attack in 2001, the death of Princess Diana, and the Chernobyl disaster came true. Meanwhile, blasts have been heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection said. In a separate statement, the agency also informed that a residential building in the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine was on fire after being struck by a missile. As Russia puts its nuclear forces on high alert amid tensions with the West, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine. (Disclaimer: Zee News does not endorse any idea related to doomsaying.) Live TV New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has activated a dedicated Twitter handle, "OpGanga Helpline" (@opganga), to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from war-torn Ukraine. The mission to evacuate the stranded Indians from Ukraine has been named as "Operation Ganga". India has already set up round-the-clock "control centres" in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine through border-crossing points with these countries. The helpline numbers of the control room in Poland are +48225400000, +48795850877 and +48792712511. Those requiring help can also write an email to controlroominwarsaw@gmail.Com, according to the MEA. The helpline numbers of the control room in Romania are +40732124309, +40771632567, +40745161631 and +40741528123. The email address for contacting the control room in Romania is controlroombucharest@gmail.Com. The MEA said Indians can contact the control room in Hungary on phone numbers +36 308517373, +36 13257742 and +36 13257743. It also has a WhatsApp number: +36 308517373 for assistance. The helpline numbers of the control room in Slovakia are +421 252631377, +421 252962916 and +421 951697560. The email address is hoc.Bratislava@mea.Gov.In. Live TV New Delhi: The Ukrainian government on Sunday (February 27, 2022) informed that as many as 352 Ukrainian civilians, including 14 children, have so far been killed during Russia's invasion. It said an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have sustained injuries. Ukraine's Interior Ministry statement did not give any information on casualties among Ukraine's armed forces. On the other hand, President Vladimir Putin-led Russia has claimed that its troops are targeting only Ukrainian military facilities and says that Ukraine's civilian population is not in danger. Russia has also not released any information on casualties among its troops. The Russian Defence Ministry, however, acknowledged on Sunday that Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded, but didn't give any numbers. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has voted for the 193-member General Assembly to hold an emergency session on Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Monday. The vote on Sunday to authorise an emergency meeting was 11 in favour, Russia opposed, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. This, notably, was the exact same vote on a resolution on Friday demanding that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops. But in that case, Russia used its veto and the resolution was defeated. Earlier on Sunday, in a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin had ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert in response to what he called "aggressive statements" by leading NATO powers. Sunday's directive to put Russia's nuclear weapons in an increased state of readiness for launch raised fears that the crisis could boil over into nuclear warfare. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: The first round of ceasefire talks between the delegation of Russia and Ukraine, aimed at reaching a common ground to halt the needless war, ended with no breakthrough on Monday (February 28). The next round of conversation will take place soon at the Polish-Belarusian border. An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin says talks with Ukrainian officials lasted nearly five hours. Ukraine had said it wanted to secure an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces. The Kremlin declined to comment on Moscow`s goals. Vladimir Medinsky headed the Russian delegation in Belarus. He said the two sides found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen. Another round of talks was agreed to, Medinsky said. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave few details except to say that the talks, held near the Ukraine-Belarus border, were focused on a possible cease-fire and that a second round could take place in the near future. "The next meeting will take place in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is an agreement to that effect, Medinsky said. Meanwhile, an emergency session to discuss and vote on a resolution against Russia over the assault on Ukraine has begun and is underway. Opening the talks, UN General-Secretary Antonio-Guterres said that the threat of using nuclear forces by Russia is fearful and chilling. "On Sunday, Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty."We are facing a tragedy for Ukraine, but also a major regional crisis with potentially disastrous implications for us all," Guterres said. (With inputs from ANI) Live TV New Delhi: Russia and Ukraine, who had been indulged in military aggression for the past five days, on Monday agreed to hold peace talks at the Belarus border. The talks are being held to find a resolution to the crisis and come after the imposition of multiple economic and trade sanctions on Russia by the US and several European countries. Here are the key takeaways from the Russia-Ukraine conflict: Russian invasion forces seized two small cities in southeastern Ukraine and the area around its major nuclear power plant, Chernobyl, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday. Peace talks are underway between Russia and Ukraine at the Belarus border. Blasts were heard in the capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, while a residential building in the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine was on fire after being struck by a missile. NATO partners are providing Ukraine with air-defence missiles and anti-tank weapons, Chief Jens Stoltenberg said in a tweet. Russia`s central bank more than doubled its key policy rate and introduced some capital controls as it scrambled to shield the economy from unprecedented Western sanctions that sent the rouble tumbling to record lows European nations and Canada moved to shut their airspace to Russian aircraft in an unprecedented move. Crude oil jumped while the rouble plunged nearly 30% to a fresh record low after new sanctions were imposed, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT international payments system. Energy major BP opened a new front in the West`s campaign to isolate Russia`s economy, with its decision to quit the oil-rich country the most aggressive move yet by a company in response to Moscow`s invasion. The European Union will fund weapons for Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia`s invasion, top EU officials said on Sunday. In a first, Russia on Sunday admitted suffering casualties and loss of military equipment in the fight against Ukraine. More than 5,500 people have been detained at various anti-war protests in Russia since the invasion began. Ukraine lodged a case against Russia at the International Court of Justice, citing erroneous allegations of genocide against Kyiv. Over 500,000 refugees have fled Ukraine amid the crisis, said the UN. (With inputs from Reuters) Live TV Bengaluru: European nations and Canada moved on Sunday to shut their airspace to Russian aircraft, an unprecedented step aimed at pressuring President Vladimir Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two. Aeroflot said it would cancel all flights to European destinations after E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the European Union had decided to close its airspace to Russian traffic. The United States is considering similar action, but has yet to make a final decision, according to U.S. officials. The U.S. government said citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately on commercial flights, citing an increasing number of airlines cancelling flights as countries closed their airspace to Russia. The ban on Russian jets comes as the airline industry continues to grapple with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic that is still undermining global demand for travel. Germany, Spain and France joined Britain, the Nordics and Baltic states in declaring bans on Russian use of their airspace, a major escalation in a tactic by mostly NATO allies to wage economic war against Putin in retaliation for the invasion. The West, led by the United States, also unveiled sweeping new financial sanctions on Russia. Russia is now widely expected to retaliate further against the air blockades and other sanctions. It has already responded to the earliest European airspace bans with its own edicts barring airlines from Britain, Bulgaria and Poland. Without access to Russia`s airways, experts say carriers will have to divert flights south while also avoiding areas of tension in the Middle East. A reciprocal airspace ban by Russia and the United States would cause longer flight times for U.S. carriers and could require crew changes on East Coast routes to Asia, said U.S.-based analyst Robert Mann of R.W. Mann & Company, Inc. It could make certain flights too costly to operate for U.S. carriers. "It would just add a lot of expense," he said. WILL WASHINGTON FOLLOW? France on Sunday evening said it was shutting its airspace to all Russian aircraft and airlines, in an announcement echoed across continental Europe. The closure of European airspace to Russian airlines and vice versa had immediate impacts on global aviation. Air France-KLM said it is suspending flights to and from Russia as well as the overflight of Russian airspace until further notice. Air France said it was also suspending flights to and from China, South Korea and Japan temporarily while it studied flight plans that avoided Russian airspace. Finnair said it would cancel flights to Russia, Japan, South Korea and China through March 6 as it avoided Russian airspace, though flights to Singapore, Thailand and India would continue with an added hour of flight time. If U.S. airlines were barred from Russian airspace, it would lengthen some international flights and some would likely be forced to refuel in Anchorage, industry sources told Reuters. The flights that could be impacted include U.S. flights to India, China, Japan and Korea, the sources said. The White House National Security Council declined to comment on whether the United States will close its skies to Russia and referred questions to the Federal Aviation Administration, which did not immediately comment. Swiss International Air Lines, a unit of Germany`s Lufthansa Canada also said it had shut its airspace to Russian aircraft effective immediately. There were no direct flights between Russia and Canada but several Russian flights a day had used Canadian airspace. An Aeroflot flight from Miami to Moscow passed through Canadian airspace on Sunday after the ban was announced, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. A spokesperson for Canada`s transport minister said air traffic control manager NAV Canada had mistakenly permitted a banned aircraft into Canadian airspace and steps were being taken to ensure it did not happen again. Transport Canada said it was launching a review into the conduct of Aeroflot and NAV Canada leading up to the violation. DISRUPTION TO FREIGHT, LESSORS The aviation sanctions also spell disruption for logistics companies and the mainly Ireland-based aircraft leasing industry. US-based United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp, two of the world`s largest logistics companies, have said they are halting deliveries to destinations in Russia. It was unclear whether both firms continue to use Russian airspace as part of their general operations. Neither responded immediately to requests for comment. Asian aircraft lessor BOC Aviation said on Monday that E.U. sanctions requiring the termination of leases to Russian airlines by March 28 would affect most of its aircraft in Russia. The sanctions are a setback for the leasing industry after Russian carriers were seen as more reliable performers on jet rental agreements than many global carriers during the pandemic. 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. Live TV Kyiv: Russian forces have destroyed Ukraine`s flagman aircraft An-225 Mriya, the world`s biggest cargo plane, Ukraine`s state defence conglomerate Ukroboronprom said on Telegram. The aircraft was destroyed in an attack by Russian troops on the Hostomel airport outside Kyiv, Ukroboronprom added on Sunday. The restoration of the plane will cost more than USD 3 billion and will take a long time, it said. The biggest plane in the world "Mriya" (The Dream) was destroyed by Russian occupants on an airfield near Kyiv. We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free, and democratic Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Gy6DN8E1VR Ukraine / (@Ukraine) February 27, 2022 The An-225 Mriya, designed in the 1980s, is the longest and the heaviest aeroplane ever built. It was capable of carrying up to 640 tons of cargo, Xinhua news agency reported. AN-225 'Mriya' - meaning 'Dream' in Ukrainian - was manufactured by Ukrainian aeronautics company Antonov, and qualified as the world's largest cargo aircraft, before it was reportedly burned at Hostomel Airport outside Kyiv due to Russian shelling. Russia has been raining cruise missiles down on multiple Ukrainian cities ever since it launched a full-scale invasion of the country on Thursday. Street fighting raged in Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv on Sunday, during which Ukrainian forces managed to take back control of the city from Russian troops who initially pierced through their defences. Live TV KYIV: The Ukrainian military on Monday claimed that the Russian troops have slowed down pace of the offensive against the country and suffered heavy casualties in nearly five days of fighting. Russian troops have slowed down the pace of the offensive, the Ukrainian military was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP. Ukraine's Interior Ministry has earlier said that nearly 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during Russia's invasion, including 14 children. It said an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded. The ministry's statement on Sunday did not give any information on casualties among Ukraine's armed forces. Russia has claimed that its troops are targeting only Ukrainian military facilities and says that Ukraine's civilian population is not in danger. Russia has not released any information on casualties among its troops. The Russian Defence Ministry acknowledged on Sunday that only Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded, without giving any numbers. In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert in response to what he called "aggressive statements" by leading NATO powers. Sunday's directive to put Russia's nuclear weapons in an increased state of readiness for launch raised fears that the crisis could boil over into nuclear warfare, whether by design or mistake. Putin's step is "potentially putting in play forces that, if there's a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous," said a senior US Defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Amid the mounting tensions, Ukraine announced that a delegation from the country had agreed to meet with Russian officials for talks. But the Kremlin's ultimate aims in Ukraine and what steps might be enough to satisfy Moscow remained unclear. The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv, battles broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from Russian forces. With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt civilians could be evacuated. Russia`s political and economic isolation also deepened on Monday as its forces met stiff resistance in Ukraine`s capital and other cities in the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two. Ukraine said negotiations with Moscow without preconditions would be held at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. Russian news agency Tass cited an unidentified source as saying the talks would start on Monday morning. US President Joe Biden will host a call with allies and partners on Monday to coordinate a united response, the White House said. The United States said Putin was escalating the war with "dangerous rhetoric" about Russia`s nuclear posture, amid signs Russian forces were preparing to besiege major cities in the democratic country of about 44 million people. As missiles rained down, nearly 400,000 civilians, mainly women and children, have fled into neighbouring countries, a UN relief agency said. A senior US defence official said Russia had fired more than 350 missiles at Ukrainian targets so far, some hitting civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson by telephone on Sunday that the next 24 hours would be crucial for Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said. So far, the Russian offensive cannot claim any major victories. Russia has not taken any Ukrainian city, does not control Ukraine`s airspace, and its troops remained roughly 30 km (19 miles) from Kyiv`s city centre for a second day, the official said. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a special operation that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour`s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. New Delhi: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday (February 28) has signed an application for the membership of Ukraine in the European Union amid escalating military crisis with Russia, announced the Parliament of Ukraine. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed an application for the membership of Ukraine in the European Union, announces Parliament of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/n6JDfh1G6k ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 The major development comes after the Ukrainian president appealed to the European Union to allow Ukraine to gain membership under a special procedure immediately as it defends itself from invasion by Russian forces. Our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I`m sure that`s fair. I am sure we deserve it," he said in a video speech shared on social media. Meanwhile, the EU, which has retaliated against Russia for its aggression through a string of economic and trade sanctions, has banned Russian airlines from its airspace. In response, Moscow has also barred airline flights from 36 countries including all 27 members of the European Union like UK, and Germany. Additionally, the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday also said that Brussels is determined to send additional weapons supplies to Ukraine. This comes at a time when the European Union on Sunday said that it will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and equipment to Ukraine and also announced a slew of fresh sanctions against Russia. "We are stepping up our support for Ukraine," Borrell said. Speaking at a meeting of EU defence ministers on Monday, Borrell said the emergency conference was aimed at discussing "the military situation on the ground, how the war in Ukraine is going on," reported Sputnik. Live TV New Delhi: Amid escalating war situation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday (February 28) said that the country is ready to release prisoners with past military experience if they are willing to join the fight with Russia. The leader also asked the European Union to allow Ukraine to gain membership under a special procedure immediately as it defends itself from invasion by Russian forces. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will release prisoners with military experience if willing to join fight against Russia: Reuters #RussiaUkraineConflict pic.twitter.com/Ezhb1lviVs ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2022 "Our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I`m sure that`s fair. I am sure we deserve it," he said in a video speech shared on social media. Zelenskiy also appealed to the Russian soldiers to stop the war and said Save your lives and leave. Meanwhile, in what marks a significant development and the first step towards halting the war, peace talks between Russia and the Ukrainian delegation began at the Belarus border point to work out a resolution to deescalate the ongoing military crisis. Notably, Russia also issued its first reaction to the Wests support of Ukraine amid the crisis. The Kremlin on Monday accused the European Union of hostile behaviour towards Russia, saying weapons supplies to Ukraine were dangerous and destabilizing and proved that Russia was right in its efforts to demilitarize its neighbour. The West has stepped up arms supplies to Ukraine in order to help it defend against a Russian invasion that Moscow calls a "special military operation" aimed at protecting civilians, said the Kremlin. Live TV United Nations: The UN Security Council (UNSC) has adopted Resolution 2623 that calls for an "emergency special session" of the UN General Assembly to consider and recommend collective action on the Ukraine crisis. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Abdulla Shahid said that he will preside over the 11th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday. Taking to Twitter, Shahid said, following the decision taken in the Security Council, "I will preside over the Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly tomorrow - 28 February 2022 starting 10 am (local time)". "The Secretary-General of the United Nations presents his compliments to the Permanent Representatives to the United Nations and has the honour to inform that the Security Council today requested the convening of an emergency special session of the General Assembly," UNGA President said in a statement. It is the first such resolution that the council has adopted in four decades, according to the Security Council Report on Sunday. The UNSC on Friday failed to adopt a draft resolution on Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported. Meanwhile, Europe and Canada said they would close their airspace to Russian airlines after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, raising the pressure on the United States to do the same. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday said the European Union would shut down its airspace for planes owned, registered or controlled by Russians, "including the private jets of oligarchs." Canada's transport minister, Omar Alghabra, said his nation was closing its airspace to all Russian planes to hold the country accountable for an unprovoked attack on its neighbour. The European Union action came after many of its member countries had said they were barring Russian planes or planned to do so by Sunday night. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted that European skies are "open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress." "There is no room in Dutch airspace for a regime that applies unnecessary and brutal violence," Mark Harbers, the Netherlands' minister of infrastructure and waterworks, said on Twitter. A handful of European nations including Spain, Greece and Turkey had resisted closing their airspace before von der Leyen's announcement. Robert Mann, an aviation consultant in New York, said the moves by the European Union and Canada would put added pressure on the U.S. To also bar Russian flights. "It is difficult to understand why we are last to move, both operationally and financially," he said. As more airlines cancelled flights in and out of Russia, and more countries blocked Russian airlines, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Americans there "should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available." Russia has responded to western aviation sanctions by banning flights from several European countries. Russian airline S7 suspended flights to Europe. On Sunday afternoon US Time, a Moscow-New York flight by Russian national carrier Aeroflot turned back after passing over Norway, according to flight-tracking services. The plane had been routed to fly over Canada. Other Aeroflot flights took circuitous routes after European countries began closing their airspace. Growing tension between Russia and western nations over Russia's invasion of Ukraine has so far had a modest impact on airlines, which are trying to recover from huge losses since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They face jet-fuel prices that have climbed more than 50 per cent since last summer and are likely to rise further because of sanctions against Russian oil and natural gas. Airlines in the US And Europe are expecting to pack planes with transatlantic vacationers this summer. Helane Becker, an airline analyst for Cowen, said on Friday that she continued to expect strong travel demand from the US to western Europe, but travel to eastern Europe "will be curtailed until there is some resolution or some assurance it won't spread to other countries." George Dimitroff, an analyst for aviation-research firm Cirium, most of the largest European airlines had one or two daily flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg and won't be affected much, although Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air, which had a hub in Kyiv, may feel the pinch slightly more. With European airspace closed off for now, Aeroflot, Rossiya and S7 "effectively become Russian domestic carriers," he said. Of those, Aeroflot had the most international flights. The global tension is already costing some airlines more money to reroute flights. An American Airlines flight from Delhi to New York has been stopping in Bangor, Maine, to refuel because its new route, skirting to the south of Russia, is longer. It remains to be seen whether United Airlines will do the same on four routes between the US and India. Those flights usually go over Russia, and two of its planes were sticking those paths on Sunday. Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for tracking service Flightradar 24, said "dozens" of cargo flights from Anchorage, Alaska, that would ordinarily pass over eastern Russia were being rerouted. "They will take a fuel penalty," he said. Mann, the aviation consultant, estimated that passenger flights forced to reroute could add between USD 4,000 and USD 12,000 per hour in costs, depending on the size of the plane and the price of fuel. "Some routings will simply become uneconomic or impractical," he said. Cargo carrier FedEx said Sunday it has temporarily suspended flights to Russia. The company said in a statement that it continued to provide service inside Russia and between Russia and other countries "where conditions allow." Last week, shortly after Russia's invasion, Delta Air Lines suspended a partnership with Aeroflot in which the airlines sold seats on each other's flights. Live TV New York: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has eased mask recommendations for the bulk of the country under a new framework that immediately affects nearly 70 per cent of Americans. "The new guidelines, which took effect from Friday, reflect the administration`s view that the US has entered a different, potentially less dangerous phase of the pandemic," reported The Washington Post. The new guidelines suggest that 70 per cent of Americans can now stop wearing masks, and no longer need to keep social distance or avoid crowded indoor spaces. The change follows a relaxation of restrictions by most governors responding to nosediving case counts and public pressure, Xinhua news agency reported. "The shift reflects the reality that after more than two years of living with the virus, most communities have greater protection against severe disease because of widespread immunity gained from both vaccinations and infections, as well as the increased availability of treatments, testing and higher-quality masks," said the report. Under the new framework, counties are guided to determine the need for restrictions after assessing three factors -- new Covid-19-related hospital admissions over the previous week and the percentage of hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients, as well as new cases per 100,000 people over the previous week. Based on these factors, counties can calculate whether the risk to their residents is low, medium or high. According to the CDC, only areas of high risk should require everyone to wear a mask, but unvaccinated people should wear masks even in low-risk areas. Meanwhile, Americans will still be required to wear face coverings on public transportation, including buses, trains and planes, until a decision is made around March 18 when the order is set to expire. The agency had endorsed universal masking in schools since July regardless of virus levels in the community, but the new guidelines recommend masking in schools only in counties at high risk. "The new guidelines are being released as the coronavirus is in retreat across the country," reported The New York Times. "We`re well past the surge," Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech, was quoted as saying. "We don`t need to be operating in emergency mode anymore." Most states have eased rules for mask-wearing, and some like New Jersey have announced plans to lift mandates even in schools, and others are poised to end indoor mask mandates in the coming weeks. Under the CDC`s previous criteria, 95 per cent of the counties in the US were considered high risk, whereas under the new criteria, fewer than 30 per cent of Americans are living in areas with a high level of risk. "An official recommendation from the CDC may hold some sway in districts that have been more cautious," said the report. Live TV Press Release February 28, 2022 Bong Go urges government to further hasten, expand vaccination rollout especially in far-flung communities Senator and Chair of the Senate Committee on Health Christopher "Bong" Go has urged the government to intensify its efforts to further improve the country's vaccination rate. He reiterated his suggestion to expand mobile and house-to-house vaccination, inoculation drives in pharmacies and medical clinics, and information dissemination on the guidelines of getting booster shots as necessary protection against COVID-19. "Para maisagawa ito, hihilingin ko sa national government na palawakin pa ang pagbabakuna sa mga pharmacies and medical clinics. Dapat ding magtalaga ng vaccination sites at araw ng pagbabakuna para sa boosters shots," he said. The senator also stressed the importance of ramping up the information dissemination campaign nationwide on the need to receive booster shots, saying, "Kailangan ding palakasin ng pamahalaan ang pagpapalaganap ng mga impormasyon tungkol sa importansya ng booster shot para sa pangmatagalan at dagdag na proteksyon laban sa COVID-19." Go noted that one of the priorities of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 is to provide 72.16 million booster shots to the adult population and to vaccinate the remaining three million senior citizens and individuals with co-morbidities. He went on to urge government agencies and other sectors of the society to participate in the vaccine rollout, noting that eligible workers and students should be vaccinated as more businesses and schools gradually reopen. "Para sa iba't ibang ahensya ng pamahalaan at sektor ng ating lipunan, hinihiling ko na aktibo silang makilahok sa isinasagawang vaccine rollout," said Go. "Ngayong unti-unti na tayong nagbubukas ng ekonomiya, dapat na mas maraming manggagawa ang mabakunahan para ligtas sila sa pagbabalik-trabaho, gayundin ang mga estudyante para mas maraming paaralan ang makapagdaos ng face-to-face classes," he added. The senator particularly asked local government units to further strengthen their mobile and house-to-house vaccination drives in a bid to hasten the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. "Hinihikayat ko rin ang mga local government units na lalong pasiglahin ang kanilang ginagawang mobile and house-to-house vaccination efforts. Gaya nang sinabi ko noon, kayo na mismo ang sumundo at maghatid sa inyong constituents na walang kakayahang magpunta sa vaccination sites," he said. As of February 24, the country has already administered a total of 135,251,295 vaccine doses. Around 63.01 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated while 62.18 million have received their first dose. More than 10.04 million booster shots have also been administered. The country has received a total of 225,117,030 vaccines. While expressing relief over the declining COVID-19 cases in the country, Go reminded the public anew to get vaccinated as it is the only key to ending the pandemic. "Hindi ako napapagod sa pagpapaalala sa ating mga kababayan na ang bakuna ang tanging solusyon laban sa pandemyadahil nakikita naman natin ang magandang resulta," stressed Go. He then reassured the Filipino people that his office will continue to serve communities hit by the pandemic by providing them much needed support and assistance. Press Release February 28, 2022 Gordon envisions Bukidnon as major agriculture hub through RICH bill Senator Richard J. Gordon has relayed his vision in promoting the province of Bukidnon through food, tourism and infrastructure development during his visit Malaybalay City last week. Gordon said that the province needs to be empowered with facilities in order to unleash its full potential. "Bukidnon has more land and potential. You are the food basket literally, the water source, and certainly you need the transportation. One thing that I'd like to push is for the [Mindanao] railroad," Gordon told reporters. "...You need a railroad going, say from Davao to Bukidnon, all the way to Zamboanga. You have a circular railroad," he continued. Gordon cited the presence of a sturdy railroad line in the development of certain areas, naming the United States of America (USA), Japan, and China as models for economic upliftment through the railway network. Once the railroad network is built, Bukidnon farmers will be able to quickly transport produce to several areas across Mindanao, including nearby Cagayan de Oro City, where he aims to set up a regional commercial hub. With the transport of goods to Cagayan de Oro, the products could be transported through its airport and seaports to other parts of the country, and the world. As author of Senate Bill 1549, which seeks to establish the Regional Investment and Infrastructure Coordinating Hub, Gordon said that the proposed measure will benefit farmers the most. "Kahit anong itanim mo dito, tutubo. Kailangan organized iyan. If you have this, hindi lang manufacturing hub iyan; pwede kang maglagay ng bangko, ng industrial hub, agricultural, development and scientific park," Gordon pointed out. "The technology goes to the farmer. Dapat talaga mayroong airport and seaports na madali pagdalhan. Ginawa ko iyan sa Subic," added the former Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chief. Gordon headed to the picturesque province as part of his two-day stay in Northern Mindanao, participating as a guest candidate in the Robredo-Pangilinan senatorial slate. He was well-received in Malaybalay and Valencia, where he met with local politicians who expressed their support in his election bid. Talking with several mayors and other civic leaders, Gordon stressed the importance of good governance and political will to improve the situation of their constituents. As chairman of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), Gordon was welcomed by residents of the PRC's village, where he was able to build 570 houses. Many of the residents were relocated there after suffering huge losses stemming from the fallout caused by Typhoons Sendong and Pablo in the early 2010s. Press Release February 28, 2022 Gordon calls opening of new Hermosa-Subic road as connector to progress Senator Richard J. Gordon called the future opening of a 21-kilometer access road in the province of Bataan as a promising step in the strengthening of the local economy. Gordon, who was invited by the Bataan local government unit (LGU) as guest of honor in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Hermosa Mega Build Project Phase II, praising the project as a pathway to success. "Magdadala ng connectivity, dadami ang hanapbuhay dito. Magiging attractive ang Bataan at Central Luzon sa development. Dadami ang investors," Gordon told reporters. "May bill tayo. May airports tayo, seaports. Gagawan ng developed na lupa. Para kang gumagawa ng subdivision. That is the first part of investment," described Gordon of the Regional Investment Coordinating Hub (RICH) bill. An idea conceptualized in 2018, the Hermosa LGY, together with the Bataan LGU, Dept. of Public Works and Highways, and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), will build a road that will connect the Hermosa EcoZone with the Clark International Airport and Bataan Techno Park. The road will start at Brgy. Palihan, and will pass through barangays Bacong, Bamban, Maite, Mabiga, Sacrifice Valley, Tipo, before ending at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. It will directly connect the Hermosa and Tipo economic zones to the SBMA, leading to a quicker and more efficient order of business and accessibility to the general public. During his keynote address, Gordon said that he did not want to miss the opportunity at kicking off construction of the road. "Importante ang gagawin natin dito. Importante ito para sa Central Luzon," continued the senator, who hails from nearby Olongapo City. Led by Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia, Vice Gov. Cris Garcia and Hermosa mayor Antonio Joseph "Jopet" Inton, Gordon was wholeheartedly welcomed in the event as a recognition of his efforts in modernizing Bataan into one of the most prosperous provinces in the country. The senator was named as an adopted son of Bataan for championing the passage of Republic Act (RA) 9728, which created the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) back in 2009. AFAB is one of the leading freeports in the country, which employed close to 50,000 workers before the start of the pandemic. Bataan also signed a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) in the early days of the worldwide health emergency to provide mass testing. Through Gordon's efforts as PRC volunteer-chairman, he spearheaded the opening of an emergency field hospital in nearby Mariveles, where it has taken in thousands of COVID-19 patients. Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Notice body The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Program, or APAEP, will host our next Community Conversation on Wednesday, March 2, at 12-1 p.m. This month we are thrilled to be joined by Michelle Daniel Jones, a doctoral candidate at New York University, or NYU. Daniel will talk about her experiences with the Prison History Writing Project at the Indiana Women's Prison, or IWP. After just a few weeks of research, the project began challenging virtually everything historians have said about IWP's founding and the first quarter century of its operation. She will also discuss the new methodological approach her team created to conduct research as captive persons and how the methodology informs her current dissertation project. We hope you can join us for this very exciting discussion. The link to join may be found here. South Africa: SANDF to support law enforcement agencies The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Thandi Modise, says the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) stands ready to provide support to law enforcement agencies to help maintain stability in the country. The SANDF will continue to be on standby to protect all national key points, as well as economic corridors of the country, from any disruption or blockages, either arising from protesting truck drivers or any disruptive elements. The SANDF continues to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic and as such, continues to conduct border-safeguarding operations - in particular land borders. This is in order to curb cross border movement of undocumented persons, illicit goods and drugs, weapons, livestock and stolen vehicles. "The defence force has registered spectacular successes in this regard by intercepting many luxury cars that were being smuggled into neighbouring countries and the interception of drug smuggling, she said at a media briefing of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster on Sunday. The Minister said in addition to assisting law enforcement agencies, the SANDF is also assisting with the construction of bridges by availing the capacity of SA Army engineers to the Welisizwe Rural Bridges Programme. These bridges will assist in curbing the drowning of school children whilst trying to cross swollen rivers to get to school and assist pensioners to access their pension grants. Already we have constructed 16 bridges in KwaZulu-Natal and 18 in the Eastern Cape, and thus enabled thousands to cross dangerous rivers in order to reach clinics, schools and other service delivery centres. "In the coming months and years, we will intensify this programme, consistent with the marching orders from the Commander-in-Chief." According to Modise, at least 2 000 new recruits are expected to join the ranks of the SANDF in the early weeks of March, a move she says is expected to ensure that we have a well-capacitated defence, which is combat-ready and capable of discharging its constitutional mandate. Rule of law Modise said the JCPS Cluster has flagged a deliberate undermining of the rule of law during protests as an area of concern. Our stance is very clear in this regard: our officers will enforce the rule of law without fear or favour where people deliberately undermine the authority of the State. No one has the right, irrespective of their grievances or dissatisfaction with anything, to break the law. [As] Ministers in the Security Cluster, we are committed to creating a safe and conducive environment that will reassure both citizens of this country and international tourists and investors alike, that they will be safe when they come to do business in this country. "We therefore call upon all peace-loving people of this country to work with us as we transform and improve the security machinery that will serve all of us without fear or favour. Another concern of the cluster is the low level of trust between members of the public and law enforcement agencies. We will therefore endeavour to rebuild trust between the officers deployed in communities and community members. This will entail reviving the Community Policing Forums, which will work together with the local police stations to fight crime. This will ensure an inclusive approach to assessing the threats that exist in communities and putting in place the necessary responses, Modise said. Gender-based violence Meanwhile, the JCPS Cluster welcomed the promulgation of the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Act, Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act and Domestic Violence Amendment Act. The three new pieces of legislation were enacted in a bid to secure more prosecutions in cases related to gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). Modise said thousands of South African Police Service members have undergone training to fight crime against women and children. The Department of Police has trained over 90 000 officers in an effort to sustain the decline in sexual offences. [SAPS] established GBVF desks at police stations across all provinces, which will be managed by trained GBVF desk officers. It is envisaged that these GBVF desks will be finalised by end of March this year and government will be prioritising the identified GBVF hotspots, she said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. NASA astronaut and Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Kayla Barron is pictured after removing a thermal blanket that covered the hatch to the Cygnus space freighter. Credit: NASA. The Expedition 66 crew kicked off the week working on robotics, spacesuits, and advanced research equipment. The International Space Station is also orbiting higher to get ready for a crew swap at the end of March. Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) started Monday collecting their blood samples then stowing them for future analysis. The duo then split up, as Chari spent the afternoon studying robotics mobility using the cube-shaped, toaster-sized Astrobee free-flyer. The Astrobatics investigation explores using hopping maneuvers to minimize propellant to inform future robotic missions. Maurer set up the Fluid Science Laboratory for the PASTA experiment that has implications for commercial applications such as pharmaceuticals, oil and fuels, paints and coatings, and more. The crew is also revving up for a pair of spacewalks in mid-March to continue modifying the orbiting lab's power systems. Maurer and NASA Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn worked on U.S. spacesuit jet packs that an astronaut could use to maneuver to safety in the unlikely event of becoming untethered from the station. Marshburn also reviewed plans to assist spacewalkers from inside the space station including suit up procedures, hardware checks and a communications gear overview. Orbital maintenance is key in space ensuring the station's multitude of systems, including research and life support, operate safely and continuously. Astronaut Kayla Barron of NASA worked on payload components that support science experiments outside the space station's Kibo laboratory module on its exposed facility unit. NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei spent some time unpacking cargo from the Cygnus space freighter before swapping out gear inside the U.S. oxygen generation assembly. The space station is orbiting slightly higher after Russia's ISS Progress 79 cargo craft fired its engines for eight minutes on Friday evening. The orbital reboost maneuver puts the station at the proper altitude for the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship launch on March 18 and Vande Hei's return to Earth on March 30 with cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov inside the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship. On-Orbit Status Report Payloads: Astrobatics: Astrobatics Skins hardware was installed onto the Astrobee and the crew assisted the ground team in performing science runs. Astrobee Maneuvering by Robotic Manipulator Hopping (Astrobatics) demonstrates the Astrobee robotic vehicles using robotic manipulators to execute a hopping or self-toss maneuver as the primary mean of propulsion, making it mostly propellantless. Astrobee performs increasingly complex maneuvers between handrails using its perching arm to demonstrate vehicle dynamic modeling and guidance and control of the robot. These maneuvers may be incorporated into future robotic missions and advanced terrestrial robotic applications. Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) Soft Matter Dynamics & Compacted Granulars: The ruggedized Soft Matter Dynamics (SMD) Experiment Container was installed into the FSL Rack. FSL Soft Matter Dynamics - Hydrodynamics of Wet Foams (Foam Coarsening) aims to investigate bubble size and rearrangement dynamics for "wet foams". Microgravity offers the opportunity to investigate such "wet" foams, which cannot be stabilized on Earth because of drainage. Moreover, microgravity conditions are essential to study rearrangement phenomena, such as coarsening and coalescence, disentangled from drainage. ISS HAM: An ISS HAM contact was made with Carter G. Woodson Middle School, Hopewell, Virginia. ISS Ham Radio provides opportunities to engage and educate students, teachers, parents, and other members of the community in science, technology, engineering, and math by providing a means to communicate between astronauts and the ground HAM radio units. Wireless Compose-2: A crewmember took photos of both Communication Modules and both Processing Units of the SmartShirts. The main scientific goal of the Wireless Communication Network (Wireless Compose-2) investigation is to provide a flexible and adaptable wireless network infrastructure to conduct and execute low-power, low-weight, and wireless experiments on the ISS. For this demonstration, Wireless Compose-2 operates several experiments, including an experiment to examine the impact of the space environment on the cardiovascular system. Additionally, Wireless Compose-2 demonstrates newly developed impulse radio ultra-wide- band (IR-UWB) hardware to enable precise localization applications and to analyze the energy harvesting potential on the ISS. Systems: Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: The 3A ISS Roll Out Solar Array (IROSA) Prep EVA is scheduled to take place on March 15th, and today, the crew reviewed the EVA timeline, procedures, and emergency protocols. The crew reviewed spacesuit donning and doffing and the In-Suit Light Exercise (ISLE) pre-breathe protocols they will perform prior to egress through the Airlock. To prepare for emergencies, the crew also practiced attaching the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER) to their spacesuits. In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) Nitrogen Purge On-orbit Replacement Unit (ORU) Remove & Replace (R&R): The OGA, which is part of the Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), produces oxygen via electrolysis using iodinated water from the Water Processing Assembly (WPA). After the team tried troubleshooting the OGA Nitrogen Purge unit with no joy, the crew performed an R&R procedure to return the system to nominal operations. SpaceX Crew Dragon On-Board Training (OBT) Refreshers: With Crew-3 scheduled to undock next month, the crew reviewed emergency procedures involving Emergency Departure, Free-Flight Depress Response, and Free-Flight Fire Response. These reviews provide refresher training to ensure the crew can act fast should an emergency occur. Countermeasures System (CMS) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Quarterly Inspection: Today, the ISS crew completed regularly scheduled maintenance on the ARED Vibration Isolation System (VIS) Rails and Rollers, Upper Stop Cables, and X-Rotation Dashpots. The crew also provided feedback on ARED performance while the ARED Lift Bar was moving between Lower Stops and Upper Stops. This quarterly maintenance allows the ARED exercise device to keep operating nominally as well as verifying if any wear and tear exists on the hardware. Cygnus Stowage Operations: The crew continued NG-17 Cygnus cargo operations today. They unpacked four ISS Medical Accessories Kits (IMAKs) and resupplied five ISS Medical Packs, two Ammonia Response Medical Kits, and one Specialty IMAK. Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Operations: The TOCA ensures overall potable water quality by monitoring the total organic carbon (TOC) concentration levels in the Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Water Processor Assembly (WPA). Today, the crew recorded data from TOCA WPA via Water Sample Hose analysis and changed out the Waste Water Bag (WWB) as part of nominal procedures. Health Maintenance System (HMS) Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Inspection: The crew inspects the AED and its associated consumables on a monthly basis. The crew tested batteries and examined the outer AED case and AED Electrodes Kit. Health Maintenance System (HMS) Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) Test: NASA developed a screening tool to monitor astronauts and their neuro-cognitive status while in space. The test also provides a way for NASA Flight Surgeons to be notified of any accuracy or reaction time changes in astronaut performance. During today's activity, WinSCAT tested the crew's working memory, computational skills, attention, visual tracking, and spatial processing. This test is performed monthly. Completed Task List Activities: None Today's Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Regen Oxygen Generator Assembly Nitrogen Purge ORU Troubleshooting and Safing Actions Look Ahead Plan Tuesday, March 1 (GMT 60) Payloads: Acoustic Diagnostics (ESA) Astrobee Stowage Replace (NASA) CBEF-L MHU Reconfig (JAXA) Colgate Skin Preserve and Teardown(NASA) CCU in Cabin Demo (NASA) DreamStar Node 3 and COL Ops (NASA) EML GCP R&R OBT (NASA) Intelligent Glass Optics (IGO) Hardware Gather and Review (NASA) LSG Front Glove Swap (NASA) Repository Saliva and Urine Collects (NASA) Space Biofilms Initialization (NASA) SQuARES Imagery (NASA) Systems: Extravehicular Mobility Suit (EMU) Loop Scrub Extravehicular Mobility Suit (EMU) Water Recharge Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tool Configuring In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Lab Aft Rigid Elbow Inter-Module Ventilation (IMV) Duct Rotation Wednesday, March 2 (GMT 61) Payloads: CCU Use Placeholder (NASA) EML GCP R&R Prep (ESA) Food Acceptability (NASA) Ice Cubes Media Set Installation and Checkout Activation and Remove (ESA) IGO (Intelligent Glass Optics) HW Install (NASA) Repository Saliva, Urine, and Blood Collection (NASA) RR-18 Ops Review and Gather (NASA) SMART1 Hardware Gather and Install on JEM iSEEP Carrier (NASA) TangoLab-3 Cubelab Sat Checkout (NASA) TOUCH (ESA) SQuARES Imagery (NASA) Systems: Virtual Reality Training (VRT) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) PMM1S4 Locker Cleanup Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Manual Fill Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT) Thursday, March 3 (GMT 62) Payloads: Astrobee Deact (NASA) CBEF-L M Cage Insert and IPU2 Connect (JAXA) CCU Debrief (NASA) Cryo Chiller Cartridge Install (NASA) EML GCP Module Remove and R&R (ESA) IGO Lab Camera Orient (NASA) LSG Glove Swap (NASA) Repository Saliva, Urine Collect (NASA) RR-18 Restock Ops and Crew Conf and Access Unit Clean (NASA) SQuARES Imagery (NASA) Standard Measures Cognition test and Fecal Setup (NASA) TangoLab Cubelab C/O (NASA) Systems: EVA IROSA Strut Assembly Virtual Reality Training (VRT) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Phospho-Aging Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval and Insertion Operations HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval and Insertion Operations JEM Airlock Slide Table (ST) Extension, Retraction to JPM Side HRF Generic HRF Centrifuge Frozen Blood Collection EFU Adapter 2 Installation Wireless Compose-2 Photo Documentation Payload Attachment and Small Payload Controller Installation FSL Soft Matter Dynamics Experiment Container Installation, Feedthrough Panel Reconfiguration, Samples Removal and Packing SSC (Station Systems Computer)19 ZBook Shell Swap Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Medical Accessories Kit (IMAK) Unpack from NG-17 Health Maintenance System (HMS) Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) Test Cold Atom Lab MTL Jumper Leak Check Countermeasures System (CMS) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Quarterly Inspection Health Maintenance System (HMS) Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Inspection Portable Breathing Apparatus (PBA) Cargo Transfer Bag (CTB) Deploy SQuARES Flexible Daily Imagery ISS HAM Columbus Pass Kenwood Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Sample Data Record, Analysis, Waste Water Bag (WWB) Changeout SpX-Crew Dragon Emergency Departure, Free-Flight Depress Response, Free-Flight Fire Response Refreshers Transfer Cygnus Cargo Operations Astrobatics Operations Countermeasures System (CMS) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Exercise Session with EasyMotion Electro-Myo-Stimlation (EMS) Food Physiology Crew Diet Briefing Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Suit Intravehicular (IV) Review In Flight Maintenance Oxygen Generation Assembly Nitrogen Purge ORU Remove & Replace, Pump ORU Stow Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) Installation Practice EasyMotion Suit Stow HRF Generic Saliva, Urine Collection Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Nota de Prensa??Canciller Cesar Landa condena ofensiva militar contra Ucrania ante Consejo de #DerechosHumanos @UN_HRC y Conferencia de Desarme. ??Tambien demanda cese inmediato de la agresion e inicio de negociaciones para solucion pacifica y negociada ??https://t.co/IHvYsw0UTj Un clima de paz internacional es la unica garantia para apostar por los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible y de la Agenda 2030, particularmente la erradicacion de la pobreza, la reduccion de las desigualdades, y la proteccion de los DD.HH., apunto.https://t.co/PZb6K17K2t In this regard, the Cabinet member pointed out that each day of delay aggravates the situation for the Ukrainian civilian population given the deterioration of the humanitarian situation. "We call on the international community to activate the necessary mechanisms that guarantee access to humanitarian aid so as to protect those most affected and those who are in a situation of higher vulnerability," Landa expressed. The Foreign Affairs minister noted that Peru recognizes that human rights are, according to their nature: intrinsic, universal, indivisible, and interdependent. "This historic and indeclinable position constitutes a State policy, which lays the foundation for the actions of our Government in a transversal manner," he added. The Peruvian diplomacy head indicated that the issue of human rights is at the center of all efforts undertaken by the Peruvian Executive Branch to improve citizens' living conditions, reduce inequalities, fight against discrimination, protect our environment, address the triggers for social conflict, as well as develop a plural, democratic, and peaceful society with gender equality. Fight against COVID-19 Moreover, the minister stated that like so many other countries Peru has faced the tragic and devastating impacts of an unprecedented pandemic, the effects of which have been alarming at health, social, and economic levels. In this regard, the jurist pointed out that the Peruvian Government has been firm in its response, taking effective actions to stop infections, implementing a patient recovery approach, and managing a universal vaccination strategy with a territorial approach. "Besides, we have started the vaccination campaign for girls and boys from 5 to 11 years of age," he added. Economy The government official also indicated that the macroeconomic stability of Peru is the engine for the implementation of social policies that meet the needs in health, education, as well as the generation of employment and this way contribute to the efforts towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals contained in the 2030 Agenda ???? Presidente @PedroCastilloTe en Mensaje a la Nacion: "Hago un llamado a las mujeres y hombres de esta patria a mantenerse vigilantes para defender la democracia y la gobernabilidad de un Gobierno que nace del pueblo".#SiempreConElPueblo pic.twitter.com/8f5q0qkma4 El premier Anibal Torres, junto con la titular del @MidisPeru y la rectora de la @UNMSM_, participa en el lanzamiento del Observatorio Nacional de la Descentralizacion, instrumento a cargo de la Secretaria de Descentralizacion de la PCM. ?? En vivo: https://t.co/1WF1oI2UgQ pic.twitter.com/tBVTd3JGJQ YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. In Belarus, everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Waiting for delegations to arrive, the Foreign Ministry said on Twitter. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anatoly Glaz said the negotiations will start immediately after the arrival of the delegations. RIA Novostis source within the diplomatic circles said that the Russian delegation members are already waiting for the Ukrainian side in the Gomel region of Belarus. We are waiting for the start of negotiations. The Ukrainian delegation hasnt arrived yet. The meeting must take place on Monday morning in Gomel region in coming hours, it added. A source close to the process told Sputnik Belarus that the Ukrainian delegation is already in the territory of Belarus. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Artsakh Artur Tovmasyan issued a statement on the 34th anniversary of the Sumgait genocide, the Parliament of Artsakh said. The statement reads: Dear compatriots. 34 years have passed since the Sumgait crime. Many people, nations around the world have suffered and continue suffering from genocide, but for the Armenian people it is the past and the present, but never the future. Azerbaijan, an artificial state born in the beginning of the 20th century, has assumed an anti-Armenian mission since its formation. The proof is the Sumgait massacres organized in 1988 and the regularly continuous wars. The only goal and desire of Azerbaijan is the final occupation of Artsakh and the elimination of its ethnic people. Impunity and intolerance led the Azerbaijani authorities to new genocidal acts. The manifestation of Armenophobia reached its peak in September 2020 by the war unleashed by Azerbaijan, particularly in the form of inhuman treatment against the population of Artsakh, the Armenian captives, murders, torture and cultural genocide. By strongly condemning the Sumgait crime and the continuous policy against the Artsakh-Armenians, we call on the civilized world to take practical steps to prevent the Azerbaijani genocidal policy against Armenians. We must get out of this heavy situation, and demand our rights in our ancestral land. My homage to the memory of all our compatriots who fell victim to the Azerbaijani violence and all those heroes fallen at all Artsakh wars. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia plans to further increase the dram part in the composition of the debt in coming years. Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan assures that the government debt is currently stable and manageable. He gave an interview to ARMENPRESS about the topic. -Mr. Minister, the state debt has exceeded the permissible limits. The government is going to submit a budgetary framework to the Parliament, through which it guarantees that it will return the debt to permissible limits. By the yearend the debt to GDP is expected to reach 60.2%. As a result of what is it expected to reach the permissible level, and when will the government submit that framework to the Parliament? -There is no such range that is considered impermissible amount of debt. There are debt values which show being in a dangerous range. That law was in the past when a certain high debt was considered impermissible for the government. However, the further regulations, and they relate to the regulations made 2-3 years ago, have brought different approaches in use, with concrete necessary steps typical to each range. In particular, it is envisaged that when the debt rate passes the 60% of GDP by any year, the government, together with a medium-term expenditure program of each year, is also presenting its program approaches to the Parliament, on what it is going to do to improve the debt rate in the next five years or make the debt more manageable. That is the reason that when we were debating the 2022 state budget in the Parliament, I had a chance to state that our medium-term goal is to greatly improve our debt rates by following that policy. This year as well when we will present the medium-term expenditure program to the Parliament in summer, we will accompany it with a revise framework of debt management which, of course, will have slightly more promising figures with positive forecasts, than the previous medium-term forecasts, because the figures of 2021 are already proving it. We can say in advance that the main goals, which were presented to the Parliament last summer together with the 2022-2024 medium-term expenditure program, will happen a year earlier. In other words, if we were planning to achieve nearly 55% level towards GDP in 2025-2026, we will achieve slightly more improved figures. It is also theoretically possible to more quickly improve that situation. -To what extent will there be a revision? -Our target is to have debt figures of about 54-55% by 2026. I also want to explain why we dont want to reduce it faster. It is possible in practice because both our high economic growth rates and the increase of own revenues towards them in accordance with the governments policy allow to think that we will have much more tax revenues and more means to conduct expenditures on our own, than it could be predicted from the very start. In that case, we could carry out both ongoing expenditures and those directed to capital or development programs at the expense of these own revenues, and have a less need or demand for attracting debt. But on the other hand, given that our debt is currently at a manageable range and is not a worrying phenomenon, we do not rule out that we may keep that new borrowings at a level which is supposed now, and to direct them for new development programs. -Will that 60.2% debt to GDP be maintained by the end of this year? -We think it will be within 60% in the end of this year. We plan to further increase the dram part in the composition of the debt in coming years, currently the dram debt is about 28%. When we have a dram debt, we do not bear exchange rate risks, no matter what the exchange rate for the main foreign exchange units will be by the end of the year, the debt in dram terms to our GDP will be the same. -How much is the state debt at the moment? To what extent is that level justified, and dont you consider it risky? -I already said that it is not risky, it is within reliable range. According to the latest data, the government debt is assessed to be about 4 trillion 252 billion drams (8 billion 812 million dollars). If we talk from the perspective of the state debt, the debt of the Central Bank is currently 227 billion drams. They are in a reliable, manageable range and from macroeconomic terms do not contain any uncertainty both in terms of the debt size and servicing capacities. Full version of the interview is available in Armenian. Interview by Anna Grigoryan Photos by Tatev Duryan YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The First Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Kamo Kochunts will be the acting Chief of General Staff, the Ministry of Defense told ARMENPRESS. The position became vacant when Chief of General Staff Artak Davtyan was dismissed on February 24. Shahid Al Hafed, 27 February 2022 (SPS) - The Sahrawi people continues its struggle for independence and continues to gather more support for its just cause, as it prepares to celebrate on Sunday the 46th anniversary of the establishment of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), with as much determination and resolve to achieve its goal. February 27, 1976 marked the beginning of the process of building the Saharawi state, when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario) decided to proclaim the birth of SADR after the withdrawal of the Spanish colonizer following the signing of the Madrid Accords on November 14, 1975. Despite the contempt of the Moroccan occupier towards the Saharawis and its attempts to obstruct international efforts for the decolonization of the last colony in Africa, the Saharawi people have remained, over the years, committed to its just cause, continuing their struggle for the recovery of its inalienable right to self-determination, by peaceful means, until the flagrant violation by the Moroccan regime of the ceasefire agreement, on November 13, 2020, which forced it to resume the armed struggle. The SADR has led, since its inception, "battles" at all levels to achieve independence and put an end to the plundering of its wealth by the Makhzen, thus deploying immense diplomatic efforts to make the voice of its people heard throughout the world, with the result in resounding victories at the diplomatic and legal levels. The most recent of these victories was the participation of the SADR, represented by its president Brahim Ghali, in the 6th African Union (AU)-European Union (EU) Summit, held recently in Brussels, consecrating the SADR as an inescapable reality in spite of the fallacious declarations and the maneuvers of the Moroccan occupier. On the legal side, the decision of the European Union (EU) Court last September, annulling the two Moroccan-EU fisheries and agriculture agreements, extended to the occupied Western Sahara. Such a decision requires that "the Sahrawi people, sovereign over its wealth, must be consulted before any economic transaction", through its only legitimate representative, the Polisario Front. A decision that reinforces the ruling made in 2016 by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which states that the EU-Moroccan association agreements do not apply to Western Sahara, insisting on the "separate" and "distinct" status of this territory, included on the UN list of non-self-governing territories. In an equally important move, the U.S. Congress decided to limit aid and military funding to Morocco if the Kingdom did not commit to "finding a mutually acceptable political solution in Western Sahara. The outpouring of solidarity and support shown by the free peoples in favour of the Saharawi people has continued to increase, reflected in the numerous visits made by foreign officials, politicians and associative actors in the Sahrawi Republic but also in the refugee camps, in addition to the meetings, conferences and mobilization campaigns organized in particular in the European capitals in order to include the Saharawi issue in international foras and put an end to this conflict that has lasted too long. The Sahrawi refugee camps have recently received the visit of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Honduras, Torres Zelaya Gerardo Jose Antonio, who reaffirmed the solidarity of his country with the Sahrawi people and their just cause, in addition to the visit of the President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Francesco Rocca, who called for raising the international community's awareness of the humanitarian situation of refugees. Numerous forums and events were also organized with the participation of delegations from different countries and various affiliations in solidarity with the Saharawi people. Several activities also organized by political parties and human rights organizations held almost every month around the world to highlight the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and alert the local authorities to the need to respect international law through the organization of a referendum on self-determination. The mass rallies observed in many capitals and major cities, including Spain, Germany, Italy, Australia and Austria, are another form of solidarity with the Sahrawi people to enable it to exercise its sovereignty over its territories and natural resources. 062/T YEREVAN, 28 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Today, Deputy Prime Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Lithuania to Armenia Inga Stanyte-Tolockiene, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The Deputy Prime Minister praised the close cooperation with Lithuania in various fields, at the same time emphasizing that there is considerable untapped potential in almost all directions. In this context, the need to develop cooperation with Lithuania within the framework of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement was highlighted. During the meeting, the sides also touched upon the work of the Armenian-Lithuanian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, as well as other issues of mutual importance. YEREVAN, 28 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in the Gomel region of Belarus have ended, Mikhail Podolyak, Advisor to the Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine, told reporters. "The delegations of Ukraine and Russia held talks today, the main purpose of which was to discuss the cessation of military operations in Ukraine. The parties clarified a number of priority issues, in the direction of which some understanding was noted. In order for them to have the opportunity for practical implementation, the parties go to their capitals for consultations," said Michael Podolyak, reports ARMENPRESS. He informed that the parties discussed the possibility of holding the next meeting in the near future, during which the above-mentioned issues will be specified. YEREVAN, 28 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed an application to join the European Union, ARMENPRESS reports, citing TASS, the press service of the "Servant of the People" Ukrainian party reported on February 28. "Zelenskyy has signed an application for Ukraine to join the European Union. It's a historic moment," the statement said. The party also published the text of the accompanying letter signed by the president. "In this letter, Ukraine, as a European state that respects the values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, has the honor of applying for EU membership in accordance with Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union." The letter was sent to the President of France Emmanuel Macron, whose country holds the presidency of the EU Council, as well as the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. India says no other choice but to return to path of diplomacy The United Nations Security Council meets at the UN Headquarters in New York City on February 27, 2022. (Andrea Renault/AFP / AFP) United Nations: For the second time in as many days, India abstained on a UN Security Council resolution to convene a rare emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi asserted that there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue to settle the Ukraine crisis. The 15-nation Council met Sunday afternoon to vote on a procedural resolution to refer the Ukrainian situation to an emergency session of the 193-member UN General Assembly. India, China and the UAE abstained while Russia voted against the resolution and 11 Council members - Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States - voted in favour. It was the second time since Friday that India abstained in the Council on a resolution on the Ukraine crisis. The vote calling for the UNGA session was procedural so none of the five permanent members of the Council - China, France, Russia, UK and the US - could exercise their vetoes. The resolution was adopted, paving the way for the General Assembly to meet on the worsening crisis on Monday morning. The voting record in the Council Sunday was the same as that on Friday, with India, China and the UAE abstaining, Russia using its veto and 11 Council members voting in favour. The procedural resolution said that the Council has decided to call an emergency special session of the General Assembly to examine the Ukraine crisis after taking into account that the lack of unanimity of its permanent members at the Friday meeting prevented it from exercising its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. In the explanation of the vote, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said it is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the Council last convened on this matter on Friday. He reiterated India's call for an immediate cessation of violence and an end to all hostilities, underlining that there is no other choice but to return back to the path of diplomacy and dialogue. Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advocated this strongly in his recent conversations with the Russian and Ukrainian leadership, Tirumurti said, We welcome today's announcement by both sides to hold talks at the Belarus border. In his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Modi reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to dialogue and expressed India's willingness to contribute in any way towards peace efforts. In the telephonic call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Modi reiterated his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia and the NATO group can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue. He appealed for an immediate cessation of violence and called for concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogue. Tirumurti also said that India continues to be deeply concerned about the safety and security of its nationals, including a large number of Indian students, who are still stranded in Ukraine. Our evacuation efforts have been adversely impacted by the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings. It is important to maintain an uninterrupted and predictable movement of people. It is an urgent humanitarian necessity that must be immediately addressed, Tirumurti said. Taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances, we have decided to abstain, he said. The global order is anchored on international law, the UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states. We are all agreed on these principles, he said. While a UNSC resolution would have been legally binding and General Assembly resolution are not, vote in the Assembly is symbolic of world opinion on the crisis. With the adoption of the resolution by the UN Security Council, it was for the first time in 40 years that the Council decided to call for an emergency special session in the UN General Assembly. This will be only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950. Following the decision taken in the Security Council, President of the 76th session of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid tweeted that he will preside over the Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on Monday morning. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in the Council Sunday that the Security Council has taken an important step forward toward holding Russia accountable. For the first time in decades, it has called for an Emergency Special Session in the General Assembly. The Council members who supported this resolution recognise that this is no ordinary moment. We need to take extraordinary actions to meet this threat to our international system and do everything we can to help Ukraine and its people, she said. The US envoy said President Putin put Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, even though he is invading a country with no nuclear weapons and is under no threat from NATO, a defensive alliance that will not fight in Ukraine. Ukraine's envoy at the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya said that those Council members who see no reason in supporting the request to have the emergency UNGA session should know that most Ukrainian cities are now constantly hearing warnings of air raids and they should look at the pictures and footage of what happened afterwards. Elaborating on other consequences of violence across Ukraine, he voiced extreme alarm at Russia's nuclear blackmail, a threat he said the world must take very seriously. Russia's envoy at the UN and Council President for February Vassily Nebenzia, spoke in his national capacity, saying that each permanent member has a right to use the veto for such specific reasons as achieving global stability. He also urged members to stop aiding and abetting the current social media misinformation war against the Russian Federation. We hear lies and deceit about the indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian facilities, hospitals and schools when the Russian army does not threaten civilians in Ukraine; it does not shell civilian infrastructure, Nebenzia said. During the Security Council meeting, many members sought diplomatic efforts to peacefully settle the Ukraine crisis, and said they would be watching Ukraine-Russia meeting expected to take place on Monday. (Adds quotes, details) KAUNAS AIRPORT, Lithuania, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A military aircraft carrying Norwegian troop reinforcements landed in Lithuania on Sunday, part of a wider NATO buildup in the Baltic region following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Norwegian troops - 44 soldiers from a mechanised infantry battalion - will join the alliance's enhanced forward presence battlegroup in Lithuania, deployed since 2017 in response to Russia's takeover of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine. Norwegian enforcements also include four CV90 infantry fighting vehicles, three of which were transported by a separate plane, an Ukrainian-made Antonov An-124. "In my company I have main battle tanks, I have new CV90s, highly technological, and a lot of other vehicles," said Captain Endre Saurstroe, commander of Norwegian troops in Lithuania. Germany also increased number of its troops in Lithuania earlier in February. The size of NATO battlegroups in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, once ruled from Moscow but now part of the European Union, are set to almost double from 3,400 troops at the start of the year to more than 6,000 in the near future. Ukrainian forces battled Russian troops pushing into the city of Kharkiv on Sunday on the fourth day of an invasion that has shaken Europe's long-standing security architecture. Norwegian Defence Minister Odd Roger Enoksen said Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for the escalation. "We take part in ensuring safety for the Lithuanians in this situation ... Putin's actions will hurt relations with Russia for a long time to come," Enoksen told Norwegian TV2. Ignoring weeks of diplomacy and sanctions threats by Western nations seeking to avoid war, Putin has justified the invasion saying "neo-Nazis" rule Ukraine and threaten Russia's security - a charge Kyiv and Western governments reject. (Reporting by Andrius Sytas and Janis Laizans; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Nerijus Adomaitis and Raissa Kasolowsky) (Reuters) -A referendum in Belarus on Sunday approved a new constitution ditching the country's non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launch pad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies said. The agencies cited the Belarus central elections commission as saying 65.2% of those who took part voted in favor. The result came as little surprise, given the tightly controlled rule of President Alexander Lukashenko. The new constitution could see nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union. It raises the stakes at a time when Lukashenko has fallen behind Russian President Vladimir Putin's military assault on Ukraine after earlier playing an intermediary role between the two neighbours. The West has already said it will not recognise the results of the referendum, which is taking place against the background of a sweeping crackdown on domestic opponents of the government. According to human rights activists, as of Sunday, there were more than a thousand political prisoners in Belarus. The referendum sparked anti-war protests in several cities. At least 290 people were detained, rights activists said. Protests had largely died down in Belarus after Lukashenko launched a violent crackdown on dissent against his 28-year-long rule. Mass protests had erupted in 2020 following a disputed election that opponents say Lukashenko rigged. On Sunday, speaking at a polling station, Lukashenko said he could ask Russia to return nuclear weapons to Belarus. "If you (the West) transfer nuclear weapons to Poland or Lithuania, to our borders, then I will turn to Putin to return the nuclear weapons that I gave away without any conditions," Lukashenko said. Lukashenko turned to Russia after the 2020 protests, securing loans that offset the effect of Western sanctions. His rival in the 2020 vote, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, had called on Belarusians to use the vote to protest against the invasion. Story continues In videos and photos posted on social media, people gathered at polling stations in Minsk and other cities to protest. "There is little we can do now, with all this terror and horror in which we live. But I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't try to do something," said Elena, 45. She declined to provide more personal information for security reasons. The new constitution would give powers to the All-Belarusian People's Assembly, created by Lukashenko and populated by party loyalists, local councils, officials and activists of pro-government organizations. It would also give lifetime immunity from prosecution to the president once he left office. (Writing by Matthias Williams and David Ljunggren; Editing by Alison Williams, Richard Chang and Daniel Wallis) MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Newly diagnosed diabetes in many COVID-19 patients may be a temporary type triggered by COVID, according to a new study. Blood sugar levels returned to normal in about half of the newly diagnosed diabetes patients after they left the hospital, and only 8% required insulin after one year, according to the report published online recently in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications. "We believe that the inflammatory stress caused by COVID-19 may be a leading contributor to 'new-onset' or newly diagnosed diabetes," said lead author Dr. Sara Cromer, an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. "Instead of directly causing diabetes, COVID-19 may push patients with pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes to see a physician for the first time, where their blood sugar disorder can be clinically diagnosed," she added in a hospital news release. "Our study showed these individuals had higher inflammatory markers and more frequently required admission to hospital ICUs than COVID-19 patients with pre-existing diabetes." For the study, Cromer's team looked at 594 COVID-19 patients who had signs of diabetes when they were admitted to MGH at the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Of those, 78 had no previous diabetes diagnosis. Many had less severe blood sugar levels but more severe COVID-19 than those with a previous diabetes diagnosis, the study found. However, blood sugar did revert to normal in about half of these COVID-linked cases. "This suggests to us that newly diagnosed diabetes may be a transitory condition related to the acute stress of COVID-19 infection," Cromer said. Acute insulin resistance appears to be the key mechanism underlying newly diagnosed diabetes in most COVID-19 patients, and if it occurs, it is generally not permanent, she explained. "These patients may only need insulin or other medications for a short time, and it's therefore critical that physicians closely follow them to see if and when their conditions improve," Cromer added. COVID-19 patients who were newly diagnosed with diabetes were more likely to be younger, non-white, and uninsured or on Medicaid than those with previously diagnosed diabetes, the study found. The researchers said that finding suggests that many of the new cases were pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes in people with limited access to health care services. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published similar findings. More information Learn more about diabetes and COVID-19 at the American Diabetes Association. SOURCE: Massachusetts General Hospital, news release, Feb. 24, 2022 Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. Tesla is the most Googled EV brand in the world, with the Model 3 compact sedan being the most searched electric car on the search engine, reveals a study by partcatalog.com. The study also reveals that Tesla Model S, Model Y and Model X are the other top electric cars in the top five. The fifth position is held by Audi e-Tron, which is also the top non-Tesla electric car on the list. (Also Read: Tesla removes radar from Model S, Model X electric vehicles. Here's why) The study reveals that the Tesla Model 3 was searched 2,240,000 times per month, followed by the Model S (1,500,000), Model Y (1,220,000) and Model X (1220,000). Audi e-Tron on the other hand witnessed being searched on Google 1,000,000 times. Porsche Taycan EV, the first-ever all-electric car from the German luxury high-performance car brand too was searched for 1,000,000 times on Google. Taycan was followed by Volkswagen ID.4 with 823,000 searches. While electric cars from Tesla and Volkswagen group dominate the list of most searched EVs on Google, other battery electric vehicles that are on the list include Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Polestar 2. The two EVs from Hyundai Motor Group saw a search volume of 673,000 each, while Polestar 2 too recorded the same number. The study also reveals that China was on top of the list of most electric car buyers between 2010 and 2020. More than four million EVs were sold in China during this period. The UK was next, followed by Germany. Interestingly, Norway and US were nowhere near them. Despite the high demand for EVs in Norway, the country has a population of 5.3 million people and they bought 435,352 electric vehicles, while in the US nearly 330 million citizens purchased only 438,817 EVs during the same period. First Published Date: By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijan and Egypt have signed several cooperation agreements following the results of the meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic, technical and scientific cooperation between the two countries. The memorandum of understanding was signed between Azerbaijan's Small and Medium Business Development Agency and Egypt's Micro, Small and Medium Business Development Agency. Azerbaijan's Export and Investment Promotion Foundation signed cooperation agreements with Egypt's Trade and Industry Ministry on the establishment of the Azerbaijan-Egypt Business Council, as well as with the Association of Egyptian Businessmen. Moreover, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Baku International Sea Trade Port CJSC and the Port of Alexandria. In addition, the protocol of the fifth meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission was signed. Joint Intergovernmental Commission During the meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission, Azerbaijani Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev stated that Azerbaijan and Egypt are friendly countries with high economic and cultural relations. He noted that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The minister briefed the Egyptian delegation on the restoration and reconstruction work carried out in Azerbaijan's liberated territories. He stressed that the opening of communications and the restoration of economic relations after the war, especially the implementation of the Zangezur corridor will contribute to stability and development in the region and further enhance its transit potential. Rashad Nabiyev brought to the attention of the participants the countrys macroeconomic indicators over the past year, as well as the work done and planned in the fields of transport and digital transformation in Azerbaijan. The parties discussed possibilities for cooperation in the areas of trade, industry, mutual investments, education, culture and tourism. Azerbaijan-Egypt Business Forum An Azerbaijani-Egyptian business forum was held within the framework of the fifth meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission, under the organization of Azerbaijan's Export and Investment Promotion Foundation. Rashad Nabiyev underlined the importance of the business forum in expanding ties between the business communities and invited businessmen to active discussions. Egyptian International Cooperation Minister Rania Al-Mashat emphasized ample opportunities for developing economic cooperation between the countries and noted the importance of such events in expanding Azerbaijani-Egyptian trade and economic ties. Moreover, Foundation's Head Yusif Abdullayev briefed on the activities of the organization, work carried out on expansion of cooperation with foreign partners, and the attraction of investments in the non-oil sector. Azerbaijan's Small and Medium Business Development Agency Board Chairman Orkhan Mammadov pointed out that a business forum is a favorable platform to promote cooperation between businessmen, and spoke about Agency's activities, support to businessmen and services provided. He underlined the Agency's readiness to support joint initiatives of business representatives. Furthermore, Alat Free Economic Zone Board Chairman Valeh Aleskerov informed about the work done in the economic zone and opportunities for logistics/ The forum included presentations on the investment climate created in Azerbaijan and Egypt. The business forum continued with bilateral meetings to expand ties between business people and discuss new areas of cooperation. The forum was attended by representatives of over 50 companies from both countries, representing agriculture, food industry, medicine, construction, information technology, finance and other fields. The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Egypt amounted to $42.4 million in 2021. In addition, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $562,460 in January 2022. Earlier, Egypt also expressed interest in participating in projects in Azerbaijans liberated territories. Beijing (Gasgoo)- In the first month of 2022, Beijings domestically-made passenger vehicle registrations saw a double-digit decline from December 2021, especially new energy vehicle (NEV) registrations, according to data compiled by Gasgoo Auto Research Institute (GARI). In January 2022, there were 44,238 locally-made passenger vehicles registered in Beijing, representing a 19.98% decrease from a month ago. German auto brands remained in the lead with 5,231 Volkswagen vehicles registered, and BMW followed in second place with 3,856 vehicles registered. Only two domestic auto brands made the top ten list, namely BYD and Hongqi. Luxury vehicles were much more popular in the capital city in January. Of all the vehicle models registered in Beijing in January, four came up over 1,000 units, namely the Benz GLC, the 3 and 5 series from BMW, and the BMW X3 SUV. On the other hand, Beijing registrations of locally-made new energy vehicles almost halved month over month. In January, there were 7,231 NEVs registered in the city, accounting for 16.34% of the citys total registrations and falling 47% from the previous month. With 686 registrations, Teslas Model Y won the title of most registered new energy vehicle model in January. BYDs Song PLUS EV came second, with 550 vehicles registered. Notably, aside from Tesla, there was only one other foreign brand on the January top ten list, namely Volkswagen and its ID.4 CROZZ model. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese power battery maker Farasis Energy (Ganzhou) Co., Ltd. (Farasis Energy) announced today its full-year revenue in 2021 surged 203.97% year on year to around 3.403 billion yuan ($538.71 million). However, the yearly net loss attributable to shareholders was widened to 974.211 million yuan ($154.203 million) from 331.004 million yuan ($52.393 million), according to the company's financial results. Photo credit: Farasis Energy The basic earnings per share stood at minus 0.91 yuan (minus $0.14) last year, versus the minus 0.35 yuan (minus $0.055) for the year of 2020. The company said the robust growth in the annual revenue owed much to the growing supplies for many OEM clients. For instance, it started providing power batteries for such models as the EQS, the EQA, and the EQB of its main client, Mercedes-Benz. Meanwhile, the procurement volume of GAC Group also evidently climbed. Farasis Energy attributed the widened net loss in 2021 to such factors as lower product prices and the increase in prices of main raw materials, R&D investment, and amortization of equity incentive expenses. The company noted prices of its battery products remained at a relatively low level partly due to the general downward movement in average industrial price of power batteries. Besides, when the company negotiated with clients in 2020 for next years product prices, it agreed lower prices given the downward raw materials prices and the market trend of that moment. To maintain sound partnerships with clients, the battery maker also offered some discounts to deepen cooperation. In 2021, prices of main raw materials soared due to the surging demands of power batteries. Nevertheless, the product prices the company had agreed with clients were not adjusted in time, resulting in the bigger net profit loss as well. The company noted its product prices have currently returned to a normal level. The increase in R&D expense was also a factor leading to the larger net loss. In 2021, the company allowed a heavy investment in the R&D of such fields as solid-state battery, thermal management, and energy storage. With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information. Baidus JIDU to unveil mass produced automotive robot in Nov. According to Baidu, the production model of the intelligent automotive robot from JIDU will be showcased at the Guangzhou auto show in November 2022. The concept model of the car is expected to be at the Beijing auto show in April. GWMs WEY Mocca DHT-PHEV to hit market on March 1st Great Wall Motors WEY brand is launching its Mocca DHT-PHEV to the market on March 1st. Presale of the model has already started, with prices around RMB299,000 to RMB315,000. Mocca DHT-PHEV; photo credit: WEY Baidus ADAS product ANP2.0 to start mass production in June Baidu plans to start mass-producing its ANP2.0 ADAS product in June 2022. The product targets vehicle models in the RMB100,000 to RMB200,000 price range, working under the parking lot and highway scenarios. The next-generation ANP3.0 is projected to start mass production in July 2023, with a targeted clientele of vehicle models priced RMB200,000 and up. The first model powered by the ANP3.0 function will be from Baidus JIDU. Chinas 2021 annual online ride-hailing order volume surpasses 8.3 billion According to the minister of Chinas Ministry of Transport, in 2021, average domestic car traffic on highways equaled roughly 32 million vehicles daily, increasing 6.3% year on year. During the year, the domestic online ride-hailing platforms have completed 8.32 billion orders, with 4.676 billionorders from relatively large cities. Positioning service provider Sixents lands RMB620 million in Series B NavInfo-incubated precise positioning service provider Sixents has completed its Series B investment round, raising RMB620 million ($98.24 million), the company announced on February 28th. SAIC Motor-backed premium brand IM to start delivering 1st production model in April The IM L7, the first production model under IM, a premium auto brand backed by SAIC Motor, has already been put into volume production at SAIC Motor's intelligent factory in Lin-gang Special New Area, the Shanghai-based auto giant announced today via its WeChat account. FAW Group, BYD hold ground-breaking ceremony for joint power battery plant On Feb. 26, FAW Fudi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd (FAW Fudi), a joint venture between FAW Group and BYD, broke ground on a power battery manufacturing base in Changchun city, Jilin province, according to a post on FAW Group's WeChat account. GAC Capital invests in autonomous driving chip startup EVAS Intelligence Chinas autonomous driving chip startup, EVAS Intelligence, has completed its angel investment round worth roughly RMB200 million, the company announced on February 28th. China continues NEV subsidies, car purchase tax exemption to spur car demands: MIITs minister China will adopt multiple measures to further spur automobile demands, including continuing the implementation of the subsidies on new energy vehicle (NEV) purchases, the awards for building NEV charging facilities, and the exemption of vehicle and vessel purchase tax, Xiao Yaqing, minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Feb. 28. Farasis Energy says revenue in 2021 surges YoY, but net loss widened Chinese power battery maker Farasis Energy (Ganzhou) Co., Ltd. (Farasis Energy) announced today its full-year revenue in 2021 surged 203.97% year on year to around 3.403 billion yuan ($538.71 million). NIO-backed autonomous driving truck developer Inceptio Technology completes B+ round On February 28th, Chinas commercial vehicle autonomous driving developer, Inceptio Technology, announced the completion of its B+ equity financing round, raising $188 million. JAC Group, ThunderSoft to set up automotive intelligence joint venture On February 26th, Chinas major automaker JAC Group has inked an agreement with leading OS developer, ThunderSoft, to set up an automotive intelligence joint venture in Hefei, Anhui Province. NIO announces proposed secondary listing in Hong Kong, with shares to start trading on March 10 Chinese electric vehicle startup NIO today announced the proposed secondary listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and its shares are expected to start trading in Hong Kong on March 10, 2022, the company said this morning. Beijing (Gasgoo)- On February 28th, Chinas commercial vehicle autonomous driving developer, Inceptio Technology, announced the completion of its B+ equity financing round, raising $188 million. Photo credit: Inceptio Technology Sequoia Capital China and Legend Capital co-led the round. Other participants include named jeweler, Chow Tai Fook, and Cedarlake Capital. Existing shareholders of the company, Meituan, NIO Capital, Eight Roads, and Broad Vision Funds, also invested in this round. As of now, Inceptio Technology has raised $500 million so far. The funds will help Inceptio Technology expand the investment in its XUANYUAN truck autonomous driving system, introduce more production-ready models with partners, and step up in the electrification field. Founded in April 2018, Inceptio Technology focus its business on the trunkline logistics field. The company adopts a technology+ operation dual-way business model to develop and produce its L3 and L4 autonomous driving technologies and then apply them in real-life applications. The company is able to provide a safe and efficient autonomous driving truck fleet and freight service network with the help of its automaking partners. By the end of 2021, Inceptio Technology has realized the mass production of its L3 autonomous driving trucks. The companys trucks have started normalized commercial operations on multiple routes with various shippers. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Feb. 26, FAW Fudi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd (FAW Fudi), a joint venture between FAW Group and BYD, broke ground on a power battery manufacturing base in Changchun city, Jilin province, according to a post on FAW Group's WeChat account. Executives of FAW, BYD, officials of governments of Changchun city and Jilin province celebrating ground-breaking for FAW Fudi battery base; photo credit: FAW Group Involving a total investment of 13.5 billion yuan ($2.137 billion), the Changchun-based power battery project is designed to satisfy the battery demands for 600,000 electric vehicles annually and output a yearly production value of over 20 billion yuan ($3.166 billion). Han Jun, Governor of Jilin Province, said this is another significant project in Changchun International Auto City following the FAW-Audi premium electric vehicle project. The operation of FAW-Fudi facility will contribute to the transition and upgrade of Jilin province's automotive industry and help Changchun build a world-class automobile city. Incorporated in January 2022, FAW Fudi is 49% held by FAW Equity Investment (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. and 51% controlled by Fudi Industry Co., Ltd., the power battery unit wholly owned by BYD Company Limited. The joint venture is dedicated to manufacturing battery cells, modules and relevant core parts for new energy vehicles (NEVs). Its plant in Changchun is scheduled to be constructed in three phases, aiming to be capable of outputting 45GWh power batteries annually. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- The IM L7, the first production model under IM, a premium auto brand backed by SAIC Motor, has already been put into volume production at SAIC Motor's intelligent factory in Lin-gang Special New Area, the Shanghai-based auto giant announced today via its WeChat account. Besides, SAIC Motor noted the model will hit the market on March 29 and its delivery will officially kick off in April. IM L7; photo credit: IM IM is a high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle brand jointly developed by SAIC Motor, Alibaba Group and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech. At the Auto Shanghai 2021, the IM L7 made its debut with its presale price (408,800 yuan, equivalent to $64,710) unveiled at the same time. According to SAIC Motor, the IM L7 features a high level of intelligence thanks to the use of NVIDIA Xavier AI computing platform that delivers 30 to 60 TOPS, and an integrated sensing solution composed of 15 high-definition visual cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars. In the future, LiDAR devices might be added to the model amid an upgrade for the intelligent system. Positioned as a full-sized car, the IM L7 measures 5,098mm long, 1,960mm wide and 1,482mm tall with a wheelbase that spans up to 3,100mm. It will be driven by 175kW and 250kW electric motors at the front and rear axles respectively. The model's entire lineup will come standard with a 93kWh ternary-lithium battery pack. With a drag coefficient of 0.21 Cd, the IM L7 is able to zip from 0-100km/h within 3.87 seconds. LOS ANGELES Rock Candy Toys on Monday announced that they will be continuing their annual celebration of Womens History Month in March with weekly tributes to some of the industrys leading females from all walks of the adult industry. Women's History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. With huge support and success with their inaugural year of highlighting Women of the Industry in 2021, Rock Candy Toys is continuing the celebration of Womens History Month in 2022 to continue to recognize and honor the women behind some of the industrys leading companies from the realm of adult retail and more. Throughout the month of March, Rock Candy Toys will be spotlighting ten outstanding women on social media in honor of their achievements and contributions to the biz. Stay tuned to Rock Candy Toys social media to find out fun facts about these hardworking boss babes. Rock Candy Toys Sales Director Tracy Leone explained why it was important for the company to celebrate the women of the adult industry. Rock Candy Toys just wants to give a shot-out and send some love to all of the hardworking women of the industry, she said. Its for us to say thank you for everything you do. As a woman in the biz, I feel it's important for us to keep uplifting and supporting one another! Among this years honorees will be Loretta Gooding, Head Buyer of Excitement Video and Brittney Vela, Head Buyer for Condoms to Go. These women continue to break barriers in our industry every day and we believe they should be honored for their contributions," notes Leone. Follow Rock Candy Toys on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to follow along with our Womens History Month tributes to the women of the adult industry all month long! Rock Candy Toys social media shout-outs will be accompanied by special gifts to the women featured, as a special thank you from the company. For more information, visit RockCandyToys.com and BedroomProducts.com, call (800) 899-8386 or email [email protected]. In today's Ukraine, it is easy to stir up people's nerves against another country, if the Ukrainians are made to believe that some vulgar comments, if any, from individuals of the country represent the view of the entire country. On China's internet domain, some people are talking about a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment emerging in Ukraine that may endanger the safety of Chinese nationals living in the country. The reason is that a handful of Chinese netizens - male ones, to be exact - said on China's social media platforms they wanted to take home Ukrainian beauties who have lost their homes amid the ongoing Ukraine crisis. If one reads through China's social media, he would know that the mainstream Chinese people hold a generally friendly attitude toward Ukraine and they hope peace could be restored in the country as soon as possible. The Chinese government has adopted a reasonable and balanced approach to the Ukraine crisis, and this represents the attitude of the Chinese people as well. Western social media platforms such as Twitter are filled with disrespectful views toward Ukraine, and there are also insulting jokes against Ukraine women. How come that only the "anti-Chinese sentiment" was exacerbated? A Twitter user, who is suspected of coming from Taiwan but uses simplified Chinese characters instead of the traditional characters used on the island , maliciously tweeted unverified messages which seemed to be from the Chinese mainland that mocked Ukrainian women. Then SupChina, a US-based digital media company covering China, picked up the hook and labeled these messages as "the absolutely worst opinion one could make about the deadly situation." The tactic of fanning the "anti-Chinese" flame in Ukraine as well as in the West from self-claimed "independent" media outlet coordinates with the West's long-held interest in winning a war against China without firing a shot. To this end, the West and its media outlets are expanding potential areas of conflict from the purely military one to the political and social ones, mostly by manipulating public opinion. In the wake of the Ukraine crisis, the West aims to twist China's official stance and public opinion so it can impair China's interests and create a favorable opinion atmosphere for itself. Public opinion warfare is always part of the warfare itself. Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, told the Global Times that in the ongoing Ukraine crisis, the Western media have taken on the task of becoming the tool of Western countries' opinion warfare and closely coordinated the policy of Western countries to speak up for them. "The essence of the opinion warfare is to disturb the opponent's battlefield while safeguarding one's own," said Shen. Some people believe the anti-Chinese sentiments of the Ukrainians are a result of a large majority of Chinese netizens' support for Russia as well as the jokes a handful of them made about Ukrainian girls. Such views miss the point. The main reason is that many Ukrainians hope China and the Chinese people would have adopted the same attitude toward the war as the US and the West did. As a result, any public opinion from China, when manipulated by Western forces, can easily ignite the nerves of the Ukrainian people. As more and more Ukrainians realize that the US and the West can hardly be reliable partners, they would understand the position of China which promotes a political settlement for the issue rather than creating and shifting the crisis and trying to benefit from it. China believes that the Ukraine issue has a complicated history and that the legitimate security concerns of all parties should be respected. Chinese netizens should be mindful of their comments during the Ukraine crisis, but what some said should not become an excuse by Western forces to fan anti-Chinese flame and seek geopolitical gains at the cost of safety and interests of the Chinese people abroad. North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring is leading the development of a task force aimed at improving the management of noxious weeds in the state. The group will be composed of county weed officers; agronomists; North Dakota State University officials; and representatives of commodity groups, agriculture associations, commodity processing facilities and agribusiness. It will meet March 15. Noxious weeds are those that landowners are required by state law to control, to slow their spread. There are 13 weeds on the list, ranging from well-known ones such as leafy spurge and Canada thistle to more obscure-sounding plants such as yellow toadflax. For more information, go to https://www.nd.gov/ndda/plant-industries/noxious-weeds. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Azeripek LLC, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation, has presented its products under the "Made in Azerbaijan" brand to international buyers on the Amazon and eBay platforms via the Azexport.az internet portal, Trend has reported. Initially, 10 types of traditional Azerbaijani women's headgear- kelaghayi products were sold on the listed platforms, according to the report. Given the growing interest and demand for e-commerce via online resources around the world, the company intends to expand its sales geography and export products to the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Israel, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and European countries. Following the inclusion of Azerbaijan's kelaghayi art form on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in November 2014, interest in the kelaghayi has grown as a result of the efforts and activities of Azerbaijan's First Vice President, UNESCO and ISESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva. The art of kelaghayi will be passed down from generation to generation as one of the symbols of elegance and femininity of Azerbaijanis as a result of this high attention and care for the protection and promotion of Azerbaijan's material and cultural heritage, national and spiritual values. Azexport.az, which was founded in 2016, integrates with the most popular electronic trading platforms to make products available to potential buyers from all over the world. The portal allows entrepreneurs to export goods produced in Azerbaijan to both traditional and emerging markets via international e-trading platforms. Azexport's mission is to provide information about Azerbaijani products and to serve as a useful platform for their sales in both foreign and domestic markets. The Azexport portal continues to introduce auspicious mechanisms to facilitate trade procedures for exporters and buyers. For the first time, the portal has introduced a free sale certificate in Azerbaijan to expand the possibilities of exporting national goods and local products beyond the country. This certificate provides Azerbaijani entrepreneurs with access to the export of goods to the U.S., Indonesia, Qatar and a number of other countries. The cost of the certificate is only AZN 20 ($12). The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a lower courts dismissal of a defamation claim made against Burleigh Countys top prosecutor by a former Bismarck police sergeant. Justices recently said Robyn Krile didnt make a valid claim for defamation or show that Burleigh County States Attorney Julie Lawyer acted with malice when she submitted certain documents related to Krile's professional conduct to law enforcement agencies and Kriles prospective employers. Krile's attorney, Lynn Boughey, said he thinks the panel's opinion shows that the use of the legal term "malice" in such matters needs to be rejected, and that claimants should need only to prove "reckless disregard of the truth." Attorneys for Lawyer didn't immediately comment to the Tribune. The case Lawyer in 2017 was an assistant prosecutor when she reviewed the files of active Bismarck police personnel. In a letter to then-Police Chief Dan Donlin, Lawyer said she believed Krile had made false statements as a police officer and that the states attorney's office would no longer use Krile as a witness. Krile was later fired. Krile complained to the state Department of Labor and Human Rights, claiming the police department discriminated against her based on race and sex. During the Labor Departments investigation, the police department submitted documents explaining Lawyers reasoning for issuing the letter. The Labor Department concluded the police department did not discriminate. Krile in January 2019 sued the city in federal court, seeking damages for pain and suffering, lost pay and other reasons. A trial is scheduled June 7. Krile sued Lawyer in March 2019, saying Lawyer defamed her by submitting the letter to the Bismarck Police Department, state Labor Department, the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, and Kriles prospective employers. Lawyer had also disclosed the letter to the Lincoln Police Department when Krile sought employment there. Krile is now police chief in Lincoln. The arguments Lawyer claimed the letter and other documents were privileged communications because she was acting in an official capacity when she disclosed them. The district court ultimately dismissed Krile's suit at Lawyers request. Krile appealed to the Supreme Court. Justices in July 2020 affirmed the dismissal of the defamation claim related to the letter sent to the Labor Department. They sent the case back to district court to iron out unsettled issues related to whether Lawyer's disclosure of the letter to Donlin and to the POST board was proper. The lower court after a hearing concluded those defamation claims by Krile were barred because Lawyer was within her rights under state law. Krile in appealing that decision said the district court did not consider all the materials submitted for the hearing. The justices said the lower court did not abuse its discretion. Krile also argued that the district court was wrong to say she could not prove Lawyers actions were malicious. The justices ruled that Krile did not support her claims with facts and failed to allege a legally sufficient claim. Boughey said the Supreme Court "allowed the district court to ignore the facts we provided, and then ruled against us because those same exact facts were not placed into the original complaint." In essence, the court brilliantly put a camel through the eye of a needle," he said. Reach Travis Svihovec at 701-250-8260 or Travis.Svihovec@bismarcktribune.com Love 2 Funny 4 Wow 4 Sad 0 Angry 1 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Bismarck State College will host 90 employers at the 2022 Spring Job and Internship Fair on Wednesday. The event from 4-6:30 p.m. is at BSCs National Energy Center of Excellence Bavendick Stateroom. College students and others seeking employment can meet local employers, discuss career options and network with other business professionals in a variety of industries. BSC academic advisers also will be present to answer questions about the certificate and degree options the school offers. For more information, contact the BSC Mystic Advising and Counseling Center at bsc.careerservices@bismarckstate.edu or 701-224-5752. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Bismarck-area residents will get a chance Thursday to comment on proposed improvements to Bismarck Expressways intersections with Washington Street and South Second Street. The state Transportation Department and KLJ Engineering are hosting a public input meeting from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday at Wachter Middle School, 1107 S. Seventh St. in Bismarck. The meeting will utilize an open house format, with a formal presentation at 7 p.m. People also can submit written comments. They must be mailed by March 18 to Adam McGill, PE, KLJ Engineering, PO Box 1157, Bismarck ND 58502-1157, or emailed to adam.mcgill@kljeng.com with Public Input Meeting in the subject line. People who want to request special accommodations for Thursday's meeting should contact Heather Christianson at 701-328-2978 or civilrights@nd.gov. TTY users may use Relay North Dakota at 711 or 1-800-366-6888. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 North Dakota's State Investment Board will meet this week to discuss previous investments of the state's oil tax savings in Russia, in light of that country's invasion of Ukraine. Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford on Monday called a special meeting of the 12-member board Thursday to address what he called an "evolving situation." North Dakota has received, reviewed and is implementing advice from the U.S. Treasury Department related to investments in Russia, Sanford said in a statement. The situation is fluid, and additional guidance is forthcoming." The lieutenant governor chairs the board, which includes the state treasurer and insurance commissioner. Gov. Doug Burgum said in a statement, "North Dakota stands with the freedom-loving people of Ukraine in opposition to the ongoing attacks by Russian armed forces and President Putin. We must do our part to limit the financial resources at Russias disposal to discourage these unprovoked and heinous acts of aggression. Much of the $8.7 billion Legacy Fund is invested in other countries. State investments with Russian entity exposure total $8.5 million from the Legacy Fund, $5.1 million from the pension pool and $2.3 million from the insurance pool, according to the state Retirement and Investment Office. That totals $15.9 million, or less than one-tenth of 1% of the $19.3 billion in assets managed by the office, said a statement from Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki. The state holds a $500,000 bond originally issued by the Russian Federation, but it was purchased from a third party on the secondary market, so the proceeds of the sale went to the third party, not the Russian government, according to the governor's office. The state also has $914,000 in Legacy Fund dollars invested in Gaz Capital, which is 50% owned by the Russian Federation. "The U.S. Treasury has advised U.S. investors to cease all secondary exchange transactions involving Russia effective March 1 for bonds 'issued after March 1, 2022,'" said the statement from the governor's office. The 2021 Legislature approved of several mandates to invest more of the voter-approved fund within North Dakota. The Legacy Fund's advisory board and the Retirement and Investment Office are working to implement the investment mandates. The pace of the rollout has frustrated some state lawmakers, but the state securities commissioner has said the mandates need time to work. The State Investment Board last year created an in-state program that has since deployed $22.5 million to three companies with ties to North Dakota. The North Dakota Board of University and School Lands also has about $28.8 million invested in Russia-based companies, which is equal to less than half of 1% of the boards total investment assets of more than $6 billion, according to Burgum's office. The Department of Trust Lands and its investment consultant are reviewing the investments. Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 4 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A South Dakota ethics board has moved to hire an outside attorney as it considers a pair of ethics complaints against Gov. Kristi Noem. The complaints were sparked from allegations the Republican governor interfered in a state agency to aid her daughters application for a real estate appraiser license and misused state airplanes. The retired judges who sit on the Government Accountability Board decided any legal advice shouldnt come from the lawyer who usually advises the board because she works under the states attorney general. Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg initiated the complaints. The boards decision Monday was a procedural move as it approaches a key juncture for the complaints. North Dakota officials will not challenge a new law surrounding oil and gas royalties, ending their pursuit of $69 million the state could have sought for energy development prior to August 2013. The state is still pursuing an appeal with the North Dakota Supreme Court on other issues surrounding royalties for the development of state-owned minerals. The Board of University and School Lands, better known as the Land Board, voted unanimously last week to continue with the litigation but halt one aspect -- its challenge to the constitutionality of a new North Dakota law that prohibits the state from collecting unpaid royalties for oil and gas production that occurred before Aug. 1, 2013. At issue are deductions oil and gas companies removed from royalties to account for transportation and processing costs. The Land Board has for several years sought to collect those deductions following a favorable Supreme Court ruling in 2019 in a case involving oil producer Newfield Exploration Co. The case has implications for numerous state oil and gas leases with other companies. The board's attempts to collect the money have faced pushback from the oil and gas industry, which viewed the state's initial efforts as punitive. The industry backed House Bill 1080 last year, which passed into law and capped the length of time for which the state in the future could seek to collect unpaid royalties at seven years. It also imposed the cutoff date in August 2013 that would apply to the money the state is seeking to recover from dozens of companies. The Department of Trust Lands has estimated the state is owed $69 million in royalties from production before that date. The department is overseen by the five-member Land Board chaired by the governor. Money the state collects from royalty payments benefits schools and other public institutions. Following the Land Board's meeting last week, Gov. Doug Burgum said "pursuing these old, disputed royalty payments would continue to discourage needed investment in our oil and gas industry, risking significant tax revenues that support North Dakota schools, cities, counties, water infrastructure, research, outdoor recreation and the Legacy Fund. The Legacy Fund refers to North Dakota's $8.7 billion voter-approved oil tax savings. The board has a fiduciary responsibility to drive investment in, and maximize returns on, state-owned land and minerals for the benefit of North Dakota citizens," he said in a statement. "The Land Board recognized that the 67th Legislative Assembly determined that pursuing disputed, decades-old royalty payments was counterproductive to that goal when they passed HB 1080." The $69 million in potential royalty revenue left on the table could be made up if 17 new oil and gas wells come online and royalties after their first year's production are taken into account, Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said, citing data from the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division. The state had initially planned to make the 2013 cutoff part of its appeal of several lower court rulings in the Newfield case, according to a notice of appeal filed with the court earlier this year. The state previously brought a breach of contract claim against Newfield for underpaying royalties, but Northwest District Judge Robin Schmidt dismissed the matter last fall. She wrote in an order that she could not find a record of a contract between Newfield and the state among the documents included in the litigation. That ruling remains part of the state's appeal, along with other issues that relate to Newfield. Schmidt also had upheld the constitutionality of the new law setting the 2013 cutoff after the state challenged it. The Land Board's decision last week was welcomed by North Dakota's oil and gas industry. North Dakota Petroleum Council Vice President and General Counsel Brady Pelton said it provides the industry with more certainty and an opportunity for companies to revisit discussions with the state on possible settlements for unpaid royalties related to development that has occurred since 2013. "The oil and gas industry is pleased that the Land Board recognized and respected the efforts of the 67th Legislative Assembly to resolve the disputed state mineral royalty issue and allow industry to refocus its attentions back toward developing and producing North Dakotas oil and gas resource," he said. The Supreme Court has not yet set a date to hear arguments in the case. The parties involved will first submit written briefs. Newfield is now owned by Ovintiv, which declined to comment to the Tribune. Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. When citizens right to peaceful protest and redress of grievances is treated as the equivalent of war by their government, everyone should be terrified. [] The mask has been torn off. If anyone had any doubts that some governments will do literally anything to suppress anyone who protests what they regard as unreasonable measures by the state to address the COVID pandemic, events in Canada has surely disabused them of such illusions. In times of war, we generally allow governments to do things we would never permit them to do in peacetime. But Canada, the last time I checked, was not at war with anyone. Indeed, its hard to imagine any government led by someone as earnestly woke and full of politically correct pieties as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would go to war with anyone. By invoking its Emergencies Act, however, the Canadian government has underscored the degree to which Western political leaders have been emboldened in their willingness to suspend basic human liberties in pursuit of their COVID policieseven to the extent of breaking into peoples bank accounts. The COVID pandemic has provided illiberal liberals with a new legislative toolthe opportunity to use special powers to suppress those who dispute their claims about what is necessary to combat COVID. All this points to a broader question: How should we view the freedom to engage in peaceful protest and assembly? At what point do we say that a government is within its rights to disperse those who are doing things that inconvenience the rest of us, such as marching on highways, blocking traffic, or preventing people from going about their daily business? And when do we say that the government has gone too far? Public protests can serve good purposes, especially when a grave issue of justice is involved. Many of the civil rights protests in the South during the 1960s played a major role in bringing the intrinsic injustice of segregation to the attention of other Americans and the world more generally. Likewise, the demonstrations of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the late 1970s and 1980s made the point to the entire world that Communist governments enjoyed no real legitimacy beyond the power of sheer force. On the other hand, not all public protests have benign ends; sometimes they embrace despicable methods and can be easily manipulated by trained activists whose goals are often very different to those of the protesters. The burning down of businesses, looting, destruction of property, and violence against police officers upholding just laws that occurred all through America in 2020, for example, were not justifiable under any circumstances and merited forceful action by state authorities. Determining how and when government authorities should act when faced with public protests, especially of the mass kind, inevitably involves a high degree of prudence on the part of state officials. Judging precisely when a peaceful march has turned into a very different affair is not as easy as it sounds. Excessive force can turn an otherwise peaceful exercise of the freedom of assembly into a riot. In other circumstances, failure by the authorities to act when a protest starts to turn ugly can embolden those whose primary interest is to engage in violence or steal or destroy other peoples property. But prudence is simply mere pragmatism if it is not grounded in and guided by principles, or what might be called the rights and responsibilities of all people living in a society that seeks to be free and just, and which the state exists to uphold rather than destroy. That also involves government responses being proportionate to the scale of the protest and, therefore, neither insufficient nor excessive in nature and scope. The case of the Canadian truckers provides us with a good way of thinking through these dilemmas. Theres no doubt that the mass protests against the governments COVID policies have inconvenienced many peopleincluding those who do business back and forth across the U.S.-Canadian border every day. But inconvenience is not the same thing as violence. Nor is every inconvenience a threat to public order. Moreover, even many people who would describe themselves as liberal in their politics would agree that those protesting in Canada have a point vis-a-vis the Canadian governments failure to acknowledge that its COVID policies have disproportionately affected those whose work cannot be done from a laptop at home. To this we can add the fact that Justin Trudeaus invoking of the Emergencies Actlegislation passed in 1988 designed primarily to deal with war, terrorism, violent insurrection, and direct threats to national securityis so obviously a disproportionate response to a movement that is not demanding anything essentially unreasonable or threatening to the national security of Canada. It effectively involves treating large numbers of Canadians as the equivalent of insurgents bent on violent revolution, which they plainly are not. By that standard, we can sayas even the very liberal Canadian newspaper the Toronto Star has stated the Trudeau government has reacted in a dramatically disproportionate way to the truckers protests. It speaks, according to the Stars editorial page, to a shocking admission of failure by governments at all levels. There are many things that could have been done to avoid getting to this point but werent. That is another way of saying that government officials in Canada handled the protests unwisely and now have compounded their imprudence by using powers they should never have invoked in the first place. The looming challenge for all of us who live in societies that purport to take liberty seriously is how we rein in governments that have become accustomed to behaving in ways that are, in the long term, inconsistent with the principles of a free society. You can be sure that large swathes of the political class will resist such an abatement of power. For once more power is acquired, few want to give it back. That, however, is all the more reason to ensure that spectacles like we see happening in Canada never occur again. This article originally appeared in The Detroit News on Feb. 24, 2022 Dear Ukrainians! Over 55 hours of resistance. Our defenders have destroyed the enemy's plans. As of this morning, the number of Russian occupiers killed has exceeded 3,000. More than 200 interventionists are captured. The number of captives is increasing. They did not expect such a response and themselves. Hundreds of armoured vehicles have been destroyed, including more than a hundred Russian tanks. Yesterday, seven helicopters were shot down by Stingers. The enemy is trying to change tactics. Russian troops are shelling residential areas, hospitals, and educational institutions. As the rapid offensive by large columns faltered, the sabotage-reconnaissance group and landing force began to be used more vigorously. Our army and Territorial Defence Forces are effectively disarming them. But the Territorial Defence Forces need help to act ahead. I appeal to everyone. There are artillery observes in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities who can target your homes or lay a road for the way for Russian troops. They are the eyes of the enemy. If you see suspicious persons setting up marks, tagging or failing to clearly explain their purpose for being in a specific place, detain them yourself or inform the Territorial Defence Forces. Detainees can be a source of helpful information. Individually, I appeal to those knowingly collaborating with the Russian occupiers or who may have been misled by promises of "extra income". Russian heartless beast has killed almost two hundred civilians in two days, including three children. Another 33 children were injured. In such circumstances, you may simply not be willing or able to be arrested alive. Give up your criminal intentions before it is too late. There is a special plea for residents of Ukrainian villages and small towns and anyone else who has a suitable case. If a convoy of Russian armoured vehicles passes you, a convoy with fuel follows it after a while. Stop or burn it. The Russian tanks just stop. Our troops capture them and use them against the enemy. Ukraine will win anyway! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine! Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps the inexpensive, all-purpose soap that Mark and I swore by in our backpacking 20s is cool not only for its magical ability to clean everything from hair to body to teeth to clothes to dishes to pets (and for its off-beat philosophic ramblings plastered all over the bottle), but it also openly supports psychedelics. The company, which has donated more than $23 million since 2015 to drug advocacy and research groups, according to The New York Times, began offering ketamine therapy in January as part of their employee health coverage. And so far, 21 employees have taken advantage of the offer either for themselves or their dependents. "Let's face it, the world would be a far better place if more people experienced psychedelic medicines," said David Bronner, a top exec at Dr. Bronner's and grandson of the company's founders, who has had many a psychedelic trips of his own. From The New York Times: Perhaps less well known is Dr. Bronner's role as one of the country's biggest financial supporters of efforts to win mainstream acceptance of psychedelics and to loosen government restrictions on all illegal drugs. [David Bronner's] own love affair with psychedelics began shortly after college, at a dance club in Amsterdam, where he was introduced to candy flipping the combination of LSD and Ecstasy. The journey included visions of Jesus, his grandfather and "a dialogue with deep self," all of which helped him work through what he described as a crippling toxic masculinity and a troubled relationship. "I died five times but it got me out of my dark hole and set me on my path," said David, 49, a vegan who favors hemp clothing and is especially fond of the adjective "rad." The shift [for brother Michael Bronner, president of the company] came last year, when the medications he had long relied on to treat his anxiety and depression stopped working. It was then that he decided to try talk therapy paired with ketamine, a legal anesthetic and party drug that has been gaining increasing acceptance among mental health professionals. He compared the experience to a massage for the brain that helped cleared away much of his angst and despair. "I don't want to oversell ketamine therapy as a miracle cure but it just stripped the rust away, gave me a reset and got me to a really good space," he said. A battlefield anesthetic that is also used in veterinarian medicine, ketamine has only recently gained popularity as a therapy for hard-to-treat depression and suicidal ideation. Though the drug does not have F.D.A clearance for mental health conditions, doctors are allowed to prescribe it for so-called off-label use when they think it will provide benefits to a patient. The New York Times article about Dr. Bonner's excerpted above is a fun read worth a click. By Trend The Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO) CJSC terminated the transportation contracts in the direction of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, head of the press service of the company Mehman Mehdiyev told Trend. According to him, the ASCO ships are in safe waters, and the General Cargo Ship Huseyn Javid proceeded to the Romanian coast for safety reasons. "We are monitoring the situation, and all possible measures are being taken to ensure the safety of ships and crew members," Mehdiyev said. Don't expect to pick up that bottle of Russian vodka at any of the area's three Premier iquor stores, because it won't be there again anytime soon, if ever. In its own small response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Premier Group announced that it would remove Russian vodka and other products from the shelves of its three independently owned and operated stores, effective immediately, and to last indefinitely. The three stores in Amherst, Williamsville and Orchard Park don't carry many other items from Russia anyway, but they also will not be offering Russian wines, as they occasionally have in the past, said partner Mark Notarius. While the Premier stores are significant in size, the impact of the decision is actually fairly small, as only a small number of vodkas actually come from Russia such as Russian Standard and Beluga. Some brands may have originated in Russia, but most of the best-known brands like Grey Goose, Absolut, Smirnoff and Ketel One are actually now owned or made elsewhere in Europe or even North America. That's a subject of much confusion among many consumers, who assume many of the popular vodkas are Russian in origin. In fact, Premier was quick to note that they "do offer a handful of vodkas produced in Ukraine," such as Pristine, Khortytsa and Ukrainian Heritage. US bars are dropping Russian vodka, promoting Ukrainian brands instead Some bars and liquor stores think they've found a potent way to punish Russia for invading Ukraine: They're pulling Russian vodka off their shelves and promoting Ukrainian brands instead. Notarius said the group owners made their decision after customers started to ask which products were made in Russia, in order to avoid them. So the group decided to stand in solidarity with Ukraine, despite having only a handful of Russian products at any given time in the first place, particularly Russian Standard and Zyr. "It's not the tremendous number of them. It's more that it's the least we could do to remove them from sale," he said. "We knew it was something we could do, as a small gesture." Premier's action follows a widening global call for a boycott of Russian products among critics of the country and its president, Vladimir Putin. That's led politicians across North America including governors, senators, state politicians and at least three Canadian provinces to either order or urge that Russian vodka be pulled from store shelves, according to the New York Times. But as much as vodka is part-and-parcel of Russian culture, that dominance hasn't translated into similar control of the U.S. market for the beverage. According to data from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, also cited by Thrillist and the Times, Russian vodka accounted for just 1% of the $7 billion generated from sales of nine-liter cases in the United States last year. Some of the popular vodka brands consumers may think are Russian are not produced in Russia," said Lisa Hawkins, spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. "There is not a lot of Russian-made vodka in the U.S. marketplace." Still, the emotional appeal of taking a stand is growing, and local Ukrainian leaders say it all helps. "This is important. It's a lot of things," said Emil Bandriwsky, a Buffalo native who is president of the Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center on Genesee Street in Buffalo and vice president of the national Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. "In todays world, everybodys connected to some extent." Buffalo's worried Ukrainian community rallies to support home country Local Ukrainians suggest ways to help their cause, including prayer, avenues for financial support, community gatherings and appeals to Buffalo-area officials. Georgetown Liquors in Amherst currently carries Stolichnaya vodka better known as just "Stoli" which has a complicated history and disputed ownership. First produced in the 1940s in the Soviet Union, its brand and production are now divided between a Russian company that still makes it under license from the government, and a private company in Luxembourg that is owned by a Russian billionaire and bottles Stoli in Latvia. So Georgetown is viewing it as Russian. "We are eliminating it. We are not re-ordering it," said Ted Schulefand, a manager at the liquor store. Global Wine & Spirits, another Amherst liquor store at the corner of Sheridan Drive and Harlem Road, near the I-290 interchange, is still carrying Russian vodka for now, but that isn't stopping one of its managers from voicing her own preference. "I've been pushing the Ukrainian products," said Natalie Humphrey, the store's Sunday manager, whose grandfather was Ukrainian. "It's actually really good. It's a really great seller for us, too." Meanwhile, protests against the Russian onslaught in Ukraine continued to mount in Buffalo and around the world, with many people, businesses and governments rallying to the smaller country's side. More than 30 such demonstrations were held across the United States and Canada, with another planned for Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Buffalo City Hall and a national demonstration slated for March 6 in Washington. On Sunday, well over 100 people bundled up for the cold and snowy weather as they gathered at Niagara Square amid a sea of yellow and light blue flags and protest signs to demonstrate in defense of freedom for Ukraine and an end to the Russian assault on the Eastern European country. With the McKinley Monument and City Hall behind them, the protesters many from Ukraine or of Ukrainian descent denounced Putin as a war criminal and terrorist, called for his ouster, and urged the United States and NATO countries to send more bullets and weaponry to help their homeland protect itself. At least one sign compared Putin to Hitler. The crowd hoisted the Ukrainian national flag, sang the national anthem, and waved a red-and-black banner symbolizing the Ukrainian military and originally used by resistance fighters during World War II. American and Canadian flags also flew in the crowd, as protesters chanted "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to her heroes" in Ukrainian. And organizers publicly thanked the Polish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian communities for their support. "The Russian people are not our enemy. Our enemy is the criminal in the Kremlin. The criminal is the enemy of Europe and of all civilized people on Earth," said Bandriwsky of the Ukrainian Cultural Center, one of the protest organizers. "Putin has to be put on trial and sent straight to hell." Calling Russia's military "brutal, ruthless, extremely large," Bandriwsky noted that "there's no way that the Ukrainians by themselves can defend themselves against Russian murder and terror." But "if we show support, if we show unity... we can get politicians to provide more weapons." "Were not asking for American troops," he said. "They need weapons to defend themselves." 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. SUNY Erie Community College President David Balkin's plan to fix its financial crisis will likely include layoffs to "right-size" the college after years of declining enrollment without reductions in staff. We are slated to lose $9 million in the next academic year if we dont do something significant, Balkin said. That will likely mean layoffs between now and the fall semester unless enough people retire or move to other county jobs, he said. Sign up for the Buffalo Next free newsletter The News' Buffalo Next team covers the changing Buffalo Niagara economy. Get the news in your inbox 5 days a week. Balkin laid out the colleges fiscal challenges and how he plans to solve them in a letter to faculty and staff and phone calls to representatives of the four unions serving SUNY Erie employees Monday. He said he cant estimate the number of job cuts that may be needed because that will depend on how many employees may voluntarily retire or be able to shift to jobs in other county departments covered by their unions. He said about 144 SUNY Erie employees are currently eligible to retire. SUNY Erie trustees and the interim president who preceded Balkin, Bill Reuter, have been publicly discussing the colleges financial woes since before Balkin came on as president Feb. 2. Balkin said he is calling for greater urgency and a pledge to take definitive action, which has to happen quickly. The college has seen enrollment drop by nearly half over the past 11 years, from 14,000 students in 2011 to 7,737 today. Revenue from enrollment, which represents 50% of the colleges annual revenue, has also dropped by half. But the number of faculty and staff has not decreased to reflect that drop, Balkin said. Our failure to properly pare down our employee headcount through the years, ever hoping that enrollment would rebound, has resulted in our current significant financial challenge, Balkin wrote in his letter. Balkin said SUNY Eries student/employee ratio an indicator of financial health is unacceptably low and has been below the median ratio of the states 30 community colleges every year for the past eight years. Additionally, to keep staff and faculty gainfully employed, previous administrations created and/or maintained redundant administrative functions at each of SUNY Eries three campus locations, tripling many operational expenses, he wrote. He said current practices are unsustainable and invited the unions to help get the college back on track as it realigns itself to meet the new needs of students and the regions employers. With donations from the Oishei Foundation and other community groups, the college last year engaged education consulting firm RPK Group to reevaluate its personnel, program offerings and physical resources, including the colleges three separate campuses. Balkin noted that three of the four union contracts employees work under have expired and the fourth expires in December. The college began negotiations on Friday for a new contract with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1095, which covers non-faculty workers at the college, the Erie County Public Library System and Erie County Medical Center. Negotiations with the other three unions CSEA, the Faculty Federation of ECC and the Administrative Association of ECC will also take place this year, Balkin said. AFSCME Local 1095 President Richard Canazzi said his phone call from Balkin Monday wasnt pleasant, but it also wasnt unexpected. He said his union hoped to approve a $2-an-hour wage increase for its employees because many are earning less than the $15-an-hour minimum wage established for fast food workers in New York State. But he said its clear SUNY Erie cant afford to give raises, much less continue to pay its current number of workers. We knew this day was coming, and unfortunately it is due to years of mismanagement by Dr. Balkins predecessors, Canazzi said. SUNY Erie hit the iceberg nine or 10 months ago and now its our duty to get our members out of that sinking ship as safely as possible. He said the union has good relationships with the county, the medical center and the library system and he is hopeful that some of his 150 members will be able to transfer to open positions in those facilities. Andrew Sako, president of the Faculty Federation of ECC, said his union will want to ensure that the college is doing its all to increase enrollment and will work with the unions on good faith efforts to retain as many jobs as possible. At the same time, he said, the FFECC realizes that the college has "severe financial problems" and needs to take action. "COVID really killed us on enrollment and created a perfect storm for a crisis," he said. "I do feel that Dr. Balkin will work to minimize the potential losses and the impact on our members." Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz said he agrees with Balkins assessment of the situation and the remedies outlined in his letter. SUNY Erie is an important resource, and we need to not only protect it but strengthen it, Poloncarz said. However, the community college system of the 1960s and 70s is no longer appropriate for todays needs, especially with so many options for local colleges and virtual learning at colleges around the world. We are seeing a complete change in the education model, and schools that cant keep up will not only fail, they will go out of existence. Besides forecasting layoffs, Balkin laid out several positive actions that he said he will pursue to better position SUNY Erie for future success. He inherited a similar situation when he took over leadership of the South Bend-Elkhart Campus (SB-E) of Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. SB-E was the worst performing campus of the then 18-campus Ivy Tech Community College system, he wrote. Employee morale was poor, and the campus was on the brink of financial bankruptcy with only 11 days cash on hand. Within two-and-a-half years, despite the pandemic, we grew enrollment of certain types which kept overall enrollment nearly flat, the campus was financially stable and our employees morale was at an all-time high. He said he will tackle enrollment head-on by being responsive to the needs of the students we have while attracting new high school and adult learners. He said he plans to: Work more closely with the 45 high schools in the region to offer dual credit and dual enrollment courses to more high school students, creating a more robust pipeline of traditional students seeking certificate programs and two-year degrees. Identify and partner with local businesses to offer company sponsored earn your degree programs at SUNY Erie to their employees. Expand the colleges offering of short-term certification programs known as microcredentials tailored to meet the demands of local employers. Pursue collaborating with local four-year SUNY colleges and universities to identify their students who have recently stopped out to assess if SUNY Erie might provide a great alternate SUNY experience to better position them for academic success and future transfer back to a 4-year college. Balkin said he will share progress reports with the community on the colleges homepage, ecc.edu throughout the process. 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. In an upset, the deaf family drama CODA took top honors at an unpredictable and history-making 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards that also saw wins for the leads of Squid Game," the cast of Ted Lasso and Will Smith. The ceremony, held Sunday at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, and broadcast on both TNT and TBS, was notably border-breaking, with historic wins for deaf actors, Korean stars and some of Hollywood's biggest names. It culminated with CODA," Sian Heder's heartwarming Apple TV+ coming-of-age film featuring a trio of deaf actors in Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant, along with newcomer Emilia Jones, winning best ensemble. The film has been seen as a watershed moment for the deaf community in Hollywood. Betty White, Sidney Poitier and Bob Saget were among those remembered during an in memoriam tribute. Full story here: *** THE WINNERS SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) The list of winners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, presented Sunday night in Santa Monica, California. FILM Cast: "CODA" Female actor: Jessica Chastain, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" Male actor: Will Smith, "King Richard" Male supporting actor, film: Troy Kotsur, "CODA" Female supporting actor, film: Ariana DeBose, "West Side Story" Stunt ensemble: "No Time to Die" TELEVISION Male actor, drama series: Lee Jung-jae, "Squid Game" Female actor, drama series: Jung Hoyeon, "Squid Game" Drama ensemble: "Succession" Male actor, comedy series: Jason Sudeikis, "Ted Lasso" Female actor, comedy series: Jean Smart," Hacks" Comedy series ensemble: "Ted Lasso" Female actor in a television movie or limited series: Kate Winslet, "Mare of Easttown." Male actor in a television movie or limited series: Michael Keaton, "Dopesick" Stunt ensemble: "Squid Game" *** PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS * * * FASHION PHOTOS FROM THE SILVER CARPET The following article is an associate of Okanjo, an affiliate marketing agency that helps us monetize our content. Products sold through the links in the article allow us to receive compensation and keep producing great content. As cold weather sets in, it can be more challenging to get outside and get moving! Staying active during the colder months is critical for your overall health and wellness, so dont let the cool temperatures interfere with your wellness goals. One of the best ways to stay fit while having fun is to follow YouTube channels dedicated to senior fitness. With options for every fitness level and desired workout style, youll find enough variety to get you through until spring! (Note: Be sure to talk with your doctor before embarking on any new fitness plan.) Here are seven of the best channels to jumpstart your at-home fitness journey today. This husband-and-wife team brings energy, excitement, and compassion with more than 600 free videos. While they fill their videos with plenty of enthusiasm, they also understand that everyones fitness journey moves at a different pace. Curated playlists include a low-impact series for beginners and all you really need is a yoga mat. You can also search by video length, with plenty that are 10 minutes or less! The team releases a new video every week or two, as well as nutrition plans and suggestions for those who would like to pair their workouts with healthy meals. If variety helps you stick with a fitness routine, the BeFit channel might be for you! BeFit makes it easy to maximize at-home use of a medicine ball, yoga ball, yoga mat, and light weight dumbbells. BeFit has something for everyone with a collection of classic videos from fitness legends like Jane Fonda alongside newer trainers like Jillian Michaels and Billy Blanks. Its easy to search through the collection for keywords such as standing or low-impact if youre looking for a place to begin your fitness journey. With over 1,000 free videos and an energetic duo of trainers leading the way, the HASfit channel will keep you on track at every stage of your fitness journey. The team focuses on easy workouts with light weights and exercise bands, curated wellness plans for any fitness level, complete with meal ideas and motivational mantras. Start with the Exercises for Seniors playlist if youre just beginning your fitness journey or need to stick with low-impact or seated workouts. Created by a certified senior fitness expert, Senior Shape is dedicated to active aging at all stages. Youll find various workouts here that range from low-impact, seated, 10-minute videos to full-body high-intensity cardio classes. There are several categories for pain relief or stretches that target specific areas, so you can find a video to follow even on the days when you have less energy or an injury to overcome. If youd like a wide variety of workouts to choose from, and all geared towards seniors, Merediths channel is a great place to start. With workouts that use only bodyweight all the way to classes featuring resistance bands and hand weights, these videos are easy to follow and can support any fitness level. Frequent live-stream workouts are a great way to make fitness part of your regular routine. Set an alarm to join in when Meredith guides a live (virtual) audience through a new routine, and youll feel as if youre in the class with other motivated peers. This diverse channel is great to share with the whole family, including the grandkids! Featuring many trainers and series, The Body Coach produces videos that help get kids excited about working out alongside their peers, parents, and communities. Other series, including a 7-Day Seniors Workout Challenge, help take the guesswork out of planning a consistent fitness routine. As an added bonus, many of the videos feature trainers working out around the world, so you can go on a virtual vacation as you exercise! Walking is a great low-impact cardio workout thats accessible almost anywhere! If its easier to stay home while you exercise, get some virtual company with these walk-at-home videos. Featuring different lengths and goals (like a heart-healthy walk or a happy walk), these videos make it easy to slip on your sneakers and get closer to your 10,000 daily steps. Whether youre just beginning your fitness journey or youre looking for new and exciting activities to try at home, these fitness channels offer an almost endless variety to keep you fit and engaged every step of the way! The synagogue cantor whose sexual harassment complaints against a local rabbi rocked Buffalo's largest Jewish congregation is now accusing Temple Beth Zion and its leadership of illegally retaliating against her by blacklisting her from leading community events and getting paying jobs. Cantor Penny Myers has filed a formal complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights alleging that Temple Beth Zion violated state anti-discrimination laws, first by demoting her after she initially complained about Rabbi Jonathan Freirich and then by publicly demeaning, humiliating and damaging her reputation. She blamed the synagogue's "senior staff and lay leadership" as the sources of the "blacklisting and slander," as well as for the "falsehoods" that Myers is under a non-compete agreement that does not exist. Beth Zion has been notified of the complaint and will have an opportunity to respond, before the state agency determines if it has jurisdiction and conducts a formal investigation. Beth Zions Minneapolis-based labor lawyer, Joseph B. Nierenberg, rejected Myers allegations, saying most of them "have nothing to do with Temple Beth Zion." There was no intentional infliction of emotional distress. There was no retaliation, he said Friday. He said Myers was never demoted, nor did Beth Zion either request, force or expect her resignation. "They expected her to return to her duties," he said. "She resigned, voluntarily." Further, Nierenberg dismissed the claims of blacklisting, saying it just didnt happen." And, he said, her assertions wouldn't qualify as retaliation under current law. Theres an effort by Cantor Myers to control the narrative of her present stature in the community, Nierenberg said. Temple Beth Zion and its leadership have done nothing to disadvantage Cantor Myers in the community. Myers said she has documentation to prove her assertions. Myers, who worked at Beth Zion for 14 years, resigned as its cantor in December 2020, a year after she filed a harassment complaint with multiple charges against Freirich with the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which is the rabbinical trade organization for the Reform movement of Judaism. Following an investigation, the national rabbinical organization found that Freirich had violated the group's ethics code multiple times over four years, citing "inappropriate comments or behavior" by the rabbi that started the weekend he interviewed for the job in 2016, when he referred to Myers as the "beautiful blond cantor." The rabbinical association said the rabbi's excuses were "not credible" and censured him. However, the organization's report was not public, and while it was provided to the synagogue's leadership, it was not revealed to the congregation or community until it was reported in detail by The Buffalo News. Beth Zion allowed Freirich to continue serving as rabbi through the end of 2020, while Myers took a leave of absence before stepping down at the same time. In her complaint, Myers said she has been blocked since then from officiating at ceremonies or teaching at the new Community Religious School formed by three synagogues. And, she said, she has been prevented from active participation in Jewish community events where Temple Beth Zion is one of the organizations involved. That includes the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration last April, in which she had participated annually since returning to the Buffalo area in 2003 and then joining Beth Zion as cantorial soloist in October 2006. She also said she was invited by another member of the local clergy to take his place for a community-wide prayer service a week prior to the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah in August 2021 but was cut out of the program by the organizers. "I was denied the right to earn money and was shunned from the congregation, which was tremendously damaging to my professional reputation," Myers wrote in her complaint, which was filed on Dec. 22, 2021 . "TBZ has indicated to other synagogue leaders and agencies that they will not participate in any local Jewish community events where I am involved." And she asserted that she has been disparaged in a letter from past synagogue presidents in the synagogue's monthly bulletin, and in emails and letters written by Beth Zion Board President David Goldberg to the Cantors Assembly and more recently to Temple Beth Zion members in early November. But Nierenberg said that Myers "had no right to officiate at Beth Zion," since "she was no longer their cantor." Nierenberg warned Myers against "spreading falsehoods and maligning Temple Beth Zion and its leadership," cautioning in an October 2021 letter that Myers should "cease her pattern of harassment" or the synagogue would sue for defamation. Myers, whose salary was $103,800, said she is primarily seeking repentance and a public written apology to clear her name, along with "nominal" damages to cover legal fees. She's also asking for a symbolic payment of $18 a traditional amount that references the numeric value of the Hebrew letters that make up the word "chai," or life. "The $18.00 is an insignificant but symbolic amount that justifies that I am essentially suing them for them to take responsibility for what they have done. It is just mere shekels," Myers said by email. She added, "For me, it is about principle rather than the dollars." The Buffalo News: Good Morning, Buffalo The smart way to start your day. We sift through all the news to give you a concise, informative look at the top headlines and must-read stories every weekday. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. By Azernews By Laman Ismayilova Azerbaijan and Poland intend to further expand the cultural partnership. The initiative was announced at the meeting between the Culture Minister Anar Karimov and the Polish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Rafal Poborski . Welcoming the ambassador, Anar Karimov spoke about the deep historical ties of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Poland. The Minister spoke about the "Peace4Culture" global campaign aimed at preserving cultural heritage and creating peaceful and sustainable societies and invited Poland to join the project. The Polish Ambassador Rafal Poborski said that cultural partnership between the two countries are close and will contribute to the deepening of comprehensive relations. The sides stressed that there are favorable opportunities for further expansion of cultural partnership between the two countries. They expressed satisfaction with the sincere friendly relations between the two countries on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Poland. At this time, Barron said that the companys copper porphyry and epithermal gold targets offer the best risk-reward ratio for its shareholders Aurania Resources Ltd (TSX-V:ARU, OTCQB:AUIAF) announced that it is seeking to raise up to C$1.5 million pursuant to a non-brokered private placement of up to 2,142,857 units of the company at a price of C$0.70 each with CEO Keith Barron committing C$400,000 to the offering. Each unit will consist of one common share in the capital of the company and one common share purchase warrant, with each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one common share at an exercise price of C$1.25 for a period of 24 months after the closing of the offering. The company noted that it will use the proceeds to maintain its annual mineral concessions in Ecuador, including concessions not covered by the use of proceeds for the October 2021 financing; conduct further exploration and target refinement at the Awacha porphyry target and the Kuri-Yawi and Kuripan epithermal gold targets, and for general working capital purposes. Following an internal review of the companys projects, target types, and potential funding strategies, the company has approved a corporate strategy that focuses its financial and human resources on the exploration of Aurania's core mineral concessions in Ecuador. The exploration company said it will do so by focusing on its epithermal gold and porphyry copper at the Lost Cities - Cutucu Project in Ecuador while exploring joint ventures and partnerships in respect of advancing certain of the company's non-core mineral concessions. Auranias revised strategy represents a shift. It will now, subject to completion of its proposed private placement financing, maintain all of the concessions it currently holds in Ecuador. Previously, it had planned to reduce the number of its mineral concessions in Ecuador. "In typical large-scale reconnaissance exploration such that Aurania has done over the last four years, it would be routine for the company to have identified a number of prospects or areas of high interest in only a small fraction of the property that would be conserved, and then the balance of the land would be released back to the state, said CEO Barron. He noted that in the case of the Cordillera de Cutucu in Ecuador, Aurania's exploration results have been extraordinary, to such an extent that the company does not have the confidence at this time to discard any concessions of the 42 held. All contain minerals of some description, and we don't want to leave value on the table for the next player, Barron said. It is also important to consider the land package for the potential of any mining project developments in the future. At this time, Barron said that the companys copper porphyry and epithermal gold targets offer the best risk-reward ratio for its shareholders. The epithermal gold targets contain sinters as does Fruta del Norte, and we believe they offer excellent exploration potential, he said. Initial stage exploration completed to date at Aurania's Lost Cities - Cutucu Project in southeastern Ecuador has identified a large number of targets, which are categorized according to target type into three distinct target areas epithermal gold target area; porphyry copper target area; and sediment-hosted copper-silver/silver-zinc target area. Each target area is defined by separately identifiable mineral concessions. The next stage of exploration of each of these areas will require increasingly more field exploration and, in particular, increased drilling. The company does not currently have the resources to do all of this work simultaneously but has decided that exploration on its core concessions combined with exploration through joint ventures on the non-core mineral concessions is preferable to relinquishing or disposing of them, in order to maximize the potential value of the full land package in Ecuador and to advance the target types on multiple fronts. Contact Ritika at ritika@proactiveinvestors.com As Russian troops continue to invade and attack areas of Ukraine, many high-profile figures have taken to social media to condemn these actions and show their support for the people of Ukraine. Just a few days ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made a rare post to their Archewell site, where they said, Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and all of us at Archewell stand with the people of Ukraine against this breach of international and humanitarian law and encourage the global community and its leaders to do the same. Now, it looks like Prince William and Kate Middleton are following closely in the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes' footsteps because the couple just shared their own message to Twitter. Early yesterday morning, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge posted a tweet that said, In October 2020 we had the privilege to meet President Zelenskyy and the First Lady to learn of their hope and optimism for Ukraines future. Today we stand with the President and all of Ukraines people as they bravely fight for that future. Along with this note, the pair added an emoji of the Ukrainian flag and they signed the message W & C, meaning they drafted the message themselves. A screenshot of the tweet was also shared to the couple's Instagram account, where followers showed their appreciation for the post. One person wrote, Thank you for support, while another said, Thank you from people of Ukraine. While we don't often get personal messages from the duke and duchess, they shared another signed note on their Instagram Story a few days back, showing their excitement to visit Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas on their royal tour. Will and Kate always know the right thing to say. Stay up-to-date on every breaking royal family story by subscribing here. RELATED: LISTEN TO ROYALLY OBSESSED, THE PODCAST FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE THE ROYAL FAMILY MADISON, Wis. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is accepting applications for 2022 Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin grants through April 2, 2022. DATCP will award a total of up to $300,000 in BLBW grant funding in 2022. BLBW is a competitive grant program designed to strengthen Wisconsins agriculture and food industries by helping farms and businesses more efficiently process, market, and distribute locally grown food products. BLBW grants provide consumers with access to more Wisconsin-grown food products, including organic vegetables, hops varieties, hazelnut products, locally grown grain, and other value-added products. Qualified applicants include individuals, groups, or businesses involved in Wisconsin production agriculture, food processing, food distribution, food warehousing, retail food establishments, or agricultural tourism operations. Projects may include collaborations or partnerships. Projects can receive grant funds for up to three years in duration. Grant requests must be between $5,000 and $50,000. Eligible project expenses include compensation for personnel, consultant services, materials, and supplies. Projects must show a one-to-one match of cash or in-kind support accounting for at least 50 percent of the total project budget. DATCP will use a competitive review process to select the most qualified projects. Selected project contracts and work would begin in June 2022. Grant information and application materials are available at https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/BuyLocalBuyWisconsinGrants.aspx. For more information, contact DATCP Grants Specialist Ryan Dunn at ryand.dunn@wisconsin.gov or (608) 590-7239. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A conservative law firm on Monday sent a letter to Tony Evers questioning the Democratic governors allocation of more than $2 million in federal COVID-19 funds to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin claiming the grants were unlawful for failing to abide by state laws prohibiting funding for abortions. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sent the letter on behalf of anti-abortion groups Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin and seeks additional information on the roughly $2.4 million in federal stimulus funds allocated to Planned Parenthood through two grants in late 2020 and early 2022. Officials with WILL claim in the letter that the grant programs should have been created with statutory oversight and promulgated rules, but also that they violate state prohibitions on funding abortion and related services. We want to know exactly what legal authority Governor Evers thinks he has to create grant programs and ignore the rulemaking process, WILL deputy counsel Lucas Vebber said in a statement. Additionally, we want to know why he thinks he can ignore clear and explicit state law prohibitions on funding entities, like Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, that provide abortions and related services. Wisconsin has received more than $4.5 billion total in federal coronavirus stimulus funds over the course of the pandemic. As governor, Evers has sole discretion over the use of federal funds, but WILL has challenged that Evers cannot create new grant programs without approval from the Legislature. Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback in an email pointed to the many federal allocations Evers made over the last two years, including toward businesses, farmers and broadband expansion. Cudaback also took aim at Republicans who control the Legislature and did not meet for almost nine months in the early stretch of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Its no surprise Republicans and their allies are continuing to play politics while failing to support our states economic recovery and trying to obstruct efforts to get resources to folks across our state, Cudaback said. The latest challenge by WILL follows previous efforts by the group to prevent the state from allocating federal coronavirus funds based on factors such as race. The group in January challenged the administrations mortgage assistance program announced last year, claiming the programs intention to steer federal funds toward people of color was discriminatory. The Wisconsin Help for Homeowners program was announced in August and is set to provide about $92.7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to eligible homeowners across the state. The program is intended to help mitigate financial hardships associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by preventing mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures and loss of utilities and energy services. The federal government directs states to provide the grants to homeowners with incomes equal to or less than 100% of the area median income for their household size. However, states can extend eligibility to those earning 150% of the area median income if they are socially disadvantaged individuals defined by the federal government as Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Whats more, a handful of business owners last year successfully challenged the U.S. Small Business Administrations prioritization of businesses owned by women, veterans and socially disadvantaged individuals when allocating $28.6 billion in Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants. The business owners alleged in the lawsuits, one of which was filed by WILL, that the policy pushed white men to the back of the line for aid. A federal appeals court ultimately ruled in favor of WILL, issuing a 2-1 opinion that said the government cannot allocate limited coronavirus relief funds based on race and sex. As a result, SBA notified 2,965 business owners who had originally been approved for grants that those funds would now be denied and the application process shifted to a first-come, first-served basis. Another lawsuit brought forward last year by WILL on behalf of a handful of residents in several states including Wisconsin challenged President Joe Bidens plans to allocate $4 billion to more than 20,000 Wisconsin farmers. The lawsuit alleged the Biden administration was engaging in unconstitutional race discrimination through a provision in the American Rescue Plan to provide debt relief to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. A temporary restraining order was granted last June. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 (RNS) The Rev. Franklin Graham said his Christian humanitarian relief organization was sending disaster response teams to Poland, Romania and Moldova to assess how it can meet the needs of Ukrainians fleeing their country. Graham said at least 24 Samaritans Purse personnel will be on the ground in those countries bordering Ukraine this weekend. First of all were concerned for the people, said Graham, president and CEO of Samaritans Purse in a phone interview with RNS Friday (Feb. 25). I cant imagine the fear these families are going through. The Russian assault on Ukraine is leading to a massive exodus of people fleeing war. Axios reported that more than 50,000 Ukrainians have fled their country in the past 48 hours. (Ukraine is not allowing men of military age, 18 to 60 years, to cross the border, so the majority of Ukrainians escaping are women and children.) Graham noted that these Central European countries arent set up to accommodate a large influx of refugees and will need infrastructure to support them. He said Samaritans Purse can help with food, clothing, housing and other needs and would work with officials in those countries to best assist the displaced. Samaritans Purse is also ready to send an emergency field hospital and will have one ready to ship from Greensboro, North Carolina, if needed. He said the advanced response team now arriving in Europe will include medical professionals. Graham was widely criticized last week for tweeting, Pray for President Putin. A conservative and a supporter of former President Trump, Graham met with President Vladimir Putin in 2015 and has praised the Russian president for protecting Russian young people against homosexual propaganda. Graham has also held multiple meetings with Russian church and government officials since then. But Graham made clear Friday he does not support Putins invasion into Ukraine. There are a few things Putin has done that are right, Graham said. But this is a war. I dont support war and I dont know of any Christian that supports war. We pray for peace, not war. I dont support this at all. Graham reiterated that praying for world leaders is something Christians do and that in this particular instance he was praying that God would work in his heart. We want to try to prevent conflict and do all we can. Asking for prayer for a person isnt supporting him. Its asking Gods wisdom and favor to give direction. For now, Graham said he was staying put in the U.S., though he might also send his son, Edward Graham, to Central Europe to work alongside the disaster response teams. If this drags out for another week or two or three, the refugees could be in the millions, Graham said. Theyre going to need lots of help. This article originally appeared here. A training pool at Naval Base San Diego will be named in honor of a Black Omaha war hero who saved the lives of 15 shipmates during World War II, the Navy announced recently. Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French, a Navy mess steward, was on the USS Gregory during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. When the ship was sunk by Japanese forces, French was the only uninjured person accompanied by about 15 wounded shipmates. He loaded the injured men into a life raft. Realizing that they were drifting toward danger, French, only 22 at the time, jumped into the shark-infested waters, tied a rope around his waist and pulled the raft while swimming for more than six hours in the dark until they were spotted by an aircraft and rescued. The story of Charles Jackson French needs to be told and shared for generations to come, said Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations. He exemplified our core values and faced adversity with unwavering grit and selflessness. French was lauded as a hero by the public his story prompting comics, radio dramas and a poem by a Pulitzer-Prize winner but the Navy itself barely acknowledged his valor. Even though an officer on the raft recommended French for a Navy Cross, the militarys second-highest valor award, he received only a letter of commendation for his meritorious conduct. Now, a movement is building to secure a posthumous award for French. Last May, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., wrote the acting Navy secretary asking for Frenchs service record to be reviewed to ensure that he was appropriately recognized. Still, there has been no award. The dedication of the swimming pool which is used to train Navy rescue swimmers who conduct search-and-rescue missions at sea marks the first recognition of French from the Navy since his commendation in 1943. He exemplified the Navys values of honor, courage and commitment, and it is well past time that we recognize his actions in this way, said Rear Adm. Stephen Barnett, the commander of Navy Region Southwest. Last month, the U.S. House passed a bill, introduced by Bacon and other Nebraska representatives, to name the Benson post office after French. U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., has introduced a companion bill in the Senate. It will be a great part of the Omaha legacy and future if we can do it, Bacon said of the post office during a February legislative update. French has connections to San Diego beyond the naval base. After the war, he settled in the city with his wife and daughter. Upon his death in 1956, he was buried in San Diego at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. A formal dedication ceremony for the training pool will be held in May. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Seven months after the United States military left Afghanistan, and three months since hes been in Carlisle, a former major in the Afghan National Army talked Sunday about how hes still being sought after by the Taliban. The major, whose name The Sentinel is withholding due to the ongoing threats his family and others left behind in Afghanistan face, said hes been able to keep in contact with members of his family who are still in Afghanistan. Through them, he learned about the Talibans raid on his home this past week. Amid ongoing reports of revenge killings committed by the Taliban against those who helped Allied forces during the war on terror, the major counts himself lucky that he and his youngest brother were able to escape. However, a younger brother and former Afghanistan police officer remains in hiding and his father, wife and child still remain in the country. I couldnt bring my family, he said. It was a rough crowd [at the airport]. The majors story of joining the military in 2007 to fight for his countrys independence and working with Allied forces like NATO was mirrored by many of the men who now find themselves refugees residing in the Carlisle area after being vetted at U.S. military bases. The Partnership for Better Health in coordination with Bosler Memorial Library and Carlisle Borough held a special welcome reception for Afghanistan refugees Sunday at the library. Area elected and judicial officials, as well as organizations like Sadler Health Center providing information and resources that will help them rebuild their lives in and around Carlisle. Carlisle Mayor Sean Shultz spoke on behalf of the borough, with remarks also shared by Becca Raley (Executive Director of the Partnership for Better Health), Jeffrey Swope (Executive Director of Bosler Memorial Library) and Sayeed Azhar from the International Service Center, the largest resettlement agency serving the greater Carlisle and Harrisburg area. The aim of the event was to provide guidance on food assistance from Project SHARE, job searches and English as a Second Language classes at Employment Skills Center, and arts and other activities for children from Carlisle Arts Learning Center and Bosler. These are basic needs for families who left nearly everything behind. A two-star general made it out with his family but now faces the task of starting over in a new country. Others were able to evacuate with their wives and children, but currently live in a hotel as they await better housing options. A number, like the major, have already found work, though they may only have bicycles to get there, even during winter. This has been the process for the refugees who settled locally, all of whom were either interpreters or members of the Afghanistan military. In just a quick list of recognition among those in the crowd, there were colonels and others from the Afghan National Army, a number of surveillance and intelligence officers with the National Directorate of Security (NDS), and those who worked at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan. The general was among those who spoke to the crowd, and his words as well as words from other speakers were translated by Mohad Ghafoori, who has lived in Carlisle for five years and volunteered to translate at the event. For the general, the U.S. withdrawal and evacuation served as a setback for what he hopes will eventually lead to a democratic Afghanistan. The refugee status is being increased across the world, but for Afghans in the U.S., its different, he said through translation. The war in Afghanistan was ... important because terrorism was not just a threat to Afghanistan but also throughout the world. We were fighting to save not just Afghanistan but also humanity. Those like the general and the major find themselves in Carlisle because of local efforts to help those fleeing their country. Rev. Mira Hewlett, executive pastor at Carlisle United Methodist Church, has acted as point person for connecting local sponsors with Afghanistan families who need help, but she was quick to point out that its a community effort that helped bring refugee families to Carlisle. We have 12 sponsorship groups helping 13 families, she said. Most of the groups have four to five people. They can come from churches, but some are independent groups. Two groups are just neighbors who came together. Hewlett said there are currently six more families awaiting sponsorships to help them resettle in the Carlisle area. She said the families are chosen based on need and sometimes groups are connected based on their backgrounds, with a military family sponsoring the generals resettlement in Carlisle. Those interested can contact the church for more information. The major was hopeful his family will be among those who make it out of Afghanistan to join him as he and his brother rebuild their lives. Were still trying to get them out, thats whats important for us, he said. For now, every day, Im familiarizing myself with America, and Im learning something new. I hope to go to college or do something technical and get a certificate to improve my life in a better way. Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Information is from police reports and may be incomplete depending on the status of an investigation. Phone numbers are nonemergency. The St. Francois County Commission held another short meeting to approve an appointment and budget amendments Tuesday morning. Linda Ragsdale, St. Francois County Health Center director, gave a report to the commission about current programs in operation. The latest variant, omicron, we are on the downhill slope, she said. Our percentage for positivity has went from 38 down to where it is now, thats good. Less sick people, its a new variant so we are always getting new data, recommendations are coming in from the CDC and the department of health. "Weve shortened isolation and quarantine time. If you are fully vaccinated, you dont need to wear a mask now unless you are immunocompromised or have a risk. We are starting to prioritize our other services like walk-in immunizations for children and adults. We are opening our STD clinic back up. We are working with the schools on vaping, which was put on the back burner. Our WIC Clinic is going strong, were seeing clients in the office to help new moms, babies and children. The commission voted to reappoint Ragsdale as director. In other business, the commission approved amendments to the 2021 budget. Audit Manager Amber Menjoulet spoke about the amendments. Every year we have to amend the budget for any funds that went over their expenses, she said. Its not necessarily on revenue. Most of the budget amendments were due to an increase in revenue, so that meant more turnover. We also paid off our debt. In total, we went over budget by $1,557,443.32. In public comments, Jerry Richards, cooperative feral hog outreach educator of the University of Missouri Extension, spoke about feral hogs. Its a problem we are having in this part of Missouri, he said. Its a wild hog that comes in and gets on your property. It tears your property all to pieces. They will tear up hayfields. "Last year the decision was made through the federal ag bill that there was going to be money provided to ultimately come to the University of Missouri Extension to help people out that are having problems with this. Up to that point it was vague and scattered who you talk to if you are having a problem. Now there are four of us in this position. What we do is if you have a problem with feral hogs, we will come in and I come to your property with a trapper. We look at the damage that you have. We will set up game cameras, we will put bait corn out; we will make sure we got hogs coming. Once we have hogs coming, we will construct a trap. The hogs come in and trip trap and we catch them. The trappers will run those traps every day. If the hogs are caught, we eliminate the hogs and reset the trap. Richards said if there is damage to the ground, part of the program that is coming soon is to have remediation equipment to bring in and drag and disc the property back to the shape it was in previously. For more information, contact Jerry Richards at 573-854-9845 or jerryrichards@missouri.edu. As of Tuesday, the St. Francois County Seal Contest had 183 entries from 138 people from around the world. The contest ends on Feb. 28 at noon. Designs can be entered at www.dailyjournalonline/contests. The next St. Francois County Commission meeting will be Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the courthouse annex in downtown Farmington. Mark Marberry is a reporter for the Farmington Press and Daily Journal. He can be reached at 573-518-3629, or at mmarberry@farmingtonpressonline.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a Decree on the release of Mehdi Salimzade from his duties of Head of Goychay District Executive Power. The Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce Business and Community Luncheon held Feb. 17 at Centene Center featured guest speakers from Parkland Health Center (PHC) who spoke about the new cardiac cath lab at the hospital. PHC President Annette Schnabel told the crowd that PHC celebrates Heart Month, but in a different way than people celebrate Valentine's Day. The celebration for us is kind of about the anatomy and physiology of the hearts performance, she said. Parkland does a lot of care for the heart itself. We do lots of different diagnostic testing. We have cardiac rehab. Our emergency room is a place where people go when they are having heart symptoms. We have inpatient care and we now have a cardiac catheter. We collaborate with lots of community organizations for education about heart symptoms in our community and help sponsor the Heart Walk, which is a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. Discussing the history of cardiac care, Schnabel talked about early and primitive heart procedures, such as the original electrocardiograms (ECG) which required that the patient place a foot and hand in a bucket of water attached to an electrical current. Nowadays, ECGs can be performed while the patient is connected to nothing more than a cellphone. Back in the 1500s, physicians would do things with the heart with sea urchins and eels that had an electrical charge, she said. In the early 1900s, we started putting pacemakers in. There was one that was a big thing that hung on the outside of the body. Now were to the point where its something very small it fits under the skin. The first cardiac catheter was performed in 1929 by a physician in Germany. He did it to himself. He ran the device up his arm into his heart; got someone to walk him down to the X-ray machine and take his picture to make sure he had it placed right. It wasnt right, he adjusted it, and had another picture taken. The first cardiac catheters performed on actual patients, however, didn't take place until the late 1940s. Now we are able to do that same care in our hospital in Farmington, which is, I think, a great opportunity to talk about how things are advancing, Schnabel said. Next, Jason Civey, manager of cardiac services for PHC, began describing the different procedures performed in the lab. Its kind of a suite that combines monitoring systems with X-ray and some equipment where you can run a tube up someones groin or in their arm and take pictures of their artery that feeds the outside of their heart muscle, he said. The doctors are able to identify multiple issues whether you have blockage; whether or not your heart walls are strong or weak. "They can check the valves, theres multiple things we can do with a cath. Its not just its blocked, lets fix it. Sometimes they have to think about what kind of medicine can help the heart muscle; what kind of advanced procedures that need to be done after they take the picture; and whether it requires a bypass, valve replacements or ablations. Civey explained that cardiac caths are performed by cardiologists that specialize in taking the pictures, and another fellowship who has learned how to perform the stents and other procedures. According to Civey, heart disease symptoms may include chest pain, dizziness, extreme tiredness and leg pain. Another common one because many of us are overweight is shortness of breath, he said. Civey then noted that there are different types of heart issues that include hardening and plaque in the arteries or an enlarged and weakened heart. Theres also congenital issues defects in the heart that were present from birth. With 26 years of involvement in cardiac care, Civey has seen major changes in the procedures used. When I first started, we had four stents by one company. We [now] have stents ranging from 1.5 mm up to 7 mm [manufactured] by 14 different companies. "The advancements in cardiac care have drastically changed. We have nothing different from Missouri Baptist Hospital here at Parkland. The physicians we have do procedures at Missouri Baptist. They have a very good reputation and we have that as well. Explaining a cardiac cath procedure, Civey said, If a blockage is identified during a cath, an interventional cardiologist does proceed to what they call an angioplasty. They will run a wire across the blockage, take pictures using dye and make sure they are in the right area. "The physicians will determine what size the blood vessel is and pick the equipment to use. Regular balloon angioplasty presses the blockage open to restore blood flow. Sometimes a tool called a roto-rooter is used. It is a drill that breaks the calcium down in size than red blood cells. The drill spins at 160,000 rpms. Civey believes this service has been long overdue in the community. We have providers in this area that can do this," he said. "We have the support of the hospital and the equipment. Cardiology services have been underserved in this area for a long time. Schnabel spoke about some of the advancements that have been made in heart surgeries not performed at Parkland, but are in other medical facilities that are part of the BJC system. Theres new technology for cardiac arrhythmias," she said. "At Missouri Baptist, they are the first hospital in the Midwest to have advanced robotic technology for cardiac arrhythmia. Thats one of the things we see as an advantage of being in the BJC system. At Barnes Jewish Hospital, they are doing a heart valve replacement called a transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement. Tricuspid means theres three leaves to it. Answering a question from the audience about the percentage of artery blockage necessary before performing a procedure, Civey said that its historically 70%. But then you need to take into consideration all the symptoms, he said. On the wire, we can run an ultrasound probe into the artery to assess the calcium. You can measure it. We can now actually do a stress test during a cardiac cath. It calculates the blockage. We had one that I thought would need a stent, but we did that procedure and they did not. The technology here does save a patient. They would have potentially gone through a stent procedure. Once you get a stent, then you need to be on blood thinner for the rest of your life. Thats life-limiting. Also, on someone relatively young getting life insurance, they would be labeled as heart disease when they didnt need that. Civey concluded his portion of the program by remarking that imaging is not 100% accurate. So you have all these tools to better assess things. It boils down to the doctor knowing the patient, knowing the symptoms, and making the right choices. Mark Marberry is a reporter for the Farmington Press and Daily Journal. He can be reached at 573-518-3629, or at mmarberry@farmingtonpressonline.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A promenade dance, or more simply known as prom. Its a special time when girls dream of choosing the perfect prom dress, whether its trendy or classic, sparkly or pink. Then there are shoes and accessories to match, and typically a special hairstyle and manicure. But what happens when a girls dream of the perfect prom attire is derailed because she simply cant afford it? Thats where Esther Baptist Church of Park Hills steps in to help make those dreams come true. The EBC Prom Dress Giveaway is an annual event held the first Saturday of March. This years event is set for this Saturday from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the church at 412 Seventh Street in Park Hills. This prom dress giveaway started a little more than 10 years ago when a co-worker of Ernestine Elders told her about their church having a prom dress giveaway in Potosi. Elders suggested the idea to Brian Wallen, EBCs youth pastor at the time, who loved the idea. So the EBC ladies formed a plan. Many remembered when they were younger and attended their proms. Some of the ladies even recalled not being able to go due to various reasons including their families not having the financial means to make it possible. Thats when this group decided that lack of financial means should not be the reason a student would not attend prom. Throughout the years, young ladies have donated their prom dresses to the church so they can be given away to other girls to wear to their proms. Community members have reached out to donate dresses. In fact, in the last decade, the giveaway has grown from giving away about 40 dresses the first year to nearly 500 over the years. Of all the dresses they have given away, the church has not had to purchase even a single one. Individuals and local businesses also donate dress shoes, costume jewelry and certificates for services like hair, makeup, manicures and photography sessions. One individual shares her passion for jewelry and buys things throughout the year and donates them for the giveaway. As for the team who tackles the prom dress giveaway event, that consists of the womens ministry team WINGS, or Women in Gods Service, along with men of the church who help load and unload dresses and other items, and volunteers from the community. For the day of the event, the fellowship hall turns into a colorful boutique, complete with racks of dresses organized by size. For this years event, there are about 700 dresses waiting for girls to try them on and select their favorite. There are about 35 volunteers who help with the dress giveaway each year. They offer their assistance in selecting a dress, pairing it with shoes or accessories, and more. Elders, of Park Hills, works to help organize the annual event. She said the giveaway is an opportunity to offer beautiful dresses to local high school girls with no questions asked. Our main purpose is to reach out to the girls and show the young ladies their worth, she said, and to let them know they are beautiful. Each young lady also receives an information packet that encourages purity and gives them our church information and youth events. Elders said the church members prepare for this event year-round. God has blessed us so much, and the whole community has stepped forward to help, she said. We have never bought one dress, and we give God the credit for that. Elders said all communities have families who struggle financially, and this is one way their church can help. We have girls from all walks of life who come in and get a dress, she said. So many girls are from foster families or attending their special-needs prom. The girls come from all over the area and other places such as St. Louis, Lesterville and even Chester, Illinois. Elders said to see these ladies get the love and attention from the events volunteers is emotional for all of the adults. We want the girls to see the love of Christ and have a good prom and make happy memories, she said. Melanie Warren is one of the volunteers who loves helping the young ladies to find the dress of their dreams. We have ladies lined up outside every year when we arrive at the church, she said. Some of the girls even have their dresses from last year with them to donate so someone else can enjoy the dress. She said the volunteers meet early and pray over all the young ladies theyll encounter that day. My favorite part is just being able to love on the young ladies while they are with us, Warren said. I have witnessed girls look in the mirror and feel beautiful for the first time. I have told girls that they are beautiful and seen tears in their eyes because they havent heard those words before. She said this ministry is as much of a blessing for each of the volunteers as it is for the girls who pick out prom dresses. We all end up crying at some point before the day is over, Warren said. EBC Secretary Lisa Courtois helps with receiving and organizing donations, making flyers, contacting schools about the giveaway, and much more. We appreciate everything she does, said Elders. Each year after the prom dress giveaway, the church donates dresses to an area nursing home who uses the dresses for a Mothers Day beauty pageant and other events. Donations are accepted all year. For anyone who wants to donate a dress, jewelry, shoes or certificates for services, please drop items off or contact Esther Baptist Church at 573-431-1265 between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Donations can also be made by calling Ernestine Elders at 573-915-1503. She works in Potosi and can pick up donations in that area. Pam Clifton is a contributing writer for the Daily Journal Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Officials in Missouris 13 cities that have casinos called Wednesday for a stronger crackdown on illegal gambling machines that have flooded the state in recent years. Members of the Missouri Home Dock City Association said Attorney General Eric Schmitt, county prosecutors and law enforcement agencies should move aggressively to enforce laws prohibiting unregulated and untaxed slot machines in convenience stores, bars and truck stops. Only Missouris voters can decide where gambling can take place legally in our state, and currently that is limited to our 13 state-licensed riverboat casinos, said Maryland Heights Mayor Mike Moeller, who is president of the coalition. The state Constitution prevents gambling outside of regulations set by the states gaming commission. But companies such as Wildwood-based Torch Electronics have placed as many as 14,000 machines in gas stations and other establishments. The Missouri Highway Patrol has said that the slot machines are illegal, but prosecution has been spotty. And the Legislature has not moved on the issue amid intense lobbying from politically connected consultants who are on Torchs payroll. For more than a decade, a handful of companies have ignored this voter-approved structure by placing thousands of illegal gaming machines in gas stations, truck stops and other venues of convenience. These illegal gambling machines have evaded state regulatory and transparency rules and fail to deliver on the job creation and economic development required by the Missouri Constitution and state law, Moeller said. The resolution approved by the group follows a similar announcement by the Missouri Municipal League in November. In the Capitol, lawmakers have compared Torch with an illegal drug dealer, calling the argument its video gaming devices arent games of chance loose and fictitious. The Senate is considering Senate Bill 632, which would state clearly that an illegal gambling device is one not regulated by state gambling authorities that involves cash payouts. It bans individuals and companies convicted of illegal gambling from participating in any future expansion of legal video gambling in the state. It requires the Missouri Gaming Commission to refer tips to the Missouri Highway Patrol, which would be required to investigate. The legislation also threatens the liquor licenses of establishments that gaming authorities or law enforcement report as in possession of an illegal gambling device. The Home Dock Cities Association said more needs to be done by police and prosecutors. Its high time our states law enforcement community remove these machines from our local communities and hold the manufacturers accountable instead of allowing them to put millions of dollars into key legislators pockets to change the laws without a vote of the people, Mayor Moeller said. To date, Missouri state legislators have rejected all such demands. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announced in February that it does not recommend regulation changes to minimum length limits and daily limits for blue and flathead catfish in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and a small portion of the St. Francis River. The decision follows research by MDC and results of public input. MDC sought public input this past summer on potential regulation changes for recreational fishing of blue catfish and flathead catfish on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. One potential change would have established a minimum length limit of 18, 21, or 24 inches for recreational fishing of blue catfish and flathead catfish on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Currently there is no minimum length limit. A second potential regulation change would have maintained the current recreational-fishing daily limit of five blue catfish per day on the Missouri River but establish that only one blue catfish over 30-inches in length may be kept as a part of that limit. MDC also sought public comments this past summer on establishing a minimum length limit of 18, 21, or 24 inches for commercial fishing of blue catfish and flathead catfish on the Mississippi and St. Francis rivers. The current minimum length limit is 15-inches. MDC received more than 400 public comments with strong support for keeping regulations as they are. The public input followed several years of related research by MDC. MDC population assessment studies for blue and flathead catfish in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers found that populations of both fishes were generally healthy and the fisheries sustainable under current management. MDC studies confirmed that current management approaches continue to support healthy and sustainable blue catfish and flathead catfish populations in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and regulation changes do not appear to be necessary to maintain these populations or prevent overfishing. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Charlottesville resident Barbara Moore isnt asking for much from the U.S. Postal Service. She just wants reliable mail delivery and pick-up. Moore, who lives in the Martha Jefferson neighborhood, said that overall service has gotten better in recent months, but delivery and pick up remain unpredictable. She said she would prefer radical changes, like skipping a delivery one day in each neighborhood, if it made service more reliable. We would be perfectly happy if they said were going to come Monday through Friday except holidays, of course and they come Monday through Friday. And they stick with it so if your carrier goes on vacation or if your carrier is ill, they have enough staff to cover the route, she said. One can no longer count on the post office, and thats something you could always count on, she said. Postal service nationwide slowed during the last few years, but Charlottesville-area residents have been reporting mail issues for years with a particularly bad bout this spring and summer. Thats when some residents reported going weeks without any mail or getting mail, including bills, months past due. Residents didnt experience widespread issues over the holidays, but its unclear to what extent the problem has improved or worsened. The U.S. Postal Service has not given specifics about what caused the delays last year, other than staffing problems due to the pandemic. Officials continue to not answer specific questions and, despite repeated requests, have not granted interviews with anyone from the local post office. Kathy Garstang, the local projects and operations director at the Building Goodness Foundation, said that despite seeing USPS vehicles on the street, the nonprofit hasnt received mail in a week and outgoing mail has not been picked up. If I have large checks where Im paying vendors, I just hand deliver them, she said. [Then] I know the money gets to them. I know Im not late. Former employees and carriers say systemic staffing and management problems that started before the pandemic are to blame for the continued issues in mail services. Since August, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner has twice toured the Charlottesville Post Office on U.S. 29, which services Charlottesville addresses. In November, he said he was cautiously optimistic, and that he was told that the post office had hired 22 new employees four clerks, eight city carriers and 10 rural carriers. A former USPS employee from the Charlottesville Post Office, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retribution, said many of the 22 new employees Warner was told about in November were promotions from associate or assistant positions to regular positions. So when they hired 10 new rural carriers, that was 10 rural carrier associates that they promoted, and 10 fewer people that they had to carry mail, they said. According to the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, rural carrier associate positions serve as substitutes for regular rural carriers and do not have their own route. Theyre burning out the people who they hire because they dont hire enough people, the former employee said. The former employee and another former carrier said that at least five city carriers are retiring within the next month. As of Saturday morning, job postings for rural carrier associates and assistant rural carriers were available on the USPS careers website. In a media conference call in January, after reports of issues after the holidays, Warner said he intends to come back and sit down with USPS officials again. My frustration level may not be as great as some of the folks in the community who are not getting the mail on a timely basis, but my patience is running thin, he said. We know there are other problems around Virginia, but no place has been consistently as problematic as Charlottesville. We need to hire more folks. In November, specific questions from The Daily Progress about the additional staff Warner announced went unanswered from USPS. When asked multiple times over the last month about interviewing someone on the ground in Charlottesville, Philip Bogenberger, a USPS spokesperson based out of Charlotte, only sent a generic statement. Most customers in Charlottesville and the surrounding area are experiencing regular mail delivery, the statement says. We have taken specific actions to continue service to our valued customers, which includes continuing to fully authorize overtime to allow employees to work the time necessary to deliver mail; expanding mail deliveries to earlier in the morning, later in the evening, and on Sundays to ensure customers receive mail at the earliest date possible; and using additional carriers from nearby offices, when necessary, to maintain mail deliveries. USPS changed its performance standards in October. An analysis done by the Washington Post of USPS proposal data submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission shows ZIP Codes in the Charlottesville area will experience an additional half or 0.4 day to receive mail. USPS performance data on the postal services website is only available by district. For the Richmond District, which includes Charlottesville, for single-piece first-class mail from October through December, it shows 80.1% of the 2-day mail was on time, 64.9% of the 3-day mail was on time, 70.3% of the 4-day mail was on time and 88.6% of the 5-day mail was on time. Moore said she mailed a Christmas card to a friend who lives in Ivy that was postmarked Dec. 16. Ultimately, it was delivered Feb. 19. Was I shocked when the gentleman walked in church this past Sunday morning and said, Merry Christmas to you too, she said. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Les Yakymchuk didnt sleep Wednesday night in Athens, Ohio. Neither did his mother in Kyiv, Ukraine. Yakymchuk, a 29-year-old Ukrainian student at Ohio University, eventually connected with his mom over Facebook. Her neighborhood in Ukraines capital was not under attack, but sirens warning of possible bombing drove her to an underground parking garage for shelter. Information keeps changing every 10 minutes, the journalism student said of Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of his native land. Its hard to filter. Across the U.S., people with family and friends in Ukraine desperately sought to reach them. What had been a lingering threat turned quickly into a full-blown war Wednesday with Russia bombing major cities. Over Skype, Facebook, cell phone and every imaginable form of communication frantic people sought the fate of those they love. The feeling for folks like Yakymchuk is one of frustration for being absent, but also of foreboding. The last face-off with Russia in 2014 came in a small, isolated section in the eastern part of the nation. In the eight years since, Ukrainians knew they faced an attack, but learned to live with it. Now, said Yakymchuk, the bombing is everywhere. A surreal sense of uncertainty prevails, a kind of suspended animation. When Greg Stricharchuk reached family members Thursday, the news was mixed. Some of my family are very scared; others are seemingly calm, said the former American journalist who retired to Northumberland County Virginia. One relative worried because her son faced a call-up to defend his country with no military training. Its like volunteering to be murdered, Stricharchuk said. Yakymchuk said he has friends called into service who he can no longer reach. He busies himself explaining the geopolitics of Russia and Ukraine to classmates. He planned to drive to Cleveland for a Thursday night protest of the Russians invasion with Ukrainians in that city. Still, he said he has moments where he feels useless. Cheryl Reed, an ex-journalist who is married to Stricharchuk, spent time Wednesday and Thursday texting journalism students she taught as a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine in 2016 and 2017. She found one working with CBS news. She expected that others might be working with foreign media translating for English-speaking journalists. When Reed lived in Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar and in 2019-2020 when her husband was awarded a Fulbright, program officials encouraged participants and their families to have go bags filled with essentials so they could escape quickly if the Russians attacked. What may now be generally true just one day into the war is that almost no one will be going anywhere fast. Many people do not have cars, and buses and trains could be stymied by bombing damage. We had friends fleeing to western Ukraine, Stricharchuk said. In the last couple of days, everything collapses. You cant get train tickets. You cant get bus tickets. Theres been major cyber attacks on banks. Cheryl and I know from living [in Ukraine] you can only withdraw tiny amounts from an ATM. Everything now is conducted with cash. Ultimately, there will be food issues and money issues. But many people are just resigned to staying put. Who could look at the photo and not feel for the baby with all the tubes, wires and sensors hooked up to his body? Theres a thick white bandage down the middle of his chest and an oxygen tube in his nose, held in place by adhesive gauze. The tape is cut in the shape of heartsone on each cheek the only cheerful aspect of the picture. Clearly, Mikhael Perez Cevilla has been through something serious. But another image, taken less than a week later, shows Mikhael looking like any happy and healthy infantexcept for the slice down his chest where he had open-heart surgery. Its still held together by surgical glue. Hes been like that since he was born, his aunt, Valerine Valdez, said about his pleasant nature. Hes never been fussy. The only time he cries is when hes hungry or has a [dirty] diaper, thats it, said his mother, Rosa Cevilla Bonilla. Hes been a true blessing, Valdez said. We say it all the time, hes our little miracle boy. She and Cevilla Bonilla are the primary caretakers of Mikhael, born 13 months ago with not one, but two, congenital heart defects. Surgery corrected the problems, allowing Mikhael to thrive and reach all his developmental milestones as any baby would. He doesnt even have to take medicine for the conditions that once threatened his life. Hes done fantastic, said Dr. Keyur Mehta, a pediatric cardiologist who diagnosed Mikhaels condition the day after his birth at Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center. The family is extremely grateful for all the care that their son got, and Im equally grateful for the family to see how everything has changed. A SECOND MOTHER Cevilla Bonilla and Valdez seem as close as sisters, but theyre not related by blood. Theyre sisters-in law. Valdezs brother is the father of Mikhael and his big sister, Elliana, whos 5. When the relationship between Valdezs brother and Cevilla Bonilla ended, Valdez opted to stand by Cevilla Bonilla for the sake of the children. Not everyone understood that decision. People are like, blood is blood, and Im like, nope, the children are the priority over irresponsible adults, she said. We gotta do right by the kids. As a result, Cevilla Bonilla spends much of her time with the Valdez family when shes not at her mothers house. The two homes are less than 7 minutes apart in Spotsylvania County. Valdez was there for the birth of Elliana and has been a calming presence during the ordeal with Mikhaels health. Shes like a second mother, Cevilla Bonilla. Of course, neither knew what was happening, shortly after Mikhaels birth when hospital workers called the cardiologist, concerned about the blue baby. Up to that point, the newborn had been doing fine, and there hadnt been any problems during pregnancy. The mother and aunt noticed Mikhael was a little bit purple, but not anything crazy, Valdez said, and werent concerned because he passed all the screenings given after birth. Mehta was seeing patients at the Childrens Heart Institutes clinic in Manassas and dropped everything when he got the call about Mikhael. He felt he didnt have the luxury of time to wait. An echocardiogram, which gives an outline of the hearts movements, showed that Mikhael had total anomalous pulmonary venous return or TAPVR. It affects the four pulmonary veins which typically connect to the left atrium, or upper chamber of the heart. Mikhaels werent attached correctly, making it look like he had a floating heart, Valdez said. With the condition, oxygen-rich blood thats supposed to come from the lungs and go to the left atriumthen be pumped throughout the bodyends up in the right atrium instead. All that blood in one place causes the heart to work harder and results in the babys bluish-purple tinge because the body isnt getting enough oxygen-rich blood. Babies with TAPVR usually have a second defect, a hole between the left and right atrium that allows the mixed blood to get to the left atrium and be pumped to the rest of the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All babies are born with that hole but it usually closes up in a few days or weeks, Mehta said. In Mikhaels case, the secondary issueknown as atrial septal defectwas keeping the baby alive, even as the primary problem threatened to kill him. However, that situation wasnt sustainable as the hole in Mikhaels heart eventually got smaller. Mehta discussed the case with surgeons at Childrens National Hospital in Washington and they planned to operate when the baby reached 6 months. Surgeons prefer to wait until the baby has gotten a little older and stronger and the veinsinitially as small as coffee stirrershave gotten slightly bigger, Mehta said. But, the impact the condition is having on the infant weighs into the decision, as many cant thrive because of their weakened state. A BIT TRAUMATIC That was hardly the case with the baby first nicknamed Spiky because of his headful of black hair that seemingly had a mine of its own, no matter how his mother tried to manage it. His appetite was never affected, even in the hours after surgery. The reason he needed his procedure soonerat 2 monthswas because the hole in his heart was closing, and one side of his heart had grown larger than the other. The mother and aunt have tried to put away the memories of that difficult time, when they had to arrange for a virtual baptism because there wasnt time for a traditional service. Childrens National allowed the aunt to be there with the mother, and she chronicled everything that was happening. Her phone is filled with photos of Mikhael, before and after surgery, as well as business cards of the doctors who treated him and drawings they did to illustrate the heart defects. Everyone they dealt with was wonderful, Valdez said, and helped any way they could, but it was still a bit traumatic knowing the baby was about to have his chest cut open. Mama was struggling, Valdez said. When a nurse came to take the baby into surgery, Cevilla Bonillas worst fears were realized. I felt like I almost died at that moment, the mother said. JUST A BLESSING Congenital heart defects are rare, accounting for only about 1 percent of total births, Mehta said. The issue Mikhael had is found in less than 2 percent of babies born with heart-related defects. Then, the mixed type of TAPVR, in which the pulmonary veins drained into several different areas, is even more unusual. It would probably be 1 in 100,000 or something like that, Mehta said. You can do the math. It is quite, quite rare. But it seemed like the threat was behind Mikhael as soon as he came out of surgery. His aunt and mother had been told that babies often remain sedated for up to 12 hours after a procedure, then have to wait a few more hours to eat. Mikhael was awake, smiling and enjoying a bottle of formula about four hours later. They werent ready for that, Valdez said. They even brought students over to his room because the doctor was like, we never have this. He ate, he peed, he pooped, he was awake, he was not crying. He was like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. His hospitalization followed the same path. Some babies have to stay three weeks or longer, but Mikhael was able to come home after five days. Doctors told the family not to lift him by the arms when they picked him up, but to scoop him up under his back to protect his chest. That was the only precaution. Otherwise, the family was to treat him like any other baby. One look at the 13-month at play shows hes anything but delicate. He recently started walking and is fond of grabbing or playfully smacking at anything within reachhis mothers phone, a reporters notebook, a photographers camera. There are several small and large dogs in the Valdez house, from a Chihuahua to a German shepherd, and Mikhael romps with them on the dog bed or toddles after them to his favorite place, Valerine Valdezs office. She and her husband, Kelvin, are retired Marines who work remotely for the Department of Homeland Security. During Zoom meetings, Mikhaels happy face often pops up on the screen. Everybody who knows Mikhael loves Mikhael, Kelvin Valdez said. Everybody who has carried him, touched him, even people who never seen him in person but have seen him during my Bible study group, hell come up in the camera every now and then, hes just a blessing. Every child is, but to see what he has gone through, you would never think. His voice trailed off for a moment, then he added that Mikhael has the typical childhood ailmentstoothache, ear infection, fever. He gets a dose of medicine and is good to go. Hes running around, back to being a terror, the uncle said. By Trend The trial over two more Armenian citizens accused of terrorism in Azerbaijans Kalbajar district, namely, Ishkhan Sargsyan and Vladimir Rafaelyan, continued in the administrative building of Bakus Sabunchi District Court on February 28, Trend reports. The court session was chaired by a judge of the Ganja Grave Crimes Court Elmin Rustamov. The prosecutor demanded to sentence Ishkhan Sargsyan to 20 years in prison while Vladimir Rafaelyan to 19 years. According to the indictment, commander of a group of the military unit of the special forces of the intelligence agency of the Armenian Defense Ministry Ishkhan Sargsyan and Vladimir Rafaelyan, who served as a sapper engineer, illegally crossed the state border of Azerbaijan in the direction of Kalbajar district on May 27, 2021 at around 03:00 (GMT+4), in which the units of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense are deployed, and planted mines along the roads passing through Yukhari Ayrim village. These individuals were arrested on the spot. Around 23 "TM 62-M" and "E-00-M" mines were revealed and seized. Sargsyan and Rafaelyan were charged upon articles 214.2.3 (terrorism committed by using firearms and items used as weapons), 228 (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of weapons, their components, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices), 318 (illegal crossing of the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan) and 282 (sabotage) of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code. Sixty-six bears were euthanized in Colorado last year and 51 more were relocated, according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) 2021 bear activity report. Hard on the heels of recent news that there may have been serious compliance breaches by its contractors in Iraq, Ericssons internal investigations, leaked to a number of press sources, have revealed more damaging details including allegations that the telecoms giant may have been involved in corruption in a number of other countries. Leaked documents seen by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and sent to a number of media outlets apparently allege not only the payment of bribes to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group but that the company had put its contractors at risk in the drive to keep doing business in militant-controlled Iraq. A public statement from Ericsson reported recently on this site admitted to serious breaches of compliance rules in Iraq between 2011 and 2019. However, the more detailed internal investigation mentions bribes to IS and a slush fund run by contractors working for Ericsson, among other things. The UKs Guardian newspaper reports that many of the allegations in Iraq relate to contractors working for Ericsson guaranteeing effective transporting of the companys infrastructure through Iraq. This, according to the investigators, may have involved bribes to militants and improper payments to customs officials to avoid border taxes. The investigators have, however, said there is no evidence that Ericsson employees were directly involved in any payments to IS. In addition the report points out that there has been no firm interview confirmation of any allegations. However, email evidence does apparently support some of the allegations. More serious, perhaps, are reports that the drive to continue the firms commercial operations even after IS took control of Mosul may have resulted in the kidnapping of contractors. This is not just about Iraq. The Guardian notes that a US$1billion settlement with the US Department of Justice involving corrupt payments through slush funds between 2000 and 2016 mentions only five countries Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait. However, the records reported by ICIJ show that besides Iraq, the company has examined alleged misconduct in Lebanon, Spain, Portugal and Egypt. In addition, a spreadsheet lists company probes into possible bribery, money laundering and embezzlement by employees in Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, China, Croatia, Libya, Morocco, the United States and South Africa. These probes have not been previously disclosed. At the very least these leaks ask serious questions about company oversight. However, a detailed Ericsson response to these latest allegations has not yet been made available. TIM Brasil, a Tier-1 mobile network operator, has reached a milestone of over 1,000 sites leveraging Gilats SkyEdge II-c platform to build the largest 4G satellite cellular backhaul network in Latin America, according to Gilat Satellite Networks, a leader in satellite networking technology, solutions and services. Gilat says its platform demonstrates carrier-grade service levels in support of extended 4G rural coverage and agriculture IoT connectivity. As new sites are added to the 4G network, Gilat provides TIM Brasil a one-stop-shop for timely deployment, commissioning and activation of satellite backhaul services, leveraging Gilats local presence and delivery capabilities. Gilats SkyEdge II-c platform and high-performance Capricorn VSATs enabled Tim Brasil to extend this project across 1,000 sites, building what is said to be the largest 4G satellite backhaul in the region. Gilat, with its local presence and delivery capabilities, was fundamental in helping us to provide high-quality 4G connectivity to all Brazilian cities as part of our Sky Coverage programme, thus meeting regulatory obligations, and addressing the IoT/agribusiness market, said Marco Di Costanzo, Network Director at TIM Brasil. The Sky Coverage project aims to expand 4G coverage in the country and to advance TIMs goal of bringing mobile connectivity to all Brazilian municipalities by the end of 2023. The project is also said to be in line with the operator's sustainability policy. Nokia today announced the worlds first deployment of 5G Edge Slicing on a live commercial network with mobile operators, Cellcom and Telia. The vendors innovative Edge Slicing solution allows operators to offer their enterprise customers next-generation, secure, reliable, and high-performing Virtual Private Network (VPN) services over commercial 4G and 5G networks. Once launched, both companies will be able to offer new services to their customers - driving new revenue opportunities - as well as partner with cloud application and infrastructure service providers. Nokias solution is available now for its global customer base. Nokia and Cellcoms trial with sliced RAN-Transport-Core is taking place in Netanya, Israel, and is focused on business applications and the customer experience as well as enterprise interconnectivity over a high-speed metro network. Nokia and Telia are running a live trial in Tampere, Finland together with high-tech global engineering group, Sandvik. The trial demonstrates how next-generation 5G Edge Slicing functions can operate with different mining equipment and digital applications Nokias 5G Edge Slicing solution is an evolution of Nokias previously announced 4G/5G slicing capability. It enables operators to keep critical business data traffic local while running slice management, control, and assurance on existing central mobile data centers ensuring cost and operational efficiency. It is also scalable and the same virtualized network infrastructure can be used by several customers in the same area, for example in a business campus containing multiple companies. Based on an enterprise customers needs, a 5G virtual private network can be flexibly deployed in an area with a 4G/5G base station or in a campus, city, or regional area. With Nokia, CSPs can now offer their customers both on-premise 5G Private Networks or 5G Virtual Private Networks. Joe Madden, principal analyst at Mobile Experts said: Network Slicing is the most exciting aspect of 5G, as it raises the possibility of new dimensions of higher performance', and enhanced ARPU from both consumers and enterprise customers. While many providers are focusing on deploying 5G private networks for enterprises, network slicing also opens up new market opportunities for operators with 5G Virtual Private Networks by keeping enterprise traffic local with Edge Slicing using the existing 4G/5G network. Yaniv Koriat, CTO and VP Engineering at Cellcom Israel said: Cellcom is one of the largest telecommunication groups in Israel and we have worked closely with Nokia for a long time. Their new 5G Edge Slicing solution allows Cellcom to differentiate itself in the market with innovative enterprise solutions. It also enables us to develop new opportunities with Cloud Application Service providers. Jari Collin, CTO, Telia Finland, said Our advanced 5G network supports our customers' business by enabling new kinds of services and making the network more efficient. We will continue to develop innovations and the latest applications, as our mission is to bring the opportunities of 5G to our customers." A distributed and sliced 5G edge architecture creates partnering opportunities for mobile operators and Cloud Service and Infrastructure Providers. High-performing virtualized networks enable service providers to bring edge cloud application platforms close to enterprise customers. Co-location and infrastructure companies' facilities can be also utilized in the edge slicing deployments. 5G Edge Slicing combined with Nokias new Adaptive Cloud Networking solution, which part of its scope is automating the edge cloud network, opens additional opportunities for service providers to create value for enterprises. Nokias 5G network slicing solution supports all LTE, 5G non-standalone, and 5G standalone (SA) devices, enabling mobile operators to utilize a huge device ecosystem and address a large customer base. This allows operators to utilize existing 4G/5G network assets, spectrum, and coverage for next-generation VPN services. Nokias network slicing solution is based on 3GPP, IETF, and TMForum standards and architecture and works in multi-vendor environments. Nokia has also announced the launch of a new automated RAN slice management solution which allows operators to select, deploy and manage slices across multiple RAN sites based on their customers requirements. The new solution, which supports the management of LTE, 5G NSA and 5G SA RAN slices, consists of service quality, resource partitioning, RAN traffic isolation, and engineering as well as per slice security management functionalities. By collecting Key Performance Indicators from 4G/5G base stations operators can assure network slicing service levels to their enterprise customers. RAN slice automation has APIs to Nokias Digital Operations software enabling end-to-end orchestration and assurance. Nokia is showcasing its 5G Edge Slicing solution on a live network at MWC 2022 in Barcelona. Nokia was first to demonstrate 4G/5G network slicing across RAN-Transport-Core with management and assurance. A number of trials have already taken place with Nokias global customer base including deployments of new slicing capabilities such as 5G standalone network slicing, Fixed Wireless Access slicing, slicing in 5G private networks as well as slice management automation and orchestration. At MWC22, Nokia will also demonstrate 5G dynamic slice selection in a live network for enterprise applications. Explanation of Vote on Ukraine Adoption Statement Mr. President, Ireland once again strongly condemns the Russian Federations further invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign and independent country. Since we last met on Friday, the Russian Federation has intensified its unjustified and unprovoked attack against Ukraine. Russias aggression is causing mounting hardship and suffering for the people of Ukraine who have shown remarkable resilience and resolve. Ireland stands in full solidarity with them today. Mr President, This Council has a responsibility to act in the face of conflict, and to respond to this grave threat to international peace and security. We have failed to exercise that responsibility. We were rendered powerless to do so, in spite of the clear will of 11 members of this Council, by the Russian Federations use of the veto in a flagrant attempt to excuse its own military aggression against Ukraine, a fellow member of our United Nations. The use of this anachronistic veto in these terrible and tragic circumstances is reprehensible and undermines the legitimacy of this Council in the eyes of the watching world. However, the veto will not prevent the international community from responding to Russias blatant breaches of international law, nor will it deter us from holding Russia accountable for its actions. Ireland voted in favour of this draft resolution to decide to call an Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly. Ireland calls on our fellow members of the General Assembly to step up where the Council has failed, to uphold the principles of the UN Charter, to condemn aggression, and to support a return to the path of diplomacy and peace. This is the very least that the people of Ukraine deserve from us in their hour of need. We cannot let them down. Thank you. Previous Item | Next Item Explanation of Vote on Ukraine Resolution Statement Mr. President, Ireland voted in favour of the draft resolution presented by the United States and Albania in response to the flagrant violation of the UN Charter, of international law, and of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation has turned its back on diplomacy. It has spurned genuine offers of dialogue and rejected repeated calls from the international community for de-escalation. Instead, it has launched an unjustified and unprovoked attack on Ukraine. An attack that continues today to rain death and destruction on Ukraine and its people. We condemn these actions outright. In casting our vote today, we do so in full solidarity with the people of Ukraine. This Council has a responsibility to act in the face of conflict, to protect international peace and security, to uphold the principles the world agreed upon in response to the utter devastation of the Second World War. This is not a responsibility that Ireland takes lightly. Yet it is one that we were prevented from discharging today, in spite of the clear and declared will of the great majority of this Councils members. Mr. President, we deeply regret the use of the veto today by the Russian Federation. The veto is an anachronism, which has no place in todays world. The use of the veto to block Council action is always unacceptable: its use today in blatant defence of military aggression is reprehensible. However, the veto in no way obscures the plain facts of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Nor will it hinder the international communitys response to Russias blatant breaches of international law, as demonstrated by the broad cosponsorship of this resolution by the wider UN membership. In this context, Ireland strongly supports the comprehensive sanctions announced by the European Union yesterday. We stand ready to support further measures if Russia does not reverse course. Mr. President, The unfolding horror of recent days is a tragedy for the people of Ukraine and one which evokes nightmares that the people of Europe fervently hoped had been consigned to a blood stained history. Only dialogue and diplomacy offer escape from those nightmares. We call on Russia to end its aggression against Ukraine today, to turn away from war and choose the path of dialogue and diplomacy. This is the right path, and the time to take it is now. Thank you. Previous Item | Next Item From Ukraine-Russia coverage from all kinds of angles, to tragic shootings, here's some of the top stories from the past week. The Ukrainian leader's defiance has inspired and shamed the United States and the European Union into going far further -- and far faster -- in turning Russia into a pariah state. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center (NGIC) has urged Russia and Ukraine to begin peace talks in Baku, Trend has reported. "We, as members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Centre (NGIC), headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan, call for urgent dialogue between Russia and Ukraine with a view to ending the hostilities immediately. Time is of the essence. The situation becomes worse and more people lose their lives with every moment that passes. Too many innocent lives are being lost and this situation cannot be allowed to continue," the centre said in its statement. The horrific pandemic that has claimed millions of lives and destroyed livelihoods, as well as entire communities and economies, has had a significant impact on the planet over the last two years, according to the statement, and nations can only overcome this problem through collective collaboration. "Yet just as hopes were rising of reaching a post-pandemic state, our world was shocked again, on 24 February, when Russias military began new moves across Ukraines border. The implications are serious for all, particularly for those losing their lives on both sides and those fleeing across borders, it added. The implications of the conflict on the global economy's ability to recover from the epidemic will be among the numerous negative consequences. The devastating consequences are already being felt and will have long-term, painful consequences, the center said. "We acknowledge and appreciate the call of the president of Azerbaijan to host both parties for peace discussions in Baku, Azerbaijan. Baku is a neutral venue for such discussions, having already been a platform for a meeting of top Russian and NATO generals for talks on preventing military incidents. We fervently hope the parties will accept this offer and that Baku can play an important role in solving this biggest security crisis which Europe has faced since the end of World War Two," the statement stressed. The Nizami Ganjavi International Center was established at a special meeting held in Nizami Ganjavi poet's hometown of Ganja as part of the 870th anniversary of the birth of great Azerbaijani poet on 30 September 2012. Continuing its activities with the Azerbaijani president's support, this international non-governmental organization brings together former heads of state and government, foreign ministers and prominent international scholars from more than 50 foreign countries. The main governing body is the Board of Trustees, which consists of influential public and political figures from around the world. The board includes 18 former leaders. The center also includes 53 prominent members from 25 countries in Europe, six from three countries in the Americas, 15 from 12 countries in Asia and five from four countries in Africa. The co-chairs of the Center are the former President of the Republic of Latvia (19992007), Vaira Vike-Freiberga and the former Vice-President of the World Bank (19922000), Dr. Ismail Serageldin. Alabama taxpayers wont have to pay more in state income tax because of the increased federal child tax credits they received last year. Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill to shield the benefits that most families with children got under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), passed by Congress in March 2021, from the state income tax. ARPA, intended to help households and businesses with the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, provided part of the increased credits as monthly payments of up to about $250 per child from July through December last year. ARPA also increased benefits from the earned income tax credit and dependent care tax credit. In Alabama, without a change in state law, the federal benefits would lower the deduction for federal taxes paid that Alabama taxpayers use to reduce their state income tax. The bill Ivey signed into law lets taxpayers disregard the increased tax credits when calculating their deduction for federal taxes paid. I am proud to sign this needed tax relief into law so that money will return directly into the hands of hardworking Alabamians, Ivey said in a press release. I commend the Alabama Legislature for their work on this and look forward to this benefitting Alabama families this tax season. What about for Alabama taxpayers who have already filed their taxes for 2021? The Alabama Department of Revenue (ADOR) issued instructions for how those taxpayers can take advantage of the new law. Taxpayers who filed their taxes electronically through a third-party vendor will not have to do anything to receive the benefit. The ADOR will automatically recalculate the federal income tax deduction for eligible taxpayers who electronically filed before the new law took effect. Taxpayers who have already filed using the ADORs online portal My Alabama Taxes or who filed paper returns can amend their returns to take advantage of the deduction. The ADOR said that for now amended returns can only be submitted by filing a paper return. The ADOR plans to post a link to the updated instructions soon. The new law should benefit many people. ARPA increased the child tax credit for 2021 from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under age 6 and from $2,000 to $3,000 for children 6-17. From July through December, most families with children received up to about $250 per month for each child. Couples with adjusted gross incomes of up to $150,000 and single parents with incomes up to $75,000 received the full benefit. According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, about 560,000 Alabama families with a total of about 930,000 children received monthly child tax credit payments. An overwhelming majority spent the money on basics such as food, clothing, rent, mortgage and utilities, the centers analysis showed. Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, and Rep. Jim Carns, R-Vestavia Hills, sponsored the legislation. Marengo County Sheriff Richard Ben Bates wants the public to know hes supportive of gun ownership and encourages women to get familiar with using a gun for their own protection. He also has taken his daughters to a shooting range, so they can target practice. As the sheriff of a small Black Belt county, the permits his office issues for conceal carry gun permits also provide an important source of revenue for his agency. And if Alabama lawmakers go forward with plans to do away with the need for those permits, the money it generates will need to be raised elsewhere. The county commission will have to raise taxes for this, said Bates. Hes not the only one expressing concerns about losing annual revenues potentially millions of dollars statewide - from the permit fees that historically help fund the states 67 sheriffs departments. In the past two weeks, the phrase defund the police has surfaced in the debate over the fate of permitless carry legislation. The Alabama Senate will take the measure up soon. Legislation that would do away with legal penalties for carrying concealed firearms without a permit was adopted by the Alabama House last week, on a 65-37 vote. The debate over the issue has mostly centered around public safety. Sheriffs have long contended the permits provide them a tool to screen people who should not possess a gun. But a financial hit to the agencies also looms over the debate, even if its taken a backseat to the safety concerns expressed by sheriffs by doing away with Alabamas provision requiring gun owners to purchase a permit if they conceal a handgun or carry a gun in their vehicle. Alabama is otherwise an open-carry state. The Alabama Sheriffs Association and the Association of County Commissions of Alabama have voiced concerns about the financial implications of removing the permit requirement. Their claim is that a loss of concealed carry permit revenues will require county commissions throughout Alabama to dip into General Funds and pay for equipment purchases and vehicles. Smaller counties, according to officials with both associations, will be the most affected. Anyone who says it wont cause financial decision to be made is not telling the truth, said Sonny Brasfield, executive director with the ACCA. You cannot say it wont impact the sheriffs financially. It will. Permitless carry proponents say the sheriffs and other opponents are overstating their concerns, and point to the 21 states that do not require gun owners to purchase a permit to carry concealed weapons. Not one of those 21 states have attempted to repeal their (permitless carry) bills because of any issues, and certainly fees would be included in there, said State Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, who served as the citys assistant police chief until retiring in 2020. Its not like we dont have a blueprint to follow here. Supporters also say there wont be a big drop off in permits purchased from sheriffs. The permits will still be needed to carry concealed guns whenever traveling to other states, or while visiting a military base. Other supporters believe that out of principle, the county governments should not be supporting public services with concealed carry permit fees. We dont charge people to the right to free speech or for the right to vote, said state Rep. Andrew Sorrell, R-Muscle Shoals. This is basically a poll tax. You have a constitutional right as long as you pay your sheriff for it. Politics has also surfaced in the dispute, with Democrats and some Republicans accusing the GOP supporters of permitless carry that they are backing the defunding of a police initiative. Republicans have sought to link Democrats to the nationwide defund the police movement since it gained momentum following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. Thirteen mostly large cities in the U.S. have since adopted measures to reduce funding for policing agencies in favor of boosting non-policing services like social and youth services and housing. I do find it ironic that the Republicans ram through a bill that literally defunds the police, said Wade Perry, executive director with the Alabama Democratic Party. The law enforcement officers, by and large, are opposed to it. This bill makes it tougher on them financially. It has a public safety impact and impacts their safety to do an already tough job. Alabama GOP Chairman John Wahl said the Democratic Party is spreading misinformation about the partys stance. He said the GOP remains very supportive of our states law enforcement, while also backing peoples constitutional rights to own and possess a gun without having to pay a permit fee. It is the Democratic Party who has been calling to defund the police, and it seems a bit hypocritical for them to change their tune now. But in Alabama, where the GOP enjoys supermajority dominance in the Legislature, some Republican lawmakers and sheriffs are equating the permitless carry push to a reduction in budgeting for law enforcement. The Alabama House adopted a bill last week that does not spell out how to supplement the loss revenues for the sheriffs agencies. The legislative fiscal note attached to the bill, HB272, says it would reduce permit revenues to the counties and that the amount was undetermined. In Tennessee, where permitless carry was approved last year, the estimated revenue loss is $20 million. The irony is not lost, I can assure you, said Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones, a Republican who has been in law enforcement for 47 years. If you consider anything that removes funds from law enforcement would be defunding law enforcement, then technically it applies in this situation. Permit revenue generates around $250,000 in any given year for Jones agencies. While the most doesnt pay salaries, it does support ongoing training and education, technology upgrades, and equipment like bulletproof vests. In Baldwin County, Republican Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack said the permit fees generate $600,000 to $650,000 per year to support training and equipment purchases. He said there have been no discussions with the county commission on how those funds could be replaced, although he said the county commission would be asked to dip into the General Fund to make up the losses. In Montgomery County, Democratic Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said the county brings in around $760,000 each year in permit fees. He said the money does support five employees who handle permitting within his office, and he does not plan on laying off workers if the permits go away. Yes, the Republican supermajority is defunding law enforcement especially in the smaller counties which will result in response times, and some services being stopped, Cunningham said. Which, again, is public safety. Gun rights groups and some GOP political strategists caution against calling the permitless carry push often called constitutional carry by proponents an effort to defund law enforcement in Alabama. D.J. Parten with the National Association for Gun Rights, which is pushing permitless carry measures nationwide including in Alabama, said that the effort has nothing to do with funding for law enforcement because there is no correlation between number of permits issued and the adopt of Constitutional Carry laws. He said that if critics of the effort feel otherwise, he encourages them to look for other ways to provide revenue for the sheriffs office beside taxing a select group of people who want to exercise a constitutionally guarantee right. Parten added, If someone can legally possess a firearm, they should be able to carry that firearm without being forced to pay a fee or get a government permit. Jonathan Gray, a GOP strategist based in Mobile, said the permitless carry effort in Alabama has been underway since former Gov. Bob Rileys administration, and long before the recent defund the police movement. Saying defund the police is the result of cutting out permit fees is not the same thing as an Illinois protester saying, defund the police, said Gray. Thats way beyond pale. Its a ridiculous premise. No one from Alabama on the Republican side of the bench is considering defund the police in the context of the liberal majority around the country is talking about. Angi Horn, a political consultant based in Montgomery, cautions critics of the measure to be careful about how they describe the issue. She said that there are sheriffs in Alabama who back permitless carry and are not overly concerned about the loss of permit fee revenues. Sheriffs in Limestone, Cullman and Lawrence counties have taken different stances than the Sheriffs Association. Its just not cut and dry when it comes to law enforcement, Horn said. Treadaway also noted that the 400-plus municipal police forces in Alabama do not receive permit fee revenues to support their agencies. In Alabama, only the states 67 county sheriffs receive funding from the concealed carry permits. Still, some GOP lawmakers are worried about adopting permitless carry without addressing potential hits to sheriff budgets. As with so many things, it comes down to funding, said State Senator Chris Elliott, R-Daphne. The sheriffs are making a good argument on public safety. I dont think anyones beef is the public safety side. The beef is they have to pay to exercise a constitutional right. State Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla, was the lone House Republican to speak out against the measure while it was disputed on the House floor. He was also one of nine Republicans to vote against the bill. During a committee hearing, Farley said the Legislature is fixing to defund law enforcement if the legislation passes and he rattled off several states Kentucky, Kansas and Oklahoma where permit sales dropped considerably since their lawmakers adopted permitless carry. If you have a sheriff and his sources are limited, does this defund him? Yes, it does, Farley said. He said that comments about permit fees create a slush fund for sheriffs are inaccurate since the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts audits them annually. The sheriffs use this for school resource officers, patrol officers, radios, computers, cars, automatic defibrillators, extradition of felons from other states, DARE programs, and childrens advocacy, said Farley. Lets be serious, what you are doing here is defunding the police. Trendspotting at Vinexpo Paris - a retailer's view Trendspotting is a dangerous game. Everyone wants to be in at the start of the next big thing; but believing the hype can leave you with slow moving stock blocking valuable shelf space. I recently visited Vinexpo Paris to spot the trends that producers and winemakers are backing in 2022. If youre not already selling wine in cans, this trend will be hard to avoid. Its been several years in gestation but what caught my attention was the sheer number of producers offering the format. During the week I found wines of all types, from producers large and small, being offered in cans. The scale of the investment suggests this trend is here to stay. The producers need to make a return so watch out for lots of critics and influencers getting on board. Convenience is the major selling point for wine in cans, but sustainability comes a close second; theyre cheaper to transport and much simpler to recycle. There were plenty of other sustainable initiatives on show too, from lighter bottles, to capsule alternatives, to recycled labels. The range from Cantina Orsogna was particularly impressive. Their capsules, labelling and packaging is all 'on-trend', and the wines all taste top-drawer. They are a small organic and biodynamic cooperative based in Abruzzo, Italy, currently imported by Ellis Wines / Richmond Wine Agency. The trend for sustainability goes hand in glove with the trend for lower intervention and natural wines. Most small producers I spoke to are reducing the quantity of sulphites they use. The use of other chemicals is on the wane too in organic conversion was such a common statement that I lost count of how many producers said it. Many enthusiastically explained to me the introduction of animals to their vineyards to help control pests or their use of green manures (whereby grasses and flowers are allowed to grow between the vines before being ploughed back into the earth to enhance the soil). Orange wines are the poster child for the natural wine movement. Over the past year I have noticed a burgeoning awareness of this 'new' type of wine from our customers. At Wickhams, we currently sell three orange wines (one each from England, Romania, and Uruguay) with modest success though I wont be retiring on the profits from orange wines anytime soon. What surprised me at Vinexpo was how broad the selection of orange wines has become. The smaller winemaking countries of eastern Europe all had orange wines nothing new there but, unexpectedly, I tasted orange wine from every French and Italian winemaking region, too. If you dont currently stock an orange wine, its worth testing customers appetite for this interesting style. My last thoughts go to sparkling wine. There are still enormous quantities of prosecco on offer and news of its demise is greatly exaggerated. If youre looking for an alternative, several Italian producers had sparkling wines made from other indigenous grapes. A personal favourite was Pignoletto, which I find far more exciting than Glera. Or how about Lambrusco? Roberto Cardinale from Cantina Settecani, is an inspiring, optimistic, and relentless Italian who gave me a tour of several Lambrusco producers, confident that its time has come again. Im not sure if the British consumer is ready, but if you want to join me for the challenge, Ill put you in touch. Related articles: The US$9-billion Nghi Son oil refinery accounts for 34 percent of domestic supply, and enjoys tax exemption and other incentives, but continues to rack up losses. The biggest oil refinery of Vietnam has cut output since mid-January because of a lack of funds needed to import crude oil, trigging a gasoline and diesel shortage, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In 2021, the refinery which has a capacity of processing 200,000 barrels of crude a day, or 10 million tons a year, produced 6.7 million tons of gasoline and diesel. State-owned PetroVietnam (PVN) has a 25.1 percent stake in it, while the rest is owned by three foreign firms: Kuwait Petroleum International (35.1 percent) and Japanese companies Idemitsu Kosan (35.1 percent) and Mitsui Chemicals (4.7 percent). Nghi Son enjoys a number of tax and other incentives. It gets a 50-percent cut in corporate income tax for 70 years to only 10 percent following a complete waiver for the first four years after breaking even. Its entire output of petroleum and petrochemical products and LNG will be bought by PVN for 15 years. Besides, if Vietnam reduces import taxes to lower than the preferential rates at any time until 2028, PVN will compensate Nghi Son the difference. An oil expert told VnExpress that the government offered Nghi Sons investors a number of incentives to ensure energy security and get out of the then-prevailing complete dependence on imports. At that time crude oil output in Bach Ho (White Tiger), the countrys largest oil field, was decreasing rapidly. In the three years since it began commercial operation Nghi Son has not been doing well. According to the ministry, it has accumulated losses of US$3.3 billion and debts of US$2.8 billion. It was this financial difficulty that has forced it to cut imports and reduce output to 80 percent since late January. PVN also blamed the foreign partners for poor management, saying with its 25.1-percent stake it does not have the authority to make decisions. Ngo Tri Long, former director of the Institute for Price Market Research, said it is necessary to draw lessons in negotiating foreign investment in the oil sector. According to him, the refinery has not fulfilled its responsibilities in ensuring the supply and the obligation to supply goods according to the contract signed with petroleum trading enterprises in the market. Nghi Son has still been operating at 55-60 percent of capacity because imported crude did not arrive until the end of February. It will operate at 80 percent from mid-March and 100 percent from early April. But it has not spelled out plans to deliver fuel to key distributors in April and May, especially after May when its ability to maintain production remains unclear. If the situation again deteriorates after May the ministry will instruct 10 key fuel traders to increase imports to 2.4 million cubic meters of gasoline and diesel in the second quarter. The countrys other refinery, Dung Quat in the central province of Quang Ngai, has increased its production to 105 percent of capacity to make up for Nghi Sons shortfall. Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical JSC, the operator of Dung Quat, said in a recent statement it has worked hard to source additional crude supply amid the surging global prices, which have risen to their highest levels since 2014. A Toyota Veloz imported from Indonesia in February 2022. Photo courtesy of Toyota Veloz Vietnam Facebook group. Vietnams auto imports fell by 70 percent last month to 4,524 units, but the industry dismissed it as a normal January phenomenon after a surge in imports in December. The passenger car segment saw a 53 percent decline to 4,008. Though down by more than half from December, Thailand remained the largest seller, shipping 2,488 units. Indonesia followed with 472 vehicles. Truck imports plunged by 93.5 percent to 260, almost all of it from China and Thailand. Auto companies said companies usually import large numbers of vehicles in December to prepare for the New Year and Tet shopping season, and so numbers fall in January before recovering again in February and March. Imports of car parts and equipment fell by 7.8 percent to $395 million. South Korea, China and Thailand were the biggest exporters. Foreign factories in the north scramble to hire workers as Covid spreads A person is interviewed online for an accountant position in Hanoi, February 24, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh Foreign factories in northern Vietnam are recruiting workers in large numbers to ensure they have enough bodies as an increasing number of people contract Covid-19. At Japanese factory equipment manufacturer Osco International in Hanoi, 20 out of 200 employees are currently infected. "As these employees have to stay at home, others are working overtime to ensure the supply chain operates normally," a spokesperson for its factory in Hoai Duc District told VnExpress International. At the Bac Thang Long Industrial Zone in Hanoi, a company that makes car parts has seen 40 percent of its workforce go down with Covid. A spokesperson said, requesting that the company not be named: "The increase in F0 cases has affected our production. Some units have seen productivity decrease by 10 percent." The company is hiring temporary workers to make up for the labor shortage, but with Covid spreading in Hanoi, the management is concerned that newcomers will infect old ones. "Due to the severe shortage of workers, we have to ask even those who had been in contact with Covid cases to come to work if they do not show symptoms," the spokesperson said. Workers are seen at a factory of Hosiden in Bac Giang Province in October 2021. Photo courtesy of the Vietnam Government Portal The two companies are among many in the north scrambling to hire workers. On Sunday, Vietnam recorded the highest number of Covid cases in a single day: 86,966. In the last seven days it has been nearly 52,000 a day on average. It has been attributed to the government telling people to live with Covid and resumes all economic activities, including tourism and international travel, to revive the economy after two years of restrictions. The Hanoi employment exchange, in partnership with its counterparts in six other northern localities, is looking for over 19,300 workers and conducting interviews online. Factories in Bac Giang Province, where eight industrial parks are located, are looking for over 35,000 workers this quarter. One of them, Japanese electronic components manufacturer Hosiden, said nearly 500 of its 5,200 workers contracted Covid this month. Every day there are dozens of new cases, and since the absence of a single worker could affect an entire production line, it is rushing to hire more, chairman of its labor union, Nguyen Van Tan, said. Another reason for the rush is that 10 percent of employees did not return to work after the Lunar New Year holidays earlier this month, he said. The company has lowered its requirement so that any candidate who is literate could apply, and offers to subsidize house rent, he said. In Hanoi, a Japanese electronics manufacturer has seen Covid ravage up to two thirds of some departments. "We are recruiting new employees with a contract period of six months to make up for the temporary labor shortage," a spokesperson said, requesting that her company not be named. She also said a referral bonus of VND1.5 million ($66) is offered to employees who successfully refer someone. Vu Quang Thanh, deputy director of the Hanoi employment exchange, expected companies to continue hiring in large numbers as the economy recovers from Covid. Doses of Cuba's Abdala coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine are seen at a vaccination center in Caracas, Venezuela, July 1, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Manaure Quintero The national drug administration has extended the expiry date of Cuba's Abdala Covid-19 vaccine from six to nine months under 2-8 degrees Celsius in storage. The Ministry of Health on Monday stated the Drug Administration of Vietnam has decided to extend the vaccine's expiry date based on the latest data verified by experts. "The expiry date extension does not affect the vaccine's quality, safety and effectiveness," the ministry said. It has not been confirmed how many imported Abdala vaccine doses have had their expiry dates extended. The health ministry has also not announced exactly how many Abdala vaccine shots have been given in Vietnam. By Feb. 20, over 5.1 million Abdala Covid-19 vaccine doses had been received and distributed by the health ministry, it confirmed. The Abdala Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Cuba, has been approved for emergency use since October 2021. A full course of the vaccine, intended to be given to those aged 19-65, would entail three shots, each spaced 14 days apart. Late last year, the Drug Administration of Vietnam also extended the expiry date of nine Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine batches to nine months in accordance with recommendations from manufacturers. So far 70.8 million people have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot in Vietnam. A total 67.2 million have received their second shots and 38.4 million, their third. The United States is deeply concerned by the Guatemalan Public Ministrys unacceptable mistreatment and persistent abuse of current and former independent prosecutors, wrote State Department Spokesperson Ned Price in a statement. The United States expressed its concern on February 16 after the Guatemalan Prosecutors Office confirmed the arrest of several independent prosecutors connected with the uncovering of official corruption in Guatemala. On February 10, authorities arrested Leily Santizo, a former prosecutor for the now-ended United Nations-backed anti-corruption mission, called the International Commission against Impunity, or CICIG. The Morales administration allowed CICIGs mandate to expire in 2019. On February 15, Eva Sosa, a former lawyer with the Special Prosecutors Office against Impunity, known as FECI, was also detained. On February 16, the Public Ministry secured arrest warrants for four additional former prosecutors, Aliss Moran, Paola Escobar, Willy Racanac Lopez, and Rudy Herrera. Spokesperson Price said, Under the leadership of Attorney General Consuelo Porras, the Public Ministry used searches and arrests based on sealed indictments and selectively leaked case information with the apparent intent to single out and punish Guatemalans who are combating impunity and promoting transparency and accountability. In July 2021, Attorney General Porras fired Juan Francisco Sandoval, the head of the FECI, which worked closely with the UN-backed CICIG. Sandoval fled into exile. At the time, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter said the decision by Porras to fire Sandoval, fits a pattern of behavior that indicates a lack of commitment to the rule of law and independent, judicial, and prosecutorial processes. The United States later designated Attorney General Porras for obstructing investigations into acts of corruption by interfering with criminal investigations. After the most recent arrests of independent prosecutors in Guatemala, the European Union also expressed its utmost concern over the Guatemalan authorities legal action against independent judges, lawyers and prosecutors. Brian A. Nichols, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, wrote, These concerning actions undermine the rule of law. Without the rule of law, the corrosive scourge of corruption spreads. As Secretary of State Blinken has said, corruption stifles growth, it discourages investment, it deepens inequities. But maybe its greatest toll is on citizens trust in government. The people of Guatemala, like people everywhere, need their government to work to end corruption, not silence the brave individuals who take up the fight. On February 24th, the Voice of America celebrates the 80th anniversary of its first broadcast. In the dark, early days of the Second World War, the United States Government concluded that there was a need to counteract Nazi propaganda by establishing its own outlet, which would offer accurate and unbiased news and information. Thus, the Voice of America was founded on February 1, 1942, and broadcast its first 15-minute show, in German, on February 24th. Hier spricht die Stimme Amerika. Heute, und taeglich von Heute an... This is a voice speaking from America. Daily at this time we shall speak to you about America, and the war. The news may be good, or bad. We shall tell you the truth. From the beginning, the Voice of America has sought to provide a window into American life. Indeed, as required by law, the VOA must present accurate, objective, and comprehensive news; a balanced, comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions; as well as the policies of the United States. It is the task of the Voice of America to tell [Americas] story around the world, said President John Kennedy on VOAs 20th anniversary: This is an extremely difficult and sensitive task. On the one hand you are an arm of the Government and therefore an arm of the Nation, and it is your task to bring our story around the world in a way which serves to represent democracy and the United States in its most favorable light. But on the other hand, as part of the cause of freedom, and the arm of freedom, you are obliged to tell our story in a truthful way, to tell it, as Oliver Cromwell said about his portrait, "Paint us with all our blemishes and warts, all those things about us that may not be so immediately attractive." "Forward . . . Forward. . . 40 feet down, 2 and a half. . . .picking up some dust . . ." And so, people around the world heard the centurys great events on the Voice of America, including a record 615 million people who listened to the July 20, 1969, moon landing. Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed. . . " During its first broadcast VOA told listeners: "The news may be good or bad. We shall tell you the truth," said the State Department in a tweet. From that broadcast to today, VOA has informed, engaged, and connected people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. Both national parties represent broad coalitions of wide-ranging interests, otherwise they couldnt win elections in such a vast and diverse country. These parties are most successful when they unify their factions behind an idea, a cause or a candidate. Republicans coalesced around Ronald Reagan so effectively that Democrats won only 62 electoral votes combined in the Gippers two victories. In 2020, Democrats were bound tightly together by a common fear and loathing of Donald Trump. Today, both parties are splintered by internal rivalries, but the fault lines dividing each entity are distinctly different. For Republicans, the conflict is essentially personal, not ideological. The warring camps are defined by one question: Are you for, or against, Trump and his deranged view that the 2020 election was rigged against him? For Democrats, the opposite is true. The factions are defined by ideology, not personality. The left wing of the party embraces extreme ideas defunding cops, opening borders, nationalizing health care and denounces moderates who reject their orthodoxy. Heres the critical question: Which party will be more effective at restoring unity and appealing to the mainstream voters who still decide elections? Start with the Republicans. Their internal strife is best summed up by the battle in Wyoming, where Rep. Liz Cheney is facing a primary challenger backed by Trump and other GOP leaders. A straight-line conservative when it comes to policy, Cheney has committed one unforgivable sin: She spoke the truth about Trumps detachment from reality and determination to undermine the Constitution. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, she vows. This fault line is fragmenting many other state parties, as well. In Wisconsin, for example, a Republican candidate for governor, Timothy Ramthun, insists that the 2020 election can still be overturned. And some party activists are calling for the ouster of Robin Vos, the longtime speaker of the state assembly, because he wont pursue Trumps crazy claims of fraud. Were going to spend millions of dollars tearing ourselves apart, Jack Yuds, chair of the Dodge County GOP, told Politico. In Georgia, Trump has declared war against Gov. Brian Kemp and backed his primary opponent, David Perdue. But Kemp still leads in the latest Trafalgar poll. In Alaska, Trump is trying to purge Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted for his impeachment. But as of Jan. 1, Murkowski had $4.2 million on hand, while Trumps choice, Kelly Tshibaka, had banked barely $600,000. National polls reflect the same fierce factionalism. In October of 2020, 54% of Republicans told NBC that they identified more with Trump personally than with the GOP as a party. Today, only 36% place loyalty to Trump first. In a Quinnipiac survey, 52% of Republicans agreed with former Vice President Mike Pence that Trump was wrong to challenge the results of the 2020 elections, while only 36% backed Trumps tirades. Democrats have their own fragmenting fracases. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Texas recently to embrace Jessica Cisneros, a left-wing challenger to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, and to denounce centrists like Sen. Joe Manchin. In San Francisco, voters ousted three radical school board members in a battle that underscored the limits of left-wing politics even in such a liberal city, noted the Washington Post. As Democrats look fearfully toward the midterm elections, many of the partys candidates, strategists and voters are recoiling from some of the left-wing proposals that gained prominence during the Trump administration, the Post reports. Many Democrats now see them as too extreme and harmful to Democratic prospects this fall ... The result is a growing backlash against more-liberal officeholders, challengers and plans. This backlash comes as two senior party strategists, Elaine Kamarck and William Galston, issued a report that argues that liberal Democrats are in the grip of myths that block progress toward victory, and are engaged in a new politics of evasion, the refusal to confront the unyielding arithmetic of electoral success. Too many Democrats have evaded this truth and its implications for the partys agenda and strategy, the authors add. They have been led astray by three persistent myths: that people of color think and act in the same way; that economics always trumps culture; and that a progressive majority is emerging. Both parties are being pulled apart by powerful factions that have refused to confront the unyielding arithmetic of electoral success. The party that understands that arithmetic, and embraces the sane center, will own the future. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 South Africa: Former Mpumalanga Education head arrested The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is working hard to ensure that all role players implicated in the alleged irregular procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) by the Mpumalanga Education Department are brought to book. This after the departments former acting head of department, Jabulani Nkosi, was arrested and charged with contravention of the Public Finance Management Act during PPE procurement,valued at some R21 million. Nkosi was arrested on Friday. He appeared at the Nelspruit Magistrate Court and was released on R10 000 bail. The matter was remanded to 20 April 2022 for further investigation. Nkosi was seconded from the Mpumalanga Department of Health to the position of accounting officer, and he has since returned to his position as chief director in the [provincial] Health Department, SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago, said. Kganyago said the corruption-busting unit will apply to the Special Tribunal to have the PPE tender set aside and reviewed, and to recover financial losses suffered by the State and the Education Department. The SIU is working closely with the [National Prosecuting Authority] and Hawks in this regard, and will continue to work together to ensure that all role players identified through SIU investigations in the alleged crimes in the Education Fepartment are held accountable for their actions, he said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. By Trend Turkish Airlines has temporarily canceled flights to/from Sochi, Minsk and Ukraine, Trend reports citing the Turkish air carrier's Twitter page. "Our flights from/to Sochi, Minsk and Ukraine until March 1, 2022 (included) have been cancelled. For the ticket change and refund requests, you can apply the travel agency, visit our website or contact our call center at +90 850 333 0 849." The only ever Antonov AN-225 Mriya built, the world's largest plane, which belongs to Ukraine has been destroyed on the ground by a Russian attack on Antonov Airport in Hostomel. Fighting in the Battle of Antonov Airport has been on-going since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with control of the airfield the main objective given its strategic value. More insights from Russia-Ukraine conflict: The massive six-engined AN-225 was designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine in the 1980s and first flew in 1988. It was mothballed after the collapse of the USSR, but was restored and put into service with Antonov Airlines in the early 2000s. RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service @radiosvoboda was granted exclusive access to film on board a flight of the world's biggest plane -- the #Antonov An-225 #Mriya cargo plane. The plane was built in the 1980s to carry the #Soviet space shuttle, the #Buran. pic.twitter.com/SosIrUATgW Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) December 4, 2018 AN-225 records The AN-225 Mriya (meaning dream or inspiration) held numerous aeronautical records including being the heaviest aircraft ever built and having the largest wingspan, at 290 ft, of any aircraft in operation. For comparison a 747 jumbo jet has a wingspan of 224 ft. It also airlifted the single-item heaviest payload (a gas generator for an Armenian power plant) weighing 189,980kg (418,830 lb) and the heaviest total payload of 253,820 kg (559,580lb), made up of four battle tanks. It also carried the world's longest ever piece of cargo, two 42.1m (138 ft) wind turbine blades, from China to Denmark, in 2010. AN-225 Mriya confirmed destroyed The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, confirmed on Twitter that the AN-225 had been destroyed, saying that "Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail!" This was the worlds largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8 Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022 According to the BBC the enormous 225-tonne plane was meant to have been moved out of the airport on 24 February, the day Russia launched their invasion, however the outbreak of war by Russia meant it was unable to leave. The AN-225 survived for three days even while fighting continued at the airbase, until it was finally destroyed. Restoration plan for Ukraine's AN-225 Although the plane has been left a charred wrecked, there is already a plan in place to restore it, although it is calculated it will take five years and cost around 3 billion dollars (by comparison a new Airbus A380, the largest passenger liner cost over $400 million new in 2018, although it is no longer being manufactured). Yurii Gusev, head of Ukroboronprom, the Ukrainian firm that owned the plane said they would seek to make Russia pay for the restoration of the AN-225 Mriya. Russian tanks, artillery and military vehicles that have been crossing Ukraine's borders for days now are adorned with a series of symbols drawn in white paint. These symbols range from letters to geometric figures and even combinations of the two. In fact, more than ten different combinations have been seen on the bodies, both front and sides, of these war vehicles. But what do they mean? More news and insight on Russia-Ukraine conflict: Z tanks explained From all the footage that has been observed to date, it would appear that the most commonly seen is the letter Z, framed within either a square, rectangle or triangle. One theory put forward as to why these symbols are painted on the vehicles is that they can reduce the chances of being hit by friendly fire. For example, both the Russian and Ukrainian forces use the same model of tank, and so they use this personalised symbology to distinguish themselves from the enemy. Another reason, however, is that they may pertain to the locations where the units are stationed. Michael Clarke, former director of the defence think tank RUSI, explained this idea to Sky News. "Often these symbols will be location-based: they will communicate where the unit is going," he said, pointing to the various designs seen in recent days. "These are probably symbols that say which units are heading northeast or northwest in a region, for example. Looks like another abandoned and damaged Russian military column in the Izyumsky district, Kharkiv Oblast. Mostly fuel trucks. Russian forces appear to be doing a poor job of defending their supply lines. https://t.co/DB1vcISCM0 pic.twitter.com/hJO1wfhbnB Rob Lee (@RALee85) February 28, 2022 This suggest that if they only wanted to communicate that they are Russians, there would not be the different symbols that we have witnessed, just the one required. And Clarke also stated that this is normal practice in battles, citing the example of the United States using chevrons to identify different units in Iraq. Military symbols have limited shelf life Another hypothesis regarding the paint markings relates to the specific mission of each vehicle. "Most Z markings seen so far have been inside a square, but this Ural truck with an Msta-B howitzer has one inside a triangle," Rob Lee, a PhD student and observer of Russian defence policy, wrote on Twitter. "Possibly indicating different working groups within a formation," he concluded. TOS-1A thermobaric MLRS and T-72B tanks with roof screens in northern Crimea heading north from yesterday. https://t.co/myb91I73p4https://t.co/5Q9eXJEK6L pic.twitter.com/xh7cxjhsln Rob Lee (@RALee85) February 25, 2022 However, an important factor has been raised about how these markings drawn on military vehicles lose their effectiveness as the days go by. As enemy intelligence picks up patterns, especially with high-spec modern surveillance tools, these symbols could work against the occupants, potentially giving clues to the tactics being deployed. Analysing the military might of Russia By all accounts, and recent statements about nuclear capabilities, President Vladimir Putin did not expect such a difficult time taking Ukraine, especially given the vast difference between their military forces. NATO has edged its own substantial might to its eastern-most members that neighbour the conflict, but have said they will not join the war directly, instead providing support for Ukraine. It's worth noting that, after Russia, the next four largest military forces in Europe are members of NATO. The combined strength of the 30-member alliance, which includes two thirds of the European nations along with the huge strength of the United States, surpasses that of Russia in some areas but in others is on a par. Let's look at the numbers. Which are the largest militaries in Europe? Prior to the end of the Cold War Western European nations spent on average 2.4 percent of GDP on the military. However, by 2020 that had dropped to just 1.6 percent of GDP but the reduction in the size of each nations armed forces was unequal. Germany, then just the western portion, on the front line of the Iron Curtain had the largest standing army followed by Italy, France and Britain. The picture has changed a bit since then with France possessing the largest European military force, after Russia, followed by the UK, Italy and Germany, respectively. #NATO Allies are boosting their political and practical support to #Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russias full-scale invasion#StandWithUkraine NATO (@NATO) February 27, 2022 The downsizing of military spending occurred in Russia as well. However, around 2009 spending picked up again according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) data. How big are the standing armies in Europe? As a single nation Russia has the largest force of a European nation with 850,000 active personnel, or ready to deploy. They have another half million that they could call upon on short notice. However, Russia doesn't have the most troops in the world, that title goes to China. However, Russia must also protect a vast area covering around a tenth of the Earths land. Ukraine has a sizeable force with 200,000 active personnel and 500,000 when reservists and paramilitary forces are included. In the current conflict the nation has called on all males 18 to 60 years old to take up arms. As well, they have handed out weapons to all citizens that wish to pitch in along with instructing the population how to make Molotov cocktails. This was the worlds largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8 Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022 For comparison according to Global Firepower, France has 205,000 active personnel, the UK 194,000, Italy 170,000 and Germany 184,000. However, the combined number of troops that NATO can call on is close to 3.4 million with another 2 million reservists and paramilitary forces according to Statista. Russia and NATO: heavy armour Although NATO has almost four times the number of ready to deploy troops as Russia, there is less of a gap in heavy weapons. NATO combined has around 2,300 more tanks than Russia. Nearly half of the alliances 14,682 tanks come from the US. Where Russia has its greatest advantage is in artillery which between stationary and mobile units including rocket launchers numbers around 17,500. Although they havent brought all their tanks and heavy equipment to Ukraine, its been estimated that roughly half the firepower Russia has was amassed along the border prior to invasion. Theyll encounter around 2,600 tanks, around 3,100 artillery fixed and mobile in addition to 490 rocket launchers in Ukraine. Air superiority is key in modern day warfare Controlling the skies is critical to battlefield victory. Air superiority allows an army to be more maneuverable and to concentrate its forces. Individually the four biggest Western European air forces dont come close to Russias 772 fighter jets, but NATO has a combined force of over 3,500 fighter jets. Even just the four top European NATO members have a combined 611 fighter jets they can scramble. The last thing that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants is for Ukraine to join the European Union. That would change everything, scuppering the chances of him achieving one of his key objectives. But as the dictator continues to wage war against his neighbour, the opposition leader is pressing ahead with his own plans to join the bloc. And it may be that Russia's invasion has actually worked against them, potentially accelerating membership agreements for Ukraine. More on the Russia-Ukraine conflict: Zelenskiy signs request to join EU European Union leaders could be set to discuss the possibility of Ukrainian membership at an informal summit in March, a senior EU official has said, via Reuters, adding that the issue was important for Ukraine in discussions with Russia on ending the conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that he had signed an official request for Ukraine to join the bloc. "I think one of the reasons that this is important for President Zelenskiy is also potentially in some of the discussions with Russia on a way out," the official said referring to talks to end the conflict. But he added that no process had been started yet. "On the application (of Ukraine for EU membership) I think it's important not to get ahead of ourselves," the official, who asked not to be named, said. "It obviously has not yet been received, but this whole question of the Ukraine situation is something that's very much on the minds of the leaders." "What apparently President Putin does not want is a Ukraine that is more European." Former EU Commission President @JMDBarroso tells me Russia's issue with Ukraine was less about NATO, and more about Europe pic.twitter.com/W4rsUBrluO Helena Humphrey (@helenachumphrey) February 28, 2022 Short-term battle, longer-term membership plan The bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell said the immediate priority was to provide practical support to Ukraine to counter the Russia invasion, rather than discussing long-term issues which could take years. "We have to provide an answer for the coming hours, not for the coming years," he told reporters on Monday when asked about Ukraine's membership of the EU. "Ukraine has clearly a European perspective, but now we have to fight against an aggression." The chairman of EU leaders Charles Michel and the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will meet French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris on Monday evening for talks. "So I'm sure this will come up in those discussions. And of course we have quite imminently, on the 10th and 11th of March, an informal European Council meeting and I would imagine that the Ukraine topic, which is occupying many leaders' minds, will feature at some point in those discussions," the official said. Russia invasion may have worked against them Ukraine has an association agreement with the 27-nation bloc but wants to become a full member - something that Russia is opposed to. Ukraine's membership has so far not been discussed so as not to antagonise Moscow, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed things, the official said. "This unprecedented Russian aggression that we're seeing against Ukraine, the strong condemnation of this we've seen by the EU, the outrage in the European Union, member states, public opinion -- I think that is also likely to be a factor that will determine the way in which we respond (to a membership application)," the official said. "If you go to the origins of some of this standoff, there were a large number of people who were prepared to lay down their lives for a European perspective that was at the heart of the Maidan demonstrations (in Kyiv in 2013-14)," the official said. "I think in any agreement that President Zelenskiy may reach with President Putin, seeking assurances, or getting a guarantee if you like, that there is a support, understanding for Ukraine belonging one day to the European Union, is likely to be very important for the Ukrainian people," he said. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa expressed "full support" for a speedier EU membership procedure for Ukraine, while Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said it was necessary to give a clear signal that Ukraine was welcome, CTK news agency cited him as saying on Monday. Support grows for Ukraine's EU membership The presidents of eight central and eastern European nations called on EU member states to immediately grant Ukraine a EU candidate country status and open membership talks according to an open letter published on Monday. "We, the Presidents of the EU member states: the Republic of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, the Slovak Republic, and the Republic of Slovenia strongly believe that Ukraine deserves receiving an immediate EU accession perspective," the letter said. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also joined the positive calls saying that it was a legitimate move. President Zelenskiy asked the European Union to immediately accept Ukraine into the bloc. But accession to the EU is a long and arduous process https://t.co/g3YPd2jF1Y pic.twitter.com/De6I65HDeJ Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) February 28, 2022 "I think the Ukrainian request to join the EU is a legitimate request," Di Maio said in an interview with RAI state television. "I am convinced ... that in Ukraine European citizens are dying and suffering under the Russian bombs. We have to be on their side." EU continues Russia sanctions Around the globe, nations are taking their stance against Russia and on Monday the EU took another collective step. In its official journal it was announced that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov is among 26 prominent people sanctioned for the invasion. The listings include oligarchs and businessmen active in the oil, banking and finance sectors, as well as government members, high-level military people, and "propagandists who contributed to spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda," the EU said in a statement. Among the listed persons are Igor Sechin, the boss of Russia's state oil company Rosneft, and the chief executive of energy giant Transneft, Nikolay Tokarev. Oligarchs Alisher Usmanov, Petr Aven and Alexander Ponomarenko and the banker Mikhail Fridman are also included in the sanction list. The list includes Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, other members of the Russian government and top journalists. The restrictive measures include travel bans, an asset freeze and a prohibition from making funds available to the listed individuals. This round of sanctions hit also the Gas Industry Insurance Company SOGAZ. Vietnams logistics sector attracts more foreign investment inflows (Photo: VNPost) Piyush said he expects the logistics industry of Vietnam will thrive in the future, turning Vietnam into a logistics centre of the world. CapitaLand Development (CLD) of CapitaLand Group on February 26 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on investment cooperation worth 1 billion USD with the Peoples Committee of the northern province of Bac Giang to build its first logistics and industrial urban project in Vietnam. Ronald Tay, General Director of CLD Vietnam said the project will be a synergistic factor in forming a flexible supply chain network for the northern key economic region, which is expected to generate jobs for over 20,000 local labourers. Delvin Fan, operation director of Best Express Vietnam recently revealed that his firm has invested 20 million USD in developing commodity sorting centres in Bac Ninh and Ho Chi Minh City. This enterprise also plans to spend an additional 3 million USD on buffing up its means of transport in 2022, towards increasing its offices to 1,500 across Vietnam, he added. Meanwhile, SEA Logistic Partners has kicked off construction of the SLP Park Xuyen A project which aims to supply warehouses in the Mekong Delta province of Long An. This project is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2023, covering an area of 84,000 sq.m. Experts said the pouring of capital by foreign investors into Vietnam will help turn Vietnam into a logistics centre of the world. Illustrative image (Photo: vietnamnet.vn) According to Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)s Export and Import Department, Vietnam has advantages in geo-economics to promote development of production, export and logistics service because it is located in a dynamic area of the world. Sharing Hais opinion, Supaporn Sukmak, director of the Office of Overseas Trade Promotion of Thailand in HCM City said free trade agreements (FTAs) between Vietnam and partners have helped the Southeast Asian nation attract more foreign investors, especially those operating in logistics. The demand of warehouse for import and export goods in Vietnam is on the rise, she added. According to a report on logistics market by the MoIT, Vietnam is home to 30,000 providers of logistics service, and the warehouse service is one of the key segments of Vietnamese logistics firms. Over the last two years, despite the complicated developments of COVID-19, nearly 3 billion USD was poured into Vietnams logistics industry, a sign that the country could become a logistics centre in the region and the world, Supaporn said./. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who came to China for the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in Beijing on Sunday, saying that China is willing to work with Pakistan to accelerate the building of a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, bring benefits to the people of the two countries, provide impetus for regional cooperation and contribute to world peace. Recalling that China and Pakistan celebrated the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations last year, Xi called on the two sides to create better future for bilateral relations with firmer confidence. Xi stressed that the strategic significance of China-Pakistan relations is getting more prominent since the world has entered a period of turbulence and transformation. China and Pakistan should carry forward the tradition of mutual trust, mutual assistance and cooperation, and carry out more extensive and in-depth strategic cooperation, Xi said. China firmly supports Pakistan in safeguarding national independence, sovereignty, dignity and fighting terrorism, said Xi, adding China is willing to join hands with Pakistan to push forward the in-depth development of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and ensure the implementation of key projects. He expressed China's willingness to work with Pakistan to expand cooperation in the fields such as science and technology, agriculture and people's wellbeing, build a green, healthy and digital corridor, and support Pakistan's industrialization to enhance its sustainable development capability. Xi said that China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Pakistan on multilateral platforms including the United Nations, to safeguard world and regional peace and stability, and actively translate the Global Development Initiative into concrete actions. Khan congratulated China on the marvellous opening ceremony of Beijing Winter Olympics and thanked China for providing valuable help to Pakistan in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Pakistan is willing to take active steps to promote the construction of the second phase of CPEC, and strengthen cooperation with China in the fields of industry, agriculture and information technology, Khan said. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who came to China for the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) Editor: WXY The cauldron is lit outside the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Yibo) BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A pandemic like COVID-19 could reveal how humanity would respond to a global challenge. Over the past two years, some countries have taken care of themselves at the expense of others, some have slung mud and shifted blame, and others have engaged in bullying and snatched vaccines. For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping has made his argument crystal clear -- solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon for defeating the virus. He has appealed for global solidarity on many occasions and pushed for a community of health for all. Global humanitarian action has been launched, the largest since 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded. In 2021 alone, China provided more than two billion doses of vaccines for some 120 countries and international organizations, more than any other country in the world. One of every two shots administered around the world came from China. "Amidst the raging torrents of a global crisis, countries are not riding separately in some 190 small boats, but are rather all in a giant ship on which our shared destiny hinges," said Xi. A fundamental logic is that humanity shares a common future. Anti-epidemic supplies provided by the Chinese government arrive in Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands, on Feb. 18, 2022. (The Chinese Embassy in Solomon Islands/Handout via Xinhua) This also underscores the direction of China's diplomacy in the new era. "Mankind, by living in the same global village in the same era where history and reality meet, has increasingly emerged as a community of common destiny in which everyone has in himself a little bit of others," Xi said at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Russia, in March 2013. This marked the debut of his flagship vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity. Based on the ideal of universal harmony in Chinese culture, the vision embodies an advanced worldview and represents a comprehensive, revolutionary transcendence over the realpolitik approach to international relations in the West. It is one of the latest theoretical achievements in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times. Based on this vision, China has been forging communities with a shared future at bilateral and regional levels. It has also proposed to build such communities in the fields of cyberspace, nuclear security, ocean and health. The vision has been written into the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, the Constitution of the country, as well as documents of multilateral mechanisms, including the United Nations (UN) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It has increasingly become an international consensus. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Xi has made 41 overseas trips as Chinese president, with footprints covering 69 countries on five continents. China has explored a new path of growing state-to-state relations based on communication, not confrontation, and based on partnership, not alliance. "Frequent overseas trips may be exhausting, but we are repaid with a broader network of friends," said Xi. China has established diplomatic relations with 181 countries. It also has partnerships with more than 110 countries and international organizations. Citizens inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac sit in an observation area at a vaccination site in Ecatepec, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Xin Yuewei) Contrary to a couple of countries that have engaged in hegemonism and bullying, China has stayed committed to fairness and justice on the international stage, stuck to extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and continued to stand up and speak for developing countries. China holds that global affairs should be jointly managed by all countries. It advocates true multilateralism. There is only one set of rules in this regard -- the basic norms governing international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. The vision of a community with a shared future for humanity is the epitome of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in China's diplomacy. It is China's proposal for solving problems facing humanity and advancing world peace. Building such a community is "the only future for humanity on this planet," said Peter Thomson, president of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly. Editor: WXY People sit at a teahouse in the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) A visitor takes photos at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Photo by Liu Huan/Xinhua) A man interacts with a cat at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People dine in a restaurant at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People enjoy the night view at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People walk out of a library at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) People visit a library at the Shancheng Alley in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 26, 2022. Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and built along mountain and cliff, Shancheng Alley used to be a footpath for local residents. It retains many historic buildings which date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. Chongqing government has been renovating the Shancheng Alley area while maintaining its historical and cultural characteristics since 2018. Now the area is attracting local residents and tourists with its new vitality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) Editor: JYZ SHANGHAI, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's economic powerhouse Shanghai is actively increasing its library resources, as local authorities are committed to encouraging learning habits. According to the Shanghai Association for Science &Tech, the program aimed at establishing libraries at people's doorsteps is expected to bring reading resources to within a 15-minute walk of any part of the city. Currently, 131 community libraries are in use in Shanghai, and more than 20 others are under construction. The public reading sites are distributed across all 16 Shanghai districts. Some of the libraries are affiliated with community services centers, parks, schools and shopping malls, and a number of them are referred to as science cafes or science houses, rather than libraries. A community library in Shanghai's bustling financial zone of Lujiazui in the Pudong New Area has become a popular place for children's science activities. Yi Xiaojing, a community official in Huangpu District, said that with the improvement of living standards, residents' spiritual needs are increasing. The public libraries are social venues to meet the people's needs. Editor: Zhang Zhou HAIKOU, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 5 million passengers traveled via two major airports in southern China's island province of Hainan during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which ended on Friday. Haikou Meilan International Airport in the provincial capital handled 19,673 flights and its passenger throughput hit 2.46 million, with those figures respectively increasing 35.4 percent and 37.2 percent year on year. Sanya Phoenix International Airport handled 16,424 flights and approximately 2.54 million passengers, up 21.2 percent and 24.3 percent year on year. The Spring Festival peak travel period in 2022 lasted from Jan. 17 to Feb. 25. During the travel season, many Chinese people chose to travel to the tropical island for the Chinese Lunar New Year, which was celebrated on Feb. 1 this year. Editor: Zhang Zhou [Photo/IC] In Pennsylvania, nearly 60,000 bees were stolen last month from a grocery store company's field. And in California, GPS tracking devices, surveillance cameras and other anti-theft technology are being used to stop thefts and a $10,000 reward had been offered after one heist. The thefts are of beehives, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to their owners. Hives are in demand now for the largest pollination event in the worldCalifornia's estimated 0.65 million hectares of almond trees. California's almond industry is a $11 billion business, according to state agriculture officials. People in the United States are now the world's biggest per capita almond eaters, consuming more than 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) per person annually. Up to two-thirds of beekeepers in the US lease their hives to almond farmers annually. A survey of commercial beekeepers estimated it will take 90 percent of honeybee colonies in the US to pollinate all the almond orchards. Beekeepers have spent weeks shipping billions of honey bees by the truckload to California as almond growing has outpaced the supply of local commercial bee colonies. Florida's beekeepers sent 18 million bees to California to rent them to growers. In the past few weeks, 1,036 beehives worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were reported stolen from Californian orchards statewide, authorities told The Associated Press. The largest heist involved 384 beehives taken on Feb 1 from a field in Mendocino County. With pollination fees now as much as $230 per hive, authorities said the beehives are being stolen and sold off or re-rented to other farmers or beekeepers who either need additional colonies or need to make up population numbers after their own bees have died. Those in the beekeeping industry said hive thefts have been common for years, and often committed by other companies or at least people who know how to handle bees. "It's bad beekeepers stealing from good beekeepers," Butte County Sheriff's Deputy Rowdy Freeman told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper. Freeman is a law enforcement liaison to the California State Beekeepers Association and also a fellow beekeeper. "It's all driven around the opportunity to make a lot of money fast." A day after the state beekeeper's association put up a $10,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of stolen hives in Mendocino, an anonymous tip led authorities to recover most of the boxes stolen two hours away on agricultural property. According to Press Democrat, one suspect was arrested. All but four hives survived, and the owner estimated the theft involved anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 bees per hive. The total loss came to about $154,000. Editor: WRX By Trend The United Arab Emirates, the Middle East tourism and commercial hub, over the weekend ended a requirement to wear face masks outdoors and obligatory quarantine for COVID-19 contact cases, Trend reports citing Reuters. Fully-vaccinated passengers arriving in the country will no longer require PCR tests, said the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority in updated guidance that went into effect on Saturday. "For economic and tourist sectors, physical distancing has been cancelled while mask-wearing in closed places is still mandatory," it said. The capital Abu Dhabi also dropped a border entry requirement for a negative PCR test for those coming from other UAE emirates. Daily coronavirus cases in the country have fallen to some 600 from close to 3,000 in January. HONG KONG, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- With sirens blaring and lights flashing, the ambulance fleet is what COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong most want to see. Ambulances bring them hope. Working 16 hours a day and having no time to eat, Lam Ka Lok, treasurer of Hong Kong Fire Services Department -- Ambulancemen's Union, told reporters that this is the normal work of ambulance workers recently because of the severity of the epidemic here. Since the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong, the number of calls for help has soared, and the workload of ambulance workers has multiplied several times. "We are doing our best because of the unprecedented outbreak of the epidemic," Lam said, noting that the Ambulance Command of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department has been fully deployed to serve the public. Every time when a phone rings in the ambulance station and a command is issued from the control center, it means that a citizen is in urgent need of help. Ambulance workers are required to wear protective clothing, medical gloves, shoe covers, goggles, headgears, face shields and N95 masks after receiving a mission to rescue COVID-19 patients. To avoid cross-infection, ambulances should be thoroughly disinfected after every mission, and ambulance workers should change protective clothing and have a shower. "Often after a bath, the phone rings again and we have no time to eat," Lam said, adding that ambulance workers would get frustrated and are worried about their families, but they have a belief that they must protect the health of Hong Kong's 7.5 million residents. Lam said he cannot forget those anxious faces, an elderly woman crying with joy at the sight of an ambulance, a parent calling for help at 3:00 a.m., and residents shouting "come on" to ambulance workers. Lam admitted that ambulance workers have encountered anger, complaints and even insults from citizens who called "999" and waited more than an hour for an ambulance because of limited vehicles and personnel. "The public's understanding of us is the greatest support," Lam said. "We hope more personnel, vehicles and epidemic prevention supplies can be provided to us to help more residents." Lam said he was very grateful to the mainland's support for Hong Kong's fight against COVID-19. "The central government's support is very important to boost our morale," he said. "It is our mission to protect Hong Kong residents." Editor: Zhang Zhou PARIS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Due to the closure of European Union airspace to Russia, French Foreign Affairs Ministry asked on Sunday its nationals to leave immediately Russia. "Due to the increasing restrictions on air traffic between Russia and Europe, it is strongly recommended that non-resident French nationals in Russia make arrangements to leave the country without delay by existing air links," the French ministry said in the latest travelling notice. According to the ministry, most European companies, including Air France, have suspended from this Sunday evening flights in and out of Russia after the European Union has decided to close its airspace to Russia. In a second travelling notice concerning Belarus, the ministry also asked its nationals to leave immediately Belarus though land borders. "The French in Belarus are invited to leave the country without delay by road, via the border crossing points with Lithuania, Poland or Latvia," it said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Sunday that the EU would shut its airspace to Russian airlines in response to Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine since early Thursday. Editor: WRX BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Boeing's total number of passenger-to-freighter aircraft conversion production lines in China will reach 15 by the end of this year, Boeing China said Thursday. Boeing and its local and global partners will facilitate the progress of the production lines for Boeing Converted Freighters (BCF) in China to meet growing market demands for freighters, according to Boeing China. By the end of this year, there will be 12 production lines for the 737-800BCF projects and three for 767-300BCF projects in the three Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Ji'nan. Boeing and ST Engineering have recently announced a plan to build additional capacity for the 767-300BCF, according to Boeing China. In the second half of this year, Boeing will add a 767-300BCF conversion line at ST Engineering's airframe facility in south China's Guangzhou. By then, the total number of conversion lines for 767-300BCF in China will reach three, Boeing China added. Last September, Boeing and Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co., Ltd. announced plans to create two 767-300BCF conversion lines for converted freighters in Guangzhou. The 767-300BCF can carry up to 51.6 tonnes and fly up to 6,190 km. As part of the 767 freighter family, it offers strong performance on operating costs per trip, as well as payload and range capabilities. By now, the 767-300BCF project has received more than 100 orders and commitments from customers globally, data from Boeing China shows. According to the 2021 Boeing Commercial Market Outlook, the company forecasts a need for 1,720 converted freighters around the world over the next 20 years. Editor: WXL BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A China-Europe joint space mission, Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), has successfully carried out the extension test of its payload magnetometer in Europe, Science and Technology Daily reported Wednesday. The test shows that the function and performance of the magnetometer subsystem integrated with the payload module meet the mission requirements and that the researchers from China and Europe have reached an agreement on the development specifications, technical process, test methods and evaluation standards. The magnetometer is a set of high-precision detection equipment of space vector magnetic field. It is used to detect the three-dimensional vector of the space magnetic field and obtain the detection data on the size and direction of the solar wind magnetic field. The magnetometer arrived at the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) of the European Space Agency (ESA) last month for thermal vacuum test, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The SMILE mission is a comprehensive collaboration between the CAS and the European Space Agency (ESA). The magnetometer of the mission was developed by the State Key Laboratory of Space Weather under the CAS National Space Science Center. The mission, reportedly, expects to send satellites into space before the end of 2024. Editor: WXY Energoatom: info about capture of Zaporizhia NPP by Russian military is fake The information spread by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation about the seizure of Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP) by the Russian military is a fake, Energoatom reported. "This is an absolute lie, a fake," the company's communications department commented on the information. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian military had taken control of Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The European Space Agency (ESA) has notified the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos that it will not go ahead with a teleconference scheduled for Monday to discuss sanctions and further cooperation, an informed source told Interfax on Sunday. "The European Space Agency has informed Roscosmos that it will not hold a teleconference on Monday between ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin, which was earlier initiated by the European side," the source said. Plans to hold such talks were announced by Rogozin the day before. They were expected to address the issue of sanctions and further cooperation. The European Union has prohibited the listing of Russian state companies' securities on its exchanges, as well as expanded restrictions on raising debt in euros as part of its second package of sanctions against Russia. The EU has prohibited the listing and provision of services on EU exchanges for securities issued by Russian state companies, the document published in the EU's Official Journal said. European depositories will also be prohibited from providing any services dealing with securities issued after April 12 to individuals and legal entities from Russia. The EU has also expanded the list of companies and banks that cannot raise financing in the EU by placing new debt instruments and shares. It now includes Alfa Bank, Russian Railways (RZD) and Sovcomflot, among others. The EU has prohibited the direct or indirect purchase, sale, provision of services or participation in the preparation of issues of securities and money market instruments issued by these companies after April 12. Last week the United States imposed new sanctions on Russian companies' ability to raise debt and equity financing from U.S. investors. The U.S. list, like the EU list, includes Alfa Bank, RZD and Sovcomflot. However, the EU list does not include restrictions on the purchase of new debt instruments issued by Gazprom, one of the most active Russian borrowers on international capital markets, while the U.S. prohibited the purchase of new debt issued by the Russian gas giant. On February 28, EU energy ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to discuss the energy situation in Europe against the backdrop of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. "Energy ministers are meeting to discuss the implications of the crisis in Ukraine, in particular in terms of security, supply and energy prices, as well as possible courses of action," the EU Council website says. The report notes that the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused an increase in gas prices in the EU and world oil prices. This increase comes against the background of a pre-existing jump in energy prices in the EU. Earlier, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson announced that EU energy ministers at an extraordinary meeting on Monday will consider the synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with the European one. She noted that she will ask ENTSO-E to support the emergency synchronization of power systems as soon as possible. As reported, Ukraine, after the successful implementation of the program for testing the operation of the country's energy system together with the Moldovan energy system in an isolated mode against the backdrop of military aggression by Russia, whose troops, incl. entered Ukraine and carried out shelling from the territory of Belarus, refused to connect back to the power systems of the Russian Federation and Belarus. Ukraine's PM counts on urgent decision on Ukraine's accession to EU under special procedure Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expects that the decision on Ukraine's accession to the EU under a special procedure will be made without delay. "Ukrainians have proved long ago that we are all an integral part of the European community. It's time to put it on paper. Ukraine is applying for EU membership under a special procedure," he wrote on the Telegram channel. Shmyhal noted that Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger proposed to accept Ukraine into the European Union under a new special procedure on Sunday after a conversation with him. Also at night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "The actions of the invader received unprecedented resistance. Ukrainians have long made their civilizational choice. We expect a decision to be taken without delay. As the president noted, this is both possible and fair," Shmyhal said. Poland supports the early integration of the Ukrainian energy system into the European ENTSO-E, according to a press release from the Ministry of Energy, citing a meeting between Energy Minister German Halushchenko and Polish Minister of Climate and Environment Anna Moskwa on Monday. "Anna Moskwa expressed Poland's full support for Ukraine in the context of the speedy synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with the European ENTSO-E energy system. At the same time, Poland intends to work with European partners to provide comprehensive support to Ukraine in this matter," the document says. During the meeting, Halushchenko reported on the stable operation of the Ukrainian energy system in an isolated mode in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine and assured of the safe operation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants. As reported with reference to EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, the European Union energy ministers at an extraordinary meeting on Monday will discuss the synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with the European one. By Trend Ukraine today informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the countrys nuclear power plants remained stable and in normal operation, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said, reiterating the necessity to avoid any action that could risk their safety or security, Trend reports citing IAEA. In a new update to the IAEA, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) also said its staff maintained regular contacts with the plants. Ukraine has four nuclear power sites with a total of 15 reactors, providing roughly half of its electricity. Director General Grossi said he continued to be gravely concerned about the situation in Ukraine and he called on all parties to refrain from any measures or actions that could jeopardize the security of nuclear material, and the safe operation of all nuclear facilities, as any such incident could have severe consequences for human health and the environment. "The safety and security of nuclear sites and material in Ukraine must under no circumstances be endangered. For now, the plants are operating as normal and their nuclear material remains under control. It is of paramount importance that this continues to be the case and that plant staff remain able to carry out their vital work without any undue pressure or stress, Director General Grossi said. Over UAH 1 bln transferred to NBU account to support Ukrainian Armed Forces KYIV. Feb 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) Ukrainians and foreigners have transferred more than UAH 1 billion in equivalent to a special account opened by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, of which the NBU transferred UAH 450 million for the needs of the National Guard of Ukraine. According to the regulator, the funds came from citizens and enterprises of Ukraine, as well as the international community, in particular the United States, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, China, France and Canada. "You can help the Armed Forces of Ukraine simply by making a transfer using a payment card of any bank in any country in the world, and the funds will go to a special account of the National Bank," the NBU confirmed. As reported, the National Bank opened a special multi-currency account UA843000010000000047330992708 to raise funds for the needs of the army in connection with the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, armed aggression of the Russian Federation and the danger to the state independence of Ukraine, its territorial integrity. The National Bank clarifies that this is a multi-currency account created both for transferring funds from international partners and donors in foreign currency (U.S. dollars, euros, British pounds), and from Ukrainian businesses and citizens in the national currency. You can transfer funds using a bank card via the link https://bank.gov.ua/ua/about/support-the-armed-forces or through a bank account using the details. Pharmacies are resuming work in Kyiv and across Ukraine, large queues are gathering near the working pharmacies in the capital, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports. In particular, Pharmacia municipal enterprise reported about the resumption of work of pharmacies as of 12:00 on Monday, 37 pharmacies of the network in different districts of the capital were open. In most of them, insulin can be purchased as part of the reimbursement program. In addition, the Bazhayemo Zdorovya pharmacy network operates in Kyiv. The Apteka Dobroho Dnia chain on its website reported on the work of 271 pharmacies on Monday. According to the Liki24 service, 1,100 partner pharmacies of this service were working on Monday morning. The Interfax-Ukraine agency continues to collect information about the work of pharmacy chains. Shelling by Russian invaders deprive almost 350,000 consumers in Ukraine of energy and gas supplies - Energy Ministry The fighting after the invasion of the Russian troops left over 330,000 people without electricity, 11,700 consumers in Ukraine without gas, according to data from the Ministry of Energy. "Due to damage caused by hostilities, 316 settlements and 332,000 consumers remained de-energized (in whole or in part). On the territory of Zhytomyr, Rivne, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, 11,675 consumers are left without gas supply due to hostilities," the ministry states. According to the report, operational teams continue to carry out emergency recovery work on the ground and, as soon as possible, carry out repair work and connect consumers. "The energy system of Ukraine works stably and has enough reserves of energy resources to provide consumers," the ministry stressed. Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Kyrylo Shevchenko called on Asian countries to impose economic and financial sanctions similar to those of the United States and the European Union. "Asian countries should impose economic and financial sanctions similar to those imposed by the United States and the European Union," he said in an interview with Nikkei Asia. According to him, the imposition of sanctions by Asian countries will help increase pressure on Putin. Russia's aggression against Ukraine has resulted in large-scale sanctions against the Russian Federation, said adviser to the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak. "Russia's aggression against Ukraine is the collapse of systemic banks and the ruble, disconnection from SWIFT, sectoral sanctions against leading companies, restrictions on the import of high-tech products to Russia, closed skies for Russian aircraft, blocking the aviation industry, the straits closed by Turkey, Germany's decision to abandon Russian gas as soon as possible, the readiness of the European Union to provide weapons to Ukraine, the exclusion of Russia from global sports, as well as the search and blocking of the assets of all Russian tops who are under sanctions," Podoliak said on Twitter on Monday. Ukraine's PM thanks Dombrovskis for his efforts to support Ukraine's economy, security during wa Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal thanked European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis for his efforts to support the Ukrainian economy and security during the war. 'Valdis Dombrovskis your efforts in assisting Ukrainian economy and security means a lot to Ukraine, especially in times of war. Thanks! Ukrainians continue to fight for their European country and will never forget your support!" Shmyhal wrote on Twitter on Monday. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said that over two days, total donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in cryptocurrency amounted to $12.7 million. "Total donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in cryptocurrency have grown to $12.7 million in just two days," Fedorov wrote on his Telegram channel. According to him, most of all are transferred in: Ethereum $5.5 million, Bitcoin $4.4 million, and Tether $2.1 million. Staff of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine are awaiting withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics through Russia, the OSCE said in the early hours of Monday. "The SMM monitoring teams in Kharkiv and Kherson remain sheltered in place, owing to ongoing fighting, and its monitoring teams in Luhansk and Donetsk patrol hubs await withdrawal through the Russian Federation," it said. "The chief monitor along with the Kyiv Head Office senior management remain in place in Ukraine to oversee remaining mission withdrawal," it said, adding that the mission completed the evacuation of "most international mission members following the February 25 decision." Members of the United Nations Security Council have voted in favor of convening a special session of the UN General Assembly over the situation around Ukraine. Eleven countries voted for the resolution, three abstained, and Russia voted against. Thus, the UN Security Council has voted for applying UN General Assembly Resolution 377, which envisions referring to the UN General Assembly issues that cannot be debated at the UN Security Council "because of a lack of unanimity among its permanent members." Nine out of 15 UN Security Council votes are needed to refer the issue to the UN General Assembly, and the veto power cannot be used during this procedure. Western media outlets said earlier, citing diplomats, that such a session of the UN General Assembly could take place on Monday. A resolution could be adopted following it. UNWTO Secretary General urges to consider issue of terminating Russia's membership Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Zurab Pololikashvili called to consider the issue of terminating Russia's membership. "Russia's military aggression and breach of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity causes human suffering and threatens the whole world. These actions contradict the fundamental aims of UNWTO," Pololikashvili said on Twitter on Sunday. By Trend British foreign minister Liz Truss said on Sunday there could be no talks with Russia over Ukraine while Moscow has troops in its neighbour, Trend reports citing Reuters. Truss also said she had drawn up a "hit list" of Russian oligarchs and every few weeks the government would target their private jets, their properties and other possessions. The conflict could be protracted, she said. "Now if the Russians are serious about negotiations they need to remove their troops from Ukraine. They cannot negotiate with a gun to the head of the Ukrainians...So frankly, I don't trust these so-called efforts of negotiation," she told Sky News. Over 70,000 Ukrainian refugees arrive in Moldova in 3 days, more than 20,000 leave country - Interior Ministry More than 70,000 refugees from Ukraine have entered Moldova in the last few days, the press service for the Moldovan Interior Ministry said on Sunday. In total, 70,080 Ukrainian citizens moved into Moldova in the last three days as of 05:00 a.m. on Sunday, it said. In all, 20,285 Ukrainian citizens have left Moldova for the same period. These figures do not include refugees who arrived in Moldova on Sunday. "Last night, 3,423 Ukrainian citizens entered the Republic of Moldova. All border crossings with Ukraine are operating. Increased passenger traffic is observed at the Palanca-Maiaky-Udobne, Tudora-Starokazache and Otaci-Mohyliv-Podilsky checkpoints. At these checkpoints there are many kilometers of queues from the Ukrainian side, the waiting time is ten hours or more," the statement said. On Saturday, 471 requests for asylum were registered. In total, more than a thousand asylum applications have been filed in Moldova. The Moldovan parliament declared a state of emergency in the country for 60 days on Thursday due to the tense situation in Ukraine. Europe is now operating in a new paradigm, where Ukraine should be offered a "special track" of integration into the EU, Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said, according to Politico. "On Thursday morning, we woke up to a new world... They fight for themselves, they fight for us they fight for freedom... We have to realize that they are protecting our system, our values and we have to be together with them. So there is no time to hesitate on this," Heger said in an interview with Politico. It is indicated that the Prime Minister of Slovakia said that with regard to Ukraine, a new approach to European integration should be adopted. "There should be a 'totally new track' for a country that has gone through a war and 'wants to be part of Europe,'" the publication quotes his words. Heger believes this approach could also include helping to rebuild Ukraine. "We have to help them to get on their feet, and we have to come up with new tools," he said, putting forward the idea of a recovery fund for Ukraine. Heger assured that Slovakia is open to discuss further sanctions against Russia. "We have to be open to speak of everything that will stop Putin," he said. White House spokesman Jen Psaki claims that NATO and Ukraine do not pose a threat to Russia. "At no point has Russia been under threat from NATO, has Russia been under threat from Ukraine," she told ABC on Sunday. ABC clarifies that this is how Psaki commented on the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to transfer the containment forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty. She also announced the readiness of the United States to send more humanitarian, economic and military assistance to Ukraine. In response to a question about U.S. readiness to take action against Russia's energy sector, Psaki assured that all such options "are on the agenda." Earlier on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Valery Gerasimov, said that "top officials of leading NATO countries make aggressive statements about our country, so I order the defense minister and the chief of the General Staff to put the Russian army's deterrence forces on a special alert." Japanese PM says Tokyo will joint sanctions against several Russian banks media Japan will join Western countries in disconnecting a number of Russian banks from the SWIFT system, The Japan Times reported on Sunday, citing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. According to the publication, the prime minister said that Tokyo would also impose sanctions against Russian leaders and allocate emergency financial assistance to Ukraine. The Japan Times recalls that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is expected to speak with representatives of the G7 later on Sunday, and sanctions against Russia will be a likely topic of negotiations. On the night of Saturday to Sunday, the United States, EU, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and Canada announced an agreement reached to disconnect certain Russian banks from the SWIFT system. SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) is a system for transmitting financial messages (payment orders, instructions for the transfer of the Central Bank, reference information) for performing transactions in the market for payments, securities, derivative financial instruments. The system unites more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries. U.S. Ambassador to UN: Washington to follow results of Ukraine-Russia talks The United States will observe how the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Belarus will turn out, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN. We look forward to what will come out of these discussions, she said. She added that the United States, in connection with the development of the situation around Ukraine, was in favor of diplomacy. Earlier, press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov told Interfax that negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine would be held in Gomel region. The telegram channel of the President's Office claimed that the talks between the two countries would take place on Sunday on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border near the Pripyat River. Defense Minister, leader of Servant of the People faction among members of Ukrainian delegation at talks with Russia The Ukrainian delegation has arrived in the area of the Ukrainian-Belarusian border to participate in negotiations with representatives of the Russian Federation on February 28, 2022, the press service of the President's Office reports. "The delegation included head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, Advisor to the Head of the President's Office Mykhailo Podoliak, First Deputy Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group Andriy Kostin, MP Rustem Umerov and Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Mykola Tochytsky," the press service reports. "The key issue of the negotiations is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from the territory of Ukraine," the report says. Ukraine's Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko has appealed to UNESCO with a request to deprive Russia of the status of a UNESCO member and change the host country of the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee. "Russia's armed offensive against Ukraine is destroying numerous civilian and cultural heritage sites in Ukraine. Countless historical and architectural monuments and archaeological sites are under the threat of artillery shelling and uncontrolled movement of heavy military trucks," Tkachenko wrote on Telegram. The minister noted that since 2014 the Russian Federation has been systematically violating international humanitarian law and international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage, in particular, on the Crimean peninsula. "Russia's actions have already caused damage to the ancient city of Tauride Chersonese, included in the World Heritage List, as well as the Bakhchisarai Palace of the Crimean Khans, included in the indicative list, and other cultural heritage sites," he said. "Given this, Ukraine considers the continuation of Russia's presence in UNESCO unacceptable. We expect that the Ukrainian side will receive an answer and a decision on this issue as soon as possible," he added. Source: https://t.me/otkachenkokyiv/1230 High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell said he was convening a meeting of EU defense ministers on Monday to discuss the situation regarding Ukraine. "I am convening today the EU defense ministers to discuss the latest situation on the ground in Ukraine in view of Russia's unprovoked assault. We will discuss further urgent needs and coordinate our assistance, with help of the clearing house managed by the EU Military Staff," he said on Twitter. The Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy has asked the leaders of the global financial community to introduce new sanctions against financial institutions of the Russian Federation, the head of the committee, Danylo Hetmantsev (Servant of the People faction) has said. "Our committee appealed to the leaders of the global financial community and politicians with an appeal to take immediate and effective measures against the aggressor by imposing new sanctions. First of all, to impose sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia and immediately freeze its assets," Hetmantsev said on this Telegram channel on Monday. The profile committee also asks the global financial community to prohibit the Central Bank of Russia from accessing any operations and assets, to prohibit Russian organizations from accessing SWIFT, and to prohibit all investments in Russian assets. The Committee also proposes to impose sanctions and freeze the assets of all Russian oligarchs within 24 hours, unless they publicly oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's military leadership, led by Supreme Commander-in-Chief and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, have taken the military initiative on the fifth day since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov has said. "The plan of the Russian invasion was built on the principles of their Nazi predecessors a blitzkrieg of armored mechanized columns deep into the territory, the destruction of critical infrastructure, the blockade of large cities, the destruction of logistical ties, creating panic and chaos using saboteur groups and special operations to destroy the country's leadership... To date, none of these goals have been achieved. The enemy has been repulsed on all fronts, but heavy fighting continues," Danilov said on Facebook on Monday morning. Danilov noted that on the fifth day of the heroic struggle that Ukraine's military, territorial defense, the entire security and defense sector are fully mobilized. He emphasized the importance of "information counteraction," noting one of the critical problems for Russia's military leaders was to conceal real losses, which he said continue to increse. "One of the main tasks of the Ukrainian information resistance is to fully inform the residents of Russia and relatives of the Russian military about their casualties. Our goal is to undermine the enemy on its territory, to maximize the level of protest moods within Russia regarding the need for an immediate end to the war," Danilov said, adding that Ukraine's defense forces are growing stronger with each passing day. Source: https://www.facebook.com/danilov.oleksiy/posts/1381857992228447 By Trend Russia has closed its airspace for Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovenian and Estonian planes, including for transit flights, Russias Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsiya) said on Sunday, Trend reports citing TASS. "Due to unfriendly moves by aviation authorities of Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Estonia, restrictions will be introduced for air carriers of the above-mentioned states and/or airlines registered there," the agency said. The restrictions apply to "flights to destinations on the Russian territory, including transit flights via the Russian Federations airspace." The decision was made in accordance with the international law, as a response to those countries decision to close their airspace for Russian planes, the Russian aviation authority said. The following countries have closed their airspace for Russian aircraft: the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Earlier, Russia closed its airspace for UK, Bulgarian, Czech, Polish and Romanian planes. Russian air carriers continue their flights to Russias Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad in normal regime, despite Lithuanias decision to close its airspace for Russian planes, Agency said. "Flights of Russian air carriers to Kaliningrad continue in normal regime, despite Lithuanias ban. In order to reach this destination, Russian airlines will use aerial routes above neutral waters of the Baltic Sea," it said. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that 16 children were killed and 45 wounded during the Russian aggression. "In just four days, 16 Ukrainian children were killed and 45 wounded as a result of Russian shelling," he said in a video message on Monday morning. "Every crime, every shelling that the occupiers carry out against us unites," he said. According to Zelensky, "the Russian state is suffering such losses as if the war had passed through its territory." "What is it for you? Russian mothers, teachers, entrepreneurs, ordinary people?.. Already 4,500 Russian soldiers have been killed. Why did you come to us? Why are the columns of your armored vehicles going against us?" the President of Ukraine said. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Australia has decided to impose sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and other representatives of the Russian leadership. "As of midnight last night, Australian targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against the Russian president and other permanent members of the Russian Security Council came into effect," the prime minister said in a statement released on Monday. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrova, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev were also sanctioned. Morrison added that "this reflects the depth of our concerns" in connection with the situation around Ukraine. The statement says that the Australian government has pledged to provide Ukraine with "lethal and non-lethal military equipment, medicines," as well as allocate financial assistance to Ukraine, and contribute $3 million to the NATO fund for Ukraine. Details of this assistance "are being worked out with partners and will be announced in the near future," the prime minister's office said. Ukrainian diplomacy has mobilized an unprecedentedly broad anti-Putin coalition to support Ukraine in the People's War, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said. "Ukrainian diplomacy has mobilized an unprecedentedly broad anti-Putin coalition to support Ukraine in the People's War against the Russian invasion. It currently includes 84 countries and 13 international organizations. Russia is already suffering unheard of losses. And this is just the beginning," the Foreign Ministry's press service quotes the words of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba in Telegram on Monday. It is noted that during the first 100 hours of defense of Ukraine from Russian invaders, Ukrainian diplomacy mobilized more than $1 billion in partner assistance for the purchase of modern weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian Defense Forces. "The United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, the EU and other countries provide us with a large number of man-portable air defense systems, anti-tank installations, small arms, cartridges, mine-clearing equipment, bulletproof vests, helmets, medical kits, and fuel for military equipment. Now the issue of transferring combat fighter jets to our state is being decided in order to more effectively repel enemy attacks in the air," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry informed. The Foreign Ministry also recalled that the anti-Putin coalition of states imposed three packages of painful sanctions against Russia, in particular, the list of Russian banks to be disconnected from SWIFT is being finalized, half of the financial reserves of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation have been frozen, restrictions have been imposed on Sberbank of the Russian Federation, a ban on the sale, supply, transfer and export of oil refining technologies to Russia has been introduced, dual-use export licenses have been suspended, and visas for Russian citizens have been stopped in some countries. "The Russian ruble has already fallen to a historic low. For the first time in modern history, sanctions have been imposed against the incumbent head of state, Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian diplomacy is conducting an active diplomatic offensive towards a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas. Some 32 countries have closed their airspace to Russian airlines and aircraft," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said. In addition, in Europe, the Russian disinformation channels RT and Sputnik are massively closed. "The coalition is developing a sanctions offensive against the aggressor state. Preparations have begun for the fourth package of sanctions against Russia, which, in particular, will include the expulsion of some Russian diplomats, further strengthening of sanctions against the banking system and Putin's entourage. The EU is considering the creation of a so-called 'register of Russian corrupt officials,' which will include both government officials and businessmen close to the Kremlin who will not be able to have financial relations or do business with the civilized world," the report says. The Foreign Ministry said that the partners had decided to provide financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of more than $1.5 billion dollars. "We have raised more than $160 million to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of Ukrainians affected by Russian aggression. The amount of this assistance is increasing every day," the message says. Macron will meet with Scholz, von der Leyen in Paris on Monday to discuss situation regarding Ukraine - media Later on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Paris, French television reported, citing the Elysee Palace. According to the office of the French leader, Macron will meet with them at the Elysee Palace for dinner, during which they will discuss the situation regarding Ukraine and "European sovereignty." The Elysee Palace also indicated that on Monday afternoon Macron will take part in a video conference with the leaders of NATO member countries in order to "continue close cooperation between the allies and European partners" on the situation regarding Ukraine. Ukraine welcomes a decision of the overwhelming majority of the members of the United Nations Security Council, according to which, on February 28, 2022, an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to Russia's invasion of Ukraine begins its work. "This tool, used in the event that the Security Council cannot effectively fulfill its main function of maintaining international peace and security due to the imposition of a veto by a permanent member of the Security Council, will only be used at the UN for the 11th time since 1950," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in an official statement released on Monday. It is noted that the decision, against which only the aggressor country expectedly voted, confirmed "Russia's humiliating and shameful isolation on a global scale." "Starting from February 28, all UN member states will be able to discuss in detail the situation around a phenomenon unprecedented for the 21st century a full-scale war that the Russian Federation launched in the center of Europe. The first result of the work of this important session for our state should be the adoption of a resolution of the UN General Assembly with clear signals on the cessation of Russian aggression against Ukraine and the restoration of peace through the ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, as well as a number of other important signals, including in the humanitarian sphere," the Foreign Ministry stressed. They specify that this step will no longer allow Russia, which has been abusing its right of veto at the Security Council with impunity for years, to block the adoption of this important international document for Ukraine. "Thank you for the strong support of Ukraine at the Security Council and we look forward to even greater support for our state at the General Assembly. We also look forward to the next meeting of the UN Security Council on February 28 to discuss the humanitarian needs of the civilian population in Ukraine," the ministry concluded. Ukrainian border guards who defended the Snake Island (Odesa region) from the Russian army and who were considered dead are actually alive and are held captive by the Russians, the press service of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. "Regarding the marines and border guards taken prisoner by the Russian invaders on the Snake Island. We are very pleased to learn that our brothers are alive and everything is fine with them! But Russian propaganda is trying to spin the 'news' that allegedly the Ukrainian authorities 'forgot' and 'buried' her subordinates," the statement said. It clarifies that the defenders of the Ukrainian island twice repelled the attack of the Russian invaders. For lack of ammunition, they were unable to continue the defense of the island. The Navy notes that before capturing the Ukrainian defenders, the invaders completely destroyed the infrastructure of the island: a lighthouse, towers, antennas, and the like. Communication with the Snake Island was interrupted. "Multiple attempts to contact the personnel and find out their fate were in vain. And the constant shelling from the warships and aircraft of the Russian Federation did not allow delivering help to the marines," the Navy said. They add that on February 26, having received information that there may be dead and wounded among our defenders on the Snake Island, a search and rescue vessel Sapphire was sent to the island to carry out a humanitarian mission to help the victims. "Priests Vasyl Vyrozub, Oleksandr Chokov and their assistants agreed to go with the crew. But they were illegally captured by the Russians. Illegal seizure of a civilian non-combatant ship that did not carry out any military task is a violation of the rules and customs of war, international humanitarian law. We demand from the Russian Federation the immediate release of illegally captured citizens of Ukraine," the Navy stressed. The Ukrainian military also appealed to the world community, to believers of all churches, with a request to take all possible measures to influence the Russian Federation in order to return Ukrainian citizens. "Summing up what has been said, we want to add that the enemy has once again demonstrated its essence. And again proved that there is no faith and truth in its actions and words," the Navy summed up. EU waiting to receive Zelensky's request for immediate membership for consideration BRUSSELS. Feb 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The European Union has said it expects that the request of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to urgently grant Ukraine membership in the Community will arrive in the very near future, after which the procedure for its consideration will begin. This was announced on condition of anonymity on Monday in Brussels by a high-ranking European official. Answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine about the actions of the EU in terms of considering Zelensky's request, he said: "We are aware of this. Yesterday I spoke directly with the Minister of Foreign Affairs seven or nine times. I understand that the application is at its final stage preparation. I expect that we will most likely receive it as soon as possible. Then, and this is quite obvious, the procedure will begin - the council will consider the application very quickly to decide whether to make a request for an urgent opinion with side of the European Commission. Therefore, it is quite clear what the procedure is. So we expect to receive an application as soon as possible." He also detailed the procedure itself in its classical form. "Let me start with the legal aspect. Article 49 of the Treaty makes it very clear that any European country that shares the fundamental values and principles of the Community can apply for membership. Further, in terms of procedure, it also indicated in this article. First, to whom the application should be sent? According to the Treaty, the application must be sent to the Council. That means the presidency. Now it is France. Then the Council will inform about the application. At the same time, we must inform the European parliament and national parliaments," the European official said. The next step, he said, is for the General Affairs Council to decide whether to seek the opinion of the European Commission on the application. "If they do this, then the Commission, and usually it takes - again - I don't want to talk about urgency - this is a classic procedure - from 15 to 18 months - will provide its opinion. It can be longer and can be much faster, given the political a necessity. I think one of the reasons why this is important for Zelensky is that (it can be used) potentially in discussions with Russia to find a way out (of the war).The EU is a project that is based on the basis of peace and conflict resolution through dialogue," he stressed. According to a high-ranking European, the issue of what is happening in Ukraine "is constantly on the minds of our leaders." President Michel, for example, is going to Paris tonight, where he will have dinner with President Macron, as well as German Chancellor Scholz. Ms. von der Leyen will also be there. I am sure that this issue will be a subject of discussion. We will have an informal EU summit on March 11. I can imagine that the topic of Ukraine will be discussed," he added. As previously reported, on Monday, Ukrainian President Zelensky said that Ukraine had applied to the European Union with a request for urgent accession under a special procedure. "We appeal to the European Union for the urgent accession of Ukraine under a new special procedure. We are grateful to our partners for being by our side, but our dream is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing," he said. The Ukrainian authorities are calling on the Interpol Executive Council to immediately expel Russia from the organization, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky has said. "Russia should be expelled from the Interpol organization for violating its basic principles and massively misusing tools and services to cover up its crimes and persecute political enemies, including in Ukraine," he wrote on Facebook. The Minister said that the authorities call on the Interpol Executive Board to take such a decision immediately. Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of the President's Office of Ukraine, said that Kyiv's position during the negotiations with Russia is understandable and consists in a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine. On the air of the Current Time television channel, Arestovych said that in accordance with international conventions, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the course of negotiations is not covered until the parties express a common communique. "Let us not violate. Our position is approximately clear: no conditions and ultimatums," Arestovych was quoted by the publication on Monday. According to the adviser to the head of the President's Office, for the first time Kyiv refused to participate in the negotiations due to the fact that the Russian side wanted to come "from the outside: you capitulate there, and then we will talk to you." "We laughed heartily at the office and the first time they refused to negotiate. When they asked for the second time, and the very fact that they ask us first for negotiations, says a lot, from my point of view, and promised to remove the preconditions, we agreed," the adviser to the head of the President's Office said. He said the conditions of Ukraine are clear - a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, and "this is on the table from the Ukrainian side." Answering clarifying questions from the presenter, Arestovych said that it was, among other things, about the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Crimea and Donbas. "All troops from the territory of Ukraine. They will bury everyone anyway, so it is better to leave voluntarily. You have no idea what is going on here. We have more than 100,000 reservists lined up in a day," he said. European Union intends in the near future to activate existing, but never before applied, Temporary Protection Directives, which will allow Ukrainian refugees forced to leave the country due to the war waged by Russia to receive protection in the EU for up to 12 months. "For the first time ever, Temporary Protection Directives will come into force now. It is a legislative instrument that exists but has never been applied. When these directives are activated, it will allow Ukrainian citizens to receive automatic protection for an initial period of up to 12 months, which can then be extended by six months. I expect this decision to be made very quickly," a senior European official said on Monday in Brussels on condition of anonymity. He also said he was proud of Europe for how it received 380,000 refugees from Ukraine, who were "greeted with open arms." "I spoke to a colleague from Poland yesterday and he said it was incredible! We at the government [of Poland] have prepared 100,000 places for the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees, but none of these places has been used at the border we have a huge traffic jam of cars of people who are traveling from Poland to the border with Ukraine not to go to Ukraine, but to welcome refugees and offer them shelter in their own homes," the official said emotionally. By Trend The Ukrainian side has picked Gomel, a city in Belarus, as a venue for talks with Russia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Sunday, Trend reports citing TASS. "The city of Gomel was suggested by the Ukrainian side itself as a venue for talks. As we said, the Russian delegation is ready for these talks," Peskov said. Russia will not suspend the military operation in Ukraine during the talks with the Ukrainian side, Peskov said. "For our part we have warned the Ukrainian side that this time the actions suggested by the military operation will not be suspended - as was done yesterday," he said. As a result of shelling by Russian troops in Kharkiv on Monday afternoon, some 11 people were killed, dozens more were wounded, Head of the regional military-civilian administration Oleh Syniehubov said. "What is happening now in Kharkiv is a war crime! This is the genocide of the Ukrainian people. The Russian enemy is shelling entire residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, where there are no UAF positions that the Russians could aim at Saltivka, Pavlove Pole," Syniehubov said in his Telegram channel. He said that dozens of civilians are dying, Russia is using heavy artillery weapons. "Due to the shelling that is still going on, we cannot even engage rescue services in time and remove the consequences. Just at this moment, some 11 dead, dozens of wounded. We express our condolences to the deceased," the head of the Regional State Administration said. Syniehubov said that the fight continues. "We will stand, residents of Kharkiv region, we help each other, we are united!" he said. At the moment, Russian troops continue massive shelling of residential areas of Kharkiv, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Vadym Denisenko has said. "Unfortunately, we are forced to state that the Russian army is shelling massively residential areas of the city of Kharkiv. Now, at these moments, there is a crazy shelling of Kharkiv from rocket weapons. There are already wounded, there are killed. These are exclusively civilians and this is shelling of an exclusively peaceful city," he said in a video statement on Monday. He said the reason for the attacks on Kharkiv is the attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to get at least some kind of victory for the internal information picture. "This is happening for one simple reason: the Ukrainian army has started to hit the enemy, and sanctions are starting to hit the Russian economy. Vladimir Putin, apparently, is betting that he needs at least some kind of victory in order to disseminate the information picture from himself in Russia for pseudo-victories on the territory of Ukraine. The Russian president is hiding in a bunker for the fifth day, he does not go out to his people for the fifth day, and for the fifth day he is afraid to appear in public," Denysenko said. He also said that no revolutions are expected in Russia at the moment. "But Putin is paranoid, and he is obviously afraid of his elite. That is why he is hiding in a bunker for the fifth day, that is why he does not go out to people for the fifth day, and that is why he is fighting against the state of Ukraine for the fifth day. And what he does today in Kharkiv, the fact that civilians are being killed, the fact that at this moment any rules of warfare are being violated - this, of course, will be proven in court later, and he will certainly appear before The Hague. And we will defend Kharkiv, as it is our Ukrainian Patriotic war, and we will win our Patriotic war," he said. The Vatican is ready to continue facilitating possible contacts between Russia and Ukraine, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State told Italian media. "The Holy See in recent years has been constantly and closely following the events in Ukraine, expressing its readiness to promote dialogue with Russia and help the sides," the Secretary of State said. "I am convinced that there is room for negotiations. It is never too late! After all, the only reasonable and constructive way to iron out differences is dialogue," Parolin said. "We must avoid any escalation, stop the confrontation and sit down at the negotiating table," the Vatican spokesperson said. Last Friday, Pope Francis discussed with the Russian Ambassador to the Vatican th The French government has said it intends to confiscate all assets of Russian oligarchs in the country subject to EU sanctions, including real estate, as well as luxury yachts and cars, reports the Financial Times, citing Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. "We will also identify all Russian citizens with assets in France who could be added to the European sanctions list for links to the Russian government," the minister said Monday at a cabinet meeting. "We will get legal grounds for the confiscation of all these assets," he said. Members of the government will be holding meetings this week with representatives of French business to "clearly understand the implications of this crisis for trade, as well as the supply of components and critical metals," Le Maire said. He also said that the finance ministers of the G7 states will meet on Tuesday to discuss the imposition of sanctions against Russia in connection with the military attack on Ukraine. Kuleba: New US, EU sanctions against Russia, new weapons for Ukraine are on way New U.S., EU and other sanctions against Russia and new weapons for Ukraine are on the way, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said. "New U.S., EU and other sanctions are on the way. New weapons are going to Ukraine for our defenders. But Sergey Lavrov, an accomplice in the crime of aggression against Ukraine, is no longer going to Geneva, as his plane was not allowed through because of the sky closed to Russia Europe," Kuleba said on Facebook on Monday. He informed about the introduction of additional sanctions. "The U.S. Department of the Treasury has banned U.S. individuals and legal entities from making any transactions that include the Central Bank of Russia, the National Wealth Fund of Russia or the Ministry of the Treasury of Russia. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has also imposed blocking sanctions against the Russian Direct Investment Fund, two of its subsidiaries, as well as chief executive director of the fund," the minister said. Ukraine's Minister of Energy Herman Haluschenko addressed the ministers of energy of the EU countries regarding the speedy integration of the energy system of Ukraine into the European ENTSO-E. "I appeal to our European partners regarding the speedy synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with ENTSO-E. We need your support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people more than ever!" Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko wrote on his Facebook page. As he noted, Ukraine has been at war with the Russian Federation for five days, and during this time the Ukrainian energy system has been operating in an isolated mode. "We refused to return to parallel work with the systems of the Russian Federation and Belarus. We proved the seriousness of our intentions to integrate with the European system, even in this difficult wartime," the minister stressed. According to the official, despite military aggression from Russia, rocket attacks, attacks on critical infrastructure facilities, the Ukrainian energy system, operating autonomously, has proven its reliability and ensured the security of electricity supplies to consumers. As reported, with reference to EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, the European Union energy ministers at an extraordinary meeting on Monday will discuss the synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with the European one. Swedish PM says Stockholm to supply 5,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine media Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Sunday announced the supply of anti-tank weapons, as well as helmets and body armor to Ukraine, Western media reported. "Now Sweden is offering direct support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It includes 135,000 field rations, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 bulletproof vests and 5,000 anti-tank weapons," she said at a press conference. Ukraine applies to ECtHR with demand to stop Russian attacks on civilian objects Ukraine has applied to the European Court of Human Rights with a statement on the introduction of interim measures, demanding, among other things, a stop to Russia's military attack on civilian targets, Justice Minister Denys Maliuska has said. "To immediately stop military attacks against civilian objects, including residential buildings, private cars, ambulances and other specially protected civilian objects, such as schools and hospitals on the territory of Ukraine," the minister listed a number of demands against the Russian Federation. He clarified that such an appeal was made in accordance with Rule 39 of the ECtHR Rules. KSG Agro continues to ensure the food security of Ukraine during the Russian aggression, its pig breeding complex, the feed mill, the meat processing plant and other enterprises are operating normally, according to the website of the agrarian group. According to its data, the agricultural holding continues to ship pork to the largest Ukrainian retail chains amid a significant increase in demand for it. "We, the farmers, are well aware that the security of the country, food security, depends on us. Therefore, today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, we will work to provide the inhabitants of our country with food. We have enough reserves for this, both human and production, and raw materials," the agricultural holding quotes its chairman of the board of directors and majority shareholder Serhiy Kasyanov. According to KSG Agro, it provides half of the market of Dnipropetrovsk region with pork of its own production, its shipments are carried out to other regions of the country. The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding, as well as the production, storage, processing and sale of grains and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21,000 hectares in Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions. Rada intends to apply to EU for Ukraine's accession to EU under special procedure The conciliation council of the leaders of parliamentary factions and groups initiates an appeal by the Verkhovna Rada to the European Union on the immediate admission of Ukraine to the EU under a special procedure, MP Dmytro Razumkov (non-factional) has said. "Today the Verkhovna Rada held a meeting of the Conciliation Council and prepared a number of important decisions! The first is an appeal by the Verkhovna Rada to the European Union regarding the immediate admission of Ukraine to the EU under a special procedure!" Razumkov wrote on Facebook on Monday. According to him, the conciliation council also decided to appeal to the UN General Assembly with a demand to exclude the Russian Federation from the UN Security Council. "A draft law is being prepared on the confiscation of the assets of the aggressor state on the territory of Ukraine," Razumkov said. Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, has announced the appointment of renowned emerging markets investor Mark Mobius as an advisor to its India business. The appointment of Mobius adds a unique blend of investment expertise and markets knowledge to Investcorps India advisory board. As a founding partner of Mobius Capital Partners and formerly the Head of Emerging Markets at Franklin Templeton, Mobius has spent over 40 years working and investing in emerging and frontier markets and has been in charge of actively managed funds totaling over $50 billion in assets. Prior to establishing Mobius Capital Partners, Mobius was with Franklin Templeton for over 30 years. During his tenure, the group expanded its assets under management from $100 million to over $40 billion and launched several emerging market and frontier funds focusing on Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Commenting on the appointment of Mobius, Rishi Kapoor, Co-Chief Executive Officer at Investcorp, said: It is an honour to welcome Mark Mobius to our India advisory board. As we look to accelerate our growth in India, Marks wisdom, foresight and years of invaluable financial acumen will be crucial to our journey. As several of Investcorps Indian portfolio companies may exit via public markets over the next few years, we will benefit from Marks unparalleled insights as a leading public equities investor. Mobius commented: Investcorp has performed incredibly well and has delivered beyond expectations. Indian entrepreneurs and the market, both, have wonderful potential. It has an impeccable team to spot winners. I look forward to working with the team in exploring and expanding investment opportunities in India.-- TradeArabia News Service Kuleba urges Russians to do everything to prevent their servicemen from being sent to war against Ukraine Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the Russians to demand that Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately stop hostilities and do everything to prevent the Russian servicemen from being sent to war against Ukraine. "You can still stop Putin, demand that he immediately ceases hostilities and take Russian troops from Ukrainian soil, demand that the war be stopped. There will be no other result for you, except for thousands of coffins and impoverishment. army, immediately do everything so that they return home or they are not sent anywhere, so that they are not sent to this terrible meat grinder, to death," Kuleba said at a briefing for Russian-language media on Monday. The minister said it is about the survival of the Ukrainian people and Ukraine. "In any case, we will stop Putin. No one has ever won a war in history if it is a war against an entire nation. Today the Ukrainian people are fighting, and we will stop this war. you will do by stopping Putin inside Russia," Kuleba said. The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry indicated that he understands that the regime in Russia is harshly suppressing the protests. "But there is much more at stake today: either you, your and your loved ones lives, or they are liars and criminals who lined their own pockets and who now easily, in just a few days, threw back your country in development for many decades and turned all of you into outcasts for the world. Stop this war," Kuleba said. Ukraine and Russia outlined certain decisions during the negotiations, Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the President's Office of Ukraine said. "The Ukrainian and Russian delegations held the first round of talks today, the main purpose of which was to discuss the issues of a ceasefire on the territory of Ukraine and hostilities. The sides identified a number of priority topics on which certain decisions were outlined," he said. "In order for these decisions to get some opportunities for implementation, logistical solutions, the parties leave for consultations in their capitals. The sides discussed the possibility of holding a second round of negotiations in the near future, at which these topics will receive concrete development practice," he said. According to Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, the next meeting "will be held in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is a corresponding agreement." On outskirts of Brovary, closer to Kyiv, air attack carried out, there are wounded mayor Mayor of Brovary, Kyiv region, Ihor Sapozhko said that an air raid was carried out in the direction of Kyiv, due to which there were wounded. "A few minutes ago, an air attack was carried out on the outskirts of Brovary towards Kyiv. There are wounded. Stay in shelters!" Sapozhko wrote on his Facebook on Monday. As result of air attack on military unit in Brovary, one killed, five wounded Mayor of Brovary, Kyiv region, Ihor Sapozhko, said that six people were wounded as a result of an air attack on the outskirts of the city, and later one of them died. "We are clarifying our losses: one killed, five wounded. An air raid near the military unit of Kyiv," Sapozhko said on his Facebook on Monday. Before that, there was information that after the air attack six were wounded. As reported, an air attack was carried out on the outskirts of Brovary towards Kyiv. The Russian army is launching a missile attack on the city of Vasylkiv near Kyiv, Mayor of the city Natalia Balasynovych said. "Vasylkiv is being fired upon with rockets! All the residents are in shelter! Do not come out until the morning!" Balasynovych said on Facebook. Nine people killed, 37 wounded in Kharkiv over shelling by Russian troops mayor In Kharkiv, as a result of shelling by Russian troops, nine people were killed and 37 were wounded, Mayor of the city Ihor Terekhov said. "Over the current day, some 37 people wounded, of which three are children. People came out, four people, went out of the bomb shelter to get water and were killed. The family - two adults and three children - were burned alive in the car," he said in his video statement. In addition, another woman died in the hospital, Terekhov said on the air of the Kyiv television channel. Moreover, 15 servicemen and 15 civilians were wounded of varying severity. Doctors are fighting for their lives. The city continues to collect information about the dead and wounded. In addition, Terekhov said that in Kharkiv they are looking for housing for people whose houses were destroyed. A large number of infrastructure facilities were also damaged. Terekhov thanked the employees of all public utilities who repair networks in wartime, take out garbage, and continue to ensure the life of Kharkiv. "We have only about 30 houses without heating, although there was a period when there were more than 200. A low bow to all utilities," the mayor said. He said that there is a call center in the city that accepts all requests. Logistic trains are also organized to collect medicines, food, warm clothes and essentials. "We are together! Kharkiv is a Ukrainian city, and we will hold out until victory. I want to appeal to all Kharkiv residents. You are real heroes," Terekhov said. European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson believes that the emergency synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with the European ENTSO-E can be conducted in a few weeks. She said this at a press conference after the meeting of the European Energy Council in Brussels on Monday. The European Commissioner said that European joint high priority to synchronize Ukraine's electricity grid to European one instead of the Russian one. Increasing Ukrainian energy independence is a strategic initiative. On the very same day that Ukraine began testing operation (grid) in isolated mode, the first step in preparation for future synchronization with the EU, the Russian army invaded Ukraine. Simson said she spoke with Minister Haluschenko again yesterday and he informed her that under the current conditions they will not be reconnected to the Russian power grid. As a result, Ukraine is asking for extremely urgent synchronization with the European energy system, and to do it as soon as possible. This is a technical challenge. There was broad support from the ministers for this. Therefore, the European Energy Council will move forward to join the Ukrainian system as soon as possible. Giving an assessment of the operation of the Ukrainian energy system in an isolated mode, Simson said all the necessary stages were successfully completed. She said that she met with ENTSO-E this morning, they believe that technically an emergency connection is possible. While Ukraine continues to operate in an isolated mode, it is now difficult, even for neighboring countries, to provide any assistance. As for the time, it is not it is a matter of hours, it is a matter of days, probably a few weeks. Poland to provide all necessary aid in process of Ukraine's accession to EU FM Poland will provide all necessary assistance in the process of Ukraine's accession to the EU, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau has said. "Poland has always stood for Ukraine's membership in the EU. Today, when Ukrainians are heroically defending themselves against Russian aggression, it is time to welcome Ukraine to the EU community. Poland will provide all necessary assistance in the process of Ukraine's accession," Rau said on Twitter on Monday. AFU in Sumy region destroys gas station of Russian army by Bayraktar strikes Pivnich task force Near the city of Lebedyn (Sumy region), the Ukrainian army destroyed 96 enemy tanks, 20 hailstones, eight fuel trucks with Bayraktar strikes, the Pivnich (North) task force said. "Destroyed! Some 96 enemy tanks, 20 hailstones, eight fuel trucks near Lebedin were burned to the ground by artillery and accurate strikes from Bayraktars. The connection of the Ukrainian energy system to the ENTSO-E energy grid, which is envisaged in a few weeks amid Russia's military aggression, will be a historic decision that can help in the war and become the best solution for the future, Chairperson of the Board of NPC Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytsky said. "Ukraine's accession to the ENTSO-E energy grid will be a historic decision and evidence that Ukraine is an integral part of the European space. The European energy system will stretch from Mariupol to Lisbon. Ukrenergo and the entire energy industry have been preparing for this decision for six years," Kudrytsky said. He said that during the preparation for integration, Ukraine has invested more than EUR 700 million in the development of the electric power infrastructure, strengthened the cyber protection of energy facilities, and met all the key technical conditions for it. Integration into the European energy grid will not only help Ukraine during the war, but will also become the best solution for the future. "After the war, it will allow Ukraine and Europe to jointly develop their energy sector and improve the energy security of all European countries," the company said in the statement. The company said the Ukrainian power system should be integrated into the power grids of continental Europe ENTSO-E as soon as possible. "This position was supported by the energy ministers of the EU countries at an extraordinary meeting of the EU Energy Council," Ukrenergo said. The company explained that Ukraine has already proven its ability to manage the energy system during Russia's military aggression and information attacks and maintain its stable operation. "The transmission system operator Ukrenergo and other Ukrainian energy companies are doing everything today to ensure that the armed forces of Ukraine, territorial defense and civilians have a sustainable power supply under any conditions," the company said. According to the statements, if Russia continues to violate international law during the war and launches an armed strike on the Ukrainian energy system, Ukraine will need support from European partners and Europe as a whole. "This support will allow Ukrenergo to maintain a sustainable power supply to the military infrastructure, which will help our heroic army continue to defend Ukraine, and Ukrainian hospitals to provide medical assistance. This will avoid a humanitarian and environmental disaster and not leave Ukrainian cities without electricity, water and heat," the company said. For his part, Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko on his Facebook thanked the energy ministers of the EU member states "for the unprecedented support for Ukraine in the face of the most flagrant Russian aggression against our state." "The meeting of ministers testified that the EU is clearly aware of the need to counter the challenges posed by armed aggression against Ukraine," the minister said, adding that along with military and humanitarian assistance, the EU also supports the speedy connection of the Ukrainian energy system to the interconnected grid of continental Europe. According to him, the necessary technical things will be solved in close coordination with the European Commission, the EU countries and the closest international partners. Emaar, The Economic City, the master developer of Jeddah-based King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), the largest privately-funded new city in the world, has signed a contract worth SR113.5 million ($30.2 million) with Lucid Company for the leasing of an industrial plot within KAEC Industrial Valley. As per the deal, Lucid Company will lease an industrial plot in KAEC Industrial Valley for a 25-year term, said Emaar, The Economic City in its filing to the Saudi bourse Tadawul. During this period, it will construct and operate automotive manufacturing and assembly facilities at KAEC Industrial Valley and also provide all ancillary services. There will be a financial impact for the contract period from 2022 to 2047, it stated. The Emaar, The Economic City Chairman Assim Alsuhaibani and a board member Majed Alsorour have an indirect interest in this contract, as they are the representatives of Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF), the largest investor in Lucid Company.-TradeArabia News Service In the city of Brovary, Kyiv region, as a result of an air attack by Russian military on Monday, according to preliminary data, one person killed and five were wounded, head of Kyiv regional state administration Oleksiy Kuleba said on Facebook. According to his information, there was a missile strike in Vasylkiv, data on the victims are being specified. "Bila Tserkva - hit by rockets, Konovaltsia Street. The hostel was destroyed. People can be under the rubble," Kuleba said. He added that the search and rescue operation continues, two people have already been rescued. In Fastiv, at the checkpoint of Kadlubytsia, a battle is going on. "Probably with a sabotage group," the head of the region said. He appealed to residents with a request to stay in the most protected places, in shelters. Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin said on Monday that Helsinki would send arms and military ammunition to Ukraine, Western media said. In turn, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen said the deliveries will include 1,500 anti-tank weapons, some 2,500 assault rifles, some 150,000 rounds of ammunition and 70,000 field rations. Equiti Group, a pioneering fintech group, has announced the appointment of Marta Ilbak as the new global head of Human Resources. Ilbak brings a wealth of diverse human resource management experience having worked in a range of HR roles across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She joins Equiti from tech unicorn Deliveroo where she worked as Head of People. In this role she was mainly responsible for business expansion, organisational design, and talent evaluation and development programmes for human capital. She also managed a major redesign of HR processes and systems in the Middle East in preparation for the companys IPO in April 2021. Iskandar Najjar, Equiti Group CEO, said: Im very pleased to welcome Marta and excited about the initiatives she will bring to Equiti Group. Im looking forward to Martas contribution to our performance and delivery culture, the continued expansion of our offices and people, as well as growth of our talent development and management initiatives. Ilbak said: "I have been very impressed by the energy, drive and openness of the management and employees at Equiti. My goal is to drive the companys HR agenda with purpose and passion, develop career progression opportunities and create a great place to work based on integrity, agility, and the best global HR standards. Ilbak has a Bachelors degree in Human Resources Management and a Diploma in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Wuppertal in Germany. She succeeds Nigel Holmes who has successfully held the role of Global Head of HR since Equiti Groups inception in early 2017.-TradeArabia News Service Al-Azhar condemned Friday terrorist attack on a mosque in Afghanistans capital Kabul that left dozens of worshippers dead and injured. Deputy chairperson of Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), Mohamed Anwar Esmat El-Sadat issued a statement on Tuesday indicating that the issue of political prisoners in Egypt will be closed in the near future. Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea and a delegation from Mercedes-Benz Egypt discussed in Cairo on Tuesday boosting the companys projects in the country. Sudan will raise the capacity of its power grid link with Egypt from 70 MW to 300 MW and later to 1,000 MW after static compensators were delivered this week, the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum announced in a statement Thursday. Bahrains first Business Angels firm Tenmou has opened registration to SMEs wishing to benefit from the guidance and investment avenues it provides through a tie-up with the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) in the US. The project aims to grow the SMEs sector in Bahrain and increase its contribution to GDP, in line with the government's recent economic recovery plan. Bahraini SMEs may now apply to join this programme by contacting the Tenmou team and following through on registration and acceptance processes, according to Nawaf AlKoheji, CEO of Tenmou. He explained that this programme will be taking 25 startups at the beginning of March and another 25 startups again in August at dividing them into groups of 5 surrounding their sector, either Sports, Retail, Tech, Food, and Beverage or Manufacturing, and pairing them up with a reputable mentor to attend a one-on-one mentorship style programme once a month for three months where they will be given the tools and the direction to take grow their SME. The mentors to attend the programme include Suzy Kanoo - CEO and president of Khalil bin Ebrahim Kanoo Company and International Motor Trading Agency, and Al Ghalia Group - managing firm of Cafe Lilou, Monsoon and Fatto, Khaled Albalooshi - Founder of K-Labs, Mahmood Abdulsamad Mohamed - Owner, Reps Fitness Studio & Ministry of Youth & Sports, and Ammar Awachi - CEO of TAHA International Industrial Services. AlKoheji added that the companies accepted in the programme will have the opportunity to be provided with the tools and guidance necessary for their growth, increase productivity, upsurge their competitiveness, and ability to reach their services and products to regional and international markets. He said that concluding the mentorship aspect of the programme the startups will then be given the opportunity to participate in a pitch night hosted by Tenmou and CIPE where they will pitch to a pool of investors and potentially receive investment. Tenmou launched this programme last December through an agreement signed by AlKoheji, with Abdulwahab Alkebsi, President of CIPE.-- TradeArabia News Service Ahmed El-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Egypts top religious authority Al-Azhar, has called for world leaders and international institutions to support peaceful solutions to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. A Russian invasion of Ukraine has continued for the third day with heavy fighting in Kyiv outskirts. The conflict has claimed the lives of 198 Ukrainians, according to the Ukrainian health ministry, and caused tens of thousands of residents to flee from the country. In a Facebook post on Saturday, El-Tayyeb called for Russia and Ukraine to refer to the voice of reason, saying conflicts can only be settled through dialogue. Wars will only bring more killing, destruction and hatred to our world, El-Tayyeb added. Egypt has affirmed on Thursday evening the importance of upholding dialogue and diplomatic solutions, as well as endeavours that would hasten a political settlement to the Ukrainian crisis, according to a statement by the foreign ministry. Search Keywords: Short link: Turkey on Sunday officially recognised Russia's attacks on Ukraine as a "state of war" and said it was implementing an international treaty giving Ankara the power to limit warships' passage through the strategic Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. Ankara had called the Russian invasion a "military operation", but Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "It's no longer a military operation but a state of war," in an interview with CNN Turk television. "In this case, of course, whichever of them, it can be Russia or Ukraine, we apply the Montreux agreement," he added. The 1936 Montreux Convention governs the free movement of commercial ships in peacetime through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits and grants Turkey the right to block warships in wartime if threatened. Ukraine has officially asked Turkey to close the Dardanelles strait -- and thus access to the Black Sea -- to Russian ships. NATO member Turkey, which has strong ties with both Russia and Ukraine, did not immediately respond to this request. But Cavusoglu said Turkey cannot prevent Russian and Ukrainian ships accessing the Black Sea due to Article 19 of the convention that allows littoral states' vessels to return to their home base. He said whether the ship is registered to the home base was clear and warned against any abuse. "It should not be involved in the war after declaring it will return to the base and passing through the Bosphorus," the minister said. Turkey has strong relations with both Russia and Ukraine and has offered to host talks between their leaders. "We have repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution, but the war is a reality right now," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top press aide Fahrettin Altun tweeted on Sunday. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's Ministry of Foreign affairs instructed on Sunday the Egyptian embassy in Kyiv to provide full support and care to Mohamed Zayed, the first Egyptian citizen injured iduring the Russain invasion of Ukraine. Mohamed Zayed was wounded and is currently in a hospital in Ukraines eastern city of Kharkiv, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. However, the Egyptian expat community in Ukraine told Minister of Emigration and Expatriates Affairs Nabila Makram in a video meeting today that Zayed was injured during an airstrike in Kharkiv, according to a statement by the emigration ministry. Zayed was in a stable condition after he underwent surgery and is currently undergoing treatment inside the hospital, the community members said. Meanwhile, the foreign ministry said it received Zayeds family earlier today and reassured them about his condition. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has instructed the Egyptian embassy in Kyiv to work round the clock to provide the necessary support to all Egyptian citizens residing in Ukraine, the ministry said. Shoukry also instructed the the Egyptian embassies in Ukraines neighbouring countries to coordinate among themselves to allow Egyptian citizens to evacuate from Ukraine to those countries, the ministry added. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates the paramount importance of protecting our Egyptian citizens abroad within the framework of the states policy to provide the necessary support and care to Egyptian citizens both at home and abroad, the ministry added. On Sunday, the Russian assault on Ukraine entered its fourth day, with 198 Ukrainians killed, hundreds injured, and thousands to fleeing the country, according to the Ukrainian health ministry, . The Ukrainian authorities have directed the border guards to allow Egyptians to leave the country via the country's borders with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, the Egyptian embassy in Kyiv said on Sunday. Around 6,000 Egyptian nationals lived in Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion, including 3000 students, according to Egyptian officials. On Saturday, Minister Makram announced that a group of 1,000 Egyptian expats were on their way to Bucharest while a smaller group of 80 had arrived on the Ukrainian-Polish borders. Over the past few days, the Egyptian embassy in Kyiv has urged citizens in western parts of Ukraine to head to the border crossings with Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The embassy, however, advised citizens in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv or eastern cities to stay at home or in shelters, adding that negotiations are underway to secure a safe exit for those in the eastern parts. Egypt has affirmed the importance of upholding dialogue and diplomatic solutions, as well as endeavours that would hasten a political settlement to the Ukrainian crisis, according to a statement by the foreign ministry. Search Keywords: Short link: President Vladimir Putin's decision to put Russia's nuclear weapons on high alert "crosses another line" and shows his offensive in Ukraine is not going to plan, Germany's defence minister said Sunday. "In his (Putin's) megalomania, the rapid invasion of Ukraine has been halted by Ukraine's brave and determined actions," Christine Lambrecht told public broadcaster ZDF. Earlier Sunday Putin ordered his defence chiefs to put the country's "deterrence forces" on high alert, accusing Western countries of taking "unfriendly" steps against his country amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "We would be well advised to take Putin and his declarations very seriously and not to underestimate him," said Lambrecht, calling on the West to remain "very vigilant". Search Keywords: Short link: Italy's foreign minister visited Algeria Monday for talks on increasing gas supplies from the North African country to compensate for a possible drop in Russian supplies over the Ukraine conflict. Luigi Di Maio tweeted that he would meet with his Algerian counterpart and top officials to "discuss strengthening bilateral cooperation, in particular to address European energy security needs, in the light of the conflict in Ukraine". Russia last week invaded its pro-Western neighbour, prompting international outrage and causing the United States and its allies to impose sanctions on Moscow. Algerian state energy giant Sonatrach said on Sunday it was ready to increase gas supplies to Europe, notably via the Transmed pipeline linking Algeria to Italy. Sonatrach is "a reliable gas supplier for the European market and is willing to support its long-term partners in the event of difficult situations," chief executive Toufik Hakkar was quoted as saying in the daily Liberte. Hakkar said Europe is the "natural market of choice" for Algerian gas, which accounts for about 11 percent of Europe's gas imports. Di Maio was accompanied by a delegation, including Claudio Descalzi, head of Italian energy giant Eni, which is a partner of Sonatrach in Algeria. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has called for Italy to move quickly to diversify its sources of energy to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. Italy imports around 95 percent of the gas it uses, and around 45 percent of that comes from Russia, Draghi said, adding that supplies could be increased from Algeria but also Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Libya. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts Suez Canal Authority announced an increase of transit dues by 5 to 10 percent for laden and ballast vessels transiting the global waterway, effective starting Tuesday, 1 March 2022, as per growth in global trade and improvements in the canal's transit services. The decisions were made as per the significant growth in global trade, the improvement of ships economics, the Suez Canal waterways development, and the enhancement of the transit services, according to circulars released by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) on Sunday. In February, the SCA increased its transit tolls for vessels travelling through the waterway by six percent. According to the circulars, transit dues for liquefied petroleum gas, chemical tankers, and other liquid bulk tankers transiting the Suez Canal in both directions will increase by 10 percent. The SCA will also introduce a seven percent increase for vehicles carriers, liquefied natural gas carriers, general cargo vessels, multi-purpose vessels, heavy-lift vessels, roll-on/roll-off vessels, in addition to special floating units. A five percent increase will also be applied to petroleum product tankers, crude oil tankers, and dry bulk vessels, as per the circulars. The Suez Canal which connects the Mediterranean and the Red seas is the shortest maritime route between Asia and Europe and the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. The sea-level canal is also the longest in the world without locks, with a normal transit time from end to end of about 13 to 15 hours. In June, the SCA started work on extending the two-way segment of the canal by 10 kilometres as part of the countrys plan to regularly improve the international waterway. The second phase of the plan aims to widen and deepen a 30-kilometre segment of the canal by 40 metres, Chairperson of the SCA Osama Rabie said in the first news conference on the process in mid February. Around 12 percent of the worlds trade passes through the canal, which is one of the main foreign-currency earners for Egypt, yielding more than $5 billion in revenues annually. In 2021, the canal recorded a historic $6.3 billion in annual revenues. It also received in 2021 its largest annual net tonnage ever 1.27 billion tonnes according to official figures. Search Keywords: Short link: The Egyptian embassy in Poland announced on Monday that Egyptians coming from Ukraine with expired passports will be allowed to cross the border into the neighbouring country. The embassy will issue temporary travel documents to facilitate their return to Egypt. The Egyptian embassy in Romania has also urged Egyptians coming from Ukraine with expired passports to contact it, as it is working with Romanian authorities to facilitate their entry into Romania. The embassy also announced that it has allocated buses for Egyptian nationals coming from Ukraine, which will be paid for by the Egyptian government. A flight operated by Romanian airline Tarom will take off for Cairo from Henri Quanda International Airport in Bucharest on Tuesday evening. Tickets will cost 240 euros after a discount obtained by the embassy. Egypts foreign ministry has issued urgent directives to its embassies in Ukraines neighboring countries to facilitate border crossings for Egyptians and to provide them with the appropriate aid, including facilitating transportation and housing them in hotels or temporary residences until their return to Egypt. The ministry said earlier on Monday that the Egyptian embassies in Warsaw and Bucharest have already received Egyptian nationals arriving from Ukraine and have provided them with all the necessary assistance in coordination with Polish and Romanian authorities. The ministry has also announced that it has launched a hotline for Egyptians in Ukraine. On 24 February, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, causing hundreds of thousands to flee the country over the past four days. In a press conference held early on Sunday, the Ukrainian embassy in Cairo said that it has coordinated with the Egyptian embassy in Kyiv regarding the return of Egyptians currently in Ukraine, and that the Ukrainian authorities have directed the country's border guards to allow Egyptians to leave the country via its borders with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. The hotlines the Egyptian foreign ministry has launched for Egyptians in Ukraine are: (Mobile phone): +201220463333, +201220473333, +201272180431, +201272180576, +201272180466, (landline): +20225772500, +20225744791 and (Fax): +20225761000. Search Keywords: Short link: From Moscow to Siberia, Russian anti-war activists took to the streets again Sunday to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, despite the arrests of hundreds of protesters each day by police. Demonstrators held pickets and marched in city centres, chanting "No to war!'' as President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian nuclear deterrent to be put on high alert, upping the ante in the Kremlin's standoff with the West and stoking fears of a nuclear war. "I have two sons and I don't want to give them to that bloody monster. War is a tragedy for all of us,'' 48-year-old Dmitry Maltsev, who joined the rally in St. Petersburg, told The Associated Press. Protests against the invasion started Thursday in Russia and have continued daily ever since, even as Russian police have moved swiftly to crack down on the rallies and detain protesters. The Kremlin has sought to downplay the protests, insisting that a much broader share of Russians support the assault on Ukraine. Demonstrators march with a banner that reads: "Ukraine - Peace, Russia - Freedom", in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. AP But in addition to street protests, tens of thousands of people in recent days have endorsed open letters and signed petitions condemning the invasion. Celebrities and famous TV personalities spoke out against it, too. One online petition, launched hours after Putin announced the attack, has gathered over 930,000 signatures in four days, becoming one of the most widely supported petitions in Russia in recent years. In St. Petersburg, where several hundred gathered in the city centre, police in full riot gear were grabbing one protester after another and dragging some into police vans, even though the demonstration was peaceful. Footage from Moscow showed police throwing several female protesters on the ground before dragging them away. Police detain a demonstrator during a rally against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Russia. February 26, 2022. AP According to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests, police detained at least 2,710 Russians in 51 cities for anti-war demonstrations Sunday, bringing the total of those detained over four days to nearly 6,000. Four days into the fighting that has killed scores, Putin raised the stakes dramatically on Sunday, ordering military Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, citing Western countries "taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere'' and "top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country." The day before, the U.S. and its European allies have warned that the coming round of sanctions could include freezing the hard currency reserves of Russia's Central Bank and cutting Russia off the SWIFT international payment system. The unprecedented move could quickly plunge the Russian economy into chaos. Ordinary Russians fear that stiff sanctions will deliver a crippling blow to the country's economy. Since Thursday, Russians have been flocking to banks and ATMs to withdraw cash, creating long lines and reporting on social media about ATM machines running out of bills. According to Russia's Central Bank, on Thursday alone Russians withdrew 111 billion rubles (about $1.3 billion) in cash. People stand in line to withdraw money from an ATM in Sberbank in St. Petersburg, Russia. February 25, 2022. AP The anti-war protests on Sunday appeared smaller and more scattered than the ones that took place on the first day of Russia's attack in Ukraine, when thousands of people rallied in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but their true scale was hard to assess and they seemed to pick up speed as the day went on. "It is a crime both against Ukraine and Russia. I think it is killing both Ukraine and Russia. I am outraged, I haven't slept for three nights, and I think we must now declare very loudly that we don't want to be killed and don't want Ukraine to be killed,'' said Olga Mikheeva, who protested in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, many people went to makeshift memorials for Boris Nemtsov, a top Russian opposition figure who was shot dead near the Kremlin on Feb. 27, 2015. Some brought flowers to honour Nemtsov's memory, while others also held banners protesting the invasion of Ukraine, only to be detained minutes after taking them out. A man holds a poster that reads "No War" as people lay flowers near the place where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down. February 27, 2022. AP Nemtsov, one of Russia's most charismatic opposition figures, was a staunch advocate against the fighting in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been battling with Ukrainian forces since 2014 in a drawn-out conflict that has killed more than 14,000. A man places a note reading "No to war!" among flowers at the site where late opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was fatally shot on a bridge near the Kremlin in central Moscow on February 27, 2022. AFP Russian authorities in recent days have moved to stifle critical voices. Speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament Vyacheslav Volodin said the anti-war stance of "certain cultural figures'' was "inappropriate'' and "nothing short of a betrayal of your own people.'' Access to Twitter and Facebook has been restricted, and human rights advocates feared similar steps would soon be taken against YouTube. Russia's state communications and media watchdog Roskomnadzor on Sunday demanded that Google to lift restrictions imposed on YouTube channels run by several Russian state media outlets. The Network Freedoms rights group noted that Facebook's refusal to comply with a similar demand this week led to restricted access to the platform. The website of the Current Time, a Russian TV channel launched by the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that has been critical of the Kremlin, became unavailable Sunday after the channel reported receiving a notification from Roskomnadzor about blocking it. Search Keywords: Short link: Facing deepening isolation on the world stage, Russia faced a crucial test of support Monday as the 193 members of the UN General Assembly held an extraordinary debate on a resolution condemning Moscow's "aggression" in Ukraine. During the rare emergency special session -- just the 11th the Assembly has held in the United Nations' 77-year history -- Russia defended its decision to invade its neighbor as a member state after the member state made a plea for peace. "The fighting in Ukraine must stop," warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, after the session began with a minute of silence for the victims of the conflict. "Enough is enough. Soldiers need to move back to their barracks. Leaders need to move to peace. Civilians must be protected," he pleaded. Representatives of more than 100 countries were expected to speak as the global body decides if it will support the resolution that demands Russia immediately withdraws its troops from Ukraine. The resolution is non-binding but will serve as a marker of how isolated Russia is. The wording of the resolution was watered down to try to attract maximum support, according to drafts seen by AFP. It no longer "condemns" in the strongest terms, Russia's aggression but rather "deplores" it. A vote is expected on Wednesday. Its authors hope they may exceed 100 votes in favor -- though countries including Syria, China, Cuba, and India are expected to either support Russia or abstain. It will be seen as a barometer of democracy in a world where autocratic sentiment has been on the rise, diplomats said, pointing to such regimes in Myanmar, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, Nicaragua -- and, of course, Russia. "If Ukraine does not survive, the United Nations will not survive. Have no illusions," said Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, imploring countries to support the resolution. Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow's stance -- flatly rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies -- that its military operation was launched to protect residents of breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. "The hostilities were unleashed by Ukraine against its own residents," he said from the podium. "Russia is seeking to end this war," Nebenzia added. 2014 Crimea Vote Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Moscow has pleaded "self-defense" under Article 51 of the UN Charter. But that has been roundly rejected by Western countries and the UN, which accused Moscow of violating Article 2 of the Charter, requiring its members to refrain from the threat or use of force to resolve a crisis. Addressing the General Assembly, British ambassador Barbara Woodward said countries "must stand together to defend the rules and enforce the accountability that we have built together." "If we do not stand up for them now, then the safety of every nation's borders and independence are at risk," she said. China's ambassador, Zhang Jun, said "nothing can be gained from starting off a new Cold War," but did not indicate how Beijing would vote. The move to hold the emergency session was sparked by Russia using its veto Friday to block a Security Council resolution that condemned Moscow's invasion and called for the immediate withdrawal of its troops. Russia did not have veto power to derail the referral of the war to the General Assembly, allowed under a 1950 resolution called "Uniting for Peace." It allows for members of the Security Council to turn to the General Assembly for a special session if the five permanent members -- Russia, the United States, Britain, France, and China -- fail to agree to act together to maintain peace. There is no right of veto at the General Assembly, which held a similar vote in 2014 condemning Russia's seizure of Crimea and obtained 100 votes in support. Separately Monday, the Security Council was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, where up to seven million people are expected to flee the fighting. Search Keywords: Short link: The Ukrainian authorities have directed the country's border guards to allow Egyptians to leave the country via borders with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, the Egyptian Embassy in Kyiv said on Sunday. The statement on the embassys Facebook page added that the directives had been issued after coordinating with the Egyptian embassies in the abovementioned countries and the Ukrainian foreign ministry. In a press conference held early Sunday, the Ukrainian Embassy in Cairo stated that it was coordinating with the Egyptian embassy in Kyiv regarding the return of Egyptians currently in Ukraine. Ukrainian Charge dAffaires in Egypt Ruslan Nechai revealed that his embassy in Cairo was also coordinating with Poland and Romania regarding the visa of Egyptians. There were around 6,000 Egyptians living in Ukraine prior to the invasion, including 3,000 students. Early on Sunday, Egyptian embassies in Bucharest and Warsaw issued instructions on their official Facebook pages to Egyptians crossing the Polish and Romanian borders to contact them as soon as they cross the border and to prepare copies of their passports and photos in order to facilitate their air evacuation and accommodation at the nearest possible time. On Saturday, Egypts Minister of Emigration and Expatriates Affairs Nabila Makram announced that a group of 1,000 Egyptian expats were on their way to Bucharest while another smaller group of 80 had arrived on the Ukrainian-Polish borders. Over the past few days, the Egyptian Embassy in Kyiv have urged citizens in western parts of Ukraine to head to the border crossings with Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The embassy, however, advised citizens in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and eastern cities to stay at home or in shelters, adding that negotiations are underway to secure a safe exit for those in the eastern parts. Search Keywords: Short link: Hong Kong: 2021 population drops The provisional estimate of Hong Kong's population was 7,403,100 at end-2021, down 0.3% from 2020, the Census & Statistics Department announced today. The year-on-year population decrease narrowed as compared to the 1.2% drop in 2020. There were 37,000 births and 51,200 deaths between end-2020 and end-2021, resulting in a natural population decrease of 14,200. Over the same period, there was also a net outflow of 9,400 people, with an inflow of 17,900 one-way permit holders and a net outflow of 27,300 other Hong Kong residents. The number of usual residents was 7,301,300 while there were 101,800 mobile residents. The Government noted that the inflow of people to Hong Kong, including one-way permit holders, foreign domestic helpers and those coming to work or study under various admission schemes has remained at a low level. This was due to the stringent border control and quarantine measures put in place in the city, the Mainland and other places around the world amidst the continued impact of COVID-19, resulting in a severe interruption of cross-boundary travel. Among others, the flight boarding restrictions imposed on arrivals from certain places from time to time in 2021 due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation had interrupted population inflow. Although the number of one-way permit holders arriving in Hong Kong in 2021 rebounded somewhat as compared to 2020, it was still visibly lower than the pre-pandemic level. Meanwhile, Hong Kong residents who had left Hong Kong before the pandemic may have chosen to reside in other places temporarily or were unable to return to the city. The Government said these might have contributed to the net outflow of Hong Kong residents, adding that implying an emigration tide solely from the increase in net residents outflow is a sweeping generalisation. This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The BMMI Group has announced that it has delivered good results for FY 2021 despite the regional and international slowdown with a consolidated net profit attributable to shareholders of BD5.57 million ($14.6 million), up 38% compared to BD4.03 million ($14.6 million) the year before. However, its total comprehensive income fell 29% to BD2.01 million from BD2.82 million in 2020. Announcing the results for the 12-month period ended December 31, 2021, BMMI said its earnings per share stood at 39 fils compared to 28 fils in 2020 (65 fils in 2019), an increase of 39%. Its total equity attributable to the shareholders of the group at the end of the year stood at BD66.4 million, compared to BD 67.98 million in 2020, down 2% (BD69.6 million in 2019). Furthermore, the total assets for the year fell to BD111.3 million from BD114 million in 2020. On the Q4 results, BMMI said its net profit stood at BD2 million, registering an increase of 78% compared to BD1.2 million in 2020. The earnings per share for the quarter stood at 15 fils, a 78% increase from 8.4 fils in 2020 (23 fils in 2019). The groups comprehensive income attributable to the shareholders in Q4 increased by 118%, from BD0.8 million in 2020 to BD1.79 million in 2021. BMMI pointed out that this growth in Q4 net profit was mainly due to the economic recovery that followed the re-opening of all border ports and the tourism industry, as well as the countrys vaccination drive and the return of a semi-normal lifestyle. With the continued closure of the hospitality sector and travel restrictions for the majority of 2021, the pandemic resulted in severe downturn across most of the groups businesses. Demand for essential goods continued to rise while demand for non-essential goods and services plummeted. The impact on the groups bottom line for 2021 is estimated at BD3 million (BD5.2 million in 2020). As significant uncertainty continues with respect to the long-term impact of the pandemic on economic and social well-being, the group strongly believes that survival continues to depend on the adaptability and resilience of both its operations and its people. Impressed with the results, BMMI's board of directors have recommended a cash dividend of 30% of share nominal value, equivalent to 30 fils per share, amounting to BD4,270,822, to the shareholders whose names are registered on the companys register on the record date. The proposed annual cash dividend in is subject to approval at the annual general meeting to be held on March 29 in Bahrain. Commenting on the performance, Chairman Abdulla Buhindi said: "During 2021 and amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the BMMI Group delivered good results despite the regional and international slowdown. I believe that our diversified business model has helped us face these unique challenges." "Our retail and distribution capabilities, Alosra supermarket, and Nader Trading have proven to be the resilient backbone we can really be proud of. We are also proud that in the midst of the pandemic, BMMI has not forgotten its responsibility towards the community, and has continued to uphold existing and new initiatives at national, regional, and international levels," he noted. "With that being said, the road to recovery in 2022 will be slow, especially with the emergence of the new Omicron variant, in addition to the apprehension and caution that is still prevalent globally, which poses further challenges to our business as the future remains unpredictable," remarked Buhindi. "Maintaining our focus on recovery in 2022, BMMI will revisit its strategy with an aim to secure steady growth, while keeping potential new ventures and markets on its radar. By reviewing our strategy and priorities, we aim to achieve the expected results through a healthy mix of long and short-term strategic goals, opportunities and investments whilst keeping our focus on diversification, constant risk monitoring and mitigation, he added.TradeArabia News Service Developed countries must follow through on their commitment to at least double their climate finance for developing countries by 2025, Egypt and the UK said on Monday in a joint statement following the launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) work groups sixth assessment report. The world must take concrete and substantive progress on the Glasgow-Sharm El-Sheikh work programme to implement the global goal on adaptation, according to a statement signed by COP26 President Alok Sharma, COP27 President Designate Sameh Shoukry, and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa. The IPCC issued its sixth assessment report on global climate change on Monday, saying that the impacts of global warming are now irreversible, but there is still time to avoid the very worst. The report added that 40 percent of the worlds population are highly vulnerable. We must also act with urgency to put in place the technical and financial support to deal with loss and damage, including through the Santiago Network and Glasgow Dialogue, the statement said. We all must respond to this report by collectively honouring the commitments made under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, delivering on the Glasgow Climate Pact now and through COP27 and beyond to ensure we can build a sustainable, climate resilient world. The statement said that although the report indicated that adaptation action is taking place in all regions of the world, attempts to adapt to climate changes impacts have fallen short. Adaptation limits have already been reached in places across the globe and more will emerge as temperatures rise, especially if 1.5C of global warming is exceeded, the statement said, adding that with a decisive and immediate response, bringing transformational adaptation together with rapid mitigation led by countries plans, a climate resilient society can be created with benefits for all. Egypt is set to host the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt has spent more than EGP 6.2 trillion on development projects nationwide over the past seven years, Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Monday, adding that the magnitude of development ventures carried out countrywide is unprecedented. Madbouly made his remarks during a ceremony to launch the National Project to Develop the Egyptian Family in the country's New Administrative Capital, in the presence of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. The project, which will be implemented over three years, aims to improve the quality of life for Egyptian citizens and families, controlling population growth to ensure the sustainability of the development process. Speaking during a debate on the sidelines of the event, Madbouly said the project not only aims to address family planning and population growth, but also improving the overall quality of life for citizens. The project is in line with the state's efforts and the president's directives to develop Egypt and move towards a new republic, which Egypt has been working on over the past seven years through a package of national development projects, according to Madbouly. The country has been implementing ventures in the countryside and cities alike in an effort to fix problems that had accumulated in previous years, the prime minister said. He added that efforts are being exerted to face current and future challenges even as the population continues to grow. Madbouly cited the Decent Life initiative, which he said targets 60 million citizens in the countryside with the aim of improving their living conditions within three years. Overpopulation 'a matter of national security' The average population growth rate in Egypt is roughly 1.5 million newborns every year, Madbouly pointed out, adding that such a rate is a challenge to the state. The prime minister indicated that it is time to consider overpopulation as an issue of national security and a matter of life and death for the entire nation. For the rest of his speech, Madbouly addressed the challenges posed by population growth, saying that it is one of the government's top priorities, along with satisfying citizen's needs. "Every year, I am required as a state to address these needs when we discuss [the matter] with similar governments, they ask what is next? What will you do in 10 or 15 years?" Water and food security is also a pressing issue when it comes to population growth, he further said. Madbouly also said that the state is currently working on preparing the public budget for the new fiscal year 2022-2023, with a special focus on population issues. Madbouly explained how the current population growth rate affects the education sector as well, saying, "If we assume that any school class has an average of 30 to 40 students, the state will need to provide 40,000 new classrooms every year to meet the aforementioned population growth," Madbouly remarked. Egypt needs EGP 20 billion each year to accommodate the current rise in population, he added, noting that building one classroom costs around EGP 1.5 million. In recent years, Egypt has launched several initiatives to address the problem of overpopulation. In 2019, it launched a two-year initiative called 'Two Is Enough' to encourage people to have fewer children. Search Keywords: Short link: President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has called on citizens to be aware of the challenges besetting the country, and urged them to protect the Egyptian state from sliding into the destruction and chaos that could have resulted from the events of 2011. El-Sisi made the comments during the launch of the National Project to Develop the Egyptian Family at the country's New Administrative Capital. The president said that Egyptians sought change during the 2011 uprising due to real circumstances that negatively impacted the living conditions of citizens. "People took to the streets in 2011 due to a state of societal dissatisfaction. Egyptians [at the time] were not happy or satisfied, but without being aware of the real reasons behind this," El-Sisi added. The president said this state of dissatisfaction resulted from the inefficiency of services provided to citizens in several sectors, including education and health, "But instead of recognising the poor performance of the [employees], we made the state the adversary." The Egyptian state today is changing these conditions, the president said, citing the countrys ongoing national development projects. President El-Sisi also reiterated the state's keenness on preserving human rights, while calling on citizens to be aware of the magnitude of the challenges facing the country. I have not prevented citizens from speaking. On the contrary, I want them to speak, but on condition that they are aware of the [situation] of the country before talking to people and repeating words without sufficient knowledge," he added. The state's conditions date back to the 1960s or 50s, El-Sisi underscored, noting that he was aware of these issues when he ran for president in 2014. "But [the population] increased by 14 million in seven years. Does the states income go in line with the population growth rate?" he said, stressing that the population increase is undermining the state's ability to achieve growth. The president noted that the challenges besetting the state strengthen his resolve to work hard for the sake of Egypt. El-Sisi called for rallying the states efforts to achieve development to combat poverty and ignorance and increase awareness, knowledge, progress and prosperity. El-Sisi also asserted the importance of developing not only the Egyptian family, but the Egyptian state, adding that real stability lies in achieving societal satisfaction. The president expressed his desire to develop education and health services by establishing high quality universities, schools and hospitals, with the aim of preparing "distinguished" graduates who can be part of the job market. El-Sisi said some 700,000 students graduate annually, but the labor markets are not able to accommodate all of them. Search Keywords: Short link: Majid Al Futtaim Properties inaugurated on Monday its Almaza Recruitment and Training Center (ARTC), which is constructed under the auspices of Egypts Ministry of Social Solidarity with the aim of inclusive hiring and training as well as maintaining a physically and socially accessible facility and providing job opportunities. During the inauguration ceremony, Diaa Yehia, Country Head of Majid Al Futtaim Properties Egypt, said that a total of EGP 3 million were invested in the construction of the centre in collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of the Swiss Confederation. The ARTC is implemented by Majid Al Futtaim and run by Education for Employment-Egypt at City Centre Almaza. ARTC is meant to extend the soft skills for trainees in line with Egypts Vision 2030, its sustainable development goal agenda, and all the presidential initiatives that aim to build and support human capital, especially in young people and women, according to Yehia. Majid Al Futtaim Properties has invested EGP 44 billion in the Egyptian market over the past 10 years, creating around 3,000 direct job opportunities with an intention to expand these investments, Yehia stated. He added that Majid Al Futtaim has a robust presence in the Egyptian market. The inauguration of the ARTC was attended by the representatives of global development agencies including the EBRD, People 1st International, Education for Employment-Egypt, and the Swiss embassy in Egypt. Heike Harmgart, the EBRDs managing director for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, which is one of the main financers of the ARTC, said that this centre is a model of the required cooperation with the private sector. On behalf of the EBRD, People 1st International has managed the development, execution, and evaluation process of the centre to meet the objectives of the project to train individuals. Egypt has adopted a strategy to allow the private sector to play a greater role in the countrys economy and its development process. In 2020, Egypts Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, in cooperation with the Terous Misr Foundation, launched an initiative encouraging the private sector to maintain employment and create new job opportunities amid the first wave of the pandemic. From 2022 through 2024, Egypts government aims to increase the private sectors participation in the development process and its contribution to the countrys economic activity to 50 percent, up from 30 percent. This initiative is launched in collaboration with a wide range of businessmen and investors who are working in the Egyptian market. Search Keywords: Short link: The U.S. and some European countries said they were dramatically upping their deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, including more Stinger missiles and fighter jets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, meanwhile, announced plans for a meeting Monday with a Russian delegation at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border. Russia's military assault on Ukraine entered its fifth day with fighting in the streets of the country's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and troops moving closer to the capital, Kyiv. Here are the things to know about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the security crisis in Europe: Russia Puts Nuclear Forces on Alert Unearthing long-buried fears from the Cold War, Putin on Sunday ordered Russian nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch. He said NATO had made ``aggressive statements'' toward Russia and cited the stiff economic sanctions imposed on Russia. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN that Putin's invocation of Russia's nuclear arsenal was ``dangerous rhetoric.'' The practical meaning of Putin's order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarine-based nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not. Fighting Spreads in Ukraine Russian troops drew closer to Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million, and street fighting broke out in Kharkiv. Strategic ports in the south were coming under pressure from attackers. Ukrainian defenders put up stiff resistance that appeared to slow the invasion. But a U.S. official cautioned that far stronger Russian forces inevitably will learn and adapt their tactics as Russia's assault goes on. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard of Kyiv as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets until Monday morning. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be considered a Russian saboteur. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. ``I wish I had never lived to see this,'' said Faina Bystritska, 87, a Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost constantly in her hometown, Chernihiv, which is about about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Kyiv and under attack. Ukrainians have volunteered en masse to defend their country, taking guns distributed by authorities and preparing firebombs. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight for the country, authorities said. Pentagon officials said Russian troops are being slowed by Ukrainian resistance, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, and that Ukraine's air defense systems, while weakened, are still operating. Russia and Ukraine to Hold Talks After rejecting Putin's offer to meet in the Belarusian city of Homel on the grounds that Belarus was helping the Russian assault, Zelenskyy agreed to send a Ukrainian delegation to meet Russian counterparts at an unspecified time and location on the Belarusian border. The announcement came hours after Russia announced that its delegation had flown to Belarus to await talks. Ukrainian officials initially rejected the move, saying any talks should take place elsewhere. Belarus has allowed Russia to use its territory as a staging ground for the invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy named Warsaw, Bratislava, Istanbul, Budapest and Baku as alternative venues for talks, before accepting the Belarus border. The Kremlin added later that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had offered to help broker an end to the fighting in a call with Putin. It didn't say whether the Russian leader accepted. Many Ukrainians Flee, Some Return to Fight The number of Ukrainians fleeing Europe's largest armed conflict since World War II grew to 368,000, mostly women and children, the United Nations' refugee agency said Sunday. That figure more than doubles the agency's estimate from the day before. The line of vehicles at the Poland-Ukraine border stretched for 14 kilometers (almost 9 miles), and those fleeing had to endure long waits in freezing temperatures overnight. Over 100,000 people have crossed into Poland alone, according to Polish officials. An additional 66,000 refugees have entered Hungary, with more than 23,000 entering on Saturday alone, according to the Hungarian officials. In the rush to escape the bombs and tanks, a trickle of brave men and women headed home to defend Ukraine. At a border crossing in southern Poland, Associated Press journalists spoke to people in a line heading against the tide. They included 20 Ukrainian truck drivers who worked in Europe and wanted to face combat. The World Moves to Punish Russia Further Following punishing economic sanctions, the European Union agreed to close its airspace to Russia's airlines and spend hundreds of millions of euros on weapons to send to Ukraine as well as target pro-Kremlin media outlets that are spreading disinformation about the invasion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the commission wants ``for the first time ever'' to finance the purchase and delivery of weapons to a third-party county under attack. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc's 27 foreign ministers on Sunday had greenlighted the unprecedented support for Ukraine and that those actions would take effect within hours. Japan joined the U.S. and European nations in cutting top Russian banks off from the SWIFT international financial messaging system. Japan will also send $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine. And petroleum giant BP said Sunday it is cutting ties with Rosneft, a state-owned Russian oil and gas company. That means BP exiting its stake in Rosneft and BP officials resigning positions on the Russian company's board. Signs of Deeper Financial Difficulties in Russia There were some early signs that the initial economic damage to the Russian economy is significant. The ruble sank against the U.S. dollar early Monday after Western nations moved to block Russian banks from the SWIFT global payment system. Videos from Russia showed long lines of Russians trying to withdraw cash from ATMs, while the Russian Central Bank issued a statement calling for calm, in an effort to avoid bank runs. Reports also said that Visa and Mastercard were no longer being accepted for those with international bank accounts. Russia may have to close certain bank branches temporarily or declare a national bank holiday to protect its financial system, analysts said. ``If there's a full-scale banking panic, that's a driver of crisis in its own right,'' said Adam Tooze, a professor of history at Columbia University and Director of the European Institute. ``A rush into dollars by the Russian general population moves things into an entirely new domain of financial warfare.'' More Stingers Headed to Ukraine The U.S. for the first time has approved the direct delivery of Stinger surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. They can be used to shoot down helicopters and other aircraft. The decision was confirmed by U.S officials speaking on condition of anonymity. The decision comes on the heels of Germany's announcement that it will send 500 Stinger missiles and other weapons and supplies to Ukraine. The Baltic states have also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get U.S. permission. Germany also announced Saturday that it would send 1,000 anti-tank weapons, in addition to the 400 German-made anti-tank weapons it also approved to be shipped from the Netherlands. The Stingers from the U.S. are part of an additional $350 million in military assistance to Ukraine, which also will include anti-tank weapons, body armor and small arms. European countries will also supply fighter jets to Ukraine, Borrell said. Two non-NATO members also were sending military supplies. Sweden said Sunday it would ship 5,000 anti-tank weapons, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 body armors and 135,000 field rations, while Finland said it would send 2,000 helmets, 2,000 bullet proof vests, 100 stretchers and equipment for two emergency medical care stations. Russians against the War Defying crackdowns by police, demonstrators marched in city centers from Moscow to Siberia chanting ``No to war!'' In St. Petersburg, where several hundred gathered in the city center, police in full riot gear were grabbing one protester after another and dragging some into police vans, even though the demonstration was peaceful. Footage from Moscow showed police throwing several female protesters on the ground before dragging them away. According to the OVD-Info rights group, which tracks political arrests, by Sunday evening police detained at least 1,474 Russians in 45 cities over antiwar demonstrations that day, bringing the total detained in the last few days to over 5,000. ``I have two sons and I don't want to give them to that bloody monster,`` Dmitry Maltsev, 48, who joined the rally in St. Petersburg, told The Associated Press. ``War is a tragedy for all of us.'' Protests also took place in Belarus, where more than 500 people were detained on Sunday, according to the country's most prominent human rights group. The Viasna human rights center said demonstrations were held in at least 12 cities, including Minsk, the capital. Demonstrators placed flowers on a growing pile outside the Ukrainian Embassy. Russia Acknowledges Casualties The Russian military acknowledged that it has suffered casualties in Ukraine, without putting a number on them. ``There are dead and wounded among our comrades,'' said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. Each side in the war has made claims about casualties and military damage inflicted on the other side, but the numbers have not been verified. Konashenkov's statement was the first by Russian military officials to admit any troop losses of their own. Ukraine acknowledged military casualties early on. It has not given a number. Ukraine reports civilian deaths and said Sunday that 352 people have been killed, including 14 children. United Nations to Meet The U.N.'s two major bodies, the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council, are holding separate meetings Monday on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Security Council gave a green light Sunday for the first emergency session of the General Assembly in decades. It will give all U.N. members an opportunity to speak about the war Monday and vote on a resolution later in the week that U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said would ``hold Russia to account for its indefensible actions and for its violations of the U.N. Charter.'' Search Keywords: Short link: Turkey said Monday it was blocking warships from the key Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits in line with a convention that gives it control over the passage of military vessels in the strategic area. "We have alerted both countries of the region and elsewhere not to pass warships through the Black Sea," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. "We are applying the Montreux Convention." The 1936 Montreux Convention governs the free movement of commercial ships in peacetime through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits. But it grants Turkey the right to block the passage of warships in the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits, that connect the Aegean, Marmara, and Black Sea, in wartime if threatened. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had just clarified Turkey's position as a NATO member: "not to abandon either Russia or Ukraine" and not to "cede Turkey's national interests". "We have decided to use the Montreux Convention to prevent the escalation of the crisis," he said after a cabinet meeting. Ukraine had last week officially asked Turkey to close the Dardanelles Strait -- and thus access to the Black Sea -- to Russian ships. NATO member Turkey, which has strong ties with both Russia and Ukraine, did not immediately respond to this request. "Russia asked us if we would apply the Montreux Convention if necessary. We told them we would apply it word for word," Cavusoglu said. He added that Turkish experts had been studying the situation to assess "whether there is a state of war from a legal point of view". Turkey is navigating its own narrow passage, diplomatically, between its ally Ukraine, to which it has sold combat drones used against Russian tanks, and Russia, on which it depends for its gas and grain supplies. However Turkey on Sunday officially recognised Russia's attacks on Ukraine as a "state of war". Erdogan on Monday said he considers "Russia's attack on Ukrainian territory as unacceptable" and hailed the struggle of the Ukrainian government and people. Search Keywords: Short link: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he plans to open an investigation ``as rapidly as possible'' into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement Monday night that the investigation will look at alleged crimes committed before the Russian invasion, but added that ``given the expansion of the conflict in recent days, it is my intention that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my office that are committed by any party to the conflict on any part of the territory of Ukraine.'' The court already has conducted a preliminary probe into crimes linked to the violent suppression of pro-European protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014 and allegations of crimes in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and eastern Ukraine. In December 2020, the then-ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the probe uncovered indications that ``a broad range of conduct constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the Court have been committed'' in Ukraine. However, the court's prosecutors had not yet sought permission from judges to open a full-scale investigation. Khan says he now will open the investigation envisaged by his predecessor and broaden it to include crimes committed in fighting since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week. He added, " I will continue to closely follow developments on the ground in Ukraine, and again call for restraint and strict adherence to the applicable rules of international humanitarian law." Search Keywords: Short link: Russia announced Monday it was banning flights by airlines from 36 countries including Britain and Germany in response to a slew of bans on its planes. Moscow's statement came as Russian airlines are now unable to enter the airspace of the vast majority of European countries as well as Canada. Its list includes Jersey, which is a dependency of the UK, and Gibraltar, a British overseas territory. Russia's civil aviation authority said it was bringing in the restrictions "as a retaliatory measure for the ban by European states on flights by civil aviation operated by Russian airlines or registered in Russia". Airlines will only be able to enter Russian airspace with a special permit. Last week Russia banned UK airlines after Britain barred Aeroflot, the country's flagship carrier, as well as private jets. The European Union announced Sunday that it was closing its airspace to Russian aircraft, including private jets. These measures will mean airlines have to make long detours on some routes, potentially raising the cost of tickets. Search Keywords: Short link: Shell says it pulling out of Russia as President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine costs the country's all-important energy industry foreign investment and expertise. Shell announced its intention Monday to exit its joint ventures with Gazprom and related entities, including its 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-II liquefied natural gas facility, its 50% stake in the Salym Petroleum Development, and the Gydan energy venture. Shell also intends to end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. ``We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security,'' said Shell's chief executive officer, Ben van Beurden. The move comes as day after rival BP announced plans to shed its almost 20% stake in Rosnef t, which is controlled by the Russian state. Also Monday, Norway's Equinor said it would halt new investment in Russia and begin selling its holdings in the country. Shell's most important investment in Russia is its stake in the Sakhalin-II project in the waters near Sakhalin Island off Russia's east coast. Japan-based Mitsui owns 12.5% of the project and Mitsubishi holds 10%. Search Keywords: Short link: MBH Corporation, a diversified investment holding company, said it is keen to acquire potential SME companies in the UAE that are well established, profitable, and looking to scale up. The SME sector now accounts for 95 per cent of all businesses in the UAE and contributes 53 per cent of non-oil GDP. Team from MBH Corporation led by its CEO, Callum Laing, will be in Dubai and Abu Dhabi the week beginning March 7 and are keen to meet small business owners looking to scale along with family offices and smaller funds who would like more exposure to this exciting and fast-growing asset class. With 28 companies in the group cover 6 countries and 8 industry verticals, MBH is also exploring options to list in one of the UAE based exchanges. Half of the developed world's GDP comes from small businesses and yet there remains no financial instrument for sophisticated investors to get access to them, said Callum Laing, CEO of MBH Corporation PLC, who in addition to believing MBH has the answer to this problem, also believes that the Middle East may represent one of the most exciting regions to facilitate this opportunity. Small businesses are the lifeblood of most economies and yet often the cards are heavily stacked against them for various reasons. With limited access to funding and resources, many hit a glass ceiling and although a single client can double or triple the profits of a small company, they are often too illiquid for any serious investor to invest in, added Laing. For the past 3 years, MBH, a UK PLC listed in Frankfurt and New York, has been building a portfolio of what comprises now 28 wholly owned, profitable small businesses from countries such as New Zealand, Singapore, and North America. As the world starts to open up again post the pandemic, MBH is looking to further expand its geographic footprint to include the Middle East. The Middle East region has a long and proud tradition of traders and small businesses. It also has a very sophisticated investor base. MBH has been approached by several investors who have suggested that we explore a cross-listing in the region so that Funds that are looking for strong ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) opportunities would be able to invest more easily into the ground-breaking work that MBH is doing, continued Laing. Laing himself is a successful entrepreneur having built many businesses over his 20-year career - taking two of them public. He has written 3 best-selling books on business and is so committed to this expansion in the region that he has worked with local partners to translate his latest book Entrepreneurial Investing into both Farsi and Arabic. MBHs unique structure allows small businesses to join the holding company without the founder having to give up control of the business. Investors can acquire shares in a portfolio of well run, owner operated, profitable small businesses. In just over 3 years MBH has gone from nothing to a profitable holding company growing at around 80% per annum. It has paid dividends every year since listing - including during the pandemic - and has won multiple awards and been lauded for both its diversity and strong ESG credentials. It is also considered one of the most transparent listed companies for its commitment to investor relations. Laing said that adding some companies from around the region would help not just those companies to potentially expand globally, but also encourage some of the other companies to set up offices in the UAE. We have grown fast, Laing added. But we are still very much at the beginning of our journey. Hopefully we can support many small businesses in the Middle East over the coming years. MBH Corporation is listed on the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf Stock Exchanges and the OTCQX in New York (MBHCF). TradeArabia News Service The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) received on Monday a collection of gigantic colossi from the Egyptian museum in Tahrir that includes a pair of statues of the Ancient Egyptian gods Amun-Re and Mut, a red granite column of king Ramses II, a limestone statue of the goddess Isis holding her son Horus along with other gigantic artefacts. El-Tayeb Abbas, the assistant to the tourism minister for archaeological affairs at the GEM, said that every object was accurately examined and a report on its current condition has been drafted. Furthermore, Eissa Zidan the executive director for restoration and transportation of objects at the GEM explained that the transportation process was very critical because of the tall and large size of the colossi. For example, the pair of statues of Amun and Mut are 4 metres tall, 186 centimetres wide, and 169 centimetres deep a matter that has led to the study of the scheduled transportation route and the removal of any obstacles that could get in the shipments way. The colossus was reassembled on a metal structure in the late 1990s by the German archaeological mission headed by Hourig Sourouzian. All the pieces of the colossus were installed in their original position; however, the missing segments were kept empty to be added later in the event they are found. Search Keywords: Short link: The troops were part of a force sent as peacekeepers by the Collective Treaty Security Organization, a Russia-led alliance of six former Soviet states. The CSTO approved the force of more than 2,000 on Jan. 5 at the request of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The demonstrations started on Jan. 2 to protest a sharp rise in fuel prices. They quickly spread nationwide and descended into violence within several days. Protesters stormed government buildings and set them ablaze, and dozens of people were killed in clashes with the country's security forces. The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that all of its planes carrying troops had returned. It was not clear whether troops from other CSTO countries remain in Kazakhstan. From Moscow to Siberia, Russian anti-war activists took to the streets again Sunday to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, despite the arrests of hundreds of protesters each day by police. Demonstrators held pickets and marched in city centers, chanting "No to war!" as President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent to be put on high alert, upping the ante in the Kremlin's standoff with the West and stoking fears of a nuclear war. "I have two sons and I don't want to give them to that bloody monster. War is a tragedy for all of us," 48-year-old Dmitry Maltsev, who joined the rally in St. Petersburg, told the Associated Press. Protests against the invasion started Thursday in Russia and have continued daily ever since, even as Russian police have moved swiftly to crack down on the rallies and detain protesters. The Kremlin has sought to downplay the protests, insisting that a much broader share of Russians support the assault on Ukraine. In St. Petersburg, where several hundred gathered in the city center, police in full riot gear were grabbing one protester after another and dragging some into police vans, even though the demonstration was peaceful. Footage from Moscow showed police throwing several female protesters on the ground before dragging them away. Russia's invasion of Ukraine will be hotly debated during the five-week UN Human Rights Council session that begins Monday. Heads of state and other dignitaries representing more than 140 countries will address the UN Human Rights Council over the next three days. Quite unusually, this high-level segment will begin with a consideration of a request from Ukraine to hold an urgent debate on the "situation of human rights in Ukraine stemming from the Russian aggression." The council's president, Argentinian Ambassador Federico Villegas, told journalists in Geneva that an urgent debate can take place as soon as the 47-member body decides to do so. "And has to make a decision according to the rules of procedure, which is a consensus or a vote with a majority of positive votes over negative votes We had the most recent, I am sure you are very much aware in 2020, Belarus was an urgent debate, and the killing of George Floyd was also an urgent debate," he said. The cumulative number of coronavirus infections in Korea surpassed 3 million on Sunday, just a week after they broke the 2 million barrier. Daily infections surpassed 170,000 last Tuesday and have been hovering there since, with over 600 patients critically ill in hospital. What is particularly worrisome is the increasing number of deaths, which rose to a record of 112 last Friday. The Omicron variant is milder than other strains, but the sharp increase in infections is killing more people as a smaller proportion of the total. North Korea on Sunday resumed its flurry of missile launches after a monthlong break. The provocation came 10 days before South Koreans head to the polls to elect a new president as all eyes are on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and may have been a cry for attention as international attention is slipping. The Joint Chiefs of Staff here said the suspected ballistic missile was fired from the Sunan area of Pyongyang into the East Sea at 7:52 a.m. It traveled around 300 km and reached an altitude of around 620 km. The North conducted seven missile launches in January alone but took a break during the Winter Olympics in Beijing, apparently out of respect for its sole ally China. The Korean auto and semiconductor industries are alarmed after U.S. President Joe Biden last week announced curbs on exports of around 60 types of products involving American technology to Russia. Samsung, Hyundai and LG, which have factories in Russia, urgently assessed the impact of the sanctions, fearing possible shutdowns. But the Korean government was unable to give an immediate answer to worried businesses over the weekend. An official at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, "It isn't clear what types of products are banned under the sanctions against Russia and we need to hold talks with the U.S." Some Asia-Pacific countries including Australia, Japan and New Zealand have also announced sanctions against Russia and gained a waiver of the curbs in return. Korea belatedly expressed support for the sanctions, which means Korean companies must obtain U.S. approval for exports to Russia if they contain American technology. Hyundai and affiliate Kia manufacture up to 200,000 cars annually at their plant in Saint Petersburg and are making contingency plans in case they face parts shortages. Last year, Korea exported around W3 trillion worth of cars and around W1.8 trillion worth of car parts to Russia, accounting for 42 percent of total exports to the belligerent country (US$1=W1,200). Samsung makes TVs in a factory near Moscow, while LG produces home appliances and TVs on the outskirts of the Russian capital. Samsung's smartphone exports are expected to be impacted as well since they are stuffed with U.S. technology. Samsung leads the Russian phone market with a 30 percent share. Jang Sang-shik at the Korea International Trade Association said, "The U.S.' rules were unclear when it imposed sanctions against Russia over the annexation of Crimea in 2014, which led to a lot of difficulties for Korean companies operating there. Even if consumer goods are excluded, Korean companies may need to get separate approval for every part and material used to operate factories there, which has increased uncertainties." More Japanese feel friendly towards Koreans than in 2019, a poll suggests. The poll of 1,314 people across Japan about their views of foreign countries by the Mainichi Shimbun was published last Thursday. Koreans' score rose from 1.9 points in 2019 to 2.3 points out of five while the score of the Chinese fell 2.1 points to 1.9 points. Koreans scored lower than the Chinese for the first time in 2019 amid soured relations between the neighboring countries, but Korea's image seems to have improved since then, especially among Japanese women. The daily said the Chinese probably scored lower because of alarming human rights abuses in the world's most populous country. Meanwhile, 44 percent of respondents were against the Japanese governments plan to discharge radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, compared to 37 percent who said there is no other choice. Fifty-three percent of respondents in the Tohoku region, to which Fukushima belongs, opposed the water discharge plan. Tokyo plans to discharge the radioactive water into the coastal sea after treating it with multi-nuclide removal equipment called ALPS. Some landmark buildings in Seoul lit up in the Ukrainian colors of sky-blue and yellow on Sunday in solidarity with Europe's second-biggest country as it suffers a Russian invasion. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said the campaign aims to express visible support for Ukraine. KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2022 - 16:29 | All, Japan A Vietnamese technical trainee was arrested on Monday for allegedly killing a compatriot in Hokkaido, northern Japan, police said. Nguyen Ngoc Tung, a construction worker from Asahikawa, admitted to killing Than Van Nghia, also a technical intern, at Hokkaido Railway Co.'s Asahikawa Station, according to the police. Tung, 24, allegedly stabbed Nghia, 35, in the neck and other parts of the body with a knife several times around 4:40 p.m. on Sunday, they said. Related coverage: Gov't bans firm from accepting foreign trainees after assault case Vietnamese trainee in Japan demands apology for 2 years of abuse The police cited eyewitnesses as saying the two were quarreling before the alleged stabbing. The police took Tung into custody about three hours later after he fled the scene by taxi. According to the taxi company, the suspect gave his address to the taxi driver in broken Japanese, and appeared nervous. After exiting the taxi, the driver saw Tung throw an object into a bin at a nearby apartment building. Japan established the technical internship program in 1993, aiming to transfer knowledge and skills to developing countries. Omans Public Establishment for Industrial Estates, Madayn, has signed a cooperation programme with Sohar University to enhance the partnership between public and private sectors and entrepreneurship in the sultanate. The agreement was signed by Hilal bin Hamad Al Hasani, CEO of Madayn, and Dr Hamdan bin Sulaiman Al Fazari, Acting Vice Chancellor of Sohar University. The cooperation programme aims at exploring the developments in plastic technologies in line with the objectives of both sides by providing an industrial base for plastic industries in Sohar with the aim of achieving the added value of high-volume production of plastic raw materials in Oman, and thus contribute to providing tech support and industrial solutions to the existing companies, encouraging investments in plastic manufacturing, and providing more job opportunities. The cooperation programme also aims at planning and developing a technical training programme for the workforce of factories and companies based in the industrial cities of Madayn within the specialisations and technical capabilities available in Sohar University and Industrial Innovation Academy. As per the agreement, Madayn will promote Intaj Suhar the industrial innovation hub based at Sohar University through encouraging the companies in the industrial cities to benefit from the available manufacturing and R&D services. Madayn also endeavours to facilitate access to training opportunities for undergraduate students at Sohar University in the companies investing in the industrial cities. Madayn shall also encourage these companies to offer scholarships for general diploma graduates to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate studies that meet the employment requirements of the companies and factories. Moreover, Madayn officials will take part in advisory boards at Sohar University with the objective of expertise exchange and contribution to the development of academic programmes in line with the needs of the labour market.-- TradeArabia News Service KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2022 - 23:50 | All, Japan, World Japan will slap sanctions on Belarus over its "clear involvement" in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, zeroing in on President Alexander Lukashenko and other Belarusian individuals, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday just as talks between Kyiv and Moscow got under way. Belarus, known for its close ties with Russia and serving as an entry point for Russian forces invading Ukraine, will also be subject to Japan's export controls. The scope of Japan's sanctions regime in response to the military attack launched last week now expands beyond Russia and two pro-Moscow separatist regions in Ukraine. The move is in line with steps taken by the United States and other nations. Along with the announcement on Belarus, Kishida said the government will limit transactions with the Russian central bank. It is the latest escalation of sanctions aimed at dealing a severe blow to Russia's finances and the broader economy. "We have to defend the very foundation of the international order, being united and resolute in our action with the international community," Kishida told reporters after holding phone talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "President Zelenskyy highly valued and appreciated our nation's steps (against Russia and Belarus)," he said. During the roughly 15-minute talks, Kishida criticized Russia's "reckless act of violence" as a serious violation of international law banning the use of force, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Zelenskyy explained the situation in Ukraine to Kishida as well as his government's response, but the Japanese prime minister refrained from giving further details. Kishida said Japan will extend emergency humanitarian assistance worth $100 million to Ukraine. "Thank you! A truly global anti-war coalition works," Zelenskyy said on Twitter. Talked with Prime Minister of Japan @kishida230. Thanked for a strong support to in countering aggression. allocates $100 million to the already approved aid of $100 million, fully supports tough sanctions against Russia. Thank you! A truly global anti-war coalition works. (@ZelenskyyUa) February 28, 2022 The two leaders spoke in mid-February before the Russian military's advance and agreed that a diplomatic solution to the crisis was important. Tensions had already been high amid Russia's amassing of troops near Ukraine's borders, with Putin demanding assurances from the United States and its allies that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would not expand eastward to include Ukraine. Japan has been taking a tougher stance than when it imposed sanctions following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russia's use of force to unilaterally change the status quo has challenged the post-Cold War architecture, raising concerns in Europe and beyond. During a parliamentary session on Monday, Kishida criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for putting Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, saying, "It is risky behavior that further destabilizes the situation." Japan has already decided on a slew of sanctions against Russia, including asset freezes on banks and export curbs. It announced further punitive steps, such as asset freezes on Putin and other Russian government officials, and joined efforts by other Group of Seven nations to exclude some Russian banks from a key international payment system known as SWIFT. The amount of assets held by Putin in Japan has not been disclosed. Japan has been seeking to assist Japanese nationals in evacuating from Ukraine if they wish to and has arranged chartered flights from Poland. It has set up a temporary liaison office in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow. "For Ukrainians living in Japan who are worried about going back (to Ukraine), we will allow extended stays," Kishida said. Related coverage: G-7 vows to cooperate on sanctions on Russia, support for Ukraine Japan to join U.S., EU in cutting Russian banks off int'l system U.S., EU to exclude some Russian banks from key int'l payment system KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2022 - 18:42 | Sports, All Tokyo Olympics gold medal-winning skateboarders Yuto Horigome and Sakura Yosozumi were named Monday among the 111 athletes taking part in the first X Games event to be held in Japan in April. Horigome, the men's street winner, will be joined by American superstar Nyjah Huston in Chiba, east of Tokyo, with 13-year-old British-Japanese Sky Brown in the women's park and men's BMX freestyle park gold medalist Logan Martin of Australia also on the list. "I'll give my best, aiming for the gold medal," Yosozumi, who won the women's skateboard park during the Olympics, told a press conference. The April 22-24 event at Zozo Marine Stadium will feature skateboarding, BMX and motocross as the X Games lands in Japan for the first time since its launch as the Extreme Games in 1995 in the United States. "I'll look to fly higher than anyone and make some impression," said Rim Nakamura, fifth at the Tokyo Games in the men's BMX freestyle. The organizers expect up to 90,000 attendees during the three-day event abiding by the COVID-19 countermeasures from the government and local municipality. KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2022 - 14:20 | All, World, Japan Lee Jae Myung, the ruling Democratic Party's candidate for the South Korean presidential election next week, said he is willing to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, if elected new leader, to address the two neighbors' souring relations. In a recent interview with Kyodo News, his first with Japanese media after becoming the official candidate last October, the former Gyeonggi Province governor said it is important to improve ties between South Korea and Japan for not only the people of the two countries but also for the peace and stability of the Northeast Asia region. The two countries have not held an in-person summit since December 2019, as they have been at odds over issues such as wartime forced labor and the issue of "comfort women," a euphemism for women who worked in Japan's military brothels before and during World War II. "I am ready to hold a summit meeting with the Japanese prime minister and start a dialogue to resolve the issues in a comprehensive way," Lee said, one of the two main candidates in the neck-and-neck race for the March 9 election to replace the current president Moon Jae In when his five-year term ends in May. In South Korea, a president is not allowed to seek re-election by law. Still, Lee said in the written interview that the solution will have to come from the Japanese government along with a sincere apology on the historical issues. "The South Korean government has proposed Japan have open discussions based on court decisions, but Japan has been refusing it," he added. Japan maintains issues related to property and claims stemming from its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were settled under a 1965 bilateral agreement. Kishida said in December that he has no plans to review a 1993 statement apologizing for Japan's aggression in World War II and admitting the military had a role in coercing "comfort women" to work in brothels. Lee also touched on the kidnapping of Japanese by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, saying that such acts should be condemned and must never happen again, comparing the abduction with the "comfort women" issue. "The kidnapping of Japanese is a very serious issue and likewise, I think it is well understandable how South Koreans would feel about Japan kidnapping innocent young females to military brothels back in the colonial era," Lee added. The candidate, however, said security cooperation between South Korea, the United States, and Japan is important to cope with increasing security threats from North Korea's repeated missile tests. The interview was conducted before Pyongyang's latest missile launch on Sunday. He hinted that he would continue to operate the military-intelligence sharing agreement, saying he would make a decision as president responsible for national security. The Moon administration had said that South Korea could scrap the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA, anytime, depending on the condition of South Korea-Japan ties that have been already strained. "(South Korea and Japan) share the same goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the face of North Korea's nuclear weapons," said Lee, adding that Japan could play a huge role in the peace and prosperity of the region going forward. He pleaded with North Korea to halt firing missiles to bring back peace and stability to the Korean Peninsula and said the denuclearization process could be resumed if Pyongyang stops its missile program immediately after he takes office. Lee showed his hopes to lift sanctions if North Korea responds to request for halting the program. But sanctions will be reimposed when Pyongyang discontinues the denuclearization process under a "snapback" clause, which was also used in the nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran. Though it would not be easy to make assumptions, Lee said he is willing to have a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un whenever is needed and make a meaningful agreement. About joint military drills with Washington, to which Pyongyang shows strong opposition, the candidate said the exercises must continue to maintain the alliance between the armies of the two countries. "But, (the drills) could be run flexibly as South Korea faces a twofold situation where it has to communicate and cooperate with North Korea," Lee added. KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2022 - 18:20 | World, All Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said Monday the Russian invasion of Ukraine offers a lesson and pledged to protect the self-ruled island which China regards as a renegade province to be reunited, by force if necessary. As the president, Tsai said it is her duty to unify the people of Taiwan and protect its democracy, urging the public to cherish their hard-earned freedoms and human rights. Speaking at a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of a February 28, 1947, massacre known as the "228 Incident," she reminded the people not to take their rights for granted but to join in their defense. "We all see the people of Ukraine come together to fight against the invasion by a powerful country," Tsai said. "The Ukrainian people have taught us that when we face any challenges, democracy and unity are the only option." Foreign policy experts say the situation surrounding Ukraine has implications for the Indo-Pacific region that is facing China's increasing military assertiveness, especially targeting Taiwan. Russia launched attacks on Ukraine last week from multiple fronts. Concerns grew that Chinese President Xi Jinping might emulate his Russian counterpart's strategy and exploit the confusion to seize Taiwan. China and Taiwan have been governed separately since they split in 1949 as the result of a civil war. In addition to condemning Russia, Tsai ordered the military to remain on high alert against what she described as "cognitive warfare" and disinformation. The ceremony was held at the Civic Plaza in Keelung just north of Taipei to mark the 75th anniversary of the massacre, which occurred during a military crackdown on civilian protests against Nationalist Party (KMT) rule that began on Feb. 28, 1947. Historians estimate that at least 20,000 people were killed on the day and during the crackdown on dissent that followed under the authoritarian rule of former KMT dictators Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, in what has been dubbed the "White Terror Era." KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2022 - 22:53 | Coronavirus, Japan, All The Japanese government said Monday that 19.3 percent of the country's population has received the third COVID-19 vaccine dose, with 49 percent of its elderly population vaccinated, as the country grapples to contain the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The pace of vaccination shots in February ranging between 300,000 and 900,000 per day is still short of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's goal of 1 million set earlier this month. The percentage of the population having received the booster shot has increased from 4.5 percent at the end of January. In February, the daily number of shots peaked on Feb. 19 with 930,000 shots administered. In administering the first and second shots last year, the government hit the 1 million mark in early June, two months after its vaccine rollout began with its elderly population. In July, the number rose to as high as 1.7 million. "It is necessary to further accelerate the vaccination rate to improve the infection situation and minimize the number of dead and seriously ill," said Takaji Wakita, the head of COVID-19 advisory panel for the health ministry. Japan confirmed 51,348 new coronavirus cases on Monday, with a cumulative total of over 5 million infections. Of those, 3 million were reported this year as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spread. Daily infections have been declining recently, but Japan is recording around 200 deaths per day and the health care system remains strained. NANNING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Border police in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said on Sunday that they recently seized over 7 kg of heroin and arrested seven suspects. The border police received a tip-off in late January, reporting that a gang of drug dealers was planning to smuggle drugs into China through Daxin County, which borders Vietnam. The local public security bureaus and related departments immediately launched an operation. A suspect was spotted on the highway and 20 pieces of heroin weighing 7 kg in total were seized on the spot. Police then traced six others suspected of drug trafficking and six drug users. Further investigations into the case are underway. ISLAMABAD, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that his government has been taking special measures to boost the information technology (IT) sector for the socio-economic uplift of the country. "Special Technology Zones are being established in all the major cities to facilitate IT professionals," Khan said while chairing a meeting of Board of Governors of Special Technology Zones Authority here, according to the Prime Minister's Office. The prime minister said that facilitating the IT sector is the top priority of the incumbent government, which would create huge employment opportunities for the youth in the country. "Youth constitutes around 68 percent of our population, and the IT sector has the full potential to engage them productively for economic growth," he said. During the meeting, Khan directed the authorities concerned to take measures for the creation of a tech-friendly ecosystem including tax holiday for the registered tech startups and freelancers, and attracting local and foreign funding in startups. Photo taken on Feb. 25, 2022 shows the main building of Bank of Russia in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn) The expulsion, which some people believe will deal a heavy blow to the Russian economy by crippling Russian banks' ability to settle international transactions, could be bad for Europe, as it will at the same time bring energy supply shocks to the European Union (EU). FRANKFURT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Several European countries, the United States and Canada issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they will remove some Russian banks from SWIFT, the payment system used for most international financial transactions. The expulsion, which some people believe will deal a heavy blow to the Russian economy by crippling Russian banks' ability to settle international transactions, could be bad for Europe, as it will at the same time bring energy supply shocks to the European Union (EU). That is probably why a few European countries like Germany and Italy were hesitant about endorsing it at first. A woman passes by an office of VTB bank in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn) SWIFT EXPULSION SWIFT is a Belgium-headquartered global provider of secure financial messaging services. It was formed in 1973 by 239 banks from 15 countries to solve the problem of cross-border payments communication. More than 11,000 financial institutions are now using SWIFT for their financial transactions, including around 300 from Russia. According to the joint statement released Saturday, in concert with the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and Canada, the United States is supporting the expulsion of "selected Russian banks" from SWIFT "within the coming days," so as to "further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies." "It will stop them (the Russian banks) from operating worldwide and effectively block Russian exports and imports," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Sunday. Many media reports have predicted that such an expulsion, if endorsed for all major Russian banks, is likely to wreak havoc on Russia's financial system and economy by triggering bank runs and greatly undermining Russia's exports, and have therefore touted the expulsion as a "nuclear option." A pedestrian walks past an exchange rate displaying screen in Moscow, Russia, on March 9, 2020. (Photo by Evgeny Sinitsyn/Xinhua) However, some experts said the move did not necessarily mean that Russian banks will be rendered incapable of conducting international transactions, as they can still finalize the process with other banks through other systems, or even by fax or Email given that SWIFT is only a messaging system. The expulsion will only make the whole process slower and costlier, they said. In fact, Russia has started to develop its own financial transfer system -- the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) -- since 2014, as an alternative to SWIFT, a move in anticipation of possible expulsions from the West. At the end of 2020, there were 23 foreign banks connected to the SPFS from Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Switzerland. As of May 2021, the SPFS had been handling around 20 percent of Russia's domestic payments. Photo taken on Feb. 25, 2022 shows diesel and gasoline prices displayed on a screen at a gas station in Frankfurt, Germany. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua) SUPPLY SHOCKS Citing analysts, some media reports said there was in the beginning reluctance among several leaders from EU countries to take the step of expulsion due to their countries' heavy reliance on Russian energy exports. For example, the Financial Times reported Thursday that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz believed such a move "should not be included in an EU sanctions package." British online newspaper The Independent reported on Saturday that Germany, France and Italy opposed a request from Britain to shut Russia out of SWIFT. "The German finance minister, Christian Lindner, admitted Berlin refused to go further because of 'a high risk that Germany will no longer be supplied with gas or raw materials,'" it said. According to Russia's central bank, the country's exports totaled 489.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, more than 50 percent of which were energy products. Over 40 percent of the EU's natural gas comes from Russia. Germany, the largest economy in the EU, gets 55 percent of its gas imports from Russia. Besides, Russia is a main supplier of crude oil and solid fossil fuels to the EU. Nikolai Zhuravlev, deputy speaker of the Federation Council of Russia, told Russia's TASS news agency in January that European countries will not be able to receive gas, oil and metals from Russia in case Russia is disconnected from SWIFT. Many experts believed if EU countries are weaned off Russian energy supplies, they will face a huge challenge to find backup suppliers. "Europe's economy, which is far more closely tied to Russia's than the U.S. economy, could suffer if Russia was restricted or prohibited from using SWIFT, including if banks are blocked from access," NBC News reported on Sunday. China on Monday issued The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. (Xinhua/Lu Zhe) BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council Information Office on Monday issued the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. The report said the human rights situation in the United States, which has notorious records, worsened in 2021. Its political manipulation led to a sharp surge in COVID-19 deaths while shooting deaths in the country hit a new record. Fake democracy trampled on people's political rights and violent law enforcement made life harder for migrants and refugees in the United States, it said. The report also highlighted the country's growing discrimination against ethnic minority groups, especially people of Asian descent. Unilateral U.S. actions created new humanitarian crises across the globe, it added. Related: Full text: The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021 China on Monday issued The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. (Xinhua/Lu Zhe) China on Monday issued The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. (Xinhua/Lu Zhe) China on Monday issued The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. (Xinhua/Xiao Xiao) China on Monday issued The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. (Xinhua/Xiao Xiao) China on Monday issued The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. (Xinhua/Xiao Xiao) China on Monday issued The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. (Xinhua/Lu Zhe) NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China-Africa trade has bucked the global economic downward trend, and analysts believe it has contributed to the African economy's resilience in the face of COVID-19 challenges. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs of China, the total bilateral trade between China and Africa in 2021 reached 254.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 35.3 percent year on year, among which, Africa exported 105.9 billion dollars of goods to China, up 43.7 percent year on year. China has maintained its position as the largest investor in Africa over the last 10 years, according to a new report by Swiss-African Business Circle released in February. The United States is the second-largest investor in Africa, followed by France and Turkey, in third and fourth positions, respectively. Globally, Africa's external trade performance in 2021 was very strong. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) data in November, Africa's import and export of goods increased by 31 percent and 40 percent respectively in the third quarter of 2021. The UNCTAD believes that the African economy's improvement in 2021 was mainly due to the improvement of the external environment, especially the active support of China and other markets that enhanced Africa's export capacity. Africa's trade growth has also been supported by higher commodity prices. Over the past 10 years, China created 18,562 jobs a year on average in Africa with yearly increases, said the Swiss-African Business Circle report. For example, China continued to help Zimbabwe develop its infrastructure, including telecommunications, energy, and agriculture. Major projects include the expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station, the expansion of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, and the new parliament building. South Africa is an important trading partner of China, with bilateral trade accounting for more than one-fifth of the total China-Africa trade. In 2021, the total trade volume between China and South Africa reached 54.35 billion dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 50.7 percent. In the same year, Chinese investment in South Africa reached 280 million dollars, including 130 million dollars in non-financial investment and 150 million dollars in financial investment. "At present, countries around the world are still faced with the two arduous tasks of epidemic prevention and control and economic recovery. The high-quality development of China's economy has provided impetus and confidence for global and African economic recovery," said Chen Mingjian, Chinese ambassador to Tanzania. According to the International Monetary Fund, China's gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for 18 percent of the world economy in 2021, and its contribution to world economic development has been steadily increasing year after year. At the same time, China's steady economic growth is also bringing more development opportunities to boost African countries' economic recovery. "In 2021, compared with the previous year, Ethiopia's exports to China increased by 8 percent; new foreign direct investment (FDI) from Chinese companies to Ethiopia grew by 346 percent; the value of newly signed contract projects by Chinese companies in Ethiopia were up 25 percent," said Zhao Zhiyuan, Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have played a key role in China-Africa cooperation. According to a report by Africa Policy Institute, a pan-African think tank, since the BRI was proposed in 2013, China has supported modern infrastructure projects such as railways, roads, ports, dams, industries, and digital connectivity, injecting vitality into Kenya's growth. "In less than a decade, Kenya has a brand new 670-kilometer modern Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) connecting the port of Mombasa and the inland (dry) port of Naivasha," said the report titled "Shared Prosperity: Tracking the Belt and Road Initiative in Kenya, 2018-2021." "The FOCAC, established in 2000, is a continuation and distillation of China-Africa friendship and provides a guarantee for high-level China-Africa relations in the new century," said Humphrey Moshi, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam. "Since 2000, under the guidance of FOCAC, China-Africa cooperation has yielded more fruitful results. In 2019, China's stock of direct investment in Africa reached 49.1 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 100 times since 2000," said Moshi. China has helped Africa build the African Union Conference Center, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, and other large-scale infrastructure projects, and conducted close cooperation with Africa in science, education, culture, health, and other fields. China-Africa cooperation has yielded tangible results and contributed greatly to African countries' efforts to reduce poverty, improve the investment environment, upgrade industrialization level and promote economic development. "Despite difficulties, China and Africa have made encouraging progress in discussing practical measures to tackle the epidemic and restore economic development under the framework of the FOCAC. This once again shows that China-Africa cooperation has been moving in the right direction and has made solid efforts to help Africa achieve sustainable development," said Moshi. Produced by Xinhua Global Service Chhatrapati Shivaji Muslim Brigade, an independent organisation, has been organising special events and activities on the occasion of Shiv Jayanti for the past six years in the states Solapur city. Hasan Akram | TwoCircles.net Support TwoCircles MAHARASHTRA Chhatrapati Shivaji has purportedly become a unifying factor for Hindus and Muslims in Maharashtra. In the past few decades, the 17th century Maratha ruler has emerged as a secular figure and has become popular among Muslim as well, as opposed to what was being preached for centuries. In recent years, Muslims in various cities and towns of the state have been observing Shiv Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Shivaji, on 19 February with great enthusiasm. The occasion is used to preach communal harmony and brotherhood by leaders and organisations of the Muslim community. Chhatrapati Shivaji Muslim Brigade, an independent organisation, has been organising special events and activities on the occasion of Shiv Jayanti for the past six years in the states Solapur city. This year, the organisation held a quiz competition on the life of Shivaji, in which over 200 students from Urdu-medium schools took part. The winners were provided trophy and cash prizes at an event held on the evening of 19 February, in which prominent members of the local Hindu community were also invited. At the event, the organisation felicitated two authors viz Musa Khan and Wajahat Abdus Sattar, who have written books on Shivaji in Marathi and Urdu languages. Apart from this, the group was also involved in charity activities such as distributing special kits for newborns and distributing edibles among schoolchildren to mark the birth anniversary of Shivaji. We want to give the message that Maharaj [Shivaji] was not an enemy to Muslim but was a friend to them. People from every caste and religion were with him. We want to create an environment of humanity, the aforementioned groups regional president Matin Bagwan said in a telephonic conversation with TwoCircles.net. Shyam Kadam, president of another Solapur-based organisation, Sambhaji Brigade, described these developments as a deterrent to riots. Due to the same, riots have stopped taking place in Solapur. Otherwise, we used to witness riots every ten years. He further said that Shivajis anti-Muslim image, which was built up by Manuwadis, underwent a change. In Maharashtras Sangli town, local Muslims distributed rations packs among 200 poor families and organised a rally on the occasion of Shiv Jayanti. The rally was also joined by prominent leaders of the Hindu community. Riots used to take place in Sangli. A lot of people here are Hindutvadis [Hindu nationalists]. So, we started such activities to counter them, Suhel Rajuddin Sayyad, a Sangli resident, told TwoCircles.net. In the past few decades, substantial literature has emerged in Urdu and Marathi on the role of Muslims in Shivajis reign. Books such as Shivaji Maharaj ke Muslim sipahsalar [Muslim soldiers of Shivaji Maharaj] by Wajahat Abdus Sattar, Shivaji and Musalman [Shivaji and Muslims] by Saeed Hamid and Urdu translation of Govind Pansares book titled Who was Shivaji have played a pivotal role in the elimination of the Maratha rulers anti-Muslim image. All these books have come to the fore in the past decade, part of a movement of sorts to erase misconceptions about Shivaji and further communal harmony, said author Wajahat Abdus Sattar. Speaking about the secular characteristics of Shivaji, he said that his military was headed by a Muslim named Noor Khan and his naval army was also supervised by Daulat Khan. Moreover, 17 out of his 22-23 bodyguards were Muslims. People have seen in the time of Indira Gandhi how crucial bodyguards are. If Shivaji was an enemy to Muslims then how could he give an important responsibility such as bodyguard to a Muslim? Sattar said. Islamic clerics in Maharashtra have also helped create such discourse about Shivaji. Sheikh Subhan Ali, an Islamic orator and state secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party, said that he invoked inclusive characteristics of Shivaji in his public speeches to promote unity among communities and create a humanistic society. Hasan Akram is a Delhi-based journalist. He tweets at @hasanakram01 * China has maintained its position as the largest investor in Africa over the last 10 years. * The African economy's improvement in 2021 was mainly due to the improvement of the external environment, especially the active support of China and other markets that enhanced Africa's export capacity. * China created 18,562 jobs a year on average in Africa with yearly increases. * China-Africa cooperation has yielded tangible results and contributed greatly to African countries' efforts to reduce poverty, improve the investment environment, upgrade industrialization level and promote economic development. NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China-Africa trade has bucked the global economic downward trend, and analysts believe it has contributed to the African economy's resilience in the face of COVID-19 challenges. Staff members check a train at Nairobi station of Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Nairobi, Kenya, March 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Yan) TOP TRADE PARTNER China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs of China, the total bilateral trade between China and Africa in 2021 reached 254.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 35.3 percent year on year, among which, Africa exported 105.9 billion dollars of goods to China, up 43.7 percent year on year. China has maintained its position as the largest investor in Africa over the last 10 years, according to a new report by Swiss-African Business Circle released in February. Photo taken on Nov. 22, 2021 shows facilities of the De Aar wind power project invested by China's Longyuan Power and its South African partners in De Aar, South Africa. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran) The United States is the second-largest investor in Africa, followed by France and Turkey, in third and fourth positions, respectively. Globally, Africa's external trade performance in 2021 was very strong. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) data in November, Africa's import and export of goods increased by 31 percent and 40 percent respectively in the third quarter of 2021. GROWING WITH CHINA The UNCTAD believes that the African economy's improvement in 2021 was mainly due to the improvement of the external environment, especially the active support of China and other markets that enhanced Africa's export capacity. Africa's trade growth has also been supported by higher commodity prices. Over the past 10 years, China created 18,562 jobs a year on average in Africa with yearly increases, said the Swiss-African Business Circle report. For example, China continued to help Zimbabwe develop its infrastructure, including telecommunications, energy, and agriculture. Major projects include the expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station, expansion of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, and the new parliament building. Photo taken on Sept. 1, 2021 shows the construction site of the expansion project of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare, Zimbabwe. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) South Africa is an important trading partner of China, with bilateral trade accounting for more than one-fifth of the total China-Africa trade. In 2021, the total trade volume between China and South Africa reached 54.35 billion dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 50.7 percent. In the same year, Chinese investment in South Africa reached 280 million dollars, including 130 million dollars in non-financial investment and 150 million dollars in financial investment. IMPETUS FOR RECOVERY "At present, countries around the world are still faced with the two arduous tasks of epidemic prevention and control and economic recovery. The high-quality development of China's economy has provided impetus and confidence for global and African economic recovery," said Chen Mingjian, Chinese ambassador to Tanzania. According to the International Monetary Fund, China's gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for 18 percent of the world economy in 2021, and its contribution to world economic development has been steadily increasing year after year. At the same time, China's steady economic growth is also bringing more development opportunities to boost African countries' economic recovery. "In 2021, compared with the previous year, Ethiopia's exports to China increased by 8 percent; new foreign direct investment (FDI) from Chinese companies to Ethiopia grew by 346 percent; the value of newly signed contract projects by Chinese companies in Ethiopia were up 25 percent," said Zhao Zhiyuan, Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have played a key role in China-Africa cooperation. A staff member is seen during the second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, Sept. 26, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo) According to a report by Africa Policy Institute, a pan-African think tank, since the BRI was proposed in 2013, China has supported modern infrastructure projects such as railways, roads, ports, dams, industries, and digital connectivity, injecting vitality into Kenya's growth. "In less than a decade, Kenya has a brand new 670-kilometer modern Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) connecting the port of Mombasa and the inland (dry) port of Naivasha," said the report titled "Shared Prosperity: Tracking the Belt and Road Initiative in Kenya, 2018-2021." "The FOCAC, established in 2000, is a continuation and distillation of China-Africa friendship and provides a guarantee for high-level China-Africa relations in the new century," said Humphrey Moshi, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam. "Since 2000, under the guidance of FOCAC, China-Africa cooperation has yielded more fruitful results. In 2019, China's stock of direct investment in Africa reached 49.1 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 100 times since 2000," said Moshi. China has helped Africa build the African Union Conference Center, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, and other large-scale infrastructure projects, and conducted close cooperation with Africa in science, education, culture, health, and other fields. China-Africa cooperation has yielded tangible results and contributed greatly to African countries' efforts to reduce poverty, improve the investment environment, upgrade industrialization level and promote economic development. "Despite difficulties, China and Africa have made encouraging progress in discussing practical measures to tackle the epidemic and restore economic development under the framework of the FOCAC. This once again shows that China-Africa cooperation has been moving in the right direction and has made solid efforts to help Africa achieve sustainable development," said Moshi. (Video reporter: Li Cheng; video editors: Liu Yuting, Cao Ying) Photo taken on Jan. 4, 2022 shows a decoration at the headquarters of the Council of the European Union (EU) marking France's hold of the half-year rotating presidency of the EU Council, in Brussels, Belgium.(Xinhua/Zhang Cheng) The EU pledged on Sunday to provide 450-million-euro (504 million U.S. dollars)-worth of lethal weapons to Ukraine. BUDAPEST, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Hungary will not allow deliveries of weapons destined to Ukraine across its territory, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Monday. At a meeting of European Union (EU) foreign ministers on Sunday, Hungary agreed to activate the so-called European Peace Facility, empowering the EU to deliver weapons to Ukraine, Szijjarto recalled. "We Hungarians, although we gave our consent for this decision...we made our position very clear that Hungary is not sending troops to Ukraine and Hungary is not sending weapons to Ukraine because we do not want to get involved in this war," he said in a speech posted on his personal Facebook page. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban inspects a border station with Ukraine in east Hungary, Feb. 26, 2022. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua) "Today we have made another decision that we will not allow deliveries of lethal weapons to transit the territory of Hungary," he declared, adding that the decision was made in order to guarantee the security of Hungary and the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia. "The reason for making this decision is that such deliveries might become targets of hostile military action, and I want to underline again that we have to ensure the security of Hungary and the Hungarian people. We have to ensure that we are not getting involved in that war," he concluded. Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2022 shows the empty street in the early morning in Kiev, capital of Ukraine. (Xinhua/Li Dongxu) The EU pledged on Sunday to provide 450-million-euro (504 million U.S. dollars)-worth of lethal weapons to Ukraine. NYAMIRA, Kenya, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Six people were on Monday killed after a minibus they were traveling in rammed into a truck in Nyamira county, western Kenya, a government official confirmed. Nyamira County Commissioner Michael Lesimam said the incident which occurred along a busy road in the Nyabioto area left five other passengers with serious injuries. Lesimam said the minibus locally known as matatu was heading to Nakuru at around 8.00 a.m. when the driver failed to control it and rammed the track that had developed a mechanical problem. "The driver of the Nissan matatu failed to manage it and rammed into a stationary truck killing six people and five others have been hospitalized," said the official. James Nyakundi who witnessed the incident said the driver of the matatu was at high speed and rammed into the stationary truck to avoid colliding with the oncoming vehicle. Nyamira Medical Superintendent Timothy Ombati told Xinhua that six bodies of the passengers who were confirmed dead have already been preserved at the facility's mortuary. "Five of the passengers who were received first were confirmed dead on arrival while another one died while undergoing treatment at the hospital," Ombati said. He said those being treated had suffered multiple cuts and fractures. According to the police, fatal accidents are common in Kenya due to reckless driving, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving, drunk walking, drunk riding, and failure to use helmets. Some 4,121 people were killed in various accidents in 2021 compared to 3,478 who died in the same period in 2020, according to statistics from the National Transport Safety Authority. ISLAMABAD, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and four others injured in shooting at a funeral by unknown gunmen in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, rescue sources said. The incident happened on the outskirts of the provincial capital Peshawar where the gunmen sprayed bullets at the people coming for the funeral, Sher Gul from the non-governmental rescue organization Edhi Foundation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told Xinhua. The injured people were shifted to a hospital by rescuers and they were in critical condition, he said. Police have cordoned off the area and an investigation into the attack is underway. MANILA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines is expecting more tourists to visit the country after the government relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, the tourism department said on Monday. Pandemic rules in Metro Manila and 38 other areas across the Southeast Asian country will shift to alert level 1, the lowest on a scale of 5, starting March 1 to allow more economic activities. Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said easing the restrictions will boost tourism and make it easier for foreign and domestic travelers to visit the country's tourist spots. "The tourism department anticipates with optimism the revival of many tourism jobs and opportunities that were once lost to the pandemic," Puyat added. The pandemic has badly hit the tourism sector in the Philippines, forcing hotels and airlines to lay off staff. Almost 1.1 million workers were affected in the tourism industry across the country, according to official data. The lowering of the COVID-19 alert level came two weeks after the country allowed fully vaccinated travelers from 157 countries and regions that have visa-free arrangements with the Philippines to enter after nearly a two-year ban imposed due to the pandemic. Under the updated guidelines, fully vaccinated adult travelers can visit areas under alert 1, making travel more accessible and convenient. Public transportation can operate at total capacity. New Delhi: An Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot was killed after a microlight aircraft which he was reportedly flying crashed in Punjabs Patiala on Monday, said an official. A Pipistrel Virus SW 80 trainer aircraft crashed soon after taking off from the Patiala Aviation Club airport, killing Wing Commander GS Cheema, an official spokesperson said. Wing Commander Cheema was on deputation at an NCC unit in Patiala, he said. In the crash of the two-seater aircraft, an NCC cadet too was injured, he said. The injured NCC cadet was identified as Vipin Kumar Yadav of Mohindra College, Patiala, the official said. An inquiry has been ordered by the IAF to ascertain the cause of the accident, the spokesperson said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Shashi Tharoor has said that if Rahul Gandhi does not return as party chief, Congress needs to find an "active and full-time leadership" so it can move forward as the nation expects. He added that it was up to Rahul Gandhi to take a call if he wishes to return as Congress chief. Tharoor said Congress must fix its leadership issues on top priority to address the growing perception among the people that the party is "adrift". He also asserted that Congress must resolve the uncertainty over a long-term president to ensure party's revival. In an interview to PTI, the Thiruvananthapuram MP, who last week renewed his call for elections for the Congress Working Committee (CWC), said the process of electing some members of the party's highest decision-making body will usher in a dynamic leadership team with a credible mandate to work together to address the organisational challenges. Asserting that the Congress is the indispensable national alternative to the "divisive policies" of the BJP, Tharoor said, "The immediate cause of worry for many of us is that there appears to be a growing perception in the eyes of the public that we, as a political entity, are adrift." This is naturally driving some voters towards considering other political options and the most recent example of this was seen in Delhi, where the voters chose to side primarily with the AAP and to a smaller extent with the BJP, leaving the Congress with naught, he said. "This is where the compelling case for urgently addressing this perception in the eyes of the public comes from -- and for that matter, changing the attitude of the media, which is repeatedly writing us off dismissively," Tharoor said. "But for us to do so, we do need to fix our current leadership issues. We need to start with a longer-term, as opposed to interim, Congress president, as well as the 'elected' membership of the Working Committee," the former Union minister said. Shashi Tharoor said he is an advocate for free and transparent elections within the party for these positions as such a process would significantly add to their credibility and legitimacy. The CWC found an excellent interim solution in Sonia Gandhi, but the party cannot indefinitely keep depending on and burdening a president who had only just relinquished the job less than two years ago, he said, adding that it is neither fair to her, nor to the voters. He also said the repeated question of 'Gandhi or non-Gandhi' as party president was "missing the wood for the trees". "The larger concern and the need of the hour is to find a new president and leadership, and I am confident that if we do so through a participatory, transparent and democratic electoral process internally, the workers will at the end of the day throw their might and energy behind whoever emerges as the winning candidate," he said. Asked if the problem remains that of "who will bell the cat" and raise leadership issues with the Gandhi family, Tharoor said, "I don't think the issue at hand is specifically about not being able to raise these concerns with members of the Gandhi family." "It is of critical importance that we delay no further and work together to move forward. Resolving the uncertainty about long-term leadership is an indispensable aspect of our process of revival. It must be given foremost priority," Tharoor said. ALSO READ: Congress Leader Shatrughan Sinha Meets Pakistan President Arif Alvi In Lahore, Discusses Kashmir Talking about the party's conundrum over whether to convince Rahul Gandhi to come back or move on, Tharoor said Gandhi will always hold a special place at the core of the party and the rank and file of the party are pretty unanimous in their belief that he has the vision to rally the party together and take it forward. "This is why most of us were keen for him to continue and stay on in this role after the elections, because while we respected his desire to publicly offer accountability for our defeat, we still felt that there is no one better to ensure the much needed process of revival that is needed for the party," he said. At the end of the day, just as his resignation was a personal decision, the question of his return is one as well, he said. Pitching for election of CWC members, Tharoor pointed out there are three categories of members -- elected members, permanent invitees and special invitees. "All three are currently named by the high command, but I believe it would be healthy for the party if the 'elected members' were actually elected," he said. Tharoor hoped that those who are currently against the idea of elections for CWC recognise that a participatory electoral process, which channels the wishes of the members of the AICC plus PCC delegates - some 10,000 workers in all - is an exercise in inner-party democracy that will strengthen the party. It could also have other beneficial effects such as increasing the national interest in the party, he said. Asked if Rahul Gandhi is not convinced on coming back as chief should Priyanka Gandhi Vadra take on the leadership role, Tharoor said he was neither for nor against any Congress leader who might want to put their name forward. "I certainly hope that she will throw her name in the ring when the call for elections for the post of party president are officially declared," Tharoor said. Priyanka Gandhi has a natural charisma and also comes with organisational experience, he said. "But at the end of the day this will be her personal decision and we must respect that," he said. Tharoor had backed Sandeep Dikshit last week in asserting that the leadership issue needs to be laid to rest immediately. Sonia Gandhi was appointed as the interim Congress president in August last year after Rahul Gandhi resigned taking moral responsibility for the party's Lok Sabha poll debacle. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Some forecasters also say there is a growing risk the China's economy could contract in the first quarter from the previous three months. (Photo Credit: Reuters Photo) Beijing: China will step up policy adjustments to help cushion the blow to the economy from a coronavirus outbreak that authorities are still trying to control, President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying on Sunday. Chinese policymakers have rolled out a raft of measures to support an economy jolted by the virus, which is expected to have a devastating impact on first-quarter growth. The situation is showing a positive trend after arduous efforts but there is no room for "weariness and relaxed mentality" among officials, state television quoted the president as saying. "At present, the epidemic situation is still severe and complex, and prevention and control work is in the most difficult and critical stage," Xi said. "The outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia will inevitably have a relatively big impact on the economy and society," Xi said, adding that the impact would be short-term and controllable. The outbreak, which has infected nearly 77,000 people and killed more than 2,400 in China, is one of the most serious public health crises to confront Chinese leaders in decades. "For us, this is a crisis and is also a big test," Xi said. China's economic growth may show a sharp slowdown in the first quarter, probably dipping to 3% or even lower from 6% in the previous quarter - which was the weakest pace in nearly 30 years, economists estimated. Some forecasters also say there is a growing risk the economy could contract in the first quarter from the previous three months, as factories have been slower than expected to resume production due to shortages of staff and raw materials. Low-risk provinces should focus on restoring work and production in an all-round way, provinces with medium-level risks should aim for an orderly work resumption, while high-risk regions should focus on epidemic controls, Xi said. He highlighted the importance of fighting the epidemic in the capital Beijing, which has recently required people arriving from elsewhere in China to be quarantined at home for 14 days. "The safety and stability of the capital is directly related to the overall work of the party and the state," Xi said. The government would step up policy support to help achieve economic and social development targets for 2020, Xi said. China would maintain a prudent monetary policy and roll out new policy steps in a timely way, he said, adding the government would also study and roll out phased tax cuts to help tide small firms over difficulties. The government would also take steps to support flexible employment and help college graduates to find jobs, Xi added. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. China allowed flights from Japan, Ukraine, France to Wuhan, but yet to approve India's request: Official sources (Photo Credit: IANS file) New Delhi: Coronavirus-hit China is yet to approve Indias request about sending a special plane to Wuhan to bring back Indians stuck there, said official sources, adding that uncertainty over evacuation causing anxiety, mental stress to Indians. The sources said on February 13, India requested China about sending special plane to Wuhan to bring back Indians but no approval so far. The sources also said flights from Japan, Ukraine and France were allowed to operate between February 16 and 20, but India's request was not approved yet by China. They said China is delaying grant of clearance to Indias proposal to send an Indian Air Force flight to carry relief material for people affected by coronavirus in the neighbouring country. India was to send a C-17 military transport aircraft to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on February 20 but the plane could not take off as permission was not granted for the flight. China is deliberately delaying grant of clearance for the evacuation flight, a high-level source said. China's Response When contacted, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson said there was no deliberate delay in grant of permission for the Indian flight to reach Wuhan. The current epidemic situation in Hubei province is complicated, and the prevention and control of Covid-19 has entered into a critical stage. There is no such thing as China deliberately delaying granting flight permission, the spokesperson, Ji Rong, said. The aircraft was to carry a large consignment of medical supplies to China and bring back more Indians from Wuhan. Sources said while the Chinese side continues to maintain that there was no delay in granting permission for the flight to go, the clearance has "inexplicably" not been given. In a letter to President Xi Jinping earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed India's solidarity to the people and government of China in meeting the challenge of the coronavirus outbreak and offered to provide assistance to the country. India then put together relief supplies in pursuance of Modi's commitment as a token of India's solidarity, particularly in the 70th year of the anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. These supplies have been offered even as India faces tremendous shortage itself, given our ethos of helping others in their hour of need, said a source aware of the issue. The items being supplied are gloves, surgical masks, feeding pumps and defibrillators based on the requirements as indicated by the Chinese side. The Chinese side always attaches great importance to the health and safety of Indian nationals in China, and provided assistance and convenience for the return of Indian citizens, Ji further said in reply to the query. We are carefully assessing the ground situation, as prevention work requires. Competent departments of the two countries are keeping communication and coordination in this regard, she said. India's national carrier Air India has already evacuated around 640 Indians from Wuhan in two separate flights. According to estimates, over 100 Indians are still living in Wuhan. A sizeable number of countries have evacuated their citizens from China and restricted movement of people and goods to and from the country in view of the massive outbreak of coronavirus there. Indian nationals in Wuhan continue their long wait for the flight. The delay is causing them and their family members in India tremendous mental anguish, said the sources. They said relief and evacuation flights from other countries including by France are allowed to operate by China but the permission has not come through in India's case. Are they not interested in Indian aid provided as our token of support? Why are they creating roadblock in evacuating our nationals from Wuhan and putting them under hardship and mental agony? said a person aware of the issue. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Gold deposits were estimated to be around 3,000 tonnes and worth Rs 12 lakh crore. (Photo Credit: Photo For Representation) Sonbhadra: The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has discovered gold deposits estimated to be around 3,000 tonnes and worth Rs 12 lakh crore in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, almost five times Indias current reserve of the yellow metal. The gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas here, district mining officer KK Rai said on Friday. Also Read: Treasure hunting friends discover oldest Iron Age gold jewellery in Britain Work on finding gold reserves in Sonbhadra was started almost two decades back in 1992-93 by the Geological Survey of India, he said, adding that auctioning of these blocks through e-tendering would start soon. UP Deputy CM KP Maurya on gold deposits found in Sonbhadra: This will help in making India financially strong. The state government is happy with this news. pic.twitter.com/MyERmHE5Qi ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 22, 2020 Gold deposits are estimated to be around 2,943.26 tonnes The deposits in Son Pahadi are estimated to be around 2,943.26 tonnes, while that at Hardi block are around 646.16 kilogram, the official said. He added that besides gold, some other minerals have also been found in the area. As per the World Gold Council, India currently has 626 tonnes of gold reserves. The new reserves are almost five times that amount and estimated to be worth nearly Rs 12 lakh crore. The British reportedly were the first to initiate the process of finding gold reserves in Sonbhadra region, which is more in the news for being a Naxalism-affected area. Interestingly, Sonbhadra - the second largest district of Uttar Pradesh - is the only district in the country which shares its borders with four statesMadhya Pradesh to the west, Chhattishgarh to the south, Jharkhand to the south-east and Bihar to the east. US President Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump on Monday arrived at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad. (Photo Credit: Twitter) New Delhi: US President Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump on Monday arrived at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad. Guests were welcomed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, CM Vijay Rupnai and Governor Acharya Devvrat. Trump visited the stadium after paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram, which was home to Mahatma Gandhi between 1917 and 1930 during India's freedom struggle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who reached the Ashram a few minutes earlier, showed Trump and the US First Lady Hriday Kunj, a room inside the Ashram where Gandhiji and his wife Kasturba lived. Modi explained the importance of this place in Indias freedom struggle. During the visit, Trump and Melania also tried their hands on the khadi spinning wheel, also knwon as charkha. Melania also helped Trump in weaving khadi on charkha. Gujarat: US President Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump arrive at Motera Stadium, in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, CM Vijay Rupnai and Governor Acharya Devvrat also present. #TrumpInIndia pic.twitter.com/AO2pyRqjFo ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2020 Before leaving, Trump wrote a message in the visitors book of the Ashram. To my great friend Prime Minister Modi - Thank you for this wonderful visit, wrote Trump and signed the message. It was also signed by Melania. Donald Trump, on board the special Air Force One aircraft along with his delegation reached Ahmedabad at 11.37 am for the first leg of his India visit. Trump is accompanied by First Lady Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and the top brass of his administration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the Sardar Valabbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad to welcome the US President. In Ahmedabad, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a mammoth crowd of more than 1,00,000 people at an event titled 'Namaste Trump' at the Motera Stadium. "Namaste, Trump" will be on the lines of the "Howdy, Modi!" event organised for PM Modi during last year's US visit. The event will "showcase India's rich and diverse culture... few parallels in India or elsewhere", foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said. (With PTI Inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Xi acknowledged that the epidemic will inevitably have a large impact on the economy and society. (Photo Credit: Xinhua) Beijing/Wuhan: President Xi Jinping on Sunday said the coronavirus epidemic is Chinas largest public health emergency as the death toll from the deadly virus climbed to 2,442 and the number of infections hit almost 77,000 in the country. President Xi, who attended a meeting in Beijing to double efforts in coordinating the prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak, said the epidemic has the fastest transmission, widest range of infection and has been the most difficult to prevent and control. In comments reported by state broadcaster CCTV, Xi said, This is a crisis for us and it is a big test. He called the epidemic Chinas largest public health emergency. The meeting, in the form of tele-conference, was presided over by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Xi acknowledged that the epidemic will inevitably have a large impact on the economy and society, but he said the effects will be short-term and controllable. Chinese health officials in worst-hit coronavirus hit Wuhan city ordered 14 days quarantine for all recovered patients following reports that some of them tested positive for the virus after recovery. Also Read: Wearing A Mask, Chinese President Xi Jinping Makes First Public Appearance After Coronavirus Outbreak Ninety-seven more people died in China due to coronavirus, taking the death toll to 2,442, officials said on Sunday, as a team of WHO experts visited the worst-affected Wuhan city in Hubei province. By the end of Saturday, 76,936 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection had been reported in 31 provincial-level regions, Chinas National Health Commission (NHC) said in its daily update on Sunday. Ninety-six deaths were reported from Hubei province for which Wuhan is the provincial capital and one from Guangdong province on Saturday besides 648 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, it said. Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December last, reported 630 new confirmed cases, taking the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 64,084, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Officials in Wuhan ordered that all patients who have recovered and discharged from hospitals be sent to designated places for two weeks of quarantine and medical observation. Also Read: 'Thank You President Xi': Donald Trump Praises China's Efforts For Tackling Coronavirus So far 15,299 people who were cured of the virus have been discharged from the hospitals in Wuhan. But they were all asked to go for two-week quarantine after some of them tested positive after being discharged from hospitals, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Hubei province on Saturday reported 630 new confirmed cases of the virus infection and 96 new deaths on Saturday, the provincial health commission said Sunday. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 64,084. Wuhan, the provincial capital reported 541 new confirmed cases and 82 new deaths on Saturday. In total, the city has registered 46,201 confirmed cases and 1,856 deaths. Among the 40,127 hospitalised patients, 8,583 were still in severe condition and another 1,845 in critical condition. The commission also said Hubei had 3,363 suspected cases. The viral outbreak, believed to have originated in a wild-animal market in Wuhan, has infected more than 78,000 people globally. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Workers prepare a hoarding with the images of US President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. (Photo Credit: Reuters) Washington: US President Donald Trump will raise the issue of religious freedom in India during his meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week, a senior administration official said, a sensitive subject for the Indian government. Modi's government has faced large-scale protests at home and criticism abroad for enacting a citizenship law that is seen as discriminating against Muslims and has deepened concerns his administration in undermining India's secular traditions. That measure came months after the Indian government withdrew the special autonomy given to the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir, tightening its hold. It also jailed dozens of political opponents and separatists and imposed a communications blackout. Trump, who is due in India on Monday, will talk about the two countries' shared traditions of democracy and religious freedom, the senior administration official said in a conference call on Friday ahead of the two-day trip. "He will raise these issues, particularly the religious freedom issue, which is extremely important to this administration," the official said. Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party denies any bias against the country's 180 million Muslims. It has strongly rebuffed foreign criticism, saying the changes in Kashmir and the new citizenship law were internal matters. In recent months, New Delhi has clashed with Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey and Malaysia after they criticized the government's policies. Also Read | Donald Trump's India Visit: Here's The Complete Itinerary Of US President's 36-Hour Trip Modi, who has built a personal rapport with Trump, is pulling out all the stops for the visit, which will kick off in his political hometown of Ahmedabad with a massive public reception. Soon after winning a second term in office last year, Modi had spoken about his government's priority of inclusive growth for everyone, including religious minorities, the administration official said. "And I think that the President will talk about these issues in his meetings with Prime Minister Modi and note that the world is looking to India to continue to uphold its democratic traditions, respect for religious minorities," the official said. Trump has faced criticism at home for imposing a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries, a move he has argued is necessary to guard against terrorism. Four US senators wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this month, saying Modi's steps in Kashmir and the citizenship laws were troubling and "threaten the rights of certain religious minorities and the secular character of the state." Also Read | Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Dy-CM Manish Sisodia Not Invited To Melania Trump's School Event: Sources The bipartisan group of Senators Lindsey Graham, Todd Young, Chris Van Hollen and Dick Durbin asked the State Department for information in 30 days about the number of political detainees in Kashmir, restrictions on the internet and cell phone service, and access for foreign diplomats, journalists and observers. They also expressed concern over the crackdown on protesters opposing the citizenship law, which lays out a path to Indian nationality for six religious groups from neighbouring countries including Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, but not Muslims. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. France has made clear it thinks the negotiations will be particularly difficult, especially in such a tight timeframe. (Photo Credit: File Photo) Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said he was not sure it would be possible for the European Union and Britain to reach a trade deal by the end of the year. Britain and the EU are about to embark on negotiations aiming to hammer out a trade agreement by the time the post-Brexit transition period shuts at the end of December. But France has made clear it thinks the negotiations will be particularly difficult, especially in such a tight timeframe. I am not sure that an agreement will be reached between now and the end of the year, Macron said at a meeting with fishermen, who are concerned for their livelihoods after Brexit, at an agricultrual trade event in Paris. Anyway, it is going to become more tense because (the British) are very hard, he said, adding that fishing rights would be a key point of contention. Britain formally ended its 47-year membership of the EU on January 31, nearly four years after a majority voted to leave the bloc in a 2016 referendum. France and several other countries want to be able to keep fishing in British waters, while London wants full autonomy and limited access for European fishermen. The EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the EUs top priorities are fishing, security and maintaining fair trading conditions for European companies. He has also firmly rejected a British suggestion that City of London companies could be given broad, permanent access to EU markets without conditions. Overall, French fishing boats generate 30 percent of their revenue from catches in British maritime territories, particularly rich in fish stocks. French officials say that the UK exports the bulk of its catch to Europe, indicating that British fishermen have plenty to lose if the two sides fail to reach a deal. For all the Latest Business News, International News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Jaffarabad violence seems 'well planned', 'orchestrated' with an eye on Trump visit: MHA sources (Photo Credit: ANI) New Delhi: Violence in some parts of northeast Delhi appears to have been orchestrated keeping in view of the ongoing visit of US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania, government sources said on Monday. Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik is stationed at the police control room and is closely monitoring the situation. He is in touch with Ministry of Home Affairs. Violence in North-East Delhi orchestrated most likely with an eye on US President Trump's visit to India. MHA and Delhi Police Commissioner are in touch and expected to get a grip on the situation soon. Police Commissioner is monitoring situation from the Control Room, sources said. Meanwhile, the Delhi Metro on Monday shut five stations on its Pink Line in wake of the violence that erupted during clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters in the northeast region. "Entry & exit gates of Jaffrabad, Maujpur-Babarpur, Gokulpuri, Johri Enclave and Shiv Vihar are closed. Trains will terminate at Welcome metro station," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) tweeted. A Delhi Police head constable was killed and a deputy commissioner of police injured as clashes over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act broke out again in northeast Delhi's Jaffrabad, Maujpur and Chand Bagh, with protesters torching houses, shops and vehicles, and hurling stones at each other. The DMRC had earlier shut down Jaffrabad and Maujpur-Babarpur metro due to the ongoing protests against the amended law. With PTI Inputs For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bengaluru: An activist of the right-wing group Sri Ram Sena has announced a bounty of Rs 10 lakh for killing Amulya Leona who shouted pro-Pakistan slogans at an anti-CAA event in Bengaluru recently. In a video footage, the activist Sanjeev Maradi is heard asking the government not to release the woman or else he will kill her. The state and the central government should not release her under any circumstances. If she is released, we will kill her in an encounter, Maradi is heard saying at a protest rally organised by the outfit in Ballari against Amulya Leona on Saturday. We on behalf of Sri Ram Sena will give a bounty of Rs 10 lakh to the person who kills her, he added. Also Read | Activist Amulya Leona's House Vandalised For Raising Pro-Pak Slogan, Security Given To Family Ballari Superintendent of Police CK Baba said he has not seen the video or heard about any such announcements. Let me go through it. I haven't seen what he has said. I will have a look.., the official added. At an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act event in the city on Thursday, Amulya Leona, who has been arrested on sedition charges and remanded to judicial custody, had raised Pakistan Zindabad slogan thrice in the presence of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi who denounced her act. For all the Latest India News, South News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Vidya Rani, 29, said she was inspired by the welfare schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Photo Credit: ANI ) New Delhi: Vidya Rani, daughter of slain sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday at an event organised in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri. She joined the saffron party in the presence of party general secretary Muralidhar Rao and former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan. Along with Vidya Rani, 1000 others joined the BJP, reported ANI. "I want to work for the poor and underprivileged irrespective of their caste and religion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's schemes are for the people and I want to take them to the people," said Vidya Rani. Vidya Rani, 29, said she was inspired by the welfare schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which prompted her to join the party, reported Indian Express. Veerappan, an Indian bandit, had started as an assistant to his relative Saalvai Gounder, who was a notorious poacher and sandalwood smuggler. His father and relatives were also known to be poachers and smugglers. Veerappan entered the world of crime in 1969 and was first arrested in 1972. Initially, Veerappan was as a sandalwood and ivory smuggler and killed elephants for the latter. The political instability in South India and particularly, Tamil Nadu, helped Veerappan in escaping away. The jurisdiction problems in state also excerbated things and prevented police officers from entering other states to apprehend the notorious smuggler. He was killed by Tamil Nadu Special Task Force. He was charged with sandalwood smuggling in states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. For all the Latest India News, South News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : Five people including a Delhi Police constable were killed and over 100 injured in the Jaffrabad riots in North-East Delhi on Tuesday. Latest TV visuals showed fresh stone-pelting in the Maujpur area. An ABP report said that two vehicles were set on fir in morning hours on Tuesday. Section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed in riot-hit parts of the North-East Delhi. The Delhi Metro rail Corporation on Tuesday morning announced that the trains will be terminated at the Welcome Metro Station. Jaffrabad, Maujpur-Babarpur, Gokulpuri, Johri Enclave and Shiv Vihar will continue to remain closed, the DMRC said on Twitter. Situation remains tense in the area. All schools and shops remain shut in the area. Sporadic incidents of arson and stone-pelting were reported from the area throughout the night. Rioters set ablaze a tyre market in the Gokulpuri area on Monday night around 11 pm. Firefighters managed to douse the blaze within hours. No casualty was reported in the fire. Onlookers said that had the firefighters no succeeded, things could have got out of control since the tyre market was located near the Gokulpuri Metro Station. The violence that went on for more than 10 hours have sparked intense debate over the role of the Delhi Police and the Aam Aadmi Party government. Gopal Rai, senior AAP minister and local lawmaker from Babarpur constituency, was seen camping outside Delhi LG Anil Baijals residence after midnight. Demanding adequate police deployment, Rai appealed for peace and communal harmony. Government sources said the violence in the national capital appears to have been "orchestrated" by some for publicity as it comes at a time when Trump is visiting the country. They said Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik was stationed at the police control room and closely monitoring the situation. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla told reporters the situation in the national capital was fully under control and sufficient forces were deployed on the ground. Officials said at least eight companies (100 personnel each) of central armed police were present on the ground, besides the Delhi Police. BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said the death of a Delhi Police head constable was a "ploy" to embarrass India during Trump's visit and likened it to the massacre of Sikhs in Chattisinghpura in 2000 during the then US president Bill Clinton's trip to the country. Shocked to hear the death of HC Sh Ratanlal in a brutal & barbaric manner. This reminds me of massacre of Sikhs in Chattisinghpura during Clinton's visit. Incidents change but anti India forces remain the same. Ploy to embarrass India, Request all to remain calm & maintain peace, she said in a tweet. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday condemned the violence in Delhi and urged people to show restraint, compassion and understanding irrespective of the provocation. He said peaceful protests are a sign of a healthy democracy, but violence can never be justified. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: Stone pelting between two groups was reported in the Maujpur area of Delhi where a large number of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters have gathered since Saturday night. According to reports, the clash erupted between pro and anti-CAA protesters after which they started stone-pelting. The situation escalated as police was outnumbered by the crowd. Reportedly, some people suffered injuries after which police resorted to firing tear gas shells. The police did not use force as large number of anti-CAA protesters are women. There was tension in the area after hundreds of anti-CAA protesters, mostly women, blocked a road near the Jaffrabad metro station which connects Seelampur with Maujpur and Yamuna Vihar. Delhi: Stone pelting between two groups in Maujpur area, tear gas shells fired by Police. pic.twitter.com/Yj3mCFSsYk ANI (@ANI) February 23, 2020 The anti-CAA protest continued on Sunday, prompting the Delhi Metro authorities to close the entry and exit gates of the station. "This protest is against CAA, NRC and also seeking reservation for Dalits. The movement is primarily led by the women, while the men are only supporting them, one of the protesters were quoted as saying by IANS. "We have blocked the road in order to protest and we will not move from the site till the Centre revokes the draconian law," the protester added. Protesters raising slogans of 'aazadi', said they would not move from the site till the Centre revoke Citizenship (Amendment) Act. They also tied a blue band on their arm and also raised 'Jai Bhim' slogans. There was heavy security deployment, including women police personnel, in the area. Social activist Faheem Baig said there is a resentment within the people against the way the government is handling the issue. Shamim Ahmed, a local cleric, was in talks with the protesters at Jaffrabad to persuade them to leave the site. A protest is already going on near the main Seelampur road and Kardampuri against the amended Citizenship Act. The protest at Jaffrabad took place at a time efforts are being made to clear a road blocked by anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh. The protesters have been staging a sit-in at Shaheen Bagh for over two months, blocking the road connecting southeast Delhi and Noida. The Supreme Court has appointed interlocutors in an attempt to reach out to the anti-CAA protesters. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. GSI said that the results were not encouraging to come up with major resources for gold in Sonbhadra. (Photo Credit: File/Representational Image) New Delhi: The Geological Survey of India (GSI) on Saturday said there has been no discovery of gold deposits estimated to be around 3,000 tonnes in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, as claimed by a district mining official. "Such data was not given by anybody from GSI.... GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra district," GSI Director General (DG) M Sridhar told PTI in Kolkata this evening. "We share our findings regarding any resources of ore after conducting survey with the state units.... We (GSI, Northern Region) had carried out work in that region in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. The report was shared with UP DGM for information and further necessary action," he said. The exploration works of the GSI for gold was not satisfactory and the results were not encouraging to come up with major resources for gold in Sonbhadra district, he added. Sonbhadra district mining officer KK Rai had said on Friday that the gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of the district. The deposits in Son Pahadi are estimated to be around 2,943.26 tonnes, while that at Hardi block are around 646.16 kilogram, the official said. Rejecting the claim, Sridhar said that in its report after exploration in the district "the GSI has estimated a probable category resource of 52,806.25 tonnes of ore with 3.03 grams per tonne gold (average grade) for a strike length of 170m in Sub- Block-H, Son Pahadi of Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh". "The mineralised zone having an average grade of 3.03 grams per tonne of gold is tentative in nature and the total gold which can be extracted from the total resource of 52,806.25 tonnes of ore is approximately 160 kg and not 3,350 tonnes as mentioned in the media," the DG clarified. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Nokia 9 PureView price has been slashed in India. It is to be noted that HMD Global, the Nokia brand licensee, has reduced the price of Nokia 9 PureView by Rs 15,000 in India. Nokia 9 PureView was launched in India in July last year at Rs Rs 49,999. However, after the price revision, Nokia 9 PureView now costs Rs 34,999. The nature of this price cut is unknown at the moment, and we have contacted the company to ascertain whether the price cut is permanent in nature or just a temporary one. The Nokia website has listed the phone with no-cost EMI options of up to nine months on select credit cards. The key features on Nokia 9 PureView include five-camera setup on the back, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and a Snapdragon 845 SoC, among others. Nokia 9 PureView: Specifications & features Nokia 9 PureView runs on Android 9 Pie and features a 5.99-inch Quad-HD+ (1440x2960 pixels) POLED screen with 18.5:9 aspect ratio and an in-display fingerprint sensor. The premium smartphone, which has dual-SIM (Nano), also features next-generation Pro Camera user-interface, which allows the consumers to take effective control of the penta-lens setup, including allowing them to take native monochrome shots. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, paired with 6GB of RAM. The device further include 128GB of inbuilt storage and 3,320mAh battery with wireless charging support. On the optics front, the smartphone comes equipped with five rear cameras with Zeiss certified lenses, which are joined by three 12-megapixel monochrome sensors and two 12-megapixel RGB sensors. Also, there is a 20-megapixel selfie shooter on the front. Also Read: Redmi 8A Dual Goes On Sale In India: Specs, Features, Price Inside Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC are other connectivity options the smartphone carries. It is IP67 certified for water and dust resistance and packs a USB Type-C port. However, there is no 3.5mm audio jack on the phone. The phone will be offered in its Midnight Blue colour. New Delhi : "Guests are like god," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday in response to US President Donald Trump's tweet in Hindi from on board Air Force One where he expressed his eagerness to visit India. Trump is on a two-day visit to India. "Atithi Devo Bhava," Modi said on Twitter. "We are eager to visit India. We are on our way and will soon be meeting all," Trump, on board the special Air Force One aircraft along with his delegation, tweeted in Hindi earlier in the morning. The US president is accompanied by First Lady Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and the top brass of his administration. Just before his departure, Trump said he had committed to visit India a long time ago and is looking forward to be with the people of India. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Sounding the poll bugle, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday began his state-wide Berojgari Hatao Yatra from here and asserted that his party will form the government after the assembly elections later this year. The Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly said the RJD government will eradicate poverty and create employment opportunities by developing food processing units, industry-specific clusters and tourism. No one is going to defeat us in the coming elections. Your government is going to be formed after eight months, he said while addressing a gathering at the Veterinary College ground here. Yadav advised party workers to connect with people, especially the poor, extremely backward class and scheduled castes. Our partys government will be formed only when we as Krishna will be ready to wash Sudamas feet and will have to eat Shabaris berry as Lord Rama did, he said. Yadav, who was the deputy chief minister in the erstwhile Grand Secular Alliance government, said his partys government will ensure education, healthcare and irrigation. He has been trying to expand the RJDs core base vote of M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) and at a meeting earlier this month, he asserted that its base included A to Z. He also came down heavily on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar alleging that price rise, unemployment and incidents of crimes have increased significantly under Kumars rule. Nothing happens until one pays a bribe to officials in the present dispensation, the RJD leader claimed. Yadav will go to Gaya as part of the Berojgari Hatao Yatra on February 27 and to East Champaran on March 1, RJD Bihar unit spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwary said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Sensex plummeted over 450 points in the opening session on Monday tracking an intense selloff in global equities (Photo Credit: PTI File) Mumbai: Market benchmark Sensex plummeted over 450 points in opening session on Monday tracking intense selloff in global equities amid rising concerns over Chinese coronavirus epidemic. After sinking 497 points in opening session, the 30-share barometer was trading 410.12 points, or 1 per cent, lower at 40,760. Similarly, the NSE Nifty was trading down by 135.85 points, or 1.12 per cent, at 11,945. In the previous session on Thursday, the Sensex settled 152.88 points, or 0.37 per cent, lower at 41,170.12, and Nifty slipped 45.05 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 12,080.85. Financial markets remained closed on Friday on account of 'Mahashivratri'. The rupee depreciated 19 paise to 71.83 against the US dollar in morning session. Brent crude oil futures fell 2.52 per cent to USD 56.48 per barrel. Tata Steel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, cracking over 4 per cent, followed by HDFC, ITC, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC and PowerGrid. On the other hand, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Sun Pharm and HUL were trading with gains. Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,495.25 crore, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 699.62 crore on Thursday, data available with stock exchanges showed. According to traders, spike in coronavirus cases outside China has spooked global investors. South Korea went on high alert Sunday following a sharp jump in coronavirus cases, and Italy and Iran took their own drastic containment steps. Further, IMF also warned that the deadly epidemic could put an already fragile global economy recovery at risk. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said the coronavirus epidemic is the country's "largest public health emergency". The death toll from the deadly virus climbed to 2,592 on Monday. Bourses in Seoul plunged over 3 per cent after South Korea reported 161 more coronavirus cases Monday, taking the nationwide total to 763 and making it the world's largest total outside China. Stock exchanges in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo were also trading significantly lower. On the domestic front, traders said investors are likely to take cues from US President Donald Trump's two-day visit to India. He will reach Ahmedabad later in the day. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Rajnath Singh said that certain steps had been taken in the interests of Kashmir and that everybody should welcome it. (Photo Credit: PTI) New Delhi: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday that he prays for the early release of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. Singh said he hopes that they will contribute normalizing situation in Kashmir, news agency IANS reported. "Kashmir has been peaceful. The situation is improving rapidly. Along with the improvement, these decisions (release of politicians from detention) will also be finalized. The government has not tortured anyone," IANS quoted Rajnath Singh as saying. Referring to Abdullahs and Mufti, Singh added: "I also pray that once they are out, they work and contribute towards improvement of the situation in Kashmir." The Defence Minister said that certain steps had been taken in the interests of Kashmir and that everybody should welcome it. File picture of Rajnath Singh and Omar Abdullah (Credits: rajnathsingh.in) Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah have been booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) by the administration. National Conference (NC) general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who wields a support base in downtown city, was also served with a PSA notice public order by the authorities. Similarly, senior PDP leader Sartaj Madani was booked under the PSA. Madani is the maternal uncle of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. Both Sagar and Madani were detained in the aftermath of August 5 crackdown by the Centre on politicians following the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state, besides its bifurcation into two union territories. Mainstream parties slams government Mainstream parties have reacted sharply to the slapping of the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) on Kashmiri politicians and said the move belies the Centre's claim of normalcy in the union territory. Reacting to the development, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) said the BJP-led government at the Centre is "testing the patience" of the people by such "undemocratic moves". Jammu and Kashmir unit of the CPI(M) also condemned the slapping of the PSA on the prominent Kashmiri leaders, while the Congress termed the decision as "unfortunate". For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: NASAs pioneering mathematician Katherine Johnson passed away on Monday at the age of 101, the US Space agency tweeted. It is to be noted that Katherine Johnsons calculations helped get the first Americans to space and back safely. In a tweet, NASA said, Were saddened by the passing of celebrated #HiddenFigures mathematician Katherine Johnson. Today, we celebrate her 101 years of life and honor her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers. Take a look: We're saddened by the passing of celebrated #HiddenFigures mathematician Katherine Johnson. Today, we celebrate her 101 years of life and honor her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers: https://t.co/Tl3tsHAfYB pic.twitter.com/dGiGmEVvAW NASA (@NASA) February 24, 2020 NASA Administrator James Bridenstine said, "Our NASA family is sad to learn the news that Katherine Johnson passed away this morning at 101 years old. She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten." Katherine Johnson, who passed away at a retirement home, calculated the precise trajectories that helped Apollo 11 land on the Moon in 1969 and, after Neil Armstrongs history-making moonwalk, let it return to Earth. Importantly, Johnson was instrumental in a number of NASA missions. Johnsons contributions were recognized in the year 2015 when she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor bestowed on civilians, from then US President Barack Obama. The bestselling-book-turned-Oscar-nominated-movie Hidden Figures brought Johnsons legacy to the big screen in 2016, in which she was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson. NASA also named a building in her honor in 2017. Katherine Johnson: Life Katherine Johnson was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. By 13, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At 18, she enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the schools math curriculum and found a mentor in math professor WW Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics. She graduated with highest honors in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia. When West Virginia decided to quietly integrate its graduate schools in 1939, West Virginia States president, Dr John W. Davis, selected her and two men to be the first black students offered spots at the states flagship school, West Virginia University. She left her teaching job and enrolled in the graduate math program. At the end of the first session, however, she decided to leave school to start a family with her first husband, James Goble. She returned to teaching when her three daughters got older, but it wasnt until 1952 that a relative told her about open positions at the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACAs) Langley laboratory, headed by fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan. Katherine and her husband decided to move the family to Newport News, Virginia, to pursue the opportunity, and Katherine began work at Langley in the summer of 1953. Just two weeks into her tenure in the office, Dorothy Vaughan assigned her to a project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division, and Katherines temporary position soon became permanent. She spent the next four years analyzing data from flight tests and worked on the investigation of a plane crash caused by wake turbulence. As she was wrapping up this work her husband died of cancer in December 1956. The 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik changed historyand Johnsons life. In 1957, she provided some of the math for the 1958 document Notes on Space Technology, a compendium of a series of 1958 lectures given by engineers in the Flight Research Division and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD). Engineers from those groups formed the core of the Space Task Group, the NACAs first official foray into space travel. Johnson, who had worked with many of them since coming to Langley, came along with the program as the NACA became NASA later that year. She did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepards May 1961 mission Freedom 7, Americas first human spaceflight. In 1960, she and engineer Ted Skopinski coauthored Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position, a report laying out the equations describing an orbital spaceflight in which the landing position of the spacecraft is specified. It was the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division had received credit as an author of a research report. In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Johnson was called upon to do the work that she would become most known for. The complexity of the orbital flight had required the construction of a worldwide communications network, linking tracking stations around the world to IBM computers in Washington, Cape Canaveral in Florida, and Bermuda. The computers had been programmed with the orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the capsule in Glenns Friendship 7 mission from liftoff to splashdown, but the astronauts were wary of putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts. As a part of the preflight checklist, Glenn asked engineers to get the girlJohnsonto run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, but by hand, on her desktop mechanical calculating machine. If she says theyre good, Katherine Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, then Im ready to go. Glenns flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space. When asked to name her greatest contribution to space exploration, Johnson would talk about the calculations that helped synch Project Apollos Lunar Module with the lunar-orbiting Command and Service Module. She also worked on the Space Shuttle and the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS, later renamed Landsat) and authored or coauthored 26 research reports. Also Read: NASA Selects Candidates For CubeSat Space Missions: Know More She retired in 1986, after 33 years at Langley. I loved going to work every single day, she said. In 2015, at age 97, Johnson added another extraordinary achievement to her long list: President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Americas highest civilian honor. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Vinay Sharma has sought better treatment for his alleged mental illness, schizophrenia and head and arm injuries (Photo Credit: PTI File) New Delhi: Tihar jail authorities Saturday termed as a "bundle of distorted facts" the claim by one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder that he is suffering from mental illness. The authorities told Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana that CCTV footage established that the convict, Vinay Kumar Sharma, had inflicted "superficial" injuries on himself and was not suffering from any psychological disorder. The court has reserved its order on Sharma's plea seeking relief on grounds of mental illness and is likely to pronounce it shortly. "These (convict's claims) are all a bundle of distorted facts. Doctor attended to him and found there was an injury. They gave him medicine. All injuries are self-inflicted and superficial in nature," the public prosecutor representing jail authorities said. "The medical records say he is not suffering from any such mental illness and his checkup in any hospital is not required. He is under regular check by the jail doctor," he said. The psychologist, who appeared on behalf of the jail, said regular medical checkups of all four convicts were done on a daily basis and they are all fine. "He talked to his mother and lawyer. So it's wrong to say that he is not able to recognise them," the prosecutor said. The defence counsel said the convict has plaster on his hand that shows he has fractures and not superficial injuries. "Why did the jail conceal the fact about his injuries from the court? Why are documents not being filed?" advocate A P Singh, appearing for the convict, asked. However, the Tihar authorities said "it's wrong to say he had a plastered arm. It wasn't a fracture. It was only a slab around his hand." ALSO READ: Tihar Jail Writes To Convicts Akshay, Vinay On Last Meeting With Families In his plea, Vinay has sought better treatment for his alleged mental illness, schizophrenia and head and arm injuries. According to prison officials, Sharma injured himself by banging his head on his prison cell's wall in Tihar Jail. The incident happened in jail number 3 on Sunday afternoon, they said, adding that he got some minor injuries and was treated at the prison premises. The plea claimed that when Sharma's counsel visited him in prison on the request of his family members, he found that he had sustained a grievous head injury, fracture in his right arm with plaster and was suffering from "insanity", "mental illness" and "schizophrenia". Sharma could not identify his counsel and his mother in jail, it said. The petition further claimed that he had "decreased sleep" for a long time and was referred to a senior psychiatrist in view of drug dependence. The court had on February 17 issued fresh death warrants for execution on March 3 at 6 am against the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. It had issued fresh warrants against death row convicts - Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay Kumar (31). This is the third time that death warrants have been issued against them. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Rajasthan Staff Selection Board LDC Result has been declared. Candidates who appeared for the RSMSSB LDC Exam need to visit the official website of Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board, Jaipur, i.e. rsmssb.rajasthan.gov.in to check and download the RSMSSB LDC result. Alternatively, candidates can click on the below mentioned direct link to check and download the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board LDC Result. RSMSSB LDC Result Earlier, the RSMSSB conducted the Biometric Authentication and Document Verification of Candidates from December 24, 2019 to February 8, 2020 and February 13, 2020. The RSMSSB LDC Typing Test was held from September 3 to September 6, 2019 and October 22, 2019. Apart from this this, the LDC Prelims exam was on August 12 and August 19, 2019, and on September 9 and September 16, 2019 at authorized centers in the state. Also Read: NYKS MTS and Librarian Exam Result Declared At nyks.nic.in, Get Direct Link Here In order to check and download the RSMSSB LDC Result, candidates need to follow the below mentioned steps: First, candidates need to visit the official website of Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board, i.e. rsmssb.rajasthan.gov.in Navigate, and click on the Result section that is available on the homepage A new page will open Click on the LDC 2018 Result link A new file in the PDF format will open that will comprise the LDC 2018 Result Check and download the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board LDC Result Alternatively, candidates can click on the below mentioned direct link to check the RSMSSB 2018 LDC Result. RSMSSB LDC 2018 Result Direct Link New Delhi: China is delaying grant of clearance to India's proposal to send an Indian Air Force flight to carry relief material for people affected by coronavirus in the neighbouring country and bring back Indians from its city of Wuhan, official sources said Saturday. India was to send a C-17 military transport aircraft to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on February 20 but the plane could not take off as permission was not granted for the flight. "China is deliberately delaying grant of clearance for the evacuation flight," a high-level source said. When contacted, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson said there was no deliberate delay in grant of permission for the Indian flight to reach Wuhan. "The current epidemic situation in Hubei province is complicated, and the prevention and control of Covid-19 has entered into a critical stage. There is no such thing as China deliberately delaying granting flight permission," the spokesperson, Ji Rong, said. The aircraft was to carry a large consignment of medical supplies to China and bring back more Indians from Wuhan. Sources said while the Chinese side continues to maintain that there was no delay in granting permission for the flight to go, the clearance has "inexplicably" not been given. ALSO READ:A Death Count In China's Coronavirus Jumps To 2,236; Confirmed Cases Cross 75,400 In a letter to President Xi Jinping earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed India's solidarity to the people and government of China in meeting the challenge of the coronavirus outbreak and offered to provide assistance to the country. India then put together relief supplies in pursuance of Modi's commitment as a token of India's solidarity, particularly in the 70th year of the anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. "These supplies have been offered even as India faces tremendous shortage itself, given our ethos of helping others in their hour of need," said a source aware of the issue. The items being supplied are gloves, surgical masks, feeding pumps and defibrillators based on the requirements as indicated by the Chinese side. India's national carrier Air India has already evacuated around 640 Indians from Wuhan in two separate flights. According to estimates, over 100 Indians are still living in Wuhan. A sizeable number of countries have evacuated their citizens from China and restricted movement of people and goods to and from the country in view of the massive outbreak of coronavirus there. Indian nationals in Wuhan continue their long wait for the flight. The delay is causing them and their family members in India tremendous mental anguish, said the sources. They said relief and evacuation flights from other countries including by France are allowed to operate by China but the permission has not come through in India's case. "Are they not interested in Indian aid provided as our token of support? Why are they creating roadblock in evacuating our nationals from Wuhan and putting them under hardship and mental agony?" said a person aware of the issue. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A MiG-29K aircraft of the Indian Navy crashed in the Arabian Sea off Goa coast on Sunday morning, the Navy said. An Indian Navy spokesman said that the pilot ejected safely. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident. The aircraft was on a routine training sortie when it crashed off the Goa coast around 10.30 am, he said. "The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely and has been recovered. An enquiry to investigate the incident has been ordered," the spokesman said in a tweet. FLASH. Today morning at around 1030h a Mig 29k aircraft on a routine training sortie crashed off Goa. The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely and has been recovered. An enquiry to investigate the incident has been ordered.@DefenceMinIndia @SpokespersonMoD SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) February 23, 2020 According to PTI, the aircraft had flown from the INS Hansa base at Vasco in Goa. The court also banned 16 party executives from politics for 10 years. (Photo Credit: Reuters) New Delhi: Hundreds of students and supporters held a protest in Bangkok on Saturday against a court decision dissolving Thailand's second largest opposition party, less than a year after an election that ended direct military rule. The Constitutional Court on Friday disbanded the upstart Future Forward Party, which won more than 6 million votes last year and came in third, for taking loans from its founder. The court also banned 16 party executives from politics for 10 years, including its charismatic billionaire leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. The party and Thanathorn have denied any wrongdoing. The ban strengthens the position in parliament of a coalition led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the former junta leader who first took power in a 2014 coup. The Student Union of Thailand called a rally at Thammasat University to protest against the dissolution of Future Forward, which draws its support particularly among young voters. "We are holding the rally against the injustice in the country," student union president Jutatip Sirikhan, 21, told Reuters. Protesters held up the three-finger salute, inspired by the Hunger Game movies, a symbol of resistance adopted after the coup, and later lit candles in a show of defiance. The health ministry warned against public gatherings amid concerns over the coronavirus in Thailand, which has recorded 35 cases. "A political gathering is not appropriate at this time and could increase risk of an outbreak," health official Tanarak Pipat said. Some of the protesters wore medical masks. Future Forward's leaders vowed to continue advocacy and political work across the country, including pushing for military reform and better welfare policies in line with their manifesto. Pannika Wanich, a spokeswoman for Future Forward, said supporters would hold a "no confidence motion" event in Bangkok on Sunday ahead of a censure debate in parliament on Monday. "There has been injustice against the six million voices and the country," said Pisit Iewlatanawadee, 29, at the protest. "A group that does not derive authority from the people has destroyed our hopes," he said. The party's dissolution was "a knockout blow for Thailand's teetering efforts to restore democratic rule after a military dictatorship," Human Rights Watch Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement. "This decision seriously weakens the political opposition for the benefit of the military-backed ruling party and unjustly cancels the votes of over six million Future Forward Party supporters," he said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A Delhi Police head constable was killed during clashes over the new citizenship law in northeast Delhi on Monday, a senior officer said. Ratan Lal was attached to the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Gokulpuri, he said. Several police personnel have been injured in the clashes, he said. Several vehicles, shops and houses were torched on Monday, a day after clashes broke out between those against and for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. DCP Shahdara Amit Sharma also sustained injury during the clashes. On Sunday, clashes broke out between police and violent, anti-CAA protesters in the old city area, in which at least five persons were injured, two of them critically, said officials. With protesters indulging in arson, vandalisation of property and stone-pelting at security personnel in Upper Kot area under Kotwali police station limit, the police fired teargas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the mob, said Aligarh District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh. Following the violence, the district adminstration also suspended internet services in the city till midnight today as a precautionary measure, Singh added. Those injured in clashes included a 22-year-old onlooker, who was, according to his father, fired at and injured by a miscreant, whom, he said, he recognises. Four others in the mob suffered injuries from pellets and rubber bullets, two of them in their eyes, with one of them likely to lose his left eye, said doctors treating them. Deputy Inspector General of Police (Aligarh range) Preetinder Singh, meanwhile, told PTI that police have also detained some persons after the violence. The protesters too have been evicted from their dharna site, he added. Aligarh DM Singh said the violence broke out at a spot on Mohamed Ali Road leading to the Kotwali police station where some women protestors were holding a dharna since Saturday with the police trying to evict protesters from there. The trouble began around 5 pm when the police tried to persuade women protestors at Upper Kot near Kotwali to evict them from the road, he said. We told them that women protestors were already holding a dharna at Eidgah and they would not be permitted to hold another such protest near Kotwali, said Singh. He said even as efforts were underway to convince women to leave the area with prominent Muslim citizens of the area, including the Sahar mufti Abdul Khalid trying to defuse the situation, mayhem broke out and brick-batting started.. (With agency inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Shaheen Bagh breaks into jubilation on Saturday after protesters decided to open one side of the Noida-Kalindi Kunj road. (Photo Credit: IANS ) New Delhi: Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), broke into jubilation on Saturday after protesters decided to open one side of the Noida-Kalindi Kunj road after two months of impasse.A The significant development comes hours after Supreme Court-appointed interlocutor Sadhana Ramachandran held a meeting with a delegation of Shaheen Bagh women protestors on Saturday, the fourth day of the mediation talks. Ramachandran arrived at the site alone in the morning and met only a delegation of women protestors. The road, which connects Noida to south east Delhi and further to Faridabad in Haryana, was closed for traffic in the wake of the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protest at Shaheen Bagh since December 15. On Friday, the Shaheen Bagh protesters told the Supreme Court-appointed interlocutors that if the road parallel to the anti-CAA protest site was opened, the apex court should pass an order ensuring their security. Also Read |A Shaheen Bagh Protesters Set 7 Conditions To Supreme Court-Appointed Interlocutors On Day 4 Of Mediation Talks Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran inspected the roads and observed that they were barricaded by the police for ano apparent reasonaAA and emphasised that the action of re-barricading the roads adefeats the very purpose of confidence-building on the part of the policeaAA. Restrictions on the Kalindi Kunj road between Noida and Delhi continued on Friday after it was briefly opened by the Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday night, officials said. The Delhi Police admitted that the protesters had not blocked the parallel road, but they had barricaded it to provide security to the protest site. The road, which connects Noida to south east Delhi and further to Faridabad in Haryana, was closed for traffic in the wake of the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protest at Shaheen Bagh since December 15. Also Read |A Khoj Khabar | For How Long Will Protesters Hold Shaheen Bagh To Ransom? Only emergency vehicles like ambulances and school buses are being allowed to pass through the stretch, the police said. The protesters told the interlocutors that the police barricaded the road parallel to their tent, besides two other roads that connect to the Shaheen Bagh-Kalindi Kunj road. The interlocutors called the police to the spot to discuss the matter with the protesters. A police official told the interlocutors that the parallel road as well as certain other roads were kept barricaded to give protection to the protest site. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Waris Pathan has withdrawn his 15 crore Muslims remarks saying that his statement is being twisted to defame him. My statement is being twisted to target and defame me and my party due to a political conspiracy. However, I take back my words if they hurt anyone and apologise for the same, the AIMIM leaders said on Saturday. Pathan had sparked controversy by saying we are just 15 crore, but we can be heavy on the 100 crore. He made this statement while addressing an event held in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Kalaburagi, Karnataka. He added that the minority community could well snatch your azaadi. Meanwhile, the AIMIM spokesperson and former MLA from Mumbais Byculla has been booked by the Kalaburagi police for the controversial speech he made. Earlier on Friday, the BJP alleged that Pathan's controversial remarks show the conspiracy going on in the name of anti-CAA protest and questioned the "silence of liberals" opposing the law. Addressing a press conference at the BJP office in the national capital, party spokesperson Sambhit Patra said Pathan's remarks show the conspiracy going on in the name of protest against the CAA. "I want to ask all the so-called liberals, who have been opposing CAA, why are they silent on his remarks," Patra asked. It also vindicates that ladies who are sitting in Shaheen Bagh are just being used as a shield to further the cause of hatred, Patra added. However, Maharashtra Minister Balasaheb Thorat on Friday said the AIMIM was the "B team" of the BJP. He was replying to questions on AIMIM leader Waris Pathan's reported statement that 15 crore Muslims would be more than a match for 100 crore Hindus. "AIMIM is the B team of BJP and they are making such statements as they have been unable to divide society on CAA and NRC," Thorat said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices witnessed a marginal hike on Sunday (February 23). Rates were by up to 10 paise per litre across metro cities. According to the Indian Oil website, petrol rates are at Rs 72.10 per litre in Delhi, Rs 77.67 per litre in Mumbai, Rs 74.65 per litre in Kolkata, and Rs 74.81 per litre in Chennai, respectively. On the other hand, the diesel prices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai remained at Rs 64.70, Rs 67.80, Rs 67.02, and Rs 68.32 per litre, respectively. In Noida, petrol is retailing at Rs 73.92 a litre, while diesel price is Rs 65.01 a litre. The price of petrol in Gurugram is Rs 72.09 a litre while diesel was selling at Rs 64.12 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. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Maharajganj: Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh and addressed a public meeting here. During this, he first said, 'From agriculture to military, from sea to space, India has to become powerful in every field. Therefore, as such a big state of the country, the responsibility of Uttar Pradesh is the biggest. With this, the Prime Minister said that, 'These extreme family members can never make India capable and UP empowered. In this Corona period, you have seen how these people have spared no effort to hurt India's self-confidence. I have come today to tell you all that you have to beware of these gross family members. The more we are working hard for the development of the districts which have been pushed back by these extreme familyists. With this, PM Modi said, 'This is the strength of self-reliant and powerful India. But these extreme familyists do not want to see India as strong, they keep putting some obstacles or the other. So once again they have to be defeated in this election. At the same time, he also said here, 'What he did not do, we are also doing that. Maharajganj is also an example of this. Today a network of roads is being laid on the Nepal border. Main roads are being converted into 4 lanes and highways. After the establishment of an international airport in Kushinagar, now the number of tourists will also increase here. With this, in Maharajganj, the Prime Minister said, 'You are seeing the rapidly changing world situation in the last two years. The world is going through many challenges right now. No one can remain untouched by this. In this situation, it is very important for India to be powerful. These family members tried to instigate the poor of the country against the corona vaccine made in India, which every Indian should be proud of. Even the big countries of the world are far behind India in applying the vaccine today. Today our India has given 200 million vaccine doses to its citizens free of cost. Bihar: Finance Minister presents budget, know big announcements Polling underway in Manipur, 27.34% voter turnout till 11 am Asaduddin Owaisi slams PM Modi on Russia-Ukraine war CAIRO Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II spoke over the phone about bolstering collaboration. Sisi praised the continued improvement of relations between the two nations, as well as coordination on regional and international issues, during their call on Sunday, according to the Egyptian Presidency. The Egyptian President also emphasized the importance of continuing efforts to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation in order to maximize both countries' common interests, citing the positive outcomes of recent joint higher committee meetings between the two countries, according to the Xinhua news agency. According to the statement, the Jordanian king stated that his country will continue to advance bilateral cooperation frameworks at all levels and complimented the recent meeting of the Joint Egyptian-Jordanian Higher Committee in Cairo, which was chaired by the two countries' Prime Ministers. The two presidents also discussed the latest regional and international affairs. World's largest cargo plane, the Mriya, destroyed in Ukraine by Russian forces Dispute heated between Russia and Ukraine again, 4300 Russian soldiers killed in the attack Russian PM Putin praises his Spl forces for 'heroically carrying out military tasks Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has addressed a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting that the Indian students struck in Ukraine be returned quickly and safely. In his letter to the Prime Minister, Gehlot requested him to contact the Ukrainian authorities as soon as possible so that Indian students might travel safely to India via Poland and Romania. The Chief Minister informed the Prime Minister about his telephonic discussion with an Indian student staying in Ukraine, Ajay Singh, who informed him that Indian students are not getting a secure path through Poland and Romania to leave Ukraine together. Officers of the State Government are receiving communications from students and their families informing them that a big number of students have gathered at the Romanian border and are unable to proceed. Gehlot also apprised the PM Modi that these students are facing extreme cold at the Romanian border. "Due to the current state of affairs in Ukraine and children being trapped there, their guardians living in India are going through mental stress. State government officials are in continual contact with the Ministry of External Affairs and these students in order to settle this issue "he wrote The Chief Minister has asked the Prime Minister to contact the Ukrainian government in order to ensure the students' safe passage till Poland and Romania. In light of the circumstances on the Romanian border, he has asked the Prime Minister to direct MEA officers to help Indian students as soon as possible. Australia imposes travel ban on Putin, announces fresh sanctions against Russia, Ukraine crisis: EU to ban Russian flights over Europe Jaishankar speaks to counterparts from Hungary, Moldovia for evacuation of Indian nationals in Ukraine In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, South Korea allowed Ukrainians in the country stay extensions on humanitarian grounds, according to the Justice Ministry. The move would affect 3,843 registered Ukrainian nationals, and if they desire to continue in South Korea after their visas expire, the government will offer them temporary stay permits and enable them to work, informed Justice Ministry of South Korea. After the situation has calmed, the government will also allow those whose stay time has already ended to depart the country. Following Myanmar's military takeover in March of last year, South Korea extended similar stay extension permits to Myanmar nationals. In August of last year, South Korea airlifted more than 390 Afghan coworkers and their families as part of a military mission, fearing Taliban retaliation for supporting international operations. Around 300 Ukrainians in South Korea, as well as local allies, protested Russia's invasion in front of the Russian Embassy in Seoul on Sunday. The Ukrainian population in this city intends to hold a weekly demonstration until Moscow stops its military actions. Next 24 hours are crucial for Ukraine: Says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Krishna devotees engaged in the service of people of Ukraine who are facing war, doing such a noble work Russia being pushed into World War III by West Countries, says Belarus President Home Just In Lakhan Thapa: 6 things you should know about Nepals first martyr Today is the National Martyrs Day. It has been several decades since the nation has been commemorating this day, keeping four martyrs killed in 1941 at the centre. However, there are thousands of martyrs in Nepal. Of them, Lakhan Thapa is considered the first. However, he is not known as much as the four martyrs. So, what can be the best time than this to know about the first martyr of Nepal, Lakhan Thapa. and honour him? Here are six things that every Nepali should know about him: 1. Lakhan Thapa was born in Gorkha but raised in India The full name of Lakhan Thapa is said to be Lakhan Thapa Magar. However, this was not his real name. A younger one between the twin brothers, he was named Lakshman Singh Thapa at birth. He was born in 1835 in Kahule Bhangar village located at Bungkot, Gorkha. Now, the very place is named after Thapas name as Shahid Lakhan rural municipality. Lakhan Thapa completed his formal education staying in the family quarters of a relative working in the 3rd Gurkha Rifles in Almora, India. 2. Lakhan Thapa served in the army After completing his study, he returned to Nepal in 1854 and joined Old Gorkha Paltan. Thapa had gone to Lucknow Prime Minister Junga Bahadur Rana and 9,000 members of the Old Gorkha Paltan after the Indo-British government sought military assistance. He was a part of the Nepali soldiers who assisted the British Army to brutally suppress Indian rebels who were fighting for the independence of India. This was around 1857/58 after the Meerut massacre which gave birth to a military revolution against the British colony in India. 3. Suppression turned him rebel from an army man All of these incidents led Lakhan Thapa Magar and other revolutionaries to fight against the tyrannical rule of Junga Bahadur Rana in Nepal also. By 1868/69 (1925 BS), Thapa had already been promoted as the captain of the Nepal Army. However, he left his job along with his friend Jai Singh Chumi Magar in order to unite the people against the rule of Jung Bahadur Rana. With the help of the local people of his birthplace, Thapa built a strong fort there and also built a temple inside the fort. He used to unite the people coming there to worship and make them aware of the arbitrary rule of Junga Bahadur Rana and his anti-public acts. 4. He had launched an armed struggle against the government As per the historian Padam Jung Rana, Thapa had gathered 1,500 people along with weapons and supplies to attack the Rana government. He wanted to end the rule of the Junga Bahadur Rana and to establish democracy in the country. But, Junga Bahadur Rana got the information of the revolution led by Thapa. Subsequently, Lakhan Thapa and his associates were arrested from Bungkot and brought to Kathmandu. They were tortured all along their way. 5. He was killed in front of Manakamana temple And, it was decided that Lakhan Thapa and his associates would be hanged from the tree in front of the Manakamana temple of their fort premises in the presence of the local people at Bungkot, Gorkha. They were charged with treason. After they did not beg a pardon in front of the Rana government, they were all brought to Gorkha. And, at first, the leader Lakhan Thapa was hanged from the tree in front of Manakamana temple inside his fort on February 14, 1877. It is also said that he has been skinned and hanged. And, after him, all other rebels were hanged. 6. He was declared martyr in 1999 He was the first Nepali to protest against the tyrannical Rana rule. Therefore, he was declared a martyr in 1999 by the Nepal government. And, the government declared him as the first martyr of Nepal on September 20, 2015. This information was collected from the website of Shahid Lakhan rural municipality office. From the archives. This past week, Russia invaded Ukraine. The crisis marks the highest level of geopolitical tensions in Europe in decades. So far, Russias advance has been stalled due to unexpected strong Ukrainian resistance. At the same time, while the US and its allies havent intervened on the ground, they have been supplying arms and financial backing. They have also imposed sanctions and have now cut off a number of Russian banks' access to the SWIFT international payment system, thereby severely restricting Russias trade capabilities. Financial markets are reacting, of course, in a variety of ways. The price of oil is up and at a level not seen since 2014. The Russian stock market has simply collapsed, as has the ruble against the dollar. On Wall Street, stocks fell sharply as the Ukraine crisis grew in recent weeks, and since the Russian invasion have swung wildly down and then up. Volatile times like these usually bring opportunities for investors, if you know where to look. One obvious place to start: stocks in defense companies. Using the TipRanks platform, weve looked up several defense stocks that fit a profile: each gets a Buy rating from Wall Streets analysts, and each has a double-digit upside for the year ahead. Here are the details. CACI International (CACI) First up is CACI International, an information tech company offering a wide range of services to multiple Federal Government departments, including Defense and Homeland Security. The companys services include digital solutions for engineering services and enterprise IT, with applications in command and control systems, AI and deep learning, secure cloud, robotics and automation, and network modeling and simulation. While CACI devotes a large portion of its business to the defense industry, it has significant civilian contracts, as well. In one recent boost for the companys civil aerospace technology business, CACI announced this month that it had delivered a high-bandwidth free-space optical modem for use in low Earth orbit a key component of the International Space Station communications system. Story continues These are expensive services, provided on long-term government contracts; the result is a long run of highly consistent revenue numbers. CACIs top line has held consistently between $1.4 billion and $1.56 billion for the past two years. In its most recent reported quarter, Q2 of fiscal year 2022, released at the end of January, CACI showed $1.5 billion at the top line, and an adjusted EPS of $4.39 per share. The EPS came in slightly below the $4.50 estimate but was up 5% year-over-year. CACI management has stated that it remains committed to delivering value to shareholders, and JPM analyst Seth Seifman sees that as a key point for investors going forward, writing, Cash flow this year is benefiting from a $230m one-time tax benefit, but we expect CACI to continue to generate >$500m of cash flow and growing looking forward. Buybacks at the current price look attractive, but mgmt. noted that they are unlikely to raise debt to buy back stock at the current leverage levels. However, the ~$500m of cash we expect to be generated in 2H22 could be used. In line with his comments, Seifman rates the stock as Overweight (a Buy) with a $320 price target to indicate room for 20% upside in the next 12 months. (To watch Seifmans track record, click here.) Overall, its clear that Wall Street agrees with this bullish stance. The stock has 6 recent reviews, which include 5 Buys and 1 Hold to support a Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares are priced at $266.08, and their $306.67 average price target implies a 15% upside potential. (See CACIs stock analysis at TipRanks.) Teledyne Technologies (TDY) Next up, Teledyne, is an engineering and tech firm that produces high-end electronics and hardware for use in a variety of civilian and defense-related applications. The company operates in four divisions instrumentation, digital imaging, aerospace & defense electronics, and engineered systems and its product line includes such devices as digital imaging sensors and cameras with visible, infrared, and X-ray capabilities; marine monitoring and control instrumentation; electronic test and measurement equipment; aircraft information management systems; and defense satellite communications systems. Teledyne operates in the US and Canada, along with the UK and Western Europe. Teledyne has grown to its current incarnation it is a $20 billion company through a policy of smart acquisitions. Its most recent such move, completed in May of 2021, was the acquisition of FLIR Systems, a video surveillance leader, for $8 billion. The newly acquired company will operate as a subsidiary under the name Teledyne FLIR. In a more recent announcement, Teledyne this month made public a $16 million Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with the US Geological Survey. The contract will run for 5 years, and includes products and services from across Teledynes Marine portfolio. At the end of January, Teledyne delivered its Q421 report, showing strong results. Quarterly revenues came in at $1.375 billion, a company record, and the non-GAAP EPS of $4.56 was up 31% yoy and beat the pre-release forecast by 8%. The company reported annual revenues of $4.61 billion for 2021, up 49% from 2020. 5-star analyst James Ricchiuti, covering this stock for Needham, considers Teledyne as perhaps the most consistent company in our universe of advanced industrial technology stocks, with a proven track-record in M&A and the ability to navigate through challenging environments in its various market verticals. Ricchiuti sees the FLIR deal as key to the companys prospects, writing, TDY's acquisition last year of FLIR Systems represents the largest M&A deal the company has undertaken, and we believe has been a game-changer in terms of enhancing TDY's infrared detector and sensor technologies footprint while giving it access to new defense growth opportunities for unmanned ground-based vehicles and drones and potentially longer-term in ADAS applications for the automotive market. Ricchiutis Buy rating comes with a $520 price target that suggests a potential upside of 21% by the end of 2022. (To watch Ricchiutis track record, click here.) There are 7 recent reviews of Teledyne on record, with 6 Buys over 1 Sell for a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The stock has an average price target of $536, for a 25% upside potential from the current trading price of $428.63. (See Teledynes stock analysis at TipRanks.) Kratos Defense (KTOS) The third stock on our list, Kratos, is more of a pure-play defense stock than CACI or Teledyne. Kratos focuses mainly on customers in the US National Security sector, including the US Navy and Air Force, the Missile Defense Agency, the US Intelligence Community, NASA, and Foreign Military Sales. The company designs and develops a wide range of platforms and products for this customer base, from unmanned aircraft to satellite communication systems, to cybersecurity and cyberwarfare systems to hypersonic technology. The company works to change the way that technological breakthroughs are brought to the markets. Kratos released its latest quarterly results last week, beating both the top-and bottom-line estimates. Revenue hit $211 million. This was up just 2.5% year-over-year but came in $3.2 million above Wall Streets forecast and amounted to the best quarterly top line in over two years. The full-year 2021 top line of $811 million was up more than 8% from 2020. The companys Space, Satellite, and Cyber division lead the full-year gains, increasing almost 19% to reach $276.3 million. In earnings, Kratos reported that adjusted quarterly EPS grew yoy from 8 cents to 11 cents (a gain of 37%), and beat the 9-cent estimate by a 22% margin. RBCs 5-star analyst Ken Herbert points out the drawback for a company in relying on Federal contracts to wit, waiting for Congress to pass a budget, but believes that shouldnt deter investors. He writes, The juxtaposition of the near-term budget uncertainty and the longer-term upside for KTOS remains frustrating for investors. We continue to view much of the risk for KTOS as timing related, which is why we are remaining bullish on the stock. We do expect fundamentals to continue to improve with the passage of the FY22 budget and to see a corresponding uptick in 2H22. Herberts bullish outlook translates to an Outperform (Buy) rating, while his $24 price target implies a one-year upside of 28%. (To watch Herberts track record, click here.) The Moderate Buy consensus rating here reflects an even split from the Streets analysts the 8 reviews divide 4 to 4 on Buys and Holds. KTOS is selling for $18.68, and the $22.50 average price target suggests 20% upside this year. (See Kratos stock forecast at TipRanks.) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. Klaipedos Nafta On the 28th of February 2022 at 9:00 (EET) AB Klaipedos nafta holds a conference webinar for its shareholders, investors, mass media representatives and other stakeholders. The presentation is held in English. The webinar is hosted by KN Chief Executive Officer Darius Silenskis and Chief Financial Officer Mindaugas Kveksas who will introduce the Groups financial results for the twelve months of 2021 and will answer the participant questions. Webinar presentation is enclosed. Mindaugas Kveksas, Chief Financial Officer, +370 46 391772 Attachment While Ukrainian forces fight against the Russian military's invasion, hackers from around the world are causing disruption to Russias digital infrastructure. Hacking groups such as Anonymous and the Cyber Partisans have claimed responsibility for cyberattacks on Russias banks, state broadcaster RT, and a Belarusian rail network reportedly used to move troops from Russia to Ukraine. Peace talks between the two countries are ongoing between the two nations, but it remains unclear how long the bloodshed will last. Currently, these cyber groups have said that they stand with Ukraine against Russias powerful online forces - causing disruption to stop the countrys own attacks against Ukraine and the West. DDoS alone will not bring down a regime, one German Anonymous splinter group said in a blog post, but Putin, who is using hacker squads and troll armies against Western democracies, is getting a sip of his own bitter medicine. The intention is to keep the Russian IT apparatus busy and to provide Putin's hacker troops ... with defensive work so that they cannot do anything in Ukraine or the West . Obtaining information is also an important point and you just don't see a lot of what activists are currently doing. Key points Russian ransomware hackers pledge support to Putin and immediately have secret chats exposed by Ukrainian leaker Russian EV charging stations hacked with Putin is a d***head message Anonymous claims to have hacked Russian space agency Anonymous claims 2,500 hacks 11:52 , Adam Smith The hacking collective Anonymous has now claimed responsibility for 2,500 attacks on Russian & Belarusian govt, state media outlets, banks, hospitals, airports [and] companies. This number has risen by 1,000 since earlier this week - however, since anyone can be associated with Anonymous, this figure is difficult to verify. #OpRussia: Since declaring 'cyber war' on Kremlin's criminal regime, #Anonymous has hacked over 2500 websites of Russian & Belarusian gov't, state media outlets, banks, hospitals, airports, companies & pro-russian 'hacking group' in support of #Ukraine. #FckPutin #FreeUkraine pic.twitter.com/NJZiLx5c0d Anonymous TV (@YourAnonTV) March 3, 2022 Russia to remain on internet as authorities refuse Ukraines demand to disconnect the country Story continues 10:49 , Adam Smith The Ukrainian governments demand to have Russian domain names removed from the internet will not go ahead. On Monday, Andrii Nabok and vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, emailed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Reseaux IP Europeens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) to introduce strict sanctions against the Russian Federation in the field of DNS regulation. Their request, however, has been dismissed. As you know, the Internet is a decentralized system. No one actor has the ability to control it or shut it down, ICANN chief Goran Marby wrote in his response. Our mission does not extend to taking punitive actions, issuing sanctions, or restricting access against segments of the Internet regardless of the provocations, he added. Essentially, ICANN has been built to ensure that the Internet works, not for its coordination role to be used to stop it from working. Read the full story here Russia could refuse to launch UK satellites, head of space agency suggests Thursday 3 March 2022 23:59 , Adam Smith Russia will refuse to conduct an upcoming UK satellite launch unless it can be assured they are not used for military purposes, the head of its space agency said. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, is contracted to conduct a launch on behalf of OneWeb, the satellite firm part owned by the British government. It is scheduled to happen from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday. But if OneWeb is not able to give a guarantee that the satellites will not be used for military purposes by Friday evening, Russias rocket will no longer conduct the launch, according to Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin. Ukraine requests dogecoin donations as meme coin exceeds Russian ruble Thursday 3 March 2022 22:00 , Adam Smith Ukraines vice prime minister has requested dogecoin donations as part of fundraising efforts following Russias invasion of the eastern European country. Mykhailo Fedorov, who also serves as Ukraines Minister of Digital Transformation, said the funds will contribute to the Ukrainian victory as well as support civil people. The country has already raised more than $33 million worth of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since launching a fundraiser over the weekend. Dogecoin exceeded Russian ruble in value, Mr Fedorov tweeted on Wednesday. The rise of hoax news: How a shameful new industry is profiting from war Thursday 3 March 2022 21:00 , Adam Smith The extremely online nature of modern warfare has spawned a cottage industry of scammers, fraud artists, and disinformation merchants trying to profit from crisis, Io Dodds writes Ukraine cancels crypto airdrop and will sell NFTs to support armed forces instead Thursday 3 March 2022 20:00 , Adam Smith Ukraine has cancelled a crypto airdrop and will sell NFTs to support its armed forces instead, a member of its government has announced. The airdrop had prompted intrigue and confusion when it was announced by Mykhailo Fedorov, the countrys vice prime minister. He has since announced that it would cancel the airdrop but continue to look at ways for people to raise money for Ukraine through the blockchain. After careful consideration we decided to cancel airdrop, Mr Fedorov tweeted. Every day there are more and more people willing to help Ukraine to fight back the aggression. Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon. We DO NOT HAVE any plans to issue any fungible tokens. Trolling, hacking and ordering pizza: Anonymous reveals how it plans to continue fight for Ukraine Thursday 3 March 2022 18:00 , Adam Smith Members of the hacking group Anonymous are planning a number of new attacks including breaching and leaking databases, defacing websites, and ordering pizzas. Representatives for the hacking collective told The Independent that these tactics alongside trolling, enlisting targets phone numbers to escort sites, and taking over data centres are common tactics, but that your guess is as good as ours for what might happen next. This is because Anonymous infamously does not have a leadership or organisational structure, with the group saying that they do not gather on schedule, to discuss and vote but rather someone brings up an idea or a done hack or anything and if other Anons like it, they join a group around this. Or dont. Read the full article here Google Maps suspends reviews as Russian landmarks flooded with photos of captured soldiers and news clips Thursday 3 March 2022 12:45 , Adam Smith Google has blocked users leaving reviews on Maps for places in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Tripadvisor has taken the same action on its own platform, as users were posting political statements to the reviews sections of businesses and restaurants in those countries to try and communicate across borders in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine. The idea was spread by a Twitter account representing the hacking group Anonymous earlier this week, as well as Ukraines IT Army a group trying to counter Russian propaganda. A review of the Zoological Museum of Moscow University stated you have dead animals, with pictures of captured Russian soldiers, while a monument to the Soviet film Officers is linked to dozens of photos of captive soldiers and screenshots of news clips, Motherboard reported. Why havent the cyberattacks on Ukraine worked? Thursday 3 March 2022 11:00 , Adam Smith It was expected that Russia would have launched cyberattacks against Ukraine to cripple its infrastructure, but many report that attacks have not been as devastating as one would have expected. However, Russias campaign seems more improvised - with internet and power grids still operational. That said, it is possible worse attacks could still come. Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of digital transformation for Ukraine, told TechCrunch that you have no idea the level of cyberattacks Ukraine has been facing. The connections are working. There are no electronics impacted yet. They hit one of the stations but its just one in a big city. There are a lot of others. But I think they will try to disrupt connections. They didnt do this in the first place because I think they thought that this would be faster and easier, they would just run through the city, stop in the main square and just celebrate. Thats why they didnt touch any infrastructure in the first place, he said. But then the Russians realized they are not welcome here. They are occupying territory. So after like almost a week, they started to destroy our infrastructure, hit civilian objectives, kill civilian people. Anonymous struck by Russian hackers Thursday 3 March 2022 09:19 , Adam Smith A Russian hacking group known as Killnet has claimed it has disrupted Anonymous own websites. ANONYMOUS HACKERS SERVERS STILL DOWN AFTER RUSSIAN KILLNET HACKER GROUP TOOK DOWN ANONYMOUS SERVERS First Squawk (@FirstSquawk) March 2, 2022 The website anonymoushackers.net was reportedly unusable, displaying instead a 500 Error. Internal Server Error. The website is now operational. Pro-Russian hackers launch email attack to disrupt Ukraine refugee rescue attempts Wednesday 2 March 2022 22:00 , Adam Smith A likely cyber attack from a nation-state using a Ukrainian soldiers email address has been used to try and disrupt European officials attempts to help refugees fleeing the country from Russias invasion. The state sponsored phishing campaign, whereby login credentials and other user data are stolen by hackers, appeared to use the email address to send a malicious micro attachment to the Emergency Meeting of the NATO Security Council that took place on 23 February. The intention seems to be to trick government personal tasked with managing transportation of refugees into downloading the Lua malware SunSeed, according to cybersecurity researchers at Proofpoint. While the researchers cannot definitively attribute this campaign, they believe that it is from the threat actor TA445 (aka Ghostwriter/UNC1151). This is based on the timeline of the attack, use of compromised sender addresses that align with Ukrainian government reports, and the victimology of the campaign align with previous attempts made by TA445 in 2021 with regards to Belarus funnelling refugees to the Polish border. Russia refuses to launch UK satellites unless government agrees to demands, space agency says Wednesday 2 March 2022 21:00 , Adam Smith Russia will refuse to launch UK satellites unless the government agrees to its demands, its space agency has said. Roscosmos is due to launch a host of satellites this week on behalf of OneWeb, a firm part-owned by the UK government, in a deal agreed before the escalation of tensions. It has become something of a test of whether international co-operation in space will continue amid growing aggression on the ground. Russia had already said that it would only launch the satellites if OneWeb would guarantee that they would not be used for military purposes. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, also said in the same TV interview that OneWeb had paid in full for the launch and Russia would keep that fee whether the launch went ahead or not. Now Roscosmos has announced new demands, requiring that the UK government sell its stake in the firm before the launch can go ahead on 5 March. Due to the UKs hostile stance towards Russia, another condition for the launch of OneWeb spacecraft on March 5 is the withdrawal of the British government from the shareholders of OneWeb, the Russian space agency said in a tweet. Ukraine demands that Russia be cut off from the internet to stop atrocious crimes Wednesday 2 March 2022 20:00 , Adam Smith Ukraine has asked two international internet bodies to remove Russia from the internet. Two representatives for Ukraine, Andrii Nabok and deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, emailed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Reseaux IP Europeens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) to introduce strict sanctions against the Russian Federation in the field of DNS regulation. The government officials claim that Russias invasion of Ukraine violates the Geneva Conventions, but the atrocious crimes have been achieved due to the Russian propaganda machinery using websites continuously spreading disinformation, hate speech, promoting violence and hiding the truth. The letter also says that Ukraines IT infrastructure has been attacked numerous times by Russia which has caused the country to recruit a volunteer cyber army and that Russias aggression could beget nuclear war. It demands the organisations revoke, permanently or temporarily, the domains .ru, .NN and .su, as well as revoking SSL certificates and shutting down domain name servers commonly described as the address book of the internet - in Russia. Russia threatens to block Wikipedia over article on Ukraine invasion Wednesday 2 March 2022 19:00 , Adam Smith Moscow has threatened to block access to Wikipedias Russian-language site over an article about Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine. Amid widespread reports that Russias war is not going to plan, Moscow further tightened its grip on the information available to its populace on Tuesday and attacked Google and Meta as foreign instigators of war, after they also clamped down on Kremlin-backed media outlets. Having ordered independent media outlets last week to remove references to Russias assault, invasion, or declaration of war or face being blocked and fined, the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor has now issued a similar threat to Wikipedia. Wikimedia Russia confirmed to The Independent on Wednesday that it had received the threat from Moscows communications regulator, which was published on the formers website. Pro-Russian hackers launch email attack to disrupt Ukraine refugee rescue attempts Wednesday 2 March 2022 11:49 , Adam Smith A likely cyber attack from a nation-state using a Ukrainian soldiers email address has been used to try and disrupt European officials attempts to help refugees fleeing the country from Russias invasion. The state sponsored phishing campaign, whereby login credentials and other user data are stolen by hackers, appeared to use the email address to send a malicious micro attachment to the Emergency Meeting of the NATO Security Council that took place on 23 February. While the researchers cannot definitively attribute this campaign, they believe that it is from the threat actor TA445 (aka Ghostwriter/UNC1151). This is based on the timeline of the attack, use of compromised sender addresses that align with Ukrainian government reports, and the victimology of the campaign align with previous attempts made by TA445 in 2021 with regards to Belarus funnelling refugees to the Polish border. Ukrainian cyber group to launch guerrilla warfare on Russian power grid Wednesday 2 March 2022 11:11 , Adam Smith A Ukrainian cyber resistance group said it planned to attack key Russian infrastructure, including the railways and electricity grid, to retaliate against Moscows invasion of the country. Yegor Aushev, a local cybersecurity expert, said on Monday that he planned to organise a group of hackers in Ukraine to defend against Russia, Reuters reported. The targets would include infrastructure that helped Russians bring weapons to Ukraine for the invasion. Everything that might stop the war. The goal is to make it impossible to bring these weapons to our country, he was quoted as saying. Russian EV charging stations hacked with Putin is a d***head message Wednesday 2 March 2022 09:24 , Adam Smith Russian hackers also changed the messages on electric vehicle charging stations to hurl curses at Vladimir Putin. The chargers along the M11 motorway, which runs between Moscow and St Petersburg, were disabled and started to display pro-Ukrainian messages, according to social media users. Glory to Ukraine / Glory to the heroes / Putin is a d***head / Death to the enemy, the message reportedly read. Anonymous claims to have hacked Russian space agency Wednesday 2 March 2022 09:05 , Adam Smith A group affiliated with Anonymous called NB6 has claimed to have hacked Roscosmos, Russias space agency. #Russia has no more control over their own Spy-Satelites, an Anonymous Twitter account posted. The Independent has not been able to confirm the accuracy of these claims, and the space agencys chief executive has denied that it has been affected. Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday that any claims of a hack are made by fraudsters and pretty swindlers and that all our space control centers operate as usual". The information of these scammers and petty swindlers is not true. All our space activity control centers are operating normally. https://t.co/MY0qzlLqCI (@Rogozin) March 2, 2022 Mr Rogozin has said previously that control of the Russian space industry, orbital group and the Russian International Space Station segment are thoroughly protected and isolated by cyber criminals, but threatened that sanctions placed against Russia could have a damaging effect on the ISS. If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States and Europe? the space chief tweeted on Friday. SpaceX chief Elon Musk, in response to the comment, said his company would step in to assist the station. Nasa has said it would make every effort to continue as before [despite] disagreements between our countries. Reddit quarantines r/Russia Tuesday 1 March 2022 22:00 , Adam Smith Reddit also quarantined its r/Russia subreddit for spreading misinformation, as well as the smaller subreddit r/RussiaPolitics - merely days after it was created in to discuss the politics of the invasion. We are clear in our policies that moderators and users may not attempt to manipulate and interfere with the conversations or communities on our platform, a Reddit spokesperson told Mashable. In line with these policies, we have quarantined r/Russia and r/RussiaPolitics and removed a moderator for acting in bad faith. We have connected directly with the remaining moderators to provide guidance and remind them of our policies. We will continue to monitor the situation and take additional steps as needed. Russian VPN use has increased dramatically Tuesday 1 March 2022 21:00 , Adam Smith In order to get around internet restrictions, Russian users have been downloading VPNs in order to access content from other nations. Data from Atlas VPN claims that installs have risen by 1,90 per cent over the last few days so that users can continue to use services unrestricted. The start of physical attacks in Ukraine on February 24 gave rise to the never-seen-before upsurge in VPN demand. VPN installs reached record heights one day after another, the company states. On February 25, VPN installs rose by 24 per cent above the average. The next day, on February 26, VPN installs originating from Russia sky-rocketed by 1,076 per cent over the norm. Still, this was not the end, as the following day, VPN installs went off the charts, soaring 1,906 per cent higher than the mean. BItcoin overtakes the Russian Ruble Tuesday 1 March 2022 20:00 , Adam Smith The damage that Russias invasion has done to its economy has meant that digital currency bitcoin has overtaken it in value. The cryptocurrency reached above $41,000 on Monday afternoon, according to CoinMarketCaps price index, having traded below $35,000 as recently as Thursday. The Ruble fell by around 25 per cent in that same time period, dropping below $0.01 on Monday to a new record low. In these uncertain times, we have seen an uptick in the utility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of the crypto exchange BitFinex, told The Independent. It goes without saying the defining characteristics of bitcoin allows it to act as a safe haven during turbulent times. TikTok takes action against Russia Tuesday 1 March 2022 19:00 , Adam Smith TikTok has also sanctioned pages or content posted by RT and Sputnik - something that could severely interfere with Russian disinformation. In 2014, Russia flooded the internet with fake accounts pushing disinformation about its takeover of Crimea. Now, trolls and bots stir up anti-Ukrainian sentiment and it is unclear how close they are to the government. It could just be a patriotic Russian fighting the good fight as they see it, or it could easily be something directly affiliated with the state, said Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation researcher and expert on Eastern Europe at the Wilson Center in Washington. Russia has been perfecting these tactics. YouTube bans Russian media Tuesday 1 March 2022 18:00 , Adam Smith As well as hackers, big tech companies have taken action against Russia. Google has banned the YouTube channels of Russia Today and Sputnik in Europe. Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, were blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately, Google said in a tweet. Itll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action. Visitors to the channel saw a message reading: This channel is not available in your country. Similar messages appeared in countries across Europe. Russian hackers cyberattacks on Ukraine could breach Geneva Conventions, Microsoft chief warns Tuesday 1 March 2022 16:20 , Adam Smith Microsofts president Brad Smith has said that Russias cyber attacks raise serious concerns under the Geneva Convention. The attacks have been precisely targeted, with the company especially concerned about targets including the financial sector, agriculture sector, emergency response services, humanitarian aid efforts, and energy sector organizations The Ukrainian government has also been warned about cyber attacks that could steal health, insurance, and transportation data that could personally identify citizens, Mr Smith went on. However, while Microsoft says that the cyber attacks have been offensive and destructive, other experts have claimed they are haphazard. A plausible scenario for more devastating cyber-attacks was that Russia had planned this invasion for a long time, and prepositioned implants across Ukraines critical infrastructure in order to cause mass disruptions coinciding with the military invasion, Dr Maschmeyer told The Guardian. Devastating cyberattacks have not played as large a component as some people thought it might and it definitely has not been seen outside of Ukraine to the extent that people feared, said Michael Daniel, a former White House cybersecurity coordinator, but that the situation could still change. Secret misinformation campaign is trying to trick people into using less secure messaging apps, Signal says Tuesday 1 March 2022 13:34 , Adam Smith A misinformation campaign is trying to trick people into using less secure messaging apps, encrypted chat platform Signal has said. In recent days there have been a run of rumours attempting to suggest that the app has been hacked and compromised and that its security has been weakened, Signal said. But those rumours appear to be part of a messaging campaign aimed at encouraging people to stop using signal and move to less secure platforms, it said. Weve had an uptick in usage in Eastern Europe & rumors are circulating that Signal is hacked & compromised. This is false. Signal is not hacked. We believe these rumors are part of a coordinated misinformation campaign meant to encourage people to use less secure alternatives, the company wrote in a set of tweets. Were seeing these rumors appear in messages forwarded on several different apps. These rumors are often attributed to official government sources and read attacks on Signal platform. This is false and Signal is not under attack. Anonymous posts new message to Vladimir Putin Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:31 , Adam Smith A Twitter account representing the Anonymous hacking group has posted a new video directed at the Russian president. Mr Putin, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine has shown that your regime has no respect for human rights or the self determination of your neighbours, it says. In the past several days a full scale invasion has commenced, civilian neighbourhoods have been bombed and innocent people have been killed. Refugees are fleeing the violence and the population is being forced into conscription by Ukrainian officials. This is an ugly situation all around but you are the instigator. A cyber free-for-all from Russia could still be launched on Ukraine Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:30 , Adam Smith So far, a massive attack on Ukraines digital infrastructure from Russia has not happened yet. Power plants and other critical infrastructure are still operational, despite Russia having a huge resource of hackers and online operatives such as the Internet Research Agency. It has not played as large a component as some people thought it might and it definitely has not been seen outside of Ukraine to the extent that people feared, said Michael Daniel, a former White House cybersecurity coordinator. Of course, that could still change. It is not clear why this has not happened; perhaps Russia believes that the impact is not serious enough, or that they could not do enough damage to Ukraine without collateral or knock-on effects for other nations. Ukraine is currently being supported by a volunteer IT Army in an attempt to help the country launch cyber attacks back at Russia. What is inside the Conti leak? Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:22 , Adam Smith Marcus Hutchins, the British computer expert who helped shut down NHS cyberattack in 2017, has offered some insight into the scale of the Conti leak. This is the kind of stuff that almost never gets seen by anyone outside cybersecurity or law enforcement, he tweeted, highlighting the billions the gang had made and an unnamed journalist [that] offered to help Conti extort companies ... in return for a 5% commission The Conti leaks offer everyone an unprecedented insight into the inner workings of a major cybercrime organization. This is the kind of stuff that almost never gets seen by anyone outside cybersecurity or law enforcement. Here's some highlights: Marcus Hutchins (@MalwareTechBlog) March 1, 2022 An unnamed journalist offered to help Conti extort companies (most likely by threatening to cover the company's breach), in return for a 5% commission.https://t.co/MllVuwkAPd Marcus Hutchins (@MalwareTechBlog) March 1, 2022 Russian ransomware hackers have secret chats exposed by Ukrainian leaker Tuesday 1 March 2022 11:17 , Adam Smith A ransomware cabal that pledged support for Russias invasion of Ukraine has been hacked. If anybody will decide to organize a cyberattack or any war activities against Russia, we are going to use our all possible resources to strike back at the critical infrastructures of an enemy, a blog post by the Conti hackers read. Shortly after, a cache of chat logs belonging to the Conti ransomware gang leaked online by an insider who objected to their support of Vladimir Putin. Fuck the Russian government, the leaker said in their message. Glory to Ukraine! Russian media sites hacked by Anonymous again Tuesday 1 March 2022 09:12 , Adam Smith Russian media site Fontanka, state-owned news agency Tass and daily newspaper Kommersant were all hacked by Anonymous yesterday. A message warning readers of certain death for troops in Ukraine was shared across their platforms. The message on Fontaka read in full: Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death. Putin makes us lie and puts us in danger. We were isolated from the whole world, they stopped buying oil and gas. In a few years we will live like in North Korea. What is it for us? To put Putin in the textbooks? This is not our war, lets stop it! This message will be deleted, and some of us will be fired or even jailed. But we cant take it anymore. Indifferent journalists of Russia. Anonymous tweets message to Russian people Monday 28 February 2022 22:30 , Adam Smith Another high-profile Anonymous account has tweeted a reassuring message to the Russian people, following apparently false claims that they would hack citizens bank accounts if they failed to protest. To the people of Russia: We do not want to fight with you, the account tweeted, in Russian. Understand that Putin has invaded a sovereign nation and the whole world is outraged. We know its risky to stand up to him, but if you dont, then who will? : . , , . , , , ?#OpRussia # #Anonymous # pic.twitter.com/ayV7CfUDs6 Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) February 28, 2022 Anonymous claims responsibility for 1,500 hacks Monday 28 February 2022 21:51 , Adam Smith The hacking group has claimed that it has carried out 1,500 cyber attacks on the Russian and Belarusian governments over the past three days, including attacks on state systems, banks, and broadcasters. However, anonymity is a double-edged sword; it can be a boon to have so many people working for a collective aim, but that collectivism can also make the group unpredictable and many can claim to be working under its philosophy without actually doing so. A Twitter account claiming to represent the group has had to denounce a fake Anonymous video that claimed it would withdraw money from Russian citizens bank accounts if they did not come out in protest of President Putins actions. 2/ Some things to keep in mind: Anonymous acts by attacking governments that behave violently towards the people. Anonymous never attacks the people because we are the people. Please don't fall prey to individuals seeking to tarnish Anonymous's name. Anonymous TV (@YourAnonTV) February 28, 2022 Meta sets up special operations group to deal with Russian misinformation - and Russia fights back Monday 28 February 2022 17:30 , Adam Smith Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has launched a dedicated force to combat fake news on social media. The situation in Ukraine is devastating, the companys president of global affairs and the UKs former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said. Weve established a Special Operations Center, staffed by experts and native speakers, to respond in real time to remove hate speech or content that incites violence or otherwise breaks our rules. The situation in Ukraine is devastating. Our teams at Meta have implemented a number of measures to keep our platforms and our users in the region as safe as we can. This is a fast moving situation and our teams remain on high alert. pic.twitter.com/8wFgx7muKG Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) February 25, 2022 However, in retaliation to the move, Russia limited access to Facebook. Meta said that it would label the accounts of Russian-owned media outlets, but Russian authorities said that the restrictions were censorship and accused Facebook of violating the human rights of its citizens. It is not clear what those restrictions, put out by the countrys communications regulator Roskomnadzor, will actually involve. Ukraines IT Army grows to fight against Russia Monday 28 February 2022 17:00 , Adam Smith Assisting in the rebellion against Russia, hundreds of thousands of people have joined an initative from the Ukrainian government to wage cyber attacks. It suggested that it took down a technology used by Sberbank, one of Russias biggest banks. It has also indicated that it could have been behind attacks on other official websites. The group has gained around 230,000 subscribers in the days since it was launched. Those who join are instructed to help with cyber attacks as well as other online efforts, including sending information to Belarus. Anonymous encourages people to leave online reviews in Russia explaining situation in Ukraine Monday 28 February 2022 16:59 , Adam Smith A Twitter account representing Anonymous has suggested that people leave online reviews for restaurants and other businesses in Russia in order to raise awareness of the situation in Ukraine. Go to Google Maps. Go to Russia. Find a restaurant or business and write a review. When you write the review explain what is happening in Ukraine. Idea via @Konrad03249040 Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) February 28, 2022 Google had also been put under pressure to remove pro-Russia propaganda from YouTube. It has since suspended several Russian media channels from generating revenue on the video service due to the extraordinary nature of the invasion. The channels suspended included the state-funded RT. Russian media outlets have been accused of spreading misinformation in order to justify the countrys actions in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Boris Johnson said an attack on a kindergarten in Ukraine was a false flag operation by Russia which has been designed to discredit the Ukrainians. We fear very much that that is a thing we will see more of over the next few days, he added. Russian media sites replaced with tombstone for war dead in mass cyber attack Monday 28 February 2022 16:15 , Adam Smith Russian media sites, including TASS and Kommersant, were today replaced by a memorial for the war dead in a mass cyber attack. The hackers appeared to associate themselves with Anonymous. The message included the number 5,300, the number of Russian troops that Ukraine claims to have killed. It also includes anti-war messages, suggesting that Vladimir Putin has begun the war to get into the history books. Belarus rail network systems encrypted to stop Russia moving troops to Ukraine Monday 28 February 2022 15:55 , Adam Smith A group called the Cyber Partisans encrypted the data of parts of the Belarusian rail network, blocking trains in the cities of Minsk and Orsha, as well as the town of Osipovichi. The hackers claimed that the attack was to slow down the transfer of troops moving from Belarus to northern Ukraine, saying that they had put the trains in manual control mode which would significantly slow down the movement of trains, but will not create emergency situations. One former Belarus railway worker reportedly said that the systems in Minsk and Orsha had been paralyzed, but the situation remains unclear now. The Belarusian Railway did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent before time of publication. Vladimir Putins yacht renamed FCKPTN Monday 28 February 2022 15:52 , Adam Smith The group has also claimed an attack on the Russian presidents luxury yacht, renaming it FCKPTN by vandalising maritime tracking data. The hackers then renamed its destination to anonymous and anonleaks, before finally settling on hell. They claimed that they wanted to put the yacht in the scope of sanction packages and put a little smile on some faces for a short period in these dark times. Anonymous attacks Russian governments websites, banks, and broadcaster Monday 28 February 2022 15:48 , Adam Smith Among numerous attacks the hacking group Anonymous have made against Russia include claims of taking down state broadcaster RT, posting on Twitter that it took down the propaganda station in response to Kremlins brutal invasion. After the statement by Anonymous, RTs websites became the subject of a massive DDoS attack from nearly 100 million devices, mostly based in the US, RT told The Independent in a statement. Due to the hack there were temporary website access limitations for some users, yet RT promptly resolved these issues. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are performed by overwhelming websites with junk traffic to render them unreachable. Similar attacks were performed on the websites of Ukraines defence, foreign, and interior ministries ahead of Russias invasion. What is happening right now between Russia and Ukraine? Monday 28 February 2022 15:46 , Adam Smith The Independent is constantly reporting on the situation between the two nations - with peace talks currently ongoing between Russia and Ukraine, but with no certainty that the conflict could come to an end. The Ukrainian presidents office said earlier that the goal of the talks was an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky said 16 Ukrainian children have been killed and another 45 have been injured in recent rocket strikes to the Ukranian city of Kharkiv. He added that 4,500 Russian troops have also been killed. Canadian Bankers Association members donate more than $1.18 million to support emergency efforts TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2022 /CNW/ - Banks in Canada are supporting organizations providing immediate help in response to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine. Support includes collecting financial donations in bank branches and making corporate donations directly to the Canadian Red Cross and other emergency aid organizations. Canadian Red Cross (CNW Group/Canadian Bankers Association) The following banks are donating a combined $835,000 to the Red Cross' Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal to help respond to the humanitarian needs in Ukraine and surrounding countries: BMO CIBC and Simplii Financial Laurentian Bank National Bank RBC Scotiabank TD Bank Group Tangerine Bank "Banks in Canada stand in support of the people of Ukraine and the large and vibrant Ukrainian community in Canada. Money raised through this appeal will help organizations provide immediate and ongoing emergency assistance to those in urgent need in Ukraine and neighbouring countries." Anthony G. Ostler, President and CEO, Canadian Bankers Association Additional donations In addition to donations to the Red Cross, banks are donating a combined $350,000 to organizations providing emergency aid to the people of Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora: CIBC and Simplii Financial are donating to the UNICEF Canada Ukraine Appeal and UNHCR Canada, the UN Refugee Agency. RBC's donation will assist in providing mental health-related supports to the Ukrainian community in Canada. TD Bank Group is donating to GlobalMedic and UNHCR Canada, the UN Refugee Agency as well as contributing to the Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres general emergency fund. How Canadians can help Canadians wishing to make a donation to the Canadian Red Cross' Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal can do so online at www.redcross.ca or at any branch or online where available from the banks listed below until March 18: BMO Canadian Western Bank RBC Scotiabank TD Bank Group Story continues Banks in Canada have long supported humanitarian and emergency relief appeals in Canada and internationally to help those affected by extreme weather, health crises and conflicts. About the Canadian Bankers Association The Canadian Bankers Association is the voice of more than 60 domestic and foreign banks that help drive Canada's economic growth and prosperity. The CBA advocates for public policies that contribute to a sound, thriving banking system to ensure Canadians can succeed in their financial goals. www.cba.ca Follow the CBA on Twitter: @CdnBankers Watch videos: Youtube.com/CdnBankers Follow the CBA on LinkedIn SOURCE Canadian Bankers Association Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2022/28/c0090.html FILE PHOTO: A BP logo is seen at a petrol station in central London LONDON (Reuters) -BP has cancelled all fuel oil loadings from the Russian Black Sea port of Taman due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, sources familiar with the matter said. BP was due to load a 60,000-tonne cargo of fuel oil on March 5, according to the sources and a loading list for the port. The fuel oil originated from Rosneft's refinery, sources said. The cargo was cancelled even though a tanker was found to load the oil. One source said BP was considering cancelling loadings of other oil products it buys from Russia owing to low demand for Russian product worldwide. Russian oil and product exporters face difficulties with shipping, insurance and sales due to sanctions imposed on Russian entities by EU and the United States. BP buys oil products loaded at the Russian ports of Taman, Novorossiisk, Nakhodka and Ust-Luga. A spokesperson for BP did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Julia Payne and Moscow Newsroom; editing by Jan Harvey and Jason Neely) BullPerks and GamesPad will support the Unchain Fund and other charity projects created by blockchain activists to collect donations for innocent civilians exposed to danger during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine, BullPerks and GamesPad released the official statement to support the peaceful resolution of this conflict. Many say that the world of crypto should remain out of politics, and both companies follow this vision, as well as the desire for peace in the entire world. BullPerks and GamesPad Support The Peaceful Resolution Of The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Teams behind BullPerks and GamesPad emphasize the apolitical position in this situation, as companies bring together talents from different corners of the world, including Ukraine and Russia. However, they are also concerned that many Ukrainians, including their team members, will be forced to leave their homeland in search of refuge in other countries in these times of uncertainty. For the sake of global peace, BullPerks and GamesPad will support the Unchain Fund and other charity projects created by blockchain activists to collect cryptocurrency donations for civilians exposed to danger during the events in Ukraine. Also, companies encourage the community to raise funds for Ukrainian hospitals , humanitarian aid , and childcare . "Now our goal is to break the chain of war and scatter its links far away from each other. So that they could never meet again. Our main fundraising tool is NFT. You can buy any of the artworks below or make a simple donation. Important! We don't raise money for weapons. We raise money for medicine, evacuation and repair needs, food, and clothes. Our priority is to help civilians." - Unchain. "I was born and raised in Kyiv, the capital of one of the biggest European countries. It's heartbreaking to see what is happening. Many Ukrainians might have to relocate to protect their lives. Among them are top blockchain developers, project managers, designers, scientists, young and ambitious people with families as well as elderly people." - commented Constantin Kogan, BullPerks and GamesPad Co-Founder. Story continues Supporting charity organizations, GamesPad and BullPerks intend to unleash the power of blockchain and crypto to help peaceful people in these challenging times. The blockchain industry is fast-developing, and every country brings its invaluable contribution to this evolution. Many talented Ukraine-born people have already made an immense input, including Valery Vavilov (Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Bitfury Group), Anatoly Yakovenko (Co-Founder of Solana and LinkedIn), Illia Polosukhin (Co-founder of NEAR Protocol), Stan Kladko (Co-Founder & CTO of Skale Network) and many others. About BullPerks and GamesPad GamesPad is the world's first holistic gaming, NFT, and metaverse ecosystem that incubates the most impactful crypto gaming projects. It is backed by industry experts from BullPerks , a decentralized VC and multichain launchpad. Both companies aim to help the best crypto projects raise funds, build communities, and provide the opportunity for retail buyers to invest in the deals on equal terms with VCs. Visit us on social media: Twitter YouTube Telegram Official Announcements Medium Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bullperks-and-gamespad-support-the-peaceful-resolution-of-the-russia-ukraine-conflict-301491470.html SOURCE GamesPad NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The banning of certain Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system could push central banks to enhance liquidity to offset missed payments, a Credit Suisse strategist said on Sunday. Western nations announced on Saturday a harsh set of sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT international payments system. Major banks were working this weekend to get to grips with the raft of new sanctions and their full implications, while markets braced for more volatility as the measures could disrupt global trade and hurt Western interests as well as Russia. "Exclusions from SWIFT will lead to missed payments and giant overdrafts similar to the missed payments and giant overdrafts that we saw in March 2020", Credit Suisse's Zoltan Pozsar said in a note. Back in March 2020, the U.S. Federal Reserve enhanced efforts with other major central banks to ease a global dollar-funding crunch, as part of emergency measures to stem the financial and economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. "The virus froze the flow of goods and services that led to missed payments, and war has led to exclusions from SWIFT that will lead to missed payments again", said Pozsar. "One would assume that central banks would re-activate daily swap line operations now that the SWIFT option got invoked. Central banks should stand ready to make markets on Monday again", he added. To counter inflation, the Fed has announced plans to reduce its balance sheet this year, after it roughly doubled in size during the pandemic to nearly $9 trillion as it bought bonds to help keep longer-term interest rates down. But the Fed's balance sheet may expand again before shrinking through so-called quantitative tightening, a reversal of the Fed's bond-buying programme, Pozsar said. "The consequence of excluding banks from SWIFT is real, and so is the need for central banks to re-activate daily U.S. dollar funds supplying operations", he said. (Reporting by Davide Barbuscia Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Coface SA COFACE SA withdraws its proposed tender offer on the 380,000,000 Guaranteed Subordinated 4.125 per cent. Notes due 27 March 2024 and related new issue Paris, 28 February 2022 08.00 Owing to the very significant deterioration of the geopolitical situation during the second half of last week, COFACE SA (the "Company") has decided to withdraw its proposed tender offer on the 380,000,000 Guaranteed Subordinated 4.125 per cent. Notes due 27 March 2024 and related new issue. The Company would like to thank investors for the interest expressed in the transaction so far and looks forward to re-engaging in the future. CONTACTS ANALYSTS / INVESTORS Thomas JACQUET : +33 1 49 02 12 58 thomas.jacquet@coface.com Benoit CHASTEL : +33 1 49 02 22 28 benoit.chastel@coface.com MEDIA RELATIONS Saphia GAOUAOUI : +33 1 49 02 14 91 saphia.gaouaoui@coface.com Corentin HENRY : +33 1 49 02 23 94 - corentin.henry@coface.com FINANCIAL CALENDAR 2021/2022 (subject to change) Q1-2022 results: 28 April 2022 (after market close) Annual General Shareholders Meeting 2021: 17 May 2022 H1-2022 results: 28 July 2022 (after market close) 9M-2022 results: 27 October 2022 (after market close FINANCIAL INFORMATION This press release, as well as COFACE SAs integral regulatory information, can be found on the Groups website: http://www.coface.com/Investors For regulated information on Alternative Performance Measures (APM), please refer to our Interim Financial Report for S1-2021 and our 2020 Universal Registration Document (see part 3.7 Key financial performance indicators) COFACE: FOR TRADE With 75 years of experience and the most extensive international network, Coface is a leader in trade credit insurance and adjacent specialty services, including Factoring, Single Risk insurance, Bonding and Information services. Cofaces experts work to the beat of the global economy, helping ~50,000 clients build successful, growing, and dynamic businesses across the world. Coface helps companies in their credit decisions. The Group's services and solutions strengthen their ability to sell by protecting them against the risks of non-payment in their domestic and export markets. In 2021, Coface employed ~4,538 people and registered a turnover of 1.57 billion. www.coface.com COFACE SA is quoted in Compartment A of Euronext Paris Code ISIN: FR0010667147 / Mnemonique : COFA DISCLAIMER - Certain declarations featured in this press release may contain forecasts that notably relate to future events, trends, projects or targets. By nature, these forecasts include identified or unidentified risks and uncertainties, and may be affected by many factors likely to give rise to a significant discrepancy between the real results and those stated in these declarations. Please refer to chapter 5 Main risk factors and their management within the Group of the Coface Group's 2020 Universal Registration Document filed with AMF on 31 March 2021 under the number D.21-0233 in order to obtain a description of certain major factors, risks and uncertainties likely to influence the Coface Group's businesses. The Coface Group disclaims any intention or obligation to publish an update of these forecasts, or provide new information on future events or any other circumstance. Story continues Attachment Erria A/S Company Announcement No. 01 February 28, 2022 Erria A/S Enters into Conditional Agreement to Acquire Cathay Seal Pte Ltd Erria A/S (the Company ) has today entered into a conditional agreement to acquire all the equity interests of Cathay Seal Pte Ltd ( Cathay Seal ), a Singapore company engaged in the design, manufacture and supply of security seals. The acquisition is conditional upon approval of the board of directors of the Company, including the satisfication of customary due diligence, and the approval by the shareholders of the Company of issuance of new shares to the sellers of Cathay Seal. Background of Cathay Seal Founded in 2010, Cathay Seal sells its products to a variety of customers ranging from international container shipping lines to port authorities, as an example, addressing their respective niche requirements. Through its Singapore office with five employees and a distributor network covering nearly 15 countries, Cathay Seal serves customers worldwide. Its products are manufactured in Ningbo, China and Batam, Indonesia. The largest customer sector for Cathay Seal is the maritime industry. Other customer segments relate to the transportation of pharmaceutical and biomedical materials, retail, cash handling, secured distribution and the utility industries. In 2021, Cathay Seal had sales in excess of USD 4.3m (DKK 28.7m) and an EBITDA of about USD 0.12m (DKK 0.8m). Rationale for Acquisition Cathay Seal is a well-established and recognized brand in the security seals industry with a strong focus on serving the demanding needs of the container shipping industry. We are very keen to consummate this transaction and contribute to the further success of Cathay Seal and its customers. Through a combination of our diverse professional experience within the container shipping industry, our European presence and the Erria commercial network, our objective is to expand the Cathay Seal presence in current and new markets, said Henrik N. Andersen, the chief executive officer of the Company. Sylvia Tan, co-shareholder and general manager of Cathay Seal, added: I am happy for our employees, customers and other stakeholders that Cathay Seal will be part of the Erria family of companies. What was important for me and the three other shareholders of Cathay Seal is the fact that we and Erria share the same business values and philosophy and that Erria is committed to growing our business. Story continues Consideration and Shareholder Approval Under the proposed acquisition terms, which are subject to the Companys shareholder approval and customary due diligence, the four shareholders of Cathay Seal will receive a cash payment and and new shares to be issued by the Company. The total consideration is USD 1.1m (DKK 7.3m). Sren Storgaard, chairman of the board of directors of the Company, said: With this business combination, we deliver on our promise to serve the maritime industry and maximize value for all our stakeholders. At the same time, this business integration also enables us to diversify our risk profile into non-shipping markets by serving segments such as banks. If the transaction terms are approved at a shareholders meeting, the Companys existing shareholders will be diluted by 14.9 percent. The sellers of Cathay Seal have agreed to subscribe for 1,621,622 new shares at a price of DKK 3.70 per share (approximately equal to the average share price during the preceeding on year) or the market price at closing of the acquisition, whichever is the higher. Outlook Following the date of the acquisition and share issuance, the Company expects Cathay Seal at an Erria group level to contribute pro-rata with about USD 4.3m (DKK 28.7m) in sales and an EBITDA of about USD 0.2m (DKK 1.3m). The Company will announce its financial expectations for 2022 on March 17, 2022. For further information, please contact the chief executive officer of the Company Henrik N. Andersen at +45 3336 440. Sren Storgaard Henrik N. Andersen Chairman of the Board of Directors Chief Executive Officer Certified adviser Norden CEF ApS John Norden Toldbodgade 55B, Third Floor 1253 Copenhagen K Denmark +45 2072 0200 The Company's Subsidiaries and Portfolio Companies to be Granted a 15-Year License to Cella Food System's IP Portfolio for Decentralized Cellular Agriculture Product Development VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 28, 2022 /CNW/ - CULT Food Science Corp. ("CULT" or the "Company"), an innovative investment platform with an exclusive focus on cellular agriculture that is advancing the development of novel technologies to provide a sustainable, environmental, and ethical solution to the global factory farming and aquaculture crises, is pleased to announce it has entered into a binding Letter of Intent (the "LOI" or the "Transaction"), dated February 25, 2022 with Cella Food Systems Inc. ("Cella"). The Transaction will enable the Company to accelerate its proprietary, cell-based, product development capabilities via Cella's patent portfolio, machine learning data and prototyping IP toolkits, all while crystalizing turnkey research collaborations and leveraging the methodologies of Cella's accomplished inventors. CULT continues to build defendable moats around its leading cellular agriculture ("CellAg") intellectual property ("IP"), patent and investment platform through the additive commercial arrangement. CULT Food Science Corp. Logo (CSE: CULT, OTC: CULTF, FRA: LN0) (CNW Group/CULT Food Science Corp.) Management Commentary "CULT has long recognized that the goal is to build a CellAg ecosystem, not just a portfolio of investments. We believe that, while competitive, actors in the cell-based arena are dedicated to a sustainable and collaborative future. The Company's trusted relationship as an investor and partner across many verticals allows the Company to bring to bear, where applicable, its own platform technologies to aid and augment its rapidly growing investees. This is expected to ultimately result in multiple future revenue and royalty streams for CULT as it contributes not just capital, but also cutting-edge technologies across its portfolio. This is the first step in the Company's strategic plan to harness the upside of the nascent cell-based foods markets not only as an investor, but as a principal," commented Lejjy Gafour, President of CULT. "This is a transformational step forward for CULT, which lays the foundation for mutually beneficial research and development collaborations as we expand our own internal platform to become a strongly positioned as a leading-edge provider of cellular agriculture IP, machine learning and breakthrough science around cell-based foods. This access gives us a first-mover advantage that we will work to strategically leverage across our portfolio companies as well as to protect technological CellAg superiority. We look forward to rapidly deploying Cella's IP and patents across our ongoing initiatives in our pursuit to provide our growing shareholder base with preeminent access to the future of food," added Lejjy Gafour. Story continues Transaction Terms Pursuant to the terms and conditions of the LOI, CULT and Cella will exchange CAD 300,000 worth of common shares (the "Shares") of their respective companies, with such shares being valued as follows: Each of CULT's shares will be valued based on the volume weighted a price of CULT's shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the " CSE ") for the 15 trading days prior to the date of execution of the Definitive Agreement, subject to the minimum price per share allowed under the policies of the CSE; and CELLA's shares will be valued at a CAD 10,000,000 pre-money valuation. The Shares issued by the parties under the share exchange shall be subject to resale restrictions in accordance with applicable securities laws and the policies of the CSE, if applicable. In addition, the CULT shares issued to Cella will be subject to a voluntary six-month hold period. In addition, Cella will grant CULT, CULT's current or future subsidiaries, a 15-year license to utilize all of Cella's intellectual property at the date of the signing of the definitive agreement, including without limitation Cella's registered patents, under preferential commercial terms to be further defined in the License Agreement. The scope of use shall be defined in the License Agreement, but shall include the portfolio companies of CULT, with a quarterly review by the parties. Intellectual Property Cella's patents were developed by leading synthetic biology scientists and experts from MIT and Yale University. They focus on, but are not exclusively around, systems and methods for producing novel proteins from fungal cell lines. Cella's proprietary cell-based food and beverage IP toolkits can be a baseline that can help companies disrupt the emerging cell-based marketplace. Cella's machine learning data aims to help CULT transform food systems with more cost-effective manufacturing processes while using fewer resources than current food and beverage companies. The fungal cell line methodologies patent portfolio includes the following potential capabilities and applications: Bleeding feature in meat: proteins that make cell-based meat bleed like animal-based proteins; Lab grown collagen: proteins with multiple health boosting properties including optimizing immunity and maintaining skin health; 3D scaffold: creates structural elements for use in cell-based meats for a more realistic mouth feel through supporting muscle, fat and tissue development; and Peptides: a method for producing mammalian cell adhesion properties on cell surfaces; used to improve structure in cell-based meat applications. Transaction Rationale The Transaction is designed to accelerate CULT's proprietary cell biology and bioprocess engineering capabilities, as well as complement its existing cell-based investment platform holdings. Further, the Transaction potentially allows for cost savings, increased yields, faster times to market and decentralized CellAg product development across the Company's evolving investment portfolio and IP platform. The development of Cella's foundational portfolio was led by Dr. Kate Krueger. She is a technical expert for the XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion project, a former Research Director of New Harvest and a former employee of Perfect Day Foods, which was the first precision fermentation company to make milk proteins where she contributed to their foundational patent. The patents centre fundamentally around her filing for Cella entitled "Systems and methods for producing meat from fungi". Finally, CULT believes that Cella's leading science around machine learning data and open-source prototyping IP toolkits will help empower its portfolio companies to accelerate their innovations on a global level. About Cella Food Systems Cella Food Systems ("Cella") is the perfect OS platform for innovative cell-based food companies to advance technologies that can solve the world's biggest food supply challenges, which are being lost in commercialization bottlenecks today. Cella speeds up the development process so that we can find solutions in time to feed our growing population in the near decades. About CULT Food Science CULT Food Science Corp. (CSE: CULT) is an innovative investment platform with an exclusive focus on cellular agriculture that is advancing the development of novel technologies to provide a sustainable, environmental, and ethical solution to the global factory and aquaculture crises. The first-of-its-kind in North America, CULT Food Science aims to provide individual investors with unprecedented exposure to the most innovative start-up, private or early-stage cultivated meat and cultured dairy companies around the world. Additional information can be found by viewing the Company's website at www.cultfoodscience.com or its regulatory filings on www.sedar.com . On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company, CULT FOOD SCIENCE CORP. "Lejjy Gafour" Lejjy Gafour, President Forward-Looking Information: Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include but are not limited to the following risks: those associated with marketing and sale of securities; the need for additional financing; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors with certain other projects; and the volatility of common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. For further information on risk, investors are advised to see the Company's MD&A and other disclosure filings with the regulators which are found at www.sedar.com . SOURCE CULT Food Science Corp. Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2022/28/c7761.html Renata Mikulas part owner of Bohemian Delicious, a European deli, bakery and restaurant at 999 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota. Renata Mikulas has always been a baker. It started when she was growing up in the Czech Republic, watching her mother make baked goods at home. Then as an adult living in Chicago, she made Christmas cookies that became so popular she had no choice but to start charging people. Mikulas, who moved to Sarasota six years ago with her husband and two sons, also has a talent for fondant an edible, easily shape-shifted icing. She made a fondant cake that looked like a slot machine for her son's birthday; another of the blue M&M's face with actual M&Ms pouring into its mouth; and another in the shape of a Kinder ball that, when cut open, spilled out actual Kinder balls. She knew she wanted to start a bakery one that would appeal to the population, offer hard-to-find treats to the eastern European community and give her back her kitchen space at home. That place is Bohemian Delicious, a European restaurant, bakery, deli and store, which Mikulas owns with her husband, Ludek. Bohemian Delicious, a European deli, bakery and restaurant at 999 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota, has a fine selection of cheeses and deli meats. Bohemian Delicious opened in September in a shopping plaza at 999 Cattlemen Road. It was Mikulas' original vision to start a bakery, but she worried about the viability of doing so in the current economy. Instead, Bohemian Delicious offers not only European baked goods, but also daily lunch specials; grab-and-go foods; cookies, candies, snacks and other dry goods from Europe; and a deli, where customers can get their hands on hard-to-find European meats. More food: Mexican eatery, tequila bar to open in Lakewood Ranch's Waterside Place Cafe news: Sarasota coffee shop and cafe changes ownership "Czech, European and Polish people don't have a lot of stores out there, so we try to cater to them, and also Slovakian, Russian and Hungarian," Mikulas' son, Danny Vacek, said. Bohemian Delicious, a European deli, bakery and restaurant at 999 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota, has a wide variety of items to select from. Renata Mikulas comes in early every day to start baking. In glass cases at the front of the store, she shows off apple strudel, the cream puff-like vetrnik, chocolate-dipped stafetka, breads like rohlik and dalamanek and kolache, sweet pastries that are made out of puffy dough with fruit or cream cheese in the middle. Story continues There's also a seating area in the back, where customers pack in every day to get a taste of one of the store's rotating specials, including chicken schnitzel, pork roulade, fried breaded cheese with potato, and goulash, which Vacek said is probably the most popular recurring lunch dish on the menu. Renata Mikulas part owner of Bohemian Delicious, a European deli, bakery and restaurant at 999 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota. The restaurant area of the store is clean and inviting. Although Mikulas and her husband both hail from the Czech Republic, it was their goal to have a store with brands recognizable to many European cultures. A lot of their meats come from a Chicago deli that imports directly from Europe. They've been held up a bit by delays in the global supply chain. COVID shut down everything in Europe, Mikulas said, so it's been more difficult to get supplies in when they're needed. It's gotten to the point where people know to call in advance in fear of certain items being sold out. Renata Mikulas part owner of Bohemian Delicious, a European deli, bakery and restaurant at 999 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota. A nice selection of flavored mineral water. "If you want something in advance, we can put in an order so you know for sure we'll have it," she said. "When people see it they go for it and buy it out." Inside the store, there are candies, cookies, drinks and other dry goods that will be recognizable to Europeans. There are sweet pickles, Vitana dry Czech dumpling mix, Polish ketchup, PetitKi milk chocolate biscuits, Mattoni sparkling water and Margot, a chocolate banana bar that Vacek remembers his grandmother would usually have around. They've also applied for a liquor license. When it's approved, Mikulas plans to serve European beer and wine. Business has been better than even Mikulas expected. People have driven all the way from Clearwater, Daytona and West Palm Beach to visit Bohemian Delicious, especially on the weekends. Renata Mikulas part owner of Bohemian Delicious, a European deli, bakery and restaurant at 999 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota. The lunch rush is especially busy she had to hire another Czech cook in order to keep up with demand. Before Mikulas was a professional baker, she was a tailor back in the Czech Republic. She moved to the U.S. because she knew there would be more work opportunities. She said she's glad to have people respond so well to her store. "I like it here because I don't have a mess at home, and I get to interact with more people," she said. "You can't have people in and out of your house." This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota European foods store has hard-to-find treasures ReportLinker Major companies in the defense market include Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, The Boeing Company, Raytheon Co. , Northrop Grumman Corp. , Bae Systems plc. , Airbus Group SE, Leonardo SpA, Thales group and General Dynamics. New York, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Defense Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240590/?utm_source=GNW The global defense market is expected to grow from $452.69 billion in 2021 to $483.47 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $604.82 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 5.8%. The defense market consists of sales of air-based, sea-based and land-based military equipment by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that produce air-based, sea-based and land-based military equipment including support and auxiliary equipment such as radar, satellites, sonars, and other auxiliary equipment or maintain, repair and overhaul defense equipment. The defense market is segmented into air-based defense equipment; sea-based defense equipment; land-based defense equipment; defense equipment maintenance, repair, overhaul services, and defense support and auxiliary equipment. The main defense types are air-based defense equipment, sea-based defense equipment, land-based defense equipment, defense equipment maintenance, repair and overhaul services, defense support, and auxiliary equipment.Air-based defense equipment includes support and auxiliary equipment for the air-based defense such as radar, satellites, sonars, and other auxiliary equipment. The various operation includes autonomous defense equipment, manual and involves various platforms such as airborne, land, naval. Asia Pacific was the largest region in the defense market in 2021.Western Europe is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The adoption of unmanned combat vehicles is one of the major trends in this market.An unmanned combat vehicle is a machine or motorized vehicle that runs without any physical human intervention. These vehicles have a set of sensors for 360-degree situational awareness and for optical avoidance, steering actuators, brake, and laser scanner along with other autonomous features enabling remote or autonomous functioning of the vehicle.It is majorly used to inspect the surroundings and transfer the information to the operator through teleoperation or make autonomous decisions to deal with situations involving several technical challenges. For instance, in January 2020, the U.S. Army awarded contracts for the development of Robotic Combat Vehicle- Medium (RCV-M). It is an unmanned robotic teleop combat vehicle with an onboard 20-to 50- millimeter automatic cannon. It can fight alongside infantry and destroy enemy armored personnel carriers, trucks, and troops. Corner shot weapons are increasingly becoming popular due to the safety features they offer.A corner shot is a specialized weapon accessory, essentially a hinged chassis installed to a pistol such as a Glock, a handgun, or to a Beretta 92. The hinge chassis allows the guns frame to bend around the corner and attack the target without exposing the soldiers.It is also equipped with a bore-sighted, high-resolution video camera, LCD monitor, and a built-in tactical light for navigation and illumination. The corner shot rifles or guns are widely used in battle-fields, inside armored vehicles and tanks, on a turret up top, which will allow for a full 360-degree field cover while the triggerman remained safely inside the vehicle. The weapon is accurate and effective to 100 to 200 meters depending on the type of weapon. Companies in the air-based defense equipment manufacturing market are increasingly investing in the development of autonomous fighter jets.Autonomous fighter jets are jets that do not require human pilots to fly and can fly for longer periods of time. Autonomous jets are equipped with sensors to scan for potential threats and process more information at a given time.These jets are well equipped to collect intelligent data about the enemy, block the electronic systems of enemy aircraft, and shoot down other threats in the air. Following the trend, Boeing Australia and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), in 2019, entered into a partnership to develop 3 prototypes of autonomous fighter jets named Airpower Teaming System or Loyal Wingman. These aircraft will fly alongside the piloted aircraft during battle to distract the enemies, assist in information gathering and surveillance. The countries covered in the defense market report are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA, Venezuela and Vietnam. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240590/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Gareth James, seen here in a USC Marshall classroom, spent the last 24 years in Southern California. In July he will take over as the new dean at Emory Goizueta in Atlanta. USC photo In 2019, Geoff Garrett left the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School to become dean of USCs Marshall School of Business. A year later, Wharton found his replacement in Erika James, dean of Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta. Last month, after a nearly two-year search, the Goizueta School announced it had found its new dean and he shares a last name (though no relation) with his predecessor, and an employer with hers. Gareth James will officially take the helm at the Goizueta School in July after 24 years at USC Marshall. He takes over a program with impressive ambitions, one whose very name represents an important legacy for both Emory and the Atlanta region. I wasnt looking to make a move, James says. I was pretty happy. But Goizueta was just such an amazing opportunity that I felt I needed to make that move. GROWTH MAY BE ON THE HORIZON Gareth James Though James, a statistician by training, spent his entire teaching career in Southern California, the Emory Goizueta deanship will not technically be his first. He was interim dean at the Marshall School for about a year in 2019-2020 following the departure of Dean Jim Ellis, until the school hired Whartons Garrett. It was not an uneventful interregnum: As temporary dean, James led the schools response to coronavirus beginning in March 2020. After Garrett arrived, James became deputy dean, a position he has held since. But when James takes over at Emory Goizueta, he will helm a program in a very different part of the country, and in very different circumstances, with very different MBA student populations. In the 2020-2021 application cycle, USC Marshall received nearly 2,500 applications for a spot in the Class of 2023; Emory received 915. Marshall accepted 23% of applicants; Goizueta took more than twice the amount, 53%. Marshalls class average GMAT score was 716, up 9 points in one year; Emorys, though it also climbed 9 points year-to-year, was 692. Marshall, which in 2018 became the first major B-school to achieve parity in the full-time MBA, enrolled 36% women last fall; Emory had among the smallest class of women at just 27%. The Marshall School is currently ranked 18th by Poets&Quants, while the Goizueta School is 26th. Story continues But in one final yet very important comparison, the two schools arent so different after all. Marshalls 2021 MBA graduates enjoyed strong returns in hiring, at 94.2% three months after graduation, with average base pay of about $131,000 but Emory was better, with an incredible 99% employment rate and average salary of $134,700. James sees great potential. He also sees the need for growth. I really feel like the university and the school itself in the next five to 10 years are going to go from really strong institutions to really premier places, James says of his new home. Honestly, when I look at Goizueta, it feels to me like they have an incredible asset base in terms of the quality of all of the faculty, staff, students, and the university itself. And maybe that hasnt been fully operationalized. I think theres the potential there to take the school even further than it has been. But I think one of the keys is the revenue base. And I think even though I like the size of the school, I think we do need to grow the size of the school a little bit so that we have a good, sustainable revenue base for the quality of students and faculty and staff that we want to maintain at the school. TALKING ABOUT: ONLINE MBAs Might growth mean the launch of new programs even a new online MBA? After all, Emory Goizueta recently launched the highest-ranked executive MBA program in the United States. Adding fuel to the speculation, it should be noted that its new dean is coming from the school with Poets&Quants highest-ranked online MBA. I think there are a number of potential opportunities for the school, and obviously Im a little biased coming from Marshall and the things that have been successful here, James says. And I dont want to try to overly transport whats worked here and say Obviously it will work at Goizueta as well, but I can tell you that at Marshall, both our online MBA program and many of our specialized masters programs have been tremendously successful, both in terms of quality and in terms of student demand and the revenue side of things. Our graduate revenue has increased about two-thirds as a result of those new programs at Marshall and in turn, that revenue helps us to improve the quality of our full-time MBA program, which is obviously a big revenue and reputation driver for the school. And I think that Goizueta theres some opportunities to do some of that there as well. James has a lot of experience with the Marshall online MBA, and his experience tells him its a rewarding program for the students as well as the faculty and the B-school. We have an incredibly high-quality program, he says of Marshalls online MBA. Moreover, its a money-maker. Its actually now generating some good revenue for us, and its incredibly hard to start. These programs are much harder than a regular program: the administrative complications, the financial expenses, and the faculty and staff work involved in them is an order of magnitude higher than a regular program which is not to say its not a good investment. Im very pleased that Marshall did it, but I was the vice dean of faculty when we started that program, and it was a lot of work just trying to figure out how to compensate faculty and what the right model was for faculty and staff working together. Its much more of a cooperative model than the usual approach with the faculty, which is like the god of the classroom and he or she does whatever they want to do. It has to be a real team effort. So its a challenging program, but also, yeah, Im absolutely open to considering that. But again, I dont want to push ideas that have worked at Marshall and say we should transplant them all to Goizueta. I think theyve got their own innovative programs going. And in particular, theyre just starting in the full and online EMBA program, which Im very interested to learn more about. AN INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY Moving after so long at USC, and so many ups and downs including dealing with Covid-19 for the last two years has been hard on a personal level. Professionally, James sees it as the chance of a lifetime. It was certainly bittersweet a lot of close friends and colleagues, 600 faculty and staff at Marshall, he says. So that part of it was really tough. But on the other side, it was sort of an easy decision after learning about whats going on in Emory, whats going on at Goizueta. Emorys got a new president and a new provost, and theyve got an incredible ambition for Emory. I sort of see it as repeating what USCs done over the last three decades, but starting at a much higher level than USC started at USC 30 years ago was a pretty mediocre university. Emorys already a top-tier research institution, but I see that same level at ambition and resources and strategic planning and leadership to achieve that. So even though at the start, I was sort of just applying to learn more about the process and the job, by the end, after talking with both the senior university leadership and some of the faculty staff and the students, it just felt like an incredible opportunity to be part of a new journey in that direction. See the next page for Poets&Quants exclusive Q&A with Gareth James, edited for length and clarity. Emory Universitys Goizueta Business School has named its new dean: Gareth James, most recently the deputy dean at USC Marshall Q&A WITH GARETH JAMES, NEW DEAN OF EMORY GOIZUETA Poets&Quants: You spent 24 years in Southern California. What are you going to miss as you move East? Gareth James: Obviously Ive spent my entire academic career here at USC and Marshall. So, Ive been very happy here and Im pretty proud of what weve achieved over that time period. I wasnt looking to make a move, I was pretty happy but Goizueta was just such an amazing opportunity that I felt I needed to make that move. It was certainly bittersweet a lot of close friends and colleagues, 600 faculty and staff at Marshall. So that part of it was really tough. But on the other side, it was sort of an easy decision after learning about whats going on in Emory, whats going on at Goizueta. Emorys got a new president and a new provost, and theyve got an incredible ambition for Emory. I sort of see it as repeating what USCs done over the last three decades, but starting at a much higher level than USC started at USC 30 years ago was a pretty mediocre university. Emorys already a top-tier research institution, but I see that same level at ambition and resources and strategic planning and leadership to achieve that. So even though at the start, I was sort of just applying to learn more about the process and the job, by the end, after talking with both the senior university leadership and some of the faculty staff and the students, it just felt like an incredible opportunity to be part of a new journey in that direction. In the announcement of your hiring as dean, you mentioned your ambitions for the school. What kind of sneak peek can you give us about those ambitions? Might they include an online MBA? I think there are a number of potential opportunities for the school, and obviously Im a little biased coming from Marshall and the things that have been successful here. And I dont want to try to overly transport whats worked here and say Obviously it will work at Goizueta as well, but I can tell you that at Marshall, both our online MBA program and many of our specialized masters programs have been tremendously successful, both in terms of quality and in terms of student demand and the revenue side of things. Our graduate revenue has increased about two-thirds as a result of those new programs at Marshall and in turn, that revenue helps us to improve the quality of our full-time MBA program, which is obviously a big revenue and reputation driver for the school. And I think that Goizueta theres some opportunities to do some of that there as well. Goizueta is already has one specialized masters program and its just launching a second one for the fall, which looks great to me. They theres a brand new finance lab. I saw the construction of it last week when I was there. Its just about to come online. It looks very innovative and very practical, applied, producing people who can actually work in the industry straightaway and things like that. So Im excited about that. The challenge for the school, I think, is figuring out how to balance the MBA programs against all these other opportunities, both the online opportunities and things like specialized masters. Its interesting, the specialized masters: If you look worldwide in the last decade, theyve doubled the number of specialized masters students. Its gone from about 6% of all business students to about 13% of all business students. And then if you look at the top sort of 25 business programs, seven years ago when Marshall was starting a specialized masters, there were concerns: Oh, is it going to hit the reputation of the school? Its only lower-tier school, so theyre doing specialized masters. Now, when you look at the landscape, you see only maybe the top two or three are not doing specialized masters. I have a list of the top 25 business schools and the vast majority of them are doing anywhere from two to seven or eight specialized masters. And thats both because theres some really high-quality students we have some amazing students in our specialized masters at Marshall here and that theres a lot of demand for them. So that allows the school to provide some flexibility to do other educational mission things that otherwise would not be possible. I can tell you that Marshall would not be the school that it is without those specialized masters. I dont want to pre-judge, and I think Marshall probably launched too many specialized masters and online programs and things like that we sort of got a little over-excited, but actually the vast majority of them have been very successful. So I think theres some opportunities to do some of that at Goizueta as well. But again, I want to talk to people. I want to learn a lot more about the school before trying to say, Oh, this is the right direction to go in. Do you think in general we should expect at Emory a short-term downturn in applications for full-time MBA programs, because the economys so good, among other reasons? And then long-term, what do you think is the overall viability of full-time two year MBA programs? Of course it is a counter-cyclical program, so you do tend to see that sort of trend, and that is what we are seeing at Marshall, and it seems nationwide this is the trend in terms of domestic applications this year. I dont think its a dramatic downturn, but there is a line, from what Ive hearing from my counterparts. International applications, though, are significantly up. So the overall applicant pool, if anything, seems to be up for the full-time MBA. Now of course, its about trying to get the right balance of domestic and international students. So that presents some challenges. In terms of domestic, there is somewhat of a downturn in the long run though. Im relatively bullish on the full-time MBA, at least for the top schools. So this is where it gets a little bit nuanced. I think what youre seeing in the full-time MBA program is more and more competition among the very top, say top 20 MBA programs for the really top MBA students. And so scholarship funding and things like that become a very important part of being competitive in that space. And so thats the challenge: ensuring that you can run a high-quality full-time MBA program, you have the funding to do it. It used to be that the full-time MBA was sort of a money-maker for these schools. Oftentimes now, though, the full-time MBA is the reputation driver and some of the other programs are what really generate the net revenue for the school. So yeah, short run, I think there is a decline in domestic and an overall increase with international students. Longer-term, I think theyll go up and down in cycles. But I think its also important to note that the full-time MBA makes up 3.5% of all business students. So you know, we spend a lot of time talking about it, obviously it is a big reputation driver, but its actually a very small fraction of overall business education. I think 72% is undergraduate students, and another 13% is MS programs now, and then part-time MBA and things like that. So while the full-time MBA is still very important in terms of the reputation quality side, there are many other parts that are really important. And thats one of the things that attracted me to Goizueta their undergraduate program. Marshall of course has a very large undergraduate program as well. Many other business schools at least among the top schools dont even have an undergraduate program. So Goizueta has a smaller undergrad program actually, and I think its a manageable size where you can have a really high-quality program, but youve still got a large enough size that its a sustainable model. So in a lot of ways, I see Goizueta as just a smaller version of Marshall and small I dont see as a bad thing here. I actually see that as a good thing. I think theres some adjustments the school can make, but in most respects, I think its doing fantastically. One of the things that we at Poets&Quants dont talk nearly enough about and we are trying to change that is one-year MBA programs. And of course, Emory has one of the most well-regarded one-year MBA programs. As you talk about a different array of offerings, thats one that sometimes gets overlooked in these conversations. Absolutely. So Im still learning about the one-year program, but that was something that fascinated me about the school as well, because certainly at Marshall, weve been talking about that for a while, and of course there are a relatively small number of top-tier schools that are doing one year MBA programs. Emory seems to be one of the few thats been successful in doing that. The school is actually expecting a little bit of an uptick in that program, maybe because the economys doing well, the tradeoff, and a one-year program seems better than a two-year program for some of these students. And I think the reality is that we have a whole mixture of students coming into our full-time MBA programs. We have the poets and the quants, and for a number of the students, the ones that have an undergraduate business education or an economics degree or some related thing like that, the first-year core classes are maybe a nice reviewer of the material theyve seen previously, maybe some nuances in there and some added benefit, but maybe its not necessary to do a full one-year review of all of that material. That, as far as I can tell, is the premise behind the Goizueta program. They spend the summer compressing that first year during the summer for those students who already have a lot of that background, and then you move to the second year with elective classes with the two-year MBA program. So that certainly seems like a model that can make sense for a certain fraction of students. Obviously its not going to make sense for all students, but its certainly a model that I think has a lot of potential. But again, Im still learning about it. Talking of the models that appeal to a growing number of people, just to bring it back to the idea of an online MBA, is that at least in the conversation for down the road at some point? As Im sure you know, Marshall has an online MBA. I personally have quite a bit of experience with our online MBA program. My experience tells me its an incredibly rewarding program. We have an incredibly high-quality program. Its actually now generating some good revenue for us, and its incredibly hard to start. These programs are much harder than a regular program: the administrative complications, the financial expenses, and the faculty and staff work involved in them is an order of magnitude higher than a regular program which is not to say its not a good investment. Im very pleased that Marshall did it, but I was the vice dean of faculty when we started that program, and it was a lot of work just trying to figure out how to compensate faculty and what the right model was for faculty and staff working together. Its much more of a cooperative model than the usual approach with the faculty, which is like the god of the classroom and he or she does whatever they want to do. It has to be a real team effort. So its a challenging program, but also, yeah, Im absolutely open to considering that. But again, I dont want to push ideas that have worked at Marshall and say we should transplant them all to Goizueta. I think theyve got their own innovative programs going. And in particular, theyre just starting in the fall an online EMBA program which Im very interested to learn more about. And that seems also a really interesting potential market. Obviously one of the few positives of Covid has been this sort of increased ability for our faculty to teach online, that theyre obviously much more flexible in terms of Zoom and environments like that. And they have learned a lot over the last two years. So its clear thats going to have some long-run impact on education in general and business schools in particular. But we are all sort of still trying to figure out where that model lies, how far to take these hybrid approaches where part-time MBA students or EMBA students are partly in person, and then partly online to me that seems like possibly an ideal model, where you get the in-person networking, but you dont have to drive in through rush-hour traffic, especially in a place like L.A. and Atlanta. So the ability to do some of that online while still having that in-person networking, that feels like a nice hybrid to me. In talking of the challenges of setting up an entirely new online MBA program, I know that the new EMBA program at Emory was done in partnership with an outside company, Emeritus. So that could be a partial solution. The online MBA we set up at Marshall was also in partnership with an outside company. Sometimes these partnerships involve the outside organization creating the core, the asynchronous materials themselves, and obviously in conjunction with the faculty. We took an approach where we set up our own studio and created that material ourselves, so the partnership was more in terms of marketing the program and things like that. Now, Goizueta already has a great studio. I was touring it when I was there last week, so they already have a number of those resources in place. Im not convinced that you want to go too far down that track; the revenue share is often not the best deal. USC as a university has moved away from these partnerships. Theyre ending most of these contracts; Marshall has ended our contract. So, yes, there are pros and cons to that approach. In 2018, USC made international headlines by achieving gender parity in the full-time MBA, the first major MBA program to do so. Emory Goizueta has struggled in this area, with just 27% women in its latest cohort. What does Emory need to do to bring more women into its MBA program? The effect of (USC reaching parity) seems have been to stimulate all the other top MBA programs to even more aggressively go after women. So its been a challenge for Marshall to keep that gender parity up, because of the competition for the top female students. And of course that comes back to the scholarship discussions that we had previously, that the competition for these students is just intense. Now, in some sense, thats just shifting students around schools. It doesnt necessarily increase the total number of women in these full-time MBA programs. So then the question is, What can Goizueta do, and business schools in general do, to encourage more female applicants? One area I feel that Goizueta is doing particularly well in is their social enterprise- and ESG-related issues. Theres some wonderful work that the schools doing in that area. Those are topics that resonate really well with students these days, but in particular with female students. So thats an area where I think that theres an opportunity to encourage more students to Goizueta based on the expertise that they have in that particular topic. The school also recently got a $5 million Brown Family Scholarship, which is targeted to increase women specifically in the full-time MBA program. And the school also launched a womens leadership program recently. So again, Im still learning about all of these at activities, but its very clear thats a strong focus for the school itself. Im also comforted by the fact that at the undergraduate level, what weve seen at Marshall and this seems to be a general trend as well is gender parity in the undergraduate programs. At the undergraduate level, were having more success than the full-time MBA. Marshall just reach gender parity ourselves this year. And that sort of suggests that in a five years time, as these students move through and start considering MBAs, that theres going to be a general trend in that direction as well. I dont think itll be maybe a stronger trend, but its moving in the right direction in that demographic as well. What should somebody whos going to apply to the Emory MBA program know about the exciting things that are on offer, or that will be on offer under your deanship? Let me just start by saying Im still learning a lot about the school. What Ive seen so far, Ive just been incredibly impressed the more I learn, the more impressed I am about the quality of the programs and the quality of the faculty, the building they have there. And as I said, the leadership at Emory itself,. I really feel like the university and the school itself in the next five to 10 years are going to go from really strong institutions to really premier places. And when you do one of these MBAs, theres many dimensions to it, but one of them is, its an investment in the future. And so youre trying to make a bet on, not necessarily just what the quality of that degree is going to give me today, but in five and 10 years time, how will people look at an MBA from Goizueta? And Im betting that its only going to go up in value over time. Thats my goal. And I know thats the provost and presidents goal as well. Now, the question is, how to make that happen. And, honestly, when I look at Goizueta, it feels to me like they have an incredible asset base in terms of the quality of all of the faculty, staff, students in the university itself. And maybe that hasnt been fully operationalized. I think theres the potential there to take the school even further than it has been. But I think one of the keys is the revenue base. And I think even though I like the size of the school. I think we do need to grow the size of the school a little bit so that we have a good, sustainable revenue base for the quality of students and faculty and staff that we want to maintain at the school. The universitys very supportive of the school in providing support, but in the long run, we want the school to be doing this based on all the revenue that its generating. So were going to start a five-year strategic planning process. Im already informally thinking about it now. And my plan is that by the end of the fall semester, we have in place that plan. The school already has a strategic plan, but obviously there might be some adaptions with me starting now. I would tell the students: Look forward to not just their next two years at Goizueta, but the return on investment that theyre going to be getting on that degree over the next five to 10 years after they graduate. DONT MISS EMORY GOIZUETA FINDS NEW DEAN ON THE WEST COAST and EMORY MBA PROGRAM LAUNCHES PIONEERING NEW DEI CONCENTRATION The post Emory Goizuetas New Dean Wants To Take The B-School From Strong To Premier appeared first on Poets&Quants. Funds will drive grocery and food delivery expansion across ethnicities and geographies and accelerate AI innovation in customer experience FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Weee! ( www.sayweee.com ), the largest and fastest-growing ethnic e-grocer in North America, today announced it secured $425 million in Series E financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Greyhound Capital also participated in this round alongside the company's existing investors. The capital will be used to expand Weee!'s platform offering across new and existing ethnicities, and scale grocery and food delivery services to new geographies providing more customers with access to exciting food at affordable prices. The company will also advance warehouse automation and AI innovations to further improve its industry-leading customer experience. "The market for ethnic groceries and food is massively underserved in the U.S., and we believe that Weee! is in a prime position to meet the demands of customers," said Lydia Jett, Managing Partner at Softbank Investment Advisors, who will join Weee!'s Board of Directors as part of the Series E. "Weee!'s strong execution capabilities and reach across multiple ethnic groups, coupled with a unique customer experience model leveraging AI, has enabled it to scale effectively in a rapidly evolving grocery market. We are delighted to partner with Larry Liu and the team to support their next phase of expansion." "We've seen tremendous growth in 2021, even through the easing of COVID-19 related pressures, as our customers continue to discover affordable access to a wide array of exciting products and food online. We look forward to building on that momentum as we add depth to our investor base with Softbank's global e-commerce expertise, and welcome them to the board," said Larry Liu, founder and CEO of Weee! "Their partnership will further enable Weee! to serve customers in the $360+ billion ethnic grocery and food market." Story continues Weee! continues to expand its Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian and Latin offerings for customers, adding more than 500 new products per week, and plans to expand to other ethnicities in the future. Weee! also partners with more than 1,000 restaurants to offer authentic food-at-home options for customers. About Weee! Inc. Weee! is the leading Asian and Hispanic e-grocer in the U.S., delivering more than 10,000 locally sourced and hard-to-find goods from around the globe directly to customers. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Fremont, California, Weee! is on a mission to enable affordable access to groceries for every home in North America while setting a new standard for freshness and value. By leveraging social e-commerce and proprietary forecasting technology, the company continues to redefine online grocery shopping and food delivery. Since its inception, Weee! has received $800M+ in funding from Arena Holdings, Blackstone, DST Global, Goodwater Capital, Greyhound Capital, iFly.vc, Lightspeed Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund II, Tiger Global, VMG, and XVC. For more information, please visit www.sayweee.com/en or follow us on Instagram , TikTok , and Twitter . Forward-Looking Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements provide our current expectations or forecasts of future events. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, intentions, assumptions and other statements that are not historical facts. Words or phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "strive," "will" or similar words or phrases, or the negatives of those words or phrases, may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Examples of forward-looking statements in this announcement include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our disclosure concerning the Company's operations, cash flows, financial position and dividend policy. Press Contact pr@sayweee.com Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ethnic-e-grocer-weee-raises-425-million-series-e-round-led-by-softbank-vision-fund-2-301491051.html SOURCE Weee Pre-tax NPV 7% of C$1.5B and IRR of 46% at Current Commodity Prices VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 28, 2022 /CNW/ - Foran Mining Corporation (TSXV: FOM) (OTCQX: FMCXF) ("Foran" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce results from a Feasibility Study ("FS") on its expanded and re-scoped initial mine plan for its 100%-owned McIlvenna Bay project in east-central Saskatchewan. All currency figures are shown in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. Highlights: Robust financial metrics in a world-class jurisdiction. Table 1 Pre-Tax NPV 7% Sensitivity Analysis Zinc Price (US$/lb) Copper Price (US$/lb) $3.00 Base Case Current $5.00 $6.00 Pre-Tax NPV 7% (C$M) $1.00 $347 $550 $1,078 $1,159 $1,565 Base Case $475 $678 $1,208 $1,287 $1,694 $1.40 $603 $806 $1,338 $1,416 $1,822 $1.60 $732 $935 $1,467 $1,544 $1,950 Current $865 $1,070 $1,493 $1,686 $2,096 $1.80 $860 $1,063 $1,597 $1,672 $2,079 Base case copper and zinc prices are US$3.50/lb copper and US$1.20/lb zinc. Current copper and zinc prices are US$4.53/lb copper and US$1.64/lb zinc. Under these scenarios US$1,936/oz gold, US$24.52/oz silver, and 1.27 USD/CAD is used. Excluding current price scenarios, US$1,600/oz gold, US$22.50/oz silver, and 1.26 USD/CAD is used. Mineral Reserve tonnes +127%, establishing an initial 18 year reserve life. Consistent and scalable production profile. High margin and focused on maximizing value per share. Table 2 IRR, Payback & Cash Flow Sensitivity Analysis Copper Price (US$/lb) Base Case Current $3.00 $4.00 $5.00 $6.00 Pre-Tax IRR 26% 46% 21% 31% 40% 48% After-Tax IRR 22% 38% 18% 26% 33% 40% After-Tax Payback (yrs) 4.5 2.2 5.6 3.7 2.9 2.3 LOM EBITDA (C$M) $2,483 $4,012 $2,097 $2,870 $3,643 $4,415 LOM Free Cash Flow (C$M) $1,179 $2,280 $906 $1,460 $2,015 $2,565 Base case prices are US$3.50/lb copper, US$1.20/lb zinc, US$1,600/oz gold, US$22.50/oz silver, and 1.26 USD/CAD. Current prices are US$4.53/lb copper, US$1.64/lb zinc, US$1,936/oz gold, US$24.52/oz silver, and 1.27 USD/CAD. Excluding the current price scenario, US$1.20/lb zinc, US$1,600/oz gold, US$22.50/oz silver, and 1.26 USD/CAD is used. Capital-light development project. Delivering McIlvenna Bay with an ESG focus. Story continues Dan Myerson, Foran's Executive Chairman & CEO commented; "The completion of the FS is truly an excellent accomplishment by the entire team at Foran. It is important to be mindful that the study showcases only a snapshot in time of what our initial mine and centralized mill will look like, as we envision scaled expansions and future growth while sequencing in other deposits across the district. As we continue to de-risk McIlvenna Bay with the ongoing advancement of the exploration decline, permitting, project financing, and our continued dynamic exploration campaign, I believe we are still in the early innings of understanding what this remarkable district has to offer. McIlvenna Bay is expected to be the centralized mill that could be expanded in phases as we continue to explore, define and potentially develop near-mine deposits and more within a 50km radius. Our land package is over 1,450 km, providing us with the canvas to explore in a systematic way. The neighbouring Flin Flon district has been operating for close to a century, and it is our vision to transform the Hanson Lake District into the next multi-decade mining camp. Critically, Foran will be resolute in our effort to operate a mine of the future, targeting carbon neutrality and creating a sustainable asset for local communities in a decarbonizing world. Having the opportunity to power our site using renewable energy (hydropower), we are in a good position to deliver on our targets. Additionally, Foran will continue and always strive to be grateful, respectful and ensure a collaborative relationship with local communities, as this is essential in creating long-term mutually beneficial success. We are focused on education and training of local people to provide employment opportunities and build transferable skills. As the world continues to decarbonize, Foran will continue to search and evaluate circular economy opportunities, and pioneer ESG business initiatives to generate superior investment returns. As the world hunts for new copper projects to satiate the urgent necessity to decarbonize our planet, geopolitical risks globally are impacting direct investment in regions where government regimes and taxation remain constant uncertainties. Operating in a global leading mining jurisdiction that is Saskatchewan further proves the amazing advantage Foran is fortunate and grateful to have. I am very proud of our team's accomplishments, and we look forward to delivering more exciting news throughout 2022 as we work towards our goals of building the next prolific mining jurisdiction in the world." Sensitivity Analysis At current prices of US$4.53/lb Cu, US$1.64/lb Zn, US$1,936/oz Au, and US$24.52/oz Ag, the project generates an after-tax NPV 7% of $1,055M, an after-tax IRR of 38%, with a payback period of 2.2 years from the commencement of production. Outlined below in Table 3 is a detailed sensitivity analysis across various commodity prices. Table 3 After-Tax NPV 7% Sensitivity Analysis Zinc Price (US$/lb) Copper Price (US$/lb) $3.00 Base Case $4.00 Current $5.00 $6.00 After-Tax NPV 7% (C$M) $1.00 $226 $372 $520 $756 $814 $1,106 Base Case $320 $466 $613 $850 $907 $1,198 $1.40 $411 $559 $706 $943 $999 $1,291 $1.60 $505 $652 $799 $1,037 $1,092 $1,384 Current $601 $750 $899 $1,055 $1,194 $1,489 $1.80 $597 $745 $892 $1,130 $1,185 $1,476 Base case copper and zinc prices are US$3.50/lb copper and US$1.20/lb zinc. Current copper and zinc prices are US$4.53/lb copper and US$1.64/lb zinc. Under these scenarios US$1,936/oz gold, US$24.52/oz silver, and 1.27 USD/CAD is used. Excluding current price scenarios, US$1,600/oz gold, US$22.50/oz silver, and 1.26 USD/CAD is used. Project Description The McIlvenna Bay project is located in east-central Saskatchewan approximately 375km northeast of Saskatoon, and 85 km West of Flin Flon Manitoba, and is accessible year-round via a 18km all-weather road connected to Saskatchewan Provincial Highway 106. The FS outlines a project designed to be a decline/shaft underground mining operation utilizing long-hole mining methods for ore extraction. Ore is expected to be processed via conventional single stage crushing circuit with a semi-autogenous grinding ("SAG") mill and ball mill design. Grinding is planned to be followed by a flotation circuit to produce both a copper and zinc concentrate for transportation from site to Flin Flon for shipment by rail to Canadian smelters and/or offshore. The deposit at McIlvenna Bay includes several zones and two distinct styles of mineralization, typical of volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide ("VHMS") deposits, massive sulphide mineralization and stockwork-style mineralization in the Copper Stockwork Zone ("CSZ"). The massive sulphide is a continuous mineralized horizon which averages 3.5m in thickness while the CSZ averages a thickness of 12.0m. The massive sulphide and the underlying CSZ are generally in contact with one another throughout the deposit, giving the bulk of the deposit an average thickness of 15.5m overall. The capital and operating cost estimates in the FS reflect the current inflationary pressures being faced by the industry globally, however the relatively light capital intensity associated with the project helps mute the overall impact inflation has on economics, which remain robust. McIlvenna Bay Project Bankable Feasibility Study The FS was led and compiled by Stantec Inc. as the lead author. Stantec completed the detailed mine design and engineering, with Halyard Inc. completing process plant, paste plant and surface support infrastructure design. Knight Piesold worked in conjunction with both Stantec and Halyard on the Dry Stack Tailings Management Facility Design. RockEng prepared the geotechnical model, working closely with Stantec and the Foran site team. The McIlvenna Bay Mineral Resource estimate was prepared by Micon International Limited, and the Mineral Reserve estimate was completed by Stantec. Table 4 - Key Summary Table Description Units Feasibility Study Metal Prices/FX Base Case Current Prices Copper US$/lb $3.50 $4.53 Zinc US$/lb $1.20 $1.64 Gold US$/oz $1,600 $1,936 Silver US$/oz $22.50 $24.52 Currency Exchange Rate USD/CAD 1.26 1.27 Production Data Reserve tonnes Mt 25.70 25.70 Copper Equivalent Grade % 2.51% 2.51% Copper Grade % 1.23% 1.23% Zinc Grade % 2.39% 2.39% Gold Grade g/t 0.47 0.47 Silver Grade g/t 15.3 15.3 Daily Throughput tpd 4,200 4,200 Annual Processing Rate Mtpa 1.51 1.51 Mine Life years 18.4 18.4 Blended Recoveries Copper % 91.1% 91.1% Zinc % 79.8% 79.8% Gold % 88.6% 88.6% Silver % 63.2% 63.2% Average annual production (in concentrate) Copper Equivalent - First 15-years Mlbs CuEq 72.8 72.9 Copper Equivalent - Life-Of-Mine Mlbs CuEq 65.4 65.6 Copper Mlbs Cu 34.5 34.5 Zinc Mlbs Zn 58.6 58.6 Gold koz Au 17.5 17.5 Silver koz Ag 435.2 435.2 Life-of-Mine (LOM) Operating Costs Total Operating Costs C$t/milled $73.55 $73.55 Opex + Sustaining Capex C$/tonne $91.94 $91.94 C1 Copper Cash Costs (net of credits) US$/lb $0.26 -$0.62 All-In Sustaining Costs (net of credits) US$/lb Cu $0.90 $0.01 Capital Costs Initial Capital C$M $368 $351 LOM Sustaining Capital C$M $481 $481 Financial Analysis Pre-Tax NPV7% C$M $678 $1,493 Pre-Tax IRR % 26% 46% After-Tax NPV7% C$M $466 $1,055 After-Tax IRR % 22% 38% Payback Period years 4.5 2.2 Current prices and FX based on Feb 23, 2022 closing values. CuEq metrics based on commodity prices under each scenario. Blended recoveries detailed in section below. Total Operating costs include mining, processing, G&A and Tailings costs. C1 Cash costs (net of credits) = total operating costs, plus treatment charges & refining costs, less by-product credits, divided by payable copper production. All-in Sustaining Costs = C1 Cash Costs (net of credits), plus LOM sustaining capital, plus royalties, divided by payable copper production. Initial Capital costs include pre-commercial production credits and costs, please refer to section below. The planned site layout provides sufficient space for future expansion opportunities as the Company explores and potentially delineates additional satellite deposit opportunities. Figure 1 below highlights the surface infrastructure envisioned layout. Figure 1 Envisioned Site Layout Figure 1 Envisioned Site Layout (CNW Group/Foran Mining Corporation) Mineral Reserve Estimate The 2022 Mineral Reserve Estimate was prepared by Stantec Inc., with an effective date of February 23, 2022. Reserves total 25.7Mt, a 127% increase from its 2020 Reserve estimate of 11.3Mt. This represents a 66% reserve conversion rate from the existing 39.1Mt of indicated resources (vs. 49% reserve conversion from the prior 2019 resource estimate). The higher conversion rate is attributable to optimized mine design, which includes a reduction in minimum mining widths from 3.8m to 3.0m, and a lower net smelter return ("NSR") cut-off value, and higher commodity prices. Reserves grade of 1.23% Cu, 2.39% Zn, 0.47 g/t Au and 15.3 g/t Ag use a US$90/t NSR cut-off. These compare to 2020 reserve grades of 1.14% Cu, 4.01% Zn, 0.54 g.t Au and 21.0 g/t Ag using a US$100/t NSR cut-off. The decline in by-product grades are predominantly attributable to the significant reserve additions for the Copper Stockwork Zone, which has higher copper grades and lower zinc grades than the Massive Sulphide Lens. Foran sees the opportunity for further reserve upside potential given the deposit remains open at depth and along strike, in addition to higher current commodity prices. The Mineral Reserve Estimate is estimated using long-term consensus metal prices of US$3.50/lb Cu, US$1.20/lb Zn, US$1,600/oz Au and US$22.50/oz Ag. This compares to the 2019 Reserve Estimate pricing of US$3.30/lb Cu, US$1.25/lb Zn, US$1,310/oz Au and US$16.20/oz Ag. The reserve is summarized in Table 5 below. Table 5 - McIlvenna Bay 2022 Probable Mineral Reserve Estimate (US$90/t NSR cut-off) Reserves Tonnes (Mt) Cu Grade (% Cu) Zn Grade (% Zn) Au Grade (g/t Au) Ag Grade (g/t Ag) CuEq Grade (% CuEq) Main Lens Massive Sulphide 10.1 0.99 5.43 0.51 23.8 3.41 Copper Stockwork Zone 15.6 1.39 0.41 0.45 9.9 1.92 Total Reserves 25.7 1.23 2.39 0.47 15.3 2.51 1 Effective date February 23, 2022; CIM Definition Standards (May 10, 2014) were followed for Mineral Reserves; CuEq = copper equivalent; NSR = Net Smelter Return. Totals may not add due to rounding. 2 The base case mineral reserve is estimated based on a NSR cut-off value of US$90/t. NSR value was calculated using Cu, Zn, Au, Ag and high-grade caps were applied and include provisions for metallurgical recovery and estimates of current shipping terms and smelter rates for similar concentrates. Metal prices used are US$3.50/lb. Cu, US$1.20/lb. Zn, US$1,600/oz. Au, and US$22.50/oz. Ag. 3 Mr. Mark Hatton, P.Eng., of Stantec Inc., has reviewed and verified this mineral reserve estimate. Mr. Hatton is independent of Foran and is a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Mining The FS proposes to mine ore using three different, but similar, longhole mining methods. Most ore will be mined by way of transverse stoping, and some longitudinal and Avoca stoping, depending on the orebody thickness and geometry. These longhole methods involve developing lateral drifts at 30 metre sublevel intervals and drilling holes between the levels and blasting the ore from the upper elevation. The ore will be extracted from the lower elevation of the stopes and transported to surface in the early part of the mine life and will be hauled to underground stations after the shaft is commissioned. Empty stopes will be filled with either paste backfill or waste rock from development headings. Ore will be moved using battery electric vehicles ("BEVs"), which will help the company achieve its carbon-neutrality goals. The ramped-up 4,200 tonnes per day ("tpd") operation will require a fleet of seven haul trucks and six loaders. The use of BEVs will translate to operating cost efficiencies through reduced fuel consumption, and reduced ventilation and infrastructure requirements while improving air quality for all those working in the mine. Swappable batteries will be charged in special charging stations located underground. Underground development will be undertaken with innovative technology and state-of-the-art computerized development jumbos, which can install ground support, in addition to face drilling. The FS assumes the company will be able to take advantage of the existing infrastructure associated with the previously announced exploration decline. Given the close proximity of the McIlvenna Bay reserve to surface, the company expects a relatively short timeline to initial ore mining and a relatively quick ramp up. As highlighted in Figure 2 below, the CSZ will constitute approximately 61% of the ore processed, while roughly 39% will be sourced from the massive sulphide zone. Figure 2 - Ore Processing Source Figure 2 - Ore Processing Source (CNW Group/Foran Mining Corporation) Production Shaft Included in the FS is the eventual construction of a production shaft to benefit mine efficiency at depth and to support any potential future resource and mine expansion down dip of the existing resource. Under the current plans, the shaft will the developed in two separate legs. Development of the upper leg is expected to begin in Year 5 with completion of the (loading pocket) in Year 7 at a total cost of C$63.9M, which will lower operating cost in the lower levels of the mine, support future exploration initiatives and potential mine life extension. The production shaft will be rectangular, extending from surface to a depth of 630m. Lateral development will precede excavation and furnishing allowing for the shaft to be developed from the bottom up in two separate sections resulting in lower cost than a conventional "blind sink" shaft. A pilot and slash method will be utilized for the excavation portion with the equipping of the shaft will be done from the top downwards. A personnel hoist will also be installed within a separate compartment of the production shaft for improved effective work times and to facilitate a second means of egress from the mine. Figure 3 Long Section of Shaft and Underground Workings Figure 3 Long Section of Shaft and Underground Workings (CNW Group/Foran Mining Corporation) Processing & Recovery The FS proposes ore processing to be conducted using primary crushing with a semi-autogenous grinding ("SAG") mill and ball mill design. The processing facility is expected to have a nameplate capacity of 4,200tpd or 1.51Mtpa. Ore transported from the mine will be dumped directly into the crusher or temporarily stockpiled on a lined pad for future processing. Cyclone overflow from the grinding circuit, at an 80% passing size of 75 m, will flow by gravity to the flotation area. Sequential rougher flotation, followed by regrinding and cleaner flotation, will produce a copper concentrate with an average grade of 28% Cu, ~240 g/t Ag and ~10 g/t Au, and a zinc concentrate with an average grade of 50% Zn, ~45 g/t Ag, <1 g/t Au and SiO 2 of <1.5%. Both concentrates do not contain any elevated deleterious elements and are considered very clean. The two products are very similar in physical form, being filtered cake (nominally 8-10% moisture) that will be transported in bulk by road to the railhead in Flin Flon, MB. The flotation circuit will also produce a pyrite concentrate that will allow the operation to maintain the sulphur content in the tailings storage facility ("TSF") at a level that prevents acid generation. Low sulphur tailings from the mineral processing facility will be thickened and filtered to reduce the moisture content and trucked to the TSF. The pyrite concentrate and a portion of the low sulphur tailings will be mixed with cement and pumped underground as paste backfill to fill mined-out stopes. Figure 4 Copper Equivalent ("CuEq") Production Schedule Figure 4 Copper Equivalent (CuEq) Production Schedule (CNW Group/Foran Mining Corporation) Metallurgy The ore contains chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite and pyrrhotite almost exclusively, with only very minor occurrences of other sulphide minerals observed. Pyrite predominated over pyrrhotite in all ore types. For nonsulphide gangue, copper stockwork contained mostly quartz, mica, and chlorite, while massive sulphide ores contained more carbonates, iron oxides and talc and less quartz. Clay contents were generally low in all ore types. The testwork demonstrated the ore is amenable to conventional flotation and that the two ore types can be blended so that they do not have to be handled separately throughout the operations. The mineral processing facility will produce clean copper and zinc concentrates that will be saleable to smelters. A program of variability testwork helped to develop head grade vs. recovery relationships for the FS, and these have been applied to the mine production schedule to define concentrate production profiles. Since metallurgical testing commenced in 2012, samples have displayed solid metallurgical characteristics and life of mine average copper and zinc recoveries of 91.1% and 79.8% respectively have been determined. Separate copper and zinc flotation concentrates with grades of 28% Cu and 50% Zn respectively are indicated, and the copper concentrate also carries by-product credits for gold and silver (with recoveries of 88.6% and 63.2% respectively). Table 6 Recovery rates LOM Recovery Rates Copper Zinc Gold Silver Massive Sulphide Ore 82.4% 84.4% 82.9% 54.6% Copper Stockwork Zone 95.2% 47.0% 92.7% 76.6% Blended Recovery Rates 91.1% 79.8% 88.6% 63.2% Power Power will be supplied to the Project site will be provided in two phases. The first phase, which includes the construction period and initial production period, will be provided via an existing distribution line with approximately 1.2 MW in available capacity, coupled with liquefied natural gas generation. A new 77km dedicated 138 kV transmission line fed from the Island Falls Hydro Generating Station will be constructed and is anticipated to be in service in Year 5, at which point the LNG would be decommissioned. Total connected load power requirements for the mine are expected to be approximately 18.5 MW. Filtered Dry-Stack Tailings Process plant tailings will be split into a sulphur deficient stream and a sulphur stream. The sulphur deficient stream would be dewatered to a 15-20% moisture cake and placed within the dry-stack tailings facility, which is located within the previously disturbed reclaimed silica sand quarry. The sulphur tailings stream will be mixed with a Portland cement-based binder and used underground to provide geotechnical support in mined-out areas of the mineral deposit. Reusing tailings for backfill and dry-stacking tailings reduces the mine's environmental footprint. Capital Expenditures The FS outlines an initial pre-production capital cost estimate of $368.0M, including a contingency of $38.5 and net of pre-commercial production credits of $7.9M, highlighted in Table 7 below. The largest components of the initial capital cost estimate include $151.5M for mill development and $132.2M for underground mine development. Construction is expected to be completed over a two-year period. Sustaining capital costs over the life of mine are estimated at $481M, which includes $63.9M for shaft development. Over 70% of initial capital cost estimates are based on competitive quotes. The FS excludes pre-project approval expenditures associated with the previously announced pre-development program (surface preparation and exploration decline) as well early engineering costs. Based on latest estimates, Foran expects these pre-project approval expenditures to total approximately $45M. Table 7 Capital Cost Summary Capital Costs (C$M) Initial Sustaining Total Mine $132.2 $418.7 $550.9 Mill $151.5 $8.8 $160.2 Infrastructure $42.4 $15.0 $57.4 Tailings $11.3 $21.3 $32.6 Closure $0.0 $8.2 $8.2 Sub-total $337.4 $472.0 $809.4 Contingency $38.5 $9.0 $47.5 Total $375.9 $481.0 $856.9 Pre-Commerical Production Revenue ($54.5) - ($54.5) Pre-Commerical Production Costs $46.6 - $46.6 Net Capital Cost $368.0 $481.0 $849.0 Operating Costs Operating costs are summarized in Table 8 below. Mining costs are estimated at $41.26/tonne mined based on an average mining rate of approximately 1.51Mtpa. Mining costs reflect the blend of lower cost sublevel longhole stoping, and the higher cost associated with longitudinal stoping and Avoca mining. Processing costs are estimated at $23.96/t, G&A at $6.78/t, and tailings at $1.54/t for total operating costs of $73.55/t. Foran's consultants used a first principles methodology in establishing operating costs. Over 70% of material costs are quotes received during H2/21, with productivities being derived from benchmarking and industry best practices. On a per pound basis, C1 copper cash costs are estimated at US$0.26/lb, net of by-product credits, and US$0.90/lb on an all-in sustaining cost basis, net of by-product credits. Table 8 Life of Mine Operating Cost Summary LOM Operating Costs (C$/t milled) Amount Mining C$/t milled $41.26 Processing C$/t milled $23.96 G&A C$/t milled $6.78 Tailings C$/t milled $1.54 Total Operating Costs C$/t milled $73.55 Sustaining Capital Costs C$/t milled $18.39 Operating Costs + Sustaining Capex C$/t milled $91.94 LOM Unit Costs Amount C1 Copper Cash Costs (net of credits) US$/lb $0.26 All-in Sustaining Costs (net of credits) US$/lb $0.90 Mining costs are inclusive of paste fill costs. Mine site operating costs, treatment Charges & refining Charges, less by-product credits, divided by payable copper production. C1 Copper Cash Costs (net of credits), plus sustaining capex, plus royalties divided by payable copper production. Financial Analysis At US$3.50/lb Cu, US$1.20/lb Zn, US$1,600/oz Au, US$22.50/oz Ag, and a USD/CAD exchange rate of 1.26, the project generates a pre-tax NPV 7% of $678M and IRR of 26%. On an after-tax basis, the project generates an NPV 7% of $466M and IRR of 22% with a 4.5-year payback period. At current prices, the project generates an after-tax NPV 7% C$1,055M and IRR of 38%. Table 9 Financial Metrics Description Units Feasibility Study Metal Prices/FX Base Case Current Prices Copper US$/lb $3.50 $4.53 Zinc US$/lb $1.20 $1.64 Gold US$/oz $1,600 $1,936 Silver US$/oz $22.50 $24.52 Currency Exchange Rate USD/CAD 1.26 1.27 Financial Analysis Pre-Tax NPV7% C$M $678 $1,493 Pre-Tax IRR % 26% 46% After-Tax NPV7% C$M $466 $1,055 After-Tax IRR % 22% 38% Payback Period years 4.5 2.2 Current prices and FX based on Feb 23, 2022 closing values. Opportunities Foran has identified various opportunities that have the potential to further improve project economics: Automation Foran will continue to evaluate emerging technologies that could increase automation in the operations to improve efficiency and safety. This could include more autonomous production equipment, as well as support equipment, such as boom trucks for transporting materials underground. Remote Operations Centre Foran is considering installing a control room located offsite, where semi-autonomous equipment could be operated from. Certain other non-production functions could also be performed from this site which would reduce camp and travel costs and potentially help the company to attract and retain top-tier talent. Reduced Backfill Costs Foran will investigate adding locally sourced sand (dolomite) in the backfill to reduce binder cost. While further testwork is required, the geochemical characteristics of the dolomite, combined with the cement used in the paste, creates a stronger product compared to using only tailings. This would result in a lower binder requirement. Ore Sorting Initial testwork conducted on core samples indicated amenability to the sorting technology. More testwork will be undertaken, using material from the planned bulk sample, to investigate sorting in the flowsheet. The benefit would be upgrading ore before it is milled, reducing costs. Exploration Potential The deposit extends down-plunge approximately 2km, where it remains open at depth and along strike. Foran is also turning its exploration focus to advancing regional targets and deposits. Potential Expansions The processing plant is being designed as an initial 4,200tpd plant that could accommodate future potential phased expansions as Foran advances and delineates additional near-mine deposits across the Hanson Lake District. Environment, Permitting and Communities The McIlvenna Bay Project is considered a development and must obtain Ministerial approval pursuant to The Environmental Assessment Act (Saskatchewan) before construction can proceed. Foran has already commenced work required for EA approval, and as part of the process the Company must conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment and submit an Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") for review to the Ministry of Environment. Upon submission of the EIS, a technical review is completed through the Saskatchewan Environmental Assessment Review Panel, who are tasked with providing advice on the adequacy, accuracy and completeness of the EIS. Following the panel's review and response to comments by Foran, the EIS and final Technical Review Comments are available for public review and written comment for 30 or 60-calendar days. Once the public review period is complete and the Government has completed their Duty to Consult, the Minister of Environment would make a decision on approving the development. After the EA approval is in hand, the Company is able to obtain all other required regulatory permits and licenses, including but not limited to a mine surface lease agreement, construction approvals, and the operating approval. Carbon Neutrality and ESG The Company remains committed on delivering a mine of the future, with an initial focus on natural capital initiatives (which includes achieving carbon neutrality) and human capital initiatives. Hydroelectric power, BEVs, and carbon sequestration are expected to be notable drivers in reaching our carbon neutrality goals, while we work closely with local communities that are critical to operate in an evolving and increasingly decarbonized world. The Company is looking forward to updating all stakeholders on our strategy as we move forward with these initiatives. Project Finance Foran has received expressions of interest from a various potential financing partners to provide project-level debt and other potential forms of financing to advance the construction of McIlvenna Bay. The company will continue discussions with select potential financing partners in order to finalize the financing package in a timely manner while managing risk and maximizing value for shareholders. The company believes that McIlvenna Bay's top-tier jurisdiction, carbon-neutrality targets, low capital intensity and exposure to strategic commodities makes the project an attractive proposition for potential financing partners. Mineral Resource Estimate The FS is underpinned by the Mineral Resource Estimate announced October 14, 2021 (News Release Link). The updated estimate outlined a 70% increase in Indicated resource tonnes to 39.1 Mt compared to the prior 2019 resource estimate of 23.0Mt and Inferred resources totaled 5.0 Mt. The 2021 Resource Estimate is summarized in Table 10 below. Mineralization begins ~25m below surface and extends down-plunge approximately 2km, where it remains open at depth outlining future opportunity to grow the resource. The mineral resource estimate was completed by Micon International Limited ("Micon") and verified by Mr. William J. Lewis, P.Geo. of Micon, independent of Foran and a Qualified Person as defined within National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"). The 2021 Resource Estimate's effective date is September 6, 2021, and is estimated using long-term metal price projections of US$4.25/lb Cu, US$1.35/lb Zn, US$1,800/oz Au and US$25.00/oz Ag. The base case uses a US$60/t NSR cut-off using provisions for metallurgical recoveries, smelter payables, refining costs, freight, and applicable royalties, consistent with the cut-off used for the 2019 Resource. Table 10. McIlvenna Bay 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (US$60/t NSR cut-off) 1-5 Zone Tonnage (Mt) NSR ($US) Cu (%) Zn (%) Pb (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) CuEq (%) INDICATED Main Lens Massive Sulphide 10.8 199 1.01 6.17 0.41 0.53 27 3.13 Lens 3 2.6 113 0.82 3.07 0.14 0.25 15 1.80 Stringer Zone 1.2 119 1.26 0.52 0.07 0.31 13 1.53 Copper Stockwork Zone 22.7 127 1.31 0.38 0.02 0.37 9 1.60 Copper Stockwork Footwall Zone 1.8 141 1.42 0.59 0.04 0.45 9 1.79 TOTAL INDICATED 39.1 146 1.20 2.16 0.14 0.41 14 2.04 INFERRED Main Lens Massive Sulphide 1.6 163 0.65 6.51 0.46 0.29 28 2.66 Copper Stockwork Zone 3.5 106 1.08 0.79 0.03 0.25 11 1.37 TOTAL INFERRED 5.0 123 0.94 2.56 0.17 0.27 16 1.77 1 Effective date September 6, 2021; CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Resources; CuEq = copper equivalent; NSR = Net Smelter Return. Totals may not add due to rounding. 2 The base case mineral resource is estimated based on 240 diamond drill holes and a NSR cut-off value of US$60/t. NSR value was calculated using Cu, Zn, Au, Ag and high-grade caps were applied as per the discussion in Estimation Methodology and Parameters below and include provisions for metallurgical recovery and estimates of current shipping terms and smelter rates for similar concentrates. Metal prices used are US$4.25/lb. Cu, US$1.35/lb. Zn, US$1,800/oz. Au, and US$25.00/oz. Ag, versus US$3.30/lb. Cu, US$1.25/lb. Zn, US$1,310/oz. Au and US$16.20/oz. Ag, used for the previous resource estimate in 2019. Specific gravity was interpolated for each block based on measurements taken from core specimens, with an average value of 3.59 for the main Massive Sulphide ("MS") lens and 2.87 for the Copper Stockwork Zone ("CSZ") 3 Mr. William J. Lewis, P.Geo., of Micon, has reviewed and verified this mineral resource estimate. Mr. Lewis is independent of Foran and is a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. 4 Mineral Resources are inclusive of mineral reserves. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing or other issues. 5 CuEq values were calculated from the NSR values for each zone using both concentrate and recovery curves that were developed during Pre-Feasibility level metallurgical studies. Qualified Person The 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate were prepared in accordance with Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy, and Petroleum (CIM) Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 10, 2014), and CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practice Guidelines (November 29, 2019) and was completed and verified by Micon, a global geological and mining consultancy. The 2021 Resource Estimate was verified by Mr. William J. Lewis, P.Geo. Mr. Lewis is an independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 and has consented to applicable disclosure contained herein regarding the 2021 Resource Estimate. The 2022 Mineral Reserve Estimates were prepared in accordance with Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy, and Petroleum (CIM) Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 10, 2014), and CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practice Guidelines (November 29, 2019) and was completed and verified by Stantec Inc., a global mining consultancy. The 2022 Mineral Reserve Estimate was verified by Mr. Mark Hatton, P.Eng. Mr. Hatton is an independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 and has consented to applicable disclosure contained herein regarding the 2022 Mineral Reserve Estimate. Mr. Denis Flood, P.Eng, Foran Vice-President of Engineering, is the Qualified Person for all technical information herein, excluding the 2022 Mineral Resource and 2022 Reserve estimates. Mr. Flood has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release. About Foran Mining Foran Mining is a copper-zinc-gold-silver exploration and development company, committed to supporting a greener future, empowering communities and creating circular economies which create value for all our stakeholders, while also safeguarding the environment. The project is located entirely within the traditional territory of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. The company also owns the Bigstone project, a resource-development stage deposit located 25km southwest of its McIlvenna Bay project. McIlvenna Bay is a copper-zinc-gold-silver rich VHMS deposit intended to be the centre of a new mining camp in a prolific district that has already been producing for 100 years. McIlvenna Bay sits just 65km from Flin Flon, Manitoba and is part of the world class Flin Flon Greenstone Belt that extends from Snow Lake, Manitoba, through Flin Flon to Foran's ground in eastern Saskatchewan, a distance of over 225km. McIlvenna Bay is the largest undeveloped VHMS deposit in the region. Our goal is to build the first carbon neutral copper mine in Canada by design. The Company announced the results from its Bankable Feasibility Study on February 28, 2022, outlining an 18 year mine life producing an average of 65 Mlbs CuEq annually. The Company filed a NI 43-101 Technical Report for the updated mineral resource estimate for the McIlvenna Bay deposit on February 11, 2022, wherein the indicated mineral resources increased to 39.1 million tonnes, a 70% increase compared to the previous resource estimate from 2019. Foran's copper-zinc Bigstone Deposit is expected to serve as additional feed for the mill at McIlvenna Bay. The Company filed a NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Bigstone Deposit's first resource estimate on February 11, 2021. Foran trades on the TSX.V under the symbol "FOM" and on the OTCQX under the symbol "FMCXF". Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Technical Disclosure Data verification by the Qualified Persons programs have included site visits, review of drill core, review of QA/QC data, re-sampling and sample analysis programs, and database verification. Validation checks were performed on data, and comprise checks on surveys, collar co-ordinates and assay data. Sufficient verification checks were undertaken on the database to provide confidence that the database is virtually error free and appropriate to support Mineral Resource and Reserve estimation. A technical report for the McIlvenna Bay Project will be prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.foranmining.com within 45 days of this press release. Readers are encouraged to read the technical report in its entirety, including all qualifications, assumptions and exclusions that relate to the details summarized in this press release. The technical report is intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. Forward Looking Statements CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains "forward-looking information" (also referred to as "forward looking statements"), which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "hopes", "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. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements or information in this news release relate to, among other things: filing of the feasibility study in a timely manner, and the anticipated capital and operating costs, sustaining costs, net present value, internal rate of return, payback period, process capacity, average annual metal production, average process recoveries, anticipated mining and processing methods, proposed FS production schedule and metal production profile, anticipated construction period, anticipated mine life, expected recoveries and grades, anticipated production rates, infrastructure, social and environmental impact studies, future financial or operating performance of the Company, subsidiaries and its projects, estimation of mineral resources, exploration results, opportunities for exploration, development and expansion of the McIlvenna Bay Project, its potential mineralization, the future price of metals, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, costs and timing of future exploration, the timing of the development of new deposits, requirements for additional capital, foreign exchange risk, government regulation of mining and exploration operations, environmental risks, reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims, insurance coverage and regulatory matters. In addition, these statements involve assumptions made with regard to the Company's ability to develop the McIlvenna Bay Project and to achieve the results outlined in the FS, and the ability to raise capital to fund construction and development of the McIlvenna Bay Project. These forward-looking statements and information reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant operational, business, economic and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. These assumptions include: our mineral reserve and resource estimates and the assumptions upon which they are based, including geotechnical and metallurgical characteristics of rock confirming to sampled results and metallurgical performance; tonnage of ore to be mined and processed; ore grades and recoveries; assumptions and discount rates being appropriately applied to the technical studies; success of the Company's projects, including the McIlvenna Bay Project; prices for zinc, copper, gold and silver remaining as estimated; currency exchange rates remaining as estimated; availability of funds for the Company's projects; capital decommissioning and reclamation estimates; mineral reserve and resource estimates and the assumptions upon which they are based; prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services (including transportation); no labour-related disruptions; no unplanned delays or interruptions in scheduled construction and production; all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals are received in a timely manner; and the ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. The Company cautions the reader that forward-looking statements and information include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the projected and actual effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus on the factors relevant to the business of the Corporation, including the effect on supply chains, labour market, currency and commodity prices and global and Canadian capital markets, fluctuations in zinc, copper, gold and silver prices; fluctuations in prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services (including transportation); fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar); operational risks and hazards inherent with the business of mining (including environmental accidents and hazards, industrial accidents, equipment breakdown, unusual or unexpected geological or structure formations, cave-ins, flooding and severe weather); inadequate insurance, or the inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks and hazards; our ability to obtain all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in a timely manner; changes in laws, regulations and government practices in Canada, including environmental, export and import laws and regulations; legal restrictions relating to mining; risks relating to expropriation; increased competition in the mining industry for equipment and qualified personnel; the availability of additional capital; title matters and the additional risks identified in our filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. Investors are cautioned against undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by applicable securities regulations, the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update the forward-looking information. Non-GAAP Measures This press release includes certain terms or performance measures commonly used in the mining industry that are not defined under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"), including Copper Equivalent, C1 Copper Cash Costs (net of credits) per pound of payable copper and All-In Sustaining Costs per pound of payable copper, and operating costs per tonne processed. Non-GAAP measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS and, therefore, they may not be comparable to similar measures employed by other companies. The Company discloses "C1 Copper Cash Costs", "All-in Sustaining Costs", "EBITDA", and "Free Cash Flow" because it understands that certain investors use this information to determine the Company's ability to generate earnings and cash flows for use in investing and other activities. The Company believes that conventional measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS, do not fully illustrate the ability of mines to generate cash flows. The measures, as determined under IFRS, are not necessarily indicative of operating profit or cash flows from operating activities. The measures cash costs and all-in sustaining costs are considered to be key indicators of a project's ability to generate operating earnings and cash flows. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS and are not necessarily indicative of operating costs, operating profit or cash flows presented under IFRS. Company Logo (CNW Group/Foran Mining Corporation) SOURCE Foran Mining Corporation Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2022/28/c2090.html By Foo Yun Chee and John Chalmers BRUSSELS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Alphabet unit Google and its subsidiary YouTube, Facebook and Twitter must do more to tackle disinformation related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the premiers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said. In a joint letter to the chief executives of the four companies dated Feb. 27, the four prime ministers criticised the U.S. tech giants, saying what they have done so far is inadequate. "Although the online platforms have undertaken significant efforts to address the Russian government's unprecedented assault on truth, they have not done enough," they said in the letter. "Russia's disinformation has been tolerated on online platforms for years; they are now an accessory to the criminal war of aggression the Russian government is conducting against Ukraine and the free world." They urged the companies to proactively suspend accounts denying, glorifying or justifying wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. They also urged the tech giants to suspend the official accounts of Russian and Belarusian government institutions, state-controlled media and personal accounts of the countries' leadership and their associates that consistently disseminate disinformation about the situation in Ukraine. The countries called on the companies to prevent Russian state-controlled media from circumventing restrictions imposed by several national regulators against them. The online platforms should adjust their search and recommendation algorithms to inform users of disinformation and immediately demonetise all accounts controlled by the Russian and Belarusian governments, they said. Facebook referred to a Sunday tweet by its vice-president Nick Clegg which said the company was reviewing other government requests to restrict Russian state controlled media. It will continue to label and fact check these outlets as well as prohibit ads and demonetise their accounts globally, the tweet added. Google and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Jan Harvey) russian vodka Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Businesses and governments are boycotting products from Russia amid the country's ongoing invasion of Ukraine that began last week. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, both Republicans, recently issued executive orders that ensure Russian-made and Russian-branded vodka is pulled from the shelves of liquor stores run by the government. "This morning I signed an Executive Order instructing @nhliquorwine outlets to begin removing Russian-made and Russian-branded spirits from our liquor and wine outlets until further notice. New Hampshire stands with the people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom," tweeted Sununu. On Twitter, Cox shared the executive order along with a message where he affirmed the state would "review all state procurements for any Russian ties." "We will do our part to push back on the Russian invaders and stand with our sisters and brothers in Ukraine. Effective immediately all Russian-made products will be removed from state-run liquor stores. We will also review all state procurements for any Russian ties," Cox wrote. We will do our part to push back on the Russian invaders and stand with our sisters and brothers in Ukraine. Effective immediately all Russian-made products will be removed from state-run liquor stores. We will also review all state procurements for any Russian ties. pic.twitter.com/oOB4dFFBTf Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) February 27, 2022 RELATED: What's Next in Russia's Apparent Ukraine Invasion? How Putin Might Fight, How U.S. Response Could Affect You In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine likewise took a stance against the brand Russian Standard by calling on his state's Department of Commerce to "cease" the purse and sale of the company's vodka. Story continues Russian Standard's products are sold under the brand names Green Mark Vodka and Russian Standard Vodka in Ohio, DeWine said. He said there are currently about 6,400 vodka bottles made by Russian Standard in more than 480 liquor stores in the state. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, shared the same sentiment on the ongoing conflict. Abbott is encouraging all liquor stores and restaurants statewide to stop selling Russian-made products. "I've asked the members of the Texas Restaurant Association, Texas Package Stores Association & all Texas retailers to voluntarily remove all Russian products from their shelves. Texas stands with Ukraine," the governor tweeted. .@OhioLiquor estimates that there are approximately 6,400 bottles of vodka made by Russian Standard currently for sale in Ohio's 487 liquor agencies across the state. Retailers have been asked to immediately pull Green Mark Vodka and Russian Standard Vodka from their shelves. Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) February 26, 2022 Canada's Liquor Control Board of Ontario recently announced plans to remove Russian produced products from 679 stores. "Following government directive, effective immediately, all products produced in Russia will be removed from LCBO sales channels, including 679 stores LCBO stores across the province, lcbo.com and LCBO Convenience Outlets," said LCBO. The boycotts against Russian, though symbolic in some ways, are expected to hurt businesses and could increase as the conflict continues raging on. More broadly, economic pressure has become one of the key ways that politicians in other countries are weighing in to support Ukraine after it was invaded. According to Paul Isely, an associate dean and economics professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, Russian Vodka sales account for about $41 million a year. "That's really small compared to the $1.7 trillion economy in Russia, but for a company that can be very big so if we were to decrease the units sold, it would affect the profitability of those companies and affect their willingness to support [the conflict]," said Isely per TV station WZZM. A Ukrainian citizen holds a placard reading "Stop Putin - Stop War" as they protest against Russia's military operation in Ukraine in front of the Russian embassy YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images RELATED: Russia's Latest Aggression in Ukraine Crisis Is 'Beginning of an Invasion,' U.S. Says The attack Ukraine is still evolving, but explosions and airstrikes have been reported, with threats mounting against the capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million people. Ukrainian and U.N. officials have said at least 198 people, including children, have been killed in the fighting, though the figures remain incredibly fluid. The Associated Press also reported President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces on increased alert Sunday, as tensions continued to escalate with the U.S. and Europe over the conflict. President Joe Biden said in a White House speech last Thursday that he was imposing even stricter economic punishments on Russia and would be deploying troops in support of NATO countries, but not in Ukraine. He said the U.S. would support Ukraine in other ways. "The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces," Biden, 79, said as the invasion began last week. The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. Follow PEOPLE's complete coverage of the war here, including stories from citizens on the ground and ways to help. Heritage Southeast Bancorporation, Inc. ATLANTA, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Heritage Southeast Bancorporation, Inc. (HSBI) announced today that HSBI, Heritage Southeast Bank and VyStar Credit Union (VyStar) have mutually agreed to extend the time available to obtain regulatory approvals, satisfy other closing conditions and prepare for a smooth transition of HSBIs business to VyStar, by waiving their respective rights to terminate the purchase agreement until March 31, 2022. This waiver aligns with the terms originally negotiated in the purchase agreement, which provides for an outside date of March 31, 2022, if receipt of regulatory approvals remains the only material outstanding condition to closing. HSBI, Heritage Southeast Bank and VyStar each continue to pursue regulatory approvals from the FDIC, the NCUA, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. There can be no assurance that the parties will receive regulatory approval during the first quarter, or at all. While the parties continue to work toward closing the proposed business combination, the parties recognize that the timing of regulatory approval and customer notifications may result in the closing of the transaction occurring after March 31, 2022. Required customer notifications include, among other things, a notice that must be given to customers at least 30 days before completion of the transaction. About Heritage Southeast Bancorporation, Inc., and Heritage Southeast Bank: Heritage Southeast Bancorporation, Inc. serves as the holding company for Heritage Southeast Bank, which is headquartered in Jonesboro, GA and operates under the names Heritage Bank, The Heritage Bank, and Providence Bank in its various markets. With approximately $1.7 billion in assets, the bank provides a well-rounded offering of commercial and consumer products through its 23 locations. For additional information, visit the HSBI website (myhsbi.com). Forward Looking Statements: Story continues This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the benefits of the proposed acquisition of HSBI by VyStar, statements related to the expected timing of the completion of the acquisition, the combined company's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements may be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "scheduled," "plans," "intends," "anticipates," "expects," "believes," estimates," "potential," or "continue" or negatives of such terms or other comparable terminology. All forward-looking statements in this press release, or in any other written or oral communication that relates to the proposed acquisition or to matters that may affect such proposed acquisition are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of HSBI or VyStar to differ materially from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, (1) disruption from the proposed acquisition with customers, suppliers, employees or other business partners, (2) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the agreement, (3) the ability by the parties to obtain required governmental approvals of the acquisition (4) the failure of the closing conditions in the agreement to be satisfied, or any unexpected delay in closing the acquisition, and (5) general competitive, economic, political and market conditions. Heritage Southeast Bancorporation, Inc. and its subsidiary disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this communication (which statements speak only as of the date hereof), or in any other written or oral communication that relates to the proposed combination or to matters that may affect such proposed combination, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. CONTACT Leonard A. Moreland Chief Executive Officer Philip F. Resch Chief Financial Officer Heritage Southeast Bancorporation, Inc. 101 North Main Street P.O. Box 935 Jonesboro, GA 30236 (770) 824-9934 LONDON (Reuters) - JPMorgan is set to remove Russia from the environmental, social and governance (ESG) versions of its emerging market bond indexes, while it continues to review the country's ejection from its widely used emerging debt benchmarks. A source familiar with the bank told Reuters on Monday Russia is set to be removed from the ESG versions of JPMorgan's Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets indexes, and the JP Morgan Emerging Market Bond Index. JPM is consulting with clients about when and how to remove Russia from the ESG index, the person added. The bank is still reviewing the impact of sanctions launched by the West on Russia, on the country's presence in its main emerging market bond indexes. (Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; editing by Sujata Rao) Krispy Kreme opens its Castleton shop Tuesday, and management is preparing to greet customers coming in from up to an hours drive away to partake of the popular doughnut shop chains signature glazed fluffy yeast sugar bombs. The opening of the shop at 5940 E. 82nd St. marks the return to the Indianapolis area for the company that saw rapid growth in the early 2000s amid being publicly traded. JAB Holding Co., the Luxembourg-based owner of Caribou Coffee, Einstein Bros. and Panera Bread brands, bought Krispy Kreme in 2016. Krispy Kreme opens in Castleton on March 1, 2022. The North Carolina-headquartered brand operated a store at 8707 U.S. Hwy. 31 South from August 1995 to June 2010. The new store will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m Sunday through Thursday and from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A neon sign will burn from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., indicating when customers can buy doughnuts hot off the line. Indylicious: Sign up for local dining news. Visitors can also find seasonal doughnut flavors, such as maple and pumpkin spice in the fall and a pecan pie doughnut near the Thanksgiving holiday; as well as coffee options that include lattes and iced drinks. No hand-spun milkshakes or doughnut ice cream sandwiches will be offered upon opening, as they are at some other locations though. Throughout the first week, the shop will randomly select a guest at the top of every hour to receive a free dozen glazed doughnuts every month for a year. The giveaways will go to a total of 120 people. Some folks have been trying to get in on the action a bit early. Training for the 70 Castleton employees started last week; and thats when the potential customers started showing up to the drive-through and trying to come inside the store, mistakenly thinking it was open, said Joey Horne-Rodriguez, general manager. Ghost kitchen: Chefs enter The AMP's setup. Prepare for stuffed chicken wings and ramen. The shop, which includes patio seating, is near Castleton Square Mall. Story continues We chose Castleton because of the thriving restaurant business in the area, Horne-Rodriguez said. Castleton has a good diverse community here; so we thought that this would be a great place to bring Krispy Kreme back to the Indianapolis area. Krispy Kreme wants to open other Indianapolis-area stores but hasnt identified locations, Horne-Rodriguez said. Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter: @cherylvjackson. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Krispy Kreme returns to Indianapolis area at Castleton doughnut shop Lycia Therapeutics, Inc. -- Lycia using its LYTAC platform to advance first-in-class therapeutics that degrade extracellular and membrane-bound proteins that drive a range of difficult-to-treat diseases -- SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lycia Therapeutics, Inc., a leader in extracellular protein degradation, today announced the recent appointment of Steve Staben, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to joining Lycia, Dr. Staben spent over 14 years at Genentech leading drug discovery programs in oncology and immunology as well as new modality platforms. Lycia is using its next-generation degradation approach to target the untapped extracellular proteome, including cell surface receptors and secreted proteins. The companys lysosomal targeting chimeras, or LYTAC, platform can be extended to several therapeutic modalities, including antibodies and small molecules, with the potential to inhibit many targets previously considered intractable across a spectrum of therapeutic areas and diseases. Lycia continues to advance its internal undisclosed discovery pipeline of LYTAC degraders. We are building a team of passionate, results-driven inventors of medicine. Steve models this enthusiasm and dedication, and were thrilled to have him helm our scientific organization, said Aetna Wun Trombley, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer at Lycia. Steves expertise advancing new modality platforms across therapeutic areas is a perfect match for Lycia. I look forward to working closely with him as we advance our lead programs and continue to mine the broad potential of our LYTAC degradation platform. Dr. Staben commented, The extracellular proteome has remained an area of untapped exploration for protein degradation given the limitations of first-generation platforms. The possibilities that could be unlocked by our LYTAC degraders is tremendously exciting, with numerous potential opportunities to help address currently intractable targets. Im honored to be part of the Lycia team, and I look forward to helping build a company that embodies scientific excellence and is unwaveringly motivated by the promise to help patients. Story continues Dr. Stabens basic research interests include new mechanisms for modulation of therapeutic targets, including applications of induced proximity. He has co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed articles and patent applications and holds his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Other members of Lycias leadership team include Christian Hofmann, Ph.D., Chief Business Officer, who joined Lycia from the Partnering group with Roche/Genentech; Jason Lewis, Ph.D., Vice President and Head of Chemistry, who formerly served as Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Ardelyx; Darrin Lindhout, Ph.D., Executive Director and Head of Biologics, who most recently served as Director, Protein Sciences at NGM Biopharmaceuticals; and Sarah McWhirter, Ph.D., Vice President and Head of Biology, who previously served as Executive Director of Research and Translational Medicine at Aduro Biotech. Link here to view full biographies of Lycias management team. About Lycia Therapeutics Lycia Therapeutics is a biotechnology company using its proprietary lysosomal targeting chimeras (LYTACs) platform to discover and develop first-in-class therapeutics that degrade extracellular and membrane-bound proteins that drive a range of difficult-to-treat diseases, including cancers and autoimmune conditions. Headquartered in South San Francisco, Lycia was established in 2019 within founding investor Versant Ventures Inception Therapeutics Discovery Engine in collaboration with academic founder Carolyn Bertozzi, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and HHMI investigator at Stanford University. For more information, please visit www.lyciatx.com. Media Inquiries: lmelone@lyciatx.com Company Inquiries: info@lyciatx.com (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would remove Russian state-owned media outlet RT's mobile apps from the Windows App store and ban advertisements on Russian state-sponsored media, as global tech firms respond to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The company said it would not display any state-sponsored RT and Sputnik content, de-rank their search results on Bing and not place any ads from its ad network on those sites. Western tech companies, including Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, have placed restrictions on Russia's state-controlled media outlets in Ukraine and around the world. Google has banned downloads of RT's mobile app on Ukrainian territory after barring Russia's state-owned media outlet RT and other channels from receiving money for ads on their websites, apps and YouTube videos. Facebook is barring Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on its platform anywhere in the world. "(We) will make ongoing adjustments to strengthen our detection and disruption mechanisms to avoid the spread of disinformation and promote instead independent and trusted content," Microsoft said in a blog https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2022/02/28/ukraine-russia-digital-war-cyberattacks. A growing list of companies are also looking to exit Russia as sanctions from Western countries tighten. (Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Chavi Mehta; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) ISS A/S Company Announcement Copenhagen, 28 February 2022 No. 03/2022 ISS A/S (ISS.CO, ISS DC, ISS DY), a leading workplace experience and facility management company, today announced the nomination of Lars Petersson as a new member of the Board of Directors for election at the Annual General Meeting of ISS A/S on 7 April 2022. Lars Petersson is Group President and CEO of Hempel Group, a global coating manufacturer headquartered in Denmark. Before joining Hempel, Lars Petersson held positions as Senior Vice President of the window manufacturer, Inwido, and Vice President at the global flooring company, Tarkett. Deputy Chair, Henrik Poulsen, has informed the Board that he will not seek re-election at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. Henrik Poulsen has served on the board of ISS A/S since 2013 and been Deputy Chair since 2020. In addition, Henrik Poulsen has been member of several board committees, including the Transactions Committee and has for many years been Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee. With the initiation of the OneISS strategy and early execution according to plan, Henrik has decided that the timing is right to step down from the Board at ISS. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Henrik Poulsen for his many contributions to ISS. He has played a vital role in the transformation journey for ISS in the last couple of years, not least in supporting our OneISS strategy, says Niels Smedegaard, Chair of the Board of Directors in ISS A/S. All other current board members intend to seek re-election. Provided that Lars Petersson and the remaining board members are elected, the Board expects to constitute itself by electing Niels Smedegaard as Chair and Lars Petersson as Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors. For investor enquiries Jacob Johansen, Head of Group Investor Relations, +45 21 69 35 91 Louisa Baruch Larsson, Senior Investor Relations Manager, +45 38 17 63 38 For media enquiries Kenni Leth, Head of Global PR & Media Relations, +45 51 71 43 68 Story continues About ISS ISS is a leading workplace experience and facility management company. In partnership with customers, ISS drives the engagement and well-being of people, minimises the impact on the environment, and protects and maintains property. ISS brings all of this to life through a unique combination of data, insight and service excellence at offices, factories, airports, hospitals and other locations across the globe. ISS has more than 350,000 employees around the globe, who we call placemakers. In 2021, ISS Groups global revenue amounted to DKK 71 billion. For more information on the ISS Group, visit www.issworld.com. ISS A/S, ISIN DK0060542181, ISIN US4651472056, ISS Global A/S, ISIN XS2013618421, ISIN XS1145526825, ISIN XS1673102734, ISS Finance B.V., ISIN XS2199343513 Attachment Dalmore Group has more than $2B live offerings and $3B in pipeline NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Onassis Holding Corp (OTC: ONSS), a holding company specializing in wellness, healthcare, and the distribution of nutraceuticals and herbal-based medications, is pleased to announce it has launched a Regulation A+ financing round for expansion of their operations, management, marketing and R&D. Onassis Holdings Corp Logo Reg A+ allows companies to raise up to $75 million per year from the general public in a more streamlined process than what is required for publicly reporting companies. Dalmore Group specializes in helping companies raise capital online at scale through Regulations A+, CF and D, and has onboarded over 175 Reg A+ issuers since 2019. In retaining Dalmore Group, Onassis positions their Reg A+ financing to capitalize on the strengths and successes that Dalmore Group has established as being an industry leading broker-dealer in Reg A+ financing services. Dalmore Group, with more than 16 years' experience as a full-service investment bank with deep institutional, private equity, venture capital and family office relationships in multiple financial markets, is considered the US industry leading broker-dealer for Reg A+ offerings having onboarded over 175 Reg A+ issuers since 2019. Dalmore services include strategic partnerships with industry experts in marketing and PR, distribution and syndication-partnerships with multiple Reg A+ marketplace platform distribution partners, and secondary trading solutions for their Reg A+ issuers, thereby enabling issuers to offer ongoing liquidity solutions to their investors. Etan Butler, Chairman of Dalmore Group, states: "Having onboarded over 175 Reg A+ issuers since 2019, we are now seeing a rapid increase of OTC companies utilizing the Reg A+ exemption as a means to raise capital for their businesses." Additionally, Mr. Butler explains: "Dalmore has onboarded over 20 publicly traded Reg A+ issuers. With our expanding list of institutional investors seeking to invest in OTC companies through Reg A+, and our relationships with syndicate broker dealers and their retail investor bases, Dalmore is seeing a trend of OTC companies choosing the Reg A+ path to finance their capital raising needs." Story continues Notable Dalmore Reg A+ deals include: Gage Cannabis $50M, Flora Growth $29.5M+, Emerald Health Pharmaceuticals $45M+, Juva Life $18M, Draganfly 19M+ and WINC Inc. $11.5M+. And within Dalmore's active pipeline it supports Ei Ventures with $20M+, Miso Robotics $35M+, Cloudastructure $30M+, Aptera Motors $26M+, Schackelford Pharma $10M+, Legion Works $10M+, Brazil Potash $34M+, and many others. (As stated in Dalmore Group's December 30, 2021 press release.) About Onassis Holdings Corp A wellness holding company specializing in healthcare, technology and the distribution of nutraceuticals and herbal-based medications. The Company is currently focused on distribution of nutraceuticals and herbal-based medications in the wellness sector, along with future plans for manufacturing new products for this market. Onassis has begun working with the world's top nutrition experts for innovative manufacturing and marketing collaboration. The Company has selected products that passed in-vitro and in-vivo clinical studies of herbal and marine formulations utilized and documented by traditional and natural medicine in over thousand years to ensure that our ingredients are effective. Our herbs are hand-selected and reasonably sourced only from authentic medicinal material cultivation areas, designed to be fully traceable from harvest to extract. Onassis Holdings is headquartered in New York City, with its warehouse and fulfillment offices located in Long Island, New York. Onassis originally incorporated in 2004 in the State of Nevada. Products: CimetrA- IMP -Investigational Medicinal Product under urgent registration process in the US to treat Covid-19 Corona Virus. Co-Blox - Food supplement capsule to boost the immune system. Majestix - Syrup made of 15 plant extracts Majestix Post- Syrup made of 15 plant extracts, Vitamins and Fungus. ArtemiC Rescue - This is a food supplement intended to support the immune system, containing four ingredients consisting of artemisinin, Curcuma longa L. Rhizome extract, Boswellia serrata oleo resin, and L-ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Extrax- Vapes Disclaimer: Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to statements which explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms "believes," "should," "intends," "will," or "plans" to be uncertain and forward-looking. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1708529/Onassis_Holdings_Corp_Logo.jpg For more information about Onassis: Onassis Holdings Corp. +1-929-229-9864 sales@onassis-holdings.com www.onassis-holdings.com Cision View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onassis-holdings-retains-investment-bank-dalmore-group-to-launch-a-15-million-regulation-a-offering-301491871.html SOURCE Onassis Holdings Corp Parker-Hannifin Corporation CLEVELAND, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parker Hannifin Corporation (NYSE: PH), the global leader in motion and control technologies, today announced that it will webcast a virtual meeting with investors and analysts on Tuesday, March 8, 2022 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. Presentations will be followed by a question and answer session hosted by Parkers executive leadership. The event will showcase Parkers ongoing transformation, highlight Parkers position to capitalize on secular growth trends, and outline the companys new five-year financial targets through fiscal year 2027. The webcast link for the live meeting will be accessible on the companys investor website: http://www.phstock.com , and will be archived for one year following the meeting. Parker Hannifin is a Fortune 250 global leader in motion and control technologies. For more than a century the company has been enabling engineering breakthroughs that lead to a better tomorrow. Parker has increased its annual dividend per share paid to shareholders for 65 consecutive fiscal years, among the top five longest-running dividend-increase records in the S&P 500 index. Learn more at www.parker.com or @parkerhannifin. ### CONTACT: Contact: Media Aidan Gormley, Director, Global Communications and Branding 216/896-3258 aidan.gormley@parker.com Financial Analysts Robin J. Davenport, Vice President, Corporate Finance 216/896-2265 rjdavenport@parker.com 200 million users in the region stream 9.7 billion hours of OTT content per month Millennials and Gen Zers are driving the shift towards ad-supported OTT and dictating top content trends Singapore records highest OTT penetration in the region; one in two viewers now streams OTT SINGAPORE, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A third (34 percent) of Southeast Asian viewers are now streaming over-the-top (OTT), according to a new study by The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD). The research also shows that the region welcomed 20 million new OTT viewers in the past year. There are now 200 million users who stream 9.7 billion hours' worth of OTT content per month, an increase of 22 percent in OTT consumption over the past year. This is further indication that OTT services are meeting consumer demand for professionally-produced TV content streamed on demand over the internet that has accelerated throughout the pandemic. The study found that OTT has captured viewers who are increasingly shifting away from traditional TV, whose content is not available on demand. Regionally, more than one in five (22 percent) OTT viewers no longer watch traditional TV. This is a 29 percent year-on-year increase that is attributed to more consumers working from home and bingeing on content at their convenience throughout the pandemic. The findings are consistent with the same study conducted one year prior, which found that OTT viewers streamed more during the pandemic, with 73 percent planning to maintain or increase OTT consumption even after the pandemic. "Today's consumers are moving towards a new model of TV consumption, one where they can watch their favourite shows anytime, anywhere, and on any device. For broadcasters and advertisers, it's now about how quickly they can pivot to where the eyeballs are moving. Many traditional broadcasters are at the forefront of this as they have invested heavily in their own OTT offerings," says Mitch Waters, Senior Vice President for Southeast Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand, The Trade Desk. Story continues Viewers are increasingly watching their favourite shows on OTT Fifty-six percent of the viewers across the region say their favourite programs are on OTT, compared to 41 percent on traditional TV. This trend is even more pronounced in Singapore, where just 36 percent say their favourite shows are on traditional TV. In fact, the lion city logged the highest OTT penetration in the region, with one in two users now streaming OTT. Singapore viewers cite flexibility as a huge draw to OTT, giving them the ability to watch shows whether they're on the go or at home. Millennials and Gen Zers are leading the shift to OTT The study affirms that younger viewers are driving the shift to OTT. Across the region, 44 percent of OTT viewers are Millennials and Gen Zers, aged 16 to 34. These age groups are among the most coveted by advertisers because they are at a stage in life where they are starting to build long-term brand loyalties, and they tend to be trendsetters for all age groups. In Singapore, these young audiences are early adopters and heavy users, often consuming more than four hours of OTT content per day. Ad-supported OTT sees rapid adoption According to the study, ad-supported viewership has grown rapidly. Currently, there are 116 million Southeast Asian viewers that have embraced ad-funded content. An overwhelming majority of these viewers are ad tolerant, with nine in 10 (89 percent) willing to watch two or more ads in exchange for an hour of free content. In Singapore, ad supported viewership is rising fast as more than half of OTT viewers (52 percent) are using ad-supported platforms. With millions relying on ad-funded content, OTT is proving to be a valuable channel for brands competing for the limited attention of consumers. The study demonstrates that OTT's professionally produced, premium content offers advantages for brands. In particular, brand recall of OTT ads is at an all-time high of 39 percent, compared to 29 percent in the prior year. Korean content is king Gen Z and younger Millennials are also dictating the content that will succeed on OTT platforms. Korean content, a Gen Z favourite, has come to dominate streaming schedules, stealing the spotlight from the Western fare. While the study found that the popularity of Korean content rose by 21 percent across the region, Western content saw an 11 percent drop in popularity year-over-year. Regionally, K-drama content is now the most popular genre on OTT, with 60 percent of women ranking it as their top genre, as did 62 percent of Gen Z viewers. Specifically in Singapore, Korean content saw an increase of 25 percent. Key cross-market highlights from the study include: 39 precent of OTT viewers in Singapore have switched from traditional TV, the highest in the region. Philippines claims second place at 29 percent, followed by Indonesia at 27 percent. Indonesia logged the biggest increase (more than 26 percent) in OTT penetration; 30 percent of Indonesians now stream OTT, consuming 3.5 billion hours every month. Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia have the youngest audiences: 51 percent of OTT viewers in these three markets are under the age of 34. The most ad-tolerant market is Indonesia, where 42 percent of viewers are willing to watch four ads or more for each hour of free content. Thailand ranks second at 41 percent. Seven out of 10 (70 percent) OTT viewers in Thailand use ad-supported platforms versus 58 percent regionally. While local content dominates in Thailand, Korean content has become the top preference in Indonesia and Philippines outranking both local and Western content. Methodology This study was commissioned by The Trade Desk and carried out by the world's leading marketing data, insight, and consultancy, Kantar. Kantar surveyed 6,715 consumers about their media consumption habits, ages 16+ in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia in November 2021. You may download the The Future of TV 2022 reports from these links: Southeast Asia and Singapore. About The Trade Desk The Trade Desk is a technology company that empowers buyers of advertising. Through its self-service, cloud-based platform, ad buyers can create, manage, and optimize digital advertising campaigns across ad formats and devices. Integrations with major data, inventory, and publisher partners ensure maximum reach and decisioning capabilities, and enterprise APIs enable custom development on top of the platform. Headquartered in Ventura, CA, The Trade Desk has offices across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. To learn more, visit thetradedesk.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. SOURCE The Trade Desk ReportLinker Major players in the submarines market are General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. , Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. New York, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Submarines Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240572/?utm_source=GNW Ltd., FINCANTIERI S.p.A, Lockheed Martin Corporation, BAE Systems, Saab AB, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), Navantia SA and United Shipbuilding Corporation. The global submarines (including nuclear submarines) market is expected to decline from $18.96 billion in 2021 to $17.41 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -8.2%. The decline in growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $21.86 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 5.8%. The submarines market consists of sales of submarines by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that manufacture submarines. Nuclear submarines are also included in the market. The main types of submarines are nuclear-powered submarines, diesel-electric submarines, and ballistic missile submarines.A ballistic missile submarine is used to deploy submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with nuclear warheads. The various platform includes commercials that are used for surveillance, combat, marine environmental monitoring, others. North America is the largest region in the submarines market in 2021.North America is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The rising investment in submarines is expected to propel the growth of the submarines market in the coming years.A submarine is a type of vessel that can move both above and below sea level. Governments across the world are investing in submarines to improve local shipyard capacities and fill holes in the Navys underwater war force. For instance, the Indian government released a specific expression of interest in June 2019 for an Indian shipyard to develop the submarines at a budget of $6.6 billion. According to the services new annual report to Congress, the U.S. Navy increased investment on its next-generation nuclear missile submarine project by $2 billion in the fiscal year 2021 and continues to drive towards $5 billion in 2024. Therefore, the rising investment in submarines drives the growth of the submarines market. The high cost of submarines is expected to hamper the growth of the submarines market over the forecast period.A submarine is a type of vessel that can move both above and below sea level. The cost of the submarines depends on the size, design, and capabilities of the vessel. In 2019, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that the total cost per submarine for the Submersible Ship Nuclear (SSN) (a nuclear-powered general-purpose attack submarine) would be $5.5 billion, while the Navy predicts that the budget per submarine would be $3.4 billion. Therefore, the high cost of submarines restraints the growth of the submarines market. The integration of 3D printing or additive manufacturing in submarines is a key trend gaining popularity in the submarines market.Major companies operating in the submarines sector are using 3D printing to build optimized submersible components and to improve performance by reducing essential properties such as weight. For instance, in February 2020, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, a Germany-based company that provides naval vessels, surface ships, and submarines have announced plans to expand the use of 3D printing for the production of submarine components. Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems has announced that the hydraulic block has been revamped by additive manufacturing for a submarine that has traditionally weighed 14 kg and now weighs only 2.1 kg. In March 2020, Huntington Ingalls Industries, an America-based military shipbuilding company acquired Hydroid Inc., for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is expected to enhance Huntington Ingalls Industries capabilities in technical solutions to unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) business, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), or marine robots. Hydroid Inc., is an America based company that manufactures underwater vehicles (UUVs). The countries covered in the submarines market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK and USA. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06240572/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 RTHK: Landmark UN report a catalogue of climate misery After decades of talking tough on global warming while greenhouse gas emissions rose, the world and its leaders were confronted on Monday by a horrifying "atlas of human suffering", and the promise of far worse to come. Nearly half the planet's population are highly vulnerable to a devastating array of climate impacts, according to a landmark UN report that said time had very nearly run out to ensure a "liveable future" for all. Species extinction, ecosystem collapse, insect-borne disease, deadly heatwaves and megastorms, water shortages, reduced crop yields - all are measurably worse due to rising temperatures, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. Just in the last year, the world has seen a cascade of unprecedented floods, heatwaves and wildfires across four continents. All these impacts will accelerate in the coming decades even if the fossil fuel pollution driving climate change is rapidly brought to heel, the 195-nation IPCC warned. As nations struggle to finally bend the curve of carbon dioxide emissions downward, they must also prepare for a climate onslaught that in some cases can no longer be avoided, the report made clear. For UN chief Antonio Guterres, it stands as a "damning indictment" of failed leadership that he described as nothing short of "criminal". "The world's biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home," he said. Even Russia's attack on Ukraine cannot distract from the truths laid out in the 3,600-page report and its all-important Summary for Policymakers, those taking part in the virtual, two-week talks said. "Ignoring this report, or ignoring climate change, is simply not an option," said scientist Han-Otto Portner, an IPCC co-chair. "Climate change is affecting us, it's haunting us," he added. "It is an existential threat." Svitlana Krakovska, who headed Ukraine's delegation, spoke passionately at the conference's final plenary about the link between conflict and global warming. "Human-induced climate change and the war on Ukraine have the same roots - fossil fuels - and our dependence on them," she said. Among the report's key takeaways was the intertwined fates of human and natural systems. It stressed that climate change cannot be tamed unless degraded forests and oceans that stock carbon are restored and protected; and the ecosystems on which we and other life forms depend for clean water, air and soil will not survive intact in a world of runaway warming. The report made clear that a viable future rests on a knife's edge. Some dire impacts are already irreversible, such as the likely demise of nearly all shallow water corals. Others points-of-no-return lie just beyond the Paris Agreement's aspirational target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the report warned. The 2015 treaty enjoins nations to hold the increase in temperatures to "well below" 2C, but recent science has left no doubt that a 1.5C threshold is far safer. Even in optimistic scenarios of rapid reductions in carbon pollution, projections of climate impacts are sobering. Up to 14 percent of land species face a "very high" risk of extinction with only 1.5C of warming, the IPCC said, bolstering calls for conservation of 30 to 50 percent of the world's land and ocean territory. The threat grows with every fraction of a degree. By 2050 there will be more than a billion people in coastal areas highly vulnerable to storm surges amplified by rising seas by 2050. Per usual, the poorest will often be the hardest hit. By 2100, the value of global assets within future 1-in-100-year coastal floodplains will be about US$10 trillion in a moderate greenhouse gas emissions scenario, according to the report. The IPCC assessment - the sixth since 1990 - highlights the need to cope with unavoidable climate impacts on almost every page. Overall, the IPCC warns, global warming is outpacing our preparations for a climate-addled world: "At current rates of adaptation planning and implementation, the adaptation gap will continue to grow." The report also trains a spotlight on irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes in the climate system known as tipping points, triggered at different thresholds of global heating. These include the melting of ice sheets atop Greenland and the West Antarctic with enough frozen water to lift oceans 13 metres; the morphing of the Amazon basin from tropical forest to savannah; and the disruption of global ocean currents that distribute heat across the globe. "The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and planetary health," the report concluded. Further delay in cutting carbon pollution and preparing for impacts already in the pipeline "will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all." (AFP) This story has been published on: 2022-02-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Classic rock plays while regulars sip Natty Boh. Rick Koehler, the 62-year-old owner of Griffiths Tavern, carries a bag of ice out to a customer. The first warm day, he said, and people want ice. Advertisement Next month, Koehler, whos worked in the bar purchased by his grandfather since he was a teenager, will retire, handing over the keys to a new generation. Ive been here 45 years, since September the third, 1976, he said. Its time to have some free time before theres no time. Advertisement Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 7 Griffith's Tavern has been a Hampden watering hole for generations going back to the repeal of Prohibition, when original owner Buck Griffith first applied for a liquor license. Now, owner Rick Koehler, right, whose family has run the bar since 1950, is selling to new owners Allison Crowley, left, and her business partner Hannah Spangler. The three stand for a portrait outside the bar on Wednesday, February 23. (Ulysses Munoz/The Baltimore Sun) Regulars say Griffiths, or the ice house as many still call it, is one of the last bastions of old Hampden, hanging on long after the bustling factories surrounding it have been shut down and either abandoned or converted into high-end restaurants. Hampdens changing so quick that us old-timers are getting pushed out, said Carroll Piper, a 60-year-old insulation mechanic as he sipped a post-work beer Wednesday afternoon. Once, bars like Griffiths existed on every corner in Baltimore, said Koehler, whose grandfather took over in the 1950s from its founder, Buck Griffith. During Prohibition, Griffith sold ice at the Hickory Avenue building; he continued selling ice even after turning it into a tavern in 1934. When he took over the bar in the 1970s, Koehler says, he kept beers cold in copper-lined bins with ice. After a while, the cost of buying the ice became too expensive, and he switched to modern refrigeration. Koehler continues to sell bags of ice stored in the now-mechanized freezer. Originally, Griffiths was a men-only stag bar. Others in the area included Roachs Cafe on West 36th Street, now a tobacco shop, and Dimitris Tavern on Falls Road, which is now Papis Tacos. For men in the community, Piper said, such dives offered a place to cuss and yell and say things about his wife without being ridiculed. But the bars ran afoul of city laws. While Koehler said the bar in fact did serve women by the time he took over, a Sun reporter noted in 1977 that the only toilet had a men sign on the door. After being summoned before the liquor board to defend his license, Koehler agreed to add a lock to the bathroom door. Griffith's Tavern has been a Hampden watering hole for generations going back to the repeal of Prohibition, when original owner Buck Griffith first applied for a liquor license. Now, owner Rick Koehler, left, whose family has run the bar since 1950, is selling to new owners Allison Crowley, center, and her business partner Hannah Spangler. The three pose for a portrait on Wednesday, February 23. (Ulysses Munoz/The Baltimore Sun) Griffiths new owners say theyre drawn to the lost-in-time feel of the place, and wont do much to change it. Pubs like Griffiths are institutions in the neighborhoods where theyre located, said Michael T. Walsh, whose 2019 book Baltimore Prohibition: Wet and Dry in the Free State recounts the stiff opposition the 18th amendment encountered in Charm City, particularly among Irish and German immigrants who embraced beer drinking and brewing. Culturally, Baltimore is a drinking city, he said. Advertisement For years, Griffiths opened at 6 a.m. to serve men as they left the overnight shift at London Fog, Schenuit Tire or the Hedwin Corporation, factories that hummed around the clock in the neighborhood. Even in the early morning hours, regulars stood three deep at the bar. After they retired from their factory jobs, said Koehler, they came back to sip coffee until noon, then switched o beer for a few hours before heading home. Many died way too soon, he said, some developing cancer from exposure to asbestos. Today, the bars usual crowd includes the children and grandchildren of its original regulars, including Piper, whose family, like many in the area, moved to Hampden from West Virginia in the 1930s for work. Piper doesnt plan to stick around Baltimore for much longer; he wants to move to Florida to retire. But for now, hell continue to come by Griffiths or Melanies Griffiths as it will soon be called. New owners Allison Crowley, 34, and Hannah Spangler, 33, want to change the name, but not much else. (The punctuation of the taverns new name matters, says Spangler. Theyre not trying to get sued by a certain famous actor and star of the John Waters film, Cecil B. Demented.) Dish Baltimore Weekly Get the scoop on that new restaurant, learn about chef changes and discover your favorite new recipe. All your Baltimore food news is here. > You cant beat a wood-paneled paradise like this, said Crowley, who previously worked at Cans Filling Station at Cross Street Market, where Spangler was part-owner. Advertisement Crowley, who is originally from rural Minnesota, said when she first walked in, the tavern reminded her of every bar I drank in in my hometown. While maintaining its lost-in-time-feel and Wednesday shufflebowl nights, Crowley and Spangler, who are both queer, hope to make the bar feel equally welcoming to young restaurant workers and LGBTQ individuals as to its current conservative customer base. Spangler described their vision as: a dive bar but make it kind of gay. Like Griffiths, Melanies wont sell food, but Spangler said she and Crowley will encourage guests to pick up a meal at nearby restaurants like The Food Market. Theyre also exploring what to do with an attached house thats currently vacant. But theyll definitely still sell ice. Were not here to mess with perfection, Crowley said. UK chancellor Rishi Sunak said that Britain would take 'immediate steps' to impose new financial sanctions against Russia's central bank. Photo: PA The British government and the Bank of England (BoE) announced fresh financial sanctions against a number of Russian institutions including the country's central bank. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Monday that Britain would take "immediate steps to impose new financial sanctions" on the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), Russian National Wealth fund and the country's Ministry of Finance. The announcement means British people and companies are banned from making transactions with the central bank. Russian firms will also be unable to issue transferable securities and money market instruments in the UK. The country's central bank has build up $630bn (471bn) in reserves. The UK will have "a power to prevent designated banks from accessing sterling and clearing payments through the UK", the government said. Banks subject to this restriction will be unable to process any payments through the UK or have access to UK financial markets. In a joint statement, Sunak and BoE governor Andrew Bailey said they were determined to impose "the highest costs" on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. In conjunction with our allies, I am taking immediate steps to impose new financial sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia, Russian National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance. We will continue to support the Ukrainian people in bringing this unjust war to an end. Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) February 28, 2022 The government that its package of sanctions "will devastate Russia's economy". Sunak said: "These measures demonstrate our determination to apply severe economic sanctions in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. "We are announcing this action in rapid coordination with our US and European allies to move in lock step once more with our international partners, to demonstrate our steadfast resolve in imposing the highest costs on Russia and to cut her off from the international financial system so long as this conflict persists." Story continues Read more: How economic sanctions work Bailey said that the BoE "continues to take any and all actions needed" to support the governments response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "We welcome the steps taken today by the UK government, in coordination with EU and US authorities, as an important and powerful demonstration of the UKs commitment to the international rule of law," he added. Other new measures include: A set of measures to strengthen significantly our trade restrictions against Russia This will include a prohibition against the export of a range of high-end and critical technical equipment and components in sectors including electronics, telecommunications, and aerospace. The extension of financial and trade measures This will apply to Crimea, the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic regions in Ukraine. Russia's central bank announced it was raising its key interest rate to 20% from 9.5% as the west pummelled the country with sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty The government added that it's "working with allies to cripple Russias economic development in both the short and long term" and "that nothing and no one is off the table". So far the UK government has hit over 100 companies and oligarchs at the heart of Putins regime with sanctions worth hundreds of billions of pounds, asset freezes and travel bans. The government said that it will soon impose measures on "571 members of the Duma and Federation council" who sanctioned the invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions will also apply to Belarussian individuals and organisations that have supported the Russian invasion, the government said. The new sanctions follow a wild weekend which saw the situation in eastern Europe worsen while western sanctions against the Kremlin ratcheted up. Over the weekend, the UK, the European Union, the US and Canada agreed to cut off some Russian banks from the Swift network a global payment system that connects international banks and facilitates cross-border financial transfers. Read more: What is the Swift payment system that the UK wants Russia thrown out from? Russias central bank is also being cut off and blocked from deploying its international reserves. In response, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his countrys deterrence forces which includes nuclear arms be put on high alert. Russia and Ukraine are due to hold a diplomatic peace meeting on Monday in an unspecified location on the Ukraine-Belarus border. Watch: How does inflation affect interest rates? As Ukraine continues to make efforts to mobilize and equip ordinary citizens on the ground to resist Russia's unprovoked invasion of the country, those who are outside Ukraine who want to help are being asked to get involved in the fight in the virtual world. While the G7 (today with the addition of Japan) mobilize to shut down Russia's access to the Swift banking system, the country has been running campaign corralling developers to join an "IT army" tasked with specific cyber challenges. It's also making specific calls to technology leaders to do their part. The "IT Army of Ukraine", announced yesterday and already with nearly 184,000 users on its main Telegram channel (and that number is growing -- it gained almost 10,000 users in the time I wrote this story), is using that account to name specific projects and call-outs for help to shut down Russian sites, Russian agents and those working in concert with the country, and to mobilize those living in Ukraine around work they can do. (It also has a Gmail address for those not using Telegram: itarmyua@gmail.com. We have reached out to that address to see if the organizers would speak with us more about the project.) And it seems to be making some progress. A call out on the channel to shut down the API for Sberbank, one of Russia's major banks, earlier today appears to have come into play, with the site currently offline. Ditto Belorussia's official information policy site, which it says was also taken offline after a call out on the channel. It's taking the tongue-in-cheek approach similar to the one adopted by Anonymous and other activist hacker groups when going after specific targets. "'Unbelievable cyberattacks hit Russian governmental services portal, Kremlin, Parliament, First Channel, Aerospace, Railroad websites on February 26th,'" it notes citing Russian media. "'Fifty plus DDoS-attacks contained over one terabyte capacity.' Who has done that? ;) what a pity accident." The effort is getting discovered by word of mouth, but also with endorsements from government officials tweeting out the link. (However, it's not clear that the government is actually behind it.) Story continues "We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents," Mykhailo Fedorov, who is both Ukraine's vice prime minister and minister for Digital Transformation, noted on Twitter. "There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front. The first task is on the channel for cyber specialists." Fedorov has not been wasting his words on Twitter. He's also been singling out Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk to use their platforms and existing products in aid of the efforts, respectively to ban access to Facebook platforms in Russia, and to extend Starlink access to Ukraine to give users a data backup. Success is a mixed bag: Musk has said the Starlink satellites have been trained over Ukraine now; but the Facebook ask seems to be going a little slower (ads have been banned but it seems access has not been, at least so far). Fedorov also gave DMarket, where people trade NFTs and other virtual goods, a namecheck for freezing accounts for users from Russia and Belarus, because the proceeds could be used to support their efforts against Ukraine. The country's position on cryptocurrency platforms has been pretty bullish overall, with the official Ukraine Twitter account yesterday publicizing addresses to take donations in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether (USDT). Many people assumed the account was hacked, although that tweet has now been pinned and seems serious. Still, in the scramble there's no certain information about how those funds would get extracted, and what exactly they would be used to fund. All of this speaks to how fast things move in tech, and just how much is dependent on it working. It's an interesting counterpoint to the shutdown of the Swift financial messaging network -- which ironically, may not be very Swift in coming, since it will need not just states to take a stand but then for the member institutions -- Swift includes some 11,000 banks and other financial services companies across 200 countries -- to switch off, too. "SWIFT is a neutral global cooperative set up and operated for the collective benefit of its community of more than 11,000 institutions in 200 countries. Any decision to impose sanctions on countries or individual entities rests solely with the competent government bodies and applicable legislators. Being incorporated under Belgian law, our obligation is to comply with related EU and Belgian regulation," Swift said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. "We are aware of the Joint Statement by the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States in which they state they will implement new measures in the coming days with respect to Russian banks. We are engaging with European authorities to understand the details of the entities that will be subject to the new measures and we are preparing to comply upon legal instruction." Make no mistake: losing Swift access is a big deal and will deprive Russia and its companies of being able to transact for buying and selling goods. But the last blockade of this kind was made against Iran and it took years for it to go into full effect. "Being banned or removed from Swift would have a definite impact, since there are not many alternatives to that point to point network," Virginie O'Shea, an analyst and founder at fintech consultancy Firebrand Research, told TechCrunch. She noted that Russia had previously tried to set up its own internal network for Russian banks, but it doesn't extend internationally at this point. "It takes time and hoops to jump through [to set something like Swift up]." As with Iran, there will be huge implications for other countries, especially those who rely on Russia for products like gas and energy, which is one reason why implementing the Swift resolution might take time to come through. "If you think about it from the perspective of oil and gas, you are hampering paying for those services, so youd impact those countries as well as Russia." $2.7 Billion Transaction Provides Liquidity for CPA:18 - Global Stockholders NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Corporate Property Associates 18 Global Incorporated (CPA:18 Global) announced today that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which CPA:18 Global will merge with W. P. Carey Inc. (W. P. Carey, NYSE: WPC), its advisor, in a transaction valued at approximately $2.7 billion. The transaction has been approved by CPA:18 Global's Board of Directors upon the unanimous recommendation and approval of a Special Committee consisting of CPA:18 Global's independent directors. The merger is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022, subject to the approval of CPA:18 Global stockholders. CPA:18 Global Logo W. P. Carey is the second largest net lease REIT and one of the largest REITs (top 25 in the MSCI US REIT Index), and will have a pro forma equity market capitalization of $15.8 billion. Subject to the terms and conditions of the merger agreement, CPA:18 Global stockholders will receive total merger consideration consisting of 0.0978 shares of W. P. Carey common stock and $3.00 of cash for each share of CPA:18 Global Class A and Class C common stock. The total merger consideration reflects a value of $10.45 per share based on W. P. Carey's trailing 3-day volume weighted average price ("VWAP") of $76.17 as of February 25, 2022. The W. P. Carey shares to be issued in the merger will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange at the time of issuance. Under the terms of the merger agreement, CPA:18 Global may solicit, receive, evaluate and enter into negotiations with respect to alternative proposals from third parties for a period of 30 days continuing through March 30, 2022. The CPA:18 Global Special Committee, with the assistance of its independent advisors, intends to actively solicit alternative proposals during this "go-shop" period. CPA:18 Global does not intend to disclose developments during this process, and there can be no assurance that this process will result in the receipt of any proposals for a superior transaction or that any other transaction will be approved or completed. Story continues CPA:18 Global anticipates the primary benefits of the proposed merger to include: Providing liquidity to CPA :18 Global investors through a combination of the issuance of shares of W. P. Carey, a large, publicly-traded global net lease REIT, and cash; Providing the opportunity for CPA :18 Global investors to continue an investment in a similar company, receiving income in the form of quarterly dividends and participating in the potential upside of investing in a leading publicly traded REIT; and Combining complementary real estate portfolios, with minimal integration cost and risk, and certainty of execution with no third-party financing requirements. "We are pleased to have structured a transaction that will provide investors in CPA:18 Global with liquidity as well as the opportunity to continue their investment in a similar company, receiving income in the form of quarterly dividends and participating in the potential upside in a leading publicly traded REIT," said Jason Fox, W. P. Carey's Chief Executive Officer. "It also provides W. P. Carey the surviving company with the opportunity to purchase high quality assets that align well with its own portfolio, generating stable and recurring real estate revenues that will support our focus on growth and income for investors." Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is acting as financial advisor to the CPA:18 Global Special Committee. Clifford Chance US LLP is acting as legal advisor to CPA:18 Global and Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP is acting as legal advisor to the CPA:18 Global Special Committee. BofA Securities is acting as lead financial advisor and DLA Piper LLP (US) is acting as the legal advisor to W. P. Carey. In connection with the proposed transaction, W. P. Carey intends to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement on Form S-4 that will include a proxy statement of CPA:18 Global and that also constitutes a prospectus of W. P. Carey (the Proxy Statement/Prospectus). The Proxy Statement/Prospectus will describe in greater detail the terms of the proposed merger. Completion of the transaction is subject to, among other things, effectiveness of the Form S-4, the approval of CPA:18 Global stockholders and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. The transaction is currently expected to close during the third quarter of 2022, although there can be no assurance that the transaction will close at such time, if at all. Corporate Property Associates 18 Global Inc. Corporate Property Associates 18 Global Inc. (CPA:18 Global) is a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) with a diversified portfolio of commercial real estate properties leased to companies domestically and internationally in addition to self-storage and student housing assets. As of December 31, 2021, our net lease portfolio was comprised of full or partial ownership interests in 53 properties, substantially all of which were fully occupied and triple-net leased to 50 tenants, and totaled approximately 10.4 million square feet. The remainder of our portfolio was comprised of full or partial ownership interests in 65 self-storage properties, three student housing development projects, and one student housing operating property, totaling 5.1 million square feet. www.cpa18global.com Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements Certain of the matters discussed in this communication constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding intent, belief or expectations of CPA:18 Global and generally are identified by the words "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," "assume," "outlook," "seek," "forecast," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: the benefits of the proposed Merger, annualized dividends, funds from operations coverage, integration plans and expected synergies, the expected benefits of the proposed Merger, anticipated future financial and operating performance and results, including estimates of growth, and the expected timing of completion of the proposed Merger. These statements are based on current expectations. It is important to note that actual results could be materially different from those projected in such forward-looking statements. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Other unknown or unpredictable risks or uncertainties, like the risks related to the effects of pandemics and global outbreaks of contagious diseases (such as the current COVID-19 pandemic) or the fear of such outbreaks, could also have material adverse effects on our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, and prospects. You should exercise caution in relying on forward-looking statements as they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may materially affect our future results, performance, achievements, or transactions. Information on some of these factors are contained in CPA:18 Global's and W. P. Carey's filings with the SEC and are available at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov, including, but not limited to, Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors in each company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021. These risks, as well as other risks associated with the proposed Merger, will be more fully discussed in the Proxy Statement/Prospectus that will be included in the Registration Statement on Form S-4 that CPA:18 Global will file with the SEC in connection with the proposed Merger. In light of these risks, uncertainties, assumptions and factors, the forward-looking events discussed in this communication may not occur. Moreover, because we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment, new risks are likely to emerge from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a prediction of future results, which speak only as of the date of this communication, unless noted otherwise. Except as required under the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations of the SEC, CPA:18 Global does not undertake to revise or update any forward-looking statements. Additional Information and Where to Find It This communication does 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 jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. W. P. Carey intends to file with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4 that will include a Proxy Statement of CPA:18 Global / Prospectus and other relevant documents to be mailed by CPA:18 Global to its security holders in connection with the proposed Transactions. WE URGE INVESTORS TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT / PROSPECTUS AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED BY CPA:18 GLOBAL AND W. P. CAREY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION about CPA:18 Global, W. P. Carey and the proposed Transactions. Investors are urged to read these documents carefully and in their entirety. Investors will be able to obtain these materials (when they become available) and other documents filed with the SEC free of charge at the SEC's website (http://www.sec.gov). In addition, these materials (when they become available) will also be available free of charge by accessing CPA:18 Global's website (http://www.cpa18global.com) or by accessing W. P. Carey's website (http://www.wpcarey.com). Investors may also read and copy any reports, statements and other information filed by CPA:18 Global or W. P. Carey with the SEC, at the SEC public reference room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 or visit the SEC's website for further information on its public reference room. Participants in the Proxy Solicitation Information regarding W. P. Carey's directors and executive officers is available in its proxy statement filed with the SEC by W. P. Carey on March 31, 2021 in connection with its 2021 annual meeting of stockholders, and information regarding CPA:18 Global's directors and executive officers is available in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as filed with the SEC by CPA:18 Global on February 25, 2022. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the Proxy Statement/Prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available. Press Contact: Anna McGrath W. P. Carey Inc. 212-492-1166 amcgrath@wpcarey.com Individual Investors: W. P. Carey Inc. (212) 492-8920 ir@wpcarey.com Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/w-p-carey-inc-and-cpa18--global-announce-proposed-merger-301491203.html SOURCE CPA 18 - GLOBAL Books take you on new adventures, introducing you to places you havent been, people you havent met, and scenarios that you will never experience except vicariously. Some of these adventures are the slow, easygoing type, akin to the lazy river at an amusement park or a leisurely bike ride through the countryside. Other book adventures are the literary equivalent of adrenaline-spiking bungee jumps and skydiving. If you like to get your dopamine hits while your feet are planted firmly on the ground, as I do, try these high-octane thrillers. Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. Virginia native Cosby provides a thought-provoking, yet fast-paced quest for vengeance in his latest thriller of a Black father and a white father set on discovering who murdered their married sons. Ike and Buddy Lee share little in common, except a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, even if they never fully accepted that their sons were gay. Ike still has contacts in the criminal underworld, and the two band together to seek out and exact revenge on their sons killers, confronting their prejudices about each other and about their sons. Old Bones by Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child. Preston and Child fans will recognize Nora Kelly from their Agent Pendergast novels, and now Nora is featured front and center at the start of this exciting new series. Nora, curator at the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute, is approached by historian Clive Benton to lead an expedition to determine the true fate of the Donner Party. Benton has discovered a long-lost diary that points to new truths about what happened in the Sierra Nevada in 1847, and soon the two are leading a team in search of the camp. Soon, though, Kelly and Benton are surprised to discover that what happened in the past may have present-day repercussions, placing the expedition on the radar of junior FBI agent Corrie Swanson. These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall. Mickie Lambert is a digital archaeologist and owner of Memory Bank, a company specializing in curating memories in digital format. Shop owner Nadia Denham, in the early stages of Alzheimers disease, has commissioned Memory Bank to create the ultimate digital scrapbook of her souvenirs and other treasured possessions. When Mickie arrives at the shop to begin the project, she learns that Nadia is dead of apparent suicide. Having cashed Nadias payment to Memory Bank, Mickie decides to proceed with the project anyway, ignoring the shop managers objections. When Mickie starts getting threats to leave Nadias past alone, Mickie is more determined than ever to uncover the story of Nadias possessions, even if it means an encounter with a serial killer. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. As COVID-19 descends on New York City, Jamie Gray survives in a dead-end job as a food delivery driver. Things change when Jamie delivers to an old pal, Tom, who is part of a so-called animal rights organization. Tom needs a last-minute pair of hands to help at the organizations next field visit, and Jamie eagerly jumps on the opportunity. Except the animals in question are not on Earth. They are giant, dino-eque pandas called Kaiju that inhabit a pleasant, human-free world in an alternate dimension. And they are in trouble, because it isnt just the Kaiju Preservation Society that has made their way to this alternate world. Others have, too, and they could unwittingly cause millions back on our Earth to die. The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb. Violinist Ray McMillian will stop at nothing to become a professional musician. Not his skeptical mother, his inability to afford a high-caliber violin, or the racism that pervades the classical music world. When Ray discovers his great-grandfathers fiddle is a priceless Stradivarius, his dream is closer to becoming reality, and he looks toward playing in the famed international Tchaikovsky Competition. As the event approaches, his familys heirloom is stolen, and Ray will do anything to get it back in time. But suddenly his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Rays great-grandfather are each claiming the violin is theirs. In this race against time, Rays future hinges on regaining possession of the violin so he can play in the competition. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Many are familiar with Weirs The Martian, and his craft continues to improve in another exciting space thriller. Ryland Grace awakens alone, on a spaceship, with no memory of who he is and how he got there. Flashbacks between Rylands present and past gradually help the reader piece together his life from before. After his theory that water might not be required to sustain alien life is rejected by the science community, microbiologist Grace ends up leaving research to teach middle school science. That is, until astronomers discover the sun is losing heat, apparently caused by a microscopic life-form that feeds on the suns energy, which will devastate life on Earth. Grace is called onto a team of international scientists to interrupt the looming catastrophe. Weaving in humor and a few surprise twists, Weirs latest is a crowd-pleaser. Tracy McPeck is adult services coordinator at Central Rappahannock Regional Library. A Bealeton couple died Friday morning in a two-vehicle wreck involving a Fauquier County Sheriffs deputy. Virginia State Police Senior Trooper J. Palmer is investigating the crash, which occurred at 10:20 a.m. at the intersection of U.S. 17 and Granite Street, just north of Sumerduck Dragway in Fauquier County. A 2018 Toyota Camry was traveling west on Granite Street when it stopped at a stop sign, police said. As the Toyota proceeded to cross the northbound lanes of Route 17, it pulled into the path of a 2014 Fauquier County Sheriffs Office Dodge Charger, according to a news release from Virginia State Police spokesman Brent Coffey. The Dodge was not able to avoid striking the Toyota in the side, Coffey said. The impact caused the Toyota to overturn in the median. The driver of the Toyota, Brian P. Dangerfield, 65, died at the scene of the crash as a result of his injuries. He was wearing a seatbelt, police said. A passenger in the Toyota, Mary D. Dangerfield, 65, of Bealeton, suffered life-threatening injuries as a result of the crash and was transported to Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, where she died from her injuries. She was wearing a seatbelt, according to the news release. The driver of the Dodge, Brock K. Smith, 25, of Amissville, was transported to Mary Washington Hospital for treatment of serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries as a result of the crash. He was not wearing a seatbelt, Coffey said. The Dodge is owned by the Fauquier County Sheriffs Office and Smith, a deputy, was on duty at the time of the wreck, Coffey said. Generally quiet weather lies ahead for Fredericksburgs work week. A cold front edged through the Fredericksburg area very early Monday morning, followed by northerly winds pushing coolerbut not frigidair into the region. Thus, after respective morning lows of 30, 33, and 38 at Stafford Regional Airport, Shannon Airport and the University of Mary Washington, this afternoons high temperatures will top out in the upper 40s. Thats a couple degrees below the average high for Feb. 28. Being the last day of February, Monday also represents the end of meteorological winter, a season defined by weather professionals as the 3 coldest months of the year. (Astronomy folks are the ones who insist winter doesnt end until the spring equinox, which happens March 20 this year.) Somewhat symbolically, Fredericksburg area thermometers will respond to that seasonal change, rising into the low 60s Tuesday afternoon as a warm front lifts northward. No precipitation is expected through the end of the work week. The warming trend also looks to continue most of this week as a springlike pattern develops. The more pronounced swings in the jet stream which brought extended periods of Arctic air into Fredericksburg the past couple of months are flattening. That doesnt mean winters chill is totally finished yet, nor does it mean snow chances are zero from here on out. But the likelihood of another long-lasting invasion of frigid temperatures is pretty low at this point. Meanwhile, a springlike pattern can also be a harbinger of severe weather season. The graphics are a reminder that next week, March 711, is Severe Weather Awareness Week here in Virginia. In addition to the annual Tornado Drill to be held on Tuesday morning (March 8), each day will feature information on different aspects of severe weather. There will also be a Town Hall discussion Monday evening open to anyone who preregisters to attend. Links are provided on each slide. Happy Monday! A major Pakistani opposition party launched a march on February 27 aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Thousands of supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) gathered in the port city of Karachi and vowed to stand their ground till the government is ousted. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose party governs Sindh Province, said Khans government has ruined the countrys economy, usurped resources of federating units, and made the lives of citizens miserable. The time has come to send this illegitimate and incompetent government home, Zardari said. Khan, whose five-year term will end in August 2023, came to power in an election tainted by allegations of support by the country's powerful military. The opposition alleges that Khan was selected by the generals, who have ruled the country for almost half of its existence. Khan's governing Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaaf (PTI) party denies the allegations. Khan will complete his term, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters. The PPPs march is expected to reach the capital in 10 days after traveling through 34 cities and towns of the country. The Pakistan Democratic Movement, a multiparty opposition alliance, announced a new round of anti-government rallies starting on March 23. Khans party has a razor-thin majority in the parliament but survived a previous confidence vote. A bill that would authorize the use of vehicle monitoring systems to prevent trucks from using certain streets to get to warehouses on the Perryman Peninsula has been introduced by state Sen. Robert Bob Cassilly. If passed, SB642, Harford County Vehicle Height Monitoring Systems, would allow the installation of monitoring systems on segments of Spesutia Road, Mitchell Lane and Old Stepney Road. The bill was introduced Feb. 3; a hearing on the measure was held Thursday by the Judicial Proceedings Committee. Advertisement The monitoring systems would alert police to violations and police would issue citations to vehicle owners, Cassilly said. If approved by the legislature, the bill would take effect Oct. 1. These roads are already not to be used by those vehicles, but the residents have provided ample photos and testimony documenting that those restrictions are routinely violated, Cassilly said. These trucks are seriously undermining the safety and quality of life in these residential neighborhoods. Advertisement Perryman residents frequently post photos on to the Protecting Perryman Peninsula Coalitions Facebook page of trucks causing traffic problems in the area at various times of the day. The Aegis: Top stories Weekdays Daily highlights from Harford County's number one source for local news. > We have tractor trailers using the roads causing traffic nightmares, going through peoples yards, knocking down signs, said Perryman resident Ron Stuchinski. The curbs and sewer covers are pretty banged up. I guess residents are just getting to the point where with the more warehouses that are being built, the less attention truckers are paying. Stuchinski was one of four Perryman residents who went to Annapolis to support the bill at Thursdays hearing. It feels great to represent a community as tight as ours, he said. Bertha Copeland, a 52-year resident of Perryman, also traveled to Annapolis to support the bill. This used to be a quiet neighborhood, Copeland said. Its not fair to be a homeowner to have all this traffic. And while the Perryman coalitions organizer, Paul Fallace, says this bill is a good first step, there are still larger issues at play. Our big thing is we just feel like theres too many warehouses inside of this residential area, he said. Cassilly concurred that more needs to happen in Perryman. The bill, he said, is one piece of the puzzle. Republican candidates and El Paso County GOP volunteers say the county party's leadership has taken steps to favor four far-right candidates ahead of Tuesday's precinct caucuses. While GOP rules prohibit party officers from taking sides in primaries, critics say county Republican Chairwoman Vickie Tonkins and her allies haven't remained neutral even though they're responsible for organizing the caucus and assembly nominating process that gives candidates a pathway onto the primary ballot. Tonkins denies the charges and maintains that the nomination process is fair and open to all Republicans. The candidates Todd Watkins, who is running for El Paso County sheriff; Peter Lupia, a county clerk and recorder candidate; State Rep. Dave Williams, challenging Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn; and Ron Hanks, running to challenge Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. have appeared together at events other candidates running for the same offices have not been invited to attend. Tonkins appeared alongside them at some of those events. All four candidates are looking to the caucus and assembly process to make the primary ballot. "Its clear to me by the amount of events they are hosting who they are aligned with. If you go to an event, it will be these four candidates all the time," said Rebecca Keltie, one of four Republicans challenging eight-term Lamborn. The slate of the candidates lean to the far right. Watkins promises to be a constitutional sheriff that will "stand in the gap" against federal overreach. Lupia says he will campaign at the state level for an end to mail-in voting. Williams aims to follow in the footsteps of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt, known for her avid support of former President Donald Trump. Similarly, Hanks described himself as a pro-Trump warrior. In addition to events, endorsement fliers for the candidates are going out to all the precincts as part of caucus packets featuring organizations that do not have websites, Facebook pages or listings on the secretary of state's website. Residents who Keltie recruited to participate in the caucuses have also been turned away, she said. "Its very strategic. They are not just letting anyone become precinct leaders and delegates. They are stacking the caucuses," Keltie said. During the caucuses, residents begin the process of selecting delegates who then go on to place candidates on the primary ballot at the county, district and state assemblies. Candidates can also submit petitions to earn spots on the primary ballot. She said she believes in the caucus process but doesn't think it will be run fairly this year. "My complaint is with the GOP," she said. Tonkins disputed claims the party has turned away residents interested in participating in the caucus or that she has favored any candidates despite appearances at recent events featuring them. She appeared at those events despite a letter sent by the state GOP's executive committee in January chastising her for giving the "improper" impression at a January party meeting that she supported some Republican legislators and opposed others. On Friday Tonkins appeared as a moderator at a townhall in Peyton featuring just the four candidates that drew a crowd of about 40. Moderators typically run debates between opponents. In this case, the candidates answered questions submitted by the crowd. When asked if they believed the election was stolen, all said yes. Hanks described attending the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as a badge of honor. The county partys vice chairman, Karl Schneider, said he was alarmed at how brazenly Tonkins has been tilting the scales toward her preferred candidates. Noting that GOP rules prohibit party officers from taking sides in primaries, Schneider said the Peyton forum Tonkins moderated was "100% incongruous with neutrality." "Had she had three different candidates for a state House district, three for the Senate, it wouldve been one thing," he said. "But she had a clean slate, one for each office. It was absolutely incongruous with the role of a party chair." "We should be careful and should pay close attention to what happens at the local level," added Schneider, who called on Tonkins to resign last fall amid a controversy over the county partys involvement in school board elections. "When we continue to support leaders who do not follow the bylaws, we lose our integrity, we lose our republic, we lose ourselves." Tonkins told the crowd at the Peyton event, attended by a Gazette reporter, she would host similar town halls for other Republican candidates if she was asked and if she was available. "This is for you to get to know the candidates better," she said. Tonkins was also a featured speaker earlier in February at a townhall hosted by FEC United, a conservative nonprofit group with a chapter in El Paso County, that featured Watkins, Hanks and Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk who is running for secretary of state. Federal and state authorities are investigating Peters for a data security breach of the county's election equipment. The event made headlines when a speaker called for the current secretary of state to be hanged over unproven election crimes, 9News reported. Joe Oltmann, a former tech CEO and Denver-area resident, has said he founded the group following his frustration with COVID-19 lockdown rules. The group's acronym stands for faith, education and commerce. Oltmann has since gained fame for statements he made on his podcast, an endeavor separate from the nonprofit. Oltmann made statewide news in December when he talked about building gallows for treasonous politicians on his podcast. He also garnered attention Thursday for backing Russia's invasion of Ukraine because he believes Ukraine has played a role in stealing elections around the world, repeating a piece of disinformation advanced by Russian interests. Tonkins has relied on FEC members to fill vacant party officer and precinct leader positions ahead of the upcoming caucuses. At a live-streamed FEC United event at Fervent Church in Colorado Springs on Feb. 22, billed as an event to share the truth about the Republican establishment, Watkins, Lupia and Williams all spoke. Williams also solicited donations from the crowd. "We have the peoples sheriff," Garrett Graupner said of Watkins. Graupner is Fervent Church's pastor, who said multiple times he was not speaking as the pastor. He is also the faith pillar leader for the local chapter of FEC United. In an email he said FEC United has not endorsed candidates. Speakers at the event called other candidates running for some of the same offices, such as Lamborn, RINOs, a derisive acronym that stands for "Republican in Name Only," or transrepublicans. "The theme tonight is RINO hunting," Watkins said. Oltmann also appeared at the Fervent Church event, where he encouraged the audience to get involved in campaigns. "I am telling you to get involved. I am not asking anymore," he said. A precinct leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, wrote in an email he appreciated FEC's work to get residents involved but he disagreed with the group's influence within the local party and selective support of candidates, even though he agreed with most, but not all, of their endorsements. "My main consternation is how FEC has become a dominant influence within the (El Paso) GOP in their support of Vickie, whose leadership has been called into question. While theyve helped to initially fill numerous precinct vacancies, I see that the EPGOP has lost its neutrality as it relates to not endorsing specific candidates. That should never happen per our state GOP bylaws," the precinct leader wrote. "That significantly compromises one of the core commitments and responsibilities of our party leadership and as a result has become internally divisive." The lists of precinct leaders routinely distributed by the local GOP in previous years have also not been available to those who are not aligned with Tonkins but are helping run the caucuses, a party member said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the risk of retaliation. "I think the majority of the conservatives would not agree with the tactics," the volunteer said. The two who spoke anonymously were among many who voiced concerns about the group to The Gazette but did not want to be quoted for fear of retaliation. Amid the ongoing internal strife, local party members have taken their concerns about Tonkins and some of her actions to the state party, seeking redress. Last week, Keltie informed Colorado Republican Party Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown the multiple fliers endorsing the same slate of Republican candidates who appeared at the Peyton forum were being distributed to every precinct caucus location by the county party. In her email, which was obtained by The Gazette, Keltie said her campaign believes "GOP volunteers and resources were used in this effort giving preferential treatment to these certain preferred candidates," including by making it more difficult for some candidates to submit material for the caucus packets. "At what point does this biased, unethical behavior and actions from the El Paso County GOP office end?" Keltie wrote. "At what point does the state or national GOP get involved? This is the most corrupt, unethical behavior I have ever seen. Something must be done. We yell from the mountains about 'election integrity,' yet the election in El Paso County is the furthest from that." Added Keltie: "Please help. We have amazing candidates running for office down here and they all deserve a fair chance." Keltie said Monday she hadnt received a response from the state party. After this story published, the state GOP issued a statement from Burton Brown via a spokesman. We believe that ALL Republican candidates should be treated equally by all party officers," she said in a text message. Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a comment from Colorado Republican Party Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown. Gazette reporters Ernest Luning and Breeanna Jent contributed to this report. Deputy Chief Adrian Vasquez will serve as interim chief of police for the Colorado Springs Police Department when Vince Niski retires later this week, the city of Colorado Springs announced Monday in a news release. "I am humbled and find it a privilege to serve in this capacity as the City of Colorado Springs searches for its next Chief of Police," Vasquez said in a written statement sent Tuesday. "I fully support the City in their search and trust that they will choose the best candidate to serve the department and the community." Vasquez joined Colorado Springs Police Department in 1995 after serving in the United States Air Force for 9 years, according to the release. He was named deputy chief in 2019, one month after Niski was appointed chief of police. Niski, The Gazette previously reported, was former Chief Pete Carey's deputy chief of seven years. Deputy Chief Vasquez is a highly respected and experienced officer with deep connections within the Colorado Springs community," Mayor John Suthers said in the Monday release. "He has served in a number of roles within law enforcement and as a long-time resident, he has a strong understanding of the challenges facing Colorado Springs. I look forward to his leadership and am confident in his ability to maintain CSPDs high standards as we conduct the search for a new chief of police. Niski is scheduled to retire Friday. According to the release, Vasquez has served in the Sand Creek Division, the Metro, Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence (Metro VNI) Division, and on the DEA Task Force. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2011, where he served in patrol before transferring to the Violent Crimes Section where he oversaw the Homicide, Assault, Robbery and Victim Advocacy units. Vasquez was promoted to the rank of commander in 2016, when he was assigned to the Stetson Hills Division. In 2017, he was transferred to the Specialized Enforcement Division where he oversaw the Tactical Operations Section, Patrol Support Section and Protective Security Section. He's had oversight over the department's Patrol Operations Bureau after being promoted to deputy chief in 2019. Vasquez holds a bachelor of science degree in sociology from Colorado State University and a masters degree in criminal justice from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He is a graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership and the FBI National Academy. The city of Colorado Springs has started a national search process for its next chief of police, officials wrote in the release, adding they currently had no timetable for when that search would be complete. According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, there's still no estimate available for when the single road that travels into the tiny mountain town of Silverton will reopen. As winter weather rolled through the state this week, US Highway 550 faced serious impacts due to increased avalanche risk, with serval triggered and natural landslides coming down onto the road. One of the triggered slides covered 200 feet of pavement with 8 feet of snow. Red Mountain Pass, found along the road coming into to Silverton from Ouray, has been closed to travelers, along with Molas and Coal Bank passes, which are found south of the town and on the way to Durango. The closure of US Highway 550 in both directions means the town is cut off. A tiny town of about 700 people, these residents are used to a remote mountain life. For example, the local grocery store Silverton Grocery posted on Facebook that they are open amid the road closure, having "snuck" a truck in prior to the storm to stock up with supplies for locals. For now, Silverton is shut off to the rest of the state as avalanche danger along this road remains high. Updates on when the pass will reopen can be found on the CDOT website. Hannah Haller lived in the Stratus Townhomes in Westminster with her sister Haven and brother Hunter for six months until an explosion and fire destroyed their home and everything they owned last week. Haller was home alone Wednesday when an explosion occurred in her building. She said it was the loudest sound she had ever heard and her unit was on the opposite end of the building from where the explosion occurred. I couldn't hear anything for probably one or two minutes after, Haller said. It looked like the house went sideways, but I learned later that my vision was just not over from the shockwave. A neighbor started banging on the door yelling fire and warned that something else might explode. Haller said she ran back into her home to go downstairs where two people were doing maintenance work in the basement, and they hadnt felt the explosion because they were underground. Haller was able to grab a backpack with her computer and wallet it in before running out of the house. And since law enforcement was clearing the perimeter in case of another explosion, she didnt get to go back for any other possessions. Then we found out the next day because of asbestos poisoning, we wont be able to save anything, Haller said. There's asbestos in the walls, and once it starts to burn, it's in smoke, so anything that smoke touches is just covered or soaked in asbestos and toxic. She thought with her unit being on the opposite corner they might be able to salvage some things, but the asbestos as well as water made it unlikely. I hoped we would be just far away enough for it not to affect us, but every single unit attached to that building was lost, Haller said. ... standing there watching your house go up in flames and smoke, it feels like your world is coming down. Haller said the past few days have been exhausting for her and her siblings. She said theyre all in shock, but theyve been overwhelmed by the support theyve gotten, from folks offering coats to places to stay. Someone also started a GoFundMe page for the family. Now the three siblings are spread throughout the area couch surfing while they work through the next steps with their loved ones. Haller said she and her siblings have all felt more connected to victims of the Marshall fire and those in Ukraine right now after losing all of their possessions. It's definitely just been eye opening, Haller said. Like, this is so devastating and it still pales in comparison to what even more are dealing with, so we're just grateful. Ukraine's national colors of blue and yellow bloomed outside Colorado's Capitol on Saturday as hundreds of people with and without ties with the Eastern European country gathered to stand in unity with the "breadbasket of Europe." Jacquelyn Trisvane Smiths husband seemingly had everyone fooled about her shocking murder. Keith Tyrone Smith formulated an elaborate ruse that pinned her killing on a pair of East Baltimore panhandlers and repeated this tearful tale again and again, to news reporters and police detectives. Advertisement He played the part of a grieving spouse during television interviews, and sat in the front row of his wifes funeral. But his story unraveled as homicide detectives picked up on inconsistencies and prosecutors highlighted those details during his trial in December. A jury found Smith guilty of premeditated murder. Advertisement The investigators shared a moment of celebration Monday with Jacquelyn Smiths loved ones in the corridor of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, moments after Keith Smith, 55, was sentenced to life in prison. This will never bring her back, but we are elated and we feel that justice was served, said Yvonne Saab, Jacquelyn Smiths older sister, after the hearing. In court, Circuit Judge Jennifer Schiffer lamented that Smith exploited Jacquelyns trust by stabbing her in the chest five times as she peacefully dozed in the passengers seat of their car, blamed her killing on the most vulnerable people in society and made a dash for the Mexican border. I have never seen facts that showed more premeditation, willfulness and intent than this crime, Schiffer said. She recited evidence presented during his trial about the killing and the coverup. The crime for which the defendant was convicted was the reason the maximum sentence for murder was created, the judge added. Saab read statements from a handful of relatives to explain how her killing had left them with a devastating void. Family members described the 54-year-old electrical engineer at Aberdeen Proving Ground as a kind, compassionate woman and doting mother who raised two boys to become successful young men. Jacquelyns mother, Anna Trisvane, wrote that it was no coincidence that her daughter was born on the Fourth of July because she was bright and colorful like fireworks. It pains her to realize shell never hear her daughters voice or see her bright smile again, Trisvane wrote. Advertisement I will never forgive him, Trisvane wrote of Keith Smith. Jacquelyn Smith was killed by her husband, Keith Smith, who then blamed her death on a panhandler. Keith Smith was sentenced to life in prison for her murder. Kendall Alexander Hood, Jacquelyn oldest son, wrote that he has endured panic attacks and night terrors following his mothers murder. He described his mothers killer as a monster who she trusted, and shed light on the additional pain his family endured because of Keith Smiths ruse. I feel ashamed that my aunt had to pay for my mothers funeral out of her pocket while the murderer sat in the front row, Hood wrote. Doienne Saab wrote about the milestones her Auntie Jackie will miss, and how shes wary of the people who come into her life because of the way Smith took advantage of Jacquelyns trust. Smith appeared at his sentencing by video from jail. He apologized to Jacquelyns family but maintained he was innocent. His attorney, Natalie Finegar, asked Schiffer to render a punishment less than the maximum, focusing on her clients faith and involvement in his church before his arrest. Finegar said Smith had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and said that his release after six years on a previous 12-year sentence for robbery with a deadly weapon indicated he was capable of doing well in prison. Advertisement In a statement following the sentence, States Attorney Marilyn Mosby lauded the diligence of the prosecutor and the detectives on the case and touted that justice was served for a horrific attack. Mosby said her offices victim advocates would continue to support Jacquelyn Smiths family. In court, Assistant States Attorney Shaundria Hanna, who prosecuted the case, said Smith not only manipulated the hearts and minds of his wifes family members but of a city and a nation that became consumed by his false narrative. She noted that he involved his daughter, Valeria Smith, who had been using drugs and who he knew would be defenseless. In exchange for a lighter prison sentence, Valeria Smith agreed to plead guilty to acting as an accessory after the fact of her stepmothers murder and testify against her father. Valeria Smith, 31, was the prosecutions key witness at trial; her testimony helped prosecutors expose her fathers elaborate cover-up and provided an eyewitness account of the killing. She has served almost three of five years of her prison sentence. Having gravely wounded his wife, Keith Smith made a distraught 911 call. He took her to the hospital but not in time for doctors to save her. He and Valeria ditched Jacquelyns wallet to support their story. He cried during an interview with homicide detectives, shed tears with his daughter while talking to reporters and demanded Baltimore outlaw panhandling. Keith Smith, along with his daughter Valeria Smith, talks with the media in December 2018 in the area where he said his wife, Jacquelyn Smith, 54, was killed while giving money to a panhandler. A jury convicted Keith Smith of the murder in December. (Kevin Richardson / Baltimore Sun) Breaking News Alerts As it happens Be informed of breaking news as it happens and notified about other don't-miss content with our free news alerts. > Valeria recounted from the witness stand the story he told her to repeat, and described their race to reach Mexico. Smiths fictitious story about knife-wielding panhandlers stoked unfounded fears about people experiencing homelessness, leading to concerns the crime would provoke confrontations. The tale garnered national attention and outrage; Oprah Winfrey even commented on the tragedy. Advertisement Detectives suspicions grew as the story spread. Police would never find evidence of panhandlers on the street corner no knife, no cardboard sign. Smith first told detectives he didnt see the weapon, then said it was a kitchen knife. He said the womans coat was brown and then blue. Blood was spattered on the inside of the car window despite Smith claiming the window was down. Investigators doubted anyone would beg for money on a little trafficked street corner rather than a busy thoroughfare. None of the surveillance cameras in the area of the supposed attack turned up footage of Smiths car. When detectives confronted Smith with evidence that Valerias cellphone traced to Druid Hill Park, he brought up a previously unmentioned detour on the way home. After that interview, Smith moved to Florida and changed cellphones. He sent Valeria Smith a new phone through the mail. Together, they made a break from Maryland for the southern border three months after Jacquelyn Smiths murder. Texas state troopers arrested the father and daughter 20 minutes from the border, after about 1,770 miles on the run. John Fedarcyk, of Manchester, tries to lift a vandalized monument but realizes it is too heavy. The monument is for the Lewko family, who sponsored Fedarcyks family in 1949 when they came to the United States from a displaced persons camp. February 27, 2022 (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun) Some 49 headstones were knocked over and damaged at the St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Dundalk last week just as Russias invasion of Ukraine was about to begin, church officials said Sunday. Baltimore County Police are investigating the vandalism, said Sgt. Gladys L. Brown, a spokeswoman for the department. Advertisement Brown could not say whether the incident is being investigated as a hate crime, but the timing is difficult to ignore, said cemetery administrator Stephen Humeniuk. He received a call from a neighbor of the cemetery Wednesday alerting him to the damage, just hours before Russia began attacking Ukraine. The first thing you think is a hate crime, but you cant prove it, Humeniuk said. There was no notes. There was no spray paint. Nothing to indicate that. It was just the timing of the incident and the crisis in Ukraine. Advertisement I thought to myself: What else could go wrong? said Humeniuk, who serves on the church council for St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church in Baltimore, which operates the cemetery. The damage was concentrated in a back corner of the cemetery, he said, relatively far from the road. Dozens of headstones were toppled, and some of them had cracked as a result. Some adornments on the stones were shattered. To me, it was unprecedented and it was intentional and it was a hate crime Ill say it, church trustee John Wojtowycz said. On Sunday, family members surveyed the damage in the cemetery. We heard about the desecration of the cemetery earlier this week and a number of us just wanted to go out there and see, said Bohdan Oleksiuk, whose parents and grandparents are buried there. Its just so many headstones. His familys headstones were not damaged, but others werent so lucky. Dressed in a long black coat, Ola Kulnich stood near the cemetery fence, looking at her brothers headstone, which had toppled backward, severed from its base. Its been a tough week, Oleksiuk said. And its not going to get any easier. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 9 John Fedarcyk, of Manchester, MD, tries to lift a vandalized monument but realizes it is too heavy. The monument is for the Lewko family, who sponsored Fedarcyks family in 1949 when they came to the United States from a displaced persons camp. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun) Loeblein Memorials, located close to the cemetery, has offered to repair the damaged stones at no cost. The company, a division of Tegeler Monument Co., placed many of the headstones in the cemetery, said company president Walter Tegeler. Advertisement The families a lot of them are all gone, so theres no one to look after them, Tegeler said of the headstones. Most of them are going to be fixed relatively simply. But any headstones shattered into multiple pieces may be beyond repair, he said. The cemetery is not open to the public, and is protected by a locked gate, Humeniuk said, but there was a hole in its fencing. Church officials had patched previous holes, which they believed were created by children aiming to cut through the cemetery on their way to the middle school close by. Now, the church is looking into installing security cameras on the premises, Humeniuk said. Sunday morning, a Baltimore County police officer contacted Humeniuk to say that investigators planned to search for fingerprints on the stones, he said. Now, Humeniuk is trying to notify as many family members impacted by the damaged headstones as he can. Unfortunately, the cemeterys been there since the 1950s, and a lot of the headstones that were affected were some of the original headstones when the cemetery first opened, so the families are long gone, he said. Though his parents emigrated to the United States in the years following World War II, Humeniuk still has several cousins in Ukraine. The messages from one of his cousins, recounting the familys experience in Western Ukraine, have been chilling. Thank God the bombs are not falling yet, one message read. But fear exists. People are scurrying into stores and banks in fear of whats to come. Advertisement You feel helpless, Humeniuk said. Breaking News Alerts As it happens Be informed of breaking news as it happens and notified about other don't-miss content with our free news alerts. > Huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday south of the capital, Kyiv, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces. Russia has said its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighborhoods have been hit. Hundreds of Ukrainians and Russians have died, according to Ukrainian officials. Humeniuk said support from the community in Baltimore has provided a much-needed lift to the church located just south of Patterson Park. As he lingered outside St. Michael on Sunday morning while a service was underway, several passersby approached him to offer support, and asked where they could direct donations. The church plans to accept offerings through its website, Humeniuk said. The response to a recent fundraising pierogi sale was so overwhelming that many would-be customers were placed on a waitlist, according to the churchs Facebook page. Due to the overwhelming response and outpouring of support, we received an overabundance of orders and therefore cannot take anymore, the post read. We are a small parish and do not have the manpower to fill all the orders. Sunday morning at the church, following a supportive visit from William Lori, the Catholic archbishop of Baltimore, parishioners boarded a bus bound for a Washington rally in support of Ukraine. Advertisement At 9 a.m. Monday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan plans to visit St. Michael during a special prayer service, according to the churchs website. The Associated Press and Baltimore Sun photographer Amy Davis contributed to this article. Colorado Springs police investigated a shooting in the southeast part the city after a woman arrived a local hospital with a gunshot wound in her hand, law enforcement said. A friend of the victim drove her to the hospital after they were driving in the 2000 block of E. Fountain Blvd around 7 p.m. Sunday and heard a gunshot outside the vehicle. The women then realized she was shot in the hand, officers said. Police did not report finding any suspects in the investigation. Democratic congressional candidate Alex Walker holds a soiled teddy bear in an introductory video released on Feb. 23, 2022, by his campaign. Walker is one of nine Democrats running in a primary in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, which is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Cerro Gordo County Supervisor Chris Watts announced on Monday that he would be seeking re-election in 2022, despite being just two years into his four-year term. "I'd like to make sure I finished what I started," Watts said. "I want to continue to improve county infrastructure, which was a priority goal of mine... and continue to save money for residents of the county." Watts has found himself in the unusual position of having to seek re-election halfway through his term. This abnormality has come as a result of redistricting in the county, meaning Watts now has to seek re-election to complete his term. "I'm upset the state intervened, re-did the districts and put me in a district with no rural representation," Watts said. "I promised the tax payers two terms, three at the most and I'm trying to live up to that." The Cerro Gordo Board of Supervisors earlier in February voted to approve the proposed county districts from the Iowa Legislative Services Agency (LSA). Currently, district one and three both cover parts of Mason City district one, the western portion, and three, the eastern portion. District one also contains Bath Township and small portions of the Lime Creek and Lake townships, while district three contains the Portland, Owen and Dougherty townships. District two contains the remaining 11 townships, as well as the entirety of Clear Lake. The revised districts are a significant change from the current districts. District one will be an entirely urban district covering the southern, western and southeastern portions of Mason City, while district three will cover the northern and northeastern portions of Mason City, as well as the Lime Creek and Falls townships. District two will cover the remaining townships and Clear Lake. Watts has been forced into a re-election campaign as he is no longer eligible to serve in district three, as the redistricting moved him into district one with supervisor Tim Latham, who is currently the county's supervisor for that district. When the supervisors reviewed the proposed districts in February, Watts casted the singular vote against the new districts. "The state plan, while considering equal population in the district passes over proper representation of these rural areas, in my opinion," Watts said at the meeting in early February. "My vote won't matter much to them (the LSA), but I'll sleep better knowing I casted my vote for Cerro Gordo." Cerro Gordo supervisors approve new voting districts New Cerro Gordo districts were approved on a 2-1 vote on Tuesday. The district one term will be a two-year term, according to Watts, reverting back to four-year terms in 2024. Watts is currently the only candidate who has announced an intention to run for the supervisor seat. Latham has yet to announce if he intends to seek re-election. Current district two supervisor Casey Callanan announced his intention to seek re-election of his supervisor seat, and Mason City Council member Paul Adams recently announced his intention to run for the open district three seat. Mason City council member Paul Adams to seek election as CG County Supervisor Mason City mayor pro tem and at-large city council member Paul Adams announced he would be s The county supervisor primaries will be held on Tuesday, June 7. The following general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Zachary Dupont covers local government and business development for the Globe Gazette. You can reach him at 641-421-0533 or zachary.dupont@globegazette.com. Follow Zachary on Twitter at @ZachNDupont Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 number number Quote: (A) equivalent to the enrollment of number Quote: (B) the equivalent of those enrolled in people people Quote: (C) equal to those who are enrolled in number Quote: (D) as many as the enrollment of (E) as many as are enrolled in collective enrollment are enrolled This one is a classic, and it might make the top-ten list of questions that cause the most frustration in GMAT-land. Its a comparison question, but with some ugly tweaks and if youre not really, really strict and literal with the meaning, youll get twisted up in this one. (And if you want more on comparisons, check out this YouTube video and this sequel .)Before we get rolling: the sentence is clearly trying to compare theof people who receive job training with theof people who are enrolled in four-year colleges and universities. And plenty of the answer choices sound decent, but only one really conveys that meaning with precision.So whats being compared when we look strictly and literally at (A)? Basically, the sentence is saying that eight million people who receive job training from companies are equivalent to the enrollment of the nations four-year colleges and universities.Hm. Thats not quite right. The word equivalent generally suggests that two things are similar in quality or function, and enrollment generally refers to an entire group of students as a collective. So (A) is literally saying that the eight million people in job training are similar in quality or function to the collective group of students in universities.And that doesnt make any sense. Were not saying that the groups of people are similar in quality; were trying to say that the groups have the sameof people.So (A) is out.The word those always catches my eye, especially on comparison questions. Those is a plural pronoun, and in this case, those presumably refers to people.So that gives us: eight million people (in job training), the equivalent of the people enrolled in the nations four-year colleges and universities. Superficially, its nice that this compares eight million in job training to theenrolled in colleges and universities, but were still saying that the two types of people are equivalent again, roughly similar in quality or function. And that doesnt make sense, for the same reasons as (A).So (B) can be eliminated, too.This one sounds better! Only trouble is, we dont care about sound on SC Since those once again refers to people, we now have eight million people (in job training), equal to the people who are enrolled in colleges and universities. This is really subtle, but this is telling us that the actual people in job training are equal to the actual people in colleges and universities.Literally, that seems to making a social statement about equality among people in different situations in life. Personally, I like that sentiment, but it really has nothing to do with what the sentence is trying to say. The point isnt that people in job training are equal to the people in universities; the sentence is trying to say that theof people in each group is the same.And since (C) doesnt actually say that, we can get rid of it.Since (D) and (E) are so similar, lets line those two up side-by-side:Meaning-wise, the phrase as many as is a huge improvement over our options in (A), (B), and (C). Its finally clear that were comparing the number of people in each group, so thats great.But (E) makes a little bit more sense than (D). Why? Well, the word enrollment generally refers to the collective group of students enrolled in colleges and universities, so (D) is saying that eight million people receiving training from companies are as many as theof colleges and universities. And thats not quite right: its clearer to say that the eight million people is the same number of people asin colleges and universities.So (E) conveys the correct meaning just a little bit more clearly, and it's the best answer._________________ Perched on a tree branch, high above the cars rushing past on Baltimores Frankfurst Avenue, a solitary bald eagle sizes up its potential nest. The eagle and its mate returned this winter to Masonville Cove in Fairfield for a fourth consecutive year, having successfully raised three eaglets the previous nesting season. Last years nest, a massive orb of branches and leaves lodged into the crown of a cottonwood tree, will need to be tidied before the female gets down to egg-laying business in the weeks ahead. Advertisement The cove is a peculiar spot for a couple of bald eagles to call home. The Patapsco River separates the inlet from Port Covington, where a forest of cranes constructs the first stages of a $5.5 billion redevelopment project. Located just off Interstate 895, the nature center where the eagles have taken up residence is bustling with noisy cars and nosy humans. Even so, the eagle pair have found peace at Masonville Cove during a period of fierce competition among bald eagles for territory to raise their young. Advertisement Bald eagle populations rallied from near extinction in the 1960s and mounted a remarkable resurgence that is regarded as one of the best-known conservation successes. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are now crowded with nests, which pressures eagles to find available territory in unusual places, including inside city limits. There could be as many as four active bald eagle nests in Baltimore, said Tim Carney, senior environmental specialist at the Maryland Environmental Service. Its exciting, but I dont know if I would even say its rare anymore because theyre just doing so well. Theyre everywhere, Carney said. Thanks to environmental regulations and federal protections, bald eagle populations rebounded, then thrived when toxic chemicals, such as DDT and other pesticides, were banned in the United States in 1972. DDT was used as a pesticide to control mosquitoes but often washed into waterways, where fish would consume the chemical, and bald eagles and other animals were poisoned when they ate polluted fish. A bald eagle dives for a fish in the Susquehanna River below the Conowingo Dam. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun) The chemical made eggshells thin and weak. Bald eagles and other birds would crush their eggs when they sat to incubate them. Now, after a fiftyfold increase in population since the 1970s, bald eagles are no longer considered an endangered species and were removed from the federal list in 2007. Americas emblem continues to be protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. But human actions are still harming bald eagles. A report published this month in the journal Science warned that bald and golden eagle populations could be hampered by pollution almost half of both species populations in the United States have lead poisoning. Golden and bald eagles that scavenge the remains of animals hunted and killed by lead shot are poisoned when lead accumulates in the bloodstream over time. Eagles are also poisoned by eating baited dead animals laced with a neurotoxic pesticide called carbofuran. Bald eagles, recognized by their white-feathered heads and prodigious, 7-foot wingspans, pervade the Chesapeake Bay region. The avid fishers also pluck young chicks from the nests of great blue herons and ospreys, which are driven away by the eagles. Ecologists estimate there are more bald eagles in the bay region than ever before. Advertisement The recovery that we have seen over the past 50 years or so is really the result of we, as a people, coming together and rallying around the species. And thats whats so gratifying about it, said Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary, who has studied bald eagles for 40 years. In the 1960s, there were approximately 60 to 80 bald eagle pairs rearing young in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, whichspans six states. The population has since exploded to more than 3,500 breeding pairs, growing about 8% to 12% each year, Watts estimates. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources ended its state-funded bald eagle survey in 2005 when the population began to flourish, but volunteer surveys continue. Only one in five breeding-age bald eagles in the Chesapeake Bay region was able to secure a breeding territory, a trend occurring nationally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated in 2014. Watts estimates there are approximately 1,600 nesting pairs in Maryland, not counting additional floater adult eagles without mates. With a fish securely in its talons, a bald eagle looks for a safe spot to eat away from other eagles at the Conowingo Dam. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun) The Chesapeake Bay became an eagle stronghold on the Atlantic Coast during the past two decades, attracting migratory bald eagles from Florida in summer and from Maine and Canada in winter. The birds are so abundant in the area that the population is showing signs it will soon hit its ceiling. The Evening Sun Daily Get your evening news in your e-mail inbox. Get all the top news and sports from the baltimoresun.com. > Reproductive rates have declined from their boom in the early 2000s, Watts said, because male bald eagles are spending more time guarding nests and fighting competitor eagles that, without territory of their own, try to usurp existing nests. Time spent away from fishing results in smaller broods and more nest failures, a trend that has increased in the past two decades along the James River tributary, said Watts, who surveys the Virginia bay area. Bald eagle behavior has also shifted in ways that were unheard of 50 years ago, said Matt Whitbeck, supervisory wildlife biologist at Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Eagles are building nests closer than expected to other eagle pairs along the bay and its tributaries because the habitat is so dense. Some nests on the bay are separated by a mere 100 meters, positioningeagles to stare at one another while incubating their eggs. Advertisement The spectacle is prominent at the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River north of Baltimore, where hundreds of bald eagles are matched only by the thousands of photographers who flock to capture their activity each fall. Bald eagles are no longer hunted and have adapted to cohabit with humans. They now build nests in residential backyards and on cell towers to avoid territory conflicts over prime nesting spots. In Baltimore, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with state agencies to restore Masonville Cove, an area previously contaminated with dredged debris. In 2013, the agency designed it as the countrys first urban wildlife refuge partnership. Five years later, the eagle pair arrived at the cove and were considered the first nesting pair in Baltimore City, Carney said. But the birds are still skittish around humans. A gate blocks visitors from disrupting the nest, seen easily from 100 yards away. Eagle couples bond while repairing and expanding their nests each mating season. Roosts are generally 5 feet wide and 2 feet deep but can become staggering, reaching 10 feet wide. In the cottonwood tree, a female eagle has started to sit in her familiar nest. Its unclear whether shes laid eggs yet. She could lay one to three eggs that will likely hatch in April. Its then up to both parents to keep the eaglets fed and alive until this summer when the young birds will spread their wings and learn to fly away. chetan2u wrote: Rejecting its argument that the Masters Dog Training Clubs primary aim was to teach people to train dogs, the court ruled the club ineligible for tax exemption as an educational group. (A) Rejecting its argument that the Masters Dog Training Clubs primary aim was to teach people to train dogs, the court ruled the club ineligible for tax exemption as an educational group. The problem in the original statement is that of modifier.. The part "Rejecting its argument that the Masters Dog Training Clubs primary aim was to teach people to train dogs" is participle that should be modifying the word immediately after that. But here Court rejecting its argument is illogical. Of course ITS stands for 'Masters Dog Training Club' Missing on THAT after ruled. (B) In rejecting the Masters Dog Training Clubs argument that their primary aim was to teach people to train dogs, the court ruled the club ineligible to be exempted of taxes as an educational group. Pronoun error --In rejecting the Masters Dog Training Club s argument that their primary aim .. (C) Rejecting the argument that the primary aim of the Masters Dog Training Club was to teach people to train dogs, the court ruled that the club was ineligible for exemption from taxes as an educational group. Correct (D) The club was not to be exempted of taxes as an educational group, ruled the court by rejecting its argument that the primary aim of the Masters Dog Training Club was teaching people to train dogs. Poorly structured. RULED as a past participle should be modifying the previous clause. Pronoun ambiguous in 'ruled the court by rejecting its argument ' (E) The court ruled the Masters Dog Training Club not eligible to be exempted from taxes as an educational group, rejecting the argument that the primary aim was to teach people to train dogs. Missing on THAT after ruled. C The way you have explained and picked the right option is really good. It helped me learn how to better my approach. When the pandemic hit two years ago, millions of people started working from home because they had to. As the pandemic starts to ease, millions are still working from home this time because they prefer to. Such flexible arrangements vary widely by industry. But where jobs can be handled remotely, employers are having to adjust, both to accommodate an emboldened workforce and to create reasons to actually get together in person. The pandemic is the biggest shock to American working life since World War II, Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom wrote in a recent op-ed. And we are never going back to the workplace of 2019. According to surveys by Bloom and colleagues, almost 8 in 10 employees able to work from home want to continue doing so in some form. On average, they prefer remote work for 2.5 days a week. After the pandemic ends, nearly 28% of full-paid work hours are expected to be remote, up from 20% in the past year, Bloom said. And many businesses will choose a hybrid arrangement. Research by Ladders, a careers website, found almost 19% of high-paying jobs were available for remote work in December. Thats projected to rise to a quarter of high-paying jobs those paying over $80,000 annually by the end of the year, the site said. Working from home has become so popular that over 40% of employees said theyd look for a new job or simply quit if required to go to the worksite five days a week. Among women and people of color, an even higher share of workers said theyd depart if they lost the remote option. Women with young children especially value flexibility. Employers that ban working from home will risk driving these employees out the door, Bloom wrote, and that undermines corporate goals to improve workplace diversity. Of course, many jobs cannot be done remotely because front-line workers must be where theyre needed. Nationwide, just over a third of private companies increased remote work since the pandemic, according to a 2021 business survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But in accommodations and food services, fewer than 4% of employers boosted remote work. In retail trade, 15% increased that option. At the other end of the spectrum, remote work grew at over half the companies in educational services, information, financial activities and professional and business services. In total, nearly 60 million U.S. workers had the option to work from home in the past two years, the government estimated. Remote workers also believe theyre more productive and efficient, and some bosses agree. New York Life Insurance Co. has over 500 employees in seven offices in North Texas. Before the pandemic, about 80% of them came to the office regularly; now about 20% come in and usually for no more than three days a week, said Michael Scovel, managing partner of the Dallas-Fort Worth office. People love the opportunity to improve their work-life balance, he said. And Zoom calls make it easier to meet with clients and each other. That speeds up training for new hires and eliminates travel time for advisers who used to fly to clients in New York and elsewhere. Its created a far more efficient business model, and we just had our greatest growth year ever, Scovel said about remote work. Its basically made the world so much smaller. Whats at risk, he said, is a corporate culture created over many years. Hes trying other approaches to engage people, including a recent trip to Las Vegas for Dallas employees. Were doing things we could have done in Dallas, he said in a phone call from Vegas. We just thought this would be more enjoyable and it is. Scovel said companies should find a way to accommodate employees who want to work from home and those who prefer the office: The key to the future is providing both and allowing people to determine whats best for them. GREENSBORO Investigators believe alcohol was a factor in a multi-vehicle collision Saturday night on Interstate 40 that killed two Greensboro men and seriously injured others, Greensboro police said in a news release. According to police, a 2006 black Infiniti SUV driven by Jerlvonte Diaz Milbourne, 28, of Greensboro, was traveling west on I-40 when it left the roadway to the left, crossed over the median and into the eastbound lanes. The Infiniti struck a white 2004 Chevrolet Silverado driven by Enoc Emmanuel Lopez, 20, of Greensboro. Once striking the Silverado, the Infiniti made contact with a black Acura driven by Bien Krajan, 32, of Greensboro. A fourth vehicle, a white 2014 Jeep Compass driven by Kry Sheena Stevens. 22, of South Carolina, struck the rear end of the Silverado during the collision. Two passengers in the Infiniti, Darius Deshawn Smyre, 27, and Antonio Maurice James, 31, both of Greensboro, died as a result of the crash, police said in the news release. A fourth passenger in the Infiniti, Tevin Kewann Jolly, 29, of Greensboro, and the driver of the Infiniti, Milbourne, were seriously injured. Lopez, the driver of the Silverado, received serious injuries. Stevens had minor injuries and Krajan had no apparent injuries from the crash. A spokesman for the Greensboro Police Department said Monday morning that no charges have been filed at this time and that the investigation is ongoing. All eastbound lanes of I-40 between Freeman Mill Road and Randleman Road were closed late Saturday and early Sunday while authorities were on scene. Police are asking anyone with information to contact Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000; or, download the mobile P3tips app for Apple or Android phones to submit a mobile tip, or go to P3tips.org to submit a web tip. All tips to Crime Stoppers are completely anonymous. A newly formed group that seeks to promote home-grown growth and investing in Helenas future monetarily and philosophically will have its first meeting March 10. Invest in Helena will meet from 4-6 p.m. on the second floor of the Helena Regional Airport. Tickets are $15. A news release from Invest In Helena notes that Helenas population grew by 13.8% from 2010 to 2020, bringing it to a total of 32,091 residents, according to U.S. Census numbers. The group believes that locals should play a significant role in determining how Helena expands and whats attracted to the community, the news release states. They say Invest In Helenas goal is to have an educational series that will help the communitys next group of investors succeed. The first meeting will feature a roundtable discussion of industry leaders talking about investment opportunities in Helena. There will be a social hour afterward. Invest in Helena is made up of local professionals from various organizations with a common interest in Helenas advancement. Our goal is to connect passionate, entrepreneurial individuals from our community to build a better future for Helena, its website said. Brian Obert, executive director of Montana Business Assistance Connection, said several local organizations formed Invest In Helena. He said he has been watching from afar how some communities reject proposals by out-of-town developers that dont blend in with the town. A community needs to define who they are, he said, adding the group wants to make sure projects reflect the essence of Helena and what do we really want. Obert said Invest in Helena will also encourage local developers and ways residents can make investments in the community. He said the group is not anti-growth. We have to grow to be a vibrant community, but if we have to grow how can we do this and remain ourselves and our essence, Obert said. He said the group will talk of what it wants to look like and find a way there. Why wait for someone to come into the community to do a project? Obert asked. It rubs me the wrong way. Why cant we find a way to do that? He said Helena had a swagger at one point, offering the Cathedral of Helena and the Montana Club as examples. We had a swagger, we didnt wait for someone to come in and do it, Obert said. He said people could do much simpler projects than a massive housing development. I am a little tired of people looking for someone else to it, Obert said. Lets just go find a way to do it." He said this will be the first of multiple conversations about what Helena want to be. To register for the March 10 event or for more information, visit investinhelena.com. Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021. Love 10 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 4 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. In the moment that this story is posted the people of Ukraine are fighting and dying to protect their sovereignty. The conflict is far away, with roughly 150,000 Russian troops surging into a country 5,500 air miles distant from Montana, yet the links between the Ukrainian people and Montanans are real. As events unfold in Ukraine many Montanans with Ukrainian connections are asking for the support and understanding of Montana's people. "My family in Ukraine, at two oclock in the morning Montana time sent me a message from Lviv," Ukrainian immigrant Tatiana Lukenbill told the Great Falls Tribune. "We are still alive, Lukenbill said of her family's message. "It was their statement knowing that I am worrying sick about them. They said that it was morning in their city. They woke up to the air sirens. Eight or nine times there were signals. People were informed that the invasion took place. My family told me that they heard several explosions, not in downtown, somewhere around." Sitting near Ukraine's western border with Poland, Lviv is one of Ukraine's most important cultural centers for art, literature, music and theater. It's peacetime population of slightly more than 700,000 has now been swollen by tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to escape the advancing Russian Army. As of this reporting Russian troops had not yet entered Lviv, but the city is on edge, without any clear understanding of the conflict that yet may come. "Lviv is a place that has already accepted many, many refugees from eastern parts of Ukraine who were leaving their homes because of the situation in Donbas and Luhansk region," Lukenbill said. "It is industrial center. It is where the coal mines are. It is a very, very heavy industrial center. The refugees were helped by western Ukrainians. Western Ukraine found the way to provide them with apartments. They found some jobs for them, but it was starting in 2014, 2015. The number of refugees that is potentially going to move towards the west we dont even imagine what will happen." "My family told me that people are advised to get a supply of groceries, get a supply of gas for their vehicles," she added. "My brother told me the lines to the gas stations are the longest ever. The lines to the ATMs are very long. I have not heard anything from them in the morning today. Two days ago the staff was taken over to spend the night in Poland, and then brought back. Today, just several minutes ago, I heard that they are all relocated to Poland right now. Tatiana Lukenbill grew up in Ukraine, but has lived with her husband Ron in Montana since the early 1990s. She is an active member of the WorldMontana Center for Diplomacy and Leadership, a Helena-based organization that has promoted cultural exchanges between Montana and Ukraine for nearly 20 years. It is a program for international exchanges for certain counties of the former Soviet Union. Ukraine is one of these countries," Lukenbill said of WorldMontana's mission. "It is funded by the U.S. Congress. The idea is getting the opportunity of doctors, journalists, librarians, teachers, lawyers to learn about America." I also have very strong connections with Russia not the government," Lukenbill said. "Not the people who make crazy decisions. I spent my career there. I was a senior educator at Moscow State University, and then I moved to the United States where my husband and I started the exchange program. We were bringing the students both to high schools and colleges to be educated in the United States." In October of 2014 a delegation of Ukrainian doctors came to Montana, stopping in Helena and Great Falls to learn as much as they could about the effectiveness of telemedicine. Lukenbill, who grew up in Ukraine and is fluent in English, Russian and Ukrainian, served as an interpreter during the delegation's visit. They know that they first will arrive to Washington, D.C., where they are getting the opportunity to meet with the senators, congressmen, members of the staff. Its like an orientation program," she said of the WorldMontana program. "They are told about federalism, about the way American government is functioning, stuff like that. And then a group of five delegates plus facilitator is traveling from D.C. to respective state. So back in 2014 we received a group of five doctors who spent the week in Great Falls." That group met with community leaders in Great Falls and Helena. Just how these young professionals are faring following the Russian invasion remains unknown. I have a friend here in Helena who has just come back from the city of Poltava where her mother lives," Lukenbill said. "She managed to get on Lufthansa and she made it safe. There is a family here now, and the head of the family is in Washington, D.C. He is a diplomat. His family was evacuated several weeks ago, a family with a mother and three kids, and the diplomat was evacuated the Sunday before last. Hes now in D.C." The reality of open warfare in Ukraine inches ever closer to Lviv. Two days ago the staff was taken over to spend the night in Poland, and then brought back," Lukenbill said Thursday night. "Today, just several minutes ago I heard that they are all relocated to Poland right now. There is no one there, from what I understand. They relocated them to Poland. "They live in an apartment building that was constructed back at the end of the 19th century," Lukenbill said of her family in Lviv. "They have the basement on the ground level of the apartment building. They are preparing the basement to put some chairs there in case for some emergency to spend time there." Many Americans are now asking if and why the Russian invasion of Ukraine should be a matter of U.S. interest. In a news release issued Thursday, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said the following: "The United States has no legal or moral obligation to come to the aid of either side in this foreign conflict. In talking to folks across Montana, they are much more concerned with stopping the invasion taking place in our country by millions of illegal aliens then they are the invasion of an Eastern European country halfway across the world. It is our obligation to secure our nation and put the American people first, not send our sons and daughters to die overseas in a conflict that does not serve our national interests." Great Falls attorney and international law professor Lynn Baker said he finds it distressing that a contingent of Republican legislators are speaking in opposition to a meaningful U.S. response to the invasion. Whats disheartening to me is to see portions of political parties in our own country that are not fully condemning, but almost agreeing with what Putin has done here," Baker said. "I just cant imagine this. Everyone in our country ought to be against whats happened here without any question." I think some Republicans; without naming anyone in particular, have basically said this isnt our problem. This isnt our issue and we dont have to worry about this," he added. "I see this as a very sad situation that they cant see how wrong their position is in this matter. "If they invade and get away with it, who do they invade next?" Baker asked. "Theres got to be a line drawn because it's going to keep on going. Youre going to basically give promotion to the idea that countries can do this and get away with it. That the West doesnt care what happens in other parts of the world. We always wanted those oil fields and copper mines in our neighboring country, so lets just take them over. We can see that the West isnt going to do anything except scream and holler. If we dont present a united front in this instance it certainly gives other dictators across the world a reason to do the same thing," Baker continued. "Other parts of the world dont have a NATO force looking down their throat, and they can say without much difficulty the United States was confronted and they werent pushing back against Putin. We dont have NATO over here so well do whatever we want, and the same thing will happen. Some group of Americans will say that its no big deal, it doesnt affect us. In some respects, were just allowing this to happen again and again. Montana's diplomatic connections to Ukraine extend beyond cultural exchanges. The former U.S. Ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration is Mike McFaul, who grew up in Butte, Bozeman and Glasgow, Montana, where his father worked as a musician and music teacher. McFaul was not immediately available to comment for this story; however, Montana's connections to the invasion in Ukraine remain relevant to many people who live here. "This very day (Feb. 24) they are in contact with me and they ask for our understanding, and they ask for our prayers and they ask if were paying attention," said Sandra Erickson, a University of Montana educator in international business and a former member of the Great Falls Advisory Committee on International Relationships. "I text back and forth to them, and they are very young professionals that came here and they are very active in trying to build a relationship with the United States. Erickson was instrumental in bringing the Ukrainian delegation to Great Falls in 2014. Neither Erickson nor her husband Lynn Baker advocate for a U.S. military incursion into Ukraine. Baker said it would be an "absolute disaster" for U.S. troops to enter Ukraine. There's a red line that could lead to a third world war," Baker said. "It's a line I dont think you could cross. Less than that I think there are lots of things that can be done. I know that were beefing up our military all over at section of eastern Europe. "Our military is in newly created bases in Poland that have been beefed up, but to charge in and send American troops to defend Ukraine I just think that is fraught with so many dangers, not only for our country but for the entire world. That would be foolhardy." Baker remains dubious about the effect western sanctions will have upon the Russian invasion. How effective theyre going to be when youre dealing with a guy like Putin who doesnt really care what anybody else thinks?" Baker asked. "He feels that in two years all this big kerfuffle will be over with. I just dont know how you handle that, but I know that sending in our military is absolutely the wrong thing to do for just about every reason. However the connections between Montana and Ukraine remain strong. My American husband, his ancestors on his fathers family are from Ukraine," Tatiana Lukenbill noted. "They emigrated to America back in 1903. They have found their new life here. "There are so many families who ancestors are immigrants like my husbands family, and there are so many families who keep in touch with their country of their ancestors. The idea of the world being one it sounds like propaganda, but we all live on one planet. We all live in this world." Lukenbill highlighted the familial connections established within the World Montana program. "As soon as people in Montana host the delegations, as soon as they agree to host the international exchange students they are friends for the rest of their lives," she said. "They have found new family. The American families are forever friends with their host students. They keep in touch. They learn about new culture." "It is important that the countries support each other with the idea of independence and freedom, because it is the foundation of the United States," Lukenbill added. David Murray is at dmurray@greatfallstribune.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen on Monday announced a civil investigation into social media giant TikTok for potential violations of the state consumer protection act. Knudsen said in a press release Monday the investigation seeks to answer questions about whether the social media company is intentionally distributing a dangerous product without adequate warning. "This is a critical investigation to protect Montana children and assist Montana parents," Knudsen said, citing reports of the platform being used by drug cartels, sexual predators, pornography distributors and inciting troubling behavior by teens. "Montana is happy to take the lead at looking into potential violations of state law by this Chinese social media goliath to help parents keep their children safe online and crack down on platforms which potentially misrepresent their safety features for financial gain," Knudsen said. Monday's announcement comes less than two weeks after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced his office would investigate TikTok for potentially facilitating human trafficking and child privacy violations. According to the press release, Knudsen's decision to probe the company was predicated by examples of the company potentially misleading Montanans about the safety of the product for children, citing a report in the Wall Street Journal headlined, "How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors." Earlier this month TikToks head of trust and safety Cormac Keenan touted steps the company has taken including expansion of a system that detects and removes problematic content at upload. That includes adult nudity, minor safety and illegal activities. We've made significant strides to improve our policies and enforcement, including our efficacy, speed, and consistency, though we recognize there's no finish line when it comes to keeping people safe, Keenan wrote. We're driven by our passion to help everyone have a good and enriching experience on TikTok. Knudsen alleges schools have been vandalized and forced to ratchet up security due to trends and threats on TikTok. The 44-page document signed by the state's top Department of Justice officials includes 80 separate requests for information, such as reasoning for its self-assigned ratings on smart phone app stores, what "industry-first steps" the company claims to have made to create a safe and age-appropriate experience for teens and what changes it recently made to its algorithm in July 2021. The letter also includes 56 separate document requests for TikTok, including "any and all documents related to the efficacy of TikTok's age verification," and "any and all documents related to how the TikTok algorithm chooses what content to promote in a users For You Feed." The "first civil investigative demand," first reported Monday by Fox Business, requests the company furnish the information by March 28 or face penalties under Montana law. The Montana Legislature last year briefly considered a bill that would have hired more than two dozen new staffers to the Public Service Commission to police social media. That bill, Senate Bill 391, was the response by Sen. Theresa Manzella, R-Hamilton, to social media companies "de-platforming" conservatives. Indeed, Twitter and Facebook revoked former President Donald Trump's accounts after the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol based on his false remarks about the 2020 election. Lawmakers also tabled a bill from Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, that would have forced internet providers to give consumers an option to opt in or out of receiving hard-core pornography. In mid-February, Knudsen announced a separate investigation into GoFundMe, a crowdfunding site that said in January it would redirect donations meant to sustain protesters demonstrating against vaccine mandates in Canada. A spokesperson for Knudsen said the attorney general took up the matter after hearing from "concerned Montanans," although no victims in Montana had been reported. Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 8 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. How does one measure a societys greatness? By its military might? By its wealth? By its natural beauty, architecture or founding documents? Heres a yardstick that came to mind recently: how it treats its most vulnerable members. As the United States enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nations more than half-million homeless people certain qualify as among the most vulnerable. The group is disproportionately made up of people of color who are more likely to have dealt with disability, addiction, mental health issues and incarceration. They are usually individuals, but there are often families in these circumstances as well their misfortune tied, above all else, to the chronic lack of affordable housing. Advertisement Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott recently announced that the city will be spending $90.3 million, most of it in federal COVID relief funds, to assist the citys homeless population, with the centerpiece of the plan being to convert two yet-to-be-identified city hotels into emergency housing. The proposal drew predictable reactions. Those who have been laboring for years to find better opportunities for the estimated 2,200 people who find themselves living on the streets of Baltimore on any given night cheered. Those who see almost any social safety net spending, at least from government sources, as an indulgence and a drag on productivity voiced their displeasure. Does that include room service? asked one Twitter user. Its much easier to look down uncaringly at homeless people if one has viewed them only from afar and never witnessed firsthand the hardships they face each day, their health worsened and life often shortened by their unhappy conditions. To judge them merely as a nuisance, as an impediment to commerce their tents an eyesore, their existence primarily a public safety threat is to deny our own humanity. The question is not whether to help homeless people, its how best to help them to get on their feet. Converting hotels to help them get in from the cold makes a lot of sense given that a traditional homeless shelters congregate living design is not only often fraught, its especially dangerous during a pandemic. Better to provide individual living space. Advertisement There are, however, at least two significant challenges here. The first is to overcome traditional government inefficiency and red tape. Mayor Scotts intent is right, but will City Hall be able to award contracts, meet the requirements of the American Rescue Plan and the U.S. Department of Housing, and get the money out the door in a timely fashion and with appropriate transparency and oversight? Promising to spend millions is one thing, following through is often another. This cant be yet another project that is loudly trumpeted today but quietly still pending years hence. Lives are literally at stake. The second, and perhaps even more difficult, issue is simply this: Will Baltimore stand alone in this serious effort to address homelessness? Maryland needs a regional approach to this problem. If Baltimores initiative relieves Baltimore, Howard, Anne Arundel, Harford and Carroll counties of their own obligations toward homeless people, as individuals in crisis simply leave Towson, Glen Burnie, Bel Air and beyond to find help in the city, then the problem of homelessness isnt being solved so much as transferred. Thats just another form of redlining (or perhaps reverse-urban flight-ing). The counties have American Rescue Plan dollars sitting around as well. Where are their plans to help the less fortunate? Baltimore County has pitched a $16 million Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund, but it is slated to go to at least a half-dozen purposes from preserving existing affordable housing to making existing shelters more accessible to the disabled. Granted, maybe helping homeless people isnt good politics outside Baltimore, and this is, after all, an election year. But shouldnt it be? Arent communities with fewer people living on the street better communities for all? Critics are correct in at least one regard: The issue is complicated with many underlying factors, among them the worsening shortage of decent, affordable housing. Thats a problem that can be corrected through responsible public investment. And its why Mayor Scotts approach is a reasonable one if done responsibly, promptly and not in isolation. Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom. Illinois is known across the land for political corruption. I always get a hearty, knowing chuckle when I tell Rotary Club luncheons that I have worked for three unindicted Illinois governors. (True: Ogilvie, Thompson, Edgar. The other four across that era were all measured for striped suits: Kerner, Walker, Ryan, Blagojevich.) Recently, the attorney for a Chicago alderman found guilty of political corruption (one of 37 since 1972, and counting) cynically argued against jail time for his client. He scoffed that any possible deterrent effect would be no more effective than draining Lake Michigan with a spoon. Ouch. This unfortunate for Illinois phrase will enter the lexicon of Illinois politics alongside the famous harrumph by a Chicago ward boss to a young innocent jobseeker, who came into his office alone and unsponsored: We dont want nobody nobody sent. Political corruption in Illinois has a hallowed tradition, you might say, and it is bipartisan. In 1913, after a long trial in the United States Senate, the solons expelled their Illinois Republican colleague William Lorimer. The Blonde Boss of Chicago and his co-conspirators had bribed 40 Democratic state legislators with $2,500 each (when the new Model T cost $750) to join with Republicans to elect him to the Senate in 1909. The scandal spurred the direct election of senators. In the 1920s, GOP Gov. Len Small of Kankakee was tried twice for embezzling millions from the state. He was acquitted at his first, criminal trial; two months later, eight of the jurors had received really good state jobs! In a later civil trial, Small was forced to pay the state $650,000 to repay funds embezzled when he was state treasurer. Small leaned on state patronage workers to cover the payment. But since then, most of the corruption has emanated from Cook County and Chicago, dominated by the Democratic Party. Four confidants of defrocked Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) are set to go on trial in Chicago in September, which will tee up corruption as a major issue in the November election. One of the candidates for governor has already declared that if elected he would eliminate corruption in our state. Fat chance. Corruption is baked into our culture. That doesnt mean we are all corrupt, but that too many of us would indeed take advantage of government if presented with the opportunity. It's a slippery slope, as they say, from a DUI to successfully bribing a judge to set free a mob assassin so he could kill again, and again. This actually happened in the 1970s, when much of the Cook County Court system was controlled, or at least heavily influenced, by The Outfit. No governor can transform a political culture of corruption in his or her term. But the chief executive can use his bully pulpit to declare a very public war on corruption; set a high bar for conduct by his administration. The governor can also seek elimination of ludicrous, self-serving statutes such as the one that requires the independent legislative inspector general to first get approval of lawmakers before he can investigate a complaint against one of their fellow legislators. Finally, we can all stop taking advantage of government, simply because thats the way its done in Illinois, and exhort our children to follow our lead. Thats how cultures change. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 0 New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Cloudy and windy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 89F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph.. Tonight Cloudy skies this evening followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%. CHILHOWIE, Va. A Chilhowie, Virginia, man has combined his Christian faith with his love of dogs to help serve frontline workers during the pandemic. Through his friendship ministry, Paws for Christ, Andy Overbay is putting smiles on the faces of staff and nurses at Smyth County Community Hospital every time he shows up for a visit with his therapy dog, Bear, an English Springer Spaniel. Before the pandemic, Overbay brought the tail-wagging, sociable therapy dog to the hospital to visit with patients, but until COVID restrictions are lifted, he enjoys the weekly visits with staff members only. Hospital security officer, Brandon Hamm, takes note when the therapy dog arrives. I know when I see Andy and Bear that automatically they will put smiles on team members faces in this stressful time, Hamm said. Overbay, a farmer and senior agriculture extension agent for Smyth County, has taken time from his schedule the past 10 years to make the hospital visits an accumulation of more than 400 visits. The mission of Paws for Christ is to spread faith and love and to be an encouragement for those people who simply need a friend. Weekly devotionals written by Overbay are posted every Sunday morning to the Paws for Christ Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pause4christ. Our motto is you dont have to have paws to participate. You just have to pause to be a friend to someone, Overbay said. The busiest person always can make time to be nice. Thats something weve lost as a society. Its pretty hard not to smile and just feel good all over when the frontline workers lay eyes on the therapy dog with the large floppy ears and expressive eyes. The nurses and staff, many of whom are feeling weary from the pandemic, take time out during their busy days to give the dog kisses and hugs during its regular visits to the hospital. Its just like Christmas for the staff when we show up, Overbay said. When the dog comes, its a good day. Judy Colley, executive assistant at the hospital, said Overbay has been devoted to bringing Bear for visits with team members throughout the pandemic. Often times Andy has Bear dressed for the occasion, such as Halloween or Christmas. You can hear the joy in team members voices echo in the hallways as Andy and Bear come to visit. Its such a display of selflessness as Andy serves others by giving them a moment of happiness during their busy and often stressful day, Colley said. Cindy Becker, a registered nurse at the hospital, said she enjoys seeing Bear while she works even if its only for a few moments. Their visits really help to lift the mood, she said. It is a nice break in the day to visit with Bear, Kelley Grey said, who works as a physical therapist at the hospital. Paws for Christ Studies have shown that dogs produce feel-good vibes for most all of us, including people who are struggling with medical conditions, such as military veterans with post-traumatic stress, children with autism, the elderly with mobility issues, and people with anxiety. There are all kinds of people who need someone to listen to them or to give them advice. There are all kinds of ways you can be a friend to someone, Overbay said. Bear is not the first dog belonging to the Overbay family who lifts the spirits of people. Earlier, Overbay owned two English Springer Spaniels, Bo and Ty, who were his pioneer therapy dogs. The dogs captured the familys hearts, and even after their deaths, there are remembered by photographs on walls and a license plate that bears their names. Over the past seven years, Overbay said he has written four picture story childrens books, each told from the dogs perspectives. The first one focused on the adventures of Bo and Ty; the second one is about the dogs visit to Overbays alma mater, Virginia Tech; the third one is a Christmas book. The last book, written by Ty as told to his human owner, is dedicated to his canine companion Bo, who died in 2019. This book is about coping with grief and finding joy after experiencing death, Overbay said. If you wrote a dogs last will and testament, it would tell you that a dog that is loved is the richest being on Earth. The only legacy they can leave behind is for you to give that same love to another dog. After learning that his English Springer Spaniels had a knack for making people feel better, Overbay created the friendship ministry in 2012 to help cheer people when they need it the most. Certified by the Alliance of Therapy Dogs in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Canines for Christ based in Lutz, Florida, Overbay has taken his dogs on visits to sites like nursing homes, hospitals, 4-H camps and schools. Not only is he required to follow the rules set by the therapy dog organizations, but he also has to be mindful of hospital regulations. One of the requirements is the dog has to be on a 4-foot leash, he said. Hospital visits Overbay is a firm believer in the old adage that dogs are mans best friend. But, the dog owner can vouch that dogs are mans best medicine, too. Bear, who came along after the loss of Bo and Ty, is just like a team member at the hospital, riding elevators and trotting into the rooms of patients. Before the pandemic, he made his rounds through the hospital, often spending time with patients who need a dose of good cheer. Overbay recalled when nurses were unsuccessful at getting an elderly stroke victim to use her left hand. My dog jumped on the left arm of the chair and the patient moved her left hand to pet him. The nurses knew something special had happened, he said. Another case involved a woman who was being monitored for high blood pressure. When the patient began petting the dog, her blood pressure returned to normal. Another patient was recovering from heart surgery. The nurse had tried coaxing the patient to attend therapy services, but nothing was working. When the patient spotted the therapy dog, he agreed to get the help he needed if he could pet the animal. I still have a picture of my dog, Ty, with his ears hanging off the bed completely upside down and the man rubbing his belly. Two weeks later, the patient walked out of the hospital, he said. In addition, Overbay continues to bring Bear to visit with his 91-year-old mother, June Overbay, at her nearby home every day. Bear is good company for her. He lifts her spirits. Thats what those little guys do. They take your mind off your troubles. Carolyn R. Wilson is a freelance writer in Glade Spring, Virginia. Contact her at citydesk@bristolnews.com. The grandson of a civil rights activist and educator grew up in Ridgeview. He said he remains proud of the ways Septima Poinsette Clark helped Black Americans vote and become leaders. Septima Clark is known for her efforts to educate Black Americans through her work in creating citizenship education centers. Through the centers, Septima helped Black Americans register to vote. Back in those days, you had to read. They made Black people read something to register to vote, Septimas grandson Nerie Clark III said. My grandmothers school would teach illiterate adults how to read and write, so they could register to vote. Septima was part of Martin Luther King Jr.s staff. King gave her the nickname Mother of the Movement due to her work in education, according to the Stanford University website. Nerie Clark now lives in Charlotte. He grew up in the Ridgeview area of Hickory. Nerie would spend holiday breaks and summers at his grandmothers home in Charleston, South Carolina. He said it was there that Septima taught him how to cook and how to catch crabs using a chicken neck and string. Septima would also take him and his brother on trips, always making sure to stay somewhere with a pool. He spoke fondly of his memories of his Mama Seppie. Septima Clark became a teacher in 1916. She began teaching on Johns Island off the coast of South Carolina. She was not allowed to teach in public schools in Charleston because of her skin color. After school, she would teach adult literacy. She later joined the NAACP and the fight for Black teachers to be allowed to teach in public schools, according to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee website. After losing her teaching license in 1956 due to her affiliation with the NAACP, Septima Clark became the director of workshops at Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, according to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee website. At Highlander, Septima continued her adult literacy teachings. In 1957, she opened a citizenship school on Johns Island where lessons on South Carolina election laws and voting were taught. This school paved the way for other citizenship schools, according to the Civil Rights Women Leaders of the Carolinas website. Nerie Clark got to meet Martin Luther King Jr. at Septimas house in Charleston one summer. July of 1967, Dr. King came to Charleston to make a speech there at the county hall, he said. He stayed at her house that day, during the day before he left to go back to Atlanta. My grandmother put on a very big meal that day, like a Christmas dinner in July. Septima Clark was part of Kings entourage when he received his Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Once she returned from Norway, the Ridgeview School Principal Taft Broome invited Septima to talk to the students about the trip, Nerie said. I was very young, but I knew that everybody was in the gymnasium. The whole school was listening to my grandmother, he said. Yeah, that was a great memory for me when my grandmother spoke to the whole school about her experience traveling to Norway with Dr. King. Nerie Clark said Black history is important every day. There are kids in South Carolina that dont know of my grandmother, Nerie said. Which is a shame because President Obama, a lot of the elected Black officials that we have now, that all came out of the civil rights movement, and my grandmothers citizenship education training. He said people should be more aware of the past, so it is not repeated. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. " " Countess Elizabeth Bathory is thought to have tortured and murdered hundreds of women and girls. Wikipedia Serial killers tend to be men by an overwhelming margin. One analysis said only 8 percent of the serial killers in the U.S. were women [source: Amicus Curiae]. Yet some think a woman was the most prolific serial killer of all time. Erzsebet (Elizabeth) Bathory, a Hungarian countess, is believed to have killed as many as 650 women and girls during the 54 years she was alive. And exactly how the world's most prolific serial killer took the lives of her victims has proven grisly fodder for storytellers. She is even believed to have inspired Bram Stoker, the creator of Count Dracula. The count is supposedly a hybrid of Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes and Bathory [source: NNDB]. However, some modern historians think the allegations about her murderous ways could well have been exaggerated [source: Brittanica]. Advertisement Elizabeth Bathory, the woman who came to be known as the "Blood Countess," was born into Hungarian nobility in 1560. She was well educated, at the time a rarity for girls, and could speak several languages. She also seems to have suffered from fits and outbursts of rage possibly even epilepsy. From an early age, she witnessed her father's officers torture the peasantry who lived near her family's estate. Young Elizabeth is said to have seen a captured thief being sewn into the stomach of a dying horse and left to perish [source: Sheldon]. This story underscores two major aspects that may have influenced Bathory: exposure to incredible violence and her family's condoning attitude toward it. Accounts describe her penchant for inflicting pain on others and claim that she worked with accomplices. One may have been her husband, Ferencz Nadasdy, and others were members of her court. Nadasdy married Bathory when she was 15. A soldier, he spent most of his time away from home. There's speculation that Nadasdy may have taught his wife new torture methods, while other researchers believe he was ignorant of her actions. What's agreed upon is that Bathory practiced most of her crimes in his absence and that the crimes got worse after he died in 1604. Bathory's Crimes Bathory had a penchant for torturing young girls in particular historians posit that she was bisexual. The acts she committed ranged from driving needles through her servants' lips and fingernails to leaving her victims naked in the snow, dousing them with water and letting them freeze to death to covering her victims with honey, tying them up and leaving them to be attacked by ants and bees [sources: History, Biography]. Perhaps the most notorious legend about Bathory is that she bathed in her victims' blood. Inevitably, this led to rumors that the countess was a vampire. She reportedly claimed to use virgin blood to keep her skin young she wanted to remain beautiful for her husband. But this story was first published in 1729 by a Hungarian priest long after Bathory's death [source: Biography]. When Bathory moved from killing peasant girls to minor noblewomen, the authorities got involved. In 1610, Bathory's cousin Count Gyorgy Thurzo (who was in charge of judicial matters in the region) conducted a raid on Bathory's castle. He reportedly surprised her in the act of torture and imprisoned her in her home while he investigated. Four servants were arrested and questioned, under torture. They admitted to burying many victims although they denied killing anyone. The numbers of bodies they admitted to burying varied between 36 and 51. Three of the servants were sentenced to death and executed [source: Biography]. In all nearly 300 people gave testimonies. The testimonies, which are still in Hungarian archives, are both questionable and convicting in nature. These testimonies are questionable because most of them were from people with only secondhand knowledge of the alleged crimes. But the fact that there even were trials regarding Bathory's murders lends some credence to the stories surrounding the woman. One witness named Suzannah testified that Bathory kept a registry of her murders and that it numbered 650, although the ledger was never found [sources: Biography, Sheldon]. As for Bathory, she claimed she was innocent but she was never tried for her crimes. Instead, she was walled into a room in the castle with just two slits for air and food to pass through. She spent the remaining four years of her life there, until she was found dead on the floor in 1614. In later years, some historians questioned whether she was indeed a prolific killer. Some speculate that Count Thurzo wanted to get her out of the way so that other family members could take over her lands and holdings, and since there was very little eyewitness testimony of her crimes it is hard to tell. "If we examine the testimonies side by side with contemporary medical texts, the descriptions of alleged torture by Erzsebet's servants will show a remarkable correspondence with medical and surgical instructions for specific diseases. According to the testimonies, the countess herself was not even present at most of these procedures performed by her servants, as she frequently traveled among her numerous castles and estates," wrote Hungarian historian Irma Szadeczky-Kardoss in 2005. On the other hand, it is unlikely she was completely innocent too. Back in 1602, a priest had written a letter describing the cruelty with which Bathory and her husband treated their servants. There were also a large number of bodies found buried at her estate, whom Bathory described as cholera victims [sources: Szadeczky-Kardoss, Biography]. Related Articles More Great Links Sources If youre a dairy farmer, you may have noticed something about the subject of enteric methane reduction: It often comes with no shortage of emotion, conflicting opinion, and misunderstanding. The thing you may not have noticed is in the details. With the right feed additive, reducing enteric methane can be profitable for you. There can be a financial incentive for reducing enteric methane. It is, simply, improved feed efficiency and increased energy-corrected milk. The frustration you may feel that many dairy farmers feel right now today over the methane blame game is understandable. Agriculture is hardly the only and certainly not the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Dairy farmers should not be solely responsible for the cost of reducing enteric methane. If youre going to reduce enteric methane, you should get paid for it. After all, the manufacturers searching their supply chains to find those who can help them reduce their carbon footprints are looking for a pay-off. You, the farmer, are first to profit Right now, dairy farmers are safely feeding a blend of essential oils plant extracts and seeing strong returns while reducing enteric methane. A published research trial on a New York commercial dairy showed a demonstrated return of $0.72 gain per cow per day for the cost of about $0.05 per day. That is a 14:1 return. A 23-trial published meta-analysis showed that the essential oils blend had a positive effect on energy-corrected milk yield (+4.1%) and decreased methane emissions (10%) without affecting feed intake. An additional published study from UC-Davis reported that enteric methane was reduced by 11.2% per unit of milk and enteric ammonia was reduced by 18% by this blend of essential oils. Beyond the production benefits that come from feeding this product, farmers can be paid carbon credits for the methane reductions. The research is clear that reducing methane energy losses can translate into improved milk yield or other energy requiring functions. Research based on specific blends of essential oils have shown them to be a cost-effective solution for both methane reduction and productivity improvements. -Dr. Mike Hutjens at the University of Illinois Manufacturers are second Understandably, some farmers believe that big consumer brands care more about reducing their carbon footprint for marketing purposes than they care about how it gets done. Our experience is that major consumer brands are definitely concerned for dairy farmers and remain eager to continue using real milk in their products. Theyre investing millions of dollars into the U.S. dairy industry. Its true some also consider consumer preferences for products that are not dairy based. It doesnt mean these brands have stopped supporting the dairy industry. Your end customer is third True, several consumer brands selling dairy products are also offering plant-based options. But its also true that when consumers view dairy products as having been produced in a more environmentally positive manner, brands can better maintain their dairy-loving customer base and win over new ones. The potential is a win-win-win. The rapid escalation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict means Australian organisations should urgently adopt an enhanced cyber security posture, government cyber security experts have warned as newly imposed sanctions crystallise the risk of retaliatory cyber attacks by Russia-backed cybercriminal operators. The warnings contained in a high-priority Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Technical Advisory emerged last week after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced targeted sanctions at Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Russian collaborators to what he called the unjustified, unwarranted, unprovoked, and unacceptable invasion of Ukraine. Russias ambassador labelled the sanctions xenophobic, a claim that was dismissed out of hand by Australian government officials yet as the conflict intensifies under Russias new threat of nuclear escalation, reprisals are likely to come in many forms. And while Australia is 15,000km from Ukraine, experts believe fallout from the sanctions and Australias decision to support Ukraine as well as allies the United States of America and United Kingdom could drive a surge in targeted cybercriminal activity. Noting a historical pattern of cyber attacks against Ukraine that have had international consequences, the ACSC warned that malicious cyber activity could impact Australian organisations through unintended disruption or uncontained malicious cyber activities. Australian organisations should urgently review and improve their cyber security incident detection, mitigation, and response measures, the ACSC recommended, including making sure that logging and detection systems are fully updated and functioning. Organisations should also make sure their cyber incident response plans are up to date, and review their business continuity planning to ensure they can keep operating in the event of direct or collateral damage as the real-world conflict spills online. Russian cyber attacks are a form of power projection and will be the way the Russians try to punish Australia for our political stance, warned professor Matt Warren, director of the RMIT University Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation. As the local consequences of the distant war become clear, Warren warned local organisations to be ready for a range of attacks ranging from denial-of-service campaigns, website defacement, ransomware, and theft of information via hacking. These attacks will potentially impact all aspects of Australian society, he said, and will test our ability to protect against cyber attacks at this scale. Answering the call to cyber arms The warnings echoed similar cautions by cyber security authorities in the UK and US, where the Critical Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a shields-up advisory warning that every organisation large and small must be prepared to respond to disruptive cyber activity. That activity has ramped up in the days before and during the invasion, with Ukraine authorities reporting a surge in Russian cyber attacks described as on a completely different level as the country matched its physical invasion with a range of attacks on Ukrainian banks, defence, and other institutions. Hacking group Anonymous said it had focused its sights on Putins regime, and has already been credited with hacking Russian state TV channels and the countrys Ministry of Defence database. Varying allegiances could even drive a battle royale between cybercriminal gangs, with the Conti ransomware gang announcing that it would target the critical infrastructure of anybody who targets Russia with cyber attacks. Scammers, too, have wasted no time taking advantage of the conflict, with ESET reporting campaigns such as the promotion of cryptocurrency tokens supposedly designed to benefit the Ukraine. Australian companies and individuals should expect the volume, nature and impact of cyber attacks to continue as the conflict plays out, warned Kurt Hansen, CEO of Australian cyber security firm Tesserent. The war between Russia and Ukraine is causing a lot of confusion, he said, and cyber-criminals will try to exploit this stress when carrying out attacks. Criminal actors from other countries may also join in the fray, exploiting this chaos for their own purposes. There is increasing concern that Australias sanctions against Russia might provoke state-based attackers seeking to cause collateral damage in critical infrastructure hospitals, electricity, gas, water, tolls and so forth, Hansen said. All of Australias critical infrastructure is connected to the internet, so there is a large attack surface. Everyone needs to be reminded to be on their guard and to check links they are clicking online, and not forget to take the necessary precautions. Thanks to the high prices they command, avocados are sometimes referred to as 'green gold.' Jose Castanares/AFP via Getty Images To the relief of avocado lovers from coast to coast, the recent drama between the United States and Mexico was fleeting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned imports of the fleshy fruit from Mexico on Feb. 11, 2022, after an employee of its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, who was working in Mexico, received threats after refusing to certify a mislabeled shipment of avocados. With only a two- to three-week supply stored in American warehouses, any extended disruption to the avocado pipeline would have been quickly felt. Eight days later, the ban was lifted, and cooks could resume smashing avocados into guacamole, blending them into smoothies and smearing them onto bread without trepidation. Yet to me, this disruption however brief reveals just how reliant the U.S. has become on its neighbor for a product that has seen its demand soar. When I was working on my book Avocado: A Global History, I was struck by the extent to which this lucrative trade has evolved over the past 25 years, making it an attractive business possibility for both legitimate and criminal enterprises. Mexicos cash crop Avocados from Mexico have been fueling Americas taste for the fruit since 1997, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a 1914 import ban, which originally was implemented due to fears over pests like seed weevils infesting U.S. crops. At the time, Southern California produced about 90% of the avocados eaten by Americans. Since then, per capita avocado consumption in the U.S. has ballooned from 2 pounds in 2001 to nearly 8 pounds in 2018. This increase in the popularity of avocados, coupled with the limitations of domestic sources, has allowed Mexican avocados to dominate the American market. Today, Mexico specifically, the Mexican state of Michoacan, which is the only state certified to sell the fruit to the U.S. supplies about 80% of the 60 million pounds of avocados eaten north of the border each week. Avocados are sometimes referred to as green gold because of the price they command in international commodity markets. Exports of avocados from Mexico were valued at nearly US$3 billion in 2021, ahead of both tequila and beer, two other popular Mexican exports. The average price of an avocado is up 10% from a year ago; during the brief ban, the price of a carton of the fruit catapulted to nearly $60, up from around $30 a year ago. Currently, less than 1% of avocados eaten in the U.S. come from places other than Mexico and the U.S. Countries like Peru and Colombia also produce the fruit. Cartels want their piece of the pie In Mexico, the high profit margins of the avocado trade attracted the interest of crime cartels, and those operating in Michoacan began to infiltrate the avocado business more than 20 years ago. As various cartels have vied for control of the avocado industry, violence and extortion have escalated in the region. In the beginning, cartels were content to extort farmers, packers and exporters in essence, taxing them for the ability to do business without interference from the cartels. Members of a self-defense group guard an avocado plantation from drug cartels in the state of Michoacan, Mexico. Enrique Castro/AFP via Getty Images But a bloody turf war has intensified in recent years. In 2019, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel killed nine people in Uruapan, Michoacans hub of avocado distribution, hanging their corpses from a prominent overpass in the city. They dumped seven more bodies on the side of a road, leaving a banner at the scene that taunted a rival gang, the Viagras. There are even reports of cartels using drones to drop bombs as part of their efforts to control the economy of the region. Threats directed at inspectors have happened before. While no individual cartel has been directly tied to a specific threat, U.S. officials seem to think the threats are linked to increased cartel participation in the avocado trade. In 2019, a team of USDA inspectors working in Ziracuaretiro, a city just west of Urupan, were robbed and threatened with violence. Later that year, the USDA wrote a memo stating it would suspend inspection activities if threats of physical violence and intimidation against inspectors continued. After the most recent threat, the USDA referenced this memo when announcing the temporary import ban. The Hass holds all the cards Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador dismissed the notion that the suspension was due to cartels associated with the avocado trade. Instead, he blamed unspecified political interests in the U.S. and pressure from other countries who want a share of the lucrative American avocado market. One of the reasons the U.S. began allowing Mexican avocados to be imported over the objection of domestic growers was NAFTA. The U.S. wanted the ability to send corn and other agricultural goods to Mexico under the rules of the 1994 free trade agreement. But the Mexican government demanded some sort of agricultural export quid pro quo to help balance trade between the two countries, and avocados were ripe for the job. The recent brief disruption underscores the risks of being so heavily reliant on a product that comes from one region in one country thats rife with violence and corruption. Yet it isnt easy to simply open up an avocado spigot from another country. Americans really prefer just one variety of avocado: the Hass, which is the type imported from Mexico. While the U.S. allows Hass avocado imports from Peru and Colombia, wholesalers prefer not to sell them because theyre thought to be lower quality. Hass is the dominant variety grown in California, too, but American growers cant grow nearly enough to meet the demand. Greenskin avocados, which are grown in Florida and the Caribbean, along with many other countries, arent nearly as popular with consumers due to textural differences and the fact that they dont change color to indicate when they are ripe. Greenskin avocados could ease U.S. dependence on Mexican avocados, but until they gain acceptance by avocado eaters, they wont help wean Americans off the Hass avocados grown in Michoacan. Avocados might be a source of political tension, but their unicorn status as a creamy, delicious food thats considered healthy makes most people willing to put politics aside and pass the guacamole. ___ Jeffrey Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. ___ A large Ukranian flag is unfurled at the end of a special prayer service for Ukraine at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church Monday morning. (JERRY JACKSON/Baltimore Sun) Maryland has terminated its largely symbolic Sister State relationship with the region that includes the Russian city of St. Petersburg due to Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Gov. Larry Hogan sent a letter to Aleksandr Drozdenko, the governor of Leningrad Oblast, on Monday that cited the duty of every government to remain vigilant of unlawful acts against public order, democratic principles and innocent civilians. Advertisement Marylands relationship with Leningrad Oblast dates to 1993, a time of thawing relations and new investment in Russia by the United States after the fall of the Soviet Union. The state retains the Soviet-era name for the countrys second-largest city. Baltimore, meanwhile, is rekindling older ties to the Ukrainian city of Odesa, the Black Sea port located 50 miles by water from Russian-occupied Crimea. The Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee was established in 1974, Mayor Brandon Scott said Friday in a news release. Advertisement Ukrainians began settling in Baltimore during the 1880s, Scott said, especially in Highlandtown, Fells Point and Patterson Park. During the early 1900s, many worked for the citys steel- and glassmakers. Others followed shortly in part to escape World Wars I and II. The City of Baltimore stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine at home and abroad and we join leaders across the world in condemning Russias military actions against Ukraine, Scott said. Ukrainians have been a part of our city for generations. Today, many worry for the loved ones they may still have in Ukraine. If Gov. Hogan hadnt acted to break ties with the St. Petersburg region, Senate President Bill Ferguson said Monday morning that he planned to introduce a resolution calling for Hogan to pull out of the partnership. Diplomacy and soft power are vital, and relations should be resumed when Russian aggression ceases, Ferguson wrote on Twitter. Until then, we must send a clear message that we stand with Ukraine. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), which shareholders are both Ukraine and Russia, hopes that hostilities in Ukraine will cease and a peaceful settlement will be reached as soon as possible. Peace is a vital condition for cooperation, the bank said in a statement on its website. According to it, the BSTDB is firmly committed to ensure the continued ability of the bank to fulfill its mandate to promote development and cooperation in the region. The Bank will closely monitor the development of the situation and respond accordingly, the statement said without specifying details. The BSTDB is an international organization uniting 11 states of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. The shares of Turkey, the Russian Federation and Greece in the capital are 16.5% each, Romania 14%, Ukraine and Bulgaria 13.5% each, Azerbaijan 5%, Albania 2%, Armenia 1%, and Georgia and Moldova each 0.5%. The Bank is aimed at promoting economic cooperation, trade and cooperation of the countries of the Black Sea region. Borrell: EU not ruling out that Putin will not stop in Ukraine High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell has said does not rule out that Russia will not stop at Ukraine alone. He expressed this opinion on Sunday in Brussels at a press conference after an extraordinary meeting of the European Council for Foreign Affairs. "We are concerned about what could happen in the entire region. We are afraid that Russia will not stop at Ukraine," Borrell said. He then named Moldova, Georgia and the countries of the Western Balkans. "We must pay considerable attention to what is happening there. I plan to visit Moldova. We must remain vigilant regarding the consequences of the crisis in the Western Balkans and see what happens to the position of the countries that are candidates for the EU," he said, adding that this is a decisive moment for Europe, as well as an opportunity to demonstrate global leadership. In addition, Borrell said that European diplomacy is working to isolate Russia. "We are carrying out intensive diplomatic work to isolate Russia, as far as possible, in international and regional organizations," he said. Luxembourg will supply Ukraine with 100 anti-tank weapons, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, jeeps and tents, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister Francois Bausch has has said. "As an act of solidarity and to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion, the Luxembourg government, decided following the proposal of the Defense Department and the Luxembourg Army, to deliver e.a. 100 anti-tank weapons, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, jeeps and tents to Ukraine," Bausch said on Twitter on Monday. US Federal Government authorities seized a 226-tonne electricity transformer made by Chinese company Jiangsu Huapeng Transformer Company at Houston port last summer and took it to Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for unspecified reasons, The Wall Street Journal reports. The lab, which is operated by Honeywell International, handles contract work for the US Energy Department associated with threats to national security, the report added. A US representative of the company, Jim Cai, told the newspaper that it had sold more than 7000 such transformers in the past two decades to numerous international customers. Cai was unaware of what had happened to the transformer until he was asked for comment by the WSJ. US President Donald Trump on 1 May signed an executive order for the DoE to find and ban devices from the power grid made by foreign countries that were considered a threat to national security. A report in Politico said Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette had recently played down concerns from industry that new clean energy projects could be inconvenienced by the order. The language in the order is said to be so all-encompassing and covering nearly 20 types of gear that developers fear they may have to delay projects, anticipating that components ordered from abroad could be banned. The seized transformer was meant for the Western Area Power Administration for use in its Ault substation. Apart from WAPA, the Chinese firm has also sold units to American customers the New York Power Authority, EDF Renewables, B.C. Hydro and MidAmerican Energy. The report said WAPA fed wholesale electricity to power stations in 15 states in the western and central US. Transformers do not contain software-based control systems and are passive devices, though recent equipment may contain diagnostic electronics, the WSJ said. Cai told the newspaper that even if someone accessed the diagnostic data, it was of no import. He said the transformer had been built to the buyer's specifications, down to parts the number of which had been bought in the US and UK chosen by WAPA. JACKSONVILLE As of 12:01 a.m. Monday, masks are no longer mandated in most indoor locations in Illinois. The restriction will not change for long-term care facilities, day cares, health care facilities and some other congregate settings. Masks also still will be required in some locations, such as airplanes and public transportation, because of federal regulations. Municipalities and private businesses also can make their own rules for mask use. But schools will not be on that list of places where masks still must be worn. Gov. J.B. Pritzker originally said he would see what lifting the mandate did to cases of COVID-19 before determining whether to exempt schools. He reversed that late Friday after the Illinois Supreme Court denied his appeal of a restraining order that said the school mandate was not legal. Many districts already have allowed students and staff to decide for themselves whether to wear a face covering because of the restraining order. A mask mandate has been in effect for indoor public settings since Aug. 30, when coronavirus cases started to spike in Illinois. Public health officials defended the highly polarized decision to require mask use. They pointed to Illinois having fewer new cases, hospitalizations and deaths than other Midwest states in the months that followed the mandate. Critics, however, pointed to Illinois being among the last states to remove the mandate and the continued perceived government intrusion into personal choice. After hitting pandemic-high levels in January, new infections have fallen by about 70% and availability of once-scarce intensive care unit beds has risen by a fourth, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. "Throughout this pandemic, we've taken action to save lives and keep our economy open and I'm proud that Illinoisans have done the hard work that has our made our state a leader in the Midwest," Pritzker said. "Our hospitals are much better positioned to handle emergencies and more than half of all eligible adults have been boosted; this is the progress we needed to make to remove our state indoor masking requirements." He encouraged people to make the choices going forward they felt were best for their health and for their family and, "most importantly, to treat each other with kindness and compassion." The Illinois Department of Public Health said Friday that there were 13,028 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease and 355 related deaths statewide last week. Since March 2020, 3,026,737 cases and 32,654 deaths have been recorded in Illinois. "We are now entering the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and, while our focus continues to be on preventing severe illness and ensuring our health care systems aren't overwhelmed, we are also looking forward to how we will coexist with COVID-19," state health Director Ngozi Ezike said. "We each have a role to play in staying healthy and we have many tools that can help protect us from severe illness due to COVID-19." More than 8 million eligible Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated and about 16,000 COVID-19 vaccines are being administered each day in the state, according to the health department. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 GREENSBORO Investigators believe alcohol was a factor in a multi-vehicle collision Saturday night on Interstate 40 that killed two Greensboro men and seriously injured others, Greensboro police said in a news release. According to police, a 2006 black Infiniti SUV driven by Jerlvonte Diaz Milbourne, 28, of Greensboro, was traveling west on I-40 when it crossed over the median into the interstate's eastbound lanes. The Infiniti struck a white 2004 Chevrolet Silverado driven by Enoc Emmanuel Lopez, 20, of Greensboro. After striking the Silverado, the Infiniti hit with a black Acura driven by Bien Krajan, 32, of Greensboro. A fourth vehicle, a white 2014 Jeep Compass driven by Kry Sheena Stevens. 22, of South Carolina, struck the rear end of the Silverado during the collision. Two passengers in the Infiniti, Darius Deshawn Smyre, 27, and Antonio Maurice James, 31, both of Greensboro, died as a result of the crash, police said in the news release. A third passenger in the Infiniti, Tevin Kewann Jolly, 29, of Greensboro, and the driver of the Infiniti, Milbourne, were seriously injured. Lopez, the driver of the Silverado, was seriously injured. Stevens had minor injuries, and Krajan had no apparent injuries from the crash. A spokesman for the Greensboro Police Department said Monday morning that no charges have been filed at this time and that the investigation is ongoing. All eastbound lanes of I-40 between Freeman Mill Road and Randleman Road were closed late Saturday and early Sunday while authorities were on scene. Police are asking anyone with information to contact Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000, download the mobile P3tips app for Apple or Android phones to submit a mobile tip or go to P3tips.org to submit a web tip. All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous. THOMASVILLE Police have charged two teenagers with first-degree murder and other offenses after a shooting left a man dead inside his home on Feb. 19, authorities said. Officers were dispatched to a house on Culbreth Avenue around 7:46 p.m. and on arrival found Elvin Yomar Barbosa Jimenez, 41, dead inside his house. Witnesses told police that shots were fired from near the road outside the house. Thomasville Police Department detectives arrested a 16-year-old male on Feb. 21. He was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling, possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, possession with intent to sell and deliver Schedule IV drugs, felony possession of cocaine, felony possession of marijuana, misdemeanor possession of Schedule IV drugs, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm by a minor, and having no operators license. On Feb. 22, detectives arrested and charged a 17-year-old male with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. Both juveniles are currently being held at the Alexander Juvenile Detention Center in Taylorsville. The investigation is ongoing, and additional charges are expected. Authorities said their investigation showed that the shooting was not a random act but declined to say anything more about possible motives in the case. Our detectives have done phenomenal work on this case, said Capt. Brad Saintsing, with the Thomasville Police Department. They worked around the clock to quickly identify the people involved. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SOCIETY The impressions of the movement Tet for the poor and the victims of Agent Orange (HBO) - With many diverse and rich contents, the movement "Tet for the poor and the victims of Agent Orange has become a traditional activity of the Red Cross at all levels. Many activities taking place on the occasion of the year of Tiger in 2022 have created a far-reaching influence in the community, becoming a beauty of kindness, contributing to the spiritual encouragement of the disadvantaged people in society. The Provincial Red Cross is giving money to build a house for Mr. Bui Van Hungmn from Da hamlet, Lo Son commune (Tan Lac). Together with the officials and the members of the Provincial Red Cross participating in the program of giving the houses of the Red Cross to the people in Lo Son commune (Tan Lac), we felt more clearly the human meaning of the movement "Tet for the poor and the victims of Agent Orange and the spirit of compassion between the people. Receiving a support of 40 million VND from the Provincial Red Cross and the benefactors to build a new house to replace the collapsed hut, Mr. Bui Van Hung from Da said: "My family is in a difficult situation, we still have to work hard to make a living in spite of the old age, the money for food is not enough, so we cannot save up to repair the house. Being paid attention to by the Provincial Red Cross with the support for building a new house, we are very excited, and we no longer have to live in a dilapidated temporary house with drafts. Not only Mr. Hung's household, 5 disadvantaged households in the commune who have received money to build the houses were happy and moved by the gratitude of the Red Cross and the benefactors for the poor. Many bags of Tet confectionery, jam, lucky money were given along with the warm greetings and encouragements to help the households overcome difficulties and welcome a warm spring. In addition, the Red Cross at all levels has also mobilized and supported to build 15 Red Cross houses with a total value of over 1 billion VND in Lac Son districts, Hoa Binh. They have also supported old clothes and books worth over 130 million VND for the poor students. Determining its role as a bridge in the humanitarian and charity work, from November every year, the Provincial Red Cross launches the movement "Tet for the poor and the victims of Agent Orange to the agencies, the businesses, the individuals and the benefactors. They also promulgates a plan to implement the movement at all levels of the Red Cross, aiming to mobilize over 20,000 sets of gifts, each worth 300 - 500 thousand VND. In order for the movement to be widely spread, attracting many participants, the Red Cross at all levels always promotes propaganda and enhances the coordination of the departments, the branches, the associations, mass organizations and the localities in mobilizing resources. They actively mobilize the officials, the members of the Red Cross, the volunteers and the people respond to the program. They survey and capture the number of the poor people and the victim of Agent Orange, the lonely elderly people without support, the orphans in special circumstances to support. The sets of gifts in many forms such as giving vouchers to exchange gifts in the sessions of "Humanitarian Tet Market, giving money, necessities, repairing houses, cow donation, and support the way how to live on Carrying out the movement "Tet for the poor and the victims of Agent Orange in the Spring of the year of Tiger in 2022, the Red Cross at all levels in the province have given gifts and assistance with a total value of over 12.45 billion VND to 26,301 turns of the poor and the disadvantaged households, the families under the prefferencial policies, the victimcs of Agent Orange. Regardless of the distance and difficulties caused by Covid-19 epidemics, the Red Cross at all levels has actively called for the benefactors, giving lucky money, confectionery, necessities, supporting money for house repair for the disadvantaged people in the remote and difficult areas. Mr. Bui Quoc Viet, the Chairman of the Provincial Red Crosss, said: "Tet for the poor and the victims of Agent Orange has become a traditional movement of the Red Cross at all levels, bringing good values in terms of material and spiritual ones in society. Through the activities implemented, the movement has made its mark and it is an indispensable activity in the annual humanitarian work in the localities of the province. Welcome. Masks Are Optional Inside Our Buildings. Thats the sign that will greet students, staff and visitors as they enter school on Monday. For the first time since March 13, 2020, masks will not be required upon entering Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, a move that the school board approved at its meeting on Tuesday. As the impact of the highly contagious omicron variant wanes, state and local health officials have told school leaders that its safe to move to voluntary masking as long as they keep an eye on cases. Gov. Roy Coopers veto on Thursday of the bill known as the Free the Smiles Act, leaves masking decisions to individual school districts. The bill gives students the right to opt out of mask requirements, regardless of local requirements. An override of the veto is possible but faces challenges, said Mitch Kokai, a senior policy analyst with the John Locke Foundation. The Democrats who voted for the bill may face pressure. One factor that is likely to weigh against a veto override is the fact that so many school systems are in the midst of moving away from mandatory masking regardless of the legislation, he said. Parents are much less likely to care about the details of the legislative process than in the end result of freeing their kids from masks. If conditions are moving in that direction without Free the Smiles, the bill will lose a lot of momentum. Nearly 100 of the states 115 school districts have moved to optional masking, a shift that Cooper has encouraged. For some students, the adjustment may cause anxiety, said Dr. Kimberly Montez, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Brenner Childrens Hospital. Weve been telling students for two years that they need to wear a mask because it keeps them safe from this invisible threat, and now were telling them to take that mask off, Montez said. Change is hard for anyone, including children. I think talking with children about what is happening is extremely important. She recommended that parents tell their children that masks may need to come back on if COVID cases start to rise again. In such a conversation, a parent may liken mask-wearing to wearing a coat. When its cold, you wear a coat; when the temperature turns warm, you take the coat off. Montez said there are lots of reasons why families may choose to keep their children masked. Individual choices should be respected, she said. Parents may want to explain to their children that some of their classmates or teachers may need to wear a mask because of vulnerable health. Acknowledging those differences is important for kids, she said. We are concerned about the potential for bullying, so I think parents can help by talking to their children about being respectful to children and families and the choices they have to make. Under new CDC guidelines, masks are now optional on buses. In addition, students and staff who have exhibited symptoms or test positive must wear masks for five days after theyve quarantined for five days. With the mask mandate lifted for now, the local school district will shift its COVID strategy to onsite testing of students and staff members showing symptoms. Such testing is now available in all of the districts schools. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The lifting of two key local mask mandates this week is being marked with two primary reactions. Its about time. Is it too soon? It likely will take weeks, if not a month or two, to determine the correct response, according to local and national public-health officials. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools indoor mask mandate expires Monday. Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines is ending a citywide mask mandate on Tuesday. Gov. Roy Cooper has recommended a March 7 ending of K-12 school and local government mask mandates. The primary reason behind those decisions is the declining number of COVID-19 omicron cases, though they appear to be plateauing for now above the levels in June and early July that marked the false-hope period between the initial variant declining and the surge of the delta variant. Local public-health officials say it may be several weeks before the local community learns/knows if ending the mask mandates contributes to another uptick in cases. With the omicron variant, it can take two to three weeks to go from infection to being hospitalized and then treated in an ICU unit. Just as it felt awkward to wear a mask, it may feel awkward at first not wearing a mask, said Joshua Swift, Forsyth Countys health director. With the (COVID-19) metrics, we dont expect cases to go up as soon as the mask mandates go away. There will still be people wearing masks, (Forsyth has) a highly vaccinated population (71% of adults), but people should still take whatever precautions make sense for them, their health status and the health status of those around them. Another factor is whether the BA.2 omicron subvariant becomes the predominant virus in the near term and surges throughout the community as delta and omicron did. However, public-health officials question how much of an impact the subvariant could have in North Carolina with 71% of adults considered as fully vaccinated but not necessarily boosted and nearly 2.6 million cases for the pandemic. Joines cautioned that if other COVID-19 variants emerge to cause large spikes in cases, reinstating the mandate is always a possibility. Personal responsibility 2.0 The local community is entering what may be considered as the personal responsibility 2.0 period of the pandemic with declining COVID-19 metrics outside the death toll. Cooper lifted most COVID-19 pandemic masking and social-distancing guidelines on May 14. At that time, fully vaccinated individuals were allowed to go to most public settings without a face covering, while those unvaccinated were urged to stay masked even though there was limited adherence. The importance of the personal responsibility/honor system factor is that in many, if not most, instances it was unclear who was vaccinated or unvaccinated. At first, it didnt seem to matter. Forsyth case counts for some days in June were in the single digits, if any at all. Some weeks had fewer than 40 cases. That personal responsibility period last about 2 months until the delta variant arrived in force in early August. By mid-to-late October, the delta variant surge led many elected officials, including Joines, to reinstate mask mandates for public-health protections. Currently, the best tools we have to respond to the pandemic are vaccines and boosters, masking during times of widespread viral transmission, and testing, DHHS said in a statement. DHHS guidance will continue to evolve based on emerging science and to focus on the most effective tools for where we are in the pandemic. Swift said he is hopeful that over the next several weeks people will accept the masking decisions of others. Some people are not going to wear a mask at all, while some will not take off their mask, and more may be in the middle, Swift said. You may choose to wear a mask in some situations, such as a crowded office space or an elevator, and not in others, such as a grocery store with high ceilings and not very crowded. A big milestone Dr. Christopher Ohl, an infectious diseases expert with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, called it a big milestone for the pandemic for the Winston-Salem mask mandate to be lifted. Ohl, along with Swift, consulted with Joines on his masking decision. Its OK for the following reasons: our case counts are coming down, and by March 1 we should be in much more comfortable range for the number of cases being transmitted in the Triad area, Ohl said. Ohl said another factor is that the upper respiratory infection season typically begins to wind down in early March as people spend more time outside. Ohl said there is ample supply of N95 masks in the Triad for those who still prefer masking indoors, which will help lower the spread of COVID-19 variants. Theres also more supply of effective treatments for COVID-19 patients, all of which reduces the impact of the virus, Ohl said. A high-grade mask should be worn if you are more vulnerable to COVID-19, such as immunocompromised individuals or other underlying health problems, such as heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease or had a stroke, he said. Ohl recommends those ages 75 and older to wear a mask in indoor settings, particularly in areas that are crowded ... like sporting events and church on Easter Sunday. Marcheta Keefer, marketing and communications director for Visit Winston-Salem, said local hospitality venues and restaurants will respond to the lifting of the citywide mask mandate by basically revising entry signage, updating website content, point of contact details, social media pushes and educating staff on changes. The majority of visitors/hotel guests have been respectful of our (or individual propertys) masking mandates, Keefer said. Having uniformity in non-masking requirements provides clarity. Thats a good thing for us all. K-12 scenario The second personal responsibility period is beginning with K-12 schools being in session. A factor in the initial delta variant surge, according to local public-health officials, was the resumption of K-12 classroom learning in August with some school districts requiring masks and some making it voluntary. During the height of the delta surge in September and October, most school districts returned to mask mandates, only for some to ease them again in November, December and January. As if parenting through a pandemic wasnt hard enough, whats really stressful for parents is the whole individualized risk assessment, Dr. Jaimie Meyer, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases expert, said in a blog posting last week. There are some instances that are clear. If your child or other people in your immediate household or family has an underlying health condition that puts them at risk for severe disease, youre going to have to take extra precautions. DHHS said in its statement that masks reduce the spread of COVID-19 and help keep students and teachers in the classroom when transmission rates are high as they are now. DHHS guidance outlines that schools consider voluntary masking when transmission rates are lower, as it has throughout the pandemic. Swift and Meyer share similar worries about low levels of fully vaccinated K-12 students several months into vaccine availability for their age groups. There are about 35,400 children in Forsyth in the 5 to 11 age range. Only 23%, or 8,142, are fully vaccinated as of Thursday. About 47% of those ages 12 to 17 are listed as fully vaccinated. Maybe if case rates and hospitalizations were low enough, vaccination would be sufficient, Meyer said. Otherwise, I would err on the side of caution. Im going to have my kids wear masks, for example. Still wary Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has recommended masking indoors in public settings, citing the elevated numbers of deaths during the omicron surge. That surge began shortly before Christmas and has been felt acutely both locally and in North Carolina. The highest Forsyth monthly death total from COVID-19 was 73 in January, while February had 65 as of Thursday. Statewide, there has been a monthly record of 1,545 deaths in February for North Carolina as of Thursday. There were 1,447 deaths in January. On Friday, the CDC announced plans to significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines, including no longer advising most individuals to wear masks in indoor public settings. The Associated Press reported the new key CDC COVID-19 metrics will still consider caseloads, but also take into account hospitalizations and local hospital capacity, which have been markedly improved during the emergence of the omicron variant. Both Swift and Meyer said the declining case counts may be a function in part from more people taking at-home COVID-19 tests, finding out they are positive with a mild case, and staying at home to recover. There is no requirement to report a positive at-home test to county health departments, although Swift said it would help make for a more accurate assessment of the current spread. Dial approach Meyer said its understandable that parents, employers and individuals are shaking their heads in confusion when local governments are saying one thing, and the CDC is saying another. How can both of these things be true? It seems that we are arbitrarily saying, Hey, its time to take off the mask, Meyer said. When asked why theres been a rush of a late February or early March endings of mask mandates, Meyer said the majority is either related to governors or local elected officials orders ending, or reading of political tea leaves. To arbitrarily pick a date makes absolutely no sense to me, Meyer said. This virus will dictate what the right date is. Meyer said instead of an all-or-nothing approach to mask mandates, she prefers what she calls a dial approach. Mandates are the extreme version of the dial. We had to crank it up to 10 when we were in the midst of a surge, especially if we wanted our kids to be able to stay in school, Meyer said. Masks are effective in schools. Theyre the reason why outbreaks in schools that have mask mandates are so rare, especially when paired with vaccination for staff. Meyer said the personal responsibility approach is appropriate in giving people back some autonomy and giving them the right to wear a mask or not wear one. Similarly, when the mandates are removed and youre left only with personal choice, there should be metrics that allow us to say that certain measures are recommended or required for certain groups of people, Meyer said. But, I also think people dont like mandates. They are tired of being told what to do. I think that really frustrates people. Future of mask mandates The arrival of personal responsibility 2.0 makes it an apt time to discuss the future of mask mandates, said Brian Garibaldi, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit for Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. He specializes in acute lung injury. Im a little worried that weve seen this movie before, and that we might be moving a little bit quickly with relaxing some of those mitigation efforts in response to the thankful decrease in community transmission, Garibaldi said during a Feb. 11 presentation. It might be a little bit too early for doing that especially when you look at the number of individuals who are eligible to be vaccinated, but still havent been. Garibaldi agreed that mask mandates for schools are clearly the most controversial. In the same Johns Hopkins presentation, Dr. William Moss, executive director of the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center, said that hopefully, we have created some new norms around wearing masks for individuals who are sick or are vulnerable to any respiratory infection. Were going to continue to see new variants of the virus, Moss said. But in the best-case scenarios, those new variants will not escape the immunity that we have built. There are doctors quoted in a recent WebMD posting who say that masking has outlived its usefulness nearly two years into the pandemic. Dr. Leana Wen, emergency department doctor and public health professor at George Washington University, tweeted that the CDC needs to change their school mask mandate guidance, ASAP. Pandemic restrictions were always meant to be temporary there needs to be a clear off-ramp thats realistic & takes into account widespread availability of vaccines for 5+. Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering in Monmouth, N.J., was quoted by WebMd as tweeting: The mask & vaccine mandates are doing far more harm than good. Its time to let anyone who wants to move on from the pandemic do so. I was criticized for saying this when Omicron began. Now, Im doubling down as millions more have gained natural immunity and been boosted. Keep alert, stay flexible What is clear is that some form of COVID-19 will remain in circulation for at least the near term, said Becky DeCamillis, a physician assistant with Novant Health Infectious Disease Specialists in Winston-Salem. The vast majority of deaths could have been prevented with vaccinations and boosters, DeCamillis said. As of Thursdays COVID-19 dashboard update from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been 757 related deaths in Forsyth County and 22,449 statewide since mid-March 2020. Science dictates that we change behavior as situations evolve or new information becomes available. Guidance may shift again if a tough new variant emerges, DeCamillis said. The absolute answer about when to unmask may not be the same from person to person, given their individual risk for severe disease and that of their family members. For example, is everyone in your household vaccinated? If not, or if they have an immunocompromising condition in which vaccination may not be as effective, you may elect to continue wearing a mask. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Still broadcasting? Last week I saw a headline from the Fox News website: How Democratic presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden caused the crisis in Ukraine. These people will do anything to avoid holding Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable, wont they? Im not sure how theyre still broadcasting, though. I thought President Biden was going to freeze all Russian assets in the U.S. Howard Greene Winston-Salem Democratic principles I must respectfully disagree with the writer of the Feb. 22 letter Biblical principles. He may desire legislators who share his beliefs, but what we all need today are legislators who respect democratic principles. Christianity is not under threat today democracy is. The Bible is not the law of the land the U.S. Constitution is. It promises every citizen the freedom to practice or not practice any religion as they see fit. The Constitution forbids religious tests for office. Every politician running to support biblical principles is a threat to that freedom. The letter writer refers to the violence that he says will result from a lack of biblical principles. But many of the Jan. 6 insurrections were expressing their belief in biblical principles when they attacked Capitol police officers and tried to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. Their belief in former President Trumps Big Lie about voter fraud and their support for Trump himself, despite his many moral flaws is a result of their mistaken adherence to biblical principles. Many of those people today say theyre preparing for civil war. Is violence in the name of religious dominance a biblical principle? If honesty is a biblical principle, Bible believers will be required to acknowledge that problem. We need more people, including Christians, to stand up for democratic, constitutional, American principles like freedom of conscience and equally. Those principles will keep our nation healthy. Gerald Bean Winston-Salem Transparent education I was very upset when I heard about HB 755, the academic transparency bill (Academic transparency bill worries educators, Feb. 21). I am a retired teacher who fully supported transparency. I never hid what I was teaching, and I resent the disrespect and distrust shown by some of the general public and Republican legislators towards public school educators. Teachers are trained and qualified, plus they are required to follow the N.C. Standard Course of Study, which is easily available for all parents to see on each schools website. Many teachers send weekly letters to parents informing them what will be taught in their classrooms. Now, grades are available online, and parents are welcome to visit classrooms and volunteer in the school. Dedicated teachers will do everything they can for their students. Our state needs to support the teachers who are already employed, and our state needs to provide an atmosphere that encourages young folks to enter this profession. Ridiculous laws such as SB 755 that demand excessive transparency, or laws that require cameras to spy on classrooms or laws that restrict teaching uncomfortable subjects hurt our educational system. Parents have access to what is being taught, and they can be involved with their own childrens education. Legislators need to ask teachers what they need and take the time to listen! Carol Ashley Winston-Salem Connect some dots Targeting the incomes of Russian oligarchs and Putin mega-rich buddies is an idea long held by many short-term thinkers, but that horse has already left the barn. Gaining a few million or billions from a handful of thieves and family members will not go very far to help arm the Ukrainians. Should the reader have the stomach, please read Steve Bannons manifesto and writings. It would not be much of a mental stretch to connect some dots between Putin/Trump/Bannon and their shared validation and instinct for violence and power-grabbing pretenses. Bruce C. Anderson Clemmons Graphic details What possible purpose could there be in printing the graphic details of the child pornography case that was reported on Feb. 24 (Pastor sentenced in child porn case)? Sensationalism? Shame on you. All you had to do was report the court findings. Stacey Baker Clemmons As he drove from Bellevue to Lincoln in the mid 1980s, on his way to drop off an application at the Lincoln Police Department, Anthony Butler was pulled over on Interstate 80. Butler, who is Black, doesn't think he was being profiled. He was speeding 10-15 mph over the limit, he said. But he hoped the trooper, who had stopped a 25-year-old hoping to join the profession, might let him off easy. Or at least quickly. "He went back to his car, came back a couple minutes later, reached in my window with that ticket book and said, 'You go ahead and sign right here,'" Butler recalled last week. "'This won't hurt your chances at all.'" The trooper was right. Butler was hired, and in June 1987, he graduated from the Lincoln Police academy as the only Black officer in his class, joining the department as one of six Black officers on the force. Over the last 3 decades, Butler, 58, has quietly climbed the ladder at Lincoln's growing police department, as the city itself has added more than 100,000 residents. He made captain in 2007, and in 2011, he took over the Northwest Team Station. He has watched as both policing and the racial landscape in Lincoln have evolved but as the racial diversity within his own department has withered. When he retires this June after 35 years on the force, Butler will leave four Black officers behind. "How do you explain that?" he said last week from his office at 27th and Holdrege streets, where the Northwest Team moved in January after LPD reorganized its geographical divisions. When he left his old office at the County-City Building, where he had already worked for more than 10 years as the Northwest Team captain, Butler took most of his wall decor home. Among the few items that adorn his mostly barren office walls at 27th and Holdrege is a series of three framed posters displaying LPD's "Long History of Diversity," beginning with the department's first Black officer in the 1890s and including photos as recent as 2002. In 1984, Genelle Moore was photographed working in the Youth Aid Unit. John Pitts Sr. led a training course in the mid-1990s. Officer Chassidy Jackson-Goodwin sang the national anthem in 2002. Sgt. Mario Robinson posed for an undated photo with the Southwest Team. And in a fifth photo, Butler welcomed then-first lady Hillary Clinton as she visited Lincoln in 1994. For Black officers at LPD, those black-and-white photos represent both the past and the present. Pitts Sr. retired in 2012. Moore followed five years later. Jackson-Goodwin left the department last year. Of the five Black officers pictured in the decades-old photos, only Butler and Robinson are still around, and the department has grown whiter with each departure. "It's disappointing," Butler said. "It's disappointing, yeah. I can't explain it. I can't." * * * Butler was born in Lincoln in 1963, but the city where he has spent the last 35 years is hardly his hometown. His father was in the military, and Butler moved from Nebraska shortly after his birth. His earliest memories of growing up were formed in Bedford, England, where he developed a British accent before moving to San Antonio, Texas, for his grade school years. "That didn't necessarily make me the most popular kid in Texas," he recalled. The accent faded over time. It was largely gone by the time Butler's father was re-stationed at Offutt Air Force Base when Butler was in third grade. His dad was deployed elsewhere over the years but didn't take the family with him, as Butler's mom advocated for stability as he and his brother, Dominic, grew older. Bellevue became home. Butler finished school in the city south of Omaha and headed off to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he earned a degree in advertising from the College of Journalism -- the irony of which isn't lost on Butler. He's nearing retirement from a career that has little to do with advertising. "I thought everybody with a degree from the school of journalism became a cop," he joked. Armed with the degree, Butler got a job in Bellevue in the early 1980s doing specialty advertising and sales for the owner of a trophy store. But as he crisscrossed the Omaha area on the job, Butler found he was more interested in what nearby cops were doing than what he was. As he talked with friends from high school a number of whom had become police officers their conversations always seemed to drift toward policing, Butler said. So he applied to LPD, where he already knew Moore, a fellow Bellevue native and military kid, and where he was hired by Jim Hawkins, a Black sergeant who Butler looked up to. "There were some good role models there, and some good people I could talk to if I needed to talk to someone," Butler said. "But there weren't a lot of Black officers." Butler met Pitts, then a training instructor, when he entered the academy in 1987. Along with Moore, Hawkins and Al Maxey, then a lieutenant, Pitts became a member of a small but supportive circle early. They offered the kind of support Butler didn't yet know he would need as he started his career as a Black cop in Lincoln. * * * Those who know Butler describe him as pragmatic, by-the-book, polished, hardworking, lowkey. Quiet, but not shy, said Moore, who worked alongside the 58-year-old for 30 years and who preceded Butler as the Northwest Team captain. She said it would be a mistake to interpret Butler as being hesitant or timid. "That's not it," Moore said. "That's a part of his analytical nature." Capt. Tarvis Banks, who joined LPD in 2007 and is among the five Black officers on the force now, described Butler as "a true professional," detailing the robotically consistent approach he brings to work a trait that comes, in part, as a product of his military upbringing, Butler acknowledged. "He's very meticulous on how he does things. You could move something on his desk like this," Banks said, dragging a pen across the desk from where it originally sat. "He'll notice it the next day and move it right back." "He's a squared-away guy. I really admire that about him. He's never gonna come in on a Monday out of sorts. He's gonna be squared away, ready to go." Pitts, 71, theorized that coming up as a Black officer helped mold Butler into the straightforward, unassuming captain he is today. Pitts, who joined LPD in 1973, said there was an expectation a requirement that Black officers had to outwork their white peers to be respected, much less promoted. "I don't know why it was that way, but that's the way it was," Pitts said in a phone interview last week. "You had to really go out and do the work and prove that you belonged." In his initial years on the force, Butler did not foresee himself as a captain. He struggled as a rookie patrolman with racism, but more-so, with his clashing identities as a Black man and police officer, roles that at times felt at odds. "We've all experienced it," said Moore, who served as a sounding board for Butler in his early years. "When you are a Black person, and then you become a police officer, it's almost like you're not a Black person anymore." Butler had been called the N-word well before he became a police officer, so when white citizens used the slur against him, he didn't flinch. He grudgingly obliged when white citizens demanded his white partner be the one who cuffed them, or take their police report, he said. What Butler dreaded most what he struggled with for his first two or three years on the job was policing the Black community. To be called the N-word was routine. To be labeled a sellout was worse, Butler said, in part because upholding his oath made him feel like one. That confliction warred within Butler when he arrested men who looked like him. "(When) you know you're the one taking away their freedom you feel it inside," Butler said. "But you also know that you took an oath, and the community is expecting you to uphold your oath. "So you do." * * * Butler has at least partially lived through three distinct American reckonings over institutionalized racism. He has only truly experienced one, he said. He grew up hearing stories of the civil rights movement, which had largely ended by the time Butler was cognizant. And he was a police officer in 1992, as riots broke out in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four L.A. officers charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. That moment felt different, Butler said, in part because he was watching it play out live on TV. But in the summer of 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's murder, that's when Butler lived it, joining fellow officers on the steps of Lincoln's Hall of Justice as protesters gathered outside the building. That summer, too, came with confliction for Butler, the highest-ranking Black officer of the city's police department, who at the time was the only Black member of LPD's command staff. He no longer had Hawkins or Pitts or Moore to confide in. Instead, it was Butler who was there to shepherd his Black colleagues. "Our conversations increased (in 2020)," said Banks, who was promoted to captain in October 2020 and will be the highest-ranking Black officer at LPD when Butler retires. "But it was not so much on the intricacies of policies or politics or the Black Lives Matter movement. It was just more of a, 'Let your hair down, five minutes of relaxation for the day.' "It was nice to have that little bit of reprieve." But on the courthouse steps, away from the moments of respite, Butler weighed the strife from both sides. "I had young Black men and women yelling and screaming at me about Black Lives Matter, as I stood before them," he recalled. "And all I could think was, 'You're preaching to the choir. I get it. I understand it.'" It was hard, he said, to watch the police department to which he had committed 33 years of his life be villainized for a crime it did not commit. And it was painstaking to hear and feel the pain of the Black voices in front of him, he said. Nearly two years later, Butler's thoughts on that summer and those protests still don't feel settled. He lamented the violence and property damage that accompanied May 2020 but celebrated the conversation it started even if it placed a strain on Lincoln's relationship with its police department. "I think, over the last few years, (that relationship) has been really pushed and really tested," he said. "And where do we go from here?" Come June, the department will have to answer that question without Anthony Butler. Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A 32-year-old spent the weekend in jail after police found him barricaded in a suite at Haymarket Park where he'd allegedly spent the night. Prosecutors charged Joseph Jarman on Monday with burglary. In an affidavit for Jarman's arrest, Lincoln Police Officer Aaron Beasley said shortly after noon Friday police were called to Haymarket Park by the director of operations, who said a man had gotten into the stadium overnight and was still in a suite. The employee told police they were trying to get into Suite 311 to clean the carpet, but the door was damaged and barricaded closed. Employees could see someone inside. Beasley said officers arrived to find Jarman still in the suite, wearing new Husker Adidas shoes and Lincoln Saltdogs shorts and stuffing items into a Husker duffle bag that was filled with concession items, a garbage bag with 37 bottles of water and a Saltdogs tote with more clothes. Police believe Jarman had stayed there for five days. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A 74-year-old Lincoln man lost more than $210,000 after a scammer, purporting to be from Microsoft, convinced the man to transfer his full account balance into a new account, according to police. The man turned on his computer Feb. 22 and noticed a pop-up message indicating his bank account had been hacked, Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said. The message provided a number to call to resolve the issue. Upon calling the number, Kocian said the scammer instructed the man to transfer the money to a new account that the call-taker had access to. The victim also provided the scammer remote access to his computer. After the transfer was completed, the scammer withdrew the full amount, Kocian said. A family member reported the transaction to LPD on Sunday. An investigation is ongoing. Kocian said the department advises anyone receiving a similar inquiry to contact their bank for verification or guidance. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Don Walton Political reporter/columnist Don Walton covers politics and the Legislature along with writing a weekly column. Follow Don Walton 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 Nebraska's Republican Party saluted departing state senators who are Republicans at an event at the Country Club of Lincoln last week and it provided a reminder of the approaching loss of a remarkable collection of independent-minded senators who were not bound or beholden to party or partisan majority or a governor who shared their party affiliation. They acted independently in the spirit of Nebraska's nonpartisan Legislature. And their votes often made the difference. Some of them may be more moderate -- defined as less extreme in dictionary terms -- than their party; but, mostly, they just chose compromise on occasion and progress virtually all the time rather than strict adherence to dogma. Three of them, Sens. Mark Kolterman of Seward, John Stinner of Gering and Matt Williams of Gothenburg, became known as the Three Apostles, Matt, Mark and John. Sen. John McCollister of Omaha made his own independent call on every issue without leaving the foundations of the Republican Party that he once knew. Another, Sen. Robert Hilkemann of Omaha, cast the final, decisive vote to override Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto of legislation outlawing the death penalty in the face of enormous pressure. It was later reinstituted by a vote of the people. It's hard to predict what new senators will do or how they will vote until they are sworn into office and begin to walk the halls of the Capitol with the full realization that they are independent of party in the Legislature and free to cast votes based on their own decisions, convictions and beliefs coupled with the knowledge they begin to acquire. But, in terms of nonpartisan independence and personal strength, they've got some shoes to fill. * * * The world is beginning to look uncomfortably Biblical. Russia invades Ukraine, China eyes Taiwan, the United States moves toward the political precipice with its bulwark of free and fair elections in dispute and we haven't even mentioned the Middle East, where passions and hatred are always stirring and the Bible points to a climatic battleground. We don't know yet whether Vladimir Putin intends to try to occupy and restore even more pieces of the old Soviet Union or how this dangerous confrontation in Ukraine will end with Europe rumbling once again and Putin pointing to his nuclear capability now. And we don't know whether American voters and political parties will accept the results of the next presidential election. A stunning 70% of Republicans don't acknowledge the results of the last one, according to some recent polling. How can that be? That's a recipe for what Donald Trump oddly, and perhaps prematurely, described as "American carnage" in his 2017 inaugural address. But all the focus is and should be on the remarkably brave people and leader of Ukraine now. Profiles in courage. Finishing up * Don't self-checkout lanes cost retail jobs for people who may really need them? Let's wait in line. * Start the clock: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Biden on Friday. Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the court by President Trump on Sept. 29, 2020 and confirmed on Oct. 26, less than a month later. * Early chatter suggests Sen. John Arch of La Vista could be the next Speaker of the Legislature with Sen. Mike Hilgers of Lincoln, the current Speaker, favorably positioned to be elected as Nebraska's next attorney general. * In the immediate wake of Putin's decision to attack and occupy Ukraine, Donald Trump expressed his admiration for the Russian leader as a "genius" just as he previously praised Kim Jong-Un of North Korea, who he described as "far beyond smart." Trump likes strong men, but the real one is in Ukraine, and his name is Volodymyr Zelensky. * Rep. Don Bacon, interviewed on MSNBC: "We need to stand up to the bully, the thug. He will push further if we don't show strength and resolve." * Gotta hand it to the Fijis for an apparently straight-faced accusation that UNL administrators punished them in the wake of bad behavior because they supported Trump. * Committee hearings at the Legislature grind to a halt next week; hearings on pending bills provide valuable perspective and detail, but often turn into repetitive torture chambers. * The filing deadline for candidates in the May 10 primary election is Tuesday; step right up. Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A proposal to offer incentives on city projects to contractors who have apprenticeship programs faces substantial opposition from local businesses that claim it would hurt them and add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. The proposed ordinance would give a 5% credit on city bids to contractors that use apprentices for at least 10% of their labor hours. The company must use an apprenticeship program registered with either the federal or state department of labor, or be a training program authorized by a union. Several businesses that wrote letters in opposition to the ordinance say it would favor unionized businesses, because most apprenticeship programs in Nebraska recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor are affiliated with unions. Joe DAmico, vice president of General Excavating, wrote in a letter to the Lincoln City Council that his company doesnt know of any unionized utility contractors in the city. As such we are personally at a loss as to why the Lincoln City Council would set up a system that would place Lincoln-based utility contractors such as General Excavating at a disadvantage to businesses that are not located here for city-based work. The ordinance would apply to bids of at least $250,000 and would only apply to the evaluation of the bid, said Councilman James Michael Bowers, who introduced it. Bowers said his goal was to help increase the pool of skilled workers in Lincoln. A similar ordinance passed in Omaha with no opposition. He noted that finding skilled workers was a top priority for 92% of Nebraska Chamber of Commerce members, and that Blueprint Nebraska, a statewide initiative aimed at stimulating economic development, proposed increasing the number of internships and apprenticeships to meet the needs of companies relocating to or expanding in Nebraska. But local contractors say they already train their workers, especially given the labor shortage. The trainings in place, General Excavating President Scott Fitzgerald said in an interview. Why do we need an additional layer of bureaucracy to basically do what were already doing? Several contractors wrote about work they do with local programs such as those at Southeast Community College to recruit and train workers and questioned why those weren't recognized in the proposed ordinance. If the city is paying a premium for companies that use apprentices, Fitzgerald said, he questioned how thats benefiting the taxpayer. Bud Synhorst, president and CEO of the Lincoln Independent Business Association, said the proposed ordinance presents other challenges. For instance, if 10% of the labor must be apprentices, there might not be people on site able to operate heavy machinery. He also doesnt know how the city plans to enforce such a requirement, and would likely have to create a new department to audit companies. That just seems like a lot of wasted taxpayer money if were going to have to create a bigger burden on these contractors that work with the city. Its another layer of red tape. Synhorst said hed hoped to delay Mondays public hearing until all the parties had a chance to reach a compromise. Its important that an ordinance like this be crafted so its not detrimental to local businesses, he said. I dont know what the rush is, he said. Now, as written, this is a disaster for local businesses. The proposed ordinance already had been put on hold and the Council isnt likely to vote on it Monday, though the public hearing is scheduled to go forward. It originally came up for a public hearing Jan. 10, but was postponed until Monday. Bowers said he will ask that the City Council delay a vote at least a week. Bowers said hes planned a roundtable for Thursday with members who both support the ordinance and those that have concerns about it in an effort to work out a compromise. Reach the writer at 402-473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSreist Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As she strutted down the runway at the Her Universe Fashion Show for Comic Con in San Diego, Adria Renee remembered her early days in elementary school strutting down the school hallways. Back then, Renee didnt carry herself with as much confidence as she does today. Wearing her mothers old clothes and clothes from thrift stores back then wasnt as accepted as it is today. Being raised by a single mother also didnt leave much room for new back-to-school clothes for Renee. I was kind of ostracized for how I dressed and in that way I ended up leaning into fashion. I stayed true to myself and didnt give in to any pressure or bullying. It was while she was working at Old Navy during community college that she realized the power of fashion. Renee would spend her days at Old Navy styling co-workers and it was then that she began to realize how much several women tend to minimize their femininity. She had never thought of that much before since she leaned into hers through fashion at an early age. But the feelings other women had about their femininity were the same Renee had when it came to her own geekiness. I think as women we tend to minimize ourselves because over time people kind of temper our enthusiasm," she said. "You dont want to look too vain or too frivolous, so we tend to minimize our interests or femininity. After community college, she studied social science at San Diego State University, which qualified her to teach high school history, economics and political science. She also found a way to work fashion into her lesson plans. Looking at rationing during World War II, I used actual garments from the period to show how the rationing was put into effect and what we could figure out about society at the time by looking at the clothing, she said. Meanwhile, being the first woman of color to win the Her Universe Fashion Show, led her to pursue her masters of arts in the material culture program at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. UNL offered her an assistantship position and Renee made the move to the Midwest, which she describes as a bit of a culture shock, but in the best way possible. Now in her last semester of the graduate program, the self-taught designer is working on her next line, which she calls, A Womans Place is in Resistance. The line focuses on women in fandom and fashion as a means of fan expression. She plans on using Star Wars as a specific case study for her inspiration, looking at how women use fashion to navigate the fandom. Her designs will be similar to some of her previous geek couture work. Going onto social media platforms and discussing favorite quotes, images and moments with her community is another part of her design process. You have to take up space to make space, Renee says, and thats why she intends to honor women in fandom through this line. Reach the writer at emejia@journalstar.com Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As COVID-19 indicators continue to decline across Nebraska, hospital leaders say things are starting to return somewhat to normal. As of Sunday night, there were 279 COVID-19 patients in Nebraska hospitals, which is down about 64% from a month ago and the lowest number since mid-August. Kevin Miller, president of CHI Health's Lakeside and Midlands hospitals in the Omaha area, said the volume of new COVID-19 admissions has dropped significantly, and patients tend to be less sick than in the past. A month ago, Miller said, his hospitals had about 40-45 COVID-19 patients. On Monday, they had four. "You definitely see the change," he said. There was a big exhale when we saw the volume going down." Brett Richmond, president and CEO of Methodist Fremont Health, echoed that, saying his hospital had only one COVID-19 patient Monday, compared with an average of about 8-12 a day a month ago. Richmond also said his hospital has seen a huge decline in the number of people testing positive for the virus. In January, it set a pandemic record for positive tests, but that number dropped by more than half in February. In Lancaster County on Monday, there are 50 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, with 34 from Lancaster County, including two on ventilators. There was one death reported, a woman in her 40s who was vaccinated. According to the state's COVID-19 dashboard, the test positivity rate in Nebraska dropped to 5.5% last week, the lowest it's been since mid-July. The positivity rates translate to case numbers that have declined sharply. Nebraska reported only 968 cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, down from a record 29,141 cases reported in the week beginning Jan. 16. Dr. Gary Anthone, Nebraska's chief medical officer, told The Associated Press on Monday that the numbers have improved so quickly because 67% of the state's residents over the age of 5 are vaccinated and others have developed natural immunity after being infected with the omicron variant. The four- to six-month outlook is good, allowing Nebraskans to think about getting back to normal, he said. Everybody is really optimistic that hopefully we can get back to living with the virus rather than having to let the virus somewhat control us, said Anthone, who said he believes the state can get down to the levels it saw in June, when only 27 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide. While declining case numbers have been the driver of lower hospital numbers, another factor that has helped is the opening of skilled nursing home beds as part of the state's hospital decompression program. The first beds opened up in Lincoln a few weeks ago, and recovering COVID-19 patients have been able to cycle through, said Jeremy Nordquist, president of the Nebraska Hospital Association. Last week, the first beds opened in Omaha, and Nordquist said a contract has now been finalized to open beds in Grand Island. Despite the decline in COVID-19 patients, hospital leaders say they still have plenty to do. "We're still really busy," Richmond said. "It's a little bit more of a normal busy." Miller said his Omaha-area hospitals remain near-capacity, with many people coming in for care that they have delayed because of the pandemic. "We are starting to see people getting caught up on their care, especially surgical cases," Miller said. That means hospitals are continuing to deal with staffing issues. Miller said his hospitals continue to employ traveling nurses and have more scheduled to work shifts in the coming weeks. Existing staff also still face stress of working long hours and extra shifts, while occasionally being mistreated by patients and family members angry about pandemic-related restrictions that remain in place. In an effort to recognize those workers, this week has been declared Healthcare Workers Appreciation Week. People are asked to show their appreciation by wearing white, leaving lights on in their home or lighting up their business, and performing random acts of kindness for health care workers. Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MADISON The findings from a sprawling, taxpayer-funded investigation ordered by Wisconsin Republicans into the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden are expected to be made public Tuesday. The report from Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice whose work drew bipartisan criticism, was being turned over to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, Monday morning before being made public, a spokesman for Gableman told WLUK-TV, a Green Bay station. Gableman, his spokesman and Vos have not returned messages Monday seeking comment. Gableman has defended his work as trying to get to the truth of what happened in the election. His work has largely focused on grant money awarded to Wisconsins five largest, and strongly Democratic, cities (including Racine) by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a foundation heavily funded by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Vos, who ordered the investigation, has repeatedly said it was not about trying to overturn Bidens win, even though he has faced pressure from some Republican colleagues to do that. Instead, Vos said, the goal was to enact changes before the next election. However, the Republican-controlled Legislature is unlikely to act this year on any of Gablemans recommendations. The Assembly met for what was anticipated to be its final day of the year last week and the Senate is planning to come in just once more in early March. The Legislature last week passed a package of bills making a series of election and voting changes, all of which are expected to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Evers and other Democrats have long discounted the probe as a political stunt designed to appease former President Donald Trump and those who believe that the election was stolen from him. Turns out, trash collection day has been moved up to today, Democratic state Sen. Chris Larson, of Milwaukee, tweeted Monday ahead of the reports expected release. Gableman is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Wisconsin Assembly elections committee, a panel that has hosted several election conspiracy theorists in recent weeks. During that Tuesday hearing, also invited to speak is Erick Kaardal, a Minnesota-based attorney who attempted to have election overturned in five states. Kaardal also is working worth several complainants in and around Racine who doubt the results of the 2020 election. Biden won Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes, a result that has withstood recounts, numerous state and federal lawsuits, and reviews by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. Under pressure from Trump, Vos hired Gableman in June to conduct his own review of the election. Gablemans effort was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats after he hired former Trump administration officials and others who have touted election conspiracy theories. Gablemans fairness has also been called into question given comments he made to Trump supporters shortly after the 2020 election in which he said bureaucrats at the state elections commission had stolen the election. Gableman, after he was hired, also admitted to not understanding how elections are run in Wisconsin, a comment that also generated ridicule from both parties. Vos said earlier this year that he wanted Gableman to conclude his work by the end of February. His $676,000 taxpayer-funded contract ended at the end of December, but his attempts to subpoena state and local elections officials and the mayors of Madison and Green Bay Democratic cities won by Biden have been hung up in courts. Gableman, meanwhile, asked courts to jail the mayors, including Racine Mayor Cory Mason, the Democrat-appointed chair of the elections commission and other election officials for not cooperating. Others subpoenaed by Gableman, including the Nebraska-based voting machine company Election Systems & Software, said they would not cooperate. Gableman rescinded subpoenas to the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera after it also sued to block them. Adam Rogan of The Journal Times contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 RACINE A Racine man, Demond Hicks, was shot and killed before dawn Saturday morning. He was found at about 3:45 a.m. suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the middle of the street in the 1600 block of Cleveland Avenue, between 16th Street and Victory Avenue, the Racine Police Department reported Monday morning. The first officers on scene reported he did not have a pulse. The RPD reported that lifesaving measures were attempted and the man was taken to the hospital, but he could not be revived. The deceased has been identified as Demond Hicks, 36, of Racine. No arrests have been reported, nor have any suspects been publicly identified. Police had responded to the scene in response to a shots-fired call. Investigators are seeking information about the killing. They can be contacted at 262-635-7756; to submit anonymous tips, contact Crime Stoppers by calling 262-636-9330 or via the p3 app. Second This was the second homicide in the City of Racine in 2022, and also the second in February. The first was Christopher Lalor, the 50-year-old Racine firefighter who was found shot and killed in the basement of his home Feb. 20, although police say he was likely killed two days prior. Peter James Lui was accused of killing Lalor, his longtime friend, before fleeing to Florida and killing himself. This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Demond Hicks name. TOWN OF WATERFORD Police have cited a longtime property owner along Kramer Drive for allowing her son-in-law, who is a car dealer, to store dozens of vehicles on her property. Eileen Anderson, who owns 10 acres in the 28000 block of Kramer Drive, said she is irritated that police are trying to dictate how she can use her private property. Im pretty ticked about it, she said. Anderson, 77, is the former proprietor of Andersons Corn Roast Concessions. Waterford police issued her a $124 ticket for violating a town ordinance against the storage of junk vehicles or unregistered vehicles on residential property. As of Thursday, police said there were 63 used cars and trucks stored on Andersons property, which is located in a rural area north of the Village of Waterford. Andersons son-in-law, Craig Lindsay, 47, said he operates a car dealership in the Milwaukee area, and he needed extra space to store his inventory. He would not disclose the name of his business. Lindsay said he had no objection to police issuing a citation, and he said he was moving the vehicles as quickly as he could. We absolutely dont want to stir anything up, he said. Waterford Police Department records show that officers first inspected Andersons property on Jan. 17. Officers returned the following day and issued the citation for improper storage of vehicles. Police officials released public records on the incident this week. Andersons past association with Andersons Corn Roast Concessions is noted in the police records. On Thursday, Lindsay said he is moving the vehicles to a new spot where he has rented storage space closer to his dealership in the Milwaukee area. He disputed the police account that 63 vehicles were on site, saying that he thought the number was about 50. Lindsay said he tries to increase his inventory this time of year, because many people like to use their tax returns to buy new cars. He has stored vehicles on his mother-in-laws property before, he said, although not in such great numbers. Weve never had an issue before, he said. Anderson, who has lived on Kramer Drive for more than 30 years, said she did not think the vehicle storage was troubling any neighbors. But she also suspects that a neighbor registered a complaint with the police. Although she plans to pay the fine and not fight the ticket, Anderson said nobody should be able to tell her how she can use her property. Everybody else has got their noses sticking in, she said. Theyre bothering me, by nosing in. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Lake Geneva Fire Department is warning people to not drive or walk on Geneva Lake after a cars tire went through the ice and got stuck on Sunday, Feb. 27. PLEASE STAY OFF OF THE ICE!! We cannot express this enough, the fire department posted online on Facebook. The fire department went on to tell people, Please understand that if you chose to drive on the lake you not only put your life at risk but ours as well. We, in no way shape or form, suggest to drive on the ice, walk on the ice, or just go on the ice. It has gotten a lot warmer and it is just not safe. The department advised that if someone chooses to go out on the ice, they are encouraged to wear bright colors because it will help emergency rescue personnel find them better if they go through the ice. The fire department was called down to the Lake Geneva boat launch at noon on Sunday for a vehicle where the tire broke through the ice. All occupants were safely out of the vehicle, no injuries were reported and a tow company was able to safely remove the vehicle from the ice. During Lake Genevas Winterfest 2016, the city made national news when 15 vehicles that drove out onto the ice, broke through the ice. A sign at the boat launch said, Drive on the lake at your own risk. Of the 15, five vehicles were able to be driven out quickly when the ice broke. But 10 were too far into the water to be driven out. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 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 View Results KEARNEY Victoria Nimneh strutted the runway like she owned it. At the University of Nebraska at Kearneys recent Cultural Fashion Show, the daughter of African immigrants happily bounced to the music in an off-shoulder dress made of a patchwork of bold red, gold and black prints. The UNK sophomore moved from playful to serious with a fierce stance at the end of the runway hands planted on her hips, mouth parted, head tilted and a cool look over her shoulder. The spotlight highlighted her face dotted with white paint to represent African tribal markings a wooden beaded necklace and fabric bow-tie earrings. Before the show, Nimneh sifted through suitcases of clothing her mom Mariama purchased from friends in West Africa over the years. Together, at the Nimneh home in Omaha, they found the right outfit for the fashion show. Back on stage in Kearney, Nimneh looked cool and confident in her Africana dress. But before the show, Nimneh said she panicked. She used that nervous energy to hype herself and others before the show. As we were practicing and people were being nervous, I said, Were gonna go out there and kill it. Were gonna walk down the runway like its ours, she said. Nimneh, who had never modeled before, seems to be a natural born performer. When she enters the room, she brightens it and just flourishes, Mariama said of her daughters personality. The Office of Student Diversity and Inclusions Cultural Fashion Show, which featured 14 countries, was an opportunity for Nimneh to honor Mariamas home country, Sierra Leone, and her dad Donalds birthplace, Liberia. It meant a lot to me. Since I was born in America, I have a connection to Africa, but I dont speak the language as much as I want to, Nimneh said of representing her heritage. I try to connect. Thats my background. Thats my culture right there. Its important to be proud of where I come from. Nimnehs parents immigrated to the United States east coast more than 20 years ago with their respective parents and siblings. Nimneh said her grandparents wanted to offer their families better education opportunities. Nimneh, the oldest of three children, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Omaha. She is living the family dream at UNK. An Omaha Mercy High School graduate, Nimneh is majoring in music education and minoring in dance. Education is the key in life. People can take so many things from you. But in education, what you learn in life, it goes a long way, Mariama said. Nimneh learned to love music at home, where she listened and sang along to a variety of genres in her house. Her dad loves country and has sung in church. Mariama plays a lot of African music. Nimneh has branched out to electronic dance music. Music is a connection to my culture. Music is a connection to people around me, she said. Its like, Oh, theres nothing that we can talk about, but theres music that we can talk about. Nimnehs love of music inspired her to major in music education and minor in dance. She hopes to one day teach and direct show choir, which she participated in her senior year of high school. She enjoyed her experience so much that she decided to join Nebraskats at UNK. When I go on stage to perform, I feel like Im embodying something different, Nimneh said. I take the emotions from the music that were singing or the movement from dancing and put those emotions outward. Nimneh also is involved in UNK Womens Chorus and Harmonix, a student-lead acapella group. Through Harmonix, Nimneh gets the opportunity to be creative. We get to put in our ideas for what we want to do. Its a lot of listening to and being in tune to each other, both metaphorically and literally, she said. Nimneh dreams of show choir routines she hopes to one day teach young students. Ive already made shows in my head of what I want to do, she said. Aside from music, Nimneh is treasurer of the Black Student Association, which recently hosted a Black History Month Celebration. Nimneh and fellow members Isaiah Mahone and Esther Uma sang Lift Every Voice and Sing at the event, which featured a guest speaker, food and dancing. Nimneh said BSA has been a good place for her to connect with other Black students. I feel like BSA is a good environment for me to be in because we can talk about what is going on in our lives. Its a unified community and I really like it, she said. UNK has helped Nimneh learn more about herself, what she believes in and who she wants to become, she said. And as a college student, she is setting an example for her younger siblings Donald, 13, and Helen, 9. They look up to me. So, what I do reflects on what they need to do, Nimneh said. Im also here because of them and doing things I want to do, for them. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse invited outgoing UW President Tommy Thompson to the campus Monday and heard a rousing pep talk on the value of the UW System. Im so proud of this system and everyone involved, Thompson told a gathering at the Cleary Alumni & Friends Center. This is a fantastic system. Thompson, who served as Wisconsin governor for 16 years and as Health and Human Services Secretary under President George W. Bush, will visit every four-year UW campus before stepping down March 18. He was named interim president July 1, 2020, three weeks after the sole finalist for the position withdrew his name. Thompson said the UW System prepared him for a successful life in public service and business. He spent four years as an undergraduate and three years as a law student at UW-Madison. He said those seven years motivated him to accept the offer of interim president. It was the University of Wisconsin-Madison that gave me an opportunity to become a leader, and I will never forget that, Thompson said. His first mission as interim president was to re-open campuses shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said administrators, professors and students deserve credit for making in-person classes a reality to start the fall 2020 semester. Thompson, an Elroy native, said there was resistance from some UW chancellors but said UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow was rock solid in support of in-person classes. He said students were especially supportive of reopening classes and accepting COVID-19 protocols. I want to thank the students ... It was a culture of responsibility that impressed the heck out of me, Thompson said. It was amazing to me that we were able to keep the campuses open. Gow shared the podium with Thompson and gave the former governor credit for using his federal government connections to leverage $50 million in federal funding for COVID-19 testing. Without your connections to health care providers, CDC, the vaccination people, I dont know how we would have kept it all going, Gow said. That meant so much to us as chancellors that you could get those resources for us. Thompson said several campuses (not including UW-L) were in difficult financial shape when he took over. He said $300 million in cuts were necessary, including the reduction of central administrative staff from 650 to 500. He said the campuses now, all 13 of them, are financially strong. In a separate interview with the media, Thompson said the UW System needs to address two issues. First, he proposed a blue-ribbon task force to study higher education in the state and examine where the 26 two-year UW campuses and 54 technical college campuses fit into the system. He said the structure of the higher education hasnt been examined in over 50 years. We have too many buildings and we have too much overlap, Thompson said. You need to be willing to consolidate buildings, and we have to find ways in which we can cooperate and share responsibilities. Second, he said the state needs to find a way to attract people who have earned credits at a UW campus or technical college but have yet to earn degrees. He said there are 815,000 such people in Wisconsin. Lets find ways to get them a degree, he said. He told the audience that its critical for supporters to promote the UW System and post-secondary education in general. He urged people to stop criticizing the UW System and start bragging about it. So many people around this country smart people saying that you dont a need a university education, and that really bothers me, Thompson said. Who are going to be the engineers? Who are going to be nurses? Who are going to be individual business leaders? The entrepreneurs? Thompson said UW-L has a particularly positive story to tell. He said 90 percent of UW-L graduates remain in the area at least five years after graduation. Theyre staying in La Crosse and helping you build this economy, he said. He spent a considerable part of the speech promoting the second phase of the Prairie Springs Science Center, which UW-L officials describe as the campus highest capital project priority. Thompson said part of the existing building leaks like a sieve and that a new building is needed to train students in high-demand professions. Thompson will be succeeded by Jay Rothman. In a separate media interview, Gow said he has already had meetings with Rothman and is very excited about what he can bring to the UW System. He has a different skill set than somebody in higher education, and so I think hes going to be very effective working with chancellors and maximizing the potential of what we have, Gow said. Thompson, who is 80 years old, said he plans to take most of April off but will remain active in public affairs and his various business enterprises, including a farm near Elroy. I will not retire, he said. Its not in me. Ill go nuts. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As anticipated, La Crosse County is looking to use $5 million of its American Rescue Plan Act dollars to improve Hillview Health Care Center. On Wednesday morning the Executive Committee approved using the funds to construct a 48-bed community based residential facility on the south side campus. This is really a complete reinvention of the Hillview campus, said La Crosse County Administrator Steve OMalley. He said the new design takes lessons learned from previous facilities and is initially a downsizing of the campus. The board will need to make a decision down the road if more space is added. If approved by the County Board this month, construction could begin this fall before the first freeze hits. It would be completed in early 2024 if no hiccups arise. This new facility, according to staff, is to accommodate an increased need for long-term care. Hillview is currently licensed for 100 beds and is generally staffed to have an occupancy of 70 to 80 residents. Its expected that about half of the individuals that currently use the campus will be eligible to use the new facility. Then the board would need to make a decision on the future of the older facility, which OMalley described as being at the end of its life. Supervisor Ralph Geary noted that because this would be a yearly budget item, it could be revisited every November if the board should want to change the countys contribution, though he hoped it would stay the same. This is one of the first formal allocations of the countys ARPA funding. The board previously placed dollars into spending categories, and staff is currently working on finalizing projects to approve actual spending. County support The Executive Committee also approved a resolution that would add $225,000 to the countys next budget that would be used for maintenance support at the La Crosse Center. These funds would not be allocated until the 2023 budget, which is approved in the fall, and would still need to be approved during that process and by the full board later this month. The funding comes after debates in past years about the regional contributions to the La Crosse Center, which just underwent a massive $42 million expansion project. Geary, who requested the resolution, said that this was a chance to to put city vs. county discourse in the past. That mentality should stop, he said, saying that when projects are funded in other municipalities its not scrutinized as much. My view of this is: The city of La Crosse is part of La Crosse County. This is the county helping the county, Geary said. Were going to benefit off of it. According to the resolution, the new La Crosse Center is estimated to bring in between $205,000 and $248,000 in La Crosse County sales tax per year. The maintenance fund is intended to embrace that amount. It also states that this dedicated funding source toward ongoing maintenance could prevent the need for additional multi-million dollar renovations down the road. This amount also would be less than 1.7% of the countys 2022 budgeted revenue of $13.5 million, according to the fiscal note in the resolution, which highlighted that the countys sales tax has exceeded expectations the past two years. There is definitely countywide impact, and regional impact, La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds told the committee Wednesday. He was joined by La Crosse Center Board director Brent Smith and director Art Fahey. Raises for some elected officials A pay increase for the La Crosse County Clerk of Courts and Sheriff, which are both elected seats on this falls ballot, was also approved by the committee. These increases are required by state law to be established before candidates can take out nomination papers, which can begin on April 15. The positions will each get a 3% annual raise between 2023-2026, according to the resolution. That would increase the clerk of courts salary from $86,666 to $97,543 and the sheriffs from $120,298 to $135,396. OMalley said that this increase was intended to match the raises approved for the register of deeds, county clerk and treasurer for their current terms. Elected department heads also dont receive step increases to their salaries as other employees do, and this increase was intended to be more significant than the 2% raise all county employees received across the board this year. This is an attempt to recognize them a little bit more, OMalley said. All of these resolutions will appear before the full La Crosse County Board next Thursday for approval. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. On a June night in 2018, 17-year-old Chrystul Kizer put a .38-caliber pistol in her book bag and took an Uber from Milwaukee to Kenosha. She walked into Randall Volars home. She had met Volar on a sex trafficking website and for the past year he had been molesting her and selling her as a prostitute, according to court documents. Kizer would tell detectives later that Volar, 34, tried to touch her. She pulled out her gun, told him to sit in a chair and shot him in the head. She then burned his house down and stole his BMW, according to court documents. What looks like a clear-cut case of criminal homicide could actually be legal under a Wisconsin law that absolves sex trafficking victims of crimes related to being trafficked. The state Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Kizer can argue that immunity extends to murder in a case that could help define the scope of sex trafficking victims immunity in dozens of states across the country. Kizer, now 21, wants to argue at trial that her actions were justified under a law then-Gov. Jim Doyle signed in 2008 that absolves sex trafficking victims of any offense committed as a direct result of being trafficked. But a Kenosha County judge ruled Kizer cant raise that argument, saying that extending the law to cover homicide would be absurd. Anti-violence groups have flocked to Kizers defense, arguing in legal briefs that trafficking victims feel trapped and may feel they have to take matters into their own hands. Oral arguments are scheduled for Tuesday. The high court isnt being asked to decide whether Kizer is guilty, only if she can argue at trial that the law protects her from criminal liability. The decision wont legally bind other states with similar immunity laws for trafficking victims. But it could create a baseline for prosecutorial and defense strategies in similar cases and affect how victims respond to abuse, legal experts said. If were living in a civilized society, it begs the question, are we going to give immunity to people who are sexually abused to kill their abusers? said Julius Kim, a defense attorney and former Milwaukee County assistant district attorney. The implications can be devastating. Attorneys general across the country are going to pay attention to see how this plays out. Nearly 40 states have passed laws over the last decade that provide sex trafficking victims some level of criminal immunity, according to Legal Action of Wisconsin, which provides legal assistance for low-income people. The laws came as legislators began to understand that traffickers exploit their victims and that states should prioritize rehabilitation and help rather than punishment. The extent of immunity varies among states. California, Kentucky, Montana and North Dakota, for example, extend immunity to non-prostitution-related crimes, according to a court brief the Harvard Law School Gender Justice Clinic and 12 other anti-violence groups filed supporting Kizer. Other states limit immunity to prostitution-related offenses, according to the coalition. Wisconsin, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming place no limits on immunity but defendants must show the crimes were related to being trafficked. The Kizer case Kizers attorneys allege in court filings that Kenosha police suspected Volar was trafficking children for sex several months before he was killed. The attorneys allege he filmed himself sexually assaulting numerous children. Police arrested Volar in February 2018 and seized evidence of sexual assault and child pornography from his home but later released him and no charges were filed, according to the filings. Her attorneys went on to say she was 16 when she met Volar. Kizer told the Washington Post in a 2019 interview from jail that she met Volar on Backpage.com, a website known to facilitate sex trafficking that the federal government has since shut down. She said she needed money for snacks and school. Volar sexually molested her and trafficked her through the website to others, she told the Post. According to the criminal complaint, Volar paid for an Uber to bring Kizer from Milwaukee to his home in Kenosha in June 2018. The house caught fire that night. Police discovered Volars body slumped in a chair in the house. He had been shot and his BMW was missing. Kizer told detectives that she got a gun to protect herself. She said she was tired of Volar touching her and shot him because a tote blocked the door and she was afraid she couldnt leave, the complaint said. Asked about the fire, Kizer said she watched the television show Criminal Minds and decided to start the fire. She told detectives she jumped out a window and drove off in the BMW. Prosecutors charged her with first-degree intentional homicide, arson, car theft and illegal possession of a firearm. She would face a mandatory life sentence if convicted on the homicide count. Kizer spent two years in jail before she was released in June 2020 after community groups raised her $400,000 bail. Her attorneys planned to invoke the sex trafficking immunity law at trial, but Kenosha County Circuit Judge David Wilk refused to allow it, finding immunity extends only to trafficking-related charges, such as restraining someone, extortion, sex acts or slave labor. Kizers attorney, public defender Katie York, persuaded a state appellate court to overturn Wilks ruling this past June. That court found that immunity applies to any offense that is a direct result of being trafficked. Appeal to state Supreme Court The state Department of Justice appealed to the state Supreme Court. Assistant Attorney General Timothy Barber argued in briefs that the shooting wasnt a direct result of trafficking because it was premeditated. The day before Volar was killed Kizer texted a friend saying Im going to get a BMW and told her boyfriend she intended to shoot Volar, the prosecutor argued. Kizers argument that she shot Volar to escape a sexual assault holds no water since she shot him while he was sitting in a chair, Barber added. Kizer is asking this Court to interpret (the immunity law) in a manner that creates a broader defense based on trafficking status than someone could assert in any other self-defense context, Barber wrote. York declined to comment for this story. But she argued in briefs that Wilks interpretation of the immunity statutes undermines the purpose of the law and Kizer should be allowed to make her case at trial. Kate Mogulescu, an associate professor of clinical law at Brooklyn Law School who specializes in sex trafficking laws and consulted with one of the parties that filed briefs supporting Kizer, said in a telephone interview that it should be an easy call for the Supreme Court to let a jury consider the context surrounding Volars death. Somehow when its a trafficking victim thats trying to provide additional information and context to what happened in their case, that shouldnt be allowed? That doesnt make any sense, Mogulescu said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Each February I read a book on the Black experience in America, since I didnt learn much about it in school. The Reconstruction era and Jim Crow were glossed over in history class. Growing up in the 1970s and celebrating the newly elected Shirley Chisolm and Andrew Young, it was confusing to learn that there were Black congressmen from Southern states as early as 1870. Ive learned a lot about other cultures through books. However, it is not easy to admit that I have had to turn to books to understand my fellow Americans, and their parallel lives as if they were foreigners. They speak the same language as I do, some went to the same public school, yet their experiences are drastically different and for one reason only: the color of their skin. I read Frederick Douglass autobiography, and his fierce intelligence shocked me to imagine a man like this in slavery. Richard Wright introduced the idea of the cycle of racism in Native Son. I read well-known works by Black women writers: Alice Walkers The Color Purple, Maya Angelous I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Tony Morrisons Song of Solomon. They are tales of abuse but also of hope and feminism. In March 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, I realized I had to read more than one book a year if I was going to more fully understand racism and how we can support freedom and justice for Black citizens. And I needed to hear from 21st-century Americans. But first I had to read James Baldwins The Fire Next Time. It had been on my want-to-read list, and Floyds death bumped it to the front of the line. It sounded like it was written in the summer of 2020, though it came out in 1963. The book opens with a letter to his nephew, James, and Baldwin speaks plainly about the racism that the boy will confront, telling him that his grandfather (Baldwins father) was defeated long before he died because ... he really believed what white people said about him. He tells his nephew that he doesnt need to become like white people nor be accepted by them, but that he must accept (white people) and accept them with love, because they are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released by it. To get to a post-racial America we need to listen and learn. A good start in understanding racial injustice is Bryan Stevensons Just Mercy. As a young lawyer, Stevenson started the Equal Justice Initiative, dedicated to defending the wrongly condemned and those trapped in our criminal justice system. Jeffrey Toobin quotes Stevenson in an Aug. 15, 2016, article: Lynching was racial terrorism, he said. Old people of color come up to me sometimes and say, Mr. Stevenson, I get so angry when I hear someone on TV talking about how theyre dealing with domestic terrorism for the first time in our nations history after 9/11. You need to make them stop saying that, because thats not true. In Heavy: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon, he and his friends talk about having black abundance, which they believe will save them in this white world. But in Laymons experience, the white world doesnt recognize their excellence. For example, when he answers correctly, a high school teacher pats him on the head. The teacher doesnt pat the white students on the head. Later, in college, he is accused of plagiarism for using a large word! Isabel Wilkerson, in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, relates a story about a girl born in 1971 named Miss, her legal first name, by her father so that white people would be forced to refer to her with a term of respect. He hated the way younger white neighbors addressed his respectable mother and grandmother by their first names, never calling them Mrs. or Miss. When his daughter, Miss, was in high school in Texas in the 1980s, the principal asked for her name, didnt believe it, but begrudgingly said it. He told her that he knew she wasnt from Texas because she looked him in the eye when he was talking. Colored folks from around here know better than to do that. A collection of reflections on race edited by Jesmyn Ward, The Fire This Time, includes an essay by Jamaican-born writer Garnette Cadogan, Black and Blue. Cadogan had always walked all over Jamaica a dangerous place to navigate so when he moved to New Orleans in 1996 and was warned not to walk in unsafe neighborhoods, he didnt understand how America could be unsafe for him. What no one had told me was that I was the one who would be considered a threat, Cadogan said. As a white American, I can walk, talk, shop and drive without harassment. I never had to hear The Talk from my parents, because I dont need to worry about any lack of respect landing me in jail. My white skin gives me a pass. Ill let Baldwin have the last word: Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves. Diana Abreu is a page designer at LNP | LancasterOnline. Unscripted is a weekly entertainment column produced by a rotating team of writers. A Chester County woman falsely presented herself as a healthcare worker and gained access to a restricted area at Women & Babies Hospital to visit a friend, posing a serious risk to people inside and violating the hospitals COVID-19 policy, according to East Hempfield Township police. Breya Lynn Galli, 27, of South Coatesville, entered the hospital at 690 Good Drive in East Hempfield Township at 9:51 p.m. on Feb. 10, wearing scrubs, a mask, a surgical bouffant, a stethoscope and an ID badge with a fake name, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Galli told security she was a registered nurse from Lancaster General Hospital who was called in to work at WBHs labor and delivery unit, a practice not uncommon due to staffing shortages, and used a fake name to sign to receive a temporary caregiver badge, police said. Galli is not a licensed nurse, but works as a nurses assistant at a rehabilitation hospital in Delaware. Once inside, security footage showed Galli appearing lost in the hospital, eventually being directed by a staff member to couplet care, where she entered a room and visited a patient until 10:37 p.m., according to the affidavit. The patient was in fact a friend of Gallis who had recently given birth. The patient later told administrative staff she was not aware Galli would pose as a healthcare worker to visit her. WBHs COVID-19 police states that patients are only allowed to have one visitor in their rooms at any given time. Galli was not listed as a visitor who was allowed to see the patient. Nurses doing rounds noticed Galli inside the room, finding her presence suspicious, but not immediately questioning the validity of her statements when she said she had been sent from LGH to work at the hospital and had stopped by to visit a friend. A nursing supervisor later notified security of a possible breach after Galli suddenly departed. Administrative staff later found Gallis social media profile, which included pictures of her with the patient and new baby, offering congratulations and stating how grateful she was to have seen them in the hospital, police. Galli was charged last week with felony criminal trespass and misdemeanor performing action in furtherance of false pretenses. She had not been arrested as of Monday afternoon. Court documents did not list an attorney for Galli. A preliminary hearing has not been scheduled.